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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Sasquatch: Hulu Docuseries Director on Murder by Bigfoot

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Some legends are so powerful they can never die, but they might be able to kill. That is a pervading idea behind Sasquatch, Hulu’s three-part murder-mystery documentary that explores a strange story of the famous cryptid tearing three men limb from limb on a pot farm in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle.

Fittingly premiering on April 20 a.k.a. the weed holiday “420” the series is told through the eyes of investigative journalist David Holthouse. A man who has built his career chasing monstrous humans, such as Neo-Nazis and sexual predators, Holthouse heard of these Bigfoot murders back in 1993 while laying low to avoid some gangs, and passing time working on the farms in the Redwoods. Now, nearly three decades later, he revisits the region to further uncover the truth behind the story.

Directed by Joshua Rofé (Lorena), and produced by Duplass Brothers Productions (Wild, Wild Country), Sasquatch is more than a monster hunt. It does dig into Bigfoot culture, and features interviews with notable squatcher James “Bobo” Fay (Finding Bigfoot), anatomy and anthropology researcher Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum — and even Bob Gimlin, one-half of the Patterson-Gimlin film, the most famous supposed Bigfoot video ever. But the series is likewise an exploration of the illegal marijuana trade in the Emerald Triangle. A haven to where the hippies of the 1960s counterculture once escaped, parts of the three counties that make up the triangle — Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino — have become off-the-grid zones where interlopers might vanish.

While a legend of a potentially killer Bigfoot looms large over the area, crossing the wrong character equally poses a mortal danger, and the documentary conveys that palpable human threat. In this way, Sasquatch is gripping, and full of shocking revelations as it takes the viewer on a journey that’s both an examination of cryptozoology and paranormal phenomena, and a true crime investigation.

Rofé joined Den of Geek for a Paranormal Pop Culture Hour to discuss the series, and how he became connected to Holthouse’s strange tale. In the following interview the director opens up about a childhood fear of the Jersey Devil, and how that fear was nothing compared to the frightening nature of some of the people he had to interview for Hulu’s Sasquatch.

Note: Quotes edited lightly for clarity and length

Den of Geek: There are weird parallels here with Lorena, the Lorena Bobbitt documentary, because you take something you assume people know a lot about, but they really only know part of the story.

Joshua Rofé: It’s interesting, my producing partner, Steven Berger, we sort of started to realize in the last couple of years, that our M.O. is we like a story about a household name, a word that is just part of common vernacular … where you come in with a totally preconceived notion. And by the end of it, hopefully, you will never think of that name or that word the same way again.

Why Sasquatch? Was it your own pre-existing fascination?

I grew up in New Jersey. When I was a kid, we’d go to day-camp in the summer, and it was in the Pine Barrens. I grew up terrified of the Jersey Devil. You’d have one or two sleepovers a summer, where you’re camping out, and [counselors] would take you to the old canteen, which is just an abandoned shed. You think, as a nine-year-old, that this is where the Jersey Devil resides. You grow up and sort of never think about that again but it’s still in your being.

Cut to February 2018. I’m making Lorena, and I have dinner with a buddy of mine, Zach Cregger. He’s one of the executive producers on this show. His parting words to me are, “By the way, you’ve got to listen to this podcast. You’re either going to love it, or you’re going to think I’m crazy for loving it, and it’s called Sasquatch Chronicles.”

Immediately, I just had no interest. Despite what I had been sort of terrified over as a kid, with the Jersey Devil, cryptids were just, at that moment in time, they were not something that I gave much thought to. And he said, “Just listen.”

Culture

The Golden Age of Bigfoot Movies

By Jim Knipfel

What Sasquatch Chronicles is, is people calling up with their encounter stories. The next day, I listened to one episode. By the end of four days later, I’d listened to 11 episodes, and I was not hung-up on whether or not I believed the details of the stories. That was sort of irrelevant to me. What I was immediately taken by and really overwhelmed by was I sensed authentic, visceral fear as through-line with every story, from every caller.

I started to have this conversation with myself. Am I going to make a Sasquatch something? I can’t. I make social issue documentaries. My collaborators are going to laugh at me. And then I got to this point at the end of the week, where I said, “I’m going to make a Sasquatch-centric story. I don’t know if it’s a doc, I don’t know if it’s scripted, but this is amazing. And I’m going to do something.”

In the first episode of the documentary, you reveal David hasn’t told this story before. He has plenty of insane stories but kept this one in his back pocket. Why did he tell you about it now?

Keep in mind, David was working on Lorena with me at the time. I knew that in his experience as a gonzo journalist, he had seen and done a lot of crazy things. I sent him a text, and I just said, “Hey, I promise this is the craziest text I’m going to send you for the next five years. I want to find a murder mystery that’s somehow wrapped up in a Sasquatch story and pursue it as the next project.” He texted me right back. He said, “I love it. I got one. I’ll call you in five.” And then he proceeded to tell me that story from 1993, and here we are.

This is a murder investigation of sorts, and an exploration of this outlaw territory, but you begin with interviews from that Sasquatch community. Why did you find it was necessary to include them? You could just have gone straight to the territory where these murders took place.

If we were going to try and figure out what happened with this Sasquatch murder mystery, we needed to start at ground zero. And ground zero in many was, “Well, let’s understand Bigfoot culture. Let’s understand the history of Bigfoot.” Talking to people who can explain that very credibly, particularly in the Bigfoot community, and also talking to people who when they’re telling you about their experience … it feels authentic. You never for a second think, “Oh, this person is putting me on.” You know that they believe what they’re telling you … There’s a former cop in this who, when he relays his experience, I mean, this grown man is about to cry. He is terrified just recalling it, and it’s very tough to dismiss that.

Can you walk me through the unique challenges you faced as you filmed in this pretty dangerous Mendocino area?

All of the credit for that goes to David Holthouse. That’s his work, that’s his reporting, that’s his skillful and relentless development of sources, and frankly, putting himself in really dangerous situations when there was no camera present.

There’d be moments where we would be up there in Northern California, and maybe the next day was an interview with a Squatcher. Certainly, not somebody in the criminal underworld. [The crew] leaves the hotel, 8:00 AM, to get to somebody’s place. David, that night before, was going to meet a potential source, very much from that underworld and say, “Here’s where I’m going to be. If you don’t hear from me by this time, that’s bad.”

I remember just sitting, wide awake till two, three in the morning, just waiting for that text message, “I’m out. I’m safe. I’m heading back to the hotel. I’m good.” So there was a lot of that, and then there was a lot of, when we were in the places that we were, sort of being overcome with this feeling of, “We better not overstay our welcome, because we’re not welcome here to begin with essentially.” And so, that was a new experience.

Do you think some of these folks up there in the Emerald Triangle, legitimately do believe in the existence of Sasquatch?

Absolutely. There are a ton of people up there who believe in the existence of Sasquatch, and they would base that on experiences they will tell you they’ve had. There’s a line David has in the show, where he talks about the belief in the supernatural up there, meaning Northern California, deep in those woods, running on a higher vibration.

You said that you hadn’t really previously experienced this kind of threat of danger with your work. Was this something that David tried to prep you for?

It was more conversation, sort of as a group, of, “Do we need security?” … Actually, you know what? I haven’t thought about this since it happened. We looked into hiring security. Nobody would go. Nobody would go, and it was something more or less like, if it’s going to go down, it’s going to go down.

I don’t remember David prepping us, so much as those conversations as a group, but I think everybody just understood. I think a big rule for me personally, and my crews, when we’re shooting docs is, somebody’s letting us in their home. Man, I don’t care if you have totally different political beliefs, I don’t care what. Someone’s letting us in their home. It’s like please and thank you, and take your shoes off, and be respectful. It was kind of that on steroids for this, which is, “Oh, and somebody might have an AR-15 in the bedroom, so everybody just behave yourself.”

…And the answers to our original question of, “What happened the day that these people claimed a Sasquatch murdered these people?” Well, some of those people were going to potentially hold the answers.

Let me backtrack a little bit to the hardcore Bigfoot stuff because you do talk to Bob Gimlin as well as Bob Hieronimus, who claims he was the guy in a Bigfoot suit. Did you walk away, finding one or the other slightly more reliable?

Oh, I don’t want to answer this one … I think there are going to be people who are going to believe both of these guys. These guys are in their eighties now, and — we’re going into very mild spoilers, but it’s one of my favorite things in the show, actually — there’s a real rivalry that is clearly decades old between the two of them, and it turns out they live down the street from each other, which is amazing. It’s a wild dynamic between the two of them, for sure. As surly as they get when they can be talking about each other, they’re both the nicest guys. They’re both the nicest guys, so welcoming, so thoughtful.

From that nine-year-old kid, camping in the Pine Barrens, terrified of the Jersey Devil, to now being on the other side of this three-part documentary, what is your takeaway about the power of legends?

Like you were saying, from being a kid who was afraid, camping in the Pine Barrens, to then listening to those stories on Sasquatch Chronicles, and hearing that visceral fear from these folks, to then making this and being in those woods — and feeling fear again. I think fear is a very powerful tool, and legends are often born out of people feeling afraid or wanting to make others feel afraid for specific reasons. And that’s where the real story lies, I think, a lot of times. I’m not coming down definitively on the existence of whatever or not, but people like to wield fear in the name of control. I think that’s where a lot of legends are born, and I personally find that endlessly fascinating.

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Sasquatch, the three-part documentary directed and executive produced by Joshua Rofé, and produced by Duplass Brothers Productions is available to stream on Hulu now.

The post Sasquatch: Hulu Docuseries Director on Murder by Bigfoot appeared first on Den of Geek.

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pennywaltzy · 4 years

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I whipped up this oh-so-fancy banner to add a post in my links list of my non-Sherlock and other crossover WIPs so that I can cross them off when I finish them without having to take AO3s word I have 60+ WIPs when I get a few of them showing up multiple times in the search engine. This is the year I finish these fuckers if it kills me. If you want any of these updated, just send me one ask per fic so I can reply with the new chapter!

A Return Home (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries; Phryne-centric, pre-Jack/Phryne) - Phryne Fisher returns to Melbourne after an extended absence to make sure the man she is sure kidnapped and murdered her sister stays behind bars, but in the course of fashioning a new life for herself there, she falls into the most unexpected career and meets the beginnings of her found family.

Across Time And Space (Firefly/Heroes; Hiro-centric) - After the events in New York, Hiro jumps forward in time a little too far, ending up in a time where Earth is now Earth That Was, and on the ship with a crew of people who are just a tad accustomed to taking in the lost and the lonely...and Hiro is very much lost in time and space right now.

And Never Left Your Side (Star Trek AOS; Kirk-centric) - Nearly four years into the five year mission in deep space, Kirk gets asked to return to Earth to bring a Klingon Chancellor to Earth for peace negotiation talks. He's fairly sure it's a set-up for retribution for the fight that happened on Kronos between the Klingons, Khan and him and his away team, and unfortunately he's right. While he and Bones struggle to survive at the hostile Rura Penthe mines, little does he know that behind the scenes his friends and the Federation are doing everything they can to get them back.

Dangerous Kisses (Star Trek AOS/Marvel Cinematic Universe; Kirk/Daisy) - When Kirk and Daisy have to work a mission together, the information he gave her beforehand about The Augment seems to put them both in danger, and Kirk begins to wonder just how widespread the potential mole problem is.

Every Journey Always Brings Me Back To You (Bleach; Ishida/Orihime) - He had moved away, but when it came to her, he’d still do anything for her, even while he’s an ocean away.

Heads Will Roll (Star Trek AOS; Spock-centric) - Spock is asked to be a delegate at a conference to look out for the interests of New Vulcan by his father and Spock Prime while they are involved in delicate negotiations on Earth. While there, he is framed for the assasination of another delegate. He manages to escape and get aboard the Enterprise, and is hidden there by his friends while Kirk and Spock Prime attempt to find out who is framing him and why.

It's More Dangerous To Lose Than Win (Elementary; Sherlock-centric) - It all starts with a published work on the internet that details how Sherlock works in the field. What it spirals out to is a stalker who begins to shadow every aspect of the lives of Sherlock, Joan and those closest to them, and those that Sherlock has chosen as his family are left with a choice: do they cower under or do they fight back?

Rebuilding SHIELD (Marvel Cinematic Universe; Steve/Peggy, Tony/Pepper, Grant/Melinda, Clint/Natasha, Phil/Melinda) - Fifty years ago, HYDRA attempted to kill Peggy Carter by poisoning her and her husband Daniel. While Daniel died quickly, Peggy survived long enough to be put into a beta version of a cryofreeze machine built by Howard Stark, the location of which he supposedly took to the grave. When Steve is fished out of the Arctic it becomes apparent that to save SHIELD once and for all, they need to find Peggy, revive her, cure her and stage a coup to get rid of the HYDRA infiltration and HYDRA's leader, Alexander Pierce. Only then will the world truly be safe. But there are many surprises in store for everyone involved...

Something The Heart Longs For (Marvel Cinematic Universe; Phil/Melinda) - After Melinda calls off her engagement to Andrew on the eve of him having to meet her parents, Coulson steps in to fill the void, all in the name of helping his partner for what turn out to be three of the longest but most rewarding days of his life.

Super Secret Spies & Stuff (Star Trek AOS: Kirk/Spock) - Jim is curious about his new roommate. About why he comes home injured. At odd times of night. And keeps more secrets than the CIA. Funny thing...he just so happens to be a spy, and his assignment: keep Jim safe from Jim's psychotic ex-dormmate, aka John Harrison, aka Spock's former partner. Because the universe might depend on it.

This Isn’t Storybrooke Anymore (Once Upon A Time/Eureka; August/Emma, Zane/Jo, Henry/Grace, Jack/Allison) - Emma decides to go visit her friend Jo. She didn’t expect to get involved in what Jo considers a “normal day in Eureka.”

To Set Right What Had Been Made Horribly Wrong (Doctor Who/Once Upon A Time; Graham/Emma, David/Mary Margaret) - For twenty-eight years the Doctor has wondered what happened to the parallel dimension, the Enchanted Forest where all the fairy tales lived; now he’ll do whatever it takes to fix what the Evil Queen did to the residents there.

Twist Of Fate (CSI: NY; Flack/Angell) - What if Jessica had a very good reason for not escorting Connor Dunbrook's kid to trial? What might have been?

Urge To Kill (CSI: NY/Stargate Atlantis; Flack/Angell) - When a murder case takes an unusual turn as Flack and Angell both touch an artifact of some sort and Angell tries to kill Flack, the team at Atlantis whisks them away to fix the problem. But not even an unwanted "vacation" in Atlantis with all that entails will stop the case being solved.

What Happens After The End (Bleach; Renji/Tatsuki) - What if Aizen really had killed Tatsuki, Mizurio, Keigo and Chizuru and put their bodies up on display to taunt Ichigo? What would happen next?

#star trek aos #miss fisher's murder mysteries #bleach #doctor who #CSI: NY #once upon a time #firefly #heroes #eureka #my wips

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distant-rose · 5 years

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May and October for the fic writing meme (I read your story about Beth being dark like Killian and it was stunning! In a good way).

Hi!

You honestly made my night! That dynamic is one of my favorites to write because of the parallels between the characters and for some reason I’m just fascinated by the concept of a person watching someone they love commit the same mistakes or the same actions and kinda reflecting on it. I don’t know why, but I just really love it. So, thank you for reading that. That has a special place in my heart.

Now to answer your questions,

may: a fic you have regretted posting?

Yes. Sometimes I regret posting a few stories, particularly the ones that get weak responses because they make me completely doubt myself and want to die in a hole. There’s a few ones that were lackluster in their responses and I just have an identity crisis and constantly question if I’m a good writer.

One fic I wrote awhile back was the beginnings of a Top Gun AU that I put in like 5 hours of research on the naval aviation and I posted the prologue of it where it was setting up the story about Killian and his relationship with the Navy, which mirrors Maverick’s a bit and I think I only got like 9 notes on it and less than 300 hits and I was just so distraught about it, that I had a panic attack and promptly deleted it.

I still feel sore about that.

october: name the darkest or angstiest fic you have written and/or posted?

Okay, I’ve actually written a lot more angstier shit than I expected to ever write and I even still have some stuff that hasn’t been even posted yet that is also angsty, but most of my angst work is in Little Pirates and those ones are The Rabbit Died (where Emma reveals she’s pregnant with Harrison and they kinda discuss the dangers he would be in and whether or not it’s ethical to have him, I’m actually shocked how little some kid fics focus on this), Sins of the Father (where Wes shows off his violent streak and Killian basically has a break down because he feels like his kids might be “bad” like him), A Once and Future Thing (Beth coping terribly with the murder of her boyfriend and basically deliberately going the Captain Hook route and being completely toxic to the point that her most loyal partner-in-crime Jim leaves her), The Wolf at the Door (Harrison is kidnapped and Killian reacts rather violently and kinda reflects on his inner darkness) and The Cracked Mirror (the one you read where Beth shows off her darker nature and Killian finds it disturbing and sees himself as a parental failure)

I also have other angst written in my folders. One of those fics is called Bird Without Feathers and it features Ned falling from a tree and breaking his neck (he survives) but it causes Emma to reflect on the fact that not all dangers to her family are magical and that no matter how much she tries to protect them, she can’t protect them from everything. That is pretty nasty.

I write a lot of dark shit for someone who actually isn’t really into angst or whump. I just find these topics to be realistic problems that they would have to deal with.

#ohmakemeahercules #asks #answered #meme bullshit #calendar meme #little pirates #little pirates meta

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sunlitroom · 5 years

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Gotham – s5e04 – Ruin

As I watched it, and some random observations here and there.

Previously on Gotham:

Tabitha was a dumbass. Jeremiah shot Selina. Ivy gave her a magic seed. Selina visited the Church of Jeremiah. Ed has memory loss. Jim has several sugary talks with orphans. Oswald went to Haven to get his people back. Barbara showed up to shoot him, but Jim wouldn’t let her. Then everything went BOOM.

As always, long post will be long. There are likely to be rambling digressions. Gobblepot might appear (although I welcome all shippers and non-shippers alike :)). There will be naked favouritism and naked not-favouritism. Broader comments at the end on plotlines and parallels and general direction.

In case we are not fully aware of the pathos of the scene, and in keeping with Gotham’s recent habit of absolutely beating messages home – we open with a teddy on fire.

There’s chaos and flames all around. We see people panicking. Oswald wakes slowly, blinking He stands and stares aghast at the flames. We see Barbara behind him. She aims agun at Oswald's back – but looks round at the carnage and wavers. A baby cries, and she lowers her gun and runs off.

Jim calls round for help – organising people. It’s notable that even though he needs to be commanding here – his tone is also downright harsh. This is underlined when he spots a dazed and shocked cop, and shakes him – telling him to snap to and focus, before slapping him for good measure.

Looking round, Jim spots Oswald. Grabbing him, he accuses him of causing this by bringing the gangs here but – to be honest – while it’s blustery and loud, it doesn’t feel genuine. As soon as Oswald starts to protest, Jim lets go almost immediately, losing focus on him as Harvey approaches and asks what they can use to put the fire out. Jim tells him the drinking water is their only option.

The fire is out, and it’s morning now. Jim stares up at the burnt buildings. Harvey approaches and Jim tells him he wants to send search parties in for survivors. Harvey nods – but also hands him his badge, which was found in the building, shaking his head as he does so to let him know that the boy wasn’t found alive with it.

Jim tells the nameless voice at the other end of the radio that the death toll stands at 311. There are 49 injured, and 2 dozen unaccounted for. The voice asks who was responsible. Jim says that there was a gang incursion, but admits he doesn’t know and can’t rule anyone out. The voice promises help and tells him he has every right to be angry and upset, but Jim switches off – disillusioned.

We can hear now that there’s a rabble outside – and Jim goes to investigate.

Jim descends stairs and tells them to let the angry crowd they’re restraining through. They yelling random angry questions and accusations – when will he find the culprits? How do they know they’re safe?

Oh Lord. Jim is gearing up to another speech. They can’t destroy the hope we’ve built up unless they let them. Justice will be done, and we will stop this from happening again.

The crowd is not really mollified

Jim retreats to Harvey and Lucius, and they all acknowledge that someone has to pay for this. Jim tells Lucius to find something. Lucius tells him it won’t be easy – but Jim tells him to do whatever he has to.

Lucius leaves. Harvey comments that the building blew up when Barbara arrived – and Jim adds that she disappeared immediately after. Harvey’s not sure about his own observation, though, saying it

Doesn't make sense - even for her

Jim says nothing makes sense anymore, and leaves. Deep stuff there, Jim.

At Jeremiah’s church, Bruce is still rattling the gate - yelling for Selina. We see a stained glass window of Jeremiah in the background, as some guards approach him, and attack

(An aside. Nope. Can you imagine how furious Jeremiah would be to find out that some random guard had murdered Bruce Wayne? I find it hard to believe that they wouldn’t all know Bruce’s face better than their own – as well as the penalty for harming him)

Fortunately for Bruce, Alfred appears, and despatches the guards. Bruce tells him he was worried he didn’t get the signal – nudge nudge – and then asks what happens. Bruce clumsily tries to cover up – but Alfred realises that it was Selina, and Bruce admits that she’s out for revenge and is in a dangerous situation. Alfred says this is a recurring theme with madam (hey, fuck you, Alfred). He comments that one day Bruce will realise that he can't save her from herself – but until that day comes, it’s time they should head off and find her now – don’t you think?

Sirens - and a bunch of tacky velvet furniture. Babs – the red velvet goes with literally nothing else. Please. Give it up.

Jim enters (not for the last time this episode!)

One of Barbara’s pulls a gun on him, but Barbara says to let him through – he’s either here for information or thinks she had something to do with that atrocity.

Jim says she was desperate for revenge against Oswald – who had been in the building. Barbara says she could have killed Oswald right there but didn’t. Jim asks why she didn’t. The writers don’t have a real answer for this yet – so Barbara angrily retorts that the person who did this has to pay – that’s all that matters.

Jim says she’s worried Sirens might be next.

(An aside - Eh? What would the motive for that be? Haven can be seen as a sort of bastion of law and stability – it makes sense that more lawless factions might want to send a message. Would they really bother blowing up a brothel?)

Barbara says she’s already put of feelers – there was a shady guy lurking outside Haven

Jim is rather pissily dismissive. Jim – you have nothing else. Behave

Barbara also mentions something about a building to the north-east of the park

Jim asks how much the information has cost him. Barbara tells him to do his job and get the bastard.

As he turns to leave, she calls after him

Do you really think I could have murdered all those people?

Jim says he doesn't know

Barbara says she guesses she deserved that

Jim stares at her.

Harvey contacts him to let him know that they have a problem. Jim leaves.

GCPD, where Oswald standing in a carefully arranged pose with his coordinated henchmen.

O hai eyepatch guy!

Jim approaches, and we get Oswald’s foreign jangly music.

Oswald - what are you doing here?

Jim – it’s woefully apparent that you’re outmanned, outgunned and out of options…. so I’m here to help

Oswald hands Jim his gun with a smile. Jim remarks that this is generous – and Oswald tells him he’s only getting started. His henchmen bring in boxes of weapons. Harvey looks at him askance

Well aren’t you St Nick on Christmas morning?

Oswald tells them not to be shy, and take what they can carry.

Jim says he guesses that there are strings. Oswald says there are none – the only string will be the one cinching round the neck of the bomber. And really, Jim – that should possibly have been your first clue that Oswald might not be on board with a custodial sentence.

Oswald continues. He lost people too - people Jim lured with promises of safety, who were then incinerated

However – he’s willing to put that in abeyance, and for them to put aside their considerable differences, and get the people some justice

What do you say, partner?

He holds out his hand. Jim takes it. Oswald smiles – and Jim looks serious.

(An aside.

So – sort of a lot here. It echoes the scene with Barbara, a little. Both Barbara and Oswald are horrified by what happened to Haven. They offer Jim help sincerely. In both instances, Jim suspects them of self-interest

Oswald is pissed off about what happened to his people, and he’s pissed off that they went to Jim in the first place. I have no idea whether I’m supposed to think he digested his lesson from last week. That lesson – in itself, was dependent on the notion that the manipulative Oswald had no clue he was hated. Now, I’m to believe he’s sort of forgotten that big lesson (underlined by Penn’s death)?

For what it’s worth – I believe he was genuinely horrified by what he saw, and he sincerely want to offer help. He’s still stinging, though, from what happened last week – and that will inform his actions)

In the library, Ed lurches awake. There’s a suitcase next to him. He prods it cautiously before opening it and finding it empty.

He talks into a recorder – a method to keep track of what’s happening to him amidst all the memory loss. Have you tried drawing a clock, Ed? Here’s the one to beat. The bar is not high

He remarks that he’s been on a trip or is going on one, before noticing a smudged message he’s written on his palm. He figures out that it says ‘inmate at 1215 knows’. He assumes that inmate refers to a prison inmate, smiles, and heads out purposefully.

We see old posters from Oswald's mayoral campaign pasted to a wall in a street down which Jim, Harvey, Oswald and several cops and men of Oswald’s are striding.

Harvey is talking to Jim, trying to convince him that Haven wasn’t his fault. Jim snarls that he hadn’t given the people the hope he had promised, and now they were dead.

Jim starts talking about how they will conduct the search, but massively underestimated the speed with which Oswald would be drawn to a megaphone. Oswald begins proclaiming that the vile miscreant who was responsible for Haven’s destruction has nowhere to run. His men and the GCPD are two forces – he gives Jim a wink at this – united in one purpose.

They’re almost immediately sprayed with bullets. They take shelter behind one of the cars. Jim comments that the shooter’s position means they’re sitting ducks. Harvey remarks that they’re sitting ducks and one penguin – and Oswald pulls a face at him before yelling to the shooter that they have more weapons and more ammo.

A voice responds that it’s pretty cosy up here – thanks guys.

Realisation dawns on both Jim and Oswald’s faces. As Oswald incredulously remarks that he knows that voice, Jim calls out Zsasz

We then finally see Victor at the window. He offers a jaunty

Hey guys – what’s up?

Before blowing a little kiss

A GCPD, Ed manages to sneak in by stealing a blanket from someone sitting near the door and draping it over his head.

He makes his way to the record room and starts rifling through files. He finds the one he was looking for, but as he pulls it from the drawer, it’s taken from his hand. He turns to see who’s taken it – and find himself smoothly pressed against the filing cabinet by Lucius, who has pressed his hand against his chest.

(An aside - Ha! Has Ao3 crashed yet with the influx of people frantically hitting the 'New Work' button?)

Ed’s face breaks into a grin when he sees that it’s Lucius who’s found him, and looks generally entertained by the circumstance. He asks Lucius if he ever learned that it was

Impolite to sneak up on people

Lucius smiles back at him

So is breaking and entering. I heard you were dead, Ed. What are you looking for?

(An aside – there a quiet ‘no’ from Ed when asked about being dead. He’s obviously not dead now – but he was for a while. Ed seemingly has no recollection of what happened to him)

At the opportunity to pose a riddle, Ed gets very intense

I’m given - not taken – I’m with you from your first breath and follow you until death.

Lucius thinks for a moment before answering

Name

(An aside – Ed and Lucius are standing pretty close while that riddle is posed and answered. There’s an odd bond between them – and Lucius’ ability to answer Ed’s riddles seems to affirm it.)

Lucius wanders off with the folder, before turning to face him and asking what it’s worth

(An aside – I posted a set of images of this elsewhere. It is pretty much a perfect recreation of Ed’s attempt to flirt with Kristen by telling her that houseflies buzz in the key of F. Their positioning, Ed’s gestures – all identical)

Ed poses a little, and asks what the going rate is on dust bunnies

Lucius smiles, and tells him the file is valuable to him,

Ed smiles back.

(An aside - I’m saying ‘smiles’ a lot – but, honestly, there’s a lot of smiling. They pretty much go back and forth between being weirdly pleased to see each other, and vaguely flirty teasing.)

Money is worthless, and I have no snacks on me…..what would you like?

(this is precisely the moment where I’m guessing a lot of the fanfic will diverge pretty hard from canon…..)

Lucius replies

Your expertise

Ed smiles and draws himself up taller - visibly pleased.

Lucius says that Ed must have noticed what happened to Haven. They want to know how it was done so they can avoid it happening again.

Ed grins and walks towards Lucius, hands clasped behind his back

So. The 2nd smartest man in Gotham needs my help

Lucius replies that explosives are not his expertise

Ed smiles wider

I didn’t realise you had one

(Did a shipper write this and send it in and then they just decided to go with it?)

Lucius grins at this – and Ed promptly tries to grab the file from him, but Lucius effortlessly keeps hold of it – staying completely calm. Ed gives in, and Lucius shakes his head at his antics

Just - why?

He then asks whether they have a deal or not – to which Ed offers a sulky fine. He leaves, and Lucius follows.

(An aside - See, Gotham - this is how it's done. You've never forced this interaction, or lavished an excessive amount of screen-time on it, because you've never had to: the characters share common ground as well as key differences, and it feels natural and plausible enough that viewers accurately guessed at aspects of this story before airing. There's logical reasons that these characters would work together and - most importantly - a natural chemistry. I'm not having it crammed down my throat while being told how wonderful it is.)

Back with Jim, Oswald, Victor and co.

Victor shouts that he -

Did not make that building go boom, Jim

Oswald says Victor gave up honour a long time ago – why should they believe a snake like him?

Victor replies that he would never take credit for someone else’s work.

Oswald yells angrily that he would betray anyone for the right price.

Victor replies that if this is about Sofia Falcone, then Oswald should move past that – it’s not healthy

Oswald is fulminating when Jim asks him to concentrate and tell him if they’ve got enough ammo to cover him for two minutes. Oswald calculates and replies

For you, Jim. Let's say two and a half

Jim looks up at the building, then over his should at Oswald

Give me everything you've got

(Ooo-er, missus. Gotham’s really blessing me with the double entendres this season. First of we had Ed telling Tank ‘I’m gonna guess you gave it to me’ and now it bestows upon me Jim growling at Oswald ‘give me all you’ve got.’ I mean, come on.)

then abruptly cease fire

Oswald nods. You can count on me.

Jim gets ready. Oswald looks at his watch, and yells

There’s a hail of gunfire. Jim runs into the building. Victor leans casually against the wall, drinking a milkshake, waiting for them to finish shooting.

Outside, Harvey and Oswald join in the shooting, before Oswald yells ceasefire

Victor turns and aims, and Jim tackles him.

As they leave the building, Victor handcuffed, the cops and Oswald’s men applaud.

Victor waves like the applause is for him, and praises some of the men

You were great. No hard feelings

Oswald approaches Jim and offers a well done, commenting that they make a hell of a team. And I know that we’re supposed to be applauding Jim’s heroism, and rolling our eyes at Oswald – but this stunt wouldn’t have worked without his guns and ammo.

Oswald asks Jim to allow him to deal with Victor. Jim says this is more than his vendetta, and they need to see if it’s part of something larger. Oswald agrees – and says he excels in the loosening of tongues. Jim’s not having it, though

No - he's mine

He leaves, and Victor waves from the back of the car. Oswald fumes.

(An aside – as always, I am biased in favour of Oswald. I do, however, honestly think he sincerely wanted to help Jim find the culprit. He’s trying, as best he can, to be nice – talking about their teamwork. He’s genuinely pleased.

He gets sidetracked by finding Victor, and loses it a little. And although they play it off here as humour – Oswald needing to move on – Oswald has just cause to be incandescently angry at Victor. He colluded in having him sent to Arkham – the source of a tremendous amount of trauma for Oswald. He also saw how close Oswald was to Martin – yet still used him to have him sent down. That’s going to press a number of Oswald’s buttons – and we know that Oswald will react emotionally.

If Jim hadn’t been in such an assy place – he might have realised that including Oswald, allowing him to sit in on Victor’s interview, was likely the better move. He’ll still feel that the partnership is genuine, and he’s more likely to respond rationally if he feels respected, and when he is allowed to participate in the process. However – exclude Oswald, slight him – and all you will end up with is an angry and irrational Oswald who feels the need to reassert himself. What happens later could have been avoided at this point by a cleverer man. At the moment, that man is not Jim)

Church of Jeremiah. Selina follows acolytes into some kind of workroom, where we hear someone sobbing and wailing. We can hear the foreman saying Jeremiah is pushing the men too hard

We see him now as he adds that there’s no way to make their schedule.

(Er – wasn’t he dead before? That’s definitely the annoying stoner who was using the children as slave labour. He’s even more definitely someone we saw Jim shoot in the head. Does Jeremiah have the means to reanimate people? He was pretty friendly with Ra’s for a while)

Meantime – Jeremiah is tired of him, and cuts his throat

Well, not with that attitude you're not - let's reach inside and dig a little deeper. It’s the only way you’re making it out.

He licks the blood from his knife while Selina’s glare burns a hole in his back.

Ecco approaches Jeremiah reverently. He’s talking to himself – two sides of him arguing.

It’s a nice gift, he’ll like it

No he won't

Ecco stares rapt

Jeremiah turns and spots her. Ah. There’s the woman he’s sexually attracted to.

He asks if there are these all the recruits. Ecco thought he would want quality over quantity – not everyone can pass her test of faith. Jeremiah agrees that she has set a high bar for devotion. He grabs her neck and pulls her close, then turns her head to the side to see her scar. He then begins to dance with her.

She tells him Bruce Wayne and his sidekick Curls (or is he the sidekick) are here. She really wants to kill him, and can walk really well for a paraplegic. He twirls and dips her. If she sees her, she’ll give him a shout. He grimaces. She adds and kill her – which makes him smile.

Ecco is left all hot and bothered by their dance. Jeremiah watches as she leaves with the recruits – followed by a disguised Selina.

Ed and Lucius investigate the ruins of Haven. For a moment, Ed seems a little shaken by the scale of the destruction.

Ed takes the lead.

The superstructure is largely intact – so not c4 or semtext. With this kind of deflagration – you’re looking at gunpowder or nitroglycerine.

They pass ideas back and forth a little. Ed says it’s a classic locked room mystery. Lucius is stumped. Ed says there was no bomb – the building itself was the bomb – just detonate the heating oil.

Lucius holds up a piece of glass

That doesn't explain this

They look up at the window. Whatever ignited the oil – they speak now in unison

Smashed through the window

At GCPD, Victor’s head is pressed against the table. He remarks it’s a nice table.

This recap is interminable – so I’ll summarise a little. Jim asks why he shot at the cops if innocent. Victor says they were shooting at him, and they’re cops – plus, those were warning shots.

Victor essentially says it wasn’t him – he’s not added any scars to mark those deaths. Jim leaves to take a phonecall. Victor says Alvarez can strip search him, since he’s handsome.

Lucius tells Jim that Haven was destroyed by an RPG like the helicopter was – and they’re now looking for the rooftop the shot was taken from. Jim says his suspect was on the ground. Lucius tells him he needs a new suspect.

Oswald arrives at GCPD, wanting an update on what has been happening. Jim tells Oswald he has to leave. Oswald asks if victor is still claiming innocence, and Jim says the evidence backs him up.

Oswald says he didn’t expect Jim to go soft. Well – actually, he did. That’s why he didn’t come alone.

His henchmen arrive, and Oswald sends one off to bring him Victor.

Jim says that torture isn’t justice. Oswald says that as misguided as he is, his old friend Jim is correct. Despite inflamed passions, he won’t rush to judgement. He’ll let the people decide.

As Victor is led away, he aims a parting shot at Jim

Good to know who's really in charge, Jim

Oswald smirks

On a rooftop with Ed and Lucius.

Lucius confidently remarks that this is it. Ed is impressed, noting all the calculations Lucius must have immediately carried out regarding trajectory.

Yep – and there’s the RPG case right over there

Lucius puts on gloves to handle it, hoping it will provide clues as to who did this. He’ll get it back to the lab.

A subdued and troubled Ed says it’s doubtful someone who could pull off this intricate plot would leave evidence. Lucius agrees – but says it’s all he’s got.

Ed shrugs. Well. maybe I’m wrong. He unhappily adds a quiet, I hope so

He turns to Lucius and tells him, sincerely

I truly hope you find whoever did this - and you make them pay

Lucius looks at him for a moment, and then hands him the file he wanted.

As promised. I appreciate your help Ed – I couldn't have done it without you

Ed blinks, surprised. Lucius continues.

And if you tell anyone I said that - I will deny it

He gives a cute little flex of his shoulders, grins at Ed, and leaves.

A smile breaks out on Ed’s face – which widens as he looks down.

(An aside – My my, isn’t Ed left all swept and flustered? Lucius is very charming, and Ed is decidedly charmed.)

His smile disappears when he opens the file and finds that the inmate is deceased. He yells in frustration, and throws the papers away. As he looks out despondently – he spots a woman in a wheelchair in the apartment opposite.

His first response is to yell for Lucius to come back – but he’s left. He jumps and waves to catch her attention – but the deaf old bat doesn’t hear, and he leaves to go question her.

At city hall, Victor sits down on an ornate chair, looking unimpressed. Harvey remarks that he’s got no love for Zsasz – but are they really going to let this happen.

Jim says if they try to stop it, they’ll turn their anger against them. Harvey says they need to do something. Jim asks what. Harvey mentions another speech. Fuck, no, Harvey. Mercy.

Jim ponders that this is maybe what the people need.

Oswald is playing at being judge. And also the prosecution. Oswald’s having a high old time.

Order in court!

Victor protests that his rights are being violated, and Oswald orders him gagged. He asks his witness where he saw the defendant. He replies coming out of the building.

Oswald plays up the melodrama – talking about the beloved souls lost. He asks if there were any other witnesses – and virtually all assembled raise their hands.

Oswald says Captain Gordon would have the court believe that all you fine citizens are mistaken, and Victor Zsasz is not responsible.

He turns to Jim and asks if he wants to say anything.

Jim looks round, and says that it wasn’t a bomb. There’s disgruntled yelling. Oswald shushes them. Jim tells them it was a RPG fired from a rooftop which caused the explosion. If Victor was on the ground, then he can’t be guilty

There’s more disgruntled muttering.

I know you all want justice. So do I . You’re angry - scared – help may not be coming. We may be on own. If true - what we do now is more important than ever. But this? This is not justice. Not who we are

Oswald approaches, and leans to speak into Jim’s ear.

I'll consider that your closing argument

Oswald puts it to the crowd

What say you, jury?

They all yell guilty

Victor is taken to a guillotine – because Oswald is just that dramatic. He beats his gavel

By the power vested in me by…. well, me – you are sentenced to die.

He asks if Victor has any last words. I’m almost positive Victor steals Sydney Carton’s last words at the guillotine.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done…..

Jim and Harvey step in and disrupt things enough to stop the beheading.

Oswald is livid

What the hell are you doing?

Jim says he’s keeping them all from making a terrible mistake.

Oswald is now beyond furious, and screams that Jim Gordon cares more about protecting a murderer more than protecting you

(An aside. @zara2148 mentioned elsewhere that this seemed especially charged with personal resentment – and I would probably agree. Oswald’s anger at Victor is rooted in the whole Sofia Falcone business. Although he’s moved on from that where Jim is concerned – the sense of anger and betrayal hasn’t abated.)

He leans in close to Jim

They don't believe in you anymore. They're mine now

Jim shoves him away – and Oswald flies backwards. He’s helped up by solicitous henchmen – one of whom is eyepatch guy.

(An aside. Amidst the silliness of the court stuff, there’s deeper content. Oswald and Jim aren’t so different. They both want to establish order. They both want the love of the people. They both think they know better than anyone else how justice ought to be administered. Jim’s been on an ego trip just as much as Oswald.

Jim has, for a long time, Not Responded Well to being reminded by anyone of his kinship with several of the rogues. He blusters and yells and throws his weight around whenever this happens. What we saw here was just that in a more dramatic public setting. Oswald’s words hit home – and Jim couldn’t bear it.)

Jim and Harvey drive to some deserted area with Victor in the car. Harvey says Victor is not safe at GCPD – lots of cops want to see him on the slab. Jim says they’re not taking him there. It’s either a matter of letting him go or letting him die for something he didn’t know.

They release him. Victor turns to Jim

Thank-you, Jim

He adds that the city never be what he wants it to be – it’ll always belong to the bad guys like me

Jim walks away, and tells Harvey to give him his gun

Harvey is unimpressed

What?

Victor is equally surprised

Yeah what?

Jim repeats himself. Victor asks if he has a death wish, because he will kill him. Harvey too. Jim replies maybe. Or maybe he’s just tired of listening to Victor. He tells him to do it.

Victor tilts his head

You know what - you seem tired. Let’s do this another day.

Jim responds to being outdone in the maturity stakes by Victor by sort of lamely repeating what they said earlier and then telling him to go away.

People like you are always trying to own the city. They never will. Get the hell out of my face

An angry Harvey turns to Jim

A shootout, are you serious?

Jim sulkily says he could have taken him

Harvey is singularly unimpressed and angry at him

Never ask me to do anything like this again. Pull yourself together

At the Church of Jeremiah, Bruce and Alfred take out workers.

Up in the room we saw earlier, Jeremiah fans himself with his hat and inspires his workers.

You see – the river cuts through rock not because of its power, but because of its persistence. So when you feel like giving up….

His workers have heard this before and chant

Dig a little deeper

He continues

When you can't go on any longer…

Dig….

He sees Ecco – but as she draws close, she removes her mask – and we see it’s Selina. She knifes Jeremiah in the gut/torso area

Deep enough?

Jeremiah chokes, and tries to speak

Well Selina. Well Selina, I must say

Selina snarls

Don't say anything

She knives him repeatedly, and we get a lot of focus on Jeremiah’s pained expression. She raises her hand to aim for the heart, but Bruce grabs the knife from her.

It's done - it's over- let’s get out of here now

Selina looks down for a moment at the body - a little like someone has thrown cold water over her.

A fight ensues when Jeremiah’s followers see what has happened. Alfred hurls a smoke bomb, and they escape.

Ed climbs stairs in the fancy apartment building. Why is this place so pristine?

He remarks he hates stairs before finding apartment 1215. He knocks, and the old woman who answers tries to tell him to go away. Ed assures her he won’t hurt her – but needs to know what happened.

She tells him what some part of him was starting to realise on the roof. It was Ed who was there – holding a rocket. He shakes his head – and says it’s impossible.

He looks over at the rooftop, aghast – and the woman takes the chance to hit him over the back of the head with a vase. Ed starts to remember what he did, and when she hits him again – sees her witness it all.

He turns. She apologises and tells him she won’t tell anybody. Ed says he knows she won’t. She protests that he said he wouldn’t hurt her.

Ed says he’s really very sorry – and pushes her through the open window

He falls with the force of it, and stares out looking shocked

Uh oh. Well – we had Selina stabbing Jeremiah earlier, and now it’s time for the second ill-advised penetration of the episode.

Jim sullenly drinks alone in his office. Barbara enters, pointing out that the spotlight is off, and asking if he forgot to pay the electric bill.

Hilariously, Barbara's makeup has been getting progressively lighter and softer to make her more palatable for this storyline. Compare her first episode hair and makeup with how she looks here.

They’ve removed a ton of makeup, lost some clothes, and given her one of Oswald’s softer haircuts. That could be s1 Barbara with her hair up.

Jim gravels a what do you want at her. She says she wants the same as him – to protect her people. Jim, a little snottily, tells her that her tip didn’t pan out. She offers another – a lead on a guy selling RPGs. Jim’ still set on snotty mode, and asks if that’s all. Barbara tilts her head, and says that she heard some of his people went over to penguin. She grins

Can't win ‘em all. Poor Jim. All alone again.

(An aside - All alone? Not really. People throw friendship at Jim. If he’s in his office drinking alone, it’s because he chose to.)

Jim growls at her to get out, but Barbara is enjoying taunting/teasing him.

No-one knows what it's like to be him. To carry the weight

I told you to leave

I heard you

She leans in like she’s going to kiss him, but stops short, pats his face, and walks away.

Jim delays for a moment, before grabbing Barbara to kiss her. This is inadvertently funny – because given the length of the delay, and the sound of how many steps Barbara took - Jim must have freakishly long arms to have reached her from there.

They kiss to overly doomy and melodramatic music. Calm down, Gotham - they're not spawning the antichrist.

General Observations

Pull yourself together

Ruin is an apt name – because it wasn’t just Haven that went to pieces last week.

Oh Jim, Jim. How far the mighty have fallen, and how quickly we’ve resorted to old ways. Snarling, picking fights, drinking alone. I should feel more sorry for Jim here – he felt responsible for those people, and now they’re gone. But it’s all too inextricably tied to his ego to feel nothing but pity. Does he feel grief for the people he’s lost? Of course. Has his self-perception suffered a serious dent at having ‘failed’ to save them? Yes. Which one has motivated the pity party? Tougher question.

To go a bit weird for a moment, his situation reminds me a lot of this tarot card. Partly because of the imagery - but also the meaning

The Tower is about a sudden catastrophic event – something that shakes you to your core. It’s often revelatory – and what it usually reveals isn’t very flattering. The tower is built on unstable foundations: illusions and delusions, false beliefs. Jim’s sudden transformation into hero was very sudden. Not so long ago – he tried to ally with Falcone primarily because – as Carmine pointed out – his pride was bruised. He allowed Harvey, his closest friend, to believe he was a screw-up for too long – and took the captaincy he was so proud of. If anything – the crisis has felt like a sticking plaster: he’s been forced to focus on the here and now. And he’s done well – in many respects – but those old problems were still festering.

Now the tower has come down, and revealed shaky foundations. The same old coping mechanisms are there. He’s taken Harvey for granted, squabbled with Oswald, snapped, snarled, blustered, tried to start a gunfight, and now he’s drinking alone in his office and latching on to the nearest warm body.

Harvey told him to pull himself together, but Jim’s nowhere near it.

Oswald fell to pieces with the arrival of Victor. There were festering resentments there – but he was content to put them aside to find the bomber. When Victor appeared, it opened a Pandora’s box of anger and pain. How Oswald pulls himself together remains to be seen.

Barbara seemed to be pulling herself together when she was unable to shoot Oswald – realising not only, perhaps, that Tabitha had a fair part in her own death – but pulling herself together almost to a much earlier version of herself. A version that was horrified by the carnage round her, and who couldn’t contemplate killing someone.

Selina seemed to almost sober up when she saw Jeremiah on the floor. I can’t honestly begrudge her the revenge she took – but they took care to show us Jeremiah responding to each stab. I don’t know how Selina will move on from what happened. She seemed to pull herself together in that split second afterwards – but by that point, the deed was done.

Ed most literally began to pull himself together – all the fractured elements of himself. It started, in a sense, with Lucius – taking him back to the old Ed by having him investigate the bombing. Later realisation dawned slowly, then forcibly, with the blows to his head. Ed’s pulling himself together – but it’s a painful experience.

Sundries

Well – it was throwback Thursday all round. Ed decided to play forensic investigator again, and reenact his flirtations in the records annexe for good measure. Harvey and Oswald let a criminal go free. Oswald made another dramatic entrance to GCPD, and Jim and Barbara hooked up.

There’s maybe something of a theme of dealing with the repercussions of your actions. Jim agrees to take weapons from Oswald – but then has to deal with Oswald’s idea of justice. Jeremiah faces the repercussions of shooting Selina. Selina will now need to deal with the repercussions of stabbing Jeremiah. Barbara and Jim’s tryst will have repercussions, the most tangible of which will make appearance in nine months. Jim will have to live with the repercussions of turning Victor Zsasz loose.

So – I do think they’ve made both Jim and Oswald carry sort of needless conflict balls this week – presumably to put them on difficult ground before Bane arrives – which will then more easily drive a temporary wedge, which will then be resolved again. I suppose you can hammer something workable out of this: Oswald is still smarting from the knowledge that his workers hated him, Oswald is smarting over being bested by Jim – but, then, you have to swallow two equally silly things: first, the notion that Oswald didn’t have a clue he was hated until Penn told him, and that the revelation that seemed to chasten him last week didn’t really take – which in turn undermines Penn’s death. In short, it sort of works if you only glance at it.

I think it’s easiest to assume that they’re both lashing out, in their own ways, due to recent events. Oswald – as Oswald does when stinging from recent hurt – grabs even harder at control. Jim blusters and alienates.

Thoughts?

#gotham commentary #ruin #gotham s5e04

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araeph · 7 years

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Araeph’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2

Vol. 1 here.

It’s Araeph’s 1000th post! Thank you so much to all my followers, people who’ve messaged me for discussion, and fans who’ve filled my inbox with such thought-provoking asks. Below is the latest master list of my essays and fiction that I’ve compiled over the past year or so, as well as a few choice reblogs from other tumblr users that are mentioned by name. Have a fantastic 4th of July, everyone!

Fic Recs

A:TLA Friendship Recs Favorite Zutara writers

Araeph’s fics

Hatchling, Part 1 Spitting Image, Part 1 Breath of Fire Confidants Sunrise Moonrise Love Is a Marathon Defiance, Part 1 Defiance, Part 2 Defiance, Part 3 Defiance, Part 4 Defiance, Part 5 Defiance, Part 6 Defiance, Part 7 Defiance, Part 8

Other Meta

Araeph’s fandoms Mulan: contrasting messages in pop song vs. theatrical song The arranged marriage plot in Mulan 2 Mulan and Shang: military dynamics vs. a relationship What did you think of the Red John arc in The Mentalist? Was the Jane/Lisbon pairing in The Mentalist treated well? Did Lizzy marry Darcy for his money? What advice do you have for up-and-coming authors? What do you think makes a good romance? Are there particular directors you gravitate towards?

Steven Universe Criticism

What are your favorite critiques of Steven Universe? Who did Pearl belong to before she joined the Crystal Gems? How Pearl responds to toughness vs. niceness Can autism explain Pearl’s behavior toward Greg? What do you think of Pearl’s character and her treatment of Steven? Are there similarities between Aang and Pearl’s clinginess to their partners? The Diamonds: taking “compassion for one’s adversaries” too far What do you think of the "Rose is Pink Diamond" theory? Rainbow Quartz: requited love I miss the way they used to draw Peridot The decline of Steven Universe

A:TLA Gen Criticism

I just don’t know how to feel about Bryke! How do you keep A:TLA’s flaws from ruining the show for you? Should Teo, Haru, and The Duke have had bigger roles in Book 3? Should there have been a scene where Aang mourns the dead at the end of Book 3? The structure of the first half of Book 3 Is energybending Ozai enough to delegitimize his rule? Could Aang lying to the tribes in “The Great Divide” have been handled better? Was the Fire Nation secretly looking for the Avatar in the Southern Water Tribe? Parallels between the Fire Nation Royal Family and the SWT chief family Does the GAang idealize their parents and mentors too much? The significance of Momo How did the characters age visually throughout A:TLA? Was Ozai an abusive spouse as well as father? Do you think the Avatar universe has a legitimate afterlife? Detachment and unlocking the chakras Avatar cosmology @peacockarehot What happens before each Avatar is old enough to master the elements? How well was the challenge of being the Avatar told in A:TLA and LOK?

A:TLA’s Four Nations

Four Nations and childhood education Four Nations’ view of sex and gender roles Four Nations: a food contest analysis Four Nations eye color What is the best way for the SWT to develop? What is your opinion on Water Tribe betrothal necklaces? Why an earthbender shouldn’t be able to lavabend alone Is the Earth Kingdom united under a cohesive value? What is your opinion on the Air Nomad council of elders? Did the Air Nomads get shortchanged in development? Is Ty Lee an untrained airbender? Stormbending What kind of benders would mixed heritage kids be? Could firebenders draw power from the Earth’s core? Can waterbenders heat water to create steam? Part 1 Can waterbenders heat water to create steam? Part 2 What is your favorite nation and what type of bender would you be? Who are your favorite minor characters from all four nations?

Alternative A:TLA Finale and Book 4 Speculation

Zutara would have been a better bookend, even with only 3 books How would the Book 3 Zutara moments change with Book 4? What should have been the theme of the A:TLA finale? What do you find disappointing about the A:TLA finale? Aaron Ehaz’s plan for A:TLA and beyond @kataraaandzuko @terminaschosenone Anything you would like to see from an A:TLA sequel? How do you see the relationships of the Gaang progressing through adulthood? How would hidden airbenders have been revealed? Koh in Book 4

A:TLA Comics Criticism

Rosy colonialism in “The Promise” “North and South” : a settler’s fantasy @fireladykatara “North and South” and the issue of progress The A:TLA comics do not follow A:TLA’s visual style Bryke’s interference in the comics What do you think of the role the Air Acolytes played in the comics?

Legend of Korra criticism

A:TLA vs. LOK: simple vs. complex beginnings LOK and inconsistent bending origins Which element is the hardest for an Avatar to learn? How would you write Korra’s development in Books 1-4? Mary Suyin How would you write Suyin Beifong? Suyin: complex vs. annoying characterization Zaheer and compelling belief systems Is Zaheer Korra’s foil? Thoughts on the Red Lotus What do you think of the concept of Raava and Vaatu? What do you think are the most well developed secondary characters in LOK? Varrick, Zhu Li, and abuse Could Makorra have become compatible? Bolin and Lavabending What do you think about the Dai Li surviving into the era of LOK? Bumi and Air Nomad colors Bryke’s extreme responses to fan theories How would a sequel to Legend of Korra play out?

Zutara Meta

A:TLA non-canon shippers keep A:TLA fandom afloat Zuko and Katara: Color symbolism in “Cave of Two Lovers” @marsreds Zuko and Katara: character parallels “Zutara is toxic and unhealthy!” (again) Zuko and Katara, twin flames @peacockarehot Zutara parallels with Darcy and Elizabeth Zutara parallels with Beauty and the Beast Blue Spirit/Painted Lady parallels The Blue Spirit vs. the Painted Lady Were the Blue Spirit and Painted Lady connected? How Zuko shows respect when saving Katara from falling rocks @theadamantdaughter Zuko and Katara’s parenting styles Zuko jumping in front of lightning was sacrificial What would young viewers learn from Zutara? On Zuko interacting more with the GAang Thoughts on School Time Shipping

“What Would [X] Gain from Zutara?” Katara Zuko Sokka Toph Suki Aang Mai Hakoda Iroh Azula Ozai Ursa and Kiyi The Fire Nation and Water Tribes The cabbage merchant

Kataang Criticism

Irrefutable proof that Kataang was NOT always going to be canon @peacockarehot Do you think Katara felt some pressure to date Aang? Kataang and unwanted advances (with @theadamantdaughter) Aang’s possessive behavior toward Katara @theadamantdaughter Why Aang’s behavior in “Love Is a Battlefield” is dangerous Love vs. attachment Does Aang respect Katara? Why “The Fortuneteller” is anti-Kataang Fanon Kataang vs. canon Kataang Could Katara and Aang still be happy together? Katara is aged down in scenes with Aang Kataang and the magic aging (with @jasubb-8) Does Aang’s age excuse his unwanted advances? What if Katara couldn’t give Aang an airbender? Will-they-won’t-they and Kataang Aang’s romances vs. Sokka’s romances @peacockarehot Kataang’s lack of substance in “The Headband” Kataang’s lack of substance in “The Cave of Two Lovers”

Maiko Criticism

Would Ty Mai be more compatible than Maiko? Ty Mai and understanding each other Were Zuko and Mai’s relations consensual? with @theadamantdaughter Why Maiko is prime for failure @peacockarehot Maiko, Zutara, and Conflict @theadamantdaughter The pitfalls of Maiko @peacockarehot Is Maiko or Kataang worse? Is Maiko or Kataang worse? – part 2 Why do Maiko shippers ignore the problems in their ship? Mai never dated the real Zuko Pros and Cons of Maiko

Character Analysis

Aang How would you have written Aang’s character development from Books 1-3? Aang exalting Air Nomad culture above everyone else’s Should Aang’s introspection have followed Buddhist tenets more closely? Rewriting energybending to improve Aang’s character @terminaschosenone Should Aang have had a more prominent teacher or guide? Do you think Aang’s grief at the loss of the Air Nomads was properly presented? Why was Aang not worried about killing Ozai on the Day of Black Sun? Aang vs. the vulture wasp Aang’s reaction to the other Avatars’ advice Aang’s reaction to Yangchen’s advice Aang’s response to Jetara Aang’s anger vs. Katara’s Did Aang truly exhibit contrition for the EIP kiss? How Aang idealizes Katara Did Aang really know how Katara felt because of his own loss? Who would be a good match for Aang?

Azula Could the dragons heal Azula? Do you think any little part of Azula ever loved Zuko? Azula’s motivations for the lightning strike Azula’s motivations for the lightning strike, Part 2 Would Katara feel a moral obligation to help Azula post-A:TLA? How would Azula have compelled Mai to go with her initially if Mai had refused?

Iroh Iroh’s character journey Do Iroh’s values align better with Mai’s or Katara’s? Maiko shipper bashes Iroh and Zuko Zuko and Iroh’s relationship parallels with Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver

Katara Katara and her emotional iceberg Katara would have been more independent if she’d married Zuko Katara puts her emotional needs in front of Aang’s Katara is abandoned at the South Pole Katara crying over Aang vs. Zuko Did Katara’s character development stall? Should Katara have been at the Boiling Rock? Should Katara have forgiven Zuko earlier? Katara lashing out at Sokka during Southern Raiders How do you think Kya would feel about the Southern Raiders? Would it have been in character for Katara to murder Yon Rha? Why does Katara’s character become so irrelevant? @zuzusexytiems Why Katara is not a Mary Sue @daughter-of-water @theadamantdaughter Why do people continually try to make excuses for Katara not fighting in LOK?

Mai What would Mai’s ideal character arc be? Mai doesn’t understand Zuko’s values @honxrable What personality would be best for Mai’s partner? Was Mai originally going to be a villain? Is there any evidence that Mai was scared of Azula? Debunking Mai’s affection for Tom-Tom

Sokka Sokka’s quest to be a man On Sokka seeing Katara’s face instead of his mother’s Sokka’s protective nature

Toph Could Toph and her parents reconcile? Toph and law enforcement

Zuko Is Zuko emotionally unstable? How would Zuko handle the issue of bloodbending? Was Zuko more open in Book 2 or Book 3? Hair cutting symbolism in A:TLA Do you think Zuko has PTSD? Zuko and Aang’s relationship Locations of Zuko’s Agni Kais and their significance The symbolism of Zuko’s scar Zuko is not stoic (@honxrable) Why I Feel Zuko’s Betrayal Was to End Zutara @peacockarehot Piandao as Zuko’s mentor

#a:tla #zutara #anti-kataang #anti-maiko #avatar: the last airbender

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poop4u · 4 years

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Dog Parks

#Poop4U

Dog Parks. No controversy there, right, about the good, the bad and the ugly of them? However, the pro’s and con’s of dog parks are usually discussed inside the dog world, not in a national news outlet like the New York Times. But the Times jumped into the fray, with an article provocatively titled The Dog Park is Bad Actually.

The article points out problems that can be found in dog parks, problems that many of us are well aware of: They are lousy places to “socialize” young puppies, they may contain dogs who are not necessarily aggressive (although that too is possible), but are playground bullies who terrorize other dogs like some nasty kids on a playground, they have the potential of spreading disease, there is usually no separation between small and large dogs, which can cause injuries or dogs being frightened (see “playground bullies” above) and can contain owners wh0 are oblivious to important social signals between dogs that signal discomfort, downright fear and/or hard-eyed aggression.

Here’s a concluding sentence from the article:

“Ultimately you’re the only one who can determine if the risks outweigh the benefits of dog parks, but there is no shame in not surrendering your dog to what has become the quintessential urban dog experience: running with dozens of strangers in a small, smelly pen as people stand by, looking at their phones or gossiping. Make the time you have with your dog meaningful and enriching; after all, your dog wants to spend time with you, too.”

Soon after, Bark Magazine came out with a counter to these arguments titled Dog Parks Can Be Great Places for Offleash Activity. Here’s part of what they have to say, after agreeing that parks could be better monitored and that yes, some parks have problems:

But we take issue of the tone and heavy-handedness of this article—the main takeaway is that dog parks are teaming with dog fights, careless owners and rife with disease! That has not been our experience. In fact, despite at times the presence of an irresponsible owner and unruly dog, most off-leash areas we’ve frequented for three decades are relatively incident free.

I’m curious about your experiences. Full disclosure is that I have few objective opinions, because I, and my colleagues, only see clients whose dogs have either created problems at a dog park or suffered from them. No one ever came to me because their dog loved going to the dog park and never had any problems at one. Of course, I’ve been to many in Wisconsin (with clients) and have indeed seen lots of healthy play and behavior, as well as cases of problematic dogs and oblivious owners. I can say that 1) I’m not a fan of small ones, especially with a single entry gate that allow entering dogs to be swamped, 3) I have strong feelings about how they should be designed (large, double entries, rules that keep people from playing by the gates, owner education efforts to name a few, 4) There are lots of dogs I’d never take to a park (Maggie would crumble into pieces at one), and 5) The dog parks I visited with Luke and Lassie around San Francisco (Bark’s home field), when I lived there to do my Animal Planet show, were full of some of the best behaved dogs I’ve seen. I should also mention that I am very lucky: I live in the country with large, fenced areas for my dogs to play, and nearby areas where a well-trained dog can be safely off leash. I know of many people who love dog parks, and have had nothing but good experiences there. And you? I’m all ears.

MEANWHILE, back in Africa: So much to say, so many photographs. The photo’s today are from the beginning of our trip. We went to the Giraffe Center on our first day in Nairobi, , which protects and breeds the endangered Rothchild’s Giraffe. There are only about 1,600 left in the wild, and the center has re-introduced up to 40 giraffes into wildlife parks. Giraffe are hands down one of my favorite African animals. Watching them glide across the plains, seemingly frictionless, is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. We saw several of these rare giraffes at the Samburu National Park, one of the few places where they can be found in the wild.

Besides supporting their conservation efforts, visitors get to hand feed the giraffes. Some are docile, others enjoy bashing your head with their own (their primary method of fighting). Along with being in complete and total animal rapture, I loved that we were treated like rational adults who would (or would not) listen to the keepers who warned us about certain animals. But mostly, I loved having their massive heads–the size of our torsos–floating down toward us, followed by their long, purple tongues curling around the treats we fed them. Here’s me and good friend Donna feeding an adult female. (Do you love the “Do not climb up the wall’ sign?)

Next we visited the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, as known as the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. Injured and orphaned elephant babies come to them from all over East Africa, where each individual is rescued, medically treated and then raised up to an age in which it can be integrated into a wild herd. The trust has raised 260 orphaned elephants, and has an extensive conservation program of field veterinary care and anti-poaching efforts. The babies are never alone (their keepers sleep with them at night), they are taken out several times a day on walks into the bush, and are given mud baths in front of visitors whose entry fees help support the work of the trust. It’s an amazing enterprise, and something we were honored to support. For an extra fee visitors can adopt an elephant, and I adopted Zawadi. Click on on her photo to watch an amazing video of her rescue, and her battle with what appears to be epileptic seizures. If watching her story doesn’t make you all gooey, I don’t know what will.

Here’s an overview of the visitor area when some of the babies are starting to get their milk. The elephants are brought back from a walk in the bush with keepers, and then fed their morning milk and given mud baths in front of visitors.

The babies clearly love their mud baths!

At night the elephants stay in individual stalls, each with their own keeper sleeping with them. The dedication of the keepers is truly something else, not to mention the work involved in introducing individuals back into wild herds. (They do months of parallel walking alongside herds they know to be accommodating, almost like introducing two dogs to each other.) I don’t know how many efforts are successful over all–I imagine that it’s inevitable that some don’t work out. But their record is impressive. If you get to Nairobi, I hope you can stop in to support their efforts. (Of course, you don’t have to visit to support their work!)

The next day we drove to the Samburu National Park, a park full of rare and endangered species that is rarely visited. We stayed at Larson’s Tented Camp and I wish we could have stayed a week. Here’s the view from our tent at sunrise:

I absolutely loved this camp. The setting was gorgeous, we were surrounded by wildlife (you had to padlock the zippers on your tent to keep out the vervets and baboons) and the staff members were kind and generous. As I did at each place we stayed, I stayed back from one game drive and spent some quiet hours by myself, just me and the vervets, the birds and the river. I also had a lovely time speaking with a staff member about his life, his family and what it was like to work in one of the tent camps.

I showed this photo last week, but repeat it here in context, when it was just me and the vervets at Larson’s camp. I watched this female and her babe for over a half hour. At one point her baby did something she didn’t like, and she took it by the shoulders and shook it. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud.

Here’s what else happened while everyone else was gone–the vervets pretty much took over the dining room:

The photo below shows one of my favorite African animals, one who you can only see in the dry areas of Kenya, Somali and Ethiopia. Gerenuks are also known as the “giraffe gazelles”, for obvious reasons once you look at their long necks and feeding methods. They are adapted to feed on leaves lower than giraffes usually eat, but higher than other ungulates. They’ll stand like this for long periods of time snacking on leaves. They are so well adapted to dry areas that they can go long periods without drinking, and in some cases, barely drink water at all. What I especially love about this photo is that we only got it because our van (which included me, Jim, good friend Donna, and Jim’s son Zach and partner Sarah, as well as the best driver/guide in the universe, Eric) agreed to sit and wait. Gerenuks are relatively flighty, and it took a good 15 minutes for them to relax enough to begin to feed. Kudos to our van and driver for agreeing to wait!

Another rare animal we got to appreciate was the Grevy’s Zebra, the zebra that I’ve argued was created by a graphic designer. They too are adapted to dry areas, and like the Reticulated giraffe (who also live in Samburu), are highly endangered. There are believed to be only 2,000 Grevy’s Zebra left in the universe.

Here’s a Common (and very pregnant!), or Plains Zebra for comparison:

And the elephants! There were large, healthy herds of elephants at Samburu. Here’s a momma with her one or two month old baby, with what is probably one of her older daughters beside her. We were charmed over and over again by the elephants, as well as being put into our place by a matriach who charged our van, ears flapping and trunk trumpeting. We felt badly that we had disturbed her (our van was fine but she became agitated when another van pulled up along side), and obediently followed Eric’s instructions to stay motionless and silent. She came within a few inches of our van, peered at us for a moment (we weren’t just still and quiet; I think we had all stopped breathing) and slowly turned away.

And I haven’t even mentioned the birds yet! Ah well, more photos in the weeks to come. Please forgive me if you get sick of them. It’s just too much damn fun to post them!

Poop4U Blog via www.Poop4U.com Trisha, Khareem Sudlow

#cute dog #dogs of tumblr #puppy doggo #doglover #doggrooming #my doggo #dogmeme #poop4u #blog

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painted-starlight · 7 years

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Why does Mother Gothel Want to Stay Young?

Warning: Super Long Post and some swearing

An in depth analysis why Mother Gothel’s motivation to stay young doesn’t make any sense.

No seriously why does Mother Gothel want to stay young forever?

Vanity as a flaw is an old stereotype to pit young women against older women. But this sole motivation doesn’t really hold up when we compare her to other Disney Villains. The reason I say this is because there is a certain level of complexity that villains in Disney hold. Little things like character quirks, their occupation, their background, their ethnicity can give the audience subtle clues about why they at the way they do.

For example, villains with a deep and shallow level of complexity would have to fulfill certain qualifications (note: I got a lot of helpful information on creating villains from Letterpile.com’s “Three Steps to Creating a Complex Villain”. I suggest you take a look, since I got a lot of my information on how Disney Villains are formed from this piece.):

1) What does the audience know about them from what is shown? Their environment, their disposition, interactions with the hero, etc. Things we can see, and are shown.

2) What is implied by the story about who they were before the events of the movie? Basically what’s not shown but what can be reasonably assumed by the audience. (Off screen mentions don’t count because film is a visual medium and what a villain does must be shown to audience in order to establish them as a threat.)

3) Are their motivations understandable? Not an excuse mind you, and sometimes they aren’t relate-able (which is fine depending on their level of complexity. Not all villains have to have full backstories). But do their struggles parallel the hero in some way?

An effective Disney villain doesn’t always follow these rules or answer these questions since so many are different. But here are a few:

Dr. Facilier from the “Princess and the Frog”

Complex/Sympathetic Human Villain

We don’t know that much about Dr. Facilier, but what the audience is shown let’s fill in the clues. He is most likely had struggles financially, and is a victim of the racist system of Jim Crow. He had a mother, so there is a familial aspect to his life.

Dr. Facilier is an understandable villain, because he has been denied the opportunity to prosper while the white upper class that practiced slavery lives in mansions. This is one of the most sympathetic villains Disney has created, and his struggles parallel Tiana’s since they both are black people living in a racist system.

That doesn’t mean he isn’t a villain, but the small moment of sheer hopelessness he has in the beginning (during “Down in New Orleans” ) while watching the descendant of slave owner ride around in a car make him a complex villain.

Scar from the “Lion King”

Complex/Unsympathetic Non-Human Villain

Scar is a complex villain in the Lion King, but he’s not sympathetic. He is resentful of his position as the beta-male. He is smarmy, manipulative, and petulant. What we are shown is the level of his hatred of Mufasa leads him to murder his brother. It is Shakespearean, and his hostile takeover of the Pride Lands is driven by his selfishness. The failure of his reign is due to a lack of foresight and planning. Once he got what he wanted, he was a pretty shitty king.

Scar is an effective villain because of his environment, his character quirks, and sarcasm make him memorable. He is antisocial and is shown lounging around alone while the celebration of his nephews birth takes place. His character animation is distinctive, and shows the audience his personality.

There are supplementary books that shine a light on his past, but since most people have seen the first film we can’t really count that.

Maleficent

Simple/Effective Humanoid Villain

Maleficent is not complex. She doesn’t need to be because her character’s actions are consistent with the rules of the world she lives in. She wasn’t invited to a party so she cursed the host’s baby. Because she is a faerie, she doesn’t abide by certain human etiquette (or at least she doesn’t use etiquette when dealing with people who don’t take the time to use it for her).

The rules are different. She’s not like Scar from the Lion King who is aware of certain rules and technically a part of the social structure. The Lion pride has a hierarchy of their own and a society with different nuances. While he is a social climber, Maleficent is a wild card that can come in at any moment and tear up the place.

If she were human and had these powers, the audience would probably wonder what her deal is, but since she acts more like a force of nature and a Western audience is used to tales of gods and supernatural creatures with strange morals, it makes sense. Considering how the other three faeries are more or less clueless about how real humans act, this idea is consistent and not necessarily speculative to assume that that is just how faeries act.

So where does Mother Gothel fit into this?

She’s not complex, but she’s a human character that requires a reason for her to act the way she does. Her just being controlling, manipulative and occaisionally falsely charming has nothing to do with who she is because those are things that any villain can do. Who is Mother Gothel? Why does she do the things she do?

Does she fear death?

Not really.

The film tries to tie in beauty with life and old age with imminent death in a really strange way. Just because you’re old doesn’t mean that as soon as you turn sixty that death is coming for you. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean that it’s going to be your best years.

How does her being young translate into a fear of death exactly?

It doesn’t make any sense from we know (very very little) of Gothel’s backstory. No subtle hints of backstory, no references to past marriages, partners, children, or even something she might have done that could raise an eyebrow. What does she even DO while Rapunzel is in the tower?

We have no idea where she goes, what she does, why she needs to be young to do it, etc.

During Mother Knows Best, she references some things like the plague, but the rest is just shit she made up and few disappearing acts. How does this factor into her character exactly? Was she a magician or a performer at some point?

The reason why I ask is because if it’s true, what does that have to do with her staying young forever or a fear of death? It could be that she was performer and her acts rely on her being immortal or looking a certain way, but that makes no sense because everyone and their grandma apparently knows about a magic flower that makes people stay young forever and they made a big deal out of it. And she seems reaaaaly secretive. Like she doesn’t want anyone to know who she is.

But what does she do when Rapunzel is in the tower???

Apparently she just walks around doing nothing. Like, what’s the point of her being young at all? If she were hiding from the palace guards that’s fine but why was she so obsessed with being young BEFORE the king and queen took the flower?

If she were really afraid of dying she would be obsessed with not getting sick, or being injured.She can’t be afraid of dying or getting seriously hurt since she scales a friggin tower every three days from a fall that could KILL her.

The only thing that she seems to love is beauty and youth. But why? There’s no actual reason given. There’s no hint of sibling rivalry, or showing her being self conscious in front of other women because there are barely any other women in this movie.

The only woman/girl she even talks to is Rapunzel. And that’s not a good frame of reference because she actively manipulates her and has complete and total control over her/her environment. She has full control and it’s all an act.

When she’s technically “out of control” of Rapunzel, she still doesn’t seem to talk from experience. She is literally a caricature at points, mostly there to oppose Rapunzel and be the “Older Woman” who jealous of Rapunzel’s beauty.

She isn’t paralleled with Rapunzel properly either. Usually a villain should be more than just a physical opposite to the hero. Her character arc should want the same thing as Rapunzel, and she does for a small part. They both want control of Rapunzel and her choices.

But other than that, it kind of falls flat. Flynn/Eugene drives Rapunzel’s story and he pretty much becomes the center of her universe other than the floating lanterns. Mother Gothel internally has almost nothing for the audience to hold onto. She has no understandable motivations (no matter how twisted a villains motivation is, the audience needs to know what IT IS), and she parallel’s Rapunzel in the most basic, shallow way. Physically. And that’s not enough for a human character.

So what T*ngled is trying to say is this is guess:

Mother Gothel wants to stay young because all women want to be youthful for no real reason. Just cause! When your young you stay young forever and never get old or injured. If you’re an older woman, you aren’t pretty anymore and you might as well be dust in the wind. (Unless of course you’re a white disney princess or her youthful looking mother lol)

???????

Mother Gothel from T*angled

Mother Gothel is Simple/Unrelatable in the Disney Villain category. She’s basically on par with Clayton from Tarzan. Very one note, and there for opposition, a caricature.

Simple in terms of characterization and the barrier between her as a villain and the audience.

Unrelatable because of the missing elements of shown or implied backstory. Not enough information other than surface traits given to the audience.

#long post #disney #tangled crit #animation #anti tangled

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nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany · 5 years

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Robert O. Paxton’s “The Five Stages of Fascism”

Digital Elixir Robert O. Paxton’s “The Five Stages of Fascism”

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

The word “fascism” has been much in the news of late. Here is a chart of the year 2019 from Google Trends:

Interestingly, usage is more or less flat until the first spike, when President Trump put tanks on the National Mall for July 4, and then a second, larger spike, when he gave his Greenville, NC speech, and the crowd chanted, of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, “send them back.” Omar reacted as follows:

Rep. Ilhan Omar called President Trump "fascist" and said she fears for people who share her identity, after a crowd at his rally led a "Send her back!" chant about the Somali-American congresswoman https://t.co/zpsZ02qtbS pic.twitter.com/06iZXDT7mY

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 18, 2019

Omar is a serious person and that’s a serious charge, so it’s worth looking at. Certainly my left/work corner of the Twittersphere was consumed by the word “fascism,” to the extent that RussiaRussiaRussia was drowned out. Notably, however, the two spikes, and the resulting moral panic, were caused by symbols: Tanks on the mall, and a speech. (Interestingly, words about the border, like “concentration camps,” and “fascism” do not spike simultaneously, even though one might expect them to. We’ll see more about symbols in the Appendices.) However, although fascist deliverables often have excellent symbolism — graphic treatments especially — fascism is about more than symbols, although you might not know it from the ruminations of our symbol-manipulating poltical class.

So I thought it would be worthwhile to take a deeper look at the work of Columbia historian Robert O. Paxton, who is a scholar of fascism. Basically, this post will be the notes for the class I wish I had taken with him; Paxton writes as lucidly as another great scholar of fascism, Richard J. Evans, author of The Coming of the Third Reich and two wonderful successor volumes. I’m going to quote great slabs mostly from Paxton’s article “The Five Stages of Fascism” (The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 70, No. 1. Mar., 1998, pp. 1-23), but also from his later book, The Anatomy of Fascism (2004). “Five Stages” is only 24 pages, and easy, so do consider reading it in full, because I’m not really doing it justice; I’m leaving out all the historiography, for example.

And so to Paxton. I’m selecting passages partly when they contain useful ideas I just don’t see in today’s discourse, but mostly to give us tools to assess the current “conjuncture,” as we say.

Fascism and Democracy

From the Five Stages of Fascism, page 3:

The fascist phenomenon was poorly understood at the beginning in part because it was unexpected. Until the end of the nineteenth century, most political thinkers believed that widening the vote would inevitably benefit democracy and socialism. Friedrich Engels, noting the rapid rise of the socialist vote in Germany and France, was sure that time and numbers were on his side. Writing the preface for a new edition in 1895 of Karl Marx’s Class Struggles in France, he declared that “if it continues in this fashion, we will conquer the major part of the middle classes and the peasantry and will become the decisive power.” It took two generations before the Left understood that fascism is, after all, an authentic mass popular enthusiasm and not merely [1] a clever manipulation of populist emotions by the reactionary Right or [2] by capitalism in crisis.

I think most “hot take” analysis by liberals would fall into the bucket labeled [1]; by the left, label [2]. I think the idea that democracy is, as it were, the host body for fascism deserves some thought. Certainly there was no fascism as such until democracy was well advanced.

Fascism: Made in America?

From the Five Stages of Fascism, page 12:

But it is further back in American history that one comes upon the earliest phenomenon that seems functionally related to fascism: the Ku Klux Klan. Just after the Civil War, some former Confederate officers, fearing the vote given to African Americans by the Radical Reconstructionists in 1867, set up a militia to restore an overturned social order. The Klan constituted an alternate civic authority, parallel to the legal state, which, in its founders’ eyes, no longer defended their community’s legitimate interests. In its adoption of a uniform (white robe and hood), as well as its techniques of intimidation and its conviction that violence was justified in the cause of the group’s destiny, the first version of the Klan in the defeated American South was a remarkable preview of the way fascist movements were to function in interwar Europe. It is arguable, at least, that fascism (understood functionally) was born in the late 1860s in the American South.

(As an aside: It’s probably coincidence, but Civil War tactics, especially by the time of the Overland Campaign, were also a “remarkable preview” of World War I. Intuitively, I feel that fascism does not take hold of the body politic without a lot of organic damage, whether in the entrenchments of the Civil War, the trenches of World War I, or — just possibly — the opioid crisis, deaths of despair, and falling life expectancy.) Hitler’s American Model shows that Nazi jurists and lawyers came to America to research Jim Crow, and thought very highly of the legislation; they saw Jim Crow as an example of modernity — how advanced the United States was. Of course, by their lights, Jim Crow was misdirected.

Mutability of Fascism

From the Five Stages of Fascism, page 4:

[Individual cases of fascism] differ in space because each national variant of fascism draws its legitimacy, as we shall see, not from some universal scripture but from what it considers the most authentic elements of its own community identity. Religion, for example, would certainly play a much greater role in an authentic fascism in the United States than in the first European fascisms, which were pagan for contingent historical reasons. They differ in time because of the transformations and accommodations demanded of those movements that seek power.

And page 5:

Fascists deny any legitimacy to universal principles to such a point that they even neglect proselytism. Authentic fascism is not for export. Particular national variants of fascism differ far more profoundly one from another in themes and symbols than do the national variants of the true “isms.” The most conspicuous of these variations, one that leads some to deny the validity of the very concept of generic fascism, concerns the nature of the indispensable enemy: within Mediterranean fascisms, socialists and colonized peoples are more salient enemies than is the Jewry. Drawing their slogans and their symbols from the patriotic repertory of one particular community, fascisms are radically unique in their speech and insignia. They fit badly into any system of universal intellectual principles.

One result of the “Lost Cause” propaganda and the historiography of the Dunning School — William Dunning, ironically enough, professed at Columbia as well — is that the notion that there might already have been an American Fascism (see above) is not available to us. Hence, we often see Nazis (and generally Nazis, not even Mussolini) as the quintessential fascists. The argument can be made that globalization has, in fact, created fascism of export — some in my Twitterverse had no problem believing that Trump was simultaneously a Russian puppet and a fascist — but I just don’t see how that helps fascism to root itself (see below) in any given country, which is a requirement for it to grow.

The Stages of Fascism

From the Five Stages of Fascism, page 11:

But one must compare what is comparable. A regime where fascism exercises power is hardly comparable to a sect of dissident intellectuals. We must distinguish the different stages of fascism in time. It has long been standard to point to the difference between movements and regimes. I believe we can usefully distinguish more stages than that, if we look clearly at the very different sociopolitical processes involved in each stage. I propose to isolate five of them: (1) the initial creation of fascist movements; (2) their rooting as parties in a political system; (3) the acquisition of power; (4) the exercise of power; and, finally, in the longer term, (5) radicalization or entropy.

And stage 2, the importance of parties, pages 12-13:

The second stage—rooting, in which a fascist movement becomes a party capable of acting decisively on the political scene—happens relatively rarely. At this stage, comparison becomes rewarding: one can contrast successes with failures. Success depends on certain relatively precise conditions: the weakness of a liberal state, whose inadequacies seems to condemn the nation to disorder, decline, or humiliation; and political deadlock because the Right, the heir to power but unable to continue to wield it alone, refuses to accept a growing Left as a legitimate governing partner. Some fascist leaders, in their turn, are willing to reposition their movements in alliances with these frightened conservatives, a step that pays handsomely in political power, at the cost of disaffection among some of the early antibourgeois militants.

That underlined portion does seem familar, doesn’t it? However, it’s worth noting that there’s no “seem” to American decline; how is a nation with dropping life expectancy not in decline? It’s also worth noting that “frightened conservatives” doesn’t necessarily equal Republicans; it was not, after all, the Republican Party that painted the anti-semitism target on Ilhan Omar’s back. It’s worth asking, then, whether centrist Democrats would seek a bipartisan alliance against the left.

Fascism Today

Here is Paxton’s first definition of fascism, from the Five Stages of Fascism pages 22-23:

Where is the “fascism minimum” in all this? Has generic fascism evaporated in this analysis? It is by a functional definition of fascism that we can escape from these quandaries. Fascism is a system of political authority and social order intended to reinforce the unity, energy, and purity of communities in which liberal democracy stands accused of producing division and decline. Its complex tensions (political revolution versus social restoration, order versus aggressive expansionism, mass enthusiasm versus civic submission) are hard to understand solely by reading its propaganda. One must observe it in daily operation….

And his second, from The Anatomy of Fascism, page 218:

Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim- hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

Speaking as an amateur, I think the two definitions map to each other, and both to the present day (“liberal democracy stands accused” v. “abandons democratic liberties,” but I like the second one much better, because the language is crisper, and is testable. For example, “redemptive violence”: During Reconstruction, the states that came under control of the former Slave Power, a process achieved by great violence, were referred to as “redeemed.”

More from the Five Stages of Fascism, page 23:

Can fascism still exist today, in spite of the humiliating defeat of Hitler and Mussolini, the declining availability of the war option in a nuclear age, the seemingly irreversible globalization of the economy, and the triumph of in- dividualistic consumerism? After ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, the rise of exclusionary nationalisms in postcommunist Eastern Europe, the “skinhead” phenomenon in Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, and Italy, and the election of `

Mirko Tremaglia, a veteran of the Republic of Salo, as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Parliament during the Berlusconi government, it would be hard to answer “no” to that question.

The most interesting cases today, however, are not those that imitate the exotic colored-shirt movements of an earlier generation. New functional equivalents of fascism would probably work best, as George Orwell reminded us, clad in the mainstream patriotic dress of their own place and time. An authentically popular fascism in the United States would be pious and anti-Black; in Western Europe, secular and antisemitic, or more probably, these days, anti-Islamic; in Russia and Eastern Europe, religious, antisemitic, and slavophile. We may legitimately conclude, for example, that the skinheads are functional equivalents of Hitler’s SA and Mussolini’s squadristi: only if important elements of the conservative elite begin to cultivate them as weapons against some internal enemy, such as immigrants.

Rather prescient for 1998, I must say. (And much as I loathe black bloc, it may be that they have their place in making these “functional equivalents” less easy to form.) Nevertheless, we do not have a “mass-based party of committed nationalist militants,” Yet. Paxton goes on:

The right questions to ask of today’s neo- or protofascisms are those appropriate for the second and third stages of the fascist cycle. Are they becoming rooted as parties that represent major interests and feelings and wield major influence on the political scene? [TBD] Is the economic or constitutional system in a state of blockage apparently insoluble by existing authorities? [Yes] Is a rapid political mobilization threatening to escape the control of traditional elites, to the point where they would be tempted to look for tough helpers in order to stay in charge? [TBD] It is by answering those kinds of questions, grounded in a proper historical understanding of the processes at work in past fascisms, and not by checking the color of the shirts or seeking traces of the rhetoric of the national-syndicalist dissidents of the opening of the twentieth century, that we may be able to recognize our own day’s functional equivalents of fascism.

And from Anatomy, page 218:

Fascism exists at the level of Stage One within all democratic countries—not excluding the United States. “Giving up free institutions,” especially the freedoms of unpopular groups, is recurrently attractive to citizens of Western democracies, including some Americans. We know from tracing its path that fascism does not require a spectacular “march” on some capital to take root; seemingly anodyne decisions to tolerate lawless treatment of national “enemies” is enough. Something very close to classical fascism has reached Stage Two in a few deeply troubled societies. Its further progress is not inevitable, however. Further fascist advances toward power depend in part upon the severity of a crisis, but also very largely upon human choices, especially the choices of those holding economic, social, and political power.

Our immune system kills off little cancers all the time; a metastatizing tumor takes a lot of effort to create. Stage One fascisms are little cancers, killed off by a healthy body politic. Stage Two fascisms, without treatment, will metastatize.

Conclusion

I think we’re somewhere in Stage Two: Rooting — or, to be optimistic, Uprooting. I invite the views of readers!

APPENDIX I: “Cosmopolitan”

Stoller tweeted, of a speech by possible Trump 2.0 Josh Hawley:

Liberals are freaking out about these comments, but Hawley is correct. Does anyone doubt Wall Street/Silicon Valley and their weird globalization fetish has harmed the middle class? Beating Hawley is going to require better policy, not better tantrums. https://t.co/yyfbSgBMuK

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 18, 2019

Then ensued the most moralizing and banal Twitter discussion I’ve seen in some time, and that’s saying something. Hawley used the word “cosmopolitican” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry here), which Stoller’s detractors felt proved Hawley was sending an anti-semitic dog whistle, and hence Stoller, in defending him, was an anti-semite too. (Paxton: “not by checking the color of the shirts or seeking traces of the rhetoric….”). To show how useless the entire episode was, I’ll quote The Nation’s Jeet Heer:

All politics is based on a division between friend & foe. A left-wing populist-nationalist can make big business the foe. The right-wing nationalist can't because they accept capitalism & are often financed by wealthy, so their foe is the (cough, cough) cosmopolitan

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) July 20, 2019

Of course, the view that “all politics is based on a division between friend and foe” could be traced right back to Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt, whose doctrine that was, and so Heer could be said to be sending an anti-semitic dog whistle. Of course that’s absurd, because context matters. Our symbol manipulating professional friends in the political class would do far better to look at function instead of checking their Index Expurgatorius of words suitable for censure and calling out. Liberals, and the left, have been calling out “dog whistles” for twenty years, at least. It hasn’t gotten them anywhere. Yet still they do it!

Robert O. Paxton’s “The Five Stages of Fascism”

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blues-and-roll · 5 years

Video

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Black Label Society - Bored To Tears (Official Video)

Zakk Wylde can be considered one of the most successful guitarists of his generation, accumulating several titles and prizes, becoming the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the election of the American Guitar World magazine. In 2005 he was also chosen as "Best Metal Guitarist", and also received the prizes of "Riff Lord" and "Golden God" of the English magazine Metal Hammer.

Over the years, Zakk Wylde has developed several highly regarded side projects, such as the Book of Shadows acoustic album and the Southern Rock Pride & Glory self-titled album coLive at Budokan) and in 2002 he recorded his own with Black Label Society (Boozed, Broozed and Broken Boned) in a memorable performance at Harpo's in Detroit, where along with the great public present managed to one night to end the entire stock of drinks from the house of shows during the filming. It was the first time in the history of Harpo's Concert Hall that this happened.

Zakk has also made some TV appearances, such as the comedy series "Crapsntando also with special appearances in several works of other bands, like the début of the Damageplan (guest vocalist) and the album of Derek Sherinian," Black Utopia ", next scored by Yngwie Malmsteen.

Zakk Wylde also appeared on some DVDs with Ozzy Osbourne (Live and Loud / hoot) with Jim Breuer, and starred in the Hollywood film industry as "Ghode," the lead guitarist for Steel Dragon, which had been created especially for the occasion, being responsible for the soundtrack of the film, still in its formation no less than the musicians Jason Bonham (UFO, drums) in the paper of "AC", Jeff Pilson (Dokken, down) in the role of "Jörgen", Jeff Scott Soto (Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, vocals) performing vocals for actor Mark Wahlberg and actor Dominic West as guitarist "Kirk Cuddy." The film also features other well-known figures such as Nick Catanese (Black Label Society, guitar) in the role of guitarist "Xander Cummins", from the fictional band Blood Pollution.

Zakk is married to his former girlfriend since the age of 16, Barbaranne, with whom he has four children. Hayley-Rae, 14, Jesse John Michael, 13, Hendrix Halen Michael Rhoads, 4, and Sabbath Page, born in 2012 ("homage" to Jimi Hendrix, John Michael Osbourne and his band Black Sabbath, Eddie Van Halen, Mike Piazza, Randy Rhoads, and Jimmy Page). He was a very close friend of the late guitarist Dimebag Darrell since 1993, even getting to receive guitars from each other in mutual admiration as partners in the song. Dimebag had presented Zakk with an exclusive Dean Custom guitar displaying the painting in the "Bulls-eye" design, a trademark of Zakk's guitars, shortly before his death. Wylde decided to dedicate the song "In This River" to his friend, citing that although the song was not originally made for that purpose, the lyrics would be appropriate for the situation. Wylde has offered the song "In this River" to Dimebag at every performance of it at his shows.

Zakk began to get serious about guitar lessons when he was 15, while working at Silverton Music, a music store in Silverton, New Jersey. He practiced with his guitar daily for about 12 hours, which ended up harming his studies, since he was always falling asleep during classes in high school. It did not take long and began to play in his first band, called Stone Henge and later integrated the local band Zyris. At age 19 and practically unknown, Zakk Wylde made his big step to fame by getting the disputed wave of guitarist in the band of Ozzy Osbourne, also assuming the function of co-author.

Zakk had entered to replace the excellent guitarist Jake E. Lee, who in turn was the substitute of legendary Randy Rhoads, who had died at the age of 25 in a tragic and unfortunate air crash on March 19, 1982. Rhoads is considered as a true idol for Zakk Wylde, who had a kind of altar built in honor of the guitarist who inspired him so much.

There are several stories about how Zakk landed Ozzy's band. One of the most known is reported as follows:

Zakk's girlfriend at the time, Barbaranne (Today's Woman), had heard on Howard Stern's radio program that Ozzy was looking for a new guitarist and sent a demo tape. Ozzy rejected the tape as well as thousands of others, saying they were "just another clone of Randy Rhoads." But a few weeks later Ozzy's drummer told him that he had discovered a great guitarist from New Jersey and then Ozzy agreed to call him for an audition. It was obviously Zakk Wylde himself. Ozzy recognized him on the demo tape and then hired him.

Ozzy saw a lot of promising guitarists pass him after Jake E. Lee left. From the day of his predestined audition, Zakk remembers being hired right away even before he started playing while still tuning his guitar. sources] Zakk was admitted to the Ozzy solo band in 1987 and his first appearance was on the album No Rest for the Wicked of 1988. It is rumored that the first live performance with Ozzy would have taken place in a penitentiary.

Two more successful albums followed (Just Say Ozzy (1990) and No More Tears (1991)) getting huge repercussions in the media. But in 1992, after the No More Tears album tour, Zakk eventually left Ozzy's band and started to focus on the side projects he had been developing, releasing the self-titled album from the excellent band Pride & Glory a powerful Southern Rock sound, loaded with Blueseiras levadas with Heavy Metal. There are those who consider this album the cornerstone for the emergence of the Black Label Society.

In 1994 Zakk returned to work with Ozzy and the numerous sessions of recording of the album Ozzmosis begin. In that same time, Zakk was being probed to integrate the Guns N 'Roses, arriving to make some Jams with Axl Rose. But the lack of an agreement between Zakk's attorneys and Guns N 'Roses, who faced a complicated lawsuit after the departure of the original members, made Zakk's entry into Axl's band never happen. With plenty of time on the agenda, Zakk composed and released in 1996 the acclaimed acoustic album Book Of Shadows, considered by many to be the best of his career.

Parallel to Ozzy's albums in which he participated next, Zakk began to come up with ideas for a solo project to create his own Heavy Metal band, modeled after Black Sabbath. In 1998, in partnership with Phil Ondich (drums), Zakk founded the band Hell's Kitchen, later renamed the Black Label Society, and in 1999 released Sonic Brew, their first album with the new band, assuming their vocation for the post. frontman Zakk Wylde's solo career began to grow, then releasing another studio album and one live at the head of the BLS.

In 2001 Ozzy released the album Down To Earth, in which Zakk ended up not participating in the composition of any of the tracks. In fact Zakk already had a whole set of songs ready to put in the album of Ozzy but this rejected them, saying that "sounded very Black Label". The songs that were then rejected by Ozzy were all used by Wylde on the 1919 album Eternal, which curiously ended up becoming one of the Black Label Society's best albums, releasing several hits such as Bleed For Me, Demise Of Sanity, Bridge To Cross and Graveyard Disciples.

On January 17, 2006, Zakk Wylde was immortalized at the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame, located at 7425 Sunset Boulevard, leaving his hands and signature on the pavement of fame in recognition of his victorious career as a musician and their contribution to the music industry. The ceremony was attended by several rock stars.

Zakk Wylde's playing style is generally characterized by pinch harmonics and his technique in soils is based on the use of the Small Pentatonic Scale with box-pattern fast Licks using strict alternating picking, creating an attack with a quite distinct footprint when compared to musicians with a more fluid style of playing. Another notable feature of Zakk is the liberal use of chicken picking, a technique generally related to the Country music style being rarely used in Heavy Metal, possibly acquired from musician Albert Lee, one of its influences.

Zakk is known primarily for his preference for the Gibson Les Paul Custom guitars with what would become his trademark, the unique painting with the Bulls-eye design he deliberately adopted so that he could visually differentiate from his idol Randy Rhoads (although he has long used an identical hairstyle), which he usually played with a Les Paul Custom cream.

The "Bulls-eye" painting actually should have looked like the spiral of the movie "Vertigo", but although it came from Luthier incorrectly, Zakk liked the result and decided to keep the guitar anyway. Curiously enough, Zakk also owns a replica of Rhoads Flying V Guitar which he considers to be one of his favorites.

In recognition of his charisma and musical success, Gibson Guitars has launched an entire line of custom guitars by Zakk Wylde, a true certificate of his enormous commercial success. Zakk Gibson Les Paul Custom "Signature" custom models include a guitar with the red and flame-maple Bulls-eye design, a white model aged with the Bulls-eye in black, a "Buzz- saw "orange, and a model" Camo "" Bulls-eye "with the greenish camouflage paint. The "Inlays" of the arms are made of mother of pearl.

Zakk's original guitar was bought in a store (and not custom-made, as one might think), being baptized (according to the tradition of several guitarists) of "The Grail". She was missing for some time when she had been stolen from Zakk on the return of a "Gig" (Tour) in Texas. It even offered a reward to anyone who had any information that could lead Zakk to recover his guitar, since it had a great sentimental value because it was a graduation gift received from his parents. Zakk only regained "The Grail" years later, after a fan got it in a pawnshop and realizing if it was authentic "The Grail" guitar through the serial number present in the "Headstock" and the initials "ZW" recorded on the back of the guitar, contacted the Webmaster of Zakk to get his return.

Despite the news of an audition for the possible hiring of a new guiarist for Ozzy, he went back and decided to keep Zakk integrating his line-up, as was seen in the recent performance of Crazy Train at the UK Music Hall of Fame.

In 2006, Zakk Wylde entered the studio for the recording of the new BLS album, Shot To Hell, which was in the US on July 3. Another great success of Zakk Wylde was the song "Stilborn" considered by many admirers of Zakk Wylde and his songs in the Black Label Society the best of his solo career Zakk also gave important touches on Ozzy Osbourne's songs like "Crazy Train" and many others .

#black label society #bored to tears #zakk wylde

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daleisgreat · 6 years

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NXT Greatest Matches Volume 1

The original NXT that aired from 2010-2012 was a laughingstock of a ‘reality competition’ show filled with goofy challenges and awful gags. NXT’s re-launch as the new developmental territory for WWE in 2012 eviscerated all those bad early NXT memories. Since then, especially once the WWE Network debuted in 2014 and NXT introduced its PPV-esque, TakeOver specials, NXT has evolved into a unique third brand of the WWE. Triple H has been behind it since 2012, and he formed NXT today into something that feels like WWE’s take on a premiere indie promotion like Ring of Honor where the product is treated more sports-like and there is less of the mind-boggling ‘sports entertainment’ hijinx that sneaks onto core WWE programming each week. I feel it is necessary to clue those in who may be unfamiliar with the buzz about NXT among ardent wrestling fans. NXT has a consistently fresh roster because the average NXT star is only on the roster for 1-2 years before getting ‘the call’ to move up to the main WWE roster or let go from the company all together. The talent regularly steps up to deliver big matches and moments on countless occasions that stand out in a special way because NXT is taped in front of a studio audience that has a more intimate feel than the big, showpiece sports arenas the average RAW and Smackdown emanates from. Best of all, the weekly NXT show on WWE Network is a swift one hour, and not the two-to-three hour slogs that the main roster programs can be toil to persevere through sometimes. In 2016 WWE released a DVD/BluRay collecting the best of the first four years of the new NXT through 2015, so let us take a look at NXT Greatest Matches: Volume 1 (trailer).

Volume 1 collects 18 matches, with five more upping the tally to 23 on the BluRay release. There is no feature-length documentary, but instead after every couple of matches there are 2-3 minute clips of new interviews from NXT stars and Triple H talking about pivotal moments in NXT history. These add up to a little under a half hour and cover the major moments such as how Triple H shaped the new NXT, debuting the first TakeOver on the WWE Network, NXT bringing a new focus on women’s wrestling, moving TakeOver to a big arena like the Barclays Center and lots of love for Dusty Rhodes when it came time to discuss the passing of ‘the oak’ of NXT. These are the essential bullet points I would like covered of NXT history, but a big part of me feels a little short-changed because I could easily see how WWE could have interviewed many more past and present NXT talent and made a far more comprehensive documentary. I like most of the 18 core matches of the collection. Other than a handful of matches as extra features on other WWE home videos I have never seen much of the first two years of the new NXT, and there are eight matches from that era in Volume 1. It kicks off with a pre-3MB Jinder Mahal taking on a pre-Shield Seth Rollins to crown the first NXT champion in an electric moment that capped off with Dusty Rhodes presenting Rollins with the NXT Championship. From this era we also saw Paige winning the first NXT Women’s title in a tournament final against Emma. There is a reason why Emma was constantly mentioning her and Paige were the real beginning of the Women’s Evolution of WWE, and this match proves her point.

There are a couple awesome Cesaro matches from this era on here too from back when he had a first name! There is an absolutely tremendous 2-out-of-3 falls match with Cesaro and Sami Zayn that will likely be the first and only time I see someone tap out to….a basic headlock…seriously, and it looked damn convincing too! That Sami Zayn is a master salesman! Cesaro also has a superb technical/strong style showcase match with William Regal in what is essentially his retirement match where Regal gets his own Flair/Michaels Wrestlemania XXIV moment in a emotional sendoff for the Brit! There is a solid 2013 match on here with Chris Jericho making a guest appearance on NXT taking on Bray Wyatt, but it is ruined with obnoxious commentary from Brad Maddox. Speaking of commentary, it is rare to have the same pairing of announcers in two matches straight as there is a revolving door of announcers throughout. Pre-Network era announcers are primarily William Regal and Jim Ross, but others like Brad Maddox occasionally join in. Throughout this collection NXT announcers are shuffled in and out such as Alex Riley, Renee Young, Rich Brennan, Byron Saxton, Jason Albert and Corey Graves.

As expected, a lot of classic TakeOver matches are on here. The main event of the first TakeOver with Neville winning the NXT Title from Bo Dallas in a ladder match is on here. Charlotte Flair winning the Women’s title in a tournament final against Natalya that featured both Ric Flair and Bret Hart at ringside to add extra notoriety is also a must-see. Volume 1 goes out of its way to show the story of Sami Zayn’s chase for NXT gold throughout and it pays off big with his title match in a Takeover special against Neville in a monumental match in this collection, which also has an equally monumental angle playing out afterwards with a debuting Kevin Owens. As much as I loved the Paige/Emma and Charlotte/Natalya title matches, the standout women’s match in this collection is the TakeOver match between Sasha Banks and Bayley. It was a great crowning moment of Bayley’s multi-year growth over NXT history and her chase for NXT gold nearly ran parallel to Sami Zayn’s, and I recall that match living up to the hype. I was surprised their TakeOver Iron Man rematch somehow surpassed it and am dismayed that it did not make the cut for Volume 1, but I guess that is what…wait a sec, I just did some research and am flabbergasted that match is not in Volume 2 either. Screw it, here is a link to it, now make haste and check out the greatest women’s match in NXT history! The collection winds down with two Kevin Owens TakeOver matches, where he wins the title from Zayn in a bout with a brutal finish and defending it against Finn Balor at the unique WWE Network-exclusive Beast in the East event in Japan. The final match features the finals of the first Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament which features a lot of solid old-school tag team wrestling fundamentals that were not that common in the tag team scene in recent decades until The Revival brought it back a couple years ago.

Most of Volume 1’s five BluRay exclusive matches are worth watching. It starts off with CM Punk teaming up with Seth Rollins to take on Cesaro and Kassius Ohno it what will likely be the only time we see the Kings of Wrestling team up on WWE television. We have a reminder that current RAW & SmackDown announcer Corey Graves was once a wrestler on here with his grudge match against former partner Neville. Charlotte and Sasha have a highly competitive match on here from when Charlotte cashed in her rematch clause for the Women’s title. Finally, Apollo Crews and Tyler Breeze have a surprisingly good match on here from a TakeOver special I have long forgotten about. There were a lot of intense sequences in here the duo pulled off flawlessly and this match is easily better than anything we have seen from both Breeze and Crews on the main roster. Wrestling fans that are use to sticking to the main roster programming have been missing out big time if they have not been keeping up with NXT. NXT Greatest Matches Volume 1 is the perfect way to catch up to see how far their favorites have come. I got a lot out of this too from the eight matches that I did not see from before NXT was on the WWE Network, with the addition of a couple of bonus dark matches that were never before televised. My only main gripe is the lack of a fully featured documentary, but the interspersed interview clips are a sufficient compromise. I did pick up the follow up NXT home video WWE released last year, so be on the lookout for an entry for that too later this year! Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Sting: Into the Light Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder TNA Lockdown 2005-Present Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

#Wrestling #nxt #WWE #seth rollins #cesaro #sami zayn #kevin owens #charlotte #paige #emma #Natalya #sasha banks #bayley #neville #bo dallas #william regal

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Little Things is Better Than a Seven Copycat

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This article contains spoilers for The Little Things and Seven.

Critics have not been kind to The Little Things, the new Warner Bros./HBO Max psychological thriller starring Denzel Washington and Rami Malek as two Los Angeles cops obsessed with catching a vicious serial killer. Although the film is apparently doing very decent business–especially on the streaming end–it sits at a mediocre 48 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with many comparing it to the 1995 classic Seven. In that juxtaposition, The Little Things is coming up short.

On the surface, there are a number of similarities between writer-director John Lee Hancock’s new police melodrama and David Fincher’s masterpiece from 25 years ago (with the exception of The Little Things’ opening scene, which seems closer to Fincher’s later Zodiac). Yet despite parallels in the two films’ plot structure, character relationships, settings, and themes, there are key differences that set them apart upon a closer look. These distinctions may also provide The Little Things with a more level critical playing field.

Both films, at their simplest level, are about a pair of mismatched cops on the hunt for a depraved murderer terrorizing a vast city. One of the cops is an older veteran–Denzel Washington in The Little Things, Morgan Freeman in Seven–who has all but mentally and physically checked out of the job; the other copper–Rami Malek in The Little Things, Brad Pitt in Seven–is younger, more energetic, and more eager to prove his mettle, perhaps ascending in the ranks of the police force.

By the close of both films, a suspect is confronted and manages to get the upper hand (at least psychologically) on the protagonists. As both films wind down, the cocky, ambitious, younger cop has been destroyed emotionally by the ordeal while the older, wiser vet deals with the aftermath of the experience in his own, perhaps more restrained way. (It’s interesting to note that both veterans are played by Black men in the films, perhaps indicating that they are much more aware than their white partners that injustice in the world often goes unpunished.)

Yet here, aside from certain visual cues and period details, is where The Little Things and Seven begin to diverge along separate paths. Keep in mind that Hancock wrote his first draft of the former movie in 1993, a full two years before Seven hit movie screens. While not influenced by a specific real-life killer, Hancock almost certainly dialed into the climate of fear in California following the locally sourced rampages of monsters like Richard Ramirez (The Night Stalker), Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr. (The Hillside Stranglers), and Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris (The Tool Box Killers).

Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, meanwhile, said in contemporary interviews that his story was not inspired by a real-life reign of terror but by a period of time he spent living in New York City while trying to make it in the film business. He told Cinefantastique magazine, “I didn’t like my time in New York, but it’s true that if I hadn’t lived there I probably wouldn’t have written Seven.”

Let’s take a look at the other ways in which Seven and The Little Things are not the mirror images that they may seem to be at first glance.

Is It Really the Same 1990s Setting?

Thanks to the dark visual palette of both films (and to be fair, The Little Things does recreate some of Seven’s visual motifs, like flashlight beams lasering through a blackened out room), it’s easy to think that the two movies are set in an almost identical time and place. But the truth is a little more nuanced. Both movies were shot in and around Los Angeles, but only The Little Things is specifically set in LA; the city in Seven is never named. It’s also raining or overcast almost constantly in Seven, which would throw off anyone who thinks that the movie is supposed to take place in sunny Southern California.

Both films stage many of their sequences in grittier sections of the city, but while you know it’s LA in The Little Things, Seven creates an overall, more surreal impression that the film’s nameless metropolis itself is falling apart at the seams, and that evil and darkness seem to be feeding at its very core.

Also while Seven was written and filmed in the early-to-mid-1990s, the exact year in which it takes place is never specified. That only enhances the timeless, allegorical quality that we suspect Fincher was going for from the start. The Little Things is set in 1990, and makes it obvious that things like cell phones, advanced methods of DNA profiling and other technological tools are not around yet. Both approaches are valid, but Seven has a somewhat more nightmarish quality to it as a result.

Denzel Washington vs. Morgan Freeman

As we mentioned earlier, both The Little Things and Seven (not to mention scores of other films and TV shows that have come out in the past 30 years) are centered on a pair of cops, each driven by different forces, who pool their efforts to catch the killer. Both sets of cops bicker, question each other’s methods, and end up grudgingly respecting each other, even if they never quite become friends. But there the resemblance ends.

In Seven, Morgan Freeman’s William Somerset is the older, more experienced detective. When we first meet him, he’s weary, burned out and ready for his impending retirement; you get the impression that he’s seen way more than his fill. You also get the sense that he’s a very decent human being and police officer–Commissioner Jim Gordon probably wouldn’t mind recruiting him for the Gotham police department. His kind of noble civil servant is clearly a dying breed in his decaying town.

Meanwhile Joe “Deke” Deacon (Washington) in The Little Things is a far more compromised character. He left a post as a top detective in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for a low-key gig as a deputy sheriff about 120 miles north. And we learn that he exited several years earlier after suffering both a heart attack and a nervous breakdown while pursuing a similar killer.

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The case also cost him his marriage and estranged him from his daughters. And, as we find out late in the movie, it also cost him his conscience after he accidentally shot a survivor who he thought was a suspect in some bushes near a murder scene.

Neither Somerset nor Deacon want anything to do initially with the case at the heart of their respective movies, but both are inexorably drawn in. For Deacon, it is perhaps a chance at redemption; Somerset’s motivation is less clear, except that he perhaps wants to do one last thing to make life a little better in the city before he leaves forever. Deacon is ultimately compromised again (we’ll get to that a little later) while Somerset ends the movie by enigmatically hinting that he’s going to stick around a while longer and do his part to clean up a world “worth fighting for.”

Rami Malek vs. Brad Pitt

The characters played by Rami Malek and Brad Pitt are somewhat closer in temperament and motivation. Malek’s Jim Baxter is a young hotshot detective who’s eager to make his mark on the force, with ambition, energy, and intelligence to spare. Pitt’s David Mills is just transferred from what we gather is a far less inhospitable city, and at one point Somerset expresses surprise that Mills asked for the job. But both Mills and Baxter have a cocky self-confidence that makes the eventual destruction of each man the turning point of their respective movies.

That destruction of course comes at the hands of the movies’ villains/suspects and involves an insidious taunting that results in an unconscionable act of violence. In both movies, the detectives are led out to remote desert locations to allegedly reclaim the body/bodies of the killer’s last victim(s). Once there, the suspects get under the skin of the young detectives, resulting in both Baxter and Mills killing their antagonists–the former with a shovel, the latter with a gun. But there’s a major difference between the two.

While Mills’ killing of the suspect is arguably understandable when it’s revealed that the latter’s last victim was Mills’ wife–confirmed by the delivery of her head in a box–Mills still faces punishment for executing an unarmed suspect. Baxter, meanwhile, slaughters his suspect without definitively knowing that the man committed a single murder. In fact, his suspect, Albert Sparma (Jared Leto), denies killing anyone while Seven’s John Doe (Kevin Spacey) freely admits to everything.

Baxter is rescued by Deacon, who covers up his partner’s crime and puts them both in a morally and ethically compromised position; Somerset is in no position to do the same, although we don’t imagine he would. While Baxter doesn’t lose any members of his own family (he has a wife and two little daughters), he is still traumatized by his obsession and its outcome–he’s killed a possibly innocent man, he hasn’t found the last victim, and the killer could still be out there. We’re not sure if he’ll snap out of it, even when Deacon takes further action (faking evidence) to ease Baxter’s conscience. Mills, meanwhile, may never recover from the loss of his wife and unborn baby and his own associated guilt.

As for Somerset and Deacon…as we mentioned earlier, Somerset seems likely to stay on the force a little longer and keep doing his best, if only to honor his partner, while Deacon–who’s probably guilty of manslaughter in his earlier case and is now also an accessory to murder–retreats back to his grubby little mobile home up north.

The Right Man Or Not?

The Little Things and Seven present us with two uniquely different antagonists. In The Little Things, Leto’s creepy, snarky Sparma is an appliance repairman linked by circumstantial evidence to the most recently confirmed murder by LA’s new serial killer. But even though Sparma seems to relish being in the spotlight as the chief suspect–and deliberately dangles the possibility that he is the killer, only to withdraw it often within the same conversation–there is no indisputable evidence that attaches him to the murders.

Sparma does have a shady background and a couple of minor convictions on his record. He also admits to being a devotee of true crime, and even falsely claimed responsibility for a murder some years back. Yet he denies being the killer that Baxter and Deacon are looking for–even though his taunting about the crimes is eventually enough to cause Baxter to snap and kill him.

We may never know Sparma’s real motivation, but we know that of John Doe (Kevin Spacey), the nameless villain in Seven. His staging of macabre, agonizing deaths, each representing the seven deadly sins, is nothing less than a judgment upon humanity itself, a tapestry of depravity woven together to paint a picture of a lost, unsalvageable society. Unlike Sparma, Doe takes full responsibility for his actions and even works his own death at the hands of Mills into the plan. And while Sparma is a genuinely unsettling person, he is meant to be “real,” with a background, a job, and a semblance of a life. John Doe, in keeping with Seven’s more surreal aspects, has no past, no history, no identification, not even fingerprints. He’s a cipher and we’re meant to even wonder whether he’s a human being.

How It All Ends

By the end of both Seven and The Little Things, both trios of main characters are irrevocably changed. The suspects are dead, two cops’ lives are damaged or outright destroyed, and the other two lick their wounds in radically different ways. But both stories have different things they want to say at the end.

Seven is less a procedural and more an allegory–or perhaps a meditation–on the nature and pervasiveness of evil. It is an atmospheric, dread-inducing, and even frightening movie, yet its ultimate theme seems to be that as long as one person keeps fighting, hope can remain alive. That is made clear by Somerset’s vow to stay “around” at the film’s conclusion, despite his desperate yearning to retire and despite the psychological destruction of his partner.

The Little Things, meanwhile, has a message about how obsession and certainty can ruin a person’s life and force them to do things they never imagined. More specifically, it’s about how the nature of police work itself can enact that terrible toll on even the finest or smartest among us. We can probably assume that Deacon and Baxter started their careers with the best of intentions, but by the end of The Little Things both are revealed to be badly poisoned by their actions. Deacon retreats back into hiding and continues the cover-up, while we’re not sure what will happen to Baxter.

Perhaps the reason why Seven is a masterpiece and The Little Things is a solid yet flawed thriller is because of how they both make us feel. In The Little Things, we don’t fully empathize with Baxter or Deacon, whose choices are consistently the wrong ones. The movie has to work harder to get the two cops into the desert for the final confrontation with Sparma, and the personal stakes for Baxter are not high enough for him to initiate the fatal action he takes–his own family, who we barely get to know, are not in immediate danger.

In Seven, we ultimately empathize more with Mills and Somerset, giving the film the extra resonance and sense of tragedy that elevate it into a classic. We are genuinely heartbroken by the fate of Mills and his family: we’ve spent some time with his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), who has confessed to Somerset earlier in the film that she never even wanted to come to this dying city in the first place. We feel more anguish and horror over her gruesome death, yet against all instincts, we still don’t want Mills to shoot John Doe and seal his own doom. And even after that bleak climactic moment, there’s an ever so slight but palpable sense of relief that Somerset is going to stick around after all.

In the final analysis, and weirdly enough for a movie so dark, Seven has the more optimistic ending, and therefore the more satisfying one.The Little Things is out now in limited theaters and on HBO Max through the end of February.

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