Hazbin Hotel 5-8

Five month time skip. Angel is making progress. I liked how he and Sir Pentious were trying to protect Niffty, both in episode 5 and 6. Lucifer has big divorced dad energy and in some ways reminds me of Stolas. I wonder why Lilith dumped his ass too (though he does remind me a little of Adam). Not sure why Alastor is trolling Lucifer by acting like he’s a better father figure to Charlie all of a sudden, but it might explain him smirking at their family portrait in the pilot. Alastor also does the same chain trick on Husk to keep him in line like Valentino does to Angel. I thought he’d be better than that. I didn’t much care for Vaggie’s reveal as a former Exorcist, or that Lute was responsible for what happened to her because she let one sinner go after killing thousands. The sinner in question looked pretty innocent, so Vaggie was understandably confused. It does explain why Vaggie referred to the sinners as “your people" when talking to Charlie in a previous episode. Vaggie might never have even been mortal if Exorcists are made and named by Adam. The annual extermination is even kept secret from all but Sera. The winners, as they are called, are blissfully unaware of what is happening to their loved ones in Hell - a missed opportunity for Angel’s mother and sister to see him if the trial hadn’t been private. Molly was outside, and though she might not know what he looks like, she could’ve been like “That’s my brother down there!" Emily is shaping up to be Charlie’s only ally in Heaven, as everyone else turns a blind eye to Hell and its problems. Lucifer did say no one would listen to them.

‭I didn't think with the pacing of the show thus far that Vaggie having been an Exorcist would be dwelled on for an entire episode. She obviously doesn't want to talk about what happened to her, but she did end up regrowing her wings by the end of the episode. Carmilla also reveals she knew Vaggie was an Exorcist the whole time because the missing eye and angelic weapon gave it away. She also points out that Vaggie doesn't know anything about the Exorcists' weaknesses and teaches her how to cover her own. I should've liked that sequence and accompanying song, but for some reason I didn't. Charlie rallies the cannibals with Alastor and Rosie's help, and Rosie helps Charlie accept Vaggie's mistake as actions speak louder than words or lack thereof. The finale was great. I was thinking just this morning how it would be funny if Sir Pentious got to Heaven before Angel and he did. That was one of my two big cheers of the episode, in addition to Niffty being the one to land the killing blow on Adam. Lucifer, Charlie, and Vaggie were going to let him live, but Niffty said Charlie had told her to stab so she did. So cathartic after all the shit Adam has pulled, including just deleting Pentious and his entire zeppelin. I understand that Vaggie letting Lute live was a power move, but she's going to be trouble down the line. And for some reason Lilith is on vacation or sabbatical in Heaven because Lute updates her on the situation, but it's not clear what kind of relationship the two have. Alastor was great and I can't wait to see what his deal is.

Hazbin Hotel 1-4

So it turns out the show the Blue Ranger was filming at the same time as Cosmic Fury was NCIS: Hawaii. Too bad I don't watch NCIS or its spinoffs anymore.

‭Anyway, my thoughts on Hazbin Hotel so far: At first I was disappointed, but I found things to like about it. My favorite character going into it was Vaggie, but that quickly switched to Niffty. I liked that when Vaggie was throwing everyone off the roof (except Husk who retreated down the stairs), Niffty acted like a toddler who wanted upsies. Charlie wouldn't let Vaggie throw Niffty, so Niffty had to climb over the edge and drop down herself. When Husk was going over what everyone's deal was, he said they didn't want to know what Niffty's was. I agree that the events of episode 3 (minus the team-building) came a little too soon, especially since “Whatever It Takes" sounded like it should have been placed toward the end of the season. I didn't like Velvette in “Respectless," but I liked her characterization in episode 2. My favorite episode so far has to be episode 2, especially “Stayed Gone." My expectation for Velvette was she was a Loli chick or e-girl who acted like a little kid, but that's not the case here. Had it been, her behavior during the Overlord meeting would have made more sense, her whining that she didn't want to be there and that everyone there was old and irrelevant. There are two musical numbers in each episode, which all sound like they should be performed on Broadway, hence the recast of Broadway actors. I was glad to be recommended the video of the old VAs singing “Thank You and Goodnight." I do miss the old voices, especially Husk's. I still like Keith David, whose performance so far reminds me of his other roles: the cat from Coraline except angrier and the president from Rick and Morty.
‭In regards to the question “Is Charlie making everything worse?” I’d say the answer is yes. She didn’t want Vaggie literally throwing the gang into a turf war, yet they built stronger bonds because of it (and it was funny). Charlie’s interference also made Vaggie question her judgment and worth as Charlie’s protector. She wanted to get Angel some time off of work (partial blame goes to Vaggie for persuading her to use her clout as Princess of Hell to do so), but that only resulted in Angel getting abused more than usual since Valentino couldn’t do anything to Charlie due to her position. ‭As always, we'll just have to see where it goes from here.

Kingdom Hearts Tube?

I’ve been wanting to get back into making Kingdom Hearts videos, even if it’s the kind where I’m doing the voiceover. I have some ideas I’d like to discuss. First of all, I’ve been trying to group the games into digestible chunks or eras. The originals, as I’d like to refer to them as, consist of 1, CoM, 2, and Days. That wraps the first phase of the story with a neat little bow: they set off on their adventure, they continue their adventure, and they end their adventure with some Roxas stuff on the side. The second is the bridge to KH3, which consists of Birth By Sleep, Coded (at least the version that’s just cutscenes), Dream Drop Distance, and Fragmentary Passage. BBS adds the backstory needed for the main story to keep going - they’re not done. Then there’s KH3 plus Remind and Melody of Memory in one package. This provides a little more finality even though the story still isn’t over, just the Dark Seeker saga. Can we even get Sora back? The final grouping consists of the mobile games, which take us even further back in time and provide as many questions as they do answers. This includes X/Back Cover, Unchained X, Union X, Dark Road, and Missing Link.
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This brings me to my next topic of discussion and perhaps an idea for another Xehanort-based game. I still want to know what happened in the year that Xehanort was an amnesiac apprentice, but I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of gameplay that could entail. Cards and rhythm wouldn’t make sense like Chain of Memories and Melody of Memory, but it should be something unique and have the word “Memory” or “Memories” as per the other two. Unless it takes place over a certain number of days, then something with “Days” in it. A visual novel might be too boring, but something like Doki Doki Literature Club or Ace Attorney might work. It would also have to incorporate the scenes that are scattered amongst the other games: the end of BBS, the flashback from KH2, the opening flashback of DDD, and the flashback from Melody of Memories. It would have to include everything Apprentice Xehanort did, like the experiments on Subject X and others, the experiments on himself, and basically anything from any existing reports. Subject X goes missing (if we’re playing purely from Xehanort’s perspective, it will likely still remain a mystery what Luxu did or where he sent her), Ansem is banished and it gets covered up, everyone’s hearts get stolen, Isa and Lea ask to become apprentices and lose their hearts as well, the Door to Darkness is opened and the town is overrun, and Xehanort takes Kairi off the street and sends her to Destiny Islands.
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Then there’s a nine-year gap between Kairi arriving and the beginning of KH1. Lots of downtime as the original 6-8 Organization members figure things out. One of them still needs to go through puberty and two of them have to finish puberty. We don’t need to read that far into it, but it would be nice to see Zexion restore his ability to speak if that was indeed an issue for him and not a cost-cutting measure to avoid casting a child actor for him in BBS. I would love for this theoretical game to have voice-acting, but I could see how it wouldn’t need to if it’s mostly text-based. I just get so excited imagining the visuals in my head. Just Monika? More like Just Xehanort. Or a courtroom-like scene leading up to Ansem's banishment.
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That’s all for now. Looking forward to Season 4 of Ascendance of a Bookworm.

The End of the Power Rangers

Over the course of two weeks, I binged season 2 of Dino Fury and Cosmic Fury. Maybe that wasn’t the best way to do it, because I mostly felt empty. Even after 30 years, it’s hard to believe it’s over for the final time. I don’t know if I’ll watch the rebooted series when it comes out.

‭Thoughts on Dino Fury Season 2: I had compared Tarrick to Mr. Freeze in season 1, but Santaura is like Nora from the Harley Quinn series cranked up a notch. It would’ve been better if the Voids showed up in the episode with the wish charms so that Amelia’s wish technically came true even if she didn’t know it. Zayto is the first and only Ranger to die, be brought back to life, and then die again (Cosmic Fury). And as I’m writing this, his catchphrase “Cool, cool, coolio” hits different once I consider that Coolio is dead.

‭Cosmic Fury: People are complaining that Amelia shouldn’t have been the Red Ranger, that it could have been Izzy or anyone else. Well, if it could have been anyone, it was still her, so deal with it. Ten episodes was not enough time to fully flesh out this story, and I’m surprised it didn’t get a full season order. I also heard the actor playing Ollie had scheduling conflicts, so that’s why he was evil for most of it. I liked the father-son dynamic between him and Zedd. I liked the look of concern on Billy’s face when he found out that not only was Ollie evil, Amelia’s parents had been evil too. If the season had been longer, we probably would have seen Amelia start to crack under the pressure. Tarrick, while not a Ranger, still had his badass dad moments. Did not like/was confused by Zedd, Robo Rita, and Billy often referring to Rangers on a last-name basis. Heckyl’s debut as Dark Ranger did not last too long and ended in defeat, which sucked, but at least we got to see him at all. Him morphing again next to Billy looked great. Did not like them taking Squillia as a hostage and then killing her, which felt like an icky thing for the heroes to do. Mucus and Slyther being good didn’t have much buildup, but I’m glad they were in it because they seemed like such fan favorites. I hope they survived the vacuum of space. I couldn’t help but notice that two of the monsters were named after Joe Exotic and Tommy Wiseau, or that Zedd kept saying “sad” like Trump; that weirded me out in ways I can’t put into words. Dino and Cosmic Fury did quote memes and reference pop culture a lot, with Izzy being the main perpetrator, but as another reviewer pointed out, this show was probably written by Millennials/Gen Z.

‭Additional thoughts about Once & Always: It also felt too short. The one-year time-skip made the emotional development uncertain. All it took for Minh to forgive Billy was for Zack to tell her that Zordon was a father figure to them. I’m also unclear on when this takes place. Does Billy try to bring back Zordon before or after finding out that Aiyon spoke to him inside the Morphin Grid? I didn’t even think that was Zordon at first - I just thought it was the personification of the Morphin Grid itself. If the special takes place before Cosmic Fury, then it’s Minh in the cockpit with Billy and the series ends on a cliffhanger with Billy renewing his search for Zordon. If takes place after, then it’s Trini in the cockpit and Billy’s looking for remnants of the Z-Wave because he has confirmation Zordon’s consciousness survived. It’s probably the former since Once & Always released first, but the renewed search for Zordon should be explored even though there most likely won’t be any more content aside from Amy Jo Johnson’s Pink Ranger comics.

‭Side note: I recently saw a couple videos explaining Jennika and Venus in the new Ninja Turtles comics. Anyone criticizing these characters or their artist (who recently left) seems to have a “no girls allowed” stance when it comes to Turtles. These characters were created by men too. I may not be a fan of this particular universe, but I understand it better now and can appreciate what they were trying to do.

Unhappy Campers (Again)

I forgot to mention another aspect of Unhappy Campers I’d thought about. Barbie Wire was only in the episode for about three minutes, and that was definitely not enough time (for the fans). Another way it could’ve gone was that Millie refused to wait and play Moxxie’s game and took the guy out immediately, which pisses Moxxie off. Then Barbie bursts in complaining she’s out of a job now, confusing M&M until she drops her human guise. They explain that it was their job to kill him, and she asks to see their boss, who is none other than her own brother. Blitz is happy to see her until she starts yelling at him about the mission, which he doesn’t even remember sending M&M on. At the same time, M&M are fighting about the mission (with their client still awkwardly in the background, and maybe their fresh kill showing up too). Everyone splits off, and in the quiet, we get a proper flashback to Blitz and Barbie’s childhood.

The 20th anniversary of Rooster Teeth ended with the series finale of Camp Camp. However, it felt like it was too little too late. The main plot revolved around the trio overhearing that the other campers found them annoying and tried to subvert their personalities or be passive-aggressive about it. Because standards and practices are different now that Time Warner Media is in charge, the swearing was mostly censored. Dolph needed to get a makeover offscreen (although they used Charlie Chaplin as a stand-in for that other guy he was modeled after). Because Michael, Barbara, and I assume Lee are white actors voicing “ambiguously brown” characters, they were replaced with actors of the appropriate ethnic backgrounds. They were fine, but to only do this for a series finale which we otherwise wouldn’t have gotten (I assume it was quietly canceled because of these issues) seems wrong. If Max was written with Michael’s personality in mind, especially as a draw due to Rage Quit, why didn’t they make him the same ethnicity so people wouldn’t complain (because clearly someone finally did)? BK was spot-on except for there being no spit in her voice. Miles came back as David like he had for Jaune, but he didn’t sound as happy in the role. He [David] didn’t have Jaune’s aging and trauma as an excuse. Too much has happened at this company, and too much time has passed. It was a nice attempt, but it was sad and should’ve been done sooner. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it - representation is important, but how you sound in animation matters more than how you look. When you act with your voice, you can be anyone - as long as it isn’t a racist caricature. On the other side of things, there’s a new ethnically-appropriate actor voicing Amy’s dad in the new Futurama, which is great. Billy West doesn’t need more roles on that show. The only problem is that the new guy doesn’t sound old enough.
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Unhappy Campers (and Others)

Survivor - While I miss the Ponderosa videos, I appreciate how recent Survivor seasons’ cast members support each other in-game. They even take time out just to enjoy the fact that they’re in Fiji. I also miss the live reunion shows, but there’s something so raw about reading the votes right away like in the old days.

‭Helluva Boss - While Unhappy Campers isn’t my favorite episode, “Regular Joe” is a banger. I was worried that people wouldn’t like Millie being good at everything at camp, that they’d call her a Mary Sue. Fortunately, that was not the case. If anything, people want more of Millie being awesome and less of Moxxie being a petty bitch. It would’ve made more sense for Millie to ask about the target since she was made the center of attention, but Moxxie was committed to the bit and possibly method acting. If it was supposed to be a mirror of what happened between Blitz and Barb, it wasn’t worth it, especially that freeze frame of Moxxie’s crazy eyes. Maybe Richard Horvitz blew out his voice doing Moxxine’s over-the-top valley girl voice, and that’s why he sounds weird in Once and Always. Not sure what the drama is surrounding Erica Lindbeck - Loona not speaking or someone making an AI clone of her voice without permission. I know there have been AI clones of other people’s voices, but I didn’t know if they’d given permission or not - Sam Riegel being one of them. The only episode it was weird she didn't talk was Western Energy, but I guess the idea was that Loona was too scared of getting the shot to back-sass Blitz about it.
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Critical Role - The group is reunited and the plot is starting to move forward again. Imogen and Laudna finally defined their relationship. How are they going to get to the moon?

Media I'm Consuming

 ‭Ascendance of a Bookworm - I’m currently collecting the manga now that Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card has finally come to an end. I figured it would be a faster read that way, since I don’t have a whole lot of time to myself, but it looks like it’ll be more volumes than the light novel series. I was interested in the angle of restarting the printing industry from scratch, but the issue of mana and political intrigue made it take off in a whole other direction. I just finished watching Trash-Tier Waifu’s videos on part 3, and this has still just been the setup. Apparently parts 4 and 5 are massive. The anime had better continue. Clear Card is already getting a reboot so it can have a proper ending as well.

‭RWBY vol 9 - I had my doubts about this season, but the ending was kinda nice. Neo took the peaceful route in the end, accepting that her conjured version of Roman wasn’t real and that she had to reinvent herself even if she has no longer has any ties to Remnant. Not only that, but the Tree told them that the Brothers aren’t gods and they had actually been kicked out of the Ever After. So despite all the terrible things Salem has done, she had been right about the Brothers and summoning them may not be the worst idea if they can confront them with this new information? I don’t understand how Alyx died and that gifting Jaune her dagger would undo the aging he’d accidentally done to himself upon his arrival. At first I thought Miles had actually quit and they had aged Jaune up to recast him, but I’m glad I was wrong. As per usual, Robbie Daymond’s character seems friendly at first but ultimately can’t be trusted. This is why I like Dorian the best out of his characters. It’s funny that both he (Akechi) and Max Mittelman (Ryuji) both voice versions of the Cheshire Cat, Max voicing him in Alice’s Wonderland Bakery (my daughter watches it).

‭Critical Role - I’m not really interested in what’s going on in Campaign 3 right now. Since I don’t have time, I’ve been reading the recaps, and I’m not impressed. I know Marisha’s doing Creator Clash 2, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s why the party had to be split so she wouldn’t have to actively play. She still shows up for opening announcements. Matt misses her, but Marisha mentioned that in a way that made it sound like Matt was being selfish, and I get it. I can't help but wonder if all this extra stuff is going to pull the group apart during this campaign, as they are a far cry from doing it for fun at this point.

‭Power Rangers Once & Always - I’m not wild about the idea that Robo Rita was Billy’s fault and Trini died protecting him (and it cost them Alpha 8 as well). He never really struck me as that much of an ego maniac or particularly inclined towards hubris, and since I’ve seen both Full Metal Alchemist anime, trying to bring Zordon back isn’t anything new. In fact, he should’ve gotten Andros in on it too, and sooner. I don’t know how I feel about Trini being a single mom, but Richie’s dead too, and I don’t know who else it would have been. ‭I still have to get caught up on Dino Fury (among other things), and I’m cautiously optimistic for Cosmic Fury.