#but like...... different production teams have different interpretations of text and characters and that's just fine? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

datrb · 4 months

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afternoon boss

I got a few questions regarding your CG designs (get as nitty gritty and as detailed as you want lmao)

Firstly i notice you use a lot of turtleneck (or turtleneck-like) designs when it comes to clothes for the CG. Any particular reason why? or do you just have a preference for turtlenecks?

Second off, p e l o

When it comes to designing characters I'm a bit of a hair nutjob and i like to believe that hair reflects the personality of a person. Obviously, the colored streaks in their hair are a given, but besides from those, is there any reason you picked the hairstyles you did for the CG? Anything based on personality or purely for aesthetics?

(also ig this is a follow up question but do you ever plan on doing summer clothes for the gang what with the season coming up?)

CG hair headcannons

Oh, Anon, you have no idea what you have brought upon yourself... I swear, when it comes to the designs i become the ultimate yap lord, so brace yourself.

I'll cut this post right here because my blog is already cluttered enough with my yapping.

Okay. First things first, the turtlenecks... Imma be entirely honest, i didn't even notice it myself until you pointed this out, but yeah. They indeed do almost all have some type of a turtleneck or turtleneck adjacent thing as the base layer.

I don't have an actual reason aside, maybe, the fact that turtleneck is really a no-brainer type of base layer and, well, i do actually wear then quite a lot irl, so that might play a role as well. (Hell, i am literally wearing one as i am writing this post)

HOWEVER, among them there is one who has a proper reason for that to be a part of his design. That character being Second. More observant probably would've already noticed and heard me mention it, but all mainline hollowheads have this zip-up type of thing as their base layer. Victim, Chosen and Second all have this same exact thing. Only difference being the sleeves or lack there of. That one's intentional. Others... I was just a bit lazy and, well, i will probably change those since i am working on doing some changes to their designs.

But yeah the HAIR hehehehe, oh i can detail their hair routine down to the amount of product they use, so you better get yourself somethin' to eat, because we're here for a while.

But before we dive into it, i wanna note that the coloured streaks aren't "a given" if i wanted, i could've gotten along perfectly fine without them at all. But i actually made a set of "rules" for designs in my interpretation. And one of those rules dubs "Every stick has at least one streak of hair of their respective colour. Rest of the hair can be any colour." This applies to literally all of my designs. King, Victim, Dark, even mercenaries. It's a rule that i cannot break.

Also, i will touch on other characters as well because, well, i finally got a chance to and at least King is an especially interesting case in that regard.

I'll do in a list format because it'll just be easier.

TSC (Second) - Second has very soft and FLUFFY hair. It's straight, rather thin, but very fluffy. There honesty is no proper reason behind his hairstyle other than "general vibes" and "what hairstyle would give off an early teen vibe?".

Red - Red's hair is a bit wavy, but it's practically unnoticeable, it's rather soft, but doesn't seem like it due to it being rather thick. I gave him this little ponytail, because i wanted to incorporate the yellow team's headband into his design, but thought putting it on the head would be too basic, so why the hell not. Also, this ponytail helps balance the "animal lover" and "highschool football team" vibes.

Yellow(why does Tumblr not have yellow colour for text??) - Yellow has hard, thick and almost uncontrollable hair. No wonder the moment he got the goggles he started using them as a hair band to keep it at least somewhat in check. For Yellow i tried to go for a "math student" vibe, but it eventually turned to the more "that one engineer that built a time machine in his garage" type of thing. Oh and also by doing that i was trying to avoid the "karen" hair he had originally. I still can't look at his old ref sheet with a straight face.

Green - Green most definitely straightens his hair and styles it a versy specific way. You cannot convince me otherwise. His hair is thick and almost curly, but it's also very soft. For his hairstyle i wanted to give him more of a DJ vibe, which would bean some crazy hairstyle. This one seemed like a good blend of something a stereotypical "speedster" character would have as well as something you would see at a 2010's rave party.

Blue - Blue has thick, almost curly hair that likely really doesn't like to be styled at all. It just has a mind of its own and you can't tell it what to do. Pretty much like Yellow's, honestly, except here you have curls and not just a paintbrush. Blue's hairstyle came from my wish to give his otherwise almost cottagecore type design this little sprinkle of madness. And what's better way than to give him uncontrollable curls, am i right?

Purple - Purple has curls. His hair is soft, a bit fluffy and rather thick. Purple having long hair is widely accepted that it's basically fanon at this point, i don't think i need to explain my decisions here. I do think that he has an undercut tho, because i believe him to have A LOT of hair. And, speaking from experience, it gets very hot.

King - King i believe to have rather thin, soft and perfectly straigh hair that would not be able to hold shape if you tried. I decided to give him long hair because i HC his wife to be dead, so it would make sense for him to start growing it out as a way to remember her (he literally wears it the same way she used to. At least after the redemtion. Before that it's too messy). Also, i believe his hair to have lost a fair share of colour due to stress, making it almost grey.

TCO(Chosen) - Chosen has the same hair type as Second BUT his is not as fluffy because it's not as well-maintained. They also share hairstyles, except Chosen's longer, as he didn't really have much options in terms of how to cut it. This one was intentional and while designing Chosen i unironically only had one directive: "Make Second, but old and edgy." I think i delivered.

Victim - I already mentioned that Victim's entire appearance was heavily influenced by my friend who suggested him looking like a ninja in the first place, and that also applied to his hair. Although, now i stepped away from it, but one can never go wrong with a "slick, sassy and extremely cunning villain". Victim's hair silky smooth and is extremely soft. And much like his workers, basically never goes out of line.

TDL(Dark) - I believe Dark to actually have quite hard but rather thin hair. It's very spiky when not tended to. He actually has the most hairstyles among all of my designs, standing toe to toe with King, for whom i have 4 hairstyle designs. His AvA5 appearance (the most commonly drawn slick back) actually came from the most stereotypical cartoon-ish villains. The design i ended up giving him was not intended as Dark it was just a random sassy looking character i drew as practice while working on overall artstyle for my human designs. But then i looked at him, made a few minor adjustments and there he was.

So yeah. I believe that's the most important ones. Lemme know if you wanna hear more, i'll make sure to also provide examples next time, because i am actually writing this on the go, so i don't really have access to my laptop.

I actually thought very little about WHY they would wear a certain hairstyle other than "it fits their vibe" which imo is usually the exact way people go about their hair, so it does kinda fit. (At least that's the way i go about my hair...)

#alan becker #animation vs animator #ava #ava headcanons #ava designs #dat yapps #dat answers

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sapphire-weapon · 1 year

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First off i wanted to say i appreciate you always sharing your true opinion without muddying it up too much or trying to appease people. The honesty is very refreshing!

Okk anyway i keep seeing this take going around and wanted to know your thoughts on it (i have my own, but):

Leon in infinite darkness asks shen may out to dinner once and then later is looking forward to dinner with Claire. Do you see both of these incidents as platonic? The first one reads as flirting to me and the last one seems like an intentional ship tease from the writers (before uh, yknow, making the encounter end on a sour note... look, that one hug they share when leon saves her is ship tease 100% they know what theyre doing)

A lot of people seem to think he is just innocently wanting a meal and I kind of get that vibe with Claire I guess but... ... ... ANYWAY what are your thoughts. I think people are just simply afraid of whore leon

The way I look at it is that my goal first and foremost is to analyze the story text in a serious way -- and it's impossible to have a productive conversation about narrative, characterization, and use of literary tropes if I treat every single possible interpretation of the text as valid. There needs to be some uniformity to what I'm saying, or else there's no point in having the conversation.

That, and I also feel like there's no point in having this little community at all if we can't be honest with each other. Friendships aren't built on uwu. They're built on a sincere exchange of common interests and ideas.

So, I'm really grateful that we've all found each other. It's been so fucking awesome to meet so many people who are genuinely interested in a literary analysis of RE's story and want to brainstorm ideas and piece through things together as a team -- because this has never been my experience in RE fandom before, over the full 25 years that I've been here.

I love u all very much ❤

Ok, so as for your actual question --

I pretty much agree with your interpretation of what's going on there.

People really need to get the fuck over this weird, puritanical pearl-clutching they're doing and being scandalized by OG Leon being a slut canonically. OG Leon tries to fuck Hunnigan at one point, for god's sake.

Because, like. If you try to handwave away or whitewash the way that Leon is pure testosterone; he's a walking hard-on looking for a hole throws himself at people, you're erasing and overlooking a really big part of his character.

Leon is lonely and he fucking hates himself.

The way that this manifests/the way that he expresses this is different between Remake and OG, but that fact about him never goes away. Remake Leon puts up walls and self-isolates as though he's trying to protect everyone around him from the misfortune of having to know him, but OG Leon does the opposite. OG Leon is constantly giving more and more of himself away in the hopes that, eventually, there'll be nothing left.

So, there's a few different things going on there when he asks out Shen May and then Claire in ID.

With Shen May -- yes, he is actually asking her out. That is a legitimate offer for a date that he will go into with the intention of putting the moves on her and having it end in sex.

He does this not just because she's a hot girl -- though, of course he does think she's a hot girl -- he does it because he feels enough of a connection to her that, if she were to go out with him once, he could use that as a way to trick himself into thinking he's still worth other people's time -- even if for just a few hours. Again: he's really fucking lonely. No one person ever stays in his life long enough to form a meaningful relationship with him (platonic or otherwise), but if he can take a girl out to dinner -- hey, that's something, right?

And if he were to actually fuck her, he'd be able to lose himself in her wants and desires for long enough that he can forget how much he fucking hates himself. If he were to feel her hands on his body, he would actually feel wanted for a change. And if he were to make her come, he would feel needed -- and, if he were to make her come more than once, that would be even better. (Remember: Leon is "The Protector." He needs to be needed. He's probably the master of foreplay and will tease and touch and put his mouth on a partner for well over an hour before he actually fucks them.)

And, ever since being kidnapped by the CIA, the only way that Leon has ever been needed or wanted or useful in any way has been through physical means and the use of his body. That's why he defaults to sex as a coping mechanism before he gives up and just starts drinking. He might not have any value as a person, but as a physical body and an object -- well, that's a different story.

Leon objectifies himself, is what I'm saying.

With Claire, though, it's a little bit different.

Yes, it's ship bait -- but it's very mild ship bait, because the context for this one is way different.

Leon isn't being sincere with Claire when he says what he says. He knows that Claire didn't call him or meet up with him because she wants to go out with him or is looking for a booty call. He's not stupid (mostly).

Leon is being sarcastic and self-deprecating when he tells Claire that he was hoping she was going to want to get dinner with him. It's a sad joke to him, because, in his mind, the thought that Claire would be interested in him at all is actually ridiculous.

Because Claire knows him in ways that Shen May didn't. He can't charm his way into Claire's panties by pretending that he's something more than -- or that he's someone -- that he's not.

Claire doesn't need him -- Claire has never needed him, and Leon has absolutely no reason to believe she wants him, either.

What good is he to her, really, when she already knows the truth? She knows that Leon's only real use is as a weapon -- that he's not good for literally anything outside of an active bioterrorism situation. She knows that he fucks up everything he ever tries to do in his personal life. So, why would she want him? Why would she ever want him?

She doesn't. That's why she's about to disappear from his life again for maybe another six years. Maybe more. Because he's not worth being around.

At least, that's what his brain tells him.

It's a really self-defeating mindset that turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Him talking about getting dinner with Claire is a joke, and the punchline is his own opinion of himself.

#resident evil #leon kennedy #meta analysis #every time leon looks into a mirror he hates what he sees #and while he can wear a mask around strangers #he can't around claire #she sees exactly what he sees when he looks at himself #and his own self-loathing tells him that she must hate what she sees as much as he does #when honestly that's probably not the case

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abnerkrill · 9 months

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im not tagging this because this isn't a criticism of the show per se (ok maybe a little) but primarily of fans' attitudes........... but the thing that reeaaaally gets my goat (lol!) about the pj&o adaptation (and other book to show/film adaptations of popular fandom material, do NOT @ me about rings of power) is that people assume it's easy and always correct to adapt a book "just like they imagined it" or that it's easy and always correct to be ~faithful~ to the vision of the book in their head because all they have to do is "bring it to life" correctly. (ugh! there's my archnemesis Textual Fidelity again. well, what if i love infidelity! what then!) [like we can all agree there's a spectrum of close and distant adaptations but WHAT IF we also wanted distant adaptations and we valued them for being singular works of art instead of judging purely by fidelity. what then.]

like... as IF there's a Correct and Singular Version and it is, naturally, YOUR interpretation. as if there's a hierarchy of interpretation and it's Good if your interpretation is visualized and Unfathomable if someone else takes their interpretation and runs with it. (does not apply to racist casting like the shyamalan ATLA movie obviously........... this is about making interesting or subversive choices instead of being slavishly devoted to source material as a philosophy, which IS the disney/riordan/fandom philosophy regarding PJO and it's what people WISH was rings of power's philosophy.) anyway a fandom's measure of the success of an adaptation is how closely it cleaves to their memory of their interpretation of the book, which is frankly a huge loss to adaptation as an art form, and a huge win for adaptation as pure commercial entity

because really your act of interpretation and imagination is so singular, so specific to you, and everyone else's is going to be different in a myriad of small and big ways. and a massive creative team working on the economic machine that is a television show are making millions of choices to adapt it, translate it into a new medium, in a way that makes sense as visual & auditory material. and that is pretty much going to fit into thee popular interpretive framework that fans will like (of what's important or what's essential to the text,) because it's a commercial product and Disney wants it to be successful, but like... does it have to be. DOES IT HAVE TO BE. the book is right there if you want the book. why can't a show be its own show. why can't TV be TV and not The Book, But We're Reading It Out Loud Now In Settings Effectively Conjured From The Pages Of The Book. because that's how you end up with characters talking exposition to each other for 7 minutes. text-to-screen translation is supposed to make that textual stuff visual and auditory!! pjo fails in that regard in so many scenes--you just have characters talking at each other! it's fun for fans to see those scenes come to life but it's not good TV scene writing!

anyway. text-to-screen adaptations. a) they're hard work. it's invention and creativity that stands on its own (or ought to stand on its own). it's not second-rate, lower-tier artistry that's somehow worth less than fiction because it has its starting point in a novel. they're not easier than original work [they might, in fact, at least at their best, be harder because of the expectations of existing fanbases.] but if adaptations fall for the "fidelity" argument too much, you wind up with Oh I Just Typed Up The Novel's Dialog And Description Into Screenplay Format, which DOES NOT WORK onscreen

and b) there's no One Version that exists in the ether, it's all choices. it's all choices! a text has one stream of communication—the words themselves are the only stuff of a literary text. meanwhile visual & auditory media has dozens of streams of meaning—the script, yes, the words they say are obviously important, but there's casting, costumes, props, hair, makeup, sound design, editing, all the little things of production design and cinematography and focus and emphasis. that creates new meaning. or it could. maybe it should?? should it???? i want it to!

so it's like. okay guys. you like this show because it meets your threshold for a Faithful Adaptation. what does faithfulness mean to you what does it MEAN that you feel like you will only accept a show that meets YOUR interpretive standards. is it good because it's close to the book? is that the one and only standard? fidelity or bust? is it good that your interpretation is popular enough to become thee reigning fandom interpretation? should there be hierarchies of interpretation based on what the author (or wider fandom) has okayed? don't you ever want interesting, subversive interpretations. don't you ever want directors to go "hey i'm exploring new meanings embedded in this text." because the book exists already the book will always exist. why must the adaptation be a carbon copy always. what's the worth of that if the book is already there waiting for you to reread it. do u ever want to go apeshit do u ever want to shake Disney and go pls fucking make a courageous creative choice??

#im talking about pjo but a lot of the time im talking about rings of power. 3 people will feel me on this.#this is also about the homoerotic subtext in pjo but we're not ready for THAT conversation disney are we

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susandsnell · 1 year

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Unpopular musical opinions?

Sorry for leaving this for so long, I had a pretty exhausting/busy week and didn't feel up to articulating as well as I could!

I think a lot of my unpopular musical opinions boil down to somewhat uninteresting "I do not like this popular musical/performer" at a rather frequent rate, so I'll stick to what I think stylistically:

I understand budgetary restrictions are what they are, and the value producers versus creative teams have of vision needing to meet cost-effectiveness, but minimalism needs to be used where it's suited rather than the popular default.

Used to proper effect in works like Cabaret (where it suits the setting/story tremendously) or Hadestown (where it creates a timelesness that actually serves the thesis of the show on the nature of a tragedy/'timeloop' structure of humans continually telling and retelling the Orpheus story), it can be superb. When it is the default for both revivals and new productions, it's created a samey feeling to much of modern musical theatre that, rather than being more revelatory of the work, instead makes it at once duller and more pretentious. I loved the cast of The Color Purple's revival but the pared-down, barebones production ultimately underserved the sprawling nature of the story, and the emotional impact of its beats compared to the original production. I know a lot of people love minimalist Sweeney Todds, for example, but I feel like while I understand the Brechtian interpretation of the work/returning to earlier theatrical roots, it just does nothing for me, and pared down casts/sets actively undermine the story and don't do justice to the enormous score. Whispering the end of God That's Good was a particular nadir imo. (This is not to say I don't have a soft spot for Michael Cerveris rising from the coffin lolol) I understand similar critiques in the opposite dimension have been made against megamusicals and/or splashier, bigger productions, but I'm personally always weak for spectacle/costumes, besides which I'd argue those were at least all big in different ways.

Major major disclaimer that I do not by any means think that every show needs to be an extravaganza or that there is only One Way To Do Theatre With One Set of Conventions; nor am I by any means against black box or stripped down productions/era-changing reinterpretations!!! I'm always open to new ideas and I do believe that you risk getting stuck in the past and to narrow, culturally particular artistic visions. It's more so that these visions need to complement and serve the text they're bringing to life.

Likewise, oh my goodness, be careful with framing devices for staging. I've seen far too many productions where they add in the older version of a young character standing at the edge of the stage nodding knowingly at the events of the past, and where it wasn't built into the text, it can be incredibly distracting and not serve a larger purpose (think the extended Old Man Raoul sequences in 2004 Phantom but in, like, everything). 2005 Sweeney's edgy ~Toby is in an asylum recollecting~ framing creates more questions than it answers aside from the aspects of this that we now understand to be fairly problematic. (I get what they were trying to do, I do, it just didn't work for me.) Apparently there's some weird stuff going on that doesn't all come together in the new Parade revival too? (Which probably...should not be done, given the delicate subject matter).

I think this got a lot more jumbled/long-winded than I intended with fewer specific examples, but I appreciate you asking my opinion! <3

#ask night

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thisweekinfandomhistory · 1 year

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Thank you for your response. I'm sorry, I have more questions to ask.

I want to know: what is canon and what is not? In your response, you mentioned that Xena/Gabrielle was not considered canon because of the prevailing homophobic attitudes of mainstream viewers. So, does the definition of canon depend on the opinions of the mainstream audience?

You also mentioned in your response that the writers and actors stated that Xena/Gabrielle were not canon at the time. However, it's important to note that the show was not strictly-serialized but composed of unit episodes with season-long character arc. The writing team consisted of resident writers and various freelancers, and different individuals, including producers and writers, had different perspectives on the Xena/Gabrielle relationship (sometimes even differing interpretations of the characters and storylines!). These perspectives also varied over time. From my recollection, Steven L. Sears, Katherine Fugate, T.J. Scott, Gene O'Neill, Noreen Tobin explicitly expressed that Xena and Gabrielle were in love. Liz Friedman and Rob Tapert also made related statements (you can find more details in the Chakram Newsletter and DVD episode commentaries). Some of these comments were made during the filming process, while others were shared in interviews during DVD production or at Xena conventions several years later. Were these statements made solely to appease the queer fanbase, so that the show's creators lost the credibility to validate whether they are canon?

Returning to the original question: what is canon and what is not? If we exclude all statements and opinions from the producers, how do we approach it based on the 134 episodes of the entire series? Countless love confessions, expressions of desire and jealousy, numerous sacrifices and commitments, Xena even sent a Sappho poem to Gabrielle! What constitutes explicit expression? Is there anything more explicit than these instances?

Steven L. Sears mentioned in a podcast that the Xenaverse is a world without labels. In this fictional ancient Greek society filled with warrior women and unruly gods, it would be strange to assume that everyone is heterosexual and queerness needs to be proven. Does this align with the show's inclusive style and theme? Now, let's imagine if either of them transformed into a male character, would anyone say they don't have a romantic relationship? (Just like in 422, when they were reincarnated as a man and a woman and kissed passionately and got married. Of course, according to your perspective, that wouldn't count as Xena and Gabrielle being together right?)

I apologize for saying so much. I'm not American, and in my country, homosexuality is not allowed to exist on screens or in society. I deeply understand and detest the presence of homophobia and censorship systems. Our social and cultural environment, as well as the sexual expression of the queer community and individuals, may differ greatly from today's United States. As a result, you and I have different understandings of what is canon and what is not in a fictional work.

By the way, let me share some personal feelings. XWP incorporates many symbols and religious expressions related to Eastern Asian elements (such as the Taoist yin-yang symbol, Buddhism, and Hinduism). In the education I received, yin and yang were used to represent a heterosexual union that was deemed natural and favored male dominance. However, in this show, the symbol is used to represent the harmony and balance between Xena and Gabrielle (which also associates Gabrielle with the masculine 'yang' energy haha), symbolizing their alignment with the preconceived cosmic order. No one can imagine the shock and joy I experienced when I watched 413! I will cherish the happiness and courage this show has brought me for the rest of my life.

Canon is, very strictly speaking, what is explicitly stated in the text of the work. Anything else is extant.

I'm glad that you love Xena so much! :) It is the best feeling to really love a fandom. :)

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xlmains · 2 years

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hunxi-after-hours · 2 years

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hi hunxi, just wondering if you have thoughts on the weibo blowup over the tgcf audio drama? from what i've read, people are upset about the following:

there's negativity surrounding both lead voice actors, but the majority consensus seems to be that 双儿's voice isn't suitable for xie lian. there's also a screenshot circulating of a comment in an anonymous discussion forum posted in march 2022, which accuses the production company of 内选 and of using the ip as a “捧人的垫脚石”. aside from the very loaded language, the predictions in the comment seem mostly to have come true (which has led some people to speculate that it was actually released by someone within the company itself, either as a "whistleblower" situation or to test out reactions beforehand).

fans of the book dislike the way that mentions of mxtx + new tgcf content were apparently dragged into the behind-the-scenes video to ... quell public outrage? i personally don't see a problem, but weibo posters put a lot of emphasis on the fact that 新修 chapters were underway BEFORE the audio drama and therefore not "exclusive" audio content or written for the express purpose of the audio drama's production.

there's a whole lot more that won't include here (hot search/rankings allegedly being bought, voice actor fans shading book fans, etc), but i really hope this isn't an insensitive or overly negative ask. i'm just surprised that chinese vs international fandoms are having such wildly different reactions.

hi anon! honestly, looks like you've summed it up pretty well — I came to the TGCF audiodrama to have a good time and was surprised by how much negativity there was in CN fan circles about it?

(post got long, throwing it under a cut)

I assume there's probably some history/drama surrounding these supposedly contentious aspects of the TGCF AD production, so I suppose qualifiers are in order: I've got legitimately no idea where the anti-729 sentiment is coming from (?? they do good work???), or about the history of nepotism/favoritism in voice actor circles (?????). truly, everything I know begins and ends with 《我是特优声》 and my misadventures on 猫耳, so I'm doubtlessly missing out on any drama from like, before 2021

that being said, I can't say I understand the anti-casting sentiment because, well... 苏尚勤 is a legitimately experienced and lauded voice actor who's familiar with MXTX's work, and while 陈张太康 is a somewhat newer face, anyone who's watched 《我是特优声》 or listened to his audiodramas knows that he's got an extremely impressive range that I personally think is very suited to the dynamic aspects of Hua Cheng's character. from the very little I've spotted on weibo/the 猫耳评论区, it seems like people are taking issue with... how young 苏尚勤 sounds? which is like. fam. you know what voice actors do for a living, right? change their voices to embody different characters? you truly cannot judge how well a voice actor performs in an AD based on a five minute trailer alone. give it a few episodes/a season since they're apparently giving out the entire season for free for two months, and then we'll talk

I think a lot of the “声音不贴角色” complaints come from, well, fans of the book expecting these few lines we've heard so far to truly embody the breathtaking complexity of these characters all at once, which is rather impossible. the thing about Xie Lian and Hua Cheng is that they are young, and old, and tired, and passionate, and faithful, and trusting, and cruel, kind, but all at different times. so Xie Lian sounds young now? give the voice actor a chance to show how exhausted and jaded and tired he becomes later, in the flashback arcs. so Hua Cheng doesn't sound like the badass ghost king we know him for? that actually 100% makes sense, he's in San Lang mode right now, and if you watched 陈张太康's rendition of 《灵笼》, you KNOW he can do arrogant, vicious royalty when it comes to it

also, looking across the cast list for the AD, this doesn't seem to be 内选 unless it's like... 内选 within the 京圈 voice acting circle?? which to be fair is like. maybe 200 people total asldkfjadlsf (look if you want to diversify your voice acting cast then let's see some 沪圈 rep huh?? #give毛毛老师anotherbitroleagain). the voice actors in the TGCF AD cast come from a vast assortment of different voice acting studios, from 729 to 边工 to 翼之声 to 光合积木 to unaffiliated with professional studios at all, so I'm??? confused??? at allegations of unfairness in casting??

I also saw some of those 弹幕 complaining about how they kept bringing up the MDZS production in the 制作谈 and I'm spectacularly baffled as to why that's a problem considering that much of the production staff had worked on the MDZS AD and it's. by. the same. author. and anyway, much of their discussion of the MDZS AD in the TGCF 制作谈 was specifically about shortcomings in the MDZS AD that they were learning from and seeking to improve this time around, which feels relevant and not particularly 刷好感 to me

tl;dr I think the TGCF AD production team worked very hard on this and are genuinely trying their best, and that all judgment should be reserved until after the season airs. there really is no point in trying to offer a holistic critique based on five-minute trailer alone, and like, I don't know how many morality points one would get from boycotting an AD but tbh it seems kind of. negligible. so let's all just kick back and enjoy this absolutely stacked production while it's being generously offered for free, shall we?

#to be totally honest all the negativity I'm seeing seems like 黑粉/水军活动 so I'm inclined to discount their validity #but also knowing that people are apparently still trying to cancel 边江 in 2022?? presumably over wishing 肖战 a happy birthday in 2020??#反正有些在网上活动的人是不带脑子的 #I've seen a lot of complaints about the casting but very little suggestions for who SHOULD have been cast beyond the donghua voice cast #which I respect! having different voice casts between the donghua and the AD can be jarring!#but like...... different production teams have different interpretations of text and characters and that's just fine?#idk I'll believe that 苏尚勤 is a bad choice when someone offers me a better alternative who isn't 姜sir #I've said it before and I'll say it again: I WILL 为太康老师打call if I have to #I feel pretty neutral about 苏尚勤's casting but I feel STRONGLY POSITIVE about 太康 #我这个人是离不开《特优声》的坑

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opbackgrounds · 4 years

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so I was doing some research after watching movie 6...

...and apparently it was originally written as a comedy

Yeah, I was surprised, too

Baron Omatsuri is not my favorite One Piece movie—Film Z has too many of my favorite tropes to be usurped from that position—but I do think it is the most daring. Of all the supplemental material I’ve seen and read, it feels the least...One Piece-ish.

Yes, that includes the noodle commercials.

If you haven’t seen the movie and can stomach a little spookiness, do yourself a favor and give it a watch. Unlike movies like Strong World or Z that have the look and feel of a manga arc, Movie 6 transplants the Straw Hat Pirates into a world that doesn’t feel like a One Piece story, taking risks and exploring themes that would never fit in the manga proper.

In addition to the obvious changes in art and animation style, there are supernatural elements that don’t make sense within the One Piece world. None of the Straw Hats win a fight—Luffy included, although he is heavily implied to have killed the big bad at the end. The moral of the movie, if it can be said to have a moral, is if you lose the people closest to you, the answer is to forget about them and make new friends. The story ends with many questions left unanswered and the main drama between the crew unresolved.

And, if you allow me to get philosophical for a moment, I wish there were more movies like it. As I wrote in my review of Novel A, I don’t go to supplemental material or side stories looking for a repeat of what’s in the manga. Oda has written 1000 chapters of One Piece—why not spice things up a little and try something different for a change?

I know the answer isn’t that simple, and by their very nature not all risks will pan out. There will be people who don’t like this movie because it’s different, both in look and tone. But there’s something to be said about a creator putting their heart and soul into a work and having it show in the final product.

Which brings us back to the original premise. How does a movie go from a light-hearted comedy based on a variety show theme to...this

Baron Omatsuri was directed by Mamoru Hosoda and came out in 2005. To put that into perspective, the movie was in production when the Luffy vs Usopp fight was first seen in the manga. Manga!Luffy had not yet faced the challenge of an inter-crew disputes when the story was being written and boarded, nor did the creative team have the events of Sabaody and Marineford to see how Luffy would react to the loss of his loved ones. They were working without a full understanding of Luffy’s character, and to a lessor extent the character of the Straw Hat Pirates, and it seems like Oda was much less involved In production than has been in movies since Strong World and beyond.

Likewise, Hosoda had just left a tumultuous situation at Studio Ghibli while working on Howl’s Moving Castle, and if this interview is anything to go by (https://instrangeaeonsblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/mamoru-hosoda-on-omatsuri-danshaku-animestyle-interview-part-1/) was going through a lot of personal shit when he was brought on as director. The script he was given was originally written like a variety show—something that was carried over into the various trials seen in the final movie—and meant to be a lighthearted affair after the relatively serious Movie 5 (which I have not seen am thus unable to compare tone).

With that backstory in mind, it’s easy to see how the bickering and backbiting between the Straw Hats early in the movie is a metaphor for Hosoda’s time at Ghibli, which is something he admits to in the interview. Movie 6 feels different than any other One Piece movie because it’s the project of a man who has had to endure the loss of those who he was close with, at least in a professional capacity.

There are moments in Movie 6 where Luffy doesn’t feel like Luffy. More than once a member of the Straw Hats ask him to intervene during arguments, moments Luffy either ignores or doesn’t notice. It’s a version of Water 7 where instead of fighting Usopp, Luffy ignores the underlying differences within his crew, and as a result loses everybody.

The structure of the three trials follows a clear path of deterioration within the crew, the initial goldfish scooping game showing the Straw Hats at their best and inciting the jealousy of the Baron, the ring toss sowing discord among the crew even as they snatch a narrow victory, only for them to be utterly crushed in the third and final challenge as they’re unable help one another survive.

It is somewhat implied that the Breaking of the Fellowship(TM) is magical in nature—that like the One Ring, the Lily Carnation was able to influence the Straw Hat’s thoughts and actions, but this is never stated outright and I prefer the more mundane interpretation: That without strong leadership the Straw Hats fell victim to the manipulative machinations of the Baron, and simply self-destructed as a result. In the end, it’s up to the interpretation of the viewer.

And speaking of things up to interpretation, I love how the Lily Carnation isn’t explained in the slightest. The plant that initially absorbs the Straw Hats looks more like the stem of a devil fruit than a flower, it for some reason rings like a gong when hit, and somehow is able to turn pieces of itself into facsimile of the Baron’s old crew who can somehow move around despite being plans. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and the element of the unknown works so well in the horror-lite setting.

My personal theory is the island somehow managed to eat a devil fruit which manifests itself as the Lily Carnation (which due to the L/R conflation in Japanese, is pronounced ‘reincarnation’, which I think is a nice touch of foreshadowing that may or may not have been intentional).

(Also, I can’t decide if little chewing animation it makes when it’s eating people or the weird bullseyes it makes when shit gets real are the most terrifying thing in the movie.)

Hmmm, tasty.

Anyway, this is getting long, so here are some final thoughts:

1) This movie has some low key fantastic outfits. The Straw Hats all look very cool without being over designed like a lot of recent movies. Big hat Robin is of course a fave, and makes me really want to see her in a Carmen Sandiego getup.

2) Screenshots do not do the animation of the movie justice. It’s very fluid and has a lot of excellent expressions/poses, although I admit the 3D is jarring at times. Do not let the art put you off if you haven’t seen it

3) Also, I don’t think there’s any shading? Like at all? The movie does a lot of cool stuff with color instead. For example, the scene where Luffy initially loses to the Baron his skin goes all grey, and I thought it was because he was fighting at night, but it stays grey even in the better lighting of the underground tunnels and stays that way until he finds out the Straw Hats are still alive, where it returns to his normal color

4) There’s an extended Benny Hill-type gag when Luffy first chases after the little mustache pirate that’s perfectly timed to the music, and ends when Luffy just uses his power to grab him. The comedic timing is amazing and it’s probably my favorite funny moment in the movie, of which there are several despite the overall darker tone

5) The extended jungle shot from Nami’s POV? Very cool

6) I love how from the earliest scenes nothing is as it seems. The opening text is Robin reading the map, but the storm that’s seen on screen is the one that sank the Baron’s crew. Likewise the whole fancy city is shown to be fake panels early on, the goldfish catching game is a trap, etc., etc. It does a good job clueing the viewer in early that’s something’s very wrong on the island, even if they don’t realize it at first

7) I don’t think this type of movie would work in modern One Piece without somehow nerfing Luffy. Horror works best when the protagonist is weak and vulnerable, and that fits best with a pre-Gear 2/3 Luffy (same with the rest of the crew, tbh. I was waiting for Nami to use her lightning stick during the games, forgetting it hadn’t been boosted yet).

8) I like how there are four captains on the island representing different levels of loss—the Baron has lost his crew and wants to destroy all others because of it, mustache pirate lost his crew and is willing to put it behind him to make new friends, Luffy has freshly lost his crew and hasn’t decided what path he will go, and coward dad hasn’t lost his crew yet but is at risk if he doesn’t change his cowardly ways

9) I think the reason why Chopper was the first Straw Hat to disappear is he’s the most likely to play the part of peacemaker. He’s also the only crew member needing rescuing at the end of the goldfish scoop game, when Luffy foolishly puts his life at risk trying to save him from drowning, just like he recklessly charges the Baron at the end of the movie. Except that time there was no Sanji to save him, leaving Luffy to get his ass thoroughly kicked

10) This is a very good Halloween movie, and I’m glad I watched it in October

#opbackgrounds #long post #movie 6 #review #one piece #Baron Omatsuri

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mittelfrank-divas · 4 years

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so i'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but there's an interview with developers of the game and they pretty much say point blank that edelgard was intended to be a villain and not morally grey at all (and this is shown more clearly in the jpn version). what's your take on this? does intent matter if it comes off differently in the game itself, esp in the localization?

If we’re thinking of the same interview (that Nintendo Dream one) then that isn’t what it says at all.

Q: Can you tell us which route was made first in order to expand and explore the world?

Kusakihara: The first and second parts of the Empire route.. which is called by the userbase as the “Church Route”, Silver Snow. The progression of Class Leader Edelgard to become the antagonist… that is what we initially decided upon. [...]

Q: Please tell us about how Edelgard and the Empire’s current status brought about the details seen in the story.

Kusakihara: The character that guides the story has mostly been male characters up until now. The antagonist being a male character as a setting has also been often the case in my opinion… which is why we wanted to release something that is the opposite, to which you can say, a story that is hard to predict, and as such we ended up with a female character.

Yokota: Not only is she a strong character on the front of thrusting the story’s direction, the gap with her cute/endearing points also were present, which has resulted in her becoming a good character in my opinion. And other than that, due to all the previous titles in the series, the thought/impression that the Empire = Antagonists is left upon the playerbase. When you think about the “Empire”, you usually get some sort of “Bad/Evil” image, I think. And as for the story, it really feels like it started from the Romance of Three Kingdoms, but we force them all to take part in school life. In other words, a period in which there was peace must exist, before starting the fires of war. And because of that, someone evil (Villain)… or rather, someone who has to bear a role close/similar to that has to exist, and so we had the Empire bear that burden.

I know this is a translation, so we have to take it all with a huge grain of salt, but the word used above is antagonist, not villain. An antagonist is simply a character who stands opposed to a protagonist. An antagonist can be morally grey or even perfectly good -- protagonist and antagonist are simply about whose perspective the audience is following and sympathizing with. Edelgard is an antagonist in three of the four routes. That’s just a simple fact. Just like Rhea and Dimitri and Claude are antagonists in hers.

The translation seems to get a bit fuzzy, but it seems like the devs went on to say that they chose to call it the Adrestian Empire because the word “empire” has the perception of being bad or evil. But is that any surprise? With all the red and black and the militant imagery, it is clear that you’re supposed to look at Edelgard and the Empire and get the impression that they’re bad. But this is an entire game about how perception and reality are not the same thing.

And this line: “someone who has to bear a role close/similar to that has to exist, and so we had the Empire bear that burden.” If they wanted to say the Empire is the villain, they could have just said that without talking around it like this, and even correcting themselves when they said the word evil/villain! To me, it sounds like they’re saying that the Empire took on a villainous role but they don’t actually consider it evil.

I didn’t want to paste it all here since it gets long, but the devs also go on to talk about how even within their team there was a lot of desire for the Crimson Flower route despite Silver Snow being written first. So it would seem odd to me if they saw Edelgard as evil but still had this strong wish to side with her.

All of that said? No, I don’t think intent matters as much as what’s actually there in the game. I find Word of God to be insightful and interesting, but all it does is provide a bit of background and context. I’m still going to treat the final product as something that I can interpret how I wish.

Even if the above was a mistranslation and it outright said “we set out to make Edelgard an evil villain,” that is not what she is in the game. And like, why would we treat interviews like this as sacred texts but not unused assets? Knowing that Felix could have betrayed Dimitri in AM is an interesting fact that gives us a lot to think about, but the fact is that Felix chooses to remain with Dimitri in canon. Imagine what a jerk I would be if I yelled at every Felix fan that the devs “really” meant for him to leave Dimitri, so they need to stop enjoying their AM Felix content. They have a right to enjoy what is actually in the game just like Edelgard fans do.

#Anonymous #edelgard von hresvelg #meta

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allalrightagain · 3 years

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I promise I didn’t forget about you @lunapwrites, it just took me a bit to put my thoughts into (a lot of) words.

You said: I am... Extremely interested in this. Especially because my personal HC for Arithmancy and Runes is literally like Wizard Coding. Here for it.

I do agree that Arithmancy and Runes are like wizard coding, because I do think they share a lot of hallmarks of what we traditionally thing of code looking and acting like: you input a combination of symbols/numbers/letters into a text based system and get an output of whatever the code is supposed to do (ie magic, formatting your website, running an application, etc).

I should clarify that in my original post, I was thinking more scripting languages like Python, since that's what I’m currently studying, and it's specifically scripting languages that I was thinking resemble spells in canon (versus other types of code like markup languages (html) or compiled languages (C)).

I think of Arithmancy and Runes as closer to a compiled language— the finished product is a set of instructions /compiled/ into an application that works with the data it's given. In other words, you build the whole thing, then it can run the steps you built. Potions, in some ways, also fits into this category.

Scripting languages, otoh, aren't compiled, and are (at least, as I'm using here*) interpreted /scripts/ or individual pieces of code where specific actions are associated with each piece. It's faster and easier to use, and can, in many cases, be used piecemeal.

The linguistic methodology of spells in Harry Potter (specifically what we see of Defense, Transfiguration, and Charms) functions similarly to the syntax in scripting languages. One command performs an action, often but not always on a subject/input.

So you can use a command like print() where the text you want the application to spit out is in parentheses, and likewise you can shoot sparks, where you choose the color of sparks either mentally or verbally with a variant of the same command and directed wherever you point your wand.

Likewise, the commands are highly specific— for magic, the wrong wand movement or pronunciation can have disastrous results or be a completely different spell; for code, the wrong word or missing punctuation can cause a crash or a different action than intended.

Everyone I know who uses scripting languages regularly

1) has scripts they know off the top of their head,

2) has a file somewhere with the scripts they use just often enough that they forget in between uses, and

3) still has to google specific code or situations because they don't remember or don’t know exactly what their looking for.

So what I was struck with (as I looked up a highly specific command in a specific module which I've never needed before and will likely never need again) is that magic users would need to know a whole library worth of highly specific spells, and would probably still run into situations where they know there's a spell, but it's not one they've used before or regularly, and would have to look up and then apply that spell.

I would imagine that Hogwarts, not unlike a lot of IT/data science programs, start you off with a collection of easy and necessary scripts/spells, and teach a lot more theory than is initially obvious. It feels like you’re learning highly specific commands, which you are, but the goal of magical education is not unlike “learn to code” classes— to teach you the commands you’ll use so frequently you’ll never forget them, the rhythm and methodology of using those commands, and what to do when you don’t know the command.

Take switching spells for example— how often do you need to swap the positions of two similar sized objects? Probably not often, but you might use other, possibly more complicated spells that have two fixed objects, and it will use the same fundamentals and application, you’ll just have to look the spell up when you need it.

A final note on the application of this knowledge is that jobs that require coding knowledge typically involve a portion of the interview in which you prove your ability to fix or write code, sometimes in a specific language, and sometimes in whatever your preferred language is, so long as it's capable of performing the required tasks. However, once you get the job, they might have specific scripts that everyone uses within that team/company's specific function (in my last job, someone literally emailed me a 5 page long list that they'd been adding to since they started working there).

So it's reasonable to assume many wizarding world jobs both require a sort of “magical interview” where the interviewee is asked to perform specific spells or solve specific problems, and then once they get the job, are told the commonly used spells in that job. A person with good reasoning skills or a large working knowledge of spells would have an advantage over one who didn’t, but a person who already knows the specialized spells would have an even greater advantage in the interview process, but not necessarily after that.

(As a side note, code == magic adds a bonus layer to Snape's character specifically. We know he creates his own spells/code with the primary goal of hurting others, creepily pines for a girl who “friendzoned” him and hasn’t talked to him since they were fifteen, joined a terrorist org, and complained that other magical people don't use logic enough. Tell me he doesn’t hang out on the worst parts of magical Reddit/4chan/etc.)

*the actual languages that fit into scripting vs compiled aren’t necessarily cut and dry, and there are several that are used for both categories, where the individual scripts are compiled into a full application and used as such. Similarly, I think some transfiguration and charms could be used more like a compiled language— think of Hermione's bag with the undetectable extension charm, or Sirius and James' mirrors.

#hp #hp meta #lt talks #I know uh... just enough code to be dangerous so if some of this might be slightly inaccurate #I tried to tldr but I think my brain started melting so...#tldr the original post #let me know if this does/doesn't make sense #I spend so much time thinking about code right now I'm not sure how well it translated #code vs magic

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sapphire-weapon · 8 months

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Hi! I had a question, how much would you take into the consideration the statements of developers when talking about the analysis’s of video games?

For example, I was having a conversation with someone regarding whether Laura from SH2 was real or just another manifestation. The person that I was talking to agreed with all my analogy but then disregarded it because apparently one developer said she was real. I’ve also had this type of conversation within RE fandom where they constantly bring up developer points rather than reading the text and it is frustrating because there’s no way for me to sort of answer back to a developer statement. I don’t know how VG development work, but surely there’s hundreds of them all working together and many would have different interpretations/opinions, so is it worth just looking at the text than the opinion of one developer?

It depends on:

1. The publisher

2. The studio

3. The person who said it

If it's an indie game, you can pretty much take anyone's word as canon law. Like, SuperGiant Games only has 26 people total working on their games. If literally any dev says anything about Hades, it's as good as the information being in the game itself, because every dev was involved in every stage of production.

If it's something like The Evil Within, which was developed by a Japanese studio (Tango Gameworks) but published by an American publisher (Bethesda), I don't necessarily take Pete Hines's word as law (Bethesda's PR guy) because not only did he not actually work on the game, he doesn't even speak the language of the people who actually did.

If it's something like Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it's Yoshinori Kitase talking, you disregard everything he says because he fucking lies. He lies for sport. He loves lying about his projects. Nomura is honest maybe half the time. Hamaguchi is generally pretty honest.

If it's Resident Evil, the actual literal only person whose word I would take as Word of God is Shinji Mikami -- and that's only for the games up to and including OG RE4. And that's because he was the creative lead in charge of the series from the time of conception (the first RE1 was literally all his idea) through the GameCube release of OG RE4.

Anyone else working on RE? Throw out their opinion. It's garbage. Because there are hundreds and hundreds of people working on those games, and several of them are always in development concurrently, and there's no one central figure overseeing all of it anymore. Directors, producers, developers -- all of them come and go from title to title, with no sense of consistency between them.

RE is too fuckhuge and labyrinthine and does not, at any point, ask or require its player base to look outside of the games to understand what's happening. There are series that do do that. Final Fantasy is one of them. If you don't read the Ultimania or some of the novellas that get released as supplementary material for the games, sometimes huge chunks of the plot will come off as total nonsense. RE doesn't do that.

And so, when these games are being made, the only things that the current development team use to craft the game and the story are the games that came before them. None of them are combing through marketing materials and interviews and manga adaptations and what the fuck ever else. They're looking at the other games.

So, in fact, RE's plot and characters actually make more sense if you ignore literally everything the devs say.

When it comes to RE, if it's not in the games or CGI movies, it's not canon.

Period.

It has to actually be in the games. I should be able to put a game in and find the exact quote a person is talking about. Because if it was that important to know and that universally agreed upon by the bulk of the people working on the game, it would be in the game.

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ouyangzizhensdad · 4 years

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Maybe it's just me but somethings they left for the novel fandom to fill in the blanks, they never expected the drama to hit it big as it did... the why he got punished is one of those things. Something that makes me confused is the difference between how western fans perceive the novel/show and how eastern fans do, for example lqr gets hate in western fandom and most asian fandom doest really like jc. Lqr was afraid for his nephew and he accepts his nephew even when he messed up, wht did jc do

It is fine and swell to leave little Easter eggs for fans of the original work, but if the CQL production team deliberately chose to leave things unexplained and excused it by thinking that people would just “fill the gaps” with book canon, they failed at doing their jobs. An adaptation needs to be able to exist on its own as a separate piece of fiction, and should not rely on the viewership having read another text to be intelligible. I personally find it more damning to suggest that the CQL production willingly decided to leave gaps in their storytelling to be explained by novel canon than to suggest that they were not able to reconcile what needed to be taken out for censorship reasons, what they decided to take out by reworking the timeline and the narrative (in other words, due to them taking creative liberties) and what they choose to add to connect it all back together. Failure in the execution is a lot more excusable than not understanding the brief you’ve been given.

I think also that even trying to fill the “gaps” with the novel canon ends up creating more puzzles. You mention the punishment: trying to make sense of why LWJ gets punished in CQL by invoking the novel canon only brings up more confusion, because in the novel he’s no so much punished for protecting WWX but for harming 33 of his elders in the process--which is why he receives 33 strikes in spite of the fact that this is an unusually cruel punishment that could have left him at death’s door if his cultivation level had been weaker. Trying to apply that same logic to CQL does not work: are we supposed to understand that LWJ harmed 300 of his fellow sect members? But why would he have done so, if WWX was already dead? Were there 300 Lan cultivators killed/hurt because of the YLLZ, and LWJ is forced to bear the burden of responsibility for them because he associated with evil? It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

It is unavoidable that fans from different parts of the world would interpret the text differently. CQL and MDZS, ultimately, were written with a specific audience in mind, and the storytelling short-hands and cultural short-hands they use are leveraged with a specific cultural knowledge in mind. Texts are always in dialogue with other texts (intertextuality), which is how concepts like “genres” and “conventions” and “tropes” and “clichés” can emerge. However, even when the process of interpretation is disrupted due to a lack of relevant knowledge, we still construct meaning out of the text, although in this case it is likely to diverge more significantly from what had been intended.

As well, audiences come to a text with different understandings of morality, or what constitutes right or wrong behaviours, which often comes into play wrt whether people like or do not like a character. In the West, and especially on EN-language tumblr imo, people seem to hold a very rigid and idealistic visions of what is a good parent or caretaker (ie. all those posts saying people who complain about having to take care of their kids 24/7 during a pandemic were bad parents who should have never have had kids in the first plce for daring to complain, with no understanding of or empathy for the toll it takes to not only care for children whose lives have been disrupted and who have been deprived of their other opportunities to socialise at a stage where it is so incredibly crucial for their development, but the toll of caring for children while having to work and/or juggle the stresses and unknowns of a global pandemic, massive job losses, possible evictions, etc.).

Now, though, I’m interested in knowing why the Asian fandom is less likely to like JC than the western fandom. Any thoughts on this?

#cql vs mdzs #cql #anon ask #Anonymous

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jackdawyt · 5 years

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ICYMI: As my last video/post for 2019, I figured we should have a reflection on Dragon Age 4’s major news updates and uncover what we know about Dragon Age 4 throughout this year and beyond! So, we can go into 2020 with the right expectations and understanding of the game’s development!

The Dread Wolf Rises:

To boot of this year - we had the most exciting announcement from The Game Awards in December - the official confirmation of the next Dragon Age project with the current given title: #TheDreadWolfRises.

The trailer, while enigmatic, showcased the next Dragon Age centring on the Solas’s plan to rise up and destroy the veil, fulfilling the Dread Wolf’s prophecy. At least that’s one interpretation of it.

The trailer seemingly was made for the fanbase of Dragon Age with the given title, because if you didn’t know what Dragon Age was, or anything about The Dread Wolf, you could totally pass up that trailer as a different game entirely. So, it was more of an ode to the fans that the next Dragon Age game is in the works.

Alongside the release of the trailer, the Dragon Age website was updated for #TheDreadWolfRises with Mark Darrah, Executive Producer & Matthew Goldman, Creative Director sharing a few words on the production of the next Dragon Age.

TLDR: Mark is excited to show more and Matthew states that this is the strongest team yet and they’re venturing forth on the most epic quest ever.

In a September blog post, Casey Hudson wrote that ‘I can confirm that indeed the Dread Wolf rises,’ alluding to the narrative and production of Dragon Age 4. Before we delve into the current development of Dragon Age 4, we’ve got to talk about the two initial iterations of Dragon Age 4.

Project Joplin:

Based on Jason Schreier’s expose’ into the past and present developments of Dragon Age 4 - the previous iteration of Dragon Age 4 was known as ‘Joplin’, like Janis Joplin.

Janis Joplin was one of the biggest female rock stars of her era, she revolutionized her genre of music for the next generation – clearly, this is something the devs were going for with the original Dragon Age 4 project – to revolutionize the Role-Playing Game genre.

The developers on Joplin were committed to avoiding the mistakes they’d made on Dragon Age: Inquisition. Veteran Mike Laidlaw was the creative director of ‘Joplin’ until the project was canned and reworked so ‘live service elements’ could be added. After the decided rework of Dragon Age 4, Mike left the studio in late 2017.

Project Joplin’s initial concept followed the next protagonist ‘playing as a group of spies in Tevinter, a large chunk of the narrative centred on heists. The goal was to focus as much as possible on choice and consequence.’

There was an emphasis on this ‘hugely reactive game, smaller in scope than Dragon Age: Inquisition but much larger in player choice, followers, reactivity, and depth.’

The developers talked about building systemic narrative mechanics, allowing the player to perform actions like persuading or extorting guards without the writers having to hand-craft every scene.

It was very ambitious and plenty of the developers were excited, stating that they put some of their best work into this project.

However, Anthem was in real trouble, and there was a concern that it might never be finished unless the studio did something drastic. EA and BioWare took that drastic action, cancelling Joplin and moving the bulk of its staff, including executive producer Mark Darrah, onto Anthem.

Project Joplin was reworked into Project Morrison with a skeleton team building the very foundations of the next Dragon Age.

Project Morrison:

The latest iteration of Dragon Age 4 that is currently in the works is known as ‘Morrison’, like ‘James Morrison’ – the lead singer of the rock band ‘The Doors’.

Jim Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock history. (Wikipedia).

Morrison is being built on Anthem’s tools and codebase of the Frostbite Engine, this will save time as Mass Effect: Andromeda, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Anthem were each built from scratch. With a pre-set already there, Morrison’s development can save a lot of time.

This new version of the fourth Dragon Age is planned with a live service component, built for long-term gameplay and revenue. It’s not clear how much of Joplin’s vision will shape Morrison.

Matt Goldman, art director on Dragon Age: Inquisition and then Joplin, took over as creative director for Morrison.

Many of the BioWare developers “know it’s going to change like five times in the next two years.”

Morrison will change its shape multiple times. However, “Dragon Age games shift more than other games.” So, it’s not uncanny for a Dragon Age project to undergo drastic changes in its development.

Live Service/Multiplayer:

It has been confirmed on LinkedIn that BioWare has hired a software engineer to work on a multiplayer component for Dragon Age 4, however, it’s unsure what exactly this multiplayer could look like.

Jason Schreier stated that “he heard some ideas for Morrison’s multiplayer include companions that can be controlled by multiple players via drop-in/drop-out co-op, similar to old-school BioWare RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, and quests that could change based not just on one player’s decisions, but on the choices of players across the globe.”

In 2018, Casey Hudson tweeted a statement on live service: “Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on,” he wrote on Twitter. “Story & character-focused. Too early to talk details, but when we talk about ‘live’ it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”

It’s still unclear how much of this game will focus on live-service elements and multiplayer, it could follow something as simple as Dragon Age: Inquisition’s separate multiplayer mode, or it could transform the game completely. Take note that Morrison is still early in the works and it will change multiple times until release. That is for sure.

Production:

Now we get to the tea - The past and present developments of Dragon Age 4’s new iteration.

So, Project Joplin was canned in late 2017, with Project Morrison rebooting sometime after that with an essential, small team. The rest of the Dragon Age team that worked on Joplin, went to fix Anthem during its troubled development. Even Mark Darrah, the Executive Producer of Dragon Age was shuffled to Anthem’s production. All the while, Morrison lay low in very early pre-production stages.

In 2018, the majority of the news we got on Dragon Age 4 came out in January, with Joplin’s initial codename and Anthem’s reshuffling. However, with Morrison in deep pre-production, nothing substantial - production-wise - was heard on this project until The Dread Wolf Rises teaser launched at The Game Awards eleven months later in December. Of course, this trailer was hype hype hype!

In early 2019, BioWare resumed their focus on Anthem and its release date. After Anthem was released in February 2019 - according to comicbook.com - the core Edmonton team working on Anthem, returned to work on Dragon Age 4 in full-scale development following the reworks of Morrison.

Built on Anthem’s codebase and its pre-sets of the Frostbite engine, following a very enigmatic live service model – Dragon Age 4 entered its pre-production stages with a full-team. As Casey Hudson later confirmed in September:

“We have several other big projects in the works. I wish I could tell you more about them, but they’re mostly super-secret right now. I can say however that one of our projects has a large and growing team in Edmonton working through pre-production, and based on the progress I’m seeing, I can confirm that indeed the Dread Wolf rises.”

Key processes during the pre-production stages include:

Concept Art

Storyboarding

Level Design

Mechanic Design

Around June, an IGN Greece article resurfaced again, according to said article ‘an anonymous BioWare employee had given clues Dragon Age 4. Stating that the game will be released in 2020 and that the voices of the characters are already being recorded, which indicates an advanced stage of development.’

This article initially launched in 2018 and has many rebuttals, the first being the release date.

This 2020 expected release date has been debunked because according to EA’s 2019 earnings call, the new release window for Dragon Age 4 is at least April 2022, and any time after that. Perhaps Joplin’s initial release window was 2020, and the developer may have shared that, but as far as Morrison is concerned, the project is 3 years away.

However, voice work being in the works could be plausible at this stage. Alix Wilton Reagan has teased a few seasons of her in full mocap mentioning NDA’s and #dragonage and #inquisitor, this could just Alix teasing us, or using social media to its full advantage, or it could be something Dragon Age-related.

Surely the Inquisitor will make a cameo appearance and that could justify why Alix could be doing VO?

On top of both Alix’s tease and IGN Greece’s article, very recently Jo Berry, a writer at BioWare tweeted about voice over work coming in and it being fantastic, however, they have to remove the goofy robot text to speech which is awkward and funny to listen to.

“When VO is coming in and it’s fan-tastic, but it means saying goodbye to that goofy robot text-to-speech that makes you all laugh.”

So, indeed voice work does seem to be going on for Dragon Age 4’s development at this stage.

In jest, BioWare hasn’t replied to my request for voice acting a character in Dragon Age 4, so I think because of that, we can assume that they haven’t started the majority of the main character’s voice work just yet, right?

Moving on…Throughout the months of August and September, BioWare moved to a new office space in downtown Edmonton. Once they had settled in, a few very interesting Dragon Age 4 titbits came to light.

Emily (Domino) Taylor posted a picture on Twitter, showcasing a post artboard for Dragon Age 4, as we can assume it’s Dragon Age! There’s a Grey Warden and their Griffon-friend showcased in the picture.

Griffons and Grey Warden’s confirmed for Dragon Age 4? It’s not too much of a stretch considering the drama at Weisshaupt and Last Flight’s ending, but alas, as we can see BioWare’s art division are getting ready to line up concept artwork for further production and development. Probably for 3D model creation and animation stages.

Regardless, it’s very exciting to see the start of official artwork developing for Dragon Age 4, I’ll be keeping an eye out to see how this board develops further.

Another huge titbit that was revealed with BioWare’s office move, was when the mayor of Edmonton decided to visit and congratulate BioWare at their new offices. On one of the photos the mayor and his team took, there was a shot of an HD version of Solas on a TV Screen.

I personally believe that this is a shot from Dragon Age 4 or the prototype version of Morrison showing off Solas. There’s been no confirmation of where this shot comes from, and I’ve spent an entire video dissecting it. However, my point is, I don’t think this comes from Dragon Age: Inquisition, it’s way to HD, look at his face, the fur on his outfit, the outside environment. It’s very distinct, and I believe it’s the first shot of Dragon Age 4 revealed.

I’ve not seen any rebuttals to this, and I’ve openly asked multiple times online, however, no one has come up with anything. So, even towards the end of 2019, it remains a mystery. I think this is a Dragon Age 4 shot, let me know if you think otherwise!

Around the same time, Matt Rhodes, an Art Director, posted a short story on his Instagram stating that he’s “more excited working on Dragon Age 4 than any other project so far.”

Just after BioWare moved offices, Fernando Melo, a senior producer on The Dread Wolf Rises left the studio after 12 years.

As stated on his LinkedIn profile, a lot of Fernando’s job on Dragon Age 4 surrounded “help[ing] establish the vision for the game. Guid[ing] the team through EA’s concept and early production phases. Prov[ing] out the core concept and key innovations of the game”.

He signed off with an email sent to everyone on the Dragon Age team, stating that he left at the “least disruptive timing as it would likely get.”

Considering that Fernando’s job was ensuring the pre-production stages were completed efficiently, and with his departure being at a time where it’d be least hectic for the development of Dragon Age 4, it’s safe to say that the pre-production processes are wrapping up and the team can begin to enter full production.

Fernando said that “with a great game leadership team in place, a fantastic creative vision, and some of the best devs in the world. Morrison is well underway to becoming the definitive Dragon Age experience - and I’m incredibly proud and honored to have played a part in that. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the opportunity to experience the next DA as a fan this time around.”

So, with Fernando’s send off via email, the entire Dragon Age team has moved on from the initial pre-production stages to the main development of the project with an estimated release window of any time after April 2022.

Mark Darrah Major Hints & Teases:

Now we get to the most divisive news topics - the teases from Executive Producer Mark Darrah!

Mark has actually been teasing us since the beginning of 2017, when he dropped a video of an artbook that collated a plethora of Dragon Age concept characters, with many mysterious and ominous photos showcasing potential concept art and character designs.

A logo of a wolf, on fire encased in a tower, was all we had on Dragon Age 4 at the time. However, considering Project Joplin was canned at the end of that same year, I think it’s safe to assume this work went alongside that project, whether it will remain, we’ll uncover in-time.

At E3 2018, in a video interview with Game Informer, Mark Darrah said that Dragon Age 4 was going ‘swell’ with a cheeky grin.

At Pax West 2018, Dragon Age 4 was officially confirmed again since it’s reboot in development, the Triforce Quartet played Dragon Age: Inquisition’s theme as Mark Darrah confirmed that the next instalment is in the works… again.

Towards the end of November, Mark Darrah teased the entirety of Twitter with his Dragon Age remarks. Having tweeted the single words “Dragon Age”, he had PC Gamer and many other onion articles writing up on his huge Dragon Age 4 tease.

However, to be fair, Mark dropped an image that resembles Dragon Age, only we’ve never seen anything quite like it before.

Midnight snow, rocks, forests, a completely different landscape to any of the maps in Dragon Age: Inquisition, yet very familiar with its Frostbite Engine aesthetic… is this a shot of Tevinter, more than likely taken on Mark Darrah’s phone?

Well, I think so. It doesn’t resemble any location I can recall in Dragon Age: Inquisition… But you might say “there’s snow in Tevinter, which is the opposite end of Thedas’s Equator, that doesn’t make sense lore-wise.”

Well, Mark Darrah replied to someone questioning if and why there would be snow in Tevinter, he sent them a link to this article that explains how there can be snow on the equator, meaning that Tevinter can have snow.

So, is this our second or first look of Dragon Age 4? Well, depending on if the Solas shot is viable, I’d say definitely, but I’ll let you make your own mind up on that. Speaking of Tevinter, Mark Darrah also teased that the working plot title of Dragon Age 4 is titled “Tevinter of Our Discontent”, which is a huge story reference that I’ll touch upon in a separate category.

However, back to the picture teases, and Mark Darrah also posted another photo…

A sun blinding a knight, very ominous, I don’t even know where to start with this one… I mean it could have some subliminal message about how Solas may destroy the veil, or it could have a rather obscure context that fits to Dragon Age 4’s narrative, but I honestly just don’t even know what this is…

On Dragon Age Day, Again, Mark Darrah posted another screenshot of Dragon Age 4 with everything redacted other than a pixel in the corner.

And, erm, yep. That’s super. Thanks for that, Mark.

If you’d like to see more Dragon Age 4 teases that may or may not make sense and will most likely leave you frustrated and clueless, why not give Mark Darrah a follow-on Twitter. He’s one to keep an eye out.

Story:

The next narrative surrounds the Dread Wolf rising and attempting to destroy the veil, it’ll most likely be our next protagonist’s goal to stop Solas from achieving this.

We will have a new protagonist, like every other Dragon Age game. It’s been confirmed copious times by many developers old and new that the Hero of Ferelden will never return in the future, so stop asking. And even if they did return, Patrick Weekes is in charge now.

Dragon Age 4 will be set in the Tevinter Imperium, if Trespasser’s ending wasn’t a good enough clue for you, Project Joplin was also set in Tevinter. Alternatively, according to PC Gamer, it was the newly announced Tevinter Nights book that confirmed Tevinter to be Dragon Age 4’s setting.

Mark Darrah confirmed and teased on Twitter that the working plot title of Dragon Age 4 is Tevinter of our Discontent, derived from Shakespeare’s “The Winter of our Discontent” which is the opening lines from the play - Richard III (3rd).

As a TLDR: the words lay the groundwork for the portrayal of Richard as a discontented man who is unhappy in a world that hates him. However, since his family were victorious in the war, they reign the nation once more, and so as winter dies, glorious summer is upon them.

There are plenty of references we can make to Solas and his scheme to destroy the veil, he’s woken up to a world that despises his name and people that revoke his actions as evil. He wants to correct this world and restore his ‘family’ so to speak. Perhaps, like Richard the 3rd, Solas’s glorious summer is what awaits him in the next game.

So, we have plenty of plot potential with this given title and I do have a separate video for even more thorough speculation on this topic. However, based on Shakespeare’s work being the main inspiration for Dragon Age 4’s narrative, we should expect tragedy to be one of the main themes of the plot.

According to Video Gamer, in 2017, Alexis Kennedy was writing freelance for BioWare, ‘working on a whole chunk of lore and backstory for the faction in the game that you would think of if you were thinking big old goth. You know, if you were interested in death.’

Instantly what comes to mind is Nevarra’s Mortalitasi – Death Mages that’s responsible for the mummification process of the dead in Nevarran culture. However, we’re not sure how much of his work went into the cancelled Joplin, considering the timing at which he worked on Dragon Age 4.

According to Alexis’s LinkedIn page, he worked freelance at BioWare from February – August 2017. The end of 2017 was the same time Joplin was canned, and Mike Laidlaw left the company, so there’s a huge possibility that Alexis’s work has been shelved.

Even if Alexis’s work wasn’t shelved at the time, given his recent allegations and controversy, Mark Darrah confirmed on Twitter that BioWare no longer has a working relationship with him, so his work seemingly has been scrapped.

According to Dark Horse writers Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir who’re creating the comics. In a comicbook.com interview, they shared the collaboration with the BioWare writers, it’s a case of sharing notes on where the narrative is going, and how the comics can help reach that point for Dragon Age 4’s narrative.

So, if you want to see where Dragon Age 4’s narrative may go, or which characters could turn up, read the comics as they’re pushing the narrative forward.

According to Chelsea Fariello, Assistant Animator at BioWare, it seems we could have a Mabari War Hound companion, or at least NPC in Dragon Age 4, as she stated on Twitter that she was interested in what interactions people would want to see for a dog-like creature in a video game. With the hashtag Dragon Age. Perhaps Mabari War Hound, or even a Griffon? “What interactions would people want to be able to do with a dog like creature in a video game? I need to know…for reasons… #DragonAge “

The “creature” part in that tweet is what makes me think it could be a small griffon? If it’s a Mabari then it’s just a dog, however, if it’s a small griffon then that could make sense. That’s just my hot take.

On Dragon Age Day, Arby’s expressed their interest in opening a new branch in Thedas, could we see a new type of cuisine in Tevinter? It’s hard to say, other than the fact that John Epler loves Arby’s, not Wendy’s though. Don’t mention Wendy’s!

Weekes’s Tweets:

Adding to the story category, we have plenty of tweets by Patrick Weekes that hint at future elements for Dragon Age 4.

Patrick Weekes responded to Autumn Witch when asked on Twitter ‘to pick one character from Dragon Age that has never been a companion or advisor that you would like to see as a companion in DA-4? (For the sake of this post, Lace Harding is also not available.)’

Patrick said: “Oh that’s obvious, I’d go with (Reads parenthetical) THIS IS RIGGED.”

So, Scout Harding as a Dragon Age 4 Companion teased? I freaking hope so.

Patrick Weekes posted on Twitter that they just teared up reading a scene, so unless they’re cutting onions while writing, we should expect tears to be shed in Dragon Age 4. If I were to guess, I mean Solas is walking the Din’anshiral. Which means there is only death on this journey…

Weekes was asked about non-binary lingo & representation and if the players would have the option to not identify as a male or female in the next Dragon Age. They replied saying:

“No guarantees (it’s something that is very difficult in romance languages we get translated into), but our team is always looking for better ways to let players see themselves in our games.”

Other Dragon Age Projects:

According to EA’s 2019 Earnings Call, “there are plans for not only Dragon Age 4, but other Dragon Age products too.”

At a guess, this ‘other product’ could simply be a mobile companion app to coincide with Dragon Age 4’s launch. Or it could be the rumoured tactics game that we haven’t heard about since Mark Darrah’s tease in 2017.

On top of that, at a guess, it could also be an extension to the Dragon Age Keep.

Expectations:

There’s still a couple of years yet with an expected release window at any point after April 2022. However, that doesn’t mean the news will not be coming, just look at all the tidbits I’ve uncovered from developer tweets on the side.

Not to mention that BioWare generally start the marketing phases of their upcoming games two years prior to release, so if Dragon Age 4 were to release in 2022, we could actually see something in 2020. I’m not banking on that, but just for the doubters out there, we’ll easily hear something regarding this game in 2020, whether that’s a trailer or small tweet trials of news, we’ll be sure to get something, and I’ll be sure to stay on track of that.

if you have anyone saying there’s no news for Dragon Age 4, just gently send them my way and share this video in their dm’s!

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bettycooperoutfitwatch · 5 years

Text

2x05 Chapter Eighteen: When a Stranger Calls

Not a fun sexy time for our girl!

We pick up right where we left off, but now with a glimpse of the shorts, with athletic piping, that accompany that sleep shirt.

On the last post @satelliteinasupernova suggested the sport-motif we’ve seen Betty in this season might be a visual representation of her status as Northsider and Riverdale High student, which thus sets her up in visual opposition to the Southside; I like this interpretation a lot. It’s also reflected visually in 204′s Bulldogs v. Serpents rumble.

But back to this episode.

Finally a decent look at this gray bomber jacket.

This is the best look at Betty’s pendant necklace so far—it’s a little B!

The general hem length of Betty’s sweaters in season 2 is much more appealing to my eyes than those we saw in season 1. But I should note that just because I like something or view it as more appealing does not make it ‘correct.’ Costuming choices are not necessarily made to ‘flatter’ a character. If it does flatter them—that’s a choice made by the writing and the wardrobe and production teams. What does it mean to flatter? Who decides that? Ask yourself these questions. Very often a character is put into what are societally perceived of as ‘unflattering’ clothing, and this is done for a possibly infinite number of reasons, but very often it’s to tell a viewer something about the character, their situation, or their choices.

Not to get too far off track, but an excellent example of this is Girls’ Hannah Horvath. When Girls was airing, there was a seemingly infinite amount of conversation (often not very insightful), about the clothing Hannah wore—it didn’t fit her, it was ugly, it looked bad on her, what was she thinking? A lot of these questions got asked, but the show provided the answer to those questions in the very use of the wardrobe itself. As viewers, readers, the people asking questions of a text—we get to interpret what a costume says about a character, about what they think of themselves, what kind of life they are living, their social station, their wealth or lack thereof, etc. Clothing tells a story, regardless of whether we’re trying to convey something or not (you think this has nothing to do with you...when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room... from a pile of stuff.)

A n y w a y. Perhaps that’s some insight into this project I’ve gotten myself into.

But for the shorter length—a blue-colored, ribbed, crewneck sweater is Betty to a T.

A bejeweled sweater! This is novel, even if the overall look is very standard. Alice often wears a brooch or similar embellishment on her blouses—here Betty is protecting her mother, or at least she’s resisting outing her mother’s youthful arrest record. It’s also a darker color than we usually see Betty in, this charcoal—at least outside of funerals or hot tub vigilanteism.

Different sleep shorts and a pink v-neck tee. Note the striping on the waistband. (And the pink sink, pink soap, pink toothbrush, pink towels; committed to the aesthetic.)

Betty’s low-ponytail! Let’s read it as how low she’s probably feeling.

A lotta boatnecks for Betty in season 2! I think the racing stripe across the collar and down the arms is a nice touch in this one.

Look at this little multicolor skater skirt!

Betty last wore a white polka-dot cami in 104, an episode she spent trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of Ms. Grundy. That was a different article of clothing, but she wore it while having this exchange:

...which seems startlingly relevant to this episode.

You know, I can only appreciate how dedicated to the aesthetic Veronica is, such that she stipulated a dress code for her hotel room soirée.

This outfit is topped with a blue trench, for this moment at a very enigmatic bus stop that we’ve never seen before or since. Looks like her shoes have a pointed toe and an ankle strap, with a low heel.

We don’t often get to see CW characters with less-than-perfect make-up, so I have to imagine this is a choice, and I think it’s likely a good one for this scene.

A fuzzy herringbone scoop-neck sweater, in a washed-out pink or peach. It’s cute—but we’re supposed to read Betty as a mess here, emotionally and now physically. Please note her low messy bun, note her very minimal makeup. A bun is often how Betty wears her hair to sleep—she can’t even put it into a ponytail right now.

We haven’t seen Betty in herringbone before, but we have seen her in chevron—the courtroom scene in 202. Another moment where she...manipulated someone into doing something. I’m not implying extorting Cheryl and getting Archie to dump Jug on her behalf are equitable, I just find the connection interesting enough to mention. Technically, she’s doing both of these things for Jughead.

What’s the difference between herringbone and chevron? Honestly, it almost doesn’t matter, sometimes people label one the other, so.

Subtle. Every day is an education, guys.

Now the hair is fully down and out. I think it looks fab, but Betty’s usually impeccably groomed, nary a flyaway. A tousled bedhead look is not her m.o. As with the makeup, this is a continued choice.

She wears the Investigation Jacket; we saw it last episode, when she and Jug were trying to warn the town about the Black Hood. We also get a nice look at one of her (many pairs of) ankle boots.

In fairness, this probably doesn’t look cute on anyone.

Summary: 7, including 2 sets of pajamas, and one black balaclava

Key necklace appearances: Just once, at V’s party

That backpack: It’s here

Best outfit: I’m into the pink boatneck and gray bomber look, even if Betty’s at an incredible low in that moment. Her hair is still in a pony, if a very low-riding one. It’s the moment before it all really falls apart.

#2x05 #s2 #betty cooper outfit watch #riverdale #betty cooper #long post

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 6 years

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Imagine that you were put in charge of a modern, high-budget, well-written Animorphs TV series. What changes to the plot/characters/world would you make while adapting it? (Books that you'd skip, arcs that you'd rearrange, things you would add or outright alter...)

[Important caveat: I have ZERO experience in set design, directing, editing, camerawork, or any other processes involved in TV production, unless we’re going to be super generous and count the bit of scriptwriting and stage-acting I did in high school. Ergo, these ideas might make no sense in practice.]

Animate it. I would much much prefer to see an anime-style show to a live-action one for a handful of different reasons:

Battle scenes, morph sequences, and alien appearances wouldn’t be constrained by budget realities. Although we’ve come a long way from AniTV’s practical effects, in 2019 Runaways still minimizes Old Lace (the sentient dinosaur) and struggles with her somewhat less-than-convincing appearance while she’s onscreen. I’d like to see real-looking battles between exotic animals and highly unusual aliens. I’d like to see Ax portrayed as a deer-scorpion-centaur with no mouth who also has complex facial expressions. I’d like taxxons and hork-bajir that match their descriptions in the books. CGI for a moderate-budget TV show can’t do that yet.

The characters’ appearances could match their descriptions in the books. I don’t really care about AniTV’s Jake having blue eyes or Marco having short hair. I do care about the fact that Cassie is described as short, chubby, dark-skinned, natural-haired, and androgynous in self-presentation… whereas AniTV’s Nadia-Leigh Nascimento is (through no fault of her own and 100% the fault of Nickelodeon) none of those things. I’d like to see all of the characters drawn in a way that matches their canon racial heritage, and voiced with actors of those ethnicities as well. For bullshit marketing reasons of bullshit, that’s not as likely to happen in a live-action show.

I’d want the show to convey the frequent mismatches between characters’ physicality and their personalities. It’s an important motif of the books. It’s part of the reason that Tobias has been claimed by the trans* community. It’s a major plot point, lest new viewers think that the vice principal of the school is actually trying to kill his own students. It doesn’t come off in AniTV, for all that I commend them for even trying (casting Shawn Ashmore’s twin as controller-Jake, portraying Chapman as straight out of Stepford), just because the nature of controller-ness and nothlitization are difficult to convey literally. Animation has a lot of tricks, from deliberately distorted drawings to screensaver-like “mental space,” that can actually convey concepts like mind control or body dysmorphia pretty well — Alphonse in Fullmetal Alchemist and Aang in Avatar the Last Airbender great examples of body-mind mismatch and multiple consciousnesses in one body, respectively.

Use a cold open for every episode. I am a sucker for Batman cold opens or any other opening scenes that pick up in the middle of the characters’ everyday lives, because they work so well to convey that there is a crapton of life happening outside of the plot of any given episode. Several Animorphs books (#9, #14, #35, #41, #51) open this way, to great effect, and I love the way that it gives us slices of life we might not otherwise see (morphing to cheat on science homework, completing entire offscreen missions, having dinner with the family) and help build these characters’ worlds outside of individual episode plots.

Introduce James sooner (and have better disability narratives). There are several aspects of Animorphs’ social justice consciousness that age okay (Rachel shutting down Marco’s constant flirting) or not well at all (Mertil and Galfinian). One important way the series could update Animorphs is through having canon disabled characters like James, Mertil, and Loren have bigger roles and not resorting to kill-or-cure narratives. Maybe James could come in sooner and form a Teen Titans West-esque team with the other Auximorphs so that he and Collette and the others could be recurring supporting characters with unique plotlines. Maybe Loren could still gain morphing power, but remain blind and brain-damaged so that the hork-bajir need to work with her to figure out accommodations while sleeping rough.

Modify Jake’s and Cassie’s parents to account for the contemporary setting. The fact that the kids so often disappear all afternoon or even overnight without anyone worrying just wouldn’t translate to a contemporary reimagining of Animorphs. Tobias and Ax are each other’s only family on the planet whereas Marco’s dad and Rachel’s mom are both overworked single parents. Jake’s family, however, and Cassie’s…

Cassie’s parents are so freaking cool in canon that they would definitely start to worry if Cassie went for an entire “weekend at Rachel’s” without answering any texts or calls. Maybe there could be some scenes with them talking about how they have this super-mature responsible daughter whom they can trust not to get into trouble even if she does hate cell phones, but oh well because they’re not big on technology either.

Jake’s parents are… less cool, but they still try their best. The show might explain their lack of concern about either of their disappearing kids through upping the hippie factor from his mom, maybe until she practices Free-Range Parenting. (Why yes, it is true that Jake’s family would have the necessary privileges to get away with free-range crap while Cassie’s family would not, because yes it is the case that black families have been arrested for leaving kids alone for 10 minutes while white families are allowed more passes under the law. Yes, that is a steaming pile of racist bullshit.) The other way it could go is by having Jake’s parents completely checked out, which could get in the way of plots like #31 that hinge on them genuinely caring about their kids, but could also introduce an interesting dynamic if it partially parentifies Tom.

Include at least one Rashomon plot. The TV series would by necessity lose the first-person narration, with all its brilliantly subtle shades of bias and misinterpretation. One way to try and bring that back in would be to convey the same events from multiple points of view with subtle differences in the way that each person perceives what happened. This could happen somewhere in the Visser One plot, with Rachel interpreting the scene as a straight Animorphs-vs-yeerks battle, while Visser One interprets it as Visser Three incompetently sabotaging her as Animorphs ruin her life, while Marco interprets it as a struggle to protect his mom and also save his friends, while Visser Three interprets it as the andalite bandits flagrantly plotting with Visser One, while Jake interprets it as Marco going off the rails from stress… and the only witness who has a sense of what actually happened is Eva. Other possibilities abound.

Start with a plan to make one episode per book… and modify as necessary. There are areas of the series I’d like to see expanded (#50 - #54 covers a lot of ground in relatively little space) and areas that I think could afford to be compacted (#39 - #44 feature a whole lotta nothin’). But instead of adding or discarding an entire book, I think you could spread out many of the plots by simple virtue of TV shows not being constrained by first-person narration.

Certain books just wouldn’t get straight-translated today anyway (#40, most notably). I don’t think any books are so bad or useless that they couldn’t be modified into decent television episodes.

The ramping-up that leads to open war happens mostly in the background of #44 - #51, but a bunch of scenes with just controllers talking to each other could go into that process in a lot more detail. This content could help fill out plots like #44 and #48 that frankly don’t have a lot else going on.

The entire plot of Visser happens over a nonspecific period of time between #30 and #45, so instead of getting one book we could get an entire running Yeerk Empire subplot with major consequences for the main plotline.

Similarly, the andalites’ decisions happen mostly offscreen but have major consequences for the Animorphs. The consequences for the Electorate after the events of #38 could also run for a whole subplot that sets up their decision to nuke Earth in #52.

The biggest absence from the last couple books is Rachel. Her last book is a friggin’ dream sequence, she acts out of character in #52 especially, and the narration order cuts off directly before giving her one last book. It wouldn’t be necessary to add an entire episode just to rectify this oversight, when #51 could still be Marco-centric but also show her and Jake on their sabotage mission, and #52 could have the same rough plot but with a few scenes between her and Tobias thrown in for good measure.

Anyway, maybe the various Chronicles could be a handful of Doctor-lite episodes where the Animorphs themselves are incidental and Elfangor or Aldrea has the helm. Maybe the events of the Chronicles could come out organically over the course of the show, for instance by expanding the memory-dumps Tobias gets in #1 and #33 or having Jara tell Dak’s story in #13 or #23. The Megamorphses, on the other hand, could pretty easily just occur as regular-series episodes, albeit possibly as two- or three-parters.

Lean into the comic-book aesthetic. Animorphs is written very much in the style of a graphic novel, from its “teens with superpowers save the world from aliens” plot to its heavy use of onomatopoeia. Even the use of hypertext symbols around thought-speak hearkens back to the comic book convention of using pointed brackets around alien languages to convey translation. The show could homage this motif through having dramatic transformation sequences, “uniforms” of multicolored spandex the kids use to morph, an opening credits sequence that emphasizes the power of each animal, and other superhero-comic elements throughout.

Have the violence be consequential. To keep the examples from earlier: in Fullmetal Alchemist, as well as in Avatar, characters that get hurt stay hurt. A character getting shot or stabbed is portrayed as a potentially life-changing event. Characters’ injuries do not disappear between episodes, and even alchemy and waterbending are not portrayed as total fixes. Characters scar, they become disabled, they spend entire episodes in recovery, they accrue trauma, and they do not shrug off life-ending injuries. Animorphs helps to justify the idea that six kids could (mostly) survive (most of) an entire war against a friggin empire through making the protagonists nigh-unkillable thanks to their healing abilities, but it nevertheless shows that shooting someone will result in that person bleeding and screaming and possibly dying. Having a sci-fi or action show meant for children isn’t actually a valid excuse for portraying violence as cool or funny or inconsequential the way that (Avengers Assemble, Teen Titans, Kim Possible, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, etc.) too many children’s sci-fi/action shows opt to do.

#animorphs #anitv #racism mention #long post #asks #anonymous #animorphs meta #ableism mention #teen titans #avatar the last airbender #fullmetal alchemist #Anonymous

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