#from Before the first episode her origin story is she committed suicide

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

you see. you see waht i mean

[thisisnotthenerd]

Neverafter Episode 14: Daughters of the Crown thoughts and musings. Spoilers Ahead.

Well, I got my wish for a gerelody reunion, almost verbatim.

I’m glad that it wasn’t cut-and-dry. That both of them had the opportunity to say the things they needed to say and had the time and space to process a reunion. I think a truer aspect of Gerard’s curse is coming forth--that the ratio of frog to man isn’t really dependent on Elody and how much she loved him, but more on his own sense of self and what defines his nature, after having lived so long as a frog.

Elody got into the meat of her issue with the world, being that the simplest parts of her life are the only things being preserved in story. That the person she is and the struggles she has experienced beyond that aren’t worth remembering. I think her motivation there is definitely closer to the party than it is to the princesses, but who knows how that will change.

As for the princesses, I’m concerned about the next action they will take. The suicidal nature of their mission to destroy and restructure the Neverafter is unsettling and speaks to a lack of regard for stories and people other than themselves as well as a deeply sad reason for their mission. They all want a better future for themselves by whatever means necessary; at the very least, those that have been in on it the longest don’t have a regard for other stories and/or people if they stand in their way. Emily hit it on the head: we didn’t know if they were right or just young, hot, and good with magic and weapons. Now we know their interests diverge, and a fight with them will not go well for the party.

The prehensile hair on Rapunzel is terrifying, and only knowing that her persona is performative on a nat 20 perception check tells me that there’s a lot more going on under that hair of hers. Also, they know that Cinderella is more of a frontlines person, but have no idea the extent of la Bête’s power, and Snow White literally has an army. Elody and Mira are newer--not Twice-Upon-A-Time. I think they’re unlikely to do battle against Destiny’s Children unless they’re heavily coerced. They’re hostages, whether they’ve realized it or not.

However, Destiny’s Children has been collecting power and information in a way that somewhat destabilizes them; each party member has something they could do to dramatically change their course of action.

From a terrestrial perspective, while Gerard and Elody aren’t in a perfect place, I have a feeling that a proper conversation with her could deeply influence her perspective on the princesses, especially if the party is advocating to get her out. Rosamund’s first loyalty isn’t to the princesses; if she refuses to commit to the plan, and Elody or even Mira choose not to as well, the princesses are going to lose their advantage in numbers and probably seek to take them back by force, which detracts from their greater goal.

On a multiversal scale, four of Destiny’s Children are working with a power set was specifically granted to them by a higher power, greater than the princesses or fairies. Ylfa has the blessing of Death on her--my theory being that if the Wolf was not saved, she was being unknowingly set up to take on the role. He wanted her to live even when she was killing herself before him. There’s a little inconsistency in that she didn’t gain a greater awareness upon consuming the Wolf the way the Baron of Bricks did, but that could come down to a few things: he wasn’t boiled down the way he was in the soup, she was still confined to her original story and thus could not become aware immediately, or even that he simply wanted to preserve her remaining innocence with regard to the Neverafter, when she had already lost so much.

Pib, while technically only functioning with the memories of a Twice-Upon-A-Time, is fundamentally a trickster archetype. Theory time: he may not have the power that the BBW or the various Geese do, but being an archetype grants these characters a certain amount of power and perspective that the ‘protagonist’ characters don’t have. Pib has been the one to make discoveries on a wide variety of fronts--he got the true books out of the Lines Between, which gave the party a major advantage in terms of figuring out the Neverafter and gave Pinocchio the opportunity to seize his own destiny. He can make big swings without compromising his role and thus isn’t as constrained as the other party members. We know that the Stepmother, who gains from consumption of other stories, is a powerful threat; however, though she was a warlock patron, I don’t think she’s quite on same axis as the bigger players like the BBW, the Geese, or the Baba Yaga. She doesn’t have a universal awareness. Pib could theoretically take that on.

Pinocchio, on the other hand, is the boy of destiny. He’s wielding his story like a weapon. There is a great deal of power to that--I think he’s one of the party members they’d try to control immediately aside from Timothy. He can call on parts of his story that are actively dangerous i.e. il Terribile Pescecane--maybe not consciously, but it’s a risk they’d have to take with him around. For all that Pinocchio suffered in his tales, there’s a lot that could come out of that book.

Speaking of books, I think Timothy is going to be in a tight spot after this. Knowing that all they have to do is get the ink to him, I think the princesses may be gunning for him as a tool. There’s no way he would put it down, but I’d be willing to bet that the prehensile hair would be in the room while he’s sleeping, just waiting for an opportunity. Also, if they know he’s on his last wish, the idea may be to trigger that into killing him and then just take the book for themselves. The princesses are certainly ruthless and I wouldn’t put it past them, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel especially, to do that.

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

2023 Movie Journey #8: The Menu

the menu. i’m glad i decided to watch this one. it wasn’t originally on my list, because i only knew ralph fiennes was in it and it’s about food--neither of those are specific draws for me. i had heard it involves class issues, it was being compared to glass onion in headlines i skimmed, so i wasn’t totally opposed to it, i just wasn’t sure either way. but then i saw john leguizamo talk about his role in an interview, and i hadn’t realized he was part of it; that made me reconsider. and then my favorite movie podcast put out an episode where they discussed m3gan--which i am desperate to get someone else’s opinion on since i saw it alone--BUT the episode also includes discussion of the menu. so i figured if i was ever planning on watching the menu, i had better do so soon, and then i’d be able to enjoy that podcast double-feature. (which now i can, yay!)

but my impression of this movie was definitely wrong, i’ll start by saying. i didn’t know it was really a horror movie--i knew there was some violence or gore, but i honestly thought for some reason that it was a movie about cannibalism, where the menu involved killing and cooking the customers. i have no idea where i got that idea, since it is not true. so now i’ve already watched more horror movies this year than i have in the last several combined, even if this one was by accident. and since i’m about to watch scream 5 (because i never did when it came out) in order to decide if i want to see scream 6 in the theater, i’m starting to reacclimate to horror and that’s a surprisingly nice feeling. in real life, i prefer to avoid violence always...but i’m okay with being desensitized to it in media because i don’t get to choose which stories include violence (so many!) and those stories can hold a lot of value for me otherwise.

anyhow, this movie really was good, and i’m not sure i have too much to say beyond that--the cast is great, from personal faves like judith light and nicholas hoult to reliable talents like ralph fiennes and anna taylor-joy. i didn’t realize before watching this that ralph fiennes is a jkr defender, so obviously that sucks, but he was hitting all the necessary levels in this--terrifying, sad, obsessive. and anna taylor-joy was another actor i didn’t even know was in this, which is pretty funny since she’s the real star. she makes an excellent final girl and as somebody who couldn’t get through the queen’s gambit i am thrilled to now know more of her work. i adore her thanks to this movie alone.

i did engage my newly-implemented horror rule of looking away when i need to--there are multiple suicides in this, for example, but most of the deaths were telegraphed well in advance so i didn’t have to see them. and because of my relationship to food, tbh there were some times when i looked away that didn’t involve any violence at all. this movie is simultaneously a love letter to food and a takedown of foodie culture, as much as it’s a takedown of wealthy restaurant customers and the way that restaurant culture destroys the workers that pour their lives into crafting food. because i’m so detached from food, i mostly enjoyed it as a well-told story rather than relating to any of it. 

i will add though that this is a fucking weird movie. that was my first immediate impression as i was watching it, so i shouldn’t just say i liked it without adding that. it is incredibly dark and twisted. but it so clearly knows what it wants to be doing that i was happily along for the ride. there’s something really enjoyable--at least for me--about a movie that’s completely committed to its premise, no matter how intense or specific (or bizarre) it may be. 

oh, also i liked the soundtrack to this one a lot. it wasn’t exactly all that special, more of the ‘classical with a modern twist’ that i love whenever i encounter it...but it made it fun for me to let the credits play to the end, because i enjoy that style of music all the time.

in conclusion, i would recommend this one if you like the cast, are interested in commentary on fine dining and the people that create it, or enjoy modern horror movies (especially ones that justify murdering the wealthy). i liked it a lot more than i thought i would.

[faintingheroine]

Is anything as unsatisfactory as Nigar and Hatice’s Season 3 arcs?

Hatice’s downward spiral might be well-written in itself, but it fails a bit for me because of its complete lack of relation to what came before in her marriage to Ibrahim in Season 2.

Nigar’s arc is non-existent. They didn’t even try. Nigar’s story just does not have any catharsis or purpose or anything. It is a story that just fizzles out and then they pointlessly kill her. Which is a pity, because hers was a story/a downward spiral that progressed quite well in the first two seasons.

I think there are two reasons for this:

1) Plain misogyny and Ibrahim-worship. We went over this multiple times.

2) I think the later seasons of Magnificent Century suffer from the late Game of Thrones phenomenon of wanting to do a cool scene but not actually wanting to do the work to arrive at that cool scene. It would be fucking cool to have Hatice commit suicide by drinking from the bottle Ibrahim had gifted her back in early Season 1, and we need a new antagonist for Hürrem (Valide is dead and Mahidevran is at Manisa) so Hatice must forgive Ibrahim. I guess the writers for some reason thought that Nigar kidnapping Mihrimah’s baby and then killing herself would be poetic so Nigar stayed on the show for 20 more episodes after Ibrahim’s death and did nothing.

Hatice and Nigar and this love triangle also suffers from being the most prominent completely original plot in this show. The overall arcs of characters like Süleyman, Hürrem, Mahidevran, Mustafa and the Grand Vizier side of Ibrahim are an already existing series of events. Characters like Isabella, Firuze and Helena are also completely original, and their storylines too are disasters that fizzle out, but no one gave much of a fuck about them anyway. Hatice and Nigar are characters we do give a fuck about, but they are also completely original characters (Hatice has a namesake in history but for all intents and purposes she is a completely original character) enacting a completely original plot. So the absolute failure on the part of the writers to conclude an original story curses Nigar and Hatice the most.

Edit: Leo’s story was the only original subplot that had a proper cathartic finale that actually had relation to what came before.

[akria23]

Suspect Theory List

I’m continuing with my simplified version of my Suspect Theories so again no charts. Again I’ve put the original sus list and if they’re still active, disproven, or yet to be explored in the series. Some them I’ve shelved & others I’m considering on a small scale.

Looking at the list and seeing the stuff from my first chart is kinda crazy. In hindsight I get why the writer said what he about giving me a reward because damn near every theory I had on my chart has been explore up until this point - Suicide, debt collector, hiding, drug overdose, Prom being Mask Dog. The only things I had that haven’t been explore was Split Personality & Coma and funny enough I still have them there because whose to say Nant/Nont ain’t in a psyche ward or hospital bed stuck in a hallucinogenic dream where he has split himself into two separate people. I don’t think so…well not reeeeally.

At this point anything’s possible. I don’t know how to feel though cause imagine all of my theories making it into the series and none of them being THE right theory. Like yeah he was overdose but if it wasn’t under the circumstances I originally theorize then that’s like a half a point imo. There’s always stuff I feel like I missed because of my own biases - like Prom working with Nant for his escape. I feel like I should’ve caught that possibility for sure but because of how I felt Nant viewed Prom I assumed he wouldn’t have went to him for that but it makes so much sense in hindsight. They’re probably gonna gag me in the end. Like imagine Puen is the killer - I don’t think he’s on anybody’s list despite him teasing his own possible badness in the earlier episodes. My mom played catch up right before episode 10 & Aob was actually on her suspect list. She was so satisfied seeing his actions in episode 10.

Anyway, let’s get into the update…

NUTH ❓ Still active

- Originally the series was building a case against Nuth - he seemed like an obsessive, possibly violent, and possessive individual who was attached to & influencing Nant’s life. I felt he could be a major red herring, however when the narrative shifted to paint Nant as the possibly violent one while victimizing Nuth, I felt there were a few threads left unanswered & a possibility that Nuth might not be a reliable narrator/source.

NOBODY

Theory A: Suicide ❌ Disproven

- Theory built on the idea that Nant may have been struggling with unhappiness & his circumstances to the point of self harming.

- This theory was explored in episode 7 & 8 wherein Nuth claims Nant committed suicide due to pressures of his debtors but Prom & the Baddies feel the suicide video was just a set up video by Nant to fake his death because the clip was sent to Nuth, his laptop was found elsewhere & there was no body found.

- In episode 10 Nant death was ruled as an accidental overdose. Though one could commit suicide by overdose I’m still taken this confirmation as a disproved theory for now.

Theory B: Split Personality 🔆 Unexplored

- Theory built on the idea that Nont/a ant ks actually one person who struggles with split personality or an identity crisis.

- Theory has yet to be explored within the story.

Theory C: Debt Collector❗️Currently Exploring

- Theory was built on the idea that the debtors Prom mentioned when he first met Nont likely wasn’t Soong cause he would just said his name (and Soong admitted that Nant has paid him back). This idea branched off into 3 mini theories of what could’ve happened to Nant if he was indebted to drug dealers…

- Hiding: ✔️ Confirmed

* Theory is self explanatory. Prom faked his death and went into hiding from his debtors.

* This theory was confirmed if Prom’s testimony is to be believed and the fact that Nant’s body was fresh means he was atleast alive until 2 days before the discovery of his body.

* Given episode 10 it seems there may of course be more to the story.

- Coma: 🔅 Unexplored

* Again this one was self explanatory. If Nant owed a large sum of money they may not have minded harming him if he couldn’t pay up. This would’ve explained the lack of a body & communication on Nant’s side of things. Again this may be disproven soon as well if the clip at the end of episode 8 was really Nant’s corpse.

* I could slide this one to disproven but my second theory for Coma is that Nont is actually in a coma and all of this is one big coma dream. So I’ll leave this one as unexplored for now.

- Drug overdose:❗️ Currently exploring

* This one didn’t really have much to do with the debtors other than it being drug related. The theory is built on the concept that Nant may have had a bad reaction or an accidental overdose on drugs he was either using or unknowingly took & those around him either left him for dead or got rid of his body afterwards.

* So death by overdose has been confirmed - they state accidental but so he could’ve been hiding out and meeting someone & overdose & they dumped his body.

* Or he could’ve been intentionally drugged and then his body disposed of.

Shelved: 🛑

- Prom: Is still currently on the self even though I have to admit I can still see a path for him to be the killer but this deep in the story I feel like there’s better possibilities & likelihoods.

- Porsche: I actually do have a theory and a possible motive for him to be a killer but I really don’t wanna put it on the board without some evidence that it’s really a possibility- simply because of subject matter behind this particular theory. So imma keep him on the shelf unless I see clues pointing to my theory.(One day imma have to write a post about how I can love a Vegas but don’t see it at all for a Porsche).

- Keen: This one is of no surprise to me because I had more reasons listed for why I felt it was him but felt I had to add him to the possibility because of the mask link.

Possible additions: ⁉️

- Daddy Jason: Last time I said he HAD to be guilty something but I’m actually unsure about this one because while I think he’s a bad guy I don’t know if I’d say he’s the actual killer. For one the method of death. In the trailer we saw Jason put a bullet between a man’s eyes - why would he use his product to kill Nant when there’s easier s ways? Even if we say he wanted to kill him inconspicuously, an overdose naked in the woods is not that at all.

- Zouey: I know Zouey is a Baddie and a fan favorite which makes him less likely the killer BUT if this was a normal thriller ran by normal thriller rules Zouey would be everyone’s prime suspect. He’s the least likely, he’s well liked which makes him a suspect all in his own. But what puts Zouey on a list for me is the fact that he was supposedly SO close to Nant yet Nant didn’t go to him for help - atleast not at first from what we know. But he could’ve reached out to him later & Zouey could’ve used that advantage. I don’t think drugs or the debt would be Zouey’s motive of course - the overdose would have just been a convenient weapon given Nant’s drug history. There’s also the fact of us never getting to see Zouey/Teena’s for all we know they could’ve went and murdered Nant together & lied about having sex instead. Do I think Zouey will actually be the killer? Probably not but I wanted to add him regardless 😂 At least one of my crazy theories gotta make the board.

- Tutor: This one may feel a bit random BUT everyone in the series has something to do with Nant - even Phop had a connection of suspicion by having Nant’s laptop. And we don’t know much about tutor other than he’s a reporter so it’s difficult to build a case against him but If I remember correctly there was a message between Tutor & Nant about looking into Jason. Tutor could’ve at one point been working with Nant (or pretending to) and later turned on him. I haven’t been able to work a motive so he’s just on the possibility list.

Suspicious but don’t make the list (yet):

- Aob: Is one of those ppl who should be on the list because after the last episode he seems mad sus, however, while he seems to be working for Jason and could’ve gotten rid of Nant cause he was a threat to Jason (if he’d been trying to find dirt on him with Tutor like it seemed) but he just doesn’t make the cut for me. That may have more to do with feeling he’d be more of a stereotypical choice than any real possibility of him not being the killer tho.

- Things I still wonder about…

* Does Zouey identify as Demisexual, Placiosexual or something else?

* What is the handprint at Nuth’s house all about if he didn’t murder anyone?!

* Why did they cut the ZoueyTeena scene…Because I don’t know my brain keeps thinking maybe ZT are lying for some reason.

* 2/3 projects I’ve seen from the writer (this being the 3rd) there’s usually atleast 1 pairing that does not make it…will that trend carry into Playboyy? And if so which pairing not making it (I think about this a lot actually).

* Why was Nant found naked…

* Why the narrative around the twins being so similar when the only area the seem similar in is how they enjoy sex.

* Jason seems like the quid-pro-quo type so what does Prom have to do to be taken care of, to be the host of Playboyy rather than one of the men on the menu like Aob?

[callmebrycelee]

THE ROOKIE REACTION

Today's reaction is to the season 5, second episode titled "Labor Day" which originally aired on October 2, 2022. The episode was written by Elizabeth Davis Beall and directed by Rob Seidenglanz. Spoilers ahead!

So, let's talk about episode 2 - "Labor Day". At the end of last episode, we saw Lucy and Tim return to her apartment after their undercover operation in Vegas to find Lucy's boyfriend, Chris (Kanoa Goo) almost dead on her sofa due to his wrists being slit by Rosalind Dyer. Now Chris is home from the hospital and convalescing at Lucy's apartment. Lucy has fallen back into the role of doting girlfriend which means Chenford needs to be placed on the backburner for now. Lucy receives a visit from recruiter Misha Porter (Fiona Rene) and is asked to join one of her classes in Sacramento. Lucy has garnered a lot of experience over the last few seasons working undercover and her hard work is not going unnoticed. This decision should be a no-brainer for someone like Lucy who has been wanting to be an undercover agent for quite some time now but after everything that's gone down with Rosalind Dyer and now Chris, she's feeling a bit apprehensive. She's also feeling guilt because she was so close to taking things to the next level with Tim. 

Lucy goes back and forth trying to decide if this is something she wants to undertake. At the end of the episode, Tim comes by her apartment. Apparently Chris, being such a good boyfriend, invited him over so that he could encourage Lucy to sign up for the school. Lucy tells Tim that she feels guilty about what happened to Chris and how she nearly cheated on him. Tim, being the classy fellow as always, takes a step back which confuses Lucy. Tim knows the only way that Lucy will ever pursue a career in undercover work is for him to remove himself from the equation. As just like that our romantic pairing fizzles before they even have a chance to flame. I have a feeling we will eventually get Chenford on this show but hopefully no one has to get hurt for this to happen and whether you like him or not, Chris does seem like a nice guy. 

Meanwhile, Nolan begins his new role as training officer and his first assignment is none other than Thorsen who is without a training officer due to Nyla being on maternity leave. I'll have to admit, I wasn't exactly a fan of Thorsen at first. A part of me resented him being the de facto replacement for Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) who was killed from the show at the beginning of season 4. I do like that the writers went out of their way to make Aaron Thorsen a completely different character than his predecessor much like they did with Nyla when she came in to replace Talia Bishop (Afton Williamson). With that said, we have rarely seen these two particular characters - Nolan and Thorsen - work together and on his first day as a training officer, Nolan is called to the scene where a fellow police officer named Garrett Patel has seemingly committed suicide. After talking to the officer's widow and getting some information from the coroner, the two start to suspect foul play. 

Nolan and Thorsen get Tim and Angela involved and the four of them deduce that Garrett's former partners are involved. Now one thing that tipped me off that the dirty cops in this episode were indeed dirty is when the main guy, Walt Lindbeck (Jesse Luken) used the phrase bad hombres which is something that a certain former president of the United States said when describing Mexicans. These three men were terrible. Not only did they break into Garrett's house to steal evidence, their leader turned a gun on Angela. I was so happy that these two got caught and while this wasn't the main story of tonight's episode, it was great seeing Nolan in a role of authority. I really do think he is going to make a great training officer.

We jump over to Nyla's storyline which involves her preparing to give birth in her new home with her fiance James (Arjay Smith). Nyla has decided that she not only wants to give birth at home, she wants to have a water birth. It was fun seeing James run around taking care of things for her, even going as far to confront their new neighbors across the street who love to play their music at an obnoxious volume. Because James is such a genuinely nice guy, Nyla waddles across the street to handle the decision which only makes things worse. Later on that day, while James is helping her do some baby yoga, she hears gunshots coming from the house across the street.

Smitty arrives on the scene and assures Nyla and James that nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary when he investigated. Because this is Smitty, we can't exactly take his word for it. Nyla, like myself, isn't convinced that something isn't up. She does some Rear Window-esque spying on the neighbors and spots two of them bringing what is obviously a body out the front door of the home. She heads over to investigate and when the two men are in the house, she pops the truck and finds the body rolled up in a rug as well as some chemicals to dispose of it. When she hears the guys coming out of the house, she hides behind a bush but forgets to close the trunk. The men immediately suspect that she's spying on them so James comes out of the house in a towel and feigns looking for a nonexistent cat which buys Nyla enough time to get back to their house.

James rightfully chastises her for going off alone and the two of them get back to prepping for the birth of their baby. While upstairs in the pool she plans on giving birth, they hear a noise downstairs and then the power is shut off. Nyla commands James to get her gun and instead of giving it to him, she keeps it for himself leaving him to go downstairs to investigate with nothing to defend himself. He does manage to find a baseball bat because as horror and thriller movies have taught us time and time again, when it comes time to bash some serial killer or monster brains in, a baseball bat will always be there. James is tackled by one of the two men from across the street and easily subdued. The main guy of the two heads upstairs where he finds the bedroom empty. He checks the closet and the bathroom but there is no sign of Nyla. As he turns his back, Nyla raises up out of the kitty pool like she is starring in the sequel of Tyler Perry's Acrimony and the next thing we hear is gunshots. 

Captain Wade arrives on the scene and takes out the guy wrestling with James. The two of them then race upstairs where they find Nyla in bed, looking perfect and inexplicably dry, with her newborn baby in hand. So yes - you read that correctly. In the time it took for Wade to arrive and save James, Nyla subdued the intruder, delivered her baby, perhaps even cut the umbilical cord, and managed to get changed into dryer clothes just in time for James and Wade to arrive. While this may sound super silly, because it is super silly, this part of the episode was super thrilling and I enjoyed how action-packed and ludicrous it was. Nyla has a baby and it appears that the baby is both hers and James. I had initially been speculating that Nyla's baby would come out half-white because she did sleep with her ex at some point last season. I didn't know if the writers would use that to create a new storyline but it seems that all is well for Nyla and James and their sweet baby girl. 

Overall this episode wasn't exactly what I was expecting, especially after last week's dynamite season opener. However, I wasn't exactly disappointed by this episode either. I love that everyone's storylines are advancing. Nolan is taking steps towards doing what he has always wanted to do. Lucy is finally getting an opportunity to do what she's always wanted to do even if it means that she'll have to let go of Tim. Nyla has a baby now and she seems more determined than ever to do for this child what she failed to do for her first kid. It looks like season 5 is going to be a great season for The Rookie which makes me very happy. Until next time ...

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #114 (Year 3/Week 10):

Innocence Lost in Close, my 2nd sensitive drama by Belgian Lukas Dhont. Movingly and tenderly it details an intimate friendship - love, rather - between two 13-year-old boys. The script, style and direction are flawless and restrained, and the acting of the two amateur teens is pitch-perfect. 10/10.

I really should watch ‘Girl’, his debut film, again.

From the 5 Oscar nominees for Best International feature this weekend I’m missing only ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by now. My favorite is still ‘The Quiet Girl’, with this ‘Close’ a close second.

🍿

3 from Portugal:

🍿 A landmark of Portuguese New Cinema and Paulo Rocha's underrated debut masterpiece The Green Years ('Os Verdes Anos'). A naive 19-year-old boy from the provinces come to Big City Lisbon of 1963, finds a job as a cobbler assistant, and falls in love with a pretty housemaid. Beautifully gentle and nostalgic, also leisurely-episodic and unrestrained - with a shocking finale. 7/10.

🍿 “...Everything I’m telling you is not reality, but tales...”

Tabu by Miguel Gomez, a black & white magical realist story of madness, obsession and colonialism. A heartbroken explorer commits suicide by jumping into a river infested with crocodiles. A kind middle-aged women tries to help her delusional neighbor who lives in the apartment next door, together with her black maid. A search for a mystery man who committed a grave sin many years ago and miles away. All those and more are mixed into a poetic metaphor of lost love and lost empire.

Mesmerizing and engrossing, melancholic and transcendental - The best film of the week!

(The only issue I had with the story is that it talks of the past in “Africa” instead of Mozambique, but maybe this is how they talk about it now, I don’t know)

🍿 Ice Merchants, a wordless, enigmatic story about loss which was Oscar nominated for this year’s animated short. It tells of a father and son who live alone in a cabin hanging on a side of a mountain thousands of meter above the ground. Every day they parachute in tandem down to the village below, to sell the ice they gather up there. And every time they jump down, they lose their hats.

🍿 

Allegro Non Troppo, my first by Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto, creator of the ‘Signor Rossi’ cartoon character. It’s a low-rent Italian ‘Fantasia’, a light-hearted feature that showcases psychedelic animations to 6 classic evergreens, including a dance of sugar molecules inside a bottle of Coca-Cola to the tune of Ravel’s Bolero, as well as pieces by Debussy, Dvořák, Sibelius, Stravinsky, and Vivaldi. It specifically asks to be be compared as a parody of the superior Disney original.

🍿

2 by new French director Constance Meyer, both with Gérard Depardieu:

🍿 Another wonderful random discovery: Robust, a powerful debut feature by a young female director (who doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page). It’s a terrific story of two larger-than-life people: Depardieu as an aging, seriously-overweight and lonely superstar, disgusted with life and wishing to be dead. And a black, 22-year-old, 300-lbs. female wrestler who’s assigned to be his helper/bodyguard for a month, and who is not intimidated by his fame or reckless behavior. The two fantastic professionals develop an unlikely relationship without pity or allusions. The young no-bullshit security guard character (Déborah Lukumuena) is a revelation: she’s surprisingly well-rounded, highly-talented in her own right, strong, confident and sexual, with a skinny boyfriend she holds at arm’s length.

I loved its physicality, and will highly recommend it. The trailer. 9/10. 

🍿 Mayer directed only 2 short films before ‘Robust’, both of them also with Depardieu: ‘Frank-Étienne Towards Grace’ (which I cannot find online) and Rhapsody from 2016. It’s an inexplicable poetic story of an old, heavy loner who lives in a small tower apartment, and takes care of a tiny baby the neighbor leaves with him every morning. 

🍿 

Naked Normandy (2018), a light and charming French comedy about French mayor Francois Cluzet who has to convince his villagers to pose naked in a field for a famous American photographer. Toby Jones is obviously Spencer Tunick, and the field he wants to stage his photograph is obviously Windows XP ‘Bliss, “the most viewed photograph in history”. 6/10.

🍿

My life as a zucchini, a stop-motion animated Swiss film that was Oscar-nominated in 2016. In Aardman Studio-style, it tells a sweet and sad story about a little boy who kills his alcoholic mom by accident, and who is sent to an orphanage with 6 other unfortunate kids. It was written by my favorite director Céline Sciamma. Heartfelt and compassionate. (Photo Above).    

🍿

2 with Dean Stockwell:

🍿 I haven’t seen much of Francis Ford Coppola’s last 30+ years (Except of Godfather 3, of course), so I sought his 1987 Gardens of Stone. Another polemic of his about the Vietnam War, it tells of the guards at the Arlington National Cemetery who perform the military kabuki mass-burying dead soldiers. The theater is beautiful, but the drama is a bit outdated. With peak Anjelica Huston and concert promoter Bill Graham (who had a flourishing film career at that time), James Earl Jones, and many others. 3/10.

🍿 I didn’t realize that Stockwell’s career "spanned seven decades” and that he started as a child actor, with his breakthrough role as a young boy in the musical Anchors aweigh. A terrible story of two naive sailors on a shore leave in Hollywood, with thin, virginal Frank Sinatra, and buddy Gene Kelly, both acting and behaving like two six-graders who just discover ‘Dames’. Even the singing and tap dancing numbers are third-grade. It’s notable for the scene when Gene Kelly appears with the animated Tom and Jerry, but this is the only watchable scene that is not dull. 2/10.

🍿

Love letters from 1953, the first film directed by the actress Kinuyo Tanaka, who was the second woman to have a career as a film director in Japan. It’s a romance story about post-war Japan still bearing the scars of the occupation and assimilation. A former prisoner-of-war gets a job writing English-language love letters for females whose GI lovers went back to America. An interesting melodrama.

🍿

After loving the John Cho thriller ‘Searching’ (I saw it 4 times last year!) I was not looking forward to the director’s new “standalone sequel” (because sequels!). The 'Screenlife’ genre where all events are shown on computer, smartphones and tablets is clever, and the team behind it have already produced 4-5 movies just like that. The best thing to say about the new version. Missing, is that it’s exactly the same as the surprise hit from 5 years ago. The only difference is that instead of a father looking for his missing daughter. it’s the daughter looking for her missing mother. So it’s strange, they decided to go that way, surely for viewers new to the set-up. On the other hand, for the old fans, it’s completely redundant. 5/10.

🍿

2 new documentaries with 100% Tomato score:

🍿 Following last week’s discovery of Charles Burnett’s neglected black masterpiece ‘Killer of Sheep’, I was happy to dig into Is That Black Enough for You?!? Film critic Elvis Mitchell’s essay about the legacy of African-American film history from the silent era to its Golden Age of the 1970′s. Samples of hundreds of black movies that were lost, forgotten, censured and white-washed, left me with a big new list of movies to look forward to.

However, his encyclopedic knowledge of the topic was delivered too hurriedly and without digging deep into any particular point. The only overreaching impression is how inherently racist Hollywood’s Amerika had always been. 6/10.

🍿 Ron Howard’s portrait of big-time humanitarian / celebrity chef José Andrés, We feed people. Andrés established his non profit organization ‘World Central Kitchen’, which cooks for survivors after natural disasters. A mix of touching scenes of destruction, together with the usual TV-documentaries blandness. Not 100% for me.

🍿

Another Oscar-nominated Chilean docudrama - with “only” 94% Tomato-score - The Mole Agent, has a wonderful premise: An 84-year-old man answers an employment ad that specifically asks for a very old candidate. His job is to infiltrate a Santiago nursing home, pose as an applicant resident there, and investigate undercover if there’s truth to the claims of abuse toward the mostly female residents. In the course of the 3 months he lives there, he uses clandestine recordings, micro camera pen and Google-type glasses to send daily reports to an off-site investigator. 

I guess it “is” a documentary, in the sense that obviously the location and residents are real, but it’s better not to regard it as a documentary in the strict sense, because it’s obviously filmed with a supporting crew and with the approval from the nursing home.

The very human stories of the old ladies at the end of their lives is moving and fascinating. 8/10.

This is my 26th film in 2023 directed by a woman. I am excited about director Maite Alberdi’s new film ‘The Eternal Memory’.

🍿

Following Elvis Mitchell’s advise (above), I started with Harry Belafonte’s brave 1959 Film Noir Odds Against Tomorrow. It’s an expertly-scripted plot by blacklisted Araham Polonsky, who was credited for the screenplay under another name. Crisp, tight and engaging classic about 3 small timers who try to rob a bank, ring leader Ed Begley, suave nightclub singer Belafonte, and racist ex-con SOB Robert Ryan who doesn’t want to take a job with a colored man. A terrific heist gone awry story with racial undertones. 8/10.

🍿

I used to like Bo Widerberg since his ‘Elvira Madigan’ days. His 1984 The man from Majorca is a highly-enjoyable Nordic style police procedural with cover-ups and conspiracies galore. It is often compared to ‘The French Connection’. The lead is played by ‘Uncle Gunnar’ from ‘My life as a dog’. 7/10.

🍿 

After reading the new Atlantic’s portrait 'Schwarzenegger’s Last Act’, I watched Pumping Iron, the Reality TV documentary that put bodybuilding on the map. I can’t believe I was lifting weights too for about 2 years around that time. 3/10.

🍿

Predestination, a bullshit Australian science-fiction story, complicated and stupid, unfolded as a “Barroom story”. Pre-Succession doppelganger Sarah Snook (one as a woman and one after a sex assignment surgery, where she looks like a young Leonardo DiCaprio) and horribly-playing Ethan Hawke ham it out. 2/10.

🍿

There are Jews in the world, there are Buddhists There are Hindus and Mormons, and then There are those that follow Mohammed, but I've never been one of them...

The meaning of life, Monty Python’s final film, aged very well! Still surreal, irreverent, funny and full of extraordinary violence. Also with 4 Superb musical numbers: ‘Every sperm is sacred’, ‘The Galaxy Song’, ‘The Penis song’ and ‘Christmas in heaven’. And some genial scenes and situations: “Find the Fish”, "Live Organ Transplants", "Oh shit—it's Mr. Creosote!". Also the standalone swashbuckling introduction of ‘The Crimson Permanent Assurance' (with young Max Headroom!). 9/10.

“NOW! Sex, Sex, sex....”

🍿

Throw-back to the art project:  

Monty Python Adora.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

[oksanapark]

i’ve been seeing a lot of confusion regarding the plot of 4x05, so i thought some people might appreciate a brief overview of everything that’s going on with The Twelve and how the themes relate to Villaneve. because truly we’re all just here to watch two women kiss and the plot is SO HARD TO FOLLOW FOR NO REASON 😭 ok lets do it

4x05 Recap: As we knew, carolyn's father was a spy during the cold war. following in his footsteps, a younger carolyn has just been hired to the UK’s intelligence service, and her first mission is to infiltrate an anarchist political group, presumably to keep tabs on the soviet union’s influence in europe. here, she meets Johan (who she pretends? to date) and a young Konstantine (who she’s instantly attracted to, moreso than you’d want a spy to be lol). Not long after they sleep together, carolyn finds her father dead. she investigates and realizes konstantine is a KGB agent who only got close with her to get info on her father. konstantine snapped photos of him kissing other men and used his sexuality to blackmail him. subsequently, carolyn’s father commits suicide.

instead of just killing konstantine, in classic carolyn style she tries to make a deal with him, likely to find out who was targeting her father and get justice for him. but before she can, a jealous Johan interrupts. They end up killing him (or so they think). in reality Johan survives and goes on to help found The Twelve--which we finally understand is an organization dedicated to the political philosophy of anarchy. Based on Vlad’s behavior throughout the show, I think It’s possible that the Russian government is in bed with The Twelve, so we might hear more about that soon.. but anyways!

i know there has always been this theory that carolyn was a member of the twelve, but i never bought into that for various reasons and i think 4x05 makes it pretty clear now that she wasn’t. she was just spying on a group of people where the first ripples of the idea developed.

Post-4x05: These events set carolyn and konstantine down opposite paths-- konstantine becomes enmeshed with the twelve, while carolyn throws herself into MI6 work, seeking revenge but also probably out of guilt for making mistakes that lead to her father’s death. yet at the center of this mess is the strange love/hate relationship that carolyn and konstantine never seem able to let go of... from what i can tell they stay in contact for a while afterward, exchanging love letters as well as government secrets (at least long enough for them to frame Vlad as Carolyn’s source). The show hasn’t explained when or why they lose contact.

(disclaimer: it looks like the crew screwed up the timeline because 4x05 is the first time carolyn and konstantine meet and it uses the title card “1979,” but in 1x07 kenny finds letters between carolyn and konstantine that were dated “1977-1978″ ... so i’m working with what i have here ldkjfd sorry)  

okay, fast forward to season 1 episode 1.

carolyn hires eve to investigate a series of assassinations that she secretly suspects is the work of The Twelve..... which means that, decades later, it appears she only has a loose grasp on what the organization might have grown to be or who exactly is involved. though she is unsurprised to hear their name when Frank implicates them in 1x05.

In 1x06 however, carolyn appears VERY shocked when none other than konstantine vasiliev joins her, eve, and vlad at dinner. this is the scene that gave me the impression that the two of them haven't spoken in many years.

whew okay that’s pretty much it!! hopefully the overall thread of the story is making sense now... the question is ???? why tf should anyone care about this? lmao. personally i think it’s interesting to look at how carolyn x konstantine work as a contrast to villaneve.

Why this stuff matters: Eve and villanelle are the products of carolyn and konstantine respectively right. they’re like a fucked up family. carolyn originally saw eve as a pawn to help her achieve her personal goals, and of course konstantine groomed villanelle to be a weapon for the twelve.

what we're seeing play out in eve and villanelle's relationship is actually like... a breaking free of the older generation's war. carolyn and konstantine were star-crossed lovers in the truest sense, on opposite sides of a sociopolitical conflict, as well as (not completely) opposite sides of the moral spectrum. yes they cared for each other, but their relationship was built on distrust and hatred really. in 1x06 when eve asks "is konstantine an old friend?" carolyn simply answers  "no" with a smile. because whatever love they shared, it was never enough to overcome their differences.

eve and villanelle stand in stark contrast to that. neither are loyal to a certain party or cause--in fact they were both morally lost at the beginning of the show--but they found something worth being loyal for in each other. they are willing to change for each other, with villanelle becoming more like eve and eve becoming more like villanelle, and both working to find common ground, common humanity between them. carolyn and konstantine were little more than puppets of two corrupt governments, but with eve and villanelle it’s not british agent vs. russian agent. they’ve felt the corruption on both sides and their love exists outside the bounds of society altogether.

it’s a love that crosses cultural lines, nationality, political ideology, differences in morality, and importantly, sexuality norms. the fact that eve and villanelle are both women, the dangers of which were powerfully highlighted by the blackmailing of carolyn’s father in this episode.

and actually, carolyn’s whole character arc follows this homophobia-related thread. her mistakes in the ‘70s inadvertently led to the outing and death of a gay man, which has been at the heart of everything she does. now in the modern day, carolyn has watched and in some ways oddly encouraged the development of a romance between eve and villanelle, two women on opposing sides of a war. it’s almost like a combination of carolyn’s issues with her father and konstantine... and perhaps a resolution of them. i think she empathizes with eve and villanelle. even roots for them a little. its been delightful to watch because carolyn underestimated eve when she first recruited her and she didn’t expect to have her life so profoundly changed by her friendship.

something similar could be said for konstantine, as he was the one who orchestrated the blackmail. he was always far less enthusiastic than carolyn about eve and villanelle’s relationship, but i think being witness to their love has deeply affected him as well.

back to what i was saying though about villaneve existing outside the bounds of society... killing eve is a stunning love story because nearly every force in the world is working to keep them apart, yet they have this unexplainable, unbreakable bond that transcends it all. and again, konstantine and carolyn are important because they work as a contrast to this-- two people who DID let their differences get in the way of their love. carolyn reflects on this briefly in 4x05 and man this scene brought tears to my eyes:

Carolyn: “Do you ever think what might’ve happened if we hadn’t [killed Johan]? Do you think we might’ve had nice, normal existences? Kept our children? Maybe you and I... [trails off].”

Konstantine: “I don’t know.”

Carolyn: “No, you’re right. People like us aren’t made for happy lives with happy endings.”

But maybe eve and villanelle could be... if they learn from their mentors.

anyways thats it i guess! oof this was longer than i expected haha but yeah these are just my thoughts after watching 4x05, thanks for reading if anyone made it this far <3

[flyinglotus777]

Netflix’s Squid Game

SPOILER ALERT! If you are interested in watching the series, I HIGHLY suggest you do so. This article will be an overall synopsis and my review of the show. For an in-depth analysis of the symbolism of the show and ending, scroll down to the fourth to last paragraph.

The Netflix show, “Squid Game,” written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk is a phenomenal Korean drama centered around our victor, Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae. Contestants were recruited to play in a life or death competition due to their lack of luck, financial knowledge, and influx of impending debt they have accumulated throughout their lives. We first meet Gi-hun as he is down on his luck. Living with his elderly, overworked mother (which in countries outside of the United States is not strange nor uncommon) Gi-hun was a friend to gambling, but that toxic love caused him to be in debt to a gang of (what seemed to be) loan sharks. When luck finally strikes him on the race track, life simultaneously decides to take an excrement on his reality. His debt seekers catch him on his hot streak and involuntarily sign him up to be a participant in the Squid Game.

Similar to many other of the 456 participants, they all shared a common denominator of being in situations it seemed only money could fix. Upon arrival the contestants were asked to voluntarily sign wavers in order to participate in the game, while unknowingly risking their lives, for the opportunity to win 456 billion won (which would be roughly over $3.5 million in US currency). The challenges were mostly based on nostalgic childhood games, both based in the United States and South Korea.

Now I knew due to the explanation in the introduction of episode one that if any player were to lose, they would die. So during the first challenge of red light green light, when players were bulletly penalized for losing I was not surprised. After the game, the players decided to rally together and quit playing. The influence of the cash prize split the decision down the middle, leaving the old man, player 1, to be the final decision. To my surprise he actually chose to decline, freeing all of the players. During the voting, many players screamed at each other as to why they would choose to stay in the hell hole as other players responded that the outside world was not any better if not the same as the harsh environment they were already in. This reality struck many contestants as they returned back to their reality of debt, dependents, and for some bounty hunts, thus resulting in them returning to the game.

During the whole season, I was trying to find the purpose of these games. We knew why the participants felt motivated to play, but I wondered what was the purpose of having them fight for their lives in the first place. When the PlayStation faced soldiers forced the doctor (player 111) to dissect the bodies for organs to sell at the black market, at first I thought that it was what the original game maker wanted which I thought was genius. Soon to learn that it was actually a violation to a code of equality that was placed inside the arena applying to all of those who existed, soldiers and participants alike. Which struck me as odd due to the soldiers being able to tote guns and wear masks based on their own hierarchy and the participants being collectively isolated and given numbers as if it was a remake of the Stanford Prison experiment. Nonetheless many soldiers faced the same fate as the players, and my pondering would meet the solution come the finale.

Let’s discuss players. I only favored Gi-hun because he was the protagonist, but throughout the story he grew on me as his big heart prevailed through the madness. I knew Choo Sang-woo, the embezzling business man and hometown friend of Gi-hun played by Park Hae-soo, was a psychopath when I saw him in a fully filled bathtub with his suit on. Running from the police, in debt or not, that’s just as much of a red flag for serial killer tendencies as sleeping with socks on or having too thin and highly arched eyebrows. The episode that he crossed Ali, the father of one from Pakistan with the missing fingers, made me hate Sang-woo for the rest of the series. I was infuriated and frustrated with Ali for being that naïve to believe that they could escape the round as a duo, but understood his perspective since up until that point Sang-woo was a dependable, trusted ally to Ali. However after that episode I didn’t care who won, I was just ready for Sang-woo to die.

Kang Sae-byeok, the skeptical and beautiful warrior from North Korea played by Jung Ho-yeon, deserves her own paragraph. Along with her beauty, her presence and demeanor was so bad ass. She was thrifty and intelligent, as her talent being pick pocketing. I was waiting for her to just be so bad ass. As the punk disguised to be gangster, Jang Deok-su, pushed her around which seemed to be normal behavior between the two, I was ready for Sae-byeok to twist his arm, send a plunging round house kick to his nuts, and cut his snake tattoo right off of his face. Although her exterior was tough, her heart was made of malleable gold which we got to see as she opened up to her female companion during the marble challenge and sobbed from her loss afterwards. Although she was not the killer bad ass queen I had wanted her to be, I still call her a warrior because of her resiliency throughout life’s and the game’s many obstacles and her drive to provide her younger brother with a better life.

Thankfully Deok-su got what he deserved as Han Mi-nyeo poetically decided to take both of their lives during the glass challenge. “You said we would be together till the end,” she said before diving into her inevitable death with her short lived lover. Mi-nyeo was incredibly annoying as I would often pinch the inside corners of my eyes and scratch my eyebrows when she would appear. However that crazy bitch served justice, and I love her for that.

I was highly disappointed by the demise of the detective Hwang Jun-ho, played by the handsome Wi Ha-joon. I was rooting for detective Jun-ho, as I’m sure we all were, on his pursuit to find his brother. I was not surprised that his brother was Front Man, as I had suspected that his brother must’ve died or been apart of the game making due to his absence in real life and the current game. After discovering his brother was the victor of his year, to me it only made sense that he would be apart of the game enforcement. As we saw from Gi-hun, a normal life is impossible to live after experiencing something so traumatic as a series of death ridden children games. However I was saddened and surprised that detective Jun-ho was unsuccessful in closing down the whole operation. I mean the man was close to performing forced, aristocratic fellatio in the name of serving and protecting the law. I truly thought because he had gotten so far and was so close to exposing the operation that the only choice he had was to be successful. At last he was shot and killed by his own blood, the one he had been looking for; providing us with a cinematic and heart jerking ending to detective Jun-ho.

Lastly lets discuss the old man, player 001 named O Yeong-su, whom I also nicknamed Poppy during the series. Deceivingly innocent and weak, I genuinely liked Yeong-su throughout the game play. I thoroughly enjoyed his relationship with Gi-hun and saw him as a valuable player in most instances. I believe he was one of the main reasons that Gi-hun continued to lead with his heart. Gi-hun claimed that Yeong-su was the reason he returned to the games and later found out that Yeong-su was the reason there were games in the first place. The climatic episode of the marble challenge was when their relationship had been defined as “gganbu” (which is a term for trusted, close friends in Korean, as explained in the series), thus Yeong-su establishing a special place in Gi-hun’s heart. During the challenge, Yeong-su begins to have an episode of what we all assumed to be dementia as the arena they are playing in is designed like his old neighborhood and he abandons the game to take a trip down memory lane. Gi-hun screams in frustration at the old man to play with him only to end up losing in their even and odd game and resulting in deceit, tricking the old man to let him be the victor. Now if I was Gi-hun, I would’ve convinced Yeong-su to let me hold his marbles for safe keeping and let him have a fun time reminiscing on his life while he ran down the clock. Then when it was time, I would’ve turned in all 20 marbles just as Sang-woo did and went about my business. It would’ve only been right for the old man to forfeit as he was already on his death bed, or so we innocently thought. Before I get into the ending, I want to talk about the last match between Sang-woo and Gi-hun.

Finally, the last game to see who would be victorious in a highly anticipated game of Squid between Gi-hun and Sang-woo. It seemed as if it were a battle between good vs evil; Gi-hun representing a more benevolent side as he would often optimistically look to help other competitors and extend the kindness he had been shown versus Sang-woo who represented a more vindictive and ruthless side, determined to hurt anyone in order to receive his highly coveted and long awaited prize in an arena that erased any foundation of morals or ethics as soon as the light turned red. Luck was on Gi-hun’s side as he had the opportunity to play offense. With a cunning mind and a vengeance for Sae-byeok’s death, Gi-hun delivered a can of whoop ass to his opponent. As the saying goes, the good shall always prevail. Perhaps his heart was too pure as Gi-hun halted from crossing the finish line and offered Sang-woo a chance to live, thus forfeiting the prize money. Needless to say, I applauded when Sang-woo committed suicide as it was the only right thing to do in his position.

A year passed by and Gi-hun seemed worse than before. Physically his style was bummy wealthy, a look pioneered by Bill Gates, but mentally he was in shambles. How could you blame him? Gi-hun discovered that the responsible party for these horrendous events was none other than his ggangbu, old man Yeong-su. The biggest, jaw dropping plot twist of the entire series. As they were joined on Christmas Eve and Yeong-su on his death bed, they placed one final bet on an assumed to be drunken, homeless man who sat on the streets as it snowed and waited for help to arrive. Yeong-su explained how he actually wanted to help people and give his money to people who needed it, but wanted to do it in an “entertaining way.” As Gi-hun flared with outrage towards the old man for finding amusement in killing people, the old man rebutted using horse races as an example of people’s amusement. Yeong-su also said he participated in the games because it was more fun to play than to be a spectator, which I had noticed him treating the competition as if it were adult summer camp. I had just assumed since he was old, he didn’t care if he had died or not.

I think most people will think that this show was a metaphor about how money and rich people are evil. However I think it can be seen as commentary on society as a whole, not just the wealthy. Yeong-su says on his death bed that it’s a test of humanity, and asks Gi-hun if he still has faith in humanity after what he has experienced. Although money was the luring motivator to win the game, people still chose to return to the competition to escape their problems. Sure, money was apart of their problems as all of the players (excluding Yeong-su) were in debt, but that was due to choices that they had made. Whether it had been through embezzling, gambling, lack of luck, or financial ignorance, it was the people who had gotten themselves into those situations. Money doesn’t have a personal vendetta against anyone nor does it have an inherent quality of good or evil. Money is a neutral energy used to be exchanged for goods and services. It’s people who designate that energy to their humane or inhumane desires.

Leading to the next point of the wealthy and how they are seen to be evil due to having wealth. Although I do believe that there are some wealthy people who act as villains, money didn’t create the villain inside of them. Those people were going to behave maliciously whether they have money or not. The VIPs, who were spectating the finale of challenges, were tied to a bank devoted to the wealthy and gambled on the competitors who played (and most likely helped subsidize the events). We place judgement on them, but as Yeong-su said, people gamble on horse races. Although people are not animals and by my knowledge I don’t believe most or any horses die during these races, it is still the principle of watching an entity being tortured for amusement, which is not only confined to the wealthy population. When the concept of killing and tormenting living breathing beings for amusement is normalized within society, the lines begin to blur on who is okay to perform and who is not. Take the audience of this show for example, we all watched a show where hundreds of people were mercilessly killed for the desire of winning a cash prize for our own amusement, thus making “Squid Game” the number one show on Netflix at the moment. Although the show is fictional and brilliantly written, this Hunger Games concept is not new. We come in contact again and again with the idea of people who are disadvantaged given an opportunity to better their lives through inhumane means, including risking their own lives or actively sacrificing the life of another, and being spectators on the edge of our seats who can’t seem to look away. It is no different than a Roman gladiator match in a grand colosseum, which in modern day would be a MMA fight at the MGM hotel. We blame it on the rich who are ridiculed for creating these events, but at the end of the day it is the people, rich,poor, and everyone in between, who continue to still go along with it and to some extent desire it. Which makes me question, what does that say about humanity, and do I actually have faith in us? Although Gi-hun went through hell and back, he still remained pure of heart and used his wealth to enhance his life and those around him; proving that wealthy people can still be benevolent and desire righteous good. Similar to Gi-hun, the optimist in me wants to believe that there are still people in this world with good hearts, but I guess we just have to wait until the time comes to see.

Ultimately the show was phenomenal, and definitely sparked a desire inside of me to watch more Korean dramas. I don’t think the show will have a second season. Simply because I think the story line would be better cut off there, thus leaving the audience always wanting more. However if season 2 ever comes out, I’m ready for Gi-hun to take a Liam Neeson approach to ending the Squid Game and hopefully with a beard. Thank you for reading my article. I know it was incredibly lengthy. I have just finished the season after a 2 day binge watch, and have a lot of emotions and thoughts ruminating in my brain. Let me know what you think of the show and what you think of the article. Did anyone else notice the paintings of the games on the walls of the dormitory?

God bless.

[remnantoforario]

Remnant’s Top Ten Anime of 2020

2020 Was certainly a ride wasn’t it? To those that managed to make to make it through in one piece, or any piece, good job. Hopefully 2021 is better to us all. 

Despite the world mostly being on fire, I’d hazard to say that a lot of good shows came out in 2020 (despite a number of them being delayed to either later in the year or this year altogether). I meant to release this list much earlier, but I kept changing it around. 

Anyway, here are the ones I thought were the best. 

Honorable Mentions:

Dorohedoro

Synopsis: The plot centers on a man named Caiman and his search for his real identity after a transformation by a sorcerer left him with a reptile's head and no memory of his former life. 

Along with his friend Nikaido, he violently assaults sorcerers in the Hole, with the aim of taking their heads into his mouth, where a strange face will appear and confirm whether the sorcerer he has bitten onto was the one responsible for his transformation or not.

As the residents of the Hole, the En family and the Cross-Eyes gang, along with many others, collide with one another, the mystery of Caiman's identity begins to unravel, reigniting ancient grudges and threatening to forever change both the Hole and the sorcerers' world.

Thoughts: This is the only Netflix anime I watched this year (I missed out on Great Pretender before the year ended), and I can honestly say I had fun with this one. It’s animation was good, the story was engaging enough, and the characters were all unique (Noi best girl). The one problem I would say with the show is that it can come off as unfocused at times, meandering from one plaot point to another with no real connective tissue. 

Still a fun series though. 

ID: Invaded

Synopsis: The anime follows the investigations of Narihisago, a renowned detective now in prison, who is tasked with diving into the id wells of various serial killers. 

Two years prior to the current events, Narihisago's daughter Muku was brutally murdered by a serial killer, leading Narihisago's wife to commit suicide. These deaths prompted him to hunt down and murder the killer, earning him his prison sentence. He is still depressed and haunted by his wife and daughter's deaths, but also uses this as motivation to take his work seriously and help stop serial killers. 

Thoughts: One of a handful of original series that came out this year. This show gave me heavy Inception/Minority Report vibes from both its premise and presentation. It wobbles under the weight of its own concepts towards the end, but it still a fun ride nonetheless. 

Gleipnir 

Synopsis: The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant dog mascot costume with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing a strange girl, Claire Aoki, from a warehouse fire, they join each other to search for Claire's older sister, who is assumed to be responsible for the death of their parents.

Thoughts: When the initial rollout for this show began I admit I wasn’t really a fan. I thought it was just going to be a hyper violent, fanservice show. Now in some ways it is that, but if you really look Gleipnir tells a very interesting tale of identity and what it truly means to have a wish granted. The music was pretty good as well, and that’s really something from me as a person who doesn’t pay attention to soundtracks. 

Hope this show gets a season 2, but if not I’ll more than likely start the manga. 

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Synopsis:  Fascinated by the stories of Niké, a witch who traveled around the world, Elaina aspires to take the same course. Her determination of studying books and magic leads to her becoming the youngest apprentice witch to pass the sorcery exam. 

However, when Elaina attempts to receive training in order to become a full-fledged witch, she is rejected due to her extraordinary talents until she finds Fran, the "Stardust Witch," whom accepts her. After earning her title, the "Ashen Witch," Elaina begins her exploration around the world, visiting and facing all kinds of people and places.

Thoughts: As a fan of the Light Novels, I was pretty excited when it was announced it was getting an anime. For the most part it didn’t disappoint. Though it skipped most of the stories in the novels, the show still told a few good stories that made for some amazingly animated tv. 

Talentless Nana

Synposis: In the near future, mysterious monsters known as the "Enemies of Humanity" begin to appear, and with it so do children with supernatural powers called the "Talented". To prepare them for the upcoming battle against these Enemies, all the Talented are sent to a school located on a deserted island, where they have all their daily needs provided for until they graduate and communication with the outside world is forbidden. 

One day, a new student named Nana Hiiragi arrives at the school. Her friendly and cheerful personality lets her quickly make friends with the class. However, with Nana comes a whole litany of mysterious occurrences on the island. 

Thoughts: I can’t say too much about Nana without spoiling it’s first episode twist, but I will say that its a pretty interesting show with a fairly compelling game of cat and mouse being played. 

Now on the the actual list:

10. The Misfit of Demon King Academy 

Synopsis: After 2,000 years of countless wars and strife, the demon king Anos Voldigoad made a deal with the human hero, Kanon, to sacrifice his own life to ensure peace could flourish. Reincarnating 2,000 years later, Anos finds that royal demons now harshly rule over lower class hybrid demons in a society that values Anos's pureblood descendants over the demons who interbred with other species, such as humans and spirits. 

Finding that magic as a whole has begun to decline and his descendants weaker as a result of the peace he created, Anos, now technically a hybrid himself, decides to reclaim his former title of Demon King, but first, he must graduate from the Demon King Academy where he is labeled a total misfit.

Thoughts: Originally I was going to put Nana in this spot, but its lack of a real ending pushed it out of the list. If only slightly. Misft at Demon Academy is just a fun ride from start to finish. There’s always something about shows with ridiculous OP protagonists (Overlord, One Punch Man, etc.) that gets the blood pumping. 

It’s like junk food. Great for the right moment, but not needed all the time. 

9. Ikebukuro West Gate Park

Synopsis:  A charismatic troubleshooter tries to keep the peace between warring factions while protecting his loved ones in Ikebukuro West Gate Park.

Thoughts: I honestly had no idea what to make of this show when I first saw the synopsis, but I gave it a try on a whim. I’m glad I did because this was easily the dark horse of the Fall season. I really liked the mostly self contained story format the series had, and there were a few very good episodes here. Check it out. 

8.  My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Synopsis: Catarina Claes, the young daughter of a noble family, one day bumps her head and regains memories of her past life as an otaku. It is then that she realizes she has been reborn into the world of the otome game Fortune Lover, reincarnated as the game's villainess who, regardless of what route the player took in the original game, is doomed to be either killed or exiled. 

In order to avoid these routes that lead to doom, Catarina begins taking countermeasures to try and avoid things going the same way as the game. This, however, ends up having unexpected consequences on her relations with the other characters of the game's world.

Thoughts: Normally I’m not a fan of Reverse/Otome harem series, but somehow Bakarina managed to pull me in, to a good result. This show was easily one of the best comedies I watched this year with a good cast and a likable protagonist. 

7.  Deca-Dence 

Synopsis: In the fortress city of Deca-dence, the lowly Tanker girl, Natsume, dreams of becoming a Gear warrior following her father's death during a Gadoll attack. She is assigned to a maintenance team led by Kaburagi whom she discovers is more than he appears. Kaburagi has a secret role in eliminating "bugs", humans who threaten Solid Quake's operations. 

When Kaburagi discovers that Natsume is listed as dead in the company database, he decides to keep her under observation and offers to train her to fight.

Thoughts: Giant monsters and giant robots. What more do you need? Watch it. 

6. A Certain Scientific Railgun T

Synposis: The Daihasei Festival has begun, and that of course means that Tokiwadai Middle School—a prestigious all-girls' middle school—is competing too. Despite the participation of the "Ace of Tokiwadai," Mikoto Misaka, the other students who are participating are still putting their utmost effort into winning, no matter how impossible the feat may seem against her might. However, not all is fun and games. Due to the the festival, Academy City opens to the outside world, and various factions have begun plotting ways to infiltrate the city. Misaka appears to be on their radar, and as the festival proceeds, people lurking from the shadows begin to emerge...

Thoughts: Not really much to say here. It’s the third season of Railgun, but good thing here is that each season of Railgun is better than the last. Truly the best of the To Aru universe. 

5. BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.

Synposis: Urged on by her friend, Kaede Honjō begins playing the VRMMORPG NewWorld Online under the name Maple. Not wanting to get hurt, Maple opts to be a shield user with maxed out defense stats, and continues putting every status point she earns in the game into increasing only her defense level. 

As a result, she is left with slow foot speed and no magic, but her high defense allows her to endure most hits without taking any damage. This, along with her basic-level creative thinking, allows for her to make unexpected accomplishments in the game, its quests and events. By doing this, she ends up earning all kinds of equally unexpected skills and becomes one of the strongest players in the game. Thoughts: Bofuri is another OP power fantasy like Demon King Academy, but with the twist of being fused with CGDCT. The cast is extremely likable (especially Maple) and when Silver Link wants to they can make the battles REALLY dynamic. A nice comfortable watch, which was sorely needed in 2020. 

4. Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Synposis: The story follows Princess Syalis, a young princess who was kidnapped by the demon king, and her quest to sleep well while imprisoned.

Thoughts: A simple premise for a not so simple story. Sleepy Princess for me was easily the best comedy of the year, with plenty of heart and action thrown in as well. I was wary of the series at first, thinking that the premise wouldnt be entertaining for more than a few episodes, but boy was I wrong. Each episode was funnier than the last and Doga Kobo pulled out all the stops to make it look as gorgeous as possible.  

3. Jujutsu Kaisen

Synopsis: Idly indulging in baseless paranormal activities with the Occult Club, high schooler Yuuji Itadori spends his days at either the clubroom or the hospital, where he visits his bedridden grandfather. However, this leisurely lifestyle soon takes a turn for the strange when he unknowingly encounters a cursed item. Triggering a chain of supernatural occurrences, Yuuji finds himself suddenly thrust into the world of Curses—dreadful beings formed from human malice and negativity—after swallowing the said item, revealed to be a finger belonging to the demon Sukuna Ryoumen, the "King of Curses." Yuuji experiences first-hand the threat these Curses pose to society as he discovers his own newfound powers. Introduced to the Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School, he begins to walk down a path from which he cannot return—the path of a Jujutsu sorcerer.

Thoughts: Originally I wasn’t going to put this on the list, because the season doesnt conclude this year, but I decided to make an exception since the show started so strong. Many people were hyping this up as the next big shonen, and they were right. Mappa really went balls to the wall with this show and I’m pretty hype for what happens this cour. 

2. Akudama Drive

Synopsis: The bustling metropolis of Kansai, where cybernetic screens litter the neon landscape, may seem like a technological utopia at first glance. But in the dark alleys around the brightly-lit buildings, an unforgiving criminal underbelly still exists in the form of fugitives known as "Akudama." No stranger to these individuals, Kansai police begin the countdown to the public execution of an infamous Akudama "Cutthroat," guilty of killing 999 people. However, a mysterious message is sent to several elite Akudama, enlisting them to free Cutthroat for a substantial amount of money. An invisible hand seeks to gather these dangerous personas in one place, ensuring that the execution is well underway to becoming a full-blown bloodbath.  

Thoughts: Want to know what it would be like if Quentin Tarantino made an anime? Well here you go. An adrenaline filled rollercoaster ride from start to finish with a crazy cast of characters and even crazier visuals. There’s even a bit of social commentary in there if you squint. 

1. Oregairu Climax

Synopsis: Resolved to become a more independent person, Yukino Yukinoshita decides to smoothen things out with her parents, and the first step toward achieving that goal is to prove herself. As graduation draws closer for the third-year students, Iroha Isshiki—the president of the student council—requests a graduation prom in collaboration with the Volunteer Service Club. Yukino accepts this request of her own volition, hoping to use it as a chance to demonstrate her self-reliance, but what lies ahead of her may prove to be a hard hurdle to cross.

At the same time, a chance for the Volunteer Service Club members to better understand each other presents itself. And thus, Hachiman Hikigaya's hectic and bittersweet high school life begins to draw to a close.

Thoughts: The gif says it all really. I could just leave that there and end this list on a somewhat high note, but I’ll explain it. 

Now objectively, there were better shows than this one (off the top of my head JJK comes to mind) but when you combine all three seasons there is no contest in my mind that Oregairu had one of the most perfect endings to a series I have ever seen. 

It was an ending 7 years in the making. The first season in 2013 was good, the second season two years later was even better, but Climax was Oregairu at is absolute best and that goes beyond the story and characters. A lot of praise also has to go to Studio feel., who took over animation duties from Brain’s Base in season 2. While BB’s animation was much more accurate to the LN, feel’s more realistic designs fit the more mature direction the story was starting to go, giving the anime some of its best moments. 

Watching Hachiman, Yukino, and Yui grow and change from naive teenagers to somewhat understood young adults was amazing and sometimes heartbreaking to watch. Hachiman’s search to find something “genuine”, Yukino’s desire to be independent, and Yui struggling with her feelings of love and friendship all clash and compliment in very interesting ways that makes these three characters even more relatable than they were before. 

Lots of long running series don’t stick to landing, but in my eyes Oregairu stuck it perfectly. That’s why its my favorite anime of 2020.

Here’s to 2021. 

[textsfromthefifthbasement]

I finally finished MAZM: Phantom of the Opera! I’m leaving the review under the cut because it’s long and also spoilers for some elements of the game that aren’t in other Phantom adaptations.

General

First off, I loved the art style of the game. The character designs were quite adorable, and it definitely seemed like they made an effort to follow the original Leroux character designs. They had a blonde Christine and an olive-skinned, dark-haired Meg. I also thought they did a great job with Erik’s character design (though there was too much hair). The sets were beautiful. The majority of the main plot of the game does follow the Leroux book, which I really appreciated. There were some favorite moments in the book that I wish had been incorporated, such as Raoul waking up to find Erik watching him sleep (don’t judge I just find it freaking hilarious), but they incorporated so many other small scenes from the book, such as the managers trying to prevent Erik from taking his salary by using the safety pin. As a history nerd, I also really appreciated the collectible notes giving historical context to some of the discussions, including about three notes on the Paris Commune/Bloody Week. I wished the characters would have had different outfits rather than wear the same outfit the entire story. At the very least, I wished they had made a Red Death outfit for Erik during the masquerade.

I also want to point out and give a warning to anyone who has suicide ideation before they try this game. Pretty early on in the story, you play an episode in which you control Joseph Buquet after he’s dropped into Erik’s torture chamber, and eventually, you have to walk to the noose and pick it. The scene cuts right before he hangs himself. About partway through the story, when you control Christine, there’s a scene in which she has to talk Erik out of killing himself with a shard from a broken vase. At the end, when Christine and Raoul go down to Erik’s house to bury him, they found that he had committed suicide.

In all, I spent about 23 hours on the game from start to finish. I still need to go back and replay a few episodes to complete the achievements. I missed quite a few of the historical notes, and there are parts where you can make different decisions to influence what happens.

In this game, the studio added a lot of subplots that didn’t exist in the book and expanded on some canonical subplots as well. I did enjoy quite a few of these.

The Dancers

Meg, Jammes, and Sorelli are all major characters in the game, and I loved seeing them have more characterization and actual character arcs. Jammes, as a character, doesn’t change as much as the others, but she is only a child. As in the book, she is pretty frightened of ghost stories, strangers, and the Phantom, but in the game, she also loves and takes care of the stray cats living around the opera house and does turn into a bit of a spitfire when her friends are threatened by the various happenings at the opera. Sorelli has a knife and is not afraid to use it, and she comes to realize that her fear of being alone led her to stay with Philippe de Chagny in spite of the fact that he would never officially acknowledge her. Meg, in the beginning, seems afraid of her own shadow, but throughout the game, definitely comes into her own and also develops a much healthier relationship with her mother.

Union

This had to be hands-down my favorite subplot of the game. In the beginning, when Moncharmin and Richard first become the managers of the Palais Garnier, they mistreat Christine and mass fire anyone who mentions the Phantom of the Opera. When Christine goes missing for several weeks, Meg, Sorelli, and Jammes finally decide they have had enough and basically unionize the ballet dancers. There’s an entire protest, a performance in which the ballerinas refuse to perform, and they end up getting a promise from the managers to stop indiscriminately firing and mistreating people.

Christine’s Ending

GUYS. When I joked about Christine just traveling the world and performing instead I had no idea that was an actual choice you can make for her. It’s such a bittersweet ending, but I personally hope that one day she would have emotionally healed enough from her ordeal to come back to Paris and reunite with her old friends.

That being said, there were also a lot of additions/changes that I…really wasn’t a fan of.

Melek

So, for context. During Christine’s first stay at Erik’s house, she decides to do some exploring while he’s gone. While in his room, she hears a woman’s voice behind a wall and goes to investigate. She discovers a hidden door, and behind that hidden door is Melek. We find that Melek is a blind Turkish woman who had been one of Erik’s servants during his time in Constantinople. She had refused to marry him, and so he had kidnapped her and had kept her locked in that room for ten years.

Yes, I have a lot of problems with this.

I think the first thing is that when Melek was introduced is when I really realized that the game was never going to go in the direction of presenting Erik as a character who was sympathetic at times and not so much at others. The game had already painted him as a very unsympathetic character up until then through showing how he had gaslit Christine as the Angel of Music. Introducing Melek really drove that point home, which was kind of disappointing seeing as how the literal point of Leroux’s Le Fantome de l’Opera was that we should pity Erik for how he was treated because of his face.

Additionally, Melek’s character just…didn’t do anything. The more she was around, the more I wondered what the point of her character was. She does offer Christine support half of the time, and then the other half of the time is her being upset because Christine wants to change Erik rather than murder him. Ultimately, it’s my point of view that her character was not a great addition to the game and would have preferred a closer adherence to the book in that regard.

Hatim and PTSD

*sigh* This part seriously pissed me off. While Raoul and Hatim (the Daroga) are in the torture chamber, Hatim tells Raoul the story between him and Erik. We end up playing through a flashback of when Hatim discovers Erik living at the opera house ten years ago. As they discuss their past, we and Hatim quickly realize that Erik has PTSD, and mentioning the Shah of Persia is a serious trigger for him. Which, alright. That does make some sense story-wise.

And then through other flashbacks, Hatim proceeds to use this against Erik. Like he literally would trigger him purposefully as a punishment. And say that he was doing it for his own good.

Like, excuse me, but. What the fuck. What. The actual. Fuck. No. Don’t ever do that, that’s shitty.

Anyways by the end I was legitimately rooting for Erik to punt him.

Erik’s Ending

In the original Leroux novel, Erik presents Christine with a choice: turn the scorpion, and she will marry him, or turn the grasshopper, and the entire opera house will blow up. Christine chooses the scorpion, kisses him on the forehead, and he is so overwhelmed by the action that he saves Raoul’s life and lets them go together. The only promise he extracts from Christine is that she will come back and bury him when he dies, which he believes will be soon. Two weeks later, an ad runs in the newspaper that reads simply, “Erik is dead.”

Yeah. The game really went off the rails here in respect to following the Leroux book. After Christine turns the scorpion, Erik pulls Raoul into the lake and leaves him there, thinking he’ll drown or freeze to death, and then returns to force the marriage. He does eventually let Christine and Melek go, as Christine tells him that she will never love him and that she believes he is a monster, all while he is on his knees begging her just to love him a little. There is no forehead kiss. To the end, Erik writes and tells Hatim that Christine is the devil, and that she abandoned him in hell and wants her to suffer for the rest of her life knowing what she did to him. Yeah, I wish I was making that up.

There is one point where Christine tells Erik it’s not her job to save him. Which I agree with. I feel like whoever wrote the story had a misunderstanding of the ending of the book, or else thought the idea wasn’t explicitly stated enough. The forehead kiss does, in some respect, save Erik. It makes him realize how badly he’s treated everyone and yet Christine is still willing to extend kindness towards him. But it’s not Christine saving him, it’s him coming to that realization on his own. Ultimately, the game traded that idea for a way more heavy-handed “I am not here to save you, I am going to make my own decisions from here on.”

And then, in the face of all that, we’re also missing Erik changing and redeeming himself despite the fact that he’s close to death. Instead, he dies while leaving basically a suicide note to Hatim saying that Christine is the devil and he made her promise to return to bury him to hurt her. Which is so out of character if we look at the book characterization.

Like I knew I was signing up to get my heart ripped out, I just figured it was going to maybe be the brand of Christine having to choose whether or not to stay while Erik dies. And damnit, I just wanted a single forehead kiss.

Anyways, I really enjoyed the game up until the ending. I just seriously disliked the ending for the most part. If you’re more of a fan of the idea of Christine being on her own and finding her own path, that is an enjoyable option to go with. I still need to play through that episode with the marry Raoul choice and see what happens with that option though.

[lightstar789]

My Final Thoughts on My Deepest Secret

SPOILER WARNING FOR SEASON 3!

Well folks. We did it, we've reached the end, and I couldn't be anymore sadder.

I first discovered MDS when the season 2 finale banner went up. I clicked on it, expecting a melodramatic love triangle. However, when I clicked on episode 69 (bad move, I know now) I was shocked to see the black-haired boy, whom I thought was the second-lead, on the ground with a bloody arm, calling out Emma for committing a series of gruesome events. Emma, the innocent-looking protagonist suddenly threatening him with a knife? I couldn't believe it. And so I started reading.

Fast-forward nearly a year later, and it's time to bid farewell to this magnificent WEBTOON. So, I wanted to write my final thoughts on each of the characters, and the plot itself. Obvious spoilers ahead, so let's jump right into it!

THE PLOT:

My Deepest Secret drowns in twists, each one making the story more convoluted as I continued reading. Emma going from bubbly, with a mysterious past, to a broken young woman who just wants those around her to stop worrying about her and be happy. Elios going from charming, to a yandere, to not even being real in the first place, to being killed by Emma, to having him miraculously survive, to be the son of Mr. Oscar. Sophie turning into a backstabbing betrayer, to Yohan abandoning his morals in the pursuit of love, and Hana being a decent person underneath it all.

While some were good, some of these twists weren't executed well, and were inherently problematic from the presentation (looking at you, DID fakeout and Yohan throwing his morals away for Emma twists). I still held out to the end to see a resolution and hoped that the DID storyline was a hoax. Luckily, Emma clarified what she really suffered from, that being hallucinations and hearing voices, and I blew a sigh of relief.

THE CHARACTERS:

Emma Brenton: Let's start with our main protagonist with a mysterious past. Sweet, empathetic, and courageous, she was loveable in every single way. Though she was witless to "Elios'" doings, she still made a wonderful protagonist. However, things take a turn by the third season. After regaining her memories, she becomes heavy with guilt, and her personality becomes a lot more mature, still wanting to do what was right in the end and turning herself into the police, after it was revealed that she was behind most of the series' main conflicts. At the end of the day, I still love Emma, and I hope she's doing better in rehab.

Yohan Lee: One of my favorite fictional detectives ever! Charismatic, funny, but also incredibly sharp and intelligent, he instantly became my favorite character. I was literally rooting for him along with others for him to end up with Emma at the end. At least, until the third season. Hoo boy. He goes from being law-abiding and kind to becoming a rebel to the system, choosing to protect Emma from the law, against his own original morals. The twist came out of left field, and after finding out how he used Sophie as bait, it really left a sour taste in my mouth. I know one of the main themes of this webcomic is that 'not everyone's as they seem,' but the justice-seeking kid turning morally gray isn't something I was a fan of. Regardless, he's still an amazing and funny character, and he's still one of my favorites.

Elios Dunsworth: Where do I even begin? I went from hating him, absolutely detesting him, mind-boggled by how kind he actually is, and felt empathy towards him. Yandere!Elios was manipulative, mean, and a full on sociopath. This belief carried on for so long before it was revealed in episode 69 that Emma stabbed him a year ago, and has been hallucinating him out of guilt ever since, prompting her to 'become' Elios to subside those feelings. I immediately loved the real Elios, which we got to see during flashbacks to Emma's past, and the three-part "Elios" arc. He was putting on this perfect mask so as to not disappoint others around him, and seeing Farah gradually help him take it off was one of the sweetest things to ever happen in this comic. Elios becoming my favorite character by the end of the series is a sentence I would've never seen myself saying a year ago, but it's true!

Hanamika: I was hoping that Hana wasn't really romantically involved with the professor and didn't frame the trio for cheating, and boy was I relieved. Authors. This is how to write a best friend character. She's blunt, yet incredibly compassionate towards her friends. I smiled when she talked Yohan out of committing suicide, knowing full well it would've worked, because it was her. She's the no-nonsense, loyal, and caring BFF that Yohan definitely needed, and I think they make a fine pair (platonically)!

Sophie McCarthy: As soon as she appeared, I knew she was going to do something bad. And I was right. She put herself down an unhealthy amount, to the point that I started to cast suspicions on her. Enter season 2, where she accidentally pushes Emma into a river, and doesn't think of telling anyone else. I pity her, because she got the short end of the stick, having been bullied, used as bait by Yohan, stabbed, knocked unconscious and entering a coma, but she still did those things to Emma and never apologized. I don't exactly hate her, but don't like her at the same time.

Farah: Literally the sweetest girlfriend anyone could ask for. No wonder Emma was jealous. She helped Elios take of his mask and remained patient for him, even though she knew it'd take a long time. She's so sweet that she still managed to feel pity for Emma when she was holding her at knifepoint. Thank god she wasn't run over by that car and was able to get help for Elios.

Nura Kim: A complete foil to Hana, Nura is the stereotypical sassy best friend trope that I have come to hate, but with a twist. She's actually concerned for Emma's well-being, convincing her to report her sexual assault case to the police, and is insanely protective of the main trio. She's extremely violent, and has literally chased and beat up Yohan once he was accused of calling Emma fat (he didn't). She also has threatened to kill the professor who assaulted Emma. While I was sure that at one point, she'd actually commit a crime, luckily, she didn't. I was pretty surprised she got engaged to Jamie of all people though, but they have an interesting dynamic. Never change Nura, never change.

Overall, that's all I have to say about the WEBTOON. Full of engaging and funny characters, yet with a morbid plot, My Deepest Secret does a good job with balancing the dark with the light. I'm sad to see this one come to an end, and I hope that Hanza Art will create many more in the future. I wish them the best of luck in the future, and hope that people remember this comic for many years to come. Goodbye, My Deepest Secret, and thank you.

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

Tale of the Nine Tailed: Analysis and Theories of Ep 8

Welcome to another edition of Mind Melt On A Bun’s analysis and theories of TOTNT. I hope you all will enjoy this post, but fair warning it’s once again another VERY LONG POST! So if you want to turn on your thinking cap and face the risk of your brain blowing up into a million pieces then feel free to keep reading!

Snail Bride and Her Husband

Ureongi gaksi (우렁이 각시) or Snail Bride is a Korean legend which tells about a poor farmer who breaks a taboo and marries a woman who is actually a snail. One day while working in the rice paddy field, the farmer says to himself, “Who will I eat this rice with?”. To which a voice replied, “With me.”. Having heard this voice, the man turned around to see who it was, but only saw a snail. After having heard that, the man found that each day after returning home from work, a meal was always prepared for him. 

The farmer was curious of who had been preparing his meal. So one day he pretended to go to work in order to catch a sight of whoever it was that had been preparing his meal. To his surprise, he had seen a beautiful woman emerging from the snail shell. Having been blown away by her beauty, he immediately asked her to live with him instead of returning to the snail shell. However, the woman told him it was not time yet and to be patient. Being the persistent man that he was, he eventually got the Snail to marry him.

The farmer became plagued with the fear that his beautiful Snail Bride might one day be taken away from him so he instructed her to never leave the house. The Snail Bride listened to her husband and did as she was told until one day when her mother-in-law told the Snail Bride to go and deliver lunch to the farmer. And so, the Snail bride did as she was told. However, along the way, the Magistrate who was enamoured by her beauty decided to kidnap her and make her his bride. Despite the farmer’s many efforts, he never found his Snail Bride and ended up dying of a broken heart and being reborn as a blue bird. Tragic I know !!! 

Anyways, when applying this story to TOTNT, you will find that Ji Ah’s boss had shared many similar characteristics to the farmer from the Snail Bride myth such as persistency. Other clues that supports the ideal that Ji Ah’s boss is the farmer can be seen in the conversation between Green Juice Lady. The first clue is his fear of flying. This could be seen as a side effect of him being reborn in a previous life as a blue bird. I bet if Ji Ah used those Eyebrows of a Tiger Glasses, she would see him as a bird blue. 

The second clue was in what the Green Juice Lady said, “ What are you doing here?”. I interpreted this as her knowing him in the past as well as her not expecting to see the farmer’s reincarnated self in the same vicinity as the Snail Bride.

Green Juice Lady Origin 

In Korean mythology, there is a creature by the name of “Dueoksini/Dokeoksini” (두억시니는 ) that kills you by crushing your head (figuratively or literally). In Korean mythology, this creature is seen as an in between of a dokkaebi/goblin and a yokai. Because Dueoksinis have been mostly been forgotten throughout Korean literature, they are usually refer to as being a type of Korean Yokai. 

Or the way I like to view the Green Juice Lady is that she's basically Pennywise, Freddy Krueger, and the Boggart rolled into one. After all its like Frank Hebert once wrote in Dune: “Fear is the mind killer”.

Taluipa

In TOTNT, the character Taluipa is seen as being the goddess of birth and fate, Sansin Halmoni. Besides having the ability of controlling birth and fate, Taluipa also can also foresee the future as well as grant immortality (i.e her husband). Given all of this, it is likely that her child, Bok Gil, would’ve had some pretty powerful abilities because he came from such a superior mother. 

Now not much is known about Taluipa’s son other than he had committed suicide. Furthermore, the act of suicide was seen as a such a bad taboo that ensured he could never be reborn/reincarnated. In the context of TOTNT, it is inferred that even if you sacrifice yourself for the one you love, it is still considered suicide. 

Lee Yeon’s Original Plan For the Imoogi

I think originally Lee Yeon had planned to take the Imoogi into himself and subsequently kill himself. However, when faced with the possibility that this would mean Lee Yeon could not be reincarnated, Ah Eum decided it was better that Lee Yeon killed her because at least she could be reincarnated. 

Now you may think that well if Ah Eum sacrificed herself for the one she loves, isn’t that contradictory to what I said earlier about how sacrificing yourself for the one you love is still considered suicide and thus meant you couldn’t be reborn? It really doesn’t and here’s why. Remember that at this time, Ah Eum already had the Imoogi inside of her so her death by Lee Yeon’s hands were not seen as a sacrificial suicide. Rather, it was seen as him killing a greater evil and preventing the deaths of hundreds. Thus, this meant that Ah Eum could be reincarnated. Had Ah Eum ran into Lee Yeon’s knife or stabbed herself in the temporary moment she gain back control of her body, then that would’ve been seen as sacrificial suicide. 

If both Lee Yeon and Ah Eum were able to find a loop hole at the very last minute that ensured Ah Eum’s reincarnation, I am sure that this time around  Lee Yeon will be able to find a better loop hole given that he has had more time to than previously as well as learning from his past mistakes as it pertains to the Imoogi. I largely believe that this loop hole will have something to do with the favor Lee Yeon had asked of Taluipa’s husband. Maybe the favor Lee Yeon is asking Taluipa’s husband for is the elixir of life that is located in the Underworld (Hint: read my posts about Princess Bari). I think that Lee Yeon will want it just in case either him or Ji Ah dies in their battle against the Imoogi. Such an elixir could revive them!

Taluipa’s Son/Bok Gil = The Imoogi

As previously mentioned, I had theorized that Taluipa’s son, Bok Gil, must have been one hell of a powerful being given that his mom was a powerful Goddess herself. As to what those abilities could have been, it is still a mystery. However, I feel like his powers would’ve been connected the ones Taluipa had (i.e birth, fate, and ability to see what others cannot see). Again, not much was mentioned about him other than he committed suicide and that his name was Bok Gil. 

Now let’s look at the Imoogi, we know that he has the power of life (bringing the bird back to life), death (sucking the life out of his nannies), and rebirth (being reborn as that boy). 

By the way, I think it’s interesting that the cycle of life, death, and rebirth is represented as an “Ouroboros” or a snake eating its tail. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyways back to what else we know about the Imoogi. We know that he was born in a leap year as well as being born in a place between the living and dead (btw Lee Yeon was born in 420AD also a leap year..possible connection somehow?). The Imoogi could also see what others don’t see such as your soul and your deepest emotions.

If you think about it, when Bok Gil committed suicide, his soul/body was neither in the land of the living nor the dead. He was in between those two realms or in limbo. Connecting this to the fact that the Imoogi said he was born in a place between the living and dead, there is a significant possibility that Bok Gil is indeed the Imoogi. Furthermore, if you look at the kinds of power the Imoogi has and the powers that Taluipa has, you will find that they are strangely similar or related. If that doesn’t convince you enough then just compare the voice of Bok Gil to that of the Imoogi!

Imoogi and Lee Yeon

Initially, I had thought the Imoogi had wanted Lee Yeon for his fox bead (a kind of Yeouiju) so that it could become a dragon, but now I am beginning to think there’s more to the story than just Lee Yeon’s bead. If indeed Bok Gil is the Imoogi then I am left to wonder what kind of relationship did Lee Yeon have with Bok Gil before he died. Furthermore, could Lee Yeon have been part of the reason why Bok Gil committed suicide in the first place? If Lee Yeon had been part of the reason why Bok Gil committed suicide, then I can totally understand why Bok Gil/Imoogi would want to try to exact his revenge and/or anger on Lee Yeon. Maybe Bok Gil was jealous of Lee Yeon for getting more attention from his own parents than he was or maybe Lee Yeon got the girl he was interested in or maybe Lee Yeon was really mean and had bullied him or maybe the person who Bok Gil had died for (aka a loved) was somehow connected to Lee Yeon. I don’t know, I’m just purely theorizing and for all we know all the Imoogi wants is just Lee Yeon’s fox bead so that it can become a dragon.

Black and White Imagery

Other things I found interesting is the usage of black and white in Ep 8. For example, the shirts Lee Rang and Lee Yeon wears, the colors of the stones of the “Go Game”, and the cars in the background of the parking lot Lee Yeon was in. 

Typically, the color combination of black and white represents Yin/Yang, Good/Evil, and Life/Death. In either cases, the concept is the same. Both represent the concept of dualism or the ideal that everything is interdependent, interconnected, and interrelated. Meaning you can’t have Yin without Yang, Good without Evil, and Life without Death. Or in the case of Lee Yeon standing in between the two cars and the two doors, both Lee Rang and Ah Eum/Ji Ah’s lives and fate were interdependent, interconnected, and interrelated to that of Lee Yeon’s. 

Episode 9 Predictions

Lee Yeon will get Lee Rang out of the Forest of the Preta and Lee Rang will realize that his brother never really abandoned him in the first place. Additionally, their time in the Forest of the Preta is like a blessing in disguise because it helped both brothers to resolve the misunderstanding that occurred 600 years ago.

Now with Ji Ah, I think she will overcome her fear of the car accident. However I think she will be faced with another fear of hers which is seeing Lee Yeon die. I think she will overcome this too, but the Green Juice Lady will pull out one last trick out of the bag. Instead of making Ji Ah relieve some of her worst nightmares, she will make Ji Ah live in a world where all her dreams have come true such as having her parents back and Lee Yeon by her side. The Green Juice Lady will do this as a way to make sure that Ji Ah would never want to leave. After all, why leave a world where all your dreams come true right? Plus, Ji Ah’s mentality will become weaker because she will start to believe that the dream world she is living in is a reality. Therefore, in order to win against the Green Juice Lady, one must have a strong mind that is not killed by fear nor weaken by fantastical delusions.

This kind of reminds of the creature, “Black Mercy”, from Super Girl. Briefly, “Black Mercy” is alien parasite that makes its host dream their perfect fantasy world while it feeds off of them. The only way for the host to get the “Black Mercy” to detach itself is for the host to realize that the fantasy world they are living in is not real. So for Ji Ah, maybe she would have to do the same on her own or it would take Lee Yeon coming into her dreamworld in order for her to realize this.

Last Remarks

For all of those who are still left confused as to why Lee Yeon chose to save Lee Rang first, you can check it out here:

https://mindmeltonabun-blog.tumblr.com/post/633271037441818624/tale-of-the-nine-tailed-ep-7-thoughts-and

And if you’re too lazy to click/read all of that post, I’ll put it simply here:

In the past, Lee Yeon chose to go after Ah Eum first instead of saving Lee Rang from the villagers burning down the mountain. So this time around Lee Yeon did not want to make the same mistake twice and also Lee Yeon wanted to atone for his past mistakes. Plus, Lee Yeon knew that between Lee Rang and Ji Ah, Lee Rang had the weaker mentality so he would need more saving than Ji Ah would. 

Happy Readings! I need a drink now after writing all of this !

[adobe-outdesign]

Showdown Bandit but it’s my series now

I’m still kind of annoyed that SB had such a great premise only to be rushed and then cancelled, so this is kind of my take on the story and my interpretation of things. Keep in mind that I’m approaching this from a “someone handed me this game and now I have to reboot it” standpoint, so while I’m trying to stick to the original plot as much as possible I am changing things where I see fit.

Also, I’m just focusing on things from a story perspective. Gameplay is another thing entirely.

Backstory

Buddy Bublik was from Czechoslovakia and had a passion for puppetry. He met Carl, who was more of a businessman. He came up with the idea of capitalizing on cowboys, which were popular at the time.

The show originally premiered as “Showdown Bandit and the Dusty Hills Band”, with the band playing in each episode to draw in more people. After they “disappeared”, the title just became “The Showdown Bandit Show”.

I would loosely tie things in with BATIM by implying that the two figured out how to bring their characters to life by studying Joey’s memoirs and notes or perhaps having been friends with him (as this game takes place in the 50-60s, after DJS closed).

Recognizing that Joey’s method had some... issues, they made a few changes. Namely, they didn’t sacrifice people in order to bring the puppets to life, instead using blood pacts (smearing blood on the unfinished puppets) from willing people to make their puppets more lifelike without actually giving them souls.

Buddy made a pact with Bandit first as a test run of sorts. It went smoothly for about a year, with Bandit being more lifelike in movement and personality but not sentient.

However, after about a year Bandit started acting a bit too lifelike in a way that concerned them (as they didn’t want to forcibly control sentient puppets, nor did they want the puppets to be fully independent of them). Buddy ended up locking Bandit away out of fear for his life, instead using a different Bandit puppet as a replacement.

Initially they did a few pacts with other crew members, such as the Dusty Hills Band, in exchange for pay raises and other benefits.

However, freak accidents started cropping up and people who had made pacts started dying, at which point the puppet they were bonded to would be possessed (but unaware of what had happened). Buddy and Carl were absolutely horrified at this, both due to the people dying and the fact that they were controlling what used to be other human beings.

As the year went on, other people outside of the show had started to get word and Showdown Bandit was getting a literal “cult” following from people who were interested in immortality, despite the two’s attempts to put a stop to the pact (the idyllic world of Showdown Valley was an appealing afterlife option for many, especially fans of the show). They attempt to cancel the show, with the intent to shut down the studio and burn the puppets.

The cult didn’t respond well to this, wanting to keep their pacts and their immortality. They ended up breaking into the studio one night and killing both of them. Buddy ended up possessing Bandit, but because he was in storage he remained “asleep” for years. Carl possessed the Sheriff, but like all puppets he didn’t retain his memories.

Ironically, the death of the two sealed the cancellation of the show (it was declining anyway as space stuff was now getting popular), but the cult continued the show behind the scenes for years afterward.

Puppets & Possession

Each time a character “dies”, their soul moves on to possess another puppet of that character. If there isn’t another copy of that character, or the other copy is already possessed, they become a stringless (IE unfinished) puppet. A dead stringless usually stays immobilized, but they can be fixed by Carver (much to Miss Undertaker’s chargin).

The puppets become more and more lifelike over time, especially after being possessed. It gets the point where they have to fake eating in order to stay alive, even though they can’t eat and don’t need food.

The puppets can move on their own. The strings serve as a way to control them, usually without them being consciously aware of it.

Because the puppets have no memories, they have no idea that they’re possessed or that they’re being controlled, which is how the puppeteer wants it. They understand that they’re puppets and that they put on performances, but that’s about all they understand. This is why the rules are in place.

Play your part - a puppet not playing their part is indicative that they’re starting to get their memories back, which is a no-no.

Guard your strings - the strings allow the puppets to be controlled, so it’s important that they stay attached.

Don’t look up - the puppets don’t know they’re being controlled. Looking up not only breaks this illusion, but tends to cause them to go insane.

The sheriff helps not only protect the citizens from rogue threats, but helps to enforce the rules before they get broken.

Puppets who break the rules are taken and mutilated as an example to others. Their hostile behavior is really just them trying to cut other character’s strings and free them.

Characters

Bandit: As mentioned above, he’s possessed by Buddy, though he doesn’t remember anything. After being woken up after a few years, he’s trying to help out the others while figuring out what’s truly going on (while not knowing he’s being manipulated himself). Because Bandit is, by definition, an outlaw, he’s not likely to actually follow the rules set in place. As the game progresses, he realizes he’s being manipulated by the Puppeteer and cuts his own strings, allowing him to act independently and help free the others from being controlled.

Miss Undertaker: Miss Undertaker, as her name suggests, takes care of Showdown Valley’s dead - unbeknownst to everyone else, that includes the entire town. In addition to maintaining the graveyards and trying to make sure the dead stay dead, she’s the one who finds newly possessed puppets and introduces them to the town. Later on in the plot, it’s revealed that she’s not possessed like the others, but rather a literal puppet controlled by the Puppeteer, hence why she knows about her when all the others don’t.

The Sheriff: Possessed by Carl, the sheriff enforces the rules, though he doesn’t know about the puppeteer. He particularly has it out for Bandit due to his outlaw nature, ironically pitting Carl and Buddy unwittingly against each other. Eventually, Bandit is able to convince him that the rules are in place to control them, and he ends up helping him take down the Puppeteer.

Penny Hemsworth: Possessed by one of the former stagehands who helped with props, Penny’s general store literally has anything the puppets need in stock (and if it doesn’t, the Puppeteer will fix that shortly). This includes mundane things like food and less mundane things like The Sparkblaster(TM). Penny herself has been afraid of accidentally breaking the rules and generally gets more and more insane throughout the game before eventually removing her eyes (which happens near the end of the game here rather than the beginning).

Doc Carver: Possessed by a former stagehand who helped repair broken puppets, Carver’s purpose is to fix the puppets (without requiring human intervention, which once again, is a no-no). Despite the fact that he’s just supposed to help with damage, he’s become curious about how they’re all alive and has begun experimenting with reviving the dead and creating new creatures (the Araknits were his fault, albeit accidentally), which puts him in thin water with the Puppeteer.

The Banker: Unlike the other puppets, the Banker (possessed by one of the band members) got possessed before his puppet was actually finished. Buddy and Carl couldn’t finish the puppet without breaking the rules and his sanity, so they just scrapped their original design and presented him as-is. Because he’s unfinished, his memory wasn’t as thoroughly wiped as the others, resulting in him being terrified of accidentally breaking character. He eventually does, and is “fixed” by the end.

Faceless Bandit: The Bandit made after Buddy’s Bandit, who was used after the original puppet was damaged. Possessed by another one of the band members. Being a bandit, he eventually went rogue and cut his own strings, successfully escaping the Puppeteer; however, his face was clawed off shortly thereafter by Frenzy. Attempts have been made to capture him again, but it’s hard due to the massive scythe he’s carrying.

Frenzy: One of the “rule-breaking” puppets. Used to be a rival to Bandit who claimed to be an even better draw than him. He, ironically, accidentally let his strings get cut during a showdown and had his torso removed as punishment. While he’s technically only supposed to pursue rule-breakers, as his name implies he’s gone a bit mad and will basically attack anything that moves.

Grieves: Another “rule-breaking” puppet. Bubu the Clown was one of the first characters on the show, and was a regular live-action human. When the puppets started being possessed, Bubu had to go due to breaking  immersion, and Grieves was created as his puppet replacement. Bubu eventually committed suicide in the studio, resulting in him accidentally possessing Grives. Because Grieves didn’t remember anything, he eventually became depressed and broke character - because he was mourning Bubu. They recognize Bandit as a rule-breaker and will attack him as such.

Lookout: Lookout was created as a way to monitor the puppets without gathering suspicion. Given that their entire job was to look at things, it was almost inevitable that they eventually looked up, which drove them into madness before they disappeared a few days later. They’re also stringless, allowing them to warn Bandit of danger. They used to be close friends with Miss Undertaker, who’s trying to find them and put strings on them.

The Puppeteer/Lorelei: The leader of the cult, the Puppeteer is the main one handling the show and directing the others. She personally controls Miss Undertaker (Lorelei is her first name), and occasionally controls Bandit as well. She and the rest of the cult attempt to forcibly control Showdown Valley, keeping the puppets in ignorant bliss. Like the other cult members, she wears a mask and a cloak at all times.

Basic Plot

Because the plot would be semi-dictated by the gameplay, these are just some rough outlines and ideas of how the plot and characters would play out.

Starts out more or less the same as the canon plot, with Bandit waking up and Miss Undertaker sending him on his first quest.

The first part of the game is mostly following instructions from Miss Undertaker and going on quests that seem like they’re meant to help improve the town and keep people safe (things like clearing out the Araknits, killing the Faceless Bandit, getting Miss Undertaker’s key back, etc).

As Bandit does more and more tasks, he starts to realize that these tasks might be doing more harm than good (the Araknits were Carver’s attempt at figuring out the possession and destroying them prevents him from doing so; the Faceless Bandit was attempting to free the others by cutting their strings, etc). 

The Sheriff is dispatched to deal with Bandit before he breaks any rules, leaving Bandit trying to escape from him for a chapter.

Carver, already suspicious of what’s going on, is the first to believe Bandit. Banker refuses to help but admits to remembering some things, leading the two to explore the stage and end up finding several bodies from the cast (that hand that drops down is Bubu’s).

The sheriff finds the two and the bodies, and is convinced to help Bandit out on his quest.

They return to the set and Bandit overhears Penny talking to Miss Undertaker about her insecurities regarding breaking the rules, with Miss Undertaker being the one who pushes her towards the eye-gouging.

The Puppeteer attempts to separate the three, resulting in Bandit cutting his own strings in order to escape.

Most of the final chapter is him trying to avoid both the Puppeteer and the other enemy puppets, who have become considerably more aggressive.

Penny takes out her eyes. The Sheriff ties her to a post to keep her from hurting herself anymore (he did the same thing with Lookout when he lost his mind), and stays behind to make sure she isn’t taken.

The Banker finally remembers everything and goes through a bit of a mental breakdown wherein he almost blows up the set with dynamite. The Puppeteer intervenes and he’s picked up and removed from the set. He shows back up later on, now a finished puppet with no memory of what just transpired.

Bandit learns who he’s made from by finding some old journal entries. He tries to tell the Sheriff, but both he and Penny are gone. He then goes to confront Miss Undertaker, who’s revealed to be a lifeless puppet in the most literal sense. The Puppeteer attempts to grab him while he’s distracted.

Lookout warns Bandit with their bell, then points out some weak spots in the studio’s wiring. Targeting these spots cause wires to fall down around the Puppeteer, slowing her down and getting her tangled. Hitting the controls for the stage rotation pulls on the wires, snapping her neck and killing her.

Because she had a blood pact with Miss Undertaker she wakes up, now fully possessed and not remembering anything about the Puppeteer or her previous actions.

The epilogue/end credits reveal that with the Puppeteer gone, most of the cult disbanded (though presumably they’re still out there somewhere). Everyone’s strings are cut, the broken puppets are repaired as best as possible, and Showdown Valley ends up the peaceful afterlife it was always meant to be, with Bandit and Sheriff heading the town.

[vavuska]

Bob's Burgers, Season 11, Episode 7, Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid

When Gene can't eat Thanksgiving dinner because of a stomach flu, the family tries to make him hate food, by telling him horror stories about food: in both Tina's — a parody of Harrison Ford's Air Force One (1997) — and Bob's —a parody of Michael Bay's Armageddon (1998) — stories, Gene insists that his wife be played by Linda. The others find it questionable, while Linda finds it sweet.

Bob's Burgers, Season 9, Episode 14, Every Which Way but Goose

Oedipus Mythology

Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that his son would slay him. So, Laius started avoiding physical contacts with his wife, Jocasta. Unfortunately, a night, while he was strongly drunk, ended up sleeping with her, getting Jocasta pregnant. So, when Jocasta, bore a son, Laius had the baby exposed (a form of infanticide) on Cithaeron. (Tradition has it that the name Oedipus, which means “Swollen-Foot,” was a result of his feet having been pinned together, but modern scholars are skeptical of that etymology.) A shepherd took pity on the infant and decided to rescue him and gave little Oedipus to the royal couple that didn't have child of their own. So, Oedipus was adopted by King Polybus of Corinth and his wife and was brought up as their son. In early manhood Oedipus visited Delphi and upon learning that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified by this reveal, Oedipus, who didn't know to have been adopted, he decided to never return to Corinth.

A depiction of Oedipus and the sphinx, taken from an Attic kylix produced by an artist known to modern scholars as ‘Painter of Oedipus’. Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Vatican City, Rome. 470 B. C.

Traveling toward Thebes, the young man encountered Laius, who provoked a quarrel in which Oedipus killed him. Continuing on his way, Oedipus found Thebes plagued by the Sphinx, who put a riddle to all passersby and destroyed those who could not answer. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx killed herself. In reward, he received the throne of Thebes and the hand of the widowed queen, his mother, Jocasta. They had four children: Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene. Later, when the truth became known, Jocasta committed suicide, and Oedipus (according to another version), after blinding himself, went into exile, accompanied by Antigone and Ismene, leaving his brother-in-law/uncle Creon as regent. Oedipus died at Colonus near Athens, where he was swallowed into the earth and became a guardian hero of the land.

Charles Francois Jalabert, Oedipus and Antigone (1843)

Antoni Brodowski, Oedipus and Antigone (1823)

Oedipus' children and his uncle/brother-in-law have a tragic mythological story of their own: Antigone and Ismene, after the death of their unfortunate father, returned to Thebes, where they attempted to reconcile their quarreling brothers—Eteocles, who was defending the city and his crown, and Polyneices, who was attacking Thebes. In fact, Eteocles and Polynices were twins and they made a pact in which they would govern on Thebes togheter in alternate years, but at the end of his first year of government, King Eteocles decided to not pass the crown to his brother, breaking their pact. So, Polynices with his loyal followers and allies decided to attack Thebes to obtain the crown for himself. Both brothers, however, were killed, and their uncle Creon became king. After performing an elaborate funeral service for Eteocles, Creon forbade the removal of the corpse of Polyneices, condemning it to lie unburied, declaring him to have been a traitor. Antigone, moved by love for her brother and convinced of the injustice of the command, buried Polyneices secretly. For that she was ordered by Creon to be executed and was immured in a cave, where she hanged herself. Her beloved, Haemon, son of Creon, committed suicide.

Antigone with Polynices' Body, painting by Sebastien Norblin, 1825 CE, Paris, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

Oedipus in art: X

Oedipus complex

in classical psychoanalytic theory, the erotic feelings of the son toward the mother, accompanied by rivalry and hostility toward the father, during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. Sigmund Freud derived the name from the Greek myth in which Oedipus unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. Freud saw the Oedipus complex as the basis for neurosis when it is not adequately resolved by the boy’s fear of castration and gradual identification with the father. The corresponding relationship involving the erotic feelings of the daughter toward the father, and rivalry toward the mother, is referred to as the female Oedipus complex, which is posited to be resolved by the threat of losing the mother’s love and by finding fulfillment in the feminine role. Although Freud held the Oedipus complex to be universal, most anthropologists question this universality because there are many cultures in which it does not appear. Contemporary psychoanalytic thought has decentralized the importance of the Oedipus complex and has largely modified the classical theory by emphasizing the earlier, primal relationship between child and mother.

Here the link to a post of mine in which I analyze the relationship between Freud and his parents:

Electra complex

Electra complex is the female equivalent of the Oedipus complex. Carl Jung introduced this concept in his Theory of Psychoanalysis in 1913; however, Freud did not accept this theory as he believed that Oedipus complex applies to both boys and girls although they experience it differently.

What happens in the Electra complex is that girls become unconsciously attracted to their father and develop hostile feelings towards mothers, seeing them as their rivals. Penis envy is an element in female psychosexual development, where the daughter blames the mother for depriving her of a penis. Eventually, this resentment leads the girl to identify with and emulate the mother, incorporating many of the mother’s characteristics into her ego.

Electra Myth

Electra was the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra of Mycenae. She was the sister of Iphigenia (who Agamemnon sacrificed to Neptune to have a good sail to Troy) and as well as Orestes, with whom they planned the murder of their mother and her lover Aegisthus, seeking revenge for the murder of their father. Agamemnon was the brother of Menelaus, who was king of Sparta and married with Helen (the woman fallen in love with Prince Paris of Troy and "kidnapped" by him) and Clytemnestra was Helen's sister.

When Agamemnon returned from the Trojan War along with his slave-lover Cassandra (was a fromer priestess of Apollus, cursed by Apollus himself to tell future and not be believed for refusing his love attentions, and also the sister of Paris), he was murdered by his wife and her lover, Aegisthus, who was also his cousin. Aegisthus had a rotten past of being born by an incestuous rape and in a family history of adultery, murders and revenge: Thyestes, Aegisthus' father, and Atreus, father of Menelaus and Agamemnon, were brothers and they were exiled by their father for killing their own half-brother to rule over Olympia. They moved to Mycenae and started fighting for the throne. Thyestes was the lover of Atreus' wife and Atreus for revenge murdered all Thyestes' sons and severed their flesh to their unwilling father as meal. Horrified by have eaten his own children, Atreus plotted his revenge and asked for help to an oracle, that told him that his revenger would be born from the rape of his own daughter, Pelopia. However, when Aegisthus was first born, he was abandoned by Pelopia, ashamed of the origin of her son. A shepherd found the infant Aegisthus and gave him to Atreus, who raised him as his own son. Only as he entered adulthood did Thyestes reveal the truth to Aegisthus, that he was both father and grandfather to the boy and that Atreus was his uncle. Aegisthus then killed Atreus, accused of murdering his brothers/uncles and forcing Thyestes to rape his own daughter. While Thyestes ruled Mycenae, the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus, were exiled to Sparta. There, King Tyndareus accepted them as the royalty that they were and gave his daughters' hands (Clytemnestra and Helen) in marriage to the brothers. Shortly after, he helped the brothers return to Mycenae to overthrow Thyestes, forcing him to live in Kythira, where he died. Clytemnestra was furious at her husband for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia before his departure to Troy and Aegisthus with a similar past wasn't that happy with his uncle and cousins too. So, they killed both Agamemnon and Cassandra upon their arrival, even though Cassandra had warned of this ill fate.

Clytemnestra after the Murder, oil painting by John Collier, 1882, London, Guildhall Art Gallery

Clytemnestra hesitates before killing the sleeping Agamemnon as Aegisthus urges her on. 1817.  Pierre Narcisse Guerin. French 1774-1833. oil/canvas.

Electra and Orestes sought refuge in Athens, and when Orestes was 20 years old, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi; there, he was told to take revenge for his father's death. Along with his sister, they went back to Mycenae and plotted against their mother and Aegisthus. With the help of his cousin and best friend, Pylades, Orestes managed to kill his mother and her lover; before her death though, Clytemnestra cursed Orestes and as a result, the Furies or Erinyes (justice or revenge goddess, who punish people who committed most horrible crimes) chased him, as it was their duty to punish anyone commiting matricide or other similar violent acts. Electra, instead, was not haunted by the Erinyes.

Orestes murders Aegisthus, (On the left Chrysothemis), Red-figure pelike. Detail. Attic., by an ancient artist known as the Berlin Painter. Clay. Ca. 500 B. C., Vienna, Museum of Art History

The Ghost of Clytemnestra Awakening the Furies, John Downman, 1781, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America

About the House of Atreus: X