#and everyone writes differently but the other scripts we got for previous seasons were similar to the ones nick released AND the other ones

[bylertruther]

no one asked but i'm reading an old draft of the everything everywhere all at once script n jus shaking my head bc somewhere in the back of my mind there's still a mini-me that's barking n howling and biting everything over the fact tht the byler scripts we got on twitter were sooooooo stripped down 😭

[onenettvchannel]

#OnlyOnOneNETnews: The Upcoming 9th Season of RWBY downfalls thru a New Location as Announced between the RTX-VAF & SDCC 2021

IMPORTANT SPOILER WARNING: The following news article may contains an extremely sensitive spoilers. Readers frankly discretion is STRONGLY ADVISED! Also, Reporting our news article without the consent is punishable by law. We are honestly NOT responsible in our small news organization experience for any of it’s wrong doing. Read our disclaimer first, at the end of this article. Thank you.

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- A virtual online panel in both separate places between the Austin & San Diego. Rooster Teeth Expo-Virtual Animation Festival (RTX-VAF) and San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) 2021 announces for the upcoming 9th Season of RWBY (much actually as Volumes).

For those you don’t know about the show of RWBY, a computer-animated web series was made by the Rooster Teeth Animation (RTA) and a show creator was late named by Monty Oum. He died from the Anaphylaxis of Comatose before Season 3 by the end of October 2015. The real acronym of RWBY stands for the names of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long. It's a fictional sci-fi world of Remnant where the Huntsmen & Huntresses to be trained and become warriors to protect the world from monsters called Grimm.

In reality for it’s both places, minus the physical convention panel in America... Austin City at a Travis County in Texas goes for a 2nd Stage (known for as General Community Quarantine or GCQ). While in San Diego City at a same county name of California however (as according to our Research Team of OneNETnews and a local mainstream media like KDFW-TV's FOX 4: Dallas-Fort Worth for example), there is a possibility of Stage 4 (known also for the Enhanced Community Quarantine or ECQ). These stage numbers are subjected to be translated from the Austin Government to a Philippine Quarantine Classification status of Corona Virus Disease-19 (CoViD19).

RWBY was started in mid-July 2013 from a web streaming service of Rooster Teeth. Crunchyroll, VRV and Amazon Prime Video secures for a streaming rights in a legal way possible within the coming years as simulcasted for the entire animated show until today in the present.

RTX-VAF was virtually held last July 8th-17th, 2021 and the SDCC follows individually a few weeks later by July 23rd-25th, 2021. The RWBY Panel commences at the RTX-VAF 2021 at 1pm EDT last Friday afternoon by July 9th & SDCC 2021 ends with a developing conclusion by July 25th, 2021 at 1am EDT. Casts and Crews from this show reveals for the announcements of Season 9 starts with the entire RWBY voice actresses team, along with a Lead Writer & Director named Kerry Shawcross and the 2 show writers were named by Eddy Rivas & Miles Luna.

In a latest pre-recorded panel of RWBY at the RTX-VAF & SDCC 2021, the official work-in-progress (WiP) was released first globally from this said panel, and the same thing follows a few weeks later at the SDCC. OneNETnews had first obtained in an exclusive tidbits of Season 9 as Laura Yates (Supervising Producer of RWBY and RTA) showed a sneak peek with us to the public.

Season 9 is now currently in production as Yates told exclusively to OneNETnews through our independent news media in Dumaguete as virtually from a group of video conferencing of RTX-VAF 2021, "We’re not quite ready to share Season 9’s release date yet, as the productions team being going well thou. We actually have a longer production run in Season 9 which is typically do, as upon allowing some of the animation departments when proceeding to move on to it’s next project such as fully animated, script writings, voice recording sessions, etc., which is very super exciting. We got a lot of big stuff coming up and a lot more updates to share soon". Several productions and preparations are meant to be fully completed for Season 9 by later this September 2021 onwards as Yates added.

-----

As from a start of a sneak peek of Season 9, the entire Pocket Dimension known for as the Evacuation Central Location (ECL) is much more urgently ongoing. Ruby Rose is the ONLY perspective point-of-view, among the rest of her team of Yang, Penny, Weiss and Blake; while Cinder Fall continues for a serious opponent against the remaining team members of RWBY.

Most of it's selected pathways are under attack, the muted suspect against the victim named Neopolitan Torchwick (probably not an actual last name in regular). She was the legal age above her 20s at this said moment.

Yang immediately pushes to safety for Ruby but, Neopolitan was slained to her like a half-moon. Almost everyone else (except the evacuees themselves), the rest of the RWBY team were defeated for now (even with her weapon of Crescent Rose destroys or felled off alone).

Cinder lets herself go with Neopolitan and/or Ruby during the 8th Season FINALE, both of them are in downfall the void at the end of the episode (as well sadly with Blake and others) upon passing out for a while.

Ruby woked up temporarily with an a space travel from this said void. She checked out possibly for what is going on, as even with her left hand if it's related to fireflies or something else.

Until one muted suspect sucker-punches her victim's face in the center as Neopolitan did for a domestic battery.

Ruby tries to stop her muted suspect with a severe craziness of anger, Neopolitan shapeshifts herself within a few seconds in disguise. She was backed off with her both hands and punches again, leaving a muted suspect strangles for an attempted throat suffocation to her victim's point-of-view. Ruby grabs her disguised muted suspect's arm, she was quickly felled back for a gravity distance with it's separation.

Neither both of them were landed from this scene through a mysterious island, as she plunged down the hydrosphere waters and washed ashore to sleep for this early morning (Solitas local time).

Just a few hours later, Ruby woken up the 2nd time and notices a single voice to help with. Most of a gigantic size of sea shells and a medium-sized sea starfish are subjected to investigate and explore this mysterious island. It's a good sunny weather today to start off the entire journey of Season 9, immediately after it's said post-credits from a previous season. The main feature sits from this place of a gigantic tree above.

The troubles of a fictional world like Solitas isn't over. Upon jumping it's entire conclusion, Ruby is about to be checked out on foot and went herself with a jungle trees first to see what it goes.

-----

At the end of a Sneak Peek clip, a similar conclusion with a different web series on YouTube called "Meta Runner" in Episode 1 as possibly connected to RWBY. A single commented basher says, it feels like an animated production company as seeking with Rooster Teeth will be cheated out from the another animation company in plagiarism at a later seasons but, the reference points of RTA looks okay with a permission as long as the homework-like copy is prohibited to do so.

As for Neopolitan Torchwick (the muted suspect herself), she will be automatically committed and charged with a Thrice Violation of Article 250 or the Revised Penal Code of it's Frustrated Homicide for the victim of Yang, Republic Act #9262: Section 3b or Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 & Republic Act #9745 or the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 as also for the individual victim of Ruby.

All of these 3 charges books into her jail sentence of 40 total years in prison for a heaviest result of Reclusion Perpetua, as included with a simple fine and punishment between almost U$D2,000 and a mandatory psychological private counseling (as to be scheduled by every other weekends at the Interrogation Room by August 7th, 2021 until further notice for an eligible later parole). She is now confiscating all of her deadly weapons, as soon as a different location arrives but not on this mysterious island this time (in our possible theory).

-----

The excitement at sunrise in Season 9 is almost here, even with a post-Pandemic of CoViD19 in America. We carefully mentioned to OneNETnews from these 2 separate conventions of RWBY panel for what does the Season 9 release date happens but, it isn't ready at the moment as according to Yates. Rooster Teeth Animation is working hard to produce at these tougher times until a final version were soon to be made available to the Rooster Teeth First members.

Season 9 of RWBY commences possibly later this year in 2021 onwards.

#TravelResponsibly

-----

EDITOR's NOTE: As expected from your immediate feedback last Thursday afternoon (July 29th, 2021), we updatedly corrected the final grammar issues from this said news report. We frankly apologize for that, mga Ka-Bandera.

SCREENGRAB COURTESY: RTX-Virtual Animation Festival & Rooster Teeth Animation

SOURCE: *https://www.austintexas.gov/page/covid-19-risk-based-guidelines [Referenced Stage Numbers in Quarantine Classifications from the Austin Government] *https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2021-05-26/rtx-at-home-announces-animation-festival/ + https://www.awn.com/news/rtx-home-animation-festival-announces-line [Dual Reference Schedule of RWBY Panel] *https://archive.is/FS4vD [RTX at HOME - Reference Schedule] *https://roosterteeth.com/watch/rtx-2021-rwby-panel [RWBY V9 SNEAK PEEK - Skip to 31m35s for an Actual Clip] *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR7bfwwd3l0 [Comic Con at Home 2021 - RWBY Panel] *https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/The_Final_Word and *https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Unnamed_Shore

EXTREMELY HONEST DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed from this Exclusive News Article are not necessarily those from the Rooster Teeth Animation. This medium-rare suspect like Neopolitan Torchwick does not be imitated in any matter. Furthermore, the assumptions of this Exclusive News Article will NOT state, intervene or reflect those of our Radyo Patrol reporters. The show, the station, the management, interwebs and the network. Thanks for reading! Stay safe and may the Celestia blesses you. Later!

-- OneNETnews Team

[lostplay]

Game 21: Batman The Telltale Series: The Enemy Within To say Telltale got around when it came to licenses is an understatement. One of the biggest reasons it fail was because it was always taking on too many projects, and for a long time, I thought it was because Telltale didn’t actually care about making a good choice system or care about the material at hand. On revisit, I have found time and time again, the opposite is indeed true. Telltale crafts a lot of these stories well, and try to help set up their own versions of characters, plots, and world building. While The Enemy Within is a great example of Telltale creating something new from old, it sadly still has a lot of technical problems and decision issues that plague it’s otherwise great tale. Enemy Within being effectively the second season of the Telltale Batman universe, we are given a small glimpse of what happened and what choices we made during the first game. Aside from a few off handed mentions in the first episode, the choices you made in the first game just feel irrelevant after the fact, and the choices that did matter, matter very little. This isn’t much of a testament of the choice system in this game, as it kinda has a similar, but different problem. The majority of choices in Enemy Within just don’t really feel they impact much or really feel like conflicting choices. Most of the choices seen either contribute to an overall relationship dynamic or just feel so weighted one way that it’s a clear choice for most people to go with the other option, often leaving 70/30 polls at the end of these episodes. On the technical side of things, Enemy Within does look better than it’s previous season, but sometimes models can feel a bit off pending on movement timing. Fighting has been far more refined to feel like a fighting sequence, but there is still a lot of one missed key deaths that have seemed to cause Telltale to increase the leeway on key accusation instead of Heavy Rain’s far more interesting flown combat script system. It does feel like Enemy With takes 1 step forward tho and 2 steps back; as they have a number of fights that do feel pretty stunning to actually playthrough compared to the stilt action of most telltale games. Detective work is pretty much thrown away after the first episode too, as the second season is far more interested in a certain dynamic more than anything else.

Relationship dynamics are always the most interesting part of telltale game’s as the iconic, “____ will remember that” is often a trope found in a lot of them. So, of course, the iconic duo, Joker and Batman would have a larger focus on their relationship dynamic compared to everyone else in this series. While Joker, aka John Doe, played a minimal role in the last season, he is brought in heavily for the second season. Perhaps what is the most compiling thing about John Doe and Batman is more so how there relationship dynamic can change so drastically pending on your actions as both Bruce or Batman, making the origins of Joker itself far more multiple choice, and either far more connected to Batman than before or someone that was simply a lost cause. While the relationship with Joker and Batman has always been a prominent dynamic in the series, it was never something that was established with Bruce/Batman having all the power. John Doe is honestly just a really mentality unstable patient that is looking for support, and in this way telltale actually makes us empathize with him. Not to say that their isn’t other relationships or characters in this story that aren’t interesting, as I do enjoy these versions of the Riddler and Harley compared to how we usually get them. Still every relationship takes a backseat to John Doe and Bruce/Batman, and really that’s what makes this season far more interesting than the last.

While I don’t think we will find this version of Telltale’s Batman any time soon, I honestly enjoy my time with both games, and consider the overall experience a positive one. Any problems I had with this season were often minimal in comparison to the majority of Telltale’s other works, and while I do think it was both enhanced and suffered from the focus of one relationship, I don’t think I would trade that unique approach with the usual same old same old. It’s both a testament to Telltale’s writing skills and the staying power of these DC characters.

[tominostuff]

Oshii Mamoru  x Anno Hideaki Char’s Counterattack Fan Club Book

Published: January 1993 

Just the first 3 pages as a teaser lol 

Influence 

Anno: As a creator, I like CCA because you can hear Mr. Tomino’s very genuine voice in it. But Mr. Oshii, you tend to dislike doing that. You try to sugarcoat your true intentions and hide it deep within. So, it’s unexpected that someone like you enjoyed CCA. 

Oshii: Well, isn’t it just that? As you said, Mr. Tomino’s raw voice is all out in the open. 

Anno: Yes. It’s very direct. I think sensitive people may even harbor hatred for it.

Oshii: (Kazunori) Itou-kun apparently stopped watching 5 minutes in. When he heard the first “heavenly punishment” line, he couldn’t follow along anymore and stopped (laughs). Since he used to be at Sunrise, he probably sees more. 

So [whether or not you like the movie] is probably decided by what kind of reaction you’d have to hearing lines like 修正 “correction” or 粛清 “purge” or 天誅 “heavenly punishment.” Since there’s bound to be many people who have a dislike towards words like that. Especially older people react towards “purge” and “correction.” For the pre-war faction, “correction” meant military lynching and for people after the 70s, “correction” means demonstrator/political radicals or controlled lynching. There’s also the Red Army (JRA) issue as well. 

If it were a movie, they may have not been bothered by it but since it’s an animation. There is a gap between the raw human intentions and the drawn world. And that actually makes a bigger impact. So for people who dislike seeing undiluted emotions show up on screen, they just can’t do it. 

Anno: I wasn’t bothered by it. 

Oshii: I think you and I were making things during the awkward off season of animation. People like Miya-san (Miyazaki Hayao) who were swept along by Toei and made animations for kids versus people who were pursuing movies and ended up in an anime studio...our generation of people is the in-between, so we understand both sides. We are caught between both the part that’s making shows for kids and the part that wants to make movies that we are personally satisfied with.  So, depending on where you place the center of balance, you end up making a completely different thing. 

On one hand, I felt that this movie could only be accepted by people like that. The older folk just thought it was bad. People in the anime industry especially. And for younger folk, they don’t know how to process an undiluted political world like that one. Despite all of this, the theaters were pretty full. And that’s probably due to the influence of Gundam.

It was around the same time as Patlabor. Even though Mr. Tomino did whatever he wanted in Gundam, and I worked on Patlabor with the same Shochiku, when the high ups at Shochiku came to the press release for the previous Patlabor installment, they just said “I didn’t understand anything” and left. “Nothing made sense.” They were grumbling, “but robot anime originally was like this” as they went home. Which I think was thanks to Gundam (laughs). 

Even so, I was impressed that a script like CCA was greenlit. How could they release something like that. Probably because they weren’t watching it very seriously. Everyone is so enchanted by the surface-level space war aspect that there’s very few people who accurately grasp Mr. Tomino’s intentions. 

Anno: I didn’t understand it the first time I watched it. 

Oshii: The idea itself is not anything exceptional. It doesn’t come up to the surface but… to exaggerate, this is about present day, but as a phenomenon, in Japan maybe after the 70s? Among the political ideas that collapsed in the 60s was a type of retaliation ideology….. There’s a bit of nihilism in it, but basically there existed a political thought that placed its basis on the idea that “humans are no good.” However, that never made its way into the mainstream and much less in a world like animation, the center of popular culture, the fact that it showed up so suddenly was a surprise. It was almost pure literature. 

To want to retaliate against humanity or to want to correct humanity… truth be told, I also had similar thoughts. For example, the upcoming Patlabor has a bit of that in it. There’s a desire to seek revenge against a kind of deceptive inquisitiveness of this generation. However, I’m hesitant about being too direct about it (laughs)... more like I personally, am not a fan of being so direct…. And to go so far as to start saying the intellectuals that, the masses this. That part of the dialogue was probably an exact reflection of Mr. Tomino’s beliefs. As a method of expression, I would never do something like declaring my true beliefs during the movie. 

Just, the one thing I don’t get is why he suddenly did something like that. I actually haven’t watched the Gundam series too seriously so when I saw that, it seemed out of the blue. Perhaps he had laid the foundations for it earlier but I actually haven’t watched anything since Zeta Gundam. Watched the first Gundam and then suddenly CCA. So I don’t know what happened in this gap but it probably wasn’t anything sudden, it was probably always present. 

Anno: Yes. I think he spit out everything he had accumulated, or more like, he put an end to things. 

Ideologies 

Oshii: When you’re working on anime, you’re required to be different from an ordinary movie director. Even though it may look like we’re doing whatever we please, there are some things that we just can’t do. In a live action, even if it’s a bit explicit it may not be a huge problem… but with anime, there’s the first psychological barrier of the people who have to draw it. And when you think about it, the first person who did those things was Mr. Tomino. Like the child who fires in front of his mother. Or the boy or girl, I forget, that got their head blown off along with their helmet. 

When I saw Ideon, I believe it was when I was working on The Wonderful Adventures of Nils at Pierrot, it gave me such a shock. And it became the topic of discussion among directors at the studio. We wondered if it was okay to make something like that. My mentor, Mr. Tori (Hisayuki Toriumi), was someone who would do rather sadistic things. Like, Gatchaman was horrible. People would get hung with chains and beaten with a whip or Joe the Condor would get his face stepped on and messed up. He’s done pretty controversial things over the years. However, he never was as raw. After all, we had passed the era where such direct expression is allowed. 

There were a few taboos that were said to exist in anime, the destruction of bodies being one of them, but the bigger one that existed was probably, “politics.” To express your own political beliefs in the anime you were creating. I don’t mean things like post-war democracy or Tezuka Osamu’s humanism, etc, but radical revolutionary ideas, betrayed ressentiment (concept of resentment or hostility related to 19th century thinkers like Friedrich Neitzche), feelings of grudge, etc. have no place in anime. No one explicitly says it but as you spend time at the studio, you naturally begin to realize that’s the limit. If you want to do it, you have to change its shape. So like in Urusei Yatsura or Patlabor, I had to disguise it as a type of metaphor or a running joke. So even if you’re allowed to have a miniature battle for authority in a school setting… well, originally, even that was going too far, I was told many things by different people… it wasn’t like anyone said anything openly but no one thought to do it in the first place. The reason why is because everyone thought animation was the wrong place to be testing such ideas, who’s going to want to watch something like that. 

Back when Toei made Future War 198x, circulation boards went around and the Toei Animation Company labor union went on strike and all that, but inside, there were a lot of debates happening. Especially among directors wondering how they should take it all. Regardless of the fact that the age of the average anime watcher was increasing due to the anime boom, where exactly do we place the limit? Is it okay for us to try things that an ordinary live action director might do? For the generation of directors above us, these questions existed in a more tangible form. Whenever there was destruction of bodies or kiss scenes, like Mr. Tori did once in Gatchaman, every time something like that would happen on screen, production companies would file complaints or the TV stations would complain, and there would be this back and forth. Even so, there were people who wanted to depict these things. But in other words, that was it. The complaints were only on the artistic level. What that person did in CCA is leagues beyond that. 

The philosophies or policies or themes, those things aren’t in there because the movie needs it, no, the ideology is first and foremost (laughs). It’s probably forgiven because it’s underneath the umbrella of Gundam but even so, I was surprised that they could go that far. 

And, I was surprised a second time when there was no reaction to it. I spoke about this with Anno over the phone but, there’s no talk about it, good or bad. Why is there no reaction to such a radical outburst? There were probably a few entries to some anime magazines, I’ve seen a few of them myself, but in the end they were just the usual debates about war in Gundam. 

In that way, it was as I expected. By “as expected” I mean, even if one speaks of such ideals in animation, who is going to see it, and how? This is a problem that I’m always facing myself because the stories that I want to create aren’t reaching the audience that I desire. And that’s probably because it’s anime. If it were live action, you could just leave it alone and a bunch of critics would come along and say what they want. Even if it’s just some boring police drama, they’d dig up all this nonsense to write. Conversely, [CCA] didn’t receive attention because it was anime. Because it was anime, the ideas presented in it were overlooked. To Mr. Tomino, that was probably extremely regrettable. Because I am always experiencing similar things. The anime isn’t reaching the people who are supposed to see it. That is what I felt from it. 

Anno: Anime as a method of expression is very infantile. Especially facial expressions, angry faces have raised eyebrows, crying faces have tears in their eyes, blurry pupils means they are crying; if a foreigner saw this, I don’t think they’d understand. Japanese people are trained to understand to some extent so they know “oh they’re crying right now.” 

However, whether the character is crying because they are happy or because they are sad, cannot be understood through just the art, without dialogue and the whole package. So, whether hands go flying or blood is shed, at the end of day, they’re all cell humans. Even if they speak, it's just 3 frames of mouths going open and close. I think the sincere attitude of trying to go so far through such childish means of expression and in the even more remote region of robot anime is amazing. I don’t think there were any directors like this until now. 

Oshii: Yeah, there weren’t. I didn’t think he would take it that far. Although, I had sensed that vibe from Gundam itself. The structure of war depicted in it probably made that kind of thing possible. I don’t know how much he had pre-planned while he was creating the initial settings for the show but… it’s probably something similar to Patlabor where you start realizing “oh this is possible too” as you go. But, I kind of understand why it came out of a robot anime. With gag anime or home drama, school stories, these things would definitely be caught in a check at some stage. It’s probably due to the very combative world of robot anime, which depicts war, that kind of thing was passed (laughs). 

Anno: That’s right. It was probably only possible because it had its beginnings as “just an ad for robot toys.” 

Resignation

Oshii: Back when Urusei just finished airing, I met Mr. Yasuhiko at a magazine interview. It was right when the manga, Todonotsumari, was serializing in Animage. The first thing that person said was, “Animators like the ones depicted in [that manga] don’t exist. The anime studio environment that you are creating there is the furthest from an anime studio in reality. It’s what doesn’t exist the most. Why do you do this?” That’s when I sensed a bit of the resignation or frustration that generation of uncles hold towards animation. To put it bluntly, it's a type of inferiority complex. 

I, too, was told that when I entered Tatsunoko. “In the end it’s just an ad for toys. So don’t put too much effort into it. If you don’t keep it at a minimum, you’ll only feel disappointed at the end. If you become too serious about making a masterpiece or making a film, you won’t make it in this industry.” I got a lot of that. Whether they were sakuga directors, animators, producers, bosses. From different people, in different ways, I was told many things. To summarize, that’s pretty much what they’d tell me. “The anime job is not a place for that.” 

I’m generalizing but the generation above us started from a place of resignation. Like the background artist who couldn’t feed themselves off of oil paintings or the animator who couldn’t become a mangaka, it’s not nice to say but the industry was full of people who drifted into it. It was that kind of world. But there were good sides to it being that kind of world. No one would comment on what other people were doing. 

Like, I was told at the beginning, “Don’t criticize other people’s work.” And not only did this apply to people in my own studio but I also wasn’t allowed to say this and that about what Toei was doing. From the start I was still in the mindset of a film bro so I’d complain “what is that?” but I was told off not only by older directors but also by directors my own age. Was it Mashimo Koichi? (laughs). “It’s easy to spot as many faults as you’d like in other people’s work. So there’s an infinite number of criticisms you can make. The only thing that matters is what you yourself creates.” To that I said, “I don’t think so. I have the ability to state why boring things are boring with logic to back it up so I should be allowed to. If we don’t say these things out loud, nothing will change. In exchange, I don’t care how badly my work gets criticized.” That’s a very normal thing. Bar fights are constant in the movie industry. “Why doesn’t it work in the same way in the anime industry?” is how I felt. 

So, until I met Miya-san I was always frustrated. Meeting Miya-san was the first time…. cause that person is the same way. He says whatever he wants about other people’s work…just as I thought, this kind of person does exist. Even as we argue, even as we lovingly tear each other’s work apart, we are still together. I think that’s a very important skill as a director and even beyond that, I was perplexed as to why this wasn’t allowed in the anime industry. 

The one thought I always held within all of this was that, before the sponsors or stations or whatever, the anime industry carved out territory for itself and didn’t try to leave it. So when the industry was forced to the forefront with the anime boom, the previously anonymous animators and directors suddenly found themselves in the limelight. And with that, all of the inferiority complexes came flooding out in a warped way. 

For example, Mr. Yasuhiko’s Crusher Joe is unnecessarily cruel. Like small animals getting turned into meat clumps with a machine gun. Or patricide or siblings killing each other. Everything that had been suppressed until now came flooding out in a very warped way. Endlessly mass producing worthless children’s media that's neither good or bad would turn one’s literary consciousness inwards. So when you’re finally able to put work out there under your own name, all of that came out. Basically what I’m saying is that the balance is off. How far can you take things, from where should you start dialing back; everyone has their own parameters based on their unique method of expression. But they let everything out, completely ignoring these parameters.

When I saw this, I was full of complicated feelings. “Why do you guys have to have such a complex towards making animation?” I hated it so much because the generation below me doesn’t really have these taboos or warped perceptions. 

Anno: They really don’t.

Crime of Conscience

Oshii: On the other hand, there are many things that you can do in anime that wouldn’t be allowed in Japanese movies. Ideas that would be stamped into the rejection pile for a Japanese movie can be expressed to a certain degree in anime….is what people discovered. One way to put it is, if you take “the way anime is viewed” in a societal sense and work within those means, then anything is possible…..or at least I felt (laughs). It’s only useful up to a certain point of course. Using a tactic of pushing and retreating to mix things up while creating a proper product on the other end was how I was doing my job. At the time. Even now I feel I work in a similar way but it’s different. We become wary and don’t do it like that. We’d try to cheat things by having it take place in an alternate universe. Or if you’re trying to depict a rebellion, don’t draw it from the rebel side but from the police side instead (laughs). 

Even today, although it takes a different form, the idea that animation is for kids still persists. Showing nude bodies, and not cute things like shower scenes or skirt flipping, but in the context of lovers or affairs, passionate love or a world where politics are spoken about so clearly, is going to be rejected. But if you add “somewhere out in outer space,” sometimes it slips past the radar and gets greenlit. 

However, I think Mr. Tomino knew what he was doing. 

Anno: I think so too. 

Oshii: When I saw it, I thought “he did this on purpose.” There’s probably parts that I understand because I am also a creator. It was well balanced. There was none of the off-balanceness of Mr. Yasuhiko. Of course, what lies underneath is the same. At the foundation is this inner warped hatred towards animation movies. On the other hand, he understands that he’s  just an anime person and can't express things well when he’s separate from anime. That kind of thing, however, was pretty well controlled when it came to Char’s Counterattack. Therefore, there is no doubt that it was a crime of conscience. 

However, even if it was on purpose, I still think the film was too blunt. I thought it would be better to disguise it a little more, dress it up a little more, camouflage it, and wear a covering, something. 

Anno: On the contrary, I thought that’s what made it so masculine or cool.

Oshii: It’s dangerous. Danger is not about being socially sanctioned, criticized, or denounced, but rather straightforward words suggesting revolution, intellectuals this and that, and correcting or imposing sanctions on humankind…  if you are not careful about it, the intentions may be flipped on you. In other words, you run the risk of becoming a gag. Political language is rather delicate, isn’t it? If you do it too much, like those violent student protesters who often appear in TV dramas, it becomes a comedy act that’s so ugly you can’t even call it a parody. That’s why, in Urusei Yatsura, Megane, the plot device guy, was doing everything exaggeratedly as a running joke. That's because I thought that if I didn't do it that way, it wouldn't pass, and I, personally, wanted to see it. There was a part of me that felt detached. And that was funny in itself. The fact remains that even to me, that era, while there were some painful parts, I also felt that it was humorous. Some parts are nostalgic, and some parts make me feel even disgusted. I found some salvation in letting everything out through a plot device character like Megane. That kind of thing, if you do it seriously, it's just painful.

In short, political language is pretty delicate…. Going back to the phrase “heavenly punishment.” I’m positive that there’s people who laughed at that phrase. Because we’re talking “heavenly punishment” in a space environment. What he’s doing is describing the “February 26 Incident” verbatim but the world he’s created is a future battlefield in outer space. There’s an immense gap. The younger generation may not care about it, though. I've always felt that kind of thing from Sunrise. There is something off about them. It seems that there are people who strangely want to enumerate dead languages.

My scariest thought is that there’s probably people who laughed at CCA.  That they found it comical. The fact these imperial loyalist type characters are living out the “one person one kill” kind of world in outer space. I avoided writing these kinds of stories for this exact reason. ‘Cause at some point, someone is going to laugh. Like the drama, “Hyokin Tribe” from back in the day. You write the drama very seriously and in the end, it all flips on its head. It’s the generation where (serious) things are seen in a cynical manner. I am conscious of the enemy waiting, ready to turn everything into laughs. Especially when it comes to anime, anything is possible so you take it very seriously until the very end where it’s all comedy. The moment that becomes obvious, everything you’ve accumulated becomes invalid. So I prefer it the other way around,  to create the mood, “this is a lie, it’s all jokes,” and then reveal that it was actually my true intention all along. I feel that it’s more effective to build up the jokes and then bring it into the real world at the end. In short, you can’t be seen through this way. If you ask me, the modern movie goer is rather twisted. A naive audience doesn’t exist. Within that, however, many anime viewers are among the exceptionally naive. They get impressed right away. As if they’re prepared to be impressed. Compared to the average viewer, anime watchers are easy to deceive, to the point where I go, “why are you so naive?” They easily go along with your tricks. They are waiting, ready to go along with anything you offer them. It’s the same mentality as the people who come to anime events and go, “since I’m already here, I am prepared to get my money’s worth by laughing at everything, even the parts that aren’t funny, and have a good time with everyone.” From a customer’s point of view, it’s such a naive mindset….maybe even going past naive into sly territory. Speaking broadly about movies in general, half-baked drama, half-baked crying or overly sentimental things doesn’t work on audiences nowadays. Rather, they are looking for ways to laugh at it.  

Ever since that TV drama, "Stewardess Monogatari", I've been endlessly wary of such things. The goal is to make people laugh, not be laughed at. The movie is useless unless we (the creators) hold on to the hegemony. 

Oshii: So when I saw CCA, I thought, there are definitely people out there who got together to drink and laugh out loud while watching this movie. And those who didn’t, said they couldn’t bear to watch it and stopped watching. Since they immediately develop a dislike for it. And the people who watched it seriously are hardcore robot fans, or Gundam fans…… they probably watched it very passionately (laughs). When you remove all of that, the message is clear. It’s completely anachronistic….. well, rather than anachronistic, I think what he’s doing is to a certain extent effective. It’s similar to what I was doing last year (Patlabor 2?).....he's speaking very sincerely, but depending on what kind of world and audiences see this movie, it will become a very unfortunate movie.

Anno: I think that movie is so one-sided though. I can’t imagine he had the audience in mind while he was making it. 

Oshii: Well there was a sense of agitation, “there’s no way you’ll understand!”

Anno: I get that sense from the fighting spirit of the film. 

Oshii: Because humans are somewhat beyond saving, even if you look at history, we haven’t done anything good. Probably even in the next century, whether humans go out into space, humans will repeat the same stupidity, getting everything and everyone involved and ruining it. That’s why he said, if God isn’t going to do it, I will. 

Tsuge (Patlabor) and Char were thinking the same thing, basically wanting to impose punishment. It’s the story of a terrorist who, even if they don’t manage to impose that punishment, can reveal the naked truth just for a moment. It's the world that Miya-san hates most (laughs).

Miyazaki Hayao

Anno: But there’s probably a part of Miya-san that actually wants to write that kind of story. 

Oshii: Somewhere yes. Take Nausicaa for example, within that world called “Nausicaa” there are characters with that sort of “scent.” Even that person (Miyazaki) has his own variations of this. It’s just that he has internalized that making it a reality would be a bad thing. 

Anno: But his true feelings are Lepka (Future Boy Conan) or somewhere around there. 

Oshii: Yes his real thoughts are somewhere different. That’s because that person is very strategic about what he puts out into the world and how. And it’s not necessary for the work to align with his truth. 

Anno: Speaking of revealing one’s truth, I had expectations for Porco Rosso but what part of that was true, damn it (laughs). 

Oshii: His truth was in there. But not of observations on humanity or the world, his truths about his personal life was the only thing in it. Especially surrounding troubles with women (laughs). And of course, only people who know him personally would understand such a thing. In that sense, it goes far beyond the craftiness of Patlabor; Porco Rosso is way more sly. He let everything out in that film and even left excuses for himself. 

When you take off the pig mask, Miya-san is underneath. If he truly wanted to create a world that’s so unheard of and positive like that, why did the pig need to wear a trenchcoat and smoke? They just need to be going oink oink. It would’ve been a much more fun anime that way. If he wanted to make an anime that’ll make the kids happy, then there’s no need to make it so hard boiled, they should’ve just been oinking….cause pigs don’t need to speak.  The pig goes oink oink, and is for some reason is good at piloting a plane. Then it would’ve been so much fun. But it’s not like that. And the reason it's not is because he wanted to show his truth….more like, he wanted to dispel his own sorrows through making this film. The audiences had it okay but his staff who had to go along with this are so pitiful. That’s the true pig curse. I bet they couldn’t stand it. Because they’re Miya-san’s excuse.

[eagles-translated]

This is when the fourth and final season of Eagles releases

This summer, the third season of the hit series Eagles premieres on SVT. Now it's confirmed that there will also be a season four - which will be the series' last. We've talked to actress Alva Bratt and screenwriter Michaela Hamilton.

The hit series "Eagles" will soon release its third season on SVT. In the series, we get to follow five teenagers who live in the hockey town Oskarshamn and their high school years, which are filled with friendship, love and rivalry - both on and off the ice. Now it's also confirmed that a fourth and final season of the SVT series is on its way. So how will it end for our favorite characters? We've talked to actress Alva Bratt and screenwriter Michaela Hamilton about the inspiration behind the characters and what the coming seasons have to offer.

- You could see it as season three and four entering phase two. When you start to face adult problems and how you handle them as a non-adult person, says Michaela Hamilton.

The second season of the teen series averaged over half a million viewers per episode and was nominated for Kristallen 2020 in the category of best TV drama of the year. Despite the success, season four will be the last season. Why is that?

- It's quite funny, the way you're asking the question. It's exactly the same thing you feel when you graduate: “Why does it have to end? We're here and having such a good time”. But we have to move on in life and release these people and relationships into the world. That is exactly what we're doing with Eagles as well, says Michaela Hamilton.

- It's good to finish on top! These were the years the show was supposed to be about. Now they're graduating and then we will set them free, Alva Bratt adds.

What will season 4 be about?

We've gotten to follow the characters during their high school years, and the fourth season will take place during the last six months before they graduate and go their own ways. Michaela remembers that there is an incredible pain in graduating and that you are exposed to the world in a completely different way.

- It is a rather bewildering moment in life when you know that you're going to be separated from people that you have first been forced to be with, but then learned to become friends with or live with, and what these goodbyes do to you. So that's where the basic story lies, says Michaela Hamilton.

Alva Bratt on Eagles-Felicia: "It's like her facade is falling quite a bit"

The third season premieres in June, and is largely about the main characters' different choices. Having to make important choices for the future, even though you may not really know who you are, and what the consequences will be. The third season of Eagles will be darker than the previous ones, which we will see in Alva Bratt's character Felicia Kroon.

- I would say that she feels darker and more insecure. It's like her facade is falling quite a bit, says Alva Bratt.

The season will address issues such as how young people are affected by anxiety over the future, mental illness and dysfunctional families. These are topics that both Michaela and Alva can recognize themselves in, but in different ways. Michaela says that she herself was very identity-seeking and insecure when she was younger. When she got a little older, she lost both her brother and stepfather and also had to go through incredible grief. She has tried to put that trauma into the Eagles' script.

- Grief is so striking and it does things to people, both in positive and negative ways. So I've really lent out a lot of my feelings about it, and it's something that has been personal to me, says Michaela.

It's precisely the search for identity that the screenwriters have attributed to Felicia's character. Trying to find out who you are by testing different identities, and that the journey there can be incredibly difficult. Themes such as mental illness and anxiety over the future are probably things that most people can relate to on some level.

- I've felt bad when I was younger, but also good. That's probably what youth is, I guess, says Michaela.

- That's probably also the climate we live in today. No one feels great all the time. I can feel anxiety over the future now more than ever. Especially with the pandemic, it's been awful on so many levels. That you have to live with the constant anxiety of the future. Even if you're feeling pretty well, it's always difficult to know what you're going to do in the future, says Alva.

They both think that these are important topics to highlight and show more sides of. Michaela says that Eagles has never tried to be a series that is only lighthearted, and they're trying to be a broader spectrum than that. The characters encounter problems such as eating disorders, cancel culture, rumors and drug problems.

- I don't think we're romanticizing anything, which I think is very important. It takes a whole lot to do certain things that some of the characters do, but at the same time there is a hopefulness in the series that gives balance, says Alva and continues:

- I think that one of the guy characters problems are highlighted very well. That these vulnerable guys get represented too, because I really think there is too little of that in media. This story also shows that all people are equal regardless of which gender, identity and class we feel like we belong in.

- Emotions belong to everyone, Michaela fills in.

Prior to the series, the production team did solid research work by interviewing young people in Oskarshamn, and among them many teenagers could recognize themselves in Felicia. But Alva Bratt, who plays the character, doesn't find many similarities between her and Felicia.

- I'm very different from my character. I've said it so many times, but she's like the teenager I never was, says Alva.

The characters may seem stereotypical at first, but as the series progresses, we get to see more sides of them. It's a bit like when we get to know someone in real life. At first we might see a happy guy, but the more we hang out with them the more sides to the person we get to see.

- I think it's nice to write a character just like that, to unfold it a bit like a flower. And it's especially important to understand that when you're young, you're not just evil or good or sad or happy. It's not a whole personality. You can change. You can feel shit but at the same time laugh with your family or have problems within the family but still be a good partner, says Michaela.

So, why has the show gotten so popular? Alva and Michaela think that a lot can be attributed to the viewers recognizing themselves or other people they know in the characters. That they are easy to relate to.

- That's the beauty of teen shows. Either you go through it, have to go through it or you have gone through it. That everyone can find something in there that you can relate to, says Michaela.

The filming for the fourth and final season starts soon. Since it has been clear that Eagles will be about the characters' time as high school students, it means that Eagles will end soon. Whether it will come in any other form remains to be seen.

- No closed doors. That's what I'll say, says Michaela.

When does Eagles season 3 premiere on SVT?

We've seen two seasons of Eagles so far and this summer the third season will finally premiere. Add June 4th 2021 to your calendars - that's the premiere date for season 3.

Quick Recap: This has happened in earlier seasons of Eagles

The first two seasons of Eagles can no longer be watched on SVT Play, which means that they're not possible to stream at the moment. Along with season 3, the previous episodes will return soon. But do you want to refresh your memory for the next season right now? If so, here's a quick recap of what happened in seasons 1 and 2.

This happened in Eagles season 1

In the first season of Eagles we met the Kroon siblings - the influencer Felicia (Alva Bratt) and the hockey player Elias (Edvard Olsson), who moved back to Sweden after their time in the US. Their father was a hockey professional in the NHL but is now taking over as a coach for the hockey team in Oskarshamn.

Felicia starts seeing Ludvig (Adrian Öjvindsson), the hockey talent who's been the best in the team - until Elias joined. The rivalry between the young people reflects much of the season both in friendship, love and popularity.

Klara Ceder (Sarah Gustafsson) who is the school's IT girl feels threatened by Felicia who invades her territory, both as the school's most popular girl and by hanging out with Amie (Yandeh Sallah), who was Klara's friend from the beginning.

Ludvig has family problems and drowns them in alcohol at a party. At the party he meets Amie, and something happens between them.

This happened in Eagles season 2

The second season of Eagles picks up from the dramatic end of season 1, but here we get to see a slightly darker season. Elias starts dating Klara, who Felicia doesn't like. But at the end of the season, Klara apologizes to Felicia, and we get to see other sides of her. Is this the beginning of a new friendship?

Felicia dates Jack Barrett (Filip Wolfe Sjunnesson), a new assistant coach on the team, until she learns worrying things about him.

There is a strange atmosphere between Ludvig and Amie, but they continue to make music together. When Ludvig ends up in the hospital after a hockey tackle, Amie kisses him, but he doesn't kiss her back. Are you allowed to fall in love with your friend's ex?

Cecilia Arvidsson March 15th, 2021 Source: (x)

[the-awful-falafel]

Rick and Morty - S4E6 "Never Ricking Morty" Podcast Summary/Breakdown

So y'all probably expected this based on how often I've been talking about these official companion podcasts. I recommend listening to them yourself either on the official Adult Swim YT channel or the official website, but I thought I'd go ahead and make bullet point breakdown of some key points for this particular podcast, because trivia and behind-the-scenes knowledge really appeal to me. And this episode is pretty divisive in the fanbase, so I think this podcast will assuage some fears even if you still personally dislike it in the end.

For some reason, the title of the podcast calls this S4E7 instead of episode 6. It wasn’t commented upon, so I assume either it was a typo or it was 7 in the production order and got swapped shortly before release.

The interviewed staff involved in this episode were Carlos Ortega (character design lead), Erica Hayes (director), James McDermott (art director), and Jeff Loveness (writer)

The idea of this episode was conceived in October/November 2018 as a "one-up" of anthologies and clip shows. They didn't want to do a straight anthology because many other TV shows had already done that, so they tried to go more experimental and bold and basically went balls-deep with the metanarrative as a result

It was a substitute for Interdimensional Cable (which they were going to do instead but it fell through for unknown reasons)

"We had to go so far up our own ass, because if we didn't go far enough, people would be mad that we didn't."

The writers intentionally mocked themselves as much as the fans, pretty much, and it was meant to be all in good fun

The artists really enjoy designing all the weird aliens in the show, as well as getting to reuse/repurpose them when applicable. Apparently next episode (Promortyus) is going to be reusing a lot of designs for something (but they obviously can't say due to spoilers)

Compared to other episodes, "Never Ricking Morty" went pretty smoothly once it got to the art stage. That doesn't mean it was easy, but there weren't a ton of revisions they had to do

There was a joking spoiler about Rick becoming pregnant later this season. At least I think it's joking.

While writing this episode, the writers came up with a huge whiteboard list of complaints about the show, misconceptions about the show, etc. to consult for the meta jokes. Loveness later clarified that it wasn't quite about attacking "complaining" though, and it wasn't meant to be mean-spirited

The Bechdel test skit came from them realizing they hadn't done much with Beth and Summer this season, which definitely can be considered a flaw. Therefore, as part of their self-mockery, the writers decided to force them crudely into the episode as a joke, while also making fun of men who write women characters poorly and reductively.

The Jesus Christ / Rick suddenly being Christian part was written in response to the writers asking themselves "what would kill Rick and Morty as a show?"

Jeff Loveness said this in the "Inside Never Ricking Morty" video as well, but he really loved the "old man is really ripped and ready to kick your ass" trope and is partially responsible for it becoming a running gag this episode along with "cum gutters". Apparently cum gutters return in season 5 (also said jokingly, so who knows)

One of the Q&A callers called multiple times, with different phone numbers, and kept asking about potential crossovers for some reason

"A lot of people are saying that the show is fucking with their fans. Is that accurate?" "I think some of those fans deserve to be fucked with a little bit."

They point out how some fans feel entitled to the idea they should be pleased by the show all the time, and the writers feel like the show should ideally surprise the viewers in a good way, but you still may not like every episode and that's alright

At the same time, the episode wasn't meant as an attack on the fans, it was more of a "we'll do this our way, be experimental, and push the envelope of what we can do" message they were sending. Jeff Loveness promises that there's "good stuff coming up" that he thinks the fans will be happy with, presumably in late Season 4 or even Season 5

"Just because we showed it this way and you'll probably never see it this way again, that doesn't mean we're dropping these storylines completely." There you go, everyone! The ongoing story threads are still happening at some point, and the message of the episode wasn't about dropping continuity or mocking people for caring about it. Although if you were hoping for resolutions similar to what was shown in this episode (Evil Morty w/ a giant army, Tammy VS Summer with lightsabers), those scenarios are almost certainly not going to happen canonically based on this statement. Let's hope that what they do come up with is both unexpected and awesome.

The episode is intended to be non-canonical, similar to past once-a-season clip show episodes like Interdimensional Cable

Story Lord was inspired by characters like Mysterio and Q, and the writers created him late in development as a type of villain they hadn't done before. Dan Harmon also put a lot of self-mockery into the character with how much he loved narrative structure and the story circle. The character artists even initially asked if Harmon could be the design for the character but that received an immediate "no", as it was perceived as being too on-the-nose.

Jeff Loveness was surprised the Rick/Birdperson musical made it to the final episode since it seemed like the sort of thing that would be cut or lost in development. He was also surprised the Jesus thing stayed in mostly untouched

The Story Train was intended to be an actually purchasable product by the time the episode aired-- the writers were emphatically excited about that being the culmination of the joke in the writers room-- and they were surprised that it didn't go through by the time the episode aired. They guess it's due to the coronavirus pandemic interrupting merchandising plans, but they're ultimately unsure because the decision isn't discussed with them

The artists do receive some limitations on how much gore they're allowed to depict, but they can show as much blood as they want, so for the most part they can still be creative with gruesome violence (like the Tickets Please guy ripping in half in this episode)

The artists are credited for elevating most of the fight scenes in the show, sometimes with only vague script direction which they use to be very creative

In response to a viewer calling in and asking the question about whether Pickle Rick will return: "I think there's a conversation to be had about: do we want these things to return or it better to do a one-off story?" So my take on this is that not literally everything will factor into the continuity-- they put thought into what ideas have more long-running potential and they build those up. Which is kind of obvious but the question was silly anyway. (They're still ambiguous about whether or not Pickle Rick will come back, by the way)

They aren't going to do an outright Star Wars parody in Rick and Morty because other shows have already done that, but they can still parody what Star Wars represents rather than doing a "branded commercial" for it. Apparently there is a lot of that specifically coming up this season (although indirect in the way they're describing). I assume this is referring to the upcoming "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri" episode, so I’m curious about how they’ll reference Star Wars in that one.

The COVID-19 reference this episode was thrown in last minute, presumably with just alternative dubbing and changing the lip sync animation. They say that sometimes episodes are still being worked on up until the moment they release on television. Referring to a previous episode as an example, the character of Shadowjacker from the dragon episode was thrown in last-minute

With the exception of James McDermott, most of the staff interviewed had no control or participation over the commercial product placement work, such as the Wendy's/Pringles commercials. They don't mind them for the most part and find them funny

The writers try to avoid being too topical because the scripts take so long to turn into animation that any references will become outdated by the time it releases. Therefore, they try to be "timely" in the sense that they're writing about things that are happening in the world, but in a more abstract/thematic sense. Jeff Loveness implies that the next episode Promortyus will have a lot of that

In response to another viewer Q&A: There is no Rick and Morty movie currently planned. They wouldn't mind one, but nothing is really in development at the moment

The staff say they're excited for the next batch of episodes and seem pretty proud of their work on this season

They don't plan on making a Rick and Morty musical episode at the moment, as they feel like other shows like South Park and the Simpson have done it excellently and don't feel like they're capable of doing it better. The Rick/Birdperson bit in this episode was the most we're going to get

The code inside the broken-off throttle lever was intended to just be a bar code decal (to show it's a toy) and doesn't actually mean anything. James McDermott jokingly said it's "where the bodies are buried"

The Rick army / Evil Morty scene was huge from an animation standpoint and they almost couldn't do it due to how ambitious the shot was. They were going for a "Lords of the Rings", faux series-finale vibe, where they "give the fans what they THINK they want". Justin Roiland insisted they do it

There are definitely more big animation setpieces planned for the future

And that’s it! I’ll probably do more of these for the future episode podcasts, if anyone is still interested.

[aion-rsa]

Rome: The Long Road of the Original HBO Epic

https://ift.tt/36frbPD

It was the biggest show ever produced when it premiered on HBO. Filming in exotic international locations and on sets that went on for blocks, it was an epic spectacle that many whispered couldn’t be done on television. Not with its hundreds of extras in lavish costumes, and not with its cast of more than a dozen major characters. Yet HBO gambled big with a budget that exceeded $100 million on its first season.

These details might be mistaken by many as the genesis of Game of Thrones. But before HBO’s song of ice and fire, this was also the origin of the first actual modern TV epic. It was the story of Rome.

In its debut, Rome was even more gargantuan in scale and opulent in design than Thrones’ first few years. Filmed at the legendary facilities of Cinecittà Studios in the actual Rome, HBO and showrunner Bruno Heller oversaw a vast recreation of antiquity during the life and times of Julius Caesar. From the austere grandeur of the pre-imperial Roman Forum to the eventual seediness of the gangs on the Aventine Hill, the final days of the Roman republic were reimagined in sweaty, shocking, and spectacularly expensive detail.

“We used the most modern scholarship, which suggests that all the sculptures were painted,” Heller says over Zoom as we reminisce about Rome and its Cinecittà extravagance 15 years after the series’ 2005 premiere. Every morning Heller would  be up at 4am, arriving early on set and getting lost in the art direction’s colors. “Walking out there at dawn into the Forum and seeing this world created, it was just magical. It gives me goosebumps now thinking about it, seeing a hundred [Gaul] tribesmen on horseback with great furry helmets charging down a hillside yelling, that sort of thing. No one makes things like that anymore. Even something like Game of Thrones would use CGI for the kind of things that we were doing for real.”

Actor Kevin McKidd, who played one half of Rome’s soul, the honorable to a fault Lucius Vorenus, expresses similar awe when he thinks back at what they accomplished.

“I mean listen, none of these budgets were small, but I think Game of Thrones ended up being smaller than ours,” McKidd correctly points out. Whereas Rome was budgeted at $100 million when it premiered, Game of Thrones debuted with a more reasonable starting price tag of $60 million. Says McKidd, “Ours, it was the first time anybody had tried this, so we just had to spend the money. And I think they figured out, it seems, ways to do it smarter or for less… because our show came out of the gate just huge and bawdy and big, and unapologetic.”

Heller is even more succinct in describing Rome’s making.

“Most films, and even TV, is planning for battle,” Heller says. “Planning for a big TV series like [Rome] is like planning for war, for a campaign. It’s invading Russia.” He pauses, “You have to think about the retreat, as well.”

This was Rome’s war: brief, bloody, and beautiful.

‘Very Unlikely to Be Made’

When HBO first hired Heller to take a crack at a Rome treatment, he didn’t think for a minute it would get made. In the early 2000s, HBO was a different place than it is now. The Sopranos and Sex and the City of course turned the premium cable network into the leader of the prestige cable revolution—or harbinger of peak TV as it would later be called—and the network had its eye on bigger and more dazzling projects. In 2001 HBO even released the most expensive miniseries ever up to that point with Band of Brothers. But that World War II-set series also had the names Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks attached as producers. The network still relied on bankability.

So when Heller took a meeting about Rome, he was acutely aware he’d be unable to lend that same prestige to a sword and sandals epic. He’d written some scripts before at HBO and admired the vision of then-HBO chairman Chris Albrecht and Carolyn Strauss, then-president of HBO’s entertainment division. But he was being called in to discuss a show based on a preexisting miniseries pitch by John Milius and William J. MacDonald—a pitch the network was already wary toward.

“It’s one of those projects that’s really going for broke and very unlikely to be made, [given] the budget that was required,” Heller recalls of HBO’s attitude toward Milius and his vision. “They were paying me to write a script to take it at least to a respectable point at which time they can say, ‘Okay, thank you.’”

Citing himself as “cheap” at the time, Heller recognized it was easier to pay a young writer for a treatment than a whole production crew for a pilot. So he used the opportunity as an excuse to immerse himself in Roman history and lore. This began via conversations with his co-creators Milius and MacDonald. Their central conceit already had in place the three characters of young Octavian, the boy who would be Augustus, first Emperor of Rome, as well as Roman centurions Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus.

In history, as with the series, Pullo and Vorenus were the only Roman soldiers who Julius Caesar mentioned by name in his journals. But other than being Roman centurions in the 13th Legion, not much else is known of the men. And Heller took his first major liberty when he lit on the idea of changing Pullo from a centurion to a coarse, insubordinate soldier beneath Vorenus’ command.

It was a savvy move that mapped the heart of the Rome series. Whereas most other fictions about this oft-dramatized era in history focused on the lives of the legendary patricians—be it Caesar and Octavian, or Marc Antony and Cleopatra—Rome would maintain all those characters and the lower tiers in daily Roman life. Through the introduction of Pullo and Vorenus, and their contentious friendship, the fall of the Roman republic suddenly becomes an upstairs/downstairs dramedy.

Says Heller, “The model that first sparked me on ‘oh, this is how to play it’ was [Tom Stoppard’s] Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, because the larger story is so well known, like Hamlet, that it’s hard to tell that story. The downstairs story has to be more compelling than the upstairs story, because the upstairs story, a little like Batman, is a given. It’s a myth. Everyone knows what happens.”

It also allowed Heller to dive into modern research.

“There was a lot of very recent scholarship at that time that transformed people’s sense of what Roman [history] was,” Heller explains. “There was much more about the everyday life of Roman people, about how people would have lived in apartment blocks in the insular working class life, and looking at it from that modern perspective.”

Reflecting on the dirtiness and filth that would be in the Roman Forum, the showrunner adds, “It’s lucky that practically every previous representation of Rome on any scale kind of went for the grand imperial late Edward Gibbon velvet drapes and marble columns. Even Gladiator went for that. Whereas, in fact, it looked much more like Calcutta or Bombay, and smelled like that.”

This also provided the writer the chance to explore Roman culture and custom with a greater push for authenticity than many Hollywood films of yore. For example, Heller attempted to learn how to read Latin at least as well as the uneducated Pullo—though he says he only got about as far as being able to recognize “oh that’s a pub” if he were walking the streets. More successfully he came to understand his vision of the Pagan working class mentality when he wrote a scene of Pullo praying to Portunus, the Roman god of locks and keys.

It all informed an extravagant treatment for a series he’d end up writing half the episodes of (and he tells us all 22 installments of the show passed through his typewriter before shooting). Yet, at least per the co-creator, what got Rome greenlit was as much his innovations as the developments of an entirely different epic series at HBO.

“[Chris Albrecht] was looking for something that had to be big and that they had to put money behind,” Heller says. “I think it was going to be Mel Gibson doing Alexander.” Indeed, at the same time HBO was developing Rome, the network was also working with the then-beloved Oscar winning director behind Braveheart for a 10-part series on Macedonian conquest.

“Then it turned out that Mel Gibson was going to do Alexander but he wouldn’t be Alexander,” Heller says. “[But] they didn’t want to be in business with Mel Gibson as a director-producer without Mel Gibson as [the star].”

As Gibson’s project imploded, Rome’s prospects would rise, sans any stars. Clearly things in the entertainment industry were about to change.

A Bottle of Tequila in the Roman Forum

When speaking with McKidd over Zoom, the actor’s affection for Rome is profound. Not 20 feet from his screen rests Lucius Vorenus’ sword, which he safely keeps in his own home. Similarly, within the actor’s mind resides nothing but warm memories. He reminisces about seeing his children spend summers growing up around the actual ruins of the Roman Forum and Colosseum during production; and he savors still the long nights at Cinecittà with British theater legends like Kenneth Cranham, a fellow Scotsman who played Pompey Magnus.

“It was an incredibly social time,” says McKidd. “It was almost like summer camp for British actors. We all got to live there; we went out for long dinners every night and we’d speak to Kenneth and all the older actors, who told us such amazing stories about all their time in the theater.”

But one relationship, perhaps the most significant of the entire series, was that shared by McKidd and his co-star Ray Stevenson, aka Titus Pullo. While there were of course other vital parts to the series, from worldly Ciarián Hinds as Caesar to Tobias Menzies’ despairingly well-intentioned Brutus—and one must never overlook Polly Walker’s Machiavellian Atia of the Julii (Heller’s favorite character)—the heart and soul of the series belongs to Pullo and Vorenus, the odd couple of 48 BCE.

Off-screen McKidd and Stevenson had known each other for years through mutual friends, but it wasn’t until they were in the final round of chemistry auditions in a Covent Garden hotel that they began a significant lifelong friendship. But then, it was a late epiphany to cast the red-haired and fiery McKidd as the straight-laced Vorenus.

For the actor, the process began early when he bumped into Heller, as well as executive producer Anne Thomopoulos and director Michael Apted, while in Romania. At the time, McKidd was there filming the TV movie Gunpowder, Treason & Plot (2004), as it was cheaper to shoot a period piece about 16th century Scottish court intrigue in eastern Europe than actual Scotland. The Rome team was entertaining a similar idea.

“I’m strutting around in my thigh-high leather boots and period costume, and we’re riding horses and swinging swords, and all that stuff and having a great old time,” says McKidd. “And I hear these American voices in the corridor, so I come out, and here is this guy called Bruno Heller.” They immediately got to chatting about the Danny Boyle movie McKidd did, Trainspotting (1996), and about this new TV series focused on ancient Rome. McKidd quickly prepared with his current director a film reel of himself riding horses.

Yet when HBO finally sent him a script, the producers didn’t want him for the Vorenus role; they saw him as Pullo.

Read more

TV

HBO’s Rome Ending Was Originally Very Different

By David Crow

Movies

Why Gladiator Continues to Echo Through Eternity

By David Crow

On the casting process, McKidd remembers, “I said to them, ‘I’d love to come in and read, but I would really much rather read for the part of Lucius Vorenus.’ And they were like, ‘No, we really see you as maybe Pullo, can you read for Pullo?’ So I said, ‘Okay.’ So I came in and I read for Pullo. And they’re like, ‘Okay.’ Then a week goes by, and they call and they say, ‘We really love you, but maybe can you come in and read for Marc Antony?’”

So it continued until McKidd begged to get a screen test for Vorenus. It even took so long he initially considered turning the series down in favor of indie projects he was already committing to. That was at least a thought he had on the set of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven (2005) until word got around at the pub to co-star Liam Neeson.

“I came down to the bar and Liam was pointing his finger at me and he was like, ‘You, I need to have a word with you outside,’” McKidd says. “And I was like, ‘Ah shit.’” Out in a snow-covered Spanish countryside, Neeson commanded, “Go to a phone booth, find a phone right now. Call your agent and hope and pray they haven’t offered that part to somebody else.”

They had not, and soon enough McKidd was flying alongside Stevenson to the actual city of Rome.

“I remember me and Ray going to Rome in the spring… with Michael Apted, walking around this back lot at Cinecittà, and it was all just scaffolding at that time, there was no frontage. I remember Michael turned to me and Ray and said, basically, we can’t fuck this up, because it was so huge. It was so beyond anything that any of us had ever seen.”

With red paint chipping across weathered doors, and mules grazing in the squares, a Roman Forum unlike any other came alive in the same space where Martin Scorsese just filmed Gangs of New York. The sense of size and scale was overwhelming, as was the pressure on Stevenson and McKidd to anchor it. Fifteen years later, McKidd is candid about how that tension shaped each man and, in the actor’s mind, the series.

During the last day of production on the first season, after shooting had wrapped and festivities began, McKidd and Stevenson found themselves sharing a quiet set of stairs leading up to their Roman senate. Between them was a bottle of tequila. Off in the distance, the faint sound of wrap party debauchery was rising to a muffled roar, yet the central stars of Rome were keeping their own company and having a long overdue conversation.

“I don’t think Ray would be mad at me for telling this story because we’re still close friends and I love him dearly,” McKidd says with a measured tone. “Initially, he and I clashed. We just had very different styles. Ray’s this big larger than life personality, and as Bruno would say, I’m much more this ‘Presbyterian,’ or you could say a little more controlling… and we ended up at loggerheads a lot, and fighting, and being difficult in the first season.”

Yet as McKidd is quick to point out, this translated to perfect chemistry on the screen, as Pullo and Vorenus were often “at loggerheads” during the first season, which culminated with Vorenus’ life imploding on the same day as Caesar’s assassination. Meanwhile Pullo found some semblance of peace. But here in the twilight of a recreated Roman Forum, the season was getting a much needed post-script.

“The wrap party is going on somewhere, and we can hear the music,” McKidd says, “and he and I just sat out there sharing the bottle of tequila. And we had it out, you know? Because we both had been holding stuff in for the season about things that annoyed each other… We got all of it off our chest and we ended up just having a huge hug, and we threw this bottle, this [now] empty bottle of tequila, into the middle of the Forum. We made a pact with each other that from that point on we were going to be the closest of friends, and we still are.”

In many ways, it mirrored the coming dynamic between Pullo and Vorenus in season 2, which McKidd likewise recognizes.

“Our bond was unbreakable in the second season,” he says. “You see that chemistry shift and move, and morph throughout the two seasons, and it pretty much tracks Ray and my relationship.” And it would prove indispensable that second year, especially as both characters, like their actors, were forced to close ranks and face that the end was nigh.

The Cost of Doing Business Like the Romans Do

Founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini, the international renown of Rome’s Cinecittà Studios has long superseded its less than auspicious beginnings. Celebrated as the home to a highly skilled community of filmmaking artisans, Cinecittà’s name is inseparable with legendary filmmakers like Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, and Sergio Leone. And it’s been the site of landmark Hollywood productions, such as Roman Holiday (1953), Ben-Hur (1959), and even the notorious Cleopatra (1963). Yet as Heller points out, no American production has been back to Cinecittà since Rome.

Says the creator, “It’s Italy, I love it, and it’s part of the culture, but you were there to be picked over and for them to, in completely formal and legitimately legal ways, take as much money out of the production as possible.” He pauses to smile and choose his next words carefully about the difference between shooting a movie and TV series in that environment.

“With a series, you’re making long-term relationships,” he continues. “It’s like a marriage. A movie is a one-night stand. You can be a bastard to everyone on a movie and you’re never going to see them again. So the result is more important than the relationships. In a TV series, the relationships are more important, in the end. It’s pointless having a successful first season of a show and then you can’t do the second season because no one will work together.”

This is not to say the only reason Rome was prematurely cancelled had to do with frustrations over the cost of doing business in Rome—McKidd also cites, for example, Rome eating up too much of HBO’s production budget from other projects in 2006. Nonetheless, reports of high-finance rigamarole even reached the cast.

Says McKidd, “I heard enough to know [about] the scaffolding. I don’t know how many tons of scaffolding was used to build that set, but I remember one of the earlier conversations was, ‘We need to buy this much scaffolding.’ And the people at Cinecittà were like, ‘You can’t buy that much scaffolding, but you can rent it from my brother.’”

Both Heller and McKidd insist there was no criminality or dishonesty about this, and it was simply the way things are done. But for the creator, word was executives high above his pay grade were disturbed by the Byzantine labyrinth of Italian politics. So much so it became contagious throughout Hollywood.

“At one stage, the Italian government issued arrest warrants or provisional arrest warrants for all the fiduciary producers of the show,” Heller recalls. “And that’s a sort of a standard Italian business practice, but when buttoned-down straight-laced lawyers from New York are flying out to Rome and discovering that this is [how business is done], people were spooked.”

It was also just a contributing factor to Rome’s untimely cancellation, which occurred during the pre-production process of season 2—and before the series’ popularity would explode with the international DVD sales and second season launch.

Heller was so far into writing the second season that they were in prep, gearing up to film the second season premiere, when he got the call it was over. The havoc this wreaked on Rome’s remaining 10 episodes, with one of them ready to shoot, was immediate.

When the first season concluded, Gaius Julius Caesar was dead, Vorenus had lost the love of his life, and Rome was headed toward civil war. The second season was always meant to be the fallout of that war, with a study in the brief and doomed alliance of Marc Antony (James Purefoy) and young Octavian (Max Pirkis), as well as the woman between them, Octavian’s mother and Antony’s lover, Atia. All of that, plus the death of Brutus and the other conspirators, would still occur in season 2… but so would Antony’s flight to Egypt and the eventual civil war between a now adult Octavian (Simon Woods) and Antony and Cleopatra (Lyndsey Marshal).

“I had to reconceive the second season basically from scratch,” Heller says with lingering exasperation. “Because when you take out that much history, the jump between the death of Caesar and Marc Antony taking over, and his death in Egypt, it was a huge amount of quite obscure but great, scandalous, fascinating, eventful history.” Most of it had to be jettisoned, too, between Brutus’ death and Antony declaring in his will that Caesar and Cleopatra’s son is Caesar’s true heir.

Some critics and fans were disappointed with the visibly breakneck pace of the second season. Others found it an exciting retelling of that period. One of Rome’s stars seems to be in the middle.

“I think the second season was successful in some ways, but it also feels, in my mind, a little rushed,” McKidd confesses. “And I think Bruno would say that too. Just because so much story was crushed and sort of concentrated down into season 2. I love [it], but I definitely felt like it was a lot condensed in.” 

And yet, McKidd and Heller both seem to lean more toward a satisfaction with it. In fact, the producer even suggests the ending with the ascension of Octavian to imperial status (he takes the title “First Citizen”) was the perfect grace note. While it’s well known among fans the series had a five-season bible with Cleopatra and Antony’s deaths originally marking the end of season 4, and season 5 following Vorenus and Pullo going to Palestine in time for the birth of Christ, that was never Heller’s favorite part. 

“That was one of the elements that Milius was fascinated by that I had no interest in whatsoever, frankly, trying to tie it in to the birth of Christ. Because, at the time, it meant nothing. It would have to be a completely different story. Put it another way, no Romans were worried or thinking about the coming of the Messiah.”

It was a Christmas story Heller didn’t want to tell. Even so, he had some interesting ideas already in place, including a vision of the ancient Holy Lands being closer to Monty Python’s Life of Brian than Ben-Hur.

“Palestine was in ferment at the time, and messiahs were popping up all over the place,” Heller says. “Judaism, at that point, was in a moment very much like Islam at the moment, full of passion and ferment and faith, and dreams of martyrdom.”

Like much else with Rome, it feels like a fascinating opportunity left unfulfilled, but one that the creator is glad to leave unexplored.

All Roads Lead to Rome’s Legacy

Rome shined briefly but brightly on premium cable. Premiering in the fall of 2005, it was gone by spring ’07. But even shortly after its cancellation, there were some small whispers of regret because of the show’s DVD sales; whispers that continue to be heard by stars of the series. McKidd says if you asked HBO in 2020, some would likely wince again at cancelling it, as he heard they did by the time season 2 aired. But “they couldn’t go back on that, or felt they couldn’t.”

But if it burned off like a Roman candle—with fire and thunder in its wake—the show still provided a roadmap for how to produce a massive spectacle as a television series.

“I think a lot of the producers that aren’t the ones that you hear about mostly, like Frank Doelger…  were all pivotal on Rome and went directly into Game of Thrones,” McKidd says. “Frank Doelger was one of the main producers, and he very much was the guy who whipped our show into shape and we learned a lot of lessons. So yeah, I think very directly, those people went into Game of Thrones and had learned a lot about how to do this kind of level [of production.]”

Heller likewise marvels at how HBO learned from Rome’s problems with its initially more affordable and tighter fantasy epic.

“The way they divided crews up in Game of Thrones, it was clever because there was always a general staff of central command, but they had more than one general, and they didn’t lose control of the generals,” Heller says.

And just as Rome carved a path for the modern era of epic television shows, Game of Thrones has now created a space for more diverse TV epics like Netflix’s The Witcher and Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series.

“[We were] ahead of the curve in the sense that it was too early,” Heller says. “But it’s not so much the audience [changed], as it is the appetite and the ability of networks and studios to make things of that size and to promote them and to market them, and to have faith and the courage to back them up.”

This series walked so that Peak TV could run. It’s a formidable legacy, and one that proves all roads in blockbuster television really do lead back to Rome.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Rome: The Long Road of the Original HBO Epic appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/38reEeK

[nightqueendany]

How Mad!Dany Was A Last-Minute Twist

Want further evidence that Jon-kills-Dany and Dany-is-a-mad-tyrant came completely out of D&D’s asses at the last minute and not something they’ve been setting up for years and years?

Ice and Fire. 

For years, at least as far back as Season 3 (maybe longer) D&D have said Jon is Ice and Dany is fire. 

For this Entertainment Weekly cover shoot, that is what D&D told EW when asked why Jon and Dany together on the cover. D&D answered, “because they’re ice and fire.” 

While George (to my knowledge) has never said outright that Jon and Dany are Ice and Fire, D&D have specifically said this. 

And they have made these “Ice and Fire” parallels between Jon and Dany throughout the series, as late as Season 6.

David Benioff says in the Inside the Episode for 6x04, “Rebirth is clearly a theme this season, whether it’s Jon Snow or Dany emerging again from the fires. 

Dan Sackheim (director of 6x03 and 6x04) in the Game Revealed for episodes 3&4 (they did the Game Revealed’s in pairs back then, not for individual episodes), says that 3&4 are “thematically linked in that they deal with rebirth. Jon comes back into the world naked, as if a baby, at Castle Black, in the cold. And Dany, naked, as if a child, but merging through fire. Fire and Ice.”

So up through Season 6, Jon and Dany were established, at least in the show, as being the Ice and Fire of the series. Even in Season 7, it’s mentioned by director Alan Taylor that Jon and Dany coming together was the point of the whole series according to something GRRM told him back in Season 1.

However, in Season 8, while we got the Ice and the Fire, it wasn’t Jon and Dany. Dany was clearly the fire, but Jon was in no way shape or form, the “Ice” in the season. That was the Night King and Army of the Dead. Hell, just look at GOT’s Instagram. Their posts for the first three episodes have a blue filter over them and their posts for the last three episodes have a red filter over them. 

But even in Season 8 and especially the finale, when Sam says he helped Ebros with the title “A Song of Ice and Fire”, the title feels incredibly hollow.

Ebros was documenting everything from Robert’s Rebellion onward. However, we only got Ice and Fire at the very end, especially Dany as “Fire.” We only really got, a day of Fire from Dany in the final season, the burning of King’s Landing. So why would Sam suggest a title that clearly refers in part to Dany, when her part in the story, from a Westerosi perspective - which is what Ebros would be writing from - was incredibly short?

Because it was all fucking retconned. 

Again, up through Season 6, Jon and Dany are shown as ridiculously close parallels of each other in terms of their respective journeys (yes Dany and Cersei are foils to each other, but so far as specific story beats, Jon and Dany are more parallel). And in Season 8, while Dany was very clearly established as “fire”, Jon wasn’t really...anything at all. 

So why were there 6 entire seasons, sixty goddamn episodes, of those two being built to parallel each other, when at the last minute, in the final season, it’s changed to Dany and the Night King? 

You can’t even give the explanation that they’re built to parallel each other because they’re foils and Jon is the hero and Dany is the villain. Why? Because Jon actually had no story of his own this season. Jon had nothing. He was a plot device in Dany’s downfall. If we were meant to continue to see them in parallel/contrast, Jon good, Dany bad, that would have carried through the final season. But it wasn’t. We were shown nothing of the sort. Nothing in how they each would handle similar situations differently, etc. to hint at him being good and her being bad. It was just, Dany bad, must kill. Just like the Night King. 

So either 1) George contacted Dave and Dan before the start of Season 7 and revealed Dany was meant to be the other villain all along and D&D had to scrap all they had built over the years paralleling Jon and Dany and now had to switch it to Dany and the Night King... OR 2) Dan and Dave pulled Mad!Dany out of their asses at the last minute when HBO said they wanted an additional season from them. 

Dave and Dan likely had a ten episode arc for season 7 as a final season already planned out (at least in outline if not actually begun writing the scripts) when the split to a two season, 13 episode deal was made with HBO. And that was when they came up with Mad!Dany.

Even in the final version of Season 7 and Season 8, you can see remnants of a previous story. All the hints about Dany and Jon having a child, all the mentions that they might get married (as far back as fucking Season 6 “the best way to make alliances is with marriage” “she’s a queen without a king and that can be very powerful”), and all the pointless plots and drama thrown into both seasons as “filler” because they were never meant to be part of the original 10 episode Season 7 - S7 Winterfell plot, the wight hunt, etc. 

I’m working on another post about what I think that original Season 7 might have been and I’ll post it sometime this week. But just wanted to share this with everyone. I don’t know about Dany surviving in the books. She might not. We may get a Nissa Nissa situation. But I don’t think she will go mad and have to be “put down” like she was in the show. Just my thoughts. 

[calliecat93]

Since I can't go to RTX and they aren’t streaming it this year but I wanted to do a masterpost of something RvB related, I decided to write a wrap-up of this interview with Jason Weight on The SHizno RvB Podcast. Please go check it out because there was now ay that I could fit everything in here and there’s so much good stuff in it. SO please go and check it out! But anyways, here we go:

Joe had told Jason about the plan for a Donut and Wash season back at RTX, which Jason at first wasn't on board with. But once he began writing it, he got into it and became very attached to Donut. 

When rewatching the show to prep for S17, one scene that took note of was in the caves when Grif was making the Reds not look at Kai when naked… except for Donut since he just paid attention to the Blue’s base. It felt like he had depth in those kinds of moments and it got him to like him. He was very happy to see more people join Team Donut after the season. He feels like only the surface has been scratched for him.

He confirmed that Donut’s innuendo in the finale was intentional (even putting ‘tongue and cheek’ in the character notes) and any made after will likely be intentional by him.

When they talked about Donut and Tucker’s development, Jason joked that Simmons would be next to receive development. So it seems that Jason is at least aware of our desire for a Simmons season XD

The Everwhen was devised essentially as another method of time travel different from the previous methods seen before since doing it the same way again would have been boring. 

The timeline after the paradox in the Writers Room was called Schrodinger’s Ass. 

The version of time travel we got was the third version. Jason spent a month on Verison One, but Burnie had rejected it. Then he, Joe, and Miles devised a second version, but near the end they threw it out and the third version that included The Everwhen was made.

How it worked in previous versions was that Chrovos has made the alternate Blood Gulch as a containment unit type of thing to contain the Reds and Blues as she went backwards in time, giving them a limited amount of time before she reached the beginning of time and… honestly, IDK how to type the whole thing out. But to put it simply, it was very convoluted and thus The Everwhen was made. The first version was also rejected due to being too similar to S9.

Jason is on Red Team! His explanation? “Red Team is an actual team.” 

He really liked the direction that Joe took Wash, especially since him now having a disability gives him a new unique perspective that, even if he doesn’t get to write in the future, he looks forward to seeing the direction that Wash is taken. He also believes that if they focus on Wahs’s rehabilitation, Caboose should have a major role in it. HIRE HIM RT, DANG IT!

Simmons original nightmare was the same scenario and the same joke… except that the one int he UFO was his dad. The higher-ups rejected this since it could come off as, well… incestuous/pedophilic. Which while I think the ‘dad’ bit would have made more sense… yeah, I… can’t blame them for that one. Jason DOES say that in his mind, Simmons feels that he’s in his father's shadow and the scene was supposed to be in a Freudian reference to those feelings.

Genkins was originally not as intimidating int he script. Much of it came from the direction, especially in Episode 10 after he got skewered by the golf club. Same with Wash and Carolina’s scene in Episode 9. He greatly loved seeing the direction that Austin and Josh took with the scenes.

Miles had toyed with having a scene set directly after S13 (he says 10 but I think he meant 13), but Jason felt that it was best to leave that area alone since it had ended on such a perfect note and talked him out of it. Jason also toyed with having the guys see Epsilon’s final message ala Princess Leia hologram and Tucker picking them up/explaining Episolon’s nature. But it was too talky nor did it really affect anything, so they instead went with Tucker re-living Crash site Bravo which was done by Miles.

If RvB ended up a Seinfeld-esque comedy, Grif and Simmons would live together with Grif trying to get Simmons out of his shell. Sarge is essentially Dan DeVito. Tucker would live alone and use his sword to open up beer bottles. Donut would live in a gym due to, in his mind, him having severe allergies and is why he wears the Power Armor all the time. Carolina and Wash would live together and have a dog, and they both suck at dating due to judging the other’s dates (which Jason feels their relationship is brother and sister). Caboose owns the building they all live in. Lopez is maintenance. I want this show now.

Jason reads all the comments after all the episodes, including on Tumblr (I’m going to be so much more paranoid over my reviews now...) and one post he really liked was the idea of an RvB Road Trip since he used to be a roadie.

Jason doesn’t know how the whole Shisno thing came about since it was Joe’s idea. He does say that it used to be spelt ‘shizno’ until they found out how it’s officially been spelt as ‘shisno’. Whoops. They DID consider involving Wyoming’ time distortion unit in the story, but with all the other time shenanigans they felt it would make it too complicated.

Koen Wooten, a 3D Producer at RT, joked about putting time travel into every show from now on. Miles and Jason were unamused XD

He had a lot of fun with things like writing The Labryinth and Kai messing with Tucker

The hardest part was balancing out the time travel and figuring out what to look into and what not to. 

Jason is very used to being a director due to his own show, Starship GOldfish, and his scripts for himself are MUCH longer and detailed than they end up being in the final draft. For, he had a specific way that he wanted to have Chrovos done, so he was Skype’d in to direct Lee Eddy. Speaking of, he pushed for her after seeing her do Gwen from Camp Camp live at RTX 17 and he really wanted to have her in the show in some form.

For RvB Movie Nights, Jason thinks that Grif would like Caddyshack, thinks that Carolina is terrified of horror films like Paranormal Activity (which makes Wash confused) and ends up panic stabbing the TV, Simmons and Donut both do documentaries, Lopez liked Mr. Bean… then after going back to the beginning of time, he hates that kind of media and just watches an aquarium screen, and Kai likes Alien.

For Halloween, Jason would want to dress as the Fishman from S3 of Camp Camp. 

When questioned about the show potentially hitting serial escalation after the Cosmic Powers stuff, Jason talks about how they feel that they have now sealed off from that and can move more laterally again. But he does also feel that there are larger threats out there that affect you more personally, such as everyone trying to kill you which he thinks could be much stronger than fighting some ultra-powerful God. But we’ll have to see where things go from this point.

He believes that moving forward, Doc can be more important since he now is a nice guy with the danger of O’Malley in him. 

He also has seen that fans feel that the Reds and Blues need a rest, which he agrees with. One idea he likes that he did in PSA’s was do some Grif and Sarge bonding since he feels there’s plenty left unexplored there, Caboose helping Wahs rehabilitate, giving Simmons an arc, and Donut exploring the universe to do some world building. He and Joe liked the idea of maybe doing a mini-series, especially since Halo 6 won’t be out for quite a while and doing one can explore some new options. He also brings up ideas for the future like Locus on trial, Wash’s rehabilitation, and Tucker seeking out Junior to bond with him more after what happened in The Labryinth. I mentioned that RT needs to hire Jason ASAP, right?! RIGHT?!

He also feels that there would, ideally, eventually need to be a new villain… and suggests himself cause of him being British. HA! He also really loves villains and if he got to keep being the writer, he would absolutely voice the villain like Miles did as Felix. Although he does bring up the ‘self-insert’ critique but thinks it would be okay since as the villain it would be okay to hate him!

At the end of the interview, Jason talks about how collaborative the entire process had been and how Miles greatly helped him with the writing as well as Josh and Austin’s direction, who he hopes will still be on it. He says to thank them.

Well, that was fun! I will say, Jason hit all of the right buttons for me and I do legit hope that he can come back. But even if he can’t, this was so great and having his contribution was amazing. Thank you again for everything Jason~

[minaminokyoko]

Godzilla: King of Monsters: A Spoilertastic Review

To get straight to the point for some of you, yes, thank God, this movie is better than Godzilla '14.

For one, the title character is not only in the movie for a decent amount of time, they don't constantly cut away from the action and the film is properly lit so that even in night scenes and scenes with heavy rain, our lizard boi is fully visible. He also is kicking some ass and taking some names, and that's what we came here to see. Thus, it's immediately better than its predecessor.

However, a big problem with the movie is the humans. Not the supporting Monarch team, mind you, but the "family." This is one of the most poorly written families I've seen in a while. It's just baffling. They are very, very unlikable people. You don't really get to know them much, and moments where you do, you just don't like them. They are not easy to root for. It's a very similar problem to a lot of other disaster movies, where they pick a bunch of high strung, angry, selfish people as your leads to the point where you're kind of rooting for the disaster to get them, and that's sadly the other half of this film.

In short, they do the kaiju stuff well, but the humans drag the movie down a couple of enjoyment levels, if you ask me. Let's get to it.

Overall Grade: C

Spoilers ahead.

Pros:

-Godzilla and the other monsters look and sound great. They truly feel like their title: Titans. The movie does a good job of offering scale and giving you different perspectives to understand the size and scope of these creatures, and it's very cool to see some of them in the flesh while others are just named. They name-dropped Kong three times that I counted, but he's still Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Movie, which is irritating, but I also think that's for two reasons: (1) they need to build the hype train and sadly this movie is not on track to do well, as evidenced by my theater only having about eight people total in it opening weekend, and they need all the help they can get if they truly want to turn this into a franchise (2) they want to give him and Godzilla an entire rivalry film to themselves instead of just making him an extra here in this movie. Give them the room to breathe and be rivals in their own film rather than just shoehorning Kong into this debut of the other kaiju. But back to my point, the monsters all feel corporeal and intimidating. I really liked Mothra's design in particular. She looks gorgeous and is kind of the Ugly Cute variety of monster. I very much enjoyed seeing these creatures with some good effects given to them (although there are a few spots where it could look better, but WB struggles with this a lot, I've noticed) and the sounds they make are tremendous and impressive.

-The monster fights are pretty solid. I do admit that Pacific Rim kind of raised my bar for kaiju fights even though I know it's not the same story, but that to me is the perfect balance of human characters who are actually likable and useful versus giant monsters. I think it just should be a good blueprint for how to run the show if you're advertising giant monsters blowing up shit and beating the stuffing out of each other. I think the monster fights in King of Monsters are paced well and you can mostly understand where they are in relation to each other and how evenly matched they are. There were also smaller, neat details like seeing Mothra in her larva state then evolve into her adult form. That's very cool and creative and I enjoyed that little detail. The final smackdown with Godzilla and Ghidorah was a good monster mash, and I appreciate them giving it time and not cutting away. Godzilla's finishing move was 100% badass. Kudos to the big Lizard Boi, and kudos to Mothra for coming to help her lizard boyfriend as well against Rodan.

-The Monarch team is dicey at best, but the humans actually did more than just following him around like in Godzilla '14. It was actually a smart idea to introduce the ORCA and the concept of trying to at least either soothe or summon the monsters. I liked it a lot, and it was relatively realistic. We as a species are stupid and would of course try nukes first, but once they learned that these things actually feed on radiation and it makes them stronger, then they would be forced to find alternative options. It allowed the human characters to finally be truly relevant and not just dumb, wide-eyed spectators (although, God, there was a lot of that in this movie) and it gave the whole thing a sort of story.

-Just like the previous movie, Ken Watanabe gave a performance this movie did not deserve. He's just one of those actors where he's so seasoned that even though God knows this movie's script is not fucking Shakespeare, you could still tell that he cared a lot about the project and was easily the best actor hands down.

-I'm glad Emma dies. Fuck her. Thank you for having the teeth to not try and give her some shitty redemption that she wouldn't have deserved anyway. Thank you for sticking to your guns and doing just like Deep Blue Sea and letting the person responsible for all that death take the final bow for her shitty fucking actions.

-This has nothing to do with the canon, but I had a really cool idea: what if Last Action Hero Bad Guy is Tom Hiddleston's character from Kong: Skull Island? Wouldn't that be fucking neat?! It just occurred to me that since Hiddleston's character was probably in his 30's during the 1970's, he'd be in his 70's during this film and he's a tall, thin British dude. I would love it if we got some kind of backstory reveal that something happened that caused Hiddleston's character to turn against Monarch. Wouldn't that be a good idea for a second Kong movie? Seeing the hero turn to the villain for the sake of saving the planet? Man, I like that idea a lot, but that's me.

-I was glad to see Ziyi Zhang return to a big screen movie. I liked her and felt bad about what happened to her career, so it was cool seeing little bits of story, especially about how Asian cultures do in fact consider reptiles to be helpful and not hurtful. That was a neat little mythos thing for me.

Cons:

-As mentioned above, I hated this fucking family. This family is just unbearable. I know the film is ham-fisted in its attempts to deal with loss and tragedy and a broken home, but there is a way to do that. There is a way to write characters reconciling and putting aside a rough history to come together. This is not the way. It's so sloppily written that I was throwing my hands up in exasperation at certain points. They are so unlikable. You see so little of their home life, first off, that there is no real connection to get to know them. This is a common problem in action movies these days, too--they don't know how to set the stage and just rush into action. It's true we come to action movies for action, but that doesn't mean we don't also want to enjoy the characters we're spending time with. We know it's fully possible to have action packed movies with well-written leads. It's been done for decades, so this movie has no excuse for why the three family members are aggressively terrible. Emma is a selfish, thoughtless bitch and her motivations make zero sense. Mark is just an angry ex-alcoholic who just barely is relevant enough to be in the story. Madison is damn near a blank slate daughter archetype with little to offer except to be something to rescue. Even with one brief flashback of when they were happy, we're not given a reason to root for them because you never get to know them and the few character traits they do display are just awful. For that reason, we're gonna give Emma her own bullet point to explain why she is just the worst.

-Emma's motivation is completely ass-backwards. Going the eco-terrorism point makes no fucking sense for what happened to her. Hear me out. I can see what this movie was going for, and I know it's kind of an odd comparison, but what they ended up with is basically blonde Thanos. Fuck this woman. Fuck this woman for deciding that she's right and millions of other people need to die because she thinks she is right about something, and she was fucking wrong. 100% fucking wrong. It made no sense that because Godzilla killed your kid, you're gonna slaughter tens of thousands of other kids to "restore the earth" and make it some kind of utopia. You're gonna subject innocent lives to torture and death and trauma in the hopes that titantic animals you cannot at all control and barely understand will raze everything to ashes and then shit can grow again. This is some deeply white people shit, too. Sorry to pull that card, but yes, this is a full-on white people mentality of doing something that will hurt everyone else BUT YOU and thinking you have the right to make that fucking decision. She and Maddie were somewhere safe, and she told her ex-husband to go somewhere safe too, and then she pulled a trigger that killed millions of fucking people whose only crimes were existing. That environmentalist message was utter shit. Is the earth overpopulated and polluted? Yep. But the fucking solution is not to kill half the goddamn population. The solution is to work together and overthrow the corrupt people keeping us from finding realistic ways to solve the problem, not wiping out half of humanity while you sit in a goddamn doomsday bunker sipping coffee and congratulating yourself. The crazy thing is this blonde Thanos bullshit did not need to happen. Last Action Hero Bad Guy was perfectly fine in this role of basically the kaiju version of Ra's Al Ghul. It made sense for him to be like, "ay, fuck y'all for killing the earth, let's let the monsters have it back and then clean up afterward." All you had to do was keep it the way it was presented to us: he kidnapped her and the kid and forced them to help wake up the monsters. There was no need to for this idiotic Deep Blue Sea nonsense of her agreeing with him and somehow setting it up. Which, by the way, made no goddamn sense because he kills all those innocent scientists in the lab at the beginning of the movie. Did she know he would do that? If so, fuck her. Fuck her in the ass sideways for killing her own teammates. She could have met him somewhere else. What was with the guns and shit if she's the one who came up with this dumb idea? I hate everything about this character and I am glad she died in the end because she was as much a fucking monster as King Ghidorah.

-The dialogue in this movie is atrocious. Look, I get it, it's a generic action movie. But come on. There were seriously points where I just rolled my eyes or threw my hands up in exasperation because there were just so many Captain Obvious comments or unfunny one-liners thrown back and forth. It's painful to endure some of this shit. The "humor" in particular really hurts, because you can see they put pauses after certain lines where they think the audience is laughing, and trust me, no, we were NOT laughing. Stupid shit like telling a character to "hold on" as a fucking maelstrom is trying to blow them away or just other dumb filler dialogue that makes me wanna slap my forehead. It's egregious.

-The Monarch team is still kind of as stupid as the last movie. Not completely, but they were reaching hard in certain cases and they still felt useless. One example that drove me insane was when Godzilla went back to his bachelor pad to recharge, they then say this is where he comes to heal...and then proceed to nuke that shit. And I'm like...bitch, whatchu gon' do now if he gets hurt?! You're just gonna find him and nuke him every single time he's hurt?! What the fuck kind of plan is that? I get that the movie writers wanted a sense of urgency, but that was such an idiotic way to accomplish something needed for the plot. They introduced a cool concept and then eliminated it immediately. Oy. Another example is Mark's dumbass screaming for Maddie like she can possibly hear him at Fenway Park with fucking Ghidorah and Godzilla literally fighting right on top of the stadium. Are you kidding me? My God, Mark is stupid. He did the same thing when he ran into the base with a fucking pistol screaming her name and letting the armed mercs know exactly where the hell he was. I am shocked his dumbass didn't get immediately picked off. Moron.

-Sarigawa's death was some full-on nonsense. Fuck you for killing the only credible actor in the entire movie, and what's worse is that it very much feels like a person of color dying for the sake of some goddamn white people. Because, yes, folks, I'm sorry, this is a white woman's fault. All this shit is because a white woman wanted to be Thanos and now this awesome dude has to sacrifice himself. Fuck off. I hate this point in the story, even though bless Watanabe for giving us the only credible emotional scene in the entire movie.

-Even though she was barely a character, I disliked Sally Hawkins biting it randomly in the first third, and not getting much reverence. No, we didn't know shit about her, but it felt like the movie just said "fuck it" and moved right along like it was no big deal. I don't know why they even bothered.

-How in God's name did they somehow "sneak" Ghidorah's whole ass head out of fucking Boston with no one noticing? It's a giant dragon head! How did you fucking do that and no one saw you bring it all the way to Mexico? I swear to God, this movie is filled with plotholes. I'm fine with them setting up Mecha Ghidorah or just cloning him all over again, but why couldn't it just have been in Boston and they just snuck in during the dead of night and moved it somewhere nearby? That thing is gigantic and it's a hard pill to swallow that they just left without anyone noticing it.

EDIT: A fan corrected me that this was the head that Godzilla ripped off before the end fight, so the above point is invalid. Nice catch! Thank you! 

-Nitpick: Did Mothra die? That was unclear. I hope not. She's the Queen. I'll have to ask some Godzilla fans to explain what they thought happened after Ghidorah blasted her in the final fight.

-Nitpick: Good God, these human characters survive shit that would easily kill a normal person and it is a little bit grating on the nerves to suspend your disbelief this hard.

-Nitpick: I hate it when monsters the size of fucking buildings somehow notice tiny ass humans enough to bother giving them their attention or even their ire. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot." I hated it in '98 Godzilla and I still hate it. Something on that scale should not even vaguely bother with one tiny human being, but that's me.

I know I have some very heavy criticisms, but this is still a decent flick if you're just going to shell out for a matinee showing. The monsters are great and entertaining and there's plenty of fighting to go around that is worth a peek, especially the end fight with Ghidorah and Godzilla. It was pretty cool to see in IMAX as well, but I leave that up to you folks if it's worth it.

Kyo out.

[lidoshka]

Voltron Season 8 review!

Okay! Finally had the chance to watch season 8?

Not yet? Too bad, because the spoiler free week in this blog is officially over!

Before I start, If you would rather now hear about season 8 you can filter the tags #I will only grant you one spoiler free week #And that grace period is over #we been knew #I can't believe I was blindsided by this #so the leaks were actually a trial test?!

Also, I will try to stay positive and post good things about Voltron during the week, but if you want some salt you can catch all the vitriol about S8 on Sunday (with the tag #salty Sunday)

So onwards to my review! (And boy, I knew I should have worn a different kind of socks on the 14th!)

Overall, I’d say it was a good season…but it wasn’t the best. There were a bunch of small moments that made me really happy, and there were some cool aspects with the animation that I totally loved.

…but there were some things in the second half of the season that totally ruined it for me.

But let’s be positive and point out all the things that I liked for this season!

What I loved about this season:

• The animation was amazing! Both the 3d animation and the way the characters were drawn! Plus a bunch of interesting camera angles! If you compare season 1 art with the way everyone is drawn now you can see the improvement and it’s amazing. • Episode 4 killed me instantly. To me it was perfect. It was sad but also uplifting, and I wanted to cry as much as that Olkarion child with Ryner’s last words and yet appreciated the meaning in them. Yes, I was very sad to see Olkarion gone, but most of its people will live on. We also got to see the Weblum again, which I liked because it was an appropriate metaphor. :) • Allura and Lance had  a date! That was great, they both deserve all the good moments possible • Also, the MFE girls and the Paladin girls shopping is supper funny. • We get to see a lot of people from the Voltron coalition not just Olia’s crew, and it’s wonderful to see the MFE’s, the Rebels, the ATLAS and Voltron all working together! • Cosmo is a nice puppy… and I knew he was going to continue growing! X3 • All Pidge and Colleen’s interactions. All of the Holts interactions actually! I really love how Pidge has her dad wrapped around her pinky, but Colleen is not a pushover and demands a family photo in exchange of the tokens • And I loved that Matt’s (girlfriend? Partner? They sound female, but then again they are an alien so…) are in the photo too!! • I also liked Shiro entering that tournament, we know he has a competitive streak, but we don’t get to see it very often, and this was a good opportunity! • The vlog episode was gold! Not only do we get to see more about the MFE pilots, but we also see the paladins around and a bit of the daily life in the IGF Atlas, plus, it could have just been a silly filler but instead it still managed to move the story forwards. A+ • Shiro using a gun looks really cool and it makes me wonder if his Bayard would have actually turned into some form of firearm. • Lotor is back! Not in the way I hoped but I got to see a tiny Lotor, and I also saw a younger Lotor still full of hope and desire to please his father *sighs* he really deserved so much better… • Lotor literally stole Kova. :P • Honerva’s mecha? Her fusion with Sincline? Voltron/Atlas fusion? They are all amazing designs! • I liked the last scene with the lions saying their goodbyes to the paladins. It was bittersweet because it’s the end of an era but at the same time it’s a sign of hope. It’s like now that there’s peace (or at least the possibility of peace being achieved without the need of a WMD) the lions can retire. Maybe the lions are leaving to look for their new paladins, or maybe hide away again until Voltron is needed once more. That along with the image of the vehicles inside the Garrison hangar was a good nod towards Voltron Vehicle and maybe a future Voltron Force show. Ah yeah, good things.

But now what I really didn’t like:

After careful consideration and watching the season one more time I can say I’m only upset about 4 things: 1. Allura’s sacrifice 2. Episode 5 3. Honerva’s plan and her redemption 4. And the stills of the epilogue

Funny enough the four are connected together in one single sentence: bad writing decisions.

Now, me being critical of the show doesn't mean I don't like it anymore now that I wont enjoy watching it. There are a bunch of shows that have errors and flaws by the dozen, but I still enjoy them but I need to get this out of my chest

Alluras’s sacrifie: Why? Out of all the possible directions they could have taken their story, why this? Why kill one of their female protagonists?!

“but she has made similar sacrifices in other versions” yes, and she was Caucasian and had a romantic plot with the leader of Voltron too and VLD chose to deviate from that, so I don’t see why of all the things they chose to discard from previous versions they chose to keep this.

“She now gets to spend eternity with her father and the other paladins” Do I remind you that Allura lost everything (her family, her nation, her planet, her crown) and little by little she found a new family? VLD has been selling me the idea of “found family” since season 1, why are they changing the tune now?

“Allura was already too powerful, she couldn’t remai— “ No. this isn’t marvel, there were ways to decrease her powers if that was necessary: the creature that got inside her could have damaged her body somehow and had her powers decrease; she could have sacrificed only her alchemy (like Edward Elric in fma!) and she would be a regular Altean (or a regular human if they wanted to go with the allurance ending) and spend the rest of her life rebuilding her nation. There were ways to keep her powers down and still keep Allura around.

“It’s the only way” Allura herself said before she started saying her goodbyes to the paladins… but in this season alone they showed: - A tiny balmera - A whole bunch of balmera. - Voltron+atlas fusion - The paladins using the power of friendship and concentration to enter Honerva’s inner thoughts - The paladins using the power of friendship and concentration <i>again</i> to power up Voltron+atlas so it could escape a collapsing reality - Voltron+atlas giant wings to save the last remaining reality So if they were already pulling out all the rabbits out of the hat don’t tell me the production team couldn’t come up with another alternative other than having “the girl who is magic sacrificing herself for the sake of the universe”

…and why are Altea and Daibazaal back?! Didn’t Reyner said “you mustn’t cling too tightly to the past” and “the old must gave way to the new”? ugh.

*rants for 20 minutes more about poor script decisions*

Episode 5:

It’s bad. And it doesn’t add anything important to the narrative except some gratuitous scenes of the paladins in their underarmor. And the reason why I disliked this episode is about the way the writers try to redeem Ezor and Zethrid.

Last season they sold me on the idea that “this is war and sometimes people die”. This season they wanted to end with an uplifting “everyone has a chance at redemption” vibe which actually just makes me upset.

Oh yeah, Adam –the guy whose only negative mark was that he dumped Shiro—died and no one really mentions him again or talks about what an impact he had on other characters, but Ezor –who was more than willing to torture Pidge back in season 7— she gets to survive and change her ways??

Honerva’s ploy and redemption arc:

Honerva had dreams about being a mother and a wife and spending her life with her family, but she studied the creature from the rift a bit too closely and her mind was poisoned without her even realizing it. In that sense, she’s a victim, and it’s good that in her final moments she got to be back to be the person she was before.

… but as Haggar she helped conquer and destroy thousands of worlds! She was participant in the neglect and abuse of a Lotor throughout his childhood.

“But that was Haagar! Honerva deserves a second chance!” you’d say, but remember that after Oriande she has recovered her memories and she’s not Haggar anymore what did she do? Did she tried to mend her ways and help what remained of the universe to honor her child’s life? Nope. She blamed the Galra, she used the Alteans, she destroyed Olkarion and she dammed the whole universe (and then any other universe) to get the ending she wanted.

Everyone in these universe is gone because of her. And in the end, she got her dream of being with her family.

Even Zarkon got a bit of a redemption scene! He got to go to the same place as the former paladins, with his wife and his son…These three are responsible of 70% of all the bad things that happened in this universe in the last 10,00 years and they get to spend eternity together.

I don’t’ know why suddenly the production staff though this ending was cool.

4. The Epilogue

I think the only ‘last scenes’ I liked where Pidge’s ending and Kolivan and Krolia’s ending. They were nice. But the others? *frowns*

In the “one year later” scenes Hunk is seen in the ATLAS along with Shiro; it’s implied that Hunk is some sort of diplomat who also likes to cook for his guests. In the last image it just looks like he gave up that to become the next masterchef.

Lance’s final still looks sad. He’s the perfect picture of a widower and I think this is terrible unfair for all the Lance stans who were hoping season 8 was Lance’s season. Yeah, lance likes his family and he always missed earth, but there were other things they could have done with him. He could be teaching the new generation of garrison pilots! His ending just makes the audience think he’s recovering from a broken earth.

Keith's image in his ending still looks odd, I think hey were trying to an upper shot or something but his waist looks too slim, and there are several things thet feel weird with the perspective.

...not to mention it says "humanitarian relief organization" ...the blades are all Galra? the fact they didn't bother to spend 5 minutes thinking why "humanitarian" was not a word applicable here tells me all I need to know about the care they placed in this epilogue.

Shiro’s scene is strange because Shiro looks exactly the way he looks when they say goodbye to the lions, but Pidge and Hunk and Keith look like they do in the “years later” design. Consistency is lacking.

Then there’s the thing of how Shiro “found his happiness” with and image of him getting married. What, he wasn’t happy while he was single? Seeing the stars up close, traveling the universe, flying on Black and then leading ATLAS, that didn’t make Shiro happy? Are we now equaling marriage with happiness, is that it?

I get that an gay marriage and a gay kiss on screen is something commendable (it would have bene better if we had seen Shiro and his new hubbie actually interacting tho), and we all love Shiro, but I can think of several images that could have been more satisfactory for his character: him at the helm of the ATLAS, fulfilling his dreams of traveling the stars in peace; Shiro finally getting a vacation; maybe even a description with an older Shiro saying “and Shiro lived many years happy and in peace because he was not sick anymore” all of these would have been more rewarding.

…And the only scene that was animated was Shiro’s wedding? Why? Can you imagine how could it’d have been if instead of the weeding we saw something like “the lions came back one more time to bring back Allura” I wouldn’t even be here ranting for 20 minutes so far on top of my pile of salt if they had done something like that!

And it’s not even as if it was one simple person who made the ending: VLD has a staff of writers, several directors, many producers monitoring, a whole team of animators and several consulting departments…and none of them stopped to think this might not be a good ending to their series?

In the end, I’m still left with some questions:

What is the lifespan of an average Galra? What would be the expected lifespan for Keith or Axca and Ezor and Zethrid?

Does having Altean markings means Lance is now Altean? Cause the show was not clear, is this just a physical memento so Lance has something to remind him of Allura every day or will he live a long life now?

What’s the cosmic wolf’s name? did he ever told Keith?! How much more is he going to grow?

more importantly: What was the name of Keith’s father?!

[dccomicsnews]

The Superhero-inspired animated comedy series Supermansion made a huge hit at NYCC. The comedy animated series is directed and produced by Zeb Wells (creator & voice of Robot Chicken), Matthew Serich (Robot Chicken) and co-produced by Academy-nominee actor Bryan Cranston (Malcome in the Middle, Breaking Bad).

The Emmy-nominated stop-motion animated comedy series returns to NYCC 2018. DC Comics News was humbly able to join the voice-acting stars Bryan Cranston, Breckin Meyer (Robot Chicken), Gary Anthony Williams (Whose Line is it Anyway?) and creators Zeb Wells and Matthew Senreich for a fun and exclusive interview. The show also features talents such as Chris Pine (Wonder Woman) as Dr. Divizo, Keegan-Michael Key (Tomorrowland), and Yvette Nicole Brown (Community). What attracted DCN to this is how familiar and close the creators are to DC Comics. Zeb Wells has created a complex and hilarious universe through his short stop-motion animation, and DC Comics have been a huge part of their holiday specials. Robot Chicken has had official 3 full-length burst-out-laughter DC-Official works (warning, not for under 14 years of age).

Supermansion carries over several similar qualities. The producers in previous interviews have mentioned hints of inspiration of their characters on the show such as the playboy, brooding billionaire. It’s more of a satire and opposites of superhero tropes. As opposed to “a flawless character” the creators present everything a superhero can be and more.

Possibly DC & Marvel Comics-inspired characters.

Interview of Cast & Crew

Questions and answers have been modified for clarity.

Bryan Cranston: [Looking at the 10s of microphones] This isn’t intimidating at all.

The show is very fun to watch. I was curious from a creative standpoint, what was the most fun for each of you in creating it? 

Zeb Wells: I think it is here when the actors come in and actually bring the script to life. But then it’s also fun once the actors are done that, then the animators get to take those records and bring that to life. So that might be the most fun when you come back to a stage after the animator has been working, and you see the characters actually moving, that’s pretty cool.

Matthew Senreich: I think adding to that, we always have two sets of actors. And you know, these guys over here [gestures to cast members] we need like 20 shots to get the voice exactly the way we need it to. We have our animators there, and they have one chance to perform and make the vision. The actual visual in that one short, it’s fun.

Zeb Wells: Yeah, pretty much.

Bryan Cranston: I think the most fun is being able to take a mediocre script and build it into gold. That’s always a challenge because you know what you’re going to read on the page is direct. And so…[…]

Zeb Well: So, you’re like Rumpelstiltskin?

Cranston: I am Rumpelstiltskin! I take it and weave it.

Breckin Meyer: It’s funny, Bryan and I talk about that a lot. About how bad the script it. And then, the challenge for us as actors is to rise above the writing.

Cranston: Way above.

Meyer: But it starts down there.

Cranston: To be fair, it’s not that hard.

Meyer: No, no it’s not. It doesn’t take much but that is why we are who we are.

Gary Anthony Williams: I want to disagree with everything they said. Uh…I have a legal issue so that I can only work on this show. So to me, legally speaking, to me, this is the best thing I’ve ever done. Legally, that’s all I can say about that.

This is a follow-up question, what is the process like? 

Senreich: Because there are so many characters doing so many things, you’ve got to stick to what the story thread is for the episode. But, you always want to allow the actor to rift if they want to, and then I really think once an actor has come in, and done the character a couple of times, their performance starts influencing the writing which is fun because then the writing becomes more organic and you can hear the character’s voices in your head as you’re writing. So it all sort of influences each other as the story evolves.

This is a question for Bryan. As executive producer, have you ever had to flex your power at all? 

Cranston: Well, I think it’s important that people that work for you fear you opposed to respect you. So I try to instill that kind of fear-based energy throughout the course of recording. There is usually at the beginning of every season, I’ll fire someone. And nobody knows whose it going to be. And I think that creates camaraderie and good spirit within the organization because everybody is scared s***less, AND but quite frankly, they (the cast and crew) are really relieved when it’s not them. So I think there is a spree decor that is created.

Have you had any demands that were met, like writing or story choices? 

Cranston: You know, this is one of four productions that my company is involved with. If everyone ran like this, we would be dancing in daisies. That’s an actual phrase.

When you’re working on an actor, producer, creator, do you have a particular formula you follow? 

Wells: Yeah, I think we try not to be formulaic, and as the show progressed we have so many characters now that are all insane. That when you start trying to plug them into even the most simple story, [and] by the nature of just asking yourself how these characters will react to it? It sort of destroys the formula so that’s been a fun thing to see as the show goes on, for sure.

Senrich: Even as Zeb created this, what I like is that he’s not just created characters but a universe. And I think once you have that Universe built, you can go any direction that you want. And I think that’s where the fun is trying to come up with those storylines, is how do these characters relate to each other? And I think that allows you to break the formula.

What was your rap name again? (To Bryan Cranston) 

Cranston: It was Wrapper [pronouced rapper]. With a “w.”

My question is for Liplor (Williams), and Courtney (Meyer). If you characters were to meet Trump, what would they do? 

Williams: Um. Normally, my character just on the show eats stone. I would eat Trump. I would eat him and poop him out and that’s not a political thing.

Meyer: No, that’s just for taste. Starburst, it’s perfect.

Williams: Can I say more or no?

Cranston: [Laughing] I am not sure if you should.

Williams: OK.

Meyer: I don’t even know if Courtney would know the difference between Trump and Obama, he’s so oblivious. He would just be like “whoever can get me into that cool bedroom I heard so much about?” Spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom or something. But I don’t know Courtney is up to date on current politics.

Do you think you’ll ever make a Sweet-Sixty (60) episode for Titanium Rex?

Senrich: A super sweet-60 birthday party?

Cranston: Wow. Titanium Rex, how old is Titanium Rex? He ages slower, so he must be at 180 right now. He’s got his boner pills now, that’s all he needs. Which is NOT part of a true story. I want to be very clear about that.

Do you ever edit the script yourselves?

Wells: Yeah, sometimes you edit yourself. I think there was a character in one script named Snake-Man-Dick. [Cranston: Fortunate name.] And once I read that, one of my thoughts went “maybe we don’t need to make this a puppet, and maybe no one ever needs to hear about this.”

Cranston: Good thing you didn’t tell anybody…

Wells: And every once in a while, Crackle will push back. The last time they pushed back, it was because we made a Blues Traveler joke that was very mean about Blues Traveler. They said, “do we really need to be this mean to Blues Traveler?” And I thought “No, we don’t.”

Cranston: It was a very fast meeting.

Wells: It was a good question! “No, we don’t [need to be this mean]” Let’s give Crackle a win.

Senrich: You realize now every article on us will have that?

Wells: Blues Traveler will be so happy!

For the voice actors, when putting together the voices of each of the characters, where do you draw your inspiration from? 

Cranston: To do a voice that’s like the clone of Titanium Rex, I squeeze my scrotum so tightly that all that can come out was a higher pitched voice. A higher pitched voice that you recognize its the same kind of voice. When I do Titanium Rex, I don’t squeeze so tightly. There is a firmness to it. I wouldn’t say it’s a squeeze. I wonder how much problems I’m going to get for all of this?

Senrich: Only if you show the video of you recording.

Meyer: How I came up with my character’s voice is I watched a video of Bryan grabbing his junk and I went “You know how I want to sound like right now?”

Williams: For me, I came in later than anybody in this process, so I always just ask them what does he [Liplor] look like and then just go from there. I will run two or three voices by them maybe, and they’ll just say “no, do more like Bryan. Squeeze your stuff.” And then that’s it. [Kidding aside] I always just ask them what he looks like, and listen to the other voices around us.

Meyer: My thing was with Zeb because we were together on Robot Chicken, not just a robot, Zeb was clear with Courtney. And that was really early on we were just “he’s such a douche.” I was like “HOW ABOUT THIS?!” and Zeb was like “No, no, he’s a super douche, just do your voice.”

Is it more difficult to do voice-over work or regular acting? 

Williams: For me, regular. I don’t know more difficult. I think to me voice-over is easier, and every time I hear a voice-over person in real life at this table, “aww it’s so hard!” well I just want to… [points to Bryan].

Cranston: Thank you for that. I would say that, and this is true, for me when I can dive into an actor-character and to fully embody that guy, I feel much more comfortable. I’m probably the worst voice-person on the show. I do Titanium Rex, I squeeze my balls, I get one other voice, and that’s about it. But when you hear a guy like Chris Pine doing Dr. Divizo, it blows me AWAY! Or what Keegan-Michael Key does. And that’s probably all I admire about the voice-actors. Those two guys and the women on the show. That’s about it.

To be honest I do the voice-over work because I think it’s challenging. Despite Gary saying, I think it’s very challenging to be able to tell a story just using your voice. And to convey an emotion, that pinpoints what that character is going through at that moment. I think it is difficult and I’m still learning that. I’m challenged by that and I would like to keep working, you know when we first started with this show 5 years ago, [I told them] it’s all about the story. It’s got to be a strong story, funny yes, but nobody cares if you don’t follow these characters and build empathy for these characters. As silly as it may seem, in animation that is the foundation of the show is to make every story make sense and that you root for these characters. And then when you add the funny to that, then you’ve really got something.

Are there any actors you want to guest-star in your show? 

Wells: Micheal Keaton.

Cranston: I was hoping I could get the real Barack Obama on the show.

Senrich: I’ve always wanted to get Michael Peña on the show. He’s just hilarious and we will try.

    That about wraps it up. Thank you to the brilliant and rib-cage cracking cast and crew for such a fun interview. Robot Chicken helped me so much through my teenage years, it’s inspiring to see their continued work! As well as a great big thanks to New York Comic Con, ReedPOP, and Sony Crackle for arranging this opportunity.

The cast gave us a goodbye dance.

#Supermansion #NYCC #DKN #DCN #DCComicsNews #NYCC2018 #RobotChicken Cast&Crew Matthew Senreich, Breckin Meyer, Gary Anthony Williams, Bryan Cranstan, & Zeb Wells pic.twitter.com/WIsi0hjiSp

— SharnaJay (@KatsuyaCrimson) October 18, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

And check out the new trailer for the Thanksgiving Special, dropped at NYCC 2018.

DCN Visits NYCC: Exclusive Interview With Zeb Wells and Bryan Cranstan For ‘Supermansion’ DC Heroes And Superhero Inspired Series The Superhero-inspired animated comedy series Supermansion made a huge hit at NYCC. The comedy animated series is directed and produced by Zeb Wells (creator & voice of…

[iainwrites]

The Rise of Skywalker Likes and Dislikes

This is going to talk very bluntly and blatantly about things that happened in the movie.  So if you’ve been holding off on seeing it, here’s your warning.  Or if you don’t want to read someone criticizing something you enjoyed.  Skip past everything.

Likes:

-Finn at the beginning.  It’s nice to see his character growth from oblivious and try-to-hard former Stormtrooper, to still a little blundering Resistance fighter but still shows he’s capable, to a man confident in himself/in himself/in his friends and allies.

-When Chebacca learns of Leia’s death.  That’s the look of someone who has lost their oldest friends and don’t even have the strength to be angry.  There’s just loss.  THAT is one of the most powerful moments in this whole movie.

-Fine.  Ben’s “Okay bitches.  Now we can do this.” shrug before carving through the Knights is a great bit of physical acting and (I guess) comedy.

-The new main trio meet at the end and… hug.  No kissing.  No pairing off.  Three people who just survived a war and are happy that each is still alive.  Especially Finn.  This is his family and they’re okay.  Not everything has to end with hook-ups or resolved love triangles.  

Dislikes and Opinions:

-Palpatine.  Why?  He did his bit in the prequels, died in the OT, had no bearing in either TFA or TLJ.  So why bring him back now?

-What was the point of Rose in this?  She gets limited screen-time and doesn’t move the plot along.  The movie could have used this as a means to continue its slow show of representation, but apparently that’s a bridge too far.  But we did get Naomi Ackie as a supporting character of color with screentime and lines?  So we… traded?  Maintained?

-The fuck was with that Finn “I have something to tell you” line?  There was no lead in from any of the prior movies at all.  And no, it doesn’t count if it was revealed in the novelisation of either of the previous films.

-So Rey can sense Chewie is on a ship… but can’t tell that he’s on a different ship than the one she blows up?  Or that he’s not on the ship that she’s telekinetically fighting over?

-D-O is cute factor and nothing more or better.  Add onto that: Babu was there for cute factor.  And people shit on Jar Jar (me included) because he was written as something to entertain children.

-Rey is a Palpatine.  Why was that a choice that was made?  Why does she have to be related to anyone pre-existing in the Star Wars canon?  And why did things have to be explained not in the movie, but in tweets, interviews, the novelisation, etc?  Like the fact that Rey is a Palpatine.  Movie made you think that one of her parents was Sheev’s child, right?  Which one?  Sorry, didn’t tell us.  Oh, and it was her father, by the way.  Oh, and he wasn’t Palpatine’s child; he was actually a failed clone of Palpatine.  And that’s just one part.

-How does the blade work in the grand scheme of things?  Was it made after the destruction of the Death Star (because how else would it be able to line up so well with the wreckage)?  Who made it?  Why didn’t they pillage Palpatin’s hidden room of important shit?  Why didn’t they pass it on immediately to Kylo if he’s the second coming of Vader?

-Leia’s death.  Yes, all they had was archival footage.  So you mean to tell me that they couldn’t have done anything with that miraculous CGI technology to create a facial/vocal facsimile?  That they had no point of reference of ever doing that?  That there was absolutely no budget?  Or that rewrites were an impossible thing?  Because “Leia lays down, dies, and gives her son a moment to pause and get stabbed” isn’t doing right by Carrie Fisher or respecting her legacy.  That’s “Well, this is what we have.  Guess all we can do is use only what we have to make something and not put any more effort into it.”

-”We have no source material!” Except the whole “Emperor trying to find a new body” thing was done in Dark Empire.  As was the fact that the Emperor we saw was a clone that decayed rapidly without a Force-strong host.  And the fleet of ships to turn the tide of things was done with the Katana Fleet.  And Force Heal has been done in games like the GBA version of Revenge of the Sith.  And and and.

-Han Solo forgives his son!  Except it’s not Han, or a Force Ghost of Han (because Han wasn’t Force sensitive or trained to become self aware in the Cosmic Force after he died because that’s the explanation that they’ve been establishing in the Clone Wars TV series since the end of Season 6), but a figment of Ben’s imagination.  So Ben imagined that his father forgave him for murdering him.  … That’s not how it works.  If you’re imagining your murder victim forgiving you, there’s probably some deep psychological shit to deal with.

-People have talked about it, so I’ll hop on the train: how in the hell did Lando travel quickly enough to get that many ships when a distress call put out by Leia herself couldn’t shift asses?  How can he cover that much area, gather all those ships, then get through the mists or whatever the shit surround Exogal when one of those tracking beacon/map thingies have been set up as the only way a ship can travel through?

-For everything that Abrams did to negate TLJ, Palpatine’s monologue of Rey’s actions is very similar to Snoke’s monologue of Ren’s actions.  Down to the “HAHA PSYCH!” moment.

-The Knights of Ren are just a shit-show.  The name sounds cool, though, right!  Aaannnddd they’re killed off without a single line said or them proving to be any sort of threat representative of their “feared” name.

-Here’s something: when all the past Jedi are talking to Rey, you’re told who the male voices belong to (including stuff like Young Obi-Wan and Kanan).  But you only get Female Jedi 1 and Female Jedi 2.  That’s kind of fucked up and sexist, right?

-They set up Rey’s anger throughout the trilogy as being her path to the Dark Side (going as far to show what she could be like if she gives into those darker urges)... and never really do anything to resolve it.

-They REALLY lean into the idea that Finn is Force sensitive in this movie, don’t they?  Despite no evidence of it in any other movie.

-The random scene of just revived Rey grasping Ben’s hand and the frames drop (maybe that’s just my copy, but it's still a standout).  If it’s something everyone gets… then why the hell is something that glaring still in the movie.

-The kiss.  The novelisation said that the kiss was one of “gratitude,” but seriously?  Rogue One had a moment of gratitude where Jyn and Cassian are together and they… hug.  That’s it.  Piss off with your gratitude; there was a kiss because this movie substitutes sense with forced fanservice and they knew that people wanted to see Rey and Kylo together at some point.  Just like they likely kept Rose out of the movie because people gave Kelly Marie Tran shit.  Like that could have made the movie even possibly worse.

-Ben dies and fades away… and Leia’s body fades away at the same time.  Even though she’s been dead for a day+ at this point.  Because… she connected her spirit to her son?  See, that’s something I pulled completely out of thin air, but wouldn’t it be nice if that was the truth and the movie actually explained that was what happened instead of just giving random ass coincidences?

-Rey Skywalker.  Why does she have to be Rey Anybody?  There could have been such a positive spin to what she said earlier in the movie.  “Just Rey.”  Have her say it with pride and ownership now.  She’s her own person, unburdened by the names of those who have gone before.  She doesn’t have any name to live up to.

-Fuck you for your obvious, blatant and unecessary fanservice and self pleasing imagery where the twin suns are arranged to look like BB-8.  He’s not so important that one of the last lingering moments has to be of your new creation, Abrams.  You’re not so essential to Star Wars that you have to make a “HEY LOOK AT ME THE GUY WHO MADE THIS MOVIE” made-for-screenshots image.

Meh

-There’s no meh.  There are just rare moments of contentment amongst a constant feeling of disappointment and frustration.

Random Asides

-Kathleen Kennedy did an interview with Rolling Stone in November of 2019 leading up to The Rise of Skywalker.  You may have seen it float around, but she said “Every one of these movies is a particularly hard nut to crack. There’s no source material. We don’t have comic books. We don’t have 800-page novels.”  It’s in relation to how difficult it is to write and direct the movies, but come on.  There’s TONS of source material, dating as far back 1977 for the comics AND the novels.  There might not be 800 page novels, but there are trilogies, doulogies and massive story arcs that exceed those numbers (NJO and Legacy of the Force may not be your thing, but they’re there).  Rebels went and borrowed Zeb’s look from the original script AND took characters directly from Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy; Clone Wars pulled from Legends while Legends were still considered canon and afterwards.  Not all of it is good; it’d be difficult to translate a lot of it to screen without heavy edits these days.

“I love that we have these amazingly passionate fans who care so much. And I know sometimes they may think we don’t listen, but we do, and I thought it was fantastic that people got that engaged. It just showed me and everybody else how much they care. And that’s important for all of us that are doing this. We really look at them as the custodians of this story as much as [we are]. We look at it as kind of a partnership.”  Except when we’re not happy with a product that turns out to be sub-par.  Piss right off.

-Billie Dee Williams seems like he’s dropped in from a different movie entirely.  Not a bad thing; his delivery and presence is just so different from anyone else’s.

All In All

-It’s my least favorite of all the movies.  Worse than any of the prequels.  And say what you will about the prequels: at least they had a connecting story and the director didn’t try to kneecap something that happened in the middle movie before burying it in a shallow grave while taking a dump on the things left behind that didn’t fit in their vision.  It’s worse than Solo.  No amount of fanservice can fix the fact that the movie was by-and-large unenjoyable.   

[reconditarmonia]

Dear Prime Time Player

Hello, lovely writer!

I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3 (and have been since LJ days, but my LJ is locked down and I only have a DW to see locked things). I have anon messaging off, but mods should be able to contact me if you have any questions.

Aubrey-Maturin | Discworld | Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun | Legend of Korra | Team Fortress 2

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one's situational or ethical judgment with someone else's, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes.

A note: I'm generally fine with "/" ships where the fic doesn't contain a kiss, overt declaration of love, etc. I'll trust that you wrote it with shippy intent and don't expect you to force in something that wouldn't fit the story.

—

Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series

Ship(s): Clarissa Oakes & Diana Villiers & Sophie Aubrey, Diana Villiers & None, Clarissa Oakes/Diana Villiers

I'm finding myself most excited to read about the women in Aubrey-Maturin. I've always liked Diana, and I'm interested in stuff like, how can I say this, the female household that they're living in when Jack and Stephen are at sea, Diana's longing for and seizure upon any kind of freedom she can find and whether or not she thinks the persona everyone knows is "her", Clarissa's way of seeing and moving in the world. I'd love to read something where any of these combinations (or solo) have something to make choices about and show their strengths and desires. Espionage-related adventures or other small-scale casefic, encountering men in society that Clarissa knows from her previous life, dealing with a problem as a family/household? Diana learning her way around Boston or Sweden, or picking up new extreme sports? AU where women can be in the Navy and we get to see what they'd be like as sailors or officers??? (I'd prefer that we see them at a point where they are not at odds over romantic issues with men.) If writing Clarissa/Diana specifically, I'd love something of their POVs/voices on the idea of lesbianism, if that makes sense, but I also am perennially into the ways that f/f couples could live together in history without occasioning comment (they're raising a child together because they're such good friends and one is a widow while the other's husband is always away, of course).

—

Fandom: Discworld

Ship(s): Magda "Tonker" Halter/Maladict/Tilda "Lofty" Tewt, Magda "Tonker" Halter/Polly Perks/Tilda "Lofty" Tewt, Mildred Froc/Alice "Wazzer" Goom, Polly Perks & Samuel Vimes, Jack Jackrum & Polly "Ozzer" Perks, Maladict/Polly Perks

Tonker/Lofty/Mal or Tonker/Lofty/Polly - These just seemed like ships that would be interesting to see - I guess I imagine them as being short-term given Tonker and Lofty’s one true love, but I’d be interested in seeing why Tonker and Lofty might let someone else in, why Mal or Polly might accept, and how that’d play out. Probably post-canon? How does it come about, if Tonker and Lofty have retired (to be criminals/freedom-fighters, or did they just rob the one bank to get enough to retire on and burn down the one place as personal revenge?) while Mal and Polly are still in the army?

Polly & Jackrum or Polly & Vimes - Just more of Polly and her mentor/s! I love that Monstrous Regiment is about a woman who joins the army in response to an immediate crisis but comes to learn that she’s a cunning bastard and that being a sergeant is what she’s good at. More of Polly learning from Jackrum (or deciding to do things differently, having things to teach) would be great. (She hasn’t heard nearly all Jackrum’s stories - or, even in retirement, there must be some adventure they could have, or something could come up around Jackrum’s big secret, or the book of blackmail.) So would Polly finding a new mentor in Vimes, learning how things work in Ankh-Morpork (as big city - how does she react to all the cultural differences? - or as a power structure where the rules of getting stuff done might be different than in Borogravia) or across periodic meetings when he’s in Borogravia. What are they cynical about, what do they believe in?

Froc/Wazzer - Something with Froc and her loyal secretary/aide, who now has a place in the world, could be really sweet. Wazzer has a connection to the Duchess that could be really meaningful to Froc, but she's also her own person with her own experiences that I'm sure Froc will learn to appreciate, and vice versa.

Mal/Polly - I will always be happy to receive more of this ship. I'm all about the post-canon loyalty kink for them, the different strengths or sacrifices they have at their disposal for each other (Polly’s practicality and cunning, Mal’s intimidating coolness and/or potential berserker rage that Polly might even have to leash in). Polly sends Mal on a dangerous mission; Mal goes off-leash rescuing Polly, or Polly has to bring that potential berserker rage to heel; something about the post-canon rank difference on top of the class difference (Mal is wealthy and cultured and typical commission material and yet is a corporal under Sergeant Perks’s command)...I love high sexual tension in a military context, but also love mutual pining whether from near (if they continue serving in the same regiment, essentially together all the time and unable to act on it) or from far (what if the job separated them - LDR, epistolary?).

I request this fandom constantly, as well as some of the loyalty kink stuff I'm talking about, so I've got more in my "dear author letters" tag.

Fandom-Specific DNW/Exception: gender headcanons, identity musing, or non-canonical pronouns. “He” or “she” for Jackrum are both fine, but I would not want to read the character making a big deal about gender identity or pronouns. Also, er, PWP would probably be fine for the Tonker/Lofty/* ships, although I’m still interested more in the character dynamics than in what would be hot. If writing Mal, please no vampire romance tropes (such as turning or immortality) as focus.

—

Fandom: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Ship(s): Hori Masayuki & Kashima Yuu

I love how ride-or-die obsessed with each other these two are. The bit where Kashima leaves Hori women's clothing in his locker and he's deeply frustrated but also awed by her ability to put an outfit together! How into acting opposite each other and especially dueling each other they get! The coda to the bull scene! I'd be into a story about them acting in a play together or him directing her in a play - working together to create something awesome and intense that shows off both their abilities - or something where they (as per canon) are either intentionally or unintentionally in a tropey situation that may or may not correspond to their gender. Especially (I think, for these two) a trope from a dramatic non-slice-of-life genre. Future fic could also be fun, where they're adults who are still creative collaborators and/or each other's biggest fans in a professional or personal capacity. (Would future!Hori and/or future!Kashima have a girlfriend or wife? Kashima's "ALL THREE OF US WILL HANG" re: Hori's potential future wife is practically memetic in my house.)

I've requested this fandom before, so feel free to check out previous letters in my "dear author letters" tag. (I see from a previous letter that I suggested "give them magical powers" as a potential exception to my unrequested-AUs DNW!)

Fandom-Specific DNW: I would strongly prefer that Kashima's feelings about Hori not be written as overtly romantic or sexual. I think they're probably the most important people to each other, but I don't see her that way. (I'm amused by the possibility of Hori crushing on guy!Kashima, but ultimately, "&" rather than "/".)

—

Fandom: Legend of Korra

Ship(s): Korra & Kuvira, Korra & Zaheer, Lin Beifong/Mako

One thing I enjoyed about seasons 3 and 4 of Korra was the writing team's attempt to write villains who were sincerely committed ideologues with valid points, even if they became evil in pursuit of their goals, and to figure out how Korra could relate to those villains as the Avatar and as the person that she is. I loved how Korra needed to seek help from Zaheer because as an anarchist he truly opposed what Kuvira was doing and wanted to help Korra, and how she was able to empathize with Kuvira at the end of s4 because the two have some big personality similarities. How might they continue to work together or influence each other after the end of s4? I don't need a redemption arc if that's not what you're interested in writing - Zaheer and Kuvira can absolutely continue to believe that their ideals were correct and even that not all of their methods were wrong - but I would be interested in reading about Korra getting more mental/spiritual tutoring from her enemy Zaheer and deciding how much of that she wants to integrate into her practice, seeking Kuvira's advice on how to handle ongoing developments in the Earth Kingdom as it transitions to a republic, sparring or practicing bending with Kuvira, Spirit World meditation adventures with Zaheer... (I haven't read the comics, so you can either take or leave comics canon.)

Or, write me some Lin/Mako! I like that in Mako, Lin finds a mentee who is as cynical and stoic and prickly as she is, with lots of mutual respect for each other's police work. I'd be super into loyaltykink dynamics (whether plotty crimesolving casefic or not - and maybe, like, "of course my feelings for my older mentor/younger protégé are just professional respect and devotion to my team/to the cause of policing" type thing) and/or putting them into scenarios that are Not Dates because they're at the fancy restaurant to bodyguard the candidates, they're undercover, they're just getting takeout because they're working late on a case... They're both terrible at having and expressing emotions so this can only go great. Oh, and absolutely feel free to acknowledge the age difference; Lin deserves a boy toy after everything she's been through, right?

—

Fandom: Team Fortress 2

Ship(s): Administrator/Miss Pauling, Miss Pauling & Spy

Admin/Pauling is a ship that desperately needs some loyaltykink. Pauling has had MULTIPLE speeches in the comics about her devotion to Helen - I especially love the one to Gray Mann. ("Stop her? Why would I stop her? I've worked for her my whole life. I've lied for her. Framed people for her. Killed people for her. Do you think I'd do all that if I didn't know what she is? What she's capable of? Do you think I'm some kind of stupid pawn here? I know exactly what she could do with that kind of power, and I'll be right there with her when she does it.") I would love to get a fic that gets into Pauling's loyalty to Helen and willingness to be the one getting her hands dirty on Helen's behalf, into Helen's appreciation for what Pauling can do and decisions about how to direct all that competence while keeping her safe enough; how far they'd go or what they'd do for each other. Expanding something in their backstory, maybe something alluded to in that speech? Something in the present/future now that Helen is revivified and hot? (Helen trusting Pauling to inherit everything and become the boss herself?)

Alternately, I'm very fond of what we see of Miss Pauling's friendship with the Spy, given that she seems to see him as one of the only competent/sane people she has to work with and vice versa. Per the Tough Break update they go to wine tastings together and he's tried to teach her to play piano; I would love more of their friendship, whether on the job (she's more in the know than he is, but he also seems to see her as a mentee, and they both love guns) or at leisure (wingmanning each other to pick up women, going to the opera or something?) Would also be cool with Femspy.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Please stick to Miss Pauling's canon lesbian orientation if the subject comes up.

[renatorizzuti]

Spotlight on Cleo Berry: Actor/Singer

Interview by Renato Rizzuti

Cleo Berry is known as “the funny guy.” During the course of this interview, Cleo is shown be much more than that! A well trained and passionate actor that has a great attitude towards acting and towards life! Cleo’s well thought out and thorough answers reveal a dynamic actor and a lover of life! 

Renato: You were born in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, on February 10, 1984. This makes you an Aquarius from an astrological point of view. I was born on February 12 which also makes me an Aquarius. What qualities do people born under that sign possess that makes the person perfect for an acting profession? Is this personally true in your case? 

Cleo: First, Happy Belated birthday my Aquarian brother. As you know, Aquarians are known to be deep thinkers, very intellectual and generally just want to help the world be a better place. These are qualities that I bring into my everyday acting career. I have to think deeply about the character. What are their quirks? What makes them tick? What’s their motivation for life? What do they want most of all in the project? I fully believe that being an intelligent person is an asset as an actor. There’s tons of reading scripts and studying. It’s almost like full time college. We’re constantly preparing a group project that we have to perform in front of the class for a grade or in my case a job booking. But I absolutely love it. No complaining here. And I think we as actors are merely putting a mirror up to society and showing them parts of our humanity. Sometimes it’s a drama and sometimes it’s a comedy but we’re always trying to be as true to life and the character as possible. 

Renato: Was there a person or thing that inspired you to be an actor during the 18 years you spent in Little Rock? 

Cleo: I’ve always attended an Arts school. From first grade through college, I’ve been immersed in performing arts. So, I caught the acting bug in sixth grade when my elementary school took out our music class to a dinner theatre matinee show to see my music teacher perform Nancy in “Oliver!” It was there that I saw actors my age singing, dancing and acting. I instantly knew that I wanted to do that too. A few days later, while in music class, I asked my teacher how I could do it too. She helped my mom and I get me into a training camp over that summer. I’ve been on this path, since then. 

Renato: You moved to New York at age 18. What motivated you to make the move? How did you feel about the move? 

Cleo: Yes, I left LR for NYC at eighteen because I needed more training. The best trained there. So, I applied and auditioned and was accepted into the musical theatre training program at AMDA (NYC). I was excited about the move. The fact that 9/11 had just happened the previous year didn’t scare me at all. 

Renato: You graduated from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (NYC). What is the most important thing you learned about acting there and was there a particular instructor who inspired you?                                   

Cleo: Most important things that I learned is how to break down a script and a song. I hated all the monotonous work of creating a character while in school but it definitely helped me with establishing my own short cut to getting to the heart of a character, scene. Darren R. Cohen is the acting instructor who I learned the most from. From my first semester there, Darren helped mold me. He absolutely let me be me and guided me through my schooling. He even created a cabaret show for me and three other students after we graduated. His belief in me is something that I still wear like a badge of honor.

Renato: You missed your graduation from the Academy to go to a feature film callback. What factors did you take into consideration when you made that decision?                                                                                                                   

Cleo: I was paying to attend a performing arts conservatory with the hopes of getting acting work once completed. I had the opportunity to land a lead in a film. It was something that I couldn’t pass up. I did not book the job but I proved to myself how bad I truly wanted my dream to happen.

 Renato: You made a name for yourself as “the funny guy” in numerous commercials and promos. What qualities do you possess that make you ideal as “the funny guy?” How do you personally feel about being “the funny guy?” What higher life purpose do “funny guys” serve or in other words what do “funny guys” do for the rest of humanity? 

Cleo: I’m a rotund guy with a big smile. I’m also quite funny, when prompted. Those are the qualities I possess to work in commercials. I love commercials. Great work, if you can get it. Being funny pays but I don’t think I’m serving any purpose other than selling a product. I certainly hope that if someone out there is having a bad day, and they see a hilarious commercial it brightens their day. Flips it around. But that’s pressure I don’t put on myself.

Renato: You also excel in dramatic roles and have worked with award winning actors such as Hugh Laurie, Glynn Turman and Ving Rhames. From an acting point of view how are dramatic roles different from comedic roles? I what ways are they similar? Given a choice, would you choose comedy or drama? 

Cleo: For me, dramatic roles are easier. I love being in that raw, real space of a role. With comedy, no matter what you do, it’s gotta be funny. With both drama and comedy you’ve gotta be open and readily available for what the scene and story demands. Sometimes, comedy gets to be a bit stressing to me. Coincidentally, it’s also the easiest for me to perform. If given a choice, I would pick drama 7 out of 10 times.

Renato: Name one of your favourite comedic roles.

 Cleo: Captain Chandler on “Young & Hungry!” I thought that character was absolutely hilarious. And I got to do a bit of physical comedy. Which is something that I love.  To view, click on link: https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi2092219161

Renato: Name one of your favourite dramatic roles and explain why.

 Cleo: Daryl Fisher on Monday Mornings! I got to act opposite Ving Rhames. He’s been a favorite actor of mine for a very long time. Also, the character I played went through hell and back. Love playing those kinds of characters.To view, click on link: https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi2092219161

Renato: You were in two Super Bowl commercials. As far as commercial acting is concerned that is quite an achievement! How did you feel being in a Super Bowl commercial? How do you feel about doing commercials in general? 

Cleo: Yes, I was in a Super Bowl commercial for Tide. It turned out great and was the big spot everyone was talking about. This year, I did a Super Bowl spot for Pampers. Got to act and sing with John Legend and Adam Levine. Super cool.  The Super Bowl is the top of the commercial realm. Something I always wanted to achieve. Very thankful to finally be able to cross it off my vision board.

Tide, to view click on link: https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi2225322265

Pampers, to view click on link: https://youtu.be/S9A9Uw9e2p8

Renato: Your bio refers to your “stunning tenor singing voice.” Can you tell us which musical performance has been a highlight of your career?

Cleo: Playing Horton on a National Tour of “Seussical The Musical” was awesome! I loved traveling around the country to all the cities and towns and putting up a show. No performance video as it was over 10 years ago but it was a great show and cast.

Singing video, to view click on link: https://youtu.be/4f5UGb_7Yls

 Renato: You studied Taekwondo and played football. Can you tell us how the discipline learned through sports can be carried over to acting?

Cleo: It’s all about practice and performing at your best. It’s goal driven as well. Block or tackle in football. Break the wood board in Taekwondo and Booking in the Acting world.

Renato: Acting involves mental and physical work. How do you keep prepared for both?            

Cleo: I work with a terrific acting coach when I need to tune up or need help with the development phase of a character. Physically, yes, I do have to get some exercise on my weekly calendar. It’s tough but I make it happen.

Renato: Are there any upcoming projects you would like to tell us about?

Cleo: Yes, I have a project that comes out February 13 on YouTube Premium called “Weird City.” I play an awesome character named Dirg. That’s about all I can say. It’s written and executive produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Charlie Sanders (Key and Peele). Love the way that they write. Definitely give it a watch. I’m guest starring in the third episode of season one.

Trailer, to view click on link: https://youtu.be/raJJbbiKtlY

My episode, preview only, (the first two episodes of the series are free but  you have to pay to watch the 3rd and remaining episodes of the series), to view click on link: https://youtu.be/y-MnuR0n1R8

Renato: Any social media links or other links that you would like to include?

Cleo: Please follow me on my verified Twitter account: @CleoBerry I’m not on any other social media sites.

Renato: Your personal quotation is, “I’m like the Energizer Bunny…you tell me I can’t do something and I keep going and going… until I do it!” Was there a situation in your life that you put that into play?

Cleo: When I was venturing out on my own at eighteen and embarking on school and a professional career, I would always tell myself this. I knew I’d come up against a multitude of brick walls, No’s and who are you’d! So, I’d remind myself to keep going. 

Renato: In general, what is your philosophy of acting?

Cleo: To get to the heart and truth of the character without judgment. Sounds easy but we all have our prejudices and quirks. Sometimes it’s tough to put yourself on hold and put a character on. Buts it’s something that must be done to effectively live as that role.

Renato: In general, what is your philosophy of life?

Cleo: To live, love and explore.

Renato: You won a special recognition at The Boston International Film Festival. What was that for? 

Cleo: The film I was in won Special Recognition. The indie film was called “Mow Crew.” It was my first lead in a movie and we shot on location in Martha’s Vineyard for a month. At the time, it was the first film to shoot on the island since “Jaws.” The locals were amazing and I can’t wait to get back there.

Renato: Thank you very much for your time and all the best to you!

[reallyveryclueless]

Thoughts on Doctor Who Season 11 Episode 1

So the new season of Doctor Who started recently and I’ve been excited for it. I was glad we were finally getting some new blood, I was excited to see myself represented in a female doctor, and I was glad we were going to have a consistantly larger TARDIS team. Unfortunately I ended up struggling with this episode. I didn’t really like it, and at first I couldn’t tell why. I felt bad that I didn’t love it because it seems like everyone else can find no faults in this episode. I’ve now watched it multiple times and I think I’ve figured out why it didn’t click with me.

First, some obligatory warnings

This isn’t an entirely negative post, a lot of it is just pointing out things that surprised me and it still remains to be seen as to whether these will be good things or bad things

I will still continue watching the show, maybe it just takes them a while to get their feet considering there’s been so much change and the direction they go ends up being great

Capaldi is my favorite doctor, so there’s probably some part of my struggle to connect with this new character that’s because I don’t want to let him go

Everything Has Changed

New Doctor

I really wanted to like Jodie Whittaker but she didn’t quite click for me from this one episode. There were a couple of moments when I really liked her (like making the screwdriver) but there were a lot of moments when she felt strange to me. Having never seen Jodie act before, I was a bit surprised. The way she handled the role wasn’t exactly what I expected from her announcement or from seeing pictures of her. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, there’s a lot of potential for her to be funny and develop her own portrayal into something unique.

It’s a bit strange to see that everyone instantly clicked with this Doctor while I didn’t. She was a bit more childish or campy than I wanted, and while I like that she’s a bit more personable than Capaldi, she hasn’t yet shown me that she can pull off friendly but still incredibly old and tired of people dying. I’m happy to let that develop though, I’m far more worried about how the writers will handle a female doctor (because if they make it too much of a big deal in story I’m going to scream) than I am at how Jodie’s going to handle this role.

We also have an entirely new cast of characters

I expect it will take a while for us to really get to know the new characters but it was still a bit weird to be starting with a completely new group of people. I did think there were some great moments hinting at who our companions will be as people so this didn’t really worry me much. I feel like I’m really going to like the group we’ve got. Yaz seemed awesome, and Graham’s practicality was a nice change.

There are new writers, and you can tell

The way certain things were written made me do a double take. The pacing and the jokes written into the script were a bit... different and some of it didn’t quite work for me. There were also some super convenient solutions to things that hopefully won’t continue for the rest of the series, I want clever writing.

I think the biggest choice of the writers that stuck out to me was not drawing out the time the Doctor spent clinging to the bottom of the crane trying to climb up. It did feel a bit unrealisitic to me because doing a pull up with that grip is actually super tricky, and from past experience with the show drawing out moments where the Doctor might fail I was surprised that they skimmed right over how she got up there and just continued on.

The new budget / cinematography is so noticable

You can tell just from the way the shots are framed and the blur of the background and the colour scheme that this is both a much bigger budget and a different team. I wouldn’t say I disliked this, but it lacked the Doctor Who vibe to me because I wasn’t used to it at all.

The music.

This is the first time in all of new who (well second but shhh) that they’ve used a different composer for the main sequence. From what we heard of it in the credits scene, I don’t like it at all. There’s something about the bassline being played on what sounds like a timpani that I cannot stand.

The title sequence

From what we saw of the background during the credits, it seems like they’re going to appeal much more to classic who vibe which is interesting. I don’t know quite what to think of it yet.

The “next time” preview

It was handled so much better than it has been the last couple of seasons. This is probably the biggest plus for me, I really liked how little they gave away about what was coming up. A bunch of people have complained throughout the past few seasons that the next time previews have been giving too much away, so this time instead of playing clips for the whole season they just used close ups of actors faces. It gave a little bit away, with some costumes / sets hinting at more historical episodes and some hinting towards more futuristic ones, but it didn’t give any actual events away.

The diversity.

I am so happy for the diversity growing in this show. Not only are two of our companions not white, but there was another side character (the guy who’s sister was taken) who wasn’t white when he totally could have been with no change to the plot. It made me so happy. And when they were showing some of the actors we could expect later, there was a full run where we went like 5 actors without mentioning someone white. I was really pleasantly surprised by that.

Figuring Out Who The Doctor Is

It did feel like this episode was written while the writers were still figuring out who the Doctor was. They grasped some of the broader stokes, but didn’t necessarily use them in the most effictive way. There were some scenes where it felt like the writers didn’t quite grasp who the Doctor was.

I get that the scene above is meant to be an easy way to show that the Doctor’s still against violence, but it kind of meant nothing. The knife part of a swiss army knife is rarely used for combat, it’s used to cut ropes or open plastic packaging.

There was also that moment on top of the crane when the Doctor had already pretty much killed the villain by getting him to detonate bombs that had been planted in his own flesh (which I do kind of question... you can’t just say “full physical transfer” and expect that to explain stuff away) but this villain was standing there with all his DNA being unwritten. So this other guy who is scared decides to shove him off the crane, and the Doctor has this whole “I’m the Doctor and I say no to violence” moment (”you had no right to do that” is the exact response) but it kind of lost it’s impact considering the villain was already dying. What’s the difference between them dying from having all their DNA unwritten and them dying from falling off a crane? Especially when the villain teleported away regardless. I just didn’t think it was the best way to show off the Doctor’s morals.

There was also the moment above which I didn’t really get... why would they have the Doctor say “I’m looking for a doctor.” The only way I can understand it was hinting that her memory was kind of a mess... but we already knew that. Otherwise it kind of implied to me that she wasn’t really the Doctor yet... which ?? Plus this scene, the whole “smart, biology” moment just didn’t work for me when Jodie Whittaker said it. I feel like it was a Tennant / Smith type line and for me it didn’t fit the sort of persona she had.

I didn’t really feel like Jodie Whittaker had a moment in this episode where she shone. Like in comparison to the complete sucess of The Eleventh Hour where by the end everyone was rooting for Matt Smith, I feel like this was a weak introduction episode.

There was also this whole speech that the Doctor gave, which was so obviously just a message directly to any fans that were doubting the new direction that the show was going in. The emotional tone of the speech didn’t really fit the rest of the scene, like I get the argument but I feel like the speech was far too melodramatic.

My One Big Problem

Tim Shaw. How does no one else have a problem with this? The Doctor I love would never refuse to correctly pronounce an alien’s name. Yet this alien repeatedly correcting the Doctor to try to get their actual name to be acknowledged is treated like a joke. I don’t find it funny at all. And I’m kind of shocked, because in a way this was meant to be Jodie Whittaker’s big funny moment but to me it read more as insensitive and a tiny bit racist. Anglicising a character’s name so that it can be more easily pronounced by other characters, fans, and media outlets (and yes, every single review I’ve read of this episode refers to him as “Tim Shaw”) is not okay.

I don’t know whether the writers are trying to justify this by him not caring about humanity or being the villain, but I’m not okay with it. The writers spend the whole episode unable to decide whether this character is actually a threat or whether they’re actually there to be made fun of, which is really confusing for the viewer. The previous seasons of new who have put a lot of effort into creating this feeling that no one is just “evil” because everyone has to make difficult choices and sometimes people make bad choices or even have bad intentions but that doesn’t make them irreversibly bad people. If this episode is setting the standard for how villains will be treated by the new writers, I’m not so sure that will continue.

Season Predictions

I think it would be really cool to have a third doctor inspired season where the TARDIS is missing / unusable and the Doctor has to deal with more small scale things on Earth, but I don’t think that’s the direction this season is going.

I have heard someone suggest that the Stenza may come back as a larger villain (which sounds a bit too similar to Class’s overarching unstoppable villain for my liking) because the Doctor mentioned “if I don’t stop you, you’ll just keep doing this.” While I agree that having the Doctor basically ignore / forget that an alien species is using Earth as a hunting ground doesn’t seem realistic to the character, I’m not that interested in having more Stenza episodes so I hope that doesn’t happen. I did enjoy the idea of them as a one time villain though.

I’m pretty sure the writers have hinted (confirmed??) that there isn’t an overarching plot this series which I am in two minds about. I actually really enjoy having the overarching plots, and while some of them haven’t been the best executed I do think it adds something interesting to the show. However I think if done right, having a bunch of stand alones could be good. And I’m glad there are no two parters because after it being all two parters in season 9 (most of which kind of feel flat for me) I am looking forward to some more simple plots.

I hope that there will be more unique alien species introduced, with a lot more unpredictability in the episodes. I feel like we kind of reached a point where a lot of the episodes were kind of similar (like Smile in season 10 felt a bit like a throw back to The Doctor’s Daughter in season 4, Oxygen in season 10 reminded me of The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit in season 2), and we could pretty easily tell who was going to die and what the plot twists were going to be.