Sidders inc.

Howdy, I review anime, t.v. shows, books, K-pop and other stuff. I also write books, so feel free to check them out at https://tablo.io/david-sidders. I also have completely edited and finished versions on Amazon by searching for David M M Sidders. I also, also have a youtube channel where I post audiobook chapters, just search David Sidders.  

[opticallyaddicted]

Amazing Transparent Church in Borgloon, Belgium

The architect group, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, built this church in Borgloon, Belgium. It doesn’t look like anything special… from certain angles. From other angles, the structure reveals itself to be something else entirely.It consists of 100 layers of stacked steel, that are equidistantly staggered in a way that illusively change in appearance based on where the viewer is standing.

Thanks Chris

[writerlyn]

Must defrag the church.

[thelordpaladin]

Fruits basket and a little update

So, I decided to finish a series before doing a review,,, but! Fruits basket had me in a flood of tears as I caught up after my 3 week holiday and came across the excellent Intersection - one step closer ED song. Doctor Stone is awesome so far, as is ‘Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?’ season 2, which is, so far, better than the first. Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? is my obligatory awful show that’s great and I’ve been writing like a madman (so close to finishing 2 more books) so anime has been getting a nasty case of 1 episode and done. I’ve got more hospital appointments coming up, so I should get some more reading done after finishing L change the world (It’s awesome) and The war of the wolf by bernard Cornwell (also awesome).

[thelordpaladin]

One punch man - season 2

In short, I enjoyed my time with the show, though the decline in quality of animation was highly obvious when the big fights rolled around. This did take away from the OTT nature of the show, but the writing and characters kept me invested throughout. Garro was a great addition and Saitama taking a back seat was the right choice, the ending though... the ending sucks, what a poor place to end.

[thelordpaladin]

Attack on Titan - season three

With a huge hike in animation quality and overall artwork season three looks better than any of the previous series, though going into the second half of this season I was a little worried on how they may stretch out the content. Safe to say, I wasn’t let down, parts of the post-battle story have been fleshed out and expanded upon, giving much-needed clarity on what exactly happened afterwards, parts the manga skipped on. Although slow in select parts, there’s plenty to keep you engaged even if the plot does become much slower next season if the anime follows the manga closely. I overall enjoyed this season though and would even go as far as saying it has several of my all-time favourite shots in anime within it. A recommendation.

[thelordpaladin]

Flower of Bulann - Chapter 2 (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/KXYCWp3piX In the land of beauty known as Bulann, Kinna is the fourth daughter of the Hyenta lord, as such, she could never hope for a high station, only for a husband that would love her. Yet on this fateful day, her father announces that she is to be the grand prize in a tournament, although initially she feels slighted, it soon becomes apparent that her father cares deeply about her and that the competitors are greater than she ever dared dream.

[thelordpaladin]

Snowpiercer

This film is pretty fucked up, and because of that relentlessness, it’s pretty good. The fighting and violence throughout are brutal and devoid of the glamorization that often happens. The lead character has more depth than a film like this deserves and the plot isn’t that bad, I have problems with the ending, but getting there was pretty good. Definitely worth watching.

[thelordpaladin]

Mage breaker - A coven of slaughter (part X) season finale (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/TnLw1o1cVW The season finale of mage breaker is finally here, keeping to a weekly schedule has been difficult, but I managed it somehow and was surprisingly fun to do. Once it has been edited and test read mage breaker season 1/ volume 1? will be available on Amazon with a special bonus chapter. A big thank you to those that have been reading every week, knowing that just one person has been reading kept me going.

[thelordpaladin]

Game of Thrones season 8

What can I say about this show that everyone else already hasn’t, the sloppy, half-assed at best writing and insane character assassinations taking the cake. I had hoped for a satisfying end to GOT due to my mounting doubts GRRM will ever finish the series off, but it wasn’t to be, rather than be remembered as a truly remarkable show that peaked at around season 4, but remained okay until season 7 when the fissures started to open up. I still maintain that, like Rian Johnson, Dan & Dave are awful writers but competent directors, with there being some really good shots sprinkled throughout the series. The next show to come out will probably be the wheel of time, and though I got sick of its wheel spinning by book 12 there’s a chance the show may correct these problems... it really is a shame that I now expect shows to be poorly written garbage and be shocked they’re good, rather than being shocked they’re bad. I’ve been told that my criticism of these shows isn’t helpful, but if we don’t call out poor quality when we see it, then why should anyone bother anymore, it was the reason I started to write my own stories. Perhaps sooner rather than later shows in the west will focus less on identity politics and get back to good storytelling, rant over... for now.

[thelordpaladin]

The last kingdom, season 3

After a ropey couple of seasons, season three was this show hitting its stride. Perhaps in comparison to GOT (I can’t not compare), this show has some great writing in it. Deviating from the source material may bother some people, but not me, the characters are all consistent with their new motivations and actions all making sense. The battle scenes have always been great and I have to complement the (mostly) good use of armour. David Dawson gives a stand out performance as Alfred and he easily steals every scene he’s in. Alexander Dreymon has really come into his role as Uhtred now and I fully accept him in the role now. There are several books rolled into one here, but the story is paced well enough with characters given a good amount of development. I really enjoyed this series, and although not a slog, the previous two seasons can be a bit difficult at times, a recommendation from me though.

[thelordpaladin]

Game of Thrones, season 8, episode 5 (spoilers)

Where do I start with this mess of an episode? I guess with Varys, the man who survives everything for the betterment of the realm... and here he gives up as Tyrion continues on his character destruction, ratting out Varys and watching on without protest from him and Jon as Daenerys burns his ‘friend’ alive. Now to the siege, so Euron’s fleet has quadrupled in size so Dany doesn’t stand a chance right? I mean, six ships killed a dragon and obliterated her fleet... nope, she swoops in and in the space of maybe five minutes annihilates the fleet, killing everyone except Euron (his plot armour is fire resistant). In the meantime, Jon’s foot army is ready to attack kings landing and no one is wearing a helmet or carrying a shield... in a siege. The golden company has been stationed outside the walls (GOT tactics in full swing as always). So, we’re going to get a battle here right? wrong, Danys sneaks up on them somehow, blowing up the gate with Drogon (because that’s how fire works) and wiping out the whole golden company before destroying all the scorpions on the wall (I’m so glad we built them up as dangerous last episode) as the army charges in, The Lannisters instantly regret wearing armour as it proves to be made of heavy tissue paper and the ‘good guys’ start to slaughter and rape the civilians, One so intent on raping he attacks Jon (great writing as always). Before long the city surrenders as the bells start ringing, Tyrion wandering unarmed through the streets still teaming with enemies. Before all this though, Jaime has entered the city, after being previously caught because he forgot to remove his golden hand... because apparently, he’s the stupid Lannister (and not that the writers are the worst). Tyrion lets him go off to save Cersei and that’s the destruction of Jaimie complete (I genuinely believed he was going south to kill his sister, but no, I gave these hack writers too much credit). The hound and Arya ‘Deus ex’ Stark are also in the city, brazenly walking around. The show hasn’t ruined a character in about five minutes so Dany goes crazy and starts massacring civilians, Grey Worm also takes this opportunity to go crazy and begins killing soldiers that have surrendered, Jon ‘wet blanket’ Stark watches on as usual and wonders where his character went wrong. You begin to feel sorry for Cersei at this point as she starts crying, then Qyburn tells her the battle is lost and she starts to escape, the tower collapses and half the queen's guard dies, the hound then appears and kills the rest except for the mountain. To rewind a little bit, the hound and Arya enter the red keep and the hound tells Arya to go home because if she follows him they’ll both die... and she does, Arya, the super assassin gets scared and runs off, ignoring her number one target... dear God, I hope we don’t get pointless scenes of her running around King’s landing and getting civilians killed... oh... anyway, Qyburn orders the mountain to protect the queen and gets comically hurled down the stairs and killed (It’s so funny, yet utterly in line with this shit shows MO) he hound lets Cersei escape and fights the mountain in a pretty crap, underwhelming fight where they both go through a wall, plummeting to their deaths in a flame pit... what an awful ending for such a good character. In the meantime, Jaimie has made his way to the secret beach passage where he runs into... Euron, well shit, how convenient, rather than helping Jaime, or escaping, Euron tries to kill him. Jaimie is mortally wounded but kills Euron in yet another craply choreographed fight. Euron declares he’s killed the Kingslayer, to himself I guess and dies. Jaime reunites with Cersei and they go to escape together, but the escape tunnel has collapsed and they die together as the ceiling crushes them both as they embrace. Twenty minutes into Dany’s rampage Jon orders a retreat (great leadership there) as she’s clearly murdering anyone in sight. The episode ends with Arya waking up after her plot armour repels dragon fire and finds a horse, riding off into the distance. 

This episode destroyed nearly all its main characters and engaged in the worst tropes of fantasy shows, botching character arcs and built up fights wherever possible. Worst of all it has proved the leaks right, so now all there is left is to watch King Bran roll onto the throne... fuck this show and its writers

[thelordpaladin]

WWW.WAGNARIA!! season one

I don’t have a huge amount to say on this other than it’s really funny. It relies mostly on slapstick, but there were a few moments where I was howling. For something I’d recommend I really don’t have a lot to say about it.

[thelordpaladin]

Game of Thrones, season 8, episode 4

Against all odds, this was a great episode, a powerfully emotional opening was followed by some excellent acting by Emilia Clarke and all. The writing was strong and the dialogue was (mostly) on point. The fallout from the battle against the night king out of the way Danerys’ psychosis is ramping up and this episode excellently executes this, with Dany’s acting really putting this over without the awful signposting most shows use. Tyrion and Varys are pushed to the forefront here with both men knowing what can and must happen, the dialogue reminiscent of seasons past. Cersei’s defences make sense as does Danerys’ strategy. After this weeks episode, I've actually invested in the characters again and can only regret the previous garbage. A recommendation and a hope this quality continues.

[thelordpaladin]

Baki

This show is pretty brutal, and the story structure felt really odd. I realised early on in part 1 that I’d missed a previous season or OVA possibly, but I couldn’t find it here in the UK so my observations and opinions may be skewed in that sense. So, you can imagine my confusion when Baki turns out to be fairly irrelevant until the last third of the show, the ensemble cast though is actually quite refreshing as opposed to fighting shows like dragon ball Z. Like I stated at the start, the fights are pretty brutal, though towards the end the bad guys are dispatched pretty unceremoniously by characters only just introduced (though as I said, they may be in earlier seasons. The guy that trains Baki certainly must be?). I did, on the whole, enjoy the show and regardless of how out off the blue they appeared, the show does give them an effective introduction to new viewers for the most part anyway. The next series should be pretty good and I look forward to it.

[thelordpaladin]

Attack on Titan, season 3, part 2, episode 1

I’ve been looking forward to this, the final throwdown before the next arc. As I’m well ahead in the manga there’re bound to be few surprises, but the adaption so far has been stellar, with the animation and art consistently on an upward trajectory. It may sound weird, but I remember the author saying somewhere he regretted things in this portion so I wonder if there’ll be changes as I like the idea of the anime correcting the authors perceived mistakes. Either way, a good episode to get part 2 rolling and a recommendation.

[thelordpaladin]

Game of Thrones season 8, episode 3 (spoilers)

For the love of God will someone tell the directors that no matter how awesome the dragon fire looks against the darkness, if I can’t see for damn near 70% of the episode it’s not worth it. Simply adding moonlight would compensate as I had my brightness set to max and still struggled to make things out. There aren't any shocking or major deaths as I’ve come to expect from recent seasons and the sheer incompetence of their battle plan is staggering, I can’t blame Cersei for not sending an army when the tactics used are so bad. I feel that given a decent sized army I could quite easily conquer the seven kingdoms myself, hell I wouldn’t even give them armour as it appears to be made of tissue paper. Now, things I liked... Lady Mormont’s last stand, and... that’s about it. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but it was better than the hobbit’s a battle of five armies for what it’s worth.

[thelordpaladin]

Mage breaker - Monsters of the night (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/zOsqn37QaW Mages are dangerous and powerful weapons, and like all weapons, they must be wielded. But many mages will not be shackled by the state and thus are deployed the mage breakers, teams of specialised hunters to remove them in whatever way they see fit whether they are brought in dead or alive... (this will be a weekly series that I will upload on Thursdays, so not sure how long it takes to appear.)

[thelordpaladin]

Game of Thrones season 8, episode 2 (minor spoilers)

An uncharacteristically decent episode this week, where there were character interactions that came across as reminiscent of the earlier seasons. Sansa and Theon’s reunion was emotional (more so than Jon and Arya’s strangely) and the fireside scene was mostly well written. The worst part was the opening, Danerys coming across as an emotionless robot to match Sansa, but the end section of this episode shows that they can act. Something I didn’t mention the last episode was the score, the only thing that has been consistently fantastic throughout, the final haunting song by Podrick perfectly woven into the montage. There were a lot of death flags raised here and I expect the cast to be whittled down heavily (I wish the hound had died much earlier, he’s become a font of one-liner insults and is unbearably dull now). A move upwards in quality this week, with the majority of the show's problems being mitigated by the stronger actors getting the spotlight. Next week will more than likely be a long battle so the show’s generally good directing and SFX should carry it through.