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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. 


Spider-Man: No Way Home -Wild Theory Time!

Sitting in my kitchen drinking my coffee this morning, I was thinking about the announcement that the new Spider-Man movie would be titled No Way Home (while also having a tweet Coy Jandreau posted bouncing in my head) and suddenly I had an ever expanding theory that I think is extensive enough to share. We already suspect the multiverse will play a big part in this phase between WandaVision (don’t worry, no spoilers on that here from me) and the Doctor Strange film being titled Multiverse of Madness. What if Peter (and possibly some Spidey villains) end up being pulled into the multiverse and leave the MCU to become part of the Sony-verse we seem to be building. It would be an interesting way to build their sinister six and keep Tom Holland as Spider-Man for a different studio. Maybe it’s not even an accident. Maybe Peter needs to escape (we know the last movie ended with him being hunted) and sees this as the only way to protect his family and continue being a hero. Maybe we get a new Spider-Man (Miles Morales even?) also via the Multiverse. In which case any planned Spider-man 4 would be introducing Miles (or Gwen or whoever) into our universe. The MCU has already changed how storytelling works. I would not be surprised to see them have a big surprise like this up their sleeve. They have shown us there are no limits other than your imagination. 

What do you think? Any other wild theories about the future of our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man? Just looking forward to seeing movies in theaters again? Let’s keep the convo going in the comments. 

Goodbye 2020

(cw: topics include unemployment and COVID; there’s a positive message at the end though, if you can stick it out)

Well, we’ve finally come to the end of the year that didn’t exist. It would be easy to say it was awful and we’re glad it’s over, but 2020 was a life changer for me. 

In March of this year we hit Depression level unemployment rates as the country shutdown to try to keep COVID rates down. I, being in the entertainment industry, was one of those people (and probably won’t go back to work until spring or summer of this year after the vaccine is more wildly distributed). With an unknown amount of free time ahead of me, I did what I always do…. found a new project to keep myself occupied. 

It started by resurrecting my YouTube channel. It had previously been a place to showcase live music videos, but had been collecting dust for 5 years. I figured I would find things to talk about amongst my many hobbies. Eventually I settled on doing recaps of the d&d games my boyfriend would run for myself and some friends via Facebook Messenger. Over time it would also include react videos to certain moments on Critical Role and shouting about Dragon Age. 

While I was slowly building my YouTube empire, I had also been watching a friend stream on Twitch. We’d talk about how I should stream too, and after a couple months I finally got myself a headset and had my first stream: playing Civ 5 for what I assume was one or two people. I never imagined it would become my whole life for the rest of the year.

I have now been streaming for 6 months, made affiliate after 3 months, and have more of a community than I ever imagined I would. I found some great streamers who helped me get where I am (and will list some of them at the end of this post so you can go check them out). Beyond that, I made lasting friendships with random people on the internet who, in some ways, I’m closer with than my IRL friends now. What was meant to be a way to fill time and maybe make a few dollars while out of work turned into an important part of my life that I plan on keeping even when things “go back to normal”. I even got to participate in Stream Around the World for Dragon Age Day this year, and became part of the DA streaming community. So, as much as I understand wishing this year never existed, I can’t help but be grateful that it did. I hope you can also find a little joy in this darkest of years, and that we all have a much better go of it in 2021. 

There are too many great, supportive people I have met on this journey, but these folks helped me the most to make affiliate: wordfangirl (and the humans at Jabroni TV), Cafe 3G, SmexyBuu & the Gaming Fool crew; special shoutout to NerdiNik, who is one of the first DA streamers I ever followed and introduced me to a great community of humans.

In Defense of The Traveler (Cr C2 Ep 107)

Credit: @Madartsyworks https://twitter.com/madartsyworks/status/1303422861374177280?s=21

There’s a saying: better late than never. This is what I tell myself every time I give myself a deadline that I miss, and it applies to the following words I have regarding episode 107 of Critical Role: specifically regarding a certain conversation between Jester and the Traveler towards the end. I pulled some choice quotes for my own reference, but in general this conversation is everything I wanted from them. I love how sincere it is but still has the jovial nature their relationship is based on. Most importantly, between this and the actions the Traveler makes in the next episode, I think I can say without a doubt that, while he might be an agent of chaos and a troublemaker, he is not looking to hurt anyone. At least not in a malicious way, and especially not Jester or her friends. If you want a sense of his motivations, you simply have to listen to what he says. Never forget that Archfey can’t lie. They choose their words very carefully, and Matt is a calculated enough DM who plans far enough ahead that I believe everything you need to know about Artagan is in what he says to Jester in their moments alone. Especially two lines in particular:

“As much as I’ve guided you through the years, don’t think you haven’t guided me”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone, not intentionally” 

I pulled far more than this from their conversation, but these two lines give you everything you need to know about him. 1) Jester has changed him since we first met him back in campaign 1, and 2) He is not malicious in his intent. I think Artagan truly thought dropping people on an island where they would forget about him was his way of setting them free and fixing his mistake. I don’t think he saw it as endangering anyone. I also don’t think he expected Jester to ever be in real danger, either because he trusted in her ability to take care of herself, or because he was prepared to save her if needed. 

There is another saying: actions speak louder than words. And since I waited an extra week to write this, we got some real clear signals that Artagan cares about Jester, as he was not prepared for her to risk her life to save him. He accepted the mistakes he made and was prepared to deal with the consequences on his own. I am very glad Jester managed to use her words to save him, and that they don’t have to separate. I know a lot of people asked “what happens next” but I don’t see much changing between them, other than Jester now knows that whatever spark the Traveler gave her was a boost. He lit the spark, but she grew into the person she is now all on her own. I look forward to see her continue to grow as a person, and see how much more influence she has on Artagan’s arc. I appreciate her friends and fans ready to thrown down to protect her, but ultimately I just want her to be happy. Right now, the Mighty Nein and Artagan both make her happy. I want to see them continue on their journey, and let chaos reign. 

The NPCs – Superman (Goldfinger cover)

This past Friday, Sept 4th, The NPCs released another of their socially distanced videos to the masses. 56 musicians participated in this massive project, plus there was a fun cameo at the end to coincide with a certain video game that released… 

Per the video description:

What do you get when you take a bunch of musicians from all over the world, mixed with the release of one of the greatest video games of all time? You get a 56 person cover of Superman!

The video game in question might not be my personal preference, but I do like a good cover song every now and then and particularly enjoyed this one. Mixed with some of my favorite people and this video was quite a treat. 

Don’t take my word for it. Jump on over to the YouTube to see for yourself. 

Backyard Superheroes – Most of All

Backyard Superheroes debuted a new song and video last night during the 7+ hour Supernova Ska Festival: Quarantine Edition. There have been a lot of socially distanced music videos popping up during quarantine, and I have loved seeing what people come up with to make up for the fact they can’t be in a room together. This one was no exception.

First off, I love how it starts with the introduction proclaiming them “the 7th best ska band in New Jersey”. I also love all the background items and in general getting a tase of members’ individual styles. From a Captain America shield on one wall to another wall covered in Funkos, there’s lots of fun nerd stuff to spot. (The tiny Devils helmet was my personal favorite, as I’m originally from NJ and am a huge Devils fan). 

I would be remiss if I focused too much on the video and didn’t talk about the song itself. At just over 3 minutes it’s a fast-paced number about all the things they miss in quarantine – but especially their friends. It’s a sentiment I think we can all understand, packaged in a song I could easily listen to on repeat a few times.

The video closes with the announcer proclaiming, “Wasn’t that something with the horns and the beards”

Yes, sir, It was quite something.

Most of All is available to purchase on their Bandcamp. All proceeds are being donated to the ACLU.

Free Comic Book Day In the Time of COVID

Today would’ve been Free Comic Book Day, and a lot of us comic fans would’ve spent the day picking up their free books and supporting their favorite local comic shops. I know I have a ritual that involves going to 2-3 stores and then bringing the haul home and reading all night. Since we were unable to do that, I thought I’d recommend some free webcomics to hold you over while we wait for our fix. 

I read a lot of things on Webtoons that range from D&D-esque stories, to sci-fi, to romance, so I thought I’d highlight some of my favorites to give you some new, free reading material. 

Lumine:

A runaway werewolf (Lumine) meets a boy named Kody and is hired to be his body guard. Their relationship isn’t great at first but they slowly build a friendship as they learn about each other. Great if you like fantasy series.

Everywhere & Nowhere:

Based on Rosencrantz & Guildenstern from Hamlet but Guildenstern is a girl and they travel through time. It gets dark in places but is mostly a comedy. Each episode is pretty short so you should be able to catch up quick.

Winter Moon:

You follow the characters in a WoW type fantasy game, but eventually learn about the people behind the avatars. Another great fantasy series with episodes short enough you can catch up fairly quickly.

1HP Club:

This one follows the artist’s d&d game. It gets mildly raunchy but nothing that’ll make you blush too hard. Has comedic and fantasy elements so it’s good for all types of humans.

Zero Game:

The people in this comic are all participating in a game where losing means death but winning gets you a big reward. The game targets people with nothing left to lose. Another great fantasy series with some of the best art I’ve seen in a webcomic.

Cursed Princess Club:

This is where I divert from my usual fantasy-land. It’s a comedy series that follows Gwendolyn, a princess who is mistakenly given an invitation to the Cursed Princess Club. She swears despite her looks she hasn’t been cursed but they let her stay in the club, and she grows a lot as a person thanks to their friendly advice. 

Purple Hyacinth:

This one is hard to pin into a genre. It follows a woman in the police force who has the ability to detect lies and the assassin she teams up with to fight an evil organization. The art and story are both fantastic, which is why they landed on my list.

Mage & Demon Queen:

If you’re looking for a comedy/fantasy series that speaks to your gay or lesbian heart, this is the one for you. Mylora is a mage who is trying to win the demon queen’s heart, while all the other adventurers are trying to kill said queen. It’s funny and sweet and sometimes serious, but overall it makes me gleeful to read. Episodes for this one are pretty short and they’re on hiatus so you should have no trouble catching up.

There are plenty of others I could recommend, but I don’t want this post to turn into a novel. If you’re looking for more traditional comics, Comixology and Marvel both have monthly subscriptions that are reasonably priced with plenty of reading options included. I personally use Comixology a lot and could recommend a ton of books from there if you’re interested. Leave a comment with your requests and I’ll share my thoughts. Also let everyone know what you’re currently reading to keep the conversation going.

The Movie Industry’s Glorious Return: or How Will Marvel Sustain Their New Schedule?

I’ve been thinking about how different industries are going to be able to shift with the times as the country slowly reopens, and one of my top concerns is movie theaters and shifting release schedules. Some movies can and have been given online releases, but others have to be seen for the first time on the big screen. Not only does it contribute to our enjoyment of the films, it also keeps movie theaters going. If it weren’t for Endgame, independent films wouldn’t have a chance. They don’t make enough to keep a  movie theater open, but they can take a chance on one for a few weeks while Endgame rakes in the billions. Marvel always schedules their movies in phases, and phase 4 would have been starting up right around now if we were living in normal times. They recently released their new schedule (which is obviously subject to change), and I have some thoughts. First, let’s look at the new dates. (This will include some Sony movies since the Spider-verse or whatever we’re calling it loosely ties in to everything)

Black Widow: Nov 6, 2020

Eternals: Feb 21, 2021

Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings: March 7, 2021

Morbius: March 19, 2021

Venom 2: June 25, 2021

Spider-Man 3: Nov 5, 2021

Thor Love and Thunder: Feb 11, 2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: March 25, 2022

Black Panther 2: May 6, 2022

Captain Marvel 2: July 8, 2022

Spider Man Into the Spider-Verse Sequel: October 7, 2022

There’s also Ant-Man 3, Blade, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and an untitled movie that was scheduled for the new Spider-Verse date. Plus we assume that they had plans to eventually bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the universe (probably in 2023) and assumedly there will be a Deadpool 3. That’s a lot of movies to look forward to in the next 2-3 years. 

If you look closely at the above release dates, they’re all pretty damn close together. There’s two movies in March of next year alone and the rest are anywhere between 3-5 months apart. Some of them are even less than that! Plus Marvel plans on tying in the Disney Plus shows and probably will have a different one out pretty regularly over the course of the next year or two. We’re gonna be eating, sleeping, and breathing comic adaptations for the next couple years! 

All this sounds exciting, but I’m also worried that people don’t have the money to afford going to the movies more than a couple times a year. Or maybe it’s not a money issue, but where do we find the time to watch the Disney shows in time for the next movie? I hope all this content is the thing that keeps movie theaters from closing after having to probably shut down most if not all of the summer, but people are going to still be recovering from an economy that hasn’t just slowed, it’s come screeching to a halt. If anyone can survive and make this crazy schedule work, I believe it’s Marvel. I just hope their gamble pays off. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Do you plan to watch all these movies in theaters? Which ones will you prioritize? Shout it in the comments, and let’s keep the conversation going both here and on Twitter. (@News_on_Shuffle)