Since all I seem to write about on this blog is fandom related stuff, here's a list of all of them. If I get new ones then I'll continue to add them to the list. I'm also going to have all of my pairings listed, with my OTP for each fandom at the top of each list, as well as my reason for loving each pairing.
1. Star Wars (includes Clone Wars)
Anakin x Padme (canon and sweet )
Obi-Wan x Sabe (hinted at and cute)
Ahsoka x Rex (adorable)
Ventress x Dooku (hate sex mostly, I know I'm sick ;) )
Leia x Han (canon and cute)
Luke x Mara (see previous)
Shmi x Cliegg (Boringly canon, but I loved how Shmi found happiness at least for a little while)
Beru x Owen (Also boringly canon, but I just think its sweet)
Don't ask me about people in the E.U. because I rarely read it. Star Wars my be my oldest fandom, but I never really got to far into the E.U. and I don't feel like starting now. Besides, who know how much is going to stay "canon" when Clone Wars keeps poking holes in it right and left.
2. James Cameron's Avatar
Jake x Neytiri (so sweet)
Norm x Trudy (too cute, and so sad, plus, it's canon if you look at the deleted scenes)
3. Invader Zim
Zim x Gaz (they'd rule the world)
Dib x Tak (they've both been hurt a lot and could find comfort in one another)
GIR x MiMi (so cute)
Red x Purple (they already have a great relationship as co-leaders, why not as lovers as well)
Skoodge x Tenn (was hinted at for the never made series finale)
Gretchen x Melvin (they're both outcasts at Skool and already friends)
Keef x Iggins (Keef gives constant attention to people and Iggins needs constant attention, match made in heaven XD)
4. Jhonen Vasquez's comics
Nny x Devi (kinda canon and I like the idea of Nny finding peace with his inner voices now that Devi has one, too)
5. Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler)
Ciel x Sebastian (as another fan put it "so canon it hurts" ;) )
Grell x Will (so cute, plus Yana herself said they were meant to be together)
Servantrio OTP (my only polyamory ship in any of my fandoms, but I just find the three of them so sweet)
Lau x Ranmao (sort of canon and adorable)
Lizzie x Soma (I like the idea of them finding comfort in each other after Ciel becomes a demon and leaves with Sebastian)
6. Hetalia
Italy x Germany (so canon and so cute)
Russia x Lithuania (mostly hate sex, but I also like the idea of Russia wanting someone there to comfort him in his madness)
Spain x Romano (adorable)
Prussia x Liechtenstein (I think she'd bring out his caring side)
Hungary x Austria (canon and its cute how Hungary kicks so much ass for him)
UK x France (some hate sex, but there is the potential for cuteness, besides the movie made it canon with that whole "They really do love each other. Sexually." line XD )
China x South Korea (funny and cute)
Japan x Greece (almost canon and really sweet)
Sweden x Finland (so canon and too adorable for words)
Estonia x Ukraine (so sweet)
Okay, that about wraps everything up. Anybody who likes one of these already, but hasn't seen the others, do so now! I'm picky about my fandoms and only watch or read stuff that I see as high quality, so I don't think you'll be disappointed. :)
The random writings of an opinionated person
- All of my fandoms
-
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6)
emprezj- April 27th, 16:57
chipper
- YAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!
-
- emprezj
- April 12th, 14:41
bouncy
Guess who got her Black Butler seasons one and two DVD box sets yesterday and consequently watched all the new episodes? That’s right: me!!! OMG! THEY WERE SO GOOOD!!!!!! I had so many nosebleeds watching them, I can’t even tell you! Season II kicked ass!!! It was just so perfect! Claude was such a bastard, Ciel was cold and merciless, Alois was a slutty psycho, and Sebastian was his charming self as always. I freakin’ LOVED it!!!!
Okay, calming down now. But it really was just beautifully done. The voice actors, both returning ones and new people, were fabulous. I think that my favorite new voices were the triplets and Hannah. The triplets were only really heard in that one OVA, but they were just so funny. Most of what they said pretty crude, but so hilarious. I loved that they said that Hannah had “major boobage” because as much as I like all the yaoi on this show, some good, old-fashioned Family Guy-esque comments were refreshing.
As for Hannah, I just adored her. She’s was clever and manipulative, but so sweet with Alois. I loved her interaction with him at the end of the maze episode. He asks if he can have a hug and when she gives it to him, he says something along the lines of “So this is love. It’s so warm.” I cried my eyes out at that, because he’s right. I have a pretty good relationship with my mom, so I can tell you that there is nothing warmer than the love between a mother and her child. Poor kid never really had that because his parents died when he was young and then he was stuck with that creeper Earl Trancy before Claude showed up. Oh, and a mother/ son relationship is what he and Hannah have. Fans out there who think that it was romantic and are now complaining that Alois was too shota to love Hannah, cease your bitching. It’s a purely parent and child thing, because that is what Alois wanted the most: someone who loves him unconditionally.
Okay, onward! Despite it being the most hated one in the season, I actually really enjoyed the deer episode. It showed how much Ciel is “growing up”, so to speak, by him taking the lead and wanting to save Lizzie. As for Lizzie herself, I really liked her. Sure, she frequently makes us Sebastian x Ciel fangirls want to smack the hell out of her, but there’s a level of sweetness to her that is nice when put next to Ciel’s angst. I like the anime Lizzie’s helplessness, because I’ve always thought that she represented Ciel’s childhood ideals. Because he was once exactly like her: fragile and innocent. She is, after all, the only person left who has ties to his past, expect Tanaka, but he rarely speaks. So it was nice to see the older Ciel that we know really come into contact with his younger, inexperienced side. I do love me some character development and that was what this season did.
Besides, it’s not like the deer episode was lacking in SebaCiel innuendos. Lizzie herself even set one up, though I doubt she realized it. Sebastian and Ciel were doing their usual flirtatious quips, then Lizzie, who was watching the whole exchange, said something about how she loved what great friends they were. Ciel immediately went very red and said “He’s not my friend!” Yes, Ciel how dare she imply that you are “friends” with the guy’s whose parfait you’re eating and who gives you baths? I think that her saying he was your bitch would have been more accurate, or at least your boyfriend. ;)
Okay, that about wraps everything up. For fans who haven’t seen these episodes yet, do it NOW!! In fact, go buy the DVDs. They’re pretty expensive, but totally worth it. Everything about these episodes is so good that you have to wonder why anybody wouldn’t have liked season II. Great job, Funimation, y’all did good. :)
- What makes a good English Dub
-
- emprezj
- March 27th, 21:33
Being as excited as I am for the release of the Black Butler II English dub, I was hanging around on FUNimation’s YouTube page the other day, reading some of the comments. Naturally, there were a few squabbles about whether the subs or dubs of shows were better. So I got to wondering about what makes a dub “good”. Is it the translation, the voices themselves, the acting? There are so many pieces. After having watched many an anime as both a Japanese voice-over with English subtitles and as an English voice-over, I think I have at a marginally okay idea what makes a good dub. I knew that everything I wanted to say couldn’t be put into one YouTube comment, so a post it was. Okay, here goes.
1. The Translation
This is one of the least fought over, but I think it’s really what makes or breaks the dub. Why? Well, a while back I read a comment (yes, it all comes back to those) under the Black Butler II dub clip where Disguised!Sebastian shows up at the Tracy Manor and demands that Claude stop sucking at his job and tells Alois that he’s slutty. Or that’s the basic plot anyway. ;) For those of you who haven’t seen the clip, and if you’re a Black Butler fan, shame on you, I’ve got it at the bottom. But I digress. The comment itself was a complaint about how Alois’s line when he’s beating up Hannah was changed. In the sub version he calls her a whore, while in the dub version he calls her a tart. It didn’t really bother me, but it did make me a little curious. Why would they have changed that? The commenter said that they were just trying to make it more “kid-friendly” so that it didn’t piss off some helicopter parent, but I don’t think so. This show already has not only made references to prostitutes, which what a whore literally is, but they’ve shown both live and dead ones. Not to mention it has large amounts of violence and homoerotic undertones. So a little thing like the use of “whore” shouldn’t really make a difference, now should it?
Well, curiosity got the better of me. I got an online translation of the actual Japanese for that line and I found something rather interesting. The word that he used technically does mean “whore” in a literal translation, but it has a different colloquial definition. It implies a general sluttiness, but it has more playful and less harsh attributes than their actual word for whore, which was something entirely different. Don’t ask me what either of the words actually were because I suck at languages and can’t remember, but I do remember the meanings. Basically, the word in Alois’s line was the Japanese version of “tart”. Why should this matter? I’m a girl and, due to a lack of originally on society’s part, when someone wants to insult me usually the first thing that they refer to me as is a word that has something to do with prostitution. However, I would much rather somebody refer to me as a tart rather than a whore. Yes, they mean the same thing, but whore is significantly more hurtful than tart, at least in our language.
So what this whole thing comes down to is how well something is translated. When they’re doing the sub, they don’t have to be overly precise in their language use because that would take too much time. As long as the definition was correct, and we can’t deny that tart does literally mean whore, it could be put in because the audience only needs to know what’s basically being said. This is why I’ve never liked subs all that much. I said in another post that they gave a literal translation and I was right. By doing this the language becomes stilted, more formal, but by the time the dub comes out, regardless of whether it’s good or bad, the fans are used to the original manner of speech. They see the sub’s version as more serious and, for lack of a better word, epic, while the dub seems more childish and silly. This is the case occasionally, but only if the dub was done badly.
When the dub is done well, they take the time to back up and get the more realistic translation. Linguists sit down with each other and figure out what words or phrases are specific to one language, but can be translated into similar terms in another and they make the new script from there. It should be a “meet in the middle” ideal where the literal language from the sub isn’t used so that it doesn’t sound unfeeling, but not so far in the other direction that the character’s lines are about something completely different and unrelated. Both have been done and it never ends well. For any of you who had to read The Giver in middle school, you’d remember that their society has an expression about “the precision of language”. They themselves may not have been good people, but they were at least right when it came to words. The translation to be used in a dub should be as precise as possible, because it not only sounds better, but it gives credit where credit is due to the work of the original Japanese script writers.
2. The Voices
This one is what drives people the most crazy and generates the most interest. After all, the only difference between the sub and dub versions are the voices, not the characters themselves. So they should fit with the character’s personality. I don’t have much of a suggestion to give on this, except that the actors can only really do a good job if they know the character inside and out. This is rarely a problem, after all voice actors are the celebrities of the anime community and frequently attend conventions for this reason. You can’t expect sit in front of a bunch of crazy fans and answer very detail oriented questions without knowing your character. That would be career suicide. However, it is the voice that pulls the fans in, so getting the right pitch and tone is important, too. As long as all this is done, there’s a good chance that they will do well.
Also, fans shouldn’t expect an identical voice for both the Japanese and English versions. Take Undertaker from Black Butler. This voice wasn’t hated, per say, but a lot of people said that they liked the Japanese voice better because it was darker and creepier. But I don’t think this a fair assessment to make. Unless you speak Japanese fluently and understand all of the little nuances that people can have in their speech patterns, you can’t really get a good feel for the voices because you don’t know how they talk. You know the pitch and sometimes the tone, but that’s about it. Do they have a lisp, do they enunciate certain ways, do they purposefully have the character stumble over words? You can’t know any of that unless you speak the language. I’m sure that there are some fans that do, but if you’re just an average English-speaking kid like me the chances are pretty slim.
And I liked Undertaker’s voice. It was Lord Death from Soul Eater, but with a Cockney accent and it fit. Undertaker, as well as most of the grim reapers, is a comic relief for this show. He’s a creepy, but in a funny sort of way. He’s morbidly cute, to use one of my favorite expressions. The Japanese voice’s tone was good and I did like it, but I think that it was almost too dark. His voice implied a bit of the Undertaker from the manga, the scary, sexy guy who created the Bizarre Dolls. The anime Undertaker is too goofy for that. Remember the scene in the library where the reapers and Sebastian are about to take on Angela in a supposedly epic battle and Undertaker just ruins the moment with his “I gotta return these books or I’m gonna get a late fee” thing. That whole bit was something that the manga Undertaker would never have done. It’s just too adorable. He did sound a bit like a pirate, I’ll give you that one, but that was the accent that people living in that area and of his supposed class would have had. If you were a Londoner and your immediate ancestry wasn’t from somewhere else, you had one of three ways of speaking. One, you spoke like Ciel, all proper and refined. Two, you were one of the few immerging middle class and you spoke like Abberline. Or three, you spoke with a Cockney accent like, well, any character from the East End. That’s why anime Undertaker spoke the way that he did. He wasn’t an “aristocrat of evil” like in the manga, he was just a grim reaper who liked living in the human world. He ran a funeral parlor because he enjoyed it and asked for jokes as payment because he could. That’s it.
Wow! I didn’t mean to digress so much there, I just really wanted to point out that issue because I love Undertaker in all his forms and I don’t think fans should stop loving him just because his voice was different. As for the rest of the cast, the only flaw that I can find was Finny’s voice. The accent was right, but it did sound a bit too stressed at times and his voice was too deep. Finny has always been cute and I will admit that his English voice did diminish that a little. It’s not like his voice actor was a newbie or bad, he’s usually great, so I don’t know where they were going with that voice. Oh, well, one troublesome voice with a whole cast of great voices is okay in my book. So, to simplify, voice actors know your characters and fans be flexible.
3. The Acting
Anime’s popularity has skyrocketed over the last ten years, so almost all the bugs have been worked out in terms of how to keep up with the timing without losing the integrity of the acting. Most voice actors are trained to be just voice actors, rather than actors who decided that they needed to do voice-overs. But anime does have a bit of an ugly history with this issue. Remember the clichés from kung fu movies of guys’ whose mouths were moving and no words were coming out and then a few seconds later when their mouths were closed their lines were heard? Anime was never that bad, but it has gotten some complains about actors reading their lines rather woodenly. Take the old Pokemon and Sailor Moon. I loved those shows when I was little, but my mother admitted to me years later that she never liked watching them with me because the acting sometimes sucked and I’m sure that she was right. Those dubs were done in the 1990s, before the real standards that we have now were made. I know, it takes a lot of talent to be able to read a line in one language to mouth movements made for another language and to make it sound good, but it can be done. Take Hetalia’s main cast. The characters in that show talk extremely quickly so the English voice actors have to work really hard, but they can do it and do it so well that people fall in love with the show just after watching a few episodes. That tells me that other shows have no excuse not to do a good job on the acting portion of their dub because it can be done.
Okay, that about raps everything up. Sorry about the length of this post. It seems like every time I sit down to write something, it ends up being a novel. :P Oh, well, at least I’m getting my point across. If I bored you, I apologize, I just felt like all this needed to be said and it’s not like Livejournal has a word limit. ;) And here’s the link like I promised. The dub comes out next week! Yahoo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ds1LuN7aqg&feature=relmfu
- In which I explain Kuroshitsuji II using English Literary devices
-
- emprezj
- March 19th, 21:55
tired
I promised a while back that I would write my reaction to Kuroshitsuji II, so here it is. I found Kuroshitsuji II to be a wonderful sequel to an already amazing series, filled with symbolism, religious references, character development, and beautiful animation. However, this was not the opinion of some fans out there. Many of them claimed that the second season was just an easy way for the animation studios to make some extra money off an already popular series, exchanging the quality of the story we love so much for cheap thrills that were scientifically guaranteed to make fangirls squeal. And although I don’t agree, I see very much where these fans are coming from. There have been far too many sequels in all matter of media that have had this happen, so it was a valid worry. But, guys, this is Yana Toboso’s stuff we’re talking about here. She for one wouldn’t sell out and let them go overboard, something that many creators can’t say about themselves. That being said, I’m going to address all the issues that I’ve heard so far that people have had with season II. Oh, and major spoiler alerts for people who haven’t seen it yet.
1. The Trancy household
People have said that they were a rip off of all the originality that the Phantomhive estate brought to the show. Okay, I’ll give ya that they were “copycats” to a degree, but it was necessary. The Tracy household is a foil for the Phantomhive household. Thank you current College English professor and your obsession with this term for making me see it even in my fandoms. XD For those of you who don’t know a foil is, it’s a character in a story who is able to bring out certain traits in another character that wouldn’t have really been visible otherwise, through the use of the foil’s own habits. They also usually have a defining similarity of some sort with that other character. This is exactly what the Tracys do for the Phantomhives. There are so many aspects to all of the main cast’s personalities that we wouldn’t have been able to see and, thus, understand the character better, if not for the Tracys bringing them into the light.
Here’s an example: the opening scenes from both seasons. The masters are being dressed by their respective butlers and then eating breakfast with their three servants (Hannah is sort of a wild card, but I’ll explain her later). This may seem like just an easy way to start off both seasons, but look closer. In the Phantomhive house, the young master is aloof and quiet, a little short with his underlings perhaps, but not intentionally sadistic. And he retains the regality of a British noble enough not to lower himself by explaining his actions to his servants. These servants are good hearted people, each an individual with his or her own personality, though a little on the slow side, since they are constantly being reprimanded by the butler. Said butler is not overly warm, but he treats the servants with respect and has a dry sense of humor that he shares with his young master.
The Trancy estate is the exact opposite. The little lord is loud and filled with entirely too many emotions, flirting shamelessly with his butler one moment and then cruelly explaining to his maid why he is clawing her eye out the next. The servants are identical triplets, who use cold efficiency and silence when performing their tasks, but completely lacking in their own hearts and personalities. The butler is stiff and humorless, looking down on the other members of the household staff and ignoring his master’s rather obvious innuendos. You see where I’m going with this? If you looked at some of the old fanart and fanfictions, nobody in their right mind would ever have described Ciel as even-tempered or Sebastian as kind, but by comparing them to the Tracys, these sides to them are brought out. To make the whole thing easier on everyone, I’m going to break it down into the all characters and their foils
A. Ciel and Alois
This one should be painfully obvious, or at least the similarity part. Thank you, Claude, for spelling it out for everyone with the use the Alois’s ring to brainwash Ciel. But he had a point: both characters are intelligent and cunning young boys who have lost the people that they loved most, been tortured and raped, and then saved by a demon butler. Oh, and they both used cross-dressing as a way to catch their prey off guard. But beyond their back stories, they are two very different people. Ciel is so much more level-headed and a lot stronger, choosing to “stand on his own two feet” and only using his butler’s help when really necessary. Okay, the lack of dressing himself thing is a little weak, but it was a different time, so I’m willing to overlook it. Alois we know is capable of dressing himself, as he came from a much less pampered background, but he still insists on it just because he can. He even sometimes makes Claude feed him, whereas Ciel just asks Sebastian to prepare the food and serve it. Ciel is also much more reserved in his relationship with his butler. He ignores Sebastian’s flirting and suggestive touches for the most part, something Alois would never have done, due to his rather slutty nature.Do I think that Ciel bangs Sebastian on a regular basis? Absolutely. He's a thirteen year old boy who obviously has little interest in girls (come on, he didn’t even glance at Ran-Mao’s little dance in the Talbot’s camera episode) and has a very sexy man at his side who must obey his every wish. Of course he’s sleeping with him! But he is very discrete about it, instead choosing to let people wonder or remain completely clueless. It’s his own business and he’s not so much of an attention whore that he needs to show it off. Alois on the other hand….he would probably throw a party for everyone he knew, instruct them all to show up naked, and then have him and Claude screwing as the finer points of the entertainment, if he thought he could get away with it. But that is his purpose in the story: he brings out the clear-headed, un-slutty side of Ciel. I mean, really, everyone thought before season II came out that Ciel was a brazen as it could get, with his knee-length pants, high heels, and pimp cane. Then booty-shorts bedecked Alois came into the picture and we saw just how, for lack of a better word, normal Ciel could be. We know that Ciel is in love with Sebastian, but we also know that he is entirely too proud to ever admit it anyone, even himself. Alois has no qualms expressing his love for Claude or anyone else for that matter. And that is where they differ. Okay, I really didn’t mean to write that much for one section, so I’ll just continue on then.
B. Sebastian and Claude
There is, of course, the similarities (demon butlers with a fondness for shotas) and the general personality differences between these two: Sebastian is more caring, or at least has the appearance of being more so, while Claude, as one comic so eloquently put it, “doesn’t give a shit”. Sebastian is a crow and Claude is a spider. Sebastian is more fun, Claude has a stick up his ass. The list goes on. But what is really defined in Sebastian’s personality by his interaction with Claude is his lack of change. I know that sounds a little weird, but hear me out. When we see Sebastian in season I we think that he changes things quite a lot: the repairing of the burned mansion, the fixing of the ruined dinner plans with the Italian guest, the making Ciel’s ring whole again, ect., ect. But what he actually does is not change things, but cover them up. Look at what he did when he got Ciel’s soul back and saw that his young master’s memory had been lost: he covered up any evidence of the events in season I and pretended like nothing was wrong.
Claude actually changes things, it’s his catch phrase, “Day into night, sugar into salt, blah, blah, blah”, but it’s the truth. Just look at how he was able to shift the whole Trancy estate from its Alois-styled décor to its original form. He takes things with the same basic structure and is able to utterly transform them, which is why he was able to manipulate Ciel so easily with Alois’s ring. Claude shows us a slimier Sebastian, one that we never would have guessed existed after watching season I. Because Claude may be the biggest bastard in the world, but at least he’s honest about it. Ciel never sees Sebastian’s true form because it would ruin his image, and ours, of the butler. That is Sebastian’s true power: the ability to hide behind a mask of beauty and kindness, all the while scheming relentlessly behind it and never changing a thing.
C. The Phantomhive servants and the demon triplets
I discussed this a little already earlier when I talked about the breakfast scenes, so I’ll try to be brief. Before season II, everyone thought about Mey-Rin, Finny, and Bard as almost one person who served as both comic relief and a kick-ass defender of the estate. The triplets bring out the trio’s specific personalities and what they each bring the table because the triplets themselves have no specific characteristics. Except for slightly different hair styles, they are completely identical in looks, as well as mannerisms. The Phantomhive servants are all different in almost every way, from their looks, to their backgrounds, to their interests. They have many things in common of course, such as their love for the young master and each other, but that is what holds them together, not their shared lack of ability to do their jobs correctly or anything else. They made the biggest mess at the Trancy party, while the triplets cleaned it up, but they were able to defend their friends using their own particular talents, while the triplets proved to be rather useless in battle. Yes, I’m sure that they could have beaten the servants, but they are demons after all, so they do have an advantage. When pitted against their own kind and other supernatural beings, however, mainly Sebastian and Grelle, they were complete failures, while the Phantomhive trio was able to handle member of their own species without any trouble.
Okay, that’s it for foils. I know that I didn’t do Tanaka or Hannah, but that’s only because they are sort of foils for themselves. They each have two distinct sides that come out at certain times. Tanaka is usually a quiet and cute chibi that likes drinking tea, but when the need arises he is becomes a distinguished gentlemen that has something helpful and profound to say. Hannah is usually meek and helpless, or at least the side we see of her as a maid. She proves quite fierce both in battle and as a demon in general. You have to be a pretty gutsy broad to make two very pissed off butlers have a fight to the death for one kid’s soul and not be any worse for wear during the whole thing. I guess the two sides can be defined as in relation to her meeting Luca. Before, she is cold and rather savage, but after, she is motherly and loving. Those are two very different sides for one person, thus, she needs no other character to bring out either of them. Okay, onto other issues.
2. Too much fanservice
I disagree on this whole thing. I don’t think that there was anymore fanservice in this season than there was in season I. Actually, now that I think about it, there were way more SebaCiel moments in season I than season II ever had. Corset scene, anyone? That was, and is, the most suggestive scene throughout the entire series and it was in season I. Or the whole “don’t be gentle, make it hurt” bit in the last episode? Also in season I. There was a bit more shota moments I’ll give ya that one. But those mostly involved Alois and Claude, who, as said before, are supposed to show how prim and proper Ciel and Sebastian could sometimes be, or with Ciel and Claude, and that was to show how much less of a creeper Sebastian was. That being said, all of the “fanservice moments” were important to the plot and character development. It’s not like they were just random moments of make-out sessions or other nonsense, they were necessary. Besides, if there weren’t any sort of innuendos or other fun moments, people would still have complained that this wasn’t Kuroshitsuji either. I think I prefer a good plot with some bits of sexiness to one without it.
3. The ending
Before I do this one I want to clarify one last thing.
Question: Did I like the original ending the Kuroshitsuji?
Answer: Yes, it was tragic and beautiful and I cried when I watched it.
Question: Could Kuroshitsuji have been fine if they hadn’t done a season II?
Answer: Yes. The reason that we all love Kuroshitsuji so much was because it was so good, but they probably wouldn’t have made a season II if it wasn’t and I probably wouldn’t be making this blog post if that were the case. It could easily have stood on its own and I would have been fine with that. There was something very poetic about Sebastian eating Ciel’s soul after all. I may have joined the fandom only recently, but I went a good while before I knew there was a season II, so I have a pretty good understanding of how other people who had been part of the fandom since the beginning felt.
Sorry I just need to put that in there so people wouldn’t make assumptions before I had even started writing.
I have heard of two reactions to Ciel becoming a demon. There were the ones who hated it and said that it was like the ending to a bad piece of fanfiction and the writers were on complete crack. The other, and my own, was that it was perfect. There was very little grey area on this one. I can’t speak for the entire population of fans who were of this opinion, but here is why I liked it. In season I when Ciel is explaining to Soma why he decided to come back the Phantomhive manor after his parents were killed, he said that he didn’t see his life “as some grand revenge. It’s just a game I’m waiting around to see who wins”. This was a great speech, but it relates to the over all ending for this reason: at the end of season I, Ciel may have had all his targets killed and gotten his revenge in full, but he did not win the game. Sebastian did. He got a Contract fulfilled, killed an angel (something I’m sure every demon dreams of doing), and, supposedly, got to consume the most delicious soul in existence. At the end of season II, Sebastian was no longer the winner. Instead, Ciel finally got to claim that title.
Ciel’s revenge had already been carried out, he didn’t have give up his part of the Contract anymore, he had become Immortal, and he got to spend eternity with the person he cared for most in the world. Ciel proved himself to be the true king on this metaphorical chessboard because his knight was now locked in an eternal punishment for his disloyalty to his king (as in, his desire to season Ciel’s soul with Revenge Powder by kicking the Tracy’s asses) and all his useless pawns could continue their lives. It wasn’t a happy ending as some put it, think of the Tracy’s tragic ending and all the people who loved Ciel and now think that he’s dead. But it wasn’t the same tragedy as we thought it was in season I. Instead, the ending is rather grey, neither happy nor sad, but wasn’t that Kuroshitsuji’s style all along? It could be the most angst-ridden thing ever made at some points and at others have people laughing so hard that they fell out of their chairs. It was a perfect ending to a great series and I loved it quite a lot.
Okay, wow. I don’t think I’ve ever done a post this long before, but I really needed to get all of this stuff out. Anyway, I hope that all this has made sense and that maybe some folks will stop being so hateful about Kuroshitsuji II. It’s part of the series’ universe and should be treated with just as much respect as season I. Just be nice, that’s all I ask. Oh, and the dubbed version comes out in a few weeks. Yay!! :)
- Clone Wars Review #13
-
- emprezj
- March 17th, 18:28
- content
Holy crap! And they call this a kid's show! The last two episodes of Clone Wars Season 4 were...awesome. Just plain awesome. I had been worried when I first heard that they were bringing Maul back because it could have gone so badly, which is why I didn't post on the idea until now. If there's one thing I hate it's fanservice without any plot, but this was amazing. "Brothers" was filled with character development, wonderful cinematography, and religious references. I loved that they used a snake as Maul's little minion. It was just such a great Biblical illusion, something that was always common in the movies. And Maul's spider legs: perfect. I've always tried to imagine what sort of spirit animal each character had, so this was too cool for words to me. Anakin was always a falcon, Padme a she-wolf, Luke a kestrel, Leia a lioness, Han a dog, Dooku a snake, the list goes on. Maul was always a jackel and Sidious a spider, but in this case, Maul as a spider was fitting. Maul had become a rabid beast, trapped and fearing light, just as certain spider's do. The only issues I had with this episode was the fact that Maul never really explained how he survived (I don't need specific details, but an overview might have been nice) and the trash planet. I know that it was needed for plot and it was symbolic, but the environmentalist in me still was gritting her teeth. :P
"Revenge" was even better. There was just so much depth added to Maul's character that I almost wept fangirl tears. I loved Maul when we first met him in TPM and I had always hoped for more from him. Plus, his voice, evil as it may be, was just so damn sexy! Sorry, couldn't help it. I've got a thing for demon-like men with delicious voices. CoughcoughBlackButlercoughcough. Anyway, this episode couldn't have gotten better, but then it did. They brought in Ventress to save Obi's sorry ass. OMG! I've never been a Obi-Wan/ Ventress shipper (I've always liked Obi-Wan x Sabe and Ventress x Dooku), but I loved their dynamic here. They're both such complicated characters that seeing them interact just made my day. They both have emotional issues that they need to deal with, Obi-Wan is too rigid and Ventress is too passionate, but they are both pretty good people at heart. And I'm inclinded to agree with LazyPadawan that the two of them stuck in a ship together is going to generate a LOT of fanfiction. Hmm, maybe I'll write a quick one right now .
Ventress: Well, Kenobi, we're stuck in this ship until we get to Coruscant, what do we do now?
Obi-Wan: We could discuss stradegies for figuring out how we're going to defeat those horned freaks, for one thing.
Ventress: Nah, Dave and the others pay us more whenever we manage to make fangirls squeal and I'm in the mood to make some extra cash.
Obi-Wan: So do we flirt shamelessly and give hints that we may have made out a little bit?
Ventress (shaking head): Nope, I say we take it full tilt and screw like bunnies. We'll be millionaries by the cigarette break.
Obi-Wan: Sounds good to me. Wait a minute, isn't this a kid show? Won't we get in trouble for this?
Ventress: Hey, Skywalker and Amidala have at least one free sexy scene, since she's knocked up in the next movie. I say we use it for them because the Force know they aren't going to do anything fun if the lack of romance in this season is anything to go by. Besides, we're technically not canon so it'll generate a lot more buzz than anything that old married couple does.
Obi-Wan: Good point.
(Missing scene. LOL)
(On Coruscant)
Anakin: Obi-Wan! You made it back! Wait, why do you smell like sweat, cash, and fanservice?
Obi-Wan (guilty): No reason.
XD Sorry, I just had to. Oh, and Anakin's line was based a little off Stewie's line from Family Guy after Brian sleeps with Jillian instead of breaking up with her. Anyway, wonderful episodes to end a wonderful season. Clone Wars team, you should be very proud of the work you've done here. Great job. May the Force be with you.
- Clone Wars Review #12
-
- emprezj
- March 4th, 11:40
- calm
Sorry these reviews took so long. I was away last weekend, so I only had a chance to see the previous episode and the one from Friday today. But they were AMAZING!!!!! “Massacre” was great. Really, an episode filled with explosions, zombies, and Louisiana-style black magic, who could ask for more?! Thank you so much Dave for giving us a girl-themed episode that didn’t involve lots of giggling. Not that I didn’t like the BFF moments between Ahsoka and Padme in “Assassin” last season, but it was sort of refreshing to see a badass all-girl army take on that macho asshole, Grievous. Who, I must say, did an excellent job. It was nice to have him back in all his “lets slaughter everybody” glory. Mother Talzin was perfect. Personally, I think she and Dooku had a thing going for a while, which is why she wanted to make him suffer so badly. I mean, come on, she had a freaking Voodu doll of him and she missed her chance to snipe the bastard because she was too busy giving him chicken pox and pulling an “Alien” by having here image rip out of his chest. Also, who keeps a lock of somebody’s hair besides a stalker?
I loved the ending just because we got to see a sadder side of Ventress that we hadn’t really seen before. I was really moved by the whole thing, since I know what it’s like to lose people you care about and to feel alone. I felt so bad for her that I just wanted to jump into the show and give her a big hug. She would have probably kicked my ass, but oh, well. ;) The only thing I have to wonder about is how do the Nightsisters show up again in the EU if they were wiped out? No plot holes, Dave, you know how much that drives us crazy. Eh, maybe they’ll have an episode about it at some point. :P
“Bounty” was just as good, if only because we got to see some many folks that we rarely get to see. Dengar was amazing. I loved that they kept some of the annoying qualities that he sometimes had in the Robot Chicken spoofs. Plus, he and Bossk hitting on Ventress was hilarious. They’re both so slimy that I found it cute. Actually, there seemed to be a lot of people hitting on each other here: the last member of the bounty hunter team with Ventress, the purple-skinned chick with Boba, and Boba himself with the little kidnapped girl. Hmm, we have all of this in one episode, but we can’t seem to get any Anakin/ Padme moments this season? What’s wrong with this picture?! I loved the interaction of Ventress and the kidnapped girl. Ventress maybe a bitch, but she’s not completely cold-hearted. If something touches her, she’s willing to help out at least a little.
Besides, locking Boba in the trunk was priceless. I’ve always liked him, but he does need to learn to keep his mouth shut when somebody older and stronger is talking to him, no matter how cool he may be. I didn’t feel the least bit sorry for the fish-King for getting the wrong “bride” due to his nastiness. Thats gonna be one awkward wedding night, though. ;) I have loved Boba’s character development from the kind, but confused little kid from almost two seasons ago to the mean little bastard we saw in this episode. He's staring to look and act just like his dad, despite his height issues. I do have to wonder how he and Bossk got out of prison, though. I’m guessing it was during the jailbreak of the last arc, but it wasn’t explicitly said. Oh, well. Fabulous episodes and I can’t wait for the Darth Maul finale, though there better be some good explanation as to why that dude is still alive, Dave. May the Force be with you.
- GIR Foods Marathon Review #19
-
- emprezj
- February 29th, 14:37
- content
Wow! Last review, it's crazy had fast this whole thing has gone by! Today was waffles day. The waffles were the frozen kind and, to be honest, weren't that good. I would have much preferred to have made them from scratch, but I didn't have time. Oh, well. At least they didn't have peanuts and soap in them. ;) They also, of course, had maple syrup on top. Okay, that's it. This has been fun, but February is over and so is this marathon. :)
- GIR Foods Marathon Review #18
-
- emprezj
- February 28th, 17:57
- cheerful
Today was biscuits and taquitoes day. The biscuits were made from generic, store-brand, frozen dough and were delicious. I had two of them this morning for breakfast, since eating both foods for lunch seemed like too much. One had two sausages with ketchup on it, while the other had some butter and grape jelly. Yummy. The taquitoes were generic and frozen, as well, and contained cheese, chicken, some spices, and were wrapped up in a corn tortilla. They were awesome!
- GIR Foods Marathon #16 and #17
-
- emprezj
- February 27th, 20:14
- happy
Sorry it took so long. I was too tired to post this last week and then I was gone all weekend, so I didn't have acess to a computer. Anyway, last Wednesday was chocolate-bubblegum and goldfish day. The chocolate was a Hershey bar and the gum was some Bubblicious bubblegum, neither of which I ate at the same time because that would have been icky. :P And the goldfish was just whole grain goldfish. Boring, but yummy. I skipped Thursday and Friday of last week because it would have been too complicated with some travel plans. Today was corn and Suckmonkies day. The corn was in a chili that I made a while ago, since corn by itself, unless it's on the cob, can be pretty nasty. The Suckmonky was some root beer. That's what they've always looked like in terms of color, so I just used that.
Sorry, this picture is weird, but this was the time GIR said that he like corn. :P
Sorry, it's all I could find on Google. :P
- GIR Foods Marathon #14 and #15
-
- emprezj
- February 21st, 19:04
- tired
Sorry I couldn't do #14 yesterday, I had to have the food for dinner rather than lunch and I was too tired by the time I was done. Yesterday was fried chicken and Classic Poop soda (I used Coca-Cola). The fried chicken I made by putting chicken thighs in paper bag containing a scoop of flour, some Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. I heated up a lot of Canola oil with a clove of garlic in a large, cast iron skillet and when it was bubbling I put the chicken in. I let it cook for about 45 minutes, turning each piece over every 10 minutes or so. It was absolutely fabulous! I love me some fried chicken! Today was a little more boring, I had some salted nuts (peanuts) and a candy canes. Still, yummy.
