Fear the Walking Dead Thoughts

So, I rather HATE The Walking Dead. Honestly when I saw the first episode, I thought it was a joke. I thought it was a comedy; a zombie movie spoof. But...it wasn't. And the show...rather sucked. So I ended up reading the comic for it and I fell totally in love. It got me watching the show again but I hated it more and more. The video game really added to my experience...with the comic.

In general I just find the show to be poorly written mind numbing crap that recycles cliches from other tv shows and sitcoms to convince people with boring lives that they want to waste their time on it. And that's kinda how I feel about Fear the Walking Dead.

Now I went into this expecting to like it. Other people who were tired of the show were giving this one a thumbs up, and hell, I was interested in seeing the first days of the outbreak. Most things skip the outbreak events and get into the survival stuff, which gets repetitive. And the show kinda starts out how you'd think. There are like hints of the zombie stuff happening here and there and there's paranoid people who see the signs everywhere and get the hell out of dodge. But the show spends too much time on shit that doesn't matter. I don't care about your divorce dramas, I don't care that you're a teacher, I don't care that your neighbor used to babysit your stupid children. It's just warm fuzzy family time combined with your generic post-apocalypse gated community drama. People are carried away by the strict military. People venture out of bounds to be heroes and save people. People capture an innocent person who is a member of the oppressive party and torture him in a basement. RARELY DO WE SEE ZOMBIES. RARELY DO WE SEE THE EVOLUTION OF AN OUTBREAK.

I guess I am spoiled by World War Z (the novel) because it goes through the stages of it spreading and the slow break down of society. The show in 2 episodes goes from zero to Jericho. And I just can't make myself give two fucks about anything in it. I predict that in an upcoming episode, someone in the community dies and comes back as a zombie. Eventually zombies over run the camp (because there are none in TWD)  and the people will gather into small groups like in TWD and then we'll have TWD but with new people that the writers can do whatever the hell that want with.

My only praise is that it has such a diverse cast. It has a lot of great POC present in prominent roles in the show and also showcases many interracial relationships. It's nice to see representation of other races, and finally as take charge heroes and less canon fodder. I'm a big fan of saturating the media with ethnicities until white-washing is no longer even naturally thought of as the go-to. I want my friends to have the same experiences I have with the media as I see all these people like me in positive heroic roles.

Also something else that annoys me though. How do two public school teachers afford an upscale LA home? Just sayin...

Scream Queens: Thoughts So Far

So, upon first seeing a trailer for this show I immediately wrote it the fuck off. But as gifs started to come up on my dash of Ariana Grande texting the killer and tweeting for help, I had to see it.

And damn is it great so far.

The jokes and banter are spot on. The cameos are hilarious. It is Mean Girls meets Scream meets the wit of Cabin in the Woods. I was dying laughing. This shit is amazing.

I don't have too much to say because there's only been like 2 episodes so far and I don't really want to spoil anything, but I'm totally loving it and want to watch more. I feel like this is what AHS needed to be because so far, its much darker and deadlier than AHS has managed to be lately. I hope to write more about this as we get the plot rolling, but I highly recommend checking it out.

The Visit Mini

The movie was very unexpected. We see M. Night's name lately and just assume things about his movies. And I think for most people, this movie is proving those assumptions wrong.

Created using his own money, without knowing if this would even be shown anywhere, M. Night turned out a very well done film. I was actually chuckling through a lot of it and found the child actors charming, which I never do. All the acting was solid. It really got you feeling for every character in some way despite the horror film aspect. It hit its comedy beats and hit its creepy beats. For horror, it's incredibly tame, but creepy enough by utilizing the realism of (though over blown) the actuality that dementia and mental illness at old age can produce results that are found alarming and freaky to those who both don't understand what's happening and have to experience a loved one acting unlike themselves. Though it's amplified liek I said to increase the horror aspect of it, it still comes from a real enough place to hit home for many people.

This movie was a fun watch. It really was.

The Scorch Trials Mini

Let me make this short because I'm very sick.

 Nothing happens in this movie, and this movie makes no attempt to make you care about the nothing that happens.

 Despite the tense situations, there is no tension. It provides no answers, just additional "oh hey that's from the book" moments for the unfortunate people who finished reading that book (I made it only 2 chapters in before deciding life was too short for this). People do action but it's not action packed. They go from place to place where an undoubtedly more interesting story is happening and then leave 5 minutes later with no exploration or exposition from those places.

"Things happen, okay lets go, because we have to get to the finale and no one cares about the middle book" the Movie.

Turbo Kid Mini

An insanely fun film.
In a world where the robot wars have lead to a post-apocalyptic wasteland, one kid, inspired by the comic books from an age long past, becomes a hero to save the wasteland from a tyrannical psychopath. This film is a combination of sweet and gory in the most perfect sense.

It's a gritty comedy full of blood soaked action and a charming romantic subplot that for once does not manage to get in the way of the story. It actually really helps it out, and the twist makes it even more endearing. This is Kick-Ass meets Super meets Wall-E at it's Indie finest.

4.5/5

Paper Towns Mini

A film about as underwhelming as the book, and leaving out some of the best parts of the book.

While I'm slightly biased as I did not like the book, it had its own share of redeeming qualities, such as Q's panic and desperation upon thinking Margot may have committed suicide. Or when he finds Margot and she's writing little stories which have the two of them having adventures, because the memory of him and his friendship remained with her. But those were left out of the movie for more teen shenanigans type of things and witty dialogue. It was as though it was trying to contain the sass and wit of The Fault in Our Stars with something that is NOT The Fault in Our Stars. Instead of really having it's own atmosphere, it felt boring, slow, and predictable. Which in a way, the book was too, also including shenanigans and tomfoolery.

But the point, while I don't think was echoed loud enough in the movie, is that this girl is not just dreams. She is her own person. Q has to break from his Manic Pixie Dream Girl fantasies and accept that the reality is vastly different from fantasy. It does happen in the movie, but it's more profound in the book.

Gamer Biz: Yandere Simulator (1 of ??)

I love niche video games. I also love ridiculous anime culture. And above all of that, I love dedicated artists and creators. And that's why I want to talk about Yandere Sim today!

Note: In my title you'll see I say 1 of ???. Yandere Sim is not a finished game. The Dev (just called Dev or Yandere Dev) is still working on it and uploads the new build every few weeks for everyone to beta test and give feedback on. I've been a part of a few builds now and it has a ways to go, so I intend on talking more about this and in the end, I'll go in and add an actual number. Now on with the topic!!!

If you have not heard about Yandere Simulator, that's okay. It's a very small game right now that is not complete. It centers around the idea of the Yandere, which is a anime trope about a character, usually a school girl, who has affections for someone to the point of being violent and psychotic. You control "Yandere-chan", a school girl who has a crush on her Senpai, who is kind hearted and will go out with girls who confess their love to him. As Yandere-chan, you're still too shy to confess your feelings, but other girls aren't! To stop Yandere-chan from having a broken heart and thus, losing the game, you need to take out her opponents who plan to confess to Senpai. You can do this in many ways, currently limited to kidnapping and straight up murder.

The game play is in a very simple state right now. The latest update included an atmosphere integration, which is kind of like the students will notice when other students are missing and they will be more suspicious of goings on, making it more dangerous and harder to get away with murder. You can pick some weapons near the school entrance (for now, because they're not in their natural places around school yet) and use those to kill your victims. A tactic I like is to befriend everyone and have groups follow you to the incinerator for easy clean up after annihilation. Another tactic is the ability to push someone off a roof. This can either be a faked suicide, or just do it and shove the body into a garbage bin below. Drowning and electrocution are also available, but only in certain circumstances.

There are a lot of parts of the game that are currently not interactive. You'll notice all the NPCs are robotic and some don't move or react at all. Only one girl wants to confess to Senpai, so she's your only competition and once you've dealt with her, the NPC who makes you lose is someone you can't kill anyways. Everything is currently very robotic with little interactivity. But the limitations aren't so bad when you understand that this is constantly being worked on and embellished so you can try and push the limits of what you can do currently with each new update.

The Dev is building this all by himself. He is using gaming animators to help, as well as voice actors naturally, but he's coding this all on his own. His willingness to share and release it every few weeks for us to play with is awesome and shows a level of dedication for the player that you rarely see. He wants us to use it and help him fix it so that he can make the best game possible for people. He listens to the community and interacts with them, making him feel real and like someone I want to show support for.

You can check the game out HERE and download the latest update for free and play with it. If you like it, make sure you bookmark it and check back every few weeks for the new build or bug fixes. There's also a sub Reddit for it where you can get technical help from other players and talk about Easter Eggs, fan art, speculate on theories, and much more. The Dev himself even hangs out with everyone on there. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. I love Yandere characters so much (which you know if you follow my art pages heheeeeh).