Critical Role Finale Feels

This should go without saying, but warning there will be spoilers for the finale of campaign 2. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. And with that….

*screams in Shadowgast and demi*

Ahem. Right then. Getting ahead of myself. 

Credit: @OGaelfox

There’s a lot to go over in the 7 hour long finale, but I’m mostly just really excited that everyone got a happy ending, especially a certain wizard boy I was very much routing for. Let’s break it down.

Fjord + Jester – There were so many good moments between them in this one. Jester nervously saying “I love you” and wishing she could take it back, then going to her dad for advice. Fjord setting up that romantic moment in the rain to say it back. The two of them hitting the high seas together. I am very happy they got their happy ending, and hope to see one of their adventures in a comic or some other form one day. 

Credit: @Liabra

(Side note – I was also happy to see the Parent Trap worked and Marion and The Gentleman were at least testing the waters to see what they could make work. Jester deserves to see her parents happy.)

Beau + Yasha – Beau got some closure regarding her dad and ended up being more respected than he in the end. Meanwhile, Yasha got some closure of her own, revisiting her tribe and being able to properly say goodbye to Zuala. They both rode off into the sunset together and got their happy ending as well. Not much to say there other than “I’m happy for them”.

Credit: @TriaElf9

Cad and Veth both went back to their families and also lived happy lives. I love the idea of Veth starting an adventuring camp for little ones, like her son Luc. 

Molly, I’m sorry, Kingsley, got to live the pirate life he missed and discover who he was. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him being a blank slate, but he turned it into an opportunity instead of a reason to mourn. I love the idea of him becoming king of the seas and living his best life.

Credit: @rosyglommart

And then there was Caleb. Of all the ships that potentially could sail, his with Essek was always the longshot for me. I hoped with all my might, but also understood that Caleb and Essek both individually had to work on themselves first. I was so happy to see them both accept that you cannot change the past, only learn from it. I was also very proud of Caleb that he didn’t try to alter himself to live a longer life with Essek. I know a lot of fans wanted it, but it would’ve negated the lessons Calab had learned about bending time and space to suit his needs. He accepted that he needed to live the life he was given and enjoy the moments as they came. I’m very proud of him. I also know there were some who wanted a more explicit showing of affection between them, but again, I think the way Liam and Matt presented it was perfect. At the end of the day all I wanted was for them to be together and happy, and they were. There was also some talk on twitter about Essek being demi which is how I identify so it felt very good to be validated in this way.

Credit: @Omegasama_art

I know I was very slow to warm up to this campaign, largely because of my attachment to VM, but also because it just wasn’t the type of story I usually connect with at first. The Might Nein did eventually hit those “found family” feels though, and I was especially validated seeing a wide variety of relationships presented in the end. We had MLM/Demi love, WLM, and a more “traditional” straight couple. Plus some Ace rep from Cad! And of course the group will always stay in touch despite going their separate ways. I can only imagine the future sending messages Jester has for them all. 

Thank you Matt and company for giving us these characters and making us feel all of the feels. Let’s do it again sometime. 


Shadowgast

I have a big long post on the finale that is going up on Monday, but the twitter discourse on one thing in particular has me needing to get some thoughts and feelings out. (Side note: Twitter is a terrible place to attempt to have meaningful conversations about sexuality.) Spoilers for the CR campaign 2 finale will follow. 

I’ve seen some critiques about how Caleb and Essek’s relationship was presented during the finale that range from polite disappointment to borderline acephobic. Let’s get into it.

The big issue seems to be that it was “ambiguous” if they were in a relationship or just friends. I have some thoughts on this. While I understand not loving the use of the word “friendship,” Caleb also said something along the lines of “I spend the rest of my days with him, if he’ll have me” which to me screams relationship. I get that MLM relationships are often presented poorly, but in a live play TTRPG nothing is planned out. Their feelings were never verbalized because it never came up. But every forehead touch or kiss on the cheek was a sign of affection, at least the way I saw it. And Liam even said on an episode of Talks Machina that Caleb was attracted to Essek but needed to focus on fixing himself first. I get the argument “if you need to clarify outside of the media then you didn’t do it right” but that applies to tv and movies, not a live action roleplay show that is not scripted. I’m sorry if anyone wanted to actually hear the words “I love you” come out of their mouths. At the point their relationship starts, they are two broken people who probably start off slow and build trust over time. Also keep in mind that they were at the end of a 7 hour session. Sorry if they were a little tired (physically and emotionally) and maybe didn’t words good. 

The other thing that really got to me is the amount of entitlement some of the fandom has shown when it comes to the stories Critical Role has presented us, especially when it comes to relationships. I don’t want to generalize that the whole fandom has been awful, but there’s definitely been more than a few bad beans crying they didn’t get what they wanted and tweeting at Matt and Liam they didn’t do it right. These are their characters. This is their story. It is not your place to tell them how to play their characters. One day they are going to decide this isn’t enjoyable anymore and take this beautiful world away from us, and we will 100% deserve it. 

I will close by saying, this bi demi girl felt so seen by this couple, and y’all almost had me in tears last night. I went from crying happy tears about demi rep to almost crying actual sad tears because I felt invalidated. We need to be better about politely asking for certain stories and rep without invalidating the relationships and stories we did get. Remember there are actual people behind the screens you’re yelling at. And especially remember what these nerdy voice actors tell us every week: 

Don’t forget to love each other.

Welcome to the Mighty Nein

Monday I mentioned some of my favorite moments from campaign 2 and that one in particular I would do a bonus piece on, so here we go. The following will have spoilers for C2 Ep 97 which was their C2E2 episode. It has only been slightly altered from its original text, which was written the day after the episode aired.

This episode of Critical Role had lots of laughs and two heart-felt moments and ended almost 3am local time so I had no time to process anything, especially THAT LAST SCENE.

Let’s start with how we got to the scene in question. Between high insight and some smart thinking from Liam, we get Frumpkin spying on “Lord Thane” and discovering he is really Essek in disguise. He’s got some secret dealings with the Martinet. Say what?? That reveal by itself had me reeling. I knew there was probably more than straight up BETRAYAL but was still shocked that Essek was the mole this whole time. I wasn’t sure if we’d get more of an explanation during the party, but I loved Jester’s plan to message Essek while around “Lord Thane”. You know what they say about the best made plans of the Mighty Nein though…. 

Everything falls apart thanks to Veth slipping Thane a paralyzer in his drink, but the Nein does a surprisingly good job of rolling with it and not drawing too much attention. And that brings us to the final scene for the night, where all the cards are on the table. 

This scene hit me in the feels in so many different ways. When Essek first starts talking, Matt does such a great job conveying emotion between the visible slump and inflection in his voice. Essek looks so deflated in these first moments that I immediately felt sorry for him. Caleb calling him “friend” when asking what he’s doing digs the knife in my heart a little deeper. You can hear it in his voice that Caleb is clearly hurt by this betrayal. Again, another beautiful bit of acting from these people. 

Everyone pitches in to drive the scene forward in their own unique way. Jester and Caleb do most of the heavy lifting asking the most questions, and add a mix of tension and levity by injecting their personalities into their tone. Caduceus helps with a bit of insight on his part during a moment where Essek pauses by saying, “If he says it out loud he’s not going to like who he is”. Way to break both Essek and the entire audience with that one. 

With that little push, Essek breaks down The Plan. He gave two beacons to the Assembly, for research purposes from what I gathered. When the Mighty Nein shows up to return one of the beacons, he decides he needs to keep an eye on them and oopsie daisy ended up liking them. He repeatedly says this is “Not part of the plan” and you can tell by the way he says it that he generally feels bad. Notice how I’m focusing on story here instead of acting choices? That’s because at this point I’m so immersed I can barely remember this is a bit of theater we’re watching. Nope, these people are real and I am very invested in their problems and what happens next. 

I’m also going to pause for a moment to say that as he’s describing why he first started keeping tabs on the Nein is when I realize how much I’ve fallen in love with Jester in recent episodes with one single response. 

Essek: I needed to make sure you didn’t get too close. 

Jester (singing): backfired

Me: Goddamn do I love her ❤️

Essek goes on to essentially say he already told them what his goals were, he just didn’t reveal until now how far he’d gone to achieve them. Caleb drops to his knees to force Essek to look him in the eye. This is the part I am obsessed with and probably will still be thinking about for a long time. I noticed the similarities in what Essek had been saying about himself and Caleb’s past, and apparently Caleb did too. Caleb was like Essek, but friendship changed him. “These people changed me,” he says earnestly. There are too many good lines from this speech to repeat them all. Liam is such a good actor, and it really came shining out in this scene. At this moment I notice all sound has been sucked out of the room. I almost forgot it was a live show, it was so quiet. It erupts in cheers as Caleb concludes his speech by kissing Essek between the eyes and saying, “Maybe you and I are both damned. But we can choose to do something and leave it better than it was before.” 

I’m not crying, you’re crying 😭 

Essek was a loner. He never had to worry about anyone he cared about getting hurt. Now he has this group of friends that clearly care about him and he cares about them and feels terribly they are now in danger because of his actions. 

As they move on to the resolution of this scene, it is revealed that there is no espionage plan regarding the beacon or the meeting. Those involved are just trying to put the pieces back together. You can hear the relief in Essek’s voice as he realizes the M9 are going to follow the plan and not snitch on him. 

As Veth mentions how much she’d like to be able to use this to get the others involved in trouble (Trent is one of the people involved and I’d also love to see him burn) I am wondering if down the road Essek will end up somehow helping Caleb in some kind of revenge or final showdown with Trent. The balance of power has definitely shifted, and Essek owes them big time for their silence. 

We close with three great moments that pulled at my heartstrings even more:

Essek saying he has “far more allegiance to the Nein than to his country or any Dynasty”

More talk of them being friends. They really drove that point home because he needed to hear it, and my heart was mush by the end. 

The final speech from Veth, which I took the time to copy down because I loved it so much, 

“You are a broken person who had ill intentions and wandered aimlessly into a path you had no idea how to complete, and yet somehow along the way you found a heart. You sound like all of us. Welcome to the Mighty Nein.”

I close with some final thoughts. First, Caleb had the chance to take down Trent with the information Essek gave him, but he didn’t take it. He chose friendship over revenge. Everyone in the group has grown a lot over almost 100 episodes, but he has grown the most. It’s incredibly heartwarming to see this broken, shell of a man get slowly put back together again through the power of friendship. Second, I praised Liam and Matt on twitter last night, but the entire cast deserves credit for their incredible acting. A lot of emotion was packed in that final scene. It was so good that I rewatched it again this morning. I was very slow to warm to campaign two, but now that the group has grown as people and is starting to become more of a family I am fully invested in this story and cannot wait to see where it takes them next. And I especially can’t wait to see what part Essek plays in all of it. This is one of the few NPCs I have truly fallen in love with, and while there are others I like plenty well enough, after last night I would die to protect my sad drow boy who finally found his family. 

Note: Future me now looks at this and smiles, because at the end of the day Essek was the only one there to help them in their final fight. He stayed true to his word that his loyalty was with them, and truly became a member of the Mighty Nein in the end. I’m sure I’ll have more to say after the finale tonight.

For now, don’t forget to love each other, and don’t worry, it’s almost Thursday. 

Monday Musings: Mighty Nein Edition

This week will see the end of campaign 2 of Critical Role, so I wanted to take a look back at the Mighty Nein and their journey. There will be many spoilers for all of campaign 2 and some for campaign 1. You have been warned. 

When the campaign first started I will admit that I had a hard time connecting to these characters. Campaign 1 meant a lot to me, but I’ve seen them play one shots and loved those too. I think the problem was that they spend a very long time keeping secrets and not trusting each other. When Molly died there were tears, sure, but I didn’t feel as deeply upset as when Percy or Vex died in C1 (and those characters were able to be revived). Over time I did start becoming more attached and invested, but it took a long time. I think right before when the peace negotiations were underway is when I started really getting into things, followed by Traveler Con to the end. Basically Laura Bailey won d&d with a cupcake, and Jester won my heart. 

credit: @LadyShinga

After that there are so many great moments. Caleb gave a great speech to Essek which I wrote a whole piece on because it was THAT GOOD. (I posted it on twitter but never here. Maybe that can be a bonus post later this week.) We got to see who the Traveler really was and meet Keyleth’s mom. Two great ships sailed that I was hoping for (Fjord/Jester and Yasha/Beau). And then there was Lucien. 

When Lucien first rose from Molly’s grave the entire fandom got excited at the idea of Molly coming back. Personally I loved the idea of them having to fight Lucien and come to terms with the fact Molly was gone, and worried the fandom would react poorly to this storyline. Last week was the Boss Battle with Lucien, and a failed attempt at a resurrection seemed to have the story end with Molly at peace. I could have been happy with that, but then Talisien had to pull a Hail Mary and get the second divine intervention from the Wildmother. Part of me feels like this is an appropriate ending, as the Mighty Nein now officially have nine members. Part of me feels sad for Molly going back to being an empty vessel. I hope this week we see him gain some memories of his friends and get to live his life the way he always wanted to – leaving the world a little better. We could all use that feeling of hope and accomplishment right now.

Oscars in the Time of COVID

I was going to make this week’s post about the Dragon Age series and why I love it, but then I remembered the Oscars were this weekend and I do love my movies. I admittedly wasn’t as familiar with this year’s listings, but I almost never miss this awards show and was curious to see what would win after a year of surviving a pandemic and the wave of protests we saw as people yelled louder than ever “Black Lives Matter”. I’m happy to see more diversity in both the nominees and winners this year. I’m sorry it took us demanding change, but isn’t that always how these things go? There’s definitely still work to do, however. (Best Actor and Actress both went to old white people when IMO others deserved it more, but admittedly I also am judging based on snippets seen and not whole pieces of work). I will take my wins where I can get them, and focus on what I liked about the show. 

In terms of the actual ceremony, it was quite different this year. I’m not sure I like not having a host, but I did like the setup of having people seated at tables instead of a more traditional theater. It made it feel less stuffy to me. 

In terms of the winners that stuck out to me: I did not know much about Sound of Metal until today but a friend mentioned it was one of their favorites for the year and it beat Soul for Sound and also won Best Film Editing so I am now intrigued and need to see it. The winner for Best Short I also had never heard of, but it’s on Netflix as part of their “Black Lives Matter” collection. I was moved by the speech focusing on the problem we continue to have with policing in America, and am glad Netflix helped uplift their voice. 

Time has no meaning for me anymore, so I forgot Tenet was part of this year’s slate of movies. I would have seen it in theaters, but at the time I didn’t have one open except a drive-in far enough away to not be worth it. It will be available on HBO Max in May and I’m looking forward to finally getting to see it. 

I loved the speech from the Best Supporting Actress winner, Youn Yuh-jung. She was funny and charming and genuinely surprised. “How can I beat Glenn Close?”  I want to be friends with this woman, please and thank you. 

Jon Baptiste gave a great speech too. I love watching him on The Late Show, I love his music, and I just generally love him as a person (at least as much as you can love someone you’ve never met). We have been in the same room though, as I attended an event he did at Carnegie Hall. I’m happy to see him get the win along with the rest of his team for Best Original Score in Soul. 

Speaking of music, the break we got with Questlove playing songs and quizzing people on if they were nominated or won awards was FANTASTIC and I especially loved Glenn Close playing along and having fun with it. Stuff like that is what makes the Oscars more than an awards show.  We also got a look at Questlove’s upcoming film Summer of Soul, which I will definitely be checking out. 

Mank got a lot of buzz this year, enough that I finally looked it up to see what it was about. Between the description and starring Gary Oldman (how did I miss this film, I usually watch everything he is in) I need to add this to my Netflix queue. It won for Best Production Design and Cinematography and was nominated for Sound, Supporting Actress, Director, Costume Design, Makeup, Original Score (that one Trent Reznor lost to himself, which is fun), Best Actor, and Best Picture.

I expected Sound of Metal to win Best Picture but it went to Nomadland. I was also surprised they did that award before Best Actor and Actress. I originally assumed it was to have Chadwick Boseman’s posthumous win be the ending note, but instead we got…. Anthony Hopkins? Don’t get me wrong, I love him but I don’t get choosing to end it on a lack of an acceptance speech. I also would have given it to Riz Ahmed for Sound of Metal if not Boseman. I was 100% sure he was going to get it and was left kinda stunned and disappointed. Overall I enjoyed it but the ending was underwhelming. 

As I watched the Oscars I wondered if I had been hiding under a rock this past year. So many nominees had stars or directors I usually follow very closely. I’m glad I watched the awards and got a whole list of movies to watch in the coming weeks. All but one of them is either currently streaming or will be soon. Here’s what I will be checking out (and possibly writing about) in the coming weeks:

Da 5 Bloods

Two Distant Strangers

Sound of Metal

Onward

Soul

Tenet

Mank

Judas and the Black Messiah

Trial of the Chicago Seven

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Of those, Da 5 Bloods, Soul, Onward, and Tenet were already on my radar. Others would have been if I had been paying closer attention. I’m looking forward to seeing what the Academy deemed the best of the best, even if this was a light year for film. Apparently it wasn’t as light as I originally thought. 

What films did you love this year? Let me know in the comments below.

Dragon Age 2 Musings

Yesterday I posted an article about the Derek Chauvin verdict in place of my originally scheduled piece. Today I give you the article on DA2 I was going to post.

I originally planned on making my next “Monday Musings” be about the Dragon Age series as a whole, but then David Gaider went and did a whole tweet thread about what he loved about DA2 and what he wished could have been, and it inspired me. 

Some brief background – DA2 was the first game in the series I ever played. My partner thought it would be the best introduction for me (Inquisition had not been out long, and we did not own it at the time). I’m glad he started where he did, because I think it helped me love the game without any comparisons and was a perfect way for me to fall in love with the world of Thedas. To date the characters and stories from this game are some of my favorites. Having said that, I knew that there was always the qualifier “it’s good for the time they had to work on it.” I always wondered what could have been, and today some of my questions have been answered.

It all started with a tweet thread and turned into pretty much everyone at BioWare reminiscing about their time working on my favorite game ever. Going forward there will be spoilers for DA2, especially the ending, as this was the change I was most fascinated by when browsing through all the stories of what had to be changed for one reason or another. Anyone who has played the game knows that it all comes down to a choice: side with the mages or the templars. Except no matter what you do, you end up having to fight both Orsinio (the First Enchanter of the Circle) and Meredith (the Knight Commander of the Templars). I have always sided with the mages, so I don’t know what it’s like from the other point of view. I always felt it was odd that Orisinio suddenly turns to blood magic with no prior indication he would ever consider it. I get that desperate people do desperate things when backed into a corner, but it always felt kind of forced and made me feel like no matter what I chose at the end of the day the lesson was that mages could not be trusted with the power they wield. It was revealed that this was not always how things were supposed to go, but Orisnio’s boss fight had been cut and they had to do something to weave everything else together.

It’s unfortunate this change had to be made, because it would have felt like our choices mattered more if it had resulted in different endings depending who you sided with. I also would love to have seen the implications (if any) for DAI with this addition. Especially since the mage rebellion does at least get mentioned if not come into play when you (spoilers for DAI) have to choose between recruiting the mages or the templars. What if Orsinio lived for those who sided with the mages in DA2? Would the mage rebellion have taken a different turn with him still around? We may never know, as I doubt this was considered given how much time passed between the two games. 

On the other side of things, Gaider said that if he had more time to work on the game, he would not have had Meredith driven mad by red lyrium. It was a story beat that was pushed on him to make her super powered for her boss fight, but it took away the legitimacy of the templar side of the argument. 

I wholeheartedly agree. I love the idea that the situation isn’t black and white, and both sides have valid arguments to make. I’m sorry that’s not the story they got to tell.

Overall I will always love DA2 for what it is, but do wish it had been given more time to be fully fleshed out. It’s nice to see some of the changes I would have made were originally intended. 

What about you? What things did you love about DA2? What things do you wish could have gone differently in the story? Let me know in the comments, and come back next week where I’ll dive into my thoughts of the franchise as a whole.

The Consequences of Our Actions

I have an article all written out for this week’s “Monday Musings” that I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday. I normally would have posted it today, but as I reread it to do some last minute edits, I realized I could not pretend like there wasn’t something monumental to talk about. So content warning, because we are going to talk about the Derek Chauvin trial. Tomorrow I will post what should’ve gone up yesterday.

By now you probably have heard the news that Chauvin was convicted on all 3 counts today – 2nd degree manslaughter, 3rd degree murder, 2nd degree unintentional murder. It took the jury 10 hours to find him guilty. It’s telling that I thought it would be a longer debate and was terrified the verdict would be “not guilty” despite the evidence. I’m relieved Chauvin will face the consequences of his actions. I celebrate this historical moment and hope it is the start of a real shift in policing in America. There’s so much work left to do, but I hope George Floyd’s family can get some level of peace or comfort knowing his murderer will not be allowed to hurt anyone else.

Tomorrow this space goes back to talking about video games and other nerd things. Today it reminds you BLACK LIVES MATTER and today we actually did something to make that more than just a slogan. I want to live in a country I’m not embarrassed by, one where people of color don’t have to fear for their lives. I know it will be work, but I believe we can make that country a reality, starting with holding police accountable for their actions.

Monday Musings: The Mass Effect Trilogy

I’ve been spending the past few months working my way through my first playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy, and I finally finished it last weekend. I figured that would be the perfect first edition of Monday Musings. First, let me introduce you to my character.

Jane Shepherd was an infiltrator, spacer, sole survivor. She didn’t sign up to be a hero, but she’d step up when no one else would. Her best friend was Garrus, and her boyfriend was Kaidan. She stayed loyal to him even when his faith in her wavered. I think I can safely say I will never love a Shep as much as I loved her, but I do plan on replaying the series to try a few different choices I didn’t in my first run. When I was playing ME2 I decided I would likely want to replay with my save for 1 but try romancing someone instead of waiting for Kaidan. Because of multiple things involving ME3, however, I think I need to give the game some time and space before I do that. It might feel backwards, but I want to look at some of those things first then go back and review the series as a whole. The reasons for this is, I’d like to end on a positive note, and ME3 is a game that tears your heart out through your throat.

I mentioned wanting to revisit ME2 and romance someone rather than stay loyal to Kaidan. The someone I wish I had romanced was Thane…. so you can imagine how much it hurt watching him die in ME3. He cared so much about us as a friend, I can’t imagine how much more painful it is saying goodbye as a former lover. As soon as it happened, I turned to my partner and asked, “we get to stab Leng in the face, right?” (It may have not been in the face, but I did get to stab him and it was very satisfying).

Despite the emotional rollercoaster, I was still prepared to immediately replay the second and third games, until I got to the ending. I gather the ending is controversial among the fandom. I know my partner has voiced his disappointment, but usually I find it very hard to truly hate anything. I went in fully prepared to make my own judgements on how things wrapped up. I do not usually hate things, but I hated the ending of this series. There are a few problems I have with it. 1) it feels extremely convoluted. I found myself having to try to break it down to my partner and make sure I understood what was happening. 2) It made me feel like most, if not all, of my choices came down to a multiple choice problem where Shep is left to decide the fate of the universe. 3) I was fully prepared for Shep to die for the cause. The way it happens feels incredibly unsatisfying, at least to me. I’m all for the hero sacrificing themself so the rest of the universe can continue existing. ME is full of decisions like that to agonize over. Every one of those choices made me feel like while there was no “right” answer, there were positive outcomes to be had amongst the awful. None of the options at the end gave me that feeling, only a sense of “this feels less awful than the other options”. 

Having said that, I overall would still give the game a positive review and would replay the series again. I still want to try all the romances and see how making different choices changes the story. I love that things you do in one game will influence events in another one. I want to focus on all those positives and not let the ending ruin it for me. The characters  are great, the story is mostly fantastic, and the world is fascinating to explore. Dragon Age will always be my preference in the BioWare roster, but I consider myself a Mass Effect fan now, and look forward to discussing these games with friends for years to come.  And who knows, maybe there was no satisfying ending for what this series built itself to be. But I got to share a fascinating game with my partner and my friends, and those memories will always have value. The Legendary Editiion comes out in about a month, and I’m very much looking forward to watching many hours of gameplay as half my Twitch follow list revisits the series (and others get to experience it for the first time). 

Let  me know in the comments your thoughts on the series. Who were your favorite characters? What was your favorite romance? Are you looking forward to the remaster? Next week I’ll dive into my favorite series and why I will replay it till the day I die – Dragon Age!

Monday Musings

I’m very excited to report there are PLANS in motion to shape my media empire and expand my horizons. For those who don’t follow me on the socials, I started streaming on Twitch during the pandemic and made affiliate in September. I currently stream 3 days a week (current schedule can be found on twitch or twitter). I also started a YouTube channel that hasn’t gotten as much love, so for this year I’m looking to get to 100 subscribers on there and start a slate of programming. Some of my twitch content makes its way to YouTube, but soon I will be adding a new show Wednesdays (titled Cocktails & Comics) as well as Pokemon playthroughs on Saturday mornings. I’m very excited about both of these new projects as they will be exclusive to YouTube and expand the variety of programming there.

I also want to start giving this space some love and doing articles I will be calling “Monday Musings”. I’m not exactly sure what I’d like to talk about, but I imagine it will be a mix of entertainment things (tv, movies, books, and video games). I’ve been rather obsessed with Dragon Age lately, so I imagine there will be an article or ten dedicated to some thoughts on that world. I’ve also been trying to watch a movie a week, and could devote some time dedicated towards whatever my pick was if it was particularly good. I’m unfortunately very behind on tv and wouldn’t have current thoughts on the shows everyone is watching. If anyone has topics they’d like me to dive into, leave it in the comments below. 

Missing Movie Theaters

Back when Wonder Woman 84 was streaming on HBO Max, I managed to catch it the day before it was to be taken down. I hastily wrote down some thoughts late that night, and swore I would review them and post in the morning. A lot has happened since then. I’m sorry this is not being shared in a more timely manner, but I think it’s still important. It turned into less of a review of the movie and more a critique on the “new normal” of releasing movies direct to streaming for a limited time. I like HBO’s formula of having it be included in the subscription better than Disney’s having to pay a $30 fee on top of your normal sub, but I will always prefer movie theaters. More on that later. For now, let’s focus on WW84 and what I loved and didn’t about it.

To give you an idea how good a movie WW was, I loved it even though I had an awful experience. HBO Max (or at least the xbox app) is awful. Usually things will freeze once or twice and not completely ruin my experience…. So of course while trying to preserve the movie theater feel as much as possible, it froze more times than I could count, crashed entirely once, and once blew out the sound on my xbox and I had to restart the whole system. I was so grumpy that by the time the big fight happens between Diana and Cheeta I  barely was able to enjoy it (literally said “this fight is gonna be great” seconds before the app crashed).

If HBO is going to release the next year’s worth of movies On Demand, they need to make an app that works better. Having said that, there were plenty of things to love about the film itself. Even though the fight scenes would have been better on a big screen, they still were enjoyable with what I had to work with. My favorite part, however, was when  Diana is talking at the end about Truth and making everyone remember how things used to be. I realized when this movie was supposed to come out and how powerful it would have been having Wonder Woman talk to us about truth in the face of a fraud who wanted to amass power. There’s a lot about my experience I will never be able to get, and that saddens me. But overall it was a great sequel that I can’t wait to buy so I can watch it on a physical disc that (hopefully) won’t freeze a million times.