Recommendation - Blog Posts

One of the best FE3Hs fics.

If you're not already reading it, I highly recommend you do.

If you like a story that explores the individuals in an ensemble, their thoughts, feelings, and relationships, coupled with situations that give those characters a chance to shine in and out of battle, (moments in the chapters covering The Tower of Black Winds, Field of the Eagle and Lion, and The Flame in the Darkness jump immediately to mind,) then I can hardly think of anything better to read.

100% worth your time. And with White Clouds nearing its end in the Holy Tomb, it's a great chance to start and catch up!

Chapter 71 jump out!

Just posted chapter 71 of my fanfic, On Black Wings :)

It’s a ludicrously in depth retelling of the Crimson Flower storyline of Fire Emblem Three Houses, focusing on character moments, tactics and strategy, and the day-to-day life at Garreg Mach.  

Battle begins and choices are made in the Holy Tomb…

I know I'm not the first to Uno-Reverse the whole humans-summoning-demons thing, but what kind of mundane tasks might an otherworldly being need a summoned human to do? What kind of "powers" might a demon gain from a pact with a human? And what might the human demand in return?

Is spitting on one's hand, then shaking hands, the "humonic binding ritual"?

What happens when a demon calls down that which they cannot send back up?

A. Shipwright on Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/ashpwright

DoodLetMeGO on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ashipwright

Middleditch and Schwartz is great improv. And I'll tell you what when i went to see Ben perform improv live in chicago, holy shit did it not disappoint. This was a bit ago but still the best day ever. If you don't know who Ben Schwartz is or have never seen long form improv, I reccomend the Netflix show Middleditch and Schwartz. No i am not a bot. Yes, Middleditch did get in some trouble and is no longer prominent in the comedy world. However it is still a great show and 3 episodes of comedy gold!

My recommendation no one asked for:

The taste of Țuică

By fluxweed

R: Explicit

It’s quite one thing for your best mate to casually tell you about all the sex his boyfriend wants to have. It’s altogether another to have him bring up the time you snogged him in a shitty Central London park.

Draco Malfoy/ Harry Potter/ Ron Weasley

Please Read ‘Komi-san Can’t Communicate’

I’m not really good at these but I really wanted to recommend this manga, Komi-san wa Komyusho desu or Komi-san Can’t Communicate.

First off, just to clear up a misconception I’ve seen, this is not the story of some happy, cute, stereotypical “timid japanese girl” and her friends. While it is a light-hearted comedy, and a damn good one at that, it begins as the story of a lonely girl with crippling social anxiety and literally no friends, and the most Average Joe in history who’s able to see that and try to give her the help she desperately needs.

That girl, Komi, is so beautiful, classy and smart that everyone idolizes her and thinks she is just the “elegant, calm and silent type”, that they are simply too low-class to warrant a response from her and that she must have many, cooler friends. Of course this works against Komi’s condition, since she’s always the center of attention, has no self-esteem and has the typical paranoia about what people are talking behind her back, that usually comes with social phobia.

Tadano, the main male character, on the other hand, is considered the most boring and unremarkable person ever by the other characters. He’s someone so embarrassed and traumatized by his past actions that he completely built his personality on “staying out of trouble and never shining in any aspect”, and to do so he became incredibly good at reading people, which is the reason he was the only one who understood Komi and decided to help her communicate.

This is all played as a light comedy with good feelings, without any attempts to sound “deep” or anything like that, but the idea for the plot is still very interesting. Since the manga apparently isn’t sold out of Japan, you can check it in any manga scans site.

Please read Komi-san, she’s doing her best!

Take a break, and watch these 5 sitcoms on Showfer!

Take a break, and watch these 5 sitcoms on Showfer!

With Summer approaching, you and your friends are probably packing up to go outside to soak in that vitamin D that most of us desperately crave. Or if you’re our international viewers, you might be experiencing less sun, depending on which hemisphere you live on.

Unfortunately, Summer isn’t here yet, so let’s take advantage of the little bit of moody weather we still have and binge watch some…

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Also (because I'm currently rewatching it):

- Old gay people. A-bit-past-middle-aged men that are a normal couple (well, as normal as a couple gets in this show) and also gay.

- The idea of "What if everyone was assigned a prophecy when they were born?" is explored

- Sprinkled with references to myths that you feel very proud if you understand

- Drama, murder, mystery, love, epic quests, betrayal, and more

- Family blood ties are less significant than your ties with those you choose to tie yourself to (chosen family > biological family, but someone can be both your chosen and biological family)

- The Amazons are in it (and much like the rest of the characters, they don't all look like tall, hot supermodels; they look like normal people, of which some are tall, hot supermodels)

- Yes, it does end on a cliffhanger, due to the fact that there was supposed to be a second season, but I personally think it is entirely worth watching regardless

- So much more that I can't say without spoiling parts

But do be aware that as a show involving Greek mythology, it does get bloody— someone else recommended checking Does The Dog Die? (doesthedogdie.com) if you have specific triggers you wish to avoid. I support this, though know that there will obviously be spoilers.

Why you should watch KAOS (2024) on Neftlix:

- Jeff Goldblum as Zeus

- A disabled actors play a disabled characters (Mat Fraser & another secret one [because spoilers])

- A trans actor plays a trans character (I won't say which one since it's kind of a spoiler)

- Set in modern times, uses characters from old myths but isn't a simple retelling; it's a whole new story

- All your favs are there (Prometheus, Daedalus, Persephone, Dionysus, Cassandra, Medusa, Charon, Ariadne, the Fates, the Furies, just to name a few)

- Speaking of Persephone, she and Hades are actually in love (the version of the myth which I know much of you love)

- Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss Hera (as in, she literally does all those things)

- The gods' actors' ages actually make sense, they didn't cast solely young people or make young people look older; you've got Zeus (72), Hera (63), Hades (61), Persephone (56), Poseidon (56), Dionysus (27), you get the idea

- Killer soundtrack

- Actual realistic queer characters/representation in a natural, unforced way

- Enjoyable story and comedic but also has depth (I binge-watched it in a day)

- Not a huge commitment (8 episodes of about 50 minutes each)

- Have you ever thought "What would the Ancient Greek gods be doing in modern times?" This show answers that question!

- It wasn't renewed for a second season due to viewership, so if the views explode, maybe they'll renew it and I can find out what happens next (I know it's not likely, but I can dream; besides, if just one person watches and enjoys it, then this post will have been worth it)

Mini-Review: Jet Lag: The Game

An American travel competition series, each season features a contest that sends players to achieve a geographical objective in different parts of the world, some of which are inspired by board games. Whether it's teams traveling to to US states to claim a Connect Four-style row or column, circumnavigating the globe via air travel, playing tag across western Europe, or driving the vertical length of New Zealand, players will race against each other and the reliability of transit to get the win.

Imagine: you are an adult, collapsing into a hotel bed after a long day of getting lost on the public transit of your vacation city. You're about to stream something funny and not difficult to follow—maybe Nailed It!, maybe Taskmaster—when you companion interjects, says they've been watching this really fun travel race show, and starts a playlist where a quartet of people in predawn darkness run away six seconds into the video, and suddenly you're watching people race to circumnavigate the world?

That was my introduction to Jet Lag: The Game.

Each season is a self-contained game, and they mix it up: the first season (which, for some reason, is the second playlist on YouTube) is a game of "Connect Four" across America, where teams must "claim" four states in a horizontal or vertical row by traveling to each one and completing challenges, while the second game is a race to circumnavigate the globe, and the third season is a game of tag across western Europe, primarily using train systems.

Sidequest-like challenges are an integral part of these games. In most of them, players must unlock coins or money (as in a video game) to have the in-game balance to buy tickets, or unlock information about opponents, etc., so the series is never a straight race. The challenges vary by season and location, but include things like:

Logic or trivia challenges

Go to a museum for half an hour and tell the camera 5 fun facts you learned

Eat a menu item at McDonald's you can't get in the US

Get 1000 feet from any building

Get a hole in one in mini golf

Find [animal] at [local attraction famous for animal]

Make cheese

Cursed! Listen to Tom Lehrer's "Element Song" on repeat until you reach the next city [over an hour away]

Cursed! Only take trains that leave at odd-numbered times

Acquire any food produced in your current state and mail it to your family

Explain the birds and the bees to a bird or a bee

Ride a horse

Get goosebumps while at least one goose is in the camera frame

Because the challenges are random (usually drawn from a shuffled deck of cards), it adds tension to the games: the player or team needs money/coins/points in order to travel, or thwart their competitors, and there's a real risk that they'll fail because it's physically impossible or there's not enough time to complete.

If you, like me, are wary of YouTubers™, worry not. The focus here is the game, and the players do a decent job trying not to bother other people: most faces of passers-by are blurred, players try to set up in out-of-the-way corners when filming, and when they need to interact with people, like at a customer service desk, the camera is usually pointed at the player. There's also a lot of being very polite to customer service, drivers, and others they interact with. You can see them get strange looks sometimes, but overall they do a good job of trying not to be Social Media Personalities™ disruptively.

And the players themselves also seem to be nice people to watch; they'll send "curses" or other interruptions when the game allows for it, but there's no out-of-game interpersonal unpleasantness that makes it into the show. Also, one player, Ben, consistently wears the brightest, most funky clothes. He has no camouflage in a crowd, but who cares.

Final comments: Highly recommend. It's fun, safe for most ages—swears stronger than "damn" get bleeped—and you can tell that a lot of planning and thought has gone into game development to balance things. If you like the idea of race-type reality shows combined with good attitudes and sportsmanship, you'll probably enjoy this.

Subtitle availability: English closed captions are available and very well-done, sometimes including different font colors to indicate different people in conversations, and some excellent phonetic spellings of mispronunciations! However, for the first two seasons (Connect 4 and Circumnavigation), only auto-generated captions on YT are available.

Where to watch (USA, as of December 2024): YouTube (playlists link [X]) and Nebula (which was partially founded by the game's creator)—which also has recap/discussion podcasts, and series outtake video tarting with season 8, and the service gets new episodes a week early.

Start watching with: The friend who introduced me started me with the first playlist that shows up on YouTube, Circumnavigation, so I feel like if it worked on me, it'll work on others. But if that doesn't appeal to you, starting with either the next playlist—Connect Four Across America (which is actually the first season) or the third season, Tag Eur It, would be good. I started my parents on Tag Eur It, a game of tag across multiple European countries, because I think it's got one of the strongest hooks of any early series, explains the rules very quickly, and the immediate urgency (runner must run; chasers start to follow soon after) draws you in very quickly.

But really, starting anywhere will work. However, because the creators sometimes reference outcomes from earlier games, especially when they are playing near the location of previous games, I recommend watching any similar-geography games in order (Tag 1 before Tag 2 or Hide and Seek, and New Zealand [Race to the End of the World] before Australia).

Status/Frequency: There are currently 11 complete seasons on Youtube (12 on Nebula), and so far new seasons premier roughly 3-ish times a year, with most seasons lasting 5-6 episodes, and episodes tend to be 30-45 minutes each. As of this review, there is no indication that this is likely to change anytime soon, and the 12th season premiers this month.

Click my “reviews” tag below or search “mini review” on my blog to find more!