#i tried to just have the background music replaced so the dialogue could be hear but quickly realized i did not have the skill to do that

[stewykablooey]

horror movie sequence

#i tried to just have the background music replaced so the dialogue could be hear but quickly realized i did not have the skill to do that #succession #succession spoilers #kendall roy #shiv roy #video #m

[birthdaysentiment]

The music in wtFOCK season 3 - Bonus Song 

Zondag 14.08 // "Lullaby" - The Slow Show

Episode 9 was definitely a tough one to get through, because it seemed like the hurt and sadness would never end. Almost every clip left you broken inside, as the pain and grief got to overwhelming, and that made it almost impossible to prevent tears from forming, and this clip was no exception. I normally don't rewatch the individual clips, but as soon as I watched this again, I felt the tears slowly running down my cheeks, because everything about this clip is heartbreaking, a feeling I'm sure both Robbe and Sander was left with as well.

Some of my favorite clips have been the ones with no dialogue, because they have a special atmosphere around them. These clips feel so raw and exposed, since we only have the character's emotions and expressions to watch; there's no talk to help or support them at getting certain feelings out, they only have the silence or the music to do that. And especially in these clips, the music really gets a chance to shine as it somehow plays a bigger role, because we notice the melody and the lyrics more, since there's no other sounds to distract us.

With this clip I felt a connection to Robbe, as I watched him wandering around his room, trying to figure out what the right thing to do was, but I also felt connected to him emotionally, as I was with him every step of the way, because his feelings were right at the surface, ready to show themselves even more. To see Robbe in different positions in his room gave us a good indication of how he was feeling; the distress, the nervousness and confusion he felt in those moment, not knowing what to do in terms of his relationship with Sander. Should he just do nothing, should he just not help Sander at all like Jana had suggested, or should Robbe contact Sander and tell him that he'll always be there for him, that he's never letting him go?

The song is present in the clip from the beginning, where a sound of a steady guitar mixed with a constant beat fills Robbe's room. The melody is calm and mellow, providing an almost peaceful atmosphere to the clip, where Robbe's wondering movements acts like a contrast, since the melody doesn't seem to reflect his mood. Robbe is nothing but calm, he doesn't look peaceful, since the only thing on his mind is Sander and how he can help him, but Jana and Britt's words has captured his thoughts and in those moments it seemed like Robbe was conflicted between what his heart was telling him to do, and what his mind tried to convince him to do. Because maybe he should stay away, maybe there never has been anything real between him and Sander, but if that's true, if what Jana and Britt told him was the truth, then why does this decision hurt so much?

Robbe finally sits down on his bed, showing us that he has made a choice, that he's ready to do something about him and Sander's relationship, as he immediately opens his conversation with him. Robbe starts typing a message, and it becomes clear that Robbe made a choice nobody wanted him to make, and when he sends the message to Sander, you can clearly see how his facial expression and body language changes. It shows us how hard it was for Robbe to type out those words, almost as if he didn't believe in them himself, like it was something he was trying to convince himself of would help Sander in the end. But as he made that choice, he only made things more difficult for the both of them, something he realized later on.

The tone in the melody changes as well when Robbe sends the message to Sander, it becomes a bit deeper, where the steady and constant beat has been replaced by a more melancholic and sorrow sound, which seems fitting for the situation as it emphasizes Robbe's emotions as well. His unsteady breathing blends with the melody, and his eyes are so full of emotions, even though he's trying so hard not to get affected by the situation, but when Sander answers him, he lets out a breath he didn't knew he was holding, trying not to break down.

The singing voice has also changed from a deep, dark and hoarse voice to one that seems more soothing, more caring, which is something Robbe could use in that moment, care and properly also a very big hug. Maybe Robbe thought that his first message would be clear enough for Sander, that it would make him understand that it was over between them, cause when Sander asks, "with what", you can see how difficult it is for Robbe to answer that, because when he tells Sander why it's over between them, everything is going to feel more real, everything is going to hurt so much more, as the pain in his body is going to stay even longer.

In the background, as Robbe gathers the courage to write his last words to Sander, you can hear the lyrics below, and somehow, they make the moment even more difficult to watch, as the lyrics almost seems like a goodbye. This part always gets to me, because every aspect of this clip seems to be in perfect harmony with each other (both the melody, the lyrics and Robbe's emotions) as they create the right atmosphere to this moment. And once again wtFOCK is here to show us the power of close-up camera angles as they make it almost impossible for us to escape Robbe's feeling, while also making it very difficult to not get affected by them.

So close, your eyes

Cause tonight we falling

Behind

Cause tonight

We falling behind

Cause tonight

The acting is incredible in this clip, how raw and natural Robbe's reaction is to everything, how we're able to feel every single emotion that goes through him as he texts Sander. But the moment, where I think everyone's heart got crushed was when Robbe wrote "because there is no us", since almost everything else would have been less painful to read. And I can't even begin to imagine what Sander must have felt like in that moment, when he saw Robbe's last text, but in some ways I'm relieved I never had to, because I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to survive it, since I barely managed to watch Robbe's reaction.

Robbe tosses his phone onto the bed, immediately lowers his head while he's pulling at his hair to get some of the tension out of his body, to feel something else than the intense emotions running through his body. In that moment, after sending that text to Sander, I think Robbe regretted it, regretted the choice he had made, but those thoughts got quickly replaced by a voice saying that he done the right thing. But if it was the right thing to do, then why did the pain and hurt feel even more consuming and overwhelming than before? Maybe because everything suddenly became real, like the rain outside of his window had cleared his head. Maybe Robbe felt like he didn't have any other choice than to stand by his decision, like he had to accept the fact that things was over between him and Sander, that it was all for the best, and the only way for him to help Sander.

There's a reason why I almost never rewatch this clip, because it breaks my heart every single time. The silence of the room that only gets broken by the music, how the song is there to intensify every single emotion, the phenomenal acting from Willem Herbots, that never leaves you in doubt about Robbe's feeling and of course the brilliant writing of the texts between Robbe and Sander, how big of an impact those few words have on you. This clip is a tough one to get through, but that's the whole purpose of it, to make us feel the same sadness and hurt that Robbe felt in that moment, and let's just say, that wtFOCK managed to do just that.

#wtfock #wtfam #music in wtfock #wtfocksoundtrack #i'm so sorry for reposting this #but the tag just hates me today #i hope you will enjoy reading it

[kaiowut99]

5D's Episode 27... with an “Uncut” Dub?! (Re-Edited 4Kids Dub/Japanese OST - Revised)

“A World Without Light -- The Dark Synchro Frozen Fitzgerald!”/”A Web of Deceit (Part 1)″

Everybody listen!

Took long enough to finish up and polish (partly because of work and activism life actually picking up a bit), but here’s a brand-new “dub-uncut” episode! With my first few takes in episodes 23-26 newly revised, I was looking forward to working on 27 and starting fresh again, lol. In case this is the first you’re hearing about my mini-project here, let’s get you up to speed:

So, the official Spanish YGO channel on YouTube flubbed a few uploads of the 5D’s dub such that they ended up uploading a few episodes of the English dub instead of the Latin American dub (21-29)–but with none of 4Kids’s background music! Which meant that I could swoop in and re-insert the original Japanese soundtrack (which I did by matching each track to how it was looped in the episode), but I wanted to do more by also tweaking the dub itself so that not only was it matching the original footage, but the dialogue was more in line with the original dialogue timing-wise (since I couldn’t salvage much of what they changed).  Hence, the “dubbed uncut” gimmick here.  To this end, I’ve also used dialogue from Duel Links where applicable, or even borrowed audio from other episodes with the vocals isolated to lend to that effect.

Check out the masterpost of episodes I’ve done here!

Check out this episode’s WIP videos! WIP #1     WIP #2     WIP #3   WIP #4   WIP #5

So, this one was fun to do particularly because overall, save for the, er... butchering that happened on explaining the Dark Synchro mechanic (4Kids wut) and the rewrite of Carly’s interaction with her Editor-in-Chief (and making Carly a “blogger” lol), the dialogue was already more or less in line with the Japanese version, which meant that I was more or less just removing a lot of the fluff as I added back the OST.  As I did in 22, 24, and 26, I added subs for the scenes where 4Kids rewrote things a bit too much for my taste (so, the scenes I mentioned above, but also the occasional line or a few), but of course these subs will be optional in the MKV I release on NAC for this.  I also added back some SFX and tried to remove the dub’s replacement SFX in most cases, though I had to swap out the SFX as Speed Warrior was tuning with Junk Synchron since 4Kids had a tendency to add some new one over the original SFX and made it too loud to work with the Yusei chant I put there.  And I translated the OP/ED credits in Last Train and CROSS GAME, revamping my singable lyrics a bit for Last Train while drafting new ones for CROSS GAME which I’ll post soon; you can see my Last Train translation in the second WIP video and CROSS GAME’s here. Full process breakdown below the cut.

Also, major thanks to yugidmx5 for providing A+ rips of the “The Day Begins/Tenpei” theme in the Carly/Angela scene, the “Vision of Tragedy” theme as Yusei and Ruka talk about the Satellite’s future, and the alternate “Dark Signers” tune which plays as we first see them and then again between the Dark Signer drones recruiting and Yusei chasing Dark-Signer!Dick down (before it transitions to the OST-released version once Yusei gets to the building under construction); I know that since these came out well, he’s working on better rips for some or most of the unreleased OST, so stay tuned there (I also drafted up a full version of the alternate DS theme, but had to get creative since they didn’t play all of it in this alternate style; will post soon).  And thanks to Tiny Spider Productions, who provided the “shock” SFX playing as Carly sees Yusei’s arm actually glowing in her car, some inspo here/there for dialogue fixes, and provided CurtisH from CastingCallClub’s recording he did voicing a line from Tanner translating the original line about the four Signers they know which 4Kids cut short.

I hope folks enjoy! Just breezing through 28 often for lines to use here, I can tell it’s going to be a headache because they did throw in a lot more jankiness in the dialogue... So, fun. 🙃 Once I handle finalizing my subs for GX 56 (and possibly 57 due to how long this took), I’ll start drafting it out; stay tuned~ 

(And if you're able to reblog for visibility, it’d be appreciated given Tumblr’s suckage with links 🙏🏽)

Breakdown, breakdown~

So, I used Duel Links audio for the twins to handle the Noteworthy/Showcased Cards bit (we’ll see if I still can in 28... And as the twins are voiced by Eileen Stevens in Duel Links but not yet in 5D’s [that happens in 65], bear with me lol), and I also translated the sign for this hardsub in Photoshop, masking in the Fitzgerald card and Rua and Ruka’s heads over it in Sony Vegas.  

Moving to the episode proper, a second was trimmed from the shot of the stadium in the TV Rally/co are using once it tunes in, and I couldn’t properly loop the “Yusei!” shouts to cover it, so I just filled in the audio with the crowd just cheering.  In the Carly/Angela scene, I removed Angela’s extra lines about her makeup and hair while Carly was getting ready, then tweaked Angela’s line on camera to remove her last name (which we never learn originally) and move her lines about “Fusei Yudo” winning to play sooner while removing Carly’s “one journalist to another” as she walks up to correct her (as this scene was rewritten, there are subs to show the original dialogue).  Looped chants of “Yusei!” to remove his internal “pointing out the obvious” monologue before the OP.

After the OP, I used the JP audio to keep the doctors moving Jack quiet (hopefully you don’t notice the chants changing lol), then as Yanagi runs over, I replaced his bit about Yusei having “a brand new enemy” in the media with “we should all get going” from 26.  The Godwin/Lazar scene stays the same since it was accurate, but I did have to put the end of Rex’s “that’s the only thing that matters” line on another track so Lazar’s gasp would play when it should (they added a second to his talking in the dub).  The Yusei/co scene in the tunnel stays mostly the same, just switched to the JP audio as the flashback to the Satellite vision happened, then as Yusei had a quick one before gasping, I recycled a gasp and a “hmm” from elsewhere to cover the commercial-inducing monologue they gave him in the dub.  For the press conference scene, I thought about removing the one “That’s right, Ted” reporter’s line since he’s quiet originally, but thought “whatever,” and then I spaced out Carly’s line as she reads her fortune to match her Japanese line’s pace and remove some of the fluff.  I switched to the JP audio after Carly asked about Yusei’s arm glowing to remove Rex’s comment over it, then stitched up a “Perhaps; still, I didn’t see that” mixing his line there with a “still” from 23.  Carly’s line as she’s excited about Goodwin dodging her question (originally just “I’ll keep moving forward too!” [she references her fortune a lot more]) was longer in the dub, so I cut out the “which means I’m onto something” for use later.  For Carly’s chat with her Editor-in-Chief, I included subs because of the rewrite, but I did shorten Carly’s line just before “bring some dirt and you might still have a job” which was lengthened by 4Kids.  Removed a lot of Carly’s fluff as she began to watch the Yusei duel footage via the JP audio, then stitched together “Goodwin tried to give me that bit but [the whole world will know what Goodwin’s trying to hide]”, the latter bit coming from Carly’s monologue as she’s running at the end of the ep, then switched to the JP audio to remove Carly’s fluff about living in her car.  Then, as we see the Dark Signers looming, because 4Kids removed the commercial break here, I kept only Demak and Kalin’s chuckling and Roman’s “lower the curtains” line over the desk shot, then looped some of his laughing from after the eyecatch to lead into it.

After the eyecatch, I made use of his “Goodwin assembled his Signers” bit, recycled a little chuckling, then cut Roman’s reference to Shakespeare to just the “tangled web” line (thanks to yugidmx5 also providing the SFX for this scene, I was able to move Roman’s laughing to play where it should after he releases his spiders).  Moving to Yanagi drawing the Crimson Dragon, I only kept his “saw it the once” line while using Japanese Rua and Ruka’s interested gasps to fill a fluff gap, then combined two bits of audio to get a [slightly] awkward “t[ail]” to fix 4Kids’s dumb error claiming he had the Head birthmark; accordingly, made Leo say “What about it?” instead of “What about the Head?”.  CurtisH’s line for Tanner comes in here, with a slight tweak or two to match the lip-flaps more, then JP audio as we see all the Signers so far to remove Leo’s dialogue.  Meanwhile, for Jack’s hospital scene, I translated the “No Visitors” sign Mikage walks past (along with fixing “Atlus” to “Atlas”).  The Dark Signer recruitment scene also gets some subs, then I used the JP audio from when we see Dark Signer!Dick walking to Yusei’s birthmark beginning to glow; yugidmx5 providing the SFX was a big help here, too.  Yusei runs out to chase Dick down, and then when he sees him inside the under-construction building, I took “Who are you” from later in the episode, but added a more question-ending “u?” to flesh the sound out a bit (since the line was “Who are you and what’s going on”).  I took “Fine, then” and “What are you planning to do to the Satellite” from 28 (which I’ll likely cut as it was added offscreen dialogue), and TSP provided a vocal-isolated cut of Dick’s line about his master (because 4Kids cut his shot short by a second or two and played it as the SFX for the zoomout as his Disk activated played).  

They begin the duel, and here I just kept “What’s going on?” from the line I noted earlier, recycled some laughing from Dick to match the JP script, then shortened his line about their being offered up “by the light” to work with the new timing.  Dick begins his turn, but I recycled an “It’s my turn now” line from later for accuracy, then his setting-a-card line is cut short at his ending his turn as Yusei looks on.  Carly, driving nearby and seeing lights from the duel off in the distance, gets her reference to the Goodwin “sheen from Yusei’s Runner got in your eye” line that I cut replaced with the “I’m onto something” I noted before.  Yusei gets a recycled “It’s my move!” line from 24 to start his turn, tweaked to remove the drawing SFX that happens in it, then to remove a dub SFX I used a Duel Links line to fill out “I activate the Tuning [Spell Card]”.  “I summon Junk Synchron” comes from 24 (and “Level-2-or-below Monster from my Graveyard” comes from his Graceful Revival explanation in episode 3), then--thanks to Arian over on NAC reuploading some HQ dub episodes--a better-quality vocal rip of his “Level-3 Junk Synchron, tune with Level-2 Speed Warrior!” line from 87, along with a better-quality rip of his “From two come one” chant and “Form the road of light!” from Duel Links.  Yusei shouts “Battle!” from Duel Links, then I slowed down his line at “[Attack his Blizzard Li]zard” to end it there (and remove the “warm Satellite welcome” fluff).  As Blizzard Lizard’s effect activates, I combined an “I activate,” “Blizzard Lizard’s special ability,” and “now” for a better line than “Blizzard Lizard’s special ability is going on.” Yusei’s lines after being damaged and realizing he damaged Dick too are spaced out to match the JP script, then I borrowed Yusei’s line on setting two cards from episode 3.  Then, when Dick plays Ice Mirror, I stitched up an explanation (since the Card Interruption does it for him) combining Call of the Haunted’s explanation with a few other pieces of dialogue (thanks to TSP for the inspo).  I cut Dick’s “Now I’ll play” line there to remove the dub’s zooming-in SFX, and then made Dick’s line about his third Blizzard Lizard end right before the split-screen with all three of them to remove the dub’s split-screen SFX.  I thought about replacing Yusei’s “three’s a crowd” line with “What’s that all about” from later, but couldn’t figure out a way to fill the line in before that, so I left it, but didn’t let Dick acknowledge it by just recycling “With that done” to replace “Well, how about [I release]”, then after Yusei reacts to his Dark Tuner, I recycled some chuckling to match the JP script and trimmed his line about its “power to extinguish;” the Dark Synchro “explanation” gets some subs to actually explain it, then I looped Carly’s panting as she runs to cover the “Goodwin’s trying to hide” line I moved to earlier, and recycled/amplified Dick’s laughing at various points through the ep to remove Yusei’s episode-ending monologue.

In the preview, I just recycled Yusei’s “No way...” and “A Dark Synchro Summon?!” while borrowing Carly’s lines about the Dark Tuner from 28, then Yusei’s line about getting his answers to end it.  I had to speed up the OST version of the preview tune to match the pace here, then trimmed it and ended it with the JP audio for the quick fade-out.

/phew

#yugioh #yugioh 5d's #yugioh 5ds #ygo #ygo 5ds #ygo 5d's #5D's #yu-gi-oh 5ds #yu-gi-oh 5d's #my work #5ds dub uncuts #woot glad this is finally done #now to finish up that edit for GX 56 and then get to working on the script~

[dukeofonions]

Reaction Redux (I know it doesn’t make sense but it sounds cool)

Alright, here is my initial reaction to Putting Others First: Selfishness vs Selflessness Redux.

It’s finally here, I’ve watched it a total of two times and currently have it on in the background as I type this, and I have a lot of feelings. All of which would be too much for one post, so after I do this I’ll be making a few separate posts addressing certain points I’d like to expand on further. 

So what I’m going to do is have the video playing as I write this out, that way I don’t miss out anything I wanted to discuss. Basically it’s not gonna be a full on analysis, just a lot of random ramblings with what I hope are some insightful gems sprinkled throughout. Consider these my notes for all my future serious analysis posts. 

Good? Great. Let’s go.  (Also spoilers under the cut)

So, how did I feel as I watched the video for the first time? Well considering I got the notification for the video while I was still at work, I couldn’t get as excited as I wanted to be about it because I didn’t get off until 8pm and had to deal with one too many dunderheads so I was pretty grumpy once I got off. 

However, as soon as I got home and retreated to the safety of my isolation fortress (aka my bedroom) I was finally able to get excited as I got on my laptop and pulled up the video and let me just say I was a mess the entire time. I missed my boys!!! I knew they wouldn’t all be present, but I still missed my boys!!! And I loved seeing them again!!! 

First things first, that song at the beginning! I think it’s called Review Redux (correct me if I’m wrong) it’s such a freaking bop and I wish it was longer because I could listen to it all day. I loved the artwork and little details that went into their characters, and how each of the circles represented who was singing/talking by their colors. Fun stuff and a great way to recap everything! As well as foreshadow things to come within the episode… “If our goals aligned with his what would that say?” Roman you’re in for a rude awakening bud… 

Also, the little moment near the beginning where Patton is about to shut Thomas’ negative thinking down, but stops himself and allows Thomas to explain why he feels that way. Showing that he’s learned to ease up just a little since he learned to do so in Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts. Good for you Patton. 

Speaking of Patton, oh he is so confused. I understand where he’s coming from, and honestly everything he said are things I have been taught growing up, and this is something I’ll address in another post because I have a lot of things to say about it. But just know that I adore the development Patton has been going through and watching him grow and mature. 

Oh yes, I must mention I was pleasantly surprised to see Logan. I didn’t think he’d show up in this episode, or at the very least have a brief appearance, but I love how he took part and by far the funniest part in this episode (to me) is when he had so much to say in one little post that it popped up and hit Patton in the nose. It was one of the few moments where I laughed out loud and I rewound it a few times on my first viewing. 

Plus Thomas being more concerned about the blinds than Patton. My type of humor. And Roman actually gets to use his sword for once, good for him! 

(Funny enough as I typed this the video got to that part at the exact same time so I got a nice little laugh again) 

Which brings up my next point: Logan getting yoinked after Patton skips his dialogue. No one talks about how he does his little impression of that philosopher, am I the only one who found that utterly adorable? 

Let Logan geek out over philosophers please. He clearly loves it so much. 

Then we get to Roman believing he’s the one responsible for everything, wanting to give up the driver’s seat to Patton. And just… This exchange of dialogue:

Thomas: “Roman, I only mean well when I say…” Thomas: “That that is the stupidest thing you have ever said.” Roman: “Oh Thomas, you’re just blowing smoke.” 

I don’t know why I enjoy this so much but I do. Give me more of this. I crave it now.

And I just need to make a whole post about Patton in this video, there is so much to unpack with him alone.

Looking back and noticing that Thomas only starts listening to Logan after he’s been replaced by Deceit kinda hurts. 

Speaking of which, can we appreciate how much better Deceit has gotten at impersonating Logan? Looks like he took Roman’s advice and focused on the little things. Good for him. 

Alright, one of my absolute favorite parts from this episode and where things really start to shine: Patton freaks out and turns into a giant frog because he’s so desperate to have an answer for them he flips and honestly, sounds a little crazy. Which, I don’t know why but I find it both menacing and hilarious at the same time? 

Also the fact he turns into a frog because he was talking about Frogger earlier, nice touch! (And Lilypadton that’s so cute) 

Then we get probably the single greatest character entrance in the history of character entrances. We find out that Deceit finally reveals himself and steps in to stand up to Patton and get him to see how his actions have been having a negative effect on Thomas. 

The way his voice changes from Logan’s to his own, his music kicking in, “The Lord of the Lies” oh my gosh it’s all just perfect! Also Roman’s “Reptilian Rapscallion! Reptilian Rapscallion! We’ve got a code yellow!” 

And if I may: Roman: “What have you done with Logan?!” Deceit: “Nothing at all and I resent the question.” 

WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM YOU SNEK?! 

(in all honest probably nothing but what if) 

Important to note here that Roman instantly begins defending Patton from Deceit as soon as he accuses him of misleading Thomas. This goes to show just how much Roman views him as a villain. Or in other words: Patton, good. Deceit, bad. A viewpoint he continues to hold onto until the end of the episode, which also deserves it’s entire post because we all know how much turbulence that caused within the fandom. 

And to the observant eye, you’ll notice that the cane (or staff) Deceit uses is the same one that dragged Logan off screen. 

Frog puns. That is all.

I just, I love Deceit’s dialogue throughout this scene. It’s stuff I need to hear and tell myself on a regular basis. And I’d honestly rewatch this part (along with the rest of what Deceit and Logan say later on in the video) because it’s all something I need to also teach myself. But this ain’t meant to be a personal post so I’ll just move on. 

Deceit’s walk towards the camera. I don’t know why. It’s so smooth. He’s amazing. I love him. Snek… 

I have problems don’t @ me. 

Also no one is mentioning the reference to that one “Turn based rpg” short that Thomas made with his friends and I find that sad because it’s a neat and fitting reference given the theme of this video. Also earlier on when the trolley problem is first brought up all the people on the bottom track are Thomas’ friends. Another neat little detail, though sadly, their digital selves perished. 

PETER SINGER 

Logan doesn’t seem to like Deceit much, not outright hate him or anything, but it’s more like he just tolerates him but doesn’t seek to get on good terms with him. Which is a shame because as both parts of SVS have proven, these two have the capacity to work together. Which is why I hope Logan gets a debate episode with him as well because out of all the Sides, these two have interacted the least and that needs to be remedied (especially when they’re my two favorites) 

Deceit is trying to make Roman understand, but he’s so caught up in this black and white thinking that he disregards everything Deceit says! Why? Because the last time he tried to hear Deceit out he was reprimanded. (In other words, I relate to Roman so much in this that it hits a little too close to home and I’m definitely making a separate post about this. 

Deceit: *confused* Trees? And I’m so glad I found out I’m not the only dunce who thought Deceit’s name was going to be written on his hand… 

But seriously this whole moment, with the buildup, Deceit’s reluctance to share his name, the music, I’d put it up there with Virgil’s “I was one of them” for best Sanders Sides scenes.

Also, Deceit’s name is Janus! I was a little iffy about it at first, but since I didn’t ever really have a prediction for his name, I wasn’t disappointed and the name is growing on me. 

And then, the moment of trust is immediately ruined by Roman laughing. Dude, come on. (again though, post for another time because I understand where Roman is coming from here)

In all seriousness though I just love the last bits of this episode. The emotion, the angst, it doesn’t hold back and I appreciate the team taking things a step further than normal. Usually, moments like this are followed up by a joke to play it off, but they don’t do that after Roman sinks out. They stay in the moment until it’s had time to sink in. I wish the episode had ended a little more somberly, but I think this is a good step in the right direction. Showing that there won’t always be a 100% happy conclusion to things. Sometimes you need to take time in between to figure things out. 

This line: “Do you think there’s a limit to how many times someone can say sorry before you have to admit that they’re just bad for you?” This line is so important to me within the context of the episode and outside of it. I won’t get too personal but I will say that I was raised to believe that if a person wronged me in any way, that if they said sorry, I had to forgive them. Even if they did the same thing over and over and over again. As long as they apologize, you have to forgive them and move on. And that has messed me up in so many different ways, especially when those people are family. 

Janus sums it up best with “It depends” because yes, some people make the same mistakes again and again. But there’s a difference between someone trying to change and accidentally falling back on old habits, and someone taking advantage of your “forgiveness” that they continue to do those hurtful things because they know they can get away with it and not have to change. 

Also, while it’s totally fine for people to dislike Patton, I can’t understand how anyone could watch this episode and claim that he’s still the same as he was at the beginning of SVS Part One because he has changed. He has finally realized just how much he’s been hurting Thomas, and even Roman. He sinks out at the end to apologize to him, he recognizes his faults, and he’s seeking to make amends. He wants to do the right thing here, and keep in mind that recently a lot of his views (which are also Thomas’ views) have been flipped on their heads and they both need to rethink some things. It’s part of growing up and becoming your own person. 

I need to make a whole post about the more personal things that I got from the last three episodes (excluding Asides) because there’s just so many important things these episodes teach and I feel the need to address them. 

Also everyone sleeping on the fact that Leslie Odom Jr. just casually makes an appearance and attempts to start a pilot episode for his own series “Odom Sides” which I wish him luck on. He just wants to be in the room where it happens. 

Everything Patton did was for Thomas, so he wouldn’t be left in the dark again. He promised to keep fighting but ultimately, ended up fighting himself. Am I deep yet?

“Those imperfections don’t make you any less worthy of love” can you tell how much this episode means to me yet? 

Janus’ “I’ll take care of him.” Ack, he just cares so much… My gosh… Where did this character come from and what did he do with the slimy boi? (I mean that in two different ways)

Oh, there he is. That’s my boi. 

“There are smarter ways to get people to do what you want anyway.” “There are much less barbaric, much more fun, forms of sabotage.” 

Parallels? Maybe? What the heck I love Janus whether he’s encouraging Thomas to look after his mental health or plot his schemes in the shadows. Do I trust Janus? Oh heck no, of course not. There is something suspicious going on here and I both love it and hate it. More on that in a different post though.

“You’re not stuck with an evil snake boi. You’re just stuck with a snek boi.” 

Yes Thomas, continue to overthink every little issue until it results in a mental breakdown. Hm, sounds like what someone with anxiety does… I suppose that’s why this series exists. 

Okay call me a bad person but I almost always space out during Thomas’ messages to the viewers at the end of the videos. I don’t know why but I cannot focus on them to save my life and usually end up skipping past them to get to the end card. I dunno, maybe because it takes me out of the moment? Especially during episodes where they don't’ address the audience at all and then suddenly “Oh yeah! This is a Youtube series lol” it just feels out of place in more story driven episodes like this one. 

Okay am I the only one that’s kinda creeped out by Lee and Mary Lee? I dunno they just seem, off. Like if they were characters in a horror movie they’d be that overly nice couple that turn out to be the killers. Those are the vibes they give me. Maybe it’s because I have zero people skills due to being homeschooled all my life and the only social interaction I get is with coworkers so I dunno. They still creep me out. They creep me out more than Remus. And he legit freaked me out for a bit before he stole my heart. (I suppose this means I need to make a separate post about these two because I do have some opinions about whether or not it was a good idea to actually include them at the end. When I said I had too many thoughts about this episode I meant it)

And if the end card is any indication, I’m going to assume that the Sides are invisible to everyone except Thomas. Unless they’re just “observing” and not even Thomas can see them at this point, given he shows no indication of seeing or hearing them there. Maybe they get to choose when they’re visible? Or Thomas does? I dunno, the rules of this universe have never been clearly stated and are inconsistent. 

I didn’t expect Patton to be the first to accept Janus, and I’m kinda glad I was proven wrong. It does seem fitting with Patton’s growth and I liked their little moment at the end. 

And that wraps up my commentary. I hope you found something in this mess of, things. I plan to go more in depth with my separate posts which I’m going to have fun writing, so be on the lookout for those! 

Also at the time of writing this I now have 63 followers?! Thank y’all so much! I never thought this blog would get this far and I’m so glad it did because I’m having a lot of fun with it and hope to bring out more content regularly! Again, thank you!!

#sanders sides #ts spoilers #sanders sides spoilers

[mycatshuman]

Masterlist

So Alone

Virgil feels so alone all of the time. At first, playing the bad guy was fun, but now?

Pre-Accepting Anxiety

Based on the song So Alone by Anna Blue.

Warnings: suicide attempt. Please let me know if I should add more

Silent Scream Part 1 | Part 2

Virgil doesn't want to be the bad guy. Why can't the others hear his silent scream?

Based on the song Silent Scream by Anna Blue

Warnings: mentions of self harm, nightmares panic attack, anxiety

Am I Supposed To Apologize?

Roman doesn't understand why his mother acted like that.

Based on the song Am I supposed to apologize? by Maria Mena

Warnings: Abandonment issues? And if there’s any more please let me know.

Black Roses Red

Virgil loves Roman. But doesn't think Roman loves him. He just wants some color in his life. Can Roman give it?

Pairings: Prinxiety

Loosely based on the song Black Roses Red by Alana Grace.

Warnings: I don’t think there’s anything bad, if there is anything please let me know so I can warn people.

The Curse

Roman goes to the creepy mansion to play music for the man who lives there. They become friends.

Yeah, this one was terrible. I'm thinking of redoing it.

Pairings: hinted Prinxiety and Logicality?

Based on the song The Curse from Rigoletto

Warnings: I don’t think there is anything to warn against. If you find anything please let me know. 

Dark Hood

Chapter fic: discontinued.

A vampire/robin hood/vampire hunter fic. I really don't know. Its not good.

Pairings: Prinxiety? Logicality?

Warnings on each chapter.

Unforgiving Waters

These cold waters are Unforgiving. They take and take. 

Pairings: Prinxiety

Word count: 4, 831

Warnings: death, drowning, sinking, panic attack, let me know if I missed any, please

Prinxiety Lover

This oneshot is based on a video my friend sent me. The video is called Butter Lover and it is hilarious. And if you watch, you have to watch til the end. Very end. Here's the link https://youtu.be/yKGeJXk2qWQ

Anyway, Roman works at a boring gas station in the middle of nowhere when a rougish stranger comes in and buys a stick of butter. The stranger was very handsome and Roman didn't think much of their future until he comes in for more butter. But one question strays away from all his gay thoughts, what is the man doing with all this butter?

Word count: 1,460

Parings: I don’t think I have to say.

Warnings: language, slight nsfw mention I guess? Let me know if I missed any.

A Half Empty Shell | A Half Full Shell

Vent fic that got a sequel with a happy ending.

Pairings: Prinxiety

Warnings: angst

The Demonologists

This is a Sanders Sides Au based on The Conjuring Universe. So please, if you can not handle things like that please refrain from reading further. Warnings for each chapter will be posted in the notes.

Pairings: Prinxiety and Logicality

Warnings on each chapter

Chaptered fic: in progress

Word count so far: 8,090

Die Schere Hand

What happens when Patton brings down a man with scissors for hands to his home that he shares with his friend Roman and crush Logan?

This was a Halloween Special fic

Chaptered fic: Finished.

Word Count: 16,619

Pairings: Prinxiety and Logicality

Warnings on each chapter

Dreaming Of Snow

A White Christmas Sanders Sides Au.

Starring

Virgil as Virgil Wallace

Logan as Logan Davis

Thomas as General Thomas Sanders

Patton as Patton Haynes

Roman as Roman Haynes

Deceit as Schlange Harrison

Joan as themselves

Talyn as themselves

And Emile Picani and Remy!

Pairings: Prinxiety and Logicality

Word Count: 18,670

Warnings on each chapter

Castle Of Devils

Roman works part time as a realtor with his childhood best friend and boss, Logan Sanders. Now he's being sent to an all expenses paid trip to a region in Romania called Transylvania to help a men purchase a home in America and learn the culture and customs. Before he can even make it to Castle Dracula, a cashier in a local gas station warns him of devils in the castle and gives him a cross to ward of the evil as he promises to slay the best. However, when he finally meets his host, Virgil Stoker, he finds himself confused and crushing. 

Why do the locals think its a castle of devils? 

What's up with Virgil? 

Will Roman trust him?

Chaptered fic: in progress

Pairings: Eventual Prinxiety

Warnings on each chapter

Word count so far: 10,518

The Gilmore Gays

This is a Sanders Sides au based on the 7 season series the Gilmore Girls. It includes eventually Prinxiety and eventual logicality. It will possibly be more dialogue than anything and some Gilmore girls characters will remain the same. Not everything will follow the script completely. Any warnings will be posted at the notes before the chapter.

Pairings: Eventual Prinxiety

Chapter fic: in progress, slow going

Word count so far: 7,322

It Can't Be Over

Virgil doesn't think he's good enough for Roman. He decided to set him free so he can be better.

Based on the song It Can't Be Over from Monster High.

Angst with happy ending

Pairings: Prinxiety

Warnings: angst

Word count: 1,668

I Don't Have To

Based on the one moment from Sherlock.

This oneshot implies Prinxiety. Kind of a College Au almost. Anyway, there is a flashback of a near death experience, gun violence. Very brief and then probably some slight blood or mild language. 

Word count: 991

The Birthday Curse

Its Virgil's birthday. How could the sides forget?

Pairings: Prinxiety and hinted Logicality

Birthday fic for Virgil. Also kinda a vent fic? A bit of self projecting onto Virgil.

Warnings: angst

Happy ending of course. I'm not that cruel.

Word count: 4,828

The Jacket Thief

Reverse Bang Fix base on this

The other sides keep stealing Virgil's jacket, so he makes them one.

Pairings: Hinted Prinxiety and Logicality

Warnings: may be some language, panic attacks, getting poked with a sewing needle, please let me know if I missed any.

Word Count: 7,274

How Roman Saved Virgil's Life

Virgil's about to end his life. What happens when he gets a call from an old friend?

Pairings: Prinxiety

Warnings: mentions if suicide, mentions of neglectful parents, alone on a holiday. Please let me know if I missed any.

Word count: 1,929

It Wasn't Exactly Fun When...

What happens when Virgil goes back to his old ways?

Pairings: Prinxiety

Warnings: Deceit, and I think that might be it. Let me know if I missed any.

Are You Asking Me Out On A Date?

Pairings: Prinxiety

Warnings: I don’t think there are any? Let me know if I missed them

Word count: 1,274

Life

Vent fic. I went through something and just replaced me with Virgil.

Warnings: death, sad, tears, angst, lots of angst, let me know if I missed any.

Word count: 2, 462

Fiery Ash

Sequel to Unforgiving Waters

Roman and Virgil are planning to run away together. But what happens when a monumental tragedy threatens to rip them apart?

Pairings: Prinxiety, implied logicality

Warnings: brief implied death, nightmares, fire mention, smothering risk, ash, crushed mention, building collapsing.

The Pink Item

During a trip to the store before they go on vacation, Virgil is sent to get sunscreen by his husband, Roman. However, a pink item catches his eye and reminds him of a darker past. Kinda vent fix but whatever

Pairings: Prinxiety

Warnings: blood, razors, self harm, dark thoughts. 

What If

Pairings: Prinxiety, background RED and Logicality

Warnings: none

Roman tries to convince Virgil to take a risk. In Song Form!

Good Deeds

Pairings: Prinxiety and Logicality

Warnings: mentions of drinking, addiction, arguments, homelessness, financial struggles, angst, lots of it, Remus is in this but I toned him down slightly, I think, Please let me know if I missed any.

#mycatshuman fics #the demonologist #castle of devils #die schere hand #dark hood #dreaming of snow #gilmore gays #prinxiety #logicality #sanders sides fan fiction #sanders sides au #sanders sides #virgil sanders sides #virgil sanders angst #virgil sanders #roman sanders #roman sanders sides #sanders sides patton #patton sanders #sanders sides logan #logan sanders #remy sanders #deciet sanders #thomas sanders #emile picani #joan #joan and talyn #talyn #ts shorts characters

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: PMMM Rebellion - Part 1

Showtime! Tephi has seen Rebellion now, so I’ve got the all clear to watch it myself. For planning purposes, I’m keeping a list of break points q_3 suggested (14:30, 30:30, 41:30, 54:30, 1:07:30, 1:23:50, 1:33:30) as planned stopping points between posts, barring ragequits. I’ll be watching the DVD, but feel free to follow along on Netflix! Because apparently the movie is on Netflix, as I only recently discovered when I went there to rewatch some Madoka episodes in preparation for this. All right! Time to dive back into the world of Madoka Magica. Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie - Rebellion

Main menu is split between Ribbon!Homura looking off to the left, and the cover art of Magical Girls on the right. Light flute music playing. Black background, a small but bright pink light growing larger in the screen “We are the ones who pray for hope, embrace curses and fight ever onward. We are Magical Girls.” I think this is Homura narrating. Light shows itself as a Soul Gem, as Homura talks about how in obtaining miracles Magical Girls take a “destiny of battle” upon their souls. And that the destiny ends with the “salvation of oblivion”. Off to a cheery start, here! But! “By disappearing from this world, we could escape our fate of despair.” That’d be the change Madoka made, taking MGs away before they Witchified. Now the Gem’s falling through water, to a window? “Someday, that final day will come. As we wait for the Law of the Cycle to lead us away, we continue our unending battle.” Um, is it just me or am I hearing voices in the background? Can’t make out what they’re saying. “In this irredeemable world, forever repeating its tragedies and hatred, I dreamt that I encountered that familiar smile once again.” Camera is now looking over a sprawling city (Mitakihara, right?) at night, lots of shining steel and glass structures. But a series of colorful lines snake through the air putting out lights, then the artstyle starts getting trippy. Silhouettes of ballerinas?

Uh, now there’s a 2D teddy bear/doll thing dancing? Which just spat out a couple of smaller teddy bears and SWEET MADOKA they just blew through a building! The heck? This is clearly a Witch, what with the Labyrinth and wanton destruction and all, but how? Weren’t Witches replaced by Wraiths in the new world? As is, Teddy Doll is now resting to the graceful classical music and looking at the ballerinas Wait is that Madoka!  It’s Madoka! Which… raises so, so many questions. But whatever, just look at her! So cute, shooting her bow into the air… and then frantically dodging the arrow storm. Hmmm, inexperienced Madoka? Teddy Doll runs from the barrage- and is followed by bubble-bouncing Sayaka? Ok, so this has to be an earlier timeline if they are here. Now Kyoko’s joined in the chase! Sayaka and Kyoko both attack Teddy Doll, lovely teamwork between these two, but it slips away from them into a building. Where it sits down at a dinner table? Wait, what’s going on now? There’s a French-style song with an accordion about “dreaming of the morning”, and Madoka just entered with a basket of bread. She’s feeding the Teddy Doll? And Sayaka and Kyoko just came in with more food?

Mami! Artillery Magical Girl is here, with some floating guns and And What the fuck is that thing doing here It’s Dessert Witch, the one that ate her head It’s right behind Mami What the hell Ok, what the hell just happened. Dessert Witch just sat down at the table, there was a huge burst of light as our girls just kept smiling. What is going on? Madoka wakes up? Ah, an odd dream. Wait, are you holding a giant orange Incubator plush? That’s INCUBATOR! GET OUT! That thing is lurking on Madoka’s shelf. Stop acting cute, you freak. I know what you’re capable of. Don’t say “Good morning” to it, Madoka! Cherry tomatoes getting cut? Ah, it’s like the first episode at Madoka’s house! Father gardening, Madoka getting her hungover Mother out of bed. There’s a change in the bathroom dialogue, instead of talking about Hitomi’s love letters it’s about how she’s dating Kyosuke. Well! Isn’t that convenient! Wait, no, this is the show that launched my Ship of Death. Nope nope not pursuing that.

Hey, looks like Madoka already has her Soul Gem in the form of her ring. Confirmation of earlier timeline. Also, Ms. Saotome’s talking about the end of the world in class? She's upset that her students are hooking up while she’s still single? New student transferring to class that day? Hmmm, a certain Mysterious Transfer Student, is it? “I wonder what they’ll be like? I hope we can become friends.” Oh, I have no doubt of that, Madoka. And then the Incubator ruins the mood by showing up. Bleh. Same sweet breakfast scene between the family, Madoka heads out while still chewing her slice of toast. The Incubator hitches a ride on her shoulder, and our Protagonist laughs. Ugh! Stop with the suspense, Urobuchi, looking at Happy Madoka just makes me more and more nervous. A light poppy song comes up, with credits? Intro sequence? Light gloved touches form a tree-shrouded pond, and MG!Madoka strides across the water. Now she’s seated at a carnival teacup ride, as Sayaka and Kyoko spin one of the cups. Daw, they’re on a daFRIENDLY CARNIVAL OUTING BETWEEN FELLOW STUDENTS. Ha, almost got me there, Urobuchi! Homura at the same park at night? Looks up at the sky which is raining white feathers. Madoka walks through a field of flowers next to the amusement park, then through the park hand-in-hand with Sayaka. Now it’s fall (Sayaka is in an adorable beanie and sweater) and they’re joined by Mami. Now it’s winter and Kyoko is chasing Sayaka for withheld food, she trips into Blue-Hair and they tumble to the ground entOH GEE HOPE THEY DIDN’T SCRAPE THEIR KNEES. Whew, too close. Spring again as the four walk up to a white-dress Homura? Homura’s surrounded by gears now, until a hipcheck from Madoka snaps her out of her doldrums and she’s dragged into the amusement park. More flashes of gears, then a carousel where Homura is kneeling and has muted colors, while the other four girls cheerfully dance. Showing how she’s separated from their time? Flashes back to the lake, Madoka extends a hand to help Homura up from her kneeling position. Homura reaches out- Madoka’s hand crumbles to sand? What? Homura’s now in what looks like a desert with stone pillars in the background. Cries? There’s a black earpiece-thing in the sand with a purple gem? And yeah, we end in the desert, the movie’s title coming up.

Well, ok then. I’m completely lost. What does all this mean? Back to the light peaceful music as we repeat the first episode, Madoka meets up with Sayaka- and Kyoko? So she’s going to school with them in this timeline? Quick zooms confirm that the girls have their rings as well, and Sayaka compliments her for her work last night. So they did fight the Teddy Doll? The girls walk into the school, and man the studio got even more animation money for this movie, didn’t they? Lost of students running around, the building looks even more ostentatious that before. Standard Magical Girl chatter about “Oh, I didn’t get the reading done/Meh, I didn’t bother doing the homework, can I copy yours?” Sayaka takes offense to Kyoko trying to copy off of Madoka, they squabble as Madoka tries to play peacekeeper. Even the Incubator pats her head in ‘sympathy’. In class, Teacher’s saying that just because the Mayans were wrong about Doomsday, doesn’t mean that they’re safe! Um. Ok then? Alright, maybe you should take your meds lady. It was bad enough when you wasted class time ranting about your exes, why don’t you do your job. “Well, to be honest… I think perhaps the ending of the world may not be such a bad thing.” Ok really now, you- “After all, I’ve had my fill of dealings with men and love and so forth. If I must carry on this way and have my age rounded up to 40 from now on, I’d rather everything just ended at once, in one fell swoop.” Ah, ok then. Teach’s just having a midlife crisis. Move along, nothing to see here.

Say hello to the Mysterious Transfer Stu- wait. Homura has her glasses and braids? Is this the first timeline, in fact? Even not being so Mysterious, the class all gives a gasp as she enters. And are those blushes I see on our characters' faces? Especially Maodka? Daw, that’s CUTE THAT SHE LIKES WHAT SHE SEES WAIT NO I MEAN IS HAPPY TO SEE A NEW FRIEND. HAH, DODGED THAT ONE. Huh, Homura’s cheerfully saying hi, no hesitation. So not the first one, then. Yup, brushing back her hair she flashes her Ring, our other MGs immediately recognize is for a Soul Gem. Right, this isn’t her first pass so she’s already got her powers. And maybe it’s still early enough she can be happy about the thought of saving Madoka? Now we’re on the roof, apparently Mami already knew about Homura, thought it’d be fun to surprise the other girls. Homura says she should have introduced herself last night, when they were fighting the- Nightmare? Translation change between the show and movie? Mami confirms that she was around last night, and that she has significant power as a Magical Girl. Homura protests that she is more of a support role that anything (still early enough she hasn’t been raiding armories for weapons). Sayaka welcomes the help, as does Kyoko “provided last night wasn’t a fluke”. Madoka grasps her hands, and welcomes her to the team.

All right! Now, what to say about the movie so far? AAAAAAHHHHHH THE DESSERT WITCH IS ALIVE IT IS FOLLOWING OUR GIRLS WHY WHY WHY WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?! Ahem. So, obviously Dessert Witch being around is a Big Deal. Question is, what does it mean? All the signs are pointing toward this being an earlyish run for Homura, not the second because she didn’t immediately spring to blurt out Madoka’s secret, but early enough that Looping Fatigue hasn’t set in yet, nor has she developed her full combat style. However, now that I think about it I’m not sure all the mentions of Nightmares instead of Witches are translation changes anymore. What we saw of Dessert Witch in the show was an entity that wasn’t that cunning, mostly just focused on eating or destruction like the other Witches. But maybe there was a change this timeline. Maybe this time the Witch is taking a more subtle approach, is tricking or brainwashing our Magical Girls to clear out other Witches under the guise of “hunting Nightmares”. Which brings up some rather stark concerns about where this movie will go. Homura knows the truth, knows what Dessert Witch is and can recognize that something is wrong. So it’s only a matter of time before she rebels (title relevance!) and tries to take it out. But I don’t think the manipulated girls are just going to stand by for that. Hmmm.

#wmtw #where my twin watches #ranubis #pmmm #pmmm rebellion #puella magi madoka magica #pmmm rebellion 1

[a-doq]

lion king thinkpiece under the cut:

hoo boy lmao. i honestly really wanted to enjoy it! i wanted to have a fun time! the lion king is one of my favorite movies of all time. one of my earliest memories is watching it obsessively at home. it was my family’s first VHS. i got the platinum edition dvd as a birthday gift from my family when i was younger. i’ve seen the broadway musical. i’ve seen the movie several times before in theaters during re-releases. i had a fucking lion king themed sleeping bag, sweater, tool bucket, watch, computer game, pajama set, and christmas ornament.

so anyway this movie sucked. and that really sucks because the lion king means so much to me! i tried to enjoy it as much as i could. but by the end i was honestly bored and sick of it and just wanted to leave the theater and do something else.

i’m going to go scene-by-scene here and explain my biggest thoughts (so “spoiler” warning i guess lmao):

circle of life: whatever it was fine. instead of starting out with a loud yell and then the screen fades in from black, in this version there’s a static shot of the landscape that holds for like ~5 seconds before the sun starts to rise and THEN the yell starts. the first thing that honestly popped into my mind was “this reminds me of the teletubbies opening sequence” LMAO

Scar’s intro: new scar is mostly fine. the actor is clearly trying his very best and i appreciate that. it’s tough to take it seriously because it’s basically an ugly-ass CGI lion walking around talking about being evil and it kills my suspension of disbelief a bit. john oliver is annoying as FUCK as zazu which is super disappointing. obviously zazu was supposed to be annoying in the original too but he was also formal, respectful, neurotic, and caring. in this version he’s given some more dialogue that makes him sound like a complete dickhead at all times. james earl jones constantly sounds like he’s out of breath and is going to keel over. THAT in particular is super jarring because i know all of mufasa’s lines and delivery by heart and it just emphasizes how inferior this version is.

young simba: voice is fine. definitely upped the cute factor. BUT they also changed his character to be... stupider? and it honestly makes his character annoying. simba shouldn’t be annyoing! in the original simba KNEW that the elephant graveyard was dangerous but explored it anyways because he was immature. in this one he doesn’t even know that the elephant graveyard is dangerous because he’s stupid. he ignores what people tell him straight to his face and just acts like a dipshit.

stampede: ya lol. ragdoll mufasa is unintentionally hilarious. idk if any of y’all have seen the leaked recording but yes it’s just as bad. also, the point of mufasa’s death scene is that it’s simba’s first experience with death. in the original, when simba is tugging on mufasa’s ear to get him to wake up, you get the sense that simba doesn’t really understand what death is. in this version, he just lightly taps mufasa’s forehead, then immediately assumes he’s dead, and just accepts it?? ALSO, the cinematography of the stampede scene is weird. in the animated film, as soon as the stampede starts, the lighting and background transform from bright and sunny into extremely dusty, so that you can’t discern left vs right. in this version it’s STILL LEFT BRIGHT AND SUNNY WHILE SIMBA AND MUFASA ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES which is like... fucking WHY. there’s a few jumpscare-esque action moments of mufasa getting the shit beaten out of him by the stampede which i actually liked and thought added to the tension of the scene.

timon and pumbaa: overstay their welcome, yet ironically are the only emotional magnets in the second half of the movie. i hope y’all enjoyed the hakuna matata excerpt that was released by disney, because that’s the only emotion you’re going to get out of donald glover in this entire movie. EXTREMELY important scenes to simba’s character are completely cut out and replaced with nothing:

-simba collapsing on a cliff in mourning after talking about his father living on in the stars

-simba pacing and talking to himself about why going back would be pointless, then screaming at the sky “you said you’d always be there for me” and crying

-rafiki whacking simba over the head, and teaching him that the past can hurt, but it’s important to learn from it.

-simba cornering scar, telling him that he’s a murderer and that he doesn’t deserve to live after what he’s done

also, all the emotional scenes that they DID leave intact feel hollow. not only do the characters not show any facial emotions (which has been bitched to death on the internet), but they literally DO NOT MOVE THEIR BODIES AT ALLLL. for the ENTIRE second half of the movie the characters are either just standing there or running in order to change scenes. the scene with mufasa’s ghost? simba just stood there THE ENTIRE TIME AND LITERALLY DID NOT MOVE. no shots of him gazing up at the sky, no shots of him running through the field after his father. the whole thing is just shot-reverse-shot. but because they didn’t bother to animate mufasa in the sky (it’s literally just james earl jones’s voice with a few shots of lightning), it just looks like simba is standing there, having a conversation with the fucking sky, like he’s having a schizophrenic episode. when simba returns to the pride lands, they didn’t even bother to animate his head looking around at the destruction. when mufasa dies, they didn’t even bother to animate his ears going back, or his body crouching, or his fur bristling, or his tail tucking under his legs... he just STANDS THERE while the voice actor is “crying” and it’s so awkward lmao. 

miscellaneous nitpicks:

-the movie is REALLY fucking quiet. it might’ve just been my theater, and i know that kid’s movies are played at a lower volume so as not to damage their hearing, but this was just abnormally low. i had a hard time even hearing the music half the time.

-the entire movie is very dark and unsaturated. “i just can’t wait to be king” is the most colorful the movie looks. everything after that is ugly

-pride rock looks extremely... short? and not tall at all? it looks like 10 feet tall at most. it doesn’t feel majestic at all. it just feels like some boulder.

-”he lives in you” wasn’t included in the movie even though it was released in the soundtrack... why? fucking why? the placement of that song in the musical is excellent and greatly enhances the story. but whatever i guess! gotta make room for a 30 second excerpt of beyonce’s song.

-there a weird scene included in the movie, where, instead of rafiki learning that simba’s alive through the wind, a literal tuft of simba’s mane falls out, is carried by the wind, GETS EATEN BY A GIRAFFE AND THEN COMES OUT IN A BALL OF SHIT, WHICH IS THEN ROLLED AROUND BY A DUNG BEETLE??? WHICH RAFIKI THEN USES TO LEARN THAT SIMBA IS ALIVE. and the whole thing lasts for like 4 minutes??? what the fuck??

-simba and rafiki exchange like 3 lines of dialogue max lol

-kids will be bored. by about 3/4 of the way through the movie all of the kids in my theater collectively stopped giving a shit and were just wrestling with each other on the floor

so yah. if you want to see a version of the lion king with all of the melodrama systematically stripped away for some reason, with all of the unique cinematography from the original replaced with shot-reverse-shot, watch this lazy remake.

at least my girlfriend’s seat was broken so the ticket guy gave us a free voucher to see another movie together in the future.

#i gave it a chance and tried to judge it fairly

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

what's wrong with P5A's characterization? (admittedly I haven't been watching it but I thought you liked it o3o;; )

This is mostly aimed at Anne and Ryuji tbh. Ren…..I like his name, as of the later chapters in the manga I think I might Akira’s personality more….mostly cause he really is a newbie goofball and 100% not like what the fandom considers the MC to be like. It’s kinda refreshing (of course the art doesn’t help but I can slowly see some funny quirks).

This all mostly happens in the first 3 episodes, and tbh sours the first dungeon for me. 

Anyway from least irritating to most (there’s 4 things but technically the first two are in the same scene so maybe there’s only 3), Ryuji I think is the worst part but Anne’s is so confusing tho she does actually get railroaded back to her game counterpart the early episodes really screw her character over (anyway basically they have some….OOC moments….big ones….important ones). Sorry it’s not SUPER in depth, maybe later I can go frame by frame between the game, anime, and manga. 

Anyway under the cut because in this essay I will be (btw sorry if it’s all over the place)….

Let’s start with the weirdest one….when you first meet her, ok well…the first first one is just a minor one the thing RIGHT AFTER is the weirdest one. Ok so there’s more going on in the anime/game than the manga, but the anime unlike the game has dialogue. That’s fine….thing is…..the manga might do….a better job with capturing Anne’s character than the anime did. I mean it’s less shippy (but we get new shippy scenes later I’ll get to that). I mean let’s look at her reaction to the MC staring at her:

Game:

Manga:

Anime:

What’s the difference?

The smile. Doesn’t Anne look friendlier in the Game/Manga? Isn’t your first impression….”huh she seems nice!” I think the anime tried to give her more of an action like “actions speak louder than words” kinda thing, with her taking the petal off of the MC’s head. “See? Isn’t she nice? She helped remove the thing he couldn’t see!” And, I get what they are trying to do there, but she still comes off as coldish. I said a second ago they wanted to give her an action, but the thing is…..smiling is already an action! A very simple one! She’s already showing she’s friendly by giving him a greeting smile (or just a polite one). Also the way it’s presented, the manga and game give off a warmer atmosphere than the anime. The game’s colors are soft and bright and welcoming (and she’s drawn in a softish way), the anime it’s darker and dreary. The manga, even tho it’s black and white and has a plain ass background, Anne is drawn in such a soft way, it’s even shaded a little to give off her being illuminated (like notice the lower corners where it’s darker, the way it’s shaded the light is drawn to her fact brightening out her smile). 

Like we got all we needed to know from our first meeting in both the game/manga, she’s friendly. Maybe the anime wanted to amplify her cold exterior to make the “oh she’s really friendly underneath” hiddens side of her a reveal…..but….the thing is….THEY DIDN’T DO THAT! They set it up with no pay off, like it would’ve been different and I can’t knock them for that, but now it’s just different FOR NO REASON! Like the game/manga show she’s friendly, and later we see her colder wall she puts up all while hearing rumors and putting the pieces together as to WHY she has a cold wall, all while knowing she’s friendlier than she appears. And if the anime wanted to do something different that’s fine but it didn’t follow through so it’s an issue for me.

Anyway, again, it’s minor, it still bugs me tho. Moving on to….when we first meet Kamoshida in the car. And this one is weird. Let’s compare Anne again.

Game:

Manga:

Anime:

What’s the difference?

It’s the way they look, the way the lines are delivered, the dialogue, the way she moves. I mean one thing to keep in mind is they want to have her smile so they can cut away to her looking unhappy and have you thing “hmmmmm something is up.” 

Game!Anne, her smile is mandatory polite (smile cause it’s the right thing to do, she probably also did this in mind with the MC too but hey she had the music with him and not Kamo 8V basically what I’m trying to say a person who is uber cold wouldn’t politely smile and at the same time just cause they smile doesn’t mean they are happy). Her dialogue is also a bit….apprehensive, and just mandatory polite as well. It’s what I would say if I didn’t want to get in the car with someone but also had no reason to say no. Anyway the cut to her looking upset shows us her real emotions.

Manga!Anne however really doesn’t look pleased, I mean you could totally read it as “relief,” possibly due to not being trapped in the rain. Same as the game, it cuts away to her not looking happy (and actually amplifies it some more in the manga with Kamoshida talking to her). 

Anime!Anne. Unlike the other two, she had yet to show a smile, unlike the other two who came off as polite with no wall, Anime!Anne does not have that frame of reference. Instead it’s a juxtaposition. She had a bit of a wall but then as soon as Kamo showed up, she bursted out into this big smile. Her words are a bit more eager, it looks like she practically runs to the car (while she just casually walks to it in the other versions). She seems happy. Sure maybe it’s cause she doesn’t need to be in the rain. But again, this is the first time we’ve seen her smile. Then it cuts away to her not looking happy. It’s…..it’s some whiplash man. I think it’s cause they wanted us to buy into thinking Anne is Kamo’s girl by choice….. I mean later in ep 2 Kamo shows jealousy over the fact the MC was with Anne alone. But the thing is….this misdirection makes no sense, they don’t spend nor have the time to slow things down to make us wonder. The whole plot point is useless because it’s dropped very fast considering her later reactions in ep 2. 

Side minor nitpick before moving on. I don’t like the way they introduce Ryuji. The Game/Manga have him running after Kamo’s car, well after Kamo has driven away (not aware of Ryu even approaching). The anime has Ryujis slowly approaching the car and Kamo takes notice and has him drive off. I dunno it feels weird, Ryu would totally run after that car and Kamo wouldn’t really give a shit about Ryu approaching. Minor but a bit annoying, this change wasn’t needed.

Now onto…..my biggest problems with how they handled Anne, it’s this scene, this fudging scene right here:

This did not happen in the game. This did not happen in Spain. This did not happen in the Game writer’s brain. It did not happen here Nor there. It did not happen anywhere. It did not happen in the manga. It did not happen under Obama. It did not happen in a conga. It did not happen here nor there. It did not happen anywhere. SO WHY THE FUDGE IS IT HAPPENING HERE?????

First off half of this convo is taking place a day early, they are talking about Shiho’s volleyball problems which is suppose to take place the next day on the bench:

OH THE BENCH SCENE STILL TAKES PLACE! But they change the first half of the dialogue to reflect the optional dialogue you can hear when talking to the volleyball team, WHICH INSTEAD HAPPENS A DAY PRIOR TO THE BENCH DAY:

(let’s play I was using didn’t have them talk to Anne/Shiho but there’s the location/date, it’s about the same dialogue, talking about how BS the rumors are about the MC). 

But like what purpose does the corridor thing hold??? Cause when I first saw it I thought they were moving the bench scene. But obviously that didn’t happen. So why include it? Then I realized it was suppose to replace this scene:

The scene they are reinterpreting is happening a day later in the anime (4/13), with the bench scene still taking place (4/14) in the anime, but it moves the optional scene from the game (4/13, mentioned above) to 4/14 as well. They also removed Anne telling them to be careful about asking questions (4/13 in the game) to 4/14 when the bench scene is taking place. Giving Anne a more aggressive/protective role over Shiho, rather than going out of her way to warn them where it doesn’t involve Shiho at all (the manga did something similar to he anime). Now before we got back to the corridor and why it’s just SO FREAKING BAD, the reason why I don’t like Anne telling off the guys in the anime/manga is because it makes her ignorant. It brings about her now being aware of Kamo’s bad traits and the rumors to full force. The game she just knows they are going around and trying to dig up dirt about Kamo and considering what happen to Ryuji a year prior, she’s like “Guys she’s a teacher you aren’t going to win.” Coupled with the fact she’s kept in the dark about what they are investigating, as opposed to the anime (the manga she’s still in the dark, but it’s still a negative because she didn’t approach them herself to warn them they are getting into deep shit, you know cause she actually cares). 

Moving the confrontation also hurts the anime. In the game, it’s before Shiho gets bruised (or at least before Anne can see Shiho to see she’s bruised). The manga it happens right after Shiho mentions spraining her wrist but it’s def played off more convincingly that it was just a normal practice that did that. She does seem to attempt to tell Anne the truth, but Anne misreads what she was trying to say and assumed it was how she felt inadequate about her spot on the team (which they were also just discussing earlier). And….it works out fine, sure Anne loses some of her caring points from the game (so only real issue with that) but she’s in the dark about the truth so that’s good (from a story stand point that is). But why is it bad in the anime? It’s because…..she hears something is up with the volleyball club, and doesn’t believe Ryu/Ren LITERALLY AFTER LOOKING AT SHIHO’S INJURIES. ANNE IS NOT THIS DUMB (and no her CoOp doesn’t cout that is filled with OOC messes too). Outside her CoOp, Anne is characterized as being able to pick up on people’s emotions. She can read people pretty well (when the writers don’t depower that ability cause they suck). She would’ve figured it out right then and there. 

Anyway what’s wrong with the corridor scene? Other than screwing up the bench scene from here to hell? Just look at it. Look at those two pictures. WHat do you see? Anne gets invited to join the club and she bails. SHE BAILS! AND SHE GETS AN IN! WHAT THE FUDGE?! Like, no nononononon nonono no NOOOO NO! nO FOR ONE aNNE WOULD NOT BAIL ON SHIHO LIKE THAT! She can actually watch Shiho, be near her, one of the issues in the game is that Anne doesn’t see Shiho often. Their lifeline to each other is cut. Yeah maybe Kamo would try something with those two, but I think he wouldn’t want to take his chances since it’d be hard to fight off two at once. So Anne SHOULD be in the clear, him talking to her after the club would be a new issue, but  ANNE WOULD TOTALLY GO TO THE CLUB TO WATCH SHIHO FIGHT ME. And as for reason number two  as to why this scene sucks. It’s the life line, you can see in the game’s bench scene, even in the manga, Anne can’t follow Shiho. She has no in. She’s an outsider. She doesn’t know what’s going on because she’s an outsider and she can’t make Shiho talk. That’s one of the big conflicts of the game (and manga). She’s not on the team, she’s not on some committee like the Student Council, the most she can do for Shiho is cheer her on and try to string Kamo along. But what does Anime!Anne get? A FUDGING IN! The one thing Anne needed in P5, not to be an outsider, she gets an invitation to a thing she needed and she turns it the fudge down!! LIke no! Noooo???!!!! 

*inhales* As you can see I have issues with this on a number of levels. Now do I think it could’ve worked in the anime? Hell yes. Reorder everything to the right order from the game. Change the corridor scene to the optional scene you can overhear with Anne/Shiho on 4/13 talking about the MC and rumors, they split up and after Shiho rounds the corner Kamo catches Anne and the 4/12 scene (the one that MC overhears) happens. Anne declines him and walks away, cut to Shiho who is like “oh I need to tell Anne something” and have her round the corner and run into Kamo. The scene from the anime plays out where he abuses her. This way Anne doesn’t get an in and doesn’t abandon Shiho. Now move Anne yelling at Ren/Ryu about digging up dirt about Kamo, where she shows concern about them, but they don’t reveal any info so she’s still in the dark. Then the bench scene plays out like in the game with no interruptions, and they question Shiho like in the game. 

*inhales* Ok now let’s go to Ryu……Thankfully this should be more straight forward. But man, even the manga got Ryuji right (or at least didn’t get him wrong like the anime did). 

Ok so we all know the issue with Ryuji (and by extension the MC) right? Both are “protector of women” in the first arc, very respectable (well the MC does have the one line I didn’t like but haha we’ll get that THAT in a second), just good guys all around. Then everything post-dungeon 1 it’s “let’s make everything horribly sexual and objectify Anne and IT’S OK IF WE DO IT CAUSE WE’RE THE MAIN CHARACTERS!” Yeah THAT problem. One of the reasons the first dungeon is my fav. So let’s compare how Ryuji reacts to seeing Cognitive Anne (as well to the other sexual imagery) shall we?

Game:

Anime:

Manga:

Before I rip into it, the manga they don’t actually showcase his good boy status like in the game, but they also don’t make him a perv so I’ll fudging take it. And yeah I think it’s Akira talking in that panel, but again, Ryuji isn’t acting like a perv and she’s clearly not happy. (also they never see Cognitive Anne till Anne’s awakening, which….and Mona falls for the real Anne instead of the Cognition as he first meets her when she accidentally gets pulled into the Metaverse)

So……remember how I had a minor nitpick with how they introduced Ryuji? Him not running? Well there was……another thing I realized while typing this. Anime Ryuji doesn’t call Kamo a pervy teacher when he first speaks, Game/Manga!Ryuji do but not Anime!Ryuji. Instead he just calls him a bastard, but not a perv. He doesn’t call him a perv till Anne’s awakening in the anime. YEs this is important. Game/Manga!Ryuji make a point that they hate how pervy Kamo is, and how horrified they are of his perviness. Anime!Ryuji doesn’t until it’s too late. Is it more in-character considering the perv pile he becomes post-dungeon 1 in-game? Maybe, but why would you wanna double down on that? Ryuji was great in dungeon 1! Anyway Ryuji doesn’t show his horror until it’s too late, instead he avoids calling Kamo a perv so he’s not seen as a hypocrite in terms of perving, but then they just…..make him a hypocrite anyway cause he still calls Kamo a perv just later after perving himself. It’s just…..what the fudge….

Also did you notice, the “so jealous line” was originally the MC’s. Now I hate the line, but it really makes no sense for Ryu to say it esp during dungeon 1.  I mean it makes no sense for the MC to say it (this is probably why I hate the MC, I really hate some of his “cheeky lines). But why give….a character that already speaks…a lot more than the silent MC? Why give Ryuji one that makes him look worse to boot???? Like I didn’t like Yu Narukami or the P4 Anime, but it at least made sense why Yu took Yosuke’s “hey it’s the pint size detective” line from him. Yu needs more lines, so does Ren. So why add something unnecessary when you could just give Ren more lines? It’s just…..I’m sorry this really pisses me off. This really killed my goodwill for the anime, and it was dead by episode 3 (but I did finish arc 1). 

Like, the anime did two good things that remember from those eps, 1) Having Kamo be jealous over the MC for being near Anne and the rumors about Ren/Anne hitting on each other (cause it’s SOOOOO in character for him, 2) Shiho’s abuse being shown. And I do like the idea that they are….slightly capitalizing on the fact they are suppose to have their personality change when in the Metaverse (this is mostly Ren tho), but I saw it with Anne as well. I mean they promised that with the game and I thought they did jack with it. Anyway not sure how much they’ve….continue to capitalized on it but…..at least they tried. Tho I think I prefer the manga the  most in this case, just a bunch of useless, newbie doofuses trying their best but they know they aren’t all that. Instead of being a bunch of useless thieves who think they are all that but really they all suck at being thieves (more of a game problem than the anime but tbh considering how Ren is cocky in the anime I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a shared problem).

#persona 5 problems #p5 problems #anime problems #silly rants #anon #asks #silly asks #silly ask #ask

[koltarmi]

THINGS I NOTICED/LIKED/THOUGHT WHILE I WAS WATCHING ANASTASIA LIVE

Under the cut because it got super long

This doesn’t really count, as part of the show per say but they were selling freaking TIARAS in the theatre for like $40. I was really tempted to buy one and was able to successfully resist the urge to.

I’ve seen tons of photos of the Tsarina’s dress, BUT IT ABSOLUTELY DID NOT PREPARE ME FOR SEEING IT IN REAL LIFE. As Lauren Blackman glides across the stage, the crystals and jewels on the dress shimmer and reflect the stage lights almost to the point that it’s blinding. Even when she is standing still, the amount of crystals is so insane that the dress glitters in the light. #LindaChoWasRobbed

Speaking of Lauren Blackman, her poise, tone, and gracefulness as Tsarina exuded an air of superiority that I could feel from my seat in the mezzanine.

Didn’t realize how much I missed “Dance of the Romanovs” from the cast album until I heard it again, It’s just such a beautiful vocal piece.

When the palace is being attacked, the “windows” on stage left and right have projections of glass shattering as the surroundings are consumed by fire.

For those who complain that Anya isn’t as “strong” compared to the movie version, it’s clear in the musical that Anya suffers from PTSD. She’s sees her home burn around her and runs out of the safety of her parents’ embrace to save a precious gift from her grandmother. When teen Anastasia is shot, the music, projections, and the accompaniment of the bright flash of light as she falls actually brought me to tears.

Thanks to @igotanickel for reminding me that the lights flash red as the Bolsheviks succeed in taking over the palace which also symbolizes the spread of communism at the time

The face Derek Klena makes as Gleb shoos him away from his podium made me laugh.

Vlad’s costume and his makeup make him look super haggard when the audience first sees him. It nicely contrasts his first singing verse in the show as he describes his luxurious life living among the aristocrats.

When the truck backfired, Christy Altomare collapsed to the ground in a protective huddle and you could see her slightly rock back and forth.

After Anya thanks Gleb, he is painfully awkward when he says, “I’m here all week” and I wished it was recorded like that on the album.

When Dimity traded the music box for the beans, they no longer make the exchange by throwing their bartered items at each other. They place the cans and the music box on the podium Gleb is on at the start of the song. Guess they had to do that so they wouldn’t break them.

Seriously why was Rumours Never End not on the soundtrack again???

So it turns out the finger thing Gleb does isn’t just with Anya. It’s actually an intimidation technique that he uses on the girls who report the scam Vlad and Dmitry are running.

Throughout “Learn to Do It” the projections of the windows outside turn from winter into spring by the time the song finishes. I really like this addition because unlike the movie, it isn’t realistic for Anya to have learned everything in a day and the projection change clearly shows that Dmitry and Vlad have been teaching her for months.

When Anya is brought in Gleb is facing away from her when he starts his lecture about being a good citizen. When he finally turns around, he becomes super awkward again.

Ramin Karimloo’s voice in “The Neva Flows” is so powerful and it was so cool to hear it being sung live.

Man, watching Anya beat those guys with a stick was great.

During “Once Upon a December” the “ghosts” are also projected on the walls of the theatre and if you look closely you can see each member of the Romanov family in ghost forms on the wall. Like I kept looking at the stage and the walls because I didn’t want to miss a single moment.

When Dmitry picks up and hugs Anya, Christy Altomare is literally so tiny that she becomes freaking airborne when he swings her around.

“Stay, I Pray You” is absolutely chilling, especially when Anya sings, “I’ll bless my homeland ‘til I die” and you just see the dark silhouettes of the passengers aboard the train contrasted against the brightly-lit train station.

There’s a bit of added dialogue on the train scene. Vlad tells Anya and Dmitry that the police are looking for two men and a young woman illegally trying to escape the country. Dimitry says, “Well, that could be anyone.” And Vlad pulls out a wanted poster with their three faces on it saying, “I don’t think so.”

The stage curtain before Act 2 has Anastasia projected on it.

They also do this weird flappy arm movement dance thing in “Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart) maybe because of the flapper movement. I’m not sure, but it was weird.

There was a slight dialogue pause between Lily and Maria before “Close the Door” begins and someone in the theatre sneezed so loudly and I swear I could see Mary Beth Peil try to hide a slight smile.

In the Dowager Empress’ home she has framed pictures of her family and the set design team used actual pictures of the Romanovs.

Little Anastasia is still creeping in the background in “Close the Door”

Also when Maria sings “Tell them I close the door” for the final time, she places the framed picture of Anastasia face down on the table.

Caorline O’Connor is hilarious as Lily. “Land of Yesterday” has an amazing dance sequence and they way everybody has a faint look of disgust or boredom when they say, “We’re in France instead now.”

“The Countess and the Common Man” is even funnier live. By the end of it, I was laughing so hard that I teared up a bit.

Whoever made the decision to replace Dmitry’s pyjamas with the sleeveless top, bless you.

THE NEARLY KISS TWICE DURING “In a Crowd of Thousands” AND I NEARLY DIED OF A HEART ATTACK?

THE WAY DMITRY STARES AT ANYA WHEN SHE’S IN THE BLUE DRESS™

There are two levels of balconies in the opera house, so Gleb isn’t standing to the side on stage left. In the show, he was seated in the second level above Lily and the Dowager Empress and doesn’t pull out the gun because it wouldn’t be subtle at all if he tried to kill her then.

When Dmitry stepped on the Dowager Empress’ gown, the entire audience gasped. They gasped even louder when he says “God will judge you harshly, old woman.” I heard someone behind me say, “Yo, that was a sick burn.”

Like the Hartford version, you can see the Romanovs being aimed at by the Bolsheviks in the background contrasting against the confrontation between Anya and Gleb. And when he doesn’t shoot her, the Bolsheviks in the background lower their guns and they exit stage left, carrying what looks to be a body with a white cloth covering it.

THE 👏SUIT👏CASE 👏KISS👏. Even with the crown, Christy Altomare just reached Derek Klena’s height by standing on the suitcase.

At the end, Anya and Dimitry stand in the centre as the Romanovs surround them, mirroring the music box as they look towards the setting sun on the Pont Alexandre.

IN CONCLUSION, I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH, THE CAST WAS AMAZING, AND CHRISTY ALTOMARE IS SUPER SMOL™.

#anastasia the musical #anastasia #christy altomare #derek klena #ramin karimloo #mary beth peil #caroline o'connor #John Bolton

[book-o-scams]

What do you think of the Kanker's presence in Jingle Jingle Jangle? How is it different from their other appearances?

OKAY I FINALLY DID IT!  Step right up and see analysis of the Kankers’ parts of Jingle Jingle Jangle!  Only 3 or 4 weeks late!

First of all, in case I never analyze this special in full, I want to call out that this whole way of connecting the Eds’ A Plot to the Kankers’ B Plot is complete nonsense.... randomly discarded and forgotten flashlight + conveniently placed mirror = reflection of light pointed at the sky = Star of Bethlehem that uses Godlight to deliver sexual harassment to the main characters???  It is a purely visual idea, and what’s worse it seemingly has no meaning....  is it punishment for wasting a battery??  Then what was the point of the special’s other Chekhov’s lightbulb!?

Was that just a spiritual redemption, but not an escape from his punishment?  

Is it punishment for breaking his parents’ trust?  

Is it just to say the Kankers’ lives are sadder and this universe’s god prioritizes them above the Eds or anyone else?

Or is the Snow itself an entity, like the Static?  Both are terms to refer to television fuzz….  

Is Evil Tim in control of the holidays, with all the magical Santas and Elves and Monsters that get to appear in these episodes???  

The Snow is even the first thing to appear, in detailed close-up for one time, before the rest of the universe fades into existence, ushering Plank (and Jonny) into the digital era before the Eds OR the Kankers get to appear at all, and scenes where the snow is coming down are markedly more abstract and focused on the characters being quiet and internalizing their emotions.  

Is supernature itself overwhelming the characters at will and leading them to cruel fates!?  

Is the supersnow meant as a warning of the literal and figurative after-effects bound to invade any show switching to digital!?  

SOMEBODY STOP ME!

The snow even just fades out when Eddy’s light starts glowing.

I’m sorry to begin with a whole silly rant. It’s just that Christmas specials are normally the one episode of any show that can be counted on to let the main characters have a win.  The show was set to end with its stagnant nihilistic 4th season, so it was a miracle to get the holiday specials or digital era at all...  So this Kanker ending stung more than usual.

That said, this special has won me over as an adult!  The series’ first foray into digital animation looks really gorgeous and it’s such a visually driven special, you can’t look away.   The animation is unfortunately a little better than the digital era could make consistent, but it’s close enough to feel like the same show as everything that came before and after it.  Definitely some of the most experimental style choices the show ever made. I’m always so glad the backgrounds are still hand-painted throughout Jingle Jingle Jangle.

I’m fascinated by the way this star is clearly a digital effect, but at the same time it avoids being too high quality for EEnE by mostly looking like a dry brush (like when they do those paint-blurs when the characters move fast), and animating the star as white outlines with no color inside when they could easily do a real light effect is an interesting choice.  It captures the eery prettiness the star’s role demands without betraying the show’s sketchiness.

I really like the music direction this whole special, but this opening to the Kankers’ Christmas is one of my favorite parts.  It is about a minute long and starts 2 and a half minutes into the special.

As we start hearing dialogue from Lee, the camera whips down to the trailer park and the Kankers’ theme music drums in.  This is the one time the show really made me aware the Kankers have a theme so now I always keep an ear out for that music cue.  I know it fills most of their appearances in Big Picture Show.

Inside, the Kankers sit and squabble as always, playing with a box of Krazy Krackers.  Apparently Christmas Crackers are a more popular thing in the UK (the show had a lot of UK influence around this time, with Rachel Connor joining as head writer in the next season), but I think it’s been confirmed to be a Canadian thing too now.

Room analysis!   The Kankers seem to have to make do when it comes to decorations… They have lights on the staircase and around the windows, and a cute wreathe with a red light on top of their TV, but their tree is a lone stick that has 7 branches if it’s lucky, it’s plugged into the wall yet the one light on it isn’t working, and most of the ornaments seem to be recyclables, barbed wire, or orbs that have fallen from the tree.  Oven mitts have been hung from the wall in place of stockings and rather than garland, they’ve trimmed their living room with chains, fishing lures and… are those shower curtain lines?

This is probably the most the show really gets across how big of an economic difference there is between the cul-de-sac and the trailer park.  The kids, even Ed and Eddy (unfortunately we see little of Edd’s family’s Christmas traditions), seem to have very gaudy and extravagant decorations, most of them appear to be expecting family or coworker Christmas parties later in the evening.  The Kankers’ trailer is sparse by comparison.

Marie being the least cheery at Christmas is probably the most punk thing about her..

Focusing Kanker scenes on May is pretty typical of this point in the series, but I like how infallibly nice May is in this one.  Marie tries to blow the Christmas cracker up in May’s face, and yet May barely reacts to the threat level here as anything out of the ordinary.  Then again, this scene likely exaggerates how much these things are like firecrackers.

May calls the cracker a dud, so of course Lee razzes her, “just like you, huh, May?”  This moment has a good undertone of Lee trying to readjust Marie’s negativity to more of a light ribbing, to fit the season.

REALLY COOL DIGITAL DRYBRUSH EXPLOSION EFFECTS…

What’s the deal with this eyepatch on Marie though?  Is this just a “under the bangs” teaser gag like the one frame three-eyed Lee in BPS?  The artists don’t try nearly as hard to hide Marie’s full face as they do Lee’s….  Is it just an unexplained one-episode injury like Jimmy’s?  

so glad even the digital X-mas special gets inverted frames, one of the most interesting visual features of the series’ early episodes

Good honest reactions of concern for May from Marie and Lee..

WHAT IS THIS A HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!?

“Look, Lee, May got a makeover~!”

….how desensitized have they become to slapstick!?  Sarah and Jimmy react to a similar gag with Eddy casually decapitating Ed next season with utter horror and confusion!

Apparently the most important thing here is that Marie wasn’t left out of getting a crown.

5 fingers on her right hand for one pose…

Note that the Kankers have replaced their wall unit’s knick knacks with Christmas cards from their invisible friends and family! 

 “Joy”

 “HAVE A XMAS” 

“From Your Father” (please appreciate this rare acknowledgement of the likelihood of a preferred Kanker dad)

“Ho Ho Ho” 

“Happy Kwanza” (also the one acknowledgment of other winter holidays in this Christmas special and I don’t think it’s even spelled correctly… I thought for sure at least JIMMY would celebrate Hanukkah or something…)

“[doodle of a candy cane]”

“DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?” 

one of this special’s many references to classic holiday staples, in this case the song, ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_You_Hear_What_I_Hear%3F

“Something twinkling in the sky!”

This opening scene to their plot starts the Kankers off as unusually innocent and naive, seemingly motivated only by an attraction to light, like moths.  Lee even has to ask “where is it?” to which Marie correctly points out that May already said the star was in the sky.

To be fair, Lee’s hair was blocking her eye, and we finally get to see her eye for the first time since season 1!

I LOVE this little detail of Lee twirling her foot before skipping out of frame.

Marie rises, embarrassed to have been choked and dropped so carelessly.

She tries to save face by telling May to come on.

May’s Christmas cheer will not be defeated!  

She teases Marie by giving Marie the same “come on” command.

Iconic!!  Doesn’t this shot kinda make you think of the night scenes in Disney’s Aladdin?

10 minutes later, we get another minute of Kanker B-plot.  I don’t think any other episode ever gets this close to the super-geometric outline-eradicating Samurai-Jack-esque style Rod Filbrandt uses in concept art for his backgrounds..

Such background porn…  I’m really unsettled by the weird abandoned signs of life this God Light takes the Kankers to…  It’s like a trail of death leading to the Eds’ bad ending and the Kankers are too desensitized to pick up on that.

Lee gives her sisters a quick glance as they approach.

Lee and May unintentionally shut Marie out and she steps around.

Also, I’ll give them points for the “gold, frankincense and myrrh” = “mold, franks and cents, and fur” rhyme gag, but only because I wasn’t aware of that part of the nativity scene until this special aired.  I was 13 when this came out, which means I’d already done like 8 grades of Catholic school, how did they fail to make any impression on me!?   But honestly, that’s a weird punchline to try and use as a button on this bit.  And as much as I love the art in that montage, it seems like it would’ve worked even better as a mood-setting detail if they found each gift separately between each house Eddy visited.

“What the heck is it?“  Pretty sure her mouth colors are mismatched.

“It’s a sign, stupid.“   Touching.

I love when they all look up in unison.

They look more confused as they walk away.

I’m really interested in how extra moody Marie seems in this montage.  I also noticed that their frostbitten walk through the snow seems to be slightly foreshadowing of the walk Eddy goes on in the climax.  

This is a really iconic shot and camera direction for me too, and it’s the one appearance of the junkyard at night in the whole show (as a setting, there’s at least one episode that shows it from overhead at night).  It’s also one of like 3 uses of the junkyard as a setting in the digital era.  And here you can barely even recognize it under the snow.  Still looks great, though!

They are SO introspective over this star… what are they contemplating?  Should we retroactively assume they’re regretting their situations with the Eds post-Fistful, or accept that this special wasn’t made in chronological order and think of something less specific, like family troubles or… just not thinking anything particular at all???  

Lee and May stare dumbfounded at their lost-in-thought sister.

Very cute Maries.

Love that unoutlined background pipe.

This glow effect seems.. broken.

“weiners and pennies!?“

Wait…  …Are you kidding me?  I just noticed that May and Marie are each wearing one half of the same pair of gloves and the same pair of mittens….

Oooh look at this goregous postcard-ready background of the construction site!  The construction site only has one other night scene I can think of that isn’t just an overhead shot, and it’s only one shot of Ed running there to grab a cement mixer during his fight with Nazz in Boo Haw Haw.

I really love how these gradient-silhouettes with blobby purple outlines look.  Their progression through the show’s locations reminds me of the EEnE video games (mainly Jawbreakers! for the GBA because that was the only game they had at this time)…  I think they also used this silhouette style for the kids on the Scam of the Century DS game cover.

i love EEnE vehiclessssss

I love wondering whose coat this is and why it’s been left here…  Also, do the rust and torn seat imply this construction site is officially abandoned? Or is this one of only a few vehicles that got left behind right before Christmas break and is now being ravaged by the elements?

This frame always makes me yearn for a future where Lee is a construction worker. Or demolition!!!

“It’s a coat.  Come on, we’re getting close.“  Oh sure fine, makes sense to me.

We then cut one street over to Eddy in Plot A, where it isn’t snowing, reinforcing the idea that the Kanker’s story is not chronologically synced up to Eddy’s story.

Anyway, another 10 minutes later, we get a final Kanker scene!

The Snow is strong enough to smack Eddy with a door (UNINTENTIONAL BRO FORESHADOWING?).  Eddy is also not very good at boarding a door, apparently.

On a scale of 1-10, how blasphemous is this shot?

The Snow encroaches upon the Eds

“Could it be!?  Three kings who have traveled afar!?“

How serious is that question, Edd.... why would there be three real-ass monarchs in Rolf’s shed in the middle of an American blizzard???

I feel real weird about Edd being so religious in this episode, it’s too soon after season 4 made such a point of Edd not believing in things that cannot be proven…  

I like that the special is religious.  As agnostic as Catholic school made me, Christmas specials that get sentimental about the Christian traditions get the most nostalgia out of me.  But this special and series clearly revels in sin and hopelessness, so I found it kind of jarring how much of this special lets the Bible references be played straight.  Making Edd super religious just so he can continue to be fanserviced as an angel felt a little cheap, and I feel like it creates an undertone that Eddy is being punished for not being as religious as the others around him.

But take my complaints there with a grain of salt, it’s impossible to understand X-mas Special Logic, where it’s not quite Christianity, just some sort of TV-safe offshoot with elves and magic and a generally more fantastical mythology.

Hey the silhouettes are back!

I already spoiled this joke...

I do really like this shot…  Nice to see Rolf’s animals get a Christmas cameo.

I do entertain the idea that the Kankers really think these gifts will warm the Eds’ hearts and earn their admiration.  But we all know this will be a short lived moment.

“This image certainly has the Christmas spirit…“

And now that there’s been a beat of peace, the Kankers reveal their true intention of pressuring the Eds into gifting them some kisses.  The way they trap them in the shed and suggest it’ll last a whole year is really one of the creepiest approaches to a Kanker ending in the whole show.  Obviously it’s not likely it would really last that long, and imo if it’s just kisses it’s not really new or surprising... but it’s still a pretty damn meanspirited ending for a beautifully-crafted holiday special that very easily could have been scrapped by the show’s season 4 cancellation. 

I do love the fur coat being draped over the cow’s face, though.

And it is honestly important to know the Eds can still do well drawn group scream takes in digital.

May and Ed scaring the animals is a nice touch, but I hate how we hear May going “oink” during this walla.

“WAIT”

“I’M AN ANGEL”

“STOP!!!!”

kiiiinda scary

I hate Eddy almost getting away but kinda love this rare separation of his eyes.

At this point my brain dies and I just go “aw the kids are so cute this is the only thing going on look how cute jonny is and kevin is being so nice and rolf is such a killyjoy i love this i love their group what a great xmas special nothing went wrong everyone is singing”

hope you had a good Kanker appreciation month!

*cries*

#not to seem mean though i'm gonna miss these! #ed edd n eddy #kanker sisters #kanker sisters appreciation month #kankers #Jingle Jingle Jangle #special #christmas special #scene analysis

[graftonway]

we shall fight

It’s been hours since the movie ended and I’ve taken the train home and listened to music and washed up and eaten grapes and scrolled through tumblr and still all I hear is this:

tickticktickticktickticktickticktick

You hear it throughout the film. It stays with you, seeping into your brain until you’re conditioned to it, until everything ticks and continues to, until you’re hyper-aware of rhythm and even phone notifications blinking, your typing, remind you of it. A friend described it perfectly as taking a long breath and not being able to breathe while holding it. The feeling that’s dropped to the bottom of my stomach hasn’t left yet; I’m still waiting for something to happen. I don’t even know what, but it’s stifling, tense, overwhelming. And that is all of Dunkirk in a nutshell.

This isn’t, strictly speaking, a war movie. Frankly I’m not even sure it’s a movie. It seems to be - or at least pretend towards being - everything: horror, thriller, documentary, symphony, cinematography, emotion, art. Much like the way it spans all three branches of the armed forces (land, sea, air), it tries to be everything at once. Perhaps in the hands of a lesser director this would have ended a disaster, but - and forgive me if I’m being crass with this comparison - Nolan, like Dynamo, plucks salvation from what could have been absolute catastrophe.

The first thing that you take away from Dunkirk is the sheer scale. Of course, as a history student, I’ve seen the photos of the beaches before, long unyielding lines that stretch as far as there is beach. Nolan does it slightly differently. Instead of one snaking, scattered queue there are multiple short ones, cinematic as anything and yet still overwhelming in number. It makes for a great introduction to the film, sets the stage for what’s to come. The aesthetic beauty that war sometimes begets versus the horrific reality it encompasses. The constant push and pull between the patience of the body of waiting men, never heard once to complain, and lack of time that’s played out again and again. Tiny, moving human parts and the weight of the unmentioned German war machine.

Nolan’s movies are always clever, though here the cleverness isn’t as immediately obvious as something like Inception. It’s a layer that you peel back and revel in as you watch. It’s something that builds up, in all its scattered parts and broken pieces, pieces that you collect and store until they come together and make sense. Take the premise of time here, for instance. Words on screen that are always meant to provide context do the opposite here: ‘the mole / one week’, ‘the sea / one day’, ‘the air / one hour’ make no sense to the viewer as they settle in. But all it takes is for one shot - Cillian Murphy’s face in the dark on a boat, straight after his appearance in the bright sunshine on a different vessel - to realise what it means: the action is all taking place in a different time scale. And that moment hits you like a punch in the gut, even though it’s the most simple of revelations. A perfectly positioned callback. Without even knowing why you begin to watch the film differently, all because of the buildup that explodes with one miniscule yet incredibly powerful detail.

It’s this same kind of buildup that squeezes itself into the music. The movie lurches between sound from the get go - the quiet of walking down the street to the startling pops of gunfire, the brief moment before the torpedo hits to the jarring explosion. War sets in here without a single line of expository dialogue, the way it can weigh down other films (the “war is hell, boys” trope that even Hacksaw Ridge was guilty of). Instead all we get is the constant, jarring soundtrack, so loud and in your face that you are drawn into all of the violence and spectacular chaos (something that the multiple timelines also lend themselves to). This builds and builds until it ends, abruptly, twice: firstly, when the Little Ships come into view, and secondly, on the train that Tommy and Alex crumple into. The suddenness of the way it ends is as jarring as any explosion or loud dramatic orchestral note, all the more sharp for its absence. We get sweeping, nostalgic strings over the view of the flotilla, and pure silence (combined with the same sweeping music later) when Tommy falls into the seat.

Which is why so much weight comes to rest upon just these two scenes - the ships and the ending - and why I want to talk about those in particular. It will come as no surprise that they’re the two I cried at; as a kid I read about the Dunkirk spirit and the Churchill speech, and they both have special meaning for me. Add to that me just being a complete and utter sap for nostalgia, sentiment, painfully obvious emotional manipulation.

There’s enough emotional impact in the story of the Little Ships themselves that any film could pull it off with suitable heroic payoff, but it’s just done so very well here. The ticking of the pressure cooker and the fear of death instantly vanishes, replaced by the heartwarming, exceedingly British orchestra. For there is some measure of nationalism (I hesitate to say propaganda, but) with this, as with all war movies; it’s an unavoidable trope, yet one handled so well here. It’s muted - the only flag is the one in the small corner of a larger blue flag, blurred in the background of Mr. Dawson’s boat. Bolton (a place name in and of itself) calls out to some of them, asking where they’re from. And in the end the boats go by an approximation of Dover. But the real focus is on the humanity of the people who came to save the troops. No dialogues or stars in these scenes: just civilians, just ‘home’. Some reviews were critical about the lack of character names and the like, but I think that was done intentionally for this reason, to demonstrate how humanity is about being and not knowing. With the lack of the tickticktick in the background Dunkirk’s first message is, ironically, hammered through: in a movie so packed with tension, it isn’t actually the tension that’s important, but how we escape it. Only later do you get introduced to some of the characters’ personal lives - Dawson is so determined because his son died - but that doesn’t matter, because the heroism is already there. If the movie is a breath you’ve been holding then the Little Ships are the moment you breathe out.

Character development is hardly present in the movie, which makes it all the more impressive that we still manage to feel for and care for every single one of them; I think this is one of the greatest achievements of the film, in that Nolan somehow gets to the heart of war and the rawest of our emotions. Too many war movies get bogged down in character development, the false belief that you need to know the character in order to feel for them shifting the focus away from showing actual war itself. But Nolan understands this, and makes the choice not to identify his characters. The three Mole soldiers look the same; the French soldier’s real name is never given; and Tommy’s name is a generic epithet for all British soldiers. They have no personal characteristics at all. And yet, when Gibson is drowning inside the boat, your heart seizes; you want him, desperately, to get out. Here Dunkirk takes on the shape of the great war novels, like the nameless French soldier in All Quiet On The Western Front. This is the horror of war - that everyone dies - and the real way to experience it is being frightened of death itself, not just fleshed-out characters you have come to feel for dying.

In fact there’s barely any dialogue in the movie, either, except for necessary communication; Bolton is the most heavy-handed in exposition, but otherwise words are limited to observations about the tide, speculation on target practice, explanation for locking the door. Which is why everything that isn’t technical carries so much weight. Collins’s breezy ‘afternoon’ regardless of his near-death experience might be played for laughs but it’s also a conscious remarking on the stereotypical British spirit. One that struck me deeply is Peter’s ‘he’s fine’ to the Shivering Soldier (or something to that effect) - in just one phrase the dilemma of shell shock, the question of blame, and the soldier’s innocence are perfectly captured. But my favourite, of course, as someone weaned on Churchill, is the speech.

As a twelve, thirteen year old I memorised that speech, word for word, all the way till the end. I’ve listened to it many times. And I can’t even begin to explain how emotional I got when Tommy began to read it out and all the cuts from each time period began to intersect with each other. If ever the movie was disparate (and I don’t think it was, and I don’t agree with people who did) it came together at the end, each thread drawn together by possibly the most iconic, recognisable historical device. The sense of unity, of destiny, of a swelling, growing belief in the job left. The two last images of the film - the burning spitfire and Tommy’s face - cleave so perfectly into each other; I don’t think I’ve felt that kind of breathtaking momentousness from an ending for a very, very long time. Farrier gets captured but he’s also arguably the biggest hero of the film, saving countless numbers of people on the beach that hour. He ends up captured and his plane ends up burning, but the Germans didn’t burn it - he did, and in doing so it becomes a symbol of defiance in the face of defeat. We are always reminded that this is a defeat. But that doesn’t signal futility and devastation.

One of the reasons I say that this isn’t a war movie is because the enemy is never really there. Besides the last scene, where Farrier is captured, you don’t see any German soldiers (and even those are blurred out). That gives you the impression that this isn’t about triumph, in any way, but about survival, as the old man in the end so neatly put it. All we did was survive. That’s enough. Many horrors of war are depicted here. Drowning in the locked hull of a torpedoed ship, waiting patiently on a packed bridge for Messerschmits to strafe you. Violence, while not graphic, is never shied away from. Tension and impending doom is built masterfully, whether through Collins’ helplessness watching Farrier or Bolton closing his eyes to wait for death. But while you get the feeling that it is inescapable, you never get the feeling that it is insurmountable, and that is what Dunkirk is about, really. My major qualm with the movie before I watched it was how they were going to turn it into a triumphant, gun-waving kind of thing when it was a defeat. But it’s not about defeating the Germans, because as Churchill said wars are not won by evacuation. Not even about the end of a battle given the continuous references to what is yet to come. It’s about what matters most to us, what the ‘Dunkirk’ used in modern British parlance now refers to: human spirit and endeavor. Battling on.

Dunkirk is probably not the greatest war movie I’ve ever watched (although that is a topic for another time). It has, of course, its problems. I’m not sure how much credence the lack of poc claim has as I haven’t had the time to go look it up yet, but other tiny things niggle here and there. Yet one of the major criticisms I’ve heard about this movie is that it’s too intense and action focused and, of all things, I think that that’s the least concerned anyone should be about it. You can’t capture all of war in a single movie. You can barely capture certain experiences. If other movies are allowed to develop other aspects, like character and the mundanity of war, why shouldn’t Dunkirk be allowed to dig deep into the terrifying tension and uncertainty that is so fundamentally a part of it (being shelled while in foxholes is another example that comes to mind)? There is emotion in intensity, and humanity is found everywhere. Even in the most painful, most terrible of times. 

There’s a trope in Waiting For Godot about the weary, fallible hero, the human struggling to create meaning and stay alive in the most downtrodden noble sense. It’s a trope I’ve always thought applies to the way the British view themselves and certainly something that applies here, weary soldiers and civilians alike picking themselves up with the haunted promise in Tommy’s face. Youthful and yet tattered, dark and hollow yet with a measure of steel that lends backbone to that famous line: we shall go on to the end.

#dunkirk #dunkirk movie #christopher nolan #film analysis #i could go on about the cinematography more probably i need to watch it again #god the sound #cinematografix

[shippersark]

Super Deluxe Review : In an Ensemble of Quirky Characters Vijay Sethupathi Reigns Supreme

The film can be seen as a spiritual successor to 'Aaranya Kaandam'.

The opening credits of Super Deluxe are reminiscent of Kumararaja’s earlier work Aaranya Kaandam, and are played over Senthamizh Paadum from Vaira Nenjam, if I remember correctly. The opening scene, too, reminds one of how Subbu was introduced in Aaranya Kaandam. There, the woman was treated like a piece of meat. Here, the woman feels pleasure. You hear the squeaky sounds of the bed. The camera slowly pans to establish every minute details of the room. All this happens over ‘I’m A Disco Dancer’ song, and the title card appears in a Kumararaja-esque style. Cast: Samantha Akkineni, Fahadh Faasil, Vijay Sethupathi, Ramya Krishnan, Mysskin and Gayathrie Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja Storyline: Six actors. Four writers. Two cinematographers. One unusual film. In more than one way, Super Deluxe can be seen as a spiritual successor to Aaranya Kaandam. If the latter was about male impotency, Super Deluxe embraces the idea of sexual fantasies; Kumararaja delves deeper into the darker side of human mind, without being least judgemental about his characters. If Aaranya Kaandam tried answering what dharma is, Kumararaja takes it a notch higher in Super Deluxe and questions the concept of morality, and how humans derive their own boundaries, in a more exploitative way. It makes a comment about chaos theory and how meaningless life is. The film, in many ways, is the result of a confluence of four different world views (written by Kumararaja, Mysskin, Nalan Kumarasamy and Neelan K Sekar). And it’s amusing how Kumararaja connects interrelated themes and subjects within the confines of his milieu. He seems to rejoice the genre-hopping; the film begins as a black comedy and ends like a dramedy on life, sex and spirituality. And that's the least spoiler-free review one could write about a film that is overly layered. At its heart, Super Deluxe is about four stories that are interwoven together, making it hard to guess who wrote what. Mugil (Fahadh Faasil) and Vaembu (Samantha Akkineni in a remarkable performance) are in a marriage of convenience. Something terrible yet insanely-funny incident happens to them and that triggers a series of unwarranted events. Their conflicting-yet-affectionate nature makes you wonder as to what would have happened to Chappai and Subbu (from Aaranya Kaandam) had they lived together. Elsewhere, a motley group of sex-deprived teenagers visit a CD shop to satisfy their quest for bittu padam. For some strange reasons, I kept thinking about Chittu and his gang from Aaranya Kaandam, and what if it was their coming-of-age story, before they discovered the art of seducing older women? Kumararaja never really explored the warring relationship between Kodukapuli and Kalaiyan, and brushed it off with a powerful “avaru en appa”. But he does in Super Deluxe, which comes in the form of Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi) and Rasukutty. Shilpa is the most honest portrayal of a transgender in a long time. She’s humanised; we see why she’s rejected by society. We empathise with her when she says this about sexuality: Serupa maathi podra mathiri. We sense her helplessness when she’s assaulted at a police station. It helps that Vijay Sethupathi was chosen to play this complicated, dark character. He brings a certain vulnerability, especially when Shilpa meets Arputham (Mysskin). Which brings us to the shockingly-delightful story about Arputham and Leela (Ramya Krishnan in her boldest role yet). Super Deluxe draws humour from the most unlikeliest places. When Shilpa demonstrates how eunuchs earn money with a sharp clap, Rasukutty says, “Ae...super pa nee.” The film, in fact, makes a self-reverential joke about Aaranya Kaandam, when a gangster prods an important question: kadaisiya enna padam paatha? Remember the Kamal-Rajini banter? A deeply religious person turns blind eye to an important piece of information. His whole life has been a lie. And when he breaks open the sacred sculpture, he finds diamonds in it. It's a brilliant touch. Another filmmaker would have explained the why. Kumararaja doesn't. Watch Super Deluxe Video Reviews Here No other filmmaker has probably romanticised the Tamil cinema universe with pop culture references as much as Kumararaja. Consider the scene where a character croons Vanithamani from Vikram before watching porn, or the one where a character drapes saree over the Maasi maasam song (It isn’t a coincidence that a doctor is named after MS Viswanathan). If Subbu went through a Baasha-like transformation in Aaranya Kaandam, a character here (ironically named Manickam) undergoes a similar transformation. There are inside jokes too. Arputham invents his own bible called Anjathey Nambu. Rings a bell? And these bits aren't added just to make them look cool. In one of the earliest stretch, a character says, “Dai rascal! Enna maranthutiya?” For a moment, it felt as though Kumararaja was asking this question to us: it’s been eight years since he made a film. If Super Deluxe is what you get from a filmmaker who was in exile, then you don't mind waiting a few years from now till he comes up with his next eccentric film. Credits: The Hindu

Super Deluxe Movie Review: Thiagarajan Kumararaja crafts a path-breaking film that deserves more than one watch to understand the depth in each characterisations, says our review.

Movie Name:Super Deluxe Director:Thiagarajan Kumararaja To appreciate or rave about Thiagarajan Kumararaja has become a cliche, but Super Deluxe gives you no other option. It is just the second film for the director but a giant leap for Tamil cinema - in terms of storytelling, editing, and more importantly, ideas. While sharing his initial reaction to the story of Super Deluxe, Nalan Kumarasamy, one of the writers of the film, said, "We feel that we are all playing the same game but when I heard the narration, I realised he is playing a different game altogether." Super Deluxe is a different game indeed. The film is like an alien in Tamil cinema, but, ironically, it is the closest depiction of Tamil society we have seen. Kumararaja has himself said that it is hard to pin Super Deluxe down under one genre. It is easy to call it a black comedy, but there are a lot of things at play here. Without a doubt, the film is dark. It looks at perversion, sex, cuckolding, porn, sexuality, and god with a big lens, unlike any other Tamil film has done before. But even in a film about gloomy things about life, there is a heart in Super Deluxe, a big one. The tone the film takes in dealing with the subjects is refreshing and unprecedented. Take this scene for example: As Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi) comes out of the room after being sexually assaulted, her little son asks her "Adichaangala (Did they beat you)? Shilpa, wiping her tears, says, "Yes". He then asks, "What did you do in response?" Shilpa subtly puts, "Kadichaen (I bit)." Given the situation, the audience is left wondering how to react to such a joke. The film is eccentricity at its best. The story of Super Deluxe has many stories running parallelly. Each has some sort of connection to another. Shilpa, a transperson, goes back to her wife and son after seven years. Vembu (Samantha) and Mugil (Fahadh Faasil) are trying to get rid of a body. Three teens are in pursuit of a 48-inch TV, which has to be replaced before the parents of one of the guys return home. Their journeys make up for one psychedelic trip called Super Deluxe. The most surprising aspect of the film is Thiagarajan Kumararaja's social commentary. It is omnipresent in the film. Every street and gully has a poster of a B-Grade film or the other. Every scene has some noise that runs in the background. It could be a song from television or a recorded advertisement of a street vendor or a melodramatic dialogue from a movie playing on TV, the world of Super Deluxe is a symphony of noises just like ours. And the kids in the film! When Tamil cinema uses children only as instruments of love and melodrama, a boy in Super Deluxe keeps shouting 'f**k' a million times. Kids are just a reflection of adults in Super Deluxe. Their halos are mercilessly taken away. The aesthetics of Super Deluxe make all the difference to the film. The locations the director has chosen to even stage a mundane scene is so unique. Also, unlike the director's first film Aaranya Kaandam, Super Deluxe is more colourful. Each frame keeps reminding you that the film is quirky. At times even an unremarkable gully looks like something peculiar through PS Vinod and Nirav Shah's camera. Music or noise is omnipresent in Super Deluxe, and without Yuvan's BGM, a scene like Shilpa's meeting with Arputham (Mysskin) wouldn't have worked at all. More than the performance of Vijay Sethupathi, Ramya Krishnan, Mysskin, Samantha and Fahadh Faasil (who are incredible), the teary face of Gayathrie and the bulging eyes of Bucks with all his perversions and the super intelligent Ashwanth Ashokkumar make Super Deluxe a league apart. Super Deluxe is a leap, a giant one. Thiagarajan Kumararaja crafts a path-breaking film that deserves more than one watch to understand the depth in each characterisations, says our review. 4.5 stars out of 5 for Super Deluxe. Credits: India Today

Language: Tamil Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha, Fahadh Faasil, Ramya Krishnan, Mysskin Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja How does one talk about Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s second film, Super Deluxe? A logical place to begin is perhaps the director’s first film, Aaranya Kaandam. Super Deluxe is certainly something of a companion piece. The monologue-y trailers are similar, as are the multiple storylines revolving around ensemble casts and bound by an overarching philosophy. (Remember “Edhu thevaiyo adhu dharmam” from Aaranya Kaandam?) There’s even the sense of a cinematic universe being created, one that contains both films (and maybe future films from this director). The women in these films have similar-sounding (and male-sounding) names: Vaembu/Subbu. From a poster on a wall, we sense that Jackie Shroff’s character from Aaranya Kaandam appears to have existed a little before this film’s timeline. I could even imagine the father-fixated little boy (a superb Ashwanth Ashokkumar) in Super Deluxe growing up to be the Guru Somasundaram character’s son in Aaranya Kaandam. And remember the little plane that the Ravi Krishna character “swallowed” as part of a magic trick? We get big planes here, and they perform their own bits of magic. And yet, the films are different. Aaranya Kaandam was filled with adrenalin-pumping pleasures: the pulse quickened at the pulp rhythms, the slo-mo stretches. And the film was emotionally direct: you felt for the Guru Somasundaram character and his son, and you laughed at the story about the gangsters named Gajendran and Gajapathy. Super Deluxe is far more ambitious, and moment for moment, far less instantly gratifying. It’s a long, slow fuse that keeps you on edge about when it will explode, and when it does, it’s a big bang. Or, perhaps, the Big Bang. WTF, right? More on that, later. For now, I’ll just say I’ve never seen anything like this in Tamil cinema, with its mix of the sacred and the profane, the epic and the intimate, the earthly and the otherworldly, the pop-cultural and the philosophical. It’s a film you want to view as much with a microscope (zooming in on the details) as a telescope (zooming out to the bigger picture). The characters, then, are as much microbes as stars in the cosmic scheme of things – as puny as the ants and centipedes we see in frames, and as vast as… Well, let’s discuss that after you watch the movie, shall we? But here’s a partial list of the people you’ll meet. There’s Vaembu (Samantha Akkineni), who’s married to Mugil (Fahadh Faasil). Another story involves Jothi (a very affecting Gayathrie), whose husband is now a transwoman named Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi). A third story is about a bunch of hormonal boys, and the parents of one of them: Leela (Ramya Krishnan) and Arputham (Mysskin). Leela is a former porn actress, and Arputham has turned into a religious nut. He’s formed his own cult after a near-death experience at sea, which explains the marine-blue walls in his “place of worship”. Themes and motifs keep sneaking in and out of the various story threads. So the blue on Arputham’s walls bleeds into the shirt that Mugil wears and onto the sari on Shilpa, just like the mole on Leela’s back finds a twin in the one above Shilpa’s lip. If you like getting off on details like these, Super Deluxe is like Penthouse and Playboy rolled into one. All of this would be little more than postmodern pranks if not for the film’s magnificent design. This is not the first film to tell the story of three couples, but where earlier directors treated these stories like intimate domestic drama, Super Deluxe makes them something almost infinite, spanning the breadth of human (and other) existence I’m sure alert readers will chip with more of these “patterns”, but here’s a sampling. A corrupt cop (Bagavathi Perumal) is compared to a public toilet – and a public toilet is where Shilpa gets into trouble. The tears in Vaembu’s eyes CUT TO a teenager’s tears in another story. Two of the episodes feature an absent father. A man (Mugil) is humiliated by his wife’s doing, just like a woman (Jothi) is humiliated by her husband’s. The exquisite line that Shilpa uses to explain herself (“just like we sometimes slide the wrong foot into the wrong slipper, I was put into the wrong body”) is echoed in a sound thrashing delivered by a gangster. His “weapon”? A pair of slippers. A television programme about aliens is linked, later, to posters of Aliens on a dirty wall. And on the same wall, we see the poster of a film whose subject is life and its mysteries. The same could be said about Super Deluxe. This is a lip-smacking combination of “high” and “low” art. You could write essays about how this director’s vision is deliberate (perhaps even dictatorial, even though the co-writers include Nalan Kumarasamy, Neelan K Sekar and Mysskin). Note the careful use of deeply saturated colour by cinematographers PS Vinod and Nirav Shah. And note the very specific props, like the kuthuvilakku that acknowledges Arputham’s former self, from when he was a Hindu. And yet, at the same time, you could write essays about this film’s use of “matter songs”, whether ‘Vanithamani’ from Vikram or ‘Paal Vannam’, the wedding-night number from Paasam. A moment where Shilpa disrobes is set against ‘Maasi maasam aalana ponnu’, and the semi-clad images (what we see on screen, and what we recall from that older song) are such contrasts that it’s like listening to a bhajan at a disco. Also, recall that this song is from Dharma Durai, which is also the title of a… Vijay Sethupathi movie. All of this would be little more than postmodern pranks if not for the film’s magnificent design. This is not the first film to tell the story of three couples, but where earlier directors treated these stories like intimate domestic drama, Super Deluxe makes them something almost infinite, spanning the breadth of human (and other) existence. (Those ants! That centipede!) Thiagarajan Kumararaja has said he was sparked by the looping story-structure of Jafar Panahi’s The Circle, but I was equally reminded of something like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, which gave the epic treatment to a series of mundane incidents that do not usually get the epic treatment on screen. (There’s also an equivalent, here, of Magnolia’s “rain of frogs” moment; I almost fell out of my seat.) But the Magnolia moment was Biblical. Super Deluxe, on the other hand, is casually dismissive of a judgemental being sitting up there in the sky. Everything’s just… chaos, as “random” as the design that created life on our planet. Which is why the film’s working title, Aneedhi Kadhaigal, would have been just as good a fit. Super Deluxe suggests something plush and expansive, like the priciest room in the kitschiest hotel. And yes, there will be those who say that there’s perhaps a little too much room in this narrative, which clocks in at nearly three hours. Perhaps you couldtake away the track revolving around Arputham — Leela would have still driven that story and brought it to its glorious conclusion. But without Arputham, we wouldn’t have had that connect to the oceans, which is, after all, where life apparently began. And we wouldn’t have had the connect between Arputham and Shilpa, through a line about forgiveness. Which is why you feel nothing could have been left out, everything has its place in this design. This sprawl, this “messiness” is part of this movie’s DNA. But Aneedhi Kadhaigal, which translates to “amoral tales”, would have pointed to one of the most rewarding aspects of Super Deluxe. The wife who cheats on her husband, the porn actress who’s unapologetic about her work (and how cheeky to see this character played by an actress known for her “Amman” roles), the man who did ghastly things to children, the teenagers who cheat and steal — they all come close to being punished, but they all get away with happy endings. This is Thiagarajan Kumararaja basically saying “fuck you” to conventional Tamil-cinema morality, where “loose women” and “evil men” end up suffering for their sins. Leela’s spectacular retort to Arputham, near the end, questioning his “God”, is one of the most thrillingly nihilistic lines uttered in our cinema. It’s not a message. It’s not a moral. And yet, it strikes at the very core of one’s belief systems. There’s a lot of everything in Super Deluxe. There’s a lot of entertainment. There’s a ton of black humour. (The name of a man who needs money? Wait for it… Dhanasekar.) There are elements from sci-fi. There are elements from noir. (Think of the dubious statue in The Maltese Falcon). There’s a farting corpse that functions as some sort of marriage counsellor. There are also gorgeous grace notes, like the child who does not discriminate, yet is very clear about what he wants. In other words, there’s a lot to take in during a first viewing. While watching Super Deluxe, I felt what Pauline Kael described in her review of The Godfather: Part II: “the exploding effects keep accumulating. About midway, I began to feel that the film was expanding in my head like a soft bullet.” If you recall, The Godfather: Part II is more leisurely paced than Part I, less immediately affecting, but by the end, far more profound. That’s how I’d describe the relationship between Aaranya Kaandam and Super Deluxe. Part of the emotional aloofness we feel comes from the slightly disorienting way the narrative plays around with timelines, and the shot-taking that follows this grammar. We aren’t “eased” into scenes. There are very few establishing shots, and we are thrust into interiors from which we view the action. (A lot of scenes, therefore, end up being framed by doorways, or else cramped in the alleys between tightly grouped buildings.) We get the sense of being trapped with these characters, and only when they inch towards liberation do we feel their freedom. The visuals, too, open up. The set pieces are not flashy (like in Aaranya Kaandam), but slow-burn beauties, like the sensational stretch of chaos (Sathyaraj Natarajan is the editor) that ensues when a boy sets out to kill his mother. Both in the writing and the making, the director is leagues ahead of the form he displayed in Aaranya Kaandam. The more logical (as opposed to the experiential) part of the brain keeps raising questions. Is the best way to wreck a car to park it across railway tracks and pray that a speeding train isn’t too far away? Would a man who evidently cares about his wife and son just take off like that, and not even send the odd “don’t worry about me” message? What functions do Mugil’s anti-Establishment rants serve – are they confined to his personality, or are they, too, part of the Big Design? (Fahadh Faasil seethes marvellously.) But piece by mysterious piece, everything comes together, and the smallest details pay off in the most delightful ways – like how Mugil’s acting classes allow him to “perform” (though off stage, and with no audience). Super Deluxe is produced by the director himself, and it’s interesting to note what his company is called: Tyler Durden and Kino Fist. The former is the id character from Fight Club, the ugly-secret part that few of us expose in public. The latter is what Sergei Eisenstein called his technique of intellectual montage, using editing not just to let the story “flow” but to manufacture meaning through violent juxtaposition of images. I’m not saying all of this actually happens all through Super Deluxe — these are, after all, philosophies. But there is the sense of a filmmaker who has unleashed his id, and is refusing to play by the rules (of Tamil society, and of Tamil cinema). There is the sense (though much gentler and subtler than with Eisenstein) of provoking reactions not just through the telling of a story but by slapping its components together and making us live spectators to whatever is taking shape. This is an utterly unique film, a brave film. We see this bravery in the songlessness, in how Yuvan Shankar Raja calls attention to a situation about infidelity by reusing his father’s classic song about infidelity (Ennadi Meenatchi). A less-secure composer might have fought harder to impose himself on the score, which is marvellously minimalistic. We see this bravery in Samantha, who does some of her best acting in the scene set in a warehouse. She unleashes her own Tyler Durden, doing an up-yours to conventional wisdom about what heroines (especially married ones) should and shouldn’t do. And we see this bravery in the spectacular Vijay Sethupathi, who makes Shilpa come alive through the tiniest, most offhand gestures – say, the way he gracefully adjusts his sari pallu. I thought that, for a Tamil-film leading man, the transwoman aspect of this character was itself an indication of ballsiness. But there’s more. That scene in the police station, with that corrupt cop? Wow. Most of our stars simply want to play-act as heroes, with punch dialogues and “mass” moments. Here’s one who emerges heroic even with his “masculinity” completely erased. Credits: Film Companion Super Deluxe Story: A couple try to dispose a dead body; a little boy gets a surprise when he meets his estranged father; a son discovers his mother’s other side; a religious man starts having doubts over his God… What connects these four stories? Super Deluxe Review: Super Deluxe gives us four stories and the protagonists in each of these stories are tested in their beliefs in the strangest ways. For the married couple Vembu (Samantha) and Mukil (Fahadh Faasil), the situation in which they get into is a test of their marital relationship. It is a test of her love for her son for Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi), a transgender who has come back to her family. For Arputham (Mysskin), who has survived the tsunami and found a new God, and Leela (Ramya Krishnan), a former porn star who is desperately trying to save her injured son, Soori, it is a test of their belief in God and humanity respectively. And there are also three lads who face a literal test of bravery. Giving out anything more about the plot of Super Deluxe will ruin the fun and joy of experiencing something singularly unique. There is a heartless and horny cop, a quirky don, a publicity crazy politician, a greedy doctor, unwanted neighbours, a loyal Man Friday, and more in this crazy world that Thiagarajan Kumararaja has come up with. The performances are first-rate all around. Vijay Sethupathi’s Shilpa is a new high for the actor, while Fahadh and Samantha are instantly likeable. Mysskin and Ramya Krishnan are solid while the gang of boys are great finds. Then, there is Ashwath, who wins our hearts, and a cast-against-type Bhagavathi Perumal, who makes us want to murder him. There is black comedy, double entendres, swear words, WTF moments, political and social commentary, romance, sentiment and even a musing on what it means to be life on Earth. There is ambition, genius, and also a beating heart. Credits: TOI

“Got porn, Madam?” That’s what the high school boy known variously as Milk Carton and Egg Muffin asks a DVD store clerk after some stammering feints in the Tamil movie “Super Deluxe.” And, yes, Madam has porn. But, surprise: When Egg Muffin and his pals start to watch it, one of them becomes enraged. That’s his mother onscreen. This sets off a chain of mostly comic events that are, by turns, ominous, bloody and cosmic. And that’s just one plot strand. In another, a married woman’s ex-boyfriend dies in her bed, setting off a chain of comic, ominous events. In a third, a little boy pines for his father to return, and the father does — but now transformed into a woman. (Another chain ensues.) The director Thiagarajan Kumararaja, who also had a hand in the script, takes his time setting all these shaggy, laconic story lines in motion. Part of the movie’s pleasure in its early going is figuring out whether and how they will all merge. Another pleasure is visual. Colors pop off Kumararaja’s palette (the cinematographers are P.S. Vinod and Nirav Shah), and there’s always something to look at in his Chennai. This isn’t gleaming, ascendant India; it’s the lived in one, crumbling around the edges, a little romanticized but recognizable in its narrow alleys and concrete stairwells and power outages. “Super Deluxe,” Kumararaja’s second feature, has been a while in coming after “Aaranya Kaandam” (2010), which was a critic’s darling. No wonder — Kumararaja’s work is stylish and wry, with an indie-cinephile sensibility. (It’s no accident that “Kill Bill” and “Gangs of Wasseypur” posters hang on the DVD store’s wall.) Part of that sensibility is a frankness about sex that’s still unusual in Indian movies, especially commercial ones. Though nothing explicit is shown, all the story lines in “Super Deluxe” have a little sexual motor, and there’s plenty of frank, off-color language, too. Kumararaja also elicits some wonderfully deadpan performances from his actors. The teenage boys have a believably nerdy-raffish rapport And Samantha Akkineni, as the cheating wife, builds a character of unexpected depths. “Super Deluxe,” though, runs three hours, and Kumararaja loses his way in the draggy, overlong second act. It includes not one, but two drawn-out scenes of threatened rape. (We know the ugly outcome of one, though it happens off camera.) That these scenes, with their leering Bollywood-ish villain, verge on the cartoonish doesn’t save them. They’re part of a tonal problem — what was mostly delicate and offbeat tips into something cruder and messier. They also serve as a reminder: Cinematic sexual liberation for (and by) men can be punishing for women. Credits: NY Times Read the full article

#'SuperDeluxe'Review #SamanthaAkkineni #SuperDeluxemoviereview #VijaySethupathi

[musicvoyage]

Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, 1977

1977; what a legendary and beautiful year for music. Not only did disco music become a very popularized genre during that time, but it was also the year when many sub-genres of rock (such as soft rock) began to rise. Four decades on and ‘Rumours’ is still considered to be one of the best selling and highest acclaimed albums of all time, selling over 45 million copies. I personally believe It is one of Mac’s finest works and in the following, I will tell you exactly why. I will also include the reason for its huge impact.

Let’s begin with the complicated background story: We all know by now that the album is mainly based on the troubled relationships between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham as well as John and Christine McVie. Mick Fleetwood was also struggling with his marriage. The members had no time to grief or come to terms with the separations as they were already working on their follow-up to ‘Fleetwood Mac’, the first album which included the Buckingham Nicks duo for the first time and spawned commercial success. Additionally, each member developed a serious drug problem. Everyone was battling their own demons yet somehow they ended up creating a masterpiece of an album that built an entire legacy.

The album starts with Second Hand News, which I at first found to be nothing but a mindless tune, only to realize later that none of the songs on this album are mindless. During the chorus, you can hear Lindsey imitating some guitar riffs. However, once I thought more into the lyrics I found the song rather amusingly ironic. The song simply means being not relevant in one former partner’s life, yet still ’laying him down in tall grass and letting him do his stuff’. As Stevie is used for the background vocals, you can hear her frustration. Which will become more evident in the next track; Dreams. Not only did this song end up being Fleetwood Mac’s highest charting hit song in the US, but this song was specifically directed towards Lindsey. For Stevie, this song was a way of an invitation for Lindsey to leave their relationship as she wanted to leave likewise. Lindsey later on commented on this by saying:

Whatever Stevie’s music was, somehow I was the soulmate that just knew exactly what to do with it and that never went away. It just became bittersweet in terms of wanting to do it. There were times where I had the urge not wanting to help her, and that’s a weird thing to admit but these were the challenging things. – Lindsey Buckingham

In my opinion, this is truly one of the most memorable songs on this album. Not only does the guitar compliment the song so wonderfully, but the melodic vibe you get from Stevie is unforgettable. In contrast to Lindsey’s rather bitter-sweet lyrics, Stevie tried to be condescending and delicate yet honest in this song. Additionally, it becomes evident how each song in this album is a dialogue between the songwriters. Because the members had not the time to take a break from each other, they could let their anger and frustration out towards their former partners in their songs, which Lindsey clearly did. Despite the anger he expresses for Stevie in the song Never Going Back Again, his main statement for this song is rather hopeful and positive. Lindsey sings about how Stevie left him feeling miserable and alone because of the break-up, but once he became involved with another woman, she made him finally realize his life after Stevie can be just as fulfilling and sweet. I would like to praise the simple yet beautiful and uplifting acoustic guitar playing of Lindsey as it compliments the main message of the song very well. Don’t Stop, the infamous song which would later be used for Bill Clinton’s 1993 campaign theme song, is another gem with a powerfully positive message written by Christine McVie. In this song, you can feel the magical chemistry Christine and Lindsey have when it comes to working together on music. Because of the personal problems everyone was dealing at that time, Christine felt obligated to address the issues by making a clear statement that no matter what you are going through right now, it will get better; you just have to be more optimistic.

Another retaliation to Stevie’s Dreams is Go Your Own Way, the band’s biggest radio hit single to date.This was the first Fleetwood Mac song I have ever heard, which is why this song will always have a special place in my heart. The lyrics are yet very similar to those of Dreams, but expressed in a more blunt and bitter way. Stevie was incredibly offended by this song, specifically the line “Packing up, shacking up is all you want to do” as it makes her seem like she wanted to “shack up with other guys”, which she contradicted. Even when you look at the live performances of this song, you can always observe Stevie’s annoyance she has towards this song through her facial expression. This is one of the many reasons why this song is considered to be the greatest, most melodically and rhythmic bitter-breakup rock song to date. In Addition, John’s bass playing is out of this world and blends with Mick’s drums and Lindsey’ guitar playing perfectly. 

Songbird is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated songs on the album, which justifies my point that Christine is truly under appreciated when it comes to her songwriting ability. The general public always seems to give attention mostly to Stevie’s and Lindsey’s relationship, which is why Christine tends to be the shadow of the songwriters in the band. However, in my opinion, Christine is the backbone, who holds the band together. Of course, every member is equally important, but when you think of the great songs that Christine has contributed to this album, I ask myself why she never gets the full credit she deserves. The mesmerizing piano playing alone left me stunned, as it is one of the most beautiful melodies I have ever heard. It gave me goosebumps and made me teary eyed, as it is a very lovely and moving song. Subsequently, It is a great transition to one of the world’s greatest rock songs called The Chain. I will NEVER stop stressing the fact that this is the signature song of Fleetwood Mac. To think that this song would have not been what it is, a timeless gem, if Stevie Nicks hadn’t added the lyrics which she had written during the Buckingham Nicks days, is astonishing. It all started with John McVie’s famous bass line which he had created out of nothing, the rest is history. To me, this is a song about the tensed and broken relationships of the members at that time, which was on the verge of collapsing. Understandably, everyone was sick of each other and strongly believed that this would have been the last Fleetwood Mac album to be ever released, yet somehow the chain kept them together for all these years. No matter how exhausted they were from each other, they managed to put their problems aside and work together as a group. Everyone contributed something to this song and unlike the other tracks on Rumours, the members could finally put all their creative differences aside and record a song in such a perfect harmony. On the contrary, when you listen to the live performances of this song, especially in the earlier years, you can practically cut the tension with a knife since it seems to me like Stevie and Lindsey are having a screaming match.

Christine McVie is probably the only member of the band who wrote somehow optimistic love songs, as the next track You Make Loving Fun proves that. To me, this song felt kind of out of place when I compared it with the other tracks on the album. Nonetheless, it is a wonderfully dreamy and well-written song. Considering the fact that she was dating someone at the time, Christine tends to look things on the brighter side and distributes hopeful and buoyant songs on this album. Nevertheless, Christine dedicates one specific song to the father figure of this band - Mick Fleetwood. On the track Oh Daddy, Christine tries to sympathize with Mick, as he was the only member who did not get involved with any drama in the band, unlike the others who were constantly battling with relationship problems and arguing with each other. Furthermore, Mick was the only member with children, which is why he developed the role of a father in the group. To this day, Oh Daddy is Mick’s all-time favorite Christine-written song. I Don’t Want To Know is the song I truly did not care about after finding out that this was the song that replaced Silver Springs. If you are a Fleetwood Mac fan, you are probably aware of the infamous song Silver Springs and the endless battle Stevie had to go through because none of the members wanted to include the song on Rumours, as it allegedly did not fit on the album. Lindsey would end up re-record the vocals on I Don’t Want To Know, an uptempo breakup song that was written by Stevie during the Buckingham Nicks days. Meanwhile, Stevie had to find out about the devastating news through Mick, who suggested her to re-record the vocals as well. Stevie wouldn’t have contributed anything to this song if it hadn’t been for the fact that she would only have two songs on the album. Consequently, Stevie would establish a solo career years later, since she could never fully express herself artistically. The album ends with what I find to be one of the many highlights of this legendary record; Gold Dust Woman. Stevie’s voice adds a beautifully haunting sound to this excellent song. My favorite part of this masterpiece is probably the outro, in which you can hear a type of wailing sound in the background. I could not find any reasons behind that sound other than Lindsey saying ‘I’d say we were under duress’. This is the only song on the album that indirectly discusses Stevie’s drug addiction, as she ‘’digs her grave’’. Stevie battled her cocaine addiction at that time, which lead to several injuries in her later years. It is evident that she could’ve easily died while living this self-destructive lifestyle. It didn’t help that Stevie constantly worked with her fellow members who were struggling with their own drug problems as well.  It is shocking when you think about the excessive drug consumption the members went through, yet they still managed to survive. As we all know this could have ended up in the complete opposite direction, to the road of demise that unfortunately many artists went to in the 1970′s. 

All in all, this record is the main basis behind this band’s success. This is why their music has been in our lives for over 40 years. Rumours personify all the emotions that someone goes through after a break-up. Imagine having to work with the person you shared your most intimate moments with and now even though you have broken up, you spend every single second together for the sake of making music. Some people could not imagine doing that and yet many bands, in this case, Fleetwood Mac, had to cope with this dilemma. To leave the band or to continue making music despite feeling uncomfortable at first?This album documents one of the most difficult and painful times in the members’ lives; the heartbreak, the sadness, the anger but as well as the sense of hope. Every single track on this album shares a story, a piece of mind that the songwriter felt like opening up to. This album truly has no layers, it is blunt and it is honest yet somehow it sounds like a soundtrack to a drama movie, which is why many people adore it so much. Even if you find the album not to be musically impressive (which is a shame), you should be able to appreciate not only its historical significance but also the lyrical composition. Being in your worst state you could ever be yet still being able to create a masterpiece that would be the blueprint to pop rock music is motivating for all the listeners who are currently going through emotional issues. Remember: no matter what you are going through right now, it will eventually get better.

#rumours #fleetwood mac #stevie nicks #lindsey buckingham #christine mcvie #john mcvie #mick fleetwood #1977 #second hand news #dreams #never going back again #don't stop #go your own way #songbird #the chain #you make loving fun #i don't want to know #oh daddy #gold dust woman

[tialovestelevision]

Where the Wild Things Are

I know the premise of this episode, and that means I need to give some background on me. Hello, I’m Tia. I’m a 35-year-old transgender woman from the Deep South. I didn’t realize I was trans until my late 20s, but… well, that’s a story for if I blog something about the nature of gender. What’s a story for now is that, when I wasn’t quite a preteen, my parents converted from “nonpracticing conservative-but-vague Christian” to “hardcore fundamentalist Church of Christ Christian.” My mother, who had introduced me to Asimov and Tolkien and Hawking and Baum and to Meat Loaf and Led Zeppelin and these great, beautiful, PASSIONATE works of television (Star Trek!) and cinema and music and literature eliminated all of that from her life and replaced it, over time, with Bible readings and Carmen and goddamn Veggie Tales and did I mention Carmen? And my father, who’d ecouraged me to learn as much as possible even if he didn’t understand what I was learning, who brought me the Stones and Dylan and protest and war and gotten me my very first computer - a real PC clone! - when nobody else I knew had one because that was the future… he closed off to new information, to the world as a whole. I refused to homeschool even though I was badly bullied because I knew that school would keep me a link to the world. I played their sympathy to study astrophysics over the summer, and learned there to measure the distance to the stars and to see that the universe was far older than my preacher said it was. I was hit. Not as often as some others I knew. What my father did to me would not, under legal definitions, count as child abuse. What he did to my brother, who was far more obedient to what he wanted his children to be but far less able to play the part when he was disobedient, who couldn’t keep his mouth closed to keep himself safe, and who was younger and smaller… that might have. Probably did. But what he did to me still shaped me. The things I heard spoken from that pulpit changed me more, I think. I spent so long being taught the fear of God that it took moving away from faith and wandering through a dozen different belief systems before I could see the wonder of God. This is a story about spirits trapped by fundamentalist Christian abuse and possession. I don’t know how much the nature of that abuse is going to be relevant to what actually happens in the episode, but I think it’s important to know the context I come at this topic from. The author, they say, is dead - what the author intended to say with a work is far less important than what the reader or viewer takes from it - and the reader, the viewer, is very much alive, and comes to everything they read and watch with the context of the life they’ve lived hovering around them. Those are the glasses through which we see our entertainment. With that out of the way… we watch. 1. Previously On gives us a reminder of the romantic relationships so far in the show - Buffy/Riley, Anya/Xander, Willow/Tara. Then we get Buffy and Riley fighting a vampire and a demon. “You get Fang, I’ll get Horny.” Heh. Demon is dead. Vampire is staked. That was a workout. Vampires and demons don’t ever work together, except all the times we’ve seen them do so. But I think Buffy and Riley are going to have sex instead of telling Giles. Yep. . 2. We’re in a house. Is it the frat house? It is. Buffy and Riley are asleep in Riley’s room. Remind me to talk about the Kuzuis at some point - that’s a fascinating story of how the TV industry works. Riley heard a noise… dripping. Creepy music. He’s in the bathroom. His room doesn’t have its own. There’s a leaky faucet. He turned it off. We cut to an ice cream truck in a residential neighborhood. It’s Xander and Anya. Xander wants to go to a party at the frat house, but Anya is worried because the Initiative is there and she used to be a demon. Also, she thinks Xander doesn’t find her attractive because they didn’t have sex last night, which is the third time that’s happened. “I don’t understand. I’m pretty. I’m young. Why didn’t you take advantage of me?” And there are children outside the truck. Xander is very, very fired. 3. Buffy and Riley are talking about the demon and vampire. They think Adam did it, because duh. Giles wants them to see if they find any more odd pairings. Riley speaks Giles’s language when explaining the party, but Giles is going to the Expresso Pump for a meeting of grown-ups that will be of no interest to any of his friends. Buffy can’t keep her hand off of Riley. They’re going off for a quickie before Buffy’s class. 4. Sun’s down and it’s party time, I think. But Buffy and Riley are still having sex. They’re getting yet another condom. Building is unnaturally cold, but that doesn’t seem to be bothering Buffy and Riley. The fireplace just exploded and set an Initiative guy on fire. 5. Spike is trying to rob Anya, but she’s not afraid of him. Looks like the party’s still on even after someone being on fire. Buffy and Riley are at the party. The guy who got burned just lost his eyebrows. Willow and Tara and Xander are there. Buffy keeps staring at Riley and doesn’t hear anything anyone is saying. Anya, meanwhile, is hanging out with Spike. She’s commiserating. They’re both not scary demons any more, and everything is complicated. Love always ends badly. “I’ve seen a thousand relationships. First there’s the love and the sex, then there’s nothing left but the vengeance.” Spike suggested that they do vengeance together… Anya eviscerate Xander, Spike stakes Drusilla. Sounds like a lovely bonding moment. They’re not going to do it, though. 6. Now we get to watch painful minor character flirting. Yay? And one of the minor characters just had an orgasm while standing there and talking to the other. Three orgasms. Xander is talking to a girl. And flirting. He’s going to get eviscerated. So eviscerated. Buffy, meanwhile, wants to go have sex with Riley. The wall is making people have orgasms. Willow is with Tara and talking and they keep staring at each other. Tara loves to ride horses and invited Willow to go with her. Willow tried to touch Tara’s shoulder but Tara was suddenly disgusted. Tara look terrified and ran off to the bathroom. And Spike’s there with Anya. Xander feels all jealous, but Spike shut him up. Spike needs a drink. Anya and Xander fight hilariously. Xander found people playing Spin the Bottle. One is the girl he was flrting with earlier; she invited him to play. 7. Spike is drinking with an Initiative gut. The guy didn’t recognize him, but knows he looks familiar. Xander spun the bottle and it pointed at the girl from earlier. They’re going to kiss. Wow, she’s fairly aggressive with it. Now she’s horrified by what she just did and running away. Xander found the orgasm wall. And someone sobbing in a closet. It’s Julie, cutting her hair off. Willow is trying to find Tara. She went to the bathroom, where she washed her face then heard something from the bathtub. She’s checking it out. One of the guys… no, a ghost. Under the water. Drowning. Now he’s behind her. 8. Riley and Buffy heard Willow scream but aren’t getting up. Willow is searching for Xander and Willow. Found them both. Tara doesn’t like the house because it’s haunted. And now the bottle’s gone mad and exploded and seriously injured someone. They’re going to get Buffy. But Riley’s door just grew a tree that’ll keep them from getting in, and Buffy and Riley are still having sex. In… space? That’s a really long zoom-out shot of their bed. 9. Tara just walked away from the door, and there’s an earthquake. Tara’s on a balcony. The quake is emptying the room, but got strong enough that everybody fell down. And Spike’s strapped to a chair.Graham is possessed by a Fundamentalist spirit that’s preaching to Forrest. Forrest is getting him down to the Initiative, though. Anya’s still in the building and a screaming ghost just ran through her. And the quake is starting again. 10. Spike is trying to break loose of his chair, and Xander got Julie out. She’s mostly bald now. Forrest and Graham are locking the Initiative down. Xander and Spike are going to back inside… well, Spike talked himself out of it, so Xander’s going back in. And got thrown out by a spirit. “Or… it could get Watcher time.” 11. Giles is singing. “Behind Blue Eyes.” With an acoustic guitar. He’s… really good. Xander is creeped out, though. He wants to go back to the haunted house. Giles saw them, but is finishing his song. Willow once had a crush on him, and Anya is staring. Hard. Very hard. 12. Now the tree from Riley’s room has taken over the house, and Buffy and Riley are still having sex. 13. “In the midst of all that, did you really think they were keeping it up?” *awkward silence* “Oh, for a different phrasing.” THAT is writing. 14. Now we learn the backstory of the dorm. It was a house for disadvantaged children and adolescents run by Genevieve Holt. She’s still alive, so they’re going to visit her. “I treated them as if they were my own flesh and blood… gave them hugs and praise when they were good, and punished them when they were dirty.” Oh god, Anya’s face here. 15. Nitpick: I’m watching this with Netflix’s subtitles on so I can get all the dialogue. Netflix’s subtitles for the show miss out on a lot of capitalizations - they never capitalize Slayer, for example. Calling. Things like that. Here, they missed one that’s really important for the cultural context of the story. “Without me, they would have been shut out of the Kingdom.” They didn’t capitalize Kingdom. In Christian writing, you capitalize that when you’re talking about Heaven. 16. Anya’s face here. This is a woman who has committed incredible, often disproportionate, acts of cruelty. Who delighted in it. And listening to this woman describe what she did to children has her utterly disgusted. I think, even if I didn’t know this thing happens, even if I didn’t see the hints of it in my own youth… holy fuck, Emma Caufield, you are amazing here. Head and Brendon are also doing a good job, but wow. It’s Anya’s scene, and it’s almost all in her face, and she’s incredible. 17. The house isn’t haunted by actual ghosts - it’s haunted by the energy of what Holt did to the children there. Intense emotion, pain, sexual energy and repression. The poltergeists are draining Buffy and Riley’s life energy through the sex they’re having, while influencing them to have more sex. 18. Willow, Tara, and Giles are going to bind the spirits long enough for Xander and Anya to get Riley and Buffy out. Anya can sense the haunting, which is a neat talent. Willow and Giles and Tara have called the spirits to Tara’s room, so Xander and Anya really should be going in. Which they’re doing. The tree’s taken over - good thing Xander brought a machete. Wind kicked up when Xander tried to open the door. The spirits threw Tara’s table across the room, and they lost the spirits. Xander got dragged into the bathroom and Anya thrown off the balcony. Xander’s being drowned now. Anya’s up, and the spirits are screaming. She’s going up the stairs… her ankle’s hurt. Her hand got impaled by the tree but she’s tough as all fuck and got Xander out of the tub. Tree’s still attacking them as they head for Riley’s room. They're through the door, and just opened it. The tree’s gone and the house is safe. 19. The last scene was all right and wrapped things up. Overall: Emma Caufield. Anya makes this whole thing work. From the moment she’s having drinks with Spike, this is her episode, and she nails it hard. Seriously, she’s utterly brilliant here. Particularly in her scene at Holt’s house and in the frat house with the tree attacking them… she’s just wonderful. I’m not really sure what to say about the rest of the episode. Fundamentalist sexual repression is incredibly harmful, leaving those subject to it with both serious issues surrounding sex and badly incomplete information about it. That’s deliberate - Fundamentalist Christianity is the Christianity of judgement, or punishment for “sin.” In a world where suffering can leave an impression on a place, certainly that - plus decades of intense physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse of children - would do so. This episode is very triggery. But it’s also worthwhile, because it’s the first real time the writers have given a story to Anya to tell, and good God does she nail it.

#buffy #anya #buffy season 4 #buffy the vampire slayer #where the wild things are

[5hfanfiction]

Wicked Games (Chapter 9)

Trigger: brief involvement of drugs

I was lounging on the couch with my feet propped up on the coffee table, grazing through my neuroanatomy textbook. I was trying to study, but my eyes were becoming heavy, and I ended up rereading the same paragraph about six times before I finally gave up and slapped the book shut.

Normani was sitting to my right, working on some sort of economics assignment that I had zero understanding of.

“I think I’m going to call it quits for the night, Mani.”

She looked up, and gave me a small smile. “Yeah, me too.”

I glanced over at the clock on the opposite wall and blinked when I saw how late it was. “Mani, it’s 2 in the morning already.”

Her mouth jutted out to the side, “Oops.” Then we both chuckled lightly.

My face fell when a realization swept through me. When I got home and started studying with Normani, Lauren wasn’t here, and Lauren never came through the door, the whole time we were there. I was trying to fight the feeling, but I was worried.

“Hey, do you know where Lo is?” I asked as nonchalantly as possible.

Normani shrugged as she picked up her notebook and papers.

“Does she normally stay out this late?” I pretended like it wasn’t that serious to me by messing around with my backpack, and avoiding eye-contact with Normani.

“Not usually, but I’m sure she’s fine,” Normani offered. “I’m going to bed, goodnight Camila.”

I wanted to ask more about Lauren, but decided against it, as Mani walked to her room and disappeared behind her door.

An internal dialogue with myself ensued, as several questions infiltrated my head.

Where is that girl? We have a game tomorrow! What the hell is she doing out so late?

Well, maybe she stayed over at a friend’s place? But if that was the case, why didn’t she let any of her roommates know? She would let them know right?

Why wasn’t Normani more concerned? It is 2 AM! We do have a game tomorrow. Shouldn’t she be more worried? Am I overreacting?

It took me some time, but I decided to get up and get ready for bed, doing my best to ignore the incessant thoughts. I changed into my pajamas, and brushed my teeth. Once I was done, I settled under my blankets on the couch. I looked at the front door for a few moments, hoping Lauren would come through them. When she didn’t, I forced my eyes closed. ‘She’ll be here in the morning’ I tried to convince myself.

I tried desperately to fall into a slumber. I was exhausted, but my thoughts refused to stop. The unknown of the where, the what, and the with whom was driving me insane.

After about 5 minutes of agitated tossing and turning, I sat up with a sigh of frustration and reached for my phone. Looking through the contacts, I stopped when I found 'Lern Jergi’. A nickname I came up with for Lauren during her freshman year. I thought it was hilarious, but Lauren was never as amused.

I put the phone to my ear, awaiting the answer impatiently.

At last the ringing cut off, replaced with loud music and muffled conversations. Then the raspy voice arrived, “Camz!”

Relief washed through me. She’s alive at least. “Lauren, where are you?”

“Ummm….” Lauren followed that with some inaudible speech and I could hear some giggling in the background.

“What?” I asked pressingly.

“Um.. I’m with my friend Keana.”

I had no idea who that was. “Ok.. but where are you?”

“I am… in a house..I don’t know..” Her speech was heavily sluggish. She was clearly intoxicated.

“You don’t know where you are?”

“..No..”

I shook my head, my concern growing. “Where’s Keana?”

“Oh. She went to.. the back.. with this guy,” she recalled.

I sighed wearily. “Can you send me your location through the map on your phone?”

She took awhile to respond, then said, “Why?”

“I’m coming to get you,” I insisted.

“Ooh. Please come get me.”

I rolled my eyes. She’s drunk alright. “Send me your location, ok?”

“Ok,” she agreed.

I hung up the phone, and rushed to throw on a sweater and grab my keys. I was out the door as soon as the message containing her location reached me.

About ten minutes later, I pulled into an empty spot on the street outside the location. There were long lines of cars up and down the block. I opened the door, and could automatically hear loud music and various screams and conversation from partygoers.

I texted Lauren to let her know I had arrived. Heading towards the house, there were numerous cups lying about in the grass. Walking along the path, I had to jump backwards to get out of the way of two people running by me, chasing eachother. I grew self-conscious for a moment, remembering that I was in pajama pants and had no bra on. I rushed to get here so fast, I didn’t even consider it.

Then the door opened and a dark-haired girl stumbled out of it. 'Well, at least I don’t have to go inside and find her’ I thought.

“Hey sexy!” Lauren screamed at me loudly before throwing one arm around my shoulders and planting a sloppy kiss on my cheek. Her lips were rough. She was probably dehydrated from all of the alcohol she had consumed.

Then my nose scrunched up because of a certain stench that was attached to her. It gets worse. Upon a closer examination, I could see that her eyes were red and unfocused. “Are you high?”

She giggled mischeviously, then leaned towards me to whisper, “Maybe.”

“Lauren, we need to go,” I stated urgently.

“What? I thought you were coming to party with me,” she slurred. She then gave me the most adorable puppy dog eyes and stuck out her bottom lip in a pout, “Come party with me.”

“Come party with me back at home,” I said, trying another tactic. I tugged on her waist, hoping she would come with me.

She stumbled slightly at my force, but then wiggled her eyebrows at me, “In my room?”

I clenched my jaw, as a shiver ran through me. “No,” I said coldly.

She dropped her arm, and almost like a baby started whining, “Why not?!”

I was startled by her outburst and raised my hands slightly in defense. “Lauren..calm down. It’s time to go, ok?”

“No! Unless we’re taking this party to my room, I’m not leaving,” Lauren proclaimed.

I sighed deeply. It’s not like I had to actually go through with it when we got back home anyway. “Ok, we’ll party in your room.”

“No, I don’t believe you now,” Lauren said defiantly.

I groaned in irritation, my patience running thin. “Seriously Lauren? Come on,” I grabbed her hand and tried to force her to follow me, but she was surprisingly strong and stood her ground.

“Nope,” she said as she turned to go back inside the party.

Well, I couldn’t let that happen. I rushed around to get infront of her and did the only thing I could think of to get her to stop. I kissed her.

God, it was like kissing a brewery. I could literally tell how much she drank. She would have a massive hangover the next day for sure. Hopefully she wouldn’t even remember this moment.

When I pulled away, her eyes were still closed. “We’ll take the party to your room,” I declared.

A smile crept across her lips, as her eyelids opened, revealing her emeralds to me. “You’re pretty,” she said quietly.

This girl will be the death of me. She was so endearing. Although I should be mad at her for getting wasted the night before an important game, I couldn’t when she said things like that.

“You’re pretty too. Now let’s go,” I said grabbing her hand and pulling her along with me.

To my irritation, she stopped again. “Wait, what about Keana?”

“Keana?” Shit, I had forgotten about the girl Lauren came with.

“I can’t leave her,” Lauren argued.

“Ok, ok. Is Keana still with that dude?”

“Ummm…” Lauren trailed off. She creased her eyebrows and put a finger to her chin. “Think so.”

With her hand still in mine, we trekked into the party. I tensed up, just knowing I was going to get laughed at for my attire. 'Oh what the hell, it’s 3 in the morning anyway’.

The party was just as crazy as I had feared. There were people everywhere, barely enough space to breathe, much less move. It was a mess too. Trash was all over the place. Cups, wrappers, drinks, clothes laying on the floor. A spot in the corner of the room was oddly free of people, and a sheet was covering the floor there. I could see throw up on the wall surrounding it. The place was disgusting to say the least.

Most people were dancing or grinding against eachother. I noticed that about three people were passed out on the couch in the center of the living room. On the opposite side of the room, crowds of people were cheering and doing keg stands. The skunk-like stench was invading my nostrils, and incidentally my nose crinkled up.

A few people glanced at us, a couple of them did a double-take at my PJ’s but for the most part, we went unnoticed. Lauren led me through some people, upstairs and down a hallway. “She should be in here,” she commented pointing at a door with a bronze knob.

'I really hope I’m not interrupting something’ I cringed in my head as I knocked on the wood and then turned the doorknob.

Yup, we were definitely interrupting something. Both parties were fully naked. “Shit, sorry!” I exlaimed as I swung the door back to cover me and Lauren’s faces.

“What the fuck?” I heard a male voice yell from inside the room.

“Um.. Keana?” Lauren called out through the crack in the door. “I’m leaving. I wanted to make sure you’re ok.”

The girl who I presumed to be Keana appeared in the doorway, and opened it slightly, whilst pulling her bra straps over her shoulders. She had long, brown hair and was very attractive. “I mean, I was doing ok,” she huffed. She then turned and noticed me. “Who’s this?”

“This is Camila,” Lauren stated affectionately.

“Oh.” Keana looked at me with a smirk. It seemed like she knew who I was. That thought was confirmed when she added, “She’s as hot as you said she is.” She paused to look down at my lower body. “The pajamas are a nice touch.”

I blushed slightly, surprised by her remarks. Lauren told her about me? Told her I was hot? Lauren thinks I’m hot?

“Anyway, we should be going now,” Lauren interjected. “Do you need a ride?”

“Yeah, that would be great.” Keana looked back over her shoulder. “I’ll see you later Craig.” She caught a shirt that was tossed to her and pulled it over her head. Then she stepped forward, closing the door behind her. “Let’s go,” she smiled towards me.

When we walked back downstairs and outside, I realized Lauren still hadn’t let go of my hand. I wasn’t sure if it was because she simply wanted to, or if it was because she was afraid she’d lose her balance otherwise.

I asked for Keana’s address once we were inside the car and after that I sat and drove in relative silence, while the other two girls discussed the events of that night.

Apparently Keana had only just met the Craig dude about two hours ago. They got to talking, got to dancing, and then hit a blunt together. Keana said she was 'in the mood’ and he was hot, so she banged him. She talked about it as if it was the most casual thing. Like it happens as often as someone calls for a pizza.

I pulled up outside of Keana’s apartment, and she leaned forward from the backseat. She put her lips to my ear. With a slow and sultry tone she spoke, “It was nice to meet you Camila. Thanks for the lift, I hope I see you again.”

What the fuck? Who is this girl?

Then, rather quickly, she was gone from the car. I paused for a moment, taken completely off guard by this random girl I just met. She was very confident and carefree, both attractive qualities.

“I’m hungry,” Lauren abruptly complained. I looked over to find her rubbing her belly dramatically.

“Figures,” I chuckled.

I drove through a Burger King, ordering a burger and fries for her. As soon as I handed her the bag, she dug into it and shoved a handful of fries in her mouth. It was as if she hadn’t eaten anything in a week.

“Don’t make a mess in my car,” I griped.

Working hard to keep my eyes open, I drove back to the house. By the time I pulled up, Lauren was already done with her meal.

I parked and we both exited the vehicle. To my shock, Lauren’s hand returned to mine as we walked to the front door. I shook my head in confusion, but questioned it less when she gripped my hand harder whilst she tripped at the small step in front of the door. Under different circumstances, I would have laughed at her. Unfortunately, I was too exhausted to find anything funny at the moment.

I led her to the kitchen and filled up a glass of water. “Drink this,” I ordered.

“Yes maam,” she giggled, with a small salute. I rolled my eyes as she finally released my hand to take the cup.

I rubbed my eyes, struggling to keep them open by this point. Starting to feel uncomfortably warm, I removed my sweater, and set it on the counter. I looked back at Lauren to see her looking at me gleefully, while tilting the cup higher and higher as she basically chugged the water.

I shook my head, trying to debate whether I should ask her why the hell she was at a party tonight, or if I should wait for tomorrow.

Lauren sighed in accomplishment after she took the final gulp and slammed the cup back down onto the counter. “Done,” she grinned.

“Good, now let’s go to bed.”

“You’re coming to bed with me Camz?” she asked with hope in her eyes.

“Er.. no.” I mumbled.

“Yes you are!” Lauren insisted. She grabbed my wrist and practically dragged me to her bedroom. I kept trying to free my arm, but it wasn’t working. 'This is a bad idea’ was all I could think.

Lauren practically pushed me onto her bed. “Stay here,” she commanded, as if I’m a dog. She then pointed her two fingers at her eyes and then at me, to signify that she’ll be watching me.

My heart automatically started beating hard being in her bed again, making me remember the last time I was on her bed.

Lauren walked over towards her closet. I could barely see because it was dark, but with the slight light from the moon shining through the curtains of her window, I could just make out her curves as she removed her shirt, and then her bra. I swallowed, seeing the muscles of her back stretch and contract as she leaned over to grab another shirt and pull it on. She then pulled down her pants, and kicked them off. My eyes widened, realizing she was only wearing a thong underneath. Her bare cheeks were exposed to me, and I felt myself licking my lips without even realizing it.

I shook off the naughty thoughts arising in my mind and slipped under her covers, accepting the fact that Lauren was not going to let me leave her room tonight.

I relaxed onto her comfortable mattress, my aching back enjoying the new and improved location. My eyes started to flutter shut when I felt a warm body situate themselves next to me. My eyes shot open. Her bare legs were wrapping themselves around me, like a koala to a tree branch. Her face nestled itself into my neck, and she wrapped one arm around my side. The position was so amazingly comfortable. Her lips being so close to my skin was giving me goosebumps.

To be honest, if I wasn’t so tired, I probably would’ve jumped her right then. Instead, my eyes closed, and I fell into the deepest sleep I’ve experienced since I started staying with the group of girls.

—

Wattpad: munkeytutu

#UPDATE #series #AU #slash #trigger warning #camren #based on song #angst drama #submission #Wicked Games

[periodicreviews]

.hack//Sign

I think at some point, maybe when it was on Toonami, I had tried to watch it. I’m not sure why I stopped. Maybe it was because I was too young to understand why everyone was standing around talking or at that moment, I was looking for something different.

But in this lockdown, I have no excuses for not watching everything.

Suffice to say, I’m really glad I watched it this past week. If you have the patience, the wait through lengthy dialogue scenes is well worth the reward of complex characters and beautiful music.

My only comparison in the genre of “trapped in a MMORPG” is Sword Art Online, so you’ll see me reference that and Evangelion as usual.

In Episode 1 of .hack, it became crystal clear that .hack and SAO are in completely different categories. In SAO, the reveal of being trapped in the game and how if you die in the game, you die in real life, is played very dramatically. The creator of the world makes this announcement to all players, who in turn, begin to panic in mass.

In .hack, it’s first shown, not told. You see Tsukasa attempt to do something and he is prevented from doing so. When they finally get back to it halfway through the episode it’s told in a very understated fashion as Tsukasa asks Mimiru casually, “You can log out right?”

This scene alone, in retrospect, served to set the tone for how different the two series are and what I should come to expect from the show.

 Hijinks are kept at a minimum. In .hack, there is no wacky beach filler episode. There are some episodes that take a break from the “key of the twilight” main quest so to speak. In one such side quest, Mimiru meets up with a new player called A20. They go off into a dungeon despite A20 being woefully unprepared and after feeling like A20 is not taking things seriously, Mimiru leaves. She ultimately returns to see A20 with a sliver of health left and comes to respect her tenacity.

The episode is critical to better understanding Mimiru as a character, who at that point, I thought was just going to be a side character. I had a moment when I asked myself “Hey, wait, isn’t Tsukasa the main character? Why is he not in any of these episodes?”

That episode was the turning point for me when I realized that none of the characters were actually side characters, much as is the case with Evangelion. They were all fully developed characters who had their own motivations and growth, beyond simply propelling the plot forward for Tsukasa. The character of A20 and this episode is definitely a bit more lighthearted than others but it felt like it fit and a break is nice every now and then.

 Speaking of the characters, they all have their flaws and struggle at times to connect with each other. While they don’t struggle as much as the characters in Evangelion aside from Tsukasa, their personalities and motivations clash as they struggle with both the larger conflict and how each of them is deciding to handle themselves. There are probably just as many interpersonal battles as monster battles in the 26 episodes.

In one such interaction, Bear comes off as too preachy to Tsukasa who replies that he’s just as selfish as all the other adults and walks away. The episode spends a good amount of time on just this one bad interaction. Bear goes to Mimiru to ask her to pass an apology to Tsukasa, which she refuses, and ultimately he has to apologize to Tsukasa himself. All of this comes within the context of Bear in the real world struggling to connect with his biological son. You could argue that this is a “side” story episode as well, but I think it’s equally important as any other episode.

 I was somewhat surprised to see the explicit allusions to Waiting for Godot and The Little Mermaid. During another episode where they explore a special dungeon, they have to answer 3 questions, with 1 being about the Book of Revelations and 1 being about a Hollywood movie.  It’s definitely more common to have anime bring up some Japanese folklore. But Evangelion has a bunch of references to Christianity, Kabballah, and the Michael Critchon movie, Outbreak, so it’s not completely unheard of.

What’s the point though? Although it’s implied that the main cast are all living in Japan, it seems like it would make sense for an MMO developer to reference a wide variety of things in the real world.

Branching off of that, I can see the lack of Japanese culture allowing this to be a more accessible anime to those just starting out in a similar vein to Cowboy Bebop. You don’t really need any prerequisite knowledge about honorifics, or bowing, or senpai/kohai, just the basics of an MMORPG. This might’ve been one of the considerations when Toonami chose to air it on TV.

 There’s this constant struggle amongst the characters on how to handle the act of playing the game. For Tsukasa, being trapped in the game has eliminated the idea of not taking things seriously. For characters like Crim or Sora, they are consistently just playing a role that they admit is distinct from who they are in real life. Whereas although Bear begins in the “just a game” camp, the conflict they struggle through culminates with him having a discussion with Crim where they mention “if you’ve forgot you’re playing a game, isn’t that the greatest game of all?”

In Sword Art Online, I remember distinctly a scene where Kirito and Asuna are discussing their relationship and she remarks that actions in the game absolutely matter because her feelings in the game as just as real. She may even say that it’s more real in the game.

.hack further complicates the discussion of “Is it just a game?” by visually presenting “The World” and the real world as two distinct ways. “The World” appears in the normal colors, with the real world appearing monochromatic, with lots of noise/static, and only being able to read subtitles for dialog on screen.

One could argue this pristine view of “The World” is similar to how Tsukasa views the game in relation to harsh chaos of real life. The pain of his real life has disappeared and for a time, even though he is trapped in the game, that’s preferable to what it was before. This being further cemented by the final episode as the color restores to the real world when Tsukasa and Subaru meet in real life as the pain is replaced with joy.

 In the end, I was a little surprised at how little combat there was. In most MMO’s, combat is one of the primary ways to level up and it least when it comes to SAO, action and combat feels like half of the show. The lack of combat could partially be explained as a cost saving measure. There are a number of cost saving measures throughout the show like panning over backgrounds while characters are talking, closeups of faces that exclude the character’s mouth while talking, and scenes beginning right as the battle finished. But a lot of it just feels like that’s the kind of dialogue driven story they wanted to tell, rather than being forced to animate less things to save money.

 There were two Evangelion connections that kept me even when I wasn’t sure if I was interested yet. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto created the character designs for both .hack//Sign and Evangelion. Both Tsukasa and Shinji have similar androgynous facial structure which plays into the development of both of their characters questioning their own identity and their masculinity being called into question.

Amanda Winn Lee voices both Mimiru in .hack//sign and in the original ADV dub, she voices Rei Ayanami. The two characters are quite different from each other in temperament but regardless of the character, hearing her is always a delight.

 I powered through this show in 4 days, which maybe was a little too fast, but it was just too enjoyable. I feel like I could easily watch it again and appreciate it more than the last time.

#.hack//sign