Dark Souls 2: What to Worry About

A short time has passed since the announcement of Dark Souls 2 at the VGAs, and the community has been busy digesting all of the information we’ve gotten so far. There have been some strong reactions, particularly regarding the potential changes. In fact, EpicNameBro has already posted several videos digging into what we know so far. Most of these reactions center around the reality that Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator and director the entirety of the Souls series thus far, will not be directing Dark Souls 2.

Instead, Dark Souls 2 will be directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura. Although Miyazaki is devoting the majority of his attention to another project, he is still supervising Dark Souls 2’s development. As supervisor, Miyazaki has said that he is making it a point to protect the core aspects of the series. In contrast, however, Shibuya said that he is much more direct and open than Miyazaki, and that this is sure to be apparent in the finished product.

So, am I worried? Hell yeah, I’m worried, but I’m not scared. Dark Souls is precious to me. I have no problem saying that it is my favorite game of all time. In fact, Dark Souls has been an important point of reference and enjoyable experience for me as I have struggled with PTSD for the past year. My experience with Dark Souls is more meaningful to me than any other gaming experience I’ve had. Naturally, I am extremely excited for Dark Souls 2. I want my experience with it to be nostalgic and cathartic, but I still want it to be new and surprising. Of course I’ll worry about Dark Souls 2 as I anxiously await its arrival with my seemingly paradoxical desires, but I feel secure despite all of the reasons there are to worry so far. Dark Souls 2’s new direction will be more a result of its new directors, who are new to the Souls series, than anything else. Second to that is the extra staff they have working on the game, who are also new to the series. Given these factors, what have I got to feel secure in?

A Fangirl’s Quandary: What Does Sherlock’s S3 Wedding Bode?

It’ll be a while till we actually have Sherlock Season 3, what with filming not even starting until 2013, but a month or two ago Steven Moffat (god rest his… twitter. …I guess) gave us the three words that would be the basis for the three episodes’ plots.  For Season 2, they were “Woman”, “Hound”, and “Fall”; this season will be “Rat”, “Wedding”, and “Bow”, apparently.

This is the only Rat-related Sherlock Holmes story I know of.

I have no idea what Rat means. I assume “Bow” is bow as in “take a bow”, not bow as in “bow ties are cool”; there’s room for speculation. But that’s not what I’m concerned about.

“Wedding” is what gets me. I am torn about this. Going from the pattern of the S2 words, the wedding will be the main point of the episode. From the fact that it’s the second episode, we know Sherlock will be back in business. So the question is who’s wedding whom?

The Review of Korra: Antepenultimate Edition

Someone somewhere else (maybe Crunchyroll?) used the word antepenultimate (as in before the second to last) to describe the tenth episode of Book One of Legend of Korra, and I thought that was awesome. So here goes:

I feel really bad for Asami. Mako is basically cheating on her, and it’s not like he’s known Korra any longer than he’s known Asami that Korra has some previous claim over him. I don’t like that it’s sort of being played like Asami’s the bad guy and we should feel bad for Mako. No. Mako needs to sack up and stop stringing these girls both along.

I continue to love Lin Bei Fong like burning. Tenzin’s kids are also amazing and ridiculous.

The scene with the council members being attacked confirmed for me that, even when talking and not just blindly agreeing with Tarrlock, they are idiots.

Smackdown of the episode is a tossup between the Airbender kids and Naga laying the beatdown on Mustache Guy. Nevermind, smackdown goes to Lin for destroying one and a half airships singlehandedly. Lin Bei Fong is the queen of my heart.

AAAH HELLO DANTE BASCO- I MEAN , GENERAL IROH, YOU MUST BE ZUKO’S BOY AND AREN’T YOU ADORABLE. (So much for my Mako is Zuko’s long-lost son theory… Also, Zuko has the child-naming imagination of Harry Potter, good goddamn…)

Things that are still a problem: Korra still doesn’t know how to airbend, and she’s no closer than she was in Episode Two.

Who are Mako and Bolin’s parents? Is that important at all? Do they have some secret magical heritage or are they just bog-standard orphans? (No one in fantasy is ever just a bog-standard orphan.)

Did Sokka (and I assume Suki, because in Avatar teen loves are forever loves) have a kid? Why haven’t they made an appearance? Everyone else’s kids have.

Picture is unrelated.

This episode’s Who Is Amon guess: I was banking on him being estranged Fire Nation royalty, but Iroh’s appearance has filled our Zuko’s-family quota. Maybe Azula eventually bucked the cray-cray and had a kid? I’m stuck with my energybending cyborg theory.

Wish list for the finale:

• Let there be a season two, and don’t rush all of the plot into the finale. There is no reasonable way that Korra will master airbending in these last two episodes, so don’t focus on that.
• Resolve the relationship stupidity in a way that a) doesn’t estrange Asami, b) gives Mako his due share of the blame, and c) doesn’t spare Korra’s feelings. She has a bit of an internalized I’m-the-Avatar-gimme-gimme sense of entitlement on top of the standard-for-any-crush feeling of no matter how much you like the other woman, the guy would be better with you, and she needs to get over it.
• Let Korra (and Bolin, etc) grow as a character in general. One of the greatest things about the original series was the character depth – Sokka was the goofball, but a brilliant strategist. Katara was the sweet, principled, naive character who bloodbent when she had to. This is what made them interesting. Korra, Bolin, and Mako to a point are all still pretty two-dimensional for me.
• I read a really interesting theory on tumblr: because their energybendings are different, Amon’s is reversible. But only if the blocked bender is confident it can be reversed. The more they panic and are depressed about it, the less able they would be to reverse it. Please to be employing this or some other equally awesome and intricate theory to give Lin her bending back. (I’m sure she’ll still be kickass without it, but whatever.)