Updates on random stuff.

     Yeah, I'm gonna post once a day again. Screw waiting for my laptop to be fixed, I miss doing this so darn much! So here's my thoughts on stuff:

     Doctor Who Series 7 Trailer:

     Game of Thrones episodes:

     Young Justice Season Ender: This was pretty awesome. I really enjoyed it. It flowed well, the fights were good, and it left me excited for next season.

     Young Justice Season Premier: I am unsure. The episode's plot was good. Lobo was a bit good, but not utilized enough. The time skip decision...not sure if it was a good choice or not yet. It will take time to see. New characters? Good to see Tim Drake, the little we saw of Bumblebee and her boyfriend was good and made me want to see more, Lagoon Boy was...interesting, and Blue Beetle acually managed to work for me. I have pretty high standards when it comes to BB (AKA why I don't like the New 52 BB or his adaptation in Brave and the Bold), but they seem to have got him right here. His personality fit, he change of state wasn't that big a deal, and I like how they handled the scarab voice in his head. You'd think he's get more respect though, considering you could annihilate the rest of the team in half a second. Time will tell if the changes made will be for the better or the worst.

     My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Season Ender: Yeah, that was awesome. Up there now with my favorite episodes of the whole show. The songs were catchy and well done, the jokes rarely failed to make me laugh, the fights were amazing, and the villainess is trying to take my favorite villain of the show spot from Discord. Overall an amazing way to end a great season.

     Korra Episode 3: Okay, how in Celestia's mane is there not an image for "Bending on Motorcycles" yet? Really good episode, love the way they're taking Amon's character, great action, good writing.

     Korra Episode 4: Really good. They introduced three major characters, had some good writing, and really improved Korra as a character for me. Am I the only one liking her more than Aang?

     Be back tomorrow with more content! Laters.

Sorry

Yeah, I didn't want to have to do this, but looks like I must. Last Tuesday, my laptop broke. We think its the motherboard, and a replacement board is on the way. It won't get here until next week, so for the time being I can only access the interwebs through my school's library or by hijacking my roommate's computer when he's not around. It is a real pain posting on here like this, and I haven't been able to really experience new things to talk about. So until my computer is fixed, I am on a hiatus. Sorry guys, I hope to be back in full condition soon enough.

Game of Thrones Season 2, Episode 2-The Dark Lands

     Another good episode. My favorite parts were those in the Arya and Tyrion storylines. I was expecting more in the Theon side, but I can wait. A very funny episode, and very revealing in the motivations behind two characters.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 2, Episode 24-MMMystery on the Friendship Express

     Great episode. Might be my favorite in quite a while. I always (Okay, almost always) love Pinkie Pie episodes, and mixing it with Sherlock Holmes is awesome. Their were several perfect mystery jokes, and it was generally just a funny episode. Next week is the 2-part season finale, and I can't wait to talk about it here then. Laters.

Young Justice Episode 24-Performance

     This was a really good episode. The dialogue was definitely above-average, even for this show. The villain was good, the action was good, the plot was one of my favorites in a while, I like how even though it's a Robin-centric episode it developed Superboy and Speedy Red Arrow too.

On the Wrong Side of the 4th Wall-American Born Chinese

      American Born Chinese is a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. It's really three stories: The ancient story of the Monkey King, told as remembered by the author when he was a kid; the modern story of a young 2nd generation immigrant who moves from San Francisco to a small town, where he gets made fun of; the modern story of teenage Danny, who is annoyed by his visiting cousin who is every stereotype of Chinese people made by Americans in one package. I won't reveal what happens after that, but it's great.


      My favorite story was that of the Monkey King, known to the Chinese as Sun Wu Kong (Or Sun Wukong.) and the Japanese as Son Goku. (Yep, he was the inspiration for Goku in Dragon Ball.) It was so interesting I'm thinking of checking out a translation of Journey to the West so I can read more about him. The art was very good, the moral was great, and it was overall just a good novel. I recommend it to anyone, with one exception. Nope, the exception isn't those who don't usually like comics, they'll probably like it fine. The exception is the small number of people I know who like comics, but only if they involve superheroes. Weird, right? Laters.

In Front of the Silver Screen-The Hunger Games

     Before I start, I will say that I have read all the books. (In order from favorite to least favorite Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay.) This movie was really good. I've heard some people say that it is a better adaptation of the book than any of the Harry Potter movies are. I think in that case we need to define our terms. What makes a good adaptation? Is a good adaptation one that changes as little as it can from the source material? Or is a good adaptation one that makes changes for both time and what fits best in the new medium, while keeping the spirit and feel of the original? For me, the latter is closer. In that regard this is a great adaptation of it's source material, though Prisoner of Azkaban and Half-Blood Prince are better adaptations, for me. As a movie on it's own it is still very good.

     I won't bother explaining the plot. Either go to your local theater and see it or to Barnes and Nobles and grab a copy of the book. They're both excellent and I'll tell you now that I literally recommend them both to everyone. The acting is really good here. Especially Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, who manages to get across what's going on in her head without narration. Really, for me, that's the best part of the movie. It doesn't have much dialogue, and is quite for very long stretches of time. That builds the atmosphere, which is one of the most important parts of any movie for me. The action was a bit hard to follow, which was very annoying, but the design for the Capital and the arena was almost identical to what I pictured from the books. Overall, I really good movie, and a great way to start off the year of awesome movies. Laters.

Stop Rolling Your Eyes and Try It-CUPCAKES

       I feel sick. I really hope you all appreciate what I did for you all. I thought, "Oh, they're so nice, reading my dribble, and how do I reward them? I don't update regularly for a month. I'll give them a treat and review something that they have heard about. I've never actually read Cupcakes, how bad can it be?"

      And now I have the answer. It hurts. Really really badly. I have never gotten physically ill from reading a fanfic, or hell from any show of any kind. But this? Uhhh...

      For those who don't know, Cupcakes is a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan fiction by some guy who I won't look up because if I see that window again I might puke on this nice library computer. Pinkie Pie invites Rainbow Dash over one day to "Make cupcakes." She gives Dash a cupcake, which turns out to be drugged. She wakes up in some sort of...dungeon. It turns out Pinkie has been drugging, torturing, killing, and then making cupcakes out of ponies for quite a while, and now it's Dash's turn. What follows is Rainbow Dash being killed very, very slowly.

     What really hurts about this fan fic is that it's good. Really good. In sheer quality it is written well, and the dialogue works. Too well in fact. Pinkie Pie's dialogue sounds...just like she does on the show. If she were a serial killer. That is a large part of why this fic hurts. It takes one of my favorite ponies, makes them into a serial killer, and does it so well that I won't be able to watch some scenes without thinking about this. Seriously, fuck whoever wrote this shit. This also hurts because I can't stand grimdark. I haven't run into a single grimdark fan fiction that I have actually liked. So ultimately, I hate this. With every fiber of my heart. If you like grimdark, or enjoy...Saw I guess, read this. Everyone else, stay away. I thought I could handle this. I was wrong. Run, while you still can.

Stop Rolling Your Eyes and Try It-Ponies Play D&D

     This is the first Pony fic I've reviewed, and it's a great way to start. Ponies Play D&D is a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan fiction written by Lucres. It's exactly what it says on the tin, the Mane 6 playing D&D, 3.5 I think. Spike is the DM (A perfectionist who runs pretty decent games, but gets easily annoyed when the players go off the rails), Twilight is the Wizard (Team Mom, trying to get the players to follow the plot, usually failing), Rarity is the Elf Archer (Really into the roleplaying and story), Rainbow Dash is the Barbarian (Thinks she's the only reason the party ever wins, just rolled well on stats), Fluttershy is the Halfling Cleric (Every time they're supposed to fight a monster, she befriends it. She has 2 Beholders, a mindflayer, a kobald, 3 owlbears, 6 zombies, and a gelatinous cube), Pinkie Pie is the spoony bard (Playing for the fun), and Applejack just started as a Dwarven Fighter (Really confused about everything).

      This isn't really one fic though, currently it's 3. The first is about Derpy (Their usual 5th player) being busy, so they get Applejack to replace her. She mocks them at first, but gets into it and has fun. The second is several months later. When Derpy found out they were playing without her, her mind snapped and she began to think she was her character. She then did something, which involved hurt beavers. Now they've all given up the game, that is until the Cutie Mark Crusaders find the game books in the library and want to try it. Each of the Mane 6 tries their hand at being DM with Spike gone, and they all fail in different ways (Each being how a player of that type usually does suck at DMing). The third is several months after that. Applejack has gone from a newb to a Min-Maxing pro, and the girls are worried she'll get too obsessed and loose her grip on reality like Derpy did. The third is currently in-progress.

      So how good is it? To me, amazing is the word for it. It nails all of the characters and how they would play D&D, as well as how they would DM given the chance. It very much hits what D&D can be like as well, and ranks up there with the Community episode Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising as a great example of how D&D is actually done. What I really love though is the jokes. This thing had me laughing the whole ray through, and I haven't read a funnier fan fiction since...Last Words the Dresden Files crackfic, I would say. Overall, this is a huge recommendation to Bronies who like D&D, non-Bronies who like D&D, and Bronies who've never rolled a D20 in their lives. Laters.

Stop Rolling Your Eyes and Try It-Bringing Out the Blue

     Bringing Out the Blue is a Avatar the Last Airbender AU fanfic by maguena1. The basic idea is that when Zuko saves Aang as the Blue Spirit, instead of being hit in the face and knocked out, the arrow goes into his shoulder instead. Because of this Aang doesn't learn who he is, and helps him heal from the injury. Zuko sees this as an opportunity to infiltrate the Avatar's group and learn where they'll be next, so he can ambush them later. However, he finds himself becoming their friends, and really liking them. This change affects the whole timeline, mostly in minor ways, but the farther down the Rabbit Hole you go, the bigger the gap is.

     On the negative it seems at times like the author's prejudice against certain characters is shown instead of the actual character, the example that comes to mind being that of Jeong-Jeong, who every character makes fun of and is the butt of many snide comments. While it isn't really a problem for me, some people might find his look into the main character's heads completely out of character from how they would think. Personally I didn't think that once, but I can see how it can easily bother others.

    Now for the good, and boy is there a lot. The dialogue is really good, and feels like something out of the show. The way the "new" character of Blue interacts with the Gaang is very good, and makes a lot of sense. The looks into many of the character's heads are very interesting, and some of the Fanon here is quite good. Easily my favorite part, however, is his/her handling of Zuko. Before this fic Zuko was a good character for me, very well written, but he was never my favorite. Hell, he never breached the Top 3. This fic really changes that. The way he/she shows Zuko's thought process, mindset, and general sense of self is fantastic to me, mostly because I can relate in some ways. If anything, the Zuko of this fic reminds me of a dark version of myself in some ways, a me raised under very different conditions.

     Overall, this is a great fic, and I have added it to the small list of ongoing fics that I check up on every day to see if they've updated. If you like Avatar the Last Airbender at all, I would highly recommend this fic, even if you're not much into reading Fan Fiction. Laters.

Game of Thrones Season 2, Episode 1

     Very good start to season 2. The acting was great as usual. the person playing the Red Priestess is good, Tyrion is as awesome as ever, it was just a great way to start the season. I can't wait for next week's episode.

(I will be posting once a day again. There will be Theme Months, just not every month. Glad to be back. Also, every post will be longer than this, this post is so short due to being tired as fuck.)