[A sad violin song plays over an image of a sad hamster]
Pac: This doesn't have anything to do with me – I wear a blue sweatshirt, you're crazy, this mouse doesn't even have a sweatshirt, this hamster! [Reading chat] Am I a depressed hamster?
[ Transcript continued ↓ ]*
–
Pac: Actually– that's fine! I embrace that idea – of course I'm going to be depressed, are you crazy? [He hits his desk, then starts counting off people on his fingers] Fit is gone, Richarlyson is gone, Ramon is gone, Bagi and Empanada who were always there when we were there are also gone, I haven't seen them! It's just me and Tubbo, and sometimes Philza shows up.
Pac: I lost Chume Labs, I lost the Favela, I lost Murder Mystery, I lost Ilha Chume Labs, it's crazy! Look at how much I've lost, and I've gained nothing! Of course I'm going to be depressed, are you crazy?! How am I supposed to be happy?!
Pac: [Reading chat] "You have us Pac," that's true, thank you. No, that's true, sorry.
* NOTE: Please note that this is an incomplete transcript, as I was primarily relying on Aypierre's translation mod at the time and if I am not confident of the translation, I do not include it. As always, please feel free to add on translations or message me corrections.
I know it's a story, oh I know it's just a story. But why does it feel like my worst nightmare?
My Explorers of Sky Hero, Echo!
Lately I've been writing a study on her and this paragraph is taken from my rough rough draft. It's a more in-depth exploration of her character/origin/experiences and since I am a huge fan of the darkrai reincarnation theory, this is my personal take on the concept.
I think it's a bit poetic that Echo, in the aftermath of everything, winds up as a dark-type again (and one connected to the moon no less, the irony) as well. I mean, her timeline of lives has literally been this:
Darkrai (New Moon/Pitch Black) -> Human -> Eevee (Evolution) -> Umbreon (Moonlight)
A lot of her evolution into umbreon has to do with her personal trauma/amnesia and also significant influence from dusknoir (who she trusted and cared about), but deep down I feel like her evolution was also partially determined by the fragmented remnants of her original self. She even tried to evolve into leafeon, which obviously, did not work out as planned. Perhaps this is her past lives way of manifesting in her current self, though she is no longer the same pokemon anymore. Maybe it has something to do with self-forgiveness or acceptance? She still has a lot of healing to do, though.
Once evolving into a dark type, Echo slowly starts to regain some of her memories from her time as Darkrai. And Team Wish's new friendship with Cresselia, who is more perceptive than she has any right to be, gives Echo a lot of insight into exactly who she is. This spirals into Echo battling the reality of her past actions alone for a long time because how is she supposed to admit the truth to Sora? That she was the direct cause of their shared suffering? That she and darkrai are one and the same? That all of the pokemon of the future lived in an eternity of hell because she desired it? Of course, she keeps quiet for a long time out of pure fear-- because if Sora rejected her, she'd fall apart. It's a lot to keep secret but what else can she do?
And bonus!! Does Echo's shadow change during each night of the new moon? Hmm. Sure does seem like it.
I'm glad more people are pointing out how racist people's reaction to the Toshiro/"Shuro" Laios thing is because oh my god. Like okay hi. I'm an autistic white passing Japanese american. And while I haven't read the whole manga through, I have read bits of their confrontation and I adored it. Like it was really painful but it was also a misunderstanding that is so so realistic and I empathized with both of them.
The stoicism and really specific social rules are something I've had to navigate with my extended family, my Hijichan specifically. I've never had fights or blow ups with him over it, or anyone else for that matter, but being an autistic person who has lots of traits very similar to Laios' and growing up trying to figure out how to effectively communicate with my family- that whole scene, despite how difficult it was to read, was really cathartic. I adored it because I understood both of them and it was exciting seeing that very specific dynamic and how it could blow up written well. Like it was that bit that made me more interested in Dungeon Meshi as a whole because I felt seen in both of them. It is such a well done conflict and I'm obsessed, I was excited to see what other autistic people thought. And then it just turned into white fans completely woobifying Laios and acting like Toshiro is some deliberately ableist aggressor and dismissing the cultural context surrounding his behavior. And needless to say I'm not fucking impressed.
Baffling how many white people talk about loving manga/anime and Japan obsessively but when Japanese Media actually comments on Japanese Culture it completely flies over their heads or is deliberately completely and utterly ignored. I really do hate some of you and I will defend Toshiro Nakamoto until the day I die.
what i love about the Famous Actor Natori Shuuichi of it all is that...it's not just that he's famous and therefore widely recognizable wherever he goes. like yes that is very funny because he was an exorcist before he became a famous actor, which means he CHOSE, on purpose, a day job that would make it harder to hide his double life/secret identity from the hordes of his adoring public, but it's more than that. it's not just that he's famous, it's that he's famous specifically for being an ACTOR, aka a person whose job it is to dissimulate, to make believe, to inhabit roles and emotions other than his own. like he decided he was going to become as visible as possible (which again was literally not necessary! he could have gone into any other career for his day job!!) but in such a way that everyone would see him but no one would see him - they would just see his various made-up personas, including the Famous Actor Natori Shuuichi persona. i can't decide if he's a genius or if he just made so many absurd decisions that they canceled each other out and circled back around to working out. he's either playing 9-dimensional chess or he's eating the pieces. too soon to say.
The man o war, commonly mistaken for a jellyfish, is a colonial organism made up of zooids that have different jobs in the colony. This animal has a reputation for its painful stings that can leave a human in agony for hours. Its venom is held in its tentacles that are used for hunting and paralyzing fish to eat. Despite the potent stings, there are some animals that are unaffected, such as the blue sea dragon, a kind of sea slug. These creatures feed on other animals found in the open ocean, including the man o war and other toxic siphonophores. Not only are they immune to the stings, the blue dragon stores the stinging cells from the man o war to use for its own hunting and defense.
listen, i appreciate that not every movie needs to be a romance and sometimes the story is better without one. but wish was supposed to be a tribute to classic disney, the very first disney feature film was a fairy tale with a romance, the disney renaissance period was (at least partly) built on fairytale romances and romance in general, and the last time WDAS wrote a romance that was a) actually important to the story and b) not a pre-established romance that would obviously remain in a sequel, was with kristoff and anna in frozen (2013). and i just wish disney would vary things a bit more in general! like we finally got a classic ruthless villain again, why can't we have a romance that's not just in the background again too? we went from the renaissance period where every movie had romance as a central part of the story, to now where for some reason none of them can, and idk why it has to be that way. also, just, the concept of a romance between asha, just a regular girl, not a princess and not even so much as the king's apprentice, and the literal star she wished on who came to her in the form of a human boy, sounds extremely interesting and sweet to me and would've worked as a sort of callback to peasant x royal stories like cinderella or beauty and the beast but with its own unique twist! i also personally think that whether he was actually intended to be a love interest or just a friend, star would've been a way cooler character as a shapeshifter in human form.
if yall haven't seen it already, i super recommend this ongoing youtube series by the movie rabbit hole that unravels a lot of those instances where a movie claims to "have zero CGI". it really uplifts the knowledge that practical effects and CGI really go hand in hand, except that the CGI side is often left in the dust when it comes to acknowledging the work that goes into making these bombastic movies.
this is the first video, where he discusses multiple movies but mainly top gun maverick, one of said movies that claims it has no CGI.
youtube
the second video just came out, and focuses on christopher nolan movies, another set of movies that people claim have very little CGI.
youtube
in the future, i believe he also plans to cover the injustice that stunt performers often face, which is related to this topic. in pursuit of being able to say a movie "has no CGI whatsoever!" or that an actor "did all their own stunts!", you end up leaving out the CG artists and stunt performers, very important parts of the industry that are often hardly acknowledged while everyone goes nuts over how real and authentic the movie is. movies are a team effort! let's not leave anyone behind! especially not the people whom the movies literally could not be made without!