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Julia - The HBO mini-series about Julia Child
I was sort of mixed on it, but wanted to keep watching because she is such an important figure and had such an impact. But, I looked up some reviews and the series is mostly fiction. The final episode and the climax of the plot line is pure fiction. They also added in her hanging with James Beard and going to a drag show with him, which is based on... nothing. They also created a POC character who does a lot of heavy lifting theme wise and helps make Julia's cooking seem more accessible.
They also make it seem like they figured out how to present cooking instruction on TV like no other cooking show had ever existed for them to reference. This ironically erases the achievements of the same James Beard.
There are a few other problems with the show, but the above ones are enough. The show is about 70% fanfic from what I can tell. Time to cancel HBO I think. Most of what I watched there was a disappointment.
Umbrella Academy
I've watched it before and love it, though first season >>>>> second season. Also, every time the licensed music starts it's time to tab out. The fight scenes all use strobe lights.
Weird West
I love it, but it's on hold until a guide comes out. The publisher is Devolver who are awesome. The actual studio is Wolfeye and this looks to be their first game? It's an isometric action RPG with 5 main storylines. You can do a pacifist run or literally kill everyone and still complete the game. Player actions have consequences and you can pet all the animals. It's ambitious, but I think it's a bit under-baked. It has some bugs and a few game objectives are confusing in ways I don't think the devs intended.
Wolfeye is a group of devs who left Arkane studios, and I hear it's the team that made Prey? So they have experience and there is a reason they were able to launch mutli-platform. Seeing devs go indie is awesome. I love immersing myself in games and not touching a guide, but my current block point has the feel of 'this is a bug' not 'this is difficult but will feel rewarding to complete'. I love beating games without ever touching a guide, but I also hate beating my head against a wall and finding out that it was a bug.
I really want to get to the Werewolf storyline, but am stuck on the Pigman one. This is the trailer for the game. That's the Playstation trailer, but I am playing on PC.
I was sort of mixed on it, but wanted to keep watching because she is such an important figure and had such an impact. But, I looked up some reviews and the series is mostly fiction. The final episode and the climax of the plot line is pure fiction. They also added in her hanging with James Beard and going to a drag show with him, which is based on... nothing. They also created a POC character who does a lot of heavy lifting theme wise and helps make Julia's cooking seem more accessible.
They also make it seem like they figured out how to present cooking instruction on TV like no other cooking show had ever existed for them to reference. This ironically erases the achievements of the same James Beard.
There are a few other problems with the show, but the above ones are enough. The show is about 70% fanfic from what I can tell. Time to cancel HBO I think. Most of what I watched there was a disappointment.
Umbrella Academy
I've watched it before and love it, though first season >>>>> second season. Also, every time the licensed music starts it's time to tab out. The fight scenes all use strobe lights.
Weird West
I love it, but it's on hold until a guide comes out. The publisher is Devolver who are awesome. The actual studio is Wolfeye and this looks to be their first game? It's an isometric action RPG with 5 main storylines. You can do a pacifist run or literally kill everyone and still complete the game. Player actions have consequences and you can pet all the animals. It's ambitious, but I think it's a bit under-baked. It has some bugs and a few game objectives are confusing in ways I don't think the devs intended.
Wolfeye is a group of devs who left Arkane studios, and I hear it's the team that made Prey? So they have experience and there is a reason they were able to launch mutli-platform. Seeing devs go indie is awesome. I love immersing myself in games and not touching a guide, but my current block point has the feel of 'this is a bug' not 'this is difficult but will feel rewarding to complete'. I love beating games without ever touching a guide, but I also hate beating my head against a wall and finding out that it was a bug.
I really want to get to the Werewolf storyline, but am stuck on the Pigman one. This is the trailer for the game. That's the Playstation trailer, but I am playing on PC.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-04 04:44 am (UTC)From:Umbrella Academy fights DO tend to be super strobe-y. I'm looking forward to a rewatch, though.
Weird West sounds interesting! I don't have a way to play much at this point (someday!), but it sounds cool and like it has a good team behind it... but frustrating about the bugginess. I've had similar things happen every once in a while, getting wildly frustrated about an inability to progress... and discovering that there was some bug that was to blame, lol.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-04 05:29 am (UTC)From:The good news is that when you play Weird West, it'll be in good shape. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets some DLCs, too.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-05 01:23 am (UTC)From:I realize that biopics are entertainment-focused, and aren't the same thing as a documentary, or actual biography, nor should they be held to those standards. But ironically the addition of fictional diversity feels like whitewashing, the way it's used to make the subject seem "better" or progressive to a modern eye.
I'm happy for there to be stories about diverse groups that make the people involved stronger or better at their field of choice, and I love those kinds of stories set in various time periods... but yeah, if that's *not* the actual story behind a famous figure, then maybe... just write fiction?
Oh god, the J2 AU explosion! I had barely watched a season of Supernatural, but my roommate's extended friendgroup passed around so many J2 fics that they found and loved... that were absolutely just origfic, lol.
Serial numbers pasted on, instead of the usual "filing the serial numbers off" origfic route?
Lol, that's a good point! Someday I will have a modern console or computer. Someday! And by that point, hopefully the bugs will have been ironed out. (Or I have to convince my sibling to decide to play it, lol.)
no subject
Date: 2022-04-05 01:44 am (UTC)From:A lot of J2 being done by people who aspired to be pro origfic writers was pretty openly talked about in the spaces I was in. I wish I'd done it. Writers need readers and that was a sure fire way to actually get read and see how your stories hit.
I literally have never had this many thoughts on J2, so idk how this got so long:
Date: 2022-04-06 02:48 am (UTC)From:But yeah... in the name of "adding diversity", a lot of these films are adding fictional POC (or worse, coopting actual historical POC) to prop up the white subject's storyline. That is extremely yikes.
Kinda same in regards to wishing I'd been able to get in on the J2 AU trend when it was such a thing. That was during the several-year span where I didn't really write anything. I guess there are still *options* for that kind of thing - find a popular enough fandom and ship that has character archetypes that line up roughly with the story you want to tell, and you can paste those serial numbers on top.
Buuuut at that point you kind of have to play the "write to the audience" game, picking ships solely on popularity and tropes for widest appeal, and that's the sort of thing I can see getting very joyless very fast if they aren't really what you wanted to write.
That definitely doesn't have the same FEEL that J2 did, which seemed like a near-blank slate.
It seems like J2 was pretty easy to step into. The current big RPF fandoms are I think BTS and like... youtubers? Both fandoms feel like, to me at least, they have a much higher barrier to entry, with a wider "cast" of surrounding characters that there's some expectation of including. I'm not in any of those fandoms, so I could be overstating it, but it seems like there are agreed-upon characterizations based on their stage/video personas.
J2 seemed like as long as you knew what the two of them looked like, you could play barbies to your heart's content with them. While there were probably SOME common traits gleaned from interviews or whatever that were treated as "canon", it was more like they were just... faceclaims for your OCs.
Re: I literally have never had this many thoughts on J2, so idk how this got so long:
Date: 2022-04-06 06:38 pm (UTC)From:If I was more consistent with my writing I wouldn't mind switching between popular stuff and what I wanted to write. It's good practice/challenge.
Yeah, if I knew a bit about BTS maybe I could use them for Origfic. When I want into Ironstange people were nabbing our fic, find and replacing the names, and reposting it as BTS. I had to walk a bunch of people through AO3 plagiarism reports and assure people that yes, that is plagiarism.
Re: I literally have never had this many thoughts on J2, so idk how this got so long:
Date: 2022-04-07 03:18 am (UTC)From:Part of me feels the same... writing something that WOULD be likely to get eyes on it, playing to popular ships and tropes seems like it would be worthwhile. (And writing to spec isn't a bad skill to have!) Buuuut I have enough stuff that I DO want to write (for tragically unhip fandoms and only moderately popular ships in said unhip fandoms) that I don't know if I could do it.
But I have a friend who writes MCU stuff and complains about how their stuff only gets a few thousand hits per chapter/a few hundred kudos, etc. And like... that's MANY TIMES the stats for the most popular works I have, heh. So there's some allure to writing in a more popular fandom.
(If I can ever make myself care about one of the juggernaut fandoms/pairings, I'd love to give it a go, tbh.)
Many times I have been tempted to try to learn something about BTS just so I could find the fic more accessible, lol. So many writers have converged there! Alas, I have not yet learned the various members' names by osmosis, much less which is which or what personas/characterizations they each have. If I ever do, maybe it would be fodder for disguised origfic.
But ugh, I'm sorry there was such a problem with people copying works from elsewhere. That kind of stuff sucks, whether it's assholes stealing work from other fandoms, assholes stealing work to claim as their own on other sites, or asshole pros stealing fanfic for their own selfpub stuff. It's all plagiarism and it's all shit.
Re: I literally have never had this many thoughts on J2, so idk how this got so long:
Date: 2022-04-07 10:49 pm (UTC)From:I should take aim at some fandom just blowing up at some point and see what I can do... though right now that's OFMD and... yeah, no. Maybe the next big thing.
Mostly, I just need to write more. I am working on my projects, but it's slow and I'm reworking things. My process is terrible.
Re: I literally have never had this many thoughts on J2, so idk how this got so long:
Date: 2022-04-08 04:17 am (UTC)From:(SPN seems to breed complicated histories.)
I feel like I should still give OFMD a shot. My dash is still overtaken. Parts of it DO seem like the sort of thing I'd enjoy, I'm just not sure if there's *enough* of what I'd like in with things I'm less sure of. If I ever actually get HBOMax, lol.
But I've never been into the Big Thing! I'd kind of like to be at some point. Maybe the next big thing will appeal!
Finding a workable process is the worst. Working on things any amount is worthwhile, though! And sometimes stuff needs reworking!
Re: I literally have never had this many thoughts on J2, so idk how this got so long:
Date: 2022-04-08 07:04 am (UTC)From:Someday our big ships will come in!
Yeah, I am still working on what I want certain stories to be and spend forever working on tone. Just need to keep bashing away.
Re: I literally have never had this many thoughts on J2, so idk how this got so long:
Date: 2022-04-09 01:53 am (UTC)From:It's a bummer not ever being into the big thing. :/
Someday our ships will come!!
All of that is important for telling the story you want to tell!