media round-up

[sideways]

• Prior to watching Osomatsu-san, I would have said it was an anime about six identical brothers who don't really do anything. Turns out that's not untrue, but it omits the crucial context of it being an affectionate tribute to an old school gag series called Osomatsu-kun, and an adult comedy that vacillates between crude humour, genre jokes, and hilariously savage slice of life skits that should resonate with anyone who has ever experienced siblings frustrations. I wouldn't recommend it without caveats, but I had a surprisingly good time.

• Mouthwashing rocketed across Tumblr and I managed to get curious enough to watch an LP just before the hype backlash started to kick in. Well-crafted, overall! The ending dragged a little and I have various complex feelings about Anya's storyline, but it did some genuinely impressive things with the medium.

• Having been there for the beginning of Destiny, it felt wrong not to be there at the end, so I ended up purchasing and quickly mainlining some of the key expansions I'd missed during my, er, seven year hiatus: Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, and Witch Queen. The last one was by far my favourite, even if it forced me to continually crush Ghosts with my bare hands, aaaugh.

• The Final Shape itself was... okay. I applaud the decision to make Ghosts its narrative heart, and the continuation of the alliances built with other aliens, and some of the nostalgia button mashing. I can't say it stuck the ten year landing, though. Destiny's slipping grasp on its own core mythology - the conflict between Light and Darkness, and what that actually looks like and means - was disappointingly obvious. On top of that, the expansion threatened to not even be that fun to play as a solo campaigner thanks to six hundred annoying ass shield mechanics and three boss fights per level. Bungie. Please. I have other things to do. Still, I got through it (with help) and got a little misty-eyed about it, and now I feel comfortable never spending money on Destiny again, so it's at least it is an ending.

• Arcane's second season either greatly delighted or greatly disappointed people. Alas, I am on the side of the haters. So it goes. Spreading the story across three seasons rather than two might have salvaged it for me; but there were also some choices I simply didn't vibe with at all.

Comments

[cosmicjellyfish]

Your impression of The Final Shape is pretty well aligned with what other people I know have said about it. Destiny nostalgia has been hitting me hard lately (I dropped out after the main Witch Queen campaign, though was very on-and-off for years before that), but - yeah, I think I might just carry on osmosing from afar, especially with the current state of Bungie/lore/etc. But I'm glad it gave that sense of closure, even if it wasn't what it could have been!

(Crushing Ghosts was TOO MUCH. ;o; The way the PC just turns their hand over to glance at afterwards...)

[sideways]

I grew nostalgic enough to re-download Destiny 1 and muck about in there for a bit - it's a ghost town, but the maps themselves surprised me with how much I still liked them. They were designed so richly and I still miss Venus and Mars.

I KNOW, the silent horror of it all... and then one too many Lightbearing Hive obliterates you and you start to appreciate the urgency with which enemy units must try to eradicate Ghosts lol.

[cosmicjellyfish]

Yesss, I loved D1’s maps! They did mystery, wonder, and that sense of faded grandeur so well. I can’t even pick a favourite - I had a lot of fun in the Cosmodrome, Venus was deliciously alien and full of secrets, the Moon was so very, very haunted…

YEP. Oh, the horror of being on the other side of it. I feel like Hive Ghosts are easier to kill than our Ghosts, too (though that might just be due to lore inconsistencies wrt how squishy Ghosts are).

[muladhara]

I agree with your sentiments about Mouthwashing. I wish they could have done something different with Anya that wasn't so predictable feeling.

[sideways]

Yes, it's the wibble-wobble between feeling they executed the story they chose to tell really well, while simultaneously kinda wishing it wasn't one that necessitated there being one (1) woman who was aggressively denied presence and agency in the story. I've even seen people positioning the end of her storyline as 'empowering' and like, mmmm not really though?