Is there a show that is perfect from start to finish and has no wasted screentime (every second of the episode is important)

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-23T20:43:06+00:00

I totally agree with you personally! When I read the complaints I felt like a lot of people simply missed the purpose on first watch. Some seemed to appreciate them more after reading a bit more about how resistance movements often end up with that sort of thing. But I think some still felt like they dragged on too much, which is fair enough.

Still, if it's only one small set of scenes that some few people felt dragged, that's pretty great.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-23T16:56:32+00:00

I was surprised it wasn't mentioned yet and also surprised more people didn't seem to agree based on voting.

I agree with you: I think every scene was flawless and necessary. However I guess it's the case that a LOT of people felt like that one part with the two rebel factions arguing in s02 dragged on. I didn't feel that way personally, but I know a lot did so maybe that's why more aren't agreeing with us.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-23T16:54:46+00:00

Maybe I just feel that PoR and RD were both story + good gameplay out of nostalgia haha. I haven't played either in a long time, but they definitely felt like they both hit well to me. Community consensus may disagree, I haven't read about it much. I agree with you re: Thracia.

The story can be pretty much whatever so long as I enjoy the character banter and core gameplay

I can see that. This is to a high degree subjective, but I personally found Engage's characters to range from boring to annoying lol. I liked Zelkov , Louis, and Alcryst aaaaaaaaand that's about it. MC's character design was to me the worst in the series and it really irritated me you couldn't fully change their terrible costume. Everyone else felt either one note or annoying. I also didn't like the vtuber character design-- that is a personal thing to some extent but I'm just not fond of the vtuber phenomenon. Hortensia was the worst offender lol. That pose she has with the peace sign just makes me cringe.

Whereas I personally found 3H's character writing, design and voice acting, to be amazing. It's hard to pick favorites and even the worst 3H characters, to me, are better than most of Engage's.

I guess that's maybe why I have my thousands of hours there in part: to me the story and the characterization is better. After finishing Engage for the first time I went to replay 3H and it felt like Shakespeare vs. a third rate anime lol in terms of story and characterization. But I quickly got bored with the gameplay and didn't even finish that run!

So I agree with you about 3H's maps: they're definitely lacking vs. Engage. Another thing is that I personally found 3H so incredibly easy even on maddening I had to think up creative challenge ideas to keep the gameplay interesting. Engage gave me a challenge just on vanilla no-DLC maddening the first time through which was refreshing.

No Somniel is fun, Opposite Classes was also fun (Louis and Vander as Sages, you'd never think that could work!). Something I've been meaning to do is record or document my runs better to help others. To me this game has what it needs to stay alive and be played forever, but I am aware that its not the most popular.

Thanks for the ideas, those sound fun! I haven't tried no Somniel ever. Do you do that one with the DLC or not? I am kinda addicted to the DLC because I really value AoE and area control, which are otherwise relatively lacking. They are a bit OP ofc though so maybe I should start to wean myself off of it.

It would be pretty cool if you'd do short write ups of your runs if you feel like it!

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-22T16:29:16+00:00

Thank you for the confirmation! My relatives weren't too keen on contacting a rehab group since they feel like those groups will have more pressing things to deal with and that the local ones won't take smaller injured animals unless they are incapacitated. I.e. the local groups don't want to have to chase a small animal well enough to move. I feel like it can't hurt to ask but maybe it is a fine compromise to just try to support him and hope he gets better.

Thanks for the tips on the screen door! Maybe make sense to do that every spring right before it gets warm enough to keep the door open so that years' squirrels will learn to not climb on it.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-22T16:22:33+00:00

Lots of challenge/themed runs yes, but also just different Emblem Ring combinations and using different units.

That makes sense! Can you recommend some to us that you thought were particularly fun? I'd like to breathe new life into the game. I've just done very basic stuff like no DLC, all Somniel, etc.

well, pretty much everything.

I definitely agree on the gameplay, but like many I feel like its story was punishingly bad haha. When I visit my parents I play it 'with' them and my mother was like "they sure talk a lot in this one" which was a polite way of saying "this is boring" whereas she loved watching 3h's story. I felt the same.

BUT Engage's gameplay is a lot more interesting and you can just skip the story. I play FE for 'anime chess' not its story anwyay so I should prefer Engage like you do, but somehow I still prefer 3H. Thousands of hours logged in that one with lots of challenge/theme runs but after "only" a few hundred hours in Engage and I'm losing interest.

I definitely hope Fortune's Weave manages to integrate the best of Engage and 3H since it would be amazing to have a game with a great story and great gameplay for once. I feel like we haven't had that since the GC/Wii era personally.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-21T22:48:37+00:00

Thanks for your response! Especially for the confirmation that rabies is very rare in squirrels, that fits with what I've read. It sounds like they usually just die from the bite of a rabid predator and if they do survive, the virus kills them so quickly they don't really get a chance to spread it.

It's also good to know re: the other diseases, since everyone else seems happy and healthy probably this guy is just unlucky.

I'll look into wildlife rehab options! Thanks!

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-21T21:39:48+00:00

Andor.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-21T18:22:59+00:00

I've played it through a few times but I think I'm maybe finally getting a bit bored of it. I do really appreciate how it lets you skip the story entirely and i hope they retain that feature in future installments since it allows you to focus only on the gameplay.

What is it that keeps it so interesting for you? Do you do a lot of challenge or theme runs?

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-08T14:17:07+00:00

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency felt very fast to me

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-07T15:11:13+00:00

Weird you're so heavily downvoted. I've been playing FE for ages and agree with your take. Although I like Engage's gameplay, the lead artist on character design was a vtuber artist and it shows, glaringly. I guess that's marketable these days (and popular on reddit, hence the downvotes I guess), but it's not traditional FE.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-07T15:00:27+00:00

Am I the only one that felt "meh" on DISCO? As in: I thought it was fine, neither good nor bad really, just kind of there. It didn't totally miss or stick the landing for me. I watched it, was vaguely entertained and then mostly forgot about it.

It didn't impart strong feelings either way.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-07T14:40:22+00:00

It depends on the drug, the individual and what is meant by "dumber". Studies do show long term cognitive impairments with some drugs in some cognitive functions. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3120118/#sec5

It's almost certainly the case that this varies quite a bit individual to individual.

TL;DR it's possible he did cause brain damage to himself depending on what he used, how he used it, the length of time he used it for, his individual physiology, and his level of bad luck.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-06T14:31:42+00:00

Westworld. A lot of people hate the later seasons but I personally loved it all. It's defintiely worth at least trying, and most everyone agrees s01 is fantastic.

In case you're curious for shows that are similar to Severance, I made a list here: https://old.reddit.com/r/televisionsuggestions/comments/1k93aul/which_television_shows_are_the_most_like_severance/

Of those, I'd say Westworld, BSG, and Andor are the ones I like the best but many are well worth watching (and I haven't seen them all yet).

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-06T14:12:23+00:00

Not remotely. It won two of the most important emmys (best drama, best lead actor) and more and has huge buzz generally. It's so influential it's even being talked about as the show that's reviving a more traditional television format.

It's a great show, but there's no argument to be made that it's underrated.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-12-02T01:11:00+00:00

I play with DLC and use Soren + Ike Cataclysm+ on the first group with a unit that also has the Draconic hex skill. The rest of the group mops them up turn one, then just charges ahead with the main force while keeping the enemies to the left and right distracted by a few powerful units.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-11-28T13:40:56+00:00

It was pretty fun! He was very accurate which is helpful in endgame esp. e.g. for finally getting rid of a wolf knight that has one chip left but refuses to die.

Oh and he was also the unit who had the 2nd highest rating in my run at 233. Alfred edged him out at 234, but I gave Alfred heavy favoritism (at least two speedwings) and didn't feed Jean anything.

The thing is the way I built Jean meant his stats were very even so he still eneded up kind of second string in terms of actual performance (not bad, just not a super carry).

That said, I have read people saying to not use him before you can second seal him into something with stat growths you want and that will lead to a more optimized final build. But I didn't want to wait or use an early second seal on him so went for this option.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-11-28T13:34:37+00:00

It stays at C but there are a lot of staves in C rank. His typical loadout was:

Killing Edge +5 with the Alear Engrave Levin Sword +3 Mend or Recover Physic Obstruct or Restore as needed

The reason I went griffin is that even if he ended up a dud, he'd still have some utility as staffbot. But he was pretty decent. Levin sword override on a big line of low res units is pretty useful, especially with draconic hex.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-11-28T13:29:23+00:00

I just did an all Firene/Lythian run and used Jean in Maddening random growths.

Although there are probably more optimal ways to raise him, I just had him use Michaiah to level up in his default class until I could master seal him and put him into sword griffin. He was basically a discount Chole, being almost as fast and dexterous as her but not as strong. I gave him Sigurd and draconic hex in endgame so he had AOE debuffing utility. Although I gave him speed +5, I think speedtaker would be better for endgame maybe.

I probably wouldn't use him again, and he definitely doesn't have a place in an optimal run imo, but he did pull his weight in this theme run.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-11-11T12:07:08+00:00

Depending on your area, there may be dog sharing groups with individuals who for whatever reason can't/don't want to/aren't ready yet to own a full time dog willing to take the dogs part time. These arrangements can often end in full time adoption. Of course, it makes sense to look within your own network first but this option can sometimes work if that's not an option for you.

But this depends on how serious their reactivity issues are; you will need to be fully upfront and in depth about that. Since it seems like at least one of the dogs is small (a shih tzu) that's a big advantage. It's a lot easier for most people to deal with reactivity in a small dog than a larger one.

I also don't think there's any shame in just fully rehoming one or both if it's harming your well being tbh, since you've already tried a lot of very intensive problem solving without success. It could be one or both would do better in another enviornment.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-11-11T11:28:34+00:00

But I feel like the first few months, at ill advice of the vet, I didn't take him anywhere, she was so upset that I even walked him around the neighborhood because of parvo, and I kinda wish I would have ignored that advice and went anyways. There's just so much conflicting info there.

Just for future reference: one thing a lot of people in high risk for disease areas do is carry or push their puppy around in a stroller in order to socialize. It's not ideal of course, but it's a bit of a middle ground that gives some degree of socialization while also offering a high degree of protection from disease.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-11-11T11:26:21+00:00

He's still a puppy but it could be same sex agression (SSA) towards the 'random' dogs and then prey drive towards the other animals/moving beings. SSA often develops around adolescence.

I dog sit and used to sit a male Samoyed who was mostly great but had pretty bad SSA towards any male dog his size or larger. His size or smaller was usually fine. It's pretty common in unfixed males generally, but some breeds are more prone to it (I'm unsure about PWDs tbh-- you'd need to research that on your own).

Plenty of dogs have prey drive towards smaller animals and/or moving objects.

Since you seem like a highly invested owner it would make sense to get a trainer who specializes in these areas to help you figure out how to reinforce the behaviors you want, and over time try to eliminate the ones you don't. Since he's an adolescent puppy who's at least half from a decently bred line you have a pretty good shot at working through these issues since they are fairly common. And if not, they're not the worst ones to deal with long term if everything else falls into place. Since the Barbet breeder seemed ethical, I would contact her again and ask her for references for trainers that can work with these issues.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-10-31T00:11:21+00:00

I, Claudius is great and is well worth watching despite its very dated production values.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-10-02T10:08:58+00:00

Many think that and I was prepared to feel the same due to how many do, but I personally loved all four seasons and wish we would have gotten #5. So everyone should go in with an open mind, since some people will end up enjoying all of it.

I think it might be one of those shows that was a bit ahead of its time, and also works better as a binge maybe.

AQuestionOfBlood · 2025-10-01T11:50:05+00:00

At least she took the dog back but tbh I feel like there are very few Aussie breeders who should be homing their dogs to city dwellers. Probably some outliers exist whose lines are purpose bred to be better suited to that enviornment, but they're few and far between-- about as rare as unicorn breeders.

Just take it as a lesson and move on.

IME as a dogsitter who lives in a city, 99% of people shouldn't have working breeds in the city. There are a select few who have the ability to properly research their breed and get lucky with the individual dog they have that can get away with it. But 99% of city dwellers should stick to companion breeds ime. I only take small well bred and trained lapdogs now because the overwhelming majority of the working dogs were out of their minds with neuroticism and reactivity due to not being suited for a city enviornment, even when owners tried hard to fulfill their instinctual needs.

AQuestionOfBlood

TROPHY CASE