#also this show lets actors express emotions instead of being stoic all the time and i appreciate that

[practicalmagicintuitions]

“The fates lead the willing and drag the unwilling”

I was thinking about that last MT podcast HC had when he mentioned stoicism and a book I have but I haven’t read yet. So I decided to deep dive in a little bit because I studied philosophy at the university at a very basic level but I always wanted to know more, so this seems a good occasion. I am also interested in what HC could see in this philosophy school. I think we all know at this point he is interested in things that interest his people, not necessarily him or he is dropping ideas, new things fast. So one part of this will be a summary of stoicism because I feel many people have misconceptions or don’t know what is this just saying this is sh*t even don’t have the slightest idea about it. The other part will be a little HC armchair analysis by me throughout this topic. And I also decided to read the book he mentioned - Viktor E. Frankl Man's Search for Meaning - and maybe I will walk through it or give you a summary if you interested. 

Bare with me, because this turned out to be long, but I had to get out his from my system.

Not soon after the pandemic and the lockdown started in 2020 Penguin Random House said the print sales of Marcus Antonius’s Meditations are up 28% for the first quarter of 2020 vs 2019, while print sales of Letters from a Stoic are up 42% for the same period. The ebook sales rose by 356% . This boom was because of the pandemic but the popularity of modern stoicism has been an upcoming thing for a while especially since people like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet allegedly used stoicism in their business and Thomas Kaplan is supporting a Stoicism Course at Brown University. But unfortunately, modern stoicism has become kind of a ready-made lifehack, a self-helping method, that’s why books like Ryan Holiday’s one could be published and becomes a success. This is where I see modern stoicism’s faults. 

Stoicism seems a good school to support or to follow in the pandemic because this is about we have to accept the things we have no control over. Probably that’s why the sales went up. This is about don’t letting uncontrollable things or events messing with your judgment and clarity. Fear, screams, panic, rages don’t help. And I think we can agree this is true. Aurelius wrote his Meditations in the middle of a battle when his men were dying not just because of the fights but because of a pox epidemic and top of that he was an Emperor. So to maintain his sanity he had become a stoic. He didn’t have an influence on the epidemic so he just accept it and didn’t spend his energy raging about it. 

Stoicism was founded by Zenon around 300 BC. And it was a thriving and popular school without huge wars or pandemics or anything. Back then it was not a reaction to something but a preparation for something. More directly prepare yourself the thing you cannot be prepared for. And probably this is the OG stoicism most valuable teaching that there are events in this world we simply cannot control. What we can control however how we react to those events. Are we remain calm or think this is a catastrophe. Let see a very basic example. We are mortals, we will die no matter what. This is a sure event we have no control over. What we can control that our view on this. Will we panic? Refuse to even talk about death or refuse to make a will because “OMG I will die then!!” Like spoiler alert, it will happen, will or no will. Or we understand our time is limited and try to enjoy it and not see smaller inconveniences are tragedies. I am sure we all know people who think if they spill themselves over with coffee or the handle of the grocery’s bag comes off it’s a pure tragedy and they are capable of thinking about this all day as something it is happening with them always an exclusively. 

Until this, I think it’s all good we can use this in our daily life. What is dangerous in the OG stoicism is that the stricter wing of it thought emotions as a whole or almost all of it cause confusion so you basically should eliminate emotions to have that clarity on life. That’s why Diogenes wrote that the wise is emotionless. And this is the main and very valid criticism again stoics, that with taking away the emotions they basically ripping of humans from something very unique valuable, important, because our emotions make us humans. And because living totally emotionless is kinda impossible this goal is not realistic, so it causes many frustrations ( oh my... even more emotions!) Because think about it, who are described as emotionless? Psychopaths. 

You have cases, events, when your emotions, even overflowing ones are right and acceptable and suppressing them, could be dangerous. Because realistic or not Marcus Aurelius and Seneca and the other stoics idea was not just watching the world and letting things happen, shrugging a shoulder and say nothing, no! Their philosophy and aim were to eliminate the bothering things which not let you think calmly. And since we are talking about philosophy the reality of this in practice is secondary. Critics also think ( and maybe the modern stoicism is going in this direction) that a hardcore stoics care only about themself and their egos while Seneca says friendships are important and in general most stoics accepted positive feelings (to a certain extent).

Stoicism comes back to life mostly in psychotherapy around 1900 by Paul Dubois ( before him there was another new wave of stoicism in the 16th century) and that’s where Victor E Frankle is connected to this topic. I haven’t read his book yet but I know his method is called logotherapy (logos= meaning) and this was born in the deepest existential crisis when his whole family was killed in a concentration camp and he felt he had remained only one personal freedom, the way how he reacts to the circumstances. Frankle invented his own method so he is not just planted some ancient in the modern world but he in fact thought Socrates and his philosophy is his inspiration. I won’t talk about this more until I read his book. 

* I wanted to listen to the whole podcast again, but I couldn’t so I just went to the part we care about now.

So they are talking about morning routines and he mention that one of his teachers in primary school said to him “Always expect the unexpected” This is pure stoicism and while I am not suggesting he is lying I noticed he likes to blend his current interest with his childhood memories like when he said at the WitcherCon how they had to build a fantasy castle in the school (or something) and this was such good preparation for him because he has a fantasy series now. Convenient right?

So he mentioned the teacher and a little later hinting that he is into stoicism lately. Question is, which comes first? The teacher with the stoic idea or the stoicism as a new interest somehow repainted his childhood memories? 

Then he again is talking about the stoic’s way of control. Or does he? 

“ focusing on the thing you can control and make yourself better to control them” 

This was never part of the OG philosophy because that is not about being a control freak. It is actually the opposite. If you cannot control something let it go, not force things to go on your way and if you failed then you let go. 

The next part it’s not about this topic but I have to mention it because I kinda overlooked it when I listed this at the first time.

He is asked about the fitness industry’s mistakes and he said

“I wouldn’t be the kinda person to point my finger at anyone and say there is a big mistake there…. I wouldn’t ever want to point to finger at anyone saying there is a mistake “

So… should I insert the FO post here? And I know the question and the answer was about fitness but he clearly has no problem pointing fingers at people. 

This leads to us again to the control topic. His FO post is creaming about controlling. “ You don’t like the way I am dating? You don’t like I have a covid romance? Then I will tell you what to do and how to behave because I need to have control over my fandom”

When the host asked him about overcoming obstacles he mention the book - Victor E. Frankl Man's Search for Meaning. (he also said it’s difficult to give advice…)

While he is talking about the book (and for me, it’s clear that the host doesn’t give a damn about this) so HC’s whole tone is changed. Just compare when he is talking about MT and training and so on, he is so irritating and unlistenable but here he is calmer, doesn’t use his voice so expressively, doesn’t emphasise that much in a sentence etc. This to me shows he is actually craving after something more, something deeper, something serious. Not just talking about his ties and blueberry smoothies. I don’t think is dumb (I think he has dumb choices thought) I think he could be more both as an actor both as an individual because when he was talking about the book I felt he has a true, genuine interest and it was a one-second opportunity to talk about something interesting not just fart powder.  

I feel his interest in stoicism is an attempt to validate why he is oppressing his feelings. I am sure he does this because he is uncomfortable with his feelings, past and present. For example, I think instead of the bullying his main trauma is being sent away from home to a boarding school and experiencing cold treatment from his mom (the infamous stop calling story). But he oppressing this because I guess all of his brothers he is looking up to loves their mom and he feels he needs to be a good son but questioning his mom means he is a bad one. So instead of admitting that he is hurt and damaged by it he is saying the bullying was his worst experience. 

This means to me he doesn’t understand stoicism, ancient or modern he just wants and moreover, he needs something he can hold and cling to, something that gave himself meaning. As a book’s title says: Man’s search for meaning. And I feel HC does this maybe a little bit desperately. Searching for the answers and this moment he thinks stoicism is the key to finding what he is looking for while in reality, the main problem is he doesn’t ask the right questions. And without them, he won’t find any answer. Or meaning. 

Title quote from Seneca

[misterbitches]

what i like abt muren and li chen

i’m sorta burned out and my vagina is bleeding so lemme see if i can type this. probably can lmao. my brain is going ten miles a minute.

1. the fact that they were friends first.

 someone on here said this and idk who but i don’t want to seem like it was my idea. 

the fact that they are friends and didn’t have like a connection previously and it developed. most times friends-to-lovers has a basis of some sort of romantic interest from another person so they were not truly ever friends, you know? and many relationships people aren’t friends first but that’s the best kind. and they are the truest form in that (i wouldnt say truest means good but just i think a representation of) they were truly friends, no attraction at least consciously, and were lead into it. 

2. bc they know each other well and are friends they know each other and LAUGH and if you can’t laugh with your love then there is no point. 0. lmao. i love it

idk they fell easily in2 the luvy duvy part and u can actually believe they are into each other like outside of kissing. gee. also hello! when lichen like threw the heart in the office and muren caught it? bitch! i woulda been like ew!!!!! and blushed but muren was like that’s right that’s my bitch

3. bouncing off 2 um uhhhhh the way they interact so i guess this is 2 but whatver i like lists now

muren is >:O but super sweet and receptive to others. so he responds to people and it isn’t just stoic for stoic sake or with not much substance. idk how to say this but oftentimes sometimes i feel like characters will be too oppositional to offset their partner and it can be extremely annoying to watch because it’s part of the dynamic but sometimes there’s a lack of reciprocation. i like that even if muren is quiet he smiles a lot and lets people know through his actions and shit. esp his mans. and when he needs to talk, he will. 

lichen is perfect for this because of reasons. what do you even say about this dude holy shit. first of all he really is a fucking himbo. he’s not even dumb he’s just a fucking himbo. it’s great to say the way they express their excitement and the best thing to hear, “i can be myself around you”

4. u cannnot tell me that this top/bottom discourse is actually not ridiculous esp for them bc there is no way that my eyes are seeing what i see yet there’s some struggle when they’re trying to constantly grapple with the masculine/feminine aspects (this is a good thing)

with the way that they hang off each other. esp bc lichen is shorter than him and stockier and he can attach himself like a barnacle. the way he expresses glee and love is very “feminine” at times IE reliance, support, putting your head on his etc but then there are times when he is the one to hold muren too. so it’s like they are clearly on the same  level in how they exchange love and stuff and exploring the dynamics but it clearly isnt as structured as the usual ones and it shouldnt be so they should just stop talking about this shit cos ur both getting fucked god shut up

lichen squeals like a girl and is obsessed with him. he is clingy and also says “what do you want to do to me.” if this show is gonna sit us through the agony of this stupid discourse and they tell me they arent gonna sw*tch or whatever (not that they cant have other forms of sex bc that is not that difficultand as adults w eknow this but anywaaay) then they simply are wrong

5. the ~gay 4 u~ thing is dumb and i cannot believe it tbqh cos it’s like sir....but i am glad that lichen like expresses attraction to his physique and personhood as a man and acknowledging that that is something and a part of the attraction.

 it was probably a happy accident but it’s still a good one. there’s sometimes an idea of like sexual attraction being sorta nebulous when someone is like getting into a rship with the same gender but not being sure about their sexuality or whatever or still liking another gender explicitly where they cant admit they find things attractive or enticing even when they are in a same sex relationship and it is so fucking confusing and doesn’t make sense. i wish instead of trying to make it cut and dry they just went honestly mabye they dont know but theyre both men and thats a factor. ok lets move on now. :) 

6. they make u feel nice

especially in comparison to the show being messy and also there’s some crazy stalker man running around you know they temper that 

they’re just really fun to watch. it’s an interesting dynamic and particularly with xing si in their lives it’s nice and i’m so glad there’s no one else to ruin it like say a brother who is a waste of space. but it’s mostly good feelings for them and you can see why they like each other, that they can stay together, and how helpful a relationship can be as you grow as an individual

7. while i am sure there will be further misunderstandings...comm...unic...ation?

literally boys are dumb as hell but idk if my reading is correct on this one but SO FAR TO MOI im like wow u guys like actually talk. woah. and i think that’s nice. yest i had a breakdown in front of my fam bc i am sometimes emotionally stunted when faced with distress so it’s nice to see people talking that out in particularly with like jealousy and stuff

AND their interactions in public and the understanding. knowing it takes time and stuff for them to adjust and allowing them the time. they are extremely different to other people and they want to be distinct and they can be and arre to each other they dont need to follow anyone else’s rules (except the costume department sometimes needs to get better pants for muren like that’s my rule tbh but that’s neither here nor there)

did some1 call them emotional support himbos? i think so cos word. 

oh one more thing idk the name of the actor playing li chen and im too tired to look it up but i like him a lot i think he does a good job of going seamlessly between like a jubilant person and an actual human being. he plays well at being oblivious but not outright stupid and emotionally stunted or not picking up certain signals. i think at times it seems like he doesn’t always have a sense of self  like trying to be something else for other people but then he realizes like he can’t do that so all he can do is be himself which leads him 2 his mans but yea. the actor does a decent job! it’s a fun character to wathc

[reversemoon255]

1t's Never 0ver

Hot take: Brain is the first Reiwa Rider. Still, for the first Reiwa series, Kamen Rider Zero-One was a great start. I've seen a surprising amount of kids shows tackle the idea of treating robots like people, and this show handles it pretty decently.

The Good: Aruto was surprisingly funny and competent. I was optimistic when they presented him as an unfunny comedian turned CEO in the preview material, but I'm impressed by how well he turned out, with full credit to the actor for nailing most of his deliveries. One of my big problems with both Build and Zi-O was that I couldn't always get behind the characters, but Aruto was definitely a step up, being the first Rider since Drive to really grab me.

Considering we just came off Zi-O, with a large cast of stoic characters, it's amazing how much Izu, the emotionless robot, pulled it off better. (Actually, credit to all the Humagear actors for outstanding mono-emotional performances. They all did very well.) I think a big part of that was the fact that they allowed her to make jokes and do silly things with a straight face, instead of being purely dour. And it was an excellent payoff, seeing her slow progression from a very basic personality to a much more lively one as the series progressed.

I really liked Fuwa, and his was another character that underwent several shifts during the run of the story, those the moments where he started turning are more evident than Izu's (but he's also not portrayed as very bright, so that makes sense). His entire arc is him overcoming his hatred for Humagears, eventually reaching the point where he wants to help them, with the final expression of this being him declaring his will to carry on Naki's dream and using his Progrise Key to transform. And he was just pretty fun, being the serious character who likes bad jokes, and often ends up the butt of them himself.

Yua is a troublesome character. There was a lot of untapped potential there that I feel wasn't reached, but there was some good, too. Her arc was seeing Humagear as people rather than tools, which isn't as well executed as Izu or Fuwa as she took a back seat for about two show arcs, but is ultimately satisfying. Most of her development in this department seems to comes from her interactions with Izu, but her experiences during the Fire Fighter training were also a big push. And her resignation was amazing. I feel most of her issues could have been solved if they didn’t push her so hard in promotional material at the beginning.

I disliked Gai for most of this show, which I think was the point. He was a total butt for the majority of the runtime, but it's also amazing how quickly I 180'd on him after his dog showed up. He was very functional, and I wasn't really interested in him as a character until, again, Dog Thouser showed up.

Jin was definitely the villain I had the most investment in throughout the show, even if that started waning near the end when he was just sitting around and letting Horobi do whatever he wanted. Still, he was very similar to Izu, being a Humagear that we see slowly obtain his own singularity and ideals, but taken from a different perspective. He was also a lot of fun. I've found my favorite characters are usually the ones with positive attitudes and outlooks, even if he was aiming for mankind's extinction.

I know a lot of people like Horobi, but it took me a while to warm up to him, and even then I wasn't the biggest fan until his changes in the final episodes. When Gai replaced him as the main antagonist of the series, I wasn't sad to see him go, but I am glad he eventually came back because they did good things with him. It's also cool how he sparks Jin's first major development with his death, and Jin sparks his final changes with his own.

I found myself very invested in the story, especially since this series was very good at not letting a status quo settle for very long. As soon as the Aruto VS A.I.M.S dynamic was set up, he reveals himself to them. As soon as Metsuboujinrai.Net is defeated, Gai shows up. After 4 "nice" contests between humans and Humagear where the humans learn something through the competition, we get one where the villains win and Aruto is ousted as CEO. And I think that was to the show's benefit. A lot of Rider shows will wait half the show before a shakeup, but Zero-One was constantly keeping the viewer interested with new story lines and revelations.

Oh, and every belt chant was amazing.

The Bad: Going in the same order, Yua had a lot of unused potential. I remember how much hype her character had out the gate, being the first female Rider to start a series. She even got a form change, which is a first. However, she only got one form change, and as I mentioned when discussing LupinRanger and Ryusoulger, power-ups in Tokusatsu shows are often used as physical representations of a character's growth. Yua's second form showed up before episode 10. Yes, she also had Fighting Jackal later in the show, but that was a monster form; it's made to represent her fully giving in to Gai’s will, which is why we don't see it after she quits ZAIA. I would have loved if she had used Fighting Jackal in the ShotRiser and had gotten a new form as a representation of her moving on from those painful memories, or forgiving Gai. It sucks, because we got a ton of short-use Riders and forms in this series, so you'd think they could swing it. Just in the last few episodes, we got Arc-One, Arc-Scorpion, Vulcan Japanese Wolf, and Eden. At this point, I think Toei's just not sure what to do with a female Rider. At least they treated her better than Poppy and Nico.

I really didn't like Gai. And I know that's the point, but there's a difference between there being a character you're supposed to hate for the whole show and a character you're supposed to come around on. You can have a despicable character become a good guy, but there has to be something about them that makes you want them to become one in the first place, otherwise it's just jarring. Dan Kuroto is a great example of this. He was also a despicable character, but he had this humorous over-the-top attitude to him that made him fun to watch, and you want him to join the main cast to see how that persona bounces off everyone else. Gai didn't have anything like that; he was just dislikable. If they had hinted at all to his past, it would have worked, but they waited until the episode where he face turns to do it. And that just doesn't work.

This is also a personal nitpick, but when they were teasing stuff for the finalé, I thought Aruto was going to use Rocking Hopper, not Realizing Hopper. Thematically, that would have been awesome, but I'm ok with what we got.

There were also quite a few episodic plots I'd wished they'd covered in regards to the Humagears. We covered quite a broad range of topics with them, but there were a few big things they missed. One of them is about Humagear choosing new careers. It's cool that Humagear have dreams, but they're all in regard to their predisposed profession. The manga assistant wants to write a manga, the coaches want to teach the best athletes, etc. But no one wants to change jobs. We don't get a farmer Humagear that suddenly wants to become an artist or anything, and I would have liked to see how Aruto would handle that. And what about love? It was briefly brought up, but what happens when a Humagear falls in love with a human? Or when two Humagear fall in love? How did they have sentient robots and not talk about love!?

I also can't help but wonder what the show would have been like if we hadn't lost 4 episodes due to current events. I have a feeling we might have had a Gaim Finalé situation with Eden and that's why they had the costume on hand. Who knows; maybe we'll get some interviews down the road that will give us some insight.

And lastly, spoilers, I want top talk about the death of Izu, because that's the one thing I see the most that people disliked about the ending. It's not that she died at all, because we've had that before with characters like Ankh, but because Aruto created a new, identical Izu, with the same name, and proclaimed he was going to retrain her.

I had to think on this for quite a while, but I'm ok with this. Don't get me wrong, I would have preferred an ending where Izu was restored like Jin, or where Horobi becomes Aruto's new assistant, but the thing is this was foreshadowed. In the early episodes, every time Metsubojinrai.Net corrupts a Humagear, and Aruto or Fuwa or Yua has to destroy it, what happens? The owner gets a new Humagear of the same model and retrains it. Aruto is following his company’s policy. And yes, it’s painful. You can see him well up as he’s reminded of the first Izu, but he smiles and moves forward.

There is a form of Japanese pottery called kintsukuroi. In it, you take a piece of broken pottery, and along the cracks you piece everything back together with gold. It's not an easy process, it takes time, and the cracks are still there, but the end result is far more beautiful that what you started with. Aruto is always going to remember the first Izu, and living with the second Izu is going to be painful, but there’s the potential for this new relationship to be even greater than the one he started with. Or at least that’s me reading too much into it.

The Next: (At the time of writing this,) Saber premieres this weekend. Love the designs, as I'm big on the knight motif. I think the belt gimmick is cool, and might get it if they reveal some interesting power-up books. I think a story about story is very fun, very meta, could be great, but could also go horribly wrong if not given to the right writer. We'll have to see. After how well Zero-One was handled, I'm excited to see how the rest of Reiwa will go. They probably won't all be winners, but I enjoyed most of Neo Heisei, with only the last few entries being bad-to-ok in my book, so here's to hoping we'll get a repeat of that trend, without repeating their themes.

Overall, this was a good season. Not my favorite, but certainly in the upper half of the show's library. Looking forward to the movie, whenever that happens. Looking forward to Saber, too.

"A Rider Kick to the sky turns to take off toward a dream!"

[recsnrecaps]

A Love So Beautiful Episode 2 Recap: Can I Hop On Your Bike?

Netflix oh Netflix. Why do you tease me so! With that picture, I suddenly have visions of these two all grown up and married. No!! Please just let me live in their teenage past and experience their budding love.

So. The world building continues in episode 2. Jiang Chen still appears to be an emotionless robot, but the writers have crafted a believable sob story to explain his emotional detachment and why Xiaoxi is so protective of him.

I’m still not taken in with Jiang Chen’s character yet. And the issue isn’t with the acting at all. For the stoic lead, he has a generous amount of micro-expressions and his “poker face” matches his sarcastic quips. However, something in the writing/directing leaves more to be desired. The parts about Jiang Chen’s past feels like clunky exposition to me.

On the other hand, I’m really liking the second lead, Wu Bo Song 吴柏松.In any other show, Bo Song would have been the main lead. He’s a charming and sporty dude with a sense of humor. I do feel kinda upset every time he interacts with Xiaoxi though. As the second lead, he’s fated to not get the girl. But he really puts in so much more effort than Jiang Chen - it’s not fair!

At Bo Song’s swim competition, silly Xiaoxi jumbles up the characters on her hand-drawn cheer poster, leading to a "Wu Song Bo" instead. Hahaha! Later on, after the race, when Bo Song was getting harassed by interviewers, Xiaoxi and her poster comes to his rescue with a giant cheer. Bo Song appears really touched by her support, so much so that he offered to trade her for the poster.

The camera work during the dinner scene deliberately included many many lingering closeups of Bo Song's hopeful face. As well as his repeated requests for the poster. It's obvious to us that Bo Song places a great significance on what happened and really wanted a keepsake. However Xiaoxi doesn't place the same importance on the interaction. In her eyes, she was just keeping her word to come and watch the race - she was merely being a friend, and not a very good one at that (the poster typo being an embarrassing bit of evidence).

So. Storytime now. As an old codger I watch shows like this and cringe unabashedly at scenes of young love like this. I have been Xiaoxi in various situations in my life where I have been absolutely oblivious that my actions were leading someone on. I was just being myself, you know? In interactions with said guy, a sentence might have some significant meaning to the guy, but because things seem innocuous on the surface, I end up answering carelessly and hurting his feelings. 

Here, Xiaoxi is so preoccupied with her life (and Jiang Chen) that she isn’t able to be properly present in the conversation, thus completely missing the social cues from Bo Song.

Personally I find Bo Song’s attraction to Xiaoxi far more organic and interesting rather than the shoehorned Xiaoxi and Jiang Chen childhood friends next door arrangement. Perhaps it's because Bo Song is such an expressive actor. He also has such a natural chemistry with Xiaoxi, I enjoyed him popping up to save Xiaoxi and giving her bike rides. And the impetus for the bike rides are so spontaneous and fun. Early in the episode, he smoothly glided up to save her from a group of girls. And in another instance, when they needed to escape quickly from their teacher, she just mounted up on his bike and they sped away crazily. Ah, youth.

Of course, the title of this episode “Can I Hop On Your Bike?” actually refers to the bike ride that Xiaoxi wants Jiang Chen to give her. It’s establised early on in the episode that Xiaoxi lost her bike. So it’s a running gag that throughout the episode, Xiaoxi gazes mornfully at Jiang Chen whenever she needs a ride, and he always ignores her. But in end, he eventually does give her a ride to school. 

Unfortunately, the payoff is so disappointing in this episode. I don't feel inclined to root for Jiang Chen at all, not even when I learnt that he doesn't have parental support. Nor does Jiang Chen's discovery that "someone" came and looked after him when he was ill make me feel like there was any significant development in their relationship. The bike ride at the end seems more like “payment” for Xiaoxi’s care, rather than an actual joyful and spontaneous event. I personally feel like this cheapens Xiaoxi and Jiang Chen’s interaction. A key part of my inability to accept their relationship, is due to the lack of communication between them. Well, Xiaoxi tries. She has made her intentions Vey Clear. But Jiang Chen is still a closed box. And until he opens up and reciprocates, their interactions just seem awkward and forced.

On to other stuff now. This story occurs in 2005 and in this episode the directors do try make an effort to pay homage to the era. I'm reminded of my trusty old Nokia phone whenever one appears on screen. In those days, everyone had a Nokia. A phone was literally only able to be used for calling and texting. Apps hadn’t even been invented yet, so the telcos had a powerful monopoly on phone usage. Depending on your phone plan, every month you had a finite amount of call minute and text messages to make. Any extra text message past your limit would cost a ridiculous amount of money. You had to stay within the character limit for each text and ration your texts or end up with your parents refusing to pay your phone bills. I’m so glad that telecommunication these days have improved so drastically.

Speaking of communication, the Internet was a vastly different place back in 2005. As we learn in this episode, being a moderator for a fangirl website is a big honor. Back then, going on the Internet did not consist of scrolling mindlessly on Facebook. You actually had to look for the content you wanted. Thus, there were hives of activity on specialty sites, and each community developed their own form of management. Typically websites would consist of a forum section where users could post their questions and comments on various topics. For a fangirl site, this forum is arguably the most important part of the website. A moderator would have the power to highlight or sticky a post to the top, or delete and ban users.

Although Facebook was not available yet, there were various blogging and sharing sites on the Internet in 2005. As shown in the episode, QQ was widely popular in China (and still is). Each user account could access various functions on the platform which included a friends list, chat message, a personal blog and private memos.

Next historical relic spotted, the Warcraft poster pasted on the door of the Internet Cafe that the boys frequent. Warcraft was released in 2004, so that was absolutely the era of the original Warcraft game. There has been loads of Warcraft sequels since, but the poster is the classic original one. Kudos to the props team on that one.

In the previous episode, the boys spent time in the Internet Cafe as well, and I'm pretty sure that the game they were playing was Counterstrike - another massively popular computer game in that era. Counterstrike is a fantastic bonding game. Every round is approximately 2 to 5 minutes. There is almost no learning curve to this game. You literally team up with your buddies, connect to a game, and try to shoot down anyone who isn't on your team. In an hour, you theoretically could play 50 short games. It's low stress and involves loads of incoherent yelling. It's therefore really believable that the guys could become fast friends after just one gaming session. And that they would make plans to go regularly after school.

That marriage game though............ I'm not sure I ever encountered anything like that. It’s also not within my personal experience that any 16 year old guy would be interested in broadcasting his impending marriage with his virtual waifu. Haha, just my take but this mindset seems too modern for 2005.

I'll try to keep my eyes peeled for more 2005 pop culture references throughout this show.

[the-worlds-tiniest-bowtie]

Brandon Coleman's Boy Witch

I had the pleasure of experiencing Brandon as Boy Witch for the first time last week and I haven't shut up about it since! I decided to make a post detailing all the things i love about him because his take on BW is so different than anyone I've seen before.

this is completely self indulgent and kind of just a diary entry/recap. i'm not posting this on my main blog on the off chance Brandon somehow finds it.

-

warning: this contains spoiler heavy material for BW's entire loop. i will be comparing the differences between Brandon and other performers (Nate, David, Austin, Jason, etc) so some of their character choices/audience interactions will be detailed here.

-

let me start by saying Brandon's Porter is my all time favorite. he played Porter in my 2nd show ever and was the first actor/character i followed for a full loop. I've had his 1:1 at least 4 times, maybe 5. the last time he picked me was one of the most special moments I have ever experienced in a show.. I don't remember who was playing Boy Witch but it was probably David or Nate because those are the only 2 i would follow from the ballroom.

after BW pushed Porter down, i had every intention of following BW. there were 3 or 4 people standing right where Porter usually picks, and i wasn't angling to get the 1:1 at all. when BW left, i followed him for about 5 steps and then turned around to watch Porter pick his 1:1. when i looked down at Brandon, he was already staring at me. I've never seen Porter pick someone BEHIND him for a 1:1, and i don't know if Brandon recognized me, but i gave it a second to see if he would realize it was me and choose someone else instead. Nope. i didn't move until he slowly reached his hand out and that's when i turned around and walked back to him. i may never know what possessed him to pick in such an unusual way and it still makes my heart skip a beat when i think about that moment.

something i really enjoyed about Brandon's BW is that many of the character traits he exhibits are clearly inspired by Porter. on the other hand, some aspects of his character are the opposite of how he plays Porter. Boy Witch is flirty, saucy, minx-y, and while Brandon is all of those things, he's missing one thing the other boys have: he's not mean. he's the first boy witch I've seen that doesn't give off a "i'm leading you on but i really don't give a shit about you" vibe. where most boys are sinister, Brandon is fun. i have never seen a BW smile so much - and not the usual knowing smirk, like, he was BEAMING. youthful, carefree, excited!

I first saw Brandon in the ballroom, dancing with Malcolm. it took a few minutes for him to look at me (was i desperately trying to make eye contact because we talked at the halloween party and i was super pumped about FINALLY seeing his Boy Witch? maybe.) and when he did, he went from being stoic and serious to getting visibly excited and grinning SO BIG i almost died. (Brandon, if you're reading this, let's be friends seriously how are we not friends already?) little did i know, this was going to be dark foreshadowing for the rest of the night.

like i said, he was having the time of his life.. until he wasn't. my second sign that Brandon's BW was going to be unlike any other was during the luggage dance. I've been pushed up against the wall by Boy Witch more times than i can count. I think Nate holds the record. but this is the first time BW has walked towards me, made me step back almost against the wall, then suddenly twirled around me and put his own back against the wall. IM SORRY WHAT? it took a second for my brain to catch up and realize he was inviting me to participate in role reversal. I can and will play Boy Witch at any given moment, so i took another step and pinned him against the wall for a split second. we made eye contact and it threw me off to see Brandon being sultry instead of the scared Porter expression I'm used to seeing. LITTLE DID I KNOW.

the phone booth dance was another confusing emotional rollercoaster- that was the first time I've seen an actor I associate with Porter playing Boy Witch and i was suddenly brought back to my first time watching that dance; not knowing whose side to be on. i betrayed Porter and followed BW to High Street, where he actually spat into his hand, which is somehow not the grossest thing I've seen BW do. (re: David making himself throw up in the shower takes the cake) BW led me to the Speakeasy where i found NATE AS SPEAKS and i swear i nearly fainted. Brandon tried to attack me, of course, Nate stopped him and i had yet another trippy moment of watching my favorite Boy Witch actor shove my favorite Porter actor into a box.

nothing too exciting happened between then and the rave. Brandon kept looking at me while wearing the ram head and thanks for the attention Brandon but i HATED IT. i hate that stupid head. i followed BW to the shower where he broke my heart for the first time that evening. i love to see what different actors do in the shower. it's such a simple scene in theory but such an opportunity for each actor to make it their own. i watched David gag himself until he threw up, then scrub his face and body for a solid 2 minutes, I've seen Nate spit out an entire mouthful of blood, etc etc. Brandon did possibly the most heartwrenching of them all, which was curl up against the wall and hide his face in his arms. he didn't move for a long time, and when he did, he started gently shaking and sniffling. crying. this lasted for another minute before he looked up and surveyed the room.

i was purposefully not standing directly in front of the crowd; i was right next to the sink but there was another person slightly in front of me. i know Brandon's history of picking me when I'm trying NOT to be picked. i saw him look at me but i wasn't going to be a pushy audience member, so i held still while the person in front of me grabbed the towel. (if you're reading this, you already know how it ends and I'm sorry!) he dried off and looked at them, then motioned for his shirt. he got the box out, dug around, pulled his pants out, and handed them to.. me. i knew it was coming but it still made me so happy i almost cried. not to flex but I'm an expert at unraveling BW's suspenders so i untangled them in mere seconds. i stepped back after that, fully intending to give that person their shot, but i knew all along he was going to walk out with me. sure enough, he stood up, didn't look at anyone, and slipped his hand in mine as he walked out the door. side note: Brandon, if you're reading this, i love that you squeeze my hand like 3 times when you pick me for things. thank you.

we made it to the 1st floor where he scared the shit out of me when i got to the bottom of the stairs, then gave me a very sensual kiss on the cheek and ran off to the banquet. at this point, i left him to follow Speakeasy and didn't catch back up until the end of the witches' lobby dance with Macbeth. he picked someone else to sing to and this time, i did position myself conveniently to get chosen for the phone booth 1:1. sorry, fellow audience members. you gotta learn when to hold'em and when to fold'em! the phone booth is one i rarely get, so i felt justified. I glared at BW and tried to look apologetic at Porter- who walked away while BW was still using my finger to wipe his face. POWER MOVE. I SEE YOU JOHN WILLIAM WATKINS.

Boy Witch bewitched me with his eyes and then shrouded us in the darkness of the curtain. when we were safely hidden away from the world- holy shit, you guys. his face changed. suddenly, i was looking at Porter. the first time i saw him as Porter, i described Brandon as an older, more masculine version of Credence from Fantastic Beasts. i texted a friend that he had the energy of someone nervous and abused, and that same fearful energy came through in those moments in the phone booth. depending on how you interpret the story, BW is a scared and abused boy. he looked at me with those sad Porter eyes and i was filled with the strangest deja vu as he took off my mask. he whispered a secret in my ear and we had a fun out of character moment where Brandon tried to put my mask on and the curtain started to fall, so he panicked and tried to hand my mask to me, but i didnt notice in time, so he had to try and put my mask on again but we were running out of time because the curtain was still falling and he SOMEHOW got it on but omg it was stressful. Brandon, if you're still reading, that was adorable and I'm glad i got to share that moment of panic with you. also i love you.

i left BW soon after that but caught back up with him at the end of the show, where Brandon graciously walked me out. y'all, if you're lucky enough to get a walkout, the best part of the entire show might just be the moment you and the actor smile knowingly at each other before breaking into a run, down the lobby hallway and through the red curtains.

Brandon's charm doesn't stop when the show ends, though. i sent him a kiss emoji (or 12) as soon as i left the building and he immediately sent back a message where he APOLOGIZED FOR SOME TINY MISTAKE I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER. Brandon, i hope you read this so you know how FURIOUS i am that you would ever apologize for the performance you put on. don't you DARE say sorry for being a completely new and different version of my favorite character. you're my #1 Porter and now my #2 Boy Witch. (sorry, Nate Carter owns this ass.) also, you're just the most lovable person. we have so much in common that it's actually a crime you have yet to follow me back on instagram. also, happy late birthday, this is your present from me.

IN CONCLUSION: if you haven't been to a Sunday early show in the past 5 weeks, it's time for you to buy your ticket. go see that boy in action.

fin.

[lihikainanea]

Something in the BFF!Bill storyline that I had kicking around in my head today. It’s not chronological to where I’m at in their saga, this happened before they boinked each other’s brains out.

 It’s been a weird mental health day today, and sometimes I can find comfort in writing the comfort I think I need, if that makes sense. It seems to have worked.

And I think it’s important to note, when it comes to these two doofuses--that he has pulled tiger out of a lot of shit; but she has definitely done the same for him.

We’ve all got demons, don’t we?

*** He never exploded, which you could never decide if that was a good thing or not. Bill was imposing enough physically that if he had a temper added on top of that, he would be downright terrifying. But when he snapped--a rare occurrence in itself--but when he had truly had enough, his silent rage, the way he got so quiet, was somehow even more scary.

He was an open book if you knew him well, he wore his heart on his sleeve but always kept it guarded to his chest, choosing who he showed that side to. He was easy enough to read once he let you in, everything was always in his eyes. He was big on eye contact, you learned quickly, always seeking it out and pressing you for it when you spoke to him. And when he wasn’t in front of you, when you didn’t have his eyes to read, you learned to pay attention to the tone of his voice. 

His tone was why your blood ran cold the minute you answered the phone.

“Hi,” was his curt greeting, “how are you?”

When Bill snapped--the rare occasion when he well and truly snapped at something, when his mind won the battle he’d been fighting sometimes for weeks and couldn’t take it anymore--his tone became sterile. Tactical. Almost mechanical.

“Are you okay?” you asked immediately.

“No,” it was dry, direct. “I need you here.” “Okay,” you hauled a duffle bag out of your closet, already shoving clothes into it blindly.

“I have a flight lined up for you. Can you be at the airport in an hour?”

“Yes,” you did a quick mental recall, trying to remember where he was. Yes, yes he wasn’t far for this one. Just one timezone over and the flight was maybe 3 hours.

“Okay. I’ll text you the boarding pass. My assistant will meet you when you land and bring you to set. I still have a few hours I need to be here,” like a drill sergeant. Cold. Factual. Completely devoid of emotion.

“Bill, I don’t need details, but tell me...something. Are you hurt?” you tried not to panic, but a cold sweat was breaking out on your neck.

“No. But I’m done.”

“You’re done?”

“I’m done, tiger,” he said, “I’ll see you soon,” and with a curt farewell, you hung up the phone. An Uber arrived at your apartment before you could even order one.

You knew what he meant by done. He had been working on a project with a director that, for the first time in his career, he wasn’t clicking with. While Bill adored your fire and grit, he had a hard time processing and relating to people who he found cruel or who harboured excessive, irrational anger. This director, when you pressed Bill for details, was making his life a living hell. Never happy with the takes while simultaneously not being able to tell the actors what he wanted to see, flying off the hook at the entire crew, pushing the actors beyond the limits of their comfort zones without creating a safe space on the working set. Bill had been FaceTiming you a lot more than usual on this gig, and each time he looked more and more stressed. His empathic side, one that he relied on so heavily in his life, was in shambles. Bill was a sponge in most social situations, reading people and absorbing their energies. When surrounded with nothing but negativity, nothing but anger and blind rage and criticisms, he disappeared into his own head and sometimes had trouble puling himself back out of it.

From the sounds of it, just from a phone call, he had snapped. He was, you knew, in the midst of a mental breakdown that was the result of a nightmare director, a project he had originally been so excited to work on, and his own demons. Bill’s mind was a complex place, and for as much kindness and gentleness that he showed you in your friendship, he sometimes forgot to treat himself the same way. 

You texted him when you boarded, again when you landed. You texted him when his assistant ushered you into a car, hopping in the driver’s seat and taking off. He hadn’t responded. The drive to set was under the half hour mark, and the car had barely stopped before you were out and trying to find him. There was no scene in action, but the director was yelling anyway. You cringed.

One of Bill’s buttons--few as they were, but easy to push--was yelling. Belligerent, aggressive yelling.

You couldn’t find Bill, instead hearing murmurings from the crew of an actor that had snapped. Had walked off, mid scene, and locked himself in a bathroom stall. Had refused to come back out, like a diva. Wasn’t answering his phone. Was wasting everybody’s time on set like an arrogant prick, as they waited for this delicate flower of an actor to get his shit together. You seethed. They were all glancing in the same area, a hallway slightly to the right of the enormous green screen. You headed that way, and stopped in front of the last door. You texted Bill to unlock it, but he didn’t respond. Grabbing a bobby pin from your bag, you jimmied the lock just enough and slammed your palm into it. The door creaked open.

Bill was scrunched up in the furthest corner on the floor, his legs bent at sharp angles and his knees coming up under his chin. Cigarette butts littered the floor around him, a lit one between his fingers. He didn’t move to put it out as he usually would, when he saw you.

“Hey bud,” you said. You approached him, slowly, as one would an unpredictable animal.

“Hey, kid,” he said. His voice was still devoid of emotion, and his look terrified you. His usually expressive eyes were stone, his jaw locked, his entire face was ice.

You knelt in front of him, waiting until he lazily slid his gaze to your eyes. He looked away quickly.

“You want to talk about it?” you asked.

“Nope.”

“Do you want to get out of here?” you tried again.

“Nope,” he took a long drag of his cigarette, turning his mouth to blow the smoke away from you. He was stoic.

You knew there was no sense in asking him what he wanted to do. His mind wasn’t functioning, and this was the most far gone you had ever seen him. So you tried another approach. Unzipping your bag, you took out a colouring book and the pencil case that had kept you occupied on the plane. You gently set them down on the floor.

“Can I touch you?” you asked, quietly. You didn’t dare move. He nodded his head.

“Bill, look at me,” your tone was gentle, but firm. Working his jaw, he took another haul of his cigarette and stubbed it out before he brought his eyes to yours.

“Can I touch you?”

“Yeah,” he rasped. You still kept your movements slow,  sitting down beside him and squishing your shoulder into his side. Coaxing his legs down from their sharp angles, you tossed one of your legs over his and rested your head on his shoulder. You felt him rest his chin on top of your head, breathing in, before plunking his cheek down. Tearing a page from the colouring book, you placed it on his lap and grabbed the pencil case in front of you. You started to colour. It took a few minutes, but eventually his hand reached, plucking a crayon and starting to colour between the lines of the drawing you had given him.

You don’t know how long you stayed like that. You had no intentions of moving until Bill told you he was ready. You checked in every now and then, nothing pushing or urgent in your tone, just wanting to see where he was at in his mind. You would have sat with him, like that, for days if he needed it. And he would have done the same for you, you knew.

Eventually, he nudged you. Shifting a little, he moved you until you sat in front of him. He looked down, fiddling with his hands, and you gently placed one of yours on top. The other tilted his chin up.

“I know what they’re saying about me right now,” he started quietly.

“Who gives a shit what they’re saying about you right now,” you said, your words were biting but you tried to keep your tone level.

“I’m done, tiger,” he continued, “I tried to make this work and I can’t.”

You nodded, staying silent.

“I can’t do this. But I can’t walk away, either.”

“Why not?” you asked.

“What if it ruins my career?”

It was a reality. You told him that. Walking away from a project with a big director attached to it could have been career suicide, you knew that even when you had nothing to do with his world. But you also knew it was still early in the project, you knew that he paid a lot of money to publicists, agents, assistants, anyone who could manage his public image. You knew there would be a way to spin this--creative differences, at worst--that could justify his dropping out of the project. You knew that people with hearts of gold were easy to pick up on, and even in the smoke and mirrors that were part of being a celebrity, that would somehow shine through. It took some time, a few more cigarettes for him, but he eventually nodded.

“Get me out of here, kid,” he said, his eyes pained, as he stubbed out his last cigarette. You brushed the hair from his forehead, helping him to his feet.

“You trust me, Billy Goat?” you asked. He nodded.

“Good,” you pulled out your phone, firing a quick text to his assistant for her car keys, and the location of his trailer. You plugged your earphones into the jack and tugged Bill’s shirt so he’d bend into your reach. You put your hands on either side of his face.

“You need to do exactly as I say. Your eyes stay on me, at all times. You look at no one. You don’t take the earphones out. You listen to no one, you speak to no one. You do nothing except hold my hand and follow me. Got it?”

He nodded. 

“I love you, bud” you said as you kissed his cheek, tugging the hood on his sweater up around his head.

“I love you too, kid,” He let you place the earphones in his ears, wincing a little as you cranked the volume on a Nirvana song. You popped your phone into his pocket.

“Let’s get you the fuck out of here,” you said, but it fell on deaf ears. Grabbing his hand, you unlocked the door. His assistant stood beside it, and you grabbed her keys from her outstretched hand and blew past her. With Bill hot on your heels, you stalked off set. When the director yelled after you, you barely spared him a glance.

“He’s done,” you yelled back, not breaking pace.

You identified Bill’s trailer from the instructions his assistant sent you. Locking the door behind you, you gently pushed him onto the couch and plucked an earbud from his ear.

“Anything other than your bag in here?” you asked. He shook his head. You shoved the earbud back in, grabbed his knapsack, hauled him off the couch, and started toward his assistant’s car.

You took your phone back when you were safely the car, looking up directions to the airport and texting his assistant to have his luggage from his hotel shipped to him back home. Bill stayed silent, his face still blank as he leaned against the window.

He let you guide him into the airport, plunking him down in a chair while you figured out a route back home. A flight would leave in two hours, but an overnight layover was needed at the next stop before being able to fly home from there. You gave the agent your credit card.

It was akin to dealing with a child, the way you had to guide Bill through all the steps. You had to tell him to take off his shoes, when to put them back on. You had to remind him to drink some water, and when he squished next to you on the small plane seat with his legs jutting into the aisle, you managed to gently coerce him into eating something. When you landed for the overnight layover, you booked a room at the hotel there and shoved Bill into the shower. When you emerged from yours, you sat next to him on the bed where he had curled up. He reached for your hand, placing it on his wet hair. You threaded your fingers through it. It was only then, when he looked at you, that you started to see your best friend in the eyes that had been blank since you busted the lock on the bathroom door.

“Thanks, tiger,” he said.

“Any time, bud. We’re in this together, all of it. Always,” you reassured. 

“This is gonna be one hell of a shit show,” he sighed, pinching his eyes shut. You moved your hand from his hair, smoothing your fingers over his features.

“Those are my favourite,” you said. It earned you a laugh and you kissed his cheek.

“Get some sleep, Billy Goat. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow. Together.”

[ramblingshit]

Some Video Game Ratings

> Heavy Rain - 2010 - 3.5/5

good enough gameplay, somewhat interesting story, nice twist, but the stupidest most unbelievable kids in all of history. Only a few emotional moments but otherwise pretty bland. Fun though. 

>Horizon Zero Dawn - 2017  - 4.5/5

fuckin awesome concept and execution, love the clothes options, love the progress from outcast to basically a fuckin goddess, that she’s a clone of Elisabeth, her finding her body at the end fuckin made me cry, it was beautiful and so realistic and grounded, everything felt like it could have truly happened, the ruins of the city they have no concept of, just bits of strange metal. The whole gaia program and the enemies being manipulated by the dark side of it. Love alloy, love the gameplay – stealth and otherwise, love the story, love the visuals. Boyyyyyy. Love this game. 

>Ratchet and Clank  - 2016 - 2/5

nostalgic and pretty fun, clean but dull visuals, fine voice acting, but very much a children’s game with very little depth to story or characterisation. Meh. 

>Until Dawn - 2015 - 4.5/5

fuck me another fantastic game, story was brilliant, twists and turns and people dying at any moment, visuals were great, acting was stellar, action and sneaky scenes were terrifying tryna hold that controller as still as possible, literally put it down at times to keep us from getting our jaw ripped off. Quick time events were fun and stressful. Was actually really fun to replay episodes to get achievements and all collectibles. Fkn love this game, Sam and Mike for the win, with Emily a close second, Matt and Chris are meh but Ashley can suck a fat one, like damn that chick was a fuck up. 

>Rise of the Tomb Raider - 2015 - 2/5

good visuals, kinda fun gameplay, only interesting scene where Lara shows any kind of characterisation is where she meets Jacob in the cells and their chat there. Otherwise #notmylara. She’s not even stoic and cold, she’s just blank. Her voice actress is shit, the story is like, not even there who cares. But hair and clothing is pretty g, as is seeing the bow get better.

>Batman: the Telltale series - 2016 - 3.5/5

boy this was pretty g, chilling smashing out quick time events, batman looked a bit odd and had too many expressions and it was a bit slow at times, but some options were sick, like impaling that dude in front of a newscrew. All exploded uphill when suddenly wayne was locked in Arkham and he met fkn ‘John Doe’ who was nice if a little off and sincerely eager to be Wayne’s bestie. I decided at that moment that at all times I would go along with my dude John. Some other uninteresting stuff happened, I beat Cobblepot as Bruce and then some other stuff happened like honestly story was unmemorable as fuck. But it was a fun enough time, especially with mr pre-joker hanging around whoop whoop. Also no one cares about Selina Kyle, just scrap her honestly. Actually good twist with vale being Arkham or whatever and wayne getting shot in the ear instead of letting Alfred get hurt, shout out to my bby Alfred. But otherwise it was decent game. 

>GoT: the Telltale series - 2014 - 2.5/5

only cared about Rodrick and whats her face in king’s landing. Other black cloak guy was forgettable, dude running around Dorne n meeting khaleesi even more so. Made kings landing girl good at the game, manipulating here and there, doing what she could to keep alive, keeping everyone at arms length. Had her accept whatshisface’s proposal and sacrifice her one loyal friend the coal boy to stay alive. Brutal, I loved it. Rodrick and getting him strong enough to fuck off the whitehills was sick, but tragically had him sacrifice himself for his dumbass little brother but tho I regret it I knew it was what the loyal family man would have done. But anyway visuals sucked ass, gameplay was telltale’s usual fuckery and there you go who gives a shit about the rest amirite. 

>Amnesia: the dark descent - 2010 - 4/5

good atmosphere, ambient lighting and sounds make you tense AF, stories pretty good, finding out that you were a piece of shit helping alexander torture people for his whatevers to power them before he had to kill a kid or a woman or something and decided he felt like shit and didn’t wanna do it anymore so took a forget potion to reset himself and hopefully work to stop what he helped alexander start. Also I think alexander was an alien but whatevs. Bad guys were scary at first but you soon realise that the majority of them patrol for a bit but if you wait long enough they literally just fuck off and youre free to do what you want its fully wack. Had fun, mechanics were cool, visuals were good for its time. It was hella dark so keeping enough oil for the lantern was enough. Most of the story was told in letters, which were badly read by the actors but you could just skip em so no real worries. A few puzzles and collecting shit here and there. In a solidly well done game. 

>Fallout: New Vegas - 2010 - 5/5

occasionally characters mention people/things that you didn’t or didn’t even have the option to, mention or ask about, had a lot of experiences with enemies warping through walls or getting stuck in the ground, crashes with fire effects, female models talking with male voices, game freezing on loading screens and having to restart entire system to get out of it. All of this is forgiven because fallout new vegas is a fucking gem – it is the epitome of a RPG, you can do and be almost anything you want. The customisation is awesome, the factions and faction clothes are fantastic. The karmas a bit iffy because my character is a kleptomaniac and stealing lowers your karma so I’m basically the Devil but everyone in the wasteland loves me? But again, I can forgive. I’ve played this multiple times and am still finding new quests or new ways to complete old quests; new places, new people to talk to etc etc. this game is beautiful, I love it. Closest thing to perfection you’re gonna find.

[thatdarnblogagain]

Captain Marvel Review

This...this is awkward. *Ahem* How does one put this gently? The Captain Marvel movie, kind of sucks. Like “oh my gosh this is bad” sucks. That sentiment comes from an objective viewpoint; well as objective a viewpoint one can have after watching whatever Marvel’s, Captain Marvel was.

I paid little attention to the calls for the film to be boycotted or whatever controversy surrounded the lead of the film, Brie Larson. All I wanted was a good film as Marvel is accustomed to delivering. Sadly, I was let down. Why you ask?

.Carol: A tale of Two Leads - One of the biggest problems for me is not the character of Captain Marvel but what Marvel is trying to do with her. It is in some way similar to what happened with Iron Man in his first live action film.

Robert Downy Jr took a C to B list character at best and gave a performance that shot him into the upper echelons of comics. However that was more of an unintentional thing. There was no one saying how great Tony Stark was. We saw this with his ingenuity throughout the film but more than that we saw it by how vulnerable he was by being captured, and left for dead more than once, thus having to learn or rely on others. Why? Because Tony is a genius and he is genius enough to know he needed others to help him in his plight. Yes he has an ego but that falls away when he knows his or others’ lives depend on it. He makes mistakes and comes out of the other side stronger for it. That’s relatable.

In Captain Marvel from the first exchange of dialogue in the movie, we are told how strong Carol is though she is “emotional” (Something we see little of). We have constant scenarios of the character being lauded by others for how brilliant she is, whether as a pilot, warrior or hero. There is no fall for her beyond brief moments of being captured...twice. In each scenario she manages to get away with ease and gain little from either. Yes she “falls” in the movie during montages as Marvel tries to hamfist the idea of rising up into the plot line but Steve Rogers did that already and without needing to hammer it home that this was a Psuedo-motivational moment.

Again let’s look at Tony. In his workshop Tony goes through countless tests to get his suit to fly or do what he wishes and we see him fail before he succeeds. But Tony does not give up! He keeps going till he gets it done and even then, he keeps upgrading his suits for any possible situation because he knows he is not invincible. Anything is possible and he needs to be prepared. Whether this is caution or his need for control it shows us Tony’s mindset which almost seems neurotic at its worst.

Carol...falls from space, closes her eyes and decides to fly. That is a scene meant to be empowering but I instead just groaned. Marvel seems to want us to buy into Carol being the cornerstone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but I think it can be argued while not nearly as strong as Carol, Black Widow deserves that spot.

(This picture has more charisma than the cast)

.The Attitude - Carol is cocky. Not quite Tony Stark or Namor cocky but she has an ego of sorts. She is a woman who knows she is powerful, knows she has the means to take control and is not afraid of doing so. However she has an attitude of no nonsense but also of being able to empathize with others, such as when Scarlet Witch returned to her senses after the House of M storyline. Carol in her Ms.Marvel guise along with Spider-Woman come to her aid before taking Wanda to the Avengers’ Mansion and in those few pages we see a range of emotions. Joy at seeing her friend. The jubilant yet skilled approach Carol takes to fighting the threats facing them. The pain on her face when Vision turns Wanda, his wife at the time, away.

Those are organic expressions and it hurts to say those pages carry more emotion in them than Brie’s portrayal. It is wooden and has no real character behind it. Yes she is soldier but so is Captain America, Bucky, Falcon and Black Widow. Yes she has amnesia, so did Bucky and in Civil War he still showed the emotion of someone who felt like they could not even trust themselves, worry, fear, wariness of all around him besides Steve. Brie really only has one emotion throughout. Stoic. Stoic in happiness, sadness and anger.

She does stoic well but nothing else. For example, upon realizing all she knows is false, Carol in the movie has no moment of breaking down that others face. T’challa upon seeing his father’s transgression confronts him and completely changes his mindset about aiding the outside.  Charlize Theron as Furiosa in Mad Max - Fury Road upon realizing what she was fighting for all along no longer exists, this bastion of strength walks into the desert, takes off her prosthetic arm and screams into the distance. Carol has none of that besides saying, “I don’t know who I am!!!” which is quickly countered by her friend saying, “You are Carol Danvers....”. And...that’s it. She has a moment at the end where she echoes this and ordeal over. Yup.

.Missed Opportunities - Yon Rogg, Korath, Ronan, Agent Coulson, Mar-Vell and even the Skrulls feel like they were wasted in this movie. Some are glorified cameos and that sucks. Korath especially feels like he could have had backstory to show how he became what he was in Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh and Mar-Vell...what did they do to Mar-Vell!?!? Moving on!

Nick Fury feels like he got some of the worst of it all. Many wanted to see how he got those Scars but the pay off is so bad you wish it was instead a moment better left to our imagination. While it is fun seeing a younger Nick Fury at work with a different attitude to his older self, there seems like he deserved a subplot that paid off the speculation of him losing his eye.

Skrulls + He trusted someone he should not have + Lost an eye = Easy Subplot. Imagine going through a movie with Nick having faith in a character only to see that is not who he thought it was and pays a huge price before painfully having to take that person out? That would have explained the Nick Fury who we know so well.

(Annnnnnnd...lack of common sense starts now)

.Plot Twists - NO! That’s all I will say! NO! I understand trying to subvert expectations but there are some things in the Marvel Universe that should stay as such. This is not like changing, M’Baku to a anti-hero/hero or the Mandarin into an Actor (Who was not even the real Mandarin). This is like taking the Red Skull and making him a hero. It  just does not work. That is all I will say to avoid spoilers.

.What Genre am I? - You know something? Winter Soldier is a Spy Thriller movie. Ant Man, a crime comedy. Thor-Raganarok a Sci-Fi Comedy. None of them are really the same despite being hero flicks. Each has its identity. Each understands what it wants to do. Captain Marvel does not.

It shifts from bad action movie, to bad drama to bad comedy. It is jack of nothing and the ace of nothing. Captain America understood it was a period piece and played up the aspects of this. It was essential but Captain Marvel only has this is spots before the film does away with them.

It is no rite of passage tale like Homecoming was or even Shazam. In those films the heroes fall due to their own errors and must dig themselves out of it, in one case literally. Captain Marvel has none of that. Brie is powerful at the start and becomes more powerful at the end. It has the spy of spies in the MCU, Nick Fury but fails to use him nearly enough.

A depowered Carol, (Thanks to a power cancelling chip on her neck) on the run with Fury trying to understand her past sounds like an amazing prospect, making me want to see her regain her powers after gaining better understanding of how to utilize them. But nope, she whoops ass and will make sure you know. Even if you don’t want to.

(I’m the badass female of the MCU...after Black Widow, Okoye, Shuri, Peggy Carter, Valkyrie, Gamora, Frigga, Pepper Pots, Aunt May, *Aunt May Into the Spider-Verse* Nebula, Sif, Sharon Carter, Nakia, The Ancient One...yeah after all of them!)

Rating: 1 out 5

.Boring Screen Play and action

.Bland Lead

.Misguided attempt at a powerful female lead (Wonder Woman & Furiosa did it far better even if they were flawed as well)

.Convoluted plot

.Goose is awesome and so is Nick Fury.

[idolizerp]

LOADING INFORMATION ON R!OT’S MAIN DANCE KIM MIJUNG…

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: Jade CURRENT AGE: 21 DEBUT AGE: 21 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 16 COMPANY: 99 ETC: Though often overlooked in the group, she has begun picking up modest acting roles

IDOL IMAGE

99 Entertainment is hoping to make the best of a bad situation where Mijung’s stoic nature is concerned. She lacks charisma and emotion in spoken interviews, though she wows when performing. To capitalize on this, 99 Ent. hope to portray Mijung with a cool and mysterious image. She can pull off the aloof, unattainable essence but managers are constantly trying to pull some playfulness out of her to soften the edge. But when she dances, it’s like she’s someone else. It comes out effortlessly then. Little smiles and smirks to go along with her deep stares. She feels it in the music and it comes out, without her even meaning to. How do they get her to perform that attitude on demand when there’s no beat to follow? It’s a struggle for all involved. Still, her talent is undeniable.

Jade is something of R!ot’s ice queen. More often than not, her face is blank and stoic. This expression, neutral for her, comes off as angry or rude. As a result, netizens and members of the media often mistake Mijung for being stuck up or upset. Mijung doesn’t know how to fix it, so 99 has decided to roll with it. Jade is just too cool, too flawless to deal with people. Her quietness isn’t out of shyness, it’s out of disinterest. She has better things to be doing, more important places to be, deeper thoughts to be thinking. Only the best for R!ot’s Jade. It’s a strange turn of events for middle class Mijung.

The company is also trying to parlay Jade’s ‘too cool for you’ image into something of an acting career. Roles are chosen for Mijung carefully, to accentuate the girl crush style all the while trying to minimize her lack of acting experience and talent. It’s not always successful. Jade is known for being a mediocre actor at best, but she still has dedicated fans, mostly raves, who will gladly watch anything she’s cast in. 99 isn’t looking for Jade to earn any awards, anyway. She doesn’t have to be a fantastic, or believable actress. Which is good, because she likely never will be.

IDOL HISTORY

Kim Mijung was born in Busan on the 29th of December, 1997. Mijung never spoke much, even as a child. She didn’t start speaking until she was three, though her first words came in the form of a full sentence. Her parents were concerned. Her older sister, Aejung, and younger sister, Yoojung, both developed normally. They spoke early and often while Mijung often sat quietly and observed. It wasn’t normal, the Kims thought. And so they took her to one specialist after another, from speech therapists to child psychologists. Nothing was wrong, they all told the Kims. Her hearing was fine, her vocal chords normal. Intellectually, Mijung tested within the expected range for her age, perhaps a bit above. She could speak if she needed to; she simply chose not to. Though still troubled by Mijung’s silence, her parents slowly accepted the fact that she was not and would never be like her sisters.

Because of her quiet nature, Mijung had fewer friends than her sisters. Her parents tried to counteract this by putting her in after school activities. Football, piano, gymnastics; Mijung performed well in each of these, particularly the more physical ones. There was one such activity that Mijung took to like no other: dancing. It came naturally to her, like nothing ever had. Through dance, Mijung could express herself the way she’d never been able to with words. She felt free. Mijung continued in her other teams and clubs, but it was clear to all that dance was her one true passion.

Things took an unexpected turn for Mijung when she was thirteen. Her younger sister, Yoojung desperately wanted to study abroad. Being so young, of course their parents were reluctant to send her thousands of miles away. Yoojung wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. After months of begging, crying, and pleading, the Kims agreed to let Yoojung study in Australia. The had one condition: Mijung needed to go with her. She was the responsible, dedicated older sister. She could take care of Yoojung, keep her out of trouble. It was framed as though Mijung could have, in theory, said no. But really, she had no other choice. Mijung couldn’t have lived with the guilt of denying her sister what she so desired. When the next term started, the two younger Kim sisters were living in Melbourne with a host family.

Mijung struggled in Australia. Her English was lacking to say the least. Her school work obviously suffered as a result, but the issues did not end there. Not having fluency in the official language of the country she was living in made life difficult for Mijung in other ways. Navigating her way around town and buying things in shops became challenges. Each and every interaction about anyone who didn’t speak Korean was a test of Mijung’s will. Existing pushed her out of her comfort zone. Between Mijung’s reserved nature and not being able to communicate, making friends almost seemed out of the question. It was an isolated existence. Still, Mijung pushed through, unwilling to force her sister to return to Busan with her. More than ever, Mijung threw herself into her dance. There she found comfort and satisfaction. She didn’t need to know any language to dance.

Slowly but surely, things got better. Mijung adjusted, learned the language. She adopted a Western name, Jade, though she still preferred being called Mijung. She once again managed to make a few, precious friends. By the time Mijung was sixteen, Mijung finally felt at least somewhat comfortable with her life in Australia. While Mijung was finally settled into her life abroad, her sister was once again looking for something new and different. When she heard about 99 Entertainment holding international auditions in Melbourne, Yoojung jumped at the chance. Mijung went along to look after her, like any good big sister would.

Mijung never had any intention of becoming an idol. It never even crossed her mind. She wanted to be a dancer, a choreographer, not a singer, not a public figure. All Mijung wanted was to express herself. That, however, was not the case for her younger sister. Yoojung craved the idol lifestyle, the fame and attention. She felt like she was meant for it and a large company like 99 seemed like an obvious choice. It was no surprise to the ever confident Yoojung when she passed the audition. Mijung, on the other hand, could hardly say the same when she passed the audition as well. Why would an idol company want someone like her? In the end, it didn’t much matter why. From the moment 99 Entertainment said yes to both of the sisters, it was clear they would both go to Seoul and become trainees.

Being a trainee proved difficult for Mijung. Though she excelled in the dance classes, her shortcomings were obvious. She had no previous vocal training, her personality left a lot to be desired and she struggled in the language courses. Mijung never felt confident in her abilities in any area apart from dance. It seemed that it was only a matter of time before Mijung would be cut loose. But still, she persisted. Mijung didn’t want to let her sister down, to be a failure. Slowly, she improved. After years of training, it appeared that Mijung had surpassed her younger sister in all areas. All but personality, that was. Mijung remained as quiet and stoic as ever despite all of her media training.

Two years after becoming a trainee, Mijung’s sister Yoojung was frustrated at the lack of opportunities to debut. Lured in by the promise of debuting sooner, Yoojung left 99 Entertainment to become a trainee in another company. Mijung was devastated. She’d given up her life in Busan, her hard fought friendships, her ambitions to become a choreographer for Yoojung. She’d pushed herself to do things she never even wanted for the sake of her sister and her dream. What did her sister do as thanks? Abandon her. The relationship between the sisters was fractured, seemingly irreparably. From then on, Mijung rarely communicated with her sister in any way.

Most everyone expected Mijung to leave 99 Entertainment when her sister did. Maybe she’d join another company, maybe stop being a trainee altogether. This did not happen. Instead, Mijung redoubled her efforts. She worked harder than she ever had before, setting herself apart from the example Yoojung had left. Mijung believed that when she started something, she needed to stay to the finish, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it became. For the first time, Mijung dedicated herself to debuting.

In late 2017, Mijung was allowed to enter a survival talent competition with the ultimate prized coveted by trainees:  a debut. 99 Entertainment was neither willing no ready to debut a new group, but by this point, they’d recognized Mijung’s talent and dedication. The show was considered Mijung’s test run. If she did well, more importantly, if the public liked her, she was all but guaranteed a proper debut once her obligations toward the show were over. The brass ring had never seemed to close, so within reach.

Finishing the show on top was Mijung’s only goal. It was the only outcome she would accept. Countless hours of sleep were lost to long, rigorous practices over the course of the show’s months long run. It paid off. Mijung quickly rose through the ranks. In the end, Mijung was selected to be a part of the winning group. Mijung cried when her name was called out. She’d never been so happy.

Her joy was shortlived. Mijung heard talk during the show of it’s unpopularity. There were whispers of poor ratings, lack of interest, cancellation. At the time, Mijung tuned it out. It was a distraction, one she could not afford. But after the finale, the whispers grew louder and louder, until not even stubborn Mijung could drown them out. The new group’s debut was postponed. The show had been a critical and ratings failure. Mijung felt like a failure. Again, she cried.

Mijung returned to her training at 99 Ent, eyes downcast and very much in limbo. The company wouldn’t put her in their next planned debut if she still had a contractual obligation to debut in the competition show’s girl group. For months, there was no word from the company that put on the show. Mijung continued to practice, train, but there seemed little point. Then, finally, she was told. There would be no debut. This time, Mijung did not cry. She felt far too numb. She’d flown too high and got burned.

For the first time, Mijung considered giving up.

She didn’t. She couldn’t. Mijung went through so much and to quit then would make it all be for nothing. This was just one more obstacle, another painful reminder of how much farther she still had to go. Mijung, once again, rededicated herself to being selected by 99 Ent to debut. She harnessed her pain to push her forward, to toughen herself against the harsh realities of the idol industry. At least now, Mijung told herself, she was free to do whatever 99 Entertainment wanted of her. She would not let this failure hold her back.

With her dancing talent and her newly rediscovered drive, Mijung rose to the top of 99 Ent’s trainee pool. Her personality remained dull during interviews but Mijung displayed an extraordinary stage presence and charisma when dancing. She’d never be the main face of a group but Mijung somehow seemed a perfect fit for the new girl group the company was planning to debut. The girl crush concept meshed well with her cool, almost unapproachable air. A talented dancer, she could easily handle the hard-hitting choreography. By the end of 2018, nearly a year after the failure of her stint on the compeition show, Mijung was chosen to be the new group, R!ot’s, main dancer.

R!ot’s debut was everything a rookie could’ve asked for. The song was a massive hit and Mijung, who debuted using her western name, Jade, as her stage name was praised for her dancing skill and charisma on stage. The nearly five years she spent training, the disappointment of the competition show, the betrayal of her sister, all seemed worth it. Mijung was certainly not the most popular member of the group, her personality failing her when the performances were over, but Mijung was happy all the same.

The company, however, was not so satisfied. Determined to find a way to further monetize Mijung despite her apparent lack of off stage charisma, R!ot’s management has used the time since the group’s debut into acting. Producers and casting directors are more than happy to play along. R!ot’s new fans are expected to tune in en masse despite Mijung’s wooden acting, ever eager to consume whatever content the group members put out as they wait for their first comeback. For her part, Mijung is not pleased with this turn of events. She didn’t mind being in the background and feels uncomfortable in front of the camera. And yet, she doesn’t complain. She worked so hard for so long for the chance to become a proper idol. Mijung is going to continue doing whatever 99 Entertainment asks of her.

[widgenstain]

i hope this doesnt sound creepy but what were your thoughts on submergence? I love reading movie reviews/rants about my faves (jamesy)

Lol, no,not creepy at all, I wanted write a few words after I saw it two weeks (?) agoanyway, but got distracted. I hope this doesn’t disappoint you though! Not so many positive opinions here!

(light spoilers under the cut)

The best word to sum up my feelings about this is“meh”. I expected the worst after reading some reviews but it wasn’tTHAT bad. It wasn’t good either though. I felt pretty vindicated in myassessment from January 2016 ; Submergence isn’t abook that translates well on screen. And they didn’t even try very hard. Boy, thatscript is bad…

Sceneslifted directly from the book that anyone with even the tiniest understandingof how good narratives work would have changed, or at least tried to make morefilmable. Instead we got this mess; long, clunky, scientific dialogue thatworks as a build-up in the book but needed to be cut short in the movie andmore importantly: focussed on the message and motives behind it! What does it mean to behuman, to live in certain social structures and how insignificant are we andthose social structures really in the big picture? You don’t have to explain the layers of the Ocean if you can’t get across how vast they really are and what that vastness is meant to symbolise! 

Thedirection doesn’t clear anything up either. It’s so inconsistent in its levelsof subtlety. Especially in the parts that take place in France it needed to be waymore obvious; what attracts these two people to each other? THE importantquestion in a romance!

In the bookit’s intellectual understanding and fascination with the other person’sapproach to topics like love, death, religion etc.. I wasn’t kidding in my earlierpost when I said that in the book they aren’t really characters, but voices for differentworld views that somehow still see their similarities and learn from eachother. The whole thing is supported by their weirdly intertwining heritage andlife story; she’s a biracial cosmopolitan who explores the seas his ancestors sailed,before he became a spy in Africa, who’s deeply involved with Eastern Africanconflicts.

In the movie?Yeah, that first part doesn’t come across whatsoever. They try, but it’s fartoo subtle and the script doesn’t capture the differences/similarities at all. Theyprobably realised that, so they added a lot of sex scenes instead. I was veryworried for them but they’re actually fine.They’re notreally well-matched physically, James looks way older than Alicia (well, he is,widge) but they do have chemistry. Is it the chemistry the movie needs though? No,it’s not.

I totallycan see them as two people who met at a nice hotel on the Atlantic coast and thought“hey u cute!” “hey, u cute too, let’s have some really good sex since we’reboth people who are so good at sex.” And after the three days, they went their ways andmaybe thought of each other during a wank session or two.

It’s notthe chemistry of a couple where he thinks of her in the worst moments of his lifeand she in the most triumphant yet terrifying ones. 

As for the intertwiningheritages? They actually wrote, shot, edited and left in a scene in which hetalks about her being such a “mongrel” of Swedish and Australian heritage. Noone in that whole process noticed the disconnect or the freaking white-washing!Wim Wenders deserves a few punches in the nuts for that.

As for theacting, yeah… I’m not a fan of Alicia, there I said it. I don’t subscribe tothe hate the Fassbender fans/haters/toxically obsessed creeps (who keeps upwith this these days?) throw at her but I sincerely do. not. understand. how shemade it as far as an actress as she has. 

Still, she is ok in this, she showsmore than her usual three expressions and some actual emotions. That doesn’ttake away from the fact that she acts in scenes, not in movies. She’s onecharacter in one scene, another in the next. It - weirdly enough - works bestin the sex scenes where they allowed her to be an unusually tomboyish character,not the ultra-feminine seductress you’d expect in such context. She feels more or less natural and ok in them.

She’s farless believable as the career-driven and respected-by-her-peers scientist andit’s the absolute worst in the “phone” scenes. To be fair the script fucks herover in these as well, turning Danny, a stoic woman of science about to go onthe biggest adventure of her career, into a bawling teenage girl, who’s upsetthat the guy she had really good sex with doesn’t reply to her calls. 

A betteractress than her would have struggled with that garbage too, but with her scene-actingit really feels like you’re watching someone completely different each time. Addthe gloomy goth girl rambling about suffocating in really inappropriate momentsand you’ve got your stitched together Frankenstein character.

James of course knows how to portray a coherent character, but he isn’tat the height of his game either in the beginning. He’s a bit stiff, the whole spy stuff is thankfully short because it feels like an artsy-fartsydirector trying and failing to do James Bond, and the scenes in captivity would have hit much harder if you’d gotten WHY he adores her so and whispers “OH DANNY” all so dramatically.

I mean, I get thatmovie!James is trying to hang on to his sanity as best as he can, but why think of that random girlhe had really good sex with in France? Why not his mother, his best friend or, ffs, his housekeeper in Nairobi he’s known for more than 3 days?! The film doesn’tget this across and it’s sad (I’m also convinced the editor hated them. Herflashbacks show him squinting unattractively and his flashbacks show her from areally unfortunate angle.)

However, hisacting is top notch in the pivotal scene when movie!James’ captors send him into thewater to shoot him. It starts out all dramatic but then he takes it and turnsit into this absolutely painful, human moment where he yanks the audience’sheart out and crushes it like he’s wont to do. Man is he good. From that on Ilike the movie. 

The interactions with the doctor (helloooo Julian Bashir, didn’tknow you were in this!) are the best scenes in the book as well and they’reexcellent. Nothing is black and white, how different can the lessons differentpeople take from the same situations be, etc.? It’s great.

Except whenthe movie suddenly throws all subtlety overboard. There’s a scene where a womangets stoned and instead of focusing on the fucking amazing acting that goes on onJames’ and Alexander Siddig’s faces it has to ram the pointhome with the silliest effects. It’s such a waste of two excellent actors with an amazingly uncomfortable chemistry. 

Still, the scenes with the extremists are awesome. Too short and I don’t think the movie audience really gets how intriguingReda Kateb’s character really is, but they’re part of a movie that could havebeen great. Pity that wasn’t the whole movie.

I was a bitconfused after Tiff last year where Wenders said that he changed the ending butI don’t think he really has? Both are open in ways, but not really. I liked theending in the book and I liked it in the movie, super kitschy lifetime movieshots of Danny aside.

Anotherpositive thing I noticed was the light. Whoever did that really understood whatto do with the beautiful people in front of the camera and how to tell thefreaking story. I swear, the light on her face as he leaves the hotel, in hisprison and in her sub does a far better job at connecting them and explainingthe motives than script and direction together! I hope that light person got paid a ridiculously high amount of money and gets to do more movies.The script person should find another day job though and Wenders should stick todocumentaries from now on.

In short:Meh. Not gonna buy the DVD but maybe will check it out another time when/if itcomes along on Netflix and see if my opinion changes.

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/supernatural-various-sundry-villains-kill-darlings/

'Supernatural' Various & Sundry Villains: Kill Your Darlings

Okay, I’m going to be upfront, I was ready to be super underwhelmed by last week’s Supernatural episode “Various & Sundry Villains.” All of the promotion focused on the love spell, and frankly, we’ve been there, done that. In fact, I’m shocked that showrunner Andrew Dabb let this pitch go to script given that he wrote the controversial episode “Season 7 Time for a Wedding”, an episode that I can honestly say has only one truly redeeming quality: Leslie Odom, Jr. was in it. While this was arguably derivative of that episode, giving this the go ahead was risky on Dabb’s part. It paid off for writer, Steve Yockey, because this love spell outing was much better than the last. In the opening of this episode we meet the Plum sisters, and I hate to say this, but despite watching this episode three times I don’t actually remember their first names and I could barely tell them apart anyway, so we’ll just call the one Dean “falls in love with” Harley Quinn and the other one we’ll call… Harley Quinn’s little sister? Yeah, sure, why not? Between the cutesy valley girl verbiage and the bloody sledgehammer, I’m sure we were supposed to get an Arkham Asylum vibe off these two. At least, I really hope that was the intention. I’ll be honest, I was not impressed with these characters and I’m not sure if it was off writing, off casting, or off directing, but they felt really forced. From their overly stereotypical Millenial way of speaking to their overtly blatant mirroring of Sam and Dean (yes, we get it, one is younger and brainy, they other is older and protective, they’re obsessed with their dead mom and it could go badly, was that a hammer they were using or an anvil?) the Plum sisters, unlike their Winchester counterparts, came off as grating. Maybe they were supposed to? Again, I hope so. I will say that as a horror buff I enjoyed the return of Rowena’s mad dog spell and the demise of the Plum sisters at each other’s hands. I saw a lot of people say it was too much, too gratuitous, too gory. And perhaps it was, but given the movies I regularly watch and enjoy, well, I embraced it. While I will say I’m glad the love spell portion of the episode was short-lived, it’s always fun to see Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki show off their comedy elbow chops; Ackles with the perfectly timed glibness he brings to Dean Winchester and Padalecki’s Sam Winchester, ever the earnest Abbott to Ackles’ Costello, was subtle, stoic faced gold. Ackles and Padalecki got to play off each other magnificently in this episode; from Dean walking in practically floating on a love cloud, to Sam trying desperately to remind Dean they’ve been down this weird love spell road before, to Ackles’ delivery of “‘cause she’s got a sister”, to their tussle in front of the Impala (though, dang, these boys horseplay hard given the butt dent Sam left on the hood after Dean rushed him) the two actors smoothly show how well they work together no matter the material. But the star of this episode was Rowena. Her entrance was stellar, and she stole every scene. Ruth Connell is delightful in this role and for the most part (we’ll get to that later) I was glad to see her back because I was sorry to lose her last season, especially in such a cheap, off-screen way. I’m hard-pressed to fall for new characters, but Rowena is one that I really enjoy. Connell was able to give us comedy and tragedy in this episode, going from snark to desperation fluidly. I also have to give Steve Yockey heaps of credit for having Rowena not only ask about Crowley but allowing her to have an outburst about his death. Hearing her say that she’d rather have him alive than to have died a hero hit really close to home given that the lack of Mark Sheppard as Crowley has been quite the gaping hole this season. Take a note from Yockey, other writers, because I’m still waiting for Castiel to ask about Meg… Speaking of Castiel, he and Lucifer were locked up. Now they aren’t. And like, they had a whole big penis to penis measurement contest and Castiel for some reason tried to hurt Lucifer by telling him that Jack doesn’t even look like him, which… um, Lucifer is in the image of a seasons dead vessel so, of course, he doesn’t look like him. And also, when did you get to know so much about Jack, Castiel? I think maybe the writer accidentally gave Misha Collins some of Sam’s lines to say. If I sound like I was less than moved by any of these scenes, it’s because I wasn’t. The scenes weren’t objectively bad or anything, and not only has Mark Pellegrino has found his footing as Lucifer again, but he and Collins play extremely well off each other. Unfortunately, their scenes simply didn’t mesh well with the “A” plot and the dichotomy crashed the episode’s momentum. Although, I did enjoy both characters reminding each other what untrustworthy, hypocritical screw-ups both have been. Again, I appreciate it when Supernatural is self-aware like that because fallibility gives depth and interest. Now, you didn’t think I was going to review this episode and not talk about Sam and Rowena sharing their trauma, did you? Because that was a scene that many Supernatural fans have waited years for. In season 11, Sam was forced to not only work with Lucifer, but he had to allow Lucifer into his home, into his room, and wasn’t allowed to voice any grievances about it and while Padalecki did a phenomenal job adding little twitches and moments of tight body language and subtle distance, it was all too obvious that the writers were wary of taking Sam’s trauma seriously because at the time Lucifer was possessing Castiel’s body and the “Cassifer" version of Lucifer was played mostly as a joke throughout that entire arc, nothing but a bratty teenager throwing a tantrum, while Sam Winchester, the boy who had every reason to rip into both Lucifer and God, just stood on the sidelines silently like he was totally fine. But he wasn’t, he hasn’t been, and watching Sam and Rowena both delve into the trauma and abuse they experienced at Lucifer’s hand was fantastically written and acted. Yockey was able to give the characters just enough for them to convey, through their tone, inflections, and facial expressions how much they were, no are, broken by the Devil himself. Having them both admit to seeing Lucifer’s real face, while giving no descriptive details was brilliant. Both Padalecki and Connell were able to communicate to the audience how horrific it was for their characters without any unnecessary detail. Such a great “show, don’t tell” moment; it’s so much more frightening for the viewer to fill in the blanks. And Sam explaining that it isn’t that he’s okay, it’s that he never gets the chance to fully deal with his trauma because the world is always falling apart was both heartbreaking and much needed, not only for Sam to say it but for the audience to hear it. At the end of this episode we got to see the other side of the Ackles/Padalecki chemistry, their ability to rip your heart out, when Sam and Dean have a frank discussion back at the bunker about what to do going forward. Dean knowing that Sam gave Rowena the spell she wanted and instead of yelling and belittling him, he’s simply honest and direct with him and doesn’t question Sam when he says that if Rowena played him again, he’ll personally kill her. It was also good to hear Sam be open with Dean about how defeated he feels, about how he tried to mask that with conviction and hope, but that he can’t fake it til he makes it anymore. And while Dean’s words of encouragement and confidence may seemingly ring hollow to Sam, it’s not because Sam doesn’t have faith in Dean, it’s that right now he can’t see where Dean is coming from. Dean knows, because characters have told him for years, how important he and Sam are, how they keep this world spinning, but Sam has never heard it directly, not from God, not from Amara, not from Death, not from Billie. Those declarations have only been uttered to Dean and then conveyed by Dean to Sam, so Dean knows that they’ll figure out a way, that it’s basically destiny and Sam has no choice but to take Dean’s word for it. I could go on and on about the isolation of Sam Winchester, but that’s an article for a different day. [caption id="attachment_53290" align="aligncenter" width="696"] Photo: Home of the Nutty[/caption] Overall, this was a mytharc episode done well, slightly overstuffed as most mytharc episodes are, but coherent and well paced with a fantastic blend of horror, levity, and angst. That said, the last thing I want to touch on for this episode is something that was absolutely no fault of the writer, Steve Yockey, but I think is an increasing problem on Supernatural; the element of surprise is gone, as are the stakes. Supernatural was once known as a show where rocks fell, and everyone died. It was also a show where Jim Beaver once hid his reprisal of Bobby Singer by trying to convince fandom that he was in Vancouver shooting an abominable snowman movie so that his return to the show wasn’t spoiled Fast forward just a few years and the cast, crew, and network PR are spoiling character reveals weeks, even months in advance. Instead of being shocked by Rowena’s return we all went into this episode waiting for her appearance, and while we saw Castiel stab Lucifer with an angel blade; saw the red light go out of Lucifer’s eyes; it’s all for naught. Lucifer is the focus of the promo that aired right after the episode, and the synopsis for the next episode lays out exactly what he’ll be up to. Even last season finale, no one believed Castiel was actually permanently dead. Hell, it took Mark Sheppard declaring that he refuses to ever reprise his role for fans to believe Crowley was truly dead. No stakes means no emotional payoff. No secrecy means no shock and awe. Take a page from some of the greats, Supernatural, including yourself: what’s dead should stay dead, so kill your darlings and if you must bring them back, stop telegraphing their returns. Check out this week's Supernatural Devil's Bargain trailer above.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

[kerenobara]

Catharsis involves the release of stagnated emotions through kinetic action and stimulation. The term Catharsis stems from the original Greek Katharsis meaning “purification” or “cleansing” (Cherry 2020). The American Psychological Association defines catharsis as the discharge of events that had previously been repressed by bringing these events back into consciousness and re-experiencing them. In everyday language, the term catharsis is often used to describe moments of epiphanies, insight and healing. The first man to use the term in relation to emotions was Aristotle, when he talked about catharsis as the “Purgation of negative emotions.”

There is a large amount of literature surrounding Aristotle’s statement about the purgation of emotions. Some have even gone as far as to dismiss it as “gibberish” (Voltaire 1764/1837: 337). Some have speculated that he did not make that statement at all (Scott 2003). Aristotle’s also stated that “fear and pity” bring about a magnitude to “tragedy” that is immense and powerful. Tragedy, in Aristotle’s sense, refers to a genre of plays acted during the City Dionysian festivities. A form of theatre in ancient Greece also comprising of comedies and music.

Tragedy, in particular, was said to engage the empathetic side of the viewer to result in the sharing of emotions between actor and watcher. Through this, the audience was able to project their own emotions on to the characters and find release. The same feeling is derived today as well, from kinetic stimulation such as concerts, horror movies, even social media videos. There is a timeless discussion of how much more Aristotle encapsulated in the terms “fear and pity.”

Fear as an ego centered emotion tends to create anxiety and bring a tension to life. On the other hand, there is a thrill that comes with feeling fear, accelerated by adrenaline, directed to whatever problem has to be overcome. This explains the appeal of horror movies as they direct our fear and negative emotions towards external objects. By the time the movie comes to an end, so many of our internal fear has been let out regardless of the climaxing scenario (Sachs 2020). When people finally calm down from the height of fear, there is a sense of relief that is felt. It is as though they have been striped down and a load has been released.

This sense of emotional relief is called catharsis (Cherry 2020). It is the process of releasing and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. When experiencing catharsis, one feels something very similar to the relief felt after fear, but without necessarily having to be put into a state of fright. This is an effective solution to releasing pent up emotions. This form of relief can be void of any pain and instead derived from different kinetic stimulation. The act of getting oneself into a active mind space in order to reach a peak, eventually creates an outlet for all built up physical, mental and emotional energy. For example, if one puts himself into an uncomfortable position, a not so positive feeling is evoked. This person then takes action to work through that uncomfortable position. Eventually, they reach their peak and experience full relief by which other emotions are released.

One of the great stoic minds- Seneca, a man of great fortune and status, stated that we should all expose ourselves to uncomfortable situations every once in a while. From discomfort comes growth. Seneca wrote about the importance of challenging oneself and taking charge into the storm; embarking on journeys we feel fearful or redundant about. The very action of taking charge is therapeutic in a sense that, it gives one a feeling of balance and control. The very physical energy spent while taking on tasks is as much as the mental energy. Action is the lead medium for channeling stagnant emotions into fuel to be burned and released. Some of these emotions we are unaware of because the greater part of psychological components are stored in the unconscious mind.

Josef Breuer, a colleague of Sigmund Freud developed a treatment for resolving trauma which he described as cathartic. He would put patients under hypnosis and have them express emotions that had been repressed, after letting everything out, his patients experienced relief from their symptoms. A teenager going through a rough patch might describe experiencing a “cathartic” moment that brings them a sense of purpose or piece and helps them grow. This term is often used to describe an emotional moment that leads to a positive change in a person’s life.

Different ways people practice catharsis include;

Exercise: The physical demands of a workout are an effective way to conjure up intense emotions and releasing them in a constructive manner. Our heart rate goes up, we experience a spike in adrenaline, we reach a peak, sweat it out and eventually cool down. The feeling one gets at the end of a workout is calming and soothing as endorphins are released into the body.

Talking and expressing oneself is a great way to release pent up emotions. People practice catharsis through open dialogue with others. For example, if one is faced with a challenge which gives rise to emotions such as frustration, anger, helplessness, etc, they often discuss these with close family or close friends, this is the importance of having a good support network. It is also important to speak your mind and express yourself. Parents must actively engage in unrestricted conversations with their children from a young age, or else they risk having to deal with problems in the future due to unresolved feelings that would have been released through simple open conversations.

For those who care about growing into better individuals in general, it is a known fact that humans gain happiness by being of value to others as much as themselves. We must practice the art of listening in order to help those around us experience release. Through listening and truly understanding we achieve a better perspective of our own emotions as well, which makes it simpler to process and actively let them out.

©KEREN SARAH OBARA APR 2020

Creating and or Viewing any kind of Art: Art provokes strong emotions for the viewer, most of which come from deep down in the unconscious. Symbols, semiotics and subliminal elements in different kinds of art act as a template for psychic images to be projected on to, acting as an outlet for those emotions. Performing arts in general are very powerful. As mentioned earlier, performers channel profound emotions that they are able to confront and leave out there, either on the stage, set, or wherever they present their art. Creators of art are able to explore psychological components as they delve deep into their minds, often facing immense shadows of their own without even knowing. Through innovation and self expression, they bare unseen pieces of themselves onto the templates of their work and reach release and healing.

Listening to music: Music is known for driving moods and influencing the hues of people’s senses. Music is also known to influence perceptions and provoke emotions that usually lay low. When one listens to a song, for example about being happy. They experience enlightened and positive feelings. Similarly, when one listens to music about being angry, they are able, through the lyrics or the beat to channel out that anger in the fleeting moment and leave it there. Music is food for the soul, as William Shakespeare wrote. Because the kinetic nature of the sound waves directly echo structures deep in us that we have no knowledge of.

Prayer: There is immense spiritual, physical, mental and emotional energy that is released during prayer of any kind. The Bible states how important catharsis is.

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” -Ephesians 4:31-32

The psalms of anger and lament are there to show that one of the ways to handle pent up feelings is through spiritual meditation and prayer. Collectively, regardless of what religion, people pray as a method of confronting dark emotions and aspects in order to achieve relief through light-hearted healing and truth.

Travel: The act of moving from one place to another gives a sense of independence and freedom. Sights, sounds an other sensory stimulants act as outlets for different feelings and emotions. Aside from this, traveling helps one to achieve a sense of balance and control. As one takes a break from their day to day routines and location, they surrender to a formless and fluid feeling. From these experiences, one feels as though they are fresh and new.

Journaling: Seneca, the famous stoic’s favorite time for journalling was in the evenings. He would bare all his thoughts out, being brutally honest, vulnerable and hiding nothing from himself. He recorded that the sleep that would come after this was pleasing and calming. The act of writing things down creates an outlet for intense and honest feelings that we are usually unable to process. It also gives perspective and helps one plan for the day ahead, such that pent up emotions are not an interference when it comes to going about regular activities and even socializing with people.

Other ways include cleaning, solving problems, human connection, being productive and sensory stimulation through aesthetic beauty.

CATHARSIS THROUGH SHIBARI (Japanese rope bondage):

Shibari is an artistic form of rope tying deeply rooted in Japan’s culture and history, as well as it’s other crafts (Kordic 2016). It involves creating intricate patterns with rope around a model. As an art form, the taut lines and complex designs (Sehayek 2017) yield various rhetoric and discourse as witnessed from the wide array of literature surrounding the topic and over 100,000 tagged posts on Instagram alone.

Shibari (translating to “decoratively tie”), has made it’s way to modern art today, manifested through alluring photography, performance and video. The artistic practice has a special place for creatives, adventures, learners or curious cats who constantly seek new and transcendental experiences. Being tied or suspended in the air gives one a feeling of utter inclination and self alignment.

The technique has it’s roots in the feudal Edo Era (Joy 2017, Sehayek 2017, where the ruling samurai class would use rope to combat and bind prisoners of war in a martial art known as Hojojutsu. Each tie held meaning and symbolic admonition.

In the early twentieth century, the Kabuki theatre adapted Hojojutsu rope ties for performances. The techniques of the martial art were replicated to provide safe movement for the actors on stage and remixed to be more visually and aesthetically appealing. From this rose Shibari (decorative tie) and Kinbaku (tight binding). Both these forms of art involve using rope to decoratively tie and restrain the body. However, Kinbaku focuses on the sole goal of erotic stimulation while Shibari focuses on healing and attaining a kinetic meditative state by which the subject enters a sub conscious space in their mind.

This meditative state is kinetic, for the sheer act of being tied up and or suspended in the air burns an intense amount of physical energy. A subject is bound, baring his or her human vulnerability and confronting all emotions evoked. The positioning of the knots in appropriate places can stimulate pressure points just like Shiatsu, a Japanese massage (Kordic 2016). Eventually, he or she is unbound, the ropes come off, each knot untied ignites a freeing flow of relief. The act of binding and unbinding are a direct purgation of feelings that involve restraint, uncertainty, fear and so many more.

According to Shibari healing.com the following are ways in which the ancient art and sensual practice is advantageous in terms of catharsis;

Experiencing surrender and vulnerability,

Emotional releasing of energetic blocks,

Strengthening one’s masculine and feminine traits,

Letting go of Fear, Rage, Anger, Guilt, Shame and limiting self judgements

“Many people think of,” says Bruce, a professional British rope tier “secretaries bound to office chairs with nylon rope or hogtied house wives on kitchen floors- Shibari is very different. It is like an aerial tango, done with flow and passion. When people put their heart and soul into it-well, I’ve seen people in tears after being tied. They say; I have no idea why I’m crying, I’m just so happy. It unblocks emotional dam” (Walsh 2015). It has a meditative effect, Bruce says, it silences the chatter of the everyday and immerses the subject in the here and now, conjuring up mental images, rushing adrenaline and endorphins, much like the runner’s high (Kordic 2016).

Pent up feelings hold people back in so many ways that they do not know. Taking back control over one’s body is extremely empowering. Facing fear directly and coming out triumphant brings healing and freedom. Nina, Bruce’s wife states that Shibari gives her a better awareness of herself, her body, brain, psychology and empathy. It is all about evoking different sensations and confronting different emotions for the sake of growth.

Shibari has also been described as a shared meditative practice, achieving revelation for the mind and body. The aesthetics of the practice also hold immense importance for the kinbakushi or nawashi (rope master).

Rope binding is more about the journey than the destination. The process is delicate and follows specific forms and aesthetic rules. The rope master creates different geometric patterns and shapes to compliment the human body with a texture that contrasts the sensitivity of the skin (Kordic 2016). Creating such precise art and patterns requires analytical alignment of the rope master’s mind. He or she must focus and channel energy to the act of the practice. As mentioned before, it is more about the journey than the destination.

This is where many fall short, as they try to categorize it as mainly a sexual tool, demeaning it’s healing properties and thus never fully understanding it properly or grasping its full essence.

From the material and immaterial blending to the communication established between two participants, the artist -rope rigger- is provided with a paint brush in the form of a model. Much like sculpting, painting writing, digital enhancements and so forth, the artists can portray different aesthetics through Shibari such as strength, vulnerability, sensuality, boldness, ecstasy and so forth.

Falling between performance and sculpture making, Shibari touches onto topics such as power-vulnerability coexistence, identity, psyche and physical energy, confidence, bravery, communication and sometimes enhancing sexual energy as a result.

In conclusion, it is very possible to experience Catharsis through Shibari as seen from the above examples. Both the artist and the subject go through a journey of psychological alignment. Different sensations are felt, thoughts are evoked, both parties express themselves and massive amount of energy is let out. In the end, there is relief from the release of strong pent up feelings.

Cherry, K., 2020. The Role of Catharsis in Psychology. Very well mind.

Kordic, A., 2016. The Art of Shibari- Japanese Rope Bondage photography. Wide Walls.

Nanay, B., 2017. Catharsis and Vicarious fear. European Journal of Philosophy. (1)1 pp 1371

Master K., 2014. The beauty of Kinbaku: 2nd Edition. US King Cat Ink.

Sachs, J., Aristotle: Poetics. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Walsh, J., 2015. Shibari: A couple explain the appeal of Japanese Rope Bondage. Independent. p.1

http://www.shibarihealing.com

©Keren Sarah Obara Apr 2020

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[askdacast]

Rant from an ex-fan: RWBY’s Volume 5 shorts are terrible

Quick warning: if you are a huge fan of RWBY, especially of the third volume onwards, I am going to be needlessly cruel towards the series in this post. Turn back if you don't wish to hear the ramblings of a jaded ex-fan.

So I used to love RWBY, or more specifically the first two volumes of RWBY. They were far from perfect, but I enjoyed what fun action and neat fantasy and tech ideas they had to offer.

Then Volume 3 came about, in its glut of sudden edginess and shocking twists, and I came down with a case of salt poisoning.

As you can imagine, I dropped the series harder than a slab of concrete and have been very hesitant to pick up the series again since. Then I saw in my YouTube Feed that Volume 5 of RWBY was coming out, and there were character shorts and teasers, one of which was of Weiss, being released as promotions. So I thought, "Fine, why not? I might as well see if they win me over once more."

I was not won over.

Problems that I had with the series when I dropped it were somehow encapsulated in 3.5 painfully long minutes, and after some mental testing out of my hair, I decided to do the following moment-by-moment analysis of the trailer below as follows.

Please keep in mind I have sworn entirely off Volume 4 and any details I do know about it are from my friend @randomnumbers751650 who HAS watched it. Nothing first-hand.

0:00 We begin with some abstract shots of totally-not-symbolism set to yet another generically sad Casey Williams song.

Okay look, I don’t want to hate on Casey Williams. She’s an amazing singer at the age she is, and she’s got great talent! I don’t hate her work at all. The problem is she’s in EVERYTHING RWBY RELATED. No, literally, everything. RoosterTeeth has shoved her into every single vocal song for the series and I’m getting tired of it. There’s no variety in any of the vocals unless they get Jeff Williams to do some screaming or Lamar Hall to do some okay-rapping in them. Even they seem to sound overused.

Not to mention sometimes I feel like they’re forcing Casey’s vocal chords to sing certain songs that really do not lend well to her vocals (*cough* When it Falls *cough). She’s a beautiful singer, but when you just churn out song after song with her, the songs lose their magic. I don’t even wanna get started on these lyrics, but let’s rant one thing at a time, shall we?

0:12 Hey look, the moon is still broken. We ever gonna find out what that means?

Now one compliment I guess I’ll give is that the art has definitely improved. The characters still move jankily (albeit more smoothly now), but the background art has really upgraded. The shot of the manor Weiss is fighting in, the ice fountain with the Schnee logo and the snowing effects in this are actually kinda pretty!

0:25 And now we meet best girl Weiss! Well, she originally wasn’t my best girl. It was first Ruby, but unfortunately she had no personality (despite being the main character). Then there was Penny, but she was.

You know.

Dead.

Thanks RoosterTeeth, I’m still not over that. You introduced a precious cinnamon roll and killed her off for shock value. And fan theories about her being rebuilt have not been acted on.

Uh-huh. Sure. I’m totally okay with that. Not bitter at all.

Anyway, just look at those expressions. Mouth movement still looks as awkward as ever. I think enough people have probably mocked the expressions in the Volume 4 opening so I won’t harp on it, but…yeeeeah.

0:36 Oh hey look ominous snow wind out of nowhere. That sure is whacky and wacky.

And listen closely to the lyrics of this super-duper-sad song.

“And in its place is nothing, just an endless empty hall.”

GEDDIT? BECAUSE WEISS IS LONELY! SHE’S SAD AND LONELY CUZ SHE’S GOT NO FRIENDS! WE’RE SO SUBTLE AND SYMBOLIC GUYS!

Jeff Williams, or…whoever did the lyrics for these songs, the instrumental is lovely on its own. You could’ve just let the emotions speak for themselves. You don’t have to HAMMER IN THE MESSAGE THAT WEISS IS OBVIOUSLY STILL SAD AND LONELY. I THOUGHT WE GOT THREE ENTIRE SONGS FOR THAT ALREADY. Or was Mirror Mirror just not subtle enough? >_>

0:45 Oh look. Ice Beowulves. How interesting and original.

And don’t tell me they’re a different species of Grimm or whatever, those models are clearly palette-swapped Beowulves! It’s like they’ve become the Goombas of Remnant or something.

You know last I checked, one of the bigger reasons people liked this show at all was because of the fantasy setting and how not just the heroes and their weapons, but the creatures of Grimm had all sorts of creative designs. I get that this is just a teaser trailer and the fight here doesn't have any actual plot bearing, but one on, you could've at least come up with something more interesting for an ice-based Grimm. Even better, give hints of new Grimm to be introduced later in the volume or something, I dunno! Just anything more than a freaking palette swap.

0:59 ...did...did Casey just say 'Weissolation?' I hope she didn't; that's a level of goofy I think not even RT would stoop to.

Also, still piling on that reaaaally subtle lyric-work about how lonely Weiss is! Ugh.

1:01 I dunno why but that shot of the Beowulf pouncing at her just looks so goofy. “COME AND GIVE ME A HUUUUUG!”

1:12 ...okay, I admit, the change in tempo and shift in instruments for this song and the ensuing fight made me excited.

If there's one thing Jeff Williams has always done well, it's his instrumental. I complain a lot about RWBY's vocals, but the way the songs mix hard rock and more classical music has always been amazing. It's the perfect blend of instruments to get you pumped up for a fight while still getting into the different moods and settings each fight takes place in. Even better is that they don't have to constantly rely on awkward dubstep or techno beats like most other shows nowadays do with their action scenes. All things considered, if you just changed the lyrics, I would totally replay this song in my free time.

Even this initial start of the fight isn't bad at all. The violins and Casey's vocals really match up to the angles, Weiss jumping on the glyphs, shots like the pan up to when she's standing on the ledge, and oh man, those melting icicles. That was such a neat touch!

1:31 That is an adorable Weiss happy face. Can we get more of that? Please? And not all the random depressing edgy plot points?

1:40 "Forced to conform" YES WE GET IT WEISS FEELS TRAPPED, MOVE ON CASEY

You remember how the original Mirror Mirror's lyrics were about Weiss' self-doubt and fear of what's inside her? Only 2012 remembers.

1:45 Once again, more of those awkward expressions. Her face is literally OAO in this moment. A second shot of it is passable. You hold it for longer than that though, not to mention in a close-up shot, and it just looks goofy.

This, however, is probably a good time to get to one of my major complaints of this trailer. Namely that this trailer could have been stuff like foreshadowing of plot points, a quick character insight into how Weiss has been doing since the end of the last Volume, a whole number of things. But instead, what do we get?

Fighting.

Just. Fighting.

Look I get it, RWBY is an action series, fighting is kind of what it's selling. But if you would humour me, let me take you back to 2012, when RWBY just became a thing and people were fawning over the awesome trailers. Let me remind you guys that the first two trailers shown, Ruby's and Weiss', were both consisting of nothing but -you guessed it- fighting. We didn't hear their voice actors at all, we didn't get a glimpse as to what their characters like beyond their small facial expressions and song lyrics (you know, like the incredibly deep revelation that WEISS IS LONELY), or their place in the plot.

As much as I loved the fighting choreography in those old trailers, when the show was finally released, the characters suffered for it. People were wondering why Ruby was a squeaky high-pitched now girl when she looked so stoic and badass in the trailer. People were wondering why Weiss was so snooty and insufferable when once again, the trailer painted a different picture of her. My point is the original trailers for RWBY tried pushing for its awesome action scenes at the expense of the writing of its characters.

And now it's happening again.

Let me be blunt: when I first saw this Weiss short, and after the initial few cool shots of fighting, my brained tuned out and I IMMEDIATELY skipped the whole fight scene. I knew what to expect – another flashy action scene that has no bearing on the plot or Weiss as a character or what's to come.

You know guys, most of us who are anime fans safely say that most of us who enjoy action scenes and stuff like shonen anime is NOT just because of random fighting. I need to care about what I'm watching. I need to know the fight I'm seeing matters. And failing THAT, I at least want to see something new; new fighting techniques, new ways of attacking and reversing your opponent's moves onto them, rather than just the same old.

I remember when I used to enjoy the fight scenes in RWBY. It was cool seeing the fighting techniques, the crazy weapons and having some vague idea of how Dust worked. It was all fine and dandy back then. But RWBY hasn't evolved since. As much as I like Weiss, her simple sword tactics have always struck me as rather plain compared to the rest of the team. Clearly, she's designed less as a combatant focusing on power and more as the 'Mage', what with her glyphs (which we still haven't gotten an explanation of how her Semblance works btw) and her Dust usage. I could've gone for something simple like Weiss combining Dust in her attacks or something like that.

But no.

RoosterTeeth is just doing the same old action sequences over and over again. It's to the point where the fight scenes are just white noise! Congrats, RoosterTeeth. You guys made me think of an action scene as WHITE NOISE.

Mind you, I actually went to rewatch the trailer to try to see what I missed in the fight scene just to be fair, but even then I tuned out again. Nevermind the actual choreography or some weird wide-angle shots, everything just felt so generic. I honestly can't muster up any energy to even critique the fight.

So enough of my whining I guess, let's just get back to the trailer shall we...

2:48 And somehow despite Weiss being best girl, she still continues to have the weakest of the voice actresses. The way she screams Winter's name sounds more like annoyance rather than the actual fear she might have been feeling.

Also WAIT WHAT?! THOSE WOLVES WERE WINTER'S CREATION?!

...so not satisfied with giving us a dull action scene, this trailer decides to pull the rug out under us and render our investment into Weiss surviving this fight pointless. Fantastic.

3:04 Oh hey, Winter! One of the few parts of Volume 3 I actually liked!

Great to see you and your Icy Cool Big Sis self again! Boy, it sure was a good thing you...weren't important in the last Volume...or the second half of Volume 3...oh man was your great character totally utilized and not squandered in the face of the changing plot or anything...

3:15 More stilted Weiss voice acting. The way she says "I'll get better" is just so oddly rushed and lifeless.

3:26 And so we end this trailer with a reprise of Mirror Mirror, showing how even after 4 whole Volumes, Weiss has not grown as a character despite her trials with her barely-visible team, and she's still left alone with the insecurities and loneliness plaguing her, sending her back to square one!

Yay. RWBY is such a well-written satisfying show.

3:36 But ZOMG! This whole trailer was a flashback! And Weiss is still sad remembering old sad times!

...

BULL.

What was even the point of having that entire fight be a flashback? Narrative-wise, it's a slap in the face to the hope of Weiss growing as a character. Didn't she spend the last part of Volume 4 singing an entire song about how she's going to forge her own path and break away from her family? But her face when she remembers this memory of her old self and replaying Mirror Mirror in the background seems to imply this isn't the case. That she's still stuck in the same mental chains she's been in since the show started. If there's no promise of her truly overcoming herself, why would this flashback have any meaningful bearing on her arc?

Technicality-wise, this only confuses the viewer and short-changes the animators. Believe it or not, I was actually confused as to if Weiss in the trailer was from present time; thought maybe she just put on her old clothes again or something. But it's not; we are just seeing her old self fighting some of Winter's illusions. If we aren't seeing any cool new stuff about Weiss, what is the point of making this a teaser for Volume 5?

So with all that said and done, RWBY has once more proved that it’s just going to be nothing more but a swirling pot of wasted potential and eye candy with some irresponsible writers mixing it all into one big mess, and it’s only going to get more incomprehensible from here on out.

Wonderful.

Let me clarify one last thing: I did NOT drop RWBY in Volume 3 because it was ‘too dark and depressing’. I like a good serious story myself. The purpose of this rant is to show you all my real problem with RWBY: it does not handle its writing with any care whatsoever, or the responsibility to deliver a satisfying product to its audience. Volume 3’s out of nowhere shift, as much as it angers me, I feel is symptomatic of every other writing problem in this series.

It’s lazy. It’s half-baked. It’s popcorn entertainment in the end, sure, but even popcorn needs to be cooked well. I want the tastiest popcorn ever, not some cold barely-microwaved corn kernels left out in the open!

Ugh, if you guys will excuse me, I’m gonna go write my own action-packed fantasy story. With blackjack and hookers.

[solimavi]

An Analysis on Craig Tucker’s Sexuality. Homosexual or Bisexual?

First off, I am so happy with how well my analysis on Tweek was received! Being honest, I could have made it even LONGER, but I think that would have been going overboard. I considered making a post for the left out info, but I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do since I don’t like adding on to older posts so much later after the original went up. If anyone is interested in knowing what got left out, I’d be fine with doing so but you gotta let me know.

I’m gonna be honest. I don’t believe there is enough evidence pointing towards Craig being gay, bi or some other sexuality for me to draw a conclusion that couldn’t easily change if more hints regarding Craig’s sexuality were available. After much thought, I have taken a position so I don’t intend this to be an analysis that can be summed up as “I dunno lol.”  But I also encourage you to take the information I have presented and draw your own conclusions.

With all of that said, on to the actual analysis!

I’m gonna start off with debunking dialogue often used as evidence for Craig being gay. The joke about girls wearing perfume and makeup because “they’re ugly and they stink.” I feel that this is very weak evidence for him being gay for two reasons:

This seems to reflect on the widespread view among the boys that boys are way better than girls rather than serve as a hint towards Craig’s sexuality.

Further proving the above point, the other boys present during that scene laughed at the joke, as if agreeing with him (with the exception of the sulking Cartman). Unless, this is used as evidence for all of the boys at the table being gay, I don’t see it as strong evidence for Craig being gay.  

Now, with that out of the way, let’s move onto the first section of this analysis.

Craig and Girls

Unlike Tweek, Craig has been consistent in his attraction to girls. There are no scenes I can recall in either “Bebe’s Boobs Destroy Society” or “The Hobbit” where he doesn’t seem interested in the girls the other boys are attracted to. This makes his interest in them seem genuine rather than an act to cover up being gay. Also unlike Tweek, Craig is an awful actor. I doubt he could consciously fake interest without making obvious slip ups.  

Stick of Truth confirmed that Craig has had at least one girlfriend. However, he didn’t appear to have any emotional connection to her as suggested by how he dumped her over a role he was playing and seemed perfectly fine throughout the game despite the break up. This is a huge difference compared to his relationship to Tweek, who he IS emotionally attached to. Though a lack of emotional attachment doesn’t necessarily suggest a lack of physical attraction (Especially since the FBW notes confirmed Tweek as being the only thing Craig cares about besides Stripe ((though this could have just been an exaggeration)), suggesting Craig may have difficultly forming meaningful bonds with others), this contrast should at least be kept in mind. As a matter of fact, I’ll be coming back to this later.

Tweek x Craig

With the above information in mind, Craig definitely appears to have an interest in girls. There isn’t much suggesting he doesn’t outside of him not seeming to have cared for his former girlfriend. And that’s just one girl after all. So why would anyone honestly think he’s gay?

Because “Tweek x Craig” came in with character development that made things much more ambiguous. Before this episode, Craig didn’t have much of a character outside of being very stoic besides having a bit of a temper and wanting a normal life. “Tweek x Craig” reveals he has a dad with high expectations regarding his son’s masculinity. He was embarrassed and upset over Craig’s relationship with another boy and initially proud and excited when he heard Craig got into a fight. While I could go all out in what this suggests for Craig and talk about his development as a whole, I’ll stay on topic. The point is Thomas prioritizes masculinity most likely causing Craig to do the same. And, unfortunately, many people with that mentality find homosexuality and masculinity incompatible. To Craig and Thomas, being a REAL man includes hooking up with WOMEN, not guys.

Throughout the episode, Craig acts very aggressively to the accusation of being gay despite his normal apathetic attitude. He constantly claims to be straight and even threatened Tweek to stay away from him. He went out of his way to shut the gay rumors down instead of waiting for things to blow over. And when confronted by Tweek and asked to start a relationship, he didn’t look at Tweek as he rejected him, hiding his expression that could have given away how unsure he was in the rejection.

Craig never hid his sexuality. Being into other boys went against what he felt he was supposed to be, so he never even acknowledged the possibility of him being attracted to guys, much less being gay. If he was able to convince himself he felt nothing for boys, it’s possible he also convinced himself he was attracted to girls. Which would explain why his interest in them seems so genuine. BUT. This is all speculation rather than anything that could be easily confirmed.

Now that  I’ve gone into “Tweek x Craig”, I’m gonna go back to the topic of Craig’s relationship with girls. It’s obvious he’s popular with girls. He topped the list of cutest boys and there was a girl in SoT gushing over how “hot” he is. It’s likely the girl he broke up with wasn’t the only girl he has dated. Whether or not he was looking for girls to date, they were looking for him. Despite that, the FBW notes claim Tweek is the only person he cares about. Meaning he never made a strong connection with any of those girls even though he hit things off with Tweek so easily. This, to me, is the strongest evidence of him being gay.  But it is also flawed in that there are other conclusions you could draw from this that indicate things regarding Craig’s personality rather than his sexuality. And, again, lack of emotional attachment doesn’t indicate a lack of physical attraction. It could just as easily indicate a superficial relationship based ONLY on physical attraction.

Conclusion

Even though there is a possibility of Craig being gay and his past interest in girls could be explained as him convincing himself he was straight, there has yet to be a moment that lack of attraction is actually shown. The theories arguing for him being gay are plausible for sure, but they’re based on speculation that can’t be confirmed. I think Craig’s emotional constipation is the reason he has such a hard time connecting with others, including past girlfriends. It’s hard to form a strong relationship with someone who never shows how they feel. Tweek is an exception in that he’s canonly shown to appreciate Craig as the person who makes Tweek feel better about himself. despite how deadpan Craig is. While many other characters seem to see Craig as nothing more than an emotionless asshole. Even the girl in the SoT couldn’t see much to him besides that he “doesn’t give a fuck.” He clicked so well with Tweek, not because Craig is only attracted to boys, but because they’re extremely compatible.

I also think Craig’s initial issues weren’t just with being gay, they were with being attracted to guys in general. Again, many people see being attracted to men at all as being incompatible with being masculine.

Maybe Fractured but Whole might change things. But until I see Craig expressing a noticeable lack of interest in women, I see him as bi.