Lurker > Surskit

Is it? The edit is terrible.

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The character design is horrifying but otherwise, Mallow > Geno imo.

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I honestly think production was just terrified of Dan making the end and maybe even winning so they just ejected him the moment the opportunity arose for it to happen, lol. It seemed pretty set in stone that we'd end with an all-male final 3, and from the very limited commentary we got on Dan's game, he was seen as an integral part of his alliance's success and as a ringleader of sorts. Most of the cast had no problems with him. No amount of girl power editing would be able to erase that.

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Pokewars posted...

https://jeffvarner.blogspot.com/?m=1

I guess his book about how he managed to survive outing a trans person on television didn't sell super well.

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I mean, if you have early release on Christmas Eve, for example, but you took that day off as annual leave, I don't think you'd get a 0.5 day of annual leave back. In that sense, I understand it?

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I'm discussing her chances of winning, not her chances of making it deep or even F3. I think she's a fantastic social player and she is very self-aware. I simply do not see a scenario in which a gigantic jury (which might end up being the complete cast unless someone quits EoE) chooses to reward the person who has been branded by the fanbase and production as being a complete mistake with the title of the winner among winners. She will not suddenly decide to play a super flashy game; she's a lot more subtle than that.

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I'm not counting Ethan out entirely (raise your hand if you thought Amber or Sandra would win their respective All-Stars seasons, lol), I just think he might have a harder time doing it. I could actually see him making it far just because he's such an agreeable presence, although I wonder how well he will fare as far as pre-game connections are concerned. The only people I'm basically positive are in an impossible situation are Sandra and Michele. I think modern Survivor loves the more game-aware players who can use the buzzwords and prop themselves up to sound impressive, and I have little hope Ethan would be able to do that (but then again, the very story of an old school player like Ethan successfully adapting to the game well enough to make it to the end would be very impressive). Tommy had the good fortune of being against Noura and Dean; Ethan's competition here are people who come with the default respect of having won the game in the first place.

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Nobody will look back on Other M more fondly because nobody will look back on it, period.

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Espeon posted...

That leaves Ethan, Tyson, Wendell, Ben, Yul and Jeremy. Ethan is too old school to be successful, Ben was a weak winner the first time around, Tyson is too cocky, Jeremy has that All-Star stigma.

Meh. I doubt Ethan will translate into modern Survivor, I agree. But Ben could easily flourish; it's not like Tyson was a particularly great player before he won. Tyson being too cocky is also kind of a weak reason to count him out. I think people would respect him regardless if he plays a great game. Jeremy may have a stigma and he's coming with one of the strongest games played in modern Survivor, but so many of these people have stigmas attached to them. Parvati, Rob, Tony, Sandra, Kim - just to name a few. And then on the opposite side of the spectrum, people like Michele, Amber, Sophie, Danni could be targeted to kill off the UTR females before they make it too deep and run away with it.

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I'd wager Sandra has a zero percent chance at winning, maybe even more so than Tony who was clowned enough by his second boot that they might not immediately try to take him out again. Michele is also likely fucked, for that matter. I cannot see these people rewarding her with the winner of winners title given her reputation, unless she really hits it out of the park in a completely dominant fashion but that's not her playstyle. If there was ever a time the women should align and try to make F3 together, this is it. Ego is likely to play a big role this season, imo. I love the idea that Jeff accepted to bring Michele back to humiliate her and that she dominates instead. Go get 'em, girl. Otherwise, I'm rooting for the old schoolers here.

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Seriously. I can imagine the furries are just as horrified.

Cats has always been kind of shitty, though. The Broadway show also makes the characters look horrifying; like some sort of furry fantasy gone wrong with tinges of glam rock influences in the costume designs because truly, why the fuck not. It's like walking into some very odd fetishist's idea of an animal costume party. It's part of the charm at this point. The show has always been about odd-looking people in costumes prancing around singing somewhat catchy songs.

We knew the critics would have a field day with this thing and I imagine many of these reviews had been in the works far before the movie released. The plot has always been whatever; the focus would be entirely on the visuals (considering this is an adaptation) and they didn't need to watch the movie for that to transfer over. It's their chance to fuck around and sprinkle the reviews with humor, because it's that kind of movie where the public would always demand for them to just shit on it. And shit on it they did.

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CoolCly posted...

Long post.

So I think this is a good season, and that Survivor Production has done a good job trying to navigate a really difficult and real issue.

I agree that it's not easy for production to make a decision concerning Dan and how to act on it. As awful as it sounds, I would absolutely never put it past a contestant with particularly broken morals to lie about harassment when there's precedent that it can lead to a cumbersome competitor being eliminated. People do it outside the show and people could do it for a prize. Production had to take this and legal considerations in mind before performing any actions, and they were evidently not prepared. There's a lot of talk about CBS being sued over this as well, and it's something they had to discuss. The decision couldn't be immediate, and it's a first. They are so very lucky the Sue Hawk situation happened when it did, or that the claims against Bob from Gabon could be so easily swept under the rug, just as an example. But this is a different time and women are not afraid to speak up, and I seriously understand why this is a very complicated issue from a production standpoint. I do.

But... as a viewer of a show, should I care about the behind the scenes difficulties? If I hear a certain product has had a difficult development period, do I care? Should I look at something with different lens because of its history and the context of its production? Maybe you care, but I just don't care. All I saw was this stank-ass feely older guy existing in a season while we watched a woman break down on camera for it, and then surviving for several episodes and being a fun-suck every minute of screentime he got and becoming one of the least likable people on the show's history. Don't get me wrong either, as dark/controversial as the merge episode was, I posted about it here before and I found it absolutely fascinating as a representation of something that is really important. Survivor had never been such a strong microcosm of society as it was in that double episode following the aftermath of Kellee's claims. I found it great television, uncomfortable as the topic is. Some people had a less positive overview and that's totally valid, too. Not everyone wants to tune into Survivor to watch these things.

My biggest personal gripe is not this, however. I feel like the last few episodes have just been really disappointing. I actually love Dean as a character; he's layered enough as a player and entertaining enough as a personality that I can get behind him.

My personal issues (especially with the merge, since I do like the pre-merge) are:
a. The season's theme, on principle, is a bad idea that takes up too much time that could be devoted to literally anything else. The "lessons" have for the most part being hollow, and the "challenges" pretty silly. We've been lucky that Rob/Sandra have tried their best, but they are still just pointlessly long scenes for characters to get advantages.
b. Tommy's by-the-books winner's edit has been irritating; whether he wins or not is irrevelant, really. He's one of the most boring, one dimensional major characters I've ever seen on this show, which was fine pre-merge when he wasn't getting as much attention, but as we approached the finale, it's gotten worse and more blatant. As a viewer, it's always a bit frustrating to watch everyone throw their games for one player, and when that player isn't even good, then oof.
c. Rather unexciting gameplay that tends to benefit a stale power alliance. I feel like Karishma did her best to keep it more interesting with her idol play and booting Missy, but even Karishma ended up just being cut off unceremoniously. The most exciting move of the game was Kellee taking out Jack and saving Dean, but it is hurt in hindsight by Kellee following him out the door. Karishma's idol play could have been much more entertaining if Elizabeth's boot hadn't been so telegraphed.
d. Very bland solo immunity challenges. This is common in Survivor these days with the creativity level being pretty low, but I can only watch so many endurance challenges with Jeff's generic filler voiceover.
e. Yeah, Dan sucks, and his presence on the show was actively detrimental to it. Remember how they just stashed Will away in World's Apart once he became completely unlikable? I honestly would've preferred this. He contributed nothing that wasn't the equivalent to the buzzing of a fly.
f. Lauren's inconsistent edit leading up to her being built as the biggest threat. She's quickly falling into production's "will she ever flip on the guy who will beat her at the end?" go-to narrative which is never a pleasant story to watch unfold when the answer is no. Janet was similarly irrelevant before merge, although she would pop up from time to time, but it makes her difficult to see as a contender unless she's just being underedited like other female winners before her. I expect production wouldn't really know how to edit her as a winner anyway, since she's very little of a strategybot and very much someone who plays by her instincts (see: Kelly Wiglesworth in Cambodia), so I'm more forgiving here.
g. I love Noura and Dean as characters, but they're just there to provide some levity and are not very serious contenders, which is disappointing heading into a five-person finale. Dean's delusion can easily rub others off and I totally get it as well. Noura's constant need to suck up to the power alliances by fessing up by throwing her allies under the bus can be frustrating too.
h. There's way too many idols and advantages. Production has to stop hiding idols in plain sight the second they're played at tribal. I appreciate that idol hunt scenes have been cut down in length since I always found them really boring, especially since we used to get a main narrator that makes it clear who will find the idol way ahead of time, but in their place they've been replaced by ubiquitous, constant idol find scenes. Stop. I don't want a second coming of Ben, even if Ben is replaced by someone like Janet who doesn't tend to benefit from idols. An idol used to be so much more important than it is now. People are much less likely to want to save their idols for key moments, and it undermines the importance of being capable of reading the room.
i. Also, why is Jack a juror, again? lol
j. The season having such a strong pro-women narrative pre-merge that set certain expectations, just to then become increasingly clear that it's more about covering production's ass concerning Dan.
k. Probably many more reasons; these are just what came to mind first and not some in-depth analysis.

My biggest positive takeaway from this season will be the pre-merge edit, because I think they got a lot o

I think Cambodia itself is fine but its influence on every season that followed is undeniable and what truly triggered a lot of what we have been discussing in this topic series previously as far as what production envisions in Survivor nowadays. Production was pushing an agenda hard this season and the players who responded positively to it were rewarded with significant edits while those who didn't were mostly ignored. Maybe Michele's win was the straw that broke the camel's back but it was ultimately the idea that the game is supposed to be played a certain way, pushed so hard in Cambodia, that made her so controversial in the first place. I won't deny the wonderful cast and the often entertaining gameplay, but it still suffered from under-editing certain players to a gross extent (in exchange for bloating the airtime of others, who offer repetitive strategic confessionals) and fabricating storylines that were visibly untrue, Spencer being the very worst offender by far. For every amazing character there were some blatant duds (as far as the final product is concerned, anyway).

I think I've softened on it with the years but it's all on the strength of its cast, because the editors/production did everything in their power to make it worse. I still think the first four episodes together are one of the best pre-merge streaks we've ever seen, and I'm controversially a big fan of Savage because the editors really didn't even try to make him not be a complete douchenozzle and I'm all for a strong villain with such a satisfying takedown. And even more personally speaking, I'm not big on Wentworth either. I find her a little too put-on; she was trying so damn hard to be somebody and it showed in spades, and I'm not a big fan of players having that mentality. It's especially noticeable when contrasting her with how she was on EoE and SJDS. I thought she was a lot less focused on creating soundbites and being a character here while still being fabulously scrappy, and I liked her a ton better as a result.

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Somehow I'm more bothered by the random otter in the background, wtf is that?

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I've kept every one of my old consoles. Even as a kid, I'd take excellent care of my consoles and games, and I love playing the games the way they were originally meant to be played. Some of those games aren't available in the newer systems either. It's not like I use them frequently but unless I'm ever in need of a desperate buck, I'll keep my console.
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I don't know why you guys even bother. Guy likes his AAA games, let him be. It's a shame that's how he feels, but it's like someone who goes to the movies just for the big blockbusters. I find their taste hard to understand but it is what it is.
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Punnyz posted...

no where is safe now

You say it like it's a new thing that started when someone got shot at a random parking lot when kids of all ages have been getting shot at schools for ages now.
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My issue with Tommy is that he's had close to no personal content at all. He's full-on MOR through and through, he would be one of the most toneless winners in Survivor history for someone who isn't being actively ignored by the edit. Perhaps I drowned out something out of his monotone drone, but I can't remember him saying anything about himself outside of maybe the premiere when he mentioned being a teacher or whatever? He's not even a strategybot like Kim, he's a solid nothing. His confessionals rarely add anything. Maybe the editors had no material of him saying anything remotely interesting but I'm just shocked they'd try to present someone as this hopelessly forgettable. He's like the second coming of Tyler Fredrickson.

If he ever finds an idol, I think we might be able to gauge his chances of winning a lot better. Those scenes are always a good way to eliminate someone from being a contender, imo. I thought Kellee stood a decent chance until she found her idol tbh. Same with Janet and Chelsea before.
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Hadn't Kellee talked to Dan literally in the very first episode to tell him he made her uncomfortable? lol. I did think he was sincere in being unaware of how he could come across, but his speech during tribal was full of red flags in which he attempted to minimize the issue while also claiming not to understand it. A lot of people (understandably, perhaps?) have a trouble simply apologizing rather than giving excuses, especially when their character is in jeopardy, and I think Dan erred hard in that sense. Trying to speak of how you are basically a model for the Me Too movement, talking about your wife, attempting to pass off the situations in which he may have committed the harassment as cramped space or trying to become close to someone for warmth. It's like trying to put out flames with a blindfold. Good people are capable of wrong behaviors, too. But it's difficult for a guy like Dan who is only getting a fraction of the story because the rest of the cast isn't willing to fess up on the situation.

I thought this was an incredible double episode of television, even if a lot of these people showed their asses here. Survivor is sometimes an absolute microcosm of reality and independently of which side you're on, the ability to be able to be a spectator in such a story that rings incredibly true today was truly documentary-like in a way Survivor hadn't been in a long time. What I found most incredible is that we had someone playing basically every one of the traditional roles in such a situation. Most interesting I thought was Missy who was fine letting it out and discussing it with someone she trusted in Kellee, but then retracted her statements when confronted in public. Elizabeth basically having no horse in the race and choosing to believe her own perception over the victims'. Janet standing up for the victim and being ostracized for it. Aaron accusing Janet of victimization because he has close female connections and thus feeling like he can be an authority on the subject. Jamal attempting to play a voice of reason and moderator. Long list of etceteras and every one of them equally representative of what happens on a much more massive scale in the world. I cannot think of a moment more powerful than Janet trying to talk to Dan and then confronting Liz, moments after we saw Elizabeth and Missy lie their asses off and have several players try to cheer up Dan and tell him how this was only Kellee all along to cover their tracks.

I don't think any of the people in the majority alliance was spared from being edited as a total douche except Elaine and Tommy. Tommy especially got that scene with Janet that painted him in a much more positive light than anyone else in that group. At the end of the day, the footage selected will create an impression, so we have to be careful not to judge these people too hard, either.

edit. Oh, and I was screaming at my screen when Kellee didn't play one her idols. What the hell, girl? smh
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Isn't Space Oddity an EP of like, four songs? It feels a bit odd to include it here unless I'm missing a different release under that name.
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guffguy89 posted...

It's amazing how people not only brag about piracy, but they actually belittle other people for not stealing content. Like, I understand you've seared your conscious on that issue a long time ago probably, but that's still pretty brazen. It would be like me bragging about casual shoplifting that I do all the time, and then going into a topic about black friday sales and belittling people for paying for the stuff they could just steal.

There's always been a big "it's okay to steal from big corporations" mentality among some people, especially from grocery stores, even if you can afford the items in question or if the items are luxury items. Whether you agree or not, I'd still say there's a massive disconnect between enjoying the content Disney produces and not wanting to give them any of your money, though. A big "have your cake and eat it too" kind of situation.
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I don't watch the anime but just based on designs, I always thought Chimchar was particularly awful. Uncanny valley material tbh, it looks like a weird deformed baby. Its butt being on fire is lazy as hell. Infernape's pretty cool though.
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Jim Carrey was the best part of that trailer, imo. Ham it up all the way to the sky, Jim! The rest of the movie seems very cookie cutter. The dude seems bland as hell but I guess he had no choice but to play the straight man to this campfest of a cast.

I had the same issue with Detective Pikachu's incessant need to spew hit or miss (mostly miss, to me) one-liners but it looks inoffensive enough.
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I had bubble tea on a paper straw the other day and it was perfectly fine.
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I'm really surprised they have managed to keep a half-decent edit despite the airtime sink that are the Rob/Sandra segments. A few borderline invisible people per episode but they alternate which helps us follow their stories regardless. I don't think anybody has had a consistently visible edit except for Missy.
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eaedwards6400 posted...

"The new format favoring men" is all based in the assumption that men are better fire makers than the women but as we have seen so far this season women have been better at making fire than the men.

I'm like 75% sure a woman is winning this season but I'm not sure which one I'm actually leaning Missy.

The actual reason fire-making exists is to be able to give another shot to the perceived biggest threat to make F3, which is in line with production's efforts to have so-called deserving winners and give an incentive to players not to be afraid to play big and thus make better TV (in theory). Usually it'd be a no-brainer to just cut them at 4 if they lost immunity, but now they have another chance. The FTC format is similarly supposed to undermine the more personal aspect of Survivor by not giving jurors the opportunity to have a one-on-one with the finalists and ask them whatever they want and giving the jurors clear directives on how they should vote, therefore producing more satisfying winners (in production's eyes). Since the changes, the winner has always either won immunity or won fire (or both, in Chris' case), and it's always been men. I don't think men are necessarily better at making fire than women (or they shouldn't be) but I do think giving someone two chances to save themselves benefits a man's traditional play style more than a woman's.

A woman is definitely winning this season. We hadn't seen so much discussion about female empowerment since Kaoh Rong. Angelina's own little speeches don't really count since she was always edited negatively. It's been the season's theme since the premiere. I can imagine production would piss themselves in excitement if Missy won since she's a triple minority and it'd definitely explain the narrative. I don't think there's much reason to believe anyone but herself and Kellee have a shot, but the merge will make it much clearer since characters' edits can change dramatically once the merge hits. I have seen some talk of Tommy but I think he's far too bland in his content to be taken seriously. Someone who is just a player and not a person I could never see win, and he was thoroughly embarrassed this episode.
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Stadium Arcadium should absolutely not be two hours long.
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Yeah, I'm not buying Jeff's sudden change of heart either, which made his questions during tribal feel like him trying to build a moment.

I hate the new FTC format with the outwit / outplay / outlast round of questioning, and the fire-making thing is dumb as hell too. It's a well-known fact that Jeff and the rest of production changed the format precisely to avoid people like Michele winning, so like... lol.
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I thought Kellee's speech was very poignant and I love that it came out so organically, but then Jeff desperately trying to make it into a moment was so on the nose and it really took away everything that made it good in the first place. Let the players have the conversation themselves.

Independently of whether there is or isn't a women's alliance at the time, it's absolutely true that women often do need each other. How many times do we have to see the woman of a showmance or duo get the boot over the man? It happened this season too, haha. Minorities in general tend to bond with each other and seek each other for protection. It's not rare for the very few Black contestants to be tight with each other. Ultimately, though, there's a reason most of the women who have won Survivor are given accolades for their social games or playing under the radar while the men tend to be credited with the strategy. I think it's especially difficult for an older woman to try to play that role and step out of the mom box. It's not too long ago that Spencer was making comments about Kass' estrogen making her act insane, either.

This season has been hammering in the whole girl power thing a lot and this episode was truly the cherry on top. I like it but it also feels like they're just trying to construct a narrative for the winner and they're just trying to pander knowing full-well a non-returnee woman hasn't won since Michele and Jeff is still fuming about it.
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It's Ponyta for me. The lesser of the three two-line Fire types in Gen I, imo. Although I often forget Pinsir too, and when I do, I remember how ugly its Mega is and I consciously try to forget it again.
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Xiahou Shake posted...

The "physical master race" is going to be having a rough time adapting when physical media is relegated to a hipster vinyl-esque scene in a couple more console gens, lol.

Vinyl sales have been steadily increasing and they put a ton of work into almost every vinyl press, though? Vinyl has never sounded, been packaged, and looked better. If gaming goes down the same way I'd consider it a positive.
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The term is hyperthymesia btw.
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TomNook posted...

mrduckbear posted...

He was found guilty of 3 counts of cyberstalking and 1 count of transmitting a kidnap threat

I didn't realize 'cyberstalking' and talking shit was a crime. But I imagine the mysterious "kidnap threat" is probably the reason for the arrest.

Seems like a shit individual. I don't know about prison time though. Seems like pretty much every YouTube commenter.

Are you being intentionally dense? Talking shit isn't a crime, targeting victims' families for harassment is. Commenting on YouTube isn't equivalent to you going through hoops to locate specific people and making them miserable.
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SmartMuffin posted...

XFD

are we still doing this? lol
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I broke up with my ex at their apartment. Then my next partner broke up at my apartment. Both times it felt... optimal? When I'm broken up with, I want to immediately wallow in my pity and cry or whatever, so being in my apartment rather than in public is definitely my preference. I almost felt bad for my ex who had to take the hour-plus subway ride back.

I more or less ghosted my last partner, whom I dated for over a year, but I had my reasons to hate them and they knew it.
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Cats is not a good musical in the first place so this isn't much of a loss. These look like human heads popping out of some deformed furry body. I think it's especially creepy because the entire face looks like a bald patch with the human features growing out of it. Also, Rebel Wilson was the worst part of that trailer. Was that really one of the funniest scenes of her character? The cringe is real.

Most of the time, rule of thumb is to just not add a fully realistic human face on something non-human. You need to change it at least a bit or it's just disturbing.
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1 and 2 are not even mutually exclusive.
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I bought it, why not? Looks like a fun enough game. Thanks for the tip.
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Princess Bride.

There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours.
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Bad because the idea of going vegan is painful. Dairy products make me way too happy.
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His obsession with female teachers who get involved sexually with their students is kinda weird but I have to appreciate his creativity when it comes to name-calling.
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Z-Moves seemed decently received imo. Megas could've been okay but so many of the designs were completely awful that it really soured the overall reception.
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Underleveled posted...

Without Smash, Tanner could beat her with relative ease

I'm sure you're being hyperbolic but I refuse to believe this. At least Wii Fit Trainer would be seen as a random funny entrant in a pre-Smash world, whereas Tanner is Tanner.
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I do think an HD update of the Gamecube games would at least be on par with these.

Also, if there's one Pokemon that deserved to be made completely obsolete, it's Slurpuff. Alcremie is the hero we need but don't deserve. Swirlix should be retroactively made to have a double evolution so nobody is ever subjected to Slurpuff ever again.
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DR1 was basically all about Kirigiri who was boring as hell, at least DR2 had the decency to focus on more captivating characters.
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I usually just make sure to save a specific part of my monthly salary as soon as I receive it. I'm not a huge spender so it's never really a problem.
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Resident Evil
Big Lebowski
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This kinda looks like shit.
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Holy Grail
Beatles
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Invitation Flower ~ Autumn
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