Board 8 > SaveEstelle/LeonhartFour in Different Houses: Quinton Exists Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

As EDI says in the best Mass Effect 3 ending, "I am alive...and I am not alone." That's right, folks. Quinton (now my legal name!) is back. For how long? Who knows. One thing's for sure -- I'm always a little shocked that Leon has kept up the tradition of labeling these topics as though I'm still here. I guess it pays to be close friends with the guy!

To celebrate my return, I'm going to "SELF"-ishly make the first post all about me. I'm attending college and working on campus in a comfy little teaching assistant gig. I've been living in North Carolina for about two years now. It's pretty! Summers suck (though not as much as Floridian summers) but autumn, winter, and spring are all decent-to-great. I've been working on my #style game a lot and working out in general. I do my hair up all nice and neat.

What have I been watching? The Dragon Ball franchise! And the TNG/DS9/VOY era is getting yet another rewatch too because of the upcoming show. Which upcoming show? Star Trek: Picard, of course! What else am I looking forward to seeing? Star Wars: The Mandalorian! The Expanse's fourth season! Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker! The Crown's third season! Amazon's Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings shows! The third season of Star Trek: Discovery! Star Wars: Obi Wan! The Cassian show! And more NOVA. Always more NOVA.

What have I been playing? Well, I bought a Switch last October and it has gotten a crazy amount of mileage here. Breath of the Wild has officially replaced FFVII after 20 years, taking the throne that is "Quinton's Favorite Video Game." I also greatly enjoyed Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Octopath Traveler (GOTY 2018 tbqh), Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, and plenty of local matches in Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. What haven't I enjoyed? Diablo 3... first and maybe last Blizzard attempt on my part, that. Still on the Switch queue, bought and waiting: Mario and Rabbids; Link's Awakening; Super Mario Odyssey; Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze; and more. On the horizon? Pokemon Shield; Death Stranding; Jedi: Fallen Order; Animal Crossing; The Last of Us Part II; Ghost of Tsushima; Breath of the Wild's sequel; and of course, FFVII Remake.

There is one particular video game that I have been logging crazy hours on recently, and it's my first ever MMO. I've never really had any interest in this subgenre but all the talk about XIV having a great world and overall storyline got me to give it a go. I like it a lot overall! Fair warning: I'm still on the A Realm Reborn content. I am given to understand that they're all more beloved than the initial content package so I'm looking forward to them a great deal! Here's some listy-list thoughts:

What I Like:
+Eorzea is a wonderfully realized world. Already with A Realm Reborn alone, it's at least as well-realized as FFXII -- probably more so. It's a welcome sight.
+The Gold Saucer. Chocobo racing! Triple Triad (which is playable throughout the world too)! Lord of Verminion! Event Square! Jumbo Cactpot! Doman Mahjong!
+It feels like a modern, intricate spin on the oldest FFs.
+Many of the characters. Y'shtola, Merlwyb, Minfilia, Urianger and Nero are all early standouts.
+The job class system. I'm presently a level 45 bard and it's great. Gonna look into samurai and red mage once I hit 50.
+The soundtrack. So many strong tracks already.
+Exploration. <333

What I Dislike:
-The especially MMO stuff, unsurprisingly. I look forward to when I unlock the ability to do dungeon content with NPCs instead of having to queue to deal with other players. That said, most of them have been pretty nice. It's still not my favorite thing in the world though.
-A lot of the presentation has been fairly stilted. I am happy to excuse it, usually, because of the mountain of delicious dialogue which abounds absolutely everywhere. But there have been some particularly pivotal scenes already that have lost valuable momentum because of this. There have been a couple of really great ones, however.


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Loved it, seen it more than once

Ace Attorney
Clannad
Cowboy Bebop
Full Metal Panic!
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Hyouka
Kanon
Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
Persona 4 The Animation
ReLIFE
Sailor Moon
School Rumble
Steins;Gate
The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Toradora!
Tsuredure Children
Working!!

Really liked it, will watch again

Angel Beats
Attack on Titan
Baccano!
Eureka Seven
Fate/stay night
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
Planetes
Psycho-Pass
Usagi Drop

Liked it, but probably won't watch again

Air
Azumanga Daioh
Fate/Zero
Great Teacher Onizuka
Love Hina
Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Ouran High School Host Club
Sweetness & Lightning
Trigun
Tsukigakirei
Your Lie in April
Yu Yu Hakusho

Didn't like it, definitely won't watch again

Beyond the Boundary
Code Geass
Persona 4 The Golden Animation
Persona 5 The Animation

Dropped it, never finished

Fullmetal Alchemist
Gurren Lagann
Monogatari
Slayers

New and Improved Female Character Rankings 2.0

Nagato > Maya > Yakumo > Kurisu > Chizuru > Estelle > Leia > Yukiko > Fina > Eru > Kotomi > Phoebe > Aqua > Makoto > Shoko > Mitsuru > Yui > Tessa > Takano > Luna > Hermione > Yachiyo > Shiori > Daphne > Milla > 2B > Laura > Drummer > Rinoa > Wagatsuma > Ritsu > Akane > Pepper > Historia > Brawne > Amy > Rin > Namine > Seo > Maria > Mitsuha > Peach > Botan > Sophia > Yurippe > Samus > Eureka > Sypha > Art3mis > Valentine > Lotus > Mizuno > Zelda > Vera > Elizabeth > Yuri > Cora > Kotori
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time to wait and see if anyone votes lalafell so we know who the liars are
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SaveEstelle posted...

The Expanse's fourth season!

heck yeah Expanse Season 4
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also I kept you in the title because SELF is a great acronym

and I secretly figured it would keep people coming back in hopes that you would eventually return
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LeonhartFour posted...

also I kept you in the title because SELF is a great acronym

and I secretly figured it would keep people coming back in hopes that you would eventually return

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The Mana Sword posted...

time to wait and see if anyone votes lalafell so we know who the liars are

I just voted for the name that sounded coolest
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LeonhartFour posted...

The Mana Sword posted...

time to wait and see if anyone votes lalafell so we know who the liars are

I just voted for the name that sounded coolest

people who vote miqo'te are perverts
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Glad things are going well for you Quinton (and welcome back!)

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tag
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I'm glad I'm not the only Videl fan. And yeah, Gohan really screwed up suggesting she cut her hair.

The Chichi versus Videl interplay is giving me life.

Also, my current scenario quest in FFXIV is called "Eyes on Me" so that's great.

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Videl is great at first. I kinda feel like she stops being interesting after the first bit though.
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Yeah she definitely drops off but its not really her fault.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/dn1thj/i_thought_some_of_you_might_like_this_video_of_me/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjNHkRH0Dus" data-time="

Basically a disabled guy has been able to play FFXIV using brain implants (not fully of course).
That's really cool, and it's like the first step of the VR-style gaming that SAO has.
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I guess I need to start season 2 of Mob Psycho 100
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I guess I need to start season 1 of Mob Psycho 100

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Aw yes currently at 30-0 in Vantage Masters in Cold Steel 3.

Am currently using a water focused deck using the spell (Uplink?) that gives +1 to all water cards and damages everything else, with the Knight as the master or whatever it's called.

Honestly the Knight seems pretty OP right now, though I've only seen about half the cards so far.

Also if I'm being honest, from a pure competitive standpoint, running Uplink at 3 probably isn't that good even in a water focused deck. In many scenarios it's a dead card, and the times when I have gotten value out of it are mostly situations I was already probably going to win anyway. Best strategy right now is probably just throw all the strongest cards together without any thought to synergy. However this gives my deck a theme which is more fun, and the opponents so far haven't been good enough to take advantage anyway.

Also have an Archer deck where the wincon is the 3/3 fire archers, but that one isn't quite as fun imo.
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SaveEstelle posted...

I guess I need to start season 1 of Mob Psycho 100

I think you would like it, honestly.
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I am also undefeated in Vantage Masters, as I played one game and decided I didn't want to think about a card game that much
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SaveEstelle posted...

The Expanse's fourth season! Amazon's Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings shows!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs" data-time="
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Janus5k posted...

I am also undefeated in Vantage Masters, as I played one game and decided I didn't want to think about a card game that much

I have one draw from the tutorial game and one loss
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Though I'm personally not the biggest fan of Mob Psycho 100, I do agree it seems like a show user SaveEstelle would like.

Then again I think that in principle it's a show I should like, based on my opinions of other shows, so who knows.
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Tennessee has been playing better the last few weeks and is almost starting to give me hope we could actually make a bowl game
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Blackhawks are destined to be a lottery team again. Boy they suck ass.
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I'm so annoyed Expanse Season 4 took as long as it did.
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mnkboy907 posted...

I'm so annoyed Expanse Season 4 took as long as it did.

I'm just glad we're getting it and Season 5 has already been confirmed.
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I mean yeah yeah woo Amazon fuck you SyFy grumble grumble but still I'm annoyed!
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I've started listening to the audiobook of the second Expanse book, and it's pretty good! A lot of the details are different from the show, naturally, but it feels like it's more in line with the show than the first book was. The first book felt really different in some ways.
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mnkboy907 posted...

I'm so annoyed Expanse Season 4 took as long as it did.

Dude, they all went back to work practically the moment they got the green light!

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All I'm saying is Lucifer and Designated Survivor were canceled and saved around the same time and their new streaming seasons already happened months ago.
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the expanse books are better than the show is but both are good*

i'm sad that season 1 didn't have disembodied hands crawling around the place. they really turned down the body horror from what i had imagined while reading

*ok they dropped the ball on season 3 in comparison
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mnkboy907 posted...

All I'm saying is Lucifer and Designated Survivor were canceled and saved around the same time and their new streaming seasons already happened months ago.

Do either of those shows require several months of post-production work for a bunch of CG and special effects? (Maybe they do and I genuinely don't realize.)

NFUN posted...

the expanse books are better than the show is but both are good*

i'm sad that season 1 didn't have disembodied hands crawling around the place. they really turned down the body horror from what i had imagined while reading

*ok they dropped the ball on season 3 in comparison

the work must continue

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I liked Season 3
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I think the third season is as close to a consensus best as I've seen for the show

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I mean maybe they botched the adaptation compared to the book

I can't say because I'm not there yet
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wow the Vols are up 20 points on a real team

false hope is quickly building
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LeonhartFour posted...

I mean maybe they botched the adaptation compared to the book

I can't say because I'm not there yet

I don't think they did, save for the matter that Miss Melba Toast is better-written in the book. (Also there's the fact that the first six episodes of the third season are the back chapters of the second book -- but it works fairly well and it's similar to how the first book doesn't end until five episodes into the second season.)

I think 3 > 2 > 1 is a pretty common sentiment in terms of seasons released thus far, at least on r/TheExpanse and the little community of fans on ResetEra. And the former is a pretty good gauge.

2x05 may still be the single best episode though.

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SaveEstelle posted...

2x05 may still be the single best episode though.

Was that the last episode adaptation of the first book? If so, I would agree.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Was that the last episode adaptation of the first book? If so, I would agree.

Yup. Four-star piece of television from start to finish, that one. It was my favorite TV episode of 2017.

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Oh, there's a 1 hour Mob Psycho 100 OVA. Is that something I should watch or not?

I won't watch it tonight because I want to just squeeze in an episode before playing some Cold Steel 3, but I'm curious.
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SaveEstelle posted...

I don't think they did, save for the matter that Miss Melba Toast is better-written in the book

I think they really glossed over her whole arc and the mutiny matter was kind of thrown off by writing out Bull and replacing him with Drummer
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Yeah, but Drummer is awesome.
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drummer is cool but they also wrote out Sam :(
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NFUN posted...

I think they really glossed over her whole arc and the mutiny matter was kind of thrown off by writing out Bull and replacing him with Drummer

I would have loved to see an on-screen Bull, for sure.

Drummer does rock tho.

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Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 Episode 1 complete

I know topping the original OP would be a tall task, but they did a pretty good job with this one. It's nice that they had Mob use his powers in a "normal" setting to help that girl out.
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also user SaveEstelle still needs to watch Ace Attorney Season 2

it's excellent
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User SaveEstelle secretly started playing Ace Attorney but with the caveat that it's a joint experience with friend Cooper Midnight so the next time he's up here we'll continue the adventure and as a result user SaveEstelle does not wish to watch Ace Attorney Season 2 so as not to spoil elements of the games' plotline prematurely

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Oh wow the surprising return of Cooper Midnight

How far have you gotten?
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Heck yeah the correct pronunciation of Vivi in CS3
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Leonhart4 posted...

Oh wow the surprising return of Cooper Midnight

How far have you gotten?

We hit the carnival case when he visited! He's probably coming back up here in late December so we'll wrap up the first game then. I'll probably go ahead and tackle the second and third games on my own afterward.

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