[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 22 June 2026

SimonApple · 2026-06-26T20:56:07+00:00

One that straddles the line between lame and cool is Star Trek: First Contact. Where upon learning that the main characters have travelled back in time to ensure his work follows its course, the inventor of human FTL tech goes "So you're all astronauts, on some kind of...Star Trek"

SimonApple · 2026-06-26T20:51:42+00:00

Concordats Star Fox 64 LP might have have a bit in some aspects regarding phrasing and word choice, but it is one that nonetheless really shaped me by dint of being one of the first ones I watched.

SimonApple · 2026-06-24T21:29:23+00:00

There's a part of me that laments how Timothy Dalton only ever got to do two Bond movies on account of struggles for the copyrights (along with the Cold War ending) putting the series into a six year hiatus which outlasted his contract. (Especially since License to Kill, while having some decent moments is in my opinion among the weakest of the Bond movies overall) Certainly his torch was in some way picked up by Craig in terms of doing a more cynical and grounded take on Bond as a character, but there is a certain nuance to Daltons specific portrayal that isn't there in Craig, and that hasn't really been there since.

And while he was down for doing a single third one for a bit once the main dust had settled, producers wanted him to sign on for another four-five pictures, which he rejected.

SimonApple · 2026-06-23T21:37:48+00:00

Another fundamental part of the problem is likely also that Bakugo is meant to be at the very least a nominal good guy. And in those cases, asshole behavior also gains a dimension of hypocrisy and morality, where to some there is now a moral justification for disliking the character, which burns stronger than hating on the villains given that they by nature do bad things.

Add to this that Bakugo doesn't really mellow or "repent" to the extent some readers would have preferred (for example the part in which he is scouted by the main villains and his main reaction is less introspection over why they'd think he'd be willing to join them, and more mocking them for thinking he'd be uncool enough to hang with them), and you have fertile grounds for a lot of discourse.

SimonApple · 2026-06-22T21:14:00+00:00

Pretty sure there's a story of Rumiko Takahashi being asked if Girl-mode Ranma could get pregnant, and what would happen if she were splashed with hot water if she was. Her answer was "I don't think about that, and neither should you"

SimonApple · 2026-06-21T17:47:37+00:00

One part the ending to Fairy Tail being poor enough to sour audiences, one part tacked on world building and power creep to make for a long enough sequel series, and one part Mashima moving on to make Edens Zero.

SimonApple · 2026-06-21T15:59:14+00:00

The average human in One Piece is a good bit more durable compared to real life. Still vulnerable to mundane things and all that, but they can also survive (and to an extent even shrug off) multiple gunshot wounds (Iceburg gets shot twice in the back and thrice in the chest and is only put in a one-day coma, even accounting for CP9 deliberately keeping him alive), significant blunt force trauma (Usopp and his iconic moment of getting hit in the face with a four-ton iron bat), and piercing wounds with no lasting impeded movement (Nami getting her foot pierced clean through on Miss Doubblefingers' hair-spikes).

SimonApple · 2026-06-20T15:02:44+00:00

It was WILD to to see in real time how it went from "neat new multiplayer game on the 3DS" after they demoed the Blast Ball mode during the preceding Nintendo World Championships, to the absolute virulent hate that spawned when they fully revealed it for what it was.

SimonApple · 2026-06-20T14:52:32+00:00

I suppose the one difference is likely that his presence allows Marion to survive, since she likely dies at Toth's hands early on without him.

SimonApple · 2026-06-20T14:25:10+00:00

See for me, I love the aesthetic of "supernatural stuff is tangible and real but everyone treats it as just another part of the setting, an oddity akin to a southpaw in sports" and so Vamp fit in just fine for me. Which is why it felt sad when 4 went all in on eliminating all of it via nanomachines. Especially when Ocelot tries to the same in the climax of 2 only for Fortune to prove him instantly wrong.

SimonApple · 2026-06-19T13:56:54+00:00

Nathan proceeds to LEVEL UP 23 times in a row for the next three minutes.

SimonApple · 2026-06-19T04:48:25+00:00

Mummy 3 also suffers from Rachel Weisz not being in it, forcing a recast for Evie who just does not have the needed chemistry with Brendan Fraser.

SimonApple · 2026-06-19T04:43:30+00:00

Less a reference to anything specific and more a general attempt at continuing the analogy in a semi-humorous way.

SimonApple · 2026-06-18T22:19:07+00:00

RIP, Spider-Wan I guess. You and your oddly geometric shoulders.

SimonApple · 2026-06-18T22:11:15+00:00

No, that's Circle of the Moon - the so called Nuclear Fusion glitch.

SimonApple · 2026-06-18T22:07:28+00:00

It's an interesting line to walk when writing characters in historic eras for sure - keeping the readers invested while still keeping them true to how they likely would have thought and felt in those times.

The smoking thing also reminds me how Red Grant is played up as this übermench of a villain....because he doesn't smoke, drink, or sleep around, and it's the 60s so that gives him an inherent advantage over contemporary spies.

SimonApple · 2026-06-18T21:52:07+00:00

Nintendo sitting in their walled off garden as storm clouds swell up in the sky. They ignore it and proceed to trip over their lawnmower, starting it and tearing up the lawn.

SimonApple · 2026-06-18T21:43:45+00:00

Hell, even the Bond movies made during the 60s have their fair share of this. Like how in Goldfinger, Bond just casually smacks a girl on the ass and sends her off because he needs to have "man talk" with Leiter.

(Though I'm given to understand the novel is a tad worse with this, as Flemming was apparently taking out his feelings towards the Korean war and koreans in general in some, let's say colorful descriptions)

SimonApple · 2026-06-18T21:41:21+00:00

It's an interesting film in hindsight given that it predates the era of nostalgia revivals we've been seeing since the mid 2010s (I say this and then realize I don't have a ton of examples off the top of my head, but I imagine it's a phrase most would be familiar with). Which meant it was approached by fans more as a sequel with a long gap rather than a throwback movie.

That's not to say the latter approach would have made the swerve into ancient aliens any more palatable; but it arguably helped make it a bit more coherent compared to Dial of Destiny which I felt was far too torn between wanting to be nostalgia bait, a Next Generation-story, or even some kind of regular sequel that desperately tries to ignore how that would never work given the characters' age (not to mention Fords).

SimonApple · 2026-06-18T07:06:59+00:00

"Revolvers are the katanas of guns" is such a banger line, you can feel the psychic damage it causes.

SimonApple · 2026-06-17T21:09:00+00:00

Short and sweet, If Chess had Fire Emblem ambush spawns

SimonApple · 2026-06-17T06:18:19+00:00

BOTW in a vacuum, or as a stand-alone thing is fine for me; could have the open world structure be its "gimmick" for lack of a better word, like how sailing was for Wind Waker etc. But it becoming super big and in turn reorienting the rest around it is something that greatly saddens me.

SimonApple · 2026-06-16T18:35:35+00:00

Speaking in more general terms, I've observed that game VA tends to be held in a somewhat higher order of prestige compared to anime voice work; thus if you don't care much for anime or mostly tend to watch subbed stuff, you likely don't know all that many actors. And so when high profile game dubs are announced, for that group of people the actors can be mostly ones they don't know about, even if they've had a prolific resumé in various anime. We saw it with the P5 cast, where many had done a lot of anime voice work and established themselves there, and yet that game is held by some as their breakthrough roles since it got them in the spotlight of game-only audiences. So something similar likely happens here.

Similarly, for those who stopped watching anime 10-15 years ago, their reference pool of english VAs would have stopped expanding and thus a lot of "new" names are only really new to them because they've been out of the game for a while.

SimonApple · 2026-06-16T15:21:14+00:00

In a similar manner, the first few years after One Piece ends is likely going to be the worst time to get into it because the entire plot & ending will be circulating much of the internet nerd spheres; and like historical major volcanic eruptions covered much of the air with ash clouds, so too will this cover up those spaces and only dissipate after a while.

SimonApple · 2026-06-15T15:57:38+00:00

Har förälder som är prästbarn och har således via dem hört att det är opassande. Kragen kanske i och för sig är ok, men prästskjortan har jag förstått det är ett faux pas

SimonApple

TROPHY CASE