dresdencodak

[dresdencodak]

Welcome to Watch More Movies

My edit of a print ad for the Alla Nazimova film Billions, reworked to present some of my cosplays

It feels like eons ago that I started this blog, but I’ve never made a proper introductory post!

Watch More Movies is a celebration of cinema and (hopefully) a way to present the medium with new hooks to encourage you, dear readers, to discover new-old films and filmmakers.

My cosplays are typically $0 endeavors—I try to put the looks together only using materials at hand and styling my own hair. I started creating self-portraits of my closet cosplays about a decade ago and this blog began as a central repository for them. BUT I’ve branched out since, allowing me to research and write about films that I’m unable to cosplay! 

Here are some highlights of my work:

Cosplay the Classics

A catch-all category for my cosplay posts, usually accompanied by essays on the performer and film

Lost, but Not Forgotten

Profiles of lost American films of the silent era constructed from the invaluable Media History Digital Library

The Vamps

Series of cosplays and essays about different facets of the Vamp archetype

A Century of Glamour Ghouls

Surveying 100 years of horror filmmaking through cosplay (including tutorials)

How’d They Do That?

My newest series using historical articles about how stunts and special effects were executed in the 1910s/1920s accompanied by gifs or stills whenever possible

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Occasionally I also feature spotlight pieces on specific films or filmmakers. This blog is highly associative—the things I read or research usually lead directly into the next topic that I’ll research and write about. This past year’s main themes have been experimental filmmaking, how the origin story of the American film industry was (re)written in the 1920s and how women filmmakers were written out of said story, and Orientalism in American films of the interwar period. (All these topics are related to one another by the way!)

I also do regular round-ups of what I’m watching, reading, writing, researching, etc.

Here, on the tumblr edition of the blog, I post edits and gif sets of films almost every day! There you might find anything from silent Italian epics to experimental video shorts to anime pilots to cyberpunk musicals.

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About me:

I definitely was not born in the wrong era, but I’ve always been old. My academic/professional background is in information science, cultural history, and film. I speak a smattering of different languages—mostly of the romance and slavic varieties. I was the 1,529th Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion. I’ve been hugged by a walrus and an emu (not at the same time). One day, when the time is right, and I’m of stronger character, I hope to own a cat.

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Disclaimer: I have never, nor will I ever use generative “AI” in any of my work. Please refrain from using gen “AI” in relation to my work in any capacity. Thank you for being a friend!

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If you’ve learned something from this blog, if you’ve been inspired to try out new aesthetics, or to watch different types of movies, or if you’ve just liked my pictures—please consider supporting my work!

☕ Buy me a coffee! ☕

🖌️ Buy me supplies! 🖌️

[dresdencodak]

DC Minis #03 - The Beach Filler Episode

I think Vonnie's got a good chance this year!

All the DC Mini questions come from Patreon supporters, and I’ll be opening up another batch of questions very soon!

-Sen

[dresdencodak]

DC Minis #03 - Elith's Type

Better luck next time.

All the DC Mini questions come from Patreon supporters, and I’ll be opening up another batch of questions very soon!

-Sen

[dresdencodak]

Dark Science #172 - Crucible

Coming soon: local community takes bold new stance on cybernetic dog men!

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[dresdencodak]

"Sen, what motivates you to spend every waking hour drawing comics?"

Me: "S… strong lady"

Dark Science #171 - Collateral

I don't want to sound too negative, but this Sirius guy is starting to seem like a real jerk.

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[dresdencodak]

Dark Science #171 - Collateral

I don't want to sound too negative, but this Sirius guy is starting to seem like a real jerk.

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[dresdencodak]

Congratulations on your successful kick starter!! What are your top 5, 80's and 90's anime?

Thanks so much! Favorite anime from the 80's and 90's? Oh gosh, I'll exclude movies and one-off OVA's to keep it simple.

80's:

1) Dirty Pair (1985-1988)

2) Bubblegum Crisis (1987-1991)

3) Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982-1983)

4) Maison Ikkoku (1986-1988)

5) Urusei Yatsura (1981-1986)

90's:

1) The Big O (1999-2003)

2) Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997)

3) The Vision of Escaflowne (1996)

4) Tenchi Universe (1995)

5) Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

[dresdencodak]

DC Minis #02 - Pest Control

The next Dark Science page has gotten Extra Special, so until next week, here’s another tiny comic! I think we all learned a valuable lesson.

All the DC Mini questions come from Patreon supporters, and I’ll be opening up another batch of questions very soon!

-Sen

[dresdencodak]

Suprise! We've got patches now too!

Doing a thing for a Pride thing.

[dresdencodak]

Getting some high-quality emails today 🤡

Trying to figure out how one can be a reader of my comic and be homophobic...

DC Minis #01 - Smash Mains

I’m starting a new series of tiny comics to upload on the opposite weeks of Dark Science updates, making Dresden Codak a weekly comic for the first time ever! Every other week I’ll be answering various questions posed on my Patreon in comic form, and they can basically be questions about anything. I hope this sounds like fun, see you next week with a new page of Dark Science!

-Sen

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[dresdencodak]

I spent way too much time on this page, but it was all worth it because I got to paint so many panels of Kim being Absolutely Done.

Dark Science #170 - You're In My Way

Probably not the best time to inconvenience Kim...

Patreon | Gumroad | Store | Ko-Fi | Paypal

[dresdencodak]

DC Minis #01 - Smash Mains

I’m starting a new series of tiny comics to upload on the opposite weeks of Dark Science updates, making Dresden Codak a weekly comic for the first time ever! Every other week I’ll be answering various questions posed on my Patreon in comic form, and they can basically be questions about anything. I hope this sounds like fun, see you next week with a new page of Dark Science!

-Sen

Patreon | Gumroad | Store | Ko-Fi | Paypal

[dresdencodak]

Dark Science #170 - You're In My Way

Probably not the best time to inconvenience Kim...

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[dresdencodak]

Fantastic analysis of one of the most pivotal scenes in Dungeon Meshi, probably my favorite manga of all time. It puts into words a lot of how I feel about Ryoko Kui's work- how sophisticated and layered scenes can be, and how many of the most relevant beats come from what's not being said, or the context in which something is said. It's such an elegant understanding of all the tools available in the visual medium of comics.

In this case Kui manages to convey half the plot and themes of a yuri manga into a single chapter. Absolutely masterful.

Soooo I read all of Dungeon Meshi in this past week and I have many thoughts bouncing around in my brain and I think the only thing to do with them is some AGGRESSIVELY CLOSE READING of a scene I wanted to come back to and try to understand better.

So: I want to talk about chapter 28

This entire section of the story is something I feel like I am going to want to come back to a lot, because its such a transitional time and I feel like there are a lot of themes/ideas that I wasn't fully aware of during my first reading, and stuff I missed because of that.

One of the biggest things I have been turning over in my head is... hey, what was UP with the Marcille/Falin bath scene? Maybe it was because I was already primed to pay attention to stuff with them going into the story, or because I had already seen a couple of panels out of context. In any case, it really kind of stuck out to me as being very short but also VERY intense, while also being... hard for me to define? Some part of the nature of the intensity felt like it was going over my head.

I wasn't sure that revisiting it would help with this right away, but to my surprise, it actually WAS a lot easier for me to follow and understand when I went back to it. So I want to just do a close reading of That Scene and some other parts of the chapter & context around it all, because I think it offers insight into Falin & her relationships, and what purpose this chapter serves within the story as a whole.

So first of all, I think it's interesting that the scene starts with Marcille bathing Falin.

It feels very caring in a more platonic, less charged way then what will follow.

Marcille goes from this caretaker mode to joining Falin in the bath, and then of course we get the first of The Panels

(as a small note, I only noticed when revisiting that Marcille is using the rest of her Kelpie soap in the bath. Isn't that just the most heartwrenching little detail. Augh)

Anyway, one of the first things I thought was interesting going back to this is how much it reminded me of the very different sort of intimacy that came just before it - when Laios and Marcille assembled Falin's bones.

This is such a beautiful and intimate sequence, and something about Marcille examining Falin, whole, after the fact... I can't imagine there are not some echoes of those bones in Marcille's mind. The action seems more startling/intense for Falin at first, and maybe part of that is because Marcille has already experienced this level of intimacy with Falin's body in a way Falin herself wasn't a part of.

This panel in particular I think is a summation of the difference in the experience for them. This looks like... near orgasmic for Falin tbh, and Marcille is very focused on the actual like practical part of what she's doing, seemingly completely unaware of the Effect she is having on Falin.

The whole short sequence is focused on this intimacy that Marcille initiated seemingly without fully being aware of what she was actually doing. And once Marcille is satisfied, she is also the one that ends it, sitting back in the bath and moving out of Falin's proximity. All on her own terms, and for her own ends.

HOWEVER... Falin doesn't just let things go.

Instead, she returns Marcille's attention. First, by asking after her wellbeing:

Marcille, of course, deflects (there will be a lot of that in this scene).

But Falin doesn't let it go.

Falin is not a confrontational person. She likes to keep the peace. In this context, and in context of the way that Marcille was the one to come into Falin's space initially, the way that Marcille controlled the initial intimacy... this is striking. I genuinely think that these three panels might convey one of the most assertive actions Falin (as herself) takes in the entire story. One of the only things that outdoes it is the fucking INCITING INCIDENT OF THE WHOLE STORY.

I'd also like to point out here that this action of Falin's also parallels her resurrection by Marcille & Laios. It's is also a forbidden magical action done to save someone(s) she loves, and its something she does TO them, that they are not fully aware/able to react to until its done.

Anyway, back to the bath scene. Falin is taking action here and asserting herself. And how does Marcille react?

She flips out!! She rejects it! She tells Falin that she isn't supposed to be acting like that.

It's a very distancing response from Marcille, and also one that puts her back in that caretaker mode from the start of the scene. She also puts even more distance between herself and Falin by sinking into the water.

Falin doesn't give up though! She continues to assert herself. She's okay, she is allowed to chose to do this.

And Marcille continues to push her away. It looks to me like she only starts to relax a little once she fits Falin into a role she can better define and control. You're a patient, you're recovering, I understand this fact and you don't. Let me take care of you.

But, for a third time, Falin pushes back.

I don't think it’s coincidence that this is where she opens her eyes. She asks directly about the thing that they have both been dancing around:

The resurrection spell. The fact that Falin KNOWS about this, at least in part, recontextualizes the quiet battle for control between the two them. They both know at least some part of the truth. Marcille wants nothing else then to ignore it. Falin wants to be able to talk about it. Marcille's blatant refusal to give her those answers, I think, is what keeps them out of sync - intimate only ever in one direction at a time, never fully together.

And of course, even when directly confronted, Marcille refuses to engage with the truth.

This moment being on the bottom of the page is notable too. There's a beat here. The last panel holds on Falin's face. The reader reaches the bottom of the page, and they are held here for a beat as well, with Falin. It's not quite a rejection yet. What Marcille says isn't directly an answer to Falin's question, but it is a response. A valid one, even! Falin wasn't just asking the question after all, but struggling with guilt that Marcille has every reason to want to reject.

But then you move on the next page, and...

Marcille isn't actually addressing the question at all, not directly. She's deflecting, again. Oh we had a ~difficult time~, there were a lot of "tough situations." Even though she and Falin both know about the resurrection, and Falin has made it clear that she wants to talk about it, Marcille pushes away from the actual topic. She keeps things broad and indirect.

She offers the smallest gesture to Falin - nothing more than a whisper of 'don't worry about it I won't get in trouble' (even though Falin's concern was never just about Marcille getting in trouble).

Marcille then continues to deflect even further, completely changing the subject onto clothes and frog adventures, which seems to distract Falin as well, as she finally gives up on pushing.

And that's where the scene ends! Marcille pushes into Falin's space (without fully realizing), and Falin pushes back. She tries three times to get Marcille to acknowledge her wants, and three times Marcille rejects her, though she does eventually convey some truth. She is honest in her belief that Falin doesn't need to feel guilty, and that things will all work out, even as she continues to deflect the rest of the question. Falin finally accepts that, the topic of conversation changes, and we move on.

But there is a little bit more that happens between them. Towards the end of the chapter, they have this little 'oh no we have to share a bed' situation. Classic stuff.

And Falin seems to realize that the context of this is kinda different now then it was when they were in the magic academy. She's not a kid any more, and they just had those intimate moments in the bath. There's a new tension between them, or one that new at least to the bed sharing of it all.

And in this respect, too Marcille pulls away from what Falin is trying to say. She tries to frame Falin as a kid, tries to insist that nothing is different.

When I first got to this part, it honestly felt... a little uncomfortable? After the bath scene, it is really weird to move into a new intimate situation with Marcille explicitly treating Falin as a kid.

What I have realized in coming back to this scene, though, is how much I think its meant to feel uncomfortable. Throughout the chapter, Marcille's responses to Falin become increasingly patronizing. By letting some of that conflict between them resolve at the end of the first scene, the chapter seems to let things rest, and lets you set it out of your mind.

Then, when the same type of conflict comes back at the end of the chapter, Marcille is even more blatantly treating Falin like a kid, and the unfairness of it hits even stronger. They are both adults, and Falin deserves the truth. After 27 chapters from the perspective of Laios, Marcille, and the others in the group, this progression lets you feel things from Falin's perspective. It's supposed to feel uncomfortable because it IS uncomfortable for Falin, the way no one will quite tell her the truth.

After all, Marcille isn't the only one to do this kind of deflecting when Falin tries to ask about what happened. Laios has a similar response, right down to the 'treating her a bit like a kid' part.

Even more importantly, this final conversation of the chapter reveals one last layer in the knowledge/power imbalance between Falin and the rest of the party: she doesn't actually remember sacrificing herself and teleporting them out.

As I mentioned before, that action was one of the most assertive things we see Falin do in the story, and she doesn't even get to keep that for herself. Instead of being her action, her choice, it becomes yet another thing that the others know more about than her.

I think that's part of why there is such an air of melancholy to this hug they share on the next page

Obviously, obviously, there are so many emotions here for Laios and I don't think its all meant to be viewed as a negative thing, or that he or Marcille are being completely unreasonable. They've been through a lot, and what's more, they think they have time now. So much more time then they actually will have. Time to explain, to open up, to let Falin return to the group in full - as a teammate and not just as someone to be cared for and protected.

But they don't get time. And this relenting by Falin, this "I won't do it again," it's not something that feels triumphant. It's an attempt to comfort them, more a prayer than a promise. As if she is trying to exorcise a spirit. As if she is capable of promising that death won't come, eventually. It's what Laios needs, not what she wants.

That's the real tragedy of the chapter, I think. It's the one time, in the midst of everything, that they have the chance to give Falin what she wants - and they don't do it.

But I do think they realize that, and I think that this failure is a core part of their journey. It's another bittersweet taste to add to the mix - all the missed chances in this chapter to connect, amidst the moments of genuine peace they do get throughout it.

As Laios puts it later...

If Falin hadn't been eaten by the dragon, and perhaps if they hadn't failed her here, they never would have had the adventure that they got to share.

(or, perhaps more tactfully: in life & chapter 28, there are both good times and bad. Thanks, Chilchuk)

[dresdencodak]

Folks wanted stickers, you got stickers! Also a dollar for each purchase goes to Trans Lifeline!

Doing a thing for a Pride thing.

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How do I look

Doing a thing for a Pride thing.

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Doing a thing for a Pride thing.