#MANIFESTING FOR A GOOD MONSTERVERSE STORY

[adm-starblitzsteel-4305]

So, it is reported that Legendary enlisted John Callaham to write the next MonsterVerse film follow the success of GxK.

What kaiju are you gonna hope for casting the next Godzilla film? Your film expectations? New Titans? Or even, new Godzilla design? Comment down below!

[velathetanager]

A MonsterVerse AU

The Kaiju are different gods running aspects of the world and affecting humans however they please (they see humans as their pets). One of them, San, fell from the heavens during a divine war (Godzilla had meant the blast in question for Ichi, but nobody could tell the triplets apart), and as fallen Titans can’t keep a physical form, San turned into simply his essence and made a bargain where he hid inside a baby Madison Russell, manifesting as powers and a voice in her head. She grows up with him and names him “Kevin.” The gods have started becoming more active trying to track Kevin down, and due to him inserting himself into a MUTO attack to fight them off (via possession and use of powers), Godzilla makes it to him first, inserting himself into the Russell family with a human disguise and planning to bring him back where he belongs. But Kevin does not want to go back, not to the world he was cast down from, and especially not if it means being separated from his friend of 13 years- who’ll die if they split back up. 

Main Characters

Ghidorah: Collectively, the gods of weather.  They cause rain, wind, thunder, lightning, and other such things. Godzilla’s main rival, they’re a very dangerous group that you have to separate to have a chance.

Ichi: The god that does precipitation. Either Godzilla did him a bad turn or he just wants to rule, but either way he’s got a problem with the guy. Said problem got worse after San’s fall.

Ni: The god that does wind. Very bad-tempered. Tornadoes are usually him throwing a tantrum or trying to kill someone. After San’s fall, he wreaked enough havoc on Earth to be landed in divine prison for a year.

San/Kevin: The god who did thunder and lightning. Was cast down during a battle and had to enter a human baby girl to survive. Is really nice, but obeyed his brothers, who aren’t. Very protective of Maddie and resents being cast down.

Maddie: Kevin’s host, which is why she’s in the Ghidorah category in the first place. Grew up with Kevin and feels bad for him due to his fall from the heavens. A brilliant technological mind, but casual and irreverent.

Godzilla: Head honcho of the gods; controls water. Started the fight that got Kevin cast down, but didn’t mean to. Every human soul that drowns belongs to him, and he keeps them all in a collective dream. Andrew is one of those souls.

Mothra: The goddess of fate and light. Believed Ghidorah was too dangerous to let go around, so she didn’t interfere when the battle took place. Has most of the good souls and takes good care of them.

Rodan: The god of war and fire. Tends to start both when bored. He also has the evil souls, and he punishes them. He joined the attack on Ghidorah for the same reason, but was saddened upon Kevin’s fall because Kevin was the good one. Is the most surprised to find out about Kevin’s state.

Kong: The god of earth (the element) and ingenuity. His father led mankind to the age of modern technology, and now he has to lead them to greater heights. He’s essentially a child, though an abnormally powerful one. He hangs out on Skull Island most of the time.

MUTOs: Twin gods of death. Want to bring about the end of the world. The female MUTO is the one that dies in the beginning of the story at the hands of a Kevin who’s regained half of his power and is p@ssed that she attacks Maddie’s hometown.

Mark: An angel, albeit one who doesn’t know. He just woke up one day with wings, healing abilities, and the ability to see through divine disguises and figured, “May as well make the best of it.” Getting a job at Monarch, a science organization, he met Emma Russell and they had two kids. He is fully aware that Kevin is with Maddie, and he oversees their adventures, helping her control her powers and healing whatever injuries they sustain. 

Emma Russell: Mark’s ex-wife. Went insane like she did in the original and wants to awaken the other gods, which would kill millions of people. 

[pintsizeddeepthoughts]

Grab the Popcorn – Film Reviews: Wonder Woman 1984

Directed by: Patty Jenkins

Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright

Year: 2021

Country: United States

One thing that’s bugged me as I’ve watched more and more superhero films, be the Marvel Cinematic Universe, D.C Extended Universe, or the MonsterVerse, is for the amount of money that’s being spent on these films (reportedly $200 million for WW84) the stories they tell are so…bad. Don’t get me wrong, there’s quite a bit I enjoy with this film. Patty Jenkins and crew do an amazing job immersing the audience in the world of the 1980s, right down the nitty gritty of the technology, fashion, etc. The performances of the cast are uniformly good (Chris Pine in particular seems to be having the most fun), Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince is an admirable paragon of moral certainty and dignity, and with the exception of one fight scene, the action sequences are done with clarity. There’s even a great sub plot of a male cat caller getting what he deserves. However, for me, it’s overshadowed by the glaring holes in the plot and the message, intended or not, they story conveys.

The concept of the Dreamstone (or “Monkey’s Paw”, to borrow from W.W. Jacobs) is a sturdy, even rich story trope. Many superhero storylines are born from unintended consequences, but the storyteller gets to choose the cost. In the case of Wonder Woman 1984 it’s worth examining what each wish costs the trio of main characters. For newcomer Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), who wishes for Diana’s power, grace, and confidence, the cost is her humanity – quite literally in the end. In order for her to regain it, she must renounce her newfound strength. For Diana, aka Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), her wish is for her love to return. What must she lose in order to regain it? Her strength. In order to get her strength back she must renounce love. There’s a subtle message going on here that is deeply troubling. Whether they know it or not, writers Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, and Dave Callaham are saying you can have love and humanity or you can have strength and power – there is no blending of the two.

What of the villain, Max Lorenzano? The cost of his decision to become the Dreamstone grows evident in his increasingly haggard appearance. He may grant wishes, but its costs him his strength. This sets him on the path of searching for a sense of power that will shield him from the Dreamstone’s detrimental effects. This leads to the climax of the film – which I simply do not buy, mainly because it does not fit in with all his previous actions. Pedro Pascal goes full Nicholas Cage in portraying Max’s lust for power and success, alluding to 80s icon Gordon Gecko without the screenwriters understanding the warning Gecko was. Max is incredibly unaware of those around him, even the son he professes to love but sets aside every chance he gets. To the credit of Jenkins, Johns, and Callaham, the choice he’s given is the same one given to Barbara and Diana. His decision, based on everything we’ve seen from Max, simply does not fit.

There’s always been something elitist about comic book superheroes; tremendous power is rested in a few individuals who receive special physical and moral training in order to handle that power. Wonder Woman 1984 posits this as a good thing, based on what happens when everyone is given access to the Dreamstone’s power. Jenkins, Johns, and Callaham, however, do not do justice to these people because the power is given by a duplicitous individual. The idea is not explored honestly and the message it subsequently sends is just as troubling as the choice they give their main characters.

Part of what was so refreshing about the first Wonder Woman movie in 2017 was that it questioned the cruelty of men (not people, men). In her dance scene with General Erich Ludendorff, Diana Prince gets a crash course in an early 20thcentury worldview that posited that war was the national equivalent of going to the gym. In this worldview suffering and death are Darwinian necessities in order gain strength and Wonder Woman’s victory over the god of war, Ares, was a symbolic repudiation of this worldview and a manifestation of everything she stands for. The point of Wonder Woman 1984 is much less optimistic, even though (in Jenkins’s words) it takes place at the height of civilization. Despite peace and prosperity, the cruelty of men still abounds and, according to this film, if you’re going to survive and succeed you must give up on love to stay powerful.

[dateamonster]

i just ate a pint of ice cream in like fifteen minutes and here’s some quick summaries of like my favorite monster-related story worlds i’ve made up in my own trashy brain. mostly for the purpose of having something to refer back to if i start referencing related stories or characters or whatever out of the blue.

monsterverse:

surreal horror with like the tiniest touches of scifi

a pre and post and post-post-apocalyptic (depending on where on the timeline events land) world in which the appearance of rifts in reality results in a full scale invasion by monsters from another plane of existence.

the otherworld where most of the monsters come from originally is kinda inherently Vast and Unknowable. the physics are made up and the laws of nature don’t matter. in the process some of that effect leaks through the rifts too, but it’s not equally dispersed so there are places where the world still seems mostly Normal and places where its all definitely gone to hell in a handbasket.

the monsters dont follow an exact model. there are no specific species per se. humans try to classify them based on the way their presence manifests and the specific dangers they present but like their world they are kinda hard to define as a whole. some are sentient and/or sapient and some are not. some are somewhat humanoid and some are very very not.

the monsterverse is kinda my baby and because of the crazy nature of it there are a loottttt of deets i cant fit all in here but if youre at all into it keep an eye on my #monsterverse tag because i like to bring it up and expand on stuff totally at random.

the goblin market/marketverse:

high fantasy meets low/modern fantasy. a big ol mishmash of my favorite fairytale tropes.

obvs the early bones of it were heavily inspired by christina rosetti’s the goblin market as well as some other good good goblin centric media which i’ve talked about before a little. stuff like labyrinth and the princess and the goblin and so on.

though its grown to include a ton of other fantasy creatures, its still very goblin-centric and the key to the whole deal is this sorta nebulous concept of the Market which is a setting, an event, a device to explain goblin society/culture as a whole, a device to explain goblin magic, and a living bestial entity unto itself.

essentially the marketverse is a world divided into overhill, where humans reign, and underhill, where the fae reign, and the liminal spaces in between where the respective groups fuck shit up for each other in a variety of ways. humans in this verse are aware of fae, but less so as time goes on and the two divisions sorta shift apart in trajectory.

most of the time if im talking about classic fantasy creatures or fae as a general concept it has to do with this verse.

infinityverse

probably the least developed overall which is ridiculous because i’ve had some of the key characters and elements since i was like in middle school.

fantasy and scifi. lots of different areas of inspiration but probably most of all the sandman and his dark materials series and similar works.

a massive complex world in which abstract concepts like time and space and death and love manifest physically or paraphysically in the world as deities. and can be killed. and someone killed time.

important periods of the world’s unique history manifest as physical locations and operate like ordinary countries, with borders and rules about who can get in and out and who can stay. many of these zones are inhabited by nonhuman creatures. some zones are even very human-exclusionary.

deities can move freely, though they often choose a specific zone as home, as can certain people regardless of species if theyre chosen to possess a certain object called a timepiece, which automatically and accurately measures time no matter the zone and also can direct the weilder to places where for whatever reason the barrier between zones is thin enough to pass through. only one timepiece can exist in a zone at a time and its always found in the possession of a specific person designated for each zone, usually a member of whatever dominant species exists there.

i dont post much about this one because its so. confusing. why did i do this to myself? but still i have a handful of characters and ministories already sorta designated to this verse so. here we are.