Critical Fail

Tales of Berseria is a distant prequel to Zestiria. They hijacked the anime to promote the game with a two-part prologue. Even after they resumed the story, they added Velvet Crowe to the opening. That was really annoying and didn't make me want to play the game. They could've just given it its own OVA since it didn't tie back into the series directly. I don't know how many episodes Zestiria the X has, but it probably could do without this padding. It's even being dubbed already, minus episode zero. Maybe they'll skip the interruption too (unless they just skipped zero to follow the episode numbering). Here's another joke from episode 2 (titled episode 1): "Sorey, no!" "Sorey, yes." I'm actually more upset by the fact that Matt killed off Tiberius on Critical Role. That's like dropping a cheesy gordita on the floor. That's such a waste.

Lay's Do Us A Flavor is back, and the best one according to Brad is the Greek one. I tried it, and it tastes like a Mediterranean/white pizza. None of the swaps from earlier this year happened, so that's good. Despite Southern Biscuits and Gravy winning (nice!), I haven't seen it where I work. As per usual, the only newer flavors we have are cheesy garlic bread and bacon mac and cheese. I think we even stopped carrying actual mozzarella garlic bread. We still have mozzarella garlic toast, though. We also supposedly sell Crystal Pepsi (as in, I've seen people buying it), but when it was my turn to shop, there was no evidence that they ever existed.

The cast for next season's Power Rangers has been revealed. Fucking finally, they have a Ranger with the same first name as me. I'm not even mad unless her personality sucks.

Bag of Dicks

The Telltale version of Bruce Wayne looks like Archer. "Eat a dick, Gotham!" If this were an anime, Selina's note would've had an angry cat face doodled on it. Speaking of anime, I have one Tales of Zestiria the X joke from episode 5 - "Can you hear me now? Good!" Episode 6 delineated from the plot to focus on spin-off characters from the new game that's coming out. I wasn't expecting that and I can't say I enjoyed it, especially since it wasn't a one-off thing and I have no idea how or when it'll tie back into the original story that's being interrupted. We've already made it farther than the OVA, but are we ever going to reach the end?! I'm just as pissed about Digimon Tri getting dubbed before part 3 of Fusion, which was supposed to be this year but has been put on hold. I don't like Tri, so I may not even seek it out to watch. I haven't seen Suicide Squad but I liked the animated version (Assault on Arkham) better. I did see The Killing Joke and it was a piece of shit.

Teen Titans Go! had a week-long event with five episodes revolving around the characters stuck on a deserted island by plot contrivance (much like the bottle episode where Raven could get them out but chose not to, except her and Star's powers couldn't work). Cue all the deserted island spoofs and other references. I anticipated the last part to be the "no but seriously let's get out of here" episode, but they went one step beyond with a Truman Show reference culminating in a big battle with all the villains. The new intro was pretty catchy, and I liked how they added hula skirts to the usual dancing part.

The Tome of Beasts is out for Fifth Edition. Jason, Stephen, and I play-tested some monsters, so our names are in the credits. So that's pretty cool. An equally thick set of monster tokens came with it too. The snow queen is just Elsa, which is pretty funny and pretty stupid at the same time.

Here We Go Again

Three chapters into the Cardcaptor Sakura "Clear Card" arc, and I still have no real idea what's going on. As the title suggests, the cards all became transparent, then new spirits started appearing, the key/wand changed as they do, and the Windy (I assume) became the Gale. Eriol has told Syaoran something that they're keeping from Sakura and the audience. We don't know yet who the cloaked figure is in Sakura's dream yet either (unless that's the secret they're keeping from her). Everything in the first two arcs had been a test, and as hazardous as those events could be, they were never in any real danger. What's the test this time, and who's doing it? The story picked up right where the second arc left off, but did we really need a third arc? There didn't seem to be anything else that needed to be resolved. What more does she need to do? What possible adversary could be left messing with Clow's (and by extension, Sakura's) magic?

I drew Xaldin as a centaur and Lexaeus as a minotaur after all, and I added Vexen as a tiefling - specifically, Markus Velafi from Thrilling Intent. The two look very similar. I also drew those other two things I'd mentioned, plus more Raven and Ienzo together (both drawn and written, but they don't correspond with each other). Thrilling Intent is another fun D&D series, but it's a different format than Critical Role. Markus is my favorite character, though Aesling is cool too. I didn't initially hate Gregor (I'd liked his innocent naivete and optimism), but as the series went on he just got worse (lawful good doesn't mean lawful nice, and good is dumb in his case - too dumb to realize his own misdeeds and hypocrisy). The original forty episodes are classic, and but then they go on another quest and everything escalates from there. The voice actor for Markus makes great music for it, too.

Pop-Tarts has outdone themselves on flavor insanity. Now they have soda flavors - A&W Root Beer and Orange Crush. As much as I like those sodas, I don't think I want to touch them. I learned my lesson from the watermelon ones and I'd rather not chance it, not even if it was enhanced to be root beer float instead. I did, however, try the new Vanilla Life. It's pretty good but I'd rather they bring the brown sugar one over here.

Current Events

I watched the updated PokeRap by College Humor. I thought the twist at the end would've been that there were more pending since Sun and Moon are coming out later this year, but I was wrong. Diancie wasn't in it either, as it only went as far as Zygarde. I've also seen Egoraptor's video with mostly fictional Pokemon. While I would love to play Pokemon Go, I don't think I'm missing out on anything by not playing it. So far I've heard an even mix of heartwarming tales of community catching as well as horror stories of muggings, not to mention the competitive element of the game that includes King-of-the-Mountain-type gym structure and three factions based on which Legendary Bird is your favorite (though that last one was somewhat quelled by the creation of a fourth faction under Lugia, who is Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Game). Pokemon Go is also getting blamed for people getting into car accidents, but you can blame that on individual people's carelessness. The problem is that you can't fix stupid, and that's partly why we have such a bad gun problem in America. It's not just about guns or stupid people, though; it's the overall state of the education and mental health systems, which the impoverished don't have access to in the first place. Just like how fast food is cheaper than healthy food, guns are somehow cheaper and easier to obtain than quality schooling and health care. That's what we have to fix, but nobody's going to because the status quo is too profitable to the people in power and the solution is not.

If we're going to have a two-party system, why bother registering unless you're going to take an active part in its affairs? For the rest of us who only have to vote in November, they should at least make the primaries open to the public so we have a say in who will verse who. If it were up to me, I would've voted to have it be JEB vs Bernie Sanders. But no. Instead I have to deal with this broken two-party system (which George Washington didn't even want in the first place) which is controlled entirely by the people with money anyway. Where does that leave me? I can either vote my conscience and go with someone I don't even know (why did you betray us, Bernie?) or I can vote for a Hillary Clinton I don't even recognize anymore. I hope Jill Stein is worth it because I don't want Trump to win by default as they claim Bush did when Nader was the third (Green) party option.

WatchMojo has a spinoff channel called MsMojo. Hopefully they will eventually make a top 10 hottest male Power Ranger video to go along with the hottest female Power Ranger list on the main channel. The videos are also on the main channel, but overall it's sort of a Nostalgia Chick situation I would guess.

Observations and Updates

The MLP hiatus didn't last as long as people thought it would. Something I was thinking about recently was the holidays, or how they were treated, more specifically. They tried to get Fluttershy to like Nightmare Night, but in the end she decided it wasn't for her and they were okay with that. But when Starlight Glimmer says she's not into Hearthswarming, that cannot stand and they get her to change her mind. While each episode served its purpose and that's fine, when looked at together it seems like a double standard for either the holidays or the ponies involved.

Luxu's role as the sixth foreteller is just to watch and to know things the others don't. And to wear the black coat along with the master of masters. And his keyblade gets passed down to Xehanort. It is seen hanging on the wall during young Xehanort and Eraqus' chess game, so maybe he's related to their master. Depending on how much time has passed since Luxu went ahead to the future, could he even BE their master? And what about the E + S = X theory? Since the object of the Kingdom Hearts Chi series is to collect light, or as they call it, lux, his name probably has a deeper meaning (though Luxord's may be coincidental).

I'm liking the new anime for Tales of Zestiria so far. The Episode Zero prologue from Alisha's point of view was both needed and dragged on for too long. The second episode, Episode One, seemed almost all the introduction necessary at that moment since she's going to introduce herself to Sorey and explain most of what we'd seen anyway. This makes me wonder what the pacing is going to be like. I haven't heard how many episodes it's going to be yet. I like how they focus on Sorey and Mikleo's fist bump hand shake; can't wait 'til they get to their slap fight. I like the theme sequence as a whole, which shows off most of the important characters. I also like the next episode preview done in the style of the sprite conversations.

Is This Real Life?

As hated as the new PPG series is, it didn't need to do a crossover on Teen Titans Go! For one thing, Tara was probably a little upset since she doesn't voice Bubbles anymore because none of the original voice actresses were asked back or even made aware that it was being produced. Raven flat-out says later in the episode, "Yeah, I just remembered I don't care." A good crossover would've had her and Bubbles going at it, something akin to Rob Paulsen's Donnie and Raph in the TMNT crossover. For another thing, Beast Boy shouldn't have taken a liking to Mojo Jojo (at least not right away) since he resembles a combination of two of his villains - a monkey and a brain. The takeaway was that PPG is superior to TTG, and not because the Girls were the guests in this case. In my opinion, both shows suck, but at least TTG kept its original voice cast.

On an off week for Critical Role, Liam DM'd a real-life post-apocalyptic world with Travis, Laura, Sam, and Taliesin playing themselves (and even made character sheets for them). I haven't watched it yet since it isn't the main story, but it sounds like a D&D video I saw on YouTube a while back (I think it was the same group who did The Gamers videos) where the players were trying and failing to role play real life (but only accomplished breaking into their friend's house, causing their dog and themselves to get hit by a car, and drinking the "potions" under the sink). I like the idea, and judging from the highlights I've read, it should be hilarious and enlightening.

I posted Saix's zodiac segment, and it also got three views and a like overnight. Scrolling back through the most recent page of videos posted, more of them had one (even two) like than I was previously aware of (not the zodiac ones though, just Saix and Ansem). They all had to do with Kingdom Hearts, which is why I currently have 155 subscribers. Other ones are end-of-year holiday videos (not the Homestuck Troll ones though).

REM Time

So instead of making up new "bedtime" stories, I've been focusing on thinking up "happily ever after" scenarios to get myself to sleep at night. It still doesn't work, but I've got "missing father returning home to his family," "husband waking up from a coma," and "exonerated prisoner drinking beer with his friends." Earlier this week I had a dream which included Percy as a cyborg.The depressing thing about Critical Role lately was the Raven Queen saying to Percy that everyone is broken from birth and the meaning of life is to try to better yourself before you die. I don't like that. While it's true that no one's perfect and there's always room for improvement, I just think that creates more conflict than it solves sometimes. We all just need to find some form of happiness before we die. It's sad to see Ashley go again long-term, and even sadder that Scanlan has given up pursuing Pike.

Sailor Moon Crystal episode 39 dragged too much, focusing on still shots (some reused) and rewinding too far into the end of the previous episode. If any episode needed to be abridged, this one definitely qualifies. Saturn and Pluto saved the day, and Sailor Moon fixed everything. The abridged answer to Pharaoh 90 asking to be sent home would be "F**k no!" Also Saturn could say that she will take lives and Sailor Moon will give life (which is a Tales of Zestiria reference), to which Sailor Moon would respond that she's taken plenty of lives already. I'm surprised that the main cast is in high school at the end of the episode (that didn't happen until the beginning of season 5), doing a time skip so we didn't have to sit through a study montage. And we get more character development as they talk about what clubs they're going to join. But then there's an eclipse, and the Crystal Twinkle Bell is heard, and Chibi-Usa isn't going to be able to return home just yet. I thought we'd get a special end credits sequence since this was the end of the S arc, but instead we just got the first ending again. No preview either, but we know it's amazon time.