#i think there are way deeper angles that you can dissect this movie from and i've seen a lot of awesome takes

[mod2amaryllis]

*slams table* that's it i'm posting nope thoughts

listen i'm not smart i'm not gonna talk about this like a smart person i'm gonna rant about it like the buzzy shell this movie left me

THIS MOVIE IS AS MUCH ABOUT GORDY AS IT IS ABOUT JEAN JACKET AND ALL THE ADULTS I SEE ACTING CONFUSED ABOUT THE WAY THEY WEAVE TOGETHER ARE KILLING MEEEEEEEE the existence of gordy's tragedy grounds the story in reality in a fucking harrowing way, chimps Have Done This, in Real Life, and they are From This Planet.

that said..................i'mgonnamostlytalkaboutjeanjacketok

stupidest take i've seen today is that OJ actually died and the shot at the end was Em's desperate imagination. fuck off no no you don't know how to watch movies you only know how to write messed up grimdark theories. NO. OJ's finally confrontation with Jean Jacket demonstrated how his knowledge of animal handling was so much more comprehensive than anyone else's, and that he and Em CAN live up to and even exceed the legacy of their family.

because Jean Jacket is written as a predatory animal, that's how OJ describes it. and we realize that avoiding eye contact is one way to keep yourself safe, but that way IS NOT A GUARANTEE, it absolutely would've slurped OJ and Lucky if not for the flag decoy. so knowing animals, knowing predators, knowing territorial behaviors, there is another way to handle a predator. the most dangerous way. which is showing absolute, inarguable control in the face of it. meeting its eyes and convincing it you are the bigger animal. dominating it.

when beautiful, terrible Jean Jacket unfurled and opened its REAL eye and flash flash flashed at OJ, instantly, INSTANTLY, i was like "that's a threat display." right??? am i wrong??? why else would it go so extra when it had been wrecking shop just fine as a saucer?? that was a threat display, Jean Jacket made itself as big as possible in the face of OJ, despite being totally capable of sucking him up at any time.

and finally, OJ looked right back. totally calm, totally motionless, totally prepared to die for his sister. at one point he says "if it's an animal it can be broken" because horses are territorial, horses are massive, horses are tough, and handling them is his craft. he was DOMINATINGGGG

for gordy, there were implied to be no animal handlers on set. there was no one who knew what to do. Jupe is not an animal handler, he's an actor with notions of being "chosen" to live and connect with these predators who appear to spare him. he survived a tragedy and profited off that spectacle his whole life. that doesn't mean he deserved his fate but that's the thing it's not about deserving it's not about being chosen it's not about fate it's about ANIMALS.

and ultimately, the only people who could exert any level of control over Jean Jacket were the financially struggling, less than glamorous, disrespected mother fucking animal handlers!!!!!!!!!!!!

#i think there are way deeper angles that you can dissect this movie from and i've seen a lot of awesome takes #but my mind will always just dwell on the animal aspects like that's my job man #i want more acknowledgement of OJ's badass staredown tho #nope #nope movie #nope spoilers #m2a

[old-people-like-avatar]

Netflix Avatar the Last Airbender S1 - Overall Thoughts [SPOILERS]

I am a longtime fan of Avatar the Last Airbender. I did not watch it in its original 2005 run, but I discovered it in around 2010 after my good friend R.S. recommended it to me. It's been my #1 favorite TV show ever since and I have rewatched it more times than I can count. I was cautiously optimistic about NATLA.

Now, having watched the whole first season of NATLA, and looking at the season as a whole, I think the best word to describe it is uneven. I can't say that I loved it, and I can't say that I hated it. But there were things I really liked about it and things that really did not work for me. Overall, I enjoyed watching it -- if only to dissect what did and did not work about the adaptation -- and would want to watch more.

WHAT WORKED

Everything to do with Zuko and Iroh. I found myself going back through just to rewatch all of the Zuko and Iroh-related scenes. I thought Dallas Liu really nailed Zuko -- from tantrums about his journal being stolen to incredible action sequences to the boyish vulnerability of worrying about the laces on his gauntlets. He took an iconic character and made him his own. NATLA added some incredible scenes and lines to my favorite duo: Lu Ten's funeral (coupled with orchestral version of "Leaves from the Vine"); Zuko's first war council; Iroh choosing to go with Zuko on the boat; the 41st Division; Iroh putting a blanket on Zuko. And I liked that NATLA emphasized that Iroh needed Zuko in the wake of Lu Ten's death as much as Zuko needed Iroh after his mother left.

Daniel Dae Kim's interpretation of Ozai. Ozai in ATLA is kind of one-dimensional. Daniel Dae Kim's Ozai adds a deeper layer to him in that he genuinely seems to think he's doing legitimate parenting -- even going so far as to visit Zuko after burning his face and remarking, glibly, that he'll recover ("but he'll never heal," says Iroh). It adds an even more monstrous angle to his cruelty because Kim's Ozai seems to think he's doing it for his children's own good. This post perfectly encapsulates my feelings about why I thought the agni kai between Ozai and Zuko was an excellent addition to NATLA.

Zuko/Aang. These two bonding over goat hair brushes was the scene I never knew I needed. The way Aang managed to wrest a little smile out of Zuko in that scene before Zuko blew up at him for criticizing the Fire Lord? And the way that tied into the "Compassion is a sign of weakness" scene from the agni kai? Great character work.

WHAT DID NOT WORK

Dialogue. I already observed at length my dissatisfaction with the clunky, exposition-dumping dialogue in my episode-by-episode writeups. It certainly wasn't as bad as the Movie-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but . . . there was no art or subtlety to it, and no trust in the audience. A disappointment.

The GAang did not feel like family. The lack of breathing room in the 8-episode season meant that all of the "filler" episodes that fleshed out the relationships between Aang, Katara, and Sokka were sacrificed. I am not saying NATLA needed to recapture each of the filler episodes. But they needed to build the foundational bonds between the main trio with showing not telling and they really didn't. They separated them for big chunks of 2 episodes. And, really, they just felt like traveling companions. That took all of the emotional heft out of, well, everything related to Aang, Katara, and Sokka. I mean, frankly, the kid actors did a better job establishing the "family" dynamic just by being themselves in their press interviews than the show did with the characters.

Aang did not run away from responsibility. I am not one of those people that's just mad that the show wasn't exactly like the cartoon. No. What I mean is, even putting aside the cartoon, even if you just look at NATLA itself: their own themes were undercut by never showing Aang actually running away from responsibility. Each avatar seemed to be berating Aang for doing something he was never actually shown to be doing.

Katara. I really don't think this one is on the actress. Katara felt like a fundamentally different character from ATLA's Katara. It's not to say an adaption is not allowed to have their own interpretation of a character, but... I just did not understand NATLA Katara. There was no passion, no rage, no overbearing nurturing. She was... I don't know what she was. Traumatized, yes, but nothing grew out of that trauma? Meek, until the plot demanded that she suddenly become a waterbending master without any guidance other than a waterbending scroll? The "younger sister"? More than any of the main characters, I'm not sure what NATLA was trying to say about Katara at all. And, as a result, I'm afraid the word to describe it might be uninteresting. And given that she is the heart and soul of Team Avatar, this one was really tough.

Despite the fact that a lot of NATLA did not work for me, I still enjoyed it because the things that did work for me, well, really worked. So. I'm here for all of the Zuko/Iroh scenes!

#avatar the last airbender #atla #a:tla #avatar: the last airbender #netflix atla #natla #netflix avatar #live action avatar

[the-monkey-ruler]

Japan’s relationship with Buddhism is maybe why there’s a significant amount of media where Monkey King falls in love and gets married. Do you think China being majority irreligious will affect how Monkey King is written in the future?

I think that when it comes to how Wukong has always changed with each generation he is in, from more of a trickster monkey to entertain, from a revolutionary hero to inspire, to a post-modern rebellious freedom fighter. There are a lot of changes that Wukong has gone through in media but I think there are some things that cannot be erased from his character. It’s what makes him such a relatable and wonderful character in the first place. Someone that every generation can have a place in their hearts and think “he is just like me” when fighting in the world, no matter what kind of struggles that being physical or emotional and with the world or even with one’s own identity.

So with that being said, I don’t think the growing irreligious community in China is going to change him to be more romantic as there are already plenty of romantic movies with him in China in the past two decades. More so than there has been in Japan. Japan romances in Xiyouji have just been very one noted and don’t really branch out while I’ve noticed that romances with Chinese Xiyouji romance movies usually create a new character or they take an already existing character, such as a demon, and give them a completely new backstory.

I really think that the wave of romance Xiyouji movies came from the Chinese Odyssey, which was originally met with less than stellar reviews in Hong Kong and became increasingly popular in China in the idea that Wukong could be a romantic figure only got popular within culture throughout time. This led to a lot of series and movies in the early 2000s and even in the 2010s where Wukong is often met with a romantic figure and eventually loses that love for character development. I talked more about it here with how Wukong and his long list of significant others derive from that cultural shift and how people perceive Sun Wukong to find a fighter to someone with identity issues and self-reflection for what he really wants.

I actually think with how movies and TV shows are nowadays there’s going to be even less focus on romance, but rather more focus on interpersonal connections and identity. I think that those definitely would be had with our TV shows and movies can dissect a character and I kind of hope to see that in things like Xiyouji that don’t quite necessarily need romance but I understand how the early 2000s and 2010s kind of media relied on romance to be that window into looking deeper into interpersonal connections. However, I feel like with how film as an art has grown in the past few years romance doesn’t have to be a “crutch” in order to be used if someone wants to explore a character's emotions. This isn’t to shit on romance movies, I just do notice that romance is often used as a way for a character to be more relatable to an audience, but I do think nowadays, they are more angles for that kind of relatability.

#anonymous #anon ask #anon #jttw #journey to the west #sun wukong #xiyouji #ask

[softsalome]

Dinner.

Repost from my old account, @/softperfuma.

2$ USD = 1.64€ = 5 UNY (United Republic of Nations Yuan)

The first time Mako didn’t show up for dinner should’ve been the red flag that finally caught Wu’s eye. They’d known each other for a few years, but in the past few months they had a silent agreement that brought them closer: some obscure foreign drama that they both loved and had no one else to talk to about. So every Friday night, like clockwork, Mako would pull up to the gates of Wu’s apartment complex with takeout in the passenger seat and the gate code quickly scribbled on his palm. Until it had gone on for so long, that he didn’t need to write it down anymore.

But despite all the Fridays Mako spent in Wu’s house, all the hours of dissecting the episode and picking up noodles that had spilled on the floor, something was stirring between the lines of their friendship. Something that Wu had been afraid to acknowledge, ignoring the growing wound in the hopes that it wouldn’t get worse, wouldn’t hurt him in the end.

But for him, hope wasn’t enough.

So there he was, sitting alone in his living room with his fingers tightly wrapped around his phone, trying to remember the last time his apartment felt so empty. He kept locking and unlocking the little block in his hand, hoping that the screen would eventually light up with a reply to the text he sent hours ago.

‘hey do you still wanna watch the show w me tonight?’

‘mako are u ok? u haven’t been answering me lately’

‘if u wanna talk im here ok?’

All read. All unanswered.

Wu finally abandoned his hopes and opened an app to order dinner. He decided that if he was going to be miserable, he should at least be full. Within the hour, he was pulling apart chopsticks and picking at chow mein, wondering why he was dumb enough to fall for a straight guy.

He’d been only flipping through his movie list for a few minutes before the doorbell rang again. Rising with groan and a scowl, he made his way to the door, dragging his feet the whole way. He unlocked his phone as he opened the door, hoping the lack of eye contact with the delivery boy would make him feel a little less on edge.

“Look man, I know 75Y isn’t the best tip, but I really don’t have any more cash on me right now-”

“Wu?”

One word. His own name, at that. But it was enough to make Wu feel like the air had been knocked out of his lungs. It only took a moment for him to meet those amber eyes with his own before he silently wished he was facing a grumpy delivery boy instead. He choked out a response, trying his damndest to hide his discomfort behind whatever bravado he had left.

“Mako! There you are! I was- I’m- I’m glad you were able to make it tonight!”

Mako slowly shrunk at his laughter, the plastic bag in his hands rustling as he moved.

“And-and you brought food! That’s so great because I was so hungry I was just about to hunt the turtleducks in the pond out front-”

“You don’t have to lie to make me feel better, Wu,” Mako sighed, running his hands through his hair. “I could smell the chow mein from the elevator.”

Wu swallowed hard at being caught, as if any more lies he might’ve told were trapped and sent back down his throat. He looked at his phone again, thinking the moment might pass sooner if he was looking at the clock. Then Mako spoke, the tips of his shoes sneaking into Wu’s line of sight.

“Can I- can I come in? Is that okay?”

Wu’s head snapped up as he swung his front door backwards, stumbling into the doorknob as he made space for Mako to walk in.

“Of course, of course! I can’t just leave one of my best bros stranded in the hallway, can I?”

Mako quickly passed the threshold of the door, stepping out of his shoes before walking deeper into the apartment. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you did.” Wu gasped at that, hand to his chest as he exaggerated his response.

“Mako! How could you think I’d do such a thing! What little faith ye have!” To further spoil the moment with his antics, Wu spun his way to the couch, sinking into it as he raised the back of his hand to his forehead.

“To think so lowly of me… I don’t think my heart can bear the pain!” Eyes closed, he couldn’t see the small smile on Mako’s face, but he wound up hearing it. A small laugh left his lips as he made his way to the living room, the glass table fogging as he set his food atop it.

“Would you mind bearing the pain a little less horizontally? I kind of wanna sit on the couch.” Wu laughed as a first answer, his hand still on his forehead. “Well you’ve bailed so many times, maybe you should sit on the floor.”

The silence quickly filled the room, and Wu sat up fast as he realized what he’d done. “Mako, I didn’t mean-”

“No, it’s okay. I deserve it.”

“No you don’t!” Wu shot back, challenging him with his eyes. Wu moved away from him then, making space on the couch for him as he continued to hold his gaze, daring him to let another drop of self-deprecation slip. Mako slowly sat beside him, his eyes moving towards the television. It took a moment before either of them spoke again.

“I’m really sorry I bailed, man… twice. I’m sorry I bailed twice. I should’ve told you I couldn’t come, that wasn’t okay.” Wu clapped him on the back, pulling his hand back fast as if he’d been shocked.

“That’s okay buddy! I half forgive you.” Mako bit back a smile, turning to look at Wu. For a moment, Wu pretended as if Mako was looking at him the way he always wanted him to look at him. But only for a moment. His eyes shimmered, molten in the lamplight. “Half?”

“Duh! I half forgive you now and then I’ll forgive you the other half once we watch the latest episode!” He punctuated his flawless logic by digging through Mako’s takeout bag, grabbing one of the small containers he saw peeking at him earlier. “Is this-”

“Sticky rice. With mango. And I’m really sorry, again.”

“Dude, seriously, it’s fine. Do you…. do you want to talk about it?”

Mako swallowed the bite of pad thai on his tongue, passing the remote to Wu without looking at him. “I don’t think I want to. Sorry.”

Wu bit off a piece of mango before answering, hoping the juice wouldn’t stain his shirt. “That’s okay! We can definitely not talk about it, I am so cool with that. We can just watch the show and not talk about it at all.”

Mako cleared his throat after he swallowed another bite. “I might be a little lost, just to let you know. I haven’t watched the last two episodes-” Wu cut him off, quickly flipping through the shows to look for the one they shared.

“Oh yeah, neither have I.”

“What?”

Wu glanced over his shoulder, confused at his reply. “What do you mean, ‘What’? I wasn’t gonna watch it without you.” He laughed as he looked back at the TV screen, finally find what he was looking for. “You ready for me to play it or do you need to get something else?” Wu could feel Mako’s weight shift beside him, and he turned to see Mako settling deep into the cushion.

“No. I’m fine.”

Wu quickly turned to the TV and hit play, hoping Mako couldn’t see how his eyes widened, how he almost opened his mouth to answer. Because yes, yes he was.

They agreed to watch the past episodes back to back before discussing it and moving on to the latest one., and Wu was more than grateful for the time to process both the show and the boundless energy thrumming just beneath his skin.

It was annoying and frustrating and scary how good Mako smelt, how good he looked, and how even though he completely ignored him and didn’t show up for two weeks, Wu couldn’t even fathom being angry with him. At this point, he was only mad on principle. But in truth? He just wished that they would gravitate towards each other like they did three weeks ago, when their legs were touching, and then their arms, and then Wu woke up on Mako’s shoulder, jostled awake by Mako’s strained voice telling him that he needed to go home.

But as much as Wu wished for it, the reality was more along the lines of pausing to look for blankets, spilling sticky rice on his shirt, and rewinding scenes because he was too busy thinking about how he had a crush on someone who would never return his feelings. He hoped he could tuck it all within the folds of his persona: bright Wu, happy Wu, the dramatic and dopey and forgetful ex-prince that couldn’t be bothered to suck on a spoon that wasn’t sterling silver. But he was a fool to think that Mako wouldn’t be able to see right through him.

“Wu, you doing alright? You seem a little distracted.”

Wu sat up straighter, tugging the blankets closer to him as if they’d protect him. “No, I’m fine! Great actually. Just a lot on my mind, that’s all. But not like, in a bad way. Just a lot.”

“Do you- do you want me to go-”

“No!” Wu cut him off, driving the point home by grabbing his shoulder and looking him dead in the eye. “It’s fine, you’re fine, we can talk about it and then watch the last episode.”

Mako’s eyes widened, and Wu drew back, worried that he did something wrong, said something wrong. Mako kept looking at him, as if he was waiting for Wu to say something. So he did.

“That camera angle from the first episode was so crazy right? It looked like someone was watching him through the window, but the realtor said the house has been empty for years-” “Um. Wu?”

And then came the worry. It wrapped its vines around Wu’s heart and tightened, hard enough to make him feel like the beating would be dragged down into his stomach. Mako’s tone, his lack of eye contact, the fiddling with his hands. Something was wrong. The kind of wrong that Wu knew would leave him crying into his pillow for days.

“Uh… yeah? What’s up Mako, my good man?”

Mako’s hands clasped together tightly as he stared at them, as if they held answers he desperately needed. “I don’t think…I don’t think I want to be friends with you.”

And that was all it took. Just a few moments, a short pause, before Wu burst into tears. Mako leapt to his side, holding him close as he tried to talk him down.

“Wait no, I didn’t mean it like that, Wu, please!” But Wu was too far gone to hear him, crying so hard he couldn’t see through his tears.

“Is it because I’m gay?!” he wailed as his tears began to stain Mako’s shirt. Mako pulled his head away from him, trying to meet his eyes and failing miserably.

“No, that’s not it at all! Wu please-”

“Is it because I’m an earthbender?”

“Wu, I’m literally mixed, please-”

“I just don’t-I just don’t understand, I’m sorry-”

“Wu, please just listen!”

Wu was finally reduced to quiet whimpers and sniffles, his tears still obscuring his vision. He wanted to wipe his tears away but that meant moving from Mako’s arms, and as painful as it felt, he wanted to relish what he thought would be his last time there. A few seconds passed like that, in silence, as Wu looked through blurry tears and felt Mako’s labored breathing. It came to an end as Mako moved him out of his arms, bringing his hands to Wu’s face as his thumbs wiped away his tears.

“I said that wrong, I- I didn’t mean it like that.” Wu started to tear up again, and Mako was worried that his fingers wouldn’t be able to keep up.

“Then what- what did you even mean? Mako, why would you even say that?”

Wu tried to look at Mako until he realized how close they were. He started to pull away until Mako’s hands flexed and warmed against his cheeks, keeping his face in place as he mumbled something under his breath. Wu leaned a little closer, his vision finally clearing as he searched Mako’s face.

“What did you say? I didn’t hear you…”

Mako took in a deep breath before meeting Wu’s eyes.

“I wanna be with you, not your friend. I wanna be….I wanna be…” Mako trailed off, his eyes falling to Wu’s lips. “Can I-”

“Please,” Wu whispered, nodding as he leaned in to meet Mako halfway.

It took Wu a moment to realize that the salt he tasted between kisses were his own tears, streaming down his cheeks as he leaned deeper into Mako’s arms and silently begged to meet his lips again. After what felt like forever, Wu finally pulled away, sucking on Mako’s lip one last time on his way out. When Mako moaned, Wu giggled in response, giving a peck on the cheek before speaking again.

“Does this mean we can watch the last episode?”

Mako’s laugh rang through the apartment, so loud that it bounced off the walls and begged Wu’s to join in. His head fell back and tears gathered at the corners of his eyes before he managed to catch his breath and nestle close to Wu once again.

“Sure we can. But… is it okay if I kiss you again?”

Wu’s mouth fell into a lazy smile as he looked back at the TV. They’d barely started the end credits.

“Why are you so eager for more kisses?” He was so sure of himself, so confident in his retort. And it all came crashing down once he felt Mako’s lips graze the shell of his ear, whispering soft as if what he was saying was a secret.

“I can’t help it. You taste like mangoes.” Wu whipped his head to look at Mako, their noses grazing at the sudden motion. They sat there, breaths mingling, hearts beating, until Mako said the words he was holding onto.

“I’m really sorry I made you cry, Wu.”

“I forgive you. One and a half times… and I’m sorry for thinking you were straight.”

Mako grinned, lacing his fingers through Wu’s as he met his forehead with his own. “It’s alright. It happens. But… one and a half?”

“Why of course,” Wu jokingly huffed, grabbing the fallen blanket and laying it over the both of their legs. “I forgave you for making me cry but I also promised you one half forgiveness from earlier. It’s just the proper math.” Mako shook his head as he gazed at Wu, who realized that the look on his face was the exact one that he had wanted all along.

“Of course. Proper math.”

Gazing at each other, watching Mako’s eyes flicker to Wu’s lips ever so often, the ex-prince got around to asking the question that had burrowed its way through his head from the moment their lips met.

“Mako, what do you want from this? From me?” Mako leaned closer, Wu’s voice too soft for him to catch sitting deep in the couch cushion. He grasped Wu’s hand a little more firmly, rubbing his thumb across his knuckles as he spoke.

“I want to date you. Be your boyfriend. I like kissing you… is that what you want? Do you… wanna try that?” Wu brought Mako’s hand up to his lips, kissing his knuckles before answering.

“Yeah. I wanna try that.”

Mako smiled so hard and Wu felt like he could run to the moon and back if it meant he could always bring such joy into Mako’s life. He smiled back, but it fell fast as Mako leaned forward to grab the remote.

“Mako, what are you doing?” The firebender looked back at him, confusion marring his face as he slowly leaned back into the couch once more.

“I’m playing the last episode. Don’t you wanna watch it?”

Wu looked down at their hands. Still joined, still warm. He kept looking at them, as if they left his sight, if he looked away for just a moment, they might disappear.

“I do, I just,” he looked up at Mako through his lashes then, “I just thought you wanted to taste some more mango.”

The sound of the remote hitting the floor filled Wu’s lungs with laughter, but before he could begin to tease Mako, the mans’ lips were already on his own, kissing hard and biting soft and warming him in ways only a firebender could.

#wuko #legend of korra #msww

[freakova]

Theory: Abe will NOT remove his stitches in Soulstorm

Since the Soulstorm trailer dropped, I've been thinking about it pretty much 24/7. I adored it and I really want to just talk about it and dissect everything. The stitches scene has got me thinking A LOT as I think it's one of the most interesting parts of Abe's character. So theory time. This is a long post and I am sorry for that. LONG POST. Sorry all but this game means a lot to me and I want to dive deep. Too deep. Let's go. 

So, quick introduction. Abe has stitches in his mouth. It is one of the most vital parts of his design that has been around since the first game’s concept art. The reason he has them is because he cried a lot as a baby due to what was going on around him. (QUOTE: "...The slaughtering of animals in RaptureFarms was affecting him deeply so he was crying a lot....Abe doesn't see the animals dying, he can just feel. He knows that he's in a horrible place."-Oddworld Abe's Origins Art book, which I will be referencing a lot in this) and as a worker and future slave, higher ups saw this as an issue that they didn't need. A runt. And unfortunately, runts are sometimes killed. To keep him alive, Sam (The captured Mudokon Queen/his mama) sews his mouth shut so he can’t cry and can still be sent to work. Abe however, never removes these stitches despite them being practically useless (they’re stretchy and worn; they're no more than a nuisance and something he’s mocked for by others (I.e. he is constantly called “stitch lips”). 

So let's start with the PS trailer, mainly this scene.

The narrator (one of the shamans, guessing the red one in this scene) says “You must find your full voice” and we see short/flashy clips of Abe holding a knife and dragging it over the inside of the mouth to break the stitches. My mind is blown and is 100% mush. It’s implied that he is removing them. But I don’t think he will. Not in soulstorm anyway. 

Firstly worth noting that we can presume that this particular scene takes place near the start of the game. (QUOTE: "...He never took the stitches out. That's where (Soulstorm) begins, with him being told that he needs to grow up and cut out those strings of oppression. He needs to find his voice and be a leader"-O:AO art book) 

With this in mind, look at the rest of the trailer, specifically when Abe is presumably getting his chest tattoo. 

He hasn’t removed his stitches here. He’s having to go to what looks like a shrine to get the new powers and when he collapses, you see the glow of his new tattoo. We can also presume that this part takes place after the stitches scene, as in both scenes we see Abe speaking to the shamans, he doesn't have his chest tattoo but still has his stitches. 

Now, you COULD argue that maybe Oddworld Inhabitants is tricking us and the final cutscenes will be swapped with models of Abe without stitches/tattoos in the final game. (Sometimes trailers will do that to trick the audience or show “early footage”.) I don’t think this is the case personally as these cutscenes look like they’re ready to be a movie; But I do want to point out something else.

Now, if there is one beauty with the Oddworld games is they can go from “emotional” to “clown house” in a second. Just like that when it’s needed. Oddworld is both super deep but super funny. Abe removing his stitches would be a HUGE moment. Now let's look at one of the screenshots we got alongside the trailer. 

This...looks a little silly! Like it's meant to be funny. He’s pulling a funny face as if he’s gnawing and struggling to break the material. Let's be honest, do we really think OI would make a silly “haha he’s struggling” joke over Abe removing his stitches? They’re jokers but I do not believe that they would joke about something as deep as “You are going to remove a very important part of your character”. It however makes far more sense to joke about Abe being unable to remove them and end up pulling silly faces IMO. 

Also worth noting that in that first screenshot, he is removing his left stitches. But in this shot from the trailer, it was his right stitches and in both shots, all the stitches are intact. Why would he change which stitches he cuts out first? Perhaps the joke is he can't remove them and is attempting to cut different sides at different angles?

Now I could just leave that there and be on my merry way BUT! Let me just dive just a little bit deeper. Perhaps too deep but here I am. 

It is clear that Abe has a lot of issues and it’s clear those stitches are important to him. But we’ve never really had full-on reference to them despite them being a vital part of his story. The stitches have been mentioned in interviews though. There’s of course the mention of them in the Abe’s Origins book where Lorne Lanning talks about how they are sentimental to Abe because they were given to him by his mother and they reflect why he got them. (QUOTE: “That’s the only real touch of humanity he ever had in his life, so he never takes those stitches out”-O:AO art book) Quick sidenote; You gotta bare in mind that this is the only time he would have ever seen his mother. She sewed Abe's mouth up so he could not cry. It's such a weird combination of wanting the best for a child but having to do something that is so horrible. "Cruel to be kind" as they say. Abe probably has very mixed, emotional feelings towards Sam because of it. (QUOTE: "We think his mother is cradling a baby but she's actually sewing his lips together while singing a lullaby and also crying herself".-Abe's Origins art book)

The entire reason why Abe has stitches is, in a nutshell, he's empathetic. He doesn't just feel the pain of others of his kind, but the animals from Rapture Farms too and that's what makes him so unique to the other mudokons. (QUOTE: "Abe has something special about him, which leads to why he has stitches, which leads to how empathetic he is. And in that empathy, he’s able to sort of embrace something that is part of their natural heritage and become something that the other guys aren’t necessarily encountering..." -EGX 2017: Lorne Lanning Interview). He's hurtin' and to be honest...so am I...

I want to bring up this interview as well that talks about  things in regards to Oddworld's lore...old yes but an interesting read. Lanning talks about Abe and compares the stitches to people that are blind/dead. QUOTE:  "...He’s holding on to them for reasons he doesn’t really understand. I’ve known people with hearing impairments, vision impediments, physical challenges in one form or another... ...someone says ‘You’re colour blind? We can fix that now!’ and the person says ‘You know what? I don’t want it fixed.’ I’ve witnessed that people hang on to their oddities or uniqueness even though the don’t always logically understand." To me, this is a very interesting take. Abe has this thing that makes his life hard yet he still doesn't do anything because he's ok with who he is. So why would be remove them early in this story? (We’re only in the second game afterall) 

Those stitches are important to Abe. They are something he can’t bring himself to remove because they are a precious reminder of who he is. They are a reminder for him and I just can't see them being taken out in the game where he's mostly going to learn about his people. 

"Find your full voice". 

Yes. Find it. But removing the stitches that brought you where you are now will not find your full voice.

Just as a little bonus, not really part of the theory, just thinking. Here's what I think could happen through soulstorm and maybe later down the road in regards to Abe:

In the "de-stitching" scene, I think they'll make it a serious moment when Abe is given the knife then it will turn comical where Abe has troubles taking the stitches out. Either he will give up and say he can't OR the shaman will just tell him not to (OR. haha. OR the shaman will tell Abe he isn't ready.) Also I think they'll never be mentioned again after that scene but OI? Feel free to prove me wrong.

If they ever DO come out (AKA in a future game) I imagine they'll come out much easier than what we see in the trailer. No stretching or struggling. It will be like a wobbly tooth; it will come out when it's ready.

I imagine Abe will at least keep the stitches when he meets Sam.  This is based on zero evidence I just like to think of angst lol

I have a feeling Abe is going to lose some of his Empathy throughout the series and that may be why you’re given the choice to keep everyone alive in SS. Based on a few things but I won’t digress, just a thought. 

TL; DR? That’s cool. All in all, I don’t think Abe will take those stitches out. Maybe at some point in later games but not now. He's not ready. All in all, I’m crying and can’t wait for Soulstorm.

#Freakova speaks #Oddworld #Soulstorm #AND HEY! THAT'S JUST A THEORY! A gAmE tHeOrY! #I have not done anything like this in a long time but I tried #Also when all this is proven wrong in SS feel free to call me a clown

[avoutput]

Gaps Between Worlds || Pokeballs

The world of Pokemon is a vast and endless… wasteland. The world of Pokemon is haunted, but not scary haunted, more like “Are You Afraid Of The Dark?”. It has the flavor of a nice medium spice curry. Before the game was released, for a year, a whole generation was treated to the cartoon before school started. I was in middle school when the craze took to the little kiddy kindling, and it became a wildfire. Today, I am almost 34, and in the 20+ years, full grown-ass adults have been dissecting a universe built for kids by some other adults who had to balance marketability with art. If you mix all of those things together, you get a wild storm of interesting ideas. Some of these ideas are hidden by clever creators, others are unintended realizations brought on by mixing the real world, with all of its consequences, and this newly fresh, mostern-ridden world. Hamburgers exist, cow pokemon exist, all of our friends are pokemon, all animals are pokemon, hamburgers exist. Hamburgers exist. But the concept that really caught me for as long as I can remember was “What is it like inside a Pokeball?”

In my little child-brain, now fully formed as a semi alcohol dependent adult brain, I remember two major pokeball theories, both of which are mainstays in the community. Realistically, in the sphere of science fiction, there really are only two theories that bubble to the top. First, the Stasis Theory. Pokemon inside their Pokeballs experience nothing. They become pure light energy, and simply bounce around as particles, never aging, never thinking, never living. Second, we have the Paradise Theory. Inside their Pokeballs, they are hooked up like the matrix, and they live in their ideal environments based on their needs, either constructed by their own mind or programmed and based on their poke-type. Ghost types would live in creepy mansions and fire types live near volcanoes, but it would be created by programming in the ball, or based on the subconscious of the Pokemon. Both of these have very clear upsides, but they also have equally clear downsides, which is exactly what we are going to explore!

Before we get to the theories, a few things. My knowledge with the Pokemon series basically ends after the 2nd generation. Without straying too far from the subject, I stopped being interested in the series because it became more important to the creators to add more monsters instead of diving deeper into the lore of the world or the existing creatures themselves, with a few exceptions. Please take that into account going forward. I actually have casually watched a few of the newer episodes and movies and it seems like nothing has changed really, so I suspect I am not as far behind as I think. Also, before we get to the theories, both rely on one major item. The Pokeball! It’s clearly a smart device. Once it hits its target, it appears to know whether the item is a Pokemon or not. It only opens up if it hits a Pokemon. Hitting a human or a rock or anything else, and it stays as a ball. Once the ball is open, the Pokemon transforms into light, and during the show when the angle is right, you can see inside the ball is a series of mirrors along the walls. The Pokeball itself doesn’t seem to have an origin story that I am aware of, but it clearly had tons of development time and money, the greatest minds on our planet would kill for this tech, so one can only imagine the horrors that occurred after this technology was created, but that is for another post.

First, the Stasis Theory. The Pokeball is clearly high-tech, we put that forward, but one thing to think about is that the Pokemon themselves appear to be turned into light. I like to imagine this method as being similar to teleportation. In Star Trek and myriads of other sci-fi, teleportation is considered instantaneous. The moment we are broken down and rebuilt at our location feels instantaneous to us. That is essentially the same experience for the Pokemon. It bounces around as light, and feeling or sensing nothing. Now, the upside of this is that they don’t have to expend energy moving from place to place, consuming their trainers resources, or weather the elements. Now, all of these are more of upsides for the trainer than the Pokemon, unless you’re like Psyduck, and you suffer headaches constantly, this technology is somewhat bleak. And this is how we bleed into the downsides. 

The one that always sticks out to me is that, unless you have a benevolent trainer, committing to being a Poke-partner means you might end up waking up in battle after battle. A soldier of fortune. You technically need to be fed as well, but if you are in stasis, you only need to be fed every 8 hours or so of actual time spent outside the Pokeball. A frugal trainer would pay attention to this, monitoring how much time each Poke-pal spent outside of their Pokeball. They technically don’t even need to eat to regain their strength. Specifically, they don’t even need to leave their Pokeball to get healed at a Pokecenter. Battle after battle, they might not eat for days, months, or years if they are used sparingly. Pokeballs can even be digitized. Think about all those Poke-bros you leave in your computer storage. Beyond that, you can alter their memory so that they are reassigned a new master they instantly obey, granted they are “experienced” enough. I feel like I could go on forever, but I want to talk about my favorite downside in this vein. Allow me to extend this concept a bit, maybe to a dark conclusion.

You are on a ferry ship between islands, alone, and anonymous. No one notices you. It’s the last voyage of the night, foggy, dark, and a bit chilly, the deck covered in a light, icy snow. Leaning on the rails, you lose your balance because your sea legs aren’t developed yet. You are also 12, because it's Pokemon. Your body slips into the icy drink without a sound. The shock of the cold causes you to pass out almost instantly and you drown. Along your belt, 8 Pokemon nestled in their Pokeballs. One hundred years pass. It’s summer time and a lone diver exploring the warm waters finds the belt of a young man with a series of Pokeballs attached. On shore, you open each ball, each time a Pokemon emerges, healthy, clear eyed, but confused. Where is their master? Pokemon are smart, so after some pantomime and simple explanation between the humans and Pokemon, you all realize that it's been a 100 years, and its possible the owner is dead. After reporting it to the authorities, they are able to identify the boy using a 100 year old new story. While Pokemon are strong enough to fight one another, the PTSD suffered from the loss of their trainer and the time that elapsed destroys them. 

When you think about it, the upside of this bleak story is huge for the Pokemon. You can live, preserved forever inside the Pokeball. Now, to argue with myself a bit, Pokemon do seem to be aware inside their Pokeball. They seem to be able to understand their surroundings and can even hear conversations they aren’t technically present for. There are many instances of the Pokemon leaving their Pokeball of their own volition, so it’s likely this story wouldn’t have happened. One of the trainer’s ‘mon would have popped out of its super prison to help its trainer. And while this doesn’t completely refute the stasis theory, it gives the Pokemon way more cognitive power and agency inside their prison orb than I initially implied.

This is where our next theory comes into play, the Paradise Theory. As a kid, I often thought this was the less likely, but much more widely supported idea. There are two branches to this theory, one in which the Pokemon inside the ball is miniaturized and the ball works as a kind of Star Trek holodeck, and the other is the Pokemon is in a state of semi-sleep, hooked into a virtual representation of the world that best suits them. In either case, this would seem to be the ideal state of being for them. Their world is shaped to their liking, so if you are a Snorlax and you need a fat snack and soft sack to sleep on, the Pokeball manifests it. I always imagined in either case, because of their apparent awareness of the outside world, that of the two theories, the miniaturized one was at play. They remain fully conscious, and up in the sky or somewhere in their spherical prison there would be this floating screen of what is going on outside… like an omniscient camera, equipped with a mic. Again, this was kind of my childlike wonder at play, not really concerning myself with the intricacies of how this would actually work, but it also doesn’t seem like the creators gave it much thought either. Pokeball tech is the major gap in this world.

As for the downsides of this method, the only real standout is their consciousness. In the Stasis Theory, the moment they enter the ball is also the moment they leave. In this version, they remain aware of the time and the outside. So if they haven’t eaten in two days or been outside to hit the Poke-toilet, they can really feel it. Still, in this version, it does appear as though they can leave at will. Also, in the show, it often shows that they appear to get kibble at every meal that the humans eat, which brings up its own set of questions, but that’s for another time. In the drowned trainer scenario, or maybe one who is stuck under an avalanche, imagine you are a Pokemon not equipped to deal with the terrain, like a charizard in water, you are not only aware of how screwed you are, but you have to choose to either end your life by leaving the Pokeball or wait until you starve to death. I suppose it ultimately depends on how smart and perceptive a Pokemon breed actually is that really determines the merits and downsides of this theory. Take a moment to imagine a really social Pokemon, like a Pidgey or Pikachu. Does the Pokeball conjure fake friends for you? Are the Pokeballs interconnected, so that you can mind meld with your trainer’s other captives? Do certain Pokemon end up becoming attached to the fake friends inside the ball rather than worry about the outside world? Can a Pokeball become addictive?

To spare my little psyche the pain of having to empathize with Pokemon I left in their balls for too long, or maybe stored away somewhere so that I can “catch ‘em all”, I chose to imagine the Stasis Theory when I played the game. The one thing this game really dodged was imparting the idea of the empathy and responsibility of actually raising 150+ living, thinking creatures. I think this might also just align with the nature of young humans, but still, the creators really shirked there responsibility on this aspect. The game’s and animation’s inhabitants espouse constantly their belief in Poke-rights, but at the same time ignore the subject of pitting them against each other as a negative. Most Pokemon are intellectually somewhere between cat and monkey. Other’s appear to have just as much going on as humans. While Ash never imagines catching every Pokemon, the game sets you on this collectible path. Using my own childhood as an example, human children don’t appear to naturally think out the various real world equivalents to their in-game mantras. They see the Pokemon as theirs to do with as they please. Give a stupid name. Trade with other kids. Collectable bits of data. This was not my cup of tea as a kid. I much preferred the animated universe of Pokemon to the game for this very reason. Sure you can play it anyway you want, which I often did, never expanding my roster beyond 8 at a certain point, but this was also a very impractical way to play, which hurt my more logical side. Just to live with myself, I created a method of play that worked for me. Somewhere between the Stasis Theory and Paradise Theory. I just told myself my Poke-pals loved their home and me. So… I caught. Them. ALL. But in doing so, did I condemn my allies to flashes of life between battling and dinner? Did I render them in a paradise of their own making? Are these creatures really so docile after being beaten by another of their ilk so that I can force them to be my friend? Best not to dwell on it. Pika-pika.

#Articles #Pokemon #Gaps Between Worlds #Pokeballs #Ash Ketchum #Mysty #Brock #Pikachu #Charizard #Gameboy #GameFreak #Pokemon Company #Red #Blue #Satoshi

[mynameismichaelkern]

Mouth Moods and the Mouth Trilogy: The Dangers of Nostalgia

An auditory disaster of a mash-up album is a good vehicle for dissecting nostalgia. The Mouth Trilogy is the trio of mash-up albums by Neil Cicierega. They are notable for inducing dissociative episodes and confusion. For some it elicits pure revulsion, and for others, they’re just some dumb fun. The evolution of the trilogy is what is probably the most interesting part of the series. On its face they are simply mash up albums, but they are more than that. They are directly critiques of nostalgia and it’s values.

Mouth Sounds was a much more violent experience. It had teeth to it - it was destroying the idea that nostalgia is a comfortable thing. It used nostalgia to launch an auditory assault upon the listener. It continues to incur Smash Mouth’s “All-Star,” a song from the Mystery Men, The Digimon Movie, Rat Race, and most notably, Shrek soundtracks. It is easily recognizable and immediately incurs nostalgia of one’s youth, if one was born in the 90s. Because of the boom of the internet just as someone from that generation would begin to feel nostalgia for their youth, it’s spread is easy to see. It’s a silly, upbeat song that has lyrics that are easy to remember. It’s the perfect target to pin to the wall if one wants to skew  nostalgia. This constant reiteration of this target continues to slam home the message: “Fuck your nostalgia.”  It’s mocking those that think their past is worth celebrating.

It’s never more clear than when Imagine by John Lennon is mixed with a horrifically slowed down version of the lyrics of All-Star. The former is a song about a dream for a better world, while the latter is a song about going with the flow and being the best you can be despite a world that fights against oneself. It is synthesis of two of the most recognizable songs of their respective eras. They are both mockeries of each other and by doing so, Cicierega accomplishes the feat of skewing not just a reverence of 90s nostalgia but nostalgia in general. It mocks John Lennon’s dream of a better world in the future, by saying “This is the future we inhabit,” by slowing down All-Star’s lyrics to such an absurd degree it can only be seen as farce.

Mouth Silence, the follow-up to Mouth Sounds, deemed a prequel, is a clearer album. Mouth Sounds is furious but Mouth Silence decides to subdue it’s rage for the sake of clarity.  It relies on songs that are much slower than it’s predecessor. In the grand scheme of things it was partly a thank you for listening to Mouth Sounds, while also asking for the audience to take a clearer look at the unsaid thesis statement of these albums. Each of these album’s first minutes is full of distorted sounds as it struggles to find it’s themes and ideas. It’s as if the sounds themselves are adjusting to their shell and morphing. Mouth Silence has an almost choral sound about it. It’s a promise things are going to be a bit more clear. This can be seen in it’s splicing of using news clips. It’s firing spears not just at the music but the culture that reacted towards the mainstream. It shows the silliness of the media as it overreacts to the Pokemon trend.

While putting larger culture in its crosshairs, the album does not ignore the disgust at nostalgia and that is never more clear than in Crocodile Chop, the mash up of Crocodile Rock by Elton John and Chop Suey by System of a Down. Chop Suey is about how death is treated differently depending upon one’s cause of death, while Crocodile Rock is a song about appreciating nostalgia itself. One is obsessed with the future, the other the past. Crocodile Rock is a much more carefree song and together, they seem to simply mock the ideas of death. On a deeper level though, it can be seen as those that are obsessed with the past see the future as a joke.

The most interesting part of Mouth Silence is its relating of Death and Nostalgia. It’s My Life by Bon Jovi and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen are lyrically featured, acknowledging death and its inevitability. These memories of the past are vital to thoughts of death - one cannot exist without the other.  These songs are not mocked in their mash ups. These three songs are actually unique in that each of them are mashed up with songs that lack lyrics. Born to Run is mixed with Alley Cat by Bent Fabric. It’s My Life is mixed with The Liberty Bell, a traditional military march that is most associated with being the theme song of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. With only the lyrics on display it emphasizes the lyrics that settle on death. In Born to Run, there is the idea that death is inevitable so it’s best to keep going and not settle on the past. In It’s My Life, the theme is that again, Death is Inevitable so live your life how you want.

There is one song on this album that cements the idea that nostalgia is a convenient distraction from death. It’s a track titled Space Monkey Mafia. It mixes the lyrics of It’s The End of the World As We Know It by REM and We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel. In the background is a polka/electronic track. (As far as I have been able to find, it’s an original track.) The inclusion of an original track on a mash up album is notable in itself - most mash ups rely upon the familiarity of pre-existing tracks to make an impact. The lyrics of the two songs clash and compete for prominence. Their ideals, one in which it's the end of the world and death is around the corner for all, and the other which is a collection of allusions to the past. In combination, “the fire” of We Didn’t Start The Fire can be seen as the cause of “the end of the world.” All of the past is what’s responsible for the end. Nostalgia - yearning for a past - is what’s going to lead to the end of the world in this album’s eyes.

Mouth Moods is notable because it is actually fun. Mouth Moods is the eyeroll, accompanied by a smirk, before finally succumbing to relative’s proddings and dancing at the family reunion, of the Mouth Trilogy. In its first minutes, it combines the notable lead ins for multiple catchy songs, Smash Mouth’s All-Star included. What it loses in pointed criticism towards nostalgia, it gains in playing with the format itself. Early on in the album, the piano intro for Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles opens up the possibility for literally any mash up. It breeds anticipation in the listener until the satisfaction of the screaming lyrics of AC/DC’s Back in Black. The subdued piano of A Thousand Miles actually acts to highlight the strangeness of Brian Johnson’s voice that seems so natural in any amount of AC/DC songs.

Nowhere is that fun more apparent in the track titled “Bustin’.” Simply re-doing the lyrics of the song to the theme song of the theme song of Ghostbusters. The song is introduced with a clip from an interview Bobby Brown did with Larry King, talking about having sex with a ghost while filming Ghostbusters II. The song then launches into the familiar tune of the Ghostbusters theme before manipulating Ray Parker Jr.’s lyrics to insinuate he exceedingly enjoys “bustin’,” specifically with ghosts. It’s a silly song made more for a joke than to actually point any sort of criticism. It’s a corruption of a familiar song to provide a joke.

This album is actually much more confident using the straight audio of commercials and reports. It is confident that the absurdity of the past can stand for itself and does not need to be enhanced as much. Instead of criticising nostalgia, it instead is criticising the sacred temples of culture. Ghostbusters is considered an institution but it reduces to sex with ghosts. Immediately following it is the lyrics of TLC’s No Scrubs with the dirge-like backing of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

In one of the stranger turns on the album is Hans Zimmer’s Time scoring the lyrics to The Village People’s Y.M.C.A. It’s an inversion of the mocking of something sacred. It’s amplifying something that is an advertisement for the YMCA or as an appreciation for a gay hook up spot - whichever interpretation of Y.M.C.A  you enjoy more. This amplification acts as an act of tearing down what would be considered awe-inspiring. In this sense, institutions and what they stand for are what is put to task. There is a further inversion going on in this track :institutions, in this case, is the score of Hans Zimmer, not the YMCA which is an actual, physical, institution. Hans Zimmer’s music stands for a sort of elevated status. His music makes moments bold. Y.M.C.A. is a song you do at the family reunion because your grandmother with a weak hip can do it.

It is in this album that Neil Cicierega has mastered his craft and knows what is expected of his mash ups. All-Star, a staple of the series is withheld for the penultimate song - a mix of Under Pressure by Queen. The lyrics of All-Star are teased earlier in the album. The audience is expectant of the All-Star mash up. Using Under Pressure is acknowledging that nostalgia does have it’s use - the song is fundamentally about the pressure of society and how it can get to people, hoping tomorrow can be better, and how there isn’t enough caring and compassion in the world. The use of All-Star here is the declaration of nostalgia being the way people ignore the issues and problems of today - a warm blanket of the past - a past which has been criticized over the trilogy of being worth mockery.

The fact that there’s another track after the All-Star/Under Pressure stands as it’s own statement that nostalgia will stand regardless of criticism. It’s the album’s acknowledging remixes and mash-ups will continue on, despite the insults levied at it and at its core, it is the shrug and laugh at the end of it all.

The Mouth Trilogy stands as a counterpoint of the Mash-up genre, while being securely within that same genre. It is skillfully done from beginning to end and maintains a cohesive theme while taking different angles of attack to get to the core of what they are supposed to represent. The Mouth Trilogy has meaning in its attack - it is not merely a wild swipe into the dark. It is precise and calculated in its mash-ups. Its message is valuable, as long as you can stand those first few minutes.

#mouth moods #neil cicierega #nostalgia #music criticism #mouth trilogy #mouth sounds #Mouth silence

[mastcomm]

Your Thursday Briefing – The New York Times

Democrats unleashed

After eight relatively cordial debates, Wednesday night’s event in Las Vegas was a two-hour battle in which every candidate was put on the defensive, especially Michael Bloomberg.

The former New York mayor, appearing in his first presidential debate, struggled from the start to address his past support for stop-and-frisk policing and longtime allegations of disrespectful behavior toward women.

“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians,” Elizabeth Warren said. “And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.” She had the most speaking time onstage.

Go deeper: Here are six takeaways from the night, in which Bernie Sanders, who leads the polls, emerged relatively unscathed. We also fact-checked the candidates’ statements.

The personal ties behind President Trump’s pardons

The clemency orders that Mr. Trump issued this week were the result of a process that bypassed the formal procedures used by past presidents and was driven instead by friendship, fame and a shared sense of persecution.

All 11 recipients had an inside connection or were promoted on Fox News. Mr. Trump’s advisers acknowledged that the process was unique, but stressed that he was committed to countering what he saw as the excesses of the criminal justice system.

Another angle: Mr. Trump named Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany, to be the acting director of national intelligence overseeing the 17 U.S. spy agencies. Mr. Grenell has little experience in intelligence, but he has been a fierce advocate for the president.

China again alters coronavirus methodology

For the second time in about a week, China has changed its criteria for confirming cases of the virus, making it increasingly difficult for public health experts to track the outbreak.

The government said today that it would now differentiate between “suspected” and “confirmed” cases. Cases would be considered confirmed only after genetic testing, which is difficult to conduct and whose results are often wrong.

Here are the latest updates and maps of where the virus has spread.

Related: Two people aboard a contaminated cruise ship in Japan have died, the authorities said today. As hundreds of passengers began leaving the ship after a two-week quarantine, health experts feared Japan had mismanaged the situation.

Another angle: President Trump has commended President Xi Jinping’s handling of the crisis, but hard-liners within the Trump administration say Beijing can’t be trusted to disclose what it knows or properly handle the outbreak.

If you have 12 minutes, this is worth it

The fight for Libya

In a nation where warlords and militias battle for control and migrants pack the Mediterranean coast, a 76-year-old commander, Khalifa Hifter, says he can resolve the turmoil. His forces have been attacking Tripoli, the capital, for 10 months.

Journalists from The Times made a rare visit to Mr. Hifter’s eastern stronghold, Benghazi. What “the Marshal” has created there, their report shows, is not the secular stability he promises, but “an unwieldy authoritarianism that in many ways is both more puritanical and more lawless” than that of Libya’s last dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Here’s what else is happening

Deadly shootings in Germany: A man opened fire on two bars in the central city of Hanau, where he killed nine people in what the authorities called a far-right terrorist attack. The suspected gunman, a 43-year-old German, was found dead in his apartment today, along with his mother.

Poll on climate change: Tackling global warming and protecting the environment have climbed the list of Americans’ political priorities, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center that also found striking partisan differences.

Change at Victoria’s Secret: The lingerie brand plans to go private, as the chief executive of its parent company is expected to step down. Leslie Wexner, 82, has faced serious questions about his leadership and his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Snapshot: Above, Staples Center in Los Angeles, the home of the N.B.A.’s Lakers and Clippers. Both teams are contenders for the league’s championship this season, but the city’s heart belongs to only one.

What we’re listening to: “Public Official A,” a podcast from WBEZ last year. “This is a Robert Caro-like dissection of political corruption in the U.S., and of Rod Blagojevich, a political star who turned into a black hole,” says Adeel Hassan, on our National desk. “It still resonates.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: A squeeze of lime brightens braised chicken with coconut milk, tomato and ginger.

Watch: Ben Affleck has four movies coming out this year, starting with “The Way Back,” a poignant sports drama. He spoke to The Times about getting sober and trying to recalibrate his career.

Read: Douglas W. Tallamy’s “Nature’s Best Hope” examines grass-roots solutions for reversing wildlife decline. It’s new this week on our hardcover nonfiction best-seller list.

Smarter Living: Our “Scam or Not” feature looks at whether coffee is good for you. Spoiler: Often yes (to the delight of your well-caffeinated briefing writer).

And now for the Back Story on …

The original Renegade

A new dance called the Renegade is suddenly everywhere, from teenagers’ phone screens to the N.B.A. All-Star Game. Shira Ovide, a technology reporter, and Taylor Lorenz, a Styles reporter, talked about the apps that helped the dance go viral — Dubsmash and TikTok — and about finding its 14-year-old creator, Jalaiah Harmon.

Taylor: I heard about Jalaiah Harmon from a friend in the Dubsmash community right around Christmas. People had cited her Instagram post, and it was clear she had created the dance.

No one online knew her full name or identity, and it took weeks to hunt her and her family down and get in touch with her mother directly. Her mom didn’t even fully realize what Jalaiah had created until I called her at work.

Shira: How would you explain these dance performance apps like Dubsmash to an alien new to our planet? (Or, say, a writer whose musical tastes are stuck in early-2000s ska bands?)

Taylor: Apps like Dubsmash, TikTok and Funimate let you post videos set to music or with special effects. Dance challenges — short 15-second pieces of choreography — are very popular on these apps.

Shira: How do Jalaiah and her family feel now about her very online kind of fame?

Taylor: They’re very excited and overwhelmed. Jalaiah was in Chicago this weekend to perform at halftime at the N.B.A. All-Star Game. She got to meet and collaborate with Charli D’Amelio, a TikTok star who helped popularize the dance. Jalaiah and Charli hit it off immediately. Kim Kardashian posted a video of Jalaiah doing the dance to Instagram. It’s been a whirlwind!

Shira: Taylor, can you do the Renegade? Can you show us?

Taylor: I’m in my 30s and so I don’t think my joints can move like that anymore. For anyone interested, Jalaiah posted a slow-motion tutorial on Instagram.

(This conversation has been edited and originally appeared in “Wait…,” a Times newsletter about how technology and celebrity are changing our lives.)

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you Mark Josephson and Chris Harcum provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is the second of a two-part series about a digital underworld of child sexual abuse imagery. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Unpaid bill at the bar (three letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The Times received four George Polk Awards, one of journalism’s most prestigious honors, on Wednesday, the most of any news organization.

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Visualizing Horror: A Spatial Breakdown of “From Hell” 

This week we read Alan Moore’s and Eddie Campbell’s graphic novel “From Hell. Admittedly, this is my first time ever reading a graphic novel. Going into it, I did not know what to expect, but overall, found it very enjoyable. What struck me the most about reading this book was the relationship between the action and the spatial representation of it. The entire graphic novel is comprised of collages of panels, read linearly from left to right, top to bottom. While there can be as many as 6 (or more) panels per page, they can also be as large as the entire page itself. Throughout the entirety of this class, we have been dissecting texts based on their relationship to time and place. While visualizing the various locations in the texts we’ve read can sometimes be a challenge (especially for me having never visited London), this book completely alleviated that struggle by illustrating the horrific acts of Jack the Ripper. Especially in chapter 4, where Gull takes Netley on a spatial tour of the rather phallic architecture of London, the spatial representations of place allowed the text to be situated and visualized in a unique way where words could not render the same effect. Instead of reading like a script, it plays like a movie. 

While the actual words of the novel itself do help guide the reader through the various actions and narratives, the paneling itself, by nature, can sometimes be disruptive. While a single frame can unambiguously show action or discourse, a lot of what happens occurs not in the panels but in-between them. Thus, the paneling forces the reader out of their comfort zone and into critical thinking. There were times were I felt confused by the actions that took and had to read between the gaps in order to figure out what was going on. However, I really do feel that the visual devices that a graphic novel can uniquely capitalize on enhance this story. Simply reading about Jack the Ripper, though horrid and gruesome, would not have been as hair-raising as seeing Moore’s graphic illustrations of it. 

If you think of a traditional novel in terms of space for words, the limit does not exist: an author can depict a single person, thing, or event for pages and pages, chapters on end, or even from one cover to the next. However, the spatial availability in graphic novels is much different. One particular action or occurrence is fenced off into a single frame. However, while the space within each panel is finite, the options of what to fill it with are limitless. The saturation/coloring (while in this case black and white) denotes meaning, as well as the angle at which characters are drawn in, the drawing technique (realistic, fuzzy, angular), the size of the frame, and the amount of text per frame all help to visually contextualize and symbolize deeper meaning within the text itself. Overall, the spatial relationship between the panels and actions of the text give this text a unique appeal as well as an effective way to visualize the the horrifically unsightly acts of one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries.