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thescrapbookingscientist · 10 months

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Biweekly Media Roundup

- Across the Spider Verse (Movie) - I pretty much already knew this movie was going to be amazing given how Industry-changingly Incredible the first one was, but wow man-What a spectacle. Visually I think it’s even more impressive than it’s predecessor and honestly the best looking thing I’ve seen all year, with the different animation styles for each character and dimension being a joy to behold every time. Gwen’s watercolor dimension was my favorite location and I loved how the colors would shift with the characters emotions and bleed down the screen. Spider-Punk was a standout as well with his paper-craft style and fantastic design making him steal every scene that he was in. I also really liked Miles as a protagonist in this one, he really got to shine here. I don’t really have a lot to complain about, the writing was tight, both villains where fantastic, the soundtrack slapped, the only thing I’m mad about is that I have to wait a year to see the story resolved-but that’s a feature, not a complaint. As a side note I do find it pretty funny how horny everyone is for Miguel btw, like don’t get me wrong I get it, he’s a big tiddied well designed tragic backstory vampire cringe fail DILF, he’s lab tested to be popular on the internet, it’s just pretty funny that I can’t scroll for 5 minutes without seeing his thiqq ass plastered on my screen, y’all are thirsty.

- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game) - Progressing a bit slowly due to some other stuff I’ve got going on, but still greatly enjoying it! I beat the water temple and now ghost Sidon follows me everywhere which is cute, and I’ve enjoyed seeing the memories play out. I wish it was a bit easier to make money given how much I spend, but maybe that’ll change once I do more story stuff or spend more time in the Abyss, we’ll see.

- Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Movie) - I’m surprised with how much I enjoyed this, given how little I’ve heard about it. It’s a really cute and fun little found family story in a classic fantasy world. The movie is accessible to any audience (As my parents loved it with no knowledge of DnD), but you can tell that the creators had a lot of love for the game in how the characters and dynamics are depicted. I love that the two main characters are a completely platonic male female pair who are best friends and raise a child together without any hint of romance? Incredible. I love how there’s a character with huge “OP NPC the DM created for lore purposes who despite the players protests the DM won’t let join the party because that would make the game to easy” vibes. There’s a lot of creative and funny scenes, and while I wish there were more explicitly queer characters, it’s nice to see familiar DnD conventions in a well-made product. I would love if they made more of these and would recommend it to basically anyone as a fun family film.

- Stalker (Movie) - My dad wanted to watch this old indie Russian film after reading an article about it being a formative sci fi film, so we watched it and. well. It certainly was a film. I will give it credit in that the idea of a location that miraculously grants ones deepest desires being portrayed as sinister not due to a monkey’s paw style twisting of how the wish is granted but due to the self-reflective horror of having to face what your deepest desire truly is and what that says about you as a person is pretty rad, but outside of that cool idea this movie was kind of a mess. There were a lot of self indulgent “Auter” style rants on art criticism and faith which honestly just came off as more complaining than anything else, and while I can respect the unique shots they were able to get the majority of the time I was just thinking “Man, it looks like they are straight up filming at an worn out/ abandoned sewage tunnel, it can’t possible be safe to have the actors crawling around in all this rancid water can it?”. Turns out I was even more right than I thought as they were in fact filming on an abandoned nuclear waste facility and just a few years after this film the director, his wife, and several members of the crew died from cancer that was heavily speculated to be the result of the radiation poisoning from filming this movie. Insane. Anyway my main take away from this film is thank god we have OSHA now.

- Kill the Lights (Webcomic) - Read this as a quick self indulgent relaxing one, and I enjoyed it for what it was. I have a soft spot for Skip Beat! style actor-based narratives where you get to see the actors thought process on how to enhance/ play out a scene, so that aspect was fun. Actually, I kind of wish the story was way more about that, I was getting into those scenes and found myself disappointed whenever it switched back to the romance stuff, despite that being the reason I came here in the first place. Aw well, I wouldn’t exactly say this is memorable enough to recommend to anyone outside the BL genre, but I liked the protagonist, side characters, and art. Also, how weird is it that with this, Mo Dao Zu Shi, and End of the Road, there are 3 completely unrelated stories in which an asian man who’s ruffian background made him adept at combat dies young and is then reincarnated into the existing body of a rich twink with a reputation for sleeping around who then runs into an even richer man from their past who turns out to have secretly been harboring a borderline obsessive crush on the protagonist and is now the sole person able to recognize them in their new body? Like, 3 isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened thrice right?

- Heavenly Delusion (Anime) - Genuinely impressed by how often this mystery show will pull the rug out from under you, lulling you into a false sense of security in which you think you have the plot figured out and then hitting you with a reveal that leaves you with more questions than answers - Good work.

- Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (Video Game) - I think I took a long enough break, I’m ready to finish the Ace Attorney series now. The Dual Destinies DLC case was too long for my liking but at least had decent characters, and I do like both Athena and Blackquill, I wish they didn't have to share time with the previous leads and just got to do their own thing though.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - How does this show have so many straight up bangers. My Spotify playlist is wrecked now.

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webcomic) - Some interesting revelations in recent chapters that shed Han Yoohyun’s motivations in a new light. I’ll admit, while I did quite like him as a character, this new information is helping to retroactively fix some of my complaints about his actions towards Han Yoojin in the first timeline, making me like him even more- The brothers are just very cute honestly I love how much they care about each other. Also adding a Yoo Myeongwoo photo here because I miss him.

Listening to: A bunch of Crazy Ex Girlfriend songs, including After Everything You Made Me Do, A Diagnosis, and Remember That We Suffered, Eat Your Young by Hozier, LosT by Bring Me the Horizon, Let’s Get This Over With by They Might Be Giants, Read Between the Lines and Hey I Don’t Work Here by Tom Cardy, That’s What I Want by Lil Nas X, He Mele No Lilo by Mark Keali’i Ho’omalu, Stalkers Tango and Lent by Autoheart, Across the Spiderverse OST.

#weekly roundup #My posts

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coralinejones · 3 years

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i am officially adopting three (3) small italian children

#😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭im still not over the ending someone help me #this film was SO cute !!! all the pretty colors and the character design !!! just WOW #luca #disney luca #luca 2021 #luca film #luca movie #disney #pixar #pixar luca #movies #film #luca spoilers

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literaryeagle · 4 years

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For my seventieth Evangelion book review, here is EVANGELION Millennials 2, published by Poplar Sha. This is a new mook (magazine-book hybrid) that came out just a few weeks ago, and as you can probably guess by the title, it is a sequel to the first EVANGELION Millennials (which I covered back in my sixty-sixth review). So this is another mook that is focused on fashion, which is why the cover art in the above image shows Tentative Name: Rei Ayanami wearing a hoodie over her plugsuit. Wow, she looks super stylish like that!

Of course, this publication has new looks for the other pilots as well. Check out this illustration of Asuka, Shinji, Rei, Kaworu, and Mari:

The pilots are wearing clothes from the RADIO EVA brand. Even the bandanna tied around Kaworu's right ankle is from RADIO EVA! By the way, this mook is not available in English or French (although there are a few little bits of English text here and there), but there are plenty of full color pictures. There are also some extra special goodies… more on that later. Keep reading for the rest of the book review, plus a few more pictures!

After the Table of Contents, this mook starts with a recap of the first three installments in the Evangelion New Theatrical Edition (AKA the “Rebuild” movies). This recap mainly consists of several pages of screenshots, accompanied by brief story descriptions and quotes from the movies. There are also a few trivia questions about the dialogue, plus some pics of the Eva pilots in their plugsuits.

The next section is the MAI YONEYAMA Drawn Illustration Collection, which showcases art that Mai Yoneyama has done for the RADIO EVA clothing brand, including the first two images shown in this review. And yes, the cute cover picture of Asuka and Shinji from the first EVANGELION Millennials is also in here!

This is followed by the EVANGELION GOODS 2020 section, which starts with a catalog of new stuff from RADIO EVA. As I explained in my review of the first EVANGELION Millennials, the RADIO EVA brand specializes in everyday wear, and many of their garments tend to reference Evangelion in a subtle way. For example, here is a dress that has flowers on one arm, with the Spear of Longinus embroidered among the flowers:

Usually I find that RADIO EVA's clothes are a bit too plain for my tastes, however I have to admit that dress is kind of cute. Good job, RADIO EVA!

For those who don't need subtlety and would rather express their love for Evangelion in a more overt way, RADIO EVA has a few things for that as well. For example, one of the items shown below is a tote bag that has a Mai Yoneyama illustration of the Eva pilots:

In the above image, the two items underneath the tote bag are subtle ones again. The first is a simple purple hair tie that says "NERV" (the purple color is supposed to represent Evangelion Unit-01), and the other is a red key ring (the color represents Asuka). Oh, and for those who prefer more character merchandise, at the bottom of that page is a figurine of Rei wearing RADIO EVA clothes.

Moving on, the next part of this mook is a catalog of some items from the Evangelion Store, including a mug and a T-shirt bearing the name of the next movie, Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. After that, there is the OFFICIAL SHOP GUIDE section with pictures and info about various Evangelion shops in Japan. The stores are described in both Japanese and English, to make things easier for tourists... once it's safe to travel again, I guess. Sigh.

Next is the EVANGELION NEWS section, which covers some Eva-related merchandise, events, and exhibits. For example, one of the exhibits is a huge Evangelion Unit-01 in a pool of LCL, located in Kyoto. This Eva is so big that you can pose for a photo standing in the palm of her hand!

After the NEWS, there is a page promoting the Eva Extra mobile app, and then an advertisement for the Evangelion Battlefields mobile game. Here is the Evangelion Battlefields ad:

And finally, on the back cover of the mook, you can see poster art for the upcoming movie Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. Yay! Sure, you've probably seen this image online already, but it's nice to actually own a physical copy! The picture shows Shinji standing on train tracks. Here it is:

Yes, Shinji is there. He's standing in the distance, so he's very tiny in that picture. As for the film's release date, as you've most likely heard by now the movie was originally supposed to come out a few months ago (June 2020), but unfortunately it had to be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So the Japanese text at the bottom of the poster simply says "Kinjitsu Koukai" (Coming Soon). Sorry, folks. I know that's disappointing for many people, however it's understandable that safety should come first. Until then, I hope you all stay healthy and safe, so when the movie does come out we can get excited together! (EDIT, March 2021: The movie's new release date is March 8, 2021!)

Anyway, that's it for the mook itself, which is only 35 pages long. But wait, we’re not done yet! As I mentioned before, some extra special goodies are included. The first item is a white T-shirt that says "The Beast", courtesy of RADIO EVA:

If you're wondering why "The Beast" is written backwards, it's because of Mari's words "Invert mode. Backdoor code... 'The Beast'!". So the designer was inspired by the words invert and back, get it? Well, that and I'm pretty sure the font is a reference to The Beatles. I would make a joke about playing the Evangelion movies backwards to listen for hidden messages, except that actually works in the Evangelion 2.0 movie, during the scene when the Dummy System is activated inside Unit-01! Seriously, it's creepy.

Anyway, getting back to the T-shirt, it's one size only, but of course people come in different shapes and sizes. So in case you're concerned about the fit, I have translated the shirt's measurements as stated in the mook...

Length: approximately 70 cm

Width: approximately 52 cm

Shoulder Width: approximately 46 cm

Sleeve Length: approximately 21 cm

Sleeve Width: approximately 19 cm

I hope that helps! Moving on, the second bonus item is a RADIO EVA sacoche (pouch) with a cross-body strap. It can carry small items, such as a wallet and/or mobile phone. Check it out:

In case it's not clear in the above photo, the pattern on the sacoche consists of Evangelion heads. Here's a closer look at the pattern, so you can see it better:

Overall, I think the best thing about EVANGELION Millennials 2 is Mai Yoneyama's illustrations. She has a good eye for detail, and I think she draws some great poses as well. However, most of RADIO EVA's clothes aren't really to my taste, so when it comes to fashion-related publications I prefer Mode EVANGELION and Mode EVANGELION2. That's just my personal opinion, though. If you love RADIO EVA, you'll probably find this mook a lot more interesting than I did. And that's cool! There are plenty of brands that make garments inspired by Evangelion, so it's nice that they cater to different preferences.

So if this mook (or the included goodies!) looks interesting to you, then please support the artists by purchasing it if you can! Check if your favorite source for buying Japanese books has it, and if not then ask them if they can order it for you. ^_^

Well, that’s it for my seventieth Evangelion book review. I have plenty more Evangelion books to discuss, so keep checking my blog for new reviews!

#Evangelion #Asuka Langley Shikinami #Shinji Ikari #Kaworu Nagisa #Rei Ayanami #Tentative Name: Rei Ayanami #Mari Illustrious Makinami #Spear of Longinus #Evangelion Unit 01 #Evangelion Unit 00 #Evangelion Unit 02 #book review

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the-edge-of-great · 3 years

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(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ JATP WEEK - DAY ONE: FAVORITE CHARACTER(S) ♥

(i don’t have one favorite character, so i wrote something from different POVs of my main five :)) @jatp-week

also i forgot ghosts don’t sleep. we’re pretending like they do today

––––––

FLYNN

“Flynn, no pressure, but I’m performing tonight,” Julie says while Flynn is dipping her brush into the black paint. “So, you know, make me look pretty.”

Flynn gasps, almost jerking her hand when she looks back at Julie. Julie catches her wrist before she can fling paint everywhere. “You didn’t tell me you were performing tonight!” She pauses, looking over her current progress. “Now I’m nervous.”

“I have total faith in you.” Julie’s eyes dart between the paint brush and Flynn. “But show me how it looks so far?”

Pursing her lips, Flynn shakes her head, grabs Julie’s shoulder, and aims the paintbrush at her cheek. “No way. You didn’t let me see until you were finished.”

“But—” Julie freezes when the brush touches the corner of her mouth, and her eyes quickly move to something behind Flynn. Her lips begin to twitch into a smile.

“Hey, hey!” Flynn cries. “No moving.”

“The guys are confused.”

“I’ll explain. You stay quiet.” Flynn gives her a second to stop laughing before continuing the delicate line she’s trying to curve across her cheek. She takes it slow—agonizingly, if Julie’s eyes are anything to go by. “So,” Flynn begins loudly to the dense air around her, “we’re getting ready for Day of the Dead, which is a holiday Julie’s family celebrates. I’m trying to draw a sugar skull design on her, like she did for me.”

Julie has always been the residential sugar skull designer in the house. She always drew Carlos’ face, her mom’s, and Flynn and Carrie’s. Usually, she does herself too, but this is their first Day of the Dead without her mom, so Flynn has decided to take the paintbrush into her own hands and surprise Julie with something beautiful—or try to, anyway.

Flynn’s face looks awesome. Julie painted only half in white with a fissured edge down the center of her face. From her eyebrow to her cheekbone, her eye is circled in green and lined with black. Half of Flynn’s mouth stretching to the middle of her cheek has been transformed into skeletal teeth with a vibrant green glow. Her dimple has layers upon layers of dark and light green paint, carefully blended to look like a real skull indentation. Small black circles line the top of her eyebrow, and thin black lines curve across the empty space of her cheek.

For Julie, Flynn is going for a more simplistic look—all of the drawing talent in the friendship seems to have been swallowed up by Julie. Right now, she’s focused on a curved black mouth stretching from one ear to another, adding extra detail to her lips to create a stitched effect, and then? She’ll figure it out from there.

“And I’m not taking any opinions from them,” Flynn declares. She holds her breath until the second line finally meets her ear and she’s finished with the mouth base. “They’re probably biased.”

Julie smiles as Flynn grabs her paint cup. “Actually, Alex says he likes what you’re doing so far.”

“… I’m only taking feedback from Alex.”

Julie laughs. Flynn can’t fight back her smile. “Reggie and Luke like it too,” she adds, smiling up at the space behind the couch. “They think I look scary.”

“How do I look?” Flynn asks, brushing her hair out of her face and looking up at the air, as if she can really see them. She wishes she could.

“They say you look amazing,” Julie translates. “I did that, by the way, so thank you.” She grins at them. Someone must reach for a fist bump, cause she moves her fist across the couch.

“Okay, if you’re going to stay, you can’t make her laugh.” Flynn leans forward, carefully painting over the tip of her nose. “She has a performance tonight, and if I mess up, you can’t fix it. I forbid it.”

“No—” Julie whines.

“You knew the risks when you agreed to let me do this!”

“You didn’t give me a choice!”

Flynn smacks her. “Stop smiling!” But she’s grinning too. It’s hard—how can you look at your best friend and not smile? Flynn waves a hand between them. “Okay, okay, we have to get this done. My hand is tired.”

Julie chuckles. “Okay.” She glances to her left. “No, I didn’t tell anyone I’m performing tonight. It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“Then why’d you tell me?” Flynn demands.

“To make sure you don’t make me look bad!”

Flynn scoffs. Her finger lifts Julie’s chin to make their eyes meet. “Girl, it’ll take a lot of paint to make you look bad.”

Julie grins.

“And Luke better not have said something equally as cute just then.”

“No—” Julie says it like the idea is overly ridiculous, and Flynn wants to roll her eyes. “Of course not.”

“Mmhm. Hold still.”

Julie and Luke are dating. Flynn isn’t sure how that works—him being a ghost and everything—but Julie makes it make sense. And what can Flynn say? As long as Julie’s happy…

Forty-five minutes later, she sits back with a sigh to admire her work. One of the guys poofed into Julie’s room to grab her makeup bag, so Julie’s eyes are shining with pink and purple eyeshadow to match the pink patch surrounding her right eye. Flynn finished Julie’s eye with a thin black ring and pink and purple circles curved halfway around the top and bottom of her eye. Her nose is black—Flynn’s sure she’ll add more detail in her room later. Then Flynn will complain that she messed with a masterpiece, even though she’ll love whatever additions Julie draws in.

“Wow, okay,” Julie says, looking at herself in her phone’s camera. “This looks so good. Way to pop off, Flynn.”

Flynn waves herself. “Thank you, thank you. It’s my hidden talent.”

Julie grins over her phone. They share a beat of silence before bursting into laughter. Julie leans forward, throwing an arm around Flynn’s shoulders and holding her phone above their heads. They take bursts of pictures, some serious, most silly. They play with Snapchat filters, film TikToks. It’s fun—Day of the Dead is always fun. Especially this year: the year Julie found her music again.

–––––

LUKE

He knocks before entering her room. As he passes through the door, he can hear Flynn and Carlos arguing about what color icing should go on the cupcakes. Alex and Reggie are down there too; he hopes Alex doesn’t let Reggie do anything crazy tonight.

Julie’s sitting in front of her mirror, humming and painting over her eye. She glances at him as she walks in.

Luke chuckles. “Flynn’s not going to be happy you’re changing her design.” He pulls her desk chair over and takes a seat next to her.

“I’m not changing it.” Julie dips her brush into pink paint. “I’m just… adding some stuff. I had an idea.”

“Flowers?”

“Dahlias.” She side eyes him and smiles. “My mom loved dahlias.” She balances her palette on her knees, steadying it with one hand while leaning forward to paint a second flower at the corner of her eyebrow.

“Here,” Luke offers, reaching under her arm to grab the paint. He holds the palette next to her, and when she reaches over to dip her brush, she smiles in thanks. “So, what exactly is Day of the Dead?”

“First of all, it’s usually pronounced Día de los Muertos,” she begins. Oh God, he loves when she speaks Spanish. “It’s a three day festival where we celebrate the lives of those we’ve lost. My dad’s side is coming over—we always celebrate with the Molinas. My mom was Puerto Rican; they don’t really observe this holiday. But she celebrated with my dad when they first started dating, and she fell in love with the holiday.”

“What’s so great about it?”

Julie waves a hand at her face. “The makeup. The costumes. The music, dancing, food… Just having family around. Being completely immersed in our culture.” She shrugs at him. “We speak Spanish sometimes around the house, but it’s my grandparents’ first language. They had to learn English when they first came to America, but they prefer Spanish.”

“Where’d they come from?”

“Panama.” Julie pauses, carefully painting leaves around the base of her dahlia. “My grandparents have ofrendas set up at their house—ofrendas are altars where we leave offerings for those who have passed. Tonight, we’re going to the cemetery to visit Mom’s grave.”

He notices the way she falters when she mentions her mom. He hates when that happens; always wants to kiss away the sadness. When Julie puts down her paintbrush, he takes her hand in his.

“Hey,” he whispers, running his thumb over her knuckles.

Julie takes a deep breath. “We didn’t celebrate last year; it was too close to Mom passing away.” She shrugs. “We didn’t have it in us.”

“This is your first year without her,” Luke realizes quietly.

“We have an ofrenda downstairs for her. Dad and Carlos did most of it. I was supposed to find some stuff in the studio, but—” She shakes her head. “It’s just weird. This was her favorite holiday, and now she’s—” Julie rolls her eyes. “I know it’s been a year, but—”

“Hey,” Luke interrupts. He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers linger against her skin, cupping her cheek, mindful of the paint. “This is your first year without her. It’s okay to still be sad, Jules.”

Julie’s next breath is shaky; her eyes are glossy as she looks away. “Can’t cry,” she mumbles, shaking her head. “Flynn will kill me.”

Luke laughs. Behind him, he hears the whoosh of Alex and Reggie poofing in her room. Julie smiles weakly at them.

“Were we interrupting?” Reggie asks, raising his eyebrows knowingly.

Alex shakes his head. “Sorry. He kept stealing Flynn’s cupcakes to give to Carlos, and I knew he’d either scare your tía or Flynn would hit him with a spatula if we didn’t get out of there.”

“Carlos deserved to win—”

Julie laughs out loud. She wipes at her eyes carefully; Luke hopes she’s forgotten her grief for now. Luke grins at her. He loves her laugh. Have I mentioned he’s kinda just in love with her?

“We have a little bit before my family arrives,” Julie says, checking her phone. She tugs her lip between her teeth. “And I have extra paint…?”

Reggie bounces on his feet. “Yes!” he cries. “I want a face painting!”

As soon as Luke steps away from the chair, Reggie is there, knees bumping against Julie’s. “Make me look cool.”

Alex lays across her bed, resting his chin in his hands as he watches them. Luke hands the palette to Julie and steps out of her way. While she works on pouring more paint out, he dips his head and presses a soft kiss to her hair. Then he takes a seat next to Alex.

Luke grins. “I want next!”

–––––

REGGIE

He knows the party is really in full swing when the sugar skulls are beginning to set in and the children running around are almost as loud as Julie’s cousins playing music in the living room. Carlos’ real teeth are black; they match the set Julie painted on him. It looks a little creepy; his tía Victoria demands he go brush every time he grins at her in passing.

Reggie ducks past people as if they won’t pass through him; it’s still weird to him, and he knows they feel the same way. At some point, he was separated from his friends. He sees Luke and Julie every now and then—Julie’s making her rounds with her family, and Luke is by her side, always—but he hasn’t seen Alex in a while. He wonders, in the back of his mind, if Alex is even still around. Would he leave a party? He’s done it before. If there’s a chance he can hangout with Willie? No doubt. But would he leave Julie’s party to hangout with Willie? Hm… nah.

His favorite thing, he thinks as he walks through the house, is the atmosphere. There are so many people around—and most are Ray’s siblings! Julie mentioned in the middle of face painting that Latino families are often big, but he wasn’t expecting this! He loves it, though. Sometimes he lingers in a room before moving on, and he hears stories about Ray from his siblings: childhood mishaps and teenage antics.

And with so many siblings comes cousins. They range in age, from Carlos’ to Reggie’s. He overhears Carlos tell the other kids about the ghosts that haunt their house—Reggie leaves with a personal promise to prove him right later.

On his second walk through the living room, he finally spots his friends: Alex is sitting on the arm of the couch next to Flynn with Luke next to him. Julie stands beside an older man with a long beard and a guitar on his lap. Just as Reggie’s about to cross the room to them, something catches his eye.

It’s a shelf to his left, spotted with candles, photos, and flowers. He steps closer, curious. There’s a picture of Julie’s mom in a frame on top, he thinks. She looks… familiar. On the first shelf down is a pair of drumsticks and guitar picks. Reggie frowns. Why are there… drumsticks? He reaches for them. They couldn’t be Alex’s… could they? Why would his drumsticks be—

“I told you our house is haunted!” Carlos cries, and that’s when Reggie notices how quiet everything is suddenly. The drumsticks bounce against his fingers and roll back against the shelf wall.

“Reggie,” Alex hisses behind him.

“Dude, your drumsticks are up here!” Reggie cries.

“My—What?”

Julie moves when no one else does. She’s not looking at Reggie, but he begins apologizing anyway, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare everyone.”

“It’s okay,” she says quietly, reaching for the sticks. “Whose are…?”

“I found them in a box of your mother’s things in the studio,” Ray explains, walking over.

Reggie throws a knowing look at Alex. Alex frowns and summons his drumsticks. They appear in his hand in a flash, and when Reggie turns back, there’s still a pair in Julie’s hand.

“Oh,” she says. “I didn’t know she played.”

Ray chuckles. “Your mother played every instrument she could. Now, there’s a difference in playing and actually sounding good… Drumming is not something she excelled at.”

This earns a round of laughter from their family. From Julie, who’s beaming under her makeup at the new information. From Alex, who adds a “If that isn’t a mood” under his breath.

“What—” Luke argues. “Dude, you’re literally a drummer.”

“I make it look easy.”

Luke rolls his eyes.

“The guitar picks are hers too,” Ray adds, pushing them into his hand. “Look, they have the logos from each of the bands she was in.”

Julie looks them over. “I’m sorry.” She shakes her head. “I should’ve grabbed these from the studio. You told me to find things for her ofrenda, but I—”

“Hey, it’s okay mija,” Ray interrupts. He squeezes her shoulder. “It was actually fun going through her old stuff again. I, personally, haven’t seen these in years.”

Reggie realizes he’s smiling long before Julie finds her strength again. He loves the father-daughter moments they have, even though he has a nagging feeling that he should be over by Luke and Alex and not intruding. Their relationship is addicting, though. He’s never had that with his father.

Maybe… that’s a can of worms to open on another day.

“Speaking of talent,” the man with the guitar says, “Julie? Cantar para nosotros?”

Reggie doesn’t know what he said, but Julie does. She nods. As they part ways—Ray moving past to fix the ofrenda, Reggie walking toward his friends, and Julie heading for the front of the room—Reggie squeezes Julie’s shoulder in passing. They share a quick smile.

“Good luck,” he says. She can’t respond, but he knows her smile is for him.

–––––

ALEX

Alex has never experienced this type of music live. They have a whole band up there—two guitarists, a woman sitting on a cajón box, and Julie with vocals in the center.

“And now you see Julie’s other band,” Flynn whispers to them. “The Molinas.”

The song begins softly. Alex can’t understand anything Julie’s singing, but he doesn’t have to know the words to hear her voice. As the beat picks up, so does her volume. He can see the moment she loses herself completely to the music; it’s the same at their own concerts: her eyes squeezing shut, one hand pressed in front of her and the other at her side. She can’t stand still, either. Julie steps over her younger siblings sitting on the ground carefully, but she’s bouncing on the soles of her feet. The music’s contagious—by the time she’s danced around the room and made it back to where she started, the whole room is clapping on beat. They’re grinning at each other, some singing along, some cheering.

Alex can’t fight a smile. It’s impossible. He looks at Luke and Reggie—they mirror him. The energy Julie and her family has created is infectious, as music should be; even if he still doesn’t know what she’s saying.

Julie ends the song on her own with a stretched out note, instruments falling away with each beat she holds in a breath he can’t believe is possible. Everyone watches with bated breath, anticipation, building excitement for this girl. Julie Molina—Alex shakes his head in disbelief. What a damn star.

Flynn leaps to her feet when Julie finally takes a breath. “WOO!” she shouts. “Go off girl!”

Alex finds himself laughing when the room erupts into cheers. Luke is practically vibrating with excitement. Reggie shouts with Flynn.

Julie takes a bow, shoulders bouncing with quickened breath and eyes shining under the dark makeup.

Flynn yanks her into a tight hug. “Oh my gosh, that was incredible!” she cries.

“Seriously,” Alex agrees. “You killed it.” He fist bumps her, hidden from the rest of the room in front of Flynn.

“I have no idea what you said, but it was beautiful,” Reggie adds, starstruck.

Luke grins at her. “You never cease to amaze me, Jules.”

As the excitement dies down, so does the party. The family disperses in groups until Carlos and Julie are hugging tía Victoria goodbye, and Ray is closing the door to a finally quiet home.

“So,” Ray says, turning to his kids. “One last thing to do tonight.”

Carlos nods. “I’ll grab the candles.”

"And I'll get… everything else," Julie adds. She glances at Alex and the others on her way up the stairs.

They meet her in her room. Alex sits on her bed. "So, what's next?"

"We're going to the cemetery to visit Mom's grave," Julie explains, opening her closet. She grabs a bag and joins Alex on the bed. "You guys can come if you want. People light up the graves with candles and lights—it's beautiful."

Sounds beautiful, but—Alex looks over at Luke and Reggie. They meet his gaze with as much hesitation as he feels.

"I think we're going to hang back," Luke admits softly. "It's, um… I think it's kind of weird for us, you know? Since we're…"

Julie blinks. "Oh, right. Duh. Of course." She shakes her head. "That's okay."

Alex smiles. "But we'll be here when you get home."

She nods, returning his smile. Her eyes flicker to something behind him, and she hurries around the bed. Alex is just turning to her when Reggie gasps.

“The box," he whispers, eyes wide.

"Don't act like at least one of you hasn't been in here already," Julie mutters, opening the box on her bed.

Alex and Reggie throw a look at Luke, who's chewing his lip sheepishly.

"What're you doing?" Luke asks, moving to her side.

"I—" Julie quickly tucks a piece of paper into her pocket. "I'm just… It's an offering for her."

Luke frowns. "Okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"No, it's—"

"Julie!" Ray calls up the stairs. "You ready?"

Julie sighs. "Yeah, dad!" She shifts her weight, glancing between them. "I'll tell you guys later, okay?"

Reggie nods. "Yeah, of course."

She takes two steps toward the door before turning back to them. "Group hug?" she asks hopefully. "Real quick?"

Reggie immediately wraps his arms around her. "Like you even have to ask," he mutters. They chuckle. Alex rolls off the bed, and he and Luke join in. They've been doing this a lot more: hugging. Ever since they've been able to touch each other, this has become their thing. Not that Alex is complaining.

When Julie pulls away, she's smiling so wide. Alex smiles back, but he can't help thinking there's something behind that skeletal grin. He doesn't ask; none of them do. They let her go, despite the feeling gnawing at him. Later, he decides. Hopefully they can figure it out later.

–––––

JULIE

The cemetery was always Julie’s mom’s favorite part of Día de los Muertos. There’s a chilling beauty in a sea of lights across acres of land, crowded with people who can all relate on some level.

Rose Molina’s grave is lined with white and blue candles—she always loved the ones that smelled like the ocean. There are guitar picks scattered across the stone, most of which didn’t come from them. Ray suggested previous bandmates; Julie has never met the previous bandmates. She wants to one day; hopes to.

They stay with her for a while. She doesn’t know how long they sit by her, telling her stories about what’s happening in the past year. They have a lot to catch up on—Julie’s sure this is Carlos’ first visit since she died. It’s definitely Julie’s. Her dad’s been here a few times, only once or twice. She wonders if there have been any recent visits.

There are tears in her eyes when they finally stand to leave. Her dad catches it somehow—she’s sure her dark makeup shadowed by the dim light would’ve covered her—and before she can blink, he’s wrapping his arms around her in a tight hold. She would’ve buried her face in his chest if she had washed her paint off. But she didn’t, so she doesn’t hug as tight as she wants, and she pulls away too soon.

As they’re leaving, Julie remembers the note in her pocket. “Wait,” she says, falling out of step with them. “I forgot something.” She lingers, shifting her weight. “Can I meet you in the car?”

Carlos frowns. Dad nods. “Of course,” he says softly.

Julie watches them go, disappearing in the crowd. In just a blink, she’s alone. The note is heavy in her chest. With a deep breath, she turns back to her mom.

“Hey,” she says, sinking to her knees. “I have something I want to show you.” She crosses her legs under her and unfolds the note in her hands. “Remember that song we started writing while you were in the hospital? Stand Tall? We never… got to finish it…” With trembling hands, Julie slips the note beneath a picture frame Carlos left at the base of the stone. It’s a moment captured after Julie’s performance at The Orpheum: her, Carlos, Dad, and tía Victoria, posing under the Julie and the Phantoms sign.

“Well, my friend Luke helped me write that second verse,” she continues. “He’s—He’s kind of more than my friend. You know who he is, and what he is.” She laughs. “Don’t judge me too hard for this relationship, okay? He’s really… a great guy. They all are: Alex, Luke, and Reggie. They’ve helped me in… more ways that I can put into words.” The next time she laughs, her voice is shaking. She sniffs; the black on her nose smears across her hand when she rubs her face. “Anyway, um, I just wanted to give you this. And I wanted to tell you thanks. Thanks for sending the guys to me. Thanks for giving me the courage to get back into music. Thanks for…”

Julie shakes her head. The tears are back—she tries swallowing them back. Maybe if she can just hold it in for a little bit longer, at least until she takes the paint off—

“I really miss you, Mom,” she says carefully, slowly, like every word takes all of her strength. “A lot. Every day. I miss you. I miss you. I love you.”

Someone stops behind her stone. Two people, actually. Julie sniffs. She wipes at her nose again; she doesn’t care what she looks like now.

“Julie?”

That’s weird. Sounds almost like—

“Carrie?”

Julie brushes off her pants when she climbs to her feet. She sniffs again, eyeing the pair across from her: Carrie and Trevor Wilson. Trevor is holding a bouquet of flowers; it takes her breath away—dahlias.

“We were just coming out to pay our respects,” Trevor says. He separates a dahlia and hands it to her.

“Nice makeup,” Carrie says, not unkindly. She’s actually smiling, kind of like she used to when they were friends.

“Thanks, I—Flynn did it. Well, not…” Julie gestures to the smudged paint.

“Right.” Carrie reaches into her bag and offers a wad of tissues. Julie takes them with a smile. They share a nod, Julie thanks Trevor for the flower, and they go their separate ways. At least Julie doesn’t feel as heavy as usual when she walks away from Carrie.

At home, when her face is clean of any paint and she can see herself again, she steps into her animal slippers and makes her way down to the studio. The guys are waiting, just like they said they would. They smile when they see her, and she smiles back, but her gaze settles on the piano, and then she can’t look away from the piano.

Two years ago, she played a song while her mom strutted around the studio, pretending to sing terribly and still managing to sound like an angel. The year before that, Julie and her family sat on the floor surrounded by candles and told ghost stories because an earthquake knocked out their electricity (that’s where Carlos’ fascination comes from). The year before that, they—

Julie’s lip quivers. Her fingers curl around the arm of the couch, her vision blurs, and everything hurts. Someone’s in front of her in seconds—it’s Luke. He’s holding her close, tight against him, fingers in her hair, and she just breaks.

Her hands tighten into fists around his shirt. She buries her face in his shoulder; now that she’s started, she can’t stop. She tries to speak, to explain, but—

“Shh,” he whispers. He rubs circles into her back. “I know. I know, baby.” He kisses her hair. “It’s okay, Jules.”

She doesn’t try speaking again, and when Alex and Reggie join the hug, she just cries harder.

When she wakes the next morning, she’s on the couch. Luke’s behind her, an arm around her waist, legs tangled. Alex is in front of her, sitting against the couch with his cheek pressed against the cushion. She grimaces for him; that can’t be comfortable. On the floor, with his head in Alex’s lap is Reggie, curled in a ball against the couch. They never left her side last night.

With a heart swelling with warmth, Julie snuggles closer to Luke. Her movement causes him to hold tighter, which takes her breath away.

Julie smiles at something across from her before going back to sleep.

Laying on the coffee table in front of Alex, at the edge, as if it doesn’t want to leave her side either, is the dahlia.

#jatp week #julie and the phantoms #juke #julie molina #luke patterson #flynn jatp #alex jatp #reggie jatp #jatp #eog writes

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peremadeleine · 4 years

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Droopy Sleeves and Tiny Bonnets: Watering Down the Romantic Aesthetic in BBC’s Les Mis

I wasn’t exactly blown away by the costumes in the BBC production of Les Mis, and Cosette’s in particular, cute as Ellie Bamber is, were thoroughly “just okay.” But I didn’t put much more thought into it...

Well, not until Gentleman Jack--set in the exact same time period--blew BBC’s Les Mis out of the water with its costume design. Then more recently, when I started researching the fashion of the early 1830s, all the ways in which poor Cosette’s costumes fell short became glaringly obvious.

Disclaimer: I am not as much of a stickler for historical accuracy in period drama costumes as this little essay is going to make me out as being. I’m not a Frock Flicks kind of gal; I just want to be entertained and look at pretty clothes. So as far as I’m concerned, as long as the basic silhouettes are there and the costumes are nice to look at, I’m there. (I find the wildly inaccurate costumes of The Tudors a lot more visually appealing than the ones in Wolf Hall. And everyone knows Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette was highly stylized, but those costumes are to die for and still embody the rococo aesthetic very well.)

That said, Cosette is a character who’s very invested in fashion, and the general look of the 1830s isn’t unknown to English productions, being the setting of Queen Victoria’s adolescence, Jane Eyre, Wives and Daughters, and many a Dickens adaptation among others.

So where did they go wrong?

Being honest, most of the Les Mis productions from the past two decades or so failed to put Cosette in high-fashion or even noteworthy costumes. Only the 2012 film for all the ways it failed her as a character hit it out of the park. Cosette gowns were damn near perfect--and they were actually pretty to boot! Unfortunately in the actual film you can’t even see the floral gown and you can barely see the blue one...thanks Tom Hooper.

The belts/buckles, the enormous sleeves, the delicate floral prints and embroidery, the lace collars...pat the costume designer on the back! (Her wedding dress was also on-point, but we’ll get to that.)

Claire Danes and Virginie Ledoyen had passable-and-sometimes-good costumes, too. Though Claire Danes’ were generally not very pretty, their overall silhouette was correct. Virginie Ledoyen gets a couple of knock-out, very period-appropriate gowns; the rest sort of fall into the nebulous “well, I guess you tried” category without being unattractive.

But the BBC production just...dropped the ball for reasons unknown.

Now, in the book Cosette overhears some ladies calling her “pretty but badly dressed.” She’s shocked, because she thinks she’s ugly but well-dressed. She then goes on a charming quest to become the best-dressed woman in Paris, and the BBC adaptation even has a scene where she goes to the seamstress. It’s really cute. Too bad that the dresses are...really not.

Here are some fashion plates from 1830-32. Keep in mind that Cosette lives in Paris, of all places; she would be aware of what was and was not fashionable.

This is the height of Romantic fashion: giant (“gigot”) sleeves and bonnets, full skirts with hems at or just above the ankle, lace accents, silk stockings and slippers, elaborate hairdos. The 2012 costumes, again, capture this quite well.

And even if the BBC designer had taken liberties and had fun while preserving the overall aesthetic--think what Sandy Powell did in Cinderella, set in roughly the same period--I wouldn’t be making this post. But there’s curiously little 1830s to be found in Cosette’s wardrobe at all.

I guess we should start with the BBC’s Good/Accurate Stuff. This coat Cosette wears is, apart from the deep fur-lined V-neck, almost a carbon copy of the extant coat on the right. And she has a bonnet!

Cosette’s best/most accurate dress is, naturally, the most difficult to see and has the least screentime of all her costumes:

From what I can tell, the sleeves, though delicate and sheer, are very full, as is the skirt, and the whole thing seems both pretty and en vogue...despite the questionable neckline. It’s also detailed--embroidery on the sleeves and with pleats (?) to create visual interest at the shoulders and on the bodice!

Here are a selection of other short-sleeved gowns from the period for comparison (both extant garments and costumes/reconstructions).

Tbh Ellie’s costume should be as stunning as the blue gown (far left) that an extra wore in Cinderella, but...maybe someday, in some Les Mis production, that gorgeous Sandy Powell creation will reappear. *sigh* (Virginie Ledoyen’s best Cosette gown is on the far right, btw.)

Anyway, that’s...that’s about it for the “Good” category.

Next up: her teal/turquoise dress(es). (She also wears a red one that looks exactly like this.)

Someone didn’t tell the costume designer that Cosette was supposed to be a fashionista, I guess. During my research, I did find a couple of dresses that resembled these two...but they would both be several years out of date by the time Cosette was going on her fashion crusade:

Even the yellow dotted dress has more style and “oomph” than what poor Cosette got stuck in--her sleeves look comparatively small, deflated, and underwhelming, all the more so when compared to actual 1830s gigot sleeves.

In the interest of being fair, some extant gowns from the right dates also look somewhat like these two.

But they all look, well...better. They all make me wish Cosette’s gown had bigger sleeves, a more-defined neckline, less wrinkly fabric...anything that would take it up a notch. (Also of note: as plain as some of these dresses look, they would not have been worn alone--accessories like wide belts, shawls, bonnets, etc., would have been part of the outfit when they were actually worn.)

And when it comes down to it, Cosette--who wants, after all, to be wearing the most fashionable gowns, like those in the fashion plates--should be wearing gowns more like...

The detailing, the fabric choices, the tailoring, and (sorry) the size and position of the sleeves makes all the difference here. A little more effort, even just padding for Cosette’s poor limp sleeves and a belt, would be enough to bump her looks from “kind of sad” to “something I believe this character would really wear.”

My personal favorite gown in the production was very pretty, flowing and delicate--and look: I’m willing to accept that Cosette wouldn’t always be wearing a fashion plate while chasing butterflies (something no film Cosette has, tragically, ever done...) That said, it still wasn’t very 1830s.

This purplish gown is the closest extant I could find to something like what Cosette wears here, but once you look at the details of both--fabric, neckline, whatever is happening around waist--all you get is “???” A lovely dress, but one that doesn’t make much sense.

So finally we come to what ought to be the showiest of all Cosette’s costumes: her wedding gown.

This costume ought to be Stunning for a lot of reasons. The “Fauchelevents” have money! The Pontmercys have money, and they have society friends! Cosette is a fashionista, and she’s head-over-heels in sweet young love! And one an assume that Valjean wants to send off the light of his life, if send her off he must, in style--he’s heartbroken but also knows, from this moment, that he will never have to worry about her safety or well-being again.

With all that in mind, this is what Ellie’s Cosette wears...

Oh. Okay. Is it her freaking wedding day, or is she just going to a church picnic???

At least she IS wearing a bonnet in this scene, but it’s the same color as her hair (?!) and it’s tiny...just like her sad, deflated sleeves. The necklime and waistline both are at least accurate here, but like the sleeves, the skirt isn’t voluminous. Not a single thing about the dress makes a statement...unless it’s a shrug. The impression is, once again, “meh?”

At least a veil (which some women did wear on their wedding bonnets) would emphasize the “wedding day” vibe. How about, if they weren’t going to give it any volume, some detail on the gown...any detail...floral embroidery...a BELT...a contrasting color or fabric (lace, hello?!)...anything??? It’s just so plain and low-key. Just like everything Cosette wears in this miniseries.

Here are some period wedding gowns, two of which Cosette wears in other adaptations. They all have the wow factor this dress lacks.

Big sleeves! Lace! Belts! Veils! Lush fabric! Frills! Different colors/fabrics to create visual interest! Hairstyles that pop instead of blend together! These are the kind of gowns that say “I’m the bride and this is my day.” Not “I’m going to the church picnic.”

I want to reiterate that, after ALL that rambling...my big issues are that a) these dresses are not--by and large--attractive or interesting and b) that they fail to embody Cosette’s love of fashion. The fact that they’re so inaccurate for the time period is secondary. However, paying more attention to the fashions of 1830-32 would, I think, have helped make the costumes prettier and more suited to the character. How you dress a character is also a factor in how their character is perceived and can be a subtle means of character development. No chance of that here. (Post-marriage, Cosette wears such a blase dark blue coat that, sans fur trim, looks identical to her previous one. Yawn.)

I’m just a fan, yet it still took me only three days of basic research to put this post together. Expecting a costume designer to put in at least a few days of light research is not a huge leap. I’m going to venture a guess and say that this designer did not bother to do that. And it shows.

It’s a shame, because Cosette gets a lot more screentime here--for the first time since the 2000 production--and she deserves so much more than shapeless gowns and barely-styled hair.

And also more than Andrew Davies...but that’s a rant for another time.

#cosette #bbc les mis #Les Miserables #historical fashion #romantic era

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bangtanxm · 4 years

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Bookclub; February Highlight

February is the month of love and as we all know, love doesn’t happen over night. Whether it is angst, sexual tension or pining we all love to be on the edge of our seat hoping and begging that they would finally get together. So, naturally this month theme was “Slow Burn” and these are our our monthly fanfic recommendations from our bangtanxm; bookclub!

In the following you find a list of fics we recommend and reviewed this month. Please support these amazing authors! With every monthly recommendation, there is also a drabble game that everyone can participate in. You’ll find the masterlist at the end of the reviews. Happy Reading!

BOOKCLUB; recommendations

TIDES WILL BRING ME BACK TO YOU by @sujigguk [aka @ftyoonmin]

— Summary; Fate is a funny thing. Humble fisherman, Yoongi, learns this when one evening, it's not a fish that sits at the end of his hook, but a bottle, containing a note claiming that a creature of the sea by the name of Jeongguk has been left stranded on land and is soon to draw his last breath.

bookclub; review

“This story immediately pulls you in with the amazing story-telling. Lou has a way of writing so beautifully detailed that it makes you imagine the amazing scenes in your head vividly. On top of that, it is a really heart wrenching love story, mixed with a wonderful fantasy theme of siren Jungkook and his fishermen Yoongi.” [@softjeon]

“Wow. So, Tides Will Bring Me Back to You has been on my to read list for quite a while. I regret my choices in not reading it until now. This fic was an absolute work of art. The singular amazing thing I want to point out is the attention to detail. So, we as readers expect fics to be good, especially AUs. Like we want some world building and detail so that we can visualize the setting and location and what is going on with the characters that are being put into this new world. This fic was able to do that but MORE. The attention to the setting detail was unbelievable. There was so much in terms of vivid descriptors and explanations that painted this super vivid and pretty image in my mind. I’m scared of the ocean to be honest, so I have never gone out on a ship beyond like, a lake. And have only ever seen the ocean from the safe confines of the beach. But because of the detail in this fic, I was able to visualize it so perfectly and vividly, it felt like I was really there.I really enjoyed Jungkook as well. Obviously he’s a gorgeous young man in real life, right? Which is why I liked this fic because it wasn’t this stunning perfect man from the waist up, you know? He had the scaly back, the webbed fingers, the sharp and kinda creepy teeth, etc. I think that this made it more “realistic”, as realistic as a mermaid fic can get of course, but like… I don’t know, it felt more real and added a layer of uniqueness to the fic that a lot of supernatural AUs tend to lack in fanfic terms. Also, the ending. Some might struggle with this because it was so ambiguous (no spoilers of course) but I really liked it. Though I’m sure the author had like a set “this is how it is” ending or explainer, I like that it’s this sort of grey area for readers to think on and figure out.” [anon]

“Omg, I really loved this fic. It's a bit longer than I normally read because work sort of keeps me away from reading more than writing haha but I really loved how Yoongi had this NEED to help a stranger he had no idea existed or not. Then to watch their love blossom that way and Yoongi protect Jungkook. It's also cute that Jungkook calls Yoongi 'My Yoongi' and Yoongi first thought it was a mispronunciation of his name. I do love mercreatures too, so that also drew me to this one. I loved the details and the tidbits of background we get from Yoongi and his love for the sea/sea creatures. Sorry, this is just all over the place.” [anon]

BABY BLUE by @chimknj

— Summary; Jimin is blue. He’s loyal to his customers and confident in everything he does. Namjoon is white. He’s pristine and maintains a perfect balance in life. When the two come together, they create baby blue, a color of freshness and something new. It’s new for both of them, but not all new things are bad.

bookclub; review

“What an amazing story! Even though Minjoon is basically already "together", although Namjoon is just paying Jimin to be there, it is just heartbreaking to read about how Jimin tries to get to know the other more, trying to get him out of his shell and falling in love while he is doing it. All while Namjoon tries to stick to his rules making it so much harder for Jimin, himself and the reader....cause damn!!! I could have screamed the characters sometimes and it literally hurt my hurt so much each time Namjoon pushed Jimin away ;; I can't.... I wanna cry just thinking about it again.” [@softjeon]

“...beautifully written plot, where you just want to punch Namjoon in the face until he finally reveals his true feelings.” [anon]

“I didn’t mean to consume over 70,000 words in one sitting. I honestly didn’t. Over a few days, over a week. Space it. But I knew I was lost at the end of chapter one, the same way Namjoon knew he was lost the second Jimin’s cute hands started unbuttoning his shirt after date night.Honestly. This fic had everything. I laughed a lot, I cried way more than I’d like to admit to, I had the urge to take a cold shower more than once, I wanted to take Joon by his perfectly ironed lapels and shake the ever-loving crap out of him. Honestly though, it felt like a full-length novel. I mean it was, by length, but also by content. The world that was created was beautifully devised and detailed, and everything from the various business names to the design of the apartments was so easy to visualize due to the richness of the descriptors. Personally, I appreciate that. It adds to the ‘movie playing in my head’ way that I like to read.The smut was unbelievably well written. It was sexy without feeling too unrealistically “porn film fantasy” if that makes sense. Like the progression felt natural and easy rather than being rushed or faked like some fics tend to do. It was clear the author did the required research in terms of D/s and wrote what felt very accurately.I loved the involvement of the other members, I think they all played really great, vital roles as side characters. And honestly, they were so rich in their own right that I would love spin offs about their own arrangements with their respective partners!The ending was absolutely sweet and perfect too. I spent the whole fic praying it’d end in a way that was satisfactory to my wrenching heart and I feel like it gave me every single thing I wanted and more.” [anon]

EVERYGREEN by @softjeon & @cassiavioletblue

— Summary; Yoongi felt that something was wrong the moment he had stepped foot into the garden. He hated that this sense of foreboding could mean anything and he had seen enough to have a very vivid imagination of what could wait in the bushes for him. His grip was tight and ruthless but when he felt he weight of something heavier he startled. In front of him on the grass, bloody and shaking was a deer hybrid; a boy, obviously younger than himself and apparently in a lot of pain.

bookclub; review

“Whuff. There's hybrid fics. And then there's THIS hybrid fic. I know that hybrid fics are one of those things you either love em or hate em, I honestly couldn't find a thing to dislike about this fic even if I tried. Firstly Yoongi as the grumpy on the outside (but squishy on the inside) raccoon is perfection. Imagining his markings and those growls and grumbles -- it's so endearing. And then there's JK who, a deer? Oh come on, I'm soft. Imagining him with the broken little antler and those soft, cute markings V_V It's tooth rotting, I swear. But for all the fluff and sweetness, there's this layer of angst and hesitation that makes this feel like such a deep, melancholy slowburn. The will they - won't they, the pull of each and push back, the "I can't" and "I want" -- GUH. Really, it's just so sweet and perfect.” [@kimlinebiased]

“I read Evergreen as it came out. It seemed like such a cute take on a trope that’s pretty common in our fandom, but one I’m less comfortable with, so I was really eager to see these authors’ take on it, since I knew I love their work already. The story opened up with action that sucked you in almost immediately, but it really balanced that with some slower, almost peaceful moments. I think that’s a really big draw of this story, really these authors overall, but this one in particular. They have a handle on the ebb and flow of the story. What I mean is, things happen and it’s exciting and oh god cliffhanger, but then things slow down and give the reader a second to breathe (but not too long, because then it would get boring). The balance between breathing space and action can be really hard to balance and I think these two do it really well. For this particular story, I think my favorite character is actually Namjoon. Sure, he doesn’t have a huge part, but I think he’s super well written and quite in character to the canonical person. (All of them are in their own way, but he sticks out to me). He’s so supportive but not afraid to tell Yoongi the truth even if it’ll sting. Further, he isn’t perfect. He lets his heart get in the way of his head sometimes (like with Jimin) and it makes him really endearing and realistic in a refreshing way. I think that he’s one of those absolutely indispensable characters in this particular world. Like sometimes, it’s easy to switch members, have x play y’s part, y play b’s part, etcetera. But I think that Namjoon’s part was written so perfectly, it fits him like a glove and made it really enjoyable when he was on the page. The plot has some things that the reader can “call” so to speak – like you might read and know there’s gonna be trouble for JK, he’s gonna get tangled up in the mess in some way, but even thinking you know, it’s still done in a way that it doesn’t take away from the enjoyment and “oh no” factor when the big climax does finally get rolling. Just like you know pretty sure, it’ll end happy, I still found myself worried about ‘well what if it doesn’t’. And I think that’s a testament to the authors, really. They are able to take these fanfic tropes and make them feel fresh and new, so even if you feel like you might know what will happen, the way that they weave the story together makes those emotions still hit in a really palpable way.I’d also like to discuss the overall setting of the story. There’s only a few locations that the readers really get a feel for, but particularly the cabin. I think that the descriptions of the cabin and forest and general development of the backstory and setting was really well done. Things like hybrid or other non-human AU’s can be really tricky to keep interesting but still give the right amount of backstory and description so that they aren’t confusing. We as readers need to know the rules, but not have a history textbook, and I think this fic really accomplished that as well.Overall, I just really enjoyed the feeling and emotions that this fic caused. I think that it was able to really convey some important messages while still being woven into a sweet, unique love story. [anon]

THE JUSTITIA PUGNATORES by ShoshinLaurels [AO3]

— Summary; When stable boy Park Jimin's best friend, crowned Prince Kim Taehyung finds himself under threat in his own palace, his guards dropping like flies, the only option left is to call on the Justitia Pugnatores, the 'Justice Fighters.'Three men boasting incredible skill and legendary pasts come barrelling through the heart of the palace, shaking everything in their wake.As the dilemma of the princes impending chances of murder only escalates, Jimin finds himself wrapped up in a mess of secrets, heartache and suspiscion.If only Min Yoongi didn't complicate things.

bookclub; review

“It's been a while since I read this, but I would happily read it in one sitting all over again. I'm a sucker for royal settings and I absolutely ADORED the dynamics of this one. It's just the right amount of angsty and fluffy, and keeps you hooked throughout.” [@sujigguk]

“Damn these apples! I really loved this fic out of various of reasons, the relationship between the characters are amazingly written, the setting and overall plot is so well thought out and it just has the perfect mixture between angst, fluff and comedy… i mean, just the first chapter had me laughing so much.” @softjeon

THE WAY GUCCI LOOKS ON YOU by @joonsrack

— Summary; “Funny how even in this ridiculously absurd situation, life had made Taehyung a third-wheel. Or a sixth.If Bangtan Dry Cleaning was his fairy godmother, Jimin his little mouse, the jacket his magic dress and the club scene his ball, where the fuck was his prince charming?A knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts.”

bookclub; review

“So, this fic is really is so cute. I started in on it just casually, but found myself entirely sucked in and couldn't put it down until I'd read all that was written on it. Taehyung specifically is such an interesting character - his thought processes and sass are just perfect. I adore Jimin as well. And then there's Jungkook, who is so -INSUFFERABLY ARROGANT- but not in a way that makes you dislike him. He's still so endearing and you WANT these guys to just get off their high horses and kiss or something, but you also kinda want Tae to pour water into his lap because he's such a rich boy. I love it so much. I can't wait for the next part.” [@kimlinebiased]

“A story that could very well fit a movie! It’s everything you need on a sunday night! You laugh, you want to throw something at their rich faces and scream at the boys to just kiss already. A perfect Slow Burn!” [@softjeon]

“The way that Gucci look on you (amazing) is such an adorable and absurd (in the best way) slow burn. It’s a wip now, and I honestly cannot wait until the author updates. The case of mistaken identity is such a good trope that honestly, I feel, isn’t done enough. Especially not in such a cute and fun way. Of all the ways for Tae to get outed as not who he said he was – this one was epic. Of course, it’s a slowburn, so you expect the endgame ship to you know, not be huge fans of one another, but the tension here is so palpable, it is awesome. Taehyung cannot stand that cocky little JK and JK’s arrogance is both hilarious and infuriating. But there’s very clearly something deeper to him, and I really like that the author is able to make that clear through hints and clues, rather than just outright saying it. It adds a depth to JK’s character that often gets missed in fics, especially because we know these guys so well, so to speak. Having those sort of subtle nuances really adds to the overall enjoyability of the fic. I think Jimin is such a great supporting character too. He’s the perfect mix of Jiminy Cricket and devil in your ear, so to speak, and his personality comes off as so honest to who he is canonically. It makes him so fun to read. (And the YoonMinSeok trio is helpful as well, what can I say, soft spot for poly even in side pairings). All in all, it’s just an absolutely stunning fic so far and I can’t wait for the author to continue it.” [anon]

UKIYO by Sharleena [AO3]

— Summary; A story of tender tides and unmoving hummingbirds.

bookclub; review

“I'm almost halfway into this story but I really have to rec it cause wow...if you like mafia and urban fantasy themes then this is THAT fic for you listen succbus jimin, mafia leader yoongi, a damn deeply laced mystery that I can't EVEN FREAKING FIGURE OUT I usually can connect a few dots in mystery stories sometimes bUT THIS STORY IS KILLING ME there is someone yoongi is looking for that's destroying his gang and he like DOESN'T FREAKING EXIST and I know once I reach the end I'll be like IT WAS RIGHT FREAKING THERE IN MY FACE lmao but seriously the authors' worldbuilding skills is freaking legendary and I'm always hoe for mixing different themes together and the mix of urban fantasy and mafia just ugh freaking beautiful. The Slow Burn is real in his fic, yoonmins' dynamics are annoying and frustrating as heck but can be really sweet sometimes because they're both very broken individuals and they're trying to find comfort in one another. The themes are obviously very dark so carefully read the tags and also author notes in the beginning so you know what to expect but seriously it's so damn worth it and I will be personally putting a long feedback directly on their Ao3 as well when I'm done because i know I'm going to have lots more to say. BUT SERIOUSLY THIS IS THE SHIIIITTTT SO FAR SO GOOD SO DAMN GOOD I FEEL FED EVERYTIME I READ IT GIVE IT A READ WHEN YOU CAN!!” [@flowerwrites06]

FAKE SUGAR by minverse [AO3]

— Summary; "I guess," Jungkook pauses momentarily to inhale a deep, bracing breath, "I would just want you to come to my work events and laugh at my jokes and don't correct people if they imply that we're doing it.""Having sex, you mean," Jin clarifies gently, and Jungkook chokes on air. If his face was any redder, Jin would insist on taking him to the hospital. Jungkook clears his throat, obviously trying to play off the strangled, choked sound as a casual cough."Yes. Doing... sex."

bookclub; review

“I love a good concept for fic, and a face sugar dating au sign me up!!! honestly this is one of my all-time favourite fics, cos its not only funny and entertaining but it has so much heart!!! like i just love the vibe of the fic, and i wish i could keep reading it forever. Plus the characters are so like-able and feel so human. Also jinkook holds a special place in my heart, and jk being all shy in the beginning and jins confidence is an unmatched pairing!!! EVERYONE JUST READ IT, ITS SO FUCKING GOOD, okay im done now sorry…" [@tinysweetscrown]

“I read this a while ago, and also everything else by minverse... Everything they write is gold, the character construction, the dialogue, the relationship/chemistry, the humour, the plots...just everything. Fake Sugar kept me up at night with its brilliance and originality, i couldn't get enough of jin and jungkook's relationship, but also all the other members' interaction and storyline. It's expertly written and i sincerely think everyone should read it, if they have not already.” [anon]

“Aaaaaah i love this so much!!! I absolutely love the characterisation of jin!!! I find it very refreshing! In some ways it’s completely /jin/ yet in others it’s such a nee and fun way of describing him (the fact that hes a competition eater absolutely sends me its just. So! Jin!) i also love jungkook!!! Tiny gay babie kook having to impress ppl he doesnt want to impress and getting competitive over that dindjdjd once again i could genuienly see it happening! And oh boy oh boy am i excited to see how this story pans out! The little appearances by the rest of bangtan as well i love it! It all flows very naturally and none of the cameos feel forced or anything. AND JIMIN UDJDJDJD I LOVE HIM. the fact that hes just a chaotic brat having dumpster sex and causing trouble oh my god im still crying jsbsjsnjs.” [anon]

The Drabble-Game; MASTERLIST

— prompt; “Romantic attraction is literal: characters feel a pull like gravity to people they’re attracted to. The bigger the attraction, the harder the pull.”

Thank you to everyone who participated! Stay tuned for the next theme of the month to participate!

NUMINOUS written by @softjeon & @cassiavioletblue

— Summary; “You’re fucking kidding me, are you?” He looked up at the ceiling and made an annoyed face. “You really want me to suffer do you? Stupid universe.”

— Join the Bookclub here! — official post — faq

#bangtanxm #bookclub*#bts #bangtan #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction #february highlight*

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jasonfry · 4 years

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Another winter means more time for me to catch up with movies everyone’s seen but me!

Dark Passage (1947)

As a Star Wars author I’ve fielded more than my share of complaints -- some justified, most nitpicky neckbeard stuff -- about plot logic. I really recommend that those folks stay away from old movies, including a lot of ones considered classics.

This Bogart-Bacall film noir has a lot of ardent fans, and I see why. The stars are great, Agnes Moorhead nearly upstages them with a seething performance as Madge, the San Francisco locations are almost a character in themselves, and there are some marvelously evocative shots -- particularly the one where a key character winds up going out of a window.

But wow are there a lot of coincidences, starting with why Bacall’s Irene Jansen happens to be driving around San Quentin when Bogart’s Vincent Parry makes a break for it. Vertigo turned apparent coincidences into a symphony of paranoia and madness; in Dark Passage there’s a fumbly bit of lampshading about them and then you’re just supposed to accept that San Francisco seems the size of a rep stage and characters will act in ways that the plot demands.

And there’s another whole level of weirdness, which comes to a head in the scene where Bogart’s waiting for a bus to Arizona. He’s still using an alibi that’s radioactive by now, deals with a bus dispatcher who doesn’t know his desired destination is served by the bus line and says the bus will go when they sell more tickets, sits there for a bit character's baffling soliloquy, then puts on the song that’s become a favorite of his and Bacall’s (yes, this bus station has a jukebox) before retreating to a phone booth to call her. At which point she ... asks about the music she’s hearing?

“That’s not how phone booths work!” I spluttered, unable to take it any more. “That’s not how bus lines work! That’s not how alibis work!”

But OK, please complain to me about starships needing fuel. Because that actually is how that works.

Designing Woman (1957)

Speaking of movies that don’t make a lick of sense, here’s Lauren Bacall a decade after Dark Passage, paired with Gregory Peck in a meet-cute rom-com about a hard-bitten sportswriter and an upper-crust fashion designer.

In other words, it’s a Hepburn-Tracy movie -- in fact, it pretty much could be Woman of the Year. Except Spencer Tracy was believable as a rumpled, man-of-the-people journalist, and that’s a stretch for the perfectly tailored, impeccably dictioned Peck. We first see Peck’s Mike Hagen living the high life on a reporting trip to Beverly Hills, where he meets Bacall’s Marilla Brown. The suave Peck fits so well into that world that we spend the next half-hour trying to catch up as he’s reintroduced to us as a very different character, one ill-suited for domestic life amid Bacall’s coterie of costume designers, choreographers and Broadway types.

The movie flubs its premise so thoroughly that it never recovers -- I was reminded of its contemporary Let’s Make Love, in which we’re supposed to accept that a renowned New York City tycoon (Bill Gates, basically) can moonlight as an off-Broadway actor and never be recognized. Add in that Bacall’s rage at Peck’s former paramour demands her to be preposterously obtuse while angry about one thing but inexplicably not angry about another. Oh, and playing a boxer’s brain injuries for laughs really, really hasn’t aged well.

Still, the leads are charming, the sets are great, and the candy-colored cinematography makes you want to climb into the movie and live in it.

There’s also an interestingly subversive subplot: Bacall’s theater pals are all coded as gay, though given that it was 1957 they’re not allowed to actually be gay. Randy Owens, played by the legendary choreographer Jack Cole, overhears Peck questioning his manhood and essentially tells the leading man how thoroughly he could kick his ass. In the film’s finale, Cole does just that, turning dance into martial arts and mopping the floor with various toughs. His character is forced to justify himself with a speech about his wife and football-playing sons, but that’s just a hand-wave for the censors. The real subtext is obvious, electric and way ahead of its time. Too bad it doesn’t have a better movie around it.

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

A farce in which a troupe of Polish stage actors, led by Jack Benny and Carole Lombard, are forced to become real spies during a visit to occupied Warsaw by Hitler. If that doesn’t seem like fertile ground for comedy, particularly for a film released just after Pearl Harbor, well, audiences and critics of the time raised the same point. (As an added complication, the film was released just a month after Lombard’s death in a plane crash.)

But while slight, the movie works as a black comedy, one that mocks the Nazis and their ideology and takes a few well-chosen moments to spit in their collective eye. Lombard’s performance is the best thing about it, particularly her flirtations with a Polish pilot played by a young, sleek Robert Stack decades before he became a fixture of cop shows.

Weirdly, you can also see the seeds of Inglourious Basterds in it. I guarantee you Quentin Tarantino watched this one night and starting thinking about the possibilities of impersonations while Hitler’s attending the theater.

Wise Blood (1979)

I’m a huge fan of Flannery O’Connor, but would have bet her simultaneously sacrilegious and deeply devout Southern gothic novel about Hazel Motes was unfilmable.

And maybe it is, but John Huston gives it a good run. Brad Dourif (yes, that’s a young Grima Wormtongue) inhabits Motes’s strange skin to unnerving perfection, with Amy Wright and Harry Dean Stanton turning in properly off-kilter performances for him to play off of. And even as the movie wanders, it remains compelling -- I wasn’t sure I liked it, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.

The soundtrack, unfortunately, does Wise Blood no favors, barging in with zany carnival music when the movie’s speaking just fine for itself. Still, it’s worth seeing and will stay with you.

#movies

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permian-tropos · 6 years

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TIME TO GUSH ABOUT TLJ cause I was looking through screenshots and here’s a bunch of things I might not have mentioned before and a few that I have

1) Paige Tico!!!! PAIGE TICO! her entire time in the spotlight is such a perfectly crafted, perfectly tense scene

2) UM THE OPENING SPACE BATTLE IS SICK the bombers have such striking silhouettes and this is used for some amazing shots

3) PAIGE’S DEATH BEING PRESENTED AS TRAGEDY (and not being softened heavily with the promise of being part of something meaningful the way R1′s deaths are)

4) Captain Candy Crush’s death is given gravity too and I stan this, he’s not made sympathetic and still there’s nothing triumphant about people being blown up. war is not good

5) Finn’s pod is very flattering and angelic even though his water suit is silly. he basically has a halo and no filmmaker would accidentally give a character a halo so jot that down

6) Snoke’s throne room being utilitarian AND extravagant at the same time is impressive. also I still love the way that Snoke’s real form was made to be this exaggeratedly WASPy old man with the skin texture and wrinkles and pale tufty eyebrow hair, and you know what else? the fact that the camera favors showing the undamaged side of his face. I fucking stan the fact that Johnson took another disfigured villain and played up his old caucasian grandpa looks and made his disfigurement blend into his age. Snoke is a caricature of horrid old white men, possibly the first successful caricature of whiteness in speculative fiction. he looks like Henry Kissinger

7) Kylo Ren’s bandaid has a pattern on it. we ask ourselves. why. did he get to pick out the pattern. are there multiple patterns. are they all edgy and black. I’m now completely invested in whoever decided that they would have patterned bandaids but not make them TOO fun

8) the movie is so pretty im just. the fuckign. aesthetic. all of it. the palette seems to have been taken from a thunderstorm and it’s perfect. the use of gray is a reason I happen to think people didn’t like the film. they were like what the fuck is all this gray in star wars. star wars shouldn’t be gray. but it’s so unique, it’s not the gray of lazy color grading, it’s the gray of someone who knew that the feeling of haze and uncertainty needed some gray and rolled it in like a fog. I’m going to have to post more screenshots

9) I like the fact that the puppet porgs, as opposed to the CGI porgs, are actually kinda ugly cute

10) everything mark hamill does is perfect. every line, every facial expression, every pose. every moment from luke in tlj is unbelievably iconic. alec guinness would be so jealous

11) Luke perking up and genuinely smiling when he sees R2D2 is the purest moment I have to just

my eyes are moist

12) the architecture and set design is so amazing too? I love this shot introducing Rose, the harsh contrast that draws your eye away from her, the way she’s fading into her corner of brownish-gray, it’s so good for evoking... idk, just how the world seems too bright and too stark and made of shapes, after someone you love dies

13) I really love how much time we spend on Ahch-To, and how none of it has any campy space action. you’d expect to see some training there, but a lot of people were clearly hoping that Luke and Rey would leave the planet. but we linger so much on the setting, a setting which wholly embodies Luke’s state of mind

14) old luke is a handsome gent. i don’t see enough people with the hots for old luke. this is a big mistake

15) this shot foreshadows Kylo Ren becoming the Supreme Leader IMO. we see him surveying the war machine, watching the instruments of death be constructed, set apart from everyone -- a glimpse into Kylo’s desire for absolute power without anything being direct. maybe he’s contemplating his isolated existence, how much he doesn’t belong in the Order. or maybe he sees an allure to all this. this is what he wants to possess. it’s probably a mixture of both

16) Rey and Luke!!!!!!! everything about how the film frames them develops their relationship!! even as Luke is testy with her, we get shots like these where they’re sharing a warm sunset light and having deep heart to hearts.

and you know what you know what what what

the fact that Rey starts asking WHO her parents are after meeting Luke is uhh clearly suggesting that she’s wondering if maybe Luke is her dad. I love in this one shot how he’s slumped and she’s sitting up straighter, making him the vulnerable one. I love how the sunset light highlights Rey’s buns. I love that she keeps her buns for a while. I love that people have headcanoned she kept the buns so that her parents would recognize her, and she has the buns in the whole time she’s trying to get Luke to act like the hero she believes in. like she’s trying to get him to recognize her

Rey adopts Luke as her dad and it’s beautiful get out of my face

17) ye there’s a lot of dead children but also I hadn’t really thought about the fact that R2 watched this as well? and R2 was powered off for so long, until the end of TFA? R2 was traumatized and grieving too, and he’s seen this before, he remembers all the way back to when it was Anakin

18) hors!!!!!!!

19) what the SHIT is this why is this movie a fucking painting why does it keep outdoing itself in paintingness argh the way this film uses the day-night cycle is unbelievable, having Rey and Finn’s stories be connected by having the same time

THE HCKING MOON THOUGH

20) Ok we could talk about how the cold blue moonlight of uncertainty has become the warm orange light of companionship but we can’t forget what firelight also represents re: Kylo cough burning temple nice little double meaning, is Rey making a new friend or is she being tempted, is he going to warm her or burn her

but also I haven’t thought about how fucking awkward Kylo looks!! is he sitting on that barrel?? like since he’s not there is he just sort of compositing himself into the scene? using a convenient barrel

21) see what I mean about blue being cold. blue = asceticism, red = indulgence, the two extremes

22) Luke sinks into darkness

23) BUT HE DOES ONE THING! the thing that breaks him out of his depression. he takes the fire -- which represents the burned temple, represents Ben Solo, represents the humanity of the Dark Side -- into his own hands. we see the fire symbolizing destruction, then intimacy, then change, in such short succession

fire represents light-dark, something that is both at once. we’ll get back to this

24) you could say that balance is about making your own light in the darkness

also this is why Poe’s line about being the spark that will burn the First Order down isn’t ~too violent~ cause fire has become a symbol of change, of destruction reclaimed as something restorative, thank you very much

25) can we talk about the fact that between this being like a coffin and the way Rey is holding the saber, this actually has the heaviest resemblance to the way medieval knights were depicted atop their sarcophagi. I don’t even know what it means but maybe it hints that Rey sees herself as a martyr and a crusader in this quest to redeem Kylo and prove her valor

26) the fact that Poe isn’t the only one who gets in on the coup. because the Resistance isn’t a real military it’s a few thousand antifas gathered from all around the galaxy and their numbers are dwindling fast. people kind of put it all on Poe but Connix and Finn and Rose and this woman and this man and this alien were part of it too, and they could have told Poe to cut it out. I like how the blonde woman seems like she’s not sure what’s going on, she’s evaluating the situation

27) you know what I stan? I continue to stan aspects of how Snoke is portrayed. I stan the fact that he gets all close up in Rey’s face and grabs her cheek and it kind of mirrors the way Kylo gets in her personal space in TFA but even less so than in TFA, Rey is not framed in the way girls often are when they’re restrained and in distress. when she’s being tortured, we’re not given any tantalizing views of her body. Snoke floating her around the room has her stiff and awkward, and the close-up of her screaming in pain puts the camera behind her head so we see this from her POV, we’re not voyeuristically staring at her, we’re experiencing this indignity with her

28) Kylo Ren killing Snoke has the exact same light on his face as when he killed Han Solo. this is very very interesting

here I am in my corner of Kylo having twisted affection for Snoke as well

29) I wish I could ship this more cause I don’t need all this talk of fairy tale weddings and force pregnancies when here they are slicing up lobster boys with laser swords

30) oh but this is where he makes Rey look sad and thats where!!! you know hes gonna have to pay!!! basically everything about the scene where Kylo tears Rey’s heart out and stomps on it and then asks her to be grateful is extremely well done and it did its intended job of making me Big Mad At Kylo

also look the fire is back its Symbolic

31) you know what I can’t show in this post? the FUCKING SOUND THAT COMES AFTER THE HYPERSPEED RAM. that sound is the most glorious sound I’ve heard come out of a movie. it’s like a massive metal whale’s death scream. Star Wars has always run on sound design but literally that sound (along with the scene it’s attached to) outdoes everything that has come before it holy wow

32) Finn WHACKING Phasma. he didn’t use a lightsaber in this film, but he uses the baton he picked up the same way he used the lightsaber, and it even glows blue for good measure. and we can’t forget that this movie shows a boy holding a broom like a lightsaber, and Rey practicing saberplay with her staff, so -- objects that are not lightsabers symbolizing lightsabers is a thing

33) I didn’t think about the fact that the Supreme Leader’s throne room is designed to display a view of the outside, or be cloaked in red. possibly it could display anything it pleases. this is great fun for imagining First Order characters making it display things they want to see, like beautiful vistas, or holofilms. possibly it can recreate whole scenes, like a Star Trek holodeck

34) I don’t have to talk about how Leia is framed by the dawn on Crait do I? we already got the picture when it comes to the day-night cycle and how beautiful it is

35) BABY 8 I can’t believe this droid gets belly scritches and nuzzles from Poe

36) fucking love when Kylo finally snaps and starts throwing petty tantrums again at the end of the film like he holds back his brattiness for 12 hours and then here comes the screaming and foot stamping and flailing

I have thrown too many temper tantrums in my life to not want to see one on the big screen in its full glory. no one has pushed him to the point where he’s just ugly crying on the floor, spewing snot and tearing at his hair

I got vicarious pleasure out of Poe’s outburst on the bridge too. people being angry and not being in the right. it’s something I need for catharsis

37) miniaturized Death Star technology aka BIGGEST LIGHTSABER. Kylo stop compensating

but AU where a ginormous person uses the cannon as an actual saber

38) I’VE TALKED ABOUT HOW FINN’S MOMENT IS IN MY TOP TWO FEELS MOMENTS (top one is the hyperslice) but basically if you don’t think he was affected by seeing the slave kids on Canto Bight, what do you think he’s so angry about here, what do you think has him in a blinding rage?

why do movies have to spell everything out for people in exhaustive detail? the only new thing Finn gets from his experience with Rose, is seeing how the First Order isn’t this isolated enclave of evil. the most powerful people in the galaxy have been supporting it all along. he stops trying to run away because he realizes there is nowhere he can run that won’t have injustice. and he’s seen villagers being massacred, he’s seen the Order attack people he cares about, he’s been personally threatened and had one-on-one duels, but on his trip with Rose he sees children being beaten into submission with electric whips

can’t believe people think Finn wasn’t affected by that when it’s the one thing motivating his character growth

every time he sees civilians getting hurt -- children and families -- he sees himself and the family he’ll never know in them, and is so overwhelmed that he does something brash and radical and self-endangering every time, and his arc is about learning to live with that anger. he runs away from feeling and his angst is so beautiful

and I’m still in the camp of Finn having had a Zuko-like arc when he was a teenager because that boiling frustration at not being able to express his natural empathy is what drove Zuko to angst so hard

FINN IS THE SOLIDARITY KING! HE CARES SO FUCKING MUCH

39) fire. Luke facing his demons involves him walking through a gate of flame, out of the darkness, into the light

I will say that this is also very Buddhist imagery -- the flaming sword symbolizes wisdom, which cuts through the veil of illusion, specifically the illusion of duality

“Mañjuśrī is depicted as a male bodhisattva wielding a flaming sword in his right hand, representing the realization of transcendent wisdom which cuts down ignorance and duality”

and of course fire being the bridge between light and dark has come up before in the film. the veil is visibly burning here, Luke having fully reclaimed the image of fire, which was earlier in the film held by Kylo Ren

I mean. just. YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

40) something about this shot is extra special. everything that’s going on on the salt flats is like on this higher dimension, this spiritual plane

41) for a moment it looks like Luke and the First Order are standing against Kylo. gives you a glimpse into Kylo’s state of mind. is the Order his weapon, or his enemy? it’s both, and he’s absolutely terrified of it

also I’ve talked about how Palpatine’s Contingency plan is about getting revenge on his Empire because he hates its power as much as he revels in it, and he dedicates a good deal of time plotting ways to kill it, because he needs to prove that he is more powerful than it

being the Emperor or Supreme Leader carries with it the distinct horror of knowing that you can never be more powerful than the thing that has empowered you

42)

43) Luke achieving 100% maximum Buddhist allegory

44) the slope of the floor is the slope of the opening crawl of a Star Wars film

all right that’s all folks

#my post #star wars sequel trilogy #the last jedi #kind of a rewatch #rey of jakku #rebel finn #kylo ren #luke skywalker #finnrey #cw reylo #cw anti reylo #villain kylo #things I don't focus on as much #poe's arc (have talked about Holdo a lot)#rose (have talked about her a lot)

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mageinabarrel · 5 years

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2018 was yet another year of evolution in my journey as an anime fan. Throughout the year, I spent less time watching anime and less time engaging in anime-related activities like doing freelance writing, blogging, and livetweeting shows. So as I started to consider “my year in anime,” I wondered if I would have much to say.

I needn’t have worried. The year is 2018 and anime is still good, so in the spirit of the 12 days of anime project (that I didn’t do this year)—here are twelve anime things that brought me some joy this year.

I Rediscovered Anime Crushes

It had been a long time. A long time since I’d felt those little flutteries you get when an anime character is really cute, really good, and really nice. But even before I knew that Ginko was a space princess, I was enamored. Cute anime girls are a dime a dozen, but characters that exude genuine warmth and care in the way Ginko does—from her time as a princess all the way through her cathartic moment in Planet With‘s finale—are something special.

So I spent a nice time with Planet With, amidst all of the show’s other wonderful strengths, feeling a cozy bunch of crushy feelings about Ginko Kuroi. It’s silly, but it was nice to be reminded what it felt like to have an anime crush once again. And, seeing as Ginko is far and away the Best Girl of 2018, my heart couldn’t have made a better choice.

Space princess! Space princess! Space princess!

Finding My Fate Anime Niche

I’ve never really been much of a Fate fan. After an extremely poor experience with Fate/Zero, there’s never really been much to attract me to the sprawling franchise. But when you’re needing an that you can put on while washing the dishes and cooking and Netflix shoves Fate/Apocrypha into your face, what can you do? You can watch it, be surprised at how much you enjoy it (especially Astolfo), enjoy the fact that the two opposing Ruler characters are both Catholics, be wowed by the stunning animation of #22, and finish the show somewhat more positively disposed to Fate than you’ve been before.

This will lead you to give Fate/Extra LAST ENCORE a shot, and after the show gets over its early inclination to appeal to the audience’s presumed base desires for Nero, you’ll be stunned as the show pulls a truly evocative atmosphere out of the now-cliché SHAFT stylings you thought were too tired to be effective. You won’t understand quite everything that happens, but the tremendous thematic coherence and the way the character relationships evolve from dull to genuine will grip you. It’ll be one of your favorite anime of the year. And, in combination with Apocrypha, it’ll leave you feeling like maybe alternate universe Fate series are the ones for you—which is good to know.

3 Perfect Episodes

If you asked me to name my favorite episode of TV anime of the year, I’d probably give the honor to Hugtto Precure‘s #16. But, fortunately, I don’t have to make such a specific choice here, so I can also add Yama no Susume S3‘s #10 and SSSS.GRIDMAN‘s #9 to that list. If you watch these three episodes (honorable mention to Hugtto #4), you’ll likely see the stylistic similarities between them. Of course, there are also plenty of things to distinguish them from each other, but it’s those similarities—a strong affiliation with cinematographic language, a tight grip on the power of atmospheric storytelling, and a webgen animation-adjacent visual style favoring bold and flat colors—that stayed with me.

But more important even than those smaller details is a sort of ideological unity that these episodes share. Each is distinctly a cartoon, yet also displays an impressive level of cinematic sophistication. Although some might be tempted to place cartoon and cinema in opposition to each other, these three episodes are a brilliant refutation of such narrow thinking—they embrace, even dance, in the best qualities of both. They are proof that cartoon-making and film-making are not separate arts but, rather, one and the same.

Hisomaso Wins Everything

When it comes to TV anime this year, one show stands head and shoulders above the rest for me: Hisone to Maston. Yet another show confined to the Netflix dungeons, I wasn’t prepared to let the streaming giant deprive me of my chance to watch Mari Okada’s return to TV anime weekly, and Hisomaso, yes, was worth it. From story to scripts, background art to character design, OP to ED, Hisomaso had it all—including the X-factor of the adorable dragons.

In short, there was really nothing else that aired that was anything like Hisomaso. Cute and quirky throughout, thoughtful and incisive at times, funny and dramatic in turns, this anime had basically everything. In the final rundown of the year, I expect it’ll likely go criminally under-watched, underrated, and under-remembered, but such is the reality of the anime times in which we live. I, at least, will remember Nao head with immense fondness. We salute you, brave solider, and all you stand for.

An Ode to a Strawberry

What do I think of Darling in the FranXX? I think it’s bad. I didn’t finish it, but I watched enough to consider it a representative portion, so I’m comfortable making that kind of wholistic statement. Basically, I think the very early criticism I made of the show proved to be a crucial flaw in the whole dang thing. But Ichigo? Ichigo was very good. She might have done a few things wrong, but not many. I liked Ichigo. 苺 means strawberry, and Ichigo was a very good strawberry with a killer character design.

No anime watcher is unfamiliar with the phenomenon of a good character—or even just a character the really appealed to them personally—stuck in a bad show, but I’d be hard pressed to think of another character who surpasses Ichigo’s gap between her relative goodness and the quality of her show. Not only was she cute and a childhood friend, but it was fascinating watching her navigate her complex feelings for Hiro, try her best to be a good leader for her team, and struggle against her own flaws. Best girl? Heck yeah. Eat your heart out, Zero Two stans!

Matsumoto Chocolate

This year, Rie Matsumoto (Heartcatch Precure! Hana no Miyako de Fashion Show…Desu ka!?, Kyousougiga, Blood Blockade Battlefront) storyboarded a few random episodes for other anime here and there. But in the time that she’s had a last major project, which if you’re counting like I am is THREE DAMN YEARS, other of her contemporaries have had multiple films released and done other great things. Meanwhile, aforementioned storyboards, the Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond ED, and whispers of a possibly discontinued film project aside, Matsumoto’s existence itself has been in question.

That’s why, when “Baby, I Love You Daze,” a music video/commercial directed by Riechang-kantoku herself and backed with some legitimate animation power, appeared almost out of the blue, I experienced a rush of joy unlike anything else I felt this year. Not only was Matsumoto back with something completely original, but it was a delightful, energetic little thing emblematic of pretty much everything I love about her as a director.

Please 2019. Give us something, literally anything. An announcement, an actual show or film. I don’t care. Give us back Rie Matsumoto.

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This Bit is about Liz and the Blue Bird…

Wow, I saw a lot of anime movies (in theatres!) this year! Thankfully, I wasn’t asked to be on any year-end anime panels, so I wasn’t forced to make a choice that would kill me—to pick my favorite anime of the year. Liz and the Blue Bird, which is a stunning, delicate, spectacular, [blah blah blah how to make actual words about this damn thing] film, would be one of the top contenders, although as you’ve seen I can barely articulate what about it impressed me so much. But this is a blog post, so I will try.

If we set aside the craft elements (HA! You coward!), the heart of Liz is that its resolution is about something like learning to let go. Mizore and Nozomi are different people, with their own paths to follow in life. And yet, at the same time, they love each other deeply, and that love makes such realizations difficult to even perceive—as both struggle to do throughout most of the film—and to accept. But that catharsis of letting go, which is in many ways similar to the slow process of grief after the death of a loved one, is healthy. Love can tempt us to possessiveness, to illusions of control and ownership. But we may find in letting go that love can flourish in newer, healthier, and truer ways than we’ve known. [Editor: This paragraph might be complete garbage. Please give Bless some leeway if you think so. An attempt was at least made.]

…and This Bit is about Maquia.

I could not pick between Liz and Maquia if you asked me. I could not do it. Unlike the previous pair of Yamada/Okada analogues, Koe no Katachi and Anthem of the Heart (which is dominated by Anthem), these two films are at once so similar in concern (love) and yet so different in every other way that I could not, in my great fondness for each, possibly choose between them. They are, together, the best anime I saw this year. Fortunately, unlike with Liz, I’ve already struggled through the pain of writing about stupidly good things with Maquia. So you can read that if you like.

Maquia‘s merits left to my prior writing, the other thing that made Maquia particularly special for me as a moment in my 2018 anime-watching is what it represents for Mari Okada’s career. Okada was the first anime creator’s name I ever learned, and it was because she had been involved with so many anime I loved. So seeing her continue to grow as a writer over time, seeing her reputation improve, and seeing her career flourish to the point that she was the chief director for her own movie has been really special—and Maquia is, in many ways, the culmination of that journey so far. Here’s to you, Okada-san! May you have many more works to come!

Owned by Macross. Again.

Early in the year, I watched Macross Flashback 7. Now, Macross has some horribly gratuitous parts to it—and I love them all—but you could make a very, very compelling case that FB7 is caps them all. The plot of the OVA/movie/special/whatever is that Ozama Lee finds some VHS tapes that basically contain the footage of Macross 7, which results in most the main members of Macross Frontier coming over to his and Ranka’s apartment to watch them. Yes, the Macross Frontier characters get together to have a Macross 7 watch party. I could type that out again in all caps, but I won’t.

That on its own is pretty pandering, but then the whole thing concludes with a Sheryl and Ranka mega-medley of Macross 7 songs with Basara even appearing in some of the background vocals. I was basically in tears by the end of the performance, which is just ridiculous, but that’s just what Macross does to me. It swings for the fences, trusts you love Macross, and gives you the fanservice you want, with big guitars and Sheryl and Ranka belting “OMAE NO MUNE NI MO LOVE HEART” in unison, and the gleeful stupidity of it all just smacks you in the gut and you feel the tears coming because it’s Macross, dammit, and you love Macross. Point, Shoji Kawamori.

A Comic Girl Isn’t As Good as a Doujin Game Artist, but I’ll Take It Anyways

If 2017 was the year of Saekano Flat, then 2018 was the year of me desperately hoping I’d find another show about creatives that would move me in the same way. I didn’t, but I did find Comic Girls, which gave me enough periodic artist anxiety that it earned a mention here.

Actually, looking back on Comiga, I think I actually didn’t give the show the credit it deserved at the time. While it was airing, one of my main complaints about it was that Kaos’ perpetual incompetence made it difficult to believe that she was indeed a manga artist with an editor, but then I think about my own haphazard art practice habits and my own incompetence despite my desire to be an artist and suddenly I feel like maybe it was spot on. So, just like Kaos, as down in the dumps as I might feel about my work and my talent and the speed at which I’m progressing, I’m not going to give up. Even though it hurts sometimes, I’m not going to give up! So yeah, thanks for that, Comiga.

METAL OVERMAN KING GAINER

In 2018, I finished watching Overman King Gainer. Inspired by my positive experience with Reconguista in G, I was interested in watching another original Tomino show, and settled on King Gainer mostly because I’d seen the OP on YouTube, and thought it was awesome. This proved to be a good choice, as King Gainer has many good reasons to watch it. I enjoyed the show quite a lot, and had fun tweeting about it and learning about some aspects of its production.

But that OP… I went out a bought it and let me tell you, there is nothing like coming to the end of a run with the Overman King Gainer OP pumping in your ears as your make a final sprint to the tree that marks the end of your workout. King Gainer‘s broadcast ended in 2003, but that song is timeless. 2018 may have been a crappy year for the world as a whole, but according to iTunes I listened to “King Gainer Over” about 60 times, so it’s impossible to say whether the year was truly bad or not.

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And those were the highlights of my year in anime! I’ll probably put together a little graphic at some point for my top shows, but this’ll be the only blog post from me wrapping up the year. Happy New Year’s to you all, and here’s to a wonderful 2019!

What were some of your favorite shows, episodes, moments, or anything else of anime in 2018?

12 Anime Things that Made Me Happy in 2018 2018 was yet another year of evolution in my journey as an anime fan. Throughout the year, I spent less time watching anime and less time engaging in anime-related activities like doing freelance writing, blogging, and livetweeting shows.

#2018 #Baby I Love You Daze #Comic Girls #Darling in the FranXX #Fate/Apocrypha #Fate/EXTRA Last Encore #Hisomaso #Hisone to Masotan #Hugtto Precure #Liz and the Blue Bird #Macross #Macross 7 #Macross FB7 #Maquia #Overman King Gainer #Planet With #Sayoasa #SSSS.Gridman #Yama no Susume

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minijenn · 3 months

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Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: The Boss Baby

(I could not for the life of me find actual promo art for this stupid fucking movie anyway). Boss Baby is bad. Wow, Jen, what a shocking revelation! Who could have guessed? Yeah, I could have. Cause this movie sucks. Let's get into all the many, many reasons why.

Seven year old Tim lives a perfect life with his loving parents, until the arrival of the Boss Baby, who acts like a normal baby around adults, but in reality, he's actually a corperate suit who works for Baby Corp, which is where all babies come from. A rivalry ensues between Tim and the baby, until they're forced to work together to foil a plot to stop puppies from overtaking parents' love for babies. Or something like that, idk this movie's plot is fucking weird.

So yeah, weird ass story that just... has really fucky pacing? Like this movie drags on man, it drags on SO long to the point that I felt like it was never going to end. We get to the climax and there's still like 20 minutes left in the movie??? Bro, stop padding this damn thing out. Nobody wants to sit through this fuckass movie for that long???

Our characters are all pretty lame. Tim is a typical annoying kid with an overactive imagination, there really isn't a lot to him. Boss Baby is as about as annoying as you'd expect a baby playing off white collar worker stereotypes to be. The parents are barely characters, same for Boss Baby's little crew. The villain is also the same old upstaged petty jealous bitch who wants their glory days back. Dreamworks, you just fucking did this trope. In fact their past three movies have had this trope (Dave, Kai, and Chef).

The humor in this is expectedly lame and childish. Because there's such a large focus on babies, you can expect lots of poop and vomit jokes, which I am absolutely not a fan of. When the humor isn't that its just "oh look at this cute baby saying he wants a latte and talking about stocks! Isn't that FUNNY? LAUGH, PLEASE WE"RE BEGGING YOU!" And it's trying so hard, both to be funny and to wring out genuine emotions and I think it almost manages to do the latter near the end, but even then it all comes across as nothing more than pandering and tryhard. Like I already don't like these characters, movie. What makes you think I'm compelled to feel anything about them?

The animation is... oy. A mess? The character designs are just bad, man. They look like something out of a shitty mobile game ad, with those massive uncanny valley eyes that take up half their face. The movie is agressively colorful, and while I praised something like that in Trolls, I can't say the same here. It's just too... hyperactive for me? Like there's lots of imagination sequences sprinkled throughout the film and you can tell they're trying to be stylized ala Kung Fu Panda, but there's always just too much going on on screen and it kind of hurts to look at? Like fuck, movie, calm down. You are way too overstimulating right now and my eyes are starting to goddamn ache just looking at you.

The one thing I didn't hate about this movie I suppose was the music. They could have easily littered the soundtrack with shitty pop songs, but they surprisingly held back. The score is also fairly nice to listen to, should have been in a better movie than goddamn Boss Baby, that's for sure.

There's also the fact that this movie's lore is just... a confusing mess? I get that this is for kids, but like? It takes itself seriously, so why am I still so confused about where babies come from in this universe. Are they concieved through Sex? Or are they made in a factory or something? Like what the fuck am I supposed to think, movie? Make it make fucking sense, please.

So yeah, I didn't like this one. I think Dreamworks was trying to make a kids' movie that could also appeal to adults here, but in the end, they made a movie that appeals to absolutely no one. Sure, I suppose it has its fans, who are likely just dumb kids who are too stupid to know they're being pandered to, but I am certainly not one of them. Fuckass movie, fucking hated it. Get it out of my face. Now.

Overall Rating: 2/10

Verdict: (takes out a gun and cocks it at Boss Baby) You're fired, kiddo

Previous Review (Trolls)

Next Review (Captain Underpants: The Epic First Movie)

#jen watches #dreamworks watch #jen tortures herself with every dreamworks animated movie ever #the boss baby #dreamworks

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minaminokyoko · 6 years

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The Incredibles II (A Spoilertastic Review)

Oh, there’s just something special about the feeling you get when you wait an extremely long time for something and it’s completely worth it. It’s rare, especially in films. Most of the time an ultra-late sequel is a cheap cash-in that gets rid of all the original movie’s charming aspects and just regurgitates nostalgia all over your face in the hopes that you’ll mistake it for quality. However, one thing I appreciate about Disney/Pixar’s collaborative films is that for the most part, they give a damn. They don’t always (*side eyes the Cars franchise*) but when they give a damn, they give a good goddamn.

I’m in the camp with many people who would argue The Incredibles is Disney/Pixar’s best film. Granted, I also waffle back and forth between Incredibles and Toy Story 3, but I’d be happy to say either film wins the title as their Best in Show. Thus, the bar is set extremely high for the sequel, and I can see why D/P would be hesitant to follow up what is not only their best film, but a film so well written and executed that it stands toe to toe with some of the best superhero stories period, like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Avengers, or The Dark Knight. 14 years is a long damn time (almost reaching the infamous Syndrome line of “15 years too late”) but I can happily say they weren’t just sitting on their hands. They actually knocked it out of the park and made a worthy sequel, leaving the ending open enough for a third film if they so desire to go after it.

Overall Grade: A-

Pros:

-Well, any of you who know me know what’s got to go here first: Helen fucking Parr. She was already a bomb ass bitch in the first movie when she infiltrated the facility to rescue Bob, and then throughout the rest of the movie busting heads protecting her family. They take Helen Parr’s general badassery from a 10 and crank it up to 10,000. Helen is ridiculously talented, sharp, acrobatic, intelligent, and amazingly adaptable. It was an absolute joy to watch her on missions. She wowed me over and over again with how she handled the emergencies that came about because of the Screenslaver. Helen is a force to be reckoned with. I love her genuine enthusiasm and confidence. I love that she knew something felt off about the missions even though she was just a little too trusting to stop our villain before she got to her. I’m really excited to know that little girls are going to grow up with this three dimensional badass mom out there breaking glass ceilings and subverting expectations. Helen Parr is the best of the best and no one can touch her. That’s the biggest takeaway I had for this movie. I appreciate her in a whole new way after seeing what she’s capable of just on her own.

-Married to Helen’s badassery is the action sequences. Wow, wow, wow. From Jack-Jack fighting a freaking raccoon in a death battle to the final Avengers-style climax, Incredibles II rocks it with some truly inspired fight scenes and chase scenes. I loved it. I wish I wasn’t broke right now so I could go right back in and see it again. It’s some fantastic action from start to finish, and each piece is well thought out and well staged. It’s never too close and it doesn’t cut away. You’re in the front seat for all of it and it’s incredibly engrossing, to use an inevitable pun.

-The return of Edna Mode. I was worried that since she was somewhat of an Ensemble Darkhorse in the first movie that they wouldn’t be able to make her as funny and charming as her first appearance, but I fell right back in love with Edna in this film. She’s just fantastic. I was in tears when Bob came back for Jack-Jack and the baby was actually mirroring Edna, and Edna loved him so much that she gave the baby clearance to her design lab. It was just the cherry on top of an already wonderful sundae. God bless Edna and Jack-Jack’s interactions. It was just too funny.

-Bob learning to be a stay-at-home dad, while cliché, was amusing and ultimately (mostly) heartwarming. The exhaustion was just so realistic and I know there were some hearty guffaws from the parents in the audience of my theater last night seeing his antics with the kids. I really did feel for him when he collapsed on the couch next to Violet and admitted he just wanted to be a good dad. It hit me right in the heartstrings, as I’ve spent many a late night on the couch with my exhausted father in the past. Bob also got a bit of development in terms of setting an example for the kids and not letting his impulsive nature get the best of him, i.e. with the car.

-The heroes that were gathered together for the climax. I really enjoyed seeing their different powers. None of them were anything I’d never seen before, but I just appreciate how each of them were used and presented a damn credible threat. I also like the smaller touches of their designs, like how I’m pretty sure the little belcher guy was an homage to Ernest Borgnine (who sadly passed away in 2012) and the crusher guy I think was an homage to Mike Tyson (but don’t quote me on that, he looked like him to me). I loved Void and I have a prediction from my time on Tumblr that she’ll be the new fan favorite aside from the villain Evelyn. They were colorful and competent and interesting, and I’d love to see them in the next movie if there is one.

-Violet was both more and less annoying here than in her first appearance. I don’t know if I can put it into words, but I’ll try. In the first movie, she was weak and whiny, and while she ended up becoming competent, I was still sort of just irritated by her. She’s still whiny here, but at least she’s not weak. She had a reason to be upset and it’s good that she stepped up to the plate when it was time to go to work. My suggestion is that they go ahead and do a time skip if they choose to make a third movie so she can outgrow her irritating preteen qualities and be a full blown early adult to resolve those lingering things about her that annoy me. Just let her grow up already and I think she’ll be a fine character on her own.

-Jack-Jack in general was handled brilliantly. I didn’t get tired of the slapstick. He was genuinely surprising the entire time and it almost makes me wonder how they’re going to proceed with him in the future because once he grows up, he might be the most powerful Super we’ve ever seen at all. I mean, someone’s going to do a count of how many abilities he has, but seriously, it would be good fuel for a sequel for Jack-Jack to get older and people want to take advantage of all the things he can do. Though if I were writing it, I’d write that he can only do these amazing things one at a time only for a limited amount of time a-piece, so like he can do them for less than 60 seconds. That would at least help resolve the overpowered problem he could create. But I digress.

-Is it weird that I just really think the Screenslaver is like the most clever villain name and schtick ever?

-I liked the monologue that the Screenslaver gave while Helen was tracking him. It did bring up an excellent point about consumerism and hero worship. I for one know I’m guilty of the latter to a ridiculous extent, but I also have some pretty deep emotional and psychological problems that cause me to fixate on fictional heroes so it’s probably why Screenslaver’s rant hooked me. It’s intentionally ironic and brilliant commentary from the writers.

-I loved the small touch of including Helen, Bob, and Lucius’ theme songs at the end credits. So cute.

-The short film before the movie was also very creative. (Though another reason I think humanity is destined to die out by self-destruction is the whole audience laughing when the mother ate the dumpling baby. I sat there stunned thinking, “What the actual fuck, guys. I don’t think that’s the emotion that they were going for. I think it was supposed to be upsetting, not funny.” It was awkward as hell and I think humanity is doomed even more than I usually do.)

Cons:

-Bob Parr’s aborted character arc. This wasn’t a fully aborted arc, but it was definitely a partially aborted arc. I think that the biggest criticism anyone could throw at this movie is Hero Decay for Bob Parr. He’s broken down pretty badly and he only gets to do hero work twice in a two hour film. The rest of the time he spends as the comedic Butt Monkey stay-at-home dad, and while that’s fine, it rubs me the wrong way that the film sort of picks up a big central issue with him and then drops it entirely. First, I was irked at Bob’s implications when the Deavors wanted Helen. She gives him a dirty look, but I don’t like that the film doesn’t have Helen confront Bob about almost insulting her in front of their potential employers and implying that she’s not as good as he is or not as right as he is for the job, and I further don’t like it that he’s so selfish and egocentric when she does a great job that he doesn’t really congratulate her and actually mean it. Helen pretty much did the impossible. When the movie shows us what she’s able to stop, there’s no way in hell Bob could have done what she did. Yeah, strength is great, but it’s not everything. That’s what the first movie showed us, that Bob has great uses, but he needs to be complemented by other heroes to be effective. Helen is fully capable on her own and doesn’t need help. So it irks me that Bob’s so dismissive of what she’s able to accomplish. Second, it felt a lot like Bob just assumed he’d temporarily be doing the stay-at-home dad thing until Helen opens the gateway for him to do what he really wants to be doing. It didn’t feel like he was ready to make the sacrifice for hero work to raise his kids. It didn’t feel right to me. I thought the film would offer a choice where Winston said he could join her in hero work and Bob says no, he’d rather take care of the kids and let her do her thing because she’s great. I think that was the biggest missed opportunity in the film. I don’t feel as if Bob learned anything. He cares about the kids and Helen, but it still felt like he just wanted self-gratification in the end. He wants to be a hero because it’s all he knows how to be, and the conflict just sort of vanishes once the third act kicks in. I’ll see if anyone else notices this or if it’s just me, but I found myself disappointed in him this time around.

-Evelyn was way, way too obvious as the villain. Granted, it’s not like the first Incredibles was subtle. We were thrown right in with Syndrome and he was a Card Carrying Villain with zero regrets. I just didn’t think it would be so obvious that it was her, but nope, it was her. As soon as Winston told us the backstory, it was like there was a huge blinking sign over her head that it was going to be her. There was an off chance it was Winston, but after a certain point I figured he really was just a big excitable kid who wanted heroes legal again, so by default it was Evelyn. It was too transparent, so the whole movie I was just checking my watch for her to turn evil, and she finally did. There was no attempt to make her seem like she wanted anything other than to see the heroes fail based on that rotten attitude of hers, so maybe it was just a rare spot of laziness from the writers not to hide her very clear intentions.

-Frozone felt a bit underused. Once he put Helen and Bob in contact with the Deavors, I thought maybe we’d see more of him, but he just disappears until the third act. Odd. Not a dealbreaker, just odd.

-I actually though the bodycam thing would be used in a different way than to eventually tip Helen off that something was wrong. I thought that Evelyn was going to manipulate the footage to make it seem like Helen attacked the ambassador and went rogue so she’d be hunted down or something. It just ended up falling short of my expectations, I suppose.

-Although it’s accurate to our actual society, the cops yelling at Bob and Helen for not catching the Underminer really ticked me off. Are you telling me there were zero casualties when he blew the bank through the ground? I find that hard to believe. And it also sounded like they were just mad they didn’t catch him, not that they were mad about them violating the law. Look, fuck off. Cops can’t even handle simple burglaries sometimes, and you want to give these heroes lip about trying to stop someone who drove a drill the size of a building up through the ground and then blasted a whole-ass bank? Whatever. Y’all sippin’ the same Kool-Aid as the people who came up with the Accords in Captain America: Civil War. Your argument is dumb. Go sit down somewhere.

Honestly, I’m really looking forward to seeing this film again and to finding out if they intend to follow through with a third film to make it a trilogy. After all, if anyone can make three phenomenal movies instead of two good ones and a dud of a third like the status quo, it’s Disney/Pixar. I suggest you run right out to see Incredibles II, because it was well worth the wait.

#The Incredibles #The Incredibles 2 #Helen Parr #Bob Parr #Disney #Pixar #film review #movie review #spoilers #spoiler alert

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silverglyph · 6 years

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FRAME BY FRAME - All References in the MIC DROP Fan Video by Kiera and Arwen (with pictures and links)

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First of all, go follow @seiyoko and @salukiart, they are amazing artists, animators, and creators!

If I missed any references, please message me and I will add them in!

The opening line of Dope - 0:13

At 0:08 in the video, all member’s names are graffiti’d on the walls.

A line from the song Come Back Home

From about 0:25 to 0:29, Steve Aoki’s eyes watch over the boys from the Mic Drop remix. Also, the TV says ARMY <3

Also at 0:29, there are posters lining the walls from BTS’s past comebacks. If you look closely, you can also see their logo on the controllers (this is much more easily visible later on in the video). The room MIGHT also be modeled to look like a room in their current dorm but I’m not sure.

At 0:30, the first screen of the game finally shows up, and it lasts for about 10 seconds. In that time, we can see:

The stage is modeled from their first music video, No More Dream

J-Hope (who’s character name is written as JHS in the game-- short for Jung Hoseok, his real name) is firing a Supreme gun that shoots fake money (lol).

The little mascot in the Info section is Van, a mascot from the BT21 series created by BTS and Line. Each mascot was made by/represents one member of BTS, except for Van, who represents ARMYs.

“Today, your dream begins! A new path has been opened, don’t hesitate!” I am pretty sure these are lyrics from one of their songs since, throughout the video, Van pretty much mostly speaks in lyrics. I haven’t been able to find this one though.

At 0:41, the stage changes to reflect their We Are Bullet Proof Pt. 2 music video.

Van’s quote “It’s like a desert here, there’s nothing but rocks” is a reference to the hidden song on the LYH album, Sea.

ALSO, a some of the monsters designs are based on lyrics and references from BTS’s music. I’m sure all of them are but I just can’t make the connection. Maybe the rock monster is also a reference to Sea?

Edit: Apparently most of the enemy designs are based off of album covers! This is according to Kiera’s twitter.

At 0:46, Suga joins the party as MYG (short for Min Yoongi, his real name).

J-Hope’s special attack at 0:48 is a reference to the short movie he stars in during the Wings era called MAMA (also the name of his solo song in the Wings album).

I’m not sure I even have to put this, but the great transition at 0:51 is a dead ringer for the iconic MIC MIC BUNGEE move that Suga and J-Hope do in the Mic Drop remix MV.

So now Suga is in the frontlines, attacking. His method of attack is the lighter he’s seen with throughout the entire HYYH series. It first made it’s appearance in the I NEED U music video (seen clearly at 0:29).

The stage has changed to reflect their music video N.O. The red and white color palettes of the monsters in this area are supposed to reflect the red and white album.

And at 1:05 (we’re only A MINUTE INTO THIS VIDEO WOW), they’re in the classroom setting from Boy In Luv. I have no idea what the monster is supposed to be. Is it balancing on a candle? Chalk? Does it represent the red string of fate???

Whoa hey, it’s 1:07 and we’re in the Just One Day music video! I’m fairly sure that paper airplane monster refers to the paper airplane J-Hope had in Spring Day? (At 3:20.) I don’t recall paper airplanes in their other MVs unless there was one in Just One Day that I missed?

Also, it looks like V has shown up! (As KTH, or Kim Taehyung.)

Suga’s special attack starts at about 1:09 and lasts until 1:14. In it, he throws a rock at the monster, an alarm goes off, and a piano falls on the monster’s head. This is a reference to the short film FIRST LOVE, released during the Wings era. In it, Suga throws a rock into a music store, where a piano sits, and an alarm goes off.

Back in the real world at 1:15, we can see more detailed posters from different eras. I just know the Dope era one on the right.

At 1:18, we’re in the underground subway setting for Danger. (If it wasn’t obvious, the stage appearances correspond to the order the actual music videos were released in.) V unleashes his attack, unfurling black wings and firing feathers. In the MV for Blood, Sweat, and Tears, as well as other subsequent material during this era, V was seen and associated with black wings. I think he’s fighting the Gucci snake? Because V loves Gucci in real life?

Also, Van is back! “It’s already your second year, time flows fast...” references their song Second Grade/So 4 More (which is an underrated BANGER btw).

Also, easter egg time: There’s graffiti reading “What Am I to You?” which is the title of one of their intro songs.

New player! Jin (aka KSJ, aka Kim Seokjin) appears at 1:24 and fights by blowing kisses :). Blowing kisses at ARMYs is pretty much his thing lol. Also, blowing kisses sends out hearts that hurt the enemy, and while that’s a common visualization for blowing kisses, I pray that its also a reference to Jin’s heart events.

They’re at the storefront present in the War of Hormone MV. The enemy he’s fighting is, I think, one of the black-clothed goons from Not Today and the Mic Drop remix MV. (It also appeared in Kiera’s last full-length fan animation of Cypher Pt. 3. That video is itself chock-full of references! Incidentally, I believe Van’s quote here is also referencing that song.)

Two seconds later at 1:26, Jimin (aka PJM, aka Park Jimin) makes his appearance. This time, they’re at the bonfire scene from I NEED U (also appears in their prologue MV I think). Their fighting a flower monster that I don’t know the significance of.

Jimin attacks with an umbrella. I think the umbrella is from the Love Yourself short films but I’m not entirely sure.

At 1:37, we get our first look at the achievement system in this game.

It’s all the awards they’ve won up until this point! Really awesome touch.

Two new players appear this time: Jungkook (JJK, Jeon Jungkook) and RM (KNJ, Kim Namjoon). I have no idea what Jungkook’s attack is: he pulls some string from his wrist and it transforms into a spear? Jungkook’s attack may be referencing the move from DNA. Strands of DNA come oout of his arm and form a spear. (Thank you @bangpdofficial!)

The stage is a scene from their Dope MV. Van’s quote, “so this is Bangtan style,” references the same song.

I am almost certain that the lion enemy has a mane modeled after the lily flower that appears frequently in the Bangtan Cinematic Universe. It’s even got six petals.

At 1:46, Jimin unleashes his special attack. The attack involves him eating an apple and then teleport-kicking the enemies. I think this is a reference to his short film, LIE.

The stage is from the For You MV, a song/MV exclusively released in Japan. I am not sure what the enemies are supposed to be.

Jimin’s kick transitions into the next scene, where the stage is modeled after the tunnel scene from the RUN MV. I am pretty sure the enemy is a reference to Baepsae/Crow-tit, and this bird represents the wealthy older generation.

A wild BTS lightstick appears at 1:53! (Also, we got some new scenes of their room with some new posters.) 9:18 might refer to the date the Love Yourself album was released (thank you anon!)

A new stage shows up at 1:55. I don’t quite recognize it but it might be the Japanese version of I NEED U? We can also get a clearer look at the bird from Baepsae.

At 1:57 we come to yet another new stage modeled after the Japanese Run MV. It’s filled with graffiti of the names of a ton of their songs.

V activates his special attack. A single lightbulb hangs from the ceiling and a table appears, which he kicks towards the baepsae. I believe it’s a reference to his interrogation scene in his short film, STIGMA.

Also, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, V’s attack animation ends with him giving a peace sign and his adorable puppy Yeontan popping out of his pocket.

Two minutes into the video and we get a new stage (modeled after the Fire MV) and we finally see RM’s attack. He pulls out a giant lollipop and smacks enemies with it. He’s frequently seen with a yellow lollipop in the Bangtan Cinematic Universe.

And now they’re in a stage modeled after the Save Me MV.

Again, the stage changes into one based on Young Forever. I don’t know what that enemy’s supposed to be, but he’s pretty cool looking. And an animation for downed party members has never been so cute. (But what is that in Jin’s arms?)

At 2:08, RM provides an assist move that revives V and Jin. It takes the appearance of his BT21 mascot, Koya.

We get another look at the achievements screen at 2:10. It’s coming along nicely!

And a level selection screen a couple of seconds later! Not only does it show the title of the MV, but the description includes the album the song came from. The level code is also the date of the comeback (thank you @bangpdofficial)

2:18 shows a stage based on the Blood, Sweat, and Tears MV, as well as my favorite enemy design in the whole video: a dear featuring the circle designs from the Wings album cover.

For his special attack, RM unleashes a phone booth to crush the enemies, referencing his short film REFLECTION.

More awards!

Also, seems like the boys have started taking notes. You can see a DNA strand drawn on the bottom one (blocked a little by the YouTube bar--sorry about that).

New stage at 2:30! It’s the train from Spring Day. Van’s line about forgetting shoes also references the lone pair of shoes featured many times in that video.

Jin summons his pet sugar gliders to restore the HP of the rest of the party (to the bewilderment of Van).

Jin uses his special attack in the Not Today stage at 2:45. He takes a photo with the polaroid camera seen many times in the Bangtan Cinematic Universe, and it turns the enemy to stone. It crumbles away under his touch. This might relate to the way Jin crumbled as though he were stone in the Blood Sweat and Tears MV.

At 2:50, we’re taken to a new stage. I think it’s based on the Japanese MV of Blood Sweat and Tears. Van’s quote is another reference to the song Sea.

A closer look at the controller at 2:55.

Even more awards! Too many that I can’t even count ‘em.

And at 3:03, we see a DNA-based stage. Van’s quote is once again from Sea.

Jungkook’s special attack has all the other members in BTS appear behind him in succession before he delivers a punch to the enemy. It’s safe to say that this references the song (not the short film) BEGIN, which is something of an ode to the hyungs of Bangtan. <3 (song) (film)

3:20. Hey look it’s pretty much a direct replica of that one scene from DNA (at 3:49).

At 3:25 we get our first look at the game over screen. Among a bunch of other “you have failed” messages, there’s this one (”don’t be such a try-hard”) that further references Baepsae.

Looks like they keep getting knocked out in the Mic Drop stage. That weird rainbow ball from DNA is tough.

Van’s words of encouragement are nearly a direct quote from the best-known line in Sea. “Where there’s hope, there’s trials.”

Last but not least, BTS’s achevements have earned them a spot on the world’s scoreboard, their debut on Billboard’s Hot 100 as number 28. <3

This fan animation was absolutely stellar and the attention to detail was mind-blowing. Even the tiniest details like how each member’s idle animation would work had so much thought put into it. Again, mad props to @seiyoko, @salukiart and @yowgurt for their incredible work!

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toongrrl-blog · 4 years

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Pink Power Rankings (Pt. 2)

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This is our next segment of “Pink Power Rankings”, I hope to do a few more in the future, including ones centered on the American Girl dolls and the Disney Princesses. The video above is the famous “Think Pink!” musical number from Funny Girl, so without further ado, time to rank these pink moments!

The Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling

This is a show where wrestlers do their thing on a ring bordered by pink ropes, so of course pink is going to come up....a lot. Even when it comes to donuts and abortion ( “I like pink things” “Well if you liked pink things less, you wouldn’t be in this situation”). The show centers on a team of diverse women wrestlers and their manager (Sam Sylvia, played by a hilarious Marc Maron) and producer (closeted Bash Howard, played by the appropriately 80′s Ken lookalike Chris Lowell): struggling actress Ruth (by a charming Alison Brie), former soap opera star and housewife turned wrestler and co-producer Debbie (the talented Betty Gilpin), stuntwoman and coach Cherry (a beautiful turn by Sydelle Noel) and her stunt-double husband Keith (utterly likable Bashir Salahuddin), daughter and sister of wrestlers Carmen (a winsome Britney Young), cheerful Brit Rhonda (the multi-faceted Kate Nash), wolfgirl Sheila (a dry Gayle Rankin), the humorous single mom Tammé (former wrestler Kia Stevens showing off brilliant emotional chops), the outrageous religious Jew Melrose (Fran Drescher lookalike Jackie Tohn), hairdressing kayfabe duo Stacy & Dawn (Kimmy Gatewood and Rebekka Johnson), Indian American bisexual med student Arthie (Sunita Mani a.k.a. the Turn Down For What girl), Olympian and taciturn Reggie (an athletic Marianna Palka), Valley Girl seamstress and former refugee Jenny (the eye-catching Ellen Wong), and the extroverted stripper and breakdancer lesbian Yolanda (a triple-threat Shakira Barerra).

In the Season 2 finale of the show (and as a bid to keep the undocumented Rhonda in the United States) they stage a wedding ceremony for Rhonda where the rest of the wrestlers are wearing pink and gold leotards with ruffled sleeves (how 80s is that), which they integrate into their Vegas show in Season 3. In the first episode of the season, several things go wrong: Debbie and Ruth (in their wrestling roles Liberty Belle and the Soviet Zoya the Destroyer) comment in the local news on the Challenger spaceship launch where the rocket explodes in the air while Ruth is absorbed in her role as the heel, a fire alarm goes off at the casino during dress rehearsal which Jenny blames on her lighting incense to cleanse the atmosphere for the show (turns out to be false to distract from the doldrums of the tragedy), and the girls play on the tables and later have a successful show. A huge up in a show about the ups and downs of show business.

Power Ranking: 8.

The Plastics

“On Wednesdays we wear pink.”

One of the many rules to abide by if you are in North Shore High’s exclusive popular clique, The Plastics. Cady has been homeschooled abroad since she was a child and is transplanted to a surburban high school where it looks like dealing with social dynamics is going to be a lot tougher than knowing what to do if you encounter a lion out in the wilderness. Led by the ruthless and manipulative Regina George, the clique is formed up of girls who are the most privileged and prettiest in the high school (and when you look at it Regina is co-opting the power that comes with being the daughter of the founder of Toaster Strudel or being really pretty) and they keep a Burn Book of all their girl classmates (and one gay guy) where they write insulting things about them. They are quick to punish by calling your mom on the phone and telling her you got some urgent results from Planned Parenthood or by laying claim to your ex-boyfriend. But the leader Regina is a unhappy girl whose mother is more interested in pleasing her than nurturing her and she feels she cannot apply herself to intellectual activities because it’s “uncool” and that she has to be underweight to be the pinnacle of beauty, she belittles the self-worth of her most loyal friends for their intelligence or their popularity and views Cady as competition. Also as Regina learns, the student body is actually afraid of her and they are willing to laugh at her when given the chance.

Power Ranking: 4.

Andie Walsh

I would be remiss not to include the main character of the film titled: Pretty In Pink. Our character is very smart, going places, hard-working, and a fashionista with her signature color (despite the hideous prom dress) and she has been disappointed in love by her richie boyfriend (and being hit on by his sleazebag friend and her childhood friend) and despite the prom look here, she has killer fashion sense. It’s a shame she cut up her maternal figure of a friend’s old 60s (cute) prom dress and another party dress to create this monstrosity.

But she hits this prom to prove to the rich snobs at her school that they haven’t hurt her. And that is power.

Power Ranking: 9.5 (0.5 taken off for hideous prom dress!)

The Pink Ladies

The ultimate Pink clad clique, their pledge is to act cool and to be cool, til death do them part they think pink! They are the all female counterparts to the male T-Birds (the Burger Palace Boys in the original, edgier, musical) and they are interested in subverting the 1950s script for young women...to an extent, to be fair they don’t have a language for subverting respectability but it’s clear often they are mostly dates for the T-Birds. The girls actually do things that were considered shocking for mature women in 1959: they make out and have sex, it’s implied Rizzo gets an abortion (or it was a false positive), they wear pants and shorts, they indulge in the same vices as the boys, they have (gender-appropriate) ambition, multiple romantic partners, talk back to any boys bugging them or remarking on them, pierce their ears (no really women mostly had clip on earrings back then), and they wear clothes for comfort and even clothes that showcase their sex appeal.

But one of them gives Sandy the now problematic behavior, it would have been more subversive if Sandy was encouraged to forget about Danny (which I think she did). But it was the late 1950s and it was hard for a female rebel.

Power Ranking: 8.5.

Taina Morales

The criminally underrated (and short-lived) sitcom Taina centers on a Nuyorican teenager and her family as she attends a performing arts high school as she works her way to becoming a singer and actress. Fushia, not plain pink, was Taina’s color and the color she picks for her Quincenera dress instead of the garish pastel pink ballgown her mother wants her to wear (as tradition). The episode covers the conflict regarding young Latinas and the pull between what mainstream American culture demands (consumerism and individualism by any means necessary) and the culture of their family’s homeland (which is more collective and built on hierarchy and just as shitty for women as individualist “Me first” culture). I want to say this to my non-Latina and non-Latinix readers: me and my sisters are dealing with a lot, we have demands from relatives who only see our age and youth and not the capable people we already are who have us flipping tortillas at 5 or watching younger siblings after school instead of a after-school job or extracurriculars or even hang out with friends and a mainstream culture that demands we all assimilate and be “real Americans”, try to be understanding and supportive.

It’s difficult but you have to set boundaries and assert your vision....lest you be a horror story from Say Yes to the Dress (Atlanta and Bridesmaids).

Power Ranking: 10 (some folks have no idea).

Deb Bradshaw

This is Deb Bradshaw, a resident of Idaho where fashion and tech-wise, everyone is stuck in the 1980s and 1990s and it was the mid-2000s. She sells handicrafts and takes glamour photos to raise funds for college and she hangs out with a couple of teenage boys who are quiet (Rico) or awkward (Napoleon) as she. Right now Napoleon’s sleazy Uncle Rico gives her a ad for breast enhancement supplements on the ruse that Napoleon recommended them for her. What does she do? Cry?

Nope. She calls Napoleon and tells him off for supposedly dissing her appearance, tells him she is content with her figure and he can take those supplements himself. In a time that was pushing girls to be sexy and hot and fun and extroverted to impress guys and where fashion was designed to show off impossibly slim, toned, and busty figures with long legs, it was something special.

Power Ranking: 9.8

Little Jordan Sanders

Once up on a time (the early 1990s) there was a nerdy little girl who felt she wowed her fickle classmates and then a mean girl pulled a prank on her that landed her in to the hospital, from there she vowed she will do the bullying before anyone else bullies her.

So she becomes a nightmare boss whose employees can’t stand her (to the point where they are listening to relaxation tapes saying “So you want to slap your boss”) and she forbids carbs in her workplace as she doesn’t eat them. She gets confronted by a little girl with a magic wand who puts a spell on her that doesn’t seem to take but then Jordan wakes up in her preteen body again and has to attend middle school all over again where she gets bullied.

So what does Jordan do? She arms herself with a huge Birkin bag and a pink power suit with a white plaid pattern and makes her way to school and manages to corrupt her new tween friends with her cynical world view. But at some point she embraces her inner geek girl and wakes up an adult woman again.

Power Ranking: 7, it’s a front but a fabulous front.

Midge Maisel

This is the night that Midge would have been made for life....and the night where she burns a bridge with a friend and puts her’s and her manager Susie’s future in jeopardy.

So after starting a career in stand up after her husband leaves her for his mediocre secretary, Midge gets to perform stand up at the famous Apollo theater before pop singer Shy Baldwin’s concert (part of his cross-country tour), this is the community he grew up in and where the local middle-aged mothers bake him goodies so he’d be persuaded to date their daughters. But Midge, a privileged Jewish American woman, is a fish out of water amongst the mostly African American audience and performers.

So she starts to make jokes about Shy’s stage persona and hints at him being a closeted gay man which all bring down the house and impress the audience (and keep the Wop Wop Man at bay)....but then Shy’s manager reveals they have kicked her out from the tour for what she has done. For once the fabulous but thoughtless Midge has faced the consequences of her actions.

Power Ranking: 10, she made an impact alright.

Meg Griffin

By far more the least empowered woman on this list or the list before (even more than Barb who got killed by a monster), Meg Griffin started Family Guy as a ordinary teenage girl who wasn’t popular at school but was assured of love from her then-loving, but dysfunctional and nutty family. Then after a brief cancellation and protests brought the show back, the show and even her family (along with the whole community) started bashing her and calling her “ugly” or dissing her for her weight to the point where the show was being (rightfully) accused of misogyny. Meg so far has had her father fart in her face, her mother try to seduce her boyfriend and leave her pills to potentially OD on, her obese brother gets popular and doesn’t invite her to his party because she doesn’t fit a narrow “boob to butt ratio” (seems like Family Guy hates body fat on women unless it’s on their boobs), her baby brother loves to feed off her tears and to her face told her to become bulimic, and her family dog tells her that God doesn’t exist because she has a shitty family (complete with a Mom he lusts after) and she has “a flat chest and a fat ass”.

Also this “pink condom hat” wearing teen is dished crap by the writers because they claim not to have knowledge of writing teenage girls, gee what could be an improvement on that problem?

Is it any wonder that this girl may have violent episodes?

Power Ranking: 1 (most of the time).

Quinn Morgendorffer

From day one pink has been a color that Quinn wore and while she updated her late 90s baby tee look with deeper colors and modest cuts, pink has remained a primary color. Actually pink has been her preferred color since childhood, her color for school dances, for camping trips, what she wears as a Mommy/Beauty vlogger, the color for the background Jane uses for her abstract portrait of Quinn,

Quinn’s motivation is to be the most attractive and popular girl around, likely stemming from her father’s trait of needing people to pay attention to him, and coincidentally pink is what helps her fit in with her parents and helps her stand out from the Fashion Club, and it helps her align with the late 1990s standard of beauty and femininity (also somewhat aided by her grandmother) that prizes long, shiny, bouncy hair and a teeny weeny nose with microscopic pores, and a fat free (except for the boobs) body over intelligence and substance. This serves to set her apart from her sister Daria, who decides to go against the role. Which is sad because Quinn is very witty and savvy with a gift for fashion analysis and the sisters show a propensity for getting along much better than their mother did with her sisters.

Later in the series, she starts maturing and leans more into her intellectual gifts, thus her jeans and shirt get deeper in color and flaunt her slender mid-section less (they still show the outline of her silhouette). She starts pulling away from her shallow clique and deals with a new friend with alcoholism (not much of a resolution at the end), thankfully somewhat like her sister, she can provide kinship over (cheeseless) pizza and diet soda.

Power Ranking: 10, Family Guy writers take notes.

Daria Morgendorffer

Pink is the color of mortification for Daria. She is the only member of her family to not have a pinkish or reddish tone in her coloring (unless you count her traditional orange shirt under her green blazer and black skirt, something that calls to her mother’s power suit) and femininity seems forced on her. In fact the only time pink was used as a power move was when she used it to convince her sister to stop being a pseudo-intellectual by dressing up like her.

In this image from the tie-in book The Daria Diaries, we see that a younger Daria is dressed up in a high-necked and puff-sleeved nightmare of a pin dress that looks so infantile, that likely Helen forced on her (Quinn would never pick that, no matter how mad Quinn is she would never make someone wear something if she didn’t think it was flattering), and while her mother and sister are in yellow-toned frills that closely matched their tastes, Daria stands apart glum and wishing someone would save her from this fashion emergency.

Power Ranking: 4, just loose the collar at least?

Glinda the Good Witch of the North

The Good (but slightly bitchy) Witch of the North is the representative for how powerful pink can be in 1939 (or rather any time because Oz operates outside our world). She is the guardian (was she battling the Wicked Witches of the East and West for supremacy while the Munchkins were terrorized? Gosh a lot of WWII allegories here) of Oz played by the closeted Bisexual and hilarious Billie Burke, she is good but not above encouraging munchkins to sing about how happy they are that the wicked witch is dead. While munchkins run around scared when the Wicket Witch of the West shows up to corner Dorothy and get the ruby slippers back, Glinda cooly plans on snatching the slippers and poofing them on Dorothy’s feet and drops shade on the Witch.

But Glinda is one to remind the characters (and the audience) that they needed to discover the power within them to achieve their goals and come out the other end stronger, no one can make you believe that.

Power Ranking: 10, this look is so iconic.

Kim McAfee

Truly an iconic pink look and not bad for a role where Ann-Margret makes her big break. The teenage Kim MacAfee, member of the Conrad Birdie fan club, gets pinned and is chosen to kiss Conrad during his farewell concert before he leaves for the army. Quite the glow up! But she has to deal with a jealous boyfriend who doesn’t want Conrad around (probably because he can’t make her scream and faint) and her feelings of “I don’t need him but I really want him with me”. This outfit was stunning and meant to convey a lot in 1963: it’s pants, it’s Schiaparelli Pink rather than a dainty pastel like she wears here, it shows off her figure, she sings about kissing men from Yale to Purdue while Conrad and her boyfriend Hugo sing about hot chicks and they all sing about having a lot of living to do. Of course Hugo leaves and she is distraught, up to the point where she kisses Conrad Birdie and Hugo sucker punches him in front of a live audience. She happily ends up with Hugo and wishes Birdie well, as opposed to when she is devastated over him heading to the army (is it no accident the sexists from Mad Men like the first version?).

Power Ranking: 9.5, truly iconic and the outfit to wear when you attempt to be a sexually liberated woman who doesn’t need a possessive man.

Caroline Brooks

Speaking of big breaks, this is the film where Esther Williams (the codifier for swimming musicals and synchronized swimming) makes her big break in a iconic career and it was quite an impressive entrance. And then starts a decade-long career of water ballet musicals and swimwear, the film isn’t remarkable for it’s plot (enjoyable rom-com) but for the impressive swimming sequences that show off Esther’s athletic skills (she was eligible for the 1940 Olympics). That is a way to make an impact with pink.

Power Ranking: 20.

Courtney Gripling

Who’s the girl in the pink capris?

It’s Courtney, it’s Courtney!

This song was sung two times in the show and it tells you a lot about the inner workings of a sweet but sheltered and often insensitive Middle School Queen (for measure, she sings this in a sparkly dress at a friend’s 13th birthday party, friend doesn’t mind though). Courtney would definitely be the kind of girl who’d wear white to a (Western) wedding.

Pink (or peach or lavender or blue or cream) has been a signature color for Courney since the very beginning: it was the color of her pajamas, she told Ginger she looks really good in the color when she borrows sleepwear from the girl, she wore “Popular In Peach” nail polish for her exams the semester before, and she even wore the color of skirt and blouse she wore when she got bullied in high school and learned her family was losing their McMansion and their money (even her port-a-potty was pink with baroque gild). It highlights her delicate and privileged background, like lace or fine china, it will get spoiled.

So this girl, who got by with people being hired to do her homework and sung about herself at another person’s birthday party and had a talent show performance where she and her friends wore blonde wigs and matching costumes (with face masks of herself), the girl who was shocked to find out summer camps don’t have masseuses, the girl who wore platform sandals in the winter, or that Mom losing her platinum card is not the catastrophe she thinks it is.....suddenly finds her family in poverty after her father was caught doing white collar crime.

So sad, she was always better than Ivanka.

Power Ranking: 6.5, glorious look and character but not likely to be invited to anybody’s wedding in the future.

Cher Horowitz

It’s fitting the premier teen fashionista of Beverly Hills undergoes her enlightenment and makes up with her friend in a matching pink preppy ensemble. Cher Horowitz (despite clearly taking some lead from her BFF Dionne’s more sophisticated and colorful take on Bev Hills fashion) has been a trendsetter in-universe and at the time the film came out.

Before the film came out, fashion was inspired by grunge or still stuck in the late 1980s or dominated by neon colors and power dressing and or mixing and matching, then the costume designer for the film (Mona May) decided on taking a twist on the preppy look, while keeping some sportiness and the colors of the time (even nodding to Beverly Hills 90210). May subtly updated looks that Sally Draper and Nancy Wheeler would have worn and for the rest of the decade teen girls were sporting mary janes, plaid, collars, floaty dresses, pastels, stripes, and knee socks.

At the start of the film, Cher thinks she knows it all and she is the most popular girl in her school....she doesn’t really know it all (she’s Clueless). She does aspire to be more and do more (and sometimes plagued by insecurity) and takes new grunge girl Tai under her wing and gives her a makeover that makes her look like a shorter, redhaired, and curvier clone of Cher herself until Tai gets swollen in the head and Cher realizes she loves her ex-stepbrother Josh. After an argument, a humbled Tai (in a style that combines the preppy femininity she learned in Beverly Hills and her skater geek inclinations that manages to hold well into the mid 2000s) makes up with her and they watch Tai’s love interest shred out.

Here we see Cher in her feminine prep but the casual look and the prints help her empathize with the crowd on the grass.

Power Ranking: 9.

Miss Piggy

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.

The ultimate diva in pink, with all her charms, cannot attract Kermit the Frog and the woman who assured at least one generation of girls that they don’t need to be slender princesses to be the leading lady. Before Elle Woods, Miss Piggy came in with blown out wings and curls and in pink outfits assured of her own place in show business and of her own beauty and especially during an era when society was learning (slowly) to accept other forms of female personality and challenging gender roles. She was a revolutionary clad in the style of women of the Golden Age of Hollywood and made a mark for more body inclusivity in entertainment and transcended the girly girl/tomboy dichotomy that had been around to enforce stereo-typically feminine behavior and set up women to compete against one another.

Power Ranking: 10.

Blossom

Sugar. Spice. Everything Nice. Chemical X. These are the things that created a trio of super-powered kindergartners, the leader wearing a large red bow over her long red locks and has a pink dress (and improbably large pink-colored eyes). These girls had to save their city from monsters and evil villains while attending Kindergarten and making time for their playroom. Blossom was Miss Perfect personified: cute, long pretty hair, perfect grades, ladylike behavior, intellectual, emotionally mature (she acted more 10 years old rather than her actual age of being born in a 5 year old’s body); but being Miss Perfect can make you blind to the resentment of others (she is rather bossy) and being liked and holding that as the standard could let you get run over. It’s fortunate that Blossom is learning how to advocate for herself and break the rules to save the day (like beating up evil senior citizens) now rather than at 14, 17, 24, 32.....

Power Ranking: 11.

Renee Bennett

Renee Bennett (as played by Amy Schumer) is insecure about living in a world that seems to stop for women fitting a narrow standard of beauty, which doesn’t concern her as far as she’s concerned. Now Renee wears pink a few times in the film, highlighting her femininity and desire to be universally beautiful. She happens to make a wish to be beautiful during a rainstorm and the next day, she goes to Soul Cycle where she falls off a bike, hair gets caught in the bike and she hits her head and wakes up seeing a different person in the mirror.

Now she walks around the world as if she was confident in being one of the most beautiful women in the room, if not the world. Suddenly her clothes show more skin, they are more twee (the bright colors and pastels), she’s taking huge fashion risks, and participating in bikini contests. Of course every film high hits a low where the protagonist’s ego is swollen, her friends feel alienated and later she bonks her head and believes she is back in her old body and no one has seen how ��hideous” she is. Later she finds the confidence to “come out” as she is (as far as others are concerned, she hasn’t changed her looks too much).

Power Ranking: 7.5

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theabominableblogger · 6 years

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My Reaction to “The Shape of Water”

Hoooo... my body is ready....

*scats along with the FOX theme*

“A Double Dare You Production.” Del Toro created a slight breach of ettiquette by skipping the single dare and going right for the throat!

Oh this music is so pretty!

That’s it. I’m downloading the OST like right now

“A Guillermo Del Toro film” Wooooo!!

They made this movie with only a $19.5 million budget and holy crap it looks amazing

DOUG JONES!!!

I would love to live in Eliza’s apartment, oh my gosh...

WAIT, IS THAT “THE TEN COMMANDMENTS” ?!?

OK, there’s a timer... oh my Gooodd no way...

I mean, at least they address it in not a negative manner. You do you.

DO YOU EVER JUST DIE INSIDE AFTER SAYING A THING?!?

“Time is but a flowing river to our past.”

I like how roomy and kinda cozy Eliza’s apartment is.

The dude [Giles] has two different sets of glasses...

Shirley Temple!

*Eliza starts tap-dancing in the hall* Oh my gosh I love this movie already

Boy, there is only one “s” in “Mardi Gras.” Do you not know French?

I love how much green there is in this movie.

These sets are great

This movie just used the term “What in the Sam Hill.” That’s awesome.

Michael Shannon!

*in best Zod voice* I WILL FIND HIM!

Did they use whale noises for the Asset?

All the old cars! All of them!

Wait, is the Richard Jenkins character crushing on the cashier at the pie place? Oh my gosh, that’s cute.

What’s so wrong with the key lime pie? Personally, I don’t like pie myself but was there a reason it kinda looked off?

Ginger Rogers?

That horse suit looks horrifying

The colors in this movie are great. I love when movies are color-coordinated.

It’s like del Toro’s been reading my movie wish list.

That’s an odd looking soap dispenser.

Why is Strickland peeing right in front of them?

“A man washes his hands before or after tending to his needs. That tells you a lot about that man. He does it both times? Points to a weakness of character.” That’s some insane troll logic

“Short people are mean.” To quote my sister “Well we are closer to Satan”

Is that... Strickland...

WHAAAA DID HE LOSE HIS FINGERS?!?!?

Oh my God, there’s so much blood!

ARE THOSE FINGERS?!?!? OH MY GODDDDDD

AAAAAHHHH!!!

If everyone’s being so secretive about the Asset, why did they leave him in a tank out in the open for Eliza and Octavia to see?

“It’s not bad, isn’t it, for being shit.” LITERALLY MY MENTALITY WHEN IT COMES TO DOING ART

THIS MOVIE IS SPEAKING TO MY SOUL OH MY GOD

“That’s the future now: green.” Soylent Green?

The prosthetics on @actordougjones look freaking awesome

Did the Asset just fold some of its fins back to look more human to Eliza?

*signs along with Eliza when she says she’s cleaning*

DID THEY SEW HIS FINGERS BACK ONTO HIS HAND?!?!? OH MY GOD NO WHY?!?!?

“All those scars on your neck...” They look like gills...

Michael Shannon’s American accent is actually really good, I gotta say.

*The Asset signs “egg”* Oh my gosh.... :D

Oh my gosh, all the yellow!

Everyone in Strickland’s family is super gravitated toward Strickland and it’s super uncomfortable

Noooooo....... NOOOOOOOOOOO.....

Oh thank God, the scene’s over

Aaahh, he [the Asset] just said hello!

They’re eating lunch together... this is unbelievably cute...

*uncontrollable smiling*

Oooohhh wipe transition!

Wait, is that Russian?

Yellow! Yellow again!

Why are the Russians interested in the Asset?

So is Eliza always late to her job because she has to spend time with Rosie Palms? Now that’s commitment.

Shoot, the egg!

Oh crap, it’s Strickland!

*flinches when the Asset gets electrocuted*

Wait, so the Americans want to use the Asset to win the Space Race against the Russians?

Why do I recognize the guy who plays General Hoyt?

Oh, Dmitri....

I really gotta applaud Sally Hawkins here. She’s freaking fantastic in this movie.

“When he looks at me, he doesn’t know what I lack... or how I am incomplete. He just sees me for what I am, as I am. And he is happy to see me, every time.” That bit of dialogue is amazing.

Oh crap, it’s not key lime pie. Something’s up.

Oh, the cashier’s both a racist and a homophobe. He no good to anybody.

Oh, that’s a nice Cadillac...

I like how they made all the cars look super shiny in this movie

*jams out to “Chica Chica Boom Chic”*

Are those pain pills?

“I [Strickland] keep thinking about you [Eliza].” EEUUUGGGHHH NOO!!

God, what a despicable character [Strickland]

There’s a poster that says “Loose Lips Might Sink Ships” in the locker room

Strickland’s reading a book called “The Power of Positive Thinking”

Is Dmitri gonna help them out? Yay!

Richard Jenkins freaking out over the Asset is totally me

Ahhhh, not the Cadillac!

The dude at the Cadillac dealership called Strickland a “man of the future” and his Cadillac- the sign of the future- was just destroyed. I see what you did there, del Toro.

It’s probably just me, but I can tell it’s definitely Doug Jones in the fish suit.

He just has these really meticulous hand movements and the way he kinda tilts his head to look at things is also a give away

Aaawwww, she got him [the Asset] a card!!!!

What does “MP” stand for?

I like that all the drawings of the Asset are done in charcoal when all of Richard Jenkins’ other art pieces are done in color.

How come no one is commenting on how smelly Strickland’s hands at this point? They sewed the dude’s fingers back on and they already establish that his hygiene isn’t stellar so shouldn’t he be suffering necrosis there already?

SHE TOLD HIM “EFF YOU” IN ASL! I AM LIVING!

*The Asset finds Giles’ charcoal drawings of him* That’s it. You convinced me, movie. I gotta do some art for this.

Is that Mr. Ed?

Yes. Yes it is.

DON’T EAT THE CAT! DON’T EAT THE CAT!

HE ATE THE CAAAT!!!

Crap crap craaaaaappp!!

Wait, the dude that plays Dmitri is also in Doctor Strange!

That movie’s gotta be “The Ten Commandments”

Oh this whistling music!

HE’S PLAYING WITH THE CATS! OH MY GOD!

LET HIM PLAY WITH THE KITTIES!

What? He’s glow in the dark?

What is he [Strickland] eating?

Oh my God is this it?

OH THEY CUT?!?

“Why you [Eliza] smiling, hon?” Cause she went and got it

*Eliza tells Zelda that the Asset has a junk* AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

OH MY GOD I’M SCREAMING!

ZELDA’S FACE OH MY GOD!

Ooh, is that marble cake?

Let the man enjoy his cake!

Is that Gilligan’s Island? Nope, nevermind.

YELLOW!

*Strickland tries sniffing his fingers* OHHHH, WHO CALLED THE NECROSIS?!?

That’s right, me about fifteen bullet points ago!

AAAAAAGGGGHHH!!!

Noooo they’re flooding the bathroom to do it!

They’re gonna be flooding the theater below!

Oh snap, he [Giles] has hair!

They gonna do it underwater?!?

BOY [Giles] NO DON’T GO IN THERE!

Close the door! Thank you!

It’s raining....

Strickland’s secretary must be putting up with the mightiest of bullshits from him

This movie really likes to foreshadow Strickland dying at the end of this movie

YO HIS [Strickland’s] FINGERS ARE BLACK! YOU ARE NOT IN A GOOD SITUATION, DUDE!

Why did they sew his fingers back on in the first place?!?

“Life is but the shipwreck of our plans.”

Awwww, he [the Asset] smiled at her!

TELL HIM [the Asset] YOU [Eliza] LOVE HIM!

*jaw utterly drops during the dream dance sequence*

Please tell me somewhere in the production notes, they said “OK Doug, you gotta be able to dance in the fish suit. Now go!”

My sister: Definitely an improvement on *in best Guillermo del Toro voice* “‘Happy birthday, Doug! We’re gonna string you up by your balls!’“

*claps hands after every word* THAT IS HOW YOU DREAM SEQUENCE!!

Uggghhhh, that was so good!

PUT HIM [the Asset] BACK IN THE WATER!

The sound design for this movie is really good too. Like holy crap.

*imitates Michael Shannon saying “Shut up”*

*beat boxes to the windshield wipers*

Wait, did they [the Russian agents] just shoot Dmitri?!?

*Strickland comes to the rescue strangely* Oh wow, OK.. oh my Goddd!

*Strickland sticks his finger through the bullet wound in Dmitri’s cheek* AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!

OK, Michael Shannon needs to play villains like this. Pronto.

*actually screams* OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GODDD!

Did he [Strickland] just leave his fingers on the floor of Zelda’s house?!?

*Giles and the Asset say goodbye* Aaawww....

*You and me together* Ohhhhhh my Goddd!!!

*Strickland shoots Eliza* NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Boy [the Asset], get back up!

Whoooo, go Giles!

Whaaaaattt?!?!?

*The Asset slits Strickland’s throat* Whoooooooo!!!!

Oh, wait, this is the scene with the shot!

[The Asset kisses Eliza] *softly* Damn....

Oh my gosh, that hug!

[slowly melts to the floor] *softly, with feeling* That was such a good movie!

#the blogger reacts #the shape of water #tsow #tsow spoilers #Guillermo Del Toro #doug jones #sally hawkins #michael shannon #american sign language #*incoherent whale noises*#eliza esposito #the asset #and not one strickland joke related to back to the future #NO MCFLY HAS EVER AMOUNTED TO ANYTHING IN THE HISTORY OF HILL VALLEY!#richard jenkins

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matchimatchi · 7 years

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Mattias Pilhede Interviewed by Darren Liang on Art

1) How long have you been drawing, and how did you learn how to draw? Were you self-taught or did you receive formal art education?

I did not draw at all in my youth. I always liked art but I was too afraid of drawing, scared that someone would see something bad I had drawn and laugh or judge me for it, but I was always interested in art. When I was around 22 I was walking to buy lunch during a break at work when I started thinking, man, is this all my life has become? Working all day and then going home to play videogames? Right then I decided that I would start doodling every day, and the doodles didn't have to be good, but I could look back on my doodles and remember what I did that day. Then over time the doodles became sketches, and around a year later I got my first critique and thought, wow, I think I want to take art seriously. So I started drawing every day. I never went to art school, but instead sought out different things on the internet. What the artists I looked up to recommended, forums for art and online groups for critique. I guess from that you could say self-taught, but I've sought out so many sources to learn from that I don't really see it that way. I just tried to find my own education.

2) What are the best instructional books or resources to learn the fundamentals of art?

If you tell a stranger to draw a hand, chances are they will draw five lines, like something for a stick figure. That's not what a hand looks like though, that's a symbol that exists in your head for what a hand is. Try to look at objects like your hand as if it was a foreign object you have never seen before. Judge it by it's weird shapes, it's forms, don't our fingers and nails look strange? Draw that.

For any absolute beginner, seek out "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards, it has a lot of good exercises that go into this. This is called proportions and form. I think it would also be good to start with learning gesture. Gesture is not focusing on the anatomy of someone, but the movement of things. It's like capturing the movement of someone with a stick figure, except it looks more classy. A great book for this is "Force" by Michael D. Mattesi. Everything has gesture, and it's a good way for what you draw to not look stiff. A common beginner mistake it to draw people standing straight like robots, but nobody stands like that unless forcing themselves to. For color, look up "Color and Light" by James Gurney. It's a master-class in color along with how to approach and think about color theory. Sometimes we approach color in the "logical" way that we have always understood colors, only to find that's not true. When putting grey with red it looks blue. When drawing shadows, most are actually blue and not black. In most cases things that are lit look colder, and dark areas look warmer. Color does not exist without the context of other colors, and everything in the world is basically a mirror reflecting light. It's really weird to think about. With anatomy, I recommend "Figure Drawing" by Michael Hampton.

Sometimes we want to jump straight into drawing like the people we look up to, but actually we can't draw like them until we understand things the way they understand them. All your heroes were not born with genius knowledge of how the human body works, they had to learn it too. If you don't feel like reading books I recommend the youtube channels Ahmed Aldoori, Proko, and Marco Bucci.

3) In what order should one learn the fundamentals of art? In what order did you learn the fundamentals of art?

You could learn it in a specific order. Gesture, construction, proportions, perspective, values, anatomy, color. However, as you start making art it won't really work that way, "completing one thing and moving on to the next". You have to keep making things that are interesting and appealing to you. Then you have to re-evaluate yourself and where your faults are, where do you lack the most knowledge? What can you do about it? You will never 100% know one topic, but you can keep improving your flaws by making new things and studying new things. As you patch up some mistakes, others will become more apparent that you had never considered before.

4) If you were to train me for 8 weeks for an art competition, and you had one million dollars on the line, what would training look like? What about for 2 years? What about for a decade? What would the daily training schedule look like?

I think first you would need a role for yourself. Are you a character designer? An environment artist? Storyboard artist? Concept artist? Or, what industry do you want to work in, videogames, comics, film? Sometimes we think "I want to be a great artist", but what does that mean? Do you want to have the best technical skill in the world? Do you want to have followers on social media? I think it's easy to get caught up in the artist world where artists obsess with the details other artists make, but the general audience doesn't really care. Along with that, chances are we didn't get into making art for the sake of amazing detail, but what the art communicated to us.

I think in this challenge, no matter the amount of time, you would both be trained in all of the fundamentals of art and in finding yourself. If you had all the technical skill in the world but no way to communicate it, people wouldn't care for it. Your communication or message doesn't have to be an epic saga like Lord of the Rings or a painting fit for a cathedral. I'm not saying it has to be the best thing in the world, just do what you care about. If more than anything you want to paint armored knights, or cute anime girls, then do it. Don't be an artist "making art for the sake of great art", be a person using art as a tool to show a character you always had in your head, a landscape you want to live in. Tell the story you always wanted to see; but no one else will ever do it, so now you have to.

In a very short amount of time, your training would probably be the fundamentals that can quickly show communication. Gesture, composition, then along with construction, values and perspective.

5) Even at a professional level, what is hard, and what are common mistakes?

I think a lot of professional artists get too comfortable and stop learning the fundamentals. You don't really reach a level with them where you have learned everything, you have to keep learning them as you go along. I'm guilty of it too, and I have a lot left to learn.

If you want to post frequently it can get tough once you work for film or game companies. You will have "non-disclosure agreements" where you can't post your art for a certain amount of years, and sometimes never. It can cause some confusion, does this guy still do art? Why does it take so long to post things? The social media feeds of a lot of artists just die out. It's hard to say what the most common mistakes are since there are so many of them and I have yet to learn from all of them. Don't undercharge for paintings or drawings. If you are charging less than what is worth your time, then you might as well be working in fast-food instead. Take everything in small steps instead of daydreaming about grand visions. Always be honest, people can smell lies.

6) What is the biggest mistake when approaching art? What is the biggest waste of time? A lot of beginners have odd attitudes to art. They think their favorite artists are god-like beings who were bestowed magical powers of talent. They weren't. They are regular human beings just like yourself, and that means that if they can learn to do it, so can you. A lot of beginners also get caught up with perfection, sometimes you have to relax, because you will never live up to the expectations that are in your head.

I also think a lot of people spend too long copying photos and copying favorite artists. Do you understand the structure behind what you are drawing? Would you be able to re-draw it from memory? Would you be able to draw it from a different perspective? Don't copy it, study it. You will fail a hundred times over, but each time you will improve. Don't give up because you failed, that's where most people quit. Every time you fail and try again, you are learning something new.

7) What separates a good artist from a great artist? I think what all good artists have in common is a foundation in the fundamentals of art. Anatomy, perspective, composition, etc. What makes a great artist is very subjective since it has to do with what they are using that to tell. My great artists probably won't be the same as your great artists.

I don't like a lot of modern or contemporary art, where someone can scream "I'm expressing myself" as they are throwing eggs against a wall. That's just terrible communication. What I often look for is storytelling, if I look at this individual character, landscape or illustration, can I place a story in it? Did the artist intend a story with it? Can I tell who the character is by what they are wearing, their posture or expression? Is there a calm atmosphere to the landscape, or is something happening? Do I relate to this character, or this mood? Things aren't simple. You will have to learn how to learn. You will fail a thousand times over. ... And yet it's pretty exciting.

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