#but I’m going with the most aesthetically and thematically centered

[sinclair-wax-fan]

Been listening to Magnus Archives

Bo = Hunt

Vincent = Stranger

Lester = Spiral

[howlscifer]

Back in the tags with a new guide pertaining to writing people of color, specifically east asians! This will be a general expansion on some areas that I’ve already covered in my historical guide which you can check out over here. Again as a preface, I’m speaking as someone who comes from an east asian background but, some of the topics I’ll cover below may also relate to asians as a whole. As always, if you’ve found this helpful and useful, please reblog ( this helps coverage more than likes do. )

001. So, a short and brief summary but one big stand out I see with rps that explore east asia the lack of awareness between the very big differences between different east asian countries. China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan etc, are not interchangeable. To mix them all together and call it representation severely under cuts the historical conflicts, the misrepresentation of cultural differences and frankly the lack of effort to use google. If you’re going to center a roleplay around an asian thematic, be specific. If I can see France and England distinctly differentiated,  then you can do the same here, it’s not that hard :)

002. Lack of research in fleshing out 3 dimensional characters. There seems to be an overarching issue where asian characters, specifically their names, aren’t properly researched and considered. For ex: Characters immigrating to the west from China are likely to use a “western” name ie: Jessica, Christine etc and use their chinese name for their middle. Whereas those in Japan who immigrate are far more likely to keep their Japanese name.

003. Religion in asian culture is vast and different. Honestly, I’ve seen some stereotypes of buddhism, taoism and etc. Not every asian is going to adhere to those kinds of religious beliefs. There are asians who are also raised devoutly Christian or Catholic, or even Muslim practicing asians as well as Jewish Asians. It’d be nice to see diversity over here too. Make sure you also research and not just slap it on and end up looking like a clown.

004. Tokenism! In 2022! You know you’d see it! This is just a general note to not group asians together and call it a diversity win. Like gee, got 1 chinese, 2 koreans, 1 japanese, I filled the quota!!!! Like fucking don’t do that and also on this note, please actually consider branching out and including south east asians or just other people of color. And also, if you’re using face claims, I’d like to say that most asians and people of color can tell when you half assed the effort and picked the one asian actor that’s getting media attention in hollywood. If you can look up five alternatives for white blonde ladies, you clearly can make the effort to do the same for others.

005. Mixed characters are people with stories too, I’ve said it in my historical post but I’m going to say it again, if you willingly choose to ignore the ethnic makeup for mixed characters and solely focus on the white half of their identity, you’re being fuckin racist. So stop it!

006. Positive stereotypes are still stereotypes!!! It’s getting really boring seeing characters just be smart or quiet. There’s more to it, incorporate flaws that gives your character more than an #aesthetic. In addition on this note, not all Asians are rich top 1% or mid class, explore outside of these socio-economic norms. Poverty is a very real thing and as always, be mindful and research!

007. Characterization! Don’t white wash asian characters. Can’t count how many times it’s done in the rpc where there is zero to no effort given in writing or incorporating the cultural significance of the fc and instead, the whole background or core elements are fully westernized. Let’s go back to the basics, we’re not a “look” to fetishize. Parts of what makes us distinct is our food, our traditions, our language and etc. If you’re just going to skip over it completely and make them a basic Karen, don’t bother attempting to represent minorities.

To sum up, the basis of avoiding most of these issues is just doing the very bare minimum, research! Use google, there’s so much content out there these days. And if you’re really at a loss of what to do, ask people who are from those specific area you’re looking into ( again, not one person can speak for an entire nation, everyone’s experiences are different so be mindful ). I know most people are happy to help but we’d like to see people try and put the effort to google before backpacking off of asians to get the answer, it is not our responsibility to educate you. With that said, happy writing, avoid the points above and you’ll be doing great.

[bereft-of-frogs]

so this last gifset has got me thinking about the Loki series and its relation to other Marvel films, and this sort of feeds into the debate around costuming and whether or not he should have gotten a bit dramatic costume change. I know people have been getting heated that Loki stays in the same TVA costume throughout the series, but I don’t think the dramatic costume change actually would have fit in the series and I don’t think it would have satisfied audiences.

Because the climax of Loki isn’t like Wandavision, or Falcon & Winter Soldier or Ragnarok: it is Captain America: The First Avenger.

Stick with me here for a minute.

First off, I don’t think a big costume change into a cool new outfit would have actually fit into the series. The costume changes in the other MCU films come at a moment of transformation, largely about accepting something about themselves. It’s a visual representation of the internal character journey. Sam reckons with the complicated history of the United States and the supersoldier program, and becomes Captain America despite the struggles he’s sure to face. Thor gets his literal glow up (slightly less a costume change) when he learns that he didn’t need his hammer to unlock the power within him. Valkyrie gets her old costume when she stops running from her past and her trauma. Wanda gets her new outfit in the finale when she accepts that she has the power and responsibility to control her magic and not be controlled by it.

The climax that Loki builds towards is also one of self-acceptance, but in a much more subtle way. He doesn’t have to accept the weight of his power or responsibility; as the first episode shows, he’s already aware that the things he says about other people are really weapons he’s wielding against himself. Through the series, he works to accept that those attitudes have been a limiting factor, keeping him trapped in the role that (Kang) has cast him in and that he desires to move on from that role, and change the way he thinks about others, and then by extension himself. The final stage of that takes place during his and Sylvie’s confrontation in Kang’s creepy (cool) castle beyond the end of the timeline.

And a costume change at that moment...yeah would have been really distracting.

Which I think is the point of that quote from the costume designer, that seems to have sparked some of the discourse - about not letting a costume ‘distract’. But it’s true. Honestly, any appropriate thematic moment would be undermined if it were accompanied by a big flashy costume change. The stages of the character journey happen gradually, and every moment I can think of where Loki undergoes a part of that internal transformation (watching the reel of the end of his life, connecting with Sylvie on Lamentis, admitting why he cut Sif’s hair, etc...), would have been made significantly weakly by interrupting the performance to change costumes. It would be a big tonal shift as well. Both Wandavision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier were much more classical superhero/MCU movies (outside of WV’s internal sitcom). This was much more...weird (in a fun way). It would have been a big tonal shift, imo, to shift from the quieter, stranger mood that Loki was aiming for to have suddenly a more traditional superhero/magical girl transformation moment.

I think the only place a costume change would made any sense would have been when they were about to fight Alioth and at that point...I don’t know, it would have felt a little superfluous. Like it would have been a purely aesthetic change, which, y’all know me, I’m all about aesthetics for aesthetics’ sake lol, but I can also understand why they decided to keep everyone in the same costumes. (No one changes costumes in the series. The only thing is Sylvie loses her cape....wait, and Loki loses his jacket, and....ohhhh.) Like I guess it could have been a bit more like Captain Marvel, when it’s in the quiet of pre-battle but Captain Marvel also had a thematic reason for changing the colors of her suit (to break away from Kree influence now that she’s remembered and accepted her past and her true identity). Like, it’s possible it could have been fit in there, but it certainly wasn’t essential for the theme or the character development.

And I think they may have wanted to keep him in the TVA costume to set up the ending, as we see in this parallels between the ending of Loki and the ending of The First Avenger.

And ok, I might be going out on a limb here, getting on the tinfoil hat, but so much else of this show has been so intentional that I can’t help think this parallel might have been on purpose. The series and the movie end with their characters in a moment where they’ve lost something profound, in a perilous new world. Steve gets a couple costume changes in his first film, but they’re a little more gradual as the Captain America costume becomes more functional and less about the spectacle. (That’s also more about how others perceive Steve and his symbolic vs functional value as Captain America.) And they’re not part of the emotional climax, which is centered around his final sacrifice and then his waking up in that new world, which sets up his character journey through the rest of the series of films, as a man out of time, trying to find his place. (Cap does get the thematic costume change, but in Winter Soldier, when he returns to his symbolic roots after breaking free from SHIELD/HYDRA.) In the final scene, which is the most important for his character arc going forward, he’s in his SHIELD-assigned pajamas. Drab, sort of boring, in a similar muted color scheme to the TVA costumes. Which is also where we find him in Avengers. And...where Loki is left at the end of the series, in a similar color scheme, similar ordinary costume, out of place, in a frightening new world with strangers, and a cosmic threat beyond imagining.

Anyway. I hope this makes sense. I feel a little like I’m wearing a tinfoil hat, and I definitely had to under-develop or quickly summarize some of the supporting points to avoid turning this into a really long post, but...

it’s almost like Loki is being set up to be the ‘man out of time’ in Phase 4.

[tldr: I actually do think that a costume change would have been distracting at any of the appropriate thematic points, and I think they might have been purposefully keeping Loki in the TVA costume to set up a parallel between the ending of the series and the ending of Captain America: The First Avenger, making Loki the new ‘man out of time’ in Phase 4 of the MCU.]

[sugar-petals]

So Caro how do you like "butter"?? 😳🤔

i’ll be cranking out my media major, let's review butter stylistically. ✍️ in four aspects — sonically, visually, lyrically, and concept-wise.

sonically: 9/10. here’s an interesting comparison i found, this can be calculated by looking at the stats of a musical piece. if you want to do harmonic mixing with another bts song, seesaw (!) is the most similar to it. with the exception that it’s written in f minor but other than that, the bpm/energy/danceability is uncanny. mindboggling. in other words, two bts songs can have the same anatomy and be entirely different worlds. that’s seriously hard to pull off. talking genre, recalling that namjoon said it's a "super retro disco pop new age acoustic ballad", that description is right on 😂it gets very daft punk after 1:38, groovy, the production is quite proper. especially in the second half, it’s a firework and all transitions VERY well. what i liked less, the voices are quite meddled with and as last time, the pitch gets higher and higher so the baritones need more pressure on the voice to be heard (i salute taehyung, my mezzo would be breaking apart). it’s a miracle that rapline can handle these songs. they put a heavier bassline under yoongi’s and rm’s bars, and separated hoseok toward the end since his tone is higher so, i hear you, someone knows what they’re doing. as for the tenors, looking forward to the live rendition of the mixed register bits and the vocal runs. bts are stable like that and jk’s timbre carries the song effortlessly (as is everyone’s great english pronunciation, these guys work so hard) so they wouldn't need autotune, figure it's been added for artistic effect, the retro vibes. a bonus on the other hand, jin getting his lines, hell yes, the spotlight for him. and the arrangement of their parts in general is quite ingeniously done, that looks like the workings of namjoon’s giant brain.

visually: 9/10. the dancebreak being the highlight — this is the sexiest thing i've ever seen — we get to see some really fancy moves from everybody and the hairstyles are quite a feast. jimin and jk have been much-talked-about so i'll emphasize the extravagance of hobi's 2013 MAMA g-dragonesque neon yellow here. he’s the smooth like butter guy they’re talking about indeed, butter hair, butter attitude, butter on his plat! 😂it’s seriously good thinking to have one member embody the concept with a color so, pretty clever. making him stand out as the ending fairy and then blending in the butter logo is equally smart. they wanted to catch our eye, they achieved it. the couture: yep, fashion youtube will have a good time going through all the outfits. from tae's chanel earrings, jin’s skirt, to white suits to jackets over the shoulder. very stylish. someone put a lot of thought into it, and i'm a sucker for some gnc undertones so very cool stuff. the only (very trivial) minus i noticed, a lot of the tailoring does not exactl fit the boys’ bodies to a t, see jungkook’s or jin’s sleeves, though you can’t expect bts to have a tailor come in and fix so many outfits with so many comebacks at once. the dance, it's a compilation of many classic bts moves. i feel like it could be tiny bit more distinguished with a whopping new complex signature formation that bts is famous for in creating, then again the full dance practice isn't out and the head nodding part is quite a visual anchor. also: i noticed they put yoongi in front row a lot. someone’s shoulder is finally better again, we can prepare for some good stuff.

lyrically: 4/10. the song fulfills its function, it creates the mood, but i’m hard to please in that regard as mentioned before. why: time and again i realize that yoongi, rm, and pdogg spoil us with comforting or on-fire lyrics that hit home and are on brand. same idea as in dynamite here, we're hit with a lotta english catchphrases that we usually wouldn't hear from bangtan. it's party mode, it's the summer hit kinda writing, so yeah it does what it’s supposed to do anyway and anybody can sing along. it’s catchy and solid for sure. the 'smooth criminal/superstar/heartbreaker' idea is carried through as a red string so thematically, it's coherent at least. a lot of lines are downright hilarious with random analogies and i don't know if the writers are serious or not. they could go all the way to make it clearer that humor and braggadocio is the concept here, exaggerate it even more. you can’t always tell if it’s a parody of a ‘yeah i’m the man you all fall for me’ sentiment or if it’s 100% business. in some parts of the song it works, in others it makes less sense. where i’ve seen bts execute this well with their own writing is converse high, that’s the bar. it’s also a personal lesson for me since i write crack often, butter tells you where to put the punchlines and where to keep it neutral. a lot of it is all over the place. on the other hand, it fits right on the beat. and perfectly executed pop so i'm a bit torn. i like the ‘got that heat’ part they gave jimin. 'side step right left to my beat' is a good chorus entry as well. making light of it, every lyric works as a witty gif or tweet tagline and we'll be circulating these phrases to eternity. every line works as a good comeback in any situation of life. yoongi's verse legit made me giggle. TLDR: the lyrics are partially confusing but they blend with the music well. 

conceptually: 8/10. hit the bell for that black and white intro, that was a good idea, same with the latest teaser. and: range, darling. only in a bts video could a cotton candy jimin go from a mugshot to being the president to a basket ball court hero to going full saturday night fever to flexing his legs in less than three minutes. jokes aside: it all fits in the universe of boy with luv and dynamite so points for consistency. bts's directors have outlined a new style for sure. the worldbuilding could go even deeper, but lumpens did a good job giving us many different eye candy serves and an innovative theme that hasn’t been tackled before, k-pop and pancakes why not! there are less actual film sets (and the difference shows, e.g. in Fire or Daechwita it really gave it some oomph), but it's not really needed. butter has no requirement for an agust d-ish plotline with historical buildings and the members' looks are in the center of attention. then again, i like those details of hoseok sitting in a retro apartment at the end — cozy, i love — with a radio. once again, they could exaggerate the vintage even more, it wouldn’t take away from the idea and visuals. i wish they would’ve expanded even more on the melting butter aesthetic shots as well, although it’s neatly tied into the song so it makes sense. the lyrics really have been blended with the choreograpy theme (the side step as a central move) so i’m thinking the art direction and choreographer had quite an in-depth discussion how to create a bigger picture. as for my weakness: cuteness melts me like butter, extra points for jungkook and yoongi being adorable in their seats.

[passionate-reply]

Kraftwerk are best known for being innovative pioneers in the field of electronic music, but by 1981, the rest of the world was finally catching up to them. Faced with living in the future they’d helped create, they released their last truly great album, Computer World, as a sort of reaction to the times. Find out more in my video, or by reading the transcript below the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums. Today, we’re talking about Kraftwerk, and what is perhaps their last truly “great” release: 1981’s Computer World.

Kraftwerk were, of course, one of the first groups to popularize the creation of music through chiefly electronic means. From their icy and robotic onstage demeanour to their stiff-shirted sense of style, just one look at them makes it clear the outsized influence that Kraftwerk have had on the genre we now think of as “electronic music.” While, at times, their significance can be over-emphasized, and I’ve always been critical of the way that the discourse on this all-male quartet has often squeezed out even earlier electronic pioneers like Wendy Carlos and Delia Derbyshire, it isn’t all for no reason. While Kraftwerk’s actual music often comes across as more accessible than experimental, the fact that they were doing it in the 1970s, long before synthesisers became a commonplace sight in popular music, should fill anyone with the sense that they were architects of the future.

Music: “The Model”

While “The Model” first debuted on Kraftwerk’s 1978 LP The Man-Machine, it was re-released as a single in 1981, where it saw substantial success in the charts. In those few short years, the musical landscape had changed, with younger artists like Gary Numan and OMD making headway in the charts with similarly synthesiser-centered songwriting. For almost the entirety of the 1970s, Kraftwerk had been contentedly putting along, secure in the knowledge that they represented the future of music. But now, as the 80s began, they were finally living in the world that they had made possible. The future had arrived for them--so what were they possibly going to do now? I think the best way to frame Computer World, and perhaps what makes it such an interesting album for me, is that it represents a reaction to the ways that the landscape of electronic music had shifted around the artists in these intervening years. On Computer World, Kraftwerk would both reflect as well as critique what younger artists inspired by them had started doing. It’s the first Kraftwerk album that seems to represent a true challenge being posed to these by now august and illustrious pioneers, forcing them to respond in new ways.

Music: “Pocket Calculator”

In many ways, “The Model” is a pop song--compared to most previous Kraftwerk compositions, it’s heavy on lyrics, and focused, surprisingly, on a human being, and a love story involving her. But I think the Computer World single “Pocket Calculator” is almost as good of a pop song as “The Model” is. Highly melodic, and almost candy-coated in its simpering exuberance, it has perhaps the hookiest hook anywhere in the Kraftwerk discography. I’m tempted to compare it to similarly bright and upbeat tracks from Yellow Magic Orchestra, such as “Ongaku”--particularly since it was also released in a Japanese-language version, as “Dentaku,” for that market. Still, there’s no avoiding that the subject matter of “Pocket Calculator” has taken a sharp turn back towards an iconically Kraftwerk subject matter: the inner life of the titular machine. While the narrator of the lyrics announces themself as “the operator” with the titular calculator, it’s also possible to interpret the lyrics as the voice of the machine itself. “I am adding and subtracting, I’m controlling and composing”--but who, indeed, is really performing these tasks: the operator, or the calculator itself? Perhaps a stronger example of Kraftwerk gone pop is “Computer Love.”

Music: “Computer Love”

Melodic, but also balladlike, “Computer Love” is an unambiguous return to the traditional pop theme of romantic love, absent from the asexual and perhaps childlike glee of “Pocket Calculator.” Its more plaintive hook is also an easy one to appreciate, and its theme is perhaps more universal: while listeners at the time may not have necessarily owned rapidly miniaturizing digital technology, surely, all of us have, at some point, felt lonely. “Computer Love” doesn’t just connect to that feeling, but it also offers us hope, in the form of an almost magical, futuristic solution for finding love. I think it’s the internal balance of “Computer Love” that makes me find it so captivating: it’s a song about despair at being alone, perhaps even intensified by the alienation of modern society in particular, but it’s also suffused with the romantic dream of computerized matchmaking services, which might, like so many other technological developments, tremendously improve one’s day-to-day life. In “Computer Love,” the machine is only a tool, a small piece of the overall human picture, and not the chief focus of the work--much as the camera for which “The Model” was posing was little more than a prop in that love story. But despite this optimism about online matchmaking, other tracks on the album seem more skeptical about our computerized future, including the opener and title track.

Music: “Computer World”

While Kraftwerk are best remembered as utopian thinkers, many of their compositions hint at the potential downsides to technological advancements, albeit subtly. Much like *The Man-Machine* alluded to works like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Karel Čapek’s R.U.R., the title track of *Computer World* prominently notes organizations like Interpol and Scotland Yard among those who may benefit from computers, hinting at fears of oppressive techno-surveillance expressed by works like Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report.” With its slinking rhythm and overall ominous feel, this track implies that we should be apprehensive, without necessarily stating what to fear, and I think that’s part of why it’s remained resonant. In today’s world of deepfakes and location tracking, we’re constantly vigilant over the nameless potential dangers presented by the machines in our pockets and handbags, even when we couldn’t explicitly state what they are. Our increasing distance from the album, in both time and technological progress, may present an obstacle to appreciating it as art. While it’s easy for me to get into the mindset of computers as something newfangled and exciting, having grown up earlier in the personal computer age and able to recall the way they were advertised and talked about in the 90s and 00s, I do wonder how this album sounds to my younger peers. At any rate, “Numbers” is the track that I think sounds the most like it could have been on any Kraftwerk album, and not just this one.

Music: “Numbers”

A classic example of how a simple conceit can fill a whole composition to its brim, “Numbers” remains one of Kraftwerk’s most iconic tracks. Nowadays, it might be best known for how heavily it’s been sampled by later artists, and the influence it’s had on hip-hop, that nephew of electronic music that is nowadays, somewhat arbitrarily, considered a separate genre unto itself. But ultimately, “Numbers” and its famous beat stand up perfectly well on their own. As a cosmopolitan panoply of languages recites the names of the numbers, we are reminded of the ways in which mathematics is a universal language. Not only does it unite mankind, but many have also wondered if it might someday be the key to communicating with people from beyond the stars--an honour also bestowed upon music itself. Structurally, “Numbers” is the second-to-last song on the album’s first side, and like many earlier Kraftwerk albums, it transitions directly into another part of a larger “suite,” connected both musically and thematically. “Numbers” becomes “Computer World 2,” which is not simply a reprise of the title track, but a sort of medley which also incorporates the whispering vocoders of “Numbers.” While in many ways, Computer World feels like an attempt by Kraftwerk to keep up with the times, the overall structure of the album maintains a sense of continuous, symphonic composition, not unlike the seamless “transfer” between “Trans-Europe Express” and “Metal on Metal” some years before.

The cover design of Computer World is another in the long list of the aesthetic triumphs of Kraftwerk, which, I maintain, are perhaps as important and influential as their music itself. Its bright yellows and greens remain eye-catching, as does its portrayal of the band members’ portraits, rendered on a computer terminal. Despite seemingly now only existing in cyberspace, their faces remain in the position we saw them in on The Man-Machine, projecting their beatific gazes towards the leftward horizon of the future. The struggle between the reality of a human being, and that which is affected by their simulacrum, is a strong theme throughout Kraftwerk’s discography, stretching back, at least, to “Showroom Dummies,” and the cover of Computer World seems to take it another step further. Now, we don’t even contend with the idea of physical replicas of humanity, in the form of trudging robots or glib mannequins, but rather with the idea of an ethereal, holographic doppelgaenger. With its title, the album asks us not only to consider computers as technologies in and of themselves, but about an entire new era, and a new way of being, which is brought about by their arrival and proliferation. In many ways, this way of thinking about the future was more correct than perhaps anyone knew at the time, and I think it’s this sense of vision that makes Computer World remain a vital artwork as opposed to a curiosity.

As I said in the beginning, Computer World is often considered to be the last great album Kraftwerk made, putting an end to their streak of classics that began with 1974’s Autobahn. Their follow-up to it was the troubled and controversial Electric Cafe, released in 1986, which attempted, unsuccessfully, to add more dance influences and samples with the textures of more traditional instruments into their sound. While I think Electric Cafe is an album not without its merits, it is certainly a substantial departure from the Kraftwerk sound we’ve gotten familiar with so far. I might characterize it as an album that perhaps went too far into the territory of attempting to keep up with the times, extending Computer World’s lunge for more accessible, lyrical pop further than it could reach. Whatever the motivations, it’s hard to hear Electric Cafe tracks such as “Sex Object” without being at least a bit startled at the group’s willingness to tackle the topic of sex so frankly. It might be the only Kraftwerk song in which being like an object or a machine is portrayed in an unambiguously negative light.

Music: “Sex Object”

I think my favourite track on Computer World is its closing track, “It’s More Fun To Compute.” With a straightforward repetition of the title as its sole lyrical content, and a brazen, strident synth blast propelling it forward, it’s another one of those simple, but utterly compelling tracks that Kraftwerk seem to have been full of. Despite the way it flips into something much more melodic later on, it’s the tumult of the opening bars that really sells me on “It’s More Fun To Compute.” I think the textural qualities are almost a bit reminiscent of the grating oscillations of their often overlooked earlier album, Radio-Activity. That’s everything for today, thanks for listening!

Music: “It’s More Fun To Compute”

[animatedminds]

Star Wars: Visions - Episode 8: Lop and Ochō

Early reveal for the rest of the review: this is by far my favorite of the films so far (who knows, maybe Episode 9 will extremely wow me, but until then...), for what is actually a variety of reasons that I will probably go into at length. And because there’s nothing I like better than to nerd out at length, there is better time than now to delve into... Episode 8: Lop and Ochō Developed By: Geno Studio Directed By: Yuki Igarashi Another one that uses a brief narration to approximate the opening crawl of the films, again to great thematic effect.

This is also another one with an explicit timeframe. During the rise of the Galactic Empire, we focus on a formerly isolated planet that has reached out to the Galactic Empire in hopes that the Empire’s influence can modernize their society (some very clear Japanese historical subtext here), leading to many aliens immigrating to the planet. This includes Lop, a homeless bunny-girl alien (mildly jarring, since Gamorreans aside animal-people aliens is something you’re more likely to find in Wing Commander) who escaped from captivity and one day bumped into the patriarch of the ruling clan of the planet and his young daughter. The daughter - Ochō - insists on adopting Lop, leading to her father bringing her into the family: and so Lop and Ochō become like sisters.

Years later, strife strikes as the patriarch - Lop and Ocho’s father - realizes that the Empire only intends to exploit their planet and mobilizes a guerilla force to strike back. But Ochō takes the opposite opinion: without the Empire’s influence, their backwards planet is doomed to fall behind no matter how noble their culture is, so they must submit to ensure their own future. This rift explodes as Ochō formally joins the Empire and their father steps up his efforts to fight back, while Lop stops at nothing to stop the fighting and bring her adopted family back together again.

The very first thing I’m going to focus on here is the choice in how the story opts to approach the setting. Here, instead of getting a Jedi who visits this planet, seeing these people as an outsider does in the way most of the other shorts set up narratives of this type, the focus is on this particualr culture and how its individuals see the Empire’s presence. You are immersed into these people and their ideologies, their history and how Lop and Ocho fit into it all as heirs in the next generation. This is a fantastic way of doing this - you may recall that back during my review of The Village Bride, I commended that short for giving the people of that short a distinct means of looking at the Force, but even in that one the people were secondary: objects of the Jedi’s perspective. Here, Lop is technically an outsider, but that only outlines the prominence of the setting and storytelling as she is then raised alongside this new family and world.

The presentation here is very similar to something like Lost Stars, a book in the current canon that I’ve always seen as one of the best Star Wars novels made in the last few decades. Like Lost Stars, this short uses the characters culture to set up their upbringings and situations, and then applies that to the issue of the Empire: Lop chooses to oppose the Empire - or, more accurately, to try and bring Ochō back home - because of how much her adopted people’s attachment to family has shaped her. Ochō chooses to join the Empire because she sees nothing but the big picture, her good intentions leading her down a draconian path, and as the story goes on her conceit as an entitled heir eventually starts to show itself. The conflict does strike similar beats as the one between Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree for similar reasons: the story makes sure we know why these characters are going to split before the split happens.

The characterization is good, is what I’m saying. A great example of doing great, distinctive character work in a short amount of time.

I should also get the visuals. This short combines bright, modern character designs with a very classical, painted aesthetic for the world around the characters. This gives it a very classic animation feel, like watching a Miyazaki movie or Sleeping Beauty: the location art of this episode is among the series’ best, and the action animation manages to combine a fluidity of motion with a simplicity of choreography, in a way not unlike The Ninth Jedi - another of the shorts whose action animation stood out.

Back to the plot with another interesting track: the story makes it unclear how strongly force sensitivity plays a role, which also gives it a good contrast to the others which generally don’t just star Jedi, but are almost exclusively about Jedi intrigue and entanglements: Lop is clearly strong with the force, but she has no context for that and her objectives have nothing to do with being a Jedi - she is centered around her people and her family. The lightsaber we see in the short - fantastically - has a backstory similar to the Darksaber we see throughout The Clone Wars, Rebels and The Mandalorian: centuries ago, a Jedi was trained from this warrior culture, and instead of passing their saber down to a padawan or giving it back into the Order, this Jedi instead passed the saber down through their family, again cycling back to the way this short uses the characters’ unique perspective and history to approach the setting rather than the other way around. The people in the short only have legends of the Jedi, and the only thing that’s significant here is that the sword featured is the prized possession of their clan.

This gives the story a lot of room for questioning, especially as the ending is open rather than definitive: is Lop going to learn more about the force, and if so will she do through the lens of her people? Who was this old Jedi, and does the sword have a history like the Darksaber does? And most importantly: the war against the Empire does not end with the end of the short: where will it go from here? Will Lop and Ochō ever be reunited? There is a degree to which this short comes off almost like a pilot for a longer story, which would serve me just fine - for the reason I’m about to get into now: As always, a purpose of these reviews is to look at how much potential these shorts - which are currently non-canon - have to some day become canon, or even at least be followed up on by the studios involved. The potential there comes down a few key factors: the major one being the amount of support these shorts get from the fanbase. But another is in how easily or organically these shorts can be incorporated into the framework of the Star Wars universe.

And are the chances for this short’s incorporation good? ABSOLUTELY. I generally judged the other shorts’ potential on how little they contradicted the world and setting around them. With this one, however, its simpler to think of it from the opposite direction: this is exactly the kind of stories that gets told in the Star Wars universe today. There are several stories I can think of just like this in concept that were made within the last few years alone, or even being made right now: the current canon loves its stories about X culture in one corner of the galaxy and how its reacting to the rise of the Empire, which heroes come from there and why. Where those heroes go in the end. The comics, especially, always seem to be on the lookout for more focus characters to play with, but I also mentioned Lost Stars earlier, and that’s a very good point of comparison: for the same reason Lost Stars makes for one of the best prose installments of the current canon, Lop and Ochō has a lot of open real estate it can waltz into to define its own part of the universe.

Besides a couple superficial stylistic things (the symbols on the lightsaber blade, as I mentioned before, Star Wars doesn’t typically do strictly “animal people” as species - that’s more a Wing Commander thing - but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t if they really wanted to), there’s nothing really stopping this thing from getting canonized. I really hope people make some noise for it, because I’m being serious when I say this of all the films has The Best Chances of being followed up - minus The Duel which, of course, was already getting a followup before the series even released.

All in all, I mean it when I say this was my favorite of all of the shorts. It, pound for pound, has everything that I found enjoyable about this set of films all in one package, ever interesting means of approaching the Star Wars universe that I was looking for, all of the interesting ways of looking at situations we already know that I was hoping for, with a set of endearing characters on top of it.

If we can get more stuff like Lop and Ochō in the future, I would be more than happy. If we can get more Lop and Ochō specifically, all the better for it. I also mean it when I say I hope people make some noise for this one. It’s worth it.

[squidpizza]

Ten Things I Learned From Cryptids of Belenon

Cryptids of Belenon is my baby; my first completed custom magic set and a topic I was and still am fascinated by: cryptozoology. It is first and foremost top-down cryptozoology, and I hit as many different tropes and creatures as I could squeeze into 278 cards. Still, it is far from a perfect set, but as a first set it’s always going to be an uphill battle to get it into a shape one might consider good. That is why, after nearly two years of development, I wanted to give some advice to people on how to avoid mistakes that I made when working on it. As always, take my writings with a grain of salt; I’m not infallible, and what worked for me may not work for you. Still, I hope this helps someone, whether or not they’re new to the hobby. Just for clarity’s sake, these are in no particular order and are definitely not least important to most.

1. Kill your darlings

This is a piece of writing advice I’ve adapted to the custom magic space. ‘Kill your darlings’ means, basically, that whatever you think you need you probably don’t. If something becomes unnecessary, whether that be a thematic element, a mechanic, or even a pet card, you should really consider cutting it. When I was first developing Cryptids, the set had a steampunk theme and multiple new and returning mechanics; I ended up abandoning every mechanic the set was pitched with, and traded in the steampunk aesthetic for a more modern thematic. The set is better for this change, even though at the time it was hard.

2. Get the picture

When developing for top-down sets, a unifying theme is very important. This should be obvious, but what isn’t obvious is that everything that contributes to that theme must be recognizable. Top-down sets such as Amonkhet didn’t reference obscure concepts like Egyptian metaphysics of the soul, and instead went for the most recognizable aspects: Mummies, animal-headed gods, jackals, snakes, and iconic imagery like the Luxa (Nile) and pyramids. That isn’t to say nothing obscure wasn’t referenced, but the focus was clearly on what people knew and understood. This is something I didn’t do in earlier versions of Cryptids; I referenced every obscure creature I could find, no matter how recognizable they are, and that hurt the set’s cohesion. Nobody knows what a Nandi bear is, but everyone recognizes Bigfoot and many people have heard of Mothman and a fair few people know what an SCP is.

3. Story time

Cryptids of Belenon does have a story, but it's told poorly through the cards. This isn’t the end of the world, but it makes the whole package feel less interesting and a bit confusing, potentially. Why are the banishers (an analogue for the SCP foundation, or the FBI from the X-Files) keeping everything hidden during an alien invasion? Why is there an alien invasion in the first place? Flavor text can help, but if the story is flawed in execution that can leave the audience even more baffled than without it. With the benefit of hindsight I know more resources should’ve been put into making the story flow more naturally.

Why is this a story spotlight? What even is the story?

4. Playtest, playtest, playtest!

Playtesting is extremely important, as anyone who’s been in the custom magic scene long knows. For me, playtesting was vital for grasping an intuitive knowledge of Cryptids’ mechanics; Sighting looks a little awkward but plays very smoothly, and Mysteries are full of knobs to balance them with. Mysteries in particular are the splashy, attention-grabbing mechanic of Cryptids, so making sure they all played well was the most important part of playtesting for me.

5. Archetypical.

Cryptids of Belenon does have limited archetypes, but its mechanical variance is off-kilter. Why are there one-off sighting rewards in red and white, when sighting is centered in sultai colors? This muddies the draft and can send wrong signals to drafters who aren’t familiar with the set. Sighting appears in all colors, but the archetypes rewarding it should be the main focus for that mechanic. This issue is present in other mechanics; there are flying rewards in blue despite the archetype being focused in white and black, and in general makes drafting more awkward.

6. Art thou ready?

Cryptids of Belenon has an identity problem. Much of the art suggests a modern, low-magic world very much like our own, but a few cards still remain that suggest a different time period. I’ve been slowly whittling away at replacing and reflavoring those cards, but this has hurt the set’s themes a lot in my opinion. Art is the greatest limiter in a lot of custom sets, and figuring out what you can and can’t art is a very important skill to master. Cryptids also just has a few pieces of low-quality art that could stand to be improved on.

7. Constructed applications.

Cryptids of Belenon is a somewhat lower-powered set, mysteries aside. Those are the main buildarounds, and a lot of them are pushed for use in constructed. With that much of the constructed budget eaten up, a lot of other constructed-pushed cards are riffs on existing cards, which is just not as interesting as new, competitively viable and interesting cards.

8. What’s in a name?

I am terrible at naming things. Straight up, easily the worst part of designing for me. I did very little worldbuilding for Belenon while developing the set; there are few locations named and few important characters with more than a line or two of flavor text each. In a better world, Cryptids of Belenon could’ve been a richer vorthos experience. I want to call particular attention to Anning, named after the real person she’s based off of. Why did I do that? The world may never know.

9. Cut the Chaff

Cryptids of Belenon has a lot of one-off cards and strategies that simply didn’t get the support they needed. There’s a small voltron package in blue and green, and a lifegain one in black and white. These are draft traps, and the set would be better without them. These cards don’t need to exist, and again confuse drafters by signaling archetypes that are not present.

10. Flavor Judgement

Aside from the overall issue of Cryptids’ story being hard to glean from the cards, a lot of the flavor text is just lacking. It’s quotes from a smattering of characters, most of it is quippy one-liners, and in general it just detracts from the flavor of the cards more than it adds in a lot of cases. This creates a feeling of sameness where there should be a lot of diversity; research reports, eyewitness accounts, et cetera. While I think the set does have a few standout flavor texts (such as Devolve, pictured below), a lot of them are in dire need of improvement or replacement.

[skwivr]

I’m getting so dangerously close to flattening my island and redoing it but I’m so nervous about it I’m like genuinely getting kind of panicky (over a video game.....) anyway here’s my notes on what I want to change on my island that’s basically just me thinking out loud, if y’all wanna read it and comment please go for it, but I just need to get the thoughts out to battle the nervousness LOL

First of all, I like my little village area, I think having an area that is both a tightly populated village but also foresty is somewhat unique and I like how homey it feels, but at the moment, first of all, it’s a tad too cramped, and too uniform. Four houses are laid out on a fairly wide grid, but then Beardo and Cranston’s yards are comically small, squished in to fit next to the plaza. Then the yards all hugging the river, two of them are roomy and nice, but poor Timbra’s house is just crushed up next to the cliff that houses Hazel’s house, which in itself is this random weird sticks-out-like-a-sore-thumb feature.

I’d rather a village that is more spread out and not necessarily laid out along perfectly straight lines so that more natural looking paths look, well, natural.

The village is also like RIGHT at the airport entrance. Like, literally there’s a single tile when you step off the deck to walk before you hit Ketchup’s yard. I’m sad I never considered, when building my village, a scenic “entrance” that a lot of other people build around. I’d like a tiny buffer zone, if I can.

Also there’s the forest park area, which is currently just sort of sitting behind my village area. I’d originally conceived of it as a tiny park area which thematically could have ornamental plants - I wanted a place where it “made sense” to have bamboo in my otherwise New England themed town. But after a while I had the idea that it would be a nice little park area where I could set up seasonal displays throughout the year. The problem is, it’s comically small, thin and long. There’s no room to put up more than 1 piece of seasonal decor and even the it’s annoying to walk around.

I’d like to take the concept of that fountain with the benches and the seasonal decor and shove it maybe instead in the center of the new, widened “village”, so that there feels like there’s a hub area.

Then there’s my orchard. My orchard is important to the entire concept of my town from the start (hence the name “Honeycrisp”) but at the moment, while it’s big, it also feels kind of weirdly cramped. I think orchards are supposed to feel somewhat wide and open, and at the moment it’s sort of squished up against a cliff on the left that you can’t even walk on, that serves no purpose other than to try to be a visual buffer between my orchard and my campsite, which has a very different visual vibe from the orchard. Trouble is, not only does the cliff not do a good job of being a visual buffer and makes moving around it annoying, but the aesthetic of my campsite isn’t even very good (a visiter once described it as “haunted” looking) and itself deserves a redo. I should probably just keep the campsite there on the beach but try to somewhat unify the aesthetics of the orchard and the campsite so they make sense to be next to one another.

I think that’s a larger problem with the way I decorated my whole town. I wanted to avoid the stereotypical “beach aesthetic” like the plague so I tried to decorate as though I were hiding my beach like I was sweeping dust under a carpet. I should just accept that the beach is a part of the town as much as anything else and not be afraid to decorate with it.

Anyway, I like the idea of the orchard being this wide, open area both next to the beach and next to the theoretical big lake I want in my town.

Speaking of big lake, the thing I’m most passionate about is this one idea I have in my head, of a section of town that’s elevated in such a way so as to look down at a large lake with a forested island in the middle of it. Hopefully, the roller pin look of the AC world will contribute to this sense that the forested island is further away than it actually is.

On the forested island, I want to migrate my little “standing stones” concept. The “standing stones” were, in my mind, sort of the cornerstone of the town other than the orchard. They were this mysterious bit of woods that you could find your way into, emerging into a big beautiful clearing of white roses and mysterious mossy stones. Trouble is, in my current layout, they’re just sort of..... there. There’s a path leading out the back of them to get to the secret beach. Back before Redd existed, the secret beach was just a little shrine so it made sense, but now the standing stones area just feels like an incidental footpath to get you to a sketchy art dealer in the back of town - one that’s annoying to walk through because of how thick I made the woods around it.

I feel like putting it on a little island both places mystery and visual importance on it - you’ll see it from a distance before you can actually get to it - while also making it so that you don’t simply walk through it to get to other parts of the island. I think a rickety bridge to get to it, or perhaps a thin land bridge, would be cool.

There are a lot of the parts of the back of my island that I don’t care about very much and can be easily rearranged. My zen bridge on the third level in the back of the town that leads to a single kid’s tent is just sort of... there. I’ve never known what to do with it. The area around my own house’s yard is both huge but also cramped and not easily traversible.

So much of it is space I really don’t mind using up instead to expand on what I see as the three central concepts of my town: forested village with shopping plaza, quaint roomy apple orchard and picnic area, and deep forest with sacred stones.

There’s so many other little things, like I have a little waterfall sitting area in the back of my orchard that no one ever knows is there because the path is so not obvious no matter what I do. My picnic area near my alpine lake in the back was my limp-wristed attempt at the real lake concept I now want to go with, but it’s cramped and leads to literally nowhere. My little “outdoor library” area near the house is cute but I’ve never known where to put it (it should really probably go in or near the village area now that I think about it).

Anyway that’s it. Literally no one will read this but it’s nice for me to come back to read this.

[phantomofthepairofdice]

Double Features 2: Splatter, Splicer, Slander, Slasher

Considering the fact that we’re locked down and most folks aren’t going out much, why not settle in on a weekend with double feature. As part of a series of articles, I’ve decided to suggest some titles that would make for an interesting pair. It’s a time commitment like binging a few episodes of a TV show, and hopefully these double features are linked in interesting enough ways that it has a similar sense of cohesion. They also can be watched on separate occasions, but the lesser the distance between them, the more the similarities show. Do it however you want, really. I’m merely a guy on the internet, and that qualifies me for absolutely nothing! Enjoy at your own risk.

This template is back! I wanted to suggest a few more double features, but this time keep them in a specific genre: horror. I love horror movies, and I realized that I hadn’t really given them their due on this here blog, so I wanted to remedy that by showing a lot of love across a lot of different movies. I’ve put together some international movies, some classics, some that are silly, some that are serious, and even a bonus suggestion hidden in one of these blurbs. So without any more ramble in the preamble, here are four new suggested double features.

Note: The pairs are listed in the order I think best serves them being seen.

Hausu & Evil Dead II:

Hausu aka House (not to be confused with 1985 American horror film of the same name) has sort of transcended cult movie status to become a staple of off-center horror-comedy. Directed by recently deceased Nobuhiko Obayashi, the film shows his roots in advertisements with every shot designed for maximum effect, a (still) cutting edge approach in the edit, and a joyous, playful approach to special effects. It’s a gauzy and dreamy romp about a group of schoolgirls who head to the countryside on vacation. While staying at one of their aunts’ house, the supernatural hauntings begin, and heads start to roll (as well as bite people on the butt). It’s the type of movie where the main cast of characters are named Gorgeous, Kung Fu, Melody, Prof, Mac, Sweet, and Fantasy and they each have corresponding character traits. I was lucky enough to catch this at a rep screening at the Museum of Fine Arts a few years ago (further proof that this has gone beyond the cult curio status), and this is absolutely a movie that benefits from having a crowd cheer and laugh along - but it’s fairly easy to find and still has lots of pleasures to be enjoyed on solo watch. I’m pretty much willing to guarantee that if you enjoy it on first watch, you’ll want to share it with others. Now, where does one start when talking about Evil Dead II? Sam Raimi is rightfully as well known for his start in the hair-brained splatter genre fare as he is for his genre-defining Spider-man films. The influence of the Evil Dead movies is nearly unquantifiable, apparent in the work of directors like Edgar Wright, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, and the Korean New Wave filmmakers like Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook. There’s a reason that the second film of his Evil Dead odyssey is the one that people hold in highest esteem, though. There is an overwhelming gleeful creativity, anything goes, Looney Tunes approach to it that makes the blood geysers, laughing moose heads, and chainsaw hands extend beyond gore and shock into pleasure. It’s been noted over and over by critics and Raimi himself that the Three Stooges are probably the biggest influence on the film, and by golly, it shows. Evil Dead II and Hausu are pure in a way that few other movies can be. Both of these movies are an absolute delight of knowing camp, innovative special effects, and a general attitude of excitement from the filmmakers permeating through every frame. They’re a total blast and, in my mind, stand as the standard-bearers for horror-comedy and haunted house movies.

Total Runtime: 88 minutes + 84 minutes = 172 minutes aka 2 hours and 52 minutes

The Thing (1982) & The Fly (1986):

Feel free to roll your eyes as I explain the plots of two very famous movies. The Thing is John Carpenter’s body horror reimagining of Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World and the story that was adapted from, “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr. The film is centered around a group of men in an arctic outpost who welcome in a cosmic force of shape-shifting annihilation. What ensues is a terrifically scary, nihilistic, paranoid attempt to find who isn’t who they say they are before everyone is replaced with the alien’s version of them. The film is a masterpiece of tone in no small part due to Dean Cundey’s photography and Ennio Morricone’s uncharacteristically restrained score. The real showstopper here, though, is the creature effects designed by Rob Bottin with an assist from Stan Winston – two titans of their industry. There may not be a more mind-blowing practical effects sequence in all of movies than Norris’ defibrillation – which I won’t dare spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen it. The story is so much about human nature and behaviors, that it’s good news that the cast is all top-notch – anchored by Kurt Russell, Keith David, and Wilford Brimley. While The Thing is shocking and certainly not for anyone opposed to viscera, David Cronenberg’s The Fly is the best example of a movie not to watch while eating. Quite frankly, it’s got some of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen on film. Chris Walas and Stephen Dupuis’ makeup effects are shocking, but the terror is amplified because this builds such a strong foundation of romance in its opening stretch between Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in what might be their career-best work. The story is simple: a scientist creates a teleportation device that he tries out himself, but unknowingly does so with a fly in the chamber with him. When he reatomizes on the other end, his DNA has been integrated with the fly. Slowly his body begins to deteriorate, and he transforms into a human-fly hybrid. While this is first and foremost a science-fiction horror film, it’s truly one of the most potent love stories at its center. The tragedy is that the love, like the flesh, is mutated and disintegrated by the hubris of Goldblum’s Seth Brundle. Here are two remakes that – clutch your pearls – outdo the original. They both serve as great examples of what a great artist can bring by reinterpreting the source material to tell their version of that story. The critical respect for Carpenter and Cronenberg is undeniable now, but both of these movies make the case that there are real artists working with allegory and stunning craft in less respected genre fare. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to transpose the thematic weight of the then-new AIDS crisis onto both films, but they both have a hefty anti-authority streak running through them in a time where American Exceptionalism was at an all-time high. If you want to get a real roll going, fire up the ’78 Invasion of the Body Snatchers first to get a triple dose of auteur remakes that reflect the social anxieties of the time and chart from generalized anxiety to individualistic dread to romantic fatalism.

Total Runtime: 109 minutes + 96 minutes = 205 minutes aka 3 hours and 25 minutes

Theatre of Blood & The Abominable Dr. Phibes

That old Klingon proverb that Khan tells Kirk about revenge being a dish best served cold is challenged by these two Vincent Price tales of the macabre. They posit that revenge is best served in extremely convoluted and thematically appropriate predecessors to the Saw franchise. Where Saw trades in shock and extremity, though, these classic horror tales offer an air of panache and self-satisfied literacy. In Theatre of Blood, Price plays a disgraced and thought-dead stage actor who gets revenge on the critics who gave him negative reviews with Shakespeare-themed murder. There’s good fun in seeing how inventive the vengeful killings are (and in some cases how far the writers bend over backwards to explain and make sense of them). It’s a little rumpled and ragged in moments, but Price is, of course, a tremendous pleasure to see in action as he chews through the Shakespeare monologues. Imagine the Queen’s corgis with a chainsaw and you’re on track. Phibes came first and, frankly, is the better of the two. The story is about a musician who seeks to kill the doctors who he believes were responsible for his wife’s death during a botched surgery. The elaborate angle he takes here is to inflict the ten plagues from the Old Testament. I hesitate to use a word that will probably make me come across as an over-eager schmuck, but it really feels best described as phantasmagorical. It’s got this bright, art deco, pop art sensibility to it that’s intoxicating. It also has a terrifically dark sense of drollery - it knows that you can see the strings on the bat as it flies toward the camera. Aesthetically, it feels adjacent to the ’66 Batman show. The music is great and the indelible image of his tinker toy robot band, The Clockwork Wizards, is a personal obsession of mine. Both Theatre of Blood and The Abominable Dr. Phibes feature great supporting turns from Diana Rigg and Joseph Cotton, respectively. Settle in for a devilishly good time and enjoy one of cinema’s greatest vicarious pleasures: getting back at those of criticized or hurt you.

Total Runtime: 104 minutes + 94 minutes = 198 minutes aka 3 hours and 18 minutes

Blood and Black Lace  & The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

The final pairing comes from beyond American borders and, to some, beyond the borders of good taste. Mario Bava and Dario Argento are likely the two biggest names in Italian horror, and that’s for very good reason. Bava, who started as a cinematographer, has made loads of movies (even the film which gave Ozzy Osbourne and crew the name their band name) that have tremendous visuals and terrific sense of mood. Argento, probably most famous now for Suspiria, emerged onto the Italian film scene a handful of years later and picked up that baton from Bava to crystallize the dreamy logic puzzles cloaked in hyper-saturated colors. These two films are regarded as quintessential in the giallo genre – named for the yellow covers of the pulp crime fictions that inspired them. As someone who loves the flair that can be applied to make a slasher film stand out amongst their formulaic brethren, I found that the giallo made for a smooth transition into international horror. Blood and Black Lace is a murder mystery that’s as tawdry and titillating as its title suggests. Set in an insular world of a fashion house in Rome, models are being murdered. The plot feels like a necessity in order to create a delivery system for the stunning set pieces that revolve around a secret diary. Bava puts sex right next to violence and cranks up the saturation to create something thrillingly lurid. Six years later, Argento made his first film which has often been credited for popularizing the giallo genre and already is playing around with some of his pet themes like voyeurism and reinterpretation. Built around an early set piece (that stacks up as one of the best in thrillers) in which a man is trapped but witnesses a murder, the film sees said man trying to find the piece of evidence that will make the traumatic killing make sense. Like Bava, it blends sex and violence with tons of flair, including a score by the aforementioned Ennio Morricone. The film is absolutely on a continuum between Hitchcock and De Palma. If you’re looking for a pair of exciting horror/thrillers, or even an entry point to foreign genre cinema, this is an accessible and enjoyable place to start.

88 minutes + 96 minutes = 184 minutes aka 3 hours and 4 minutes

Well, there you have it. Eight movies, and hours of entertainment curated by some guy with no real qualifications. If you’re interested in some more suggestions (in horror and other genres), stay tuned for the next entry in this Double Features series. And if you’re looking for a way to watch these movies, I highly recommend the app/website JustWatch where you can search a title and see where it’s available for streaming or rental. Happy viewing.

Thanks for reading.

[number5theboy]

Favorite song montages/music scenes?

Oooohhhhh, love this. Because I’m on a roll, I made this another list, a top ten one, just so I don’t go overboard. I really looked at this as the scenes as a whole, rather than me liking the song or the scene individually. There are songs from the soundtrack that I love way more than some on this list, but didn’t think that they worked as well with the scene they’re in as the ones that did make the list. Without further ado:

10. I’m a Man (S2E2) - Diego & Reginald Fight

I just like how the aesthetics of this fight and the vibes of the song play perfectly together. It’s a more laid-back song than most fight scenes we get, and the line ‘I’m a man, yes I am, and I can’t help but love you so’ played over Reginald, who is demonstrably not a man and definitely doesn’t love Diego gives it such an almost sarcastic tone, like Reginald is toying with Diego.

9. Exit Music (For a Film) (S1E7) / All Die Young (S1E9) / Hello (S2E5) - Group Montages of Sadness and Change

I couldn’t decide between these three, because they all basically fulfill the same function in the narrative, showcasing different characters at low or turning points, and the mood of each song just hits perfectly. The way ‘Exit Music’ ramps up to Vanya’s guilt over killing and the confirmation that Leonard is Harold Jenkins. How ‘All Die Young’ is upbeat yet melancholic as nobody but Vanya truly is at their lowest at that moment, but you feel the arrow being drawn to the inevitable conclusion to this whole mess. And ‘Hello’ hit so much harder than it had any right to, it have the Swedes some dimension, but also the interplay of music with the funeral and the siblings’ big decisions, Vanya trying to confess to Sissy, Klaus going back to his cult, Allison telling Ray the truth, Diego and Luther burying the hatchet. It’s the perfect mood for it all, and the idea to use a Swedish cover is absolutely brilliant by the music department.

8. Soul Kitchen (S1E6) - Klaus & Dave in Vietnam

The Doors and Vietnam of course perfectly fits, but using the Doors to soundtrack a gay Vietnam romance??? Awesome. I’m usually someone with an ear for lyrics rather than the music, because I just know more about it, so I like it when the lyrics match up, but in this case, I don’t know any of the lyrics. I just like the mood the music creates. It’s a club in Vietnam and they’re not dancing to a club song. I like the rift between image and sound, and the sound still creates such a charged yet comfortable atmosphere.

7. In the Heat of the Moment (S1E5) - Five’s life in the apocalypse through the years 

The fact that Noel Gallagher’s snooty singing and borderline meaningless lyrics fit this scene so perfectly is a minor miracle, but they do. The na na na nas coming in with the image after the counting in before the song quiets down just to soar again over Five’s struggles. And it’s also not a song that sounds strong, that is technically perfect, it never quite reaches grandeur, and I don’t know why the atmosphere it creates goes so hand in hand with decades in an apocalyptic wasteland. And the irony of a song about having someone by your side over excruciating loneliness. Also the lyric ‘you better learn to fly ‘cause they’re gonna point you up at sky’ objectively goes harder than Noel Gallagher lyrics should.

6. Stormy Weather (S1E8) - Allison drives through the rain to find Vanya, haunted by her past actions and flashes back to when she rumoured her daughter

It’s just the perfect soundtrack to Allison’s backstory with her powers, and the fact that it’s sung by Emmy Raver-Lampman herself adds a dimension to it. The entire scene is centered around her voice, you hear her past rumours, you see her tell a story to Claire, then rumour her, and she is singing in the background. It intertwines scene and soundtrack on another level, and I love it. The combination of the sad lyrics but the more upbeat instrumentation, and how they carry into her memory........so good.

5. Shingaling (S1E4) / Pepper (S2E8) - Drug Trip Scenes

TUA has two scenes where people are tripping on drugs, and I cannot choose which one I like more. The mood for weed chocolate vs the consciousness-warping FBI drugs is so drastically different but the song choices are so perfect for both. Hazel and Cha-Cha dancing high off their asses to Shingaling, which is a chill but fun song as they commit arson, coupled with that green colouring and fun shot set-ups. Truly exquisite. Vanya getting nightmare visions in the FBI building, with the weird, disconcerting energy and lyrics of Pepper blasting, and the second-best use of scene switch at the drop that this show has pulled off this far. Stupendous.

4. Run Boy Run (S1E2) / Never Tear Us Apart (S1E2) - Five pushes his powers and lands himself in the apocalypse, where he finds his siblings’ bodies

These scenes are SO good. So good, and it’s because the music is the driving force of the emotion in that moment. Run Boy Run has exuberant energy to underline Five’s excitement as he’s testing out his powers, but it’s also somber and dark and swells at the chorus, which leads to the best scene-switch at a song’s drop in the show. The moment where Five lands in the apocalypse as the chorus becomes grand and he looks around, panicked, and when he runs frantically back to the Academy with the claps and percussion in the background? I get chills every time, and the lyrics make it, I think, the definite Five song as it pertains to his character, his characterisation, his arc, as running, in many different interpretations, is one of the key themes to Five for the entire show. The relatively short scenes really hammers in the tragedy of Five being ripped from his home at such a young age, and it gets underlined with Never Tear Us Apart. I put it with Run Boy Run because they fit together, but Never Tear Us Apart is heart-wrenching in itself. Just the imagine of Five searching through the rubble for his siblings, his small frame stumbling through the ruins, with Paloma Faith giving it her all in the soundtrack, and this heavy bass really banging us over the head with the heaviness of the situation. It’s great and sad and both scenes are carried as much by the soundtrack as they are though Aidan Gallagher’s acting.

3. The Phantom of the Opera Medley (S1E1) / I Think We’re Alone Now (S1E1) / Sister of Pearl (S2E7) - Character-establishing Montages

I am a sucker for this trope, of characters being characterised through a song playing, and TUA pulls it off so well. Phantom of the Opera shows you what the siblings do and where they are at in their lives perfectly, telling you so much with so little. It’s a great introduction and using the Phantom of the Opera, with the idea of Vanya being the phantom, the mysterious musician constantly belittled and underestimated (this is generalised, very much so, but it fits) that lashes out at some point because of the abuse they suffered, is genius also because it combines different themes that you can set the Hargreeves to. I Think We’re Alone Now is about personalities, of who these siblings are if nobody’s watching. I don’t think I need to sing its praises, the scene has become iconic for a reason, it’s memorable and creative. And the music choice, a pop song that they could have listened in their youth, with lyrics that are eerily prophetic, is so good. And Sister of Pearl is the long-awaited addition that introduces Ben’s character, and the music is sweet and fun and him messing around in the world, all giddy and a little goofy, fits with the whole theme of dancing like no one is watching. All three are so amazing at characterising the different Hargreeves.

2. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (S1E1) - Five fights the Commission agents at Griddy’s

Okay, but what is better than a musical sequence that characterises a sibling? A musical sequence that characterises a sibling that’s also a fight scene! I’m not going to be long about this one, because I wrote 500 words on why I think Istanbul (Not Constantinople) is a brilliant scene just yesterday, you can find it here if you scroll for a bit. It hits so many sweet spots. It re-contextualises Five and adds several dimensions to him. The fight scene is brutal but the music is happy and fun. The song is thematically relevant to the scene and the character and what this scene is trying to accomplish, namely making clear that this kid, who looks like he did at age 13, is not the same as he was, and never will be. Again, go to that other post, I couldn’t stop gushing about how excellent this sequence is, because I really love it, but Season 2 brought along another that I love even more.

1. The Order of Death (S2E6) - Five arrives at the address Reginald sent them, and watches on as his siblings slowly join him one after one

I genuinely don’t know why this one resonated with me so much. I just like the cold but melodic 80s synth together with the cinematography. Every single shot is so good, Five looking up at the looming skyscraper, him climbing the stairs, pushing the button with the use of negative space to show his loneliness, until he gets into the elevator where his siblings come to him. And the music is so fitting, for the scene, but also for Five as a character, it’s a song that works well for him. The rhythmic thumping of ‘this is what you want, this is what you get, this is what you want, this is what you get’ is so dark at second viewing, because this is what Five wants: to talk to Reginald, with the support of his siblings. And what is it he gets? What is the consequence of his actions? His existence gets wiped from history. The music is tense, in anticipation of what comes next, and fits perfectly over these wide establishing shots and their harsh lighting. I can’t pinpoint why I like The Order of Death more than any other musical sequence in the show, but I do. It is such a small, yet perfectly executed scene, and it hits some emotion within me, even though I can’t really articulate which one it is. Intrigue, probably, mixed with dread and a hint of sadness because now I know how this enterprise ends, and it’s not well.

[sanstropfremir]

it’s the episode 8 review!!! how many episodes is this show supposed to even be?

the stages from the episode feel like such a grab bag.... i still don’t understand why they didn’t put all the skill stages together, and then did the normal two episodes of the third round. i guess it makes sense that they didn’t want to have six stages in one episode and then three in the other two, but eh. 

feeling kinda average on these as a whole, there’s a lot of good elements going on here but probably because of my own preferences (i don’t listen to ballads or blackpink) none of them really hit all the buttons. hopefully this will be a shorter review because i'm only going to do a quick rundown of the vocal stages; i dont really have that much to say about them because they are (intentionally) not very stage picture focused. i'll do the normal stage breakdowns for the other two though, even though i won’t rank them because we still need to see the other four!

vocal stages

sf9 + tbz + ikon

not much to say here other than wow, that’s RED. glad to see some more specific use of spotlighting and i always love when they light things on fire. i do wish they had fill lit with a brighter amber so we could actually get a bit more detail on their faces, especially because there’s six of them. i appreciated the simple blocking and only using one of the ‘stages,’ this stage didn’t need to be anything complicated and it wasn’t. i don’t love spinning camera shots because they make me a bit ill, and i'll forgive the constant cutting because it's a vocal stage and there isn’t any other real movement that we should be paying attention to. not my favourite of the two, i found it visually a bit too repetitive and complex at the same time. always love a crushed velvet suit though, so bonus points for that.

atz + skz + btob

i was braced for the worst and i dont know what kind of miracle happened but it was listenable! like i said, not a ballad fan but i could listen to eunkwang all day. i love a good plinth for a ballad stage, they’re one of my favourite devices in kpop design and i especially love it with a good groundlevel fog. glad they kept it black and white for the first half of the stage, it was in line with the blooming flower projections, and it made a very clear colour arc. they kept the visuals clean and simple with very little blocking at all, a very smart choice for this stage. not sure why they decided it would be the chanel time stage, which i disapprove of because i don’t like chanel, but i do love eunkwang’s shirt with the cameo buttons and the massive turnback cuffs, very 17th and also 19th century. i know they never do it because they dont read on stage normally but yes absolutely more thin chain pendant chokers on men, thank you! i also liked that there was emphasis on a more traditional lighting scheme, there weren't any crazy concert effects, just some good directional beam spotlights and the rear stacks in the climax. 

third round stages

ikon

costume

the first look for them is definitely my fabourite of theirs so far. there’s enough variation in the jackets that the base layer of tshirt and jeans don’t look too repetitive. and i do love a good statement jacket. my favourite is probably donghyuk’s because i'm a sucker for fringe always.

i don’t like the backup dancers costumes, but given the way i’ve reacted to every other all black outfit for this entire show i don’t think anyone was surprised about that. these ones particularly irk me because they’re very matte; there's pretty much no texture or pattern differentials to define the shape of the limb, which makes them disappear when theyre all grouped together (mostly on the women). i think they probably were intending to make a statement/emphasis on the hands because of the sleeve cutoff point, but there were so many arm movements that were just totally missed because the costumes were just black voids. most egregious parts are here, with the female dancers up center. i can barely tell what the movements are unless i’m paying specific attention to them because there's so many black shapes. maybe it was the point for it to be an indiscernable writhing mass, but it wasn’t my vibe.

don’t love this styling on lisa. i hate peeptoe shoes in general but peeptoe boots are the worst offenders. they make you look like you have duck feet, no matter who you are. especially with a flat cutout like that. a universally unflattering shoe, and i would know, i worked in a shoe store for two years. this whole look is just pg-13 rihanna cfda awards 2014 and really nobody should try to run up against rihanna.

also i have to mention this because it’s actually really bothering me, but lisa’s backup dancers are serving very allgemeine ss looks and i do not like it. generally when we see ‘military’ uniforms in kpop theyre usually modelled off older styles (pre wwii) of western uniforms that usually aren’t in circulation, and they’re usually non-matching and embellished in ways that are deliberately not military. i know logically that it's a budget constraint+they’re backup dancers+current trend thing but the clean lines with only button detailing and the all black and that specific harness shape? it hit my brain the wrong way. i mean, technically those uniforms are designer because hugo boss did them, but the uh..... girlboss move didn’t land for me.

this is my PERSONAL OPINION please for the love of all that is holy do not come yelling at me about this. it’s all under a cut, you chose to read the post.

set

very glad to see some busy kitschy sets! this is a massive build, since there’s essentially three full sets here: the temple, the jungle, and the first tiny room. and all of them are very heavily decorated. 

the starting room is just five walls on casters (wheels), that have been set into place with the cameraman and ikon inside at the start, and then once they exit the walls can be easily struck and rolled off set. simple, smart, and convenient!

i missed it the first couple times around but glitching out the projections in the temple for a split second was a neat little trick.

the silver and polygonal nature of the tiger/panther/cat(?) head is a bit disconnected from the gold and the aesthetic of the rest of the stage for me. the difference between the original room set and the jungle tracks, but the cat head isnt able to make the same leap for me. i'm also not a fan of mixing metals so maybe that’s why.

the tiger/panther/cat(?) head is a fun physical transitional device; i'm a big fan of tunnels and small transitory spaces like that and if they’re well dressed like this one they do so much for establishing place and mood.

i'm very sure i’ve seen this style of polygonal animal head with laser eyes before....i cannot for the life of me remember where or for what. i know wang yibo did a panther stage for sdc3 that had a human formation panther with green laser eyes, i wonder if i'm just crossing wires.

OH nevermind it’s because it looks like the witcher medallion. wires were definitely crossed.

lighting

using purple/teal lighting for the jungle was a smart choice because purple is the direct compliment to the gold and also is much more flattering on humans than green. green is one of the colours that humans can see the most variations in, so when something is green when it's not supposed to be (like human skin), we register that very quickly and associate it with unease and sickness. you know how old fluorescent lights have that greenish tinge that kinda makes you feel ill? it's your cone cells and your brain recognizing that you’re looking at things that are not supposed to be green.

very clean colour arc, i love to see it.

sound

it’s.....fine? i don’t listen to blackpink and have no opinions on their music other than it's not my type. i dont really know what the thematic connection to the visuals is, which is not strictly necessary in a lot of cases, but i don’t particularly care for the conflation of ‘savage’ and a (presumably) precolonial religion that’s assembled from stereotypes of real colonized cultures. you can come at me about how ‘it's not that deep’ all you want but i am here specifically doing an in depth analysis, and i gotta point it out. i'm not here to pass judgement on you if you didn’t realize or don’t care or whatever, i'm just saying that it's important to consume content with a critical eye. what you do with that information is your own personal choice, but you should be aware of it at least. 

staging

they took a big risk eating popcorn right before singing, and we definitely got some residual mouth noises of them trying to clean out their teeth. eating on stage is difficult in general because you have to make sure it's not going to dry out the performers mouths, because they dont have access to water and it takes WAY longer to chew and swallow something than you would expect. there’s a LOT of testing that goes into making stage food and guaranteed it’s not made out of what it looks like or what its supposed to be; i worked on a production of amadeus were we did literal weeks of testing amalgams of different desserts to make sure that salieri could actually eat the ones onstage without totally drying him out, because fun fact about that show, salieri doesnt leave stage like, at all, so there was no way to get him water. poor bloke.

i thought the blocking of this was really smart. the long take from the ‘normal’ room and transition into the jungle was super slick, even if that weird circle the camera did while pointed up at the ceiling was unnecessary and pointless.

bobby’s ‘acting’ was extremely funny and that’s the only way people are allowed to act surprised now. edvard munsch scream style only.

the pacing is a bit off and this time it wasn’t mnet’s editing that fucked it up. as fun as it is to have a feature, clearly she wasn’t allowed within proximity of the rest of them for covid or other yg related reasons, but it made for some extremely long transitions, especially the one out of her verse. it kills the momentum of the stage in that beat, even though they manage to pick it up after.

this is a very simple little narrative arc that’s easy to follow and doesn’t require any extra explaining. which is exactly the kind of arc that groups should be doing at this stage in the game. this is a good formic step up for ikon!

i thought the turning off of the monitor at the end was fun and a good callback to them watching the videos at the beginning of the stage. a nice clean way to make it circular.

skz

costume

FINALLY something different on the skz boys! these were mostly fun eboy looks for them, and i like it on the basis that it's not the same as the last set of costumes.

bang chan out there with his thigh OUT and a (fake) bridge piercing? LOVE to see it. great work.

(copy-paste every thing i’ve said about backup dancers wearing all black)

the backup dancers that were dressed as bystanders/extras were great! they should have kept that with all of them because it would have given a little more shape to the choreography and establishing what function the backup dancers were supposed to have.

set

that is meant to be a giant rice cooker on stage, right? i think so because it's a god’s menu mashup? if that's not a rice cooker i have NO idea what its supposed to be

there’s only two large setpieces here, which was a smart way to go. i LOVE the subway car doubling as the truck, even if the truck itself makes no narrative sense. what a fun way to double the use of a single big piece. you’ll be able to see the way it moves in the full cam but it splits down the centre and there entrance doors at the back with attached stairs that bang chan and the dancers use to climb up.

lighting

not a whole lot happening here. i like the cool white leds in the subway car and the contrast with the more warm tones of the outside, which is good atmospheric establishment, but i can't discern a visible arc. 

not a fan of these projections; they’re in line with what we’ve seen from skz so far, which is: extremely literal. i dont think they’re that distracting, but they’re not to my personal taste. they really should have kept the comic panel theme that they did for changbin’s first verse, because that was inventive and fun to watch! and a great atmospheric indicator! i would love to see a bit more experimental projection use but it's hard when they don’t have a lot of time to build these stages and the lighting team is definitely working remotely.

sound

i love that they made the choice to do some actual talking, it’s a good gimmick and it works for the deadpool/comic book/fourth wall break theme, but australian accents take me the fuck out i am so sorry i cannot listen to either felix or bang chan speak english without laughing uncontrollably. 

i don’t like this arrangement but i'm not surprised about that, given my predilections. i'm also tired of skz shouting STRAY KIDS in every performance they do. i know on music shows it's probably more relevant and yea producers tags are a thing but we’ve been watching this show for nearly two months at this point. we know who you are, you can stop yelling. be more creative with it!

staging

my biggest issue with this stage is that it doesn’t have a payoff. there is an arc here: they’re stealing the truck, but why are they stealing the truck? who are they stealing it from? who are they fighting against? it's kind of important in a stage where the theme is stealing and fighting someone that you tell us who that is. in both of ateez’s previous stages were they were both stealing (rhythm ta) and fighting (wonderland), they made sure to show us who the villain was. there needs to be tension for a big blowup climax to actually pay off. whether it be against a a balloon arm kraken or a fascist government. this stage could have reached that next step if they’d just done a little bit more exposition. 

there were a lot of fun choreo moments here, and this is probably my favourite choreo of theirs so far. i thought the whole first bit in the subway car was excellent and a very fun play on those viral videos that we used to see roll around every so often of dancers doing routines in subway cars.

did it need the guns? not in the slightest. more on this point later. i could talk more about weapons and weight here, but i’ve done that several times already.

like with the tbz game of thrones stages, theyre relying a little too much on the audience's preconceptions of the source material in order to carry the theme. the guns are there because deadpool likes guns, but they don’t actually use the guns for anything? the most we get of the stealing segment is felix and the safe, which admittedly is a great bit with him leaping over and under the ‘laser’ lines (theyre likely led strips). because comic books are by nature procedural and deeply tied to narrative, it's unsatisfying when there’s no tension and no payoff.

HOW did we manage to get two stages that are blackpink covers with remote/tv static gimmick and durags? i know the slot machine of kpop tropes is not very big but surely the probability of hitting triple sevens on this one was pretty low. i’m pretty meh on both of these stages overall. skz was unsatisfying but i loved the choreo in the subway bit so that bumped it up a little ahead of ikon’s in my personal preferences, but i'm reserving my actual rankings for next week. assuming we get the other four stages next week and they dont do something stupid and only show two. which they very well might. i’ve stopped trying to understand why mnet does things the way that they do. 

as always the ask box is open, drop your comments/questions/personal opinions, i love to hear ‘em! but don’t be rude just because some of this is touchier subject material.

[mc-critical]

Okay, but on the topic of odd story lines for Mahidevran...what did you make of her spending when head of the harem? I could get it to a certain extent because, of course, after being so overlooked she'd want to shower both her and her son in what was once theirs, but it was also a trait that had just been shown before and seemed super confusing as a result.

I think it made both narrative and thematic sense for the state Mahidevran was in and for the character arc she had to undergo.

It's kinda ironic, because if this were two and a half years ago, I would've ranted for the exact same thing - this arc had interesting stuff that either never had the chance to come up before, either came earlier just in very small doses, like Mahidevran's spending, Gülfem all of the sudden standing on her feet and starting to demand the respect she deserves and Hürrem being a harder version of her over the top self in S03 and placing in action such luxuriously well thought out, even contradictory (in terms of Valide) schemes that she never had before and didn't ever again since then; it looks as if these things were created or upped to eleven, specifically for this portion of the series, where they could just fill their purpose and never come back again. I had a problem with this, because what came out of it seemed to only be the hardening of characters just for the sake of convenience and the plot taking a far more bizarre and ruthless turn than everything the show had ever put out by this point, just for an arc, no less.

However, upon analyzing and rewatching, I came to appreciate everything this arc did, honestly, writing-wise it's such a delight. I feel this is the batch of episodes where the show took most risks in terms of the status quo, did interesting decisions, to say the least, and while doing so, it served the purpose of both lending a conflict for the season finale to fit its dramatic twisty soap opera needs, and presenting coherence for the theme and character development of the season - every plot thread that was built up finally paid off and Mahidevran ruling the harem, together with Gülfem, was shown as the last straw of the traditions Hürrem had to break or in this case, fight with, throughout the season, a chance was presented for her to get rid of all her enemies with their own failings and clear her way of the disadvantagous traditions for one last time. (as presented by her last encounter with Valide, which thematically and conveniently forgot everything that happened between them post-E55 and rather focused on being the last straw for Valide, symbolically burning the bridges between Hürrem and the rules Valide was a collective character for, forever.)

Mahidevran spending and wasting so much money on all these material and esthetic expenses makes sense, precisely because of the narrative purpose of Mahidevran ruling the harem - it was supposed to be the peak of that long and then ever going S02B arc of her reveling in power, the power that her status as a mother of the grown Mustafa, gives her. When she got exactly what she wanted, even the smallest, inevitable (because of the weird laws in-show, of course) grasp, the very thing she craved ever since she went back from Edirne and the very thing she capitalized on in episode 55 and then claimed as a mistake three episodes later, she took it for granted, as an obvious, easy win. She began to truly act as the Valide of the Palace, but not with the responsibility of it, rather with the wrong power that comes from it. She thought she was unstoppable, that she could do whatever she wanted and noone would stop her, because she rules over them now and if someone tries, so what, she has Ibrahim to count on! And Mahidevran wanted to demonstrate this (temporary) superiority aesthetic-wise, as well, putting herself (and Mustafa) in center stage, buying him so many kaftans for the sanjack; making the whole harem and castle in her image, for she bought golden plates and wanted to build her own hammam (as far as I recall?); perhaps wanting to be noticed for the changes she had made, because it is her time now and she could freely drown in her own desire for revenge and apply her own prejudices, regardless. (with her bying many dresses for the concubines in the harem that weren't in any way associated with Hürrem.)

[And while this is more of a theory of mine than it is an interpretation, I think that all the fancy dresses and crowns she put on during this period, were also quite a part of this spending and as such, even though it wasn't shown as explicitly before, it represents even more the very critical peak of her own descent into the ego-inflated abyss. She has always cared about her appearance, with the many scenes of her looking herself in the mirror and putting jewelry on, claiming to Mustafa that Topkapı is encrusted in diamonds in E01 etc. and these episodes upped it to eleven and put it to its logical extreme, Mahidevran is now above them all, so she might as well show it with all the dresses and crowns. (we even have Hürrem mocking her for it once in a scene in the hammam during the Isabella arc, then in E62 for why she cares so much when she sleeps alone in her bed and that one, despite of the outdated implication since she no longer loves SS, really hits home how pettily low Mahidevran has sunk.) ]

We should also keep in mind that her entire S02B arc was a series of failures. And the ruling of the harem, as the last stop, should show her fail terribly and hard, and the writers picked the spending to do the job. On one hand, I get why it seems odd to you, as well because E55 made her fall much bigger and scarier, there she was absolutely terrifying, with all the things she could and would do, they mattered much more. And the whole ruling the harem fiasco and the spending only look like a contrast, as a result, because.. she's spending the country's money, yes, but she's spending it due to her wounded pride and out of sheer pettiness, to toot her own horn, to make it clear to everyone out there, but especially to Hürrem, that she's won and they've lost. It all looks like more as a an outward addition of what E55 presented us, more of an downgrade than an upgrade. Instead of making her do something even more dangerous on a massive scale, we have her ego dominate everything on such a trivial way where she can't do as much damage. But on the other hand, the spending is a result of all of Mahidevran's character flaws empowering themselves in this arc, that render her to do stupid or unnecessary ruthless things and carelessly spend all this money, that she let herself be deceived by Iskender Celebi and Hürrem take the advantage.

It was, in a way, very psychological, to fulfill all of her missing needs and probably let her feel worth something. And it truly was presented as her biggest failing that, even if it wasn't as serious and crucial as E55 and it certainly was unexpected and bizarre, since it escalated very quickly, it was a logical last step and in general, I'm satisfied.

[blueinkinnyc]

1st movie review of the year XD : Wolfwalkers

Welcome to the first ten days of the new year and we’re already seeing some mayhem and discord (the chaos, not the app). All bad jokes aside, I want to continue the hype train for one of the most - discussed, most recognizable movies of the new year: Wolfwalkers! 

That’s right! If enough people talk about it, then it will eventually attract some curious eyes and piqued attention. This audience member, speaking for myself and myself alone (maybe my best friend too), just couldn’t resist taking a full glimpse of this widely - renown gem. And the one to deliver this animated - fantasy adventure film was none other than director Tom Moore and his team from Cartoon Saloon whose work is getting better and more enjoyable with every release. 

This Irish folktale centers on a young girl named Robyn who lives in a bleak and dreary medieval settlement that’s overseen by the daunting Lord Protector. Her father is the hunter who is tasked by the Lord to exterminate all the wolves from the forest so they may expand their growing settlement. However, when Robyn sneaks away and follows her father into the mysterious woods, she encounters a strange girl named Mebh who introduces her to the beauty and magic that the natural and weird world possesses through the eyes of a wolf. 

The film is majestic, glorious, and evocative with its fluid animation, vivid colors, and stark imagery. Its visual story telling combined with its hypnotic music/ soundtrack and endearing characters does a great job with establishing tone and emotions which emphasizes the film’s settings and action sequences. Such as showcasing warm, vibrant colors which makes the autumn aesthetic of the forest really pop and then making that same forest look so mysterious and secretive at night that you could feel the wolves’ adrenaline and excitement rushing through your body as they explore the landscape and discover more about themselves. 

The narrative was definitely compelling but it did have some kinks to work out. It was a coming - of - age story where young girls, mostly Robyn though, are working through that tricky transition between trying to retain those important values of childhood like curiosity, willfulness, and confidence, while becoming aware of concepts like responsibilities, escalating situations, uncertainties, and carrying that overwhelming burden of figuring out what’s the best way to protect everyone. We get to witness all of these provocative thoughts in a sweet friendship between two young girls, a sweet bond between father and daughter, and a strong sense of community and protection through a pack of wolves. 

Now, here are the kinks: While it was realistic (and definitely refreshing) to see how even adults could falter and struggle during all these overwhelming situations with bigotry, rigid standards, and uncertainty, I didn’t like how the film tried to drop the main source of conflict with such a sloppy solution. The film tried to juggle so many thematic contrasts such as, nature vs civilization, wild vs propriety, freedom vs submission, Christianity vs Paganism, and responsibility vs. independence, etc. Even though most of these can be pooled into the same category of themes, I didn’t like how the film tried to convince the audience that they have to choose one or the other in order to be happy. It doesn’t resolve future conflicts that could erupt due to the same problems as before, no matter where they might go.

I don’t hate ambiguous, open endings, especially since everything came out to be all happy and hopeful, but I just wish there was some sort of understanding/symbiosis between the residents of the walled city and the inhabitants of the forest. (I’m not going to use the word ‘balance’ because that word gets way too overused). It would’ve been maybe a better message and interesting narrative route since they could’ve continued to build on what we already know and seen with the villagers that we did encounter (their goofy personalities, their prejudices, and strife they were struggling with). That’s one critique I had to rant about, just a little, but then again, the discussion of tough topics is not something that can be easily translated in a nearly 2 hour animated film. 

Overall, I give this film a solid 4 stars if this was a restaurant. But seriously, give this film a chance and watch it with some good company (friends, family, children, or someone who just loves good animated stories) and you won’t regret exploring this enriching, entertaining, and ethereal movie experience for the new year.  

Shout out to my best friend, Joy! For getting an Apple account so we can watch this magnificent movie together!!!!! (She’s the best; I hope she’s chilling well during this winter season of 2021).

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

Hi, thanks for the Fic Writer Interview tag, @nellie-elizabeth !

Name: Milo, Hth on AO3

Fandoms: Well, right now it’s all Magicians all the time, but other things come and go, or have come and gone over the years.  In my Tumblr era, I’ve written a few Schitt’s Creek stories and a few Supernatural stories, and then just like, a lot a lot of The Magicians.

Most Popular One-Shot: Oh, by far my smutty Schitt’s Creek story 101, which is funny to me because I’m really not In the Fandom for that, the mood just kind of struck at one point to write it.  But it’s a huge fandom and the stories I wrote were really well-received, which gave me a huge confidence boost as I was getting back into the swing of writing more.  Within Magicians, my highest kudos for a one-shot were for Young and Able, which is just a good ol’ fashioned Fixit Fic, what’s not to love?

Most Popular Multichapter: I mean, Pretty Good Year is probably the best-beloved thing I’ll ever write in my life, which as a legacy, I’m fine with.  It has the second-highest kudos of any of my AO3 stories (after 101), but I’m inclined to also judge “popularity” in a subjective sense, and that story has really generated the most amazing comments and engagement. I legitimately had people telling me it changed the way they perceive mental health, or changed what they expect from relationships, which is like -- staggering to me.  It’s really the only thing I’ve ever written that I think the audience loved kind of in the same way that I did :)

Favorite Story You’ve Written So Far: God, I dunno, I love all of them a lot (well, most of them).  I think the one that’s aged especially well for me is All the Comforts of Home.  I really think the premise of A Life In the Day is fascinating, not just the romantic potential, but the idea of living a life that’s perpetually bent toward trying to find beauty, to understand what beauty is and how to speak about it. And Quentin and Eliot are such different characters in the way I think they understand that subject, and there’s something really touching to me about them both kind of...living deeper and deeper into this question, discovering how to perceive the world the way the other one does, falling in love because of this really existential collaboration on the great project of both of their lives: for Quentin, Why Live? and for Eliot, How to Be More?  I don’t know, something about the way their personal emotional lives are tied up with their ideas of art and aesthetics really speaks to me, and I think canon invites that exploration.  Other stories I’ve really loved have tackled the same theme -- Our Sublime Refrain, for example, and scenes from an unfinished story are both fantastic -- but All the Comforts of Home was my bite at the apple, and I’m pretty happy with it.  

Fic You Were Nervous to Post: Oh, I don’t know, I don’t really get nervous about posting.  People are either going to like it or not, and if they hate it...it was free, at least?  What do you want, a refund?  I get nervous to *start* things that feel like they might be too demanding or outside my skillset, but once I’ve gotten myself far enough into the swing of things to be ready to post, yeah, fuck it.

How Do You Choose Your Titles: I am a song-lyric title person for the most part, although with a heavy side-dish of one-word thematic titles.  Like, they’re always either called “i listened to this on repeat (while i wrote this story)” or “Meaning.”

Do You Outline: Yes, I’m a little type-A-of-center on outlines; my outlines run either about a page of scene beats in order, or 5-8 pages of stream-of-consciousness, depending on the story.  Usually the first...two-thirds of my story will hew very close to the outline, and there’s always a point where I realize that it’s taken on a slightly different shape than my original conception, and I kind of pitch the outline at that point and just wing it.  Sometimes the changes are mostly just structural (collapsing a few repetitive scenes into one where multiple plot threads get dealt with at once), and sometimes they’re pretty substantive (the end of Pretty Good Year was actually extremely different than my outline, because Eliot got very in touch with his emotions much earlier than I originally predicted he would).

Complete: According to AO3, 56, but that’s not totally accurate.  I never ported a lot of my early fic to AO3 -- I don’t think any of the X-Files fic is there, and there’s a lot of shorter stuff from Due South and Oz and some other early fandoms that I kind of don’t love, so I gently kicked it under the carpet.  I also wrote NSYNC fic under a different pseud, and I never merged any of that into my official AO3 canon of work.  Actually, some of it was really good!  I might do that someday.

In Progress: 2 published in progress, my almost-finished A/B/O Four Seasons, and my not-even-close-to-finished Justice for Sebastian story.  If you count the ones that have never seen the light of day, I have the Quentin-1 story, my Big Bang, and a few stories from Supernatural and Teen Wolf fandom that some part of me continues to insist I might actually go back and finish.

Prompts: I kind of love them -- I wrote probably the majority of my Stargate Atlantis fic from, uhhhh, what was it called?  The LJ community where they’d give you a prompt a month, what the fuck, brain.  Prompts are cool because they feel like low-stress writing experiments, and then sometimes they stay exactly that way, and sometimes they take on a life of their own.  You never really know when you start!

Upcoming Work You’re Most Excited About: Like everyone else, I’m excited about my seeeeeecret Big Bang project, sorry!  I would say more, but they won’t let me!

Worlds I Would Love to Write for In the Future: I mean, I’m sure I’ll be in Magicians fandom for some time to come, I’m not out of ideas yet.  But also, I would like to write some Teen Wolf before I die, it’s got such a fun universe and so many likeable characters, and I will be really pleased if Falcon and the Winter Soldier ever comes out and has some meat on the bone, because I have a huge crush on Sam Wilson.  It’s weird that I never wrote any Garak/Bashir, might fix that someday.  Would write some Old Guard fic if the right story hook ever came along; I might even write gen for that one, if you can even imagine, because they are the sweetest little found family.

This went around earlier this morning and I expect everyone in fandom was tagged already, but if you haven’t been, hop to it!

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: a deeper dive into one of the most underrated early synth-pop acts. You’ve heard “Fade to Grey” by now, I’m sure, but this record is weirder and wilder than you might imagine! Find out more by watching the video or reading the transcript below the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be discussing one of the first opening salvos of the New Romantic movement: the 1980 self-titled debut album by Visage. You could be forgiven for assuming that Visage was the alias of a single person, presumably the dapper fellow all over their brand, but Visage were, indeed, a group!

That “face of the band” figure was Steve Strange, who was less of a musician and more of a tastemaker and aesthete, and the club promoter for London’s famous nightclub, The Blitz. The Blitz’s DJ, Rusty Egan, was also a percussionist, and had previously played in the punk band Rich Kids, where he became acquainted with Midge Ure. Famous for his many connections and skill at leveraging them, Egan put together a sort of dream team out of the many musicians he knew at the time: Ure, who’d been orphaned by the dissolution of Rich Kids, Billy Currie, one-time synthesist of Ultravox before their group split apart, and several members of Buzzcocks alumnus Howard Devoto’s band Magazine. A bit of a motley crew, for sure...but one can’t argue with the success Visage would achieve.

Music: “Fade to Grey”

“Fade to Grey” is surely one of the most iconic songs of early 80s synth-pop, and its music video pushed forth a bold new aesthetic for the new decade: sophisticated, futuristic, androgynous. While Steve Strange would consistently reject the “New Romantic” label for his own work, his influence on the scene was undeniable. “Fade to Grey” strikes a balance between being debonair and mysterious, with its ghostly vocal reverb, and being a straight-up club classic, with an absolutely massive synth riff. The inclusion of a French-language translation of the main lyrics gives it a lot of European panache, and may well have been one of the main factors propelling it to international success--“Fade to Grey” was actually an even bigger hit in markets like France and Germany than in Visage’s native UK. That aside, though, as is so often the case with these famous 80s songs, the rest of this album is not to be missed! If you’re looking for another song with a bit of a similar vibe to their famous hit, I think you can’t go wrong with its opening track and final single, also titled “Visage.”

Music: “Visage”

There’s something really satisfying about a track, artist, AND album all having the same name--the triple threat! Still, I think this album’s title track stands well enough on its own, with a soaring refrain that’s quite easy to sing along to. While this album doesn’t get quite as “baroque” as Ultravox would, on tracks like their famous hit “Vienna,” the dry piano used throughout this track really classes the place up. Thematically, the title track seems to assert the importance of fashion and style, as well as the importance of innovating in those fields--“New styles, new shapes, new modes.” While lots of electronic acts were fixated on the future, Visage were one of the first to center aesthetics to such a dramatic degree. Plenty of people, both at the time and more recently, would criticize New Romantic acts of the MTV era for being “style over substance,” as though their embrace of the parallel art form of fashion inherently made their music worse. I’ve never understood that criticism myself, since it’s perfectly possible to care about, or excel at, more than one creative pursuit at once. At any rate, the title track’s focus on novelty contrasts quite strikingly with the preceding single, “Mind of a Toy.”

Music: “Mind of a Toy”

“Mind of a Toy” is a surprisingly high-concept song in comparison to the album’s other singles, narrating the thoughts of a plaything that’s lost its lustre, and has been discarded in favour of newer and better diversions. It feels like a pointed criticism of the consumerist obsession with novelty, and a counterpoint to the apparent thesis of the title track. It’s perhaps also a sort of critique of the way popular music disposes of so many of its once-loved idols--who, like puppets, are often controlled by unseen outside forces. You’ll also find several tracks that push into more experimental territory on the album, to a degree that may be surprising if you’re only familiar with the big hit. The eerie, cinematic instrumental “The Steps” is perhaps the most striking example, and closing the album on this note is certainly a bold decision!

Music: “The Steps”

The album’s cover features Steve Strange dancing with a woman, in a starkly lit, greyscale composition that recalls early photography. In the background, we can see the shadows of several instrumental musicians--perhaps a nod to the composition of the band itself, in which the composers and instrumentalists happily hid behind the facade of Strange’s attention-grabbing persona. What’s perhaps most interesting about it is the fact that despite having a dance partner, Strange’s attention seems to be focused entirely on us, the viewers. He seems to meet our gaze, with a vigour and intensity that borders on confrontational.

Before “New Romantic” took such a strong hold as the term for this movement, one of the contenders for its name was “peacock punk.” I’ve always liked the way that alternative phrase communicates the brash, almost macho nature of its seemingly fey male frontmen, whose gender-bending style was often rooted in self-confidence that bordered on bravado. I think Steve Strange’s fixed gaze on the cover of this album embodies this principle of “peacocking,” and lavishing attention on one’s personal aesthetic in a daring, perhaps even aggressively counter-cultural manner. While a lot of this music, and its associated visual culture, has been dismissed as some sort of yuppie frippery, it takes some serious balls to transgress ideas about gender as much as the New Romantics did, and I’d say it’s pretty damn punk.

This album is, of course, self-titled, which I suppose could be seen as a sort of throwaway non-decision. But I think the use of “Visage” for the title calls attention to the idea their name represents. A “visage” is, literally, a face, but the connotation of the word is certainly a bit loftier and more refined than that. A visage is less likely to be an everyday face, and more likely to be a metaphorical or symbolic “face”--a front for something, a representation of some greater idea. While Strange and company couldn’t see the future, they of course ended up being the representative front for the coming wave of stylish, synthesiser-driven pop, even if they weren’t at the crest of it for too long.

After their debut, Visage would go on to release one more LP with their original line-up, 1982’s The Anvil. Less experimental, and more indebted to disco and dance music, The Anvil would produce two more charting singles, “Night Train” and “The Damned Don’t Cry,” though neither of them would reach the same heights of international success as “Fade to Grey.”

Music: “Night Train”

Later in the 1980s, Billy Currie and Midge Ure would become increasingly committed to their work with the re-formed Ultravox, and they left Steve Strange and Rusty Egan to continue the Visage project on their own. The two of them released one more album under the Visage name in 1984, but when that was panned, they went back to running the Blitz Club together.

In 2013, Steve Strange decided to return to making music, and revive the “Visage” name. While his untimely death in 2015 would cut this era short, Strange released one full album, and recorded enough material for a followup that it could be released posthumously. Though Strange is no longer with us, Rusty Egan has become quite keen on the idea of a Visage reunion of some sort in the past year or two, possibly involving Midge Ure, Billy Currie, and/or fellow New Romantic heartthrob Zaine Griff, who I think could fill Strange’s shoes better than just about anybody. It sounds quite promising, so we’ll have to stay tuned.

My favourite track from this album is “Tar,” which was actually released ahead of the album, in 1979, but failed to attract much notice. It was love at first listen for me, though--I love the way the chorus rises so triumphantly, only to fall back down into its screwy, glitchy synth hook. Besides that abrasive touch, the theme of the song is also a bit out there: it’s a somewhat patronizing number all about the repulsiveness of cigarette smoking. Perhaps now that fewer people are smokers, this premise will come across as less alienating than it did at the time! That’s all I’ve got for today, thanks for listening.

Outro: “Tar”

[bettsfic]

Writing is hard. It's deliriously, unimaginably hard. And yet, many of us choose to do it, because we're compelled by the need to externalize our inner experiences. My favorite thing is to help writers do that — guide them to create work that is meaningful to them, and that most clearly conveys their aesthetic and thematic interests. I've taught writers of all ages, at all stages of their writing careers, to realize their work onto the blank page. 

I use my background as a university-level creative writing instructor, coupled with the organizational management skills of a decade in commercial finance, to help writers go from "I have this idea and I have no idea how to start" to polished manuscripts. I take even the most ambitious, ambiguous projects and help writers break them down into manageable tasks.  

Here are the services I offer: 

Consultations

This is my most popular service. A consultation includes:

Feedback on any work up to 5k words (optional)

1-hour video conference call

Step-by-step action plan

Reading recommendations (if applicable)

1- or 2-week follow-up email to check on progress

Consultations are great if you have a single piece of writing you want in-depth feedback on, or if you want to get started on a project but don't know how. They're also good for working through writers' block, asking questions about writing in general, brainstorming or plotting, or finding the motivation to write. 

By the end of the call, you'll know exactly the next steps you need to take. I’ll ask you, "Are you comfortable and confident moving forward?" and stay on the phone until the answer is yes. 

Consultations are a one-time fee. I invoice at the end of the call.

Coaching

It's like having a personal trainer, but for writing! Ongoing coaching includes:

A video conference call either monthly or bi-weekly

Feedback on all work you want me to look at

Ongoing action plans and accountability emails

Coaching is best for those juggling multiple projects or who want to work toward eventual publication. 

For ongoing coaching, I track my hours and invoice monthly on the first. 

Editing

Editing services include:

Developmental/structural feedback

Sentence-level feedback

Proofreading using the Chicago Manual of Style (or MLA/APA, if applicable)

End note with my overall thoughts

Reading recommendations (optional)

Editing services are good for writers looking for a final polish, application essays/cover letters, journal articles, or for sprucing up your prose. I price edits by word count and invoice when complete. 

Testimonials and my credentials below the cut

Testimonials

I have extremely positive things to say about my sessions with Beth. I started out with a lot of big ideas and no idea what to do with them, and Beth has helped me organize and streamline my process, teaching me tools and techniques that have given me a lot more confidence in my ability to execute my vision. Since I started working with Beth, I find it easier and easier to produce, and also feel that the quality of my work has noticeably improved. — Shan

Beth's approach was so relaxed and friendly; I was nervous going into the conversation, but felt a thousand times more calm and confident coming out of it, and now I also feel that have the tools I need to approach the rest of my project. Her approach is intuitive, almost alchemical; I'm not entirely sure how, but she managed to convince me without seemingly trying that I already know what I'm doing, and that my skills are up to the task I've set myself. — Jen  

I submitted the first chapter of an original work for editing, and I am beyond satisfied with the results. Betts did an incredible job. As the writer, it's easy to lose sight of the rhythm and pacing of your own work, so her comments on how the chapter felt in those terms were invaluable. I appreciated the line-by-line suggestions of where I could add color and texture without messing with the flow of the story. Also, I really liked the rhetorical questions she asked in the comments. They provided insight regarding what a fresh reader is thinking or feeling in the moment. — Anna

I found the consultation helpful both technically and emotionally! It was great to talk through what I was thinking with someone who gets the fanwriting experience and who could also help guide me as I thought about pacing, pov and arcs. I appreciated that you came with specific questions. The questions themselves were pointed but always from a place of seeking to understand, and with the assumption that I knew the answer even if I hadn't thought about it yet. I came in with questions about setting up conflict and left feeling like I had a much better grasp of that. The cheerful encouragement was also great, and reminded me that I am (theoretically) tackling this story because it is fun, not only as a chore. :) — Elizabeth

You are clearly extremely knowledgable about writing, and the advice you gave was professional, succinct and very helpful! I feel much better about my story now--you have my sincere thanks! — Kiri

It (the consultation) was very helpful and thorough. The questions I was asked were very useful in order for me to realise what I truly wanted to work on and what mattered to me most. Breaking my goals down into tiny little steps was very beneficial as I develop my writing and editing style. — Soph

The consultation was fantastic and super helpful! The most beneficial thing for me was definitely your emphasis on finding what it was that I wanted a work to be doing, then talking about how to get there. I really appreciate how openly you read stories,  that you don't try to bend something to genre or format or outside standards. I also picked up a ton of larger ideas--about the work of simile and metaphor, how to structure a short story, using "you" as a narrative pronoun--that I'll be reflecting on when I'm writing other things.  — Marie 

Credentials

I received my MFA in creative writing and pedagogy from Miami University in 2018

I'm about to begin a PhD in English, emphasis in fiction, beginning fall 2020 at the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers

I've been teaching at the university level for 4 years

My fiction has been published and has won or been nominated for awards

You can read more about my teaching philosophy here

Notes on content

Unfortunately since we live in a time of unrestrained purity rhetoric, I feel it's important to note that I will read any content and offer feedback on the merit of its intentions, never my personal moral beliefs. Moreover, I am happy to look at both fanfiction and original creative work, as well as nonfiction operating outside of creative aims, such as application essays, cover letters, or even car manuals, if that's what you're into. I have experience writing/teaching scripts, plays, novels, short stories, personal essays, poetry, hybrid/experimental forms, memoirs, graphic novels, and academic articles. 

Contact me

If you're interested in any of these services, please message me here. Tell me a little about yourself, your work, and what you're looking for. If you're shy and have a question about something that's not addressed here, you can shoot me an anon. 

If you're not interested in services but still want to support me, you can reblog this post or become a patron.

Check out my newsletter Sure, Betts for updates on monthly availability.