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introvertguide · 3 years

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Duck Soup (1933); AFI #60

The next film on the AFI top 100 is a throwback to before the Golden Age of Hollywood when "talkies" were new, Duck Soup (1933). This film was the last attached to a 5 feature contract that the Marx Brothers had with Paramount pictures. It was moderately well received at the time but has since become the most critically acclaimed of the Marx Brothers films. The movie is only 68 minutes and is absolutely packed with gags. It is not, however, packed with a storyline or plot. I want to very briefly go over the summary because that is not what this movie is known for. Let's unnecessarily start with...

SPOILER ALERT? THIS MOVIE HAS NO PLOT. IT IS ALL ABOUT SITE GAGS AND SET PIECES. READ AWAY!!! IT WILL NOT DO ANYTHING TO HURT THE EXPERIENCE!!!

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The film starts off with the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insisting that a man that she is sweet on, Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho), be appointed leader of the small, bankrupt country of Freedonia before she will continue to provide much-needed financial aid. Meanwhile, neighboring Sylvania is attempting to annex the country. Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhem) tries to foment a revolution and to woo Mrs. Teasdale, and he tries to dig up dirt on Firefly by sending in spies Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo).

After failing to collect useful information against Firefly, Chicolini and Pinky are able to infiltrate the government when Chicolini is appointed Secretary of War after Firefly sees him selling peanuts outside his window. Meanwhile, Firefly's secretary, Bob Roland (Zeppo), suspects Trentino's motives, and he advises Firefly to get rid of Trentino by insulting him. Firefly agrees to the plan, but after a series of personal insults exchanged between Firefly and Trentino, the plan backfires when Firefly slaps Trentino instead of being slapped by him. As a result, the two countries come to the brink of war. Adding to the international friction is the fact that Firefly is also courting Mrs. Teasdale, and, like Trentino, hoping to get his hands on her late husband's wealth.

Trentino learns from his femme fatale spy, Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres), that Freedonia's plans of war are in Mrs. Teasdale's safe and tells her to assist Chicolini and Pinky in stealing them. Chicolini is caught by Firefly and put on trial, during which war is officially declared, and everyone is overcome by war frenzy, breaking into song and dance. Chicolini and Pinky join Firefly and Bob Roland in anarchic battle, resulting in general mayhem.

After a fierce battle, the end of the film finds Trentino caught in a makeshift pillory, with the Brothers pelting him with fruit. Trentino surrenders, but Firefly tells him to wait until they run out of fruit. Mrs. Teasdale begins singing the Freedonia national anthem in her operatic voice and the Brothers begin hurling fruit at her instead.

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There are many exceptionally good and bad aspects of this film. On the good side, there are a couple of amazing set pieces that the Marx Brothers did like no other. The mirror scene in which Groucho and Harpo stand in front of each other and Harpo perfectly mimics his brother's movements was outstanding. Specifically, there is a point where Groucho stands outside the reflection and moves in a ridiculous way past what he thinks is a reflection. The mirroring between the brothers is exceptional. Add in the same dressing gown and cap to the actual resemblance (they are full actual brothers) makes for quite an effect. This mirror gag was first done on film by Charlie Chaplin almost 15 years earlier, but this is likely the most well known and best done example of the bit by real people. It was repeated by Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, The Pink Panther, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, and the Smurfs. That kind of mirror quality action was only repeatable through animation, apparently.

The constant wardrobe changes during the frenzied war scene have caused full speculative articles to be written. Groucho starts out in a Union officer suit, then appears in a Confederate officer suite, then a British palace guard uniform, and then in what looks to be a boy scout officer suit, and finally a Davy Crockett hat? The deep cynicism and anti-war sentiment of the brothers was blatant. It is summed up by the line "while you're out out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are." The United States had just gotten out of a war and many militaristic leads felt the need to show off. This lack of care after feeling so dominant following WW1 was the mindset that in part led to the Stock Market crash and the Great Depression. There was turmoil brewing in Europe and many Americans wanted nothing to do with it after seeing so many young boys getting ripped apart by trench warfare and machine gun fire. The brothers were satirizing all of those figures that we use to teach boys to want to fight for their country. They also went after what they believed were the causes of many wars: money and moral indignation between powerful men.

Although the film gives the audience insight into the mindset of much of the population during those extremely turbulent times between wars, it also boasts some of the most unsophisticated humor of a new visual medium. The silly songs do not translate well and sound like something created by a child. With truly clever artists like Frank Zappa, the Dead Kennedys, and national treasure Weird Al Yankovic, the Marx Brother's songs just sound lame to me. I think the same of Groucho's one liners. With comedians like Mitch Hedberg, Paula Poundstone, Steven Wright, and Jimmy Carr, the work of Groucho Marx feels seriously dated and quite cringy.

The real let down for me in this particular film was the fighting between Harpo and the Lemonade salesman. In fact, the character of Pinkie was "The Joker" levels of psychotic. I know he represented the constant undermining of communism. That is fine and makes a good point. Practically speaking, though, he reveled in causing problems for no reason and he was a constant nuisance. I have been around a lot of teachers and they sat that students who act like that are the bane of everyone's existence. It may be witty, but it is not funny. I have seen movies like Borat and Jackass, who are at least very creative in the way they cause problems and mostly harm themselves. I legitimately hate the character of Pinky and find him devoid of any real humor beyond the mirror scene. I also realize that Chicolini is a play on Mussolini, but I didn't really find him funny either. I want to emphasize that these are my opinions and I welcome comments on why Pinkie and Chicolini are hilarious.

There are some things that I do forgive and almost find charming. Directors from the silent film era had to emphasize that their actors over dramatize their lines so that the audience could get even a modicum of tone. This over-the-top dramatic speaking continued with many actors into the era of talking pictures. You can tell that this film was made near the change over because a lot of the actors talk like they are making one continual speech. Just about everyone is projecting for the cheap seats, and I totally appreciate it and smile. I also appreciate that the Marx Brothers absolutely jam pack the film with gags. I don't think many of the gags are funny, but I acknowledge that the movie is 68 minutes of constant jokes and the Marx Brothers made a concerted effort to give their audience the most bang for their buck. Good for them.

So does this movie belong on the AFI top 100? I am actually going to say no. I think that Horse Feathers is a funnier film and has the iconic football scene that got a screen cap on the cover of Time magazine. If the AFI was going to choose a Paramount produced Marx Brothers film, this one seems to me to only be second or third choice of the five. Would I recommend it? Sure. It is definitely dated and the jokes will not make a lot of sense any more, but some of the scenes have become iconic and it is fun to see what has been so heavily referenced in current media. It is a pretty fun movie to sit back and just experience for an hour, so I would give it a shot.

#marx brothers #duck soup #afi films #comedy #black and white #1930s #groucho #harpo #zeppo #chico #mirror scene #introvert #iontroverts #one liners

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fayeimara · 3 years

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Meant To Be Series || One For Every Billion

5. Thank Some Gods

You end up in Hyogo for a real hot minute over your winter break, thanks to your cousins Akira and Akari who decided to drag you along when they were forced to visit with their mom and older brother. Being a year older then them and already a seasoned solo traveller, the parents all thought you'd be a great chaperone. Woohoo, yay you.

Truth be told, you love spending time with them and you're really happy to be able to see your aunt and other cousin, their brother Kazuya, that you'd missed over the summer, as well. Although you did have to apologize to Tobio and his family because when you'd promised you would stay with them next, you should have specified you meant next time you were in Miyagi. Not Japan in general. You think they were just taking the piss though.

Oh right, your vulgar new phrases are courtesy of Akira, thank her very much. Spend a few minutes in the twins' company and you end up talking like them, or whatever their west coast academy friends are currently teaching them, at least. Akari has a valley girl phase going and you think Akira is gearing up for a Tarantino-inspired life. Can't see how your family is let that going to happen, but it's not your job to tell him that.

"Y/nnn, did you try this dango!" Akira runs right into you, appearing from the crowd of people on the festive street of the shopping district you're in, and locks her free arm around yours while waving a stick with round balls on it in other other hand.

"No, but I waited 10 minutes standing still in the cold and crowd so you can bet that I will. Half of that is already mine."

"Hmph," She scoffs, "No one told you to stand still and wait around, silly."

You give her an exasperated look, "You literally said, 'stay there a minute, I'm grabbing us some sweets!' and bounced off."

"Okay, okay, chill your roll, girl."

"Not sure that's a saying, girl."

"Maybe not at the snooty east side preps."

"Yo." Akira appears on your other side. "Half that's mine."

"A third. Or none at all." Akari sticks her tongue out at her twin.

He looks over at you and you nod, twisting quickly so you can grab and hold her occupied arm still while he plucks the dango from her hand.

"Hey! Looks like it's none at all!"

"No. Looks like it's half mine, half Y/n's." He bites off one of the chewy balls (okay, we all know how that sounds.. slow your roll, girl) before holding the stick in front of your face so you can grab one too. Oh wow. It is good. Why did you wait so long to try it? So many years wasted without enjoying this sweet texture.

You can see your third cousin approaching, holding onto a tray of steaming drinks, as you chew over your thoughts on the delicious dessert (see what you did there?).

"I got your coffee", he holds the tray between us so I can grab one of the cups with my free hand, but like.. Kazuya, which one is it?

"Kazuuu, they're bullying me!" Akari pouts for sympathy only for Akira to fire back almost before she reaches the last word.

"She bullied me first!"

Instead of responding to either, he rolls his eyes at their bickering but they're only having fun. You've never met siblings that have each other's backs more than these two. You think Kazuya misses it too, having decided to study in Japan and live with his mom who consequently chose to work here, while the other two live with their dad - but really at a boarding school - back on the American west coast.

"Whatever, are you grabbing your drinks or what?"

Akari only smiles at her older brother's deadpan expression, "Which one is my hot chocolate, niichan?"

"Please don't call me that."

"Why not?"

But it's Akira who answers with a snicker, "Because you don't even go here, brat. It's cringy coming from you."

"Shut up, ugly clone."

"That's literally impossible unless you're calling yourself ugly too."

Okay, you're just going to go for the cup closest to you on your left. You pick it up and sip slowly... success. The sweet, warm flavour of your white chocolate mocha slides down your throat.

Kazu is giving you an arch look now, he knows how much you live for coffee but he's still going to say something about it, right? "You know it's already dark out, I don't know how you can drink this stuff so late. Don't you want to get some sleep tonight?"

"Bold of you to assume I need sleep." You smirk at him over the rim of your cup while Akari makes an attempt at snatching the remaining dango back from her brother around you. Please don't make me spill.

"Nah, I just assume you're a robot and this is your regular maintenance or something."

You consider his words before shrugging, nothing too mean that you can call him out on, you guess. "Down the hatch then."

"Sure thing, but I'm not staying up late bingeing your crappy shows with you when you're wired."

"But you'll binge a non-crappy show?"

"Maybe."

Another smile for your favourite cousin of the minute. He did get you coffee, you know. Akari's managed to grab the third sweet off the stick with her mouth like some rabid animal, but it makes sense because the hand not still holding onto you is holding back Akari's arm. They're going to smac-

And they hit the tray that Kazu was only just holding. He somehow manages to grab one of the drinks you assume is his out of it's spot while avoiding the wreckage spill of the other two cups. He didn't even try to hold on to it, which is partly why you're laughing as both twins start simultaneously apologizing and complaining about their spilled drinks.

Kazuya's deadpan expression is actually pretty communicative for the the moment, "I'm not going back for another, this is on you guys."

"Kazu, do you like being mean to us?" They actually ask this at the same time but Kazu's not even phased.

"Yes, I want you to suffer." He's dry as ever.

You chuckle but they're so sweet, most of the time, so you'll make it up for them, "I passed a stall selling hot chocolate, since we don't need to replace my specialty coffee, I can go there to get you some."

"Me too?" Akira asks hopefully.

"Yes, you too, puppy."

He rolls his eyes, trying to adjust his expression back into an uncaring one. It's more natural on his brother currently, but you can definitely see him grow into a more serious demeanour someday.

"I'll come with you while these two stay put." Kazu gives his younger siblings a stern look.

"No need," You wave him off, grabbing the stick with the last piece of dango and handing it to him, "Enjoy this as repayment from us all for making you go all the way back into the mall for our drinks. In the meantime, I'll be right back."

"Hold on, you're going to the one next to the onigiri stand, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Okay, straight there and back in fifteen minutes or I'll come find you. And if I have to worry, I won't be happy."

"Okay niisan." You roll your eyes with your sarcastic tone. Older brothers. No wonder he and your brother Raiden get along so well, they're under some misassumption that their younger siblings just can't help getting into trouble, as if you all only live to annoy them. And he was doing so well as your favourite cousin for the time being.

You stroll away from the benches you were waiting at by the end of the street where the outdoor stalls meet the main street shopping mall and melt back into the crowd. This festival really is something, so brightly lit with pretty twinkling lights strung up everywhere and curled around any available post like glowing, warm yellow vines. You absolutely love the vibe but you know you're on a time crunch.

You notice the onigiri stand just ahead of the drink stall and debate for a quick second before stopping in the surprisingly short line up. A piece each of sweet dessert does not a stomach fill. Unfortunately, just as you take a sip of your coffee, someone bumps into you from behind, causing it to spill over your lips and dribble down your chin but you adjust enough in time, holding the cup out and away from you, so that you're not covered in any more than that and the little bit on your hand.

You hate wet clothing with a passion, especially when it's cold outside and it clings to you with that awful chilly, sticky feel. Not so bad when it's on your coat, but on principle, that's just as unpleasant if you run the cuff of your sleeve over it or it get on the collar and then you have the tiniest bit of discomfort right by sensitive skin and that makes it all the more glaring.

You realize the person who bumped into you also reached out to steady you at the same time and is now speaking, "Shit, I'm so sorry."

It's a little quiet but you make out his apology through his thick dialect. Hm, you think that's where the odd changes in Kazu and his mom's speech are coming from, a regional osmosis of accents?

"No worries, it's pretty crowded." You only half turn while you search your pockets for a tissue or napkin, spotting a flash of grey in your peripherals. Then an arm covered in that grey reaches out to hold a napkin in your field of view and you finally look up to see who it belongs too.

And now you're just staring. Hi there, I'd like hear your voice more. Preferably while you stare at his mouth move on his beautiful face. You can't believe he just had his hand on your waist, even if it was just for a split second and over layers of clothes, and you didn't get to appreciate it.

"It's not dirty." He shakes the napkin, you're assuming because he thankfully thought you were thinking that over instead of ogling him.

You chuckle, thinking how you definitely need to send thanks to some divine power on the new year for all the interactions with some serious eye candy these past six months, but out loud you say, "I really need to thank some gods out there, huh?"

What?

He gives you a confused look but you catch yourself and, before he can respond and question your sanity, quickly follow up with, "Or just you. For this. Thank you for the napkin."

"S'alright. Wasn't a big favour, really, just makin' up for my fault bumpin' into ya." You're not sorry he did, though? You can't tell what he's thinking, this guy is a closed book, folks. It's kind of jarring, since you consider yourself exceptional at reading people and acclimating to them.

You finally actually accept the napkin and wipe at your mouth and chin first, then your hand, responding, "At least you didn't make me drop the coffee or we would have had a real problem."

You think he realizes you're teasing because the corner of his mouth actually inches up the tiniest bit. You're not imagining, you swear it on your mocha!

"Coffee this late?"

"It's 11am somewhere."

"Ya wake up at 11am?" What an interesting thought process he has.

"Are you not on winter break? Or do you just assume your typical hours in every conversation no matter what day of the year it is?"

"Huh." You think he sounds thoughtful? Or was it just the word and you're associating it with how you use it..

"That's not an answer, but I'll take that to mean you go the typical route." You smile again because like you said, he's unreadable and you really don't want him to think you're being bitchy. You're really grateful for the napkin. And that face. So... yeah.

You're moving up, thankfully, because you thought you were blessed but this is just turning into what feels like an awkward encounter.

"I like sleepin' in, but sometimes I get too hungry so I'm up when my stomach is."

You look back at him in surprise, obviously because he bothered to continue a seemingly closed conversation, but that quickly turns into amusement and commiseration, "Oh I know! It's mostly coffee for me because not a lot of people bother to make breakfast in my house, but if I smell something delicious cooking, I forget I'm not a morning person."

He does smile fully then and it's beautiful. "Me too, but I'm usually the one doing the cookin'."

"Oh wow, that's dedication. I can respect but never reach that ideal." You hold your hand to your heart in a silly salute but also because he's still smiling and you're trying to tell your unreliable organ to be still. Not too still though, you're enjoying the moment and want to keep living it.

"Eh, I'm used to it."

"Well then, for once, let someone else take care of your food. I'll get your order for you."

"Seriously? It was just a napkin and my fault too.."

"Yeah, no, don't worry about it! Consider it a gift in essence of the festival!"

He doesn't say anything for a moment before, "I was going to try the different flavours. That's a lot."

"No way, that's awesome! I'll do that too, I don't even know what they have available, I just stopped here on a whim on my way there." You indicate the stand next to the one you're almost to the front of with a wave of your hand.

"Ahh.. if ya like, I can suggest some?"

You happily smile at him as you accept, "That would be great, thank you so much."

The two of you step up to the counter together and you listen while he orders. While you both wait for them to place each of your requests, he explains some of the fillings and why they work best depending on personal taste and even situation. You tell him about having just tried dango, sad about having realized you missed out so long, and he actually smiles widely at your exaggerated pained expression but also recommends some other desserts, including which shops to stop at in the city.

It's starting to snow as you two talk, which is not rare but still unusual for this region, but thankfully it's not much longer before you're each handed your containers and move aside. You look over to him and laugh when you realize this guy is already munching on one of the onigiris, your breath puffing out in a small cloud before you. "Which one is it?"

"Fatty tuna." He talks around it with his own little puffy cloud and it's pretty cute actually, instead of the usual cringe when people talk with their mouths full. Oh, the benefits of being good looking. Also, he's tilted his head down ever so slightly so it's almost polite in a perfected way.

"I'm just going to go ahead and assuming you're enjoying it."

He nods while swallowing and then makes some pretty intense eye contact while speaking way too seriously, "Thank you. This is amazing."

You smile, feeling like in the minutes the two of you were conversing, you've gotten a little more comfortable with the minute changes in his expressions. "You're welcome. I'm going to head over to the drink stall now, but it was nice to meet you!"

With a laugh as you walk away, you also add, "And thank you for sharing your knowledge with me, at least I'll know where to feed myself when I'm craving different things this week."

You're turning away as he seems to stand there watching you with some hesitation, but you can't do all the heavy lifting in a conversation when you're on a time limit, so you'll chalk this up to another fun run-in with a cute guy for the books.

You're lucky there's no line up, you're really short on your deadline and your fingers are getting pretty cold along with your coffee, so you pay for the hot chocolate, they pour, and you're back off towards the end of the street where your cousins are waiting.

You can't move too fast given the bag dangling from the wrist of the hand that's also carefully holding the tray of four hot chocolates, but the crowd is also thinning out a little now with the snow. Hopefully, if you're a couple minutes behind the expected time, the diverse and sheer amount of onigiri you have in the bag you're now holding, as well as the new round of warm drinks, will bring you forgiveness.

You finish up the last, cool dregs of your coffee just as you pass by a trash can, making the split decision to quickly reverse so you can toss your cup and free up a hand. As you execute your smooth move and then turn back, you unsurprisingly bump into someone yet again. Not so smooth then, you think, looking up.

It's deja vu and for a split second, you consider that he might actually be a weirdo and followed you, because stopping in your path as an apology drops from your lips is the guy you were only just talking to, same face, same dark hair, even same height... but with a different jacket on.

It takes you all of one more second to notice the small differences like the eye colour, the way the hair naturally parts, and the slightest difference in size, not to mention the more obvious difference in openness and personality literally exuding from this one. He's actually smiling wide right away with no provocation. So not a weirdo who changed his jacket and followed you.

Also, have you ever considered the odds of multiple sets of twins being in pretty much the same place at the same time?

"Oh, there's another one of you, huh?" You're talking again before he even has a chance to respond to your apology, but you guess you feel familiar thanks to your brief encounter with his twin. "That's unfair, don't you think?"

You step around him calling out, "Anyways, sorry about that. Enjoy your night." and walk away, back towards your own set of twins.

Ugh, Kazu's going to kill you. You won't be making it in time, for sure.

Miya Atsumu's POV

Atsumu turns to follow the stunning girl's progress as she moves around him and away, catching her last words but still more interested in her previous statement. 'There's another one of you, huh?'.

People have been confusing him and his twin for as long as they've been alive and only those that know them really well can only sometimes make out the difference.

It's no longer amusing, and actually irritating enough that he and 'Samu have been considering a little aesthetic change some time next year, maybe before their first year of high school.

'Tsumu knows it's his brother without looking when someone walks up to his left side from behind him. What he's surprised by is his first words, "She think you were me? I was talkin' to her a bit at the stall."

When he glances over, he notices 'Samu staring after her as well, with a lot more interest than simple, piqued curiosity. Does he know her?

"No.." He contemplates her words again before sharing with his brother, "She said 'There's another one of you, huh? That's unfair, don't you think?' and then walked away."

He can feel 'Samu looking over at him curiously, "Did ya talk to her?"

Why is he asking? He hasn't even picked up a new onigiri from the open box in his hand. "I just bumped into her. Didn't even say a word. Do ya know her?"

"Like I said, I only just met her." Pausing, 'Samu seems to think it over before adding, "We only talked a few minutes, maybe."

The twins are silent for another couple moments, while the snow continues to drift around them. The girl is long gone, swallowed up by the crowd at this point, but they keep staring at where they last saw her retreating figure, each in their own intrigued thoughts.

Finally, 'Samu's the one who breaks the silence, "Do ya believe in coincidences, 'Tsumu?"

"No, 'Samu, ya know I don't."

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Masterlist

Behind The Scenes!

-Tee was called out in the first thread because he doesn't use emojis often, especially not the half assed ones he used for a scenario like that so... caught slipping lmao (aw he does care about Y/n <3 Maybe more than he should?)

-Y/n was NOT expecting to get called out like that for saying she likes Oikawa when she'd literally just called him her friend... Iwa, you slick wingman ;) <3 He might bully the shit out of Oikawa (to keep him in check though) but he really is his best friend :')

-Ushi says what he means and means what he says lol, yeah, he wasn't really surprised

-Y/n's friends aren't all necessarily happy about this development; they've been aware of her various interactions as they usually are (some more than others) but... they're getting older and, well, all not sharing as much with each other as they once did

-But they're still going to call her out and roast her because they're her best friends lmao who else will? They have to keep her in check too loool

-Oikawa's last reply... <33 Take it how you will :D

-And Shin just dropping in to screenshot his cousin's embarrassing moments, hoping for a dirty delete so he can roast her all over again for the same crime lmao, probably shouldn't have warned her though... whoops

-I HC the Miyas' hair dyeing happening at/around their first year of HS, anyone know any different? It was only Osamu's jacket that was grey in Y/n's peripherals, just a little tease for us all ;)

A/N: Guys, I'm really, really sorry about the Miyas' 'accent'... you might see a couple different attempts in there but I had to edit a lot of what I tried out because it sounded just awful however I was originally trying to write it earlier. If you guys do have any suggestions, I'm very much all hears (and eyes lol - heart eyes specifically because I've seen some write them incredibly well!).

That aside, I hope you all enjoyed this one, I loved writing it so much, it just flowed once I started and I love the Miya twins, each in their own way <33 I've been dying to introduce them and the other 'main' characters but there's definitely going to be a difference in the weight of interactions Y/n has for a while. It's not favoritism, I promise; Y/n's time spent with various characters is just going to be uneven at various points due to the natural progression of her story :') but I plan for it all to even out as we move along the years (:

Taglist: @delusivist, @prettyinblack231, @kac-chowsballs, @sakusasimpbot

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moviewarfare · 3 years

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A Review of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)”

The movie that hardcore dedicated Zack fans fought for has finally been released. I'm not a huge Zack fan and I honestly didn't like Batman v Superman (BvS), although I did like Man of Steel, I also supported the movie because I believe the movie released should've been Zack's true vision. I watched Justice League (2017) in theatres when it came out and thought it was a very bland movie that had very obvious reshoots from another director in it. If I had to give that movie a rating then I would give it a 1.5/5. The premise is still the same "Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) enlists newfound ally Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened enemy. Despite the formation of an unprecedented league of heroes-Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) -- it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions". So does this live up to the hype or is it overrated?

Let's get this out of the way first, this version is infinitely better than the 2017 version. The best scenes in the 2017 version were all Snyder from watching this version. I did wonder how different this version was going to be from 2017 one but it feels completely different. I would say 70% of the 2017 version is in this movie but the editing, removal of Whedon scenes and addition of new scenes changes this into one with tonal consistency and coherent storytelling. Since this version is longer, it also feels like there are more build-up and tension throughout. Due to this every scene that was also in the 2017 one now feel a lot better and earned. The screenplay is still written by Chris Terrio but unlike BvS it feels a lot more engaging and not unironically silly. Some powerful and emotional lines here resonated with me which is quite surprising.

Additionally, the action scenes are more enjoyable in this one due to its R rating and how it's longer now. The biggest change is to the action in the climax where instead of in 2017 where Superman does everything, the team all contribute so it feels like everyone was relevant to the team. Junkie XL returns to score this version from BvS and it is amazing. His score adds a lot of impacts compared to Danny Elfman's 2017 version. It's a lot more memorable and makes scenes feel more exhilarating. There is also an Aquaman and Flash theme of the sort that sounds great albeit not as iconic sounding as say the Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor or Superman theme from BvS. The cinematography by Fabian Wagner is pretty good for the most part and there are still those gorgeous shots that we expect from Snyder. The humour from the 2017 version is now toned down substantially so no more "wHaT iS BRunCh? or Flash landing on Wonder Woman boobs, thank god. Surprisingly, there is still a fair amount of humour here compared to BvS which some say was lacking in a lot of fun. The humour in this version land a lot better and is the right amount as well which add some levity to a mostly serious natured story.

The biggest improvement this version has is the characterization. Cyborg has a proper fleshed out arc in this version. You have a greater understanding of his dislike for his dad and his feelings about his current situation but still having a believable development where he grows to accept who he is now. He is the heart and soul of this movie in thanks to Ray Fisher's wonderful performance. They turned a character I barely cared about even before the 2017 version, into one of the most interesting and memorable characters. His relationship with his dad played by Joe Morton is some of the best aspects of the Justice League. They also conveyed his power very well and made it seem incredibly powerful. Flash is also improved a lot as he now has more to do. Despite still being the comic relief of the team, he is no longer unbearably annoying or treated as trash compared to Superman and is now actually doing super cool things that make him way more interesting. Ezra Miller is quite lovable in those comedic moments which are genuinely funny but when the serious moments come, he delivers a great performance.

Aquaman has some slight improvements as well. More scenes are explaining his reluctance to become King of Atlantis and also some more scenes showing his stone-cold outwards personality but hidden kindness compared to the others. I also love his interactions with the Flash including a small scene where Flash is asking Aquaman which looks better which is just a nice interaction. He also does a bit more aqua looking powers in the neat climax. Wonder Woman has more action scenes that make her more badass which is nice. Her animosity and rivalry against Steppenwolf is a lot clearer as well. She also has some nice interactions with nearly every member of the league including Superman and Alfred. Batman has a naturally continuing story from BvS where he is the one who is trying to assemble the team. His interaction with Alfred are some of the best with Alfred questioning him not doing things with a reason but from guilt instead. Unfortunately, his action scenes don't live up to that of BvS and he doesn't change at all from beginning to end. Superman appears near the end, so there isn't much to his character arc or story since it was just beginning. He wears a black suit in this version but it doesn't have much significance in terms of story or reason behind it apart from it looks cool I guess? Batman and Superman the most iconic characters are the weakest characters in the story surprisingly. Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) has clearer motives this time around as he now wants to collect these Motherboxes to get back into his master, Darkseid, good graces again. His new design makes him look more alien and his action scenes make him more fearsome. He is a better villain compared to the 2017 version but is still just someone for the league to fight rather than an interesting villain.

However, some characters don't improve in this version including Lois Lane (Amy Adams) who in every scene is just mourning Superman. She is described as a key character but doesn't do anything else apart from hogging screen time. Commissioner Gordon (JK Simmons) has fewer scenes in this version compared to 2017 and both just involve him talking. Makes me wonder why JK Simmons bulked up for the role just for talking scenes.

The 4-hour length of this movie is honestly fine since it is releasing on streaming and since fans have been fighting for ages, they might as well see everything that Zack shot. However, in terms of the story, the movie could still convey important aspects without having to be 4 hours. There are a lot of scenes that drag on for too long or pointless scenes that don't add much which could easily be cut. The pacing of the first half is incredibly slow as well and it takes a fair amount of time for things to start picking up. There are also some scenes with slo-mo and some vocal song in the background that are kind of cringy and go on for way too long as well. The team don't even assemble until over 2 hours. The ending also goes on for too long which is weird as there is a very satisfying ending but then it keeps going. This new additional shot ending from Zack is cool but it feels slapped on. There are also some scenes concerning a certain character that occurs over halfway through the movie but is just really distracting from the main plot. They then appear at the ending but it feels kind of unnecessary for the story. I don't particularly mind the 4:3/square ratio that this movie has but it does take a while to get used to and I still find 16:9 would look better on my TV. Finally, some of the CGI looks bad and unpolished which is slightly distracting because they are very noticeable.

Overall, I was incredibly surprised at how much I enjoyed this version of the movie. I'm not a big fan of Zack Snyder but this might be his best work so far. I am glad he got to release his vision of Justice League and hope that this isn't a complete one-off thing. This was a great win for fans and was worth the long, gruelling fight.

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pokemon-ninjago-world · 3 years

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Yo! These are my designs for The First Spinjitzu Master and his eeveelution. (the pose looks way cringy now hsdbkshjf) These are pretty old, and I’ve changed the design since then, but I gon’t have a proper picture of the curent design. But I’ll be rambling about these under the read more if you’re interested!

Again, because the intelligent Pokémon in my AU are only able to breed within the same evolutionary fam, and because Garm bros are eeveons, the FSM needed to be an eeveon as well. I wanted him to be “all elements” like Arceus, so I made this Normal type eeveelution, which would be a mishmash of all the other eeveelutions, including all the types that don’t (yet?) exist in the Pokémon World.

I wanted the design to have some sort of graceful, celestial feel to it as well, and thus I named the eeveelution Soreon, in reference to Japanese word for sky, “sora” (which also worked with the Finnish word “sorea”; graceful, willowy). I don’t know if I like the name a whole lot though. Celesteon would have been a better name imo, but I saw someone’s fake “all-type” eeveelution with that name earlier, and I didn’t want to copy that. If you would have a better name idea than “Soreon”, feel free to suggest! I’d be happy for help.

Alright, so I originally thought I would add a feature from all the other eeveelutions to this mix, but after some brainstorming I realized adding all 18 types would make the design waaay too cluttered `:| So I dropped some already in this early stage, but I still fitted in more than what there is in my current design. I’ll list those features here and then explain how the design is different now:

From existing eeveelutions, this thing has the forehead gem from Espeon, rings from Umbreon, tail from Vaporeon, ruff from Eevee, rump fur from Jolteon, tears from Sylveon, ear/cheek tuft thingies from Glaceon and Espeon, wrist leaves from Leafeon and head tuft from Flareon. From fake eeveelutions it had wings, fangs and armour bits.

The wings are from my Flying-type eeveelution Galeon, although when I designed Soreon I didn’t yet have its design, so the wings are too soft and round looking than what Galeon’s wings actually are. The wings and the eyes are the only non-canon-eeveelution features (other than body shape maybe) that are left after I refurbished the design.

The metal bits were from the Steel-type eeveelution that I was trying to design for P.I.X.A.L.’s appearance, but I never made it work and eventually scrapped the idea (she’s modelled after a Luxio now). I also discarded the metal bits from Soreon, because they looked silly, but it’s supposed to have metallic claws instead, and possibly partially or wholly metallic skeleton (titanium or smth that wouldn’t rust).

The fangs were from a Poison-type I never designed, but started thinking they looked funny so I nerfed them. Now Soreon is supposed to have retractable claws that emit poison. ...Don’t ask how retracting claws would work on human-like hands, bc they wouldn’t. Not in the same way they work on cat paws at least. But maybe I’ll come up with something. (i do have an idea for a poison type now, and a rough design idea. it definitely doesn’t have poison fangs haha.)

The eyes were supposed to be from a fake eeveelution as well, and so was the body shape, but I can’t remember what types they were from. I’m not sure if I like the eyes, since they’re so... OwO But I guess I’m so used to them by now that I won’t change them. I also think that I discarded the head tuft, but I’m not entirely sure. The Espeon ear tufts look more like Espeon tufts in the current version though. Ohhhhhh now I actually see he has those Soileon tufts on his ears as well! Oh dang I’ve totally forgotten about those. Welp, the current design doesn’t have them either.

I could have talked about the FSM himself in this too, but this is getting long and I need to rest my arms. So maybe another time.

#shitty sketches #pokemon #pokeninjago #pokéninjago #ninjago #pencil sketch #sketch #pokemon ninjago #first spinjitzu master #do you guys instinctively know how to spell 'spinjitzu'?#i need to look it up every time #fsm #ninjago fsm #eeveelution #fake eeveelution #eeveon #fakemon #plz do not steal :C #normal type eeveelution #oh yeah it has feathers on the fin tail for better flight #also yeah hrm i'm going to ramble about my fake eeveelutions in the tags #i discarded my first idea of a steel type eeveelution #but i had another idea later #unfortunately it started maybe resembling armadillomon a bit too much `:/ tho idk #and as stated i have a finished design of a flying type one and a rough sketch for a poison type #when i get to make a refined drawings for them i'll post them #i also have a vague idea for a dragon type eeveelution #and i found an ancient drawing of a rock type eeveelution i made in high school #but it's a bit silly heh

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mammon-sama · 4 years

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Let’s Film An Adult Video! (Fanfiction)

Aha, here is another story from me. This is super dumb and lighthearted an features a lot of Simeon, which is yay, I think. Anyway, again, this is a silly, cringy thing that I was bored and wrote. Also, it is on AO3. Sorry for posting so much, I promise I’ll tone it down soon if that bothers anyone! >.<

Title:

Let’s Film An Adult Video!

Summary:

When Simeon believes he's asked by Asmo to film an adult video, MC decides to help him, only to find out that sex is not the only thing on the Avatar of Lust's mind.

Genre:

Slice of Life/Humor

Rating:

Word Count:

2012

Additional Note:

All the dialogue between the MC and Simeon that are in italics means that it’s not verbally expressed, but is rather mouthed between you. And yes, you can understand each other because you’ve magically developed the talent of impeccable lip-reading.

You yawn slightly as you exit your Introduction to the History of Demonology 1001 classroom and shift the straps of your backpack. You groan at the weight of all the homework your obnoxious teacher assigned to you for the day.

Your eyes feeling heavy—you had stayed up with Levi all night yesterday playing one of his newly-released games—you stumble forward, nearly tripping on the velvet hallway runner that lines R.A.D’s tiled corridor.

You manage to regain your footing, but again, your ungraceful stroll is impeded by something else—that something being a tall, brown-skinned angel, who leans against the wall with furrowed brows.

You brighten instantly. “Hey, Simeon.” You notice the frown on his face. “Is something wrong?”

Simeon shakes his head. “I have to admit, yes, but it’s nothing for you to worry about, MC.”

You cock your head. “Are you sure? I’d like to help.”

“Well,” Simeon replies, smiling at your earnestness. “I don’t know if you can help. In fact, I’m the one who got myself into this mess, so I suppose I’m the only one who can get myself out.”

You have to wonder what kind of conundrum a pious creature like Simeon could have gotten himself into, so you say, “Just tell me what happened; maybe I can offer some insight.”

He nods. “Okay, then. I guess there’s no harm in telling you.” He sits down, leaning his back against a row of lockers, and motions for you to do the same. “Ah, see. You know, up in the Celestial Realm, we don’t use D.D.Ds. We have our own type of communication devices, sure, but we’ve never really had the need to use anything as complicated as what’s used in the Devildom.”

“Yeah, I remember Solomon telling me that you and Luke were super intrigued when Diavolo gave you guys your D.D.Ds,” you reminisce, as you pull out your own device.

“Yes, they’re really quite complex. We had trouble getting used to them at first.” Simeon laughs cheerfully. “I especially am fond of sending stickers and such, although I have trouble typing actual messages, though.” He pauses. “Anyway, I wanted to get better at navigating my D.D.D, so I enlisted the help of Levi earlier this week since he’s so good with technology.”

You stop him there. “Impossible—Levi’s favorite game just got a new installment on Sunday, so he’s been playing it all week. He’s been at it pretty much 24/7. Actually, I helped him yesterday.”

“Yes, the fact that Levi is busy this week made it so that despite our arrangement, I couldn’t rely on him.” The angel shook his head sadly. “However, Levi did recommend that I talk to Asmodeus if I wanted help with my D.D.D considering Asmo spends a lot of time on it browsing and posting on Devilgram and DevilTube.”

You nod. “Makes sense.”

Simeon goes on, “The thing is, Asmodeus said that if he taught me the ins-and-outs of my D.D.D, he wanted something in return; I said that that was alright.” He looks down, and you can’t help but notice the slight blush on his face as he continues, “Today he let me know what he wants me to do.” He takes a deep breath. “He wants me to film a video in his bedroom … a video featuring him and his … lady friends . He said he’d do it himself, but he’d be pretty … occupied during the video. He also said he’d have a script and everything.”

“What?” You can feel your eyes bulge out of your head, making the connection between the Avatar of Lust and … scripted bedroom videos. “He wants you to film a porno with him starring in it?!”

Simeon nods furiously. “You realize it too, don’t you, MC? I’m sure that’s what he wants, right?”

“Right. He really must be a demon if he wants an angel to film him having sex …” You sigh. “Maybe tell him you don’t want to do it?”

He shakes his head. “No, I can’t do that—I can’t break a promise I made to him.” He sighs. “I’m just going to have to buckle down and do what he asks.”

You feel as if you should’ve known that as an angel, he wouldn’t go back on his word. You decide to alleviate him, considering he looked miserable. “If you want, I’ll help you.”

“I can’t ask you to do that, MC!” Simeon gasps. “You’re not the one who promised this to Asmo!”

“I’m doing it,” you affirm. “I told you I’d try to help, so I’m gonna. With me there, we can take turns controlling the video camera, so you don’t have to see as much … stuff.”

The angel seemed to sense that there was no way that you were budging from your stance, so he groans. “I guess there’s no stopping you, then. Let’s go to Asmo’s room and film an adult video!”

“Huh,” you comment, peering through the threshold to Asmodeus’ open bedroom. “He’s not here.”

“Yes, he said we could come in beforehand to get all the equipment set up before he brings in his female … companions.” Simeon blushes at the last two words. “Although, I’m not sure we’re going to need all that much recording stuff.” He pulls out his D.D.D. “I mean, Asmo showed me how to work the video camera on this so I think we can use that to film.”

You nod. “That sounds fine. The video quality might not be that great, but since we don’t have anything else, I guess we can just use that.”

Before you can see anything else, you notice that Simeon has begun to wander through Asmodeus’ room. He turns to you, clutching a small, pink, egg-shaped object. His eyes widen in suspicion. “What do you think this is, MC? Some kind of weird sex toy? Do you think they’ll use it in the video? Because if so, I’d like to film that part, to see what hole it goes up in.”

It’s your turn to blush. “I—I believe that’s called a BeautyBlender, Simeon. It’s a sponge for makeup.”

“Ah, I see.” He places it back on Asmo’s vanity and notices that a pale powder has rubbed off the beauty sponge and onto his fingers. He looks curiously at you.

“Foundation,” you explain. “You can wipe it off.”

He nods and reaches toward what looks like a slick metal hand sanitizer dispenser placed on the vanity. But, before he can press the actuator down, Asmodeus prances into his room.

“Hello, everyone!” Asmo sings. “Oh, lovely! MC, you’re here, too! I’ll do you after I’m done with these two.”

He gestures at the two female demons that had followed him into the room; both are surprisingly, unconventionally beautiful, with strikingly attractive features that didn’t seem to follow any beauty standards. He saunters toward his bed, pausing when he notices Simeon’s hand poised on the ‘hand sanitizer dispenser.’ “Ooooh, are we interrupting something?” He glances at you and then Simeon, grinning. “If we were, don’t mind us, and do go on! I’ll join in if I notice a lull!”

You cock your head. “… What?”

Asmodeus shrugged. “Well, I can only assume what was about to go on, considering Simeon’s hand is poised on my lube dispenser.”

Simeon whips his hand away from the metal canister, his face bright red. “I—I thought it was hand sanitizer!”

“No, no, that’s lube—good quality stuff, too!” Asmo beckons toward the two other demons, and they walk further into the room. “Lailah, Feota, come, sit on the bed, darlings.”

As the two girls quietly make their way to the bed, Simeon mouths to you from across the room (you magically have insanely good lip-reading skills and can understand him perfectly), “Holy Father, MC, he has two ‘lady friends!’ We’re gonna be filming a threesome! How scandalous!”

You nod furiously and point to Asmodeus, who had sauntered over to his closet and is now returning with a massive pink box that is covered with glitter. He plops it down on his bed next to Lailah and Feota.

“I got my bag of tricks!” Asmo explains, pointing to the box. He taps his fingers gleefully. “This is going to be so much fun!”

“Bag of tricks?” you mouth to Simeon. You have a sneaking suspicion that in regards to the genre of this video, that could only mean one thing.

He turns to the both of you, saying, “I just need to grab a few more things for the video, so if you guys could just hold off on the filming for a few minutes, that would be fabulous.” You and Simeon watch as Asmodeus turns toward his vanity, opens the drawer, and pulls out a curling iron, which confuses you because … where did a curling iron fit into sex?

“Vibrator!” Simeon mouths, gesturing toward it, his eyebrows raising.

“Curling iron!” you mouth back to him.

Asmo yanks out an eyelash curler and puts it on the vanity.

“Nipple clamps!”

“Eyelash curler!”

Next, the fifthborn demon pulls out an assortment of pointy makeup brushes. As you notice the number of beauty supplies accumulating on his vanity, you begin to reconsider the exact nature of the video you and Simeon are to film …

“Butt plugs!”

“Literally brushes, Simeon!” You begin to wonder exactly how dirty the angel’s mind is.

Suddenly, Asmodeus produces a pair of fluffy red handcuffs from his drawer, before cheerfully blushing and shoving them back inside. “Whoopsie! Heehee, those aren’t for right now!” He walks back over to his bed, grabs the pink box, and sets it onto the vanity.

He turns toward you. “MC, be a doll and pull that ball chair up over here toward my vanity. I only have one seat here and both Lailah and Feota should be in front of the mirror.”

“So whoever’s not participating in the sexy times at the moment can watch!” Simeon, his eyes bugging out of his head, mouths to you, again.

You facepalm in exasperation and not even bothering to respond to his previous statement, you mouth, “I’m not sure we’re filming porn, Simeon.”

The angel looks at you in shock. “How can you be so sure?”

Just then, Asmo opens his ‘box of tricks,’ hauling out dozens of tubes of liquid lipstick and eyeliner, at least ninety-three different eyeshadow palettes, and several different small cases of foundation in every skin tone, as well as various other products.

You raise an eyebrow at Simeon. “Because everything he’s gotten ready so far is a bunch of makeup products.”

“Maybe he wants to look good for the shoot!” Simeon counters.

You shake your head. “I don’t think so.”

Finally noticing your and Simeon’s silent exchange, Asmodeus turns to you and nods. “Ohh, I bet you guys are wondering about the script.” Before you can correct him on the fact that that is not what you two were pondering, Asmo pulls out a sheet of paper from his vanity drawer and hands it to you. “The script is just something I wrote so that you guys know which angles to film me and the girls from so that we look our best and the audience gets the most out of the video since you guys are just amateur videographers.”

Simeon meanders to your side and reads aloud from the sheet. “‘For the most part, focus on either Lailah or Feota’s face—whoever’s makeup I’m doing at the moment. Normally I’d tell you to put the camera mostly on me, since really, why look at anything else?—but because this is a makeup tutorial and these two are my models, I guess it’s smarter to focus on them.’” Simeon raises an eyebrow and looks at Asmodeus. “ … Wait, so we’re really just making a makeup tutorial video?”

The Avatar of Lust nods enthusiastically. “Yes! For my wildly popular DevilTube channel!” He pauses. “What else would we be filming?”

You and Simeon exchange a look and sigh.

THE END

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me simeon #obey me shall we date simeon #obey me second person #obey me shall we date second person #mc pov #obey me asmodeus #obey me asmo #obey me shall we date asmo #obey me shall we date asmodeus #fanfiction #fanfic #adverbslut_writes

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theoldgods · 5 years

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A Discovery of Witches is a silly, frothy show based on a silly, frothy book, for both good and bad, and it’s fascinating to watch as a case study in adaptation.

It’s visually quite gorgeous--the production design and cinematography, as well as the use of the scenery of Oxford, Venice, and France, are overall great, quite possibly the strongest aspect of the show. The sparkling, slightly swoony (in love, in fear) atmospheres they set go a long way toward paving over the myriad sins inherent to the story. The acting is reliably good to great, doing the best possible with the material given, though I am not such a fan of Teresa Palmer, whose sometimes wooden/awkward deliveries are often usptaged by far more experienced and naturalistic actors (Alex Kingston, Valarie Pettiford, Owen Teale, and Lindsay Duncan, most notably) in their scenes together. (I think half of Palmer’s problem is trying to maintain an American accent; I suspect if she didn’t have to do that, her vocal delivery would be that much better, and I do like some of her physicality and her general look as Diana.) Palmer also does have good chemistry with Goode, which is key to any romance and which helps to sell the show and their super rushed relationship as much as possible.

[more post-rewatch TL;DR and spoilers under the cut]

In many ways the show is an improvement over the books. Matthew is far, far less abusive in the show than in the books--there’s no presumptively ordering Miriam to guard over Diana (a creature he barely even knows!) in the Bodleian, just for starters, and most of his outrageously possessive and controlling moments are washed away or severely toned down. (Even their big fight at the end of episode 4 when he temporarily leaves her involves far less horrifically controlling and taunting physical behavior from Matthew; really the only time we see him being knowingly, physically menacing to Diana is during the dinner scene in episode 3, which is much pared down from any of the myriad instances of him doing this in the book.) Diana emerges as someone with much more chutzpah from the get-go, as opposed to a clueless-about-her-own-world special chosen one with barely more impetus than a dishrag who goes wherever Matthew tells her to go and has to grow (mostly in books 2 and 3) into any semblance of agency at all. She’s still an adult Chosen One (™), but she’s somewhat less...naive about the world, somehow? It makes their fraught relationship easier to handle, for me, with a little less fetishized power imbalance than in the book. (Their relationship has never been my favorite part of the books, honestly--the reason I’ve read them multiple times now is all because of the side characters, Harkness’s conception of witchcraft and weavers, and a bit of Diana’s character development.) I also almost forgot while watching about the entire LET’S TALK ABOUT GENETICS AND HOW YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE MAGIC JESUS BABIES TO RESTORE MAGIC TO THE WORLD! subplot that takes up the last quarter of the book, and although it’s crucial and will end up being seeded into the show somehow, I’m sure, I’m glad that so far the “let’s have baaaaaabiessss”-ness is absent.

The quality of storytelling is also much more even in the show. The book, told strictly from Diana’s POV, has a terrible habit of throwing entire subplots and characters at her and Matthew out of nowhere (the most egregious of which is possibly Sophie and Nathaniel just randomly showing up unforeshadowed out of nowhere and magically dropping plot solutions at Diana’s feet at the Madison house with ~5 chapters to go), while the show seeds these side stories in much earlier and gives us a much fuller and more coherent vision of this world much earlier than the books do. (Seeing the intravampire and intradaemon politicking, and bringing up more directly how daemons are basically third-class citizens in this world, is also appreciated, even if the casual viewer will leave the series with no real sense of wtf a daemon can do, a problem that, to be fair, is hardly better addressed in the books.) Harkness has a tendency to show multiple versions of the same thing (multiple dinners, multiple horse rides at Sept-Tours, etc.), as if she’s stalling for time while waiting for Plot Inspiration to strike her again, and those have been effectively compressed and the timeline in general streamlined. And although there’s still a decent amount of telling and not showing and cringy on-the-nose dialogue in the show, the show does use visual storytelling to quite efficiently cut down on the worst of Harkness’s waffling about furniture or wine or long asides about Diana’s family, mostly for the better, and the infamous yoga subplot has been mercifully killed.

That said, the show still suffers from some of the inherent limitations of its source material: a magically fast instalove, awkward at times pacing (mostly re: the love story), and an extremely side-eye-worthy treatment of a black character (Juliette is given more backstory in the show, but I’m not sure it helps to further develop her via lots of onscreen torture only to unceremoniously kill her off in about 2 minutes at the start of an episode, all for the glory of a white protagonist), to name three I can think of off the top of my head. It also has a couple scenes that aren’t as powerful as they are in the books: the witchwater mostly looks like cheesy music video drama-rain as opposed to a real cataclysm that threatens to actually kill Diana, as it is in the book, and the entire confrontation with Juliette is rushed, their vision of the goddess as a giant-ass light like in a made-for-TV biblical movie incredibly cheesy in a bad way. Harkness, for all her mediocrity with a lot of her prose, is indeed imaginative (her main fault as a writer is that her line-by-line prose skill just does not match her ambition and her sense of character- and worldbuilding); she does have a fairly good sense for what makes epic show-stopping moments suitably rich and emotionally moving when they need to be, and the clipped pace of the show shortchanges her there with some of these moments.

All that said, I’ve obviously gotten something out of this series over the past year, and I actually find this to be a fascinating case study for exploring book-to-television adaptation, given the mediocrity of the book in question. I’ll be curious as to how they handle the much more plot-unwieldy second book, especially if the second season stays only 8 episodes--if that’s the case, a lot will have to be streamlined, especially if they also want to keep the show’s broader focus and not simply cut away from everyone in the present for 80+% of the season, and I so far think they may be able to do that pretty well.

We’ll see!

#all souls trilogy #a discovery of witches #deborah harkness

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bilgisticallykosher · 5 years

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My Scary Past: Sanders Sides

I'm so not going to be able to remember things, I just watched it the once, I'll probably have to edit. Obviously spoilers. How do you do a read more on tumblr mobile?

What's that song Thomas is singing? It's familiar.

YES NOT X-MAS, I've had enough of the songs from work. EVEN MORE YES, HALLOWEEN! This is perfect, because I recently got the horror movie themed Ice Nine Kills CD so I've been super Halloween, it's so good. Ahhh, I mean, I thought they were going to get into the 3 ghosts, which I guess kind of ghosts of Thomas's past? It works.

Oooh, Virgil's costume was great, I know there's a bunch of monster AUs, people came close. I've seen a few mummy Romans, Frankenstein('s monster) Logans, and literally everyone puts Patton as a werewolf. But themed creepy costumes! Amazing! Side note, Roman's puppet chin migrated onto Logan's monster chin. That thing was crazy huge. And I'm really happy that Logan was nitpicking Doctor vs. Monster, I'd expect nothing less.

Speaking of, I'm incredibly shocked that we didn't get Roman and Logan angst focus? And, Virgil was so freaking cringy try-hard with that attempted scare. Not good. Of course, minus the blood, I fairly regularly strike that pose at work. (I work in the kitchen industry as a cook.)

Logan used 2 vocab cards (is receipt a new slang? Really?), a "stupid things" notebook, and a bleeped curse. And he lied so bad about never being scared. Don't lie, Logan, you know what happens...really relieved when he lost most of the face on the costume, I had more trouble seeing his expressions and face lines than I did Roman's. But he dressed up, and got involved in group planning of him dressing up! Development! I loved the group "Yerkes-Dodson!" I wanted that to be a meme for a while, honestly. All that talk about failures inspiring success, HUH, Logan? Definitely not something you could take to, er, brain. Also he smiled at Virgil at the end? Pride for him using knowledge to make a point? For helping them understand? General happy??? At the beginning, he was concerned that Virgil wasn't being scary, so maybe proud that they settled his methods to be effective? Logan being the cosplay phase was appropriate because it's silly, fantasy, and a little bit into the obsessive, which Logan can get into.

Roman! Ugh, wonderful. Nice nicknames, what? Kind of back into a lot of old banter, in a good way. Them having the same face running gag was great, "I'm so modest!" The scream! Mocking Logan is still up, mocking Virgil is still a plateu. Roman being Vine was appropriate because his Creativity bloomed, and also putting himself so front and present definitely invokes ego.

Patton using Kylo Friend was great, it was sort of an in-between, which was accepted because Virgil's a nicknamer. He was trying so hard and his scene with Thomas at the end was good, but you gotta talk directly to Virgil about that, too. You're doing such a good job, and I'm glad that they fully explained why he doesn't want the cutesy stuff. But urgh, pantronize was fine, puns are okay, just not the actual patronizing. And overly long scream? Pawton, yes. Patton being the emo phase was appropriate, because he's so... not emo, but also he's emotions

Virgil, was that NO in the beginning dissonant? I think it was. He was kind of uptight this episode? I mean, obviously, he's a little insecure (aren't they all?) but he seemed so confident last episode, and open to Patton learning, while in this one he was kind of harsh to him. And he literally admitted last time that the scary thing was all an act! I need to see if every time they put down the idea that a phase was scary, was he satisfied or frustrated? Blasé dismissal or interest, until they dismiss what his role used to be. Fascinating that he was in charge of the sort of creative power. Gee, I wonder what dark side is opposite of Roman. /s

When they did the Vine phase, I actually thought to myself, "Well those aren't terrible, except for those vines where he's just singing to himself- oh, yep, that's it." Thomas getting hit again running joke. That's also really harsh, dude, not cool. But love the hiss, even though I can out-hiss him. But, uh, girl phase and fedora phase huh?

End card! Thought he was going to go for Phantom. I know that some people are uncomfortable with him, but I enjoy Deceit, he's such a fun character, although within the universe, ahhh? What? He's talking about the other Dark Sides, maybe. I'm betting the tag was actually Scrappy Doo. That'd amuse me more. Ooh, so creepily foreboding. Also he was still in Patton's normal spot. Interesting. Their relationship is really pretty much what I expected from what I saw at the end of Can Lying Be Good, but maybe Deceit is a little more...dorky. That overdone laugh, haha, wow what a loser. Trying to figure out if the "maybe you can be rid of us all" was a lie via sarcasm or if I've gotta reverse it a little? Idk, really excited for whatever's next, everyone did an amazing job on editing, graphics, so many costumes. What a great team!

But most importantly, PET SPIDER! Yes! Is it supposed to be a real tarantula in-universe or just a fake one that creates webs somehow?

Merry B*tchmas everyone!

#ts spoilers #sanders sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #janus sanders

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samleheny · 7 years

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The curious forgotten gem(?), Binary Domain

Binary Domain is a game. In this way it’s eerily similar to Dynasty Warriors, Dig Dug, and Checkers, among others.

Less similarly, it’s been sitting in my Steam Library for years since I picked it up for pennies during one of the holiday sales. All I knew is it was a shooter, and it was Japanese, and while the Japanese market doesn’t have as much of an appetite for shooters as we do in the West, the few they put out generally turn out pretty good, or at least refreshing coming from a development culture not as obsessed with trying to clone Call of Duty or Gears or War.

Binary Domain was developed and published by Sega in February 2012, by a team helmed by Yakuza creator Nagoshi Toshihiro. It received decent reviews but didn’t sell very well outside Japan. Knowing that Japanese shooters also tend to be a tad on the short side, I decided to install it and boot it up.

First impressions weren’t good. I’m one of those social pariahs who plays shooters with a controller, but while Binary Domain has full controller support, all of the button prompts remain adherent to the keyboard, which makes the learning curve especially annoying, and quicktime events (while thankfully infrequent) are a nightmare when there’s the added twist of having to guess which button it wants you to press. But the graphics are thrifty and generally look pretty nice, and it ran flawlessly on my sputtering old GTX 660ti.

The plot: It’s the near future, robots are totally a thing, but the New Geneva Convention restricts certain research into advanced robots. Japan didn’t want to play ball, so it isolated itself from the rest of the world and built a big wall to keep the foolish gaijin out. You are part of some secret small UN team (or something) who is tasked with infiltrating Japan and hooking up with the Japanese resistance on the inside. If you’re thinking that sounds plageristically similar to the plot of that 2007 Japanese film Vexille then you’re not the only one.

Robots permeate every aspect of developed society as an unthinking physical labour and customer service workforce, but one day some rando walks into America’s/the world’s largest robots company distressed and waving a gun around. He tears off his face to reveal he’s a totally a robo-man before offing himself.

We then get a delightfully Japanese imagining of what a secret White House meeting looks like –

-in which it’s explained that this man was a “Hollow Child”. A robot dressed up in flesh and blood and suspected to have been developed in and deployed by Japan to infiltrate foreign society. And for some added creep, these Hollow Children believe themselves to be human. That’s pretty dorky but fun. I was on board. But obviously you’re not meant to think about it too much or you’ll run into unhelpful questions like “This guy is established as being one of potentially hundreds of Hollow Children infiltrating the other countries for decades and then living their lives normally. How in that time did not a single one of them encounter a simple doctor’s appointment, medical procedure, or injury that would have immediately revealed their crude mechanical innards?”

You play as good looking, all-American Dan, aided by your meaty, all-American friend Bo. As part of an internationally coordinated effort to get into Japan, arrest the Mr. Amada, leader of Japan’s robot industry, and find evidence of his involvement in this Hollow Child business. After a fairly dull first hour or so spent getting through the big sea wall, things pick up when you join up with the British and Chinese teams. You see, at the start of every chapter you get to pick two team mates to accompany you from your growing motley crew. This crew eventually includes a flatteringly polite break-dancing robot with a French accent.

11/10. Game of the Year. Better than Breath of the Wild.

The banter between these characters is good. It starts out a little too Hollywood, or rather what Japan thinks of Hollywood, which is normally way to cringy for me but I found myself quickly warming to these people. They all just think you’re the big dumb American man, but they felt human enough in their performances that I was always determined to make them like me.

The big idea with this game’s combat is that you must earn your team mates’ trust and respect. You score points by answering their questions right (which is just a matter of always answering “yes”), coming to their aid when they’re hurt, and by performing well during combat. Blowing away a lot of enemies in a short span of time or pulling off a sweet headshot will pretty easily garner you praise mid fire-fight and yeah, it feel pretty nice. You lose points by answering wrongly (anything other than “yes”) or by accidentally shooting your allies, which happened a lot and every single time was their own damn fault! I would have scrapped the friendly fire mechanic entirely. And except for some quicktime events (WHY DO DEVELOPERS STILL USE THESE?!) I didn’t die once. It’s not that I didn’t get my good looking, all American arse shot off on multiple occasions, but when that does happen, you get a good generous chance to administer a magical first aid injection or if you’re out, call over one of your teammates to do it for you should you have racked up enough good will with them. And I really appreciate that. It’s one of the few things I unguardedly agree with David Cage about that Game Over states too often exist more for the developer’s benefit and not the player’s

You spend the first third of the game travelling through the slummy lower parts of old Tokyo, battling various flavours of “Scrap-Heads”, Japan’s weaponised robot soldiers. A consistent rule for all humanoid robot enemies is established early on: Shoot off one of their arms to tamper with their aim, shoot their legs out from under them to greatly reduce their mobility, or shoot off their heads and they’ll lose track of who’s who and start attacking eachother. It’s a neat system that rewards skilful play. The guns are satisfying to shoot you can feel the gradual improvements as you upgrade their stats throughout the game, but one area that suffers is the lack of variety. There aren’t that many different firearms, those available aren’t that different, and the game has an annoying system wherein you have four weapon slots, one is dedicated to your trusty rifle, another to your backup pistol, a third is the designated grenades slot, and only the remaining forth slot is available for trying out different weapons. Lame-sauce!

Enemies feel good and bad to shoot at since even the basic drones can take a lot of punishment and require sustained fire to put down, and they fizzle and spark satisfyingly as you blow apart their armour and reveal the delicate innards. But larger enemies feel a bit too bullet-spongy I think mainly due to a lack of visual feedback that you’re even causing any damage. And there’s one major grievance I have to bring up. There are a handful of especially frustrating boss fights in this game and when I pondered what I found so aggravating about them I realised they all had one thing in common: they all used missiles and missiles in this game are OP as all goddamn. Even if you manage to evade them they’ll still stun you and shake the camera furiously if you’re so much as standing in the same time zone as the explosion. And the seconds you have in between repeated stunnings are precious few with how much these bosses spam them.

At first the movement controls feel a bit slippery and sticky at the same time, but eventually I adjusted and had a good time with them. Perhaps the result of the difference in what qualities Japanese and Western developers value in a shooter.

The story ends up being pretty enjoyable for its good animation and performances, but I’m going to venture hard to spoiler territory now to talk about how my experience with this game got… weird, and why it’s a videogame experience I’ll not soon forget. So if you’re thinking you’d like to give Binary Domain a try, pull out now!

What starts off as seeming a pretty silly junkfood sci-fi quickly gets a little more interesting. As you venture deeper into the city and have more surprise encounters with randos who turn out to be Hollow Children and break down from the revelation, the paranoia sets in as you the player start to consider that for all these characters know the entire population has been unknowingly replaced with robots who think they’re human (again, as long as you don’t think about it too much).

There’s a cutscene early on, a flashback of one of good looking, all American Dan’s memories, wherein a young Dan madly beats the shit out of a servant robot with a bat, establishing Dan’s prejudice towards the robots that permeate society. But oddly, we witness the entire memory from the perspective of the robot, leading me to smugly predict the climactic twist: that good looking, all American Dan is a Hollow Child! Dan’s nickname (of which the game constantly reminds us) is “The Survivor”, so the opportunity was ripe for it to turn out that The Survivor had in fact not survived and at some point been replaced with a robot with all of Dan’s memories. But no. The game never goes for that low-hanging fruit, although if the misdirection was intentional then it was pretty well executed, and what the story does have in mind is a little more ambitious if nothing else.

Good looking, all American Dan and the Chinese sniper team mate Faye grow closer over the course of the game. She gets wounded at one point and Dan stitches her back up, confirming for us that she’s flesh and blood. But things get more complicated, for better and for worse, as the story reaches its crescendo.

You and your mates infiltrate the Amada Corporation to find evidence and extract Mr. Amada, the brilliant robotocist suspected of breaching the Geneva convention and building Hollow Children in the first place. You get separated, blow some shit up, reencounter your team mates minus Faye, who have some bad news… about Faye? No... she ain’t no scrap head! We patched her up ourselves! Turns out Amada’s tech is even more advanced than we thought it was as the real purpose of the Hollow Children is revealed!

Female Hollow Children are fully capable of being impregnated by human men and carrying a child to term. Children like… Faye! Completely identical inside and out to regular old human beings. This fundamentally disgusts all your human team mates, while good looking, all American Dan is feeling conflicted and questioning his prejudice towards robots.

Come the final encounter the execution starts to fall apart around a narrative that really had my attention. All nuance is thrown out and the script devolves into a pretty ham-fisted moral lesson about bigotry.

Big evil Mr. Amada shows up accompanied by Faye, and explains: He is actually an A.I. created by the original Mr. Amada (now deceased), and all he wants is, like any lifeform, to reproduce, and so seeded the world with fertile Hollow Children leading to 108 hybrids like Faye currently wondering around in the world. Human in every way, but fitter and healthier mentally and physically, drawing from the same emotional spectrum but more rational and less fueled by aggression. Basically just like the best, smartest person to be. The kind of people I’d think most of us aspire to. But Dan’s teammates immediately devolve into a bunch of completely unreasonable arseholes who see Faye as an abomination and have already seen to it that a special hit squad is deployed to scour the globe and terminate all 108 of this new breed.

I was experiencing this game with a friend and at this point I turned to him for confirmation that I wasn’t crazy for thinking everything coming out of Amada’s mouth actually sounded pretty sweet. He agreed. We couldn’t see a downside! And as the game locked me into a boss fight against Faye as she hurled her disappointment at Dan for being so small-minded we were screaming at the game to give us some sort of choice to make. I would gladly have turned on my arsehole teammates if that’s what it took! But as the game looked like it was presenting Amada’s plan as definitively and fundamentally wrong, I almost wanted to stop playing and walk away, so onboard was I with everything Amada described. But they’re just like “Oooh but humanity! Oh it isn’t human! Ooooh she’s no good for some reasons that can’t even be physically measured! Oooh this plan to peacefully end the divide between man and machine without even really altering the human race to any noticeable degree is eeeeeevil!” Fuck humans. What’s so important about being human? It’s not like it’s your usual “All humans must die for robots to be free!” no it’s a much more agreeable “We are here to breed peacefully with you so we may both benefit.”

All the right themes of humans mistaking humanity for personhood are there, but the game didn’t seem to have much faith in me. I can see how this battle would have worked had I spent all that time being conflicted on the whole situation, but I wasn’t conflicted at all, I immediately thought “Amada’s actually making a lot of sense. At the very least I don’t see the harm in letting this be.” but I was stuck in the in-game body of good looking, all American Dan who was all “Gosh, I still think I love Faye, but obviously we still have to stop this.” Is it Dan? Is it obvious?

From there the game sort of accidentally stumbles toward a satisfying enough conclusion, with Dan secretly avoiding killing Faye and letting her escape. Then the real final showdown begins as it turns out the US military have double crossed you (duh) and the twists and changes of heart start mounting up quickly and clumsily. There’s a hilariously superfluous sequence that lasts all of one minute wherein one of Dan’s team mates holds Dan at gunpoint and reveals himself to have been evil all along for no other reason than to reveal a moment later that no, actually he’s been good all along and this sequence is was absolutely pointless. And naturally Faye didn’t leave after all and shows up to assist, and of course all your team mates are suddenly righteous and totally on her side even though nothing has actually happened to influence such a change of heart between now and five minutes ago when they were all overcome with disgust at her very existence and wanted nothing more than to execute her… It’s all a bit infantile. I love sci-fi and I especially love sci-fi that is daring enough to take the stance that a lot of the values we live by in human society are arbitrary and artificial, and this game… sort of took that stance? The right person got their way in the end, but not because anyone involved necessarily learned anything.

In the end, I was surprised and impressed with the majority of Binary Domain. It has everything you want and expect from a Japanese shooter. I am a little bummed out that the story’s nuance and execution spent the whole mid game rising in my esteem only to finish in a very turbulent landing. One in which all passengers survived, but a number of them will still probably want to file complaints.

#Binary Domain

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