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whatyourusherthinks · 1 year ago

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Challengers Review

Hey, it's the movie where Zendaya has a threesome with two brothers. Okay, it isn't really about that, it's about Zendaya trying to decide which of these two tennis guys she's gonna end up with or something, but the marketing made it seem like the two guys were brothers. Even my manager thought so. Anyway, I didn't really have any strong feelings about the movie before it came out, looked sorta interesting. I used to watch tennis with my mom growing up so I could get into that angle of the movie.

What's The Movie About?

These two tennis players have a match that's overly dramatic and we flash around their history of why their like that. Spoilers, it's because they are horny for Zendaya and each other and as all three of them are egotistical assholes.

What I Like.

The story structure is pretty interesting. Basically it starts with a tennis match between these two guys, and we flashback to various interactions they and Zendaya have had throughout their lives. It's kind of a mystery of what's going on that slowly reveals itself. They do the "action set to the rhythm of music' thing, but it's with drama and tennis instead of fighting or a chase scene. It works sometimes. The second half of the movie picked up quite a pace and got tense at certain points. And the acting is pretty good. All the leads are pretty hot too so that helps I guess.

What I Didn't Like.

If you couldn't tell from the subtle hints the the previous sections, I don't like this movie very much. It's kinda bad. It's not god awful, but it's aggressively kinda bad. I'll see if I can explain myself.

To start with, I said the story structure is interesting, but notice I didn't say it was good. Honestly, I got confused about when the scene I was watching was happening in relation to the last scene. Also, a third of the movie the slow burn doesn't work because we either already know what's gonna happen, either because of the start of the movie establishing it or BECAUSETHEFUCKINGTRAILERSPOILEDIT! Another third it doesn't work because I don't know what the question I'm supposed to want to know the answer to is, and the final third doesn't work because it involves being invested in the characters and I hate all of them.

SECOND POINT, I hate all the characters. Well, to be fair there is only like 3 characters, Zendaya, blonde tennis boy, and brown-haired tennis boy. (Art and Patrick, respectively.) I mean there's a bunch of other people in the movie obviously but no one gets a name except for Art and Zendaya's kid who is so completely superfluous to the movie I think she only exists so Art can use her to complain about playing tennis. Because the only thing Art wants in the movie is to stop playing tennis. Zendaya and Patrick are egotistical and aloof, and they also like to act like their pulling these 4D chess manipulation moves on each other and Art, but really they're just fucking assholes with really vague motivations. Zendaya says she doesn't want to be a homewrecker yet she constantly is bouncing back and forth between Art and Patrick for some reason (just like a real tennis match uhuhuhuh) even though she constantly berates and criticizes both of them. Normally in movies with love triangles I'm on the never route of 'all the characters should just form a polycule' but here I just want all of them to go away. Patrick gets a special mention in my next segment.

Three, there's some HORRIBLE queer representation in this movie. To give the movie a slight break, there isn't any forced in lesbians, and that's appreciated. They don't ignore the romantic chemistry between Art and Patrick, and Patrick is fairly open with his bisexuality in the movie. But Patrick is also a philanderer, and openly admits at one point to be hooking up with whoever he can just so he can have a place to sleep. Which is a position HE PUT HIMSELF INTO BECAUSE HE'S TOO PRIDEFUL TO ASK HIS RICH PARENTS FOR HELP. Also, really early on there's this random gay couple that sexually harass him for no reason and they are super stereotypical, and don't come into play at all or connect to anything.

Fourth thing, this movie is too long. You could trim plenty and makes it a svelte two hours, like that gay couple I just mentioned. There's slow motion, for absolutely no reason. Why does Zendaya turning around need to be three times as long as normal? There's also like an embarrassing amount of product placement for just about everything, which I guess makes sense since the characters are professional tennis players (kinda sorta) but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Five, I said the tennis and drama set to music works sometimes? It works twice, both in the second half of the movie. I can't really explain why it doesn't work for every other scene. It just doesn't. Like, the makers of the movie did it wrong. It doesn't line up, or they put music cues over some pointless shot. Here's a shot of Art staring at his coffee table, better pump the techno. Here's Zendaya rubbing her busted knee, this needs an angelic choir singing in Latin. I hate the music in this movie. I thought it was going to be all techno music, which I wouldn't have loved but I could at least respect. But they also use super incongruous church hymns or something of that nature. And on top of that, There's licensed music. Diegetic licensed music that SOUND TERRIBLE.

Lastly, the first half of this movie is really boring. And again, I can't really explain why. The only things that happen are either shown in the trailer, or incredibly cringe-worthy. Let's just say when the most entertaining part of your movie is a scene where someone is telling a story about the first time they jerked off, you better fucking work hard to make it entertaining. Hell, it's not even that funny. It's just kinda icky I guess. All the romance scenes are like that. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but the romantic dialogue sucks, the "sex" scenes are just gross, but not in an intentional way, and the nudity felt meaningless. I didn't even feel sleezy. It just was like, "Yep, they made the actors get naked. Whatever."

Also the movie just stops. Kinda like this.

Final Summation.

I had a chance to watch this movie the night before it came out officially, but I didn't feel super great so I didn't go. It was the only movie that came out that week, but I didn't go in on my day off because I wanted to rest. I been having issues managing my stress and anxiety recently and wanted to take sometime off. Hell, I had three panic attacks in the past few days before going to see this movie, and one on my way home from watching it.

I think the universe was trying to warn me.

I kinda hate this movie. I feel like a fraud saying that because, objectively, it's not that terrible of an experience. (It's not Civil War.) I'm sure it would appeal to someone. But not me. After writing this review I'm not even angry. I'm not disappointed at the movie either because I didn't really have expectations going in. I just feel empty inside.

What the fuck am even I doing?

#Challengers #Rejected Movies

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botwstoriesandsuch · 5 years ago

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Master Kohga Age of Calamity Trailer Analysis

I’m a speedy boi time for some thoughts on today’s new trailer

Ok first off THIS SHOT. Very important. Look at the Sheikah Slate filter. Last trailer I was able to write it off as some thematic choice since Robbie and Purah were Ancient Sheikah Scientists, but THIS trailer does not have that same connection. Couple this with this screenshot [credit to @rachelsmusicallife thanks for pointing this out to me!]

I’m under the impression that these cutscenes might be part of an overarching theme of reliving memories through the Sheikah Slate. Kinda fleshed out out theory on how this might be related to eggbot here.

“Hehehehe... Look. What. You. Did...”

The camera motion here is handheld (yes I know it’s not literally handheld but it has that feel) with Master Kohga here literally holding the camera. I’m assuming because this scene is from the direct POV of another character, perhaps Link. Which would make sense, since he is apparently accusing us of doing something. The lighting is also super weird, we’re in the Yiga Hideout (the area with the large pit where we fight Kohga in botw) but the sun is just setting with a shroud on the area. Although, I can’t exactly place the time of day because I’ve been through the hideout my fair share and no time of the day really lines up with this scene (because of the snowy Gerudo Highlands in the background, so the glistening of the sun is different)

This is by the Great Plateau. I’m thinking near the Outpost Ruins considering this isn’t Gatepost Town since they Great Plateau’s entrance is not in view. In fact, I could probably specifically place this right....HERE

Flag poles, juts in the Plateau walls, road directly perpendicular to the Plateau. If my three years of staring at the Botw world is correct, [please Nintendo it’s the only thing I’m good at] then I’d say they’re at the Outpost Ruins. The only thing is that the houses seen here are mainly wood, while the ruins have clear stone walls

Well...I don’t mind.

This is not Master Kohga. Different voice actor, new character design, new villain! I’m assuming he’s some sort of second in command or captain, given he duel wields Windcleavers. Also not how he doesn’t have a scar on his mask in this scene

Further note, look at that chimney!!! I love that chimney, I haven’t seen that chimney before... it’s in a style that I can only really place in Castle Town, but the location is clearly not there, so best assumption is that this is another prominent Hylian Village. The Hateno style archway at the bottom right seems to support so. The house shingles definitely mean this isn’t an outpost or military ruin...[this weekend I’d love to hope into the game myself and place it exactly] the background cliffs mean this isn’t Gatepost Town either. The rock formations look like a turn by Scout’s Hill, of the western breach by the Outskirts Stable...I wouldn’t put the Rauru Settlements out of the question either. All in all, I’m hesitant to connect this scene with the other scene because one clearly has a dirt path, and the other a stony road. Plus the house shingles are different

Ok I can pretty much place this scene exactly. At least the bottom one, the top one is a separate scene that doesn’t flow into the other one (you can just tell by the framing and continuity)

You can see the Great Plateau entrance, the line of sight is at an angle, placing this backflipping Yiga man somewhere here. Only inconsistency would be the trees, but perhaps it’s just grown over after a hundred years, you can even see a building in the middle of this forest in center left of the map.

Link is chasing Backflip Benny over here through to the exit of town, (you can see the town entrance/exit archway on the bottom right, similar to the one seen in the chimney pic) AND you can see that Backflip Benny also has a fresh cut on his mask, presumable gained after fighting Link, which is why he teleports away at the end.

So that places these two shots definitely after whatever conversation happened on the roof. Yay for timelines!

The stupendous Chief of the Yiga Clan! Master Kohga!

This takes place at some ruins of some sort. The rocks on the top right actually look Edlin or Akkala, but that might just be the lighting. The stony slabs and etches actually remind be of Zonai, but that doesn’t really seem right...I’ve never seen those designs before I don’t think...you can see from the way the stone slabs are angled that they lead to a circular pattern. It could be the circular pit at the Yiga Hideout, but that area is just sand, not stone. The smooth, plain style of these ruins is actually more in line with Gerudo Ruins so that might actually be the case; we know the Yiga have a history of taking Gerudo Ruins as their own (The Yiga Hideout is canonically an old Gerudo architectural dig)

I’ll also note that this scene has the same lighting as the first shot, and the last two shots which we’ll see later.

*maniacal laughter* Oo? TWO new characters I see???? O?????

This is definitely the Yiga hideout, you can tell from the wall design, plus the lanterns, and the general comfort of Master Kohga and Backflip Benny in the background. But, elephant in the room...who are YOU dear sir?

I’ll talk more about them later, but just keep that Calamity glowing thing in their hand in mind for later.

He’s gonna kill you all...to DEATH!

This is Master Kohga speaking again, if you couldn’t tell from his....very dramatic and in character dialogue. Maybe this game will actually make me like him now alsdfkjsdlk

Obvious is obvious, this is the Yiga Hideout again, similar lighting to the first opening shot, I’m thinking this might be sometimes before it though, considering he has his minions around. Maybe Link fights off the goons, which prompts him to ask “Look what you did” but we can’t know for sure.

Also there’s grass? So maybe that other shot isn’t the hideout. Also a spotlight???!? Jazz hands?!?!? Leave it to Kohga to defy the fourth wall huh.

Also I haven’t mentioned this yet but NEW MUSIC it’s so good aughghug I can’t wait.

And...we end on another Sheikah Slate fade out on this mysterious new character. Eyeliner says: Avatar Kyoshi

Ok but seriously I have THOUGHTS!! So firstly, they’re obviously working with the Yiga Clan, perhaps they’re the reason why the Yiga are in the Gerudo to begin with considering they have the Gerudo symbol on their cape. [Cause am I the only one that thought it was weird that the disgraced Sheikah people are living in Gerudo, and not like...closer to Kakariko, or their suposedl arch nemesis of the Royal Hylian family?] Also note that this scene most definitly takes place in the Lost Woods. Perhaps they need something with the Master Sword...or are ambushing someone...hmm..

Based on that rock formation in the background I’m thinking somewhere in one of these three general areas but I really need to just pick up my switch sometimes soon and find it exact...so bare with me it’s only from memory but I’m pretty sure of myself when it comes to locations

My money’s on this being the true mastermind and antagonist, notice how their eye circlet is the same of that of the Calamity goop eye

This person has...yellow? Brown? Hazel eyes? And light hair with a braid? I don’t think they’re Sheikah, but definetly not Gerudo either. So that leaves them to be some Hylian. A Hylian with an evil Ancient Core.

[It’s definitly some form of Giant Ancient Core. But there’s runes on the side of it that I have yet to translate]

Thinking on their idenity for another second, you’ll notice that they wear a black robe, but their cape with the Gerudo crest is actually torn and tattered. So, perhaps they were disgraced? A runaway? Or perhaps it’s a disguise, perhaps a spy playing both roles on either side of the war?

There’s an old theory that the fortune teller who initally told King Rhoam of the prophecy was actually part of the Yiga Clan. Seeing as, their actions led the King to dig up the Guardians, and cement the deaths of thousands of people. So, putting points in order here

Evil Magic dude

Works for the Yiga

Has connected to people in power

Has an evil Ancient Core

Could it be that this mastermind fully knew that the Guardians would eventually be corrupted? Could they be the “fortune teller” that encouraged the King to excavate the Sheikah Technology? Sheikah Technology, that would be an insult to the Yiga Clan considering their people were banished for creating them in the first place? Hmmm....

Final NOTE! Remember that one scene in the other HWAOC trailer with Zelda holding a mysterious object?

Hmm...Sheikah Scientists, weird egg robot, and now an evil Ancient Core...you may also remember Daruk mentioning in dialogue that something was wrong with Rudania...and cutscenes from Urbosa and Revali might point to the Yiga being close to the Divine Beasts...lots to chew on. I’m thinking the plot of this game will heaviliy revolve on the idea that there was some sort of plan that led to Ganon corrupting the Guardians and Divine Beasts, but we’ll see!

#hwaoc theory #hwaoc #aoc #age of calamity #hw age of calamity #Hyrule warriors age of calamity

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anartisticexpression · 5 years ago

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Mystery Skulls -The Future

Alright, now that I’ve watched “Mystery Skulls Animated -The Future” and am now done screaming into a pillow because I never could have predicted THAT ending in a million years, let me get some initial thoughts down…

*Whenever I listen to “Enemy” I always think how perfectly this fits with not only Arthur and Lewis’s situation but Mystery and Shiromori’s as well so cue a pleased, “Oh!” from me that a snippet of “Enemy” made its way into the beginning of this video. Very nice!

*I’ve completely been expecting for two years that, as soon as doubt crept over Lewis’s skull, that the cave would disappear and Arthur would simply land back in the truck unharmed so that wasn’t a surprise. What WAS a surprise is that, I admit, I had fully convinced myself that the gunshot sound at the end of “Hellbent” was Lance shooting Shiromori so the reveal that it was Lewis all along that was the target really made me dramatically gasp!

*Gunshots obviously don’t affect a ghost… except for the one that went through Lewis’s chest aka his death wound which is one of those details that make you go, “Actually that DOES make a kind of sense. Ghosts WOULD be sensitive in the area that killed them.”

It also shows that Lewis isn’t entirely in control of his actions. Ghosts are beings of pure emotion and it doesn’t take much for him to go right back to irrational anger and rough up Lance which is… not cool, man. He’s going to be sorry later when he can think straight!

*The bit with the changing photograph… At this moment in time, my early thoughts are that with the first photo being only of Lewis and Vivi, it symbolises that Lewis has kept only Vivi in his heart.

Arthur is a green-eyed demon who Lewis must get Vivi away from before it is too late and Mystery is just a dog. He’s irrelevant.

However, when Arthur touches the locket, it reactivates another memory, one in which they were all a solid group and that they were happy. Lewis is clearly shocked to see this new image and when focus is also brought to Lewis’ eye(s) being visible in this photo (I’m going to set aside that they were visible in “Ghost” as well until the photo was redrawn for “Freaking Out” as I think this is pretty much a last minute idea in-between videos) it also serves to remind him of who he used to be. Eyes are a window to the soul after all and I think a small truth just broke through Lewis’ anger there enough to make him drop to his knees and weep black tears. Very effective especially when this is paired with the line, “I’m worried ‘bout the future… and fucking with the past.”

And then of course the truck blows up before they can dwell on this any longer! I love Arthur and Lewis’ dazed, “What just happened?” faces!

*Vivi takes the fact that her dog is actually a fox very well but then again she also has a ghost, a plant lady and her own ancestor connecting with her across the centuries to mentally process as well so that’s understandable.

She’s also a surprisingly effective badass (granted she is getting some help from Mushi) which was brilliantly displayed in the animation, the camera movement, the angles, the special effects… everything on screen! Not bad for someone who has spent most of this series either running from things or being unconscious! A certain Vine though, wouldn’t get out of my head -“Don’t fuck with me! I have the power of God AND anime on my side!!”

*Heh. Shiromori had a manicure in-between videos. ;)

*I really didn’t have any solid ideas as to how the Shiromori problem would be resolved but I still wasn’t expecting that! I actually shrieked out loud and I’m usually so quiet on first viewings! The horror and regret over both her and Mystery’s faces though (those are definitely, -“I didn’t want things to end like this”- tears in Shiro’s eyes) tell me that she doesn’t deserve this. She’s just a plant that let jealousy and a blood-addiction get out of control!

The only thing that gives me hope is that her heart wasn’t actually destroyed; it’s just flown off somewhere across the parking lot. She can still be regrown and start anew!

*The ending. The very definition of a, “Well, I didn’t see THAT one coming!” ending. I guess that confirms a thought that the Green Spirit can only really possess a heart that is in turmoil, one that has its guard down so to speak.

I presume it’s easy for it to grab onto “simple things” such as small animals and severed arms but when it comes to complicated living humans and magical creatures it has to wait for the right circumstances and Mystery’s heart breaking over Shiromori’s fate is just what it was looking for.

Of course there is still the question of why it is doing this. Yes, Mystery is the biggest threat so it’s taking him out of the equation but is its murderous target the whole of Mystery Skulls or just Lewis? The fact that Lewis is adopted and doesn’t know where he came from is really significant to me. It raises the possibility that the Green Spirit killed Lewis as part of a blood vendetta against his birth family that he is not even aware of. I’ll have to wait and see whether the Green Spirit and Lewis’ true backstory is even something that can be told in music video form but I really don’t think it’s causing all this death and chaos simply because it’s bored and doing this would be funny.

*I do notice that Mystery has two plasters on his heart which have to refer to his two missing tails that the Ancestor has to be responsible for. They both appear to grow back though, both as a reaction to Vivi and Shiromori getting really hurt and to the Green Spirit’s possession; it’s not only taking him over but restoring him back to his prime… just with some added decoration (love the collar changing from a ‘?’ to a ‘!?’).

I’m not sure what to think that Vivi’s shade of blue and Shiromori’s white comes pouring out of the plastered areas when they are injured nor of all the liquid seeping out of Mystery’s heart that matches several characters’ colour scheme… and then his mouth turns green… Possibly it is just meant to represent all the different thoughts and feelings that Mystery is going through right now; all the emotions concerning everyone in his life and the mistakes he’s made with them that the Green Spirit is able to latch on to and corrupt from within.

Possibly when Mystery removed the Green Spirit in the first place, a piece of it remained inside him that the arm can connect with… because I don’t think a zombified arm literally crawled inside Mystery’s wounds and grabbed his heart at the end there!

*For most of the video, I was gasping, shrieking and letting off the occasional distressed whimper… but I really had to clap a hand over my mouth hard to stop myself from screaming with laughter at the end credit scene! Vivi and Arthur just spoke for us all, didn’t they…!?

*Final thoughts: I’ve been really hoping that the song “Magic” will be picked for the last part; it just sounds like a finale song, it speaks to me of happy endings and I have seen posts by Mystery Ben from a few years ago that he would really like to use “Magic” at some point in this story… but with this cliff-hanger, I’m having a hard time picturing the finale going cheerfully right into this peppy tune!

They could of course begin with a sample of a completely different darker song at first and then go into “Magic” but still! I’m not sure now… Wait… a few years ago, an artist named Yuramec posted an animatic of “Magic” on Youtube featuring their own character, Leopold being chased by a demonic spirit (that also has three eyes!) until the spirit is battered down with good magic and turns back into an innocent little ghost girl. Mystery Ben made a comment (Which must be on his Tumblr as I can’t find it on YouTube but I KNOW I’m not making this up!) saying that it was a funny coincidence that this video contains some ideas that he also wanted to implement for MSA but of course, he couldn’t say which ideas due to spoilers… Baring in mind as to what has happened to Mystery and his corruption, is this… is this what Ben was talking about…?

#mystery skulls #mystery skulls the future #mystery skulls animated #Lewis pepper #arthur kingsmen #Vivi Yukino #mystery the kitsune #shiromori #mystery looks like something out of soul eater #i am both excited and terrified

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captaincoffeegirl515 · 5 years ago

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I just saw the live-action Mulan movie, and in short, it sucked.

It’s not worth the money! Not worth the 37 dollars you’ll need to pay so that you can merely rent the movie. Don’t worry, I pirated it. I didn’t give Disney any money, and I’m writing this so you won’t have to as well.

To think, my mom was so excited about this film especially since we are Chinese and the animated Mulan film was one of her favourite Disney films. But throughout the film, we were disappointed again and again.

First of all, the directing, camera work, pacing, and editing was terrible. The pacing of the movie was all over the place. The fight scenes especially, were so erratic and badly put together. Either they’d have the scene move at a normal pace but would cut and change to a new angle or perspective multiple times until you can barely tell if there were any hits or what they were doing. Or they would do slow-mo and do a zoom-in on Mulan’s blank, stiff face.

They had Donnie Yen, a famous martial artist and actor, doing some incredible swordsmanship and martial arts in front of the soldiers but then they ruined it by constantly cutting away from him to some random blank-faced soldier. What wasted potential!

Did I mention the blank faces. Everyone looked so stiff during the movie, barely any proper acting done. This was especially obvious with the Witch, whose face barely seems to move. The most emotional I saw her was when she had teary eyes, but still, the rest of her face stayed smooth.

My biggest problem lay with the fact that they took the sexism of the animated Mulan movie and managed to crank it up to a thousand. The whole concept of chi/qi was wrong. For starters, real chi lies in everyone, and it does not give you superpowers or suddenly makes you a good fighter. But in the movie, apparently only men can use chi and gain superpowers, and that if a woman somehow had chi then she’s a witch and must be outcast or killed. And it made it seem like the only reason Mulan could keep up with the men or be better than them was because she had these superpowers. I honestly have no words to express my anger and disappointment at this.

I understand they removed Mushu in the live action since it was offensive to Chinese mythology. But replacing it with a phoenix based on Greek mythology?? That made no sense. And not only that, the CGI was terrible. Not only did it look obviously fake, my siblings and I all felt like the phoenix was made of paper. One of them joked that it was a kite. The coloring also reminded me of the bird in Wings of Time that I saw in Sentosa Singapore.

Btw, Chinese don’t have any concept of witches or witch hunts. Lord knows why Disney tried to put more Western concepts when they wanted to make an Asian movie.

Moving on to the characters and their chemistry. In short, there was none. Little to none actually. I don’t understand why Honghui was supposed to be her love interest. No chemistry and barely any meaningful interactions. They met with him insulting her and continuing to insult her throughout most of their scenes. The “love interest” also spent a lot of his time staring at Mulan like one of those creepy perverts that you try your best to ignore. Is this really the kind of lesson you want to teach kids?

And Ling? Yao? Chien-po? What happened to them? Their names were barely mentioned and their characterizations were so one-dimensional. There were not enough scenes building them up as proper characters, which made them easily forgettable. Because of this, we also had trouble telling all of the soldiers apart, and this includes Honghui and Cricket. Cricket was initially mistaken as Chien-po. There was even less time emphasizing their friendship with Mulan. I also didn’t understand why the need to add Cricket in the movie as another soldier. Disney still didn’t give him any proper growth or arc beyond that one shining moment with the arrow. I also didn’t understand why he suddenly decided to play dead at the end of the corridor fight. Another “dramatic moment” that fell flat.

Where do I begin with the Witch? Shan Yu was an incredible bad guy already. Why did they try to make his falcon human and have her as a witch? For the most part, it seemed like she was just there to drive down the movie’s point that women should be subjugated. She had the power to kill Bori Khan easily, but… chose not to because she thought he would help make her not an outcast?? And even when she changed sides, instead of idk killing Bori Khan when he tried to shoot Mulan, she just… flew… in front of… the arrow… and died. Wow.

What was Bori Khan’s revenge supposed to be anyways? For the most part, it looked like he was trying to slow-cook the Emperor. Like what was up with the random forges and the 2 inch pool of lava?? Were forges back then even hot enough to make lava and have it stay red hot the whole time even when it was in that pool?? Also, swords do NOT melt that fast.

Also, the part where Bori Khan was talking to the captured Emperor was so unintentionally funny. Like at the end of every sentence he would just suddenly make sparks with his weapon at the Emperor’s face. If it was a one-time thing, it would have been fine. But he just… kept… doing it. And with every strike I just started laughing more and more.

The Emperor was… something. Of course he was probably one of the men who has chi powers judging by his sleeve attacks. Honestly, that part felt so random, my siblings and I were all laughing and going “what??”. His voice was so clearly dubbed in, and badly done. He also seemed to have been given the clunkiest dialogue in the movie. I also miss the scene in the animated movie where Shan Yu tells the Emperor to bow down to him and the Emperor replies, “No matter how strong the wind blows, the mountain cannot bow down to it.” because that line was awesome.

The sister’s character was also completely unnecessary. According to Disney, she’s to showcase Mulan’s devotion to her family and give her more motivation to do what she does. But?? She took her father's place in the war to protect him?? Wasn’t the whole point of her story is her pretending to be a man to protect her father from certain death?? Is that not already a huge motivational factor and shows her devotion to her family??

Does anyone else also find it weird that when Mulan was in the army, everyone referred to her by her full name? Like everyone had their first names and were called that, but for Mulan it was always Hua Jun? Btw for those not aware, with Chinese names, the surname is at the beginning. Hua is Mulan’s surname. So shouldn’t they be calling her simply as Jun??

Moving on, I have to bring attention to several of the changes in the movie. It’s like they cut out all the scenes that gave the movie an emotional impact and replaced it with bland scenes that didn’t add to the story at all. Her decision to take her father’s place in the war and steal his armor was replaced with some weird thing about her getting lost and the phoenix having to bail her out.

The incredible moment when Mulan gets the arrow from the top of the post was replaced by bringing two buckets to the top of the mountain. Anyone who is strong and determined enough would have been able to do that. With the arrow, she needed to think and strategize, using the weights to help carry her up. With the buckets, she just used her chi superpowers.

The drama and shock as the happily-singing soldiers come upon the destroyed village becomes a drawn-out traveling scene that has the General asking Mulan to marry his daughter, and then cuts to the army at the village.

The scene where it looked like Shang was going to kill Mulan but then he spares her because she saved his life is gone completely since they decided to split Shang into two characters instead. Even Mulan’s line where she says, “You believe Ping, why not Mulan?” was given to Honghui instead, robbing Mulan of her moment.

Honestly, there was no need for the Witch and her fight scene with Mulan, but apparently in the movie, chi is weakened by dishonesty. It’s weird that the Witch is even telling her that since they’re supposedly enemies, and telling her about the dishonesty will make Mulan stronger.

Another thing is Disney’s weirdly intense focus on arranged marriages and matchmaking, with multiple characters mentioning whether or not they are matched or asking others if they are. Even at the end, the sister goes “oh I am matched”. I didn’t see the point of having that in the movie.

I almost forgot about the trebuchet/catapult! The Rourans are supposed to be a Nomadic people. Where are they finding the time and energy to drag that gigantic thing around? I also have to mention that the Rourans had some incredibly good aim when firing at the soldiers but missed by a long shot when they fired at where Mulan was hiding. That was… dumb, to say the least.

How did Mulan even get there anyways? And how did she carry all those helmets with only two hands? I’m even giving her some leeway because there are people who can control a horse with just their legs. The actress for Mulan also has clearly never fired an arrow before and was not given training for it. The way she loaded the arrows and how her fingers sprung open like that screamed CGI arrows

And now I’m remembering the random horse gymnastics the Rourans used to turn around on their horse so that they could fire arrows while riding. It looked cool, yes, but I don’t think that was the most efficient way to turn around.

Back to the fight scene, Mulan managed to go from chasing the Rourans into the mountains and fighting the Witch, to back to where her army was, then somehow teleported to a different mountain behind where the Rourans were. She also somehow outran an avalanche?? She also killed her own men in that avalanche. Not the best plan in my opinion.

Ultimately, Mulan’s growth and arc to become a soldier and hero of China was undermined by the fact that she was already perfect due to her chi powers. There was no need for her to grow and train because her chi made her strong, her chi made her skillful. And because of this, she lost her relatability. I hate to say this, but she became a Marysue.

I don’t know where to put this but Mulan’s makeup and outfit for the matchmaker scene was the ugliest thing I have ever seen. Green eyebrows?? Really?? What happened to her face? What happened to her dress? Everyone’s costumes also felt unrealistically colorful for a poor farming village.

Lastly, I’m sure many of you know that Disney worked with, credited, and gave thanks to the Xinjiang authorities. Those authorities are responsible for imprisoning up to TWO MILLION Uighur Muslims in concentration camps, forcing them to learn and be patriotic about China’s communist doctrine and propoganda, not allowing them to practice their faith, and subjecting them to horrific conditions, torture, sexual abuse, forced sterilization, brainwashing, and other abuses.

To end this overly wordy review, I don’t understand why Disney would willingly get so much wrong. They tried very hard to make changes and appeal to the Chinese audience but refused to have Chinese creators to help with the screenplay, directing, costume and makeup, etc. Now all they’ve done is alienate said audience.

#mulan 2020 #mulan #disney #rant

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throwingideasatthewall · 4 years ago

Text

Clone Wars Shadow Warriors

Seas 4

Oh this- just screams edgy ... Whelp

So is Jar Jar an adult, now,? (Asking because before his characteri zation was force of nature to child

Now he seems to have his own personality.

Which is fine if you want to change some details for the sake of a better story, (Or to simply explore a new angle,). Aesthetic

Just. need to make sure I’m holding them to the right standard,

Okay,

That- was relatively adult,

Um.

Aight . . Well-

Wait

Did they just call Jar Jar away from Cou-ncil-

. I mean they are clearly trying which is some thing I do give credit for-

Though The Tone Is Robot- Ic-

(Though that might be int- entional since it seems to be hinting that this lady is practicing some kind of mind tricks on him

(Aka, he’s doing it under tox, because we don’t do suspension of choice in dra- mat ic Me- -dia,

S’up

What?

I-

H-elp

Screw my own accou- -ntability - See that was the correct -amount of emotion-

. Okay - Right-

Sus- (pic)

No one noticed the obvious people right there?

Like not even Mr. sus there?

[or are they just so kind that it’s like oh yeah we were just talking hate speech but go right ahead?

Logic?

There

Yeah some shit is definitely going on,

For sake of argument* sake, i’m just going to assume that his reaction to toxic behavior

*Account ability-

Any way

I-

I’m still going to try,

Despite you clearly saying you want understood

Because assumed authority - and assuming you know better than a person about themselves

Is totally ok-

- In this society

-[Cries in sad “accountability,” -of- war, ]

Whelp,

In- flue- n -c e

Still an adult-

Okay-

Imagine it was just a normal necklace and he pulled that shit-

[Ok for the sake of argument I’m going to assume the necklace is symbolism for toxic influence,

Being around it enabling]

It- - His voice voice dropped like - 6 octaves

Also I swear if they try to excuse him for his actions-

Mind over matter -Okay, so they’re not excusing him for his -actions,

Me- an - OK so it’s not naturally evil it just comes down to the users so that dude was still totally responsible,

Didn’t change - much

- Ha-Ha

Actual gas -lighting”

Also persuade, - Okay, good not excusing him from his actions, - Thing

The gaslighting goes deep - Also isn’t the Darkside supposed to be negative over involvement? - Aight- - - A-lone

Oh yeah that’s a great idea let’s just let the dude that just got gaslighted and completely fell forward go back into the person who did it,

👍

Genius

(This Jedi Council is fucking brilliant)

Gas- Light- Ing

(Note; Confronting the gas lighter is never the way to do it (Inter- Gen-) (Excluding accountability of the abuser (Gen-break Venting Pro- Ced- u re)

[as you’re usually too angry to let them get a word in edgewise And remain; in control)

With inter- gen productivity, They are possibly given five warnings before Being Kick ed-]

For the sake of argu- ment as well as simplicity-

We’re stick -ing with bas- ic-

If someone’s acting toxic with you, you reflect and you don’t have to hang out with anyone you don’t want to,

Logic

This dude is very clearly making it obvious that he’s willing to listen to this person,

And, enabling

“Cl-”

See he’s gaslighting him again because he thinks he can get away with it,

With no accoun- tability-

(Or the small bit this society believes in which is jail,”

Wr-

Oh!

Is he a Gungan Jedi?

Also,

You Don’t

SAY!

(The repeated Gaslighter who has shown multiple times to be toxic, Was toxic, (And prepared to use any means to subvert the will?

Prize for the most in competent Je di

Like, Serious- (Really had to put those two accoun t- ability- cells to good - use-”

(For matting issue-)

The writer just saving us the effort of him coming downstairs -all feckin- weird, and the obvious “should’ve seen that coming, “

? ha-ha

What?

Oh yeah no the creepy magical stuff wasn’t enough of a fecking clue in-

Appar-

Whelp-

He snapped out of that quick-

Like didn’t even need a reverse- mind trick

Good for him-

And - actual- nar- rative- -

Whelp,

Wreck-ing -house

Okay, but how do you think this is going to look to the general public like two Jedi,( very good at persuasion - mind tricks’ -just showed up, now they’re leader and said Jedi are wreck-ing one of their minster’s houses-

One who could’ve feign- ed lack of support for the war

Like if this is a set up-

the chips- are about to fall,

Da-

Okay, seriously how obviously evil, was this person?

Like we have a weird creepy room, The robots apparently hanging from the chandelier (eck) And the knife

Like if this person ever- went- through a checkpoint

Also, Oh-

That-

(That really does not look good,)

Bo-ss

Yeah, she clearly has medical experience,

(Also yeah that’s really going to make it better-”

Oh yeah the senator was seen trying to clean up the evidence-

Well the Jedi ran out full sword’s- a blazing

(Instead of you know the Senator chasing after him, While the peacekeeper stayed behind and tried to tend to the person,]

Great - - Or Not-

Well- tensions just got raised,

Of,

Ai. Ght,

Whelp,

(Okay, no way he’s totally not dead but sure-)

A-i-

Whe-

That- sucks- - Un- Con-cious

That- doesn’t tell me anything else-

Like; Critical condition?

D-usk

Li-terally no one else?

(Like don’t get me wrong I’ve been a pretty big Jar-jar fan ever since the change-)

But really, the Senator, the person that spends the most time away from your - planet

That’s the person, they trust the most?

Ai-

Hm-

Oh yeah just put on the deadly leaders hat-

The rese-mblance-

Not really?

I mean all humans technically look the same-

But-

Pretty sure Jar jar is a lot scrawn- thin -er

Also if they’re not going to listen to him as him they’re not going to listen to him as he pretends to be their (dead) leader

Also, please don’t go with the liar revealed plot,

Yeah no, they have completely different kind of light. tones,

The face structure-

Co-mpletely different-

Nope

-Dead

Di-ssent

Agree

I-

OK yeah I’m just gonna go over the fact, that as previously state, I am not a huge fan of the liar revealed plot-

-or lying

(No because it’s- unrealistic- - or there’s anything wrong with it

-people do lie

-maybe because of how overdone and poorly done it’s been,

-With the liar getting off Scott free without any weight

But I really don’t like this plot-

-And the skip button maybe used ad- nausuem- -

[Well- shit [for reference; I was using the skip button ad nausuem when I randomly stopped at the part with Greivous

Things just got a whole lot worse]

[Tumblr Refresh] -

Any Way,

Aww, That’s kind of nice the friendship and reliance the dude has on Other- Half - Yes ‘Boss Leoni’ when someone gets tox you leave- - In a - relation ship-

Also yeah he’s definitely not ‘Boss Leoni’ - He would’ve stayed and tried to take the tox

(Aka Jar-jar is less ena- bling, les- tox- And Doesn’t Take It For Much More. Than He Has To,

(He’s les -s

Dyfun. -c)

Okay

Good Job - Also - yeah how’d you manage that - That-

Didn’t get car ried up the chain of com- mand- - Then again Gri- evous has shown to be a pretty shit boss. - So I can’t blame these guys for being like yeah compl- ete stranger I will totally take a nap -right ,now- - You kinda have sticks- - [The rain is really nice,]

[is this the first time we’ve seen them use active particle effects for the camera?

Either way it’s really nice -

Oh,

They’re

electric sticks,

That makes sense

[- bet ter for Figh t- In- g-

Stop one 1v1 -ing- It

W-h

Again this is what happens when you 1v1 it and don’t assume accountability- - -

[Don’t fight a metal cyborg with metal sticks when you’re not prepared to take it, full way,)

I-

[I feel like this is supposed to be some big build up but they only shared like one scene where dude was completely silent,]

Like,

Sacr-ifice

Die to take someone out with you

[Great

Now

Ouch]

Are they actually going to kill off grievous because this isn’t look-ing too - good - Shit-

Dude- is still not dead- - How? - Whelp- - Oh, hey where the fuck did you come from,

I- Ack. Br-u- Tal

W-el

- Un - M - Plan-

“ damn it he messed up the script-, -Pal - patine

Cap-

Prison break-

Also yeah that’s probably like a vacation for him-

Given how toxic these assholes are - Ex- change - Damn Ship per-

Also screw the 150 or how many other sena -tors - Only Amidala - matters - A- ight- - Also, dude knows where everyone’s lair, Is,

Like he pissed off Grievous with -his

Now he’s just chilling in this dude’s sipping earl gray Or- Some Shit-

Him

Okay

Getting a little ahead of yourself episode- - O k

Hearing this, Skywalker doesn’t immediately run back shout -ing nope- - - Because, to my knowledge the speaking at room volume,

Not whispering and the distance isn’t enough to -explain it - Ai - - Wel- - There goes one min-ion- - Droids are apparently expensive enough to chastise Grievous over-

But sen-tient - beings are a dime’ a ‘dozen-

(Also gaslighter’s. don’t give a shit about you dear, God,

The Painful dramatic- irony-

*tra- gic- Wh- -Oa

Ai - Ri-

Wh- -elp,

You know if it wasn’t for the exposure earl- ier

I would assume they would think that the Jedi was just killing all their Im-por- tant- elected officials

Why?

Wh-at

He’s right. - But dude- that’s pretty ham fisted-

I mean-

How many episodes (and possibly seasons-) do we have to go- - - Anakin- is a dick to lanterns- - Also the random theme of the bots- coming out of nowhere- continues- - St -op- - Wh- elp-

? (He live?)

I-

Good Play-

Ah-

To-

Oh, yeah, He’s alive we’re not going to bring that up in any mention-able way?

Ike

Wh e l- p

Oh - That was -nice-

You deceived everyone and lied to all our people, you’ll make a great leader,

Or a great council/ committee leader considering that they do have an open position , Best

I like that they had one bad ass fall and had it replace-d by Dooku being particularly bad-ass - In his place-

In the trade off near the end really speaks to the frag-ility of war

I thought-

It was pretty al-right Though it really did seem like - they were trying to build up to something but the structure unfortunately just didn’t support it,

Which is unfortunate because they do seem like bits- that could’ve been nice

Like Jar-jar being a constant peacekeeper-

The underwater nations-

Wars be- tween - Those Dude’s

And that general guy - Who seems to be like he was supposed to be this - really big deal

[probably intended to do something massive in the previous arcs,]

But, here, all he did was that one scene,

[Would’ve worked better if he was like this Re- Public Gen- Er Al-

To the shark guy-

And Akbar,

Was just like the resident enforcer-

Or something to do with the prince

I think it would’ve really worked better with the concept of ‘being taken’ under, As well that possibly being a good contrast between Jar Jar binks And Char- If Jar- jar got promoted- With Char being eager at first but then realizing he just can’t- And Jar- Jar being reluctant at first but realizing he can-

[Note; assumed authority is bad, Just- some people are better at using it for venting than others)

Nope boomers vs throw- it-back, boom-

I-

And it really did feel like this episode -should’ve been the split one

Nearing the end- it started to feel like the 1st- part of a second ep-

Which is fine

Just cut- of-

Episode all around being al-right, with just several parts that didn’t make quite sense including the emphasis on the general for that one scene,

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kierongillen · 6 years ago

Text

Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 41

Spoilers, obv.

After last issue's formalism, this one just accelerates. And, as everything in this arc, everything is a big beat. If everything is a big beat, how do you choose what to spend your space on? What beats really matter? How do you pace it? What can be a grace note and what's a scene? That's what this issue, and the rest of the arc, tends to be about.

This issue has gone down very well. I'll admit that while I absolutely gasped when I got paged in, I suspect it's going to be least favourite of the whole arc. That more says how much I enjoy the rest of the arc. Also, as a friend put it to me, I may be allergic to making people happy.

Let’s get on with this.

Jamie and Matt's cover:

There is, to some degree, a "Who hasn't had a headshot cover?" to this arc. As such, Mimir finally gets his. This is a glorious one – the pinks and blues, work really well, and the circuitboards frame it well. Obviously, Mimir plays a big role in this issue, so it is thematic. As is…

Paulina's cover

I just love Paulina's covers, as her being the regular alt-cover artist on Thunderbolt should imply. This made me want to immediately pitch a kick-ass pop D&D bard comic to someone, Xena Warrior Princess as produced by Xenomania. The names of the swords are the chef-kiss, but there's so much to love. The expression is everything.

Page 1

One page scene, with a modified nine panel grid. The one page scene is something that happens a lot this arc. I did a two-page version, but with the right seven panels, we're sorted. Yes, this is all we see of the de facto antagonists of the series this issue – when last issue was all about them, it doesn't worry me too much.

Page 2

Standard music journalist concept. That the second album tends to be worst than the first. Hard to prove, though my old friend Peter's note that "you have your whole life preparing for your first album and have a year to do your second" does seem to imply an easy explanation.

Page 3-4-5

Stealth mission! It's Metal Gear WicDiv!

We actually forgot to add the flashes to the first panel until the very last minute. Monthly Comics is a hell of a time sometimes, stress the “hell.”

I love the determination of Laura in the second panel of 3. That's great eyes.

Looking at this now, that "I can't do much now" is in a panel smaller than 1/9th of the page says a lot about the scale she's working on. The background was Matt in full trippy mode – I had a friend note that this scene is a little akin to Kohl in Rue Britannia 5 (The difference being Kohl is using nostalgia for a performance, while Laura is just doing a performance) but the moving squiggle does remind me the use of optical illusions in Phonogram 3. Bugs in the optic nerve are our friend.

Panel 3 on 4 is obviously Clayton living large and conquering. When you ask for something like "Can you sample the background and use as a speech balloon" you have no idea if it's going to work.

We could have divided the middle panel into two, but I suspect it'd have been less effective. We've seen the trick before. Now we see the same trick, but different. Mix it up. We're performers.

Hmm. I realise the Norns string of balloons is something I'm doing more often now – it's not something I've always done. I'm normally a one-panel-one-emotion, which strings of dialogue rarely allow (as, if there’s any change of emotion inside the string, the image is rendered ludicrous). In a middle shot, and a strong emotional throughline with the dialogue and I'm more okay with it.

While this whole three pages is an action sequence, it's also exposition for Laura's current state. The best exposition is demonstration, I guess.

I mean, the last panel of page 5? That's how cut to the bone we are. Problem? Solve it. Problem? Solve it. We don't need to fuck around anymore.

Page 6-7-8

And after six whole trades, the reunion between Lucifer and Laura. I suspect a different writer would have played this bigger and more melodramatic, but when the reader knows this, a splash feels overkill, especially with the taut pacing of the rest of the issue. However... there are five panels here. That's a page's worth of content, and enough to give an emotional throughline.

Sometimes when writing it's all about trying to find an honest response which is also unexpected. Like, in life, you think you'll feel sad or happy at certain times, but when you live through it, you don't. Or you don't entirely. What other stuff is happening? That's what rings true to me.

Anyway – that's where Laura's Guilt comes from. Laura at her most Dionysus.

And then Lucifer shatters all that self pity with the wink. Did you miss me? Of course, you did.

Page 7, panel 4 is one of those "a comic panel is not a moment in time" bits of magic McLeod always talks about. As in, as we read across the panel time progresses. The Mimir/Cass conversation is getting on for... 10 seconds, maybe? The teleport signatures do not take that long to appear. It's only with Laura's interruption that panel kicks into high gear.

As Multiversity noted you can easily imagine another draft of this with a bigger fight scene. And it's true – but also lying around was a version which cuts it even shorter. Do we need to really give a whole page to Cass breaking out? I felt so. Without the big beat, it feels flat. And it's good to see Cass let rip.

The slight angle on Jamie's external shot with a Norns black/white plus golden thread from Matt is really interesting. We don't often see the Norns as combatants in WicDiv, so this is a rare chance to give Cass a "Hello, I am a bad ass too, in case you've forgotten."

Page 9-10-11-12

Cripes. Going this and making notes I can't believe how tightly we're winding this and (more so) getting away from it. We did all this in four pages?

Two panels to the escape – the right image and a handful of taut captions to hold you between scenes. The first is doing a lot of work, but the second is just elegant. What do you need but the broken doors? Great stuff by Jamie here.

(Laura's captions do a lot of work here in setting up the themes, and the return of Sakhmet's memory to the story)

If you're wondering "How on earth could we get the escape be quicker, it's to take the first two panels on page 8 and move to the previous page. That makes it a five panel page, which is entirely do-able. That's a cost, but it would have bought slightly more space in this scene. As it is, I preferred to cut mid-page and end with Lucifer's first spoken lines in ages.

Once more, a big reveal in a small panel. Chrissy's note on the script was basically hearts for Luci at this point. Like, the second she cuts to the chase and tell s people what to do...

...and then the page turn, and she just goes full Lucifer. I know you lot have missed her, but I have too.

Getting back to Inanna was also easy, the sweetheart... but it all leads back to Sakhmet. That Mothering Invention was as tight as it was didn't leave much room for Laura to think about Sakhmet, or mourn at all... or, most of all, make it clear the story (and Laura) considers her loss important and real. It's an awful sad panel at the end of the page.

Inanna's voice was easy to find again. He's such a sweetheart. Tara is a little harder, just as I wrote her less, but I've been fascinated by this arc in terms of writing her as an actual character. I think one of the ironies of issue 13 was that it put Tara on a pedestal, and the pedestal is an objectifying as any other cage. Getting her back as a character is wonderful, and she gets to be as messy and flawed as everyone else.

Inanna not knowing ANY of this is hard. That's the problem with most of this arc – there is so much information flying around, and secrets some (but not all) are aware of. Who gets to respond to what and when? What to remind people of? What to let slide? Inanna not knowing about Baal is so huge it had to be hit and hit hard.

And then... the bodies.

When plotting this and trying to work out how I could get the cast – oh god, this is not a deliberate pun, but it's also clearly a pun - back on their feet, I was thinking of the Morrigan Gambit. Three heads, three bodies. Perfect. Then I remembered Mimir, and swore. I started to think about how that would be a tense, dramatic situation and how the personal politics could play out and I realised that Tara would just turn it down. I then realised that's exactly how the scene would work too.

(In a "tightness" thing, I suspect in another world, this scene would have been two pages. The "and Tara then just butts in" is the key thing, but you could get the timing a little more intricate to sell the moment more – still, even in this page, I could have extended it more, but seeing Tara's elaboration and everyone else's response to it was just key work for them all.)

In passing – Mimir's glowing in the dark in the penultimate panel just wonderful. Nice work Jamie and Matt.

Page 13

From the Sisters of Mercy's song, Marian.

Page 14-15-16-17

Here's where you talk about spending space. What's important here? You need the scale to show what Baph has been doing – and Jamie turns it into something astoundingly gothic. The use of blacks, the use of light and shade. Just the right level of suggestive. It’s one of my favourite bits of composition in the issue.

As the pantheon are getting back together, this leads to an increase in crowd scenes, which are the eternal artist killer. As such, I'm looking for solutions which only involve the absolute minimum of the cast in a scene.

Thee was an awful moment earlier in the issue when I went – wait! Do I have too many heads to carry? Then I realised I was fine. That said, finding places to put them down so we can have chat scenes was also somewhat tricky. The shelf turning up on page 15 is an example. Clealry Baph planned to (er) have a place to keep heads.

Well, I say, Baph, but it's clearly Nergal now. The road from early Nick Cave to late Nick Cave has been a long way. It's a great shot.

To go back to the space, why spend it on this? We’re reintroducing Nergal and Morrigan, and we’re also showing the scale of them in the plot, and the actions of Nergal. Where we go with the bodies is such a big beat, it needs to come from something similarly large. That’s also the reason why so much (relative in the issue) space is spent on the Morrigan/Nergal scenes. Of course, it’s also a key scene for this subplot, so demands space for that. It’s rarely just one reason. Probably a useful time for my usual “these notes are only ever a selection of thoughts.”

This is also a serious pose panel by Jamie.

The “I could bring her back.” He’s an underworld god too. If she could do it, he could. This is something which I suspect some people thought implicit in the old scene, but the final manipulation of Morrigan is unpacked at length in the nine panel grids.

Nine panel grids are a natural rhythm for this – when I was planning the later bit the triple-goddess of it made obvious sense, so it expanded to the whole scene. Also, the cropped image reduces the possibility of a Jamie crowd scene.

I always thought that, given the amount of time the various characters get on film, Ladyhawke could more accurately be called Blokeywolf. I digress.

Page 18-19-20

As said earlier, the triple-goddess to nine panel grid is one of those natural ways to give a stress to each of the elements. You’ll notice the clicks are left then right then centre. I’d originally written it as left to right, before – after Chrissy’s Editorial urging – rewrote to end with the Macha section to go last. Gentle Annie may have been the kinder part of Morrigan, but Macha was the part he mostly dated.

Then, in a moment of weirdness, Jamie actually drew it in the original order, despite never having seen that script. Morrigan has powers, as does the logical necessity of a left to right panelling order. As a nine panel grid, just moving panels around to fix it is easy. Hail grids!

Like most of the big acts of magic, it’s all about emotional sense than anything else. Hence, it is inevitable as Nergal actually does this, the bleak temple he’s constructed starts to crumble. And, in perhaps the most ludicrous bit of me in the comic, The Temple Of Love Is Falling Down. Too much is the bare minimum.

Jamie’s triple-portrait of the Morrigan is pretty startling. I have no idea if Jamie will miss drawing Badb’s hair, but I’ll miss seeing it.

Re-reading this now I’m struck by how low-key it is. That was always part of WicDiv’s magic – the finger click, and then things happening. The Morrigan transformation was usually drawn to be instantaneous – one panel Macha, the next Badb and so on. This kind of keeps to that.

And then… the reveal. That the new bodies isn’t a splash page says everything about this issue, but it still gets the punching the air moment. We had to have one of those eventually. Lucifer in a black suit is one of the things I’ve been waiting as long to see as Nergal in his. I giggled with glee at seeing this. Jamie’s worked in elements of the Morrigan into each of the gods – Lucifer’s red hair is the most obvious one, but Gentle Annie in Inanna and Macha in Mimir also have their notes. Inanna’s netting top is the main one – and note the shapes on Mimir’s armour changing to mimic Macha’s.

Yes, writing Lucifer remains fun and easy. I recommend it to everyone.

Page 21-22

In terms of seeing chat, people responding to the small details in the issue is one of the bigger joys. That Jamie got the Inanna/Nergal hug in the background of this exchange between Laura/Lucifer/Cass is absolutely wonderful. Laura and Cass have come a long way.

This is arguably a small cliffhanger – the smallest of this arc, at least. However, it sits on the weight of the rest of the run. We’re promising a solution to one of the larger mysteries in the run, and I suspect we get by on that. Note how space is used – this is a dense panel layout, but we go to a thired of a page for Laura’s “I know how to end this” (so giving it weight” and then going to three panel page for the conclusion (which adds weight to each of these beats.) Jamie takes the framing to tight on Cass for the beat as well to sell it. Note Matt with the Norn-colouring creeping in – and how it goes from the fires in the first panel to this is just a joy.

Page 23

Interstitial, and obvious reference to the Jay-Z record, but everyone is just excitedly clapping over the adding stuff to the godwheel. Sergio outdid himself here. It’s certainly an example of how you can have storytelling and even hero-shot audience-cheers beats out of things entirely unlike a traditional comics panel. After all these issue,s we get to see something added to the godwheel. Of course people cheer. That said, as I said to a friend, “Of all the things I’ve found to torture the WicDiv readership, hope is the cruelest of all.”

EDIT: Actually, I messed up here - Jamie did the tweaks. Nice work Jamie!

And that’s it. Next up – 42, wherein questions are answered. In passing – the letters we’ve been getting are amazing. I’m going to try and cram as many as I can in the issues to come, but issue 44 will be our last one with a letters page. So that’s a timelimit if you wanna try and get in. It’s [email protected].

Thanks for reading.

#WicDiv #the wicked and the divine #writer notes

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metawitches · 7 years ago

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Best episode title ever.

There they go again. With so many people chasing them, June and Harry are always moving from place to place, trying to stay once step ahead. It’s a stark contrast to the Norwegian portions of the show, which are based on the subtle, slow moving character arcs of the people living in the Sanctum compound. You can’t help but compare June and Harry’s youthful exuberance to the damaged, uncertain middle-aged adult shapeshifters at Sanctum. Is June doomed to also lose her confidence and identity, or will Harry’s love and a supportive community help keep her psyche intact?

Harry gives Christine a rare chance to parent him without any interference in this episode. With just a few words she shows what an impact a supportive community can have. He’s overwhelmed by the ramifications of June’s shapeshifting, and not sure he can cope with how huge the whole thing is, plus he’s worried that he’ll end up injured by one of her shifts. When he tells Christine this, in very general terms, she says that’s how love works. Things change, but it’s still the same person.

Between having someone to share his burden with for a minute, being reminded of the example of his parents’ marriage, and hearing his mom’s sympathetic but realistic response, Harry gets what he needs in order to stick with June. That means that June continues to get what she needs as well, which will eventually help her figure out how to resist being triggered. Harry and June get to keep some of their innocence for a while longer, in exchange for the hard work of loving someone else unconditionally.

The beginning of episode 3 finds Harry and June asleep in a playground playhouse. June wakes up screaming after dreaming that she’s become Steinar again. Harry reassures her that she’s still in her own body and no one else has found them.

Harry exits his dream house by sliding down the exit slide head first, then they go to the park’s rest room to wash up. Both take off their shirts for the first time in front of each other (June keeps her bra on) and they each take covert glances at all of the newly revealed skin. Harry tries the park-provided soap, and judges that it smells like bubble gum and bleach.

June says that the cut on Harry’s eye from the fight with Steinar looks better. He turns to her and says, “Yeah?” She touches his eye and says, “No.” They finally give in and kiss, slowly and gently. June pulls back after a moment, looks deep into Harry’s eyes and asks what he’s feeling. He says he doesn’t know, which is good enough for June. They go back to kissing, only it quickly becomes more involved.

June sits up on the sink counter so that they’re at the same height, Harry moves between her legs, and they lose most of their shyness. It’s still slow and exploratory, mostly just making out, but I was ready to turn on the air conditioner.

Just when it’s getting really good, a custodian walks in, mop in hand, and, with a “seen it all before” tone in her voice, says, “Lovely spot for a hot date.” June and Harry break apart, laughing. June says, “Yeah, you’re right. I could do a lot better.”

The lovebirds throw their clothes back on, grab each other’s hands, and run through the park, laughing. They’re young and in love. They’ll worry about being broke, homeless, dirty and on the run later.

Christine stops by the farm to check in with John, but, unlike his daughter, he’s terrible at communication and hasn’t called her to let her know he’s left town. Christine leaves a phone message for him. Too much of her life is spent trying to get through to uncommunicative men. No wonder she’s exhausted.

I’ll forgive John for not picking up this time, because he’s currently pulled over and helping Ryan with a panic attack. John wants to turn around and take Ryan home because he’s worried about Ryan’s health, but Ryan, the brave soul, insists on continuing. He’s not going to let June down, no matter how much suffering it causes him. John agrees to carry on. 😿

Up in the misty Norwegian fjords, Elena is pining for her daughter (ha!) and wearing an amazing sweater. Sigrid is preparing for her last day of therapy and left out of the sweater game, signaling her low status in the harem. Runa is worried about Elena and wearing a gorgeous sweater to rival Elena’s, signaling that the two of them are rivals for Ben’s attentions. (June has spent two episodes in a comfy, bulky white sweater, signaling the obvious.)

The first time I watched this scene, I watched the sweaters and missed the dialogue.

Ben is distracted by Elena during his conversation with Sigrid. Runa wonders how they should handle Elena’s isolation. She asks Ben if they should tell her about Steinar and June. Ben adamantly opposes that idea. He feels the stress could jeopardize her progress. He wants Elena to feel safe and supported right now. Runa offers to talk to Elena. Ben agrees that would help.

Runa goes straight to Elena’s room. She finds the door locked.

Runa: Elena! Door unlocked and unobstructed at all times. You know that.

Elena: No privacy, no belongings, no sharing of secrets.

Runa: It’s hard at first, but it will get easier.

Elena: If we don’t participate in the program, do we have to leave?

Runa: The therapy isn’t easy for any of us, but surely you want to get better? [Runa gets a strange look on her face for a moment.] I know that June ran away from home.

Elena: What?

Runa looks confused: I thought Ben had told you. She’s like us. A shifter.

Elena: What? She’s? Are you sure? No.

Runa: She’s got the gift.

Elena: It’s not a gift. It’s a curse. I don’t want her to be like me. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Now, go, please.

Runa: Yes, yes. Yes, of course.

Runa leaves. She pretended that she told Elena by mistake, but she didn’t. She wanted to see what Elena’s reaction would be, and she didn’t get the reaction she was expecting. Her jealousy may be causing her to think that Elena is hoping to use being part of a mother-daughter shapeshifter pair to hook Ben.

Harry and June wander through the park and discuss their situation. They consider buying a tent and camping, once they’ve retrieved their bags from the flophouse. Harry thinks it’s too dangerous to go back, but June convinces him they need their stuff and the prepaid credit card. Harry gives in, but insists that he’ll go back alone.

They’re walking along a canal or river, and happen upon a boat having a yard sale. June picks up a snow globe to admire. A doberman rushes out of the boat, soon followed by its owner. He tries to strike a bargain with them for the snowglobe. When he discovers that they’re broke, he offers to let them stay on the boat while he and the dog run an errand. Having nothing to lose, June and Harry accept.

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Runa finds Ben working in the garden and confesses that she told Elena about June. She claims she forgot she wasn’t supposed to mention the news, and that her short term memory is getting worse as part of the progression of her “illness”. She tries to look contrite.

Steinar and Alf are parked in an empty lot, having slept in the van. They don’t have any leads on June and Harry. Alf asks what’s really going on, since he hadn’t seen Steinar for 8 years before his friend showed up with this strange job. Steinar admits that he’s not well.

The kids settle in on the boat. June thinks that Steinar is her only lead to her mom, but Harry still thinks that John knows much more than he’s told June. June is certain that John wouldn’t keep a secret like that from her. He was as devastated as the kids when Elena left. Oh, sweet, innocent summer child.

June goes to take a shower. These are innocents, so Harry doesn’t offer to join her. He tells her he’ll keep watch instead. The angels weep.

Ben joins Elena, where she’s pining next to the fjord.

Ben: June would be happy here. Safe.

[I think June’s shown pretty definitively that she has no interest in a place like that. Not so sure about her safety either, from a psychological angle.]

Elena: I want that for her. I love her so much. What you want from me, the past, the pain? I can’t go back there.

Ben: Yes, you can.

Elena: I’ll break. I’ll go mad.

Ben: I won’t let that happen to you, Elena. Listen, I know it’s difficult, digging up what’s buried, but you’re gonna have to face this. You’re gonna have to face June. And what are you gonna tell her? How are you going to teach her, now that you know that she is the same as you?

June: I felt it from the minute I held her in my arms. And ever since, I put myself first. So, what kind of mother am I?

[When Elena says she’s always known June is a shapeshifter, Ben gets so excited he almost jumps out of his skin. He holds it in, of course, but watch his face. There’s a little music cue, too.]

Ben: Listen, when June gets here, she’s gonna have two things that you never had: a support system and a role model. That last part is up to you.

I can feel in my bones that Ben is evil, but I want so badly to believe that he’s trying to help Elena. Meanwhile, this day/conversation is a turning point for the harem. Ben has openly put Elena first. He didn’t spring into action when Runa told him that her condition is worsening, unlike the dramatic scene the series opened with. He’s ignoring Sigrid’s big graduation day. All because Elena is quietly pouting after yesterday’s difficult therapy session. Whatever Runa hoped to gain from telling Elena about June, it backfired on her. She probably hoped Elena would leave to go find June.

Runa and Sigrid work in the boathouse and fume over the attention Elena’s getting. Sigrid complains about her workload for the last 3 years, as compared to how much attention and appreciation Ben gives her. She asks Runa not to tell Ben about her jealousy. I wouldn’t count on it.

Then Sigrid asks Runa what her final therapy test was like. Runa hesitates and just says that the therapy was very different when she did it. That doesn’t sound ominous or anything.

When Shane, the boat guy, returns from his errand, June is asleep. He and Harry have tea. Shane is pleased that the two have made themselves at home. So what’s the catch?

Christine stops by Doug’s office to tease him about his smoking. He asks about Harry and she says that she thinks he’ll be home soon. He wouldn’t hurt them by leaving for good.

Doug moves on to asking her how she can stand to watch him get the promotion that she was in line for. Christine tells him to lay off it. He wanted the job, so stop bugging her about it. Then Doug acts like she brought the subject up, and asks if she’s upset about the job, or the Pennines Five and Lewis? Because the previous supervisor took them off the case when the leads ran out, and he’s not going to reopen it.

Christine turns to walk out of the room, but he asks her to stay. She leaves, and his party and cake find him in his office.

June has another nightmare that she’s being kidnapped by Steinar or turned into Steinar. She wakes up in Harry’s arms 😻 and checks her hands to make sure they’re her own. There’s a party going on up on the deck, so she wakes Harry and they head topside. Shane introduces them to Lil, who’s gorgeous, vivacious, and taken with June.

Now that they’re rested, Shane presents them with a business proposal. He and Lil want to bring them to a club tonight, with a “load of what the party people want.” 😜 They get to keep 20% of what they bring in, cash in hand. Unless they have a better offer. The two kids give each other a long look, weighing the pros and cons of the endeavor. Harry looks more conflicted than June.

Christine is notified that Harry’s car was found in Stratford.

Steinar and Alf stake out the flophouse. Alf shows Steinar a photo of his girlfriend, who’s in the process of becoming surgically enhanced on his dime. Once she’s her “perfect self” she says she’ll marry him. I have a feeling it’s not going to go the way he hopes. Steinar shows some actual common sense about their relationship.

John and Ryan pull up at the flophouse and John goes inside. Does he go quietly, so as not to startle the wildlife or scare June and Harry off? No, of course not. He busts through the door and barrels up the stairs, yelling June’s name the whole way like he’s Stanley Kowalski. By the time he gets to the top of the stairs, the flat is empty except for Kevin, the guy who let Harry and June in. John shows him June’s photo and threatens to rough him up, but it’s not necessary. Kevin’s a decent guy and answers truthfully. As John’s leaving, he sees June’s bag and questions Kevin’s information, but Kevin tells him that the kids were running from someone. Maybe now he knows who. John takes the bag and leaves.

He doesn’t bother to find Harry’s bag. His continuous disregard for Harry and Christine really bugs me.

Back in the truck, John looks through June’s bag and discovers the credit card. He gets angry with Ryan when he realizes the extent of Ryan’s involvement in the escape. Ryan deflects by telling him that Christine keeps calling, so John finally calls her back. The first thing he does is accuse her of doing nothing and being too calm.

They exchange information and decide John will check hospitals. Christine will stay at home in case they come back. John agrees to stay in touch. Christine tries to call Harry again.

Lil gets June ready for the club, including a sparkly makeover with drugs concealed in her hair. I wanted her to put a weapon in there too, but maybe shapeshifters don’t need any other weapon. Lil is surprised to discover that June is a clubbing virgin, so she shares her motherly wisdom with June.

Lil: “It’s the easiest thing in the world. There’s just three things you need to know. One, if you’re dancing and it feels good, trust me, it looks good. Two, a drink isn’t just a drink, it’s a contract. Some guy buys you a vodka tonic and you’ll never be able to shake him off. He might think he can touch you, which is never okay, unless you want him to. Three, it is always more fun with the girls. Don’t tell Shane I said that.”

Lil is absolutely right on all counts, and I think I love her.

Then she slides something dangerous and illegal into our Sweet 16’s hair, and I’m not so sure.

But, then, they step up onto the deck, where the boys are waiting. When Harry sees his girlfriend looking like this:

It puts this look on his face, and that proud papa look on Shane’s face, and all seems right with the world for a moment:

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Shane says, “Lucky boy.”

Side note: This is where we say goodbye to June’s trusty white sweater, which has carried her through 2 days of hard times and adventures.

While the show plays a cover of I’m on Fire that apparently isn’t available anywhere, the foursome gets dinner from a foodtruck and Lil shares more wisdom.

Lil: “I like Harry. Bet he keeps you busy, too.”

June, giggling: “What do you mean?”

Lil: “Boys that age are engines that run on sex. I mean, they can’t get their minds on anything else, can they? I guess that’s why they say girls mature faster. They get over the pure lust stage. Except me. No one ever said that about me.”

Shane does what we’ll soon realize is his patented handshake and half hug with the bouncer to get them into the club, then explains how they’ll operate inside. The handoffs will all involve the same handshake-bro hug move. They separate to different parts of the club. Business is brisk and it doesn’t take long for the product to sell out.

Shane and Lil buy a round of drinks, sample a little merchandise and spike Harry and June’s drinks. They join the couple on the dance floor and pass them their drinks. Shane tells them they’re off the clock for the night.

June and Harry get separated, with June left on the dance floor zoning out on the drugs and environment. Lil joins her for a dance, grope and make out session. June doesn’t mind at all.

A fight breaks out next to the girls and Lil is pushed away from June. June goes into shift state. Lil finds her again, then hugs her as she tries to calm her. June shifts into Lil and Lil passes out, or whatever it is they’re actually doing when their likeness is being used.

June finds Harry, but she looks like Lil, so when she wants to kiss him he pushes her away. She’s so stoned that she doesn’t know she’s shifted. Harry figures out what happened, but still doesn’t want to kiss her. He says that it’s not right when it’s not her.

Well, that explains why Ben has the shifters repeat so much personal information geared toward remembering who they are. If enough people tell you you’re not you, you’ll start to believe it.

Hearing her boyfriend say she’s not her, which is a pretty profound statement when you think about it, sends June to the bathroom in tears, crying, “It’s not me!” She hides in a stall and pounds her fists back and forth on the walls in a way that makes me think she’s going to hulk out or evolve to the next stage or something, especially when she screams, “What’s happening to me?”

But she’s just having a really bad shift.

Harry, the best boyfriend in the entire world, fights through his own drug and alcohol haze, and his own freak out, to follow her into the ladies room stall. He doesn’t leave when she tells him to. Instead he promises that he won’t ever leave. He asks her to listen to his voice, and reminds her that she won’t look like Lil forever. It’s just for now. He holds her and speaks softly, switching his bracelet from his wrist to hers. 😭😍🔥💗

All of that love and amazingness brings June to the place she needs to be in to switch back to her own likeness. Harry leans toward her right away, and whispers, “I’ve got you.” June is still recovering, but she whispers, “I’ve got you,” back to him.

There’s an ambulance outside for Lil. She didn’t wake up when June returned to herself. Shane is freaking out, worried the drugs were bad. He knows Lil’s always careful with how much she takes.

June moves toward Lil, but Harry stops her. June explains that she’s the one doing this, not Steinar. He’s not here, and it happened again. Harry tries to deny it, but June knows it’s the truth. When the ambulance driver asks for someone who knows Lil to tell them what happened, June steps forward. She gives the paramedic the pill bag, and rides to the hospital with Lil.

Shane tries to give Harry money, which Harry refuses. Then Shane leaves, worried he’ll be arrested. The paramedic tells Harry that June will be at the Princess Victoria Hospital.

Elena has a nightmare that includes flashbacks to John telling her to pack a bag and leave. The shocker is that she dreams about Harry’s dad, Lewis, asking her to be truthful and wanting to know what she sees when she looks in a mirror.

Harry finds June at the hospital. She says she was worried he wouldn’t find her, but he says, “I will always find you.”

They checked June into the hospital, but she’s refusing to be examined. Lil is in a coma. That hits Harry hard. His dad was in a coma, and has been severely disabled since then. June insists that she never meant to hurt Lil or him. Harry has so many questions and is so confused and worried. June can’t stand the wait any longer and goes to see Lil. Harry can’t sit and watch another person in a coma, so he stays behind.

John is checking hospitals. He shows both June and Harry’s photos to the nurse. When he gets back to the truck, my baby Ryan is whimpering in pain because of his back, but he wants to keep going. John says they’ll keep going, but first they need to take care of Ryan. They drive away, with Steinar and Alf tailing them.

Harry calls his mom.

Christine: Harry?

Harry: Mum?

Christine: Are you hurt?

Harry, in tears: I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t think I’m strong enough.

Christine: Hey. It’s…It’s alright. I’m not angry. Let me come and get you.

Harry: Weird things are happening.

Christine: Just tell me exactly where you are.

Harry: June is…June is different.

Christine: Huh?

Harry: She can change, and I keep wondering if she’s really gonna hurt me.

Christine: That’s love, sweetheart. Things go wrong, and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s no one’s fault.

Harry (sighs, and thinks for a moment): I know. I know, you’re right. It’s not her fault.

Christine: Come on. Let’s get you home. Where are you?

Harry: I’m sorry, mum. Give dad a hug for me, okay?

Christine just did one of the hardest things you can do as a parent. She did the right thing for her son, but also the thing that took him farther from her. But she saved Harry and June’s relationship in a moment of crisis. Someday she’ll probably be glad she did.

Montage time! June watches Lil, while Harry goes outside to think and pull himself together.

The women’s hair is as telling as their sweaters. June has luscious, long, wavy strawberry blonde locks that make her big, blue eyes pop, all of it symbolic of fruitful innocence. Sigrid has short, blonde hair that almost disappears, once again showing that she’s at the bottom of the ladder. Her dress and overall look are barely feminine and Ben shows no interest in her as a woman.

Runa has straight, thin blonde hair cut into a chin length page-boy bob. Her clothes are farmer’s wife chic and attractive. She’s feminine and attractive, but middle aged. Ben flatters her and values her opinions, but doesn’t touch her beyond hand holding and casual touches, even though she’s his wife.

Elena has long, wavy locks to rival her daughter’s, but hers are golden blonde. She also dresses in feminine style suited to the farm, with clothes that could be straight out of a catalog. She’s moody and needy, and Ben is drawn to her. So, Runa chases Ben, who keeps her on the string while he chases Elena, who is too messed up to be interested in anyone, but still misses her family. Sigrid feels used and left out, like her hard work is never appreciated. Ben throws her a bone whenever he senses he might be losing her.

John has one emotional setting, fury. It was there even before June ran away. Just who is he and how did he end up with custody of two kids who aren’t his own? Where’s Elena’s family, their birth father, and his family? Why is he so devoted to them that he’s willing to sacrifice everything? Why is he so angry?

Despite what Doug said, he must have some guilt over the whole situation, given the way he brought up his promotion and the Pennines Five, then goaded Christine into anger. There were unanswered questions, but the higher ups won’t support a new investigation. But was Christine asking for one? I thought she was just thinking about the case because of the anniversary and her personal involvement. This case derailed her career and personal life. I bet she’s thinking about continuing to investigate now, since she has nothing left to lose.

There was a guy recording the fight. How much did he get?

When June was in that bathroom stall, pounding on the walls, I really wanted her to sprout wings or become invisible or something, but we’ll let my superhero dreams pass for now. We’ll just have to place those hopes on Ryan. But, seriously, someone needs to realize how to use this ability, not be afraid of it or abuse it. We need controlled shifting experiments, stat.

Were Elena and Lewis having an affair? Were Christine and Doug?

Lewis knew Elena and was in a coma. Now Lil’s in a coma after June shifted into her. Did Elena put Lewis in a coma, and is Lil doomed to be trapped in her mind and body the way that Lewis is?

John and Christine both showed that they’re caring parents this episode, and we started to get some backstory on how their lives unravelled.

Images courtesy of Netflix.

The Innocents Season 1 Episode 3: Bubblegum & Bleach Recap Best episode title ever. There they go again. With so many people chasing them, June and Harry are always moving from place to place, trying to stay once step ahead.

#Guy Pearce #metacrone #netflix #Percelle Ascott #Psychological Thriller #recaps #review #Sorcha Groundsell #supernatural #teen romance #The Innocents

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rickrakontoys · 7 years ago

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Star Wars - The Last Jedi

A wierd, different, unexpected, uneven, but ultimately satisfying episode in the franchise.

****SPOILERS**** this is going to be looooong….

The Good - The filmmakers took a lot of chances and risks here and I am happy that they did. They showed us new things that we’ve never seen before, and presented a plot that subverts your expectations to lead the characters to new journeys and arcs. - Luke was terrific as a dejected former jedi master who’s past failure led him to exile. Some fans may have wanted him to remain some kind of power fantasy character who just uses the Force to… blow Star Destroyers up or some shit, but here he plays a believable interpretation of a teacher who failed his students and is suffering from deep regrets. He came to that isolated island “to die” as he says, but his arc here follows the theme of “learning to pick yourself up even in the face of terrible failure". Despite being an old curmudgeon now, he is still recognizably Luke Skywalker. Mark Hamill gives his best performance here. And his final “battle” at the end is badass, surprising and clever, not to mention showing us a new use of The Force (which in my mind totally makes some sense). If the dead can project their image through the force, why can’t a living jedi? That Luke acts quite dramatic when facing Kylo Ren as a “hologram” is just funny. Luke’s journey ended in ROTJ. Here he plays one final part in the story of this galaxy. “See you around kid” he says to Kylo. Perhaps he is saying it to us as well. - Leia has a lot of unexpected scenes here… namely, her use of the Force to save herself from what would have been a deadly experience! This felt at first like it came out of nowhere, but Leia has previously shown to possess some strong connection to the Force. Her character is out of commission for a chunk of the movie, but Carrie Fisher does give a very subtle and poignant performance here. How they will reconcile Fisher’s passing for Episode 9 will remain to be seen… - Rey and Kylo’s journeys here compliment each other and are amazing. You honestly don’t know how things will turn out, since they tease both of them being pulled away from their respective sides of the Force often here. Their direct connection to each other through the Force was new, and gave us some very interesting scenes where they talk and interact despite being worlds apart. Kylo gets much more development here, and does some rather unexpected things. He is both sympathetic, and detestable. He is still very much a tortured young man lashing out at the galaxy. Rey mostly plays the role of the student in search of a teacher. She goes looking for Luke, finds him, but he ain’t having it at all, and just lets her hang around for a bit to her disappointment. She eventually takes her own initiative and sort of earns Luke’s respect for it. - We perhaps learn who Rey’s parents are, and it was as I wished: they are nobodies who sold her off as a kid then died in a shallow grave on Jakku. I would have HATED if they were somehow someone we already knew… Rey’s importance isn’t through blood but through her own initiative. She even admits to knowing all along but being afraid to admit it. Daisy Ridley is still fantastic as Rey. I like her even more than before! Kylo can satisfy the Skywalker bloodline requirement of the series in this new trilogy. Let someone else be the hero for a change. - Kylo just straight up murders that silly CGI Supreme Leader Snoke and I love it. Snoke was just Palpatine-lite, and Kylo is clearly the more interesting villain the new series should focus on. Who cares who Snoke was… nobody really cared who Palpatine was in ROTJ… he too was just an evil overlord who gets killed by his apprentice (until Lucas devoted 3 movies to him…). This feels like Rain Johnson cleaning up after JJ Abrams. Snoke was silly and I’m glad he dies unclimactically after only 2 movies. - Poe is a lot more hot-headed here than in the first movie, though we didnt really spend much time with him in TFA. He gets an arc here too though, which also fits in with the themes of the film. His actions get a ton of people killed and essentially cripples the Resistance, but he learns from his mistakes eventually and becomes a better leader for it. - The general theme of the movie being moving past one’s failures is interesting here since it let the filmmakers subvert so many tropes. Most of the plans the Resistence people enact all lead to disaster. In fact, their desperate flight from impending doom through the entire movie felt quite harrowing. Unlike ESB where the rebels successfully escape Hoth to live and fight another day with minimal losses, the Resistance here is absolutely wrecked and continue to be destroyed through the entire runtime. How they will recover from this remains to be seen, and we now know nothing about where this story will go in Episode 9 because of how screwed they are by the end… Meanwhile the First Order suffers from their own failures, but appear too smug about themselves to see their own hubris. They could have easily wiped the Resistance out, but choose to slowly chase them, as if to let the rebels witness the loss of all hope. It doesn’t exactly backfire, but instead renews the rebels fire to fight back. - There is a lot about the Force here that evolves the Star Wars mythos a bit. From the old Jedi texts, to Luke admitting that the Jedi doomed themselves long ago in the prequels, we see Star Wars moving past Jedi and Sith and becoming something different. I’m glad they didnt rely so heavily on what only was shown before with respect to the capabilities of a Force user or the nature of the Force in general. People may not like this, but the change is welcome. Also… YODA!!!! Slightly crazed puppet Yoda!!! He’s still teaching Luke new things. Wished ghost Obi-wan also appeared somehow… but that may be going too far. - The battles and duels in this movie were spectacular. The lightsaber fight in Snoke’s throne room? One of the best fights in the series… it was exciting and realistically choreographed, flashy without being excessive (like the prequels). A good balance between the fights in the OT and prequels. Seeing Rey and Kylo battling Snoke’s guards in a long take, shot clearly with the static angle… magnificent. Plus we get to see Kylo at full strength as opposed to crippled in TFA. He takes on multiple enemies at once, while Rey struggles with one guard. - The cinematography here is in general quite lovely. Rian Johnson loves his wide shots, and fills them with a beauty not often seen in these movies. There are some gorgeous shots here… from Holdo’s weaponized Hyperspace maneuver, to Luke’s standoff against the AT-ATs, and his final scene looking to the twin sunset that recalls the similar shot on Tatooine long ago… the use of color throughout makes for a very pretty movie. - We get flashback scenes here oddly enough… which we never got in other episode films. Plus, Rian wasnt afraid to venture into other types of shots and scenes, like a minor use of slow motion. They let the filmmmakers inject their own style into the movie. - The porgs were thankfully not too obtrusive. They are just sorta there to annoy Chewie. Chewie roasting some for dinner while they watch horrified was great and rather morbid. - Seeing Luke on the Falcon again, and his scene with R2… very poignant, and melancholy. They somehow manage to use Leia’s old message to Obi Wan to further Luke’s character development. - The battle on the salt planet Crait was neat. They make you think there will be some Hoth style battle against the AT-ATs, but its ultimately subverted by having the Resistance not even have a remote chance at all of doing any damage due to their lack of useful weapons. Finn tries the heroic sacrifice but… eh… Rose saves him and ends up letting the First Order blast a hole in the base. The hopelessness is really driven far here. - It took until the ending for me to realize Poe never was introduced to Rey ever. Also, did Rey steal the Jedi texts from that tree Luke planned on torching? You see some books in a drawer that Finn takes a blanket out of on the Falcon. Perhaps Rey will use them to help revive the Jedi order? - The last scene of the movie was an odd one to close out on… some orphans talking about Luke Skywalker like some legendary hero… then one of them uses the force to grab a broom? The Force is alive in others! Hope always survives! A bit on the nose but it makes you contemplate the future beyond the current heroes. The Bad…. - Finn and Rose’s entire subplot was superfulous and kind of terrible… I could see how it ties into the theme of the movie (hatching a clever plan to fight the First Order that ultimately fails spectacularly, but they keep fighting anyways), but that didnt stop it from being rather dull. Canto Blight felt out of place… like you were watching Harry Potter or the Hunger Games. And the whole animal horse chase thing fell kinda flat… - Benicio del Toro is in this… he plays some wierdo hacker (slicer?) with a stutter. He ultimately amounts to very little. He’s played convincingly, but only added to the superfulousness of Finn and Rose’s subplot… - In fact… that whole subplot was what damaged this movie severely. It is clearly the weakest part of an otherwise interesting film. How they come up with the plan to infiltrate the First Order ship to disable their hyperspace tracking device thing felt halfbaked. Finn and Rose spout some technobabble that feels straight out of Star Trek, then decide to gungho this odd mission. They threw Maz Kanata in there for a moment for no reason… why would Finn and Poe ask her for help? Finn barely met her. Does Poe even know her at all? All of this coulda been avoided if Vice Admiral Holdo just told Poe about her and Leia’s secret plan at the start! - Rose is gonna be divisive…. she feels like a fan stand-in character. She fangirls over Finn, goes on an adventure with him, and is suddenly in love with him? Sure I guess… i suppose i could buy that, considering she was previously some unseen common worker for the Resistance meeting a “celebrity”. Finn didnt seem to react much to her kiss though. His heart seems out for Rey. - Rey just casually dropping herself off at Snoke’s ship felt a wee bit too convenient… then after the battle in the throne room she just… appears back on the Falcon. Jarring, despite the attempt to explain it. - Phasma is used so little i wonder why they bothered making her a unique character at all… to sell toys? She gets a badass fight where she dominates Finn, but then seemingly dies in a fiery pit. Maybe they will make it a running gag that she keeps coming back? I hope she survived and returns later anyways. We get to see Gwendolyn Christie’s… eye. Yay? - The music here plays off established themes from the OT and TFA, which is fine, but otherwise there really isnt anything new here. Rose gets a new leitmotif at least. They use Palpatine’s theme during some Snoke scenes too, but is it meant to suggest they are related? - Honestly, the middle of the film just drags too long, and its all due to the Finn and Rose scenes. I get they needed to have Finn do something, but was that Canto Blight stuff necessary? That they just fly off somewhere then return to the fleet chase later kinda trivialized the whole scenario. They also introduce an idea that weapons manufacturers are profitting off the perpetual war between empire and rebellion. Neat, but they don’t really explore it further… feels like that belongs in a different movie… - The beginning of the movie focused a lot on Rose’s sister despite us not knowing much about her. Just kinda an odd choice? Those rebel bombers that just drop bombs on top of the dreadnught are also kinda dumb… most of the rebel fighter craft are decimated right off the bat. Summary: It may take more viewings to see where this truly stands qualitywise in the series. The Force Awakens definitely flowed better and had better pacing, but this one was more inventive and introduced us to newer concepts and was less predictable. Apart from the weak Canto Blight subplot and some other plot goofery, the film works. For now, I think it can give it an 8.5/10.0. I respect the hell out of them for doing some ballsy things that they know will rile part of the fanbase. Franchise rankings (out of 10): ESB & ANH 9.0 (fresh and with a truly lasting legacy) TLJ 8.5 (for evolving the franchise) RotJ 8.25 (a good close to the OT but imperfect) TFA 8.0 (overly familiar beats but still fun) ROTS 7.0 (flawed but sort of gives more weight to what happens in ROTJ) Rogue One 6.5 (very flawed, kind of a mess) TPM & AOTC 5.0 (some parts of it i like, the rest is nonsensical or dull) People seem to forget how different ESB was from ANH. This is the case here compared to TFA. I think its neat how each trilogy has its own unique feel and energy. I only hope JJ Abrams grows beyond his shortcomings in Ep. 9 and gives us something also unique and fresh.

#the last jedi #star wars #star wars spoilers #the last jedi spoilers #star wars the last jedi #movie review #spoilers #swtlj #star wars tlj #star wars ep 8 #star wars ep viii

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alexanderessex3dstoryart · 5 years ago

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Film Language Lecture - 21/10/20 - Where to Put the Camera?

Today’s film language lecture was all to do with camera placement and how the camera is used in film to express film language. This consisted of these prompts for when we look at a frame in a film weather that be live action or animation: Distance, Height, Depth of Field and Movement

To help understand these prompts further, we anlaysed a scene from Citizen Kane together where we tried to spot how they use camera placement and the prompts to explain and enhance the film language that happens in the scene. From my analysis on the clip, the kid is out of focus a lot of time in the scene where the parents are inside the house with the camera more focused on the parents showing that they’re more interested in the money they’ll be receiving than their own child. It’s further emphasised by how their son is playing outside but he’s framed in the window to not only imply their son is out of the picture in the deal but also to present who the characters are talking about like they have his image on wall. This is all achieved from how beautiful the camera has been angled so that you see the Mum, Dad and Mr Thatcher inside whilst also seeing the kid all done in a very basic and clear way. To add on, both Mr Thatcher and the Mother sit together sitting down with the Father standing high and separated from them showing how he doesn’t agree with the deal.

Going back to the start of the clip, the camera is stuck on the Mother’s face as it pans with her as she’s walking towards Mr Thatcher further showing how it was her choice to make this decision whilst the Father, reducing his depth of field tells us he has no say. Whilst this is an obvious observation when we watch the clip, without sound really makes this scene stand out as you can tell whats happening without the need for dialogue as you can tell whats happening from the film language and the camera.

One last bit I observed in the scene was the ending of the clip which is where the camera is at a close up shot of the kid’s face showing how seperated he is from his family from not only what’s about to happen in the film but also the decision all together as he had no way to influence the decision of leaving his home. This then fades to a cut of a sledge timelapse of it collecting snow until it’s slowly buried showing how the kid is losing his boyhood in a pursuit of Mr Thatcher to make him as rich as possible. I feel the camera angle is greatly done by having the sled to the corner left hand side for the scene as it presents the sled as useless and forgotten which greatly empahsies the kid’s change in mentality as well as his mark on his home.

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After analysing ‘Citizen Kane’, we went through some technical terms on framing and what kind of shots you can achieve which were:

Extreme Close-up

Close up

medium Shot

Long/wide Shot

Extreme long/Wide shot

Big close-up/Choker

Medium Close-up

Medium Long Shot

Very long/wide shot

Two Shot

To help understand the shots a little better, we watched the opening of ‘Apocalypse Now’ looking at its use of framing. It’s use of wide shots help us at the start to soak in the environment from how long we have to look at the wildlife and the glimpses of choppers flying by which makes us feel attached to this space untill it all gets ravaged by fire making that environment a whole lot personal from the time we had to feel connected to it. After that, it slow pans across the screen which is done to put us in the perspective of the soldier recalling all the events that he’s had to do in Vietnam and no matter how much he tries to forget it, sounds and imagery keep making re-think of the horrors he’s had to faced which is done from close ups of his face and extreme close ups of fans.

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One of the last clips we watched was from ‘Trainspotting’ where two of the main characters are ‘hunting’ in the park being philosophical and enlightening towards each other. From how the camera is angled for most fo the scene, it’s very static and cuts only a few times to give a very calming and relaxing approach like its two mates catching up to see how they’re doing. This makes the scene very comforting to watch until it cuts to the scope on the dog which makes it completely flip on itself on delivery from a nice and comfortable scene to a vicious and sadistic parallel.

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After the lecture, I went back to the Tintin chase scene I’m going to be analysing for my essay and looked at how it achieves it’s camera movement in it’s chase scene since it’s so iconic for being one continuous shot. One thing of note as I was re-watching it was how the camera constantly tracks the bird’s movement from set to set like we’re in the perspective of the falcon. This makes a lot of sense to why it’s treated as a continuous shot which to the film’s benefit, helps to make the scene that more exciting to watch as you see all the main characters dramatically coming into frame of the falcon which elevates the action and sets up a lot of close calls this way which is what Spielberg is known to do.

Overall, I really enjoyed analysing the clips we went over in the lecture as I felt it’s been useful towards my essay as my two scenes involve a lot of camera movement and cuts which both of my films do in different ways and especially since this is one of the main comparisons I plan to talk about.

#lectureba2a

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greed-the-dorkalicious · 8 years ago

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What is your rank of the Jojo OPs?

Oooooh, that’s tough. It’s hard to rank them because Jojo openings are kind of different from your standard “song by some popular band set to formulaic generic cool anime shots”, so like, music-wise I like Bloody Stream but Sono Chi no Kioku is cooler as an opening for example... How about instead of ranking them from best to worst, I’ll critique them all instead! I’ll put it under a cut because this gets long.

Sono Chi no Sadame

Music: ★★★★☆ - It’s really good, and Tommy’s singing is always great because you can always tell he’s having lots of fun. That being said, it’s a little bit of an acquired taste. If someone who normally listens to pop music put on Sono Chi no Sadame in front of someone who doesn’t know Jojo, that other person would probably be very confused and might not like it. (As a side note, depending on my mood I sometimes prefer the metal version from the anthology CDs, but they’re both so good...)

Animation: ★★★☆☆ - It’s pretty cool, and I love the use of manga panels especially the split second where you can see Jolyne. It’s very well synced with the music, like the part where they shoot Dio? Holy shit dude... I also like the part where Dio walks up the wall. That being said, the stage feels a little cramped, and since this was the first of the 3D Jojo openings it’s not quite as polished as the others. I feel like the models look a little weird at times, and I’m not so fond of the shade of teal used for Jonathan near the end...

Jojolity (to borrow the term from EoH): ★★★★★ I would have honestly ranked this one a little lower, but I mean, come on. It’s Sono Chi no Sadame. It’s iconic! While the lyrics don’t have as many direct references to the series as some of the other openings, I like the frequent references to the Joestar legacy (both in the lyrics and at the beginning of the animation). And as I mentioned, Tommy’s singing is so fun it’s infectious. Plus this opening deserves a whole extra star just for the iconic “JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJO!”

Bloody Stream

Music: ★★★★☆ - This is definitely one of my favorite Jojo openings, but again, it’s a little weird compared to most anime music. It’s not as energetic as Sono Chi no Sadame, and the lyrics aren’t all that imo. The bridge (or whatever, you know the “kyoumei suru / unmei no hamon / kokoro ni) part is kind of weird tbh. But still, I really like this one.

Animation: ★★★★★ - I absolutely love the visuals on this one. I love the Battle Tendency aesthetic in general, and this opening practically oozes that aesthetic. The way they combined 2D and 3D is really cool, and I love the use of color, patterns, and silhouettes. The typography is really cool too! I love that while it does manage to incorporate some story elements like the other openings, it’s mostly at the end, and overall it’s a lot more abstract and focused on the main characters as individuals. I also really love the beginning, with Joseph kind of walking onto the scene and getting ready to show off, like it’s his turn now! Welcome to part 2! However, with all this being said, why the thing with Lisa Lisa... why. I’m so tired of Jojo fanservice moms.

Jojolity: ★★★★☆ - This is a great opening that, while certainly different from the others and not as connected with the series as a whole, couldn’t suit part 2 better. It’s not just another Jojo opening, you watch this one and you KNOW it’s Battle Tendency. There’s a lot of fitting use of patterns and motifs in the animation- stars and the manga’s “JOJO” for Joseph, plus the brief foreshadowing of Hermit Purple, then for Lisa Lisa we’ve got some swirls and ripples, and Caesar has the Zeppeli family checkerboard/harlequin pattern. And of course, the blood bubble, the bandana, and the scream at the end are fantastic(ly painful).

Stand Proud

Music: ★★☆☆☆ - It’s good, but it doesn’t really stand out among the other Jojo songs. It’s a lot more generic sort of sound, like a normal anime opening. Even as a song on its own, I don’t think it’s especially noteworthy. Maybe that’s just personal taste though. That being said, I like the lyrics a lot! And I don’t know if everyone realizes this in English, but the “alright now, alright now, alright now” part is pronounced in Japanese like “ora now, ora now, ora now”, so it’s kind of a neat pun, even if I feel like it sounds better when it’s pronounced closer to English. (You’ll notice the “ora” a lot more if you listen to that one clip of Daisuke Ono singing it.)

Animation: ★★★★★ - This is the third of the CGI openings, and the experience shows. The models are a lot smoother and nicer looking than the first two openings, imo. The camera angles are pretty cool, and it manages to have a good blend of overall story scenes with more character-focused, “cool factor” type visuals. The colors are nice, the space theme is really cool, and my favorite part is the bit where Jotaro’s kneeling at the bottom of a sort of Joestar family tree.

Jojolity: ★★★★★ - While this is not my personal favorite opening, the animation and the song do a fantastic job of living up to the series. Part 3 imo is sort of the “big finale” of Jojo (even if it’s only the third of eight parts, it’s one of if not the most popular, and sort of the culmination of the Joestars vs. Dio rivalry), and Stand Proud- both in animation and music- is suitably badass, as well as connected to Jojo as a whole. There’s a lot of references to the Joestar legacy, both in the lyrics and a lot of visuals that literally show past Joestars and lead up to Jotaro taking his place in the spotlight and carrying on the family destiny. There’s also some pretty cool references to manga art.

Sono Chi no Kioku

Music: ★★★★★ - There’s really no term to describe it other than “grand”. It’s almost orchestral or like an opera, very dramatic and cinematic in a way, but still has a rock style to it as well. The use of a heartbeat-like sound at the beginning is cool. The lyrics are great, and I love that not only is it sung by the singers of the previous three openings, but if you listen to the full version, in the bridge they all make references to their respective openings (”The destiny of light and darkness” “the swirling history is bloody” “an inheritance of undying pride”). And of course, my favorite part is where they yell “STAAAAAAAAAR PLATINUMMMM!”

Animation: ★★★★★ - I don’t have too much to say about this one, since it’s pretty much the same quality as Stand Proud, but it’s also full of little blink-and-you-miss-them details and foreshadowing; You can actually briefly see stylized examples of how every character dies, and if you watch very, very carefully during the shot with Jotaro frozen in time, the finger on his right hand twitches. I like the bit on the stairs with the Egyptian god silhouettes, and the broken clock motif is also really cool, while at the same time it ties in with the space theme of Stand Proud.

Jojolity: ★★★★★★★ - This, to me, is the ultimate Jojo opening. It’s so dramatic, so part 3, so very Jojo, and in a lot of ways it really is the culmination of everything that came before it. The animation and the music are both fantastic. Then on top of all that we have the unforgettable “ZA WARUDO” edition, which to this day is absolutely the coolest thing I have ever seen any anime opening do, by far. Sono Chi no Kioku is absolutely perfect for the end of part 3 and does a great job of embodying “This is it, everything has been leading up to this, this is the final resolution of 100 years of Dio tormenting the Joestars, this is where it all goes down.” I love this opening so much and I don’t know if any anime opening will ever live up to it, for me.

Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town

Music: ★★★★☆ - Dude, this one gets stuck in my head SO easily. It’s a lot of fun.

Animation: ★★★☆☆ - It’s really unimpressive after the amazing CGI openings, and doesn’t even have as much movement as most anime openings. But the colors are really fun, and it definitely shows of Morioh, with scenery from all over town as well as montages of Morioh’s residents.

Jojolity: ★★★☆☆ - It’s just pretty disappointing compared to the first four openings. It doesn’t have nearly the same level of dramatic action, nor as many references to the actual story. It’s much more mellow. Overall, it feels less like a story about Jojo, and more like a random dance party. However, one might argue that that’s perfect for part 4; with no more vampires and a protagonist who wasn’t raised as a Joestar, part 4 has much less to do with Jojo overall than the previous three parts, and is a lot more slice-of-life, so a Morioh dance party makes sense. I’ll also say that I do genuinely like Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town, and both the music and the animation remind me a lot of Bloody Stream. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, but either way, I feel like it’s a great homage to the fact that Josuke is Joseph’s son.

Chase

Music: ★☆☆☆☆ - While I like the song itself decently enough, it’s even more generic than Stand Proud, and the only direct references to the series in the lyrics are the use of the word “arrow” in two lines. Also, the singer doesn’t sound especially passionate, and holy shit dude take a cough drop. You’re killing me here. I’d actually like this song if I could stand the singing at all.

Animation: ★★★☆☆ - It’s much more drab than Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town, but it does have a lot more action and movement to it, and more references to the story. I like the Killer Queen emblem thing, too. I feel like at times it’s not very well synced with the lyrics. However, Reimi is in it, so there’s that. I love you Reimi

Jojolity: ★★☆☆☆ - It just doesn’t feel like a Jojo opening. Jojo should be weird, fun, colorful, fashionable, and Chase just... isn’t. It’s dull. It’s generic. Where are the funky trumpets? Fun patterns and colors? Keywords like “stand” or “destiny” dropped into the lyrics? There are none. If you replaced the characters, you could use this as an opening for Death Note. A Jojo opening should be very unique to Jojo. That being said, at least the darkness of both the music and the animation are very fitting for the horror of knowing that Kira is out there somewhere, and it’s cool how they throw in things like the fingernails or the Killer Queen emblem as if he’s watching everyone.

Great Days

Music: ★★★★☆ - Now THIS is a Jojo opening. It’s no Sono Chi no Sadame, but it’s fun, hopeful, and has plenty of references to the story. Not to mention that right of the bat, it incorporates the main theme from the OST, which is awesome.

Animation: ★★★★☆ - Again, it doesn’t live up to the CGI openings, but it’s got some cool angles and such. There’s a nice balance of plot-appropriate darkness and Jojo fashion aesthetic, and it shows off the town and also includes story elements. There’s some cool emblems and poses, too. Not to mention that Reimi is right at the forefront of this opening! I love you Reimi

Jojolity: ★★★★☆ - Like Sono Chi no Kioku, this one definitely has a sort of “penultimate” feeling, especially due to the use of the main theme. It’s really fun and suited to both the part 4 finale and Jojo as a whole, and the pointing pose is straight out of the manga. And then of course we’ve got the “Bites the Dust” version, like The World and Sono Chi no Kioku. Great Days is perfect for the end of part 4.

#nerdy-nonbinary #Asks

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connorrichardsonunit21 · 6 years ago

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Film Editing: Unit 21

A1 Types and purposes of editing for film and television

One film would be The Miller and the Sweep, this film came out in 1897 in black and white. It was made by G.A. Smith, it was one of the earliest films to show a clear awareness of visual impact when produced. Because the film was in black and white, Smith turned the action into a battle between two opposites. The miller is in white carrying a b of flour while walking from a windmill. The sweep is in black and is carrying a bag of soot, this shows a similarity destructive effect on the opposite person. The film does not include any editing as it is one long continuous shot, this film in a non destructive film.

Another film would be A TRIP TO THE MOON. This film was one of the first films that involved cuts and dissolves, this shows the difference from 1897 to 1902. D. Georges Melies created a 14 minute ‘masterpiece’ with 30 different shots

In 1903, The Great Train Robbery was produced and edited by Edwin S. Porter. The film consisted of techniques such as composite editing, on-location editing and frequent camera movement. This film was one of the earliest to use the technique of cross cutting, in which two scenes are chow to be occurring simultaneously but in different locations.

In 1908, the first animated cartoon Emile Cohls black and white short film is composed of 700 drawings that he drew on a glass plate. Each drawing is different to the one before it, this allowed Fantasmagorie to have a continuous style.

In 1925, d. Sergei Eisenstein, this film consists of of a newsreel-like sequences inter-cut with close ups of harrowing details to increase tension. The films was orchestrated with a montage of close ups of faces and objects and long-shots and all rapidly cut together and contrasted as the images built to a conclusion.

In 1961 helical scan recoding is invented by ampex. This would be things such as video tape recorders today.

In 1971, the first linear editing machine was invented, it was the best machine that recorded half resolution black ad white video files onto washing machine size disk packs.

In 1984, EditDroid was a computer that pulled footage stored on LaserDisks. It was created from a George Lucas spin-off

In 1988, the public release of the Avid1- a macintosh bashed non linear editor in 1989. Storage was still and issue and these machines could only edit short music videos and commercials.

Between 1989-2009 Editshare lightworks and lightworks pro, this video NLE was designed by a group of film editors.

In 1999, final cut software was developed, it was a non linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. \the software allows the users to log and transfer video onto a hard drive, where it can be edited, processed and outputted to a wide variety of formats

In 2003, Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software application. It includes video editing, graphic design and web development programs.

Continuity editing is the most common style of film editing. The purpose of continuity editing is to create the illusion of smooth continuous action and helps to keep the audiences’ attention to the story. The viewer will not notice the transition between shots.

Non-continuity editing is when shots are mismatched to disrupt the impression of time and space. This draws the audiences’ attention to the process of cutting and disturbs the illusion of ‘reality’. An example is the use of flashbacks.

Changing Time Frame:

Timeframes change because it is rare that a film represents real time. One television show called 24 has represented real time by making one episode represent an hour of the day. Situations like 24 don’t happen often so the changing timeframe would be essential to carry out the narrative. A typical film would have to squeeze a couple years into at least 2 hours.

Changing time frame can also mean that time is extended, we can add this to the bomb under the table example, you can extend time (make it a bit slower) to increase tension.

Time could also be sped up, for example, a fight scene could be shot in 22 frames per second, it is then sped up to 24 (standard framerate in films) so that the fight looks more exciting.

In my opinion, changing the time frame is important because depending on the genre certain films may change the time frame depending on the scene. For example, if someone is in a car chase scene maybe sped up to make it look faster and more dramatic. Slow motion will change the time frame.

Flashback, flash forward:

The time frame of a film is often important as it is where the focus of the film is set, the film revolves around its time frame as it establishes where the film is set. The time frame is also important as it establishes conventions and expectations, as if a film is set within a certain era then we expect to see certain items. For example, if a film is set in the early 1900s, then that resembles the area ideas of the era. It helps to immerse the audience into the expectations of this world and what living life in a time like this would be like.

The changing of time frame is also equally important when it comes to the process of film editing. This is because it established the movement of time, this movement of time is important as it establishes more conventions and how something may have changed over this period of time. This allows the audience to further expand the conventions and ideas that occur behind this time frame as if they get this idea they are able to further understand the codes and conventions that are expected within the specified time frame

Controlling rhythm and pace of the production:

Setting the pace of an edit is vital to the storytelling aspect, and for establishing the general stylistic feel of a film. This rhythm is created by a series of beats, and cannot be determined by one or two consecutive cuts alone. It works very similarly to a music composition. The tempo of a piece of music is defined by the beats per minute of the underlying track. It determines the speed, or the pace of a tune. Without it, different instruments cannot come to play in unison or to create a cohesive sound. Just as a conductor sets the tempo for an entire orchestra, or a DJ mixes various songs together by beat-matching, it is up to the editor to determine an appropriate pace within each scene itself, as well as collectively for the entire film. Using rapid pacing suggests the intensity and excitement of the film or show. Slower pacing would be make it seem more relaxed and thoughtful, such as if someone is driving then there would be a slow pace because not much is going on. When it comes to rhythm it is used by using straight cuts to abrupt transitions from one shot to another to convey the immediacy, Jump cuts may also occur when the visual information between shots hasn't really changed much. Dissolves may also be included in a rhythm.

In my opinion, controlling rhythm and pace is important depending on the genre of the film. It helps the audience understand the way the film is going, for example in a horror film the music might get louder and faster showing that the monster or something might happen because it increases the climax and then something happens. The pace of the film will help with the flow of the storytelling and helps the audience to laugh or gasp.

Creating narrative:

Creating motivation to further the narrative (motivated editing)

Something off frame and then cut to the unknown.

An example would be in a horror film, a person spins round and sees nothing and they turn round again and the monster is behind.

It is one of the least jarring forms of transition that could be part of continuity editing.

Motivated editing is a way of helping to build tension and suspense for the audience disbelief when watching a production. Motivated editing is where shots are carefully chosen to push the story along and make the audience believe what they are seeing.

For instance if there is a shot of someone walking into a room and looking around, it is best to then cut to a shot of that actors point of view. This way the audience gets to see exactly what that actor sees and it engrosses them in the story even more. Motivated editing is a good way to get an audience deeply involved in what they are watching and makes them less likely to notice all the different cuts and the fact that what they are actually watching is just different video shots put together. Instead it makes them fully believe in the story.

Create continuity between shots

Continuity editing is Editing that creates tension through shots. This builds up action within the film but also within the audience making them question what will happen to each of the individual characters. This creates smooth continuous action shots, keeping the audience interested. Jump cuts can be used to follow the action by jumping between several scenes all following the action. Continuity editing is where everything has to be the same throughout the film, without any changes. For example, if someone picks a cup up with their right hand, and then later on the cup is in their left hand, they have broken continuity. The audience will be able to notice transitions between shots, it also keeps a smooth continuous action, helping the audience keep interest. Following action is usually done through several points of view, this was first done with Life of an American Fireman in 1903. This film shows a fireman rescuing a woman from a burning building.

This technique has developed over the years as multiple camera action has been introduced; it is commonly used in most genre of films but especially action, adventure and crime films. This is because a convention of those films is a fight scene and in order for the audience to fully view the fight the camera must follow and have different shots of the action taking place. They would film the same scene several times from many angles and then cut them all together. I believe without the development of this technique it would lengthen the filmmaking process as well as increase the budget of the film due to the fact that it is popular with many films to use explosions and weapons, but if only one camera is able to achieve the shot the shot would have to be perfect to enable the audience to believe it.

Create audience reaction and engage the viewer:

Suspense can be created by controlling the rhythm of the scene. A good example of creating suspense is from the film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. Editing shots so that they are longer can create more suspense, this could also synchronise with the non-diegetic music. Here is a diagram of the edit of the scene. Notice that the longest shot is just before the attack, you can think this shot as ‘the calm before the storm’.

-Lens choices can also create suspense, the depth of field is important since the director has also built up suspense with the environment. Changes from a wide lense to a closer lens can show the details of the reaction of the character.

Creating meaning:

Juxtaposing elements within editing:

Lev Kuleshov was among the first to dissect the effects of juxtaposition. Through his experiments and research, Kuleshov discovered that depending on how shots are assembled the audience will attach a specific meaning or emotion to it. Juxtaposition is a key element used in film, it’s created by placing two images/ideas/characters/scenes together to create a meaning.It can make the audience think different things and ideas when the two things are placed next to each other. I watched a clip from ‘Strike’ by Eisenstein (1925) which displayed strong images of juxtaposition with the slaughtering of animals placed alongside shots of armies marching to display the link of slaughtering animals and slaughtering people. Juxtaposition in music can be used to create irony, exaggerate what's on-screen, or evoke an array of emotions such as shock.

Creating empathy with a character

When the character is displaying a valued trait, such as loyalty or love.

When a character is particularly good something, we want to see them use this to benefit their life.

When the character is treated unjustly, in our human nature to feel a way when someone is treated unfairly.

When the character wants to achieve something what people want in the time of watching, this could relate to the character wanting to end world hunger.

When the character focuses on caring for another, especially when it is at the cost of himself, he could help someone down the stairs and as a result miss his bus.

When the character tries to overcome fear or make a change. When the character tries to overcome fear or make a change

Creating bias in fiction or documentary editing.

This is when you edit a film/ tv series to make you dislike a character, you are able to create a bias in film editing by editing the film in a certain way, for example, in Matilda the character ‘Mrs Trunchbull’ is edited in such a way to make her seem evil this is because she is shown throwing children, locking children in a coffin, etc

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chicagoindiecritics · 6 years ago

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: VINTAGE REVIEW: The Untouchables

(Image: vanityfair.com)

THIS RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW AND ANALYSIS WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 FOR 25YL AS PART OF THEIR BRIAN DE PALMA TRIBUTE AND RETROSPECTIVE SERIES.

THE UNTOUCHABLES— 4 STARS

At the turn of the late 1980s, lauded filmmaker Brian De Palma needed a commercial win, the kind of score that filled his bank account and raised his cache to make more of his own artistic interests. He got that in 1987 with The Untouchables, a pet project of producer Art Linson who loved the gangland folklore possible with Paramount’s full rights to the characters. Buoyed by a 50% female audience dared into a violent picture, the film returned triple its budget after what would be the 6th highest debut of the year. Featuring all the director’s bells and whistles singing a new tune, The Untouchables returned bankability and creative acclaim to the career New Yorker.

For The Untouchables, De Palma came to the writer’s turf of The Windy City to update and redefine the tropes of gangster film “The Chicago Way.” Bounding with all of the swagger and toughness of David Mamet’s script, The Untouchables amplifies and dramatizes the Prohibition takedown efforts of famed U.S. Treasury agent Eliot Ness against Chicago Outfit leader Al Capone previously serialized by the 1957 television program starring Robert Stack. Kevin Costner was the reluctant final pick for the lead from the pool of Miami Vice’s Don Johnson, a busy Mel Gibson, and a declining Mickey Rourke to play the lawmen pitted against De Palma’s insisted choice and transformed muse Robert De Niro, and all his peccadillos, as the worshiped crime lord.

With steep dramatic license for silver screen flair, the movie Hollywoodizes the story of the diligent crusader Ness coming to City of Broad Shoulders and getting the tutelage of a brash pair of those in the form of an aging Irish beat cop named Jimmy Malone, played by screen legend Sean Connery in his lone Academy Award-winning role despite what an Empire magazine poll voted as the worst movie accent of all-time. Mamet and De Palma condense the historical Primary Ten into a composite squad of four when Ness and Malone recruit rookie sharpshooter George Stone (Andy Garcia, getting to play a hero after being the heavy in Hal Ashby’s 8 Million Ways to Die) and elevate D.C. bookworm agent Oscar Wallace (the welcome amount of comic relief from Charles Martin Smith). Looming next to De Niro is an army of ne’er-do-well underlings covered with overcoats, fedoras, and Tommy guns led by his Outfit #2 Frank Nitti (Pale Rider’s Billy Drago, after Garcia was approached and moved to Stone).

Playwright hitmaker David Mamet showers these actors with outstanding lines, from long rants to rapid-fire conversation. While he may revise a heap of history, Mamet and his “Mamet Speak” give these actors steak to chew on and De Palma tension to shoot. Even with Connery’s rough accent brimming all over and Costner’s genteel baseline, there’s still not a clunker moment of line delivery all movie. All of it sizzles with cigar smoke mixing with spent gunpowder and lament and heroism teeter-totter strides with the moody and brassy pomp of Ennio Morricone’s top-shelf score.

The high style and period detail are on display in all areas of the movie’s big and clean production values. Many people go straight to the sleek and Oscar-nominated Giorgio Armani threads from costume designer Marilyn Vance (quite a step up from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and they would be keenly right to be impressed. Surfaces like costuming and the equally Oscar-nominated production designs of Amadeus’s Patrizia von Brandenstein, comedy specialist William A. Elliot comedy specialist, and Disney live-action veteran Hal Gausman drape, bath, and decorate pulpy antiquity out of the genuine Chicago locations.

From this Chicagaoan’s eyes, Eric Schwab, De Palma’s longtime location scout and manager (and a future second unit director on six of the man’s films), outdid himself with the rich finds and recreations that sought lurid decadence. From Roosevelt University standing in as the notorious Lexington Hotel, Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Rookery used as police headquarters on historic La Salle Street, the Tiffany Dome of the Chicago Cultural Center (and original city library) to those climactic Union Station steps and every church steeple in between, Chicago has rarely look better or more ominous.

Furthermore, the cinematographer and editors are part of what makes Brian De Palma and The Untouchables look so damn good and pop with visual storytelling. That success comes from successful and extensive collaboration. Cinematographer Stephen H. Burum would go on to work with the director for eight films. Editors Bill Pankow and Gerald G. Greenburg add nine and five trips, respectively, with De Palma to that teamwork tally. For more detail, Burum was highlighted by a nice interview piece in American Cinematographer for his work on The Untouchables last year. One fun fact is that the studio quickly talked him out of shooting in black-and-white. Be glad he was because the color always pops. The outstanding widescreen framing from Burum and the suspenseful sense of pacing from Pankow and Greenburg sharpen and highlight De Palma’s entertaining and engaging moves.

And those chops! As for what we’re celebrating here on 25YL, the real talent is Brian De Palma and his endlessly studied and glorified filmmaking prowess and visual trademarks. His tricks of the trade are applied to a ballsy, dramatic adventure that bleeds buckets of crimson underneath all those aforementioned surfaces. Let’s talk angles first.

In many establishing shots, including catching street signs and the high angle zooming straight down from an opening card of history notes to a character introduction of De Niro’s Capone getting pampered and nicked in a barber’s chair, De Palma uses canted angles. De Palma and Burum also enjoyed low angles that highlight height or the towering setting, like the Tiffany Dome presiding over the wide spectre looking up to Capone later. One stellar example of viewing location is the creeper sequence of Malone’s home invasion, where the low angle and the POV steps set up tension and surprise.

The most celebrated clinical example of angles comes from the “di-opt” split focus used during the blood oath church scene between Malone and Ness with that great “Chicago way” proverb. A half convex glass, one part near-sighted and one part far-sighted, kept both the two heroes in focus as well as the lofty and gorgeous church ceiling behind them. The stillness and depth of that scene, boosted by Mamet’s words and the mettle of the performances, are a very good foil to the pace of the rest of the picture.

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The next visual feast of De Palma’s craft from the film are the movements. The amount of slow-sweeping pans and tracking shots of precise choreography are impressively mind-boggling. Long takes rule as the average shot length of The Untouchables is 5.7 seconds, a stout eternity by today’s thriller standards. Capone’s stalking baseball bat table circle monologue has a few cutaways for potential swing victim identification, but the circular pan from the low angle is gorgeous for both the hulking fear and finery on display. Even a shorter sequence like the Steadicam use following Wallace escorting a witness through the police hallways to his grave ending in the elevator are a long single-take marvel.

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The piece-de-resistance of editing and motion married together is the movie’s storied gunfight climax set on lobby steps of Chicago’s Union Station. It’s a scene De Palma reduced from a moving train sequence for budget and shot on the fly in substitution. Out of necessity, De Palma mixed a source of homage, the Odessa Steps sequence from Sergei Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin, to create his own holdout sequence where hurdles block the protagonists’ path for a necessary task. This classic scene also presents the best use of De Palma’s penchant for occasional slow-motion while amping up the sound work of the intersecting chess pieces. Pankow and Greenburg’s editing assistance really shines. Replica or note to Eisenstein, the result is brilliant and better than what some big-budget train chase would have been. De Palma would get that checkbook-busting chance again in Mission: Impossible nearly a decade later.

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History and popularity have been kind to Brian De Palma’s crime movie achievement. The American Film Institute nominated the movie in five categories (Movies, Thrills, Hero, Villain, Film Score, and Gangster Film) during its “100 Years” series last decade. Then and now, The Untouchables earned a city’s pride and spurred new popularity to the Capone legend. Its success also fueled a star’s rise (Costner), secured another’s lasting legacy (Connery), and reminded audiences just how sharply talented its steward was. Once the end credits hit and Morricone plays us all out, you can also feel Brian De Palma channeling tough-guy Jimmy Malone with a “here endeth the lesson.” The hitmaker never lost his edge.

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jtrahan · 8 years ago

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[Meta] The Better Pirates of the Caribbean Project

(Contains some SPOILERS for Dead Men Tell No Tales).

So you’re making a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and you’d like it to be about Will Turner’s son, because you worked at Disney when they were selling Orlando Bloom posters like hotcakes and you want to be able to afford enough cocaine to get you through producing that live-action Dumbo remake. Here’s how you do it:

Will is cursed to remain on the Dutchman forever (or at least until he finds someone willing to take his place, but never mind that, maybe we’ll get there in a few sequels). His duty is to ferry the souls of those who died at sea to wherever they’re going next, and as long as he keeps up with this duty he and his crew will be free of the sub-curse that turned Davy Jones and co into monsters (presumably you know this already because you actually watched At World’s End at some point). This is what he’s been doing for the past twenty years. I imagine him poking tangled souls free of coral reefs, drawing them up in nets, sailing on glowing rivers of souls that wind through the world between worlds. Hell, if you want, open up the movie with a big battle sequence and then have the Dutchman show up in the aftermath, with Will giving a comforting version of Davy Jones’ “Do you fear death” speech from Dead Man’s Chest. (Orlando Bloom’s acting is a potential problem, but hey, this is a big franchise for you. You can afford to coach him back into the swing of things).

Now, having Will the Third (I saw Dead Men Tell No Tales twice and still cannot remember his real name) be obsessed with finding his father is a good angle, so you can keep the broad strokes there. But in this case the conflict is that hanging out in the realms of the dead will kill the living pretty quickly, and Will wants his son to actually live his life rather than obsessing over death, so he sends him away. It’s a bitter moment for both of them. Will the Third never really gets over it. (What is Elizabeth doing during all this, you might ask? It’s a good question, and the answer is fuck you, you wanted to make a movie about their kid and now you’ll have to deal with the consequences. Maybe hire Keira Knightley to do some voiceover about how he’s a troubled kid and she doesn’t know how to reach him, if you think that’s necessary. Either you or she are apparently not willing to commit to more than thirty seconds or so of screentime, so we’re working with limited resources here).

Will the Third grows up both feeling rejected by his father and wanting to get back to him. And the way to get to get back to him, of course, is to die. So Will the Third runs away to sea, signs on to the riskiest voyages, keeps sticking his neck out into horribly dangerous situations. He always survives, because of course he does, which is very frustrating for him. So he keeps escalating the situation.

He becomes a pirate.

Now, one dramatic title screen later, we’re into the main plot of the movie. Young Captain Henry Turner (that’s his real name, I’ve just remembered) is faced with a situation in which he has to cross the line into doing something truly villainous, which he is conflicted about, because obviously he has a good soul deep down. Purely off the top of my head: maybe his actions cause an entire town to be captured by a much nastier crew of pirates. He has to try to make this right, maybe initially for selfish reasons (one of the townspeople has some kind of thing he needs, perhaps. Hey, maybe if you’re really wedded to the idea of dragging Jack’s compass back into the story for very questionable reasons, have one of the captured townsfolk steal it before they’re taken away. Henry will then need to go chase down the Big Bad to get it back, which will give you an excuse for some conflict). As the story goes on he’ll shift from selfishness to selflessness, probably with some big dramatic scene where he abandons his goals to do the right thing instead. His arc will be from nihilism and an obsession with death to hope and a desire to live life fully while still alive. This will be the theme of your movie. I think it could probably use one of those.

We have to get Jack in here too, and I think it’s best to do it early. He’ll be around during this initial conflict and once again find himself reluctantly teaming up with Young Turner because of Reasons. I imagine him being delighted but also slightly dismayed that Henry has turned out to be a baddie. Jack has zero inclination to be an angel-on-the-shoulder sort of figure, but at the same time this isn’t how things are supposed to be--he’s supposed to be the morally ambiguous one, with Turner as the straight-laced ally; and so, very (VERY) reluctantly, he finds himself trying to encourage Henry to be more heroic, if only because he feels really strange about the situation and wants to return things to the status quo so he can get back to betraying everybody again.

Then, for the rest of the movie, a whole bunch of other shit happens. Tradition dictates that yo need a supernatural crew at some point. The bald witch from the version of Dead Men Tell No Tales you actually made was kinda neat, so recycle that idea into a crew of sea witches (goes well with the idea of pirates as people who don’t fit in anywhere else). Make them allies of the good guys if you want to spice things up (you really need to bring in a new good-guy crew either way). Or have the Big Bad be going to sacrifice their captives in order to gain powers, and give them some temporary version of those powers for the big finale. Make the villain a woman while you’re at it; you haven’t done that yet. Give Henry a love interest (maybe another pirate, to help differentiate from the original trilogy?) The important things are Henry’s journey from nihilism to hope, and Jack’s reluctant embrace of a heroic role that he intends to abandon as soon as possible (which has always been a huge part of what makes Jack interesting).

And, at the end, after Henry has been terribly wounded thanks to his inevitable heroic turn, have a guilt-stricken Will show up and offer to take him to the afterlife. And have Henry decide to accept the pain and live instead, because he only has one life, and he’s finally realized that he wants to make the most of it.

I think that’s a way to do it. I think that’s a way to have a decent thematic arc that’s consistent with the rest of the series, while also making a movie that very much mirrors the structure of the first one, while ALSO keeping it from being a total retread. I think it could work.

Or, alternatively, you could spend $230 million to make Dead Men Tell No Tales instead.

#pirates of the caribbean #pirates #potc #dead men tell no tales #at world's end #dead man's chest #will turner #henry turner

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kthyunngg · 8 years ago

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To Find

Member: Jin (ft. Yoongi)

Genre: Angst

Word Count: 5.2k

Summary: Love. It’s a strange thing. It can either make you the happiest person in the world or the most miserable. You don’t know when it comes or when it goes. Sometimes it’s not returned and sometimes it is. We don’t know how to deal with it, but we still yearn for it.

A/N: I don’t really know what to say about this one. It’s...different :o I will warn you though, I got extremely sad while writing it. I hope you enjoy Xx

Love. What exactly is it? According to the dictionary, it is the intense feeling of deep attraction. To you, that definition is not enough. It’s too vague, too open ended. You could be extremely attracted to a celebrity, but that doesn’t mean you love them. What’s so special about love that your society has given all of you a time limit to find “the one?”

Every morning a system that’s built into your house will alert you, telling you how many more days you have to find your love. The clock will stop the moment that you realize that you truly love the person. If not, it keeps going. “To find” is both physically and emotionally as well.

The consequences if you don’t succeed in that time frame? It’s not death, but it’s comparable. They will take you away from society to go through series of treatments and therapies to try to find the “problem” as to why you couldn’t find your true love. It’s brutal. You’ve seen it happen to your neighbour. The clock just struck 7 PM and it was the last day for him. He still didn’t find the one and then people in grey suits approached his front door and quarantined his house. They drugged him and hooked him up to a machine to scan his brain and find the issue.

Why is this person not capable of loving?

Where did the hardwiring go wrong?

Is there a defect?

Everyone should be able to love.

It’s a cruel system and you never understood it. Why should a machine dictate who I love? Why should a system created by some sick person dictate when I should or shouldn’t feel love?

For your entire life, you’ve seen people fall apart because of the system you live in. Your friends were taken away because they couldn’t find their love and others were killed because they tried to escape the system. You would think that a countdown to finding the person you truly love is a good thing, but it’s really not. It’s a game of survival, a hunt. The number of days that you have is based off of pure luck. Some people have many days, others have only a few months. The clock starts once you hit the age of 18. For you, your days are still abundant. The thought of finding your one has never occurred to you. People around you constantly ask if you’ve found the one, when you’re planning to find him, if you want to find him and every time, you never answer them.

It’s sickening. Everyone has become so obsessed with beating the clock that they no longer focus on anything else. It feels as if you’re being suffocated everywhere you go because people are always trying to get to know you, to see if you’re their match.

Despite all this social torture, you’re glad that a few years ago, you came across someone who is also as down to earth as you. Someone who was not too fond with the system and could care less. His name is Jin. You guys met at one of those “social gatherings.” Your friends were trying to introduce you to new people, but you weren’t having any of it. As per usual, you ended up isolating yourself away from the rest of humanity, trying to enjoy the remainder of the night. Jin must have noticed you by yourself as he was the first to approach you. On your part, you feel a little guilty now because you were so rude to him at first, assuming that he was like every other guy and only wanted to get to know you for their own sake, but Jin wasn’t like that. He, like you, just wanted to get away from the whole scene.

From that day on, you and Jin became amazing friends. He was always there to cheer you up, talk to you about the weirdest of things, and you could truly be yourself. You didn’t have to worry about the clock or anything else when you were around him because you knew that he would stop any other guy from talking to you once he found out that they were only doing it for their own interest. Everything about Jin is genuine and that’s what you like about him.

You were in the middle of cleaning up your place when Jin called you.

“Hey Y/N. I’m free today, do you want to hang out?”

“Sure. I’ll come over to your place, just give me a few minutes to get ready.”

“Alright, see you soon!” You hang up and then rush to your room to get dressed. Since it’s the middle of the autumn season, you get dressed warmly and take some basic necessities with you.

As you’re heading off to Jin’s apartment, you notice how the leaves of the trees are all changed to a nice shade of orange and read. Autumn is taking its full form, not contaminated with green leaves here and there. You continue to admire the colours that have taken over your city as you walk down the sidewalk.

“Aish, watch where you’re going.” You hear someone hiss as you feel something hard against your shoulder. You come back to your senses and notice all the clutter on the floor. Then you look up and see a man with an annoyed expression.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t look where I was going.” As you quickly apologize, you pick up everything before the man gets even angrier.

“It’s okay. I should have been more careful as well. Today is just not my day. I’m sorry for coming off so harsh.” He bends down to help clean up the mess as well.

“Don’t worry about it. Here, This should be all of your stuff.” You hold out your hands which are holding his wallet, phone, and a few papers. Opens up his bag and you place in the stuff.

“Thanks, and here are yours.” He does the same.

“Thank you and I’m sorry about all this. Have a nice day!” You wave the stranger goodbye and proceed with your journey to Jin’s apartment.

“Hey Y/N, why didn’t reply to my texts?” Jin asks you once he sees you.

“Oh really? My phone must have been on silent. Did you need something?”

“No, I was just asking when you would get here because I’m starving.” Jin says while he’s already munching on a bag of chips.

“You fatty. You couldn’t even wait a little bit?” Despite your quick actions, Jin is quicker and manages to take the bag out of your reach.

“Yes. Now, let’s go eat before we do anything else.”

“So what have you been up to lately?” Jin asks you while the two of you slurp down on your noodles.

“Nothing much. The usual. People are still chasing around this baseless clock, ruining their lives. All that fun stuff.”

“Well someone is in a good mood aren’t they?” He gives you one of his cheerful laughs - out of mockery.

“Hey! It’s true and you know that! So what if there’s a clock counting down pretty much to your last days? Wouldn’t it be better just to live life normally and let fate or whatever you believe in do their job? Most things are found through accidents or unintentionally. If you’re focusing your life on finding that one person, you might get so distracted that you’ll actually miss them.”

“You have a point. It’s not the numbers that matter, but rather the experience right? Not all of us will find our one true love and some might not even find them until it’s too late. It’s not our fault for not finding them. It’s our society’s fault for making such a system which is faulty from start to finish.”

“Exactly! Besides, I enjoy living without thinking about the burden of the clock. Sure I have to wake up to the annoying voice every morning, but after that, life carries on naturally.” You finish the last of your food and then move to the front desk to pay.

“Do you want to go to the park? Live life naturally?” You can’t say no to the park even if it is starting to get chilly, but you don’t miss out on hitting Jin on the arm for his poor attempt at a pun.

“I hope you slip and fall in the cold lake while I’m on dry land.” Jin places his hand on his heart dramatically and pretends to be heartbroken.

“Y/N! After all we’ve been through!” Cue the dramatic gasp. “You know that I would drag you in with me as well!” Jin is definitely something else.

“What happens after?” You ask while the two of you are lying down on a fairly dry piece of land in the park.

“What do you mean?” You start to trace the clouds with your finger.

“What happens after you find that person? The one?”

“You probably spend the rest of your life with them.” Jin says nonchalantly.

“But what if they’re not actually the one for you? What if the clock lied?” Now Jin sits up and faces you.

You look up to him and notice how the sun hits his face in all the right angles, creating a sort of halo effect around his head. Jin has never been the most attractive person you’ve seen or met, but he’s definitely had some sort of way of drawing you in.

“That would be a shame wouldn’t it? Well let’s assume that the clock never lies. Everyone has to go through their rough times right? I guess it’s up to the couple to work it out together.”

“It’s so depressing though,” Now it’s your turn to sit up. “What if you find someone in your life, date them for a while and then find out through the stupid monotonous voice every morning that you’re not meant to be with them. It’s so discouraging right?”

Just the thought of spending time with the wrong person makes you feel discouraged. Not the fact that you’re not going to work out, but the fact that it’s a system, an algorithmic system that determines who you spend the rest of your life with. It’s also sad to witness that there are thousands, an entire society, a world that lives by these rules. Something that’s supposed to be freeing is now the most constraining thing in the world.

“Like you said, it’s just a system. The experiences are what we remember. Voice or no voice, time will play it’s hand and relationships will come and go. Sure maybe you aren’t each other’s one true love, but that doesn’t mean you can’t love each other. Maybe not in a romantic way, but love comes in so many forms. You don’t have to kiss someone to tell them that you love them.”

“If only the rest of the world thought of it that way.” You sigh. “So many people are taken away in a day because they can never find ‘the one’ what ever that means to whoever created the system.”

“Yeah…such a shame…”

Just then, another thought occurred to you.

“Jin?”

“Hm?”

“What happens if you find the one, but they don’t love you back?”

Jin hesitates a moment before he answers.

“I’m not sure Y/N…I don’t know…”

“Hello?”

“Hello? Who is this?”

“My name is Min Yoongi. I think we may have picked up the phones earlier when we bumped into each other.”

“Oh crap really?” You look down at the phone and didn’t even realize that it’s a different model from yours. You couldn’t tell from the ringtone since the phone was on silent.

“Yeah sorry about that. Is there a time when you can meet up to trade back our phones?”

“Of course! How about tomorrow morning?”

“Sure, let’s meet at the cafe near where we bumped into each other. It’s right across from the street.”

“Sounds good! Oh, I’m Y/N by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Y/N.”

“You too Yoongi.”

You’re still in disbelief with the fact that you managed to swap phones with Yoongi. Of all things that could have happened; you didn’t even notice that the phone that you took was different to yours. Luckily, the first time you went to see Yoongi wasn’t too bad, in fact, it wasn’t bad at all. He was quite similar to yourself, same outlook on life; just trying to live with what is given, forgetting about the system.

“Hey are you Yoongi?” You walk over to the table near the window where you see a man with dark hair, a black jacket and some ripped jeans.

“Yes. You must be Y/N?”

“Yup. Here’s your phone. Sorry about the mix up. I have no idea how this happened.”

“Don’t worry about it. We both seemed to be in a rush yesterday. I didn’t know what you would like so I decided to wait for you until you came.”

“Thanks.” You take and seat and tell the waiter what drink you want.

“You know, you really should put a password on your phone. You’re lucky that someone like me picked it up instead of some serial killer.” Yoongi says in a serious tone, yet you find humour out of it.

“I see I have been blessed by the gods above to have you look after my phone.” You joke back and you earn a smirk from Yoongi.

Quite surprisingly, the two of you were able to chat for a long time that day. It’s been a while since you’ve been able to talk so freely with someone; aside from Jin of course. With Yoongi, you were able to express how you truly felt with the whole system. You learned that he too does not support nor does he want to live in the confined life. Aside from all the depressing stuff, you also found out that he’s quite interested in the arts and just enjoying the simple things.

“It was nice to meet you Y/N.” Yoongi says while he stands up from the table and you do the same.

“You too Yoongi. I hope we can meet up again.”

“Of course, I’d like that as well. I really enjoyed talking to you.”

“You too.” You smile as the two of you walk out of the cafe.

“You should look through your phone. You never know what you’ll find.” You scrunch your eyebrows together, giving him a confused look. Yoongi just laughs and waves goodbye.

Once he’s out of sight, you look through your phone to see that he could have left behind.

Then through your messages, you find it.

His number.

For some odd reason, after talking to Yoongi, you didn’t want it to stop. You felt goosebumps whenever you talked to him and even at the slightest, you swear you could feel your heart skip a few beats. A feeling you’re so foreign with, yet you craved it.

“Jin! Where have you been? Now you’re the one who hasn’t been answering my calls.” Fast forward a month or so after you met Yoongi, the two of you have been spending a fair amount of time together. Meanwhile, it’s been virtually impossible to contact Jin.

“Oh, sorry…I’ve been trying to sort out some things. How have you been?” Even through the phone, you can tell that Jin is tired, exhausted, but you push that away.

“I’ve been good. I wanted to tell you something a while back though.”

“What is it?” You hear this strange shuffle through the speaker.

“A month a go, I met this guy, Yoongi. He’s just like us. He doesn’t believe in the system and he’s into arts. I don’t know why, but every time I talk to him, I feel so refreshed. It’s like getting another outlook on this whole situation, yet being able to relate to it!”

“Oh…That sounds amazing. I would love to meet this Yoongi guy.” You smile and then spend the rest of the night talking to the Jin on the phone.

The whole time you tried to find out why he hasn’t been answering his phone, but he didn’t even give a single hint. You know that he’s busy with his job and school on the side so you assume that that’s probably why he hasn’t been so present lately.

Soon Jin has to leave so he says his goodbyes, but you hang up first. Minutes later, you receive a text.

Do you want to hang out tomorrow?

It’s from Yoongi

Sure, see you

“100 more days”

“Ughhh” You groan and throw a pillow at the wall. Your days are being cut short and only now are you starting to feel small incarnations of fear.

What happens then?

The constant unanswered question remains in your mind. What happens if you don’t find that someone. What happens then? What happens after they take me away? Will I be able to come back?

All these questions, yet still not even the slightest of answers.

Piercing through the silence, your phone rings and lights up your room.

“Jin, hey.”

“Hi Y/N, can I come over?”

“Sure what’s up?”

There’s a brief silence.

“I have something to tell you.”

“Sure —”

Before you have a chance to say anything else, Jin hangups. Within a few minutes, your doorbell rings.

“Jin— Oh,” Jin engulfs you in a hug and holds you tightly as if you’re going to run away any moment.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” You tap his shoulder lightly, but he continues to hug you for a little longer.

After a few minutes, Jin finally pulls away.

“Sorry…I just… I missed you Y/N.” You look at Jin and notice the dark circles that have formed underneath his eyes. He definitely looks a lot more tired, but that’s not it. He looks empty.

“I missed you too Jin. Are you okay?” You bring your hands up to his face, but he turns away.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry. I spent the last month or so trying to sort things out.”

“That’s okay. As long as you have everything sorted out now right?”

“Yeah…” He drops his head and looks off into the distance for a brief moment. “Y/N?”

“Hm?”

“How many days?” You’re taken back by the question considering the fact that Jin barely ever asks you these things.

“100.” The moment you answer, you swear you see something drop inside of him.

“That’s still a lot…”

“Yeah, what about you?”

“M-Me? Oh… I still have something like 100. I don’t know..I-I stopped paying attention. So this Yoongi guy, he’s really something right?”

You’re left puzzled at his sudden change of topic, but you don’t push Jin for an answer.

“Yeah. Actually, the other day, Yoongi asked me out.” Your mind replays the moment a few days ago.

“Y/N, I know we haven’t known each other for a while, but for the few months that we have, I feel like I can share my whole life with you.” Yoongi is walking you home after the two of you spent the entire day together in the city, exploring. Every now and then his hand grazes yours and you feel the tension between wanting to hold his and holding yourself back.

“Me too. I really enjoy spending time with you Yoongi.” The two of you stop on your tracks and you smile at him. One of the lampposts shine down on the both of you, illuminating his face just to the right amount.

“I don’t know how much time you have left, nor do I care, but I do hope that you would like to spend it with me.”

“Yoongi are you —”

“Yes.”

Slowly, the light from the lamppost gets dimmer and Yoongi’s face gets closer. He brings one of his hands to rest on your waist and the other lightly grips the side of your arm. His lips hesitate over yours, looking for a signal and as you don’t pull away, he closes the small gap.

“Y/N,” Yoongi whispers as he pulls away slowly. “No matter how much time is left, no matter what happens, would you like to spend it with me?”

Without any second thought, you nod and hug Yoongi tightly as he does so as well and spins you around underneath the lamppost.

“Oh…congratulations. I…Would love to meet this Yoongi guy. He must really love you if he wants to spend the rest of his time with you.” Love. It hasn’t occurred to you that Yoongi loves you. Honestly, you don’t exactly know how to describe your feelings towards Yoongi. You just know that it’s different.

“Love? I don’t know, but it might be. Who knows, maybe I won’t have to wake up to that annoying voice tomorrow!” You let out a laugh, but Jin only manages a strained smile.

You did wake up to the annoying voice. The day after Yoongi asked you out and the day after Jin came over to your house. You kept hearing the voice, not only days after, but also weeks. You didn’t mind the clock that much, but like all the stories that you’ve heard, it’s definitely disappointing; just like you imagined.

This is not to say that you didn’t enjoy being with Yoongi. Hell, he made you extremely happy, but waking up to the countdown of your life is not something you would consider as “freeing.” Despite the time you and Yoongi enjoy being together, both of you have made it clear to each other that your clocks haven’t stopped. However, both didn’t let that stop what was going on between the two of you.

The way the two of you met is quite unconventional, but that’s how the best things happen right? They never go as planned. That’s the beauty of life.

However, there is one thing that you noticed. Jin has become a lot more distant recently. He was already distant months ago before you announced your relationship with Yoongi, but now you barely even text him! One day you decided to introduce Yoongi and Jin. They seemed to get a long quite well. It was a rocky start, but nonetheless, you were relieved that there wouldn’t be any conflict. After that day, you didn’t see much of Jin. It’s almost as if he disappeared off the face of the earth.

“Hey Y/N…” Yoongi greets you as he comes out of his room. Earlier today, he called you over to his place urgently.

“Hey, what’s up?” You’ve been sitting in the living room while waiting for him as he said he had to get something in his room.

“Today’s the 27th right? So near the end of the month…”

“Yeah?…” You’re not quite sure what Yoongi is trying to get at, but he sits right next to you on the couch. You see a brown piece of paper poking out from the pocket of his jacket.

“Jin met up with me a few days and he…he told me to give you this today.” Yoongi takes out the brown paper and you realize that it’s an envelope. You take the envelope carefully and try to look at Yoongi for answers, but he doesn’t give you any.

Without any clue as to what’s inside the envelope, you open in hesitatingly. Inside, there are a few sheets of paper and photos. Photos of you and Jin months ago, from all sorts of occasions. Once again you look at Yoongi, but he can only stare at the rug.

“What is this…” You ask without expecting an answer and unfold the papers.

Dear Y/N,

I’m sorry.

I’ve lied to you. When you asked me how many days I had left, I lied. I didn’t have a hundred plus days, hell, I didn’t even have one left. It stopped during that month that I’ve become distant. It happened on such a random day. I don’t even remember what happened, but I think it was the day where we went to the park and we were actually talking about the whole system. It was that day where I became aware of my feelings.

Actually, even months before, spending time with you was the best thing that I’ve ever been through. It was amazing that I got to meet someone like you, someone who refused to be dictated by a system. I’m thankful that we got to meet that day during the party.

The morning after we went to the park, I didn’t wake up to the voice. There was no indication of how many days left I had to find my one true love. I didn’t need it anymore because I had already found that person, You.

I thought everything would work out fine and that I could continue to live on with my life since I knew that you didn’t see me as anything more than a good friend. I was completely okay with living like that! However, the system didn’t seem to like that. After the first day when the countdown stopped, a message was left in the system of my home.

There was a new countdown.

I had three months to make you fall in love with me or else they would take me away. It was horrible. No one told me that this would happen after you found your love. No one told me that I would have to force you into loving me! I didn’t know what to do. That’s why I became so distant during that month. I didn’t know how to face you. I couldn’t face you. It wasn’t fair, to you or to me. I know how much you hated the system and I knew that you would have resented the world even more if I told you what had happened.

After the long month of internal fights, I came to the conclusion that I would just let the time go. I would let our destinies take charge and just live out what’s meant to be. That day when I went to your place, I was going to confess to you, but then you told me that you were already in a relationship with Yoongi. At the moment you told me, I was shattered, but then I realized that you had all the right to happiness. For all the time I’ve known you, you’ve just wanted someone who would appreciate you for who you are and not just for the sake of the system.

I had no right to take that happiness away from you so I decided to let it all go.

After you introduced me to Yoongi, I’ve kept in touch with him. I didn’t want you to see me in the state that I was going through so I made sure that he treated you with everything he had. You deserve it all Y/N. You deserve someone who is willing to put aside his own clock and just living for the memories.

I’m sorry that I’ve distanced myself from you these last few months. I knew how happy you were with Yoongi and I didn’t want to let my own sorrows ruin that. I love you Y/N. I truly do, but as you’re reading this, I hope that you’re able to live the rest of your life with Yoongi.

Maybe one day we’ll meet again.

- Jin

Shock. Despair. Anger.

You feel all these emotions at once, yet you don’t feel anything at all.

“What does this mean Yoongi?” You look towards him, tears creating lines of light in your vision.

“I’m sorry Y/N. Jin told me to keep it a secret from you. He didn’t want you to worry about him.” Yoongi takes your hand in his and squeezes them for comfort, but you don’t feel any.

You feel your heart shatter. You feel pieces of it fall off, a void being created.

This has to be some sick joke.

“Where is he n-now? J-jin. W-where is he?”

“I don’t know Y/N… I really don’t…today was his last…”

Without any other thoughts, you spring up from your seat and dash out of the apartment. You run down the sidewalks, wind roaring through your ears. You push past people who are walking in the opposite direction as you and they give you a nasty glare, but you don’t care. Furiously, you wipe away your tears as memories of you and Jin fill your mind.

You remember the first day when you’ve met and he spent the night talking to you.

You remember the time on your birthday where Jin surprised you with a home cooked meal, one where you haven’t had in a while.

You remember the time when you got deathly sick and Jin was there right next to you, even when you insisted that he should leave since you didn’t want him to get sick as well.

You remember all the times where Jin would ward off any guys who were trying to hit on you for their own benefit.

You remember it all.

“JIN?!” You scream at the top of your lungs as your approach his doorstep. The door is already opened and you rush inside.

All of his stuff is gone.

“Jin?! Where are you?” You search all over the house and when you enter his room, you find him, but he’s not alone.

“Jin…w-what’s happening?” You notice 4 other men who are standing around his bed, IV’s sticking out of his arm and other tubes sticking out from his arm.

“Y/N…what are you doing here?” Jin says with a weak voice while he lays on his bed, eyelids heavy.

“Yoongi g-gave me your letter. W-why didn’t you tell me s-sooner? I could have h-helped you! What’s going to happen now?” Tears are now uncontrollable. You push past the men in white attire and grab Jin’s hand. They’re cold.

“It’s okay Y/N. I knew this would happen. I wanted it to happen. I didn’t want to tell you because I knew that you would help me, but then I would be harming you. You never agreed with the system and then I became a victim to it. I’m sorry Y/N…” His voice grows weaker and his words are more spaced apart, almost struggling to stay away.

“Jin you can’t just go! You know what happens to the people who get taken away! Please, there has to be a way to fix this!” You turn towards one of the men in white and beg them, but they don’t even spare a single glance towards you.

“Miss, please move. We must be on our way now.”

The men push past you and lift Jin onto a stretcher.

“NO!” As they push Jin out of his apartment, you chase after them, holding Jin’s hand.

“Y/N, please go. I don’t want you to see me like this.”

“Jin…You can’t go.” Jin brings his hand up to your face to wipe away your tears and cups your face for a moment.

“It’s okay Y/N. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Lies. All lies.

“Jin, don’t go.” You feel the tension in both your hands grow as the men pull Jin into one of their trucks. You try your best to hold onto his hand for as long as possible, but it’s no use.

Before the doors close, Jin mouth’s out the words,

“I love you.”

“JIN!”

And with a final bang of the door, the truck speeds off into nothingness.

The next morning, you don’t wake up to a robotic voice.

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beautifulboycast-blog · 7 years ago

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Nat's TV round up - 2017 in Review

Television is an unusual beast when we discuss how great it is. The last year marked a few key notes, notably the increasingly large presence that streaming services have thanks to A Handmaid’s Tale, which went on to win Best Drama at the Emmy's, becoming the first streaming show to do so. Normally, it would be smarter to discuss television in the middle of summer when most notable series are in-between seasons. That's no longer the case, thanks in large part to streaming services, as well as basic and premium cable.

I don't have a list of every show I watched this past year and I won't be handing out a dozen awards for how great a singular show was. Instead, I'll offer up three separate awards: Best Returning Series, Best New Series and Best Animated Series. It's pretty self explanatory. Best Returning series is for shows that are in their second season or beyond. Best New Series is for shows in their first season, mini-series included. Best Animated series is simply for animated shows in general which are no longer following the strict yearly season format of live action shows.

Best Returning Show: Game of Thrones (Season 7) There really wasn't another option. Despite the season being a few episodes shorter and arriving in the middle of summer as opposed to its usual spring premiere, game of thrones remains the best show currently airing. Season 7 had a slower start, but quickly catalyzed into one grand moment after another. The thrilling seven episodes that aired featured massive battles on the water, on the ground and in the frozen wastes beyond the wall. Gone are the slow politically driven conversations that were featured in earlier seasons, only fitting and satisfying conclusions to loose ends remain.

Perhaps the only detractor for this season is the smaller episode count. While the cast is much smaller this season, the missing few hours of content would have been appreciated to once again flesh out conversations and character motivations. And while the finale promises even greater things for season 8, the wait until then is an unpleasant one. The final season probably won't see light until 2019.Game of Thrones remains the only show on tv that sends the collective masses into hysteria. Season 7 led to more “Did you catch that?” moments than any other season yet and we hope the wait for season 8 isn't too long. Perhaps some news on those spin offs would be enough to keep us from going insane? Your move, HBO.

Highlight moment: Episode 4 - The Spoils of War This episode features the single greatest battle in game of thrones yet. It's the only time in recent memory where my jaw was on the floor in awe. I actually had a fork in my hand when the scene started and by the end it had fallen to the floor. For what was only about half an hour, I was 100% drawn in with zero distractions to my television screen. It wasn't a plot twist or a satisfying end to a subplot. No, the greatest moment in television last year was something that only multi-million budgeted movies get right and it was glorious.

Other Notable Series

Stranger Things (Season 2): This is probably the closest a returning series got to beating out Game of Thrones and it wasn't even close. Stranger Things continued the story of the first season with all of its 80’s charm. This season, however, loses points for splitting up its characters too often and the pacing issues it suffers. While there is some great action and character moments (Dustin is the star of this season), it just doesn't hold a candle to Thrones.

Comedy Series (Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Modern Family, The Good Place): This is my junk food. I love comedy series and these are the four most notable ones that I keep track of. Always Sunny continues to be one of the best written shows on tv and the season finale was fantastic. Here's hoping for at least one more season from the gang. Brooklyn Nine-Nine had an excellent year notably for tackling issues like police brutality and the rights of the accused, something that would have never happened on a network comedy ten years ago. Modern Family had a decent year and here's hoping that the series reaches its conclusion soon. Some of the jokes are starting to get old and the lack of interesting new characters has made the series start to become stale. The Good Place is the most recent series on the list. I loved the twist ending to season one and the direction season two has taken so far. There's a lot of potential here.

House of Cards (Season 5): Oh how the mighty have fallen. A year ago I was so excited for House of Cards to return and now I'm ready to put it out of its misery. Production issues aside, season 5 was a bloated mess that took an idea and spent an entire season trying to make it come off as a big deal. All it left was the watering down of Frank Underwood as a character and a sloppy gateway for a sixth season. Luckily season 6 is coming so our other lead, Claire Underwood, will have a fitting conclusion.

Orange is the New Black (Season 5): After struggling to find its footing a few seasons ago, Orange is the New Black is stronger than ever, mixing comedy with real drama. Most of season five deals with the aftermath of the final episode of season 4 and the writers run with it. My only concern is the show’s main character, Piper, taking a back seat for most of the season. Here's hoping she plays a larger role in season 6.

Better Call Saul (Season 3): With it's best season under its belt, Better Call Saul remains one of the best shows on tv that unfortunately isn't garnering the audience it deserves. Season 3 picked up the pace and is slowly transforming into its own beast of a show outside of its predecessor’s shadow. While AMC isn't the Titan it was a few years ago, their commitment to this series gives me hope that its wings won't be clipped too soon as there's a lot of potential here. Please, please check this show out. It's well worth it.

Best New Series - Glow: I made it a goal in 2017 to check out new series whenever I could. While I didn't watch as many new shows as I had hoped, I found myself struggling to crown a winner for best new series. I ultimately settled on Glow, a new series from Netflix starring Community-alumni, Alison Brie. Set in the 1980’s, Glow is a show about a group of wannabe actors and wash ups, trying their hand at women’s professional wrestling. As someone who has always loved the absolute cheesiness of professional wrestling, watching a show about it is a treat. The series is a comedy with some dramatic moments, similar to Orange is the New Black. In fact, the series has a lot in common with Orange is the New Black, but wins out for having a greater sense of theming. It knows it's a comedy and plays with it perfectly.

The biggest detractor is the length. At ten episodes with a 30 minute run time, the show is over just as it really begins to get good. Netflix has renewed the series for a second season, but still at only 10 episodes. An additional 5 episodes in the season would have been perfect. It would also give the large supporting cast a chance to shine.

I'm eager to watch more of Glow and I think it has the legs to replace some of the older shows in Netflix’s line-up in the coming months. Highlight moment: Episode 10 - Money’s in the Chase The entire season is building up towards their first public performance and the season finale spends its entire run time showing us that performance. I loved this as it really feels like we're watching the show with the audience. It's full of some great twists and some absolutely corny wrestling moves. Here's hoping season 2 features more of these performances.

Other Notable series:

Ozark: My runner up for best new series. I really enjoyed this show, especially Jason Bateman as the lead. It has a similar theme to Breaking Bad, which is always fantastic. The biggest problem for Ozark is that I'm afraid it won't have the legs to last more than a few seasons. I could be wrong, but that and some pacing issues are what made me choose Glow over it for best new series.

Mindhunter: This show has an absolutely horrible pilot, but a pretty solid show follows that. I'm excited to see where the series goes from here. The pilot almost killed the series for me and hints of its problems last throughout. Poor direction, awkward camera angles and bloated writing aside, the show gets better the more you watch.

A Handmaid’s Tale: I believe I'm one of the few people out there who did not enjoy this series. It's well made and the acting is top notch. I have no major problems with the series from a design standpoint. It's the story and characters that lose me. Everything is so drab and dull. I never cared for the characters because they kept trying to keep things a mystery. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood or mind set for this show. I found the most interesting character to be on who barely appears in the show and one that they inevitably cut out entirely. I expect a season 2 for the show and hopefully it'll grab me. Until then, I would say to watch the first episode and see if it's your style. If not, it's worth skipping.

Girl Boss: There is nothing notable about this show. It isn't good. It's not necessarily hot garbage either. It can be funny, but it isn't hilarious. It's 100% average, or perhaps, mediocre. Why does that matter? Because this was the first “Netflix original series" that I experienced like this. Netflix has pumped out some garbage before, but they usually let you know in advance. Not this time. Girl Boss was hyped up to be another great series from the streaming giant and it failed to make an impact. I guess that explains why it was cancelled, a rarity for Netflix.

Best Animated Series: My Hero Academia (Season 2) If there’s one thing I watched more of in 2017 than previous years, it was anime. While it was mostly re-watching various Dragon Ball related shows, I decided to check out a new series that my friends had been raving about. That new series was My Hero Academia. I thought the 13 episode season one was good enough. It had an amazing set up for the world and the characters started to grow on me towards the end. Season 2 is fantastic. It covers three arcs from the manga in 25 episodes and really begins to put the series into perspective. I normally avoid long running series like this until they’re closer to the end, but this is my exception. Season 3 is coming sometime in 2018 and I’m excited to start reading the manga soon. This is an absolutely fantastic series with some great fight scenes, interesting characters and really well done animation.

Highlight Moment: Episode 10 - Shoto Todoroki: Origin Season 1 introduced us to a lot of new characters, but only a handful got enough time to be fleshed out. Season 2 began to fix this immediately by turning Todoroki into Deku’s (Our protagonist) main rival. The entire arcs lasts for most of the season, but it’s the fight between Todoroki and Deku that puts this show as my favorite of the year. Weaving an origin story into the series’ biggest fight yet is a major undertaking, but doing it this well is a masterstroke. Much like the massive battles in game of thrones, I was left speechless while watching this episode. What makes it even better is that the entire arc has no villain. It’s simply our heroes battling for the spotlight in one of the best made tournament arcs in recent memory.

Other Notable Series:

Attack on Titan (Season 2): I watched the first season of AoT back in 2015 and fell in love with the series. I dropped it after catching up on the manga, however. With Season 2 releasing in the states finally, I picked the series back up and I’m in love once more. Season 2 has better pacing than season 1, but suffers from a shorter episode count (12 episodes vs the 25 from season 1). Because of that the story can feel a bit uneven especially with a major plot reveal happening at the very end of the last episode. The animation is still top notch though, perhaps even better than season 1. And thankfully, season 3 will be airing sometime next year. No more half decade wait times. Rick and Morty (Season 3): Speaking of wait times, thank god Rick and Morty is back. I was considering giving this my best animation series award, but it came up short compared to My Hero. I had a blast with season 3 however. It was laughing the entire time, even if some of the episodes weren’t as funny as others. Bob’s Burgers, South Park (Season 21) and Bojack Horseman (Season 4): I guess this is like my catch all category? Regardless, I enjoy all three of these series and felt like each of them had a somewhat decent 2017. Bob’s Burgers is basically my junk food cartoon show, even if it’s starting to wear a bit thin. South Park had a decent season; one that I enjoyed more as I watched it while playing the latest south park game. And of course, Bojack came around for a fourth season. It wasn’t quite as good as season 3, but I still enjoyed it.

That wraps it up for my favorite shows of 2017. I mentioned quite a few shows that I’m looking forward to in 2018 before, but I’ll give special mention to Westworld which is returning for its second season soon. I should also mention that there are a few shows from 2017 that I’ve been meaning to catch up on, but haven’t had the time. It mostly includes seasons released in December and I’ll get to them eventually. If I feel the need to discuss them further, I’ll write up a separate piece.

Until next time. Continue enjoying the new year and stay beautiful.

#beautiful boycast #beautiful blog #television #2017 in review #best tv #tv #beautiful boys

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