Sunday, November 30, 2014

TV Tropes getting a revamp, made an appeal to the new owner to handle Fast Eddie's legal BS

I just learned TV Tropes is raising money to revamp the site from the ground up. I also learned that it has a new owner.

While the techie in me is pleased to see they have finally realized the POS of a wiki engine and plan to utterly revamp the site to be better, not to mention I'm pleased that corrupt old man Fast Eddie (aka Gus Raley) is no longer in charge, there is still a grave matter of concern I have over the content of the site still being illegally copyrighted, which I hope the new owner is willing to address.

In fact, I just private messaged drewski (the new owner) and decided to risk being bounced from TV Tropes the following, in the hopes he will prove more ethical and reasonable than the previous owner:


As you may know, I'm the founder of All The Tropes, the wiki founded on Wikia and Orain in opposition to the censorship, and more importantly, the illegal copyright changes effected by TV Tropes July 2012 changing the copyright of all content from CC BY SA 3.0 to CC BY NC SA 3.0 and later on November 2013 adding a retroactive ownership clause to all contributions, forcing users to surrender them to TV Tropes. 

In case you aren't aware, these moves were made in contravention to Creative Commons licensing and thus all pages affected are now illegally tainted as a result, as CC licensing does not allow for these changes without the consent of all parties who have submitted edits to those pages, and the retroactive ownership clause is in blatant defiance of the free reuse policies of CC licensing and flagrantly illegal. 

That said, I am contacting you privately to inform you several members of our wiki have seriously considered filing DMCA notices on the pages in question, or, if need be, pursuing legal action in response to this disregard for the copyright of those contributions, which myself and other parties never agreed to have submitted under anything other than CC BY SA 3.0. However, since you aren't Fast Eddie, I am contacting you in the hopes you might prove more reasonable and ethical and be willing to address these legal concerns. 

If so, and if proper compensation is rendered to any injured parties, we would consider the matter closed and merely wish this site well in its efforts to prosper, especially since Fast Eddie (who was the chief architect of these illegalities) is no longer in charge. 

This does not necessarily mean many of us would wish to return to TV Tropes, as so much bad faith has occurred many of us no longer feel welcome here, even if the needless censorship was rescinded and the copyright issue was addressed, but we would abandon any possible legal action/DMCA notices and so on if you would be willing to work with us to address these issues, and while we may not return to TV Tropes, we would be willing to wish the site our best. 

I have submitted edits here that I do not personally want to raise a legal issue over (my account here was made willingly after the license changes), but other members of my community do have serious grievances considering the violation of their copyright, and I am asking if you would be willing to address these issues so TV Tropes is no longer tainted with compromised content under illegal licensing. 

A summary of our legal concerns can be found here:

 http://blog.brentlaabs.com/2013/12/the-edge-of-creative-commons.html 

If you are willing to address these issues, please contact our staff here:  
https://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/All_The_Tropes:Contact_us 

Bob Schroeck is the one with the most sizable list of illegally copyrighted items, and I respectfully request his concerns be dealt with as soon as possible. 

Respectfully,  

Geth N 7 

P.S - We have kept careful records of all the pages that were illegally copyrighted, and if need be can produce them, including copies of the pages histories of the pages in question.

Cross Ange Episode 9

Episode 9 begins with a flashback scene to when Hilda was younger and somewhat more adorable chilling in a tree until someone who is obviously her Mom (yeah, definitely see where her looks came from) tells her the apple pie is ready.

As the flashback ends with Hilda about to wold down some pie, we cut to a later scene where Hilda is being carted off by the cops for the horrible crime of being a Norma, and her mother is understandably upset, and to her credit, she still loves her child even if she is a Norma.

Slightly later, we cut to Hilda doing a little window shopping (well, theft) as some shocked onlookers watch, though considering she's considered a criminal simply for being a Norma, that's kinda minor league in the crime department, and as Hilda evades detection and heads off presumably to her home village (with a change of clothes and a new handbag), the opening credits play.

Once they end, we cut to Ange and Momoka under a bridge, with Ange wisely telling Momoka they move only at night, and as they wait for the sun to set, Ange wonders if Hilda found her mother. We then cut back to Hilda (wearing an outfit that makes her look a LOT like she did as a kid, probably so her mother would recognize her easier), and as Hilda pops an apple off a tree and thinks back again to her mother wanting her daughter back, Hilda is hopeful (as she looks on to her home village) her mother still feels that way.

We cut back to Ange, who is still decked out like a commando and doing Solid Snake style stealth shit as Momoka serves as her locksmith (for Mana sealed doors). They manage to find Akiho (someone else from Ange's princess days), who is understandably 0_0 over seeing Ange again, and as Ange hopes to talk her down into cooperation by being calm, Akiho is edging backwards in obvious fear, doing a poor job trying to keep calm.

Eventually, Akiho falls to her knees a sobbing wreck, and Ange finally manages to calm her down by telling her "look dammit, being a Norma didn't make a monster, no matter what BS you may have been fed on that score". Akiho appears to believe this as Ange and Momoka are about to jack a hoverbike, but it's obvious Akiho is lying as she summons a comm panel behind her back to raise the  alarm, and Ange figures out really quick Akiho has drunk the racist Koolaid in obvious disgust, and Ange, after one leg sweep later as a parting fuck you, hops on the bike with Momoka as they haul ass for the Imperial palace, and we briefly cut back to Akiho fighting her way out of some quickly done up bonds.

We then cut back to Ange and Momoka using the waterway through the city to sneak past most of the public, and Ange thanks Momoka for not a being a bigot despite being a Mama user. We then get a brief scene of what looks like a younger Hilda on a bus (though the scene seems to be set in the present), then back to the present where Hilda finds her childhood home, experiences a brief bit of fear before turning the knob, then sucks it up and goes inside.

Once inside, Hilda is obviously looking around in a mix of nostalgia and fear, and discovers her childhood music box, and just then, Hilda's mother shows up (have aged into her middle years fairly well), and weirdly, is utterly unfazed by Hilda and acts like everything is the way it was before, though she seems to act as if Hilda is coming home soon (not to mention has an odd glazed over look on her face). Hilda seems oblivious to the warning signs something is not right and waits outside, crying in happiness, nostalgia blanking out some serious warning signals she would otherwise be getting.

We then cut back to Ange and Momoka just in front of the Imperial Palace, and both of them crack the throttles of the hoverbike in "fuck it, let's do this!" mode, and as Ange realizes it might be wise to take the long way around, it seems the cops were warned about her as they approach a barricade of cars and hiked up security troops. Ange decides to bust through, and while the cops wisely throw up Mana shields against the bullets she's firing, her true target is their vehicles, which leave a nice fireball in her wake as she charges on.

We then cut to the traitorous Akiho, who is in the back of a patrol car, obviously a racist Koolaid drinker through and through. We then cut to what looks like Tusk (remember, Jill had Jasmine give him a ring) doing recon, realizing Ange is still the blunt, unsubtle girl he's used to.

After the midshow credits, we cut to Ange being pursued by several patrol cars, and the cops learned from before and shield the cars with a mana barrier and try to throw a restraint net around Momoko, but Ange weaponizes her Norma status to destroy it. The cops have gotten a clue from this and prepare to use a conventional net gun instead. Ange and Momoka dodge the net gun shots well, but the imperial forces show up via a two transport craft above with more net guns, obviously not fucking around anymore, but Ange pulls the pin out of  grenade with her teeth  and targets the engine of one of the craft, causing it to crash into the other, and both go down in a fireball.

Ange then orders Momoka to charge into what looks like a waterfall, and Momoka does despite the insanity of doing so, and turns out to lead to a hidden passageway, which allows them to evade their pursuers. Meanwhile, someone is currently watching the action on their own Mana screen (presumably Julio, the asshole from the first episode who launched the coup that fucked Ange and her family over royally).

We then cut back to Ange explaining the secret passage they are using was one only known to the royal family, and Momoka is slightly miffed to learn Ange used it to sneak out of the castle sometimes.

We then cut to Julio's office, where the smug bastard is gloating over how predictable Ange is. Meanwhile, Ange and Momoka have popped out near the exit of the castle moat, directly in front of the palace, and they continue their ingress forward. Of course, more goons in armored transports show up, and as Ange sees Slyvie under heavy guard as guns are pointed hers and Momoka's direction, it's obvious Julio anticipated this and decided to used Slyvie as bait. This just pisses Ange off as she opens fire on the advancing goon squad.

We cut back to Hilda, where everything seems normal at first, and that's when that little girl who looked a hell of a lot like Hilda shows up, and as Hilda's mother addresses the little girl in a manner that makes it clear she got herself a Replacement Goldfish of her own daughter, presumably out of grief, and now that she has "Hilda", the older one realizes what she should have figured out earlier, and as her own mother regards her as a stranger, the final piece of the puzzle is made obvious.

Hilda's mom had a mental break due to her grief, adopted a surrogate for her own daughter (who she gave up for dead), and doesn't recognize her own daughter due to the fact she's living a world of denial of her own making to avoid the pain.

Before I continue, I have to say this is a pretty heartbreaking to watch, and considering Hilda (the older one) only recently started redeeming herself, even I have to admit this scene has got to be a knife to the heart for her, and shit, if you don;t feel the slightest bit sorry for her having to witness this, IMHO, you have a heart of stone.

Hilda immediately realizes all the above and basically explains "I dunno who you got to fill the void, but I'm the daughter you lost eleven years ago", which manages to pierce the denial veil of her mom, who basically is outraged her comfy fog of denial just got shattered and tells her own birth daughter to leave, which has Older!Hilda understandably heartbroken, and as Young!Hilda wonders what's going on, the fact Older!Hilda is a Norma slips out (causing Young!Hilda to faint), and you can understand Hilda's mom a little better, as she doesn't want to lose another daughter, and she still retains enough love for her birth daughter that she tells Hilda she won't tell anyone she came, but she just wants her to leave, and to get the point across, she tells her own birth daughter she shouldn't have been born (because the fact she was a Norma brought nothing but grief), which causes Hilda to flee in tears.

We then cut back to Ange taking on the goon squad, beating the ever living shit out all challengers and manages to rescue Sylvie, who is happy Ange still cares about her flesh and blood, but it's also obvious this was meant to close the jaws on Julio's trap as well.

And that's when we get the shocker of Ange getting knifed in the arm by her own sister.

As Ange is in WTF mode, Sylvie reveals she too has drunk the racist Koolaid (albeit more because she figures they would have been happier and not a cripple had Ange not been born to screw that up), though IMO some of her dialogue sounds like a script she was fed (presumably by Julio), though now Ange know exactly what Hilda is feeling as she too is betrayed by her own blood.

The soldier net Ange and Momoka, and Julio comes out to gloat, admits he set the whole thing up just to fuck her over, and then tells her they are going to put her on trial for being a subhuman.

Before I go on, I have to admit I really wanted to jump into the screen and beat the shit out of the guy at this point.

We then cut back to Hilda, who gets jumped by some cops and is beaten up and captured as well.

Next episode shows Hilda and Ange being captured, Ange being given a show trial, Tusk apparently launches a rescue, and Jill gut punches Ange, presumably for being a dumbass. We also have Sylvie narrating the post credits this time, more or less recapping her betrayal and backstabbing of Ange.

This episode was pretty dramatic and well done IMO, especially with a fanservice level of zero and a very tightly, well written plot executed, looking forward to the next one.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Cross Ange Episode 8

Episode 8 begins with a flight drill, and Salia is doing a quick preflight sitrep, which goes well, but Vivian's helium voice grates on Emma's ears back at HQ. Meanwhile, as Mei telling the engineering team to get ready for Salia's squad to return, Ange is still thinking about the frightened communication she got from Sylvie in the previous episode, understandably worried about her. We then cut to takeoff, where her spaceout causes her to stay on the flight deck, understandably pissing off everyone else behind her like Rosalie (who has a legit reason to be annoyed). Oddly enough, Hilda seems to be in a world of her own as well.

Anyway, Emma is wondering WTF is going on and orders an emergency launch (basically, the flight deck has a slingshot rail system that flings the Paramail into the air), and Ange snaps out of her cloud to realize her situation just barely in time to avoid flying into the ocean, and as Ange finally joins the formation, it seems fleet HQ staff (with military Mana users approved to see how Norma live without being shot if they try to leave) is inbound via transport planes, with someone important named Misty aboard, who is amazed DRAGONs are fought in Paramail.

Later, the festival mentioned in the previous episode has begun (basically, it's BEACH EPISODE TIEM!) , and as the camera pans around to show all the food stands and beachgoers, Ange is amazed they actually get a day to just screw around, which turns out to be one act of kindness actual humans extend Norma (strikes me as a backhanded way of trying not to look like total assholes IMO) , and all of them basically just get to chill for a day with no military crap to deal with. Ange decides to call it what it is ("slaves getting a chance to vent steam"), but drops the issue, instead wondering why the hell they all have to wear fanservicey swim wear (which is actually in better taste than I expected), and Salia explains "duh, it's beach wear.", to which Ange decides to troll Salia a little by making a allusion to Salia's lack of bust, which causes Salia to cover her chest in obvious envy/embarrassment.

TBH, Salia doesn't look too bad actually (she's far from flat), but she's pretty average compared to the Standard Gag Boobed Female Anime Characters most of the cast is.

Meanwhile, we cut over to what looks like a formal residence for visiting dignitaries, where Emma is welcoming Princess Misty Rosenblum (who basically is in the role Ange once had before her disgrace, with more authority and less ignorance' albeit not from the same kingdom), and Emma is doing a good job of sucking up Misty, who has been officially baptized and thus recognized as legit royalty.

Misty then decides insert the record scratch question of "I heard Angelise is here"(who Misty still regards as a human being apparently), and even though she makes it quite clear who she is talking about, Emma denies anyone like that is at Arzenal (technically true, Angelise is "dead"), but Misty isn't buying that and insists she wants to meet her no matter what.

We then cut back to the beach episode antics, where a bunch of piglets are in a race (and Rosalie has apparently plunked down some serious cash on her favorite to win, but Chris is more wondering why Hilda seems to be in another world, feeling like Hilda is avoiding her, but Rosalie is too absorbed in her gambler frenzy to notice, until Chris yells her name to get her attention, then points out "Uh, Hilda's not here, isn't that, y'know, odd?". Chris is trying to convince Rosalie something might be wrong with her, but Rosalie can't be bothered to really care (I loled when she said it might be because Hilda is having a period).

We then cut to Ersha getting an oil massage (turns out she was in an animal costume handing out balloons to kids earlier), then we cut to Salia watching what looks like, strangely enough, a French romance movie (French is apparently an in universe language), and while most everyone else is snoring through it, it seems Salia is big fan of soppy romance movies.

We then  cut to Hilda wondering around, not being all that happy looking, who looks over at Ange, who is sitting in the shade with Momoka, being about as happy as Hilda, and Momoka figures out rather quick what is on Ange's mind. Ange tries to put on a brave face and goes to toss the fruit drink she was nursing in the trash as Momoka get's a call from Emma, apparently about how Misty wants to talk to Ange PDQ.

Turns out Ange's remembers her (Misty was a bit of rival to her). Ange immediately assumes Misty wants rub in her disgrace, then grabs Ersha's ridiculous animal costume and puts it on so she can walk around incognito, then tells Momoka not to blow her cover as she heads off, with Hilda in the background, suspicious as to what is going on.

We then cut to Vivian pigging out on squid barbecue as Mei chides her about eating so much, but Vivian tells her she needs the energy for the upcoming sports festival event, that's when Ema walks back, holding her nose (squid stinks in her opinion). She then zeroes in Momoka, obviously flustered because she's trying to appease Misty's request, and Momoka is following Ange's orders and says she lost track of her charge, which prompts Emma to try tracking down Jill to get Ange, who is currently chilling with Jasmine and Maggy in the medical tent, and all three feign embarrassment like she walked in on them changing (and they don't give a shit about what she wants, it's their day off, after all), prompting the even more flustered Emma to stomp off.

Amusingly enough, she walks right by Ange in the costume in the next scene, then we cut inside the costume, where Ange is realizing it's hot and stuffy as hell. A girl on the carousel in the background almost falls off due to a malfunction, and Ange's PTSD over her childhood with Slyvie kicks in and she does a last second save, barely managing to keep her cover as "Perolina" (the name of the animal costume).

Later, we cut in on two Norma in a shady abandoned spot on the flight deck about to go down on each other, and in barges Ange, who usurps their lovers spot to hide, to their obvious upset. She finally gets some air and decides to chill in the quite breeze. Meanwhile, as she has a little more flashback happen, she glances over at one of the transport craft, realizes the imperial crest is the same one as her own family (remember, the coup d'etat essentially seized the symbol as their own, and given they transported Misty to Arzenal, she must know more than the average human), and Ange finally realizes she just might get some info on Sylvie via Misty if she pulls her head out of her own ass.

We then cut to Momoka wandering around, calling for Perolina, and as she walks by Hilda, she gets a Click, Hello as Hilda is planning on figuring out what's going on with Ange.

After the midepisode intermission, we have Jasmine on a bullhorn, announcing the huge cash prize for the sports festival (with Rosalie wanting to make up for the loss in the earlier race), and the first event is basically a bun eating contest where they have to eat the buns while trying not have their swimsuits dissolve (basically, Cheap Fanservice Excuse.txt).

Meanwhile, back at the dignitary residence, Misty's female guards get their asses kicked offscreen, and Ange hilariously wearing the Perolina costume head barges in on the obviously surprised Misty, and as Misty recognizes her once she takes off the costume head, Ange is back in military hardass tough bitch mode as she says her hellos.

Turns out Misty was actually a secret fan of Angelise, with the whole Norma thing coming as a shock, and she was so "this shit can't be real" she came along with the military transport just to find out the truth. Ange's is like "yeah, I'm a Norma, satisfied now?", and as the obviously stunned Misty is still trying to make that compute, Ange stashed her combat knife in her bikini bottom (yeah, with the flat side of the blade against her skin, but don't worry, I cringed too), and then holds it up as she asks Misty to help her escape with a "do you really want to refuse me?" smile on her face.

We then cut back to festival, where cheesy fanservice event #2 is taking place, where they have to race each other while not spilling  or cracking a bunch of eggs stuffed in their cleavage. Salia barely has one egg stashed in her unimpressive bust (and is noticeably flustered), Rosalie is dropping hers, and Chris snags it and hauls ass across the beach, keeping hers intact surprisingly well.

We cut back to Ange, who has loaded up on a ton of military gear (and has Misty tied up as a semi-cooperative hostage), and we find out what's left of Ange's family is destined for the chopping block for deceiving the people (hiding the fact Ange was a Norma, confirming that was the linchpin of the coup d'etat), and as Ange hauls ass with a screaming Misty and shitload of guns (we get a brief cutback showing Ange left money to pay for them all), we see Hilda holding Momoka at gunpoint as they head for the transport vessels, and Hilda basically tells Momoka to use them to escape. Momoka tells her she only does what Ange wants, and Hilda tells her that she's screwed if she continues to stick around, and as Ange shows up, turns out Hilda wanted to bail on Arzenal herself.

Cue Mexican standoff between her and Ange, where Hilda reveals she isn't going to stand in Ange's way, but explains two very good flaws in Ange's escape plan:

1. The transport plane is locked down to the flight deck with arresting clamps for maintenance, and forcing them will trip an alarm.

2. Defeat those, and the transport will be damaged if an emergency takeoff is attempted, possibly fatally.


After posing this, Hilda drops the drama bomb.

She'll defeat the locks, and proposes they join forces in exchange.

Meanwhile, the now exhausted Emma heads back to the residence to find the guards KO'ed and assumes the worst (not being completely incorrect either).

We then cut back to the setting sun over the sports festival where Chris is hailed the winner (a rather unlikely one), as Vivian mangles a Muhammad Ali quote. Chris reveals to Rosalie she won so they could buy a really nice meal for her, Rosalie and Hilda, and that's when fireworks go off.

As they do, we cut to Hilda taking out the only person in the control tower who could screw things up, then uses a bobby pin lockpick to defeat the emergency clamps. Hilda then winds up getting stiffed by Ange as they are about to get lifted off, and Ange reminds Hilda of all the bad faith she built up Ange has remembered, and as Hilda tries to argue 'let bygones by bygones", Ange just tells her she doesn't (reasonably enough) trust someone who tried multiple times to shoot her in the back.

Ange orders Momoka to close the hatch, and Momoka, being the inherently decent person she is, pauses just long enough for Hilda to barely grab on to the edge, just as Jill, Emma, and Maggy show up, faces in 0_0 mode, and that's when Hilda, still dragging herself into the cockpit, drops drama bomb #2.

She never gave a shit about Zola (aside from the benefit it played in helping her survive), and she had no true loyalty to anyone but herself, all she ever wanted to escape her shitty situation because dammit, she wants to return to her mother.

In short, she's not much different than Ange in motivation, and upon realizing Hilda is basically her, Ange's conscience kicks in and she helps Hilda in before the hatch closes. Momoka is happy with this, and as we cut back to Emma fainting because Misty was apparently kidnapped, Jasmine chides her dog for being lousy at guard duty (Ange bought him off good), and Jill had put everything together and tells Jasmine to give Tusk a ring.

We cut to what a day or so later, where a bunch of military SWAT guys surround the downed transport guns ready to kill the Norma and rescue Misty, and they find the plane empty except for Misty (stuffed in the Perolina costume).

Meanwhile, at an gas station some ways away, Hilda reveals she's good at hotwiring vehicles as she ganks a motorcycle and parts company with Ange and Momoka, telling her rival (who seems to have finally forgiven her) not to die on her as she heads out. We also find out the Misurugi Empire has been crossed out on a road sign (as if it wasn't official enough), and Hilda is going in the other direction to a place called the Elderant Union.

Next episode looks like it'll be action filled, with Ange doing action movie stuff to save Sylvie, and Hilda apparently gets a royal screwjob, judging by the next episode preview. We also get Ange pointing out how the fanservice was rather abbreviated for a beach episode in the post ending credits.

Looking forward to the next episode, and just to close this post out, I'd have to say, in hindsight, Hilda's actions make perfect sense.

Her intense hatred of Ange stemmed from two causes: One, she was pissed Zola died because Zola was her meal ticket and her getting over Zola's death and making Rosalie and Chris her groupies also fits because they were, in her mind, pawns to achieve her goals. Her intense hatred of Ange makes sense as well given the latest revelations because Ange was basically "Walking Reminder Of Herself.txt", so all the animosity was out of envy.

I wouldn't call Hilda totally redeemed for all the crap she pulled, but it now makes more sense her and Ange enemy mined for mutual gain.

Also, bit of a theory before I close out this post: Ange's attempt to rescue Sylvie is going to blow the masquerade the "humans" have thrown up about the Norma being worse than Hitler, or the DRAGONs are gonna show up and do the same thing, as it's very obvious by now the Rosenblums (the ones who seized power) are DESPERATE to keep that a secret. I also suspect Hilda is going to find out she has been trumped up as evil incarnate for being a Norma and won't get as warm a welcome from those she still cares for.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

TV Tropes apparently needed another server upgrade

I recently saw this message on that crappy site announcements thing TV Tropes has:

We've switched servers and will be updating the old code over the next couple months, meaning that several things might break.

Of course, the thread they have for this reveals that the whole site had over half the features break.

Now, for those who don't know any better, TV Tropes probably did need a server upgrade, and having presided over that myself, I'm not going to give them any grief over doing the needful.

I will, however, laugh my ass off at the fact switching servers caused their whole setup to freak out and the very idea that Fast Eddie is still hellbent on polishing that overripened turd known as PmWiki.

For those not in the know, switching servers for a MediaWiki wiki (hell, most other wiki engines) is as easy taking the site down for maintenance briefly, moving the files from one server to another, then making sure your server configuration has everything point to the new server.

Usually, this is painless and bloodless, unless you are using some weird server setup, and I seriously doubt a Web 1.0 kludge like PmWiki needs an esoteric server setup. However, the fact TV Tropes apparently remained up the whole time means that Fast Eddie was apparently unwilling to shut things down for so much as five minutes to minimize issues, which is idiotic because that can lead to data corruption and the laundry list of site fuckups they had a thread created to report, and two, how the blue fuck can you update software that is the long dead corpse of what appears to be PmWiki 1.x build that Fast Eddie has been keeping alive with coding necromancy, duct tape, and the fact he's still around to keep it from dying completely.

Which brings me to my main point.

TV Tropes will still continue for the time being, despite having shitty software, worse moderators, and an easily butthurt, greedy old man who wipes his ass with copyright law running things, but let me leave a warning to everyone who enjoys TV Tropes despite all that:

When Fast Eddie dies, TV Tropes goes with him. If I died tomorrow, I have no doubt anyone with a mediocre level of competence in MediaWiki could take my place on All The Tropes, but when Fast Eddie dies, I dare any of his sycophants to claim they can resume operations when the site software goes belly up again.

And when it does, (and given Fast Eddie's age, I'm confident I'll be around to see it, barring unforeseen calamity) I will be laughing my ass off.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Cross Ange Episode 7

Episode 7 begins with Salia detailing her recent combat sortie Captain's Log style, and as we get some flashback scenes to the combat action, Salia notes Ange ignored orders. The animation officially starts with Ange kicking ass all by herself, which Salia reluctantly notes.

Later, as they are about to leave the combat bay, Rosalie is pissed at Ange because she keeps getting all the money (remember, they get paid on commission), and Ange immediately hands her some cash and asks if she wants more.

This pisses Rosalie off, but Ersha restrains her as Salia tells Ange she's not happy Ange doesn't understand the meaning of teamwork. Ange coolly retorts she is killing DRAGONS and doing it well, and if Salia really is pissed, she can either fine or execute her, and she walks away on that note.

Later, as Salia continues typing up her after action review, she notes Ange's continued refusal to work with the team may force her not to pilot the Vilkiss due to disciplinary issues.

After the opening, in Jill's office, Jasmine reads off a recon report from Tusk, of all people, and the fact he's alive is mildly surprising to everyone involved, Jill especially. As Mei alludes to the possibility of Ange and Tusk.....well, you get the idea (as well as mentions of him having repaired the Vilkiss), Jill tells Jasmine to get back into contact with Tusk PDQ.

Before we go on, it seems Tusk is both known to the higher echelons of the Norma at the Arzenal penal battalion (Jill especially) and works for them as an unofficial recon guy.

Anyway, Jill then turns to the matter of Salia wanting Ange grounded due to her lack of teamwork, and Jill basically tells Salia "you have the power to pull rank, just do it already".

The next day, we get a scene with Emma all 0_0 at the idea of Momoka being Ange's servant (remember, Norma are subhumans, so this is like a black guy having a white man as a slave in the pre-Civil War South), so Emma immediately has a logic bomb moment as she recites the party line about why Norma are subhuman assholes, which Ange blows off, and Emma tries to appeal to Momoka, who doesn't care about Ange being a Norma, which causes Emma to give up before her brain blows a fuse.

Meanwhile, at Vivian, Ersha, and Salia's table, Vivian is pleased at the previous scene, Ersha mentions a festival is coming up and she wants to do something special for the kids, and Salia is ruminating over how to pull rank on Ange.

Again, brief pause here, but it's obvious Salia's professionalism and her personal jealousy are having a war here, and she obviously wants to do the right thing professional despite her personal jealousy, and while she does have an arguable case for reprimanding Ange for lack of teamwork, she know arbitrarily screwing over Ange would just be a dick move based on pure spite, so she wants more justification before pulling rank.

Hilda shows up to pour gas on the fire by pointing out Ange could buy her way out of any punishment and that Ange most likely wouldn't give a shit about any punishment, and when Salia realizes the truth in this, Hilda goads her by attempting to manipulate Salia's jealousy by saying Ange holds her in contempt and that when Zola was around, this would have never happened.

Hilda then oversteps by asking if she can take over Salia's position, to which Salia immediately gets up and leaves. Later, Salia is still pissed, thinking about how she was drafted into her current job, hen we get to see Ange telling Momoka as they enter Jasmine's mall that she wants to buy her some actual sleepwear.

It's at this point Salia buys herself something special, and as Ange and Momoka go to try on the new pajamas, we find out Salia is into Magical Girl cosplay (which she considers stress relief, weirdly enough).

And that's when we cut to Ange telling Jasmine the last dressing room is in use, Jasmine facepalms, and Salia realizes her cosplay fetish was just discovered by the last person she wanted to see it, and she has a vision of Hilda and her toadies laughing their asses off and Jill with a "WTF is this shit?" look on her face.

A scene later, as Ange is bathing with Momoka assisting, Salia snaps and tries to stab Ange (who barely blocks the blade with her bath bucket), who is understandably shocked, not realizing Salia flipped out pretty bad over having her cosplay fetish discovered. Ange figures it out pretty quick, and as she keeps parrying the hits, she tells Salia to calm down, she ain't saying anything, and she has no reason to care.

Salia's rage bubbles over at this moment, and as the knife and the bath bucket go flying, she grabs Ange's shoulders and screams at the still naked Ange about how she's cheesed off over Ange's lack of teamwork, and Ange retorts about how they once tried to take her out, then with a knee to the gut and a shoulder toss later, Salia goes flying into the water.

As Salia gets out, it seems her outfit was deftly removed by Ange, and as Salia realizes she just got literally combat stripped, Ange tells Salia why she fights alone.

Basically, Salia does squat to stop anyone from giving her grief, so Ange refuses to work with someone who enables assholes like Hilda in their attempts to kill her.

This leads to a catfight in the bath, with Salia melting down (especially after accidentally getting handful of Ange's boob during the fight, realizing Ange is even more busty than her, on top of basically being casually better in most other categories).

Vivan and Ersha walk in on the fight, Momoka pleads with them to get Ange to calm down, and Ersha instead decides to egg things on a little for the lulz, and throws Salia and Ange bath brushes while her and Vivan drag the still worried Momoka out of there while Salia and Ange continue slapfighting and insulting each other's bust size (and lack thereof).

Later, Emma is facepalming hard as she dresses down Salia and Ange for fighting, and even Jill is a little exasperated at how Salia threw her professionalism out the window. Emma decides to force both Ange and Salia to write fifty pages of "I shall not have retarded slapfights", despite Ange wondering why she has to do so as well since Salia started things, sneezing as the scene changes to the next morning, where Momoka delivers her breakfast, tells Ange she finished the essay for her, and discovers Ange has one hell of a fever.

Salia in a scene later is explaining to the other pilots Ange is out of the action until she recovers, and Hilda and crew all all smug over how you lose a hefty amount of cash each day you are not combat capable.

A day later, we get more Salia monolouging about how training is going well, a scene of Ange still in bed, then we cut to the lesbian love shack where Rosalie and Chris are going down on Hilda, and as the lesbian love fest continues, Hilda's face is basically Smug.JPEG.

A day later, Salia is asking Mei about the status of Vilkiss, and Mei admits it's a pain to repair since Ange is the pilot (understandable, given Ange's berserker tendencies), and as Mei admits she's somewhat technopathic and can sense Ange goes all batshit in the Vilkiss to keep anyone from dying, and when Salia calls BS on this, Mei points out they have had ZERO casualties since Ange became the Vilkiss main pilot, a fact Salia is forced to accept.

A scene later, as she looks over her previous reports, sure enough, every day since the Vilkiss became Ange's machine, there have been zero casualties. She tries to convince herself it's a massive coincidence, and that's when the combat alarm goes off.

As they prepare to liftoff, Salia tells everyone that since Ange is down, they will concentrate their fire to make up for the Vikiss not being with them. As they leave, we cut to Momoka barring Ange from trying to leave, since Ange is still unwell, but Ange tells Momoka it costs money to keep Momoka and herself fed, then collapses.

We cut back to Salia's squad closing in on DRAGONs about to exit a dimensional gate, and as they do, one of them is a massive monster none of them have seen before, which they call a "virgin" (slang for a type of dragon they have never fought before). Also, we find out just gathering into on "virgins" is worth a really hefty bankroll, so Hilda and her toadies are really excited about kicking its ass.

Salia then does the sensible thing and calls for backup, which Hilda protests by using the "Zola never had to worry about that" goad again, then they break formation and go after the massive "virgin" while Vivian and Ersha remain with Salia to fight the rest.

Hilda deduces its belly it where it's weak, but as she and her groupies are about to close in for the kill, Vivian is getting a seriously bad premonition (apparently, when her hair feels tingly, bad shit happens), and that's when the "virgin" reveals it has gravity powers and forces Hilda and company's mechs to hit the ground, frozen in place due to the gravitational field they are now trapped in, and that's when Salia and the others get trapped in the gravity well as well.

Vivian realizes the DRAGON's horns are the source of its gravity powers, so she attempts to destroy them with her new boomerang cutter, but the gravity pull nulls the attack. In fact, the gravity pull is getting strong and its forcing the ground around the gravity well to crater. Vivian tries one last time to counterattack, but is screwed, and Salia realizes they may just have to abandon their machines.

A few hacking coughs over the comm later, and Ange in the Vilkiss shows up, hilariously bundled up over her piloting uniform (and we get a flashback scene where Momoka insisted on Ange looking like she wore everything in the coat closet at once if she really had to go outside),  and even though Ange is still feeling like crap, she says she's gonna kill the DRAGON herself like she usually does.

Salia flips the fuck out and tells Ange that, for once, if she doesn't want to die (since the DRAGON in question is retarded strong), follow orders for once. Ange is feeling too crummy to argue and does so and Salia starts barking orders, and Ange is still kinda woozy and screwing up stuff but is trying to comply.

The DRAGON then cranks up the gravity field to capture the Vilkiss as well, and Ange is so out of it she says "I think I'm falling" in the most deadpan voice ever. Thankfully, turns out Salia positioned Ange so she could use the gravity well to her advantage, and tells Ange to kick the DRAGON like Ange booted her in the bath area.

Scene change later, and Ange has drop kicked one of the horns off the "virgin", which causes it wail in pain as the gravity well ceases. As it does, Salia orders everyone else to kill the DRAGON dead.

Later, back at the base, EVERYONE is holding a huge bankroll (save Ange), over cloud nine and Mei is looking at the busted up Vilkiss with a sigh while Salia thanks Ange for following orders for once. Ange then approaches Salia and holds out her hand asks for some extra money as compensation for how the Vilkiss was broken up thanks to those orders. Salia initially refuses, then Ange whispers in her ear she might just reveal Salia's little hobby, which causes Salia to say she just might withdraw her thanks then.

Regardless, this little bit of comedy over, Salia's professionalism kicks in and she tells the rest of the team Ange did make their victory possible, and then turns to Hilda and her toadies and tells them to quit taking potshots at Ange, then emphasizes they only won when they worked together and that there is a very good reason for that. Everyone but Hilda is down with that, and even Ange agrees.

This prompts Ersha to give Ange a big hug, and her troll tendencies come out as a scene later, everyone throws Ange in the bath again. As Ange wonders what that was for, Ersha says it was to wash away all the bad that happened before, then they all jump in too.

Salia then monologues her latest AAR as she recounts the mission, admits she's let Ange continue to fly the Vilkiss despite her reservations, and as we see the team finally bond (save Hilda), Salia mentions she hopes it will continue until the day of Libertus, which was mentioned all the back in Episode 3.

Me, I have idea what this refers to specifically, hope more info will come to light in later episodes.

Later we cut to Ange grousing about going through hell,  but Momoka is just grateful Ange is feeling better. We then have a WHAM moment as Momoka gets a secret message from Sylvie (Ange's little sister from the first episode), who asks Momoka if she got in touch with Ange, and then we hear her struggling with someone on the other end as the message ends, leaving Ange and Momoka understandably horrified.

Next episode preview looks to be a beach episode, and Salia is the one comedically bitching about how her cosplay habit was exposed, and it looks like we'll get a little drama as well.

Dunno how things are gonna go from here, but I'm looking forward to the next episode.

Also, one final note: It's obvious by now some dark evil secret is being kept fiercely under wraps, and another theory of mine is that the coup d'etat that took place in Episode 1 was done to keep that secret from getting out (Ange being exposed as a Norma seemed to helped the usurpers in maintaining the conspiracy), but it's obvious bad shit is going on back in the former Empire of Misurugi, and I suspect the whole plan to use Norma to keep the NORPs from learning about the DRAGONs is going to come apart in later episodes.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Cross Ange Episode 6

Episode 6 of Cross Ange begins with Emma and Jasmine overseeing a delivery of supplies, and while they are doing that, Momoka (Ange's former maid) is trying to avoid detection.

Later, as Ange returns from yet another sortie, Rosalie, Hilda, and Chris (the three who h8 Ange with a passion) are pissed and Rosalie almost throws a screw at Ange's head, but then the alarms sound and inform everyone there is an intruder.

A scene later, Momoka is surrounded and activates her Mana to defend herself, and Ange walks by and recognizes her. Momoka takes a moment to adjust to Ange's new look, then runs up to her and hugs her, while Ange has o_0 look on her face.

Later, Emma is pulling up Momoka's records, gets off the phone with the higher-ups, then realizes they are fucked if Momoka returns to the free world, as that will possibly spill the beans about what happens to the Norma, why they have to fight the DRAGONS, and why they are working so hard to keep NORPs (mana users) from discovering that.

Before I continue, I'm just throwing a theory out here: The MANA users are drawing the DRAGONs from another dimension, the higher ups in society figured this out and shit themselves, and rather than admit their use of the power that vastly upgraded their standard of living brought doom on their own heads, they made the Norma scapegoats, trumped up some bullshit prejudice making Norma out to be baby eating corpse molestors, then used the Norma as meat shields to save themselves and bullshitted the public to hide this dirty little secret.

Anyway, Jill, who is in attendance, tells Emma no use shitting themselves over what's going on, might as well let Momoka stay for awhile (with Momoka ignorant her visit may now be permanent to preserve a dirty little secret).

Meanwhile, back with Ange, Momoka is struggling for a conversation topic with the laconic Ange, who is pointedly not talking with Momoka due to having a part of her life she thought gone forever return (and the shock seems understandable). Momoka seems to not understand this and keeps trying to compliment Ange on her more badass appearance, and as they reach Ange's room, Momoka is under a really deluded impression the penal battalion is some sort of cushy rehabilitation center, so when she discovers Ange's spartan room, she's shocked, and all of her attempts to help Ange change, fold her clothes, and do what she did before Ange's life went to hell only start pissing Ange off, which, given she's gotten used to doing things the hard way by now, is rather understandable.

Momoka is still not getting it at ALL, so Ange starts correcting Momoka, first telling her that she's Ange, who the hell is this Angelise, and that she's just following orders like a good Norma.

Before I continue, I'd just like to mention Momoka, if she's representative of the Mana users of the society, has no fucking clue how shitty the life of a Norma is, and while she seems a decent enough person, she has no IDEA just what sort of shit Norma go through, which adds weight to my theory above IMO.

Ange finally breaks down and realizes Momoka is probably going to stick around forever if need be and realizes Momoka is probably an outcast like herself (but for different reasons), and we also learn Ange feels she's responsible for the kingdom going to hell, which, while it's true her being revealed as Norma did not help at all, the coup d'etat had already been planned, she just provided the usurpers some added justification. Then, before she passes out, she echoes Jill's sentiments that Momoka was used by her parents to hide the fact Ange was a Norma (which Ange now understandably resents), telling Momoka to use the other bed,

Next day, Momoka is still in shock over how Ange is eating standard chow in a mess hall instead of nicer food, and Vivian throws in some comic relief as Ersha expalins what a maid is to her, so she jokingly refer to her tablemates (Salia and Ersha) as her maids, causing them be like "oh hell no".

Momoka gets told to fuck off if she doesn't have any money to buy her meal with, and when she gets explained to just how everyone works on commission at Arzenal, she only manages to look like an idiot as she starts trying to get Ange a seat at Hilda and her toadies table, and for once, Ange agrees with them Momoka needs to shut up, and they take turns telling Momoka she's full of shit.

Hilda and her groupies are actually amused by how Momoka is basically Ange before reality check, and while Ange blows off their comments, Momoka gets so flustered she passes out.  Later, as Ange is explaining how the economy works for Norma, Maggy and some others are running a gurney with a wounded trooper to the infirmary, apparently needing her cyber arm reattached, and as Momoka gets a good look at someone bloodied up for the first time, her hamburger (and ketchup) look way less appetizing, and that's when realization finally hits how unpleasant a Norma really lives, so when asks Ange the truth, Ange tells her nonchalantly "Hunting" and that she has no idea when she'll wind up a bloody mess one day, and Momoka is left in shock, wondering just how much Ange has changed since they last saw each other.

Later on, in an attempt to get her reality back in order, she tries to surprise Ange as she walks out of the shower with a bunch of fancy dresses like in her princess days, but Ange is annoyed and wants them returned as she stomps back into the shower. Momoka still DOES NOT GET IT and redecorates Ange's room to be more royal, but Ange wants it BACK THE WAY IT WAS. Later, Momoka, still being a dumbass, tries to prepare a formal meal for Ange, but Ange upends the table and stomps off.

Later, at the shooting range, as Salia is hitting bulleyes and envying Ersha's bust (even though it's making Ersha's aim terrible), Ange is doing not too badly herself as Hilda and co are whispering so Ange can hear them, revealing what we already know to her: Momoka is dead if she ever returns home since everything about Arzenal and DRAGONs are classified, and then Hilda directly faces Ange and trolls her rather effectively by saying Momoka is just another person who is going to die thanks to being around Ange. Ange tries to ignore this, but her aim goes off horribly as shorthand it didn't work.

Later, at another mealtime, Momoka tries military food again, discovers it sucks, and Ange decides to quit fighting Momoka, figuring Momoka is going to be dead soon anyway, so what the hell. Later, in the bath, we discover Momoka has a cut on her arm from her younger days, which Ange patched up by tearing up a dress and binding the wound, an act Momoka was so touched by she never healed the wound with Mana, which also goes to show Ange was a fundamentally decent person even when she was at the age for short pants, especially since she told Momoka then she was irreplaceable.

Ange is surprised Momka remembers, and her conscience flares up as she tells Momoka (by name) to get the hell out of there. Later, this event is spoiled by another attack incoming, and as they prepare to sortie, Hilda's groupies resume the trolling by telling Ange to do well to earn the money for Momoka's tombstone.

As Jill informs Ange via comms that her watching over Momoka is complete, military hardass Ange is flying the Vilkiss, trying to convince herself Momoka was full of bullshit.

Later, we find out Chris and Rosalie are fucking pissed Ange was a bitch to them during combat, and Salia is pissed at Ange too, for defying orders and still managing to kill every DRAGON by herself.

Later, as Momoka is about to board a military transport (which, as Jill notes, is basically where Momoka is going to be executed since the soldiers have primed weapons on their back, complete with bayonets at the ready), that's when Ange shows up drops four huge bags of money at Momoka's feet and attempts to buy Momoka's safety since her conscience kicked in irregardless. Everyone else is 0_0 over this, but Jill (having figured out Ange would do that to save Momoka) calls off the transport, and when Emma is wondering why the hell Jill allowed that, Jill reveals her own inner resentment for a bit and tells Emma "anything can be bought for money around here". Emma decides it's not worth fighting (and takes the money with her).

As the credits start to roll, Ange insists Momoka calls her Ange now (since she's staying permanently), and this gets promptly ignored.

Next episode looks like we are finally going to focus on Salia, who has been suppressing a lot of resentment and depression (over not being able to pilot the Vilkiss and Ange outdoing her by a fair margin it seems), and that looks like it'll be interesting. We also get some more hilarious bitching from Ange about how the director of the show seemed to think the episode was good as long as it had a fanservicey bathing scene, which is amusing because for a fanservice scene, it was rather understated IMO.

Anyway, this episode had some nice character development and world building, looking forward to the next.

P.S. - For a series that started off on a horribly bad foot, it's actually gotten surprisingly better with time, and while it's not AAA anime, it's not as abysmal as I feared either.

Friday, November 7, 2014

In which I wipe my backside with the touchiness of SJWs

I recently got a comment to one of my previous posts where someone was offended by my use of the word "faggot", assuming I used it as a homophobic slur, when the context in which the word was used did not imply that at all.

I have to admit I'm not surprised, though. Words have meaning depending on context, but SJWs don't care. They just assume the worst and cry bigotry, and while I can understand doing so for a word like "nigger" (which has a very obvious racial insult attached), the word "faggot" originally referred to firewood bundles, and is commonly used all over the internet as a bog standard way of saying something or someone is utterly stupid/useless.

That said, I am amused someone who assume me to be a homophobic bigot, especially since I have both gay relatives, gay friends, and even a gay coworker at Orain, all of whom I respect very highly as people and would happily take a bullet for any of them because I don't think their sexual orientation is any reason to think less of them as people.

But, I'm fully aware some offended souls will probably never believe that and still assume me to be a bigot, and that's their choice.

However, I must pose this thought to all those offended by mere words, regardless of context or intent:

Words have power only if you give them power, and even if the intent is malicious, those words are powerless to harm you unless you allow them to wound you, so why expose yourself to injury?

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Why Something Awful and TV Tropes are not so different, and why they suck as result

I have a bone to pick with both sites, the former for being full of sanctimonious egomanical moderators who are largely corrupt and incompetent who happen to be deviants and utter losers taking marching orders from an easily butthurt middle aged man with no marketable talents and a pill and booze addiction, and the latter because their moderators are little better and they are run by a senior citizen who is also easily butthurt who, while having marketable talents, uses them to prop up an aging piece of crap for a wiki engine, and who sold out his site's integrity like Lowtax did his so he make money off of it, and as result I think very little of both men and their subordinates in a professional sense.

That said, both, despite their differences in age, could have been separated at birth. Something Awful used to not give a crap about forum invasions, hosted torrents, and was the predecessor to 4chan (until m00t sold out his integrity as well) in being a legitimately funny and entertaining website. Then Lowtax discovered advertisers wouldn't get near him and was too incompetent to work out a financial arrangement that wouldn't require cashing in what made his community great, so he hired an idiot named Radium to maintain his ancient version of vBulletin and got a bunch of corrupt, powertripping losers and deviants to be moderators (such as a sack of crap named Fistgrrl who maintained a spreadsheet of traitorous goons who were banned for offsite sins, and Aatrek, a convicted child molestor), and as a result the forum became a hugbox for some of the saddest jackasses on the planet to SJW what was left of SA into the ground, grab a shovel, then keep digging.

Fast Eddie used to run a website that was legit funny and entertaining for awhile, until he discovered being too hands off resulted in pissing off advertisers, so he pulled a Lowtax, got his own brood of losers and assholes to mod for free (like that assbag Fighteer), then banned any hint of negativity or anything that hurt his cash flow to protect his feels and trailer park rent, and as result TV Tropes is in the same miserable state as the website he famously called a "vile pit of hate".

tl;dr version - Fast Eddie and Lowtax are more alike than they think, and their sites suck as a result.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

In which I show exasperation at the idiocy of Nate Spidgewood

In an earlier blog post, I called out a really stupid wiki troll by the name of Nate Spidgewood (go read his Encyclopedia Dramatica article for more details), an imbecile who for almost three years now has attempted to troll TV Tropes as some stupid revenge for throwing him out, even though it was him being a total ass to their moderators that got him cast out. He even edited briefly on my Wikia fork of All The Tropes and it's predecessor, and I eventually permabanned him after I got fed up with him using my wiki as his rebound center after his trolling sprees on TVT, and since that nimrod has yet to learn his lesson, I'm going to repeat myself in stronger language.

Nate, give the fuck up. TV Tropes NEVER WANTS YOU BACK, and frankly, I don't blame them. Yes, they have a stupid set of rules, an incompetent and corrupt moderation team, and the place is run by a shameless whore for advertising money who wipes his ass with copyright law, but doing the equivalent of getting fired from your job and getting revenge by pissing on the walls as your version of a "fuck you" is not only totally idiotic, you are accomplishing NOTHING except making yourself look like an autistic jackass of the highest order.

And Nate, I have aspergers and have an axe to grind against TV Tropes, one much bigger than yours, but I decided to found my own clubhouse instead of trying to graffiti theirs because despite being an autist, I'm capable of acting like an adult and MOVING ON IN LIFE instead of acting like some petulant, whining bitch of a man.

That said, I denounce your bullshit just as much now as I did when I first heard about you, and while I admit I'd laugh if TV Tropes went down, if I found out you did an illegal act that made that happen, I'd be the first one to report your ass to the authorities, especially after that stunt you pulled trying to hire a hacker to fuck over TV Tropes.

In short Nate, grow the hell up.

Cross Ange Episode 5

We begin Episode 5 shortly after Episode 4, with the last dragon falling into the ocean dead. Everyone but Salia writes off the Vilkiss/Ange as dead, and while it's obvious Salia mostly worries about the Vilkiss and Hilda cares about neither it or Ange herself, Jill tells Salia to return to base and they'll send a recovery team for the Vilkiss later.

We then cut to the scene shown in the beginning credits of Episode 4 where Ange meets the guy she woke up naked in bed with, and not only does he seem as uncomfortable as her, he looks somewhat less like a Kira Yamato ripoff up close.

He apologizes for tying her up, citing it as a just in case measure (she IS a soldier now, makes sense), but Ange is more worked up over being naked (the fact her uniform is lying on a table means he removed it from her body, which has her noticeably upset.

He turns around to continue introductions, slips on a bottle on the floor, and lands face first in her crotch. He's profusely embarrassed, but this suddenly causes Ange's adrenaline to kick in as she knees his face, plants her feet in her gut and somersaults him over the bed behind her, and she even manages to snap her bonds as she  grabs her uniform and hauls ass out of makeshift cave like house they are in.

As she runs off, understandably scared and confused, her memory starts to kick in as she soon locates the Vilkiss on the beach. She tries to make it move, realizes it can't, then realizes the throttle is jammed. She checks in, and she finds it's been jammed with several familiar looking undergarments, and that's when she remembers Hilda was behind the attempt to kill her.

Her male captor (now dressed) shows up and tries to ask why she beat the shit out of him (gee, dumbass, we wonder why........), and she whips out her service pistol, shoots at his feet, then tells him the next one isn't a warning shot if he takes another step. He tries to get her to calm down, she still pissed over waking up naked and assumes he wanted to take advantage of her. He tries to protest innocence in the most idiotically inept way possible (guy sounds like a virgin IMO), she only takes this as proof he's a sick bastard, he's still trying to protest his innocence, and that's when a crab pinches one of his toes, and he falls forward, against atop her crotch.

Before I continue, the sequence was hilarious, but more importantly sets the tone for our male friend's character. In short, he's a Butt Monkey.

A quick scene cut later and a few gunshot sounds later, he's tied up to a tree with some jungle vines, she stomps off still convinced he's a sick fuck, and he's trying to protest his innocence to deaf ears.

We then cut back to Arzenal HQ, where we see a scene of Hilda reclining in the base spa looking smug, then we curt to Jill's office, where they are wondering how the hell the Vilkiss went down despite being in good shape with a competent pilot. Jill looks a little emo as tells Mei's recovery team to recover Ange, in a body bag if need be.

Scene cut Mei and the other about to lift off in a VTOL, and Vivian and Ersha offer to help, proving despite Ange's standoffishness and douchery in the prior episode they still have souls, and Mei shrugs and let's them join the team.

Meanwhile, Ange is back with the partially submerged Vilkiss, pissed it doesn't come with an emergency supply kit, then reflects back on Jasmine's admonition a Para Mail is a Norma's casket. It's starts raining, so she realizes she needs shelter. After watching a lightning bolt fry a tree, she clines into another tree hollow nearby in an attempt to stay out of the weather, only for a snake to bite her on the inner thigh, forcing her to keep going, only this time limping slightly due to a snake bite, but that doesn't last long as the bite was poisonous, so she collaspes.

At this point, she figures she's gonna die alone, and that's when we see the guy she tied up earlier (still there), asking if she's alright. She finally asks him to help her, passes out, and his adrenaline kicks in and he frees himself and decides to help her. He realizes she's snakebitten, and in a scene that is amazingly not fanservice laden, he sticks his head between her legs (yeah, I know, sounds wrong) and starts sucking out the poison. He then binds the wound with his shirt, then hauls ass back to his little cave, a wounded Ange in his arms.

She's naked in his bed again one scene later, but he's proving his gentleman credentials by cleaning her off and attending to her wounds, and that's when he sees her ring, gets a flashback to his past, and we learn his mother was a Norma, his father died with her in combat, and we also see a somewhat younger Jill (now we know when she lost that arm), and we also see this isn't the first time he's see the Vilkiss. A brief scene change to the recovery team still looking around, then we cut back to him.

Ange has woken back up (this time somewhat dressed, as as he notices he hurriedly explains (while making dinner) he sucked out the poison, she's still weak and numb, and that NO, he did nothing perverted to her.

Ange is too weak to give him any serious shit, but still gets tsundere briefly when he tries to offer her food, which dies pretty fast as her stomach starts growling. She finally takes a bite, mutters it tastes bad, but she still wants more (amazing how hunger can make you eat anything, huh?), and he's amused as he explains it's sea snake soup (she winces at this, but doesn't spit it out).

He then asks if she's willing to trust him now and not punch, shoot, or tie him up, and she finally softens up a little and tells him she'll think about it, then realizes what he meant exactly by "suck out the poison, so she bites him (hey, she never promised she wouldn't do that).

Meanwhile, the recovery team returns to base to refuel. While this happens, Hilda asks Ersha why she's giving a shit about Ange, and Ersha piles on the guilt trip as she tells Hilda that she knows that Hilda would love to watch her die, but Ersha is a forgiving soul who feels they are all Norma's and have to stick together, shitty grudges be damned, then bitch slaps Hilda's arrogance by saying Ange isn't much different from how Hilda first was. Hilda gets offended and tells Ersha she's been added to her shit list then leaves. Brief cut back to Ange, who is resting, her male friend is outside by a fire, then a cut to the Vilkiss, where it looks like a DRAGON is leering at it from the water.

Come morning, our male friend is working on the Vilkiss, and Ange in nothing but a long shirt walks up and looks on, and he explains bits of Paramail wash up sometimes, which he's using to effect repairs, so he taught himself Para-mail repair Robinson Crusoe style. 

She then realizes he has shown no Mana ability to date and has a lot more Para-mail knowledge then he's admitting to, and he deflects the question by telling her his name is Tusk, and he derails any further questions when mentions some simple repairs will fix her radio so she can contact HQ.

She gets all emo and figures no one will give a shit. He gets all quiet and very tentatively offers his hospitality, and she finally cracks a smile and accepts.

Which is then subverted by another scene where she's back in bed again, and Tusk is tied to a tree with a massive handprint on his face, and as he hangs his head in obvious "why me" mode, it's obvious he tried to offer they share the bed and she was like "oh hell no".

Before I continue, I actually like this guy. Bit naive, not to mention seems to be the show butt monkey, but it's obvious his heart's in the right place.

A few days go by, showing him teaching her how to survive on a deserted isle, they start warming up to each other, we get an amusing scene where he attempt at cooking is so bad it turns nuclear, and he gets a face full of her crotch trying to shield her from the blast, prompting her to get pissed again and shoot at him some more.

We also get a scene where she sees him bathing after finishing her own, and he just continues bathing, unconcerned, which makes her realize her own hypocrisy a little. Later, after some more work on the Vilkiss, she finally goes dere-dere on him by being the one to take care of him by throwing a blanket over him and regarding him with a smile instead of a scowl.

We get a brief scene later that starts to get a little romantic (they were even about to kiss), but that goes out the window as they have to hide as a convoy of VTOLS goes by, holding a DRAGON encased in ice, and as Ange wonders what the hell is going on, a DRAGON shows up and destroys the convoy, obviously saving it's brethren.

Tusk figures its time to run, they try and run into a Scuna class dragon that tries attacking them. A few pistol shots later, then run away as that proves ineffective. Ange wants the Vilkiss up and running, Tusk agrees to do lightning fast repairs since its their best option for not dying, and he hauls ass as Ange whips out her combat knife to go toe to toe with the DRAGON to buy time.

The knife proves useless, and Tusk throws her a spare machine gun as a backup weapon while he continues his repair work. Ange scores some good hits but is still being overpowered, and just as thre DRAGON goes for the coup de grace, her ring glows as Tusk gets the Vikiss to turn on, and the Vilkiss seriously wounds the DRAGON via remote control machine gun fire, and Ange, in what has to be one of her most badass moments to date, grabs her knife, does a leap charge on the dragon, and garrotes it's neck repeatedly.

She almost goes into a blood rage at this point, but Tusk snaps her out of it. Later, Tusk admits he likes her, even if she is a bit violent, and just as he offers to make their living arrangement long term, he radio kicks in, and that's when she gets a call asking to confirm she's alive. She does, requests a rescue, then tells Tusk she realizes the penal battalion is the only home she'll really have (basically, what little denial she had is gone now) , then goes all tsun-tsun on him and tells him all that embarrassing stuff like the venom sucking and crotch shots NEVER HAPPENED.

He hurriedly agrees, then she goes dere-dere and tells him her name (Ange, indicating she's finally accepted her new life). She gets picked up by the obviously happy Vivian, then we cut back to Tusk, who is revealed to have his own full fledged Para-Mail of his own, as well as a combat suit and everything, and apparently, his father fought with his mom together, all but confirming they were BOTH Norma (apparently, there are male Norma too), and he flies off, presumably in Ange's direction (yeah, he fell for her hard), then we cut back to where Ange's has finally defrosted, acts grateful for the rescue, and even calls Vivian by name.

The post credits has Ange comedically bitching about how the stranded on a desert island episode was screwed up by gory battles. Also, if the post credits preview is any indication, it seems the maid she had (Momoko, the one who helped cover for Ange being a Norma) is joining the penal battalion, presumably for the crime of hiding the fact someone was a Norma (which most likely makes her a traitor by their current standards).

Overall, this episode wasn't too bad at all, though the parts where Tusk was getting his ass kicked for Accidental Pervert moments was getting a little old, and we got some nice character development from Ange, who seems to have shed most of her remaining bitchiness.

The fail and incompetence of TV Tropes discussion pages.

TV Tropes, despite claims to the contrary by their moderation, runs on a copy of PmWiki, and while most of the features have been heavily altered by Fast Eddie, the core rules of PmWiki still apply, and in this case, this just bit Fast Eddie on the ass recently.

PmWiki has a size limit of 500KB of content per page before data errors in saving occur, and while this can be solved for main pages via splitting them into subpages or archiving chunks of the data on another pages, the talk pages use a customized threading format by Fast Eddie that unfortunately lacks the ability to be archived as effectively as a standard MediaWiki talk page due to the specialized structure of the page (which resembles their Ask The Tropers page without the scrolling feed of the most recent posts), or even a LiquidThreads enabled MW talk page, which organizes talk pages into a topic list it breaks down into subpages automatically.

The result is that he has to manually cobble together a solution for any talk page he wishes to archive that become too large, whereas this can be done by anyone on MediaWiki in a very simple manner regardless what talk page schema you use.

tl;dr - Fast Eddie uses a very imcompetently programmed talk page system.

Gamergate 2 is on, and I want no part of it

 This will not be a long post, but I just want to make clear, as someone who was involved in the first go-round of Gamergate, I want no part...