Comfort Entertainment: ‘Our Flag Means Death’ Season 2

Promotional screenshot of Con O’Neill as Izzy Hands in season two of ‘Our Flag Means Death’ on HBO Max.

Hey! Hallie here!

It’s been a long time! Between the actors and writers strikes, as well as our busy schedules, we’ve been really spotty about posting and have mostly decided not to post at all to ensure we were supporting the WGA and SAG as best we could. But now the strikes have ended and we can talk about all of the many, many, things we’ve been dying to talk about that were released the last few months. To be perfectly honest, my initial plan was to immediately start on a ‘Good Omens’ season two review the minute the whole thing ended. But, somehow, ‘Our Flag Means Death’ came out of nowhere and took me completely by surprise with its second season. On top of that, I feel like the fandom is in a really interesting post-season discussion phase that I very much want to hop in on, where as with ‘Good Omens’ fans the ship has kind of sailed (Yes, that was a pun). That’s not to say I won’t get back to ‘Good Omens’, but that is to say I have a lot of opinions about Izzy Hands and they take precedent at the moment. SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Good:

Izzy Hands: Ok, let’s start with the biggest topic of discussion right out the gate. We all loved Izzy Hands this season. Izzy did have quite a few fans last season as well, but the group was a lot smaller and they were well aware that he wasn’t a very likable character. They even went so far as to refer to him as “rat man” in fandom spaces. And who can really blame all of us who didn’t like Izzy first season? He’s a dick to everyone, shows an almost-blatantly homophobic disgust at Stede and Ed’s relationship, and becomes so jealous of Stede’s relationship with Ed that he frequently attempts to manipulate Ed into turning into the worst version of himself. All of that culminates at the end of the season in Izzy deciding to turn in the entire crew to the British in the hopes of arranging Stede’s execution. But fans of Izzy could see how complicated this character was under the surface. His jealousy of Stede clearly went beyond just Ed making a new friend, and his moments of apparent homophobia were paired with subtle discomfort and teary eyes that implied he was dealing with some self-hatred he wasn’t properly addressing. (Not to mention the “Oh daddy” scene.) This season, however, made subtext text. Izzy’s taking hits for the crew, losing toes when they don’t do what Ed wants, and his care for Ed and attempts to calm him are met with brutal push-back. We even see Izzy break down in the crew’s arms when they try to gently confront him about his toxic relationship with Ed. Then Izzy makes a mistake. He tries to talk to Ed about what he’s been doing to the crew, confesses he loves him, and accidentally brings up Stede. This leads to an altercation where Ed shoots Izzy in the leg and orders that he be killed.

After the crew amputates Izzy’s leg (and Ed attempts to get Izzy to either kill him or commit suicide in a very dark scene,) Izzy finally leads the crew in a takeover of the ship. Izzy at this point is extremely traumatized, but he, fascinatingly, continues to protect the crew. Upon reuniting with Stede his main priority is to plea with him on behalf of the crew, telling him they shouldn’t suffer for what he and Stede made Ed into. And then he descends into a drunk and depressed state, fueled by self hatred over what happened with Ed. But like the crew saved him from his gunshot wound, they make him a sturdy wooden leg and save him from his downward spiral. We see Izzy get out of bed, practice with his sword again, teach Stede how to be a better captain, and let go of his obsession with Ed. He fully embraces his sexuality, putting on a drag performance where he sings for the entire crew. He opens up, makes friends, earns the ship’s undying loyalty, and acts as the crew’s main defender in the stand-off against the season’s villain. It’s a complete joy to see Izzy Hands develop the way we do, and it’s mixed with just the right amount of hope and openness ‘Our Flag’ gives each of its characters. Some seem to think that Izzy’s character development was too tonally serious for such a light show, but I don’t think it is. I think it demonstrates an understanding of how horrible it can be to not understand who you are and to experience so much self hatred for yourself. Izzy’s development is just as much a queer coming out story as anything, and it allows for Izzy to embrace himself and find a queer community to belong to. That is all very in character for a show made to celebrate queer joy.

New Female Characters: The fandom is all in agreement about Izzy, and we are also all in agreement about newcomer Zheng Yi Sao. Zheng is the perfect addition to the show. She answers the call for more female representation with by far the most skilled pirate we’ve seen in the entire series, carrying a personality that is just as adorable as it is badass. She kicks ass and runs circles around all of our main characters. She’s the captain in the series you would want to work under most, and that alone makes her interactions with a bumbling captain like Stede hilarious. But her soft spot for her crew and Oluwande make her surprisingly relatable. All the quiet moments between herself and Oluwande stole my heart for the genuine joy between them, and I can’t wait to see more in the future. Amongst Zheng’s crew we also have Auntie, a first mate who follows the show’s first mate tradition of being mostly disgruntled and far too reasonable for her own good. All except for her belief that Buttons is a sea witch, which on its own provides the perfect amount of humor to the stoic character. Lastly, we have another new character in the form of Archie, Jim’s new love interest. I wanted to have more time with this character, but all things considered she fit in seamlessly with the crew. Her high energy and genuine support of everyone in the crew made her easily likable. And her adorable feelings for Jim and willingness to put their needs above her own made their relationship easy to get behind.

Stede and Ed: Naturally, these two need to be mentioned for their stand-out relationship. I appreciated that the two of them had to work up to where they were before their separation. Despite the fact that mermaid Stede wakes Ed up from his perceived death, Ed still hasn’t completely forgiven Stede for abandoning him. And Stede, likewise, is wary of Ed after everything he did to the crew. Once they get to a place where they decide they want to work on their relationship again, Ed requests they take it slow and Stede agrees. He very aptly identifies that they’re both “whim prone” and need to take some time to create normalcy between them. When they do get back to kissing, and then more, it feels like they’ve actually made an effort to get to that point. I also really love that their brief breakup in the show only serves to make them stronger characters as well as a stronger couple. Ed learns that he’s capable of change without attempting to abandon everything he knows, and Stede quickly has to learn how to balance self-confidence with the ability to look beyond himself. When they get back together Ed apologizes for “being a dick”, but Stede responds that “life’s a dick”, demonstrating better than anything else in the season how understanding and supportive they are as a couple. These two carry the show and their relationship remains strong enough to keep me engaged.

‘Calypso’s Birthday’: The best episode of the season. This is pirate Pride. Quiet literally. If there was ever a doubt that this show is about a crew of queer people who set out to celebrate their identities, this episode confirms it. From Wee John in a gorgeous dress under the drag persona of Calypso, to Izzy donning a full face of makeup to sing “La Vie en Rose” in both English and French, to the drag king look we get from Jim, to Stede and Ed finally sleeping together at the end of the episode. Everything about this episode is complete perfection. And Con O’Neill’s voice. Beautiful. Gorgeous. He has a musical theatre background and you can tell. This episode made me proud to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, and reminded me why shows like ‘Our Flag Means Death’, that are made as safe spaces for the queer community, are so important. I could watch this episode over and over again.

The Neutral:

Izzy’s Death: And here’s the biggest complaint about the season. After Izzy spends a season discovering who he is and finding a place where he can feel accepted, he is promptly killed. Now, I’m not completely angry with this death. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. I don’t find it nearly as tonally off as other people make it out to be. It is, after all, a show about pirates that doesn’t shy away from gore and dark humor. Eventually someone has to die just to keep in line with the way the show embraces pirate-accurate violence. I also don’t think that ending his storyline feels random to the narrative. By all accounts, Izzy is the hero of the season. He’s the one who gets the final confrontation with Ricky, a natural progression after Izzy defending the crew during the rest of the season. So Ricky killing Izzy makes this a classic tragic hero scenario. The problem here is that it sends the wrong message. Having Izzy embrace who he is only to declare his happiness fleeting is a bit, well…unfortunate. Especially in a show that prides itself on celebrating queer joy. And to add insult to injury, his story arc ends with Ed. The person he’s been taking great lengths to distance himself from all season. That isn’t to say he didn’t need closure with Ed. He needed a moment to confess to Ed why he had relied on the Blackbeard persona, and likewise he needed Ed’s apology. But it’s the crew he found a family in, and the crew he died for. The fact his death occurred while they all stood as far as they could to the side of the ship felt wrong. Still, this isn’t the worst death and David Jenkins says that there is no ‘Our Flag Means Death’ without Izzy, so we’ll see what that means for the character.

The Bad:

Stede and Ed: Admittedly, their relationship is one of the more rushed parts of the season. Despite the fact that Ed wants to take it slow, the show only allows for a small amount of character development before the two are sleeping together. Almost as quickly, the two break up when Ed decides that sleeping with Stede was a mistake. I believe that these quick changes to their relationship can be blamed on the short season. Still, the fast pace of their relationship leans, almost accidentally, too heavily into the idea that both characters are “whim prone”. They’re constantly breaking up and getting back together, meanwhile Ed goes off to be a fisherman on a whim while Stede gets so easily swept up in fame that he altogether nearly forgets about Ed. Even their decision to run an inn at the end of the season feels really sudden. Can they really be happy if Ed couldn’t even find happiness fishing and Stede has never dreamed of anything more than he’s dreamed of pirating? It almost feels like these two will never be happy, constantly becoming distracted by their separate sudden interests. And sticking them in an inn at the end of the season sounds like a recipe for disaster. Did we learn nothing from Anne Bonny and Mary Read? Ed and Stede are likely to need adventure in order to fight off their short attention spans, and I can only see the inn eventually driving them both insane.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read: Speaking of. Despite the fact that this season was full of excellent female characters, I really disliked this adaptation of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Of course I wanted them to be a queer couple. Who wouldn’t want to see them as a queer couple after hearing about their real-life closeness? But why did they have to be complete psychopaths? I wanted to see Anne and Mary as a badass queer couple, outsmarting their male counterparts like they did in real life. Not stabbing each other and setting their house on fire.

That’s all I have to say on the season, but clearly it’s a lot. I didn’t even get to how cute Lucius and Black Pete were this season, or how epic the fight scenes were. Regardless of my problems, ‘Our Flag’ completely stole my heart with season two. I really liked this series last season, but this season has sealed my fate as a die-hard fan of the show. I really hope we get a season three, but in the meantime, I would ask ‘Our Flag’ fans to be kinder to the show runners and actors about Izzy’s death. The reaction to his death was somewhat volatile, and while I clearly wasn’t 100% happy with it, I do think it wasn’t nearly as bad as most people made it out to be. And the people involved with the show don’t deserve constant hate in the hopes of getting Izzy confirmed for season three. If we want a season three at all we need to support this show as much as possible, especially as a show that exists on one of the platforms that frequently cancels its queer shows.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Comfort Entertainment: ‘Barbie’ and its Impact

Screenshot of (from left) Margot Robbie, Alexandra Shipp, Michael Cera, America Ferrera, and Ariana Greenblatt. Copyright goes to Mattel and WB.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’ve said for a while that at the end of the strike, this was the very first thing I was going to write about. ‘Barbie’ went viral for many reasons, one of those being the movie outfits and everyone greeting each other with “Hey, Barbie!” as they entered the theater. But anyone could tell you that the pink and cute aesthetic was far from the most important thing about this movie. This movie is the movie for women. It was written by women for women and completely about how it is to be a woman and the experiences we all universally have. I love Greta Gerwig as a filmmaker in the way she talks about women’s experiences in general. I remember crying at Jo’s speech about how she wanted to be loved but also wanted to prove that women were good for more than that. And this time there was an even more impactful speech that left the entire theater in tears. I’m going to go through some of the most real scenes in ‘Barbie’ and why they are so incredibly impactful.

Real World:

When ‘Barbie’ first gets into the real world, she and Ken have massively different experiences simply by observing how the people around them are looking at them. While Ken feels respect and a massive ego boost, Barbie marvels at how she feels extreme hostility to the point where she fears for her own safety. The way she’s objectified in the scene is completely relatable to pretty much all women. I don’t think you’ll find a woman who hasn’t been in a situation around a man where they felt unsafe because of his presence. Personally, I will sometimes get a negative gut feeling the first time I meet a guy. It’s rare, but it happens. The scariest part of it is that I have yet to be proved wrong when I have that gut feeling. Every man I have ever felt that about ended up being an unsafe person to be around. Women are constantly pulled back and forth because of these gut instincts. We will have an instinct that a guy is into us but decide not to trust it because we feel like we don’t have enough information about that person and we don’t want to confront anything. Or even more dangerously we can be convinced to disregard the negative gut feelings we have. Gut feelings like this are built up over time because of experiences we have or observations that are then stored in our brains without having to think about them. Often times we don’t know where they come from, but we know they came from some sort of learned experience. They are for a reason. Don’t ever let anyone tell you not to trust your instincts.

Ken’s Rule:

When the Ken’s take over Barbie world and all of the Barbies are brainwashed, a lot of different experiences come up. For example, the Kens impressing the Barbies but also refusing to commit to them and otherwise being really disrespectful. The only way to un-brainwash the Barbies is to tell them truths about the patriarchy. One of the truths that America Ferrera’s character tells Barbie herself is that there is no reason to feel bad for Ken. While she may have crossed an emotional boundary with him; it was him who crossed boundaries with his actions by stealing her house and brainwashing her friends. This seems to happen all the time. I’ve said this before and I will say it again, I have never been so disrespected as when I attempted to enter the dating field. I have had guys talk down to me about my own hobbies or my career choices only for them to then talk about how great their own choices are. There’s sometimes this feeling as a woman that most men don’t want to be with you unless they can be sure that they are more intelligent than you are. These blows are always annoying and obvious. The worst blows come from men who assume they know the right answer and call themselves allies when they are actually spewing sexist views. Like when they compare something that they’ve gone through to a common problem that women face. I’ve actually had this happen recently. While the comparison can sometimes seem close, it is unfair to compare patriarchal societal behavior to a common issue. This can sometimes look like a guy saying that they feel bad for the way men treat their female friends and then say that they don’t understand why those women date the men that they do. As if they know better for them than their female friends. Or it can look like a guy comparing a situation he was in directly to an issue that women regularly talk about suffering from. There are exceptions, but for the most part this isn’t great to hear from a guy who you’re close with. Just like Barbie doesn’t just leave Ken, I’m not saying that this is a reason to drop your friends unless you’ve communicated the issue with them and they are still being unreasonable. But these remarks from people close to us can hurt more than the obvious ones.

The Speech:

America Ferrera’s speech was definitely one of the most impactful pieces of the movie. I will never forget sitting in a theater of almost entirely women for my first viewing of this film and sobbing while looking around and seeing everyone else sobbing at this scene as well. The speech is prolific and it covers everything from the slack that women have to pick up when it comes to men to the way society expects us to act. It includes how women are expected to be thin and pretty but are not supposed to be so much so that we tempt men because that would be stealing them from other women. All of these things come up constantly for women and are nothing short of ridiculous. Women are expected to be completely complacent to the way men act and are then blamed for the way men act anyways. We have to do what they say but we also have to take responsibility for them. When a mistake is made, women are expected to carry all of the shame and all of the weight while the man gets to go about his life as if nothing happened. I can’t explain this speech better than the speech itself so I highly recommend going to watch it, but it is too real to the point of being incredibly sad. This speech in itself is a reason why every person should watch this movie. Not just women, but men too. They should know what we experience too and they should be helping, But, obviously, there’s no relying on them here.

Men have treated women horribly for ages and there’s still things we have to work on. I often don’t know how to broach topics with men when they say something sexist, especially when they say it accidentally and I know for a fact that they didn’t mean it. I am very sick of being blamed for the behaviors of men and it isn’t my job to educate them. But I hope that I’ll get to the point where I do get confrontational about things like that because it’s important. It doesn’t matter what my relationship with these people are, it’s important that we all start speaking our truth and this move showed me that more than anything else recently. One thing I do know, is that I’m going to stop blaming myself for things that men do because it only hurts me when I’m the one who got hurt to begin with. Women are stronger than we are given credit for and we don’t need men in our life to be meaningful by ourselves.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Studio Ghibli: ‘Nippon TV’ Takeover

Promotional image of Mei, Totoro, and Satsuki from ‘My Neighbor Totoro’. Copyright goes to Studio Ghibli.

Hey! Hallie here!

I’ve been avoiding talking about Ghibli simply to avoid discussing what could possibly be considered struck content. However, on the business side of Ghibli news, it was just announced yesterday that Nippon TV has bought out Studio Ghibli. On the surface this sounds kind of concerning, but hold off before you start panicking over the future of Ghibli. Nippon TV has been a major collaborator of Studio Ghibli’s for many years and it seems they have the best interests of the company at heart. But let’s look at exactly what role Nippon TV is playing within Studio Ghibli.

Successor:

Studio Ghibli has been trying to look for a successor to Hayao Miyazaki for many, many years. After all, Hayao Miyazaki has been claiming he was going to retire since the release of ‘Princess Mononoke’, which came out 26 years ago. Clearly he hasn’t retired. In fact, despite the fact that ‘The Boy and the Heron’ (or ‘How Do You Live?) was advertised as his final film, it was reported that Miyazaki is now back in his office every day working on another film. Still, Miyazaki’s not young and he really only comes back to Studio Ghibli for passion projects. That means they need another person to lead the company, and despite the amount of people who have made a large impact on Ghibli, they haven’t been able to find anyone. The people who have stuck around in the company with Miyazaki also aren’t young and don’t want to take up the mantle. The main name that was thrown around as a possible successor for Hayao Miyazaki was his son’s, Goro Miyazaki. But if anyone knows Goro’s directorial contributions to Ghibli, you also know that he hasn’t had the best luck. Both ‘Tales from Earthsea’ and the recent ‘Earwig and the Witch’ are known as two of the worst movies Ghibli has ever made. Hayao Miyazaki even stated that Goro should stop making movies after viewing ‘Tales from Earthsea’. His other movie, ‘From Up on Poppy Hill’ wasn’t bad, but responses to it were mostly lukewarm. None of that is to say that Goro is a bad choice to run the company, or that his father played any role in the decision not to make him the successor. In fact, reports are that Goro himself passed up the opportunity to take over. In that case, how did Nippon TV come into play?

Nippon TV:

Nippon TV might be a familiar name to anime fans. They’ve produced more anime shows than anyone can count, making them the second largest media conglomerate in all of Japan behind only Sony. And fortunately for us fans, they’ve been involved with Studio Ghibli since the beginning. When ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ was created, made by the same people who founded Studio Ghibli but technically made just before the official founding of the company, Nippon TV aired the movie. Their interest in Ghibli lasted long afterwards. The company officially started helping fund and produce multiple Studio Ghibli movies starting with ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ in 1989. They even helped fund the Ghibli Museum in Japan. On top of all this Nippon TV made an official statement after acquiring Studio Ghibli saying that they would “protect Studio Ghibli’s craftsmanship and brand values”. Though it’s never bad to be hesitant when it comes to major corporations, Nippon TV has a past relationship with Ghibli that makes their future together look promising.

What’s Going to Change?:

This is the big question right now. Will we see any visible changes when Nippon TV takes over, or will their involvement be near invisible? Will Studio Ghibli’s strong values and massages, such as their anti-war and pro-environment messaging, remain intact? We don’t know. As of right now all of us are being reassured that we won’t notice a difference. That Nippon TV will continue to give us the Studio Ghibli we love. But will they? We can hope. In the very least we know Hayao Miyazaki won’t let them disrupt the company he built as long as he’s involved. But there are many people who feel strongly about what Ghibli stands for, and we can hope their voices will remain heard even after Miyazaki leaves.

That’s what we know about the deal between Studio Ghibli and Nippon TV so far! Admittedly it isn’t much, but it doesn’t seem like we have anything to worry about as of now. Only time will tell if complications between the future Nippon TV envisions for Ghibli and the future fans envision for Ghibli arise. Still, we have exciting things like the worldwide release of ‘The Boy and the Heron’ and the movie Hayao Miyazaki is now working on to look forward to. With luck, we’ll have many films like these authentic Ghibli projects to enjoy far into the future.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Comfort Entertainment: Dark Crystal Theories and Lore

Screenshot from ‘Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’. Copyright goes to the Jim Henson company.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I grew up with pretty much anything and everything Jim Henson… except for ‘The Dark Crystal’. Let’s be honest, I’ve always been a scaredy cat and the scene where the Podling gets his life force drained is one of the scariest scenes in anything ever. But when ‘Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’ came out, I was all over it. I know a lot of people thought the Gelflings looked creepy, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen more beautiful puppets in my entire life. This series was gorgeous in every possible way. From the world building, to the puppetry, to the acting, all the way to the story itself. I think Thra has to be one of my favorite fictional places of all time. Brea’s library is one of my favorite places in any fantasy media ever, the forests are beautiful, I love the medieval cottages and castles. There’s not a single thing about this series that isn’t amazing. Except for the absolute crime that is Netflix dropping it for a season two. I will forever hate Netlifx for many reasons but that’s towards the top of the list. The series left not exactly on a major cliff hanger, but also not with everything solved and tons of new problems. And with the events of the movie ‘The Dark Crystal’ and the fact that ‘Age of Resistance’ is a prequel, we can all bet that the second season would have been much darker. There are plenty of theories about what might have happened between the series and the movie based off of what we know and I thought I might as well finally jump in! MAJOR SPOILERS for all ‘Dark Crystal’ franchises coming up.

Deet:

I think what happened to Deet is probably the biggest question out there right now. At the end of the season we see sweet and adorable Deet get taken over by the darkening. We know that right before the final battle, the sanctuary tree gave Deet the means to heal other creatures from the darkening. But when it came down to it, she had to channel the darkening in order to protect her friends from the Skeksis. It’s really hard to not love Deet. She’s one of the most beautiful puppets to ever come out of Jim Henson and they actually hired a young female puppeteer to help portray her innocence. She’s also a fan favorite. Nobody wants to see Deet remain as part of the darkening forever. Given that we knew that Deet had the ability to heal other creatures from the darkening, I think it’s safe to say that she would eventually have also been cured from the darkening. Though I’m unsure if it would be a permanent healing or if the darkening would take over again. I do think that Deet and Rian eventually become Jen’s parents in the future. But we also know that every Gelfling that isn’t Jen or Kira die before the events of ‘Dark Crystal’. Rather than thinking the Skesis are behind that, I think that this is probably more due to the darkening. Deet probably eventually succumbs to the darkening, but I don’t think it happens until later.

Rian:

I think it’s difficult to say whether or not he would perish fighting the Skeksis or with the darkening. Most warriors are shown going down fighting, so that is a real possibility. I think it’s very clear that Rian is Jen’s father. We even see a vision with Rian in Jen’s place, replacing the shard in the crystal. I feel like his future is a bit more clear, so I don’t have as much to say here. But I think you definitely see the resemblance between Jen and Rian.

Brea:

I know I might be one of the only one who thinks this at this point, but I do actually think that Brea is Kira’s Mom. I know a lot of people are arguing that Seladon and Kira look alike. I personally am not sure that is purposeful. I think you can definitely see the advancements in puppetry between the prequel and the original movie. I personally don’t think that Seladon and Kira look any more alike than Kira and Brea and I think the reason for the difference in looks is because of how different the process in making the puppets has become. What I do think is that we were told pretty clearly in the original Dark Crystal that Brea is Kira’s Mom. We know from the vision Deet sees that Brea is pretty clearly the woman in Kira’s flashback from the original film. Kira says directly that this woman is her Mom. There are a lot of people who think that Kira might have been mistaken and that Brea was just hiding Kira on behalf of Seladon who might already have died. I think this might be overthinking when we were already given a pretty clear answer. I also know that Kira was a baby when this happened, but I don’t think there’s any reason to doubt Kira on this one. Especially because she’s shown to be pretty wise and have a pretty good understanding of what happened to both herself and Thra. Seeing that Brea gets snatched there, it’s safe to say that she died at Skeksis hands. What’s a bit more difficult to tell is who Brea had Kira with. A lot of people have been throwing around Kylan, which I like, don’t get me wrong. But I’m not sure I’m completely convinced that Kylan is the father of Kira. We haven’t seen anything even resembling chemistry between Brea and Kylan in the first season. He was incredibly kind to her after the death of her mother, but I don’t think there was much beyond that. And I didn’t read any of their interactions as romantic, as much as I would have thought that was cute. But we did see Brea interact with Rek’yr, a Dousan that the group meets in the desert. Brea and Rek’yr seem to take an immediate liking to each other, even seeming to flirt a little. Brea continues to wear a necklace that he gives her throughout the rest of the episodes too. To kind of solidify this, Kira has a streak of green in her hair which is consistent with both Rek’yr and the Dousan clan. I feel like my Brea theories are more unpopular but I do think that Brea is the mother of Kira and I personally think that Rek’yr is the more likely father.

Onica:

A few people may be confused that I’m writing about Onica because she didn’t appear much in the first season. Onica actually appears a ton in the lore books for ‘Dark Crystal’ and was supposed to have an expanded role in the next season. In the lore books Onica is actually in a relationship with Tavra, which is queer representation I would have absolutely loved. Though it’s not great that they killed off Tavra so early on. We don’t do the “bury your gays” trope in this house. According to the lore books, however, Tavra actually still lives on and her consciousness is now in the spider creature. Kind of creepy and not really satisfactory, but at least it’s something. It would have been nice to explore this relationship more if we had gotten the chance. And to see Onica become an even more powerful soothsayer before she also might have been taken over by the darkening.

It’s ultimately a little depressing to talk about the demise of all of these adorable and gorgeous characters. I’m not as much of a fan of theorizing about how they all die. But, as a fan of romance, I particularly wanted to jump on the ship theories here. I absolutely loved people shipping Brea and Kylan, but after my most recent rewatch of the series I personally couldn’t really see it. Even when I was trying really hard to see it because I wanted to. But I do think there’s an equally cute pairing in Brea and Rek’yr. And Deet and Rian are obviously so adorable. I love them a lot. Maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t get another season because I really don’t want to see all these cute characters die and this amazing world be marred by a bloodbath. But I still hate Netflix for not clearing a second season and I will continue to do so. Forever.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: ‘The Last Campfire’ Review

Screenshot of the character Ember from ‘The Last Campfire’. Copyright goes to Hello Games.

Hey! Hallie here!

It’s been a while! My life has been absolutely hectic recently with a lot of new, stressful, exciting things. So naturally, I’m still playing as many cozy games as I can to help out my stress and anxiety. I’m always on the look out for games that feel like a warm blanket on a cold day. While I was looking through the cozy games for Nintendo Switch, I noticed that this game was only a few dollars and had amazing reviews. So, as usual, I did way too much research into this game and decided the lush forest background and deep storyline were exactly the kinds of things I look for in my cozy games. But did this game live up to its good reviews? Let’s look at what ‘The Last Campfire’ really has to offer! This review is spoiler free! Don’t worry about avoiding this post if you want to discover this story on your own!

Synopsis: In ‘The Last Campfire’ you play as Ember, a spirit who drifts too far down the river and finds themself in a world full of lost souls. The souls here are in danger of becoming “forlorn”, a state where they turn to stone. Fortunately for them Ember has the ability to reach them in their forlorn state, help them sort through the problems they had in life, and release them from the stone. Though Ember finds new purpose in helping these souls, they quickly discover that they must also go up against the Forest King, a powerful spirit who won’t let any of the souls move on.

Gameplay: This is an area puzzle game, meaning you spend the duration of the game exploring new locations and figuring out how to use the objects at your disposal to overcome obstacles in your way. In some cases that means luring a pig to one area of the map so they can eat the plants in your way. In others it means figuring out how to build a bridge to the next platform. At some point in the game you also get a mysterious musical instrument, which allows you to move objects far bigger and further away than the other objects you can manipulate. The puzzles make exploring the map interesting and the progression of difficulty is very satisfying. You never feel out of your depth with any puzzles, but some of the puzzles were definitely more difficult than I anticipated. It made things challenging without ever becoming stressful. There are also some extra obstacles you can navigate your way past in order to collect journal entries. These entries are from a stranger who becomes more and more plot relevant as the story goes on. I really liked finding the entires hidden across each area, but I will say that it’s disappointing that you don’t get any sort of achievement for finding them all. Still, overall, I really liked the simple but engaging gameplay.

Story: I somehow end up consuming a lot of games with death as the focus, but if that’s a topic that isn’t something you feel completely comfortable addressing, this game is definitely more for you than say, ‘Spiritfarer’. While ‘The Last Campfire’ does talk a lot about the concept of moving on and being at peace with the decisions made in life, its approach to the whole thing is more metaphorical than other games. You can really draw your own conclusions when it comes to most of the topics the game presents. This is especially true of the stories you get from each soul you help. As you solve puzzles to help each forlorn soul break free of the stone trapping them, you hear a vague story narrated to you that explains the biggest regret or hardship of the soul you’re helping. While these can be a bit too cryptic, they’re absolutely fascinating and help you empathize with each character. This is especially true of the “boss” of each area, a character who tends to be more unique from the other characters and has a more defined story. None of these characters are connected, but hearing their individual stories was probably my favorite part of the entire game. I also really loved that some forlorn souls can’t be helped. At first this sounds a bit depressing, but in truth it isn’t. When you approach forlorn souls that can’t be helped, they specifically ask that you not help them. And it’s never because any of them are “too far gone”. It’s always because they aren’t ready to move on or share their insecurities with someone else. The game never looks down on them for making these decisions. Instead, it normalizes taking your time to process and ask for help. And then, on top of all of that, the narrator has the most charming, soothing voice I’ve ever heard. I really enjoyed my time with this story, and there’s definitely something very healing about it.

‘The Last Campfire’ won’t take you long to complete. It’s only about a seven hour game, and that includes taking your time to find journal entries. But the scope feels so much larger than you would expect for something that short. There are several locations, so many characters to meet, and multiple heartfelt messages for each area. Add in the amount of times a puzzle genuinely stumped me, and I felt like I got a lot of content packed into only a few hours. This is definitely worth the money, both at a discount and at full price. It’s gorgeous, wholesome, and genuinely cozy.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Books: Recent Fall Reads and Sue Lynn Tan

Gorgeous art of the characters from ‘Daughter of the Moon Goddess’ by Sue Lynn Tan. Copyright goes to artist Arz28. Posted by Sue Lynn Tan.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Sorry for the recent schedule blips. It’s really busy for us right now! It’s been way too long since I’ve done a post about books and recently I started working at a library. Books are probably going to become my career. So I feel like I need to have far more posts about books on this blog than I already do. And despite the fact that I’ve been reading like crazy recently, I’ve reviewed very few of the books that I’ve been reading despite the fact that I’ve been loving so many of them recently! A lot of the ones I’ve read recently were perfect for end of summer and beginning of Fall vibes. So this is going to be an amalgamation of suggestions of books that I’ve read that really fit into the vibes of the changing seasons. Not all of the books that I mention in this post are great, so while most of these are going to be suggestions I’ll also go into why I may have not connected so much with related or sequel books. But I hope all of these transport you somewhere for a little while if you need an escape! SOME MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

‘Daughter of the Moon Goddess’ by Sue Lynn Tan:

I’m not usually one to really like recommended books from BookTok. While I do really like romance; I especially like wholesome romance and I don’t seem to be a fan of a lot of the tropes that are usually liked on TikTok. But these books were calling my name. I mean, people were saying the two books in this series were like a C-Drama in book form, so I had to try it out. And this has to be some of the best world building I’ve seen in a fantasy series for a while. One of the things that I loved about these books were her descriptions of everything down to leaf colors and the different Kingdoms as well as the different seasons. The characters travel on clouds and spend their time in these gorgeous pavilions. Some of the Kingdoms are actually within the sea. As in underneath the sea and covered in shells and aqua colors. Some of the Kingdoms are more greenery based with waterfalls. Others are deserts based in fire. Every place they go in these books feels distinct and rich. Her flowery language in describing these places only transports you as the reader further. Xingyin is such a strong female lead and so fun to read about. The surprising part of this for me was that I liked it despite the fact that there was a true love triangle. Most K-Dramas and C-Dramas don’t have true love triangles where the main female character is equally interested in both guys. Usually they both like her, but she pretty much only likes one of them. In this she goes back and forth on them pretty consistently throughout the series. I liked both of the love interests in the first book! Liwei is the more lighthearted Prince character while Whenzi is the tougher general character. Both are really likable and you become attached to both.

The problem for me here was the second book; ‘Heart of the Sun Warrior’. ‘Daughter of the Moon Goddess’ ends with pretty much every loose thread resolved. It ends in a tidy bow. So I think I was confused when I heard that the author had planned this as a duology the entire time she was writing. The love triangle is just as strong in this book, which I wasn’t a huge fan of. I personally liked both love interests enough that I didn’t have a huge preference on who she should have ended up with, but I just wanted her to pick someone. Both of the love interests in the second book are basically interchangeable and don’t have much character development. You could probably switch all of their dialogue and it wouldn’t matter. Which is a pretty significant issue for character development. They constantly argue over her the entire time, particularly about who knows her better and which of them hurt her worse. Which are both really pointless topics. She also spends most of the book pretty in love and dedicated to one of them and doesn’t end up with him at the end for some pretty superficial reasons. I really wanted to love this book! I once again loved her descriptions of all of the places that the main characters ended up at and some of the family dynamics were beautiful! But the villain also didn’t make much sense to the plot, especially considering the last book. I didn’t hate this book, but I think I’d like to just stick to the story in the first one, personally. I felt like it was cleaner in the first one, but returning to the world was nice in the second book. I would absolutely read anything else this author puts out! I’m just not a fan of love triangles.

‘The Comeback’ by Lily Chu:

I’ve written about ‘The Stand In’ by Lily Chu on this blog before. This one is similar in that it follows a kind of K-Drama plot line. But I liked this one even better! This follows a very stressed and over-worked woman who one day comes home to find a stranger in her apartment. The stranger turns out to be a pretty famous K-Pop idol and their relationship builds before she really knows who he is. One of my favorite parts of this one was the main male love interest. I don’t feel like many romances write the male love interests to be very emotionally intelligent or openly affectionate. What I liked about this was that he was very much both! There’s not a whole lot of miscommunication between the two main characters. Though there were complaints from some readers because, while they never break up because of miscommunication, the main characters do break up not once, but twice. Fortunately, these breakups make sense. One is the fault of the female character while the other is the fault of the male character and they are both moments of character flaws that the characters have to work on to better themselves because of. By the end of the book their relationship is really healthy because both characters have worked on making themselves better and their relationship better by extension. And I just loved how adorably affectionate he was with her. There are so many cozy and cute moments of just the two of them in an apartment together, which is what gave me cool weather and Fall vibes. It’s a great romance to curl up with for the season!

‘Love and Gelato’ by Jenna Evans Welch:

This book takes place during the summer and I can absolutely see why this book is so well loved. It simultaneously fulfilled my want for a good travel book and a good romance. I know that the author spent years of her life in Italy and it really shows. There was a lot of care and love put into her descriptions of every place in Italy that the main character goes to. And the romance build up is SO good! I’m a really big fan of friends to lovers tropes, but I feel like most authors want to go for a trope that feels more exciting. The two main characters becoming best friends and then slowly realizing they love each other while exploring gorgeous places in Italy is all I’ve ever wanted. If you’re wondering where the Fall vibes come in here; I mostly thought of this book because she spends her time in Italy living in a cemetery. I’m not kidding. I can usually go either way when it comes to creepy vibes like this, but it was great! The cemetery felt just as beautiful as the other parts of Italy she described and I really want to go there now. I also really want gelato now. I guess I’m going to have to try harder to find a good gelato place semi-close to me! Don’t make the mistake that I made and watch the Netflix movie. They change so much of the plot and none of it is good. The characters are almost completely different from the book and so much worse. Definitely one of the biggest examples of “the book is better than the movie” that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. But the book is amazing and you absolutely should read it if you’ve ever even entertained the thought of traveling to Italy.

These are only some of the books I’ve read recently, but I feel like these books are the best for Fall reads. Personally, I’ve already been leaning hard into the season. I’ve already been eating pumpkin flavored foods and enjoying Halloween vibes while I pick out what I’m probably going to wear for the holiday this year. Even though it’s still nearly two months away at this point. Which is weird to think about. But, especially with my new job and related Master’s degree program, expect more frequent posts about books that I like! Because I know that there’s so many that I still haven’t talked about!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

ATEEZ: Kindness and Treatment

Promotional photo of (from left) Jung Wooyoung, Park Seonghwa, Choi Jongho, Kang Yeosang, Kim Hongjoong, Jeong Yunho, Choi San, and Song Mingi. Copyright goes to ATEEZ and KQ Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I think there’s a lot of rightful anger going on coming from Atiny lately. And it all has to do with the way that our boys have been treated because, we have to be honest here, they’ve been treated horribly left and right by people who should be looking out for them. It’s been exhausting to see how these amazing men who are known for being so incredibly kind have been treated by people recently at events. Thankfully, Hongjoong just announced that as of next month ATEEZ will be going on a well deserved break. They’ve been running non-stop without a breather for years now, pretty much ever since Covid, and they really do deserve to rest for a while. Everyone needs to rest at some point. But I don’t like to write posts that are just negative, so I don’t only want to talk about the bad stuff that’s happened to them recently. I also want to dedicate a portion of this post to how kind the members of ATEEZ are because I need the reminder of what they’re putting into the world when I think about people who are throwing their kindness and messages into the trash. I hope that the many Atiny who are not doing that can be there for them during this time and help them know that we’re all here to support them and carry on that kindness!

K-Con:

I think we can all agree that K-Con was nothing short of a mess this year when you exclude the artists and their amazing performances. Most people came away from K-Con with Covid, there were several serious complaints of racism against K-Con this year, and many of the fans at the event as well as some of the questions asked to the artists were completely disrespectful. Many Atiny noted early on in K-Con that Mingi was, rightfully, not having it. KQ hasn’t been treating ATEEZ the best recently scheduling wise and their schedules between K-Con and Hello82 were insane. Neither company seemed to treat ATEEZ, or many groups for that matter, with the respect they deserved. Mingi could be seen at many events casually talking to Atiny instead of participating in the crammed together games. Most of the Atiny he talked to acted very respectfully towards him, but one “fan” in particular recently became infamous among Atiny for the way she treated Mingi. At an event the members of ATEEZ went down the line granting wishes to Atiny in the audience that they chose. Mingi, naturally, chose someone who was carrying a sign that had his name on it. She promptly asked him to pass her photo card to San so that he could sign it instead. Sometimes I honestly can’t fathom the way people think about them as somehow both more and less than human at the same time. These men are incredibly over-worked human beings with real feelings! If you wouldn’t treat your closest friend that way, you shouldn’t ever consider treating them that way either. Her treatment of Mingi was horrifying and I hope that nobody ever treats him that way again or any other member of ATEEZ for that matter.

Jongho’s Health:

Jongho has been having reoccurring issues with his ankle for some time now. Apparently his ankle has been acting up more lately and was especially acting up before K-Con. I personally think that KQ should have made him perform on stage while sitting if the issues were this bad, but I was not behind the scenes so I don’t know exactly what happened here. What we do know is that after K-Con, Jongho’s ankle was discovered to be so bad that he had to be immediately flown back to South Korea where he is now about to have surgery. ATEEZ has been touring in Mexico and Brazil without him and the Atiny there have been massively supportive and loud in singing Jongho’s parts. All of this also happened in between massive incoherent and absolutely unbelievable criticisms about Jongho’s dancing skill. Jongho is one of the most amazing talents in the fourth generation, if not in K-Pop in general, and the fact he’s massively underrated saddens me. But what really makes me absolutely baffled is that anyone would go after the dance skills of anyone in ATEEZ. They were formed partially based off of their dance skills. They are known for having the most difficult choreography of any group. And it just saddens me that it took Jongho massively injuring himself for these people to quiet down and realize just how much effort he’s always been putting in. I am also so angry at KQ for over-working them to the point where one of them injured himself to this degree.

Green Flags:

One of the trends going around TikTok regarding ATEEZ recently has been the “green flags” trend and I tear up almost every time a video like this appears on my timeline. But I really do want to share some of the things that have been coming up lately, because they make me so proud to be a part of the journey with these men and really lighten my day. They give me hope that nice people really are out there! A woman who worked on staff with ATEEZ during a video call talked about her interactions with Yunho and San. When she was having trouble with the technology, something we can all relate to, and started praying that the connection would go through, Yunho laughed and prayed with her. He also gave her words of encouragement that were then echoed by San who was next in line. She said that she had been considering quitting her line of work before this and that their moments of humanity and empathy towards her made her reconsider. Hongjoong has been well known for supporting the LGBTQ+ community and talked about how if he ever came out with a clothing line, he would want to have gender neutral clothing for everyone to express themselves. He’s also thanked their staff very genuinely many times including shedding tears on stage for how hard their staff works. ATEEZ are known for being respectful to staff. Even people who have worked minimum wage at conventions have had stories of ATEEZ bowing to them just walking in the hallways and thanking them for their help. Seonghwa went viral not too long ago for his emotional and respectful reaction to a fan letter that a mother read to him for her daughter. When covering songs, Hongjoong has taken out words or phrases that objectify women as well as racial slurs. San recently became angry at a story of a husband throwing away all of his wife’s memorabilia without her permission. All of these small stories just scratch the surface of what staff have said about them and what we’ve seen of them. We’ve visually seen many members of ATEEZ helps fans calm down from panic attacks or talk with fans like they just value and want the connection, like Mingi recently. I’m sure I’m missing things and I definitely wish I had more stories about more specific members, but these are just the ones that have showed up on my timeline. We all know that all of these boys are national treasures with the kindest hearts. I mean, we all remember Jongho carefully handing out flowers to Atiny with the biggest smile rather than throwing them. Or Yeosang turning his personal fan towards an overheated fan without realizing there was glass in the way. Or Wooyoung helping a delivery driver pick up a bunch of boxes he had dropped. We’ve seen them give their chairs to fans who were being made to sit on crates (looking at you again Hello82) and carry heavy equipment for staff. I am always so grateful to ult one of the groups in K-Pop who have one of the biggest reputations for being kind. I just hope that we give them back some of the kindness and that the bad stuff isn’t all they see right now.

I am so grateful to have these men in my life. They have helped me through so much and I hope that I give them back just a little bit of the support that they’ve already given me. Which means that it is that much more horrifying when I see people treating them the way they have been treated recently. What I want most right now is for Jongho to heal quickly and for that break to last for at least a couple months. They deserve all the rest! Though I know they’ve talked about how difficult it can be to let themselves rest sometimes. But I hope they know that we’ll all be here when they get back!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: The Spirits of ‘Spiritfarer’ Ranked

Screenshot of Daffodil, Stella, and Gwen from ‘Spiritfarer’. Copyright goes to Thunder Lotus Games.

Hey! Hallie here!

I’ve talked a lot about my favorite cozy games on this blog, but recently I had a real life situation that made me think of ‘Spiritfarer’ in particular. ‘Spiritfarer’ has been a very sad but calming form of catharsis for me, and I don’t think that would be true if it wasn’t for the amazing cast of characters you get to know throughout the game. ‘Spiritfarer’ does an amazing job of making you care about every single spirit you encounter, even if you didn’t like them at first. So much so that you feel a sense of sadness when you help even the difficult characters cross over. But still, some characters feel more memorable than others, and some aren’t quite able to overcome the bad things they did in life. For this post I’m going to rank each of the spirits, but naturally, this is my personal opinion. If I put your favorite character towards the bottom of the list, this is my preemptive apology! Also, SPOILERS AHEAD!

14.Elena: There are some characters in this game who are difficult to deal with, but Elena puts them all to shame. First off, she won’t accept hugs. Hugging the characters of this game is one of the most wholesome elements of the entire thing. Still, I would have accepted a character who challenged the mechanic by putting up boundaries, as long as they weren’t incredibly rude about it. But Elena thrives on being rude. She says things like “don’t touch me,” and “keep your distance,” when you offer a hug. When she talks about her past you very quickly realize that she was the type of teacher you hated as a kid. She thought all of her kids were lazy and inadequate, and she notes that one of the highest moments of her career was when she finally got up the courage to scream at the kids in her class. And though she does say that the school she worked at valued money more than hard work, you still can’t help but think that screaming at students wouldn’t accomplish anything. And unlike some other characters in the game, she doesn’t change. She doesn’t go through much character growth before she decides to pass through the Everdoor. If Elena is anything, she’s a lesson that even people you don’t get along with deserve some empathy at the end of their lives. That lesson doesn’t make her any easier to like, though.

13.Bruce and Mickey: These two wind up at the bottom of most people’s lists and I’m not one to break this trend. Once again, we have a character who isn’t easy to get along with. That isn’t Mickey, the big bull who doesn’t speak, but it instead describes his brother Bruce, a small hummingbird who speaks on behalf of himself and his brother. Or so he says. Though Bruce is mostly unpleasant (The brothers do accept hugs though,) and irritates the majority of the spirits on Stella’s boat, their story is the thing that saves them from the last place position. It becomes clear towards the end of their time with Stella that Mickey isn’t there. He’s silent because he passed on long ago after a car-chase ended in him getting shot, and he only appears because Bruce isn’t willing to let go of him. This state reflects the state they were in when Stella knew them as an End-Of-Life Nurse, where Mickey was technically alive but braindead, and Bruce never left his side until the end of his life. It’s a devastatingly tragic story, but it isn’t one that allows these two a higher position on this list.

12.Giovanni: A lot of people have mixed feelings about Giovanni. On the one hand, he’s extremely charming, has an excellent sense of humor, and is overall very kind to Stella. But when you hear his wife, Astrid’s, point of view your opinion of him quickly becomes complicated. He was known for using his charm to win over many women. While he was married to Astrid. He cheated on her, and even in death he doesn’t show much remorse for it. While he will admit that he hurt her, he has a firm belief in living life to its fullest. Which to him means that marriage shouldn’t hold him back from the excitement of flirting with other people. He can even be found flirting with other women in the spirit world. Though he will eventually confess that this entire attitude was a facade built to hide behind how inadequate he felt next to the successful and well-liked Astrid, it still doesn’t excuse his actions. This is a case of someone who seems likable on the surface but only leaves you with mixed feelings when he passes through the Everdoor.

11.Daria. I love Daria, but she, much like the next character on this list, doesn’t get a lot of time for her story. What we get is extremely interesting. She was a patient at the hospital Stella and Jackie worked at (We’ll talk about Jackie in a bit), who struggled to connect with others due to her sound-to-color synesthesia. You connect with her in mini-games through music and eventually find out that she was a talented painter and musician before her condition worsened. But that’s really all you figure out. She doesn’t even spend time on your boat until it’s time to take her to the Everdoor. You just don’t get a lot of time with her, and though the gameplay with her is memorable, her story doesn’t get enough of a spotlight.

10.Buck. Buck is always one of the last characters you’ll pick up on Stella’s boat and he won’t ask to go to the Everdoor. He is meant to be the last person on the boat, the one to accompany Stella to the Everdoor, and because of that you don’t get as much time with him as you do other characters. You do become very familiar with his nerdy interests, specifically concerning table-top roleplaying games. You get hints of the guy he used to be, a former friend of Stella’s sister who died too young and rounds off Stella’s story as one of her first experiences with death. In a way, you warm to him just because he’s the last person to be encouraging to the player before Stella passes on. But unfortunately, there still isn’t a lot to his character.

9.Beverly: Beverly is a kindly old owl who only ends up this low on the list for not shining as brightly as the other elderly women you meet in ‘Spiritfarer’. She’s also one of two characters who deals with memory problems, but hers are admittedly less impactful than the other event I will mention later. Her life was pretty simple. She talks a lot about her husband, who she met on a blind date and who passed before her, and her two kids who have long since left. She’ll reminisce mostly about small events she can remember, and as her memory goes, she begins to repeat those events. What really stands out about her is her stubborn and witty personality, but ultimately she’s just a neighbor Stella once knew. There isn’t anything particularly surprising about her.

8.Jackie. Kind of like Giovanni, Jackie is a bit of a more complicated character. He’s a former co-worker of Stella’s who lived on her couch for a while before his untimely death. In life and in death, he’s always been a bit jealous of her. While she found purpose in her role as a nurse, he hated his role as an orderly and often shirked off work as a result. He was responsible for caring for Daria when she was alive, and though he used her as an excuse not to do other work, he never bothered to connect with her and advised others not to bother with her. At one point his actions and general anger problems caused Daria to retaliate, harming Jackie and leading to his dismissal. Which in turn, led him to Stella’s couch. After you essentially replay the events of Jackie and Daria’s life in the Spiritworld, Jackie moves onto Stella’s boat and decides to start working on his problems. He makes a genuine effort to work through his anger issues, his lack of self-confidence, and the depression that led to his lack of motivation. By the end of his story you can see Jackie has grown into a better person who’s more proud of who he is. It’s a really great character arc, and a memorable one as well.

7.Gustav: We’ve gotten down to the characters I absolutely adore and we’re only at seven. Gustav is a really fascinating character. He’s a German art curator who Stella met in Japan, and throughout their interactions you can tell he majorly inspired her in life. She visited one of his art shows and spoke to him often, and his imaginative and wise words even serve to leave a lasting impact on the player. Gustav can be a bit difficult to please on the boat, but he’s always kind and level-headed. The problem with Gustav is his attitude towards his multiple sclerosis. He makes it very clear that it was mentally hard for him to come to terms with it, and he hated the impact it had on his body. All of that’s fine. What’s not fine is his very limited view of his inability to walk, and his relief over not having a wheelchair in the after-life. This isn’t so much a problem with the character as it is a misunderstanding by the writers when it comes to disability representation, and the ways aids like wheelchairs play a role in many people’s lives. But that conversation is better heard from disabled fans of the game.

6.Alice. These last few are really difficult for me to sort out, but Alice is a very important character to me. She’s extremely nice but can fall to the background if a player isn’t paying enough attention. She’s quite shy and doesn’t want to be a bother to anyone. But the more you get to know her, the more you see a bright, warm personality. You get to know her as a mother who loved her kids and who wanted the best for everyone. But in life she had dementia, an illness that Stella took care of her during and which inspired Stella to become an end-of-life nurse. In death she struggles with the same illness. By the time you take her to the Everdoor, she doesn’t remember Stella and the player must dress Stella in colors Alice associated with her daughter so she’ll trust Stella to help her cross over. It’s absolutely heartbreaking and hits extremely hard for anyone who’s seen someone suffer form a similar illness. But, like all the other crossings, it offers a level of peace and comfort that I very much needed when I played it.

5.Gwen. Gwen is the very first character you meet in ‘Spiritfarer’ and the spirit who helps Stella build her boat and gain the confidence to become a spiritfarer. As you get to know her you realize she was an old friend of Stella’s, one who was known for trouble-making but still was a figure Stella looked up to for a good portion of her life. Gwen is jaded from her difficult relationship with her father and has a hard time accepting her smoking habit as the reason for the lung cancer that killed her. But she still makes a point of looking out for Stella, and it really feels like you’re losing a safe space when you help her through the Everdoor. Though Gwen is only there for the first part of the game, her connection to Stella and her complicated personality make her memory last long after she’s gone.

4.Atul. Uncle Atul is one of the most adorable and heartbreakingly confusing spirits in the entire game. No one can argue that Atul doesn’t give the best hugs out of every spirit in the game, and his generally boisterous and joyful personality only serve to make his rounded frog form more adorable. When you talk to Uncle Atul he always talks fondly of his family, including Stella, his actual niece whom he took pride in teaching many life skills. Even though he can irritate other spirits on the boat with his constant tinkering, he still puts other people first. He’s almost too kind to everyone he meets. But Atul is more complicated than he seems. He struggles with finding happiness himself despite all the good things he’s done. And then there’s his disappearance. Atul doesn’t ever get to go to the Everdoor. He’s just gone. This parallels the disappearance that happened in life, a situation that devastated Stella. Though seeing his spirit confirms for Stella that he died, the fact that she can’t help him pass on further cements for Stella that there was nothing she could have done in that situation. Still, it’s hard to let him go.

3.Astrid. A complete badass who you meet while she’s arranging a worker’s strike, Astrid isn’t one to mess with. She’s kind but fair, gentle but firm, and doesn’t take anyone’s BS. Hilariously, she isn’t one to turn down a bit of gossip, but she’ll never cast judgement on someone who doesn’t deserve it. I mean, she hid Jewish children in her mother’s restaurant during World War II. How could this woman be anything but badass? All of this makes it more heartbreaking when you begin to explore her relationship with Giovanni. She loves him dearly even though he by no accounts deserves it. And she struggles with wanting their relationship to bring them both happiness while coming to terms with the fact that it never can. But even through all that she still keeps an eye on Stella, whom she took in as a surrogate grandchild. She’s just amazing and it’s difficult not to like her.

2.Summer. An absolutely gorgeous snake and an actually confirmed queer character, Summer married into Stella’s family when she fell in love with Stella’s aunt. She struggled her entire life with breast cancer, experiencing a dread for it that she still hadn’t accepted in death. But Summer put all of her effort into being at peace with the universe, deciding to grow a garden and pursue more spiritual hobbies. Because of these things she’s a very calming presence to be around. She’s one of the best spirits to talk to just because she’s so empathetic and understanding towards Stella. Her impact on Stella also plays directly into the story, as being by her side after Summer’s wife died and her cancer returned inspired Stella to become a nurse. I also find her storyline the most healing, with her character more than any other character deciding to spend her time on Stella’s boat working to fully be at peace with the way she died. By the time she leaves she’s achieved peace and there’s something so fulfilling in seeing that.

1.Stanley. Yes, I’m one of those ‘Spiritfarer’ fans who can’t get enough of Stanley. Can you blame me? Stanley is the only child you encounter during the game. That in itself is absolutely tragic. But interacting with Stanley, you never feel too sad. He’s the brightest ray of sunshine you’ll meet in the game. He’s also hilarious. He’ll tell anecdotes that sound very much like a little kid, will repeat adult words he doesn’t understand, and will draw your attention away from serious thing so he can talk about his pet beetle. Already his appearance, as a mushroom with multiple arms rather than an animal, reflects the whimsical imagination of a kid. But the quiet moments where he contemplates his situation also reflects the surprising wisdom of a child. The moments right before you send him through the Everdoor are definitely sad, especially because he expresses that he’s frightened. But like every other character, you see him grown and change with his time on Stella’s boat, and you can only feel happy for him when he passes on. In many ways Stanley reminds me of why I like this game so much. While his situation is sad, the way it’s dealt with is so lighthearted and gentle that ultimately, it winds up comforting rather than horrible. It’s not easy to create a tone like that, but ‘Spiritfarer’ does.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Live Entertainment: ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ in LA

Promotional photo of (from left) Mathew Cavendish, Nancy Zamit, Chris Leask, Ellie Morris, Greg Tannahill, Henry Shields, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Lewis. Copyright goes to Mischief and Center Theatre Group.

Hi! It’s Annie!

So, I wasn’t able to get tickets to K-Con this year. And honestly, I didn’t go last year either because I usually save my money for actual artist tours rather than going to K-Con. But this year I was at least hoping for some kind of ATEEZ event and I wasn’t able to get into any. (It also wasn’t advisable to go to K-Con on Sunday because of a freaking hurricane in California of all things. And KQ is overworking ATEEZ so much that Jongho had to be rushed back to South Korea. I am more than a little angry.) Luckily, my sorrow about this was lessened a little by the fact that Mischief decided to come all the way out to LA from the West End with my favorite production, ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ and I was able to see it on Saturday. I’ve actually done a previous post about ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ and if you told me back when I wrote that post that I would eventually see the original cast perform it live, I would have thought you were crazy. The cast is entirely British and I have absolutely seen their original production, ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’ on tour, but it was a touring cast. When I first heard that ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ was coming, I thought it would be a touring cast too but was still more than happy to see it. I watch the BBC version of it often when I’m having a bad day and need a laugh. I didn’t realize it was the original touring cast until after I had already made plans to see it and I was absolutely shocked. I think I almost cried because I am an emotional bean. And now that I’ve seen it, I can say that seeing it live is so much better. MAJOR SPOILERS for if you want to watch the BBC version or are going to catch this before it leaves LA! If you can’t see it in LA, I highly recommend watching the BBC version (which is free on Youtube) in general and before moving on with this review. I’m just going to get into it!

Summary: The Cornley Polytechnic Theatre Society is a usually poor theatre group that has done several unsuccessful productions. The cast consists of Chris, the snobby control-freak Director and Captain Hook/Mr. Darling. Robert, a vain self-important actor who swears he is the Co-Director and plays Starkey/Peter’s Shadow/Nana/Tree. Jonathan, a slightly creepy actor who sleeps around and plays Peter Pan. Sandra, an over actor who thinks she’s a great actress and plays Wendy. Dennis, a very dumb actor who can’t remember his lines and plays John/Smee. Max, a childish actor with a crush on Sandra who plays Michael/the Crocodile. (He’s only cast because of a rich family member that donated a lot of money.) Nancy, an energetic yet exhausted former techie who plays Mrs. Darling/Lisa/Curly/Tinkerbell. Lucy, the niece of Robert with stage fright who plays Tootles. And others which includes Trevor, the very Scottish and not-into-it Stage Manager and the Narrator who changes depending on the show. This time it was Bradley Whitford who laments having to do this despite his Emmys and apparently took the job because of the current strike. This motley crew of characters are notoriously bad at shows and the audience watches as everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

The Actors:

I think it makes sense to point out that the original cast of this show are the original cast for Mischief in general. These characters have been played largely by these people and have also been added to over the years by these same people. At the showing that we went to, we didn’t actually see a few of the actors. Henry Shields was out as Chris, so instead we got Harry Kershaw, who was an amazing and hilarious Chris. We also saw Brennan Stacker as Lucy rather than Ellie Morris. She was also just as amazing as I could have imagined. I was really worried that we wouldn’t be able to see Jonathan Sayer, who may just be my favorite member of the original cast, but I’m not sure I could say that since I love them all so much. Jonathan Sayer was busy for the first half of this run and we managed to catch him right as he came back. I really really wanted to see him as Dennis. I don’t think anyone expects the main creator of Mischief to cast himself as the dumb actor and it was really funny to see him address the audience at the end of the show as the creator after seeing him play Dennis for two hours. Dave Hearn was unfortunately not there as Max but Matthew Cavendish has been playing Max in theatre productions for a while as well. I also especially loved seeing Henry Lewis as Robert. Nobody does the larger than life personality and very distinct “Woof!” bits as well as he does them. Nancy was amazing live! I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone multi-task like that on stage. But overall I loved seeing everyone. We actually saw Chris Leask who plays Trevor outside the venue before the production. The Scottish accent made me laugh every time. We even got to see a talk back with Charlie, Nancy, Matthew, and Brennan at the very end where they demonstrated safe screams and talked about feeling safe on stage. It really felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity to see these amazing actors from the West End!

The Unexpected:

The BBC version of ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ is about an hour and the live version is about two, which means there are quite a few things in the live version I hadn’t seen. Which was great, because I laughed doubly as hard at the comedy I wasn’t expecting. The most shocking moment for me was probably when a stage light fell onto the stage. It made a really loud noise and I think the entire audience gasped. Trevor as Peter Pan lasted a good deal longer live than in the BBC version, which I really liked. For me, Trevor becoming Peter Pan is one of my favorite parts of the BBC version and I loved hearing him do more of the lines. There was so much more of him hanging upside down in this version though and I have no idea how he could stand it! Harry Kershaw as Chris set up this incredible moment to make a little girl in the audience help him murder Peter Pan which was such a funny moment. Another moment that I loved was after Sandra finds Jonathan and Nancy kissing. In the BBC version she slaps Jonathan and then gets into a bit of a fight with Nancy. In this version Sandra slaps Jonathan and then talks with Nancy, they check on each other, and then they team up to slam Jonathan’s head into a table. This change was suggested by Charlie and Nancy who didn’t think that the women would fight each other when they had both been wronged by the guy in this situation. Both my sister and I cheered very loudly when this happened and I’m sure we startled people around us. I don’t care. It was a great moment! Bradley Whitford added his own flavor to the show by adding in anecdotes about the strike which thankfully was met with a lot of approval from the audience I was a part of. He also did this hilarious gorilla bit that he had only premiered the night before. I didn’t realize that Daniel Dae Kim was going to take over the role of Narrator next and I’m almost sad I didn’t get to see him, though Bradley Whitford was hilarious! I’m curious to see what the difference between the Narrators will be. But Bradley Whitford seemed to be a perfect match for this production with his comedy style. There was also a whole bit with mermaids on roller skates and a horrible under-sea scene that had me laughing so hard. And Dennis’s lines were eventually taken over by the husband of the person originally feeding him lines after an impressive fight that Dennis repeats to the audience word for word. It was an amazing scene where they managed to make the audience feel for characters that weren’t even on stage. I did miss a few of the TV jokes, like Chris falling off the row boat in the public pool before suddenly appearing on stage. But all the new jokes more than made up for it!

The Iconic:

I don’t think many things in ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ get more iconic than “Not you Dennis, walk away!”. Seeing Dennis center stage for that and hearing the uproarious laughter afterwards made the moment that much better. Robert was a hilarious presence and the almost incoherent pirate argument between Dennis and Robert remains one of my favorite parts. It felt like every joke just hit even harder live and I couldn’t stop laughing. Or in this case it was more like wheezing. But despite the fact that the characters aren’t created to be completely likable, you end up rooting for them anyways. You get involved in Sandra’s odd love triangle and celebrate when Trevor miraculously catches Lucy who’s being projectiled across the stage. The storylines that happen backstage are just as important and just as iconic as the comedy that happens onstage, which is what makes this come together to be such a great piece of theatre. It’s not just comedy, it’s characters too! The entire idea for this is brilliant!

I absolutely needed this laugh between the hurricane coming, being a little let down by K-Con, and starting a new job that I’m nervous about. And Mischief never fails in making sure I laugh. Very hard. I’m still so shocked that I could see this cast and I’m not going to forget this any time soon! If you’re in the LA area, go catch this amazing show before it leaves! Just wait until the weather gets a little better. I hope everyone stayed safe and continues to stay safe!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: The Problem With ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’

Still of Tom Nook from the ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ teaser. Copyright goes to Nintendo.

Hey! Hallie here!

If you’ve seen any of my past cozy game reviews, you know that I’ve been slipping in some very judgmental comments about ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’. To be completely honest, the game got very boring, very quickly. It seemed like this game was all everyone could talk about in 2020. It came at the perfect time for all of us to be locked inside and bored out of our minds, and the new gameplay elements allowed for an even more customizable experience than any ‘Animal Crossing’ games had offered before. That meant you could kill a lot of time by reshaping your entire island, moving around buildings, and using furniture to create complicated designs. But despite all of these extra gameplay mechanics, after a good period of people absolutely adoring the game, a huge amount of players collectively put the game down and didn’t pick it up again. Now it’s common to see games recommended specifically for gamers who are tired of ‘Animal Crossing’. But why are so many people tired of ‘Animal Crossing’? Why did gamers find that, in a game with no ending, there still isn’t any replay value?

The Villagers: Let’s start with my personal biggest issue with the game. The entire reason I got into ‘Animal Crossing’ as a kid was the ability to interact with the cute villagers. Every single villager had a unique design, but more than that, every single villager had a unique personality. It wasn’t just that you could tell who the villager was from the catchphrase they used or the items in their house. They all had different goals, opinions, and funny observations. Overtime you could even see villagers forming friendships or rivalries based on how comparable their personalities were. Some villagers would talk often and would brag about the letters they sent to each other. Others would fume after only a few minutes of conversation with each other. Sure, ‘Animal Crossing’ has always had personality types such as cranky or peppy, but past games had a wider range of interactions each villager could have with the player or other villagers. It made them feel more alive. ‘New Horizons’ stripped that away. Now two characters of the same personality say the same things over and over again. If you have two snooty villagers on the same island, you might as well just have the same character. Characters are also less likely to interact with each other. When they do, they filter through the same preset conversations between certain personality types. Normal characters have the same things to say to lazy characters each time, regardless of which lazy villager they’re interacting with. It’s incredibly frustrating. It feels like every villager was reduced down to their most generic traits, a situation where they simplified the game rather than improving on it. If I can’t enjoy talking to the villagers, what can I enjoy?

New Things Happening Every Day: Yes, on a basic level there are new things happening on ‘New Horizons’ every day. Every day new shells appear, plant growth progresses, different fish or bugs show up, and new fossils show up. Some days you’ll even have a visitor to the island that will sell you goods or look to collect specific items. But what happens when you’ve run out of fossils to collect or you’ve collected so many different kinds of fish that you just don’t care anymore? What is there to do when collectables run their course, whether they’re the kind you buy or the kind you find? ‘New Horizons’ doesn’t have an answer. That’s why they came out with a DLC. They couldn’t seem to figure out what else to do with the game. But other ‘Animal Crossing’ games didn’t need a DLC to be re-playable. They had schedules for comedy shows your character could go see and auctions your character could attend to get rare items. Not only that, but past games knew when to keep visitor characters rare. In ‘New Horizons’ there’s an entire island where you can interact with the “rare” visitors whenever you want, like Redd, and buy their goods. And on top of all of that ‘New Horizons’ has less random events. There aren’t days dedicated to the player deciding which villagers house has the prettiest lights or competing to create the prettiest garden. Now some event days are only marked by a rare item showing up in Able Sisters or appearing when you shake trees. Meanwhile, the game overuses event days like the Fishing Tourney or the Bug-Off to the point that the player doesn’t see these events as special anymore. It almost feels like the randomized things that happen everyday are made to become eventually mundane.

The Player Has Access to Too Many Things: This one might be controversial, but I think a lot of my frustrations with the game revolve around the fact that I can just do whatever I want. And I’m not talking about the access players have to designing their island. I like the new design-based gameplay. But I don’t like that I have the power to invite whatever villager I want to live on my island. I don’t like that I have the potential to access every single piece of furniture or clothing I’ve encountered in one place. I don’t like that I can make so many bells in the game that I can actually run out of things to buy. Part of the appeal of ‘Animal Crossing’ was not knowing what you were going to get. Having your favorite villager move to your village was exciting because it was random. On the flip side, angering villagers until they left was so fun because you didn’t know who’d come after them. Getting rare items was important because you didn’t know when you’d see them again. And making your house giant was an effort that made you feel fulfilled once you finally were able to afford it. The reason why I stopped playing ‘New Horizons’ is because, in record time, my house was huge and my island was a five star island. It felt like I beat the game. Credits rolled and everything. That was so much harder to accomplish in the past ‘Animal Crossing’ games, and it made you want to come back to the game more often. I don’t often complain about games being too easy. But when there’s nothing else to do once you complete several easy tasks, I think a game like ‘New Horizons’ could benefit from making those tasks more difficult.

Those are my main problems with ‘New Horizons’. I still think it’s a cute game. I actually picked it up again recently, after erasing my entire island of course, to try to recapture the fun I had in the beginning hours of ‘New Horizons’. But once you get past those hours, it’s really easy to run out of things to do. And that’s very unfortunate. I love ‘Animal Crossing’. It’s one of the games I’m most nostalgic for. And it’s really a shame that I can’t get the same enjoyment out of ‘New Horizons’ that I once got from ‘City Folk’.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie