majestic

Double post, but this needs an emphasis of a sort: Episode 12 was absolutely fantastic.

Thanks for the warning, unheeded as it will end up being. Guess every longer running show has its SuperS, huh?

Quick reply before a longer one (at least depending on my mood and motivation): Yes, that might seem like a contradiction, but there are elements in this I don't really enjoy. I don't hate them, so they're generally not a problem, unlike say the way Magic User's Club makes me feel when they ruin a legitimately great episode with a stupid gay joke, but when an episode ends on one of the elements then it kind of doesn't make me want to press "play next" regardless of how enjoyable the other two thirds of the episode were. My motivation to continue wasn't there after the moralizing "be a good productive member of society" episode I complained about. The next episode was pretty fantastic in some parts, but felt derivative* as a whole. Honoka, Nagisa and Nagisa's little brother visit an aquarium and then the bad guy appears. Most of the episode is about Nagisa and her relationship with her younger brother, which is very much a "constant teasing but still real love" - kinda like Rei and Usagi if they were actually sisters. It feels like I'm watching a weird hybrid between Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, with none of the elements as fantastic as in either of the two. That leaves me with episodes I enjoy watching, find occasionally great, that also manage to make me laugh (so, bonus points even), but there's one thing they do not yet do: Give me that magical feeling of really, really, really wanting to see more episodes even though I should go to bed already or do something else, like it happened with Steven Universe's later seasons, Sailor Moon from after Jadeite to the end of S or the first arc of Cardcaptor Sakura. *With like 873 episodes or something, I expect the series will eventually become derivative not only of its forebears, but also of itself at some point. It would be really surprising if it didn't.

I'll just focus out this, because I usually don't like any sort of crime serials or police shows, but the OVA really does sound interesting. There is one live action police serial I like where the main character is like that too. He's doing a hell of a lot of things that are questionable or downright illegal in order to do the right thing, and the depiction is intentionally ambiguous, down to earth and for lack of a better term, decidely unheroic without falling into the trap of depicting a cool anti-hero. It consists of ten 90 minute episodes and in one of them they're investigating the murder of a trafficker, and eventually find him in the form of the father of a now dead, trafficked girl who was tricked and forced into prostitution. When he finds the murder weapon (a gun), he ends up cleaning it and tricking the head of the trafficking ring into touching it during interrogation because he can find nothing else that'll stick to the guy, letting the real murderer of the hook and landing the arguably much worse guy in jail for crime he really didn't commit. Consists mostly of dialogues and very low-key police work, no flashy nonsense. Eh... didn't get to watch anything yesterday. I'll need to make up my PreCure watch schedule of wanting to get through three episodes a day so I'll be done with the series in less than a year if it really comes to it by watching like six today. So far the series has been surprisingly enjoyable, but it's not really that bingeworthy.

Weeb properly: 何？ Sorry to disappoint you, you were into weird stuff before. Quoted for truth. @KP the Torque Dork I'd say don't scrimp on them, but in my experience the cheaper stuff is actually pretty good, although that's of course merely an anectode and I really have no idea what's available in the US or not. You need to find out what works for you, because that depends a whole lot on how you handle the glasses, how much you sweat (if at all) and how dry or moist your skin is and what sort of skin cream you use (if any).

Netflix is trying really hard to make me watch that too...

Yes, and you'll need to do that every time you get new glasses. It takes a bit, but eventually goes away, might experience some of the usual eye-strain symptoms (i.e. headaches, mostly, but also feeling a little more tired than usual), perhaps a feeling of a little imbalance.

Ukrainian moderate right wing extremists worthy of support, no doubt.

Minimum investment: 1000€. Sure, sign me up. I'd waste 100 bucks on that just for fun, but certainly not a thousand.

You're probably right, I just don't ever really end up playing parties that benefit more from a vanilla Skald than a Court Poet, but that's probably just a personal issue and preferred playstyle (I like my enchantment Ember and Sirocco-Spam Nenio ). Making Seelah a Court Poet isn't mutally exclusive with having a Smite Bot around, unless you're generally dead set against mercenaries - that's one point where a mercenary character is just leaps and bounds ahead of any companion. Could probably also make an Angel Oracle MC for that, but that's an "I WIN" button you just need to press all of its own (and doesn't have Mark of Justice). Speaking of Stormbolts and Chain Lightnings, by the way, ever tried giving a caster Arcane Armor Mastery, equip them with Zon-Kuron’s Suffocating Caress and then have a Cleric cast Extended Jolting Portent on them? That's kinda hilarious, especially for a Trickster run when you have access to Completely Normal Spell, just fill your spell levels with various metamagic'ed versions... Could also just Extended Acid Arrow yourself with Stormlord's Resolve active, I guess. Nothing like playing Palpatine for a bit.

Oh, right, one thing I forgot to mention:

I'm confused, didn't you say something about season two dropping, and now it's up to season four?

Yeah, you're right. I keep lumping both into the same category for some reason. That might be fun to combine with a Motherless Tiefling Monk(1)/Vivisectionist/Arcane Enforcer(3) Trickster, you'll end up zipping around the battlefield with impunity and dishing out ridiculous sneak attack damage, and with Great Magic Fang + Shatter Defenses you'd actually hit stuff, can buff yourself with Shield and Barkskin, get some easier use out of Archmage Armour (not that there's any lack of potions). Feral Mutagen/Feral Wings/Mobility 1, and for fun you can take infusion and uhm cast Beast Shape on your pets, because why not turn them into beasts twice? Just need the proper party for it. For anything caster heavy Court Poet is probably still the better choice.

Magic Fang is used to make your unarmed attacks magical if they aren't otherwise. Yes, normally that goes on your pets and whatnot, but when you're playing a Motherless Tiefling with Beast Totem rage powers, that's sort of necessary. Edit: Clarification: Motherless Tieflings have an additional unarmed attack and Greater Beast Totem gives the pounce ability and two unarmed claw attacks at full attack bonus. With it you're more beast than person, anyway... heh.

Well, erm, okay. A bit of PreCure talk: Episode 10 was weird. Yeah, so that one goes into the "not so good" pile.

Yes, but only sometimes. Not sure what causes it, especially since I switched auto play off for videos in Firefox (or it's off by default, either way). Comes with a slight reverb effect due to not playing perfectly synchronous, making it all the more annoying. I also have no idea if that's a real call or a joke thing.

This is me, reading the posts in this thread, talking to my screen:

No, and I won't, really. Huh, okay. Might take a look at Rilakkuma and Kaoru, but I think I'll pass on the Linkin' Park music video. 7 minutes isn't much of an investment though.

You can sneak attack with everything and the kitchen sink in the games, yes. If you want to play a somewhat straight martial character you could make a Motherless Tiefling Instincual Warrior*, start with 18 STR and 17 WIS for an eventual 22 STR/18 WIS at 20. Take the Beast Totem rage powers, have someone buff you with Magic Fang, pick Limitless Rage and Mythic Charge, then have fun. Take a two handed weapon with a decent crit range like Falchion (18-20) or a monstrous crit multiplier like Scythe (x4). Can add four levels of Fighter for the bonus feats and drop them into Improved Criticals and Cleave. Mutation Warrior works pretty well and will give you more stats. Take Archmage Armour and drink Mage Armour potions, that actually procss the effect (not sure about the latest patches, haven't read up or played in a while now). Have someone craft them and buy whatever you can find. Technically I guess you could do the same with a (Primalist) Blood Rager, but Motherless Tieflings synergize better with Instinctual Warriors due to the WIS bonus. The only downside to playing "plain" martial characters is that the best suited, ahm, Mythical Path is probably Trickster. The primary reason for taking Dazzling Display on Camellia isn't using it, I think, it was bugged for a long time anway and just disappeared from the menu, it's unlocking Shatter Defenses. As such, if you bild her to use that, it's a good choice regardless. One level of Thug turns any Shaken effect into Fear after four (?) turns. So that's all you really need. Intimidating Prowess, put skill points in persuade and make use of the hilarious amount of +5 to persuasion checks gear that's lying around like everywhere. Consider making a summoning-focused Ember to hold the front lines until the fear effect takes. It's not like you need her to burn everything to a crisp in such cases. *Technical explanation: Additional unarmed attacks, Initiative Bonus through wisdom, +2 STR, +2 WIS from the racial abilities. Better will saves than "regular" martial characters. Mythic Charge applies on Pounce attacks you get from Greater Beast Totem. Buff Magic Fang, quaff a potion, press rage and sic the guy at enemies. Pretty simple, all in all.

There's no harm in giving Harm to your companions, regardless of what else they do, if you're concerned about healing.

You can do a martial sorcerer. Toss in a Monk level for scaling, Dragon Disciple (4) as soon as possible, rest goes into Eldritch Knight and you even end up with one free level you can do any class you'd like with, not sure how well Loremaster works for feat progression breaking after all the patches. Who needs armor anyway, Archmage Armour scales on its own. Buff up and go to town with a decent 2-hander. For fun, unless that's been changed, you can buff yourself with Geniekind* and procc Elemental Barrage on melee hits, instantly Quicken Rod dimension door yourself into melee action and if you want to be even more ridiculous just go Lich and merge spellbooks because when you party, just do it right, right? *Actually, I think that even works with a Brown-Fur Transmuter companion and their own Elemental Barrage mythic ability, even when they buff someone else. If you don't mind having a mercenary around, that's a nice buff. Extended Geniekind lasts for a while and it proccs the Brown-Fur Transmuter's Elemental Barrage on your other character's hits. Admittedly that's borderline exploitative, but eh, it's not like the game plays fair.

Yeah, and the writing was fine if that was the intention. He's overhearing how his "colleagues" from the DARK ZONE think of him as ridiculous and weak because he keeps messing up against the two girls and he goes off to mess everything up because he underestimates two young girls he already had beaten in an attempt to show strength. I mean... I found that part stupid, but it does make sense from a certain point of view. Then there's something else: Nanoha had the fanservice stuff right from the start with the the transformations and was offensive enough in a certain early episode, but you're not wrong - the brain peeling terribleness in terms of writing quality, animation (that's something I have no doubt will continually get worse with each season) and sexual assault crept into the franchise later. At least for PreCure I'm almost sure sexual assault isn't going to be a main entry and the fanservice elements are so far limited to girls in skirts, which barely counts considering Japanese school uniforms really ARE like that. Whether or not the other series will hold up, that's something I'll just have to see. If they don't, I figure it's not going to be the worst problem. Most Pretty Cure teams don't get more than a season. I can stop whenever I want to, considering that each season is a new storyline with new characters (I mean, so far it worked for Love Live!'s spin-offs that I have no desire to watch at all). Yeah, no, I don't like that intro song no matter how often I try it, but that's fine. On the other hand, how can you not be brainwashed by Junko Iwao, she does know what she's doing. Also that English dub on Netflix, while certainly better than the original one, isn't the best either... so yeah.

Our diesel prices are at an almost all time high with 1.4€/l right now. The only time it was worse was back in 2008, and we all know how that crashed turned out.

Everyone's fine on my end, but my wife has tested positive today, so she's going back into isolation. This is getting really annoying, but hey, she dealt with Alpha pretty well, so I guess Omicron (if that's what it is) won't be an issue either. Hopefully.

*mutters something about not being German* Calculations are fine. Energy prices are pretty steep here, but that's nothing new. Fun fact, compared to the rest of Europe they're pretty mild too, like our gasoline price is a bit more than half of what it apparently is in Sweden. We do have natural gas central heating here, that's still cheaper than electric heating. There's alternatives too, of course, but a whole lot of appartment buildings have central gas heating. The cheapest alternative is district heating, and that might become available sometime soon. My parents have a ****le stove that's working pretty well, and they do have a cheap source of firewood, so all in all it's not that bad. Thermostat is generally set to 24°C with a nightly cooldown period from 2200 to 0600. It's been a pretty mild winter so far, all in all it could be worse.