Reviews and Revelations

When my husband and I go on vacation, we get to watch Food Network in the hotel room. This time, all that was on that day was Guy Fieri's new show, but we used to watch Beat Bobby Flay. So then we streamed Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost after we got back, but we weren't that impressed by it. We felt there were some missed opportunities and bad writing overall. Instead of having original character Chef Sue (the sous chef), we felt Chef Anne would've been better (she's awesome, we love her). Maybe I'm just used to the old Scooby-Doo movies, but I felt there should've been an actual Red Ghost in addition to the scam (which wasn't super obvious but really convoluted). Giada apparently wanted to be genre-savvy and a ninja because that was her character. It also could've benefited by having more cameos besides Marcus, like Padma and Aarti.

I finished watching some of the panels from this year's Power Morphicon. Aisha, Tanya, and Katie decided they came from Wakanda. Some of the actors' kids aren't as excited that they're Power Rangers and are more engrossed in Fortnite. In fact, what happened to Tommy's kid in that episode? Did he even notice Tommy was gone? Is Kat his mom? Is he going to grow up to have two sons, the older of which also becomes a Power Ranger? Selwyn Ward is unquestionably our Obama (and said he was considering running?), and Johnny has been identified as our Harrison Ford because he keeps asking to be killed off. Some of the actors are making an original movie and prequel comic series called The Order. It's cool seeing them have fun together. If Johnny still wants to get killed off in it, that's fine.

The Big Hero 6 Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer dropped, but there was no Demyx, Norted or otherwise. Instead, we got a glimpse of what looked like a Norted Xion. If so, either Xehanort went back in time and snatched her (shoring up the numbers while dealing an added blow to the heroes), or Ienzo created a body for her out of data too but then she got Norted; if this is even Xion at all - could be Replica Riku maybe? NOTE: I didn't notice the bug blocks (didn't think anything of them not actually having seen Big Hero 6), so that points to Data Riku being the cloaked figure. But how? It's not likely that Ienzo's responsible for this one (he might be reluctant to agree to anything having to do with a Riku), but who else would know about Data Riku and pull him from the datascape? This seems to line up with my suspicion that things aren't going to go according to plan with this assignment, especially if it is indeed Data Riku attacking the Big Hero 6 team with bug blocks. NOTE: Jesse McCartney reportedly hasn't been called to voice either Ven or Roxas, so that's problematic to everyone's theories and the overall story if Ven never wakes up and Roxas doesn't come back. (If it's that late in the game, maybe there's hope for Derek Stephen Prince to be called in too?) Who knows what we'll see in the extended trailer next week? Plus we got to see Aqua's full makeover from the darkness with an outfit that puts Riku's hula skirt to shame. Even if she isn't actually a Xehanort vessel, she's clearly lashing out at anyone who has wronged her, hero and villain alike. Nothing is going to go smoothly in terms of recovery and/or reclamation. We also got snippets of other cutscenes from Monsters Inc and Tangled, including Randall and Flynn, respectively.

The people who were originally hating on the Persona 5 anime were wrong, as there will more than 24 episodes. Episode 23 aired last week, and if the style of upcoming episodes is to be believed, there will be at least 27. That's good because episode 24 will be starting Sae's palace. While I like the first theme better than the second, everything on this soundtrack is still fire.

Something to Think About

My Steven Universe playlist for Ienzo/Raven is as follows: Love Like You, Something Entirely New, That Distant Shore, Do It For Her/Him, Here Comes a Thought, For Just One Day Let's Only Think About Love, and Stronger Than You. Thinking about it, there might be a good reason Garnet didn't foresee the Diamond attack at the wedding. Ruby did ask Sapphire not to use her future vision to see her in her dress. Had she, she might have seen the Diamonds coming to Earth. At the wedding itself, Sapphire can only think about Ruby anyway.

I watched the legendary crossover episode of Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel, and I found it underwhelming. I get that it was an homage to the Shattered Grid comics, which are Tommy-centric, but the episode focused a little too much on Tommy and not enough on the other captured Rangers. What were they doing when they got kidnapped? I would have liked to have seen that. Maybe if it was a two-part episode, but the previous episode was probably supposed to be part one since it featured Wes, Gemma, and Koda as robed figures. I'm also disappointed that Koda and Preston didn't get a moment. I mean no offense by this to anyone, but Gia looked like a baby next to the other Rangers. Why was Tommy the only one who cycled through his morphs, anyway? Gia, Kat, Rocky, and TJ could've done it too. They basically just woke up, said a line or two each, and then it was pretty much over. On a sadder note, a lot more people from the extended cast have died than I thought. I knew about a few of them: Trini, Ernie, one of Zordon's voices. A few of them didn't surprise me, like Phenomenus, Mr. Collins, and Bandora. Others I didn't know or expect but made me sad anyway: Richie, Tommy's brother, Udonna, Pappenbrook, others.

The princesses will have more screen time than that one scene in Wreck-It Ralph 2, after all. The pajama scene in the newest trailer threw me off, especially since I didn't recognize Tiana (girl doesn't sleep!). I think they're ripping off Dreamworks with the joke that no one can understand Merida because "she's from the other studio." That one character from How to Train Your Dragon did the same thing. I watched the two-part video MatPat did on the qualifications for being a Disney Princess, and it was kind of disturbing. Basically, it's whose movies grossed the most (no surprise there) and whose clothing is more marketable and non-controversial (that goes for the voice actors too). Also the thing Maui said about having an animal sidekick (I'm surprised he didn't also show the clip of him saying "If you sing, I'll throw up"). Speaking of, The Rock is the highest paid actor in the world right now, according to ERod's Baywatch review (the movie sucks, the review is awesome).

Finales and Fulfillment

Well, I was sort of right about the Camp Camp season finale (which was only slightly longer than the summer social episode if you don't count the credits). Cameron did try to screw everyone over, but he didn't have the heart to go through with it. He'd still rather be in jail than take orders from David and Gwen, though. "Welcome to camp, asshole," indeed. Max rounding up all the campers reminded me of the Recess movie where TJ does the same (except for the burning).

The DuckTales season finale was a mixed bag for me. I didn't like that Gearloose made Donald swallow a device that made him speak clearly, but it was nice to hear what Tony Anselmo really sounds like. I'm still confused about Lena. Magica kept saying she could have her "dark heart's desire" if she helped her, but Lena ended up just being her shadow and not a real person, and now she's Webby's shadow. Did they change her story at the last minute? She seemed to know that she was a shadow, so was her heart's desire to become real? What's dark about that (unless Magica was only talking about herself and had no intention of giving Lena anything)? I was disappointed that she got away, even without her magic. She did the unconvincing smoke bomb escape like Trixie in Rainbow Rocks. Speaking of MLP, the song in the new episode was an obvious parody of Road to Rhode Island.

The FNAF 6 Random Encounters video came out. It was a little different than what I was expecting, but it was still cool.

One good thing about the newest Power Rangers crossover is that the brothers playing this season and last season's Blue Rangers will be onscreen together. Tommy is a fucking showoff.

I found out that there are still Yoohoo candy bars for sale on Amazon. Reviews are mixed, so there's a 50/50 shot I'd get something good or I'd get something stale and terrible. I'm still going to wait until winter and see what I want to do and what's in stock. I also didn't know that strawberry Yoohoo existed until now.

Missed Opportunities

Teen Titans Go to the Movies was dumb, but I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would. It's not worth your time, nor do you need to see it to understand that Slade destroyed the Tower in the newest episode. It would have been better if Jade Wilson was a real person instead of a mask over Slade's mask. Any plot holes (like the different voice) are easily hand-waved away by his "mind manipulation." It made me miss Mad Mod. Unlike Trigon, I don't see Slade as being a comical villain in any capacity. He's done too many horrible things in the original series. Even destroying the Tower wasn't that cool - Terra sneaking in earlier in this series was better, and Trigon used it as a throne in the original series. I would've rather seen a whole movie about Weird Al's Darkseid. I also felt uncomfortable with Robin's nightmare sequence based on The Lion King with the same faux-Disney animation that Family Guy used that one time. In fact, I realize that the similarities between TTG and Family Guy are what make me dislike TTG in the first place. They hold on unfunny moments for too long, have dark moments that come out of nowhere and aren't funny (like running over Michael Bolton), and dramatic moments don't feel entirely earned. I don't even mind that Raven suggested killing the other heroes; original Raven probably would've said the same thing, albeit sarcastically. It's got some great moments for the kids amidst the garbage that is this series, but it's not going to change your mind about the show. I hope if we get a new season of the original show that it won't suck too.

Since Ashley's D&D character was referenced earlier on Blindspot, I think Cyborg should be revealed to play D&D on Teen Titans Go! since that show also does actor allusions. TTG!Robin rolling nat 1's like Wil Wheaton would be hilarious. The 2003 cartoon had the whole team playing a trading card game at one point.

I haven't compiled a list of favorite Steven Universe episodes, but I did like the one where Peridot was basically Wile E. Coyote and the one where Amethyst says "I got hit by an airplane!"

I was looking forward to the most recent "Let's Read Homestuck" because of the Kurloz/Meulin interaction (they talk with gifs). Next time, however, we start with Rufioh, voiced by Dante Basco. I'm really looking forward to that.

I tried Cocoa Puffs Ice Cream Scoops, and it's basically Berry Kix. Kind of disappointing. I'm starting to like the Azuki Bean Kit Kats a bit more. I've been eating them slowly because they're on the bitter side. The box is nice too.

Not What It Seems

The good thing about binge-watching Steven Universe with the knowledge that Rose was Pink Diamond is that Pearl's behavior makes a lot more sense. Originally, she was one of the things that bothered me when I tried to watch it before; pretty much everyone was annoying except my friend's favorite character, Amethyst (and except Garnet, but she was the leader so I didn't care for her or was at least neutral on her). But now I can see that Pearl is like me, Pink is like my mom, and the other diamonds are like my mom's three older sisters. And I need therapy. Early Steven Universe is still not for me for the most part, though. As for "Legs from Here to Homeworld," the structure we saw shaped like White Diamond from "The Trial" was indeed her ship and not a statue or building. It's unclear how long she's been in there being the battery and the glue keeping Homeworld running and intact. Everyone had assumed she'd been out ruling over or conquering planets, but unless she did that through projections, those days are over. Also, who knows if she's always been emotionally detached or if it had something to do with Pink's faked shattering since the other two diamonds seem to have dealt with it in their own ways. Can Steven get her to care about anything ever again or even listen to him? Yellow thought she could talk to her but it's clear White's not listening to anyone. Or maybe something else happened that has nothing to do with Pink and that's just how she is.

The Orchestra trailer for KH3 finally resurfaced, and whoever reported on it before was wrong about who says "something doesn't feel right" probably because they were distracted by the hype (it was Buzz, not Aeleus). However, I still feel like bringing back Roxas isn't going to go that smoothly.

One more thing I will say about Berseria is the typos. Oh God, the typos. These subtitles were not written out by some poor tired person at ass o'clock in the morning. They were clearly the work of Google Closed Captioning. There is no excuse for this, even if it's just skits (sometimes the result was funny-bad but increasingly became bad-bad). My husband and his friend completed the story (there's still new game plus stuff to do, but all they wanted to do was finish it), and it's disturbing that Velvet and her brother are eating each other for eternity and kinda sad that Laphicet turned into a dragon anyway - the dragon of light, Maotelus.

Walgreen's had Sloppy Joe flavored Pringles, so I bought some. I'd rather have the real thing, but the real thing is messy, and these aren't. They taste very barbecue-y but different enough. I don't love them, but I think they're pretty decent.

Binge-Watching

The Lake Lilac Summer Social felt like it should've been the season 3 finale of Camp Camp. I thought that would be something involving Campbell trying to take David down with him, but that turned out to be the next episode, and Max shut it down. I liked the character development for Erin, but the Midsummer Night's Dream plot was never going to end well since none of them really belonged together (I felt bad for the boys, though). It also made me wonder who would've won if Max and Nikki didn't stuff the ballot box to punish Gwen. Real life can't live up to slash fiction, or even friend fiction. Now I wonder what the actual finale will be (unless Campbell tries again but I doubt it). I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about the Shape of Water episode coming up, but I've read good things.

Volume 4 of the Clear Card manga seems to have some translation issues. Akiho's last name was changed from Shinomoto to Shinohara for some weird reason (probably a new translator who wasn't paying attention), and at one point Sakura's speech balloon seems to be a curse word as it is made up of symbols. She is probably screaming her signature "HOEEEE!" as the Flight Card flies off with her, but apparently somebody decided it needed to be censored.

Equestria Girls Rollercoaster of Friendship had been partially leaked before, and it seems like it aired without much announcement leading up to it. I'm glad I was able to see the whole thing. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either. I'm more excited about the other Equestria Girls shorts that were leaked, particularly Game Stream. I want them to be released in their finished form so I can favorite that one officially.

If Blue and Yellow Diamond's ships are arms, and Pink Diamond's ship is legs, then White Diamond's ship must be a head and a torso for them to fit into to form a Megazord-type robot (though that doesn't take into account things like the hand ship). I have binge-watched seasons 2 though 5, but season 1 is going to take a while to get through since it's so long and I had no interest in it when it was originally airing. One thing I don't understand is that gems can't hold shapeshifting very long, but Pink was able to change into Rose permanently (unless that's just a diamond thing). Also, if Lars is a pink zombie, then so is Lion, which means one of Rose's lions died and her tears brought him back to life (I don't know, I haven't seen the episode he was introduced in yet).

So far, Lin-Manuel Miranda has been in two episodes of DuckTales as Gizmo Duck. While they haven't made any direct references to Hamilton or Moana, you can probably apply some lyrics to the situation: "What's your name, man?" "I'm not throwing away my shot," "Immigrants: we get the job done," and so on.

Monumental

I decided to actually watch the Heart of the Crystal Gems run of episodes, and it was great. I like Ruby and Sapphire better than Garnet, but I appreciate Garnet more now. "Why would Ruby be a cowboy?!" made me laugh, but then that was actually what happened for an episode. I think Bismuth is cool now too. At first I thought it was dark that she stuck her head into the lava to scream, but I quickly realized that gems can survive that. All I knew about Patti Lupone was from that episode of Will and Grace she was on (where Jack was trying to get a lock of her hair for his collection), but she's perfect as Yellow Diamond. I was impressed with how Lapis came back and dropped the barn on Blue Diamond, then no-sold her emotional attack. "I've felt worse." Damn. I haven't written anything about Raven and Ienzo lately, but the relationship between Ruby and Sapphire has inspired me. I even had this weird dream where Ienzo used his illusion power to pretend to be Raven so she could escape, but she wasn't having it.

The return of RWBY Chibi was hilarious. J Michael Tatum and Vic Mignogna really stole the show (or episode in this case). The first skit was Tatum as Klein the butler cycling through his multiple personalities, including telling off Winter for yelling at Weiss. The second skit was a day with Uncle Qrow, in which everything turns into chaos around them but Ruby still loves spending time with her uncle. Unfortunately, Yang didn't feature much in either story, entering the scene too late in the first one and actively avoiding her uncle in the second.

DuckTales did an episode crossing over with Gummi Bears (not the actual characters but the mcguffin from that show). I never really liked that show, but if they do an episode about Rescue Rangers that would be awesome. I like the character development and relationship between Scrooge and Webby, though.

It turns out that Tales of Berseria is loosely based on Berserk (or at least a core theme found within it), so whatever goodwill and benefit of the doubt I had is gone. It was on sale this month so my husband and his friends bought it and started playing it. It's fun enough for a Tales game, but I still don't like it very much.

I don't know why it took me this long to try Marshmallow Fruity Pebbles. That stuff's delicious. And they have added peanut butter and chocolate to the roster. Oreo did the same, but I'm more excited for finally getting the strawberry shortcake flavor (which is amazing).