My initial impression of the third season of Love, Death & Robots was that it wasn't as good as the previous two seasons. But giving myself time to reflect on it while writing this blog post has convinced me that this season was just as amazing as the first season. The second season was okay.
Here are my favourites from this season:
Three Robots: Exit Strategies: The three robots from the first season are back and continue their tour of the post-apocalyptic human world. Lots of dark humour.
Bad Travelling: Beautifully made and with a Lovecraftian vibe. This is probably my number one fave from this season.
Night of the Mini Dead: This was probably the funniest episode in the entire season, but only for the sped up filming and how preposterous the whole thing looks when filmed like that. Shit went downhill quickly.
Mason's Rats was nice and could probably work as a video game. A Scottish man finds rats in his barns full of GMO. The rats are evolved and can now use tools, rudimentary weapons, and wear clothing and trinkets. He goes on full out war with them, only to discover that they aren't so far from humans.
In Vaulted Halls Entombed. Cthulhu, is that you? This episode is like a lovestory to the Cthulhu Mythos.
The rest of the season was mostly a long string of wtfs and this shit's weird.
The Very Pulse of the Machine is a hallucinogenic fever dream on one of Jupter's moons.
Kill Team Kill is a war story with a cybernetically enhanced grizzly bear. Just one long fight sequence.
Swarm was weird. Humans doing human stuff and plotting to enslave the swarm of an alien hive mind. It doesn't go according to plan.
Jibaro literally had me gaping at the screen while it played because it was so weird. It's filmed as if it was a silent movie from the 1920s but with colour and sound. Lots of sped up and janky movement. It's very artistic, which I appreciated, but it was so weird. The time and resources it must've taken to make this episode is mind-boggling. The animation is so smooth that I for a moment thought this was filmed with actual people.
While Jibaro wasn't a favourite of mine, it definitely stayed in my mind for a really long time. It's extremely memorable and easily sticks with you.
After I finished watching season 18 of Grey's Anatomy I still didn't feel done. So I decided to watch the currently on-going spin-off of that series: Station 19.
The first season didn't have me hooked, but just a couple episodes in on season 2 and I was so invested. This show is better than Private Practice ever was and I adore Addison.
I've cried so much to this show to the point that Toni keeps walking in and wondering why I keep watching this show that's making me sad. It keeps breaking my heart but it's soooo good.
Ben Warren is the entire reason this show exists, but he's also the least interesting character.
Andy was pretty one-dimensional up until season 4. Same goes for Jack. Their characters really get to explore themselves in season 5 and I'm all for it.
Maya is extremely unlikeable in the first three (ish) seasons, but she gets better with Carina around. By the time season 5 came around she had become one of my favourite characters.
I liked Sullivan from the start and I really dislike his whole addict storyline, because I feel it was unwarranted and unnecessary.
Travis has been my favourite since the beginning. Funny, loyal, just the right amount of flamboyant and with very strong values and opinions, which always come from a good place but are sometimes detrimental to his relationships. Travis is so real and I love him.
I wish Vic had been allowed to be happy with Ripley. I loved their romantic relationship and nobody has been good enough for her since. Sorry, Ruiz.
Dean tried really hard in everything he ever did. And yet I find myself remembering him as an afterthought. All the things he did, and he's still forgettable.
The best part about bingeing this whole show was that I got to revisit a whole bunch of Grey's Anatomy episodes. Seeing Andrew DeLuca again felt like a gut-punch and re-experiencing that whole ordeal was really hard. I had forgotten about that one time a car crashed into Joe's and that was really cool to see again.
I might just go binge How to Get Away With Murder to get more Shondaland in my life.
So since HBO got the rights for all the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies they've started to add a bunch of new Harry Potter related content, and I took today to watch through all of it :)
Harry Potter: The Reunion Return to Hogwarts 20th Anniversary. Ofc I watched this when it was brand new, back on January 2nd. But after having watched it and spent almost 2 hours being teary-eyed I still felt like I had to watch it again. So today I re-watched the whole thing and just like anything Harry Potter it filled me with such a warm cosy feeling. Harry Potter has been part of my life since I was nine years old and it still remains a big part to this day and I really deeply feel all those feelings the cast talked about. I remember back in 2000 when they were doing the casting for the first Potter movie and I was following it more closely than I've ever followed the casting for anything else. I remember searching online for rumours for the fifth, sixth and seventh books (with the msn search engine because Google was barely a thing back then) years before they came out. In the Reunion Robbie Coltrane talks about the massive lines of kids who'd queue for blocks to get the new book on the midnight release. I only got to do that once, for the last book when I was 16, and I had finished the book by the next day even though I tried to go slowly. I've read those books more times than any other books. I've watched those movies more times than I've watched any other movies. Harry Potter is more a part of me than any other series or franchise ever will be. I can't find the words to convey what this franchise means to me, but the actors in the Reunion did a pretty good job trying to convey the special feeling that is Harry Potter. Having been in it from the very beginning, having grown up with it... I wouldn't trade it for anything. The quote from JK Rowling on the premiere of Deathly Hallows part 2 in London still makes me very emotional to this day: "Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home." And that's what this Reunion is all about. Aside from me wishing they'd include more of the actors, this was absolutely perfect.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses. I had heard a lot about this and thought it seemed foolish. But I decided to watch it anyway. It was kind of entertaining at times, although mostly cringe, and the majority of the questions were too easy. The only questions I struggled with where the ones that asked for specific details in movie scenes, because I always look at the whole and not the details. Watching all four episodes I also realized that I'm way more confident in the first four books/movies than I am in the later ones. I haven't watched OotP, HBP and DH1 as much as I have the other films and OotP is probably the book I've read the least amount of times, so that makes sense. It kind of bothers me that the show's host, Helen Mirren, proudly says they have contestants from all over the world and then it turns out that every single one on the teams is either American or living in the US, and only two of those 12 people on the teams were originally from other countries but living in the US. Not very "all over the world", is it? It was very cringe to watch the players come up with an argument or explanation for how they arrived at their answers, when most of them probably just did like me and looked at the question and thought "That one." This entire season I was sat either nodding at the screen when both me and them got a question right, sighing in exasperation when they got a (to me) obvious question wrong, or frowning very hard trying to come up with the right answer when it was one of the more intricate movie questions. As cringe as this was, and as ridiculous it sometimes seemed, I had a pretty good time watching it. I may have been talking to the screen a lot.
Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History. Every Harry Potter fan knows Stephen Fry as the guy who narrated the British audiobooks. In this kind of documentary he explores the myths behind some of the magical creatures that show up in Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. I studied these old legends a lot when I was a teenager and had the book called The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter. This book is over 20 years old now but it taught me all the basics. This documentary was very interesting and also very cosy. It poses questions around storytelling and why humans tell stories and where do these magical creatures actually come from? He presents different theories, but of course nobody knows for sure. What I do agree with Stephen Fry and J.K. Rowling on is that it's incredibly fascinating that people all over the world share a lot of similar myths and similar magical creatures, no matter how different the cultures. We'll probably never know when or why it started, but it's interesting to think about. I really enjoyed this trip into the land of legends and shared history.
Fantastic Friends. This is only related to Harry Potter in the very loosest sense, but since a lot of the actors from Harry Potter shows up in this, it's been on the radar for a lot of fan groups. So this is a show where James and Oliver Phelps (better known as the Weasley twins) take friends on trips around the globe. This was a very wholesome show to watch. My favourite episode was probably the one on Iceland with Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), but the one in Dubai with Luke Youngblood (Lee Jordan) was a lot of fun too. More than anything this show was a great way to get to know the twins as individuals and not as a set. Looking forward to more of this show because it was a lot of fun.
I spent the whole day today watching Potter stuff, starting around 8.30am and finishing around 11.30pm, but it was so worth it xD
After Stranger Things season 4 we needed to catch up on Umbrella Academy. Season 2 ended with a cliffhanger that promised a really cool story for season 3, and season 3 didn't disappoint.
The Sparrow Academy people were mostly meh. Didn't care for their powers (mostly), didn't care for their personalities... They were just very blah.
I did enjoy New Ben's redemption arc, though.
Every interaction between Sloane and Luther had me rolling my eyes like "You've known each other for less than a week!" And half of that time was spent trying to kill each other. Get a grip.
The kugelblitz and Project Oblivion were both really cool and entangled storylines and I enjoyed seeing it all come together.
Did not expect that revelation about Reg.
I hope the rest of the Umbrellas don't try to get Allison back. She can stay housewife for all I care. Probably my least favourite character.
Viktor and Five are the best siblings. Although every scene featuring Klaus promises to be hilarious. I also like Lila. She can stay.
When I decided to take a break from the Elder Scrolls Total War mod I started AC Odyssey which I've been curious about for a while. My curiosity peaked when Kassandra showed up in Valhalla. So off I went.
When I was growing up, and especially as a teenager, I had a very intense interest in Greek mythology and Ancient Greece, so it was a lot of fun to experience that old passion as a living world. Sokrates is just as annoying in-game as he is IRL. Philosophy is not my thing.
Kassandra, however, was an extremely loveable character and I enjoyed playing her way more than I thought I would. Her entire quest to save her family was really captivating, but I did it the long way around. After I found Myrrine and she said "I'll see you in Sparta" I went off and completed the entire world; every location, every side quest, every available achievement, and even Legacy of the First Blade DLC. And then I went to Sparta to finish the main quest xD She really had to wait a long time.
Legacy of the First Blade gets a lot of flak for not suiting Kassandra, but she does mention more than once throughout the game that she wishes for a normal life away from mercenary work. And so she tries that. Makes perfect sense in my book. It goes to poop, but sets the stage for Origins (which I'll play at some point).
I got very attached to Brasidas and was so sad when I couldn't save him. Even googled if it was possible to save him, but it's not. I never liked Alexios and I blame most of it on the fact that I think they gave him the wrong voice.
As usual I had a lot of fun flirting and sleeping with every available character. Kassandra gets around xD Especially the side quest with the two brothers both vying for her love was a lot of fun to play. And the side quest where literally everything that can go wrong does go wrong is also hilarious to play.
It took me a while to get used to warring at sea, but once I got the gist it was a lot of fun. And I spent a substantial amount of hours on the seas.
After I finished the main quest and did the side quests that popped after the main quest was completed I decided it was time for Kassandra to face her destiny and started up the Fate of Atlantis DLC. Elysium was a pretty meh experience imo. Iirc there are two tales of how Persephone became Hades's wife and they chose to go with the least flattering one. In the better of the tales both Hades and Persephone were smitten with each other and Hades gave her an apple as a gift, which Persephone then ate as a rebellious act against her mother, Demeter, which bound her to the Underworld forever. But Ubi just up and chose the more well-known version where Hades thinks she's hot, kidnaps her and then forces an apple down her throat so she can't leave. Lovely. Anyway, working with Hekate and Adonis to bring Perspehone down was a lot of fun.
Then came the Underworld and I just loved Hades. His look, his voice, his antics... He's amazing! Every cutscene featuring him had my finger hovering above the screenshot button so I could take as many shots of him as possible ^^; The Underworld was gnarly though, and it's supposed to be so that was good. Meeting Phoibe again was heart-warming. Charon was a cool dude. Kassandra's sense of humour in this dreary place was on-point.
Finally we arrive at Atlantis and it's absolutely beautiful to look at, but there's some really nasty stuff going on. I decided to run around and complete all the places before I did the quests and then do the side quests before the main quests, just to make sure I wasn't missing anything.
And then the game bugged out on me. After I deposed Atlas the next quest just didn't show up. Tried reloading an older save and redo the whole previous quest, but that didn't get it to work. Tried restarting the game, but the quest didn't pop. Tried restarting my whole computer because sometimes that does the trick, but no dice. Tried verifying my files on Steam, had no effect. Tried fast-travelling back and forth, still no quest. Tried portal-jumping from Atlantis to the Underworld to Elysium to Atlantis, but the quest still refused to pop up. Having exhausted all of my options that didn't require me to restart the whole DLC and lose all of that progress I decided to just watch the end on Youtube. I had about one hour of playthrough left. 190 hours in and 92 out of 93 achievements. Literally everything on every map completed and I can't finish the game.
I found one old thread on Ubisoft support forums mentioning this problem, but it was from September 2021 and left unsolved. I made a thread on the game's Steam forum and Ubi actually replied to it asking me to verify my game files and provide a video showing the problem. I did all of that and they haven't got back to me yet. It's been three weeks.
So yeah, my amazing stint in Ancient Greece ended as a flop instead of with a bang. Today (well, yesterday now) I decided to give up and uninstall the game.
So after my last post I took a break from the Elder Scrolls mod and went to play some AC Odyssey. But it crapped out on me in the very last episode of the very last DLC so I decided to fuck that and angrily went back to play Total War.
My issue last time was that I figured I'd somehow shot myself in the foot when I accidentally made Dagon join my side ^^; I did some googling (nothing newer than 2017 ffs) and apparently there's supposed to be a whole script featuring Bruma and the final showdown in IC. But none of that happened. So when I started up the mod again I found the Champion of Cyrodiil and Emperor Martin and had Dagon suicide against them. When that did nothing I took the three other Dremora I had bribed to join me and suicided them too. No continuation of the Oblivion Crisis script and both the Champion of Cyrodiil and Emperor Martin just stood around and did nothing. So I decided to see if me killing them would make the game count as me having defeated the Cyrodiil Empire faction. It did not, but now all the players of the Oblivion Crisis were gone, but the game still continued counting them as living factions.
This meant that I wouldn't be able to complete the requirements for victory as the Aldmeri Dominion, as one of the requirements was to wipe out the Cyrodiil Empire, and according to the game they were somehow immortal. So I went for victory by domination instead. And started taking over every region in the game. Great Houses Dres and Redoran proved especially annoying and the Kingdom of Daggerfall had a penchant for assassins. I kept murdering their preposterous amount of priests on my territories and they retaliated by assassinating my generals. Unfair, yo!
By the time I got into Morrowind Dres had obliterated Black Marsh and made a vassal of Hlaalu. Redoran had taken out Dagoth and occupied all of Vvardenfell and were making advances into mainland Morrowind. Telvanni had retreated to Solstheim and Ascadian Isles and kept on their end. To keep the Dunmer at bay I had originally allied myself with Black Marsh and Telvanni, but Dres and Redoran just gave fuck-all about that and continued their respective expansions.
Kingdom of Daggerfall helped me obliterate the Clan of Forebears and most of Orsinium. Once Forebears were gone, though, I went after Daggerfall. And once Dres obliterated Black Marsh, I went after Dres and their vassal Hlaalu.
Morthal was an annoying city that kept rioting for no reason I could figure out. Even at 105% happiness they were still rioting like wtf.
But in the end I took every single region in the game. Masterfully ending the game by stabbing my only remaining ally (the Undead of Volkihar) in the back and taking their island.
We had waited so long for this season and we were so excited when it finally came around! But ofc we had to finish Black Mirror first, which turned out to be a good thing because we finished volume 1 of season 4 just as volume 2 released. Perfect timing!
This season, though? Amazing! I loved seeing how the three storylines came together in Russia, Hawkins and... er... pizza van.
We both loved Eddie and I wish he'll somehow be in season 5. Both of us were in denial about anything serious happening to Max until the very last moment.
And ofc they went the religious route, because it's the 80s and inspired by 80s pop culture so ofc we need a religious nut job in the mix xD How people actually take them seriously, I'll never understand.
And how has nobody heard of Running Up That Hill before? It's a classic!
