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au-tumn-al · 4 years

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So after 110 hours, I finally beat Persona 5 Royal. Before going into complete FFVII mode, I wanna lay out all my thoughts.

Blah, blah, blah, spoilers for everything under the cut.

To start off, I loved Royal. The gameplay was so much fun and it felt like such a natural evolution from vanilla P5. Probably my favorite change was what wad done with Baton Pass. Trying to pass to your entire party was very fun and very satisfying, especially if Joker got the ×4 or even ×3 and got to abuse a possibly charged Hassou Tobi lategame. It was pretty broken, but I don't mind things being broken once you go to the effort of figuring things out. Speaking of broken things—

Showtime attacks are super cool. I didn't know what to think of them at first because of how stupidly strong they are, but after I got to some harder boss fights where doing about 1k damage per attack would only get rid of about a small fraction of the shadow's health, I wasn't complaining.

(Also, I never actually got to see Joker and Violet's showtime. Oops.)

The fact that the damage scaled like that was really good, especially once you get into the third semester where party members have severe and colossal damage moves and even healer Morgana can do 150 damage per basic attack without buffs on an enemy without debuffs. The enemies' damage output remained kind of sad though, but uh....you can't win 'em all ;;

To finish showtime talk, Joker and Crow's showtime was heccin' great. I never skipped it. It was Batman in my animu JRPG so it was 10/10. It also did way more damage than most of my party members' showtime attacks so ey. It finished off that Yoshitsune request boss too with around 2.4k damage so I'm obligated to like it. On that note, how is showtime damage calculated? Do certain showtimes do more damage, or does it just depend on the offensive stats of the party members using it?

Technical damage was beefed up too, and I probably should have tried to take advantage of it more than I did but I never figured out how to make technical damage reliably knock an enemy down. I know that there was a way to do it but I never figured it out. Yes, yes, I know it was because I skipped tutorials but everything else was so busted, I never felt the need to go back and read said tutorials. I did read that book about technical damage though in-game, but it just added more technical combinations.

Onto other changes though, it could have been because I was playing on hard, but status ailments became about 10 times more useful. ...Actually, no, it was definitely because I was playing on hard, but even so, I felt like more bosses were weak to them when compared to P5. They went back to being mostly immune to them, especially in the new semester, but during and before October or so, status ailments became invaluable. It could have been because I sucked that much, but my party members, and even sometimes Joker, would get left with double or even single digit HP by near everything, even if I debuffed and buffed. Queen got regulated to a forget bot, but man it carried me through some boss fights. ... i.e., Kaneshiro's fight. Well, that and Mona's confuse.

I liked the Will Seeds too. They were a fun way to kind of change up the palaces and for me to hunt down. Even though yeah, they are pretty broken (especially with the accessory you get from the 2nd palace being able to get rid of elemental weaknesses for whoever has it equipped, not to mention the ability to give charge or concentrate to another party member), I still can't say I used them over my SP adhesives most of the time. I used the one that got rid of elemental weaknesses on Crow, but that was just because I could only use him and Joker at the time and did not want enemies to get another move on him to get another chance to hit either of them.

The changes to Mementos were amazing. Like the rest of them, they were pretty busted, but still. Amazing. I feel like I'm in the minority with this, but I didn't mind Mementos. In fact, I kind of liked going through the grind of going through it. Although...tbf, I kind of liked Tartarus too. Its 264 floors were a bit much, but I liked being able to turn off my brain, put on a podcast or YouTube video in the background for me to listen to then go through Tartarus in one or two in-game nights.

Back to Mementos, collecting stamps and flowers for Jose was fun, and being able to change the cognition for Mementos was busted. Since you can get EXP from auto-killing, you get over-leveled very fast. It doesn't help that you have to backtrack floors for stamps since they randomly generate, so you get even more money, experience, and items. On the bright side though, no, I didn't need to wander around singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad" with Mona and Skull for an hour and a half trying to find the materials for the Eternal Lockpick (which was renamed in Royal to Permapick ... I guess???)

Because of the changes you can make to boost item, money, and EXP gains, Mementos became the prime grinding area. Even more than the card shuffle thing in P3. Since you got so much EXP from ramming shadows even without leveling up EXP gain. I put all my stamps into getting more items and money until I couldn't anymore and I had near max every single crafting item, and never had to worry about the cost of anything ever. Combined with the money gains from killing shadows, you can also pick up sellable treasure from the item cubes in Mementos and it can end up selling for well over a million yen. So getting to max didn't even require Joker abusing the confuse status ailment or abusing the shadows with "You can do better than that."

I didn't mind the Mementos music, even when I was playing the game without something else playing for me to listen to, but now that Mementos does have new music, yeah, I realize now how much better it is. I wouldn't listen to it alone like I would Rivers in the Desert or anything, but it was a nice change. I listened to one of the songs before the game had its western release and didn't like it all that much, but actually playing the game while hearing it made me actually like it.

I got to level 99 though before the game was over. It made it so Joker and Crow were able to tag-team the Reaper then kill it in 3 turns. I had thought that trophy would have been a lot harder to get lol. It was pretty weird seeing the Reaper in such clear lighting though due to the new Mementos area though, I have to say.

Onto the bosses though...

I loved the changes to the bosses (except the 5th one but that's just because I hate everything about the 5th palace, even if Royal did make it about a million times more bearable).

Kameshida having cognitive Shiho and Mishima as helpers for the boss fight was such a good change, and made him about that much more hateable.

Madarame's boss fight in vanilla P5 was the hardest boss in the game for me, even on normal mode, but it was made so much easier in P5R. Madarame didn't bring back his painting form, but instead brought back elemental versions of himself specifically so the player can abuse Baton Pass. Baton Pass combos are extremely satisfying to pull off, so I enjoyed it immensely. Honestly, having that as the second boss in the game was so much of a better decision than what was in P5. That, or I'm still salty about all the deaths I had from fighting him the first time.

Kaneshiro was definitely harder, and I was a little stuck when he called his cronies out to guard him. Mona and Queen using confuse and forget while Skull and Joker attacked Kaneshiro made it a lot more bearable though. I also kept using spotlights on Joker so the enemies would attack him. He had Shiki Ouji equipped and they only ever did physical moves when my status effects missed, so I was never at risk for losing the fight. ... And then of course Skull and Queen finished it off with a showtime attack after Mona got yeeted.

Sphinx mom was a lot easier. I didn't know that the right dialogue choices made it so Oracle would guard you until someone told me, so I was sitting there surprised at how much easier it was lol. I did get stuck at the end though because it didn't look like I was damaging it. I thought Oracle needed to bring back the crossbow so I just kept buffing and healing. It took about 10 minutes for me to get bored and start attacking it again and it turned out I could attack it, but it was just that sphinx mom's HP wasn't visually moving before eventually going down. Joker still used Shiki Ouji which had learned an immunity to wind so. Easy victory (ignoring the part where I'm a dumbass).

I switched to easy mode for Okumura. I just did not care at all. I hate his palace, I hate the music, and the enemies could range from being easier to kill than the enemies in the first palace to being a pain in the ass, so I wanted to have it be over. If I didn't have an unreasonable hatred for the 5th palace though, I probably would have liked the change. It was challenging without being complete BS, at least much more challenging than how it was originally in P5. Having the enemies run off though did get pretty annoying when I was trying to beat it legit but I was just so done at that point, it was more on me than the game lol.

Part of the reason why I was so eager to get through Okumura's palace though was to get to Sae's palace. Because I love Sae's palace, and just in general, the entire month of November. It has amazing story bits, still the height of P5's story if you ask me, a great palace, and Whims of Fate is one of my favorite tracks from P5's OST. Sae's boss was even changed to when she spins the wheel, whatever element it goes to, she uses that element and her resistances would change. I loved that, and it was extremely fun to take what you more or less should have learned about enemies' attacks and their correlating weaknesses and use them for a boss fight. So much better than the original where you don't need strategy at all other than "hit her hard lol."

Shido's boss fight was changed to be super climactic. They made it easier for the sake of Joker being able to confront the dude that got him a criminal record and directly ruining his life, and I can't complain. It felt amazing to 1v1 him. The game fixed the possibility of being screwed by it by having him attack in a certain order like the twins do in their special fight, so that was nice at least.

Yaldabaoth's boss fight was the same. Still easy enough, as long as you're careful. Or...not careful but extremely lucky. I wasn't able to finish it off while it was charging up its almighty attack, but my entire party ended up dodging it so it didn't even matter lmao. Now that I think about it, it very easily could have been because of that one Will Seed accessory that makes you dodge attacks but... I don't care. I was still super lucky I didn't get wiped and be forced to start the fight over starting from the Holy Grail.

The new boss... Uhm... It was taking way too long so I ended up cheesing it with Haru's third persona's new move that basically makes you invincible for a turn halfway through the fight. ^^; Noir was a Vault Guardian bot, Queen just healed and took advantage of one of the tentscles' nuclear weaknesses to Baton Pass to Crow when she could, and then Joker and Crow did all the work. Crow's third tier persona's almighty move kicked ass and you know what else kicked ass? Hassou Tobi abuse. The other 2 phases weren't even really fights, so at least that kept it from dragging too much, despite all the phases it had.

When Joker and the boss had that punch-out fight though, I lost my shit. I was laughing so hard I started to cry and my back was hurting. I don't even remember why I thought it was so funny, but I was laughing my ass off. I couldn't even press X to get Joker to punch because I was laughing so hard. Right before it happened, I joked to my sister that a tutorial would pop up and suddenly the gameplay will have the controls from that P4 fighting game and you have to learn that in order to have one last showdown. And then I got the prompt to punch. Then Joker punched. And I started laughing.

11/10 would punch Adam Kadmon man again

On the topic of the new stuff though...

Kasumi/Sumire/Violet was pretty fun to use but badly, badly overshadowed by both Joker and Crow, at least during boss fights. She offered to join the party before Shido's palace and she really should have joined then. Maybe she would just be absent for the Mementos dungeon & Yaldabaoth/Holy Grail boss fights, but she should have been there for Shido's palace. I liked her wanted gimmick of being the crit'er, but when you get her, Mona's third tier persona learns an AOE Lucky Punch, Joker already has high crit, and I would always baton pass to Crow because of his severe almighty AOE ×3. Plus, the way I built my Joker with practically exclusively two personas, Yoshitsune and Kuguya Picaro, he was already the phys and light attacker except with the addition of being able to have an auto-concentrate at the start of every fight (I have no idea why—it's something with Yoshitsune but idk what it is), the charge skill, Yoshitsune's nature of tripling the effect of charge, and the additional electric damage. She should have been a party member before the new semester. Obviously this isn't the case for everyone, but for me personally, I didn't often find use for her, especially since she can't do colossal or even severe magic damage. She is a very good physical party member, but again, Joker already covers that better than any other party member can, including Skull.

Crow was a great party member though. I used him in every request and boss fight after I got him. I was a little salty he couldn't switch back and forth from Loki and Robin Hood but I suppose if he did, he'd make Violet even more obsolete lol. I liked Loki while playing P3, so I'm glad I was able to use that persona again. He had Debilitate which was amazing. Queen learns Checkmate when getting to the third tier persona, which is an AOE version of it, but honestly, whenever I was fighting a boss that I thought needed it at that point in the game, I didn't need it to be multi-hitting. Plus, it costed about 90 SP and no way I was using that over her healing, defense buffs, and nuclear damage.

But anyway, back to Crow, I loved using him. He basically turned into my almighty damage dealer, even with his somewhat weaker magic, at least compared to his strength stat, but considering the final boss fight, it was extremely helpful. It did take up a lot of SP, but I had 5 Somas, a ton of SP restoratives, and had basically asked Kawakami to make me either curry or coffee every single night I was able to, so I pretty much had an infinite supply of it.

It helped that P5R made Akechi a much more likable character too. I liked him all right in P5, but didn't find him all that sympathetic, and thought that the characters treating him so sympathetically was extremely jarring considering all the horrible shit he did (which includes making orphans of both Haru and Futaba). That still kind of holds true, but since you can actually build a social link with him outside of the story, you can see more of his character and it improved him in leaps and bounds. Not to mention that his 8th confidant rank was....something else ^^; having a section of the new story too with just Joker and Akechi, (and kind of Sumire too, but mostly just those two) was awesome. I loved seeing them team up to punch Adam Kadmon man in the face. Plus, having more time with him in the Phantom Thieves without pretense had him going "I am surrounded by idiots" basically the whole time he was there. Like—I even felt disappointed that Akechi was actually dead and he didn't survive. That's a huge improvement over from me wishing one of the dialogue options was "fuck you lmao" during his death scene at the end of Shido's palace when he asked the Phantom Thieves to promise him to change Shido's heart.

For Sumire though, she had a good character arc. Like her gameplay though, she was badly overshadowed by both Akechi and Maruki. Even still, I liked her character arc and everything, and her social link. Even if I ended up liking Kasumi more in the end anyway rip

That's kind of all I have to say about her, oof. She was good, but other elements took attention away from her pretty badly.

Maruki though... Maruki was amazing. He was a fantastic antagonist because I got to punch him in the face, his palace was amazing, I loved the music, the different sections were cool, and I even liked the color maze bridge puzzle thing. I definitely wouldn't like it so much if I ever replayed it, especially if I try to get that final Will Seed, which wasn't hard, but did take kind of a while, but I don't think I will be so it's not a problem.

He had such good motivations, and the fact that he didn't ever actually hurt anyone other than when he punched Joker in the face made him really sympathetic and redeemable to me. At the end of the day, all he actually wanted to do was make people happy and not have to suffer, and was willing to destroy himself in order to achieve it. But just like with every belief, it went too far and he took away people's free will and ability to pick for themselves. The kind of moral question about the entire thing was very interesting, and I kind of wish it was more further addressed. There should have been Sojiro or some other character that was perfectly happy in Maruki's alternate reality so they could challenge the Phantom Thieves in a way Maruki wasn't able to. Still, what was done was really good and I liked it a lot.

...

Even all that said, I have no idea why the hell Joker could not use Satanael. There was such a perfect opportunity to use it once Maruki evolved his persona to Adam Kadmon, a giant persona. Hell, it was still small when compared to Satanael. It's after beating Yaldabaoth so Joker should have access to it. It would have been epic to be able to use a giant Satanael in a normal-ish boss fight. I'm sure there are some explanations as to why, but the game never mentions it or even acknowledges Satanael so it doesn't count and I'm still bitter. The writers forgot that Joker has a persona literally as big as a cognitive god and that kind of broke some immersion for me. Immersion completely went out the window once Joker and Maruki started punching each other but STILL. Satanael's not that great a persona, but having it show up in the story again would have been so awesome to use a persona about as big as Shibuya more than once.

Hardly comparable to my beef about Satanael, but I wish that while the party members were acting as Phantom Thieves, or at least while they're in the metaverse, the names on their text boxes would change to their Phantom Thief names. There's no reason why they didn't, especially since the characters exclusively use their Phantom Thief names to call each other anyway. It's not a huge deal or anything, but I would have liked it.

I loved Royal, and totally think it's better than P5 vanilla. Its new semester kind of takes away from the superb ending of the vanilla game, but the new stuff still makes up for it. Don't get me wrong, you can still get the original ending from the vanilla game in Royal, at least I'm pretty sure you can, but it involves you missing out on all the new content, including Violet as a party member and getting Crow back, plus Joker's showtimes so it's not worth it imo

I wasn't actually looking forward to the game when it was announced, or even planning on getting it, but I had the Phantom Thieves' edition pre-ordered for me as a Christmas present so I wasn't going to...not play it lol. I'm extremely glad I got it though, even if I otherwise wouldn't have, and now that I have finished it, I'm very happy with the game. The gameplay's improved by leaps and bounds, and the new content was all amazing.

... And I got to punch Maruki in the face.

I did end up getting the platinum trophy for Royal too, so despite the Phantom Thieves den thing, I don't see myself going back to it, at least any time soon. It was an amazing experience, but I can set my sights back to FFVII now lol.

...Although, I did hear you can fight the twins and Lavenza so uhhh maybe i won't be shelfing it so soon—

#persona 5 royal #persona #p5r spoilers #personal #long post

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ayakashiramblings · 5 years

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The Dawn and Twilight Factions with a Dragon!MC

Ginnojo

A Mizuchi Dragon finally meets his own kind!

... Kind of.

You know, for being one of the older ones in the game, he has the cutest, most childlike reaction to it PRECISELY because he feels an even stronger connection to you now.

This man doesn’t even ask for proof.

You better not have been lying or else Kuro is going to bite you.

Really wants to touch your scales and you allow him, as he admires how they glisten under each stroke...

Wait, he’s touching a girl.

By now, he quickly retracts his hand with a blush and...

Wait, so what're your powers? Is it also water manipulation? Or fire? Or ice? Or blushing because you do make him do that often?

Essentially, he’s so full of questions because, for 54 years, he has never once encountered another.

Not that you mind, of course.

It becomes a very cute exchange of life stories as he finds out more about your clan while he divulges some secrets of growing amongst the humans even as an Ayakashi.

Kuro

Honestly? He drags you to Ginnojo first.

Which is why I made Ginnojo at the top because I think he would be the happiest about it.

And of course, anything that makes Ginnojo happy makes Kuro happy!

He of course still doesn’t reveal what he is.

You’re lowkey salty about it, I know.

He does become a bit more protective of the representation of dragons because now not only was his best friend one, a cute girl like you was one too!

Begs you to roar because he has always wanted to hear how their battle cries sound like.

It’s a bit hard to hear Ginnojo... speak at all, you see.

You give him ear muffs. You surround him with pillows. And ask him to cover his ears.

At this point, Kuro is still wondering what the fuss is all about. In fact, how is he even supposed to hear-?

It’s only then he realizes that even with all the hearing protection given... he can still hear you loud and clear.

Now, he is begging you for another reason because... holy did your roar just break that new spotlight?!

Gaku

He is in love with the perfect match.

At least, diet-wise.

And of course, he won’t tell you. Just invites you a bit more often to meals with him and Yura.

Yura feels like the third wheel but it’s ok. He’s never seen anyone with Gaku’s preferences before.

You’ve eaten a whole canister of wasabi... coated in actual battery acid. He’s impressed.

The thing is, it’s not just her taste buds. It’s the temperatures she can tolerate as well.

Actually asked him to reheat her green tea, saying it was too cold.

Not-honey-unless-you-have-chilli, there is still steam rising?

Of course, you had to have the stomach of a dragon.

He is particularly fascinated by your hide... as in your material, honey.

Because it’s super useful and durable for a lot of products and he tries to replicate it.

... Until you moult. Yes, it feels weird collecting it but now Mr Kakyu is getting super popular for his products that are really shiny and wait, it’s not from a snake?

Yura

Look, he plays the Dragon Flute.

If anything, he has a huge advantage over you.

He literally has sheets on music on how to enchant a dragon.

Congrats, you just revealed a huge weakness... but somehow don’t mind it.

It’s actually pretty soothing and helps you maintain your human form without suddenly having a tail pop out.

Although you were a bit sad that his usual animal entourage was scared of you.

Until he coaxes them out and hands you some feed.

Sometimes, he even lets them see you eat just hotcakes and sweet treats during tea time to reassure them that you are completely harmless.

Except on the battlefield.

At this point, his flute is the war signal for you to unleash your true form, swoop in to collect him and fight together.

He does have to adjust certain modes because your hearing is a bit more sensitive.

He can’t do anything about him smelling like someone had dumped maple syrup on him for your sharp nose... except the two of you bathing together... (´ ◕◞౪◟-)-☆

Koga Kitamikado

As long as your Dragon self isn’t a superpowered evil version of you unlike what HE has to go through, he’ll be fine.

It helps that you have amazing strength from your dragon powers carried over to your more human form.

Holding all of his textbooks, even the ridiculous tomes? Lifting tables just because Kuya couldn’t find his pillow? Carrying HIM because... you just want to be close?

You’d take care of it all...

... And make Koga have a taste of his own medicine.

“WAit MC, don’T do EvEryThiNG bY yoursel- oh...”

Yura wonders if his salves and glyphs are needed at this point.

FOR THAT BURN.

“I still want to carry you though.”

Admittedly, your offer to let him ride your back excited him.

He was always so used to being carried by Kuya but didn’t like the fact his arms weren’t as free to move unless he wanted to be dropped.

Now, he can swing his sword and make sure you can concentrate on your enemies while soaring high above your would-be foes.

Toichiro Yuri

Low-key wants to use your alternate form for a prank on Ginnojo but you suddenly changing your human orbs to those of a mighty beast makes him shut up...

For now.

He’s not too sure when he noticed it frankly.

Perhaps it was when he made Shizuki doing a background check and noticed some strange things about your medical history.

Or more like, your eyesight being too good.

Sure, he could have chalked it up to you being incredibly lucky. After all, you always managed to deliver his precious artefacts without a scratch...

Wait, why were you staring at his silverware?

The perverse man even swung a random candlestick holder around like a baton.

Your eyes and head actually followed the conductor’s gestures.

And upon leaving it briefly unattended, noticed you cuddling it.

“Hmm... hoarding like a dragon.”

Regrets it though the moment he realizes that you are not parting with that ornament... or the others he decides to dump your way. It’s not because he likes seeing your eyes sparkle like the polished items, no way...

Kuya

As long as your Dragon self isn’t a superpowered evil version of you unlike what his BEST FRIEND has to go through, he’ll be fine.

Heck, he has an official flying buddy. Less work for him in the skies.

Sometimes, you guys even do combo moves with wind and fire.

You do bicker over which is better: feathers or scales?

Until Kuya gives up and sleeps next to you.

Because hoo boi, you are nice and toasty.

Kind of like snuggling up near a fireplace...

... At least he enjoys it during the winters.

The summers? He... might want you in the same room...

... Just 5 meters away from him.

Aoi

There was always a little something off about you.

He had first noticed it when he visited you and spotted your shoes. Even your summer sandals had at least the top part covered.

Upon closer inspection, they were slightly scratched. At first, he had just brushed it off, even offering to go shopping with you for a new pair...

... Until he realized you were doing your best in making sure he never saw your feet.

Now that he thought about it, he’s never seen your feet completely bare.

And you even wore gloves, specifically finger gloves cot claps. And they looked a bit tight...

To get your attention, he grabs one of your hands...

... Only for a claw to appear.

And then several.

And just a bit of blood because he had been accidentally scratched by them.

You have to give him credit because while he did short-circuit for a good 5 seconds, he was the only one calmly reassuring you that he was fine as you started to lose it.

He even dragged you to a deserted alleyway as you looked like you were starting to switch between forms, all the while frantically searching for band-aids for him.

“MC, calm down. I’m fine. But you can’t show that you’re a dragon right now. Why not later? I think it’s pretty... as in, pretty normal. Pfft, I wasn’t going to say that you were pretty no matter what.”

Oji

Well, that explains why you are SMOKING.

Want to be his smoking buddy?

Guess what? You actually do, even producing cool smoke rings.

He so doesn’t need a lighter anymore... but that doesn’t mean you’re always willing to indulge.

After all, you could also see that Aoi is, you know, doing EVERYTHING ELSE.

Heck, you guys even practice cooking with your fire breath.

So while the eggs are cracked upwards, you fry them.

The omurice sure was aero-dynamic.

Shizuki

This one depends on what kind of dragon you are.

Because if you breathe fire, you two are going to have some problems. In fact, he already had his guard up the moment he felt that you were a goddamn furnace.

You will hate him for turning down the temperature, being cold-blooded and all.

And the thing is, you could have increased it but then that would confirm his suspicions.

So you gritted your teeth and bared with it.

Until you realized the really fatal mistake each time you did so when Shizuki finally pointed it out.

“You have fangs.”

“I... eat a lot of meat?”

Yeah, no, you can’t do anything at this point other than confess.

But strangely, he’s fairly accepting. Heck, he even asks for your contributions to this sudden list of rules on ‘Fire and Ice’.

“I can tell you’re going to be a valuable asset to Master Toichiro so I’d do anything that makes you comfortable within my means explicitly stated here.”

Sure, he could have worded that better but as he subtly reduces his snowy wind, you just shake his hand and make sure your heat only touches his glove.

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guardianofmemes · 5 years

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fallout 4 companions best to worst

with funny images at the start of each character review! DLC companions included! also BIG TIME SPOILERS FOR FALLOUT 4 OKAY 3 2 1 GOOOO!

1. nick valentine - clockwork PI

positives: he’s a robot detective who loves neon and smokes even though he has no lungs you know he’s a man who appreciates aesthetic.

negatives: none

2. old longfellow - old salty

positive: grandpa time. he's perfect. this man is everyone's rough and tumble but supportive grandfather. he's a rough block of wood, well worn and with a sense of humor, drinking habits, great dialogue, fantastic personality and can follow you around, he never outwears his welcome. he can even follow you around the commonwealth. rivals nick valentine for best companion to me.negative: i can't really think of ANY.

3. codsworth - lovable orb

positives: truly a stalwart companion, never abandons you, waited 2 centuries for the player character. it made me upset you couldn't romance them, the character who truly had a connection with you. they're fantastic and the top 3 was a REALLY close call.

negatives: cannot romance, wHY TODD YOU COWARD

4. preston garvey - minutemen general

positive: i can't even bring myself to post a jokey image for him he's just that good. god his character is good. he's a broken man, but he still doesn't stop helping others, or giving up hope. he's truly a good person, but not unrealistic. he has his limits, and can bend and break. and unlike other companions strangely, he DOES have more loyalty breaking points than the others, like if you side with raiders he will shoot you on sight. unless you deviate from the carefully curated quest paths in which case aaaaaaa also his backstory good, and i like how he faces his inner demons, altho i wish he'd just take the mantle of general. he honestly deserves it.

DOWNSIDES: ANOTHER SETTLEMENT NEEdS OUR HELP. making any companion a never ending, radiant quest hub, is a BAD FECKIN IDEA BOYO. BUCKO ITS A BAD IDEA. as a result of him being a radiant quest hub, its the onbly thing people know about him, care about, and experience while in game, because before and after every character interaction is something about his radiant quest hub quests. also romancing him feels HORRIBLE just like mac cready.

5. john maccready - ratface

positives: Positives, I like snarky mercs. And he had real Scout vibes.Honestly if you forget he existed in any other fallout games, on his own he's a decent companion. I like having him around, he's like that coworker of yours who keeps stealing office supplies but he always has spare smokes if you ask. honestly maccready is like if you dipped piper in the FEV. he's just a better version of her. she's too heavy handed i'm sorry

negative: again bethesda's bad design about being afraid of upsetting consumers. because once you finish his personal quest, spoilers getting the cure for his infant son's sickness, he should IMMEDAITELY RETURN TO HIS SON. WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE MAC AND CHEESE. GO RAISE YOUR SON. also romancing him just feels dirty and manipulative. this MAN IS CLEARLY STILL GREIVING FOR HIS DEAD WIFE!!! most of the romance paths honestly feel dirty and manipulative to me, like you're taking advantage of their friendship and trust in you

6. Ada - actual wife

positives: i love robots and this is like if curie didn't suck and wasn't born sexy yesterday. she has a character arc and is cool and has personality and also she's made of different robot parts when she starts out and that's cool. her story is good and even her generic lines are charming.

negatives: after the mechanist dlc is over she has no more unique cool things to say, and its sad they didn't prepare enough dialogue for her

7. john danse - paladin pants

positives: danse is a trooper, he's a boot boy yeah. in literal apocalypse land tho, understandable. also he is loyal to his team and anyone he considers his friends. once he spoilers is exiled from the brotherhood for being a synth and loses his way he does lose some of his hangups, becomes a more thoughtful person. his character arc is good, i like how he ends up.

negatives: holy fuck my cat just jumped in my lap he's like my way or the highway haha. anyways back to pants paladin. like i said he has some hangups, aka his racism from living in the brotherhood, a proto-fascist military cult. but honestly this doesn't make him a bad character, and he does get better from it. i'm gonna be real here the only negative about him is again, THE ROMANCE PATH. IT FEELS SO NEGATIVE AND DIRTY AND MANIPULATIVE. like i see people say he's a bad character but no he's just a bad person. and even then, he does learn and adapt.you can have characters who aren't good people in your stories

8. piper - waifu bait

positive: extra extra read all about it, the tracer of fallout 4 not totally a bad thing tho, she's just.obviously the companion you're supposed to like the most.

negative: her quirkiness has its charms but it can be KINDA much sometimes. also she’s obvious waifu bait. however in the end she's really more a person i'd want to argue with as a friend and hang just chill around she's pushy tho and i don't like being railroaded into certain quests or storybeats.

9. dog - dog

positive: dog is dog

negative: is not robot detective or butler, but is still good

10. deacon - MY EYES!!!

positives: charming spy man, so deep in the weeds he doesn't even know his own past or even if he's a synth. that's quirky and cute. he also has that very obvious spy charm of, his disguise is just him wearing clothes. iits funny like superman putting glasses on.

negatives: honestly he's just kinda bland. he's such a mystery wrapped in an enigma locked in a puzzlebox owned by that demon guy with the needles in his head, that there's nothing to know about him. really i can't figure him out. or get to know him.then again some of that is due to trust issues. i mean neat character trait but there's not much for me to consume here.

11. john hancock - anarcho beef jerky

positive: he's a pretty free wheeling kinda dude and i like that, he stands up against bad authority, to an extent, and that's where some of my issues crop up

negative: it could also be blamed on shitty bethesda afraid you wouldn't do certain content if it locked you out of your favorite companions, but he'll stand with you through allying with the institute, the brotherhood, anyone. also his anarchist leadership style has resulted in a lot of issues for his community he doesn't seem keen on fixing or reflecting on anytime soon. also constant substance abuse and he'll encourage you to take on the party hardy lifestyle tooi just look at freeside i mean goodneighbor i mean freeside and i think "man you're supposed to be the king i mean the mayor you should do better". ripoff of the king i'm gonna rip off the bandaid tbh, not even as cool as the king. the king really looked out for freesiders while hancock kinda just... meanders about the place. being mayor with no authority on purpose just makes you, a guy who kills people sometimes.

12. automatron - build-a-bear workshop BUT WITH GUN

positive: there's a few distinct personality modules and voice actors for the automatron companions, each one is enjoyable, i liked them, and they were all different from each other. i consider them like mini companions. plus being able to build your very own custom robots with any parts you want is the most epic part of this companion.

negative: the dialogue for the voice actor packs is pretty limited, like pretty limited. not a lot to hear before they loop. i'd have to say these are more neutral than even X6-88 for me

13. X6-88: oh that uniquely named courser that showed up as i destroyed the institute, wait he was a companion???

positives:

okay negatives time

negatives:for real tho he's just uh, again kind of a Nothing character. not as disappointing as Strong tho. As an institute courser he's just... well he just Is. he exists. doesn't really question his nature tho, or consider what life would be like outside the institute... its like if Danse had no character arc at all and spoilers just stayed in the brotherhood like a good proto-fascist feudalistic power armored boot boy. he feels like a quota like todd howard walked in the design room and said "we need an institute companion" and then the designers said "... fuck. we're almost done with the game's story okay lets cook something up". i'd have to say he's perfectly average. he's like the bland guy from the wendys commercials about how spicy their chicken is

14. porter gage - why do i keep stepping on this rake

positives: his armor looks cool, and his voice actor is good. i like that a raider character is portrayed by a sneaky advisor type instead of just a chest beating tough guy on chems. porter is an interesting take, and his motivations and methods are interesting.

negatives: his motivations don't make sense though. he's seen over and over in his life that raiders simply are unsustainable and don't work, always breaking apart. yet he... still wants to be a raider, and advise raider gangs? it doesn't make sense. also if you buddy up with him preston will hate you, and you have to eliminate your OWN settlements in the commonwealth. sorry porter but i'm not willing to make that kind of sacrifice at all. he's alright as a character but not really deep. having a backstory doesn't mean you're deep, that's Bethesda Deep™. Bad, no. Die now with the rest of nuka world, gage.

15. strong - fallout 3 was a mistake

positives: non-human companion, i like that. super mutants are always cool

negatives: lumpy and misshappen as fuck oh god he's like a slab of moldy ribs. also his character? what character? he's just a bog standard super mutant, not even a cool one from the west coast. he's just an orc, a raider painted green with half a brain and a penchant for eating people. he doesn't change or evolve, he's just. he's a Nothing character.

16. curie - born french yesterday

positives: so i guess i should start with the positives since that's a trend in this list now. positives! robot, and one that's both aware of how the world's dead but wants to learn, and make it better. i always like robots, and well. uh. robot. i'm out of positives now.

negatives: she is the living embodiment of th e born sexy yesterday trope. profoundly naive, yet unimaginably wise. and spoilers once she gets a SEXAYYYYY human bod from a braindead synth, her naive nature is played up even further as WHAT EEZ DIS STRANGE FEELING UWU I FEEL HORMONE AND LUUUV its bad, its bad its bad. french maid plus nurse wrapped into one, with the mind of a child, aka its the born sexy yesterday trope. and you can only fuc once she's out of the robot body and this makes betheseda COWARDS. LET ME HAVE MY ROBOTS.

17. cait - drug

positive:

negative: commit go away from my game. rude, not fun to be around, substance abuse storyline is NOT handled well. also in boston the one irish character is all fucked up come on man.

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0606-hyuck · 5 years

Text

nct dream as your best friends

hellabts? i don’t know her lol. in this house we support nct.

this is probably one of my most favourite things i've ever posted tbh, this was so fun to make and i could have made them way longer but i suppose there may be a 2.0 version in the future. i tried to make it a best friends version but honestly it could also be “nct dream as your boyfriend” lol anyway enjoy!

ps i also tried to make it as gender neutral as possible so please tell me if i've accidentally used a female pronoun :)

masterlist: here!

MARK

you probably wouldn't hang out often bc you’re both busy

but you’re still super close friends

he would message you every five minutes to tell you what he was currently doing

you're his #1 hype man/woman and this would definitely make him blush

he 100% had a very obvious crush on you and no one would be surprised if he still does

gets super shy when the members ask about you

he just thinks you're so great

whenever someone asks him what he likes about you he just goes speechless because there's so many things he could list

lowkey writes you letters about how much he appreciates you but never gives them to you because he thinks you'll find them weird or silly

when you were first introduced to haechan you thought he'd hate you lol

but he respects that you've been there for mark when he couldn't be and he knows that mark would be devistated if his two best friends didn't get along

lowkey like to gang up with haechan to tease mark

so he knows he’s in trouble if you’re hanging out with haechan

“nooo haechan is corrupting you! he’s turning you into the devil!1!1″

always sharing food with you, will go out of his way to buy you snacks and act like it wasn't a big deal even if he had to go far to get you said snacks

likes sharing his headphones/music with you because you're always enthusiastic to hear what new tunes he's listening to lately

also shares his class notes with you even if he doesn't understand the content

he will literally write notes in his best pen and make them look pretty because he knows that you'll ask to see his notes lol

RENJUN

always teases you about not having a boyfriend/girlfriend even though he’s single himself like boi what

"look, that person looks nice, why don't you go say hi? or, even better, i can be your wingman and introduce you to them!"

bad idea, don't let renjun be your wingman. not only does he embarrass you (maybe accidentally or intentionally, at this point you can't even tell), but the person will probably be more interested in getting his number than yours (but it's okay, the single life is treating you well)

but if you were to get a significant other he would be like "lol nope this isn't happening i cannot deal with this!"

he wouldn't be able to stand you paying more attention to someone else than him

he'd try to be cool about it, he'd convince himself that it's fine, but the members would constantly ask him why he's so cranky lol

he'd try to convince himself that he doesn't need to see you 24/7 anyway, but the next minute he would be triple texting you asking whether you wanted to hang out

he’d be really jealous but if the person made you happy he would be okay with it. we love a supportive friend

same thing if you were to have an argument, he'd be salty for like an hour tops but then he'd get bored and text you as if nothing happened

likes to send you really unflattering selfies

he'd teach you chinese if you asked him, but he wouldn't teach basic phrases

he would teach you swear words and insults and words you'd never use like "socialism" or "beekeeper"

“renjun i’m never going to need to say this though”

“but what if a beekeeper tries to get you into socialism? at least you’ll know how to say 去你妈的. bet you didn’t think of that one”

JENO

basically a married couple tbh

you both share common interests and you could spend hours talking to him about them

people think you're weird because of the amount of time you and jeno talk about cats/similar interests but it's okay because you both enjoy it

barely have any arguments but if there is it's likely about what movie you guys are going to watch or how he shouldn't pat his cats so much because of his allergies

always thinking of you

"jaemin, what do you think of this coat? i think i'll get this for y/n's birthday, is it their colour?"

"we can't buy that if we're watching movies with y/n, y/n doesn't like that flavour, pick something else"

will cook for you not even if you're sad or sick, just if he's bored and you have some ingredients

you'd try to help him but in the end you'd just watch him while he listened to you rant about a lady that pushed in front of you at the supermarket

likes to sing to you/play instruments for you. it’s real cute

halloween costumes! you guys make your outfits every year and always do couple/matching outfits

your favourite outfit was when you went as harry potter and hermione but you made jeno go as hermione

real cheesy jokes/puns? like his members groan out loud whenever he tells a joke but you always find them really funny because they're so bad

his members actually leave the room if you and jeno get into a pun war, it's just that bad

HAECHAN

super loud duo

people think you hate each other bc you're constantly arguing

and tbh you thought he was really annoying when you first met him, don’t tell him that though lol

low blow insults that make the members think you or haechan will get offended but you both just laugh

"damn that was a good one"

talks shit in a joking way but if anyone else was to do the same he would be the first person to defend you

"um excuse me, who do you think you are lmao i'm the only person allowed to be mean to y/n"

buys you birthday gifts ironically eg something you hate but will have a backup present to give you that you'll actually like

"haechan, this is a minions key chain. you know i hate minions with a burning passion"

"sike i actually got you that thing you'd been wanting for ages, no need to thank me i already know i'm great"

you get told that you and haechan are too mean to each other, but you know it's all in good fun

full on photoshoots

like he will invite you to hang out just so you can take real aesthetic photos of him and vice versa

he’s a real fan of the golden hour selfies

your favourite moments are the early hours in the morning when haechan sometimes calls and is really honest about his feelings

"i know i don't say it enough but i really appreciate you, i'd be such a miserable old grump without you"

"if you tell anyone i just said that i will have to kill you"

JAEMIN

people probably think you're dating

actually scratch that, everyone thinks you’re dating

even the dreamies have to remind themselves that you’re just friends with jaemin

insists on taking selfies together whenever you go ANYWHERE

his instagram is just filled with pictures of you and him captioned “GO BEST FRIEND THAT’S MY BEST FRIEND”

your parents love him because he's such a charmer, you have to remind them that he's just your friend not your boyfriend

jaemin doesn't mind though, he likes how flustered you get when people insinuate you're dating

you guys have a pact that if you aren't married by the time you're thirty then you'll just get married to each other

you know this kid is 100% going to flirt with you

but he ONLY uses really bad pick up lines

"are you a banana? because i find you appealing"

"damn it not this again"

"if you were a triangle-"

"jaemin no"

"you'd be acute one"

"that was your worst one yet"

whenever he travels he makes sure to buy you really tacky but cute soft toys

"jaemin i appreciate this, i really do, but i physically can't fit another soft toy in my room"

a really good listener?

like you can talk to him about anything and you know he won’t judge you

he just listens to what you’re saying, nodding often, and then when you’re done he will offer really good advice

ugh i think we all just need a jaemin in our lives tbh

CHENLE

the loudest!!!

the members try to separate you guys when playing games but it doesn't work because chenle will just yell at you from across the room

literally thinks you're an angel and is so thankful for you

you make him so much happier

like sometimes he catches himself and he’s like “ew when did I become such a softie for y/n, gross”

major uwu for you, constantly teasing you because he thinks your reactions are so cute

constantly talking about you because it makes him happy

"omg this reminds me of that time that y/n and i went to the arcade and were kicked out because we were way too loud"

“okay it was actually just me but like y/n didn’t try to stop me or anything, they’re just as guilty as i am”

individually you are the most cowardly people ever like this kid will just stand and scream his head off if he sees a spider

but when you're together you somehow gain heaps of confidence to do the thing™️

like you'd tease him for being too scared to ride a rollercoaster and oh would you look at that suddenly he wants to ride the rollercoaster to prove you wrong

and then you'd join him to prove that you're also no wimp

and you'd both be scared shitless the whole time

but when you get off h'd be like "that wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be”��

“you were screaming like a baby though, lele"

"no u"

likes to teach you chinese and really likes that you're interested in his language and culture

you thought he'd tease you about your pronunciation but he's actually so supportive because he knows how hard it is to learn a language

brings snacks to your study session as a reward but ends up getting distracted and eating them himself

JISUNG

comes to you for your opinion first

"should i post this selfie to instagram? the others said i look a bit funny"

"um are they blind? you look great jisung!!"

"i was going to post this dance routine to instagram but i messed up a step, i just want to show my best to nctzen"

"are you kidding??? i'd like to report a missing wig. ugh michael jackson could never"

he hates having his photo taken but the minute you ask him for a selfie he’s already getting into a pose lol

this kid will literally do anything for you

you're sick but he had plans? sorry looks like he's cancelling his movie date with chenle

your significant other just broke up with you? um jisung is an idol but who says he actually needs to do live stages hah

you're moving cities/countries? lol jisung packed his suitcase weeks ago

real talk though jisung hates to see you upset or sick but he's also real awkward and doesn't really know how to make you better

so he just comes over and you watch stupid youtube videos together

most times he'll force you to take random quizzes like "we will tell you which cartoon character you actually are based on the cereal you put in a kiddie pool"

he will then spend the next twenty minutes ranting to you about how your result was pink panther only because you chose the strawberry flavoured cereal

and you'd be adamant that pink panther actually reflects who you are on the inside, and that buzzfeed quizzes wouldn't lie to you

"omg jisung i AM pink panther you just don't understand, why can't you accept me for who i truly am"

in the end you wouldn't know what you and jisung were even talking about anymore but hey at least you don't feel as upset/sick as you did before

you also say a lot of stupid stuff (whether that's on purpose or not is entirely up to you lol) and jisung always pretends to be embarrassed by you

he will literally let out the biggest sigh ever and pinch the bridge of his nose, as if being around you is the most stressful, testing thing ever

but he's only kidding because he's well aware that if you weren't his friend he would definitely be a hermit in the mountains or something lol

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ourimpavidheroine · 5 years

Note

So I take it you're not looking forward to the new Kuvira-centric comic?

Short answer? No.

Long answer? Honestly, I’ve been very, very underwhelmed by all of the ATLA/TLOK comics thus far. I mean…I suppose the new one could redeem itself by being really good, sure. But I’m not holding my breath or anything.

I’m not a Kuvira-stan. You people know this. I think she’s an extremely compelling villain! In fact, I loved her as a villain. That being said, I am wholly uninterested in a redemption arc for her, especially as it looks like her redemption is going to be based on Suyin Beifong’s a mean old soccer mom and it’s all her fault and Oh look there’s the Avatarverse version of Mengele over there and he’s so much worse than me, he’s the real bad guy here.

I’m really fucking skittish about Su being framed as a villain. I do not think Bryke EVER got it right when it came to mothers in the Avatarverse. Either they were dead (Sokka and Katara’s mother, Mako and Bolin’s mother, Asami’s mother) or we had no idea if they were dead or alive or what the fuck during the actual story (Zuko and Azula’s mother, Eska and Desna’s mother, Izumi’s mother) or they were in the story but were basically there as scenery (Korra’s mother, Toph’s mother, Bumi, Kya and Tenzin’s mother, Mai’s mother, Noatak and Tarrlok’s mother). The only fleshed out mothers we get are Su and Toph Beifong, and Toph is really pushing it. I mean, we know canonically that Toph was a lousy mother. And while I do sincerely applaud Bryke for allowing Toph to be a lousy mother instead of some idealized 1950′s super mom that would be a wholly unbelievable character arc for her that only leaves us with Su as the sole mother who is a)actually in the show and b)has more than two lines.

Su Beifong, much as I loved her - and oh my god, did I love her - was a morally gray character. No doubt about it. She was a Slytherin Mom for damn sure.

Was she a perfect mother? I don’t think that exists. Good Mom? You know, I think she was, all things considered. I do not think anyone can argue that Su didn’t love her kids. She didn’t raise her sons with toxic masculinity - look at their father, for one thing, and we see the twins openly crying and that’s fine - and she’s proud of Huan’s ugly sculptures and there’s never any pressure on him to bend offensively (that includes in the train tunnels as Kuvira is attacking Republic City and he never bends at all). The moment Opal tells her parents she wants to leave Zaofu and go and train with the other airbenders Su and Baatar let her go - and they don’t bring her home even after the Red Lotus attack, despite how hard that must have been for them as parents.

(We’ve got no idea about Junior, but the whole shy bumbling dork with no lines at all somehow turns into primo evil mad scientist thing comes out of nowhere and is not only not set up at all in the narrative but is never explained either. That’s on Bryke, however, and not Su and Baatar. It’s bad writing, for sure.)

And sure, Su as a mother has her moments. I mean…she also takes her teenage sons with her to assassinate someone, for the love of god. And she tells her oldest son, the war criminal, that everything will be just fine and all will be forgiven which is…neither reasonable nor realistic. She expects Tenzin, one of only five airbenders in the world (including the Avatar!) to drop everything and come and train her daughter on site. Which is just nuts. She has a truthseer who is always following her about, spying on people, which is super creepy. That’s Su for you.

But, and I have said this again and again, but I have NEVER seen it addressed anywhere else - not in the show, not in any critiques I’ve read, etc. - there are TWO parents in Zaofu. Baatar may be mild-mannered, yes. But he’s there. He’s clearly an involved parent - we see him with his kids! We see him with his wife! We see him interact with his mother-in-law, we see him in the cage with the rest of his family, we see him in the tunnels with Huan, hell, we see him at the wedding in Republic City. He’s in the courtroom in the comic!

So can someone PLEASE tell me why it always, always comes down to Su? That no one ever talks about her husband? Do not get me wrong, Su is clearly a dominant force; she’s a Beifong, for crying out loud. But Baatar has a backbone. He openly defies Junior and Kuvira without any hesitation whatsoever, fuck the consequences. He’s there when Opal tells her parents - not her mother, but her parents - that she wants to leave Zaofu to train. He’s clearly part of that decision. Does he leave the fighting to his wife? Yes, and rightly so. Does he let her carry on with the running of the city while he focuses on the building of it? Clearly. But he’s not scenery, not in the way that Senna is, for example, or Poppy Beifong.

Ever heard Kuvira mention Baatar Sr at all, never mind as someone who might have had a say in her upbringing? Never.

So to take Kuvira and reduce all of her megalomania, all of her madness, all of her destructiveness down into (foster) mommy issues? That is always going to feel like a cheap cop-out to me. I don’t care how you frame it. I cried bullshit all over that last conversation with Korra where Korra was like…oh, I get it, you felt insecure and your abandonment issues with parental figures made you want to wholesale kill people, cool cool cool cool cool, like I relate.

Me, during that scene:

And the worst part of it is that they never did that with Amon. Yakone fucked up his kids but good; we know this. He was a legit criminal who only had kids as a means of getting revenge on those whom he felt had wronged him. He raised his sons as weapons. He was, beyond a doubt, an evil person and an appalling father. He had zero redeeming qualities. And yet…Amon is never given a pass for that. It’s there, it’s part of the story, we are horrified by it, but the narrative tells us that Amon is 100% responsible and culpable for his crimes despite his upbringing. The end.

The same is true for Zuko, by the way. The narrative makes it explicitly true that Zuko is responsible for his own shit despite what Ozai (and Ursa!!!) did to him. (The difference with Zuko is that he was still a child, whereas Amon and Kuvira are clearly adults. And even at that Zuko isn’t given a pass!)

So if the story, as told, is that in order to find redemption Kuvira needs to accept responsibility for what she did and stop blaming parental figures for all of the really appalling shit she should be in prison for the rest of her fucking life and not swanning around the former Earth Kingdom in snazzy Asami Sato hand-me-downs, then fine. I mean, been there done that already in this Verse and I’m not personally interested in following a rehashed redemption arc, but fine. It works.

But considering that they’ve got this new general dude outside of Gaoling that’s clearly set up to be Mengele and thus even worse than Kuvira? Oh man. I just…let Kuvira be a villain, okay? Redeem her if that’s what you want, but then REDEEM HER. Stop trying to make her somehow the lesser evil, here. This character was clearly created to make her seem the lesser evil; he wasn’t even alluded to in the show itself. I will lay cash that part of the Kuvira redemption arc is that OH NO she realizes that Megele dude is THE WORST and she is obligated to STOP HIM. Hey, here’s an idea…maybe you should have stopped him three years ago, how about that? You don’t get a goddamn pass for an unprovoked attack on a foreign nation with a weapon of mass destruction because some other guy in your army was conducting human experimentation. That’s not how this works. There’s no pass.

But I’m never going to stop being super fucking salty that you take the ONE mother in this show that is actually a fully-fleshed out character on screen and let her take the blame - all alone, never mind her husband - for being a crap mother to her foster kid that decided to grow up and become a fascist. Fuck that noise. Sincerely.

#you people only ask me about kuvira in order to have me rant #I see you!#Anonymous

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

Text

gingerjab replied to your post “ANYWAY. The petition/prayer circle for Michael Trevino to be cast as...”

I’m forever an asshole obsessed with fire/ice ships so Thunderbird or Sunfire, fuck the inhumans one off and St. John. Also, Rahul Kohli as Neal Shaara/Thunderbird/Agni. Also I’m sposed to be asleep so ignore if this is a shit idea.

For the record, I actually kinda like the Inhuman guy, cuz I mean, its not his fault he’s part of a trash franchise. I think it probably helps that I’ve only ever read one issue with him, so as to render it absolutely impossible for his writing to piss me off. I like to just close my eyes and pretend he’s a mutant. Y’know. Like I do with Kamala!

Who is obviously a mutant.

(And like.....let’s be real. The dude is a pyrokinetic with a demon form, the codename INFERNO, and his REAL name is DANTE Pertuz. DANTE. INFERNO. Like, that’s the on-the-nose-fuck-your-subtlety-we-came-here-to-be-pretentious-as-fuck-with-our-literary-references-look-how-dignified-it-makes-our-character balls to the wall character concept I am HERE for. I’m like OH HAI I SEE WHAT U DID THAR. And they’re like “oh yeah? You got it? Hahaha, we were worried nobody would, phew, good job tho. Totally adds to the character right? Pretty clever of us.” And then I’d be like Hahahaha no, not even a little bit, but ‘scool, I like him anyway cuz I’m easy like that. I put out for puns.” And then they’d be like awwwww, dammit, we worked so hard on that. And I’d be like....well, that doesn’t speak highly of your abilities, I mean it was a super obvious joke. And then I stopped making up conversations with hypothetical people in my head.)

Also, in defense of comic book St. John Allerdyce and absolutely NO OTHER VERSIONS EVER because agreed, they all suck....

Comic book St. John is a snarky Australian asshole who in between acts of mutant mass destruction, has a side career as a successful romance novelist under a pen name.

(I’m not even joking. Comic book St. John, in canon, writes romance novels in his spare time as a hobby. LOLOLOL c’mon, how is that not a great character beat for a supervillain slash occasional kinda-if-you-squint-superhero).

Anyway.

I too am also trash for fire/ice ships because SCREW SUBTLETY, WE SHIP THEMATICALLY. But like, its gotta be the RIGHT fire/ice ship. I weirdly have standards with my fire/ice ships? Probably just because I’m obsessed with Bobby Drake but whatever, who cares, how is that relevant.

I mean, OBVIOUSLY, you have your proto-fire/ice ship, the one, the original, the Word I came out of the womb prepared to preach and ship and like, spread to the masses....Bobby Drake/Johnny Storm. Because like. They are elemental dorks whose competitiveness is only matched by their dumbness, how can you not love them, I DEFY YOU TO SAY.

I’m kinda meh on Iceman/Pyro, because like, original comic book Pyro and Bobby never even interacted I think? And in cartoons they’re always totally different generations/age groups, and in the movies they’re like....boring and stale and not even all that attractive and also did I mention boring, omg no offense to whomever wrote them, but I tried reading Bobby/Pyro movie fanfic years ago because like, that’s the only movie Bobby fic there is, unless you want to read about him being an asshole to Rogue and/or cheating with Kitty and just generally driving Rogue into the arms of the much (much much much much, like ewww) older Logan or Gambit. Because srsly, so appealing. So obviously, I caved and tried reading Bobby/Pyro fics because like, they had the word ‘Bobby’ in them, and the bar is too low in my X-Men fic reading habits. And omg I fell asleep. I just. It was all just the standard m/m cookie cutter generic ‘good boy plus bad boy uwu yaoi-zowey’ bleh starring two not at all deeply written or well-acted meh-looking white dudes, and just. Why.

But that’s what I mean when I say I’m wary of fire/ice ships, because sometimes with powered characters like, authors think oh hey, LOOK ONE IS FIRE AND ONE IS ICE, THIS TOTALLY COUNTS AS THEM HAVING OPPOSITES ATTRACT PERSONALITIES AND THUS I DONT NEED TO GIVE THEM A PERSONALITY, RIGHT? Like. They’re just very boring and unimaginative in execution, just because they expect the basic premise of fire and ice/’obvious opposites attract, obviously’ to do all the work for them.

(Katey if you’re reading this I’m super for sure not talking about YOUR superpowered romances, because you are wonderful and GOOD at writing and imaginative, and thus none of this applies to you. Requisite disclaimer.)

So, when they did this random Bobby/’New Pyro Dude like where did he even come from I still dont know’ hook-up, I was prepared to like, yawn endlessly, because I figured it would be more boring imaginationless ‘ooh look what an obvious pair they are and yet still praise me for how clever I am for pairing them’ crap.

And I was absolutely right!

(But I mean, it was written by Marc Guggenheim, the odds of it sucking were totally in my favor. Betting against them being well-written under his pen might feasibly be construed as cheating. Whatever).

And also, the art did them ZERO favors, like I know they’re both generic blond dudes in their twenties, but I LITERALLY COULD NOT TELL WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WHICH in any of the panels that they were like, in bed together or dressing or talking or literally anything until they started using their powers to fight bad guys. It was soooooooo bad. Like the art just manifested every ‘look at the white gay date his mirror reflection lol what is variety even’ cliche and beat you over the head with it.

(Also Bobby is supposed to have brown hair, which at least would’ve helped a LITTLE bit. Meh. Still was gonna suck because like, nobody had any intention of WRITING them together, like, developing their characters and laying the groundwork for a possible relationship. It was just ‘oh look, the fire and ice dude got drunk at a wedding and hooked up, cool deal, now on with the story.’)

Anyway, the ONLY redeeming potential for a Bobby/Simon relationship in my opinion is ENTIRELY due to a fic I read with them. Its probably the only fic written about Simon ever, lmfao, so its not like the writer’s characterization of him has any competition among either canon or other fans’ renditions of him. But it was pretty well written, I actually liked their portrayal of Bobby, which I’m SUPER picky about in fanfics, and they actually invested time in developing Simon and his POV and giving him an actual personality and shit, that wasn’t half bad. So if Simon was written like that in the comics and their relationship progressed in similar ways, I could feasibly be on board with them.

But it won’t, so I’m not. Meh. Anyway.

I actually really REALLY like both Shiro AND Neal, with the caveat that I hate Neal’s stupid offensive-ass codename, I know Claremont only named him Thunderbird because he introduced him in an anniversary issue that was supposed to be a call-back to the original Giant Size lineup, and he needed a stand-in for John Proudstar, but like....wtf Claremont, just use your brain and save Neal to introduce a whole issue later and stick Jamie in John’s place the way everyone else does. He literally went by Thunderbird in the comics already in his Hellion days, which YOU wrote, so why the fuck did you feel the need to be stupidly offensive and act like Native American people and traditions are interchangeable with those of a guy from India? Ugh he’s so....gah.

Anyway. So I actually like both Shiro and Neal, though pretty much only when people other than Claremont are writing them, lololol. Which is admittedly...rare. Because of all his pet characters, they’re both at the top of the list of ones nobody else has any interest in touching. Bizarrely, my favorite run involving Shiro was when he was randomly shoe-horned into that Alpha Flight relaunch in the late 90s, that only lasted a couple years? Dunno if you know what I’m talking about, the team with Radius, Flex, Murmur, Heather as Vindicator and Mac was a robot or some weird shit.

I have no real thoughts on either of them with Bobby though, for a fire and ice pairing. Tbh I can’t really see Bobby/Shiro like, at ALL lmfao. For one, Shiro’s always felt written as though he’s a good ten years older than Bobby at least. Like they’re not really compatible dialogue-wise lol. And he’s pretty much never had any patience for Bobby in the comics, which has a lot to do with most of their interactions being written by Claremont himself, and Claremont infamously haaaaaaates Bobby’s character and trashes him any chance he gets, aka the few times editorial makes him actually use Bobby in a script. But I also think even under other writers, like....Shiro honestly is not the type to have any patience for Bobby’s antics or brand of humor, like.....he’s like JP but without the superficial crush JP used in canon to view Bobby’s idiosyncrasies as endearing instead of migraine inducing. I don’t think any readers would buy someone of JP or Shiro’s personality-type crushing on Bobby twice, lololol.

I DO however kinda like the idea of Neal/Bobby? If someone ever actually brought Neal back and gave him a new codename and stuck him on a team with Bobby? They’ve also barely interacted in canon, and the only time I can think of, Neal was super rude and dismissive of Bobby, because like, Claremont was writing it of course, so it made total sense for him to have the dude who’s literally been an X-Man for two issues talk down to the X-Man of several decades like the latter had no clue what he was doing, lol. Oops, still slightly salty there.

But honestly, I doubt anyone who didn’t have hyperfixation fueled grudges on a fictional fave’s behalf would ever even remember that one canon interaction, and tbh Neal’s pretty much a blank slate character wise. His only defining traits from what little he’s been used are that he’s fairly young, in his early to mid-twenties, from a wealthy family, a little full of himself but in a ‘really wants to impress people and prove himself’ kinda way instead of an overly entitled ‘i genuinely believe I am superior to all you buffoons’ kinda way. And he was always endearingly enthusiastic and eager about new stuff he encountered from being with the X-Men.

(He was also randomly obsessed with Psylocke, but I truly think Claremont was like, well I’m just gonna write him like I would Warren Worthington because why not. So yeah, obvsly he’s super obsessed with Betsy. Duh.)

Anyway - I would like someone to do something interesting with Neal, and I think his and Bobby’s chemistry has a lot of potential and they could bounce off each other well.

Also, I like Rahul, but I was randomly fancasting some of the more obscure X-Men awhile back for Reasons (I forget what they were tbh, but I’m sure I had them. I usually do). I came across this Indian actor named Karan Tacker and was like ohhhhhhh he totally looks like he could be Neal Shaara.

I mean, I’ve literally never seen him act, so who knows what his acting is like, but since we’ve established Neal’s character is essentially whatever the person to actually use him next wants it to be, I don’t think that’s a big deal lol.

So this is totally superficially based casting, like I think this guy looks and ‘feels’ the way Neal’s typically been drawn and the kinda vibe he gives off.

Also, incidentally, having absolutely nothing to do with anything, let alone my selection process, by pure coincidence the dude just so happens to have abs for daaaaaaays.

But I mean. Like I said, that is neither here nor there. Obviously.

Of no relevance whatsoever. I didn’t even notice, tbh. Don’t even know who hijacked my body and ghost wrote these last few sentences, quick, call an exorcist.

....oh noes, is this one of the consequences of being an ‘anti’? IS THIS MY COMEUPPANCE? *flees*

#gingerjab

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 6 years

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Solo: A Star Wars Story review

As a lifelong fan of Star Wars (I’ve been watching these movies since I was a little kid), there is one thing that has always and will always be true about the Star Wars fandom, no matter how many movies, TV shows, and books come out:

The Star Wars fandom is a malignant tumor on the franchise.

This is not anything new, but seriously, I saw so many people writing this film off before even seeing it – with one guy even going so far as to call it a trainwreck on par with that new David Cage game – that frankly I am confident in saying Star Wars has the worst fans of any property ever. You give them one really divisive film and then they immediately decide everything after is garbage as soon as it’s announced. But hey, I could rant all day about how awful Star Wars fans are; hell, I could write a book about it. But I’m here to talk about the movie they were so insistent would be utter garbage and a disgrace to the Star Wars name. How was it?

It was fucking excellent.

This film is just a fun, exciting space adventure; think Indiana Jones… IN SPACE! While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel or really do anything particularly new story-wise, it’s just a fun, thrilling, adventure film with heist film elements sprinkled in, it is the first Star Wars film in ages that actually invokes the feeling of fun and adventure that the original trilogy did. Do what exactly happens in this film that is so much fun? Well, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

...Han was living on the streets as a petty crook, serving some nasty criminal to stay alive and help find money to get himself and his girlfriend Qi’ra off the planet. Of course, things get complicated when they try to escape, and she’s dragged off while Han is left to join the army to fulfill his dream of being a pilot. Promising to come back for Qi’ra some day, he joins the Imperials, where he meets the thief Beckett and his crew, as well as his soon-to-be BFF Chewbacca. They decide to team up to pull off a heist that will have them rolling in money, but things go awry and soon Han and Tobias find themselves having to do ANOTHER heist for crime lord Dryden Vos, lest they wish to be killed. Can the gang pull off the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, or is Dryden Vos gonna add their skulls to his collection of jewels, statues, and Indiana Jones props?

So this movie is easily the best Star Wars movie Disney has produced yet – and for the record, I enjoyed at least two of the previous Star Wars films. The reason I call this the best, though, is it just recaptures that fun, adventurous feeling the old movies had in spades, but ALSO because the movie invokes the other great Harrison Ford character, Indiana Jones. There is a lingering taste of Indy to this movie, and man is it nice to see two of the best adventure franchises’ spirits blend into one fun package. If you ever wanted to see an Indiana Jones movies with aliens that is inarguably excellent, BOOM, you’ve got it.

The cast is actually the biggest surprise, especially Alden Ehrenreich, who had insurmountable odds stacked against him as he is playing a younger version of what just might be the most beloved character in the entire franchise. Thankfully, your worries will be erased only a few short minutes in; while this is clearly a younger and more idealistic Han than the bitter, cynical jerk with a heart of gold we all know and love, the inflections, facial expressions, and “everyman who keeps getting dragged into crazy shit” feel of the character is all still there. I fully believed this Han and the later Han could be the same character, giving a level of prequel consistency that has on occasion been missing in Star Wars films. I’m looking at you, backflipping super Yoda.

Of course, the rest of the cast is excellent as well. I don’t think I need to spend any time convincing you that Donald “Childish Gambino” Glover is probably the most perfect casting choice in the universe for Lando; as soon as everyone heard this casting choice, it was just collectively agreed this was the most perfect casting imaginable. Lando really steals the show when he’s onscreen which is the least surprising sentence ever typed out. Chewie, of course, is as good as ever, but is that really a shock either? What’s really a shock is how good the supporting cast is. Beckett is the least surprising with how good he is, because he’s Woody Harrelson, a man who just exudes greatness. Qi’ra, on the other hand, is a bit more shocking, seeing as she’s one of those love interest characters who is obviously doomed by canon despite this, she’s given quite a bit of characterization and depth, to the point it really is kinda sad things between her and Han don’t work out. Then there’s Lando’s droid gal pal L3-37, who despite the stupid name and a rocky start actually becomes very amusing and enjoyable as her screentime progresses. Dryden Vos is a suitable villain for a story like this, with Paul Bettany giving a great performance. And then there’s the badass space pirate Enfys Nest, who sadly I cannot go into great depth without spoiling; just take my word for it, Nest is awesome. Overall, this is a really solid cast of characters we got here.

One of the best things about this film, though, is just how fresh it feels why still incorporating all sorts of old ideas. This film actually canonizes a lot of stuff from the Legends continuity, so if you were sad about some of that stuff seemingly being rendered non-canon, well boy are you in for a treat! Planets, areas, even parts of Han’s backstory, all of it appeared in the old EU before appearing here. For some of the more fresh stuff, we get a lot of cool new alien and droid designs, and while there’s obviously some CGI mixed with practical effects, it’s not ridiculous, and when we get cool aliens like Therm Scissorpunch, the Summa-verminoth, and Lady Proxima, it’s really hard to complain. There’s stuff here for everybody, old fans and new. You can’t really complain about them not caring about fans anymore now.

Sure, there are some really corny moments and some dumb, nitpicky things here and there, but that’s really in line with the spirit of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films this movie most emulates. It’s just a fun, exciting adventure film showing how everyone’s favorite lovable rogue got his ship, his best friend, and learned the tricks of his trade, and it doesn’t try to overachieve and push things to new heights, which is a problem I have with The Last Jedi. This movie knows what it is, and it just wants you to have some fun. Casual fans will love the exciting thrills and the backstory, and longtime fans will enjoy all the shout-outs to the expansive lore of the series and appreciate the cameos and appearances of some characters, particularly a certain villain who has a brief appearance at the end. This is just a seriously great and fun film, which isn’t really something I’ve been able to honestly say about Star Wars in a while.

People who initially wrote this off and have seen it have reacted positively to it, so I guess not all hope is lost for the salty Star Wars fans out there. But the fact so many wrote this off due to the overblown hateboner for The Last Jedi is just ridiculous to me. Give this movie a chance, because whatever you feel about Star Wars right now, this will probably improve how you feel. Don’t go in expecting a reinvention of the franchise and just go in expecting a fun time like A New Hope or Raiders of the Lost Ark and you’ll be golden.

My only real issue with the film is that they did not once reference or use this song at all:

youtube

Come on, would it have KILLED them to play this over the credits?

#Review #Movie review #Star Wars #Solo #solo: a star wars story #Han Solo #Lando Calrissian #Disney #action #adventure #sci-fi

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charmed- · 6 years

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Hey Charmed Fandom

Hey guys, long time no post (sorry, life has hit me like a bus, I hope I can make it up to you guys soon)

So, I'm sure a lot of you, if not all of you, have seent he trailer for the reboot of our greatly loved and cherished show by now.

I know a lot of you are not happy what what we've seen (so far) and that's totally fine and I can respect that. I get exactly where you're coming from. I have a few things I want to say about the whole situation.

But I have also seen so much hatred towards the new cast members. Especially for the fact they are not white. And I am seriously disappointed. You have every sing right to be mad the original cast is not back and that the networks did not listen to your views and opinions, but a lot of you need to chill the f**k out.

I've seen so many racist comments and sh*t about these ladies. That's not cool. Honestly, f*ck y'all for that. As a latino, I am so sad that so many of you will weapnize these girls skin colors and ethnicities into your anger and outrage over a damn show to. It's bullsh*t and I am sick of it.

Most of y'all are bitter the original cast/story is not in the reboot, I get it and tbh I was too at first, but c'mon, who wants to watch the same story over again. Besides, we all know, as of 2018, no matter what the og cast as said, they are not on good terms and a revival/reunion is just not going to happen. These girls are not to blame for it.

And another thing. Being a latino, I know first hand, that not all latino people look the same. Hell, my siblings and I look NOTHING alike. We come in all colors. So for you people saying Macy is "too black", y'all need to chill the f**k out alright. Alyssa is most definitely not the same shade as Shannen/Holly/Rose but y'all never complained about that. Shannen literally has nearly black hair and blue eyes, nothing like the other women on the show. And again, I heard no complaints? Not all races and ehtnicities look the same. As someone who has gone through life hearing people tell me I am "lying" that my siblings are my siblings because they have darker skin than me, it makes me sad that you'd imply that people cant look different and be related. Also, that you would use something such as race as a weapon against someone. That’s royally f*cked up.

Btw, for you folks who think this show is "propaganda" and "pc" because the cast is not white, shut up, white is not the default. Everyone deserves inclusion. A story can be told through different races/genders/sexualities/etc. Get a grip.

It just makes me super angry that these girls, WHO HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG BY THE WAY, are being targeted with racial slurs and sh*t. Stop, be respectful, and don't be a racist, it's not that hard.

Now that is out of the way.

You can hate this new show (though let's be real you have yet to see it, a trailer cannot do an entire show, that hasn't even been filmed yet, justice), that is well and fine. You have every right. Do you. But don't attack these girls for doing their job. They are all clearly really excited about it, give them a chance to show you what they come up with.

I also want to ask that charmed fans out there, be respectful of others who have a different opinion of the new show. You don't wanna watch it? Don't. You don't like the new story? Cool, great for you. You wish they brought the old cast back in some way? Me too, but sorry guys, it's not gonna happen. But don't go telling or charmed fans they are fake or disrespectful for wanting to check the new show out or supporting it, that's childish adn you aren't some snowflake for being "OG CHARMED ONLY!!! THE ORIGINAL POWER OF THE THREE IS THE ONLY POWER OF THREE!!! THIS IS SJUST A BAD COPY!!!" Ya, cool for you, go eat a snickers and watch the original show.

This show does not negate/erase the old show. Let me repeat, THIS SHOW DOES NOT NEGATE/ERASE THE OLD SHOW. The original show will still be there. It always will be.

If this reboot sucks and crashes & burns, guess what? The original Charmed will still be there.

If the new show does great and gains a great group of fans, old and new, guess what? THE ORIGINAL CHARMED WILL STILL BE THERE.

Let's at least give this show a try. It is a new and fresh spin on the original story.

I've also seen a lot of you complain about the trailer, and cool, you can do that, but don't claim these girls are "terrible" actresses from ONE teaser trailer of a PILOT. Give them a chance The original pilot for the original show was awful, not just some of the acting. Don’t base an entire show off of a pilot trailer, or even a pilot for that matter.

As for people saying the cgi is “bad” and was better in the 90′s version, lmao y’all are just salty and lying let’s not even front. But still, they JUST got a budget from being picked up, give them the opportunity to impress you. CGI has come a long way, I’m excited to see what the magic looks like in this one.

One thing I don't like the "feminist" angle they are pulling with the new show, that is no fault of the actresses, blame the cw for that choice of wording, because we all know damn well that the original show was all about feminism for it's time. This is a new time, feminism changes with time, I hope people understand that. Many will argue the original show wasn't as feminist as it could have been, of course, I agree, but in the time that it was, if was very much feminist. Don't let these new headlines about the new show being big on feminism, diminish the fact the original show was all about strong and powerful women that supported other women.

I know some of the old cast is not on board with the show, that's fine, they have every right. But you don't see them attacking these ladies for telling their charmed story with this new show, so you shouldn't either. Wish them well. Shannen and Holly both have, despite Holly not being in very big support of the show, she wished them well. It's called respect you guys, c'mon.

Let them have their shot. Shannen/Holly/Alyssa/Rose got their shot, let these ladies have theirs.

Be respectful. If you don't like something, or even everything, about the new show. Totally cool, 100%, but don't attack these women on twitter and be d*cks about it. The original show didn't go anywhere, it is not erased. Just say your piece, respectfully, and move on.

And I'm not here to start up arguments. Nobody is right and nobody is wrong, everyone has right to opinions. But even still, you don't need to be cruel about it. Don't go trying to make these girls lose their jobs they are really excited about and their show cancelled, y'all are being petty.

And a lot of people are angry that the new cast said they haven't seen the old show. Though I'm sad they haven't, mainly because I want them to feel the magic I felt growing up watching it, which I'm sure a lot of you can relate to, it doesn't mean they are being disrespectful to the original because guess what? This is a new show (WAHH, OMGGG??? WHO KNEW) These new characters have nothing to do with te characters from the original show. I don't see what people are so stuck on that. It's like you cannot grasp the point of the show being "another take" on the original story, it's not that hard to understand.

I mean let's be honest, if they tried to be too much like the original, y'all will roast and complain. If they don't make them anything like the original, y'all will still complain. It's a lose/lose situation when you're bitter about it. If you go into it with an open mind, you might like it. And might not and that is okay.

If you love the original charmed so much, great, go watch it, tweet about, tweet the stars about it and tell them how much you appreciate and love these characters (without attacking the new characters/show). But don't belittle these new ladies and tell them they are "ruining" the og show, because they are not. And be respectful to them, wish them well, if you'd like, and move on. Don't have something nice to say to them, don't say a god damn thing at all to them.

Also, if these ladies block you on social media, I'm about 98% sure you deserved it. The charmed fans I have seen, are being cruel to these ladies, without any reasoning and it's not cool. Don't be a brat because you didn't get your way with how things turned out. Wish them well and move along.

BTW This blog is and always will be about the original Charmed, that won't ever change. But I hope that you guys welcome this new show and it's cast with an open mind and open heart, I know a lot of fans will. But I also know some won't. I hope they do though because hey, they just may surprise you.

Please don't reblog this and start to argue, I'm not here for it, I just wanted to state my word on the negativity and hope that we can all be respectful. This isn’t a “you’re wrong, I’m right!!” post, I’m just asking you guys be open and be respectful.

Now, I'm excited for this new show and I hope you guys are too. I'm sure these ladies will work hard, along with the rest of the cast, to bring you something magical. I wish them well and look forward to what they have to offer to the Charmed universe.

I think Macy will be my favorite sister, what about you guys? :)

#I'm sorry if this is long I just needed to say that #tired of y'all racists coming out of the woodworks #I know most of the fandom is not like that but some people are and they're just exposing themselves so let them #be nice to these ladies #and be nice to each other okay #I'm not tagging this #I'm not here for you bitter og fans coming at me for having a positive attitude on the reboot y'all can kiss my ass

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tigerlover16-uk · 6 years

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what are your thoughts on the most recent chapter of the manga?

Meh?

I’ll be honest, it was probably the best chapter of the tournament so far if only for the fact that it wasn’t ridiculously rushed to the point of spoiling every major development like all the others and the action was pretty decent. Last few chapters Toyo felt like he was getting a little sloppy with some of his art, but this one looked a bit better.

Seriously, the fact that only two minor characters who were already fodder got eliminated this chapter and that the story actually seemed to be taking it’s time setting up Kale’s power up almost gave me whiplash compared to the last chapter shoving in as many big eliminations as it could for the sake of rushing through stuff.

Again, fight was pretty good. Part of me feels a little miffed that so far Caulifla’s mostly been a punching bag for other characters, between Cabba easily slapping her around when he went super Saiyan in her introduction chapter and her getting wailed on by Golden Frieza here. By this point in the anime she’d eliminated a few people by herself already. But hey, at least she put up a good fight and actually seems competent here, so that helps. It’s more dignity than the Kamikaze Fireballs, 18 and every other woman in this manga has been afforded so far.

I’m a little unsure how to feel about Kale, honestly. I know a lot of people will probably prefer how her hulking out here was portrayed compared to the anime, because it was handled awkwardly there, but really I don’t know if this portrayal of Kale is actually an improvement yet.

The problem in the anime was that Kale didn’t have a backstory or anything much to explain why she was so painfully shy, depressed and emotionally… unbalanced, shall we say.

The intent with her having an episode when she thought she was worthless and Caulifla would abandon her in favour of seeking training from Goku wasn’t a bad idea, but we only had minimal set up for Kale’s character and while there were some cute moments between them, I don’t think we the audience were given enough time or reason beforehand to get invested in the character and her relationship to Caulifla, so her breakdown came off as more of a narmy overreaction to a lot of people more than anything.

I understood the intent. Kale’s clearly a depressed young woman with severe self esteem issues and some self-loathing. Caulifla seems to be her entire support system, being the person who mentors, looks out for and encourages her, when Kale isn’t shown to have anyone else close to her.

With this information in mind, it’s kind of understandable why she would overreact the way she did… she thinks she’s inadequate and a burden in a situation like the ToP, and given her clear mental issues it’s understandable that when she sees Caulifla ignoring her and having fun with Goku, she would get paranoid and assume the worst.

Kale’s momentary breakdown in the anime is actually fairly realistic and kind of terrifyingly depressing when you really examine and think about it… but again, we barely had time to know Kale or get invested in her, and we have no catalyst for why she’s like this and barely enough time to establish why Caulifla’s so important to her, that the whole thing just feels rushed and a bit laughable by the time she goes full Broly in episode 100.

If they had just had an extra episode before the tournament giving Kale a backstory and giving us more insight into her character, why she turned out the way she is, and fleshing out her and Caulifla’s relationship a bit more beforehand, we’d have had a much stronger character arc for Kale if everything else remained the same, because everything else done with Kale’s character in the anime was mostly fine the way it was.

In the manga so far… I’m not quite sure what Toyotaro is going for. A lot of her self-esteem issues have been downplayed and her meekness is barely there. Rather, she’s honestly just really strong and capable even in her base form, though she hides that fact because she doesn’t want to ever show up Caulifla given that she respects Caulifla for taking her and everyone else in Caulifla’s village in.

She might come off as less whiny to some people who found her meekness annoying in the anime, being more brooding than anything, but personally she just feels like she has less personality as a result to me.

I don’t quite like how her and Caulifla’s relationship is being written either. In the anime Caulifla was very supportive of Kale and clearly cared about her a lot… in her manga appearances so far, she feels borderline indifferent to her and seems to doubt her more than anything. It feels like there’s less of a bond between the two and Kale’s attachment to Caulifla is more of an obligation and sense of duty than anything, which is a shame because all things considered I liked how their relationship was handled in the anime and think it was a lot more interesting, despite my earlier issues I brought up.

I guess for what Toyotaro was going for, Kale going berserk here is handled well. It’s set up perfectly fine with a sense of rising tension as Caulifla’s fight with Frieza escalates before he goes gold and starts thrashing her and Cabba, and Kale going super Saiyan and beating him up for all that does feel cathartic, especially when I remember how many salty fanboys were calling for Frieza to torture her and Caulifla back when their episodes of the anime were airing.

It’s built up pretty well and I guess a bit less narmy than in the anime… but so far, I don’t really feel like there’s a lot to this version of Kale compared to what the anime was going for with her character. I don’t know, later chapters could develop her further and do a pretty good job developing her character, but I’m still convinced that her character development and the Kefla conflict were probably Toei ideas and there’s still a good chance Toyotaro’s just going to eliminate her following her rampage in her berserk form, reducing her to nothing but a Broly reference.

Which would stink because it would be a massive waste of potential, but who knows, maybe Toyotaro actually will take his time and actually flesh her out better than the anime… but from what I’m seeing, I’m not confident about the results so far, personally. She just feels blander, if anything.

I guess I could also complain about how Frieza honestly feels a lot less threatening and dignified now after that beating, even if I did kind of enjoy it. True, he got beaten up by Toppo in even more brutal fashion in the anime, but that was during the last leg of the tournament after he’d spent most of the tournament being seemingly on top of things and an intimidating presence. Seeing the beat down he got here less than halfway into the tournament supposedly and that his golden form apparently isn’t even on par with Goku at blue anymore, unlike in the anime, it kind of diminishes Frieza as a potential threat to me.

I guess other than that I don’t have any big complaints. I could nitpick stuff, like how Dercori didn’t get to show off any of her cool magic powers she had in the anime before being tossed out, but that’s a minor detail and it’s not really important.

Honestly as a set up chapter, it was alright. Wouldn’t call it anything great, but I think it mostly did it’s job alright despite some concerns and it was fun to read, but I think the next chapter or several involving Kale will be more telling of how her involvement in this version is going to be executed.

#dragon ball super #dbs #kale #caulifla #frieza #dragon ball #dbs manga #toyotaro

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aquaquadrant · 6 years

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Little brother au is GREAT but now I’m wondering— how would the moon cult! au cast react to canon selves?? or, I guess, since it’s a canon continuation— other aus??

apologies for the delay! i wanted to make sure i took some time to answer this one. but oooooh man this one’s fun, cause i can exclusively look at my other au’s involving perilune!

under the cut due to length :3

spirit au (here) - this au was developed through a series of asks i got, wherein varian and rapunzel are immortal, winged, celestial spirits that are separated when they crash land on earth after a battle with zhan tiri. they find eugene and perilune, a couple of mortals born with the rare ability to see celestials, and must reunite on a cross-country road-trip while dodging zhan tiri followers and police detective cassandra.

mc!var would be a bit weirded out by his celestial self, tho he’d definitely admit the wings are cool, and the fact that spirit!var practically considers spirit!raps his sister would throw him off a bit (cause he’s still tense with his raps). the perilunes bond over their magical bois, and the eugenes over their sun goddesses. mc!cass is slightly salty spirit!cass gets to be a full-fledged officer on the force. “so what, in this world being the captain’s daughter-” “he’s called the chief of police” “-isn’t grounds to get benched? must be nice.”

superhero au (here) - this au also got its start via anon asks, and explores varian as an anti-hero trying to solve a government conspiracy to save his father from weird alien rocks, while staying off of magically powered do-gooder rapunzel’s radar.

mc!var would be like “hey…. buddy…. this isn’t the way to get him back. trust me. also can u please show me how those gauntlets of yours work those are sick” and sh!var would be like “what do you know you’re from the medieval ages but yeah totally i can make virtually any chemical compound with the press of a button isn’t it cool”

mc!peri’s got some great tips for sh!peri to help varian grieve in a… healthy and productive way lmao. same with the rapunzels. mc!eugene would just be so annoyed with sh!eugene like “hey pal, the flynn rider phase isn’t a good look on you- us- whatever. trust me.” meanwhile, mc!cass thinks sh!cass is badass and the eugenes fear for their lives.

cinderella au (here) - this au, from @ghosta-r and currently being developed by an anonymous writer, is a continuation of canon where varian, post villain arc, is sent to live with a distant relative who turns out to be cruel, abusive, and exploitative. perilune, the child of a travelling knight, runs into him one day and the rest is history.

mc!raps, eugene, and cass would be horrified that this was happening to cindy!var and would immediately square up with his uncle (and alert the cindy!gang back in corona like “wtf don’t u do background checks on people”). mc!peri is stuck on the fact that cindy!peri has a father, “wow what’s that like???“ and mc!var would see this tired, lonely, beaten-down version of himself and be like “…. protect?? must protect???” (self care is helping an alternate version of yourself throw off the shackles of abuse, kids).

modern au (anything related is tagged modern!au) - this is less of a solid au, more of a concept, really; what would they be like in modern times? so in all honestly, modern gang is pretty chill. perilune is rapunzel’s adopted sibling, varian’s their boyfriend, everyone’s just living their lives. truly, the au where Nothing Hurts until quirin falls into a coma rip anyways!

mc!var would, of course, be fascinated by the tech of the modern world. modern!var would prob bond easily with him, but also be concerned? like, “is this guy okay??” and in all honestly modern!peri is the same with mc!peri, like “oh sweetie who hurt you.” mc!raps is like “hmm should i adopt perilune? would that be weird?? eugene,” and meanwhile modern!cass is like “woah i should get a sword, guys” while modern!eugene weeps. what’ve you done. just, the modern!gang is (especially by comparison) so laid back and Mental Stability Goals, so they’d prob just get the whole mc!gang in a big circle, modern!raps makes tea and is like “alright you guys, let’s talk about your issues.”

this was a super fun question, thanks so much for asking!

#rapunzel's tangled adventure #rta #tangled oc #mooncult!au

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surveys-at-your-service · 6 years

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Survey #134

“i got detention ‘cuz i made a face; nobody believed me that it’s stuck that way.”

If you were to die today would your life be complete? No. How good is Coca-Cola? It's my second-favorite soda. Who was the last person you took a picture with?  My niece Aubree <3 Do you have a bad temper?   No. Do you know anyone who is pregnant right now?  One acquaintance, one old friend off the top of my head. Have you ever had someone pick you up off the ground and carry you? Mom when I passed out. If you were in the hospital, do you think any of your exes would come see you? Girt probably would, and he's the only one I wouldn't have a problem with visiting. If you were kicked out of your house, would the last person you texted take you in? I'm sure they would, but it's more realistic I'd live with my dad. If you were immortal for a day, what would you do? Skydive. What fictional place would you most like to go to? Yo can I go to Azeroth. Who has impressed you most with what they’ve accomplished? UHHHHHH. I'm honestly not quite sure. But Mark is like super high on the list, if not #1. I'm not well-informed on a lot of people's accomplishments lajsfdaowe. What’s something you like to do the old-fashioned way? Hmmmm. Good question. What is one thing you really want but can’t afford? Lmao dude I want so many expensive things atm. What is the most impressive thing you know how to do? I almost snorted reading this question because like do you honestly expect something impressive of me. I... guess I understand Sony Vegas well? What are some of the turning points in your life? Uhhhh meeting my ex, the divorce, discovering my passion for photography, the breakup, re-uniting with Dad, r e c o v e r y. What’s your cure for hiccups? NOTHING. NOTHING WORKS. Don’t you think it’d be cool to see a colossal squid? FUCKING NOPE THEY ARE SPAWNS OF THE NIGHTMARE REALM. What kind of steak do you prefer? When I ate meat, I liked medium well. Has anyone ever cheated on their significant other with you? Yes, allow me to (not) tell you about my stupid 12-year-old self. Are you fascinated by outer space? *cue the Mark "Space is Cool" mix* Do you answer your phone when it’s a number you don’t recognize? Never. When washing your hands, do you wet your hands or put soap on first? Put the soap on. When was the hardest you ever cried? What was the circumstance? The night of the breakup. I had left the house to walk to Jason's, and Mom got in the car and kept driving in front of me to stop me (I was too practically catatonic to run). Eventually gave up, she drove me home, and when she opened the door, it was my goal to run to the kitchen and slit my throat, but the moment I made the action to run, she pretty much tackled me and I sobbed my lungs out for like 30 minutes. Fuck that entire night. Who were your last 3 Facebook messages from and what do they say? "lol but hey thats the world we live in lol well goodnight honey and i hope to speak to u again" from Leslie, "How quaint O:" from Girt, "Its okay :)" from Amanda. Who was the last person to comment on your Facebook status? What does the comment say? Sara saying "YEP" when I shared a picture of straight people dating versus lesbians and it was spot-on. Which do you use the most, smiley faces, kisses or hearts? Faces, probs. Do you like sweet or salty popcorn? Ohhhh both. But I've gotta side with salty. Have you ever had to put your hand over someone’s mouth to keep them quiet? Once. Have you ever fed a wild animal? Yes. The last time you packed, where were you going? Sara's. Do you believe in astrology? Definitely not. Do you have an accent? Not really, but you can pick up a southern tone with some words. Example, my "your" sounds more like "yer," usually. Has someone ever made you a Build-A-Bear? No. Do you sing in the shower? I have been a tad bit lately... I used to never. Are you satisfied with your current camera? My phone camera is SHIT, and I need a new actual camera. 55-200mm lens is broken, the other one's automatic focus setting is and I'm not great at manual focus. Have you ever been in a choir? In Catholic church, yes. Does it bother you to have dirt on the bottom of your bare feet? Y E S Has anyone ever told you that you have a big butt? I literally have the flattest ass of any female you'll ever meet. Do you often skip breakfast? Pretty much daily now, yeah. I'm fasting and don't eat until 11, so breakfast's passed. Last person who drove you somewhere (besides your parents)? Nicole. Who last grabbed your behind? I'm sure it was Chelsea being her crazy self. Do you eat raw cookie dough? Yeah dukes up salmonella. Do you watch Grey’s Anatomy? No. Would you survive in prison? No. I would find one way or another to kill myself. Do you drink? Smoke? Do drugs? Why, or why not? Rarely, no, no. I drink usually in celebratory settings to loosen up some and sometimes just because I like the flavor of weak, fruity alcohol. Smoking's gross, drugs are ew. What was the first cigarette you ever smoked? Never smoked. Are you scared about the end of the world? If I'mma be in it, hell yeah. But it's not something I actively worry about because I don't think it'll happen in my lifetime. Do you prefer landmarks or street names when being given directions? Landmarks. I don't know street names for shit. Do you read the prologues in the beginnings of books? Yes. Where is one place that you’d never be caught dead in? Never be caught dead in, ever... uhhhh... nothing's coming to mind right now. Oh wait. Probably a strip club. Apple Jacks: yay or nay? YAY. Do you have a favorite Scooby-Doo movie? Yeah, but I don't remember which one. ;-; It's that one where the girl says her name is Mary Jane and Shaggy goes, "That's, like, my favorite name." Totally went over my head as a kid lmao. Have you ever met a guy for coffee? No, I hate coffee anyway. Who is your pet most attached to in your family? Teddy's most attached to me, I'm the only one who has any physical contact with Venus and she trusts me, Bentley is bonded with Mom, and Mitsu is still apprehensive of anyone. Does the last person you shared a bed with mean anything to you? The whole world and more. What do you normally do when you’ve had a really bad day? Cry, have a shit attitude occasionally, a nap is common, talk to Sara, binge my favorite Markiplier videos. When is the next time you will wear a dress? Hm. Maybe this summer if I'm confident enough in my body by then lmao. On the main page on YouTube, what’re the three recommended videos? 8-BitGaming beating SCP: Containment Breach, a DanAndPhilGAMES video of Golf With Friends, and then an 8-BitRyan vid of the full release of Raft. Do you know anyone from Canada? Yeah, my former roommate's ex. Are thongs sexy? Yeah, but oml I know I couldn't wear one. Did you grow up in a healthy environment? I wouldn't say "healthy," no. My dad was an alcoholic at the time, parents always fought, and our neighborhood was dangerous. Heavy rain or heatwave? Heavy rain, easily. Fuck the heat. You have a choice to shoot your father or die, what would you do? I hate these damn questions, but I'd rather die. My father deserves the longest and happiest life possible without the betrayal of his daughter. If killing yourself meant saving the world, would you? Yeah. It's a lose-lose situation for me; if I didn't, I'd still die if the world's gonna end. Who knows your most darkest memory or secret? Jason and Mom should know, and whoever read those specific surveys. Who was the last person you almost went out with? Meh. Juan. We talked and hung out once in... late 2016 I think and I was pretty confused as to how I felt about him. Meanwhile, he hasn't kept it a secret in the least he's liked me since freshman year. He's always treated me like a gentleman should, but I know the dark and disgusting parts of him. Glad I decided against it. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, or The Beatles? Stones. What does your grandma call you? Just my name. And what do you call your grandmother? Grammy. Would you rather have a pool or a hot tub? Pool. Do you think ‘everything bagels’ are disgusting? No, but I have to be in the mood for one. Do you find serial killers fascinating? I wouldn't call them as a whole fascinating, but what has to be going on in their brains to create such grotesque desires and creativities. Do you have high blood pressure? No. Have you ever pumped gas? No. I'm 22 btw lmao. Have your parents ever caught you drinking? I mean Mom's seen me with a drink when she didn't know I'd gotten one, but I wouldn't call it "caught" since I'm allowed to and I made no effort to make it secretive. Do you prefer writing by hand or typing? Typing. Writing makes my carpal tunnel act up quickly, and besides, typing's way faster. Think of one of the biggest decisions you've had to make in your life. If you made a different choice, how different would your life be now? Panicking and telling Mom when I overdosed. I took way more than what I should've taken of a cold medicine I can't even look at now, but I don't think it would've killed me based on how I felt, but then again, the fluids or whatever I got to purge it could've saved me; however, I feel like I would've killed myself through another method if I didn't tell her. It all led to the psychiatric care I needed. Have you ever taken a course on CPR? No, but I should. Do you wear a watch? No, I don't even own one. When are you at your most energetic? A little after waking up. Just gotta get over the initial drowsiness. Do you like playing cards? If so, what's your favorite game? I don't really enjoy card games. I liked Magic: The Gathering tho when I was with Jason, but I wasn't that good at it considering it's got like a billion rules. I'd still play with someone who knew how to, though. I loooove the PS3 version that was made for it, it was much easier and I found it relaxing. And I adore the artwork like jfc. What are your parents’ natural hair colors? What is yours? Extremely dark brown, black, dirty blonde but turned to brown. How do you react to random strangers suddenly trying to make conversation with you? I get nervous. Do you like Slim Jims? YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS MAMA. Have you ever been in a castle? The Disney World castle, if that counts? Would you rather write a mystery or love story? A love story. Are you afraid of getting shots? No. I don't like them, but. What do you currently hear? "Pour Some Sugar On Me" cover by Ninja Sex Party. What’s one text that you saved? Two texts from Sara that I love way too much. Have you ever cut your own hair? No. What’s your favorite color combination? Probably orange and black bc Halloween. Did you share a locker at school? No. Have you ever sang karaoke? No. How old were you when you went on your first date? Huh, I dunno. Just the guy and myself? Probably dinner with Jason at 16? Has anyone besides your family seen you naked? Yeah. Would you rather have strep throat or an ear infection? Holy fuck, after my last ear infection? Strep. Where was your first job? GameStop. Have you ever been to a night club? No. Do all good things really come to an end? No, not all. How many people do you trust with your life? Three. Are you too kind for your own good? Don't think so. Have you ever held a baby? Yeah. What's your favorite '90s TV show? The Nanny. What are you favorite book series? Warriors. Favorite superheroes? I know he's technically an anti-hero, but does Deadpool still count? If not, uh. Batman I guess. Would people consider you more immature or mature? Mature, probably. Would you say most of your friends are older or younger than you? Younger. If you have a significant other, do you get jealous of people a lot? She knows I was insecure as fuck in the beginning. Now, nope. Who was your best friend in the fifth grade? Ummm I think Quiata? Do your parents still help you financially? I don't have a job. So. Have either of your parents ever been in trouble with the law? Don't think so. Do you have a preferred brand of bottled water? Essentia. Thanks for not having it, NC. Are you more prone to overthinking things, or being too impulsive? Hunny I overthink if I have to pee or not if it's not a massive need. How bad are your worst cramps on a scale of 1-10? Eh, maybe just a seven thanks to the pill. Have you ever thrown up from cramps? No. List three people you had a hard time forgiving. JASON, Dad, Mom multiple times. Who was your first celebrity crush? Jesse McCartney. If applicable, what form of birth control do you use? The pill. But it's for cramps. Are you happy with your gender? Yeah. What gender do you identify as? Female. What gender were you born as? Female. Have you ever gotten high off a prescription medication? No. Have you ever used a tampon? Yeah. How old were you when your parents talked to you about puberty? I don't think it's something we ever properly "talked" about, but rather indirectly when Mom taught me how to shave and told me when to start wearing a bra. How many people have you known who were suicidal? Sadly, I think MOST people I know/most friends. What's your favorite pain reliever? Advil. Who has the cutest baby/babies you know? My nephew is literally the cutest child I have EVER seen. Do you have a lot of people blocked on Facebook? Actually yes, but most because Mom instructed me to block them when I was younger. A few are of my own volition. What color is your razor/shaver? Orange and white. What's your boyfriend/girlfriend's sisters name? She doesn't have any sisters. Do you like the sound of violins? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Would you be interested in going on a blind date? Even if I was single, no. If you formed an unhealthy habit, would it be smoking or drinking? Oh boy, idk. I think an alcohol addiction is more dangerous, but smoking has disgusting consequences. Have you ever bought a video game expansion pack? No. Do you wish YouTube had been around when you were a kid? Nah. I wouldn't want the risk of an earlier technology addiction. Do you remember preschool? Yes. What color(s) was your backpack in high school? Browns and black. It was a Ouija board design. What health conditions do you have? Physically, baaad dry scalp, dry af skin in general, inactive MRSA. I've been over my mental ones enough. Have you ever collected seashells at the beach? Yeah. Did you ever take dance lessons? Yeah, for many years. If you took dance lessons, what was your favorite style of dance? Modern. Have you ever worn a tutu? No. What was your favorite vacation that you went on as a child? Disney World. Have you ever had braces? Yeah. What is your favorite photo editing site? (or what do you use?) I don't use editing sites. I use Photoshop, Lightroom, or PhotoScape. How many times did you take your driver's test? I haven't yet.

#survey #quiz #questions

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wineanddinosaur · 3 years

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VinePair Podcast: How 2020 Changed Drinking Forever

This episode of the VinePair Podcast is sponsored by Tequila Ocho. Tequila Ocho is the world’s first single-estate tequila. Growing and harvesting only the very ripest agave’s from their family owned fields in the Highlands of Jalisco, one field harvested for each of their annual vintages. Where some take shortcuts, Ocho is made in the old-fashioned way and takes care to ensure maximum agave flavor in your glass. Every expression is certified 100 percent additive free, underlining the purity and nobility of this magical tequila.

Let’s face it: When we look back at 2020, Covid-19 and the seismic effect it had on the world will be the thing we most remember. The many ways that the drinks industry has changed as a result of Covid, as well as some changes that happened before March and the spread of Covid-19, also deserve to be remembered. From the sudden need for every cocktail lover to invest in their home bartending set-ups, to the explosion of takeout, delivery, and ready-to-drink cocktails, from tariffs once looking like the biggest threat to the drinks industry to multiple scandals rocking the Court of Master Sommeliers, it was an eventful year to be sure.

That’s what Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe dive into on this week’s episode of the “VinePair Podcast,” a look back at the major stories, trends, challenges, and even success stories that defined 2020. Plus, hear from the entire VinePair team about their favorite drinks of this most ignominious year.

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Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the “VinePair Podcast.” And Zach, we’re at the end.

Z: Oh my God.

A: This is the last podcast of 20 motherf****** 20.

Z: I look forward to never saying the numbers 20 and 20 consecutively again, except in regard to my vision.

A: Is “20/20” still on the air? The Barbara (Walters), “This is 20/20.” Because I feel at this point, it has to be canceled.

Z: Right.

A: No one wants anything to do with 2020. Also, I don’t know if you saw this amazing ad that was put up by I think the Mental Health Association today, there was an ad that said, “f*** 2020” and all these people saying, “f*** 2020” over and over again. F*** 2020. So, yes. I feel that way. I’m sorry if you’re really offended that I curse, but f*** 2020.

Z: Have you ever listened to his podcasts before?

A: I know seriously, but before we get into everything, a word from our sponsor of the last podcast of 2020, Tequila Ocho. And it is magical, as you’ve all listened to past episodes. Thank you so much Tequila Ocho for sponsoring. Yeah man, I definitely will drink some tequila in the next week or so. I plan to drink a little bit on New Year’s Eve, but I’m curious not only what you’re drinking now, but since this is the last episode of the year, what you drank this past week, I’d also love to know what you are planning to drink for New Year’s Eve. But first, what have you drunk up until now?

Z: I think the two most exciting things that I’ve had recently: One was, I taught a fortified wine class this past week and the plus and the minus to teach in a class like that is, there’s always leftovers for me. And the one thing about fortifieds is that they last, right? Typically for me, when I teach a class, it’s that night or the next night that my wife and I have to drink what we’re going to drink, or just give it up. With fortifieds, you have much more leeway depending on what you have. And so to me, the big thing that I have rediscovered, because I’m sure I’ve had it in the past, is I made a white Negroni. One of the things that I poured for this class was a manzanilla sherry. So this white Negroni was equal parts gin, manzanilla sherry, and white vermouth. And it is f****** delicious. What’s cool about it to me is, whereas the classic Negroni goes in that pretty bitter, citrusy, orangey realm, a dark Negroni, which I also really like, which uses amaro, tends to get even more bitter, earthy, kind of nutty quality. This white Negroni, the dominant flavor, besides the standard gin flavors, is a salty, briny, it’s fun. It’s a little nutty as well, but not in the way that an amaro-based nuttiness would come through, more like almond skin. I really enjoyed it. Then the other thing that I had was some Madeira, because it was also part of the class. Some 10 Year Old Bual. Even I, who love it, don’t drink it very often because how often do I really want Madeira? But it is one of those things where everything about it, from the crazy growing conditions on the island of Madeira, to the history is very cool, and I enjoy it and I hope that Madeira sales continue to exist so that people will keep making it because I would be kind of sad if they didn’t. What about you? What have you been into? And then I’ll come back. You tell me what you’ve been drinking then I’ll tell you what I got planned for New Year’s Eve.

A: Sure. First, I do want you to send me that white Negroni recipe.

Z: I will, I’ll post on the website.

A: Yeah. I’m very curious, man. ‘Cause maybe I’ll try to make that in the next few days. Gosh, what have I been drinking? So I have been doing this thing where I took a detox for the last few days, just getting ready for the push for the next week. I definitely have not been drinking, actually. But prior to that, and I guess everyone’s listening to this post-Christmas holiday. I do plan to drink a few nice things. We’re recording this the Wednesday before. I do plan to drink a few nice things, but that’s not what you asked me. You asked me what I’ve been drinking. What have I been drinking? Actually, I had this really fun thing where my wife and I, on Saturday night, we recreated our version of going out for Mexican food. We made a bunch of different Mexican food and then had a Margarita tasting. So I made three different Margaritas with the different tequilas and different ingredients. And that was really fun. It was like it would be on a menu. I’m really extra, so therefore it’s probably a little bit more than most people do, but that was super fun. And then on Sunday, I met up with a friend whose birthday it was and we did some freezing cold outdoor dining. But we went outside to split a bottle of wine and have some light bites. And I had this really cool orange wine from Soave, made from Garganega. It was weird, I’m going to totally butcher the winery’s name, but it was Angiolino Maule. And Sassaia was the wine and it was amazing. It was perfect because we had the person whose birthday it was, she’s really just a white wine drinker. But then it was cold and we were looking for something that had some body to it and that could really stand up to some of the different light bites you were getting. And so I saw there were some orange wines on the list. I talked to the guy that owned the restaurant. There’s actually this just really cute pasta restaurant in Fort Greene. We were talking to him for a while, and he was like, “look, this producer is really great. They’re not really well known.” And so I was like, “OK, well, I trust you. You’re Lorina Pacifica, you have amazing wines and delicious food, let’s do it.” And it was really, really great. And again, who knew that they were making orange wine in Soave?

Z: I sure didn’t but that’s super exciting. I’ll have to see one of these days if I can check that out. That would be cool.

A: Probably some f****** hipster. Anyways, so what are you drinking on New Year’s Eve?

Z: Well, typically, New Year’s Eve is this weird combination of things for me. New Year’s Eve is typically in the restaurant, one of our busiest nights. And last year, I was just thinking about this the other day, last year I was preparing for a very busy dinner service. And I was opening some large-format older wines that we had been sitting on for quite some time, and we had built this whole menu. And this year, my New Year’s Eve is going to be me and my wife and my son. And honestly, I might not even make it to midnight ‘cause I don’t really care to. But it’s also complicated because New Year’s Eve is also my birthday. And so we will still probably not be doing very much. I think we’re going to invite, if the weather isn’t terrible, a few friends and family to stand in our driveway at a safe distance and like have a glass with us in the afternoon.

A: That’s nice.

Z: But yeah, honestly, I haven’t exactly figured out what I’m going to make for dinner, which will go a long way to determining. But I am sure that there will be sparkling wine, knowing my wife and I. I’m also a little bit on the fence, I think I might make some eggnog. I’ve been telling my wife that I will make it for, frankly, years. This might be the year to do it, because what the hell else am I going to do with my time but make and drink eggnog?

A: If you’re going to make the eggnog, you should follow the Aaron Goldfarb model, and you should make it tomorrow and you should age it.

Z: Yeah. I’ve been thinking of that. I was like, “well maybe I’ll make enough that I can age a little bit of it in the back of the fridge and come back to it in three to six months.” Because we had a conversation about that, what feels like a lifetime ago, but maybe this time last year.

A: Yeah, he’s like a huge proponent of it. And I think it really does work. He did talk about it in The New York Times. I do think it’s a really interesting idea that like the eggnog gets better as it sits and all that stuff. So for me, obviously, I’m going to drink sparkling wine. At least one or two bottles. I have a few that I set aside. One being a bottle of Blanc de Blancs Pierre Peters that I’m really excited about.

Z: Always a good one.

A: Always a good one, right? But then, I’m trying to figure it out. So we decided what we’re going to do this year, which is different than years before. Naomi and I, in order to try to help support restaurants, are gonna order in. So normally, I always cook on New Year’s Eve, right? It’s too crazy for me to go out to restaurants. I mean, as someone who does not work in the industry now, but knows the industry well, it’s not a night that I want to be there. It’s just, as you said, it’s insane. So I’ve always cooked. But this year, we’re going to order it. I’m trying to figure out from where and what to do. And so I haven’t really thought a lot more about what I’m going to drink because I really haven’t figured out what I’m going to eat. But I definitely know we’re going to order in, so we’ll figure that out. I mean, obviously there’s like some insane things happening in New York. I think 11 Madison Park is doing a duck dinner that’s $450 per person that you can order in. Yeah, definitely not doing that. I would also like to support restaurants in my area. So waiting to see what places like Olmsted and things like that are doing. And Vinegar Hill House and whatever. So we’ll see. And then I’ll figure out what I drink. We’ve got something really fun, before we get into the year-end review conversations. So for those that listen to podcasts, you may be aware that we launched VP Pro. VP Pro is the email newsletter that is specifically designed for people in the trade — whether you work on the producer side or you work on the server side, right? So you’re on the floor, you’re a bartender, you’re a somm, you’re a server, you’re an owner, or you are someone who is a maker, right? So you’re a producer, you’re an executive, whatever. VP Pro covers the gamut of the business of alcohol. We’ve launched this really cool newsletter along with all the content. That’s the VP Pro newsletter that you can sign up for. Just go to VP Pro on VinePair to sign up. And if you refer three friends and they also sign up, then you can ask a question that we’ll answer on the podcast. So we have a question right now from Liz Barrett, who is a CSW, and she asks us this Zach: “Why do you think tequila sales are en fuego right now compared to sales increases for other spirits?”

Z: Well Liz and everyone else, I think this is a question that will actually kind of feed us nicely into the rest of the conversation about the year in review. But I think one thing that we definitely have seen from the early days of the pandemic through I think still till now, is that while people have sort of shifted a lot of their consumption home, obviously necessarily, they’ve done so in piecemeal ways. And one of the things I think we’ve seen, in the early days of Covid and through till now is people stocking up on and going back to things that they’re relatively comfortable with. We discussed this in a podcast a couple of weeks ago with Jesse Estes, about the familiarity that people in this country have with tequila. Most everyone in the U.S. has experiences with tequila, certainly early in their legal drinking age, if not before. And I think it makes total sense. I think it has two components that people love. It’s familiar but it also feels a little bit like a vacation. You, yourself Adam, were just talking about making three different Margaritas at home on what I’m imagining was a cold-ass December evening. And that is the kind of thing that tequila can do for you, that a lot of other spirits can’t do. It can help provide that transportation. And the Margarita, in particular, is a familiar drink to almost everyone and not super difficult to recreate at home. And that gives it a leg up on some of its brethren in the spirits field. I don’t know. Do you have other thoughts beyond that?

A: I do think tequila, in a lot of ways, has gotten past its reputation as being that cheap s*** you drank in college. There are so many high-quality tequilas on the market now. I think whether this is correct or not, there is a perception of a health halo there — that it is a better spirit for you than other spirits. That it’s cleaner, that it is less likely to give you a hangover. I will be the first to tell you that for me, personally, tequila does give me a hangover less than other spirits. I don’t know why. Maybe I just drink less of it when I do drink it. But for the most part, if I am out drinking tequila and get a little tipsy, I don’t feel that terrible the next day. Whereas if I drink a lot of heavy brown spirits, I do. I do tend to drink blancos and reposados when I drink tequila, I’m not heavy, “like, let’s drink añejos”. Maybe if I was dealing with that, I’d have the same impact. This isn’t an endorsement that I think tequila is healthier, but I do think that there is that perception of the market. And I think then the one thing that’s really true that you nailed, is the vacation of the glass. I think that is 100 percent what is fueling a lot of this. It’s this idea that it reminds you of a place that is beautiful and warm and that has a delicious cuisine and that is just completely different than what you’re experiencing now. And I think tequila is prime to be a massive spirit for a very long time in the U.S. I don’t think it will anytime soon overtake whiskey and whatever. But who knows? It’s still to be determined for sure. I think that there are just so many people that love this spirit. So hopefully that answers your question, Liz.

Z: I want to add one last thing, which you kind of touched on, but I think this is relevant to the upcoming conversation. And that is you’re right. There is now in the marketplace in the last few years, there are recognizable and identifiable premium and ultra-premium brands for people. And one of the trends of 2020 for sure was premiumization. God, that word is hard to say. Five or 10 years ago, it was hard to find for most people premium tequilas, especially at their grocery store or local liquor shop or whatever. Now, there are many of them. Often, they’re associated with celebrities, but even the ones that are not, are more recognizable to people. And therefore, for the person who in March or April was like, “let me just get my cheap, everyday tequila.” And then in June, July or August was like, “you know what? I want to step up.” Tequila was better positioned to do that in 2020 than it had been in previous years. And so I think that’s the other piece of it that that’s relevant here.

A: Agreed. So, alright, man. Let’s get into this year in review. Next week, obviously those listening, we’re going to do our predictions for 2021. I feel so much better to say that date than 2020. But f*** you 2020, it’s time to talk about you, s*** year. So, year in review. I think the biggest thing to kick off with this is the perfect segue to talk about, which is at-home bartending. No one expected this to be to happen this year, right? No one expected Covid. I think in our conversation, Covid is going to sort of be in the background the whole time. None of us need to do a Covid recap segment in this conversation, right? I’m like, “holy s***, Covid.” But I do think that it changed a lot of behaviors and one of the biggest things that changed was at-home drinking and especially at-home cocktail making. One only needs to look at the exploding sale of vermouth to realize that as a proxy, to realize that people are drinking and making cocktails at home a lot more. But what has really been interesting when we look at the VinePair insights data is that while vermouth has exploded and not just in sales, right? I’m talking about traffic to the VinePair site, where people are reading about vermouth content, are trying to learn about vermouth, or are looking for the cocktails you would make that include vermouth, right? If you look at the traffic to our cocktail library, which is up by hundreds of percentage points in Covid, the top cocktails are getting traffic and have two, three, or four ingredients, right? So at-home mixology is booming, but still for the simple classic cocktails, right? The Old-Fashioned, the Manhattans, the Martinis. These are all in the top 10, by the way. The Martinis, the Daiquiris, right? Lime juice, simple rum, vermouth, gin, right? Vermouth, Angostura bitters, rye. That’s what people are looking for. So, while I think that at-home mixology is going to continue post a sh**** 2020, and probably has caused a lot of people to realize they can make really good drinks at home, I do still think that doesn’t mean that they won’t go out for the more complex drinks, right? No one made tiki at home this year. Right? Well, maybe some people did, but most people didn’t. No one made their own bitters or again, maybe some but not most people. And then also their own flavored syrups and all this stuff to create crazy concoctions. There’s not a ton of people smoking cocktails. I think with all of that, the height of high-end bartending will be what people go out for. But I wouldn’t be surprised that people are now comparing the Negroni that they have out to the one they make at home. Or the Manhattan out to the one they make it home. Which is going to be different, right? And it’s going to also make sure that everyone, when we go back to bars, ups their game. I think that that trend has been amazing to watch over the last year. And no one expected it to come.

Z: For sure. For sure. And I think you and I will touch on this next week when we do predictions for 2021. So I’m going to try and be backwards looking for now. But know that yes, I agree with you. And well, I have some more thoughts. But as far as connecting to the at-home bartending in a way, and that dichotomy between what people were comfortable making at home and sort of being tethered still to the classics. I think one piece that was fascinating about this year was the proliferation, mostly to do with necessity and having to-go and delivery cocktails as well as the continued growth in ready-to-drinks. And so I think both of those categories were huge. I think RTDs we probably could have seen coming in that everything in a can has been getting more popular and understandable. And they fit, even in a pre-Covid lifestyle, people wanted to be able to do things outside. But the combination of mass closures of bars, or at least great limitations on them for much of the year, and the fact that lots of people want to be able to enjoy these great cocktails that even if they felt confident making a Daiquiri or a Manhattan at home, they didn’t feel comfortable as you said, with tiki or with elaborate ingredients or with tinctures and infused spirits and syrups and the like. I think that what is really cool about this is seeing a lot of iterations in the last nine months on what can be done technologically: how to preserve cocktails, how to distribute them, whether on a small scale, local level or a broader level. And I think that we’re going to see a lot of really amazing products that were in one way or another born this year, whether, again, out of necessity or not. And the other piece of it that’s really exciting to think about is, one of the hardest things about talking about cocktails, even for you and me is, you’re in New York, I’m in Seattle, and you can tell me until your face is blue about a great drink you had. But the honest truth is unless I go to New York, typically, I can’t have it. I’d be happy to fly out there when it’s safe and have the drink. But the thing that could be really exciting about this is there could be a little bit more really great cocktails, even at bars we’ve talked about in the past, cocktail bars looking to expand their business beyond the capacity to have in-person on a given night. And I think as people get more comfortable with takeout and delivery cocktails, packaged cocktails, and potentially as laws continue to change or remain loosened even once Covid restrictions are taken off, hopefully, I would be super excited to find out that in a year or two, we’re talking about getting great cocktails from a cocktail bar in New York delivered to me in Seattle. I don’t think that is a pipe dream. I don’t know quite when that will happen, again, that’s more of the prediction side of it, but I think that iteration and innovation in the cocktail spaces was a huge part of 2020.

A: One hundred percent agree. You hear people talking about them in two different ways, right? Ready-to-drink and ready-to-serve. I think both are going to be huge. Ready-to-drink is, for those listening, when we’re talking about things out of the can, right? So, literally ready-to-drink. Ready-to-serve are these larger formats. I think, Zach, you’re also talking about, which is a cocktail that comes in basically a 750. And you can put it in the fridge and you pour it over ice, you can have it for a dinner party. It serves six to eight people. Watching places like St. Agrestis go into box has been really interesting. The fact that I can tell you, Zach, that the St. Agrestis Negroni is delicious and that you could go online right now and order it, and it will be delivered to you in Seattle, is really cool. We can have these shared experiences. And I think that goes back then to where the opportunity truly will be, which is we now know if we combine the two ideas and again, this is more of a prediction, but, I wasn’t gonna include it in the next episode, so it’s fine. If we include the fact that most people are making simple cocktails at home and there’s this opportunity to make them more complex cocktails and put them in a bottle and then send them out — boom. I think that becomes really interesting for people, right? It’s been a really crazy phenomenon.

Z: All right. So let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about a piece of this that I think connects, but is broader than just spirits or cocktails. And that’s just the incredible explosion of direct-to-consumer everything. This is a situation where, f*** you 2020, but I think if we’re looking for silver linings, I think one of them could potentially be that this could be the year that really breaks the logjam that’s been holding back more direct-to-consumer sales. Some of it is just by necessity, and people have gotten familiar with ordering everything online, getting everything shipped to their door. Some of it is the other side of the coin, which is a lot of businesses, whether they’re wineries, breweries, distilleries, whatever, cocktail bars, et cetera, have learned that if you can’t deliver something to someone’s door, your business might not exist. And certainly during a pandemic, but frankly, moving forward in general, people have gotten used to the ease and the comfort of it. And I don’t think that’s going to change, either. And I think the last piece of it is that there’s an ongoing fight, like everything seemingly, for a sense of equal access to the consumer market for larger and smaller players. And the thing that I’ve been really heartened by is that you’ve seen a lot of different people, whether they’re in beer, wine, spirits, or all of the above, trying to develop platforms that connect smaller producers to consumers in ways that at least from my perspective — and I’m not a producer, so I don’t know — but from talking to a few of them and talking to some of these people who, who have developed these platforms or are working on them, they do seem to centered around providing a service in a way that isn’t as exploitative as we found GrubHub and DoorDash and UberEats to be. And that would be a boon to the industry at all levels.

A: Yeah, man. I think this is the year when we realize the producers need to have a more close relationship with their end consumer, right? It’s the time when we realized that you can’t rely on the person at the restaurant to be that ambassador for you. If you can now make a sale to them directly, you can have that relationship. You can own that relationship. You can reinforce that relationship. That’s been really cool and that’s going to continue. I think there’s going to be a lot of brands we don’t even know about yet that are going to be born in the next few years, purely as direct-to-consumer brands at least to start. You may not even see them ever go into a wine shop or a restaurant first. Then once they have a market share, they go. NeueHouse is this perfect example of one of those. And people who listen to podcasts this year heard that interview. I think there’s going to be a lot of them. So yeah man, we’re taking it in a little bit of a twist. I think one of the biggest things to think about this year, just prior to Covid, was the tariffs and what happened with them. Obviously, a lot of them are still there. We’ll see what happens within the new administration and whether these tariffs stay or go away. We cannot deny that on top of Covid there was this other really sh****ty thing that happened to the wine industry and the spirits industry with these tariffs really hitting the market pretty hard. There are a lot of people out there that are in a lot of pain because of them and they f****** sucked.

Z: Yeah. Well and it’s one of those things where you think a lot of people were going to take a beating this year because of Covid. And if you were a business who relied on importing and distributing, especially niche, European wine and spirits, you probably were selling most of those niche, European wine and spirits to restaurants and bars. And you were probably not selling a lot of them to grocery stores and wine shops and liquor shops — maybe some wine shops for sure. And those are the kinds of businesses that obviously have just been cataclysmically affected by Covid. And you combine that with the added reality that you probably took on additional costs. You probably offset some of the cost of the tariffs on your end if you’re the distributor or the importer. So you had to potentially pass them along to a much smaller potential audience. It would have been bad had Covid never happened. We would have been talking about this at the end of the year and been like, “man, this is really bad for the industry.” And obviously it got eclipsed by a much bigger catastrophe. But I agree, I hope once things on the Covid front are returning a little bit to normal and hopefully we have a new administration that isn’t as obsessed with these, I think, deeply counterproductive tariffs, we may see some relief relatively soon. But it is something that we all as a part of the industry and as consumers need to be aware of and push on soon because it’s not helping, it’s hurting. And even if it’s not as visible as the big, big, big issue facing the restaurant and wine industry right now, it’s still an issue for sure.

A: One hundred percent. Let’s keep with wine and talk about the other big thing that happened this year, which is the Court of Master Sommelier scandal.

Z: Oh my God. Yeah, boy, scandals, actually, I think it’s fair to say, because it’s true and easily forgotten in light of the horrific news that broke about the widespread sexual predation and assault throughout the court and things that were both committed by Master Sommeliers, and to a larger extent and not investigated fully or treated seriously. But there’s also a big crisis in the community about a total lack of response to the Black Lives Matter movement and a real rift especially with the previous board of directors and the leadership of the Court of Master Sommeliers, which is almost entirely older white men, and the membership, which includes aspiring Master Sommelier candidates, which still includes plenty of white men but they’re younger and also joined by a cohort of women and people of all sorts of racial and ethnic backgrounds. And it was a really, really, really, damning set of crises. And I think it has shaken a lot of confidence. We’re in this weird holding pattern in the industry and the profession of the sommelier where so much of the work that people do is just not possible right now. So no, nothing has really changed as of yet, as far as I can tell, and I’m relatively plugged into that community. But I think that it’s going to continue to be an issue. The tensions are still there. The frustrations are still there. The new board of directors will be given a chance to make substantive changes. And we are, again, in this period where it’s hard to do anything because there’s, no one’s doing exams or anything now. There’s no way to do that safely. And so it is very difficult to get a handle on whether things have changed and will change. But it’s something to monitor and something that was big this year. And coupled again with just a sort of broader issue facing the profession. The question of whether sommeliers have outlived their usefulness in a restaurant industry that’s going to be very different, and we’ll talk next week about that. But definitely was a rough year for the Court of Master Sommeliers.

A: Totally, man. What else you got?

Z: The last thing that I wanted to throw out there as an end of the year wrap-up was, for you and for me and this podcast is, one of the things that happened in 2020 as a result of the Covid crisis, not to be too self-congratulatory, but we spent a lot of this year talking to a lot of people throughout every part of the beverage alcohol industry — whether they were the CEOs of major corporations or the owners of tiny cocktail bars. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as aware of what is going on throughout all of the industry in beer, wine, spirits, et cetera, as I do now. Again, I don’t want to toot our own horns too much. You all can agree or disagree. I do think it’s been a remarkable year for covering this industry in the way that we do. And obviously in print at VinePair as well as on the podcast. But I hope for you, Adam, it’s been felt that way. And for listeners, of course, that you feel like this coverage has helped open your eyes and shine light on places that you might not have been aware of or brought some attention to something that you yourself are doing or are passionate about. And I think it’s our intention very much to continue to do this into the foreseeable future.

A: 100 percent, yeah. Hopefully everyone who listens has found value in this. We definitely plan to do this moving forward to keep talking to people and understanding what’s happening in the industry. I think we’ve got a long road ahead of us. There’s some exciting things coming, obviously, with 2021 and I can feel energy, which is really interesting. These last few days watching people get the vaccine and are excited for what potentially might come in June, July, August of next year, when hopefully we have a large majority of the country vaccinated. But we’re going to be there the whole time. We want to talk to industry people. If you are some of those people, please reach out to us. If you have ideas of who we should talk to, please reach out to us, [email protected]. Zach, before we go, you put together this amazing package that I can’t wait to share with listeners. We asked all of our employees at VinePair, if they wanted to, to submit us an audio recording of the best things they drank this year. And I’m really excited to share it, because they drank some delicious stuff. If you’re a listener of the podcast and also a reader of the site, you may not get to hear a lot of these people’s voices that often. So it’s really great for you to get to know some of these people that really help make VinePair sing and have been responsible for VinePair’s amazing growth over the course of its history, but especially this year. And have been people that I’ve just come to really love and respect who work at the publication. So Zach, let’s play the package.

Z: Let’s do it.

Tim: Hi, my name is Tim McKirdy. I’m a staff writer at VinePair, and looking back over the last 12 months I realized it’s kind of impossible to pick the best bottle that I tried. But I’d like to share the most memorable drinking experience I had this year, and that came from the GlenDronach Kingsmen Edition. This is single-malt Highland Scotch, distilled in 1989. And I realized shortly before trying it, the bottle of whiskey had actually been distilled three days after I was born. So sitting down with something that had been on this planet for almost exactly the same time as I had, I found that to be a very profound experience. From a more technical point of view, it had depth and complexity, but also still great youth. I’d like to say that same thing about myself right now. But this was a wonderful whiskey, and one that I will no doubt remember for years to come.

Nicole: Hi, I’m Nicole, and I’m an editorial intern at VinePair. One of my favorite drinks of 2020 was a 2018 Viognier from an Okanagan Valley winery called Ex Nihilo. I had it back in February, and it stayed with me as one of my favorite white wines of the year. I enjoyed it mostly because I’ve never tasted anything remotely similar from another British Columbian producer. Most whites from the area are fruit-forward with high acid, but this Viognier was aged five months on lees with sweet floral aromatics and ripe stone fruit flavors. It was luxurious, elegant, and so delicious.

Keith: Hey guys, Keith Beavers, tastings director of VinePair and the “Wine 101 Podcast” dude, what’s up? A favorite thing that I’ve drank this year? I would say the entire Top 50 List of VinePair. OK, can only pick one. Right. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Oh fine. Paso Robles. That region just blew my mind this year. It was new to me. Never really dived into it, dove into it? Anyway, Denner Vineyards Dirt Worshiper. Oh my, this wine is awesome. It’s mainly Syrah with a white wine grape called Roussanne blended in. And it’s smooth and it’s earthy and it’s spicy and it’s herbaceous and it’s powerful, and it’s got dark fruit but got great acidity. It is just a very unique wine for California and a really good representation of the awesomeness going on in Paso Robles.

Katie: Hi, I’m Katie, VinePair’s editorial associate. My favorite drink of 2020 has definitely been the Bloody Mary. During the early days of the pandemic, I was making them for my pod basically every weekend. At this point, I’ve definitely perfected my recipe. I think the Bloody Mary is a drink that’s often pigeonholed as a brunch or breakfast cocktail, but I’m a huge proponent of making them and drinking them any time of day, even with dinner. When I look back on the early days of the pandemic, when things were so uncertain and kind of scary, I think making and sharing Bloody Marys with my roommates was a high point for me and something that definitely took my mind off of Covid.

Josh: Hey, I’m Josh. I’m one of the co-founders at VinePair, and my two favorite bottles from 2020 were both for cocktails. Plantation 3 Stars for making Daiquiris and Fortaleza blanco for making Tommy’s Margaritas. Just fresh, delicious cocktails that were easy to make, and really enjoyed them all summer long, starting on July 4 through Labor Day.

Jenny: Hey everyone. This is Jenny Riddell, I am director of brand partnerships and events at VinePair. And this year I started discovering sour beers. One of my favorites is Grimm’s Sabro Pop! Pop-style sour. It’s fruity, light, and refreshing, and not to mention the can has a fun, colorful design, which perfectly complements this delightful beer. Grimm is a Brooklyn-based brewery, so I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more of their releases in 2021.

Courtney: Hi, my name is Courtney. I was an intern at VinePair. My favorite drink of 2020 is Ranch Water. It’s my favorite because of how easy it is to make and how light and refreshing it is, especially on a hot summer day. And there’s pretty much never a time where I don’t have the ingredients already on my bar. They’re just such simple ingredients that I pretty much always have readily available.

Gerry: Hello, my name is Gerry Selian and I’m a freelance junior designer for VinePair. One of my favorite drinks that I had this year was actually a cocktail that I made at home. The funny thing is I was trying to make a Margarita in the first place, but I ended up adding and changing stuff so that it’s not really a Margarita anymore. I started out with Cazadores Tequila and added in a passion fruit syrup and a grapefruit flavoring from a powder that my roommate had and we just decided to add it in. And then after that, I top it out with a seltzer and then use it as a mixer. Everything mixed together so well, and it tastes amazing. It will definitely get you through the night…

Danielle: Hi, I’m Danielle and I’m the art director of VinePair. One of the best drinks I had this year was actually before quarantine. My boyfriend and I were at Scarpetta for dinner and I had the San Remo cocktail. I believe it was a mixture of Four Roses, Campari, Carpano Antica, St. Germain, and fresh orange juice. It was so good that we bought all the ingredients during lockdown and have made it a bunch of times at home. So here’s to hoping to drink more of these at actual bars again in 2021.

Jeff: Hi there. My name is Jeff Licciardello, and I’m the director of marketing here at VinePair. The best thing I drank this year is less of a specific bottle or brand, but more of an experience I had earlier in the year. Back in February I joined staff writer Tim McKirdy on a crawl, tasting, and ranking the best Cosmos from New York City bars featured in “Sex and the City.” As we hopped from bar to bar waxing poetically on the balance of cranberry and citron vodka, I couldn’t help but wonder, were we enjoying the bar crawl so much because of the ridiculous nature of it, or did this experience represent exactly what this industry is about? Exploring the world through the lens of drinks and making great memories with the amazing people you meet along the way. While times have certainly changed, and the Cosmos I make at home aren’t quite the same, I look forward to when we can all be together again and enjoy comical, but delicious bubblegum pink cocktails all night long.

Emma: Hi, I’m Emma Cranston, and I’m an editorial intern at VinePair. I tried a lot of phenomenal wines this year, but I have to admit that one of my favorite drinks of 2020 were the hard kombuchas by Local Roots. I was so surprised by how fresh they are and how they accomplish everything that I no longer get from hard seltzer. They’re really closer to a sour beer or saison, so I can’t wait to enjoy them through the spring. If you haven’t tried them yet, I seriously think they could be the next orange wine of 2021.

Zach: Hey, this is Zach Geballe, co-host and producer of the VinePair podcast. And my favorite thing I drank this year was a magnum of Pinot Gris from Alsace that my wife and I brought back on a previous trip there. While I don’t know if it was necessarily the absolute best thing I drank this year, it was my favorite just because of that connection to a wonderful trip that we had taken a couple of years prior. The experience of bringing a large bottle of wine back, and the fact that we did it at Thanksgiving with a very, very small gathering of immediate family made it feel a little bit more festive and celebratory than pretty much anything in 2020 had any right to be. So while I certainly hope that in years to come this end-of-year podcast features some, yeah, more exciting travels and dramatic bottles of wine, beer, spirits, whatever, in 2020, just something that felt like it connected to a pre-pandemic time was victory enough for me..

Erica: Hi, I’m Erica Duecy, former editor-in-chief at VinePair. My favorite wine from 2020 was a white blend called Heart of Gold from Edmunds St. John. For the past 30 years, winemaker Steve Edmunds has quietly been making wine his way in Berkeley, Calif., with fruit from the Sierra Foothills. This wine tastes like beaming rays of sunlight with golden apricots and sea spray. No single bottle brought me more joy in 2020, and you can snag your own for under $25.

Adam: Hey, this is Adam, VinePair co-founder and CEO. I drank a lot of really great things this year. It was a weird year for me, as it was for everyone else. I went through a lot of phases. I started the pandemic really getting into making cocktails at home, made a lot of really amazing Martinis, especially with gin like Monkey 47 and Ki No Bi. Then I got into a phase of Daiquiris and fell in love with Ten To One and turned to amazing rosés. And I also decided I should drink a lot of incredible wines I hadn’t had in a long time, like Cogno Barolo and stuff like that. And then I really turned back to beer. It was one of the things I was missing the most in the pandemic is that draft beer. And you got to get reacquainted with breweries I love in Brooklyn, like Threes, and KCBC, and things like that. So that was really a roundabout way of saying that I drank a lot of really great stuff this year. In a year that was hard, it’s hard to say there was one thing I drank that was better than anything else, I think. What I’m most thankful for in this entire year is all the incredible wine, beer, and spirits, producers that just keep making delicious stuff that helped get me through the pandemic. Thanks to them. Cheers to everyone out there, and here’s to a much better 2021.

Cat: Oh, hey there VinePair podcast listeners, I didn’t see you there. This is Cat Wolinski, senior editor. And one of my favorite drinks in 2020 was Calavera, an imperial stout from Browns Brewing Company in Troy, N.Y. I loved this beer because it really surprised me. It’s aged with lots of tasty things like chili pepper and vanilla and cinnamon, and it’s super smooth and it’s not barrel-aged and yet still tastes so rich and delicious. What I also loved about it is that it’s a crowd-pleaser. Every person I’ve introduced it to has loved it. It’s also one of VinePair’s 50 Best Beers of the year, so check it out.

Adam: Wow, that was awesome. Hope that you enjoyed that as much as we did. Zach, it’s been a crazy year, but I got to say, man, throughout this entire year, it’s been just a real treat to get to record this every single week with you. You’ve been an incredible co-host, and it’s been just amazing to digest what’s happening in a world that’s been changing literally every single minute of the day. This has been one of the most challenging years that I think any of us have gone through. But hopefully those of you that listen to the podcast have found value in what we do. And I know certainly for me, Zach, I found value in being able to talk about everything with you, so thank you very much.

Zach: Yeah same here.

Adam: And yeah, everyone listening, we’ll see you in 2021 for our predictions episode. And Zach’s gonna actually have a fun little project for you after the credit. So stay tuned and listen. If you’re a die-hard listener, you’re going to hear what those instructions are and for everyone else, see you in 2021. And Zach, I’ll see you next week.

Zach: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair is produced by myself and Zach Geballe. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Zach: Hey everyone. Thanks for sticking around. We’d love to get the feedback of our dedicated diehard “VinePair Podcast” listeners on what they think the trends of 2021 will be in the drinks world. And so if you can record a short audio file, either on your phone or computer and send it to us [email protected], we’d love to include it in next week’s episode. Just please make sure to include your name, your professional affiliations, if any, and keep it to 30 to 60 seconds so that if we can fit as many in as possible. Again, just give us a brief thought on what you think will happen in 2021 in the drinks world and we’ll add it to the podcast for next week. Thanks.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: How 2020 Changed Drinking Forever appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-podcast-2020-drinks/

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johnboothus · 3 years

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VinePair Podcast: How 2020 Changed Drinking Forever

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Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the “VinePair Podcast.” And Zach, we’re at the end.

Z: Oh my God.

A: This is the last podcast of 20 motherf****** 20.

Z: I look forward to never saying the numbers 20 and 20 consecutively again, except in regard to my vision.

A: Is “20/20” still on the air? The Barbara (Walters), “This is 20/20.” Because I feel at this point, it has to be canceled.

Z: Right.

Z: Have you ever listened to his podcasts before?

A: Sure. First, I do want you to send me that white Negroni recipe.

Z: I will, I’ll post on the website.

Z: I sure didn’t but that’s super exciting. I’ll have to see one of these days if I can check that out. That would be cool.

A: Probably some f****** hipster. Anyways, so what are you drinking on New Year’s Eve?

A: That’s nice.

A: If you’re going to make the eggnog, you should follow the Aaron Goldfarb model, and you should make it tomorrow and you should age it.

Z: Always a good one.

A: One hundred percent. Let’s keep with wine and talk about the other big thing that happened this year, which is the Court of Master Sommelier scandal.

A: Totally, man. What else you got?

Z: Let’s do it.

Zach: Yeah same here.

Zach: Sounds great.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: How 2020 Changed Drinking Forever appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/vinepair-podcast-2020-drinks/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-how-2020-changed-drinking-forever

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