#the script feels a bit clunky in places

[borealing]

im watching black doves to stave off the squid game hyperfixation and im enjoying it but some things keep breaking my immersion including 1. london is never that empty where are all the tourists!!! 2. ive been to this chippy. i have had fish and chips in this fucking place theyre sitting in. i know exactly where it is. what the fuck?

[centaurianthropology]

Thoughts and Probably Overly-Thorough Analysis on Adaptation in ‘Murderbot’ Episodes 1 and 2

After discussing adapting a very internal book series to the screen in this post, I was excited to actually get to watch how the show tackled visually trying to tell the story, especially given that the episodes are only approximately 30 minutes long.  That is TIGHT, and requires some tight scripting to establish the world, the characters, and the stakes. 

So, non-spoiler thoughts above the cut: I liked it!  I feel like the vibe is right, while changing some necessary things to better establish the world and several important concepts for non-readers.  The first scene felt a little clunky as far as pacing/info-dumping/character intro went, but after that I do feel like the pace evened out into something I genuinely found enjoyable.  There is a lot of effort to start defining cultures, concepts, and characters, and by and large I think it succeeded.  I have a few changes I might question, but we’re way too early in the season for me to feel comfortable judging them.  So overall, as someone who has read the books and enjoys seeing how things have to change to adapt to a different storytelling medium?  I think it’s overall successful, particularly as the first two episodes are clearly the setup episodes (almost always the hardest episodes to really nail during adaptation). 

If you’re looking for a 1:1 translation of the books, and if you’re really sensitive to changing the original, this is probably not going to be the show for you.  Luckily, there are great books and audiobooks still there for you!  But if you’re open to the changes, if your vision of these books and these character is flexible and you might even be excited to see a different version than the one already told, you will hopefully find it as fun a ride as I did.

By the end of episode two, particularly after some really great scenes featuring Alexander Skarsgard (whose portrayal of Murderbot completely won me over) and David Dastmalchian (Gurathin was always one of my favorites, and he is doing such interesting things to deepen the character), I am hooked.

More spoilery thoughts on the episodes below!

So, what do you have to do in intro episodes?  You have to introduce characters, situation and, in speculative fiction, also concepts and setting.  And for half-hour sci-fi episodes you’re almost certainly requiring a lot of shorthand, a lot of quick ways to get information across, a lot of info in as little time as possible.  Both of the first episodes dropped at once, and that’s honestly good, because they more or less function as the introductory two-parter before the action kicks off. 

The pacing is fairly leisurely, focused on introducing us to the world, the characters, and how they got to the place they are for the story.  And even after the intros, I do feel like we will probably be devoting more time to giving some of the more underserved characters more expansive moments.  But for having to do a lot in about an hour’s worth of television, I think they accomplished what they set out to do with fairly minimal clunkiness.

S1E1: ‘FreeCommerce’

That said the initial scene is a bit clunky.  I get why it was necessary.  We have to establish several big concepts in a hurry: what a SecUnit is, what they are generally used for, a sense of the Corporation Rim, and the hacked governor module that lies as the basis of the whole story going forward.  Those are big sci-fi concepts to front-load, and I do think the scene could have maybe taken one more pass through editing to not make it feel quite so rushed (a few pauses and beats here and there would have been appreciated), but I also understand that the sense was likely to get the information dump over quickly to get on with the story.  So, less elegant than one might hope, but not a deal-breaker by any means.  Information conveyed, moving on.

The introduction to the PresAux team, in my opinion, goes a lot better.  Largely because the writers play it out over multiple scenes and scenarios, giving us perspectives on these characters in three very different situations (at Port FreeCommerce, setting up their base, and facing their first real threat in the story).  I think hard-cutting to the actual beginning of ‘All Systems Red’ briefly, before flashing back to show the team having to rent Murderbot is a great choice.  We get the nod to the book-readers for the in medias res cold open of ‘All Systems Red’, while still going back to help the non-readers really understand who these people are and how they got here.

Playing up the hippie vibes of the team is smart visual and storytelling shorthand.  We immediately get a good sense that they don’t quite fit in with the Corporation Rim.  I love that it’s pointed out that their clothing is hand made, that there are patterns and textures, that there is jewelry and accessories and fun bags.  Put that against the Company’s sales reps’ tech-bro synthetic aesthetics, and it works!  My one wish would have been that the sales reps were all a little more artificially hot, to really drive home how unmakeuped and natural the PresAux team looks.  But still, a solid contrast to let us know that these are not your usual group of spacefarers.

And it continues throughout negotiations, leading up to the humming consesus circle.  Again, I think this is a great choice, because it serves multiple purposes all at once.  We can feel how different their society is to the one that Murderbot understands, and even sets them apart from our culture, which unfortunately is a lot more like Corporation Rim culture than Preservation. 

And this, I think, is why amplifying the hippie commune vibes of these characters is such a great choice: we as the audience are mostly in Murderbot’s head, so PresAux comes off the way that it initially sees them.  They seem weird, quirky, naive.  And yet, I believe that throughout the series both Murderbot and we will have our expectations challenged.  Why can’t people be emotionally open, trusting, and kind, even be fairly far-out and kooky, and still be highly competent, intelligent individuals who manage to hold their own under difficult circumstances.  In our own particular cultural moment, earnestness and emotional openness and the general hopeful and sweet vibes of the Preservation team is viewed as “cringe”.  I think there are probably going to be some viewers who look at them and want them to be some cool, cynical rebel college communists rather than drum-circle having hippies who love decorating their surroundings, embroidering, and jewelry making.  But I am very hopeful that, over the course of the season, we are shown how much their culture of openness, trust, and kindness can be a strength.  We might be asked to confront our own biases against earnestness and ‘quirkiness’, which could blind us to how competent these people are, much as Murderbot itself was initially blinded.

The scene on Port FreeCommerce serves as our introduction to the vibes of at least some of the individual members of PresAux as well.  Pin-Lee is running point in negotiations, so we know they’re someone who either has negotiating, business, or legal expertise (something that is difficult to establish through the rest of the story).  Dr. Mensah is clearly in charge, but has no desire to make unilateral decisions.  She takes other opinions into account (even if she ultimately disagrees with them), states her philosophical and moral objections to SecUnits clearly, but still acts as a realist: if they are going to do this survey, they have to cooperate with the Company.  The hellish compromise.

But because the whole team essentially has to compromise their morals and ethics to do this survey the way that the Company is insisting it get done (renting what is essentially mandatory slave labor), she makes sure that her entire team agrees with her before signing their contact.  We see that the team is very cooperative, but Gurathin is a bit of an awkward outsider (though immediately invited to be an insider by Ratthi, so we also get a sense of his open and warm nature), although at this point in the episode we don’t know why he doesn’t seem to fit as seamlessly as the others.

Moving to the survey planet and the team’s habitat is also a scene that pulls a lot of multilayered weight.  It establishes all the important components of the habitat, it establishes Murderbot’s disgust of human bodily functions, and further expands on the team and how Muderbot responds to them.  These are important moments because these are the initial impressions that will go on to be confirmed or subverted throughout the season.  While it’s a bit on the nose to just do a verbal intro of everyone, it’s also a good use of time in a 30-minute episode to just get everyone’s names out there, base-level relationships, jobs, and at least one individual facet of them (Mensah has 80 million seven children, Arada and Pin-Lee are married but might be going through a bit of a rough patch, Ratthi flirts with All The Things, Gurathin is an augmented human, and Bharadwaj is hoarding soap for unknown reasons).  We see them decorating their habitat, growing plants inside, playing music (again, more cultural establishment and ways of making both Murderbot and the audience initially confused by this bunch), and being … really sweet with one another, honestly.  I felt immediately endeared to them and wanted to know more (why are you hoarding soap, Bharadwaj??).  We get tiny character beats like Arada running up the stairs to call dibs on rooms, followed by Ratthi and Pin-Lee, and we get a moment of Pin-Lee pausing as they run past SecUnit to smile at it and seem to try to engage with it, if only briefly.  We get Ratthi painting the habitat, and Gurathin fretting over if the paint washes off (they’re never getting their deposit back …).

We also get that Murderbot Does Not Want to Be Here, and see it grappling with humanity as a whole.  It seems to find actual human relationships offputting and confusing, but loves the melodramatic interpretations of relationships on ‘Sanctuary Moon’.  Reality makes it deeply uncomfortable, but unreality has become its comfort and what it mostly spends its time focused on.  Through its avoidance of them and their oddities, we get a sense both of its fear of being found out, and we get a Chekhov’s gun of emotional attachment.  It doesn’t want it, but it’s also deeply fascinated by its facsimile.  And given how open and loving this group seems to be in general (with one notable and delightfully bitchy exception, love you Gurathin), we can already see how it’s going to be loved whether it wants to be or not.

The final establishment of character, situation, and place, occurs with the return to the cold open of ‘All Systems Red’, now armed with enough information to actually care at least somewhat when Bharadwaj gets attacked by the worm, as well as somewhat understanding why she and Arada might initially not listen to the SecUnit (they know it’s refurbished and all the rest of their Company equipment is a bit shit, they’re scientists excited about their work, the planet was rated safe). 

The worm attack works fairly well.  The CG of Murderbot jumping down feels a bit floaty, but as soon as it closes in for combat the visual effects are on point, and the pacing of the scene is frantic and fun.  The use of the ‘Sanctuary Moon’ clip to give Murderbot a means of trying to comfort Arada to get her walking was great, and it was really this scene that sold me on Alexander Skarsgard as Murderbot.  After hearing its snarky internal monologue, hearing the awkwardness of its actual attempts at a social interaction is delightful!  Internal-Monologue!Murderbot is quippy and witty and sarcastic.  Outside!SecUnit is awkwardness and social anxiety personified.  And I feel like this disconnect can really hit home for a lot of people with bad social anxiety. 

This is also important to establish the initial character reactions to a majorly tramatic and shocking moment for them.  Arada goes into shock, but after that gets forceful and defensive of both SecUnit and her field of study (her lines about animals were actually great, and really set her apart in her own unique way). 

Pin-Lee demands action.  They can get loud and abrasive, and they clearly need to have control over their circumstances or they start to get very twitchy, but they are also caring, careful to correct themself when they say something that could be genuinely insulting. 

Ratthi is concerned for everyone, but also has a base-level chill nature that means he can’t stay worked up to the intensity that others can.  It makes him a sweet and leveling presence in tense scenes. 

Gurathin has to be useful.  He preps the medbay.  He stays with Bharadwaj until she wakes up, monitoring her vitals and the equipment, even though there isn’t much he can do.  But the equipment is his thing.  The tech is his thing, and he’s going to make it work.  Which is why, of course, he’s also the first to notice something is off with their SecUnit.  Not only is he focused on the equipment (and at this point viewing SecUnit more as faulty equipment than a person), but we find out that he’s the only one of the team who might have actually had prior experience with SecUnits, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

Mensah stays cool under fire, staying at the heart of the discussion while taking everyone’s thoughts and feelings into account.  She keeps everyone directed, focused, and calm.  And then, when she is alone, she falls apart, slipping into a full-blown panic attack over almost losing Bharadwaj.  And honestly?  I love them giving her a panic disorder.  Giving a character a panic disorder while still showing that she is competent, a respected leader, and tries her damndest to push through the panic to reassure and care for her people is a lovely touch. 

With these three data points we actually get a good baseline for these characters in their element, out of their element, and in danger.  They already feel human and flawed, despite not knowing any of them deeply yet.  It also means that we’re already able to read more into their interactions than Murderbot is grasping quite yet.  After all, it’s not great at this social thing, and it REALLY doesn’t get them and their culture.

This gets highlighted when it has to come out and talk to the team out of its armor.  Again, Alexander Skarsgard does a fantastic job of radiating the incredible social anxiety of a being that would vastly prefer to only ever have to interact with other people safely behind a helmet.  Being so exposed, with its feet and its face and its hands all on gangly display in one of the crew jumpsuits, is so clearly an existential nightmare to it.  And the more most of the team try to thank it, welcome it, treat it like a person, the more uncomfortable it becomes.  The speech is hilarious, but also a great bit of disconnect between its social comfort zone and that of the Preservation team.  And in that moment, we realize that, even if some of them are trying to embrace it, to invite it to be more integrated with them, to give it a chance, they understand Muderbot as little as Murderbot understands them.

I have seen some people not liking part of this scene because Arada misgenders Murderbot by calling it ‘he’, but I think this is actually an important part of character building for her, Murderbot, and the story.  My guess is that the writers are going to Rule Of Threes Murderbot’s pronouns, as many viewers have likely never encountered someone who uses it/its pronouns.  This scene serves as the Introduction: Arada is well-meaning, but accidentally misgenders it because she is reacting to the face she saw (as many well-meaning people can do).  Gurathin immediately and vehemently corrects her … for the wrong reasons.  He’s thinking of their SecUnit as a malfunctioning piece of equipment, while Arada is thinking of it as a human, so he is dehumanizing it.  They are both wrong, but also both a bit right.  Arada is right that Murderbot is a person, but she is wrong in immediately defaulting to Human Male when she thinks of it.  Gurathin is right in that it has no interest in being human and is, in fact, quite attached to being a construct and having no gender, but he’s wrong in treating it as equipment.  I imagine that, per the Rule of Threes, this topic will be Reinforced later, and then Confirmed in a final scene so the audience learns its pronouns properly, even audience members who might initially struggle to use the right pronouns or do the same as Arada by seeing Alexander Skarsgard and making assumptions.

And speaking of assumptions, the audience also gets its first hint that perhaps ‘Murderbot’ wasn’t simply a cool name it plucked out of the aether, but ties much more intensely into the fragments of memories it has.  We find out that SecUnits are routinely memory wiped, but a few seconds of something awful have leaked through.  It sees people screaming, running, and dying, and it has the feeling it might be responsible.  And despite its general misanthrope, it doesn’t seem at all pleased by this memory.  If anything, it seems horrified.  It’s one thing to idly speculate about killing humans, but another to realize it might well have already done precisely what all the SecUnits on the entertainment feeds do: go crazy and kill all its clients.

Introducing that memory and then having a one-on-one with Mensah is an interesting choice, because it adds layers to the scene.  She is clearly trying to thank it again, maybe reach out, but she’s also trying to figure out what’s happening with her clearly incredibly anxious SecUnit.  It’s terrified she suspects it’s hacked its governor module, but it’s also afraid she’s getting attached, which could be worse.  After all, if it’s done something awful once, there’s nothing stopping it from doing so again. 

The memories keep playing even after she leaves, and it says the same line it lifted from ‘Sanctuary Moon’ to itself: “Stay calm; it’ll be okay.  You have my word.”  It’s honestly creepy, and it’s clearly meant for the audience to read this initially as a threat to the scientists.  But looking at it again, considering how traumatized it seems to be by this fragmented memory, the line takes on an almost self-soothing quality.  Is it speaking to the people in its memory?  The PresAux team?  Itself? 

The first episode does a workmanlike and occasionally inspired job of introducing us to all the things it needed to.  And for all that this first episode is fairly direct in its storytelling, I feel like there are layers that will feel deeper on future viewing after the whole season is out.

S1E2: ‘Eye Contact’

The second half of our introduction to this show had two major jobs: reinforce themes from the first episode, deepen character beats, and get us to the point where the plot kicks off.  The show does this by splitting the episode into two subplots that both kick off with the opening scene.

We open in the hopper, and it’s clear from the first scene that this episode will, at least in part, focus on better establishing and characterizing Gurathin.  I’m hoping each of the characters gets this treatment going forward, because I really have to commend the episode for how much we learn about him throughout.  There are a lot of layers at play, both in the writing of his character and in David Dastmalchian’s performance.  This is a guy with anxiety to rival Murderbot’s, even if he can cover it better.  He’s trying to keep their conversation out of its purview, because he doesn’t trust it.  He doesn’t trust anyone outside of this small friend group he’s got, and he especially doesn’t trust anything coming from the Company.  And even though the group thinks he’s being overly paranoid, it’s really nice to see how immediately they confirm that he has good reasons for not trusting the Company, and they all love him (and Ratthi calls him “Gugu”, which … chef’s kiss).  We now get our first big hint of what makes him the outsider of the group: he’s not originally from Preservation.  As we learn later, he’s almost certainly originally from the Corporation Rim, and whatever happened to him there has fucked him up badly.

Mensah once again comes in as the tempering force.  She mentions her conversation with SecUnit.  She wanted to see if she could trust it, and she FEELS like she can, but THINKS they should be cautious.  I like this slight change from the books, as all the Preservation natives feel the immediate desire to trust and befriend SecUnit, but in this they are a bit more cautious because they aren’t certain if they can trust anything supplied by the Company. 

I think this is the benefit of the visual medium expanding out the story.  After all, while the audience is able to hear all of Murderbot’s internal snark, they only get the anxiety-ridden, clearly atypical external SecUnit.  And even if some of them are now seeing it as a person, they are also seeing that it works for a deeply untrustworthy company that may or may not be deceiving them.  So with the information and experiences they currently have, Gurathin is making a reasonable argument for leaving the SecUnit behind. 

And from a storytelling perspective, it makes sense to leave it behind.  It would be easy for this episode to feel like it was retreading the worm incident from the first episode, but having Mensah and Bharadwaj decide to go alone to survey the blacked out area in the map makes the stakes very different. 

And speaking of, though we don’t get a lot of time with her, I am LOVING Bharadwaj.  The actress is hilarious, particularly when the character is clearly high as balls on stimulants and pain meds is just fantastic.  I also love her little moment later of academic one-upsmanship.  Having known so many academics in my life, that was the most real moment of academic bullshit so far.  I cackled!

Their plot is primarily used to reestablish Bharadwaj, and to get Mensah into a dangerous situation (and honestly, I don’t think she should have gone alone trying to climb a fucking mountain, but whatever).  She ends up having another panic attack, and it’s a good beat to see her trying to force her way through it.  She doesn’t want to let the team down.  Even while she’s spiraling she’s trying to be so supportive and encouraging to her team.  I like that she doesn’t handle this situation perfectly.  I like that she struggles and sort of fails, and still keeps pushing.  One of the things the show has been consistently good at is giving the characters very relatable flaws.  She takes her role so seriously she’s going to put herself through hell to see it done, all while trying to mask how bad it’s getting in front of the people she cares about.  This is a good way of reinforcing what we learned about her in the last episode, and setting up an emotional arc for her.

And speaking of setting up emotional arcs, let’s talk about Murderbot and Gurathin, or what I like to call The Best Scenes in the Show So Far Holy Shit.

The scenes between them function on so many levels: comedy, drama, character development, worldbuilding.  We have it all right here!  Major concepts that will be important later (ComfortUnits, Corporation Rim vs Preservation culture) are established quickly and with deliberate discomfort for both characters.  Gurathin weaponizes Murderbot’s deep discomfort with eye contact and social interaction to try to interrogate it and figure out what’s gone wrong, but it doesn’t really go the way either of them wants it to go, because both of them are socially awkward disasters; both of them have conflicting motivations and desires; both of them don’t understand one another and understand one another way, WAY too well.

This leads to scenes that can be interpreted on multiple levels, all while setting up some meaty stakes.  Both characters are trying to do multiple things at once, and it’s really fun to see how well or poorly they succeed.  Gurathin definitely set up the scene to be at least a bit intimidating … and promptly fumbles it when he realizes that his chair isn’t a swivel chair and he can’t turn and do a cool reveal, but instead drags it around, scraping along the floor.  And honestly, part of him not only can’t be intimidating, but doesn’t want to be.  Part of him wants to understand this incredibly awkward being he’s now sharing space with.  There is a weird earnestness, almost a stream-of-consciousness strangeness to the way Gurathin is written in this scene that I adore, and that David Dastmalchian absolutely nails.  He seems even weirder than Murderbot in his own way.

They’re both such messes, and both ready to needle the shit out of one another.  Gurathin, especially, is clearly trying to provoke reactions, to test boundaries.  It’s almost like he’s conducting a stress test on a computer system, but with a sentient being instead, and his life potentially on the line.  He questions Murderbot about its capacity for emotion, for connection, by comparing it to ComfortUnits, but because, again, this is an interrogation conducted by and to the two most cripplingly awkward beings on the hab, it half comes off like he’s hitting on it.

And then there’s the reason for the episode title, and something that is both a deeply dirty trick on Gurathin’s part, and an absolute red flag waved in front of a bull.  He orders (likely suspecting that this SecUnit might be capable of disobeying orders) that they maintain eye contact throughout this interaction. 

And I think that red flag in front of a bull is the other level he’s trying to work at in this scene.  This is a systems stress test, trying to tease out what is happening and where what he sees as a malfunction lies.  But he’s also painting himself as a target.  He’s pulling out every nasty trick in the book to make sure that, if this SecUnit really is rogue and really is going to go on a killing spree, it doesn’t go after anyone but him.  Because as was established in the opening scene: Gurathin may be a paranoid dick, but he loves his weird extrovert friends so, so deeply, and he would absolutely die to protect them.

Because Gurathin, above all things, needs to feel useful.

Murderbot is trying to dodge questions, trying not to give anything away.  It’s trying to bear up under the sheer painful amount of eye contact required, and it’s trying to get Gurathin back (you make me look you in the eye?  I’ll make you see your friends making out with one another!).  And the funniest thing is that they’re basically just inflicting on the other what they already find uncomfortable.  Again and again, they parallel one another.  It was established twice last episode and hammered home now.

And at the same time, there is a weirdly heart-to-heart quality to this interaction.  Because as much as Gurathin is trying to be a hardass, and as much as Murderbot is trying to shut this interaction down as quickly as possible, Gurathin is also just trying to understand, and Murderbot can’t help but explain itself a bit.  It’s the awful moment of sympathy with someone you loath because they’re far too much like you, but you just keep reaching out.  And that layer of earnestness, of accidental vulnerability on both of their parts, adds such a lovely, bizarre tinge of sweetness to what is otherwise a fairly brutal encounter for both of them.

The choices in this scene are what sold me on the show, from the storytelling to the writing to the performances.  The actors fucking kill this scene.  Alexander Skarsgard gets to do a lot of subtle facial expressions as the internal snarky narration struggles to emerge under its facade of calm, and its deep levels of social anxiety keep kneecapping it from fully extracting itself from the conversation or getting the upper hand.  And David Dastmalchian brings all the conflicting motivations, all the half-aborted gestures of hostility and kindness and awkwardness and paranoia through to make Gurathin feel desperately, earnestly human.  I really can’t say enough about their performances; they bounce off one another fantastically.

And of course, these two storylines dovetail at the end of the episode as Mensah finds the Alien Remnant (really cool use of visual effects there!), almost gets eaten by a worm, and everyone realizes that either the maps are glitching out due to the Remnants’ influence, or someone is deliberately hiding them.  They try to confer with the other survey team currently on the planet, a small group from a company called DeltFall, but something is wrong.  And as the episode closes with bodies strewn over the darkened DeltFall habitat, I think we’re about to see the plot kick into gear.

Conclusions

So, what did I think about the first two episodes overall?  They were solid.  I want more establishing time with quite a few of the characters (Bharadwaj, Ratthi, Pin-Lee, and Arada especially), but episode two in particular made me confident this show is going fun places.  Because the scenes between Murderbot and Gurathin were added for the show; this is new material, and it’s exactly the sort of thing I was hoping we would get from an adaptation.  Those scenes struck the perfect blend of humor and danger and sincerity and anger that I read in the books.  That was what convinced me that the show really could pull off something new and fun and fresh both as an adaptation of a series of books I enjoy, and as a piece of science fiction media that feels defiantly hopeful and colorful and weird in the face of a fairly bleak and depressing sci-fi television landscape. 

Like I said before, doing set-up episodes is incredibly hard to do gracefully in television, and doing sci-fi setup where you’re having to explain places, politics, and concepts as well as characters and situations, is even more challenging.  And you’ve got two half-hour time slots to do it in.  And with those limitations in mind, I feel like the show currently ranges from Gets-the-Job-Done-Inelegantly-but-Fine to Holy-Shit-I-Want-to-See-More-of-That-Right-Now. 

I want to get to know all these weirdos on the same intense level I now feel we know Murderbot and Gurathin, and I feel like we will.  Will it be the perfect show?  No.  It will not.  Have I still watched both of these episodes multiple times, and am I super excited to see DeltFall and how much things are about to go to shit?  Oh hell yes.  I am so excited!

So, yes.  There are my scattered thought about this adaptation, where it mostly succeeds and occasionally feels clunky.  The cast is charming and occasionally electric, and I am eager to see more.

[shijiujun]

WHY YOU CAN TRY WATCHING YUAN ZUI 原罪 Original Sin (2024)

Okay I've watched up to 20 episodes (out of 25 I think) and can say that this is a mild, low-level rec — just for people who MIGHT be interested in it, and don't have too much expectations on script etc. Off the cuff, it's very SCI-esque production but with slightly worse lines and acting (I'll explain later) BUT the filming visuals aren't bad, main characters are cute, and the cases objectively are pretty okay. My two cents is - if you're bored and looking to just pass the time, you could watch this, but if not, you won't be losing out on much either, but it's worth a try.

IN GENERAL

It passes as a detective drama - to be very fair, they've really tried their best to do a detective drama properly with the hints, the process, the autopsies, the high management police relations, some spy work, some vulnerabilities, some teamwork, some misunderstandings and arguments, some backstory and some PTSD < they've got all the makings of a good show, plus Wang Haoxuan and Chen Huan the two main leads are nice to look at, and their acting is passable.

Clunky script, lines and acting - Personally I think a lot of the lines were not necessary, and because you stuff like a scene out of place, there's like a lot of unnecessary emotion at strange places you wouldn't expect logically LOL. Some of the clues are also a bit ??? I mean I watch with a lot of suspension of disbelief trust me, but I found myself LOL-ing with a cringe at some places. A little overboard in acting also for the PTSD or like the cases that really affect the two male leads, like you can feel it's a tad over the top in terms of trying to get a feel for the scene, but I mean, like I said, low expectations.

If they had a better production and more episodes, I think this might have turned out to be 100% better. It's a hardcore detective drama, so much so that technically some character development scenes would have done it well but they're like almost overly focused on the detective parts of it and like relationships are all for show, but we'll make do.

SUMMARY

Dai Yu (played by Wang Haoxuan), a medical examiner, works closely with Zheng Ming (played by Chen Huan), a police squad captain to solve five cases (5 episodes per case) — they've known each other for a long time, as Zheng Ming's mentor is Dai Yu's dad, and their relationship goes way back. Between them is the death of Dai Yu's father, who was shot right in front of Dai Yu, and the death of Zheng Ming's best friend Hai Shan, who was exposed for his undercover role and shot to death by Zheng Ming by accident during a hostage situation. This results in Zheng Ming being unable to shoot a person after, afraid that he would miss his shot like he did. As they work through several cases, they unravel secrets of what happened in the years after these two deaths.

Total 25 episodes

Playing on iQIYI, but don't know if there are subs since it's so obscure as a production there's barely any promo of it online

BROTHERHOOD (AHEM)

Truly a brotherhood like as if they're allergic to bromance BUT there are really like split seconds where you have to do a double take OKAY! They're kind of close because Dai Yu's dad was Zheng Ming's mentor, but Dai Yu himself took a while to warm up to Zheng Ming and Zheng Ming is kinda hot-headed, and misunderstands people really quickly. The both of them switch between being real familiar with each other to super professional like SUPER professional.

EP. 1: Zheng Ming sends Dai Yu back but Dai Yu has fallen asleep in the car so he literally removes the seatbelt for Dai Yu and then they just fall asleep in the car like that.

EP. 6+7: Dai Yu has his own house but when he sleeps over at the police housing he rooms with Zheng Ming, and Zheng Ming always nags at him for sleeping with his shoes on. And always buys him breakfast. And when Dai Yu once again falls asleep while talking to Zheng Ming without taking his shoes off, Zheng Ming takes it off for him and is all like "There you go again, sleeping with your shoes on."

EP. 15: After having a cold war with each other for like 3 episodes, Dai Yu tags along on a bust without permission and nearly gets knifed and Zheng Ming is pissed off as fuck going like: "What if that blade really hit the mark?! If it was a gun, you'd also step right in front of it?!" and then he walks off and then Dai Yu says, "If it was you (in danger), I definitely would stand right in front of the gun."

There are a lot of other moments, but it's always just RIGHT when you think it could be a bromance moment NOPE they make it so professional I'm like BRUH!!!

But otherwise for me personally, who's a low-maintenance viewer, this hits the spot and I'd keep watching!! Edit: Just finished watching the whole thing and ARGH wow talk about the most abrupt cold-feeling ending ever LMAO?!!?!

[milliondollarnooboo]

He hated his life a little less when he watched the stars.

There was something so peaceful and dignified about the way each of them nestled itself in the big blue blanket of sky.

Being in the water made him feel like he was up there with them, swimming among their reflections.

Of course, the stars weren't his only friends. Joseph had gotten quite well-acquainted with the Social Bunny. Though he never said much, the bunny's silent stare and nimble hopping was somewhat comforting. He’d never admit this but that idea of presence was all he needed sometimes.

He found that they could talk for hours about the stars, the sea, and how much he hated his life in Periwinkle Palms.

Yes. There were times when Joseph's thoughts would wander gleefully to scenarios where the whole place would just catch on fire and give him an excuse to leave.

Sometimes, you just want to watch the world burn.

You know what they say though-- if you think about it hard enough, want it badly enough, then you just might get it.

It happened while Yu-Bi was visiting for a residence check in. In an effort to be hospitable, Joseph thought some Mac and Cheese would soothe the lingering tension between them.

The stove had other plans though.

As panic consumed Joseph, he could only yell for help as Yu-Bi swooped in with the fire extinguisher and battled the raging flames.

She was glorious.

If it wasn't for the chaos he would have stopped and stared. Right then, she looked like the stars he gazed at in the night sky.

Soon the other residents burst in to join the fight, but the flames grew angrier, and Yu-Bi grew weary. All of a sudden, she was ablaze. Her screams made Joseph's body go rigid with fear-- he'd never heard such anguish.

Just then, a chilling howl began to consume the room. The Grim Reaper emerged, his scythe ready to claim the bleeding soul. Joseph felt his heart plummet.

Natasha dropped to her knees and began to plead for the mayor's life, sobbing as though her own life was at stake. Joseph turned away, he knew there was no hope.

For the first time ever, Joseph thought about another life aside from his own. As he sat in his bed several weeks later, his eyes could not see the words on the page. Instead his thoughts drifted back to Yu-Bi.

Why had she risked her life for him? At that time, things were still tense between them from the time when they'd fought. His heart cooled with shame at the memory. The fact that that would have been one of her last memories of him was haunting.

Except, it wasn't.

Yu-Bi had lived, after a dramatic turn of events where Natasha unexpectedly defeated the Grim Reaper.

Joseph had been so shocked by it all that he decided to value his relationship with his neighbours from that point on, starting with Yu-Bi.

"I've noticed that you are the only one among the girls who wears earrings. So, here." Joseph said plainly, handing her a neatly wrapped gift box.

Inside lay a simple pair of sea-shell earrings. He'd discovered them while combing for shells at the beach. Yu-Bi was surprised, but quickly recovered and thanked Joseph politely for the gift. It was a bit weird, but she didn't want to be rude and turn him down.

Eventually they went on to chat about other things, with Joseph enlightening Yu-Bi about the stars and the sea.

All was well again.

But as Amin walked by and saw them, his jaw clenched tightly.

--

End of Mwale Household rotation 1.

Well, that was interesting. I never really come up with the script until I'm actually typing the post. I'm making up most of it as I go.

I'm curious to see how the friendship between Yu-Bi and Joseph goes. Amin might not be so keen though.

This chapter felt a bit clunky, but I'm just going with it. I'll get better.

[thejackalxi]

Watching "Kahmunrah Rides Again" for the FIRST TIME like...

(Final thoughts and disclaimers at the end, so hold all questions and comments for the end, please. For all my rantings and ravings, I do take a breath and anaylize this fairly and even have my own epiphany.)

Seeing "Kahmunrah Coming Soon" poster made me laugh like the immature boy that I am.

The voice acting is not great. No one sounds even remotely like the original actors, including the way they speak, their natural flow and line delivery doesnt feel beliavble, except for the Ricky Gervais sound-alike who actually was pretty close.

Worse than the voice acting is the dialogue itself. The writing is atrocious!

The scenes with Larry and Nick felt genuine and were actually written pretty nice, immediately followed up with a terrible clunky scene with Larry and his ex-wife.

Inconsistancies ABOUND! There's no Rebel Wilson character and Dr. McPhee doesn't know about the museum coming to life, and with the inclusion of Laa, yes, the script confirms that this takes place after the events of the 3rd film.

The candy bar scene got a chuckle out of me before the badly out of sync Teddy Roosevelt jumpscare. The animation itself is not...awful, that one shot just was sync'd weird.

Seriously, the scenes of Nick sharing dialogue with his dad are the best written bits, it's like being able to come up for air while otherwise drowning in a sea of stupid. I actually got a small chuckle out the Tokyo bathroom joke.

I really hate that Kahmunrah doesn't have his speech impediment...and looks nothing like Hank in NATM2.

WH-what is this voice he's doing? It's super inconsistant. He has an accent, then he doesn't have an accent, his voice is all over the place. At this point I'm completely convinced there was little to no vocal direction and Disney execs didn't care, they just wanted the tracks recorded and mixed by the end of the week. "This is all so bad."

"Ohh, it IS bad, and DON'T interupt me!" The movie is aware, heard my critique, and agrees 🤣 This was the hardest laugh I got out of watching this thing so far...

I HATE HATE HATE this writing and the line delivery *screams into hands, and notices there's still 50 minutes left to watch* Gotta keep going...maybe it gets better??

Personal nit pick, but if my handsome beefcake daddy Kah with massive biceps has superstrength in this cartoon pushing over a whole ass stone column, what sick character designer gave him pool noodle arms??? I mean, are you for real??? LOOK AT THOSE THICK TREETRUNKS, MAN! What sick monster drew him in this cartoon- whatever, it's fine. It's fine. It's just a cartoon, it's fine.

No, it's not fine! Listen! Kahmunrah's entire design in this animated movie is offensive and it deeply bothers me, I recognize that it shouldn't bother me, but it does, and it's wrong and I don't like it...Ill tell ya how I really feel, I don't particularly care for this cartoon....*takes a breath* Moving on...

Ugh...and the poster of Merenkare looks NOTHING like Ben Kingsley either *sigh* Im kind of glad Ahkmenrah is M.I.a. from this film because I'm sure the character designer knew they couldn't replicate Rami Malek's angelic beauty and perfectly capture his face, so they just didnt bother.

stop...this dialogue is so unfunny and delivered so baddddd *cries*

"Technically he was never a pharaoh because [insert badly written quick exposition]" FALSE!! First of all, Teddy, you weren't there, so shut your goddam moustachio'd mouth. Second, if the writer of this thing had watched ANY of the movies or done any research into this franchise (they clearly didn't, who am I kidding), Kahmunrah WAS passed over and the throne given to his little brother Ahkmenrah who, after only a year on the throne, was violently murdered by Kahmunrah and reclaimed his rightful place on the throne for 17 years before he passed. Did anyone on this production think to ask the original writers or Shawn Levy for creative consultation? Of course not, because it's Night at the Museum now owned by Disney, they don't care to fact check...or even glabce at the original source material 😒 (Turns out yes, they did and they just forgot their own established canon. Don't you be tryin to take away my man's title of Pharaoh, how very dare!)

Yet, they included Joan of Arc who appeared in a NATM spin off junior novel following Nick. Kinda disappointed she's not voiced by Nicole Sullivan 🤣 jk, this actress is good for Joan, Im just a sucker for Clone High.

"Let's dance." Kahmunrah draws khopesh (hot)

"No dancing, just swords." Joan replies. I actually giggled, that was cute, until,

"Silly girl, that was a metaphor! A metaphor is not literal-"

Dammit movie!! Stop killing your own jokes by pointing out why the joke is meant to be funny! Stop! Let me just TRY to have a laugh! This dialogue is just bad. Please don't follow up your jokes with, "See, that's funny BECAUSE-" Stop! We get the joke, it's annoying! I get they were trying to match the improv comedy tone of NATM, but they failed so hard doing so!

*Kahmunrah talks more*

BRO, PICK A VOICE! PICK JUST A SINGLE TONE, PICK A LANE! PICK ONE ACCENT AND STICK WITH IT! One minute you sound like if Hank Azaria was on ALL of the drugs, a Mark Hamill's Joker-esque tone, then you sound insanely British, now you have an American accent, some sort of demented gremlin voice, and now sound like Jafar?? PICK A VOICE, MAN!! And of all these voices, still no teeth lisp. A crime.

"Don't eat me, or this will be a very short movie!" Please do, a fourth wall joke doesn't work for Kahmunrah, that really should be Teddy Roosevelt's shtick.

Also REALLY bothers me that they made Jedediah a freckled red head.

"Let gho of me you Phillestines!" And now Kahmunrah is Mark Hamill? Why...did he deliver that line like the Joker?

"I need backup, the ULTIMATE backup." Now he's what, Haas Delgado? What are these vocal choices his actor is doing?

Also, not the voice actors fault here, but why is Kahmunrah's khopesh sheethed in the back inside his tunic like that? Is his blade nestled in his ass crack? 😂 Why animators did you make such a terrible choice??? He could've had a sheath at his hip, but...why in the back like this???

There's still 40 minutes left, HOW???

And again, just when I feel like we've settled into an American scary guy voice for Kah, he slips into the Joker again. brah....brah...come on.

Seth's accent isn't very tight or consistant either, but I'm so exhausted by the insanity of Kahmunrah's vocal deliveries to really care. Speaking of which, he alives a Scorpion statue and his voice COMPLETELY changes tone and delivery style... again. I know I could just stop watching, but Ive made a comittment to see it through.

"Is it really bad?..." Teddy asks, Nick and I happen to say at the same time, "Yeah, it's still really bad." (Though we're clearly not talking about the same thing) 😂

Seriously, the khopesh is like RIGHT down the crack of his ass!!

"I smell Kahmunrah's musk-" YOU SMELL WHAT?! You know his SCENT?

"Fire burn." "I know the feeling." DAMMIT JOAN! 🤣 Ya got me on that one.

Aw, this scene building Nick up, this was nice. A breath of air before Im sure it goes back to shit quickly...

A fart joke, yup. Sadly I was right.

Yup, and then the movie reminds us that Robin Williams would've had a funny improv bit as Teddy, except it would be actually funny and naturally paced, and the other characters would be chuckling and trying not to bust up laughing, and not a phoned-in unfunny delivery like it is here in this cartoon where the characters are annoyed and critisize Teddy's reminiscing. I miss Robin so much. He was such a light on this world.

"We have an hour left before sunrise, come on!" Well, once again the franchise doesn't seem to understand how short an hour actually is. You're two hours deep into Ancient Egypt, you still have to stop Kahmunrah, leave the portal, get through the Art Museum, back on the Subway to get to the Natural History Museum...all in the span of an hour...Sure (Yes, they find a way to get home in time, that's the point, I know).

Jedediah shouts, "Don't forget to swallow!" I have died!

"Once I insert my tablet into the sarcophagus-" ...*slowly raises eyebrow* Once you insert WHAT now??? "My army will RISE!" ...sir... I hate your voice, I despise so much of the dialogue throughout this movie, but THAT line *slow clap* truly a masterpiece, *chef's kiss* Thank you to whomever wrote that line for me.

"We can't let that bully win." "Bully!....I mean, yes I agree." Oh now with less than 20 minutes I'm mildly enjoying myself.

And the "heiroglyph" of the 2nd chord to the combination in the MIDDLE of the tablet looks like :===

This cartoon has turned SUPER innuendo-y all of a sudden 🤣

HELL YEAH! A jackal army is WAY COOLER a birdmen army in my personal opinion. Damn, if only the voice actor had actually tried to sound like Hank (or if the vocal director didn't at his job) and Kahmunrah's design wasn't so awkward, I'd say that's insanely hot...Imagining Hank Azaria's Kahmunrah commanding a muscled canine-man army is one of the sexiest sounding things I could imagine...too bad it only exsists in this cartoon without Hank and not live action WITH Hank (obviously) 🥲

"Yes, my minions, ATTACK!" Now, imagine that line said in a commanding English accent and a forward lisp, while pointing with a big muscular arm....HOT!

UGHHH Why...why was he drAWN WITH STICK ARMS? *personal breakdown for the hundredth time watching this hour and 10 minute cartoon movie*

"Fine, then leave Son of Larry..."draws sword, "to me!" delivered in what I can only describe as freaky goblin voice. Why...? This...this would be so sexy, except everything is wrong.

That's it, I'm transcribing every bit of his dialogue and recording what he SHOULD sound like, and y'all will agree, they should've brought Hank back for this!

This weird goblin voice...this is the voice he's settled on now I guess, er...nope, nope, apparently we're going back to sounding like Jafar. Good god, just let this movie end.

They're using a poster of the natural history museum to get back while they're in a painting at another museum...I don't think that's how that would work, but I don't...I don't care, I want this to just be over.

Teddy, why are you not freezing with Texas-? Augh, who cares?

So Shawn Levy AND Chris Columbus produced this??? How much of a hand did they really have in this, because it was a nightmare.

*Does some Googling*...The AUTHOR of the original Night at the Museum children's book that the franchise is based on was one of the screenwriters? Did NOT see that one coming!

All in all, this movie got a few chuckles out of me, and the plot is pretty much a re-skinned version of Night at the Museum 2 Battle for the Smithsonian. It's not a bad concept, just a little weak as a final installment to the franchise.

My biggest issues come from the predominantly awkward dialogue, the joke murdering, granted it's hard to translate that vibe and live action comedic improv that leans more mature into a cartoon movie for a younger audience. The writers were bound to their screenplay and didnt have the luxury of improvizational comedy gold from the likes of the original NATM cast. With what they were constrained to, they tried their best, sometimes jokes worked, but most of the time it just didn't.

Some of the character designs were wonky, but I didn't mind the art style itself, Im just nit picky about the choices in Kahmunrah's design and his overall color palette.

But above all, the voice acting was ROUGH in places! Some performances were great, Joan was solid, Jed surprised me in the end when he finally started to sound like Owen Wilson, the Ricky Gervais sound-alike was decent enough, and Joshua Bassett as Nick was pretty decent as well, but Teddy Roosevelt, do I need to say it? No one will ever be Robin Williams, but Disney could've found a sound-alike.

And FINALLY, my guy, Mr. Joseph Kamal...what were you doin, man?

I mean, I tried to keep an open mind, and I am all for a voice actor putting their own spin on a character performance, but my man, this was not good, and I'm really disappointed.

*RESEARCHES Kamal's IMDB page* SOooo, in...SOME fairness, this was only his 2nd ever voice acting/voice over role. He's only ever done minor acting roles in serious television dramas or soap operas.

That being said, as a freelance voice over artist and voice actor, voice acting is NOT easy, especially when you have BIG BIG BIGGG shoes to fill from long time crazy-talented voice actor Hank Azaria. I just think Kamal was simply miscast into a role that was too much for him to take on. And I also blame whoever was in charge of vocal direction. Sometimes for voice actors, without a strong director, in a big vocal performance, the choices made in a delivery are too vast, like throwing darts into the universe while blind folded. You just kinda throw a variety of deliveries out there and ultimately it's up to the director and the editor which takes to go with.

Maybe that was it! Kamal did multiple deliveries of lines with varying styles because again, lack of strong direction, and the editor ultimately just threw these unfitting takes together making Kahmunrah sound batshit insane in not a good or well executed way...I wanna give this guy the benefit of the doubt.

3/10 There were ideas here, but this movie was painful to get through.

[roadtohell]

hadestown australia thoughts

i've seen hadestown! it feels surreal to be able to say that as it's been over 5 years since i first fell in love with it. you can bet tears were shed.

i'm quite glad i saw it twice. it was mostly my own nervousness but the first time i saw it, the combo of so much new stuff to take in AND having the ghosts of multiple prior productions in the back of my mind had me struggling a bit to see the big picture at times. the second time felt more like seeing it with fresh eyes. this is not to say i forgot about some things which i wasn't the biggest fan of, but that i could better appreciate how well they did or didn't fit in within the show as it stands today. i feel this post will be fairer for it.

the good:

come on, it's hadestown.

the great (exceeded expectations):

the LIGHTING. i was not prepared. set changes are nearly non-existent and i barely noticed because they communicated so much with it. doubt comes in was crazyy

the garage door solution to not having a lift is honestly so good. it's so imposing. the reveal of the workers in chant ended up being one of my fave moments in the show

the band but of course esp the trombone player. griffin youngs you will always be famous

things that were not to my preference:

here comes the classic nytw bitch rant but i still don't like how far they took orpheus in the sensitive himbo direction. it's one thing to move away from his off-broadway confidence and worldly awareness (even though i think that was a perfectly good approach that they could have refined if they wanted), and another to make him incapable of doing anything without asking. and then baking it into the script. some people i overheard on the train afterward had the imo correct take that it muddies the beautifully simple idea that he turns around because, above all, he loves eurydice and can't stand to be without her. given his now chronic need for general encouragement the test does seem more like a trap designed specifically for his personality lol

we know there have been a gazillion lyric changes over time, some of which i will forever mourn but accept that you don't really miss them if you don't know. and i can get over a few clunky lines here and there. however, making orpheus going full workers' rights mode in if it's true felt like an actual detraction. it feels odd coming from a character who is so distanced from the world; having a spot of hope then having the mood brought down hard by how long is awkward; how long doesn't make sense when he was very much NOT just singing for the love of a girl; we almost immediately repeat the idea of inspiring the workers in chant reprise, which then makes the theme feel overcooked. it's just too much in the wrong place.

cast thoughts:

sam richardson and jack lyall as orpheus: both were good, though i preferred the latter as his take was less timid - i got the vibe jack's orpheus had a better sense of what he wanted and what he was doing, just needed final go-aheads from other people, which to me made eurydice's interest and his later unionising more natural. sam's singing was just a little more [gustave phantomson voice] beautiful though.

abigail adriano and eliza soriano as eurydice: abigail's eurydice is quite feral, while eliza's is just so Tired. i appreciated both, though the latter's pairing with jack overall worked better for me than abigail and sam. i've heard abigail is now out for vocal issues - unfortunately i think i caught some hints of it when i saw her, it did sound like she was pushing herself a little hard sometimes. i am a big fan of eurydices with earthier/huskier voices like hers though. eliza sounded amazing start to finish and had some incredible riffs.

christine anu as hermes - i was glad to see her, i enjoyed the aunty vibes and whatever she had going on with persephone, and of course her singing was really great. i do think her acting, in particular her delivery of hermes' spoken lines, was the weakest of the cast. and i would have liked a bit more personal connection with orpheus. second time round in a perfect world i would have seen iosefa laga'aia in the role, as i'm quite interested to see what a young man's approach to the role is.

elenoa rokobaro and sarah murr as persephone: both great. elenoa was a standout at my first show, such energy! and sarah had a phenomenal performance of our lady of the underground - i previously thought of the song mostly as a way to ease the crowd back into the story but she turned it into a real highlight of its own.

adrian tamburini as hades: what a commanding voice. really enjoyed his ability to be both very cold and very heated. just a tad more gentleness sometimes wouldn't have gone amiss but overall he is just so fun to watch.

despite my nitpicks it really is a wonderful show, every bit worth the wait. i sense a brief return to my hadestown era coming on.

[calronhunt]

how do you outline/plan your plots? Less about coming up with the actual points more about how you place them down on the google doc

i am not the person to come for this sadly most of the time I simply just keep it in my noggin until I put it down in my google docs into a script. I have tried to outline several times and it almost never works for me, they often feel like I write too much or I write not enough that I get stuck in a lot of places. What I generally (have been trying to do) is just have a big block of text talking about the main things I want out of the story. Some more based on vibes and less based on scenes. These are what I had for COB and WAC respectfully (There's some stuff that's not canon anymore present but stuff that's blacked out is stuff are spoilers.)

(I DID make a whole outline for cob, but it barely resembles what I actually ended up writing, while the blurb is still pretty accurate to the story)

And then I basically try to start scripting off of this, sometimes less! I like stories that are more character focused than Plot focused so it's much easier for me to go off vibes and let the characters do their thing than plan out every single Important Plot Thing that needs to happen.

also if i give a basic vibe thing like this there's a lot less pressure for me personally to stick Exactly To It and to just do what feels right and change shit.

It's honestly one of the reasons I'm having a tad bit of trouble with bbd at the moment lol. there's some plot stuff I need to set up early and allow to get built up outside the character drama, and I am just really really weak at writing actual plot stuff. It's like my main weakness I feel like everything just becomes so stilted and clunky writing wise.

[jamiebluewind]

My friend @winterpower98 is going to school to become an ASL interpreter, so we've been practicing together for a few months. I mostly just checked her signing and didn't sign myself because I was slower and didn't want to take up her valuable practice time clumsily trying to sign. Still, I intend to learn if for nothing else than having a way to communicate when I had a migraine.

Then I got sick.

I'm honestly not sure what's wrong with me, but in early January, I got a bad cough, asthma issues, and other various NASTY symptoms (leaving out to not get too tmi). The symptoms got worse quickly and I ended up at doctors and urgent cares and ERs. They found that I didn't have any of the major contagious things, but still my lungs were crap, my voice was nearly gone (just a whisper), and I was badly malnourished and dehydrated. One very scary phone call from a relative and two days of forcing my raw voice to work well enough to talk to police and relatives later, I lost my voice completely (save for little squeaks and rumbles). That was six weeks ago.

Winter and I didn't practice ASL the first two or three weeks I was sick (and I was honestly in no shape to do it anyway). Being mute was... okay at first. Annoying but manageable. But then as time went on, it got ROUGH. Being trapped in my own head and unable to convey things in real time took a toll on my mental health that I honestly wasn't expecting. Imaging being unable to even laugh or make frustrated noises or make sounds when you're crying hard and having a panic attack? It was hell! I couldn't got to therapy, see a doctor by myself (had to write a script for whomever came with me), contact services and doctors that didn't have messaging/email (they'd call back anyway despite me saying that I was completely unable to talk), tell people what I needed during a panic attack or sensory overload, or get my intrusive thoughts out (I say the out loud and work through them to see they aren't logical). When one doctor got really frustrated with me and proceeded to insult and lecture me for a solid 30 minutes (in front of my other friend who got very close to losing her temper), there was no way to report it because I had to CALL to place a complaint. I was limited to typing on my phone when I needed to communicate and even THAT was slow and not always possible (can't type during a coughing fit or if I had to leave my phone charging). Getting people's attention to notice me or read a message was also difficult, so I had to sit quietly AND patiently AND ignored so much of the time that I eventually broke down crying.

Eventually, I started doing a little ASL again. I wasn't expecting how hard it would be to sign things when I had only watched before. My movements were slow and clunky, sometimes I did the wrong sign, and I could only "talk" to one person, but the growing pains were worth the feeling of ACTUALLY communicating again. It's only been a few weeks, but I can already express my emotions/frustration and convey simple concepts during a conversation (instead of typing and having the conversation move on before I finish or just not feeling like my words were worth the effort on top of breaking the flow of a conversation). Yesterday, my bestie/roommate decided to start practicing the ASL alphabet and asked for a list of words I used the most so she could understand me too.

ASL has giving me back some of my autonomy. With a few signs and some finderspelling, I was able to tell Winter that I needed to eat, wanted leftovers, there was a bowl in the fridge, and to please add water (easier to swallow with my irritated throat). I can ask how people are, tell them how I'm doing, or just be a little goofy because I want to (like quoting NADDPOD and telling my friends "fuck you, I love you, eat a rat").

While being unable to talk for 6 weeks (and limited a bit before that) is nothing compared to the experiences of the deaf/Deaf, mute, and nonverbal communities, it made me realize how hard it is to navigate the world when your speech is impaired. It also made me develop a new appreciation for ASL. Originally, learning ASL was a novelty to me that might come in handy when I had a hemiplegic migraine (makes it hard to talk), but it was mostly to help Winter in her studies. Now it just feels... important. Like something more people should learn, be aware of, and accomodate for.

Tldr; Being unable to talk for over 6 weeks (and probably many more weeks after that) made me realize how important being able to communicate is to mental health, how society is not made to accomodate people with limited to no verbal communication ability, why learning ASL is so important, some of the struggles that people with limited to no verbal communication go through, and the fact that I am privileged in a way that I've never considered before.

[caramariafilm]

The Man Who Fell in Love with the Sky - Writing

31st January - Kate Davidson’s First Script Seminar

Before this meeting, Kate asked us all to read over everyone’s scripts in the group and start noting down specifics we liked and disliked, as well as any feedback on the sense of place.

I absolutely loved reading all of these scripts, this year have been so inventive with their ideas and it was also really exciting getting a sneak peek on what everyone had been working on!!

When it came round to the meeting, it was online which I didn’t really enjoy. I find it really difficult to do script read throughs online and people kept disconnecting which was fairly annoying.

That being said, it was really beneficial to hear my script read through by other people, as it became very clear what the issues in my script were - my main one being dialogue. 

I loooove subtle dialogue in films, it’s something that feels really comforting to me when hearing it, and I tried to do this with my script. However, I found that my script was almost too subtle and came across more as vague. My two main characters - Arthur and Lila - are supposed to be similar in parts but also contrasting personalities - the main difference being that Arthur is very dreamy and Lila is much more grounded. After hearing the dialogue, I realised that Arthur was very very dreamy, and Lila’s dialogue was also still very floaty, which I realised I needed to balance out if I wanted the overall arc of the story to make sense.

After we read through my script, I received everyone’s feedback which was overall very very positive. People mainly just loved my initial idea and thought the script was very visually rich - this made me very happy!!! Given this is my first script, it was a real confidence boost to hear that people liked my script, as I was pretty nervous for this meeting. My main feedback from the group was it was very sweet and had a strong sense of place.

As for Kate’s feedback, this felt a bit more jarring. I trust her feedback very much, and a lot of what she said were small fixes, however she did challenge me on my overall idea which hurt a bit. Looking back on the comments now, everything she said was absolutely fair given where my script was at the time, I just think that since this was my first script, I was more sensitive to harsher feedback.

The main point Kate made was that she didn’t understand why Arthur was in love with the sky, suggesting adding in some backstory to this - flashback to how the sky “saved” him or another example being a flashback of how the sky helped him through a difficult childhood. 

I thought about these ideas a lot. It was difficult to imagine adding in a whole new storyline and I thought this change might feel clunky or forced. 

The whole time I was also thinking about my initial idea, why was he in love with the sky. And to be honest, my favourite answer for this is that Arthur is in love with the sky just because he is.

Ultimately, Arthur is in love with the sky because it is an unattainable force that can never leave or hurt him, and this is something he finds comfort in. 

All other changes suggested, I made. However, I knew that if I changed the reason why Arthur fell in love with the sky, I would be going against my whole story. This meeting gave me a lot to think about for working on my next draft.

[cc-kirby]

With the new fall season coming, my thoughts on the three Summer 2023 anime series I watched this year:

My Tiny Senpai: Loved loved loved this series. I came into it hoping to just get some lighthearted romantic fluff and came out of it getting even more than that even. Shiori was an angel and needs to be protected.

My two types of girls are tsunderes and fail girls and this series managed to give me two girls that are combinations of both in their own ways. Shinozaki's Sister and Hayakawa completely own my heart now.

The discourse surrounding the trailer was incredibly fucking stupid even when it was directly happening and as this series went along it really made it look even dumber in hindsight than it did before. If you don't like to watch move slowly this series will drive you nuts, and in episode 9 it makes a big decision that even had me raising an eyebrow and groaning a little bit before accepting that it wasn't going to be permanent (and I was right, thankfully). As someone who doesn't mind slow burn romance, especially when there's no love rival involved (the oldest of hats in any romantic comedy), I really enjoyed it. Lots of good, goofy comedy and two main protagonists you really do find yourself rooting for. Definitely worth a watch if you just want to see lighthearted office fluff.

The Dreaming Boy is a Realist: Man. I almost dropped this one. It really was getting there. This is one where it just doesn't just calm down. It throws like fifteen different characters at you and expects you to know and remember them right away and honestly the first few episodes of this show were insanely hard to follow, let alone the clunky, confusing script and dialogue.

The first few episodes were so overwhelming and the amount of times I had to pause to look up a character they'd mention by name that you only saw for a minute or two in a previous episode so you can be like "ah, that's who they're talking about. I remember them, I think? Maybe?" It kept getting worse and worse about this and I kept getting extremely close to dropping it before I'd give it one more chance mostly because some of the character designs are extremely cute. Even that wasn't saving the series though.

However, then it did something I completely wasn't expecting: it slowly got better. Slowly but surely, episode after episode, it started to breathe a little more and characters finally got fleshed out in the proper ways and you know what? I'm not going to say it became a good series, but it definitely very slowly improved and they even stuck the landing on the ending.

Was it too little too late? Maybe. It's such a bummer because by all accounts this seems like *such* a neat idea for a series (boy is so smothering to the girl that he likes (who doesn't like him back) that he finally has an epiphany that he's been stunting her and keeping her from making friends because they're all too weirded out by him hovering around her, and also realizing he'll never have a chance with her so he backs off (letting her finally grow and gain friends herself) and slowly gains major self-improvement to the point where he earns respect in places he'd have never expected and he becomes the person people come to for advice and he just becomes a better person overall while also slowly repairing his relationship with the girl) and from what I've heard the manga and the light novels are just so much better. They do an inner voice-monologue thing with the main boy that serves as him giving himself teaching lessons and advice that the anime FINALLY begins to explore near the end and if they had been doing that from the beginning they really would've had something.

Honestly the more I watched the more it made me want to read the light novel and manga because everyone swears up and down they're both miles better than the anime was. It just felt like the anime series didn't feel like it had enough time to properly convey all of the stories it wanted to share so they crammed a LOT into 12 episodes and gave nothing any room to breathe.

What this series has most going for it are some of the character designs. Rin is the exact type of girl, right down to personality, that I had a crush on all the time in high school, and Kei isn't too far behind. And of course Aika makes enough of those grumpy puffy tsundere faces that you understand why Wataru (WHY WAS HIS SISTER SO HOT THOUGH) had such a big crush on her, even if it led to him being so overbearing about it.

I would say you're probably fine passing on this one, but maybe give the light novel or manga a shot. I didn't hate it like I was expecting to but your mileage will vary. This one REALLY went out of its way to try and get better and it almost made it, to the point where I'm thumbs in the middle rather than down.

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses: I figured this was gonna be the one that I most loved from the getgo, and honestly? It's a tough tie between it and My Tiny Senpai, but this might have the edge because it's the only one whose sweetness got me tearing up on multiple occasions, especially in the final episode, and it's all because Mie is one of the cutest dorkiest sweetheart girls on the planet. This series was the one that I went out of my way to zoom to where the manga currently is so I could follow along.

The biggest complaint I heard about this series was how it felt like she was constantly losing her glasses. I felt like I was going crazy because I felt like I was the only one who understood what they were going for. They aren't going to do entire episodes where she doesn't forget her glasses. They even mention, multiple times in multiple different episode, how it's been awhile since she last lost them. The entire point of the series is how Komura is getting closer to closer to Mie from the time they spend together when he takes care of her after she forgets, or breaks, her glasses. At about the halfway point in the series they even show that so much time has passed that they're in a new semester. I dunno, I feel like they were telegraphing this to the point that it should've been obvious, especially for someone who can be legendarily oblivious like myself.

Coming of age romance stories are some of my favorites. Hi Score Girl is a series that I only finally watched in 2023 and it affected me so much that it leaped into one of my five favorite series that I've ever seen. So basically, I knew I was gonna love this one from the premise alone. I will admit the weird art direction, especially in that first episode, drove me absolutely insane, and I was VERY thankful that they mostly knock that shit off pretty quickly afterward, because that almost killed the entire show for me.

Another one where the romance is slow, but it definitely moves at a faster pace than in My Tiny Senpai, and the slow developments really do make you root for the both of them, especially when it finally becomes obvious to Mie that she has feelings for Komura too. Her selfishness about it is completely adorable, and the series ends on such a sweet, high note, leaving you hopeful that these two will finally be able to communicate how they feel for each other, and that a season two would be wonderful.

Also, we need a season two so we can get more of Azuma, who I know as the manga keeps going gets more attention and story. I like how in the series to Komura he is like a rival for Mie's love but then to everyone else it becomes readily apparent that he knows these two have feelings for each other and in his own little ways he tries getting them to spend more time with each other. Between him and Sudo in Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible, 2023 should be the year of the cool wingmen.

A definite, and obvious watch recommendation. This one was so sweet, like a much needed hug after a long day.

[genericpuff]

it's legit been a hot minute since i've read an LO episode from start to finish so I decided to read the new free episode

wow i'm really not missing a dang thing am i, jfc

I've talked about it before how the dialogue in these comics really feels... non-human, but now I'm at a point where I wouldn't even be surprised if I find out the comic was being written by one of those script bots or some AI Chat GPT tool. It's just so stupidly clunky with very little context or build-up to what's being said, the characters feel like they're just talking at each other rather than with each other, if you know what I mean. It's giving Shenmue 3.

But let's have some extra fun with this and go through it panel by panel.

I'm not gonna talk about the Apollo scene, not yet at least. But I DO want to talk about the dialogue exchange between Persephone and the demigods she's chosen to be judges.

First off, we get this cut to Persephone saying "Thank you so much for coming today." But the stuff that follows really feels like these guys have no idea where they are or why. Like, the first thing the guy on the left has to say is "you're a woman", why is he making this observation now if they intentionally made the decision to join her? If he's supposedly sexist on that line alone (which is what a lot of people in the discussion circles assume) why would he even join her on the boat in the first place if he wasn't willing to listen to a woman?

Oh, okay, so they HAVE had this conversation already, great exposition, Rachel! But again, it still makes no sense why he's making this observation out of nowhere if he already knows he's going to be working with her and chose to come along with her on the boat ride. Why is he repeating what he's already said? Why not just have this conversation happen organically instead of doing the whole sitcom "cut to the middle of what's happening and explain it matter-of-factly for the audience to catch up so we don't have to actually show the entire conversation???" bit?

It's such a cliche overused tactic to try and skip informing NPC's of what the audience already knows but that only works if we, the audience, know what's going on. Such a tactic is meant to benefit the AUDIENCE, not the characters. It's a pointless waste of time for everyone involved if they're doing it the other way around where the NPC's know but the audience doesn't and the characters have to re-explain everything they already know for the audience. It's clunky exposition.

And then of course, we get Persephone acting all high and mighty with people who, again, don't even seem to know what the fuck is going on, they don't even seem to be functioning at full brain capacity with how repetitive and pointless their dialogue is (especially the "I'm a son of Zeus" guy but we'll get to him later). If Persephone's thankful for them joining her, why is she being such a bitch? This isn't a power move, she's not being a "boss babe", she's being that bitchy manager that complains about high turnover rates completely oblivious or uncaring to the fact that she's the reason people quit the job in the first place.

"It's listening to the Queen of the Underworld time", bitch you have done NOTHING to earn that title or demand for respect. NO ONE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE. Anyone who DOES know her only knows her as a consort of Hades from that one tabloid pic from ten years ago. So... yeah, literally no one knows her. Even if they saw her in that weird broadcast during the Kronos fight (which, why would they, everyone was asleep as we were told and that news chopper was from OLYMPUS), she has done nothing to organically earn the respect and admiration of the people. As far as anyone's concerned, she's just this weird pink thing rolling into town and the only reason she has power at all is because the King has a flower nymph fetish and wanted a replacement for the girl that "got away" and married his brother.

IDK if this was an attempt at a joke but I feel bad for this guy because he clearly has no idea where he is, why he's here, or why he's going to work for the Underworld when he's a son of Zeus and would maybe prefer a job in Olympus somewhere. Look at him, those aren't the eyes of a man who knows what's going on.

"RAWR, I'm edgy and in control, shut your whore mouth while I'm speaking, peasant!"

She doesn't even look intimidating here, she looks severely constipated.

This is also legit just a copy paste of the Hera/Apollo/Echo scene from S2 which just further drives home how Persephone is an emotional replacement for Hera and a physical replacement for Rhea (while also satisfying that aforementioned flower nymph fetish).

Again, Persephone has done nothing to earn the admiration or respect of her people (unlike, y'know, Hera) and it's bullshit that she pretended to be all thankful at the beginning of this only to then treat them like shit as soon as she was able. Like, again, she seems to have just kidnapped these guys and they undoubtedly have questions and instead she's steamrolling all over them for zero reason beyond stroking her ego. If she's so bothered by the first guy being a sexist, why is she hiring him in the first place???

girl he's literally trying to escape from your bullshit, why are you treating him like a toddler or a hamster who can't control himself

it's painfully clear now these guys absolutely did not sign up for ANY of this and even if they DID sign up to be judges for Hades, they clearly were NOT aware it would include being berated and snipped at by his moody toddler of a wife, she's the ONLY one here who has zero self control or qualifications. push her in the river, please. put her in the hamster cage.

so yeah, it's not "thank you for coming with me today", it's "thank you for shutting up and being good little hostages so mommy can play pretend ruler, if you even THINK of ignoring me i'll have my daddy Mads Mikkelson- I mean, Hades chop your balls off, teehee!" seriously can SOMEONE please push her in the river, she's got like 50 pounds of hair, she has zero chance /hj

"i found a way for my husband to do even less work than he already does, like a good little billionaire!"

ms. brian griffin, no one knows what elysium is

we, the audience, haven't even seen elysium

no one knows what you're talking about and no one has anything to thank you for because so far you've spent the majority of your time in the underworld since the time skip dicking around and acting like a Karen

literally sit down and eat your oatmeal

we don't even know what 'nu-tartarus' is, who wants to bet rachel watched sci-fi the week she made this with the 'nu' spelling, jfc

what did she do to warrant the 'nu'

in fact, is tartarus even accessible right now??? what happened to Kronos locking himself up in there and refusing to let anyone in??? Did they seriously dig a hole in the ground and call it "Nu-Tartarus"? Fuck off.

Hermes, pal, you're seeing this shit, right? How can you sit there and watch her act like this??? This ain't the girl you used to make out with in the mountains.

"My husband serves in the military, you know! You'll regret not giving me that 2% discount!"

for those of you in the audience who don't know this, this is what we call panel filler. i.e. pointless repetitive panels that RS uses to fill her panel quota each week. LO always has at least 2-3 of these per episode. Go ahead, fact check it yourself, I'll wait.

Diva Plavalaguna wore it better, honey.

(also why do her ARMS look the same as her hair, they look like sausage casings 😭)

Such a weird cut though, from her making that "lol can you believe the things I put up with ????" face to her just WALKING AWAY FROM THE MEN WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHY THEY'RE EVEN HERE.

what- um, why are we cutting to this? I get that it's RS still trying to exposit instead of write organically but Hermes literally didn't ask and he should probably already be aware of what's going on if he's ON THE BOAT WITH HER. Also why are you explaining to him what a demi-god is? Again, it's Rachel trying to do the "and that's my plan" shtick not understanding that only works for OTHER CHARACTERS who aren't "in on it", NOT THE AUDIENCE. When you try to have your characters explain things JUST for the sake of the audience, it makes them all look stupid and it wastes the audience's time.

Like, never mind the fact that Hermes himself is technically a demi-god in LO as his mother is a non-god.

This would have worked better if she was explaining who these men were specifically, like the fact that they were Kings when they were alive, or why she chose them, but no, she just starts it and leaves it at "well they're related to Zeus, so they're demi-gods" with zero lead-up or context as to why she's explaining this to Hermes of all people in the first place.

WAIT OKAY. SO I WAS RIGHT, THEY LITERALLY AREN'T FUNCTIONING AT FULL AUTONOMY. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE REPEATING THINGS OR NOT SAYING THINGS THAT ARE RELEVANT OR ASKING QUESTIONS.

PERSEPHONE LITERALLY TOOK THESE SHADES WHO HAVE NO ABILITY TO CONSENT OR UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON

AND IS FORCING THEM TO WORK FOR HER HUSBAND, THE SLAVE DRIVER.

PERSEPHONE HAS BECOME A SLAVE DRIVER.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING WITH ME TODAY" ????

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING GOOD LITTLE SLAVES. YOU WORK FOR ME AND MY HUSBAND NOW. WE'LL GIVE YOU BACK ENOUGH OF YOUR AUTONOMY TO MAKE YOU GOOD FOR WORKING BUT YOU WILL NEVER HAVE FREE WILL."

THIS IS LITERALLY THE PLOT OF HADESTOWN BUT IT WANTS US TO CHEER FOR HADES' POINT OF VIEW IN THE END.

Also, "Hades is going to restore some of their humanity"??? Guys, do you realize the implications of this?

If this is something he's always been able to do, that means he's always had the ability to grant the shades working for him autonomy and will, but chose not to.

Give them enough sentience and autonomy to work, but not enough to question why they're working for the system in the first place.

Great job Persephone, this is soooo much better than what Hades was doing before. You've made life so much better for the dead.

Fucking hell. I started this essay with the intent of talking about the weird clunky dialogue exchanges and as I sat on it and wrote on it longer and longer it just got so much WORSE and turned into discussing Persephone's lack of morals and how she's become the very thing she always claimed she stood against.

I say "great job Persephone" but we also have to give credit where credit is due - great job Rachel, this is soooo much better than just ending the series in the first two seasons or actually resolving the plot threads you started in Season 1. You've made your comic so much better to please the stans and spite the haters.

Christ. I'm not even done talking about everything I wanted to talk about regarding this episode but I figured I should cut it off here to at least keep it all on theme. I do wanna talk about that Apollo scene and the Hermes/Persephone conversation but I'll probably do that in separate posts.

Despite how fired up I got, I am glad about one thing - I really am not missing anything. I have lost nothing from unsubscribing from LO and uninstalling the WT app. And frankly, neither will you if you've been contemplating on promoting yourself to a non-reader. There is zero FOMO here. I get just as much if not more entertainment from just following along with the hilarious conversations in the Discord and subreddit each week, because at LEAST those are fun and don't make me feel dead inside like LO does. LO isn't entertaining, it's hardly even so-bad-that-it's-entertaining at this point, maybe it still is for you, but I'm assuring you right now for those of you "hanging on", it's not going to magically "get better", even the episodes that some people CLAIM are better really aren't because of how low the bar is nowadays. I am giving you full permission to free yourself of these shackles if you've been looking for a way out. Take this as your metaphorical key.

The LO we all fell in love with is long, long gone.

[battlekidx2]

The Flash (2023) Non-Spoiler Thoughts

I managed to see an early screening of The Flash last Thursday and I have a lot of thoughts on the movie. I’m going to keep this completely spoiler free because the movie hasn’t released yet.

My feelings towards this movie are complicated. The parts of this movie that work really hit and I absolutely loved, but there are also quite a few parts of this film that really fell flat. It had a fun, if a bit clunky, opening and a very engaging middle portion that showcased everything that I wanted from a flash live-action movie. But the end is where the film falters for me. The emotional beats surrounding main Barry and his mother work really well and make for some very emotional moments- some of the best the DCEU has to offer- but the rest didn’t work to nearly the same degree.

This movie is steeped in nostalgia. That’s not really a secret since it’s been a heavily emphasized part of the marketing material and I’d say most of the callouts are really fun with Michael Keaton in particular being amazing, but it can get a bit over-indulgent at points and pull focus from the core of the story. 

This is most noticeable during a sequence near the end of the film that is meant to be an emotional turning point of the story, but the cameos pull the attention away from the important character beats to flaunt the multiversal scope of the movie. This hurts the resolution of younger Barry’s arc which was one of the main through lines of the story up until this point and contributes to the third act’s issues.

Sasha Calle is also very good as Supergirl, but she’s underutilized. The moments we get with her are great but some of her emotional moments aren’t given the time and build-up they deserved. This is most noticeable when it comes to her bond with Barry. While their relationship contains some great moments, it feels a bit undercooked as a result of her limited screen time. She does a good job with the material she was given and it makes me hope that we will see her in the DCEU moving forward even though I know that’s a long shot.

Ezra Miller’s turn as the flash was fantastic. I wasn’t sold on their take on Barry Allen prior to seeing this movie and was a bit skeptical they could carry a flash solo film, but this completely wiped those beliefs away. Ezra Miller did a great job playing the two Barry Allens and sold the emotional beats at the core of the film in a way that I wasn’t expecting going in. They managed to balance the pain and trauma that Barry carries with the more awkward and goofy side of the character very well. 

You can’t bring up Ezra Miller without addressing the controversy and accusations that they are facing. I’ll admit that part of the reason I wanted to see an advance screening of the film was because I wasn’t entirely comfortable financially supporting a movie with them as the lead. If that makes you uncomfortable as well then I’d say you can skip this. 

The last thing that I feel like I have to mention is the fact that the cgi is really questionable in places. This movie looks unfinished in some areas to the point that it pulled me out of many important scenes. I know I’m not the only one who has had this issue. Almost every other review I’ve seen on youtube points out the questionable cgi. 

It’s unfortunate that this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue with superhero films as time continues to pass and that studios are overworking and underpaying vfx artists. I hope that this can get sorted out because we’ve seen what vfx artists and animators can do when given the time and resources to do their job effectively. 

Overall I’d say the movie is good but it’s not as amazing as the early reviews have led people to believe. It has a lot of issues in the script department and doesn’t entirely stick the landing, but has a strong emotional core with Barry and his mother and great performances.

The Flash is my favorite DC hero and I’m glad that he finally got the feature film treatment he deserves. If anyone else enjoyed this movie more than I did then that’s great. If you didn’t then that’s fine too. Everyone takes something different from the media they consume and that’s part of what’s so great about it.

[not-terezi-pyrope]

I know "which programming language is best" is largely a matter of taste, but holy shit is Python bad for anything other than outlining simple algorithms in a pseudocode-like manner for teaching purposes.

All of the important underlying type information is abstracted away in favour of simplicity, which just means that when you want to interact with it, as you have to when you are doing anything substantial, you have to stuff in clunky syntactic garbage functions in order to retrieve it anyway, which just makes the resulting code less readable than it would have been in the first place.

Because type information is abstracted away, IDE tooltips always fucking suck.

The language disdains object oriented programming, despite the fact that nearly all modern programming is object oriented. Every bit of syntax to declare object properties feels like a hack. Access modifiers are not exposed and you have to add them in your function names??? You can't declare members in the class body and have to instead add them dynamically in the constructor???????? The object "self" must be explicitly passed to class functions as a parameter??????????????????? Those are all so hilariously bad and unintuitive that even though I know I've checked this I feel like I must be missing something, how was that chosen to be the intended behaviour!!!

It's an interpreted language. Why have we made an interpreted language the norm for data science applications, whyyyyyyy. Not to mention that means that you have to declare functions before you can run them like aaaaaaaa what is this the 1960s where we are feeding programs in via punch cards.

The entire Python experiment was a colossal misadventure. Because it is more human-readable when you are just demonstrating simple algorithms it is an easy language to introduce as a "first programming language" in entry compsci classes, as stuff like typing is abstracted away (I honestly feel that teaching programming like this is actively counterproductive to creating understanding, but whatever).

Anyway, so it got taught first, which unfortunately meant that people learning to program got used to it and started using it for actual applications, and now we are stuck with shitty Python abstractions and paradigms as the default for a lot of people and it has become one of the most popular languages on Earth, even though literally any other programming language will be much more well suited to the purpose of actually programming computers and will be more efficient. Now you have to know and use Python in order to do any actual industry work as a programmer, aaaaaa.

We literally have C# which is practically perfect for both imperative and functional programming and has a mass of libraries and can be compiled to standard executables and yet in order to write any ML code I have to create socket bridges to a live Python script because all of the libraries for data science were written for Python because data science people don't know how to use anything else and the .NET ports suck and are not up to date, aaaaaaaaaaaaa.

The proliferation of Python as a serious programming language and its consequences has been disastrous for humanity.

[beenovel]

Just finished Wednesday (2022) here are my thoughts in no particular order.

Before I begin I would like to admit that I watched most of the show either with a horrible migraine or on very strong migraine meds that usually either knock me out or make me very loopy. So there may be intricacies that I missed. If you notice something I clearly missed, please point it out.

----

Good:

Wednesday actually visibly cares for her little brother so so much and it's so important to me.

Gwendolyn Christie, Jenna Ortega, Emma Meyers, Joy Sunday, Christina Ricci, and all the other female actresses???? Incredible. Gorgeous. Incredible displays of talented acting every last one of them. The men also did well with what they were given (more on that later).

The coroner came onscreen and before I even recognized why I knew him I started singing No Life Without Wife from Bride and Prejudice. If you know you know.

The lighting?????? The camera angles?????? The costuming?????? The set design????????? HOLY SHIT. Its some of the best I've seen in a LONG time. It's dynamic and interesting and fun. It's artistic and frankly beautiful. It is the look it is the moment. It somehow feels very natural and like it's also telling its own story through use of light and shadow and color. The fact that the principal tells Wednesday "you see the world as black and white and fail to see the shades of grey" while Wednesday wears black and white and the principal generally wears grey or silver????? Amazing. I could go on, I have nothing but good things to say about the artistic choices on this show.

Also, when I have a headache I have a hard time looking at TV shows because (especially if they've gone out there with the lighting) they can make my headache worse but I didn't really experience that with this show.

Enid is absolutely adorable and I don't feel her character was explored enough. Also I love her relationship with her dad, it really reminds me of me and my uncle.

I really really REALLY loved the theme of "teenagers do horrifically shitty things for reasons even they don't fully understand but that doesn't make them bad people and if they're willing to try and make amends they should be given a second chance". It is so important to me and I feel like in our current cancel culture that feels more like puritanical panic this is an important message for teenagers to see.

The respect I have for Principal Weeks is incalculable and I'm furious she won't be returning next season. She was the whole reason I watched the show in the first place. I love that she is respected both in the way she was written and by the other characters.

---

Not so good:

The show felt rushed and clunky, especially the first few episodes. I really wanted to enjoy the story being told but plotlines were introduced very suddenly and in awkward ways and then almost immediately disregarded. It occasionally felt like they were just trying to get through as many ideas as they could as quickly as possible so the audience would stay on their toes.

Eugene? Fantastic little autistic boy. I loved him, his actor did an amazing job and I loved his relationship with Wednesday and how that almost sibling relationship helped pull her out of her isolation a little bit. The other boys? Not so great. Let me make it clear that I think the actors did a fantastic job across the board, they made their characters actually enjoyable and were the only reason I was able to keep watching. However. The script they were given was not nearly as good. The male characters felt very flat and one dimensional which was a startling and unpleasant contrast to the female characters which were so interesting and detailed.

The only exception to the amazing actors was uncle fester. I don't know what it was but something about his voice made me anxious and I didn't like his face acting, whatever it's called. His voice felt more like voice acting which was out of place.

What happened with the coroner??? His death was never properly wrapped up, it was introduced as a way to frame Gomez (which made no sense, that would be like triple reverse psychology) and then we never actually found out what happened even though they made it very clear suicide would be weird because he was excited to retire.

I don't think the writers have ever actually been to therapy. Or they were trying to write a really terrible therapist who pushes her client way to far way too fast. I really wish they'd done more with the therapy plotline.

The Xavier storyline felt very uncomfortable. At no point did I feel like Wednesday was actually interested in him and he was just weirdly obsessed with her like Garrett Gates was with her mom. They even had the same brown medium long hair which meant I confused them when Garrett first showed up and it just felt like an unintentional yet uncomfortable parallel. I'm sure that's not what the writers were going for and I don't know if anyone else feels the same way but it gave me the ick. They had lots of time to make him likable and interesting and they just didn't. Instead we got creepy paintings and "you get lost in the music and I feel like that's the only time I can see the real you" which felt to me a lot like "I'm the only one who REALLY sees you Wednesday".

-----

Final thoughts:

Overall I really enjoyed the show. It was fun, the characters are interesting and lovable, the music and set design/lighting/costuming is fantastic and the riddles and stories were interesting enough to keep me watching. Sure, there were some things that annoyed me or I found lacking but I'd say it was a good show.

[swampcraft]

Breaking Up With Spreads

Since I recently resigned from the magazine I was writing for, I thought I would share my former upcoming article here for everyone to enjoy.

 In divinatory lingo, a spread is a pre-designed layout for the reader to arrange the cards or other lots as they are cast in a reading. 

Spreads definitely have their place in modern divination, in a professional reading a spread can act as an easily recognizable baseline and set the client’s expectation for the reading. Even most people who don’t read for themselves will recognize the 3 card past/present/future layout or perhaps the more complicated Celtic Cross arrangement. For personal readings spreads can be customized almost endlessly, although often the Little White Book that comes with a deck of cards may only offer 3 or 4 standard hits. 

And for many new readers these spreads can offer an ice breaker to learn the practice of reading a divination tool. 

However for many others, spreads can make divination feel clunky, daunting, and unapproachable. 

So why do we use spreads? Well, not all systems do, and I’d argue, not all systems need to. Some systems like I Ching and Astragals rely on casting multiple objects to receive one predetermined response. Likewise Ogham and Runes traditionally involved casting objects from a hand or vessel and interpreting how they landed in relation to the reader. 

It was in the 18th century that an Italian card game began to gain popularity as a divination system, and finally an oracle had arrived that suited itself to prescribed layouts that would become known as spreads. In 1911 Arthur Edward Waite helped publish the deck that most people would recognize as the modern Tarot deck using paintings produced by Pamela Coleman Smith, and a book to go with it. In this book he introduced the world to the Celtic Cross spread, claiming it had been in use in the British Isles for years, but exactly how long is anyone’s guess. 

Then a curious thing happened, in the 20th century, authors writing about runes began suggesting to “lay them out like tarot cards” even coming up with creative ways to design spreads around the very shapes of the runes themselves. By the late 20th century when other oracle decks began hitting the scene, the LWB offering 3 or 4 standard spreads just sort of stuck around as a practice and with notably few exceptions, authors and deck creators haven’t really explored other ways to use their tools that don’t completely mimic the Tarot. 

Which is unfortunate I think. I always find it refreshing to find the rare LWB that offers no reversal interpretations or explicitly says to pull a card a day and use it as a meditation tool, or a storytelling tool, or whatever. 

Some oracles lend themselves particularly well to single-twig daily readings 

For good or ill, the public perception of Divination as a practice centers largely around the image of a reader laying out cards in a spread. And I’d argue that this harms the practice twofold, on one hand there are those who are simply not going to engage with that, either because it seems hokey, or because frankly it feels a bit rude. Whether you believe your oracle puts you in contact with your angels, your ancestors or your God, maybe it feels a bit presumptuous to show up and say “Hey I need these 5 things from you then gtg kthxbai!”    When was the last time you approached a friend with a form letter to converse with them? So why would you want to approach your highest and closest advisors in such a way? 

Then on the other hand, while a spread can make divination accessible for some seekers, a script can also feel rather stifling to others. When there are ten cards on the table in front of you and the second doesn’t seem to make any sense, that can become overwhelming and quickly off-putting. Or a deck’s companion book says to lay these cards out in one of these prescribed spreads but none of the 4 spreads offered really make sense to the seeker’s motives. 

More and more, divination is being approached as a tool for inner work and creative problem solving rather than the future telling practices long associated with the Tarot. For readers with these intentions, past/present/future spreads and their ilk can seem irrelevant at best and outright cheesy at worst. These querents want to talk to their own shadows and deal in jungian archetypes and have no need of what they see as Woo. 

Many readers end up not getting the most out of their practice and often don’t understand why they can like their deck(s) so much but have such a hard time reading the cards to any satisfaction. 

If the last several paragraphs resonate with you, I’d suggest its time to consider a break up. 

Maybe not entirely. Maybe y’all can hook up from time to time so long as it doesn’t become toxic. The wondrous thing about divination is that it’s only as orthopraxic as you make it. The cards themselves don’t care how you use them. 

So start thinking about how you want to use those cards. Maybe that looks like straightforward one-card pulls. Ask a question, get an answer. 

Try throwing everything at the reading mat and see what sticks

Many spiritual development courses will suggest doing a one card pull in the mornings. Asking something like “What should I look for in the day ahead”  or “What matter most needs my attention today?” carry that lesson or seed thought with you throughout the day and see how it does or does not resonate with you in your evening journaling entries. Hah ha, like you keep a journal, I see you with your seven empty notebooks; They are not too nice to use, get to it!

But what if that one card makes NO SENSE? Then ask another question! Start a conversation. Get short if need be. Just be ready to get roasted in return from time to time. Nothing stings like your favorite cards calling you an idiot, but if your pasteboard advisors can’t put you in your place, who can?

But really, if you have laid down one card on the table then there are a good twenty plus ideas still in your hand(up to 80 or more depending on the oracle deck). Shuffle and ask. Now you’re talking in an active conversation instead of filling out a form letter. You can take this in any direction a conversation could hope to go. 

As you “talk” to your oracle, it may help to lay the cards out in a pattern if you intend to journal or otherwise review the reading at the end. I like to lay cards relating to/clarifying the same topic over top of each other, while cards that answer a question or relate to a new theme or action may be laid above, below or beside the previous card. 

There is no wrong way to do this, it’s seriously whatever makes the most sense for you in the reading. In this way you sort of build out your own custom single-use spread for each new reading. 

If you have been reading with spreads for a while this may take some adjustment. Even when creating your own custom spreads for readings, it can sometimes feel like you’re limited to a pool of “divination appropriate questions,” but now that reading has become a friendly chat you may think of entirely new questions that had never seemed askable before. 

And while we are at it, another thing you may consider doing the next time a card doesn’t make sense is to bring in another oracle tool altogether. Hold a pendulum over that sucker and interrogate it. Scry that shiny pasteboard surface like it’s John Dee’s mirror. Or alternately, just pick a card from a different deck. 

Over time you may find that two decks work particularly well together 

The faeries giving you the run-around? Grab that dragon deck and ask them for some insight. Or the cast of Dr. Who. Everything has an oracle deck nowadays, just look at the kickstarters! 

Before long you may find your readings take on a whole new level of significance and you may wonder why you ever used spreads in the first place. You may also find that spreads still have their usefulness from time to time (I do enjoy a particular 2-card spread when I’m doing my shadow work journaling, it keeps that practice consistent, insightful and brief).

Whatever direction your divination practice takes, the important thing is that it works for you, and that’s where getting one of those seven empty notebooks and starting to journal about your practice can really pay off. Note the way a reading makes you feel, note the way a reading pans out over the course of a day. Make notes of the times the reading provided insight that was way off base, or that was misunderstood in the moment. Keeping track of these details builds a database of information you can look at and audit. 

By making notes of your readings and looking back at them periodically, you can gain a greater sense of what individual techniques and ideas are paying off. What decks you work best with and on which days and topics you should just leave the divination to somebody else.

There are all kinds of options for growing your divination practice if that is something you want to develop, and I’d argue that one of the most important things to keep in mind is that it is absolutely okay to break up with a deck or a practice that you feel is holding you back. #

Happy Reading Y’all /|\ 

[tinywy-frost]

An Origin of Heroism

Some say that Life has greater meaning. A journey of discovery that leads everyone down their own path, whether through their own making or by following others. Twisting and turning through the days, months, and years of existence, the threads flowing behind them weaving their story. However, there are others who believe that we are all walking the paths that are written for them. Words on a page telling the story of different heroes and villains, while they act everything out as if it is a play. Never straying far from the script, nor editing any of their lines.

"Why waste your time following what others want, when what truly matters is being true to yourself?"

The sound of a cooing pigeon echoes around as it flutters in the sky above a dimly lit alleyway, the morning sun starting to rise and paint its colors over the tall buildings of the city. A bit of ruffling happens in the alley itself, a pile of papers and pieces of cardboard boxes moving to the side as an arm pushes them over. The ruffling is followed by a slight grunt, then a loud yawn as the owner of the arm stretches, a few snaps, crackles, and pops happening from their joints. Slowly blinking in the morning light, a faint hiss falls from their mouth as their bright, icy blue eyes adjust to the brightening sky, their head tilted up slightly to watch the clouds drift past. Silently observing the fluffy white blobs above for a few moments, they stretch once more, a swishing motion from an extra appendage of their causing more of the papers and cardboard to fall over. Looking behind themselves, they narrow their eyes at the matted white cat tail that was the culprit of knocking stuff over. Swiping at it for a moment, they scowl, then shake their head before focusing back on their surroundings. It was day time, which meant that the early morning folks of the city were going to start being active. Something they wanted to avoid....

"A burdened soul wandering the streets alone, searching for a place to call home..."

A loud clatter of bottles being knocked over startles the young street-rat, or should it be said street-cat, their attention immediately snapping to look over at the origin of the sound. Long shadows stretch down the alleyway as a group of three teenagers stood at its entrance, the streetlights behind them concealing their expressions. A glance at their face was not needed, however, as the street-cat was able to sense the malicious intent hanging in the air like a thick fog. Knowing they had been seen, a hiss of warning leaves their mouth as they recoil back further into the alleyway, a pair of cat ears pressed flat against the top of their head. Having hoped to scare the three off, they only end up horrified as the opposite happens. A sickening laugh falls from the center teen's mouth, the scent of booze and cigarette smoke causing them to reel back even more. A pity that the young ones of this city did not treat themselves or others with respect....

"A fire can ignite in everyone, bringing to light the joys of Life, or burning away everything in the search of Death."

Smoke. It filled the air, it filled the room, it filled their lungs... The building they had found refuge in, was slowly collapsing under their very feet as embers and flames spread through the weakened wood. Panic and adrenaline fueled their actions as they fled, coughing horribly as they tried to escape through a partially boarded window. A creak of wood, a crackle of the flames eating away the floor... A loud crash as everything gives way. ... The surrounding area of the street-cat was blurry as their eyes flutter open, a beam from the ceiling above pressed over their stomach as the smoke continues to fill the air. The flames were dying out, shouts heard echoing through the thick void that was trying to take them under. The feeling of hands on their arms gives a renewed life to them. Fighting to pull away, to flee, to hide. The beam was removed, the clunky attire of the firefighters partially surrounding them as they try to offer assistance to get them out of the building. They didn't need their help... they needed to run, flee, escape. They couldn't go back, they couldn't. Their condition was not good, but their fear and renewed adrenaline pushes them to flee into the night, the only trace of where they had gone being the few soot footprints left on the pavement until even that wears away into the night.

"One's kindness reflects their past experiences. To share it with others is a feat of bravery not many can accomplish."

The wind blows through white hair as the young female stands in front of a building with the sign "Jackie's Tattoo Parlor" shining in the setting sunlight, coating the nearby objects with its neon glow. Shifting the bag on her shoulder, she inhales slowly, then exhales before carefully stepping inside the building. A faint jingle is heard as the opening door gently brushes against a small bell, a smile of nostalgia on the woman's face as she looks up at it for a moment. Turning her attention to the rest of the shop, her gaze lingers on one of the waiting area's chairs, the smile fading to a frown. Coughing... Shaking... Cold, so so cold... Everything burned... Squeezing her eyes shut, she shakes her head and turns away. The fire was years ago but it still haunted her to this day... even when the building she now stood in was owned by the one who saved her life, in more ways than one. Adjusting the bag she had once more, she looks around for any sign of the person she came to see, smiling again as a messy brunette haired woman steps out of a room in the back. Once they noticed the woman who walked into the shop, a smile spreads on their face as they quickly run over and pull them into a tight hug. "Frostie, hun, you're alright..." The female hugs back tightly, a tear falling down their face, the smile spread a bit more. "I told you I would be, mom..."