I Need More Content

In part one of the Union Cross update, things are starting to move. Skuld, Ephemer, and Player stay behind with one ark in reserve while Brain, Ven, Lauriam, and Elrena go on ahead. The true Dandelion is data Strelitzia, apparently. There are six willful darknesses, which I think shows restraint on Nomura's part as it easily could've been seven. Brain gives Ephemer the Master Defender and the Book of Prophecy, saying he has a plan to come back and save them. I guess we'll see how that pans out if this ends with a flash forward to each of their fates. Anything to connect the dots between the main game and the mobile games. 

The third episode of Duckburg podcast was about ad-reads, and fittingly, Sam did the first one for Funzo's Fun Zone. Just a normal Thursday night for Sam. In episode 4, Donald says he loves Sam. He says his name with the same amount of gusto that he uses when he says David Tennant’s name. Sam features heavily in episode 6, primarily as Launchpad’s new friend Sal.

The acting in Dino Fury is still all over the place. Warden Garcia (Izzy and Javi's dad) is messed-up. In the beginning, he was just an obstacle to getting to the base, but then he got worse. It was one thing for Ravi's mom not to value his hobby, but Garcia took away Javi’s keytar (which went viral), and he fosters an especially competitive attitude in Izzy and their cousin. Void Knight is just Dr. Fries. His wife looks just like Nora, too.
 

Solitaire is supposed to come standard on computers, right? I got suspicious when achievements started popping on mine. Then the free trial ended and now I have to mute it when it plays ads every other round. It's so annoying. I'll take the boost in my gamer score. I don't play much else.

Brief News Updates

The end of Volume 8 is kind of a mess. Jaune and Team RWBY, along with Neo and countless civilians, have fallen through the world and landed on some sort of island with Yggdrasil in the background. Cinder is just as evil as ever, having kicked Neo off the edge and trapped Watts in an inferno. Now it’s just her and Salem in addition to Mercury and Tyrian in Vacuo. Let’s see if Ruby and company can escape this Underland and return to Remnant, though probably not the same as they were if the fable Oscar and Ozpin were talking about holds any weight. Spoiler warning: Vine and Penny’s deaths hit hard.

A new Hetalia series just premiered in Japan called World Stars. When it gets dubbed, Greece will need a new voice actor, and Taliesin will have to come back as England. Disney posted the first Duckburg podcast on Youtube, and I liked the part with Donald reading the credits: “Sam Riegel, again?" I'm still five episodes behind on Critical Role, so I will be using my vacation week to get caught up on everything.
 

I'm not enjoying Dino Fury so far. Certain characters are annoying at least half of the time, and other characters seem wooden or hollow. It's not necessarily their fault either if they're not given anything to do in a scene other than stand around while others talk. Mucus is probably the best character.
 

Finally got my hands on Friendly’s Cherry Pie ice cream. Best decision I’ve made all week.
 

I've hit 200 subscribers, and Journeyman Abridged has, too. Big things are coming. I just won't be able to put in much work in earnest until we move because my current living conditions have become too noisy.

Overplaying Your Hand

I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity not to have Matt Mercer voice Ambrosius, the spirit of creation. Loved Marrow and Winter in episode 12 - they're sassy. Penny's human now, but she's missing her boots and gloves. I expected Ironwood to go back to normal in episode 13 once his semblance was broken and he shouldn’t have been hyper-focused on his goal, but he’s still cuckoo for coco-puffs, blasting Jacques and trying to do the same to Winter. Vine was the next one to nope out of the plan, nearly getting killed for it as well. Harriet is dead set on killing Qrow and blowing up Mantle because “it’s what Clover would’ve done." If that’s true, then Clover was an even shittier person than I thought. Cinder apologizes to Neo and says Watts is getting what he deserves when he stays behind to sabotage comms and presumably kill more people. I don’t know, Cinder being nice just feels wrong. Next time, I guess we’ll see what happens when you fall off a platform and disintegrate. Really wish someone would’ve asked Ambrosius why they shouldn’t fall, because people did and are still going to. It was already enough of a problem landing in Vacuo and instantly hitting a sandstorm and attracting Grimm there, we didn’t need a bottomless pit too. We could’ve ended the volume with the Grimm showing up in Vacuo and having the showdown with Cinder there, and then started the next volume with Team SSSN and Team CFVY showing up to save the day and have part of the volume be about them (without repeating everything from the books, of course). 

The Fruits Basket dub season 3 episode 1 dropped early, followed by a 10-minute Q&A with a few of the voice actors. Akito really went for it when she choke-slammed her mother, Ren. I didn't think they got that much air in the manga. I never thought about who might voice Akira (there will be another flashback with him, I'm sure), but it was Chad Cline, the original male voice of Akito. And Katelyn Barr (who voiced young Ritsu) voices Ren. Now that she’s had more lines, she doesn't sound as close to Akito’s voice as I’d first thought. Hanajima to the rescue - da da da da! Megumi has some good insights, even though he still feels the need to fake-perv on his sister's friends.
 

The DuckTales finale was kinda weird, but it made sense that they were building up to that. The end credits reminded me of the Kingdom Hearts end credits with all the characters doing things off to the side (in this case, free-falling from a plane). Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, that new version of the Final World cutscene from Melody of Memory. What purpose does this serve? I'm happy for them, of course, but they got them in the booth just for that? Well, they're all recording from home still, I'd imagine, but for one line each? They didn't even have to animate it because it was just static. Could they not see what was happening and that's why the debriefing became necessary? I would think the debriefing would have happened regardless. It's not like we see them waking her up. I also thought that Ven would've been normal, but it looks like he's been pure light all along. Can't wait to see how things wrap up next month, if they do at all in a satisfying way.

Appearances

Just a thought, but if you put a blue anime wig on Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he could play Zexion. I was also thinking more of the staircase scene in KH2 Final Mix. It could’ve been done with Zexion sitting and reading in the common area when the other two came in and bothered him, but instead it showed them using the stairs instead of corridors of darkness to get around. It shows they value cardio, or maybe someone just wanted a more dynamic scene. In fact, since Axel and Larxene are having a conversation at the bottom of the stairs in the book, it would make even more sense for this to take place in the common area since other scenes of the sort take place there. Then have Zexion say he should go someplace quieter to read.

After hearing a scathing review of the Pride and Prejudice musical, which was an Amazon production apparently, I found the soundtrack posted to Youtube. The review wasn't wrong, but if you can get past the first twenty or so minutes, it's not that bad. The beginning is rough, but I enjoyed the parts with the Gardiners and Lady Catherine. Lady Catherine's song sounded like it could've been sung by Eartha Kitt. I would've loved to see that. She is like Yzma, scary beyond all reason. Then I found the Bob Jones University production on Youtube, which is also rough in spots, but also interesting. If the whole play had been Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's opening scene with the rest of the story playing out around them, I would've still enjoyed it. The actors playing them nailed their personalities (Mrs. Bennet’s nerves and Mr. Bennet’s chill attitude), and I could've watched them all day. Mr. Collins was another highlight; the actor really brought him to life in a way that I hadn't gotten out of the book. The actor playing Darcy could've just as easily been portraying Snape. The runtime is just shy of two hours, so they condensed things a lot more than I would've liked. Having Collins there in the beginning worked, but having Bingley announce that he's leaving at the first ball is moving a bit too fast. Bitch, you just got here. The set was simple and unchanging, but I enjoy the fact that it was two giant books and a sealed letter. The addition of swings in one scene surprised me. Overall it felt like a high school play with a little more production value, as some of the actors weren’t up to snuff, mistakes aside.
 

Sad that DuckTales is wrapping up next week. I just saw the one with Kit and the Sky Pirates. All Sam got to do was scream as the pirates got turned into chimeras. Now he IS Bigby’s Hand.

Mental Health Break

I wanted to start off by saying that I was kidding about the karmic victory. Obviously, that went out the window once the infrastructure started failing. Cold weather was the karma, not everything else. I fully expected to send plows and salt trucks (if their dumbass government officials would allow it), but everything else that happened with the electricity was astounding. I’m glad Beto and AOC stepped up where Cruz and Abbott failed.
 

Depending on what Xigbar does as Luxu, I’m starting to think it’s less like Ozpin possessing Oscar and more like Molly having been a part of Lucien. The Mighty Nein want their friend back, but he may not exist anymore. Braig may not exist anymore, and no one who knew him as such may choose to speak of him again. No magic or whatever involved, it’s all up to him. Additionally, the more I learn about WandaVision, the more I realize that Wanda is the Marvel equivalent to Raven. The Teen Titans episode “Fear Itself" is sort of like that (except as a horror movie instead of a sitcom), and Injustice would have pushed Raven all the way there instead of just turning to her father. Both of them struggle with loss and mental health issues, but what hero doesn't these days?
 

Speaking of loss, Hazel. It hurt when Emerald said his name. She is now the Gohan, as Oscar wants to keep her around, which Jaune and Yang aren't okay with (although, aside from fighting for Cinder and losing her mind when she thought she died, all she did was cause Phyrra to kill Penny and had nothing to do with Adam's actions and hated seeing the fall of Beacon). Ironwood is a monster. I would've liked to see Glinda take him down, but we’ll see what Qrow and Robin end up doing. I appreciate the Archer references - Elm yelling “WHAT?" after the explosion and Cinder just sitting and pouting after Watts took her down verbally. I can't believe that worked. Watts misunderstands Salem's intent, though - Cinder was racing the Hound to Penny, and she thought she would need to break him out to get control of her. Salem had left him to his fate. The Hound is the reason Penny hasn't reached the Vault yet, as her still unconscious body is shown lying next to Nora's bed. As for how Cinder's supposed to get the maiden powers once Penny's dead, she may not have absorbed any of it for the rest to come to her or she wouldn't be in Penny's final thoughts. If Penny had died thinking of Ruby, then Cinder would have to fight Ruby and keep her promise to Neo. We'll have to see what, if anything, gets sorted out in the next four episodes.

More of the Same

I was disappointed with the chocolate churro Pop-Tarts. Out of the four packets in the box, two of them were so hard I couldn’t even bite into them. The flavor was okay on the two that I could, but I wouldn’t recommend toasting them. On the plus side, I recently discovered the 12 pack variety boxes of strawberry, cherry, and blueberry. Now I don’t have to choose! Golden Grahams is sort of Nostalgic, but it’s definitely better now. I didn’t notice much of a difference overall, though.
 

It seems more people caught on that Gatomon could’ve been the DarkMaildramon that SkullKnightmon was riding on, so they changed it so that Gatomon had been turned into SkullKnightmon by Millenniumon’s dark power, not just trapped within him. That makes even less sense, and I hate that they would rather do something nonsensical instead of admitting we were right. MarineAngemon somehow between episodes gave them the power to fight and talk and breathe underwater as if they weren’t underwater. I didn’t quite like that, and it was weird that MarinDevimon just sat there and waited while Hikari had to calm Gatomon down from her freakout about SkullKnightmon and Digivolution. Everyone’s saying that Angewomon’s Digivolution was a Sailor Moon reference, and they’re not wrong. Otherwise, the Hacker’s Memory game is going well. Nancy Weeler and Brandeen have reached Dianamon and Lotosmon, and there’s still time left in the game for them to go back down to Ultimate and explore their other options (Sakuyamon and Kuzuhamon for Nancy and the Sistermon line for Brandeen).
 

RWBY hiatus is over. I liked the scene between Ruby and Blake where Blake tells Ruby she used to be like her but then thought she couldn't survive that way, so now she looks up to her. I explained that badly but it's a nice scene between my two favorite characters. It was kinda baller how Cinder helps Watts up but then puts him across her shoulders. Too bad they didn't say much. While that was happening, Kat and Flynt are in the army fighting Grimm, which Marrow doesn't like. He doesn't want to sacrifice any kids to this thing, but Winter says sadly that she would even sacrifice Weiss (and her friends) if she had to because of duty. That episode ends with an homage to DragonBall Z with Oscar as Piccolo, Salem as Radditz, and Hazel as Goku.
 

Wish I could trade weather with Texas right now, but I also see this as a karmic victory for one Jeremy Dooley. Negative 20 wind chill isn't funny, Jack.

I Have Notes

Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake might be my new favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor. Oreo Brookie-o's are thick, being one layer of regular cream, one layer of chocolate cream, and one layer of that chocolate chip cookie cream they did a while back. I also bought java chip and hazelnut Oreos, so those should be good too. What’s not good is Oatmeal Cream Pie cereal, although it did taste better the soggier it got. I want to get the Dunkaroos cereal, and maybe the retro Golden Grahams, though I don’t think there will be much of a flavor difference. Entenmann’s cherry cheese danish is the most delicious. Cinnamon Mini Wheats are good too.

Playing Hacker's Memory as a group. I have a Lunamon named Nancy Weeler (because the h wouldn't fit) in honor of Jack Pattillo (Dead by Daylight). I also currently have a Renamon named Brandeen (7 Days to Die), but I’m probably going to turn her into BlackGatomon and go from there (whereas Nancy will ultimately become Dianamon). Speaking of Jack, I looked up Ted Lewis's credits, and it looks like he was in Red Dead 2 also. Cool.
 

Gatomon has arrived in the new anime. She can talk to dogs (the Komondomon), and her plan was to use the sea current to travel, two things very unlike a cat. However, she also wants Kari to stay back out of the action, very much like a cat bringing you a dead bird because it thinks you’re too stupid to hunt and feed yourself. But in a nice way since Kari hadn’t gotten her Digivice yet, but now she has it. Next time is Angewomon, supposedly. After Patamon has consistently been Pegasmon, I was thinking Nefertimon would make an appearance soon too.
 

I have questions regarding the Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss universe. Supposedly, there are some people who are being punished for their sins (it has been theorized that Alostor pulled Niffty out of a lake of fire), but it also looks like others are living their best lives in Hell. It's also unclear if Verosika was originally a pop star who went to Hell and became a succubus or if she was a succubus born in Hell who goes up to the living world in the guise of a pop star. People seemed to know who she was in both places. I wonder what the imps would look like in human disguises if they had them.