#definitely helps with the realism when you Aggressively Project

[the-cookie-of-doom]

Pregnant Kim anon here again, please know that after I sent that I decided to “warm up” by outlining an entire fic and didn’t get any novel writing done lol. I would love a snippet full of ANGST because I think Kim deserves it right now for what he’s done to my brain

asdfjhagsdjfh VALID! ALL OF THAT IS VALID!

Here is your angst, my darling. I realized I actually don't have a ton of the pregnancy itself written yet, so here's a little bit (lol. it's over 1k, I got carried away) that happens soon after the birth. Kim has horrible post-partum depression thanks to everything that happens in this fic. TW for graphic description of depression and implied suicidal ideation

Chay entered the bedroom to find Kim beneath the covers still, at nearly three in the afternoon. Curled up on his side, tears steadily leaking from the corner of his eye every time he blinked, making a wet spot on the pillow beneath his cheek. He wasn’t even really crying. His eyes were just wet, and that wetness was dripping, and Kim had long since given up on trying to stop it. 

Chay didn’t ask, are you okay? Because he already knew what the answer would be. Instead he climbed onto the bed and spooned up behind Kim, and asked him, “What are you thinking about?”

“It’s not real.”

“What isn’t?”

“This. The depression. All of it. It feels real. It feels awful. But it isn’t. It’s just hormones and chemicals. It’s not me.” Kim didn’t sniffle, or sob, or sigh. His voice didn’t change from the even, monotonous quality it always had when he was trying not to feel. He just breathed. Closed his eyes against a fresh wave of tears, not that it did anything to halt their fall. “I thought once it was over, everything would be okay. I would be free. But it’s never going to stop, is it? There’s no normal for me to go back to. Just this.”

“P’Kim—” Chay’s voice cracked. He swallowed back what sounded like the beginnings of a sob and buried his face in the back of Kim’s neck. Weeks of exposure to Kim’s moods hasn’t made them any easy to handle, not least of all because he knew there’s nothing for him to do. He couldn’t take away this pain. “Please don’t talk like that. It is going to be okay. This isn’t forever. The doctor said it would take at least a month for your medicine to start working—it has to build up in your system, remember? Then everything will be okay.”

Kim didn’t say that the antidepressants only made him feel worse. Blunted him. Blurred any scrap of goodness he could cling too, until it was part of the same empty haze as everything else. He didn’t say that there was no drug strong enough to mask the bone-deep repulsion he felt every time he cradled his daughter to his breast to nurse. Nothing that could make him forget her conception when the pain of her birth was a constant reminder. He didn’t say anything at all. 

Chay squeezed his arm around Kim’s middle, between his aching, swollen breasts, and his aching, swollen incision. Squeezed tight enough that it should have hurt if Kim were capable of feeling anything at all. 

“You’re scaring me, P’Kim,” Chay whispered, holding Kim so tight he could hardly breathe. That was alright. He didn’t need to breathe. 

“I love you, Chay. Thank you for staying with me. I… I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner. Or that I did, I shouldn’t have—right before—” Before he nearly died. He shouldn’t have said it then. In what he thought were his last moments, he needed Chay to know. But it was selfish to let those be his last words to the boy. 

“Thank you for telling me. I’m glad you did. And I love you, too, P’Kim, so much. You are so, so loved, and someday soon, all of this is going to be better, okay? You just have to hold on until then.” Chay’s voice turned near-manic as it fully dawned on him just what he was bargaining for. “Promise me, Kim. Promise me you won’t leave again.”

“I promise.” A mechanical admission in that dull voice, but no less true. Kim found Chay’s hand where it was pressed over his beating heart and laced their fingers together. 

Kim knew Chay would no doubt tell their brothers about his alarming mood, and they would no doubt take him back to the doctor. He knew about the lists Chay had printed out and hidden away in his desk, spread across three pages and outlining the symptoms of baby blues, postpartum depression, and psychosis, with little checked boxes to track him. He’d filled out nearly half the page for depression before ever leaving the hospital. 

Kim wondered how many ticks he got on the last page before they took him away for good. Before they took his daughter away. Maybe they should; she would no doubt be better off without him. He hadn’t even wanted to keep her. Had nearly bled out moments after meeting her. Maybe it was a sign he wasn’t meant to have her at all. 

“Make sure Kiah’s taken care of,” Kim said softly, his face half-buried in the pillows. “I can’t—I’m not good for her. If I can’t take care of her, you’ll find someone who will, won’t you?” Kim went through too much to bring her into this world, he wouldn’t let her suffer for his own unwillingness to give her up, if that’s what it took to offer a better life. 

Behind him, Chay swallowed thickly. 

“Of course, P’Kim. I’ll make sure she’s always safe and loved.” 

The weight that’s been hung around Kim’s shoulders since he made the decision to bring Kiah home finally lifted, a relief he didn’t know he needed. He sighed and sank back into Chay’s warm embrace, the tension finally melting out of his body, and squeezed the hand still lying over his heart. 

“You’re safe and loved, too,” Chay said. “You have me, and Porsche, and your brothers, and P’Pol, and P’Arm, and P’Big. We’re all going to make sure both of you are safe and loved and taken care of. I won’t leave you alone again, P’Kim. Not ever.”

Kim didn’t doubt it. He never had. All this time, Chay’s love—the love of his family—has been an unwavering presence, cutting through the misery that’s cloaked him these last nine months. Kim didn’t know how to express that to Chay. That there was nothing to worry about. Kim wouldn’t hurt himself, with or without their constant supervision. He didn’t want to. He was only acknowledging the unrelenting misery he felt every waking moment, and accepting that it would likely follow him for the rest of his life. He didn’t prefer it, but he knew it was inevitable that these feelings would continue to be his constant companions. 

However he may feel, Kim knew he owed it to his daughter to be the best father he could be for her. And if his best wasn’t good enough, he would find someone that could give her what she deserved. Even still, Kim appreciated the reassurance. Appreciated Chay, for the way the younger boy has stayed at his side for so long, seen him through so much horror and heartbreak, and would show that appreciation however he could. Even if the most he could do was hold his hand and promise not to leave.

[zephamello]

thoughts on stranger? love that weird pixelly man

and on other remake-exclusive polos...faith/admard?

Wait isn't that the guy I said looks like bleached coral

,,,,, IT IS OMG- I'M SORRY LOL-

I love that he has some gradients on his body, I kinda wish more of the polos had that detail because it makes them feel a bit more real and a bit less flat, you know? To give a nicer comparison he kinda reminds me of Slenderman if Slenderman had a face. I never really thought too much about Project to be honest? Definitely an interesting character to replace Derick with, it almost makes me wonder if this could be what Derick looked like before he bit the curb car jack.

His sound is really ominous too, really spooky really neat, I feel like he definitely sounds better when he's put in with some other sounds though. You'll have a few polos that just sound better when they're playing with others at the same time, but he's a neato dude :D

,, I keep cracking up at my own bleached coral joke help me

Faith is really cool too!! I think that's the one that replaced Cratz Pur? I love the biblically accurate angel designs and the realism on this dude is absolutely crazy. The organ sound goes perfectly with the angel design and it sounds great, kinda gets drowned out quick unfortunately but when you can hear it, it's bangin :D Also after finding the wiki I learned Faith is a lil lady :D I wouldn't have guessed that if I hadn't seen her whole polo LOL But now I can see it

I had to look up Admard bc I couldn't remember who he was kaljfnvkjb but YES I REALLY LIKE THIS GUY TOO AAA, his creepy design with the teeth and the aggressive sound he makes, I honestly got Grayscale Limbo vibes from him and that's another favorite mod of mine so ofc it's gonna make me like him more LOL :D I love how for a design to be considered scary or creepy you just have to do something unthinkable, and that was done with Admard and his design is just. So cool and impressive. His whole character is, I really like him and he sounds great in mixes :D

[loverontheleft]

Long anon has thoughts and I’m here to reply but also I’m fucking wasted

Okay, different anon, but I love giving unsolicited advice (joking, joking... kind of), so I had to chime in. Plus I think I’ve read RtL like 2 or 3 times in full now (way more if you count all the times I’ve read a chapter because of the sex scene and then just kept reading after that), so I’m very invested. God you’re better than me. I didn’t mind chapter 30. It wasn’t my personal favorite scene (that’s just really not my jam, if I wanna revel in the angst, I prefer the later chapters), but with some tweaks I do think it was a good addition. Like, it did give the relationship a little more, I’m not sure if this is the right word, respectability? Realism? Weight? It showed that they’re not just clouded by lust or the honeymoon phase. Which is where I get into the conflict of fanfic imagine writing vs fiction writing. Most fanfic readers seem like they don’t want the plot and the character growth and the realism. The point is fantasy. I can do that short-term, but in a long-haul series like this…angst is necessary. Tension is necessary. Their relationship doesn’t exist in this perfect little bubble, it’s “perfect” because they’re really compatible, and that’s even more important than love in a longterm relationship. It showcased how much Brendon is devoted to his work, which is one of the reasons the reader loves him, but it has the real possibility of causing real issues that they need to address and work through. Now, again, it needs a little work. I don’t love that B basically accused the reader of being intentionally malicious, and I also don’t love that she was more of the victim rather than it being a two-way conflict. I think it could’ve had more of a build-up (I know you said you sort of wrote this without a plan so it makes sense that the build-up wasn’t as much as I think it needed to be, but, hey, that’s the beauty of rewriting it.) and oh rewriting it will be a thing eventually. Like she doesn’t love that he’s overworking and she brings it up a few times throughout like 3 to 5 chapters before nationals, and it sort of gradually goes from the reader going, “hey I think your hyperfocus on your job is starting to affect both your quality of life and our relationship” (obviously in a way that’s more writer-y and less information dump-y lol) to “I’m starting to feel like a toy you play with when you’re interested and completely ignore when you have homework.” And then Brendon’s responses starting at, “oh I’m sorry, babe, I’ll manage my time a bit better,” all the way to, “why don’t can’t you respect my career?” Then in chapter 30, it all comes to a head and they full on fight instead of the previous semi-passive-aggressive communication they had before. I like you; you understand what my brain is trying to do with this rewrite.

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, as much I think fighting and arguing can be healthy and necessary, I HATED the fight in chapter 19 (at least I think it’s 19. The one where he’s like, “just talk to him, you’re being crazy”). No it’s totally bullshit I hate it too; even writing it I was like ughhhh. I love your work and I don’t want to be rude, but this is just how I feel about one chapter in an otherwise beloved series. It’s not rude; that was jammed in there for the plot and god I hated it then and I hate it now it’s just bad writing. It’s that I just think it was so out of character, for both of them to some extent, but especially Brendon it was. Maybe it’s just the reader projecting her ex onto Brendon when she’s feeling distressed, so that’s why he seems SO different from the way he was in previous chapters (hell, even earlier in that chapter no it took a sharp left turn it’s a bad chapter) and than every other chapter afterward which okay can we agree Chapters 18-26 are whaaaat is happening and 27-31 are ?? and 32 is steamy forgiveness and then 33-36 are smut but so little plot and…oh god I have so much to rewrite I’m gonna cry but he’s so fiercely passionate and protective over, not just the reader, but sort of everything that he cares enough to invest time into (teaching, music, the reader, lovemaking 😏😂, etc.) that don’t think he would’ve proposed talking to the ex at all, much less become all cold and calculating and downright rude when talking to her. I almost think it would be more realistic if she said, offhandedly, “maybe I’ll just talk to him, try to get rid of him, give him some money, I just want this over with,” and Brendon AT THAT POINT would be like, “no absolutely not, you’re being crazy/irrational .” And then it would turn into a big fight because the reader not only feels condescended and invalidated, she’s starting to feel controlled and smothered, which in conjunction with all the feelings that have been brought up with the ex in town, makes her feel like she just needs to get away from B. I guess that wouldn’t have the same effect later on at the end with the lockdown drill which I really want to cut, good lord Cece it was so extra wtf (full disclosure: at the time of writing, the school where I was a teacher had an active shooter in the area but not on campus, so I was probably processing that?? See my note below about writing as therapy), but it would still kind of work. Instead of B realizing that the reader was right about the ex, it would be the reader realizing that B really just cares for her wants what’s best for her, and ofc B would have to apologize for saying that the reader’s crazy because that’s sooo shitty. Actually, now that I think about it, that might be more effective. Other than that one argument, there wasn’t a big question of whether or not B respected the reader and her judgment, but with the ex showing up, the reader was getting scared about being in another serious relationship and being so dependent on someone else oh definitely. Doesn’t help I was using writing as my therapy since I was very out of a mentally abusive six-year relationship. I just peppered in my own trauma left and right (drunk Cece put left and write at first lmao) and left the characters to figure it out and that’s not fair to y’all so it would be much better narratively to confirm to the reader that she can trust Brendon and that he cares for her even if he messes up rather than to just have an argument that gets resolved. Which would work too if it weren’t for the fact that the characters and dialogue were so off, just maybe not quite as well. Lots of changes to be made; you’re not wrong.

Okay, I’m sorry for talking your figurative ears off omg no I love it this is a craft revision and I’m so here for it. Feel free to say I’m way overstepping because, well, I am, but I’m a fan okay!!! Idk if you’re overstepping I’m too drunk but I don’t deserve fans I’m crying yall are so wonderful And I overthink EVERYTHING, so there’s that too haha same though. These are just things to consider and jumping off points, so don’t let it change whatever you have planned. I’m sure it’ll be great, and frankly, I mostly read for the smut anyway so I don’t know why I’m so invested in the plot LMAO this is why I’m worried about Dulce being a slow burn y’all just want the smuuuut and @beautiful-tragic-fallout can tell you there’s a huge difference between my fanfic writing and my fiction writing though you’d think they’d be similar. Maybe I’ll just write it as a novel, never post it here, hope it sells, and one day y’all can be like “this book plot sounds familiar… I remember this slut who wrote a bunch on tumbl—wait, is this author actually Cece?!?” Because, reminder, Cece is an abbreviation of my second middle name and very few people actually know it at all and my published fiction writing isn’t under Cece (I’m mostly joking, but really, as long as the porn’s good, you could write anything well, thank you.) I’m sure this whole ask is riddled with typos and forgotten words and bad grammar (brevity has never been my strength), so I’d also like to apologize for all that. Listen I’m so drunk right now…I didn’t even notice. And my responses probably are too.

[aion-rsa]

How WandaVision Captured the Secret Horror of The Sims

https://ift.tt/3c5APXV

This article contains spoilers for WANDAVISION.

WandaVision‘s stunning finale alters the landscape of the MCU by posing a series of questions that seemingly set-up Marvel Studios’ biggest post-Endgame plans. It’s could be years until we get definitive answers to all of those questions, but there’s little doubt that we’ll eventually look back on WandaVision as the bold experiment that laid the groundwork for whatever comes next.

Still, there’s a good chance that when people think back on WandaVision years from now, it won’t be the MCU elements of the show they remember most fondly. No, that honor will likely go to those weeks when WandaVision left us wondering “What is happening?” As we watched Wanda and Vision take refuge in their idealistic suburban nightmare, millions wondered how they got there and what it all meant. We were fascinated by the idea of this powerful creature somehow pulling the strings in a world which, on the surface, seemed to disown the very idea of harm. It’s an element of the series that rightfully helped WandaVision earn its reputation as one of the boldest and strangest series in recent years.

Yet, there is something familiar about the machinations of WandaVision‘s universe, and I’m not talking about the various sitcoms the series paid tribute to. No, I’m talking about the strange ways that best, most mysterious, and sometimes scariest elements of WandaVision reminded me of The Sims.

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Grief and Loss: The Origins of WandaVision and The Sims

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, video game designer Will Wright started making waves in the video game industry through his brand of “sim” titles that included SimCity and SimEarth. Much like how WandaVision‘s earliest episodes went against the MCU grain by dialing back on the action and spectacle, Wright’s early games abandoned the action-heavy focus of many video games at the time in favor of something stranger and more intimate.

The story goes that Wright started working on a prototype known as “Dollhouse” sometime in the early ’90s. What little we know about this prototype suggested that it was essentially designed to be spiritually similar to SimCity but would instead focus on building a house (or perhaps a series of homes) rather than an entire city. It seems that the earliest versions of the project largely focused on more mechanical architectural concepts.

However, the nature of Dollhouse reportedly changed when Wright lost his home to a devastating fire. Legend has it that as he began slowly rebuilding his home and filling it with new things, he thought more about how the value of a home was really less about its structure and the things inside and more about the people in it. As such, he rethought the Dollhouse concept and shifted the direction of the project towards a game that was as much about the people in a home rather than the house itself.

It’s been suggested that The Sims is designed as a parody of consumerism based on how much the happiness and “progress” of The Sims is tied to the many things they can buy, but that only seems to be a part of the equation. Much of what The Sims is trying to accomplish is actually reportedly based on psychological principles that Wright used to help better understand the designs of his digital people and the relationships the player would form with them.

For instance, Wright was initially inspired by the 1977 book A Pattern Language which was largely about architecture, but more broadly suggested that certain patterns and routines could help enhance a living space by creating a sense of familiarity and security. Another of Wright’s known early inspirations was the 1993 book Understanding Comics which argued, among other things, that part of the reason why comics connected with so many people was due, in part, to their nonlinear stories, use of iconic imagery over pure realism, familiar characters, and use of abstraction. Combined, these concepts helped shaped the way that sims’ moods were shaped by their surroundings, sense of belonging, and stability.

In many ways, Wright’s inspirations feel like the playbook for Wanda’s own designs as well as Marvel Studio’s design of the WandaVision series.

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The Idealistic Patterns of Westview

It’s hard to ignore the ways that WandaVision parallels The Sims from both a meta and storytelling standpoint. Much like Will Wright, Wanda’s “inspirations” for the creation of Westview were her feelings of loss specifically triggered by the empty lot that should have been her home. In the same way that Wright eventually expanded his project to go beyond just the creation of structures, though, Wanda didn’t stop at crafting a house she and Vision could live in. Her experiences and her losses taught her that a home needed so much more than that.

When Wanda crafted the existence of at least her subconscious dreams, look at what she emphasized. She turned back to the iconic imagery of her own childhood and imagery instantly familiar to many who grew up on the idea of the idealistic suburban environment. It was partially a commentary on the absurdity of those concepts, but in that commentary was something very genuine about what those ideas and images mean to us on a much more profound level.

Like Wight’s architectural visions for his universe, Wanda’s also relied on patterns. The citizens of Westview were often relegated to routines that were sometimes as simple as endlessly hanging the laundry, but more often relied on maintaining the same basic role even as the decades seemingly went by. Even Wanda’s high-end furniture and other belongings remained largely the same even as the styles changed slightly over time.

In the sense that some of The Sims most “gamified” elements can be attributed to the idea of achieving certain live goals, there is a sense that Wanda felt, on some level, that she was offering the security, the familiarity, and the comforts that so many of us crave deep inside. Psychologically, she likely didn’t see it as torture or captivity so much as the chance to live somewhere where you could feel safe and welcome.

Much like Wight, Wanda is clearly fascinated with how those outside of Westview interact with her creations as well as how those within it interact with her and each other. In Wanda’s case, though, there is a sense that what she’s really striving for isn’t really an organic environment of social interactions but rather a form of controlled chaos. In the same way that Wight and what became The Sims‘ programming team struggled to constrain such dynamic A.I. (two female sims unintentionally kissed during an early preview video, which sparked a minor controversy at the time), Wanda’s attempts at adding and embracing more variables within Westview often proved that what she created couldn’t (and perhaps shouldn’t) be contained.

In the cases of Wanda, Agatha, and the average Sims player, though, it’s what happens when our psychology bleeds into the simulation that makes the whole thing so interesting and sometimes horrifying.

Pulling Ladders From Swimming Pools and Killing Sparky

In a study conducted by researchers from Lakehead University, Canada, it was discovered that Sims players with certain aggressive and even psychopathic traits would be more likely to behave more violently towards the sims their character interacted with. It’s believed that some of this behavior can be attributed to the belief that non-aggressiveness is somehow a sign of weakness.

It’s not just those with psychopathic tendencies who display such behavior, though. The internet is filled with stories of Sims players from all walks of life who have, at one point, tortured their creations. From stories of “painting goblins” whose sole job is to secretly supply the wealth of the family living above them to tales of starvation and electrocution, it seems many Sims players have, at one point, created chaos simply to see what happens.

It’s an idea best summarized by the classic idea of pulling the ladder out of a swimming pool. In the early versions of The Sims, you could get all of your characters in a swimming pool, delete the ladder in the pool, and watch as they slowly died due to a presumed total lack of upper body strength. It was a simple exploit many players discovered in their own ways, and, in the words of Sims producer Ryan Vaughan, it in some ways came to represent the greater idea of “giving players the ability to tell the stories they want to tell.” Indeed, many players will tell you that their interest in the idea of killing and torturing sims is more about their fascination to see what is possible and what will happen when you play outside of the “rules” of the game.

Few characters in WandaVision embody that idea as clearly as Agatha Harkness. As someone who willfully entered Westview from the outside, she’s long been interested in poking and prodding at the edges of this incredible scenario she can hardly believe. Some of it was part of her grand design, but some of her actions were seemingly done just to watch what happened next.

The killing of Sparky the dog is probably the “highlight” of both pursuits. On some level, Sparky’s death did further Agatha’s study of Wanda, but there’s also a very real sense that it was done to see how the environment would react to such an event. Was this a place that would simply reset such a tragedy, or would it be possible to introduce death and loss to such an idealistic world? If you pull the ladder out of the pool, can the sims in the water escape?

Yet, there is certainly something to be said for how Wanda’s own creations and actions embody the most horrific elements of The Sims not by trying to break patterns but by enforcing them.

Wanda and Sims Players: The Architects of Horror

Wanda modified the residents of Westview to conform to her vision. You can’t even bring in objects from the outside world without having them pass through a version of her filter. It’s eerily similar to the way that we create sims, homes, and entire neighborhoods in The Sims games.

In the rare situation when someone behaves outside of Wanda’s plans, she’ll exile them, correct them, or simply reset the scenario. As Vision observes during the show’s most horrifying moments, the spell that these people are under goes against their still very much alive nature to be free. Some can only silently cry as they go about their rigidly enforced routines.

While there is something undeniably cruel about torturing sims, perhaps there is another kind of cruelty in the idea that we can control them and make them rigid players in our own fantasies and visions. The Sims‘ advanced AI was designed to allow them a degree of freedom. Indeed, part of the fun of the experience should come from watching how they go about their lives when we’re not manipulating their every move.

Yet, Wanda was, at times, the kind of Sims player that has to make sure everyone is behaving correctly, optimally, and in-line with their idealistic escapism at all times. To that end, it’s hard to deny that part of the appeal of The Sims is the ability to answer the question “What if it was all in your control?” What if you could build the perfect house, get that dream job, and have control over the relationships in your life? While it was a game designed partially to showcase the value of life and how we balance human concepts against the motivations of consumerism, it’s difficult to say thatThe Sims was ever meant to be a game where every player was expected to “win” by creating the ideal and optimized life in the same way that SimCity would tangibly reward players in their pursuit of a Megalopolis.

If Will Wright could have exercised that kind of control over his own life, he would have almost certainly kept his house from burning down and we would have all benefited less from the grander ideas he came to be fascinated by as a result of that event. Wanda also couldn’t quite prevent the tragedies in her own life, but she did have the power to make everything at least appear “as it should be” rather than live with the pain of forging ahead in a world of chaos.

Though there is a kind of beauty and nobleness to her efforts, as we’ve seen throughout WandaVision and the history of The Sims, there is also a hidden horror in the idea that you have control over beings capable of playing out their own lives and that any deviation from that control is something that must somehow be corrected.

The post How WandaVision Captured the Secret Horror of The Sims appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3bggsYN

[proserpineisback]

TROS

If the only problem with TROS was the death of Ben and the rest of the movie was a masterpiece, then maybe I could forgive them. But the serious problem here is that the ENTIRE FILM is an absurdity on its own. You kinda feel like gathering all the facts across the trilogy and distribute them proportionally in each of the films so it all feels cohesive. But that couldn´t be done because Lucasfilm obviously didn´t map this project as a trilogy which it´s absolutely embarrassing. It wouldn´t have costed much for the board writers to sit for a week and write ONE STORY and divide them in three acts just like every writer does when making a book or an independent film or a short film or a documentary, Jesus there are so many people out there writing way better stuff than this with almost nothing of a budget. Having to use different directors is no excuse. The team behind the Mandalorian proves that, they obviously work as a team and so far they seem to treat the Star Wars legacy with respect taking old facts and carefully placing them where they´re needed.

Now, what pisses me off the most about this film is definitely the irrationality of Rey´s arc. The Rey who stood in front of Palpatine and told him “You want me to hate you but I won´t, not even you” is the same Rey who spent THE WHOLE MOVIE attacking Kylo over and over again out of nothing. I´ve spent this whole year wondering why they were fighting in the rain, only to find out that it was for nothing other than Rey´s sudden rage. Wondering why was Kylo flying his TIE towards her and why was she backflipping over it, only to find out it was for nothing too, were they trying to kill each other? Just after Kylo told her that he didn´t want to kill her? Did the conversations in TLJ were all for nothing and they´re back to zero? It´s like all JJ wanted was to retcon TLJ and have cool shots, which they are. The fights are very well choreographed and performed, and they´re visually beautiful and majestically scored, but that doesn´t take away the fact that plot-wise they´re absolutely pointless. When Kylo starts to talk about her past, she again attacks him in a way that for someone who believes in the good side and the Jedi and the light and repulses everything that has to do with the dark side, seems pretty infuriated and aggressive. If she was pissed off about everything the First Order did during the Allegiance comics, it would have made sense for her to mention it at least, because as it was presented it all seems pretty illogical and only for show. Again, they make her look as a person who it´s not enough informed about anything and can´t use her words to stop being one. She didn´t even think in taking advantage of Kylo´s second offering of joining him to defeat Palpatine, then if she didn´t want the throne and was so worried about Kylo becoming emperor, she just could have TALKED and tried to bring him back to the light. But that didn´t even crossed her mind, she just wanted him dead until she actually killed him and didn´t want him dead anymore just because she felt Leia dying, and I can´t believe Chris Terrio has repeated the same also pointless fight between Batman and Superman where Batman remembers his mother and suddenly decides to not kill Superman after beating him badly. I absolutely hated that movie and I was hoping he wouldn´t bring any of it into this. Saddly, I was wrong.

You can´t just link Rey to Palpatine out of nothing. You either connect her to him from the very beginning throwing hints of it or you don´t link her with anyone from the past at all. And you can´t just bring Palpatine with absolutely no excuse, it makes it obvious no one planned to have him behind it all from the start. The concept of Rey Nobody settled by Rian Johnson was a good idea so all kids around the world could relate to her, giving an important message that you don´t need to come from something important to be someone. But if the idea here was to prove that someone who comes from the dark side can choose to be light side, then DEVELOP it through the entire trilogy.

Bringing new supporting characters in the last two films has resulted in a crowded mess when everyone gets to say a line with no purpose, wasting the film´s time. When they presented Rey, Kylo, Finn and Poe as the main characters in TFA, it was understood that the story would be told through their eyes. Then why the hell bring new characters to do the job that they could do. It just makes Finn and Poe look like a pair of extras with nothing relevant to do, just being a burden to Rey when she clearly could have done everything on her own. It would have be them two going to the core worlds and convincing the people to join the cause, so they can truly be heroes in this story. Instead of having everyone joining at last minute because they think Lando is dope and decided that somehow they´re not scared anymore even now that a massive imperial fleet has appeared out of nowhere. And why having so many ships to fight the final battle when they´re gonna waste it by not showing too much of it. I mean it´s called Star Wars for a reason, but somehow they´ve wasted more time having Rey and Kylo fight than investing in the action on air. If all those fights between the two of them had place in TLJ and the talking force bonds had place in TROS, then maybe it would make a bit more sense and the story would seem to have a proportional pace in each film and a better structure. Instead, this movie seems like rushing scramble of events awkwardly mixed with all the trivia they could find from the Star Wars lore while spitting in your face absurd facts about the characters you have known for 5 years and having to believe each of them.

I wouldn´t have problems with Hux being the spy if he was suspect from the beginning. You can´t make a character to be a cold blood mass murderer and devoted to the First Order to the point of fanaticism and then turn him into a softy who reveals he is the spy and traitor of the very thing he loved, in a stupidly parodic way, and who can also be gotten rid off quite easily. And all without any character development whatsoever. I mean, fanfics make a better job with Hux as a villain.

Why create the knights of Ren if you´re gonna have them like silent dogs and get them easily killed when they´re also force users? I mean, I´m not saying that Ben is not powerful enough to finish them but apparently in the comics HE AND LUKE have fought them before and they made it out alive. It would have been a lot more interesting to have the KOR since TFA and make one of them suspect so he can be the one to bring Palpatine back to life in TROS. It would have been better to have Ben and Rey fighting them in TLJ throne room instead of the shitty praetorian guards that are killed in one second in episode III.

Why presenting new characters in Resistance Reborn if we´re not going to see them not even on the background during the resistance base scenes? It´s such a lucrative and deceitful game to have books, comics, etc. and not include them in the films in any way. I can picture them saying to the writers “Yeah, do whatever you want”.

And finally, why create such a good concept like “dyad in the force” if you´re gonna have just one of them fighting against Palpatine while the other one is in a hole. It obviously should have been them BOTH fighting Palpatine and defeating him since when they´re together they have the balance of the force. I mean, I thought that was what Star Wars was all about. It should have been all the generations of Jedi helping them BOTH since Ben Solo had already gone back to the light. Why create such a compelling complex character if they were going to make him have the exact same fate that Darth Vader had. It´s so frustrating the lack of imagination for a conclusion, it makes you cringe. The ultimate message here is that the Skywalker family was cursed and they all deserved to die.

I applaud the astonishly good performances of the actors, the realism they brought makes it all more believable and painful so we don´t forget this film actually happened. The entire movie pains me so much because I´ve grown to love Star Wars and I´ve had deep love for each of the films, yes even the prequels. I´ve defended every movie from the haters and I never thought it would come the day that I would say the saga has been completely destroyed.

[cjvazmovielife]

I Almost Lost My Head Because of Method Acting.

This isn't hyperbole, I'm actually being literal. Not too long ago we were filming a sword fight sequence, that for lack of a better word got a bit too spirited. It's for a fantasy project, magic, dragons, and so on. There was this scene in which two knights square of against each other. Our actors had rehearsed this sequence for weeks, and they had it down pack.

As many of you know, you will have different types of props to film in your movie. This, of course, is dependant on the budget, but different swords are usually made. The one that you will use the most is the Fight Sword (or Stunt Word, or Stunt prop), it really doesn't matter what you call it, but this is the safer sword. It's made out of wood, in some cases plastic or resin, and it's meant to be beaten into. Your actors practice with it, and they shoot with it. It's great for wider and medium shots in which you won't really see the details of the sword.

The Hero Sword is ordinarily made out of metal, just like a real one, it will have a dull edge and a lot of detail. This is the sword you use when you are definitely going to see it. For medium close-ups, and anything tighter than that. It's great because the metal edge reflects the light beautifully and helps to add realism to your fight scene. The dull edge protects the actors from getting hurt if they accidentally strike themselves, but again it's still metal. This is the sword we were using on this particular day.

Most of the morning shots had gone through without any problems. Coming back from lunch, one of my actors took a kick to the gut the wrong way. Meaning they actually connected with a lot more force that was expected. He ended falling back into a set piece that was a bit more reinforce than he expected. Hit, hit, big hit, and floor hit later he was on the ground. Naturally, I yelled 'CUT!' and we all ran to him. Onset EMTs looked him over and carried him back to his trailer for further observation.

Clearly, we were all worried about him. No one wants to have anyone get hurt on their set. We heard from one of the EMTs that he was ok, but he's going to need to rest for a while. This is where the issue grew, and I'm going to sound insensitive. The other actor that kicked him was wrapping that night, it was the only way we could schedule it and would be gone for two months out of town. Because of the other production he was doing, there was no way to get him to delay even a day. Our only hope was that hurt actor would be able to continue before he left.

We break everyone for 15 minutes, and I'm standing in front of the guy's trailer waiting. I'm stress, I'm worried we may have to shut down which is never a good thing. I'm worried about the actor and hoping he doesn't have any permanent injuries. I'm worried about everything, and the crew is whispering about this being a cursed production. We have had smaller problems before, but they have been minuscule. People forgetting things, lights not working, wardrobe ripping, and a boom pole slowly breaking at the end. Like it was melting from the top nut down, and we all stood there for another 10 minutes watching that thing bend.

All was fine until the night before. Our crafty person wanted to give us a nice surprise for dinner. Out of fear of accidentally stereotyping I'm not going to say what cuisine it was. I will say that plenty of people love it, and if done properly it's quite delicious. Yeah, this one wasn't done properly. During the breaks, I'm usually checking out the rushes (dailies, what we just shot because it's all digital) and I get a phone call from my First Assistant Director. I'm told that there was something wrong with X food and people are reacting badly to it.

I walk out, and it's a scene from a zombie movie. People are running all over the place trying to get into a trailer to use the bathroom. Studio bathrooms were full, lines were forming, and the only normalcy I could see was the First Assistant Camera (female in her 20s and barely 5'1) desperately trying to protect the camera. It was definitely more chaotic than I expected to see. All I could really say was, thank goodness I'm on a diet.  

So back to the night of the fight sequence, people are still nursing themselves back from the night before. No one is happy, no one wants to just stay there, and wait. Everyone wants to finish and go home, but sadly we needed to stay to get the last shots. So I decided that since I know the choreography I was going to do it. I put on a green screen suit we already had for me from a previous scene, took the sword and went at it. Would have preferred my fight choreographer to do it, but he was the first one to dinner the night before, and it seems it hit him harder than the others. It was me, I was the only left available to do it.

So I break it down to the actor, let him know how we were going to shoot as he was the focus not me, and would be able to add the actor in later.  We began to get comfortable and even started talking during the scene. Talk leads to a more personal conversation, which leads to smack talk and that leads to more aggressive fighting. We're moving around the set, the camera is following us, and everyone is watching intently. He says something that pisses me off, and I, in turn, throw it back at him which pisses him off. Then I laugh because he has a thick British accent and is really pissed off, which pisses him off even more.

He gets more aggressive with me, and I get more aggressive with him. At this point I don't think he was acting, I genuinely feel he was trying to stab me, and I was doing the same. Forget the Revolutionary War, every single British versus America movie was being settled on that set that night. We are exchanging blows like it was nothing. He kicks me, and I kick him back. He swipes at me I block. I swipe at him he blocks. He nailed me in the gut with a punch that wasn't part of the choreography, so I wasn't expecting it. I'm really pissed now, so I nail him back with a hit to the stomach. His face turns, he lets out this shriek of a scream, grabs his sword with both hands and swings it at my head like the Queen of Hearts told him to take it off. I'm able to duck fast enough just as his sword is embedded in the fake column behind him.

I looked up at the sword, realizing that could have been my head and I'm about to pounce on the guy when I hear my first AD yell cut. Guy gives me his hand, and in the thickest of British accents, he tells me he is happy we decided to improvise the scene a bit. "We? So everything you were saying and everything you did was just?" He says "method acting my boy. I'm going to grab a beverage, let me know when you are ready for the next take." Then he walks off like it was no big deal. Like it didn't make a difference that 5 seconds too late he would have been holding up my severed head in his hand screaming "there can be only one."

So I'm still upset because again my head was almost severed from my body. I tell him, that if we do this again, we are going to need to dial it back a bit and remind him that getting an accurate reaction from me doesn't matter because I'm wearing a green screen suit. That last part was a bit louder than it should have been. He again tells me that he is method, and part of it is living what he is doing. I didn't know until then, but this guy has been sword fighting for the past 20 years before he started stage combat, and he could have put that sword anywhere he wanted. Basically saying that I didn't duck, he let me duck by the way he swung. To me it was instant, but to him, he delayed purposely for safety. We looked at the shot and yeah he went slower. Still, that was really close for comfort.

Released after approval from the legal department.

[abbie-jamieson-film-genre]

Week 12: Sound Project Self Reflection

Group 6

Abbie (me) - paper rustling (interior), drawer and trash/plastic bags

Dori - chair, indoor footsteps, plastic bottle, wet paper (exterior), jacket

Mia - all the other footsteps, door shutting

Maddy - rain sounds and sirens

Maddy/Tom - character noises

As a group, we came to a conclusion on the soundtrack 

Narrative

As a group, we were instantly drawn to clip 4, and it was obvious this was the one we all wanted to work on, however, settling on a narrative was difficult. I volunteered some ideas, but we didn’t know what route to go down. This delay in picking a direction possibly rushed our execution of this idea as our genre seemed to be a little confused by some. 

We took so long to figure out narrative, we were almost having to shoot the sounds without knowing the context of our visuals, yet we luckily had a very collaborative idea of the protagonist being wrongly accused of a crime, and this is his search for the piece of evidence that will prove him innocent. Together we bounced of ideas, and the motivations for the protagonist’s movements, and worked out logically reasoning for these moves. I was extremely happy with the narrative, and how we were going to display it through sound, but I don’t think it was as effective as it should have been.

Genre

We were going to implement a siren sound to imply the police are nearby and they are looking for him, hence his hesitance in the stairway. I liked the subtly of the sirens, especially how well integrated the sound was - we even got feedback saying that it was so real, they thought it was a police car outside their house. However, I don’t think people entirely grasped the crime aspect, as this was the only clear indicator of that. This being a project focused on genre, this is a little bit disappointing, but we should have done more to indicate that he is being accused of a crime he did not commit. Now in reflection, I feel like we could have reintroduced this sound effect later on in the scene, or we could have had dialogue, or a voice over. For example, we could have had a police officer speak to him off screen, or we could have had a soundtrack that would give a bigger nod to the crime genre. 

The Instrumental 

Although a few people got a sense of the crime drama, many people got the sense of a romance. Some got a rom-com vibe and the main character was a hopeless romantic, and some believed he was devastated at the loss or breakup of his former lover. I think this was greatly influenced by the soundtrack as we had intended it to give a sense of hopelessness and the loss the character might face if he is charged wrongly. I think people perceived this music as more along the “sad and in love” when we wanted a “depressing and hopeless” feel to it, and these ideas can overlap in some ways, but we should have made this more clear that it has nothing to do with love. In hindsight, although I felt the score really suited the scene, maybe we should have gone for something more intense to make the stakes feel higher, and to drive away from any idea of romance.  

We had went back and forth over the soundtrack, as we thought it would be one of the most effective ways to convey our narrative. We were debating on going with slow or intense classical or action film scores like Hans Zimmer, two polar opposites, but we we’re sure if we should have gone for the intense action, or a calm and depressing tone. We felt as if none of these fit, but we knew we wanted to go with a melancholic atmosphere and something that wasn’t too intense. We decided this because we thought something too loud and aggressive would imply he is angry that he is going to get caught by the police, thus meaning he is guilty. Yet we wanted to portray his innocence, and we reckoned an innocent man would be more distraught and panicked instead. We chose this song in the end, as we believed it captured that essence the best, but it accidentally implied some of the wrong things too. Ideally, if we had had time, and to have more experience with sound between us, then I think we would have loved to have made our own score. 

The Sound Recordings

Our feedback showed us that everyone agreed we had synced all the sounds, including the footsteps, and the majority of the recordings sounded realistic. This being said, there was a couple of issues, especially with the sounds from the protagonist. They were jarring as the sounds of the man were too loud and didn’t blend among the tone of the other sounds. Being the only male in our group, Tom attempted to voice the character, but he decided he did not sound like a frustrated man, but instead he sounded like someone pretending to be frustrated, and this would have disrupted the realism of the other sounds. Instead they searched for free sounds online, and although this was not ideal, this was the best option they had. This made the voice sound out of place and it potentially crossed into the territory of comedy which was the complete opposite of what we intended. The sounds were also out of place in regards to the positioning of the microphone. The distance between the camera and the protagonist showed on screen sounded different to the distance between the microphone and the protagonist and this takes you out of the immersion. If I was to re-do this project, I think we should have looked around for more people to voice the character, and this would have made it more fitting to the piece both in regards to tone, timing and positioning of the microphone. 

The rain sounds were lovely, but people picked up on how similar all the sounds seemed, and that the sound of the rain should have varied from location to location to give that sense of change. Someone did spot the effect that made it seem as if the rain was hitting the roof, so it was great that people spotted that little detail too! The main thing picked up from this leads onto the part where the man runs out of the building and the door opens and closes so you can hear the difference between the interior and exterior. We did not have a significant enough change, and this also loses the realism of the scene. There should have been a gradual increase and decrease of the rain sound as the door opens and closes, and the groans should have been more muffled as it makes it seem like there is no door between the audience and the protagonist. 

My personal feedback

I worked on the drawer, trash and the interior paper sounds. The main challenge I faced was with the microphone itself as the only one I had access to was a cheap Røde Microphone and static noises were extremely noticeable. I had to change the sound record mode to manual and significantly lower to levels to avoid any unwanted noise. I luckily managed to avoid it, but next time I would prefer to use equipment that does not have this issue so I can get straight to recording and to not have the worry that I might need to re-shoot. I also have little experience in sound, so i still definitely did benefit from this practice.

I received great feedback about my paper sounds as people really appreciated the attention to detail. During the recording, I positioned the microphone roughly the same distance away from the paper as seen between the camera and the paper, to help gain this sense of space. Zoe asked how I achieved a good sync, so I said Mia and I had done the same thing in which we played the original clip and we followed what was happening on screen in order to get the best accuracy, and this turned out to be a really effective method. 

Another piece of feedback I received was that the noises of the plastic bags should have been more noticeable, this was possibly a combination of me not placing the microphone close enough to pick up on these sounds,and the soundtrack over riding the sounds. Either way, there should have been better communication between me and the person mixing the sounds. We could have discussed how these sounds would effect the ending as I do agree a greater care with these sounds could have improved the ending, and possibly steered us from giving out vibes of the wrong genre. 

Communication

Over the course of post production, Dori was great at giving us updated edits to show us progress and the improvements which was very helpful. However, I do wish we had had more meetings, especially face to face to discuss some of the issues brought up in the crit, as I felt like many of them would have been sorted. I felt like I would have probably  had some ideas sparked about what to improve on if we had had that in person meeting, but because of covid, we were only meeting when necessary (like the film shoot).

I do think our group worked really well with each other, but as stated, I don’t think we had as many meetings and discussions as we should have because we were too sidetracked by the other project for this module, and we never had the same input and thought behind it. We should have worked to balance out the work and time put into each piece, as I think we all unintentionally focused more on the short film.  

Overall

Our main feedback was that the first half of the piece was excellent, but the second half seemed to not reach the same quality. This was mainly due to the issues previously mentioned such as recordings sounding “off”, out of place and unrealistic. However, these issues were the minority, and overall, people really liked the piece.

In conclusion, I loved the final result of this project and I loved working with this group (you all did an amazing job!) but we still could have improved in a couple of areas. 

(sorry for writing so much!)

[flyonmylovee]

A Long, Long Post on Kyousei

A day and one rewatch after Tri 5 premiered, I have to say that I’m one happy fan. I know those sentiments aren’t shared by everyone, but I’m really digging Tri thus far. I wrote out some thoughts about Shoushitsu here and would like to make a similar post for Kyousei. 

I’d like to tell a quick story to start this off. Over the summer, on a whirlwind trip to Europe that had me buying tickets for upcoming legs of my travels after landing in my first foreign country, I got a crest of courage tattoo. My host in Barcelona poured me a glass of sangria, set me up in her living room, and had her buddy, an up-and-coming tattoo artist, give me the tattoo in exchange for a spot on my futon when he travels to Washington, D.C. 

“Why do you want this design? What does it mean?”

I took a sip of sangria to try and suppress my nerves. “Uh, courage. It means a lot to me.”

He nodded, and a half hour later I had a digimon tattoo on my foot. 

In the midst of all this, though, we had a discussion about the risks of getting a tattoo inspired by an ongoing show. God forbid the meaning changes, I should be sure I’d be happy with it anyways. 

I’m sat at my kitchen table right now with my feet kicked up on the chair across from me. My tattoo is staring back at me like it knows our favorite protagonist is dangling in cartoon-character limbo. 

“You idiot” Yamato mumbled in that moment, gripping Taichi’s goggles.

“You idiot!” I yelled at my computer, instantly thinking back to my conversation in Barcelona. 

Perhaps I should have waited. For a split second, I found myself conflicted. Waiting would have probably been smart- the tattoo artist I worked with had plenty of examples of meanings gone amiss- logos of shows that dropped off after a few seasons, symbols of superheroes gone bad, lyrics from artists who turned out to be closet bigots. Back in Barcelona, the tattoo artist passed on his ‘wisdom’ but ultimately, he told me to go with my gut. If I wanted the tattoo, I wanted it, and that was all that mattered. 

I know getting a tattoo might not be a huge decision for everyone, but I was really nervous to make the call. My “gut” has always been a problem. I’m a pretty anxious person, and I’m proud to say that very recently, I’ve conquered it. I went through with the tattoo. I was fucking ecstatic about it. I still am.

The crest of courage means so much to me. 

Yet here we are- in the exact situation my tattoo artist warned me of. Taichi is obviously coming back, but what’s to make of how he does it? What if the sixth movie is a huge disappointment? Would it be possible to look down at my tattoo when I need a reminder of my courage and not get the same motivation I feel from it now?

I don’t know. I guess what I’m trying to say, though, is that I don’t have any regrets. Tri has meant so much to me so far. I’ve loved it, for better and for worse. I love digimon’s commitment to creating new stories. I love the thought put into callbacks. I love Meiko. I love Daigo. I love that the worst snippets of animation may still be better than an average clip of adventure, and tbh, I laugh about it. 

Maybe my expectations were too low. I purposefully kept them that way when this all started. I spent 15 years sure that we’d never see these kids again, the ones we spent our afternoons with after elementary school let out- yet here they are. Tri has blown me away simply because it exists, and to me, the effort is there. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I have no fears about the meaning of my tattoo changing. I have faith in this. I have reasons to have faith in this, and fuck, tattoos on my body are not things I take lightly. 

So, that’s the context I headed into Kyousei with. I really believe Tri 6 will pull through, and if it does, this is all going to be incredible. Tri spoilers below the cut.

For some reason, it was jarring to be reminded that Kyousei picks up right where Shoushitsu left off. The start of the movie worked perfectly for me. You’re dropped right back into the walking terror that is DarkGennai, Sora’s recently overcome trauma (please, someone give her a hug), and Meiko nearly dying. The mature tone is set once again. Just like it’s audience, the show has aged, as have the characters. 

There were two overarching themes in Kyousei for me: grappling with what it means to be “chosen” and realizing that the world is a complex and often, a disappointing place. Taichi makes a point of saying that there are things you see as kids, and there’s things you see as an adult. He’s not sure which he’s supposed to see. Later, he’s not sure who the enemy is. 

“Who are we fighting?!” he yells out, seemingly in harmony with the groans of frustration from a fandom left with many unanswered questions. One criticism of Tri is that there’s too much missing information, but to me, that’s turning out to be a key theme of the show. I think a point is being made here- perhaps in childhood, one has the luxury of having clear-cut adventures. Morality is a decision. You are right or you are wrong, and if you are wrong, we have to defeat you. 

Morality in Tri resembles the morality your eyes are opened to as you age. It is a spectrum of different choices, different friends, different enemies. Your enemies aren’t always clearcut and sometimes, you don’t even know why you’re fighting. 

I can’t think of a better way to “age up” the kids than by putting them in this sort of situation. I appreciate the realism of it all. It may not seem like a classic “adventure”, but I do believe if we were given a classic “adventure”, it would have felt rather stale. It is clear that Tri committed to something new, as digimon is prone to do, and their means to an end is Meiko Mochizuki. 

I’d like to make the case that, whether you like Meiko or not, her focus in Tri shouldn’t be as shocking as it feels. We are constantly introduced to new characters that project the story forward. In adventure, it was Hikari. In 02, we witnessed Ken transform and enter the main group. In Hurricane Touchdown, Wallace took center stage. I think Meiko seems especially jarring because these characters have been missed for 15 years and we’d like to get to know them again, whereas the introduction of other characters was rather sudden. While Meiko may not be appreciated, I don’t buy that Tri would be better without her, especially when you acknowledge the character development that takes place parallel to her story. 

We see a flashback from Fall 1999 which now, knowing Meicoomon contains a shard of Apocalymon, makes sense. Meiko’s dad meets with researchers from Tokyo (Maki, I’m assuming? It’s interesting to think she’s been in touch with the family all this time). 

Jumping back to the present day, the world “is falling apart”. Maki’s motivations become clear. “This time... I will be chosen.” Her uh, unrealistic expectation of saving the world with Tapirmon helps me understand why she may have started working with DarkGennai in the first place. Maki gets a “redo” of her traumatic flashback from Shoushitsu, and DarkGennai knows sparking this sort of apocalypse will end in ruin. I do wonder how long Maki’s been aligned with DarkGennai- did she have anything to do with the shard of Apocalymon? Did she need to play a role in Meicoomon’s birth? Either way, Maki is the hero of her own story- I wonder what means she’ll continue going through to be “chosen”.

The meaning of being “chosen” is explored further with Daigo and Mr. Mochizuki. I found this scene really interesting:

If you replace “Yagami” with “Maki” and “them” with “us”, it makes a lot of sense and showcases how traumatic that final battle was for Daigo’s crew. While he is definitely concerned for Taichi and the other kids, his concerns stem from his own experiences, and I wonder how much of his good-natured persona comes from him not wanting the kids to experience what he and Maki did. His natural niceness faded throughout this movie (although to be fair, it sounds like Daigo just lowkey lost his job lmao- “But we’ve been protecting them all this time!”) and his intentions were still A+, but it seemed like Daigo became comfortable using a bit more aggression as the situation grew more dire (i.e. talking some serious smack to the cops). I’m starting to think that Daigo’s repressed a lot of shit too, but was probabblyyy better at dealing with it than Maki was. 

But, that’s fair. The world (almost?) met it’s end on his watch. The love of his life is losing it (and as we’ve learned, he blames himself). Lots of foreshadowing here, lots of questions swirling about what it means to be chosen, so...

On being chosen: I SO enjoyed the conversation in the cave! First and foremost- Sora! In my post on Shoushitsu I voiced my concerns about whether Sora’s character had actually developed. To me, it didn’t seem like she grew. Her issue with Piyomon was temporarily solved but I made the case that if the reboot happened all over again, Sora wouldn’t be able to handle it any better. I was pleased to see everything come full circle in Kyousei. Sora admitted, in front of EVERYONE, that she has a tendency to close herself off, that she’s LONELY, and that she knows what it’s like to have a THORN in her HEART. Piyomon was sleeping while all this went on, but I’m proud enough for both of us. 

I also particularly liked the tidbits from Yamato. It was a nice callback to his cave scenes in adventure, and it’s a small reminder that these kids are developing in ways that aren’t always obvious in the overarching plot:

Takeru seems to instantly get what he’s saying, and the kids continue with their conversation of how they cope with being “chosen” and how they attempt to be good partners. Mimi straight up says that she balances Palmon out, and Sora ponders if that’s what it means to be a partner in the first place. Throughout all this, and throughout the movie, we see Meiko dealing with crippling sadness due to ‘being a bad partner’. I know some folks think it’s overdone and shouldn’t be as much of a focus, but I get the feeling this depression is supposed to be that obvious. Given Maki’s motivations and connections to the Mochizuki family, I wonder if Maki has been gaslighting Meiko, in a sense. I’d bet Maki is incredibly envious of anyone chosen, and if Meiko has a particular responsibility, or if Maki believes Meiko shouldn’t have been chosen, she’s probably primed her over years to be doubtful of her capabilities. 

While everyone knows Meicoomon is to blame for the infections, etc, Maki was the first one to openly admit it, and she did it so dryly. I don’t know. It always stuck out to me. I don’t trust Maki as far as I could throw her, and I’m not very strong. I wouldn’t be surprised if the extent of Maki’s cruelty is revealed in Tri 6 and that the focus on Meiko’s depression serves a purpose. It’s dark, but this is Tri, and we’re all adults now thank you very much, Toei, I get it. 

I’d like to make a case for Meiko’s sadness. I know the fandom is split on whether it’s too much of a focus or not, but I really think it’s necessary. When you go back and watch scenes from past movies after learning new information, everything is so purposeful. After learning that Meiko is meant to be Meicoomon’s balance, it becomes VERY obvious why Meiko was so hesitant and overly-apologetic in the past. You suddenly realize that every time Meiko apologizes for Meicoomon’s destruction, every time she bursts out crying, each day she skipped school after watching Leomon die, it’s because she genuinely believes the death, destruction, and trauma is due to her failure as the Libra’s balance. When Takeru told her Patamon was infected, she freaked because in her mind, it was her fault. I don’t think Meiko’s depression is overdone because it’s realistic. Can you imagine how much pressure she must have been under? From her father? From Maki? She could never fail. What if she got sick? Heck, what if she died? Who would control Meicoomon? That’s so fucked up. SO fucked up. And if her father is being truthful in Kyousei when he seems to just realize how much pressure his daughter is under, it leads you to wonder how Meiko came to understand she was responsible for containing Meicoomon’s powers. My money’s on Maki, and I’d bet a million dollars Maki was manipulative as fuuuuck. Since past movies have given us so many hints about what’s to come in the next installment, Meiko’s sadness leads me to believe we’ll learn the extent of what Maki’s done with the Mochizuki family all these years. What did her gaslighting ential? Why did she help them move to Tokyo? HOW DID HER HANDS “FALL INTO DARKNESS”? Put a pin in that last bit, because I’m gonna come back to it.

So, anyways, Daigo serves as a nice parallel to Taichi, and even Yamato, and I think Maki is meant to showcase a potential future for Meiko and Hikari. Meiko’s potential is obvious- a lost partner, a chosen being unchosen, the list goes on. At some point, though, DarkGennai mentions how those who are the most compassionate or fragile (or something along those lines) are the easiest to break and control. He’s referencing Hikari when he says it, but I wonder if he thought the same thing about Maki at some point. As Homeostasis can speak through them both, I think the similarities are there. 

And the similarities continue for Tailmon and Meicoomon! I’ve discussed the importance of their similarities before, but while watching Tri 5, I noticed some similarities to episode 34 of adventure which seem especially relevant now that we’ve seen hints of Wizarmon on the Tri 6 poster:

If you remember episode 34, or if you’re like me and needed to recently find a terrible streaming site to rewatch it on, you’ll know that Wizarmon is incredibly lonely when he meets Tailmon, that he has a heart of stone from being lonely, and is convinced that he’s going to die from it. Tailmon saved him, and Hikari saved Tailmon. Back in the cave in present times:

(Mr. Mochizuki references Meicoomon’s loneliness when his daughter wasn’t around, and Meiko’s been separated from her partner an awful lot recently. Hackmon talks about how Meicoomon was isolated and feared due to it’s power.)

And then Hikari jumps in all too knowingly...

Interestingly, Wikimon has Meicrackmon VM’s card translated as follows:

And wow, what a Fan Moment™ it would be for Wizarmon to swoop in and fix all of this (which hopefully he doesn’t literally do because THERE’S NO TIME LOL). In all seriousness, though, the meaning of being chosen, of being a partner, will definitely be a huge theme in Tri 6 and I’m excited to see what happens. I’m also wondering if anything will come of Maki’s cold heart- I believe Daigo described it that way in one of the prior movies?

Anyways, let me reel this back in for a second to discuss more briefly some smaller things I appreciated in Tri 5 before jumping in to the conclusion of it all:

The mature tone: I touched on this before, but a part of the movie that stood out to me was Mrs. Yagami’s naivety about her children’s success. She briefly displays some worry, decides Taichi + Hikari will be okay, and starts making them a ton of food. I’m sure half of his is denial, but I also think this scene wouldn’t have been second-guessed in adventure. Of course the kids are going to be fine because the heroes always win. Now though, Mrs. Yagami’s hope seems out of place. This is highlighted further when Taichi talks to her on the phone. Mrs. Yagami lightheartedly states that it’s been a long time since Taichi’s had a summer filled with so much excitement. When she said this, I instantly thought about how Taichi must have been reeling for adventure after returning home from the digital world. I’ve always imagined him sitting in class, staring out the window, daydreaming about what Agumon must be up to in the next world over. I was kind of shocked when his response was “What are you talking about?” This isn’t an adventure to Taichi anymore. It was always serious, but the innocence of childhood is long gone. 

The attention to details: I need to respectfully disagree with the assertion that Tri is lacking details. I’ve found it to be full of callbacks, if you’re looking for them, and I think it’s taking the time to highlight little things it doesn’t necessarially have to show us. One example of this is the Ishida-Takaishi family dynamic. To me, it was unclear whether Yamato’s dad even answered the phone, and Yamato outright denies the chance to speak with his mother. When I was wondering what the chosen children were up to in the years before Tri, these were the sorts of details I was wondering about. The fact that Tri took the time for this scene, amongst others, is what gives me hope about the sixth movie actually being able to wrap things up. 

I also appreciate the details that don’t necessarily involve callbacks. Very pleased about the fanfiction fodder that is Yamato being terrified of ghost stories, and Takeru totally willing to throw him under the bus about it. Uh, I also noticed how unnervingly quick Takeru was to whip up an excuse for the police. He seemed, er, a little too calm when running away.

The Sorami: I mean, did you think I’d make a post about this movie and not mention the Sorami? I APPRECIATE THEM SO MUCH LOL. IT HAS TO BE CANON, RIGHT? They were literally sleeping holding hands. I can’t. I digress...

The cramming of everyone digivolving into one single screen: THANK YOU.

Whew. This is getting long, but this brings me what I really want to talk about: The ending. 

So, the second half of Kyousei is a lot. I may or may not have cried twice. Oh, and, surprise! There’s the dark ocean. I really didn’t mind Taichi & Meiko’s conversation but I also don’t really have much to add about it besides what I discussed before. I definitely noted that Meiko interprets “you shouldn’t have been born” to include both her and Meicoomon, and I’m not surprised Taichi snapped at her. I would also like to note that Meiko & Agumon’s conversation (was super cute) was kinda revealing. Meiko envies Taichi, along with everyone else. She apologizes for scaring everyone early, Agumon says he wasn’t scared, and Meiko flashes back to a bunch of moments in which Meicoomon was scared. That... didn’t sit right with me. I do believe that Meiko yearns for a more typical partnership with Meicoomon, but yet again we have an instance of Meiko seemingly toying with the idea of giving it all up. 

On Yamato: WOW! Okay, so, my absolutely favorite part of the movie is when Meiko asks the chosen children to kill Meicoomon. Yamato’s been pushing Taichi to stop hesitating, to stand with his friends, to do what’s right. After sprinting into the digital world monologueing about the importance of protecting friends, much to Yamato’s satisfaction (...i presume), he makes the decision that Meiko is right and that they should, indeed, kill off her partner. Not only is this in obvious contract with Yamato’s crest, but it’s got to be fucking infuriating to watch your closest ally step up to the plate just in time to kill off someone the chosen have spent a lot of time protecting. I understand Yamato as the type of character to keep his grievances private. He’ll shoot you a glare from across the room and fight back if you’ve hit his temper, but I don’t think he’s the type to let other people see his anger make him weak. This... I think this was Yamato’s low point, and he aired it out in front of fucking e v e r y b o d y. After grabbing Taichi by the collar and pushing him away, Yamato just stands there and screams. I can’t think of a time he’s ever done something like that. He is SO internally conflicted, and frustrated, and sad, and dare I say... lonely? You SAW how sad he was (he blushed!) when confronting Taichi about Omegamon breaking up early. I think this is foreshadowing a major plotline for the final movie. After all, Yamato hasn’t truly had a solo-arc yet. 

On Hikari: Hikari’s another one who will be front and center in the sixth movie. Her arc is definitely not over, and I’m excited for the potential of her plotline intersecting with Yamato’s. I’m reminded of the Vamdemon arc from Adventure and how horribly awkward it was for Yamato to take care of Taichi’s little sister. I hope we see that sorta tension again. And listen, I truly understand everyone’s frustration with Hikari not being the main focus of her movie. I do think it’s a bit problematic that we base our expectations on who shows up on the next poster, but I understand. I do. It sucks. I would have been mad if this was Sora, yet while I understand, I’m not particularly bothered. It’s obvious that Hikari will play a huge role in the final movie. Also, if you can imagine me holding a giant flashing arrow and pointing it towards 02, that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. All you Hikari fans got like, a season and a half and two movies where Hikari played a major role. There’s also the potential that if Tri goes on to Tri 02 (please, hear my prayers, amen), she’ll also play a huge role. I do think that we’ll learn more about older Hikari as Tri finishes up, so this is where I’m at right now. I’m fine spending more time with some of the other kids. I’m fine watching them interact with a new character. Not everyone has to agree with me, like please, be mad about it if that’s how you feel! This is just my two cents. 

On Taichi: You selfless, stupid idiot. Youuu infuriating contradictory little shit. You in all of your poorly-timed nobleness pulled a Jack-from-Titanic and let yourself die when Omegamon could have TOTALLY swooped on over to you and picked you and Daigo up. THERE WAS ROOM FOR EVERYONE UNDER HIS ARMS. Dammit, Taichi. You just killed your sister, broke Sora’s heart, and jump-started Yamato’s looming mid-life crisis all in one go, and beyond the fourth wall, we all know you’re kicking around underground with Daigo having a heart-to-heart about what the morality of adulthood entails, every once in awhile stopping to say “shit, we should probably try and get back up there, right?”

Okay, okay, I’m being unreasonable. I really do love the angst. Taichi falling into a very cartoon-y certain non-death makes me wonder, though, if he had a sense something like this was coming. Once again, the focus on his hesitation and reflectiveness seems purposeful. It reminds me of the way people might act before they die. What am I here for? What can I do? What’s the purpose of it all? It makes sense that he’s stuck with Daigo, as I think he’s been asking himself the very same questions. His easy-going nature conflicts with his role and remembering how got all serious with the police and so on... it seemed unnatural for him (although I was here for it tbh, hey Daigo). Perhaps he’s also still stuck in this kid-adult limbo. ANYWAYS-

In my Loss review, I discussed how it’s actually fairly common for Taichi to hesitate. He truly does go back and forth between being a hot-head and overthinking things, but it’s struck me recently that many of the moments in which he hesitates involve a realization of his own mortality and relative insignificance in relation to everything going on in the universe around him. Going back and watching the other movies, watching Taichi + Yamato bicker about what the right thing to do is, how to avoid the most death and tragedy... it seems sort of cruel. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional but as Yamato made the case for saving more civilians by doing something, Taichi’s blank stare, his hesitation... it’s almost as if he knows he’s stuck in purgatory and yeah, they could do something, but hey Yamato, “I don’t wanna die. I’ll die too.” 

As I type that out, I’m now realizing those are the words I’ve been looking for all of Tri. Taichi’s moving like he’s trying to navigate purgatory and he’s not sure which choices will show him the light. 

As Taichi made the ultimate sacrifice, I was reminded of this scene on Loss:

Taichi did something. And I’ll leave it at that. I felt a lot of sadness going back and watching this scene but I’m not quite sure what to make of it yet. All I can say is that when Yamato demanded that everyone stand, I was glad Sora was the first one who did.

On the ending: As Hikari’s digimon chased after her, calling her name each time Hikari called for Taichi, I wanted to reach out and tell it to be quiet. Hikari was so shocked and mournful, but still, that sentiment is so anti-ethical to who Hikari is. We’ve had all this talk about partners, and I found it peculiar for Hikari to mumble that she was supposed to be at her brother’s side. She over-relies on him so much that even Takeru gets annoyed with it. So what can a partner do? Evolve to Ophanimon FM, I guess. 

Ophanimon, born from Hikari’s despair and closed off heart, Hikari, being the one DarkGennai references as being so easy to manipulate due to her fragility.

Which is all... fine and evil. Just... after the perfectly creepy jogress evolution we saw... what the ffuck digimon is that? It definitely is not Mastemon but it reminds me of Mastemon, given it’s description. It doesn’t really make sense, but I felt like I needed to contribute something lol. It’s listed as being able to evolve from Meicrackmon VM but... I don’t know. I really have no evidence putting this forward as even a basis for what we saw in Kyousei besides “I just think it sounds kinda similar” so I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up with my final thoughts.

The Dark Ocean: Well, they committed! The dark ocean is involved in Tri and is seemingly the third world that the title of Tri may be referencing. If the Dark Ocean is here though, I’m also assuming Demon is too. It would make sense I suppose, him swearing revenge on the 02 kids and promising to free himself as revenge against the ultimate being of good in the digital world.

So, nothing is creepier than Maki standing over the dark ocean, gun in hand, arms outstretched like she’s the world’s savior: a holy trinity all in one person. The waves knock her down and that’s the last we see before flashing to Daigo’s memories.  

I’m left wondering how Maki got into the world of darkness in the first place. I remember Ken using his own darkness to open a portal and am wondering if his image being used as an avatar was some type of foreshadowing. Have the 02 kids been trapped there? Is there where Taichi and Daigo are busy tumbling to? Is the dark ocean’s existence throwing off the balance between the human world and the real world, grabbing hold of the link between them and dragging it down? 

In any case, there’s a lot to ponder here. When the kids don’t even know who they’re fighting it’s difficult for the audience to figure out the players. At first mention of Apocalymon, I wondered if the intent was to bring him back. I then wondered, after seeing the dark ocean, if he manifested as part of the dark world himself, or if he manifested as Maki’s manipulated dread and jealousy. Are her emotions in a sense, Apocalymon, and the source of the shard? I’m now enticed to think about Demon sitting in the dark ocean for years, plotting revenge. Demon originally came to light because Ken dipped his hands into darkness. Apparently, Maki’s done the same. Word. For. Word. I think it makes sense for her suffering to resemble Ken’s. I think she is a true chess piece of a victim and tbh I don’t see her making it out alive. Send Daigo my regards. Movie 6 will be rough and I would not be surprised to see her atone for her sins before a very Oikawa-like death, sacrificing herself to restore balance to all.

As I said in my Loss review, I’m really not that familiar with all the lore in this fandom and most of what I learn comes from my own research (aka late night searches on wikimon). While perusing Demon’s page, I noticed this:

Note that it’s fanmade, but I’m wondering if anyone knows where this came from? It makes sense so in the context of Tri I almost feel like I’m being trolled. Anyways.

I’d like to note that after the “reboot” Maki notes that the net ocean hasn’t appeared yet. I wonder if the overarching goal is to birth a new digital world from this ocean of darkness instead. I can’t really think of anything more guaranteed to throw off the universe’s balance than that.

So here we are. Much like everyone’s feelings about Tri, this review is a mess. I’ve edited it so much and I’m still left with something I’m terribly unhappy with, but I wanted to put it out there before Tri 5 got too far away from me. If you read all of this, thank you? It’s a jumble of thoughts and unverifiable theories that you all can probably debunk in a matter of minutes. See u all in spring/summer 2018 oh my fucking god. Until then, our kids are left on a no-man’s land resembling the place where the original chosen and the 02 kids fell. Meiko, in her envy of Taichi, now carries Koromon in her arms after Taichi’s apparent death. And I don’t want to be the one to say it, but... As we all ponder the meaning of being chosen, whether being chosen matters if you can so easily be cast aside, and how to stretch the limits of being a good partner...

Mrs. Yagami’s food is going to get awfully cold.

[rockrevoltmagazine]

INTERVIEW: AARON LEE OF KILLIN' CANDACE

Hollywood’s Killin’ Candace play a style of hard rock they like to call Love/Hate Rock ‘N’ Roll that is a blend of rock, punk and melodic metal styles: think Murderdolls in a dirty brawl with Static-X. Killin’ Candace is currently in the studio working on their forthcoming, debut record, titled Straight From The Underground. Here is British transplant and Killin’ Candace vocalist Aaron Lee.

Describe the driving force behind Killin’ Candace and how do you harness that force and deliver it to your fans?

Pure passion and realism. I write for myself, as well as writing for everyone else out there too, but I write in a way that I know people can connect to the music and lyrical content quite naturally. It’s all about that connection and energy between the music and everyone consuming it, so I always try to deliver the songs with honesty and the right amount of emotion to cut through. What was the process of finding the exact tones and pitches of your instruments before landing on the Killin’ Candace sound? I fell in love with Blackstar Amps many years ago (and yes you may say I am biased being a Brit!), but the balls, power and punch that Blackstar rigs offer is what really contributed and helped mould the band’s high-energy sound. Our tuning stemmed from me starting to write a more “angst”-like sound, so I decided to de-tune to drop C# rather than continuing to write in E-flat standard. It bought a whole new feel and energy to the sound that I was trying to create. It’s the right amount of gnarly, accompanied by the right amount of melody (I think?!) – but not too much experimentation was done…I still think of Killin’ Candace as more of a straight-up, back to basics hard rock band. I put pen to paper, we plug in, find a nice raunchy tone and let the beast roar. Are there any rather odd gigs you’ve performed at? Would you ever do an odd gig again?

With this band no, not yet, but people reading this send in your requests and we’ll consider the best suggestions!

Do you have someone that was a huge inspiration to you that made you want to be in a band?

A lot of my influences were bands that had a pretty bold, prominent image and sound. I always admired the rebels and the bands’ that played their hearts out live. I’d say I was most inspired in my teens and at that point music saw a lot of bands like Marilyn Manson at their peak, so he for sure was a big influence on me. Also stand out bands like the Murderdolls, Dope, Static X – I really gravitated towards that aggressive, in your face sound – so those types of bands really paved the way for me wanting to be in a band and write music. You’re working on your new album at the moment.  How is it progressing?

It’s going great. It’s an interesting and exciting time for the band, because even in the space of a year I feel as if the material and sound is evolving into something that will for sure turn a few heads. The album is definitely a work in progress, but I feel as if we’ve found our niche and swagger to where the sound and style definitely set us apart from most of the current acts, so I’m excited to bring a new fresh sound to the table.

Where are you recording, who is producing and what is the expected drop time frame?

We are recording the album at Stygian Sound, at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys. My friend and producer Alex Crescioni has a studio setup within the studio complex there, so that’s where the magic is and has been happening for the past few months! I don’t want to rush the release, but the way things are coming together I’d say April 2020 is a fair estimate. Please name some of the highlights of the album so far and what song are you most proud of?

The title track #STRAIGHTFROMTHEUNDERGROUND is a very driving, upbeat and high-energy anthem. I want to accompany this song with a promotional music video because it has such a great energy and I can already envision it having a full-on, “punk”-like rebellion type vibe to it. The song is in that vein of “let’s take down the system, and take back our power”.

The song I’m most proud of (that came out of nowhere but will add a new feel to our sound) is a song I recently wrote called “Indigo” You might even say it’s risky including it on the album, but I’m all about versatility and doing what comes natural to me and my writing. I think it will also demonstrate dynamics as a songwriter, so I hope it gets received well ‘cause I think it’s one of the catchiest riffs I’ve ever written. Who have been your favorite band(s) to perform with?

Our debut show we actually played with David Silveria (ex-Korn drummer)’s new band BIAS, those guys are killer. We also played a show in Downtown L.A. with DeepDrain and Uncompliant – two great local acts to keep an eye out for! To be honest we haven’t prioritized shows so much this year due to making the album the priority, so writing and being in the studio is pretty much how we intend to spend the summer and the rest of the year, that way we can gear up for a solid push in 2020. What is your favorite part about performing in front of an audience?

I think the truth to that is that every musician is always eager and curious to see what kind of feedback/response they get from a crowd. But for me it’s all about that collaborative energy of everybody in one place, feeding off of the energy of that universal language that is music. What has been the biggest obstacle you run into when performing/getting ready to perform?

Sometimes the band before us taking forever to get off the stage and cutting into our set time lol. But in all seriousness – I had a nightmare with the lineup for the longest time, it was hard to get people involved in the project until there was any solid content and product out there – so for me I had to invest a lot of time and energy into the band before we even hit a stage or announced shows. I built the band up from scratch and have always tried to put out a sound that is unique to its own, but my hardest task has been solidifying a lineup. That was a big reason why I decided to focus on content and recording the debut album, because once that’s done it puts us in a better position to market and promote the band. Has your music career given you any opportunities that you normally wouldn’t have?

I love that music gives you the opportunity to connect, network and experience different emotions with different people. It really is a language that brings people together. Usually traveling is a perk too, with touring, so even though I enjoy traveling and experiencing different places in my personal time, I love that aspect of being a musician and that you can get to visit and see so many different countries, towns/cities, and connect with so many different people from all walks of life. I feel as if many musicians are free spirits at heart, so the road can easily feel like home. I like the adventure of traveling so I think that for me is one of the more rewarding opportunities that comes with being a musician. What do you do when outside of the music?

I assist my partner with her clothing brand/business, SinScissors Boutique. We’ve had the pleasure of making wardrobe for In This Moment, Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Jake Pitts (Black Veil Brides) and more. We also lead a pretty active lifestyle; enjoy hiking, being out in nature, cooking and generally embracing the West coast!

Our drummer Vinnie is a full-time drum tech + coordinator at a music institution in Dallas, TX. What’s up next for Killin’ Candace and what are the plans for the rest of the year and 2020?

As mentioned earlier I’ve decided to hold off on local shows and focus on the album. There may be one or two more local LA shows before the year is out (to promote the release and share the new material), but the goal and priority is to make sure that #STRAIGHTFROMTHEUNDERGROUND is ready to go for next year…so on that note we’ll see ya on the other side! ;p

INTERVIEW: AARON LEE OF KILLIN’ CANDACE was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

[newsnigeria]

Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà

New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/lula-back-from-jail/

Lula tells world he’s back in the game from jail

Meanwhile, fires rage in the Amazon and Brazilian President Bolsonaro has become a target of global indignation.

By Pepe Escobar from Brazil – posted with permission

Former president Lula speaks with reporters from a prison room in Curitiba in southern Brazil. Photo: Editora Brasil 247

Brazil has always been a land of superlatives. Yet nothing beats the current, perverse configuration: a world statesman lingers in jail while a clownish thug is in power, his antics now considered a threat to the whole planet.

In a wide-ranging, two-hour, world exclusive interview out of a prison room at the Federal Police building in Curitiba, southern Brazil, former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva not only made the case to global public opinion for his innocence in the whole Car Wash corruption saga, confirmed by the bombshell leaks revealed by The Intercept, but also repositioned himself to resume his status as a global leader. Arguably sooner rather than later – depending on a fateful, upcoming decision by the Brazilian Supreme Court, for which Justice is not exactly blind.

The request for the interview was entered five months ago. Lula talked to journalists Mauro Lopes, Paulo Moreira Leite and myself, representing in all three cases the website Brasil247 and in my case Asia Times. A rough cut, with only one camera focusing on Lula, was released this past Thursday, the day of the interview. A full, edited version, with English subtitles, targeting global public opinion, should be released by the end of the week.

Asia Times writer Pepe Escobar, front left with scarf, meets Lula in prison. Photo: Editora Brazil 247

Asia Times writer Pepe Escobar, front left with scarf, meets Lula in prison. Photo: Editora Brazil 247

Lula is a visible embodiment of Nietzsche’s maxim: whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Fully fit (he hits the treadmill at least two hours a day), sharp, with plenty of time to read (his most recent was an essay on Alexander von Humboldt), he exhibited his trademark breadth, reach and command of multiple issues – sometimes rolled out as if part of a Garcia Marquez fantastic realism narrative.

The former president lives in a three-by-three-meter cell, with no bars, with the door open but always two Federal policemen outside, with no access to the internet or cable TV. One of his aides dutifully brings him a pen drive every day crammed with political news, and departs with myriad messages and letters.

The interview is even more astonishing when placed in the literally incendiary context of current Brazilian politics, actively flirting with a hybrid form of semi-dictatorship. While Lula talks essentials and is clearly recovering his voice, even in jail, President Jair Bolsonaro has framed himself as a target of global indignation, widely regarded as a threat to humanity that must be contained.

It’s all about the Day of Fire

Cut to the G7 in Biarritz: at best a sideshow, a talk-shop where the presumably liberal West basks in its lavish impotence to deal with serious global issues without the presence of leaders from the Global South.

And that brings us to the literally burning issue of Amazon forest fires. In our interview, Lula went straight to the point: by noting the absolute responsibility of Bolsonaro’s voter base.

The G7 did nothing but echo Lula’s words, with French President Emmanuel Macron stressing how NGOs and multiple judicial actors, for years, have been raising the question of defining an international statute for the Amazon – which Bolsonaro’s policies, single-handedly, have propelled to the top of the global agenda.

Yet the G7’s offer of an immediate $20 million aid package to help Amazon nations to fight wildfires and then launch a global initiative to protect the giant forest barely amounts to a raindrop.

[Brazil, after this article was written, rejected the proffered aid from G7 countries, with a top official telling France’s President Macron on Monday to take care of “his home and his colonies,” AFP reported. “Maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” Onyx Lorenzoni, Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, told the G1 news website. “Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a World Heritage site. What does he intend to teach our country?” He was referring to the fire in April that devastated the Notre-Dame Cathedral. “Brazil is a democratic, free nation that never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron,” Lorenzoni said. -eds.]

A fire burns out of control after spreading onto a farm in Nova Santa Helena in northern Mato Grosso State, in the southern Amazon basin in Brazil, on August 23, 2019. Photo: Joao Laet / AFP

Significantly, US President Donald Trump did not even attend the G7 session that covered climate change, attacks on the biodiversity and oceans – and Amazon deforestation. No wonder Paris simply gave up issuing a joint statement at the end of the summit.

In our interview, Lula stressed his landmark role at the Conference of Parties (COP-15) climate change summit in Copenhagen in 2009. Not only that, he told the inside story of how the negotiations proceeded, and how he intervened to defend China from US accusations of being the world’s largest polluter.

At the time Lula said: “It’s not necessary to fell a single tree in the Amazon to grow soybeans or for cattle grazing. If anyone is doing it, that is a crime – and a crime against the Brazilian economy.”

COP-15 was supposed to advance the targets established by the Kyoto Protocol, which were expiring in 2010. But the summit failed after the US – and the EU – refused to raise their projections of CO2 reduction while blaming Global South actors.

In a sharp contrast with Lula, Bolsonaro’s project actually amounts to a non-creative destruction of Brazilian assets such as the Amazon for the interests he represents.

Now the Bolsonaro clan is blaming the government’s own Cabinet of Institutional Security (GSI, in Portuguese) – the equivalent of the National Security Council – led by General Augusto Heleno, for failing to evaluate the scope and gravity of the current Amazon forest fires.

Heleno, incidentally, is on record defending a life sentence for Lula.

23 August 2019, Brazil, Curitiba: During a protest action against the devastating forest fires in the Amazon, a demonstrator holds a poster with the inscription “Burn Fascists Not Forests” and the counterfeits of US President Trump and Brazilian President Bolsonaro. In Brazil, the worst forest fires in years are currently raging. Since January 2019, fires and slash-and-burn in South America’s largest country have increased by 83 percent compared to the same period last year. Photo: Henry Milleo/dpa

Still, that does not tell the whole story – even as Bolsonaro himself also kept blaming “NGOs” for the fires.

The real story confirms what Lula said in the interview. On August 10, a group of 70 wealthy farmers, all Bolsonaro voters, organized on WhatsApp a “Day of Fire” in the Altamira region in the vast state of Pará.

This happens to be the region with the highest number of wildfires in Brazil – infested with aggressive rural developers who are devoted to massive, hardcore deforestation; they’re invested in land occupation and a no-quarter war against landless peasants and small agricultural producers. “Day of Fire” was supposed to support Bolsonaro’s drive to finish off with official monitoring and erase fines over one of the “Bs” of the BBB lobby that elected him (Beef, Bullet, Bible).

Lula was evidently well informed: “You just need to look at the satellite photos, know who’s the landowner and go after him to know who’s burning. If the landowner did not complain, did not go to the police to tell them his land was burning, that’s because he’s responsible.”

On the road with the Pope

A vicious, post-truth, hybrid-war strategy may be at play in Brazil. Two days after the Lula interview, a fateful paella took place in Brasilia at the vice-presidential palace, with Bolsonaro meeting all the top generals including Vice President Hamilton Mourao. Independent analysts are seriously considering a working hypothesis of the sell-out of Brazil using global concern about the Amazon, the whole process veiled by fake nationalist rhetoric.

That would fit the recent pattern of selling the national aviation champion Embraer, privatizing large blocks of pre-salt reserves and leasing the Alcantara satellite-launching base to the United States. Brazilian sovereignty over the Amazon is definitely hanging in the balance.

Considering the wealth of information in Lula’s interview, not to mention his storytelling of how the corridors of power really work, Asia Times will publish further specific stories featuring Pope Francis, the BRICS, Bush and Obama, Iran, the UN and global governance. This was Lula’s first interview in jail where he has felt relaxed enough to relish telling stories about international relations.

What was clear is that Lula is Brazil’s only possible factor of stability. He’s ready, has an agenda not only for the nation but the world. He said that as soon as he leaves, he’ll hit the streets – and cash in frequent flyer miles: he wants to embark alongside Pope Francis on a global campaign against hunger, neoliberal destruction and the rise of neo-fascism.

Now compare a true statesman in jail with an incendiary thug roaming his own labyrinth.

[margheritaluke-blog]

Jack Gleeson Will Likely Gave up Acting After 'Video game Of Thrones'.

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