#Lillie (Anniversary 2021) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

4ragon · 1 year

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So I just reblogged another aa fanfic masterlist, and that seemed like a cool idea. SO, since so many people are migrating to here from Twitter (and especially since this is the only place where my name doesn't match my AO3 account) I thought should put a list of my AA fics together! (I'd do the other fandoms but I don't think I'd have a substantial enough list)

So here's the JJ Ace Attorney fanfic masterlist:

Long Fics -

The Miraculous Disappearance Of Phoenix Wright (107,213 words)

Phoenix Wright wakes up in a world where he never existed. What will he do when he's trapped in a world where everything he's ever loved is gone? Minor narumitsu. My first AA fic, and the fic that got me back into writing for the first time since I was a shitty teenager.

(Also please read the tags, this one has some heavy subject matter and a LOT of spoilers)

Singderella (28,103 words)

Apollo decides to try his hand at a singing contest, held by a certain ex-rockstar, for a chance to win some runner-up money. He didn't want to win the dang contest. And he sure as hell didn't want to become Klavier Gavin's mysterious disappearing muse. This one is Klapollo and this one's Silly As Hell.

Vacation All I Ever Wanted (111,197 words)

Six lawyers and a magician spend a week at the beach. One condo. Six lawyers. Seven secret plans. What could possibly go wrong? Established narumitsu, getting-together klapollo, platonic Athena and Simon, and Trucy Wright in all her glory. (Also has some AA4 and 5 spoilers)

also @/ministarfruit drew me fanart and it made me cry

Shorter Klapollo fics -

Google Search: how to turn off a gaviners alarm clock

Google Search: off button on gaviners alarm clock Google Search: how to end my suffering Google Search: please god i just wanted to sleep in

No I did not write this as a thinly veiled excuse to complain about my roommate's alarm clock what are you talking about

Also fanart from @/lycheestew

Don't Get Too Comfortable

Apollo gets caught in a rainstorm, so Klavier invites him to wait it out at his condo. Written for the Klapollo Unfolding Melody zine. I'm really proud of this one!

Either Way

It's Klavier's first week back since the Misham Trial, and Klavier had yet to gather the courage to see Apollo Justice. At least, until Apollo Justice grabs him in a panic and shoves the two of them into a broom closet.

(Klapollo Week 2021 - Protection)

Atroquinine My Love (Accoustic)

When Apollo asks Klavier for guitar lessons, Klavier is more than happy to oblige. Written for the 2021 Klapollo minibang, featuring lovely art from the wonderful @/nhuquyen

Half-and-Half

Klavier and Apollo go on their first date. That's it. That's the fic.

(Klapollo Week 2021 - Firsts)

Of Petals and Punctuality

Klavier forgets about their anniversary. That's also it. (Everyone also says this fic makes them sad but I thought it was fucking funny when I wrote it)

(Klapollo Week 2021 - Flowers)

Just A Quiet Morning

Apollo Justice wakes up to make breakfast on his wedding anniversary.

(Klapollo Week 2023 - Domesticity)

Schatz

“Hey, Athena, what does ‘shots’ mean?” Pre-dating, Athena and Phoenix mess with Apollo.

(Klapollo Week 2023 - Nicknames)

Narumitsu fics -

Procrastination

Prompt: Pre-dating narumitsu pinning and yearning for each other and all their friends and family trying to find a way for them to be finally be together

This was for a secret santa.

The Gentleman Always Gets the Girl

Sorry, Mr. Edgeworth, but the gentleman always gets the girl.

(Narumitsu Week 2023 - Foreign)

But I Thought You Hated The Mall

Miles takes Trucy to the mall. This does not go as planned.

(Narumitsu Week 2023 - Family)

Gen Fics -

A Different Kind of Lullaby (Warning, major AAI2 Spoilers)

“Hi Mr. Edgeworth, do you think Pops killed my mom?”

@/ehlihr drew the coolest fucking comic btw holy shit

Baking and Entering

Kay and Sebastian break into Edgeworth's house to bake a cake. This one was for the Dadworth Lion Lillies zine and I'm also super proud of it.

Juniper Dumped Me

Wait, wait when were Juniper and I dating?!

In which Juniper dumps Apollo, who absolutely knows what's happening, don't worry about it. Minor Junithena, literally the stupidest thing I've ever written. Dedicated to my discord friends who helped me come up with the idea.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Kay Faraday has a secret and Miles has to get to the bottom of it. Also has some AAI2 spoilers.

Another Trip Around The Sun

Apollo Justice's first birthday without Clay Terran. Minor klapollo. It's a story about grief and I did cry while writing it.

Just a Roll of Stamps

It's been a year since Phoenix officially adopted Trucy, and Phoenix is starting to worry that she hasn't made any friends.

(Wright Family Week 2021 - Friends)

Bet On It

Apollo and Athena vs. Trucy and Phoenix. Whoever beats the escape room first wins. Whoever loses buys noodles for a year. But…it can't be that simple, right?

(Wright Family Week 2021 - Scheming and Hijinks)

Dear Runo

Phoenix and Trucy decide to clean out their spare room, and discover an old cardboard box labeled Grandpa Ryuu. Inside, they discover some old books, some letters, and possibly an old secret?! (Or maybe not). This one was for another secret santa exchange.

First Class Accomodations

After the events of Investigations 2, Sebastian Debeste is invited to spend a few nights at the Courtney residence while he figures out what to do next.

This was written for the AA Writer Zine and I am very proud of it.

Tumblr Original Ficlets

Ficlets include narumitsu, klapollo, and a few junithena, and one (1) blackmadhi.

Anyway, I think that's everything. Y'all super don't have to read these, I just wanted all of them in one place. If you do read them, though, feel free to let me know if you liked them! Comments and stuff make my day.

#fanfic #ace attorney #klapollo #narumitsu #fan fiction #wrightworth #this was fun!#j

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notasimpleslater · 4 months

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also, to your point about his feed seeming different; i agree that he probably hasn't handed his socials over to a PR person but he's for SURE copying ariana's style of posting; or she's just straight up posting for him. if you look at their posts, they're almost exactly the same in terms of style. not to mention that one picture he posted on him half in costume while facetiming someone... he was facetiming ariana and everyone knows it, he wanted to show it off without actually doing so.

shit, one last thing i promise but i just remembered this- IIRC ethan didn't make an anniversary post for lilly in nov.2021. when the pregnancy announcement happened the next year i thought they were just keeping extra private to enjoy finding out they were pregnant, but then they said they found out about the pregnancy in DECEMBER of 2021... idk something about that hit a litte weird and i feel like somehow that fits into this whole mess. somehow.

OMG, first of all thank you for all those messages anon! It's been months since I've gotten any ozgate anons, and I've been having Thoughts™ now that Wicked is picking up where they left off with filming this month. Second, I'm just gonna focus on these two messages since these are both good points I wanted to talk about.

I definitely noticed that when he started posting caption-less (or very short captioned) photo dumps. He's for sure copying Ari. They also sometimes put little hints of each other in their posts. For example, Ethan had this picture in his Spamalot opening night photo dump:

Then in Ari’s post from Spamalot opening night she posted a pic of him in that same shirt, but she zoomed in on the shirt so you couldn’t see that it was him. Another example would be what you said about that pic of him FaceTiming someone. I also want to note that his social media presence is nowhere how it was a year or so ago.

2. You’re absolutely right, he did not make an anniversary post in November 2021! I don’t remember if I talked about it on here, but it’s something I thought about when all the ozgate mess came out.

At the time I just chalked it up to something Assassins related because I do remember something specifically happening on that day (they were in previews, but I think CSC might have been doing a fundraiser?? I don't remember exactly what it was). But now I find it weird that he made anniversary posts in 2019 (while filming TSBM: live on stage) and in 2020 (during a pandemic), so why not 2021? It's also been mentioned a lot here that in summer'21 E + L did a lot of moving around/traveling, so who knows what could've happened during that time. It is very strange that Ethan made 0 posts about Lilly from summer 2021 until November 2022.

#answered asks #anonymous #ozgate

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trainersearchsystem · 1 year

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78 icons + 4 GIFs of Anniversary 2021 Lillie from Pokémon Masters EX.

Please give proper credit if using these icons. Likes / reblogs aren’t necessary but appreciated.

ANNIVERSARY 2021 LILLIE ICONS

#alola #lillie #pokemon trainer lillie #pokemon trainer #aether foundation #pokemon masters

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realjem · 8 months

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(HI I just woke up and am writing this on tired excitement <3)

YOU PLAY POKEMON MASTERS??? I just got the game recently (last week-ish). If you have Raihan I'm going to sue you for emotional damages (i want him but hes currently paywall locked and my wallet is empty) /J/J/J

Anyways i hate to admit it but fuck you're right Lear is kinda onceler adjacent looking and FUCK NOW I CANT GET "HOW BAD CAN I BE" OUT OF MY HEAD 😭😭😭 you have cursed me with the forbidden knowledge. If you ever want to talk about pokemon blorbos tho my discord dms are always open :) maybe we can play some co-op together in masters sometime in the future! May reply slow during weekdays tho school's already started for me :')

Special bonus image; here's a Fuecoco I caught in Pokemon GO :)

YEAH I love pokemon masters honestly it's so goofy. I refuse to spend money on mobile games but I've got a pretty good chunk of characters so far :3 I might have raihan but I actually. Don't remember lol I'd need to check

Hands down the best one though? 2021 anniversary Lillie ITS SO GOOD and also Hella strong

Sorry for the psychic damage tho </3

Also!! Funny fuecoco!! Big fan

#jem.txt #literally the stories in this game are insane byt its so funny #the animations are. something. a lot of the time #i have a lot of thoughts abt this game. many of them. rachels design fucks btw i love her

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mxstball · 1 year

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Alola Pokémon Trainer Lillie (Anniversary 2021), Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon

#pokemon masters #gif warning

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katestrophic · 2 years

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I AM DONE WITH MY FINALS I'M FREEEEEE

Sorry I missed my Champion Stadium report last week! I was focused on my finals and studying them so I didn't do it until an hour before reset and decided it wasn't worth me making a full post about it.

Click “keep reading” to read more about my thoughts on my team comps and strategies I used.

First round: Lucian

Parameters: Physical Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Strength ↑ 1, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, No Stat Reduction, Ally Healing ↓ 5, Power ↑ on Hit 1, Gradual Healing at Start, Strength ↑ 2, Ally Move Gauge Max -2, Strength ↑ 6

Team Comp: 5/5 Marley & Arcanine, 3/5 Sygna Suit Cynthia (Renegade) & Giratina, 1/5 EX Lillie (Anniversary 2021) & Lunala with Critical Strike 2

Really a Cynthia-Lillie solo team, Marley is tacked on to provide some speed support.

Second round: Bertha

Parameters: Special Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Strength ↑ 1, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, No Stat Reduction, Ally Healing ↓ 5, Power ↑ on Hit 1, Gradual Healing at Start, Strength ↑ 2, Ally Move Gauge Max -2, Strength ↑ 6

Team Comp: 5/5 Hop & Zamazenta with Vigilance, 3/5 Lillie (New Year's 2021) & Ribombee, 2/5 EX Steven & Mega Sandslash Critical Strike 2

I've never seen Leech Life do so much damage and heal so much until today. That actually surprised me.

Third round: Flint

Parameters: Special Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Strength ↑ 1, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, Defense & Sp. Def ↑ 3, Ally Healing ↓ 5, Power ↑ on Hit 1, Gradual Healing at Start, Strength ↑ 2, Ally Move Gauge Max -2, Strength ↑ 6

On hindsight, I should've used Acerola or Anni Raihan for the Sandstorm boost but I picked this stage for the status drop parameter, and I'm going to stick with it!

Team Comp: 5/5 Roxanne & Probopass, 1/5 Professor Kukui & Midday Form Lyanroc, 5/5 EX Olivia & Midnight Form Lyanroc with Critical Strike 2

Fourth round: Aaron

Parameters: Special Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, Defense & Sp. Def ↑ 1, Strength ↑ 1, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, Defense & Sp. Def ↑ 3, Ally Healing ↓ 5, Power ↑ on Hit 1, Gradual Healing at Start, Strength ↑ 2, Ally Move Gauge Max -2, Strength ↑ 6

Team Comp: 1/5 Sonia & Yamper, 5/5 Sygna Suit Elesa & Rotom with Head Start 1, 5/5 EX Silver & Ho-Oh with Critical Strike 2

In honor of Silver getting his EX, I used him in Champion Stadium for this week's fire weak stage instead of Red. On retrospect maybe I shouldn't have picked such a difficult Champion Stadium to have Silver make his debut in.

Final round: Cynthia

Parameters: Physical Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Strength ↑ 1, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, Defense & Sp. Def ↑ 3 , Ally Healing ↓ 5, Power ↑ on Hit 1, Gradual Healing at Start, Strength ↑ 2, Ally Move Gauge Max -2, Strength ↑ 6

Team Comp: 5/5 Dawn & Torterra with Sand Shelter, 3/5 Lucas & Dialga with Critical Strike 2, 5/5 EX Cyrus & Palkia with Critical Strike 2

Didn't know Cynthia's passive allowed for infinite filed effects, which is fine because that means I put up Dragon Zone at the start and then I start blasting.

#kate screeches #pokemon masters ex #champion stadium

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crystalelemental · 2 years

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Aera, I have to keep this under a cut, there’s a lot.

“books-are-my-life-stuff: Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about the story event! I had fun reading all of them! I'm surprised that you like A Golden Future, even though (if I remember correctly) you're rather indifferent towards Morty as a character. I agree with what you said about the event, though! To me, my favorite story events are:

#3. Midnight Spookfest (Halloween 2021) #2. Hearts United #1. A Golden Future

Hearts United is really great to showcase how far the character has come, how they have overcome so many difficulties to reach this point. It's really touching, especially during N and Lillie's side of the story.

Halloween 2021 is because I'm biased. Morty and Caitlin's outfits are amazing. Allister made his appearance. And best of all, the fact that everyone almost got killed just because Morty didn't want to hurt Pumpkaboo's feelings by rejecting its offer to escort them to afterlife. I literally laughed out loud at that part, that's so silly I love Morty so much.

A Golden Future is my favorite for...obvious reasons. I cried so much when reading the story, it's so good and I'm happy for Morty. Honorable mentions for the Ideal Formula, who used to be my #1 favorite until A Golden Future dethroned it. I still bawled when Hilbert and N talked about the end of BW games with Unwavering Emotions in harmonica played. It was such a great moment.”

All very solid picks. The 2021 Halloween one was close to the top as well, probably fifth favorite? It didn’t have quite enough for me to love it as much as the others, but Caitlin being one of my top favorites was a good bit of bias as well, and I loved how she’s super excited but trying to remain composed so only Darach really notices how into this she is. It’s just really cute, I love her. Hearts United was okay, but I felt like the anniversary events didn’t really do enough. They kinda just existed, and I wished they did more. Especially knowing that Shining Heart of Dragons was technically part of the 1.5 anniversary, and that one’s fantastic. I dunno. Sometimes they do amazing writing work, and sometimes it feels like they’re pressured to put something out just to have the characters do a thing.

“A Pasio Spectacle is definitely the best solo event period. Everything about the event is just really great.

It's funny that my favorite Legendary Events are almost the same as you, except Pure Heart and Rainbow Wings are at #2 while Dragon that Rules the Sky is at #3. I like Zinnia, and I'm glad that she got her happy ending with Rayquaza. Zinnia's storyline is kiiinda similar to Morty's in a way that both Morty and Zinnia wanted to be recognized by a Legendary Pokemon, but are considered unworthy and they chose the protagonists instead. Then they got their wanted Legendary at the end.

New World Dilemma would have been my top 3 if Sinnoh Villain Arc didn't ruin it, I still love it though. Give and Take is also great, it makes me like Sycamore, but yeah I agree with what you said.”

I think Zinnia’s just didn’t have the same level of impact for me, because...really, I just never connected with Zinnia? She’s kind of obnoxious to me? And to be honest, I find their circumstances different enough that I can appreciate Morty’s struggle, but not Zinnia’s. Morty wants to better himself to be worthy of the legendary Ho-oh, and his ultimate goal is fairly low-stakes. While Zinnia felt like she wanted to play the savior more than anything, but is at least willing to step aside to let someone else literally save the world. Her search for Rayquaza never felt as personal to me, I guess.

Sinnoh Villain Arc is the greatest tragedy of this game, and I wish we could get a mulligan. They somehow produced three of the coolest trainer/Pokemon pairs ever, and still made a bad story out of it. I can’t believe it.

“Again, thanks a lot for sharing your opinions! Sorry that I couldn't help myself but to share my favorites too, but it's rare to be able to discuss about the event's story considering a lot of Masters players don't read the event story like what you found out back then. Glad to share opinions regarding the story with you who also like to read the story!”

You’re welcome! I actually really like the story bits, and most of the events are at least decent. Very few tend to be ones I dislike. I think they do some great work with the source material, and I’m really looking forward to the Johto Villain Arc.

#books-are-my-life-stuff #pokemon masters

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firecodex · 4 months

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Transcript

Lillie: Good evening! The sun's gone down, and the moon is rising… Maybe I should get to bed soon.

#screenshots #dialogue from the pmc #greeting dialogue #night greetings #pokemon #pokemon masters #pokemon masters ex #pokemas #trainer lillie #anniversary lillie #anniversary 2021 costumes #anniversary costumes #seasonal costumes

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breakingarrows · 7 months

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Games Media in Review: Kinda Funny & Kinda Funny Games

Kinda Funny had multiple starts before its official start as Kinda Funny and Kinda Funny Games on Patreon on January 5, 2015. It really started on Greg Miller’s personal YouTube channel, GameOverGreggy, on August 16, 2012 when the first Conversation with Colin episode was uploaded. In it, Greg gives roommate and coworker Colin Moriarty a random topic to discuss. The first topic: ants. This continued for over a year, being joined by an Oreo review show, Greg’s own vlogs, and occasional behind the scenes clips of his job at IGN. On December 9, 2013 Greg and Colin were joined by Nick Scarpino and Tim Gettys on the first GameOverGreggy Show podcast episode. The topics: which Disney princess would you like to fuck, Tim Allen, fat people, and being either Marty McFly or Ferris Bueller. On September 15, 2014 they launched their first Patreon under the name Kinda Funny. Within two days they had 894 patrons and were projected to be earning $10,042.32 (gross) per month. At the start of 2015 the four would reveal they had left their jobs at IGN to relaunch Kinda Funny full time and launch a new channel: Kinda Funny Games, both with separate Patreons and shows to go along with the separate channels. As of January 7, 2015 they had grown to 2667 patrons and projected to earn $15,253.81 (gross) per month, with Kinda Funny Games accruing 2325 patrons and was projected to take in $14,306.19 (gross) a month. Kevin Coello would aid them in lots of behind the scenes production and officially join the team in 2015. All of their content was filmed in Greg and Colin’s apartment, with a majority of the shows being hosted in their third (spare) bedroom. This continued until the summer of 2016 in which Kinda Funny launched their new studio space.

Despite the success there was turmoil in the beginning of 2017 when in March Colin announced he was leaving Kinda Funny. It was clear Colin’s political leanings and thoughts did not sit well with the larger games media crowd, especially after Trump won the 2016 election. His infamous tweet of, “Ah. Peace and quiet. #ADayWithoutAWoman” in response to women at large not tweeting in protest of the Trump presidency was a breaking point and he would soon depart to found Last Stand Media which continues to this day. Later that month Andy Cortez would join the team as a video editor alongside Joey Noelle and Greg Gettys. Barrett Courtney would join in January 2019. Blessing Adeoye joined in January 2020. Roger Pokorny joined in January 2021. Other’s have come and gone. Alanah Pearce, Danny O'Dwyer, and Andrea Rene were regulars for some time before moving forward in each of their own careers. Currently Snowbikemike (2020), Janet Garcia (2021), Parris Lilly (2021), Gary Whitta (2017), and Tamoor Hussain (2021) are all listed as Kinda Funny members in all of their video descriptions. It was in October 2022, after the years of Covid and remote work and a lengthy tease of a new space, that they moved into a larger studio that has been utilized since.

Much like when writing about IGN (a profile, which upon looking back, seems much shorter than it should be now), I have a long history with Kinda Funny. I was there as a Podcast Beyond fan following Greg and Colin’s every article, podcast, and tweet. I was a big fan and wanted to do what they did. This led to launching the YouTube channel IllustriousMagic with my then closest friend Matt, a channel whose 10th anniversary is quickly approaching in November. I followed Greg and Colin, and later Tim and Nick, as they launched Kinda Funny, gave them money via patreon, attended Kinda Funny Live 2015 (that’s me at 55:24), and even made my own fan videos such as my own Oreo reviews and a skit based on a podcast conversation. I was somewhat involved in the community and made many friends, including now staff member Barrett Courtney, some of whom I still talk to to this day. Kinda Funny helped connect me to someone who I would somehow convince to move across the country to live in Las Vegas with me and remains to this day. As with IGN, I eventually drifted away as tastes changed and I found myself wanting something different from games and media coverage than Kinda Funny was offering.

So what do you get watching Kinda Funny? Well you have two channels: one for general entertainment and another purely for video games. Their daily games news show lists out the stories of the day with their commentary and frequently will feature guests from their friends in the industry. Afterwards there will be a stream that could be anything from streaming games to going in a car to drive around and rank fast food french fries. The vibes are very casual, laid back, just a bunch of friends hanging out, shooting the shit, trying to get the biggest laugh. Lots of self promoting throughout their videos talking about what’s live, what’s going live, how to support, and where to find them.

Most videos are tied to a specific show, you have the standard video podcasts covering everything from the latest franchise IPs being watched and recapped in order to complete a ranking list, you have current shows being discussed the day after with Star Wars Ahsoka, a conversational podcast, a PlayStation podcast, an Xbox podcast, a throwback to the IGN Let’s Play days with Greg and Brian Altano playing Tears of the Kingdom for short periods, reviews, previews, and archives of live streams such as Snowbikemike playing Kingdom Hearts for the very first time. Kinda Funny is all video, on Twitch and YouTube, which makes it easy to follow, and they have an offering of Patreon exclusives as well which I wasn’t able to get into as I wasn’t contributing during my two week period of watching everything they were putting out and going backwards when the new stuff ran dry. The production pipeline is somewhat similar to outlets such as Giant Bomb: long uncut and unedited footage of a group playing, commenting, talking over, or reacting to games and other such topics. Livestreams become videos on demand on YouTube, there is rarely the heavy editing you see in some other channels as videos frequently are close to an hour or more, though thanks to their new studio they have a massive video wall that they can place graphics and videos onto in real-time to provide additional or info for both the hosts and viewers.

Unlike IGN becoming more regimented in structure, which directly contributed to my no longer following them closely, Kinda Funny encouraged getting off topic at all times, which is what kept me around for so much longer than I thought. Checking through my YouTube likes it appears to be sometime around 2018 that I stopped really following Kinda Funny closely, whereas I thought it was closer to 2016/2017.

I was, and still am, a fan of RedLetterMedia and their conversations about movies ever since I started watching videos on YouTube. RedLetterMedia in January of 2017 launched a comedy series called “The Nerd Crew” which satirized the geek culture podcasts whose mentality are, as Jay Bauman stated in one episode, “Don’t ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next product.” This sentiment can broadly be applied to a lot of enthusiast press culture, and I think Kinda Funny can often fall under that sentiment as well. In a recent series covering the latest Star Wars show, Ahsoka, while discussing Episode 5 guest Saige states, “I’m a simple Star Wars fan and Carson also references Leia. We have to acknowledge that Carson also says Senator Organa is running interference, Senator Organa. I’m a simple Star Wars fan, I hear Organa and I go *clap* Yay!” Carboni, “We know who that is!” This bit is pretty much 1:1 the conversation RLM paradies in Nerd Crew and is the number one reason why I don’t find much insight amongst their critical stuff then, and now.

Another recent example of differences in opinion showing the opposing mindsets would be Bethesda’s latest game, Starfield. Kinda Funny had an extra long 48 hour stream dedicated to Starfield and their review and further coverage have been mostly positive in talking up the size, scope, and breadth of the game. However where they see the quantity of things to do I see a procedurally generated level of quality in most of its activities. They talk about high highs and low lows and I write in my notes how three out of the nineteen main quests had anything genuinely interesting or fun or thrilling or evocative to offer. They share “fishing stories” about cool things they’ve come across and I upload a video of bunny hopping amidst a barren wasteland to my objective as “The Starfield Experience”. I don’t think Starfield is very good and align most with Blessing and his complaints, especially when it comes to “exploration” being a load of bullshit as you’re pretty much going to go into your fast travel menu to get anywhere efficiently. There is just a chasm between the way we think about games. Microsoft’s internal marketing for a mid-generation console refresh is that it will use slightly less power. Who cares! Your Xbox using less kilowatts is not going to combat climate change in any meaningful way. This is like the individual shaming of failing to recycle, meanwhile corporations are dumping truckloads into the ocean. Microsoft has trillions of dollars worth of assets, they could more directly combat climate change than through a low power rest mode in their consumer device. These things are not celebratory.

As an example of those that I do find insight from nowadays I really enjoy Noah Caldwell-Gervais’ video essays, as well as Tim Rogers dba Action Button. For podcasts it’s places like Bad End, Abnormal Mapping, and Insert Credit. I also still have a love for the written word, both for what it can do that the video medium can’t, and because translating an essay into a video is time consuming and hard work. Text sites I frequent include: Bullet Points Monthly, Deep Hell, No Escape, Radiator Blog, and other individual blogs such as Autumn Wright, Liz Ryerson, Grace In The Machine, and Bobby Schroeder. The main difference between people like these and Kinda Funny is that Kinda Funny are entertainers first and critics second, whereas the others are only ever critics. And Kinda Funny are good entertainers, I found many literal laugh out loud moments watching them again, reminders of why I had such a love for the channel earlier. When it comes to sitting down and talking about a game critically though, is where the aforementioned differences appear. We are ever evolving, as every year I look back at my beliefs and work from a couple of years ago and think, “What a fool!” which I believe is a good thing and gives hope that others are ever evolving and changing as well. I do find it depressing how entertainment is valued over criticism by the general audience. I keep a spreadsheet of gaming-centric Patreons and even based on their 2020 data before it became private, Kinda Funny’s two channels were the top earners when it came to gross estimated income from Patreon alone. Meanwhile a good majority of the critics I follow closely would never be able to sustain themselves full time doing the work.

Reluctance to be critical of a work has been recurring when watching conversations at IGN and GameSpot. I’m not deluded enough to believe in the moneyhat but I think being friends with so many within the development side of the industry, as well as frequently doing marketing events on behalf of publishers within the industry, does create a reticence to be very critical save for when the occasional stinker like Gollum comes out. As many others have written out before, criticism is done out of love, and I partly write this piece out of love for Kinda Funny and what it could be, in my mind, in terms of promoting a diverse range of critics.

As with any modern YouTube channel there are sponsored ads that are edited into the shows, though one in particular caught my ear. Draft Kings, a sports betting website (aka gambling), has a sponsored ad in which the final section is a sped up disclaimer about help for gambling addiction. It doesn’t sit well with me for several reasons. The presumed audience for Kinda Funny, to me, is a reflection of what I was at the time of my fandom height, a young 20-23 year old looking to show my support any way I can. Kinda Funny has for a long time referred to its audience of fans as “best friends,” a sentiment that conjures up the worst aspects of parasocial relationships online as detailed by Shannon Strucci in their two part series on the term and its elements. Engaging your audience as best friends, asking them for support, and offering one of the ways of support as a Draft Kings offer designed to get you into gambling, a pastime well known for its preying upon those susceptible to addiction, isn’t right. A pastime that has been slowly making its way into games and has been the main subject of a recent Twitch competitor, Kick, whose main draw, and potential funding, has been to encourage gambling after Twitch finally came down against gambling streams on its platform. All of this is to say, I don’t like that they’re advertising for a gambling website, even if it earns them some income, and other fans have also voiced their concern.

If you pay close attention to the faces behind the list of Kinda Funny members you’ll notice there’s a higher ratio of people of color compared to most gaming media outlets, namely the two I’ve profiled previously: IGN and GameSpot. Tamoor Hussain even doubles as an employee of GameSpot. Seven out of the fifteen staff members listed by Kinda Funny are people of color, a proportion I don’t believe is even close to being matched by any of the other gaming media sites out there. It reminds me of the little incident of Dan Stapleton tweeting out, “I think I can speak for just about everybody in games journalism when I say that we’d love to hire more black and other minority writers. But we can’t if we don’t hear from you. When you see job postings go up, apply apply apply - or recommend someone who should.” To which Blessing responded, “I applied to IGN more times than I can count. If you think not enough black and minority content creators aren't putting themselves out there, you're not looking hard enough.” Whereas most sites fail to bring on diverse talking heads to be featured on camera, Kinda Funny frequently has lots of diversity in their cast and who they bring on. People such as Imran Khan, Kahlief Adams, and Belinda Garcia have also been featured numerous times on their various shows.

Kinda Funny has a history of collaborating, bringing on, and featuring, other online personalities, from larger ones like Comic Book Girl 19 to smaller ones like LiteWeight Gaming. Some of their staff were recognizable figures in the gaming space prior to being brought on, and some were not so well known. This approach of platforming and promoting smaller personalities as equals is commendable and I think does help to foster a cooperative and helpful community of people.

I have found that when it comes to Greg Miller most have long made up their mind, they either like him or hate him, find him charismatic or loud and obnoxious. Beginning to watch Kinda Funny again for this profile I found myself being reminded why I had become a Podcast Beyond fan so long ago, the man is simply entertaining to watch. It is obvious that being entertaining is the main goal of all Kinda Funny content, and while I’ve mentioned my issues with this approach, I would like to commend Greg for creating a channel that frequently raises and promotes other voices. As I mentioned in my write up of IGN, they are siloed off and rarely acknowledge that there is other stuff out there to read and watch. GameSpot had a different approach, and Kinda Funny is one of the most willing, I believe, to work with and bring on smaller talent onto their platform. Obviously there is the parasocial criticism of their naming of the audience as the best friends, and despite the best attempts at fostering a loving and cooperative community, with any large enough audience you’re going to find some snakes and segmented opposing groups within that audience. Still, I think Greg as an individual has proven he is willing to listen and learn and attempt to make up for what mistakes he may make. Despite attempts to turn opinion against Greg, such as Bob Mackey’s failed attempt in 2020, the industry at large continues to embrace him. Without him we wouldn’t have Blessing’s wonderful video about how We Need To Fix Black Hair in Video Games.

Despite my criticisms I still find myself jealous of those who work there. Kinda Funny comes across as offering a type of place that allows their creators to chase after what interests them at the time and what they find meaningful. Having a daily talk show to espouse my own views on the news and encourage the change I’d like to see would be a great opportunity, and by all appearances it does seem to be a place where everyone is friends and enjoys each other's company. A fear would be that this familial relationship brings about long overtime hours of unpaid work (whether knowingly or simply felt as an implicit responsibility). Still, watching the Games Daily with Sam Lake I find myself, a huge Remedy fan, chomping at the bit thinking, “That could have been me!” and once again daydreaming of all the things I could do was I working there. As a source of entertainment, Kinda Funny is strong, though as with anything, is quite dependent on taste. I do think that their willingness and history of platforming and promoting smaller, and more diverse, people is a great help to an industry predominantly white and full of insulated staff lists where names transfer between IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, before the ultimate end of most games media: public relations or game development.

#Games Media in Review #Kinda Funny #Kinda Funny Games #Writing #video games

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readingforsanity · 11 months

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The Power Couple | Alex Berenson | Published 2021 | *SPOILERS*

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and Edgar Award winner Alex Berenson comes a supercharged thriller about marriage and the dangerous secrets spouses keep.

Rebecca and Brian Unsworth appear to have it all. A nice house in the suburbs of Washington DC. Two well-behaved, healthy teenage children. Important government jobs - Rebecca working in counterterrorism for the FBI, Brian serving as a coder for the NSA. Their lives stand to improve even more as Brian, in his off-hours, has just developed and sold a highly profitable app.

However, the Unsworths’ marriage isn’t as perfect as it seems. After two decades together, they’ve drifted apart, talking little and having sex even less. Seeking to revive their strained relationship, they decide for their twentieth anniversary to take their two kids, Kira and Tony, on a European getaway.

They have a blast...until one night in Barcelona when Kira doesn’t come home from a dance club. She’s gone. Abducted. Over the course of a single weekend, the Unsworths will do everything possible to find her - as Kira herself discovers just how far she’ll go to break free of the trap that’s been set for her. And even as Rebecca and Brian come together for Kira, they realize their marraige is more tenuous than they realized.

The Power Couple is both a fast-paced, globe-trotting espionage novel full of surprisings twists and a nuanced look at modern marriage - the challenges of balancing career, parenthood, sex and love.

Rebecca and Brian Unsworth are a well-connected “power couple”. Rebecca works for the FBI in the Russian counterintelligence division, and Brian works for the NSA. Living on the outskirts of D.C., they are planning on heading to Europe to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary with their two children, Kira and Tony.

For Rebecca and Brian, they are just now getting back into the happiness of their marriage. It started off strong, but overtime it peetered off into near-nothing. Rebecca has spent the majority of her children’s lives working endlessly for the FBI, first in Birmingham, Alabama where she assisted in bringing down a political mastermind, then in Houston where she briefly had a non-sexual affair with a Texas Ranger while working on a case involving a serial killer before finally settling down at the FBI headquarters in D.C.

Brian has spent their entire marriage living in her shadow. Following Rebecca everywhere she went, raising their children essentially alone as a “house husband”, and working odd jobs in order to off-shoot his wife’s insane spending, living well above their means. However, neither of them ever took the time to say that their marriage was over, and they continued to push through it.

Nearing the end of their Euro trip, Kira meets a young man named Jacques in Paris. They were scheduled to leave the following morning for their last stop in Spain before heading home. Kira explains this to him after he requests a date with her, but he insists on taking the train to Spain to meet her the following night. She meets him at a bar, and to her dislike, brings along his sister Lilly, and the two girls don’t get along. However, Kira doesn’t know that her life is about to change.

Jacques, Lilly and Kira move on to another bar, where she partakes in a little drug usage. However, this leads to Jacques and Lilly kidnapping her, taking her to a location in a city about an hour or so from Barcelona. When she fails to return home, the FBI agent in Rebecca won’t rest until she finds what had happened to her.

With the help of local authorities, an almost unreliable witness and pure instinct, they realize that Kira has been kidnapped. Due to the nature of her job, Rebecca believes it is because of her, especially as there has been threats recently. While this can’t be proven, Rebecca does whatever mother would in her case: she fights to bring Kira home, and alive.

Kira is kept inside of a closet, with no lights and nothing. They feed her small portions and bring her water, and Kira plans her escape with each visit. Using to her advantage an attraction one of her kidnappers has with her, she ultimately invites him to come into the closet for sex. While using the restroom, she finds a bottle of acetone-based nail polish remover. Along with a lighter she luckily located inside the closet as well, she would be able to harm and severely injure Rodrigo. When she begins playing with him sexually, she waits until his euphoria is at an all-time high before she puts flame to acetone, and throws it into his face, blinding him.

She is able to get away, but not without some setbacks. While trying to navigate in the dark, she trips inside a hole and injures her ankle, and eventually ends up cutting her thigh on a large butcher knife she took with her from the house. Rebecca and Brian were already on their way to the town to locate her, as her kidnappers were asking for a ransom. When the authorities say that a home in an abandoned real estate development had gone up in flames, the coincidence is too strong to ignore.

Rebecca is flighted there by helicopter. When she realizes that Kira likely had gotten out of the house at that point, she goes in search for her, finding her hiding behind the brush.

When they return home, life returns to normal. Kira, in hopes of returning back to her usual self, goes back to Boston where she attends Tufts University, wanting to prove her independence once again. Brian and Rebecca return to their jobs. However, what we have learned since then is that Brian is a spy for Russia, working with a man named Irlov. He had given Brian $2 million for his insights through his job at the NSA, and used the ruse of a phone app that Brian had “created”.

When Rebecca goes to visit Kira at school as a surprise, Kira suggests they go to a newly opened casino. Using her husband’s app, used to help casinos advertise, she realizes that the app hasn’t been updated in quite some time and it all comes together - Brian is the mole that the FBI has been chasing at the NSA, and the reason their daughter had been kidnapped was his fault. Something that he had kept to himself, and something that he could have done to prevent it from happening, or finding her faster than they had.

She works endlessly to prove this is the case, and she does. But Brian realizes that Rebecca is on to him, and they both, in secret, make plans to end their spouses life. Brian suggests they take another trip, as it is nearing their 21st wedding anniversary, and the last trip hadn’t gone well with Kira’s kidnapping. Brian plans to take her out in the waters surrounding St. Barts and throwing her overboard. But Brian doesn’t realize that Rebecca is well prepared.

On the night, Brian rents a boat and takes them out into the open sea, reminiscent of their honeymoon. They share a bottle of champagne, him in hopes that it’ll get her drunk enough not to notice the Xanax he will eventually slip inside the alcohol, and her, with plans to kill him in some way. When he throws her overboard after a sexual moment, she takes a syringe she has sneakily taped and hidden on her leg, filled with enough epinephrine to bring down a horse, and shoots him in the leg with it. This causes Brian’s heart to essentially explode, and where he dies.

I found this book by accident while browsing at the library. It sounded interesting enough, an almost Taken-like essence to it, and anyone who knows me knows I love me some Liam Neeson. While the similarities are there, this book just didn’t hit home for me. I gave it 3/5 stars because it was entertaining in some aspects. I felt truly sorry for Kira through all of this because her dad was a downright idiot. But, there was a lot within the story that was shared that didn’t need to be shared. Like, what led to Brian working for the NSA - everything had already been explained in Rebecca’s POV, but I do understand that they were showing his side versus her side, wanting us to feel sorry for him.

But, as someone who is married to someone in the military, who protects our state and our country, Brian being a Russian spy just pissed me off and I felt no sympathy for him whatsoever. He could have told Rebecca what was going on at any time, but he was only worried about himself and not the well-being of his child. He was the epitome of a terrible father. Good on Rebecca for doing what she had to do to protect her daughter from the truth. She would go to her grave before telling anyone the truth about what happened between the two of them on that boat.

Either way, this one just didn’t do it for me. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I would suggest this one as a “must-read”.

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