What Did You Think Was Gonna Happen?!

 Remember when I said that if Lea and Isa tried to sneak into a government building here, they’d get shot? While not sneaking, and only one person was shot dead, I guess I’ve been proven wrong. Also, I think I remember someone making a joke that Sora, Riku, and Kairi should play Raft together. I believe that Vexen, Luxord, Xigbar, and Demyx should play Sea of Thieves. Vexen's the captain, Luxord's the helmsman, Xigbar's the powder monkey, and Demyx is the musician.

I never knew that live duels were a thing, but apparently they've been taking place throughout the 2010s, and there was a series one reunion panel at the virtual New York Comic Con last year. I like Marc Thompson's Astral voice, wish they could've used that for Bakura's father instead of the personality they gave him in that wretched movie plot. The way Astral and Ryou say “Oh dear" is the same, and it's cute. The moment that surprised me the most was when Jack beat Pegasus in one turned, snapped his fingers, and summoned a throne. On top of that, Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged is back for the Grand Prix filler arc. It feels like I'm back in high school, and not in a bad way.
 

The only episode of The Torkelsons I remember seeing is the one with Elmo, which is called “Educating Millicent.” The only episode of Almost Home, the sequel series, I remember seeing is “To Date or Not To Date," in which the two teenage daughters sneak out of the house, and Millicent demonstrates this with a loaf of bread. It's owned by Disney, which I didn't know. My mom used to watch it when it was on. It was the early 90s, so it makes sense she would've had me watch the Elmo episode with her or recorded it for me. The premise is that the dad walked out on the family, but it felt more like he'd died the way they were talking about him while looking in the yearbook.

Cinderella-ish

 I've read the first seven chapters of The Other Bennet Sister. I feel like Mrs. Hill is being portrayed as a fairy godmother of sorts, if this is a Cinderella story for Mary. Her mother and two younger sisters certainly fit the description of wicked, even if they're not step. I'm excited for her to get a dress and go to the ball for the first time. Now we're at the beginning of the story proper, but from Mary's perspective instead of Elizabeth's. Mary also got glasses, and maybe she's interested in the oculist's son (named John Sparrow, hmmm), but she doesn't really have a reason to see him again unless her eyesight gets worse, and I'm not sure of where the story will go if she even marries in the end.

Speaking of Cinderella, the rest of the Fruits Basket dub uploaded, and more Laura funny noises occur, especially in 24. She said during the most recent Talks Machina, Laura realizes she based a lot of Jester's personality on Tohru. I wonder what she thinks of the expanded lore of the series. Season three may be the last, but if they wanted to do an OVA covering Another, that would be cool too. The series does end on a shot of Kyo and Tohru as grandparents going for a walk. I can’t wait for the rest. It’s been very well acted, and it’s only going to get more emotional from here. As previously stated, I'm working on a Fruits Basket video (not waiting until the series wraps to do it, maybe doing another one later?), and I want to do a Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel video too. We'll see how the new year goes.
 

Ren and Whitley finally came in clutch in the midseason finale. Instead of brooding himself to death out in the cold, it seems that Ren came to an epiphany which evolved his semblance to actually see other people’s emotions as colored petals swirling around them. I cheered when he pointed out that Marrow and Winter don’t want to be under Ironwood’s command anymore. Whitley, overhearing a rant from May that also called him out by name, decided to ask Klein to come back to treat Nora. Weiss hugs her little tsundere brother, and then a crash is heard outside (she asks him if he called anyone else). If Penny falling to Earth at the end of the previous episode would've been a bad place to end, her crash-landing in front of the Schnee Manor was worse (“I love you" vs “I'm sorry”). Cinder's backstory made me feel sorry for her, but she needs to stop. I also recognized the Sohma maid's voice as her wicked adoptive mother.

But Wait, There's More!

I watched all of the cutscenes of Melody of Memory in order to make the video I've working on (before I’d only watched the new material, not Kairi’s recaps of every game). Zexion is the only Organization member in Castle Oblivion to be mentioned by name, as his fight with Riku was important to Riku’s character growth. It just made me feel even more sorry for him, and it didn’t even include the part where he got killed by the replica (she just said Riku defeated him and then the replica, and that Zexion was using magic). Watching the rest of it again, I noticed the pause in what Ienzo is explaining. Did they put that in there to give his voice actors a chance to breathe? Is the pause important? No one was interrupting him. Between that and the finger tapping (Even did this too when he got impatient while they were analyzing Kairi’s heart in Re:Mind), I’m not sure he’s comfortable talking at length to people he barely knows, considering how he was mute during Birth By Sleep. Someone, probably not Nomura, put some thought into this, and I want to know the whole story.

‭I read the novelization of Hocus Pocus and “The All-New Sequel,” and I wasn’t impressed. The sequel was twice as long as the original, and there’s even a sequel beg involving the brother (a wizard) of Billy Butcherson summoning him from the grave. There were some good ideas, but it just tried to do too much. Like the second Equestria Girls movie novelization, it may not be the final script for the actual movie that they’re planning to make. Next, I’m moving on from the other Sanderson sister to The Other Bennet Sister. If only I could hibernate long enough to finish it sooner.
‭

I've also been watching Brad's Berenstain Bears videos. The algorithm then brought me to the Berenstain Bears official YouTube channel, where I watched old shorts that I remembered from childhood. He's right, though - Mama Bear is not okay.
‭

It seems like every time Fruits Basket misses a week or two, I assume that there's another hiatus, but then they come back with more. Next is the play, and the final three episodes of season 2. Laura probably didn't remember that Kyoko's nickname was the Red Butterfly, but it's neat that Jester's mom is called the Ruby of the Sea. Tohru is like her little sapphire, or morpho, I guess. That's not a bad idea for some fan art.

Just Do It Already

 ‭I’ve been watching RWBY and Fruits Basket back-to-back as episodes came out, and it’s whiplash to go from Aaron Dismuke as Oscar to Aaron Dismuke as Kakeru. The line “I’ll be more evil than the devil himself" was changed to “I’ll be the evilest evil stepsister you’ve ever seen." Brina really did give the performance of a lifetime as Isuzu. Too bad they’re on hiatus again,‭ and RWBY’s hiatus will last longer this time due to Covid.

‭I like the new Digimon end theme sequences with Kari and Gatomon in it. Gatomon doesn’t know what to make of those colored-pencil spires.
‭

I read volume 8 of the Clear Card manga and it’s still not ending anytime soon. I don’t even know the release date of volume 9, but I know there’s going to be one. It sort of ruined the fun knowing it would not end, but we still got some interesting developments, namely that Nadeshiko knew Akiho’s mom (or met her twice or something). Mint Chocolate Girls is a thing, as Sakura, Nadeshiko, Tomoyo, Mizuki-sensei, Akiho and her mom all like mint chocolate but the guys don’t. I liked the high-five between Ruby and Yuki, and then they went back to the shrine for reasons that will come up later. It seemed like a random scene that didn’t last very long. I just wish they wouldn’t keep approaching an ending then walking it back with Kaito’s time travel spell, which should have killed him by now with the number of times he’s had to use it. This story has no business being this long.
‭

DuckTales got cancelled, so I wonder if Sam will say anything about that at any point. The last two episodes I watched (the family feud episode and the Christmas episode) weren’t all that great but it didn’t need to be cancelled, unless it was always planned for three seasons and they’ll deal with F.O.W.L. at the end. Out of the two Phantom Blot episodes, one had Mr. Peanutbutter and the other had Princess Carolyn.

I'm working on one more video this year for Melody of Memory, if anyone cares. There will be another stinger attached to it. I'm really proud of this one. Maybe I'll end up making a second royalty-free stinger video.

Insert Melody of Memory Rant Here

I think I understand now. Sora is in the realm of unreality, or metafiction (since it’s a video game within a fairy tale world, the inhabitants of which are also toys). He may have gone there using Luxord's wild card, which was probably supposed to send him home if something went wrong (or that’s what his encounter with Yozora was). He’s Yozora’s butler or something, after all. If Sora had just stayed in the final world, Fairy Godmother could've gotten Riku and Kairi there to get him like we're seeing now. Riku used the star (the girl we saw in the Yozora trailer) as a portal to get to her world. The series didn’t go into a deeper discussion of who all the stars/dead people are in the final world, but I hope more of them are relevant. That also reminds me of another thing David Lynch put in Twin Peaks: The Return - “We live inside a dream. Who is the dreamer?” Maybe the reason Yozora’s world (Quadratum, as we learn) is in the realm of fiction instead of a fully realized world is because Nomura didn’t get to make it into a proper game. Nomura in this case is the dreamer. Monty dreamed up RWBY, or at least the first three seasons before he died. Whatever plans he didn’t put forth would theoretically exist in unreality, while the Remnant as we know it now in Volume 8 would exist in the realm of light. I really wish there was another cutscene with Xigbar and the other Masters since the latter were name-dropped as having vanished somewhere. And Xehanort somehow knew about unreality (not to be confused with the nonexistence from The Return) the whole time because of course he did to add yet another layer of complication on top of everything. What he said basically amounts to it’ll be difficult to get back from there. What else is new? I liked the scene with the scientists; Even and Ienzo sighing in unison and looking in opposite directions was funny to me since they seem to be mirror images of each other. I hope they worked out whatever animosity existed between them in the year that they’ve had to do this. Aeleus and Dilan need more to do. My new headcanon is that they play Cooking Mama. And Kairi needs to learn how to fight someone with a much longer reach than her.

‭It was mood whiplash to go from The Split Sword of Swanstantine, where Scrooge says the kids are his strength (including Lena and Violet), to New Gods on the Block, where he replaces them (and Lena and Violet do not appear). Loved Della being team Mom and yelling at Scrooge that the kids have feelings and encouraging the kids to find their superpowers. Then there was the new origin story for Della and Donald (with Christina Vee replacing the late Russi Taylor), who acquired the triplets’ origin story from the comics. It also showed Bradford leaving SHUSH to create FOWL, but he never wanted to be evil - he just wanted order by taking over the world. He used the papyrus to make Scrooge, Donald, and Della forget that he’d been involved in the adventure, so that’s how Scrooge came to hire him.
 

More Fruits Basket dubbed episodes, yay! ‭I can't confirm it yet, but it sounded like Colleen was also voicing Ren. I can't remember what Hana and Tohru said in the original Japanese, but in English it was just the mnemonic devices for the planets and the order of operations in math. I'm still deciding what I want to do for a video, but YouTube just sent a notification around that they get to monetize whatever they want, so even if you're not set up to make money off your videos, they reserve the right to do so themselves. They're really shoving the corporate greed through this lame duck congress alongside the moral bankruptcy. Oh well. I was starting to run out of ideas anyway, and I have to figure out how my latest software update disabled YouTube from functioning on my laptop.
‭

Neo only knows Emerald and Mercury, but not the others. She probably realizes how fucked up this is, though. I was disappointed at how fast Yang turned on Ruby. I'd thought it was weird how she didn't have as big of a reaction to the news that Summer had died fighting Salem. I don't believe the theory that the Hound is a transformed Summer, just one of the super-Grimm Salem created. It's also voiced by Jason Liebrecht, who voices Qrow, which means nothing.

This Glorious World

Joe has it rough in the‭ ‬new Digimon anime.‭ ‬Not only does he get chewed out by his parents for going missing for three days and losing his study book‭ (‬the one Mimi threw into the‭ ‬miasma‭ ‬swamp‭)‬,‭ ‬his brother congratulates him and gives him a running away bag,‭ ‬which is just his bag from the original series.‭ ‬No wonder he was bashing his head against a wall during that one episode.‭ ‬Speaking of Mimi,‭ ‬she now lives in a mansion with her parents and grandfather.‭ ‬It‭’‬s weird seeing her parents there instead of their apartment from the original series.‭ ‬We don‭’‬t see TK getting kidnapped,‭ ‬but it‭’‬s implied that he got transported via feather because he was home alone while Kari‭’‬s mom kept her from leaving,‭ ‬if a certain podcast is to be believed.‭ ‬According to TK,‭ ‬he went to sleep wanting to be with‭ ‬Matt,‭ ‬Tai,‭ ‬and the Digimon,‭ ‬and then‭ ‬woke up there. Devimon has a new Digivolution line of his own instead of going the Myotismon route. DarkKnightmon rode away on what looked like a corrupted Maildramon, which Gatomon can become via the DigiEgg of Miracles. She’s in the opening, so I’ve been looking out for her. If we don’t get Myotismon, I don’t know where she could be. I saw a video talking about something called Witchelny, where Wizardmon supposedly came from before Gatomon found him. According to the video, he got kicked out, which sounds like the plot to Ultra Maniac. I can’t find any other videos in English that talk about it, though. I didn’t even know there were wizard e-pets specifically.

RWBY volume 8 begins with Ruby, Weiss, and Maria picking up Oscar from a soup kitchen in the slums of Mantle, so they didn’t leave him for dead and were able to find him arguably soon after. Qrow and Robin are in jail, presumably alongside Jacques and Watts. If I went back and watched the season 7 finale of RWBY and then watched the new episode, seeing Ironwood shoot two people back-to-back would’ve been a different experience. It was still jarring without the rewatch; he just blew away Councilman Sleet - bye, Chad. I was expecting a bigger reaction from the other people in the scene, but it seems like they’re used to this by now, like “Oh boy, there he goes killing again." If I were Marrow, I’d be like “Screw you guys, I’m going home. Casual murder is where I draw the line," but Ironwood wouldn't take kindly to deserters.

I would like to see Critical Role members play Among Us.‭ ‬Laura would be so mad when she got killed,‭ ‬and Ashley would be so confused.‭ ‬I liked volume‭ ‬2‭ ‬of Vox Machina Origins more than volume‭ ‬1.‭ ‬Now I have context for Grog sleeping with a‭ ‬nymph.‭ ‬I can‭’‬t wait to see what happens next.‭ Episodes 16 and 17 of the ‬Fruits‭ ‬Basket‭ ‬dub finally came out, so I hope it keeps on trucking. Rin is next.
 
Frankenberry might‭ ‬have been discontinued,‭ ‬but the other two weren‭’‬t on the shelves this year either.‭ ‬Instead,‭ ‬I got the Baby Yoda cereal.‭ ‬It looks like Kix but tastes like Trix.

Last Chance

The Halloween episode of DuckTales “The Trickening” was awesome! Scrooge, Donald, and Della had the best costumes (but no one understood Webby’s Balor costume because apparently no one in this universe plays D&D). I am, however, a little disappointed that Sam didn’t voice anyone in the monster house given his performance in the haunted house they put Travis through (for charity). Then there’s the part where Launchpad runs into the streets wielding a circular saw, and Della says they have to stop him before he hurts someone. Granted they’d already used the word “death” earlier in the episode, but I think people would be more than hurt by that.

I’ve been wondering lately if Nomura likes Twin Peaks and incorporated some of it into Kingdom Hearts (like he supposedly did with Stein’s Gate towards the end there). What if Sora disappearing was like Cooper getting stuck in the Lodge? What if Xehanort was like Leland and got possessed by a Bob-like entity (Darkness)? What if Yozora is like Phillip Jeffries since he didn’t think Sora was really Sora? Since Luxord gave Sora the get-out-of-jail-free card, what if he’s like some kind of Mike character, the card being some kind of ring-like mcguffin? As for the new update, the reason behind Darkness killing Strelitzia seems to be to piss off Lauriam and turn him against the others. Garmonbozia, if you will (though I doubt anybody will be chowing down on creamed corn, ew). Doug Jones is the name of the actor who played Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus, and he voiced two of the monsters in that DuckTales episode, but I digress. 

I watched Last Evolution Kizuna, and it was just as bad as the rest of Tri. I did like the throwback to the Digidestined from the world tour arc, but it was very much the same as the rest of Tri except the battles weren’t as good. A now-adult woman loses her Digimon and decides if she can’t have her Digimon, no one else does (or everyone but they’re unconscious and living in a dream world). When the Digidestined went comatose and their partners disappeared, it felt like they were references to the Cybersleuth games and the Digimelody from Xros Wars. Sora was sidelined as per usual and lost her connection to Biyomon offscreen without being put into a coma or interacting with any other characters. The 02 kids were in New York because they can thanks to their abuse of Digital Gates (Yolei was legit at study abroad, but Davis had dragged the rest along on noodle research). Sure, they got to do stuff, but they were never faced with the possibility of losing their Digimon once they hit the age of the six older Digidestined. I’m sure Ken would’ve freaked the fuck out considering what he’s already been through with Wormmon. I’m also offended that the point of this movie was to get the fans to move on when there’s already a reboot airing in Japan. What sort of sense does that make?