Missy Watches More Stuff

Hi! Yes, I live. Life’s still busy, and this post took me forever to write up, whoops.

Writing

Working on my F5K assignment! I got a minor extension and have since posted my bus pass, but there’s a lot of editing I still have to do, and I want to add 1-2 more scenes if I’m able before reveals… fingers crossed RL doesn’t keep me too busy for it!

I'm already eyeing fandomgiftbasket, fffx, and juletide, even though I just decided to focus on my personal projects after F5K until Guardian Wishlist x'D we'll see what I can do! I do need to get back to In This As In All Things, though.

Watching

Dimension 20: A Court of Fey and Flowers

I absolutely adored this game! The characters were amazing and the conceit of a fairy court meets Pride and Prejudice type of story drew me in immediately. I thought the reputation and epistolary mechanics were great and the players did a great job making use of them. Aabria was fun to watch when she switched between all those NPCs, and her make-up really made them seem much more otherworldly. A+

I just wish they had gotten a full season, the ending did feel rushed. Although, kudos to the team for being able to resolve the season quickly. I have no idea how they did it, if they filmed the last episode(s?) after they had to go into isolation for covid? I feel like there were a lot of plot threads left hanging in their hurry to wrap everything up in the last two episodes. Especially the confrontation between Hobbs and Rue felt like it could’ve used another encounter or two before they resolved it. There were too many reveals happening and not enough time for the characters to process them before agreeing to forgive each other.

That said, I enjoyed the romance between those two, as well as Dark Fuck Prince and tailor!Cinderella :3

Dimension 20: The Ravening War

I haven’t finished watching the last of the 6 episodes, but I have a lot of thoughts.

As much as I love Matt as a DM and the characters are great, I’m not a fan of their timeskip-experiment. It feels like they lost the focus of the story they wanted to tell? The stakes keep getting lost in every timeskip, the rapid changes leave me without much of an anchor to get invested in, which is a shame. Also, personally I wanted another court intrigue game similar to A Crown of Candy, which this isn’t :/ it’s much too adventure/encounter-focussed for that, it feels like, because all the roleplaying episodes are timeskips.

Spoilers

Imo, there seems to be a mismatch of genre expectations. The characters are built for intrigue, assassination and backhanded deals, lying and convincing. And yet the challenges are set up not to work with their skills, but in spite of them. The whole Bloominati/FDA deal was an interesting pun and hook, and it kiiiinda works into the worldbuilding Brennan did in ACOC? But it also feels like such a strong departure off into left field tonally.

The timeskips don’t feel real is the problem. We meet the FDA as a cliffhanger, then jump two years ahead… it feels like meeting the FDA should have had an *impact*, and yet it took forever to actually happen, but also due to the summary nature of the timeskips not a lot of time actually passed? And what happened wasn’t really… interesting, ngl. The second timeskip was better in the latter regard since we had character interactions and the PCs taking _action_ rather than trying to figuring things out in a roll or two. Things were visibly happening, even if we abandoned all investment and stakes from the previous episode again *le sigh*

What I wanted from this game was high intrigue, the PCs making mistakes that echoed into history and maybe worsened the war. But the guardrails actually make it feel like the PCs are inconsequential, no matter what titles and positions they supposedly carry. And part of that is clearly on purpose! Matt seems to want the PCs to experience the helplessness of war, how it rolls over you and out of your control. And he succeeds in that! But the side-effect is that it feels very… along for the ride but not part of the story, imo?

I mean, he did his best to tie in every character’s story! Like bringing in Colin’s dad during the 5th episode encounter. It just felt jarring to me rather than smooth and a natural consequence of the story leading them there. I guess what I’m saying is the rails were too obvious?

In my ideal Ravening War, we would’ve had more episodes like episode 1, where they go to balls and do court intrigue and try to win allies, backstab each other, maybe even PvP as Karna betrays Amangeaux and Deli grows power-hungry, etc. etc. Having Amangeaux hitch her horse to Tomate only for him to die could have been a very poignant storyline that similarly expressed the themes of the unpredictability of war!

I agree with those critisizing the Bulb Pope (I forget the canon title… pointefax??) being the leader of the FDA. It would’ve been much more fun if it had been a coalition of servants or working class people trying to shake up the hierarchy and only being able to do so by unionizing in secret. It’s weird that the Pope doesn’t have the power to achieve such underhanded dealings in her position of ultimate power. If she had used the church for similar aims, that would’ve been more fun to me, I think.

I do think I ship Karna/Amangeaux and Karna/Deli and Deli/Colin. They all have very fun dynamics with each other, and the Deli/Colin break-up was deliciously hurtful, as is the way Karna enables the worst in Deli. And the way Amangeaux broke Karna’s heart by taking and taking and taking her for granted? The way she trusts Karna, meanwhile Karna went and told her biggest secret to Tomate? Mhmm :3

Raphaniel was a creepy joy, too. Brennan really leaned into that.

TL;DR the political premise feels at odds with the mystery-adventure genre of the plot, not helped by the mechanics of the timeskips nor the time it's set in (the titular Ravening War). The mushroom plot would’ve been better as a subplot or sidequest outside the garnishings of political intrigue and the war happening, imo, with a different set of adventurers. The only one who somewhat fit was Provolone, and that’s because he’s the merc for hire misfit of the group.

Plus this felt much lower lethality than A Crown of Candy, which was a major draw/emotional stake in that show.

Bridgerton: Queen Charlotte

I enjoyed watching this quick 6-episode season with my parents. It was good, fast-paced entertainment, and we love a historical romance with misunderstandings and court intrigue, though there wasn’t as much of the latter as I might’ve expected. In general it was very light, focussed thematically on women in marriage and female friendship.

More Thoughts

In hindsight I don’t think they exactly captured the character of Queen Charlotte as presented in Bridgerton, nor did I feel like the young Lady Danburry quite matched what we saw of the older in the previous seasons. They did their best to match them within *this* season, of course, and it was a plausible portrayal of their youth – especially the young Queen Charlotte did a great job matching her older version’s mannerism and growing into them and that confidence. Her characteristic stubborness was A+ conveyed during all the character development, too.

I liked the romance between Charlotte and George while he was lucid, and I thought she handled him pretty well during his hallucination/attack. I’m not quite sure what mental illness they were going for (nor am I aware of the historical sources tbf) but it felt a bit all over the place. There were dissociative elements (speaking with the stars, the portraits’ voices in his head, etc.) while other elements felt closer to an anxiety disorder (especially in how the hallucinations/dissociative phases were triggered).

And then there were hints of trauma being the root issue (the physical abuse from his grandfather, on top of the high expectations – which if he did not live up to, lead to more of said abuse), especially in that scene where they hid under the bed so the sky couldn’t see them. And this might be a Me issue because I watched the German dub, but in German we don’t differentiate between sky and heaven, so it felt very obvious association of his grandfather in heaven being the one watching as the omnipotent sky George is hiding from.

I wasn’t a fan of George being super lucid in present day when they hide under the bed again either, though I understand the parallels they’re drawing – it felt like the illness was less severe than we’ve been led to believe up to that point, less hopeless if there’s an easy “switch”. Nevermind that from Bridgerton, I’d gotten more a dementia/alzheimer vibe, but that might again be due to my lack of historical knowledge.

I liked the side romance of Brimsley and Reynolds. I wonder what happened to Reynolds, how they’re romance went – did he die? Leave? Brimsley was clearly still fond and nostalgic for their time together.

While I understand why Lady Danburry had an affair with Violet’s father and it fit the theme of figuring out what to do with yourself as a woman in and after marriage, it felt a bit weird, especially with her budding friendship with Violet. To come back to the characterization, I thought Danburry revealing anything about her inner life to Violet in friendship was a bit weird, as she’d always been super discrete during Bridgerton. I’m glad Violet found out about the affair behind her back rather than her telling Violet, though, that felt more in character. If she’d told her, it’d have broken my suspense of disbelief for sure.

Overall, it was entertaining on its own, but maybe not best considered within the canon of the Bridgerton continuity.

Belgravia
I watched the last two episodes of this 6 episode drama with my parents, and it was very fast-paced interesting intrigue. I need to go back and actually watch the first four episodes, but I get the feeling the ending was a bit rushed to make it only 6 episodes, it probably would have done better if it had more room to breathe as an 8 or 10 episodes drama.

Video Games

Technically, I watched other people play these, because I’m mostly interested in the plot and characters and terrible at these sort of fighting games :’)

The Mageseeker

“The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story” by RiotForge, meaning the department at RiotGames that makes the spin-off games. Mageseeker is supposed to be main canon, which is interesting since it depicts Sylas in particular in a very different light than the Marvel tie-in comic that was previously canon, without openly contradicting the plot beats therein.

I did enjoy Sylas more in Mageseeker than the comics, ngl. The comics depicted him as much more a Hannibal Lecter type character (some of those visuals made that parallel not just subtext) who seduced innocent little Lux into trusting him, only to bring Great Destruction For No Reason, because he’s a sociopath.

Which is in line with his history in League of Legends. Sylas was introduced as a sympathetic villain to the main game, as a charismatic demagogue whose silvery tongue convinces the common folk that our Demacian heroes are the bad guys, actually, and thus creating an unnecessary revolution… and ignoring the fact that Demacia is literally bringing about a mage genocide in a kinda fascist regime. The problem of its lingering “good guy” image from the early days of lore they are slow to change out of.

Mageseeker on the other hand explores Sylas’ story much more… I don’t want to say realistic, exactly, but they’ve certainly thought his circumstances through a lot more. He’s discovered as a kid, imprisoned and abused and forced into helping his oppressors find more people like him. (While in his LoL lore this was a unique position, Mageseeker made it much more common. I’m not sure if I like that decision yet.)

I liked most of the new characters they introduced, they worked really well in their functions! Making Lux and Garen’s uncle the Main Bad Guy to avoid Implications ™ for Lux, Garen, and Jarvin was, hm. A bit of a coward move, but also pretty clever? They likely couldn’t have gotten away with implicating the main champions of LoL, and a figure like Eldred Crownguard makes sense within a regime like Demacia’s. I liked the power struggle aspect to the Mageseekers political faction and how they influenced the newly crowned king into making rash, emotional decisions.

Also I’m really glad Shyvana finally broke things off with Jarvin towards the end of the game. She stayed by his side while he committed atrocities against people like her for far too long. Jarvin’s rationalization of “not these people because I care about them” exceptions to his rules was very on point for a spoiled king, and I’m glad Lux didn’t take him up on it and Shyvana left him over it. Though sadly the lesson didn’t seem to sink in RIP.

Lux’s naivety re: a peaceful sanctuary for the mages vs Sylas’ bloody revenge were a great contrast, and I think the game did well to show how both of their ideologies fall short — Lux’s mages *do* get attacked, while Sylas learns the hard way through Leilane’s sacrifice that his way won’t work if he doesn’t protect the people he cares about, the mages under his wing. Generally the game did good to provide several views on the various beliefs, from more extreme views like Sylas’ and Kara’s to softer views like Lux’s.

Wisteria was also a great villain/foil to Sylas, the dark version of Sylas who remained under the Mageseekers’ control and broke apart under them. Someone so filled with self-hatred they lash out against others like them. Their friends-to-enemies dynamic made the story very enjoyable.

I am a bit miffed at the attempts of Both Sides-ing, especially towards the end. Mageseeker’s writers definitely threaded the needle well in several places, and they were constricted in what they could do (e.g. Jarvin IV has to remain king and a Good Guy in the lore, despite all the atrocities committed in his name and under his command). But that’s ultimately a problem Riot’s management will have to decide how to handle eventually. Overall the story went a lot further in painting Demacia as the bad guys for this game already than I honestly expected going in!

For me, they also went a bit too far in softening Sylas to make him ~sympathetic. Especially with making him a dad to his dead friend’s (whom he killed!) protegee at the end. Sylas is a traumatized adult who still has to learn how to live in the real world rather than a dungeon! He is NOT dad material! OMG. (Just let him make mistakes and have flaws in line with his trauma please. It’s not an excuse for his actions, but let him do those actions anyway!) Generally I liked his character development and growth during the game, but the end result was a bit too… happy sappy for my taste. Let him be messed up in peace!

Also, I’m not sure I like the Kayle-Morgana conflict being connected to Demacia. I probably missed the relevant lore, if Riot ever put any out (they’re bad at that), but… idk. Morgana didn’t feel like the right fit for the role? She’s a hedonist, a lover, at least the way I remember her most recent retcon. Sure, peace fits into that image, but retribution? Revolution? Sanctuary? Eh. Kayle’s fanaticism with Righteous Justice fits Demacia as the oppressors much better, although her Judgment would smite them one and all for their crimes. Kayle doesn’t care about the why, just the actions, so she’d kill… probably all the main characters actually lol. Anyway I’m not sure they’re the best metaphor for the on-going conflict, but *shrugs* I guess they wanted to add more champions.

Convergence

Another League of Legends spin-off game, this one centering the character Echo. He’s quite different from the Echo we see in Arcane, since that media is considered AU to the LoL main canon (except when they try to bring the vibes back to the main canon because of Arcane’s financial success, but I digress).

Unlike Mageseeker, I felt like the narrative fell a bit short on this one.

The main premise of a teenaged Echo meeting his older self who has Gone Wrong was great. The game explores how Echo’s unique circumstance, being able to rewind a moment until he gets the ideal outcome, could affect his perspective on the world and other people - namely forgetting that they’re people with their own wishes and internal lives, because he can video game save-restart to try and get the best dialogue option for the outcome he wants. This is very clearly older!Echo’s fault and the lesson younger!Echo has to learn, which works out great.

The problem is the rest of the story.

I liked Camille’s introduction and early role within the story, especially in how older!Echo making a deal with her makes younger!Echo uncomfortable. Where that narrative goes wrong imo is the part where younger!Echo befriends Camille and she acts as a mother figure to younger!Echo - like, no! That’s so out of character for Camille! She literally had her heart replaced by a clockwork hextech heart. She’s literally the unfeeling assassin/enforcer of the rich. It’s literally in her tragic backstory of how she became a villain—a great villain that I enjoy in that incarnation! Her becoming a mother figure to Echo, the rebel of Zaun who fights against the capitalism of Piltover, whose invention and genius are exactly what Camille is supposed to eliminate – no. Just no.

Short-time, reluctant allies with a shared goal? Sure, I can buy that. But then there needs to be backstabbing and that was severely lacking from the game.

I really liked TBSkyen’s suggestion of replacing her with Caitlin, at least in the second half of that role. Caitlin is another cop from Piltover, another rich girl and all the cultural misunderstandings that brings, but unlike Camille she’s open to learning. Especially since her partner (both as a cop and a lesbian) Vi is from Zaun. She’d be a better fit for the whole detective work of hunting older!Echo down, too.

Also it would’ve been a fun boss-fight of Camille & older!Echo vs Caitlin & younger!Echo, with the themes of separating Piltover and Zaun vs learning to work together, which is clearly a message Riot wants to push.

I’m not even gonna touch the whole “symbiosis” thing. Piltover fucks Zaun over again and again, and Zaun is the result of capitalist hell. There’s nothing symbiotic in the abuse Zaun suffers to make Piltover the golden jewel of upper crust rich elite. And the game had some nice moments where that became really clear, but the whole “both are equally good and bad” spiel got on my nerves. Riot’s upper management are cowards for not actually going there when they set up the tension to have clear political messaging.

On another note, the sideplot with Jinx was weird af, out of left field, and utterly ruined the pacing of the rising tension. I agree with TBSkyen that it felt more like a DLC tagged on rather than part of the main game. She was hard to integrate as is, and Riot’s management probably wanted her in there because she’s popular and would sell the game. But the trailer gives a completely different impression of her importance to the story for her to only show up to be a random cool boss fight… She just didn’t fit the themes the game is exploring at all.