#even in the leaked pilot script the directions are like

[so-this-is-hell]

Ok I watched the leaked episodes

Let’s start with the positives! I love positives!

- Alex Brightman put his whole Alexussy into this shit oh my god, Pentious and Adam actually sound really good. Adam singing is also really really good. Alex can sing in character and carry things well and I’m glad now he’s part of the project. Because at least it’ll be bearable if I see the other episodes.

-Vox is actually weirdly really compelling? Like I actually ended up enjoying the vibe he’s got and his own voice grew on me, I know it’s not what people wanted but it works well.

-Nifty’s voice is pretty ok, so is Charlie’s. They’re some of the better voices of the cast, Alastor’s performance was uh. It wasn’t bad so there’s that!

-the opening exposition was needed but also a bit hamfisted- wait shit the positives- uh, I love the direction it went? Art wise?

-the songs are pretty good, they get you from point A to point B, and at least wasn’t Poison levels of cringe in writing.

-Charlie actually helping Pentious in episode 2 try to repent and be a better person actually feels nice, like a crumb of what the show should of be-

…

Ok let’s get to the point.

-the episodes clearly are trying to shove as much of the plot as humanly possible, to the point that you get whiplash.

-Angel Dust, Vaggie, Valentino, Husk all have voices that either do not fit, crack from the pressure to perform, or are trying so hard to mimic the previous voice that it’s actually worrying. The Angel dust one in particular I’ll get to when I get to the point.

-The plot starts with the main antagonist, literally telling Charlie that her plan is pointless and she should give up. There’s no actual “I want” song to counter this, unless you count the song where Adam mocks her for trying and tells her the exterminations will happen twice a year now.

-Pentious at least wasn’t a creep like i was fearing in the script, but he comes off too pathetic? Like I know he was pathetic and that’s the point but why the fuck does he want to be equal to the Vees now? Didn’t he want to rule over hell himself? I know the instagram had him crop himself into pictures with the Vees but remember those aren’t canon!

-I realized I was able to hop in because I had Wikipedia level knowledge of these characters to the point they click in my head (and enough to where Alastor, Charlie, Vaggie and Husk all felt a little off but that’s neither here nor there). But god I cannot imagine being a new person trying to jump into this show, this is bad. None of the characters get actually introduced outside of Charlie, the show references the pilot which isn’t part of the show so new audiences have no idea what they’re talking about, and the staff gets actually introduced in episode 2. EPISODE 2, TO PENTIOUS!? GIRLIE POP HAVE HIM COME EPISODE 1 THEN?

-Animation that’s either too floaty, too janky, too stiff or straight up traced. Which I don’t blame the animators for, Mammon was busy buying 10,000 dollars worth of peacocks to bother paying them more than a dollar per frame. There’s no charm here.

-Where did the fucking cat key come from? No I’m serious. Where did it come from? It just kinda exists now.

-Alastor’s commercial is just straight up MEAN and he’s often more mean than chaotic, which I know is ironic since he wasn’t a good person and I wasn’t expecting him to be but it’s to a point where it’s not even fun mean. He literally called Charlie’s endeavor “Daddy issues”. It felt like he was just there to slap Charlie in the face.

-Angel Dust rant is gonna be so long that I saved it for last.

I have to put it under the read more because of talk of SA! Fun!

Ok.

I’m saying this as someone who loved him from the pilot and was willing to excuse his behavior as “flaws he can work on” since Addict and everything else proved that there was more under the surface and he was a character that could change and grow and-

…

…

Angel dust, the rape victim… the guy running away from his abuser…

The Angel dust who has traumatic episodes so fucking graphic that he flashes back to them when he’s performing.

Saying “yeah no, fucking sexually exploit me! It turns me on!”

Viv, I know you’re not reading this but I mean this genuinely.

Fuck you.

As someone who’s family has experienced sexual abuse, as someone who’s family still has CPTSD because men in power decide to exploit them… how fuckin dare you make a character enjoy their own exploitation.

This isn’t me kink shaming a sexual character! He can be sexual and like sex! It’s never been the problem and hell it could of been liberation to have sex he deserves.

But no.

Let’s make the SA victim into the sexual harassment character, let’s make the SA victim the Stolas of the show where he wears down his love interest so thin that they have to give up.

Let’s make the SA victim still work under his shitty abuser, and make that into a joke as the abuser mentions wanting to rape everyone in the hotel.

Don’t pay to watch this show, I mean it.

Pirate it.

Hell don’t even watch it, find something better to watch. I’ve been binging anime as of late and I still like captain lazerhawk.

[chaifootsteps]

My explanation of what happened: They put in as little writing effort as possible, couldn’t stick to one idea, were too under confident in their own abilities and relied on fandom and the work of other people to make a jumbled messy story.

Viv and Brandon were writing helluva with only random pitches like harvest moon, but not a overarching narrative, she was also focussed on Hazbin. Maybe there came a time where she got less leadership with that project and decided to dive into writing helluva totally solo. So—I say all these based on the fact that stolas personality does a massive shift between the pilot and murder family vs LooLoo land, and an even bigger dramatic 180 turn between truth seekers and Ozzies. Then he was just a brand new character in The Circus.

Pilot and Murder Family stolas, were his original character before anything else. But at some point. She saw how popular the kind Instagram stolas was and said “shit. Let’s do that instead” It was also said that she wrote season 2 while LooLoo Land was airing. Maybe after seeing the positive response to You Will Be Okay she became enamoured with Broadway star Pinkham and decided to rewrite the character for season 2 with him as the new glorified protagonist. With most of the Instagram account artists work being used by her as a “free script” for his new character (she is known for ‘adopting’ ideas) This was also the time she saw Erin Frosts childhood friends fanart. And said “let’s do that” Then for whatever reason started projecting on this character way too much in a ‘he is literally me’ sense. In this new direction—Keeping the characters soft side reserved only for his daughter, and now transplanting that loving behaviour onto his imp toy. Not seeing that a soft side exclusively for his child contrasting with his cruelty to everyone else, makes him a more interesting character.

Problem is. It was too late. Season one was already fully written storyboarded and voiced, the ashtray scenes, face grabbing scenes, sexual harassment, the chain illusion, all ready to go.

What an insane disaster. Broadway fanaticism strikes again. I can’t help but see a parallel between the instagrams and pilot VAs/hunicast. Just throw the owl in a deep fryer and start over at this point. Maybe stolas was just a social experiment! Love him or hate him man he is fun to analyse and pick apart cause he represents all the drama and the mess of the project.

This all sounds pretty plausible to me, and if we ever do learn what the story behind this trainwreck was, I wouldn't be surprised to discover it went something close to this.

There's only two things I'd point out.

Stolas's character shift into a softer character predated Bryce; in this leaked storyboard of Harvest Moon, Brock's still voicing him, and he's actually a whole lot more respectful of Blitzo than he is in the final cut. This is one of those mysteries that gnaws on my brain, just how in the world he ended up becoming worse.

The childhood fanart that started this all wasn't, to the best of my knowledge, drawn by Erin.

[incarnateirony]

ahhh, i see what caused that severe reaction now.

i've been calling this a last stand of fandom bnfs and olds, all trying to hover around and inflate wiki's capacity for maintained importance

but scripthunt just admitted they only have 2 scripts left in the scripthunt queue, and are now just openly doing the "ANYBODY ELSE???"

so if that pilot script had been their big dunk but i posted mine--wiki got confused. draft 3 had the akrida possessing ada and 4 didn't, so she thought it was "fake with older ideas", rather than stomaching that all along i had more advance information than they were giving wiki as scraps

after all, she onboarded in feb and the actual circulating drafts then were 4 but they fed her 3, meaning they've been screening her for bullshit from start.

but that explains the "giving leakers power" and "mad it gives validation". what they mean is, they're mad that spn script hunting has run its course, and it's not pay to play with the cool kids to know what's happening here, and they already screamed underground other direct leak releases so now they're just. mad.

the only way for that server to stay relevant is for jules to perpetually feed them a script one at a time as if that isn't hilarious and obvious.

and leave them wondering like, do i have better drafts. history says: probably

stay mad, assholes. the old cool kids club is dying even with your shiny token wiki badge.

they were just testing if you'd leak the akrida, asshole. which you fuckin did.

[lightsaroundyourvanity]

everyone always says “whatever i don’t trust the cw” re: f/f relationships, and given last season that is fair, but this season there’s been a romantic wedding between two women on no tomorrow, and alex danvers came out on supergirl, and sara lance flirts with more girls every day

so idk call me naive if you’d like but i do genuinely believe that they are trying

[hologramcowboy]

Part of the reason that Jensen’s voiceover sounds so bad in TW trailer is poor production quality. The audio is too loud, the sound quality itself poor (like recording yourself on your phone vs professional sound booth) and it seems out of sync with the visuals.

You have to remember that this project is obviously poorly funded. The prequel was leaked last June in an attempt to get investors, and that very clearly failed. I imagine they’re just working with the funding that the CW gave them, which isn’t going to be a ton because they’re in the middle of being bought out. Signs that the budget just isn’t there:

Actors with few to no credits to their name that can be paid less because they don’t have the backing to demand higher pay, are afraid to negotiate for it or simply don’t know any better yet and think they’re getting a good deal. And look at who is working behind the scenes- all CW affiliated workers who were announced as attached to the project very late in the game. The CW pretty much reuses the same producers, directors, costume designers etc for everything, so it’s pretty weird that it took so long to get people for the project. My guess is that they were having a hard time finding people who wanted to work on it. And it shows, the wardrobe department didn’t even try.

The stunts and special effects seen in the trailer (where the Ackles were meant to showcase the best parts of the pilot) were poorly done and outdated. Even by TV standards. The prequel is on par with the 2010 Twilight parody “Vampires Suck” quality wise.

The quality of the filming itself looks cheap. Jensen has talked a lot about the cinematography for The Winchesters, what lens they’ve used and how they wanted it to be lit different to distinguish it from Supernatural and the present day. I guess he forgot that later seasons Supernatural were all filmed in that same blue tone he used for the prequel, and that nothing about the lighting screams vintage. It actually looks like several other shows on the CW currently, so it’s more likely he’s just using equipment borrowed from Nancy Drew and passing it off as an artistic choice rather than a necessity.

The music used in the trailer. For a show that’s supposed to embody the 70s with the protagonists getting together over their mutual love for rock and roll, there sure was a lack of rock and roll or even any music from the 70s. Why? Because that music is very expensive. That’s why the music from the trailer sounds like the CW bought the rights for it back in 2008 for One Tree Hill, forgot to use it, so it ended up being used for The Winchesters. I’m surprised that Jensen didn’t use music from Radio Company, but I’m sure that will come. He’s used it on Supernatural and the episode of Walker he directed, there’s no way he’s not going to use it on a show he produces.

Beyond the budget which at this point is fixed (Upfronts are for advertisers, producers already had their chance to appeal for funding either from the network or outside investors) the bringing on of a new producer is not a good sign. Especially because it’s McG who is known for and has gone on record saying that he only comes on projects to clean them up/save them. Jensen’s comments about sitting in his car, producing being boring because your only job is to put out fires, come off even worse now. It’s obvious that Jensen had no clue what went into being a producer, he was used to it being a vanity credit that actors get so that they get a higher pay without technically getting a raise. And that’s really bitten him. The producer is in charge of getting funding (Jensen’s first failure), getting the project rolling (finding casting directors, being involved in the final stages of casting, finding writers and going over scripts etc) and sticking around while the project is being filmed to ensure that things not only go smoothly, but in the direction you want them to.

It’s very telling that a project descended from an established, money making IP wasn’t given a good budget and doesn’t have any care being put into it. The CW and the Ackles thought that the Supernatural association and Jensen would be enough to bring in the audience, and now they’re scrambling because they’ve been proven wrong.

I'm in awe of this post. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 Beautifully expressed, grounded in reality, full of detail and I could have never explained all of that so clearly and effectively. Thank you, Anon.

[multimetaverse]

did the love victor pilot that leaked turn out to be real?

Yes it did anon, most of what was in the leaked script ended up in Love Victor 1x01, though there are some differences. If you scroll back under my love victor tag you can find a link for the script. The biggest difference by far is that in the leaked script there are numerous references to Victor being pretty sure he’s gay whereas in the aired pilot he was much more unsure about his sexuality. 

Victor’s first message to Simon is largely the same but in the leaked script after he tells Simon ‘’screw you’’, Victor mentions Simon having the world’s most amazing coming out story and that for some people there’s no way in hell that they can tell people (that they’re gay) but those lines are cut from the actual pilot

In the leaked script we see a flashback of the Salazar’s driving into Atlanta where Victor gazes at a Shawn Mendes ad for Calvin Klein. The aired pilot did keep Pilar’s line to Victor about him understanding why she hates moving if he had girlfriend back in Texas and in the leaked script it mentions that it’s clear that no one knows that Victor is pretty sure he’s gay

Victor telling Simon that he was happy to start at a new school was largely the same though Victor says it’s because ever since he was a little kid he was expected to be one way while in the aired ep he says it’s because there wasn’t a lot of room to be different back in Texas

The flashbacks to Victor’s life in Texas was changed substantially. In the leaked script we get a flashback to a young Victor playing with a little girl and their moms watching and wondering if they’ll get married one day with Victor narrating that everyone was real excited about him being that one way (ie straight). Victor later narrates that he always suspected he was different as was see a 14 year old Victor at a basketball game while his teammates ogle female cheerleaders while we see that Victor is actually eyeing a handsome basketball player on the other team. Both scenes were cut in the aired pilot and replaced by a brief scene of teenaged Victor eating lunch with his friends while they mock one of the boys for eating a salad instead of ribs. The church scene is largely the same and Armando’s flojito slur is kept in (perhaps not surprising that the homosexuality was trimmed down but the homophobia was kept intact) 

Victor’s first convo with Lake and Mia is the same in both scripts but in the leaked script after Lake asks Victor again if he has a girl back home, Victor narrates that all he had to do was tell them that there was no girl and that he actually thinks he might be gay which leads into what the script says is Victor’s coming out fantasy as Lizzo’s Good as Hell plays and Victor strides into school and introduces himself by saying, ‘’Hi I’m Victor. I like basketball, dog rescue videos, and dudes. I think’’. A passerby titled as ‘’accepting girl’’ tells Victor she supports him (interestingly enough there was an actress credited as accepting girl on imdb very early on in the production process which suggests they may have actually filmed a similar scene before cutting it) 

Later in the fantasy sequence a teacher comes up to Victor and asks if he’s the new maybe gay kid and Victor replies, ‘’I am! I mean, I’ve never kissed a guy. But when I think about kissing, it’s always a guy.  Usually Nick Jonas.’’ (hard to see the Victor of the leaked script being in a relationship with a girl the entire first season)

When Simon messages Victor back in the leaked script he says he’s sorry that Victor feels like its impossible to come out right now while in the aired pilot he says he’s sorry that Victor doesn’t have anyone to open up to. At the end of the leaked pilot script after Victor walks past Benji to ask Mia to ride on the Ferris Wheel with him he replies to Simon that maybe he does deserve a great love story but that doesn’t mean he’s going to get one whereas in the aired pilot Victor tells Simon that maybe he does deserve a great love story but he’s not sure what that looks like for him

A minor but telling change from the leaked script is that Mia Strauss becomes Mia Brooks. The original actress for Mia was a 16 year old white girl who was let go during the filming of the pilot as production team wanted to take the character in a different direction and then cast Rachel who’s black and one of the oldest of the cast members. Brooks is a much more common surname among black people than Strauss is which explains that change. I think we can guess that the different direction they wanted to take Mia’s character in was both dating Victor the whole season but also being romantically involved with Andrew. Michael was 19 during filming and still looks young but Mason was already in his 20s and can’t really pass for a teen so they may have felt that that original actress looked too young and perhaps didn’t have enough chemistry with either Michael or Mason

Andrew’s character had a lot of his dickishness toned down in the aired pilot as compared to the leaked script. A scene where Andrew calls Felix poop dick was replaced by the VP calling Felix lone stone (poop dick was funnier imo). Andrew is less of a dick to Victor during gym class and most notably in the aired pilot he doesn’t wolf whistle when Benji helps Victor with his lunch, they gave that role to a random extra. It’s hard to imagine the wolf whistling Andrew of the leaked script being someone who would tell Victor in 1x10 that he would never out him. It seems like they were originally planning to make Andrew much more of a villain then he ended up being which I think also ties in with them deciding to go with Mia and Andrew; Mia doesn’t seem like she would go for a guy who was as bad as he was in the leaked script

Felix meeting the Salazars is largely the same though in the pilot he was supposed to creepily appear uninvited in their apartment rather than meeting them on the front steps. Adrian has more lines in the leaked pilot including a few that set up the Abuelos visiting later in the season and a brief gag of him peeing in the bushes that got cut. Isabel tells Victor that marriages are hard sometimes even the good ones but in the leaked script she adds that Victor shouldn’t worry as her and Armando have a really good marriage. It seems like the plan was to always have the Salazar’s marital conflict come to a head but I wonder if they settled on having the parents announce their separation before Victor comes out so that Victor doesn’t feel responsible for it. There’s also a brief mention of Benji being Jewish which we may learn more about in S2. Other than that they were aiming to have Tony Hale back as the VP which didn’t pan out. There are lot’s of references to the show being on Disney + which are hilarious in hindsight

[son-of-alderaan]

J.J. Abrams is racing.

The director has been tasked with bringing four decades of the most popular and longest-running sci-fi franchise of all time to an epic conclusion. And nowadays he’s feeling a bit like Luke Skywalker flying his X-wing down the Death Star trench in A New Hope as TIE fighters closed in — under a bit of pressure, in other words, with the fate of the entire Star Wars universe depending on him.

“We always knew we were going to have three fewer months to postproduction this film,” says Abrams, who took over co-writing and directing duties on the movie two years ago after successfully rebooting the franchise with 2015’s blockbuster The Force Awakens. “So much is still being worked on. It’s literally a practical race to get it finished.”

If that admission sounds worrisome, hold your fire on those tweets.

Despite a deadline crunch to make the film’s Dec. 20 worldwide launch (EW’s interview was conducted in late October), Abrams says he’s feeling “infinitely better” at this very late stage about The Rise of Skywalker than he was about The Force Awakens.

“We had more reshoots on Episode VII than this one,” Abrams says. “We had more story adjustments on VII than this one. We didn’t know if these characters would work, if the actors would be able to carry a Star Wars movie. There were a lot of things we didn’t know. On this, we knew who and what worked, and everyone is doing the best work I’ve ever seen anyone do. But the ambition of this movie is far greater than Force Awakens. What we set out to do was far more challenging. Everything is exponentially larger on this.” 

For example: Disney has released three trailers for The Rise of Skywalker. Some of the shots are stunning and seemingly revealing: desert scavenger–turned–Jedi apprentice Rey (Daisy Ridley) and First Order leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) clashing with lightsabers on the half-submerged wreckage of the second Death Star, which was blown up in Return of the Jedi; Rey facing off against a somehow resurrected Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid); the Millennium Falcon flying into a massive armada of Star Destroyers. Plus, those bewildering teases of Rey turning to the Dark Side and teaming up with Kylo.

Yet Abrams says fans still don’t really know anything. “The [trailers] that have come out are scratching the surface of what the movie is,” the famously spoiler-averse director says.

Asked if there are major action sequences we’ve yet to see any footage from, Abrams replies with a firm “Yes” and then, naturally, goes silent.

John Boyega, who plays stormtrooper–turned–Resistance fighter Finn, says his first reaction to the script penned by Abrams and Chris Terrio was he had to “read the script six more times because there was so much information in there.”

Here’s what we know about how Episode IX begins: It’s been more than a year since the events of 2017’s The Last Jedi. The First Order has decimated the Resistance. Rey has been training to use the Force. Finn and hotshot pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) have been sent by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) to find allies throughout the galaxy, but so far haven’t had any luck. “They’re trying to put bandaids on this leaking ship of the Resistance,” Isaac says.

Their mission leads Finn, Poe, and Rey to work together, which has, oddly, never happened before in the trilogy. And since there’s a time jump, the characters have all grown and changed since we last saw them. “We’re not just a ragtag group of people who have been thrown together,” Isaac says. “We’ve actually had time to train. There are some really great sequences with the three of us in infiltrating spaces.”

Both Isaac and Boyega say they had their character wishes granted for the final film. Isaac wanted Poe to get “out the cockpit and into the group,” while Boyega wanted Finn to become a more capable solider (and not, as the actor candidly puts it, just a “comedic goofy dude who never gets stuff done”).

“I definitely wanted more after Episode VIII,” Boyega says. “[Rise of Skywalker] makes Finn’s Episode VIII arc make more sense. We got to bring out a side of Finn we haven’t seen.”

To help spark the trio’s on-screen chemistry, Abrams told his cast to feel free to improvise dialogue, and many scenes were shot using long, continuous takes to keep their flow going. “J.J. came back with a new energy and new vibe,” Boegya says. “He wanted dialogue to be messy and natural, and that got all of us really excited.”

“I think it really captures the spirit of the original trilogy,” Isaac adds. “On top of that there’s fact that Rey has…“

The actor stops, catching himself before revealing too much.

Rey has… what?

“Rey is driving her own thing,” Ridley says. “She’s not doing what other people are telling her to do.”

We last saw Rey mourning the death of her mentor Luke Skywalker (who returns in the film, presumably in Force ghost form, played once again by Mark Hamill) and shutting the door to Kylo’s power-mad seduction attempt. The heroine has since made progress in her Jedi training. “I have skills that have developed, but ‘confident’ isn’t a word I’d use to describe it,” Ridley says. “She’s definitely more in control of everything and can do new fun stuff, but she’s vulnerable and a little insecure about at all.”

Yet Rey will use more than her Force powers in the new film. As Abrams hints: “The scavenger who is desperate and haggling for portions and trying to survive [in Force Awakens] — those special skills and that special experience ends up being something that is essential to saving the galaxy.”

Ridley trained in kickboxing for the final chapter as well, but says the emotional toll of Rey’s journey was more difficult than any combat scenes. “It’s a heavy story for Rey,” Ridley says. “There were days where I was literally like, ‘I can’t do this, I’m so tired, I don’t know if I can like reach that emotion again.’”

Part of Rey’s journey involves solving the mystery of her identity. Well, again. Kylo revealed in The Last Jedi that Rey’s parents are deceased nobodies, “filthy junk traders [who] sold you off for drinking money.” The line embraced the idea that a hero doesn’t need to come from somebody special in order to be somebody special. Yet many fans called foul as the trilogy has teased Rey’s identity as being crucial information from the start (“Classified?” Rey echoed back to BB-8 during her debut sequence. “Me too. Big secret”).

“The parents thing is not satisfied — for her and for the audience,” Ridley says. “That’s something she’s still trying to figure out — where does she come from?”

It’s unclear if Abrams has made a course correction to Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson’s plan or there was always more to say about Rey’s parentage. Either way, wasn’t the Episode VIII scene supposed to be sincere?

“It’s not that she doesn’t believe it,” Ridley says carefully, “but she feels there’s more to the story. And she needs to figure out what’s come before so she can figure out what to do next…”

An even bigger cliffhanger is the resolution of Rey’s complex relationship with the First Order’s ruthless leader, who, okay, sure, also looks hot shirtless in high-waisted pants (but what if he didn’t?). Kylo has grown beyond being a “petulant teenager,” and Driver says Kylo’s killing of Supreme Leader Snoke was “kind of a birth moment for him.”

“He had all of these pseudo father figures that he had to either live up to or literally kill to become his own person for the first time,” the actor says.

Naturally, Kylo’s destiny will lead to at least one lightsaber clash with Rey. Abrams sees the duo as “two sides of the same coin,” noting, “even when they’re not together they still haunt each other in a way — they know they are each other’s unresolved business.”

For his part, Driver rejects any labels for the Rey-Kylo relationship. “I don’t think it’s all one thing,” he says. “Part of the fun of playing it is the boundaries of it keep changing. At times it’s more intimate, sometimes less intimate. Sometimes it’s codependent. And then it’s, obviously, adversarial.”

That Rey and Kylo end up battling on the wreckage of the second Death Star continues Abrams’ penchant for showcasing ruined relics of the original trilogy — like Rey spelunking in a wrecked Star Destroyer and living in an AT-AT walker on Jakku in Force Awakens. “It felt like going into the haunted house, the place that you have to go to,” Abrams says of bringing back the iconic space station. “This is a story of people having to grapple with the burden the prior generation dumps on those that follow. So literally returning to this wreck of the past and having to fight it out felt like an obvious metaphor, but also felt incredibly cinematic.”

Of course, there’s another original trilogy fallen icon in the film too. Fisher died after filming The Last Jedi. Figuring out how to utilize Fisher’s previously deleted scenes in the new movie was one of Abrams’ biggest challenges. “Saying Leia had passed away, or that she was off somewhere else, felt like a cheat,” Abrams says. “Then I remembered we had these scenes that we hadn’t used from Episode VII. It was like finding this impossible answer to this impossible question. Suddenly we had classic Carrie in these amazing moments. So when you see in the movie, it’s her, she’s there. It’s not like there’s some crazy digital trickery. She’s just in the movie.”

A couple of other original trilogy characters are likewise integral. Billy Dee Williams is back as that ol’ pirate Lando Calrissian for the first time in live action since Return of the Jedi. Williams says he’s excited to return to the character despite enduring fans coming up to him for decades accusing him of betraying Han Solo. “The whole Star Wars experience feels like it never goes away; It’s always there,” Williams says. “There are all of these things that have happened in Lando’s life that he’s got to resolve.”

There’s also paranoid android C-3PO, who in the latest Skywalker trailer ominously says he’s taking a “last look” at his friends. Threepio is essential to a movie’s plot for the first time since A New Hope (Ridley points out Rey might spend more time with Threepio than any character in the film).

“In previous recent movies Threepio has just been kind of window dressing, something on the mantlepiece, you polish it and dust it o when guests are coming,” says Anthony Daniels, who has played the golden droid’s body and voice in every Skywalker Saga movie. “J.J. and Chris came up with this aspect of Threepio we had not seen before that’s remarkably clever. They go down deep into ancient Star Wars and came up with something refreshingly new.”

Joining Threepio in the metal headgear club is newcomer to the saga Keri Russell. Despite having worked with Abrams for years on Felicity, the actress found herself escorted to a small room where she could only read the Skywalker script under watchful guard. Her character is Zorii Bliss, who’s “involved in some intimate, sketchy stuff” and wears a large brass-and-crimson Daft Punk-like helmet.

“For a shy person this is my ultimate dream job — I get to be in Star Wars and my face is covered,” Russell marvels. “I can see everyone and no one can see me. Though I now have giant throbbing neck muscles like Mr. T.”

There’s also newcomer Naomi Ackie portraying Jannah, a bow-and-arrow-wielding warrior who rides a horse-like creature called an Orbak. Real animals were used on set, and until you’ve ridden a horse dressed up like exotic alien across the surface of the Death Star you haven’t really lived. “I was just gobsmacked,” Ackie says of the experience. “Every day you’re grappling with the fact that every choice you make in a small moment is going to be broadcast to the entire world.”

While the film is introducing new characters, Abrams insists Rise of Skywalker won’t set up a future story. He’s not leaving loose threads for Disney to hang another trilogy directly onto the back of this one. Lucas’ original dream of an intergalactic tale about a farm boy from Tatooine is at last about to set — just like those dreamy twin suns collapsing into the desert. “It’s a very good ending, and a good ending feels right,” Daniels says simply.

And yet, in another way, the final Skywalker Saga film is very much about the future of the franchise. Star Wars will continue to exist in an omniscient Force-like fashion, in everything from toys to TV shows to videogames to theme parks, but new movies have always been the brand’s creative core. Since buying Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney’s movies in a galaxy far, far away peaked early at the box office with Force Awakens and sunk to their lowest level with the most recent entry, 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story.

At one point during our interview, Abrams declares, “the stakes are all or nothing with this film.” He was referring to its high-stakes story line, but the same could also be said about the franchise. Even if we never see Rey, Finn and Poe on screen again, Rise of Skywalker’s popularity will likely make an impact on Disney’s next studio moves — guiding like a fallen Jedi or Sith’s unseen hand.

Speaking of: There’s at least one key player we haven’t discussed. Palpatine’s return may be the most closely guarded story line in the film. How is the Emperor, who Vader tossed into the Death Star’s reactor core, back in a seemingly corporeal form?

“This has been a very long chess match that’s been played between the Jedi and the Sith — all the way back to the very beginning,” Issac teases. “It’s an amazing thing to see that really come to the forefront.”

The Rise of Skywalker might very well turn out to be a full-fledged reunion special of Force ghosts. And what are the rules that govern the Jedi and Sith spirit realm anyway? Obi-Wan Kenobi said in Empire Strikes Back that he “cannot interfere” with Luke’s fight with Vader. But in The Last Jedi, Yoda suddenly called down a lightning strike. What can Force ghosts do — and not do — in our world?

Abrams’ reply to that key question is pretty much what you’d expect.

“That’s probably best answered,” the director says, “by not answering it.”

[janamelie]

LGBT+ Characters

What This Isn’t

A claim of “proof” of the sexuality and / or gender identity of any of these characters.  We don’t need that or anything else to “justify” shipping.

What This Is

A reference post to collate instances in canon which could indicate LGBT+ characters.  In the case of regulars, I won’t include every instance as it would simply take too long.

Rimmer

As I was saying… :p

Honestly, Rimmer is so obviously LGBT+ to me that I don’t know where to start.  How about his reaction to Ace in “Dimension Jump”?

RIMMER: "Commander Rimmer!" I ask you.  "Ace!" Barf city.  I bet you anything he wears women's underwear.  They're all the same, this type, you know, Hurly-burly, rough-n-tumble macho marines in public, and behind closed doors he'll be parading up and down in taffeta ballgowns, drinking mint juleps, whipping the houseboy.

KRYTEN: Sir, he's you!  It's just that your lives diverged at a certain point in time.

RIMMER: Yes, I went into the gents and he went the other way.

KRYTEN: I assume, sir, you are making fatuous references to his sexuality.  If I may point out, if --

Or how about Low Rimmer?  Surely Rob and Doug could have got their point across a little less graphically?

Or if you prefer something less rapey, this passage from “IWCD”.  Unlike the show, Rob and Doug had more time and leeway to explore the characters and this is what they chose to include for Rimmer:

“Rimmer began to regret his outburst. He didn’t like to see his other self upset, and he even contemplated briefly going up to him and giving him a manly embrace. But in a brief moment of homosexual panic, he thought his double might get the wrong idea. Not that he would, of course, because he was him and he knew for a fact he wasn’t that way sexually tilted; so obviously his double wasn’t and obviously his double would know that he wasn’t either, and it was simply a manly embrace meant in a sort of mano a mano kind of way…Perhaps he was tired…Two or three days in bed and he’d be his old self again…Who cared if his copy saw it as a sign of weakness? He’d suggest it anyway.” Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, Grant/Naylor, pg 233.

And this from the end of the “Better Than Life” novel, when Holly - whose IQ has been restored - comes up with a way to bring Lister back from the dead (no, not as a hologram):

“Rimmer stood in the hatchway and his face yielded to a grin, which in turn gave way to laughter.  Not his normal hollow braying empty laughter, this was an altogether different noise.  This was a noise his vocal cords had never been called on to make before.

It was the laughter of joy.”

Better Than Life, Grant/Naylor, pg 218.

I know some fans read Rimmer as asexual and you can certainly make an argument for that, most obviously in “Marooned” where he describes his younger self as not “particularly highly sexed”.  Of course, that wouldn’t preclude him also being homoromantic or biromantic.

Lister

No-one’s denying Lister’s obvious attraction to and affection for women, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t be bisexual or pansexual.  In fact, his “I’m not gay!” protestations in “Duct Soup” is a fairly common way for people attracted to more than one gender to describe themselves if they don’t feel comfortable using labels.  Given that he was talking to Chloe!Kochanski to whom he’s attracted, it makes sense that he’d prevaricate like this.

And then of course, in the very next episode “Blue”, he dreams about kissing Rimmer.  It’s not only the fact of this, it’s the subsequent scene drawing a direct comparison between him missing Rimmer and Kochanski missing her Dave - her boyfriend.  And despite the ending of this episode, when Lister actually meets Rimmer again, he’s delighted.  Until he realises it’s not HIS Rimmer and even so, he gets used to nano-Rimmer and they eventually become quite chummy.

Not forgetting the chemistry between him and Ace, of course.

Kryten

I know he's a mechanoid, but no-one has any problem reading his relationship with Mechanoid - and later Blob - Camille as romantic and Camille literally says herself that both she and her husband Hector are actually androgynous, which makes Kryten - at the very least - panromantic.

And that’s before we get to his very obvious love for Lister which he states himself in “Back In The Red”.

Holly

Holly was actually conceived as a female character and became male due to Norman Lovett’s original casting.  Sources: “Stasis Leaked” by Smegazine writer Jane Killick and “The Unofficial Red Dwarf Programme Guide” by Smegazine writers Chris Howarth and Steve Lyons.

With Hattie’s replacement casting and later Norman’s return, Rob and Doug may not have intended to create a trans or genderfluid character, but that’s what they ended up doing.

Holly is also bisexual - male Holly was attracted to Hilly and female Holly to Ace.

George McIntyre

It was actually Rob and Doug’s audio commentary on the pilot version of “The End” on “The Bodysnatcher Collection” which alerted me to this possibility.  I know it’s a stretch but I’m including it precisely because I’m indifferent to George as a character and it makes no difference to me whether someone believes this one or not.

During George’s speech at his “Welcome back” party, he says “I don’t want you to think of me as someone who’s dead, more as someone who’s no longer a threat to your marriages - I think Joe knows what I’m talking about!”

We see a man and a woman laughing and the woman playfully pokes the man in the arm.  He stops laughing and looks a bit sheepish.

Rob and Doug comment confusedly to the effect of “Shouldn’t it be the other way round?  This is one of the things we had no control over at this stage.”

Come on, Rob and Doug.  Not only does this scene appear intact in the final televised version of “The End”, you also included extra background on George in “Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers”, showing the events leading up to his death.  Unlike the hologram he replaces, Frank Saunders, there is no mention of George having a wife or indeed any partner, so as far I’m concerned, we shippers can read whatever we choose into this scene.  We would regardless, but the way canon leaves it is particularly open-ended.

Deb Lister and Arlene Rimmer (“Parallel Universe”)

See previous entries.  If their male counterparts are LGBT+ then so are they, plus I always got that vibe from the performances anyway.

Camille

Yes, everyone uses female pronouns for her as that’s how she presents to the crew, but she says herself: “We’re androgynous, but I suppose you could call [Hector] my husband.”

Noel Coward Waxdroid (“Meltdown”)

Mr Coward was gay in real life and his fictional incarnation here greets Rimmer with “Delighted to meet you, dear boy!”  I rest my case.

Nirvanah Crane

And arguably the entire crew of the Holoship according to her speech: “It's a ship regulation that we all have sexual congress at least twice a day.  It's a health rule … Here it is considered the height of bad manners to refuse an offer of sexual coupling … We are holograms.  There is no risk of disease or pregnancy.  That is why in our society we only believe in sex -- constant, guilt-free sex.”

Does that sound as though they’re fussy about the genders of their partners?  It certainly doesn’t to me.  So:

Captain Hercule Platini

Commander Randy Navarro

Commander Natalina Pushkin

Commander Binks

Sam Murray

From the Series V DVD booklet:

“Briefly revived in “Holoship”, it came as a surprise that Sam was male.  In the original pilot script - and Series 1′s deleted funeral scene - deceased crew member “Sam Murray” is said to be dating “Rick Thesen”.  Possibly Red Dwarf’s first gay couple?”

Cop (“Back To Reality”)

I’m sure it wasn’t written as such and maybe he didn’t intend to, but the way Lenny Von Dohlen plays his character’s reaction to the Voter Colonel just pings my gaydar.

Frank Todhunter (“The End”)

I know the conversation in “Duct Soup” (which also includes a reference to a gay crew member nicknamed “Bent Bob” *cringe*) where Kochanski tells Lister that the Todhunter in her dimension was gay is played off as something she made up to take Lister’s mind off his claustrophobia, but she never actually says as much.  There’s nothing to say that at least part of what she was saying wasn’t true.

Ackerman (Series VIII)

In the Series VIII DVD documentary, actor Graham McTavish says he was playing Ackerman as someone who enjoys sex with women “or at a pinch, men dressed as women”.  So onto this list he goes.

Big Meat (“Only The Good”)

I don’t blame you if you’ve blocked this one out as I find the scene almost unwatchable, but he’s the big prisoner who takes to the idea of being Cat’s “bitch” unexpectedly quickly.

Katerina Bartikovsky (“Back To Earth”)

Credit to @clueingforbeggs for noticing that in “Pete Part 1” Ackerman claims to have been “having jiggy-jiggy with the Science Officer’s wife” and connecting that with Katerina being a Science Officer.  There’s nothing to say that the Joy Squid didn’t conjure up the image of an actual crew member.

But maybe the ship has more than one Science Officer?  Well, the way it’s said makes it sound as though there is only one but in “Holoship” Kryten gives Rimmer a mind patch from two officers, one of whom is Science Officer Buchan.  There is no mention of Buchan’s gender so who’s to say they aren’t also female?

Begg Chief (“Entangled”)

“We prefer the ship of green.  And the sexy light man with the lady legs so long and luscious!”

Chancellor Wednesday (“The Beginning”)

Actor Alex Hardy says in Series X DVD doc “We’re Smegged” that he was playing the relationship between his character and Dominator Zlurth with a homoerotic undercurrent and you can see it subtly in his performance.

Dolphy (“Cured”)

All I’ll say about this one is that if Messalina had behaved towards Lister as Dolphy does in this episode, nobody would have doubted that she was into him.

Ziggy (“Timewave”)

Proof that LGBT+ characters in this show work a lot better when Doug isn’t intentionally writing them as such.  Sorry.

Feel free to add any examples I may have missed.

@lord-valery-mimes  @aziraphale-lesbian   @notalwaysweak  @feline-ranger  @downonthepharm-red-dwarf  @hologrammette  @rosecathy  @cazflibs​

[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD Commentaries: 4.11 - Shot in the Dark

Notes on the DVD Commentary by Nick Parker (Writer for the episode) and Brian Millikin (also a writer on Haven). In which both men talk at a gazillion miles an hour and with much enthusiasm throughout the whole episode. And we learn that the Darkside Seekers are partially inspired by Supernatural’s Ghostfacers. And all kinds of other fun facts.

Both Brian and Nick were previously script co-ordinators for Haven (“the most junior member of the writing staff”) and this is Nick Parker’s first ever episode of TV he’s written. NP is really modest about his writing throughout, balanced out by BM being very enthusiastic about how well written it is and what a great episode it is. And they are both so enthusiastic in general and have so much to say, I love them.

[I haven’t necessarily quoted everything word for word and I have paraphrased sometimes. And they refer to all the full names of the guest actors and the director etc. but I haven’t put the names in (except the ones I already know) because I didn’t stop to figure out how to spell them because … I am lazy :p]

NP: We got to do something really fun here with this hand-held camera, found-footage look. Both Brian and I are big fans of X-Files and one of my favourite episodes was X Cops ... and one of my favourite television writers wrote a couple of episodes of Supernatural called Ghostfacers in this kind of style. And I always thought those were really cool episodes and break the mould of the show a little bit and particularly in this case allow for outsiders to come in and comment on Haven. BM: The found-footage documentary crew thing was something from the get-go that we were always going to try to do at some point in the series. [Brief interlude while they laugh at Seth falling over the pile of trash :) ] And my favourite thing about it is how funny it is. This is not only the funniest episode of the season, but is crucial to the season because it has been so dark that we knew that we needed (particularly before epsiodes 12 and 13 which are like a two-part season finale) a little bit of levity. And because our characters have so much going on, you sort of need that to come from guest characters. And this is easily the funniest episode of the season and I think one of the funniest ones we’ve ever done. NP: You’re being very sweet. I think a lot of that humour actually comes from our guest cast for this episode. Chris who plays Seth is one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. And he and Danny (who plays Anderson) - Seth and Anderson are named after my two brothers by the way, and I based the back and forth teasing between them on my brothers, because that’s how brothers are - are friends in real life and were able to play the humour really well. BM: I remember when we were casting this episode we reached out to Danny (who is good friends with Shawn Pillar) who was interested in the role, but felt that he was better suited to the cameraman role and suggested Chris for the role of Seth. And it couldn’t have worked out better. NP: It could not have worked out better. When Danny made the suggestion and I watched a movie him and Chris did together called Alter Egos - if you haven’t seen it, go and watch it - and as soon as I saw Chris in that and the style of it and the tone that he brings; this very dry humour .. he was perfect for it. He is more perfect for the role than the version I had in my head when writing it. BM: We so enjoyed Chris in this role that Seth is making a return appearance in season 5. They’re shooting that episode right now and from all reports on set, it’s awesome. He’s doing a great job once again. BM: We always knew from the get-go that there was going to be a lot of found-footage and the camera pov in this. And we just hoped that the director for the episode would be on board with it. You know, you hope that your vision and the director’s vision line up. And as it happens, with the director for this epsiode we got crazy lucky. NP: Yes. She is amazing. It was incredible the way everything came together. In the concept of the script, the original drafting of it, there were all kinds of limitations on the script for a variety of reasons but when we started to get on set and look at locations and I was meeting with the director and everything - it all started to fall into place. I was so impressed by how everything came together; from the casting, to the prop department making Seth and Anderson’s props, to the art department and the sets. It really just came together well.

NP: I love this moment here when Gloria goes to flick Anderson off. The timing of that shot where Seth steps into the frame in front of her took us maybe 5 or 6 takes to get the timing just right, but when we did we knew we had it. That parabolic microphone that Seth has there - there was something wierd about the plastic that whenever it would heat up stank like old vomit. It smelled so bad. So Chris was an amazing sport for holding that. BM: This is a small thing but it’s something we’ve never been able to do before; Adam Copeland looking right into the camera. This is something you never usually want to do, and there’s something unsettling and hilarious about our characters finally being able to look back out at us. It’s great, I love it.

BM: Just boucing back to a line earlier, we had a shoutout to the Haven Herald when Seth is mentioning all the crazy coverup stories and he’s like “How many gas leaks can a town have beofre they just buy new pipes?” and that was a line I had always wanted to work in. BM: Yeah and we need to throw in those types of lines once in a while to add some level of groundedness. Because while this is fiction, it is set in the real world. BM: This is the first episode since Fraudrey in season two where we have the outside world arriving in Haven and threatening to expose it. Which is something we always talk about and which is why Vince and Dave - and even Dwight when he was the cleaner - do what they do. And I love it like in this episode when we can make it more than just an intellectual threat that they are forced to protect the secret that is Haven. NP: Yeah, it puts it in context. BM: And it’s something we talk about in the writers’ room that Haven has been like this, with the Troubles, for hundreds and hundreds of years, but keeping the secret of the town is getting exponentially harder and harder in the 21st century and the information age. You know, when the people who made the Barn at the time I don’t think they expected things like the internet or cell phones. NP: Yeah, Sarah wasn’t having to worry about high-tech recording devices being pointed at her or camera phones carried in people’s pockets. BM: Exactly. We talked about it a ton back when we were doing the pilot and conceived the show, and we all knew that Audrey Parker - Emily Rose Audrey Parker - was not the real Audrey Parker, that she had the borrowed memories of a real FBI agent. So one of the questions that we always got was; Why doesn’t anyone try to friend her on Facebook? Why doesn’t anyone google her and look it up? Becuase they would see, clearly, that there is an Audrey Parker and she doesn’t look like Emily Rose, she looks like Kathleen Munroe. And we sort of had to just fly past that for the whole first season and just hope that people didn’t really do that. NP: And I think generally the show has done a good job of cleverly skirting those questions. And I think that’s part of what gives it a bit of a timeless feel, and a feeling that Haven has always been this way. And I think it works well. Ah I love Richard here, playing Vince, he’s amazing. BM: He is so one of our favourites on the show, he is so good. And this [as Vince talks to Audrey in her hospital bed after Nathan and Duke have left to investigate the Trouble] is one of several big emotional scenes about Audrey and who she really is that the two of them have had. There’s that one outside the Gull after he was tortured by Tommy, that was terrific,. There’s that one at the end of season two when she comes to Vince and Dave asking for answers when she’s found out about the existence of Sarah. And now this. And it’s almost like every season we get a chance to have this kind of conversation between the two of them. Because he knows previous versions of her, and here she is beginning to lear more about herself - to learn things now that even he doesn’t know. NP: Yeah, and I think the reason we always end up using him for those scenes - it’s not necessarily a conscious thing - is because he so well represents what Haven is, and the history of Haven. He embodies Haven in an interesting way, and so it just makes sense that it’s always him. BM: Absolutely. And he’s also such a deeply felt actor. He can say a lot without saying anything, which is one of my favourite things about him.

BM: I love how this all looks [as Duke and Nathan confront the Seekers in the warehouse/store room where they are talking to Jemma]. I think this is one of the best directed episodes of Haven that we’ve ever done. They totally nailed it. NP: I was really impressed. It was way better than I could ever have conceived it. And that it all down to the director and the DP Eric Cayla. They did an awesome job. The sequence here after the lights go out, after this was shot, Eric Balfour came over to the director and I and said he thought this sequence was the most dynamic and energetic thing we’d ever shot for the show. NP: There’s one moment here that we buried for Gingersnap fans where Seth repeats the line ‘I think it’s gone’ right before the monster busts through the door. Which is exactly what happens in Gingersnaps so we wanted to bury that for Gingersnaps fans. And there’s the monster, which was a very very nice, and very very tall man in a suit. And this is a very scripted and choreographed sequence to get all this in. We rehearsed it a bunch of times and we were shooting this for the majority of the day. And there’s a couple times where the camera sweeps over the ground [so all you see is darkness] and they would use those moments to match and morph different takes together. So it looks as though it’s one continuous shot but it is actually several different takes stitched together. So we shot several takes of each section, knowing exactly where we were going to sweep to the floor so that we could stitch it all together. And i think it looks great. BM: It does look great. And the director really embraced this approach from the beginning and ran with it. NP: And what I love about her is she’s this really energetic spitfire running about the whole time, so when we were talking about this sequence she’s running up and down the aisles acting like she’s got a gun and everyone else was just trying to keep up with her becasue she was moving so quickly. She was so enthused and really energetic about the entire sequence and I loved it. She was awesome. BM: She’s my hero.

NP: Eric Balfour and Danny [who plays Anderson the cameraman] are good friends in real life so it was nice having them all there together. BM: I could be wrong about this but I don’t think they’ve ever acted on screen together before, despite being really good friends.

NP: So the guy in the suit, is a man in a werewolf costume, which the wardrobe department did a great job of modifying to make it look spooky. And the guy who played that role was probably about 6’10”; he was really tall. And he was so nice to come in because that suit was a lot of plastic and a lot of fur and it was incredibly hot. And he did take after take and was awesome and never complained once.

[As we see Gloria talking to Duke and Nathan in the morgue] BM: I’m jealous that you got to write some Gloria scenes. I didn’t get to do any of that. NP: I love writing for her. And the actor was also in Dawn of the Dead and she is awesome. BM: She was great in Dawn of the Dead. NP: Her energy and her really dry and biting sense of humour is great. And I love the dynamic she has with Duke. They’re kind of oddly flirty, in a way.

[As Dwight is threatening Seth in the corridor outside the morgue] BM: I think Adam Copeland is one of my favourite parts of this episode. He is so good at being frustrated and angry at people. And he seems like he really relishes it. And he is also really good as Dwight, but it’s like with epsiode 9 where he got affected by the paranoia Trouble, where he gets to step out of the usual thing and show some attitude, he dives into it. NP: He nails it. I loved this moment where he’s threatening Seth; I think this is the closest we’ve ever got to representing Adam in his former career as WWE’s Edge. He goes full wrestler on Seth right now. We did a bunch of different takes where he was getting really intense and almost screaming, or a more quiet and controlled threat. But this was a super-fun sequence to shoot, just because we got to see WWE Superstar Edge coming out. BM: Who is in reality the nicest person on the face of the planet. NP: Incredibly nice. BM: I aspire to be more like him one day. NP: That is a goal we should all pursue. He is just a super-nice really good person. And so seeing him act like this is what makes it so terrifying. BM: I would have wet myself. NP: Yes! BM: He is huge. NP: And in incredible shape. I always feel bad that he has to wear this bullet-proof vest all the time, which makes him about 10 degrees hotter than everyone else in every scene. BM: Ardent fans might notice that his vest has changed from the one he was wearing last season. They made one specifically for him; fitted to him and as light as possible but still using bullet proof vest material. Just to give him some relief, even though it is still hot and constricting. [Some back and forth about how hot and humid it can get in Nova Scotia in the summer.]

[As Duke is asking Nathan if he’s OK] NP: So this is the big emotional scene between Duke and Nathan where Nathan reveals his fears about this connection between William and Audrery. BM: Back from when we were first talking about the details of this season, we always knew that was the one where we were going to learn who Audrey really was, and that we were finally going to meet someone who was like her, whatever she is. So that was why we had William in the Barn and he hitched a ride with Lexie to come to Haven and now we’re learning what his ultimate plan is that he wants to turn Audrey back into Mara. But we always knew that we would have Colin Ferguson in the first four episodes, and in episode 9 and 10. And because he’s the Big Bad for the season we knew he’d be in the two-part finale episodes 12 and 13 - and that left out episode 11 which we did not have Colin Ferguson for. And yet he is the main topic of conversation for the episode. NP: Which worked out interestingly. It was a restriction that we knew about and it made things difficult at first but in the end we were able to talk directly about what he was doing. BM: It kind of allowed our characters some space, which we don’t often have, to talk about what’s going on. And how they feel about what’s going on. NP: And the same is true for Jennifer. We only had Emma Lahana for two days of filming for this episode, so that was also a restriction. BM: This location here, the back room of the Haven Herald (which is a real location that we own in the middle of Chester) is the exact same layout as the Gun & Rose diner, which we outfitted this room to be, back when we had Jordan at work. NP: And what a great job the art department did with showing the effects of the rougarou trashing everything. BM: Oh it’s amazing. NP: Every time that I walked onto a set that they had set up as a post-crime scene, I was just blown away. BM: As an example of how good our art department is, when Duke was kneeling down just now [where he found Jennifer’s phone on the floor] there was a golden vase over his shoulder, I’m pretty sure that’s the exact same vase that Dave picked up in 3.12 and knocked Vince out with when they were interrogating Arla. NP: They’re smart about it. BM: They do their jobs well.

[As Duke Dwight and Nathan find the Seekers at their van] NP: So we always knew that we wanted to do this found-footage style, and we knew we wanted to tie that into the Season Four Digital Initiative. So if you happen to follow Haven on Facebook or Twitter you will know that the Darkside Seekers supposedly took over the Haven accounts and were reporting that Haven was this place with this massive cover up and all these supernatural things. BM: And it wasn’t just a few tweets, there was also footage shot for this with Chris and Danny. NP: Yep and it was a lot of fun to be able to do that and tie it in to the episode, which you don’t often see so we were lucky to be able to do that. BM: And we had that pitch from the get go and you were overseeing a lot of that digital stuff. And it was always going to be the Darkside Seekers (though we went through a thousand different names for them before we got that one cleared) and the pitch for that was always that those guys were eventually going to show up on screen in the show in Haven. And it made sense to slot it in to episode 11 because we knew that William wasn’t going to be in this episode so it gave us a bit of a pause for the series arc. NP: Right, and we also needed to build a mouting threat; it needed to be something more than just a normal Trouble of the Week.

NP: Ah Stan the Cop; one of my favourite characters. And Glen who plays him is nice as can be. BM: He’s been around since season one and he’s a bedrock of HPD. NP: Absolutely. Everyone knows Stan. BM: And he has a little bit more to do every year. We love Stan. I’m always wishing that we could do an All Stan episode, but we’ve only got 13 episodes a season and so much other stuff to cover. There’s unfortunately just not enough room. If this was a 22 episode season show, we would absolutely have had a Stan episode. It could have been called Stan the Man, and Stan would be in every scene. And you know, he saves the day and the rest of the characters have no idea what he’s doing. NP: Like that Xander episode [in Buffy] BM: Yep, ‘The Zeppo’

[They discuss the restrictions in terms of actor availability becasue as well as Emma Lahana only being available for two out of the seven days of production, they also only had Emily Rose for a few days becasue she “was also due for a break” because she had been “working like a dog” having been in every scene in episode 10. And also they didn’t have Colin Ferguson, so when we see a glimpse of William in the hospital - that is not Colin.] BM: So there are all these various restrictions and you have to write your scripts within these painted lines that are set out for you. NP: Which is why Chris as Seth ended up with such a big role, and this is one of the biggest guest actor roles we’ve had. It’s good that he’s so good. BM: And it’s not a co-incidence that this has a lot of humour. Not that our cast aren’t often hysterical, but there’s not always a lot of humour just because our characters, after four seasons, are saddled with a lot of emotional baggage and weight. NP: Yeah and the nice thing about a role like this [Seth] is that they can comment on the ridiculousness of the situation. BM: Jennifer and Lexie were examples of the same thing; they were able to bring some of that lightness because they were yet to be weighted down.

[As Seth is telling Dwight how he spent his summers in Haven as a kid] BM: This hill I think is the same spot that William brings Audrey to in 4.09. NP: Yes, I think it’s one of their favourite places to shoot just becasue it has such a beautiful vista and it’s close the production office as well. The prop department did an amazing job building Seth’s equipment here. BM: Everything looks fantastic.

[At the Teagues warehouse where Jennifer is hiding out] NP: This all looks fantastic. We shot a lot of this at this place called the Aspotogan Spa, but if you try and look it up online you’re not going to be able to book tickets for becasue it was this huge multi-million dollar spa idea that they had, up near Chester? BM: Yeah from Chester if you head up eastward up through Hubbards where the Grey Gull is located, around the corner on the tip of that peninsula is this big abandoned structure with parking lots and everything but it’s this half-finished spa that they started building years ago and the economy fell through and they never finished it. NP: It’s actually incredible because the whole thing is built, there’s pools, the windows are in. We filmed in the basement. BM: We filmed there before in 2.08; Friend or Foe. NP: Oh yeah. BM: And we always wanted to go back because inside it was fantastic. And this was the perfect opportunity. NP: But it’s crazy when you go in there, it’s like all of the worker’s just suddenly disappeared. BM: We do a lot of on location filming for Haven … and we could not have possibly built something this big to film in. NP: There are hallways upon hallways and it worked out great because the place was big enough for us to run two units at the same time. Shawn was off with one of these handheld digital cameras with Lucas, Eric and Chris running around the hallways while the main group [Audrey etc] was here. And Eric Cayla, our DP would do a lot of shooting with these handheld cameras, or one of our camera operatives. So they would run around with Danny on their shoulder giving the diagloue, and then they would hand the camera off to Danny and he would do the same thing again for a different take.

BM: I would like to talk about Unstake My Heart for a second, which wound up being extraordinarily important. We always knew that it was going to be. We knew that it would be useful when it turned out to be Fraudrey’s favourite book - oh poor Dwight! NP: Yeah Dwight is knocked out there because Adam had to go do a WWE event. BM: Ha! Amazing! NP: This was a change the day before when we found out that Adam had a chance to go promote Haven at a WWE event. So we wrote him out of the last day. BM: That’s right because the season was about to start airing. So anyway, Unstake my Heart wound up being this important thing that Agent Howard had used, and so here we needed Agent Howard to have left Jennifer something that was going to help her personal journey. And it seems like it’s a magical book but really we always thought of it more that it’s more like a placebo effect that allowed Jennifer to realise some of her capabilities. And this was always how we intended the episode to wrap up, that Jennifer was going to realise a little bit of why she was the target of Williams’ creatures. And sort of end up saving the day as a result (with an assist from Seth). NP: Yes exactly. The guy who plays Sinister does a lot of our stunts and he was Seth in that moment [attacking the monster as Jennifer grabs the book off the floor] knocking the rougarou off his feet. We had so much fun up there saying that word especially with so many French Canadian, they love saying ‘rougarou’; [rougarou in a French accent!] BM: A rougarou if I’m not mistaken is a kind of European werewolf. NP: Yeah, it’s a French werewolf legend, kind of a cousin to the werewolf. Way back in the day I used to play this old role playing game called Werewolf of the Apocalypse, and in that all werewolves call themselves garou and so I suppose ‘le garou’ is what a werewolf is in french. BM: And do they actually eat your hearts? NP: That is a thing that we created for the Haven version, to give them a signature. BM: Like a serial killer calling card.

[As Seth and Andersen get ready to leave and Seth is talking to Nathan] NP: This scene originally was not Nathan saying goodbye, it was Dwight because Dwight had had that moment with Seth before. But because Adam had this great opportunity to go promote the show, we reworked this scene the day before it was going to shoot, to be Nathan instead. BM: That’s crazy. And initially there was also a third Darkside Seeker. There was going to be this host of a reality show and two other guys as his back up. It was crazy because we were initially writing it for (we can’t tell you who) a bigger nam- or I guess a different kind of actor who was going to do the role. He fell through really close to production. NP: Days before. BM: And so we - or rather Nick - streamlined and reconceived the episode and made it just about Seth and Anderson. And it turned out far better. NP: I definitely like this version more. It was always one of those things were I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. BM: And the amount of restrictions we had on what we could and couldn’t do and who we could and couldn’t use, was more than I’d ever seen in four seasons of the show. But they say in TV you embrace the limitations, and it’s like why a bottle episode can end up being the best eipsodes. Those are the episodes you do to save money because you’re shooting the whole thing on one set; but they can end up being the best. And it’s the same thing here. This is one of the best epiosdes of the season and in many ways it’s because you had these parameters to work in. NP: That’s very nice of you. But I always think whenever you’re writing with restraints, whether they’re self imposed or due to what you’re working on, you’ll often end up with a better product just becasue you have to focus. Having everything wide open and being able to anything and everything doesn’t always turn out as good as you think it will in your head. BM: Yeah absolutely.

[As we see Jennifer joking about being Hermoine] BM: This is a big moment for me in terms of the Duke/Jennifer relationship which going into the season has always been a big deal for us. And here she is starting to learn that she is more than just Troubled. That there is clearly a major stake in what is going on in Haven tht involves her. It’s not just this book; it’s her. And that is going to come to bear on herself and her relationship with Duke. We had always known where we were going with her character when we introduced her and that it was going to get a little bit heavy in the next episode or two. And we love Jennifer and Duke, and we’re really happy that we earned their relationship.

*cell phone rings* NP: Oops that would be me. BM: That was the Game of Thrones theme? NP: In like old, midi form.

BM: Oh this is so sad with Nathan and Audrey too we knew what was going to happen at the end of the season. We knew what William’s plan was going to be for her. And it’s kind of a bookended season in that we started with introducing Audrey as Lexie and then now we’re going to learn who she really was; the original person.

[As Jennifer tells them about the riddle in the book] BM: How many versions of this cryptic message were there? NP: it’s funny, this was being changed up until the moment that we shot it. And actually Emma was nice enough to do a couple different takes with different versions of what she was saying. BM: There was a lot of debate about this. And that was my favourite version!

[bobafettanthologyfilm]

Boba Fett Star Wars Anthology Film Details

Below is a summary of some of the main events that were anchor points in Josh Trank's Boba Fett movie based on the notes provided to us by Lucasfilm. I'm releasing this in hopes that some of the incredible art we developed for months will leak because I really believe the fans missed out on something special.

-The first sequence featured a squadron of mandalorian armored mercenaries storming an Imperial garrison looking to assassinate a yet unidentified imperial commander (likely to be someone for the canon fans, in concept art it was Thrawn). The mercenaries quite easily mow through the stormtroopers until they enter a command station that has Darth Vader flanked by death troopers. Vader mows them all down and force chokes Boba, the last man standing, in the air trying to interrogate him. Boba reveals he was hired by a third party. Vader puts the pressure on and Boba's masks breaks and Vader recognizes the face of a clone trooper right away. He spares him and has the troopers entering the room put him in a detention cell.

-Vader confronts Boba in the cell interrogating him about his past. Vader originally thought he might be a clone from the clone wars but reveals that any surviving clones would be much older than Boba appears to be now. Boba establishes that he is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe and Vader senses that Boba will do anything for the right price. He offers Boba to hunt down and bring in whomever put out the hit on the imperial commander in exchange for the location and name of the Jedi that struck down his father.

-The seconds act was Boba hunting down the third-party alien that originally hired him. Once Boba finally finds him/her, the alien gets tipped off when Boba starts asking who called in the hit. The alien flees which leads to a speeder bike chase through the streets of malastare. One of the main features of the chase were it finding itself in the middle of a pod race. One of the ideas was to showcase a pod race on a different planet and how this race would suggest that pod racing would vary from planet to planet based on that planet's features. Malastare would feature much more narrow canyons and uneven terrain than the Tatooine race featured causing more issues for Boba to navigate during the chase sequence along with avoiding being killed by the pod racers.

-Boba manages to get a location out of the alien and travels to a tbd rainy jungle planet. He lands far away from where Slave I detects life forms and tries to sneak into their camp. He avoids a series of traps until he is eventually caught in one of them.

-When he comes to he is confronted by a man that looks just like his father, and then several more come to him looking for answers. Boba has come across a large camp of who is left of the surviving clone troopers from the clone wars. The empire is hunting them down as they were able to override their programming and disobey order 66. They now plot and try to find ways to strategically disrupt the power of the empire. They are joined by their ranking general, the jedi master Mace Windu who is scarred and has a metallic arm (concept art which sneakily was put in the Force Awakens concept art book without context). Boba does not recognize him, but Windu is particularly stern to Boba and all the clones in general, so Boba develops a distaste for him. Boba finds out the remaining clone troopers that didn't desert and were accounted for were destroyed when the empire decided to start recruiting civilians.

-Boba assimilates into the group of clone troopers and starts to become one of them. A long time passes and Windu and Boba are sitting around a tented fire, the battle hardened Windu finally opening up to Boba. Windu is about to tell Boba that he killed his father when a sonic boom erupts in the sky. A lone star destroyer peaks out of the clouds of the rainy atmosphere while troop transports come out of the sides. It's later revealed Vader had a placer tracked on Slave I assuming Boba would be killed while looking to collect his bounty.

-It's jungle warfare as the clone troopers fight the stormtroopers for their survival. Midpoint through the battle Windu looks up at the star destroyer and senses "Skywalker." Windu tells Boba he needs his ship to get to Vader and Boba says no one pilots that ship but him. They fly up to the ship together and and Boba supports Windu as he cut his way to the bridge of the ship.

-Windu and Vader face off. Windu defeats Vader. He is going to give the final strike when Vader reveals to Boba that it was Windu who killed Boba's father. Boba has a flashback in which he sees the moment replay of his father being slain. He is taken over by rage and lifts his blaster to shoot Windu. Windu has been in a similar position before and lifts his hand and uses the force to crush Boba's blaster which explodes and knocks Boba back several feet. Boba in a great deal of pain raises his wrist rocket and presses a button on it that is suggested in the first act of the script in a throw away line could be fatal if used as he's not exactly sure what it does. Boba presses it and it discharges a very bright beam that completely disintegrates Windu and several feet of the interior of the star destroyer. The few remaining clone troopers win their land battle, and are spared orbital bombardment at Boba's request.

The media said the reason why the Boba Fett movie got the boot was due to Fantastic 4 tanking and the alleged on set behavior of Trank. This is partially true, but there were so many more issues that factored into this getting canned.

-Disney wanted a strong female protagonist/love interest for Boba which did not come to fruition

-The movie would have featured Samuel L Jackson and Temuera Morrison but there was a large debate about what to do with Boba. Having Morrison in the movie made sense but it would make less sense to have a different young actor to play Boba since we already knew what the young version of the clone looked like.

-The ending was deemed "a major bummer" by Lucasfilm higher-ups

-There was worry about featuring Vader too soon since a common complaint being bandied about online was people being sick of the Skywalker story

-lots of other internal politics that make little sense to even people who work here

-Ultimately Disney could not determine if they wanted to lean into the prequel trilogy in such a prominent way. Very briefly the art team was creating concept art for a potential remake of the prequel trilogy that would happen a few years after episode 9 was completed as an exploratory option just to see what something like that might look like. It would also be a way to continue the big money episodic events and help blow open the almost non-existent Chinese market by "starting over" at the first episode. It was never seriously discussed but it was something that was at least being talked about as a remake of the OT was completely off the table. This movie would have completely pushed out any possibility of that and the success of later movies would determine if they actually needed to consider this a viable direction of the property.

-Many of the ideas being developed for this film got snatched up for use in some upcoming projects, so if a version of this movie ever goes back in production, expect some pretty big changes. Based on what Lucasfilm is currently planning, it's safe to assume the Boba Fett movie isn't coming back any time soon but pod racing on malastare could be just around the corner.

[lidoshka]

Voltron Season 8 review!

Okay! Finally had the chance to watch season 8?

Not yet? Too bad, because the spoiler free week in this blog is officially over!

Before I start, If you would rather now hear about season 8 you can filter the tags #I will only grant you one spoiler free week #And that grace period is over #we been knew #I can't believe I was blindsided by this #so the leaks were actually a trial test?!

Also, I will try to stay positive and post good things about Voltron during the week, but if you want some salt you can catch all the vitriol about S8 on Sunday (with the tag #salty Sunday)

So onwards to my review! (And boy, I knew I should have worn a different kind of socks on the 14th!)

Overall, I’d say it was a good season…but it wasn’t the best. There were a bunch of small moments that made me really happy, and there were some cool aspects with the animation that I totally loved.

…but there were some things in the second half of the season that totally ruined it for me.

But let’s be positive and point out all the things that I liked for this season!

What I loved about this season:

• The animation was amazing! Both the 3d animation and the way the characters were drawn! Plus a bunch of interesting camera angles! If you compare season 1 art with the way everyone is drawn now you can see the improvement and it’s amazing. • Episode 4 killed me instantly. To me it was perfect. It was sad but also uplifting, and I wanted to cry as much as that Olkarion child with Ryner’s last words and yet appreciated the meaning in them. Yes, I was very sad to see Olkarion gone, but most of its people will live on. We also got to see the Weblum again, which I liked because it was an appropriate metaphor. :) • Allura and Lance had  a date! That was great, they both deserve all the good moments possible • Also, the MFE girls and the Paladin girls shopping is supper funny. • We get to see a lot of people from the Voltron coalition not just Olia’s crew, and it’s wonderful to see the MFE’s, the Rebels, the ATLAS and Voltron all working together! • Cosmo is a nice puppy… and I knew he was going to continue growing! X3 • All Pidge and Colleen’s interactions. All of the Holts interactions actually! I really love how Pidge has her dad wrapped around her pinky, but Colleen is not a pushover and demands a family photo in exchange of the tokens • And I loved that Matt’s (girlfriend? Partner? They sound female, but then again they are an alien so…) are in the photo too!! • I also liked Shiro entering that tournament, we know he has a competitive streak, but we don’t get to see it very often, and this was a good opportunity! • The vlog episode was gold! Not only do we get to see more about the MFE pilots, but we also see the paladins around and a bit of the daily life in the IGF Atlas, plus, it could have just been a silly filler but instead it still managed to move the story forwards. A+ • Shiro using a gun looks really cool and it makes me wonder if his Bayard would have actually turned into some form of firearm. • Lotor is back! Not in the way I hoped but I got to see a tiny Lotor, and I also saw a younger Lotor still full of hope and desire to please his father *sighs* he really deserved so much better… • Lotor literally stole Kova. :P • Honerva’s mecha? Her fusion with Sincline? Voltron/Atlas fusion? They are all amazing designs! • I liked the last scene with the lions saying their goodbyes to the paladins. It was bittersweet because it’s the end of an era but at the same time it’s a sign of hope. It’s like now that there’s peace (or at least the possibility of peace being achieved without the need of a WMD) the lions can retire. Maybe the lions are leaving to look for their new paladins, or maybe hide away again until Voltron is needed once more. That along with the image of the vehicles inside the Garrison hangar was a good nod towards Voltron Vehicle and maybe a future Voltron Force show. Ah yeah, good things.

But now what I really didn’t like:

After careful consideration and watching the season one more time I can say I’m only upset about 4 things: 1. Allura’s sacrifice 2. Episode 5 3. Honerva’s plan and her redemption 4. And the stills of the epilogue

Funny enough the four are connected together in one single sentence: bad writing decisions.

Now, me being critical of the show doesn't mean I don't like it anymore now that I wont enjoy watching it. There are a bunch of shows that have errors and flaws by the dozen, but I still enjoy them but I need to get this out of my chest

Alluras’s sacrifie: Why? Out of all the possible directions they could have taken their story, why this? Why kill one of their female protagonists?!

“but she has made similar sacrifices in other versions” yes, and she was Caucasian and had a romantic plot with the leader of Voltron too and VLD chose to deviate from that, so I don’t see why of all the things they chose to discard from previous versions they chose to keep this.

“She now gets to spend eternity with her father and the other paladins” Do I remind you that Allura lost everything (her family, her nation, her planet, her crown) and little by little she found a new family? VLD has been selling me the idea of “found family” since season 1, why are they changing the tune now?

“Allura was already too powerful, she couldn’t remai— “ No. this isn’t marvel, there were ways to decrease her powers if that was necessary: the creature that got inside her could have damaged her body somehow and had her powers decrease; she could have sacrificed only her alchemy (like Edward Elric in fma!) and she would be a regular Altean (or a regular human if they wanted to go with the allurance ending) and spend the rest of her life rebuilding her nation. There were ways to keep her powers down and still keep Allura around.

“It’s the only way” Allura herself said before she started saying her goodbyes to the paladins… but in this season alone they showed: - A tiny balmera - A whole bunch of balmera. - Voltron+atlas fusion - The paladins using the power of friendship and concentration to enter Honerva’s inner thoughts - The paladins using the power of friendship and concentration <i>again</i> to power up Voltron+atlas so it could escape a collapsing reality - Voltron+atlas giant wings to save the last remaining reality So if they were already pulling out all the rabbits out of the hat don’t tell me the production team couldn’t come up with another alternative other than having “the girl who is magic sacrificing herself for the sake of the universe”

…and why are Altea and Daibazaal back?! Didn’t Reyner said “you mustn’t cling too tightly to the past” and “the old must gave way to the new”? ugh.

*rants for 20 minutes more about poor script decisions*

Episode 5:

It’s bad. And it doesn’t add anything important to the narrative except some gratuitous scenes of the paladins in their underarmor. And the reason why I disliked this episode is about the way the writers try to redeem Ezor and Zethrid.

Last season they sold me on the idea that “this is war and sometimes people die”. This season they wanted to end with an uplifting “everyone has a chance at redemption” vibe which actually just makes me upset.

Oh yeah, Adam –the guy whose only negative mark was that he dumped Shiro—died and no one really mentions him again or talks about what an impact he had on other characters, but Ezor –who was more than willing to torture Pidge back in season 7— she gets to survive and change her ways??

Honerva’s ploy and redemption arc:

Honerva had dreams about being a mother and a wife and spending her life with her family, but she studied the creature from the rift a bit too closely and her mind was poisoned without her even realizing it. In that sense, she’s a victim, and it’s good that in her final moments she got to be back to be the person she was before.

… but as Haggar she helped conquer and destroy thousands of worlds! She was participant in the neglect and abuse of a Lotor throughout his childhood.

“But that was Haagar! Honerva deserves a second chance!” you’d say, but remember that after Oriande she has recovered her memories and she’s not Haggar anymore what did she do? Did she tried to mend her ways and help what remained of the universe to honor her child’s life? Nope. She blamed the Galra, she used the Alteans, she destroyed Olkarion and she dammed the whole universe (and then any other universe) to get the ending she wanted.

Everyone in these universe is gone because of her. And in the end, she got her dream of being with her family.

Even Zarkon got a bit of a redemption scene! He got to go to the same place as the former paladins, with his wife and his son…These three are responsible of 70% of all the bad things that happened in this universe in the last 10,00 years and they get to spend eternity together.

I don’t’ know why suddenly the production staff though this ending was cool.

4. The Epilogue

I think the only ‘last scenes’ I liked where Pidge’s ending and Kolivan and Krolia’s ending. They were nice. But the others? *frowns*

In the “one year later” scenes Hunk is seen in the ATLAS along with Shiro; it’s implied that Hunk is some sort of diplomat who also likes to cook for his guests. In the last image it just looks like he gave up that to become the next masterchef.

Lance’s final still looks sad. He’s the perfect picture of a widower and I think this is terrible unfair for all the Lance stans who were hoping season 8 was Lance’s season. Yeah, lance likes his family and he always missed earth, but there were other things they could have done with him. He could be teaching the new generation of garrison pilots! His ending just makes the audience think he’s recovering from a broken earth.

Keith's image in his ending still looks odd, I think hey were trying to an upper shot or something but his waist looks too slim, and there are several things thet feel weird with the perspective.

...not to mention it says "humanitarian relief organization" ...the blades are all Galra? the fact they didn't bother to spend 5 minutes thinking why "humanitarian" was not a word applicable here tells me all I need to know about the care they placed in this epilogue.

Shiro’s scene is strange because Shiro looks exactly the way he looks when they say goodbye to the lions, but Pidge and Hunk and Keith look like they do in the “years later” design. Consistency is lacking.

Then there’s the thing of how Shiro “found his happiness” with and image of him getting married. What, he wasn’t happy while he was single? Seeing the stars up close, traveling the universe, flying on Black and then leading ATLAS, that didn’t make Shiro happy? Are we now equaling marriage with happiness, is that it?

I get that an gay marriage and a gay kiss on screen is something commendable (it would have bene better if we had seen Shiro and his new hubbie actually interacting tho), and we all love Shiro, but I can think of several images that could have been more satisfactory for his character: him at the helm of the ATLAS, fulfilling his dreams of traveling the stars in peace; Shiro finally getting a vacation; maybe even a description with an older Shiro saying “and Shiro lived many years happy and in peace because he was not sick anymore” all of these would have been more rewarding.

…And the only scene that was animated was Shiro’s wedding? Why? Can you imagine how could it’d have been if instead of the weeding we saw something like “the lions came back one more time to bring back Allura” I wouldn’t even be here ranting for 20 minutes so far on top of my pile of salt if they had done something like that!

And it’s not even as if it was one simple person who made the ending: VLD has a staff of writers, several directors, many producers monitoring, a whole team of animators and several consulting departments…and none of them stopped to think this might not be a good ending to their series?

In the end, I’m still left with some questions:

What is the lifespan of an average Galra? What would be the expected lifespan for Keith or Axca and Ezor and Zethrid?

Does having Altean markings means Lance is now Altean? Cause the show was not clear, is this just a physical memento so Lance has something to remind him of Allura every day or will he live a long life now?

What’s the cosmic wolf’s name? did he ever told Keith?! How much more is he going to grow?

more importantly: What was the name of Keith’s father?!

[wazafam]

Last month Warner Bros. revealed that a new Superman movie was in production, with Star Wars and Star Trek director JJ Abrams producing and Black Panther comics writer Ta-Nehisi Coates working on the script. This announcement came just in advance of the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League, which brings back Henry Cavill as Superman.

RELATED: Superman & Lois: 5 Best Moments From The Pilot (& The 5 Worst)

Beyond this basic information not much has been revealed about the project. There have been rumors it will be a reboot unconnected to the DCEU, similar to Matt Reeves' The Batman and perhaps even featuring a Black Superman, but Coates himself suggested the new Superman movie might be part of the DCEU after all. There are certainly pros and cons to both.

10 Standalone: Superman Doesn't Have To Be White

While it's rumored that Warner Bros is looking to create a Superman movie with a Black actor as the lead, and the hiring of Ta-Nehisi Coates seems to point in that direction, there is no confirmation that this will actually come to pass.

Hopefully, it will as this would be a terrific victory for representation and diversity for DC, especially in light of recent allegations made by actor Ray Fisher about director Joss Whedon. It would also help them stand out from Marvel, which tends to cast white actors in traditionally white roles rather than aiming for diversity through these means.

9 DCEU: Henry Cavill Can Stay

At no point has either Henry Cavill or Warner Bros confirmed that he is no longer part of the DCEU, nor has he been fired from playing Superman. Rumors to the contrary all stem from Cavill being unable to appear as a cameo in Shazam due to his commitments to The Witcher.

With Zack Snyder's Justice League hopefully reminding fans why Cavill was so great as Superman, he needs another movie with him as the sole superhero, something he's not had since Man of Steel.

8 Standalone: No Continuity Required

If Zack Snyder's Justice League proves anything, it's that the continuity of the DCEU has got somewhat complicated, even more so once fans begin discussing which version of Justice League is canon. With the DCEU Superman, for example, Clark Kent is canonically dead.

RELATED: 5 Reasons The Justice League Theatrical Cut Is A Worthy DC Movie (& 5 Why You Should Wait For The Snyder Cut)

While it's probably possible for the filmmakers to think up an excuse about how Kent survived, it would be a lot easier just to wipe the slate clean. This would also bring back Jimmy Olsen and Mercy Graves, and allow Lex Luthor to be a businessman again.

7 DCEU: So Much More Left To Tell

If there's one major reason not to have a major character such as Superman break from the DCEU it's that there are so many more stories left to tell within it, especially with this version of Superman. While the DCEU Batman is deliberately framed at the end of his career, and the leaked Justice League 2 storyboards showed he was supposed to die as part of the conclusion of the "Knightmare" storyline, Superman is still learning what it means to be an icon.

Audiences need to see him take on the likes of Brainiac and even Darkseid if possible while dealing with the fallout from the previous movies.

6 Standalone: A Break From The Divisive Snyderverse

Whether you love or loathe Zack Snyder's DC movies - Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, and Zack Snyder's Justice League - it's impossible to deny that they have been divisive. While fans will defend them to the hilt, they're certainly not for everyone, which is part of the reason Warner Bros made such an effort to retool Justice League into something more crowd-pleasing.

That mostly failed, but a fresh Superman movie with a new writer/director team in a brand new continuity might be a chance to make something that appeals to a wider audience.

5 DCEU: Supergirl Needs A Mentor

Last month it was revealed that the DCEU's Supergirl had been cast after many years of rumors, and The Young and the Restless actor Sasha Calle will be playing Kara Zor-El. Her first (and presumably not her last) appearance will be in next year's The Flash, where she will star alongside Ezra Miller's Barry Allen and both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck as Batman.

Notable by his absence is Henry Cavill's Superman, as it would've made sense for him to appear as a mentor figure for his Kryptonian cousin. If Cavill returns for another Superman movie he might have a chance to do just that.

4 Standalone: There's No Reason The DCEU Can't Continue

One of the biggest concerns fans have about the idea of Henry Cavill being replaced as Superman, and the next movie potentially being separate from the DCEU, is the suggestion that Cavill's Superman won't get to appear in any further DC movies if it happens. This is patently untrue.

RELATED: Superman: 10 Comics That Could Inspire The Next Film

As both Joker and The Batman prove, Warner Bros is quite content to allow more than one version of a character to appear in movies and TV shows, and the DCEU can continue with Henry Cavill's Superman if they need him, even if there's a new standalone Superman movie happening at the same time.

3 DCEU: The Amazing Spider-Man Effect

In terms of audience anticipation, perhaps the biggest problem with releasing a standalone Superman movie in its own separate universe is that by and large audiences don't take very kindly to reboots and fresh origin storylines coming too soon after the last one.

The DCEU is essentially all spun out of Man of Steel, so it doesn't matter so much if Batman gets a separate movie, but a standalone Superman reboot coming so soon after Zack Snyder's Justice League (and not that long after Man of Steel) raises too many comparisons to The Amazing Spider-Man, which audiences were very negative about regarding how quickly it arrived after Spider-Man 3.

2 Standalone: The Batman Is Greatly Anticipated

Matt Reeves' The Batman reboot coming next year is the best argument for the new Superman movie to be standalone. Currently, the first teaser trailer for The Batman has around 30 million views on Warner Bros' YouTube channel, and even though it's still a year away fans are greatly anticipating it.

This is despite both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton reportedly appearing in The Flash DCEU movie, which should also come out in 2022. DCEU fans aren't angry that The Batman is a standalone movie, in fact, they're completely in support of it.

1 DCEU: Zack Snyder's Justice League Is Getting A Lot Of Attention

After Justice League flopped in 2017 it seemed very easy for Warner Bros to essentially make Henry Cavill's Superman a scapegoat, fuelling rumors towards a Supergirl movie and providing no news on Man of Steel 2. Now, however, the tables have turned, and what should have just been a bone for fans to persuade them to subscribe to HBO Max has basically turned into a phenomenon.

Zack Snyder's Justice League is getting a lot of attention and in particular, the return of Cavill's Superman in the black solar suit. It would therefore be wise for Warner Bros to capitalize on this sudden surge of popularity and confirm Henry Cavill's return for the next Superman movie.

NEXT: Superman: 10 Mindblowing Comic Crossovers We'll Never See On Screen

Why The Next Superman Movie Should Be Standalone (& Why It Should Stay In The DCEU) from https://ift.tt/3c1zxhL

[incarnateirony]

aw that's cute. After 2p0's direct association for years ongoing with the most vile, violent, abusive, lying assholes in this fandom was called out because of their multiple public con violations, he's pretending he's not calling them out because uwu he's being a reasonable moderate.

no dude. you got busted. you're a raging sociopath. Don't wax poetic about the science of the amplification of bad takes. You ARE the bad takes. Your entire BLOG is the bad takes. It's lies, it's filth, it's manipulation, it's bad sources, it's bad whispers, you've never landed anything meaningful correctly in your life in leaks, shut the fuck up you clout seeking, real life incest advocating pedophilic man child. No guys I'm not kidding, once he wiggles you off destiel and warms you up to his darkships after a year or two he starts advocating real life incest being considered LGBTQ. He's done it to a few people. Read his HBO takes. once he gets real comfy he's fucked your head up enough the rot comes out.

You're being held to what you do, who you are, and what you say, finally, and the heat's just starting. If yall think I'm done with last con boy son you have something else coming.

Meanwhile, "reboot is stalled" is another flat lie from a nobody source acting big. Reboot isn't even in pre prod yet to stall. Reboot has barely been scratched at with a few pitches people shuffled ideas into, among which jared was one among many, but 2p0's already skewing that information, but there's no meaningful formula for it beyond estimated date of release they have three years to reach, they're good, don't let 2p0 blow smoke about reboot or revival talk to anyone on that. It'd be a stretch to call it In Development. It is technically, but fandom fails to understand how hilariously broad that is.

Because the current project is Winchesters, and don't let him deflect, and definitely don't let him continue to lie on behalf of the frazzy haired incest hags that pipeline him reworded half baked greets he pretends is intel through his own following reimaginations.

I keep telling yall. It's over. It's ending this season. This show. Your lies and hopes and dreams are crumbling just like when you denied the confession S15 coming when it was already written and some of us knew dude.

lmfao like seriously dude. whole clown show on your part. it was the only reason berens stayed, first thing written on the season, some of us said it, and yall even kept denying it once some people already had the scripts a bajillion years later. Like the uncanny, self indulgent arrogance you presented, talking down like you knew and it's like. no dude they wrote it first, are you ok.

no genuinely how were you not embarrassed to make confused unga bunga noises about what beren shipped, was writing, or where he was going. Or that dog whistling you did pretending it was wrong to see wayward parallels by twisting feminist dialogue when berens himself was verbally happy we saw the parallels day one. Dude he grabbed the Destiel ship in like S10 at wayward cocktails specifically after saying he wasn't supposed to pick sides. You only pretended not to know, to use dogwhistles to send young shippers at authors that didn't know better, by misappropriating real issues.

but you always be like this. Remember you spent 5k to be wrong about the omissions and the roadhouse dabb tweeted out. i'm just highlighting this so you properly have to delete yourself from the digital pool in shame for how loud you got. You didn't learn from this weekend I guess. You're already nailed down, I got a nailgun, and we got about ten more episodes, son.

The man couldn't recognize an authentic pilot script but sure man he's got great WB sources that are feeding him magical news from the future. Fascinating, the magical time traveling from 2025-2026 WB worker only now manifested as a pipeline of information for him after Gayle and her entire posse burned down as M&G sources to give him attention. Oh and after Jules had to back away from playing with him. Almost like your inability to stop wrongly running your mouth has burned your bridges or something idk

This time, dudes. 2p0 swears this time he'll have something right. He didn't have the market testing, and didn't have berens intent, or the confession, or the roadhouse, or the omissions, or the pilot script, or the shape the series would be in its moral play, but this one, goddamnit, he swears he's right because he says so and his new magical WB friend from the future says so. They're filling in the Gayle M&G gap of "look at me, I have secrets." that he warps. he tends to have to make up friends like that when he doesn't have attention of his own.

He tries to be me. tries to mimic ratings talk and fails. But he doesn't get it. He can trade in a million M&Gs and never do what I do. You're trading in twice translated rumors dude. I'm trading in BTS, scripts, production events you don't even know the history of and more. These aren't the same world. Your rumor mill will never compete in the actual production world of Events Happening. that's the real world. i know it drives gayle and co bonkers that they can't pay pass to it but that's just how it is, sorry.

[hologramcowboy]

Hi, I rarely send in asks but this question has been boggling me for a couple days now, so here goes. My question is “Do you think the prequel is more Danneel’s project than Jensen’s?” I’m asking this because it’s been confirmed that TB has been renewed for a season 4 and the account that usually leaks stuff from TB has claimed that pre-production starts in March and the next few months is when shooting starts. So now it’s got me thinking that Danneel will have more say in what’s supposed to happen regarding the prequel over the next upcoming months while Jensen is filming (possibly). I kinda started thinking this project was more hers, when Jensen had pretty much inserted her and made her look like she was the most important person, regarding the prequel even though she has no producing, directing, or creating experience in the industry. It was also weird how she didn’t like his post about the prequel getting a pilot order, even though she did post a story. Could it mean she’s not that confident in it which is why she posted a story that was only up for a few hours? I feel like it’s known by now that she can’t handle criticism, which could be why she’s being cautious about it.

They both fulfill the role of executive producer but it does appear that Danneel has been taking on more than Jensen. It's also obvious that naming her executive producer was and is an attempt to shift and raise her profile given her stalled career. I have no information regarding Season 3 yet so I can't confirm that Jensen will be a part of the cast, that all depends on whether or not Soldier's Boy's arc was completed or not. Besides, I doubt the production would appreciate further leaks be it info or others. I think the reason Jensen is bringing attention to Danneel, besides it being an arrangement is the fact that he knows that if he shifts fully into being a producer now people will stop considering him for roles. So has to make a smooth transition that doesn't threaten or limit his status as an Actor. It's true that being a multi-hyphenate in HW is all the rage but it's also true that if you are someone who is deeply involved in production, buyers may think you don't have the time or energy to dedicate to their projects or that you would not get involved given your profile. So I am sure a part of why he is delegating to Danneel is this very reason, he's playing it safe. While Danneel is desperate to shift her image and raise her profile, she's also shrewd so she knows how to wait for the right time to post about things. That's why she's so quiet, she hopes that when she does make the shift full on people will buy into it immediately and they most probably will if the prequel goes well.

Not being able to ever handle discussion or criticism means Danneel is a ticking time bomb for any production so it's no wonder her career stalled. This production company might just be the best thing that's ever happened to her if she puts in the work. Danneel might also become a liability for Jensen since he seems set on negotiating her into everything which lowers his own profile, screams nepotism and more importantly she has no skills to back anything up so it also affects his credibility factor. I don't know who advised him to negotiate Elta into his ventures but it wasn't the best move in my humble opinion.

It appears he's hoping to ride the coattails of SPN and translate the prequel into success but there's a lot he took for granted in the worst possible way without doing research. Intelligent fans won't be fooled so I hope they did prepare a great script and will deliver, even if I hate the fact that Elta is going to be taking credit for other people's work. Jensen keeps desperately trying to prove her loves her so he probably thought the production company was a way to prove this? I'm just trying to justify why adding Elta was an idea in the first place so nevermind me. lol It very much looks like people will be tuning in to the Elta show from now on, guess no one told Jensen most people are only interested in her because they want to see him. lol

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

Delhi water disaster: AAP govt's five-pronged strategy goals to fill supply-demand hole, stop depletion of water our bodies

http://tinyurl.com/y2hpnbzp Water is in vogue. Debates on the water disaster are on within the Decrease and Higher Homes of Parliament. A solutions-based concentrate on the disaster in water was lengthy overdue. The Delhi authorities has adopted a five-pronged strategy for addressing the sophisticated water disaster. That’s maybe why Delhi is healthier off than a waterlogged Mumbai, and does not have issues like Chennai’s water scarcity or Bangalore’s lake fires. The professional-people insurance policies initiated by the Delhi authorities are the primary pillar to unravel the disaster in a metropolis which has a severe water shortage, artificially created as a result of mismanagement and inequitable distribution of water. The free lifeline water scheme of offering 700 litres of water per family, for instance, introduced multi-fold advantages to the DJB (Delhi Jal Board) and its customers. On the one hand, it ensures ‘proper to water’ to everybody. Then again, it promotes conservation of water sources by these households who would consciously lower their consumption to scale back their water payments. Most significantly, it facilitates the provisioning of piped water to these areas which might be at the moment water burdened or don’t have any piped water provide community by producing demand. By formally being beneath the water utility’s community, residents obtain a way of possession to this public good that’s typically handled as a commodity or luxurious. This, mixed with insurance policies of 80 p.c discount in unauthorised colonies as growth prices, the abolishing of the combined tariff for merchants and native companies and the invoice waiver scheme, has introduced lakhs of households beneath the formal community in Delhi, and thus, obligatory beneath the planning ambit of DJB, while concurrently waiving pointless and unjust dues of water on residents. Second come good practices. One of many key city planning errors has been that the DDA has had a historical past of not ready for DJB’s NOC earlier than developing areas like Dwarka. This, mixed with dangerous engineering economics selections, gave rise to the tanker mafia and water shortage. 4 essential practices have improved Delhi, and its continuous follow-up will enhance the town’s water and drainage scenario. Representational picture. Reuters First, in April 2016, the AAP-led Delhi authorities permitted the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Coverage, 2015. Underneath the legislation, the areas grew to become eligible for MLA LAD fund and different state growth funds. Owing to this formalisation of such areas that have been earlier disenfranchised, the metered water and drainage pipeline has elevated. Participatory planning of water and drainage infrastructure with engineers and MLA clusters, programmatic inspections like “Stroll the Line” and shock inspections on billing/income officers and involvement of NGOs, startups, universities and consultants from international locations like Japan and Australia are three of the opposite key practices which have helped ship improved water entry at extraordinarily low prices. Extra colonies and lakhs of households have been included within the water entry community within the final 5 years of the historical past of Delhi’s public water utility by trustworthy politics and progressive engineering. Third come the programmes. It was essential to get water from Haryana by the Munak canal, revive non-functional water vegetation in Dwarka, Bawana, and Okhla, and create new water infrastructure for uncooked water and concurrently construct decentralised water therapy vegetation in poor groundwater high quality zones. Remedy vegetation can recycle as much as 30 p.c of wastewater and may add as much as 100 MGD of water to Delhi’s current provide. That is one other key space of focus for the state authorities. For instance, the 50 MGD capability Dwarka Water Remedy Plant (constructed in 2011) mendacity unused was opened in 2015 and is benefiting about 13.5 lakh residents of Dwarka sub-city, Najafgarh, Daulatpur, Ujwa, and adjoining areas. Equally, Bawana water therapy plant, additionally commissioned in 2015, is benefiting about 6 lakh residents of Bawana, Narela, Sannothand. The manufacturing of the Okhla water therapy plant has elevated from 7 to 20 MGD utilizing uncooked water from the Wazirabad area. The utilization of expertise, whether or not it’s through income tasks in billing (MSewa) or GIS tasks in planning (utilization of GSDL inside DJB) or water tanker disbursal by GPS monitoring (for transparency), has helped DJB enhance the water scenario. There’s a want for strengthening the leak detection cell with new expertise to save lots of water and to take care of high quality, which is one thing that’s effectively on its method. Lastly, similar to Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) was made obligatory in Tamil Nadu, AAP authorities too will throw its weight behind RWH and strongly push in a top-down method to make RWH obligatory in all authorities buildings, industrial constructions and huge plots of Delhi, providing incentives to execute the method. Fourth are the tasks. The lowering groundwater degree in Delhi has develop into a matter of great concern within the capital. At some locations in south and southwest Delhi, the water degree has gone 30-70 metres under the bottom degree and even the standard of underground reserves is deteriorating and has even been unfit for human consumption. There’s a rise in salinity of groundwater in pockets of southwest and northwest Delhi. Fluoride and chemical concentrations are greater than prescribed limits, have additionally been present in groundwater at varied areas in Delhi. To deal with these issues, steps are being taken to control the variety of tube-wells being commissioned pointless in Delhi together with reviving Delhi’s water our bodies like lakes, ponds, step wells by making certain their recharging by rainwater, and sustaining them in partnership with native citizen teams. One other strategy to the water air pollution downside lies in nuanced experiments just like the scheme to isolate the Wazirabad Pond from Head Works at Wazirabad Water Remedy Plant that’ll examine ammonia from coming into vegetation and scale back the air pollution ranges and the Timarpur Oxidation Pond for groundwater recharge that’ll even be open to the general public for recreation. A sustainable metropolis with blissful communities is the aim. Lastly, with an IIT Kharagpur engineer because the chief minister on the helm of the Delhi Jal Board and a conscientious architect because the minister of irrigation and flood management division, there’s a substantial amount of innovation and optimisation in co-locating issues and their options. The federal government has been open to try to scale first precept options. We provide you with two examples. First is that of the Rajokri water physique, the place native unsewered areas have been tapped to deal with water and create a neighborhood water physique and occasion house. This was optimised and replicated to enhance groundwater, used eco-friendly sewage therapy, floating rafters, phytorid-based applied sciences and pure therapy strategies in varied mixtures, was powered by photo voltaic panels and solved a neighborhood sanitation downside of sewage administration, multi function undertaking cycle. This success has been documented, appreciated extensively in judicial and technical quarters and fashioned the premise for the federal government’s plan to create 259 water our bodies and 7 lakes. Second is that the Delhi authorities has permitted the pilot for floodplain conservation on the Yamuna from Palla to Wazirabad by recharge ponds constructed on farmland. Small ponds can be made and when the Yamuna overflows throughout monsoon, the overflowing water will fill these ponds. Water will then percolate down and it’ll unfold, resulting in a rise within the water desk of those areas. A five-member committee of officers will negotiate a hire that the Delhi authorities pays to farmers to create these pure water reservoirs for Delhi. This was a undertaking designed after a number of assessments for feasibility in water conservation and concrete flooding on websites and drains of the Yamuna floodplains, particularly on IFC drains and DJB STPs. The Delhi authorities has been pursuing its plan to unravel the capital’s water woes however efficient execution stays a problem due to the restricted powers, as an example, on points associated to land throughout the metropolis with the MCD and DDA, and permissions to work on the floodplains associated to the Central Water Fee and Higher River Yamuna Board. Regardless of these predictable limitations, steps are being taken to take Delhi in direction of ‘jal swaraj‘ or water democracy. (The authors are advisers within the Delhi authorities and work on water and governance points within the metropolis.) Your information to the newest cricket World Cup tales, evaluation, experiences, opinions, dwell updates and scores on https://www.firstpost.com/firstcricket/series/icc-cricket-world-cup-2019.html. Observe us on Twitter and Instagram or like our Facebook web page for updates all through the continuing occasion in England and Wales. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function() {n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)} ; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '259288058299626'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.9&appId=1117108234997285"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); window.fbAsyncInit = function () { FB.init({appId: '1117108234997285', version: 2.4, xfbml: true}); // *** here is my code *** if (typeof facebookInit == 'function') { facebookInit(); } }; (function () { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; e.async = true; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); function facebookInit() { console.log('Found FB: Loading comments.'); FB.XFBML.parse(); } Source link

[neptunecreek]

Google Needs To Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

Eight years after Google initially took a stand against Internet censorship by exiting the Chinese search market, we are disappointed to learn the company has been secretly re-considering an extended collaboration with the massive censorship and surveillance-wielding state. According to an Intercept report released at the beginning of the month, Google is working on a censored version of its search service for release in China.

In 2010, EFF and many other organizations praised Google for refusing to sacrifice the company’s values for access to the Chinese market. At the time, this move followed public backlash and several attacks on Google’s infrastructure that targeted the personal data of several prominent Chinese human rights activists. Google’s departure from China showed that strong core values in fundamental human rights could beat out short-term economic gain in the calculus of an Internet company.

But now it seems the company has reversed course.

This news comes amid other reports of American tech giants compromising values to enter or remain within China: Facebook has piloted a censored version of its own platform, and Apple recently faced criticism for moving its customers' data into China-hosted servers, and adding code to filter the Taiwanese flag emoji in Chinese locales.

Within China, Google’s direct competitor, Baidu, has been facing a significant amount of social, regulatory, and economic backlash over recent advertising malpractice, such as monetizing questionable medical advertisements, heavily deprioritizing non-Baidu services, and allegedly promoting phishing sites. There may well be a growing demand for competition within the Chinese search engine market.

In even considering these changes, Google needs to tread carefully. In the wake of the last wave of engagement with the Chinese market, and to prevent Internet companies being complicit with human rights’ violations, the company joined with Microsoft and Yahoo! to create a set of standards for working in countries with poor human rights records: the Global Network Initiative’s Implementation Guidelines. EFF was a founding member of the GNI, but subsequently left the coalition in 2013 due to concerns that the companies were unable to be forthcoming about their involvement in state surveillance, even within a confidential environment.

From the outside, it’s unclear to us whether this project has yet to be considered in the light of that agreement. GNI’s Executive Director has told reporters, in part, that “All member companies are expected to implement the GNI Principles wherever they operate, and are subject to independent assessment, which is overseen by our multi-stakeholder Board of Directors.” It might reassure Google’s own staff and external critics to be told that process was being followed, and if both the GNI and Google were more public about the results of that procedure.

But for now, it seems the company has opted to prepare new Chinese plans outside the view of the public, and even behind the backs of many of their own employees.

From 2006 to 2018: Both Google and China are more powerful than ever

Our original concerns from 2006 still stand today, but in 2018, the potential for damage when large tech companies co-operate with repressive states has grown.

Since 2006, Google’s capabilities have expanded massively. We live in an era in which Google-owned tracking scripts are present on an incredible 75% of the top million websites. Google’s personalized profiles of its users across several online services help it provide “relevant” search results and advertisements.

Simultaneously, in order to sustain their position on strong censorship, the Chinese government has had to implement broad and pervasive surveillance laws and technology. In particular, the explosive dominance of centralized applications like Weibo and WeChat, whose communications and transactions are regularly surveilled and censored, has ultimately transformed the digital landscape in China.

2017 in particular saw a new wave of regulatory crackdowns aimed towards strengthening digital surveillance practices across the Chinese Internet. In particular, the government began restricting tools used for anonymity and privacy by arresting local VPN providers, banning end-to-end chat applications like WhatsApp, and mandating Internet platforms to require offline identity verification. In certain regions of China, citizens merely attempting to use foreign or encrypted applications like WhatsApp or Telegram can have their service cut off and are asked to report to the police.

It’s not clear how or whether Google’s planned offerings will comply with these new national regulations, or whether exemptions would be worked out for the tech giant.

At this early stage, it’s this lack of transparency that concerns us most.

What happened to transparency within Google?

Google once prided itself in its internal organizational transparency, especially when compared to giants like Apple, famous for their secrets veiled in black cloth. However, as we saw with Project Maven, Google’s controversial AI contract with the Department of Defense, executives within the organization are willing to keep projects quiet in the face of potential backlash. The initiative was not publicized, and came to light only when employees noticed and brought it to the forefront of internal discussion forums.

Unlike in 2006, when Google was open (and even apologetic) about the quality and nature of its service in China, this new iteration was developed with little external or internal visibility. A source at The Intercept reports that knowledge about Google’s China project was “restricted to just a few hundred members of the Internet giant’s 88,000-strong workforce.” Though Project Maven was not publicized, this information was at least available to employees. This time, the vast majority of employees discovered the existence of the China project only after these emails were leaked to the public media.

That means certain questions remain unanswered, not just publicly, but even among Google’s own staff. What sacrifices will Google make to its own operating practices in order to enter the Chinese market? Will it have to comply with China’s internal strict regulations, and how will these compromises affect its offerings outside of China?

The public, Google’s users, and Google’s employees have been kept increasingly in the dark about compromises on the company’s own values that could massively affect the lives of not only citizens within China or the U.S., but also Internet users around the world. Google has already committed to processes that consider human rights when entering new markets in the Global Network Initiative. Is it following them?

Google is an effective gatekeeper of the Internet for a large majority of the world. It’s the portal through which many access the Internet, and through which Google itself continues to collect troves of information about these users across a variety of platforms. With that kind of responsibility, everyone — inside and outside Google — needs to stay vigilant and continue to hold the giant accountable. Avoiding internal oversight and criticism will not evade the backlash that will come from launching a complicit service, or the damaging consequences to Chinese users when Google’s compromises are used against them. It is better to have this debate now, in public, than to pick up the pieces when the damage has been done.

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