Roundup

[jaggedwolf]

Media

Haikyuu

Since Season 4's finally happening, literally years later, I've been watching both it and I caught up on the manga.

The training camp arc is where Hinata goes from "I want to spike better" to "I want to see the game better", and it's nice to see him apply that stubbornness to working on receives, even while ball boy. (That commute with no food sounds sooo baaaaad though.) Also, Kageyama expecting everyone at the All-Japan camp to hit his sets after he's been so used to Karasuno, ha, classic.

All caught up on the manga and woah, I had a lot of feelings about that single panel of the four of them as third-years from the back, different hairstyles and lower player numbers, complete with Captain Yamaguchi :S

In retrospect, of course they didn't win Nationals that year, or later. Of course it was something as mundane as a fever, as a leg cramp. But life goes on, and so did they, and there was still a way for Hinata to keep playing volleyball, thanks to the contacts from the coaches and sponsorship from Kenma (now a loaded with $$$ streamer). More to learn, a return to home, and final (for us, not them, hopefully) face-off between Hinata and Kageyama.

Looking forward to seeing this go down. Going to be pretty sad when it's done, gah. What a good bunch of volleyball idiots.

Juno Steel and The Tools of Rust (Part 2)

That was so good, but also a real big bummer. In the best way.

I really didn't expect M'tendere to die. Their back-and-forth conversation with Jet on both their pasts, on what can they can or can't be forgiven for was excellent. In the end, Jet has no answer for his decision to use the bomb that day and never will, and all he can do is use the man he was in service of the man he is today. I adore that while Rita isn't not perturbed by his past, it's not a blocker for her and all she has is a few more questions. The Ruby 7 has imprinted on to Jet. I wonder if we'll find out who made it.

My only mild gripe is that the repeated mention of the crime fam being a uh, family, is getting a little overdone for me. I get it, Jet buys the terminology 'cause Buddy buys it and all of them are here for it, but when we can already tell how close Jet and Rita are, the explicit statement seems unnecessary. Then again, Jet's entire thing is explaining the unnecessary, so eh.

Now...whose PoV are we gonna get next? :D

Homestuck^2

I can't believe there's still more Homestuck. I'm not complaining, it just might be a while before I get around to any of the games, god.

I don't think I've got a clear sense of what Rosebot thinks of this whole mess, but I guess she's sufficiently close to Dirk's...warpiness that her thoughts might not be the most illuminating anyway. I'll be honest, I had completely forgotten that Terezi also got on the spaceship with them. I may have been to distracted by the wives split at the end of Meat to notice.

The other spaceship gang is very good. Admittedly, I am biased, because it's a bunch of my faves on a ship, but some great conversations happened. Karkat and Dave making awkward jokes now that they're together! Getting to see Roxy's cute glasses! My favourite was that Dave and Kanaya conversation, with Kanaya's little speech on how she rarely thinks of things other than Rose, and Dave making her laugh by pointing out Kanaya's one of the few people that stayed the same. This panel is cute, okay?

I...hope regular Calliope and Jade are okay, brr. If our Calliope is actually off drawing Candy...yikes.

Links

Cheer Is Built on a Pyramid of Broken Bodies - I haven't watched any of the documentary, but this article depressed the fuck out of me, so I probably won't.

The radicalism of Randolph Bourne

What’s the harm in reading? - Piece in response to the fallout around Isabel Fall's short story

Want to Criticize Singapore? Expect a ‘Correction Notice’

Comments

[bluapapilio]

Geeeze I am clearly behind on new Homestuck stuff. o_o Last I had to do with it was Hiveswap Act 1.

[jaggedwolf]

Oh, have you not been hearing about the highly controversial epilogues? To be fair, I only read Homestuck last year so I had a bunch of content to jump into - I literally haven't touched any of the games.

[bluapapilio]

Aghh I have but I heard...things...about them and haven't read them. I may never tbh. I really like Hiveswap though, and there's a playthrough on youtube.

[jaggedwolf]

That's very fair, and since H^2 picks up from where the epilogues left off, that might not be your cup of tea either.

Ah, I'll probably get around to actually playing them, I'm just still very attached to the main group of kids to meet a new set of characters yet.