Question for Jon stans: so I think a lot of us expect Jon to leave the watch at some point in his story, whether in Winds or sometime in Dream. I tend to think heās going to straight up desert the Watch, like going āfuck it Iām done hereā much like Bloodraven and Mance, instead of leaving on a technicality (i.e., a āheās dead so heās technically done his serviceā type of thing).Ā
BUT the question is, does he go north or does he go south? I think itās reasonable to assume either direction works narratively.
We have this:
Lannister studied his face. āYes,ā he said. āI can see it. You have more of the north in you than your brothers.ā
Plus heās been set up to parallel Bloodraven and Mance both of whom go north, and thereās this quote from AGOT thatĀ couldĀ be foreshadowing:
Far off to the north, a wolf began to howl. Another voice picked up the call, then another. Ghost cocked his head and listened. āIf he doesnāt come back,ā Jon Snow promised, āGhost and I will go find him.ā He put his hand on the direwolfās head.
āI believe you,ā Tyrion said, but what he thought was, And who will go find you? He shivered.
(Tyrion III)
Thereās also symbolism in him embracing the name āSnowā and living in the snowy northā¦.
But then we these quotes from AGOT as well thatās essentially about him finding the Wall to be stifling and equating freedom with the south:
āYes. Cold and hard and mean, thatās the Wall, and the men who walk it. Not like the stories your wet nurse told you. Well, piss on the stories and piss on your wet nurse. This is the way it is, and youāre here for life, same as the rest of us.ā
āLife,ā Jon repeated bitterly. The armorer could talk about life. Heād had one. Heād only taken the black after heād lost an arm at the siege of Stormās End. Before that heād smithed for Stannis Baratheon, the kingās brother. Heād seen the Seven Kingdoms from one end to the other; heād feasted and wenched and fought in a hundred battles. They said it was Donal Noye whoād forged King Robertās warhammer, the one that crushed the life from Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident. Heād done all the things that Jon would never do, and then when he was old, well past thirty, heād taken a glancing blow from an axe and the wound had festered until the whole arm had to come off. Only then, crippled, had Donal Noye come to the Wall, when his life was all but over.
(Jon III)
He had no destination in mind. He wanted only to ride. He followed the creek for a time, listening to the icy trickle of water over rock, then cut across the fields to the kingsroad. It stretched out before him, narrow and stony and pocked with weeds, a road of no particular promise, yet the sight of it filled Jon Snow with a vast longing. Winterfell was down that road, and beyond it Riverrun and Kingās Landing and the Eyrie and so many other places; Casterly Rock, the Isles of Faces, the red mountains of Dorne, the hundred islands of Braavos in the sea, the smoking ruins of old Valyria. All the places that Jon would never see. The world was down that road ā¦ and he was here.
(Jon V)
And if Jon is to live his best wildling/crow-deserter life, itāll be about finding freedom - just like Mance.
Plus thereās the whole thing with him seeing three different trees whichĀ couldĀ serve as representing his arc in the series, and the final tree faces southā¦Ā
Just north of Moleās Town they came upon the third watcher, carved into the huge oak that marked the village perimeter, its deep eyes fixed upon the kingsroad. That is not a friendly face, Jon Snow reflected. The faces that the First Men and the children of the forest had carved into the weirwoods in eons past had stern or savage visages more oft than not, but the great oak looked especially angry, as if it were about to tear its roots from the earth and come roaring after them. Its wounds are as fresh as the wounds of the men who carved it.
(Jon V, ADWD)Ā
So which one is it?
Also if you think he goes south, where does he end up? šĀ
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atla rewatch thoughts
because iād regret it if i didnāt write it down, hereās my thoughts upon rewatch off the top of my head!Ā
always interesting to see what new things come to the fore when revisiting something as an adult, especially when Something is excellent
this is my #1 fav show c:Ā
this show is so good!Ā
itās not just character-oriented, which is the single most important factor in me giving a shit, but it has 2 things i think i value the most in a plot, overarching cohesion/consistency, and breathing room
book 2 was always my fave, but i have a newer appreciation for book 3 and iād put them equal now (as i think most people do?)
AANG! i love him. he is so special. he is an absolute joy to watch, a character that just glimmers with understated complexity, humour, heart, cleverness, strength, tragedy, integrity. an icoooon. and just unique from a meta perspective- had a great discussion about how there are truly no protagonists in popular western media like him - thereās things about his characterisation, his arc that iāve always appreciated deeply that i didnāt rly have the tools to articulate until this time aroundĀ
by the same token, i can better pinpoint my issues with a lot of fandom reception of him (in particular, though this applies to all the characters) (touched on one aspect here)
i love the entire gaang but my unpopular onion is that ehhh... suki isnāt really part of the gaang? i mean she literally has her own gang give them some credit (real talk this is because sheās a static character compared to them whose inner life we arenāt privy to, though thereās nothing wrong with that)
atla gives effortless dimension to its secondary characters, and this applies to azula but not i think to the degree it should given her narrative agency, role as zukoās foil, and the complexity of her whole... complex. sheās the one character that is slightly close to being a caricature imo, and we donāt see Into her early as we should because itās cooler when sheās #slick. iād love to have had a bit more of her.Ā
if i could change anything else about the ending, iād give zuko prince wuās abdication ending from lok
aside from that, the show has such a deft, sustained, multidimensional treatment of imperialism and colonialism that truly sets it apart within the genre and beyondĀ
also the first thing that ever caught my attention about atla is how asian the aesthetics are and i will always love that! i donāt know how americans ever executed this galaxy brained concept but iām so glad a massively popular anglophone cultural product that speaks directly to us, can belong to us, before white people exists (#representationmatters and all that, but itās altogether more liberating if your entire fantasy world is noneuro and no one even has to exist in relation to hegemonic whiteness. utopic!)
i happily drink that delicious pan-asian soup, but if you asked, iād say i wish we saw more explicitly south asian characters given how much the show borrows from indosphere culture/religion (including but not limited to the titular concept)
could take it or leave it when i first watched it, but as an adult who knows they can just not like stuff, and whose tolerance for perfunctory het is at an all time low: i donāt like maiko. like all atla ships, thereās potential, but my instinctual read as i watch is that as they are, theyāre bringing out the worse aspects of each other (in zukoās case, the malaise that characterises his whole personal/moral quandary after returning home is usually on display in scenes with mai, whether that just makes maiko a victim or circumstance or not)
the show is def a product of its time wrt heteronormativity, regardless of how queerable it is to those interested. this is something iām interested to see change in the live action, because i think it will have to change!Ā
i still think it would be equally poignant and tighter without most of the overt romance, and i continue to not be hot on the ending scene
kataang shines bright regardless. no amount of clumsiness on that front can elide how pivotal, touching, and enjoyable their actual dynamic is. theyāre the emotional bedrock of the whole showĀ
zutara tasty, but iām always like (to quote zuko) āwhereās the rest of it?ā when i jump into the show after the fandomĀ
zukaang manifesto time! this is undeniably the non-canon ship with the most TEXTUAL juice. their mirrored journey is my favourite throughline of the show and itās arguably the throughline with zuko as the deuteragonist and their convergence/shared destiny being the key to the warās end. thatās not coming from a shipping lens (it was true before i ever really shipped them), but this particular flavour of narrative basis adds real magic to shipping. when thereās no difference between what you appreciate intellectually and indulgently in a narrative and they just compound each other endlessly..... eliteeeeĀ
related, canāt stop thinking abt how rokuās homosexuality started the warĀ
i preferred when toph/sokka/suki instead of sokka/suki/zuko was the go-to gaang ot3 but what i really want to see is zutaraang supremacyĀ
aang, zuko and katara are the showās tentpoles, especially emotionally. they each foil the other two so well - in their personalities, and esp for zutara/zukaang, on a wider thematic level. and theyāre such well articulated characters that itās easy to extrapolate that to the three-way dynamic. itās probably most (in)famously on display in 3.16 but thereās a deeelicious little moment in 3.18 when aang leaves distraught and zuko is the one to stop katara from immediately going after him. the #dynamics that were simmering, whew.Ā
i think mai/ty lee is getting the generic uwu soft girls treatment that is the bane of all popular femslash ships (same way zukkaās getting the generic dudeslash treatment) because azula makes tyzula a little too spicy. however i would like to see more tyzula, especially of the spicy variety
i wish there was someone in this show i could thirst over. hakoda is sort of a dilf?Ā
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Impressions: Spreading Golden Wings / Music Revolution! (yukigumi 2019 tour)
This has been a long time coming, apologies! As I didnāt write any notes at intermission this will be a shorter, more generalized opinion of the Monday, Oct. 14th performance in Kawasaki. It was two days after theĀ āworst storm in Japan in 60 yearsā according English news, and āviolent typhoon no. 19ā² in Japanese, which, they werenāt wrong. It was terrifying and exhausting, and I cannot imagine having to put on a brave face and perform like everything is totally fine just a day later. Both sections of Snow Troupe did however, and I will be forever impressed. It does not however, make me inclined to enjoy Spreading Golden Wings any more than I am able to, though this may be the first time I buy a blu-ray for the revue. More thoughts below the cut!Ā
Iāll be popping back into my bullet point format from here.Ā
This is the Revueās first performance inĀ ć«ć«ćććććć (Culttz Kawasaki, honestly love the name). Itās beautiful, and reminds me of many new performance spaces - bright woods, streamlined design, open lobby and a ton of stairs. The seat I had is still considered S seki, and was pretty nice, though Iām glad I had my opera glasses.
The program is a nice light blue with just Nozomi Fuuto (Daimon) posing in her primary Music Revolution costume (black & silver w/ huge white gems and metal circles). I wish they had a Maaya Kiho (Kiho) variant or a cover with them together, but thatās totally fine.
I did write some notes on the train ride back to Tokyo, so Iāll be using those as a jumping off point. Note that the day before I had seen Star Troupeās GOD OF STARS, so many of the notes are phrased comparatively. Spoiler-free until the [s]
Spreading Golden Wings
ālimited setāĀ
Itās a touring show, and frankly Iām glad they donāt have to take a lot with them, as they may run into damaged roads on their tour south, but I was still surprised at the sparseness. It didnāt help that the aesthetic was medieval European, which made it look a bit like a televised Shakespeare production. However! This allowed you to focus on the scene without worrying about missing something. Unlike Grand Theater / Tokyo runs where people see a show several times, I would hope tours are designed to be seen once. Thus Iām glad I didnāt leave thinking,Ā āoh next time Iāll look at opposite side of the stage, I missed xyzā.Ā
āsingle scenes, no additional side scenesā
This is something that made GOD OF STARS simultaneously amazing and terrible, as there were always 45 people on stage doing something elaborate. Spreading Golden Wings was the complete opposite. It felt old-school, to be sure, but I cannot recall a single scene where something was happening outside of the range of what my opera glasses could see. People could be spaced out across the stage of course, but they were all participating in the same moment. It really highlighted acting choices, especially considering a surprising lack of underscoring allowing you to hear every footstep and breath. The recording of this will flawlessly capture what yukigumi was aiming to project, which will be great to see again.
āDaimon cackles into and out of a sceneā
I will briefly break down the plot and characters in a bit, but there is an early scene where the villainous Vittorio, played by Daimon, enters the room where he is holding Clarice, played by Kiho, captive, and her laugh as she enters was identical to the laugh she gave as she left two minutes later. I thought it was fantastically over the top and well within the aesthetic of the work.
āKiho is ... befuddled / confused / flabbergasted -> meta for her character?ā
I had a hard time with Clarice in this show, letās be real. Kiho used her huge eyes to her advantage, looking woefully overwhelmed for the first 80% of the show, and confidently winging it (and therefore vaguely panicked) the last 20%. I would love to hear Kihoās thoughts on the character, which may be in a Kageki somewhere if someone has the most recent issue.
āAsami Jun just obsessed w/ Daimonā
I canāt speak for Asami but her character, Falco, gets one of the few solos to solely sing about how everything he does is for Vittorio. If you want to memorize theĀ āććć«ā grammar pattern do I have the song for you. It felt very St-Just 2.0 but it was still super engaging and later provided some shock value.Ā
āfew interstitial chorus scenesā
I completely forgot this half of yukigumi had ~40 people in it until they would do a dance to establish the scene. The show starts with quite a long prologue, but I still forgot them completely until they would all pop up again to either establish a new location, tone, or event. It is very reminiscent of hoshigumiās Elbe from earlier this year. This showĀ does not require more than a dozen people for the plot, so when everyone shows up in roles clearly not meant to directly impact the story it was quite a surprise.Ā
āpurposefully better sword workā
There are a few fight scenes / sword training scenes in the show, and the choreography for them becomes increasingly complicated as the show progresses, which was a nice touch.Ā
[s] Kiho especially makes a dramatic improvement as the show progresses, which makes sense thematically, but by the end sheās legitimately holding her own against otokoyaku who have generally had more fight training (unless she did for Mibugishiden, which I have not seen)
[s]Ā āclearly a repro of the 85 showā /Ā ātbh canāt tell what has changedā
Alrighty so itās time to dive into the core of the interest around this production - the fact that it was originally a taidan / tour back in 1985, and that when this show was announced it was immediately followed up with,Ā āweāre rewriting some things to make it fresh for modern audiencesā. It was not relabeled in the same way as Elbe was with āOnce Upon a Time in Takarazukaā, but there was a significant amount of notice paid to the fact that some things would be different. My question though as we went into intermission was, what changed? Reading through the plot on takawiki, the beats are the same. Full disclosure, I am not fluent in Japanese. There is a great chance that it is simply a nuance of language that perhaps makes the motivations behind actions more gray, but it does not change the fact that the scenes still play out with the same result. I believe there is an additional love song at the end between Daimon and Kiho because they sound ~amazing~ and can emote ~so well~ but that was perhaps the only thing that felt fresh to me. Everyone that betrays someone still betrays that person, questionable scenes of consent still look quite questionable, the interesting shift from lady to page boy was still fun to see. But I believe they were the same as before, and I donāt consider acting choices within scenes to allow for ambiguity to be rewrites. Thatās just the benefit of restaging a production. Perhaps the chorus scenes were fleshed out, but I was expecting shifts in plot, character arcs, or concrete visual differences in motivation. I would love for a full breakdown of this show once the recording is released at the end of January.Ā
[s]Ā āsome spicy scenes, audience was caught upā /Ā āwhip scene? :oā
Hereās a brief breakdown of the core plot after me talking around it for 10 minutesĀ
Daimon plays Vittorio, the lord of an Italian city state of Lago that is always feuding with the nearby city state of Bolzano. He kills the lord of Bolzano, and takes his daughter, Clarice (played by Kiho) prisoner. She of course is not on board with this. When she meets him, however, she is shaken up by his attractiveness, and he declares that she belongs to him now, no questions please. He attempts to force his point, she clumsily whips out a dagger that she loses immediately (sigh), and he is now charmed and attracted, and decides to teach her the basics of sword-fighting which will definitely not be needed later. Meanwhile Vittorioās old bff/prime minister/secret admirer Falco (Asami Jun) is Not Having It. After clearly demonstrating to the audience his, honestly no other way to phrase it, love of Vittorio, we see that he will do whatever it takes to ensure Vittorio does not become weak in his love for Clarice.Ā
Various plot things happen that put Clarice in danger and Vittorio saving her / demonstrating his passion for her, and eventually the prime minister of Bolzano (Clariceās fatherās old city state) Guillermo (Kujou Asu), catches on. This results in Vittorio and Clarice being captured, with Vittorio chained, whipped (by Falco!) and leaving without an eye.Ā
Sometime later, Clarice, now dressed in disguise as a page boy and seemingly willingly with Vittorio, delivers a message to Guillermo from Vittorio, challenging him to a duel.
Vittorio (+1 sexy eyepatch) and Gulliermo (-1 for losing his cool and planning to use poison to win) duel. It is sanctioned by the Pope, who should be busy doing holy things but here we are. Several people jump into the fray after the attempted poison, Clarice shows off her sword skills like a boss, the Golden Wings of Vittorioās city state arrive, and all is well. Thereās a brief bit at the end where Vittorio and Clarice declare their love for each other, and curtain.Ā
I definitely left out some side plots and characters because I wanted to get to my thoughts on a few main scenes I saw and wish I saw.Ā
bed scene - early on in the show Vittorio forces himself onto Clarice. Daimon being Daimon leaves a bit of space as she looms over Kiho, but Kiho squeaked, there is no other way to describe it, and I wanted to gasp with surprise. Everyone and their mother had stopped breathing and stared through their opera glasses, collectively releasing it when Kiho went for the knife (after quite a hold - it was clear she had the release point on the scene and leaned into it)Ā
whip scene - I was like,Ā āoh this is scandy whatās going to happenā. Itās not as dramatic/musicalized as 1789, but I was still surprised. The only thing that pulled me out of it was the lack of cuffs on the wall XD. Daimon just held her arms up, shout out to that arm strength. Anytime someone gets whipped itās pretty intense, and Daimon is great at pulling out strong emotions from pain. The yells, ooooof.
the scenes between the escape and the duel challenge - I really want to chalk this up to my lack of language, but I wanted more scenes between Vittorio and Clarice after their escape and before the duel, as itās quite clear Clarice isnāt going anywhere. (Even back to her own home city state that she must not be welcome in anymore) I think that would have been a great place to add some softer moments, not just grand displays of affection due to a traumatic circumstance or misdirected force. Doesnāt have to be a coffee shop scene or even a wound-tending scene, but perhaps Clarice working with Vitorrio to account for his new lack of depth perception? Or another sword-fight training scene? I just wanted more Daimon and Kiho but not at the dramatic extremes of this Shakespearean-esque drama.Ā
All in all, looking back on Spreading Golden Wings I had a better time than I originally thought. I never doubted for a second that yukigumi: top star edition wouldnāt put itās all into this smaller scale production. Every scene oozed with intention, strong acting choices, and when it allowed for it, beautiful songs and choreography. I only wish the source material was a bit more... nuanced? Though there is charm in itās clear presentation and design. As I type I waffle back and forth, so I will simply move on to Music Revolution. Once the recording comes out however, Iād love to hear other folkās thoughts.Ā
Music Revolution
I f*king loved this revue, and I did not see it coming. I had assumed a scaled down GT/TT revue would feel sparse but I was shut right the hell up immediately. First things first my journalās incredibly vague bullet points.
āgot more and more funā
This is so basic yet so true. Usually thereās a slump in a revue for me somewhere, a slower ballad or dance section, but I only got more hype as the revue went on. Spreading Golden Wings felt short due to the generally straightforward plot, but if you told me Music Revolution was 2 hours I would say sure, and I loved every minute.
āāMusic is My Lifeā is so damn funā
Thanks for the detail, past me. But truly, hearing crisp English, incredibly strong and beautiful yukigumi voices, sharp choreography... it was a dream. I was charmed to no end by how clearly Daimon loved that song. This feels like it could be a main theme for her moving forward, or one that comes back quite a bit for yukigumi or zuka as a whole. One of my favorite moments.
āLots of dancing, Daimonās voice almost too strong?!ā
This no doubt was bolstered by seeing hoshigumi right before (sorry not sorry) but it felt like yukigumi was dancing so hard all the time. Clearly the folks not in Spreading Golden Wings just went twice as hard for the revue as a result. And Daimon was in the thick of it, matching beat for beat to only then belt some amazing notes. After spending the previous week in hoshi taidan sadness / cheer it was so refreshingly perfect. Her couple of solo moments were mesmerizing, and Iām so glad I can sink back into my yuki love while waiting for hoshi to ramp back up.Ā
āamazing music, classical remixes so fun, trumpet and sax go homeā
does the orchestra travel with them?? because if so, the f*king brass section went berserk during the jazz dance section and I nearly had a heart attack. It was so off the walls that they have to had recorded it in advance - it was way too hardcore to repeat every show. I wanted to applaud for the solo like you would in a standard jazz concert but alas.Ā
similarly, this revue has the highest proportion of my favorite thing in revues - classical music remixes. Idk if they are popular but I love hearing the orchestration choices and genres they throw at classical melodies, and what bonkers choreo they toss in there as well.Ā
āadlib sections were stronger, lots of spaceā
While there were not extended sections to adlib an entire scene, there were some spots where the troupe or Daimon run into the audience. As itās a tour, there is a bit of space in the song for the folks to navigate different sized halls. For this performance, Kiho was singing for Daimon as she jogged through the first floor, and as she made it back up to the stage she went to regard the folks in the first row before realizing she didnāt have time.Ā āAh shoot I have to be back up there the songās almost doneā she remarked with a laugh as she hopped back on stage to regard a smirking Kiho. It was pretty fun, and it was nice to see her not panicked about it. Kiho had the song covered, there was still underscoring for her to make it back, and she had a charming way of commenting on it. Yay adlib improvement! There are some other places during full troupe dances where they can shout out the city / prefecture they are in, which Daimon and co. were quite inclined to do as she is from Yokohama, the capital of the Kanagawa prefecture where the show was happening.Ā
I wish I had more concrete notes for this, like I do GOD OF STARS, but I hope this provides a bit of context when you get a chance to see it for youself. Itās not my favorite yuki show by any stretch, itās honestly probably near the bottom, but itās not from lack of effort or enthusiasm. It serves a unique role and no doubt checks off some square on Daimonās āhow to conquer Takarazukaā bingo card so for that Iām glad. The revue on the other hand, is one of my favorites. Iāve never had such a stark contrast in my opinion on two āactsā before, which in and of itself is fun to reflect on. I really like where yuki is at right now, and cannot wait to see Once Upon a Time in America.Ā
Stay tuned for the most overlong and overdue look at GOD OF STARS this side of the Pacific.Ā
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John Wick 2
Saw John Wick 2 last night. I was worried going in, it is difficult to make a worthy sequel to any aesthetically and technically innovative action film, (see Die Hard 2, Matrix 2, Kick-Ass 2), but when one pulls it off the results can be spectacular (see Kill Bill v2, and note again the genius of that film's complete change of pace and inverted finale).
John Wick 2 is mostly spectacular. You can tell its the real deal by its refusal to stray from the mechanics it has refined, eschewing an escalating series of explosions and increasing numbers of mooks for something repetitious like a composition of classical music. John Wick does not vary his methods any more than a professional boxer switches up his knockout combination, and the movie highlights the same fluid takedowns and double-tap executions until they become both predictable and hypnotic, so that any disruption of this rhythm accumulates narrative significance.
The largest noticeable difference between massacres is the backdrop, with each setting obviously tailored to showcase Wick's current psychological state. These backdrops start to feel like "levels," and in that sense John Wick closes some postmodern circle, seeming like a movie adaption of a video game I never played, but that was itself inspired by the collective work of John Woo and Dashiell Hammet (watching this movie, I was frequently reminded of the underappreciated gems that were the first two Max Payne games).
As for the story, JW2 expands its thematic framework not by adding any real details about John himself, but instead expanding our sense the world in which he has become this man of terrible legend. The politics and power dynamics of this almost-fantasy underworld that John Wick inhabits are not that different from any urban fantasy setting with high families vying and betraying their way to greater control, but it is interesting precisely because John Wick's world stops just short of being magical. Instead of mythology made real, we are treated to the sense that we are viewing a tale of human beings who's decisions and consequences over time accumulate the weight of a mythology. In a telling shot, the main villain of JW2 makes an important phone call while standing in front of a gallery of sculptures depicting the Olympian gods, leaving no doubt as to his sense of belonging in that pantheon. Later on, when someone advises him as to the folly of how he has crossed Wick, his monologue of doom is framed in front of a statue of Kali.
In this way John Wick is revealed as an agent of Gotterdamerung against an established Apollonian order. He is Czernobog, or perhaps Blake's Red Dragon. And yet he is human all too human. It's like Paradise Lost, is John Wick, for reminding us that the monsters in our stories are as much the victims of their nature as everyone they destroy in their wake. It really is the role of a lifetime for Keanu Reeves, who made his career playing the reflection of this sort of agent of destruction, to the point that South Park made a joke about it.
Indeed the only two missteps in the whole film are an over-the-top performance by Lawrence Fishburne (who probably worried if he matched everyone's understated tone he would turn back into Morpheus and bring on the meta-apocalypse), and the last fifteen minutes, which should have been saved for the now inevitable John Wick 3. It would have been better to end on the shot of John sitting in the rain with his dog, alone except for the ghosts.
I hope they make more of these. Not just a trilogy, but a whole franchise. I hope Keanu Reeves realizes what he has hit upon and makes this series into the modern Zatoichi Saga in its breadth.
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