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martelldoran · 3 years

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WHAT'S THE CAUSALITY LOOP THEORY

Why Emma, thank you so much for asking. I’m not going to waste time before jumping into this because this is gonna get long so without further ado...

Steve Rogers’ Ending and How Endgame Doesn’t Support a Causality Loop and other such rambles

Last month, I came across a TikTok that proposed that Steve’s ending made sense because it existed within a causality loop. I would link the TikTok but I didn’t save it at the time and trying to find videos on that app is impossible. You think Tumblr’s search function is bad? 🙄 But I digress. The TL;DR of the video is that due to time travel and Steve choosing to go back in time to be Peggy’s husband, it created a causality loop where he was always meant to be her husband because he went back in time and stayed there. The TikToker supported his argument by using Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA), another film that uses time travel and has a clearly defined example of a causality loop. However, his argument is fundamentally flawed so I’m going to combine my knowledge of my two biggest fandoms to tell you why.

Continued under the cut because I have no chill. Beware, it's long.

To first tell you how Endgame (EG) doesn’t support a causality loop, we must establish how PoA does establish one and does it successfully. The TikToker specifically mentions the scenes that take place at Hagrid’s Hut surrounding Buckbeak the hippogriff’s execution, so we’ll look at those first. What the film does really well is establish early on that there is something weird going on well before anyone actually goes back in time. There are three things that happen in quick succession during this scene which sets up the causality loop we see later in the film. First, a rock flies through the window and breaks a jar. Second, another rock hits Harry in the back of the head. Third, once outside, Hermione hears a branch snap and thinks she sees ‘something’. There are also two additional moments later on in the film once the Harry, Ron, and Hermione have come out of the Shrieking Shack which should also be noted: a wolf howl that distracts Remus Lupin in werewolf form from attacking the group and somebody casting a full-bodied stag patronus at the edge of the lake to save Harry and Sirius from the Dementors.

Of these occurrences, the first is arguably the most important because it does the most to establish that there is something going on outside of the Trio’s current understanding of their situation. The film makes a point to frame the jar breaking as Important Information the Audience Must Remember because it shows a visibly confused Hermione reacting to it as she picks up the rock for closer inspection and we the audience are given close up of it in her hand. Not only is it framed front and centre in the shot but the rock itself is very distinctive. It’s almost wholly smooth but for a swirl of fossil, thus marking it as not just any rock but An Important Rock To Be Remembered. This was an intentional choice by director Alfonso Curon because he uses this rock to connect this moment to its mirrored scene later on once Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner.

The audience and the characters find out about the causality loop at the same time. There are clearly stated rules of time travel that say that they aren’t to meddle with time but when Harry and Hermione see that Dumbledore, the Minister for Magic, and the executioner are on their way to Hagrid’s hut they panic because their counterparts aren’t leaving. Then, we see Hermione notice something in the pumpkin patch: a distinctive rock, smooth with a swirl of fossil. Again, we see have a close up shot with the rock centred to show its importance. Stylistically, it’s very similar to the shot we saw earlier in the film which gives the audience an emotional pay off for noticing the connection. When Hermione throws the rock and breaks the jar, it sets the causality loop in motion. The jar was always going to break because they went back in time to throw the rock that breaks it.

And it’s the same with all the other instances. Hermione throws the second rock that hits Harry in the back of the head to alert him to the fact they need to get out of the hut. Hermione snaps the branch and is almost seen by her counterpart in the past. Hermione makes the wolf call to distract Lupin from attacking. Harry, and not his father as he had assumed, casts the patronus to save himself and Sirius from the Dementors. But each of these moments are set up clearly in the ‘first run through’ to set up their payoff when the characters realise, ‘Oh, I did these things. They were always meant to happen.’ From a narrative standpoint, these are planned out moments to clue the audience into the fact that there’s something bigger at play. It keeps them ‘in the loop’ as it were.

This doesn’t happen in EG.

To successfully have set up a causality loop that made sense and had the same kind of set up and pay off as we see in PoA, it would have had to have been established as early as 2014 in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CA:TWS). This does not happen. One of the main themes of CA:TWS is moving on from the past. Peggy Carter herself even says, “I’ve lived my life, my only regret is that you didn’t get to live yours.” Then saying soon after, “Sometimes the best thing we can do is to start over.” Peggy’s character in Captain America: The First Avenger is set up as someone who acts as the backup/back bone of Steve’s own moral compass. When Steve falters at Azzano about what to about the captured 107th, Peggy is there to remind him of what is right. She serves a similar narrative function in CA:TWS. Steve is struggling with life in the present. He’s just seen the helecarriers and argued with Nick Fury about protection vs fear after the botched Lumerian Star mission. Morally, he’s in turmoil and has turned to Peggy for council because he’s trying to find purpose in world where his rigid morality seems to have no place.

From the point of view of creating a causality loop, one would think that this scene in the hospital would be the place where an initial set-up could be made and alert the audience to the long term plan for Steve’s character. Instead, we have Peggy mourning the fact that Steve didn’t get to live his life the way it should have played out, and why would a woman who has supposedly been married to another version of Steve tell him to move on? In addition, when Steve visits the Smithsonian, he watches a video where he sees Peggy talking about how he influenced her life and how during one of his missions, he saved the man that would go on to become her husband. This is the only mention of Peggy’s husband in the entire franchise until Steve reappears as an old man at the end of EG.

Captain America: Civil War (CA:CW) also offers an opportunity to set up the causality loop at Peggy’s funeral but again, this does not happen. The only family we are introduced to is Sharon Carter, Peggy’s grand-niece. When it comes to filmmaking, every choice made is intentional. From the hair and makeup to the clothes, to the music used, everything in a film means something whether it is to further character development, world-building, or the plot. Filmmakers have a limited amount of time to convey a story and anything that doesn’t matter isn’t shown. Therefore, we can conclude from the text of the film that Peggy’s husband doesn’t matter to the narrative. The person in Peggy’s family who matters to the narrative is Sharon Carter which is why she is given prominence during CA:CW’s funeral scene. Had the causality loop been set up here, there would have been a defining moment like in PoA where the audience is clued into the larger story arc. Maybe someone says something, or he meets his older self, but that doesn’t happen. It should also be noted that apart from a small scene in Ant Man, Peggy isn’t mentioned again until EG.

In Endgame itself, the film still fails to set up a causality loop. It could be argued that this is the most important film for the set-up because this is when the audience gets the payoff. The first thing we see after the 5-yer time jump is Steve in a group therapy session for those that survived Thanos’ snap. Survivors share their stories and Steve talks about Peggy, a woman who has been dead in canon for 7-years and who died of old age. It’s incongruous and sticks out because narratively it doesn’t make sense for him to talk about her and not someone he watched disintegrate in front of his eyes. Steve watches his best friend and hundreds of others turn to ash around him and that film ends on his horrified face as he sits by his best friend’s ashes. Narratively, this is the thread that should carry through to EG but instead, he talks about missing his chance with Peggy. However, unlike PoA, there is no indication whether through dialogue or framing that clues the audience into Steve’s eventual ending at the end of the film.

Even when he goes back to the 70s, we see him looking mournfully at Peggy through the blinds in her office and a picture of him, pre-serum, on her desk. Steve and Peggy’s relationship prior to Endgame is supposed to represent the bittersweet loss of the life he could have had had he not sacrificed himself to the cause in CA:TFA. Then, since the audience knows from Steve and Peggy’s conversation in the hospital in CA:TWS that she moved on from Steve to live a happy life, we can assume that this picture is meant as nothing more than a fond memento of someone that meant a lot to her. Once more, there is no indication that Steve is ever meant to be her husband.

It’s impossible to infer a causality loop here in the same way as we saw in PoA. In PoA, there is a payoff for every single unusual or weird moment the story presents the audience before and after the use of time travel but this is something that’s completely absent from Endgame’s narrative. Steve himself doesn’t even vocalise a desire to go back in time at any point in EG nor at any point during the other films he appears in. In fact, when questioned by Tony Stark about the possibility of ‘going home’ in Avengers: Age of Ulton, he says, “The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out.” While it is indicative of his unhappiness in the modern-day, it does indicate a level of acceptance of the fact that this is his life and he has to make his peace with it. He’s taken what Peggy said in CA:TWS on board. He’s starting over and moving on.

With time travel, and Steve choosing to stay in the past came the fan theory that one of the pallbearers carrying Peggy’s casket in CA:CW is Old Man Steve, her husband. When presented with this fan theory, writer Christopher Markus said during an interview with the LA Times at SDCC 2019,

“I would very much like that. There is no set explanation for Cap’s time travel . . .I mean, we’ve had public disagreements with [directors Anthony and Joe Russo] about what it [time travel] necessarily means, but I love the idea of there being two Steve Rogers in the timeline. One who lived a long life with Peggy and is in the background of that funeral scene watching his young self carry his wife’s coffin up. Not just for the time travel mumbo jumbo of it, but for the just weird, personal pain and satisfaction that would be happening between two Steve Rogers there. I kind of love it.” [emphasis mine]

This shows that unlike in PoA there was no intention of creating a causality loop prior to Markus writing EG with his writing partner Stephen McFeely. In fact, it makes clear that the actual rules of time travel were in contention and that even those making the film didn’t have a unified idea of what they wanted to create in the first place. The fact that there is confusion surrounding EG's time travel is due to the fact that the people behind it, didn't seem to know what they were writing or consider the consequences of it.

What all of this shows is that an argument of a PoA style causality loop doesn’t hold water. The film doesn’t support it, nor do any of the previous films, because there aren’t any indicators for the audience to latch onto. There is no moment of the rock breaking the jar, or the patronus chasing away the dementors, no moment where that the audience is told to hold into this information for later because there’s some timey wimey stuff going on. Ultimately, when examined, there is no set-up for a causality loop that supports the theory he was always supposed to go back and be Peggy’s husband, particularly when examined against a film that successfully lays it out from the start.

Right, the more academic (lol) part of this post is done. I just want to address one more TikTok that bothered me because I have opinions and MCU Captain America is my Mastermind specialist subject.

The TL;DR of this one was that Steve’s ending made sense because he got out of the fight and was at peace and that that has been the ultimate goal of his character arc. This person argued that Steve used the Avengers to distract himself from the fact that he’s this man out of time and he can’t find peace without a fight which to some extent, I agree with. I don’t deny that that is a major driving force to his story. We see that in Age of Ultron with his WandaNightmare. I don’t deny that that is key to his character. However, this creator then made a comment at the end of this video to the tune of, ‘bUt BuCkY iS hIs StOrY aRc’ and tried to play it off like this wasn’t true or that people were wrong to think that this is the case.

These two things aren’t mutually exclusive. They’re both true. They’re intertwined. But you cannot say that Bucky Barnes isn’t at the heart of Steve Rogers’ story. Bucky was the catalyst for every single one of Steve’s movies. He becomes CA because of Bucky. He goes against SHIELD because of Bucky. He defies 107 countries and the Sokovia Accords because of Bucky. You take Bucky out of the equation and what do you have? What happens in those films if you take Bucky Barnes out of the equation? Viewing it objectively, and even without shipper goggles on, you simply cannot sit there and claim that Bucky Barnes isn't a defining component to Steve’s story. Steve Rogers is motivated by Bucky Barnes. Steve Rogers is motivated by the depth of their relationship and the fact that Bucky Barnes is one of the few things connecting his new present to his old life.

You can definitely see the fact that Steve is uncomfortable in the modern world. He doesn’t address any of his trauma but he still attempts to move on. However, if they wanted him getting out of the fight and finding life as a civilian to be the natural end to his story arc then there was a way to do it which didn’t require him going back to Peggy. It would have been a better and more satisfying ending if he’d actively chosen to retire because I often see the argument that him going back to Peggy is him finally allowing him to be selfish after shouldering so much over the past decade or more. If Steve chose to retire and put himself first, then that sends a better message. He’s still getting the chance to ‘be selfish’ but he’s not throwing the life he’s built away. At this point in EG, he’s spent a huge portion of his adult life in the modern-day. This isn’t the future for him anymore, it’s the present and he’s lived a life and made real connections with people. The MCU does a piss poor job of showing the interpersonal relationships between the Avengers but he is at least shown to be friends with Sam, Nat, and Bucky.

But he goes back to a delusion. Or an idea of something that was never his in the first place.

When I see people make these videos and share their opinions, I can see their points but it’s like they’re taking EG on its own when that's impossible. Endgame only ‘works’ if you have the context of 10 years’ worth of films. You have to at least be somewhat familiar with the characters, who they are and what they’ve done up until now to be able to make sense of it.

However, in saying that, they wrote and filmed the movie in a way to make you think you didn’t have to take into account anything you’ve seen in the past ten years. If you only watch Endgame, you only see a grieving man mourning the love he never had. You see a man, regretful that he didn’t get to be with woman he loved. So at the end, of course it would make sense that he goes back to her. But you can only do that if you completely divorce Endgame from its ten-year canon and in a franchise like this where they make a big deal about everything being interconnected, it simply doesn’t work. Steve’s story arc in Endgame is incongruous to the narrative arc we’ve been presented in previous films.

Ultimately, Endgame is a movie you’re supposed to watch once and then not think about again. It’s made for that first viewing when everything is shocking and exciting because if you stop to think about it even a little bit, it falls apart under scrutiny.

Finally, I think that the downfall of a lot of these ‘Steve’s ending makes sense’ posts is that made by people who are most certainly MCU fans but not Steve Rogers fans and it shows.

#in this essay i will #endgame wank #anti endgame #for the filters #steve rogers #my writing #because this i didn't spend my afternoon on this for nothing #marvel #stevie #angelblue007

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unnursvanablog · 2 years

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The Red Sleeve / kdrama review.

This is just my opinions on the kdrama The Red Sleeve. Thoughts below are pretty much spoiler free, but if there are spoilers I will put up a spoiler warning first.

One of the more impressive historical dramas that has come from Korea in recent years. Masterfully made, with great actors and a much more serious tone than many of these new historical dramas that are a bit fluffier and lighter, and often feel a bit timid to go all the way with its political plot which often makes the story loses some momentum and make the tension of the story feel artificial and contrived. This drama, however, manages all of that extremely well. One can tell why it is one of the most popular historical dramas from Korea for a long time.

The Red Sleeve feels serious, bold but still not too dry, so it was no fun to watch. It had a good pace to the story, and I liked the darker undertone that was always present within the narrative. Despite a more serious approach at the palace politics but still achieve a certain lightness in other aspects of the show, without those two things working too much against each other. There was a good balance between the characters arcs, the palace politics, the more romantic moments, the serious and the light.

In my opinion, the drama did a really good job painting this picture of the loneliness of the palace and show it as this dazzling but ghostly prison for all the female characters of the episodes, highborn or not. Especially as we went further into the story. The loneliness of the palace does affect all the character in some way or another and that's a very nice theme throughout the story. It has a good emphasis on how the female characters play a special role within the narrative. To me the main character, Deok Im, never wanted to be anything but free within the limits of the society she is born in, and the story always comes back to that very point. She is always true to herself while putting other before her.

*spoiler* All her life she seems to try her best to be loyal to those who are good to her but closed off to people around her, but especially to the prince who has such great affection for her, to avoid feeling trapped by this life that she has. Because when you become his concubine, there is a certain world that is just closed to you. It's not really until she's cornered, and she sees no other way that she finally gives in to his affections and becomes that concubine that she is destined to be. And I think it was the purpose of the story that Deok Im really had no choice but to be his wife in the end, even if she loved him, although it was a little frustrating that he liked her more than she liked him. *spoiler*

The romance, as much as I liked it in the beginning, lost it's my grip towards the end because I felt Yi San insisted too much that he owned Deok Im, and seemed a little too domineering to me. But at the same time, I feel like it was very much part of the realism that this show seemed to convey. This is not a romantic comedy or a teenage love story. The story, all the way through, is describing the harsh reality of the palace, which was something I really appreciated (and it managed that without being too gory or grim for the sake of realism like Game of Thrones for example).

It is a bit bold to present the love story of the drama in such a way and having the prince carry far more feelings for Deok Im than she seems to do for him, or it can be interpreted in that way at least, rather than showing a more of balance between their feelings. But the writing was done with such sincerity and great sensitivity, and the same can be said about the character, that I felt I understood the position of all of them, although I did not always agree with them.

But even though the themes and characters of The Red Sleeve were brilliant, I found the story start to go in small circles towards the end and drag unnecessarily in certain sections as the story goes on a bit about the same thing. But I cannot blame the scriptwriters of the drama too much for that, as the drama got an extension due to their popularity and it can be hard to add new things to fill over an hour of content with something new. And it didn't hurt the story that much overall. The end result was still the same.

Deok Im and her friends who work in the court, as well as pretty much all the female characters in the drama have my whole heart. They were all so deep, varied in characters and thought and had their own stories to tell and were, to me, the focal point of the whole show. This story is theirs. Every single woman in this drama that felt trapped within this palace. And the bitter ending works wonderfully well for the story that this drama was trying to tell. Anything else would have taken from the realism of the story.

#kdrama review #kdrama reviews #the red sleeve #the red sleeve cuff

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rosalyn51 · 3 years

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BACK IN TIME

Panavision

Adam Etherington, BSC partners with Panavision and Panalux to visualize a centuries-spanning storyline for A Discovery of Witches Season 2.

Season 2 of A Discovery of Witches found cinematographer Adam Etherington, BSC partnering with director Farren Blackburn to continue the adventures of historian and witch Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) and her unlikely ally, the vampire Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode). Both Etherington and Blackburn were new additions to the series, and together they set out to build upon the visual language that had been established in Season 1 while embracing the opportunities afforded by a new twist in the narrative, which sends Diana and Matthew back in time to the Elizabethan era.

Etherington turned to Panavision for his camera and lens package, and gaffer Andrew “Tala” Taylor sourced lighting equipment through Panalux. “Tala handled the interaction with Panalux, as is generally the way with this scale of production,” Etherington shares. “Both he and I have great relationships with Panalux, and they were very supportive of what we were trying to achieve with the show. It was fantastic to have them in our corner.”

Panavision recently connected with Etherington for a firsthand account of the cinematographer’s creative approach to balancing the show’s period and contemporary settings, and of the process that led him to frame the story with Panavision’s PVintage optics.

Panavision: How did you come to be involved in Season 2?

Adam Etherington, BSC: The meeting came about through a competitive interview process, as is so often the way. I’m a huge believer in the value of preparation, and I dedicate a large amount of time to understanding a project and developing ideas before I enter a pitch. I studied the first season of A Discovery of Witches as well as other relevant material that might be useful in light of the move to an Elizabethan setting. I then did quite an in-depth breakdown of the script, looking into characters, potential arcs in relation to the first season, motivations, key themes and motifs, and of course possibilities for the visual realization of those ideas. The script is the foundation of the choices we make, and understanding the philosophies of the storytelling is such a crucial element in creating a world for the audience.

I also studied Farren’s most recent work and read interviews where he’d talked about other projects, and I looked at interviews with other key creatives from the series and wider material about the show itself. Then it was a case of developing a base of visual ideas and a tranche of reference material that I could offer up, if appropriate, during the meeting.

Had you known Farren previously?

Etherington: This was a new opportunity for me to meet and work with Farren. His usual collaborators were unavailable, which opened the opportunity for others to pitch on the show. I’d been aware of his work for a very long time and knew his reputation for delivering some of the most exciting shows out there in innovative and progressive ways — he was already directing massive shows when I was still a camera assistant. This was a great opportunity for me to get the chance to collaborate with him.

Coming into Season 2, where did you and your collaborators see opportunities to evolve or expand upon the series’ visual language?

Etherington: From the very start, Farren had a wonderful clarity of vision for the ethos and ideology of the series’ visual language, including an assured perspective that the camera’s movement should be wholly motivated by the narrative. He wanted a precision-based approach with a refined set of rules as to when and why the camera should move. This was something that he and I discussed at length. Rather than simply falling into coverage, we knew we wanted elegant shots that developed and evolved to tell the story. We wanted the photography to emphasise and enhance the power play within the narrative arc, with lensing that was appropriate to each character’s emotional positioning within the narrative.

We also wanted to build a strategy of graphic compositions to convey the grandeur and beauty of the incredible locations and sets. The world deserved big, bold, beautiful wides that could combine with close, intimate frames that would draw the audience close-in to a character’s experience for moments of confidence, suspicion or tenderness, enabling the audience to experience those beats with the characters.

There were things to avoid, too. We actively made a call to avoid using handheld or any superfluous, unmotivated camera movement, as both of these things felt as though they might take away from the precision-based ideology of the visual language as a whole.

Beyond the first season, did you and Farren share any specific visual references?

Etherington: The first season was obviously something that we studied and considered carefully in order to ensure that the choices we were making were respectful to the origins of the show as well as its audience and fan-base. That said, the Elizabethan landscape was a new world to explore, and Farren had a clear strategy as to the way he wanted to invite the audience into that world.

Although I had brought a base of references and visual ideas to the initial meeting, I quickly learned that Farren’s preference is to avoid homing in on any one defined cinematic reference. This meant that although I did use a number of other films in my lighting reference and mood boards, these were individual images that carried an overarching representation of tone and mood.

Farren prefers the use of stills photography rather than cinema when it comes to reference work, so our lighting mood boards consisted more so of artists’ renderings as well as beauty, still life and landscape photography. It gave us a wonderful freedom from any sense that we were at risk of attempting to recreate or directly reference any one film or show too closely. I can see now how it has enabled him to keep his work so consistently innovative and unique, as it relinquishes the creative attachment to anything that has come before.

What brought you to Panavision for your camera and lens package?

Etherington: I’d worked recently with Panavision on a series called Temple, which we shot using Panavision spherical Primos and Cooke Xtal Xpres anamorphics. It was my first time working with Panavision optics, and I was completely blown away by the caliber of their look and feel. The commitment to optical development that is synonymous with Panavision has always fascinated me, and it really showed in the qualities of the images that those lenses created. When it came to selecting the right lenses for A Discovery of Witches, I knew the high caliber look and feel of Panavision optics would be perfect for the series’ visual landscape.

How did you decide which lenses in particular you would use for A Discovery of Witches?

Etherington: I am a big believer in testing. It is an opportunity to be playful and experiment in order to push boundaries and find something with a unique character that can enhance the visual storytelling. We were also very conscious that, as the show already had an established and astute audience, it would be important to be respectful of that in our choices for the world. Testing was an opportunity to make those choices as informed as possible.

I have always had an enormous affection for vintage lenses, and given Farren’s brief to me for the show’s aesthetic, I knew that an older lens series would suit the intended approach. We wanted a lens series that would elevate the beauty and scale of the Elizabethan landscape but would also have the contrast rendition, beautiful roll-off and wonderful clarity to capture and convey both the power and the intimacy of the characters’ journeys.

This was the first time I’ve really had the opportunity to properly explore Panavision’s spherical range of optics in a controlled scenario. We needed a series that would provide us with a great range of focal lengths, that would be technically sound for our assistants to work with, and that above all would render beautiful and striking images with a world-class aesthetic. I had a few ideas as to what might be right for us, but the only way to really find out was through testing.

What did you actually shoot for this lens test? What were you looking at and testing for?

Etherington: There are so many things you’re looking at and for in a lens test. Many of them are technical representations of a lens’ performance against other optics, but largely, for me at least, you’re looking for an instinctive feeling. It is as much about the way that a lens conveys the connection between viewer and subject as it is about how many lines of projection it offers.

We set up our test with three different subjects and three different lighting conditions: exterior daylight, candlelit and lit. We wanted to see the way that the lenses handled contrast, roll-off, color rendition, flare, veiling, consistency within the range, any imperfections and aberrations, the shape and texture of the bokeh, extreme contrast, highlights and shadows, skin tones, image sharpness and projection, as well as the falloff of projection across the sensor. We created an environment wherein we could keep a consistent T-stop across the test range, with a person as a subject, various light sources in deep background for bokeh, a Macbeth chart and gray card, as well as a direct source we could pass over the lens to see the way the lens flared. We shot a couple of focal lengths from each lens series, and a couple of T-stops to see how the lenses performed at different stops.

What ultimately led you to choose PVintage lenses for this story?

Etherington: The first series of A Discovery of Witches had originated on Canon K35 lenses, but Farren was very keen to work with a lens series that would offer a greater range of focal lengths, particularly a series that included a 40mm, which is a favorite of his. So I set about trying to find an option that would give us a beautiful aesthetic but that would also offer the range of focal lengths desired.

I knew the qualities of the PVintage lenses from discussions with other cinematographers and with the brilliant Kirstie Wilkinson, who was our tech contact at Panavision, but I hadn’t yet tested them myself, so we wanted to see them alongside some more familiar options in order to understand them better. In testing, we noticed the lenses had the unique qualities and beautiful nuances of vintage optics, but they rendered an image that carried a fantastic weight and clarity without being too razor-sharp. They handled extreme contrast beautifully, combining with the format for a sophisticated, considered roll-off from the highlights. The projection across the sensor was such that it carried the eye to the subject, with a gentle falloff in exposure and roll-off in focus, and they created a bokeh that was beautiful without being distracting. They also didn’t seem to fall apart in the same way that some other older lens series do. They delivered an image that felt like it was from the highest caliber of optics, with a contrast rendition that we knew would support us in creating mood and atmosphere when required within the storytelling. They also flared beautifully and offered an internal refraction of light that split colors across the spectrum in a way we felt would work well as a narrative device for certain moments within the storytelling. There was a beautiful softness to the image, too, which was exactly what we were looking for in some of the more intimate moments within the storytelling.

Did you seek to visually differentiate the period and contemporary portions of the story?

Etherington: We didn’t actively look to push the worlds apart. We were mindful that we would be catapulting the audience back and forth between two time periods, so we actually looked to develop a base of constants between the worlds that would help the universe coalesce whilst allowing the nuances of each world to provide it with its own visual beauty and identity.

The distinguishing factors between the worlds primarily manifested themselves in the way interactive and practical light was motivated due to the inherent differences of the respective eras. In the Elizabethan era, we had this wonderful combination of soft, warm, incandescent candlelight, and directional, motivated, atmospheric daylight or moonlight to play with. We wanted to build color separation into the images, so we exploited the differences in tone and color temperature between the two sources to help build and maintain depth and texture in the images. With the fantastical ideologies and beautification of the world in mind, we decided to make use of the incandescent sources — be it fire, candles or both — as a constant both for day and night work. This meant that we were able to exploit the benefits of having mixed color temperatures for color separation as well as motivated sources in order to beautify the visual landscape and highlight the opulence of production designer James North’s sets.

Something that came up repeatedly in prep from the lead creatives was that they wanted the show to be photographically rendered in a way that would allow the audience to enjoy the beauty and opulence of the costume and set design that had been developed for the Elizabethan world. We took this into direct consideration in our strategy, ensuring that we elevated the exposure of interior scenes by around 1/3 to 1/2 of a stop above where we intended to finish. This was in order to protect the integrity of the ‘digital neg’ and leave us a clean starting point free of video noise, but with the aesthetic ready for the grade. We also elected against shooting with a lower ISO in-camera as we didn’t want to compromise the upper end of the highlights depending on the use of incandescent sources in the scene.

With our fantastic DIT Jo Barker, we then refined the look in our dailies, where she and I collaborated to bring the exposure to where we felt was appropriate to the scene. The strategy worked well and was appreciated by our lead creatives, as it gave us room to maneuver in the grade and a strong ‘digital neg’ with a clean base and plenty of dynamic range.

Can you elaborate on the idea of having a ‘base of constants’ in your lighting while embracing the unique qualities of each time period? What did that mean in terms of your overall approach to lighting the show?

Etherington: We were influenced by the motivation of the different types and qualities of light between the contemporary and period settings, but we still tried to maintain a general continuity of aesthetic within the series. There was a great focus within the production on beauty and scale, and we wanted to ensure that our lighting approach enhanced these objectives.

Our overall approach, speaking incredibly broadly, was to work with beautiful, soft, directional daylight or moonlight as a base for our world, and then to complement that illumination of the landscape with a flattering dramatic key, with color separation built into the strategy where appropriate. For the daylight itself, we generally went for a cooler hue and tried to finesse that in a way that was directional but soft as opposed to sharp, hard beams of light. The hope was that the light would break into the spaces in a striking way that would then bounce off the floors and illuminate the world in a textural manner that brought out the strengths of the design.

For the more sinister beats, we let the world fall away with greater contrast and shadow, using silhouette, backlight and wet-downs for exterior work to lend atmosphere to the scale. We then often worked with a three-quarter key on the actors, allowing the neg side to fall away into a more powerful shadow. Of course, this all varied and evolved scene by scene and beat by beat.

Did you have a preferred method for keying the actors on this series?

Etherington: In keying, we used a lot of textiles — grids, silks and muslin, either with bounced or direct sources. Our most frequently utilized strategy was a three-part key through half grid-cloths. By having the three sources playing at slightly different colour temperatures — usually with a cooler hue for the wrap, a mid-balanced source as our primary key, and a warmer source at a really low level as a fill — we created a flattering soft light that gave a wonderful catch light in the actors’ eyes while giving them room to move as much as the locations would allow. In small spaces where there was little opportunity to build larger sources from a distance, it almost created a moveable ‘window’ that we could bring in toward the actors to get that wonderful fall-off and quality of light that you might get from sitting by a window. Of course, this was only appropriate for some scenes. There are many sinister, powerful or more intimate moments within the narrative that required completely different approaches, so our lighting always changed and evolved depending on the motivations of the narrative arc and character positioning.

One thing worth mentioning is that we hoped to give the actors a good area to move and play in. I’m always conscious of having to ask favors of the actors when it comes to intricate marks for light. Artists of the caliber that we were blessed with will always find their light and are so wonderfully collaborative when it comes to the dance between camera and performer, but we wanted as much as possible to give them the freedom of a space to play in. There are of course times when you need to ask an actor to help you a little, but as a general rule I will always try my best to ‘light the world’ so the actors have flexibility to move, and so they can be instinctive and reactive without being restricted by limitations we inflict upon them. I have such respect for their craft. The fact they have to deliver with such consistency at a moment’s notice day in and day out speaks volumes for the pressures that they’re under. It’s up to us as cinematographers to support them in that.

You have a long history of partnering with Panalux for lighting support. How did that begin?

Etherington: Panalux have supported me massively throughout my career, right from the very start. The people there were wonderful in looking out for me in the early days, both in introducing me to the wider world of the cinematography community and in helping me find my feet with equipment. I was always calling Panalux and begging favors when making short films with no money, and they used to let me come down to the yard to get gel offcuts from the big films as well as old bits of poly and silver. I didn’t go to film school, so Panalux’s help made a massive difference. That was the foundation of my learning in lighting — just getting kit, making things up and gradually figuring out how everything worked. I’d load up my old car to the brim at their yard, surrounded by all these massive lighting trucks full of amazing kit, and then go off and make a bunch of short films. Hopefully I’ve been able to repay a bit of that faith they showed in me so early on. I’ll always be grateful for it.

Images courtesy of Adam Etherington, BSC.

#matthew goode #matthew clairmont #teresa palmer #a discovery of witches #cinematography

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xyzcekaden · 3 years

Text

🚍 unsuspecting sunday afternoon 🚍

by me, xyzcekaden! a pokemon fanfic about when the one you hate to love is made for you

How capable is the human heart now?

fandom: pokemon, gen 3, advanced generation characters: ash, may, steven stone in a “supporting” role ship: advanceshipping genre: romance, angst themes: friendship, pre-relationship, slowburn, 6+1 if you squint setting: modern, hoenn, pokemon universe lite word count: 4.6k rating: T

read it below, on ffnet, or on ao3!

A/N (9.7.201): So this has been in my drafts since about April 2020 😅 Sure, I'm happy to finally share something new with the small yet strong advanceshipping fandom; but more than that, I'm relieved this document can no longer taunt me with its incompletion, hahaha. Do let me know what you think! Especially with this opening formatting; I'm trying something new. :)

Nothing sensitive in the fic, but the characters are all adults so it felt fitting to rate it T. Title taken from the song of the same name by the Backstreet Boys, and its lyrics/sentiments are interwoven throughout. The narrative is inspired and framed by monstaxnight's anonymous ask. If you recognise it, it doesn't belong to me. Thanks for reading!

~~~

fall for someone whose body would start fires

On a Saturday, May asked Ash to come over the next day. “I need a second opinion on something,” she had said. “It’ll be super quick.”

Of course, ‘super quick’ means Ash has enough time to set his switch up on May’s gigantic living room tv and play a few rounds of his favourite fighting video game while she gets ready for something or another in her room. He always acts like he has better things to do than help her with her sundry weekly ventures, but they both know he’d rather do ‘nothing’ with her than ‘something’ on his own somewhere else.

“Okay, Ash, are you ready?” May’s voice rings out. “Yeah,” he answers distractedly, strategically button smashing.

“So I kept the jeans from this last outfit, but this top I just got two weekends ago and haven’t had a chance to wear yet,” May narrates as she exits her room. “I had the, frankly, brilliant idea of using the jacket from Outfit 1 and pairing it with those heels you paid for for my birthday, et voila!”

The clacking of heels stops at the entrance of the hallway. “What do you think?’

Ash redirects his attention to May. His avatar dies on screen, just like his voice dies in his throat.

“You, um, you look great.”

In actuality, May looks smoking hot, but that’s not new for either of them. His best friend is supremely attractive, and he knew it and had no problem acknowledging it normally. This time, however, May doesn’t just look physically great, she also looks like she feels like she looks great. He doesn’t know how much sense that makes; but there is decidedly something different, and Ash feels a strange sense of dread in his chest.

May beams, taking the inarticulate response in stride. “Well that’s a winning endorsement if I ever heard one! Now let’s just hope Steven has as great of a reaction.” She turns to one of the many full-length mirrors stationed around her condo and reviews the outfit with a critical eye.

This brings Ash out from his stupor. “‘Steven’?” he repeats as he sits up on the couch. “You’re going on a date?”

“It’s not a date,” May replies in a tone that clearly conveys that she would not be opposed to it turning into a date. “My dad is having dinner with an old business partner, and the guy’s bringing his son along, so me and Max were invited, too. We were kinda friends back when we were young, but it’s not like we’ve kept in touch or anything. I just figured I should make a good second first-impression… You know, for my dad’s sake.”

Ash can tell the last bit was just something she’s telling herself to rationalise why she’s trying so hard, and it doesn’t sit right with him. He slinks back down on the couch dejectedly and halfheartedly starts a new game.

He finds himself wondering how often they hung out and how much whatever-that-number-was-teenth impressions were worth. He hopes it’s a lot.

~~~

fall for someone who always runs from his kiss

“… And I was right! They were roommates!” May boisterously ends her story, almost losing her ice cream to physics as she wildly gesticulates.

They’re just strolling around the park that’s honestly nowhere near either of their apartments; but over the years, it became their park anyway. They didn’t even set plans to hang out today, but it kinda just happened―a recurring theme in their friendship, admittedly.

For his part, Ash hides a smirk with a lick to his own ice cream, not bothering to say or do anything to protect her treat. If she hasn’t learned by now, she never would. “Oh my god, they were roommates,” he deadpans instead.

May sends him an unimpressed smirk and lightly smacks Ash’s shoulder. He yelps. She yanks her hand back as soon as she realises, but the damage is done.

He blinks down at the cold, vanilla, rainbow-sprinkled stain before raising his gaze to meet May’s equally stunned one.

They stare in silence for a moment, then May cracks a conciliatory grin. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry?”

He shrugs it off easily. “I probably deserved it,” he says, making peace with the knowledge that his previous unwillingness to protect her ice cream from any accidents is the undoubted origin for his current poor luck. He nods toward the path. “Shall we?”

“We passed by a restroom a little bit ago. We can clean you up,” May disagrees, tugging on his arm in the opposite direction.

“‘S fine,” he argues as he tries to continue walking forward.

“Ash, it’ll stain!” She tugs harder.

“It’ll be an improvement!” He’s overpowering her, but not as easily as he’d like.

“Why are you being such a butthead about this!?” She’s pulling with all her strength now, this being a matter of pride to her at this point.

“Come on, May!” Ash heaves one last time.

They tumble head over feet onto the ground, but that’s not the reason Ash feels like his world has turned upside down.

May’s body weighs comfortably on his, his hands naturally settle on her waist with hers on his chest, and his brown eyes bore into her blues. Their ice cream has fallen… somewhere, but Ash doesn’t concern himself with that considering this is the closest they’ve been since they first met.

They’ve been toeing this line since then, too.

I’m gonna do it, he thinks to himself.

He closes his eyes.

He leans in.

May scrambles away.

Ash sits up and blinks at the sight of May’s confused, furious eyes. “Ash, what are you doing?” Her voice croaks like her throat is dry. It makes him clear his own before dumbly responding, “I was trying to kiss you.”

“Why??” she asks, her voice strangled. He pushes himself off the ground warily as he watches her hold herself, bite her lip, shake her head in a panic; and somehow in all of that, he understands.

“I thought it wasn’t a date.” Ash tries so hard not to sound accusatory, but her wince in response proves it didn’t work. It also proves his fear correct.

He turns, hiding as if the people walking by could discern his transgression and shame by the sight of his face alone. Besides, his mind can conjure up an image of her running away just fine on its own.

Ash notices the remnants of their impromptu outing splattered on the ground near his feet. He picks up what he can and stomps over to the nearest trash bin, throwing it in as hard as he can to let out some of his frustration.

He hopes he hasn’t gone and screwed everything up.

~~~

fall for someone whose lips belong to someone else

They don’t talk about it, and then it’s too late.

“Ash, this is Steven,” she tells him softly, as if it could make up for how it feels like the sight of her arms wrapped around the guy’s torso and his arm casually thrown over her shoulder assaults him every time he blinks.

“Steven Stone. It’s great to finally meet you. May speaks of you highly,” Steven introduces with a dignified air. Not pompous, no; he is just someone who was raised being told that he was going to do important things and who happened to believe it.

They shake hands, and Ash’s fingers feel cold, a marked contrast to how there’s something in his chest that’s burning.

Inside the restaurant, the waitress asks if a table is okay, and no one asks for a booth instead. In his seat, Ash is neither directly in between nor directly across from the newly-established couple, and he wonders if this is where all his luck went into.

Lunch goes better than expected.

Ash was prepared to hate the guy, but what is there to hate? Steven has a decent sense of humour, loves pokemon but loves rocks even more, and is COO of the biggest enterprise in Hoenn. He is a safe, sensible choice. This guy isn’t going to break May’s heart.

As the meal winds down, Steven offers to pay for everyone; but Ash still has his pride. In the end, he manages to negotiate paying for just his own plate and drink, knowing he has no right to battle for the privilege of paying for May’s.

He wouldn’t even do so on a typical occasion anyway; but as far as Ash is concerned, Steven’s presence throws all of the friends’ typical rules of engagement out the window.

They say goodbye and part ways in front of the restaurant.

A few steps later, Ash snaps his fingers as he recalls something. He turns around to remind May of their movie plans in a few days, and he is met with the sight of the couple sharing a sweet kiss on the corner while waiting for the light to change.

Steven could never break May’s heart, but he sure can break Ash’s.

Ash turns back and continues walking. He hopes May can remember on her own.

~~~

fall for someone whose touch is way too much

May insists that nothing has changed between them, but clearly something has because Ash doesn’t remember ever being so anxious about her proximity before.

He had always been aware of her, though. Always. When your first meeting is saving the other from getting run over by a tour bus, you quickly develop the habit of keeping track of where the person is at all times.

Between his athleticism and her natural proclivity towards tactileness, casual physical exchanges quickly became their norm: hugs and high fives, friendly elbows in the rib after a good joke and sharing a blanket as they watch a movie, (lingering touches on the shoulder and holding hands even after they’ve escaped a crowd… or did he make those up?).

They were controlled yet unmistakably affectionate markers of their relationship.

But now?

When she shifts one centimetre closer to him in line at the mall food court, he accidentally overpays by fifty pokeyen out of distraction. When she grabs his fork out of his hand to try a piece of his takoyaki, he jerks so hard at the contact that he spills his soft drink all over the table. When she pats him dry using flimsy food court napkins with a joke about ice cream in her voice and fondness in her eyes, he needs to claim a rapid-onset fever in order to give himself an excuse to cut their lunch short immediately.

These innocent touches have been an ever-present facet of their friendship since basically the beginning; and even when he realised he was in love, they hadn’t affected him like this.

Things are different now, despite what she says.

Well, maybe not things; maybe just him.

He had allowed himself to revel in their familiar touches when she was single because he could, because there was no one else that she was supposed to be able to make feel like this. Even if the feeling wasn’t meant for him, it wasn’t meant for anyone else either.

But now.

He can’t, in good conscience, allow his heart to rush and his smile to form and his hand to squeeze back. It wouldn’t be fair to May, not when she’s trusting him with her friendship and he’s taking more from her than that.

Even though he’d like nothing else than to keep that closeness, to go back to how it was between them before, this is the way it has to be now. He just hopes she can understand.

~~~

fall for someone he doesn’t want to feel for

On sleepless nights, he wonders when.

He knows the who, what, why, and how; but the when eludes him.

...

They were both breathing heavy, attention focused on the spot of the road where the girl would have flattened like a pancake if it weren’t for his quick reflexes and hero complex.

The clapping of a few passers-by snapped them out of their shock and into the realisation that he still had her protectively cradled to his chest.

They quickly broke apart, and he took the time to wave off the praise from the gathered crowd while she checked her purse to see if everything was inside.

“You got everything?” he asked after people’s attentions finally turned back towards their own lives.

“Yeah, I do,” the girl replied, and her voice was rather cheery considering the ordeal she just survived. (He would later learn that was her default.)

“Great,” he said, genuine yet awkward.

They continued staring at each other. The adrenaline from their brush with danger hadn’t worn off yet; his heart was still beating very fast.

“So, um, have a good day,” he bade after it was clear neither of them had anything more to say. He made to return to his errands, but a hand on his arm stopped him.

“You saved my life, and you’re just gonna walk away?” she asked incredulously.

He blinked at her. “I’ll be honest; I wasn’t aware there was an after-action protocol for this sort of situation.”

She was incredulous for only a second before she giggled at him. “The least I can do is buy you lunch to say ‘thank you.’”

“Well, I’ve never turned down a free meal,” he accepts with a grin.

She giggled again then stuck out her hand. “My name’s May.”

“Ash.”

...

No, it wasn’t then. Nor was it during the meal they shared, nor at the bar where they happened to see each other that weekend, nor while they were escaping from the bar fight that she accidentally instigated that night.

...

“Is this going to become a running gag? Will I have to constantly be saving you from trouble you unintentionally get yourself into?” Ash panted after he directed her to duck into a nearby alley.

“Hey, as far as I’m concerned, this automatically makes me the most interesting friend you’ve got,” May countered.

He took one extra second to check no one was following them then cut a glance at her. “I don’t know about you, but most of my friends have my number.”

She rolled her eyes with a smile. “Smooth.” They switched phones and exchanged numbers.

“Better memorize that by heart,” he jested as he handed her her phone back. “Don’t wanna waste your one phone call at the station just because you mixed up the last two digits by accident.”

“If the next time you hear from me is because I went and got myself arrested, just leave me to rot. I must have earned it,” she smirked.

...

Luckily, the next time one of them reached out to the other wasn’t to bail the former out of jail. May invited him to a pool party for her birthday, where he handily won a water balloon fight and impressed everyone by fixing the grill for their barbeque. Their friendship continued to progress naturally: movie nights that turned into impromptu sleepovers, brunches that turned into walks around town. Several shopping trips and video games and hikes later, they were each other’s best friends. It was basically inevitable.

So when? When would he have had the chance to fall in love with her?

...

“Hello?”

“Ash, you picked up!” she sounded surprised―happy, but surprised―and he winced. He knew he’d been blowing her off a little more often lately, but making her think he’d turn down her phone call?

“Heh, yeah, sorry about that,” he said, betting on the hope that she somehow implicitly understood everything he was apologising for. “Is everything okay?”

For an extended second, she was quiet, then she said, “I need to tell you something.”

His hackles rose, and he started grabbing his keys and putting on his shoes. Maybe she finally ended up in jail. “Where are you? I can be there in ten minutes, maybe twenty with traffic―”

She giggled, and he paused. That was her nervous giggle. “May?” he asked, still wary but not about to race out of his house with only his boxers on.

“No! No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just… Steven told me he loves me.”

His breath left his lungs.

“And I told him I love him back,” she continued.

All the adrenaline that had surged through his body only moments before completely left him at her words, and his limbs locked up instead. He felt cold.

“Hello?”

He didn’t even realise he had sunk to his knees until he meant to take a step back towards the couch. He just slumped onto his butt. “That’s―” He had to clear his throat. “That’s gotta be recent.”

He could slap himself. He sounded as dead as he felt. He tried again: “I mean, that’s great news, May! He’s a lucky guy. Yeah.”

She sighed with relief. Could Steven tell what her sighs meant over the phone? ”I’m the lucky one, I think,” she said happily, and that was his last straw.

“Heh, yeah, well,” he sputtered out, just to have something to say. “Listen, since you’re not in danger or anything, uh, you actually caught me at a bad time, so I gotta go. I’ll catch you later, yeah?”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

“Wait, Ash! Before you go!”

He held back a sigh. “What’s up, May?”

“It’s just… You’re right; it is recent. You’re actually the first person I told.”

“I’m honoured.” He couldn’t help the sarcasm that spilled out, but he backtracked quickly. “I mean it. Thank you for telling me.”

“Of course, Ash; I tell you everything. At this point, it’s like I have to; nothing would ever feel real otherwise.”

He shut his eyes. He really couldn’t take this anymore. “I know what you mean. Same here.”

She made a cute sound, a quiet little ‘hmm,’ and that was when the first tear spilled out. “Alright, I’ve taken up enough of your time. I’ll text you later!!” she promised.

“Later,” he repeated, both an echo and a goodbye; and finally, blissfully, he ended the call.

...

When, when, when?!

That was supposed to be one of the sweetest moments of her young adult life, and she called on him―trusted him, even―to be happy for her. When did he get to the point where he couldn’t even do that? Instead, he recalls it now as he struggles to fall asleep, playing the memory at half-speed over and over again in his imagination, and all he does is hope.

He desperately hopes it’ll stop hurting so much.

~~~

fall for someone with the sweetest rebel heart

When he finds out he didn’t get the promotion he was vying for at work, there’s no one else’s comfort he sought but May’s.

“I’m sorry that happened, Ash,” May soothes as she rubs rhythmic circles into Ash’s back. They’re in her condo, noticeably nicer maintained than Ash’s flat, side by side on the sofa. It is the first time he’s let her touch him in weeks, and he really needs it. “At least now they know you’re interested? It might be your turn next time.”

Ash snorts but nods anyway. He’s usually the type to look at the bright side, but it would be an understatement to say that he is simply disappointed. After all the L’s he’s been taking in his personal life, he had been hoping at least something would go his way professionally.

May continues, “Just make sure not to let this setback actually set you back. Keep putting your best foot forward, and I know you’ll win those guys over… just like you did with me!” She ends with a wink, trying her hardest to inject some levity into the situation.

Just like that, Ash’s mood sours even more. “You can’t say that to me, May,” he angrily replies as he shuffles out of her hold.

“What are you talking about?” she pouts as she feebly tries to get him to lay back against the couch so that the cold air can’t get under the blanket they are sharing.

“I didn’t ‘win you over,’ clearly.” He shrugs off her touch and scoots away. He has spent so long trying to keep his bitterness inside, but he doesn’t have the emotional wherewithal to regulate himself right now. He’s tired of trying to get over things that make him upset.

May frowns, the furrow between her brow getting deeper as she sits up straight on the sofa. “Ash, why are you talking like that? I meant, like, how we became friends, obviously. I didn’t grow to love you by accident.”

Ash stands then, balling the blanket up and throwing it back on the couch. “I bet Steven wouldn’t be too happy to hear you say that.”

She follows suit, her voice elevating in volume as if to match. “I bet Steven wouldn’t appreciate being judged by someone who’s only met him once―despite my efforts otherwise, might I add.”

“I bet Steven would love to hear his girlfriend say she loves another guy.”

“I bet Steven isn’t dumb enough to think I can’t love you both.”

“You don’t love me, May!” Ash finally explodes.

He has never raised his voice like this, not to her, but he’s tired. He’s tired of loving someone he can’t have, he’s tired of hating himself for it, and he’s tired of the guilt when he takes it out on her despite all his attempts not to.

She looks like she’s torn between yelling right back or kicking him out; and before she could make up her mind, he collects himself enough so he could bring his voice down. He states simply, “Not the way you love Steven.” Not the way I love you.

He doesn’t say it, but he can tell she hears it anyway. He clears his throat and turns around, trying to hide without running away. “Hearts don’t work like that,” he murmurs into the room.

He makes to leave, but May’s hand on his shoulder stops him. She forcibly turns him back to face her, and Ash is shocked at the determined set to her face. Her eyes, bluer than a water stone and twice as powerful, hold him as captive as they always have. “You listen to me, Ash Ketchum.” Her tone brokers no argument. “If you thought for a second that I stopped loving you because I fell in love with Steven, you clearly underestimated what my heart is capable of.”

Her grip on him tightens, as if making sure he is still with her in the moment. “It’s big enough for the both of you; and if that’s not the way hearts are supposed to work, then I’ll just be the exception that proves the rule.”

She pulls him into a hug then, like locking that promise between them, and he dares let himself hope she means that.

~~~

fall for someone whose heart needs sewing up

Ash wasn’t expecting a knock on his door this late at night, and he definitely wasn’t expecting to see a beautifully made up May Maple standing in the hallway, mascara-tinged tears and runny nose notwithstanding.

"Steven is moving to Alola to support Devon Corp’s expansion," is all she said, but even that much is hard to make out through her watery voice.

The news sinks in, and Ash’s heart feels like someone moved it three centimetres to the left: still there, still functional, but not at all where he needs it to be.

"You’ve always talked about going to Alola," is the only way he could respond, thinking of all the times they’ve imagined taking a week off and vacationing in the tropical region. He won’t, can’t let himself think about anything else or else he’d break down.

In his heartbreak, he cannot recognise May's tears, which are too raw and too loud to be that of someone bearing regrettable news. These are the tears of a confused, broken heart.

"Ash, I'm not going," she sniffles, still stiffly standing outside his door. "He asked me not to."

Finally understanding that he misunderstood, Ash is even more disoriented than he was before. "Why would he do that?" he asks, obviously still trying to wrap his mind around what the hell was happening.

"I don’t know!" May yells while clenching her fists and stomping a high-heeled foot. It is the most movement she's made since he opened the door. "I demanded a reason, and he spewed nonsense at me! He said―" and she stops. Her whole body slumps back into stillness but without the stiffness of before. She continues quietly, "He said he didn’t want to see what I’d look like with my heart so far outside of my chest," like a guilty confession. Ash is at once reminded of their almost-fight a month ago, and he still isn’t sure what this all means.

He almost asks, Why wouldn’t he believe your heart was right where you were? or How capable is the human heart now? but he doesn’t.

Instead, he finally welcomes May inside. He sits her on the couch and helps her take off her heels before she wraps herself up in the blanket he keeps there―a blanket he only has, he remembers, because when she first visited his apartment, she insisted his couch needed one. She doesn’t just hold the blanket around her shoulders; she hides her entire frame within its folds. He merely sits on the couch next to the lump and places a solitary hand on top, unsure where it was resting yet hoping it is providing comfort nevertheless.

He wonders if May ever let Steven see her like this, the way she needs to shut out all stimuli as if to physically recreate her darkest moments. He wonders why he loves that she does that, even though it causes him so much selfish pain to be close enough to see her like this but shut out from her healing.

"I don’t think I have a boyfriend anymore," May says at length, voice dampened by the space and fabric between them.

It would have been the happiest news of Ash’s adult life if it weren’t for the extreme melancholy that laced her tone as she said it out loud.

He squeezes his hand into a fist on top of the blanket, his signal that he’d like to hug her if he could.

"I would have missed you if you left." Ash gives a nonsequitur-confession in response. May burrows deeper into the blankets and says nothing.

Instead, she reaches a hand out from a heretofore unseen opening in the fabric and holds on to his other hand tightly.

Ash stares at her slender knuckles, made paler from her firm grasp, and stops hoping.

He gently plies her fingers from his palm and tries not to feel guilty about the shocked, embarrassed way the hand pulls back into the blanket as he leaves her there.

The love of his life needs compassion right now. This is not his opportunity to sweep her off her feet; this is not his second chance.

He returns from the bedroom, settles back into his place on the couch, and forces May out of the blanket.

~~~

May jerks her head up, shocked and angry and still embarrassed from her rejected attempt to seek Ash’s comfort, but she is quickly mollified into confusion. The expected sight of Ash’s lit up form in his lit up living room ends up being no different from the blackness from which she thought she was rudely taken.

It is so dark under the extra, larger blanket that she can’t even see Ash’s nose even though she can sense his head is mere inches from hers.

His hands find hers in the darkness and squeeze. Relief flashes through her as she finally surrenders to the deep, thick slice of heartbreak.

May wants to see his face, but she settles for a hug.

#pokemon #pokemon fanfiction #advshipping #advanceshipping #ash ketchum #may maple #aamaylove #satoharu #unsuspecting #xyzc*

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safflora · 3 years

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If hatred begets hatred is what you get from all the violence what massage does killing eren(people who love him) make? I don't get what isayama is trying to say anymore, if eren is saved it's also lame because what was the point of all of this death

Hi, anon! I’m going to have to split some hairs here, I’m afraid. “Hatred begets hatred” is not necessarily what I got from the violence - it’s what the dude delivering the speech in 134 got from it. The distinction is important.

As for Eren being killed by people who love him… I’m not sure what connection you’re making between that and the idea being expressed in the speech. Are you equating violence to hatred, setting it opposite to love, and saying the actions of the alliance are not the actions of people who love Eren? I think it’s more complicated than that when there are lives in the balance. It loops around and becomes less complicated again when it’s the lives of the entire world in the balance. Hatred is a non-factor in this decision being made out of necessity.

“Necessity”

Huh.

Necessity is a much more interesting motivator than Hatred in my opinion, and one that has driven almost every violent act in this story. If we want to examine what Isayama is trying to say, that’s probably a more fruitful place to start. Was it necessary to:

- send thousands to their deaths after the fall of Maria to ensure social stability and survival of the remaining population?

- break down Wall Maria in an effort to recover the Coordinate and save the world?

- kill Marco?

- let the people of Stohess die?

- snuff out individuals who threatened stability within the walls?

- torture MPs for information?

- kick fellow Eldians off the wall?

- imprison Eldians in internment zones?

- train child soldiers?

- reveal the true history of the Great Titan War to the world and declare war on Paradis?

- orchestrate an attack on Liberio?

- help Eren and Zeke with the attack on Liberio?

- overthrow the old order to restore the Nation of Eldia/ the Eldian Empire?

- etc, etc, etc.

The point of asking these questions is NOT to judge or justify any of these actions. It is NOT to say that they are all equivalent. It is simply to point out that every person who made these choices would, at the time of making them, answer “yes” and believe it to be true. These overlapping themes of fate, choice, regret, and ignorance vs. information just keep popping up! How many times has a character done something they wished they didn’t “have” to do after saying they had no choice? How many times has somebody questioned, “was there another way?” How many times has somebody done something awful, with varying degrees of regret, in the name of beliefs founded on incomplete information or cleverly sold stories? It seems to me that Isayama is making less of a definitive statement and more of an observation as he invites the reader to ask questions of the characters, of themselves, and of the wider world. How do we come by our beliefs? How do our beliefs affect our actions? Which of the evils in the world do we deem “necessary” and why? How free are we in our choices when we “have no choice”?

Eren and Armin are the characters who have most directly embodied these dilemmas recently (with the added element of Future Vision on Eren’s part), and I for one am very much looking forward to seeing how Isayama is going to continue exploring these themes in the final confrontation between them. I think if there’s a direct message that Isayama is trying to convey, that’s when it’s going to come out. But honestly, I expect that the message is likely to come in the form of questions to be examined. I’m down for that, I think. I don’t really want to be spoon-fed a message, and I don’t think Isayama ever intended to do that. Final thoughts pending the conclusion of the story.

Regarding the last part of your ask: “If Eren is saved it’s also lame because what was the point of all this death,”

First of all, I just can’t see Eren being “saved”. Interesting word choice, by the way. Saved from what? Death? Disgrace? Misery? Slavery? If he’s going to be saved from anything, I think that last one is most likely considering the hints we’ve been given that the Attack Titan may have a will of its own. But that could be a series of posts all on its own haha. Your question is: what was the point of all this death?

Does there have to be a point? I don’t think so. Narratively, sure, the point is to compel the characters to action and make them and the readers wrestle with what ends justify what means, and the way it is being depicted (as an absolute HORROR) is meant to convey as clear a message as we’re going to get (what is happening is bad). But in the world of Attack on Titan, unless there is an outcome that Future Vision Eren is aiming for that we don’t know about yet and that for some reason required it, this massive destruction may very well be pointless. And that may actually be the point. Again, final thoughts pending the conclusion of the story. Sorry for the cop-out, but I just don’t feel like I have enough info to call it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I, uh, hope I actually answered your question. It’s hard to give any straightforward answers for something as twisty as all of this is right now. I’m just playing a ~fun~ (🙃) game of Thought Experiment about it.

#my snk posts #snk 134 #anons #asks #attack on titan #snk

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terramythos · 4 years

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TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 22 of 26

Title: House of Leaves (2000)

Author: Mark Z. Danielewski

Genre/Tags: Horror, Fiction, Metafiction, Weird, First-Person, Third-Person, Unreliable Narrator

Rating: 6/10

Date Began: 7/28/2020

Date Finished: 8/09/2020

House of Leaves follows two narrative threads. One is the story of Johnny Truant, a burnout in his mid-twenties who finds a giant manuscript written by a deceased, blind hermit named Zampanò. The second is said manuscript -- The Navidson Record -- a pseudo-academic analysis of a found-footage horror film that doesn’t seem to exist. In it, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson moves into a suburban home in Virginia with his partner Karen and their two children. Navidson soon makes the uncomfortable discovery that his new house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Over time he discovers more oddities -- a closet that wasn’t there before, and eventually a door that leads into an impossibly vast, dark series of rooms and hallways.

While Johnny grows more obsessed with the work, his life begins to take a turn for the worse, as told in the footnotes of The Navidson Record. At the same time, the mysteries of the impossible, sinister house on Ash Tree Lane continue to deepen.

To get a better idea try this: focus on these words, and whatever you do don’t let your eyes wander past the perimeter of this page. Now imagine just beyond your peripheral vision, maybe behind you, maybe to the side of you, maybe even in front of you, but right where you can’t see it, something is quietly closing in on you, so quiet in fact you can only hear it as silence. Find those pockets without sound. That’s where it is. Right at this moment. But don’t look. Keep your eyes here. Now take a deep breath. Go ahead and take an even deeper one. Only this time as you start to exhale try to imagine how fast it will happen, how hard it’s gonna hit you, how many times it will stab your jugular with its teeth or are they nails? don’t worry, that particular detail doesn’t matter, because before you have time to even process that you should be moving, you should be running, you should at the very least be flinging up your arms--you sure as hell should be getting rid of this book-- you won’t have time to even scream.

Don’t look.

I didn’t.

Of course I looked.

Some story spoilers under the cut.

Whoo boy do I feel torn on this one. House of Leaves contains some really intriguing ideas, and when it’s done right, it’s some of the best stuff out there. Unfortunately, there are also several questionable choices and narrative decisions that, for me, tarnish the overall experience. It’s certainly an interesting read, even if the whole is ultimately less than the sum of its parts.

First of all, I can see why people don’t like this book, or give up on it early (for me this was attempt number three). Despite an interesting concept and framing device, the first third or so of the book is pretty boring. Johnny is just not an interesting character. He does a lot of drugs and has a lot of (pretty unpleasant) sex and... that’s pretty much it, at least at the beginning. There’s occasional horror sections that are more interesting, where Johnny’s convinced he’s being hunted by something, but they’re few and far between. Meanwhile, the story in The Navidson Record seems content to focus on the relationship issues between two affluent suburbanites rather than the much more interesting, physically impossible house they live in. The early “exploration” sections are a little bit better, but overall I feel the opening act neglects the interesting premise.

However, unlike many, I love the gimmick. The academic presentation of the Navidson story is replete with extensive (fake) footnotes,and there’s tons of self-indulgent rambling in both stories. I personally find it hilarious; it’s an intentionally dense parody of modern academic writing. Readers will note early that the typographical format is nonstandard, with the multiple concurrent stories denoted by different typefaces, certain words in color, footnotes within footnotes, etc. House of Leaves eventually goes off the chain with this concept, gracing us with pages that look like (minor spoilers) this or this. This leads into the best part of this book, namely...

Its visual presentation! House of Leaves excels in conveying story and feeling through formatting decisions. The first picture I linked is one of many like it in a chapter about labyrinths. And reading it feels like navigating a labyrinth! It features a key “story”, but also daunting, multi-page lists of irrelevant names, buildings, architectural terms, etc. There are footnotes that don’t exist, then footnote citations that don’t seem to exist until one finds them later in the chapter. All this while physically turning the book or even grabbing a mirror to read certain passages. In short, it feels like navigating the twists, turns, and dead ends of a labyrinth. And that’s just one example -- other chapters utilize placement of the text to show where a character is in relation to others, what kind of things are happening around them, and so on. One chapter near the end features a square of text that gets progressively smaller as one turns the pages, which mirrors the claustrophobic feel of the narrative events. This is the coolest shit to me; I adore when a work utilizes its format to convey certain story elements. I usually see this in poetry and video games, but this is the first time I’ve seen it done so well in long-form fiction. City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer, both of which I reviewed earlier this year, do something similar, and are clearly inspired by House of Leaves in more ways than one.

And yes, the story does get a little better, though it never wows me. The central horror story is not overtly scary, but eeriness suffices, and I have a soft spot for architectural horror. Even Johnny and the Navidsons become more interesting characters over time. For example, I find Karen pretty annoying and generic for most of the book, but her development in later chapters makes her much more interesting. While I question the practical need for Johnny’s frame story, it does become more engaging as he descends into paranoia and madness.

So why the relatively low rating? Well... as I alluded to earlier, there’s some questionable stuff in House of Leaves that leaves (...hah?) a bad taste in my mouth. The first is a heavy focus on sexual violence against women. I did some extensive thinking on this throughout my read, but I just cannot find a valid reason for it. The subject feels thrown in for pure shock value, and especially from a male author, it seems tacky and voyeuristic. If it came up once or twice I’d probably be able to stomach this more easily, but it’s persistent throughout the story, and doesn’t contribute anything to the plot or horror (not that that would really make it better). I’m not saying books can’t have that content, but it’s just not explored in any meaningful way, and it feels cheap and shitty to throw it in something that traumatizing just to shock the audience. It’s like a bad jump scare but worse on every level. There’s even a part near the end written in code, which I took the time to decode, only to discover it’s yet another example of this. Like, really, dude?

Second, this book’s portrayal of mental illness is not great. (major spoilers for Johnny’s arc.) One of the main things about Johnny’s story is he’s an unreliable narrator. From the outset, Johnny has occasional passages that can either be interpreted as genuine horror, or delusional breaks from reality. Reality vs unreality is a core theme throughout both stories. Is The Navidson Record real despite all evidence to the contrary? Is it real as in “is the film an actual thing” or “the events of the film are an actual thing”? and so on and so forth. Johnny’s sections mirror this; he’ll describe certain events, then later state they didn’t happen, contradict himself, or even describe a traumatic event through a made-up story. Eventually, the reader figures out parts of Johnny’s actual backstory, namely that when he was a small child, his mother was institutionalized for violent schizophrenia. Perhaps you can see where this is going...

Schizophrenia-as-horror is ridiculously overdone. But it also demonizes mental illness, and schizophrenia in particular, in a way that is actively harmful. Don’t misunderstand me, horror can be a great way to explore mental illness, but when it’s done wrong? Woof. Unfortunately House of Leaves doesn’t do it justice. While it avoids some cliches, it equates the horror elements of Johnny’s story to the emergence of his latent schizophrenia. This isn’t outwardly stated, and there are multiple interpretations of most of the story, but in lieu of solid and provable horror, it’s the most reasonable and consistent explanation. There’s also an emphasis on violent outbursts related to schizophrenia, which just isn’t an accurate portrayal of the condition.

To Danielewski’s credit, it’s not entirely black and white. We do see how Johnny’s descent into paranoia negatively affects his life and interpersonal relationships. There’s a bonus section where we see all the letters Johnny’s mother wrote him while in the mental hospital, and we can see her love and compassion for him in parallel to the mental illness. But the experimental typographical style returns here to depict just how “scary” schizophrenia is, and that comes off as tacky to me. I think this is probably an example of a piece of media not aging well (after all, this book just turned 20), and there’s been a definite move away from this kind of thing in horror, but that doesn’t change the impression it leaves. For a book as supposedly original/groundbreaking as this, defaulting to standard bad horror tropes is disappointing. And using “it was schizophrenia all along” to explain the horror elements in Johnny’s story feels like a cop-out. I wish there was more mystery here, or alternate interpretations that actually make sense.

Overall The Navidson Record part of the story feels more satisfying. I actually like that there isn’t a direct explanation for everything that happens. It feels like a more genuine horror story, regardless of whether you interpret it as a work of fiction within the story or not. There’s evidence for both. Part of me wishes the book had ended when this story ends (it doesn’t), or that the framing device with Johnny was absent, or something along those lines. Oh well-- this is the story we got, for better or worse.

I don’t regret reading House of Leaves, and it’s certainly impressive for a debut novel. If you’re looking for a horror-flavored work of metafiction, it’s a valid place to start. I think the experimental style is a genuine treat to read, and perhaps the negative aspects won’t hit you as hard as they did to me. But I can definitely see why this book is controversial.

#taylor reads #2020 reading challenge #6/10

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deobis · 4 years

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Road to Kingdom Episode 4 Thoughts

The third challenge was for each group to pick one of their own songs and perform it. I really wish RTK stuck with the “king” theme, but I guess there are only so many challenges they can create revolving that topic.

DISCLAIMER: I am a lot harsher in this review than any of my other posts. Please know that I do not hate any of the 7 groups and I truly wish the best for all of them. This is just an analysis of the most recent performances.

Anyways onto my rankings!

Enjoyment ranking:

Pentagon (Wow! For once it’s not TBZ haha)

Verivery

The Boyz

Oneus

ONF

TOO

Golden Child

Objective Ranking:

Verivery

The Boyz

Pentagon

ONF

Oneus

Golden Child

TOO

Prediction rankings:

Pentagon

The Boyz

Verivery

ONF

Oneus

TOO

Golden Child

Put a prediction ranking bc the rankings haven’t been announced yet so we will see tomorrow!

For the first time in forever, TBZ is not first in my book. Shocker I know. That’s not to say that I didn’t like their performance or concept but rather the other groups (PTG and Verivery) did better in my eyes. Let’s talk about TBZ’s Reveal (Catching Fire) perf. I’ll call it RCF for short. TBZ was the only group to continue a story from the second challenge. This gains major points in my book as I love plot driven performances. Anything with a story or clear objective gains brownie points because it’s what makes performances an art. You can dance to a song but if there’s no emotion it stays as a sport rather than a form of artistic expression. TBZ have shown their artistry fully through RTK, something they haven’t really been able to do before. I’m amazed at how they are able to control shock factor so well. I was worried the stunts of Danger would outshine whatever they had to show in RCF but they proved me wrong. There were less stunts this time but they focused on a much larger picture (pun intended). They added backup dancers and allowed the camera to take wider shots to show their formations. I just felt like they lacked a spark this time. If you can’t already tell, I prefer their Danger performance much more. A large part of this is due to the arrangement of Danger. The RCF arrangement was interesting and refreshing but there wasn’t anything really new. Maybe I feel this way because I’ve listened to Reveal too many times who knows. Negatives aside, I have to say I really liked the choreography changes. The part where Haknyeon is center really blew my mind.

But here’s why I liked Verivery and Pentagon’s performance more: emotion. Pentagon’s is obvious, they used this stage to send off someone they really love. You can really see that the members love Jinho and that they have a deep bond. Pentagon was also the only group to mix two of their songs together, one being a title track and one being a side track (note: PTG and Verivery are the only groups who picked side b’s for their song). Pentagon’s arrangement was impeccable. For me, the new Shine sounded like a Jpop song (mostly because of the rock vibes; if you listen to Jpop you know what I mean), while still retaining the bright theme of Shine. A lot of people might say the performance was too emotional and not professional, but out of all 7 performances, Pentagon’s was the most meaningful and was delivered the best. The message and how they played with the stage was stunning and their little additions and references to other popular Kpop songs makes it so you will notice something new every time you rewatch it. Please watch this video where Hongseok goes into detail about the little easter eggs and the whole purpose behind their performance. I have so much respect for Pentagon and I could write so much more about this performance but I must talk about the other 5 haha (if you want to hear more feel free to ask!)

Verivery. VERIVERY. God DAMN did they really come back and hit hard. They definitely had the clearest and most well thought out performance of all. What differentiates them from TBZ’s story like performance is that TBZ had too much going on in my opinion. They tried to tell us a long story with not enough time. This is why so many fans have vastly different interpretations of their performance. While this can often be a good thing, I think you have to find a balance when doing a storytelling performance. Verivery cleanly executes their narrative of a nightmare and takes the cliche of “it was all a dream” to the max by going “SIKE” at the end. Their choreography was so well planned out and they were honestly very minimalistic about their stage, just like TBZ’s Danger stage. The shock factor is just right (my favorite part being when the backup dancers have the smoke come out of their mouth). Not only that but Photo is a SIDE TRACK. I cannot stress enough how brave of them that is. I legitimately thought it was a title track until I looked at their discography. They arranged their side b to sound like a title track, and not only that, they changed the overall feel of the song as well. If you listen to the original Photo, it sounds more like a bad boy song, but their RTK version is very much so horror/rock themed. I can’t STRESS how good this performance is. Especially because it’s such a contrast from their last performance. Photo is now in my spotify playlist and I have no regrets.

Now onto the last 4 performances. I hate to break it to you all but... I didn’t really like any of them. None of them made me think “wow I could rewatch this so many times.” Lets start with Oneus. LIT is my favorite Oneus song so I highly anticipated this performance. If you didn’t know Oneus before and only watch this stage you might think its a very good stage with a strong traditional theme. I totally agree, the traditional theme is unique to Oneus and I loved the instrumental changes they made so the song would cater more to their theme. The biggest issue I had with this stage was that It literally is just like their music video. If you have seen the LIT mv you will know what I mean. The dragon dance, traditional clothing, theme, sound, everything was too similar. The stage was grand but it just felt like a live version of their MV.

I know a lot of people liked ONF’s performance. Let me just say first that they killed it and YooA was *chefs kiss* The biggest issue I had with this stage was its message and theme. They seemed to have a conductor/medieval theme but also the masks?? Like what? It felt so out of place and random. I felt like a lot of their stage choices had little to no purpose. I honestly still don’t understand why YooA was there. The duet dance was nice but why? It seemed like they were trying to tell a story but it just wasn’t clear to me. It looked nice and everything but that was about it. In no way am I saying the performance was bad, it’s just there’s nothing that makes me want to go back and watch again. I think the fact that there was a plot but no plot at the same time really bothered me and that’s why I didn’t like it as much.

TOO has grown a lot since episode one. They are truly experimenting with the stage and I’m very happy to see that. I have the same issue with TOO as I did with ONF. There was a clear theme of “dark vs light” or “evil vs good” but why? What was the point? The theme may have seemed obvious but was it really? Were they trying to convey good vs bad, angel vs devil, justice vs injustice? I couldn’t tell throughout the entire performance. It’s okay to take cliche themes but with a show like RTK, there needs to be something more. I also hate to be harsh but some of their execution just wasn’t as clean. This doesn’t only apply to Chan (I think that’s his name), but the whole performance in general. The most obvious instance is the head twist part. But I applaud Chan for performing with 100% even after his mistake (which, by the way, he made look very natural. I was very sad when he kept beating himself up over the mistake 😞 you did great bb I hope you know that). Even if their age and lack of experience is shown in their performances, I must say they are really stepping out of their comfort zone and learning at a rapid pace. I have high hopes for them.

Now onto the last group. Golden Child. I was very impressed with GolChas first two performances but this one was a disappointment. I appreciate the use of strings and their classical arrangement (as I said in my previous episode thoughts post) but this performance was, well, dull to say the least. The only “shock factor” was the violin solo (which was very good btw), but I think it was too late into the performance. There wasn’t much that made me interested in the performance up to that point. I don’t know. There really just isn’t much for me to talk about because they didn’t really do much.(God that sounds so harsh;; I’m sorry 😭😭) I really think their second performance was highly underrated but all in all this third one was not it.

As you can see my critiques for this set of performances are, well, a lot harsher. I think it’s because the bar was raised so much higher after the first three episodes. Overall, if I had seen any of these performances outside of the RTK context I probably would have been a lot more impressed and shocked. I wish the best for all the groups and no matter who gets eliminated tomorrow I want all the groups to know that they all deserve a spot in the Kingdom. Mnet is just trash.

#yikes another lengthy one #road to kingdom #sdjfhdfjh god i swear im gonna get hate for this post fuck #but i like what i like and i said what i said #take this with a grain of salt please #anyways that took way too long #if you're going to take anything away from this post #its the hongseok video i linked #please watch that #my heart breaks so much for pentagon #they truly deserve to win imo

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mykedrop · 4 years

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Persona 5 Royal Thoughts

Alright so there’s a lot I want to talk about here. Fair warning, this write up is actually like, really damn long. Also like HUGE spoiler warning below the cut! I played the original when it came out, bought a PS4 practically only to play Persona 5 not even knowing if I’d like it. But I did! I loved it, loved all of it. Beat the game in just over 100 hours I think. Easily became my second favorite game ever. So now here comes Persona 5 Royal, adds a bunch of new stuff, a lot of little stuff and some pretty huge additions and reworks, includes all the dlc from P5 which is nice. It’s a strictly better version of the game I already thought was amazing enough.

I remember being a little wary of going for it and reading a non-spoiler list of all the changes, which are actually A LOT when you list them out. Then I thought about how much I loved playing the original, and figured I’m not doing much else right now, so I got it. And BOY that game just checks all the boxes for me. It’s the same game, but better now. There’s a little more depth to playing the game and more stuff!

One of the biggest additions and probably my favorite addition is Maruki’s story and confidant. Everything involving him I thought was incredible. First of all the man is a dreamboat. Secondly great voice actor. Thirdly the story built around him was really awesome to play through. Every time some new story beats came through while playing through the first parts of the game I always thought how great it all fit in. It made sense, it kind of opened up the world of the game a little more narrative-wise and it all felt right. And the SONG (Ideal and the Real) that plays in Maruki’s office is so GOOD. That song plays in my head 24/7 and I love it. He’s got such a great personality and story and it was a great time getting to rank him up. The song ALONE made me want to hang out with him as much as possible. It’s an angle I wasn’t expecting, his story I mean, and while the “right” choice was pretty clear, it still made me think about what he was trying to accomplish. And they drove the point home real hard during the final stretch of the game before you figure out what’s going. It’s so hard to look at your friends having such a good life and go, “yeah no I don’t think so.” But that’s a whole different discussion. It felt sort of morally ambiguous, which was really cool. And I also like that Maruki gives you a choice, not only once but twice. Which again, gives you pause, even if only a short one.

So that brings me to another one of the biggest additions: the new palace. BOY I love this palace. From the way it’s first introduced so early on, to how you keep peeking in every once in a while making a little progress here and there. Until finally you’re able to just go wild at the end. This palace feels like the team designing this was told go all out. The aesthetic, the mechanics, the layout. Going through this I had a big ol smile on my face the entire time at how different it felt compared to those in the original game. Those are good too, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have any palaces I dislike. But I can easily imagine some ideas and how incredible some palaces would be with the level of detail and complexity of Maruki’s palace. It’d be kind of ridiculous and extremely difficult no doubt, maybe even a little too much to ask for I think. Anyway, seeing the garden section of the palace for the first time was INCREDIBLE. They went so crazy with making almost every part of that palace look amazing! And that last area was easily my favorite of the palaces in terms of looks and theme. They did a good job of conveying the scale of that giant tree where the treasure is at with those stairs. Plus it’s another great moment to show of the smaller details of the palace like some flowers, the lighting, some other really neat effects. It was great! And the whole boss fight at the end was so fantastic to watch! I’ll say that even at the hardest difficulty, my SO (who is a turn-based combat FIEND) didn’t have too much of a difficult time with the fight. But the mechanics of it were so interesting! I loved the ideas they went with. Again it felt like they really gave it their all with this palace. The story beats during the fight were incredible as well, and they gave me one of my favorite moments back that used to be in the Yaldabaoth fight: Press X to Fire! The fight with Maruki at the end was also pretty novel too, and so dramatic! The snow falling at the end, the glass platforms collapsing, it all looked so GOOD. One of my favorite things in any game like this (remake/remaster/GOTY version/etc.) is getting to listen to NEW MUSIC. And this palace KILLED IT with music, as did the rest of the game as usual. There’s no feeling that compares to being right at the edge of beating a Persona game. And this palace was a hell of an out of the park home run. After 170 hours, it was so bittersweet to beat the final boss and move on towards the rest of the story. I loved playing through that palace and it’s a shame I’ll never get to experience it for the first time again.

On to one of the more advertised additions: Yoshizawa! My first thought when I saw her way back when when they first revealed her is I thought she’d be a female protagonist. Which I thought would be INCREDIBLE. Even if it’s not exactly my preference, I would’ve been so HYPE to romance one of the guys. I didn’t really think about it from a gameplay standpoint, as there are way more girl confidants than guys, but still I thought it’d be fun to potentially explore that! Obviously that wasn’t the case, but now on to what I think of the new confidant! I love her! Like absolutely 100% love her so much! Let me tell you just how those concept meetings went down when they were making Yoshizawa: Cute girl, in cute clothes, who has a cute personality. Done, the perfect character. Of course she’s much more than that, but on the surface level it’s easy to see where they were going with this character. Playing the game I had zero idea about her eventual involvement in the final section of the game, so seeing her only have 5 confidant levels I was a little disappointed! Maxed her out as fast as possible and waited... Seeing her story woven through the original narrative was also super fun. Like Maruki, I really liked seeing her in places where she wasn’t before, and adding new scenes and such around to flesh out her character throughout the first two semesters. Then came the new part of the game after the holy grail fight. I was absolutely not expecting that twist with Yoshizawa. I had no idea that they would go somewhere like THAT in this game! It totally caught me off guard and I LOVED IT. What an incredible story all around. And like super fucked! The whole reveal moment was FANTASTIC! Had my jaw on the floor and everything! Her entire confidant was fun, using her in combat was fun, and her romance path was extremely fun! There’s nothing I don’t like about her really. She had such a wild story and such an amazing arc that I can’t not love her! She’s not my favorite confidant, but still adding in a new character like her into such a tight-knit group like the phantom thieves that i already loved as is is such a risky move! It’s so hard to improve upon a dynamic like theirs I think, but they made it work when they needed to! Anyway I love her character a lot and her story and all that. Beautiful.

Speaking of adding new characters to a dynamic, this might be my favorite addition/rework in the entire game: Akechi. Holy crap I can’t tell you how much I LOVED HEARING AKECHI JUST GO OFF EVERY BATTLE, or while we went riding through mementos, or just all his new dialogue and confidant level ups. Akechi very quickly and easily became one of my favorite parts about the new part of the game. His character was such a HUGE CLASH with every other character in the party, especially Yoshizawa! Which I have to imagine isn’t an accident. He is fuckin CRAZY. Unlocking his Showtime attack was BONKERS. That whole sequence with Yoshizawa and Akechi in Maruki’s palace was so GOOD. Having Akechi be part of the team was an amazing breath of fresh of air. Trust me when I say I have ZERO problem or complaint with the overly positive nature of the party. But MAN it is FUN to see Akechi just be an ABSOLUTE ASSHOLE. Every new interaction with Akechi was a TREASURE. Dropping the “detective prince” act was 100000% the right move. Even more fun was seeing Haru and Akechi’s interactions in mementos. The way every character acted towards him was pretty good, but something about Haru’s overbearing positivity towards him was really fun to watch. I can’t stress enough how much Akechi added to the experience of the final act of the game. His persona? Badass. His personality? Absolutely cutthroat and also badass. His hair? Still incredible. Also the only character in the game who will only play 701 in darts. That threw me for a fuckin LOOP the first time I invited him out for darts. Dude is a STUD in like every way. Love Akechi A LOT. He singlehandedly brought the experience up from an 11/10 to a 12/10. This game is so much better with Akechi being able to go batshit crazy. One of my favorite interactions is during battle: when you heal the whole party, with Akechi and Ryuji being two of the active members, depending on their order, you’ll have Akechi say “No time for thanks” right before you hear Ryuji say “Thanks!” Just thought that really exemplified how much of an ass he is, and how much I love him for it. He is THE badass asshole character this game didn’t know it needed but absolutely deserved. How much of a bad ass do you have to be to able to look at your inevitable death in the face and say “this is how it has to be.” One of the coolest parts of the whole game is him not only accepting his eventual fate, but actively driving you towards making that decision.

Next up I suppose I’ll talk about Maruki as a character. Love the way he was included, and liked all his interactions with all the characters during the first part of the game. He’s just so likable and honestly very relatable for me. Helping people through counseling has always been a personal goal of mine, so it’s always interesting to see how characters doing the same are portrayed. And while his overarching plan is something I don’t agree with, wanting to help people drives you to do crazy things sometimes. I felt for the guy. I enjoyed all the hangouts with him, and felt like I really understood his goals. The way his entire story was crafted did an incredible job of divulging all the right information at the right time. Before Akechi 2.0 came around, he was my favorite part of the game! I love the confidants and the stories they tell and interacting with them and all that. I looked forward to ranking up Maruki and trying to see what he was all about. The more I learned the more I liked him. Before, during, and after the palace my feelings about him didn’t change much. The man went crazy sure, but I still couldn’t bring myself to hate him or even dislike him. I love the man! My SO had no mercy for the man during the boss fight, but I felt bad seeing her kick his ass! I thought they did a good job mixing up the motivations for Maruki as a villain. Making him a confidant made it so much more difficult to picture him as the big bad evil guy. Plus he has like one of the best songs tied to him in Ideal and the Real. I’ll mention that as much as I feel is necessary.

So now I’ll go through all of the smaller details that I really liked in no particular order. Kichijoji was a great destination, gave me a lot to do over the course of the game. The phone calls after you hang out with a confidant are a very welcome addition! It’s a way to fit in more dialogue which I always love, and gives you a chance to rank up the confidant a lot quicker. There’s the fact that Morgana no longer forces you to sleep nearly as often, letting you at least mess around in LeBlanc, which helps rank up your social stats. I LOVE THE DARTS MINI GAME. And I’m so glad it also gave you an upgrade for your baton passes. I did not play enough darts. The jazz club was also MY JAM. Again more dialogue, great music, and a fun way to give your confidants new skills or stat boosts. One thing that I find really funny is the way they handled Valentine’s Day. They CHANGED IT. I know they added a lot of new stuff to them for new story reasons. but they CHANGED THE CONTEXT OF THE DATES. For example, in the original P5, Kawakami makes it VERY CLEAR what’s going down later. Ann too! But in P5R, that context is GONE LMAO they really went and changed the dialogue to be less sexual. It’s strange, but mostly I found it funny considering Takemi’s max rank conversation is untouched, among plenty of other ones. Anyway White Day was a GREAT addition! The final part of the date overlooking the city is AMAZING. That reveal made my jaw drop. Speaking of things that changed, the Christmas date also changed, and I like the change a lot! Watching the snow fall from the window on the bed was a great touch. The changes to boss battles and some parts of palaces because of the grappling hook were very welcome. The grappling hook itself was also extremely handy. The thieves den is an incredible addition that adds SO MUCH NEW DIALOGUE AND CONTEXT THAT IT’S A CRIME THAT IT’S HIDDEN IN THE DEN! Anyway. I’ll never say no to new personas. The showtime attacks are a GEM. The new music in this game is AWESOME. I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack. I really enjoyed getting to see a little bit of the dynamic between Sojiro, Futaba and Wakaba. I never knew just how much I wanted to see that until I saw the bit of it in the late part of the game. I don’t remember if it was in the original game, but I LOVE that one of Yusuke’s battle lines is “How do you want to do this?” LOVE IT. Oh Chihaya’s confidant boosting fortune reading was SUPER CLUTCH. Extremely good quality of life right there. I love the extra little bit they added to the warden’s confidant, getting to take them out of the velvet room and show them around. Super cute. Iwai’s gun customization was pretty sweet. Adding Jose to mementos was strange, but very welcome! It made going around much more interesting. Oh speaking of, buffing Ryuji’s instant kill was a GREAT idea. Haha Morgana go vroom vroom. The alarm in the velvet room was also awesome and made making the perfect persona a million times easier.

It’s been a few weeks now since I’ve finished the game, and it’s unfortunate that I can’t remember more of the little things. This whole write up has been an on and off thing since I finished P5R. Still I love the game and don’t really have any complaints. Well maybe one: LET ME FEED YUSUKE. Someone please feed that man. I forgot how much I loved playing the original game, and going through it again with all the new stuff was a total pleasure! And obviously the 3rd semester was an incredible experience. If you like the original a lot, and it’s been a while since you played it, get P5R. If you never played the original but were interested in it, get P5R. Anyway that’s all I got to say about it.

#Persona 5 Royal spoilers #Persona 5 Royal #P5R #P5R Spoilers #Persona 5 Spoilers

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tortoisesforhire · 4 years

Text

The MCU Meta no one asked for

Part 1 (yes this is going to be a multi-part meta I am that petty)

So I’m very salty about how the Marvel movies have gone, for a variety of reasons and as they continue to churn out hot shit that I have to see on my dash every fucking day I decided to write a thing on it. Because fuck Disney and fuck Marvel for ruining something that I have loved my whole life. Now I considered several methods of how to approach this, where to even start unsifting the mega ton crap pile that is the MCU (no I will not apologize it is CRAP and I absolutely WILL explain why.) And I’ve decided chronological order is the best way to go. And the most classic, so here we go.

Everything Marvel Got Wrong In Order From The Beginning

So before I get those whiney crybabies who spit at me ‘Everything Exists in Its Own Universe it’s the Multiverse’ blah blah blah, I’m not gonna be talking about differences from the comics too much. Only in the sense of story structure and narrative. Because more than I am a Massive Marvel Comics Nerd I am also a writer and things like plot and story fucking matter okay. So don’t @ me with your bullshit ‘kay.

Narratively Ironman, the first movie, is more or less perfect. There are a few elements that really matter in a superhero movie and Jon Favreau really hit the nail on the head with Tony Stark and this had a lot to do with RDJ’s performance and passion for the role. A Superhero Movie needs, essentially, three things; Theme, Character and Adversary. Pretty basic yeah? Kind of. Superheroes and Superhero comics are about hope and conquering the odds and success against insurmountable failure. Tony Stark’s story is a story of redemption, and the belief that you can change for the better. Favreau really made us feel Tony’s fury at what he and his company had been made into. His righteous desire to be better, to clean up the mess that Obie and his father and his own foolish negligence had created. The theme was righteous redemption and they sold it to us wholesale and it worked very well.

The Character of Tony Stark, I don’t think would have worked as well as it did without the involvement of RDJ. He really knocked that one out of the park. He conveyed perfectly the juxtaposition of Tony’s arrogance and his self loathing. We as the audience understood his front of cocky genius was to cover his loneliness, his scars and his insecurities instilled by Howard. He was broken, yes, but redeemable and hopeful and essentially good which is really what mattered and we loved him for it.

Obadiah Stane, Anton Vanko and Aldrich Killian are probably the weakest parts of the Ironman narrative. And this issue stems from the larger issue with the Ironman movies which is it’s very clear that they didn’t know what they were getting into with this superhero business. They had no idea it was going to blow up as big as it did and a lot of what happened later was improve. Shoddy improve, I might add. Widow’s entrance in the second movie is overhand and poorly executed, Scarlet’s performance leaves absolutely everything to be desired (shut up I’ll get there) but the real issue I find with these films and the Ironman arc is the incongruity in the second and third film with tying in Howard and SHIELD. In both Comic and MCU cannon Howard is a founding member of SHIELD. And in both Comic and MCU cannon Howard is unrepentantly, indisputably abusive towards Tony to an insane degree. So the weird video where we’re meant to believe that Howard was merely a distant but loving father is discordant with the rest of the narrative and doesn’t fit the Tony we know at all. It certainly doesn’t fit with a man who would choose Obadiah Stane as his business partner. There’s also the matter of Peggy and the fact that Tony doesn’t seem to know her which also...doesn’t make a lot of sense. From all we’ve seen Howard and Peggy were friends. She was also very close with Edwin Jarvis who essentially raised Tony. But we’re meant to believe that she never met or had a relationship with Howards son? Why? Did they have a falling out? These questions are never answered to a satisfying degree. But sure we can just sweep these under the rug of a good action storyline.

Looking at the villains themselves, Ironmonger is a good first villain for Ironman to have. Lots of personal ties, good emotional beats, kind of reminds the viewer of a knock off Lex Luthor. It would have been a stronger choice to use Obie’s son Zeke, the actual Ironmonger and who has a sordid personal history with Tony as an abusive ex. But hey, this is Disney and God forbid we even suggest any of our superheroes could possibly be something other than straight. China might not like us then would they. (pretty sure they don’t like us now but it’s the dollars that count right). Whiplash is a fairly generic Ironman bad guy, Russian eccentric genius with a vendetta against the Starks? Yeah sure. They could have peppered in some more about Howard Stark the Abusive Dad just to avoid confusion but hey, whatever. The Mandarin however is a HUGE Ironman villain and I just...I could have done with some foreshadowing. Some tie ins in the earlier movies leading up to the big bad. It would have fit more. But like I said I understand they were making it up as they went along.

Getting into SHIELD and the inclusion of Black Widow, I don’t have a lot of issue with her writing in the second movie. Like sure, her being assigned as Tony’s new PA, makes total sense. Very Natasha move. But Scarlet Johansson is a terrible choice for Natasha Romanoff. For a plethora of reasons. What reasons are those? Oh I’m so glad you asked. First off the introduction of Natasha Romanoff in the comics was fucking brilliant because the reader doesn’t know it’s her until she decides to reveal herself. Before that all we knew of the Black Widow was that she was russian and had red hair. She was very nondescript prior to that. So Tony’s new PA had red hair, so what, so did Pepper he has a type. She was bubbly and fun and used to be a model and her and Tony’s affair fit very well with his history at that point. And then BAM she’s actually a russian killer lady. It was so shocking.

Now that is clearly what Jon Favreau is trying to do there. The way he writes her in, Tony’s interest, Pepper’s exasperation. It should have been perfect except for Scarlet’s performance being so fucking obvious you could see her from space. She’s a terrible spy. Her voice doesn’t change, her face doesn’t change. Her personality remains as blank as before. She’s not subtle. Because Scarlet is not subtle. She’s not a good actress. Just because you can convey emotion does not mean you can portray a character. In every movie she is in she’s just herself in a new outfit and it is very annoying.

Natasha Romanoff is supposed to be a world class spy. Like raised from the womb spy. Given a modified super soldier serum to increase agility and severely slow the aging process (she’s like 80 something fr). She blends in, everywhere. You don’t notice her until her knife is in your back. She should 100% scare the pants off the viewer in every scene she is in because you never know if she’s being genuine or not. There’s a reason her friendship with Clint is so anomalous and it’s not because people know she used to kill people it’s because people functionally can’t trust her. Scarlet only manages to convey that she’s hot and can kick you in the face. Whoopdie do. Her performance in Ironman 2 annoys me so much because it makes Tony look stupid instead of her look scary. Because only an idiot wouldn’t peg her as the spy the moment she flipped Happy onto the mat. Like come on, you can’t introduce a character as a super genius and then allow him to miss something like that, and then act shocked later when she shows up in a leather catsuit, like obvs Tony gd.

I won’t get into the inherit sexism displayed in the lack of effort given to Natasha’s character. Her writing was shallow, her casting was bad and her storyline so inconsistent and slap shod it actually hurts me. I won’t get into the in depth character study of Natasha and all the many ways Scarlet fails at being her here. Maybe one day, but not rn. Simply put her inclusion in the Ironman arc left a lot to be desired.

In part 2 I’ll dive into Thor, Loki and the first avengers movie. I’ll have to leave Cap for part three cause that’s a lot to cut into and it deserves it’s own part.

#MCU #meta #disney #marve #mine #ironman #rdj #black widow #scarlet johansson

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sometimesrosy · 4 years

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Part 1 I've yet to understand why bellarke shippers hate b*cho so much. Like, to me, the fact that it exists is the only proof I need to know that bellarke will get together. I mean if the writers really wanted to put an end to bellarke once and for all they would've picked raven, not echo, as a romantic partner for bellamy after the time-jump. Raven is a fan favorite, and she was already in a love triangle in which a guy chose Clarke over her.

Part 2 Plus, Raven and Bellamy were friends before the timejump and they had even slept together once. So they would've made much more sense than b*cho. But the writers knew that if they had done that, bellarke would've been off the table. So they went for b*cho instead.

I totally agree with you. B/R would have been a death knell for bellarke or a tragedy for raven. B/E is the perfect choice to push Bellarke into an acknowledged romantic relationship. Notice, I don’t say “canon,” because I think Bellarke IS canon, in the way that Elizabeth and Darcy are the canon relationship in Pride and Prejudice even though they were not together or official until the very end of the book.

And I think THAT is the difficulty fandom is having with B/E vs Bellarke. Because they are not looking at the story being told as a crafted work of art, intended to convey something intentional. Instead, they are looking at it more as a game in which one side wins and one side loses, like football.

The narrative is a narrative that tells Bellarke’s long, arduous, tumultuous, complex journey towards being TOGETHER. (And together has been the theme since season 1, and it is represented IN CANON, as Clarke and Bellamy uniting.) Over the course of the show, being “together” has gotten more and more romantic every season, while holding off on giving the audience the resolution of kiss/confess/sex and I’m gonna add one more quality to that audience canon representation. Marriage. Because it is possible that marriage is on the table.

Why? BECAUSE the main story, the underlying story to the whole thing, is the Bellarke love story. And making B/E a canon relationship, and yet denying it development or story on screen, is a clear cut sign that Bellarke is a committed story.

Why?

Because B/E has been used as a COMPARE AND CONTRAST to Bellarke as a romance since the moment it became canon, when B/E being together was set up as a shock after watching Clarke alone and longing for Bellamy to come home. 5.01. B/E has ONLY had story that served to further OTHER storylines, Bellarke, the Blakes, Missions, wars, forgiveness. And if it focuses on either Bellamy or Echo, we have seen that neither Bellamy NOR Echo are getting what they need from the relationship.

You simply can’t tell a romance story without TELLING THE ROMANCE STORY. Therefore, B/E is a romantic obstacle to the romance story that IS being told. That is Bellamy and Clarke finding their way back to each other, now as a main plot line.

SO WHY do the bellarkers never seem to recognize B/E as a STANDARD romantic obstacle in the COMMON love triangle trope? This has always confused me because we get this story in fanfic all the time. I myself have written Echo as part of a love triangle and I did it before s5 too. Since s2, actually. So why are we ignoring the completely romantic trope of the love triangle and instead hating B/E so much? When it really isn’t so terrible a relationship, it’s just not the RIGHT one?

I have to go back to the football game analogy.

They have teams. Bellarke vs B/E. Bellarke is THEIR team. B/E is the enemy. Any points the enemy gains is an assault on their their team. Therefore they hate B/E and they hate the fans of B/E. When B/E has the ball, that’s all they see. And they only count certain narrative evidence as points.

Now if they saw the story the way I look at it (and you too it seems) they would realize that certain things, like a forgiveness scene, “go save clarke,” the cinematography, cuts, music, constant b/e bickering, the jeaousy scene followed by the b/e fight scene, B’s grief, characters saying B cares more about C, The scenes with B and Josephine, bringing Clarke back with his love, even a b/e hug scene where his attention goes back to Clarke, and a final bellarke hug-- all these things add up to points in a Bellarke love story, and they overhwelm the B/E evidence of 5.01, Bellamy fighting for E against O, B/E goodbye scene, war comrades, “who knows forgiveness like us,” and bellamy saying he is forgetting the past (clarke we assume) when echo tells him, finally, about her family dying, and he seems to recommit to Echo... although it then switches to Clarke in danger and all his attention goes to Clarke from then on so I’m not sure we can count that. But that’s the thing. When you’re playing football with the story, you take things out of context, and for some reason, fandom seems to think that if you can convince others that a scene means nothing (Octavia’s “another traitor who you love”) then it doesn’t count.

The way they count points in the shipwars is to find out who can make the most persuasive tweet/post about their ship. And if they can manage to make people doubt what they saw on screen by rewriting the story to fit their headcanon, then they win.

Convincing people that what they see with their own eyes is a lie/delusion is actually called gaslighting.

We see Bellarke happening on screen, but certain antis convince us we are delusional, or being baited, or things like narrative structure, cinematography, themes are made up things that don’t exist.

Some people believe the gaslighting. They’d rather have a fanwar or believe that JR hates them personally, and have someone to be angry at than... idk... enjoy a show that did not go in the predictable direction they thought it would?

They hate B/E because of the points (kiss/confess/sex.) Because of the shipwars. Because some people try to gaslight us and this makes them angry and they take it out on a character? Because they’re afraid to allow B/E to be valid because of those antis who say it’s real and endgame. IDK. I think that B/E can be both valid and NOT endgame. Maybe because being outraged is the way they fangirl. And so they need to be FURIOUS at someone in order to work up the passion they want to feel, in order to feel like they are part of the in group, someone has to be in the outgroup. (You can actually WATCH as some fans, when their previous enemy (CL? CL fans? remember them?) is vanquished, have to search around for a new enemy. Sometimes they pick another fan (some people picked me as their enemy as soon as CLs went away even though I refused to play,) sometimes they pick the writers, sometimes they pick another character or ship. These are the ones I call antis. They are not so much fans OF a thing they love, but a group of people defined by who and what they hate. The thing that ended my commitment to fandom was when the bellarke fans decided BELLARKE was the thing they hated. I just couldn’t deal with that, as they decided that their headcanon was the REAL bellarke, and what we saw on screen was a betrayal. Me. I liked the story. Still do. And like it better than the headcanons at this point which tend to be more simplistic and trite.

It’s all a mess, frankly. And because there are so many different perspectives on the show and fandom, it’s probably best to not look for ONE answer. There are different subcultures within the fandom culture, after all, and within that, different people have different experiences and responses.

In order to understand how the fans are reacting to the story we have to understand the culture and psychology of fandom, and that is rather complex. And different for many people. I like to understand why people think what they thing, but in the end, I just have to stick to the text and continue to analyze canon without being influenced by fandom which seems to me to often be to WAY off base.

#the 100 fandom #antis #it's exhausting #also people don't like when i analyze their own actions because they think they're the only ones allowed to be critical #and they think their behavior and choices are pure and not now part of social media #another text to be analyzed #psychology sociology cultural anthropology #all ways to understand human behavior and honestly not that different from literary analysis

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naruhearts · 5 years

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OKAY SO I've just spent the best part of an hour scrolling through your blog and reading a bunch of your destiel meta and I HAD to message you... I was one of the many people who STRONGLY believed destiel had a chance of being canon after season 8 (more like season gr8 am i right), but throughout the years I slowly lost all hope. However, S14 has made me 110% invested in the show again and YOUR META IS GIVING ME HOPE FOR DESTIEL, which is TERRIFYING. Your writing is wonderful and I'm STRESSED.

Got back from Washington late last night!

Oh my gosh @alovelikecas, your message really made my day and I’m SO glad you enjoy my meta xox (even when most of my meta looks like, to me, sloppy-ass writing, haha! I’ll probably make an end-season meta post after 14x20 — if I have the time — that touches upon SPN’s current and repeating themes since Season New Beginnings S12/Dabb Era, not to mention I have, like, some more unfinished meta in my drafts >.>)

Yeah I mean, I didn’t join Destiel land until Summer 2016, and before that, I was late to the Season 11 party, so I basically had no narrative context for anything, and I’ll copy-paste what I said here:

Looking back, one significant thing I recall? S11 gave me a sense of Destiel’s true narrative validity (as not a ‘fanon’ ship but organically developed in the canon) when I perceived it as a season that was ‘missing something’. Keep in mind I had no idea about Destiel yet while watching S11 at the time.

I was literally asking myself — repeatedly — why Dean/Amara seemed to contain odd narrative holes, considering A. Dean explicitly said that the non-consensual attraction he felt for Amara was NOT love and “it scares him”, B. Amara told Dean that ‘something stops you - keeps you from having it all’, C. Djinn!Amara stated that she can: ‘feel the love [Dean] feels, except it’s cloaked in shame,’ and D. Mildred’s iconic ‘You’re pining for someone’ —> which did not logically correlate with A and C, meaning: since Dean doesn’t freely love Amara and thus isn’t possibly pining for her — with female love interests as currently non-existent (I remember crossing off the dead/gone girls on a piece of paper lol) — who the hell was he pining for, then?

Originally posted by elizabethrobertajones

Obviously, without writing long-ass paragraphs of meta about it again in this post, S11 made sense as soon as I watched it within the Destiel context (especially after I read up on some grandiose pieces of Destiel meta (@charlie-minion was the very first person who inspired me to write meta; I followed her once I joined the fandom Oh my god, here we go, holy crap this subtext – I’m invested in this godforsaken ship because they’re in love with each other and I’m not getting off any time soon. The rest is history.

I’m aware that I do come off as positive (and I’m still Destiel-positive; whatever happens in 14x20 this week may or may not change that), but I hope you don’t mind if I use your lovely ask as an additional opportunity to clarify my meta standpoint: no one’s saying Destiel WILL become text.

The general Destiel meta community (all subfactions: Destiel-positive, -negative, -neutral, and in-between) is not the Most Holy Canon Word, and we aren’t SPN writers, and again, we can’t actually speak to the veracity of Destiel as guaranteed-gonna-go-textual, but we — a diverse pool of critical thinkers from all walks of life: particularly those who have some degree of experience in literary academia/English literature studies (fun fact: I was actually pursuing a Minor’s in English until I changed my mind - my first love’s Health Science/Biology, which I stuck with, but here I am doing lit-crit analysis on the side *wink*) — can speak to the veracity of Destiel as a real, palpable, and ever-substantial long-running romance narrative aka the love story between Dean and Cas IS THERE. I see it. We all see it. We didn’t pluck it out of the random ether one day. It naturally evolved across the show’s overarching narrative like some vast spiderweb, linked together by numerous character arc amalgamations of Dean Winchester and Castiel as separate individuals who were then brought together — who brought themselves together, by the sheer force of free will and choice — and are now inherent parts of the other’s story (and respective character progression).

I say this too many times to count: the entire point of writing meta? Personally, it enables me to appreciate the literary gorgeousness of Dean and Cas’ relationship as, first and foremost, a tentative alliance offset by the very moment Cas raised Dean from perdition (it’s a poetic beginning). Their alliance then inevitably proliferated into a rocky — at times, necessarily turbulent — friendship, then a deep profound bond…one that crossed platonic boundaries since S7/8 and is, ultimately, indelibly rooted in romance. Together, Dean and Cas build up each other’s strengths, complement each other’s flaws, and narratively motivate the other to self-introspect — to become the best version of themselves that they were always meant to be: self-actualized entities who let go of their painful, horrifying, psychologically/emotionally destitute pasts.

These above reasons and more are why I think Destiel belongs right up there on the shelf of Ye Olde Classics, similar to epics by John Milton, Shakespearian tragic dramas, Homeric characteristic cruxes, and the great Odyssey journey: a legendary journey, fraught with circumstance, that finally ended with Odysseus (now an enlightened man) returning to Penelope, the love of his life.

Channeling the scope of Homer’s Odyssey, Destiel is an incredible storytelling feat of obstacles, both internal and external, romance tropes, mirroring, foreshadowing, and visual cadence/emotion, enhancing SPN’s already character-driven main plot in that Dean and Cas try to make it back to one another; like Penelope, their love holds true despite everything. If Destiel were an M/F couple, we all know their love story would be absolutely undeniable to the GA.

I do understand the bitterness S14’s fostered in some viewers, though. I do understand that Dean and Cas seem distant (and yeah, it’s a noticeable difference compared to S12/S13), but I believe the Destiel subtext is still heavy and holds steady.

Right now, at this point, there remains multiple personal issues for the characters to solve, you know? Dean and Cas aren’t talking properly; their love languages stay mistranslated, although we’re persistently shown that they still understand each other on a certain level that no one else can, and the visual narrative keeps framing them as on-the-nose solid counterparts: a domestic-spousal romantic unit independent of Sam.

Originally posted by incatastrophicmind

They want to be there for the other. They need to quash the final remnants of their respective internal loathing (Dean’s self-worthiness, Cas’ self-expendability) before they’re able to give the other 100% of their time, efforts, attention, and love (as flawed and complicated but compellingly beautiful as it can possibly be). During the times Dean and Cas do try to talk shit out, extraneous issues continue to get between them.

As other friends/meta pals discussed with me, S14 is like S10 in that it’s confusing the cast/audiences. And exactly: S8, besides S11/S12/early S13, also belongs in the close-to-canon serious Destiel narrative transition! I can discuss the showrunning/writer problem of SBL (Singer + Bucklemming; @occamshipper hits the nail on the head) that tugs subtext – especially subtext linked to Destiel – back and forth, sometimes in the weirdest nonsensical ways, but I won’t go too far into it here. I agree, however, with the recent idea that Jensen does seem a bit confused as to where he should bring Dean emotionally this season (don’t get me wrong, I do NOT believe Dean is OOC; OOC is a completely different concept vs expected character behaviour). And if Dean’s consistently romance-coded past interactions with Cas are any indication, Jensen would also — in the same vein as all of us — want Dean and Cas to start getting their shit together. Long-running fictional characters like Dean and Cas, conceived over 10 years, are so well-written to the point where you, the author, can predict what they’ll do even if you just plop both of them inside a room and give them no direction, and I personally feel that nowadays Jensen is prevented from achieving Dean’s further internal growth/unsure how to act in the moment because of some dumb SBL scripts saying one thing while his character’s heart says another. Wank aside—

Season 15 should hopefully convey a much more logical subtextual perspective e.g. unbelievably amazingly cohesive Season Destiel 11 that aired after choppy S10. Not all hope is lost!! I also want to clarify that I personally LOVED Season 14 in general. It’s been mostly Emotion-centric constant, with Yockey, Berens, Perez, and Dabb usually making my top-rank SPN writer list.

Currently the narrative’s still allowing pretty significant (imho) wiggle room for the lovers to fracture apart and get back together, where their miscommunication comes to a dramatic head. We just saw Dean and Cas argue over Jack’s well-being in 14x18 and 19. Dean — besides putting Cas at the top of his You’re-Dead-to-Me-Because-You-Lied-but-I-Still-Love-You-Goddammit hitlist (for clear spousal-coded reasons) and taking Cas’ actions to heart (he’s the person he trusted the most who lied to him) — no doubt blamed himself for what happened, and Sam was, like I said, the mouthpiece of truth. TFW were all culpable. They all failed Jack in some way, shape, or form.

I’m not expecting anything for 14x20, but I’m nervous either way! Thanks for sticking with my long answer

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lastsonlost · 5 years

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What does Christopher Priest see when he looks at Vampirella?

Loneliness.

And in his new Vampirella ongoing launching July 17, the veteran writer will give Vampi the human connection she craves... before ripping it all away.

Illustrated by Ergun Gunduz, Dynamite's new Vampirella relaunch begins with the alien vampire as the last survivor of a plane crash which took away any friend or acquaintance she had. Now she's here on Earth and all alone. And this isn't a fictional world known to have vampires, witches, warlocks, or werewolves - this is the real world, and you know how real people would take to someone like Vampirella?

... but do you, really?

As Priest tells Newsarama in an email interview, Vampirella's supernatural abilities are "a metaphor for a univeral human condition, for being either rejected or idealized (or, in the case of our series, both) because you are different. Anyone who’s ever moved to a new town or a new school or taken a new job should be able to identify with Vampi’s challenges."

Priest, an ordained Baptist minister (as a reminder to readers, prefers to be addressed as 'Priest'), shared his thoughts with Newsarama on how the prospect of writing Vampirella was first received by him, how it fits within his religious life, and how he's using it to examine humanity.

Newsarama: Priest, what makes Vampirella interesting to you?

Christopher Priest: The fangs. Definitely the fangs.

When DC Comics approached me about writing Deathstroke, I’d really never thought much about the character. It wasn’t a book I’d normally read because I probably wasn’t the audience the book was targeted toward. But it presented an interesting challenge: what new things could I find to say with this character and what unexplored areas of the character were there to develop?

When Dynamite Publisher Nick Barrucci said “Vampirella,” I had nearly the identical reaction. I was, of course, familiar with the character but wasn’t a Vampirella fan, wasn’t the audience for that book, which made me an odd choice. You’ll have to ask Nick why he made it.

My immediate reaction was exactly the same: what new thing could I bring to this property? Where is the untapped potential? That, for me, is the interesting part; craft a Vampirella narrative that broadens the audience for the property while (hopefully) not putting off the hardcore Vampi fans.

Nrama: So what was the answer to that? What is the story?

Priest: I read this Bruce Springsteen Rolling Stone interview a couple decades back (yah... decades...) around "Born In The USA," where Springsteen said something remarkable that’s stuck with me all this time, about how each of us needs community. He said something like, “Without community (by which I presume he meant human attachment and interaction) we’d likely go crazy and kill ourselves.”

Over many interpretations Vampirella has developed many versions of a supporting cast, but she is fundamentally alone, one of few of her race living on Earth. Considering the Boss’s statement, I wasn’t eager to create yet another supporting cast and then echo adventures she’s had before. For better or worse, I wanted my at-bat with the character to be unique and in some ways challenging.

So the thought occurred to give Vampirella that community, that human connection... and then have it all ripped away. Our story arc revolves around a plane crash which effectively terminates many connections Vampi has built while forging new ones.

Nrama: You're setting this in the real world. A real fish out of water scenario, but one you're playing at for deeper cultural issues. What's a woman like Vampirella likely to face here on Earth?

Priest: With all due respect for the legion of much better writers who’ve handled the character, as I mentioned, I probably was not the audience for this book. Vampirella was created with a satirical flair and Vampi herself was in on the joke; not quite breaking the fourth wall but offering up a knowing come-hither smile. She’s existed in a reality that routinely and, for me, far too benignly, accepts the supernatural as fact.

Here in the real world, vampires are merely a thing of myth and the reality of hyperfactual supernatural events are subject to the interpretation of the particular tribe one belongs to. It bothers me that, in 2019, DC and Marvel universes are still mostly portrayed in an idealized hyper-reality where the average man on the street simply accepts superheroes as fact and, in fact, refers to them literally as “heroes” or “villains,” which is absurd. There’s no news anchor in the world who would start a broadcast piece with, “Arch-villain Saddam Hussein...” even though that description would be apt.

The world our Vampirella series takes place in doesn’t believe in vampires. Or witches or warlocks or werewolves. This world seeks rational scientific explanation for paranormal phenomena which it greets with enormous skepticism.

Which isn’t to suggest no one will believe Vampirella exists but that that acceptance is not as matter of fact as it seems to be in most of this genre.

In terms of what she’s facing, her number one enemy is loneliness. I am, hopefully, writing a woman first, a story about a woman who loves and wants to be loved but whose circumstances are complicated by the fact she has fangs and drinks blood. The supernatural attributes are a metaphor for a universal human condition, for being either rejected or idealized (or, in the case of our series, both) because you are different. Anyone who’s ever moved to a new town or a new school or taken a new job should be able to identify with Vampi’s challenges.

Anyone who wears their hair a different way, listens to a different kind of music, embraces a different religion, anyone who steps outside of or gets shoved outside of the so-called “mainstream” can identify with our take on Vampirella. I hope it is precisely this universality of theme that helps broaden her audience; the Vampi tent is large enough for everyone.

Nrama: Someone walking around in that Trina Robbins-designed costume is bound to get some headturns. If I know you as much as I think I do, you're going to tackle that head on, right? How are you getting into the subject of the costume?

Priest: Well, yes, we will have a go at it. The basic argument is simple: where do you draw the line between women’s liberation and women’s exploitation, and who gets to draw it? Who gets to define femininity and why should an extraterrestrial have to submit to that definition?

It’s like the world woke up in the last few years and realized we actually have two genders and both of them matter.

So we now have heightened scrutiny of themes and behaviors and that poor bastard Joe Biden gets caught up in the switches. I’ll confess, I’m terrified of women because I’m a Joe Biden. I was taught to pay a lady a compliment and open doors and I want to be friendly and accessible but I’m absolutely terrified of having my good intentions taken in a bizarrely paranoid light.

It is comical to me that I am far too often seen as creepy by women - especially black women - because they have been conditioned by their personal experience and their media consumption to misinterpret a simple "Hello." These days I cannot pay a woman a complement without a legal preamble and assurances that, no, I am not hitting on you and even then I get the skunk eye of suspicion.

Which is a little insulting because this “guilty until proven innocent” defensive posture presumes I am other people or that the bar is set so low for me that I’ll jump into bed with just anybody I happen to meet. It’s like we’ve just gone too far now to the point where women are not just being protected but being alienated to some extent because I have no earthly clue how to deal with them and I’m frankly scared to shake their hand.

So, is Vampirella’s wardrobe choice sexist? I don’t know. Vampirella obviously doesn’t think so. As I see her, she comes from a culture much like Star Trek’s Betazed, where people wear little or nothing at all. If anything, Vampi wonders why we humans choose to smother ourselves in so much fabric and why we’re all so bound by self-loathing.

There are hundreds of women who enjoy cosplaying as Vampirella, and maybe hundreds of thousands offended by the character. How do we reconcile all of that for the 21st century?

The one thing I won’t do is cover her up. I accepted the gig: write Vampirella. If you change the outfit, she’s no longer Vampirella. Frankly, her costume is the only thing about her (well, okay, that and her pansexuality) that makes her at all shocking or controversial.

My goal, and the readers will have to let us know if we’re passing or failing, is to make this a book as much about femininity as about bloodsucking. The storyline is driven by women, mostly populated by women, of all shapes and sizes and ethnicities, and most of them dress as sexy as they dare. The singer/rapper Lizzo is a terrific example of this. Is her blatant sexuality liberating or is she being exploited? How about Beyoncé? Do we put Vampi in a raincoat but cheer Bey on?

See what I mean? I’m screwed either way.

Nrama: So Priest - Vampirella's here on Earth. What would you do if you found yourself, I don't know, sharing a cab with Vampi?

Priest: I’d ask the driver to pull over and let me out. I’m a Christian, so I have these issues with all of that “fornicating in your mind” stuff. I don’t live a perfect life but I try to avoid cluttering up my conscience. Among the things the printed page cannot convey is the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman.

All women are beautiful, from 8 to 80, regardless of weight, height, or nationality. I wouldn’t share a cab with a woman as under-dressed as Vampi, which sounds hypocritical because I’m writing her. But I write Deathstroke, too, and wouldn’t share a cab with him, either.

Nrama: On the flip side of this, Vampirella's stranded on Earth. What's going through her mind in all of this?

Priest: How stupid and primitive we are. It’s not arrogance. I believe any visitor from another world would surf the net for a few hours and come away shaking their heads. I watched an episode of Little Miss Atlanta yesterday. Jesus. We’re just idiots. The moms fighting and bickering and cursing - cursing - in front of these little girls, berating the little girls. This sickening child abuse... That's entertainment?

I have Christian friends who will criticize me for writing Vampi but they watch that crap.

Nrama: This comes over a decade after your previous stint with Vampirella - Harris Publishing's Vampirella Revelations with artist Eric Battle. That run had some issues, but you're back here again. What makes is something you want to return to?

Priest: *scratches head* Really? I did a run...? I remember doing a silent issue... and vaguely remember doing something with Eric, a good bud. But that was way back. I really hadn’t considered this a “return.” I just pivoted and stared into Barrucci’s hypnotic vampire eyes and ran dozens of scenarios through my feeble brain, coming to one conclusion: this would be an interesting experiment, a writer’s challenge. Writers love challenges.

Nrama: Big picture, what are your goals with this ongoing?

Priest: To not have the women of America torch my house. This run will be as different a take on Vampi as any that have come before.

Which is not to say “better;” “better” is subjective. I’m sure a great many Vampi fans will hate what we’re up to. Maybe they’ll come along, maybe I’ll get fired. If I wasn’t nervous about it, it wouldn’t be worth doing.

Editor's Note: The above interview was conducted via email eariler this week, and we received all of Mr. Priest's responses along with all our original questions. Newsarama asked Priest if he would respond to follow-up questions Friday by email. He agreed and those questions and answers follow.

Nrama: Priest, our original questions to you were about the Vampirella comic book and our role is to talk about that and not audit your personal life, but your responses appear to be hyper aware of a social climate you seem to lament in terms of relationships between genders and conduct towards one another.

Priest: I lament the social climate in general, on all levels. I lament our lack of civility and lack of empathy, lack of patience and understanding. I hate the way we assassinate one another with our thumbs, all this hostility in social and other media. It's not just gender issues.

Nrama: Yet empathizing with Joe Biden without citing the actual specific behavior he’s under scrutiny for, stating things like "the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman" and by offering you’re “often seen as creepy by women,” it seems like intentionally inviting the sort of reaction/assumptions you state you’re “afraid” of and inviting the same scrutiny Biden is under.

Was this was your intent and are you prepared for pushback to your words and questions to be asked?

Priest: Wow, there's a lot to unpack, there. But let's start by saying I seriously doubt anyone reading this is NOT aware of the Biden issue to which I am referring.

I come neither to defend Biden nor to bury him, so I think you're probably taking my "poor" Joe reference a bit too seriously. I wasn't trying to litigate Biden, only to make a point about how hyper-sensitive and overly politicized our nation is and how this will impact Vampirella in her series.

Assembling disparate quotes to paint me as some kind of deviant makes that point for me. I stand by my statements. "...the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman..."

is something difficult if not impossible to convey in literature (which was my point), but your question was about me sitting in a taxi with a near-naked woman and I answered that honestly.

And my point was relevant to understanding the challenges and conflicts Vampirella will face in this series.

This is the environment Vampirella finds herself in, people misinterpreting her actions, words, and motives. This is why I mentioned it, to place the work we are doing with Vampirella into context.

Were a person like Vampi walking around in our world (or riding in a taxi with me), she would be misinterpreted, and every word she says would be drilled into looking for the worst possible interpretation of it. I can't help but wonder why anyone anywhere speaks publicly because no words spoken by anyone can withstand this level of ridiculous scrutiny.

Nrama: In another response you state “It’s like the world woke up in the last few years and realized we actually have two genders and both of them matter”. While not assuming your intent one way or another, it seems it to overlook genders outside the male/female paradigm. Can you speak to that?

Priest: Gender: noun

1. either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female. "a condition that affects people of both genders"

I wrote an ecumenical commentary in support of gender and and LGBTQ issues, Chris. I invite everyone to read it.

It was a simple interview. I was promoting a comic book and, as a really busy writer, I was typing really fast and speaking honestly while engaging with you. What I won’t do, not even for my own safety, is censor myself or try and anticipate every horrible way someone might choose to misinterpret something I've written or said.

If anything, that just makes my point for me about how free speech is being compromised. It's a tough environment to publish comic books in because every publisher is terrified by the spectrum of extreme possible reactions from an increasingly intolerant environment where everybody's playing "gotcha" and looking for the worst possible and most extremely negative interpretations of everything.

The whole point of free speech is my duty to defend others' rights to have it, not to shout them down or demonize them.

#Christopher Priest #vampirella #comics

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snicketsleuth · 6 years

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Slackin’ with the Sleuth: reviewing Netflix’s “The Ersatz Elevator”

At this point in my review of Netflix's adaptation, I feel like I should clarify something: in spite of everything, I love the show so far. As negative as my observations can be, they also reflect how tricky the original work was to adapt. Some polarizing choices were made, but we have yet to see or watch anything that would make us doubt the dedication and talent of its production team. The writing team has obviously spent sleepless nights trying to understand the point of the books, and the reason for their success.

Most Hollywood adaptations consist in superficial copy-pasting of "memorable" plot points, conglomeration of cliff notes devoid of any themes or commentary, stripped of all depth and substance. Mercifully this was not a case for "A Series of Unfortunate Events". In fact, the directors have repeatedly agreed to transgress unwritten rules of television writing and to push the boundaries of their format in order to deliver a satisfying adaptation. Fans whine, and they snicker, but that's their social function. Criticism hurts the most when it comes from people who know you the best and are actively trying to like you.

"The Austere Academy" was somewhat of a dud, so let's try to begin our analysis with something more positive. I have two questions: what is this second season's greatest accomplishment and why is it Esme Gigi Geniveve Squalor?

The answer, in both cases, actually owes to the books themselves. Watching the final result, it becomes obvious that Esme was actually easier to adapt on screen than Olaf, for one reason and one reason only: Count Olaf is not funny. Yes, you heard me, and it bears repeating: Count Olaf is not "funny". That's a revisionist narrative (to which Daniel Handler sometimes adheres himself). Olaf makes jokes, jokes are made about him, and he has ridiculous moments, but that's true of ANY character in "A Series of Unfortunate Events". He's no more farcical than, say, Justice Strauss or Violet Baudelaire. We'll get back to that in my review of "The Hostile Hospital". Olaf as portrayed by Jim Carrey and Neil Patrick Harris is a perfectly fine character, who works within his setting, but it's essentially a new antagonist. Esme, however? Now that's a laugh riot. Whenever she's not being terrifying, she's being ridiculous and delivers some real gems in terms of ridiculousness. All in all, Esme, throughout the books, was already delivering what the Netflix writers needed and wanted. No adaptation necessary.

That's why Lucy Punch does justice to her book counterpart in a way Neil Patrick Harris and Jim Carrey never could. The fandom's reaction to her casting was, to put it fairly, lukewarm: there had indeed been a strong demand for a big-name actress to play the part. But as much as I dreamed of Lady Gaga embracing the role she was born for (if "American Horror Story: Hotel" is any indication), there is no room for improvement in Lucy Punch's performance. Actually, the casting of a too-well-known actress could have been a distraction: as hard as Neil Patrick Harris works to give Olaf his own personality, it's sometimes difficult not to see Barney Stinson or Doctor Horrible through his facial expressions. He does share an excellent chemistry with Punch, however, and her comical timing is golden. But most impressive, I think, is her ability to give that awful woman some manner of warmth and congeniality in her most despicable lines. Her upper-class flair and superficial, glossy smiles fully sell the viewer on the character. You can fully believe that Esme would thrive and gain popularity in the right circles, and heap praise for being an awful person.

Punch's successes almost outshine the presence of Jerome, which may be the entire point. Tony Hale is genius casting, but thankfully he seems to have toned down his usual persona, focusing more on Jerome's genuine kindness and crippling self-deprecation rather than his gullibility and cowardice. Painting Gunther as a parody of Karl Lagerfeld is also pretty on-the-nose, but it makes for hilarious scenes. One does wonder why Olaf doesn't just spend his entire life as Gunther, though. He seems to be everything Olaf aspires to be. With Esmé to support his career, why not just become a handsome foreigner? It's also noteworthy that the young actors' casting does improve in this episode, particularly in the elevator shaft. Klaus' girlish screaming and Violet's mixture of exasperation and panic as she lands into the net are especially memorable. The Baudelaire orphans are not written as typical teenagers: it's understandable that their stiff, overly intellectual lines are usually delivered in a likewise manner. And therefore, it's in the more comedic moments that Louis Hynes and Malina Weissman feel allowed to come out of their shell.

But enough with the niceties: alas, the subplot regarding the V.F.D. investigators once again rears its ugly head... with terrible pacing. To its credit, this episode attempts to tie in the conspiracy to events directly related to "The Ersatz Elevator" itself, rather than the disposable seasonal arc regarding Olivia. But this is somehow undermined by the outright futility of these distractions: Larry and Jacquelyn force us through an interminable lunch scene, which showcases Neil Patrick Harris' most gratuitous and unnecessary musical number to date. The entire scene is a shameless repetition of the Anxious Clown diversion in "The Wide Window". These long scenes of witty banter, where characters sit at a table and do nothing, are bizarrely reminiscent of Quentin Tarentino's worst indulgences. As pleasant as "Keep chasing your schemes" sounds, it's barely diegetic and mostly serves as a vanity project. It takes the viewers out of the entire experience. We do not see Olaf, but rather Neil being showcased as a singing prop. There is such a thing as Emmy-baiting, after all.

To add insult to injury, the ordeal only exists to justify a "rescue attempt" of the Quagmires by Jacques and Olivia... which is bound to fail as the Baudelaire orphans investigate the scene at the exact same time and find them on their own anyway. What are we supposed to think of this? That Jacques and Olivia peeked into the penthouse, never saw the Baudelaire orphans hard at work, went through a few rooms and climbed down the 667's facade to have a milkshake? I would call them incompetent volunteers, but Jacquelyn and Larry seem to have already taken that crown. I had not anticipated to address my annoyance at this show-only addition so soon, but the fact is that this experiment in narration really struggles to prove its relevance. I had thoroughly enjoyed Jacquelyn's adventures in Season 1, as they streamlined the handling of the Baudelaire will in a more satisfying manner. Here, however, her presence seems to add more plot-holes than it solves.

Baffling choices in direction also continue to elude me: "Dark Avenue" has been renamed "Dim Avenue". Apparently, all it takes to evoke darkness is to dip the pellicle into a sepia filter. An especially egregious example comes to mind as light becomes "in" and the curtains of the penthouse open up, revealing sunlight... except the lighting of the scene doesn't change in the slightest, it was already bright as day! The sets are gorgeous as always, however. The director has successfully conveyed the pomposity and immensity of Jerome's apartment, which suggests a lack of supervision on the director's part: it seems that the directors keep latching onto one aspect of set design they like and tend to forget about the rest. Take the Quagmires, who look positively chipper and clean for people who have supposedly spent days locked into a dusty cage with the same raggedy uniform. I would argue that Duncan and Isadora are so far the worst adapted characters. They're admittedly pretty bland in the books, but the Netflix team has somehow managed to give them even LESS material. The depiction of the trauma they suffered down in the elevator shaft is one of the series' most horrific moments, and another emotional scene from which we were robbed.

The Netflix series also seems to drop the ball on the tantalizing return to the Baudelaire mansion. It's a shocker in the books, but here it's almost an afterthought. Instead of seeing the scene through the Baudelaire orphans, we're first introduced to... Jacques and Olivia flirting. Not nearly as heartbreaking, isn't it? It's about as off-key and off-tone as the episode's music.

And yet it's all fine. And why? Because Daniel Handler wrote this double episode, which proves I'm wrong about all of this. Or maybe he is, who knows? Sometimes a book is so great it escapes his own author. There is not one definitive version of "A Series of Unfortunate Events", but several, each revealing a different facet of an untouchable and intangible diamond. The Netflix version is simply the only one which happens to have been filmed in its entirety.

#0540 #Lemony Snicket #ASoUE #a series of unfortunate events #violet baudelaire #klaus baudelaire #Sunny Baudelaire #count olaf #esme squalor #netflix #asoue netflix #neil patrick harris #lucy punch #tony hale #jerome squalor #review #daniel handler

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paulisweeabootrash · 6 years

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Series Review: Read or Die (R.O.D. the OVA)

Welcome to another episode of Paul is Weeaboo Trash! Today’s topic is a show I’ve previously seen one episode of, so long ago that I’m almost going in fresh: the OVA (what we in the US would call a “direct to video release”) of Read or Die (2001–2002)! I was lucky enough to grow up in a household where education and fun were not portrayed as opposites, and we had the means to find plenty of fun educational things to do. My parents searched for all kinds of potentially interesting activities, and living in southern New Hampshire, the Boston area was not prohibitively far to go for them. And so I was signed up for Splash, a program one weekend per fall in which MIT students teach middle- and high-school-age kids seminars on a wide variety of topics.

What counted as topics worthy of education was quite broad, however. I ended up in a "class" that consisted of watching one episode each of several anime that the student running the class was a fan of. This was back in the days where anime fandom spread person-to-person by recommendations and there was more emphasis on developing a background knowledge of "classics" among the more informed and/or snootier fans. (I still feel this way a bit because certain tropes and references are so common or influential that being familiar with the original sources can make newer shows suddenly make a lot more sense, but I disapprove of the gatekeeper tendency to look down on people who don't yet know the things "everyone knows".)

I don't remember how many shows we sampled there, but the two that made an impact were Hellsing, which in retrospect was at best questionable for the age of the audience, and was very much not my thing because I have a low tolerance for gore, and the topic of this post, Read or Die, which was very much the kind of thing I wanted to see: a nerd being a badass in a fantastical way. Especially since I was also really into James Bond at the time, so I was probably primed to eat up other media involving a British spy fighting a mysterious secret organization. Since I'm incredibly averse to media piracy and had no clue where to buy anime, though, I never followed up to finish watching it, and eventually it faded from my mind. Until I stumbled across the first volume of the manga for super-cheap at Saboten Con last year, and it flicked some nostalgia switch that reminded me how much I'd enjoyed it at the time, although I barely remember any actual details, so I am practically going in fresh here.

Read or Die follows Yomiko Readman, a teacher, obsessive book collector and reader, and superpowered secret agent who can manipulate paper in nearly any way. Any paper available, from money to ribbons to a briefcase full of blank looseleaf she apparently just brings with her. She uses this power in the course of her service as a secret agent, codename The Paper, working for the British Library?! Along with Miss Deep, who can selectively phase shift, and Drake Anderson, a gruff and dismissive military type (and apparently potter in his cover job), she is assigned to a plan to save the world in a way that vaguely involves collecting books. Saved from whom? The I-jin, clones of historical geniuses with superpowers related to their areas of expertise, such as... knowing stuff about insects, or... uh... spreading Buddhism to Japan... who are going to flashy and violent lengths to steal books the British Library is trying to acquire legitimately. Trust me, it eventually gets explained, and the Big Reveal, although pretty goddamn weird, fits in with the rest of what has been established. Suspend your disbelief enough to accept the I-jin at all, and it’s fine, although still a bit ludicrous.

And I submit that all that is still less weird and ridiculous than your typical superhero or spy movie, and this show does after all have elements of both genres in one. Or, well, more and more superhero and military action as it goes on. Although the theme music uses 60s guitar sounds, chromatic chord changes, and blaring brass hits that are virtually guaranteed to evoke the James Bond theme, and our main cast do work for a secret intelligence agency, they are in quite open military-style conflict with the I-jin -- with the approval of the UN -- and very little that’s actually covert occurs, with the notable exception of something I can’t spoil that happens at the end of ep. 2. And because of the superpower angle, some of the instances of weirdness are not flaws at all but pretty creative implementations of the characters’ powers (using a paper airplane as a lethal weapon?!).

This last point didn’t really fit in organically, but I'd also like to mention a couple of things about the art that I love but don't see often. The very first shot of the series uses multiple flat backgrounds at different distances moving in relation to each other to convey the camera moving across the scene, which I have seen in other animated works (at the moment, I can only think of examples from very old Disney movies off the top of my head), but not in recent ones. I don't know whether it's simply out-of-fashion or this is a result of the shift to CGI so animators figure "why would we do this when we can actually render a city with realistic perspective?" This show also has a particular kind of fluid motion in characters that I’ve seen in many reasonably-high-production-value shows from the 90s and 00s, but rarely in newer shows (Space Dandy being a notable exception). Maybe I'm watching the wrong recent shows, maybe it's just a stylistic choice that's out of fashion, maybe it's harder to pull off convincingly when you're not animating by hand.

I’m glad I finally got to watch this. It’s even better than I remember. Now to get to work on the rest of the manga and the other series. Oh yeah, haha. The abbreviation "R.O.D." stands for both "Read or Die" and "Read or Dream", which are different parts of the same larger series. The Read or Die manga (4 volumes), this OVA series, the Read or Dream manga (also 4 volumes), and a 26-episode TV series all take place in the same narrative universe, rather than the usual model of the anime being an adaptation/retelling of the manga. There is also a light novel series I know nothing about, but it sounds from the Wikipedia article like that is the single ongoing series that is the source for the two manga and two anime. (There is also apparently a barely-related future side story manga.)

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W/A/S: 1/3/3

Weeb: I don’t think there’s much, if anything, in here that would require explanation to a typical Western audience and which isn’t also explained in the dialogue.

Ass: There is a single implied nipple in the opening sequence. Gasp! And Miss Deep's costume design is pretty fanservicey, but only barely more explicitly so than you're likely to get in American media deemed suitable for older children.

Shit: Until the Big Reveal, it's just unclear why anyone involved other than Yomiko should be this interested in acquiring the specific books that serve as the show’s MacGuffin, nor is it clear that the I-jin’s plans extend further than searching for them in a very destructive way, leaving me baffled that the Library immediately makes the connection that the books are key to saving the world. There are a few minor errors in the subtitles and a visual glitch (Blu Ray remaster, please?), and a couple of places where faces just... don’t... look right. Oh, and if you’re watching the dubbed version, add another half point of Shit for Crispin Freeman’s British accent.

And for the first time I feel the need to add a CONTENT WARNING. Usually, I think the review is sufficient to give you the idea whether there is anything likely to be disturbing in a show, but this is different, because the first two episodes have the sort of over-the-top stylized combat you might expect from other action anime or Western superhero media, where even a death comes off as un-shocking. But in ep. 3 of this, there is a shocking pivot. There are several short instances of graphic and sudden violence of kinds that are quite a bit more disturbing and distressing (even when they involve the use of powers) than anything that occurred previously.

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Stray Observations:

- Yes, those of you who know a little Japanese caught that joke: "Yomiko" could be loosely translated as "read girl". Her name is "Read Girl Read Man". Because she likes to read. Get it? Ha! Ha! Ha!

- In the manga, Yomiko is also established to be a literal bibliophile. As in "books, regardless of content, turn her on". I'm kind of glad this is not a plot point in the anime.

- The “secret” operation in the last episode, which is conducted with UN approval and involves an actual military attack with an actual goddamn naval fleet (and collaborating with North Korea to keep the US too distracted to notice it, even though this is a British operation against an organization that literally burned down the White House in the first scene of the first episode) might actually beat the first few episodes of Full Metal Panic! for “worst undercover operation ever”.

#R.O.D.#Read or Die #anime review #weeaboo trash

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lucidentia-sb · 6 years

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Breath Again | FilmInk

By Danny Peary May 31, 2018

As if the Australian press tour wasn’t grueling enough, actor/director Simon Baker is now in the US promoting the Stateside release, where he spoke to Danny Peary about the masterful Breath.

It is not unusual that after seeing a good movie I read the source novel, because I am often intrigued by the choices made during the adaptation process. But it is unusual that after reading the book that I immediately see the film a second time. That was my experience after seeing Breath, Australian actor-director Simon Baker’s adaptation of Australian novelist Tim Winton’s international bestseller of the same name. I couldn’t let the story go. It’s a mesmerising film co-scripted by Winton, Baker, and Gerard Lee (Top of the Lake) that on the surface seems simple and innocent but is actually complex and often dark, and will keep you wondering about the characters and their risky choices long after the film ends. That’s why I recommend it. As someone who watched every episode of The Mentalist, it was a special treat to have this conversation with the personable Simon Baker last week at the Crosby Hotel in SoHo.

You directed episodes of The Mentalist, with great inventiveness I thought. But even with that experience I’d think it was risky to cast two non-actors in the lead roles for your first feature film. Was it a worry for you or a good challenge considering that it is a movie about risk?

It was a risk. And like with any risk, it was a challenge in that you can get great stuff or fail miserably. The upside is really up, and the downside is really disaster. But that could happen if you have trained actors. It was a calculated risk worth taking because for me the most important thing was authenticity. For that I needed two young actors who could project their characters’ confidence in the ocean and able to do what was required physically. I thought it would be easier to teach a couple of skilled young surfers how to act than to teach a couple of young actors how to surf. So that’s what I chose to do by casting Sam [Coulter] and Ben [Spence].

I would think that it would be another difficult challenge for you as an experienced surfer to convey to viewers who don’t surf what it is like to surf.

I thought that wasn’t possible until I read Tim Winton’s book. Tim is a surfer but he was able to articulate successfully to readers who never surfed what it feels like to be a surfer, to be in the water, to be in certain situations. That in a lot of ways was the challenge of making his book into a film, to be able to translate cinematically that feeling of complete immersion in the ocean.

And Samson Coulter and Ben Spence understood that feeling?

They are surfers. Our level of communication benefited enormously because we all surf. My cinematographer [Rick Rifici] had also surfed all his life and knew that world. So, we were all on the same page. There was no one outside the surfing world who was involved with that aspect of the film; there was so much surfing knowledge that we’d already acquired that we didn’t have to talk about it. We understood it all. We knew where everyone should be instinctively, so we didn’t have to yell, “Where are you going? Don’t go there!” We knew what was going to happen, we knew what to do. We knew what our limitations were.

Were all those exciting surfing scenes still difficult?

They were still difficult because we were working in an uncontrollable environment. And we were still trying to tell a story on the water. It’s not just footage. The story has a point of view and we had to express what was happening to those characters in those dramatic scenes on the water as opposed to the surfing sequences. In a lot of narrative films that have surfing in them, the surfing feels like a different movie. I wanted there to be integration. As a surfer it was important for me that the development of the relationships between those characters translates scene by scene from land into the water. I want the audience to live that experience of being in the water through the characters, to have it be intimate.

There is a conversation between Sando, Pikelet, and Lonnie about whether surfing is instinctual or requires intellect. As a sportswriter, I’ve come increasingly to the conclusion that the difference between a successful athlete and an unsuccessful athlete who has the same talent is more confidence and intelligence. Does that apply to surfing and these two kids?

Definitely confidence. These are kids who have grown up in the water, who have surfed from a very early age and have been constantly put into problematic situations where it’s only them and nature and they can get out of them only by using their wits. So, they’ve developed a confidence in themselves physically through their knowledge and understanding. I don’t think Sam and Ben were aware of it, but I could see that confidence they have surfing translate to their acting. I could see they had confidence when they were acting. The film is set in the seventies and my recollection of being a teenager then is that we were out and about all the time. It was a physical existence. With my parents, it was, “Just be home before dark.” That was it. We were encouraged to go out. When you are outside with no parents around, you get to figure out your own limitations.

I think Pikelet and Loonie are trying to find their identities. I’m not sure they find it in the right way, especially as kids, in that they come to identify who they are by how they respond to fear of the various waves.

You hit the nail on the head. For me, the primary theme of the film is the search for identity. That to me is the focus. We use fear because it is such a common sensation that motivates us in so many actions. Fear can incite violence, fear can incite paralysis. It can take us in so many directions. So, it ties directly to identity in so many ways. Pikelet doesn’t want to be his father. He fears being his father because he’s dull and he’s ordinary. He worries about being ordinary. He loves his father but rebels against him out of fear of growing up to be as ordinary as him.

And Loonie? Loonie might be intelligent but that never comes out because he does reckless things before he thinks them through.

Loonie’s fear is of not belonging. He wants desperately to be part of something. That’s what motivates him. That’s why he’s fearless in this other world.

He likes eating with Pikelet’s family and being kissed goodnight by Pikelet’s mum when he sleeps over.

He definitely wants to be part of Pikelet’s family at the beginning of the film. He jokes about it, but he really wants it. Pikelet thinks his home life is dull, but Loonie really loves going to that house and being part of that family. And later he wants to be Sando’s favourite. He wants to be adored by Sando.

In Tim Winton’s book, Pikelet narrates early on about him and Loonie, “We were friends and rivals.” But I think they aren’t rivals but friendly competitors – in the book they see who can hold his breath longer – until they meet Sando. He turns them into rivals for his approval. I think the movie conveys this.

Obviously, the book goes into more detail but what I tried to illustrate, as with so many things without bogging it down with plot, is that the level of rivalry or competition is exactly what you said – it’s over the attention and affection of Sando. So, when Pikelet finds out that Sando has taken Loonie to surf in Indonesia without him, that’s heartbreaking. When two’s company and three has become a crowd and you’re the one who is left out – and we’ve all been there – there is heartbreak.

Why does Sando do that, leaving with Loonie without telling Pikelet?

Because Sando is pitting one against the other to create competition, to create a rivalry. It’s exactly that. There is that natural best friends’ competition that always exists, but you see Sando trying to fuel it. Earlier, Sando and Pikelet surf Old Smoky while Loonie can only watch with jealously because he has a broken arm.

There is a scene when Sando drops off Pikelet at his house, and Mr. Pike (Richard Roxburgh) is outside. And they don’t say hello or acknowledge each other. Is that a big moment for you?

Yes. Initially I shot it with Sando nodding to his father and his father giving Sando a small wave. And that was it. But tonally it felt a bit forced. The scene that comes directly after that is at the dinner table and Pikelet’s dad says he’s going to take the dory out and fish on Saturday and Pikelet turns down his invitation to go with him. I didn’t want to put too much of a point on it if they’d waved so I cut the nod and wave and they just glance at each other.

I thought that scene is important because it shows another competition, between Mr. Pike and Sando for Pikelet.

Exactly. Who’s the father figure? I’m losing my son to this guy who isn’t even taking the time to meet me. I love when people notice the small things because there are a lot of details that people don’t get, particularly the first time they see the movie.

In the press notes, you say that you really knew the Sando character, that he’s familiar to you. I’d think he’d be a once-in-a-lifetime person you’d meet. He’s not like that to you?

No, there were a few guys like Sando around when I was a kid growing up on the North Coast of New South Wales. I knew those characters. I still do. The weird thing about the culture of surfing is that it has a mysterious mythology that all surfers love. We don’t touch it, we don’t go near it. A lot of these guys like to build this mystery and this mythology around themselves.

It’s aging that gets them, right?

Well, that’s sort of what Sando’s experiencing. He’s hurdling toward a mid-life crisis.

So he hangs out with two boys. When playing an enigmatic character like Sando, do you want to totally understand him?

I don’t want the audience to, but I want to understand him. The complexity of Sando has to do with the narcissistic quality to him. The big brave moment that happens, which is Pikelet’s arrival as a young man, is when Pikelet says he doesn’t want to go surfing with Sando and Loonie, it’s not for me. I think Sando has respect for Pikelet at that moment, but at the same time he tells him to get his board out of the back. Pikelet says it’s Sando’s board, but Sando says, “I said it’s your board so get your fuckin’ board out of the back.” Which means: you can do your thing but I’m still the fuckin’ alpha here. I kind of respect you, perhaps because of your bravery surfing, but don’t think the hierarchal structure is going to change. You’ve now got your own thing, Pikelet, so piss off. Then Sando drives off and he looks straight at Loonie, like, Don’t you abandon me, too! Because at that point, he needs them more than they need him.

Do you think a major reason that Pikelet and Eva start having sex while Sando is away with Loonie is that they both feel betrayed by him?

Yeah, but there is something that builds earlier. The idea is that Pikelet is a more evolved man than Sando is. Eva picks up on that quickly. There’s a sensitivity and self-awareness to Pikelet that Sando has no grasp of, but Eva does. Because Sando is a complete narcissist. Eva, in her frailty and depression, doesn’t articulate it but is a lot more aware of what’s going on underneath it all, in these dynamics. She sees it when Pikelet comes up the stairs while she is napping and is looking at her scarred leg and up her skirt when she wakes up. And he leaves. Pikelet owns up to that moment and there’s a maturity in that. Here’s this kid who is mature enough to acknowledge what he did and apologise. When we were shooting that I cried, I just broke down. Because it was so potent to me.

Late in the book, the adult Pikelet looks back on his affair with Eva and all that happened to him and Loonie with Sando as damaging. What you do is refuse to go where Tim Winton goes in the book. You protect Pikelet and save him from being hurt that way. You keep him grounded and safe and have him make mature decisions. That’s intentional on your part.

That’s completely accurate. That’s exactly what I wanted to do.

Did you discuss that with Tim Winton and your co-writer, Gerard Lee?

Tim did an early draft and I had a lot of discussions with him early on about how I wanted to break the book down and remake it as a film. I know Pikelet’s a wreck at later in life in the book, but I saw Tim recently when we were releasing the film in Australia and told him, “Tim, it’s so funny but I don’t remember what’s in the book anymore.”

Both the book and the film deal with the themes of fear and not being ordinary, but I think your film deals more with Pikelet and Loonie dealing with fear and the book deals more with Pikelet not wanting to be ordinary. Do you think that’s true or do you see a connection between facing fear and trying not to be ordinary?

No. I think that “ordinary” was a device that worked better for the book. I think for the film fear had more potency.

I see another, dangerous theme that fits all these risk-taking characters, including Eva, who wants to be choked during sex, and that is: what can kill you makes you feel alive. Did you want this to be a major theme of your movie?

I think that’s in the film. I think that’s definitely a major theme for Loonie and of Sando and Eva’s existence, but we primarily follow Pikelet’s story and his story is a little more about finding what makes each person tick. He’s a curious, empathic character. He’s curious about Sando, he’s curious about Eva, he’s curious about his parents, and he’s curious about Loonie. His relationship with Loonie was sort of born out of curiosity. Loonie is entertaining to be around but what makes him tick?

In the book, years later Eva hangs herself. When watching the movie, I worried the whole time that she might commit suicide. Did you feel that also?

I wanted the audience to feel a sense of dread. Eva’s moving toward something that’s pretty dark. But then she becomes pregnant and Sando says he’s going to be a father. So maybe things will be brighter for a while. A few people have asked me why I have the adult Pikelet tell us only what happens to Loonie and not what happens to Sando and Eva. And I tell them I don’t want to have truckloads of explanation in his voice over. Remember, the core of this story started with just these two boys.

#breath film #simon baker #interview

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