TV, podcast, video/streams, game
Jun. 30th, 2024 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkDoctor Who "Empire of Death": apparently there is some confusion about season numbering?, annoying. Anyway, the most recent season finale. It was fun and I enjoyed it. Some aspects felt like they tried for a pay-off of a size they hadn't earned in this short season, especially Ruby leaving, and others were veery handwave-y, but that's Doctor Who. While I liked the reveal that Ruby's bio mom was "normal," that didn't explain things like the snow effect and that the Doctor had apparently never seen anything like it before. He's seen a lot! (I saw a theory that something that happened in one of the Specials boosted "narrativum power," enabling things like that, and that would be fun.)
The Magnus Protocol: I'm being patient. While I enjoy the glimpses of the overarching plot, a disappointing amount of the stories of the week didn't really work for me. I'm very curious what's up with Celia – some kind of dimension travel maybe?? And with Gwen, too, there has to be a reason she's so determined, and there's no way her family name being Bouchard is a coincidence.
Hermitcraft: I enjoy season 10 a lot. Everything to do with the court case is amazing. (We only got Doc's perspective so far and I'm really looking forward to Cleo's video coming out probably soon.) Not to mention the mystery of the ore snatcher! To recap, Doc was enraged someone was stealing his diamond ore and because Cleo didn't seem to understand his ire, he killed her pig, but only after getting explicit confirmation that she was emotionally attached to it. In response Cleo sued him for intentional infliction of emotional distress in Bdubs' court – a court that was specifically set up as a TV stage, bribes participants to accept the verdict, decided whether to allow objections via a redstone coin toss, and had commercial breaks xD Joe being Doc's lawyer was perfect, he made his own Star Trek-inspired non-symmetrical lawyer skin. And his defense was that Doc wasn't responsible for his actions because he's a giant baby xD Cleo wanted for Doc not to be allowed to build with diamond ore blocks anymore, but instead Bdubs sentenced him to basically two weeks of skyblock, which is perfect. Cleo gets to decide which resources he gets, and fortunately for Doc they were generous and on their next stream went to mine nether quartz and redstone for him. (Cleo pointed out that Doc still has to be able to make content, after all, and they don't want to make him so angry he'll retaliate.) I can't wait to see how that unfolds. And Doc still doesn't know who the ore snatcher is! (I think it's multiple Hermits at this point...)
One of my favorite background details is the marriage between Doc and Ren. When Ren was worried about being called as a witness Doc immediately said that he doesn't have to testify because they're married – which was news to everyone else but Ren was happy with it ^^ Doc said according to the community they're an old couple, which, true, but until now had only been a fun headcanon. Both of them kept bringing it up in streams, too, but funnily enough it hasn't yet been mentioned in a single video, not even when Ren was called to the stand. It almost seems deliberate; I suspect Doc already spends so much time arguing with bigots on Twitter he didn't want the additional attention of a canon gay marriage on the server? The videos do get a lot more views than the streams. It's just a very funny side-effect of the format that this means when people rewatch the season in the future they might not find out about this at all.
(ETA a bit later: so it turns out the marriage was mentioned in one video - in Skizz' PoV from when he interviews Ren as a witness and Ren immediately mentions his husband. Possibly the funniest option.)
It's impossible to watch all the Hermitcraft streams because there's so many. I watch Scar's whenever he streams and usually watch Cleo's, either live or afterwards, and everyone else's I might glimpse at and tune in when I'm either looking for background noise, or if a bunch of hermits are together and there's shenanigans. Mostly I rely on Tumblr to tell me if anything of particular interest happened, which is not always reliable though. I very much appreciate the people making transcripts and clips. Sometimes I made highlight posts myself (I should really copy them to DW, come to think of it, because it's more reliable than Tumblr.) Not every Hermit consistently uploads/archives their VoDs so some streams are lost afterwards. It's a weird medium.
I'm playing less Hades 2 but only because I have less time atm. After over 76 hours and 91 runs I finally beat the final underworld boss without god mode! I'm so glad god mode exists, otherwise that would have been very frustrating. I can't do it consistently yet but I did it three more times, e.g. today again on run 100. I used Descura, aspect of Melinoe: the new Hera&Hestia duo boon that gives you four infusion boons is reeeally powerful, especially if you got bonus elements from Chaos and Narcissus, and that with Hephaestus (Anvil Ring) and Demeter worked very well. No Frozen Veneer sadly which meant I lost multiple DDs against Chronos. Now that I've proven I can do it, I'm contemplating going back to god mode for a bit just to practice avoiding the moves of the final boss. I'm not getting that many new dialogue progressions anymore, but right now I especially enjoy hearing more from the gods and piecing together their relationships from the tiny tidbits. Supergiant has already shown that they're perfectly willing to ignore myths that don't fit their game canon and change things around etc., so I can't just assume certain things occurred and it's interesting to try and puzzle out.
Also, new Technoblade videos just came out! \o/
The Magnus Protocol: I'm being patient. While I enjoy the glimpses of the overarching plot, a disappointing amount of the stories of the week didn't really work for me. I'm very curious what's up with Celia – some kind of dimension travel maybe?? And with Gwen, too, there has to be a reason she's so determined, and there's no way her family name being Bouchard is a coincidence.
Hermitcraft: I enjoy season 10 a lot. Everything to do with the court case is amazing. (We only got Doc's perspective so far and I'm really looking forward to Cleo's video coming out probably soon.) Not to mention the mystery of the ore snatcher! To recap, Doc was enraged someone was stealing his diamond ore and because Cleo didn't seem to understand his ire, he killed her pig, but only after getting explicit confirmation that she was emotionally attached to it. In response Cleo sued him for intentional infliction of emotional distress in Bdubs' court – a court that was specifically set up as a TV stage, bribes participants to accept the verdict, decided whether to allow objections via a redstone coin toss, and had commercial breaks xD Joe being Doc's lawyer was perfect, he made his own Star Trek-inspired non-symmetrical lawyer skin. And his defense was that Doc wasn't responsible for his actions because he's a giant baby xD Cleo wanted for Doc not to be allowed to build with diamond ore blocks anymore, but instead Bdubs sentenced him to basically two weeks of skyblock, which is perfect. Cleo gets to decide which resources he gets, and fortunately for Doc they were generous and on their next stream went to mine nether quartz and redstone for him. (Cleo pointed out that Doc still has to be able to make content, after all, and they don't want to make him so angry he'll retaliate.) I can't wait to see how that unfolds. And Doc still doesn't know who the ore snatcher is! (I think it's multiple Hermits at this point...)
One of my favorite background details is the marriage between Doc and Ren. When Ren was worried about being called as a witness Doc immediately said that he doesn't have to testify because they're married – which was news to everyone else but Ren was happy with it ^^ Doc said according to the community they're an old couple, which, true, but until now had only been a fun headcanon. Both of them kept bringing it up in streams, too, but funnily enough it hasn't yet been mentioned in a single video, not even when Ren was called to the stand. It almost seems deliberate; I suspect Doc already spends so much time arguing with bigots on Twitter he didn't want the additional attention of a canon gay marriage on the server? The videos do get a lot more views than the streams. It's just a very funny side-effect of the format that this means when people rewatch the season in the future they might not find out about this at all.
(ETA a bit later: so it turns out the marriage was mentioned in one video - in Skizz' PoV from when he interviews Ren as a witness and Ren immediately mentions his husband. Possibly the funniest option.)
It's impossible to watch all the Hermitcraft streams because there's so many. I watch Scar's whenever he streams and usually watch Cleo's, either live or afterwards, and everyone else's I might glimpse at and tune in when I'm either looking for background noise, or if a bunch of hermits are together and there's shenanigans. Mostly I rely on Tumblr to tell me if anything of particular interest happened, which is not always reliable though. I very much appreciate the people making transcripts and clips. Sometimes I made highlight posts myself (I should really copy them to DW, come to think of it, because it's more reliable than Tumblr.) Not every Hermit consistently uploads/archives their VoDs so some streams are lost afterwards. It's a weird medium.
I'm playing less Hades 2 but only because I have less time atm. After over 76 hours and 91 runs I finally beat the final underworld boss without god mode! I'm so glad god mode exists, otherwise that would have been very frustrating. I can't do it consistently yet but I did it three more times, e.g. today again on run 100. I used Descura, aspect of Melinoe: the new Hera&Hestia duo boon that gives you four infusion boons is reeeally powerful, especially if you got bonus elements from Chaos and Narcissus, and that with Hephaestus (Anvil Ring) and Demeter worked very well. No Frozen Veneer sadly which meant I lost multiple DDs against Chronos. Now that I've proven I can do it, I'm contemplating going back to god mode for a bit just to practice avoiding the moves of the final boss. I'm not getting that many new dialogue progressions anymore, but right now I especially enjoy hearing more from the gods and piecing together their relationships from the tiny tidbits. Supergiant has already shown that they're perfectly willing to ignore myths that don't fit their game canon and change things around etc., so I can't just assume certain things occurred and it's interesting to try and puzzle out.
Also, new Technoblade videos just came out! \o/
