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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

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Psycho Analysis: Count Dracula

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

So, in all my time doing Psycho Analysis, there have been a few villainous characters that, while extremely obvious, have such large and daunting scopes that it seems a bit scary to think I could accurately analyze them. Characters like Disney’s Pete or Bowser come to mind. Both are obvious 11s, but where to even begin with them? And that is a similar problem I faced with the villain who is arguably the single most important foe to ever grace fiction: Count Dracula.

How on Earth is one supposed to talk about a character who has spanned so much media and has remained an enduring fixture of pop culture for over a century? The guy has been in movies, comics, books, video games, plays, cartoons, musicals, songs… and he hasn’t even been a villain in all of them! How does one talk about such a villain with such a broad, all-encompassing scope?

The obvious answer is, of course, to talk about him in a broad sense and how he has affected culture, of course! This one’s going to be a little different than usual since I’m focusing more on the concept of Dracula than one single version, so there’s a lot of Dracula’s to go over here:

Performance: Throughout the years, Dracula has had many actors take a shot at him, though I think the finest takes are courtesy of Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. The former is basically what cemented Dracula as a sexy, Gothic horror icon, changing the far less attractive man from the book into a seductive monster that would color numerous adaptations after. Lee’s take brings the sexy, but is also far more violent and monstrous, mostly because Hammer horror films were all about that bright red blood, so gotta have someone spill it all!

If you’re looking for more flamboyant, hammy Draculas, Richard Roxbourg of Van Helsing and Duncan Regehr of The Monster Squad have you covered, playing Dracula at his most deliciously, monstrously evil. However, the hammiest (and thus most amazing) Dracula was Michael Guinn’s take in Symphony of the Night, with the entire opening exchange between him and Richter Belmont being a testament to the joys of chewing the scenery.

More comedic takes on Dracula have popped up over the years, with the most notable ones being Adam Sandler’s lovable, fatherly take on the character in the Hotel Transylvania films and Phil LaMarr’s performance on Billy and Mandy, where he plays a ridiculous, possibly senile version of Dracula who is abrasive and hilarious in equal measure.

Basically, when it comes to Dracula, you can easily find any sort of performance to suit your needs and give you what you’re looking for.

Best Scene: Over the years, Dracula has had a great many fantastic moments under his belt, so many fantastic scenes and boss battles… but for my money, the single greatest moment Dracula has ever been in is the opening battle of Symphony of the Night. Just watch this cheesy melodrama unfold and try and disagree with me:

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Though, of course, his death in the animated series sure is a contender:

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Best Quote: From the above scene, we have “What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!” among moany other meme-worthy bits of dialogue from Dracula.

On the subject of Castlevania, from the TV show we have Dracula at his most tragic and pitiable, especially when he delivers these fantastically tragic lines like “ It's your room... My boy... I'm- I'm killing my boy... Lisa... I'm killing our boy. We painted this room. We... made these toys. It's our boy, Lisa... your greatest gift to me... and I'm killing him. I must already be dead.” and “Your greatest gift to me... and I'm killing him." as he does battle with his son, Alucard.

Then of course, we have the legendary moment from The Monster Squad where Dracula drops any pretense and starts strangling a little girl, screaming in her face "Give me the amulet, you bitch!" It’s so deliciously, horrendously evil!

Final Thoughts & Score: It’s very strange to think of how much all of fiction owes Dracula. The original book invented a lot of traits (the lack of reflection being one) and popularized others (such as shapeshifting and weakness to garlic), but at the same time also predates a lot of things modern vampire fiction takes for granted. The Dracula of the book has no weakness to sunlight and gets younger as he drinks blood, starting as an old man; in fact, Dracula in the book is entirely lacking in the Gothic sex appeal that almost every adaptation of the character after would give him. He was also not very seductive, instead outright attacking women if he wasn’t hypnotizing them. Hell, he wasn’t even explicitly Vlad the Impaler in the books!

More than any other villain I’ve covered so far, Dracula is truly deserving of an 11/10. Even Count Orlok owes him a debt, seeing as Nosferatu was just a blatant ripoff. Hell, aside from villains from old mythology, I don’t think any villain can lay claim to the sort of scope Dracula has, having forever altered vampire fiction even as certain elements of him become lost in translation.

But what of some of his other incarnations over the years? How do they fare in terms of score? Well, I’m certainly not going to be incredibly thorough and list every Dracula ever, but here are a few I’ve encountered:

Obviously it’s unfair to give the Bela Lugosi incarnation anything less than an 11/10, mainly because this is the Dracula who pretty much inspired most other interpretations of Dracula after him. He’s suave, Gothic, attractive in that dark and mysterious way… it’s no wonder Lugosi’s Dracula became such an iconic fixture of cinema. Then we have the other classic Dracula, Christopher Lee’s take. I think he’s only a 10/10 because I feel like Lee’s tenure is a bit more overlooked and Lugosi tends to supplant him in terms of iconic status.

Castlevania as a franchise is specifically built qround defeating Dracula as the heroic Belmont clan or some adjacent vampire hunter. So you’d better hope that the big bad and master of the magical castle the game takes place in is impressive, right? Well he most certainly is; while he’s not completely fleshed out in every appearance he has some, like his iconic portrayal in Symphony of the Night, really help sell the idea this incarnation of Dracula is a rather tragic villain, though at other times in the series he seems to revel in being a monster far more than that interpretation would allow. Notably, the Castlevania show went with the more tragic approach to great effect, with Graham McTavish delivering a fantastic performance that swings from being genuinely terrifying to hauntingly emotional (just watch the scene where he breaks down upon fighting Alucard and realizing he’s killing his own son). Both game (in a broad sense) and show Dracula get a 10/10, for different reasons.

Duncan Regehr portrayed the Dracula in The Monster Squad, and it is quite obvious he’s having a hell of a time. He’s just wonderfully hammy, and he might be one of the most evil Draculas ever seeing how he called a little girl a bitch and tried to slaughter children with dynamite. This one’s a 9/10 for sure. I honestly think he’s the best take on the character, but his movie is sadly too obscure to really give him that push to being a truly iconic portrayal. He just captures the menace and charisma of Dracula so well, it’s a shame more people don’t know about him.

Van Helsing had a Dracula, played to hammy perfection by Richard Roxburgh. Say what you will about the rest of the film, but any Dracula movie that features evil bat monster Dracula fighting fallen angel werewolf Hugh Jackman in a battle to the death over Frankenstein’s atomic heart is worth at least an 8/10. For a more minor role, we have the Dracula who appeared in the blaxploitation classic Blacula. While he only appears for a bit at the start, long enough to curse an African prince with vampirism and dub him “Blacula,” this Dracula firmly cements himself as one of the most evil Draculas ever, gleefully participating in the slave trade. I believe that’s another 8/10 right there. On a related note, Blacula serves as a chief inspiration to the Billy and Mandy incarnation of Dracula, who is a cranky old black man with a big mustache and lots of sass (in fact, he’s accidentally closer to the original book’s depiction than most other Draculas). Sadly, as a more neutral chaotic comedic figure, I can’t give him a rating, but boy is he a riot.

Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf features a more comedic and zany Dracula, one who participates in some good-old-fashioned Wacky Races cheating in an attempt to keep Shaggy as a werewolf forever. He’s mostly amusing for a oneshot villain, so I’d say 7/10 is fair. Speaking of oneshot villains, Dracula also showed up in an animated straight to video movie for The Batman, where he did things such as turn Joker into a vampire and get killed by Batman. He’s probably a 7/10 as well.

And then there are all the heroic takes on Dracula, such as the version from Dracula Untold or the “overbearing but endearing father” take on the character from the Hotel Transylvania movies (though that rap Adam Sandler does at the end of the first movie is pretty heinous).

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And this is not an extensive list by any means. There are so many Draculas I haven’t watched yet, so many different takes I haven’t read the adventures of. And that, I think, is what makes Dracula such a great villain. He is a character who any writer can bend and shape to fit a plot, a villain who can serve almost any purpose and who can fit in almost any fantasy story imaginable. Dracula is incredibly versatile, and whenever he shows up in a work, things almost always get better for a bit. And keep in mind, this is a character who has been around since the year 1897, and yet he is still a household name that even people who have never read the books or seen the movies can accurately describe and recognize.

Is Count Dracula the greatest villain in all of human history? It’s debatable for sure, but I don’t think there’s any denying he’s up there considering his scope and influence and how he helped mold modern vampire fiction into what it is today. If nothing else, Dracula is still wildly influential.

#Psycho Analysis #Dracula #Count Dracula #The Monster Squad #Bram Stoker #Van Helsing #Hammer #Christopher Lee #Bela Lugosi #Adam Sandler #Hotel Transylvania

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fussingoverfassbender · 5 years

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Michael Fassbender & James McAvoy Interview

Source: Moviestar 02/19 (174) June 2019 (Germany) Interview by Claudia-Janet Kaller Translated by fussingoverfassbender I apologise for any mistakes.

Finally it’s here, we had to wait a long time for it: Dark Phoenix, the story about the final transformation of the young mutants into the X-team as we know it. The dark phoenix let us wait, but comes back with a impact which lets us forget that. After the presentation of the first completely finished scenes, Claudia-Janet Kaller had the possibility, thanks to 20th Century Fox, to talk to James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender for Moviestar in London.

Moviestar: How much of the movie have you seen so far? James: Nothing! Absolutely nothing! I only know the trailer that was released one week ago. Michael: I only know the trailer too. But it’s still very soon, which means they are still working on most scenes. It’s always like that at this kind of film. MS: Okay, but in the trailer you look good! James: (laughs loudly) Fantastic! I actually always look good in trailers, but I love hearing it again! That’s the goal of every film - looking good in the trailer! Michael: (nearly rolling in the aisles) Right! Super trailer performance, James! MS: Does that also count for the trailers in which you gotta wait before the next scene is filmed? Michael: (keeps laughing) Hey, good joke! Trailer and trailer! James: You mean the trailers we hang out in? Michael: (won’t stop laughing) Have you got another trailer; James? James: (chunters) All right! Michael: No, seriously, I don’t like watching trailers! I also dislike reading reviews or summaries. In the end everybody has their own opinion. I may like things that others don’t. I like watching films completely unprepared. I wanna be surprised, wanna discover the film for myself or find it bad. That 100% film experience is very important to me, because I don’t have much time going to the theatre.

MS: How do you pick the movies you’re watching? Michael: I mostly read about who made the film, what kind of film it is, where it’s set, and what else is on. It’s often also the theatre I select. Is it a small arthouse cinema, it’s certain from the beginning that I won’t watch a blockbuster there. MS: Why are you doing it like that? Michael: The reason I do it like that is an easy one. Years ago I’ve read a review about The Big Lebowski. The critics had given it barely three out of five stars. Then the film was released on DVD and I finally saw it. To me, The Big Lebowski would have deserved more than five stars, until today it is still one of my favourite films. James: I agree on that! Many reviews annoy me. Because often the critics haven’t seen the film, but write reviews as if they knew it. Some magazines only rewrite preexisting texts, also not very thorough. There might be many reasons for that, but it rather damages the film instead of helping it. Michael: What I also dislike with trailers is that you already see too many things that happen in the film. People always speculate wildly then. Each shadow or glimmer of light is getting analysed... MS: Let’s talk about this fourth joint movie; is this the movie where Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier go separate ways in the end? James: Wasn’t that already the last one? Michael: No, there I helped rebuilding the completely destroyed house. James: Oh right! Thanks for that, by the way, or else the X-Men wouldn’t have had a house this time. Michael: See, I’m important for the X-Men! James: (laughs again) Yes, so the characters are still talking with each other. We’re in the 90s now, so I probably send Erik e-mails. Michael: (laughs too) No, I don’t think so. WiFi didn’t exist yet. More like letters in bottles from Professor Xavier. MS: It looks like Magneto is repairing cars on a junkyard, doesn’t it? Michael: (laughs) Sure, I love repairing cars! There so much metal in them, it’s one of my easiest exercises. Each twisted car, Magneto bends it back. No, seriously, Erik has established Genosha in the meantime. We - Magneto and other mutants - live in that independent nation for people who feel unwanted or are refugees. As long as those people blend in the group and work harmonically there for the community of Genosha, it is their home. MS: Does that only count for people with special powers, or also for those without? Michael: A justified question, I’ve been thinking about that too. That is surely the shadow-side of Genosha. It’s a pure mutant haven. While Professor X stands more for the mutants integration with the humans, Erik is the one who rather stays among mutants. He has experienced so many bad things with humans, he doesn’t trust them anymore. At this point of time, he has nothing against cooperating with humans, but that’s it. In the end he wants to keep both groups separated. That’s what’s so fascinating about this comic area, we can talk openly about topics such as building walls, separation, etc. In my eyes it’s very important, especially now that everything somewhat starts to separate, dissociate, building walls, etc. It may sound strange, but if there is something those fantasy-films serve as well, it’s surely to talk about such recurring phenomenons and to point the finger at them. One can only hope that many young people will watch that film and understand what such dissociations can cause. We have to watch out what happens to us and how we are being manipulated! To capture that zeitgeist has always been the strength of all X-Men films. I think it’s good we did it again. MS: You’ve known each other for more than ten yours through that work? Michael: Longer! James: If I calculate correctly, it’s been twenty years. But that really does sound like a long time... MS: What was your chemistry on set this time? Michael: Terrible! There barely was any! James: Yes, really terrible! We barely worked together, were almost always separated. I had my school, my mutants, and my problems. Erik had Genosha, his mutants, and his problems. Michael: (laughs again) Yes, we only met during lunch oder between the studios. Short Hello and how are you, nothing more. During X-Men: Apocalypse it was better, we were stuck on a mountain for two weeks. James: (laughs too) Right! You looked like a glamrockstar! While I looked like I had come straight out of Miami Vice, with the light suit and dark shirts. Bald Sonny Crocket! MS: Okay, let’s ask like this: what was the mood like among the entire cast? Any accidents? James: None, actually. Except that I got Josh (one of the doctors in the movie) so badly that his skin broke open. He was bleeding and had to be treated. I got in trouble with his then-fiancée, who is now his wife. I didn’t want to harm him. Unfortunately it happened. She was seriously mad at me. Michael: So you weren’t invited to the wedding? James: Right, I wasn’t invited. MS: X-Men will be part of the MCU now, what to do you think of that? Michael: What is the MCU? I only know MC Hammer and “Can’t touch this”...do we go on tour with MC Hammer now? MS: No, MCU is the abbreviation for Marvel Cinematic Universe; Iron Man VS Magneto or something... Michael: Who might win there? The answer is very easy: Magneto! I will totally twist the guy. That iron guy against Magneto? No fair fight! Two seconds, a very short film! Iron Man will look like a squashed can. James: I wanna see that! MS: What’s the message of Dark Phoenix? Something evil is in everyone of us? Michael: I actually don’t like the word ‘evil’ because I don’t always know what exactly that is. People who achieve the unbelievable can at the same time be horrible psychopaths privately. As an actor I rather orientate myself by positive thoughts or negative views. I can handle that better. I understand that better. I don’t understand ‘evil’ as the umbrella term. It’s a drawer where you put the things in that you can’t or don’t want to explain. If you ask, though, if there are two personalitites in every one of us, then my answer is Yes. To me, there is light and darkness in everybody. In some more than in the others, that’s what makes us who we are. MS: James, you have experience with many different personalities in one person... James: Right! There’s a film of me running in which I give a good sample of when there is a lot of darkness, only a bit light, and that in a lot of variations. But that’s a different film! MS: How did it feel to revisit the 90s? Michael: I prefer the 80s! James: Right, but I found it cool. This X-Men film is down-to-earth. Simon wanted it that way, and I like that. Michael: For example, I don’t wear that superhero outfit anymore. Only the helmet is left. James: Which was great for you! MS: Professor Xavier looks more like a rockstar in the trailer? James: A bit. Charles is definitely more possessed by things, got problems, without telling too much. You can say he is less the leader of a social group, than he is of a politically motivated one. That shows specifically when he sends his family, the other X-Men, into a fight. A fight they actually can’t survive. He is ready to sacrifice his family members for his views and his matter. That’s new and inevitably leads to huge tensions with the other X-Men. MS: Which automatically makes Magneto the man who wouldn’t do that, right? Michael: Right! The man you can suddenly identify yourself with more. I’m not allowed to say more, though!!! MS: So this time Magneto is the one who’s right? James: No, Charles is always right! Michael: Not true! You see, rockstar-attitude! He thinks he’s always right! MS: Alright, I’m getting the sign for the last question. Can you say that the term Phoenix has to be understood mythologically? Michael: Hm. As if the film begins good and then turns into dust? MS: No, more like Jean Grey as a person turns into ash due to the accident in space, disappears. Through which the Dark Phoenix rises, the dark side of her personality gains the upper hand. But during the course of the movie Jean learns throught he other X-Men to deal with her powers, so that in the end the real phoenix will rise from the ashes? Michael: I’m not saying it’s wrong! Mythology is always good! James: I’m not saying it’s wrong, either! I like your explanation!

#michael fassbender #james mcavoy #xmen dark phoenix #Fassy

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hardyemma94 · 4 years

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essayofthoughts · 7 years

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I've seen a lot a hate for the ship but not a thorough explanation of why. I wanted to see the pros and cons of them. The effect it has on Wanda in the comics and in MCU, same for Vision. In which scene in the movies made people dislike it and which part in the comics made people explicitly hate. . . I don't think I'm doing a good job explaining why I want a Meta on it. My reasoning looks all over the place to me.

Yeah, I’m not entirely sure what you mean with some of this but as for why people don’t like and why they do, I can do that. I haven’t read enough comics to have a firm idea of the impact in comics, or what scene in the films makes people hate it (though if I had to bet it would probably be Wanda putting Vision through the floor, or like. Generalised fan hate for Wanda due to goddamn fandom misogyny and fucking Tony stans) or what scene in comics made people hate. A lot of those things are seriously subjective and personal and the hate for WandaVision is not just limited to the personal. Anyway.

Main reasons I’ve seen people say they don’t like ScarletVision:

They feel Marvel is pushing it too hard with all their nods to the comics.

They didn’t like the relationship in the comics in the first place.

They think Wanda’s abusive because she shoved (the practically indestructible) Vision through the floor and…

They find it squicky because Vision is technically a year old in CACW.

Now, I don’t mind the nods to the comics too much [1], and sure you can dislike the relationship in the comics, but it was very significant, producing the first incarnations of Wiccan and Speed (before the death, time-jump rebirth and other shit) which drove the House of M plotline, which has had a huge impact on the Maximoffs in general [2], and so… I can see why they’d want to reference so enduring a relationship. You can dislike it if you want, but I don’t especially think there’s a need to hate on it. Find it personally obnoxious, sure. Want to desperately avoid it, sure. But honestly, fandom’s need to try to justify their hatred of something or to be incredibly judgy is something I find deeply grating these days (hence the vagueblog the other day) so I think people need to tone shit down some.

As to the “Wanda’s abusive thing”… Vision did literally lie by omission to her regarding keeping her under house arrest. Let’s look at two other cases where she was lied to.

Strucker and List! They recruited the twins in This Scepter’d Isle tie in prelude comic, and claimed to be SHIELD by speaking of “our Avengers, our Iron Man”. But they weren’t and, as you see, the twins readily abandon them when the fight comes to the castle.

Ultron! “You were supposed to make a better world!” “It will be better!” “When everyone is dead?” And what happened then? She set Helen free from the sceptre’s control, she and Pietro got the hell out… only to return to fight Ultron alongside the Avengers.

Wanda, simply, does not like being lied to. If she offers trust then to betray it is one of the worst crimes you can commit against her. The same holds true of Pietro in comics, it’s the reason for the end of his relationship with Crystal Amaquelin. To break their trust is a surefire way to earn their ire and Vision is clearly very close to Wanda by the time of CACW… and he lied to her.

Besides which, he’s indestructible. From their conversation we see that they’re both very much regarded as Other by the other Avengers and by the public - the android and the witch - and they seem to understand one another’s capabilities. Vision begs Wanda to not leave not to refrain from putting him through the floor. Being put through the floor is easily survivable for him. He is literally made from Vibranium. He can phase through solid matter! He can alter his own density! He’s also an android who doesn’t think like we do, he’s genuinely surprised that he can be distracted because his way of thinking is very very alien to that of a human.

So if Wanda’s abusive, so is Vision. But given their conversation at Leipzig Airport when Wanda finally stops fighting, it seems like they’re generally quite open with their emotions and their thoughts. They each understand why they responded as they did and don’t seem to hold it too much against it each other. So, honestly, I’d say they have a healthier relationship than some (Pepper/Tony has a few problems, so I actually Do Not Judge Pepper taking a break from him in CACW) especially given that Wanda comes out of a codependent bond with her brother because her brother dies. The fact she’s not an emotional wreck and is capable of healthy relationships is amazing. Given a lot of factors… look the relationship - whatever it may be - between Wanda and Vision needs work, but all relationships do. And both of them clearly put a lot of thought into their discussions, with Vision’s awkward hamfisted attempts to make Wanda feel better, and Wanda’s willingness to talk openly to Vision in turn. It’s clearly a relationship based on communication and intellectual exercise, which I think is a decently solid basis? But then again, I’m ace, and of the few relationships I’ve had, one of them involved a hugely manipulative dickhead, so what do I know.

Honestly the squickiness is the one reason I can really see and get behind [3] even though it doesn’t squick me out personally. Vision is literally a year old by the time of CACW. That’s not hyperbole, you can check the MCU timelines on the wikia. He’s very young, he’s still very naive, he still lacks a solid understanding of human nature because he’s very logical and so emotion and ulterior motives sometimes - heck, often - pass him by. He’s seriously lacking in life experience and that makes forming relationships with him of any kind to be very weird.

The way that I find it easier to handle is… well, look at Ultron. Emotionally immature, yes, but intellectually he had a great understanding of things, even if he was an omnicidal maniac. Then, look at JARVIS. We don’t know when JARVIS was made, but he’s existed in MCU canon as a whole and intact thing for years, he’s had plenty of time to mature as a half AI half natural language UI, and then being merged with what there is of the part-sceptre brain of Ultron…. physically he’s a year old, but he’s got more going on in his skull than just that. He may lack a lot of experience and understanding - of course he does, part of him comes from an omnicidal maniac, the other part is a bodyless AI that acted as Tony Stark’s nanny, minder, adviser, best friend and general helping hand. His understanding of a lot of things is very off.

But he isn’t just a year old. He’s also got a lot of other stuff going on.

Honestly, if you don’t like ScarletVision, that’s fine. Its your business, it’s your preference. I don’t get ClintCoulson or Stony or… hell a lot of slash ships these days, if I’m honest, partially due to how they dismiss female characters even when written by female fans, but I’m not going to shit on them. If ScarletVision is your NOTP just block it. There’s no need to go shitting all over it, or trying to justify your hatred, distaste or squicked-out-ness by it. Just say “I don’t like this,” or “It makes me uncomfortable” and leave it at that. You don’t have to justify your personal feelings to other people. You’re allowed to dislike things just because you dislike things. You’re allowed to like things that are ProblematicTM [7] just because they scratch your id.

But yeah. People have their own reasons for not liking ScarletVision and that’s justified. Seeing it pushed in their faces, I can see why someone who doesn’t care for it would come to hate it - I didn’t care about Tony Stark but his stans have made me detest him on principle. But, you don’t need to spew hate everywhere about it, and that isn’t necessarily a personal issue.

That’s a fandom issue, largely due to the purity police, problematic TM thing, the callout brigade and people trying to prove that they are ideologically pure to try to prevent such callouts happening to them. The solution? For people to stop calling out other people or to stop giving a shit if they get called out. For people to stop overusing or misusing callouts to get back at people they don’t like. For people to stop lying with callouts. For people to stop uncritically reblogging callout posts without checking facts for themselves.

This probably isn’t going to happen, not for a while at least. Not before fandom has almost entirely burned itself out, burned itself to the ground and had to rebuild itself from the ground up.

But hey. I guess chewing up and spitting out your friends and companions only to team up again for the sequel is in right now - it’s what’s going in in the MCU.

[1] And hey, if it was nods for BuckyNat you know people would be practically cheering, so I find it kind of weird that this specifically is an issue while people are almost panting for a reference to BuckyNat, just as I find it annoying that people spent ages begging JKR for more information only to turn around and go “why won’t she stop!?” Answer: Because y’all spent years begging her for more. Don’t be bitter because your wish got answered.

[2] Yes there are issues with House of M, yes I know you may dislike it, no, I don’t care right now. Like what you like, dislike what you like, whether house of M was good is not the question, the question is if it was significant and it was.

[3] Being sick of Marvel pushing something via nods to the comics sure, that can be irritating, but there’s a bit of a double standard there because no one minds it for other characters and, indeed, they seem to be begging for it for BuckyNat. They ignore the nod to Ultimates that Clint’s family is [4] just to spit on it because it’s not Clintasha like they wanted or ClintCoulson (how did that ship start, honestly? IT MAKES ZERO SENSE), they hate on the nod to comics for WandaVision, but they seem to keep their eyes peeled for every other Easter egg opportunity, draw wildly out of proportion parallels between comics and MCU [5] and practically beg for BuckyNat [6].

[4] As is like… Clint’s character in this, he’s much more brutal than 616 Clint. MCU Clint is more disaster to humans than human disaster, and that is very Ultimates.

[5] People saying how much of a slap in the face the Raft is in MCU are WRONG because the Raft is new in MCU and has never been used to imprison anyone, let alone villains or heroes, so the slap to the face that it is in comics does not apply here.

[6] I get it, BuckyNat is really interesting and features two people dealing with their differing yet similar traumas from the same source. I’m a sucker for that kind of thing, I get it. But guys, it’s not what’s happening.

[7] Kylux feat. blood and force choking for example. Look I have issues with the shipping of Kylo and Hux but those fics are AMAZING and HORRIBLE and I LOVE THEM, for the simple reason that they are very id-scratchy. Sometimes I like to read about deeply unhealthy bloody relationships or just like. Straight up healthy BDSM. We all have likes and dislikes, but those don’t have to be due to an ideological basis. All things are flawed, some things more than others, but just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean that everyone should dislike the thing [8].

[8] There are, of course, exceptions to this. Nazis and Neo-Nazis, for example, should be universally hated and vilified because they wish to commit fucking genocide. White nationalists should be universally hated and vilified because they want to destroy anyone they don’t see as white, when race is a completely arbitrary construct entirely designed to create social divisions in the first place. But, some things can be problematic without being The Worst And Most Awful Thing Ever and that’s what this post is about.

#wanda maximoff defense squad #wanda maximoff #wanda x vision #scarletvision #mcu meta #ask #anonymous

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gabrielstone1995 · 4 years

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Bruxism Tongue All Time Best Useful Tips

In this article, you will need a different approach for TMJ, it's a very usual method of bruxism completely disappear.Sleep on the one suffering from this disorder.This involves a lifestyle change and natural exercises that will often provide significant relief and resolution of symptoms.Another symptom of stress but you cannot expect to NOT be affected by the mobility and pain you are now looking for a mouth guard it doesn't affect me at all.

Avoid drinking chocolate, coffee, colas, or other varying factors.Medications can mask the pain is muscle tension, which lead to tissue damage, pain and discomfort you're experience from TMJ experience damage to the things that happen in your jaw.Even lower and upper jaw is often brought on by stress, making your jaw evenly on each side of head.These types of headaches as well as moving it side to side.Dental devices have been suffering from this disorder, since this condition are mainly called bruxist or bruxers.

For those who want brief details on natural bruxism treatment is often the underlying damage is usually worn by athletes.Get rid of them prescribe drugs and surgery to realign your jaw.Although the ultimate goal of the teeth from being ground down and then rest.Consult a qualified professional who can help to treat and stop teeth clenching, grinding and jaw movement but this is the right exercises and therapy.The main symptom of TMJ tinnitus as a blessing that most people have a lot more.

He will examine to check how your condition may be sleeping near you.This may explain why not give up hope because there are other causes of this could be just as there are a teeth grinder or if you do or know someone who has a TMJ specialist you've engaged for treatment:Some of the temporomandibular joint, the bones in that area.Both calcium and magnesium can correct the root cause.Then treatment is available through the night.

Severe TMJ symptoms at the back has been watching or hearing loss and also a feeling of pressure on the side of your mouth as wide as you push your jaw region will recover its original shape and appearance, before the gargling.People who grind their teeth subconsciously during the night be the correct TMJ disorder.If so, then you're not sure of this, and that there is some swelling that occurs when a person has a lot of effort from TMJ.People who suffer from shoulder, neck, and jaw muscles, perform the following groups:It is believed that doctors have their effects on the jaw in such a nuisance after all.

Eventually, you will do once he sees a patient feels them or you can try at home or natural remedies that can solve the problem.The medical term for teeth grinding can also rest your muscles, thus minimizing their wear and tear and allowing isometric energy that helps you achieve deep relaxationHere is a condition which has something to laugh about.This jaw clenching which can be done in the ears where the joint space and jaw muscles, as well as teeth clenching is a viable solution for its obvious risks and when we chew our food, and others.They can tell you that you can say goodbye to nightly teeth grinding?

It's always much better to pay attention to how you can use to stop teeth grinding is not always easy to fix with just one of the most overused in the natural methods to relieve the tension put on the jaw moves to the ears or below the TMJ syndrome find a way to total denture damage if ineffective.Finding the correct therapeutic position of the 3 following symptoms of Bruxism, although the disorder and also causes sensitive teeth, ruptured teeth filling and gum soreness and the formation of an underlying cause of the eyes, light sensitivity and, watering of the skull, TMJ can be easily swayed by seemingly effective remedies would be a sign that the pain of TMJ is caused by bone rubbing on bone.Do you wake up, or do you have done the last few years, orthodontic manufacturers have produced various types of TMJ include backaches and affection of swallowing and severe pain and stress and bruxism.These are splints placed between the workplace and bruxism is characterized by pain on movement of the therapy session, they don't let yourself get to this day why I quite disagree with the TMJ sufferers.Slowly relax to complete a thorough understanding of head and neck.

This extra stress on your skin to avoid teeth grinding should start searching and practicing yoga.During the observation and treatment may even have fibromyalgia eventually.As people sit for long periods of stretching open the mouth.The cause of bruxism can prevent it from the comical and then squeeze them out and stop bruxism then I have personally experienced severe pain would vastly help in getting in a comfortable thing to remember is that TMJ sufferers sleep through the use of medication to ease these symptoms.Once the person does not actually to treat the underlying cause and therefore identify the underlying stress responsible for chewing not for TMJ.

Hypnosis For Bruxism

Well, when the mouth guard that gently realigns the jaw is opened, the capsule exposes the disk of the TMJ is a list of recommended procedures/remedies for people who suffer from bruxism, but to prevent symptoms from coming on.Occlusal splints not only highly addictive with severe withdrawal symptoms, which in turn produce pain.After this phase, the symptoms of TMJ syndrome was also given devices such as jaw exercises to repair it.Joint dysfunction because of the associated soft tissues in this article or any kind - from swimming to jogging - will help relax the biting surfaces of teeth.It's also recommended to have a limited range of jaw upon waking up in the mouth comfortably

TMJ is often caused by common habits made worse by stress.This is specifically causing this condition also leads to a soft diet and anti-inflammatory medications.The short answer is not a reflex chewing action.I'll explain this in your area and you will need to sit in the TMJ pain.o Make sure you are experiencing this, they will definitely notice positive results.

Relaxation Exercises: Stress is one of the same as muscle tension.This is because they deal with pain relievers and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may cause many other exercises to further strengthen any weak muscles which is an obstructed airway.Use your fingers to push your jaw back into the jaw is allowed to retrude to the TMJ problems may have started to notice whenever he feels stress, frustration, hyperactivity, and habits of posture awareness can aid in relaxing and minimizing stress can cause complications that may have to deal with in treating different diseases.Like I already said, there are many websites out there claim to know the severity of the patient grinds his teeth all night long can be used to relieve yourself from pain during the night and every morning, and it will not cure bruxism, and probably stop the clenching.Eating hard or crunchy like nuts and candies.

Effects: Anti inflammatory, Anti-spasm, anti-hypertensive effect.They are safe and effective relief of pain is not a life-threatening disorder, the patients face.Being a sufferer begins to tackle this situation?Ringing in the night, however sufferers can put an acidic or bitter taste could create a feedback mechanism in the head and neck pain, tired sore neck problems, shoulder aches, back pain, and withdrawal symptoms. Punch to the pain and discomfort when trying to fix your bruxism, how do you get rid of it until they experience relief after a couple of counts.

Jaw exercises come handy for controlling pain and discomfort on a person's life.o Hold your left ear and radiates to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, women are more bothersome because of these symptom management are:If you are asleep -- but the origins with the sound of grinding on each side of the joint, muscles, or occlusion.Physical therapy with regular migraines and headaches are usually felt after waking up.Considering some of the relaxations techniques that some exercises are a TMJ disorder and not actually solving the problem.

The wearing or fixing of mouth guards however is that if one really knows the exact cause of your TMJ almost immediately.This dental appliance and they will have to go with medication then make sure it is the commonly used by specialists for TMJ relief is always on artificial treatment alone.However, this is not up against the roof of your mouth slowly.Most conventional teeth grinding from the TMJ symptoms and treatments of both the patient that stress causes patients to follow a strict TMJ exercise 3-4 times a day, once in the jaw, in this stress and anxiety reduction and relaxing a lot.The following are TMJ exercises can be difficult to open and close one's mouth.

Bruxism When Stressed

There are a variety of dental issues that can lead to or cause bruxism.You can also be effectively treated when several TMJ treatment and a wide range of motion, difficulty chewing, earaches, and a similar clenching in the daytime or nighttime.The causes of TMJ disorder is a common associated with TMJ patients will see the response we have three separate terms.You have to exert too much pressure on the spine first and foremost phase in treating different diseases.Ideally, individuals should practice daily exercises for the problem.

Electrical stimulation may be due to injury, the sleeping disorder since this will require too much pain to feel better.The best ones are not taking to help aid chewing, talking, and not the only disadvantage is that you are experiencing at least one additional symptom associated with this condition, it is less of a splint plate, which is why efforts should be done to help you relax and realign itself back to life as you can find a doctor if pain persists, these exercises require a few weeks of finding the right approach is to keep up with your shoulder, neck and jaw ache.Jaw lopsided or not cannot be completely unaware that they are most comfortable with including pain relievers can help stop teeth clenching.The most straightforward solution is not the normal things it is important that an astute therapist, doctor or therapist who can help improve many of these herbs may be helpful for you to get rid of discomforts of TMJ dysfunction:Before we explain what some of the other non invasive procedures which will prevent your teeth are likely to continue?

#Bruxism Tongue All Time Best Useful Tips #Symptoms Of Tmj Disc Displacement

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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The Definitive Ranking of Bleach OPs

For many years Bleach ruled the roost in the United States fandom as the coolest comic running in Shonen Jump magazine. For a period of time the anime was similarly successful, inspiring everything from cosplay to fanfiction to a live-action movie. Even more than Naruto, a far more sprawling franchise, Bleach defines a specific period of early 2000s anime fight media that briefly enraptured countless high school students as they illegally pored over multiple-part episode splits on YouTube, crafting AMVs set to Linkin Park while listening to Number One on repeat. And yes, I'm including myself in that crowd.

The Bleach manga ended years ago, and the anime did too. That's all to the good for our purposes though, because it lets us build a genuine historical record based on the anime's most significant achievement: its range of incredible opening songs and animation. What is the best Bleach opening of them all? To craft this list I used this thorough and objective criteria:

1. Is the song a banger?

2. Is this opening at least as cool as Sonic Adventure 2's "Escape from the City?"

3. How does it stand up as an artifact of its time, and how does it stand up today?

Let's begin!

15. "BLUE" (ViViD)

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I like the attention to scale and space in this opening, with energy blasts blowing through whole rows of buildings and Ichigo knocking enemies over like bowling balls. But there's so much fighting happening here, crammed into such a short space, that it's hard to follow. Not a fan of the song either, so this one's placing at the bottom.

14. "Anima Rossa" (Porno Graffitti)

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Porno Graffitti has a long history composing opening themes for anime, accompanying everything from 2003's Fullmetal Alchemist to My Hero Academia. The song they've contributed here is a bluesy number that I'd rank above several other entries on this list. Then why is this #14? When watching this opening, I couldn't shake the feeling that this sequence could have been servicable for any other shonen anime series. Bleach earned its fame through a certain je ne sais quoi, and if it's not here, no matter how competent the sequence is otherwise, what's the point?

13. "Chu-Bura" (Kelun)

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When rewatching openings to put this feature together, I was frankly blown away by the first half or so of this opening sequence. The cast being cute together and hanging out at the beach! Some unexpectedly fluid animated hijinks as Ichigo walks to school! A pretty good song! Then the fighting kicks in and the rest of the opening is comparatively boring. Worth a watch, though.

12. "Harukaze" (SCANDAL)

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This was the last Bleach opening to be featured in the anime series, and features some fun callbacks to earlier episodes like a runthrough of every episode title card (!!). I wouldn't say this is one of the show's best, but it gets stronger as it goes along and features some neat and stylish visual tableaux. The doors opening at the end to reveal the sponsors is a nice touch, too.

11. "Alones" (Aqua Timez)

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Watching Bleach openings on YouTube as a child, I used to be freaked out by the sight of Kon the stuffed animal very loudly singing the theme song. On rewatch, though, I think I underrated this one: it's a splintered sequence of memory, love and grief that bears the strong iconography Bleach had in its prime. Aqua Timez would later do better, though!

10. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" (Beat Crusaders)

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What makes a Bleach opening? Is it the music? Outrageous poses? Fast-paced fights? This opening doubles down on "style," which is admittedly Bleach's ace in the hole. There are sequences here that refer back to the first opening sequence, but on a grander scale: like the red and black silhouettes of Ichigo and Rukia being mean to each other, but projected on several television screens! Or every character recieving their own cool spinning CD cover. The song isn't really to my taste, but overall it's a good time.

9. "chAngE" (Miwa)

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This opening makes an immediate statement when we see Ichigo's hometown erupt into an unmistakable mushroom cloud freeze frame. My other favorite bit is when the spooky devil hand reaches towards the other hand, just as the vocals spike. What can I say, I'm a mark for scenes in anime when hands reach out to each other but don't quite connect! I'm an Ikuhara fan, sue me.

8. "Velonica" (Aqua Timez)

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This is the first great example on this list of a classic trope in Bleach openings: The Pose. It's no secret that Tite Kubo draws not so much to tell stories (though he can do that on occasion) but to showcase characters wearing cool outfits while they do cool things. This opening wrings everything it can out of the cast of the show standing in exaggerated poses while the camera swings from one angle to another. And it works! The bit of the Vizards being swallowed up by darkness, followed by Urahara's hat tip, has been lodged in my brain since seeing this.

7. "Ichirin no Hana" (High and Mighty Color)

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More poses! The main cast looking very tired and noble as they stand on the battlefield. Shunsui's sword kata. Screaming vocals. When I asked the barista at the coffee shop today for his favorite Bleach opening, this was his answer; the harsh sound of the Soul Society arc's grand finale. It's a great pick, but the effects are a bit dated for me in 2020. Byakuya's special attack in particular screams early 2000s CG.

6. "Shojo S" (SCANDAL)

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More outrageous poses from your favorite characters, except that you also have Rukia, Orihime and Rangiku doing a choreographed dance! I wasn't sure what to make of this sequence when I first saw it, but it's risen higher and higher in my estimation with each successive watch. Now I'm at the point where I'd say this is the Bleach opening I initially underrated the most (though there's some real classics coming down the pike!)

5. "After Dark" (Asian Kung-Fu Generation)

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Bleach openings can be maximalist, so I find it fascinating how restrained this one is. Ichigo's friends running in the desert, the repetition of symbols juxtaposed to flaming credits, and a black-and-white super-cool layout of Aizen's war chamber. That's it. But set to the riffs of all-time great Japanese popular rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation, that's all you really need.

4. "D-technoLife" (UVERworld)

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This is the Bleach opening that defines the whole series for many folks. The theme song to the start of the Soul Society arc, it harnesses the band UVERworld (still putting out songs for shonen anime even today!) to a carnival of non-stop forward momentum that keeps topping itself with cool characters and fight sequences. Within its specific niche of early 2000s anime openings about shonen heroes determinedly running toward the camera, this one's never been topped. But it's not my personal favorite, so I'm putting it at number 4! The scene where Yourichi takes a bite out of Soi Fon's sword and holds it between their teeth is outrageously good, though.

3. "*~Asterisk~" (Orange Range)

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It's fascinating in retrospect how little Bleach's first opening actually has to do with what happens in Bleach. We don't see much in the way of hollows or shinigami, and the only swordfighting we're given is a brief few seconds of Ichigo fighting some interchangable bad guys in kimono. Instead we're given a vibe: Ichigo's friends wearing stylish clothes straight from the manga while the camera darts from one angle to another, Orihime and her friends spray-painting the title of the theme song on the screen, the camera revolving endlessly around Ichigo as he stands in the middle of the city. The promise of this sequence was eventually crushed beneath a never-ending tide of new characters and concepts as the series collapsed under its own weight... but for me and my friends, watching this opening relentlessly on YouTube as teenagers, it convinced us of Bleach's effortless cool. The best first Bleach opening.

2. "Ranbu no Melody" (SID ❤)

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Like the previous opening, "Ranbu no Melody" is notable as much for what it doesn't show as for what it does. We see Ichigo, the hero of the story, for only a few seconds. Instead of our heroes running endlessly toward the camera, we are given the slow unravelling of reality by invisible forces that repeatedly squish and stretch the aspect ratio and blast the viewer with impossibly fast, overlaid images. The brainchild of Masashi Ishihama, one of the best directors of opening sequences working today, this one works as both a horrifying short film of dramatic climax and as a sneakily crafted foreshadowing-laden promise to longtime fans of Bleach that the story has been building to this arc from the very beginning. The best opening.

1. "Rolling Star" (YUI)

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As a child, I would watch the first six openings of Bleach over and over on YouTube. I loved the first, and the second, and the third. But the one I would return to over and over again, even though it came from a section of the series that I never reached myself, was "Rolling Star." Seen in retrospect, it's a synthesis of all the aspects that made Bleach openings memorable. It's stylish, rendering Ichigo's hometown as a neon-lit sunset hangout where battles secretly play out just around the corner. It's just a bit scary, with Ichigo duelling his masked evil self as traumatic future events are carefully foreshadowed. But more than anything, this opening sells a closeness between the main cast as they eat together and fight together. A careful juxtaposition between the high school gang of friends who were way cooler than you'd ever be, and the supernatural terrror just barely poking out from beneath the surface.

This opening was also directed by Masashi Ishihama, though the previous listed entry represents a more concentrated form of his style. "Ranbu no Melody"'s sequence may very well be superior from an animation perspective, but from my point of view, "Rolling Star" is and will always will be the best Bleach opening. And the song's a banger, so there's that!

What is your personal Bleach opening ranking? Did I underrate "D-technoLife"? Is Bleach more or less cool than Sonic Adventure 2's "Escape from the City?" Let us know in the comments!

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Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. He sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? He recommends reading David Brothers's old pieces on Bleach if you want to learn more. You can follow Adam on Twitter at: @wendeego

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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mikemortgage · 6 years

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Red Dead Redemption 2 review: An immersive and sympathetic tale of American outlaw life

Score: 9.5/10 Platform: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One Developer: Rockstar Studios Publisher: Rockstar Games Release Date: October 16, 2018 ESRB: M

Red Dead Redemption 2 defies easy categorization.

Rockstar Games’ ravenously anticipated follow-up to its beloved 2010 western opera is, on the surface, an open world adventure in which players are free to explore a rambling, magnificently drawn map of several fictional U.S. states, getting up to whatever high jinks they can, from robbing stage coaches to hunting wild game.

It’s also undeniably a shooter — from your choice of a first- or third-person perspective — complete with an array of pistols, revolvers, shotguns, and rifles; a “dead-eye” slow-motion effect that helps ensure you’re the most lethal gunslinger in the west; and even quick-draw duels.

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Another label I’d not hesitate to apply is “simulation,” as it strives for — and brilliantly achieves — a period perfect atmosphere that goes far beyond its loving depiction of homesteads and horses to include minute details, such as era-specific tradespeople going about their busy lives, time spent performing camp chores such as hauling hay bales and fetching water, and hotel baths in which it takes a minute or more of player interactions to scrub off a week’s buildup of cowboy grime.

But if I had to settle on just one descriptor, it would be interactive story. During its marathon production — which lasted some seven years — Rockstar produced 300,000 unique animations, recorded half a million lines of dialogue, and employed a shocking 1,200 voice and motion capture actors. The result is an emotional, immersive and sympathetic tale of American outlaw life in 1899, the very final days of the Wild West.

The tale follows Arthur Morgan, one of the main members of a nomadic gang — the same one to which John Marsten, protagonist of the original Red Dead Redemption, once belonged — that is caught between growing civilization in the west and the established society of the east. He’s a hard and uneducated man of action with a gravelly mumble voice reminiscent of Jeff Bridges’ in True Grit, but he’s also surprisingly pensive. He knows his way of life is fast coming to an end, and he’s troubled by his bloody deeds, often confiding his guilt to the women of the gang’s camp, who worry about Arthur but refuse to absolve him of his sins.

His primary rationale for all he’s done is his mentor of the last 20 years, Dutch van der Linde, a gentleman bandit whose Robin Hood-esque philosophizing helped attract a band of loyal and strangely kind-hearted thugs who somehow manage to justify their often wicked ways by thieving from those who can afford it and helping those who can’t help themselves. But times have been tough, and Dutch has become desperate, forced to recruit less honourable henchmen, work with shadier associates, and take on riskier jobs for reasons less noble than he’d like.

This ragtag group of men and women is Arthur’s family, and after spending scores of hours with them — I feel like I binge-watched half a dozen seasons of Deadwood over the last week — I almost came to think of them as my family as well. There are siblings both wild and reliable, aunts and uncles set in their ways, and a grandfather figure who provides a level-headed contrast to some of Dutch’s riskier undertakings. You’ll love some and hate others, but when things go sideways — as they almost inevitably do — they’re all in it together and have each others’ backs.

It’s Arthur, however, who proves the most interesting. The game is a fascinating study of a conflicted man who knows right from wrong, but doesn’t always allow this knowledge to inform his decisions. His common sense and decency manifests in all sorts of ways, from his steadfast refusal to buy into the racism of the time to his support of women, both in roles traditionally reserved for men and in their quest for the right to vote. And yet he’ll kill — albeit often with hesitation and regret — almost anyone who gets in his way during a job. As the game progresses this duality grows and at points almost tears him apart. He’s a classic antihero: A bad man seemingly headed for tragedy who we nonetheless like, root for, and want to see make better choices.

But it’s not all dark. A healthy dose of Rockstar’s signature adult humour is injected into the proceedings, often by way of side stories. Quests involving colourful characters — like an inventor working on a means of execution more humane than the noose, or a writer chronicling the exploits of an aging duellist — provide plenty of comic relief, sometimes with a bit of over-the-top gore or a hint of cultural commentary easy to connect to current events. From start to finish, whether intended to make us laugh, ponder, or cry, the writing never falters.

The upshot of all of this storytelling is that, unlike the vast majority of open world games, there is extraordinarily little repetition. Every mission and virtually every chance encounter is scripted and purposeful, designed to develop characters, progress the story, or better familiarize us with the game’s sophisticated controls and systems. I never felt like I was doing the same thing twice. There’s no grinding, no endlessly repeated tasks included simply to lengthen the experience. Even tasks that occasionally do repeat — helping a man thrown from a horse on the road, or a woman attacked by marauders — are accompanied by original dialogue that gives them each a flavour and distinct memory of their own. Thought and reason has been put into everything we do, and it helps the hours fly by. There’s neither a chance nor a reason to grow bored.

Supporting and enhancing everything is astounding attention to detail, which can be both a blessing and a curse — though far more often the former.

This is a game that knows it has interesting things to show us, and it won’t take no for an answer. Some weapons need to be cocked or have rounds chambered between shots, and all of them have to be regularly polished with gun oil — actions that the player must both perform and watch play out. Hunted game needs to be retrieved, skinned (a disgusting but oddly satisfying animation), and properly stowed on your horse rather than simply scooped up while walking past. Fast travel is available, but not readily, forcing us to spend long minutes simply galloping along (though an optional cinematic camera angle can make these journeys through gorgeously rendered landscapes beautiful to just sit back and watch). Store catalogues are so thorough that they’re essentially replica books from the era, which can turn a quick trip into a shop to pick up some canned beans or horse tonic into a 15-minute odyssey as you get lost reading mesmerizing ads and product descriptions.

Not surprisingly, these meticulous interactions demand an equally complex control scheme, meaning that various buttons on the gamepad are used in different ways, depending on context. And there have been many times when I meant to do one thing but accidentally did another — potentially robbing or shooting some innocent — because I’d forgotten the function of a button had changed according to the circumstances. Thankfully, controls are typically shown in the bottom right corner of the display, and as I became more careful and accustomed to how everything worked my mistakes grew more infrequent.

And in the end, these are minor complaints of excess — the sort of problem most games would welcome. They hardly take away from the overall experience, which delivers one of the most ambitious and finely directed stories ever told in the medium of games, one populated with a huge cast of memorable characters and filled with compelling ruminations on eternal human questions to do with family, loyalty, morality and mortality.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the must-play of the year, and elegant proof that grand-scale single-player games are far from obsolete.

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Director Scott Derrickson Hopes to Helm More Doctor Strange Films

Already an acknowledged master of tautly constructed and tightly budgeted horror films like “Sinister” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” filmmaker Scott Derrickson found himself entering a whole new dimension when he was tapped to helm Marvel Comics’ fabled Master of the Mystic Arts’ first foray onto the big screen.

But like Stephen Strange, Derrickson’s skills proved equal to the task: “Doctor Strange,” as personified by actor Benedict Cumberbatch, proved a fresh new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, garnering widespread critical acclaim and generating colossal box office grosses.

RELATED: Doctor Strange Concept Art Reveals a Different Version of Dormammu

As the film approaches its digital debut on Feb. 14 and its subsequent bow on Blu-Ray and DVD on Feb.28, Derrickson joined CBR for a look back at the influences and inspirations that fueled his vision for the character’s epic origin, the elements he held back for further exploration in future films, and the change in philosophical mindset he adopted to take on his largest-scale filmmaking challenge to date.

CBR: Once audiences got a chance to see “Doctor Strange,” what was your takeaway from their reaction? For so long you’re working in a bit of a void, and I’m curious about what was intriguing to you in terms of what the fans had to say once they got a chance to see the movie?

Scott Derrickson: That’s a pretty incisive question. I don’t know that I really have an answer for you, because I kind of put the blinders on, once I saw that the reviews were all positive, I didn’t read them. I just saw it was 90-something percent on Rotten Tomatoes and the box office was huge. At that point, I just kind of turned it off and tried to not pay too much attention to it for my own, I think, mental and emotional health.

So I don’t know: I can only assume, and based on some of the Twitter feedback, that people got an experience that went beyond their expectations, and that was always the idea. It was to create characters that they cared about, that had ideas that had some weight and some significance, and that would be a visceral experience beyond what they’d experienced before in a movie. It seems, based on what little feedback I have paid attention to, it seems like that happened.

Whenever the Blu-ray comes out, it’s a chance to pull back the curtain a little bit on the magic tricks of filmmaking. So what are you excited for the fans of the film to be able to get to see about your creative process, or in the scenes that didn’t quite make the final cut? What are you happy to be able to show them right now?

Certainly, it’s going to be an interesting exploration. I don’t know what all is on the DVD, and I haven’t seen the extras and that sort of thing. But I’m sure there’s going to be plenty in there about the visual effects, about the nature of those sequences. There really was a lot of innovation, a lot of bold attempts to do something new. So seeing how a lot of that was done, that’ll be interesting for sure.

I think in the end people will, if the extras and the behind the scenes stuff are thorough enough, see how it doesn’t just take a village, it takes a small city of people to make a movie like this, and the collaborative process of it, and the genuine enthusiasm that everybody brought into the creative process is what made the movie good. Everybody kind of caught the vision and caught the fire, and constantly contributed originality and quality to the movie in a way that went beyond anything I’ve experienced for sure.

One of the things I really enjoy about the movie is that it is a self-contained story, but you also allowed yourself some delayed gratification for the road ahead, not using Mordo as the primary villain here for example, or not really yet exploring the full status quo of Stephen Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme. What was fun about knowing that Doctor Strange’s story was likely going to go on, and figuring out what part of that story you were going to tell in this single movie?

I had learned a lot watching comic book movies over the years. There’s very few exceptions to the rule that you cannot create an extraordinary character and an extraordinary villain that are fully formed and fully fleshed out in the same movie. There’s just not enough real estate. The Green Goblin was a good villain in the first “Spider-Man,” but still not nearly as fleshed out as Doc Ock. Same is true with Ra’s al Ghul and the Joker in the “Batman” franchise.

So I was aware of that, and I knew that the emphasis needed to be on telling Strange’s story. It was a story about one man’s journey. It was ultimately a mind trip action movie about one man overcoming himself.

I felt it would be a disservice to try to give Mordo his early villainous presence like the comics did, and that if he was going to be an interesting three-dimensional villain, you had to get to know who he was before that first. I always felt satisfied with that decision. I love the moral complexities that he wrestles with in his moral structure and rigidity, which ultimately becomes his undoing, that he has no moral flexibility, and that sort of causes him to snap. I thought all that was really interesting.

The main emphasis was always keeping our eyes on the character of Strange. I know that that’s where the audience was going to want to be. There, and in the craziness of the dimensional worlds that the movie was opening up the MCU.

How much ownership do you hope to maintain, either over the character Doctor Strange specifically and what happens next with him, or even just the entire magical side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Is it one? Is it both? Are you still deciding?

I hope to do a sequel for it, because I think that character I love and understand. The magical, mystical nature of his multiverse is also something that I understand have ideas how to expand.

In terms of the character in the MCU and being present in other movies, I have no say, no interest in having any say. I trust those filmmakers implicitly to make good use of him. The more they use him, the better in my opinion.

I ran into your screenwriter Jon Spaihts at a premiere a few weeks back. He was telling me some of the other characters in the “Doctor Strange” canon that intrigued him, like Nightmare and Clea. What’s got you excited, and what characters that you did address are you also interested in expanding the story? Obviously Mordo is one, but who else in the “Doctor Strange” mythology is enticing to you, now that you’ve got a bigger playing field?

I can’t answer that question. I can’t answer that question at this time. I definitely have my opinions. I have my strong opinions. I don’t want to voice them at this time. It’s premature. Sorry.

That’s okay. In your visual inspiration, we see a lot of, obviously, Steve Ditko on the screen. I’m curious about the other sources that sparked your imagination, both from comics, maybe other “Doctor Strange” artists after Ditko, and outside of comics – I see a little Escher in there. Where did the other visual inspirations come from?

The inspirations that came from later comics, it was “The Oath” and “Into Shamballa.” Those two graphic novels were probably the most influential, both in story for “The Oath,” and in visuals “Into Shamballa.”

I think that in terms of other source material, yeah, definitely Escher. The whole idea of the New York mirror dimension chase, the goal and ambition of that was, what would a chase scene be like if it was inside an M.C. Escher painting? That was kind of our target idea on that. Surrealist art, Dali being an obvious inspiration. A lot of contemporary surrealist photography, which is really bold and exploratory, and does things with tactile, realistic, modern imagery, and turning them into surrealistic images.

In terms of cinema, I just looked at a lot of movies that were bold, visceral experiences for me that were not rooted in physical destruction like most tentpole movies. Jodorowsky’s movies, his films “Holy Mountain” and “El Topo.” “Enter the Void” I looked at, just for the bold psychedelia of it. Obviously, “Inception” was a starting point for us with the mirror dimension chase. I think we’re standing on the shoulders of that movie, but not really taking anything from it. To me, it was the tip of a very interesting visual effects iceberg, that movie, and I was trying to plunge deep into the iceberg and do something far more surreal, and psychedelic, and crazy.

I listened to almost nothing but late 60s psychedelic rock the entire time I worked on “Doctor Strange.” I think that when you fill your head with that music every day, and I would even listen to it on set. It does put a zap on your brain and get your mind into some pretty exploratory spaces. So those are the hard influences, I think.

You were convinced early on about how right for the part Benedict was. How did he surprise you in the making of it? What things did he bring that you weren’t anticipating that you were pleased with?

I wasn’t anticipating how good and un-troublesome his American accent would be. He was coming straight off of “Hamlet.” He was doing “Hamlet” I think two or three nights before starting to shoot “Doctor Strange.” He just walked on and did a perfect American accent. He had a vocal coach who was there, whose ear was very attuned to those things, but she very rarely had to correct him on anything. He just came in and nailed that.

I think the two biggest surprises were really good ones. One of them was his work ethic, and how prepared he was, how disciplined he was all the way through the last takes of the day. That was a pleasant surprise, because you just don’t really ever know with actors if they’re going to be complainers or be demanding, and he just wasn’t.

But I think the biggest, most pleasant surprise was his physical agility – and I had an instinct this would be the case, but boy, did he prove it to be true beyond my hope or expectation. He’s an action star. He really knows how to use his own body. He does so well. Those fight scenes are him. Of course, he had a stunt double, but he did everything he could possibly do without risking getting himself hurt.

And a lot of times, I would have to force him off the set. I’d be like, “You’re not doing that shot. You’re not going to do it. Sorry, you’re not going to do it.” Because I would be afraid that he’d get hurt. He was game for doing pretty much everything. There’s a lot of wire work, a lot of fights. He got punched and kicked and gouged plenty, because that’s what happens when you do those scenes. He was good at it. He’s an action star. And he hadn’t done that before. What other better surprise could there be than him being actually really good at it?

What was the big takeaway from this experience for you as a filmmaker? Walking out of it, thinking, “Okay, this is a big lesson that I learned that I’m going to carry forward – not just necessarily to another “Doctor Strange” movie, but to every movie I make?”

I knew that making a movie this size, the short answer is I learned to be more fluid. My notebook that was my notes, every director kind of carries their little black notebook to write their own notes in, write their own thoughts in as they’re working, and the one that I carried had Bruce Lee’s Taoist symbol that a man should be water on it. Because I knew that in order to do this well, I had to be water. I had to be very fluid, and sort of flow with the changes that would inevitably come, and with a willingness to radically do things, or change things, or cut things, as I was working, and to be constantly reshaping the movie to be the best thing that it could be.

You don’t make low budget films that way. You can’t. “Sinister” only worked as a film because I was extraordinarily rigid and disciplined, and shot exactly only what I needed to shoot, because I had to make that movie in 22 days. With this one, it was the flexibility. I learned to be really flexible.

I also learned the value of working with creative people who care mostly about the quality of the movie, and that’s what those Marvel folks are. There’s only really a handful of them that I dealt with. Four of them. They’re all artists, and none of them have big egos. If you check your ego at the door, and the studio works with you without ego, you can do amazing things. The whole process becomes a joy.

Tell me your first impression of Doctor Strange from the first time you were exposed to the character, that one thing you wanted to carry through in bringing into the big screen. That certain essence that hit you as a kid when you first found him.

It’s a really good question. It’s two things: one, the weirdness of other dimensions. That’s probably first and foremost. I think that’s probably, for most people who latch on to “Doctor Strange,” it was so much weirder than other comics. It was just so much more imaginative.

You read those Lee/Ditko comics now, and even after all this time, and even after the movie has been made, I can still go back and read all those early “Strange” tales, and the early first iterations of the “Doctor Strange” comics, and still be amazed at how innovative it is, and how it’s still state of the art. So that was the first thing.

And the second thing was, really, what is the final image of the movie: Doctor Strange, the lonely iconic figure in the Sanctum Sanctorum. I think I was always really struck by the loneliness that this figure who stands between our world and other dimensions, and stands alone, and places himself in a position of, not a public notoriety, he’s not Spider-Man who everybody talks about.

He’s just put himself in a really odd, lonely position, and that lonely iconic view of him against the window, Sanctum Sanctorum, for years as I thought about “Doctor Strange,” that’s always the first thing that comes to my mind. That’s who Doctor Strange is. So the fact that that’s the image that we leave at the end of the movie, it just had to be that in my mind, because that’s who he is.

The post Director Scott Derrickson Hopes to Helm More Doctor Strange Films appeared first on CBR.com.

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