Monday, December 22, 2014

Cross Ange Episode 12

Episode 12 begins in a undisclosed location where Cross Ange's answer to Evangelion's SEELE is meeting and going over the battle footage from Sala's appearance, and Julio is dismissing questions about something called the Dawn Pillar activating, but everyone else thinks that's bullshit and wants to reinforce Arzenal (apparently the tip of the spear of the DRAGON counter-offense), then another guy points out they can't do that and brings up the Vilkiss, which everyone thought had been destroyed (explains the flashback scene with Jill piloting it at one point and why it was stuck in storage for so long), and Julio starts getting shit on for his apparent failure to keep an eye on Arzenal (which falls under his purview), and the fact Misty got kidnapped and the Misurugi family screwed the pooch preventing that is used as a goad that who is apparently Misty's father is rather pissed by.

Julio then makes it official Ange is an unperson once again by referring to Ange as a thing (when his sister gets the blame for Misty's abduction, which, as you will recall, he partially engineered to trap Ange). The token woman at the proceedings then tells everyone to get back to business (i.e. - how are we protecting the world again?), and when it's mentioned the Norma can't be relied upon to be humanity's shield (thanks to events mentioned previously), that's when that blonde guy who was behind a tree reading since the intro gets up, and calls everyone hopeless. His name is Embryo (gee, that sounds like something from obviousvillainnames.txt), and apparently everyone else there defers to him.

Cue opening credits.

Once we get back to the meeting, Embryo brings up their options: surrender (like hell they are doing that) or kill all DRAGONs off, which is unthinkable,because it will interfere with option three: rebuild the world (Instrumentality, in my Gundam referencing dragon killing mecha series?), and the way he describes it, you'd seriously think this guy was channeling Keel Lorenz, albeit less on the quasi-benevolent side (as in, there is no benefit to everyone hidden in this forced evolutionary reset like there was in Evangelion, depending on your POV) and more on the purge everyone we don't give a shit about when we wipe the slate clean (damn, how Nazi-ish can they get with their Instrumentality plan?).

Of course, Julio gets in touch with his inner Hitler and just loves option three, and while everyone else is kinda reluctant to throw the baby out with the bathwater (as in, all the progress they achieved with a Mana based society with a slave class covering their ass), they all concede it may be the only choice, and as Embryo hands Julio the car keys to Instrumentality, the meeting ends (it was set in some fancy holographic meeting room area) , and as Riza's like "so, how'd it go?", Julio and her leave, and we see what looks like a recording device was under Julio's desk.and Tusk is apparently not thrilled with what he heard.

We then cut back to Arzenal, where there are so many DRAGON corpses Jasmine is having to use a bulldozer to put them all into a mass grave. Meanwhile, everyone else is picking up the frankly jacked up remnants of the base. Maggy tries to check on a shaken Emma in the infirmary (apparently, her first real experience with combat gave her epic PTSD), who is not in the mood for anyone to get near her. Meanwhile, Jill has gathered together all the surviving senior cast members and is asking who has command experience.

Hilda quietly raises her hand, and Jill signs off on it, with Ersha and Vivian as her lieutenants. Rosalie and Chris are understandably shocked at Hilda (a deserter) getting the job, and Jill points out it's temporary and Salia's out because she's in detention for defying orders. Hilda then tells Rosalie to do the job if she wants it that much, and Rosalie backs away from the thrown gauntlet. That settled, Jill tells everyone to be on combat alert. As they all salute and leave, Jill lights up a cig, reads over the report Tusk sent, and doesn't look happy.

Ange then speaks up behind her and points out her detention is over, and she wants Jill to honor her promise from the previous episode. Jill tries to use the "we've got a lot of shit to do" excuse, but Ange is like "I saved everyone's ass, you kinda owe me". Jill concedes the point, but tells Ange to leave Momoka out of the conversation. Meanwhile, Hilda wants to know where Ange is going, while Ersha wonders where Vivian is. Cut to Vivian and Salia's room where Vivian falls out of bed.

We then cut to the bath where Ange is like "why are we discussing this here?", and Jill claims "secrets should be shared when completely exposed", and Ange is like "fine, but I want to know the answers to question the whole audience has had since day one".

Jill begins with the story of the world's creation, and just as Ange is like "are you trolling me", Jill continues, and apparently, that Instrumentality plan the SEELE ripoffs were discussing has happened before, and Mana and the benefits it brought were one of the side benefits of the last time. However, it seems some female children were discovered to be Norma (genetic leftovers from before the world was reborn, which kinda explains the prejudice, given these former humans fucked everything up in the backstory), and because humanity was like "why the hell do we still have leftovers of when humanity was a (literal) goddamned disgrace around, Norma were shit on merely for being remnants of a time everyone wanted to never return. Apparently, whoever the hell was behind this (all evidence points to this Embryo guy) encouraged this racist horseshit, and it was used to keep humanity united against a common enemy, which, while that strikes me as a cynical plan, seems to have been effective as cover for the fact "God" let this happen on purpose, feeding everyone a line of crap about how Normas had to be dealt with to prevent the Bad Times from returning.

In short, Normas exist because God fucked up remaking the world from last time, left some people in the human genome who didn't fit in with the reborn humanity, so he used the Norma as scapegoats as a compensatory way of maintaining stability and to cover his own incompetence.

God sounds like an asshole IMO.

Ange is in "......" mode, and when Jill asks about it, Ange is having a hard time swallowing all that, and Jill drops a drama bomb: she heard it from God himself. Anyway, Ange files that away as Jill continues.

And so, with the exception of the occasional Norma, humanity was good, until a bunch of remnants of the old humans decided they were tired of being shit on and went to war with the Mana users, and in the process, captured one of God's own superweapons: Ragna-mail, the prototype of all Para-mail.

AKA - The Vilkiss.

However, God was smart enough to seal it from being used by just anybody, and as they discovered a little too late this information, they did discover where all the other Norma were sent off:

To fight DRAGONs and shield all Mana users from having to deal with them.

Anyway, they made contact with Arzenal (when Jasmine was running things), handed over the Vilkiss, and basically prepared for the day they would overthrow their oppressors (a key part of this was finding out how to make the Vilkiss work right).

Jill enters the picture at this point, and we discover she was basically just like Ange, circumstances and all (royalty, born Norma, lost everything, etc). In fact, she used to be named Alektra Maria von Loewenherz.

Cue intermission.

Before I resume, this is clearing up quite a lot, except for how the DRAGONs fit into all this, but yeah, why am I not surprised the Norma are just innocents blamed for something they had nothing to do with because God is literally a bastard?

Ange heard of her, and the official story is that she fell ill and died when she was ten (of course, propaganda, to cover up the fact she was born a Norma), and we discover she was the first one to get the Vilkiss to work right (due to being born of the same bloodline God had entrusted the Vilkiss too, and her royal ring was a further unlock code for the Vikiss' true potential, just like Ange. We also find out Jill was all for helping out with Libertus, the plan by the Norma/Ancient People to screw over their oppressors, which also explains Tusk (his father was one of the latter). Jill also reveals she is just as pissed off as Ange is now, but during a flight gone horribly wrong, she lost her ring, right arm, her friends, and a massive chunk of her self esteem.

And that's where Ange enters the picture, and we discover Jill knew all along Ange was basically Herself 2.0 and Jill basically tells Ange to take up her sword being the spearhead of Libertus. Ange gets confirmation Jill was basically planning for Ange to fill her shoes since day one (explains her Stealth Mentoring quite a bit), and she thanks Jill for opening her eyes, but tell Jill "No" to being her successor, citing shes not opposed to the idea, but she doesn't want to be forced into it (Jill understands and accepts that), then asks the big question:

Where do the DRAGONs fit in with the story?

We then cut away as Emma is wandering the halls, trying to patch in to HQ via Mana comm, and as she does so, Vivian (sounds like a big plodding giant, face hid from view at this point) runs into her, Emma metaphorically shits herself and passes out, and Vivian looks down at some glass shards on the ground and discovers a massive WTF:

She's now a Scuna class DRAGON.

Some Norma discover her, they freak (as does she), and the whole base springs into action as Jill and Ange's talk gets cut short. Meanwhile, teams are being brought down to hunt down the DRAGON survivor, and as Hilda is barking orders, they realize Vivian isn't around, but table that as they decide hunting down the DRAGON is more important. Ange shows up, gets chided for being late and tossed a gun, and Ersha gets orders to let Salia out to join the DRAGON hunt.

Meanwhile, Jill heads to the infirmary, passes Maggy, and tells her to get a ton of inhibitor ready.

We cut back to DRAGON!Vivian, who is in the mess hall, hungry, and as she discovers she can't eat the same with claws (even though the curry smells really good), that's when Salia and Ersha show up, don't recognize her, and open fire, forcing Vivian to evade. Vivian makes it outside, realizes what's going on, files around Arzenal all emo, and as Ange is about to open fire, she realizes the DRAGON is making the sounds of her mother's song, so she decides to sing along. It's working, and as it starts dawning on Ange who the DRAGON might be, Hilda, Chris and Rosalie show up, and Ange fires a warning shot at them so she can continue, to their WTF reaction.

Jill shows up to stop Ersha and Salia from joining in, and Ange reaches out to DRAGON, who transforms back into Vivian (with her doing another 'Quiz time!" line), and everyone else is all 0_0. Maggy gives Vivian a knockout shot not long after Ange welcomes Vivian back to humanity (with some sun flare censoring preserving Vivian's modesty), and as Maggy takes Vivian away, Ange has WTF lightbulb moment as she realizes what the DRAGON's really are.

At that moment, Jasmine finishes up piling all the DRAGON corpses in the hole, throws gas on them, then as she lights it up, Ange and the others show up to watch and stare in horror as the corpses turn human shaped in the flames.

And that's when Jill shows up and drops the drama bomb to the rest:

"You know how the story goes. The monster was human all along."

In short, the DRAGON's are basically to Cross Ange what the Mu were in RahXephon.

Ange is more than a little sickened as she realized what she's been killing the whole time, flashbacking in revulsion to her blood rage in the Tusk debut episode, and that's when Jill throws back Ange's line about enjoying her current life back in her face. This pisses Ange off epically, and as Ange is like 'fuck helping with Libertus", Jill is like "fine, then be the bitch of the sadistic God who created us, your choice". As Jill walks off, Embryo shows up right in front of her, sarcastically mentions he never referred to himself as God (confirming he is the series Big Bad). Jill shoots him (it's a hologram), and that's when he points out the flashing bulletin in the background about how the Norma are being thanked for their service and are going to be evacuated from Arzenal.

We don't even need Julio showing up (but he does anyway) to confirm this is, in yet another Nazi parallel, the beginning of the Final Solution to the Norma Problem.

Cue end credits.

Next episode preview has the Norma obviously fighting this extermination plan, more combat, and what looks like Embyro deploying in the Evil Twin of and a Shinkiro (from Code Geass) inspired Paramail counterpart to the Vilkiss, and Vivan and Ange having an amusing conversation about how Vivian needs to pay Ange royalties for singing her song.

P.S. - This episode finally does admit, in a roundabout way, why there is so much lesbian cheesecake: Basically, all the Norma are the Humanity 1.0 aberrations in a Humanity 2.0 world, and since only women have a chance to be born this way, it practically guarantees, given how things turned out, there would be a lot of woman-woman scenes.

That strikes me as epically tacky.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

In this post, I tell spammers to fornicate with their mothers

WARNING: ANGRY AND VERY VULGAR RANT ABOUT SPAMMERS AHEAD!

For those not aware, I hate spam. Spam email, spam on blogs, spam on wikis, any form of spam (well, the edible kind isn't too horrible if you have nothing else in the fridge) has my undying hatred, and even though I'm sure my feelings aren't unique, I want to share the reason why I detest spam and the idiots and assholes responsible for it.

1. It's lazy - Spam is the lazy asshole way of getting people to give a rat ass about their shitty blog, website, or product. Spam is what these shitstains on humanity's ass do when they can't be bothered to design a decent website and spread the word like a normal person. Instead, spammers shit out word salad messages with links and metadata tags related to whatever the fuck they want me to give a damn about with bot programs and smear the shit that is their crappy bastardization of advertising all over the internet, forcing me to have to junk folder it when using email, delete it on wikis I administrate, and attempt to ignore when reading comments on blogs and forums.

Seriously, I have no clue why the fuck anyone would result to such half assed, lazy methods of spreading the word about their pointless bullshit, but the methods they use only make me more determined not to give a fuck about their faggotry.

2. It's counterproductive - Spam is regarded with loathing across the internet, and with good reason: it takes up space that could be used for more worthwhile things and wastes the time of people who have better content to look at that than some bot produced link whore bullshit. It's also counterproductive because spammers know there are tons of ways people have come up with to defeat spam, spam is deleted with extreme prejudice on wikis so it rarely has a chance to thrive there, and I make a point of reporting every site I can that spams their URL in my face to Google so I get the satisfaction of watching their shit disappear from search engines.

My point is: Spammers have tons of enemies, and spamming more will only make everyone else who isn't an abortion that should have happened want to fuck over the spammers more.

3. It's insulting to the intelligence of everyone involved - Spammers operate on the cynical notion that even if no one clicks the links they spam (almost no one does), and even if no one looks for their shit on the internet (and almost no one does), they are hoping an increased search engine rank wil make their stupidity more appealing SEO wise and thus have a higher chance of showing up during a random Google search.

The insulting part comes from the fact they are assuming anyone will still give a shit, especially after these diseased cunts have pissed off all their potential viewers of their content by making an ass of themselves as described above. Also, Google is not amused by the faggotry of spammers and works their ass off trying to deny them the fake boost in SEO they were hoping for, so their continued spamming is just telling Google and the rest of humanity they are proud to be filthy leeches and don't care if the rest of the world wants to watch the idiots producing the spam be burned alive with a splintered baseball bat (wide end first) rammed up their assholes.

Seriously, anyone proud of being that much of shitheel is just a dickhead of the highest order IMO.

In conclusion, I have this to say to everyone who hates spammers: I feel your pain.

To the spammers, I have this to say: Fuck off, turn off the spam bot, and just plant yourself balls deep in your mother's asshole already. That would make at least one of you happy and not waste my time with your idiotic bullshit.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Cross Ange Episode 11

Episode 11 begins with a recap of Ange's escape and scarring of Julio via throwing star, which turns out to be a nightmare of Sylvie's. Since she can't sleep, she hops in her hoverchair and decides to roam the halls of the castle for awhile until she calms down. As she does, she starts wondering if she did the right thing, as apparently Julio convinced her all the crap she did was to make sure Ange could never hurt her again or some shit.

As she passes by Julio's room, he's currently getting laid courtesy of his aide de camp Riza Rundog, and he's looking more than a little emo. Even worse, he apparently he has some sort of mommy fetish, since he's roleplaying some creepy Oedipus complex sex play shit with her, which frankly is just Norman Bates level fucked in the head. Also, his dialogue, on top of having fucked up undertones, sounds like he's reading off a script as he also reveals he really does have a massive Oedipus complex because his mom always favored Angelise.

The creepy factor hits critical mass when Riza drops some weird purple poison like substances in his mouth from one of her fingers, just as Sylvie passes back and happens to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Riza (who is apparently mind controlling Julio via a combination of some chemical shit and playing on his mommy complex) is asking him to do her a favor, and he mentions something about opening a singular point, and that's when Riza notices they are being watched.

And that's when the weird shit o meter goes through the roof as Riza sits up, revealing she has DRAGON wings on her back. Sylvie immediately turns to flee, only to be caught with what appears to be Riza's tail, and as Riza strangles the hell out of her, Sylvie calls out for Ange to save her (oh, the hilarious irony.......).

Before we go on, this is an interesting twist, but it was foreshadowed earlier on the DRAGONs were a lot more intelligent than they seemed, and given that it looks like Julio is the pawn of one that can assume human form, it seems the conspiracy that pervades the show just assumed a strange new dimension.

Anyway, after the opening credits, we cut to the mess hall, where Salia is informing everyone there is going to shift change regarding deployments.Since their squad is down a couple pilots (due to Ange's temporary desertion), they'll be standing down for awhile. Rosalie pissed since this means they don't get paid, and Chris is even more pissed. We then cut to Momoka, who is trying to convince a guard to the cells to give Ange a basket of food (she's worried Ange isn't eating right), but is being stopped cold. Meanwhile, both Ange and Hilda are bemoaning their skimpy rations, and Ange really wants to take a bath. Both of them are also slinging insults at each other to pass the time.

We then cut to Salia near the graves being paid a little hero worship, which obviously pleases the hell out of her, and then we get a flashback to a younger Salia and Jill, and we see Salia hero worshiped Jill in much the same manner. We also see Mei is paying respects to her fallen older sister. We later get another flashback to Jill after she lost her arm, barely making it back to Arzenal, about to pass out from blood loss. W also see a younger Jasmine (who was quite the looker), and it seems Jill once hero worshiped her (explains why they still have so many heart to hearts). Jill is heartbroken over the death's of her squad and who is presumably Tusk's father, feeling she did a pisspoor job. We then see young Salia and really young Mei tell her that's not true before the cut back to the present.

We also get another, slightly more recent cut back to Salia getting herself all fucked up after a failed attempt to pilot the Vilkiss, and Jill tells her to quit trying so hard, or she'll wind up [gestures to the cybernetic arm she got to replace the one she lost]. Jill responds to Salia then asking what it is she's lacking by asking the same thing, then we cut back to the present as she wonders how Ange can pilot the Vilkiss when everyone else can't.

We then cut to the comm tower, where a signal is detected, and Jill and the other soldiers nearly shit themselves when they realize the signal is right above Arzenal. Worse, a fuckton of Scuna class  DRAGONs start a massive ambush attack. Emma pops in, shocked they had zero warning, and Jill wastes no time in basically ordering a basewide 'THE SHIT HAS HIT FAN, EVERYONE WHO CAN FIGHT, GET IN YOUR PARAMAILS" alert. In fact, the alert is so severe they are even passing out assault rifles in the event they have to fight it out on foot as well, even authorizing all their anti-air weapons at the same time.

As everyone starts loading up, and Emma asks Jill who is going to defend the base if they sortie all the Paramails (basically, are they leaving any behind as defenders), and a techie just tosses her a gun as shorthand for "Welcome to the shit like the rest of us, hope you can use this to keep from getting killed". A truly impressive amount of anti-air pops out of various strongpoints around Arzenal and several Scuna go down in the initial assault. Ange and Hilda realize shit is going down, and then we cut back to the control room where a DRAGON crashes through the window. Ema fails hilariously at being a badass and tries to shoot it full of holes (her shots ricochet everywhere and scare the shit out of the other grunts, since she's aiming in a berserk rage like Ange did in the Tusk debut episode), and Jill knocks her out from behind and expertly dispatches the DRAGON with a well aimed shot to the head. Unfortunately, the command center has been screwed by these events, so Jill orders them to fall back to the backup comm center. Meanwhile, as the pilots are shooting down any Scuna who are attempting ingress into the hangars (with Rosalie still pissed their earnings were stolen by the others), the Scuna start withdrawing as someone starts singing. As Ange wonders who, the weird shit o meter explodes again as what look like several Paramail appear out of the same vortex as the Scuna, and as everyone is like WTF, the Paramail turn golden like the Vilkiss and reveal themselves to be on the DRAGONs side as they obliterate pretty much all Paramail already in the air and hit Arzenal pretty hard in the process. A moment later, we cut back to Salia recovering, only to notice a sizable chunk of Arzenal just got blown away, and as the show is about to cut to the intermission, the Scuna start coming back.

Before I go on, looks like the show is finally entering the "shit hitting the fan" stage where the story really starts to begin.

When we get back, Hilda and Ange are recovering from the blast that just blew a full third of Arzenal off the map, and both Hilda and Ange nearly get hit by Scuna that plunges through the wall. Around the same time, Momoka is looking for Ange, and as she frees Ange and Hilda, she had to hold her nose (apparently both Hilda and Ange are REALLY ripe and really do need a long bath). Both Ange and Hilda decide they'll find out why things went pear shaped if they get to their Paramails, and even though Momoka advocates they bathe first (and Ange agrees), Hilda is like "we have MUCH MORE IMPORTANT SHIT TO WORRY ABOUT!".

Meanwhile, in the backup comm center, the losses are being tallied, and it looks like the new enemy blew up one squad and gravely crippled another, so Jill transfers overall command authority to Salia's squad. She then tells Salia to put Ange in the Vilkiss, citing it's the only thing in hell that has a chance in stopping their new foe. Salia tries to ignore this, but Jill drops the hammer on that. Salia is still frustrated over her inadequacy, and when she basically rants over the radio how Ange is (A) a deserter (B) in detention and (C) a troublemaker, Jill tells her she doesn't give a shit, and Salia jumps out of her Paramail at that one. The rest of the team deploys to buy their allies time to regroup, and Jill orders Ange (who she presumes to have made it to the Vilkiss) to take down the new foe, only to learn Salia finally gave in to her jealousy and jacked the Vilkiss for herself. Jill is understandably pissed about this, but Salia doesn't care, her jealousy have told her wisdom to fuck off so she finally prove she can be a badass in the Vilkiss.

Jill, upon hearing Salia still hasn't grown the fuck up at all is disgusted, and Ange and Hilda enter the hangar in their pilot suits (with Momoka still holding her nose). As both wonder where their squad is, they realize they are outside (and Salia's in the Vikiss). As the rest of the squad is taking down the Scuna, Salia is still charging toward the enemy Paramail. She quickly discovers the limitations of the Vilkiss and is knocked out of the air briefly but recovers, then realizes the Vilkiss has more power but she can't use it. She then get saved from some Scuna by Hilda's Paramail (in which her and Ange jammed into and both are bitching about the limited space). Ange tells Salia to hand over the Vikiss, and Salia decides to be a dumbass again.

The enemy Paramail (one is red, one green, one blue) decide to respond to the challenge and Salia finds herself being quickly outmatched, but is too stubborn to want to admit it. Jill's words about how she shouldn't do shit she can't do keep reverberating in her head despite her stubbornness, and as Salia continues to be a fucktarded moron, the red Paramail kicks her out of the sky.

Ange immediately tells Hilda to haul ass so she can do a mid-air jump over to the Vilkiss. Hilda thinks that crazy, but figures "fuck it, you'd do something like that", and as Ange grabs Hilda around the waist so she doesn't fly off, Hilda's a little surprised, but she charges ahead, and Ange does a midair flip right into the Vilkiss. Salia has thrown in the towel at this point, but Ange tells her not to give up, as no sooner does Ange grab the reins does the Vilkiss flare to life, and just as it looks like they are hitting water, Ange pulls it back up into the air, and in what looks like Ange is molesting Salia due to the angle (she just trying to get Salia out of her seat), she then tosses Salia out towards Hilda and tells the WTF Hilda to catch. Salia screams her head off but Hilda pulls it off, albeit pissed Ange had her do something so batshit insane.

Ange then goes off to do what Salia couldn't and she more than holds her own against the red enemy Paramail, and as the rest of the squad is all 0_0 at Ange's badassery, the red paramail joins up with it's buddies, and that song goes off again as it's charging it's laser from hell, and Ange decides to sing her mother's song again. (for those that forget, this is the same one that pissed off everyone at the gallows last episode, especially Riza). This triggers her ring to glow again like it did first episode, the Vilkiss goes all golden, look like a really spikey, glowy version of the Hyaku Shiki from Zeta Gundam, and it also has it's own bitchin laser cannon, as as Ange continues singing and facing down her opponent's also charging laser cannon, her HUD screen shows the image of what looks like a flying angel as they fire their lasers at the same time.

A flash of light later, it seems both Ange and her opponent are nose to nose, and the female pilot of the other mecha asks "why does a false citizen sing the true Star Song", and then she pops out of her mecha, revealing she looks some dark haired priestess type in her own pilot suit (with a kickass crown like helmet). They both appear to be floating in some weird energy vortex at the moment, as as Ange returns the favor and asks what the other woman means, some weird flashback appear in the background showing what looks like various incarnations of Ange and the other woman (and some of the other characters as well) throughout history/alternative universes or something, which includes a blink and you'll miss it Gundam SEED Destiny shout-out with what looks like Athrun Zala and Dearka Elsman in the background, as well as a Kira lookalike from behind (could be Tusk) and someone who looks like Hilda wearing Lunamaria Hawke's pilot uniform from Destiny (basically, the whole sequence at the end is a massive Gundam SEED reference), and that's when the sequence ends as a klaxon goes off from the other woman's Paramail.

At that, the other woman withdraws, leaving a cryptic message about how "the truth is with Aura" as she leaves, and as the portal closes, Ange is staring at it in shock.Meanwhile, Jill realizes that Ange's song was the final element needed to make the Vilkiss be totally badass.

We then cut to Salia still on Hilda's Paramail, realizing she has to accept that Ange and the Vilkiss go great together. She then leans against Hilda, who makes a comment it feels different (basically another 'Salia is flat joke'), but Salia doesn't seem to notice the subtle insult as she's finally accepted her limitations. Then it turns funny as she tells Hilda she stinks (who takes obvious offense).

Later, as Jill and Maggy are checking out the massive hole where a third of Arzenal used to be, both agree things have gone FUBAR, and they have apparently lost their power plant, which makes it worse. We then cut to Vivian who found hers and Salia's room was jacked up, but she's still cheerful as ever as she muses on how pretty Ange's song was.

As the credits begin, both Jill and Maggy wonder how much time they have left.

In the post credits, we see Ange and Jill chilling in the hot spring, a Scuna class dragon scratching it's head, Salia's squad shooting at it, Tusk makes an appearance, and Julio looking peeved as Salia is bitching about her lack of importance in the show (ironic, thought she just moved past that)

......okay, this episode was a massive drama bomb, and it look's like next episode we'll get some more backstory on Jill's past, but this episode has already been a massive WTF game changer and has blown all of my previous theories out of the water, except for one.

There is still a conspiracy going on, looks like the DRAGONs have been in on it, and whatever it is the royal family seems to have been hiding (beside Ange being a Norma), it seems to have a deep connection to the entire plot.

P.S. - Forgot to mention this, but the enemy pilot of the Paramail Ange fought is named Sala. Also, as if we didn't need more references to Gundam SEED crammed down our throats, Sala's Paramail is an obvious Infinite Justice analogue, while the Vilkiss has always been a Strike Freedom expy.

Seriously, we get it already, the same guy who did those shows did this one too.....

Monday, December 8, 2014

Cross Ange Episode 10

Episode 10 of Cross Ange begins sometime after Episode 9, but not too much long afterwards, and begins with a rather horrifying scene of a bound in rags Ange being brutally whipped by her own sister Sylvie, who has apparently swallowed the racist Koolaid completely as well being convinced her sister wanted her crippled (remember, not true, Ange beat herself up over that very fact). As this going on, Julio is watching with a smug look on his face and the NORPs of the series are cheering because, well, she's a Norma, and thus worse than Hitler by default.

Momoka (bound herself and forced to watch) tries to get Sylvie to summon up a conscience, but that goes down in flames as Sylvie just spouts "Racist Talking Points.txt" as her justification for lashing her own sister, and as everyone else wants Ange to grovel for mercy and apologize for being born, Julio drops a drama bomb of his own:

He purposely set the whole thing with Momoka seeing Ange and by proxy the fake distress call from Sylvie, for the purpose of making sure Ange was eliminated, which makes sense, since it was odd Momoka basically got a free pass to visit Ange (remember, Misty only got in because of her security clearance, which Momoka didn't have), and he further reveals part of duping her into it was for the lulz.

Before I continue, even if Julio is an asshole (and he is), good troll on his part.

Anyway, Julio ten plays to crowd a little, then orders Ange's execution, then the opening credits play.

When we get back from the credits, we see Ange being led to the hangman's noose (hanging is appropriate, as that is considered on of the traditional punishments for traitors), and as this is going on, the rest of the NORPs are shouting shit that wouldn't sound out of place in the Jim Crow south if you switched a few words around, and as the cries for blood get louder, what little remaining sympathy Ange had for anyone from her birthplace goes completely out the window, and she decides to do one final fuck you troll in response:

She sings her mother's famous song, which epically pisses EVERYONE off, and as the guards are ordered to silence her, she just calmly walks towards the noose without being forced to, and the guards are like "well, she's making our job easier, so what the hell, let her have her parthian shot". However, this is just making Julio's rage meter go through the ceiling, so Ange has her head shoved into the noose ASAP and the platform is pulled out from under her to kill her.

And that;s when a really bright flare goes off, a Paramail (looks like the one Tusk was flying a few episodes back, hint hint) does a flyby, and a knife severs the noose.

And then, because the running gag just needs to happen again, Tusk's head winds up between Ange's legs. Of course, it's not his fault, she kicks him off her, realizes who it is, and that's when the assholes in the background pull their heads out of their asses, assume Tusk is just a Norma sympathizing terrorist, and prepare to kill him and Ange. Momoka shows up, and Ange weaponizes being a Norma again to free Momoka, who returns the favor, and this makes Julio almost blow a blood vessel.

Momoka throws up a shield against the incoming bullets, and Ange takes them down. Momoka then tosses Ange some of the explosive Tusk had strapped on him (he still groggy from Ange kicking him off her), and she goes all Mad Bomber on them. This buys them time to hop on Tusk's Paramail, drape his body on the seat as Momoka hops on, and as they haul ass, Ange delivers a beautiful parting troll to Julio (telling him he made clear who she was, AKA "Ange"), and then tells Sylvie thanks for confirming how much a fucking asshole the NORPs are, and as she leaves and Julio orders troops to give chase, Ange throws a ninja star at Julio, just barely not killing him (but rips open his face pretty good).

Later, as Ange and co. are safely away on a return trip to apparently Arzenal, Momoka is sorry for all the trouble, and Ange is in a great mood, then turns her attention to Tusk, slaps him away, then gives him a double noogie as she annoyedly asked why his head keeps winding up in her crotch.

Tusk is pleading innocence (he's the poor bastard who is cursed to be part of a Running Gag, after all), and that's when Momoka is like "who is this guy?" Tusk decides play coy and calls it a special relationship, and Momoka is pleased, thinking that's why he did the Knight in Shining Armor thing, and she then immediately assumes the two of them are an item (not too far from the truth, TBH).

Ange is all indignant about that and asks Tusk why he showed up, and he tells her he got a call from Jill, and it turns out he was even nice enough to snag back her ring when he sideswiped Julio. He also reveals he was the one who was originally detailed to watch over the Vilkiss by Jill.

He then changes the subject, says her hair is a beautiful shade of blonde (she's pleased and blushing over this), then like an idiot mentions her below the belt region matches.

Cue a cut to outside the Paramail as she beats the crap out of him for being a pervert and it banks and yaws all over the places.

Much later, back at Arzenal, Tusk (sporting a bandage, a black eye, and some visible bruises) bids her farewell, and as he's about to go, Ange thanks him for saving her life, and Tusk tells her the song she was singing was beautiful, tells her he'd like to hear it again, then leaves.

Jill then shows up, Ange decides to ask her about her connection to Tusk, and Jill then cuts her off by gut punching her with her cyber arm, telling her she talk only after Ange does some reflecting.

We cut to the mid episode credits, and before we go on, I can understand why Jill is pissed: Ange just went on a fool's errand, got herself in even more trouble than she was in before, and Jill is not happy her attempts to get Ange to realize how fucked she is didn't take as well as they should have.

Later, a naked, bloodied up Ange (remember, those whip wounds are still kinda new) is lying in a cell, and Salia is telling Ersha to throw a bucket of cold water on her to wake her up, and as Ange realizes where she is, Salia tells her she'll be confined to suspension quarters for a week for her desertion, and all of her property will be consfiscated (Vilkiss included for the duration). Ersha is playing the Good Cop and being somewhat nicer, but reiterates she has to take responsibility.

Ersha then asks why Ange even bothered, since most Norma were sent off since infanthood and know that hardly anyone gives a damn about them, and when Ange can;t answer, Salia goes Bad Cop and assumes it's because Ange isn't trustworthy.

As they leave and Ange covers herself up, she sneezes, realizes how cold she is, and that;s when a familiar voice tells her to shut up. Ange turns around to discover Hilda curled up on the bench behind her, and even though she wants Ange to stay away, she gets up and reveal her face and body had the ever loving shit beaten out of them.

Ange is horrified and wants to know what happened, but Hilda tells Ange to spill first. Ange then goes over all the even worse crap she was put through, and Hilda is impressed. Hilda says she got beat up by fifty guys but managed to kick their asses (despite taking some damage herself), which sounds kinda BS (she probably got saved by Tusk too). Ange asks if Hilda met her mother, Hilda gives her a noncommittal answer, and Ange figures out Hilda got screwed over like she did too.

Some hours later, we cut to Ange getting dressed and Hilda waking up from a nightmare about her mom. Ange asks what happened in full this time, and Hilda reveals her betrayal by her own mother.
We also get a brief cutback to Rosalie and Chris being disappointed Hilda bailed on them, and Hilda basically admitted she saw them as pawns. Chris then reveals to Hilda she bought back all of Zola's stuff and her and Rosalie leave, understandably mad.

We cut back to the present, where Hilda is like "I'm as screwed as you now, Ange". Ange tells her not to give up on life, Hilda assumes Ange is saying that because she's still in royalty mode, and Ange tells her 'you'll stink if you die". Hilda calls her a selfish bitch, but is clearly amused by this statement, and then Ange confirms to Hilda 'yeah, all the stars are out of my eyes, fuck being royalty, I'm still lower than shit and I fully accept that now". Ange then does a little ranting about how naive she was, then her and Hilda start getting all fatalistic and musing about how much damage they could do to all the assholes they hate, and Hilda is like "are you serious?", and while Ange is like "oh, what the hell, we'll figure something out, Hilda is still pointing all out all the flaws in the "let kill all the assholes who rejected us plan"

After this brief bit of levity, Ange goes all Nietzsche for a moment (or maybe Wagnerian tragedian) , and her and Hilda start to bond over their mutual urge to burn the whole bigoted world to ashes.

Later, Ange gives Hilda a good night concert singing her mother's song again, which is being heard all over Arzenal, Vivian and Ersha are pleased, Salia is studiously ignoring it, Rosalie and Chris are having "don't leave me sex", Momoka is all teary eyed, and Jill is all alone in the comm center, smoking a cig and looking all contemplative.

The post credits have scenes from the Imperial palace with Sylvie all quiet, Julio getting some from his purple haired lady in waiting (and he kept the scar from that throwing star it seems) but still looking emo even though he's getting laid. Meanwhile Hilda and Ange are discussing the cliched aspect of them finally becoming friends, the two of them are hurling playful "we're not friends" (bullshit) jabs, and we get more scenes of DRAGON ass kicking.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

My final, exhausted appeal to Nate Spidewood to drop his grudge against TV Tropes

WARNING: EPICALLY ANGRY POST BELOW!

I was going to do another episode recap of Cross Ange tonight, but screw it, it can wait until tomorrow. For now, I just want to make something clear to that mentally ill little bitch of a man named Nate Spidgewood, aka the lunatic who has been engaging in the lamest trolling campaign against TV Tropes that even I, who once had unrelenting hatred for the place, think is stupid as hell.

Nate, assuming you ever read this, give the hell up you retarded faggot. Yes, that not nice of me to say, but seriously, quit acting like a retarded eunuch with a keyboard and drop your idiotic grudge against TV Tropes for putting pages in namespaces.

For once, they are going to totally revamp the system to something that, given how they are talking, is going to be similar to MediaWiki (it's going to use a relational database and a tagging system from the discussions so far), so Nate, get this through your damaged when your mother dropped you on your head as baby brain:

YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST, YOU PATHETIC SACK OF SHIT!

Second, I have made peace with TV Tropes, and I'm even contributing to their discussion on how best to revamp the site because that corrupt asshole who used to run the place is gone and the new owner (whom I have emailed and my fellow ATT staff member Brent has met IRL) is a guy who has shown ethics and human decency, and frankly, since he's agreed to work with us and extended us an olive branch, I'm willing to call off my hatred because the main source of it is gone and help the guy because he promised to do the same for us concerning things we at ATT have been upset over, and since he was willing to be a human being, and those of us with far more legit reasons to be pissed (hell, some of us were on the brink of suing TV Tropes at one point for good reason) have decided to instead be constructive and help Drew (the new owner) instead of being asshats.

That said, you are a deranged little bastard, Nate; and a criminally stupid one, given how you made a public fundraiser to hire a hacker to damage a website in the name of revenge, and even though it got taken down, that's still a criminal act you asshole, and even then, despite my intense hatred of Fast Eddie, I would have happily joined forces with him to make sure you were in a crossbar apartment, because while I didn't like Fast Eddie, I hate whiny cunts who are willing to commit criminal acts in the name of one of the lamest reasons to be a spiteful little bitch much more.


......okay, rant over, got that out of my system, but there is a point to this: Drop your pathetic grudge Nate, you've lost the battle, and if you'd pull your head out of your tard raging ass, you'd also realize you aren't going to win the war either, especially since both sides have declared a truce and both sides consider you a complete loser who refuses to grow up.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

The results of our meeting with TVT's current ownership

ATT Staff member Brent Laabs and TV Tropes owner Drew Schoentrup met on December 5, 2014, and while I'm not at liberty to reveal the specific details of that conversation at this time, the meeting was very cordial on both sides, several matters of mutual concern were discussed, and we at All The Tropes have every reason to believe the current owner of TV Tropes wishes to work with us and does not wish to be our enemy as Fast Eddie was.

We will release more information in coming days, but TV Tropes' current owner has extended us an olive branch, and we have no reason at this time to believe that offer is anything but genuine.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

ATT Staff will be meeting the current owner of TV Tropes on December 5, 2014

Brent Laabs, ATT's technical director, will be meeting with the current owner of TV Tropes (Drew Schoentrup) on December 5, 2014, and the purpose of this meeting is to hopefully settle the legal issues concerning the copyright status of TV Tropes content base, which has been illegally tainted, as explained in this blog post.

It is our hope and intention to finally get this matter properly addressed in a legal sense and to compel TV Tropes to have their current content base examined in light of our claims of illegal copyright and the various violations of intellectual property that have resulted from those actions, and should those facts be verified in a court of law if need be, we merely seek to have anyone who has suffered injuries from these actions to be properly compensated, and for TV Tropes to make whatever legal changes are necessary to make sure they are not in violation of copyright law.


I will not have an active role in this matter, however, as I do not have the money, time, or enough of a legal case personally to pursue this matter, but my colleagues Bob Schroeck and Brent Laabs do, and as for my role in things, I merely intend to be their moral support and wish the both of them my best in proving this matter requires proper legal intervention, and in regards to TV Tropes, I merely hope, since Drew has expressed he wishes to meet with Brent and discuss these matters (as opposed to Fast Eddie, who did everything in his power to avoid and stymie us), that we can resolve this matter in as legally fair and honorable way to the satisfaction of both parties, and regardless of the outcome, I wish TV Tropes and my own troping site the best of luck in prospering according to their ability.

My tentative optimism and concerns about TV Tropes' change in ownership

After having gotten a better idea about the change in ownership, I think Drew replacing Fast Eddie might be a good first step for TV Tropes.

However, I still have some concerns:

1. The tainted copyright question - In my previous posts, I have gone on at length about how, for the past 2, going on 3 years, Fast Eddie has been running a site with illegally tainted copyright, and I seriously call upon Drew to examine this issue and work with a copyright attorney to assess the legality of the current content base before doing anything major (he has already been contacted by myself and other interested parties and is aware of our concerns), as Fast Eddie left him with a massive legal problem that people whom I'm acquainted with could easily file DMCA's and lawsuits for, and if Drew does absolutely nothing to address this once and for all, I would consider that the height of foolishness at best and no better than the sins of Fast Eddie at worst.

2. The Kickstarter - TV Tropes is raising $50,000 dollars to totally revamp the site from the ground floor up, presumably with a massively revamped wiki engine.

That's all well and good, and if they finally take a shotgun to the head of Fast Eddie's bastardization of PmWiki and replace it with something that doesn't suck, that would be a massive improvement. However, I'm not very optimistic about why they need such an obscene amount of money.

For once, we at All The Tropes proved you could port TV Tropes to MediaWiki, and it cost us 0$ to do. A fair amount of time converting our initial data set and examining copyright law to be sure we were legally safe, but it cost us no money to do aside from any donations we handed Orain (and that was voluntary/optional), and our Wikia branch has all tech support and costs covered by Wikia. Personally, while I understand (though consider it a retarded pride in) the urge to not become like 'The Other Wiki", PmWiki and MediaWiki are not too dissimilar in many ways, include various parsing functions and ability to of the former to act like the latter, and I see no reason you need $50,000 dollars to do what we did for peanuts.

Also, even if they do make something radically different, the current version of PmWiki is going to be a nightmare to convert wholesale given how it mutated under Fast Eddie under the years, even though he's still in the background coding wise lending support in that role to the new ownership (though to my pleasure defanged of any other responsibilities).

Also, my concern about the Kickstarter is also legal: TV Tropes is still allegedly a non-profit, so long as more than half the money earned go back into keeping the site going, and if they are seriously about using this Kickstarter funding for revamping the site, I hope for some transparency regarding how the finances will be spent, if only so the new owner can avoid the shady reputation Fast Eddie built up for not disclosing such matters.

3. The guard needs changing - While I notice Drew has still settled in as owner and not much is changing while they determine the transition needs and requirements, I would do a purge of the current moderators, particularly all those who have proven as corrupt as Fast Eddie (especially Fighteer, whose ED page I have read and found disturbingly accurate, their typical hateful embellishment aside) and replace them with those truly appointed by community consensus. I would also throw out Fast Eddie's manic insistence on "no negativity", which was largely responsible for transforming the site from a somewhat legitimate place to discuss tropes and the works that use them into a pathetic hugbox of a fandom site where you can't say anything bad about something, even if it can be objectively proven, regardless of how salient or legitimate your criticism may be of a trope or work.

Further, I would also toss out many of the rules, such as the draconian "three strikes you're out" and have a more "assume good faith" policy, as being a dick to the noobs and banishing them forever after three mistakes, no matter how innocent, still strikes me as the height of being a poor way to encourage new contributors.

4. Least important, but still a good idea - Throw out the foolish censorship policies and the dependence on Google Ads. Both led to the further emasculation of what TV Tropes once was (an informal yet informative troping site) and turned it into a laughably transparent attempt to fuel Fast Eddie's greed, even if he had to purge anything Google and himself didn't like in the name of money and his own poorly explained personal morality, as I still see no objective reason why works like ''Sengoku Rance'' or ''Kodomo no Jikan'' are any less valid to trope than ''Macbeth'' or ''The Bible'', as despite the controversial subject matter, they are still works with tropes and they don't deserve to be banished from discussion just because an arbitrary censorship panel (who I have found contradictory and corrupt) is throwing it out on the grounds of it being "porn or pedoshit".

That was one of the two reasons my disgust for what TV Tropes became is now so strong that even the full reversal of this policy would disincline me from ever wanting to return to trope there, and the last two and a half or so years of this frankly senseless policy have done little to convince me of the wisdom of such policies.

Gamergate 2 is on, and I want no part of it

 This will not be a long post, but I just want to make clear, as someone who was involved in the first go-round of Gamergate, I want no part...