#Key West Commentary

[oh-meow-swirls]

was looking through old posts and i'm surprised to see that i seemingly didn't have any commentary on anything in 3 in chapter 7, 8 or 9, the posts related to 3's story go from "my first reaction when i saw yopple-bot was 'i love you. but also you are definitely the boss for this chapter-'" to "i have been in hell all day. hell being bada-bing tower." funny to me cuz those chapters are like, the best ones sdfkljsdfjfsdkjlfsdjkl-

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: In Which Chilchuck Begrudgingly Has Feelings for his Coworkers, and Kabru Has...Something. He Sure Has Something Going On Over There.

Before we continue, I feel I should clarify 2 things:

I've been trying, ish, to avoid spoilers for this comic, but I've watched through the Golden Country episode and more importantly I'm so bad at not reading spoiler-y but interesting- and insightful-looking analysis. So, much of this commentary isn't wholly original and any particularly genius theories of future events are likely made with actual foreknowledge.

When I said on the first post that I was starting the comic because "I need to know what happens", what I specifically meant was "I need to know how the Laios-Kabru dynamic ends up, and the general geopolitical situation, so I can accurately daydream what sort of tariffs they'll set in the kingdom of which Laios is definitely not going to be the one managing the political, economic, or social minutia." Tariffs are going to be important, okay. They're a key way a nation-state interacts with other nation-states, especially one with rare materials to trade, powerful neighbors who want them, and the natural barrier of an ocean. Truly, every fantasy series ever should be required to have an epilogue or many an additional book/season/etc of a The West Wing-style depiction of day-to-day governance of whatever resulted from the story's climactic finale.

Okay, back to the liveblog.

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Inch resting. The manga characters, having met the Mad Mage, keep using she/her pronouns for them, where in the anime they used he/him. I assume one of these is just, like, wrong - some translation choice was made before truth was revealed later in the course of publication?

But it makes SENSE that the characters wouldn't necessarily know, at this point! The Mage's appearance is pretty gender-neutral, especially as an elf, an notably gender-ambiguous race. So the characters in the manga picked one guess and stuck with it, and the characters is the very slightly alternate timeline of the anime picked another and stuck with that!

Now: having used they/them throughout this musing and previously he/him because a) the show and b) that's what I saw in fandom, I think I'll switch to referring to the Mage with she/her pronouns now. Because A) that's how the thing I'm reading apparently will be doing it, and B) they still call her "Lord of the Dungeon", which is obviously the greatest gender option of all.

...however, the manga does keep saying "lunatic magician" rather than "Mad Mage" (caps mine), which is a TOTAL failing in drama. Always alliterate, preferably archaically.

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Orc woman: Ugh, this halffoot sucks. I'll tolerate his company only as a favor to the vegetable guy.

Orc woman after listening to Chilchuck complain about his coworkers for an hour: Nvm, this halffoot is a worthy and loyal friend of the vegetable seller, and I guess those other guys too. He's just emotionally constipated about it.

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Laios just has these soft little fond smiles sometimes and I? want to hug him?

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MY MAN IS BACK!! Kabru wink count: 1 this chapter, 4 total [updated as I read]

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Corpse Retriever: If you don't report us for trying to get you guys killed so we could collect a retrieval fee, we'll let you kill those two of our guys who are already unconscious and collect that fee yourselves. We'll just take 30% of it, for not telling on you.

Kabru, internally: Hm. Well, I'm not king of this dungeon yet, but nonetheless I feel comfortable passing and executing a just judgement upon you for your many known, presumed and planned crimes. Emphasis on 'executing.'

Kabru aloud: I accept!

Kabru: [starts killing them with a classic faint, wide-eyed smile]

What a guy. He's even holding that knife so well. Look, next he's analyzing social trends and acting ruthlessly to adjust them toward the direction of the greater good!

What a guy. Truly this is a "so my type that it's embarrassing" situation.

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I can't efficiently crop panels to show all this, but favorite parallels in these chapters full of parallels:

Kabru's breakdown of the Touden party is like Laios eagerly explaining and analyzing the behavior and anatomy of monsters (including, though we don't know it yet, calculations for killing them - though we DO see him saying that humans are easy to kill because he knows all the physical weak points!)

The references throughout these two chapters, by Kabru and his party, to the interconnected socioeconomic dynamics of the island and dungeon - the corrupted system fails to check corpse retrievers, the Island Lord as an annoying but necessary bulwark against the Elves, the dungeon growing hungrier as fewer adventurers go down because there's less money and more risk - are so so so like Senshi and Laiois discussing the dungeon biome's ecosystem and food pyramid.

The whole vibe of the party re: their respective weirdo tallman leaders. We watched Team Laios develop this, recently crowned with Chilchuck's near-tearful argument to turn back for a rest, which means we can recognize it when we're dropped into it with Team Kabru: that "this guy is SUCH a goddamn weirdo, but I already followed him into some level of hell, so I'm obviously not turning back now." Kabru's party does think he's weird - "You remember so much about other people that it's creepy." "Why are you enjoying this?" But they're also pitching in on the speculation like Team Touden all hel cook monsters. Compare:

Also!! Something something predisposed beliefs and presumptions of others... This party is so eager to assume the worst of our party, even though our party objectively saved them from perma-death twice, once from ghosts and once from being eaten by fishmen. Chichuck is greedy and bossy, Senshi smells so...notably...that he's judged to be sketchy af... Kabru is trying his best with what info he has, he knows it's not enough to pass a judgement and he wants more, but it's very...uncomfortable? To see this sort of discussion of people we know are great, when we're so used to watching monsters be killed with exquisite understanding and respect.

...I'll chew on that angle of theme more later. Man, you know how, say, what makes the musical Hamilton so good is at its heart it's just like 5-10 leitmotifs that interweave to create every single song? Dungeon Meshi is like that. Hmm a Dungeon Meshical...

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"Yeah, yeah, we've all heard your weekly lecture about how someone responsible and sociopolitically conscious needs to take the dungeon and the throne or everyone in this region is doomed. None of us can wait to see you flip off the Island Lord to his face. Eat your rations, buddy."

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JUST THE CUTEST, INNOCENTEST, POLITEST, HELPFULEST (WITH NO ULTERIOR MOTIVATIONS WHATSOEVER) YOUNG MAN!! LOOK AT HIS BIG BLUE EYES AND EAGER LITTLE SMILE!

[3 seconds earlier:

I'm obsessed. In the spirit of this comic: I want to eat him with a spoon. I want to take small divots out of him and lick each one carefully off the spoon, luxuriously exploring and enjoying the complex texture and flavor. Like he's a really good pudding. And then I want to see if, if he and Laios kiss, do they both explode in antimatter.

[bestanimatedmovie]

Choose your favorite!

Vote in the other polls!

What fans say:

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron:

I was a Horse Girl TM, so I watched this movie a million times as a kid. It's honestly the best horse animation I've ever seen, all the backgrounds are gorgeous, and the soundtrack is incredible. Also the plot is anti-colonial/anti "taming of the west". Genuinely cannot pick a favorite scene, but I love the scene where Spirit commits many acts of violence against the US military <3

horsie :) I love how they use actual horse body language instead of just turning them into a dog. Also enjoy how the protags are easily understandable with just body language and neighs. Also the 2d and 3d animation blend seamless.

I cannot begin to tell you what makes this movie so good. It's a corner stone of animated media. The societal commentary. The incredible emotion of not only the story but the animation. The songs. Sound the Bugle makes me cry every time.

This movie was a key part of my childhood and “Sound the Bugle” still makes me tear up.

This is like the greatest horse movie of all time and I will not change my mind. I watched this movie so many times as a kid that both the VHS and first cd I had for it got ruined and we had to replace it with another cd LOL. I once convinced my teacher to let us watch it in class because it had a few scenes with Native Americans and we were learning about them at the time(It's about the old west and the expansion of the United States westward so it has some Native American characters but def not enough to make it a Native American film, but it does have positive representation I think?) The main character is the horse Spirit, a lead stallion for a herd of mustangs. His thoughts are narrated but he doesn't actively talk and the horse behaviors are pretty realistic, also the ART of it all, James Baxter was one of the lead animators for this film and his work is incredible, and hand done. Some of the behind the scenes stuff in the extras makes the animation look 3d its so good, and the camera work is also insane. As a horse obsessed child this movie was a staple for me, and I prefer it even over live action movies with actual horses. ALSO THE SOUNDTRACK OH MY GODDD how can I almost forget, the soundtrack for this movie goes so hard, I used to use some of the songs as hype music not even lying.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines:

It’s in its core about family, how we can drift and argue. Not because of one true fault, but because we are different. It shows how being weird and different don’t make you less of a family while not demonizing people who do have more stereotypical ‘perfect’ families. I think it portrays our humanity and the way we bond and what we do for those we love, what we sacrifice, so well. It’s so funny and so sweet.

It's funny and the family is neurodivergent and it's just really nice v good time it looks like anti technology at first but its clearly more of a criticism on capitalism I just really like that movie its pretty to look at.

It's funky!!! hang on, bullet point list time: - has such a unique and expressive animation style - has a lot of pop culture references that don't really feel overbearing - has honestly one of the best family dynamics in a movie I've seen???? - realistic characters!!! with realistic and interesting character arcs!!! - absolutely hilarious. makes me laugh every time i watch it :) - comedic villain! gotta love me one of those. also she's badass for a smartphone so - tHERE ARE FURBIES - basically it's very chaotic but also heartwarming, and it's honestly my favourite movie :D

Heartwarming story about family! Also kickass animation

Very good stylized animation. Well written and designed characters. Super funny and sooo heart warming. Fucking rad action scenes (again the animation is fantastic). The story comes together well, it's just quite well written. + Protective dad character who's not annoying as hell (that's rare!). I love every part of when they're at the dinosaur museum thing.

[beemovieerotica]

while we're talking about ofmd and race, i think there's a really interesting discussion to be had about how colorblind and color-conscious casting happens for historical content -- and the basis for why any of this is happening is that actors of color want to be able to engage with history in a way where they're not continually being asked to play slaves/servants/the singular empowered POC who dies tragically

and while money isnt being put toward stories centered on historical people of color with anywhere near the same frequency as white stories (Woman King was a huge breakaway from this where we actually had african-centered history that made it to white audiences) we're still talking about diasporic actors and writers of color whose families are rooted in the west and who grew up on western history. and on one level there's the instant recognition for these western stories by audiences (and recognition = less financial risk for producers) but on another level, POC want to have the same ability to play around with the historical contexts and stories they grew up seeing. and while people have their gripes with things like bridgerton (no media is without problems) it was a rare instance that let actors of color get to play the high society lords & ladies, have more screen time, and fundamentally get paid more for having a good time, and they're not being asked to engage with generational trauma

and i see ofmd on the other end of the spectrum from this where there was a deliberate choice made not to explain the casting & historical realities of slavery in any narrative sense -- it just is the way it is. so you have your options of 1) create an alternate timeline to explain the presence of POC in these roles and the reality of slavery (bridgerton), 2) dont explicitly explain the casting, dont change the reality of slavery, but weave in the commentary on the actors' races in a meta-textual, self-aware way (hamilton), and dont explain at all, just let things be (ofmd)

and the first two are conducive to drama with elements of comedy, but they're two very different genres from each other and extremely different from the conception of ofmd as a 20-minute-per-episode comedy. so you have a 1700s colorblind comedy that does not engage with the history of slavery -- actors and writers are able to play with the setting without switching genres, and the show is hugely successful

so the key question is: does this all meaningfully change the way that people then engage with the history of that time?

im not really concerned with discussions of "should [media] have been made" because it's here. it already exists. someone wanted to make it and audiences liked it enough to keep it around. im also not really concerned with the personal morality of media consumption, because again, the media exists and people are watching it without you. im asking if there is something like a "bridgerton effect" that distinctly alters people's perceptions of history itself because of the way a historical piece is satirized, modernized, played with, and reworked for modern audiences. and even then we can have another discussion on top of that on whether, if the answer is yes, this is the responsibility of the writers and creators, or of existing educational gaps. i think that's compelling and kind of the only thing that matters in these discussioms imo.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Something to also consider regarding WW Ganon's whole wind speech is that a lot of it is still mired in Orientalism and a lot of the tropes surrounding SWANA people and the desert aesthetic as a whole imo.

A key component of the desert in a lot of orientalist narratives is that the "east" is a barren desert full of backwards, uncivilized people who are oppressive to women and thus in need of saving and intervention from the "west." (Oversimplifying for brevity)

It's usually there to reframe the conversation on colonialism since it tries to erase the people there. It helps normalize the line of thinking that "hey, nobody was here anyway and anyone who was really needed our help, so we were doing everyone a favor."

In the context of Zelda, you can see that in how the Hylians are so closely associated with a connection to godhood and everyone orbits around them narratively and geographically.

In that sense, Ganon's coveting can be seen as a form of the game evoking pity without necessarily framing him as sympathetic, as if to say "of course he would hate this crappy place, what's there to like? Hyrule is vibrant, beautiful, and lively while the Gerudo are backwards, patriarchal, and in such a backwards way of living. Of course they'd envy us."

Ganon's character is intrinsically tied to the desert and our conception of it, which Zelda repeatedly shows as inhospitable and full of every stock racial trope imaginable. In OoT Ganon is referred to as some variation of "the wicked man of the desert."

It reminds me a lot of how people deliberately picture Africa as full starving orphans and uncivilized, but does so as a form of erasure.

It shows in the more sympathetic Gerudo too, like how Nabooru is presented as a heroic character, but she's sympathetic because she rejects the ways of her culture. The way we feel about the characters like Ganon and Nabooru are reliant upon us agreeing on a lot of basic ideas about the desert and the people who live there.

She's not really a character that escapes the issue by being heroic, since her heroism is defined by the same narrative that presents Ganon as wicked.

How we think of the Gerudo people as a whole and their relationship with the desert exists in relation to a bunch of real-world ideas of how SWANA people are treated. Something to consider I guess.

Hey, thank you so much for sending this ask!

I mean, I completely agree, and these are all great and necessary points to make. To be transparent, I do take the whole "wind" thing pretty metaphorically and not literally, as a stand-in for the Goddesses' favor basically, as well as some sort of subdued commentary on privilege and inherited oppression, principally because it would make sense for this version of Ganondorf to consider any effect on the landscape as a voluntary act of punishment by the Goddesses considering the flood and his previous monologue about the sea, but I fully recognize the games themselves do not go nearly as far.

In fact, "bad wind" remains an awfully convenient problem for the gerudos to have, since it exists without apparent cause. It's a case of bad luck, not anything constructed and maintained against them, certainly not anything the hylians could be responsible for in any way. So while this looks sympathetic, it is pitying and could theoritically be solved through, well. Submission. Not unlike the "solution" developed in both BotW and TotK that push against gerudo boundaries repeatedly, demand their loyalty and romantic devotion (framed as goodness, partially through pointed ears associated with "good" faith in the series as opposed to their "evil god" in OoT), and will have the hylians come and teach them how to survive in their own desert.

And fully agreed for Nabooru. Her moral balance never made sense to me, unless you come at it from a hylian (= "player" as conceived by Nintendo) perspective.

[laiqualaurelote]

Follow up question from your Ted/Trent one: would you elaborate on your S3 disappointment? Thanks for letting me pick your fascinating, insightful, brilliant brain!

You're very kind. My disappointments with S3 are manifold but I will try to sum them up here.

There was a pervasive wrongness to much of this season that had not previously been present, unlike in S1 and much of S2, where radical kindness was a driving force and storylines would seem to be heading towards a predictable trope, then be surprisingly and pleasingly subverted. Several S3 plotlines were handled in a way that left an unpleasant taste in the mouth, without any catharsis attached. The truly baffling Shandy storyline is a prime example of this. I thought at first that this was part of a wider plan (the dark forest, so to speak, from which we would eventually emerge) and defended the show to friends as such, but weeks went by and it became clear that a show that had once been meticulously, lovingly plotted in every detail had devolved into a haphazard mess.

Story arcs came and went with no perceptible purpose. The show promised Important Social Commentary (the attacks on Sam's restaurant, Keeley's sex video leaking) then failed to revisit these issues once the episodes in question were over. Plot points were hinted at, then never brought up again (Higgins broaches the subject of firing Ted to Rebecca; this is never returned to.)

The characterisation was a mass of unfulfilled potential. Why make the reason for Sam not being chosen for the Nigerian national team Edwin Akufo's cartoonish grudge, and not his S2E3 calling out of government corruption, which would have made far more sense narratively and given Toheeb Jimoh far more to work with? Why tell us repeatedly that Keeley is a PR genius, then fail to have her take charge of her own PR crisis? Instead of Shandy proving to be a bad hire, surely a better way to show Keeley learning to be a good leader would have been for her to integrate Shandy and Barbara's diverse skill sets and attitudes into a functional workplace dynamic. Why not show the most key milestones of Nate's reformation, especially his confrontation with Rupert when he quit West Ham? for that matter, why give the moment of a West Ham coach standing up to Rupert for ethical reasons not to Nate, but to George Cartrick? I think we were robbed of a truly meaty Nate villain-and-back arc.

The season finale was a mess. Ted barely seemed present. I'm not a Tedbecca shipper, but even to me the fakeout at the beginning seemed unnecessarily cruel (and a waste of time in a season where so many things were not adequately explored or given closure). The truly bizarre choices in the final montage, especially Beard's Stonehenge wedding with a conspicuously absent Ted, were the final straw. That Ted needed to return to Henry was, for me, without question, but the way it was handled was deeply questionable.

What bothers me a great deal is the lack of change. Characters either regressed (Roy and Jamie re: Keeley, Ted re: Michelle) or had no agency in major crises inflicted upon them. The opening and closing close-up shots are meant to be of the character that changes most over the course of the season. This holds true for Rebecca in S1, and Nate in S2, but not Ted in S3. What changes for Ted is circumstance: he is in London, leaving his son; then he is in Kansas, back with his son. He himself, however, is not shown to be changed to a degree significant enough to close the show on.

This is not to say it was all bad. There are things I love very much about S3: Roy and Trent's surprise dynamic; Nate/Jade; the Hey Jude scene; the strings exercise; Beard's Jean Valjean backstory; the entirety of Sunflowers, a near-perfect episode that deserved the Emmy writing nomination that was mystifyingly given to So Long, Farewell. It is only that we were asked to believe that the showrunners knew what they were doing in delivering us the final season of a three-season arc, and we did, and that belief was not rewarded. Therein lies my disappointment.

[brokehorrorfan]

Shout Select has revealed the specs for its Matinee 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray, which releases on June 25. John Goodman stars in the 1993 comedy as a filmmaker inspired by B-movie legend William Castle.

Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling) directs from a script by Charles S. Haas (Gremlins 2: The New Batch). Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Kellie Martin, and Lisa Jakub round out the cast.

Matinee has been newly restored in 4K from the original negative, supervised by Dante, with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound. Special features are listed below.

Disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Audio commentary by film critics Drew McWeeny and Eric Vespe (new)

Disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Audio commentary by film critics Drew McWeeny and Eric Vespe (new)

Interview with actress Kellie Martin (new)

Interview with actor David Clennon (new)

Interview with director Joe Dante

Interview with actress Cathy Moriarty

Interview with actress Lisa Jakub

Interview with production designer Steven Legler

Interview with editor Marshall Harvey

Interview with director of photography John Hora

MANTastic! The Making of a Mant

Paranoia In Ant Vision – Joe Dante discusses the making of the film

Vintage making of featurette

Behind the scenes footage courtesy of Joe Dante

Deleted and extended scene

Still gallery

It’s 1962, and fifteen-year-old fan Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton) can’t wait for the arrival of Woolsey, who is in town to promote his latest offering of atomic power gone berserk, Mant! But the absurd vision of Woolsey’s tale takes on a sudden urgency as the Cuban Missile Crisis places the real threat of atomic horror just 90 miles off the coast. With the help of Woolsey’s leading lady, Ruth (Cathy Moriarty), the master showman gives Key West a premiere they’ll never forget.

Pre-order Matinee.

[jamethinks]

I am being a bit of a hypocrite here but I really do hate when people nag too much about the conspiracy of sxf. Mainly about Anya and the source of her powers because while it is a very interesting story it’s also interesting to not know. Like something certain things we don’t need to know. I am being a bit hypocritical here because I do ask a lot of questions but my questions (at least to me) are centered more around world building than actual lore.

I don’t need a full depth deep dive in Donovan and why he is the way that he is I just want more of an understanding of how politics (specifically his politics) played a role in the conflict b/w the east and west. I also want an idea of why there is a conflict in the first place, I don’t need a deep explanation for everything but a simple tidbit to launch myself off of.

I would still like to learn more about Donovan and see him be fleshed out as a character rather than just a target but that’s just to do with the narrative and me being invested in the characters.

Of course a lot of what I want is what the author is actively avoiding. I want concrete politics and actual commentary on world issues when Endo just wants to promote love and family over war and strife so in that case I am the problem.

Similarly with Yor I don’t need her full backstory I’m fine making that up myself but I would like to learn more about her and a few hints of why she is the way that she is. ATM she feels shallow and one dimensional TO ME PERSONALLY but again at the end of the day I’m just a consumer here.

Personally I don’t care about the mystery behind Anya’s powers I don’t need to know the lore about her powers. Most I am concerned about is how her powers impact her and affect her well being, a more in depth exploration on how being a telepath (a good metaphor for disability) affects her and how her parents and the adults in her life can help her cope with it even without a clear answer.

I don’t want to know more about project Apple. Whenever they drop subtle hints about it I’m just like yeah ok I don’t really care. Until we reach that point where it’s actually being addressed and expanded on I just move past it. Like last chapter (103) Loid mentions project Apple and everyone was freaking out and I was like who cares.

I saw a post on Reddit that was like “Anya had #007 does that mean there are more out and when we meet them” and I get it but also she probably just got that number as a reference to James Bond and nothing else. It would obviously be a cool and fun story to have another telepath or someone with powers appear but until then I don’t care.

I also don’t think Twilight’s dad is alive and until he is confirmed to be alive I don’t care about the possibility. His dad being alive is meaningless to me unless the story is going to use it an actual interesting way to expand on Twilight or the world.

I just want the story to get too caught up in lore and mystery that it forgets what’s actually important, the characters. Because again Yor and Donovan are two key characters that are very flat underdeveloped IN MY PERSONAL OPNION so I would like to get more info and expansions on them. I wouldn’t advocate for more lore when there’s still stuff to be established in the primary story before you get into the expanding.

So for its fuck project Apple, tell me more about Yor’s experience raising her brother and how hard it was for her losing her childhood 🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾

[fatehbaz]

As America’s borders moved west, empire thus unspooled through farming and homesteading as much as military conquest. [...] The unfamiliar desert ecology and climate meant that they could not easily deploy their trusted models of farming, animal husbandry, and commerce in places with limited access to water, high and variable temperatures, different soil compositions [...]. To address this challenge, empire-builders in early America took Middle Eastern deserts as a key source of inspiration. 

Jefferson Davis’ Camel Corps [funded by a 1855 Congressional appropriation to collect camels from around the Middle East and Northern Africa] was one of the earliest examples of how this worked. [...]

American travel writers, explorers, scientists, and government officials had long described the arid West as a local version of the Middle Eastern and North African desert – an “American Zahara” or a Biblical Orient with spiritual and physical power equal to the Old World deserts [...]. These authors harnessed the “Sahara” trope, Catrin Gersdorf argues, “to deactivate the existential anxieties of the pioneers and to alleviate some of their visceral reactions to the American West’s aridity, recasting it as a quasi-Oriental space containing yet unidentified but extremely valuable historical and cultural riches.” Nineteenth-century authors’ constant references to the Sahara [...] helped [...] settlers imagine the newly American desert lands as a “domestic” Orient and, in this way, [...] familiar. [...]

---

[T]he U.S. Army waged overt war [with Indigenous residents] into the early 1900s. Displacing the people from the land was one thing, but redefining their social and cultural association with the desert was a different matter. 

Here again, the camel proved useful. This is vividly illustrated when the U.S. Army finally collected enough camels in Texas to run its first Camel Corps trial to assess the animals’ endurance and suitability for military purposes. The Army’s man in charge, General Edward Fitzgerald Beale, brought Hi Jolly, his fellow cameleers, and a large camel caravan together to travel from Texas to California beginning in September 1857. When the expedition stopped in Los Angeles in January 1858, the San Francisco Evening Bulletin described the scene with dramatized gusto:

General Beale and about fourteen camels stalked into town last Friday week and gave our streets quite an Oriental aspect. It looked oddly enough to see outside of a menagerie, a herd of huge, ungainly awkward but docile animals move about in our midst with people riding them like horses and bringing up weird and far-off associations to the Eastern traveler, whether by book or otherwise of the land of the mosque, crescent or turban, of the pilgrim mufti and dervish with visions of the great shrines of the world, Mecca and Jerusalem, and the toiling throngs that have for centuries wended thither, of the burning sands of Arabia and Sahara where the desert is boundless as the ocean and the camel is the ship thereof.

This account actively rewrites the then-dominant imaginary of U.S. West [...], enlisting the camel to transform it into a whimsical vision of the Old World in the New. [...] Colonization was made friendlier by conceiving of it as a pilgrimage, an act of return. [...] In this way, the territories annexed in the mid-1800s could begin to be imagined as a [...] home [...].

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All text above by: Natalie Koch. “Double Exposure.” Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia. 2022. [Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[fiddlepickdouglas]

Disclaimer: This post is an interpretation of some of the Barbie movie's themes and messages, particularly struggles men are faced with. That's its focus. It is not exhaustive of all possible takes or understandings of the film, either mine or others. If talking about men as equal human beings is a problem for you, feel free to ignore this post and then block me. Otherwise, carry on.

One of my favorite parts of Barbie is when Gloria is doing Barbie's makeup toward the end and they're talking about overturning everything that the Kens have done to Barbieland, where Barbie expresses how she just didn't expect her Ken to act out so drastically. Gloria tells her it's because he has feelings for her, hinting that creating Kendom is how he tried to express those feelings and his upset with the constant rejection he's gotten. And when Barbie starts to say she's afraid of hurting him by going behind his back Gloria stops her.

I could praise that moment alone for showing how women need to stop apologizing for the feelings of others, but this is really key: Gloria doesn't trash talk Ken. She states the bad things he did but she never equates those actions with who Ken is, because they're not. I feel like any other film would've gone the route of "He's an asshole/You don't need him/Dump the douchebag/Why do you care about him when he's treated you like this?" (and to be fair I have a huge tendency to go that way myself)

Gloria doesn't even know Ken! But she was right not to immediately act like he was garbage. I don't know if she got that understanding from Barbie herself or just from being a long-term Barbie doll lover and employee at Mattel, but it stands out to me. We even see proof that none of the Kens are truly bad! In the beginning of the film they're just dudes (Just Kens, lol, I set myself up for that)! Dudes that don't even know what they don't know and can't be blamed for it.

Because the truth is that men are not inherently trash and their actions do not come from an innately evil place. Unfortunately for men, especially in the west, society has come up short in teaching them how to deal with and properly express how they feel in favor of power and saving face. Emotions hold bigger weight than they even know, but the modes they've been allowed are generally aggression, romantic passion, and cool. Nothing outside the lines. Imagine trying to sort a giant ball of complex emotions into one of those three things and stay normal.

Gloria understands that the lack of emotional maturity and regulation is where Ken's dramatic tantrum stems from. While she has experience with the patriarchy and knows how to deal with it because of the situation in the real world, I find it fascinating that her character is the one to understand both sides because she also has experience as a matriarch. (I could be wrong, but it seems like she's the breadwinner of the household. The role of her husband I have no commentary on other than que Dios lo bendice, el pobre no se puede hablar español).

So while Barbieland agrees to barely give the Kens back any power (an extremely accurate reflection of what women get in the real world), the film and its characters ultimately don't villainize or punish them further for their wrongs. Punishment isn't always the right action when someone is wrong (insert commentary on Barbie and Ken constantly getting put in jail in the real world vs. no such thing happening in their own). Sometimes it's simply helping them understand what they're dealing with and guiding them through the ordeal step by step.

Painting the Kens as all bad would've ignored what a Ken is. He is a doll just like Barbie. Ken's issue is that he's unloved and the only form of love he has been given to accept is romantic love. What he and all the other Kens begin to discover at the end of the film is self love, which is just as important, if not more.

Now I'm going to rephrase that last paragraph.

Painting men as all bad ignores what a man is. They are humans just like women are. Most men's issue is that they are unloved and the only form of love they've been given to accept is romantic love. What the men of this world need to discover is self love, which is just as important, if not more.

[waywardkestrel]

Apartheid in Hebron

Hebron is segregated with constant violence against the Palestinian populace, to the point that they install nets to protect from the trash thrown at them daily (and in some places, metal sheeting to stop acid attacks). Absolutely barbaric that they force people to live like this.

This article has commentary both from a Palestinian activist and a former IDF soldier turned activist trying to atone for his past wrongs.

[satoshi-mochida]

Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch launches August 22 in the west

From Gematsu

Visual novel Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch will launch for PlayStation 5 and Switch on August 22 in the west, publisher Aksys Games announced.

Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch first launched for PC via Steam, Booth, DLsite on August 19, 2022 in Japan, followed by PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on April 28, 2023.

Here is an overview of the game, via Aksys Games:

About

Hikaru finds himself out of luck and homeless on an unfamiliar island. While avoiding pit vipers and angry senior committee members, he comes across a witch in a very similar situation. The two set out to survive, and hopefully thrive, on Toyotoki, the uncompromising island secluded from the modern world that is steeped in ancient traditions and shrouded in mystery. Along the way, they meet a cheeky island beauty, a haughty rich girl, a clumsy saleswoman, and a manga-loving delinquent, all of whom are island locals on a similar mission to discover themselves and their place in the world. With some hard work and a sprinkle of magic, can the unlikely group of friends unravel the mystery of Toyotoki Island, while also finding success in their journey of self-discovery?

Key Features

A coming-of-age story about overcoming hardships and finding yourself.

Includes downloadable content and behind-the-scenes commentary from the creative team.

Unravel a mystery stretching back hundreds of years.

Beautiful character art and music.

Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

Release Date Trailer

[jadelotusflower]

Rewatch: Stargate (1994, dir. Roland Emmerich)

What to do when there's so many shows and movies on the to watch list? Revisit shows and movies I've seen many times before of course! Maybe I'm just in need of some comfort viewing right now.

I can't remember when I first saw Stargate. It certainly wasn't at the cinema, but probably rented from the video store (yes, I am an Old) and was certainly keyed to my preteen interests: mythology and Soft(TM) male protagonists.

Over the years and though several rewatches, online fandom, and my love of behind the scenes featurettes, director's commentaries, and retrospectives, I've also gleaned quite a bit of background tidbits and trivia, and I have many thoughts! Most of them through the lens of nostalgia, but that can't be helped.

Are you ready to go back to Titanic Stargate?

The much maligned Pharaoh's head, but it makes for a symbolic opening, trying to find the meaning to the different patterns before the whole picture becomes clear.

David Arnold's theme remains a banger. One of the GOATs.

I'm watching the Extended Edition/Director's Cut, which opens in the North African Desert 8000 BCE to depict Jaye Davidson being abducted, which is only seen in flashback in the theatrical cut. It's atmospheric, but it does tip the hand of the narrative a bit. The stronger opening is probably:

Giza, 1928, where the Stargate is unburied. Even this scene is extended, where the fossilized head of an Anubis is also found. It reveals the sinister undertone far too soon, imo, and it was the right choice to cut it.

Present Day! Love of my life Daniel Jackson ruins his career by arguing that the Egyptian pharaohs of the IVth Dynasty did not build the great pyramids. He does not claim (as the show later does) that aliens built the pyramids. Important distinction!

"Is there a lunch or something, that everybody...?" lol, James Spader is great. This was the first role I ever saw him in, and didn't realise this was actually playing against type a bit, but I have been a fan of his ever since.

Shoutout to Viceca Lindfors, who plays Catherine with steely grace.

Jack O'Neil (one L) aka Kurt Russell (two L's), in a great character introduction that is ruined by some voiceover exposition. We get everything we need to know from his scene without it, except that Tyler shot himself with Jack's gun, but honestly it would have been more impactful if that detail was held back from the audience and revealed in the later scene with Daniel.

The great Richard Kind everybody! He will later appear in an extremely tone deaf episode of Stargate: Atlantis, but here he's Dr Gary Michaels, aka the guy Daniel gets to show up by swanning in and correcting his translation.

Daniel: That's a curious word to use, isn't it? Michaels: ...Yeah

Rae Allen plays Barbara Shore - you may remember her as reporter Gloria Thorpe in Damn Yankees. It's a shame neither of these characters ever turned up in the show, I like them both.

"You must have used Budge, I don't know why they keep reprinting his books." LOL, Daniel with his petty academic grudges. Although as I understand this is a valid criticism, as Budge's translation methods were very much outdated by the 90's. But Budge conceivably could have been a contemporary of Catherine's father, which is interesting to think about.

Jack arrives with his haircut to correct Daniel's assumption that the hieroglyphs are 5000 years old - they're actually 10,000 years old, which Daniel ironically finds ludicrous. To pick some nits, according to the opening Ra arrived on Earth in 8000 BCE which is presumably where the 10,000 number came from, but doesn't take into account Ra establishing a culture and ruling on Earth for however long before the rebellion, which is when the coverstones would have been carved.

Leon Rippy plays the General West and his utter disdain for Daniel despite him solving "in fourteen days what they couldn't solve in two years" kind of gives me life. His surly "any time" and passing over the reference materials without looking at them is so great. Fantastic performance in a tiny role.

Several people are smoking in this scene, including Jack and Barbara. It's easily forgotten just how common casual smoking was back in the day - 1994 seems a little late for it to be so prevalent, but it gives the room that atmospheric haze.

Emmerich was also a big smoker, so ...

Unrealistic that Daniel would be presenting his theory without running it past Catherine and the team first, but hey it's a movie, dramatic effect and all that.

Important to note that Daniel's contribution isn't only realising that the symbols were star constellations, but the purpose of the symbols, being a map to determine a course and destination. He also deduced that seven symbols were needed, realised that the seventh symbol was below the cartouche not inside it, and then identified the seventh symbol on the gate itself.

This is a really nice illustration to Daniel's core strength - he's not just a repository of knowledge, he's a puzzle solver.

Some small character beats - Michaels questions Daniel twice, while Shore reaches out to pat Katherine's hand in victory when West orders Daniel be shown the Stargate. Again, they should have been brought back for the show!

There's a star map in the control room, implying that they had at least an idea that the Stargate was a transportation device, making the team look even more foolish for not figuring out (in two years!) that a) the symbols were star constellations, and b) that seven symbols (address + point of origin) were needed.

Daniel assures West that he can decipher the gate on the other side in a stunning display of hubris - a character flaw that will stay with him in some form through all ten seasons of the show.

Although West doesn't actually ask Daniel how he will make the Stargate work for the return trip, so that's kind of on him.

Jack correctly deduces that Daniel's full of shit, then goes to look at the Anubis head found in the Giza sequence. Again unnecessary inclusion imo, Jack's motivation works better as ambiguous at this point.

Everyone has their own little character moment before going through the gate - Jack grits his teeth and raises his gun, Brown looks back to the others, Porro kisses a St Christopher medallion.

Daniel toying with the event horizon was a Spader addition (much to the chagrin of the VFX supervisor!)

Foreshadowing for the Abydos point of origin symbol.

"That's a nice tent! Oh, we each get a tent, that's nice."

A snarky Ferretti (the great French Stewart) throws Daniel's suitcase at him, scattering his books on the sand. Daniel is completely nonplussed, starts to gather them up and then sits down to munch on a 5th Avenue bar. I love original recipe Daniel. Don't get me wrong, I love show Daniel too, but the OG, man, just 100% unbothered when antagonised.

Although to be fair, Ferretti's frustration is justified (if not his reaction) so that probably is a factor in Daniel's (lack of) response.

Daniel feeds a mastadge chocolate and gets dragged across the dunes and slobbered on for his trouble. But he doesn't hold a grudge, because he goes from "get away from me" to patting the creature on the snout in about three seconds.

Sha'uri, my beloved!

Important to note that while the other water-bearers keep their eyes downcast, Sha'uri is the only one bold enough to look up and make eye contact with Daniel, who smiles at her.

Daniel, in return, is the only one to say thank you.

She's also very wary of Daniel at this stage, here and on the walk back to Nagada - she laughs at Skaara and Nabeh taking his handkerchief, but tenses up when he looks her way. Does she know at this stage that he has been earmarked as her husband?

It makes me curious, because I don't think that it's ever explicit in the film that Sha'uri is Kasuf's daughter and Skaara's sister (although it's implied), but it makes sense that she is the daughter of the chief and would therefore make a high status offering (ugh I feel gross typing that) for an emissary of Ra.

We know that Ra surrounds himself with child slaves (the creepy implications of which I don't want to think about), and it's unclear how old Sha'uri is meant to be (Mili Avital was 22), but I wonder if the reason why she was not married already is that this was always the role intended for her - to serve Ra in some capacity, perhaps (in tv show timeline) as a host for one of his underlings.

If so, it makes her fate in the show even more tragic.

Brown takes a picture on their approach to Nagada which is a nice little character beat - I wonder where that camera ended up? Derek Webster also had bit parts in Devlin/Emmerich joints Independence Day and Godzilla, fwiw.

"Ferretti, say again." Great line reading from Russell - he gets flack for being humourless/not being Richard Dean Anderson, but I think he has great presence in the role and character at this point - RDA!O'Neill is the product of Russell!O'Neil's experience in this film.

A sandstorm approaches and in the extended sequence there's a miscommunication that Skaara (Alexis Cruz) clears up. I like this addition, as it gives more scope to the connection between Jack and Skaara - he sees that Jack is the one in charge, but also that he's willing to listen, and Jack sees that Skaara is brave enough to face a threat, but also clever enough to diffuse the situation.

"Well that would have been an excellent reason to shoot everyone." lol, and people say snarky!Daniel was a show-only thing.

Trying to learn the word that means "sandstorm" from Kasuf and the incredulous/frustrated little laugh after is a nice touch too.

Erick Avari steals every scene he is - he was also in Devlin/Emmerich's Independence Day ("what's with the golf balls?!?" was an ad-lib), and of course he's great in The Mummy (the delivery of "Do you really want to know, or would you prefer to just shoot us?" is perfection.)

He was only 42 during this movie! Hasn't aged a day since.

A great deal of Kasuf came from Avari as well - the role was only a few lines in the script and was mostly developed during rehearsals - the same was true for Alexis Cruz as Skaara.

While "tastes like chicken" was in the script, the clucking like a chicken came from Spader.

Pivotal scene, because it really shows Sha'uri's courage - her fear is palpable, first at her duty to offer herself to Daniel then at what his rejection may mean for her and her people. She is confused by his behaviour, delighted when they are able to exchange names, but guarded again when he draws in the sand. At this point she doesn't know if he is an emissary of Ra testing her resolve, but she takes the chance and fixes his drawing to make the symbol from Earth, then takes him to the hidden catacombs.

Sha'uri's leap of faith here is underrated I feel - she's been watching Daniel so closely and makes a very correct judgement about his character - there is something in him that she recognises, and decides that she can trust. At this stage she probably knows that she is safe with him, but she wants to go beyond that and actually connect with him.

Also she's wearing red here, the same colour as Kasuf and some of the other elders wear, which does imply it's a colour of status.

LOL, this scene would never happen today.

It was almost cut from the movie! The studio's focus was on the action and wanted to eliminate a great deal of the character stuff, resulting in the film testing very poorly. Devlin/Emmerich redid the cut to put everything back in and (surprise surprise!) the next audience screening was much more favourable.

Because Jack's character arc doesn't work without this scene! We need to see Jack actually bond with Skaara, to gift him the lighter, be amused when Skaara mimics him and takes a drag of the cigarette, then for things to turn when Skaara innocently reaches for Jack's gun and he blows up.

"I guess the word dweeb doesn't mean anything to you guys, does it?"

Too good! Too pure for this world!

The hidden catacombs fascinate me - the entrance is blocked with rocks so presumably Sha'uri hadn't been there for some time. Is it something she came across as a child? Was it secret information handed down through the generations, perhaps from her mother?

The symbol for Earth is only visible from inside so she must have explored the catacombs at some point, perhaps wondering what the paintings meant, and she must have been aware that at one point writing wasn't outlawed. I do like the idea that both Sha'uri and Daniel have this great curiosity and yearning to understand - they also share a great capacity for trust and willingness to take leaps of faith that makes them very well matched.

The backstory with Ra changed very late in the process - originally the Egyptian boy was merely appointed as a proxy for the alien creature to rule Earth, not possessed by the alien. This is unfathomable to me and really don't think it could have worked - where's the menace if Ra isn't the actual alien being but just some guy who works for him?

Presumably, it means Spader came back to do reshoots for the tale of Ra's origins, and if you notice he only mentions possession in a closeups where the lighting is slightly different. The frescos in the wide shots also don't match the closeups, which Emmerich himself did.

Brown is the one who gives Daniel a gun. RIP Brown.

Djimon Hounsou as Horus!

The Anubis/Horus/Ra disappearing headgear was one of the few noticeably CGI effects - most of the film was done practically and it shows (in a good way). I will take puppets and props and extras every day over CGI, there's just something more visceral about films made this way.

Daniel dies for the first - but certainly not the last - time.

The extended edition has Daniel walking through Ra's ship after being revived - there's a cat on Ra's throne, and we see more of Ra getting bathed and dressed by his child slaves just to notch up the creepiness.

Whatever happened to Jaye Davidson?

Apparently he had difficulty with the role, no doubt because as written it made no sense, which is why they had to change it in editing, adding the flanges and the glowing eyes.

Davidson was concerned he'd ruined the movie, and apparently was relieved rather than upset to see the final film. I actually think it's a great performance, and Ra has a menace that feels genuinely dangerous.

The Abydonian langauge was based on Ancient Egyptian as developed by Egyptologist Dr Stuart Smith, and apparently great care was taken to make it as authentic as possible. I...don't think the same can be said for the show.

Dr Smith also consulted on The Mummy, fwiw.

O'Neil, Kawalsky, Ferretti, and Guy Who Will Soon Die (Freeman).

Is is Kawalsky or Kawalski? The credits say Kawalsky, but his uniform at the beginning of the film says Kawalski. I personally prefer the latter.

The extended edition has an extra scene following the escape - Jack and Daniel jump on a mastadge which takes off and separates them from the group as Sha'uri and Skaara look on thinking "where are those idiots going?"

They get stuck in a sandstorm where Daniel collapses, and they're only found because the mastadge is so upset about his new friend he wails - this explains why Daniel is coughing and spluttering when they get to the cave.

Many a slash fic has started this way, I'm sure.

I really like Kawalski in this scene - "these kids don't have anywhere else to go" really hits me for some reason. He's bonded with them too.

"I don't want to die, your men don't want to die, and these people here don't want to die. It's a shame you're in such a hurry to."

The pivotal Jack and Daniel scene - this where the reveal about how Jack's son died should have been, so we find out when Daniel does. Then we'd think back on all the previous interactions - Jack knocking the gun from Skaara's hand, being unable to shoot the kids Ra uses as human shields - and be able to read new meaning into them.

A tender moment that I kind of wish they'd let play out a little more, although Avital captures Sha'uri's vulnerability so well. This was her first scene!

While I do love the Daniel/Sha'uri romance, I think she gets unfairly dismissed as just the love interest when she's so much more. Sha'uri is the one who starts the Abydonian rebellion - she's the one who decides that "we can no longer live as slaves" and rallies the boys to save Jack and his men - she's the one who passes on the knowledge of Ra's true identity.

At that point it's unclear if she thought Daniel is dead or just captured - her reaction following the massacre in Nagada perhaps implies the former. When Skaara tells her that Ra has called an execution she's been looking at the cave paintings, so clearly rebellion is already on her mind, and she's willing to go against everything she's been taught to try and save - maybe Daniel - but maybe only his friends, to help them overthrow Ra.

Interesting costume change for Kasuf here - he no longer has his outer robes or headdress, nor is he riding a mastadge - has he been stripped of his leadership role? Horus is now in charge.

Also nice little character beat - while the other have their guns pointed at Horus, Daniel is looking back at Sha'uri.

I do love Skaara's defiance - telling the others not to bow when Kasuf orders them to, and later he'll be the most reluctant to surrender, throwing down his gun in disgust before kneeling.

Sha'uri carries a gun into the pyramid, but I think it would have been better to at least see her try and shoot at the horus guard before she is killed.

Ostensibly this is a plot necessity to get Daniel up into the ship to give him a final faceoff with Ra and setup using the rings to deliver the bomb, but I think it's also needed for the Daniel/Sha'uri relationship - if he hadn't almost lost her and been willing to risk his life to save her, I don't think his choice to remain on Abydos with her at the end would have rung as true.

"I am no longer amused." idc, Davidson is great.

The first - but certainly not the last - time Daniel will get his brain friend by the hand device.

Ra's ultimate downfall is his hubris - if he'd never revived Daniel to make an example of him it's likely he never would have been overthrown, or at least not in the way he was. Yes he may still have had the public execution, and Sha'uri and Skaara may have still tried to rescue Jack and the others, but without Daniel to shoot his staff to set off the disturbance it may not have been successful. Jack wouldn't have been able to properly communicate with the Abydonians to form a plan, Daniel wouldn't be there to reveal Horus as a mortal not a god to Kasuf, etc.

It's interesting to me because as I said above hubris is also Daniel's main flaw, although it manifests differently, but that's what really draws me to these kind of characters - people who are a force for good but in such a way that their idealism and drive could easily tip over into ruthlessness/villainy in the right circumstances, and we definitely see this explored a few times in the show.

Also interesting is even though Kurt Russell gets top billing, it's really Daniel who is our protagonist - he's the one who is the true adversary to Ra, they share the relationship and confrontational scenes - Jack's antagonist is really Anubis.

Kasuf arrives with the uprising, and ultimately I do love that all three of our Abydonian family - Sha'uri, Skaara, and Kasuf - play a vital role in overthrowing Ra, even if Jack and Daniel get the credit for actually killing him.

We're meant to be la la la don't think about it re: the child slaves who were presumably still on Ra's ship when it blew up.

And I'm a sap! Skaara and the boys saluting Jack, and getting his salute in return always gets me.

Kawalsky and Ferretti too!

It's very important that Sha'uri is the one who instigates the kiss with Daniel, to balance the earlier scene where he kissed her.

Because it's a relationship that could very easily veer into problematic or feel unearned, but by this point having saved each other's lives, having communicated and bonded and come to understand one another, they do seem to be genuinely falling in love rather than there being any sense of obligation.

I think there might have been an alternate ending - on the bts there's footage of Daniel and Sha'uri walking with the Abydonians. Daniel looks back, presumably at the pyramid, as if reckoning with his decision to stay and a last look back at his life on Earth. Then he puts his arm around Sha'uri and they blend into the crowd as Daniel becomes part of the Abydonian people.

And then they both lived happily ever after and no one ever bothered them again! I choose to see the movie and the show as very similar but different universes/timelines, so hold true to my headcanon that this version of Daniel/Sha'uri got that long and happy life together on Abydos.

But as it is, we get our goodbyes - Skaara gets a handshake of respect from Jack, and Daniel gets some nice closure on his relationships with the three surviving members of the team:

Ferretti - goes from "Isn't there something you should be doing right now? Like getting us out of here?" (throws suitcase) to "I always knew you'd get us back"

Kawalski from - "You're a lying son of a bitch!" to "Thanks Daniel"

And Jack, from "He's full of shit" to "I'll be seeing you around...Doctor Jackson."

Of course this was setting up the sequel in the planned trilogy, but it works well moving on - as I will be - to the show.

[direquail]

So we know that the scene where John creates Alecto obliquely references the creation of Eve from Adam’s “rib”:

And because I got hooked on Tides of History, I have now read approximately six books on Bronze age and early Iron age south-west Asia (“Mesopotamia”, “the Near East”, but less orientalist), including a book on biblical descriptions of God’s body and what it can tell us about beliefs, ideology, etc., separate from our own understanding, which has been influenced by 2000+ years of commentary and revision to fit lots of peoples’ neuroses and political goals

Which is to say that today I read a chapter that discussed depictions of male gods getting themselves pregnant.

And, idk, I just think, I get the horror element, but it feels so key that the ribs are where the new body is made from. Based on my understanding, it feels very euphemistic.

So yes I do think that John should have made Alecto, to paraphrase his words, the “classic” way.

[puffyducks]

DCRC Week #7

All right you guys buckle the fuck up cause it's time for absolute peak. Yeah that's right I'm talkin PKNA #4: Earthquake bitch!!! Which also happens to be the EXACT VOLUME THEY STOPPED PRINTING IN ENGLISH FOR, come on man we were so close 😭

(Long and image-heavy post heehoo)

Giant money symbol on the floor..... I wonder who this oil rig belongs to

Donald stop doing some kind of ritualistic sacrifice with your little cookie men and drink ur fuckin coffee. Also Unooo hiiii :3c

A tectonic emergency has occurred on the west coast and these two bitches are busy arguing like an old married couple GET IT TOGETHER!!!!

Raw asf introduction panel for Flagstarr

Do you guys think Everett Ducklair paid his taxes

Most logical you say? I'm sure that's not a trait that will come up later-

BRO IS JUST BAILING 😭

Lmfaooo I love framing Angus Fangus for federal crimes get rekt bozo (also really good looking panels hii Flagstarr hiiiii)

Donald being held at gunpoint like a week after the whole nuclear blast thing, he really can't catch a break can he?

Btw I am CHEWING on the colors in these pages. Who knew purple and green gradients could be so menacing?

Looove the background of this page being made up of the X-transformer.... mwah 👌

sorry

(Spam don't read this part) OK listen I know that losing the west coast is bad and all, but also like, do we really need California? I'm just saying like-

PK: "IF WE DON'T STOP THOSE EARTHQUAKE MACHINES IT'S GONNA UNEARTH A SUPERCONTINENT AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL DIE" Uno: "Uuuuh idk that actually sounds kinda dope haha. Like a new continent sounds sick as fuck. Maybe we should just let the entire western US die idk lol"

THEY'RE GETTING DIVOOOOORCED 💔💔💔

btw guys I'm getting a playlist set up for this issue send me song recs

let go of him PK

I mean WOAH who said that that's crazy. heroes don't kill people umm do the right thing... also we need him for the code I guess that's important too-

I was explaining the plot of this comic to a friend (one who knows literally nothing about the duckverse) and she was like "oh Fairfax's motivations sound exactly like Team Magma from Pokemon Ruby" and like... yeah... I GUESS

It doesn't help that his design lowkey looks like Maxie in ORAS- like if you squint really hard-

I don't have any riveting commentary here I just adore the entire way this page is set up

Raw asf line coming from Donald Fauntleroy Duck

Yeah it really DIDN'T work out. You're telling me he wanted to keep the keys apart and his master plan was to give the second key to the only other person on the plane with him? Just huck it in the ocean or something cmon Fairfax use that big brain of yours-

I said before in my last post but I just love this issue. I'm sure someone better at literary analysis could explain better than me, but the artwork, the COLORS, the story is all just sooo good and I'm putting it all in my MOUTH. I especially love the messaging between doing what's logical and doing what's right, cause at the end of the day morality is a subjective human trait, and who's to say that killing millions of people for the potential benefit of billions isn't a noble thing to do? Also a rare Uno L in this issue but he's LEARNING okay. He's just a little guy he's just a little hyperintelligent sentient building ok.... leaf him alone........

Btw in case you haven't noticed by now this issue also happens to be what the blog description of @duckblr-book-club is based on and no I'm not the one that wrote that. It is true though, the Pangea Project will be real in 24 hours if certain people don't catch up on reading these comics. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK FOR ODIN TIME!!!!!!

[kaasknot]

every (silent, feature-length) buster keaton film ranked by the presence of trains

three ages: no trains. a resoundingly meh movie. overall a waste of time. 0/10.

our hospitality: the second act showcases a goofy, historically accurate stephenson's rocket locomotive that buster and co. built from scratch by looking at a couple pictures in a book. like you do. it was so accurate that a museum asked to take it after filming; as far as i know, it's still on display. bonus points for the cutest damn scene-stealing dog. 100/10.

sherlock, jr: the train is instrumental in setting up a cool gag, but it broke buster's neck. sure, he walked it off, but it still broke his neck! bad train. -1/10.

the navigator: there is no train, but i give the film honorary points because it takes place on a boat, which is basically a train. points docked for the shockingly racist cannibal scene at the end, which is only somewhat balanced out by buster empathizing with a black newlywed couple in the beginning. 5/10.

seven chances: there's a train, but it's used with a supporting actor in blackface to make a joke about black people being stupid. not cool, buster. -50/10.

go west: TWO train scenes! the first one made me laugh so hard i sprained something. the second one plays a key role in setting up the finale, and it has a shoot-out. bonus points for buster protecting his love interest, brown eyes the cow. so many bonus points. 500/10.

battling butler: there is a scene with a train. it is small, but buster is adorable in it. bonus points awarded for how much he's shirtless in this movie, and for the interesting commentary on masculinity. 7/10.

the general: oh my god. *deep breath* 10,000 points for THREE TRAINS!!! A TRAIN IS THE LOVE INTEREST! THEY STUNT DRIVE TRAINS! THEY BLOW UP A TRAIN! THE MOVIE ITSELF IS NAMED AFTER A TRAIN!!!—but it upholds white supremacy so minus 9,998 points. 2/10.

college: there is a train present for all of two seconds. what's worse, this time buster puts on blackface. not even the presence of multiple racing shells is enough to salvage this. -100/10.

steamboat bill, jr: there's a scene at a train station in the beginning, but mostly i'm awarding points for the titular steamboat, upon which a good chunk of action takes place. also because i eat up buster's daddy issues with a spoon. 10/10.

the cameraman: an elevated train goes by in the background when buster's hamming it up in yankee stadium. i'd like to dock points for buster being a yankees fan, but that's unfair to the train—especially since it very generously added itself to a film which would otherwise have been trainless. it disappears when the shot cuts away, but whatever. half a train is still better than no train. 0.5/10.

spite marriage: no train. there is a boat, but dorothy sebastian ruins it by spending 90% of the movie being absolutely wretched to buster, who is nothing but 100% organic husband material. i can only conclude she's blind. points docked for illogic and viewer distress. -10/10.