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snowspryte15 · 3 years

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Thoughts on Cruella

Let me ask you a question:Have you noticed the increase in stories about making villains more relatable to us, and even giving them something that seemed to be lacking in all the fairytales we all know so well?

Something like humanity?

Here’s the thing: no one is truly born evil, and to quote a line from Once Upon A Time, “Evil isn’t born; it’s made.” Perhaps the baddies were actually good people who were capable of being happy, finding love, and living their best lives. But unfortunately, a chain of events or even people who wronged them would lead them down a dark path that is often very hard to come back from. In other words, the stories and characters we know isn’t always black and white. (See what I did there?) You can say whatever you want about making villains relatable or even showing sympathy to them, but I stand by my humble opinion that the updated version of the fairytales and stories we grew up not only gives us a glimpse into the heroes and making them more like us, but also the villains because their more than just the 2D stock characters we grew up with over the years. In other words, it gives everyone more DEPTH. The same is true for Cruella. I realize many of you are starting to (if you aren’t already) get tired of films making the villains more relatable or even giving us a villain to show sympathy for. And I get that. But let me ask you this: is the world we see today always black and white to you? Should it always has to be good vs. evil when there are layers underneath the goodness and the evil that’s in this world? Should we automatically assume that all of the bad things that happen on the news are caused by bad people? I think you know the answer to this: no. We’re all capable of being good people, no matter what society tells us. But the fact that we’re all born to be originals and not copies of another individual but being told that we have to be “perfect” or “thin” or “beautiful” or “handsome” or any of those labels is what draws people to the dark side, and that includes giving into power, greed, malice, and hatred. And here’s something else to think about - we’re always told by those around us, whether that’s our loved ones or complete strangers, to hide what makes us unique or even brilliant because it may not sit well with everyone. That’s another reason why some people go towards the dark side. And on another level, they use what makes them unique to stand out in not-so pleasant ways, instilling fear into others by what they say and do. Both cases aren’t right, not by a long shot. Now do you see why not everything is black and white? It’s hard to take the animated films we grew up and breathe new life into them while keeping these thoughts in mind. Especially if we were taught at an early age who’s good and who’s evil, and that the baddies aren’t deserving of our sympathy or even redemption. I don’t know who exactly started this tradition of taking the fairytales, animated classics, and other stories we all grew up with and add more dimension and humanity to each of the characters, including the villains. But I’m glad they did. It gives us something to think about and makes us see that we have a little bit of evil inside of us. I may be in the minority when I say this, but movies and shows like Once Upon A Time, Maleficent, Ever After High, Descendants, and Cruella fascinate me because it allows me the chance to see how capable the villains are to being good people and their external and internal struggles to keep the goodness in their lives while navigating through all of the bad things and people that come into their lives which sets a course towards their villainous nature.

At least take into consideration the hard work the authors, screenwriters, and creators put into formulating the question “what if...” and how much fun they have breathing new life into these characters we grew up with and how much of ourselves we can see in the villains, no matter how much we try to deny it. There, I said it. I may once again be in the minority when I say this (it seems to be a theme lately on Tumbr, which is quite sad), but I enjoyed Cruella immensely. The acting, the costume designs, the hair and makeup, the songs... It was just bloody brilliant. Both Emmas - Emma Stone and Emma Thompson - played their parts extremely well. Ms. Stone navigating through her internal battle to be a good person while facing a conflict with the bad side was a wonderful site to see. And Ms. Thompson, I mean, come on. She’s just fantastic all the way around. To play a narcissist isn’t easy, but she makes it look so simple and enjoyable. I commend both of their performances in this film. And let’s not forget the rest of the cast - Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beechan, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mark Strong, Kayvan Novak, Jamie Demetriou, Andrew Leung, and John McCrea - such an outstanding ensemble! In the theatre, you know a show is fantastic because of its ensemble. The same applies in the movies as well. They may not get recognized as much as Emma Stone or Emma Thompson, but it was such a joy seeing these talented performers play their parts well, and the depth they played at was a joy to watch. Let’s talk about the costumes, hair, and makeup. This film better get awards for all of those areas (or at least nominations) because the designs and styles were truly epic. It’s hard to get the fashion of the times right without extensive research and a little bit of creativity and imagination thrown in for good measure. But Jenny Beavan and Nadia Stacey deserve all of the praise and accolades for rocking out the 1970s with boldness and some pretty wicked designs. I’ve noticed skimming on here the discontent many of you have for portraying Cruella as being a villain we should have sympathy for, especially since she wanted to skin Dalmatians for a coat. That alone should be cause for her to not be worth an ounce of sympathy, and I understand that. As an animal lover myself, I’m inclined to agree with you. But I’m going to let you in on one spoiler that I ask you take into consideration: no Dalmatian dogs were killed or skinned in this movie. I repeat: no Dalmatian dogs were killed or skinned in this movie. And here’s something else I want you to be on the lookout for should you decide to watch this film. During the end credits, there is a special message out there for those of you who are thinking about owning a dog: “Every dog deserves a loving home. If you’re ready for the commitment of pet ownership, please consider visiting your local animal rescue to find the right pet for you.” That message alone speaks as to how far we’ve come in society, and here’s why. Whenever we see movies or TV shows that feature dogs and cats, particularly puppies and kittens, we tend to rush out right away and getting them because they’re so adorable. But when they grow up, we tend to let them go and leave them in some unpleasant places. And organizations like PETA beseeched the film and the company to take a stand and use their voice to encourage adoption of pets in shelters and rescue centers and not pet stores. Apparently, the film and the company listened because they put this message during the end credits. Well done. I may not be able to convince you to go see this movie or give it another chance if you already saw it, nor should I try. But I do want you to take into consideration the amount of updated versions of the stories we all know and love, and how much the authors, screenwriters, and other creative types are bringing in humanity and depth to these characters. We’re not 2D characters like the heroes, heroines, and villains are often seen as in the original stories, so why should they be treated and seen as such for generations to come? We’re more complex and layered than seen in fairytales and animated movies. Also, I don’t think these stories where the authors give villains a chance to experience goodness before they became bad or even blurring the lines between good and evil are going away. It allows us as human beings to see and try understand that we’re all capable of being good, but it’s the events and people who come into our lives that shake things up and even brings questions of whether we’re truly good or evil that sets us down a path we alone can walk. And more importantly, it gives us as the audience a chance to see a little bit of ourselves in these characters, even if you don’t relate to the villains at all. I suggest you stop griping about the rise in updated versions of the films, TV series, and book series of the original classics and accept that they are here to stay. I’m not saying you should read or watch them if they’re not your cup of tea, but at least try to understand that things were NEVER always black and white, especially where fairytales, animated films, and even more stories are concerned. At least try to understand that part, okay? Is that too much to ask? I’m not here to change your mind. I realize I can’t do that. So many of you are so set in your ways and opinions, and all I can do is pray for you. But I am here to share with you my thoughts on Cruella and how the updated versions of these stories are here to stay, whether you like it or not. And I’m also here to try to help you see that these stories allow us to see a little bit of ourselves in these characters we grew up with, even if it’s through a new set of eyes. You are welcome to disagree with me, or even not say anything at all. But all I ask is that you be respectful of my opinions and what I have to say. I will not tolerate any hate speech or disrespectful language. You do that, and I will block you. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything. It’s that simple, and yet it’s so hard, especially on Tumblr. I hope I didn’t take up too much of your time.

#disney cruella #emma stone #emma thompson #jenny beavan #nadia stacey #what if #villains #brilliant #bad #a little bit mad #opinion #bekind #be respectful #costumes #hairandmakeup #101 dalmatians #dalmatian #something to think about

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letterboxd · 3 years

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Careful How You Go.

Ella Kemp explores how film lovers can protect themselves from distressing subject matter while celebrating cinema at its most audacious.

Featuring Empire magazine editor Terri White, Test Pattern filmmaker Shatara Michelle Ford, writer and critic Jourdain Searles, publicist Courtney Mayhew, and curator, activist and producer Mia Bays of the Birds’ Eye View collective.

This story contains discussion of rape, sexual assault, abuse, self-harm, trauma and loss of life, as well as spoilers for ‘Promising Young Woman’ and ‘A Star is Born’.

We film lovers are blessed with a medium capable of excavating real-life emotion from something seemingly fictional. Yet, for all that film is—in the oft-quoted words of Roger Ebert—an “empathy machine”, it’s also capable of deeply hurting its audience when not wielded by its makers and promoters with appropriate care. Or, for that matter, when not approached by viewers with informed caution.

Whose job is it to let us know that we might be upset by what we see? With the coronavirus pandemic decimating the communal movie-going experience, the way we accommodate each viewer’s sensibilities is more crucial than ever—especially when so many of us are watching alone, at home, often unsupported.

In order to understand how we can champion a film’s content and take care of its audience, I approached women in several areas of the movie ecosystem. I wanted to know: how does a filmmaker approach the filming of a rape and its aftermath? How does a magazine editor navigate the celebration of a potentially triggering movie in one of the world’s biggest film publications? How does a freelance writer speak to her professional interests while preserving her personal integrity? How does a women’s film collective create a safe environment for an audience to process such a film? And, how does a publicist prepare journalists for careful reporting, when their job is to get eyeballs on screens in order to keep our favorite art form afloat?

The conversations reminded me that the answers are endlessly complex. The concerns over spoilers, the effectiveness of trigger warnings, the myriad ways in which art is crafted from trauma, and the fundamental question of whose stories these are to tell. These questions were valid decades ago, they will be for decades to come, and they feel especially urgent now, since a number of recent tales helmed by female and non-binary filmmakers depict violence and trauma involving women’s bodies in fearless, often challenging ways.

Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, in particular, has revived a vital conversation about content consideration, as victims and survivors of sexual assault record wildly different reactions to its astounding ending. Shatara Michelle Ford’s quietly tense debut, Test Pattern, brings Black survivors into the conversation. And the visceral, anti-wish-fulfillment horror Violation, coming soon from Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer, takes the rape-revenge genre up another notch.

These films come off the back of other recent survivor stories, such as Michaela Coel’s groundbreaking series I May Destroy You (which centers women’s friendship in a narrative move that, as Sarah Williams has eloquently outlined, happens too rarely in this field). Also: Kata Wéber and Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman, and the ongoing ugh-ness of The Handmaid’s Tale. And though this article is focused on plots centering women’s trauma, I acknowledge the myriad of stories that can be triggering in many ways for all manner of viewers. So whether you’ve watched one of these titles, or others like them, I hope you felt supported in the conversations to follow, and that you feel seen.

Weruche Opia and Michaela Coel in ‘I May Destroy You’.

* * *

Simply put, Promising Young Woman is a movie about a woman seeking revenge against predatory men. Except nothing about it is simple. Revenge movies have existed for aeons, and we’ve rooted for many promising young (mostly white) women before Carey Mulligan’s Cassie (recently: Jen in Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge, Noelle in Natalia Leite’s M.F.A.). But in Promising Young Woman, the victim is not alive to seek revenge, so it becomes Cassie’s single-minded crusade. Mercifully, we never see the gang-rape that sparks Cassie’s mission. But we do see a daring, fatal subversion of the notion of a happy ending—and this is what has audiences of Emerald Fennell’s jaw-dropping debut divided.

“For me, being a survivor, the point is to survive,” Jourdain Searles tells me. The New York-based critic, screenwriter, comedian—and host of Netflix’s new Black Film School series—says the presence of death in Promising Young Woman is the problem. “One of the first times I spoke openly about [my assault], I made the decision that I didn’t want to go to the police, and I got a lot of judgment for that,” she says. “So watching Promising Young Woman and seeing the police as the endgame is something I’ve always disagreed with. I left thinking, ‘How is this going to help?’”

“I feel like I’ve got two hats on,” says Terri White, the London-based editor-in chief of Empire magazine, and the author of a recently published memoir, Coming Undone. “One of which is me creating a magazine for a specific film-loving audience, and the other bit of me, which has written a book about trauma, specifically about violence perpetrated against the body. They’re not entirely siloed, but they are two distinct perspectives.”

White loved both Promising Young Woman and I May Destroy You, because they “explode the myth of resolution and redemption”. She calls the ending of Promising Young Woman “radical” in the way it speaks to the reality of what happens to so many women. “I was thinking about me and women like me, women who have endured violence and injury or trauma. Three women every week are still killed [in the UK] at the hands of an ex-partner, or somebody they know intimately, or a current partner. Statistically, any woman who goes for some kind of physical confrontation in [the way Cassie does] would end up dying.”

She adds: “I felt like the film was in service to both victims and survivors, and I use the word ‘victims’ deliberately. I call myself a victim because I think if you’ve endured either sexual violence or physical violence or both, a lot of empowering language, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t reflect the reality of being a victim or a survivor, whichever way you choose to call yourself.” This point has been one many have disagreed on. In a way, that makes sense—no victim or survivor can be expected to speak to anyone else’s experience but their own.

Carey Mulligan and Emerald Fennell on the set of ‘Promising Young Woman’.

Likewise, there is no right or wrong way to feel about this film, or any film. But a question that arises is, well, should everyone have to see a film to figure that out? And should victims and survivors of sexual violence watch this film? “I have definitely been picky about who I’ve recommended it to,” Courtney Mayhew says. “I don’t want to put a friend in harm’s way, even if that means they miss out on something awesome. It’s not worth it.”

Mayhew is a New Zealand-based international film publicist, and because of her country’s success in controlling Covid 19, she is one of the rare people able to experience Promising Young Woman in a sold-out cinema. “It was palpable. Everyone was so engaged and almost leaning forwards. There were a lot of laughs from women, but it was also a really challenging setting. A lot of people looking down, looking away, and there was a girl who was crying uncontrollably at the end.”

“Material can be very triggering,” White agrees. “It depends where people are personally in their journey. When I still had a lot of trauma I hadn’t worked through in my 20s, I found certain things very difficult to watch. Those things are a reality—but people can make their own decisions about the material they feel able to watch.”

It’s about warning, and preparation, more than total deprivation, then? “I believe in giving people information so they can make the best choice for themselves,” White says. “But I find it quite reductive, and infantilizing in some respects, to be told broadly, ‘Women who have experienced x shouldn’t watch this.’ That underestimates the resilience of some people, the thirst for more information and knowledge.” (This point is clearly made in this meticulous, awe-inspiring list by Jenn, who is on a journey to make sense of her trauma through analysis of rape-revenge films.) But clarity is crucial, particularly for those grappling with unresolved issues.

Searles agrees Promising Young Woman can be a difficult, even unpleasant watch, but still one with value. “As a survivor it did not make me feel good, but it gave me a window into the way other people might respond to your assault. A lot of the time [my friends] have reacted in ways I don’t understand, and the movie feels like it’s trying to make sense of an assault from the outside, and the complicated feelings a friend might have.”

Molly Parker and Vanessa Kirby in ‘Pieces of a Woman’.

* * *

A newborn dies. A character is brutally violated. A population is tortured. To be human is to bear witness to history, but it’s still painful when that history is yours, or something very close to it. “Some things are hard to watch because you relate to them,” Searles explains. “I find mother! hard to watch, and there’s no actual sexual assault. But I just think of sexual assault and trauma and domestic abuse, even though the film isn’t about that. The thing is, you could read an academic paper on patriarchy—you don’t need to watch it on a show [or in a film] if you don’t want to.”

White agrees: “I’ve never been able to watch Nil by Mouth, because I grew up in a house of domestic violence and I find physical violence against women on screen very hard to watch. But that doesn’t mean I think the film shouldn’t be shown—it should still exist, I’ve just made the choice not to watch it.” (Reader, since our conversation, she watched it. At 2:00am.)

“I know people who do not watch Promising Young Woman or The Handmaid’s Tale because they work for an NGO in which they see those things literally in front of their eyes,” Mayhew says. “It could be helpful for someone who isn’t aware [of those issues], but then what is the purpose of art? To educate? To entertain? For escapism? It’s probably all of those.”

Importantly, how much weight should an artist’s shoulders carry, when it comes to considering the audiences that will see their work? There’s a general agreement among my interviewees that, as White says, “filmmakers have to make the art that they believe in”. I don’t think any film lover would disagree, but, suggests Searles, “these films should be made with survivors in mind. That doesn’t mean they always have to be sensitive and sad and declawed. But there is a way to be provocative, while leaning into an emotional truth.”

Madeleine Sims-Fewer in ‘Violation’.

Violation, about which I’ll say little here since it is yet to screen at SXSW (ahead of its March 25 release on Shudder) is not at all declawed, and is certainly made with survivors in mind—in the sense that in life, unlike in movies, catharsis is very seldom possible no matter how far you go to find it. On Letterboxd, many of those who saw Violation at TIFF and Sundance speak of feeling represented by the rape-revenge plot, writing: “One of the most intentionally thought out and respectful of the genre… made by survivors for survivors” and “I feel seen and held”. (Also: “This movie is extremely hard to watch, completely on purpose.”)

“Art can do great service to people,” agrees White, “If, by consequence, there is great service for people who have been in that position, that’s a brilliant consequence. But I don’t believe filmmakers and artists should be told that they are responsible for certain things. There’s a line of responsibility in terms of being irresponsible, especially if your community is young, or traumatised.”

Her words call to mind Bradley Cooper’s reboot of A Star is Born, which many cinephiles knew to be a remake and therefore expected its plot twist, but young filmgoers, drawn by the presence of Lady Gaga, were shocked (and in some cases triggered) by a suicide scene. When it was released, Letterboxd saw many anguished reviews from younger members. In New Zealand, an explicit warning was added to the film’s classification by the country’s chief censor (who also created an entirely new ‘RP18’ classification for the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, which eventually had a graphic suicide scene edited out two years after first landing on the streaming service).

“There is a duty of care to audiences, and there is also a duty of care to artists and filmmakers,” says Mayhew. “There’s got to be some way of meeting in the middle.” The middle, perhaps, can be identified by the filmmaker’s objective. “It’s about feeling safe in the material,” says Mia Bays of the Birds’ Eye View film collective, which curates and markets films by women in order to effect industry change. “With material like this, it’s beholden on creatives to interrogate their own intentions.”

Filmmaker Shatara Michelle Ford is “forever interrogating” ideas of power. Their debut feature, Test Pattern, deftly examines the power differentials that inform the foundations of consent. “As an artist, human, and person who has experienced all sorts of boundary violation, assault and exploitation in their life, I spend quite a lot of time thinking about power… It is something I grapple with in my personal life, and when I arrive in any workplace, including a film set.”

In her review of Test Pattern for The Hollywood Reporter, Searles writes, “This is not a movie about sexual assault as an abstract concept; it’s a movie about the reality of a sexual assault survivor’s experience.” Crucially, in a history of films that deal largely with white women’s experiences, Test Pattern “is one of the few sexual-assault stories to center a Black woman, with her Blackness being central to her experience and the way she is treated by the people around her.”

Brittany S. Hall in ‘Test Pattern’.

* * *

Test Pattern follows the unfolding power imbalance between Renesha (Brittany S. Hall) and her devoted white boyfriend Evan (Will Brill), as he drives her from hospital to hospital in search of a rape kit, after her drink was spiked by a white man in a bar who then raped her. Where Promising Young Woman is a millennial-pink revenge fantasy of Insta-worthy proportions, Test Pattern feels all too real, and the cops don’t come off as well as they do in the former.

Ford does something very important for the audience: they begin the film just as the rape is about to occur. We do not see it at this point (we do not really ever see it), but we know that it happened, so there’s no chance that, somewhere deeper into the story, when we’re much more invested, we’ll be side-swiped by a sudden onslaught of sexual violence. In a way, it creates a safe space for our journey with Renesha.

It’s one of many thoughtful decisions made by Ford throughout the production process. “I’m in direct conversation with film and television that chooses to depict violence against women so casually,” Ford tells me. “I intentionally showed as little of Renesha’s rape as humanly possible. I also had an incredibly hard time being physically present for that scene, I should add. What I did shoot was ultimately guided by Renesha’s experience of it. Shoot only what she would remember. Show only what she would have been aware of.

“But I also made it clear that this was a violation of her autonomy, by allowing moments where we have an arm’s length point of view. I let the camera sit with the audience, as I’m also saying, as the filmmaker, this happened, and you saw enough of it to know. This, for me, is a larger commentary on how we treat victims of assault and rape. I do not believe for one goddamn minute that we need to see the actual, literal violence to know what happened. When we flagrantly replicate the violence in film and television, we are supporting the cultural norm of needing ‘all of the evidence’—whatever that means—to ‘believe women’.”

Ford’s intentional work in crafting the romance and unraveling of Test Pattern’s leading couple pays off on screen, but their stamp as an invested and careful director also shows in their work with Drew Fuller, the actor who played Mike, the rapist. “It’s a very difficult role, and I’m grateful to him for taking it so seriously. When discussing and rendering the practice and non-practice of consent intentionally, I found it helpful to give it a clear definition and provide conceptual insight.

“I sent Drew a few articles that I used as tools to create a baseline understanding when it comes to exploring consent and power on screen. At the top of that list was Lili Loofbourow’s piece, The female price of male pleasure and Zhana Vrangalova's Teen Vogue piece, Everything You Need to Know about Consent that You Never Learned in Sex Ed. The latter in my opinion is the linchpin. There’s also Jude Elison Sady Doyle’s piece about the whole Aziz Ansari thing, which is a great primer.”

Sidney Flanigan in ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’.

Even when a filmmaker has given Ford’s level of care and attention to their project, what happens when the business end of the industry gets involved in the art? As we well know, marketing is a film’s window dressing. It has one job: to get eyeballs into the cinema. It can’t know if every viewer should feel safe to enter.

It would be useful, with certain material, to know how we should watch, and with whom, and what might we need in the way of support coming out. Whose job is it to provide this? Beyond the crude tool of an MPAA rating (and that’s a whole sorry tale for another day), there are many creative precautions that can be taken across the industry to safeguard a filmgoer’s experience.

Mayhew, who often sees films at the earliest stages (sometimes before a final cut, sometimes immediately after), speaks to journalists in early screenings and ensures they have the tools to safely report on the topics raised. In New Zealand, reporters are encouraged to read through resources to help them guide their work. Mayhew’s teams would also ensure journalists would be given relevant hotline numbers, and would ask media outlets to include them in published stories.

“It’s not saying, ‘You have to do this’,” she explains, “It’s about first of all not knowing what the journalist has been through themselves, and second of all, [if] they are entertainment reporters who haven’t navigated speaking about sexual assault, you only hope it will be helpful going forward. It’s certainly not done to infantilize them, because they’re smart people. It’s a way to show some care and support.”

The idea of having appropriate resources to make people feel safe and encourage them to make their own decisions is a priority for Bays and Birds’ Eye View, as well. The London-based creative producer and cultural activist stresses the importance of sharing such a viewing experience. “It’s the job of cinemas, distributors and festivals to realize that it might not be something the filmmaker does, but as the people in control of the environment it’s our job to give extra resources to those who want it,” says Bays. “To give people a safe space to come down from the experience.”

Pre-pandemic, when Birds’ Eye View screened Kitty Green’s The Assistant, a sharp condemnation of workplace micro-aggressions seen through the eyes of one female assistant, they invited women who had worked for Harvey Weinstein. For a discussion after Eliza Hittman’s coming-of-ager Never Rarely Sometimes Always, abortion experts were able to share their knowledge. “It’s about making sure the audience knows you can say anything here, but that it’s safe,” Bays explains. “It’s kind of like group therapy—you don’t know people, so you’re not beholden to what they think about you. And in the cinema people aren’t looking at you. You’re speaking somewhat anonymously, so a lot of really important stuff can come out.”

The traditional movie-going experience, involving friends, crowds and cathartic, let-loose feelings, is still largely inaccessible at the time of writing. Over the past twelve months we’ve talked plenty about preserving the magic of the big screen experience, but it’s about so much more than the romanticism of an art form; it’s also about the safety that comes from a feeling of community when watching potentially upsetting movies.

“The going in and coming out parts of watching a film in the cinema are massively important, because it’s like coming out of the airlock and coming back to reality,” says Bays. “You can’t do that at home. Difficult material kind of stays with you.” During the pandemic, Birds’ Eye View has continued to provide the same wrap-around curatorial support for at-home viewers as they would at an in-person event. “If we’re picking a difficult film and asking people to watch it at home, we might suggest you watch it with a friend so you can speak about it afterwards,” Bays says.

Julia Garner in ‘The Assistant’.

But, then, how can we still find this sense of community without the physical closeness? “It’s no good waiting for [the internet] to become kind,” she says. “Create your own closed spaces. We do workshops and conversations exclusively for people who sign up to our newsletter. In real-life meetings you can go from hating something to hearing an eloquent presentation of another perspective and coming round to it, but you need the time and space to do that. This little amount of time gives you a move towards healing, even if it’s just licking some wounds that were opened on Twitter. But it could be much deeper, like being a survivor and feeling very conflicted about the film, which I do.”

Conflict is something that Searles, the film critic, knows about all too well in her work. “Since I started writing professionally, I almost feel like I’m known for writing about assault and rape at this point. I do write about it a lot, and as a survivor I continue to process it. I’ve been assaulted more than once so I have a lot to process, and so each time I’m writing about it I’m thinking about different aspects and remnants of those feelings. It can be very cathartic, but it’s a double-edged sword because sometimes I feel like I have an obligation to write about it too.”

There is also a constant act of self-preservation that comes with putting so much of yourself on the internet. “I often get messages from people thanking me for talking about these subjects with a deep understanding of what they mean,” Searles says. “I really appreciate that. I get negative messages about a lot of things, but not this one thing.”

Michaela Coel in ‘I May Destroy You’.

* * *

With such thoughtful approaches to heavy content, it feels like we’re a long way further down the road from blunt tools like content and trigger warnings. But do they still have their place? “It’s just never seemed appropriate to put trigger warnings on any of our reviews or features,” White explains. “We have a heavy male readership, still 70 percent male to 30 percent female. I’m conscious we’re talking to a lot of men who will often have experienced violence themselves, but we don’t put any warnings, because we are an adult magazine, and when we talk about violence in, say, an action film, or violence that is very heavily between men, we don’t caveat that at all.”

Bays, too, is sceptical of trigger warnings, explaining that “there’s not much evidence [they] actually work. A lot of psychologists expound on the fact that if people get stuck in their trauma, you can never really recover from PTSD if you don’t at some point face your trauma.” She adds: “I’m a survivor, and I found I May Destroy You deeply, profoundly triggering, but also cathartic. I think it’s more about how you talk about the work, rather than having a ‘NB: survivors of sexual abuse or assault shouldn’t see this’.”

“It’s important to give people a feel of what they’re in for,” argues Searles. “A lot of people who have dealt with suicide ideation would prefer that warning.” While some worry that a content warning is effectively a plot spoiler, Searles disagrees. “I don’t consider a content warning a spoiler. I just couldn’t imagine sitting down for a film, knowing there’s going to be a suicide, and letting it distract me from the film.” Still, she acknowledges the nuance. “I think using ‘self-harm’ might be better than just saying ‘suicide’.”

Mayhew shared insights on who actually decides which films on which platforms are preceded with warnings—turns out, it’s a bit messy. “The onus traditionally has fallen on governmental censorship when it comes to theatrical releases,” she explains. “But streamers can do what they want, they are not bound by those rules so they have to—as the distributors and broadcasters—take the government’s censors on board in terms of how they are going to navigate it.

“The consumer doesn’t know the difference,” she continues, “nor should they—so it means they can be watching The Crown on Netflix and get this trigger warning about bulimia, and go to the cinema the next day and not get it, and feel angry about it. So there’s the question of where is the responsibility of the distributor, and where is the responsibility of the audience member to actually find out for themselves.”

The warnings given to an audience member can also vary widely depending where they find themselves in the world, too. Promising Young Woman, for example, is rated M in Australia, R18 in New Zealand, and R in the United States. Meanwhile, the invaluable Common Sense Media recommends an age of fifteen years and upwards for the “dark, powerful, mature revenge comedy”. Mayhew says a publicist’s job is “to have your finger on the pulse” about these cultural differences. “You have to read the overall room, and when I say room I mean the culture as a whole, and you have to be constantly abreast of things across those different ages too.”

She adds: “This feeds into the importance of representation right at the top of those boardrooms and right down to the film sets. My job is to see all opinions, and I never will, especially because I am a white woman. I consider myself part of the LGBT community and sometimes I’ll bring that to a room that I think has been lacking in that area, when it comes to harmful stereotypes that can be propagated within films about LGBT people. But I can’t bring a Black person’s perspective, I cannot bring an Indigenous perspective. The more representation you have, the better your film is going to be, your campaign is going to be.”

Bays, who is also a filmmaker, agrees: representation is about information, and working with enough knowledge to make sure your film is being as faithful to your chosen communities as possible. “As a filmmaker, I’d feel ill-informed and misplaced if I was stumbling into an area of representation that I knew nothing about without finding some tools and collaborators who could bring deeper insight.”

Carey Mulligan and Bo Burnham in ‘Promising Young Woman’.

This is something Ford aimed for with Test Pattern’s choice of crew members, which had an effect not just on the end product, but on the entire production process. “I made sure that at the department head level, I was hiring people I was in community with and fully saw me as a person, and me them,” they say. “In some ways it made the experience more pleasurable.” That said, the shoot was still not without its incidents: “These were the types of things that in my experience often occur on a film set dominated by straight white men, that we're so accustomed to we sometimes don’t even notice it. I won’t go into it but what I will say is that it was not tolerated.”

Vital to the telling of the story were the lived experiences that Ford and their crew brought to set. “As it applies to the sensitive nature of this story, there were quite a few of us who have had our own experiences along the spectrum of assault, which means that we had to navigate our own internal re-processing of those experiences, which is hard to do when we’re constructing an experience of rape for a character.

“However, I think being able to share our own triggers and discomfort and context, when it came to Renesha’s experience, made the execution of it all the better. Again, it was a pleasure to be in community with such smart, talented and considerate women who each brought their own nuance to this film.”

* * *

Thinking about everything we’ve lived through by this point in 2021, and the heightened sensitivity and lowered mental health of film lovers worldwide, movies are carrying a pretty heavy burden right now: to, as Jane Fonda said at the Golden Globes, help us see through others’ eyes; also, to entertain or, at the very least, not upset us too much.

But to whom does film have a responsibility, really? Promising Young Woman’s writer-director Emerald Fennell, in an excellent interview with Vulture’s Angelica Jade Bastién, said that she was thinking of audiences when she crafted the upsetting conclusion.

What she was thinking was: a ‘happy’ ending for Cassie gets us no further forward as a society. Instead, Cassie’s shocking end “makes you feel a certain way, and it makes you want to talk about it. It makes you want to examine the film and the society that we live in. With a cathartic Hollywood ending, that’s not so much of a conversation, really. It’s a kind of empty catharsis.”

So let’s flip the question: what is our responsibility, as women and allies, towards celebrating audacious films about tricky subjects? The marvellous, avenging blockbusters that once sucked all the air out of film conversation are on pause, for now. Consider the space that this opens up for a different kind of approach to “must-see movies”. Spread the word about Test Pattern. Shout from the rooftops about It’s A Sin. Add Body of Water and Herself and Violation to your watchlists. And, make sure the right people are watching.

Brittany S. Hall and Will Brill in ‘Test Pattern’.

I asked my interviewees: if they could choose one type of person they think should see Promising Young Woman, who would it be? Ford has not seen Fennell’s film, but “it feels good to have my film contribute to a larger discourse that is ever shifting, ever adding nuance”. They are very clear on who can learn the most from their own movie.

“A white man is featured so prominently in Test Pattern as a statement about how white people and men have a habit of centering themselves in the stories of others, prioritizing their experience and neglecting to recognize those on the margins. If Evan is triggering, he should be. If your feelings about Evan vacillate, it is by design.

“‘Allies’ across the spectrum are in a complicated dance around doing the ‘right thing’ and ‘showing up’ for those they are ostensibly seeking to support,” Ford continues. “Their constant battle is to remember that they need to be centering the needs of those they were never conditioned to center. Tricky stuff. Mistakes will be made. Mistakes must be owned. Sometimes reconciliation is required.”

It is telling that similar thoughts emerged from my other interviewees regarding Promising Young Woman’s ideal audience, despite the fact that none of them was in conversation with the others for this story. For that reason, as we come to the end of this small contribution to a very large, ongoing conversation, I’ve left their words intact.

White: I think it’s a great film for men.

Searles: I feel like the movie is very much pointed at cisgender heterosexual men.

Mayhew: Men.

White: We’re always warned about the alpha male with a massive ego, but we’re not warned about the beta male who reads great books, listens to great records, has great film recommendations. But he probably slyly undermines you in a completely different way. Anybody can be a predator.

Searles: The actors chosen to play these misogynist, rape culture-perpetuating men are actors we think of as nice guys.

White: We are so much more tolerant of a man knocking the woman over the head, dragging her down an alley and raping her, because we understand that. But rape culture is made up of millions of small things that enable the people who do it. We are more likely to be attacked in our own homes by men we love than a stranger in the street.

Mayhew: The onus should not fall on women to call this out.

Searles: It’s not just creeps, like the ones you see usually in these movies. It’s guys like you. What are you going to do to make sure you’re not like this?

Related content

Sex Monsters, Rape Revenge and Trauma: a work-in-progress list

Rape and Revenge: a list of films that fall into, and play with, the genre

Unconsenting Media: a search engine for sexual violence in broadcasting

Follow Ella on Letterboxd

If you need help or to talk to someone about concerns raised for you in this story, please first know that you are not alone. These are just a few of the many organizations and resources available, and their websites include more information.

US: RAINN (hotline 0800 656 HOPE); LGBT National Help Center; Pathways to Safety; Time’s Up.

Canada: Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers—contacts by province and territory

UK/Ireland: Mind; The Survivors Trust (hotline 08088 010818); Rape Crisis England and Wales

Europe: Rape Crisis Network Europe

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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Random Reads 2/18/21

Are You in the House Alone? by Richard Peck Are You in the House Alone? came out in 1976 and though I totally could’ve read it when I was a teen—and thus still a member of its target audience—I never did.

Gail Osburne is a sixteen-year-old high school junior and native New Yorker who’s not at home in the quaint Connecticut village her family relocated to several years back. I knew that the plot involved Gail receiving menacing anonymous notes and phone calls, and I was expecting these events to get started quickly and the suspense to remain high throughout. But that doesn’t happen.

Instead, the story is told retroactively, so we know Gail survives. Also, obvious culprit is obvious. (I hope the reveal wasn’t intended to be a surprise, but perhaps readers were less savvy about such things in 1976.) Initially, much more of the focus is on Gail’s relationships with her parents, boyfriend, and best friend, and in particular how the latter two are in the slow process of dissolution. Eventually she receives some threatening notes and creepy phone calls, gets scared, is let down by people in positions of authority, and comes face-to-face with said obvious culprit. That happens halfway through this slim novel. The rest of the book is about Gail’s recovery from her ordeal.

I thought Are You in the House Alone? was going to be fun, suspenseful fluff, but it turned out to be fairly serious and occasionally (intentionally) infuriating. I really appreciated how Peck was able to weave in a couple of threads that seemed very random at first and make them integral to the denouement, too. Ultimately, I didn’t love the book, but I kind of… respect it, if that makes sense. It didn’t go the cheap route.

The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez Mack Megaton is a hulking robot who was created to destroy. He developed self-determination, however, and went against his programming. Now, he’s a probationary citizen of Empire City, where mutagens and pollution have created a very diverse population. While some “biologicals” are still “norms,” others have been physically transformed (like rat-like Detective Alfredo Sanchez) and others have been changed in not-so-visible ways (like Mack’s friend, Jung, a talking gorilla with refined literary taste). Mack works as a cab driver and is trying to keep a low profile, but when his neighbors are abducted, he can’t help but try to rescue them. This gets him into all sorts of trouble, of course.

Despite its name, The Automatic Detective isn’t really much of a mystery. I suppose it’s more… sci-fi noir. Mack meets various thugs, beats some of them up, gets beat up himself, etc. Slowly, he makes progress on uncovering a huge conspiracy. At times, I felt like Martinez was a little too enamored of the gimmick he created, and places in the middle dragged a bit as a result, but the ending is pretty satisfying and overall the book was enjoyable enough, even though it’s quite far from the sort of thing I usually read.

As a final note: I really liked that Martinez limited himself when it came time to invent universe-specific profanity. Instead of the text being liberally sprinkled with words like “frell” or “frak,” the phrase “Oh, flurb” appears but once (during a moment where the meaning is 100% apparent) and made me laugh out loud.

I don’t know if I’m necessarily eager to read more by Martinez, but I’m glad I read this one.

The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse When I read My Man Jeeves back in 2010, I was somewhat disappointed because so much of it was repetitive. While there are some common elements that recur within the eleven stories that comprise The Inimitable Jeeves, it is still so very much superior that I’d now say… forget about that first book. Start here. Go back and read My Man Jeeves for completist purposes, if that’s your inclination, but start here for the best introduction to these characters and Wodehouse’s uniquely charming and amusing writing.

First published in 1923, The Inimitable Jeeves contains a linked set of stories that typically involve affable Bertie Wooster being imposed upon by either his eternally lovesick friend Bingo Little (who is “always waylaying one and decanting his anguished soul”) or his mischief-making younger cousins, Claude and Eustace. One plot thread involves convincing Bingo’s uncle (who provides him with an allowance) to agree to Bingo marrying a waitress. Jeeves comes up with the idea to ply the uncle with romance novels featuring class differences to soften his heart, and it ends up that Bertie is compelled to go visit the old fellow and claim to be the author. In addition to containing the most elegant description of sweat I’ve ever seen—“The good old persp was bedewing my forehead by this time in a pretty lavish manner.”—this situation is referenced a few times in subsequent stories until Bingo succeeds in getting married to a different waitress who really is the author of those romance novels.

So, even though you’ve got episodic happenings, it’s rather a satisfactory conclusion. Bertie is endearing, Jeeves is competent, the writing is excellent, and it made me laugh. (I especially liked when a character was described as resembling “a sheep with a secret sorrow.”) I’m so glad that I didn’t give up on the series after the first book; now I feel as though I finally see what the fuss is all about. I’d also like to give credit to the fabulous narration by Jonathan Cecil. I’m not sure if it’s deliberate, but I hear echoes of Fry and Laurie in his performance, and I heartily approve. I will certainly seek out more unabridged versions read by him.

The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters This is the second in the Jacqueline Kirby series of mysteries. I haven’t read the first, and wouldn’t normally begin with the second, but the book promised an English country mansion plus “fanatic devotees of King Richard III” so my usual routine flew right out the window.

Even before university lecturer Thomas Carter likened himself unto Watson, I’d noticed the similarities between how this tale is told and the Sherlock Holmes stories. We are never permitted inside Jacqueline’s head. Instead, we see her how Thomas, hopeful of one day securing her romantic affections, views her. It’s fairly interesting, actually, because Thomas’ opinion of her fluctuates, sometimes peevishly. “You drive me crazy with your arrogance and your sarcasm and your know-it-all airs,” he says at one point. And though he soon after claims “I’m no male chauvinist; I don’t mind you showing off,” the fact is that earlier he was grumbling inwardly about her feigning “girlish ignorance” to reel in mansplainers and then walloping the “unwitting victim” with a cartload of knowledge. It’s true that Jacqueline isn’t especially likeable sometimes, but for remorselessly trouncing the sexist louts she encounters throughout the book, I must commend her!

The mystery itself is somewhat bland, unfortunately. The leader of a Ricardian society has received a letter purportedly written by Elizabeth of York, which would exonerate Richard of the deaths of her brothers, the “princes in the tower.” He calls a meeting of the society, with each attendee costumed as one of the historical personages involved, and summons the press, planning to unveil his find with much fanfare. But someone begins playing practical jokes on the Ricardians reminiscent of the fates of the people they are pretending to be. The book isn’t a long one, and soon the pranks start coming right on the heels of one another. Because of the swift pace—and some shallow characterization—the solution is rather anti-climactic.

Still, while I’m not sure I’ll seek out any more Jacqueline Kirby mysteries, this was overall a decent read.

A Perfect Match by Jill McGown The series of books featuring Detective Inspector Lloyd (whose first name is a secret for now) and Detective Sergeant Judy Hill begins with a short yet enjoyable mystery in which a wealthy young widow is found dead in a small English town on property she’d just inherited from her recently deceased husband. Unlike some mysteries of which I am fond, there’s no preamble where readers get to know the victim or the circumstances of their life. Instead, immediately there’s a policeman discovering the body and then Lloyd turns up to question the victim’s next of kin. This same lack of character development hampers the romantic tension between Lloyd and Hill, leaving me with no idea what motivated Hill to finally decide to act on her feelings for him, betraying her marriage vows in the process.

The mystery itself is interesting enough, however, involving long-married Helen and Donald Mitchell who have ties to both the victim, Julia—her late husband was Donald’s older brother and Helen thinks they were having an affair—and chief suspect, Chris, originally a friend of Donald’s who has fallen in love with Helen. I can’t claim to have mustered anything more than a mild curiosity as to what the outcome would be, but neither did I guess the specifics, so that was good. I liked the interrogation scenes, too.

McGown’s writing had some fun moments. I loved the super-evocative imagery of Lloyd telling Hill that her new perm makes her look like Kevin Keegan. I also really appreciated a recurring bit where each chapter ends with the point of view of wildlife. When Chris is eventually brought in by the police, his arrest is depicted from a bird’s perspective, for example. There are also ducks, a moth, a fly, a cat… I don’t know if this device recurs in later books in the series, but I look forward to finding out.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight This is the second mystery/thriller I’ve read in which a single mom who is a lawyer with a cold and unfeeling mother of her own attempts to work out the mystery of what happened to a family member (the other being Girl in the Dark by Marion Pauw). Is that some kind of trend these days?

Kate Baron has a demanding job at a swanky firm, but she’s trying her best to be a good mom to her fifteen-year-old bookworm daughter, Amelia. She’s shocked to get a call from Grace Hall, the prestigious private school Amelia attends, saying that her daughter has been accused of cheating, and by the time she makes her way to the school, Amelia has evidently jumped to her death from the school roof. The police are only too happy to classify her death as a suicide, but when Kate gets a text that says “Amelia didn’t jump,” she starts trying to put together the pieces of what happened.

Reconstructing Amelia has quite a few problems. Despite her better judgment (and a promise to her best friend), Amelia joins a clique of bitchy girls at school who end up publicly humiliating her and trying to get her expelled when she falls in love with someone deemed off-limits. It’s hard to muster sympathy for what she ends up going through when one remembers the cruel prank she was willing to pull on someone else as part of the initiation process (largely kept off-camera to keep us from disliking her too much, I guess). We’re repeatedly told about the great relationship Amelia and her mom share, but never shown it. The subplot about Amelia’s dad is the literary equivalent of wilted lettuce. And the fact that the new detective who gets assigned to the case allows Kate to question suspects is absolutely ludicrous.

And yet, I couldn’t hate the book, largely because of Amelia’s friend, Sylvia. For much of the book she comes across as shallow and self-absorbed, but when Amelia really needs her, she’s there. She gives Amelia this tour of “great moments at Grace Hall” to cheer up her impressive pal, right before breaking down about her own legitimate pain. I never would’ve thought at the outset that I would have such immense sympathy for Sylvia, but I do. I find myself hoping that she’ll be okay.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane It sure is nice going into a book unspoiled, particularly one as twisty as Shutter Island. I was quite happy with the book as it began, with U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule taking the ferry to Shutter Island to track down a patient missing from Ashcliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. It’s late summer 1954, and these guys are manly but accessible, and surprisingly funny. Consider this relatiely early exchange that cracked me up:

Pretentious Doctor: *makes remarks on the lives of violence the marshals must lead* Chuck: Wasn’t raised to run, Doc. Pretentious Doctor: Ah, yes. Raised. And who did raise you? Teddy: Bears.

For a while, all seems straightforward. Then Teddy confides to Chuck that he’s actually come there looking for a patient named Andrew Laediss, who was responsible for setting the fire that killed Teddy’s wife two years before. Gradually, one starts to doubt everything (and there was a point where all of the uncertainty got to be a little much for me) but the ultimate conclusion is a very satisfactory one.

Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurdardottir Set in Iceland, Why Did You Lie? starts out with three different storylines taking place a few days apart. The first involves a photographer on a helicopter journey to take pictures of a lighthouse on a rock in the middle of the ocean, the second is about a policewoman whose journalist husband has recently attempted suicide, and the third is about a family who returns from a house swap with an American couple to find some of their stuff missing and weird footage on the security camera. Of course, as the book progresses, these storylines converge, and it’s pretty neat when the police activity the helicopter flew over in chapter one turns out to be almost the culmination of the policewoman’s plot thread.

For some reason, I can’t help wondering how Ruth Rendell might’ve written this book. I think Rendell would’ve done a lot more with characterization, for one thing. There’s certainly some here, especially for the anxious husband who struggles to make his wife admit something really has gone wrong with their houseguests, but the primary concern seems to be getting on with the suspenseful action. Quickly, each plot features some kind of creepy lurker and then ominous notes (variations on the “why did you lie?” theme) figure in to all three, as well. Nina, the policewoman, digs around and talks to people and works out that everything connects to a supposed suicide from thirty years ago.

The result is certainly an entertaining book, but not one I could really love. One major issue I had is being able to predict something very significant. The number of characters who could’ve been angry enough about the 30-year-old lies in question to terrorize people in the present is very small. And once the existence of a certain person is oh-so-casually mentioned two-thirds through the book, I thought, “Oh, well, it’s them, then.” And then a little later, I figured out which of the characters it must be and I was right. This made for an anticlimactic ending that was clearly meant to be a shocking one. Also, I would’ve liked to have cared more that one character ends the novel poised to move on with life but, in reality, still in jeopardy.

I still would read more by this author, though.

By: Michelle Smith

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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duhragonball · 4 years

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Review: Unabridged Episode 1

youtube

I can’t remember how long it’s been since I last wrote about Team Four Star, but the short version is that they officially ended Dragon Ball Z Abridged, a little over a year after the final episode was published. At one time, they seemed to think they could tackle the Buu Saga, but eventually it became clear that creative burnout was just too big a hurdle to overcome. More importantly, they’d have to end DBZA eventually whether they finished the Buu Saga or not. Somewhere along the way, TFS decided to focus on their future, which lay in producing original content. There have been earlier examples of this, but I think it’s safe to say Unabridged is their flagship for 2020.

I’d like to compare Team Four Star to some other media entity, but I can’t think of anything that fits. In a way, they’re kind of victims of their own success. They got tons of fans thanks to DBZA, and they managed to make enough money to turn their fan production into an actual business, but they can’t monetize DBZA, since they don’t own the source material. So the trick is to somehow convince that audience to stick around for their other acts. And those acts really can’t have anything to do with DBZ. What else does that audience want? Well, hopefully, a pastiche of The Office, because that’s what we’re getting.

Unabridged is a mockumentary set in the offices of Team Four Star. Stephan Kosecz plays... Stephan Kosecz, their newest hire, who is immediately disturbed by the camera crew filming his experience. He meets the other members of the team, and they’re all outrageous characters. Scott Frerichs is drunk on the job, Nick Landis is mercurial and disconnected from reality, Chris Zito is some kind of deranged lunatic, and so on.

It’s soon revealed that Nick hired a camera crew to film a docuseries about them, and he paid them in advance, so they’re stuck with it whether they like it or not. Scott pleads for the team to make a good impression, which leads Grant Smith and Kirran Somerlade to brainstorm ways to be impressive. They settle on taking a picture of themselves and then going around asking people if they like it. Stephan considers quitting on his first day, but changes his mind after he sees how grateful Grant and Kirran are for his support.

I think the idea here is that this is supposed to be the Office turned up to eleven. Zito is way crazier than Dwight Schrute, Nick is far more self-absorbed than Michael Scott, and Stephan is more over this than Jim Halpert. And it fits for the style of comedy that TFS is known for. The gags work, and there’s plenty more that can be done with the characters in future episodes. It’s a solid way to kill sixteen minutes while I eat a meal, and that’s basically all I ask from a YouTube channel.

But the bigger question, I think, is whether this series accomplishes what TFS needs for their future. It’s certainly a good start. From what I understand, they plan to release subsequent episodes on a weekly schedule, which is a welcome change from the chaotic timetables of their past few years. Since about 2017, the unofficial slogan of TFS seems to have been “We’re working on a lot of cool stuff for you guys, and we can’t wait to show it to you!” There’s been a lot of overpromising and underdelivering with TFS. I feel a little guilty saying that, but they’ve admitted it themselves, so I think it’s a fair statement. “Hey, we’re working on this, whoops that’s taking longer than we thought it would, it’ll have to be postponed, hey, sorry gang it’s taking even longer than we thought aaaand now we’re not doing the thing at all, so we can focus on this other thing that starts the whole cycle over again.” That’s pretty much been the TFS experience for the last few years.

The main thrill of Unabridged is that they actually got it done. I feel like they’ve been hyping this thing forever, and now it’s finally a real video that you can watch instead of wonder about. From here on, they can proudly state that they’ve made a series that’s completely their own. No anime footage, no video game footage, No DCMA takedown bullshit. Just their own guys making their own show that they wrote and produced themselves.

Having said that, I’m not convinced that this was the project they needed to be investing all this time and energy into. Maybe there’s a huge crossover between DBZ fans and Office fans. If so, then they’re smart to take advantage of it. Otherwise, it looks a lot like they couldn’t figure out anything better and settled on making a show about themselves. It’s a very recursive concept. This isn’t Steve Carell playing Michael Scott, a regional manager for a fictional company. This is Scott Frerichs playing himself in the actual TFS building that he’s really the CEO of. The implication here is that he’s doing a character, but it’s probably an exaggeration of the real person, maybe? I don’t think KaiserNeko is drunk all the time, but it’s not like I know the guy.

I don’t mean to be a killjoy, but I find the whole concept kind of irritating. TFS is a real-world business that's producing a show about a fictionalized version of itself... making... a documentary about... itself. This is navel-gazing, right? I’m pretty sure that’s what this is.

Let me put it like this. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four. It was a big hit, and they occasionally appeared in their own comics as sort of a side gag. Now, imagine if, for whatever reason, Stan and Jack couldn’t do Marvel Superheroes anymore, and they had to make a comic about something else instead, so they decided to just make a comic book about themselves just sort of hanging out. In the late 60′s, there might have been an audience loyal enough to their past work that they’d stick around for that. Hell, Lee and Kirby could probably even find a way to make it successful, but they’d probably also be savvy enough to find a stronger idea.

That’s kind of where TFS is these days, and I don’t know what the solution is, but I don’t think it lies in filming themselves bantering back and forth. These days that’s all they make anymore. There’s the TalkCast PodShow, where you can listen to them talk about whether they liked the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, or DBCember, where you can listen to them talk about whether the Fusion Technique is cooler than the Special Beam Cannon. I’m just having trouble seeing the point of Unabridged. Like, this is the one where Grant and Kirran goof around on camera, as opposed to the Pokemon Nuzlocke videos, where they goof around on camera and also a game of Pokemon is happening.

Personally, I think the future of TFS lies more in the direction of shows like Fist Master, which represents TFS’ first foray into original animation. The first episode looks a little rough, like a NewGrounds video from 2006, but that’s not the point. It’s a fantasy action story with super powers and larger-than-life characters, featuring a lot of the same voice actors from other TFS projects. Sound familiar? The problem with Fist Master is that the first episode came out like 18 months ago, and maybe we’ll get to see Episode 2 sometime in 2020. That’s not exactly a winning formula.

Nonetheless, I feel like that’s the sort of basket TFS needs to be putting more eggs into. If Fist Master is too complex to produce on a monthly basis, then maybe get some artists to make some simpler assets and do something with a lot more talking, and all the action happens off-screen. Kind of like Sealab 2021. Or hell, just do some audio-only sketches. I feel like the big disconnect here is that TFS’s biggest asset is its voice acting talent, and yet they keep killing themselves trying to make video. Meanwhile I’m one of these guys who wishes the YouTube app would play while the screen is off, because I just want stuff to listen to while I’m at work. If they did an audio-only show about TJ and the Wombat, I’d be lining up to hear it.

All that said, Unabridged looks like it got about 110,000 views in the past 12 hours, and that sounds like a big enough number to justify the hype, so maybe it’s a better idea than I’m giving it credit for. It doesn’t have to be all things to all people, just so long as it keeps TFS afloat long enough for them to find their footing for their next project, and the next one after that.

#team four star #unabridged

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years

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Hoo Noo Shmoo?

Never let it be said that this blog is flagging in its enthusiasm for flogging horses so dead they’re found in the glue bin at Office Max.

To whit, the Scorsese vs MCU brouhaha.

Bottom line: Scorsese is right. As well made as MCU movies are, they ain’t cinema, they’re glorified commercials to sell MCU product.

Full disclosure: I should know, since I wrote for G.I. Joe, Transformers, and a host of other toy-based syndicated animation shows. I’m happy with the work I did, I can point proudly to specific episodes I wrote that aspire to be more than mere half-hour commercials…

…but they ain’t art.

They ain’t art, despite our aspirations to do the best job we could, because ultimately we creators were not allowed to create what we felt best for our stories, but what Hasbro deemed vital to their sales.

(The closest we got to art was when Hasbro cancelled The Inhumanoids toy line in mid-production of the TV series, and said we could finish our broadcast commitment however we saw fit so long as it didn’t result in an FCC complaint. As a result, we went nuts.)

My Hasbro / Sunbow experience remains a highpoint of my creative life, so I’m not denigrating the talent, skill, ability, spirit, and enthusiasm of those making MCU movies.

…but they ain’t art.

Now, those who love MCU movies think Scorsese’s comments are a slam against them.

Welllll…no, not directly.

But they do underscore how popularity -- especially of media designed to push product -- is a faulty measuring stick for artistic merit.

Case in point: The Shmoo.

Wuzza shmoo, you ask (and thus proving my point)?

Shmoos were extremely popular in the late 1940s. Part of the wonderfully wacky world cartoonist Al Capp created for his hit Li’l Abner comic strip, shmoos represented a parable on American consumerism, modern day geese laying not mere golden eggs but birthday cakes with candles a’blazin’.

As Capp described them:

They reproduce asexually and are incredibly prolific, multiplying faster than rabbits. They require no sustenance other than air.

Shmoos are delicious to eat, and are eager to be eaten. If a human looks at one hungrily, it will happily immolate itself -- either by jumping into a frying pan, after which they taste like chicken, or into a broiling pan, after which they taste like steak. When roasted they taste like pork, and when baked they taste like catfish. Raw, they taste like oysters on the half-shell.

They also produce eggs (neatly packaged), milk (bottled, grade-A), and butter -- no churning required. Their pelts make perfect boot leather or house timbers, depending on how thick one slices them.

They have no bones, so there's absolutely no waste. Their eyes make the best suspender buttons, and their whiskers make perfect toothpicks. In short, they are simply the perfect ideal of a subsistence agricultural herd animal.

Naturally gentle, they require minimal care and are ideal playmates for young children. The frolicking of shmoos is so entertaining (such as their staged "shmoosical comedies") that people no longer feel the need to watch television or go to the movies.

Some of the more tasty varieties of shmoo are more difficult to catch, however. Usually shmoo hunters, now a sport in some parts of the country, use a paper bag, flashlight, and stick to capture their shmoos. At night the light stuns them, then they may be whacked in the head with the stick and put in the bag for frying up later on.

Of course, in the original strip continuity, the shmoos were quickly eradicated, driven to extinction by food packagers who feared bankruptcy.

It was a sharp, biting message, and one that looked critically at both insatiable consumerism and capitalism’s claims of superiority.

Capp, of course, was too savvy a marketeer himself to eliminate the shmoos entirely, and so he provided for one breeding pair to survive…and for the shmoos to make repeated appearances for the rest of Li’l Abner’s run.

Shmoo mania ran rampant with shmoo dolls, shmoo clocks, shmoo games, shmoo candy, shmoo snacks, and shmoo apparel.

The money truck basically backed up to Capp’s front door and dumped its load on his porch. Shmoos proved insanely popular and it seemed the mania would never end…

…except it did.

To mangle metaphors, you can only take so many trips to the same well before your audience starts asking “What? Beans again?”

And then, in a fickle flash, it’s over.

I’d be hard pressed today to find anyone younger than the boomer cohort who ever heard of Al Capp or Li’l Abner unless their school or community theatre presented the Broadway musical adaptation of the strip (the show remains popular with amateur theatrical troupes such as high schools and colleges because the huge cast of Dogpatch citizens guarantees everybody who tries out for the show will land some part in it).

For all their popularity and merchandise and media impact -- songs on the radio, big spreads in weekly news magazines -- the shmoos left virtually no cultural footprint.

(Full disclosure yet again: I wrote for a Scooby-doo knock-off by Hanna-Barbera called The New Shmoo and it was a piece of crap, abandoning the whole consumerism point of the original shmoos and making them -- or just “it” in our case -- a pseudo-funny dog sidekick for a squad of mystery solving kids. And it wasn’t a piece of crap because we didn’t try our best, it was a piece of crap because the shmoo was treated as ubiquitous “product” under the misconception that of course everybody younger than Joe Barbera would recognize the name and love the character so deeply that they’d simultaneously develop amnesia about what made the original character so appealing.)

Product.

That’s what one of the most brilliant, most poignant, most spot-on commentaries on rampant consumerism and ruthless capitalism ironically reduced down to. Product.

There’s a line in Jurassic Park that resonates here: ”Life will find a way.”

Let’s paraphrase that to “Art will find a way” because like life, art is an expression of the creative urge.

Right now, by and large, it’s trapped in the giant all encompassing condom of corporate consumerism, providing fun and pleasure and excitement, but not really creating anything new, to be wadded up and thrown away when the suits are done screwing us.

But every now and then there’s a tiny pinprick in the sheath, and when that happens there’s the chance of something wonderful, something meaningful, something of lasting value emerging.

It is possible for art to emerge from a corporate context, but only if the corporate intent is to produce a work of art for its own purposes. Michelangelo carved David as a work for hire, the local doge commissioning the sculpture because he wanted to impress peers and peasants by donating the biggest statue ever made by the hottest artist of the era (and even then Michelangelo needed to resort to subterfuge to keep the doge from “improving” on his work with “suggestions” [read “commands”].)

The very first Rocky movie was a work of art because the producers focused on telling a simple, singular story about a loser who could only win by going the distance, not by defeating his opponent but by refusing to be beaten by him.

It’s a great cinematic moment that rings true and it’s going to last forever…unlike sequels Rocky II - V where Rocky fights supervillains like Mr. T and a robot (hey, that was the movie playing in my head when I watched Rocky IV and it was a helluva lot more entertaining than what I actually saw onscreen).

The suits castrated Rocky, reducing him from a unique universal cultural touchstone down to…well…product.

The MCU movies are product; rather, they are two-hour+ commercials to sell product in the form of videogames, action figures, T-shirts, and Underoos.

The real art occurred almost 60 years ago when Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko knocked out page after page as fast as they could, drawing deep from the wellsprings of their own interests, experiences, and passions.

(“What about Stan?” I hear you ask. Look, we all love Stan, but truth be told his great contribution to the MCU came in his service as drum major for the Merry Marvel marching Society. God bless him for firing up the fan base’s enthusiasm for the Marvel bullpen’s work, but compare what his artists did before and after their collaboration with him to what he did before and after his editorial tenure at Marvel and it’s clear upon whose shoulders the muses rested.)

As much fun as MCU movies are (I’ve seen about 1/3 of ‘em and enjoyed most of what I saw), I also recognize in them the harm they do.

They are promoted heavily to sell product to raise the fortunes of one of the biggest corporations on the planet, a corporation that holds control over five of the largest, most popular entertainment brands on the market.

To protect their cash cows, Disney chokes potential rivals in their cribs.

Think there’s going to be another Alien or Predator movie now that Disney owns them and Star Wars? Why create rivals to a mega-successful property you already own? (I will be genuinely surprised if we see another Guardians Of The Galaxy movie in light of the faltering popularity of Star Wars in Disney’s eyes; they’re going to want to shore up their billion dollar investment rather than call it a day and let some upstart -- even an upstart they own 100% -- rob them of revenue.)

Disney’s battle plan to choke out all potential rivals leaves no room in the DEU (Disney Expanded Universe) for independent minded creators.

They want competent hired pens who can churn out the product they desire in order to bolster sales of other products derived from those.

(Even more full disclosure: I wrote for Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers as well as some Aladdin and Scrooge McDuck comic book stories.)

Disney’s MCU, for all its expertly executed whiz-bang, is a bloated, soulless zombie, a giant gaudy inflated parade balloon blocking the vision of others.

There’s a scene in the movie The Founder -- a genuine cinematic work of art that comments ironically on the selling of a product -- that applies here.

Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) relentlessly browbeats the McDonald brothers (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch) into letting him replace their real milkshakes with what will come to be known as the McShake, an ersatz product that at best reminds one of what a real milkshake should taste like.

The McDonald Brothers are horrified. Not only does it not taste like a real milkshake, but it goes against the very grain of what they desire as restauranteurs: To provide quality food quickly for their customers, trading value for value.

Kroc will have none of this. To him the customers are simply one more obstacle between him and their money.

He doesn’t see them as the source of his revenue, but as impediments to same.

What benefits them, what nurtures their diets, what gives them pleasure, what trades value for value is completely unimportant to him.

They exist only to make him rich and powerful.

By the end of the film, Kroc has effectively declared war on his own partners, his own employees, his own customers. He recognizes he is not in the business his customers and employees and partners think he’s in (i.e., fast food) but rather in the real estate business, buying land that McDonald’s franchises must lease from him in order to operate.

By the end, he’s not concerned with how well his customers eat, or how well his employees are treated, or how financially secure his franchise managers feel.

By the end, all he wants is the money, and he doesn’t care how his franchises make it so long as they pass it along to him.

As a result, McDonald’s contributes heavily to America’s obesity and diabetes epidemics, advising their employees to take second jobs so they can afford to continue working for them at substandard wages.

Disney’s MCU is a super-sized Happy Meal™ that’s ruining the cultural health of its consumers.

#Marvel #Disn #Jack Kirby #Stan Lee #Steve Ditko #Star Wars #MCU #Rocky #Martin Scorsese #media #movies #superheroes

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sebeth · 5 years

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Fantastic Four # 9 - 12

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

A Brief Summary: Doctor Doom suffers another embarrassing defeat

Debuts:

· The Ovoids

· Impossible Man from the planet Poppup in the Tenth Galaxy

· Willie Lumpkin

Favorite Cover: #12 – The Fantastic Four Meet the Hulk!

Invisible Girl Hostage Count: 5 out of 9 issues

Points of Interest:

· The issue opens with Reed using his “electronic x-ray camera” with “radioactive film” in an attempt to learn more about Sue’s invisibility power. Sue urges Reed to hurry as it’s “hot and stuffy” while “Torch keeps his flame on”. Said Torch is acting as Reed’s lab assistant. Johnny is taking notes while engulfed in flames – except for his hands. Between the causal use of “radioactive film” and Johnny walking around in flames, it’s a wonder the group lives long enough to battle Doom later on.

· The FF’s signal flare appears in the sky. The trio attempts to exit the lab but the door is locked. Johnny decides to burn through the door but is stopped by Reed: “Trying to stop you from blowing us up, kid! Did you forget how sensitive that nuclear device is to heat?!” Johnny was completely engulfed in flames only four panels earlier and Reed didn’t seem to care but now it’s a no-go.

· Is it safe to keep a nuclear device in the middle of New York City? Especially with Johnny and Ben living in the building. The duo engages in destructive rough-housing on a near-daily basis!

· Reed attempts to stretch his arm to reach the Fantasti-Car so the trio can leave via the window but the strain proves too much. No worries, as Johnny has learned something new: “I can concentrate my flame so much that it burns without heat!” What?!

· The trio escapes the lab. Reed decides “Let’s forget the Fantastic-Car. We can make better time without it!” Again, what? Johnny, maybe, but not the other two. And this is the era where Johnny randomly loses power due to “exhaustion”. Wouldn’t it make more sense for Johnny not to use his powers until the group has reached the scene of crisis? Especially when you have an awesome car-plane just waiting to be used?

· The three head to the source of the flare. Sue causes a car crash with her “now you see me, now you don’t” routine. I never understood how Spider-Man was a “public menace” and the X-Men were “hated and feared” by the general public in comparison to the Fantastic Four in the early days of the Marvel Universe. Spider-Man mostly stopped criminals and the X-Men were isolated in Westchester County minding their own business…meanwhile the Four, in the heart of NYC, can barely go an issue without causing a mass panic or massive property damage…many times caused by Ben having a tantrum!

· The source of the “emergency” is Ben wanting to show off the new statues Alicia has made of the team’s enemies. Sue protests the inclusion of Namor. Reed questions Sue over her feelings for Namor: “I thought we had an understanding.” Sue admits she’s not sure of her own feelings.

· Johnny’s glad he’s “not old enough to have all those kinds of mushy problems”. Karl Kessel’s “Human Torch” series contains pre-transformation flashbacks of Johnny flirting with girls. And he’s flirting with Valeria, Princess Pearla, and soon to be dating Dorrie Evans in the “Strange Tales” series. Perhaps Johnny’s referring to “serious” relationships?

· Doctor Doom has returned to earth! And decides to storm Marvel Comics and terrorize Stan Lee & Jack Kirby with the sight of his unmasked face?!

· Doom proclaims: “I do no blame you for shrinking from the sight of me! I still cannot bear to gaze upon my face myself! But I must remove my mask at times else I feel it will strangle me!”

· Reed has the nerve to question Ben: “What makes you so bad tempered all the time?” Seriously, Reed?!

· We have a fun moment of Johnny & Ben uniting to prank Reed by stretching his clothes.

· Doom ambushes Reed. Victor explains he was rescued by the Ovoids, an alien race whose “science and culture were a million years ahead of ours”. Doom learned many abilities from the Ovoids including the ability to switch bodies with another person. Victor promptly switches bodies with Reed.

· The rest of the team arrives and subdues Doom (Reed). Ben and Johnny are very excited to have captured Doom (Reed) and devise ludicrous ways to imprison him. Not to worry, Reed (Doom) had devised a cell to contain him.

· Kirby draws some extremely creepy “Evil Reed” facial expressions.

· Back at the Baxter Building, the rest of the team is overrun by a herd of miniaturized animals: horses, bears, kangaroos, moose, elephants, cows, camels, zebras, birds, etc. The trio scramble to contain the animals and return them to Reed’s lab: “You know how angry he gets if anyone interferes with his work!”

· Reed (Doom) returns and the trio questions him – 1) Are these the animals stolen from the zoo and 2) Why are you shrinking animals?

· Victor spins a story that this “reducing ray” will expand the team’s powers and allow Ben to transform at will. I know Reed is the scientist of the story but that explanation makes no sense. The team chooses not to press the matter of the animal theft and forced experimentation.

· Doom (Reed) escapes from his cell and seeks the aid of Alicia Masters. Unfortunately for Reed, an invisible Sue was visiting Alicia and knocks him out.

· Alicia is confused: “How can that be Doctor Doom? There’s an aura of goodness about him…of nobility!” Really, Alicia? You can sense that from an unconscious man in a suit of armor? I wish someone would establish Alicia had minor empathic abilities – otherwise, her “sensing” is ridiculous.

· Johnny & Ben arrive to defeat “Doom”. Ben is furious that Alicia was threatened: “You tried to scare Alicia, did ya? Nothing can save ya from me now, ya miserable ghoul…I ain’t kidding now! He threatened Alicia! Do ya hear me? He dared to threaten Alicia!”

· There’s a cute scene where the team takes Doom to the parked Fantasti-car only to discover a group of neighborhood kids palying in it.

· Johnny and Ben suspect something is off with Reed & Doom so Johnny uses his powers to create a mirage to test their suspicions. I love Silver Age powers – always used in ways that make no sense with actual science.

· Doom is found out, re-switches bodies with Reed, and shrunk to nothingness by his own reducing ray. The next time Doom achieves god-like powers he should erase everyone’s memories of his ridiculous Silver Age-shenanigans.

· Issue #11 opens with a cute scene of the team encountering a group of children playing “Fantastic Four”. The team shows off their powers for the children. Johnny wisely reminds the kids “Throwing fireballs is easy for me, fella, but don’t you ever play with fire. It’s too dangerous for little kids.”

· We meet Willie Lumpkin, the team’s mailman. He volunteers for the team: “I haven’t exactly got any super powers, but I can wiggle my ears real good.”

· The team goes through their fan mail: Johnny receives love letters; Ben gets pranks from the Yancy Street Gang.

· Reed has yet another cure for Ben who is understandably wary: “I’m sick of being a guinea pig for you! None of these things ever work right!” Ben takes the cure and transforms back into his human form. Ben, Reed, and Sue are ecstatic. A more cautious Johnny muses to himself: “Poor Ben! If he changes back to the Thing again, I don’t wanna be around to see it!”. Johnny decides to head to the garage to “fool around with my new TR-4!”

· Reed and Ben recap their meeting in college. Ben was “State U’s football hot-shot”. Despite being polar opposites, “I was a millionaire’ son and he was from the wrong side of the tracks”, the duo quickly became best friends. Their friendship persisted throughout World War II. Ben was “a Marine fighter ace over Okinawa and Guadalcanal” and Reed was “behind the lines, working with the underground for the O.S.S.” The timeline of these events would put Reed and Ben in their late thirties at the time of their transformation into the Fantastic Four.

· Due to the sliding timescale, the World War II bit has been retconned from Reed and Ben’s past. I think Ben’s time in the military is still part of his background – the era has simply changed. I’m not sure about Reed.

· Sue had begun dating Reed before he left for the war: “It’s always been you, since we were kids together living next door to each other”. This would be retconned later – Sue and Reed wouldn’t meet until Reed was entering college.

· Sue brushes off Reed’s devotion as the “shadow of the Sub-Mariner” lies between them. The whole Namor storyline could have been resolved much sooner if it was acceptable for comic book women, or women in general, were allowed to have lustful thoughts about men. Sue hasn’t spent enough time with Namor that didn’t involve threats to her, her family, or the human race in general. Poor Sue isn’t allowed to admit she appreciates Namor’s fabulous body in a tight, small speedo so the audience is left with her swooning over his “gentle”, “conflicted” nature. I love Namor but there has been nothing gentle or conflicted in his FF appearances. Execpt for the time he swam with the dolphins but Sue wasn’t there to witness it.

· We get yet another recap of the infamous rocket flight. I understand the “every issue could be someone’s first” principle but were at issue #11 and it’s been recapped in half of the books.

· Sue’s upset because a few pieces of mail state she “doesn’t contribute enough to the team”.

· Reed defends Sue by saying Abraham Lincoln’s mother didn’t fight but she still contributed?! Kick him, Sue! Kick him!

· Ben becomes overly excited and turns back into the Thing.

· The boys surprise Sue with a birthday cake.

· Impossible Man arrives on Earth, causing confusion and chaos in his wake. The Four battle Impossible Man in the Flamingo restaurant. He eventually becomes bored and leaves the planet. If you’ve seen the Impossible Man of the 2000s Fantastic Four cartoon, you’ve basically read this issue.

· Johnny uses his powers to create “hypnotic rings” during the fight with the Impossible Man. You’ve got to love Silver Age powers!

· Issue 12 begins a classic rivalry of the Marvel Universe: the Thing vs the Hulk.

· Alicia and Ben are leaving a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Ben comments “I get my kicks from low-down New Orleans Jazz”.

· The army pours into town and mistakes Thing for the Hulk, prompting a mistaken identity fight.

· Ben is quite irate over being mistaken for the Hulk.

· General Ross arrives at the Baxter Building. He wants the Four to locate the Hulk.

· Ross shows a picture of the Hulk. Sue fades from sight: “The sight of that monster unnerved me so that I lost control of my visibility power!” Really? I don’t buy it. First, it’s only a picture and secondly, she lives with Ben and has battled Skrulls and monsters from Monster Island. It’s not like large creatures are a foreign concept to Sue.

· Even Ben thinks its bull!

· The boys show off, proudly proclaiming how he – and he personally – will capture the Hulk. Unfortunately for Johnny, flying around the small room a few times exhausts him flame. I appreciate the time it takes Johnny to master his abilities – it’s more realistic as opposed to the “instant mastery” route but two laps around the living room shouldn’t wipe him out as this point. He’s been the “Human Torch” for months as this point.

· Reed praises Johnny’s skills as a mechanic: “That flame of his is one of our most potent weapons as well as his mechanical skill. In fact, I’ll give you a little demonstration! Johnny has just finished modifying our Fantastic-Car!”

· Johnny encourages Reed: “You tell him, Big Daddy!” In an alternate universe, Johnny married Reed Richards – was that his pet name for him?

· The Four and the General head to the Southwest to search for the Hulk. The Four meet Bruce Banner and Rick Jones.

· Reed has “long been an admirer” of Banner’s atomic research. Banner returns the praise: “I’m highly flattered that the most brilliant scientific brain of our time should say that to me”.

· Johnny both shows-off for and pranks Rick. Neither are impressed with the other. Johnny: “Look at him green with envy! Trying hard not to admit he’s overwhelmed by me!” Rick: “He wouldn’t be so swell-headed if he knew I was the Hulk’s partner!”

· Johnny tends to dial up the obnoxiousness and showboating when he’s with another teen hero: Spider-Man, Rick Jones, and later, Iceman. Possibly a combination of eagerness to impress/work with someone of his age group and a desire to be the best of said age group.

· The army base’s saboteur “the Wrecker”, but not the Wrecker, kidnaps Rick Jones causing Bruce Banner to unleash the Hulk.

· The Four and the Hulk meet up in a “deserted Western ghost town” and fight. Ben finds and frees Rick. Hulk flees the scene.

· The Four prepare to leave the base. Reed hints to Bruce: “I’ve got a feeling there’s a lot we have to talk about – like you, and Rick, and the Hulk, for instance!”

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tsukkinoneko · 5 years

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Detective Pikachu Review

Huge (?) Spoilers, if you don't like them, have spoilers in your filtered

So, keep in mind when I say 'can't find any faults regardless of all given causes' I'm still hella biased. Kirby is the only game that narrowly made it as my second favourite game.

I mean, this is the first time I even bothered for an advanced screening ever since I had my first credit card (Cineplex only allows creds for online purchases, so it's a lil over 5 years).

The effects were so fucking good, I can't find faults from those alone. You can't expect completely CG creatures to blend in with actual humans, no, but while still somewhat 'unnatural', they managed to make it life-like without being overbearing. (a few Pokémon will haunt your dreams but that just tells how realistic they were, going against the cutesy artwork from the main series)

They utilised the Pokémon's individual traits really well. The Loudred were used super successfully for a plot device/foreshadowing effect. I say foreshadowing, cause that's my personal opinion. Loudred, as everyone'd know as a Pokémon fan, is basically the speakers/amp. It's one of the most notable scene since they were used as amps for the DJ in the underground cage fight thing, but when the R pheromone gets released unexpectedly, the key change in the bgm is synched with the moment they're reintroduced. Talk about fully utilising everything in your reach for that scene alone. Technically, it's a foreshadow since it was telling the audience the underground cage fight is connected to the villain.

(quick pointer: I kept telling my twin the villain looks like Trump but they truly believed Roger was the villain)

Now, to the not-so-surprising ploy reveal...

It's a given Pikachu calling Tim 'kid' was a huge giveaway, and even with amnesia, he kept saying stuff a Pokémon wouldn't. "Trust me, it's the first time for me too" was a bait they put in the movie so even the people who never played Pokémon, or just this standalone game, can catch early on this Pikachu has his soul (?) swapped with Harry. It's let on so early, I'm not sure if that's in the game, or it's a movie-only. (broke ass college kid, that's my only excuse)

It's interesting how they made it seem like Roger is the villain, but the actual plot twist of this story is that Howard was using his son's ambitions against him to steal Mewtwo so he can do what he wanted for so long. I kinda thought from the first scene he's in that he's probably the main villain, regardless of his... looks. Built an empire, can't move at all. What should I do? I shall raze the world! Fits with the other Team (Gang in Japanese. Also called Gang if the region uses kanji(/hanja for Koreans)) Leader's narrative/goals.

Roger was a good decoy, tbh. You can't have the final boss of a game to be so obvious. He's a villain, yeah, but this was more like Team Magma vs Team Aqua and unlike Hoenn, one had a huge upper hand.

This soul bond really pissed me off, but I didn't play the game, and it seems that's the same thing as partner bond in LGPE games so that shall pass for now.

Mewtwo is overly OP, but that was kinda needed for the entire plot. Even though it's the villain, it's also the Pokémon who wanted to see if humans are worth saving/trusting. They do mention this Mewtwo is from the Kanto region so it's a huge hint this is the one from the anime. And also, Harry's Pikachu is Ash's Pikachu if it's the only one who can convince it.

Oh, I was in the middle of heavy bawling my eyes out session when Mewtwo said Pikachu has Harry's soul when the scene changes to fucking Ryan Reynolds sending Tim off. Wait, sorry, I meant human Harry. It was weird, I knew from the start, but leave it to a CG creature to say it aloud for my eyes to malfunction like hell. It was all due to the built up. Harry and Tim could understand each other when the other has no recollection of who he was. Despite that, they still kept trying to stick together, and by the time there was the Big Reveal, it was too damn emotional for me to act all cool and shit.

(I wish Lucy wasn't in it since she's just for the Pokémon Go aspect of the series, but she has no impact so)

Probably the best movie I'll see all year. (ignore how the other two were Fate stay night: Lost Butterfly in March and Code Geass: reSURRECTION literally three days ago) (sorry Murase, I might like Code Geass to a degree and love Haikyuu but nostalgia's a bitch)

#spoilers #detective pikachu

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umbramatic · 5 years

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This... was a very late Christmas gift for a friend, the identity of whom you'll be able to ascertain as you read it, and a blatant excuse for dipping my toes into a fandom I've wanted to write in for over a decade. With that out of the way, enjoy: The Other Ken

Ken had a relatively simple life. He'd been through many jobs over the years, from amusement parks to Kmart, but his current one involved taking care of adults with disabilities. And he was stuck with one particular one named Joe. Joe lived in an apartment, alone, except for his dog. Said dog was the highlight of the job and showered Ken with affection whenever he visited - and Ken back - but Joe was a bit more passive, quiet, and relatively low-maintenance. One thing constantly occupying Joe's time was video games. If he wasn't playing them he was watching Youtube videos about them. And one game had caught Joe's attention in particular for the past year - Super Smash Bros. or something. He'd been watching countless videos all year about it ever since this E3 thing, and once he got it he started playing it nonstop. Ken didn't get it. He was old. Video games were after his time. Joe made him play a few rounds of Smash but he couldn't figure it out at all. He didn't know what Joe saw in the thing. There was a Ken in the game. That was nice, he supposed. It wasn't really anything major. Nothing that stopped him from going home at the end of the day, seeing his wife and dogs, and going to bed. ---------- Ken woke up. And at that point was when everything went horribly wrong. There were strange pictures lining the walls, of strange people. Things seemed almost... Japanese? Ken was startled, and even more so when he looked down at himself. He was no longer old and out of shape. He was muscular, almost disgustingly so. He was also wearing... some kind of red martial arts outfit. Before he could process anything further the door slid open. A similarly muscled Japanese man in similar but white martial arts gear entered the room, a grumpy look on his face. "...You're up late." "...Who the hell are you?" "Very funny. Now come on, we need to get going." Ken groaned, pushed himself up, and followed the other man. -------------- Ken soon found himself outside a series of apartment complexes. He immediately noticed that milling about this series of apartments were people and creatures of all shapes and sizes he hardly recognized. There were round, pink things and anthropomorphic animals and more sword wielders than you could shake a... sword at. One of the sword wielders, a young man with fiery orange hair, approached the pair. "Hey! You two ready for the big tournament?" "...Tournament?" said Ken. Something clicked for him. These people and creatures... They were all from that weird game Joe played all the time. But what was he doing here? "Yeah! We're having a big one to celebrate Piranha Plant and Joker joining us!" said the redhead. "Granted, they aren't here yet... But hey, we can just have another one when they show up!" "Roy, we all know you want revenge for Ken's 'physics is boring' comment the other day," said Ken's companion. Roy's chest swelled as he took a deep breath. "No I do not, Ryu. Also, physics is not boring, it is by far the most fascinating of the sciences!" "...I didn't say nothing," said Ken. Roy narrowed his eyes. "Something's off about you..." "He claimed to not know me when he woke up," said Ryu. Roy's eyes widened. "Wait... That blow to the head from Donkey Kong yesterday... Maybe he has amnesia!" "Wait, I-" Ken started to say. "...That does make sense..." said Ryu. "Hmm, this is a predicament..." said Roy. "Do you still think he can fight in the tournament?" "Do you remember how to fight?" said Ryu. Before Ken could answer, there was a loud roar from further in the crowd. "Looks like your opponent isn't taking no for an answer," said Roy. Ryu sighed. "Well, come on then." And Ken, protesting all the way, was dragged off. ------------------ Ken didn't know where he was or what he was doing. Main thing he could tell was he was on some sort of tiny tropical island and there was a boat with some kind of... anthropomorphic turtle? But those things didn't really concern him so much as his opponent. The creature noticeably resembled a dragon but one that looked grotesque and wrong. He had needle-sharp teeth, mottled purple skin, and glowing yellow eyes - the latter of which were staring him down with surprising intelligence. Ken heard an announcer count down from three to one and then the dragon charged. He had to react fast. He tried to run away from the thing, and when it barreled toward him anyway, he summoned instincts he didn't know he had and jumped over it. But the dragon lunged at him and sent him flying. Landing with a thud, Ken noticed an energy sword next to him and grabbed it, swinging it desperately at the dragon. It knocked him back a bit, but not enough. The dragon hit him with a savage claw strike and Ken was sent flying and flying and then there was a loud "bam." Ken opened his eyes to find himself hovering over the battlefield, the dragon still down below. Was he dead? Was this an out-of-body experience? Was he- His questions were promptly answered by him being dropped down to face the dragon again, and he quickly panicked and punched him. The dragon was knocked back noticeably further, but immediately came back and raked Ken across the ground with a roar. Ken then saw a strange capsule, grabbed it, and cracked it open, hoping whatever was inside could stop this thing. What emerged was a lanky man in purple, coming to Ken's defense with a cackling laugh. "Too bad, Waluigi time!" Waluigi stomped the dragon into the dirt and then sent him flying off the battlefield with another crash with a swing of a tennis racket. "I may not be in the fight yet, but Waluigi can still kick some tail!" And with that, he vanished. Ken got to his feet and dusted himself off. He kind of wished he could have thanked that Waluigi guy, but he needed to get out of- The dragon swooped in and attacked Ken with his tail. Ken yelled and crashed to the ground, stunned. This was enough for the dragon to hit him with another decisive blow and send him flying off the battlefield with another crash. As Ken descended back onto the battlefeild again, he heard the announcer counting down. "Three.. Two... One... Game!" Suddenly, the battlefield was replaced by an open area facing an audience, and his opponent was giving a victory screech. ----------- Ken had been ushered off to a hospital bed. A short man with a moustache in a doctor's outfit was looking him over, frowning. Roy and Ryu were nearby, looking concerned. "Well, almost everything seems healthy," said the doctor. "But you're right, he seems to have amnesia." "I'm telling you, I'm the wrong Ken!" said Ken. "...Or delusional. One of the two." "What should we do then Dr. Mario?" said Roy. "Give him time, some TLC," said Doctor Mario. "Hopefully his memories and normal state of mind will come back to him." "Alright then..." said Ryu. Ken sighed. ----------- Ken was sitting by himself, gazing at the apartment buildings from the distance. His mind stewed on how he was trapped, alone in this strange video game wo- "Poyo?" Ken paused, then turned a bit. Next to him was a small, round, pink creature, staring at him inquisitively. "Hello?" "Poyo!" "Is that all you say?" "Poyo!" Ken sighed. "What do you want?" "Poyo!" The pink ball somehow grabbed his hand with his... nub and started pulling him. Ken begrudgingly obliged, and the pink ball started leading him toward the apartments. ------------ The pink ball led Ken over to a strange, blue, hedgehog-like creature. The hedgehog was running around the complex at incredible speed, but stopped when he saw Kirby and Ken. "Hey little buddy!" he said to the pink ball. "You need me for something?" "Poyo!" said the ball, pointing to Ken. The hedgehog looked over at Ken. "Oh right. You lost your memory huh?" "You guys keep assuming that! I'm the wrong guy! I just somehow ended up her-" He narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute... Aren't you Sonic the Hedgehog?" "See! He's getting his memory back already!" said Sonic. "No- It's not that! I recognized you from my world! There's a guy I know who plays your video games!" "Wait, your world? My video games? The weird multiversal stuff isn't lining up!" "Poyo!" "Okay. So what is your deal, Ken?" Ken paused, then attempted to explain himself. It was long, rambly, and contained a several-minute rant about his old job at KMart. "...Woah. I think I see the problem." said Sonic. "You seem to be some other Ken in the Ken we know's body!" "Poyo?" said Kirby curiously. He then turned to Ken and waved. "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" "That's... I guess that's what I'm trying to get at," said Ken. "Well how do we fix that?" said Sonic. "There's gotta be a way..." He thought a bit, then raised a finger. "I've got it! There's two guys who can help you out. Come on!" He grabbed Ken and Kirby by their hands and to the displeasure of Ken sped off with them. ----- Ken and Kirby were dragged to a pair of strange creatures, one purple and vaguely feline and the other blue and more distinctly canine. The two were staring at each other intently. "...What are they doing?" said Ken. "Probably telepathically smack-talking each other again," said Sonic. "Hey, you two! We need your petty butts for something!" The two turned to the others. ~What do you need?~ said Mewtwo. ~And why both of us?~ said Lucario. "See, Ken's saying he's really some other Ken!" said Sonic. "And you two have the power to figure out what's up!" "Poyo!" ~Well, Kirby's awfully convincing.~ said the canine. With that, he closed his eyes as strange feelers on the back of his head flared. The feline's eyes glowed as he stared directly at Ken's. Ken felt a strange feeling tingle down his spine. Finally, they stopped. ~You're right Sonic,~ said the canine. ~His aura... it's completely different from the Ken we know.~ ~And yet,~ said the feline, ~I sense our Ken's mind resting, dormant.~ "Can you like... get him out?" said Sonic. ~I cannot,~ said the feline. ~There is a force preventing me.~ ~It seems to be... Some sort of curse,~ said the canine. "Curse? What kinda mumbo-jumbo is this?" said Sonic. "That's bullshit!" said Ken. "Can't any of you take me home?" ~There is Master Hand,~ said the feline. ~But he is... Elusive.~ "Fine," said Ken. "I've had it. We're finding the source of this curse ourselves." He turned to Sonic. "You know where those Ryu and Roy guys are?" "Leave it to me!" said Sonic, speeding off. Meanwhile, Kirby's brow furrowed. ----------- Ken, Kirby, Sonic, Roy, and Ryu had gathered around a table in one of the apartments. Ken was looking around at the others grimly. "Okay, which one of you guys can deal with curses?" "Not me..." said Ryu. "I've got a dragon-killing sword, does that count?" said Roy. "I... beat a genie once?" said Sonic. "Poyo! Poyo!" said Kirby. Ken sighed. "Alright, we're going to have to-" "Poy-YO!" "I think Kirby wants something," said Ryu. "What is it then?" said Ken. Kirby left the room briefly before wheeling in a whiteboard and drawing on it in marker. The others stared as Kirby started drawing bizarre and horrifying creatures - a bloody eyeball, a hulking titan, a queen bee, a... Jester? Once he got to the jester the eyes of everyone but Ken widened. "...Oh. Him." said Ryu. "Is he our man? Or... Whatever?" said Roy. Kirby nodded sagely. "Poyo." "Then we'll get him!" said Sonic. "Wait, who is this guy?" said Ken. "You'll find out soon enough." said Ryu. "Come on." The group all started filing out of the apartment. Ken hesitantly followed. -------------- The landscape was dark. Barren. Silent. Eerie. But the party was trekking through it anyway. Ken looked around at it all then turned to Roy. "I've been wondering something," said Ken. "What is it?" said Roy. "You all... You get together for this big thing. So what? You guys just fight all the time or something." "Oh, it's more than just that!" said Roy. "First off, we wouldn't have stopped threats like Galeem if we hadn't all gotten together. Second... We've made so many friends coming together like this." "Friends?" "Yeah! Like... See Sonic and Kirby over there?" Ken looked. There they were, chatting away. "...So?" "They were from totally different worlds before they came here. All of us were. But now we can forge new bonds. Learn new things. It's incredible." Ken paused for a bit. He looked back at Sonic and Kirby and nodded. "You know... I guess you're right." And they trudged onward. -------------- Eventually the path ended. The group reached a stony arena framed by the dark sky. There in the middle was the jester. Ken noticed he seemed totally unassuming - a bright blue and red hat, a short purple body with big, round eyes, a bow tie, and stubby feet in oversized shoes. He looked at the others. "This really the guy who did this to me?" "Sure am!" said the jester. With that his eyes grew crazed. He sprouted fangs and wings. He floated up in the air, exuding a dark energy palpable to all. "...Oh." said Ken. "I knew meddling with your friend here would bring me to you, Kirby!" said the jester with a giggle. "Now we'll settle this once and for all!" Kirby glared. "Poyo!" "If you're itching for a fight, we'll bring it!" said Roy. "Our discipline will make you break," said Ryu. "And most importantly so will our speed!" said Sonic. "Wait," said Ken, "We're actually fighting this gu-" The fighters engaged. Ryu pummeled the jester with punches and kicks. Roy struck with a flaming sword. Sonic spun into him with his body. Kirby summoned forth various powers to batter him. And yet the jester didn't even flinch, sending blasts and beams at them all the way. Ken yelled and ran away from any attacks that came near, but he soon noticed that his companions were starting to get beaten back. The jester was damaged but still going strong. Ken stopped, paused,then shouted out. "Hey! Clown face!" The jester stopped. Then turned to Ken. "What is it, worm?" "You really think you can stop these guys? Well they've got something you don't!" "What could they possibly have?" "Friendship!" "...What?" "Yeah! They came from... from different worlds and stuff! And now they really like each other! Because they fight and train and talk and play with each other! And if you don't appreciate that then get lost!" The jester laughed, a maniacal cackle. "Fool! Mortal relationships are meaningless! All is meaningless! You really think you can get through to me with that drivel?!" "Well no, but it's a nice distraction." "...Oh shi-" A flurry of blows hit the jester. An uppercut from Ken, a stony strike from Kirby, a flying kick from Sonic, a fierce sword blow from Roy. With that, his powers sputtered, faded, and he fell to the ground and lay unconscious. It was then Ken felt a tingling feeling. Looking down at himself, he saw a familiar hoodie and shoes. Looking next to him, he saw the red-clad person he once inhabited the body of. "Woah..." said the second Ken. "What did I miss?" "So this is the real you, huh?" said Ryu. "He's more unassuming than I anticipated..." said Roy. "Pretty much just a normal guy," said Sonic. "Poyo..." said Kirby. Kirby then looked up. "Poyo!" There, descending from the heavens, was a massive disembodied white hand. All gazed upon it in awe as it seemed to look around. "Okay," said a booming voice seemingly coming from the hand, "What just happened here?" "Uh, I got trapped in that guy's body," said Ken, pointing to the second Ken. "Hmmm, you don't seem to be a fighter... Or an Assist Trophy... Or even a Spirit... Let me check something..." Several portals opened at the hand's fingertips, the hand browsing through them like a cellphone app until it stopped at one. "Oh... that universe. It's not even a video game universe, how did you get here? Is Goku trying to get in again?" "Ah, no," said Ken, pointing to the unconscious jester. "He did it." "Oh. Marx. Always starting trouble. Hold on I can send you home right quick." He selected a portal and stretched it wider until it sat before Ken, beckoning. "Well, I guess this is goodbye, other Ken," said Ryu. "I hope you show any dragons or despots in your world who's boss!" said Roy. "Always remember to look on the fast side of life!" said Sonic. "Baiiiiiiii!" said Kirby, waving. Despite himself Ken smiled. "Thanks guys." And he entered the portal. ------------------- Ken emerged in front of his house. It was the dead of night, and it was cold. He felt the portal close behind him, and somehow felt his keys in his pocket. Without a word he entered the house and went to bed. --------------- The next morning, he entered Joe's apartment. Joe was up early playing Super Smash Bros. The dog greeted him as usual - he could almost hear her going "Hiiiiii!". It was then Joe passed him a controller. "Wanna play?" "Oh, I guess?" He sat down and selected Ken. ***

#super smash bros #fanfic #ken masters #sonic the hedgehog #kirby

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Secrets of Marvel’s Eternals

https://ift.tt/2Z6GLNH

This article contains Eternals spoilers.

It’s not hard, when a Captain America or an Iron Man movie hits, for Marvel to have a comic on shelves that new fans can be pointed toward as an accessible way to get to know the characters. The same can’t be said for The Eternals. In a lot of ways, Jack Kirby’s most bizarre creations – god-like beings, created by the all-powerful Celestials to do battle with the deformed, wild Deviants – have endured despite their relative scarcity. The sum total of what can be reasonably called Eternals stories only runs to about 50 issues. So the task of centering them ahead of their big movie debut in November is both a blessing and a curse, even with an all-star cast and an Oscar-winning director at the helm.

Enter Kieron Gillen.

Gillen is a Marvel veteran and no stranger to the company’s cultural juggernaut side. Counted among his greatest hits are a long run with Kid Loki in Journey into Mystery, a thematic touchstone for the MCU’s biggest television show to date. And he authored what is likely going to be an important comic to the MCU going forward in Young Avengers. When he’s not creating the source material for potential future blockbusters, Gillen is fairly skilled at playing with mythology: his creator-owned book for Image Comics, The Wicked + The Divine (co-created with his Young Avengers collaborators, Jamie McKelvie and Matt Wilson) mashed-up pantheons from around the world with pop music culture, and was a smash success. So Gillen was a natural choice to set on the weirdness of Eternals.

For this new series, Gillen finds himself teamed with a pack of superstars on his Eternals relaunch – Esad Ribic, one of the most talented and epic line artists who’s ever worked in comics; Eisner winner Wilson on colors; and beloved star letterer Clayton Cowles lettering and doing the data page design work. We had a chance to chat with Gillen about his approach to the concept and what he’s got coming next.

Den of Geek: Late period Kirby stuff is pretty dense and odd, and generally tough to follow up on. I know Eternals is something that’s only spottily been touched through the course of Marvel history since he did it and usually to great effect. What was your first principle coming into this to make sure that you weren’t flattening the Eternals concept into just another superhero book, and at the same time, keeping it friendly to new readers who might have had limited exposure?

Kieron Gillen: My actual approach is very much the opposite, in terms of trying to flatten it into a cape book, because I think when they flatten into a cape book, they lose any point of existing. The Marvel Universe is such a busy place…a lot of the niches are filled.It’s like, if you were at DC, you couldn’t, for example, make a new hero, who is the paragon of all that’s good and everyone in America really likes him, because that’s Superman’s job. In any of these highly populated universes, you’ve got to look at, “Okay, how can I make them different? How can I find something that’s really just them?” So my approach is much more into drilling down to what makes them weird, what makes them different for audiences. And also things that have been implicit in the concept, I can perhaps put a spin on and make it even moreso.

One of the core things originally that I looked at is how when Kirby originally created Eternals, it wasn’t really for the Marvel Universe. They were folded in, and the work done by generations of creators there has been really interesting. But they sit differently in a universe where there’s actually gods, because their entire thing was they are people who have been mistaken for gods, and were actually aliens. There’s very much riffing on the 1970s Chariot of the Gods-ness of it all. Except of course, if you’ve got a universe where you’ve actually got gods, that starts to fray at the edges.

So what was a niche in the Marvel Universe that isn’t filled by the gods? I ended up with the idea that, if you actually look at it, even in the original Kirby stories, they’re people who’ve been mistaken for gods. In reality, they are a species of eternal unchanging immortal beings who have been created by actual space gods (the Celestials that are the gods in this metaphor) in eternal battle with these demon-like creatures [Deviants].

I picked up some of the stuff that Neil Gaiman added to the concept, in terms of their immortality. Eternal is a very different word. You talk to certain theologians, there’s a debate whether angels have free will. Humans probably do. I’m not a theologian so don’t trust me on this, but the idea of whether angels have free will is a much more interesting question in lots of different ways. So I leaned into the idea that Eternals are angels. They’ve got this job and their job is to protect us, or at least the Earth, from demons. I pushed them into those elements, so all that stuff is very much let’s make them more weird.

My broad theory is with DC characters the problem is the world. They are beautiful and perfect people who are facing a world that is corrupt. So Batman’s life is fine and then his parents were killed. Wonder Woman is sent as an ambassador to this warlike species of man. I think Wonder Woman is an interesting one to compare to because the closest Marvel character is really Thor. Thor is somebody who was sent to Earth because he was an arrogant shit [laughs]. To save the world, yes, but he is also the problem. So for me, the heart of Marvel characters, even though they try to save the world, they’re also the problem.

And for me, the Eternals didn’t really have that, and that’s why I’ve led to this idea that there’s this awful secret that when they die, they have to take a life to carry on living. And that’s, at least, one reason why Ikaris had to be my lead. Because Ikaris is such a good guy and the idea of, “Wait, when I do stuff, it’s not just my life I’m risking.” I know it’s not something [he’s] going to move past easily. He’s clearly going to be guilty, dealing with this for a very long time and there’s the relationship with the family and all that kind of element. And that seemed to be really interesting, especially because, and this goes into other areas with more Eternals, is that I always wanted them to be a society.

A lot of the Eternals don’t care. They’re ambivalent about this and in some ways they’re the bad gods. The idea of the Eternals includes people with very different ideas and yes, their job is to protect the Earth, but that doesn’t necessarily mean protecting humans.

I’m fascinated by the comparison to angels because where they’re left at the end of issue six is very much a Paradise Lost situation where, not only are they fallen, but they’ve decided to cast themselves down. That brings Thanos in conceptually too. What was the most mentally complicated part to integrating Thanos into this new Eternals mythology for you? Because he’s more an external force of nature in the broader history of the Marvel Universe than he is really tightly aligned with Eternals history. But now with the Deviant stuff and the fallen Eternals, he feels much more integral to the concept than he used to.

When you think about Eternals, we’ve got the original Kirby stuff and then the generations of creators that have tried to integrate them in different ways into the Marvel Universe. It’s notable that some of the best stuff in Eternals has become everyone’s stuff, like the Celestials. But the Celestials are such a great fit. They’re one of the best visuals in all of Marvel. So many different people have touched on this connection between the Eternals and Thanos, [but] not much has ever really been done with it.

One of the aims for Eternals was to take continuity and turn it into mythology. So I was looking at all that 40 years of comics and trying to work out okay, let’s pretend they were all made by one person and it was all one big fabric. The creation of Thanos in my mind was always planned all along, and this is a fundamental sin of the Eternal people. It wasn’t that they had a kid who turned out bad. Kirby’s original idea was 100 Eternals, 100 Deviants, then only the Deviants breed.

So there’s only ever been 100 in this weird static family unit, but what happened with Titan? What were all the schisms for? Where did Thanos come from? Thanos was really an attempt to extend the Eternal line, which went very badly wrong. You mentioned Paradise Lost, but I just got the Titanos Schism, which is an event in the history anyway, but I built up to being the equivalent of, I don’t know, one of those stories in Lord of the Rings, set 500 years earlier that’s in the appendix.

This is actually some of the stuff we cover in [The Eternals: Thanos Rising,] the Dustin Weaver special we’re doing. We talk about the background of all this. They argued whether they should actually have true Eternal children. They split. A’Lars AKA Mentor, met up with Sui-San on Titan. They work out a way to have Thanos (which is what the special is about) and hooray, they can breed. And then “oh no, this is what happens when we breed.” Thanos is really the worst case scenario.

But the other interesting thing is, of course, Thanos gets to meet his other family. The idea there’s a whole extended family he’s interacted with very little, which is really interesting to me. In the first arc, I’ve written him as Frankenstein or the Phantom of the Opera. He’s just the Alien. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s regarded as a force of nature.

I do this a lot in my books. People always say, I don’t really like villains. As much as I enjoy Thanos chewing the scenery and talking about poetry and death, I write them as people with powerful needs. The question becomes what will they do to get them? The answer, of course, [for] people like Thanos, is almost everything. But what’s always interesting for me is what won’t they do as well? If you can emotionally connect to all the characters, even the ones you hate, even the ones you want to lose, that’s when stuff becomes interesting for me.

Movies

Marvel’s Eternals Will Reveal Why The Eternals Didn’t Interfere in Infinity War

By Alec Bojalad

Movies

Marvel’s Eternals Trailer Breakdown: Who Are The New Characters of the MCU?

By Mike Cecchini

Which Eternal was your hook when you first started thinking about the book? Who was your path into the world and did it change as you went deeper into it? Who do you hope readers attach to from your story as they head to theaters to see the movie?

Originally Ikaris and Sprite were the two, and I made them the point of view characters for two reasons. One, Ikaris is the most straight shooting character, therefore he was the person who would most be hurt by the twist. He’s the classic hero, so let’s put him through the grinder. And Sprite, of course, had been outside the story, so she’s useful because she doesn’t know stuff.

I’ve got a version of Sersi who is a kind of depressed party girl. She’s been an amazing party girl figure. She’s always been enormous fun and I love that. I just wanted to do the alone on the dance floor kind of vibe, where there’s a certain sadness because she’d been doing hedonism for so long, what’s it covering up. Sersi around Eternals is a little bit different from her around humans. I think Sersi is, in some ways, the most complicated and messiest of the characters. I hope she’s the one I think we’re most attached to.

It’s a very different take on Gilgamesh. My biggest regret of the first arc is I couldn’t find space to use Makkari or Ajak, so I’m very glad that I got to do the specials.

That’s kind of what Kirby did. One of the interesting things about Eternals in the original run is that it’s cut off early while he’s still introducing stuff. It’s not like it reached the midpoint. You’ve still got new characters coming in. All the way through he’ll throw a random issue in with a different Eternal. It’s very free flowing.

There’s nobody in comics right now that does grand spectacle like Esad and Matt together. Did having them attached on art change how you approached the scale of the story?

I must admit I think I knew Esad was on the book before I started writing anything seriously. So leisurely it was, you know those amazing deep focus panels Esad does when you’ve got a city and something in the distance. I always think about that bit in Thor with Jason [Aaron], where you have the enormous dead giant in the background [note: Thor: God of Thunder (2012) #3 page 9]. I remember that and the moment, oh no, no, we’re going to have a lot of deep focus shots. I’m always looking for chances to do that with Esad because why wouldn’t you? [laughs] Obviously, I know Matt really well, having gone through all manner of growing with him, so I know how adaptable and how amazingly he responds to different characters, or different artists rather.

His colors for Dustin Weaver are really amazing in the Thanos Rising special. The fact it’s a story set earlier in the timeline he’s doing a modern take on old ‘70s coloring. It’s really psychedelic and pop, but the whole thing is clearly a modern comic, but at the same time, clearly lifting notes. But with Esad, it’s always how can I do something that allows Esad to actually provide the scale of things? Because it’s a very chatty book, but I’ve got to find interesting ways to make things chatty, interesting things. It doesn’t just have to be a battle scene. Even just an establishing shot is a thing of beauty.

There’s these six Eternal cities I’ve codified. And the idea of, okay, when we go to those cities, it’s going to be the magical moments. In the same way, when we introduce New York in the first issue, that’s also a magical moment because it’s New York. In many ways, especially to a British person, New York is as magical a city as Olympia. There’s that kind of thrill.

Do the data pages help you get out of your own way or get out of Esad’s way on the art a little bit more?

A little bit. They’re a useful compression device.. At least part of the appeal of Eternals is its scope. Esad makes it really big visually, also big in the ideas of what we’re describing. There’s entire cast members and there’s political systems and there’s those groups who hate each other or like each other and I’m bearing all that in mind when writing it. And the data pages are a really good way of doing it.

Jonathan Hickman’s been doing it forever. I remember. When his Nightly News dropped, it was fascinating, but I’ve been really glad he’s managed to open up a bit of space in the mainstream for people to do that. Because it’s the thing I said I want to be a bit careful around this. I said, I always use a lot of text stuff in my indie work and there’s bits of all manner of text stuff I did before. I think it’s much more notable with Jon because Jon’s the designer so he can just do his own. With me, it was always a case of my interest in text and image and things you can do with that were limited by the fact that the resource I could have.

But what I was trying to is not just do what the X-books have done as well. [This] is the first time [Clayton Crain]’s done design internally and he’s doing amazing work, but it’s also stuff like the spread in issue three where we’ve got all those names. I literally programmed my own Deviant name generator. This generated 1,200 names on that page that Clayton laid out. We’re still working out how we’re going to release that online.

What are you most excited for people to see in the second arc of the book?

The first arc’s been all about remaking the Eternals, as in here we are, we’ve got a new status quo, more heroes are dealing with the fact that there is a corruption at the heart of their system. Can they change it? Can we change this unchanging system? That’s the tragedy of their heroism to me.

The second arc, I’m trying to do that to the Deviants. Not as radically because I don’t think the Deviants need it as much. What are the Deviants for? What are they like? If the Deviants were our lead characters, we would be absolutely petrified of the Eternals and now they’re living here. So we get to really meet the Deviants, we get to understand their life and their tragedy.

There’s an enormous battle. That’s something to look forward to. There’s romance and sadness, and there’s also really cool guest stars in the background, which I don’t want to talk about, but it’s important for me to ground this in the Marvel Universe. But also this is a world of humans. It’s not just weird Eternals falling around their fortresses. If an issue doesn’t have humans in it, I feel a bit off because for me that’s another thing about Marvel. Part of the fun of Spider-Man was always that I could look to my left and imagine Spider-Man flying past me, so trying to keep the element, the world outside your window, while still doing something with the scale of what we’re doing, that’s the trick. So I’m hoping that comes across in the next arc.

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Eternals: Thanos Rises #1 is on sale on Wednesday, September 15th in local comics shops and online. Eternals: Celestia, the story featuring Makkari and Ajak, hits shops and the web in October, and Marvel’s Eternals is in theaters the following month.

The post The Secrets of Marvel’s Eternals appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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whitelippedviper · 6 years

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Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. Fuck war, love comics.

So I’m making my way through Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin and like I’ve seen Yaz’s work before. I have the first volume of Venus Wars--but it just didn’t click for me. MSG: The Origin tho is goddamn sorcery on the page. You need to know this first off, you don’t need to know anything about Gundam to read this. The whole thing is this is the book retelling the story that started it all but like Yaz’s from the heart version. And two volumes in, which is like...1000 pages of comics, and this is a masterpiece.

I’m mostly going to talk about the art, but story wise, military stuff is generally not my bag. Unfortunately, it’s a genre that is grossly popular in American comics, not just in straightforward military stories, but superhero comics as well. Too often these heroes have design updates that are all too happily to enlist heroes whose past models leaned more heavily into daredevil circus performers or wrestlers. You know the look. When your favorite hero goes from tights and a cape look to body armor looking shit everywhere. War on crime right? And then these companies on their film side have all kinds of connections to the military industrial complex--hell these companies often employ ex-military, or in some notable cases ex-CIA to write the damn books. And when you couple that with how interested the military has always been with warping people’s brains to keep the war machine humming(they once put acid in a whole town’s water supply just to see what would happen!) it’s quite unnerving! So besides being extremely anti-war in practice, I’m also pretty tin foil hat when it comes to seeing the edges of the military in pop culture, particularly when the message is like “look how cool this is!”

Which as a sidebar is one of the things that makes the Aubrey Sitterson GI Joe thing complicated to me, because like...I don’t think GI Joe is a good thing, and I don’t believe leftists should be getting their pay pushing paper for something that could not BE more military industrial. Like let's make kids think how cool being a soldier and going to war is--and then those kids grow up, and what a surprise we are in like ten wars that we know about, and will be for forever--and you get this kind of brainwashing that turns Kapernick trying to say “hey, maybe cops should stop shooting black men” into a debate about “respecting the flag” because the NFL is in bed with the military….agh. I hate it. I hate it all. From Operation Condor, the firebombings of dresden, hiroshima and nagasaki, the genocide of the american indian, fallujah, Abu Ghraib, our complicity in Saudi atrocities in Yemen and Qatar...we are not the good guys of history! We kill for empire, but our empire isn’t colonies, it’s more war. Our chief export is war. And I would love to expatriate to a country that doesn’t have these values, but I don’t know if even then I could shake that shit from my stomach. And even more insidious than our war is our financial arm, our banks and investors who have killed as many people with pens as any soldiers with guns. We are an empire of atrocity!

So when I see military comics, or cop comics, it just reminds me that I live in the most warlike country of the last 100 years, and all of those innocent people that are caught up in our bombs, and the way we turn whole regions into chaos to serve our ends and make more money--my relative prosperity as an American is built on the bodies and bloodshed of innocents the world over. I mean why is America what America is? It’s because WW2 basically moved europe's wealth to the US, and then we spent it on more bombs and we stepped in not because of any real moral thing--we stepped in because england owed us too much for us to let them go down. We as a country became a world superpower, the world superpower, through war profiteering and slavery. That’s a huge aside, but I’m saying, I fucking hate war. And maybe find ways to not contribute to more of those sort of comics? But more than that in an aesthetic sense, the codes for military in American comics are so bland and it seems half the time to justify not having to do interesting character designs. So surely there is a better fit for someone like Sitterson who has the politics I do, I think, than writing war comics to a patriotic pro-military audience, so I wish him the best, but fuck GI Joe. (And as an aside aside, if it were Frank Miller and not Aubrey Sitterson with the controversial opinion that book isn’t getting dropped--these companies only do these things as financial calculations, and if you are a big enough cash cow you can say or do whatever you want in comics for the most part but if you aren’t--you better protect your neck because these companies don’t have your interests in mind. And we live in stupid times) So I can fuck with Gundam because 1) it hates war as much as I do. And 2) they’re not trying to make everything look like utilitarian military shit. They’re about looking goood while they are hating war. The story is really rich, background characters positively radiate and each have their own character which comes to the fore at different parts. In some respects, Amuro Ray haunts this comic like death, because he’s the end of so many terrific characters that you really grow to love, and the Federation cause is somewhat murky at best, as is their exploitation of kids like Amuro. I kind of think Yaz does my favorite faces in all of comics, unseating Jose Munoz:

This kind of caricaturing is really lovely for a story this rich and dense, because you get so much just from how a character looks and the faces they make, and it’s quite appealing to look at I think. There are characters you fall in love with just because you want to see Yaz draw their face again. The range of expressions he has in the toolkit is amazing to me. Yaz’s style in general to me is like magic. Lines don’t connect, and it’s like he can just shift around these minimal set of lines and accomplish anything on the page. It’s like he has a set number of lines that he’s working with on every page, and he just dips his brush into the page and waves it around and those lines bend and contort into perfection. He’s one like Kirby where he kind of just sits down at a page and the images come out of his brain.

It’s not overly rendered, but it still is textural and inky. I think this also has my favorite lettering in comics. I don’t know who was responsible for it in english, but I love the obvious care that went into varying the lettering, and just how gentle and elegant it is. It probably was just a font in a computer--but it doesn’t FEEL like that, which is cool. Oh also Yaz watercolors various pages in the book, and they are almost all stunning. I’m planning to read his Joan of Arc book which is all watercolored, so that should be interesting. But I think what comes across more than anything reading these books, because of not only the comic, but the production value of the books themselves--the hard cover, the essays at the back, the slick pages, the thoughtful lettering--what comes across from stem to stern is that these books are a labor of love and passion in a way that you would not expect from the retelling of a decades old giant anime franchise!

Hideaki Anno said in his essay in the first book: “And I sense a certain good grace. He decides to draw Gundam--well known to the masses as a premier franchise of the plastic model and anime industries--not from weariness, not as expiation, nor to return to his roots, but in earnest as a work of his own” and I think he’s absolutely correct. There’s a love and attention to every inch of these books that is really inspiring to behold whether as an artist or in whatever you do to fill out your days--seeing something, anything, done by a master, with care and concern is a special thing to behold. I mean I don’t know for sure that Yaz actually gives a shit about this book--but that’s what comes across on the page. It comes across that he cares about these lines, about these stories, vividly, and even more surprising, the people whose charge is getting the work out to others, they seem to care just as much, so what you get is a very very special book.

In some ways, these dueling masters, Char and Amuro Ray, also express this concern and care. At one point Char loudly criticizes Amuro Ray for his lack of style. And while Char’s vanity, his secrecy, his romantic rogue ideal is extremely alluring, and any scene he’s in, I’m pretty glued to the page--he’s like Harlock or Queen Emeraldas. We don’t have these kind of artist villains in American comics for some reason. The closest I’ve seen was Ron Wimberly’s Prince of Cats which has characters who besides their bloody monstrous ideas, consider style to be important.

But even with all of that going on with Char, I’m surprisingly drawn to Amuro Ray--who is a character even without watching the original Gundam series(something I’m planning to rectify this winter--trying to finally knock out all the Gundam I’ve put off for years) that you just kind of know even without ever knowing why. He’s a legend. Like Luke Skywalker. Even his name when you say it, you feel like you are speaking the name of a god. But he’s a punk kid who has been dragged into this war against his will, and is desperately trying to balance doing the right thing, and keeping his identity. I love that sometime he just refuses to go out in the Gundam which puts Ltg Bright in these particular binds(Bright might lo key be my favorite character in the series weirdly, for how he kind of morphs through being a snotty prick, to being in over his head, to being someone capable of real genius creativity. I’ve been watching Iron Blooded Orphans which is a Gundam series about child soldiers and is really brutal and depressing, and Orga is kind of like Bright mixed with Char.) His mercurial nature speaks to the nature of his art versus Char. Amuro Ray belongs to the fickleness of inspiration, so because of that he’s not really reliable, but when he shows up he’s capable of things Char isn’t, moments of improvisation and grouchy genius that are the linchpins of the romantic appeal of the series.

Versions of this character archetype I feel usually are supposed to be incompetent or dumb to those around them, but their conviction carries them, they have the most will--but in Amuro Ray’s case, he’s just an asshole. The despair of it all, which is never lost on Amuro is that whether he does something, or doesn’t do something, people are going to die and it’s going to hurt. And knowing that, that in the end horror is inescapable, and that death is undefeated--like what do you do? How do you function? What do you choose when there are no good choices? Char is a little different, because his aim is revenge. Which that side of Char that he hides behind his rogue’s grin, and devilish acts is really stunning when it first comes out in these early books. He’s so careful to let that out, and when it does, you’re like “oh man, Char isn’t playing the same game the rest of you are”. Agh. It’s soo good. Comics like these keep the fires going. There’s an infinity of them out there to be sure, but nothing makes me happier than a truly great comic. Those comics that years after you remember the experience of reading them, where you were, what music was playing. A great comic is a great lover. It won’t last forever, though there’s a LOT of this book still for me to read--and I get in this mode where I both want to just inhale the whole comic as fast possible, and I don’t want this experience to end. This is that sort of thing. Which should be evident, since I bothered to write about it, haha. I could never just review comics. I’m like Amuro Ray with comics criticism, I need the right situation to be compelled to climb in and do it. I don’t fundamentally love writing comics criticism--but when I experience something great, I have to talk about it and write about it. Comics like these affirm everything about being involved with comics for me. Check it out, see if you feel the same way.

If you liked this essay, and want to see more like it, subscribe to Sarah Horrocks’s Patreon. For as little as a dollar a month you can help a comic topic in need get the coverage it deserves.

#My Writing #Sarah Horrocks #Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin

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thinkplay · 6 years

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How Fandom Adds Meaning to Mario (and Other Characters): The Legacy and Impact of Fan Art

By Matt O’Keefe

A lot of games are fun , though entertaining, lack a sense of exploration. That probably indicates a lack of an “open world” to most, but in my eyes can also indicate an absence of exploration of character, theme, or purpose. Nintendo games are more susceptible to this trait than most. 2D Mario games, for example, usually take you from Point A to Point B to Point C, without much in-between. The same applies to Kirby and Yoshi and Star Fox titles. Even Zelda games are primarily dedicated to a core mission, though Breath of the Wild certainly deviated from that pattern. This piece is by no means a vilification of that style, but, because of the Nintendo properties’ straightforward A-to-Z progression, those franchises often don’t get the opportunity to explore the ways other games can. So that’s where the fans come in.

Deeply invested in the characters and worlds they grew up with, fans want to enrich what has already been put before them. Because Nintendo characters are often less developed on a character level, they receive the biggest [upgrades]. That’s why fan artists, whether they be illustrators, musicians, columnists, or another type of creatives, have been able to add so much to Mario and his Nintendo brethren. Keep reading to learn the many ways fans can and have supplemented and enrichened what so many gamers already love.

Character Development

Though the mainline Mario games are mascot platformers, they feature a mascot without much of a personality, especially compared to successive characters like Sonic and Ratchet & Clank. Mario is not someone to get to know over the course of your journey. You control him but never identify with him, which is why he’s often referred to as a cipher. Nintendo is putting his identity, along with his fate, into fans’ hands. Since the release of the first Super Mario Bros on the NES, maybe even earlier, fans have done their duty forging the red-clad plumber and similarly blank canvas Nintendo characters over the past 35 years.

The best example of the sophistication of simple ideas is perhaps the work of Zac Gorman. Gorman creates GIF comics featuring all kinds of video game characters. His Mario pieces are particularly poignant because they breathe life and purpose in a character who essentially has none.

Art by Zac Gorman

Messages, like pursuing your passions and overcoming fear, aren’t inherently complicated, but they can be poignant, especially aligned with artwork filled with emotion. The work Gorman and others have affected my own thoughts while playing, giving me new reasons to care. I trek across the Mushroom Kingdom knowing Mario loves his new gig, making his constant smile so much more meaningful. I sympathize with Luigi for being under the shadow of his more popular brother, which deepens his arc in Luigi’s Mansion as he sets out on his own for the first time. Just because a game doesn’t have a script on the level of The Last of Us doesn’t mean it can’t endear you to its characters, with a little help from the fans.t

This kind of enrichment can also be done for characters with a little more agency. Link, the hero of Legend of Zelda, usually has some kind of backstory and motivation, but fans do a great job instilling more of both in him through their art. Zac Gorman has made over a dozen comics doing exactly that. Here are some of my favorites.

Art by Zac Gorman (again)

He’s not creating an amazingly rich and complex backstory, choosing instead to pinpoint the moments in stories that resonate and demonstrate fundamental ideas, foremost why Link is a hero.

Worldbuilding

The various games in Nintendo series were probably never meant to have cohesive histories. But fans wanted them, so they got them. Nintendo itself released Hyrule Historia due to the demand for a continuity to the Zelda series, but more often the worlds of video game characters are fleshed out by fans. There’s the Super Mario Timeline, a video tracking all the Mario games and trying to somehow make sense of how they all fit together. Artist Bill Mudron even sells gaming maps, depicting some of our favorite fictional worlds as cartography. One that hangs on my wall combines all the known parts of the Mushroom Kingdom from the NES and SNES eras.

Art by Bill Mudron

You can debate whether the map perfectly matches what’s laid out in the games and their manuals (many have), but it’s a testament to the dedication of fans that things of this kind even exist.

Mudron has also created multiple maps of Hyrule. They’re a bit easier to get right people of the way Zelda games are _________, but still might not be exact. But there’s something special about that imperfection, which allows Mudron’s interpretation of the worlds of classic Nintendo franchises to [shine brighter].

Art by Bill Mudron (again)

Mudron’s maps and the timeline are examples of creations that require a lot of time, research and effort. But sometimes worldbuilding can be as simple as picking out the moments you don’t see in a game that make the world feel like a bigger and realer place, like this piece of art featuring a certain Italian plumber taking a lunch break on his construction job.

Art by ________

Or fan art can make us rethink parts of the world just by pointing out silliness we don’t think twice about when we’re immersed in the game.

Art by Zac Gorman (last time, promise)

Whatever the method, artists have enriched the world these characters inhabit in ways developers didn’t or couldn’t within the context of their games, and we should be grateful for it.

Style

The most obvious thing fan art can do is add a unique flair to the characters and worlds of video games. It’s a lot easier and a lot quicker for an artist to do a drawing of a character in their style than for a video game developer to create a game with a groundbreaking design choice. They’ve tried it on a few occasions, Nintendo recently with Yoshi’s Wooly World, but it’s more time consuming and risks alienating audiences that are already satisfied with the original molds.

My favorite cartoonist, Scottie Young, sometimes spotlights a Nintendo character with his Daily Sketches.

Art by Skottie Young

But there’s no shortage of examples of great, unique interpretations of game characters in media. I have a sketchbook of my own filled with artists’ takes on various Nintendo characters that I hope to share with you later. For now, here are more polished illustrations.

Art by Chrissie Zullo

Art by Nick Derington

Art by Riley Rossmo

Depth

Most Nintendo games aren’t trying to say something, but fans can say it for them. Talents across the world instill meaning within the games through their art. They can, for example, use satire to point out prejudice.

Art by Eduardo Salies

They can use a captivating image to advance social awareness.

Artist unknown

Or even force us to reflect on uncomfortable but important subjects, such as violence in video games.

Art by Nick Derington (again)

[Wrap up article here]

There are so many artists and creators that want to have an influence on the things they loved, and there’s very little that inspires more fandom than Nintendo. Keep in mind how they can change perception, add layers and bring the worlds alive when you’re scrolling through recent fan art. You’ll be glad you did.

Do you like what you just read? Do you know fan art that similarly enriches video game characters and worlds? Sound off in the comments below!

Cover image art by weremole

#thinkplay #nintendo #fan art #game maps #zac gorman #mario #zelda #scottie young

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goddamnwebcomics · 7 years

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Predicting Spinnerette Arcs 26-35

Everyone except very delusional people know that Spinnerette is going downhill. With it’s current asinine plots, the fact the whole comic seemed to lose it’s serious plot-related grasp after Colonel Class arc, and it’s stupid awful artstyle drawn by a guy who keeps altering the designs of characters - let’s call him P. C. Dimbleby - and actual script calls for chibi faces, things aren’t honestly looking good for the Asylum version of Empowered. But hey, Kraw’s printing money with merch involving scantily clad protagonists and porn comics that are canon so nothing’s gonna be a problem for him!

With that said, it’s pretty easy to call what he has in his mind next, and here i will predict the plot of every issue from 26 to 35. Let’s begin.

Issue 26: The Return Of Jara

It’s revealed that before Spinny, Mecha Maid dated a man who was abusive towards her and made her become a lesbian. The said man is now working in the same science lab place as Heather, and the man titled Jara - who looks like a Biff Tannen with classic P.C. Dimbleby hooknose, by pure accident runs into her. Jara grows fondness for Spinny, thinking she is single. After several irritating catcalls, Heather wants to bring Jara to comfort HER love. Heather forgets that secret identities are a thing that must be protected, and in her futile ALS form, she comes to see Jara again. Jara calls her buzzwords which are meant to make audience angry, allowing Heather to transform into Spinny and beat the crap out of him. Mecha likes it for some reason and they get away with it, because turns out Jara had been stealing scientific tools from the lab in order to make moonshine and the cops think Spinny was beating him up for that reason. Their relationship “develops” and Kraw wants to inform you he is not like most guys and he is single ladies.

Issue 27: Colonel Glass 2: Part 1

North Korea has done some nuclear tests, which pisses off America and it’s anti-superhero and anti-fun and anti-allthingsKrawlikes president Meanie D. T. Incompetent. He teams up with prime minister of Canada, who is a topical Rob Ford parody despite the fact dude died several years ago, in order to use the “superity” from the local superheroes to recreate Cherenkov-Kirby Reactor or something which could wipe N.K. off the map. However, the superheroes know MORE THAN THAT, Benjamin Franklin returns to reveal the nuclear tests are actually massive attacks performed by Colonel Glass 2. Turns out N.K. had a bodyclone of Colonel Glass in case he would die in his trip, which he did. Benjamin also tells the heroes to watch out for government who are trying to do something with “superity”, we get exposition that the first superhero that did CK reactor basically created superheroism by using his blood to create the reactor, which gave birth to “superity”, more “superity” they have, the stronger they are and so far CK Reactor is the only one that can infect being with “superity” but governments all around the world are looking for other ways to make it. Because governments are hypocrites, says Kraw as he pats himself in the back and thinks he’s about to create the next Brave New World. Superheroes get canadian superfucks to help them because of course they do.

We cut to Colonel Glass 2 doing shit, turns out he shares the memories of Colonel Glass 1, including the memories from before he died? and develops perverse fondness for Mecha Maid, he starts flying towards America as all glass around the world go haywire. Spinny, Mecha Maid, Tiger, London, Minerva, Katt O Nine Tails and Green Gable try to sneak with their supercar when Sergeant Generic notices them, he sends Noob Saibot after them. Meanie D.T. Incompetent finds out about the escapees and proceeds to BOMB THEM AND NOT CARE ABOUT CASUALTIES because that’s how politicians in real life work. Cliffhanger.

Issue 28: Colonel Glass 2: Part 2

Spinny and rest of superheroes survive the attacks and reach the Atlantic, where they bump into a weird group of rejects with really one sided personalities, one is a character meant to point out the flaws of Netflix series Daredevil which Kraw seriously thinks he could write better, other one is a friendly zombie girl and another is a quirky scene girl who licks things and a wacky running gag is that Mecha Maid finds her creepy. They reveal they are South Korean Superheroes who were almost killed by Original Colonel Glass and set up a base in the atlantic. They were before experimented with CK Reactor and therefore have more “superity” than any other superhero on the planet besides Colonel Glass 2. Meanwhile President Incompetent decides to start a war against the entire continent of Asia, considering them all “anime-watching rice eaters who did Pearl Harbour” because Kraw never puts stereotypes in his own characters. American War Fleet flies past the superfucks, and canadians and Tiger stay in the base while the SK heroes and Spinny and Mecha Maid go after them. They all get destroyed in one hit by Colonel Glass 2. Spinny, Mecha Maid and SK heroes somehow survive the blast but turns out it was INTENTIONAL as Colonel Glass 2 finds Mecha Maid to torture her. Spinny is mad. Cliffhanger.

Issue 29: Colonel Glass 2: Part 3

President Meanie D.T. Incompetent has HAD ENOUGH and demands Sergeant Generic to call some abnormal guy to help them set up the CK Reactor Weapon properly that can wipe out CG2. Because world is small, Generic calls Dr. Universe, who agrees to let past be past in face of common threat, but also wants to manipulate them into following their objectivist goals. Mecha Maid wakes up in a dark room, where she gets fed memories and other shit, that Kraw wants you to think resembles sexual harassment geddit Kraw knows your feelings Kraw understands Kraw is a friend. Bullshit happens as Spinny’s anger manifests inside him and transforms him into a giant golden spider creature, one of the SK Superfucks say “this is like Dragon Ball Z episode” and at that point you know where this is fucking going. Spinny tears inside Glass’s base conveniently and a long climactic fight ensues, ending with Glass 2 dying by thermite again. Spinny becomes normal again and wakes up in the SK fleet, where Mecha Maid is mad at her for once again murdering someone. Mecha then cries it was her own fault and crying crying crying. Dr. Universe fools Meanie D.T. Incompetent as he calls Super MILF and Greta Gravity to sex him out of working on the weapons! Ha ha! This is a serious comic!

Issue 30: Boring Prequel

This story is a prequel to the first ever case of “Superity”, which takes place in Wild West, in yet another stupid unimaginative alternate universe twist, Buffalo Bill was a superhero, and from there it’s shown how first CK Reactor was made, but the first superhero whose name i forgot is warned of “them”, who are “they”? You’ll find out soon enough.

Issue 31: Critical Analysis

Spinny has returned home with a bad feeling, and she’s got strange aches all over her body. Turns out the Friendly Zombie Girl is there to investigate upon Spinny as she reveals to her both of them are “Stanisian”, people who are full of “superity” which is just Stanisian blood, and are unable to toggle their powers off. Spinny somehow became stanisian by CK Reactor because before stanisians were only by birth only which intrigues the zombie girl. She reveals what happened in the last arc was her exposing her “Ultra Stanisian Power” which only comes into effect over strong stress. Heather also finds out Stanisians never die, as SK zombie girl was the first child of Genghis Khan. Stanisians have existed since humanity’s beginning, but only when CK Reactor was created, humans could get “superity” AKA Stanisian blood too. The reason most humans don’t know about them is because they’re the mortal enemy of “Enlightened”, perfect humans who have ability to manipulate people and are omnipotent but don’t have superpowers, Enlightened have controlled the world by their secret society - you guessed it - the Illuminati since the old times in order to wipe out Stanisians but they always fail.

First thing Spinny realizes after all of this is that, she can cure Mecha Maid by transforming her into Stanisian! Friendly Zombie Girl advices this is not a good idea because exposing a human to too much superity could kill them, and types like Heather are a rarity. Spinny can’t convince Mecha though, who just gets madder so Spinny asks help from Universe. Universe reveals he knew about Stanisians all along and he constructed CK Reactor so that he could in fact turn more people into them so that the Illuminati could be taken down. It’s revealed Ayn Rand was against the Illuminati and the infamy of the book is a pop culture propaganda. What. They begin working on it. Cliffhanger.

Issue 32: The Lesbian Torment

Adrastea and Sara NIcole meet on same jailcell, they fall in love because Sara Nicole hasn’t eaten her anti-gay bagels. Their relationship is meant to be “different” as in, “it’s same shit as Mecha’s and Spinny’s relationship, except they’re both more aggressive”. They fool the guards by making out and escape.

Issue 33: Critical Analysis Part 2:

Dr. Universe takes a bit of blood from Friendly Zombie Girl as she has finished the POCKET SIZED CK REACTOR. Then government rushes in with Sergeant Generic on helm and Universe as well as Spinny get arrested. They’re taken in front of Illuminati, who are ready to literally wipe them out of existence because oh cool Kraw read 1984 just now. Friendly Zombie Girl wasn’t arrested and Greta takes her to bite Mecha Maid, curing her by all of her fucking problems and she becomes Ultra Stanisian, saving Spinny and Universe. Illuminati finds out THE INFESTATION IS SPREADING. At this point it’s also revealed N.K. Government is actually propaganda’d as shitty dictator state because they refused to join the New World Order and is the only state ran by Stanisians.

Issue 34: War Of Minds

A kickstarted exclusive story focusing on SK Superheroes, with Daredevil potshotter dating the other. Boring.

Issue 35: Revenge of Revenge

Life has become harder for Spinny to keep double identities when Sara Nicole and Adrastea butt in to cause chaos. Adrastea wants to nuke science facilities while Sara Nicole wants everyone to like her. They nag like an arguing couple, isn’t that funny. It ends with Mecha Maid dying as Spinny cries, when she wakes up to find out it has all been a drug-induced dream and she remembers when she went to comfort Mecha Maid after Colonel Glass Arc, she threw Heather off the bed and beat the ever-living shit out of her, before she got a massive heart attack and passed away, with her last words being “I wish i never met you.” Heather wants to go back into these dreams when she finds out she’s been carried to hospital, where Sahira states that she’s been diagnozed with a rare variation of ALS that is contagious. Haw haw.

#spinnerette #blogpost

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

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BAFTA TV Awards 2018: Sue Perkins is blasted for her 'sexist' jokes as her hosting gig 'falls flat' with viewers

New Post has been published on https://funnythingshere.xyz/bafta-tv-awards-2018-sue-perkins-is-blasted-for-her-sexist-jokes-as-her-hosting-gig-falls-flat-with-viewers/

BAFTA TV Awards 2018: Sue Perkins is blasted for her 'sexist' jokes as her hosting gig 'falls flat' with viewers

Sue Perkins’ performance as host at the 2018 BAFTA TV Awards ‘fell flat’ with viewers on Sunday night.

The presenter, who fronted the ceremony for the first time last year, opened the show with a traditional monologue, littered with jokes about the gender pay gap, feminism and inequality in the industry.

However, the speech failed to amuse viewers, who instead took to Twitter to brand the 48-year-old ‘sexist’ and ‘self-indulgent’.

Facing backlash: Sue Perkins’ performance as host at the 2018 BAFTA TV Awards ‘fell flat’ with viewers on Sunday night

The former Bake Off host kicked proceedings off by poking fun at her entrance, which saw her welcomed onstage by a group of Scots Guards.

Addressing the audience at the Royal Festival Hall, she quipped: ‘Typical of course, 10 men blowing their own trumpets before a woman even so much as opens her mouth.’

Met with chuckles from the audience, she went on to address the gender pay gap seconds later, adding: ‘I don’t want to ignore the elephant in the room…but on such a prestigious occasion I feel it would be crass and borderline inappropriate to discuss my fee for tonight.

Awkward: The presenter opened the show with a string of jokes about the gender pay gap, feminism and inequality in the industry – which did not go down well with fans

Cheeky: Addressing her entrance beside Scots Guards, she began: ‘Typical of course, 10 men blowing their own trumpets before a woman even so much as opens her mouth’

‘So let’s just say I’m going to be putting in half the effort. To be honest I haven’t even cleaned my teeth.’

Not stopping there, she interspersed jokes about the Harvey Weinstein scandal and even the Duchess of Cambridge with further comments about gender inequality.

She continued: ‘A woman may be hosting this evening but don’t worry, I’ve still got two big fellas up there to keep an eye on me. You know, just to make sure my driving is alright.’

The star even made a dig at fellow television presenter Piers Morgan, after clocking a grand organ onstage beside her.

No stopping her: She interspersed jokes about Harvey Weinstein and even the Duchess of Cambridge with comments about gender inequality, and even made a dig at Piers Morgan

‘Turns out tonight I’m having to work alongside a massive organ, now I know how Susanna Reid feels on Good Morning Britain,’ she joked.

The Croydon born star ended her speech by assuring viewers the winners had been kept a secret until now, stating: ‘Facebook knows obviously, but apart from that we are all in the dark.’

While the monologue was met with laughter from the live audience, it did not go down as well with viewers – who immediately took to Twitter to brand her both unfunny and sexist.

One disgruntled fan kicked things off by writing: ‘Sue Perkins looks/sounds like she’s really enjoying herself. Shame the same can’t be said for the audience and viewers. #SelfIndulgent’

Not impressed: While the monologue was met with laughter from the live audience, it did not go down as well with viewers – who immediately took to Twitter to brand her unfunny

While others agreed: ‘Oh good, Sue Perkins TRYING to be funny and once again, failing’, ‘Wow… Sue Perkins’ jokes are really falling flat…’ and ‘I didn’t think Sue Perkins could ever get less funny than she normally is, but fair play to her for pulling it off tonight.’

Further viewers expressed their annoyance at her ‘anti-male’ jokes, and claimed there would be huge uproar if a man said the same about a woman onstage.

One wrote: ‘Why is Sue Perkins allowed to make jokes about men’s anatomy/physical appearance? Imagine it was the other way around,’ while another added: ‘Here we go… Sue Perkins with her usual sexist jokes.’

Others were quick to agree, chiming in: ‘Seriously @BBC how are you allowing @sueperkins to be so anti male … people would be up in arms if this was a man making these comment’

Outraged: Further viewers expressed their annoyance at her ‘anti-male’ jokes, and claimed there would be huge uproar if a man said the same about a woman onstage

Second time lucky: Sue, who is best known for hosting the BBC’s version of The Great British Bake Off, hosted the awards ceremony for the first time in 2017

Against the grain: However, her performance was met with high praise from a handful of other viewers, who praised her ‘savage’ jokes, and took her speech in good humour

And: ‘But WHY is Sue Perkins allowed to make such sexualised comments towards other women and do things that if a man was to do/say…he’d be classed as being sexist,arrogant and a pig. It works both ways doesn’t it?…

A further fan even called for the BBC to penalise her for her attitude, writing: ‘I’m a bloke like half of this nation just sat at home minding my own business when Sue Perkins turns up on my telly making probably the most snide, horrible, sexist comments i’ve ever heard on TV constantly. If this isn’t punished then it’s a joke.’

However, her performance was met with high praise from a handful of other viewers, who praised her ‘savage’ jokes, and took her speech in good humour.

One said: ‘Sue Perkins is pulling no punches tonight I love her’, while others added: ‘I really really love Sue Perkins,’ ‘@sueperkins Bloody Bafta fabulous’ and ‘Sue Perkins is likeable. Think she’s doing a good job.’

2018 British Academy Television Awards: The Winners

ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME

Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway

Britain’s Got Talent – WINNER

Michael McIntyre’s Big Show

The Voice UK

LEADING ACTOR

Jack Rowan – Born to Kill

Joe Cole – Hang the DJ (Black Mirror)

Sean Bean – Broken – WINNER

Tim Pigott Smith – King Charles III

LEADING ACTRESS

Claire Foy – The Crown

Molly Windsor – Three Girls – WINNER

Sinead Keenan – Little Boy Blue

Thandie Newton – Line of Duty

COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME

Murder in Successville – WINNER

Taskmaster

The Last Leg

Would I Lie To You?

CURRENT AFFAIRS

Raped: My Story

Syria’s Disappeared: The Case Against Assad (Dispatches)

Undercover: Britain’s Immigration Secrets (Panorama) – WINNER

White Right: Meeting The Enemy (Exposure)

DRAMA SERIES

Line Of Duty

Peaky Blinders – WINNER

The Crown

The End of the F***ing World

ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCE

Adam Hills – The Last Leg

Graham Norton – The Graham Norton Show – WINNER

Michael McIntyre – Michael McIntyre’s Big Show

Sandi Toksvig – QI

FACTUAL SERIES

Ambulance – WINNER

Catching A Killer

Drugsland

Hospital

FEATURES

Antiques Roadshow

Cruising with Jane MacDonald – WINNER

No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free?

The Secret Life of the Zoo

SINGLE DRAMA

Against The Law

Hang The DJ (Black Mirror)

King Charles III

Murdered for Being Different – WINNER

SOAP & CONTINUING DRAMA

Casualty – WINNER

Coronation Street

Emmerdale

Hollyoaks

SPECIALIST FACTUAL

Basquiat – Rage to Riches – WINNER

Blitz: The Bombs that Changed Britain

Blue Planet II

Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents

VIRGIN TV’S MUST-SEE MOMENT

Blue Planet II (Mother Pilot Whale) – WINNER

Doctor Who (The Thirteenth Doctor Revealed)

Game Of Thrones (Viserion is Killed by the Night King)

Line Of Duty (Huntley’s Narrow Escape)

Love Island (Stormzy Makes a Surprise Appearance)

ITV One Love Manchester (Ariana Grande Sings ‘One Last Time’)

FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME

Anna Maxwell Martin – Motherland

Daisy May Cooper – This Country – WINNER

Sharon Horgan – Catastrophe

Sian Gibson – Peter Kay’s Car Share

INTERNATIONAL

Big Little Lies

Feud: Betty and Joan

The Handmaids Tale – WINNER

The Vietnam War

LIVE EVENT

ITV News Election 2017 Live: The Results

One Love Manchester

Wild Alaska Live

World War One Remembered: Passchendaele – WINNER

MALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME

Asim Chaudry – People Just Do Nothing

Rob Brydon – The Trip to Spain

Samson Kayo – Famalam

Toby Jones – Detectorists – WINNER

MINI-SERIES

Howards End

The Moorside

The State

Three Girls – WINNER

NEWS COVERAGE

The Battle for Mosul (Sky News)

Grenfell Tower Fire (Channel 4 News)

The Grenfell Tower Fire (ITV News at Ten)

The Rohingya Crisis (Sky News) – WINNER

REALITY & CONSTRUCTED FACTUAL

Celebrity Hunted

Love Island – WINNER

Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds

The Real Full Monty

SCRIPTED COMEDY

Catastrophe

Chewing Gum

This Country – WINNER

Timewasters

SHORT FORM PROGRAMME

Britain’s Forgotten Men

Eating With My Ex

Morgana Robinson’s Summer – WINNER

PLS Like

SINGLE DOCUMENTARY

Chris Packham: Asperger’s and Me

Louis Theroux, Talking to Anorexia

One Deadly Weekend in America

Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad – WINNER

SPORT

Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitchko

Six Nations: Wales vs England

The Grand National – WINNER

UEFA Women’s Euro semi-final: England vs Netherlands

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Adrian Dunbar – Line of Duty

Anupam Kher – The Boy with the Topknot

Brian F. O’Byrne – Little Boy Blue – WINNER

Jimmi Simpson – USS Callister (Black Mirror)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Anna Friel – Broken

Julie Hesmondhalgh – Broadchurch

Liv Hill – Three Girls

Vanessa Kirby – The Crown – WINNER

BAFTA FELLOWSHIP

Kate Adie

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT

John Motson

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kirbydevpostarchive · 7 years

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HAL Laboratory

イシダ HAL_Laboratory

08/09/2016 10:43 AM

Kirby: Planet Robobot Ask-a-thon - Round 1

Hi everyone, it took us a while to set up but now it's finally time to kick off the Kirby: Planet Robobot Ask-a-thon! And here to answer your questions is the man himself, Kirby: Planet Robobot's director Shinya Kumazaki!

クマザキ

08/09/2016 10:49 AM

Hello! Shinya Kumazaki here. Honestly, I'm amazed at the tremendous number of questions we've received from Japan, the Americas and Europe. Naturally I can't answer them all, but I'm hoping I can give you at least some of the answers you're looking for. Mr Ishida, please fire away!

イシダ

08/09/2016 10:51 AM

All right, let's get started. Here's the first question: How did you decide upon 'Kirby: Planet Robobot' for the game title?

クマザキ

08/09/2016 10:56 AM

Initially, we'd planned to call it "Kirby: HAGANE" ("hagane" is Japanese for "steel"), but as Popstar would be populated by robots, we then leaned towards "Kirby: Robot Planet". As titles go, this was far too literal and lacked impact, so we changed it again to "Roborobo Planet". One last tweak and the result was "Planet Robobot", which is in keeping with the playfulness of the Kirby universe. The name for the "Robobot Armor" also came up around this time.

イシダ

08/09/2016 10:59 AM

Interesting! I do think that "HAGANE" would have been perhaps a little too edgy for a Kirby game. Plus, I can see it being quite a difficult title to convey overseas. Now for the next question: What was it that inspired you to create this game, and how long did it take to produce it?

クマザキ

08/09/2016 11:03 AM

Since we ended up developing two Kirby games in a row using the same hardware - the first being Kirby: Triple Deluxe - this time, we wanted to do a completely different take on the world. At the same time, we were also hoping to attract a new audience. We thought a mechanized world would do well, since then it would be the polar opposite to the previous game's warm skies and lush scenery. The concept for the Robobot Armor was then proposed as a means of performing new copy abilities unique to the mechanized world. Regarding the length of development, we worked on Planet Robobot in parallel with other titles such as Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe, and it was completed in under two years.

イシダ

08/09/2016 11:05 AM

When you were establishing this mechanized setting for the game world, how did the production team manage to strike a balance between the creative design and fun gameplay?

クマザキ

08/09/2016 11:09 AM

At the start, we shared our game design plans with the whole team - these were vital to the game. I began by working out the story and setting in my head, conveyed my ideas to lead team members and then the staff got to work, flexing their creative muscles to generate text, rough sketches and other resources. We worked to mesh the design and gameplay only in the final stages of the development process, and things were all very hectic during this period. We would schedule meetings with the whole team to keep everyone on the same page and fully bring out the team's potential, and this helped to motivate everyone even more in the finishing stages.

イシダ

08/09/2016 11:11 AM

It's so interesting to hear about the steps that led to the final product! I have to ask, was there a specific part of the creation process that you found especially challenging? And if you had the chance to redesign the whole game, would you want to improve any specific areas of it?

クマザキ

08/09/2016 11:14 AM

We were instructed by our producer to avoid any situation that might remind players of Triple Deluxe and I think that although this was a great idea, it was a nightmare to put into practice. We had limited development time and still had to make use of the assets from the previous game. Because we were using Triple Deluxe's engine, a lot of the gameplay felt similar, so I was constantly fighting to preserve the Kirby series' distinctive feel and yet produce something fresh and new. There were, of course, many things that I would have liked to refine or improve, but rather than regret not being able to address them, I try to use those shortcomings as motivation to look to the future and help myself do a better job next time. It's a continuous process that never really ends.

イシダ

08/09/2016 11:15 AM

In Planet Robobot, I got the impression that you included references to older Kirby games and tried to evoke the same feel as them. Are you quite fond of the earlier titles? Were there any parts of them that influenced the current title?

クマザキ

08/09/2016 11:20 AM

I don't believe that Kirby would still be around if it weren't for the older series of games. Meta Knight and the Fountain of Dreams, debuting in Kirby's Adventure, returned in Kirby Super Star (known as Kirby's Fun Pak in Europe), and many of Kirby's friends and foes from Kirby's Dream Land 2 reprised their roles in Kirby's Dream Land 3. We're still continuing this trend of including characters and locations from past games. There's a huge amount of charm unique to Kirby games and we've got 24 years' worth of it to tap into. By incorporating some of that into Planet Robobot, we hope that newcomers to the Kirby series will be able to enjoy the more retro elements of the gameplay just as much as the newer ones. If that happens to spark their interest in the older titles too, we couldn't ask for more.

イシダ

08/09/2016 11:21 AM

All right, one last question. I'm sure some of our readers are getting fed up with all the game development questions, so let's move on to a different category! We've been receiving questions from all over the world along the lines of "Is Susie Haltmann's real daughter?" and "Is Susie a clone or a robot?". Mr Kumazaki, would you mind clearing things up for us once and for all and telling us her identity?

クマザキ

08/09/2016 11:24 AM

Allow me to explain: Susie is not a clone; she is Haltmann's real daughter. I'd had in mind two story paths - one in which you finish the game and the story concludes comfortably even without knowing Susie's identity, and one that reveals more answers after you sink a lot of time into the game. But in Planet Robobot, the story is designed with just a small twist to surprise you when you find out Susie's last name. I initially considered making it so that Haltmann, in his loneliness, created a robotic Susie who believed she was alive, but that idea was discarded to avoid overcomplicating the story. At the time, I also considered a scenario with one final twist, where you discover that Haltmann was actually a robot all along.

イシダ

08/09/2016 11:25 AM

Wow! There you have it, fans - the definitive answer you've been waiting for! We've still got plenty of questions lined up for Mr Kumazaki, but I think we're going to call it a day here. Watch this space for round 2 of the Kirby: Planet Robobot Ask-a-thon!

#robobo #en #robobo en

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