majestic

Minos is definitely underused, and hungry Pekola is overused. It's not a perfect anime by any means, but it is fun(ny) enough. PreCure just pulled off the good old redemption equals death trope. Cosidering the setup was thorough enough and I actually find myself liking everyone invovled, that fell on its nose. Pretty hard. I don't know exactly why, but that episode did not work on its own, and certainly not when compared to some of the inspirations it came from (like Naru and Nephrite).

^ I actually have that... single. There's other language versions of the song on it too... yeah. Uhm...

The band actually wrote something about the music video in the YouTube video description, and that they decided to keep the music video the way it is because for better or worse, it's part of their history. I also don't think Moonspell will generally go over well with most people (but yeah, given your "dislike" for the singing style at large, that's just the cherry on top ), the must have album comment was by far and large meant for metal fans, I guess. I very rarely post about music outside of circles with similar musical tastes. Hammerfall is pretty good, all in all, it's just that at some point it dawned on me that these groups take what they do seriously. Well, that and my taste in music evolved a little, and listening to HammerFall is not something I can do for any long streches of time any more. It'll forever be a part of what brought me into the genre as a whole, but between the simplistic music (which isn't bad, not really), the ridiculous swords & sorcery fantasy lyrics and the way they dress and behave, yeah, well... while I don't usually do that because I dislike the quote, this is really a 1 Corinthians 13:11 sort of moment. At least in terms of power metal. To provide some contrast, this is - in theory - within the same (well, similar) genre, except it's on an entirely different level compared to HammerFall, and yeah, Sonata Arctica started out very similar to HammerFall, they just... kind of evolved in the years they were active. Still, there's worse than Hammerfall. Like Rhapsody of Fire's album Power of the Dragonflame. You know you're in for a treat when a song begins with: Right? Don't let the album cover fool you, they had to change their name over some copyright claim, so they went from Rhapsody to Rhapsody of Fire. Because why the hell not. The 90ies did a good job of providing me with such music, but the main issue is that for the most part, when it comes to the Eurodance trash I often link, I genuinely like it and still listen to it every now and then, when the mood strikes me - and unlike HammerFall it doesn't make me cringe. To be honest, I don't think that anything I listen to is something you'd like, we're sitting on diametrically opposite sites when it comes to vocalists, and for me they're usually the most important part of the music. That's just a stage name, maybe the native spelling of his real name is more to your liking: Александар Вељанов. Sorry, couldn't resist. It's Alexander Veljanov in the latin alphabet, which isn't much better, huh? I even picked the Sirenia song that's most appropriate for the thread, and it's my least favorite of the album, but the others are a mix between violin music, harsh gothic metal plus appropriate vocals and the female vocalist. That would have went over even less tolerated.

If the rest of the show was any good that wouldn't matter enough to be picked on, indeed. That is fairly pedantic, on the other hand, I've been doing that ever since the first post about the first episode. Same for them getting distances wrong all the time, like when the Klingon fleet in the first season was threatening "the Fedetation" with the location of the Klingon fleet just outside the solar system. Good job.

The best thing about Dropkick on my Devil is Jashin and Medusa's* completely dysfunctional relationship and the ATM joke. ATM joke explanation: *And Medusa wearing a paper bag when leaving home.

Hmm. It's probably not the right thread for this, given that we have a different one for that purpose (by far and large, at least), but if I were to go over music I've listened to as a teenager, well... The first thing probably doesn't count because it came out a couple of days after turning 20, so no more teens, but I still want to include it. The lyrical content of this album is somewhere between angst, emo, angsty emo and depressing. Pretty much par for the course considering the genre. Sirenia, At Sixes And Sevens (2002): Sirenia's debut, and probably best work. Might as well be the best in the genre, although I'm less certain of that. Deine Lakaien, Kasmodiah (1999): Not much to be said about Kasmodiah, I guess. Their finest work, by far and large. Avant-garde darkwave isn't my usual, therefore has a very well deserved spot on the list. I've posted this before, but here goes nothing: Moonspell, Irreligious (1996) Moonspell's must have album. The first they made that transcended their reliance on traditional Black Metal elements and elevated them beyond the crudeness inherent in the genre. Up next is something I'd rather not talk about, because it's one of these things that stood there as an entryway to something, and eventually you end up being embarrassed that you ever listened to stuff like this, and any posted who followed my posts throughout these music threads is probably wondering what could possibly be worse than Eurodance trash and Scooter? Well... Hammerfall, Glory to the Brave (1997). Yeah. So there's... that's... yep. I have no qualms admitting that I own Aqua's Aquarium, or that I actually really like listening to Whigfield. But this? This sits at the terrible spot between actually good music and music so cheesy its fun again. So where Dream Evil are fun because they out-cheese even Manowar, Hammerfall is just... where the dragon lies bleeding. Pretty much. And to round it out with fifth something... Here's Apocalyptica proving that Metallica isn't so bad when you take out the vocals and mix up the instruments: Apocalyptica, Plays Metallica by Four Cellos (1996): I'm actually serious, I don't like Metallica, which is apparently one of these quirks of mine that I shouldn't have, according to a whole lot of other music fans. I can't stand James Hetfield's singing, and I don't like the guitarwork, so when you remove both, the results become interestingly good...

No, I didn't, but it took considerably less time than the posts I made before the mid-season break. So yes, definitely a MAJOR improvement.

Certain parts of that remind me a little of Celeste's soundtrack. Not bad. Not what I usually go for, but not bad. Just something to annoy @Malcador:

Weekly Discovery post #... dunno, don't really care. Episode is called RUBICON because Book is probably going to step over a line from which his relationship with Michael isn't going to recover. Or maybe it will if she just cries hard enough. Maybe Michael will eventually clasp an asp to her chest. Wouldn't that be something? Too tired of this to be properly annoyed with how stupid everything is. Not the worst way to watch this. This episode also was only 44 minutes long, skipping the "last week" segment and the intro brought this down to a manageable 20 minutes.

Easy: When management guys get one, it's what they mistakenly believe they're worth above their regular (already inflated) pay, and when the grunts get them it's a way to make them not notice that they're underpaid and overworked.

Whatever you say snowflake…

Sorry that I triggered you. I’ll try to be more considerate in the future.

Welcome to the reason we no longer engage the posts, just the posters. Carry on.

Heh, colleague was the first to receive this year's feelgood letter (bottom line is we get a bonus), not only did they address him as "Dear Ms. <name>" it also signs off with "stay positive!", which is kind of hilarious, given the current situation.

Stuck in a work meeting since an hour ago, no end in sight:

Responsivity is a whole lot better when the servers aren't too busy to keep up, so that's one thing that works better depending on the time you're playing. At the end of the day it's ARPG gameplay with an MMO dressing. Kinda weird, but it's all right. I have a feeling that Lost Ark isn't going to convince you, unless you always thought "Wouldn't it be nice if Guild Wars 2 played like Diablo!", then that could be totally your thing.

Tried Lost Ark to see what the hype is about. Can't say I get it. The controls are unresponsive, I have to play US East Coast because Amazon can't spawn new servers in the hopelessly full European region, and the controls are unresponsive. That's like the single most important thing in these games, when I'm holding down auto-attack and press a skill button I expect that skill to go off. Now. Instantly. Or at least start casting or channeling, depending on what it does. Not "auto-attack animation finishes first, then we do something. MAYBE. Depends on when you pressed the button." It's not rocket science, really. A pity because - presentation aside, can I please not play as ludicrous fanservice character? - it seems solid enough so far, but I don't think I'll get over how it plays...

Nice! Uhm...

Please score a goal inside of me!

Wait what, is #newhitler not invading the Ukraine tomorrow then? How disappointing. It's almost as if that spiel repeats itself roughly every year. Oh, wait...

Unfair is hilarious. Not the big fights, because those are manageable. It's everything else that's ludicrous, like the stray horde of Zombie Lords in Sosiel's quest that randomly attack Ember for a hundred damage per round, or that funny Drow ambush on the road. Drow Knife Master crits for 60 damage? Yes, please. Having a Plagued Smilodon run up to a flat-footed party member? Oh, try reloading. With full buffs it's merely tedious instead of impossible, just as long as enemies don't have a lucky crit streak*, and pulling out some cheese helps, like stacking smites, but companions being unfair viable takes on a whole different meaning when you're facing down twenty mooks with 30 BAB and AC, than just switching an encounter or two to unfair for fun. Also not exactly something for the rest averse, so no taking the Gray Garrison before the demon attack on the inn, and you better get that Selective Grease before that happens. Ended up making a 21 CHA (now 22) smite bot mercenary for the tough ones too. Consistently hitting enemies through their DR is quite nice. Closing in on Leper's Smile, afterwards it should start to clear up. He's actually useful in fights now too, after getting Spirited Charge. Took a level of Beast Rider to get a Dog, because stats. *Boy am I looking forward to Ember getting Protective Luck and cackling it to an hour or two, that'll smooth out these ridiculous crit streaks.

I'm more and more thinking of Shady as Tyr Anasazi. Too bad it doesn't continue because Beka asks Tyr where he got the candles from, and just deadpans: "I rendered them from the fat of my enemies." Eh, I got nothing on food though at the moment, not really. We're going to make Belgian waffles for dinner, that should be fine.

You should really watch Love Love!, that never turns into a harem anime mostly because there simply are no men for all the girls to fuss over. edit: Still lots of cringe and boob touching, though.

Would have worked, I guess, but when Shady talks about not seeing people as humans, then that's what inevitably comes to mind. Besides, the film is more relevant than ever, I guess. A more serious reply than a Sarevok meme with a typo in it (I should really just start making my own memes), there's some validity in your point insofar as that TNG already vectored away from the original Gene Roddenberry vision, we just seem to disagree about its effect. Compared to the first two seasons, seasons three through five of TNG were top tier sci-fi entertainment while still being Star Trek enough to be Star Trek. Don't get me wrong, I love the original series, but I think that the first two seasons of TNG showed that it really didn't work too well. If your current rewatch makes you try DS9, then you're probably not going to like that. Maybe not initially, but certainly once it comes to a certain long term plot and the examination of its effects. I don't know, I hated Picard the moment it opened with an action scene where a group of ninja assassins teleport into an appartment going into hand-to-hand combat with a hyper advanced android instead of just beaming her out into a suspension field. That's exactly the sort of stupid idiocy that would be fine in b-movie trash where I could enjoy it, just not at all in a Star Trek show, and it only went downhill from there, inventing ludicrous Romulan ninja-warrior nuns, a secret-secreter-secret police within the Tal Shiar that's dedicated to wiping out the Geth androids and never mind mechanic Cthulhu coming to destroy organics or how utterly pointless the entire Borg subplot ended up being.

There's nothing divisive about Picard. If you find it's hard to see people who liked Discovery as human beings, Picard just makes that impossible. It turns me into a little VOLO and brings out my inner NAZI that just channels Udo Kier: