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←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Duel 02 -- For Whom The Rose Smiles or: Who Is Anthy Himemiya? I’ll Do You One Better: Why Is Anthy Himemiya? The question was already asked up above, but as I said there, I was already going to talk about this to lead into the episode: why Revolutionary Girl Utena? Of all the anime to lead off with, why choose something so… so weird? And like I answered already, there are a couple reasons for that. I wanted to start with an anime I’ve already seen just to get a feel for how a weekly schedule might play out. Being familiar with the material takes away one barrier I might have had. And out of all the anime I’ve seen (not exactly a big list), this is the one I felt like I could talk the most about. Why is that? Well, I like weird things, okay? During last year’s Anime Secret Santa, I specifically included a line, “[I like] pretentious writing, because I am pretentious.” That doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally find things oppressively inscrutable (I’ve seen some pretty weird arthouse movies), just that there’s a specific blend of style over substance that I enjoy, even if I understand how acquired of a taste it is. So I latched onto this anime pretty quickly. Also, I’m subtweeting somebody. They know what they did. Between all these reasons and the fact that apparently, Ikuhara said that all interpretations of Utena are correct (I couldn’t find a source for this outside of Tvtropes but it’s a nice sentiment at least) so there’s no fear in misinterpreting something (similarly, don’t be afraid to disagree with me! Let me know what you think in the comments!), it actually was a fairly intuitive choice to have Revolutionary Girl Utena lead everything off. Who is Anthy Himemiya? There are actually two, maybe three characters I want to talk about today, but Anthy is both the biggest and most obvious enigma of the cast and the one the show is going to be spending the most time with, so we’re going to be starting with her and her friend Chu-Chu. Anthy is the Rose Bride. The thing to attain, the thing that everyone else in the story is fighting over. To that end, Utena has characterized her as what I would call “aggressively subservient.” She’s polite to a fault, even insisting on referring to those she’s betrothed to with the “-sama” honorific, yet stoic and matter-of-fact. But you may notice an interesting word choice in that previous paragraph: “Thing.” The entire conflict of Revolutionary Girl Utena, especially the initial duels with the Student Council, involve people not exactly fighting for engagement to Anthy, but for possession of her. Like I mentioned last week, Utena, the newcomer and outsider to this whole End of the World business, is the only exception, so let’s talk about her stated reasoning here as well. Utena says she didn’t throw her rematch duel with Saionji because she wanted to protect Chu-Chu, Anthy’s monkey friend from Saionji’s bullying (yes, he is a small monkey and not a mouse as I’ve seen some people identify him). This is, well, while it’s not an outright lie, it is an obfuscation of the truth on Utena’s part, and therefore, the creator’s as well. Throughout the show, you’ll notice that Chu-Chu doing something in a scene is largely centered around the emotions Anthy finds herself unable to express. The two most prominent moments from this particular episode are in the initial introduction (“I’ve never seen Chu-Chu take to someone so quickly,” hinting at Anthy and Utena’s connection) and later when Chu-Chu is frantically trying to get Utena’s attention while Saionji confronts Anthy. It might be easier on your viewing experience to simply make Anthy and Chu-Chu interchangeable. So when Utena says “I was protecting Chu-Chu,” what she really means is, “I was protecting you.” Other episodes have similar moments. I won’t go over all of them, but it’s something that you should look out for (and again, if you see something particularly interesting, feel free to talk about it!). We’ll also see Anthy fighting against her role in other ways, such as in Episode One where she immediately switches Saionji’s honorific to “-sempai” the moment he loses to Utena. I said that Anthy is unfailingly polite, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be playful or sly when she wants to be. The last character I wanted to talk about was Kyouichi Saionji. We already got an immediate sense of his personality in the previous episode, where the inciting incident was him insulting Wakaba by pinning up her love letter and later physically attacking Anthy over petty squabbles. He’s a jerk jock, the classical “bad boy” archetype, and what he desires out of Anthy is control. Not just control over the sword and power of Dios, though that is certainly something he cares about, what he truly wants is control over a person. He even states it plainly in this episode, “You are mine to control,” he says. And, ironically, and perhaps tragically, it is only in following the orders of others -- largely End of the World -- that he is ever able to even attempt to get what he wants. A couple final notes: The book Wakaba is reading -- Magnolia Waltz -- is an actual manga, the third book in the Waltz in a White Dress series. It shares its author, Chiho Saito, with the manga version of Utena, and while their plots do diverge occasionally, it’s still a nice reference to make. Also, this episode has the first appearance of the mythical Dios, who comes down from his magical castle to assist Utena in her time of need. Dios’ role is not something that’s going to be explained for most of the story, but it is worth noting when he shows up and when he does not. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all next week. -r Next time: An introduction to the Kiryuu family, and Carrie without the pig blood ←Previous Post -- Link to Episode -- Next Post→

There was a certain amount of respect Peter had for Coach Clara that he didn’t have for his parents. Maybe it was because she was being paid to teach them Duel Monsters (she was being paid, right?) and his parents just… did it. And yet, something still stung about the way Coach Clara said “not terrible.” She hadn’t even seen his performance, but that didn’t matter. Maybe it was because of the respect that it stung. Also because of that respect, though, was how seriously he took the order to practice whenever he could. Not like he wasn’t already (as long as “whenever he could” meant “whenever he took a break from doing literally anything else”), but now it’d get moved up in the queue. As soon as he got back to his dorm, he’d check his messages and if it wasn’t a program he already had, he’d install it and boot it up. Such was Peter’s resolution. It didn’t really work, though. As soon as he stepped through the door he immediately tossed his belongings aside and flopped down on his bed. Not to sleep, no, he just wanted to lie there for a bit and think about things. What a day! The phone-call-with-parents days always were, really, but this one especially so. At least he’d gotten a donut out of the ordeal. And he’d gotten over himself, at least a little. And he’d started on some decent puns. And- Okay, so maybe overall the day hadn’t been so bad. He’d done pretty well for himself. Maybe the next “what a day” wouldn’t be so bad after all. He hadn’t meant to, but pretty soon he found himself drifting off to sleep.

So, like, it obviously had huge potiential to be banned in EDH/Commander the moment the card was printed. The card has a restriction that straight doesn't matter in formats that are already singleton, not just EDH. Wizards even announced Lutri would be banned in Brawl too. I'm a little interested in the reasoning behind this specific card being banned ahead of time instead of, say, Leovold or Griselbrand, though. Both of those were obviously powerful things that were never going to fly in the format they've created but we still got months with them legal. A lot of the internet reaction I've seen is focused on using this as another opportunity to slag on the commitee for not banning Flash yet, which, I mean, internet's gonna internet. Card needs banned, but then again, so did this. I'm pretty whatever on the whole thing 'cause I just play with a single group. I'll probably pick a copy up just for kicks. It's a pretty low opportunity cost to ask your playgroup -- it's not like it'd be shuffled into the deck -- and companion seems sweet, so...

There was a lot to process in those final interesting minutes of that day, enough that, even after spending the entire intervening day going through it all in her head again, there were still some things Elsie didn’t entirely understand. For example, Jekyll’s response went completely over her head. She’d asked a very simple question (“Are we there yet?”) and sure, maybe it was a little annoying, especially when it turned out she was asking on day one of a three-day trip, but still, to dismiss it completely out of hand like he did? Worse still, though, was how Jekyll implied things weren’t under control. Because of course things had been under control! She could have solved everything if she’d thought they weren’t. But whatever. Jekyll had been observing everything through a scrying orb so maybe he’d somehow seen something she hadn’t. So overall, Elsie’s problems with Jekyll were ones she could dismiss pretty quickly and easily once she’d finally gotten over how angry she’d felt in the moment. Which was good, because it created room for thinking about that final odd Lachlan-shaped puzzle. How did Lachlan not know that she was a witch? She didn’t know what Lachlan “was”, sure, but Lachlan didn’t wander around with a hat and a broom and a familiar and the ability to conjure magical signs that said “Look at me in all my witchy glory!” or whatever. “Does that mean you’re going to cast a curse on me?” Lachlan had said. She’d been tempted to. She was pretty creative with her curses, too. It probably would have been a fun one. But no, Lach complimented her scariness and that was enough to ward her off (even if he felt the need to apologize for it later). For the record, she had never put any children in any oven. At least, not without a good reason. Besides brooding, Elsie spent the travel time flying around the tower, watching the world pass by underneath. What was especially fun was seeing someone look up at her then do a double-take when they realized just what was going on. Oh, how mundane their life must have been when a simple witch and a tower moving through the sky was the peak of their excitement -- the highlight of their day. Whatever was waiting for them in Setsu had to be more exciting than that.The day started out unassuming enough. They didn’t even land in the village proper; they plopped down on a nearby hill. Elsie was the second one out after Lachlan (okay, counting Jekyll, she was third), with Corbin dutifully riding along on her shoulder. She remembered being told about all this in the initial briefing. She was ready. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t any new information in Jekyll’s little reminder speech. The Dragon Slayer’s name was Sieg! Exciting! The name sure fit, at least. Not that she could do much with it other than file it away to remember later. But also, why did he get to be in charge? Just ‘cause he hit Lachlan really hard way back when? Or maybe he hit Alexandre really hard and that was it. The point was, she should at least have been given some sort of consideration, and she didn’t think Jekyll really had. Not that she complained out loud. Like Jekyll said, this was their first mission together. Maybe it rotated? Or maybe she just needed to prove herself a little bit more. Lachlan wandered in the direction of the church, and Elsie was tempted to follow him, but the bar -- The Naughty Crow -- caught her eye, and not just because of the name. It was still early enough that it wouldn’t be too crowded yet, but bartenders were natural fonts of information, right? And besides, she was somewhere new. The least she could do was sample the wares. “I just hope they don’t think I’m their crow,” Corbin said. “You’re not going to break their door doing one of your grand introductions, are you?” “I was thinking of something a bit more mysterious this time.” Elsie stood just in front of the door and took a deep breath. She was already backlit a little bit from the sun, but a little hint of magic light placed just behind her and some adjustments to her glamour helped to exaggerate her shadow so that when she opened the door in a single fluid motion and remained still to observe the interior, her shadow stretched far into the main room. Yes, this was certainly a good place to start. Satisfied with her impression, Elsie strolled over to the bar, sat down at one of the seats, and started by ordering another lunch, confident that the information she was looking for would come swiftly after.

call me lucky seven samson, that's my natural-born name

the last three seconds are significantly louder than the first three-ish minutes yes this is a gag but not one i want to ruin your eardrums over

2 answers 2 furious

Feels like kind of a weird question 'cause I don't normally play games I had a bad experience with to push past their perceived inadequacies, but I guess I can see it in terms of, like, hard or even unfair games like I Wanna Be The Guy (there's a throwback for you) or even something more modern like Dark Souls. But as I think about it more, I do have one specific answer, and it is this: Risk of Rain. The first one, I mean. I picked it up back when I was in high school and the whole thing felt a little inscrutable at times? Like, some of the item descriptions make no sense, and that's just the start of it. I had no idea what the map layouts were nor did I have any impulse to find out, a lot of the enemies felt unfair, the timer always seemed to be moving too quickly. I just dropped the game after about a dozen hours and didn't look back. I don't know why I started playing it again. I think I was just going through the old roguelikes I had in my Steam library just for kicks (FTL is fun too, but then again, I never hated that one) and booted it up. I still find some of the design choices kind of weird and its gameplay loop, once I found a rhythm of map progression and item acquisition that I liked, doesn't change beyond those first hours, I do like it much better now and will still do runs occasionally when I have a spare hour.

Getting the rat off Chris was no easy task, but it was much easier once it was finally dead. And with three other people helping, it was enough to roll the thing off and return Chris to a functional member of the group. One sword-retrieval-from-the-underbelly-of-a-dead-rat later, and the only way left to go was down. In contrast to the previous claustrophobic and dank hallways, now they were in a dank cavern, replete with mushrooms and all the other things Chris expected to find in such a place. Even goblins! Goblins were a step up from rats in Chris’ opinion. Sure, both of them had the potential to be screaming balls of fury and hate but at least if one leapt at him, he wasn’t about to fall over catching its weight. Sergei, who, of course, was leading in front asked Estellise if she could blind them. And that was a good idea, all things considered. Chris was pretty sure he could make that sprint without the distraction but maybe not everybody in the party could as well. But there was a niggling thought in the back of Chris’ mind. If it didn’t work, and conflict became inevitable, they’d have lost the element of surprise. Those brief moments -- those times when someone saw you but before they’d done anything about it -- were what Chris thrived in, and he wasn’t sure he was so ready to give it up. “Alternatively,” he whispered to everyone else, “we could lead with that and charge in, maybe take out the ones with slings first so they can’t hit Estellise and then it’s a fairer fight. Taking care of the problem now also allows us to not have to watch our backs later.” He paused to let everyone absorb that. “I’ll leave that decision to you all, though. Just tell me where and when to run.”

This is my mom's bean salad recipe. She used to make it all the time for potlucks and it was always a hit. It has since been passed on to me. 1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed 1 can dark red kidney beans drained and rinsed Small bag of frozen edamame Small bag of frozen sweet corn Large ripe avocado Put the edamame and the corn in a microwaveable bowl with about 1/2 cup water and microwave on high till they are just on the hot side but not steaming. About 2 minutes. Keep checking. Drain and rinse the canned items and leave them in the colander. Once the corn and edamame are hot pour them over the beans in the colander. In a large bowl combine 2 tbls of grainy mustard with 1/4 cup olive oil and 2 tbls of white wine vinegar (white balsamic and champagne vinegar are best) with a whisk. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour the bean mixture in with the dressing and combine. Cut avocado into cubes and add to the beans. Mix gently. Serves a bunch but refrigerates well when covered

Fun unrelated fact about me: I used to live in New Zealand. I don't remember much of it because we moved back to the US when my sister was born but when my parents and I were there, my mom fell in love with these candy bars called Chocolate Fish. They're really simple, actually, just marshmallow covered in chocolate and shaped like a fish, but the one I did try once upon a time was pretty good as far as candy bars go. But they're impossible to find in America. And I know, not just because my mom told me, but because I wanted to get her some for Christmas and the only way I could was to find this Kiwi candy store's website and get them to ship internationally. They nearly got lost in customs! Anyway, my favorite candy is Swedish Fish, which are entirely dissimilar except for the name, though the name is misleading for other reasons, first and foremost being that they're made in either Canada or Turkey these days.

First of all, I'm assuming the scenario involves times are not being what they are (that is, not just buying more foodstuffs and toilet paper). I'm also dropping the moral obligations to give to charity like these paladins did (I don't think I'd be moral enough to be a paladin anyway) and assuming that this is Jeff Bezos' own money so I don't feel like garbage giving money to Amazon. With all that being said... I've been eyeing getting a Nintendo Switch for about as long as they've been out but, like, the cost and realism about my free time to use it has hindered that specific acquisition for equally as long. Remove both of those from the equation and Bob's your uncle I guess. It'd need some games too. I don't have any specific ones in mind but we'll say two random ones get added to the cart. After that? I don't know. My current personal wishlist is mostly boardgames I'll probably never get to a table and rpg sourcebooks I'll probably never get to play. There are some (actual) books on there too, though -- Vladmir Nobokov's Pale Fire is the current standout there -- so those would be nice to have I guess. Any remaining money would be spent on a vinyl record for my friend who likes vinyl records and a full-size snickers bar.

I know you shouldn’t ship real people, but if you two had a ship name, would it be Yai or Sui? Or something else?