Pastelbat @pastelbat@awoo.space

Buddha's Palm (1982): Come for the magic kungfu, good plot, badass women and deathtrap dungeons

Stay for the adorable baby dragon

Dameng is adorable and can do no wrong

Generals competing to show off their best troop formations to each other is just a fancy way of saying they had a dance off

In total 6 eyes have popped out during the course of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms so far. That's if we count the same eye popping out multiple times as separate events, anyway (poor Sima Shi..)

I think we should apply this metric to all classical literature tbh

To be fair "ghosts are just electricity that can be stored in rocks" is also the plot of Ghost In The Shell, Altered Carbon and about half the cyberpunk genre, generally speaking

This isn't even the weirdest use of metaphor in a Toho film.

I am still not sure what they were going for with Rebirth of Mothra 2, where Son Of Mothra parts the sea to let his human friends escape destruction.

..Many confusing decisions were made in that movie.

Did you ever look at Godzilla movies and think "This has potential, but the metaphor's a bit too subtle"?

Me neither, but here we are: A movie where Godzilla is possessed by the ghosts of those who died in the Pacific War.

[this space reserved for the "I've met writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards" gif]

Godzilla flipped into the villain-monster role is a neat twist on an old formula. The movie has surprisingly well-done human characters despite the plot, and merges CGI and practical effects in a way that ages far, far better than other Godzilla movies of the era (Final Wars..).

The underwater fight is impressive, as is Mothra swapping from CGI to puppetry as shots require it.

istg Zhuge Liang is the 14th century template for every single "insufferably smug nerd boy wins the day again" author-proxy protagonist

Abbess Miejue is such an amazing villain

Doggedly determined to be Simply Awful to the end, and with one of the best villain-smirks on film

on a Chor Yuen kick after Descendant of the Sun

Heaven Sword And Dragon Saber 1/2 are extremely fun, pretty movies.

Also with 6 badass women in central roles. (2 are fueding kungfu master old ladies, and I love them both so much)

The uncanny irl forerunner to many an FPS map

Just watched Descendant Of The Sun, aka "Shaw Brothers make Superman 1978, but set it in Fantasy Ancient China"

It has:

So many onscreen drawn effects.
So much coloured lighting.
So many people explode. (So many!)
A temple set with a skybox that makes it look like a real life Half-Life map.
Bumbling not-Clark Kent looks after a sassy parrot.
Really impressive practical effects.
A drunken rendition of The Superman theme on an 80s synthesizer

People tend to think 'crow, then a little bigger' and not 'medium-sized bird of prey, then a little bigger'

If a 2kg bird with a 1.5 meter wingspan randomly flew through my front door I think I would be too shocked to angst at it about my ex

Ravens are *really really big*

Like, I caught a glimpse of a common buzzard sat in a tree the other day and thought at first it might be a raven, and uh

Nope, keep going, bigger than that

(Image shows a Common Buzzard & a Common Raven, also has a dead prey animal)

https://live.staticflickr.com/4063/4515917807_18cdcc0393_b.jpg%7C%7C%7C%7C

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-5ON3qHy5I

Baaaaaaaaaaaats!

Flappy little nighttime friends..

Am exhausted from being teacher/organiser/most-social for 3hrs, but it went really well I think. We got through all the essential stuff and all the feedback from players was really positive. Will do character creation together next session.

Session 0 of GMing a Genesys campaign with some friends later today.

I have done prep, I am not nerve

Much

Lately I've been playing a miniature-based solo RPG that Mophidius recently released, called 5 Parsecs From Home.

I've been using it as a creative writing prompt, doing session writeups with the framing of a cult 90s scifi TV show, and with photos from the game during play. (And randomly generated Blaseball names, because Blaseball has the best names)

[CW: Descriptions of violence to people/scifi critters]

Episode 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRzdezAkRP4X8OgA82-IQFN9vux-a25jBOSgkvEZudbShpbR24BMQwf3L-cwN7YurfJ3AOjWUtBceYM/pub

Episode 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRUXfgEUp3Zf2_dPmXOxrajAuF0IQ40MkfS5kR11pZyXhZUXwzfk8RmeKmKM3hd8-9DK1zbnW_F8J9C/pub

https://reductress.com/post/i-want-to-honor-keeping-kink-out-of-pride-but-my-kink-is-bank-sponsored-parade-floats/