Bartimaeus

@majestic Lindsay Ellis: Yeah, I watched some of that yesterday, but not all of it. Half because it's ludicrously long (nearly two hours!), half because it was just really sad and depressing and none of it should've been anything that ever needed to be said online and she doesn't owe any explanation to either the right-wing diet Nazis (as she calls them) or the left-wing virtue signalers/tail-devourers on Twitter...or anybody else.

Hey, you make fun, but Cat Fingers is only as far as I got into watching the show with my nieces because the end of that episode freaked them the hell out and I realized that yeah, maybe should wait a few more years for this. Probably a kid who can't buy or make chicken in his tiny coastal town, . Though I have to admit, popcorn on all of that does seem pretty disgusting.

Whoa, uh, you kinda just inserted some SU spoilers into that SM spoiler...kind of some moderately-sized ones, too. (e): Looks like you actually edited them out by the time I posted this - must've had the page open for a while, was working on something, . It seemed pretty clear Nezu wasn't acting of her own free will and wanted to do nothing more than to run away...given that's literally what she kept doing while also seeming to realize it was futile unless she actually delivered something useful hence why she kept working - it seemed like she was fighting an irresistible compulsion to answer that phone, made more and more difficult by the fact that it was appearing in front of her and all around her no matter where she went. I'm glad to know she's at least theoretically not dead, though...although the fact that these girls are apparently REAL Sailor Guardians from across the galaxy raises some pretty big questions...is this Star Trek, where all the aliens look exactly like humans but have the tiniest aesthetic differences? I know there's a kind of contrived explanation in that one episode for Star Trek why that is, but it was still kind of weird there and it's definitely weird here. ...I'm still kind of miffed that Usagi and company didn't even spare a thought for her, though. They just saw her die and were like "she vanished - so that's Galaxia, huh?". SHE WAS A PERSON, USAGI! Sure, a person that was a minor annoyance over the past 9 episodes...but a person! You've spared plenty more thoughts and sympathy for literal world-destroyers. SU:

Please, no more about Ms. Chuuko - I'm still grieving, . She was a real one, taken away from us all too soon... No, really - she only lasted 9 episodes. Actually...yeah, this is an outrage! I'm going to have start a campaign to #SaveSailorIronMouse - every Sailor Guardian's life is sacred, let not her be forgotten to the sands of time! No, I won't feel the same way at all about these other two clowns that will also inevitability bite it, but that doesn't matter - what matters are my feelings right now! What kind of world do we live in where good little mouse ladies like Nezu (who is clearly a helpless slave to evil, by the way!) are allowed to be murdered with nary a second thought spent upon them while literal freaks of nature like the Amazon Trio get to live and haunt everyone's beautiful dreams? It's not fair, I tell you.

I think he more meant "screw using spoiler tags" in the context of Sailor Moon, especially given that I am the final one watching it here. I'm more using them just to have my thoughts on each episode properly marked/encapsulated at this point, not because I'm not trying to spoil anybody, . Also, don't read this, @ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP, it's only meant for literally anybody except someone named KaineParker, BEEG HUMONGOUS SPOILERS: One positive with only being able to handle so much TV at a time is I think it allows me to remember details and general episode outlines a bit better. Oh yeah, I forgot that it was initially a "cousin" (gosh dangit, original English dub, not that kind of cousin!), but it seemed to be treated much more like sisters, particularly in SuperS. Also, yeah, really good episodes - but the entire season, even the "filler" arc at the beginning with Nehellenia, has all been good to great. So far, I'd put this season above SuperS (...obviously) and R in terms of just pure silly enjoyment...but probably not the first and definitely not S, which of course can't be matched.

Episode 16:

Episode 14: Episode 15, :

Uh...I'm blanking out here. Who? Actually, never mind - I'll find out on my own. The show's been doing that like a couple of times each season back to season 1, though - I remember Zoisite pointing out that she'd made the same speech one too many times; VesVes interrupted one of Chibi-Usa's speeches repeatedly to try to actually talk to her but Chibi-Usa wouldn't respond because she had to finish the speech; a few times back in even season 1, Usagi screwed up something in her speech and was mocked by either Luna, Rei, or the villain for it; in S, I remember a time where Chibi-Usa inserted herself at the end of Usagi's speech and Usagi was like "what the heck are you doing!?"...and probably plenty more I can't remember! They've always been having fun with the speeches during the less important episodes, . @ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP majestic might be able to vouch that the show gets just a little more interesting than it initially lets on.

Yeah, that about sums up how I feel as well. Another one of those cases where it's important to let the actual author speak for themselves instead of letting the fanidiots do it for them. Hell, that's literally exactly why I forgive Steven Universe for some of its more uneven bits as well - I've heard Rebecca Sugar herself talk about it and how difficult it is to get everything right while always having to work within so many constraints and making so many compromises under so many deadlines, it's tough to do everything just how you ideally envisioned it while also getting a product out at all and not being cancelled altogether (and boy, Cartoon Network was *so* ready to cancel SU). But yeah, what the heck, Crystal? You completely dropped the ball when you should've had everything going for you that neither the manga or anime did 20 years after the franchise became a mega-hit. Who's responsible for this disaster?

Yeah, it was hilarious, but also, I was utterly shriveling up and dying - my secondhand embarrassment activated super strongly during that sequence, I had to cover my eyes for some of it. But that's okay - that's what it was supposed to elicit! And yep, it was made so much better because Usagi only inserted herself because she was genuinely trying to help Makoto out, not simply trying to steal the spotlight. If this were written in SuperS, you just know it would've been the other way around... Sailor Stars Usagi has been so awesome in comparison to SuperS Usagi, thankfully. Haruka? She only just showed up this past episode, and she's already being put into another forced conflict? The poor woman, it seems to be what she's made for...at the hands of these cruel writers, anyways.

Oh, no, I was totally joking about that. It was fine, . I could tell it wasn't going to go anywhere when we didn't have a weird, ultra-serious dream sequence setup where the characters meet under really bizarre circumstances and tell each other sweet nothings while pining for one another over an entire season and...uh, you know, let's not re-visit SuperS, actually. Basically, in other words, the framing of the episode correctly and efficiently informed me that it wasn't anything to worry about, . (e): Also, I regret writing "kicking a dead horse" in the previous post when I clearly should've said pegasus instead. Whoops!

Episode 12: Episode 13:

@majestic Wow, thanks for the images - they literally give so much context for the madness, and some much needed perspective on the part of Ms. Takeuchi herself. I think back to her comments about how she didn't approve of some stuff in the original show, like Black Lady getting too sexualized, and then us laughing about how messed up some of the things SHE wrote in the actual manga were. It sounds like it's literally possible she didn't remember what the heck she wrote at parts in the original manga, and it doesn't seem like she liked her own art or writing much at all to begin with, particularly not as rushed as she was. And with those kinds of deadlines, who can possibly pause for time to think about what they're writing, how well it's written, what's actually coming through vs. what was intended, how specific points were framed, etc. Goes a long way towards forgiving the rough patches around the Sailor Moon franchise as a whole...except Crystal - what the hell is your excuse, Crystal? Iron Mouse: I don't think so? I like Iron Mouse in general, though, so she doesn't even need to be doing anything "meta", really (also, it wouldn't be the first time villains have interrupted Sailor Moon's speech...although if she actually DOES something during her speech, I think that'd be new!). Yeah, that episode was not very good. The first half was good enough, but the second half was pretty lacklustre compared to everything of this season I've seen so far, which has genuinely been very good so far, even if a little rehashy. @ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP The most I've ever gone without sleeping was 80 hours, and I all got out of it was hallucinations where the walls were wiggling and writing was spontaneously appearing and disappearing on them. I've been cheated!

Okay, in that case, I don't think she can be held responsible for what she wrote if that's how it went down. I've written some pretty weird stuff when I've been utterly exhausted too (...though admtitedly never anything on the level of horse-human romance with the intent of it being adapted for children's TV - she might have some deep-seated problems there that she may or may not have intended to bring out in her writing, idk). No wonder the manga doesn't have much fun filler stuff - she didn't have enough time or energy to do the main story, much less extras! Episode 11: @majestic SU:

but the old one was better Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second there, pal.

@ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP Big Evangelion spoilers don't read anyone else who hasn't seen it if you ever plan on doing so: @majestic In terms of relating characters, I feel like I'm...40% Minako, 30% Rei, and 30% Ami - I can't really relate to Usagi at all, while Makoto...whatever Makoto I feel I can relate to is stuff that's already present in at least one of the other three, though I understand and am obviously much more sympathetic towards her than Usagi given her constant state of getting screwed over while soldering on like...well, like a soldier! Funnily, even though Minako is the biggest character I relate to, she is probably also the character I would least get along with if she were a real person out of everybody - as I've mentioned before, relating to a character, liking a character, and also liking a real world person that embody those same character traits are all three vastly different subjects for me, and often don't overlap, . I agree with your take regarding Rei and Usagi. And maybe it's the fact that I have several siblings and I feel like I literally grew up with some family dynamics like they have (my two older sisters, the older of which was smarter, more logical, but also easily frustrated and could be meaner...the younger of which was a complete airheaded crazybrain...) that nothing about it really feels out of place to me. @SU: (e): Thank goodness this posted - I forgot to CTRL+A CTRL+C this and had a moment of terror that it wouldn't go through when I clicked submit.

'Conservative' Texas senator John Cornyn criticizes President Joe Biden for being "unimaginably conventional". i'd like to exit the simulation now, please

Do you really feel like Rei is too mean to Usagi in the show? Honestly, I never really thought much of it - outside of when she's initially introduced in the first season when she's openly questioning Usagi's intelligence and her capability to be a Sailor Guardian, most of the things I can think of where she's 'mean' to Usagi seem to be out of a place of exasperation as a result of them (Rei and the other three) having to put up with Usagi's constant silliness and melodrama. As TV viewers, we're mostly insulated from it, but if Usagi were a real person I knew and saw on a regular basis, I could very easily see being pretty annoyed with her a lot, so it makes sense to me.

My sweet little old grandma (late 70s) is in the ER this morning, after waking up being unable to breathe. She refused to get vaccine thanks to the persuasion of one of her idiot daughters (not my mom, thankfully - my mom has been doggedly trying to change her mind to get it, and my mom was one of the very first). Alas, it wasn't meant to be. We'll see if she makes it - given the extremely rapid onset of severe symptoms, I'm not optimistic. I guess here's my reminder that there are still about a thousand people dying a day from this in the U.S.

Yeah, I played just a little of EQ1 when I was about six - basically impossible to play at that age for a variety of reasons, though. The raid guilds in that game were insane - basically an entire extra job in your life to be able to do it. EQ2 I played for some dozens of hours a few years later and could at least figure that one out since a lot of things had been simplified and I was a little older, but I remember it basically being impossible to do most of the interesting content without a group - but at least the game was manageably playable otherwise. Only got to mid-levels before I ended up quitting, though. A few more years later and I tried out WoW, and a few hours into playing, I think it was my troll magess, all by myself and I realized that MMOs just weren't for me anymore, because that game's gameplay was *beyond* boring, . Social element REQUIRED, it seemed. Voyager: I actually meant Kes, but now that I look up who Seska is, I remember her as well...and the fact that I didn't like her either. Though really, I only liked the Doctor and B'Elanna on that show - not that I've seen all of it, but like the other Star Treks, I've seen a lot of bits and pieces from throughout the entire show. Paris was a borderline psychopath that seemed to always be learning the lesson of "don't be completely anti-social all the time", Janeway is basically Qui-Gon Gin (sic - insane people who aren't being treated as being insane by the framing of the show or its characters even though they clearly are), Kim and Tuvon were mostly just flat and boring, Neelix...was on and off both great and terrible, and Kes and Chakotay always made me want to shoot myself in the face - refused to sit through any of their focus episodes. Rei: Ah, I didn't realize one of her parent(s) was still around and wealthy - with her occupation at the shrine alongside her grandfather and generally wearing odder clothes than the rest while never really paying for anything (also being very possessive over the things she DOES own, like her manga), I kind of got the impression that she was less well-off than the rest of the girls - maybe not poor, but probably not quite middle-class. Weird. Matoki: Figures that Umino basically isn't even in the manga - I actually wondered if he might be an anime invention entirely! So yeah, all my homies hate how Naoko Takeuchi writes boys. Take a note from Steven Universe* and please start writing only girls from now on, Ms. Takeuchi! Although...now that I think about it, the manga stinks for the girls, too, so maybe she just can't write all that well in general. Thank goodness for the TV adapters! *Who, ironically, of course took a ton of notes from Sailor Moon...and seemed to figure out most of the boy problem, if Steven's dad was any indication.

Episode 9 (much shorter, thankfully): Episode 10:

@majestic MMOs: That explanation I can at least understand. Though an MMO would probably be my absolute last choice of genre for it being the place to socialize with others, but that's just me. I guess the one positive about MMOs in that regard is there's a lot of downtime so you have *time* and focus to talk to others, which isn't often true of a lot of other games. Voyager: Chakotay and that one brain lady from the first few seasons (...Nes...sa?) are the worst on that show. Janeway is insane, but at least she's not a complete drag. Matoki: No, no he wasn't...didn't he once say that he considered all of the girls to be more like little sisters? I'm pretty sure he said that at some point in the anime. Naoko Takeuchi seems to have some unresolved problems with boys. Was Umino a huge creep in the manga too? He was of course, a weirdo with some bad ideas on manliness in the anime, but besides those couple of times he was possessed by The Dark Kingdom, he wasn't a creep. Episode 8, fantastic episode, sorry for the wall of text, I even cut out some stuff because it was getting too long:

That's my problem with "grindy" games like multiplayer ARPGs and MMOs as well. I've heard from people who habitually play them that they either play it to "relax" or because they're "attached" to their """characters""" (???) and don't want the game to end after all that time invested. If "relaxing" is the same as "mind-numbing", then sure, I guess I find those games relaxing, too.

Diablo 2 is, of course, the ARPG that basically every AA or AAA-developed multiplayer ARPG copied for ten to fifteen years after it released - both its good points, as well as some of its (retrospectively) not so good points. Put hundreds of hours into it when I was younger, and I've occasionally revisited over the years when a new ladder has started on Battle.Net, though usually only for a week at most - I could probably still say what most every unique is just by the item type, and I still remember some of the most useful runeword combinations like Tal-Thul-Ort-Amn = Spirit, Ral-Tir-Tal-Sol = Insight, Eth-Lum = Splendor, Ort-Sol = Lore, Tal-Eth = Stealth...too much time put into that game, . Diablo 1, on the other hand, was one of the first games I ever played - played it in church on my aunt's terrible laptop back when I was 4 or 5. Good thing I knew how to keep my mouth shut - there could've been quite an outcry in our ultra-evangelical church otherwise. Uh, I'm not sure about exploits - while I knew all the exploits in Diablo 2, I never played Diablo 1 religiously enough to figure those out or hear about them from other players, . But I am playing a sorcerer on Hellfire, and I actually just got Apocalypse as a learned spell after slaying the Hellfire end boss - a bit more difficult to use casting it properly, given it costs 90 mana every freaking cast as opposed to free with the staff charges. Need to get an Arch-Angel's Staff of the Apocalypse, I guess! I'm pretty much totally off of ARPGs - can't do the constant clicking or grinding anymore, which is what I like about Diablo 1, particularly given that I can now competently play it with a controller. I'm into shorter, more novel experiences these days, . Though years back, I played through the main campaign of PoE (well, whatever the main campaign of PoE was back then - I believe the length has changed a number of times since then) on a hardcore character, got to the end, died from a lagspike on the final boss, and thought "yeah, that was a decent game", and felt absolutely no urge to keep playing. Grim Dawn I think I tried for like 5 minutes before I realized that no, I don't really want to play these types of games anymore, haha. SU:

If Chibi-Usa can shoot Usagi in the face with a gun, I don't see why she can't do the same to Helios - you just need some kind of wacky episode plot where her gun somehow gets switched with one that fires actual bullets.