#it's leading you from setpiece to setpiece

[thefirstknife]

After recovering from the doomed yuri (he said, like a liar), I had a moment to think about a little detail that I'm not sure was seen again or addressed at all?

In the mission where we go into the cache copy of the Infinite Forest, there were 4 doors in the central room.

One led to Saint-14's Tomb and the other led to what would be the Encore area. But I recall the other 2 doors had some distinctions from the others (clearly remember one having what seemed like scorch marks and/or ice?) that were inaccessible.

....What's up with that?? There was speculation about where those could lead, but then I don't think we ever went back there to check?

Of course, I could just be misremembering things (it's not like my heart was mercilessly torn out from my chest, no no. I'm very capable of rational thinking at the present, yes)

No you remember right! They're there, I went batshit insane about this when I first got there. Took additional screenshots on my other visits and wrote up my observations in one of the posts, but I'll drop the screenshots here again because they're better quality/angles.

The icy gate is Europa gate. It literally uses the same textures and ice and snow:

Normal Sol Collective Vex come out of that gate during the fight, aka the ones you'd find on Europa. This isn't too big of a deal overall because those Vex are just the standard Vex units in the system. However, the other gate? The grassy one? That's the Black Garden gate:

During the fight, Sol Divisive Vex come out of it. This means that the Europa gate doesn't just have random Vex, it's like that on purpose, otherwise this one could've also had the Sol Collective, rather than Sol Divisive. The distinction between them does matter. Could just be for the purpose of showing off different units and all; not necessarily some huge hint but still. I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about it.

It's a really big area with a lot of stuff that's really unique, such as these various gates. It hasn't been used for anything other than this mission. Was it just a nice setpiece for a really important mission or is there something more here that might be revisited? No clue, but it looks like something that could be used at a later date.

You can return here from Encore, but I don't think it's intended. You can't come back when you're at the start of the mission; there's a turn back zone. But when you return to the starting area while doing the secret chest, you can go back fully to this room. And it's a little weird. The radiolaria pool on the floor is not moving or damaging you, for example, which means that it's not intended to go back. But if you want to go explore the area, you can!

I have no idea if they ever plan on expanding on this. The whole idea is super intriguing to me. Nessus has these "archives" that can apparently go to different places? At least Vex-controlled ones like the Black Garden and Europa (I'm thinking it's possibly connected to the Nexus/Glassway). Can these be tuned to make other areas accessible, even if they're just archived? And obviously a really peculiar detail is that they specifically use the Infinite Forest portal, including being able to go to the Infinite Forest archive, in the case of Saint's tomb at least.

Obviously this went beyond the scope of this season, but when it comes to the Vex and their abilities and options, I am very intrigued by this whole area and what it may be capable of. Also, better image of Descendant Wyverns which are unique units made only for this mission (that I am aware of):

Used only once, here. They have to have made them to be used at some point again in the future.

Certainly one of the most fascinating areas that just looks like something other than simply a setpiece for a one-time mission. The whole concept of it is really intriguing as well because if we could possibly access some of these other archives, could we learn more about the Vex and their plans? Uncover some of their secrets? Find a way to fight them better? Do these archives contain information about the actual places like the Black Garden and Europa, or are they just archives of simulations from the Forest? Or both? Also, which collective controls this archive even? One of the gates leads to the Black Garden and Sol Divisive isn't on good terms with the rest of the collectives, so how are they dealing with that?

These are questions for another day, I suppose. *punches through the drywall*

[gamerdog1]

Deadpool and Wolverine Review

If third time's the charm, Deadpool is the whole goddamn bracelet. I kinda grew up alongside the Deadpool movies. I saw the first one at overnight camp at 16, then saw the second in theaters at 18. Now, at 23, I feel like I've grown as a person, which means I can actually articulate how I feel about these films (though specifically, the newest one). I guess that whole 'wisdom comes with age' thing was right after all.

For starters, Ryan Reynolds absolutely kills it. I know the phrase 'born to play this character' is thrown around a lot, but it really fits here with him. Reynolds once again is a delight as Deadpool, with all his usual snark, pizazz, and heartfelt moments. He's always on point, either with a quick jab at another character, comical reactions, or his character's usual fourth-wall breaks.

He isn't always all happy-go lucky, though. The film, like the previous 2, has a story beyond gratuitous violence, one that centers on Wade Wilson's sense of inadequacy in comparison to other famous heroes. We see how his life has changed since the previous film (go watch that before this, it will not make sense otherwise), both for better and for worse, and watch him continue to grow as a person in a satisfying way. That, I believe, is what separates these movies from other ultra-violent movies of its type: that there is an emotionally-driven story, and it remains important beyond getting characters from setpiece to setpiece.

Though, that's not to say that this is some deep philosophical mediation on the character. Fear not, there's still as much, if not more, violent fight scenes and action here like the previous movies. After all, what would a Deadpool movie be without a few dozen (read: thousand) bad guys to kill, in creative and gorey ways? This film ups the ante, by giving more interesting fight scenes that revolve around different set ups (tower defense, 1v1 in a car, etc) to keep everything visually fresh.

There's never a dull moment in this film. Heart-to-hearts are full of little sneaky one-liners that take a minute to register. Tension between the two leads is thick enough to see, let alone cut with a knife. And all the while, the film keeps bringing in new reveals, fully using the 20th Century Fox backlog of C-listers to call back to this franchise's history, and keep them from fully being forgotten. Add that, with an army of multiverse Deadpools, and you've got yourself a film that even non-comic book nerds like me gush over.

Above all this, beyond the not-quite-irritating-like-most use of the multiverse, or the hundreds of liters of CGI blood shed, this movie did something so profound, I'm still reeling. It made me love Wolverine.

Growing up, Logan always felt like a gross old man type of character. The kind who pressures you to drink at a young age, and owns at least 20 guns that he refuses to part with. Any portrayal of his animal-ness always felt like lip service. But here... its like I've met him for the first time, and now I'm obsessed.

Hugh Jackman has practically been playing this character since I was born, but only here do I really feel like we get to meet Wolverine in full. No longer is he that hunched-over, stoic gruff weirdo that X-Men have around, now he's a deeply emotional character with valid reasoning behind it, and strong motivations. We are finally in an era where tough guy characters are being done justice and allowed to have emotions, and it is glorious.

X-Men Apocalypse gave us a taste of what he could do, but putting Wolverine in an R-Rated movie was the best decision anyone could have ever made. His animal fury is on full display here, and with a higher age rating, ever stab and slice is shown in bloody, glorious detail. Pairing him with another character who can take hits and survive, like Deadpool, was a match made in heaven.

The two are perfect foils, playing off each other in such a satisfying way that had me disappointed when it was all over. Deadpool has worked with bigger, tougher guys in the past, but Wolverine's short temper and guardedness go well with Deadpool's silly, jokester persona. Platonically, romantically, sexually, I don't care. They're meant for each other.

Above all, Deadpool and Wolverine is a loving send off to the studio that made the X-Men film franchise. Its a culmination of all the passion and hard work that went into those movies, and stands as a testament to how far we've come since the first X-Men hit theaters over 2 decades ago. With a film like this as a sample of what's in the future, we won't have anything to fear.

[threefolddefencespeech]

WorldCon!

So - WorldCon's over. I'm safely back home, very tired, only mildly ill, definitely getting the con drop or at least experiencing far too many post con emotions (what do you mean there won't be another one nearby for five years?). So perfect time to write a bit about it. I'm not going to get everything in here, but let's ramble incoherently about some highlights.

The Hugos

My spouse (and the rest of their team) won a Hugo! I am so proud and happy for them - it is, I say with incredible bias and no objectivity, very very well deserved. How could getting to celebrate that not be a highlight?

So. Let's move on to some book opinions. This year, I managed to read almost all of the best novel finalists (bar Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, which I'm still a few chapters into and ping ponging off. Let's say I'm pretty sure where my opinion was going to lie). So I get to have some more detailed opinions than most years, which is fun/regrettable for anyone who got an earful from me about Starter Villain!

It's always interesting to see what makes the Hugo shortlist. This year, a truly massive gulf emerged between my two favourites, the middle-of-the-roads, and one real "no, really, why was this here?" option.

Out in front were Saint of Bright Doors (Vajra Chandrasekera) and Some Desperate Glory (Emily Tesh). I can already see this post getting enormous, so I'll try and be quick (this is a lie).

Saint of Bright Doors is wonderful - the first chapter introduces us to a clear chosen one narrative, with Fetter raised with a destiny: to kill his cult leader father. The second rejects it utterly. Fetter ignores his destiny and his mother's calls, and immigrates to a city - one that has elements of socialist ideal, but gradually reveals more and more of itself to be a fascist police state, and in every case is wonderfully strange. He joins a group of fellow religious "unchosen ones". He drifts. His father's cult grows in influence, and threatens to pull him once more into orbit - but this is not so conventional a story as to fully let it. And he becomes fascinated with the city's bright doors, which lead nowhere, and are unopenable. In a less talented writer's hands, this would feel disjointed. Instead it's wonderful - a dreamy-but-grounded, mythic-but-real story of aimless reality pitted against religious destiny, of cults and pogroms and the structures that lie beneath the world. I have my problems with the ending. But had I liked it more, I suspect it would have been a worse book.

Some Desperate Glory tells a story of a militarised future human society, living to avenge the Earth. It is also, in many ways, a cult. Where Some Desperate Glory particularly succeeds is that its protagonist isn't an outlier. How many dystopias have you read in which the lead is an outcast, or always felt subtly wrong in the society, never quite fit in? But Kyr is in so many ways this future society's model citizen. Which makes her growth - her experimentation in the wider world - and the ways in which this society still abuses her, and still fails her because she can't live up to its ideals, far more powerful. She's not a comfortable head to make a home in, at least to start with, but it's a far better novel for that. While what the novel's doing is far clearer than Saint, it does go to some interesting places - and explores these cultish power structures on various scales. I have quibbles and gripes. Do I wish more page space had been devoted to developing the novel's visions of alternative versions of Kyr, rather than slamming in character development in fast forward? Yes, and I would have happily sacrificed a few big action setpieces (which is where I suspect that space went) to get there. But it's still a powerful book.

Saint definitely my preference there, but both worthy winners.

Then we had the middle of the pack.

Leckie's Translation State was... fine? I expected more, though. We had some alien weirdness, but it was wrapped around a story which had the exact same plot arc as a typical YA arranged marriage novel, with the characters ending up in exactly the same places you'd expect. Aside from one, who simply gets forgotten about. It was perfectly pleasant, but revolutionising the genre this is not.

Martha Wells' Witch King is a secondary world fantasy, told with a flashback-interweaving-with-present-events structure, in a way that's far more evenly balanced between the two narratives than most, with the past narrative holding most of the explanation of characters and relationships highly relevant to the present. However, it fails to really make it work - it sacrifices a lot of character development and foreshadowing for the actual plot to get this structure working, which means the actual key revelations fall a little flat when they come. It's not a bad book! There's some fun magic system stuff, some mildly interesting possession-of-different-gendered body stuff... but it's not life changing, just a fun attempted structural twist on an otherwise pretty classic secondary world fantasy.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi - well, it's a middle eastern pirate fantasy. The historical inspiration is great here - rich and vibrant. But the prose is clunky - it's doing Historical Feminism but in a really obvious, unsubtle way that's clearly just 2024 views projected backwards, or at least that's how it seems from the "ah, we mens often think x about a powerful lady, don't we?" narrator chapter. I like engaging with these topics, but can I wish for a bit more nuance and some better writing? Mind you, I'm only a few chapters into this one, and keep bouncing off. It might get better when I push through. From what others have said, I doubt it - but I can't really say. I'm maybe being harsh from initial impressions here.

So most of this middle group are small twists or weirdnesses upon otherwise pretty familiar genre novels.

Then there's Starter Villain, which is the only "really, why is this here?" novel of the list. I suspect just because Scalzi's a big name in SFF, and name recognition gets you a long way at the nomination stage. While I might quibble with the middle group - probably there was more interesting SFF published last year? - this was a novel-length shaggy dog story. It's not funny enough to be farce or satire - but it's not doing anything else. The protagonist's main defining traits are "very divorced", "likes cats", and I suppose "vaguely nice". Everyone speaks in the same way. And this goes nowhere - other than a few jokes about dolphins and venture capitalists along the way. Maybe if this hadn't been up for the Hugo, I wouldn't have hated this so much. But I expected something. This was my first Scalzi, and I probably won't choose to repeat the experience.

So, how'd the voting turn out? Some Desperate Glory won, which I vaguely suspected - felt like it had broader appeal as a slightly more traditional novel than Saint of Bright Doors anyway. But Hugo votership, why did you do Saint quite so dirty? It's so far down the list. On the other hand - faith marginally restored by Starter Villain ending up in a clear last place.

Which is to say: probably good job overall, Hugo votership, but you're on some shaky ground. :P

The Panels

Panels! I went to lots of them. I was terribly sabotaged by my very first panel, Revolutions in Speculative Fiction, setting the bar far too high. I was largely picking panels based on people + a vaguely interesting topic, with a few exceptions. Ada Palmer's and Arkady Martine's definitely proved that method of panel picking works well.

...after Dublin, the other thing I learned (alongside picking based on people) was that I really shouldn't plan my con too inflexibly or intensively. So despite wanting to go to 4 things in every slot, I paced myself - I missed out on an interesting panel and went to hang out with people or Do Food occasionally, especially when emotion + tiredness demanded it, and I probably had a better con for it.

There were worse panels too. Several on interestingly nuanced topics had a tendency to regress into more basic topics - particularly into cultural appropriation 101. Cultural Appropriation 101 is not a bad panel topic! It's an incredibly necessary one. But it's also a panel I have been to several times now, and while I think other panels should certainly touch on it where relevant, I wanted a bit more than Different Topic 101 from "Ancient Cultures and Context" and the discussion of religion in fantasy, for instance.

Overall though, I had a good time with the panels - even when frustrating (cough, Scalzi showboating and talking over other panelists in "Systems as Villains" when he didn't actually have anything to say, cough), they were fuel for conversation with interesting people, and there were some truly interesting ideas in there too. Maybe I'll manage to incorporate a few into my own writing. I hope so.

Self-Indulgent Gender Stuff

I'll try not to ramble about this too much, but it was pretty significant to my con experience. This was my first con since coming out as a trans woman (it also coincided with my 1 year anniversary of starting HRT). Honestly, coming up to it, I was pretty stressed - despite knowing on paper that a substantial part of WorldCon is queer nerds, it didn't quite make it through to my brain, or at least I suppose endocrine system (I worry about my appearance anyway, and was just coming off a bit of a doomspiral about my features at the 12 month mark, which may not have helped!).

But everyone was genuinely very nice about it - including everyone I already knew, but who hadn't seen me since pre-transition. And you know, it did feel really good to be able to present the way I actually wanted to at other cons (pre transition, I can't deny a certain - large - amount of envy at fem con + cosplay outfits, and I actually get to do some of that now). I even got some compliments on my outfits, which was very flattering (plus one person inexplicably wanting to draw me at the Hugo afterparty).

Did that stop me from worrying? Silly question. I still spent a lot of the con convinced I looked terrible in so, so many ways, and had to frequently borrow some reassurance from spouse and friend (I'm so sorry). There were a few low points. But I'm so glad I did it. Hopefully the start of many more cons presenting more comfortably.

Plus, I have discovered a great secret. My terrible dancing is drastically improved by the addition of a swooshy skirt. (Well, maybe some other stuff helped too, but I'll go with that)

People

I've talked a lot about official, organised things where I was there as a spectator: panels, the Hugos. But really, so much of WorldCon is just spending time with lovely people.

I got to do lots of the con with spouse and a soon-to-be-ex-Oxford friend, who I have really fond memories of doing other cons with. Lots of silly late night dancing. Lots of in depth discussions, from the deeply absurd to the (maybe) absurdly deep (or maybe just the former all over again). I got to see other Oxford friends in the magic con zone! @frith-in-tombs between track stuff and @vivelabagatelle occasionally too.

I got to catch up with other friends, especially the ex-Oxford folks! It was lovely to spend more time with @howlsmovinglibrary again (who also ran some excellent panels, and has definitely sold me on this villainess book), as well as Entourage, @cardboardmoose, and others (if I haven't named you explicitly it's probably because I thought the only way I've got of naming you might be too identifiable, and I don't know your name on here).

I got to meet new people, which honestly is one of the best things at a con. I spent a lovely night chatting to @canmom about all sorts of diversely interesting things, from opera to game design - completely unexpectedly after inexplicably working up the courage to venture a "hey, you're not [tumblr name] on tumblr, are you?" (at least I didn't comment on anybody's shoelaces, is all I can say in my defence). I met a distant friend from Discord and compared very different con plans - and a truly excellent crocheted Mr Pages. I chatted with a few more in panels. I finally got to hang out with Roseanna more than in passing (typically we've wound up communicating only through a mutual friend, Entourage since we've never really overlapped properly - I remember back when she asked me about reviewing, and look how the tables have tabled!) and had a great time dissecting the Hugos. (Another very well deserved Hugo win btw). I also learned that apparently I was referred to frequently as DAF by her and said friend, and she's completely forgotten what it stood for? I have a pressing need to solve this mystery.

And of course, there are some friends I dearly miss being able to con with too. Perhaps one day we'll be able to do so again.

What Next?

As I mentioned, so many post-con emotions! Five years really is too long between travellable worldcons for my liking.

Which means resolution 1 is: maybe I should do more cons? While flying transatlantic for WorldCon feels like a Lot, I've never made it to an Eastercon before, and I think I'd like to.

I've also reached out to plan a few meetups with nearby-ish worldcon people like Roseanna - I miss the con energy, and I think I'd like to get some more chats about books and such in my life. (Alas, distance remains a barrier for yet others!)

I also want to engage with more SFF writing - I read a fair few novels, but I feel like I miss out on a lot of reviews and criticism these days, and I miss that.

And as always, I come away wanting to put more energy into my own creative work - I've been planning a bigger IF-ish game (than my small silly/gift games I've made) for a long time, and maybe this is the time I'll manage the sustained effort to make it happen (and feel like I have My Own Stuff next WorldCon!). Hehe. Well, I can dream, anyway.

I should probably also catch up on sleep at some point.

It was a wonderful, exhausting, fascinating con - thank you to everyone who made it happen, whether more generally, or for me specifically. :)

[rickrakontoys]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

9/10

Just let George Miller make whatever Mad Max movies he wants. I will witness it.

A very different beast than Fury Road, this is a sweeping, ambitious, character driven story of vengence and violence. Splitting the story into 5 chapters, each having their own narrative goals, makes the film feel very episodic. However, this structure allows each segment to have a distinct feel, while familiarizing us with the key players and the motivating events in young Furiosa's life that lead her on the path to Fury Road. The themes, visual motifs, and symbols woven through the story create a rich tapestry that, like Fury Road, elevates this beyond action spectacle and into something grand and mythic.

Anya Taylor Joy doesn't actually appear as Furiosa until nearly a third into the movie, but once she does, she commands the screen with a nearly wordless performance, glowering with intense resolve and roiling emotions. This gives the few words she does say more importance and weight. Joy has much more to do with the character here than Charlize Theron, and, while evocative of Theron's version, makes it her own. Alyla Brown as young Furiosa is terrific as well in the first two chapters, also saying very little while using only her eyes and body language to convey feelings.

While many of the Wasteland denizens new and old are portrayed impeccably with that signature manic "Mad Max" energy, it is Chris Hemsworth's Dementus that basically steals the show. Equal parts charismatic and menacing, intimidating yet vulnerable, he provides Furiosa with an interesting antagonist whose motivations are as nebulous and volatile as a desert sandstorm. Hemsworth plays Dementus as a true product of the end of the world: a sad, pitiable, broken man acting the part of a cruel, bombastic leader, allowing himself to be corrupted by the unforgiving reality around him, using humor and eccentricity as a thin veneer over his brutal nihilism.

Much has already been discussed about the film's look. While John Seale's cinematography is missed, Furiosa still contains some terrific and creative shots, particularly during its many action scenes. The wasteland is once again presented using a variety of highly-saturated colors, which is always a refreshing deviation from the typical, washed-out appearance of other post-apocalyptic movies. Yet, the compositing, lighting, and computer effects are a step down from Fury Road, and can be distractingly noticeable at times, especially due to the grander scale of the setpieces requiring more CGI effects and background replacements. But these are relatively minor complaints, as the practical effects involving smashing vehicles and flailing stunt persons are still astonishing to behold. Miller's skill in staging action remains some of the best in the business, as even the most chaotic of sequences remain visually coherent.

While not as laser focused as Fury Road, Furiosa is still an incredible achievement in both character and world-building. It is perhaps one of the best prequels made, as it not only expands what was seen before in a satisfying way, but its added context improves its predecessor.

It is rather odd that Miller chose to include a montage of Fury Road scenes in the end credits... This movie would make a perfect double-feature with Fury Road, except it decides to show you "Fury Road: Cliff Notes edition" right at the end...

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT!!

I came across your post with Book 5’s list of chapter names and noticed that you changed the chapter name for 11 (from The December Rebellion to The Night Patrol).

Which leads me to my question: did the content of the chapter changed in any way so the chapter name changed as well, or is the name change something you felt was more appropriate before posting?

Can’t wait for the next chapter!! <3 much love

Yeah! So the chapter list is actually a little outdated — I ended up changing the names when they no longer suited the plot post-revision. "The December Rebellion" originally included a (somewhat tonally dissonant) caper about breaking into Umbridge's office, which didn't work because:

(1) it was a setpiece sandwiched between two setpieces, further squeezing out the slower emotional moments that worked better for the chapter (bathroom scene didn't exist in the original!).

(2) it added about 8,000 unnecessary words for a plot point that didn't contribute to any of the major plotlines, which in a fic as long as this one is just unforgivable; one of my key justifications for making my shit as Bonkers Long as it is is that for any given scene, etc., I can make a decent argument for why the fic wouldn't make sense without it;

(3) it had a different, worse version of the library fight between the Quartet, but because it was happening during a setpiece, it was disorganized and way too fast to explore the kind of character subtleties I wanted to in that conversation.

So I scrapped the chapter in the Big Demolition of 2023 and replaced it with a patrol scene, which was missing anyway, because what's the point of having your characters be prefects if you don't have at least one good patrol scene??

[dynared]

Well now that reporters from the trade papers and verifiable Hollywood reporters (including a journalist from well, the Hollywood Reporter) have confirmed that the live-action Voltron movie will begin filming at the end of August 2024, with casting presumably being done as we speak, it's probably a good time to level set with the internet at large and point out what to expect from this film and its targeted 2026 release date.

The film will not be based on Volton: Legendary Defender. Back during VoltCon 2020, Bob Koplar, head of WEP, Voltron's master licensor, revealed that the attempts to make the movie at Dreamworks/Universal fell flat due to arguments over the script, and Koplar flat out said the people at Dreamworks "did not get Voltron", leading to Dreamwork's license expiring and the subsequent bidding war. He also noted that while WEP retains the master rights to Voltron, Dreamworks retains the rights to the stuff made for VLD, and WEP would need permission to use those concepts.

Koplar's chosen director who worked on the script, Rawson Marshall Thurber, is a comedy/action specialist and frequent collaborator of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. While his most famous recent film, Red Notice was considered a poorly plotted action setpiece film, he's also responsible for Dodgeball and the Terry Tate: Office Linebacker series, so the guy knows how to get people to laugh.

No one involved is very fond of Voltron Legendary Defender. At all. Bob Koplar has noted in numerous VoltCon panels that he wants the film to resemble his father's (Ted Koplar, who licensed the show back in the 80s) Voltron, Rawson Thurber has not said anything about VLD, focusing on the original series and outright appearing at a Voltron booth with classic Voltron in the Rescue Rangers movie, and most, if not all of the post-VLD merchandise has been flavored for the original Voltron, including toys, Funko pops (although VLD is one of the licenses listed for the Funko game) and even Voltron craft beers. It's also worth noting that Bob Koplar has been pretty consistent about the idea that Dreamworks/Universal "did not get Voltron" while being professional about it, with implied ire at the shipping wars.

So if you're expecting to see the cast and story resemble VLD, temper your expectations now. They saw what you did, and were not pleased.

[adz]

a brief review of In the Mood for Love dir. Wong Kar-wai

In the Mood for Love is regarded as a high technical example in filmmaking, and it was hard for me to find any flaw in its unique visual language: the greenish and yellowish tint of the film stock at nighttime, repetition of the same scenes & behaviors at different times or under different contexts, the lovely photographic composition – and subverting certain rules for effect, like the shot of the red curtain billowing into the hotel hallway, leaving little space to walk. The painstaking use of mirrors to catch the subjects' expressions in cramped spaces without the intimacy of a close-up. As I realized what all these lovely setpieces led to, though, my wonder at the film's talent gave way to an intense sadness. The parallel lives of the two characters aren't really destroyed by their faceless spouses. Again and again, they avoid seriously considering their own happiness. Social pressure or an unwillingness to disrupt things prevents them from following their hearts, even as their nonaction leads to its own significant change and consequence. You could set the story today, but the social niceties and polite distance between men & women of the '50s-'60s are just another expression of our human tendency to be embarrassed at our own raw emotion – the painful reality of a love so tender and inadvisable that it can only be spoken into a hole, to no one, and filled in with mud.

[sprnklersplashes]

space explorers au for whatever ship/fandom you want :3

doing mean girls!!!

Janis sits with her feet on the control panel and can't understand why Cady is freaking out.

Cady is the hyper-vigilant scientist leading the voyage. Janis is the mechanic who likes to push Cady's buttons

At one point Cady walks in on Janis wearing a crop top and low slung jeans and she's like "oh"

Cady and Janis watch the stars from the viewing deck. Cady has a moment similar to the show about how she loves stars because they remind her she's not alone

Janis has an incredibly badass scene of running through a dangerous setpiece to set a fuse right and reignite the shields

[oakdll]

I really wish Persona 5 would let you play through Palace destruction sequences. I was always a little disappointed with how infiltration went on the day after sending the calling card. It's pretty much always just "teleport to the safe room before the boss and then fight them" but you don't get much more than that. Obviously the bosses are great and should be the centerpiece of the infiltration day, but it always felt like it was too short and like it was missing something.

I think having an extra part of the palace that you can only traverse on the day of infiltration would make it feel a lot more special. In Futaba's palace theres a short section before the boss fight that you can only get to after sending the calling card, which is nice, but it's a bit too short and bland to be memorable.

My favorite idea for this would be to let you play through Palace destruction sequences. In the actual game they always switch to a cutscene where all the characters are running out of the palace, but imagine if you had to run yourself as all the surroundings were destroyed. At the start of Kamoshida's palace, they made a point of showing an area that leads to a shortcut from the treasure room to the entrance, but then they just let you teleport to the final safe room instead of using it. What if they added those paths to every palace and you had to run out as quickly as possible to get through them?

It would basically turn P5 into a platformer for a minute or so. I'm not saying it should be dififcult, basically just a hold forward thing and you'll be fine, but it would create such a cool setpiece. It would probably make Ryuji's moment at the end of Shido's palace even more intense. Having to run to the bottom of the ship only to find no lifeboat, and having Ryuji offer to run and get one for the whole team and end up nearly dying in the process would be super cool.

It would make the ending of Futaba's palace a lot cooler too, they have a whole anime cutscene where the main cast jump into Morgana's ass, which could be removed (thank god) and you would have to run out of a crumbling pyramid. Genuinely that would be so cool.

[gnomeniche]

director, writer, actor: dhmis's students as creatives

hey guys. i would like to propose the idea that the three protagonists of dhmis represent different creative roles involved in the production of television. red represents a director, yellow represents a writer, and duck represents an actor.

this theory is somewhat similar to the "generations" theory, but with creative roles instead, as both are more fun lenses to look at the three through than actual theories about the future or past of the story. i am not saying that they are LITERALLY these roles (F*LM THEORY DO NOT INTERACT).

but! by looking at the imagery associated with them and what the former two found when they breached the reality of their world (in webseries and tv show), i can make a case for the idea that they REPRESENT them.

(i originally floated this idea in this post, where i said it was extremely underbaked, but i am baking it Right Now. it is occupying my brain and i am obsessed with it.)

the director: red and the tv machine

in the webseries, red discovers the nature of their reality by accidentally stumbling into a set-version of their kitchen and seeing the cameras that film their world. when he breaches reality in "dreams", he finds a "tv machine" made of screens showing the world he once lived in. he finds that he can edit aspects of the world when he messes with the machine, swapping out characters and setpieces, one which is the idea he floated earlier in the episode.

red’s version of the “backstage” is electric, filled with glowing screens and machinery. this and the imagery of screens, sets, edits, and cameras bring to mind a director. red's phone motif could be read as relating to the need for directors to arrange and communicate with every piece of the production, and he literally moves things around the set in production on the machine. the higher power he discovers is roy, often interpreted as a producer, who directors work with to get productions made.

what does red want? he's sick of his awful reality. he wants something nicer, something he can control, something that isn't here. you could say that he wants a change of scenery. or a Scene Change, as it were. he wants to decide what he gets to do, and if he isn't given something to hold his interest, he re-Directs the episodes in his attempts to leave. he discovers their reality while searching for an alternative route in the "computers" lesson, and he hijacks the "transport" lesson to escape.

he has a minor association with ears, as an ear was taken from him in the kickstarter videos, and what is a phone but another way to listen? read alongside his desires, he ultimately wants others to “Listen To Me.” a director’s job is to give directions and make decisions by hearing out collaborators’ feedback.

the world the three of them live in has an interest in crushing each of their specific kinds of creativity, so despite red's inclinations, he is not able to direct anything. he has been assigned the role of "the apathetic one," or the one who does not make decisions or visualize anything more. even outside his role, red's trauma from the lessons leads to him being reluctant to speak about what he wants, so he often remains silent about his desires until he cannot help it anymore. but when he tries to assert his will, everything tells him he is wrong for doing so. the world shows him that all he will find if he tries to make his own decisions is nothing new or interesting, just bleak hopelessness.

in "dreams," red's failures in the "real world" are because he cannot convey his ideas alone. he has plenty of ideas, sure! but he has trouble solidifying them into words and performing them well. when he finds the media machine, he is restricted in what he can do by the "scripts" and "actors" he is given by the show. a director can be as inventive in his craft as he wants; without a script or actors to work with, his ideas are mere shadows.

the writer: yellow and the show bible

in the tv show, one of the first things yellow does on new batteries is discover the sigils seen in the background throughout the show and on lesley's book. he writes in the language composing their world. when he breaches reality in "electricity," he goes up through unrealized future ideas for the show and assists lesley, the "showrunner," from whom he receives a "show bible."

yellow’s version of the “backstage” is organic, filled with music and art. this and the imagery of books, writing, ideas, and symbols bring to mind a writer. plus, yellow is the most artistically adept of the trio, shown by his clown painting, trumpet-playing, and entire cast of imaginary friends. this imaginative streak lends itself to writing fiction. the higher power he discovers is lesley, often interpreted as a showrunner, whose ideas show writers must attend to.

what does yellow want? he's shown to be the most interested in the lessons, and what he wants when he gets his batteries is to know more. he's hungry for new ideas, and he's dissatisfied with pointless learning. the point he wants, since he begs to stay with lesley, is to get to create. he wants to learn from the writing around him and then try it himself. it's just that his lack of batteries prevents him from thinking. a blocked writer, so to speak.

he has a minor association with hands, as a finger was taken from him in the kickstarter videos and his hands often get messed up in the show. read alongside his desires, he ultimately wants others to “Make Things With Me.” a writer’s job is to use their hands to make ideas into something solid.

the world the three of them live in has an interest in crushing each of their specific kinds of creativity, so despite yellow's inclinations, he is not able to write anything. he has been assigned the role of "the stupid one," or the one who never thinks about anything or comes up with anything new. even outside his role, yellow is quite literally prevented from thinking, reading, or writing by his corroded batteries, so he tries to be creative in any other way he can. but when he tries to do anything artistic, everything around him insults and destroys his efforts. the world tells him that his desire to create is pointless because his ideas are worthless.

in “electricity,” yellow's failure to inform his friends is because they do not take him seriously. they ignore what he wants to tell them in favor of their priorities, and the "show bible" is rendered something shreddable. one of a writer's greatest challenges is getting people to care about their words. if directors or actors fail to take interest in their writing, the script may as well be garbage.

the actor: duck and the viewers' eyes

so where does that leave duck? he has not had an episode where he (successfully) breaches reality yet (RIP webseries duck, 2011-2015), but i can still make the case with what we have that he represents an actor.

throughout the tv show, duck makes the most of his roles unless they conflict with his preconception of what is supposed to happen in the episode. he is enthusiastic about "jobs" until it seems like the lesson has been thrown off, at which point he is stubborn about returning to the earlier script. in "death" and "transport," he adapts easily and with a sense of humor to the role he is given. if he's dead, he's dead, but that doesn't mean a character like him can't annoy the reaper! if the lesson was on transport anyway, there's no trouble with going along with the road trip escape, as long as he stays in-character! he manages to twist his part in new directions without technically straying outside the role and provoking backlash from the world. (and even in "death", he was killed. but he became his own replacement anyway, so it was... fine?)

close attention to the script that you were given, as well as using interpretation while still playing the part well, are qualities of a good actor. also, he seems to feel at more home on the set than his friends. he has the most charismatic presence in the trio, and even when he is uncomfortable with the situations happening, the home-set itself is a place he likes. also, his personality is dramatic, expressive, and egotistical, which are all stereotypes of actors.

though it seems like duck is doing fine at expressing his creative inclination to act, i will argue that in duck, the world tries to crush a way that actors can be creative within a role: by putting their own self/feelings into the character. he has been assigned the role of "the uptight one," or the one who never strays from expectations or expresses feelings against the grain. even outside his role, duck's trauma from the lessons has rendered him afraid to act or think independently, so he only expresses his true feelings from behind the veneer of the role. but when he can no longer take the pain and must express himself, everything around him tries to destroy him entirely and violently. the world tells him that his self, his thoughts, and his feelings are an unneeded hindrance to proper fulfillment of the role.

the idea of attention to role relates to both his want and his failure. duck wants to survive this show and remain with his friends, so he makes the most of what the show gives him. but this ties him ONLY to what he is given, as despite all their interpretation, an actor who is not improvising but playing a particular role on a show needs material to work with in interpreting their character. they need to know the script and work with the director.

he also has a lot of motifs that could play into him representing an "actor"

he keeps losing one of his eyes. an actor is always subject to someone else's gaze, even as they interpret the role through their own eyes. these are the eyes of everyone who views their performance. he even has some fourth-wall-breaking lines related to this (though i doubt he means them with literal knowledge). "i'm the best one," the favorite of the audience. "people want to know what your final guess would have been." "what people?" the audience, of course. his association with eyes could say “Watch Me”

his repeated deaths and replacements could allude to shifting from role to role, as the mechanics of the show-world mean that duck's essence shifts from body to body.

green, his main color, is allegedly uncreative, and though actors are absolutely creatives themselves, some may see them as mere subordinates to directors/writers and an outlet for their creative voices. this might also relate to his repeated deaths; sometimes, overbearing higher-ups on productions might demand that they perform something a certain way and treat them poorly or replace them if they do not.

and keeping this in mind, i’m curious to see what he may discover when he finally succeeds in breaching reality.

the three of them and the creative team

on a tv show, all these roles are replacable. directors and writers change from episode to episode, and actors can leave or get written out. they are all beholden to powers higher than them, whether it's the showrunner or the execs, and they must please if they are to remain on the show. the trio are repeatedly replaced when they die, and they are literally living under higher powers that punish them for doing things wrong.

though they are restricted by the show they are in, the three of them all have creative potential within them. whenever one gain some kind of autonomy, we see this potential bloom: red starts conceptualizing scenes, yellow starts analyzing and writing. but all alone, the student who tries to break free cannot truly gain control over their world. they fall back into the cycle due to either their own failures or those of others.

i've emphasized how each of these creative types, assuming that they do not overlap in one person, cannot create a show on its own. it is the same for these three: they cannot find a solution to their suffering alone. if they want to control the television show of their lives, they must work together. they need to become creators, not just students, and they need each other to do that.

other tidbits

this is just to end this with something fun!

red and duck are closer to each other than yellow. directors and actors work closely together while shooting and thus speak with each other often. i could make a joke about them losing focus and having a consensual workplace relationship here but i won't

yellow and duck seem to have a contentious relationship, but they both get along fairly well with red. i do not know if the writer and the actor often interact in production. however, i feel like both interact with the director more than the other.

red listens more to yellow’s ideas than duck does. though both actors and directors need to be on board with the script, the director is more often the one who decides to make a script a reality.

red is the largest one. the director is often seen as the biggest player in creating a work of film, though again, it is a collaborative process and auteurship is fake. also, red is in the driver's seat throughout "transport" and becomes the boss in "jobs".

duck seems more at home in front of the camera than red, who is uncomfortable with eyes on him, and he is faster to pick up on negative changes in situation than yellow, who must observe and think things through first. you could read this as red-as-director feeling more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it and yellow-as-writer needing to really work through an idea before feeling comfortable putting it out there, whereas duck-as-actor is okay with people watching him and better on the spot when something goes wrong.

(last edited Nov 21, 2022. will continue to be edited as more ideas come to mind)

[oddygaul]

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Well, this is an immediate improvement over the last one for me due to the visual variety - love me some post-post-apocalyptic urban greenery, and they actually use it for a setpiece or two this time. Action scene consisting of monkeys locked in mortal combat? I sleep. Action scene consisting of monkeys swinging their way up a skyscraper overgrown by centuries of foliage? aw hell yeah.

I love that we had a timeskip, but have some reservations about how the movie ultimately dealt with it. Typically, the appeal of a timeskip is getting a soft reboot for your setting with less legwork involved - you get new characters in new circumstances, and you don’t have to show every single step along the way to justify them. This is utilized to the fullest in Kingdom for the ape society, and it rules. After an entire trilogy following apes that grew up alongside humans, with all the baggage and preconceptions that brings, it was a breath of fresh air to get to know not only ape characters, but entire ape societies that developed on their own, apart from any human influence. This way, we get to see what the apes value intrinsically when left to their own devices, and not just as a response to their place in the human world.

Kingdom understands that this bent is interesting, thankfully, and spends a lot of time exploring these themes and offering up different possibilities on how things might shake out. Noa’s eagle clan is pretty insular - they seem to have little-to-no information about the history or context of their world, but they’re a strong, vibrant community with their own traditions. I think their defining trait to me was kindness and a sense of devotion to their community - there’s a bunch of beats in the first act that seem like they’re about to lead to conflict, like Noa getting caught eavesdropping by the warrior ape, that instead spin positive. And Noa embodies those traits - he’s not just daring and physically able, but he’s a helper. I really liked that one of the initial defining character moments we’re shown is him taking his spare time in a handful of scenes to whittle up a support to fix the village’s fish drying rack.

movie definitely could've used more gay orangutan

Proximus, on the other hand, is a real ‘how often do you think about the Roman empire’ kinda guy. The apes may have lost the technological know-how required to record and distribute podcasts, but rest assured, if they had it, Proximus would be saturating that market. Genuinely, though, Proximus’ civilization (and Raka, on the other end of things) are interesting looks at how history and truth trickle down through the years - how once certain events are out of living memory they can be distorted, and how a message can be warped, with certain bits picked apart to be used by individuals as they wish. This archaeology is an entertaining bit of dramatic irony for a knowing audience, to watch this future society investigate a past we’ve seen, uncovering partial truths and attempting to slot them into their imperfect knowledge of their world.

Proximus was a great villain - I was surprised they got rid of him so quick, to be honest.

On the other hand… I kinda hate what they did on the human side of things. Now, we don’t see a whole lot of their culture, as it’s largely relegated to what we learn from Mae and our little peek at the bunker towards the end, but from what we do see, human culture seems largely unchanged. It seems as if they’ve successfully passed everything down, generation to generation, from their knowledge and technology to their mistrust of the apes. With the soft reboot, we had the chance to start from scratch and show both human and ape society emerging from the ashes, and some interesting sci-fi about how different their values and goals would look after a few hundred years. And despite doing that with aplomb for the apes …the humans seem to be fighting the same war they were fighting hundreds of years ago. As someone who was pretty tired of that human narrative by the second Apes movie, I’m not exactly thrilled that we seem to be picking up right where we left off.

Wouldn’t the cool play here have been to show a totally new human culture emerging from the infected, so that the astronauts that eventually return from their space mission actually have something to contrast with?

[eshasunrise]

On Professor Layton Vs Pheonix Wright

No spoilers, but I talk about PWPL for a long time under the cut.

The most frustrating part of Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton is the way it treats its lead characters. The two do their jobs well, Phoenix is the same goofy, down on his luck lawyer he always is, and Layton is as charismatic and clever as you'd expect, but there in lies the problem. Neither character is really explored to any real degree beyond what's already been established. And I get it; dubiously canon crossover made by two disagreeing companies designed to be an entrypoint into both series. It's better to play things safe, not change too much, and use the best parts of both series against each other. And to be fair, they do that with aplomb. The AA and PL character designs mesh beautifully together, especially after the hard work unifying the main characters. The Puzzles are an excellent addition to the investigation segments, and the court cases do a great job dredging out the minutia of the larger than life story and setpieces.

But Layton is a man with far too much intrigue and nuance to just be the confident windfall, and if there's one thing the Ace Attorney Franchise is good at, it's nuance.

Professor Hershel Layton is a man defined by three things: his gentlemanly demeanor, his love of puzzles, and his willingness to always lend a hand. But the Layton of Lore and the Layton we play as are two subtly different men. Hershel is truly a gentleman, no doubt about it, but he's cautious, aloof, and reserved. He won't meddle in matters that don't interest him or call upon him in the first place. He also never speaks of his past or his family. We know how secretive he is about his lost love, and how he becomes estranged from his children in the near future. This speaks of a man afraid, one who wants with all his heart to be always there, yet frequently is one moment too late. One who can be relied upon, but who ends up falling just short. One who strives to shoulder the burden of others, but ends up taking the praise as well.

A man who strives to be Phoenix Wright.

Phoenix is known to be a bumbling mess of a man, who wears his heart on his sleeve, hinges his bets on bluffs, and is responsible for overturning law and order in his country. Yet the Phoenix we play as isn't that man, despite what he thinks. He's somebody who knows people well, and can tell when someone is innocent, and will put his own life and reputation on the line if it means protecting that, even against his own better judgement. He's a man whose bluffs are more thought out than the carefully constructed alibis of men with more power and time than he'll ever hope to have. He's a man who overturned law, not through excess trust or gullibility, but his willingness to call out corruption while protecting as many people as possible from the fallout of his actions. He couldn't have begun to change things the way he did were it not for the trust and love others put in him, or his dedication to the truth above all else. Phoenix Wright has, without fail, shown himself to be someone to fall back on. Someone who will shoulder your burdens, hell, someone who will take the consequences of your mistakes and victimhood onto himself if it means making sure you can wake up happier three days from now, and refuses to let it go until justice is served. He takes the blame for the Dark Age of Law not because nobody else could; it's easy to point to Gavin, Gant, and Karma, but because nobody else can. He will carry the consequence of horrid people for the rest of his life, egg on his face (or coffee), trudging through hell until a better tomorrow comes, all the while thriving against odds stacked so far against him it's a miracle he's even alive.

That is the man Hershel Layton longs to be, the man he goes out of his way to become every day of his life, and the man Phoenix Wright is by simply being his own goofy, bumbling, easily panicked self. It could be said that, for as soft and kind as Layton is, his drive to be a gentleman distances himself from being the protector he wants to be. For as brilliant as he can be, it doesn't help much when he doesn't have the answer. With all the time he spends trying to help others, he never lets himself move on from, or share, his own pain.

And that's why Luke needs to be framed for murder.

Imagine: a situation that Layton cannot deal with. One he couldn't expect. Set it up so he sees Luke holding the bloody weapon in the body of the scared victim. So caught in the moment he just can't put together any other alternative, try as he might. That's where Phoenix comes in. Immediately knowing Luke wouldn't do such a thing, he takes the case before a case can be made, even as Luke second guesses himself and Layton is sent to testify. He's made to put together evidence pointing directly to Luke's guilt. And just as all seems lost, he turns the question on its head, asks why Luke can't be guilty, and that's when he asks Layton for help with one thing; a puzzle. By reframing this impossible situation into Hershel's field of expertise, removing all elements of trauma and impossibility, Layton reorients himself, adjusts his testimony, and slowly the truth begins to unravel. Press after press, puzzle after puzzle, piece after piece, and just as a dead end seems to be in sight, who else should interject but the real murderer, panicking from how close they've gotten, pointing out the logical flaw, in turn outing himself as the true killer to Phoenix and, more importantly, Hershel.

And you do not hurt Hershel's friend.

A duel of words breaks out (likely a game/framing mechanic unique to this sequel) where Layton takes command of the conversation and trial, pressing the Murderer further and further into a corner until, at one point, he slips. Layton backs off and confidently hands the floor back to Phoenix, who immediately presents the evidence that contradicts the pressed statement. The prosecutor has to object to a confession made out of duress, but at this point, the damage to the alibi is done, and the Murderer can't weasel his way out any more. One more round of testimony, and one more puzzle to present a piece of evidence, and the case is closed.

Afterwards, Layton can't help but cry as he hugs Luke, realizing the man who had been put down all game, whose made himself out to be a fool and jumped to harebrained conclusions to just barely be proven right, was the man who not only saved them, but the man he aspired to be like his whole life. Someone who can shoulder the pain of others until it's light enough to carry. Someone who accepts his own past, and lets it guide him forward without weighing him down. Someone who can stare defeat, even death, in the eyes, panicking all the while, then turn around, point his finger, and demands one more answer, over and over until the truth has come out. Someone who can solve even the most impossible of puzzles, when all he has to go on is a hunch, and trust that it can be done. (I'd also like to foreshadow this by having the first puzzle on Wright's side be a Sudoku puzzle, specifically, one where you have to take a leap of faith at turn one to solve, trial and error-ing the first move with little penalty).

Basically, a game where Phoenix is on the back foot and Layton can support him is great, but a finale where Layton is in a no-win scenario, and Phoenix can see him through by bringing out what Layton can do best, that would be excellent.

[centrally-unplanned]

Random Lackadaisy Pilot Thoughts:

-- I knew going in that I would have a fundamental disagreement with this pilot, from both knowing median audience preferences and seeing promotional documents; namely Rocky. Rocky is your zany lyrical comic relief character, who says things like this all the time:

And everyone in universe treats him like that police officer does; as an annoying lunatic. On the page this level of court jester can work; no one is reading it aloud to me, I can go at my own pace, others in-universe are responding the way I would respond in-universe, I can appreciate the dynamic. As spoken dialogue though, its a lot harder - he is talking *at* me, I am no longer a distant observer but instead just like one of the characters in the story, feeling what they are feeling; namely, cringe.

So how do you execute a character like Rocky on screen? A lot of ways (he isn't an issue at all if this is a comedy or a musical, for example) but overall I think you need to pair him off and reduce him - he should be playing off people most of the time, talk like 40% less, get interrupted more, his lines should often be set-ups for eye-roll punchlines by others. You balance him for the reality of film.

However! Rocky is also the 'protagonist' - not really, but he is the first character we meet - and a fan favourite. Western animation 'loves' zany weirdo characters, he is flash you can use to position your product in the market. So Rocky is not reduced in the pilot, he is expanded - full solo opening, musical number, lots of setpiece sequences around him. He is absolutely the primary character of the pilot. Which does not work for me, I think it was a poor choice - it sells the story itself short.

-- Related to that, I think the Rocky choice and some others frayed the story's film noir tone. Lackadaisy is famous amoung webcomics for its out-of-this-world levels of detailed shading and toning, which it uses to build a city of shadows and light:

Its the kind art that sells a troubled man torturing his bounty for information about his own dark past for pyschological reasons. There is just no way an indie long-form animated show can look like this, they aren't Studio Shaft. So your Mordecai is gonna look like this

Which is fine, but you are bleeding film noir points, you need to make them up elsewhere - which you cannot do if zany Rocky is your lead and 60% of the run time is combat shenanigans! This pilot is selling a very different vision of the story; its aesthetics have been altered by the demands of the medium, and the story isn't calibrated to that to preserve the comic's balance (which is equally serious & comedic).

There is also a plotting issue behind this to - the pilot does not start the same way as the comic, in the comic Rocky's opponents are some unimportant farmhands he is robbing, meanwhile Mordecai is introduced in full targeting some equally unimportant dudes. Which means people get to die, fight scenes can get brutal, it can pivot from comedic to serious by escalating the stakes. However, since this pilot is all main characters, they all have plot armor, no one can die, so the tone has to stay zany. The characters cant bleed, so the film noir points continue to do so for them.

-- Lol these short thoughts ballooned, sorry! I definitely still liked it, I love Lackadaisy after all. Something I did like was that, even though it could not preserve the sepia-shadow detail of the comic, when given the space it did a lot of great things with lighting, special effects and staging to give it visual flair. Rocky's bridge song has a lot of that:

And the final cigar-ash-burning-the-flower shot was a great all-into-our-vibe choice:

When the pilot chose to be fully art deco or film noir, it really hit it.

-- This pilot is a great example of industry shaping art. This is not a short, its a pilot; a pilot is a pitch letter to production studios asking them to pick up your show. That is a different ask from "be a good first episode for your story". It wants to introduce all the cast because everyone has their favourites and you want to maximize buzz with casting like their voice actors and stuff. It wants to be flashy with a lot of combat and movement because that is what a studio thinks the 'median' audience member wants from a cartoon. It probably toned down the blood because as a cartoon in America it needs to be pitched for an all-ages demo and doesn't want box itself into a corner ratings-wise. The ways it deviates from the comic are probably less artistic desire and instead a combination of the medium-is-the-message and the realities of how a show like this is financed if its going to reach a full cour. I can't fault it for any of that, and it really helps to know those things as you are watching it imo.

-- What is up with the rough pencil motion lines still in the final cut??

This isn't a budget or accident thing, these shots are fully colored and lit and all that, removing those lines would have been trivial. At least I think they should have been. It seems an intentional choice, but it kindof baffles me, why? Someone must have explained this somewhere, I am legitimately asking, if you know tell me.

-- Lots of great Cat Moments, Mordecai hissing at the water, amazing. We need at least one an episode if this gets picked up.

[chronotsr]

No. 7.5 - 1978 Reflections, and the Halls of Mystery

Welcome back to the end-of-the-year recaps! This is technically the first TSR iteration of it!

1. Coolest ideas

It's a lot of stuff from D2. The big ticket item is "neutral-ground hostile shrine" -- any time you can muck about with otherwise hostile people without drawing swords immediately is a big win. I know that the reaction table is supposed to mitigate that some but, cmon. Sometimes you just can't think of a good reason that the 9th goblin pack tonight is not immediately hostile. This is a way more natural way to handle it. And it lets you talk and such and experience their culture from their perspective!

2. Coolest Module You Haven't Heard Of

This is honestly a hard one because all of these modules are intensely well known. Gun to my head, I would probably vote for G1. The D-series is cool but frankly there have been more better and more interesting iterations of subterranean hexcrawls -- Veins of the Earth being the currently famous one. But the thing about G1 is, G1 is a surprisingly natural and fun location. Unlike the others in the GDQ series, G1 is genuinely an adventure you could slot anywhere with no context. It is simply a fun raid on a fortress, which I never get tired of. The twists of "they're piss drunk" and "there's a slave revolt in the basement" are really good (albeit in 2024 a little stale) twists on the classic raid-on-fortress formula.

3. The Growth of Module Design

Honestly 1978 represents a rather stagnant year for module design. The most innovative design feature I see is how D1-D3 feeds into one another in a much more naturalistic way than its predecessors, and all through that deeply useful combination of hexmap and random tables with a handful of pre-programmed setpieces. I am eager to see hexmap technology get much better going forward.

…

Surprisingly, 1978 wasn't too much to talk about? I don't generally think of Gary as an "innovator" in module design space. His main contribution is taking things that already exist and making them feel more natural. Which is not to say that I now buy into Gygaxian Naturalism as this great feat, more than a lot of his competition at the time was seemingly intentionally anti-Naturalism. Their work feels like the reaction to me, Gary is just staying the course of "this should make an amount of sense". Although, his random dungeon monsters mishmash still feels as nonsensical as all hell.

The Halls of Mystery (From Dragon 21, December 1978)

And as threatened, we're going to have a very brief section on The Halls of Mystery, which holds the dubious honor of 1st Dragon Magazine dungeon. I would throw the full header at you, but everything is by Don Turnbull. You may recognize his name, at publication time he works for Games Workshop and he will be heading up TSR, Inc.'s UK branch starting in 1980, leading to the much-beloved Fiend Folio.

So. Not much to say about this, actually, It's a very large room with some branches. The main schtick of the Halls is that the main chamber contains several mirrors, some of which are magical. There's a big riddle on the desk on the south side, the riddle solution is actually quite obvious (say Excalibur three times -- and hey, Don told us the answer and rationale of the puzzle! Thanks Don!). When you move the central cylinder, it teleports you to the corresponding position in the dungeon. The rest is a lightweight stocking of the dungeon with monsters, treasure, et c. If you're keeping score, this is a Zelda puzzle. It's very cute and lightweight and honestly it's so neutrally written (no statistics are given and it would be trivially easy to restock it at any level) that you could genuinely use it in 2024 with very little effort. It's adorable! It is also wonderfully lean, clocking in at two total pages and frankly it's super refreshing to have such a light read of a module here.

Happily, next time we will be covering B1 - In Search of the Unknown, which is the second Basic D&D adventure we will be reviewing in this series (The adventure printed in the Basic rulebook, Tower of Zenopus, was first. This is our first lettered Basic adventure.) And, funnily, the first TSR module in this lineup I've never read before. See you then!

[racefortheironthrone]

Hey Maester Steven, sorry if you've already answered this and I just can't find it, but what would you sqy are the specialities of each region of Westeros when it comes to war? I have a general idea from the top of my head (like the Riverlands exceling in guerrilla warfare) but wanted to hear your thoughts in full.

I think I've talked about this here, but I'm happy to go into more detail. When it comes to regional specialties of warfare, in some cases it's easier to identify trends than others, but I'll try my best. (I'm also going to tag in @warsofasoiaf, because I'm pretty sure we've talked about it this quite a bit over the years.)

Keep in mind that we're talking about minor variations in Westerosi armies that all tend to have a mix of knights, infantrymen, and archers working together in a late medieval paradigm of warfare heavily based on the Wars of the Roses.

The North:

The North's speciality doesn't seem to be a particular kind of military unit, but rather a kind of unique elan: when we consider the campaigns of Roddy the Ruin (the Fishfeed, the Butcher's Ball, First Tumbleton, and Robb Stark (Whispering Wood, the Battle of the Camps, Oxcross), one of the common trends is that Northern armies often employ a strategy of unexpected reckless charges that rely on aggression and shock to panic the enemy.

Usually, this leads to an emphasis on Northern cavalry as the core of the Northern army, but we also see Northern infantry do the same thing at the Battle of the Green Fork. There are some tactical differences - Roddy tended to favor frontal assaults at the risk of heavy casualties, while Robb Stark favored the use of maneuver and ambush.

Here, I think the North's ferocious if somewhat ill-disciplined approach is evocative of the Highland charge and the way it absolutely devastated much larger, European-trained professional armies until the Battle of Culloden, when changes in bayonet technology and a shift in bayonet tactics to solve the problem of the Highland targe.

The Vale:

We haven't seen the army of the Vale in operation, so we can't really talk about a specialty. However, it's worth noting that repeatedly in the text, the Vale's army is referred to as "the knights of the Vale," so that fits with their general tendency to cultural traditionalism.

The Ironborn:

Essentially equivalent to historical Vikingers, they're very good at naval warfare, marine operations, and ambushes on relatively undefended targets. They make up for the generally smaller size of their ships through the use of misdirection and distraction.

On land, they fight in (somewhat outdated) infantry shieldwalls and are heavily hampered by their total lack of cavalry, and their relative lack of archers. Moreover, they have no experience of fighting cavalry and tend to break in the face of a cavalry charge. They're pretty poor fighters on land, to be honest.

The Riverlands:

As we see both in the Dance of the Dragons and the War of Five Kings, the Riverlands has a historic tendency of constantly being invaded by all its many neighbors. While they often come out on the losing end, they tend to be more successful when they eschew conventional medieval tactics and instead focus on guerilla warfare or defensive setpiece battles that emphasize the use of rivers as natural barriers.

The Westerlands:

Because they have the most money - which is quite reminiscent of the Burgundians - the Lannisters can field multiple large armies with lots of extremely well-trained and equipped soldiers: their melee infantry aren't spearmen but well-armored men-at-arms and well-disciplined pikemen, they have a lot of knights. However, Tywin also has a tendency to use various less-disciplined fighters - the mountain clans, free riders, and some very questionable choices in mercenary companies - as expendable raiders.

The Reach:

As the most populous region in Westeros, the Reach has the advantage of massive numbers - it's full army is 100,000 strong - which gives it the option of attacking from all directions in force, essentially have the luxury of not having to choose where to spend its resources.

Moreover, the Reach is known for its knights - although as noted in my coverage of ACOK, there's something very weird going on with the numbers of the Reach's cavalry, because it seems like it only has 20,000 knights, which seems rather low.

The Stormlands:

The Stormlands are known for their marcher lords, whose men are the best longbowmen in Westeros. They're also known for their castles, so I imagine the Storrmlands are particularly good at defensive siegecraft.

Dorne:

See here. The Dornish have their own entirely different tradition of warfare that bears almost no resemblance to the rest of Westeros, it's a mix of phalanx warfare, horse archers, and jinete light cavalry.

[skojukebox]

Prose fight scenes

One thing that I think can help people a lot when they're writing fight scenes is to set goals with them and really stick to them.

A fight in a visual medium can absolutely exist just to look flashy and cool or spam your eyes with exciting imagery, but prose doesn't really have that same eye candy aspect to distract from something being directionless. Ideally, you are having a fight for a good reason, and it's supposed to navigate the characters towards the next important part of the story. Everything that happens in the fight should service getting them there, whether through dialogue and plot development or physically moving them towards it somehow.

Once you have that central goal in mind of why they are having this fight, the next thing I think that helps a lot is to come up with two or three "setpieces." Basically, a few big climactic moments that happen during the fight, be it a cool attack, characters doing some kind of impressive stunt, or even just an impactful set of words.

Those setpieces are like little pit stops on your way to arriving to your ultimate goal, and they help keep you on track. Fights in prose can very easily turn into a word soup of exchanged blows and body movements, but having the fight be more like a chain of memorable moments, that lead to THE memorable moment, gives them a sort of cohesive direction and keeps your reader's eyes from glazing over.