Some fantasy media and games reviews
Mar. 9th, 2021 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrRaya and the Last Dragon, Wandavision, Disco Elysium, My Brother Rabbit, Stay
Western movies/TV:
Raya and the Last Dragon: The "Disney princesses repeatedly attempt to stab each other, shouting bitterly about what might have been" movie I've been waiting for my whole life. Beyond that, it's a bit predictable, but had a nice moral it took seriously. And while my opinion doesn't mean much, afaict the portrayal of South East Asia culture is pretty good (asides from some unfortunate Fictional Desert Country tropes). It's not quite f/f Zutara, but that gives you some idea of the worldbuilding and dynamics (nb: there's no explicit romance of any kind)
Wandavision: Enjoyably odd, funny, and emotionally affecting MCU TV show. It starts with Wanda (a witch) and Vision (her robot husband) living a seemingly idyllic suburban life in a literal black and white sitcom. But cracks soon begin to show in their perfect world, especially when we see what's happening outside their quaint little suburb. It was a lot of fun watching this week to week trying to figure out wtf was going on, and while it has the usual MCU flaws of paper-thin villains and dumb action pieces that don't make any sense, it still overall tells an engaging, interesting, bittersweet story.
Games:
Disco Elysium: strange, moody noir narrative game about being an amnesiac alcoholic cop in a fantasy city. I played like 5 minutes and it was good but not something I was in the headspace for. I hear it's fantastic for what it is, and can believe it from what I saw.
My Brother Rabbit: A puzzle game about the fantasy world a boy imagines while his little sister is sick. I was worried this would be too sad but it was more bittersweet, and ends happily. As a puzzle game it is simple, cute, whimsical, and fun. One puzzle near the end requires careful timing, I got through it but another friend was permanently stumped.
Stay: A really good text based interactive game set in a magical world. At first I thought it was a bit bland, but once I got to the end the first time I started to realise what a great job it does of rewarding multiple playthroughs which layer on top of each other. You choose your pronouns and there's male, female, and non-binary love interests, but while the romance side-plots were sweet it's not really a romance game.
Western movies/TV:
Raya and the Last Dragon: The "Disney princesses repeatedly attempt to stab each other, shouting bitterly about what might have been" movie I've been waiting for my whole life. Beyond that, it's a bit predictable, but had a nice moral it took seriously. And while my opinion doesn't mean much, afaict the portrayal of South East Asia culture is pretty good (asides from some unfortunate Fictional Desert Country tropes). It's not quite f/f Zutara, but that gives you some idea of the worldbuilding and dynamics (nb: there's no explicit romance of any kind)
Wandavision: Enjoyably odd, funny, and emotionally affecting MCU TV show. It starts with Wanda (a witch) and Vision (her robot husband) living a seemingly idyllic suburban life in a literal black and white sitcom. But cracks soon begin to show in their perfect world, especially when we see what's happening outside their quaint little suburb. It was a lot of fun watching this week to week trying to figure out wtf was going on, and while it has the usual MCU flaws of paper-thin villains and dumb action pieces that don't make any sense, it still overall tells an engaging, interesting, bittersweet story.
Games:
Disco Elysium: strange, moody noir narrative game about being an amnesiac alcoholic cop in a fantasy city. I played like 5 minutes and it was good but not something I was in the headspace for. I hear it's fantastic for what it is, and can believe it from what I saw.
My Brother Rabbit: A puzzle game about the fantasy world a boy imagines while his little sister is sick. I was worried this would be too sad but it was more bittersweet, and ends happily. As a puzzle game it is simple, cute, whimsical, and fun. One puzzle near the end requires careful timing, I got through it but another friend was permanently stumped.
Stay: A really good text based interactive game set in a magical world. At first I thought it was a bit bland, but once I got to the end the first time I started to realise what a great job it does of rewarding multiple playthroughs which layer on top of each other. You choose your pronouns and there's male, female, and non-binary love interests, but while the romance side-plots were sweet it's not really a romance game.
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