#both in-universe and out. where would we be without the leitmotifs

[dandelionjack]

something about this quote + missy's piano + his guitar. playing clara's theme as a remnant of a lost memory... when nothing is remembered, when nothing is left, still the song continues on. the long song – passed on through generations to every new queen of years, down along the eons. your song is ending but the story never ends

[not-the-tie-youre-looking-for]

Something that's been bugging me for years since the Legends finale. If Zhan had been the writer for Rebels, do you think he would have had Thrawn bomb Lothal to bring Ezra out? On the one hand, from Legends Thrawn's portrayal I imagine he would without a second of hesitation. On the other, Canon Thrawn has been much more... restrained? And on a third point, there's the fact that Legends and Canon Thrawn seem like they really could be the same person just at different points of time. cnt in next

...I'm just curious if anyone else was curious if Zhan agreed with that direction taken. Which, on that note, did Zhan ever say anything about his thoughts on how Rebels handled Thrawn? Both from a writing standpoint as well as an acting and musical one (Thrawn's various leitmotifs)?

Oh man. Ohhhhhhhh maaaaan. My friend, you have asked exactly the right person this question, because not only have I wanted to talk about this multiple times before, but I also have ~receipts~. 👀

⚠️Spoiler warnings for Star Wars: Rebels, The Mandalorian, the canon Star Wars novels Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn: Treason, Thrawn Ascendency: Chaos Rising, and Thrawn Ascendency: Greater Good, and the legends Star Wars novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, and Outbound Flight.⚠️

Oh man. Where to begin.

Lets start with who Thrawn is, because depending on who you ask, you're gonna get different answers—whether you're strictly a Legends fan, Dave Filoni, a guy who's only seen Thrawn in Star Wars: Rebels, Timothy Zahn, or just a writer/artist fan like me.

To Timothy Zahn, the man behind our favorite chiss, Thrawn is a character that is constant in both attitude and personality throughout all of his content. In multiple interviews, ranging from Thrawn's debut in Rebels to the latest about the writing of the Ascendancy Trilogy, Zahn states that Thrawn in canon and Thrawn in Legends are indistinguishable.

And so I present the receipts:

In a 2017 interview with The Verge on writing the first canon Thrawn book Thrawn, Zahn is asked the following question and responds as such:

How do you navigate bringing back a character who already has an extensive backstory and audience expectations, with telling a new story that fits in the new continuity?

Actually, I didn’t find that to be a problem. I’d never written Thrawn in this part of the Star Wars timeline, so it was simply a matter of bringing him into the Empire and chronicling his rise through the ranks. It’s still the same character as in the 1990s books, just a decade or two younger and in a very different military and political environment.

In another interview with The Verge in 2018 (a few months after the finale of Rebels aired) about writing Thrawn: Alliances, he repeats this sentiment twice:

Thrawn feels like if it had been written before the canonization purge a couple of years ago, or if you squinted a bit, it would serve as a perfect setup for Heir to the Empire.

Oh, I don’t think you need to squint at all. I wrote him in these two books to fit in with everything else I’d done. So if someone at Lucasfilm snapped their fingers, and suddenly all of my other books were canon, and there would be no real retrofitting that would have to go in. It would all fit together.

Thrawn: Alliances feels more at home in the new canon, especially because Thrawn has been fleshed out a bit more in Rebels. Was there any adjustments for that?

Not really. I’m getting to play with more canon characters like Vader and Padmé and Anakin, but the character himself, I still see him as the same person. He’s got goals, and he won’t necessarily share them with you, but he as long as you’re going the same direction, he’s happy to cooperate and assist along the way.

...and this is referenced again in a 2020 interview with Polygon about writing Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising:

Along with Thrawn’s appearance in Rebels, Zahn would pen a new novel, Thrawn, that chronicled the character’s early days as an Imperial officer. Zahn didn’t have to change anything with the character, telling me in 2017 that “he’s like an old friend who I understand completely.” While Heir to the Empire was no longer canon, a reader could easily read Thrawn as a precursor to that classic novel. Thrawn went on to become a major presence in Rebels, and Zahn continued to explore his origins in Thrawn: Alliances and Thrawn: Treason.

The next day, an interview with IGN was published on the same subject:

Thrawn is an especially unique case because Zahn has been able to effectively continue the work he started way back in 1991 with Heir to the Empire. That novel may not be a part of official Star Wars lore any longer, but as Zahn explained, Thrawn himself is basically the same character regardless of continuity.

[....] The closest comparison between Chaos Rising and Zahn's earlier EU work is probably 2006's Outbound Flight, which is set during the Clone Wars and details the first encounter between Thrawn and the Galactic Republic (while also retroactively laying the groundwork for elements of Heir to the Empire). That novel is no longer canon, but Zahn told us he prefers to operate as if it were. He's making a concerted effort not to retread the same ground as Outbound Flight and to avoid contradicting the events of that novel as much as possible.

So yeah. In Zahn's opinion, Legends Thrawn is Canon Thrawn is Book Thrawn, and there is no difference whatsoever between Thrawns in, say, Outbound Flight, Heir to The Empire, Alliances, and Chaos Rising. I wholeheartedly disagree, but lets move on.

Now that the books are out of the way, its time for Rebels.

In July of 2016, after the trailer announcing Thrawn's canon debut aired, Dave Filoni had the following to say about Thrawn's character in regards to Timothy Zahn:

“I was pretty adamant with a couple of people saying, ‘Listen, we need to have Tim sign off on this. This is kind of a waste of time [otherwise],'” says Filoni. “We, of course, can do what we want with a character that Lucasfilm owns, but without Tim’s okay, what does it mean? That’s not going to be good. Once we had some stuff, we wanted to do what we thought was right and make the character. Then we brought him in. We had the production fully prepared. I said, ‘Look, if there’s something that Tim says that I think is really valuable, even if it changes something dynamically, we need to be ready for that and see what we can do.’ I wanted to make sure we did this right by everybody. We brought him in and we didn’t really tell him why. We just flew him up to Lucasfilm and sat him down in a theater and said, ‘Hey, we’re bringing Thrawn into the show.’ He was like, ‘Wow.’ and I said, ‘Yeah, wow. And I’m going to show him to you right now and you let me know what you think.'”

(Before we continue, keep that first highlighted sentence in mind for future reference. I'm going to come back to that later.)

Fortunately, Timothy Zahn was delighted at the show’s approach to the Empire’s imposing blue-skinned Chiss.

“We showed him some of the scenes with him,” Dave Filoni recalls. “He looked like a kid in a candy store. I think it meant a lot to him not just because it was his character, but because you have to imagine what he went through when it was announced that everything is Legends now, not Expanded Universe. I get that and I’ve always appreciated the work that goes into the Expanded Universe… For Tim, I think it was us saying, ‘No, no, no. We really like your character. We want him to be part of the real thing. The canon universe.'”

So in 2016, before we even saw Thrawn in action beyond a trailer, we were told that Zahn gave the OK, and he was chill with the way Thrawn was created in the show. In 2017, he gave a little more of the background of this process in an interview with FANgirl Blog:

The events of Thrawn dovetail closely with Rebels and shed light on some of Thrawn’s more seemingly surprising actions on the show, like when he appears to lose his temper and yell at Lieutenant Lyste. What was it like to see Thrawn come alive onscreen? Is he how you’ve pictured him in your head?

I don’t see my characters in terms of voice or appearance, but rather as personality or attitude. That said, I very much enjoyed the way the Rebels team brought him to life, in his appearance, voice, and actions.

I also appreciated the freedom I had to tweak certain incidents, such as the one you mentioned, and give additional or alternate explanations for the viewers who may have thought those were somewhat out of character for him.

He doesn't really elaborate on this, but we can assume he had SOME creative input on Thrawn's character, and he was overall pretty happy with the choices made in the show.

But then, we have this from that earlier 2017 the Verge article:

When did you learn that Dave Filoni was intending to bring Thrawn to Rebels, and did you have any input into how the character would be handled?

[...] I didn’t have any real input into how Thrawn was going to be handled, mainly because the lead time of an animated series is so long that much of season 3 had already been finished. But I trusted Dave and the team to do the character right. After all, why bring him into Rebels if you were going to drastically change him? Having seen the entire season now, I think we can agree that my trust was completely justified.

So... he didn't have "any real input," but was satisfied with it in the end? I guess? I don't know. We're getting into some contradictions now.

The last thing I've got in regards to Rebels is an interview Zahn did with the YouTube channel Star Wars Explained after the finale aired, where he responds to the following:

“So, maybe let's jump over to Rebels for a little bit. Now that it has wrapped up, how do you feel Thrawn was represented in Star Wars: Rebels?”

“They did a really good job—they not only understood the character and how to write for him, but they also understood the meta around how you defeat him. The only way to defeat Thrawn is to throw something at him he can't control, or can't anticipate. Given perfect knowledge and control, Thrawn will always find a way to win. But they understood, this is how you defeat him, these are the things we can use against him... so his portrayal in general, is very good; he's smart, he's anticipating, he's a step ahead of everybody, he's looking at clues and picking up on them, so I was very pleased with how the Rebels team handled the character."

I think these quotes answer many of your questions, so to answer your initial question: If Zhan had been the writer for Rebels, do I think he would have had Thrawn bomb Lothal to bring Ezra out?

Yes—but ONLY because at that point, the only established™️ Thrawn content was found in Legends, where Thrawn was a ruthless and calculating warlord.

However!

I do believe that if given the chance to re-write the Star Wars: Rebels finale using his now-canon novels as a solid background TODAY, Zahn would choose to not let Thrawn bombard Lothal's Capital City.

I believe this because he made one single very interesting creative choice when writing Thrawn that completely overwrote Thrawn's pre-established Rebels character: Thrawn was not responsible for the civilian deaths on Batonn—Pryce was.

And that's that on that.

A few months ago I would have ended it there, but today, Thrawn's story is no longer just contained in the novels and Rebels, but also in that of The Mandalorian.

This is where I will proudly say I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Before The Jedi aired, I was 100% sure that the next time we saw Thrawn, it would be nowhere NEAR the Empire, because Zahn was pretty adamant in the novels that Thrawn was only in the Empire to help. His. People.

So now he's apparently doing fuck-knows-what in fuck-knows-where and is STILL associated with the Seventh Fleet and Imperial Warlords???

Huh??? Despite the fact that he held no true loyalty to the Empire or to the Emperor??? It's been months and I'm still confused as fuck. Add to the fact that Zahn also doesn't know what the fuck is going on to the equation and we get a big fat question mark with one pretty clear answer that Filoni said himself that we have to keep in mind:

"We, of course, can do what we want with a character that Lucasfilm owns."

So I don't think Zahn has much control over Thrawn as we would all like to think. We can hope he gives us the crazy Thrawn and Ezra Space Adventure™️ novel all we want, but ultimately, Thrawn's fate does not rest in his hands.

If you guys have more to add please let me know!!! This is, obviously, a topic I am very passionate about, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[the-river-person]

Secrets of the Deltarune

Okay so I was taking a closer look at the Deltarune and I started to notice some really weird things. It’s a symbol for the Kingdom of Monsters, right? Wrong. Gerson tells us “That's the Delta Rune, the emblem of our kingdom.The Kingdom...Of Monsters.” Okay so its the same thing, right? Nope. I looked up emblem and its distinction from Symbol. A Symbol represents an idea, a process, or a physical entity. While an Emblem is often an abstract that represents a concept like a moral truth or an allegory. And when it is used for a person, it is usually a King, a saint, or even a deity. An emblem crystallizes in concrete, visual terms some abstraction: a deity, a tribe or nation, or a virtue or vice and can be worn as an identifier if worn as say a patch or on clothing or armor or carried on a flag or banner or shield. So what does it matter? Well Gerson even tells us why. “That emblem actually predates written history.The original meaning has been lost to time...“  Hold up. Predates written history? The beginning of written history is approximately 5500 years ago. Somewhere around 3400 B.C.E. Thats a long time. And the prophecy that goes with the symbol talks about the Underground going empty, so it can only really be as old as The War Between Humans and Monsters. But...when was that? The game doesn’t tell us the exact dates. Well we have a couple clues. At the beginning of the game we have a little cut-scene of the war and then a bit where we see a human going up the mountain only to fall down into the Underground. Most players assume that this is you, beginning your adventure. Except its not. Later in the game, when you SAVE Asriel in the True Pacifist Route, we’re shown another cutscene with the exact same human figure in EXACTLY the same position, being helped by a very  young Asriel and the silhouette of Toriel. It’s Chara, not Frisk. So our date of 201X (2010-2019) takes place long before Frisk even arrives. We don’t know how long before. That really doesn’t help with when they were first thrown down there though. So I took a look at the images before that, of the war. The first image shows a human who is very different from the later pictures. Both the make of the spear and the animal hide-like clothing suggest that it’s probably stone age. The text tells us a very general “Long Ago”when describing how both races ruled the earth together. In the next two images we’re shown the actual war. The crowd of humans have various things like torches and spears. Those diamond type spears are very similar to Roman Pilums. The Human figure with a sword was interesting though. He bore a mantle (cape or cloak) and is sporting a sword. Though there’s not much detail, we can still identify the general time period of the sword. The size isn’t big enough for a proper claymore or longsword, or even a hand and half sword. Since our figure appears to be moving forward, and we can guess that it’s not in a friendly manner given the context, yet still holding the sword in one hand instead of two, it’s probably a one handed broadsword. It also has a cruciform hilt (cross-shaped) that is slightly curved. The blade is quite wide with what appears to be straight edges (based on two images with limited detail). And it has a very narrow Ricasso, an unsharpened length of blade just above the guard or handle. Ricassos were used all throughout history, but they’re pretty notable for the Early Medieval Period in Europe. And the rest of the sword (blade type, length, crossguard, and method of use) is very reminiscent of a Medieval Knightly Arming Sword, the prominent type of sword in that period from the 10th to 13th centuries. So I had to take a closer look at my spears. Turns out, they actually more closely resemble a medieval cavalry lance or javelin. And many Javelins have their root in the style of the Roman Pilums, including the sometimes diamond shaped tips. The sword and mantle of the figure suggest heavily he’s a knight, and backed up by the spear carriers we can guess that its the Early Medieval Period, possibly the beginning of the Romanesque Period. So that would place us all roughly a thousand and at least ten years before Chara fell into the Underground in 201X. Asgore was certainly alive back then. In the Genocide Route Gerson says “Long ago, ASGORE and I agreed that escaping would be pointless...Since once we left, humans would just kill us.“ and in the Post-Pacifist when you go back to talk to everyone he’ll say this when talking about Undyne “I used to be a hero myself, back in the old days. Gerson, the Hammer of Justice.” He even talks about how Undyne would follow him around when he was beating up bad guys, and try to help, by enthusiastically attacking people at random such as the mailman. This tells us that Gerson and Asgore are as old as the original war and both had been part of the battle. And both lived long enough to survive till now. Gerson is quite old looking, while Asgore is not. He explains this by saying that Boss Monsters don’t age unless they have children and then they age as their children grow, otherwise they’ll be the same age forever. But Undyne doesn’t appear to be old. And I started to wonder how long normal monsters lived in comparison to Boss Monsters. A long time for sure. From the Undertale 5th Anniversary Alarm Clock Dialogue we can learn that Asgore once knew a character called Rudy (who also appears in the Deltarune Game), who he met at Hotland University and appeared to be generally the same age as Asgore. Since it takes place in Hotland we know that it was already when they were underground, Asgore was King and was already doing his Santa Clause thing, and that Asgore was trying to find ways to occupy his time aside from actually Ruling. In the dialogue he tells us that Rudy began to look older than him. “I was there for it all. His Youth, his Marriage, his Fatherhood. Then, suddenly, one day... he fell down. ... Rudy... I... was never able to show you the sun.” Monsters can live a long time. But Boss Monsters, as long as they don’t have a child, can live nearly forever as long as they aren’t killed. Based on that, Undyne is probably quite young and Gerson is incredibly old even for a Monster, and yet only recently he’s stopped charging around fighting bad guys. Since Undyne was with him, those bad guys were in the Underground, and his distinction of her attacking not so bad folk like the mailman, means that he was probably in an official capacity to fight crime, such as a guardsman, or maybe captain of the royal guard. So. Even though there’s plenty of time for a prophecy to spring up naturally. We have a number of Monsters who have actually lived that long that would be more than happy to correct mistakes and assumptions. Gerson is quite elderly and is a tad forgetful, but he still knows much. Characters such as Toriel and Asgore are still hale and hearty, and both had witnessed so much. Though we know very little about the character, Elder Puzzler is also implied to be quite aged and knows a great deal about the “Puzzling Roots” of Monster History. You’re probably wondering what all of this is leading to. Well with these characters in place to maintain knowledge of history in the populace, then we have an Underground which created a prophecy AFTER it was trapped there, which leads me to conclude that when the prophecy was created, it must have been referencing something older than the War of Monsters and Humans.

“The original meaning has been lost to time... All we know is that the triangles symbolize us monsters below, and the winged circle above symbolizes... Somethin' else. Most people say it's the 'angel,' from the prophecy...” ‘Angel’. This is when we hear about the angel. We see the Deltarune on Toriel’s clothing and on the Ruins door. As well as behind Gerson himself. The thing he mentions clearly has wings of some kind. Surrounding a ball (note to self: Look into possible connection between mythical ball artifact from the piano room and the Deltarune Emblem). It looks a little like the fairy from the Zelda series. Those “triangles” are the greek letter Delta. That letter has a lot of connections and meanings to it. A river delta is shaped like the letter which is how it got its name. There are a number of maths and science connections. But the two connections you’d be interested in are that a Delta chord is another name for a Major Seventh Chord in music. The soundtrack of Undertale uses these chords to do fantastic things with the tone and aesthetic of its leitmotifs, changing them from a happy or hopeful tune, to a dark and despairing one without actually changing the melody. And in a subfield of Set Theory, a branch of mathematics and philosophical logic, it is used to calculate and examines the conditions under which one or the other player of a game has a winning strategy, and the consequences of the existence of such strategies. The games studied in set theory are usually Gale–Stewart games—two-player games of perfect information (each player, when making any decision, is perfectly informed of all the events that have previously occurred, including the "initialization event" of the game (e.g. the starting hands of each player in a card game)) in which the players make an infinite sequence of moves and there are no draws. But why is one of them turned upside down? I started looking things up again. Turns out there is such a symbol. The Nabla symbol is the Greek Letter Delta only inverted so that it appears upside down. Its name comes from the Phoenician harp shape, though its also called the “Del”. A musical connection is exactly what Toby would do. But its main use is in mathematics, where it is a mathematical notation to represent three different operators which make equations infinitely easier to write. These equations are all concerned with what is called Physical Mathematics. That is... Mathematics that calculate and have to do with measuring the physical world. Why is that relevant? Well the difference between humans and monsters is that humans have physical bodies while monsters are made primarily of magic. Well I also discovered that the Delta symbol for the ancient Greeks was sometimes used to as an abbreviation for the word  δύση , which meant the West in the compass points. West, westerly, sunset, twilight, nightfall, dusk, darkness, decline, end of a day. All this symbolism for a couple of triangles. There’s entire books devoted to them. And he calls the whole symbol, deltas and angel alike, the Delta RUNE. Whats a rune? Well a rune is a letter, but specifically a letter from the writing of one of the Germanic Languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet. Interestingly... the Greek Letter Delta does NOT qualify as a Rune. In any stretch of the word. I searched for hours. What I DID find was the etymological origins of the word Rune. It comes from a Proto-Germanic word “rūnō“ which means something along the lines of “whisper, mystery, secret,  secret conversation, letter”. Interesting. So since its paired up with the Delta... it could be taken to mean “The Secret of the Delta” or “The Delta’s Secret”. If we make a few assumptions we might even get something like “The Secret of the West” or “The Mystery of the Twilight” or numerous other variations that have different connotations. It’s conjecture, certainly, and possibly a few stretches. But it is certainly there to think about. My thoughts centered around the positioning of the letters. The idea that the one facing up represented Humanity, and the two ordinary Deltas were Monsters. With the Angel above them all. Or rather, SOMETHING above them all. We have no proof that the idea of an Angel existed before the Underground’s prophecy. I like to think it did because usually that sort of thing draws on previously existing beliefs and ideas. For all we know the symbol could represent an abstract idea that governed both monsters and humans. Like “Kill or be killed” or “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” or other basic idiomatic ideologies of that sort. Other than the realization that the Deltarune is older than the prophecy and the Underground, I didn’t have a concrete idea of what the Emblem actually means. Just a lot of theories and connective ideas. But there’s certainly a lot to be found. I don’t really know how much thought Toby actually put into this, but he’s quite well known for secrets within secrets. So its possible he knew all this going in. If he’s anything like me, and I am notorious for writing this sort of twisting references within references within references into my stories, then he’s probably at least aware of an existing connection. Its quite probably that the Deltarune is exactly what Gerson tells us. An emblematic set of symbols that is used to represent the continuing Kingdom of Monsters and has been since before written history. But as he says... its so old that it might have had a different meaning originally, whatever idea the Monsters wanted to remember, wanted to uphold enough to use it for their royal family and their kingdom, a reminder. Of something, or someone.

[regrettablewritings]

Podcasts, Youtubes, and TV Shows to Distract Yourself With Because Why Not, and Also Because I Wanna Blab About Some of These

Since I can’t go to work and horrify my coworkers/make them realize I’m a mess and/or nerd by telling them about the type of media I’m into, I’m foisting my recommendations on all of y’all who choose to read this. I frankly do not care how many people have actually heard of these things because I’m also sure there’s plenty of people who, like me, are very slow and oblivious to entertainment, or who have heard of the property but were never that convinced.

Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts

Type: TV series

200 years after a mysterious yet earth-shattering event, much of humanity has taken to living beneath the surface in communities called burrows, wherein life goes on, if effected somewhat by the bizarre fauna that exists above them (referred to as “mutes”, short for “mutant”). One burrow girl, Kipo, founds her world turned almost literally inside-out when she finds herself not only separated from her father and the only world she’s ever known, but on the surface, no less. What ensues is her trying to find her way back home with the help of a stony-faced little girl with a massive chip on her shoulder; a music enthusiast and his literal gadfly friend; and some . . . unusual allies that only an oblivious optimist like Kipo could make. All to a kickass soundtrack, a beautiful backdrop of art, and a world where animals have basically evolved into gangs under a looming threat known as Scarlemagne. If you can’t already tell, I love this series to bits and now is the perfect time for people to get into it and encourage another season of it. Just . . . don’t think too hard that whatever happened to cause the Event in the show happened in October 2020 . . .

Available on: Netflix

My Dad Wrote a Porno

Type: Podcast

This should go without saying, but this podcast is definitely meant for more mature audiences. Or somebody with a strong stomach. Not that it’ll always be easy to tell with the type of content this series gives. When Jamie Morton’s father handed him his manuscripts for his self-published books, he had no idea he was being given a pinnacle of a polished turd: It was erotica. Really, really, really bad erotica. But the ear’s trash is the heart’s pleasure with this bad girl, as Jamie enlists the company of friends Alice and James to provide commentary on “Rocky Flintstone”’s series Belinda Blinked, a drama chronicling the sexcapades of Belinda Blumenthal as she climbs the ladders (and men and women) both in and out of the cut-throat world of pots and pans sales. What follows is a goldmine of awkward metaphors, strange bedmates, and just an overall stampede of whiplashing events that somehow exceed expectations. Listen in if you dare . . . And make sure you’re in good company for it. Fun Fact, though: Daisy Ridley, Ben Barnes, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michael Sheen, Mara Wilson, Elijah Wood are but a few well-known fans of this series! Nobody is safe . . .

Available on: Wherever podcasts can be found

Lore

Type: Podcast

Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. And what better way to be reminded of that, then to have the dulcet tones of Aaron Mahnke tell you about the lighthouse incident that the 2016 movie The Lighthouse was loosely inspired by? Suffice to say, this podcast could also be interpreted with some advised discretion, but definitely in a way that’s different from My Dad Wrote a Porno. In the centuries humankind has existed, we’ve managed to create a menagerie of beasts, both fictional and in ourselves. Lore explores all the many different kinds of events and persons and creatures we have to offer. In any given episode, we could be talking about anything from the bizarre story of a lady who convinced 18th century physicians that she was giving birth to rabbits, to something more disturbing like the life of H.H. Holmes. Or something as relatively innocuous as the relationship between gremlins and flight. Regardless of the subject, however, you’ll definitely walk away knowing something new, if bizarre. And perhaps slightly terrifying.

Available on: Wherever podcasts can be found

The Amelia Project

Type: Podcast

Congratulations: You have been made aware of The Amelia Project. If you’re not interested in this, exit the page. Now. If you continue, there’s no unhearing it. Good choice! A new interest awaits. If you don’t enjoy it, please consider the whole thing a hoax. Okay but in all seriousness, there’s no way to do The Amelia Project justice in just a simple description. The plot sounds quite simple, really: People want to disappear and start a new life, The Amelia Project is there to help – with a price. And that’s if you can actually get a hold of them! What really makes the show, however, are the people and the writing, and I’m not just talking about the almost childlike Interviewer with an obsession for hot cocoa. I’m talking about the clientele: I’m talking about the macabre-obsessed theme park owner who’s out for revenge; the cult leader who’s in way over his head; a Santa impersonator stuck in a miserable marriage with his own manager; an actual podcast character trying to outrun his creators. And obviously this would all be nowhere without the spectacular writing! I really can explain this series without blabbing on and potentially spoiling things; The Amelia Project is an experience!

Available on: Wherever podcasts can be found

LegalEagle

Type: Youtube channel

To be frank, I just like learning for the sake of learning, even if I may not always necessarily understand the topic or have any plans to use it in the foreseeable future. The big difference here being that at least this channel makes learning about the law fun and breaks it down. Headed by a certified lawyer (because what an age we live in, where professionals actually take time out of their lives to teach us common folk), there’s a multitude of series D.J. Stone uses to help break down the complex world of law, from reviewing the realism of procedural favorites (Law & Order, The Good Wife, HTGAWM, etc), to analyzing real-life situations, to even watching childhood media that has nothing to do with the law and determining how much money, say, Willy Wonka would owe in a lawsuit. In short, it is one of my worst subjects done in one of my favorite ways to learn! Plus, Stone hates business students and is perfectly willing to poke fun at law students so it’s all fun, frankly.

Available on: Youtube

Nando v Movies

Type: Youtube channel

Sometimes, movies are bad. Sometimes, they’re good. And sometimes, they could use a few adjustments in hindsight. Especially the nerdier movies where the directors may or may not have tried way too hard or way too little. And that’s where Nando comes in: Whether it’s explaining why a different villain might have worked better for a hero’s origin story movie, or analyzing how one seemingly small adjustment could’ve potentially made more sense in explaining characterization, this channel is always providing a new perspective on a movie or show you’ve probably seen and maybe weren’t necessarily too pleased with. (Or maybe you were – I enjoyed Justice League okay but I love the version he rewrote more.) Oh, yeah: Sometimes he does rewrites of movies or even series. So if you’re anything like me and you’re way into that, this is a channel you don’t want to miss out on.

Available on: Youtube

DEATH BATTLE!

Type: Youtube channel

Does anyone remember Deadliest Warrior? No? . . . How about that one time during lunch where you and your friend got into it over who would win in a death match between Superman and Goku? Good news: A buncha geeks did the math for you and have come out with the results! Specifically, hosts Wiz and Boomstick have analyzed the weapons, armor, and skills of each combatant in every episode, resulting in an ongoing series of absolute nonsense and satiation of bloodshed. The description is admittedly nothing crazy, but the amount of detail applied is honestly where it’s at: From calculating how loud Black Canary’s screams are to approximating Scrooge McDuck’s speed (I’m not kidding you), there’s actual thought put into the characters being assembled and how they might fair with their respective combatant. And it all comes together for an actual fight, often animated but always amazing. So if you’ve ever wondered if Thor could beat Wonder Woman, or if McGruff the Crime Dog stands a chance against Smokey the Bear (I’m…I’m being honest), then this is the show for you!

Available on: Youtube

Sideways

Type: Youtube channel

If there is music in that movie or show, it will be analyzed to a degree that, unless you’ve been trained in music, you would’ve probably never thought about. There isn’t necessarily much rhyme or reason to Sideways’ videos in terms of themes beyond music, but really, must they? Is it not enough that this man is screaming to the internet these wack and awesome trends he’s noticed in certain pieces associated with movies and musicals and the genius behind them? Could life not just be him explaining the symbolism of the instruments associated with the Crystal Gems of Steven Universe, or breaking down the cultures explored by way of the Black Panther soundtrack? Also, here’s a fun drinking game: Take a shot every time he mentions leitmotifs or the Dies Irae.

Available on: Youtube

Craig of the Creek

Type: TV show

In the woods of suburban Maryland, there exists a kid’s utopia: A place where horse girls are free to roam the fields, where a boy can be a king of garbage, and where children travel the sewers completely unsupervised. That is, until the dinner horn rings; then they have to go home until the next time they can return to The Creek. The show focuses on one specific trio (Craig, JP, and Kelsey) as every day, The Creek (and their own childish naivete) brings them new hijinks to experience. There’s a blissful lightheartedness to the show, in addition to a lot of creativity that feels like it was ripped straight out of your own imagination as a child (robots made from cardboard boxes, building portals using lights, etc). But beneath it all, there’s something just plain wild brewing. I don’t want to spoil anything, but CotC has some G-rated GOT shit going on the further along the series goes and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds!

Available on: CN app, wcostream.com

And that’s probably enough for now, I think. Lemme know if you want any other suggestions, or how you’re findin’ ‘em if you take any of them up! Stay safe, stay healthy my dudes!

[shazos]

Undertale/Deltarune Theory: The Two Angels of The Prophecy

Since I’ve been playing Deltarune as of late, I thought I would share some very compelling details I’ve noticed in game that have been rolling around in my mind lately...

 This is a theory pertaining both Undertale AND Deltarune, because I found connections between both of them interestingly enough. To start my theory off: I will begin with the very prominent theme in Deltarune of religion. There appears to be a strange emphasis on how religious the home town of Deltarune is, with everyone worshipping some deity called “The Angel.”

  It seems to be done in such a manner, that it is building up that the town is worshipping some false God of sorts. The town itself feels very…off. A very ominous vibe to it, especially with the very creepy bunker to the south of town as well.

The question is.. who is this Angel..? To answer this question, we will have to dig deeper. Another notable theme in Deltarune, is that many items found in the Light World—represent places and people in the Dark World. It mirrors it, essentially.

In the light world school closet, the cards on the floor represent the card suite inhabitants/card castle. The plush doll represents Seam, etc. Additionally, the red horns in Kris’s house could symbolically represent Ralsei’s presence, with his little red horns. 

However... even more interesting enough, is that in the town hospital can be found two angel dolls. One— that was made by Kris and Asriel, where they “wasted the whole time making big wings for it.”

 And the other, which was made by Noelle and her friend—looked like a typical angel doll, only “it’s lack of facial features was unsettling.” 

This appears to be clear symbolism for two different characters/angels... but whom? The first one, I believe matches the description of Asriel’s final form in Undertale perfectly: it has a rather disproportionate body, with huge over-sized, magnificent wings. 

Additionally, Asriel’s final form matches up with the Deltarune of Gerson’s prophecy, with each part of his angel body aligning with the runes. Gerson also mentions an Angel in his prophecy, saying that it will free everyone from the underground—which Asriel does at the end of Undertale, with the power of the seven souls. 

Then... who is the second angel, who is symbolically represented in the hospital? An angel we haven’t seen yet, but likely will at the end of Deltarune. Based off the evidence/implications given, I believe it is Gaster. 

To begin, the second angel doll is described with a lack of features that makes it unsettling—which is very reminiscent of Gaster. 

To build upon this, the angel of Undertale—Asriel— plays a focal point in Undertale’s story. He is not shown until the very end of the game, with the true ending, and is very mysterious at first. On top of this, many.. many songs in Undertale have the leitmotifs of Asriel’s theme: HIS theme. 

Meanwhile, Deltarunes soundtrack is heavily focused around Lietmotifs of Gasters theme, with the intro song being called ANOTHER HIM... Another angel, if you will. This implies that he is going to play a heavy role in the story, which is very much seen on the surface level of Deltarune—with the involvement of the “strange knight” as well as the subtext with Jevils backstory, having met a man that made his vision of the world grow “Darker, yet darker” and made him go insane, as told by the tale Seam the shopkeeper tells the protagonist. 

Additionally, the very first castle we see in the game--(not card castle, mind you) has wings on it... much akin to an angel’s, and is spewing a dark fountain forth from it. 

At the end of the chapter of Deltarune, Susie shows clear concern that they did not get rid of the right fountain. One fountain—the original, brought the dark world its life. The other, an unnatural source of darkness to upset the balance. And Ralsei, strangely enough, eagerly directed Kris to get rid of the Card Castle fountain—not the one coming from the Angel’s castle. The Angel’s Castle is also an empty kingdom, with no subjects.. except Ralsei. 

But who is the king? Nobody knows… And a very foreboding music plays in the castle town, adding to the mystery of it. Ralsei, who is quite suspicious enough as it is, (might go into this further in another theory later) will not let Kris inside the castle, stating that Kris must save the world/complete the prophecy first... and then they can come back. Ralsei acts very nervous and distraught when Kris keeps trying to enter the castle, and blocks him from going in. He then shuts Kris out of the kingdom gates, barring him off from going back inside--sinisterly enough. 

Additionally, the plot of Deltarune is based off the prophecy, to “banish the Angels heaven”. This makes the Angel seem like a very malicious figure...but why? What are the Angels motives, and what is the “Angels heaven..?” Well, if you talk to Gerson in Undertale, he says an interesting bit of dialogue that could be interpreted a bit differently with my context/point of view. One could argue that he is talking about “the angel of hyper death”, Asriel, when he says the Angel of death, but I believe it not to be the case. 

Gerson states the following: 

“Lately, the people have been taking a bleaker outlook…callin that winged circle the “Angel of Death”. 

A harbringer of destruction, and waitin to “free” us from this mortal realm…”

This seems like a much more sinister view of the Angel, and not like Asriel. Even though Asriel is very threatening, he is still pure of heart, and ends up saving all of Monsterkind in the end. The second angel however? Wants to “free” every one, and brings destruction in his wake. In Deltarune, we see much destruction and chaos being brought about by a strange “knight”, who appeared one day to take over the card kingdom and beyond, using the Chaos King to help him assert control. 

Seam also mentions that he hasn’t seen this much chaos, since the incident that occurred with Jevil—which implies that the stranger and the strange mysterious knight are one and the same. So, what then is the meaning of “free us from this mortal realm…?”, from Gerson’s prophecy of the second angel? Well, interestingly enough: in Deltarune Jevil mentions this line of dialogue in his boss fight, which lines up perfectly with Gerson’s dark prophecy:

 “I AM INNOCENT, INNOCENT. I JUST WANTED TO PLAY A GAME, GAME. BUT THE BORING KINGS FOUND SUCH FUN TO BE A TROUBLE. AS PUNISHMENT, THEY CRAVED TO IMPRISION MY BODY. THEY LOST THE CHASE, AND LOCKED UP THEIR ENTIRE RACE, BUILDING A PRISON AROUND THE WHOLE WORLD. NOW I’M THE ONLY FREE ONE”. 

This is extremely significant, because Jevil was made aware by the Knight that the world is only a game, and that he can become “free” by ignoring the rules of the game, if you will—to become sentient of the game itself. This matches up perfectly with Gaster: who after being shattered across time and space by falling into his creation, became aware that the world was all just a game. 

So why usurp the Dark World? Presumably, to make everyone aware that it is all just a game: to save them, from being stuck forever without choice. To make them free…done in a very twisted way of course, taking over the kingdom, locking up the rulers and all.

So why do this? After all he was a former scientist of Asgore’s in Undertale. This is where the symbolism comes in, that I noticed. Gaster seems to be a “fallen angel” of sorts. He was driven into madness after “falling” into his creation— after messing with the balance of things. What that is exactly, is unknown at this time. But it is implied that he discovered the presence of timelines, and tried to figure out how to manipulate them. 

This in a sense, was an act against nature/trying to defy god by trying to figure out the interworking’s of the world’s universe. 

Additionally, in Deltarune there is a repeated theme of a “shining light” that guides you—where you save your Soul at. In the bible, the fallen angel Lucifer, who defied God, is likewise represented with a “shining light”. In the files, Gaster is also associated with the number 666—which aligns with the prophecy of him being a dark, fallen angel. 

One could even argue his font/name Wingdings is symbolic, from the wing in the name. It isn’t a stretch to say that Toby got some inspiration from the Bible--he has gotten many inspirations from Undertale from various sources, including Asriel’s symbolism from a Hebrew god/demon named Azrael.

To add unto this theory that links both Asriel and Gaster together as being both angels, is that both were striken by tragedy. Asriel was killed at a very young age, and is forever stuck in an endless purgatory in the body of a flower. Meanwhile, Gaster was forgotten by everyone, including the ones he held closest, and was shattered across time and space. Both characters are implied to have been driven to madness because of this, but with Asriel having a bit more heart/sympathy to him in the very end, (due to having the power of the human Souls to feel compassion again) and freeing all of monsterkind out of a deep care for Frisk.

 Gaster on the other hand…? Seems to be a lot more unforgiving, and much more threatening, seen by his heavily implied actions in Deltarune, taking over kingdoms without mercy, and establishing his power in the Dark World. 

Another notable feature between the two characters, is that they both have black markings on their faces, stretching down from their eyes—(Asriel’s markings are seen during his final boss fight.) What are these? Well…one datamined detail (sourced from the Deltarune reddit) from Deltarune might be the answer to this question.

Both Asriel and Gaster have gone through incredible suffering, so this “pain” could have essentially manifested into the black markings, similar to tears. In the beginning of Deltarune, with the player’s encounter with the narrator/ Gaster, (or at the very least heavily implied...he speaks in the exact same manner) he asks the player what their favorite food is. Two answers, that immediately stand out as strange and bizarre—are pain, and cold—which at first glance is just an off the wall comment/dialogue option, but upon second glance gives us a window into what he has gone through—painful suffering, much like Asriel did, on a plane of existence where they could do nothing. Both characters also have committed horrible actions, due to their fall into madness, (Asriel as Flowey, being stuck in a soulless vessel for ages,) and Gaster, due to existential madness from realizing the entire world is just a game, presumably overthrew an entire kingdom to “free” everyone.

 (Almost forgot--) Additionally, another piece of dialogue which links together the Knight and the Angel being one and the same—is a dialogue seen from the Chaos King/Spade King himself. During the battle with him—he mentions multiple times how he obeys the word of the Knight, and with him he shall make a “new world out of Holy Shadows”, which backs up my theory even more, that the folks of the Light world are worshiping a false idol, a dark angel to destroy them all.

Sound familiar...?

I believe this is made all the more likely with Undertale being a mirror to Deltarune and vice versa—it would make all the more sense that each game would have an Angel character, considering each deals with a prophecy containing the Deltarune. One Angel of Light, and one of Dark.

EDIT: Here are some additional findings that make this come all together even more.

*In Undertale, every zone’s monsters reflect the boss monster of the area. (The monsters in Alphys zone are all anime related. The ones in Undyne’s zone are all muscular/into piano like her, etc...) the only area in the game that doesn’t make sense is Mettaton’s zone in the Core. The mobs don’t suit him at all: except when you realize that he wasn’t meant to be the true boss of the Core in the first place, since Alphys made him. If Gaster hadn’t died/become shattered across time and space, he would have been the likely boss monster of that area. What is notable, is that all of the enemies of the Core are primarily knights, mad, some of them use crosses as attacks, have wings, one of them uses a “Morningstar” as a weapon, (possible reference to Lucifer Morningstar) and you have to defeat some of the monsters by “praying”. Not symbolizing Mettaton at all—but rather Gaster, showing that the foreshadowing seen in Deltarune is indeed likely correct.

*The egg in Deltarune is a possible reference to the tale of Adam and Eve, as it aligns very well. A mysterious figure tempts someone behind a tree with a “fruit of knowledge”. Kris is offered the egg by “him”, presumably Gaster. Taking the egg to the Light-World doesn’t change it like all the other items in the game—it still exists in the Light-World—showing the forbidden knowledge that the world is all just a game. Even though it is a secret/not accessed by usual means, the egg is additionally a key item—that might prove more important by the end of the game.

[lotus-mirage]

episode 43 liveblog

so I accidentally procrastinated on some things. but they’re all done now and I can get back to this, huzzah!

Okay I’m actually grateful for this exposition/monologue because it is clearing some things up

Oh! Have we heard this music before?

Yeah Lan Xichen’s loyalty kind of continues to be readable as romantic feelings honestly

This is pretty rough on him huh

Big conversation coming up?

Right, the scars... yeesh, likely to be a touchy subject

the Wens :,(

Why is everything on fire

Wait I thought this guy was dead. Is this not Jin Zixun?

‘You are not qualified to talk to me.’ AAHHHHHHHHHHH HOLY CRUD GET HIM

Right, right, Su She. I see now.

... What is Jin Guangyao implying here? That Lan Wangji would aid him in bunkering down here?

I think I’m a little unclear on the timeline here - after the Wens turned themselves in but before the big confrontation? Why would LWJ’s uncle be displeased with him, then? Didn’t he only fight against the others during that last battle?

Nope, I guess he fought them at the burial mounds! What was he doing??

What

300

300 lashes. And 3 years of house arrest, essentially!!?

Wait doesn’t a ‘lash’ imply flexibility? This looks like a stick. Maybe a sharp stick, but... is this separate? Additional? I hope not.

D:

D,:

He has the nerve to say that he’s disappointed. Not enough to force a conversation like this, or reprimand him.

D,:<

He believed in him. D,:

With the implication of background lore on the location ‘silence room’ is now a bit worrying

...those are some really bad implications for parenting capabilities. Or even their ability to do so.

Their dad was isolating himself for years!? Their mother lived in a house like it was a prison!?

She didn’t love him back. That’s. Not good for a married couple, unless that changed before the marriage.

She killed one of his teachers!?

I. How did this marriage happen? It sounds like only one person wanted it, and maybe not even enough to stick around for it.

He locked her up??? It wasn’t a stipulation or anything?????

And what was he repenting for? Possibly marrying someone against their will? Or going against the rules?

I can’t tell who the child is but :,(

Oh that’s a parallel with the pre-Jin Zixuan’s death punishment scene, isn’t it. D,:

He fell asleep there

Oh, she died? D,:

He kept going!! And waiting there!!

Okay first of all, ouch, LWJ really loves him so much. Second of all, I was taken very much off guard when Lan Xichen just started playing his flute all of a sudden. Seemed a bit abrupt.

That’s true, but a kind of an melancholic outlook on identity/self versus perception. :,(

He. He brought alcohol with him. :,)

Awwwww

This scene is so sweet

LWJ looks so tired without his hair up

Wait, the second flautist was there at the pass? When Jin Zixuan was killed? Yikes.

Wait, when did he talk to Wen Ning????

This music is so interesting! There’s the easily recognizable leitmotif kind thing, but there also some weird undercurrent electric guitar sort of thing? For a moment, at least, now it sounds more like piano???Vaguely synth-y. It’s such a cool mix.

Oh that’s an interesting shot right there. WWX is out in the snow with his back to LWJ, who’s facing him from under the overhang.

This viewpoint that WWX is taking is also very melancholic, but true enough.

And now LWJ is playing the song, and I didn’t even notice when it shifted. Very nice.

Also very sweet in the face of what WWX just was saying.

Two-person internal monologue set to the ending song. Wow.

Awwwwwww

Awwww, it’s Wen Qing’s words!!

AND THE VOCALS KICK IN

please, you can’t do this to me mid-episode.

Waiiiit a second whose hems are those.

Shoot it is Jin Guangyao.

Is this part of a plan, or??

Okay, again with the blend of electric guitar and more traditional instruments

Puppets heading towards the Burial Mounds - that’s certainly not good. The other flautist, maybe?

I feel like the screens set up aren’t very effective.

Okay, so the burial of Nie Mingjue seems like a trap.

That is a lot of rabbits.

Awwww

AWWWWWWW

They’re really just playing their in-universe romance song non-stop, aren’t they.

Oh! He got recognized through the song, then? Makes sense.

MIANMIAN!!!!!!

She’s got a family now!

Oh she’s still defending him, too. :’D

Wait, so did LWJ help her out then? Since she’s living so close by.

Okay that’s a fun thing to end on.

End notes:

I was not expecting to see Mianmian again! I’m so happy!

Although I did think about this for a bit longer and I think she may be the only named female character alive right now, aside from WWX’s mother’s teacher. Which: not great. But !! I’m glad to see her.

I’m a little confused on the timeline right now - when did all of the stuff with LWJ happen? When was he defending the Burial Mounds and why? I’d he was taken back after that and beaten, then where in the timeline did it fall?????

Pretty sure both the current situation with the Burial Mounds and the funeral thing for Nie Mingjue are traps.

I want to know what everybody else is doing!! Where’s Jiang Cheng? Wen Ning??

I’m hoping we get a little more elaboration on the Lan brother’s backstory, because I am fervently hoping that the situation wasn’t as bad as it sounds right now. Also because I just want to know more about it in general, frankly.

Also wondering if there are any more scenes with the baby Lans - seems weird to only have a couple (especially considering they had to make kid-sized clothes and cast actors for the part).

[thegoldenavenger]

i know someone has to have done this meta before but! spinel in the steven universe movie and duets!

spoilers for the su movie! (and a sentence spoiler for the su season 6 maybe)

first, she interrupts the crystal gems dueting, ending their song and not even attempting to harmonize with them. 

then, in who we are spinel tries to bring back steven’s (her best friend’s!) theme of “here we are in the future and everything is wrong” but she missed her cue.  steven is done with his pity party and has joined with bismuth, lapis and peridot.  spinel wants steven to be happy and have fun but she can’t quite understand how to do that.  she wants to join in with the singing but she missed the part where steven crosses over from point a (sad) to point b (ready to plan) and because she doesn’t have the development yet to understand growth and change.  

it’s noticeable that through the rest of the duets between steven and the crystal gems he’s trying to reform she doesn’t try to sing again. perhaps she took steven’s “we’re done singing now” as an order.  she is always trying to participate though, of course she is, as steven’s best friend. who doesn’t try and involve themselves in their friends’ lives? but she doesn’t know how to start a friendship, only how to be in one.  

that isn’t her fault obviously, since she has never had time to develop those skills.  a flash of her post!pink state comes back when steven tries to leave without her, an obvious trigger.  when steven and amethyst sing “no matter what” spinel patiently waits in the background of most shots, trying to get steven’s attention or having fun watching his accomplishments, but she does have a quick frown when steven reaches out to spin amethyst.   and it’s very noticeable that spinel isn’t in or is late to shots where steven and amethyst touch.  

still, as steven’s friend she shows a willingness to be amiable to steven’s other friends.  because you try and be nice to your friends’ other friends.  but she never tries to duet with any of them. even in who we are she tries to sing steven’s part. so she can sing with steven. she’s not interested in singing with the crystal gems, even if that’s the chorus he needs to hear, and even if that’s the only way to sing with him.

(spinel is very supportive of what steven wants to do! “you wanna climb it?” “you can do it steven!” even though she’d be enabling him, or putting him into a dangerous situation) 

it’s when independent together happens with pearl and fusions that really sets spinel off though.  seeing garnet fuse doesn’t bother her because sapphire and ruby aren’t steven.  she even likes garnet, the only gem she initiates touch with.  garnet is just as new and purposeless as her. a blank slate if you will.  

the greg & steven fusion hits spinel so hard for the same reason it hits pearl so hard! steven is no longer there to be her best friend.  garnet gets into the show because she’s learning how to be independent together but spinel does not know how to do that.  garnet flies off with lion, leaving spinel behind, again bringing up her original trauma.  there’s no room for her in the duet and she doesn’t even try. 

both steven and spinel’s arcs are about change. 

finally steven reaches out to spinel for spinel’s second song of the movie drift away which is almost a duet with pink--but spinel has to sing it alone.  there is no pink to duet with now.  spinel’s reversed-sounding theme perfectly encapsulates spinel’s inability to look forward, her stagnation and focus on the past. 

she finally gets a chance to duet with steven.  found is when steven and spinel finally sing together.  but they’re still very much not on the same page.  with notes of other friends in the undertones and spinel very much ignoring steven’s message with the song (namely that on earth spinel will have a chance to find someone else to heal with) to double down on best-friending steven. spinel still sings after the duet is over. 

and she very quickly bends over backwards to fit a betrayal into her mindset. she was there when steven found out he couldn’t store the rejuvinater in lion’s mane. but that’s not relevant to her regression, so she makes up a story that validates her anger. 

incidentally, it’s sweet that she sets up the puzzle pieces for steven to help garnet remember truth, since garnet is the only gem spinel sort of liked. though she quickly throws that away, since garnet was never spinel’s real friend anyways. 

spinel once again does not try to duet with garnet, even though garnet is directly addressing her with the lyrics in true kind of love.  “stuck in the middle of fear and shame / everybody’s looking for someone to blame / like it’s a game” 

that’s a direct call back to spinel’s “i’m the looser of the game you didn’t know you were playing!” and also the building blocks of spinel’s and steven’s battle with the “i dont want to play” “it’s not a game” “i came here to take my anger out on a bunch of strangers” it’s a perfect opening for spinel to duet with, even if it’s more antagonist singing but she will not.  

“and now i am better than win-or-loose / there’s a new direction that i’d like to choose” is direct set up for steven’s and spinel’s main conflict. that is: needing to change. 

i havent touched on it yet, but the beginning of the movie is complete antithesis to the themes of steven universe: changing. everything changes, what makes earth amazing is that everyone grows and changes.  steven opens the movie up by saying he wished everything would stay the same.  spinel grants him that wish. 

in change steven is also explicitly opening his song up for spinel to join in! but she can’t make a change.  she says it herself “when i change i change for the worse!” she is terrified of change, she has no faith in herself.  after venting her anger, spinel finally sees that she doesn’t know how to really be friends with someone.  

no body ever said spinel was pink’s friend.  just her playmate.  steven was the only person she had a chance to be friends with.  and she kind of messed that up.  

now she realizes she needs focus on herself before trying to insert herself into steven’s life.  

in come the diamonds! obviously the movie ends with bookends! the diamonds singing let us adore you to steven.  they’re all harmonizing together, showing that theyre actually working together now and communication.  very different from the forced synchronization white diamonds made happen with her brilliance.  

now when they sing let us adore you (reprise) spinel gets her duet. her parts of found fit in perfectly with the new let us adore you and she effortlessly switches parts, as do the diamond trio. i know a lot of people had (valid) issues with the diamonds just picking up spinel but in context of the musical cues in the movie it really works 

finale is of course the final bookend to the movie, steven’s leitmotif and here we are in the future shining very clearly.  in a huge bombastic final musical number, again it’s very obvious that spinel isn’t included.  neither are the diamonds, for that matter. because none of them know how to actually get a long with steven!

(that makes it very cool that she’s in the su6 intro, because it implies she and the diamonds have grown and changed and are now able to get a little closer to steven!!

[gffa]

I practically read through the entirety of the STAR WARS Rare Pair 2018 Exchange and, jeez, this fandom just has its hooks in me so hard, I love these characters and this world and the wonderful creativity of the fandom! I may often go back to the same tropes that I always love, but there’s also always something new and interesting, some new corner to explore, some new character or relationship to give focus to, some new AU to help fix things. And fandom is really great about giving me the things I want to read a hundred times over and finding cool new things! So, here, have some both! STAR WARS FIC RECS: TIME TRAVEL RECS: ✦ Asajj Ventress and Her Tiny Time-Travelling Conscience by shadowsong26, asajj & luke & cast, 2.4k wip    We all love time travel fics, right? Here’s one with Luke. Tiny, precious, ten-year-old Luke. Who accidentally travels back in time to the last year/year and a half of the Clone Wars. And lands on Ventress. PREQUELS RECS: ✦ Red Sky at Morning by darth_vaporwave, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & yoda & plo & quinlan & luminara & cast, 16.8k    Master Ahsoka’s off on a short mission without Obi-Wan, which suits Anakin just fine. There’s something up with Obi-Wan. That last mission he went on by himself, where he got hurt, really took something out of him, and Anakin’s going to figure out what it is. But first, he’s got to figure out why their filing project went so wrong… ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, mace & cast, ~1k    Mace scrubs a hand across his face, trying to keep a clear head even as the council meeting drags on. ✦ Punch-Drunk by bell (belldreams), obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka, ~1k    “Am I the only one who’s not gone punch-drunk over fruit?!” Anakin explodes. ✦ Precipice by shadowsong26, anakin & padme & obi-wan & luke & leia & bail & ahsoka & rex & cast, 165.3k wip    An AU in which Anakin Skywalker does not follow Mace Windu and the others to Palpatine’s office after they leave to arrest the Chancellor. As a result, he doesn’t get that final push over the edge, and doesn’t Fall. ✦ Dance Softly Through by Lady_Katana4544, ahsoka/barriss & cast, 3.3k    She’s still reeling from the parasite in her mind and confused about her feelings towards Ahsoka. Barriss hasn’t known the other Padawan long, but she wants to get to know Ahsoka more if they ever have a chance. ✦ Leitmotif by FireflyFish, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka, 2.2k    Anakin can hear music that no one else can. Some of it is beautiful. Some of it haunting. But his music? His music is terrifying. ✦ Chosen, not assigned by Lysore, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka, 2.2k    “It looks like our problems are solved. Fresh troops, new supplies, and perhaps they brought my new Padawan with them,” Obi-Wan had said. Though there seemed to be a misunderstanding regarding the identity of the Master of said Padawan. ✦ The Last Jedi by FireflyFish, obi-wan & palpatine & cast, 2.3k    “The dark is generous and it is patient and it always wins – but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back.” - Revenge of the Sith ✦ To Traverse the Center of Your Heart by JumpingJill, mon/padme & obi-wan & bail & cast, 6.1k    Padmé survives giving birth to the twins. Mon has a front row seat to the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. Somehow, they continue. ✦ Hearing by Bythoseburningembers, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka, 11.4k wip    Takes place immediately after Crisis on Naboo, and follows Anakin and Obi-wan as they try to heal a broken friendship in the face of lies and a never-ending war. ✦ Every hand’s a winner by MirandaTam, adi & han & qi'ra, 1.6k    Corellia has more than its fair share of troubles. Adi Gallia has more than her fair share of headaches. ✦ Raising Up Hope by dreamiflame, obi-wan/padme, 1.5k    Family is what you make of it. Padmé, Obi-Wan and the twins are trying to make it work. ✦ Stitches and Time by ladyarcherfan3, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & ocs, 4k    Alara Nel is a seamstress who keeps getting an unusually large number of orders for Jedi robes from an Obi-Wan Kenobi. Over the years, she learns why and gets to know the Jedi a little bit better. ✦ Balance Point by Vinyarie, anakin & ahsoka, 6.3k wip    Ahsoka wakes up trapped beneath the rubble of the Sith temple on Malachor with the man currently known as Darth Vader. He’s a Sith lord who has done some truly awful things, but she’s certain that some part of him is still Anakin Skywalker, and she’s going to convince him of that. No matter how many times he tries to kill her for it. ✦ Refuge by Ljparis, rainydayadvocate, obi-wan/padme, 2k    On Mustafar, Padmé takes matters into her own hands. Obi-Wan is there for her when the dust settles. ✦ The Pleasures of Life by AngelQueen, obi-wan/padme, NSFW, 6.2k    During her early months as a Senator, an irritating soirée takes an interesting, unexpected turn for Padmé. ✦ Along Our Twisted Path by ambiguously, anakin/ahsoka & cast, nsfw, 12.5k    Ahsoka steps out of the World Between Worlds, but not into the galaxy she remembers. ✦ Difference in Degrees by maebmad, obi-wan/anakin/padme (pre-relationship?) & ahsoka & rex & cast, 8.6k wip    An anthology of stories in a universe that is both better and worse than the one we know, in various ways. It is difficult to sort each part into good and bad, after all, when everything is so often both. Evil is not created overnight. Empires are not built in a day. Good intentions don’t guarantee righteous acts. ✦ he will tear your city down by collegefangirl3791, obi-wan & cast, 11.8k wip    Obi-Wan planned to keep a low profile on Tatooine, after Order 66. He was there to protect Luke, and that was all. ✦ Getting to Know You by ambiguously, thrawn/padme, 2.8k    Padmé has agreed to this. That doesn’t mean she’s happy about it. ✦ Let My Second Love Be Kind by nichestars, obi-wan/padme & cast, 3.1k    When Padmé holds her children in her arms for the first time, she thinks: This is the fewest number of beings with which I have been entrusted since I was twelve years old. ✦ Wedding Braids by skatzaa, bail/breha, 1.7k    Breha meets her reflection’s gaze. She was right: the glow from her pulmonodes turns her dress from pink fabric into a living sunset. But she hadn’t anticipated the way the light would catch on the loops and curls of her wedding braids as they cascade over her shoulders. ✦ Warm me up by Ljparis, bail/breha, 3.1k    After enjoying a brisk winter hike in the mountains of Alderaan, Bail and Breha get trapped at the Antilles’ family cabin during a snowstorm. ✦ The Very Best of Acquaintances by Skyberrie (LyaStark), bail/breha, 1.5k    It wasn’t love at first, second, or even twentieth sight for Bail and Breha. But they managed to get there just the same. OBI-WAN/ANAKIN RECS: ✦ Each Day Is Your Last by Nisa, obi-wan/anakin & mace & dex, NSFW, 15.4k    I have always wanted to write what really happened after the Poster Boy scene in ROTS. ✦ Don’t Let This End by SoftlyFocused, obi-wan/anakin & cast, NSFW, 4.9k    Anakin is frustrated by how devastatingly handsome Obi-Wan looks at one of Padmé’s political parties, he gets drunk to cope. Obi-Wan is frustrated with how needy and demanding Anakin has been, he gets drunk to punish him. Both of them really need to release some tension after this seemingly endless war. ✦ Miasma by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & rex & cody & fives & kix & cast, sith!obi-wan, 12.6k wip    Obi-Wan never believed his best friend and lover Anakin would die first. But he has. ✦ Nice to Meet You Again by darlingamidala, obi-wan/anakin/padme, soul mates, 3.3k    A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, three people met, and fell into a love so deep that it bound their very souls together for all eternity. ✦ To Be Found by darlingargents, obi-wan/anakin/padme, 7.1k    When Anakin and Obi-Wan are caught during a battle and imprisoned alone for weeks, it leads to some revelations. From Coruscant, Padmé, with the help of Ahsoka, is tracking them down ��� and coming to some realizations of her own. ✦ A Gift for the Hurting by by Petralice, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 1.9k    I’m not even gonna try to be fancy here; this is self-indulgent Obikin smut. They’re banging, folks. ✦ Bedroom Hymns by JediMistress, obi-wan/anakin, nsfw, spanking, bondage, bdsm, d/s, 10.9k wip    Anakin Skywalker is a young student with some kinky interests, and his search for a Dom leads him to Obi-Wan, a former professional. Obi-Wan has retired, but their purely professional kinky relationship changes the lives of both men. How long can they keep it professional? And what happens when they start falling for each other? ✦ 36 Questions by thelivingcontradiction, obi-wan/anakin, 24.9k wip    In a study by psychologist Arthur Aron, they found that strangers would fall in love when asked to answer 36 questions together. ✦ Exile Vilify by nessa_j, obi-wan/anakin, nsfw, 1.4k    Anakin struggles with the horrors of war, Obi-Wan tries to offer comfort. ✦ feening by mexicanfood420, obi-wan/anakin & padme & cast, 15k wip    Anakin Skywalker, an angsty mess of hormones and resentment, is thrust elegantly into the hands of temptation, and is expected to turn down every little thing he’s ever desired. ✦ The Blessed by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin/padme, soul mates, 1.4k    Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker can see something few others can, a special gift the Force gives only to those with a soulmate: color. ✦ Saber’s Hilt by lovelykenobi, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 2.3k    Anakin’s a boy with a mouth and a sassy attitude. Obi-Wan reacts accordingly. ORIGINAL TRILOGY RECS: ✦ whatever a sun will always sing is you by victoria_p (musesfool), luke & leia & cast, 2.2k    Leia has a lot of things to do, but first, she needs to speak with Luke. ✦ Edges of the World by glompcat, leia & luke & anakin & padme & han & ahsoka & ventress & sana & bail & breha & obi-wan & cast, 228.4k wip    Leia Organa finds herself stuck in a strange alternate/parallel universe where the Empire never came to exist. Meanwhile, trying to navigate a galaxy ruled by the Sith weren’t exactly the Jedi Trials Leia Skywalker had expected. ✦ If That Mockingbird Won’t Sing by ambiguously, obi-wan/beru, 3.1k    Obi-Wan brings Luke to the Lars homestead only to discover Owen Lars isn’t there any more. ✦ Gingerbread Cottage All Covered in Sweets by ambiguously, luke/leia & anakin, NSFW, dark themes, 7.1k    Luke will do anything for Leia, even if it means seducing her to the Dark Side. ✦ Bedtime Stories by kurage_hime, obi-wan & leia & cast, 1.1k    Prompt: Leia being so madly in love with tales of Obi-Wan Kenobi and crushin’ so hard on him IS MY JAM. Doesn’t have to be requited, or happen irl (I don’t mind if it does). ✦ Only In Memory by rainydayadvocate, han/qi'ra & han/leia (sort of implied) & cast, 2.4k    Han, Leia, Luke, and Chewie are on sent on a fuel supply run, and Han suspects the supplier is someone from his past, someone that probably belongs there. ✦ Contentment by WritLarge, obi-wan/owen/beru & luke, ~1k    Both Owen and Beru had harangued him once they’d determined that he was harmless, relatively speaking. When tempting him with kindness and physical comfort hadn’t worked, Beru had begun guilting Ben. ✦ Truth by ambiguously, obi-wan/beru/owen & cast, 4.2k    Kenobi brings Beru and Owen a child to raise. ✦ Midnight by lilyconrad, obi-wan/luke, 1.1k    A gentle moment between two twined in the Force, set just before A New Hope begins. ✦ φοῖνιξ by ambiguously, luke/leia, 1.8k    Everything in Luke’s life has burned to ash. REBELS RECS: ✦ Four Doors by veritascara, hera & mon & cast, 10.8k    Hera and the Ghost crew return to Yavin IV, where she must confront tough decisions about what her future will look like. ✦ Speculation by Nana, zeb/kallus & ap-5, 1k    “AP-5,” Kallus said, “are you under the impression that Captain Orrelios and I are involved, romantically?” “It is common knowledge at the base, sir. You don’t have to deny it just because I am a droid.” ✦ roisters by spookykingdomstarlight, zeb/kallus, 1.8k    For once, he is willing to put aside his thoughts and act. “Garazeb,” he says, because he is the only one who calls Zeb by his full name and because he’s noticed the way Zeb’s fur ripples in pleasure after he says it and somewhere in the back of his mind he knows that means something. “A word?” SEQUELS RECS: ✦ We Met in Blood and Dust by lucymonster, leia/amilyn, 1.5k    Life is only ever a borrowed possession. Amilyn has borrowed twice now. ✦ never gonna get too close to you (even if it hurts) by bittersnake, luke/sana & finn & hux & cast, 2k    Sometimes death brings second chances. ✦ The storms are raging on a rolling sea by ambiguously, rey/phasma, nsfw, 5.2k    Rey is searching for an old Jedi temple and finds someone she was never expecting to see again. ✦ The Warm Sunlight by tspofnutmeg, rey, 1.5k    A Jedi knight, that’s what Rey is now. Well, she has been for a while, but she was hesitant to take on the title. FULL DETAILS + RECS HERE!

[metalgearkong]

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker - Review

12/20/19  ** Spoilers

Directed by JJ Abrams (Lucasfilm / Disney)

Among the current social media and the 24 hour advertisement cycle, if you wanted, its possible to piece together much of the plot of this movie, or any big blockbuster these days. Its for this reason I avoided every single piece of media about Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker before I saw it. Even when bombarded with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TV ads, and movie previews, I successfully dodged all snippets of the movie in order to be as surprised as possible once I sat down to see it. That night was tonight, and it’s felt like a long and arduous two years since The Last Jedi. Once again I have deeply mixed feelings about a new Star Wars movie, but I enjoyed myself more in The Rise of the Skywalker than I did in The Last Jedi, but not necessarily for shakesperian reasons.

The fans were worried about how The Rise of Skywalker would turn out, and as release day approached, reviews were already negative. I accidentally saw a Rottentomatoes critics score in the mid 20′s, and several videos were already uploaded to YouTube giving away that broad opinion of this film. This concerned me, as even critics liked The Last Jedi, which is one of my least favorite Star Wars movies. I let all of the negativity brush off me like a blaster bolt on Beskar armor. I went into The Rise of Skywalker rooting for it and looking to find every positive it could bring being the ninth main installment of the Star Wars saga. I was also ready for this trilogy to be over so everyone whining online could move on and obsess over something else. In an odd, semi-genuine, and semi-ironic way, I had tons of fun in The Rise of Skywalker, even acknowledging its horribly messy and rushed script.

Each of these Star Wars movies to me is like how a new chapter in the Bible would feel for a Christian, and the theater is my house of worship. The series’ trademark title blasted onto the screen among roaring trumpets, and I was ready. My auditorium applauded as the Star Wars logo shrunk to the background and the opening crawl appeared at the bottom of the screen. Seeing a new Star Wars movie in the theaters is always a holiday for me. Each film is a new addition to the lore of my favorite movie universe of all time, pulling from years as a kid before I can even remember the first time I saw it (thank you parents). This movie had me grinning from ear to ear, bringing out that inner child in me that Star Wars always used to do, something The Force Awakens partially did, and what The Last Jedi failed to do completely.

JJ Abrams continues his pension for fast paced scenes, but somehow still containing a ton of charm. We finally get to see Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), Chewie (Joonas Suotamo), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) all working together on the same mission. The characters have a ton of charisma between them, and it inspires me to think of the potential for them having been together more often in this trilogy. I enjoyed their quips and didn’t think it got out of control or relied too much on bathos. The first half of this movie moves like a racetrack, as our heroes move from one location to another pursued by the First Order enough to almost make me dizzy. This would turn out to be a running issue with the movie, and if JJ Abrams and the editor would have let each scene go a little slower and last a little longer, it would have been more appreciated.

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is the Supreme Leader of the First Order, having murdered and usurped Snoke (Andy Serkis) in the last film, and is on a personal quest to track down what may be the resurrection of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). The movie opens on this note, and having none of it spoiled ahead of time for me, found it to be intriguing and exciting. The Emperor is one of the best and most fleshed out characters in Star Wars, and I was curious to learn how he resurrected. Unfortunately the movie barely gives an explanation and we are simply left with the spectacle of what I call Necro Palpatine. However we do have it explained that Snoke was a mere puppet of Palpatine in some capacity, but we aren’t told to what extent, or any other kind of logical backstory. It both answers and raises more questions simultaneously, about both dark lords.

The Rise of Skywalker also goes out of its way in several places to help explain some of the more controversial elements of the prior film, and I appreciated it as a fan of the series who felt toyed with in The Last Jedi. It’s obviously a wink wink to the audience, but I’d much rather have it than not. Greatest of all was Luke (Mark Hamill) being redeemed, as he admitted he was not only wrong to go hide on the island, but toss his father’s lightsaber over his shoulder. The movie also tries to shoe-in more explanation of what Luke was doing after his Jedi Academy was destroyed, which included trying to find the Sith Wayfinder along with Lando Carissian (Billy Dee Williams). It’s not a great explanation of why Luke disappeared, and I wish this was clearly the plan from the beginning of the trilogy. The Wayfinder is basically a key to get to Exegol where Palpatine is hiding. It becomes Rey (Daisy Ridley) and her friend’s mission to find the Wayfinder, through various means and mcguffins. 

John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra returns one final time scoring a Star Wars movie. I heard a dozen of his old tracks throughout the film and I had fun naming as many as I could. For how much I love his leitmotifs and listen to his music ad noaseam, whether its giving me an emotional rush during a run or driving on the highway, I couldn’t recall any new music heard in this film. The first thing I did when I got home from the movie was try to download the soundtrack from Spotify but it wasn’t available yet. I still give this movie a big thumbs up for its soundtrack because although it isn’t new, the way Williams’ music is used and where it’s placed gave me goosebumps every time. Hearing Rey’s theme in just the right moments made me happy, and identifying other leitmotifs and variations of them were great to hear.

The acting all around was excellent for a Star Wars movie. Daisy Ridley as Rey is as great as she’s ever been, and the same goes to Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. All the side characters and comic relief did a good job as well. The banter between Finn, Poe, and C-3PO was a treat as well. Tony Daniels continues to be one of my favorite actors in all of Star Wars for conveying as much personality as he does without facial expressions and very limited movement. McDiarmid as Necro Palpatine gets very little screen time, but he’s hamming it up as the evil Emperor he’s always been, and I loved every second of it. I also deeply appreciate that the movie seemed to rely on puppets again, and one of the stand out side characters was a tiny engineer named Babu Frik (Shirley Henderson) who should have had more time in the movie.

The only “yikes” moment I felt was any time we saw Leia. It’s such a tragedy that Carrie Fisher passed away so unexpectedly, and least of all not able to finish this Star Wars trilogy. I listened to her audiobook The Princess Diarist and she seemed so excited, yet nervous, to be yet again the role that made her famous, and to complete episodes 7, 8, and 9. Her face seems to be animated on a stand-in actress, and her only lines were from old footage that was never used in Episode VII or VIII. This means Leia has very little to say in this movie, and probably had a lot less to do in the plot than she deserved to. The CGI simply wasn’t convincing for me and is the only aspect of the movie that put a lump in my throat for all the wrong reasons. On the flip side, Han Solo’s cameo was a terrific scene that also had me teary-eyed. It was a great call back to The Force Awakens, and served a purpose for Kylo Ren’s character. Harrison Ford did a perfect job, and it was just the sort of scene I didn’t know I wanted.

While much The Rise of Skywalker feels hastily cobbled together, and relies on way too many conveniences for the plot to keep moving, I found it to be a very satisfying time. You know that feeling when you’re extremely tired and almost feel drunk, and everything seems hilarious and flippant? That’s how I felt during this entire thing. I could see ridiculous script elements that either contradict or ruin lore left and right, but I think something inside me was just so happy to finally get this trilogy over with. I let the fan service envelop me even if it didn’t make sense or feel justified. Yes Rey is still a Mary Sue, yes we still got an underwhelming lightsaber duel (that she wins), yes there are too many characters, yes the plot and details can be nonsensical, yes this movie needed way more time to bake in the oven. But unlike a Jedi’s weapon, this movie may not be elegant, but it is a cathartic and satisfying experience, which is all I every hoped it would be. Now can we all take a breath and move on?

6/10

[marvelloussynergy]

REVIEW - Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo Screenplay: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely Running Time: 181 minutes Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper, Josh Brolin

Large-scale battles have always been a staple of the Avengers films. Last year’s Infinity War delivered several in the one film and concluded with a gut punch ending that left audiences reeling and wondering how Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will bounce back. Avengers: Endgame answers this and then some, providing not only the big action scenes we’ve come to expect, but a larger scope that celebrates the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

One thing should be made clear: Endgame cannot be fully understood or appreciated without having seen other entries in the MCU. The film picks up where Infinity War ended, with Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapping half of the universe’s population out of existence. We revisit this pivotal moment, this time focusing on Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), who was absent from the last movie, spending time with his family before they get dusted—a poignant reminder of the devastation and the stakes at play. Flash-forward 22 days later, we find the remaining Avengers regroup to try and reverse what has happened.

To say anything else about the plot would head into spoiler territory. What’s clear though is that the movie truly is a culmination of the 21 films that preceded it. Character leitmotifs from past entries are heard, previous locations are revisited, and familiar faces are seen. Nostalgia plays a large role but isn’t the sole emotion at play. All the actors bring their A game—especially Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans whose characters get the most attention—and the script balances the humour and the pathos, even if some scenes drag at times. With so much prior knowledge required, Endgame fails to stand as a film on its own, yet the focus on the characters is what drives the movie given how invested audiences have become with the franchise.

Having said that, some still feel shortchanged. Barton’s arc feels a little rushed, the relationship between Bruce Banner and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is wrapped up in a single scene through dialogue, and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) doesn’t contribute to the main plot despite Infinity War seemingly setting her up to have a large presence. But these quibbles pale in comparison to what the Russo brothers manage to pull off: a three hour long movie which rarely has a dull moment that concludes not only the Avengers series but over 10 years worth of storytelling.

A lot happens over the course of this blockbuster, with many surprises that will shock and delight Marvel fans. Visually epic and emotionally satisfying, Avengers: Endgame is both a fulfilling journey and a wonderful end.

[irarelypostanything]

Game of Thrones Season 8 - Pros and Cons

Okay, so I think the fan base is sort of split into two extremes: One extreme thinks this season is garbage, and it’s ruined everything, and it’s turned the best series in television history into a collection of Hollywood cliches...and the other extreme thinks that the season is good and that the whiners should watch something else or just never be satisfied.

So there are problems with both extremes.  If you say it’s fine and everyone who criticizes it is a whiner, then you’re not really contributing to diplomatic discussion.  That’s why we have discussions.  We try to flesh out ideas, we point out what others have missed, and we disagree.  

And downvote.  Lots and lots of downvoting.  

But I would argue that it’s not fair to completely write this off as garbage.  In fact, I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit.  Here’s how I see it:

*Spoilers*

Pros:

-The cinematography.  So when you have a battle end with one person dying and everyone you fight shattering into a million pieces, it will annoy some people.  But when you preface it with an original composition called “The Night King,” which fans seem to universally adore, and then FOLLOW IT UP with an episode with a violin leitmotif of that same song to remind us of the destruction that the Night King has wrought...when you have that epic song playing, then pan to characters all looking at dead companions who are meaningful to them while SANSA PINS THE STARK SIGIL ON THEON’S BODY...when you do all that, I feel like the directing deserves some praise

-The acting is still good

-The music.  I think I already went off on that

-They have the setup for a good finish, and interviews give me reason to believe that their ending will be the one George RR Martin plotted and provided them.  The remaining character arcs are interesting, I would say.  If they can just execute on them without giving meaningless surprises, it might really pay off

Cons:

-I think they really squandered the potential of the Night King and left lots of unanswered questions about the relationship between him and Bran

-Plot armor.  I don’t complain about this as much as others...I mean, if I wrote it myself (and that would be recklessly), Cersei would have just gone ahead and ordered them to shoot Tyrion when he was in range, because she hates that guy, Bronn would have killed Jaime immediately after saying “I only need one brother alive,” Dany would have died from one of those giant spears (or both dragons would survive.  One of those two outcomes), Bran would be dead from whatever went down, Grey Worm, would be dead, Brienne would be dead, and Samwell would be the most dead.  Like, I kind of see why they have plot armor.  But I agree that it makes things predictable and feel unrealistic  

-Some things just seem kind of careless.  A lot of people have revised the Winterfell battle strategy, which I think is admirable.  That dragon going down...maybe it would have felt more convincing if the ships had cover? 

-I don’t see half of the things that happen coming, yet somehow I still feel like this is totally unsurprising.  Maybe what made Martin’s first few books so good is that they WEREN’T ending books, so you absolutely didn’t know where it would go or if entire families of your favorite characters would die.  For this show now, you can sort of write out how you think things will go, and usually you won’t be that far off 

-It’s uneven.  It’s not 100% clear to me what uneven even means in writing, but I’d call this uneven.  The tone changes really quickly.  Things jump from location to location, as they always have, but not with a clear “thread.”  Even when Game of Thrones felt confusing in the beginning, it still had a profound ability to convey a mood

It’s been 14 minutes, so I think I’ll end there.  I’m still excited to see where it all goes, but I wanted to try to balance out the two extremes

[heir-of-puns]

Homestuck Volume 10, One Year Later Retrospective!

Creata, by Seth “Beatfox” Peele: A very very good track to begin the last album. It just kind of embodies everything beautiful and epic about the finale of homestuck. Its beginning section is used in Collide, which brings you right into the first moments of the final battle and then, when you’re ready for the big hit and transition into Oppa Toby Style, the full version slams you with a full-out orchestra. Another thing I really really love about this one is its use of Song of Skaia. The original theme (Skies of Skaia) is used throughout the album, which I didn’t expect to be sure, but it works perfectly. We kind of forget about how important Skaia and universe creation is to the plot/lore of homestuck (which I think may have been one of the problems with Act 7 and our reactions to it but I won’t get into that).The lyrics are gorgeous too. Definitely check out the original Song of Skaia album by Mark Hadley and Tarien Ainuvë. I guess my only gripe is that the song is pretty obviously not a live orchestra or choir. That said, Beatfox did a damn good job with it. I would love love love to see a full orchestra/choir perform it.

Train, by George Buzinkai: The transition from Creata to Train may seem a bit jarring, but if Creata went straight into Of Gods and Witches we wouldn’t have time to relax. Train is just super fun, as are all of George’s songs. Speaking of, check out a bunch more songs like Train here! Also that track art tho. Not one of the strong tracks, but it doesn’t have to be with so many heavy-hitters.

Of Gods and Witches, by Tensei: Oh man, just. Goddamn. I just love this song so much. And what a beginning. The string part slams you full force and just when you think you’re getting comfortable with Jade's Pirates of the Caribbean Quest, Tensei’s classic guitar comes in. The swashbuckling nature of this one is a surprising choice for Jade, but every Jade song is a good Jade song and she definitely deserves such an awesome track. One gripe is that Doctor is referenced which has no connection to Jade but...whatevs I’m kind of weirdly obsessive about leitmotifs for whatever reason. I think Tensei said he did it to make the song 4:13. Worth it. This is one of my favorite strife-y tracks in the music canon for sure.

Beatup, by Clark Powell and Astro Kid: Beatdown is a song with a very interesting history in homestuck, not only because of its associations with Bro and his rooftop...ahem...training of Dave, but also because it was unfinished versions of Beatdown which caused the whole Bill Bolin thing. So Beatdown being featured so heavily on the album is a fun callback to the good ol’ days. And this is such a good version. That base. Makes you want to play it as party music or something. With the track art featuring both Dave and Dirk, I like to think of it as Dave’s reclamation of Beatdown, alongside his rooftop talk with Dirk and the reclamation of his identity since Bro’s death.

You Killed My Father (Prepare to Die), by Team Dogfight: Another one of my faves, though that doesn’t mean much because at least half this album are faves. This is pretty much number one on my list of songs I really want someone to do a full fan animation to, a la Rex Duodecim Angelus. Team Dogfight is amazing both as a group and as individual artists. Yishan Mai/Catboss (drums, mixing) has done tons of LOFAM music, including the Dance tribute songs (MeGaDanceVania, Dance-Stab-Dance, and Emissary of Dance) and so many others I can’t list them all. Listen to his solo stuff (especially Jar of Feelings), you won’t regret it. Will Ascenzo (orchestra, choir) has got to be one of my favorite musicians of all time. Her stuff is just...oh man. Check out Rust Apocalypse for more hs content, and also all of her original albums. DJ最テー (guitars) did Violet Prince and Iron Knight I believe, two tracks which have very much been growing on me lately. I just realized viaSatellite (bass) did Clockstopper (with infiniteKnife) which is my absolute favorite Dave song in the entire canon. David "Dirtiest" Dycus (synths, composition) and Ian White (trumpet) have also done tons of great LOFAM stuff. This song is just so fun and epic and cinematic. A+ yo.

Sound Judgement, by Malcolm Brown: First off, sick transition. Second, say what you want about the end of Terezi’s arc, but the fact that she got her own badass song on the final album says something about how amazing she is. Malcolm Brown is just the king of cinematic pieces, and this one is no exception. It does such a good job turning a pretty simple leitmotif (The Lemonsnout Turnabout/Terezi’s Theme) and making it super epic, which is a word I will keep using throughout this retrospective because I can’t think of another one. The main tune (hook?) of this one is also beautiful and emotional, both as the bells at the beginning and end and as the orchestra/guitar bit at the climax. Its use of Harlequin is obviously a reference to her fight with Gamzee pre-Game Over, though Harlequin is coincidentally also used in reference to John. So it fits both her pre- and post-Game Over arcs. 

Aggrievocation, by Mark Hadley: Considering how much it was used in Volume 5, I feel like we’ve forgotten about Aggrieve. Or maybe it was just me, whose intro to Rose’s music was almost all Chorale for Jaspers references. Aggrievocation was therefore another unexpected surprise, and damn I love it. It makes a nice little trilogy, too, with the original Aggrieve and Aggrievance from Vol.5. This would be my favorite badass Rose song if At the Price of Oblivion and Dance of Thorns didn’t exist

Stride, by Kalibration: I’m surprised neither official nor fan musicians have capitalized on the fact that Dave makes his own music in-canon. While we all know if he were from post-2009, he would deal exclusively in vaporwave, I like to think that Stride is the kind of thing he makes once he finally gets good. And considering the track art, I love the idea of him and Dirk making it together. This song exists in canon for all I’m concerned is what I’m saying. Also, this would make a great walk-around theme for either Dave or Dirk. This is the first of two great Moonsetter remixes on Vol.10, which is yet another happy surprise on this album. Moonsetter seems to have become a kind of hybrid Dirk/Meteor tune considering its original track art on Vol.9 and its use in Vriskagram. But we all know that Moonsetter is the official Gay theme now and I embrace that wholeheartedly. I...still have no idea where Showdown actually comes in though?

Skaian Overdrive*, by Thomas Ferkol: Ah, that good ol’ asterisk. Legend says that the music team video released in tandem with the album claimed Vol.10 included a track called Skaian Starstorm, which someone eventually realized was not the name of this track and was in fact an Astro Kid song from LOFAM 2. In correcting himself, Thomas (or whoever put it together, so probably RJ) placed the asterisk in the song title, which of course means that it is included as part of the title on the bandcamp page and on downloadeds. Who can say for sure if it was intentional or not, but I appreciate that we’ve all just accepted it as part of the title, either as a wink-wink or without knowing the backstory. Anyway, this is a great song for the Battlefield. I love Thomas’s metal stuff.

Freefall, by RJ Lake: It took me embarrassingly long to realize this was, in fact, a remix of RJ’s early version of Cascade (Beta). Cascade (Beta) itself has got to be one of my absolute favorites (which, again, doesn’t mean a whole lot) and this version is so much fun. It’s funky, epic, and I really really love those drop/clap bits. And it’s so great seeing a Cascade remix on the final hs album, harkening back to what was probably, for good or bad, homestuck’s apex.

Moonsweater, by David Ellis, Alto and Tenor Saxophone performed by Malik Refaat: My roommate is a jazz snob from New Orleans and he heard me playing this and came over to my side of the room to say it was really good and ask who it was by. Which, I think, is a major victory for homestuck music and a moment of pride for me. So apparently this is a great song even by jazz snob standards, which is sick as hell. Overall, just a fun bouncy song and another cool use of Moonsetter. And it’s nice to see the Midnight Crew featured on the album, whether they have anything to do with the song’s origins or not. Yeah the song is a bit long, but I can forgive it. Question though: is it sweater like sweat or sweater like the item of clothing? Plz advise. One is significantly weirder than the other and I assumed it was that one until recently. Another mystery which doesn’t need solving but heck if I’m not gonna try and solve it anyway, so nice work.

Castle, by George Buzinkai: Another fun, simple track from George. Again, check out his album of similar stuff I linked to above, and support George with your money and appreciation! The track art makes me think of this one as a song for the post-retcon Meteor Crew sneaking through Derse to save Jake and Roxy.

Skaian Happy Flight, by Seth “Beatfox” Peele: A fun remix of Skaian Ride, harkening back to the old days of Vol.5. A bit of a filler piece, but a fun one. Beatfox said he intended this one as a tribute to the music from the Never Ending Story. As such, notice the little Hussie riding Falcor in the background of the track art.

Voidlight, by Thomas Ferkol: Mmmm the more Calliope tracks the better. Thomas said this one was written as a tribute to Callie’s void bubble and her loneliness hiding in them which, yeah it works perfectly. I also like to think of this one as a theme for Alt-Calliope too, though, not only because I am starved of Alt-Callie Content, but also because those themes of loneliness Callie experiences in the void are mirrored really poignantly in Alt-Calliope’s characterization in-comic. A beautiful piece overall.

Beatdown DX, by Curt Blakeslee: As I mentioned earlier for Beatup, it’s neat seeing Beatdown come back full force on this album. Especially this one, which is a straight-up remaster of the original by its original creator. It’s awesome, especially considering that I don’t think he’s done anything else for the comic since the original Beatdowns from way back when. The original is purposefully harsh to reflect...yeah...but this one finally puts it to its full potential. The amazing track art (brought to you by the creator of Terepy herself) really drives the point home about what Beatdown represents for Dave’s character. I like to think of this one as how Bro sees the song/rooftop battles. Heroic, clean, fun, badass, classic video-game style. And we see from the art that what Bro is doing is none of those, and the original reflects Dave’s perspective on what was going on: harsh, dissonant, aggressive, violent. I do wish that this was included before Beatup on the album, since it represents the exact thing Dave reclaims with that version, as I mentioned earlier.

Solar Voyage, by Marcy Nabors: Oh man. This song. This song is such a great tribute to some of the most iconic songs in homestuck. Starts out with a pretty much one-to-one rendition of Ruins, then hits that sick-ass drop and flare beat, then that guitar. Oh man, that guitar. I wish I could make people feel the way that guitar makes me feel. And then to top it all off, another tribute to the iconic Explore. Three classics which work beautifully together. Also this one is a collaboration from pretty much everyone: Arrangement by Michael Guy Bowman, Marcy Nabors, Clark Powell, and Erik Scheele , Piano by Erik Scheele, Guitar by Tensei, Vocals by Paul Henderson and Marcy Nabors, Drums by Jamie Paige Stanley. The whole gang. And then that transition to.......

Feel (Alive), by Luke Benjamins and RJ Lake: This fucking song, I swear to god. It gets me so pumped. Every single time I listen to it I bounce along. I usually prefer songs with leitmotifs for added Emotions, but this has got to be one my top completely original pieces in the music canon. It goes so hard, it doesn’t even need a subject. The track art makes it a Meteor Crew (plus Jade) tribute, though, so I like to think of it playing as the Meteor is hurtling towards the Alpha session and their imminent doom, with everyone having lived three years of emotional turmoil and pubescence. Truly a masterpiece.

Breeze, by Erik Scheele: Yeah it’s a bit of a filler piece, but it’s a classy filler piece. I just imagine John chilling up in the clouds, free and relaxed. Maybe he packed a lunch for a little sky picnic. I don’t think it was written with John in mind but it’s called Breeze, so I dub it a John piece, so there. And then a tantalizing transition into...

Starfall, by Jeremy “Solatrus” Iamurri: I know we all thought of this one as just a little transition piece into Ascend originally, but after listening to it over the course of a year (!) I’ve grown to really love it. Solatrus has some amazing and unique stuff and out of everything he’s done, including solo albums, this is probably my favorite. I still can’t quite place exactly why I love it so much, there’s just...something about it that’s beautiful and ethereal and just really really cool. I like that the artist decided to go with a tribute to both Rose and the Reckoning for this piece, as it really works for both of them for similar reasons as above. It’s another one that transcends a subject, though, and I am a-okay with that. And then that transition into...

Ascend, by Tensei: No final album is complete without a big tribute to some of homestuck’s most classic tunes. I am such a sucker for those kind of songs and this one is just so much fun. That base drop though. That’s a good base drop. I can never help but laugh, however, at Tensei attempting to use it to make Johnradia canon which...a) is a boring ship b) the art doesn’t even suggest they’re romancey it just gives cool feelings about badass god tiers extending a hand to those who have Ascended and c) the song was, of course, used in the Credits and constitutes our current, but probably final let’s be serious Last Music in Homestuck, and the only ship we associate with it now is Rosemary getting Rosemarried which I think is a very poetic backfire for Tensei. But credit where credit is due, Tensei is still one of my favorite artists and he really delivers a super fun tribute to everything homestuck. 

Lilith in Starlight, by Malcolm Brown: Yeah, there isn’t really anything about this one that hasn’t been said a bunch of times. It’s so great having a full song dedicated to Rosemary. Including Blind Justice Investigation (I am not typing that out in Terezi’s quirk), Do You Remem8er Me, Black Rose/Green Sun, Sound Judgement, and others, it truly makes Malcolm Brown the musician king of gay homestuck ships. Yay Malcolm. But seriously, this is a beautiful piece. Gorgeous references to Rose’s and Kanaya’s themes (have I mentioned how much I love Black/Rose Green Sun? I really love Black Rose/Green Sun), and a fun, dancey rhythm which always makes me think of it as Rose and Kanaya’s wedding dance number. Imagine them spinning each other around as everyone claps and oohs and aahs. Good content.

Thanks for Playing, by Max Wright: Ya know, I never give this one the credit it deserves. This is a beautiful piece of music and combined with the track art, it really hammers in the emotions of the end of homestuck. There they all are, staring into the distance as the universe they’ve just created comes into being. Emotions. I really need to appreciate this song more.

Renewed Return, by Marcy Nabors: Man, who knew Warhammer of Zillyhoo could make me so emotional. This might be my current favorite on the album, though that changes monthly tbh. Especially since this is a real live orchestra and choir! I love that!!! It includes some great overlooked pieces like Calamity and Revered Return, too. Man I’m getting tired. But this is such a great song, and kind of the emotional climax of the album for me. Whether it has much to do with Jane or not, it’s just another great song for the end of homestuck and all the emotions that entails. And this has got to be one of my favorite renditions of Doctor. Rereading the lyrics, it really does seem like they were written for Jane and her resurrection powers actually. Resurrection is a theme throughout the comic in multiple forms, and paying tribute to that through Jane is so great, even regardless of her unacceptable lack of songs.

THIS Pumpkin, by Alexander Rosetti: And topping off the list of surprising returns of old songs, here we have a full-on orchestration of Pumpkin Cravings of all things. The original is such a fun little tune, and not one you would expect to work so well with an orchestra. Alexander Rosetti said the style was very much a tribute to Danny Elfman, which yeah I totally see (hear) that. It’s also great seeing a piece for Problem Sleuth on the last album for the media masterpiece it directly lead to. And finally...

Conclude, by Seth “Beatfox” Peele: It’s interesting that rather than go with a big epic finale, the album takes a softer route. It starts out as a more soothing Creata, then hits you (me) right in the emotional soft spot that is Showtime (Piano Refrain). The first track of the comic, featured in the last track of the last album. And then of course there’s no forgetting Homestuck Anthem. When not focusing on the piece, it can be a bit boring honestly. But when actually listening to it, it really is gorgeous. Kinda reminds me of John Williams’ Star Wars stuff actually, now that I think about it. An excellent finale of a finale of a finale.

There you have it, Vol.10 One Year and Several Hours Later. This took a really long time. Plz appreciate my hard work and the lack of sufficient sleep I am getting tonight.

[velmaemyers88]

Google: Why More Regulation Could Help Alphabet Shareholders

 “The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage.” — Warren Buffett, Fortune, 1999

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is trading so cheaply even after Thursday’s strong earnings report that only three things can explain it:  

The government will soon force Alphabet to materially alter its business model or break up entirely;

The company has lost its competitive fire and resembles a think tank more than a profit-maximizing enterprise;

The stock is misunderstood and misvalued.

I believe it’s Door #3 – and Alphabet is my fund’s second-largest position, so I’d better. In fact, I believe that Alphabet is one of the most widely misunderstood and most undervalued companies in the world. It’s a classic early-21st-century value stock, one whose core search business is a dominant franchise with years of growth ahead that’s selling for roughly the same multiple as General Motors.

‘Headline risk’ at Alphabet

Let’s begin with the headlines. Earlier this year the Trump Administration lined up the nation’s major tech platforms, including Google, for regulatory scrutiny. This has pleased both economic populists and some free marketeers, who have formed an odd coalition asserting that the Big Four are this century’s equivalent of the meatpacking, railroad, tobacco and oil monopolies of Teddy Roosevelt’s time a hundred years ago. The arguments both pro and con are complicated and somewhat impenetrable; from an investment perspective, however, they are largely and thankfully irrelevant.

A leitmotif of this column will be that what’s in the news almost never correlates with what’s critical to the drivers of long-term value. Because it’s front-and-center, the chatter is always loud, but rarely material – noise rather than signal. Investors have a term for this – “headline risk” – and when an otherwise healthy, long-dated enterprise is facing headline risk it’s often an ideal time to buy.

I believe that the government’s current antitrust scrutiny of Google is the very definition of headline risk, for two reasons. First, if the government’s remedy is more regulation, the historical record is clear: More regulation merely entrenches incumbents.  This is because every new rule and restriction raises the barrier to entry for potential disruptors. Major banks, for example, are thriving today under the 850-page Dodd Frank Act,  which according to law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell required that federal agencies promulgate more than 300 new rules, studies and periodic reviews. How can fintech disruptors hope to navigate such a regulatory thicket?  

The same is true in tech, as Google itself found out last summer when the European Union introduced new privacy laws intended to protect consumers. Smaller sites found they couldn’t comply with the new standards, so Google’s market share increased. De-regulation is what big business fears, and rightly so, because it lowers barriers. When rules governing the airline and stock-brokerage industries came down decades ago, innovators like Charles Schwab and Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines were free to compete against fat oligopolists like Smith Barney and Trans World Airlines.

Should the government decide that regulation is too moderate a course and a more radical breakup is required, this too represents a “throw me in the briar patch” moment for Alphabet. The company suffers from a conglomerate discount, with its parts worth more than the whole is currently trading for — and much of this is Alphabet’s own fault.

The benefits of a breakup  

The crux of it is that Google’s core search business is so profitable that the rest of Alphabet’s many subsidiaries are freeloading off it. Everyone knows that the company’s “other bets” is a collection of money-losing moonshots. What’s less well-understood is that ex-search, all of Alphabet’s other businesses taken together lose money. These losses aren’t apparent because powerful emerging platforms like YouTube, Android/Google Play, Cloud, Waymo and Assistant are grouped in the company’s financial statements under the general Google umbrella. This obscures any insight into their profitability. However, I and other analysts have concluded that if you assume reasonable profit margins for core Google search, these other emerging businesses collectively lose $5 billion a year. That’s  a huge number, equivalent to the annual profits of Adobe and Intuit combined. 

Despite Alphabet’s attempts to obfuscate, the market is catching on, as markets tend to do. Even after Friday’s 10% upward move following a solid earnings report, Alphabet’s stock is down from where it stood a year ago, badly trailing both the broader market and the shares of the other tech giants teed up for regulatory review.

If the government mandates that Alphabet break up, the company’s many freeloading children would have to take care of themselves. Forced to generate profits, they would flourish, and the value of Alphabet’s parts would multiply. Here again, there are historical antecedents. After Standard Oil’s 1911 breakup, the antitrust headline risk risked ebbed away, and investors got a clearer picture of the asset-rich nature of Standard’s various parts. Standard Oil of New York more than doubled in value over the following year, and Standard of Indiana nearly tripled. Taken together, according to Ron Chernow’s excellent Rockefeller biography, Titan, the broken-up entities quintupled in value in the decade after the breakup.

Many argue that Google search is so good, and so profitable, that it does more than subsidize Alphabet’s money-losing ventures: It enables a dysfunctional “cool first, execution second” culture. Amazon, these critics say, focuses ruthlessly on dominating a few, large markets – e-commerce and back-end web services.  Apple has sold an iPhone to about everyone who can afford one; now it sells high-margin services on this platform and uses every dollar of profits to buy back stock.  Alphabet, by contrast, spends money like a new-age drunken sailor. It has no timetable for commercializing anything but search, and it retains more than $120 billion of cash on its balance sheet. Many of the company’s endeavors seem like glorified science-fair entries; take the aptly named Project Loon, whose mission is to deliver universal internet connectivity via a network of high-altitude balloons. “Too much R, not enough D” – “Bell Labs without the transistor to show for it” — these are the kind of complaints now being thrown around on Wall Street about Alphabet, especially in the hedge-fund community, where performance is measured on a 12-month scale.

Search reigns supreme

I am sympathetic to these arguments, which is why I think a breakup would yield a higher valuation. In the end, however, it is Google’s core search engine that represents the alpha and omega of both understanding and valuing Alphabet. Yes, the company spends money like a drunken sailor. Yes, its culture is not nearly as mercenary as the dread pirate Bezos and his band of Amazonians. But Google search is possibly the best business ever invented, and that outweighs all other concerns. It reminds me of what Lincoln is reported to have said  after taking an informal vote among his cabinet in which he cast the only vote in favor: “Seven nays, one aye – the ayes have it.” 

Why is Google perhaps the best business ever invented? Most importantly, it is virtually impossible to replicate its search engine, which people around the world use roughly four million times per minute. Microsoft lost billions trying to challenge it with Bing. Amazon also tried to compete in web search, giving up after the project leader left to join Google. “Treat Google like a mountain,” Bezos is quoted as saying in The Everything Store. “You can climb the mountain, but you can’t move it.”  

Because of this, Google is synonymous with search and has a more than 90% market share.  Any service business that wants to advertise online must pay Google for access to potential customers. A 2017 Bloomberg Businessweek article brought Google’s power home through an in-depth look at a single niche of the US economy, drug-treatment centers. The article described how shady clinics paid high prices for Google keywords to lure addicts into questionable facilities. The bidding for terms like “top drug rehab center” became so competitive that one rehab executive estimated that his industry was spending $1 billion a year on Google search advertising.  

Google has since taken steps to curb abuses in rehab-center search, but the point holds:  Every company in every service industry, from rehab centers to veterinary clinics to divorce lawyers, will continue to bid up critical keywords until these businesses barely earn their cost of capital. It’s therefore not surprising that industry analysts estimate that Google search has 5%-10% annual pricing power, far in excess of the overall economy’s 2% inflation rate. There is room for Google to grow volumes as well. While many people intuitively believe that Google search is somehow mature because it’s already so big, the fact is that online today captures only 20% of total global advertising and marketing spend. Add to this the fact that Google search is a software enterprise that requires little incremental capital and little incremental operating expenditure to grow and you have a true 21stcentury juggernaut.  

How much is it worth? A lot. Alphabet’s reported operating margins are just under 25%, which clearly understates search’s profitability.  Facebook and Alibaba, two other Internet giants with scalable software businesses like Google, report margins in the 40%-50% range. If we add back $3 billion of Alphabet’s “other bets” losses, the company’s margins rise to 35%. If we add back the $5 billion of estimated losses from emerging platforms like YouTube and Google Cloud, search margins fall out at 40%-45%, much more in line with its peers. 

Using these adjusted margins, when you buy Alphabet at $1,250 a share you are getting core Google search for less than 20 times its 2019 earnings. This is an absurdly low price for a business of its quality. Things become even more nonsensical when you contemplate that this analysis gives zero value either to the $120 billion of cash on Alphabet’s balance sheet or the value of emerging platforms like Waymo, YouTube and Google Cloud. While these businesses are breakeven or loss-making now, that won’t last forever. If one assigns reasonable valuations to each of these currently profitless enterprises, investors can buy core Google search for eight times this year’s earnings.  That’s about the same price you’d have to pay for General Motors, a cyclical, capital-intensive, commodity businesses whose best days are fast receding in the rearview mirror.

**

As time goes by, I think we’ll look back on mid-2019 as a great entry point for owning Alphabet. Fear of increased regulation is giving us headline risk. Headline risk, combined with Alphabet’s lackadaisical approach to everything but search, is giving us a depressed valuation. The price is so cheap relative to the quality of Alphabet’s businesses that any scenario — more regulation, an outright breakup or simply better execution on Alphabet’s part – should almost certainly generate excellent long-term results.

Adam Seessel is founder and CEO of Gravity Capital Management. Alphabet is his fund’s second-largest position. His column, “Valuation,” appears monthly on Fortune.com.

More opinion in Fortune:

—How Japan became a model for economic revival

—Bernie Sanders: America is drowning in student debt. Here’s my plan to end it

—Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley: Why sensors are the future of health care tech

—Most states still enforce noncompete agreements—and it’s stifling innovation

—Why recent antitrust regulation isn’t really about consumer protectionListen to our new audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily

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Google: Why More Regulation Could Help Alphabet Shareholders

 “The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage.” — Warren Buffett, Fortune, 1999

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is trading so cheaply even after Thursday’s strong earnings report that only three things can explain it:  

The government will soon force Alphabet to materially alter its business model or break up entirely;

The company has lost its competitive fire and resembles a think tank more than a profit-maximizing enterprise;

The stock is misunderstood and misvalued.

I believe it’s Door #3 – and Alphabet is my fund’s second-largest position, so I’d better. In fact, I believe that Alphabet is one of the most widely misunderstood and most undervalued companies in the world. It’s a classic early-21st-century value stock, one whose core search business is a dominant franchise with years of growth ahead that’s selling for roughly the same multiple as General Motors.

‘Headline risk’ at Alphabet

Let’s begin with the headlines. Earlier this year the Trump Administration lined up the nation’s major tech platforms, including Google, for regulatory scrutiny. This has pleased both economic populists and some free marketeers, who have formed an odd coalition asserting that the Big Four are this century’s equivalent of the meatpacking, railroad, tobacco and oil monopolies of Teddy Roosevelt’s time a hundred years ago. The arguments both pro and con are complicated and somewhat impenetrable; from an investment perspective, however, they are largely and thankfully irrelevant.

A leitmotif of this column will be that what’s in the news almost never correlates with what’s critical to the drivers of long-term value. Because it’s front-and-center, the chatter is always loud, but rarely material – noise rather than signal. Investors have a term for this – “headline risk” – and when an otherwise healthy, long-dated enterprise is facing headline risk it’s often an ideal time to buy.

I believe that the government’s current antitrust scrutiny of Google is the very definition of headline risk, for two reasons. First, if the government’s remedy is more regulation, the historical record is clear: More regulation merely entrenches incumbents.  This is because every new rule and restriction raises the barrier to entry for potential disruptors. Major banks, for example, are thriving today under the 850-page Dodd Frank Act,  which according to law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell required that federal agencies promulgate more than 300 new rules, studies and periodic reviews. How can fintech disruptors hope to navigate such a regulatory thicket?  

The same is true in tech, as Google itself found out last summer when the European Union introduced new privacy laws intended to protect consumers. Smaller sites found they couldn’t comply with the new standards, so Google’s market share increased. De-regulation is what big business fears, and rightly so, because it lowers barriers. When rules governing the airline and stock-brokerage industries came down decades ago, innovators like Charles Schwab and Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines were free to compete against fat oligopolists like Smith Barney and Trans World Airlines.

Should the government decide that regulation is too moderate a course and a more radical breakup is required, this too represents a “throw me in the briar patch” moment for Alphabet. The company suffers from a conglomerate discount, with its parts worth more than the whole is currently trading for — and much of this is Alphabet’s own fault.

The benefits of a breakup  

The crux of it is that Google’s core search business is so profitable that the rest of Alphabet’s many subsidiaries are freeloading off it. Everyone knows that the company’s “other bets” is a collection of money-losing moonshots. What’s less well-understood is that ex-search, all of Alphabet’s other businesses taken together lose money. These losses aren’t apparent because powerful emerging platforms like YouTube, Android/Google Play, Cloud, Waymo and Assistant are grouped in the company’s financial statements under the general Google umbrella. This obscures any insight into their profitability. However, I and other analysts have concluded that if you assume reasonable profit margins for core Google search, these other emerging businesses collectively lose $5 billion a year. That’s  a huge number, equivalent to the annual profits of Adobe and Intuit combined. 

Despite Alphabet’s attempts to obfuscate, the market is catching on, as markets tend to do. Even after Friday’s 10% upward move following a solid earnings report, Alphabet’s stock is down from where it stood a year ago, badly trailing both the broader market and the shares of the other tech giants teed up for regulatory review.

If the government mandates that Alphabet break up, the company’s many freeloading children would have to take care of themselves. Forced to generate profits, they would flourish, and the value of Alphabet’s parts would multiply. Here again, there are historical antecedents. After Standard Oil’s 1911 breakup, the antitrust headline risk risked ebbed away, and investors got a clearer picture of the asset-rich nature of Standard’s various parts. Standard Oil of New York more than doubled in value over the following year, and Standard of Indiana nearly tripled. Taken together, according to Ron Chernow’s excellent Rockefeller biography, Titan, the broken-up entities quintupled in value in the decade after the breakup.

Many argue that Google search is so good, and so profitable, that it does more than subsidize Alphabet’s money-losing ventures: It enables a dysfunctional “cool first, execution second” culture. Amazon, these critics say, focuses ruthlessly on dominating a few, large markets – e-commerce and back-end web services.  Apple has sold an iPhone to about everyone who can afford one; now it sells high-margin services on this platform and uses every dollar of profits to buy back stock.  Alphabet, by contrast, spends money like a new-age drunken sailor. It has no timetable for commercializing anything but search, and it retains more than $120 billion of cash on its balance sheet. Many of the company’s endeavors seem like glorified science-fair entries; take the aptly named Project Loon, whose mission is to deliver universal internet connectivity via a network of high-altitude balloons. “Too much R, not enough D” – “Bell Labs without the transistor to show for it” — these are the kind of complaints now being thrown around on Wall Street about Alphabet, especially in the hedge-fund community, where performance is measured on a 12-month scale.

Search reigns supreme

I am sympathetic to these arguments, which is why I think a breakup would yield a higher valuation. In the end, however, it is Google’s core search engine that represents the alpha and omega of both understanding and valuing Alphabet. Yes, the company spends money like a drunken sailor. Yes, its culture is not nearly as mercenary as the dread pirate Bezos and his band of Amazonians. But Google search is possibly the best business ever invented, and that outweighs all other concerns. It reminds me of what Lincoln is reported to have said  after taking an informal vote among his cabinet in which he cast the only vote in favor: “Seven nays, one aye – the ayes have it.” 

Why is Google perhaps the best business ever invented? Most importantly, it is virtually impossible to replicate its search engine, which people around the world use roughly four million times per minute. Microsoft lost billions trying to challenge it with Bing. Amazon also tried to compete in web search, giving up after the project leader left to join Google. “Treat Google like a mountain,” Bezos is quoted as saying in The Everything Store. “You can climb the mountain, but you can’t move it.”  

Because of this, Google is synonymous with search and has a more than 90% market share.  Any service business that wants to advertise online must pay Google for access to potential customers. A 2017 Bloomberg Businessweek article brought Google’s power home through an in-depth look at a single niche of the US economy, drug-treatment centers. The article described how shady clinics paid high prices for Google keywords to lure addicts into questionable facilities. The bidding for terms like “top drug rehab center” became so competitive that one rehab executive estimated that his industry was spending $1 billion a year on Google search advertising.  

Google has since taken steps to curb abuses in rehab-center search, but the point holds:  Every company in every service industry, from rehab centers to veterinary clinics to divorce lawyers, will continue to bid up critical keywords until these businesses barely earn their cost of capital. It’s therefore not surprising that industry analysts estimate that Google search has 5%-10% annual pricing power, far in excess of the overall economy’s 2% inflation rate. There is room for Google to grow volumes as well. While many people intuitively believe that Google search is somehow mature because it’s already so big, the fact is that online today captures only 20% of total global advertising and marketing spend. Add to this the fact that Google search is a software enterprise that requires little incremental capital and little incremental operating expenditure to grow and you have a true 21stcentury juggernaut.  

How much is it worth? A lot. Alphabet’s reported operating margins are just under 25%, which clearly understates search’s profitability.  Facebook and Alibaba, two other Internet giants with scalable software businesses like Google, report margins in the 40%-50% range. If we add back $3 billion of Alphabet’s “other bets” losses, the company’s margins rise to 35%. If we add back the $5 billion of estimated losses from emerging platforms like YouTube and Google Cloud, search margins fall out at 40%-45%, much more in line with its peers. 

Using these adjusted margins, when you buy Alphabet at $1,250 a share you are getting core Google search for less than 20 times its 2019 earnings. This is an absurdly low price for a business of its quality. Things become even more nonsensical when you contemplate that this analysis gives zero value either to the $120 billion of cash on Alphabet’s balance sheet or the value of emerging platforms like Waymo, YouTube and Google Cloud. While these businesses are breakeven or loss-making now, that won’t last forever. If one assigns reasonable valuations to each of these currently profitless enterprises, investors can buy core Google search for eight times this year’s earnings.  That’s about the same price you’d have to pay for General Motors, a cyclical, capital-intensive, commodity businesses whose best days are fast receding in the rearview mirror.

**

As time goes by, I think we’ll look back on mid-2019 as a great entry point for owning Alphabet. Fear of increased regulation is giving us headline risk. Headline risk, combined with Alphabet’s lackadaisical approach to everything but search, is giving us a depressed valuation. The price is so cheap relative to the quality of Alphabet’s businesses that any scenario — more regulation, an outright breakup or simply better execution on Alphabet’s part – should almost certainly generate excellent long-term results.

Adam Seessel is founder and CEO of Gravity Capital Management. Alphabet is his fund’s second-largest position. His column, “Valuation,” appears monthly on Fortune.com.

More opinion in Fortune:

—How Japan became a model for economic revival

—Bernie Sanders: America is drowning in student debt. Here’s my plan to end it

—Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley: Why sensors are the future of health care tech

—Most states still enforce noncompete agreements—and it’s stifling innovation

—Why recent antitrust regulation isn’t really about consumer protectionListen to our new audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily

Credit: Source link

The post Google: Why More Regulation Could Help Alphabet Shareholders appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/google-why-more-regulation-could-help-alphabet-shareholders/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-why-more-regulation-could-help-alphabet-shareholders from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186569784132

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Google: Why More Regulation Could Help Alphabet Shareholders

 “The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage.” — Warren Buffett, Fortune, 1999

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is trading so cheaply even after Thursday’s strong earnings report that only three things can explain it:  

The government will soon force Alphabet to materially alter its business model or break up entirely;

The company has lost its competitive fire and resembles a think tank more than a profit-maximizing enterprise;

The stock is misunderstood and misvalued.

I believe it’s Door #3 – and Alphabet is my fund’s second-largest position, so I’d better. In fact, I believe that Alphabet is one of the most widely misunderstood and most undervalued companies in the world. It’s a classic early-21st-century value stock, one whose core search business is a dominant franchise with years of growth ahead that’s selling for roughly the same multiple as General Motors.

‘Headline risk’ at Alphabet

Let’s begin with the headlines. Earlier this year the Trump Administration lined up the nation’s major tech platforms, including Google, for regulatory scrutiny. This has pleased both economic populists and some free marketeers, who have formed an odd coalition asserting that the Big Four are this century’s equivalent of the meatpacking, railroad, tobacco and oil monopolies of Teddy Roosevelt’s time a hundred years ago. The arguments both pro and con are complicated and somewhat impenetrable; from an investment perspective, however, they are largely and thankfully irrelevant.

A leitmotif of this column will be that what’s in the news almost never correlates with what’s critical to the drivers of long-term value. Because it’s front-and-center, the chatter is always loud, but rarely material – noise rather than signal. Investors have a term for this – “headline risk” – and when an otherwise healthy, long-dated enterprise is facing headline risk it’s often an ideal time to buy.

I believe that the government’s current antitrust scrutiny of Google is the very definition of headline risk, for two reasons. First, if the government’s remedy is more regulation, the historical record is clear: More regulation merely entrenches incumbents.  This is because every new rule and restriction raises the barrier to entry for potential disruptors. Major banks, for example, are thriving today under the 850-page Dodd Frank Act,  which according to law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell required that federal agencies promulgate more than 300 new rules, studies and periodic reviews. How can fintech disruptors hope to navigate such a regulatory thicket?  

The same is true in tech, as Google itself found out last summer when the European Union introduced new privacy laws intended to protect consumers. Smaller sites found they couldn’t comply with the new standards, so Google’s market share increased. De-regulation is what big business fears, and rightly so, because it lowers barriers. When rules governing the airline and stock-brokerage industries came down decades ago, innovators like Charles Schwab and Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines were free to compete against fat oligopolists like Smith Barney and Trans World Airlines.

Should the government decide that regulation is too moderate a course and a more radical breakup is required, this too represents a “throw me in the briar patch” moment for Alphabet. The company suffers from a conglomerate discount, with its parts worth more than the whole is currently trading for — and much of this is Alphabet’s own fault.

The benefits of a breakup  

The crux of it is that Google’s core search business is so profitable that the rest of Alphabet’s many subsidiaries are freeloading off it. Everyone knows that the company’s “other bets” is a collection of money-losing moonshots. What’s less well-understood is that ex-search, all of Alphabet’s other businesses taken together lose money. These losses aren’t apparent because powerful emerging platforms like YouTube, Android/Google Play, Cloud, Waymo and Assistant are grouped in the company’s financial statements under the general Google umbrella. This obscures any insight into their profitability. However, I and other analysts have concluded that if you assume reasonable profit margins for core Google search, these other emerging businesses collectively lose $5 billion a year. That’s  a huge number, equivalent to the annual profits of Adobe and Intuit combined. 

Despite Alphabet’s attempts to obfuscate, the market is catching on, as markets tend to do. Even after Friday’s 10% upward move following a solid earnings report, Alphabet’s stock is down from where it stood a year ago, badly trailing both the broader market and the shares of the other tech giants teed up for regulatory review.

If the government mandates that Alphabet break up, the company’s many freeloading children would have to take care of themselves. Forced to generate profits, they would flourish, and the value of Alphabet’s parts would multiply. Here again, there are historical antecedents. After Standard Oil’s 1911 breakup, the antitrust headline risk risked ebbed away, and investors got a clearer picture of the asset-rich nature of Standard’s various parts. Standard Oil of New York more than doubled in value over the following year, and Standard of Indiana nearly tripled. Taken together, according to Ron Chernow’s excellent Rockefeller biography, Titan, the broken-up entities quintupled in value in the decade after the breakup.

Many argue that Google search is so good, and so profitable, that it does more than subsidize Alphabet’s money-losing ventures: It enables a dysfunctional “cool first, execution second” culture. Amazon, these critics say, focuses ruthlessly on dominating a few, large markets – e-commerce and back-end web services.  Apple has sold an iPhone to about everyone who can afford one; now it sells high-margin services on this platform and uses every dollar of profits to buy back stock.  Alphabet, by contrast, spends money like a new-age drunken sailor. It has no timetable for commercializing anything but search, and it retains more than $120 billion of cash on its balance sheet. Many of the company’s endeavors seem like glorified science-fair entries; take the aptly named Project Loon, whose mission is to deliver universal internet connectivity via a network of high-altitude balloons. “Too much R, not enough D” – “Bell Labs without the transistor to show for it” — these are the kind of complaints now being thrown around on Wall Street about Alphabet, especially in the hedge-fund community, where performance is measured on a 12-month scale.

Search reigns supreme

I am sympathetic to these arguments, which is why I think a breakup would yield a higher valuation. In the end, however, it is Google’s core search engine that represents the alpha and omega of both understanding and valuing Alphabet. Yes, the company spends money like a drunken sailor. Yes, its culture is not nearly as mercenary as the dread pirate Bezos and his band of Amazonians. But Google search is possibly the best business ever invented, and that outweighs all other concerns. It reminds me of what Lincoln is reported to have said  after taking an informal vote among his cabinet in which he cast the only vote in favor: “Seven nays, one aye – the ayes have it.” 

Why is Google perhaps the best business ever invented? Most importantly, it is virtually impossible to replicate its search engine, which people around the world use roughly four million times per minute. Microsoft lost billions trying to challenge it with Bing. Amazon also tried to compete in web search, giving up after the project leader left to join Google. “Treat Google like a mountain,” Bezos is quoted as saying in The Everything Store. “You can climb the mountain, but you can’t move it.”  

Because of this, Google is synonymous with search and has a more than 90% market share.  Any service business that wants to advertise online must pay Google for access to potential customers. A 2017 Bloomberg Businessweek article brought Google’s power home through an in-depth look at a single niche of the US economy, drug-treatment centers. The article described how shady clinics paid high prices for Google keywords to lure addicts into questionable facilities. The bidding for terms like “top drug rehab center” became so competitive that one rehab executive estimated that his industry was spending $1 billion a year on Google search advertising.  

Google has since taken steps to curb abuses in rehab-center search, but the point holds:  Every company in every service industry, from rehab centers to veterinary clinics to divorce lawyers, will continue to bid up critical keywords until these businesses barely earn their cost of capital. It’s therefore not surprising that industry analysts estimate that Google search has 5%-10% annual pricing power, far in excess of the overall economy’s 2% inflation rate. There is room for Google to grow volumes as well. While many people intuitively believe that Google search is somehow mature because it’s already so big, the fact is that online today captures only 20% of total global advertising and marketing spend. Add to this the fact that Google search is a software enterprise that requires little incremental capital and little incremental operating expenditure to grow and you have a true 21stcentury juggernaut.  

How much is it worth? A lot. Alphabet’s reported operating margins are just under 25%, which clearly understates search’s profitability.  Facebook and Alibaba, two other Internet giants with scalable software businesses like Google, report margins in the 40%-50% range. If we add back $3 billion of Alphabet’s “other bets” losses, the company’s margins rise to 35%. If we add back the $5 billion of estimated losses from emerging platforms like YouTube and Google Cloud, search margins fall out at 40%-45%, much more in line with its peers. 

Using these adjusted margins, when you buy Alphabet at $1,250 a share you are getting core Google search for less than 20 times its 2019 earnings. This is an absurdly low price for a business of its quality. Things become even more nonsensical when you contemplate that this analysis gives zero value either to the $120 billion of cash on Alphabet’s balance sheet or the value of emerging platforms like Waymo, YouTube and Google Cloud. While these businesses are breakeven or loss-making now, that won’t last forever. If one assigns reasonable valuations to each of these currently profitless enterprises, investors can buy core Google search for eight times this year’s earnings.  That’s about the same price you’d have to pay for General Motors, a cyclical, capital-intensive, commodity businesses whose best days are fast receding in the rearview mirror.

**

As time goes by, I think we’ll look back on mid-2019 as a great entry point for owning Alphabet. Fear of increased regulation is giving us headline risk. Headline risk, combined with Alphabet’s lackadaisical approach to everything but search, is giving us a depressed valuation. The price is so cheap relative to the quality of Alphabet’s businesses that any scenario — more regulation, an outright breakup or simply better execution on Alphabet’s part – should almost certainly generate excellent long-term results.

Adam Seessel is founder and CEO of Gravity Capital Management. Alphabet is his fund’s second-largest position. His column, “Valuation,” appears monthly on Fortune.com.

More opinion in Fortune:

—How Japan became a model for economic revival

—Bernie Sanders: America is drowning in student debt. Here’s my plan to end it

—Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley: Why sensors are the future of health care tech

—Most states still enforce noncompete agreements—and it’s stifling innovation

—Why recent antitrust regulation isn’t really about consumer protectionListen to our new audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily

Credit: Source link

The post Google: Why More Regulation Could Help Alphabet Shareholders appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/google-why-more-regulation-could-help-alphabet-shareholders/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-why-more-regulation-could-help-alphabet-shareholders