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popcultureoverdosed · 1 year

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Remembering what was Lost: My Dragalia Lost Experience

My time with Dragalia Lost wasn't as long as I wished it could be. I knew about the game since its launch, but my low quality phone at the time made it almost impossible to play. It felt like a tragedy since the concept of forging bonds with dragons pulled me in like everyone else. It wasn't until the fall of last year I played the game consistently after upgrading my phone. For a while, it seemed like I found my daily routine. I'd login every day for daily challenges, linger on the main menu to hear my units chat it up, fall in love with adventurer stories, and bob my head to epic boss music. All was going well until news of the end of service struck the community.

To say we were all shocked is a huge understatement. An important part of our lives was about to join the graveyard of forever lost video games. With news of Dl's impending doom, I was forced to reflect on my experience with the title and came to a surprising conclusion: Dragalia Lost is easily one of my favourite games of all time.

I don't usually talk about video games on this blog, but Dragalia Lost holds a special place in my heart for being the most fun I've had with a mobile game. It hit all of that boxes that other gacha games struggle to keep up with.

It's impossible to talk about DL Without mentioning Daoko. Whether players are chilling on the home screen, slaying a deadly boss or summoning beloved units, Daoko's pop vocals are bound to be heard. Even some of the instrumental tracks are remixes of her other songs. Her songs fit the game perfectly as they invoke the feeling of a light-hearted and fun-filled adventure. The pop score helps DL stand out from other games which usually use European orchestral music. It gives the game an oddly fitting contemporary atmosphere. Ryusei Toshi and CRASHER remain iconic tunes that gets players into the thrill of a good ol' boss battle.

While on the topic of the sound department, the English voice acting deserves special mention. Ocean Productions was in charge of the voices and that makes DL an incredibly rare case of a Canadian dubbed anime game. Each voice was a breath of fresh air that fit the characters like a glove. Special mention goes to Brian Drummond as Zhu Baije, Tabitha St Germain as Althemia, Richard Ian cox as Ranzal, and Mark Oliver as Hawk.

My only complaint is that the English audio lacks fully voiced dialogue. That could've gone a long way to making the game more immersive.

Pokemon TCG artist Naoki Saito brought his A game with the art design. Most of the characters have highly rememberable designs done in a vibrant pop art style. Character portraits were always a delight to look at due to how much they popped out on the screen. Each adventurer has a unique appearance highly distinct from each other and full of personality. The fun expressive style really added to the Saturday morning cartoon feel of the game. The user interface also has a nice sleek look to it that made navigating menus anything but a chore. While the chibi graphics can seem overly minimalistic at first, that simplicity prevents the game from feeling dated and instead gave it everlasting appeal.

It may seem disingenuous to review a game without mentioning gameplay but there's not much I can say in that department. DL's isometric action RPG style made it stand out from other games on the market even with its very limited attack system. It wasn't the most immersive combat system I've experienced, but it always kept me back for more and never left me bored.

The implementation of skip tickets and auto-loop was a godsend for grinding and made it overall stress-free. I didn't have to waste hours of time just to upgrade a single character. Just hit the auto button and step away from the phone for a while. Seriously, more games need to follow this method instead of making maxing out units so tiresome. The Co-op raid battles also deserve special mention since it was so fun seeing strangers come together to beat a particularly arduous boss. There were several times I relied on Co-op to clear stages because the difficulty is no joke at times. This was especially true for the MARVELOUS final boss Xenos which can easily last half an hour. Now that's how you go out with a bang.

Last but certainly not least is the story. It starts off simple enough with Euden performing his princely duty of forming a dragonpact; the main draw of the game. Then the game added layers of complexity with Zethia's dark doppelganger and the King's sudden evil disposition. The carefree prince now has to save his kingdom from his treacherous family with an even greater threat looming in the background. The beginning of rbe story was a bit slow at first, but there were enough plot twists and burning questions to keep me fully invested. I so was not prepared for the time travel shenanigans and social commentary on classism/privilege the mid-game story brought.

And that's only what the main campaign brings to the table. Dragalia has several event stories that heavily build on the robust lore and characterization players love so much. Certain events like Faith Forsaken, Fractured Futures and Advent of the Origin even serve as epilogues to plot points made in the main story. I will admit that there were FAR too many beach themed events for my liking. This game had great slice-of-life moments but it'll be too soon if I ever see another beach adventure in a mobile game.

Finally, it would be irremissible of me not to mention the vocabularian localization provided by 8-4. Character dialogue is stuffed to the gills with personality and colloquialisms you wouldn't expect from this game at first glance. It's guaranteed you learned a few new vocab words after playing the game. Seriously, some of these characters talk like they eat thesaurus' for breakfast. That's when they're too busy spouting meme worthy dialogue at least.

Dragalia may be lost, but I'll never forget the incredible memories I made along the way.

#dragalia lost #cygames #nintendo #mobile games #Jrpg #daoko #naoki saito #Review #Game review #retrospective #Video games #Anime game

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lilyillustration · 2 years

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Animation Process

In response to my task of creating a moving image, I decided to experiment with creating a looping animation, as I'd never tried to animate before. I was fairly limited in how complex I could make it as I was using Procreate's animation feature. As my theme was related to the natural world, I planned on creating a fox running through a forest as this seemed challenging enough but not impossible. I started by sketching out some foxes, as this helped me get a better understanding of their shape and form. I next moved on to drawing the individual frames of the fox, using a video reference which I slowed down and pause to capture the animal's movement.

I then coloured every frame, I simplified this process down by block colouring and then shading the ears and feet. I used pencil brushes to add texture and give it a more illustrated feel. I then sketched out a background frame and practised with moving it in time with the fox. On a separate canvas, I drew out my backgrounds ensuring it looped. I then painted every frame and connected them again. Keeping the same colouring style consistent throughout was difficult and I didn't always manage it, on the other hand I don't mind the stitched-together look it resulted in. While painting the backgrounds, I tried to consider colour palettes and lighting, as I found this a strength in the work of the artists I researched. I also kept the colour of the fox on top to remind myself of how it would look together as I wanted to keep some level of contrast between the background and the fox to ensure it stood out.

Finally, I completed the tedious process of moving the background behind each individual frame of the fox until it looped round, it was difficult to ensure the fox was in the same position by the end of the loop to make it seamless and at some points I had to cut out frames to do this. I also experimented with turning off the line art at certain points as I thought this might create interest. In the end, the movement of the background wasn't very fluid and if I were to do this again I'd be more focused on moving it at a consistent pace. However, I think this is a success for my first animation as it works how I hoped. In the future I'd spend more time planning out my animation as I think this would help with the process in the future.

#animation #illustration #digital illustration #procreate

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radroachmeat · 2 years

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#keena manage to keep a consistent art style challenge [IMPOSSIBLE]#emily ortal #fallout new vegas #fnv #my draws #art #ive been laughing over this for three hours #drawing her stresses me out cus this is a whitewoman video game character who does look like me irl #my falloutsona #if i ever post weird art of her and benny dont even worry about it. no ones projecting. no one said anything about that

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defdaily · 3 years

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GQ Korea Magazine June 2021 issue featuring JAY B: in transition

To prove himself, JAY B is constantly changing. Because he has so much to show.

Translated by defdaily

Your greeting from the video earlier was new. You said “This is GOT7’s JAY B and H1GHR MUSIC’s JAY B.” After GOT7 parted ways with JYP Entertainment, you told fans that you were a freelancer and I guess you’ve found your spot.

Yes. It has not been announced officially yet but I’m H1GHR MUSIC’s JAY B. I told fans I was a freelancer as a joke. I like communicating with fans as if we’re friends. But I was looking for a company at that time too.

How did you make your decision?

Of course I thought about it a lot. I talked with various companies, but when considering the freedom and synergy, I felt like H1GHR MUSIC fit me well. That seemed like the best decision.

What kind of synergy and effect are you looking forward to?

I don’t think “I’m definitely hip-hop!” just because I joined a hip-hop label. I think that through the label I can show R&B, dance and pop genres too. I want to attempt different things without any boundaries.

What did you talk about with H1GHR MUSIC’s CEO Jay Park?

From my point of view, it’s a new challenge so I was a little anxious. But Jay Bum hyung’s thoughts were similar to mine and said I could do music comfortably and didn’t wish for any certain colour, because if you keep focusing on one thing, you’ll slowly be locked in it, and said it’s good to try out different things. That’s what he told me.

Will this period of time divide JAY B of the past and future?

Of course it will. If previously it was a situation where I mainly received benefits from the company, now that I have the autonomy, I feel that I should do things myself and I grew a deeper sense of responsibility in that way. I think there’s a need to be more proactive. And I plan on prudently moving forward one step at a time with an appropriate amount of nervousness. Because this is the process of starting from the beginning, I am very careful about every decision.

What factors influenced your decision the most?

Feeling/intuition. I have a feeling of whether I think I should do something or not.

It feels like you have a pretty good sense of the direction you want to move forward in.

I asked Jay Bum hyung why he recruited me and he said that skills were of course a factor but that I seemed like I would work hard consistently. It’s a given to be working hard on your own things but the most important thing is consistency. I've been doing that for a long time, and I'll continue to do what I've been doing.

Do you have any values that you’ve held on for a long time?

I’ve always thought that it’s important to never forget the things that I’ve done and have been doing. I debuted as GOT7. I cannot just suddenly say “I’m not an idol,” and I do not want to disappoint the fans. I’m very thankful. While promoting as part of GOT7, I never forgot the fact that I started as a b-boy at first and that I’m a person who likes hip-hop.

People’s expectations are high because of GOT7’s achievements. On one hand, there must be people viewing you thinking ‘let's see how well it could go.’

I am mindful of that. But it’s just GOT7 JB that was that big, JAY B as an individual isn’t that great. To be honest, sometimes I think that I’m nothing. If you ask people my age which idols they know, even if many people know about GOT7, they might not know me very well. It’s important to be acknowledged for my music but I feel like I have to get my name out there first. There is someone called GOT7’s JAY B, H1GHR MUSIC’s JAY B. I feel like this is just the beginning for me.

It sounds like you are at a point where you feel the need to prove yourself. Do you not worry that fans might not be accepting if you do what you like and want to do?

Rather than being worried, I see it as something that could happen. For example, I could use profanity or harsh expressions if I feel that they’re needed for better musical completion. I can’t help it if some fans who used to like me as an idol hear that and turn their backs. I also don’t want to give up or lose my own standards because of such reactions.

I see you're very determined to make creations of your own. I heard that you're going to release a new song soon. How is it?

The title is Switch It Up. Should I say it’s close to Hip-Hop Dance? It’s a different style from what I have been making consistently under the name Def. You could say it is a little similar to the solo songs I’ve included in GOT7 albums before. I focused on the purpose of informing the public and the music scene that “I think I will do this sort of music in the future." I’m also sending a message to fans saying that I’ll be starting to promote actively again so look forward to it.

I'm curious. Is there any image that came to mind while working on it?

A sexy image. If I use Def. to freely express my personal stories in any genre, I made a distinction that JAY B does cool and sexy music. Regardless, they are both me, but JAY B is more like a fictional character who can show various sides of me.

What do you think are your strengths as an artist?

There is no such thing. I never thought that an artist should be a certain type of way. I think an artist is one who lives the same life as others, but feels differently, and knows how to express that well. As a matter of fact, anyone can do that. Even everyday office workers, when their stress piles and piles and they scribble down their emotions then toss the paper out, I think that can be a way of art too.

I like that. In any form, what do you want to talk about the most now?

That’s what I’m contemplating a lot right now. I think I’ve been pouring out too much. When writing songs, making the melody or arranging the music isn’t that hard but I don’t know what to write about. The same goes for coming up with titles too. No matter how hard I try to come up with an idea, I can’t think of one. I just think, “ I guess it'll just come out gradually.”

Not as JAY B but as Lim Jaebeom, what have you been thinking about or trying to do?

I try to think positively.

Ah not long ago, we saw you posted on your Instagram “Let’s try to think positively.”

I had quite a lot of worries and a negative mindset. A lot of people may live with unnecessary worries but I’m a little worse. I guess it’s my nature. So I try my best to relax my heart/mind and say “it’s good,” “everything will be okay.”

In introspection, what is something that you are most satisfied with?

That’s hard. No matter how hard I think about it, I feel like there's nothing I like about myself at the moment.

Why? Did something change?

No, it’s not that. Even with one thing, one day you could like it and another day you could dislike it. It’s natural to change your mind. So when I speak, I often use the terms “always” and “at the moment.” Anyways, it’s not that I think that my current self is completely bad, but I’m not satisfied to the point where I would go “wow.”

Then, among the various images that you embody, which do you feel is the piece of clothing that fits perfectly?

I think naturally, the clothing of the name Lim Jaebeom is the most natural and comfortable. Because I’ve got a good hold of the side that is most like me, there can exist Def., JAY B of GOT7 and JAY B of H1GHR MUSIC. Oh, I could explain it like this. If Lim Jaebeom is the earth, just as there exists oceans, mountains, and cities within it, there are various sides of myself that are making up my life.

What will happen to GOT7 in the future?

We probably will not be able to promote as actively as before, but the members and I are trying our best to do anything. I often look up and watch videos of when we were promoting and I miss the GOT7 from those days. The overflowing passion and energy as well. Looking back, it was really fun. It's similar to the feeling of reminiscing about school days.

What did you gain personally from the past 7 years promoting as GOT7?

Should I say, I think I’ve gained expertise? People around me say I’ve become much more relaxed now. But I still get nervous. I was nervous even before today’s shoot. But in turn, I’ve gained ways to overcome the nerves. I guess that comes to show that I’ve become experienced

What kind of person does Lim Jaebeom want to be?

I wish I could be endlessly kind and do only good things, but in reality, that’s impossible. As you live you could unintentionally make mistakes and cause disappointment. Nevertheless, I definitely do not want to become a shrewd person, I despise being scheming and fooling people. I don’t want to be that kind of person and neither do I want to be on the receiving end. But it’s still a bit of a mystery if it’s okay to say "I'm going to be this kind of person." Because as I mentioned before, my current feelings and thoughts change frequently just as trends do.

I guess those words right there can change too.

That’s right. That's why I'm cautious about doing interviews. If I talk about something, there will be articles pouring out that say JAY B said this and JAY B said that. Although we’re doing an interview today like this, if I was asked the same question tomorrow, I could have a different response.

How should we wrap up this interview for you to sleep soundly?

This was the story of Lim Jaebeom on May 4th, 2021. I think this will be okay.

Translated by defdaily.

#def.#jaebeom #defdaily #lim jaebeom #defdaily:trans #got7 #got7 jb #interviewtrans #jay b

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thelightfluxtastic · 2 years

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Similarities between Inscryption and Wandersong

I've been thinking about common threads between video games I like.

Take, as an example and contrast, my gf. She values the challenge. She plays games like Celeste and the Metroid series (with sequence breaking), games that require practice and precision and timing and skill. She doesn't enjoy games that can't be learned or mastered consistently/completely (e.g. procedurally generated). I love watching her play, because it's engaging to observe mastery, and because it allows me to experience games that I know would be frustrating and tiring for me to play.

I play games that are the exact opposite. A lot of games I own are point-and-click mysteries, like Detective Grimoire. One might have to randomly click objects to find the important clue or action, but there's not really a fail state. If you're playing Darkside Detective, it's because the characters are charming and funny and the story is interesting, not for the challenge of the minigame puzzles or some sort of skill demonstration. I also like narrative games, like Chicory or Strange Horticulture.

My absolute favorite game is Wandersong, which is almost laughably forgiving. It is literally impossible to get a sad ending on one's first playthrough. Fell off a cliff? No problem, the game will just pop you right back where you were. Missed some notes? That's ok, the game will progress if you got most of them.

Which is why I was surprised that, after finishing Inscryption, I found myself feeling the games were fundamentally similar. The aesthetics are complete opposites, of course. Wandersong is light and bright and soft and colorful; Inscryption is haunted and creepy and visceral. And yet, both games have an experience they want the player to go through/feel, and will tailor gameplay to do so.

Despite it's spooky appearance, unmodded Inscryption is deceptively forgiving. Death cards at the end of every run make subsequent runs easier. Certain game tools (the ouroboros, extra candle, squirrel totem, and making a broken card with Golly) make you feel like you're cheating but are 100% intended play. I haven't experienced this myself, but apparently if you just keep playing Leshy and refuse to explore the cabin he will get bored and quiet and sullen, because you're supposed to get to the rest of the game. Inscryption, like Wandersong, will unobtrusively give even the most unskilled player handholds to eventually get through the intended story.

This is true in other Daniel Mullins games too. You might not find every secret (all coins, vending machines, secret endings) in the Hex, but that's about as far as player freedom goes. You can't not punch Cooking Granny. You can't not use Vallamir's book.

It in general makes me think of video game experiences as falling on a spectrum. Some are more novel-like (or movie like): there is an intended story experience that the player is led through via gameplay. Others (e.g. Minecraft) are more toy-like: like a ball, sandbox, or action figure, they are meant for the player to do whatever the heck they want to with. ("Toy" here is used descriptively, not derogatorily). Of course, many fall between. Neither end of the spectrum is better or worse, it's just another aspect of video games, like genre or art style. Personally, my tastes are rooted firmly in the "novel" camp. I like games with narratives and clear start and end points, where I can have a complete, specific experience. And even that covers an incredibly wide range of games.

#inscryption #wandersong #video games #spoilers #daniel mullins games #mine

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sagemoderocklee · 3 years

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2020 has been a weird fucking year, to put it mildly. There have been a lot of ups and downs, and with New Year’s Eve and the start of 2021 upon us, focusing on the ~positive~ seemed like a better way to end the year, and hopefully start 2021 feeling inspired and proud for overcoming this horrendous year.

For many people, it was difficult--even impossible--to get anything done this year (myself included), and that’s okay! But if you were able to make progress on writing projects, even if it was just one or even if it was just part of one, you should celebrate that! I wish I’d thought of this sooner and organized it better, but regardless I wanted to celebrate my own accomplishments with regards to my writing, and encourage others to do the same! I was going to tag people, but I’m not sure with it being 2 hours til midnight for me if that would feel like putting too much pressure on others, so if you want to do this too please do!

This wrap up is honestly just a self-indulgent look back on the works I’ve made and what I learned/gained from each, maybe what I don’t like about them, some totaling on what I did, and some resolutions for the next year. It’s silly, but I think it’s kinda fun and if you missed any of the things I have posted this year, you’ll find them here!

2020 Fic Wrap Up:

Kado: Parts II+III (COMPLETED)

Kado was started in September of 2019 for the @puregaalee summer event. This was a last minute thing that I started the day the prompt was due and managed to write the first part in about 6 hours while sitting in a cafe--remember that? Sitting in cafes? Man, I miss that. I hadn’t anticipated working on Kado, but I decided that I was going to finish it this year, and I’m honestly amazed that I did. This fic is sweet and fun, and surprisingly popular, though it isn’t my favorite of my works. However, it is a light, fluffy little romcom modern AU, and I learned a lot with it because despite my struggles with modern AUs and their horrible lack of political intrigue, this fic forced me to work within set parameters. I was only writing a 3 part story, and each part could only be 9 scenes long. For those unfamiliar, kado is another term for Ikebana, and in Ikebana there are specific elements to follow. Certain styles will only use three branches, some will use nine. So my goal was for the structural elements of the fic to mimic Ikebana. In doing this, I was able to do something I don’t usually do, which is keep this story more concise.

I’m still not sure how I personally feel about the ending, but I think endings are always a struggle, especially with something like this.

Gate of Dreaming (COMPLETED)

This is a fic that I started last year, then left to sit untouched with only 2k words. Getting back into it was a bit difficult because I was writing something very different from my usual: stream of consciousness. This fic was very experimental for me not only because of the stream of consciousness, but also because of the changing tenses. This was another exercise--unexpected though it was--in brevity. With this particular story, it couldn’t be dragged on and on, because--despite the 100 year time span--the events take place within the Infinite Tsukuyomi. This was also the first time I’d worked from Lee’s PoV in quite some time, so that was fun because I do enjoy writing him, but usually write from Gaara’s PoV. This is definitely one of my favorites from this year, and since it had been sitting on the back burner for so long, I’m so excited that I could finally get it done.

Another one where the ending really wasn’t easy to achieve, but I did end up liking it more than I expected, and I think the best thing is that it’s open-ended which leaves room for others to guess at what the future holds.

It Eats Your Heart (WIP)

This was an unexpected fic for me in every way imaginable. Starting another fic? Making another modern AU? Tackling the horror genre? None of those were things I’d planned to do this year, but lo and behold, that’s just what I did. I really enjoy a good bit of horror, but it is NOT an easy genre to work within, and this fic has definitely been a push for me. But with it being such a push, the payoff is far more. Stepping out of my comfort zone is something I like doing, but I think this is the biggest step outside of that and I am so incredibly proud of how that first chapter turned out because of it. I was really able to surprise myself with this fic, and I am hoping to update the next chapter early on in the year.

Absolution (WIP)

This fic is probably the second oldest idea/longest unpublished fic I currently have up. Formerly a much longer title, the idea for this fic came to me in May of 2017 when a friend, @brianadoesotherjunk / @brianadoesart, posted a piece of GaaLee fanart that sparked inspiration. The fic took off, morphed into something much bigger than the one scene depicted by the art, and now 3 years later, the first part is up. Initially, this was meant to be a long shot, but after sitting with this for so long, I realized that I needed to split it up into 9 parts, which allowed me to use this for GaaLee bingo and finally publish it. Much of the first part was already written before this year, but I’d been quite stuck on it until now. This is actually probably one of my favorite GaaLee concepts to date. I remember back in the day, there weren’t a lot of different takes on getting Lee to Suna so he and Gaara could fall in love, so (at the risk of sounding cocky) I think that Lee as a nanny is rather inspired. I think with this fic, I pushed myself the hardest to get past the hurdle of writer’s block and accepted that publishing is probably the best way to motivate myself to keep going. The feedback for this fic has been really motivating, so I think I’m probably right about that.

I do think there are some parts in the middle or towards the end that could maybe use some tightening up, but I’m just happy to finally have this fic out in the world.

The Art of Love: Chapter 11 (WIP)

TAoL is such a ridiculous labor of love. The chapters for this fic are novellas in and of themselves, so each time I update it takes a lot of work to get them out. This fic is one of those like magnum opus type fics. I have put so much into it, and I’m honestly amazed that it’s only been up for 3 years because I’m approaching the halfway mark on it, and I don’t think I expected to be there by now. Despite being able to churn out 30k chapters, I have a hard time focusing on one thing and I often struggle with mental health related writer’s block, so big works are always sort of sporadic in their updates.

This particular update of TAoL was definitely one of my favorites though. Initially, I didn’t plan to go the sort of dark fantasy rout that I did with Shikamaru, but I actually really love what I’ve done with him, though I worry others won’t be as into it or that the execution isn’t quite there. One thing I would like to work on with future chapters of TAoL, however, is maybe pairing things down a bit--though I’m not sure that’ll always be possible. The next chapter is a Naruto PoV chapter, though, so I expect that one to be a MUCH shorter chapter than the last three and should be able to get it out sometime next year.

Before I could publish this chapter, however, I did go through and make some big changes, which is something I often struggle with because of such long breaks in between working on certain projects. I will say, though, that TAoL continues to push me to greater heights as a writer, and I look forward to actually finishing this fic someday.

Thirteen Strokes: 1 + 2 (WIP)

Another unexpected fic this year, however, this one was actually an idea for about a year, unlike IEYH. This fic has really given me a lot of perspective on my own writing and world building, and has inspired me to sit down and really start committing the things I’ve developed to paper to create a cohesive view of Suna, Wind, and the shinobi world. This fic is meant to be a Romance. Like just full on Romance. I write a lot of tragedy and focus on a lot of darker themes in my writing, so while I don’t think of this as stepping outside of my comfort zone, it is very different from my usual, and a really nice change of pace. I think, in all honesty, it is one of my best works, and I do hope I can continue to deliver on the remaining 11 parts of this story.

if this were the last i felt you breathing (COMPLETED)

Ugh. This fic has been my enemy for 2 long years. I signed up for a Secret Santa exchange, and of course, I regretted doing it when I found that I was not motivated and, after the month of October where I was churning out fic after fic for GaaLee Bingo, that I was massively burned out. I wasn’t able to think past writer’s block, and so I ended up settling on dusting off an old, unfinished piece for my giftee, and I hope they can forgive me for not coming up with something brand new for them.

This fic was a struggle. Working so closely with the canon--following the Rescue Kazekage Arc as closely as I did for this fic--made this a much bigger challenge and this fic sat and sat and sat for two years, untouched and incomplete. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I know it’s not my best work, but I am glad that this fic isn’t hanging over my head and that I was able to deliver something to my secret santa giftee.

My goal with this fic was to rewrite this particular arc from Lee’s PoV to give more depth to the arc and shift the emotional core of it away from Naruto. Naruto as a character has a lot of flaws that never get addressed, and one of the things that is consistently frustrating for me is the way the emotional core of the series rests on him in unrealistic and often superficial ways. Naruto hasn’t spoken to Gaara in three years, but I’m supposed to believe he’s this affected by Gaara’s kidnapping? Temari and Kankuro are right there! Lee is right there! I wanted to see that, so that’s what I set out to do, and ultimately I don’t think I fully succeeded, but I tried. I guess not everything can be a resounding success

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This year I managed to do a lot more than I realized. New works, updates, and COMPLETED pieces?! I never would have thought, but staying home gave me more free time, and when I was too broke to work on costumes, writing fanfiction was something free I could do.

Total new works: 5 Total updates: 9 Total completed works: 3 Total words this year: 143,587

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I have a lot of goals for the coming year, and I know I won’t make all of them, but that won’t stop me from trying.

2021 Writing Resolutions:

Reach 1million words (+238,073 words)

Finish IEYH

Finish Pearl-Filled Lungs

Update TAoL (Chapter 12 and 13)

Update Absolution

Update 13S

Update Find Me (Chapter 6)

Start the Ballad of the Dragon and the Phoenix

Start editing Alliance

Return to working on Honor Bound

Return to working on We Need Not Be Yellow Tulips

#naruto fanfiction #gaalee #naruto #shippuden #gaara #rock lee #fanfiction 2020 wrap up #fanfic year in review

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years

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After more than a decade, Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg's YA classics The Plane Janes are back!

[I adored Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg's YA graphic novels The Plain Janes and Janes in Love, which were the defining titles for the late, lamented Minx imprint from DC comics. A decade later, the creators have gotten the rights back and there's a new edition Little, Brown. We're honored to have an exclusive transcript of Cecil and Jim in conversation, discussing the origins of Plain Janes. Make no mistake: this reissue is amazing news, and Plain James is an underappreciated monster of a classic, finally getting another day in the spotlight. If you haven't read it, consider yourself lucky, because you're about to get another chance. -Cory]

Cecil to Jim: How interesting or difficult was it for you to go back to match a style from 11 years ago?

Jim: It was impossible!

When I started drawing Janes Attack Back, I was so anxious. You can’t unlearn how to ride a bike and a lot of my style from 11 years ago included my limitations as an artist. I hope I’m much better now than I was then. But when it comes to style, I just couldn’t quite do it the same. After a page or two, I stopped trying. I figured that as long as the character designs, grayscaling, and lettering were consistent that it would be a 90 percent match. Combined with the different ink colors, I think it flows pretty well. But it was definitely tough to figure out in the beginning.

It was interesting for me to revisit the original art and to get back into characters that I had spent so much time with, but that was over 10 years ago. It was a very strange feeling in my head. Nostalgic but also filtered through thousands of pages of progress since I drew the first two books. It was like studying a different artist, trying to get back to that style.

How much of an issue was this from a writing perspective?

Cecil: It was the same!

When we first did Plain Janes it was my first time moving from prose to comics and I remember that I called you up crying once because moving the story from panel to panel was so difficult to figure out at first. Comics is not prose! But now I have a better understanding of comics and I would write those books way differently now. So it was hard to go back to being more naive. But it was an interesting challenge for sure.

Cecil to Jim: We had sort of hammered out this story as a four book thing back in 200. For Janes Attack Back, we compressed. Is there anything that we left out that you kind of wish we’d been able to keep?

Jim: I’m very happy with how this turned out. I remember we planned to have the Janes all go their separate ways for the summer. I think you did a terrific job compressing that. We still see them do their own things and drift apart. I like these characters so our original plans were fun--seeing them on their own allowed a different side of them to emerge.

But I think the story works best in this final version. I don’t miss the longer solo adventures. Although I refer to the Janes as my X-Men, since they are a team, and team books often have spinoffs where characters have solo adventures. So maybe a longer solo adventure would be fun. I did draw quite a bit of Brain Jane at space camp many years ago! But overall, I say no. I’m so happy with this final story that I don’t regret anything we cut to make this final story! Who knows, we could always follow the Janes as they go off to different colleges and post high school adventures...

Cecil: I’m glad I have those Brain Jayne space camp pages. But yeah, I don’t miss their solo stuff. I’m glad that we just really follow Main Jane. But it’s interesting because I think that kind of goes with the question above. I think writing that whole Janes Go Summer was the book that I would never write now because I’ve learned that you can just go to the next best part and you don’t have to tell every part. Like moving time from panel to panel.

Cecil to Jim: What was the hardest thing to draw? And which art attack did you love the most?

Jim: Not exactly an art attack, but I think my favorite art thing was when Jane visits the museum in France and she appears in several paintings. That was fun to draw, but also it fit the story perfectly. As a cartoonist, that’s the best I can hope for--when the art gets to shine within the context of the story. That moment feels magical to me--in terms of both the story and the art.

Does the school dance count as an art attack? I like flowers so when the gang covered their dresses in flowers and Brain Jane hit them with a spotlight, that was something I enjoyed drawing.

Cars are hard to draw. Kissing is hard to draw. Crowds are tough. Perspective...I could go on and on!

Jim to Cecil: Craft--is there a difference between writing a novel and writing a graphic novel? If so, what are those differences?

Cecil: There are more words in prose. That seems obvious, but it’s a big deal because that’s what you paint your pictures with. So you can really dive into the minutiae of a moment but it’s very different than with comics where you dive into a moment because you are really dictating what you want the brain to pay attention to. And you have to really understand that each reader is going to have a wildly different understanding of what that picture should be. In comics, it’s right there. So you can be very specific and focused and the words are not really important. They are but I throw out a lot of them.

I think I over-write my script as a scaffolding for you, the artist, so you don’t have to do all the mental heavy lifting. But the best thing about comics is the throwing out of words. And silence. You can use words to describe silence but it’s still very busy and loud. But in a comic, a silent page or panel speaks for itself, and you can have a pause and rest that you can’t have in prose. I love writing both and that is why I really think that a story tells you how it best wants to be told. Because prose and comics have different gifts in terms of telling the tale.

Jim to Cecil: I sometimes describe The PLAIN Janes as my X-Men comic since it is a “team” book. So I’m curious if you have a favorite character in The PLAIN Janes?

Cecil: Oh! That’s so hard! I mean of course it is a team book and I love that you always referred to it as an X-men comic. They are superheroes in my mind; each overcoming things inside of them and bringing their own special skill to solve a problem.

But it’s too hard to pick which one I love! I mean, I identify with all of them for different reasons at different times. I guess that is what makes a good team. But I do have a soft spot for both Brain Jayne and Theater Jane. I think that they both have such distinct voices and points of view that they were fun foils to write for Main Jane.

Do you have a favorite?

Jim: I love Theater Jane’s exuberance! And of course there are things I love about all of them. Good job on giving them unique traits and personality. But I would say in the end, I enjoyed Payne. She was a foil and heel and that brought the best out of all of the Janes. She was like a mirror that forced the Janes, especially Main Jane to really think about her values and what she wanted to do in her art practice. We had talked about Payne for a decade. Seeing her in action and seeing Main Jane play off of her was the best. Plus her anger at the status quo is something I remember feeling as a teenager.

Jim to Cecil: Write what you know, right? With that in mind, what parts of The PLAIN Janes are closest to your own personal experiences/truth?

Cecil: Yes. Although the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, of course it is put through the ringer and shook up to come out as something very different. Like Main Jane, I was in a bombing when I was young. The IRA blew up a stage where the British Army band was playing. I was in the most damaged house, a beer museum. A window shattered above me and it was very scary. (I write about this incident in my memoir, Girl on Film).

I remember the next day, my family took me to an art museum and there were huge skylight windows everywhere, and I thought they would explode down on me. So I kept focusing on the art. And so while no one was injured in the attack that I was in, and I did not find a John Doe, I certainly found solace in art when I most needed it.

Another thing that came from my life directly was just engaging in street art and loving conceptual art. How that kind of art can say so much and be so profound. I’ve talked before about walking through subway stations filled with Keith Haring chalk drawings in the 80s and that being so inspiring. That idea of art being everywhere and being a delightful surprise. The core truth of The PLAIN Janes is that ART SAVES. That is probably the most true thing I believe.

How about you? Was there anything that you brought to the book that was close to your experience or truth?

Cecil: I was an art kid in school, so that made sense. And also the feeling, like I was an outsider and wanted more than school and a small town could provide. Some of the art class stuff brings back memories. The biggest thing for me were the friendships. The way the Janes pulled for each other and supported each other as they followed their own interests. I’ve been lucky to have that kind of support in my life. Some of those moments felt true to my own experience. And yes, I believe art saved my life--whether it was the stories and art I consumed or made. It had a huge impact on my life and helped through good and bad times.

The Plain Janes [Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg/Little Brown]

https://boingboing.net/2020/01/07/janes-janes-janes.html

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level99games · 4 years

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Five Top 4's

I was asked by a friend to share some of my favorite media, so this post is a list of my personal favorite Books, Video Games, Board Games, Movies, and etc. Perhaps this will give you some insight into my creative tendencies, or perhaps it will just be a good opportunity for you to comment and agree/disagree/discuss with me!

Originally this was going to be a top 5 list, but I found myself with 4 obvious answers, and struggling to name a fifth in each category. So I just made it top 4—if it didn’t come to mind immediately, then it doesn’t really deserve that recognition, after all. Without further ado, here goes!

Top 4 Books

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures - I love all of Walter Moers’ books, and if you haven’t read this author’s work before, you’re really missing out. The Zamonia series builds a wonderland-like world where whimsical species live in harmony with one another.

Good to Great - My favorite business manual. Good to Great showcases what specific elements of leadership, discipline, focus, and culture contribute to success. It’s something I’ve worked tirelessly to replicate in the offices of Level 99 Games.

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - One of the most influential philosophy books for me, the Meditations is a classic that instructs the reader in a calm, measured approach to life and its challenges. Much of the book deals with overcoming fear and the internal challenges that are formative to us all in growing up.

Blazing Aces: A Fistful of Family Card Games - Perhaps the best game-related book I own. Reiner Knizia turns a standard deck of playing cards on its head and uses it to play 15 stunningly original games, all based around the evaluation of Poker hands. If you want to see a real master of the game design genre at work, this is the book to get.

Top 4 Board Games

Libertalia - This game is an incredible feat of design, and it combines the simultaneous selection of games like BattleCON and Exceed with a clean resolution system and mechanics that make it appropriate for up to 6 players. The style of the game is excellent, and the mechanics lead to interesting, loaded choices every single turn. This is one game I always want to show my friends, and its something that I would recommend to players of any skill level.

Magical Athlete - Magical Athlete is not at all what we would define as a “modern” game. However, I never fail to have fun with friends when I pull this out and bring it to the table. I keep a copy in the office to remind myself that it’s important not to get too caught up on high-concept mechanics and high-budget art—all this is merely in service to fun, which can be achieved just as easily with simple mechanics and whimsical gameplay.

Dominion - Dominion is one of the most influential board games on my own personal style, and is the game that, to me, signals the temporal and stylistic break between the classic hobby games and modern ones. The incredible amount of modular content generated by shifting setups inspired the many variables present in games like BattleCON and Exceed.

Unlock Adventures - Evocative and interesting without being overwrought, Space Cowboy’s Unlock Adventure series is just the right size for a game you can only play once. I’ve got the whole collection, and eagerly watch for any new ones that drop. I love playing these with my wife and with friends, and they take only a few minutes to teach with the built-in tutorial.

Top 4 Music Artists

Scooter - Spotify tells me that Scooter is my most-listened-to artist of 2019, and a few past years to. I really enjoy the personality and character of these tracks—a Scooter album is always a bit more than an ordinary techno/trance album.

Masterplan - Classic Power Metal. I enjoy their work just a little bit better than Symphony X, Jag Panzer, and Helloween. The characters presented in the songs are a bit more interesting, and songs have a kind of progression of story that you don’t see in a lot of other outfits.

Avantasia - I’m a huge fan of Tobias Sammet’s Edguy, which is more of a traditional Power Metal outfit. Avantasia’s tunes are more orchestral and fall squarely into the Fantasy Metal genre. I love the long epics such as “Raven Child” and “The Scarecrow.”

Electric Six - Electric Six is somewhere between comedy and irony. I enjoy the catchy lyrics and tunes, with some tracks being quite nuanced, others being pure nonsense, and some simply self-aware schlock peddled for laughs.

Top 4 Video Games

Legend of Mana - A game that I’ve idolized since I first played it nearly two decades ago. There’s so much happening in this game, and so many different systems—magic, crafting, golem making, farming, music—that all feel like they fit seamlessly into the universe. On top of that, I love the world with its fantastic races. Far more than a typical “fantasy world” with a bunch of human-like peoples, Legend of Mana presents a wonderland of mythological creatures, animated objects, and talking animals as its cast.

Crono Trigger - While many games have come after it, Crono Trigger still holds a special place. It takes an incredible feat of writing to make such a well-interlaced and cohesive series of parallel worlds. I still hum the tunes from its soundtrack to this day, and the game’s most memorable moments have inspired hundreds of later games. I also enjoyed Crono Cross. I don’t care what you think.

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky - I’ve played a large number of the games in the Atelier series. I love the aesthetics of it, and I really enjoy the puzzle of making items. I’m one of those people who plays an MMO just for the gathering and crafting systems. If you’re anything like me, you’ll likely enjoy this series. Escha & Logy has a great balance of combat and crafting, and is an excellent entry point to the series.

Danganronpa - Say what you like about it, this dark, closed-room mystery series defines the visual novel genre for me. Danganronpa’s cast and situations are wild, but it really draws you in. It has a great pacing and character development that will make you love or hate every member of the cast individually, and the mysteries always take a surprising turn.

Top 4 Movies

The Lighthouse - My favorite film of 2019. Masterful film work and character acting make this CGI-free Black & White picture a modern masterpiece of suspenseful storytelling. The Lighthouse establishes Robert Eggers as the true modern successor to Hitchcock.

Wild Tales - It’s impossible to sum up this movie in just a short paragraph, so go watch it instead. This is a vignette film about revenge and human emotion, and the lengths we will go to settle the score against perceived injustice. It’s also just fun.

The Rocketeer - Between a beautiful soundtrack, high adventure in the early age of aviation, and memorable villains, there’s a lot to love in this classic. Even more than Indiana Jones, I consider this to be the quintessential pulp-action film.

Tampopo - A classic Japanese film that remains interesting time and again. Like Wild Tales, this is a vignette film consisting of several interlaced stories about our relationship with food and with each other, all tied together by a central thread.

Anyway, there’s my list! If you have checked out any of my favorites, or if you check them out due to reading about them on this list, please leave a comment and let me know! I’m curious to hear your opinions as well!

About the Author

D. Brad Talton Jr. is the President of Level 99 Games, as well as the designer of BattleCON, Millennium Blades, Pixel Tactics, Exceed, and many more games. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife Lynda and daughter Kathryn.

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viknaerth · 5 years

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Flash Points Challenge 001

what are some of your favorite tropes? - 400 POINTS

This one I had to think on for a minute because I think with my writing I was very anti-tropes for a while. For me I love historicity, so best friendships and pre-established connections that blur lines or develop into something more intense are particularly special. I think that’s because there a never-ending depth to the relationship, it can always be delved into and picked apart. Aside from that in character building, I have a terrible love of anti-heroes. Good in their heart but not necessarily in their actions, I think that it paves the way for more opportunistic and exciting writing.

do you have a favorite character you’ve written, in or outside of shiver? if so, what makes them your fave? - 550 POINTS

This is tough because I’m not about to get into the laundry list but I have love for all the characters I’ve written and me being an actual old person of tumblr means there are actually a heap of them. I have to give love to my two kiddos here because I’m having such a good time writing them. Elyse’s dim mind and super bright personality is a duality I find a lot of joy in trying to portray because as with all of my onion children there's so much more than that. She’ll do anything for anyone and the way that I write her really does mean anything so it’s been interesting to see the lengths she’d go to. My darling Vik is a consistent expression of what the experience of loss looks like. Somehow, even when you lose everything that you hold dear the world keeps turning even though it shouldn’t. I like his candid way of approaching romance and the fact that he’s more poetry than person. And then a final shoutout to one of the last characters I played outside of Shiver because they’re on my mind and that’s Sid James, a traveling tattoo artist. No wild supernatural AU, just a grand love of art, aesthetics and self-acceptance. There have been a couple of iterations of her and they all managed to carry the same energy, the muse is strong with that one.

do you prefer writing with small casts of characters or large ones? what are some of the pros and cons? - 400 POINTS

Yes and yes? In my world small is say under 10 and then large would be 20+ and for me I’ve had positive and negative experiences with both. I think that overall I would say you have an easier time writing with fewer people as it forces you to make meaningful connections when plotting. Not saying it isn’t possible in a bigger group, people just have more options and the ways in which characters are linked can get spread think depending on the setting. I think for me the smaller cast wins out and the pros are certainly as I’ve said above and you get a chance to meet and engage with people outside of the rping space more frequently. With bigger groups it can be harder to stake a claim or make yourself heard in amongst everyone else. The cons of a small group is that dedication is required to make sure that it isn’t just 5 out of 10 keeping the dash moving and people leaving can have a greater effect on the whole look and feel of the rp. In a bigger cast of characters 2 people leaving, while it is a shame, maybe not alter the whole balance of the rp. As with anything it is a balancing act, for me whether there’s 4 or 40 people involved I just prefer to write with dedicated and creative writers.

what’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done in the name of outlining/worldbuilding (timelines, research, maps, spreadsheets, etc.)? - 500 POINTS

Okay, listen, we’ve all been there: I could definitely admin an rp, in fact, I could definitely make an rp!

It really isn’t as simple and shiny as everyone else makes it seem. I’ve made to completion 3 rps and plenty of others that never saw the light of day. That was mostly because the high concept was way outside my realm of knowledge or the intricacies grew to be too much. I know there’s little examples but I feel like I’ve done all of them. From a post-apocalypic rp that had it’s own barter systems, power hierarchy and fully scaled map that I made in PS. I recognised it was way too much way too late and I just didn’t do anything with it. Way too much research time spent on how society would societally and physically rebuild itself after a doomsday moment.

share the last paragraph you wrote you’re most proud of. - 650 POINTS

Elyse:

Elyse had never looked anyone so deeply in the eye before, sure that she saw a whole world between her darkened iris’, unsure if she’d ever been so close to anyone. While ditzy she was never clumsy, too much restraint holding all of her muscles rigid to bump into someone like they did in the movies. Books would drop, both hunkering down, eyes meet and supposedly that was what attraction was. A succession of touches, glances and fumbled words. Neither of them had managed poetic verse, but they shared a glance that didn’t waver and their lips had brushed and could again according to Selene. Elyse’s doe eyes watched the woman in front of her so intently, just waiting for a cue or for her to make a move. She never believed she could be in control nor did it call to her. Her two sisters were the guiding forces, each had their own styles of giving direction. Elyse felt as though she’d been led to the center of the universe, stood in front of the only thing that mattered. The cracks in the pool tiles seemed to push themselves back together and the peeling paint on the motel’s rear curled back up into place. Everything was the most perfect version of itself and Elyse finally realized that while control wasn’t exactly her forte she did have to respond.

Vik:

His cheek and his precious hair graced by delicate fingers who had played his strings before. Vik felt like an instrument in her hands, known and appreciated. Impossible to some and unscrutable to most she elicited the finest melody out of him. It echoed love and support, a song for her alone. Their relationship so unique, a musician and their chosen companion were inseparable until the lowly tool fell into disrepair. Vik was broken in ways he didn’t understand entirely, a mix of trauma, loss and nowhere to call home. Could he play the same melodies? Were they sharp, or worse, were they flat? If she stayed then he supposed time would tell. But with his forehead pressed against hers, he forgot his worry. Vik looked into her eyes and remembered his place, holding no ability to judge who he’d become. She would always be enchanting and he only hoped that there was something left in him to offer her.

describe your current muse’s physical appearance using only one, over the top sentence. - 400 POINTS

y’all can guess whos who ok:

A sunshine smile knitted to soft lips, arms crossed over chest by way of keeping her pieces held as one; swaying as the breeze takes her.

Tousled locks framed her marble features, canines bared in a daring grin and her eyes honed like a predator to prey with no malintent, instead just to offer a sweet and empty promise of love.

if you had to write a novel about one of the characters in or outside of shiver, which character would you choose and why? - 600 POINTS

Tuffy, real tuff.

I think no matter who I picked there would be a whole load of infringement on other people’s writing. Though I think that’s rping, it’s the coming together of pairings to create magic scenes and capture moments in a way that a single perspective could never. Elyse is a funny little one and I’m actually (omg spoiler) currently writing her actual history out as we speak. Then with Vik his history and coming to be where he is right now makes for a very cohesive and readable tale. Paired with an ideal partner, but she couldn’t love him back, he sought something different, the something different kidnapped and tortured him, he was sent away from his home, and then his love very much accidentally found him again in a new space and as a very different person than the one she once knew. It writes itself really. It would hit a lot of beats that it has to and has very classical romance tropes while being both modern and entirely high fantasy.

The last thing Vik needs to hear is that he’s getting a biography tho to be fair.

#flash points #shiver.gang #i put it all under the cut bc honestly its all long

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everydayanth · 5 years

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Time is Money or... Identity?

This became something of a thought-experiment paper... I don’t expect many reads here, but I’m working on getting more comfortable sharing thoughts, particularly on the internet, rather than keeping them in my head and getting annoyed when no one wants to talk about them, lol, so here goes....

It started with this image popping up three times while scrolling through the dash:

And then I had some thoughts....Sorry it’s so long. I suppose this post in itself is an experiment.

Things like this, collections of ideas concentrated into a few spectacular people (Renaissance artists, Baroque composers, WWII scientists, etc.), make me wonder about philosophy vs. aesthetic, and if what really sets progress in motion is competition and a group of people who feed off each other’s asking of questions and discovery of answers.

Can we fresco and entire ceiling? Sure, but it will be painful and probably kill you. Can we art better by understanding anatomy? Sure, but you’ll have to snatch some bodies, or let someone else do it first. Can I make music do this instead of that other thing? Sure, but then you’ll be copying that one guy, try this even cooler new idea! Instead of repackaging the same idea into new models or melodies, they pushed the boundaries of known into connections that traversed the unknown, adding bubbles to the collective mind-map of human knowledge and intelligence. That’s what makes them special, right?

I’m currently reading The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf, and I’m doing it slowly on purpose, reading all the materials referenced (Kant, Hume, Goethe, etc.) as a personal exercise in understanding a period of time/culture rather than simply Alexander Von Humboldt the person (also, it’s a good book, but the author is very biased-in-favor, so I’m trying to read it in tandem of others who were more critical). Anyway, I’m going through the part where a group of young men require each other’s thoughts as stimulation and inspiration to new ideas, how they challenge and change what is and feed off these new connections, even as they are being recorded by scientists and artists who would become ultimately more preserved in historical documents and textbooks.

And that seems to be the key, one brain questions and answers, another questions that answer and answers itself, and so on, agreeing on very little outside of context, but pushing each other into new territory. It only takes one four-minute mile to prove it can be done at all. But if we’re caught up in the ethics of how to question and answer, then aesthetics quickly become more desirable. So the cultural understanding, particularly with Millennials, seems to grow weary of argument and become: if I can’t discuss policy (because the nuances are extreme or not understandable/accessible to me, or most often because my voice is denied and change is unattainable), I can at least look good while it slowly chokes me to death.

And while it’s easy to write it off as narcissism and entitlement, perhaps it’s only because what we deem “looking good” is one of very few things we can generally agree upon, everything else is hopeless, creating a cycle of nihilism where hopeful people are considered naive or dumb. Sure, there are different styles of aesthetic, and we label those subgroups with passionate adamance, but I think even the most minimalist among us can appreciate an aesthetic collection of clutter when done well. We share an ideology of quality that makes art and media that was once appreciated by few an aesthetic that is valued by most - Marvel comics vs. the MCU, SF/F shows like Lost or Game of Thrones becoming cultural phenomenons vs. the elusive Geekdom prior to the Star Wars movies. Aesthetic unites us where every other aspect of nationalism and group identity divide us by philosophy - our perceptions and understanding of geography, history, culture, language, or enemy (traits of nationalism, yeah, I’m citing my own article lol) are all based on complex webs of experience, education, world view, etc.

We focus on aesthetics in literature, visual arts, and technology, business branding, business models, and even the application of science to the public. Aesthetics becomes the focus of energy because it is where we find freedom of identity in a world ready to challenge any semblance of diverse thought. We agree on aesthetics, because they fit a model and communicate efficiently if we are something to consider good or bad.

But that false dichotomy is severely flawed because projections of reality and reality itself are two vastly different things. Dichotomous thinking is a way to simplify the world when it becomes too complex too fast, it is a tool used to make choices, like making a pros-cons list or an if-then projection in order to decide to do or not to do, to be or not to be. It is often supported as a tool of control, and becomes extremely dangerous when it begins to dictate our identities and understandings of the world. When there is no us-vs-them, what idea can we rally around?

To start, we have a lot of inclusion to do, because discussions of philosophy, art, and science all start with time, and you know who doesn’t have time? People who need to make money in it. So when we skew our education systems to favor those who have time (and therefore money), we allow economics to dictate progress in philosophy and art and science, we hand over control to those who profit most from dichotomous thinking. And when we do that... well... money will favor some things over others, like product over research, revenue over investment, aesthetic over thought, etc. until deviating outside of that cycle is nearly impossible if not unsurvivable.

We’re in a loop, where making money is the goal, because there is no other option, research needs support, and research’s only support comes from money, and money wants more money, so research is limited to whatever gives us money.

Has that always been the case?

Renaissance artists were successful if they demonstrated the church’s power, gaining the church support through aesthetics, not challenging its philosophy (well... not directly anyway). That church profited (and still does) greatly from the development of dichotomies and used art and emotion to encourage this thinking, often as a way to control the lower classes.

Baroque composers (or Romantic, Classical, and Modern ones for that matter) were successful if they sold shows and inspired attendees to purchase their music, again, often sponsored by those in financial power and following the requested agenda (and again, not always directly, often including illicit subtext). Stepping too far away from what was popular and appropriate meant they lost sponsorship and public interest. Thus, the freedom of the starving artist vs. the conformation of the sell-out dichotomy.

And WWII/post-WWII scientists were successful if their work was supported by government institutions, particularly military or intelligence branches, and advanced the prospect of victory over a consistent manifestation of physical enemy (Nazis, Russians, soldiers, and spies).

The money comes when the proof is clear, not when it’s being searched for, and then only after decades of scientists and artists have died in poverty after discoveries of curiosity, not agenda. Progress, then, is controlled by public interest... or else private investment, and must, therefore, conform to the expectations of one or the other, often balancing the greater of two evils, it seems.

This is not a disrespect of those genius giants before us. I’m just noticing a pattern in the system of prosperous aesthetic periods and less progressive philosophical ones. We see the results of the philosophers only when they are applied aesthetically, and those aesthetic focal points divide the world into answers instead of questions, so it can seem that large progress has been made, when perhaps it was in-process for quite some time and was completed when a group of people crowded around the concept with the financial support of a capital agenda and the peers to push the boundaries of answering the questions that had been asked before them.

Most of the giants whose shoulders we stand on are invisible, it seems we only recognize the ones who present the answers aesthetically to our culture of origin. The “discoverers” of America are preserved in record because of their historic access in writing, but also because of their royal and religious backing.

Many scientific theories were proposed prior to our Western heroes by individuals those heroes had access to reading, particularly those outside of our Western vernacular. Darwin had access to tons of theories, but I’m not just talking Lyell and Linnaeus here, but the likes of Zhuang Zhou, al-Jāḥiẓ, and Ibn Khaldūn, whose names are ignored even in evolutionary biology/anthropology classes.

We remember Apple’s ipod, not the saturated market of mp3 players before it; we discuss the unveiling of the iphone, not the industry and inventions that already existed. And while the fun of literature is often disassembling its parts, we don’t discuss the mythology or market predecessors to Harry Potter, because it was the new aesthetic of young adult. That’s a bold claim, and much more subjective than the tech/science ones, but I think it’s important that we recognize this across industries and throughout our culture, not simply within the aesthetic streamlining of technology. Our immediate “successful” heroes make money because they provide and aesthetic that applies to many philosophies.

We don’t diversify our education because we admire the end result of science, rarely considering the entirety of work that went into final discovery or product. We try to explain science in chains of linear progression rather than the mind-map of questions and ideas and artistic or political influence that it is.

Progress then, depends a great deal on affluence and we exist in a culture of “who you know” rather than a balance of who AND what you know. Sure, there are always exception, but is it any surprise that we younger generations are obsessed with image?

Success, it seems, is directly correlated with it, and while we know genius takes more than money, success seems to exist outside of it - in fact, success rarely seems to involve genius itself at all anymore, but pure aesthetic. I’m thinking of the likes of Steve Jobs, who cultivated a following through his personal branding and rhetoric that helped change an entire industry, but often did so through aesthetics, not invention.

We have grown to idolize the firsts as people who invented something, however, the reality is that those tech giants and big names rarely invented, rather re-modeled and presented something aesthetically compatible to society. We do not celebrate the inventor of the piano, but rather those composers who presented us with an aesthetic style for it.

But that makes sense, because science’s value is in application. Who cares about dark matter? Well, no one (except sci-fi authors lol), yet, because it has no application to the public. But projects are still funded by institutions and government because our curiosity drives research and the potential outcome (weapons, control, power, money) justifies investment. How much money our government spends on NASA is directly correlated to the expectation of results, in the 60s, that was a way to defeat our perceived enemies, now, for some, it’s useless and should be privately funded.

I’m getting a little off topic, but my point is that what we deem “progress” is often only the part of the iceberg that we see, and rarely the whole of it. So what we see in the initial photo as a culture is a group of genius scientists (yes, again, respectfully, I am not denouncing the discoveries or large amount of work put in by any individuals here), rather than the prosperity of the Industrial Revolution, whose amount of excess-everything funded work that wasn’t considered necessary, until it was. When we fear a limit of resources, we understandably become more controlling over what we spend money on as a society, but even in limited resources, there are those with excess, who can then more easily control what is considered valuable or not.

So, to be a successful genius, one must have access to funding, and to do this, one’s work must fulfill an agenda of another who has or is access to funds. This often entails being well connected, which includes a performance of image, false confidence, and the crucial understanding of the mind map of philosophy, art, and science in the intended discipline, which is often only accessible to those who fit the desired cultural template of the controlled upper class (read: wealthy, white, male, and upperclass-educated, for historical America anyway).

Which means that in idolizing the presenters of knowledge, we value the aesthetic of it, the pretty package wrapped around a completed idea, more than we value the process of it. And this is dangerous because we repeat it everywhere, in politics and government (we might value the cheaters who take a shortcut as a symbol of intelligent application, or those who represent an aesthetic we agree with without looking into their application of policy), justice (social justice often values the aesthetic meaning of an outcome of a problem, rather than deconstructing the process by which that outcome was reached), education (we use standardized testing to represent a student’s ability to memorize outcomes - or the aesthetic of looking intelligent, rather than demonstrating an ability to apply knowledge and understanding), business (we herald in those who present us with a desired aesthetic brand - Apple, Starbucks, Google, etc., rather than investigating the potential corruption of human conditions that leads to that aesthetic; or else using a popularity rating of stars as peer-approval of a brand rather than developing our opinions out of experience).

Even in our personal lives, it is more important to be perceived as positive and confident than to investigate and deconstruct what might be making us unhappy. For me, it was health, I didn’t like how I looked or felt, but was obsessively told that I’m great, I shouldn’t feel that way. My negativity was rewarded, victimization was encouraged, and the conclusion seemed to always be leaving everything as-is.

Eventually I had to say fuck it and stop seeking the support and understanding of friends, utilizing spite to rebuild a healthy life, which isn’t the only option, that was my choice, but our obsession with aesthetics became a lose-lose for me. I didn’t want to look like a photo-brushed-whatever model, which seemed to be everyone’s assumption, I just felt unhappy because I was unhealthy and unproductive in my life.

But that’s a bad aesthetic, or maybe not one at all and that denial of aesthetic might be the worst part. I didn’t fit into a box, not out of any higher intelligence, but because I could never pick one. This story is much more complex (and for the record, Jake was instrumental in helping me develop and maintain a health plan) and could probably be unpacked into an entire book of an extended metaphor, but put simply, I want to be a minimalist some days and a traditionalist other days and my brain is just a clash of ideas. Even my wardrobe reflects this, lit-nerd some days, world-traveler other days, outgoing-athlete, and even the occasional clash of weird accessories that is dancer-chic, lol.

I was feeling stuck by a body that was in endless rehabilitation and recovery (long story, broken bones), and I didn’t like it, so I wanted to change it. But that proactive idea was met with passionate defenses of body-positivity (which does have a place in society as a whole) and a focus on aesthetic (”you look fine”) rather than philosophy (well I don’t fucking feel fine). And I can’t help but think it’s because aesthetics are things we can agree on, or because they are safe, and to change aesthetics or to request a focus on philosophy, makes people scared about the burden of change.

So I have a revision to my own idea of what curates success:

Successful genius exists in a place supported financially, often by an agenda that is commonly more afforded to those who already fit a familiar cultural aesthetic of money or power, armed with an understanding of connection and access to un-biased and diverse knowledge and education (again, often most commonly afforded to those already in the upperclass), surrounded by a group of similar individuals who provide competition as well as resources and connections that progress the understanding of concepts in non-linear objectivity, and present finalized ideas to the public in a consumable and digestible aesthetic package of understanding that does not require extensive negative change on behalf of the consumer.

If that is true, I think it answers the cycles of science in ages of philosophy and reason vs. aesthetics and image that creates the popular science vs. art false dichotomy. STEM is more easily objective, and objective is more easily packaged and sold, therefore we create an art vs. science dichotomy and science wins - but only if it’s presenter understands enough about art to package it aesthetically. Social sciences are doomed by their own use of inductive arguments, complex layers of pattern and observation that don’t have a single objective Truth, rather a layered perception of potential truth, which is not easily distributed - it’s not a pamphlet, it’s a book.

Ain’t nobody got time for books.

It explains the Millennial obsession with image outside of an individual psychology of narcissism, by looking to cultural understandings of success and value. And while deviating from traditional models of progress - looking at thought as a mind map of connection rather than linear funnel of detail (while still applicable and useful), it illustrates the time lapse between discovery and progress. There is a gap between the actual discovery of knowledge and the generalized application of that knowledge, and that gap is filled by whomever presents the information most effectively or efficiently, sometimes accurately, to the public. That presenter is then considered successful, valuable, important. That importance leads to respect, time, and freedom.

So Millennials are emulating what they need to look like to be considered successful (fake it ‘till you make it and all), while science emulates linear thought in the same way. Linear thought can be more easily objective and packaged for public access, taught in schools and accepted by society. We create a dichotomy of linear and non-linear thought and say they have pros and cons or specific uses and applications, but I think in the same way our predecessors argued about Empiricism vs. Rationalism (read: art vs. science) until we understood them in tandem, we are at the point of having to understand linear and non-linear thinking not as opposites, but as extremes on a spectrum, most useful when balanced.

It’s complex and complex things take time to understand. And time is money. And money is freedom. And freedom is happiness.

Perhaps this explains why dichotomies are so popular - they fit an aesthetic, and they remove the exhausting layers of philosophy that exist inside our own identities. Dichotomies limit the complexity of an idea into two extremes, and when we define ourselves by an image rather than our modes of thought, much of our decisions can be made by whatever aligns with the image. We can feel free by the illusions of power or choice, while minimizing the effort it takes to get to that freedom, and maybe it makes us feel happy for a minute.

However, while we spend much of our decision quota in a given day on deciding which aesthetics to consume or conform to, those choices are still influenced by those whose agendas are funding our understanding of the world through science and art. Is it any wonder we’ve created a dichotomy of disconnect in every way. What I mean is that it is easy to make irrational choices based on feelings of aesthetics (easier, not always easy), and when our culture divides aesthetics into categories, they are predictable, marketable, and controllable, so we must separate the world into understandable groups.

If this is true, then maybe it’s not the internet or social media or Millennial entitlement that is separating us. Maybe it’s the control of wealth being recycled into similar agendas to produce work that conforms to or provides evidence supporting already existing biases in science. Keep us too busy making money to have time to understand it and too loyal to brands to investigate the money, and too exhausted of choices to discover ourselves. So the freedom of choice that we find in aesthetic dichotomies - the ease of making decisions and lowered exhaustion of not analyzing those experiences, is actually a sacrifice of identity and agency to those funding our research and creating the requirements of aesthetic conformation .

This is getting a bit conspiracy-theory-esque, but dichotomies are good for reducing choices and controlling groups, however, they do not inherently exist outside of a few basic dualities (like light and the absence of light, or dark), they extend out of a focus on aesthetic and a disapproval of thought, voice, and criticism. Or, to simplify, they are social constructs to organize information.

So if this all related in some way, if science and progress is inhibited by the agendas of the elite, and we are very aware of our elite, how do we trust it? How do we step out of the aesthetic-obsessed cycle and into forgiveness and understanding and patience and... time?

And perhaps more importantly, how do we develop a way to support science AND diversify it? How do we make the next photo like this include races and genders across a spectrum of ideologies? How do we create a collective group of genius that exists outside of a capital agenda, is it even possible? How can we encourage investment over revenue when so many Americans (and people around the world) feel they don’t have enough time to make money to survive, or choices to spend thinking about philosophy, policy, and what they believe in vs. agreeing with something that seems to vaguely align with their desired aesthetic identity? It’s not laziness, I don’t think, but over-work, we’ve reached our daily capacity and the sacrifice of demanding more is...less.

I struggle to pick an aesthetic and it has helped me break that easy black-and-white view of the world, but that is a fight I am exhausted by every day. It would be so simple to pick an aesthetic and run with it, to define myself by a collective idea and make choices based on what matches it, but that swings with my emotions, and maybe that’s closer to the problem?

We have done some weird shit with emotion, from disregarding it as feminine or “weak,” to writing it out of strength and art and science. We have created a dichotomy between emotion and logic and then mapped it into our brains as hemispheres of thought. We made a taboo-aesthetic of sadness (I mean, look at Inside Out’s character development of Sadness, but they did a good job using balance as the answer) and disregarded most emotions beyond contentment or positive excitement as bad, which is, surprise, starting to look like a mistake. We’ve branded empathy as weakness; we are simultaneously admiring, and for many worshiping, empathetic individuals while funneling our money into heartless heroes who we deem successful. Maybe it’s our emotions that have faded, beaten out of us or encouraged into silence, leaving us lonely and dependent on our chosen aesthetic to find any pieces of identity that might lead to authentic happiness. Maybe emotion is what keeps us in just-enough chaos to challenge the agendas that control our choices by keeping us unpredictable? Or perhaps they are what unite us beyond aesthetic.

Maybe staring at that shelf of shampoos and conditioners, over half of which are produced by the exact same factory and owned by the same company but branded with different versions of you in mind and with how you will feel looking at them taken into account, is extremely overwhelming. And some days you feel lazy and tired and you just grab that same ol’ thing. But occasionally you feel rebellious or responsible, and you investigate and make a completely different choice because maybe you are made of a layer of realities held together by your collective experience of life that creates a unique worldview, that thing that we conform to an aesthetic or maybe an emotion, or philosophy, or a conviction of values, and maybe that thing cannot be predicted. Maybe our models predict an aesthetic, not a person, and maybe that’s a duh, but it’s not a logical concept I consider on a daily basis of rhetoric hailing technology and AI as all-knowing and capable of perfect reason.

Maybe it’s our chaos that is trying to be organized into compartmental identities of aesthetic ideologies: minimal, vintage, grunge, professional, bad-ass, athletic, urban, feminine, boho, whatever it is. And those who challenge it are in for a much more difficult life of choices, each of which must be broken down into action-and-consequence, current emotion vs. future potential, the history and creation of a product, etc. We don’t have time to ask our coffee if children were kidnapped to harvest it, we have an image and this specific coffee or product fits it; we are too busy trying to be successful so that we can eventually have the freedom to fully identify ourselves and be happy, and we see by cultural example that our desired success comes from aesthetic.

Capitalism creates a need for money, and that excess capital is often syphoned into the remnants of pre-constructed systems. I don’t have the expertise to divide that into its logical components yet, but maybe our adoration of monarchy as seen in our popular media, art, and entertainment, has us assuming the elite among us deserve their position, romanticizing the trials of poverty as obstacles to be overcome, and forcing racial stereotypes into equally damaging aesthetics - the white female, incapable damsel in distress, vs. the black female, independent queen who can survive everything on her own. This is not a real dichotomy, it’s a shitty stereotype, but you probably wouldn’t know it from the outside looking in, or perhaps from the inside itself, if you felt the need to align with a specific aesthetic, or even to invert that pressure into the opposite aesthetic. Businesses thrive by utilizing those dichotomies, and sometimes by creating a solution to them. So if they are useful to some, perhaps that’s enough reason to be suspicious of the agendas that tell us how to think or make our lives easier.

I feel like I’m saying a lot of stupid things while feeling my own brain nodding along and going like oh, here’s a dichotomy and there’s another dichotomy and all dichotomies are false dichotomies, and I know all this in formal educated argument, but when it comes to daily application, I want to just be a cool millennial who has health insurance and can grab takeout without humming about the cost and what I might be able to pull together from the fridge. That doesn’t mean brands or aesthetics, despite the market’s attempts to the contrary, just the means to survive financially with a bit of excess time for myself to think and be bored and contemplate the world with other people so we’re all a bit less lonely and more emotionally adjusted.

Diversity, money, research, science, art, aesthetic, it all seems to come back to identity and time. Time to make choices, time to reflect and think about identity and emotion, time to deconstruct and criticize reality, time to investigate corruption, time to gather knowledge and resources, time to exist along other humans rather than floating away, isolated and ungrounded from the world. Therefore, successful geniuses also have time to exist outside of a singular aesthetic and enhance our understanding of the world in order to develop positive changes that we often label “progress.”

How do we give people more time so that they don’t have to divide the world into aesthetics and dichotomies in order to keep up or attempt to be successful? Does giving someone time allow them to feel successful? If that perseverance of success was in order to gain the time, would we then use the time to curate individual identities that we feel comfortable and confident in? Is time what it takes to be happy? Is time what separates the classes in America?

How do we un-do “time is money,” particularly in a capitalist economy and remember that time is also thought and connection and values and friendships and more than obligations?

How do we remember that time is identity?

Is time a renewable resource? Or are we.

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theglguidetowebcomics · 5 years

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Queer on Webtoon

A few miss the mark, but still are worth reading, A not quite superhero, a ball of fluff, and the JRPG parody protagonist who needs to research the meaning of “no”.

A quick look at Power Ballad, My dragon Girlfriend, and Mage & Demon Queen.

Power Ballad - Molly Brooks (complete)

Starting off we have quite a well known and highly rated comic, Power Ballad. A comic about a famous pop singer and her assistant solving a string of designer dress thefts in America LA. And also, a queer love story with two people of colour. Story wise however the comic is a bit of a weird one, from its under use of one of the character’s being a superhero; to the story’s anti climatic resolution; to it’s weirdly solid and interesting understanding of internet culture and how it effects the plot/characters/music industry around it. It makes it hard to pin a genre on it. But, If you’re looking for a comic about a pair of superhero solving girlfriends with celebrity secret identities this is not the comic for you, and that isn’t what the comic is about. It’s more about a grounded but airbrushed look at character’s dealing with celebrity culture/statuses and how things are usually less fantastical then they seem without getting gritty. With a mystery subplot to keep the plot moving. The art is solid, the character’s are nice, the superhero element should’ve been used more or less, yet either way it’s a good read. Can be read here. https://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/power-ballad/list?title_no=987

My Dragon Girlfriend - Fawnduu (ongoing)

My Dragon Girlfriend is a bubbly fluffy slice of life story with not a lot of plot and a side of cryptids. It’s very much a light hearted happy snap shot of a couple being together, the character’s don’t really have flaws besides insecurities/awkwardness and there’s no real goal or plot that anyone is dealing with. That’s not a bad thing, it’s a light hearted story about character’s overcoming their insecurities in a forgiving world, it’s a cute story, that’s what it wants to be. But, it’s not going to exactly go into interesting character development, explore the supernatural themes, or bring in a lot of dramatic tension. Personally it’s not a genre that appeals to me, but it does appeal to a lot of other people, which is great. Just not a story style for me. If you’re looking for cute fantasy element fluffy romance this is for you, if not, wouldn’t recommend. Plot style aside though the art does what it needs to do, the character’s are appealing, but, the backgrounds feel a bit empty which makes the settings feel a bit…. soulless. The character designs are appealing though, and consistent which is great. It isn’t bad artwork, just hasn’t reached it’s potential. However, I do look forward to what this artist does next. My Dragon Girlfriend is a nice little fluffy snap shot, sometimes a little NSFW too, but not much else. It’s good, not great, and that’s not a bad thing. If you’re a fan of fluff this might just be a comic you’ll enjoy. Can be read here. https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/my-dragon-girlfriend/list?title_no=162918

Mage & Demon Queen - Color_LES (Ongoing)

So, controversial opinion but I’m not the largest fan of the anime style. Especially when it comes to comics which have used it as a pallet for character reactions and plots to an extent where it… well, heavily stunts the plot and characterisation. There are always exceptions for the rules though. So. Mage & Demon Queen. Mage & Demon queen is set in a world that’s a giant parody of JRPG fantasy games, about an over powered Mage and her massive crush on the land’s evil Demon Queen. It’s a comedy, fantasy, and definitely takes a lot of inspiration from Japanese manga and anime. And, it does these well, especially the setting, it knows the tropes and it’s advantage is it knows how to make fun of them. Romance wise it’s a regular character aggressively denies feelings and beats up the plucky protagonist story. However there is one element that made the comic extremely difficult to get through, which is unfortunately the main character. It may be an over the top comedy but the main character’s crush on the love interest definitely comes off as obsessive and creepy at times. I can see what the author was going for, and the character is called out on it a little later on. But, even with that, and that story being an over the top comedy, and her being obsessed with the LI being the main gag of the comic; it makes the main character impossible to root for at times. And that’s a pretty hefty problem. Besides that the comedy is fine, the world is interesting, the characters are well written, the author understands the source material, and the art is well done. Even if sometimes the backgrounds are a little 3D reliant the character’s are beautifully designed, the colours are great, the settings are even solid. But, the main character comes off as creepy at times, and that is understandably a deal breaker for some people, it’s why I dropped the comic a few times. If you’re looking for a JRPG dungeon crawler parody with a comedy romance plot this might just be for you. However, the main character’s crush on the LI will probably be a deal breaker for a lot of people. can be read here. https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/mage-and-demon-queen/list?title_no=1438 Mage & demon Queen will get a full review once it’s completed.

#comics #webcomics #lgbt #webtoon #Power Ballad #My Dragon Girlfriend #Mage & Demon Queen

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themosleyreview · 5 years

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The Mosley Review: Best Film of 2018

Another year has passed and man was it a good year with some great films. Now I know I missed a good number of them, but I saw the ones that interested me. This list comprises of the best films that either wowed or moved me. Now I try to keep these lists at 10 films, but this year I'm adding one extra slot. If you want the full review of each film then click each title. Now without further ado, here's my list of the best film 2018! First up......

Blockers: It has truly been a while since we've had a fresh idea come to the teen sex comedy genre and this one was what the genre needed. It was genuinely funny in so many ways and unexpectedly heartfelt and sweet. The sight gags were truly fantastic and hilarious especially the "kiss the car moment". I loved the chemistry each parent had with their teenagers and the over all message of growing up and acceptance. American Pie was of my generation and this film was for this generation and I still loved it.

A Quiet Place: If there was a list of the best trailers of 2018, then this film’s trailer would win. Originality is key to the horror/sci fi thriller and the fact that director John Krasinski tapped into that with a genius idea was truly surprising. Known for comedy, it was a great switch to see his more dramatic side. I loved the family story that surrounded the constant threat in the world and it made for some of the most thrilling moments on screen once certain family members were alone. I truly was on the edge of my seat the entire film and I had one of the rare theater experiences where I was in a full theater and nobody made a sound. No crinkling of rappers, whispering or cell phone usage. Everyone was engaged completely. Man I loved this film.

Hereditary: I love the resurgence of slow burn horror films. Not all have mastered it yet, but the ones that do are truly special. This film was creepy and heartbreaking in so many ways. If it was just a family drama then it would be great, but with the addition of the horror element it becomes a masterpiece. The whole cast delivers great performances, but Toni Collette was unbelievably fantastic and I hope she gets nominated for Best Actress. She was so real and gut wrenching when tragedy hits her. This was truly the best horror film of the year and it should not be missed by anyone.

Incredibles 2: Why did it take 14 years until we finally got a sequel to one of the best original animated superhero films?! Well the wait was worth it because Pixar delivered once again. Not only does the family get more challenging drama sprinkled into their lives, but things get kinda scary. I loved every sequence with Elastic Girl, but Jack Jack stole the entire film with his fight with the raccoon. Every year Pixar delivers with their original stories and it was about time that my favorite Pixar film got the sequel it deserved. PLEASE don't make us wait another 14 years for Incredibles 3!

Blackkklansman: I love Spike Lee. He is and will always be one of the most powerful voices in the black community and in cinema. To see his take on one of the most dangerous and awesome true stories was truly exciting. I did have a hesitation about seeing the film because at times racism related films can be a too aggravating, but I gave it a chance and loved it. It was a story that needed to be told on the big screen and with all the powerful messages. The performances were great all around and I loved John David Washington and his chemistry with Adam Driver. The pair were excellent apart and together. The ending of the film was a strong political and social message that was heard loud and clear and I loved the film all the more for it.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout: Again and again this franchise gets even more intense with its fantastic storytelling and astounding action sequences that are breathtaking. The reason why these films are still loved is because the action is real and gritty. Tom Cruise keeps this franchise fresh and as Ethan Hunt he hasn't stopped being great. From start to finish the connections to past films and the twists were truly amazing and I loved the rivalry between Tom and Henry Cavil's character August Walker. This was an espionage epic and another definition of how to keep your franchise fresh.

Bohemian Rhapsody: It is very rare to do a film about an influential band right and I think that's the reason why we don't see films like this anymore. The ultimate challenge was presented to do a film on possibly the greatest band England and the world has ever seen and will ever know. I was so happy with the results of this magnificent film. So much care and heart went into the making of this film and immortalized Queen and Freddie Mercury while showing respect to his memory. Everybody wants the deep, dirty and dark side of a person's life, but that wasn't the important part of the film. It is rightfully addressed, but it doesn't consume the film. This was a love letter to Queen and to all the generations of fans that were there from the beginning, who grew up with Queen and for the new ones just discovering them now.

Avengers: Infinity War: 10 years of a serialized film universe has finally come together in what is to be known as one of greatest technical achievements in storytelling and filmmaking. All this time the powers behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe have taken risk after risk and it has paid off each time. Now this film brings almost all of the characters we know and love and puts them together in a cohesive story that spans across the globe and stars and it keeps the grounded feel that has been consistent throughout each film. The action was fantastic it was truly breathtaking to see a film of this scale to be the first film shot entirely in IMAX. The moment we started losing characters was truly heartbreaking and a communal tear was shed for one in particular. I loved this film and I can't wait for Endgame.

A Star is Born: It is the one story that has been told countless times and a film that has been remade 3 times prior and I have to say that this is the best version. The music in the film was fantastic and the way that the live performances were shot was expertly done. I felt as if I was onstage with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. The two of them delivered outstanding performances and Lady Gaga has shown her acting chops before, but this was on another level of excellence. Their bond throughout the film was the heart that kept beating steadily and when it breaks, it breaks your soul. I loved this film so much and I haven't stopped listening to the soundtrack to this day.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: If there's one character that has had more reboots than anybody else, its Spider-Man. The entire franchise has been rebooted and plagued with 3 bad films and luckily the character was saved by the MCU handlers. Now comes the story of a new Spider-Man and my god was it astounding. The visuals alone were groundbreaking and pushed what can be done in animation to the next level. The story was a perfect introduction to a fan favorite Miles Morales and a worthy origin story for him. This film exceed all my expectations and blew the doors off how origin stories are made. This was a crowning achievement in filmmaking and storytelling and will be one of the most influential story for children of all ages and race. Such a masterpiece.

And now the moment is here. The best film of 2018 is......

Black Panther: I have waited with baited breath for the moment that the first black superhero in comic book history would finally get his own film and it finally happened. Not only did the film fully bring to life the hero, but also his world and the heritage with the African nation. The colors and art style exploded off the screen in every frame. Wakanda was finally brought to life with such skill, love and respect. The film had many themes of family, ancestoral history, but at its core was a social commentary on growing up in 2 different worlds. One in America and one in Africa. The many similarities between T'Challa and Killmonger were great and although both world views were different, both were righteous in their beliefs. Killmonger had a point in the fact that Wakanda is far more advanced than any nation and the technological advances should be shared and used for domination. He was kinda right, but wrong in his execution. He made for one of the best villains/idealists and it was one Michael B. Jordan's best performances. Chadwick Boseman has always been a class act and he becomes T'Challa in this film and I loved his journey. Winston Duke stole the film as M'Baku and he is one of the best characters the MCU has. Black Panther is the film that encapsulates everything that is good in the MCU and its story is the most influential and gives the black community a hero we can all learn from and root for. This film is a cinematic staple that will not be forgotten and deserves every accolade it receives.

And that's it people! That is my list of the best films of 2018! What a great year for film and I can't wait to see what 2019 has to offer. With the upcoming slate, I think my list will be harder to make come next January.

#best films of 2018 #black panther #a quiet place #bohemian rhapsody #a star is born #incredibles 2 #spider-man into the spider-verse #mission impossible fallout #avengers infinity war #blackkklansman #hereditary #blockers

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ellie-valsin · 6 years

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Okay, you guys know what this means, right? (Other than the fact that I will surely end up arranging a trip to “visit family” in Tokyo in January 2019.) That’s right, it means that Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 will be getting its first post-Broadway production in Tokyo next year!

Congratulations to the show, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t going to make every earthly effort to get there to see it. Because my husband does still have family living in Tokyo, we’ve been there a number of times and I’ve been lucky enough to see several Broadway-style shows there. Let me give some straight-talk insight on what to expect from a Japanese production; those who are offended by straight-talk may stop reading now. ;)

-The company producing it: Toho Stage. If I’m being totally honest, this fact has kept me up half the night worrying. To be fair, they have produced plenty of what I would call “legit” musical theatre, including, coming soon, Fun Home, as well as everything from South Pacific (I know, whut) to Secret Garden. The problem is that they also produce tons and tons of Bway flops and Euro-pop musicals, which is mostly my personal experience with Toho. (Anytime a French musical is licensed in Japan, I know before even looking that it will be with Toho. No exceptions.) And they are usually veeeeery loose adaptations of those shows, so I am a bit concerned. But probably I’m worrying for nothing on this point...We’ll see.

-The staging: Japan does many musicals, both old and new, American, European, and Asian, but when it does first run versions of recent Broadway musicals, it usually makes some attempt to replicate the staging, stage design, and/or costumes. You see much more slavish imitation productions out of Shiki musical productions than out of Toho ones, but that’s because Shiki holds the rights to every Disney musical ever, and Disney is very particular about such things. When Toho puts on Les Mis, they do have an exact replica production of whatever’s playing in other countries, because Cam Mac is similarly particular about it--however, I’ve also seen them change many production designs for other shows. It all depends on who’s granting the rights and what restrictions are placed on those rights. The Natasha, Pierre rights holders would be very wise to insist on a similar production to the American one, imo, but then again, I really can’t see any of the immersive stage designs working in the theatre that Toho uses...Not because the stage couldn’t be adapted to, say, the A.R.T. configuration they used in Boston, but because I don’t think the interactive elements/jokes would go over that well with typical Japanese audiences (I think the majority of Japanese musical fans would be very uncomfortable with it).

Whatever the stage and costume design, I imagine it will be beautiful, since I have always been impressed by that aspect of every production I’ve seen there, whether imitation staging or new staging.

The only thing that worries me about the staging is, well, the stage--or, more precisely the theatre. Toho’s usual theatre is huuuuge compared to your standard Bway theatre. We always knew this would be a problem if this show toured, since most touring houses in America are also huuuuge, but I always secretly hoped they’d go back to a tent format and do sit-downs in big cities that way. I...don’t think a tent is what Toho has in mind. We’ll have to wait and see, but I will say I don’t think I’d want to be in the back of the balcony on this one.....

-The casting: Yes, they will all be Japanese, except for the Koreans they hire. So, in that sense, yes of course it won’t resemble the diverse ensemble from the OBC. On the other hand, I am quite confident they can find a girl who can look and act the part of Natasha, since most of the female leads I’ve seen in musicals there are quite ingenue-typed sopranos. They will also make a killer Anatole.

Also, I forgot to mention: it will likely be double-cast, meaning there will be two separate actors or actresses cast for each of the most demanding parts (in this case, probably Natasha, Pierre, Anatole, Sonya, and maybe Helene), and they’ll rotate their schedules throughout the run. This is typical of Japanese musicals, and should be interesting.

-The singing: Compared to the OBC, it will most likely suck. Japanese musical theatre voices are trained to sound a bit different from contemporary Broadway voices, so they usually already sound pretty different when singing regular Broadway scores, but this one? I predict that this’ll be baaaad. But you may say, ‘everyone in the OBC sounded “different” from a standard Bway voice, why couldn’t that work for the Japanese, too?’ to which I say, well, it’s a different kind of different. The OBC had distinctive voices, interesting voices (which, personally, I feel like we’ve been missing more and more on Broadway in these past 10-20 years), but they were hitting very specific notes, often weird ones, since it’s Dave after all. ;) Not only have I not seen proof that the average Japanese musical singer can sing a score of this complexity (I’ve never seen them do Sondheim, for instance, though I know it does exist), but they seem to be mostly trained to do a sort of “Rodgers & Hammerstein” style of singing in which everyone attempts a pretty classical musical theatre sound with lots of vibrato and a woman’s break occurs very low, that is, the head voice is used where often the original show belted the notes (see: the painful rendition of Evita’s “A New Argentina”). High belting is not even a lost art in Japan, because I’m pretty sure it was never found to begin with: clips from shows as disparate as Aida, Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and Wicked have made this clear to me, and certainly every experience I’ve ever had mixing Wildhorn with Japan (Scarlet Pimpernel, Jekyll&Hyde, etc.), or even the more poppy French musicals in Japanese. Does every actor/actress belt flat? No, of course not--but plenty of them do. New contemporary musical theatre continues to move into the realm of American Idol, producing beltier and beltier music, so it’s only bound to become a worse problem over time...

But anyway, even with bum notes and heavy vibrato being consistent annoyances, will that really affect Nastasha, Pierre, which is not really an example of the “belt it higher/longer” Wicked school of musical writing? Well, of course it will, sometimes. Don’t expect anyone who can tear into Maria Dmitrievna in Japan. Don’t expect Natasha will be able to powerfully slam those top notes in her “argument” scenes. Don’t expect the end of Dust & Ashes to sound great. And certainly don’t expect to get a reliable “PETERSBUUUUURG!!!” out of anyone (though one might say that for most actors working on Bway, too ;)).

And even if they somehow find a miraculous cast hidden away somewhere who can sing the shit out of the notes, there will always be:

-The translation: This shit will be difficult as all hell to translate. Between Malloy’s own writing style and Tolstoy’s text, I really don’t know how it will be done. I’ve attempted it myself, so I’ve already seen the challenges first hand... Japanese is acknowledged as one of the most difficult languages to translate English lyrics into, mostly because the structure of the two languages differs so greatly: in Japanese, you can usually express pretty much any of the same ideas you can in English, but you usually can’t express them in as few syllables. When my husband and I made a project of translating “No One Else,” it proved almost impossible to fit every idea expressed in the English lyrics into the translation without running waaaay too long to fit the meter. This is usually solved for in professional Japanese musical translations by cutting out whole lines from the original libretto and taking, say, two lines to translate one line of English text. It can also be solved by pretty much ignoring the English lyrics and just making up some different ones in Japanese that fit the meter and don’t sound too out of place thematically. These methods work fine for shows that were lyrically insipid to begin with, like the Euro-pop musicals (yes, Romeo & Juliette, I am looking at you), but on Dave Malloy’s libretto??? Why bother if you have to do a hack job to make it work...? There’s a reason Sondheim is so infrequently produced in Japan......

Now, for many of you, the translation will not affect your life in the slightest. For my husband and other bilinguals, it will be excruciating to listen to. He already gets annoyed enough listening to Japanese Les Mis...I don’t know how I’m going to get him to listen to a translation of lyrics he actually loves to death in English. ;)

Anyway, if it sounds like I’m very wary of this production, that’s because...I am. It’s scary not only because it’s a Japanese production, but also because it’s the first production post-Bway, and nobody knows quite what sort of adaptation to expect. I’ll try to keep the faith, while still keeping it real... The good news is that you all will likely be able to judge it for yourself, because Toho usually puts out at least a cast recording for its musicals, and sometimes even a DVD of them!

And will I be attending, in spite of my serious concerns? Yeah, duh, if I can swing it. XD I can already tell you there will be tears at the end, which is one thing I fully expect them to get perfectly right. :’)

#Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 #npatgco1812 #great comet #dave malloy

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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15 Hardest Nintendo GameCube Games of All-Time

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The GameCube arguably marks the end of the infamous “Nintendo Hard” era of Nintendo’s game design philosophy. As the company (and their partners) explored new technologies and new ideas, developing absurdly difficult games simply became less of a priority.

However, that doesn’t mean that the GameCube’s library lacks truly difficult games. If anything, a select few developers saw advancements in the medium as a chance to advance the art of difficult game design and rose to the occasion by creating titles that would make even the most hardcore old-school gamers blush as they try and try again to beat them.

They may not be as ridiculous as the hardest games of the 8 and 16-bit eras, but the hardest GameCube games ever made prove that the spirit of that time was very much alive at the start of a new generation.

15. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

Eternal Darkness isn’t the hardest game in GameCube history (obviously), but it is one of the most uniquely challenging experiences that the beloved Nintendo console has to offer.

Eternal Darkness’ sometimes awkward combat system and fiendishly challenging puzzles keep the game’s difficulty level relatively high at all times, but what puts this one over the top is the impact of its sanity system. Having to balance your character’s sanity just so you don’t trigger one of the game’s mind-bending effects adds a layer of complexity to this underrated survival horror classic that is sure to keep even genre veterans on their toes.

14. Super Smash Bros. Melee

As much as I sometimes miss Super Smash Bros. Melee’s surprisingly generous single-player offerings, it has to be said that many of the game’s campaign battles and optional skill challenges were shockingly tough. Just try cranking this game up to “Hard” or “Very Hard” and tell me how far you get.

Of course, if you really want to see how hard Melee can be, just try challenging one of the gamers who haven’t stopped playing this GameCube classic in the 20 years since its release…

13. Tales of Symphonia

Some fans will argue that Tales of Symphonia is more “complicated” than “difficult,” but that argument won’t mean much to you when you’re staring at the screen and wondering if you’re somehow much worse at RPGs than you thought you were.

Even after you learn the basics of Tales of Symphonia’s somewhat strange combat system, you’re still going to regularly find yourself in the middle of fights that feel unwinnable. You can level grind your way to success in this ARPG, but even that won’t save you if you’re bold enough to try beating this game on its highest difficulty settings.

12. Resident Evil Zero

The definitive “middle child” of the GameCube Resident Evil games isn’t nearly as brilliant as Resident Evil‘s remake and Resident Evil 4, but it does happen to be absurdly difficult.

Even on Normal mode, Resident Evil Zero’s brutal combination of limited resources, instant death scenarios, frustrating puzzles, and enemies that can often stun you mid-battle are enough to make this arguably the hardest game in franchise history. At higher difficulty settings, though, you can safely remove the “arguably” part from that conversation.

11. Alien Hominid

The GameCube version of this former Flash game is essentially a reskinned Metal Slug. That’s really just another way of saying that Alien Hominid is a retro arcade action experience complete with all the one-hit deaths and absurd odds that we often associate with that genre.

Alien Hominid’s sense of humor takes some of the sting out of its most punishing sections, but this game’s frequent use of absurd “bullet hell” style sequences will absolutely test the patience of all but the most skilled genre fans.

10. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

Few games have aged better than Rogue Squadron II. From its visuals to its gameplay, no other title in this genre released since (especially Star Wars-themed spaceship combat titles) has come close to matching this game’s graceful balance of intense set-pieces and airtight controls.

Unfortunately, Rogue Squadron II is also just as tough as it was when it was released nearly 20 years ago. Some of this game’s difficulty can be attributed to its occasionally confusing structure, but this is honestly just a white-knuckle action title that was clearly designed to test your reflexes.

9. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

While you could argue that every Metroid game offers a higher than usual degree of difficulty, Metroid Prime 2 feels like Retro Studios’ attempt at seeing how high they could crank up the difficulty without chasing everyone away.

Just in case this game’s brutal boss fights, limited resources, and shockingly durable “normal” enemies weren’t enough to make you rage quit, Retro Studios decided to throw balance to the wind and add in a Dark World damage mechanic that makes some areas of the game feel like a trip through Dark Souls’ Blighttown.

8. Baten Kaitos Origins

I’m a big fan of this game’s CCG-style combat system and JRPG visuals, but I’ve always found it difficult to recommend it to people simply because it is so…err…difficult.

Some of Baten Kaitos’ boss fights and enemy encounters are difficult to the point of arguably being broken. To make matters worse, there are times when you’ll essentially be “locked-in” to a battle, which means that it’s nearly impossible to grind some extra levels to make things easier. It’s why most players maintain several save files whenever they play this frustrating gem.

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7. Super Mario Sunshine

If you told me that you think 2D Super Mario games are harder than 3D Super Mario games…well, I’d have a hard time arguing with you. However, I will say that Super Mario Sunshine is the closest Nintendo ever came to making a 3D Super Mario game that feels as consistently challenging as 2D Super Mario games.

Sunshine’s platforming obstacles would be tough enough in a “normal” Mario game, but when you consider how many of them also require you to master this game’s strange water jet mechanics, you’re left with a game that no other entry in this franchise can properly prepare you for.

6. Mega Man Network Transmission

To be honest with you, the only reason this game doesn’t occupy the top spot on this list is that it’s so frustrating and cheap that I don’t feel like it should be rewarded with that “honor.”

Mega Man Network Transmission is best described as…awkward. It’s difficult in the ways that a lot of classic Mega Man games are, but its RPG and strategy systems mean that there’s a surprising degree of “randomness” to the whole thing that sometimes makes it nearly impossible to overcome the game’s often cheap enemies based on skill and reflexes alone.

5. Viewtiful Joe

Much like Alien Hominid, Viewtiful Joe is essentially a throwback to retro arcade games and their gloriously absurd difficulty levels. Unlike Alien Hominid, Viewtiful Joe adds a few twists to its chosen genre that make this side-scrolling brawler closer to a bullet hell shooter.

The result is a title that’s as difficult as it is stylish. This game’s unique combat system forces you to consider the trajectory of incoming attacks in a way that’s difficult to learn and somehow harder to master. Thankfully, this game is so good that you probably won’t mind navigating the learning curve.

4. Chaos Field

Chaos Field is an odd game. It’s essentially a vertical bullet-hell shooter that consists entirely of boss fights. Basically, it’s a bullet hell shooter that takes you from the hardest part of an especially hard genre to the hardest part of an especially hard genre with not much room to breathe in-between.

This certainly isn’t the best bullet hell shooter ever, but it is one of the genre’s most unforgiving entries. This absolutely relentless title has long been a badge of honor for any GameCube owners bold enough to think they have a chance at beating it.

3. Super Monkey Ball 2

Some of the hardest games are the ones that no other game can quite prepare you for. While the original Super Monkey Ball obviously set the stage for its sequel, even that game’s biggest fans weren’t quite prepared for this game’s difficulty spikes and Master stages.

Do you know those moments in the Portal games when you enter a new room and think “How am I supposed to do this?” Super Monkey Ball 2 is filled with those moments, but the big difference is that you not only have to find the optimal path forward but flawlessly execute the mechanics required to reach the exit. It’s that combination of brain-teasing and mechanical mastery that makes this one stand apart.

2. Ikaruga

If Ikaruga isn’t developer Treasure’s greatest work, I’d say it’s the game I can point to whenever I’m trying to show someone what separates that legendary studio from nearly every other developer that’s ever graced this industry. It’s a masterpiece of a bullet hell shooter that combines lightning reflexes with a puzzle-like dodging system that forces you to think on your feet at all times.

While Ikaruga is clearly challenging, I’d never go so far as to say that the game is unbalanced. It is instead designed to put you in that “zone” that fans of difficult games are always chasing whenever they take on another seemingly impossible challenge.

1. F-Zero GX

I know that F-Zero X ranked high on our list of the hardest N64 games, but compared to F-Zero GX, I’d go so far as to say that game almost feels fair.

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While the absurd aggressiveness of F-Zero GX’s A.I. opponents is enough to make it a contender for the top spot on this list, the truth is that F-Zero GX would arguably be one of the GameCube’s toughest games if it was just you and the track. It is possible to master this game to the point that you’re able to make “perfect runs,” but most players will need to learn to recover from seemingly unwinnable scenarios in order to have any chance of beating this game’s brutal story mode.

The post 15 Hardest Nintendo GameCube Games of All-Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

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