#especially when you compare where we are plot-wise in the show vs. the first book

[itsclydebitches]

TV!Bot: All humans are assholes. Disgusting, naive organic creatures that are only good at getting themselves killed. I hate being anywhere near them and couldn’t care less about their wants or needs. I should just let them all die. Or kill them myself because I’m an evil Murderbot. Yeah… yeah I think I will kill them. I will! …eventually. 

Book!Bot: My humans are the fucking best. No human clients are as awesome as my human clients. Did you know they drive the hopper safely? Don’t get into petty squabbles? Use the feeds so we can chat without them looking at me? Yeah, exactly. Phenomenal. If anything happened to my humans I’d kill everything on this planet and then myself. I want to kill things just for THINKING about hurting my humans… unless it’s Gurathin. It’s fine if he dies.

[riddles-n-games]

Why do you think avery and Jameson’s characters/Jameson’s story felt off? It feels off for me, too, but I can't put my finger on it.

Hoo boy, where to start? This feels like peeling wet paper from wet paper. Also, sorry this took so long to make. I was constantly putting it off because I felt like I kept not knowing how to continue this review at times so I really hope this doesn't disappoint.

Spoiler Warning: The Brothers Hawthorne Discussion

Plot-wise, first off, it felt like we spent a lot of time with the set up to get to the Game and usually JLB spends a very minimal amount on that before we jump into the riddles, puzzle-solving, clue finding portion of the story as shown in the last three books. Then when we get to the actual portion of the plot which is dedicated to the Game itself, the running around Vantage feels like it was all so quick and you don't even get to take it in because we're already at another part with a new clue that by the time you feel settled in, the Game is done and Jameson is the winner. So, I think the concern with the story on that front is the fact that she wanted us to have an element from the old books that we're comfortable with so we can continue experiencing that thrill we're used to, just from Jameson's perspective because this suits him to a T. And she's right. This is the Hawthorne brother we've come to associate with all these high risks, high stakes, riddles, puzzles, complex games, etc., etc. It's just her approach didn't feel right; she spent more time on one thing than the other, the set up vs the climax as a result of said set up were disproportionate and this would probably be as a result of the dual pov. We never had a dual pov before in the series so where one story feels completed, the other didn't. Had Jamie's story been one whole book on its own, she likely could have made everything in the plot more evened out, especially the part we're anticipating most: the Game.

Also, from what I can see, Grayson's plotline does serve as the typical storyline we see in TIG, THL, and TFG in terms of set up and execution of actions after the build up. But it also must have been thought out better because there was pressure from the fans to redeem Grayson after the events of the last book. To be fair, JLB may have also planned it out that way in the first place. It's just disappointing to read through a book with the one brother I wanted to see in his best element because he fit this script the most having his storyline cut off seemingly abruptly. I know it's easier for her to come up with stuff for Grayson because he's still underdeveloped but she should have taken more care of Jameson since he is already developed. It causes inconsistency and on her part, looks like lazy writing and that she didn't even want to write his story. Most complex story she's written, my ass. If she wanted to just write Grayson's story then she could have done that, it would be believable enough that she just wanted to leave Jameson untouched because of the work she put into him rather than taking back all the good stuff we've seen come out of him by the end of TFG.

Now, with Jameson's character development, I think that the problem was the dilemma he was facing with his mind being "ordinary" compared to that of his brothers. I don't think I minded that part that much but when I review how he acted in the original trilogy versus how he was in this one, this problem kind of abruptly seems to show up, even with the flashbacks where this was demonstrated to be a topic of interest. Maybe JLB should have created some kind of set up for his character having this problem in the first books like she did with his lack of father figures issue which clearly makes him sensitive and his desperate need to win. These were things that had an origin and were portrayed appropriately in the book with a somewhat satisfying conclusion. This one just felt like it was there and the issue was quite quickly resolved so it kind of just makes itself appear as something that could have been easily ignored. He also falls short on sounding like a human being because she has made his mentality and personality so one dimensional and basic that a robot has more complexity than him. We get it, he's hungry for more almost all the time! But that's not all there is to him. And as a Jameson girlie, I feel like she made it so much harder for us fans of him as a character and the chosen love interest for Avery to give reasons as to why we liked him. I mean, back in 2022 and throughout 2023, I don't know how many little analyses and rants I came across that projected the goodness of his character. Now what am I supposed to justify? I was hoping we'd get that deserved deep dive to see what else drove him besides the obvious and what did we get? Just an endless loop of what we already know and have seen.

On the topic of Avery and Jameson as a couple in this book, uh, I think that JLB could have done a better representation of it from Jamie's perspective than the way she did in TBH. They had some pretty great moments like their problem-solving sequences, the getting ready scene before the opera, the little stuff like their hand symbols to signal to each other, Avery comforting Jameson, and Jameson confiding in her the secret of what happened in Prague. However, I found the way that JLB described Jameson's thoughts towards Avery a little too out of character. I get it, there's nothing wrong with him being physically attracted to his own girlfriend, that's definitely part of it but it felt too lusty and not the way he seemed to view her from what we saw in the last three books. I mean, even Avery wasn't quite so lusty towards him. The flirtatious components weren't what I was hoping to see especially after his many swoon-worthy moments from THL and TFG. Honestly, regarding my opinion on this, there's a recent post by @elif-in-wonderland that summarizes my thoughts for me perfectly.

There, that concludes my current thoughts on the book regarding Jameson's side. If I do end up having more opinions to share, I will be sure to make a continuation to this in a follow up post. Thanks for the ask!

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff Ultimate: 1st Quarter

2020 has certainly left us already crawling for next year, but I say we shouldn’t leave all the good things behind. Time for a lightning roundup, no holds barred! 3. 2.. 1…

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

I couldn’t help but describe this as “Baby’s First Fantasy Adventure” like The Dragon Prince. It looks good, colorful, imaginative enough, but nothing about the story or characters pushed me to watch past episode 3 because I’ve no doubt seen stuff like this before but more interesting. It’s a good watch no doubt, but hardly groundbreaking to me. (Grade: C+)

The Owl House

Now this was more my speed. I definitely enjoyed the various designs of monsters and average Boiling Isle citizens far more. Eda immediately became my favorite witch character. While it reminded me a little too much of Gravity Falls, I was honestly hooked for more than just it’s otherwise eye opening demonic aesthetics. (Grade: B+)

Dorohedoro

Now THIS is a post apocalyptic series I’ve been waiting for in a while. Q really put together a world worth checking out, seeing its nooks and crannies, while giving us characters worth exploring with at every angle. She especially does a great job manga-wise where the black and white makes the edgy details pop in a meaningful way. The anime itself is just as good. Brought down by some wonky action scenes and movements, but the blend of 2D and 3D worked better than the Beastars anime. (Grade: A)

Keep Your Hands Off the Eizouken!

Talked about it plenty of times before, but this is that series that just speaks for itself, manga and anime. Smooth pacing, no contrived drama bullshit, hardly leaves any loose ends, easily accessible for anyone. It's the DMC5 of anime, meaning it is the most 'anime' anime I've seen thus far. (Grade: A++) 

Duncanville

Surprisingly not a wack family sitcom. The characters are what really sell the comedy, except for Duncan himself who’s not terrible but isn’t great as the star of the show, especially compared to his mom; and it’s weird cuz they share the same VA. Plus it’s actually well animated and stylized compared to the average Family Guy knockoff. It’s worth a check out in my book. (Grade: B)

Thundercats Roar

Oh wow, a nostalgia cartoon reboot that everyone will argue over but at the end of the day, is about as average as it gets. While I can appreciate the animation when it gets dynamic during its action scenes, I came out every episode remembering nothing and moving on. If I wanted a half hour centered around safe memes or forgettable punchlines, I would’ve subscribed to Jimmy Kimmel or ankle-beez by now. (Grade: C)

Harley Quinn series

This was a left fielder for me; the trailer gave a far different impression than expected. I can definitely appreciate how they treated not only Harley’s character, her relationship with Joker vs Ivy, but the rouge gallery of DC villains and heroes. What other DC product got me to love King Shark as much as this? Plus, Harley x Ivy are the OTP, but I appreciate them giving Kite Man some respect. (Grade: A-)

Birds of Prey

I didn’t mind the movie, but it lacked that dry punch that Harley’s series gave me. It was kinda the reason why I’ve seen people say Harley was becoming DC’s Deadpool type. even when Harley was a good star of the film. Didn’t help that Black Canary and Huntress were the only other characters I liked, and I don’t wanna get into the implicating homophobia. I want to say Sionis was great, but he doesn’t work when you have both the villain and protagonist be unhinged. All in all, I’ll give it the same score I gave Deadpool 1. (Grade: C+)

Dolittle (2020)

The movie’s climax was a long dragon fart and I wanted to die. (Grade: D)

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

A live action video game movie about an animated character. Let me put it like this: references and fanservice is not substance, taking place in the human populace does not help the escapism, reminding me that Olive Garden sucks ass is not funny, and only being half animated is cock and ball torture. If I don’t care for realism in my video games, this DOESN’T help. It has a couple good moments, but this is mostly unimaginative, by the book, and not worth going back to. Works as a Flash movie, I guess.  (Grade: C-)

Sonic Rebuilt

Sincerely the chad Sonic film of this year. Even when it’s a reanimated version of the 90s film, the creativity every artist applies for their respective scene brings better life to the original film like with Shrek Retold. Yeah, there’s live action segments in it, but it’s part of the gag not a crux of the film’s visuals. It isn’t fully original since they use the original’s voice work and music, but everyone involved gave a genuinely good spin on the pretty overlooked feature. Plus it has a Sonic that gets shit done and has the better voice. (Grade: A-)

Ishuzoku Reviewers

Kono anime wa igaito shinsendesu. Bōru o korogashi tsudzukeru hōhō o shitte imashita. Sore wa yoi owarai de, kesshite mumide wa arimasendeshita. Itsumo mitakatta ano etchina shirīzudeshita. (Grade: A-)

Meggy’s Destiny

The plot has its low points, but this is still an entertaining short film. The characters were what kept the ball rolling and the ending was that coup de gras on the main character’s overall story arc. (Grade: B+)

Trolls World Tour

This film works better than the first to me mainly because we can focus on Trolls and their musical world rather than the Bergens who didn’t offer much. The plot is simple, but it being a multi-genre musical kept me hooked. The finale especially was that cherry on top of this bouncy film. Also Poppy is still the best. (Grade: B+)

Glitch Techs

It stands to say Men in Black meets Captain N and Pixels works well as a premise for a show, and this certainly delivered by actually being ANIMATED. I’m sorry, but can corporations soon understand that premises and ideas that work better with animation stop trying to make it live action? Also, it brought Fanboy and Chum Chum back from the dead, and that is a worthwhile achievement. (Grade: A)

Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons

They’re honestly the same game from what I got to play. AC was a little more stressful than Doom, especially with managing my stalks, but they were both nonetheless an all around great time so they get the same score. (Grade: A)

Steven Universe Future

Had some shit episodes, had some delightfully fun episodes, and had a half shit/half delightful finale. Pretty on par for Steven Universe but I say it’s elevated above most of the original series with the grown Steven himself. Much as I wish his character was dealt with better, I was still invested in his story nonetheless even when the fixed perspective honestly fucked over most else in this series. It’s far better than season 5, not as good as seasons 1 & 2. So yeah, I liked it and I’m gonna miss this show. (Grade: B-)

Onward

The ending doesn’t make up for a pretty middle of the road film. If I wanted a film about familiar bonding in a goofy fantasy world, I could’ve just watched A Goofy Movie. The world feels creative enough, but it’s like Pixar has been losing their touch or mostly peaked when it comes to imaginative premises. I’m hoping Soul can bounce ‘em back cuz while this isn’t the worst, certainly didn’t feel like their best. (Grade: C+)

【ＡＮＤ　ＴＨＡＴ＇Ｓ　ＴＩＭＥ！】

Well that’s all for the first quarter of 2020. Quite above average all around, certainly some worthwhile things to keep your busy while this pandemic is upon us, except Dolittle. Were there any that I missed? Probably. Let’s see where the 2nd quarter provides as we carry on into the Spring months. 

Stay safe out there, and see you in June.

[empress-of-snark]

Cursed Child Review!

(this will contain only the vaguest spoilers--you have been warned)

(also tumblr is being dumb and refusing to let me upload this with pictures, so expect a second post later with pictures)

THE THEATRE

So first of all, the Lyric Theatre is gorgeous. It was renovated specifically for this show, so the design is full of all kinds of Harry Potter references. Inside, the carpet is red with a Hogwarts ‘H’ pattern, and the ceiling is blue with gold stars.

Also, directly across from the entrance, on the way to the gift shop, there’s a small, circular room with patronuses painted all over the walls! They got all the major characters (minus Albus and Scorpius, but we don’t know their patronuses, do we?), as well as play quotes from each:

Speaking of the gift shop, I absolutely bought a Ravenclaw scarf and iron-on patch for my denim jacket. I wanted so badly to buy a replica wand as well (if I remember correctly, they had Harry, Ron, Hermione, Albus, Scorpius, and Voldemort), but they were pretty expensive and I couldn’t decide on a character anyway.

Also, funny thing, we got two playbills—one for Part One, and one for Part Two—and… they’re exactly alike. There’s nothing at all different except for a very slight alteration in cover art and the fact that they’re labeled Part One and Part Two. The insides are identical, lol. Weird.

THE PLOT

There’s really nothing to be said about the plot that hasn’t already been said. It’s not great. It’s not terrible either, honestly, but it’s not great. In terms of alternate HP content, I’d put it below Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but above Crimes of Grindelwald.

Part One is definitely the stronger half, plot-wise. Part Two is where everything goes a little off the rails and you start thinking “wait a second, did J.K. Rowling actually come up with this or is this just straight-up fanfiction that someone wrote in 2009?” Again, no spoilers, but… the Act III, Scene XXI plot twist is contrived and kind of ridiculous and seeing it played out on stage does nothing to improve my opinion on it.

THE CHARACTERS

Albus and Scorpius were phenomenal! To be honest, Albus has never really interested me as a character very much, he’s always just come across as a sullen teenager, but Nicholas Podany made me like him more than I did in my initial readings of the script.

Scorpius, though. SCORPIUS. I knew he was an adorable geek when I read the script, but seeing it on stage is just so much better. He’s the absolute cutest character and I adored him. Also, major props to Bubba Weiler’s physicality because it was awesome. His lounging awkwardly on the stairs and giving finger-guns to Rose in Act IV was priceless. Absolute cinnamon roll.

Speaking of Rose, I feel like I should talk about the whole shipping war thing of Rose/Scorpius vs. Albus/Scorpius, but honestly I don’t wanna drag this down into fandom wank, so maybe I’ll make a separate post later. Suffice it to say, I totally 100% understand why people ship Albus and Scorpius, but I also think we should be allowed to have other interpretations and sometimes people on the internet don’t understand what true friendship is supposed to be like despite constantly calling for more platonic friendships in the media.

Anyway.

Harry and Hermione were awesome. I know people complained about Harry’s characterization, but honestly, I think it’s similar to what happened with Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. People don’t like watching their childhood heroes grow into flawed adults who make mistakes, and I understand. It’s hard to see Harry being such a strict father and saying or doing things that he regrets, but that’s what characters are supposed to be like. Harry is not perfect and he’s always had a bit of a temper. For the first eleven years of his life, he didn’t have a good father figure to guide him so as an adult, it makes sense that he would fumble a bit in fatherhood because he has no one to really base himself on, and he literally says this in Act IV.

Hermione didn’t have as much of a character arc, but she was excellent. Her characterization was on-point and I loved her. There was a moment I especially loved where she hugs Rose around the middle of Act III. There’s no dialogue and it’s only a brief moment, but it was beautiful. With context, it’ll make more sense why, but again, no spoilers.

Finally, my boy Ron Weasley, was… comic relief. Why am I not surprised. Functionally, he did almost nothing of any importance for the plot—they could’ve taken him out completely and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. While he did have some good, genuinely funny moments (they included his line from the book when, in answer to Albus saying that everyone is staring at them at King’s Cross, he said “It’s me. I’m extremely famous.”) but he also has some really dumb, out-of-character moments as well (at one point, in response to a threat, he… pulled out his wand… backwards… and had to fix it… get it? Cause he’s stupid!).

That’s not to say the actor did a bad job. He did the best he could with the terrible characterization. But the bright side is, we got several really good Ron/Hermione scenes that were stupidly adorable and made my heart happy. My two favorites were, of course, the staircase scene in Act II and the scene in Hermione’s office in Act III.

Draco was great, I loved his relationship with Scorpius and how it grew, and I loved his reluctant allegiance with the Golden Trio.

Ginny was pretty good, though I wish they had given her a bit more to do at times.

I also wish Rose had gotten to be more a part of the action, but I get why, for a lot of the play, she couldn’t be involved in the plot. For spoiler-y reasons.

THE SPECIAL EFFECTS

This is the real reason people see this play, and it is worth it! It’s worth sitting through the weirder parts of the plot. Some of the illusions I could figure out (a lot of them were either clever use of the fly system or two actors hiding in the same robe), but some I’m pretty sure were just genuine magic because I don’t know how they pulled them off.

Characters Polyjuice and Transfigure themselves into other characters, wands light up and even shoot fire (at one point, a lot of wands were shooting fire simultaneously during a multi-character duel and I don’t understand how the set didn’t catch on fire), a bookcase comes alive and eats three people and spits them back out again, and the DEMENTORS.

There were DEMENTORS and they were SPOOKY and AWESOME and I wish so badly that we had been in balcony seats because at one point, a dementor comes out over the audience and we were so far back that we could barely see it.

Also I don’t think it’s a huge spoiler to say that the show involves use of a Time Turner, and every time it was used, they did something really cool with the lights that gave the whole stage a ripple effect and I have no idea what it was they did, but it looked SO COOL.

IN SUMMARY

The building was gorgeous, the plot was just okay (better in the first half), the characters varied but were mostly good (all the actors were amazing), and the special effects are absolutely the best part of the show, hands down.

People have said that this show shouldn’t ever be professionally recorded because watching a DVD will never compare to seeing it live. I agree that the live experience is undoubtedly better, that’s the case with every play. Live is always better. But it’s not always possible for people to drop hundreds of dollars on a plane ride and Broadway tickets. Our tickets for Cursed Child were expensive, and we didn’t even get the best seats. I can’t believe how elitist people can be in thinking that if, for whatever reason, you can’t afford to see a Broadway show, then you shouldn’t be given a cheaper, more accessible option.

Also, like, I’m never going to be able to see the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods live because that show was running in 1987, but thanks to the professionally filmed DVD, I can watch it whenever I want and I love it. Money and time should not stop someone from experiencing theatre, ever.

Anyway, it was an amazing experience and I’m so glad I went! If anyone wants to talk more about it, or get my more spoiler-y opinions, shoot me a message! If you go anon, I’ll tag all responses with #cursed child spoilers.

[rhegar]

Ice Dragon (Part 1): Why Jon Snow Will Ride Wight!Viserion

A few things before I start...

1. All credits go to @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly​ and @joannalannister​ for coming up with the theory that Jon will ride Viserion. It’s a really interesting and convincing theory that you can read here. This theory is just a buildup on that theory in light of the recent development in which Viserion turned into a wight.

2. For reasons that I will clarify, I think that this theory doesn’t just go for the show, but for the books as well (in fact, seeing as the books are more likely to follow logic and continuity, I feel like it goes for the books more as it feels more complicated than something the showmakers would think of.)

Obviously, if you continue, you’re in for spoilers of anything and everything that has happened on the books and show so far.

1. The Ice Dragon. (or, how does this theory play out in the books?)

Well, in the books, we have too many references to an ice dragon for it to be a coincidence. For instance, there’s a constellation actually named the Ice Dragon. It is mentioned on many occasions, especially in POVs of northern characters.

"Osha," Bran asked as they crossed the yard. "Do you know the way north? To the Wall and . . . and even past?"

"The way's easy. Look for the Ice Dragon, and chase the blue star in the rider's eye." She backed through a door and started up the winding steps.

"And there are still giants there, and . . . the rest . . . the Others, and the children of the forest too?" - A Clash of Kings, Bran V

An Ice Dragon also plays into the stories of Old Nan (the majority of which we know shed some light on events from the past and foreshadow the possible future.

A sudden gust of wind set Edd's cloak to flapping noisily. "Best go down, m'lord. This wind's like to push us off the Wall, and I never did learn the knack of flying.

"They rode the winch lift back to the ground. The wind was gusting, cold as the breath of the ice dragon in the tales Old Nan had told when Jon was a boy. The heavy cage was swaying. From time to time it scraped against the Wall, starting small crystalline showers of ice that sparkled in the sunlight as they fell, like shards of broken glass. - A Dance with Dragons, Jon VII

Not only that, but some characters also happen to think of ice dragons a lot, making a lot of similes related to ice dragons. In particular, Jon.

Jon nodded weakly. The door swung open. Pyp led them in, followed by Clydas and the lantern. It was all Jon could do to keep up with Maester Aemon. The ice pressed close around them, and he could feel the cold seeping into his bones, the weight of the Wall above his head. It felt like walking down the gullet of an ice dragon. The tunnel took a twist, and then another. Pyp unlocked a second iron gate. They walked farther, turned again, and saw light ahead, faint and pale through the ice. That's bad, Jon knew at once. That's very bad. - A Storm of Swords, Jon VIII

The road beneath the Wall was as dark and cold as the belly of an ice dragon and as twisty as a serpent. Dolorous Edd led them through with a torch in hand. Mully had the keys for the three gates, where bars of black iron as thick as a man's arm closed off the passage. Spearmen at each gate knuckled their foreheads at Jon Snow but stared openly at Val and her garron. - A Dance with Dragons, Jon VIII

Isn’t an ice dragon a strange thing to constantly be in the subconscious of the people like that? That’s like naming a constellation The Swimming Bird, or The Vegetarian Lion. It’s a strange contradiction; a paradox. To me, the phrase “ice dragon” is comparable to a “blue flower grew from a chunk in a wall of ice”... it’s not something that sounds regular in the flow of speech; it’s put there for a purpose. Why would such a thing be constantly suggested if it’s not foreshadowing something in the future?

Some have theorized that said ice dragon is actually the wall itself. Personally, I find that interesting, but logistically challenging and difficult to take place. If the entire wall was a dragon, that thing would be hopeless to defeat. It would be hundreds of times the size of Balerion himself. What I personally think is that it’s inevitable that one of Daenerys’ dragons will meet its demise in the books; it’s just inevitable plot-wise. No one and nothing is unbeatable, and to show us that, George will have to take out some people and creatures that we thought of as higher-than-life, i.e. the dragons.

Yes, this is one of the cases (like R+L=J, or the wall eventually coming down) where I think the showmakers stuck to the scenario that they know will happen in the books. A dragon will eventually be killed in the books, and my money’s on Viserion (for reasons that will become clear later, but even now, I feel like just changing the dragon that dies from Viserion to Rhaegal isn’t a change that the showmakers would make. It doesn’t make that big of a difference for them.)

However, because of the whole “three heads of the dragon” thing, I personally don’t believe that said dragon will stay dead. I believe it will be turned into the “dark side” either by Euron  (who now serves the others) using the Horn of Joramun, or the Night King himself, therefore becoming the Ice Dragon; a dragon that, if not literally made of ice, it fights on the side of ice, thus going against what it inherently is: A dragon; fire-made flesh.

2. Fire-Made Flesh

From the very beginning, the magical aspect of the story revolved around the conflict between two magical forces in the universe: Ice and Fire. One of them is portrayed as inherently bad (ice) and the other is portrayed as potentially good, but also volatile and can be quite destructive depending on who’s in control of it (fire.) And this makes sense; ice brings the cold and death and nothing else (please don’t send me asks about refrigerators) but fire can bring warmth and safety (if you think about it in a more primal sense that makes sense in ASOIAF, you can use fire to scare away predators) but needless to say, fire can also be highly destructive.

When it comes to dragons vs. white walkers, each of them belongs exclusively to one of those two forces. Dragons are described as “fire-made flesh”; they are able, against all laws of physics, to breathe fire. And allegedly, fire cannot kill a dragon.

White walkers bring the cold, frost, death, and they reanimate the dead to do their bidding; however, the only thing that kills them is fire. So, we see that each of the two factors does something exclusive to it and magical; fire magic, and ice magic.

Now; the question is: Can a dragon turn into an undead being animated by ice magic? Wouldn’t that be inherently against its nature?

Again, like previously expressed in the previous point, an “ice dragon” is a paradox. It’s the same thing as an other that breathes fire. And yes, you can kill a dragon and turn it into a wight, technically, and you can’t make an other breathe fire, but because of how that state is contradictory to the dragon’s very existence... would it be a complete state?

The reason why the wights are what they are is because they’re unintelligent. They lose their mind, personality, sense, and become nothing but zombies animated by ice. But a dragon... does it get to keep its intelligence as a wight and serve (whoever) as an independent force that decides what to do? Yes it changes “side”, but does it completely lose its conscious?

AsoIaF dragons are intelligent. - George R. R. Martin (source)

Personally, I believe that a dragon can never fully become what a wight is. It will never only obey the Night King, especially not above its chosen rider. Because before being a wight, it is first and foremost a dragon. So, for the time being, I want you not to think of Viserion as an undead wight that has no control of what it’s doing, but as an Other!dragon; a monster moved by ice that still has a will and intelligence, and that still gets to choose who its rider will be. And I believe that, because Viserion still has his free will, this rider can be a living human.

For the time being, Viserion will do the night king’s bidding, perhaps destroying the wall and killing a bunch of people... until he finds his true rider.

3. The Wolf

So... what would make a person Viserion’s chosen rider?

Let’s ask this question in another way. If being the prince that was promised was simply the matter of being the third child of Rhaegar Targaryen, why would he have it by way of running away with the daughter of a paramount lord who’s also the fiancee of another paramount lord, while he himself is married with two children, plunging the realm into war? He could have had a third child with a washerwoman or servant girl on Dragonstone. Or, if he’s super elitist and picky, he could have had it with a noblewoman from a lesser house who’s not engaged. He’s the crown prince, and noblemen in Westeros had their flings and no one held it against them (even when it became excessive, like in the cases of Brandon or Robert.)

So... why Lyanna? Is there anything special about Stark blood that gives its holder certain power? Why must there always be a Stark in Winterfell? Why don’t we ever hear that there must always be a Lannister in Casterly Rock, or an Arryn in the Eyrie? Is it just family tradition, or the sealing of a protective spell? Old Nan says that the first Night King (a legendary figure that has no relation to the current night king, but we don’t know if it’s truly legendary or if it’s one of *those* legends) was a Stark of Winterfell. We know the wall itself was built by a Stark of Winterfell (and not just any Stark, he founded the house.) Most (if not all) of the current generation of Starks are wargs; warging, skinchanging etc. seem to be magical abilities that come from the children of the forest... the children created the Others and lost control of their creation, and tried to destroy them (something not confirmed in the books yet.) But again... why were those abilities granted mostly to Starks? (they show up in Euron who is Ironborn and Brynden Rivers/Three Eyed Raven whose mother was from the Riverlands though from a house descended from the First Men... but again, most of those who possess those powers happen to be Starks.)

There is definitely a tie between the Starks and the Others. We don’t know the nature of this tie, whether the others were originally Starks/some of them were Starks, whether there was a pact between the Starks and the Others to keep them away from Westeros that was sealed with blood magic (i.e. the magic wardings on the Wall; probably sealed with Bran the Builder’s blood) and though we don’t know what this tie is, it definitely exists. Ice magic (to a lesser degree) has a relation to the Starks. And while I don’t think they can reanimate the dead any more than the Targaryens can breathe fire, having such a relation to a potent type of magic definitely affects you and makes you capable of connecting to it.

So, back to Jon Snow... (or did we ever start talking about him?)

Jon has the magical formula of balance between ice and fire. He has the blood of the kings of winter, of Bran the Builder, of the first men, and the blood of the dragonlords of Valyria. He has the potential to ride a dragon, and the potential to have a link to the others that enables him to make peace with them. And with... an intelligent wight?

But making peace with the others isn’t what we’re discussing here... what we’re discussing is the fact that Jon has ice magic AND fire magic in his blood.

Jon is undead; a “wight animated by fire” as Martin has said recently. And Viserion is undead; a dragon animated by ice. They are both ice dragons; one figurative, the other literal. Add to this all the evidence in the theory by joannalannister and nobodysuspectsthebutterfly that was linked above, and Jon is the perfect rider for Viserion.

4. Conclusion

ِAs much as you can never freeze fire, you can never turn a dragon into a wight and expect it to be completely in service of The Great Other. The two things are as paradoxical as ice and fire themselves. And if a living human being in the ASOIAF universe has the potential to tame an ice dragon and ride it, it can only be Jon Snow; a figurative ice dragon himself, who has magical ties to the others and magical ties to the dragons.

Whew... so, this turned out way longer than I expected. A second part is coming in which I try to further explore the relation between Stark blood and the others, and what Jon’s endgame might be.

[gris-0]

Med 1443 Design for Animation- Pre-production of an Animation

Storyboard: Scene 1- https://vimeo.com/418403045 Scene 2- https://vimeo.com/418403894

Indisputably pre-production is an extremely key yet a lesser talked about stage of the animation process. The pre-production encompasses several stages overall, though is in simple terms everything that comes before the actual production of the animation itself that will be needed to successfully communicate the visions for the final product to those who will work on it. In the very beginning of the pre-production stages an animation is nothing more that a simple idea. In the real world, one may have an idea and wish to bring it to reality, however, are unable to do it alone. In these situations the idea may be pitched to a client who will be able to provide the resources to take the idea further. In these situations it’s best to bring as many visual resources as possible to the pitch as to better to communicate your idea and know what ultimate goal you have for the project, ensuring it’s possible to achieve your vision. This aspect includes how one plans to incorporate design decisions into the animation which will keep the animation possible to achieve while also still appealing to the client. To emulate this scenario a theme was given, “trapped”, and we were expected to pitch our individual ideas to the class on how we interpret the theme and would create an animation based on it. It remanded answers to a range of questions: What is the plot? Who is the main character? The setting? How does the story resolve? Ect.

For my own pitch, there were in fact two characters: Sebastian and Christie. Sebastian is a geeky aspiring scientist who gets easily flustered and is quite smart, though he also has a bit of an attention-seeking streak to a fault. Christie can be easily summed up as the trendy popular girl, being social and fun to be around with a sense of humour but perhaps a little hot-headed. Christie is also interested in science but to much of a lesser degree compared to Sebastian.

Within the animation itself, Sebastian, Studying the sciences, finds himself performing chemistry at a science fair and impressing the masses with it. From there he sees Christie over in the distance and is taken aback, and after Christie takes notice of him he decides to try and impress her only to mix the wrong chemicals by mistake. This results in him being covered in liquid and making a mess. While cleaning up, totally defeated, a love letter is handed to him, and looking up the letter belonged to none other than Christie who wasn’t put off by Sebastian’s failure at all. This plot is meant to interpret the theme in a more metaphorical sense in that Sebastian fails his goal of impressing the girl he has a crush on and so is stuck socially, at least until the resolution.

When performing the pitch, at the time, the character boards were incomplete but the storyboard was finished. However, due to error the storyboard used in the pitch wasn’t exported and was just the raw file, which lead to the inability to show the storyboard during the pitch and that had to be resolved though verbally explaining what was pictured on the storyboard. For feedback concerns were raised over how much planning would be needed for my project as I use multiple characters and also with different shots taken I’d have to draw all the backgrounds alongside them. Moreover, It was mentioned that with how I initially wanted to portray background characters as being simply a universal set of silhouetted figures that there might be the the issue of the animation looking cheap. The feedback given was taken into account, and the way I personally dealt with these issues will be mentioned later.

As we could only make 30-35 seconds for the completed animation design decisions had to be made to reflect that. Any complicated and details for the plot couldn’t be done as there is the heavy risk of going over the allocated time or being unable to complete the animation by the deadline, especially given the project could only be done as an individual and not as a group. A wide range of settings would also be unideal as those settings had to be planned and the backgrounds drawn. Complicated character designs are generally a poor choice for projects with only a single person behind them that have to hit a deadline. Characters should be able to properly convey an idea to the viewer as well as fit in among the setting. Character backstories and backgrounds can’t be too complicated in this instance as there would only be 30 seconds to tell the audience the character background along with the main plot. There were, indeed, many decisions that had to be made.

In answer to the plot and characters, I knew I would be unable to make something extremely complicated so story-wise decided upon a simple concept that had been used time and time again. The concept is the typical cliche of a nerd, possibly a social outcast, falling for a pretty girl who is popular and out of his league. This concept is a popular theme in rom-coms but also appears in many other genres, such as the superhero genre in the form of Spiderman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Action-comedy in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and even books and movies aimed towards children such as Dairy of a WImpy Kid. Though one should often try to avoid cliches when they can, especially in regards to the main plot, in this instance I felt as though it would be a good element of the story as it’s very simple, recognisable and wouldn’t be especially hard to incorporate into a 30 second animation. As for character designs both Sebastian and Christie were more designed to be recognisable in their stereotypes as opposed to aiming towards anything especially remarkable. Sebastian is a geek type character and, like a lot of geek stereotypes, wears glasses and is designed to appear a bit lanky and tall as far as his body type is concerned. He also wears a lab coat, fitting of his interest in science, and wears a shirt with a design that looks like a mix between the inscription “sci” (which is supposed to be shortened from “science”) and a square root symbol incorporated in. He notably still looks unprofessional though even with the lab coat, which leads back to the idea he’s an aspiring scientist and not a real one. Christie on the other hand was designed to appear more pretty and fashion-conscious than Sebastian, and wears a low-cut dress, high heels, and a few accessories in the forms of a bracelet and a choker collar. She’s also notably blonde hair-blue eyed, which is another stereotypical quality, this time of attractive girls.

The artstyle I was aiming for for the animation is one that incorporates mostly simple shapes and lines. The character’s bodies are supposed to be easy to construct and very angular in places. From this decision it became much easier to keep characters consistent and animate them. The concept of designing characters that can be drawn using simple shapes is nothing unusual as the ability for a group of animators to replicate the design in their own drawings is always taken into consideration, as well as how well the design can be quickly drawn and its capacity for flexibility and mobility. Notable designs that use simple shapes include many designs that incorporate the “rubber hose” artstyle, which is characterised by simple body shapes and long, seemingly boneless limbs, and in more modern times cartoons such as Ren and Stimpy, Spongebob and Steven Universe also use a lot of basic shapes in their character designs.

Original Mickey Mouse design (an example of a rubber hose artstyle design)

Character designs from Betty Boop (another example of rubber hose artstyle designs)

Stimpy’s design from Ren and Stimpy

Character designs from Spongebob

Other small design decisions were also made when I was creating the character designs, such as eyes being drawn as a single line to represent the top eyelid and a circle, Sebastian’s glasses sometimes obscuring one or both eyes, eyebrows only being presesnt when needed to express emotion and characters’ hands only having individual fingers drawn when there is distance between it and other fingers, otherwise simply being represented as a single shape with lines across to represent the fingers. These design decisions mean less time is spent animating as less detail in the drawings is demanded and also helps maintain more consistency.

The settings made for the animation are another area to talk about. There are two settings present in the animation, the first one being the outside, external shot of the building hosting the science fair, a shot only present in the very beginning of the animation, and the inside of the building where the science fair is being hosted itself. From first creating the storyboard I already decided how I want the settings to look. The external shot would show that the science fair would be taking place in a large industrial looking building, possibly a warehouse of some kind, while the interior would have an array of science themed attractions and decorations. This inspiration was directly inspired by my own experience attending the Big Bang Science Fair a few years ago which itself was hosted in a large warehouse-like building. A detail added to the background of the external shot are distant buildings and skyscrapers which was a touch added to add to the industrial atmosphere that warehouses tend to have.

As for the internal shot, the perspective is taken from a high perspective overlooking the area, in which you can see figures in the room and various science attractions. A crowd of people are gathered around a particular table, and as the camera zooms into that area and the shot cuts to Sebastian mixing chemicals together, it implies that he is the person at the table:

In order to design these settings some research was necessary, and so I created two mood boards in order to better understand what was wanting to be incorporated into the settings.

Both of the resulting artworks for the setting were drawn in an external program rather than straight into Harmony. The reason for deciding this is because the setting is the main focus of these shots and so it is important that more control can be possibly given to make the settings look appealing, which would be better achieved in an art program as opposed to in Harmony itself which is instead designed with mainly animating in mind. Instead of Harmony the art was created within Paint Tool SAI, which was the only available option for drawing within at the time of writing. Comparatively to the industry standard Photoshop, SAI is a very flexible art program, very user friendly and achieved the purpose I wanted to use it for, however possesses some limitations such as the inability to type text and insert it into an image and having only basic image editing options available.

The completed art was kept simple partly due to stylistic choice and partly due to being aware of potential time constraints. By keeping the setting art simple it meant that the backgrounds could also be simple without looking out of place. Moreover, a notable feature of the internal shot is that there is a lot of empty space in the room even with the people present, which allows the backgrounds to remain simple even as shot angles change within the animation as very few background elements have to be drawn. The art uses mostly pastel colours, which are easy on the eyes, help portray the tone of the animation as being lighthearted and not particularly serious, and are also different enough from the colours used on the characters to have them stand out but not so much so that the characters look out of place.

The animation process itself had several issues appear that needed to be addressed during production. From the beginning on of the main issues that appeared was in regard to the way I created my storyboard. Though the storyboard itself was easy to follow and there is very little difference between that and the final animation, I separated the animation into two scenes in the hopes that animating could be more easily done bit-by-bit. In itself this isn’t a poor idea, however Storyboard Pro separates scenes into individual Harmony files when exporting. Partway through the production process I became no longer able to access any editing software that could be used to edit the two scenes together, which meant that I had to leave the two scenes separated. The other issue that arose was that I didn’t know at the time how long exactly my storyboard was in relation to the animation, especially after editing the length each storyboard cell plays for. When finally exporting the storyboard I found that the animation would only come to 27 seconds if I followed it scene for scene so some adjustments were made to extend certain shots, maintaining the accuracy to the original plan while also hitting the correct time for the animation. Generally between the storyboard stages and the animation stages of production is an intermediate stage in which animatics are created. Animatics, as stated by Boopanimation.com, are defined as “an animated storyboard [...] with the correct timing and pace of the film”. In regards to this, an animatic is a more detailed storyboard and in particular is often used as the main foundation that animations are created from. All the main features of what the animation includes and its flow is already there as it should be able to successfully communicate the intricacies of the way the finished animation should animate like. Also the animatic should often include sound effects and any spoken dialogue. In the case of my own project this step was missed in part due to a lack of knowledge on how to create an animatic and how to use particular programs to assist me. This lead to a flexibility in the way I can adjust my animation and what it features even after exporting the storyboard, however, it did have a heavy toll on the way the animation flows in my opinion as everything feels like it’s going too fast.

During the actual production itself I structured the way I made the animation by focusing on a particular scene, and then doing one shot at a time. The way the animation was created was through the use of mostly pose-to-pose animation, so creating two keyframes and then planning, and later refining, the motion of the in-betweens. When animating the characters I focused on animating the character’s bodies first before adding details such as the hair in which it’s necessary to animate in a slightly different way as principles such as follow-through and overlapping action are more easily applied to them. Exceptions to using pose-to-pose exist within the animation however in minor details, such as the liquid in the “do not mix” flask after Sebastian Picks it up, liquids as they pour out of flasks, the burst of blue smoke that appears in scene 1 and the love hearts that appear around Sebastian as he’s waving to Christie. All the given examples use straight ahead animation because animating this way tends to offer a more natural, organic flow to the animation that’s suitable for elements such as smoke and liquids but at the potential cost of consistency and time. In comparison, pose-to-pose was mostly used because once an end point is decided for where a character will move to comparatively less time is spent attempting to ensure it flows well and adding details such the rebounding action an object with follow through might have. The overall method I tended to stick to for animating was to draw the key frames, move the image in the key frame slightly frame by frame, and only notably manually drawing in betweens when a reasonable level of motion happens or parts of the body are angled in a way that I was no longer able to use the same base drawing between frames. On one hand this was a great choice to further cut production time and keep consistency, but on the other hand the animation feels mildly stiff and flat. Along the same lines tweening was also used at times when only a single drawing was needed for a scene, again cutting production time but at the expense that the animation looks flat.

Colouring, backgrounds and the finalisation of particular details were some of the last aspects added to the animaton. The backgrounds weren’t particularly hard to make as, like what was previously stated, the setting had key background elements given a lot of space between them so very little had to be drawn in a lot of the shots beyond the walls and floor. One of the more troubling shots that had to be drawn was in regards to when Sebastian looks up to see Christie in the distance for the first time. In the shot established a few seconds before, the setting is represented as having a lot of people present. In this first shot the individuals were represented as vague blobs with circle heads, which I decided upon in the end to save time and felt could be excused due to it being a distant shot. However, in the later scene, the shot is looking out at part of the room on ground level and any people seen that close have to be able to be recognisably people otherwise the animation quality might suffer. In answer to that two background characters are present, one talking to Christie and one closer to Sebastian, clapping at him and keeping some level of consistency between that particular scene and the one right before. Aside from that there are no other people present however, not even any silhouettes, which lead to the scene overall feeling very empty especially given the setting. As for colouring that aspect was surprisingly hard and tedious. With how I created most of the animation, manually moving the same image across multiple frames and only redrawing when necessary, consistency between frames became even more important as the slightest change could potentially be extremely noticable. If I had coloured the keyframe beforehand and then used that same coloured image across frames, adjusting as necessary, the issue might not have been so troublesome. Regardless of this flaw I still dealt with it, either manually using the fill tool across different frames or copy-pasting some of the same elements from previous frames to future frames and transforming them as necessary.

Overall I would say I made a decent attempt at the planning and production of an animation. I succeeded in hitting the deadline, planned the character designs and made reference sheets, added some artwork for the settings, and thought about how I would overcome the issues of time constraints and only being a single individual working on this project. Regardless of that though, many mistakes were made in planning and production that might have done more harm than it was worth. From going through the process of planning and producing the issues found include the following:

The character designs are good for portraying their cliches but could be much simpler

When creating the animation I used the standard 24fps, which meant more frames had to be accounted for that were probably unnecessary

The animation feels flat due to the animation process

Because of the nature of having multiple shots, several backgrounds had to be drawn

The principles of animation weren’t used that extensively due to the animation process, leaving the animation feeling somewhat dull

All of the issues mentioned could have been easily solved if I had thought out the pre-production better. Though I succeeded in making the final animation, unnecessary complexity meant that other areas, notably the animation itself, had to suffer. To mitigate this I would firstly have to reflect on story elements and ask myself whether two characters are really necessary if I were to tweak the story in some way. On top of that, would it be possible to have a single shot used, and use a single background that had more time and focus put into it? The artstyle could be changed, as it mostly keeps characters maintaining somewhat lifelike proportions and body shapes. Do they have to be human at all? If the characters were drawn in an even simpler way then manually drawing more inbetweens might be more plausible which would solve the issues of there not being many animation principles present and the animation feeling flat. In conclusion, when trying to go through the pre-production process again, I’ll need to ask more questions and find better ways of keeping hitting deadlines possible without making quality suffer so much.

[comicteaparty]

May 6th-May 12th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from May 6th, 2019 to May 12th, 2019.  The chat focused on Chirault by Ally Rom Colthoff (Varethane).

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Chirault by Ally Rom Colthoff (Varethane)~! (http://chirault.sevensmith.net/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until May 12th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. What moment of discrimination featured in the story really caught your eye in its portrayal? How do you feel about the Mage Guild’s reason about disallowing Kyrion like Teeko and Trillia from using magic in the face of these themes of discrimination?

Kabocha

Aaaah, it's been a bit since I read Chirault, but... Basically any scene where Teeko's being awesome... Bonus points if she's using magic, like on this page! http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=642 As far as discrimination... Hm. I think the fact that Ridriel was willing to go through so much to become a mage was pretty striking. While the mage's guild really doesn't like Kyrion using magic... Hmmm. That attitude doesn't seem to be a completely firm rule, especially as they learn more...~ http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=1095 I need to re-read my copies of the books when I get back home, though.

Delphina

Yeah, I'm re-reading mine now too!

I had forgotten about the page where Astrid steals the car but I love it: http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=780

Kabocha

Ahaha, Astrid's honestly one of my favorites in the mage guild. "I see no problems here!"

Delphina

Astrid is so great. Just like "yeah, I'm just gonna do what I want kthxbai"

RebelVampire

i mean tbf hes not wrong

about the car one at least

Kabocha

I'm also partial to Ridriel -- she worked so hard to fit in and become a mage.

Delphina

I'd say the most blatant scene of demon discrimination was early on where Jim used the spice that made Teeko go rabid so he could justify killing Kiran (http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=142) and then later when Kiran deduces he killed her parents this way. (http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=152) Everything else stays on the "I'm sorry, we can't actually welcome you into this part of society" brand of discrimination, but it showed that some people were definitely willing to get violent over demons and humans mixing in society.

RebelVampire

ridriel is such an interesting character because of that. i think largely because she doesnt seem to regret it all that much and accepts the sacrifices she had to make to achieve her dreams. and that just goes so against the grain of what youd expect to see

Delphina

Another classic Astrid page: http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=813

varethane

I enjoy every Astrid-troll scene XD (there's a picture floating around out there of Astrid and Kiran facing down, with the troll-face shopped over Astrid's)

also: hi!!!

Kabocha

Hiii! I almost wonder if there's a list of all the time Astrid trolled people in the comic-- But I feel like, not counting the mini comic (and the last couple chapters), that'd be nearly every page Astrid shows up in.

RebelVampire

no no

theres those pages at the end where astrid is passed out for a bit(edited)

you cant be a troll when youre passed out probably

its very sad

varethane

I'm sure if there were a way, he would find it

duskglass

(1) i can't choose a single favourite scene but the part where teeko falls through bethan is really cool visually, and i love the eventual sibling bond between kiran & teeko (and also every scene with kiran & vivian)

duskglass

(2) a lot of the early scenes with kiran also come to mind, how he's clearly resigned to not being trusted by average villagers, and constantly has to verify his identity & prove he's not a threat. and the contrast between ridriel and trillia shows how limited their options were as kyrion who wanted to also be mages (ridriel giving up her kyrion nature vs trillia going rogue)

Desnik

ohh already digging the cool character design, I'm only one page in too

varethane

Woo!

duskglass

(also i found that trollface pic!!)

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. What moment of magic use in the story did you like the most? What about how it was used or illustrated did you like specifically?

€heshire777

Astrid, for being Astrid

Delphina

I do love Astrid, but all said and done, I think Bethan edges him out a little in the end. I love the fact that she was just a guard in a backwoods town, compared to almost every other big super-magical character who was trained by the Hunters or Mages Guild, but she's still like "well I can hold a spear now 60% of the time so heck yeah I wanna mess stuff up with y'all!"

Teeko's got a bit of that too and of course she's ADORABLE, but since her perspective is more childlike, she literally doesn't have context to know what she's walking into when she's like "YEAH LEMME SET IT ON FIRE" and it's more about not wanting to leave her found family than going toe to toe with corrupt mages.

varethane

fun story, both Bethan and Astrid are Ascended Extras (I'm pretty sure that's the name of the trope)

I needed faces to fill a space in the plot, and then decided I liked them too much to just leave them behind-- and, oh, look at that, coincidentally there's a new-character-shaped hole in the upcoming plot....

RebelVampire

gotta love those convenient and totally coincidental character shaped holes

RebelVampire

1) my fave scene is the one towards the end where Ridriel and Trillia are fighting John has to come and break their asses up. http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=1230 i always remember just feeling such utter tension from this scene because of their relationship. like the stake of the world is at hand and yet a sibling rivalry is what stands between the world being fine and the world exploding into a thousands bits. and i frankly wasnt sure if trillia could convince ridriel that nah she was there to help. and i love that even after they agree to work together, ridriel and trillia are still basically like "i hate you" to each other. and then john is there to be stuck in the middle like the poor sap. 2) i have to go back to what i already mentioned with ridriel. she is a fascinating character because she didnt let discrimination stand in the way of her dreams. and while you could argue the path she takes is horrible, the nuance to her feelings regarding it really gets the mind thinking about the nature of sacrifice and what elements of ourselves we choose to define ourselves by. As for the Mage Guild's reasons, I mean...I get where they're coming from. But I think Rune sums it up correctly at the end when he says "my dudes its magic magic in general is dangerous"

3) Heryan. Heryan is the character I wish I could be because she is calm, collected, and knows how to play political games like a master. And she's also legitimately working towards a better future and kind of putting her money where he mouth is. She is also a badass mage. And these are all things i can get behind and I would read an entire spinoff about Heryan. A close second is Astrid our resident troll mage because he's just a nice dude and I like his broship with Kiran. He adds an element of silly yet mage skill that the main party needed in their life. Plus, I just really love Astrid's design. 4) I really liked that moment when Teeko was going to cast the fire spell but then had her mouth covered to stop her. Cause it really showed that in her childishness she doesn't always think her magic through and, like a child, will ignore the wise sentiments of her elders. And I just think overall it's use, or non-use in this case, really hammered in just how much of a child Teeko still is because her comprehension for the situations around her are not necessarily the highest.

Delphina

Yessss I would also read an entire spinoff about Heryan, she's so excellent

Delphina

And yeah, Bethan does have the feel of an Ascended Extra, and I think what appeals to me about that kind of protagonist in a high-stakes story is they have much more freedom and agency. Kiran had Specific Things He Had To Do, Teeko had nowhere else to go, so they have to advance the plot by default. But when characters aren't so directly involved and get to CHOOSE to advance the plot, they get to have personal reasons for doing so and can embody all those cool "what if"s that are closed off to the core cast.

In a situation where you have an easy out, why do you choose to do the hard thing? That kind of character is so interesting to me!

varethane

That's a neat way to look at it! I enjoyed writing Bethan a lot, though if there were one thing I could change, it'd be to explore her anger a bit more in the lategame parts of the story (because boy has she got some haha)

(also, Heryan has always been my favourite character to draw XD THAT HAIR)

Delphina

Having just finished rereading my print volumes, I think my favorite magic is when Rupa helps Teeko cast the silence spell on Trillia and Ridriel to get them to stop fighting. http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=1358

varethane

the first truly useful spell.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. What was a moment where a character was confused about themselves or life situation that you enjoyed? What about it was relatable, and what are your thoughts on how the character overcame that obstacle?

RebelVampire

5) http://chirault.sevensmith.net/?comic_id=1118 probably this page cause thats not only some beautiful magic, but i love the shot choices. i also love how jagged the magic kind of is and the amount of ill call them tendrils. cause it really makes the process look horribly painful and its an illustration that really made me go "oh shit" cause rather than kiran's shoes, i could put myself in teeko's shoes and understand exactly the horrifying crap shes seeing right now. 6) This one I have to give to Kiran for the whole Viraigo debacle. I actually am not sure I'd call it relatable, because ppl dont generally find out the truth as Kiran did. Yet, its the fact that its not that relatable that I enjoy. Because that just makes it horrible and it also puts you in Kiran's shoes. Cause like Kiran, you're asking who is he, how responsible is he for this mess, etc. And so even if you can't imagine it happening ot you, it's still a complicated and really thought provoking situation to be in. As for how he overcame the obstacle, I really loved the subtlety and kind of nonchalant way he handled it, for lack of a better word. Like theres no definitive him declaring "yeah I'm not Viraigo or this other person I am Kiran." It's just him kind of wordlessly accepting who he is/choosing who he is. Cause it kind of also gives the impression hes still gonna have things to work out over the years to come. But that's very true to life cause rarely do people just snap their fingers and come to a full grasp of who they are.

varethane

Re: Kiran/Viraigo, I'm really glad that impression came through! I wanted to avoid giving a definitive answer to the question of WHO he truly is, because.... identity doesn't really work that way, in real life you don't get an easy one-and-done answer. So I didn't want to wrap up that particular issue with a neat little bow-- the important thing isn't the answer itself, but his acceptance of himself.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. Who do you feel went too far and why: the Mage Guild for creating their destructive items or Viraigo’s group for trying to restore the natural order? What do you think the story says about the balance between progression and the natural order?

Delphina

I really can't put much blame on anyone except the Mage Guild here (and Jenneth in particular for murderfying people and setting fire to the library when he couldn't get his way). It really seems like if Viraigo's group got what they asked for from the beginning, they would have been happy to just release the big ol' katamari of spirits and end the spell on Arya that was keeping her a creepy crumbly living corpse. Now releasing the spirits didn't WORK and that was pretty ugly, but they realized it right away and wanted to fix it.

Tree Lady/Ria was unnecessarily extra, though.

varethane

spirit katamari!!!!

RebelVampire

“murderfying”

i approve of this word usage

RebelVampire

7) too many. too many Ridriel and Trillia because they have i think the most interesting and contentious relationship in the comic. That you want them to overcome their past issues and get along cause both have good points on where theyre coming from. Heryan and Rune because theyre like a dynamic duo to me and really compliment each others personalities nicely. Rupa and Teeko cause Rupa is the nice older brother type who just wants everybody to be happy and is willing to show Teeko how to make ppl stfu. Astrid and Kiran cause its troll vs. grump man which makes for hilarious shenanigans and interesting dynamics since they have to work together but also approach life very differently. Yet, they can come together when it matters. Bethan and Vivian cause I like how Vivian is like "Bethan probably should wear a mask" and Bethan is like "meh" and its like this weird pseudo mom daughter relationship that i can get behind and find truly endearing.

8) Uh, the answer imo is both. They both went too far. This story is literally a series of ppl saying, "What's the worst that could happen?" and then through their lack for foresight the worst was really end the world bad shit. In regards to progression and natural order, I think the story has a lot to say just in general that extremisim is bad. You go too far in anyone direction and you wind up hurting something that's going to be missed. Thus why neither side really won, because they both tried too hard for the thing they wanted. Additionally, i think the story says a lot about how our ideas of what's best for the world may actually not be the best. Thus why we need rules, regulations, codes of ethics, and so forth. Because there's a point we just go too far and blow up the world.

varethane

(Vivian will be everyone's mom if they let her.)

re: 8, it's funny because I didn't set out to make that a major theme of the story, but it is something I definitely believe in-- the importance of checks and balances. So I find it really cool that it comes through!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. Do you feel the others were right to forgive Kiran for Viraigo’s actions? Do you think Ridriel and Trillia will forgive each other? Will Trillia forgive the Mage Guild? Overall, what insight can you gleam about the theme of forgiveness from the comic?

RebelVampire

9) All them landscape shots. Have you seen them? They are amazing and like...nature looks like nature. And nature stuff is hard to do and yet i always felt very immersed within each space. Plus, there were so many just like...far back shots where you get to take in the scenery, and i feel like so many moments do these really just set a tone and the atmosphere for stuff thats about to go down. 10) Yes I think the others were fine to forgive Kiran. Cause at the end of the day what's the point of punishing something they don't even remember doing? Especially when said person did their best to help and make the world a better place. Plus Kiran feels more like...not Viraigo anyway. Like imo Viraigo is dead and all thats left are aspects of himself. And these aspects, while part of Viraigo, just arent him. I think Ridriel and Trillia will forgive each other, but i think itd be a while before Trillia would forgive the mage guild. And even if Trillia did I'm not sure she'd ever consider joining just given the long history of animosity. In general, the insight I gleam is that forgiveness is difficult and that even if you forgive, this doesn't always fix everything.

Delphina

Yeah, I think sometimes grudging acceptance and moving on with your life with what you got is about all they can do. I really want to see how Teeko's presence affects Trillia and Ridriel moving forward, because I think them having her future to focus on gives them the chance that they never had to affect demons' place in the world. I'm just envisioning both taking on Mentor Aunt roles and trying to show Teeko cooler spells than the other in escalating hilarity.

varethane

Those would be some fun little shorts! If I get some time maybe I'll look into putting something like that together

Mentor aunts hehe

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. Which character’s growth/progression in the story is your favorite? How would you describe how they changed as a person, and what do you like about how they changed? What do you think we can learn from it for our own lives?

Delphina

I like how Bethan grew from a cool quiet fighter in a village to a cool slightly louder fighter who can fly and dissolve through walls. I too would like to be able to fly and dissolve through walls.

AshAngelV

Responding to 11, It's one of the few stories I've read that has a male and female mc that don't end up in a romantic relationship. I love their brother sister bond.

varethane

I three wish I could fly and dissolve through walls

And yeah, friendship stories that arent romancea are very important to me

duskglass

teeko is a child so one would really hope not xD;;;

tho the same could be said about all of the main cast! (we also have rune & heryan, kiran or astrid & bethan, etc) i really appreciated the lack of forced romance sideplots in chirault; it's really refreshing to see stories that focus on platonic relationships

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. Overall, how hopeful are you for the world at the end? Do you believe the changes regarding non-humans using magic will affect the world positively? Will relations with the tree spirits be mended? How do you believe the characters’ lives wound up being?

Delphina

On a macro-societal level, I think the world's gonna be okay. With Heryan at the helm, I think the Mages' Council is definitely going to be trying harder to be more inclusive and less awful toward non-humans and the planet; she definitely seems to have hit it off with the tree spirits diplomatically so I see a lot of potential for progress there. The issues I see in the non-humans' future is that they didn't seem to have much societal organization or structure that we saw (though it was established that Kyrion lived and worked in the cities, so maybe some ambitious leaders would rise to the surface that way and advocate for more rights).

I'm really curious what Rupa would want to do now, because he wasn't a demon, right? The problem they had with him was that he was a multi-caster and could tap The Big Magic that others couldn't. How many other multi-casters existed, and how would their role change in society if Rupa decided to advocate for them? Maybe the tree spirits could teach them how to use magic more responsibly?

RebelVampire

11) i think the comic's strengths are its endearing characters who have just a lot of gray to them. nobody is just evil or good. ppl had their reasons for doing everything in the comic, and that makes for more dynamic and realistic portrayals. i think another strength is the character designs themselves as well. its just so easy to tell everyone apart, and a lot of everyone's personalities is within their design. 12) I have to go with Bethan on this one. She went from silly small town girl to victim to bitter and angry about her friend to forgiving to wanting to do more for the world. It was an emotionally rollercoaster watching her goes through all these things. Plus, its an interesting mix of choice and no choice. Cause while Bethan did make a lot of choices in regard to her path, the whole becoming incorporeal was more accident. She just learned to make the most of it. And I think that is something we can learn from it. That sometimes life says "I hate you," and is really mean. And sometimes the only way to get through it is to roll with the punches.

13) I still vote for Heryan side story. Or another epilogue montage just showing how everyone is getting along. Especially Astrid cause I support the Astrid, Heryan, Rune family unit. 14) I think the world will be fine for at least a time. Heryan seems to be reasonable and regretful of all the mages' past actions. And I think shell usher in a new era of peace with the tree spirits. that being said, everything is finite so it wont last forever. Especially if Heryan cant find a suitable replacement to her. But overally, all the changes will probably be positive, even if the amount of progress achieved in a single lifetime isnt as great as everyone would want. I'm just gonna pretend all the characters lived happily ever after for my sanity. Teeko probably became a great mage. Although I am kind of on the same page with Delphina where I'm really curious what became of Rupa. Rupa was always an interesting chara to me since he was always kind of mellow and was way less intense than Trillia. So Rupa especially should live happily ever after

varethane

The note about Kyrion society is something that I do wish I'd gone into more depth about in the story! I had a lot of ideas about it but could only show it in tiny peeks and hints because the plot was taking place outside of the cities

I hope the ending leaves people on a positive note, I wanted to show that people are working towards a better future (even if theres a lot of work to be done)

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Chirault this week! Please also give a special thank you to Ally Rom Colthoff (Varethane) for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Chirault, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://chirault.sevensmith.net/

Ally’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/varethane

Ally’s Store: http://chirault.sevensmith.net/store.php

Ally’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/varethane

Ally’s New Comic Wychwood: http://wychwood.sevensmith.net/

[kristinsimmons]

Why Cochrane is Wrong About Hypertension. Very Wrong.

By SWAPNIL HIREMATH, MD

Archie Cochrane and the Cochrane Collaboration

Archie Cochrane was born in Scotland, educated in London (King’s College, University College and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and worked in Cardiff, Wales. His work as a doctor during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, especially in a prisoner of war camp in Salonica, is credited with his push towards generating higher quality evidence. In his description of the clinical trial he conducted, he mentions James Lind as his hero. Ironically, that clinical trial – with weak randomization, open allocation, non-blinding of investigator or participants, and use of surrogate outcomes, would rate poorly in the Cochrane risk of bias tool.

But the scientific method of measuring stuck with him, and among many other achievements, he did perform a proper randomized clinical trial (RCT) a few decades later. He continued to be a strong supporter of RCTs and pushed for the Medical Research Council (MRC) to move from purely fundamental research towards applied clinical research. As an aside, the first proper RCT in the modern era was funded by the MRC and was published in 1950 – on the use of Streptomycin vs para-aminosalicylic acid, or a combination, in tuberculosis. Far more influential was his paper (and later book) published as part of the Rock Carling Fellowship, available here freely and worth a read. It’s where he puts forward the vision for RCTs in moving towards what he termed an ‘effective, efficient health service’.

The Cochrane Collaboration was established after Cochrane’s death, started off as a database of clinical trials put together by Iain Chalmers, and later included systematic reviews. Now there are about 50 Cochrane review groups, all over the world.  Even the Cochrane logo is a forest plot (though after reading this, I dare not show it – but you can easily go and see it for yourself) from a 1990 systematic review (SR). This original systematic review is one of 12 RCTs, reporting a significant benefit in lowering respiratory distress syndrome from the use of antenatal steroids before preterm delivery. It is a classic example of how pooling underpowered studies can provide a powerful summary estimate. You can read more about the history of the Cochrane collaboration in this perspective from 3 decades ago, if you can open the paywall gates which, needless to say, is somewhat strange for a publicly funded organization. There is no monopoly on performing SRs, and they have proliferated widely since. However, Cochrane SRs are held in higher esteem. They are considered the gospel truth – in some cases, undeservedly, such as their review of hypertension.

Cochrane Hypertension Review

An example of a Cochrane SR which lost its way is this one, purportedly showing that intensive blood pressure (BP) lowering in patients with cardiovascular (CV) disease has no benefit. Interestingly, it is an update of another SR, done a few months earlier by the same authors – which the interested reader can check out for how much the data changed in 8 months to deserve a different analysis. The results of this SR, published in July 2018, are potentially practice changing. Hypertension Canada guidelines say that patients with established CV disease should be targeted for intensive BP lowering (systolic BP target < 120). The 2017 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (ACC/AHA) recommend a target of < 130/80 in these patients. Even the European Society of Cardiology/Hypertension in the recently announced 2018 update recommend systolic BP < 130. Is everyone wrong except Cochrane?

It is instructive to examine why the guidelines differ from the Cochrane SR. The systematic component of an SR refers to objective criteria for studies that should be included. This SR included RCTs with a sample size greater than 50, and more than 6 months follow up, which are quite reasonable and commonly used criteria. The outcomes reported had to include mortality and/or cardiovascular events, not just change in blood pressure, which is again a reasonable decision if the focus is on hard outcomes. The population of patients included, however, were those with established CV disease: ie history of myocardial infarction, stroke, chronic peripheral vascular occlusive disease, or angina pectoris. An intermediate or high cardiovascular risk was not sufficient (which was a criterion for many recent RCTs such as SPRINT, ACCORD and HOPE-3). So if a trial included a mix of these patients, then only the subgroup data of those with established CV disease as set out above would be used. See table 1 for how many patients from the individual trials made it to the SR.

Table 1: Sample Size of included trials, and the proportion included in Cochrane SR. Note that HOT and SPS3 contributed more than 50% weight overall

This matters because one if throwing away information when one is doing this – so you need a really good rationale for it. Since the sample size determines how much ‘weight’ a particular trial adds to the meta-analysis, this results in HOT (30%) and SPS3 (25%) being the heavyweights in Cochrane’s SR. Overall, both these RCTs reported no benefit in BP lowering – so the results of the Cochrane SR are not particularly surprising once this is taken into account. Was this a wise decision though?

Additionally, if you consider patients with high CV risk, and those with subclinical CV disease, not worthy of inclusion, consider the actual inclusion criteria of these trials and whether one thinks this is a clinical homogenous set (table 2).

Table 2: Summary of patient population included in the trials

More importantly, this is a comparison of two groups: lower and higher BP target. Over time, BP thresholds (and yes, this is all dichotomania) have decreased. In the 19th century, the discussion was about whether BP should be treated at all or whether it was a homeostatic mechanism. The 1964 Veterans Affairs trial changed that – though it was diastolic BP targets at that time (given that diastolic hypertension is more common in the young to middle-aged population studied then). In recent times the discussion has moved towards systolic BP. Specifically, in the elderly, the HYVET trial results suggested systolic BP lowering in the very elderly to < 150 mm Hg is beneficial. In the non-elderly, <140 mm Hg has been accepted for a while, since JNC 7, and even the controversial JNC 2014 recommendation was < 140 mm Hg. Hence in the last decade or two, the push has been towards even lower, ie whether < 130 mm Hg or < 120 mm Hg can provide even more benefits. The trials in this area have been careful about the choice of patient subpopulations and interventions in this push.

So one would expect this Cochrane SR would choose < 120 versus < 140? Or perhaps < 130 versus < 140? Umm, no it didn’t. The two groups were:

lower blood pressure treatment target:

systolic/diastolic ≤ 135/85 mmHg;

mean blood pressure ≤ 102 mmHg.

standard blood pressure treatment target:

systolic/diastolic ≤ 140 to 160/90 to 100 mmHg;

mean blood pressure ≤ 107 to 120 mmHg.

To belabor this point, the authors of the Cochrane SR are happy to compare RCTs that used systolic/diastolic or mean BP targets. Diastolic and mean BP targets are not used in recent RCTs, these criteria help certain older RCTs make it in. Also, their range is very narrow: systolic BP < 135 vs systolic BP < 140. Diastolic BP < 85 vs diastolic BP < 90. See table 3 below for the intervention and control arms of RCTs that got included to fulfill those eligibility criteria.

Table 3: Low and Standard BP targets as planned in the original trials

 More importantly, not all these RCTs actually managed to lower the BP as desired – which is not totally surprising, but is somewhat important when one considers the outcome in some RCTs versus others. Note in particular the differences (or lack thereof) in achieved BP in the heavyweight HOT trial in table 4.

Table 4: Achieved systolic blood pressure in the included trials. Note that achieved SBP in the HOT trial in the intervention group was higher than achieved SBP in the control arm in ACCORD and SPRINT

 So let’s recap: the Cochrane SR considers that is perfectly fine to lump an RCT from 1998, which targeted a diastolic BP < 85 and did not achieve a meaningful difference between groups, with a 2016 RCT which aimed for a systolic BP < 120, and did achieve a significant difference? Reminded of apples and oranges anyone?

The “no difference” result actually only applies to total mortality. When it comes to CV events, there is a significant lowering, but it is curiously stated as ‘the total  number  of  cardiovascular  events  was  not  significantly  reduced  in  the  lower  blood  pressure  target  group  compared  with  the  standard  group  (RR  0.89,  95%  CI  0.80  to  1.00;  P=  0.044;  six  studies)’. Quite a head-scratcher. There is an 11% relative risk reduction in CV events, with a p-value < 0.05, which the authors state as being ‘not significantly reduced’. Perhaps the authors have chosen a different p-value threshold compared to Ronald Fisher’s beloved 0.05?

Why should any of this matter? Consider the implications of this Cochrane SR: they are not saying that individuals with low risk receive little benefit from intensive BP lowering (a previous Cochrane SR does say that). They are saying that individuals with highest risk, those with established CV disease, receive little benefit from intensive BP lowering. Not only does this have little biological plausibility, we see above that it is a methodologically unsound result. The SPRINT trial included individuals at higher CV risk (including those with established CV disease) and demonstrated a mortality benefit. The need to do a trial like SPRINT was precisely because previous RCTs like AASK or HOT were not designed to answer that question. The interventions were different and the treatment thresholds were different. ACCORD and SPS3 were planned during the same time – and with overlapping investigators, and deliberately chose eligibility criteria to answer questions in populations which are different: diabetes with ACCORD, and recent lacunar stroke with SPS3. Hence to take subgroups from all these wildly different RCTs and combine them into a meta-analysis is like using elephant’s foreskin for plastic surgery – ok, I’m exaggerating, but Cochrane is really getting under my nerves.

A common criticism of SRs, especially of the quantitative part (i.e. meta-analysis) is “garbage in – garbage out”. One is sometimes combining apples and oranges to make a smoothie instead of a fruit salad. Is there a better way out when one does want to pool many different trials and synthesize the evidence? The Cochrane SR discussed so far uses study-level summary data from each trial. One could do an individual patient level meta-analysis which has far more granular data. And the BP Trialists Collaboration has done just that. Even pre-dating SPRINT, in 2014, on the basis of individual patient data from 11 trials and 67,475 patients, they demonstrated the benefit of BP lowering in patients with a differing level of Cv risk. They reported that the relative risk reduction remains constant at different levels of CV risk, but the absolute risk lowering is greater in individuals at higher baseline CV risk.  But we don’t even need individual patient-level meta-analysis. A more sensible SR, published in 2016 in the Lancet with study-level data, also reports significant benefit with intensive BP lowering – in patients with and without underlying CV disease. See a figure from that SR below:

Figure 5 from Ettehad et al, Lancet, 2016, reporting a benefit with BP lowering even in those with pre-existing CV disease

Should a systematic review always be on the top of the evidence pyramid? And is the Cochrane SR the last word? Hopefully, I have convinced you that Cochrane’s reviews aren’t as infallible as many believe.

There are subjective and qualitative decisions made when performing an SR, and one has to appraise them critically. SRs are reasonable when there are only a few small RCTs. Once a large randomized trial has been done, put more faith in the RCT – and when large RCTs are published with seemingly different results, try understanding the trials individually rather than putting them into a grinder. Sometimes studying the individual trees matter more than a bird’s eye view of the forest.

I admire Archie Cochrane. I’m disappointed by the organization named after him.

Individual RCTs included in the Cochrane Review

HOT https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(98)04311-6/abstract

AASK https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/195530

ACCORD https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1001286

SPRINT https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1511939?query=featured_home#t=articleTop SPS3 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60852-1/abstract

PAST BP https://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i708

Swapnil Hiremath is a nephrologist from Ottawa and co-creator of #NephJC. He pretends to diss systematic reviews despite having authored many. The opinions expressed here are personal and do not represent HT Canada.

Why Cochrane is Wrong About Hypertension. Very Wrong. published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/