#would take a bit to set up because woo character design and development

[neim-batteries-not-included]

What if I made an in-character sideblog. Of like some second age (gods still around) disaster. Because I am so bad at posting worldbuilding stuff but I know I could do that. Do some art for it. What then. Would anyone be interested because I can 100% do that. (Will possibly just do it anyway because Why Not).

[ao3feed-geralt-jaskier]

by Anonymous

in the second month of the year 20xx, im merely testing the limits of ao3s inaction

Words: 40, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong, Marvel Cinematic Universe, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS, 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game), Real Person Fiction, Original Work, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed, Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, Naruto, 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga), 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sherlock (TV), Teen Wolf (TV), Voltron: Legendary Defender, Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Captain America (Movies), One Direction (Band), Star Wars - All Media Types, Doctor Who, Haikyuu!!, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Hetalia: Axis Powers, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime), Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball, Free!, Miraculous Ladybug, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia, One Piece, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Hobbit - All Media Types, Shadowhunters (TV), James Bond (Craig movies), Homestuck, Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Men's Hockey RPF, Glee, Merlin (TV), Once Upon a Time (TV), Hamilton - Miranda, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Final Fantasy, Overwatch (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game), Mass Effect Trilogy, Fire Emblem Series, Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga), Death Note (Anime & Manga)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

Characters: Kim Dokja, Yoo Joonghyuk, Han Sooyoung, Yoo Sangah, Jung Heewon, lee hyungsung, Lee Jihye, Lee Seolhwa, Jang Hayoung, Kim Namwoon, Biyoo, Bihyung, Uriel, Prisoner of the Golden Headband | Sun Wukong, Secretive Plotter (Omniscient Reader)

Relationships: Kim Dokja/Yoo Joonghyuk, Han Sooyoung/Kim Dokja, Han Sooyoung/Kim Dokja/Yoo Joonghyuk, Han Sooyoung/Yoo Sangah, Han Sooyoung/Jung Heewon, Anna Croft/Han Sooyoung, Kim Dokja/Sung Jin-Woo, Kim Dokja/Yoo Sangah, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Additional Tags: im trying to prove a point, There are three ways to survive in a ruined world., now, I have forgotten a few, but one thing is certain., The fact that you who are reading this now will survive., -Three ways to survive in a ruined world, Prologue – There are three ways to survive in a ruined world., Episode 1 – Starting the Paid Service (1), “I’m Dokja.”, (translater note: Dokja can me only son or reader)., I usually introduced myself to people like this, then the following misunderstanding would occur., Chapter 2: Episode 1 – Starting the Paid Service (2), Dokkaebi., The first time he appeared, someone said so., Chapter 3: Episode 1 - Starting the Paid Service (3), People reacted differently after the dokkaebi disappeared., Some people tried to get out of the train while others called the police., Chapter 4: Episode 1 - Starting the Paid Service (4), Laughter emerged., I had to clear my eyes and look again to see if it was a lie., The file extension was TXT., Then this person…, The gift they sent me was a copy of their novel?, Chapter 5: Episode 1 - Starting the Paid Service (5), People panicked as they saw the insects running around the carriage., Chapter 6: Episode 2 – Protagonist (1), The subway stopped around halfway past Dongho Bridge., Chaptr 7: Episode 2 – Protagonist (2), [Sponsor Selection has ended.], Chapter 8: Episode 2 – Protagonist (3), I stared straight into Lee Hyunsung and Han Myungoh’s eyes and said., “Do you want to die from that guy beyond the iron door, or do you want to try your luck outside the train?, Which one will you choose?”, Episode 2 – Protagonist (4), at this moment, Yoo Sangah shouted., “Dokja-ssi! Behind you!”, Episode 2 – Protagonist (5), It would be quite a ludicrous sight if anyone else saw it., A large adult man was being grabbed by the neck and hanging like a monkey., Episode 3 – Contract (1), My body suddenly became heavy as I felt water entering my lungs., Then I was sucked in somewhere., I wasn’t torn apart because I fell with perfect timing., however, I couldn’t lose consciousness here., Episode 3 – Contract (2), Star Stream system., The star stream broadcasting was designed to relay its contents to the entire universe., Episode 3 – Contract (3), Looking at the situation, I got a sense of what happened., Episode 3 – Contract (4), I didn’t know how much time passed., My breathing was often interrupted, and all my muscles were so stiff, that I could barely move them., Episode 4 – Line of Hypocrisy (1), A meteor shower was pouring down in the starry sky., It was a sight that anyone would admire, but not Yoo Joonghyuk., Episode 4 – Line of Hypocrisy (2), I often thought about it., Episode 4 – Line of Hypocrisy (3), Despite the interference of Cheon Inho, the constellations didn’t ask for a bounty scenario., in other words, it wasn’t the best time to deal with him., Episode 4 – Line of Hypocrisy (4), the next morning, I was almost out of supplies., Jung Heewon stared at the convenience store bags, as if she couldn’t believe it., Episode 5 – Shadow Keeper (1), [T-Then I will let everyone take care of it! Yihihihit!], The dokkaebi said these words and disappeared., Episode 5 – Shadow Keeper (2), The party fought well., It was actually a little bit surprising., in particular, Lee Hyunsung and Jung Heewon, who stepped forward with me were very influential., Episode 5 – Shadow Keeper (3), “Hyung! This…”, Right after Lee Gilyoung discovered the treasure box, I blocked his little mouth., “Shh, wait.”, Episode 5 – Shadow Keeper (4), Maybe we would’ve fought for a long time., [The exclusive skill ‘Bookmark’ can now be activated.], [The number two bookmark has been activated.], [The level of the Bookmark skill is low, shortening the activation time.], [Activation Time: One minute.], Episode 6 – Judgment Time (1), The limited random items box., According to the setting of Ways of Survival, this was a coin item that was sold as a limited edition in a past ‘scenario.’, Episode 6 – Judgment Time (2), Just as I was about to open my mouth, I heard Cheon Inho’s voice., “Oh, Dokja-ssi! You came just in time.”, Episode 6 – Judgment Time (3), The following morning, there were a few changes to Gumho Station., first of all, Han Myungoh had disappeared., Episode 6 – Judgment Time (4), A few minutes later, I once again entered Dongdae Station, and ate a ground rat., It was in order to heal, the skin contaminated by the poisonous fog., Episode 7 – Landlord (1), We followed Lee Jihye and entered Chungmuro., Yoo Sangah saw the shattered screen door of the platform and said., “…It is a chaotic atmosphere.”, Episode 7 – Landlord (2), The 10 Evils., The list and rankings were often changed, according to Yoo Joonghyuk’s regression cycle, but they were the 10 people in charge of being the main villains, in this world of Ways of Survival, Episode 7 – Landlord (3), Yoo Joonghyuk was looking at everyone except for Lee Hyunsung., The three remaining people were standing together, and I couldn’t figure out exactly who Yoo Joonghyuk was looking at, 「…How is this possible? 」, Episode 7 – Landlord (4), After the dokkaebi disappeared ×dozens of casualties appeared on the platform of line 3., Episode 7 – Landlord (5), As I watched the surging wave of monsters, I gave strength to my thighs., The level 15 strength condensed at once, and my feet developed a strong propulsion force., Episode 8 – Emergency Defense (1), 「 Lee Hyunsung was dozing like an officer on duty, 」 - Freeform, Episode 8 – Emergency Defense (2), It was finally the promised time., I gathered on the line 3 platform with the party., Every member was checking their weapons., Lee Hyunsung seemed to have handled it properly., Episode 8 – Emergency Defense (3), I couldn’t kill Gong Pildu because he was useful in future scenarios, but I needed Gong Pildu to leave his land., Episode 8 – Emergency Defense (4), One hour after the battle began, Gong Pildu fought and fought., The number of monsters had barely decreased but it was still great., Gong Pildu was considered to have the strongest defense among the 10 Evils for a reason., Episode 9 – Omniscient Sunfish (1), After a while, we moved towards the entrance, of the ‘hidden dungeon’ on the first underground floor., I walked behind Lee Jihye, Lee Gilyoung and Jung Heewon while looking at my smartphone., Episode 9 – Omniscient Sunfish (2), The moment the yellow eyes looked at us, a deafening roar echoed in our ears., Episode 9 – Omniscient Sunfish (3), [The constellation Secretive Plotter is curious about your scam.], [The constellations have sponsored you 200 coins.], Episode 9 – Omniscient Sunfish (4), unfortunately, Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t on the sixth floor., Episode 9 – Omniscient Sunfish (5), The cold sensation numbed my fingers., dammit, I really wanted to beat this guy up., but..., There was something strange., Episode 9 – Omniscient Sunfish (6), “What?”, 「 What are you…? 」, Episode 10 – Future War (1), [Main Scenario #3 – Emergency Defense has ended.], [You have obtained 1, 000 coins as compensation.], Episode 10 – Future War (2), As soon as my hand wrapped around the flag, I felt a strong energy rising in my body., originally, this was something the third turn Yoo Jonghyuk should have but…, it didn’t matter., Episode 10 – Future War (3), …It hadn’t been long since the scenario began and already?, Episode 10 – Future War (4), “Push through to the flag holder!”, Episode 10 – Future War (5), After coming down from the theater, I headed straight to Myeongdong Station with Lee Hyunsung and Yoo Sangah., Dongmyo Station was important but there was something to be done first., Episode 10 – Future War (6), It wasn’t an illusion., The guy’s eyes instantly widened when he heard my name., Episode 10 – Future War (7), the internet - Freeform, it wasn’t possible., Episode 11 – Night of the Prophets (4), “The 9th person to get off.., it is the first time I’ve heard of this attribute.”, Episode 11 – Night of the Prophets (2), “A prophet like us?”

[itsmyregularcat]

Influenced by @white-cat-of-doom, and his Cats dream cast (please check it out), I have made my own.

This is going to be a tough one to figure out, but here is my Cats dream team, as of today.

I wish to see more productions to be better informed in my choices, so I need to get on some bootlegs I guess! (Some choices are actually going to be based off of assumptions of how the actors portray them).

I already know a bunch of my choices are going to be from the Broadway Revival (because I really like that production), and almost all are going to be from newer productions because I am way more familiar with them.

In alphabetical order:

Admetus / Macavity: Thomas Inge (Asia Tour 2017/2020 and UK International Tour 2018/9)

I quite like the Macavity redesign for Vienna 2019 and Asia 2020, so he gets the nod just for this. Otherwise, he is an established Admetus and seems to have fun with it.

Alonzo / Rumpus Cat: Fletcher Dobinson (Asia Tour 2020)

I have never seen him perform as Alonzo, but he has this energy about him I cannot really describe. From short videos I have seen, he seems to have a 'snarky' side, and just has a hell of a time flirting about with everyone during curtain calls. He has the moves.

Bill Bailey / Tumblebrutus: Kolton Krouse (Broadway Revival 2016 / Cats 2019)

They can fly with the best of them. Their flip in with the ball during the end of the Old Gumbie Cat is a cool addition. No strong feelings for this character though.

Bombalurina: Rosemarie Ford (Cats 1998)

If anyone exemplifies what it means to be Bombalurina, I think Rosemarie wins. The duality of caring attitude and scornful nature, combined with her moves and her voice all make her a top pick. Also, slightly older Bombas I feel are better?

Honourable mentions: Christine Cornish Smith (Broadway Revival 2016) for sure, Suzie Melloy (Asia 2017/2020), and Tanya Valenzuela (Mexico 2018).

Carbucketty / Pouncival: Joel Morris (South Africa 2008 / UK Tour 2013 / Palladium 2014 / International Tour 2016)

He does a relatively good job being juvenile, but not annoying in his role. Him screwing around during Tugger's song, Moments Of Happiness, and Skimbleshanks is actually endearing to a point. No strong feelings for this character though.

Cassandra: Mariah Reives (US Tour 6)

Another pick I have never seen during performances, but she looks like a good Cassandra. She is really pretty and appropriately tall, so ¯\_( ツ)_/¯. Bonus points for her lighting up during Misto's song.

Honourable mentions: Jessica Buckby (2013 UK Tour), Danielle Cato (International Tour 2019), and Emily Pynenberg (2016 Broadway Revival)

Coricopat: Corey John Snide (2016 Broadway Revival)

He pairs up very well with my top Tantomile pick, and cannot realistically be separated. This legend was also a dance captain, involved with Cats 2019, and did a split track cover of Coricopat and Jennyanydots during his run.

Demeter: Zizi Strallen (London Revival / Palladium 2014)

Real talk, I love her as Tantomile in Cats 2019, and her singing voice is beautiful and distinct. Her as Demeter is a good bet, and she gives off a happy vibe during less serious points of the show. That happiness she puts in 2019 Tanto is what she did with 2014 Demeter.

Honourable mention: Lisette Pagler (Gothenburg 2006 / Stockholm 2009). The OG grey Demeter. She is absolutely beautiful, and her non-rep portrayal design is neat. She is also an actual singer in Sweden, so her voice is top notch. I really like her as Demeter. Also, Ella Nonini (International Tour / Asia 2020).

Electra: Leah Sue Morland (Cats 1998) or Lili Froehlich (2016 Broadway Revival)

I cannot reasonably pick one over the other, I have disproportionately strong feelings for both. Lili made me fall in love with Electra as a character (and I mean, look who my icon is!), and Leah cemented it before and after me seeing the Broadway Revival. They both make a modest ensemble cat seem so much more important. One of my favourite Cats across any production.

Etcetera: Jo Bingham (Cats 1998)

Boundless energy and happiness rolled into one bouncy cat. No one had a better time during Cats 1998, and for a cat that does not appear in many production afterwards, Jo just said f*ck it and did whatever seemingly came to mind to forge a legacy. Biting Coricopat’s ass remains a landmark moment in cinema. One of my favourite cats in the film without a doubt.

George: Frank Thompson (Cats 1998)

He is sort of always there, enjoying himself. If I would cut a cast member, George would be it. Sorry George.

Gus / Bustopher Jones / Growltiger: Rory Campbell (UK Tour / Zurich / London)

Dignified Busto. A good Gus that does not play off too much about being old and decrepit. If done properly, Growltiger (for the sake of Griddlebone) should make a return to more productions. Remove the total racism and the open misogyny inherent to many portrayals of Growltiger, and make it strictly about the lovers.

Grizabella: Jennifer Hudson (for real) (Cats 2019)

I know this one will ruffle feathers, but her sad sap performance is quite unrivaled in Cats. She brought the gloom and the dejection of being casted out to life. Her singing Memory is powerful as all hell, and filled with emotion. She wins the screaming match.

Jellylorum / Griddlebone: Freya Rowley (Cats 2019)

At this point you are probably thinking, ‘my lord, what the hell is this person on about?’. Freya does not sing in the movie, and is just a background cat, but my god is she the best cat there! During her time with actual stage productions, she was a principle Tantomile, and covered Demeter, Jelly, Jenny, and Cassandra as swing. I know she can sing (even though I have never heard it), and I want to hear / see her as the most novel Griddlebone around. Big orange energy - get with it.

Honourable mention: Sarah Jean Ford (2016 Broadway Revival)

Jemima: Veerle Casteleyn (Cats 1998 / London / Dutch Tour)

The most vanilla choice, but she was the face of Jemima / Sillabub and the Cats ‘franchise’ when the 98 film first came out, and rocketed her character to great importance and notoriety. They used her for promo shots after the movie came out realizing how popular her character had become. Veerle is the innocence of youth personified. By the way, I am taking her without the overdub.

Honourable mention: Arianna Rosario (2016 Broadway Revival / US Tour 6) and Dawn Williams (UK Tour 2013)

Jennyanydots: Eloise Kropp (2016 Broadway Revival)

A younger Jenny still as wild as any other. Her greater involvement during the show is also cool to see. The changes they made to the Broadway Revival may irk some, but the Gumbie Cat scene with the choreography change is my favourite I have seen so far. Eloise does a really good job, and has a chaotic energy that draws me to her.

Mistoffelees: Laurie Davidson (Cats 2019)

On my pursuit of pissing off the purists, here is another controversial choice. He provides a character development that I think would work out well on stage. Imagine it for a second, with Tugger or Munk hyping him up. No Mistoria though.

Honourable mention: Joseph Poulton (UK Tour 2013 / Palladium 2014)

Munkustrap: Jack Rebaldi (London / Madrid / Paris / Dusseldorf / German Tours)

The man is a serious Munk, who is versatile with his portrayals. He gets so into playing the character, and seems to be having a great time doing it. Plus, how the hell can someone do Munk in English, Spanish, French, and German in the course of three years? Madness.

Honourable mentions: Robbie Fairchild (Cats 2019) and friend-shaped Michael Gruber (Broadway / Cats 1998)

Mungojerrie: Drew Varley (Australia 1993 / London / Cats 1998)

One half of the chaotic duo present in Cats 1998, with an oustanding level of dumbassery and foolishness that encompasses Jerrie. He encapsulates that attitude very well, and pairs perfectly with my top Rumpleteazer.

Honourable mention: Dante Hernandez (Mexico 2013 / 2018)

Old Deuteronomy: Nicholas Pound (London / UK Tours / Palladium 2014 / International Tour)

A bit of a different choice, considering most people would likely pick Ken Page (and for good reason). Mr. Pound has a great voice, and welcoming vibe. Behind the scenes, he is a chaotic Old D. Plus, his name is Dick Pound.

Rum Tum Tugger: John Partridge (UK Tour / London / Cats 1998 / Berlin / Dusseldorf)

Velvety smooth voice, swagger coming out the hip thrust, and a playfulness suitable for the rockstar cat. No contest with this choice. He also does not play of RTT as being childish or over the top (*cough 2016 Broadway Revival / US Tour 6*), which is appreciated. Sorry Tyler Hanes, your vlogs were delightful, but your Tugger was a bit too much.

Rumpleteazer: Jo Gibb (London / Cats 1998)

Jo Gibb is the reason I became super obsessed with Cats, and probably why my favourite character is Rumple. Having initially seen the 2019 movie before the 1998 film, seeing her smiling face and adorable portrayal made me sort of fall in love with her. She is a perfectly mischievous Rumple, and I feel is the benchmark for most others. Her engagements with other characters is awesome, and she is just the ideal actor. Also, Cockney accent Rumple is best Rumple I do not make the rules.

Honourable mentions: Every other Teazer. All of them. There is no bad one. They all have my heart.

Skimbleshanks: Steven McCrae (Cats 2019)

Big daddy Skimble, with the red pants and the moustache. Tap dancing and ballet powerhouse. WOO WOO. Enough said.

Tantomile: Emily Tate (2016 Broadway Revival)

Given all Tantos do not really have an opportunity to set themselves apart because they are more of an ensemble Cat, I liked Emily from the beginning I saw her, and I think she is really cute. Her, paired with CJS, make a pretty ideal Cori and Tanto. Maybe I am swayed by the amount of lifts and spins they do together during the show? They have a beautiful synchronization and grace with their movements. 

Weaponize your Tantomiles, helicopter her above your Coricopats and take over. Kill Macavity. Become the Everlasting Cat.

Honourable mention: Kaye Brown (London / UK Tour / Cats 1998), Melody Rose (US Tour 6), Helen Gulston (RCCL Cruise). Realistically, all Tantos are good. I like Tantomile.

Victoria: Georgina Pazcogiun (2016 Broadway Revival)

A prominent soloist with the New York ballet, renowned for her distinctive style, and you can appreciate that if you watched a 2016 bootleg show. She has also pushed out against ballet norms by being "The Rogue Ballerina" as a means of embracing the qualities that make her unique as a dancer, such as her 'bigger' (in terms of ballet) body type. Her unique style as Victoria makes her my choice. Plus, she be sneaky.

Honourable mentions: Hannah Kenna Thomas (UK Tour 2013 / Palladium 2014 / International Tour / Vienna Revival), Tyler Lotzof (Asia Tour 2020), Alicia Beck (UK Tour 2013), Phyllida Crowley Smith (London / Cats 1998). Realistically, all Vics are good.

Any way, there is my shitshow of a production.

[captainpikeachu]

Star Trek Picard NYCC Trailer Analysis!!

this one took a bit but here is the trailer analysis for Picard!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED FOR ALL THE NEW THINGS BUT ALSO GREAT TO SEE OLD FACES!

we began the vineyard, Chateau Picard

then we see Data standing underneath a tree, he’s painting something

Picard slowly walks up to Data, note that Picard in this shot is wearing his TNG era uniform as well - indicating that this can’t be real and is likely a dream

Data(?): “Would you like to finish it Captain?”

There is some ominous echo on the word Captain

then we are presented with image of some cloaked figure standing by a cliff side overlooking water? I’m not sure who this is or what is happening here, but this could be connected to some dark traumatic thing that is haunting Picard, perhaps someone died? (pls pls don’t let this be Beverly Crusher nope)

Picard replies to Data(?)’s question, “I don’t know how.”

Data(?) counters with “That is not true, sir.”

that weird haunting echo happens with Data’s words as we go into a montage of flashes between images of ships attacking somewhere and Data handing the paintbrush to Picard

now the ships that’s flying around attacking and setting things ablaze, I am not sure what they are, but if they are Romulan ships, they look to be similar to either the scout ships or the Valdore type warbirds 

if this is Romulan ships, then it begs the question what is happening and what are they attacking? we know that Romulus was destroyed, so is this people trying to escape Romulus or is this some refugee area or another colony being attacked by other Romulans? or another species’ planet being attacked by Romulans?

next shot is Picard waking up, this could indicate that what we saw before was something that Picard was just dreaming about and he’s having nightmares

a good doggo Number One comes to Picard, and Picard says “Oh it’s alright Number One”

the first thing this feels to me is that Picard is suffering from some sort of PTSD, and Number One is possibly and likely an emotional support dog trained to help Picard when he’s dealing with PTSD episodes

more shots of the vineyard

we see Picard and Number One walking through the fields with Picard’s voiceover, “I came here to find safety but one is never safe from the past.”

in the next scene we see that Dahj, this mysterious new character played by Isa Briones, finds Picard at the vineyard

Dahj says “Please sir, someone’s after me.”

Picard looks shocked and concerned and worried

and here we are back to good ole San Francisco, home of Starfleet WOO!

this looks like Starfleet Headquarters? or at least the administrative wing of HQ

this I’m pretty sure is a projection of the Galaxy-class Enterprise D? because the nacelles doesn’t seem to match the Sovereign-class Enterprise E

so Picard comes into HQ and has to go to the receptionist desk, a funny conversation ensues here

Picard: “I have an appointment.”

Receptionist: “Your name please, sir?”

Picard: “Picard - p, i, c, a, r, d.” 

Receptionist: “It’s nice to see you up and around again.”

LOL Picard’s face, he is most definitely not pleased at that last comment about “up and around again”

but hey, he gets a visitor’s badge!

now these two images are interesting, I am not sure where Picard is, but this is not at Starfleet HQ because his clothing is different and he doesn’t have a visitor’s badge, so this is at some other facility

the person next to him in white could be an android

these all look like androids, my guess is this is the same scene as the previous two shots of Picard at whatever facility he’s at, this could be a place that is developing androids?

this is a scene I believe that is taking place at the Borg cube, probably that same place in the last trailer where they are containing people who have been de-borged I assume? and where Dahj is being kept at?

now all the previous shots were played over Picard having a talk with this female admiral who’s name we do not know

Picard: “We have an obligation to investigate.”

Admiral: “There is no we, Jean Luc.”

Picard: “Admiral, I am standing up for the Federation, for what it should still represent!”

Admiral: “This is no longer your house, Jean Luc, go home.”

we see Picard leaving after this, and he does not look very happy. we also see a shuttle in this shot, it looks similar to the ones we see on Discovery, so this could be some old model still in use

now the conversation between Picard and the Admiral is a very interesting one, first from Picard’s side, he claims to be standing up for the Federation and what it SHOULD STILL represent, meaning that he doesn’t believe they are representing what the Federation should be right now, there is some resentment here that’s happened between Picard and Starfleet, and that may have been the cause for his retirement

but on the Starfleet Admiral’s side, there seems to be resentment here too, for Picard leaving, in the way she says how there is no “we” and that this is no longer Picard’s house because he left and he doesn’t get to just march back and tell people what to do

all of this just indicates further that something broke down between Picard and Starfleet, and it could very well be what is causing his nightmares

we see Dahj in the rain, I think this is before she goes to find Picard, but probably after she escaped from the Borg cube place

on the TV screens in the window, we see an image of Picard, and it looks like two people under an umbrella is watching this interview, I assume this is how Dahj decides to go find Picard, she probably saw this interview and somehow felt connected to Picard as we noted from her dialogue in the last trailer where she claimed that everything in her says that she’s safe with him

Picard is having a conversation with someone whom we don’t know, but Picard says “I have to help her.”

The other character (who looks to be played by actor David Paymer) asks, “You really wanna go back out into the cold?”

someone suggested that this character could be a Traveler, jduging by the clothes, hair, and hand

we see Picard looking out into the stars and then putting on his old communicator badge, the kind that’s seen last in the TNG films

and the decision is made when Picard answers the other character, “More than ever.”

so, Dahj is the catalyst to Picard having his sea legs back and wanting to do something more than just sitting around the vineyard

release date confirmed for next year! very soon now!

very cool landscape at we see Picard heading towards a house(?)

here we meet one of our main characters Raffi Musiker (played by Michelle Hurd), described to be an old friend of Picard’s and a former intelligence officer who is dealing with substance abuse, she has her ties to Starfleet as well and one of the other main characters Chris Rios

in this conversation, Picard says “I have a plan”, to which Raffi replies, “Another top secret unauthorized rescue mission?”

Picard scoffs a bit

now this conversation is interesting, because in one of the earlier trailers, it is noted that Picard presided over the biggest rescue armada in history? so Raffi’s comment here about unauthorized rescue mission could mean that this rescue armada that Picard had, it wasn’t Starfleet or Federation authorized, and this could explain the bad blood that seems to be happening between Picard and Starfleet

it is possible that the Federation/Starfleet refused to send a rescue armada to Romulus, perhaps thinking that Spock going there with the red matter was enough, but Picard refused to just stand by and do nothing so he secretly got a rescue armada out there to get people and maybe they lost ships and people died in the resulting mission when Romulus exploded? we know that Spock got there too late to stop the planet from exploding, so was Picard also there on hand to witness the destruction?

also Raffi here doesn’t sound so pleased about it either, given her sarcastic tone, so whatever that drove Picard away from Starfleet, could also have resulted in Raffi exiting Starfleet as well, hence her reaction to him at this moment

I’m not sure what this place is, but this doesn’t seem to be Starfleet? Maybe some research facility? perhaps Romulan? I’m not sure what that floating station is for? but that looks Romulan in design

but whatever it is, I think this is where Alison Pill’s character Dr. Agnes Jurati works at, we hear here saying, likely to Picard, “This is everything that ever mattered to me.”

this is a later scene, judging by her clothes, maybe she comes to Picard’s place to join him? but she says “I’m going with you.”

my assumption is that Dr. Jurati is working on something android or Borg related that is helpful on this mission or else I don’t think Picard would have gone to her

this could be a Romulan colony or refugee place?

here we meet Elnor, played by Evan Evagora, he’s supposed to be a young Romulan who is very loyal to Picard

this also seems to be the same place in the last trailer where we saw Picard going to and got manhandled by some Romulan guards

and here is our cigar smoking(?) space cowboy Cristobal “Chris” Rios (Santiago Cabrera), another ex-Starfleet officer and friend of Raffi, who captains the ship that Picard and team is going to be traveling on

the ship’s name starts with an “L”, I believe Santiago mentions it at the panel at one point and I think the name got out due to an instagram post by a younger actor on the show - Lascerina(?) or something similar, I will have to check that again

we also hear Picard’s voiceover scenes of Elnor and Rios, “I need your skill and your courage” - skill on a shot of Elnor, and courage on a shot of Rios

so this is that Borg cube we have been seeing before where a bunch of Romulans are working on

now we got some bloodied body parts? looks like Borg people are being hung up and experimented on?

but there is a body on the floor so I guess something went wrong?

and someone standing over the body on the slab?

the next shot shows that it looks like it was Seven who was standing over the body, and she’s holding the body and crying

there’s been many speculations over who this could be - some have said, Chakotay, some of said maybe hers and Chakotay’s child, or Icheb, or Hugh

I don’t think it is Hugh, as I think Hugh has a different and bigger arc in this story, they wouldn’t just have brought in Jonathan Del Arco and have him be involved in promoting the show if he’s just going to be dead

I’m also not sure that it’s Chakotay because why would the Romulans want to experiment on him? He’s Maquis, not Borg, and that hair is pretty dark and I think by now Chakotay would have gone grey?

so perhaps either Seven and Chakotay’s kid or Icheb, most likely, Icheb

here we have a shot of Raffi looking rather pensive

this is Rios’ ship flying over Earth, I think

Rios in his seat in the captain’s chair, we see Picard and Elnor to the left of the shot, and Raffi and Jurati on the right

all of this is playing over Picard’s voiceover that says “The past is written, but we are left to write the future.”

it looks like he may be saying this to Rios while on his ship, so maybe he’s trying to convince Rios to join in this scene?

then we have Rios going “Hold on...” sounding like a total cowboy, he might as well have said Giddyup! i’m starting to sense we have another horse obsessed person named Chris happening over here

new updated tech on ships than we’ve seen before, no arm rest, but holographic controls

ship is flying off to the new journey!

yes he is a legend

now this is Rios’ ship and another smaller vessel firing upon a Romulan warbird, in fact, it’s a 23rd century Romulan warbird back in TOS time - this makes sense though since with Romulus being destroyed, it’s likely that they are falling back on old tech to keep going

this is at the place where Elnor is at, looks like Picard is getting into some sword fighting with a Romulan guard? old man still got it!

here is a masked figure smashing a window - this could be someone possibly searching Picard’s place? maybe to find Dahj? Or something else is happening

yeah...so....NEW SHIP

Rios and Jurati being super cute here celebrating with a high five

they are already adorable

yes I SHIP IT

back to the Borg cube

we see Dahj, this is pre-escaping

here we have two Romulans - Harry Treadway’s Narek and another unnamed Romulan female played by Peyton List - they are discussing about Dahj, with the female Romulan saying “She was sent for a reason.” and Narek replying “I’ll get the information we need.”

well, that apparently means have sex with her >.<

Elnor drawing his sword - I think this takes place on the Borg cube, there is something in this shot behind Elnor, I think it’s Hugh

now I think this is Picard going to where Seven of Nine is living - she did ask him what he was doing there in their conversation in the last trailer

a shot of Hugh!

Seven and Picard seems to be continuing their conversation from the last trailer, and here we hear Seven say “I help people who has no one else to help them.”

again this seems to imply that bad things have been happening and Starfleet/Federation isn’t doing anything, and Seven doesn’t look like she stayed in Starfleet either, so there seems to be a lot of ex-Starfleet people running around doing their own thing

OUR QUEEN OUR BADASS DUEL WIELDING YAS YOU SHOOT THEM ALL SEVEN!!!

then we get this moment

who is this big tall fella standing in this nice kitchen??????? IS IT OUR BELOVED HUMAN NUMBER ONE WILLIAM T RIKER???

We hear a kid going “Daaaaddddd!”

Riker: “What!”

Kid: “Come out here!”

Riker: “StOp YeLLiNg!”

Kid: “It’s Jean Luc Picard!”

Riker freezes after that as we hear the TNG theme swells up to...

Picard: ���Hello Will.”

A SHOCKED RIKER APPEARS! 

PICARD USES STUN! IT’S SUPER EFFECTIVE!

we then hear Deanna Troi saying “Jean Luc” as she greets him!!!!!!!

DEANNA TROI USES HUG!!!!

IT IS TOTALLY SUPER EFFECTIVE!!!!!!

RIKER AND TROI ARE STILL TOGETHER, THEY ARE HAPPY, AND THEY HAVE AT LEAST ONE KID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *inhuman screech*

this looks like more shots of Rios’ ship fighting against the Romulan warbird

someone is dribbling a soccer ball, but I’m not sure where this is, maybe Rios’ ship or some other facility

a group of people in black robes standing around a circle as some sort of wave is released, and it seems to knock them down - I’m not sure if this location is where Picard finds Elnor?

here we have Hugh seemingly leading Dahj and Picard around some corridors - I assume that Dahj somehow gets recaptured once she finds Picard and this is what leads Picard to get out there to go find her, so this is Dahj’s second time escaping from the Borg cube?

some sort of game is being played? likely by Dahj, since it looks like her hands and her clothing that she was wearing in a previous shot, or maybe some sort of tarot card reading?

Rios and Jurati ship is sailing!!!!

this looks like ships attacking some space station? not sure if this is a flashback or not?

this looks similar to the ship in Picard’s dream montage

Seven again!

this could be a young Dahj perhaps? pre-assimilation maybe? there’s a rainstorm outside

Raffi is checking a phaser 

Dahj is screaming as we see burns on her face, maybe this is how the Romulans capture her after her initial escape where she finds Picard the first time? it’s certainly on the same steps where Picard saw her fighting a couple of soldiers

a shot of Picard clapping

looks like more shots of Rios’ ship fighting the Romulan warbird

all of these shots playing over Picard saying “We all have a story just waiting to be claimed.”

and we are back to our boys on the lakeside (RIKER AND TROI HAVE A LAKE SERIOUSLY OMG???)

Picard says, “Thank you for not trying to talk me out of all this.”

Riker chuckles and replies, “Believe me, I know better.”

Picard pats Riker’s hand that’s on his shoulder

we see the shot of them sitting by the lake, just the two of them chuckling

this moment between them is so much more intimate, more warm, and more welcoming than all of their interactions from the previous episodes and films - no doubt helped by the fact that we are not longer looking at a captain and his first officer who has to remain professional, but just two old guys on equal footing able to indulge in a close friendship, since it looks like neither Riker nor Troi are in Starfleet any longer

and of course, this moment also speaks to the real life friendship between Jonathan Frakes and Patrick Stewart as well, they are finally able to bring more of their real life bond into the relationship on screen

so, we get the title card, Star Trek Picard we will out starting January 23, 2020!!!!!

i’m honestly really really psyched! and of course the old faces coming back is always great, but I am already in love with these new characters and I am excited to see Trek move forth in the timeline and dealing with the aftermath of Romulus’ destruction and what the state of the galaxy would be like afterwards

not to mention the state of the Federation and Starfleet itself, as it seems there may be a gradual decline, as many of our heroes seems to have left Starfleet or running around doing things behind Starfleet’s back

2020 can’t come soon enough!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!

[tobeheard]

you got ocs to share mate?

Hey Anon!!! I’m super sorry about how late this is, usuallyI can’t stop telling people about my OC’s when they ask but I’ve been busy forthe past few days with uni work so I’ve been slowed down!

Before I begin though, I should probably let you know that Iregularly change the themes/plot/setting of the world my characters are set in.While they may be human (or not) today, they could be something drastically differenttomorrow. I do this mostly in an effort to try and find a story that “clicks”for me, and while this hasn’t quite happened it has been really helpful withcharacter development!! Anyway, onto the OC’s!

Kit

Originally Kit was designed as an 18 year old maleconscientious objector drafted into World War One (Christopher Frederick Barrow).Now Kit is a grumpy lesbian wood nymph who lives in a small little houseamongst the woods, filled with books and various trinkets that she likes toinvent with. She’s kind of inspired by Kit Marlowe (name inspiration!!) andTinkerbell XD She’s very quiet and instead of jumping straight into scenariosshe likes to stand back and watch a situation first before she can decide onwhat to do. While she can be very logical, and sometimes even a little bitremoved from a situation, that is not to say that she is emotionless. She isvery quick to get frustrated with things. Sometimes she gets quickly frustratedwith books she can’t decipher the language of, or if her inventions don’t workout. She especially gets frustrated and huffy when it comes to the girl shelikes. She can’t stand the fact that she’s so easily flustered by this one girlwho likes to go on hikes through the woods sometimes. Whenever she gets a lookat her she feels like she’s swooning, and then she’s immediately red faced andirritated because this girl is a human and “how dare she” make Kit havefeelings!!! Looks wise, Kit is quite tall and slender, she’s got bob length curlybrown hair, wears glasses, has these goldeny brown eyes, is deaf in her rightear and has mid-dark tanned skin. Last time I drew her she was wearing dungareesand she’s a cutie pie and I love her very much!!

Oli

Oli (Oliver Delaney) was my OG OC!! He came aboutwhen I was around 15 so he’s a good 7 years old in my brain now! He’s quiteshort, probably at around 5’3, and a bit stocky. He’s got the sides of his headshaved and this floofy blonde curly mess up top! The funny thing about Oli isthat he’s changed the absolute least out of everybody. He’s bisexual, anabsolute sweetheart that pines after many a person and tries to woo them with badlywritten love poems that he immediately tries to unsend. He’s from quite ageneric nuclear family. Two happily married parents, and a younger sister thatdrives him mad. His parents work in a bakery, and it was always the intentionthat he would take over the family business but he wants to desperately be a professionalballet dancer despite all the odds against him. He’s quite sweet and mildtempered, and a little bit of a push over if I’m being quite honest. He and Kithave always been the best of friends in every changing story I’ve had, so itwould be much the same with wood nymph Kit (he would be the “human friend”) asit would for the university au I had planned (he was a Dance student and shewas an English Lit student and they met in a module on Early English Performances).He originally had a crush on her but is absolutely not bothered at all withacting on those feelings. He knows she likes girls and he wants to help her getout of her shell and get a girlfriend! Anyway, I love Oli. He has my heart.

Ada

Short for Adelaide, originally she was an assassinprincess! I honestly have absolutely no clue how she fits into the wood nymphlesbian love story tbqh! She swings from being the love interest to a friendand honestly I have no idea what to do with her atm but she’s my Queen so I’lljust list the things I do know about her. She’s from a very rich andinfluential family. She’s extremely close to her father, but her mother overthe past few years has become nothing more than a puppet for her grandmother soAda is always dubious around them. They have quite traditional ideals where shehas a role she’s expected to play but Ada has absolutely no regard for them.She’ll wear the clothes and the make up she wants to wear, have her hair allsorts of crazy colours (it’s currently pink and orange) and genuinely live herlife however tf she wants. She has a lot of unchecked privilege which she hasto work on over the course of her life, but she’s willing to admit her mistakesand grow as a person. In terms of temperament, she kinda reminds me in ways ofErica from Teen Wolf. Relationship wise, she didn’t get on the best with Oli atfirst (she likes people who fight back and Oli kinda lets her walk all over himwhich she views to be absolutely pointless) but they’ve formed this sort offriendship now where she respects his choices and will kill for him (he’s apuppy).

The other OC’s I have aren’t as fleshed out as these guysbut here you are:

Theo

Theodore, Irish, ginger hair, from a big familyand is the oldest of all his siblings. He takes great pride in caring for his youngersisters (he has 4). His dad isn’t around and his mum works 2 jobs so he’spractically raising them. He’s very tall, demi, and dislikes Ada strongly. Hesees her as a rich kid who comes from a world that doesn’t give a crap aboutkids and families like him and he’ll repeatedly make his feelings clear. He andAda do form a sort of reasonably amicable friendship but there is always thisunease coming from him and this sense of indifference coming from her so theynever 100% click. Theo is very attached to Kit and basically “adopts” her andlikes to make sure she’s fed. He’s the type of person to facebook stalk hissiblings love interests to see if they’re good people.

Lonnie

Kit’s ex-girlfriend. Their relationship was toomuch too fast and they burned eachother up in the atmosphere. The relationshipended practically in flames and while both suffered towards the end, Kit verymuch got the brunt of it. They were 15 at the time, so they’ve both grown as individualsand Lonnie last I checked was a fitness enthusiast but I don’t know much else.

Ailsa

an OC from 6 years ago, heavily influenced byMerida. She’s Scottish and her personalities was kind of a mix between Lonnie’sand Ada’s, so she’s never really come into the forefront but she’s always here.Loitering.

[e-louise-bates]

For the OC asks: 4, 12, 22, 23, 24, 26, 31, 44

4.  A character you rarely talk about?

This one is tricky, I’m known to happily babble about my characters given the slightest provocation. In general, though, I talk the least about all my characters from FTS, and out of those characters, the one I talk the least about would be ... Captain Miles. He’s mostly there to be a mild antagonist, but darned if I didn’t go and write a short story that showed a different side to him, and now I’m secretly fond of him even if he is a PITA. My original plan, if I ever wrote a sequel, was to kill him off so Sapphira could be the captain, but now I don’t know if I could do that. Besides, it’s kind of fun having the captain be a jerk, even if that does mean Sapphira gets stuck as First Mate a little bit longer. Hey, if Will Riker and Chakotay could survive it, so can she.

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot

My friend A.M. Offenwanger creates brilliant characters, and I’m particularly fond of Cat in her Septimus series. A librarian (woo-hoo!) who falls through a portal to a magic world and promptly sets about making a better life for herself there, who is practical and romantic both, and who is not a starry-eyed teenager--well, sometimes I feel like Angelika wrote those stories just for me.

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? 

I have a very small readership, so not too many people have even had the chance to mischaracterise my characters. Although I did have a beta reader tell me Pauline, my historical mystery protagonist, was too perfect and needed some flaws, but that was mostly my fault for making her flaws too subtle. They were there, but I could see how one could miss them.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

My first conception of Maia (MMD) was dull, dull, dull. The goal was to make her the type of person who let others impose upon her, and who took on more responsibility than she ought, and the result was, naturally enough, a protagonist who was so boring even I couldn’t stick around to wait for the transformation. My dad suggested adding some curiosity to her personality, and as I was doing that she became more practical and strong-minded and less likely to let everyone and their brother impose upon her--though still overly burdened with responsibilities she ought not to carry, and still letting her family impose--and then there she was, a whole person, not just a wet dishrag. For which we may all be truly thankful.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

Oh, I would love to meet Len (MMD). He’s so much fun, and I’m pretty sure he’d drag me into trouble, but then he’s also pretty good at getting himself (and others) out of trouble, and every once in a while, I wouldn’t mind a little trouble to stir things up. Besides, he’s dreamy.

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? 

Ah, the joys of independent publishing. I do have editors, but if I feel strongly enough about a character, I have the power to ignore their suggestions and carry on. I don’t usually ignore them, because they are usually right (see 22, above), but if it ever came down to it, I have the final call for all my characters. Until they run away with me. So I suppose maybe once in a while I have changed a character against my will, but only because they have insisted on changing themselves.

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

The difficulty with writing stories set in either the past or the future is that I really can’t imagine any of my characters with a tumblr blog. Especially since most of the time I barely know what I’m doing on here. I suppose if Helen (G&G) was alive now she would have one for fashion design, and it would be all aesthetics and moodboards.

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

My OCs all tend to be living, breathing people--which can cause problems when they try to take over the story (see 26, above), but overall I love it. I’ve never had to fill out a character sheet or write an elaborate backstory for a character, because they tend to be already fully developed; even if I don’t know all the details yet, I know they will emerge as necessary. I can be really sketchy on plot, I am constantly reminding myself that a little description is necessary so that my story is not all talking heads, but characters do live for me, and they are one of my chief joys in writing.

Thank you for the ask, @isfjmel-phleg!

[bbclesmis]

Lily Collins Is An Utterly Captivating Fantine

Actor Lily Collins tried her best to not lose herself in the devastating role of Les Misérables‘ Fantine. Collins explains how she stayed grounded on set, where she found inspiration for her iconic tragic heroine and why her onscreen injury was all-too painfully real.

Download and subscribe on: iTunes | Stitcher| RadioPublic

Transcript:

Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

After losing her lover, her daughter, and her job, the young Fantine has finally died — after learning that her savior, Monsieur le Maire, is in fact the fugitive convict, Jean Valjean. It’s a gruesome death for a character whose life was full of extremes. From a beautiful lakeside romance to the violence of the urban sex trade, Fantine has seen the bright promise of her young life extinguished by the harsh realities of mid-19th century France.

CLIP

Fantine: You see this man here? You see this monster here that you call Monsieur le Maire? It’s all his fault! He’s supposed to be so good, what did he do? He threw me out on the street and you know why? Because I tried to care for my little girl. Monster of a Mayor!

Jace: Actor Lily Collins turned to the original novel’s text as a source for character development. And she was thrilled to find that Andrew Davies’ script for Les Misérables gave the usually narrowly-defined Fantine room to grow, and even thrive, in this recent adaptation.

Lily Collins: It was a welcome to me having known where she ends up to be able to have as much fun at the beginning….you know where things are headed and it makes you want for her the best more than you ever have because you know that things are just gonna get awful quite soon.

Jace: Collins takes us inside her stunning transformation and says goodbye to Fantine, while looking ahead to her busy calendar.

And we are joined this week by Les Misérables star Lily Collins. Welcome.

Lily: Thank you for having me.

Jace: Fantine is introduced in Andrew Davies’ script with the following description: ‘Fantine is the youngest treated as a pet by the others. She’s fair and ravishingly pretty.’ I love that the Fantine we see in the first episode is happy and entirely innocent. What did you make of this description of her?

Lily: I thought it was really fascinating being able to show a side of Fantine that we don’t really normally get to see in the previous film adaptation as well as the musical because normally we hear about those days when Fantine was happy and had just moved to Paris and you know had friends and she got to fall in love. We only hear that really in a song lyric or a couple song lyrics. And this time we actually get a whole episode to see her come and be alive and fall in love and have her child. So for me it was really fun to get to explore the young naive more innocent just full of life and love Fantine that I know I would have loved to have seen more of before. So the fact that Andrew got to detail her in such a way was really fun to get to explore.

Jace: I mean, does having that backstory make what’s coming for Fantine even more wrenching for viewers? Does it engender further sympathy for her by showing how she started out?

Lily: Yeah I think it’s pivotal so that you have the exact opposite of what she ends up to really start her out as happy and youthful and fun and full of life. Because at the end of the story as you know she is on her deathbed and looks completely different. And for me what was so strange about filming is that we started at the end and worked our way backwards because we started filming in winter so my second day of filming was on my deathbed and then I got to come back to life and and reintroduce myself to the young Fantine which was really great because once I reached the death scene and you know worked my way through all of her prostitution scenes and her really kind of grappling at life, I knew where she ended up so I got to really amp up the beginning of the story to the best of my ability to make it even more loving, even more youthful and fun and innocent and naive because that way I had a really great bookend to kind of be opposite to the end. And I think that an audience is is more able to empathize with her at the end when they’ve actually seen where she came from.

Jace: What sort of preparation did you do in terms of research? Did you turn to the Victor Hugo novel?

Lily: I did. Tom was quite adamant that for obvious reasons this is based on the Victor Hugo novel it’s not a musical version it’s not based on what the movie did. It really was its own entity. And Andrew obviously references so much of the novel in just the backstory when you’re reading the script not even on the lines but really just the setting and the way his descriptions as you read before about Fantine, he really goes back to the novel, so that was pivotal to go back and reference that. It was very much about analyzing the context and the text from the original novel and just inserting bits of yourself within the character especially for Fantine seeing as though we haven’t seen that much of her youthful side before. And so Tom just wanted to know what that was like for me. And so we did a lot of speaking about women at that time. And you know a young grisette versus a you know a young prostitute and how that could kind of evolve and a young mother, you know that during this time in Paris and what that would look like. So just using using the surroundings to kind of influence how Fantine would act.

Jace: Did Anne Hathaway offer you advice?

Lily It wasn’t like Anne Hathaway came up to me and offered me advice. I saw her at an event and I just I thought it was funny that I saw her and I had just played her and I said, ‘I’m playing Fantine, and hi how are you?’ She offered me really great advice, actually, coming from you know me bringing it up to her. And it was just, ‘Make sure that you don’t lose yourself in this character, because it is one that requires all of yourself.’ Like I said before, and it would be easy for it to become all consuming and just to be aware of that. And that was something that I knew going into it. But it was nice to have someone who’s been in the trenches reiterate that and remind me that I’m not crazy for thinking it is overwhelming. But it was great it was a lovely moment. And I was very thankful for that.

Jace: Fantine meets Felix, played by Johnny Flynn, over a drink and the scene becomes a swirl of activity as Fantine and her friends dance with these very well-heeled gentlemen.

CLIP

Felix: No, no, no I’m afraid we cannot permit you to dance without partners.

Favorite: Thought you’d never ask, monsieur.

Felix: May I ask your name, mademoiselle?

Fantine: Fantine, monsieur.

Felix: Fantine.

Jace: What was it like getting to play the scene, which is so at odds with how we think of Fantine traditionally?

Lily: That scene was so beautiful. I remember all of us being there and looking at I mean first of all the production design on this is just insanely beautiful and it was a welcome to me because I had shot all of my you know my death and my struggle maybe two months prior, went back to Los Angeles for a month, and came back for the summer portion. And this was one of the first things I shot and it was the first time for me also that I got to be around other people you know that were Fantine’s friends so that our whole gang spent so much time together in Brussels we had such a great time when we were so close knit that this was just it felt like another like a Friday night you know hanging out with friends, which it really was for Fantine. But it felt really nice to just let go and let loose and have a fun time because it was one of the moments the only moments that you see Fantine able to do that and Fantine was very much the baby of the group in terms of her girlfriends that were grisettes with her. She’s the younger one she’s more naive. And they see her as her little their little pet in the most endearing sense. So this was one of the most grownup nights she’s had. She gets to go out and have drinks and lo and behold meet some guys and obviously you know the rest is history and goes downhill from there really. But it was a welcome to me having known where she ends up to be able to have as much fun at the beginning. You know where things are headed and it makes you want for her the best more than you ever have because you know that things are just going to get awful quite soon.

Jace: Fantine falls head over heels in love with Felix. Their seduction scene in the woods under the green canopy of the trees is exquisite to watch.

CLIP

Felix: I wonder if you know how I’m suffering? Are you going to be merciful, Fantine? Will you take pity on me?

Fantine: I don’t want you to be sad.

Felix Then…?

Fantine: You promise you’ll be good to me, Felix?

Fantine: On my life.

Jace: What was it like shooting the sequence?

Lily: It was…I mean it was beautiful. Again, where we got to shoot was just a joy. Brussels and outside of Belgium and France there were so many amazing locations. Props to Johnny Flynn for knowing how to row that canoe really well. It felt very natural. Johnny is such a giving actor. He’s perfect in this role. I feel he plays that fine line between you know, a wooing, very dapper young man and also someone that you know is just sleazy and saying what he wants to get her. And you know, a poet in every sense, and I felt like that was the first moment for Fantine that she ever really falls for someone. And it’s the first time she gives herself to anyone and you can tell her you can tell she’s super hesitant but the second he starts playing into his emotions and saying you know I don’t want to suffer. Do you want me to suffer? He really knows how to get her. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful. And at the same time you really you go oh can you fault her though? Because she can’t see that he’s tricking her. And he’s really good at what he does. He’s very alluring and we don’t even know if that’s what he’s doing yet. So it’s easy to see why she falls for him. But yeah, I mean it was, it was summer on the bank of a beautiful lake, you know, with a blanket, and it just all of it felt very very realistic and quite fairytale-like.

Jace: And sort of innocent, like her naivité is completely showing it that scene.

Lily: She has a guy canoeing her to this little nook with a blanket and reciting poetry and saying how beautiful she is. I mean, that’s something that every girl would want! Especially Fantine, who has never had any attention like this. So like, it really is easy to see why she fell for him, and even sadder when he leaves her.

Jace: I mean, do you think that Fantine truly loves Felix?

Lily: I do. I think Fantine believes in love, and loves the feeling of love. And she’s always, she’s ever hopeful. And I think she sees the best in people, you know, even when she’s speaking to the grisettes in the factory afterwards when one of her friends is telling her, ‘You know, things like this don’t happen for us and they’re just going to use us,’ and Fantine’s just so optimistic saying, ‘Maybe it’s not always like that, and it might not be like that for me.’ And I think it’s that hopeful, optimistic nature of her that is what continues on throughout the story even after she dies. She’s kind of this beacon of light and of hope and makes it even sadder that that’s her disposition. But it’s I think it was really genuine for her.

Jace: I mean, getting a letter at a banquet might be the 19th century equivalent of getting ghosted.

Lily: Yeah, it’s completely getting ghosted. Yeah.

Jace: I mean how much of Felix’s cavalier action sort of destroys Fantine? Is this sort of the moment where there’s no turning back?

Lily: I think you know she has a daughter now and Felix had gotten her her apartment. Felix had done his, what he thought duty in keeping her healthy, happy and protected and fed and warm. But she can’t take care of herself in the way that he had, and he doesn’t leave her anything to do so. So once she realizes that he’s gone, in that moment her whole world, I think, comes crashing down and she has this realization of, ‘OK, I can’t I can’t just sit and wallow because I can’t keep my house, I can’t keep my daughter fed. I have to do something.’ And in that moment, at the end of episode one, really, is this kind of light bulb moment where she has to figure out what next. And there is nothing for her there anymore. And I also think she probably can’t exist within that space and not think of him. You know, she has to move on in some way, so she is forced to have to leave and when she meets the Thenardiers, and sees a way out for the moment of, ‘OK, well at least my daughter can be protected and well fed and cared for and I can go and figure out my next step.’ But I do think that that letter seals the deal of, ‘My world’s coming crashing down, and what can I do?’

Jace: Fantine lies to Valjean about not having a daughter.

CLIP

Valjean: So what are your family circumstances?

Fantine: I am alone in the world, sir.

Madame Victurnien: No husband?

Fantine: No.

Madame Victurnien: No lover? No children?

Fantine: As I said sir, I’m…I’m alone in the world.

Valjean: It’s very important to me and to you, Fantine, that you’re completely honest with me.

Jace: Why doesn’t she admit to Valjean that she’s a mother. What holds her back?

Lily: Well I think she assumed he would judge her and not want to hire her and she couldn’t risk that. So she felt that it was necessary to just present who she was there. I mean she had left her daughter so she was technically alone there. But I don’t think she wanted the judgment and unfortunately if she had just told him he may have actually shown pity and still hired her but she didn’t want to risk anything and at this point this was really her only option. So she was willing to kind of forgo telling the truth for that.

Jace: What was it like working with Dominic West?

Lily: Dominic’s awesome! He’s amazing he’s so intense when he needs to be and so fun when the cameras aren’t rolling. But he’s a wonderful scene partner. He’s so brilliant in this role and just really a joy to kind of be in the moment with especially in scenes you know also with David and that pinnacle scene where she’s begging for her life on the street in the snow to have two powerful acting you know houses right across from you. So 110 percent in that moment with you is so necessary. You know and then they yell cut and we’re laughing. It’s so great it’s so great to have people that can do both and that are really in the moment with you.

Jace: Fantine finishes her work and uses some leftover beads to make a little bird which reminded me of a caged bird that she has in her flat. What does the bird represent to you?

Lily: To me I think it’s freedom. The idea that we can all feel caged in our own lives in one way or another. But the second that you allow yourself to to be free even if it’s just for a little while before you come back home or it is just to set yourself free from an idea or a place that you are in your life, how that can be so liberating for one’s spirit and also physically if you free yourself from something and I think this you know was to be given to cause that just is a little emblem of freedom and to always spread your wings and always kind of rise above what it is that you’re thrown in life. So it was very sad when she doesn’t actually get to give it to her. I know.

Jace The little bird ends up being Fantine’s undoing as Madame Victurnien catches her with it and ends up following her to the letter writer. Is there a sense that had Pere Madeleine been at his desk that Fantine may have escaped this fate? She keeps looking to the empty desk.

Lily I think he would have granted more of a lenience towards Fantine as opposed to Madame Victurnien who really always had it out for her. I think she would have used anything to get her out because she really sensed that she was lying which of course she was. But again all for good reason and you know her morals were there. But I think Pere Madeleine felt really betrayed when he finds out Fantine had lied and I think he in his heart would still wanted to keep her there but he had to set a precedent for the other women. And so I think she was looking out for him as a guardian of sorts and when he wasn’t there it gave her even more of a reason to hold that grudge and resentment towards him which you see in that scene on the street when when he approaches her and she just completely you know kind of just is disgusted by him and calls him out in front of everyone but he redeems himself by by providing you know a bed for her and promised to go see Cossette. But I think that those moments when she’s looking for him and he’s not there are very poignant because it’s as if he abandoned her and that’s what he she sees him as a someone who abandoned her who at the end does redeem himself.

Jace: Before this next question, a brief word from our sponsors…

Jace: Is so much of what happens to poor Fantine down to bad luck or being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Lily: I think that she was easily manipulated and duped by this man. And I don’t know if it’s a sense of necessarily bad luck, or a wrong place at wrong time. I think it’s her disposition was taken advantage of by multiple people, whether that’s Felix or the Thenardiers, and it set her off on a really negative trajectory. And she was so fearful to not be able to take care of Cosette, that I think she projected how she felt other people would react if she had told the truth. Like, if she had told Pere Madeleine that she had a daughter, things probably would have been different. He may not have hired her or he may have. But if he didn’t hire her, she probably would have had to go find somewhere else. But if he had, then there would have been no reason to fire her for the little bird, because they would have known that she had a daughter. And I think it was, it’s a series of unfortunate events that were done to a very fortunate, loving person, which sometimes in life bad things happen to good people, and you can’t really figure out why. The good news is that she remained ever hopeful and ever kind of persistent in her love of Cosette, and trying to provide for her that her overall essence and that sense of loyalty and light and love is what Jean Valjean continues on to the end of the story. So if it weren’t for her love and positivity and light, I don’t think he would have made it through to the end. And if that’s all that if that’s what she leaves this Earth, when she leaves the Earth then that I guess is something positive from something negative. You know?

Jace: We come now to the most horrific scene in the entire show, where Fantine has her head shaved and her teeth ripped out by the hair and teeth dealer played by Ron Cook.

CLIP

Hair and Teeth Dealer: Are you selling, dear?

Fantine: How much?

Hair and Teeth Dealer Ten francs.

Fantine: Is that all?

Hair and Teeth Dealer That’s the top rate, you won’t get more anywhere. But if you was thinking of parting with those lovely white teeth, now…just the two front ones. I could give you two Napoleons for that. Forty francs. Fifty altogether. Just five minutes work. What do you say?

Lily: How brilliant is Ron Cook?

Jace: Amazing.

Lily When he came out and did that, I really was quite mesmerized. I was like, ‘I get why she approached him and was willing to do it.’ Yeah.

Jace: It’s amazing. I mean the scene itself. His mother holds you down. It plays out like something out of a horror film. What was it like shooting this very traumatic sequence?

Lily: Well it was interesting talking to Tom about this sequence, because it’s been portrayed many different ways in other productions and he was very adamant that if she cries at all in this scene it will be from the pain of it happening, not of her necessarily doing it, because we both agreed she’s not vain. So it’s not that she’s crying that she has to have her hair cut or that she has to have her teeth pulled out because that was a choice and her priority is Cosette. So when she makes a decision she might be fearful but she’s not upset that she’s losing her looks. The the pain comes from the sheer agony of these you know of him chopping her hair so so harshly that it catches her scalp or obviously you know the teeth pulling is theirs. She didn’t have any of that anesthetic like there’s there’s no drugs involved to make her not feel anything. So this is just pure pain. And that was where the horror came from of how brutal and how raw he was going to then approach that moment. Ron Cook was going to do that or the teeth and hair puller. And at this point it’s the last thing she feels before prostitution that she can do. And we were in a very small environment. And I remember the crew all feeling extremely grossed out by it as well. Sound was everything because you’re really relying on my eyes and the noises and obviously the brilliant acting by Ron and his mother. But it was just one of those moments when you thought oh people are probably not going to like to watch this because I know a lot of people that hate the dentist that they’re really not fans of getting their teeth cleaned let alone seeing that. But it was it was necessary. And I think it’s also necessary that she doesn’t see herself until she gets back home for the first time. But yeah, it was dark.

Jace: When we come in to the scene where she retaliates against an awful would be punter and assaults him which leads to her being dragged viciously through the streets by Javert and thrown in front of Valjean.

Lily: That was real!

Jace: I mean it it looks painful and it looks incredibly cold.

Lily: Oh yes. So it was in the minuses I think it was about minus 13 or minus 15 that night it had just been I didn’t know it could rain and snow at the same time but apparently it can. It had rained and it had really snowed and it was freezing and I’m wearing limited clothing. And so we shot all exteriors in this amazing amazing ancient little city little town called Limbourg. And the cobblestone streets all of that was real which is so beautiful when you’re walking down you know on a sunny day. But when you’re being dragged through the streets by someone who is your jailer or you’re flailing and jumping on someone I mean I practiced the jumping with a stunt person. But then it really was me jumping and knocking him down and just pawing at his face. I mean he the actor wanted me he said, Go for it. Well you don’t want to tell me to go for because I really will go for it because they wanted to animalistic and just screaming and guttural because this is the last chance she has to really fight back and it shows that she’s still she still has a sense of herself. I mean she’s a shell of what she was. But she’s also not willing for someone to treat her that way and it’s her last almost her last exertion because she’s already really sick at that point. And so we did that jumping on him and then I’m literally picked up and dragged by my stomach away. And then David and I spoke about the fact that it was a harsh scene and he was going to be gripping me hard and I was going to be pulling away. But there’s the there’s a moment when I’m being held back by the guards and I jump at his feet and I’m begging and I’m begging and he pulls me and he kind of shoves me off and we did it a couple of times in the rehearsal. But when you get into the moment and you know it’s it’s do or die and you’re you’ve got lots of endorphins and you know he’s playing who he’s playing and I’m playing who I’m playing. Sometimes things get amped up and I hear he shoved me but we’re on cobblestones and so my foot got caught on one of the cobblestones and it was so slippery from the snow and the rain that I literally flew across the cobblestone and landed straight on my hip bone. And they used the shot because it was a mid shot so you can see it’s me. Doesn’t look like a stunt person but it’s me flailing getting flung and you just heard this crack and nobody knew that nobody knew that it hurt but I screamed out loud as she would have and I just thought don’t stop. Like this is the must keep going. If Fantine was in pain you’re in pain. What good is going to be to stop. So we just kept rolling and I was crying and I was like coughing and everything about it hurt and hurt and hurt. At least in my opinion it’s like if when I had that I went OK I went all and I did justice to Fantine’s scene because that was one of my most anticipated anxiety ridden scenes, for sure.

Jace: Fantine’s death scene is one of the most iconic in history and you completely transform yourself into this poor woman sweaty toothless feverish. Your face is just this mess of misery and anguish the choking sounds that you made stuck with me so long after I watched this.

CLIP

Fantine: You promised…to bring my little girl from Montfermeil with you Monsieur Le Maire…

Javert: There’s not Monsieur Le Maire here. He hasn’t been to Montfermeil to fetch your little girl. He’s been confessing to his crimes in court. And now he’s going back to the prison hulks where he belongs.

Valjean: You killed that woman.

Jace: How grueling was it to shoot this death?

Lily: Day two! Imagine that. ‘Welcome to set!’ Day two was really interesting actually because it was freezing. Everyone was just bundled up they have me on this deathbed which they very nicely the prop department had put in a electric blanket on the the bottom because I was going to be lying in it all day. And at first I thought well I don’t know if I really – yes I want it but I don’t know if I really really want to because I’m I want to be suffering and cold. The longer I stayed on that bed it became so hot that I just started sweating and then I was cold and then I thought well now I’m going to get sick. And I thought well that’s perfect. So as I was shivering I was profusely sweating the sweat was me like sweating. Then they added spray and then I was so delirious from the whole day of breathing and lack of breathing and what that does to you as a person. I mean when you mess up your breathing you become light headed and all of this stuff and I had just thought before I went into this like how can I make the noise disturbing what can I do. And I started just kind of choking. And Tom was like Right. Well it makes sense because you’re choking on your blood and you can’t really speak and so it’s these noises. And I remember at one point Dominic looked to me he’s like Oh I like that I think I might use after my death. Where did that come from. I was like I don’t know. I just thought it might be it might be helpful. So that just all kind of came together on the day. But it was interesting that a hot blanket could end up actually making me freezing and sweaty which then turned into this you know great amalgamation of getting sick. I mean I did kind of get sick afterwards but I thought well at least I’ve died already.

Jace: But this production was really ultimately a test of endurance for you. Physical transformation, a psychologically grueling portrayal, freezing temperatures, flying across cobblestones. When did you come out the other side with a better sense of what you yourself can endure?

Lily: Yes definitely. It felt daunting to look at the script even though I’m in only three episodes. It still was daunting to look at all the things Fantine goes through in such a relatively short period on screen. And there were moments you know like I said that were one eighth of a page that had no dialogue but were so powerful and then there were scenes that were monologues that were so powerful and so many nuanced moments that Tom you know I remember when I was on the phone to Tom I was in sunny, sunny L.A. and Tom said. So that scene where you’re being dragged through the streets. You know I know it’s written that it’s in the jailhouse but I thought how much more humiliating and amazing would it be if you were dragged through the snow on the street outside. And I remember thinking amazing for who? The viewer or me? And I thought you know what. Yes yes yes it’s going to be amazing Tom and I just thought don’t think about the actual doing of it because the end result will be so amazing. And again it just aided in the performance so much. But I really I really went through a lot of external influences in order to make this happen that I didn’t necessarily know I could withstand. It was interesting to me to kind of see what I was capable of and that’s a huge testament though to Tom and our director and the other actors because as long as you’re surrounded by people that you trust and that you know are taking you in the right direction you’re kind of willing to put up with whatever it is to get the job done. And when I finish I was so happy to to have a break. And luckily I finished in the summer period when she was happy. That was a really nice sendoff. You know I was glad to get the bad stuff done in the winter and then happy to come back in the summer and then take a well needed little kind of beach vacation and come back free and then watch it months later and go, Wow we did that. Oh that looks sad. It was nice to have a little bit of a break from it.

Jace: You’re starring as Edith Tolkien the wife of Lord of the Rings novelist J.R.R. Tolkien played by Nicholas Hoult in the biopic Tolkien. What can you tell us about that project?

Lily: Well I’m so excited actually comes out in a couple of months now. That was also an amazing experience to be a part of because I grew up loving Lord of the Rings didn’t know much about Tolkien himself though so to be able to play the woman that inspired the Elven Queen and a lot of the story points of Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit was really for lack of better words magical. I got to shoot in Liverpool I’ve been a huge fan of Nick’s for a long time. I’ve known him socially and I think he’s wonderful and working with Domé as our director. He’s such a visual genius. The way that he wanted to show the war sequences and the colours of war as well as inserting little bits of the imagery that you associate with The Hobbit into this real life story was really fascinating to me but it was so interesting to get to know the story behind the story of a great one of the most renowned novelists of the world really.

Jace: And then what’s next for you now?

Lily: I also did a film called Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile about Ted Bundy. It’s a film that sparks a lot of conversation which I think is important and to have been able to play a woman who is still alive today and to have met her was fascinating and just such an amazing experience just as a human being from one woman to another woman and Les Mis I feel like last year was an interesting year. Back to back work which I’m very grateful for and then they all seemed to be coming out the exact reverse of when they were shot Les Mis was last and Les Mis came out first so I’m grateful to be able to be talking about all the stuff that I did last year.

Jace: Lily Collins, thank you so much

Lily: Thank you for having me.

Jace: Andrew Davies is one the UK’s most prolific screenwriters, adapting dozens of classic titles since the very beginning of MASTERPIECE. When he decided to pen a new adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Les Misérables, it was only right that it find a home here on MASTERPIECE.

Andrew Davies:  I’m that age where I you know I never had to fight in a war. I lived through a period of peace and prosperity, really. And it’s interesting that now in my country young people can’t afford to buy a house. It’s very upsetting.

Jace: Davies joins us to explore the story still to come on Les Misérables, and to tease his thrilling new adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, Sanditon, set to premiere on MASTERPIECE in 2020. That’s next week on the podcast, on Sunday, May 5.

MASTERPIECE Studio is hosted by me, Jace Lacob and produced by Nick Andersen. Elisheba Ittoop is our editor. Susanne Simpson is our executive producer. The executive producer of MASTERPIECE is Rebecca Eaton.

[gascon-en-exil]

So Who’s the Queen?: A Chess of Blades Review (Part 2)

Part 1

With the general overview out of the way it’s time to jump into a critique of the real substance of this game: the four men who can fall in love with Rivian and turn him into the champion bottom he was always destined to be. As with last time I’ll be avoiding major plot spoilers but will spare no detail when I turn my discriminating eye toward the game’s scenes of sweet, tender lovemaking...or raw, kinky fucking, whatever floats your boat. Some of them could go either way.

Fun fact: my silly subtitle for the sex scenes comes from a Japanese expression jokingly proposed as an alternative source for the word yaoi. I thought it only appropriate given what I’m judging here.

Arden

It took some effort for me to ignore that this guy shares his name with the least fuckable bachelor of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, but eventually I managed. It helps that the two have nothing else in common, up to and including preference of sexual partners.

Arden is the best friend romance of CoB, the only one with whom Rivian has an established history. Thinking back to the similarly positioned Ian in Coming Out on Top, this is a visual novel character type that presents a unique challenge for the writer(s) in that there has to a be an explanation for why the two of them don’t shack up until the events of the game. I rather like CoB’s reasoning for this, as it’s one that plays into both Arden and Rivian’s insecurities and explains why Rivian is so prickly to a supposed close friend during the shared prologue. Arden is clingy and overly expectant, and the game allows this to feel off-putting even partway through his route (which is shared with the “secret” fourth love interest, in a scenario where Rivian decides that he and Arden have grown into such different people that reconciliation is impossible). This is an unusual but not unwelcome way to lead into what is undoubtedly the fluffiest of the romances, in which Arden has to be open about his self-conscious reservations and Rivian has to be willing to forgive. Arden’s protectiveness of Rivian also becomes less grating as the route goes on and the two start to face genuine danger, and as Rivian points out that kind of dedication is actually quite sweet when it’s wanted. The only really awkward thing about the construction of Arden’s route is that, because most of their relationship drama comes from the fallout of their youthful infatuation, it has very little to do with the main plot of a kidnapped little girl. It is at least the most morally straightforward of the routes, one that brings out both Arden’s loyalty to Rivian and to his kingdom (even though he is a bit dense about it, in the tradition of most lawful good paladin-esque type characters) and Rivian’s buried affection for his family. Like I said, it’s pretty fluffy on the whole.

The “Ow, my ass!” rating: Mild. As might be expected Arden’s sex scene is the most vanilla in the game, which is fitting because 1) it matches the more innocent passion of a childhood romance gone horizontal(ish), and because 2) Arden is also a virgin somehow, despite having spent several years in a military environment in a setting where no one cares if guys hook up with each other. There’s no lube, but I can excuse it because Arden both fingers and rims Rivian beforehand. More significantly, Rivian rides Arden’s cock which is not only the most active he ever is in a sex scene but also a great position for the inexperienced to get accustomed to the feeling of taking a dick. Don’t get the impression that this means that Rivian is taking a dominant role, however; the term “power bottom” is more about attitude than positioning, and Rivian is still very much lacking in that department. Also, they have sex on a chair and I have no idea why, since there’s a perfectly serviceable bed in the same room. I like to be able to hold onto my partner’s shoulders when I’m riding him to help keep my balance, but I don’t think that’s worth having to angle myself around the arms. Kind of a toss-up there.

Franz

According to the developer notes in the artbook Franz was the first of the love interests to be designed, and they had a specific exotic flavor in mind that in practice feels very much like how I think Anglos see Continentals collectively. German first name and French family name aside, I get a more Iberian feeling from him personally. Maybe it’s the thing about his country being known for chocolates, or maybe the (very late in coming) self-flagellation...not literal, mind you.

Even leaving aside his real world cultural inspirations, Franz is very much the aggressive rogue type of love interest, the “perverted foreigner” as Rivian describes him more than once who introduces himself by grabbing Rivian on his balcony and practically dry humping him while dropping some foreshadowing regarding the plot. The above image is a comparatively benign moment early on in Franz’s route proper, but it goes to show just how casually grabby the guy is and how Rivian is essentially forced to get used to it. That may be unsettling for some players, but I happen to like a man assertive enough to go for what he wants - although the fact that Franz is vastly hotter and wealthier than many of the men who’ve groped me certainly plays a role there too. In any case the plot of his route - that of the murder of an ambassador in which Franz is curiously interested -  plays into the idea of him as a man of mystery gradually revealed to be driven by something other than sensual indulgence, and getting his good ending requires that Rivian learn to trust and care about Franz even as he’s not at all forthcoming about his identity or motivations up until the very end. Franz’s route is unique in that his sex scene appears before the determination of whether or not you’ll get his good ending and even before certain major revelations are made regarding his character. This suits his roguish appeal just fine, even though the scene itself is kind of...well, see below. Honestly Franz is probably my favorite of the love interests by a narrow margin; he’s rich, hot, aggressive, and shown to be very open-minded about kinks while also capable of genuinely affectionate moments. That’s a rare combination and prime wish fulfillment fodder.

The “Ow, my ass!” rating: Uncomfortably high, sad to say. Props to the guy for being suave enough to lead Rivian through a masquerade ball one minute and then drag him into a storage closet to fuck his brains out the next, but it’s a massive understatement when he assures Rivian that he won’t be gentle. Franz fucks Rivian’s mouth on a cold stone floor and then only takes the time to briefly finger him with spit before impaling the boy. You really have to be into the controlling top persona to enjoy his scene, particularly as there’s little to no (onscreen) aftercare. I was also left feeling disappointed at how conventional Franz’s sex scene felt, after he’d previously teased Rivian about wanting to collar him - he calls him “kitten” throughout their interactions - and enjoying the sight of a cross-dressing Rivian. I definitely enjoy the idea that Franz is into both pet play and feminization, but it turns out to be a case of telling and not showing. At least Franz retains most of his Dom demeanor up through his epilogue, as I would have really rolled my eyes if his kinky tendencies mysteriously vanished after he and Rivian made their big romantic confessions.

Linnaeus

I’m still not sure how I feel about Linnaeus. Part of this is that I’m missing out on the reference; developer notes make it clear that his appearance and personality were modeled after those of characters in the Ace Attorney series, which I’ve never played. I can at least acknowledge the allusion found in his narrative, which reaches its (non-sexual) climax not with a violent confrontation in a mysterious setting as in the other routes but with a courtroom trial. The Steam achievement for winning the trial is even called “Rivian Wright,” at that.

More than that however Linnaeus is a man whose appeal as a love interest exists (in my opinion) on a less visceral or emotional level than the others’. Archetypically speaking he’s the defrosting tsundere who initially seems to not like Rivian very much at all and only gradually comes to enjoy his company after they’ve been thrown together by apparent coincidence in the case of a foreign duchess’s stolen diamonds. Linnaeus is a haughty intellectual and very much a sadist both in and out of bed, but later explorations of his character add depth to his talents as the king’s inquisitor and zeal for bringing criminals - especially the members of the anarchistic Disciples of Ignatius - to justice. Throw in some friction with an estranged cousin who also wants to woo Rivian and might want Linnaeus’s job as well as some earnestly romantic gestures masked by smart-assery and in one case a literal mask and there’s definitely material here for a satisfying romance. There’s some hiccups - the trial is not difficult at all to win, and there’s an optional tarot card reading scene that adds nothing to the route but unneeded foreshadowing and feels out of place besides - but it’s by no means a bad story. Maybe Linnaeus just likes to screw with Rivian too much for my taste, or maybe I’m just not into tsundere types.

The “Ow, my ass!” rating: Of a reasonable threshold, but that doesn’t mean I really care for it. Linnaeus’s sex scene involves edging, begging, and light bondage, three things that I tend to find more annoying than sexy in my own encounters. I do like that he’s a kinky guy and that the game is more willing to show that than it is with Franz, and I also like that Linnaeus comes prepared not just with rope but with lube (finally!). This is more my personal taste than anything, as objectively there’s nothing illogical or inaccurate about their encounter. No doubt their future liaisons become even more maddening, as in the epilogue Linnaeus remarks that he has “instruments” he enjoys using on Rivian. That’s just...not my preferred type of Dom, I suppose? Additionally, for whatever it’s worth Linnaeus’s naughty bits are not visible in either of his erotic CGs due to angling and his fondness for humiliation, which is kind of a letdown.

And no, Rivian never gets to yell “Objection!” during this route. Another missed opportunity, Chess of Blades.

Sabre

Sabre is the guy on the left. The one on the right is Kieran - keep him in mind for later.

This is the secret love interest. His route branches off from Arden’s and cannot be accessed until you’ve completed Arden’s route once. There’s a good narrative reason for this, and on the surface Sabre seems like a great option for a bonus romance. He’s got tons of raw sex appeal, a unique role in the story, and a social status that separates him from Rivian and the other love interests, such that while the other three are each likened to a chess piece protecting Rivian as the king Sabre’s route is more akin to upending the board entirely. Rivian falls in love with a common brawler, ultimately opting to leave the treacherous games of the court behind him. There are two very large problems with this route though:

1) Sabre has the worst voice acting of any of the characters without question. He’s got the accent problem I brought up last time, in his case doubly so because he affects a thick Scottish brogue for his fighting persona which contrasts against his uncharacteristically refined normal voice, but whether due to the VA or the audio recording equipment his volume modulation is also highly erratic. Most of his lines are either screamed so loudly I was tempted to remove my headphones or are so quiet that they’re barely audible, especially at the end of some lines where he just trails off into near-silence. There is very little middle ground, and the combined effect is extremely distracting. It doesn’t help either that Sabre is lumped in with the supporting cast in the volume settings unlike Rivian and the other love interests whose voices can be adjusted individually, so muting him will mute everyone else.

2) Then there’s Kieran, who represents a more complicated issue with Sabre’s route. The two are introduced as close friends and sparring partners who share a healthy rivalry, and even though the romantic focus of the route remains on the developing relationship between Rivian and Sabre Kieran gets in some flirty banter of his own with Rivian and makes it clear that he wouldn’t turn down the nobleman’s admiration. Somewhat shockingly, this actually does culminate in a threesome, even though it’s staged more like the way some straight guys talk about M/M/F threesomes wherein the two men (tops in this case) have their way with the woman while having minimal interaction with each other. As someone who’s engaged in my fair share of threeways with two tops I don’t necessarily object to this arrangement, and in fact I like that it continues to play up the sense of rivalry between Sabre and Kieran. What I don’t like is that after they’ve had sex and Rivian has bid farewell to both of them the epilogue drops Kieran entirely. He’s not mentioned or referenced at all, and everything comes back to Rivian and Sabre rekindling their relationship a year later under noticeably more conventional circumstances. Perhaps a true poly relationship is beyond the capabilities of a visual novel with romance routes like this, but it would have been a welcome addition to the ending if it was mentioned that the two of them get visits from Kieran from time to time and that they’re all working it out. As it stands Kieran just feels like eye candy and a tool for Sabre’s development, which is a real shame since he’s an affable character in his own right (and more competently voiced, that’s for sure - funnily enough by Franz’s VA, using what sounds more like his natural voice).

Combined these two problems really limit how well this route lives up to its potential, but I found that I could grit my teeth through Sabre’s performance and use some creative license in the ending to get around its shortcomings. It definitely feels less well constructed than the three main routes, but as an alternative to Arden’s storyline it adds a fair bit. But then....

The “Ow, my ass!” rating: Off the charts - Rivian should be dead after this sex scene. True, they use lube and Kieran eats him out first, and spit roasting is a common and reasonable practice in a two tops/one bottom arrangement, but then there’s the double penetration. Allow me to remind you that Rivian is a virgin and has apparently never stretched his hole before this encounter, and yet somehow he’s able to take two well-endowed men simultaneously. I’m not buying it, and even worse the position he’s in - sandwiched between two hulking men twice his size as they drill into him from above and below - makes me wonder that he’s more likely to die of suffocation than rectal hemorrhaging. There’s a moment during the narrative climax where Kieran bear hugs a man almost to unconsciousness, so the writers clearly must have known it was a possibility - but nope, the delicate noble boy somehow survives taking two dicks at once while being smashed between two mountains of muscle. Oh, and did I mention that said mountains of muscle have no refractory periods? They both cum from the spit roasting, and then immediately Sabre is hard again and raring to shove his way into Rivian’s poor overtaxed hole alongside Kieran. Rivian’s inner monologue lampshades this downright inhuman stamina, but that doesn’t excuse it when you take everything else that’s off about this scene. I fully understand that this is a wildly hot fantasy for anyone into beefy guys, but more than anything else in CoB this sex scene is decidedly not something to try at home. 

In conclusion...

Arden is sweet, Franz is hot and surprisingly romantic, Sabre comes with issues (and Kieran) but is undoubtedly sexy, and Linnaeus is...something. Good selection on the whole but too bad about Rivian’s hole.

[thesffcorner]

How to Train your Dragon 3: The Hidden World

How to Train Your Dragon 3: Hidden World is the concluding film in the Httyd series, directed by Dean DeBois. It follows Hiccup and his crew, who after the events of the previous film, have become raiders, freeing dragons from the hunters’ ships, and bringing them back to Berk. Unfortunately, their meddling becomes known to the leaders of the hunters, and they hire Grimmel, the most notorious and deadly hunter, who has single-handedly killed every single Night Fury, except Toothless. Faced with the very real possibility of war, Hiccup decides to find the Hidden World; a mystical land where all dragons come from and hide there for good; but as always things aren’t as easy as they seem.

I have some mixed opinions on this series. On the one hand, I really love the animation: it’s the best DreamWorks has ever done, and every subsequent film pushes it further and further, with this third installment being no different. However, the stories have always been a mixed bag, and unfortunately, this last film is probably the weakest to date.

Animation:

Let’s start with the positives; like I said this series is known for it’s gorgeous animation and this sequel is no different. The scenes of the dragons flying are absolutely breathtaking, and this film focuses a lot on Toothless and a light fury, who becomes his mate. The scenes of Toothless trying to woo her over are hilarious and the scenes of them getting closer and flying in the clouds are marvelous. The entire design of the Hidden World, though not entirely original was likewise gorgeous; there are so many colors, and small details that make it feel alive.

Likewise the scenes with the Vikings are also great; you really get the sense that Berk, as cool as it is, is getting overcrowded, with dragons flying everywhere. There are several smaller set pieces in Berk that have to do with the dragons and they are hilarious; this series does rely a lot on visual humor, and I think it’s the best to date. The dragon designs are likewise very creative and cool; there’s a new type of dragons this time around, and they are like a dragon version of manticores, with cool poison spitting abilities.

The part where the animation flounders are the fight scenes; for whatever reason, DreamWorks excels at character designs and facial expressions, but when it comes to the human characters fighting or even really moving, they always struggle. The few fights we get are stiff and unnatural and it’s very strange considering how good the animation is in all other departments.

Story:

This is where we run into some issues. The stories in these films have never been especially complicated; they usually make up for this by having really great character relationships and a focus on Hiccup and Toothless’ friendship which is very strong and well developed. Unfortunately this time around, it feels like DuBois either didn’t have enough time or just didn’t know what kind of story he wanted to tell, so he took the plots of film 1 and 2 and frankensteined them together in this mess.

Let’s start with the good first. Hiccup and Toothless are the backbone of this franchise, and even here their relationship was great. I loved the idea of Hiccup having to let Toothless go, him coming to terms with the fact that Toothless is after all a dragon and can’t stay with Hiccup forever. I even liked Hiccup thinking he was nothing without Toothless, even though that was a plot-point from the first film. The entire epilogue of the film was incredibly endearing and sweet, even though I didn’t like how the film came to it.

There were some jokes that landed; the scene with Ruffnut and Grimmel was funny, the bit with Gobber and the dragon that multiplies, both of the confrontations Grimmel has with Hiccup, and especially the two scenes we have with Stoic.

Unfortunately, that’s about the positives I can say. The story really isn’t very good, and it starts with the villain.

Grimmel has a cool design and F Murray Abraham does a good job with his voice, even if his accent fluctuates wildly. However his motivation is just absolutely dumb, makes no sense, and we’ve already seen it before. He wants to kill dragons because he thinks humans and dragons can’t coexist. This is a) something we already covered in the first film with Stoic’s character, and b) incongruent with the idea that Grimel is this Dr. Zaroff type character who just enjoys the hunt so much, and thinks of dragons as nothing more than animals. Why would he be so concerned about humans befriending dragons, if he thinks dragons are just prey?

He has no real backstory, and he’s in the little too little to actually be threatening. He’s built up to be this insanely smart villain, but he gets outwitted by Hiccup twice, and even the way he finds the group at the end is by a mix of complete coincidence and Ruffnut's incompetence.

Then there’s the issue of the Hidden World. First, we have never heard anything about the Hidden World before, so Hiccup growing up with this legend that Stoic was obsessed with comes out of nowhere. The idea that he can just take the entirety of Berk and hide them in the Hidden World with the dragons is also utterly ridiculous. Granted, it’s supposed to be a bad idea, and he even gets called out on it by both Astrid and Valka, but no one points out that like, how will humans live there? Also will all the humans of Berk just completely agree to disappear and never see anyone not from Berk ever? No one has friends or family outside of Berk at all? Really?

The ending also feels so rushed and kind of dumb. I get the idea that Hiccup learning to let Toothless go is in a way a grander statement on the relationship between the humans and the dragons, but… A) dragons still hunt for food on human territory; they don’t stay in the Hidden World forever, they come to the rest of the land to eat and mate, that’s how humans have come in contact with them in the first place. B) Not one person out of the few hundred people that live in Berk disagrees with this decision to simply let all of the dragons go hide? Not one? Not one dragon decides to stay behind? Toothless is just that much of an alpha that they all just unanimously agree? What about dragons that were not at the battle? Ones that are still in captivity?

It was just such a sloppy ending, and a really ‘simple’ solution in a series that prides itself on more complex ideas and problems, or at least it did in the first two movies.

Characters:

The characters also all suffer from this story and writing. First we have the supporting characters. There are simply so many of them, and none of them are really used or have any impact on the plot. With the exception of Astrid (who will get a whole section afterwards, because boy oh boy did that make me mad) and Ruffnut who gets 1 funny scene, none of the other dragon riders have anything to do. They each get a bit here or there, but it’s all humorous (a lot of it is just cringey and targeted at very small kids), and none of them get any character development. The running joke with all of them is that they are incompetent; it was the running joke in 1 and in 2 and it’s back here again. You are seriously telling me, that after 3 movies you still can’t think of anything interesting for any of these characters to do other than be annoying and incompetent?

Eret, Gobber and Valka might as well not have been in this film; they have nothing to do, and are completely wasted. Eret isn’t even used as comic relief; he does nothing the entire film, and I don’t understand why he was here.

Valka especially hurt, because the second film spent such a long time building her up as this really interesting complex character, and having this very complex and tender relationship with Hiccup, and here she has one scene with him. It was like all the meticulous character development was completely forgotten so we could have her just be the dotting mom in one scene and nothing else.

Stoic makes an appearance as a flashback, and that was the only scene that was touching in this whole film, outside of Toothless and Hiccup’s relationship.

The way Astrid’s character is treated made me mad. First she and Hiccup are forced in this really weird marriage subplot that comes out of nowhere and feels really odd to say about someone who sounds exactly the same now at age 20, as he did at age 13, like Hiccup. Then there are so many scenes where Valka is telling Astrid to go talk to Hiccup because he’ll listen to her, to make sure he’s alright, to put up with his dumb decisions and bad choices because… because why? Why can’t Astrid take the lead? Why is it Hiccup? She’s clearly more authoritative, respected and frankly just better suited to the role and the film makes no effort to disguise this or make an excuse as to why maybe Hiccup should lead other than he’s the main character. It’s kind of a bad message to send to young girl that they should just become completely subservient to the motivations and growth of their male love interest, is all I’m saying.

Then there’s Hiccup. Poor Hiccup. Though his character design changed, his character is still the same as the first film. He’s still incompetent, still insecure, still has no sway on the villagers. His character arc in the first film was realising he was worth something, and that the only way to be a leader and a Viking isn’t only what Stoic says. In the second film he learns to accept himself again, to become a leader. And now again here, he has to have Astrid tell him that he’s not a leader just because of Toothless, that he’s his own person. Like, it’s the third film, and he’s still going through the absolute same character arc. There’s no growth, no change, and it’s not fun to watch. It’s exhausting.

Conclusion:

I think this film is a pretty big letdown from the past 2 films. I don’t know what DreamWorks’ issue with third films in a series is, but this one falls into the same trap as Shrek and Kung-Fu Panda 3. It’s rushed, unoriginal and disappointing, which makes me very sad to say.

letterboxd

[queenallura]

Form Podcast Transcript - Ep. 2

Hosted by Kyle Anderson from Nerdist

Guests: Mitch Iverson (writer), Christine Bian (design supervisor), and Tim Hedrick (story editor)

Episode 1x02 “Some Assembly Required”

Kyle Anderson (KA): Hello everyone. Welcome back to the second episode of Form Podcast.. This is the official Voltron commentary podcast. My name is Kyle Anderson and today we’re going to be doing a commentary of season 1, episode 2 “Some Assembly Required.” And I’m here with three people who helped to make the show, and they can introduce themselves right now.

Mitch Iverson (MI): Hi, I’m Mitch Iverson. I’m a writer on the show.

Christine Bian (CB): Hi, I’m Christine Bian, and I am the prop and background design supervisor.

Tim Hedrick (TH): I’m Tim Hedrick, I’m the head writer.

CB: Woo woo!

KA: Welcome! And everyone at home, make sure that your Netflix episode is all queued up to all zeroes because we’re gonna hit play when I say “play” again, the third time. Three, two, one, play. We did it.

TH: Netflix. Right guys?

CB: *hums the theme song*

KA: It’s an original series.

TH: What a great company.

[someone makes an explosion sound]

MI: Can we just do sound effects?

KA: Yeah, sure! It’s your show.

TH: Here’s some of the fantastic lions that Christine designed.

CB: Oh shucks Tim, thanks.

TH: When you look at them, do you think, “These are my kids.” They’re on the screen, and they’re kinda looking at me, like, “Mommy’s here.”

CB: Uh, yeah. I get a little bit of that.

MI: Do you worry about how much college is going to cost one day.

CB: Yeah totally. And you know, have they eaten today, you know? I think especially the first time we saw them on screen, you know, for these first couple episodes, I remember I was like “oh my gosh, it’s real now.”

MI: Well you did a fantastic job.

CB: Oh you guys. Thank you.

TH: Hunk, still in his pajamas.

CB: Shiro would be working out before everybody else is up.

TH: I love that my name comes up next to Lance, who’s sleeping, like yes, perfect. That’s where I want to be.

KA: Some of the paladins didn’t even bother putting on pajamas. They’re just like, “I’m going to sleep in my clothes.”

CB: Yeah, I think it speaks a lot to Hunk’s character that even though it was the first night or second night, he’s like, “I gotta be comfy.”

MI: As a guy who has fluctuated from bigger weights to smaller weights every now and then, we you get a little bigger you gotta get some breathing material.

CB: Even when you’re not bigger, I feel like big pajamas, that’s the way to go. For flights over a couple of hours, I actually bring pajamas onto the plane and I change into them, because I’m like, I’m not going to sit here all uncomfortably for, you know.

MI: You know, this is something I think the fans would like-

KA: How do people fly.

TH: The travel habits of Christine Bian.

MI: -is how often Hunk moments come from within the creative staff. Somebody one time said, “Who would talk about food that much?” And it was like, “Me and Christine.”

CB: When I saw you come in here, I was like, with the three of us, is this just going to devolve into a discussion about snacks and ham?

MI: Hopefully. He did have a meat thermometer.

KA: That’s true.

CB: Ooh right here! I want to talk about the blue lion slippers, the infamous blue lion slippers. So I know some people were wondering where the slippers came from, because yes technically this is only their second night in the castle ship. But I think all three of us agree that they were made when the lions were originally made. So they were passed down from paladin to paladin and they never get stinky or anything because they’re magical Altean slippers.

TH: They have some sort of a magical fungus guard on them that Alfor created.

CB: Yep. And every time you put your foot in, it’s like the first time. You know? So all the fuzz is still all-

TH: I thought you were going to say every time you put your foot in it makes little growls like “rrr.”

CB: It does that too.

MI: Do they purr and massage your feet?

TH: Oh man.

CB: Uh yes, absolutely.

TH: Alfor, you genius.

CB: And they’re gel cooled or heated, to the perfect temperature.

TH: And the thing about Altean alchemy is even Alfor didn’t know everything that the slippers did. And they also conform to the feet of the paladins themselves.

CB: Absolutely. Like if you’ve got wide feet or whatever. In some ways the slippers are even more of a technological achievement than the lions.

MI: Little know fact, Lance had flat feet but they helped rebuild his arch.

KA: Oh wow!

CB: Oh Mitch, I didn’t know that!

CB: For this sequence [when the paladins are going to their lions from the bridge], Joaquim and Lauren had some specific [ideas]. They wanted to put in stuff from the original sequence like the zipline, and when they drop into their shuttles and stuff.

[silence]

KA: That’s really the problem, we just get sucked into these episodes and just start watching them.

[silence]

KA: We probably ought to say something so that people aren’t just listening to dead air.

TH: I think that when were were talking about the ziplines early on, Hunk falling of the zipline was inspired by me saying, “So you gotta hang off of that zipline all the way down?” I’m sure that I would fall off almost immediately. How long do they slide down that thing? It seems like a really long way.

MI: I get sweaty hands, which is embarrassing but truth.

TH: To be hanging onto that, for sure I’d fall off that slide.

CB: I couldn’t even do the monkey bars. I wouldn’t even try.

KA: It’s such a good sequence it’s setting up, like they made it work once but that doesn’t mean they’re great enough to do it again.

TH: It all comes together at the end of that first three episode run [1x01] where they magically form Voltron right when they have to, because that’s the wonder of Voltron, but now it’s like without that extra adrenaline rush they just don’t do it. And then we were just trying to think of like, how would you do that? If you were trying to form Voltron. Would you just stack up?

CB: That adrenaline thing is totally true.

MI: I know I’m not able to form Voltron in real life unless the heart’s pumping.

CB: As a kid once, I was running away scared from my neighbor’s dog one time and I jumped over my fence to get away from him. Once he went away I couldn’t get back over. It was the fear that driving me over the first time and then I couldn’t get back.

TH: And you were arrested for trespassing.

MI: “No, there was a dog, I swear!”

CB: To circle back around, to the Let’s Voltron podcast. Greg Tyler did do a really good blog post about the inner workings, he did like a whole breakdown of how the paladins get from the castleship bridge to the lions in the hangar.

MI: Nice.

KA: It’s like they have those big Star Trek maps of like here’s where are the lifts are or whatever-

CB: I’m just impressed that somebody that’s not on our team would take the time and effort to actually figure it out, and I’m glad it makes some sort of sense.

KA: Get one of those big cross section maps of the ship. That would be cool.

CB: Oh yeah, totally! Put it on t-shirts and whatnot.

MI: I used to always buy those cross section Star Wars or Star Trek books.

KA: Absolutely.

MI: Oh, here’s the MIllenium Falcon!

CB: I loved- like the blueprint books! Oh, I still love those. In fact I think I have that book you’re talking about.

KA: I’m sure you do. But that’s kinda like, your job.

TH: That’s work.

CB: I can write it off!

KA: So this is the second episode of this podcast. I need to task all of you, since this is your first episode on the podcast; what is your favorite lion and why?

CB: I’ll go first, give you guys some time to think about it. Mine is the Blue Lion. And the only reason for that is because he’s the first lion that we designed and built in 3D. And so that was like our learning lion; we were able to troubleshoot a lot of stuff while we were developing him. I think out of all the lions, we spent the most time with him, kinda making him out of scratch, so I’ll never forget that.

TH: How much different is the Blue Lion from the other lions, and what are the subtle differences that perhaps people are not going to pick up on?

CB: Oh well, Tim, I’m glad you asked. The leg lions are stockier, more solid in build. And then the arm lions are kinda more sleek and agile. And the black lion is kinda the most robust one since he’s the centerpiece. But I do also really like the Yellow Lion because I like his teeth. He’s got little construction digger teeth.

TH: Underbite.

CB: Underbite, yeah. But what about you guys?

TH: Well I was going to say the Yellow Lion because I think I would like to run into things with my lion. That would be a lot of fun. And he’s got the big paws that come out later and that’s pretty cool.

CB: And he’s got a big turtle shell booster shield thing, so yeah you can take a lot of damage in that lion. Go off roading with him.

MI: I’m going to go with Green because of invisibility.

KA: That’s a good one.

MI: It’s a pretty powerful tool, as a person who likes to avoid confrontation as much as possible. And then also to shoot vines at things. That’s kind of a very appropriate lion for me.

TH: I just want to point out that the yelmors are mentioned in here.

CB: Oh my gosh, the yelmors.

TH: And I’m going to go ahead and just say, keep an eye out for yelmors, fans. That’s just something-

KA: Oh?

CB: What is it that yelmors... do?

TH: You’ll find out. I guess I would just say, Christine, keep watching the show.

CB: Oh, right? What are those Yelmors famous for?

TH: Well they’re linked at the ears. They work together. They feed each other.

CB: Oh that’s right. [giggles]

MI: It’s too bad that you guys can’t see on this podcast, but we’re also linked at the ears right now.

CB: It’s true.

TH: And we do feed each other.

TH: I like the Coran-Allura dynamic in the show. Allura becomes this super cheerful drill sergeant and has the ship actively trying to kill them. And then Coran says, “Oh, yeah you probably can’t form Voltron because you haven’t been practicing for hundreds of years like the original paladins, and I just forgot to mention that.” And then brings them into this training- the whole training ground thing I think is really cool. The invisible maze. This is a cool part of the ship. One of the fun things about the castle ship is that it’s so huge, and I just imagine there are just hundreds of places we have never gone to yet.

CB: Oh yeah totally.

TH: There are multiple decks that we never get to see.

CB: One think I like about Altean technology/Altean magic, it’s a very convenient technology. So kinda whatever-

TH: Except the ziplines. They never got around to fixing that.

CB: It’s to build the paladins’ upper arm strength, Tim. You see, it’s all cleverly built into their exercise regime.

TH: Makes sense.

MI: Little known fact, those paladins, I mean the lions are hard to maneuver. Gotta get their upper arm strength strong.

KA: In later season they don’t use the ziplines any more, so they’re graduated. They’re strong enough now.

CB: Precisely.

[silence]

CB: This [the maze scene] is a really cute sequence.

KA: I like the idea of them just flying around like, this is fun I guess.

CB: One thing we really wanted our 3D models to be able to do was, because sometimes when you are compositing a 3D element into an otherwise 2D scene, the line width and line quality can really suffer from close up shots to far away shots. So that’s something that the hub team here at Dreamworks was able to develop just for our show, which is the ability to scale the lines when the lions come up close to the camera. Well, the lions and the other 3D assets. And when they recede into the camera, there’s a slider so that we can kinda manually control the line weight. Because sometimes in a 2D show with some 3D elements in it, the 3D elements will stick out because the line and the shading doesn’t match up no matter how compositing you do. So I think we see that really well here in the first episode. We see nice line width here, and then when we see the butts of the lions sticking out of the sand dunes, the lines kinda disappear out.

TH: So the lions are in 3D, the castle’s in 3D.

CB: Correct.

TH: What are the other 3D things we see in the show? We’ve got the robeasts?

CB: Yep, definitely the robeasts.

TH: All the Galra ships.

CB: Some of the Galra ships. The fight with the Galra fighter is in 3D as well as the cruisers that Sendak and his armies use.

TH: Right, those are awesome.

MI: The speeders are 3D too right?

CB: Correct, the speeders are 3D. We tried to design as many ships as we can within our budget in 3D. It’s a lot easier to have a pre-built 3D ship rather than trying to draw and turn it, all these different angles in 2D. We tried to get those big vehicles and stuff done when we can.

TH: Keith thinking about a farmhouse. Maybe he wants to be a farmer?

CB: Spam musubi and coconut shrimp.

MI: Me and Hunk are thinking about the same thing right now.

TH: What Christine was thinking of.

KA: You get just a little glimpse of what Pidge is thinking of, and it looks like a family photo but it was too fast, we couldn’t-

TH: Right.

KA: Because at this point we don’t know the secret of Pidge yet.

CB. Right, yes.

KA: We do know the secret of NIMH, but not Pidge.

TH: “Everyone has to be able to look in everyone’s head holes.” That’s one of my favorites. Yeah but this is a fun little Pidge character beat in this episode. She’s kinda holding back their ability to form Voltron because she’s got a secret that she won’t let the others know about. And everyone thinks that she’s her brother in that picture, and that’s her girlfriend.

KA: So she’s the youngest one, you know.

TH: I know. I feel like this is a really clever ruse by Pidge that she kinda plays into that. And everyone’s like, “Oh, now I feel very sorry for Pidge.” “I’m just tired.” She’s not tired. She’s not tired at all. You saw what happened at the beginning of the show, she was up working! She wasn’t sleeping.

CB: She wasn’t even in her bedroom.

TH: I think PIdge might not sleep. Just throwing that out there. I’ve never seen her sleep.

CB: Maybe she sleeps with her eyes open.

MI: What if she’s like, I’ll sleep when I’m dead.

TH: Yes, that’s what it is.

MI: I’ll sleep when I find my family.

KA: These training robots are super cool looking.

TH: Yeah!

MI: The episode where they go through the Rift - that’s happened, right? It’s so hard to remember.

CB: Yes! I keep having to edit myself, like wait a minute, have we already-?

MI: Well there’s the evil Alteans, and their version of sentries are these robots, which I thought was a really cool touch.

TH: Shiro’s struggling with his PTSD after escaping the Galra.

CB: We already passed this scene - sorry Mitch, I just cut off you off - we already passed this scene but I like that the Alteans also had Capri Sun foil technology.

MI: Some design elements, they just transcend cultures.

TH: Exactly. It just makes sense.

CB: The universal-

TH: You just put your juice in a bag.

MI: Something fun I always think is the “gladiator set for a level fit for an Altean child.” It kinda seems like a burn at first but then later on you find out that Alteans are like super strong, so maybe that was really set for an Altean child!

TH: This [feeding each other] is a team exercise that I have done.

KA: Are you kidding?

TH: Where you’re all linked together and have to feed each other. Like a pack of Yelmors.

CB: Linked at the ears.

MI: That sounds so frustrating.

TH: It’s terrible. It’s the worst thing ever. And you know, they’ll have it so that like, let’s say you have a hamburger to eat. The bun’s over here, the ketchup’s over here. Nothing’s constructed. It’s not easy and you have to build everything and work together.

CB: You’ve got to assemble it? That reminds me of a Nintendo Switch game I’m playing called Overcooked.

KA: I’ve played that game.

MI: Is that the one where you have to team up to run a kitchen? I’ve seen some people playing that. That looks like actual work.

KA: It’s nerve-wracking.

CB: It gets intense. It gets really intense.

KA: We’ve done that at work before.

CB: That’s a good team bonding exercise.

MI: By the way, how awesome did that robeast look in those shots. Those shots are super cool and creepy.

CB: Yes! Super cool. That’s actually one of my favorite background designs from the first season as well done by our in-house designer William Yu. It’s actually hard to see the full genius of this design I guess you can say because it’s so dark once to went to paint. But yeah, I like how gothic and huge that space feels.

TH: Look at Coran just stepping right up. He’s willing to take that food goo right in the chest.

CB: Totally.

TH: Little “Animal House” call out here.

KA: Yep. Although I’d much rather hang out with Hunk than…what’s John Blutarsky’s character’s name?

TH: Bluto.

KA: Bluto! That’s right.

MI: I’d rather hang out with Hunk than almost anyone.

CB: I agree.

[silence]

TH: It was all part of her plan! She’s good. She is good.

KA: And they don’t clean themselves off, they just go directly to Voltron.

TH: No because they go down the zipline, it just flies off.

KA: Oh that’s right.

MI: Air cleaned.

MI: Do you think they just have a little car wash equivalent that they just kinda walk through in their suits. I guess they do, actually!

TH: Yeah they do, after they come in the decontamination room when they’re having the snowball fight on the ship.

TH: So this is a big show moment here. The first time they voluntarily form Voltron.

CB: Yes, absolutely.

TH: You see that sweet Voltron forming sequence.

CB: Oh that’s right! When I was watching this episode, I didn’t even realize that this is the first time we see the transformation sequence. We worked together with Studio Mir, and we did this sequence kinda 3D and 2D. This for example, the paw going into the leg, that was all done in 2D. Here- oh wait we don’t see it here- in other versions of the transformation, he has this secondary mask that opens up and that was done in 2D as well.

TH: And this is one of the few times they form Voltron and then just get to pose. Just relax.

CB: Nice neutral background for him to stand against. Nothing to detract attention away.

CB: It’s funny to look at the artwork and design work in these first episodes because at this point we were still-. Oh wait, I just gotta stop and say, one of the first versions of this design - the castleship lounge - there was a vending machine and a coffee maker. I don’t know what happened to it, I think we just decided that with all the-

TH: It just has a little hatch and the coffee comes out

CB: It’s more Altean that way.

MI: What were you saying? You were saying something else.

CB: Oh right! What was I saying?

KA: You were talking about original designs.

CB: Right. It’s funny to look at the environments in the first couple episodes because we were kinda still, at that point we were still finding our own visual language and the style and everything. It just makes me think back to a lot of the stuff we used for reference. Like at the time there was a video game trailer that came out for a game called Rhyme. And when we saw it we were like, oh, that’s such a cool style, that vibe. We could kind of use it for inspiration for planet Arus.

KA: Man.

CB: Wow, that episode went by so fast!

KA: I’m saying, they do. But we can keep talking. That’s the beauty of this podcast, we can just keep going if we wanted to.

CB: I was going to say, I have so much to say about the slippers!

MI: She’s not joking.

TH: I hope that the merchandising people are listening to this and thinking about their slippers and accessories. It just doesn’t seem like the things are coming out fast enough.

CB: I agree.

MI: That could be Christmas’s hot item.

TH: It could be.

KA: The Blue lion slippers? Or just lion slippers in general.

CB: I mean each paladin actually has their own slippers. The black lion slipper, green, yellow.

KA: Shiro doesn’t seem like a slipper guy.

CB: He doesn’t seem like it, but I think out of all of them, he’s the most secret kind of comfort - you know, I bet he has, like, cashmere pajamas. Work hard, relax hard, goes to the spa, gets manicures.

TH: What I’ve wanted is a Voltron lion potholder, you know, like oven mitts.

CB: Oven mitts! Genius. I love it.

T: I don’t know why we don’t have those. That can go with the slippers and then maybe black lion can be some kind of apron with a little hat that goes on the top.

CB: I love it. To keep your shirt clean and your hair clean.

TH: Yes exactly, like a hairnet.

CB: No I like it.

MI: Hygienic.

KA: If the marketing people aren’t listening, at least the cosplayers should be listening because these are all great, super awesome ideas.

CB: Please signal boost these ideas out onto the internet.

KA: Well thank you guys so much for watching this episode you helped make and I did nothing but enjoy. We’ll go around to everybody and see what your Twitter handle or whatever social media platform you’d like to plug.

CB: Oh, okay! Go ahead Tim.

TH: You can reach me on Twitter @TheTimHedrick

CB: I am @, um, I think I’m @Christinebean33

MI: And I am @mitch_iverson. I had to look it up real quick.

CB: Mitch, actually, can you look up mine up too just to make sure.

CB: Okay yeah, I am @Christinebean33

KA: So if you want to share your travel stories with what you wear when you go traveling.

TH: Oh man you know where to send them.

MI: Or if you want to talk about food.

KA: Or if you want to talk about food!

CB: Oh man. We’re going to save that for another episode. Just talking about the food.

KA: We hope you guys come back for another episode because there’s a lot left to go. But thank you guys for listening. I’ve been Kyle Anderson, you can follow me on Twitter at @FunctionalNerd. And we’ll see you next time here on Form Podcast.

[thecartoonarchivist]

Weekly Spotlight #4

Week number 4 of the Weekly Spotlight! I apologize for the wait; I’m still working out the kinks in my schedule.

Alrighty! So! Our weekly spotlight winner is:

*an even more vibrant drumroll!*

My Life as a Teenage Robot

I have a lot of fond memories of this show, as I’m sure many others do. Before sitting down and rewatching a couple episodes, from what I remembered about it, it was a little bit of an odd-ball. It always skirted this line of being accessible enough that the average viewer could relate to it while also being straight up bizarre enough to remember just how different this world is from our own. This show would mix the 1950′s aesthetic with science fiction concepts to cement itself, at least in my mind, alongside other animations such as Meet The Robinsons, George Shrinks! and, oddly enough, Samurai Jack. It was a slice of life, mixed with action and adventure, and some elements of horror? Which... ended up distinguishing itself from other similar “crime fighting teenagers” like Kim Possible, Teen Titans, or W.I.T.C.H. As a result, this show dealt with a lot of common problems and themes that teenagers faced in very odd ways, all under the guise of an action, sci-fi show.

So let’s have a little bit of a history lesson, shall we?

Back in the late 90′s, Nickelodeon began to host a show that was called Oh Yeah! Cartoons which has been called TV’s biggest animation development program ever. Dozens of filmmakers were contracted by Nickelodeon to create 7 minute cartoons that would be spliced together into a half-hour time-slot. This “show” would then air on television and depending on the approval ratings of the audience, these cartoon shorts would then be commissioned into a TV show for Nick. Producing nearly 100 of these cartoon shorts, this “animation laboratory” would jumpstart many individuals’ careers in the industry such as Seth MacFarlane, Vincent Waller, Dave Wasson, and Butch Hartman.

One such individual would be a man named, Rob Renzetti with a short titled, My Neighbor Was A Teenage Robot. Due to very high approval ratings, Nickelodeon commission for the show and would later on be titled, My Life As a Teenage Robot. It aired in 2003 and was eventually cancelled after 3 seasons (ironically) due to poor ratings.

So for our premise!

Jenny (or, XJ-9, as her mother calls her) is a crime-fighting, superhero robot who dreams of being a teenage girl just like other human beings. However, she has to juggle her duties as a superhero and her social life as a teenager, which leads wacky shenanigans, problems, and overall, grief  for Jenny as she attempts to fit in. She’s partnered with her friends Brad and Tuck as they tag along on her adventures, and she even has an admirer named, Sheldon, who tries to woo her in his own awkward way. She fights monsters, aliens, and a robot queen named, Vexus who is trying to recruit Jenny her robot world the planet Cluster Prime, while also dealing with the Crust Cousins who are out to destroy Jenny’s social reputation. Can a girl ever catch a break?

These episodes are broken up into 2 eleven minute segments with problems that are usually resolved by the end of the episode. There isn’t so much of a “continuity” per se, but there are episodes that reference earlier ones so while you can dive right in with any old episode you want, I’d keep in mind which one I’m choosing.

So on the whole how did this series hold up?

Well, the first several episodes are pretty shaky. Although the visuals were very unique to watch and the soundtrack was entertaining to listen to, I felt that some of the episodes weren’t all that entertaining. The problems felt fairly realistic, or at least believable for a “teenage robot,” however, it was easy to tell that the creators were still figuring out what they wanted to do with this series. What kind of character did they want to make Jenny? What kind of dynamic did they want the support cast to be like? What kind of bad guys did they want Jenny to go up against? And as a result, some of the early episodes suffered in quality. Overall, I felt like the first season, especially a lot of the first half, was simply establishing the status quo of the series. Yet, in spite of this, there were several episodes that I felt that the series really hit its stride and gave a solid balance of uniqueness and familiarity that left me both intrigued for more and very entertained with the product I’ve received.

There were some episodes that left me simply... disturbed. Two of them being Attack of 5 and 1/2 ft. Geek and The Return of the Raggedy Android. Some of you might remember the second one as the skin episode... (And if you don’t, consider yourself blessed...) With Attack of the 5 and 1/2 ft. Geek, Jenny has a screw loose in her arm and solicits the help of Sheldon to fix her problem. Having a large passion for robotics, Sheldon is not only happy to help but also becomes extremely infatuated with Jenny after she saves him. Extremely infatuated. To the point of stalking her. And showering her with unnecessary gifts. The others kids at school even laugh at her and bully her for her newfound “boyfriend.” Jenny is obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable and finds any excuse to get away from him. Eventually, she gets a call from her mother saying that there’s a gang downtown (the Lonely Heart’s Club, btw) which is causing havoc and requires her assistance. With Sheldon following her every move, the gang gets very jealous of Sheldon and Jenny’s “relationship” and kidnaps Sheldon. Jenny has to swoop in and save him, having also finally snapped at having Sheldon being called her boyfriend. She goes off, calling Sheldon creepy, a stalker, and a host of other things that are not only accurate, but legitimate concerns that any other teenage girl would have in such a situation. Sheldon is hurt and in a weird turn of events, he saves Jenny after she gets captured during her rant. The episode ends with Jenny apologizing about what she said and says that maybe they can hang out sometime... as friends. Just... friends. Sheldon goes on to be a recurring character of the series, causing a lot of shenanigans and other problems as a result of his infatuation.

Since the series ended with Jenny never establishing a relationship with either Brad nor Sheldon, many speculate as to which one she would have started dating. Although there aren’t any definitive answers from the team about who would have ended up with, the team appears to favor Sheldon as a candidate. Which... I find very problematic.

Sheldon stalked her, made her uncomfortable, and through the course of the series, lied to her, toyed with her emotions, and caused her much emotional grief. And yet, she’s supposed to apologize to Sheldon for being so “cruel” even though she was voicing some legitimate concerns about his conduct, and eventually end up with him as a boyfriend? Nuh-uh. No bueno. That’s not exactly something you should be teaching little girls. If she is uncomfortable being around him, she shouldn’t be obligated to hang out with him--- even if it hurts his feelings. And by remaining friends with him, she’s using him for upgrades her mother denies; stringing him along with the possibility of being “more than friends”; and overall, setting up an uncomfortable situation for both of them to be in. I don’t see how that’s okay to promote that kind of relationship to any kid. It’s just simple wish fulfillment and for a TV show that will be shown to children, that’s not okay. Keep it in your personal diary, or on your personal computer, because promoting this sort of relationship is extremely toxic and I don’t approve. At all.

Now... the infamous skin episode...

The basic problem of the episode is that Jenny wants to hang out at teenage hotspot called Mezmer’s. However, the owner of the shop won’t allow her in because she’s a robot. Remembering the freakish false skin that her mother designed her several episodes before, she attempts to reuse it after having received several upgrades to make it more believable. And it works! She becomes beautiful! More popular! She even gets to dance with Don Prima, the local heartthrob that Jenny has a crush on! Overall, she’s simply... normal. However, the second-skin seems to have a life of its own and puts itself on in Jenny’s sleep. It coaxes her to be more normal, to stop fighting crime, to focus on her beauty and her looks because that’s what a normal girl does. But once Brad becomes endangered by an intergalactic biker gang that threats destroy the shop, Jenny sheds her new skin and learns to accept herself for all her imperfections and unique personality traits. Because that’s what’s truly normal about her.

This episode was probably the most prominent that I remembered watching as a kid. And for a good reason too... This. Episode. Was. Horrifying! I’m not even kidding! Rewatching this as an adult, I kept thinking to myself “This is a children’s show?!?” One of the first interactions that we see with this new skin is that it claws its way up Jenny’s body while she shouts, “I can’t breathe!”

Later on, we see the exoskin crawl its way across Jenny’s floor and attack her like a snake while she sleeps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJjJmGv6ztY

(The video is pretty poor quality, but it’s the only one I can find.)

What. The. Fuck.

Oh, but it’s alright because she sheds the skin in the end and everything returns to a relative normal.

Except for the fact that the ending implies that the skin takes another victim and survives. Yeah. IT’S A REAL THING.

The message that the episode taught was great. It’s a message that teenage girls really do need to hear: that you have your own normal and that trying to be others’ version of “normal” can end up changing who you really are and up taking away all of the cool, badass qualities that make you, well, you. The problem is that this episode is so terrifying how the hell do you show this to kids?!? The fact that I remembered this episode so vividly despite the fact that I haven’t seen this show since it aired is a testament to the fact that it I probably shouldn’t have watched it as a child. I just... I’m baffled on how this got made! It’s... just... *shivers.*

I mean, questionable episodes aside, the show itself was interesting. The visuals were certainly unique and interesting to watch. The character designs were so original and iconic that going back and watching the original cartoon short, it’s kind of crazy that they weren’t always like that. The soundtrack, sound effects, even some of the voice acting was enjoyable the listen to. As I said before, it has a very 50′s aesthetic with a futuristic twist, which gives it this odd balance between feeling dated but also surprisingly modern. The backgrounds appear to be hand-painted, which is probably the reason for its dated look; I think it was a rather nice touch. I honestly have to give it to the sound effects department for being so on top of the little noises and such for every little movement Jenny made. It really created a sense of life in the character and I really did appreciate it in the small moments. I will have to say though, going back and watching this series, it didn’t exactly age as well as I had hoped. There were some nice episodes that I enjoyed but many of the episodes I found were pretty mediocre at best. Maybe it’s simply because I’ve gotten older and many of the jokes/gags just weren’t funny anymore. Maybe it’s because the characters themselves were simply 2-dimensional at best and dealt with stereotypical teenage problems. I’m not sure but really, I just wasn’t amused. Now, maybe I just need to watch more of this series as it appears to be a bit of a slow burn but really I’m just not that hype to jump on rewatching it.

If I had to rate this show, I’d probably give it a 6.8 out of 10. 

I’ll probably sit down and rewatch all of this at some point; after all, it seems decent enough. But really, if I never watch it again, I wouldn’t be too upset. It’s pretty much what I’d call “bubble gum TV;” if I want to turn on something mindless for a little while, I’d probably watch it but I wouldn’t be too invested. It’s just pretty... bland.

I think a lot of people have a bit of rose-tinted goggles when looking at this show and as such, it becomes kind of hard to criticize it. Does it deserve to be forgotten? Not necessarily. But I don’t think that it’s really as great as a lot of people think of it to be.

As for me, I’m gonna put this back in the shelves of my vault to watch one day. But when that day will be? We’ll just have to wait around and see what happens.

[Edit 11/21/118: I’m testing out a new tagging system. Let’s see if this fixes the broken links issues.]

If there are any corrections you’d like to make in regards to this post, please feel free to send me a message with your corrections and I’ll get back to it as soon as I can!

Do you remember a cartoon your friends have never heard of? Got a scene from an animated film that you’re dying to know the name to? Send your questions to The Cartoon Archivist and I’ll see what I’ve got in the vault!

[recentanimenews]

Crunchyroll Features' Favorite Anime of Fall 2018!

The Fall season, and 2018 anime with it, are finished. We’re looking at a lot of big anime titles wrapping around into 2019, so now is the perfect time for our editors to honor our favorites from this season before the Winter premieres begin. This was a huge season with a ton of big returning titles, so it was particularly hard selecting our Top 3 from the season. You can check out our top anime from summer season, see how our picks compare to our most anticipated titles, or scroll down and check out our favorites!

Peter Fobian

Fall 2018 was absolutely ridiculous. The season looked huge going into it with the shonen fighter RADIANT, returning giants JoJo AND SAO, and 2 mega hyped isekai in Goblin Slayer and Slime. Oh yeah, also a new TRIGGER anime. Then it got EVEN BIGGER with some unknown quantities turning into awesome favorites. We’re still riding the crest of this wave into Winter as so many of the top series are continuing, but the ones that are coming to an end this year really left an impression on me.

ZOMBIE LAND SAGA

This might be the single biggest anime dark horse that has emerged since I started following seasonal anime and that was kind of part of its design. Everything from the show to the promotion was masterfully orchestrated, with the studio giving away little more than the title and Mamoru Miyano’s gorgeous face leading into the season. The way this anime took both tourism and idol anime to the extreme with one of the best concepts and pretty meta. The writing was on point, the comedic timing was perfect, and it even had great emotional beats. I’m really hoping a few of those loose plot threads mean a season 2 because this anime could easily deliver more.

SSSS.GRIDMAN

I watched the first episode of this series back at Anime Expo 2018 and was extremely surprised at how serious it felt. Although it loosened up during the fight scenes, Gridman has to be TRIGGER’s most reserved project to date with some really great storyboards, character drama, and a slowburn mystery that are typically absent from their high-octane visual circuses. It even stuck the landing. This series wasn’t just good in its own right, but really proved TRIGGER is about to deliver in multiple styles of storytelling.

Golden Kamuy

There's never enough space to talk about all the good things in Golden Kamuy. The story is an amazing treasure hunt/survival game in a wonderfully articulated historical set piece of Hokkaido, Japan following the Russo-Japanese War. The characters are as adorable as they are psychotic. The mysteries just keep building up. The violence is magnificent. The food looks delicious. This manga has a the best bit of everything and continually shows new faces as the story develops. Hopefully the wait for more of the manga wont be too long.

Ricky Soberano

Woo! This fall season has been a chock full of great anime that varied from each other in many aspects so I ended up staying consistently caught up with almost everything that came out this season and shows that haven’t stopped going. Trying to pick three took many rounds of questioning from myself to the people that I care about and the conclusion was ‘Ricky loved everything.’ However I came up with my top three by only choosing the ones that made me 110% happy every single time I clicked to watch the latest episode.

Fairy Tail Final Season

  I’ve been a diehard Fairy Tail fan since the beginning (tattoo on my hip for proof) and frankly I’ve cried during every episode this season simply knowing that there will be no more of this amazing shonen that has saved my life more than once after this is done. This season exceeds expectations by not only doing a victory lap and bringing on almost every character that has ever shown up in the show but also by tying up every loose end, answering every burning question, and naturally showing every individual guild member’s badass power has gotten to a level so high up that one could barely fathom. Each episode has me screaming at the screen from the new insane revelation that they just revealed.

As Miss Beelzebub Likes It.

  I don’t usually watch cute anime. However watching Beelzebub be super encapsulated by the presence of fluffy things, show her an affinity for tasty snaccs, and captivation for adorable animals pulled me into a hug as warm as an alpaca sweater and I never want it to stop. The color palette of pastel glory has kept me in a happy mood all season and the stories told are ridiculous but make for a never ending sweet dream.

Run with the Wind

  This was a wild card for me since I may’ve ran track on high competitive levels but I don’t have a preference to sports anime. However the cast of 10’s journeys not only as runners but also as individuals take place with such high stakes on the line made it hard to not want to continue watching especially since the show did well to realistically show competitive running and the realistic sacrifices and training that goes behind it. With such high tension and drama circulating, I was truly on the edge of my seat the entirety of every single episode.

Nate Ming

Y'know, I thought I was gonna watch more JoJo… but I got my mom into JoJo over Christmas break, so that's gotta count for something. From retail hell to the frozen wilderness of Hokkaido to the sacred ring, my Fall 2018 season was full of emotional ups and downs… and I'm still screaming about that season finale for Golden Kamuy.

Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san

All the built-up trauma from working retail and customer service for almost half my life came back in one huge wave with Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san. No anime this season has made me laugh so hard I pulled a muscle (I'm not joking), and no anime this season has made me curl up in the fetal position remembering the insanity of working a Harry Potter book launch at Borders. But aside from all that, Honda-san himself is refreshingly positive and upbeat--work is work, it's tiring and frustrating, but if you love what you do and like sending customers home happy, it's all worth it in the end.

Golden Kamuy

The treacherous journey to find the stolen Ainu gold continued with a second season, bringing back our favorite characters while introducing plenty of new faces. Unexpected team-ups, shuffling of group rosters, and then pitting everybody against each other kept me watching every week, needing to know what was coming next--and that infuriating season finale means I'm absolutely tuning in for whenever season 3 starts airing.

Hinomaru Sumo

I keep joking that "no cowards allowed" is the tagline for this intense adaptation of the Weekly Jump manga, and it's a pretty fair assessment: characters may feel doubt and fear, they may question the decisions that led them to get into the ring, but there's nowhere to run in sumo, so finish the fight and worry about the details later. This show has so much heart, and I'm here to continue cheering for Hinomaru and team into 2019 as we head into its second cour.

Nicole Mejias

I gotta say, this fall season was STACKED with a whole bunch of great shows from start to finish! It was a season where my queue was at its fullest and trying to find time every week was actually a bit challenging to make sure I watched everything. There were so many shows that I ended up liking way more than I thought I would, so it was difficult to pick a top 3, and in some cases I feel my top 3 are mostly continuing from things I really enjoyed before, or last season; but that said, this was a tough season, and if I had more than 3 slots, I’d be in even more trouble picking!

Golden Kamuy

Golden Kamuy is a must-have on my list, and frankly should be on almost everyone's! I really had no idea what to expect from the series when I first heard about it, but whatever I thought it was, Golden Kamuy surprised me with it's amazing characters, fast and severe action, and its balance of comedy and suspense. As the second season draws to a close and some of the serious questions are about to be answered, I'll be waiting to see what's next for Sugimoto and Asirpa in the future. I probably would never get tired of this series, so I'm hoping we hear about a new season soon. Golden Kamuy is a series of feel almost anyone can enjoy, and I hope more people get sucked into it like I did!

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

JoJo's is one of my favorite series of all, and when Golden Wind got announced I was extremely excited to see what was in store for me, since it was the JoJo part I knew the least about. Part 5 really does have a unique feel to it, from the mafia trappings to the unique and interesting Stand abilities, and now that things are really getting underway, I'm excited to see what's next! Giorno and the rest of the gang are quickly becoming one of my favorite collections of JoJo heroes, with their mix of fun chemistry and personalities, and I can just see Part 5 being in my favorite anime lists throughout 2019 too!

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

I'll be honest: I'm not a big isekai fan. I've never really found the power fantasy aspect of them interesting, and so I've usually found myself giving them a few episodes before getting bored or finding myself watching something else. Slime really grabbed me, though, because from the first parts of episode 1, I thought I was in for a similar experience, but it soon turned things on their heads! While Rimuru is super powerful, the world built in Slime is fascinating, and all of the interactions between characters is great. Also, seeing Rimuru put the smack down on baddies is incredibly satisfying! I'm excited to see where this series goes and how Rimuru's little collection of followers and hangers on grow!

And that's our editor's favorites for the Fall 2018 season! I'm surprised no anime got repeated twice except for Golden Kamuy with 3 votes, which is a fitting send off to an awesome series that reached its conclusion this year after an insane climax. But there's more to come. Prepare yourself for tomorrow when we'll be putting up our most anticipated titles for Winter 2019!

---

Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[respheal]

Two years of Galebound

Hey guys, Res here! Long spiel ahead because I’m getting personal and long-winded here. Full text after the cut to spare your dash.

tl;dr: A brief history of Galebound’s development and my experiences with telling a story, joining a community, depression, and living inside my characters’ heads for two solid years.

[cut]

So I was working on page 103 early last month (yeah, the week page 103 was due to go up aaaahhahahaha -cries-) when I realized what was coming up: the second anniversary of Galebound’s start as a webcomic. The exact date of the anniversary is a little nebulous. The decision to make it a webcomic was made on 4/20/16 when I completed drawing the concept art for all the main characters (which I had set as a prerequisite for going on the hare-brained adventure) and drew what would become the title page. The first page was published on Smack Jeeves (where galebound.com is hosted) on 5/14/16. So the birthday of the webcomic is somewhere between those dates but I’m going to consider it to be 5/14, which is why I’m rambling about it today. I want to talk a bit about Galebound’s history and what it means to me.

Galebound was originally a short story called Noblesse Oblige. It was written in first person POV from Conan’s perspective and published on DeviantArt back in 2007 or so. I really wish I could find that original draft because I bet it’s wonderfully terrible. I didn’t really know what I was doing with the story at the time--Conan was an untrusting jerk, Din was an arrogant troll, and Pascal was downright unhinged. The basic mechanics of the Obligation were there (simply that Noblemen could command Magicians), but that was about it.

I pants’d the story until it got to--well, just after this point actually. The conclusion of the battle on the bridge, and then I stopped. I don’t entirely remember why. But the story stuck around in the back of my mind while I met new friends (Hi, Skypernauts!), went to college, moved across the country, met my first boyfriend, got my first job, met my future husband, and casually worked on developing an RPGMaker game in my spare time (That RPG is called Memory and that story will likely get turned into a comic eventually as well).

While I was working on Memory’s battle system, I had the thought: how would I convert Noblesse Oblige into an RPG? The magic system would probably have to be something like the field generator from the original .hack games: string together words for a certain field or, in this case, magic. That way the command side of the Obligation would be integrated into the gameplay.

I played around with that idea for a bit longer, but ultimately decided it wouldn’t work; there was a major design flaw with the game. I can’t say what that flaw was because figuring out the solution to the design flaw led to the realization of a huge twist in NO’s story. I had to get this story out. Now.

Around this time I had abandoned RPG-making (because making nice maps is a PITA), so I took Noblesse Oblige through a JulyNoWriMo (NaNoWriMo, just in July). This time I took the story through Norin, Evenheim, the bridge, and on to Cymaria and beyond, compelled as if by Obligation. I accomplished my goal of 50k words, but the story still wasn’t complete. I slowed down the writing process and kept at it, but I also wanted to share the story so badly.

And uh...well. No one was interested in beta reading it except one friend, when time allowed. My fiance made an attempt, but didn’t get very far (He tried though, bless him, and said that although the beginning was rough--lord was it ever--it picked up eventually). In his eternal patience, my fiance at least let me spill the whole story at him. He didn’t like parts of it, mainly some things that happen around the midpoint and Din as a character in general (Din was a bit more actually evil back then). But he listened to the story as a whole, which was a lot more support than I felt anyone else had given the project at the time (Thanks, Mike <3). He also made a hell of a lot of puns about the ending of it, but in fairness the ending does lend itself to a lot of puns. It’ll blow you away (ba-dum-tsh).

I started getting really frustrated. There was this story that I just had to tell, but seemingly no one who would listen. I’d put a couple chapters up on Wattpad or Tablo, but got no feedback there (and didn’t learn until much later that those sites are miserable for anything that isn’t romance). An excuse would be that I wanted to know if this project had any sort of worth and if I should continue with it, but real talk: I wanted validation. I know better now what was happening then, but...well, hindsight.

While this was going on, I posted this illustration in the NaNoWriMo forums, the first drawing I had done in about two years or so.

No comments for a bit, but one day I was browsing through the thread and noticed someone quoted me and responded, asking if I was doing a webcomic. Um...No? I had tried making a webcomic before, but it was a LOT of work and I figured it wouldn’t be something I would have time for now.

Buuuuuuuuut the seed was planted. At this point I had determined the reason no one was interested in reading my rough novel was because A) the writing must be terrible (it kind of was) and B) nobody ain’t got time for reading books. So maybe this story could be told and find its audience as a webcomic. But only if I could draw ALL of the main and secondary characters. I would have to draw them hundreds of times, so no point in trying if I couldn’t even draw them all once.

Suffice to say, I succeeded. And the comic began under the new name Galebound.

Even as the comic went up, however, the need for validation persisted. I meticulously tracked subscription counts and likes and faves and everything, craving proof that people were reading this story. It got better as the story went on and some events did provide temporary boosts (Like Galebound getting featured on a “Top Five New Comics” list from Top Web Comics -excited screaming- and I met a new friend who I could talk to about the story and she actually read the monstrosity that was the first draft), but, well...

So, long story short: I was suffering from clinical depression with all that entails, and did for quite a while. Still am, technically. Just well managed now (yaaaaaay therapy and medication). It’s funny because I can pick out the pages it was hitting me the hardest because Conan was super bummed in those pages too.

I guess what I’m saying here is that this story was a big part of my life during some of the hardest and darkest times of my life.

I’m doing better now (see: aforementioned medication and therapy). Really I’m lucky because I see and talk to other webcomic artists who have similar struggles and similar feelings and the same reactions when sad or disappointing things happen and I want to suggest they get professional help when I recognize the signs of depression in them, but I realize I’m extremely fortunate in that I even had the opportunity to get the medical attention I needed. (I will recommend up and down all day long that if you’re suffering from depression and have the opportunity to see a doc about it, do so. For years I had tricked myself into thinking it wasn’t that bad even when...it was.)

There were good things, too. I met new friends and joined a community of other webcomic creators. I contributed to some drama in the community in an attempt to hold our publishing platforms accountable. I created a website to help webcomic readers and creators. I attended my first convention as an artist (and actually sold a sticker and a booklet! Woo!) and by the time this gets published I’ll have attended my second. Galebound has gained a small fanbase and I’m so proud of how clever the readers are. Seriously, you all keep me on my toes.

Regarding the story itself, Galebound is, by my estimates, about a fifth of the way through the full story, which means it will likely run for about ten years total if things don’t speed up (and I really want to speed things up). If you consult the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet, we’re somewhere in “The Debate”, that debate being “Who is Din and can he be trusted?”

Spoiler alert (warning: song with explicit language)

The whole concept of the Obligation stems from the dichotomy of what one wants to do versus what one feels compelled to do. That could be taking over the family business, going to college, going to church, even choosing a life partner based on expectations as opposed to one’s true feelings--as a character will say in the future, “not all Obligations are magic.” This sort of Obligation is something I think a lot of people face, and something Conan, too, will face throughout the course of the story.

Galebound is also about redemption and forgiveness. There are characters who have made terrible mistakes and decisions in the name of hatred and prejudice, and those who have brought harm to others out of sheer ignorance. It’s about self-worth and purpose. It’s about friendship and reconciliation. It’s about platonic and familial love. It’s about duty...and obligations.

It’s complicated, but “simple stories are inherently false. Life is complicated, and perspective matters.”

To sort of go into Conan and Din’s headspace a bit as they are now, they’re not in a good place emotionally, and it’s soon to get worse (because a certain someone Can’t Follow Instructions). They will hit rock bottom, but after that...well, there’s no place left to go but up? After this chapter, both of them will be reeling from mistakes made in the recent and distant past, but these events--as well as what will happen with the next few days--will put them in a place to rethink everything.

Long story short, I’m excited for what’s to come, but when am I not?

Anyway, that’s my spiel. Thanks for reading and for reading Galebound! My goals for it this year are to finish the first volume, start editing some of the earlier pages in preparation for printing, get a few chapters of the novel written (again), and get to the turn into act two. I’m actually so hyped for the turn I’ve edited this paragraph a millions times to keep myself from dropping even hints of spoilers because wow I want to talk about it.

So I better stop.

Thanks again for reading and Galespeed! <3

Links

Read Galebound here: galebound.com Prints and Stickers: store.synestories.com Social Media: Twitter | Facebook Support: Ko-Fi | Patreon