You’ve probably noticed that reviews have been coming out ridiculously slowly lately. That’s because my motivation for this blog has been extremely low lately and it’s honestly a struggle for me to even get a post out once every two weeks. And now it’s been more than two weeks since my last one.
I think it’s for the best if I just declare myself on hiatus until I start feeling more into this. I’m really sorry about this, but I figure it’s better than letting people wait for weeks for posts that are coming way too slowly. I’m also sorry that I didn’t say something like this sooner, before people started to wonder and worry, but to be honest I just… didn’t realize that people would care? That makes me sound super pathetic, but yeah.
So, until further notice, consider this blog on hiatus. I really am sorry to have to do this, but I’m not sure what else to do. I think I just need a break until I feel motivated again.
This has been on my to-watch list for a while, as well as my to-review list. It’s a pretty obvious choice, isn’t it? It was created by Rebecca Sugar, who wrote a lot of my favorite Adventure Time episodes. Plus, everything I’ve seen and heard about it makes it sound awesomely progressive for a kid’s show, and even for most adult shows. I didn’t plan on reviewing this immediately after Adventure Time originally, but since it only has one season out anyway I figured I might as well review it now.
I know a little more about this show than I did about Adventure Time when I started it, but there’s still a lot that I don’t know. Here’s a quick list of what I do know (some of which may not be totally correct):
I know the names of most of the characters.
The Crystal Gems are alien space rock things and some of them are dedicated to protecting earth while others are… not.
I know about Garnet being a fusion even though I’m not 100% clear on what a fusion is exactly or how it works. But the two gems who fused are named Ruby and Sapphire and they were totally a couple which means Garnet is literally made of lesbians, and if you don’t think that’s the raddest shit you’ve ever heard get out of my face.
Steven is half gem and half human, his mom is Rose Quartz, and Rose Quartz… died? I think? She’s not around anymore, at least.
Steven’s dad, whose name I think is Greg, is a former musician and though he isn’t raising Steven they’re still pretty close.
Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet raise Steven for some reason.
Pearl has a cute design. Just an observation.
No seriously. Look at her. She kind of looks like a bird and it’s super cute.
I know Amethyst has some kind of tragic backstory? Something about her not wanting to be made but I’m not really sure what’s meant by that, I just see a lot of sad fan art with a quote that goes something like that.
Pearl had a huge lesbian crush on Rose Quartz.
Steven has a friend named Connie, and at one point they fuse (but I’m not sure if Connie is a gem?) and make Stevonnie.
So basically I know some small details, but I’m missing a lot of context and don’t have the bigger picture.
I actually am really excited to start reviewing this, it sounds like a wonderful show.
“The one thing I wish I could go back and change would be handling Carolina’s injury in 12. […] I’m still unbelievably proud of season 12, and I’m so happy with how it turned out, but I do wish I’d had a little more time to kinda come up with a better way to deal with Carolina’s OP-ness. Out of everything I wrote that’s probably my biggest regret and the thing I’d love to go back and change. And Carolina fans out there, I’m so sorry, I love you. She’s gonna fuckin’ shine this season.”
Miles Luna said that in this interview a little while ago (here’s a transcript), and since then the quote has been spreading around Tumblr because, well, it’s really important to a lot of us that he said this.
The interview is really nice, Miles is humble and sweet throughout it, and then there’s this apology. Humility and apologies are not things I’m used to hearing from anyone at Rooster Teeth, so this was a very pleasant surprise, and I was glad to hear him say this. The way Carolina is written and treated is important to me, not just because I like her but because she’s one of very few female characters Red vs Blue has. Plus, she’s the closest thing to Tex, my favorite character who is very unlikely to return. I love Season 12, but I was less than pleased with Carolina’s injury (and I know I wasn’t the only one) so having Miles apologize for the way it was handled was great, and I hope he’s telling the truth when he says Carolina will get to shine in Season 13.
Since it’s come up again, in a way that I really didn’t expect it to come up again, I want to talk about Carolina in Season 12, and particularly Carolina’s injury, for a bit. There was quite an outcry from some of the fans about the injury, but I think that other fans misunderstood why we were upset. I think they thought we were upset because Carolina was beaten, or that she was beaten by Felix in particular. I think they thought we were more or less saying “Carolina should be unbeatable, how dare you have her lose to Felix”, and as a result there were some arguments about whether or not we were overreacting or if Felix actually could beat Carolina and blah blah blah, I’m not going to get into this whole “Felix vs Carolina who would win” thing because honestly I don’t give a shit. That’s not why I was mad. I guess I can’t speak for everyone about why Carolina’s injury was upsetting, maybe for some it really was about “who would win”, but for myself and for a lot of people I saw talking about it? It wasn’t as simple as that.
I wasn’t upset that Carolina was beaten by anyone or by Felix in particular, I wasn’t necessarily upset that she was injured. Actually, if done right, it might have been interesting and it could have led to some nice character development for Carolina. No, my problem with Carolina’s injury wasn’t that it happened at all, it’s that it wasn’t done well. The way it happened to begin with was clunky and awkward, and the way it was handled after was disappointing at best and insulting at worst.
Let’s start with how it happened. So, in Episode 10, Felix and Carolina have a short fight that ends with Felix stabbing Carolina in the leg and giving her an apparently very serious injury. Fair enough, but the thing is, when Felix stabs her, Carolina is just… standing there. And it’s not like Felix is exactly subtle and graceful when he stabs her, yet Carolina just… she just stands there. Carolina, with her incredible speed and skill and reflexes just stands there while Felix sinks a knife into her leg. Can we just agree that it should have been harder for Felix to get the jump on her? Can we just agree that Carolina should have been doing more than just fucking standing around?!
Okay, so clearly the animation in 12 was not as good as it was in 9 and 10. I know Monty didn’t work on the animation for 12 since he wanted to focus on RWBY, so they got someone else to do the animation. I don’t know much about the person doing the animation in 12, so I don’t know if it was a lack of time or if they just lacked Monty’s experience/skill, but either way the animation in 12 is definitely wonky. If you wanna blame the awkwardness of Carolina getting the injury on just not-very-good animation, you could do that. I still think that they could have done better (why was she just standing there??), but I could have forgiven it if they had handled the aftermath better.
Carolina is incredibly competitive and incredibly hard on herself, and she hates showing any kind of weakness, especially physical weakness. You’d think that being beaten and injured like that would have had some effect on her, but she doesn’t really react to it. She exchanges a few bitter lines about it with Doctor Grey and Epsilon, but that’s it. For the rest of Season 12, Carolina is sidelined in favor of Epsilon and the leg injury doesn’t come up unless it’s to tell us that it’s a hindrance to Carolina. And that is my problem with Carolina’s injury, the fact that it was so clearly to keep Carolina out of the way as much as possible. It’s obvious that the only reason they brought Carolina back is so that they could bring Epsilon back, they didn’t actually plan on doing anything interesting with Carolina herself. I understand feeling the need to tone down Carolina’s abilities in order to make the villains look more threatening, but the leg injury was so obviously a way of making sure she couldn’t do too much, they didn’t even try to make it into something more interesting when they could have. They could have made it a great opportunity for character development, but they didn’t, because they don’t care about developing Carolina.
Season 12 has gotten some praise for having better female characters than previous seasons. (Whether or not that’s actually saying much is debatable but I digress.) For the most part I agree. At least, I did love the new female characters in 12. Kimball, Jensen and Grey were all fantastic and I really hope they’ll be sticking around. With Carolina, though, they definitely dropped the ball. Having her back should have been great, but if they’re not even going to treat her like a character, what’s the point? Why have her back at all?
So that pissed me off, but at least Miles acknowledged the fuck-up and apologized for it, and he’s made it sound like they’re going to try to do better with Carolina in Season 13. Good. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much for fear of being disappointed, but I really do appreciate what he said.
In Season 13, already the animation looks way, way better. It was wonderful in the first episode of the season, they did a fantastic job of showing Felix and Locus’ characterization through their movements (by the way, I’m actually a huge fan of those two, especially Felix). I could gush about how much I loved the first episode of 13 for a long time, but that’s not what we’re here for right now. The point is, the animation is clearly much improved. Since a large part of Carolina’s characterization has always come from the way she’s animated, it means good thing for her.
I don’t just want to see Carolina fighting well again, though. I want her to get some actual character development, too. I want her to make some friends in the New Republic and the Feds like the guys did, I want her to have positive interactions with other female characters (because I’m fucking sick of the hostility between female characters on this show), I want focus on her angst and trauma like we saw focus on Wash’s last season. And since the Counselor is back, that last one should be easy. I want Carolina to be treated like her own character in Season 13. I want her to fuckin’ shine.
You know how Jake apparently used to be a criminal? Well, we find out a bit more about that in this episode. Jake receives a video from some unknown source, and it shows his daughter, Jake Jr., being held hostage somewhere. A mysterious figure in the video tells Jake that they know about his criminal past, and that he needs to get his old gang back together to steal something from the Candy Kingdom. What he needs to steal is something called the Baker’s Shard, the purest form of sugar.
So, Jake gathers up his old gang, all of whom still seem to be criminals. There’s Gareth, that creepy-looking one with the huge head and a face that sort of reminds me of Ricardio. He has the ability to hypnotize people. Next there are the Flying Lettuce Brothers, those two green ones. These guys are my favorite of Jake’s gang. They have the ability to perfectly imitate anyone’s voice after hearing a short sample of it. It’s pretty awesome. Last is Tiffany, the blond one, and he apparently doesn’t have any powers. He’s just very opinionated and has the voice of a four year-old. Anyway, when the group is together Jake lets them know what they’re going after and they think it’s impossible, but they agree to help him once they find out about Jake Jr.’s situation.
They head to the Candy Kingdom and put their plan into action. Gareth and the Flying Lettuce Brothers enter the control room. Gareth hypnotizes the two Banana Guards that are there and puts them to sleep, and then the FLB get on the intercom. Mimicking the Banana captain’s voice, they order the other Guards to go into the courtyard and scream as loud as they can. This way they won’t hear the explosion that Tiffany and Jake are setting off in the vault where the Shard is held. Once the vault is open, Tiffany, who knows the place well, tells Jake how to get to the Baker’s Shard. The vault is full of traps, but Jake makes it past all of them and reaches the Shard. He then hears the voice of Jake Jr.’s kidnapper inside the vault, telling Jake to throw the Shard to them. Jake does, but it’s then revealed that the voice was coming from the FLB. Jake’s old gang tricked him. The gang runs away, and Tiffany pulls the alarm so that Jake will be caught.
Jake chases after them, demanding to know where Jake Jr. is. He catches up to their van and discovers that Jake Jr. is the one driving it. That can’t be safe, she doesn’t have eyes. Jake wants to know why she tricked him, and she says that she had heard stories from Lady about Jake’s criminal past, and she wanted to impress him. Jake tells her that he’s realized his past crimes were wrong, and that he no longer does them. Jake Jr. apologizes and Jake forgives her, and the two walk off together while I wonder what happened to the gang and to the Baker’s Shard.
Well, this is an episode that I would just place in the “okay” category. It’s kind of too bad because I love the idea of meeting Jake’s old gang and of this show doing a heist episode, but I don’t know, it just felt really… blah.
I think there could have been a lot more creativity, in the heist itself and particularly with the gang. I found them and their designs really lackluster. Gareth at least had a cool power even if it’s not one that’s super original, but I just don’t like his design. The Flying Lettuce Brothers also had a great power and one that’s a bit more unique, and as I’ve said they were my favorite part of the episode. Even so, I wish their design had been more interesting. I wish they had all been more interesting, not just in design but in personality as well.
As for the heist itself, for something that they all thought would be impossible, they pulled it off really easily and with a very simplistic plan. I mean, I know the Banana Guards aren’t exactly known for being competent, but they made it sound like getting the Baker’s Shard was going to be a much bigger deal than it was.
There’s nothing bad about the episode per se, I just felt disappointed with it. I think it could have been more, but it seemed lazy. I did discover that Jake Jr. is voiced by Kristen Schaal, the same woman who voice Louise from Bob’s Burgers, though. So that’s a thing.
(As a side note that doesn’t really have to do with this episode, I’ve always wondered about the timeline concerning Jake’s “bad boy” past. Finn and Jake grew up together, right? So, was there just a period of a couple of years where Finn and Jake weren’t in contact, or was Finn just completely unaware that Jake was part of a gang of criminals?)
Rating: 4.5/10
More Graybles! This one is slightly different, since the theme is not told to us in the actual episode, but it appears to be about the stages of grief. Also, rather than going smoothly from one Grayble to another, they kind of just… keep interrupting each other. There’s one about Finn and Jake making a time machine for Jake Jr., who is nervous about the future. There’s another one about Princess Bubblegum forcing Cinnamon Bun to sleep without a nightlight so he can get over his fear of the dark. He gets hysterical with his nightlight taken away and destroys his own residence as well as multiple others trying to find “soft light”. Then there’s a Grayble with Ice King and the penguins voting on what they should watch on TV. There’s a really weird Grayble about the Lemongrabs where they’re playing with a doll and I guess they disagree on what that doll should be doing. They accidentally break the doll, which causes the original Lemongrab to scream, “ONLY ONE!” And then he eats Lemongrab 2. R.I.P, Lemongrab 2. I guess. I don’t even know what I just saw. The last Grayble is about Mr. Fox, alone is his house and seemingly depressed. Something weird happens, where Mr. Fox is able to see his sub-conscious and it draws him a treasure map, but it’s interrupted by Cinnamon Bun bursting through. We then go back to the first Grayble to see the conclusion of it. Jake Jr. is disinterested in the time machine, and BMO’s alarm is going off because of an intruder. It turns out to be Cinnamon Bun, and Jake Jr. gives him a new nightlight, so he leaves happily. And the time machine doesn’t actually work. The theme of each Grayble? Finn, Jake and Jr. are acceptance, Cinnamon Bun is denial, Ice King is bargaining, the Lemongrabs are anger, and Mr. Fox is depression. So the stages are in reverse order.
All right, another one these Graybles episodes. I’m starting to get a little tired of them, actually. Or at least, I’m starting to get tired of reviewing them. I’ve already said what I think about episodes like this, and there’s never a lot to say about each new one.
I guess I can talk a bit about each individual story. I really liked the overall theme of these Graybles, but I didn’t actually care for the stories themselves that much. Cinnamon Bun was incredibly annoying in this episode. Finn and Jake’s story didn’t do a whole lot for me, though I did enjoy Jake’s creative shape-shifting. Ice King’s story was pretty cute. And Lemongrab’s. Oh my God, Lemongrab’s.
When did Lemongrab become one of my favorite characters?! I hated him when he first showed up and now he cracks me up. I mean, I don’t think I’d want him in every episode but still, my feelings about this weirdo have done a complete one-eighty and I still don’t know how it happened.
It’s been a hard week for me and the Rooster Teeth fandom, and of course for Rooster Teeth themselves.
The news about Monty Oum hit a lot of us really hard. Most of the week I’ve been alternating between feeling numb and trying (usually in vain) not to cry. I listened to the podcast they had about Monty the night they announced the news and cried, read all of the sad posts about it on Tumblr and cried, listened to nothing but the RWBY soundtrack (which, by the way, is fantastic) on my iPod all week and cried, looked at all of the beautiful fan art people made for him and cried some more. I wondered what would happen to RWBY now, if they’ll continue it or not and if they’ll get a new voice actor for Ren, the character Monty himself voiced. I’m still not sure what I want them to do. I’m still not sure how I feel.
What’s special about Rooster Teeth is that they’re not just a bunch of faceless writers, animators and actors behind their content. We know them. We know their personalities and lives and even though I’ve never met them in person, they really do feel like friends sometimes. We’ve all made jokes about Rooster Teeth continuing to post content in their eighties, but somehow we never thought about what it would be like if one of them actually died. First of all, when we made those jokes, we made the assumption that they would live to be old men and women. Monty was thirty-three, that is way too young. Second of all, I don’t think anyone ever really thinks about celebrities or idols dying. They always feel like they’re on another level, like they’re invulnerable. Then comes a nasty reminder that they’re not. It’s a shock, it hits hard, and it’s difficult to come to terms with.
But life goes on, and while it still hurts it’s better to try and remember all of the good things they’ve done and how they’ve changed your life for the better. Monty was an incredible talent and a big inspiration. I’m not going to pretend that RWBY was some kind of masterpiece, it was problematic and a bit of a mess, but it’s also fun and creative, has a unique look and female leads, and you can tell how passionate Monty was about it. He loved that so many people were into it, he loved seeing fan art and cosplays for RWBY, and he clearly appreciated his fans.
So I’m trying to remember how much good Monty has done. How much he’s inspired people, how he’s created things that a lot of us really enjoy, how passionate and hard-working he was. That’s why before going back to my usual posts, I wanted to make one more for Monty, a more positive one. And since the thing Monty was most known for was his amazing action and fight sequences, I decided to make a list of some of my personal favorites. For some of these I may not have anything to say except “that was awesome did you see how hard that guy got punched”, but for others I actually do have slightly more interesting reason.
10. Ruby vs Beowolves (Red Trailer)
This one is on the list not so much because it’s one I really enjoy watching but because of what it represents to me (though I do also enjoy watching it). This was the first thing we saw and heard about RWBY, and I’ll never forget the awe and excitement I felt while watching this for the first time. The art style looked beautiful and unique, the music was chilling and pretty, a nameless girl who looks like a goth Little Red Riding Hood visiting a grave in the woods and then running into a pack of monstrous wolves, she pulls out a weird-looking gun and looks eerily calm the entire time. Then the gun turns into a scythe and we all go wild.
After having watched the show, this trailer doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. When is Ruby ever that calm and quiet, for one thing? Granted she was just visiting a grave and that tends to put a damper on your mood, but that’s another thing. Why is her mother’s grave (it’s presumably her mother’s) in the woods, so far away from any sign of civilization? I don’t think this trailer was going by what would actually make sense in the show (even though all of the events in the trailers are canon to the show), but rather by what looked good and intriguing. And it does look good and intriguing, so whatever. As for the actual fight choreography, I really like how Monty has Ruby handle that scythe. A girl as small as Ruby swinging around a giant weapon should look ridiculous, but the way she uses it is cool. She shoots the gun and then uses the recoil of the shot to swing the scythe with more power and speed than she would be able to otherwise. It’s pretty clever.
I watched this trailer over and over when it was first released. I was so excited about this upcoming show that Monty Oum had created, I was already completely sold on RWBY for better or worse. As the other trailers came out, I watched them over and over again too, but none of them felt quite as exciting as watching the Red Trailer for the first time. The Red Trailer was the beginning of something, and even if other trailers might be more impressive in some ways the Red Trailer holds a special place for me.
9. Tex vs Wash and the Meta (Season 8, Episode 19)
Unfortunately I can’t really post this one without posting the whole episode and I don’t want to do that because the fight only takes up a small portion of it, so I’ll have to assume anyone reading this already knows which fight I’m talking or that if they care to look it up they can because the season and episode it’s from is here. For this fight, I don’t really have a lot to say except holy crap that was bad ass. It’s one of the first big fight scenes in Red vs Blue, and it felt pretty epic the first time I saw it. The animation is a bit wonky, especially when compared to what the animation looks like in 9 and 10. Still, it’s great. Even if seeing Tex get killed is painful for me.
8. Reds and Blues vs the Meta (Season 8, Episode 20)
Same problem, can’t post this without posting the whole video. This fight is bad ass in a different way. The Reds and Blues obviously don’t have nearly as much skill as Tex, Wash or the Meta, which makes it a pretty hopeless fight. But they fight anyway, because what choice do they have? And they win, partially due to luck and partially because, surprisingly, the Reds and Blues work well together. Considering Monty is more used to doing these grand, over-the-top action scenes, it is kind of nice to see that he can make a pretty decent fight even with characters that aren’t supposed to be that skilled.
And oh my God, that part where Grif nearly falls off the cliff and Simmons grabs his hands. I am Grimmons-shipping trash and I will never be over that scene.
7. Pyrrha vs CRDL and Mercury (Volume 2, Episode 5)
A common criticism of Monty’s action scenes is that they’re often too one-sided, with one character being almost untouchable while their opponents can maybe get in one hit at best and fight like clumsy oafs at worst. That does bother me too, but it also does work sometimes. Like with this fight between Pyrrha and Team CRDL. At this point, we’ve seen RWBY characters pull off some ridiculous stunts. Pyrrha is supposed to be know as one of the best fighters, if not the best, and in order for that to be believable she has to be better than everything we’ve seen so far. And in this fight, she is. She demolishes CRDL.
To be fair, CRDL isn’t completely useless in a fight. In fact, they seem to be capable fighters, they’re just very outclassed against Pyrrha. Plus they’re not great at working as a team (note the part where Cardin hits one of his teammates with his mace). Also, I like that it doesn’t look entirely effortless for Pyrrha. You can see her thinking about each move and paying attention to where each of her opponents are. She reacts fast and there’s never really any doubt that she’ll win the fight, but she is trying.
The fight with Mercury is a bit different. It’s not as aggressive, for one thing. Pyrrha spends most of the fight on the defensive while Mercury presses her, but he’s also holding back. The thing is, Mercury isn’t looking to win, he’s not even looking to finish the fight. All he’s trying to do is figure out what Pyrrha’s Semblance is. He just needs to give her enough of a challenge to force her to act, and once he finds what he wanted he forfeits. He’s smarter than anyone on CRDL was and seems like a better fighter too, maybe he could give Pyrrha a run for her money in an all-out fight, maybe he could even beat her, but that’s not what he’s trying to do.
So, yeah. Good fight.
6. Freeway Fight (Season 9, Episode 17)
The fight I’m talking about happens at around 1:30 onward.
Holy shit, this fight has everything. It’s got hand-to-hand combat, it’s got guns, it’s got a car chase, it’s got a chase on foot, it’s got jetpacks, it’s got Tex on a motorcycle nonchalantly blowing things up with a rocket launcher. And it’s all incredibly chaotic yet perfectly choreographed.
Like, seriously, what is even happening is this scene? Maine gets shot like ten times and then hit by a truck and then he falls off the bridge and he lives. What is that guy even made of? Bullets and bodies and equipment are flying around all over the place. Tex takes out 2 planes. Carolina’s desperation is palpable and she’s still incredible.
As I’ve mentioned, a lot of Carolina’s characterization, for me at least, comes from the way she moves and fights. Truth be told, I’ve never found Carolina to be a very well-written character, she certainly could have been much better, but damn do I love watching her fight. It’s not about how powerful she is or how fast she is or how many people she can beat up at once, it’s something about the way that she moves. She has one of the most recognizable fighting styles in Red vs Blue and it makes up a big part of her character. And we have Monty to thank for that.
5. Weiss vs … um, Giant Knight? Idk. (White Trailer)
The White trailer is the best trailer. I may have a slight bias since Weiss is my favorite RWBY character, but this is also just a really good trailer. It’s visually interesting, the music is beautiful (Mirror Mirror is my favorite track in RWBY), the trailer tells us a lot about Weiss’ character, and of course the fight itself is nice to look at. I just love Weiss’ fighting style, it’s graceful and beautiful, almost more like she’s dancing rather than fighting. The White trailer is simply stunning.
4. The Dakota Twins’ Only Major Fight Scene (Season 9, Episode 2)
I freaking love the Dakota twins, y’all. Like, I could write a ten thousand-page novel about why I love them and all of my headcanons about them. Admittedly my main reason for liking this scene so much is that it’s the only major fight scene the twins have in the series. I so wish they had more. They’re amazing together.
By the way, look closely at the soldiers South is shooting. A lot of them get decapitated. What the hell, man?
3. Tex vs York, Maine and Wyoming
You know who else I love? Tex. Unfortunately she probably gets the worst treatment of any female character in the show. Why am I so drawn to poorly treated female characters? Well, either way, she’s definitely a bad ass.
So, just like Pyrrha had to be better than every RWBY character we’d seen so far (or at least better than all of the students), it was a similar situation for Red vs Blue. The Dakota Twins were awesome, so when we saw Carolina, the number one agent at the time, for the first time, she had to better than both of them. Then when Tex showed up, she had to be even better than Carolina.
I like the choreography of this fight, and how quickly it goes from being fairly light-hearted to kind of dark once Maine and Wyoming start using actual bullets. I wonder, though, if York realizes that Maine was the one who gave him the eye injury and not Wyoming. For some reason York has some major hang-ups about Wyoming in episodes after this. Honestly, it’s kind of weird. Wyoming is a dick but what did he do to York specifically? Anyway, I’m on a tangent now. I like this fight, it’s a fun one.
2. Food Fight (Volume 2, Episode 1)
I’ve mentioned how this was my favorite fight in RWBY before so obviously this one was going to be on the list. This fight is completely over-the-top but it’s also comedic because, well, they’re fighting with food. It’s a food fight taken to an extreme. They try to match up the foods the characters use with what their usual weapons are, like Yang using Turkey the way she would use her gauntlets and Pyrrha and Blake using the bread like their swords. It’s pretty obvious that they picked the foods based on what matched their weapons best rather than what would actually make sense for them to have in a lunch room. I don’t know a lot of lunchrooms that have entire, multiple turkeys or entire leeks. Not to mention that the food does not look like it’s safe to eat at all. How hard is that stuff? And there’s also the usual wouldn’t-the-kill-them stuff that are often present in RWBY fights. Weiss hits that pillar hard enough to break it. Yang goes flying through the roof and takes a long time to come back down. It’s completely stupid and over-the-top and nonsensical. But it’s also incredibly fun and creative and bad ass. Classic Monty.
1. Tex vs Reds and Blues (Season 8, Episode 10)
This isn’t so much a fight as it is a beat-down. The Reds and Blues are way out of their league with Tex and they know it.
As silly as this episode is, it actually does mean a lot to me. It pretty much is the first major fight scene we have in Red vs Blue, and it also marks Tex’s return after she’d been gone for two and a half seasons and I had missed her horribly. I was so glad to see her back, and to see her come back in this way. I mean, since Season 1 this show has built up Tex as the ultimate bad ass but we’d never gotten that many opportunities to really see it. Most of it had to come from her attitude and from what other characters told us, and it worked fine, but this was the first time where it felt like we really got to see her the way we were always meant to. Add in the fact that the dialogue from the Reds and Blues are particularly funny in this episode, and it’s no wonder that this is such a fan favorite. This isn’t really Monty’s best but, I don’t know, this one is just special to me.
So, there we have it. It might not be a great list and I’ll probably end up changing my mind or regretting something later (see this is why I don’t often make lists like these), but this is the best I could come up with for now and I really wanted to do this as a sort of tribute to Monty.
Thank you for everything you’ve done for us, Monty, we’ll miss you!
Monty Oum, beloved Rooster Teeth employee and creator of RWBY, has passed away.
I just… I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. I can’t imagine what his close friends and family must be going through. I was just a fan, I’ve never even met the guy in person, and the news hit me like a truck.
When I found out he was hospitalized a few days ago, I was of course as worried as any other RT fan, but I think I also took what it meant for granted. Monty would be fine, I told myself. He’ll recover. He’ll be right back to making kick-ass animation in no time. The possibility of him dying wasn’t one I thought about. It didn’t even occur to me. Of course he’s going to be okay. When I found out the news of his passing, I was too shocked to even cry, but watching Meg Turney’s video made me lose it. It all happened so fast, there was no time to even tell him “get well soon”, let alone to say good bye.
Monty was always one of my favorite people at Rooster Teeth. He was hugely talented, of course, and worked unbelievably hard. He was surprisingly philosophical and wise, yet he still had that goofy RT charm.
And while I did have my issues with some of his action sequences, there was also so much I appreciated about them, and the guy was obviously exceptionally talented. Monty’s action scenes are creative and fun, they’re chaotic and fast-paced, and they’re intricate, man. I often need to watch them more than once just to make sure I caught everything that happened, and every time I have more appreciation for them.
Of course we also can’t forget that he created RWBY. And yes RWBY is problematic, but let’s forget about that for now, because whatever complicated feelings I may have for that show, it’s also entertaining and interesting and it’s brought joy to so many people, myself included. He created the map of Remnant from smears of ketchup on a napkin, for crying out loud. He created an entire world from a ketchup-stained napkin. Who else but Monty could do something like that?
I have watched Season 8 Episode 10 of Red vs Blue more times than I can count. It’s often one of the few things that can cheer me up a little when I’m feeling down. I watched the Freelancer bits of Seasons 9 and 10 so many times I probably have the movements and lines of these characters memorized, but I still love watching them. Agent Carolina was first introduced to us in Season 9’s Freelancer arc, and much of her characterization has come from the way she moves and fights, I may even argue that it came from that more than it came from her writing. I have watched both volumes of RWBY numerous times already and I’m sure I’ll be watching them many more times to come.
Yet everything I’ve written here feels empty. Just generic stuff people say when they’re in mourning. I wanted to say so much more, I wanted to write something deep and heartfelt and unforgettable, something that would be worthy of Monty Oum. But how can I? How can I really put into words how I feel, how any RT fans must feel, how can I put into words what Monty meant to all of us whether we realized it or not?
Well, maybe I can’t. Maybe all I can do is sit here trying to wrap my mind around what happened, trying to decide if I want to watch RWBY or the Freelancer arcs as a way of honoring him in my own tiny way or if it’s too difficult for me to even think about doing so right now. But I had to say good bye somehow.
So good bye, Monty. You will always be remembered, you will always be an inspiration and a hero to all of us.
Sorry guys, no review today. I didn’t have much time to write this weekend because I spent most of Friday and Saturday either doing homework or touching up my costume for Montreal Comic Con, and then most of Sunday I was, well, at Montreal Comic Con.
And take a look at my awesome Karen cosplay.
Not the best picture since you can’t see the screen very well, but you get the idea. I was really proud of how it turned out, and extremely pleased that so many people recognized which character I was, I was a little worried that no one would get it. I got a lot of compliments on the costume and on the originality of my idea, and a lot of people stopped me so they could take pictures of it, which at Comic Con is like the highest honor one can get. So yeah, it was a lot of fun, and I’m still high on my ego trip.
The best part of the day, though, was when I got to try out Mortal Kombat X. I know I’ve mentioned that game a lot lately, but in case I haven’t made it clear enough, I’m a really, really huge Mortal Kombat fangirl and I honestly can’t remember the last time I was this excited for anything, so getting to play MKX even just for a few minutes felt amazing. I was so excited I actually felt faint, and I kept fangirling in line and everyone stared at me but I don’t care because I GOT TO PLAY MORTAL KOMBAT X.
I also spent more than a hundred and fifty dollars on merchandise, including three Eeveelution plushies and a bunch of Spiderman and Deadpool related stuff, because I’m also a huge Marvel fangirl, especially when it comes to those two. I spent sixty dollars on a Spiderman hoodie that’s several sizes too big for me but I don’t regret it because it’s the softest, coziest thing I’ve ever put on my body.
I’m really bad at controlling my buying impulses at Comic Con.
I could not have picked a worse title for this post because that question can be answered in so many different ways.
I’ve decided on a show. It’s this one:
So, like I did before starting my SpongeBob reviews, I think I should talk about my experience with this show.
I don’t have any experience with this show.
I’ve never watched this. Not a single episode. Not a single clip. Well, maybe I’ve seen one or two clips? I can’t remember if they were clips or gifs. The point is, I know next to nothing about this show, which is really funny because holy shit it’s everywhere. Memes, gifs, and macros for this freaking show are all over the internet. Nearly all of my friends watch it and so do most of my acquaintances. Merchandise for it can be found in most stores where I live. I’ve seen people dressed as characters from it at conventions. I always hear people talking about it at school, in stores, on the street, in restaurants, and basically anywhere that I go. When did this show become so big? I swear it didn’t even exist until, like, last year. But apparently is has five seasons? What.
And yet despite all of this exposure, I still remain mostly clueless about what this show is. Seriously, here’s a short list of the very few things I know about Adventure Time, and I’m not even sure if all of it is correct.
The dog thing is named Jake.
The main character is named Finn. With two N’s. Right? I always see it written that way.
There’s a character named Princess Bubblegum and she’s like the Hermione Granger of the show or something.
There’s a character who’s a vampire and apparently she’s punk rock.
There’s an ice king. He sounds cool. Get it? Cool? Because ice is cold? Screw all of you, I’m hilarious.
There are penguins and they’re all named Gunther.
It has adventures. Probably at a certain time. I don’t know, I’m grasping at straws here.
Tom Kenny (the voice of SpongeBob) and John DiMaggio (the voice of Bender from Futurama) are in it. Be still, my heart!
Everyone I know who watches it tells me that I would like Adventure Time, apparently because it’s known for pushing boundaries when it comes to what a children’s show can get away with in terms of “adult” humor and dark imagery. That does sound like the kind of thing I’d usually like, but I was still never that interested in watching it. Part of this is because of my hipster-like tendency to stay away from things that get too much exposure. I’m not sure why I have this tendency because it’s not like everything I like is really “underground” or anything, I like a lot of stuff that’s “mainstream”. I guess it’s just that having everyone talk about it all the time and being surrounded by it makes me grow tired of the thing before I even have a chance to experience it myself, if that makes sense. But the main reason I didn’t want to watch it is because I didn’t like the artwork. Especially on the characters. I just don’t like the way they’re drawn. And maybe that sounds like a dumb reason to avoid the show, but it is important for a show I watch to be aesthetically pleasing to my eyes. You know, watching involves a lot of looking. I need to like what I’m looking at.
Now feels like a good time to start watching Adventure Time, though. Or at least just the first season, and then I’ll decide from there if I want to keep watching. And I might as well make a project out of it, right? I think Adventure Time would be a good transition from SpongeBob, and since I know so little about it reviewing it should be entertaining.
I should probably also mention that I don’t know much about the Adventure Time fandom. I made a point of keeping up with the SpongeBob fandom when I was reviewing it because I liked knowing the thoughts and opinions of fans and comparing them to mine. I’m clueless about the Adventure Time fandom, though. I don’t know what episodes, characters, opinions, or theories are popular/unpopular in this fandom. I don’t know what shipping is like for it. I don’t know if “character abuse” is something that concerns this fandom. I don’t know if anything in particular concerns this fandom. I think I’ll try to keep it that way for now, just to make my reviews even more “fresh” for myself.
(Also, I’m aware of the fact that Doug Walker is reviewing Adventure Time as well. I haven’t watched any of his reviews for it, I’m wondering if I should just to make sure I don’t accidentally steal any comments/jokes from him.)
So, reviews will begin as soon as possible. I’d like to try to post reviews more often, because if I continue this once-a-week schedule it will take forever to get through this show. However, final exams are coming up and after that (hopefully) I’ll be working, so that’s easier said than done. I want to shoot for at least twice a week, but we’ll see how things go.
Well, yesterday I officially finished reviewing Season 8 of SpongeBob SquarePants.
The problem is, Season 9 isn’t complete yet, and it probably won’t be for a while. That’s going to make reviewing it complicated. I don’t like the idea of reviewing the current episodes and having to wait to review the next ones at random intervals depending on when they choose to air them. I like having some semblance of a schedule, I don’t like the idea of such randomness. I suppose I could also post reviews really slowly and hope that they air new episodes faster than I can review them, but I don’t like that idea either. I’d prefer to wait until Season 9 is over and then review it at a normal pace. So, I guess that’s what I’ll be doing. That’s why my Season 8 overview also acted as an overview for post-movie in general, because I had already decided to wait before reviewing Season 9, meaning that it would be last my chance to say a lot of those things. Which resulted in a novel of my word vomit that I’m sure was super fun to read.
So now what?
I really like reviewing, and I’ve been doing it for so long that I can’t imagining suddenly stopping. I want to keep posting reviews while waiting for Season 9 to finish.
Someone asked me once if I would review pre-movie after finishing with post-movie. I’d considered this before myself, but dismissed the idea pretty quickly. Part of the fun of reviewing post-movie was that so much of it was new to me, so my reactions were fresh. I’m so familiar with pre-movie that there wouldn’t be any novelty for me in reviewing it. That’s what I originally thought, anyway. As I considered the idea more and more, I realized that reviewing pre-movie actually could be really interesting. It would be fun to look back on something that was such a big part of so many people’s childhoods, especially since now that I’m older I’ve come to appreciate them for different reasons than I did when I was younger. Plus, I’ve already reviewed so many seasons of this show, I might as well review the remaining ones if only for the sake of completion. So yeah, I guess pre-movie reviews have to happen, don’t they?
But here’s another problem: I really want to review something, but I don’t want it to be SpongeBob. As much as I love this show and as much as I enjoyed reviewing it, I’m so sick of it that the thought of reviewing one more episode, even one from seasons that I love, makes me want to set myself on fire. I just need a break from this show.
I think it’s time to review a completely different show. I already have a few ideas, but I’m also open to suggestions and feedback. (And if people really want more SpongeBob reviews, I might consider continuing those on the side.)
Let me know what you think, and in a few days I’ll come to a decision.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but I’m back… sort of. This post is just to explain my plans for upcoming posts. Once I start those, I’ll officially be back.
First, let me tell you about my history with the show known as SpongeBob Squarepants.
I was a big fan of the show as a kid. I adored the first three seasons and liked the movie. Then came Season 4, which I was really excited to watch, and… I didn’t like it. In fact, I hated it. I was shocked that the show I loved had sunk so low. The jokes weren’t funny, the characters were annoying and unlikable, the episodes were mean-spirited (especially when a certain clarinet-playing squid was involved). It was just plain bad.
I watched most of the fourth season, hoping that it would get better, but I eventually gave up and stopped watching the show (though I still had very fond memories of the pre-movie seasons).
I started watching the show again recently (pre-movie episodes, that is) and it’s somehow even better than I remembered it being. For a while I avoided post-movie episodes like the plague, but after joining a SpongeBob fan site on a whim and reading what other fans had to say about post-movie episodes, I wondered if I should give them a chance. While the majority of fans seem to agree that post-movie SpongeBob doesn’t live up to pre-movie SpongeBob, there are quite a few post-movie episodes that fans seem to like. Then I decided to watch It’s A SpongeBob Christmas because the fact that it was done in stop-motion made me curious about it, and I actually really liked it. I found it cute and entertaining. The songs were catchy and I actually giggled at a few of the jokes. Except for a few minor details, it could have passed for pre-movie.
So, I’ve decided to give post-movie SpongeBob another chance. I’m going to watch all of the post-movie SpongeBob episodes and post a review of each one here. I’ll try to be as unbiased as possible and give each episode a fair chance. I’ll post a review at least once a week.
My other plans for future posts concern RoosterTeeth’s upcoming series RWBY.
I became interested in this series after seeing the first trailer, mainly because I loved the style of the animation. The second trailer had me even more intrigued. The third and fourth trailer put me off because of the horrendous dialogue and even worse voice acting, but I’m still interested in watching the series. I sort of expected it to be more style-over-substance anyway.
RWBY (which is apparently pronounced like ruby) won’t be starting until early July. When it starts, I’ll be posting reviews of each episode.
So, those are my plans! Stay tuned for my next post, where I’ll begin reviewing the fourth season of SpongeBob!
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