#playing original 4 vs playing 2 remake... lol

[citrine-elephant]

so badly do i want to go on little rants about theories and ideas and au's for re, but i don't want to embarrass myself around the nerds who've been on it since before i was born.

but of course i'm interested in the attractive sad man who gets his ass kicked a lot, so i gotta wonder what a beloved character getting caught and weaponized like jill would be like, right? i mean come on, can't we even add some of that good ol' ada/leon drama to it? (i'd prefer it to be along the lines of "i want to see you again" rather than "hand over the sample" ya know?)

can't i just try to get in the mind of this poor traumatized survivor of horror having to go through yet another awful awful thing?

[liugeaux]

The Best Games of 2004 | 20 Years Gone

A long time ago, in the late 00s, I REALLY wanted to be a Video Games Journalist. I was writing and podcasting for local tech website Techpedition and we even worked our way to E3 2009. I was able to parley my mask of legitimacy into getting a couple dozen free games from publishers, but was never able to break into the "business".

It's fine, I've still paid super close attention to the industry and have a handful of podcasts that I follow. One thing that I missed out on was creating the end-of-year best-of lists that have become so popular with pundits of video games. Partially because I didn't have a big enough outlet for it to matter, but more so because I didn't have the resources to play all the relevant games within their release years to render a judgment.

I typically get around to playing all the games I'm interested in, but it usually takes me about 2-5 years. It's partially a time thing but mostly a budget thing. So, what this is, is the beginning of my trip through the last 20 years of video games. I'll be creating a top 10 list for the last 15 years and going forward, I'll post a new list every year of the top 10 from 5 years ago. That is assuming I keep up with it, lol.

These will be written as if they were published the year of the list, so there will be no references to future games or better sequels, etc. Let's get started. Travel with me back to the year 2004 which, news flash, is now 20 years ago.

#10 - Metroid: Zero Mission

Not only is Zero Mission a solid remake of the classic original Metroid, but it succeeds at both making it feel modern and ultimately super-playable, which isn't something you can say about the old NES game.

#9 - Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within

Much more agro than its predecessor, The Warrior Within builds on the foundation of the standout Sands of Time and smooths out a lot of the jagged edges, specifically in the combat department. Your mileage will likely be tied to how much you like Godsmack-itude, but POP2 is a great sequel.

#8 - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario was a weird novelty and shadow follow-up to Super Mario RPG, but despite its clear creative direction, it was missing the character needed to fully succeed in the RPG space. The Thousand-Year Door has character in spades, and it will charm your staples off.

#7 - Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Making Sly Cooper into an open-world heist game took what was a decent platformer to the next level. Where the first game was a solid third place behind Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter, Sly 2 makes the argument that it's a top-tier Sony series. Each mission matters and each of its characters is special.

#6 - Pikmin 2

Better than its predecessor in every way, Pikmin 2 shows the first game's primary game loop wasn't a fluke. The addition of Louie, as a second playable character who's played simultaneously with Olimar, adds a heightened level of stress, making each recovery mission a manic exercise in task prioritization.

#5 - Halo 2

Is Halo 2 as impactful as Halo: Combat Evolved? Not really. The story isn't stellar, and the surprise Arbitor missions are little more than a pallet swap, but dropping the proven Halo action onto the Xbox Live service is game and industry-changing. I'm not a multiplayer guy, but I enjoyed the single player and I recognize how important Halo 2's success is to gaming as a whole.

#4 - Mario vs Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong '94, on the Game Boy, is secretly one of the best games of 1994. Mario vs. Donkey is Nintendo fleshing out that idea and making an addictive puzzle platformer. It starts out simple and sweet and ends hard and satisfying. Had this been the direction the Donkey Kong franchise went rather than Rare's DK Country series, SNES games may have had a very different trajectory.

#3 - Spider-Man 2

Licensed games always suck. Movie tie-in games always suck. Spider-Man 2 is an anomaly on top of an anomaly and it's 100% powered by the Swinging mechanic Treyarch built for the web-crawler. It feels SO good to swing around NYC that it's hard to believe Spider-Man as a character wasn't created specifically for video games.

#2 - Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

R&C3 is undoubtedly a great game, I'd even say damn near perfect, but its placement this high on the list may seem a bit weird. That's where my opinion comes in. I'm a huge 3D platformer fan, it's probably my favorite genre. With that factored in with the depth and polish of this shiny new Ratchet game, #2 on the list doesn't seem so outlandish.

#1 - Half-Life 2

There's always talk of "importance" when it comes to works of art. Abbey Road is important, Michelangelo's David is important, and even A Clockwork Orange is important. Video Games, a medium that's still technically in its infancy, has only a handful of important titles. I'd say Half-Life 2 fits the bill. It's use of physics as a gaming mechanic is as technically impressive as it is clever. It's an FPS but it's not "just an FPS" and the mood and tone established throughout are as compelling as that of Blade Runner. Half-Life 2 is a stunner that will be studied for years.

Notable Omissions:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - I've never liked GTA games. I respect their scope and ambition, but when it comes to playing them as games, GTA titles just stink.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - I've never gotten into the Metal Gear games and the more people yell at me to play them, the less I want to.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - This one technically came out in North America in 2005. So, with me being from the US, It will hit next year's list.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords - I might end up playing this one eventually, but as of 2024 I have not.

What are your favorite video games from 2004?

See you next time. Cheers!

[tvrundownusa]

tvrundown USA 2022.12.16

Friday, December 16th:

(exclusive): "Litvinenko" (AMC+|SundanceNow, bio-pic drama, all 4 eps), Far From Home (netflix, Nollywood teen drama, all 5 eps), A Storm for Christmas (netflix, Norwegian mini-series, all 6 eps), "The Recruit" (netflix, spy thriller series premiere, all 8 eps), Paradise PD (netflix, animated comedy, season 4 available, all 10 eps), Cook at All Costs (netflix, competition premiere, all 8 eps), Summer Job (netflix, Italian Gen Z reality competition, all 8 eps), Beast of Bangalore: Indian Predator (netflix, true-crime, all 3 parts)

(streaming movies): "Snow Day" (Para+|NICK, movie musical remake of 2000 comedy), "Nanny" (amazonPrime, supernatural horror-thriller), "The Apology" (Shudder|AMC+, horror-thriller), "Private Lesson" (netflix, Turkish rom-com, 90mins), "BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths" (netflix, Mexican dramedy, 160mins), "The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari" (netflix, documentary), "Le pupille" (dsn+, film short), "If These Walls Could Sing" (dsn+, Abbey Road Studios documentary)

(shows streaming weekly): Slow Horses (apple+), "Echo 3" (apple+), The Mosquito Coast (apple+), Mythic Quest (apple+), Acapulco (apple+, season 2 finale), Shantaram (apple+, series finale), Play-Doh Squished (freevee), America's Test Kitchen: Next Generation (freevee), Three Pines (amazon, next 2 eps), "LOL: Last One Laughing - Mexico" (amazon, season 5 opener), Dance Monsters (netflix, competition in CGI costumes, first 3 eps)

(primetime specials): Joe Bob's "Ghoultide Get-Together" (Shudder), Metallica Presents: "The Helping Hands Concert" (Para+), The Amber Ruffin Show (Peacock, season 3 finale), The Hollywood Christmas Parade (theCW, 90th annual event, 2hrs)

(original made-for-TV movies): "Snow Day" (NICK|Para+, movie musical remake of 2000 comedy), "The Housewives of The North Pole" (BRAVO, earlier, 2hrs), "Holiday Heritage" (HALL, Kwanzaa, 2hrs), "A Christmas to Treasure" (LIFE, 2hrs+), "Bound by Blackmail" (LMN, 2hrs), "The First Noelle" (BET, 2.5 hours)

(hour 1): Lopez vs. Lopez (NBC, fall finale) /   / Young Rock (NBC, fall finale)

(hour 2): The Greatest #AtHome Videos (CBS, "Holiday Special"), The UnXplained (HIST, season 3 finale)

(hour 3): The Last Cowboy (CMT), We're Here (HBO), Battle of the Bling (HGTV, 60mins)

(hour 4 - latenight):   The Graham Norton Show (BBCAm), Sex Diaries (HBO, reality series premiere, ~60mins), Random Acts of Flyness (HBO, ~70mins)

[ruanbaijie]

hey would you possibly be willing to share how you did the pantone gifset? or would you like to a tutorual?

hi anon! I’m gonna assume you’re talking about this edit 

I actually did this… a really long time ago (posted exactly 2 years ago on 3 june 2020 in the thick of the plague lalskdf) and my giffing style/ procedure has changed a lot since then, so the below will be a mixture of (what I can recall) of what I did back then + how I would’ve done it had I done this set today (by remaking one gif out of the 10)

1. google around for pantone colours and match them to the characters

I specifically googled for pantone colours with names - I don’t actually think pantone colours have official names (at least in my line of work when I’m exposed to pantone colours, they’re referred to only with their number codes), so I have a feeling whatever I found on google then were just random names generated by other people. you’ll probably need to do a bit of searching, especially if you want to find a name that “fits” the character

actual pantone chips from my work! they... don’t have names...

this is more of my personal way of planning out my gifsets - map out which character matches to which colour so that you know who you’re missing. save the colours you’ve selected so that you can use that colour later!

2. figure out the layout

create your file first, in my case I used 540x400

then use rectangle (U) to create a rectangle and fill it with the colour for that particular pantone. back when I was doing this set, I’d used the rectangular marquee (M) and filled it in with the colour, but the rectangle tool is much better since it gives more control over specific dimensions

position and duplicate

then recolour the duplicated to your next pantone colour

for the “pantone chip” itself, I used the proportions of an actual pantone chip (2x3cm, the colour part being 2x2cm) to create another rectangle (in white this time) of 200x300px

then add in a shadow - I played around with the settings to get a soft yet still visible shadow

then created frames 

3. import, sharpen, and colour your gif

do whatever is your typical gifmaking procedure to import your gif, sharpen, and colour - demonstrated only on wwx first, oyzz here is still as imported

back when I did this set, I hadn’t yet learned how to colour backgrounds and had just started playing around with layer masks which explains why the colours are so dull and not a uniform colour, but you can find a more detailed post on how I now colour backgrounds here 

this is where my current style differs from what it had been when I’d made that set:

on selective colouring (whites, neutrals, blacks), I played around with the colours till I got something that matches more closely with the pantone colour I’m aiming for

a trick is to use eyedrop (I) to select the pantone colour to see what are the individual %, and then to eyedrop the background colour and then gauge how close you are to the pantone colour

when the pantone colour is eyedropped, the hue, saturation, and brightness (HSB) are 350, 83, and 61 respectively

meanwhile, the red part of the gif is 2, 89, and 67. from this comparison (and by looking at the slider), I could tell my background colour was currently still too yellow and not magenta enough

so I went back to selective colouring and pushed the yellow slightly down and increased the amount of magenta

visually it kinda matches more closely to the pantone colour now, but just to check, I went back to eyedrop the background again and now, the HSB values are 348, 88, and 66 (vs. 350, 83, 61) - close enough for me to be happy!

4. the text

I actually googled for the font they used on pantone chips lol and got the answer from a reddit post:

not much typography creativity here, I just went with the recommended helvetica neue and sized down the text with each line

the gif posted in the original set:

remade:

[chaoticgoodtakes]

Emulation : Morality and Legality

For legal reasons, everything I will type in this post is a joke. I’m just a poor french boy please don’t come after me.

So, there’s this game your annoying retro loving friend (probably me in this 100% fictional scenario) has been begging you to play. Uh, let’s go with Wario Land 4.  So obviously, you wanna grab a rerelease of the game on a more modern platform. Your kidney is only worth that much, you’re not gonna get the original GBA release. So what platforms have seen a rerelease of the game ... ?

Uh oh.

Yeah, I don’t feel too bad about emulation.

As with most social media discourse, I feel like the discussion’s gone WAY out of whack. You have the two extremes fighting (”game preservation is a holy mission” vs “just admit y’all are just pirates lol”) and any opinion in the middle is silenced by all the yelling. As it goes. So, what’s my take on all of this ? 

I can’t get over how anti piracy screens were, at least for a moment, the new popular form of creeypasta. I think the major problem is that copyright laws aren’t really suited to software, much less games.  It obviously varies depending on where you live, but in most places the delay after which something goes public domain means that the hardware and software needed to run it in the first place will be abandonned, which forces us to seek alternatives in the present. This is especially true for gaming hardware and operating systems. I’m not saying “Oh, the Wii U’s eShop closure has been announced, time to pirate its whole library !” here. But I think there’s a middle ground to be found. Giving abandonware a legal status would help tremendously, I think. It’d need to be fair to both licences holders (to make sure something they planned to rerelease doesn’t accidentally obtain the status) and to us.  I can’t get over how many cool initiatives in game preservation are HUGE copyright infrigements. Like that one Virtual Boy emulator for Oculus Quest. I wanted to play VB Wario Land and thatoneweirdgameithinkiscalleddungeonbrosbyatlus, damn it ! I don’t think I’m going on a huge crusade to save games here. I just want to be able to play any games when I want to. And it’d be oh so great if the avenues for that would be legal and official, or if at least there was the very slightest bit of interest by game companies to help keep all of those older offerings available. Or, at the very least, not dead. A lot of more unknown games can only be played this way as they have a 0 chance of getting a remaster or anything.  And that’s not to mention people that preserve prototypes, beta, etc of games. Almost the whole history of Sonic 2′s development is fully playable : how crazy is that ?  It really helped me appreciate that much more a game I loved a lot to begin with.

But alas, I don’t think we’ll see a lot of changes in the legal department.  But, you’ve seen my url, right ? Law is only a suggestion to what’s right.  So when is it okay or not to emulate a game ? (JUST SPEAKING ABOUT MY STANDARDS IM NOT CONDONING PIRACY NINTENDO PLEASE)

I think it all boils down to availability, and I’d sort each game into three categories :

Reasonably available : Most games that are available on at least one currently supported platform. (Yes, I understand hating exclusives, I sometimes do too, but at the end of the day that’s part of their plan to make you buy into their platforms, whether it works or not.) The line gets a bit blurry with remakes, hd ports and the such. I think it needs to be evaluated on a individual basis whether having only access to the modern version is the same as having access to the old one.

Unreasonable offer : Games that you can technically more or less esaily grab a copy of, but will be a second hand almost 100% of the time, giving no money to the actual devs/publishers. Games that are stuck on platforms getting phased out of existence (as Wii U and 3DS currently are), especially if not offered digitally, are prime examples of this. For copies to qualify, I think you have to pay approximately the same price as the official one or less, or you fall into the next category.

Virtually unavailable : Yeah, I love Ghost Trick : Phantom Detective for the Nintendo DS ; I’m not paying 150 bucks + shipping to get it shipped over to my ass in France. Games that are stuck on dead platforms primarily, but also regionally unavailable games or the newest horror in town, timegated games. (Yeah, I really think that the bullshit Nintendo tried out with Mario 3D All Stars and Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon on Switch was just ... anticonsumer, antigames, antieverything that is good and holy in this world.  Exclusivity is fair game imo, that’s what make their ecosystem, but creating virtual scarcity like this ESPECIALLY FOR SHADOW DRAGONS FIRST LOCALISATION OF THE ORIGINAL GAME IS VERY NOT FAIR GAME)

I think everyone can more or less agree that the third category is free game. Emulation is sometimes the only way for these games and it’s literally a “pirate or nothing” situation. I don’t think anyone cares about Phantasy Star Portable 2 anymore, copyright holders included, so if I have to break a few rules to play that I don’t think anyone would get hurt in the process.

The second category is a bit tough. I think you shoud still buy a copy if it’s easy for you, but won’t blame you if you can’t and decide to emulate.  Again, depending on where you live, it might be way harder for you to grab copies ; gotta remember that.

The first category ...  yeah, no lol. 

I am fully expecting the Nintendo hitmen any moment now. Remember, if the only way for a game to be remembered and actually available is through illegal means ... that’s a small compromise to make. 

[lightsandlostbells]

wtFOCK season 3, episode 3 reaction

In this episode, Sander shows up 15 minutes late with croques (I know this joke has to have been made before, sorry)

Just adding again that if you are looking for an all-positive review of this show, this is not it. Please don’t read if you would prefer not to hear negative takes.

Episode 3

Clip 1 - Robbe on the beach

Robbe is sharing a bed with Noor. He’s doing some good physical acting because even just lying there, I can tell how stiff and uncomfortable he is. He wakes up and looks bummed. It’s pretty early and he’s on vacation so you know he really doesn’t want to be spooning with a girl if he’s getting out of bed right now.

Gotta say the detail of Aaron’s ass being half-exposed in his sleep is a detail that made me lol.

Robbe goes to the beach and listens to music. He types a text to his mom that he can’t make it to see her this week because he’s at the seaside, (because he’s supposedly doing a school project with Jen, lmao) but then he deletes it. So perhaps he is feeling guilt over not visiting, or he’s just got mixed feelings and wants to distance himself from his family situation right now.

Clip 2 - FINALLY

Robbe goes back to the house and sees a mysterious dude. It’s only been like 20 minutes since Robbe left the house, so this guy must have just arrived. Don’t know why they didn’t just combine these clips, especially since it would’ve been a nice contrast to get Robbe moody and alone vs. the jolt he receives with a cute boy’s arrival within one clip.

The important thing is that we finally meet the Even of this season, who I’ve been pretending I didn’t know is called Sander. I’m going to repeat what dozens of other people have said and say yes, this is Jack Frost from that one movie in live-action form. 

Sander does a bit where he roasts Robbe about not having breakfast ready and he expected it when he made a reservation; Robbe acts half-amused, half-confused as fuck, as if part of him recognizes it as a windup but he also doesn’t know who this dude is, so maybe he could be for real?

Afterwards Sander is like, let’s go bitch, we’re grabbing breakfast, and he introduces himself. Robbe is still flabbergasted but he follows Sander out the door anyway, possibly compelled by Sander’s charisma, possibly just swayed by a hot guy. He has no idea how important this meeting is in the grand scheme of things. Robbe, your story is finally starting in episode 3!

OK, I like Sander’s intro! It’s in line with Even’s paper towel trick. Sander is getting Robbe’s attention with a dramatic introduction. He made sure to make a memorable first impression. It works not just for Robbe, but for me as a viewer as well. And I like that Robbe was caught off-guard like Isak was and they didn’t instantly fall into banter or anything, because let’s be real, if some strange dude showed up in your kitchen and started talking to you like this, you would be pretty WTF no matter how nice his face is. 

I am not sure if this show will do the thing where Sander has been pining after Robbe for a while before this meeting - we have seen glimpses of Sander so it seems as if he’s seen Robbe before, but if he’s not from the same school as I think is the case, then I wonder how much he really could have developed feelings for Robbe? Even saw Isak the first day of school, so it’s easy to understand that he developed a crush in the time between that and S3 just by seeing Isak doing his thing at school regularly, and he had plenty of time to learn who Isak was. With Sander, it seems like he just saw Robbe randomly, and that makes sense for “hmm, a cute guy” but not really this giant crush on Robbe as a person. 

This is why it would have been good to actually show what Robbe did or made in the graffiti scene, because it would make sense if Robbe drew something that would have intrigued Sander.

Anyway, the larger point is that this scene does make sense if you consider that Sander was waiting for Robbe and this was a planned intro. I assume there is some way that he found out Robbe would be here this weekend. If this is not something Sander expected, then it’s pretty impulsive of him. Though I can totally buy him winging the booking.com bit if that’s his personality. But it makes more sense to me at the moment to imagine that Sander knew Robbe was coming.

Clip 3 - Robbe and Sander at the store

Robbe and Sander are grocery shopping. Sander quickly establishes himself as having an outspoken, confident personality. I do like how instantly his vibe comes across, which is helpful since we’re making up for lost time.

Sander asking Robbe how many hot dogs one eats has some G-rated “Even immediately starts talking about blowjobs” energy. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence and they really are just talking about food, but like. It’s an Even. 

Amber sends them the shopping list full of normal grocery items. Sander is like NOPE, not getting that. Well I hope no one has any dietary restrictions they need to follow, lmao.

Robbe asks Sander how he knows Amber, but Sander gets distracted by the song over the loudspeakers so he doesn’t have to disclose the truth yet. The song is by “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie. He asks Robbe if he’s a fan and Robbe is like “yeah!” but Sander challenges him to name three of his songs and Robbe is a flop. Again, I do like how forcefully Sander comes across, his personality is evident.

I have to say: out of all the remake Evens, he’s the one who most immediately comes across as a magnetic personality. Granted, he seems to have a very similar vibe to Even whereas some remake Evens have rather different personalities from the original recipe. But Sander does come across as someone you’d meet (or Robbe would meet) and be a little smitten and swept off your feet right away. 

David Bowie is also a good choice for an Even’s musical taste, especially because of Bowie’s sexuality. I guess you could say it’s pretty on the nose, but it still works for me. I don’t know a ton about the origins of Rebel Rebel but it references gender fluidity and sexuality, so it’s feels fitting for an LGBT-centered season.

As a diehard Ronan/Adam shipper (they’re my OTP of OTPs besides Evak) this scene of Sander pushing Robbe on the cart in the store is calculated to appeal to me. Pynch peeps, you know what I’m talking about. /finger guns

As a personal tangent, I also think grocery shopping is one of the best things you can do on a first date to know if you’re compatible with someone. I have been grocery shopping with people who were dull and no fun, and I have been grocery shopping where it’s an adventure in itself. I strongly believe that you can have fun with the right person in even the most mundane situations. 

Back to Robbe/Sander: this part’s really cute! It gives us a sense of who Sander is and it shows them having fun together. They have a comfortable chemistry and I think Robbe’s vibe in this scene hits the right notes of being starstruck and a little over his head, but acclimating to Sander’s OTT personality and being able to relax and have a good time. He’s certainly having more fun than he expected when he woke up this morning. 

The spinning and eventual slow-mo moment to Rebel Rebel! Great! Super effective at catching that feeling of holy shit, sudden butterflies in my stomach? I can’t look away from this person? I think I have a crush?  

Sander scanning Robbe and saying it’s expensive = lmao, genuinely funny.

And I do like the idea of Sander pushing Robbe and it being chaotic and messy as a way to visualize/signify the arrival of him in Robbe’s life as a way to shake it upside down. (Although, lol, I kinda hate them for causing a mess for the retail workers.)

Sander crashes the cart and Robbe into some boxes. After checking to see if Robbe’s OK, Sander plays it cool and walks away whistling. I do love Robbe’s reaction, that we see him trailing Sander and sneaking happy glances at him. Good stuff.

Taken on its own, this is a terrific first meeting, and I can see how this scene would inspire optimism in the season picking up from here. However - and I hate to be a downer because this scene worked for me - it’s the same issue that I’ve said before: we shouldn’t have waited two full episodes for this clip. Though this scene was great and established an easy chemistry, it also wasn’t that personal and didn’t last too long, and now they have to go back and hang with everyone else, so how are they going to continue to bond on their own? They should just go find other errands to do, away from everyone else. 

Clip 4 - Robbe and Sander in the kitchen

Noor is right there in the kitchen with them, but being hungover, is unable to be a third wheel in the way that Emma was to Isak and Even. Amber’s annoyed that they didn’t get anything on the shopping list, Sander shoos her out and says Robbe and he will cook.

Again, this not the same room for intimacy as Evak because they’re not alone! Anyone could walk in at any moment! People were just there! And I think you COULD do something interesting with that, how frustrating it is that everyone else is there, but it doesn’t work so well when it’s like … the first time they meet and they really need that space to get to know each other (considering, for the millionth time, that we are racing to catch up with only just meeting Sander). We really need to either play into the lack of intimacy and adjust the timeline of the relationship accordingly, or they need to manage some extra moments with the two of them to really establish the connection.

They make croques (weren’t bread and cheese on Amber’s list? So they did get something she asked for, heh) and there’s a fair amount of innuendo and suggestion, with the leaning down and leaning toward each other in the tight space. I do really like that and think it’s effective. They notice the chemistry, Sander touches Robbe’s back as he walks by.

More Bowie with Under Pressure. (This would be a really good song choice for Robbe’s POV to illustrate all the shit he’s dealing with.) Sander is very charming, he’s singing and having a good time, he lights up a joint. He opens up a bit about how making croques is a family tradition and asks Robbe if he has any traditions, and Robbe is still withdrawn and doesn’t go into it. Good moment! Robbe’s family is a touchy subject.

Sander licking the joint is quite an Erotique moment for Robbe. I also like that Robbe is clumsy with the croques, seemingly because he’s flustered by Sander’s Sanderness.

I like the Sander actor quite a bit so far. Like I said, he’s super intense and charismatic. He’s also super fucking forward with Robbe, feeding him some croque while they eye fuck, and I’m sorry but that feels way too pointed for this relationship so far The rest of the scene captures the unstated sexual tension but Sander sticking a sandwich in Robbe’s mouth while Robbe stares back is too obvious and feels like they’re trying to sell this really hard in order to make up for lost time, it took me out of the scene. Robbe is tentatively getting more comfortable with Sander, but I don’t buy that he would be that comfortable at this point. It would have been better if they’d stuck to, like, the subtle thrill of sharing a joint (where OMG Sander’s mouth has been?? Yowza).

Britt shows up and she’s Sander’s girlfriend! Oh nooooo!

Except Robbe and Sander met SEVERAL HOURS AGO so this doesn’t really have much of an impact? Isak pining over Even for a week and Googling him and stalking him creates a big buildup both in audience expectations and in Isak’s, whereas Robbe JUST met this dude. We’ve barely had time to form any expectations.

Imagine if you’ve never seen Skam and you’re watching this in real time. You’d be like “Awww, bummer, this guy has a girlfriend, I guess,” rather than “OH SHIT NOOOOOO” because you’ve been following them for a week and watching their conversations and their eye-fucking and getting to know Even through Isak’s eyes. Because you’ve had plenty of time to become attached to this character and because you’ve had time to sink into Isak’s POV and feel his crush on this guy. You feel the stakes of learning that Even has a girlfriend. Robbe learning that Sander is dating Britt is disappointing ... but how disappointing, really? There’s a low level of investment in Sander so far, for both Robbe and for us. I mean, sure, he’s charming, and we’re probably thinking he and Robbe might be cute together, but at most you would have had five hours to get attached at this point. If you look at it one way, this revelation is good because Robbe had only a brief window of time to get his hopes up before learning Sander has a girlfriend, as opposed to Isak who had a full week.

This is where the season’s odd storytelling choices start to fall down. Because there’s a lot about these last few clips that I enjoyed on a micro level. They work as individual scenes. It’s when you think about them on a macro level that the logic and emotional resonance doesn’t hold up. And I think that there are many, many story elements - in wtFOCK and most of the remakes - where a lot of writing only makes sense if you are coming with knowledge of the original show and sort of filling in the blanks here, rather than wtFOCK putting in the work itself.

I also think it’s something of a disappointment because S3 portrayed the experience of developing a crush so beautifully, the desperation to learn more about a person and get close to them, the obsessive focus. wtFOCK is by no means required to do that, but it was such a vulnerable, intimate way to get into Isak’s head that I can’t help but miss the extended crush period for Robbe. We really needed more of his POV.

Robbe decides to cope by getting high. Aha, there’s that Under Pressure for Robbe! 

Actually, it seemed super weird to me that the timestamps had them meeting like 5 hours ago? Because it seemed like they went shopping and went home soon after where Amber inspected the groceries, but apparently there were hours between that, so what were they doing in the meantime? Not anything important, apparently, because we didn’t see it.

Clip 5 - Sad sad Robbe time

The others are playing trivia and Robbe is just social distancing like 10 feet away staring at them while listening to music on his headphones, lmao. Britt has quite the grip on Sander’s neck.

Noor comes over and Robbe asks her about Britt and Sander. Sander studied Visual Arts at I think a different school than Robbe. Imagine how effective this would be if Robbe did this LAST WEEK, like “casually” asked Noor about Sander or something. But of course that would have required the story to be moving forward last week.

Sander stares at Robbe and Noor as they make out. Get back in Robbe’s POV, for fuck’s sake! This isn’t even an impossible moment to have from his POV. Have Robbe and Noor make out, Robbe opens his eyes and spies Sander looking at him, he looks again and Sander has looked away. That creates an element of doubt that will live rent free in Robbe’s head. 

This choice annoys me more and more. Where’s the tension in quite firmly suggesting that actually, Sander is into Robbe right after showing that Sander has a girlfriend? There was soooo much juicy tension squeezed from Isak and the audience not knowing what the fuck was up with Even and Sonja. People forget it now, but as someone who watched OG S3 in real time, there were plenty of viewers who thought Even was just stringing Isak along or doubted the sincerity of his feelings, because the show effectively kept us in Isak’s POV and for many viewers there was room to doubt Even’s intentions. Honestly, we didn’t really get real confirmation of Even’s feeling until episode 9. I just don’t see how it serves the story to a) take us out of our main character’s POV b) to make sure the mysterious love interest is somewhat less mysterious this early.

Clip 6 - Paintball

The squads play a friendly game of paintball, and by that I mean they try to annihilate each other. It’s a little hard for me to tell who’s shooting who since it’s fast and everyone has masks and is dressed in either black or camo, except Aaron in his onesie.

Sander and Robbe end up next to each other. They see Britt on the ground. Sander runs up and shoots Britt several times while she tells him to stop, clearly in pain. Britt yells at him to be normal sometimes and to use his head from time to time. Sander apologizes as Britt runs off.

Robbe and Sander exchange a look like “hmm” and Sander says he thinks they’ve won. He walks off. The music feels … weirdly triumphant?

This scene sits pretty weirdly. I don’t think this clip was pointless, I definitely think it has a point, but … what are they going for here. Thinking about it, I’d say the concept of this scene is good, but the execution feels off. wtFOCK has a real tone problem that becomes apparent later in the season.

I don’t think shooting Britt means Sander is manic, but I DO think part of the intent was to show he’s impulsive/gets carried away/can be OTT. Which is not bad (although there’s some sketchiness abut how this is tied to his mental illness if he’s not manic right now, and about how mentally ill people are dangerous) but it’s his reaction that gets me. Because it’s one thing if he gets carried away and we see him show remorse (which he does, briefly) but then he’s like cracking a joke with Robbe. It would be way more effective if we saw his remorse lingering. Not to mention yeah, he could have hurt Britt! It’s not that Sander has to be flawless, but this is one of our first impressions of him and it’s not great. It might work if you think it’s setting up Sander as something of a dangerous bad boy for Robbe (“you only like bad news” go the lyrics) but I’m not sure how much the show leans into that, especially because Robbe seems happy that they “won” rather than alarmed at what the fuck Sander just did.

But the part that baffles me most is how this matters to Robbe/Sander? Is this supposed to be a cute, flirty moment? A “haha, fuck my girlfriend, I like you instead” moment? Because wow, was it cruel on Sander’s part, and Robbe doesn’t seem that bothered by it. I get that maybe Sander IS supposed to be upset with himself but is brushing it off, but yeah, the offense is just too much for me, when physical harm comes into play. 

IDK, I could get behind the ambiguity of reactions in a scene like this, but there’s something off about the seriousness of what Sander does - which is acknowledged in-clip by Britt’s and Zoë’s reactions - combined with how Robbe and Sander end the clip, as if we ignore those reactions to make it a fun shippy moment. It’s pretty unappealing. We don’t even really see or hear anything about Sander and Britt making up or talking it out, we don’t see any lingering tension between them due to this incident, it’s like this clip was forgotten. Presumably they made up off-screen before the next clip, but in that case, we should have seen Sander run after her to apologize? Where’s the emotional fallout? It doesn’t really stick for Sander, Britt, or Robbe. 

Clip 7 - Bonfire

Robbe is upset with Sander and Britt making out. He goes over to Aaron who is also sitting sadly alone.

Aaron says he doesn’t know how Robbe does it, getting girls, and how he was so chill with Noor in the bathroom. IMO they could’ve ramped up Robbe’s fuckboyness since it didn’t come across that clearly to me, but this is one thing I do like about the potential of Isak and Magnus interaction … the Magnus looking to the Isak for girl advice, making the Isak have to preserve some sort of reputation as a ladies’ man, giving him some cred with his friends that he’s afraid to lose.

Robbe says it’s different because Noor goes to a different school so it wasn’t as bad if she rejected him. But wasn’t she handing out dance performance flyers in the hallway at Robbe’s school? That made me think she was a student there. But IDK how Belgian school works, maybe that’s normal.

Aaron goes over to talk to Amber and makes her a s’more, but Amber walks off because OMG so many calories. Aaron is bummed but Luca takes the s’more and eats it. Uhhh, the obvious buildup here is for Aaron/Luca, wtFOCK writers. She is literally taking and enjoying what Aaron is offering. I sense a connection. 

I’m tickled by Aaron referencing American TV shows when he makes the s’more. His s’more is missing the best part, the cheap melted chocolate, which to be fair would probably have caused Amber to slap him over the calorie count.

This scene is at least from Robbe’s POV as he watches them, thank God.

Clip 8 - Haunted house

The boy squad (who are called the Brrrothers) set up a haunted house. That’s actually a pretty fun scenario. They lock the others in, because teenagers don’t care about fire hazards. But still seems like a great time.

Sander helps the others through the window, what a gentleman.

Aaron and Amber have the cliché “fall down into each other” moment so I suppose that’s the start of their romance. Now she holds his hand. Boo, no Luca/Aaron … at least Aaron/Amber is still better than Basile/Daphne so far.

They climb onto the roof to seek a treasure, which turns out to be alcohol. There’s a rooftop party, people drinking and smoking and having a good time. Robbe and Sander share a Look before Sander and Britt get cozy.

I mean, again … would’ve been better if they hadn’t spoken like. Twice.

Clip 9 - Aaron throws away his shot

Robbe is grumpy on the way back from the haunted house, which he calls Jens and Moyo’s ego trip. I think he’s mostly just sour about Sander and Britt, but also he could be annoyed that he wasn’t involved, although that mainly seems like it would be Robbe’s fault for distancing himself.

Aaron valiantly offers to check the house for murderous ghosts before they go back inside.

See, I KNEW Aaron was going to pull some shit with a practical joke when he went inside, I just didn’t expect him to pretend to get SHOT. The dedication… it’s in very poor taste, though.

Of course it’s a prank, but Amber acts very concerned. You know, this is actually a good way to show how Aaron is immature and keep the Amber/Aaron pairing apart … compared to Basile/Daphne where it was just nonstop sexual harassment, here we see Aaron being sweet and thoughtful with Amber and potentially making progress with her, and then ruining it by being an insensitive teenage dumbass. But he can still grow into more of a mature kid and prove himself to Amber that way.

Aaron seems regretful of it, but Moyo and Jens are like YOU DA MAN. I regret to announce that this boy squad kinda sucks so far.  At least Aaron seems like he might have some character development, judging by his reaction here.

That was nicely done as a way to create conflict with the Aaron/Amber relationship, and establishing some mutual interest before showing where Aaron needs to grow as a person, even if I’m like ... we really got to stick to Robbe’s POV/story, man. 

Clip 10 - Another prank

Moyo and Jens ask Robbe to go get them beers, and it’s a prank and Aaron’s in the freezer so I guess Aaron did not learn anything, never mind. 

Echoing what I said above: I’m absolutely not expecting the boy squad to be perfectly well-behaved rational empathetic adults, and it’s not like this prank is some deeply cruel thing, but there is just. So much. Of the shouting, pranking, casual sexism, crude comments, and general obnoxious behavior. I’m really trying to keep in mind that Isak’s boy squad was also full of the horny gross talk about girls at the beginning, and that it was a necessary part of showing Isak’s alienation from his peers.  Or that by now on OG S3 we had several awesome moments from Isak’s squad that we haven’t reached yet because the season’s paced a few episodes behind. Still. Ugh. Maybe it’s the shouting? I feel like this boy squad is ... shoutier ... than the other boy squads. Making them prankmasters is also not helping. I think you have to walk a careful line between making them realistically flawed straight dudes who alienate Isak with their talk of girls, and making them screaming caricatures who are all “fuck girls get pussy hot chicks sex sex sex.” There’s a lack of warmth and innocence to balance it out. We need some indication soon that these guys are going to be there for Robbe when shit goes down. 

Robbe snaps at them and storms off, and Noor follows him. WOW, it would be good to see ROBBE’S POV of this scene!!!! What happened next!!! 

Nope, the clip ends here!!!!

Clip 11 - Halloween

Everyone’s dressed up and preparing to go to a Halloween party. The girls are cute putting on makeup and chatting about necrophilia. There’s a comment where Luca says a guy sounded like “a begging Romanian” and errrrr, I did a bit of a double take at that. It’s not my culture or language so I don’t want to talk out of my ass, but I thought this was generally considered to be an offensive thing to say (although one that people frequently say anyway due to prejudice). What was the fandom reaction to that line? 

People are dancing at the party. Apparently Jens and Jana are friends with benefits. Lol, at least Jana is not FWB with their P-Chris, that guy sucked.

Amber’s still mad at Aaron, understandably. Moyo cheers up Aaron on his recent romantic failure, which is nice and a much kinder moment than 99% of the material they’ve given Moyo thus far, and they go look for other girls.

I do love all the Halloween makeup. Look at Robbe’s hair!

Zoë checks her phone because I guess Senne drama is gonna happen.

Noor tags a wall with R+N in a heart, oh dear.

Robbe stares sadly at Sander and Britt dancing. Noor tries to get him to dance because the song is great, Robbe says he’s more of a Bowie fan and namedrops Changes. OK lmao, again, this doesn’t work so well that Robbe has suddenly become a Bowie expert when he’s been at the seaside the whole time. I know it’s silly when Isak starts acting like a Nas expert, but there was enough time for him to look up Nas between when Even mentioned him and when he talked to Emma about him to gain some basic knowledge of Nas. I guess Robbe could’ve been looking up Bowie in the last few days when he’s brooding alone, but lol, he’s also been kinda busy. Or Robbe is just bullshitting about Bowie, but the fact he was able to name a Bowie song when he couldn’t earlier in the episode suggests that he did look into Bowie. 

Now there’s the Call Your Girlfriend moment where Robbe makes out with Noor while staring at Sander, then Sander stares back, eyefuck, blah blah.

I gotta say. I’ve seen various takes on Call Your Girlfriend scene by now. And what I notice - at least from my recollection - is that the remakes tend to focus more on the actual eyefucking. Because the OG scene doesn’t actually have Isak and Even staring at each other, going back and forth, for a while. Most of that scene is about Isak’s longing. Isak dances with Emma, looks at Even with Sonja. He kisses Emma, looks at Even kissing Sonja. It’s about Isak wanting Even but instead being with a girl. When Even looks back it’s not this long, extended thing! Because it’s not really about the eyefucking. It’s just confirmation, for both Isak and for us, that we are not imagining this chemistry between them. It’s a shot of hope that Even also wants Isak despite mixed signals. That even though Even is passionately kissing his girlfriend, he’s thinking about Isak. And then Isak closes his eyes - he doesn’t eyefuck Even through three verses and the bridge, he closes his eyes - and we don’t need to be told to realize he’s imagining he’s kissing Even instead. 

First of all, the most effective part of the CYG scene is the timing. The song is perfectly timed and Isak’s reactions are perfectly edited to make us feel that frustration and longing that Isak does. It’s a way more vulnerable scene that most of the remakes seem to realize. Most of the scene is Isak looking without that look being reciprocated. And Even’s returned look comes just as we’re losing our minds (plus it matches the on-the-nose lyrics, lol). The endless eyefucking in the remakes isn’t that special or interesting in terms of delivery. 

Second, here’s the thing: I think we forget, since we know that Evak are endgame, that at this stage during S3′s real-time run, it wasn’t certain that they were endgame. In fact, many people weren’t even sure Even liked Isak back! I was lucky enough to jump into Skam right before the first kiss, and there was so much doubt, it was crazy. Even and Isak shared an awesome afternoon together, but Even brought his girlfriend to this party, he’s still dating her. Isak is doubting whether this thing can go anywhere with them, if Even even is interested in him like that. And Even looking at him during CYG IS the confirmation that Even’s into him. It’s the confirmation for the audience that we didn’t imagine Even’s attraction to Isak. Whereas in wtFOCK, Sander is like openly staring at Robbe when Robbe isn’t watching, and the show breaks Robbe’s POV to make sure we know this. Sander is feeding him croques by hand while they lock eyes. He’s being much flirtier and the show is not hiding his interest. wtFOCK introduced Britt as an obstacle to this potential relationship, but does she really feel like one when Sander has been communicating his interest all along? Is there any doubt he likes Robbe? Not to mention Sander was just introduced this episode, and there simply isn’t the buildup, the time to weigh in and question his motives, the investment in whether he likes Robbe or not. So the tremendous release of tension in this scene is just not the same, because the tension isn’t there to begin with. 

The OG Call Your Girlfriend clip is not about two guys who are hot for each other challenging each other to look away. The clip is about vulnerability and longing, and that vibe has been missing from sooooo many of the adaptations. Like anything in the remakes, change is not inherently bad. Change can provide for some interesting and thoughtful material. But I don’t think the remakes always realized when they’re making a change. On the surface a scene will be similar to OG, but the emotional buildup, the timing, the tension, the symbolism, etc. will be very different, and if you’re not aware of how even the littlest change can alter the meaning of a scene, then the scene can fall flat.

Clip 12 - End of trip

Everyone’s packing up to go home, Amber calls out the boys for sitting there and not cleaning (she’s right!)

Robbe helps Sander with the empty bottles. Sander asks about Robbe and Noor if they’re doing well. Robbe says yeah and then asks about Sander and Britt, Sander says it’s been “ups and downs” with mostly downs lately. Ups and downs could also refer to bipolarity, though I don’t know if I’d jump to Sander having “mostly downs” mentally just yet.

Sander says he seems to get on her nerves lately, and they’ve been together for half a year. Okay sooooo … they’re way less serious than Even and Sonja, and Sander has much less to lose by breaking up with her. I mean. Do they not see where, emotionally, this removes a lot of Even’s conflict in OG, and presumably much of Sander’s conflict in this version? It mattered that Sonja had been with Even for years. It mattered that he was used to her taking charge. It mattered that they’d sunk so much time into this relationship and survived such rough patches. Unless there was a really really drastic event in Sander’s life like right when he and Britt got together, that she was instrumental in helping him face, it seriously cannot compare to what Even and Sonja went through. He asks Robbe what he would do, stay or go.

He reaches around Robbe, getting sorta touchy feely, Robbe steps away. 

Sander says maybe he (Sander) is scared he’ll never find someone, someone who’ll love him. Tension between him and Robbe as they consider each other. This insight is good to understand Sander, at least.

Robbe says he thinks Sander will find someone like that, Sander asks where, Robbe says he should meet new people, Sander says “on a weekend trip with strangers?” Robbe is like “...yes.” (Did you get to know each other? Did you really?)

They lean in for a kiss, but then Luca shows up to take out the trash so the moment is ruined, Sander walks off.

SIIIIIIGH this could have been a good scene if they like … developed this relationship or didn’t pace this story so weirdly. On top of the rushed Sander/Robbe development, the buildup to this scene on its own is odd. In OG, the kitchen almost-kiss happens right after the Call Your Girlfriend moment where they lock eyes, after Even stares at Isak across the room. There is palpable tension in the kitchen because they’re basically riding a high together. This is like the morning after their version of the CYG, which should have been an “aha! he likes me back!” moment for Robbe, but instead the momentum and sexual tension just kind of paused and consequently this scene almost feels random, like I felt the contrivances to put them in the same situation as Isak and Even here. (Think about it: Was there a reason this scene had to be the next morning instead of later that night? What happened after that eyefucking clip, did Robbe and Sander just go about their night like NBD?) The CYG clip and following kitchen scene felt like a clear example of cause and effect; the wtFOCK equivalents felt more like they were hitting arbitrary points in the OG rather than feeling fitting to its story.

I just realized we got like NO insight into Robbe’s sexuality crisis this episode, either, the way we did with Isak in episode 3. And maybe we’ll get some of it in the future, but I do think it weakens the story not to have any of that at this juncture. We’re three out of 10 episodes and we’ve barely scratched the surface of our protagonist’s main conflict this season, which is about his sexuality.

HOW I WOULD REWRITE THE EPISODE:

Introduce Sander sooner, for fuck’s sake.

Okay, that ship has sailed, moving on. Have the grocery scene go on longer, or rather, have them go somewhere after the supermarket, like they decide to take a detour to a park or something and go hang out and talk, to the point where Amber starts texting them like “Where the fuck is the food?” Show Robbe unwinding just a little, talking about his own interests, his own taste in music. It’s understandable that he might not open up about the deep’n’heavy stuff yet, but perhaps in either this scene or another one later this week, Sander asks him a family-related question and Robbe doesn’t answer with his whole sad backstory, but he gives a little, maybe has a fond memory of his mom, a tradition they had when he was younger. We see this little happy/sad moment and it’s like something about Sander compels him to open up and we get the complexity of his relationship with his mom, that it’s not all good or bad.

Instead of Sander shooting Britt excessively in the paintball scene, have him and Robbe team up and strategize for a while. We see they work well together, oho. They’re having a lot of fun. And maybe Sander DOES shoot Britt but it’s not this prolonged close-range thing, it’s just him being caught up in the moment as he and Robbe work together. He shoots her (again, it’s a little OTT and enough to make her upset but not quite as bad as in the filmed scene) and she runs off and we see him have an “oh” moment. Oh right, I got caught up being with this guy I like and forgot I have a girlfriend. He feels seriously remorseful and runs after Britt. And maybe when Sander shoots Britt, Robbe has a moment of “!!!”, maybe Sander likes him Like That after all! But then Sander runs after Britt and they kiss and make up because it’s just a paintball game, after all, and Robbe is like, oh, right. It’s just paintball.

This episode really convinces me how vital episode 2 is, even before Mekke øl, in establishing both Even as a character and the Isak/Even dynamic. We get why Isak likes him even before they speak again. It’s so beautiful and honest, with Isak checking out Even’s video, searching for him on social media, that desperation … and then how much R+J hits Isak in the feels. The equivalent would be if Robbe was listening to David Bowie on his earbuds and having a big moment. So er, why didn’t they just ... do that? Robbe is sitting alone listening to David Bowie and watching Sander and Britt be cuddly, and there’s this feeling of longing and being close to Sander via the music while at the same time being so far away. It might be too obvious and faithful to OG, but it would also, you know. Probably be effective. It is also set-up for Robbe talking about how he’s a Bowie fan to Noor.

Have Sander talk to Robbe after Robbe flips out on his friends after the prank! Maybe Sander calms him down by doing a weird Sander thing! Maybe Robbe confides a bit about his shitty home situation or his crappy friends so he and Sander connect on a deeper level! But the prank clip ended immediately after Robbe stormed off, and for some reason the show was like nah, it’s not important after that, even though it was a prime opportunity for good, insightful content into Robbe’s head, or a way to let Robbe and Sander bond some more. 

If they cannot talk directly, how about some indirect moments where they connect, other than paintball? We get some stares at each other but those could be structured to show off more of a connection. Their eyes meet when something funny happens. Robbe or Sander are Jim Halperting at each other when Aaron or Amber says something ridiculous, like can you believe this shit? Everyone’s sitting around listening to music and Sander goes and puts on a Bowie song and Robbe smiles to himself.

(Not that they needed to do movie references in this version, but they should have totally gone with Labyrinth references for Robbe/Sander, just saying. I’m not even sure how it would work thematically, I just think it’d be delightful.)

(OR VELVET GOLDMINE, aka “Todd Haynes wrote and filmed David Bowie/Iggy Pop fanfiction where Ewan McGregor and Christian Bale fuck on a rooftop.” God I love that movie.)

In the haunted house, have Robbe and Sander like ...touch, accidentally, or grab each other out of fear, or do one of those cliché “we find ourselves close together, breathing hard and staring at each other” moments. I don’t care! Just give us stuff to work with! Like there even IS a split second moment where Robbe is climbing out of the window and Sander offers him a hand, it’s just not played for any drama or tension or emotional reaction - I mean, wtFOCK are you doing, wtFOCK writers? 

There is a glaring flaw with this episode, in that there were SO many opportunities to actually have Robbe and Sander interact throughout the episode, and yet overall the potential was totally wasted.

Consider that Isak and Even went to the same school, but they were in different years and didn’t share any classes. So when, for example, Isak hangs out with Even in Mekke øl, I can easily buy that Isak doesn’t see him again until Even returns the snapback. Or that he doesn’t see Even after the snapback scene until the neon party. Therefore, I feel like I’m seeing all the essential moments of Isak’s interaction with Even, I am getting the “full story” with Evak and sufficient evidence to try to piece together what Even’s deal is. 

Robbe and Sander were living under the same roof for days. This is a drastic departure from the original. Realistically speaking, there would have been so, so many more opportunities for interaction, or moments where we could’ve gained insight into that developing attraction. Sander and Britt would’ve been sleeping in the same bed at times, right? How did Robbe react to that? Could we have seen his jealousy? Was there ever a time when Robbe was coming out of the bathroom and he bumped into Sander and it was awkward? Or when someone else left a room and Robbe found himself alone with Sander, and he didn’t know what to say? Did Robbe try to avoid Sander the entire time? Did he try to talk to him but Noor or Britt walked in? Did Sander try to talk to Robbe? Was there any interaction between them besides what we were shown on screen? Did Robbe get up and sit on the beach listening to music and Sander joined him and they shared headphones? Did Robbe go outside one night just to get away from Noor in his bed and Sander was also sitting on the porch and they shared a joint and talked about stuff? Eh? Ehhh???

The problem is that I don’t believe that we were shown the “full story” of Robbe and Sander this week. I can’t believe that because, logically speaking, there would have been way, way more interactions between them even if they were actively trying to avoid each other. For whatever reason, wtFOCK decided to have Robbe and Sander meet at the seaside and spend a week in the same house. Okay. But despite the opportunities that scenario provided to really catch up and develop the hell out of the Robbe/Sander relationship after a delayed start, the show just didn’t do that. And I do feel cheated, not just because it’s rushed and lazy, but because it doesn’t even make sense. Obviously wtFOCK cannot film every minute they were around each other, but it sure as hell could’ve given us more substantial content than it did. 

Even if you want to emphasize how they can’t really be alone with each other because they’re with almost 10 other people including their girlfriends ... fucking run with that, man. Milk it for all it’s worth. Make us feel how frustrating it is that they’re not alone, that Robbe is paranoid about getting too close to Sander in case everyone can tell he’s got a crush. Or show them in a scene with other characters, but they’re interacting in an indirect way that makes it seem like they’re the only two people in the room. Their first clip and the almost kiss at the end of the episode is the only time when I really felt that tension at all, and I use “tension” loosely in the case of the almost kiss.

We also have little information this season on Robbe’s specific sexuality crisis, and that’s also hurting the narrative. I’m aware that the next episode dives into some of the clips that OG Skam got to in its episode 3, so I don’t want to harp on it too much now ... but I do have some basic questions, such as: where is Robbe at with his sexuality right now?

We have gotten very little introspection on him thinking about being gay, or what it means to be gay. We did not have the big crush fixation on Sander that Isak got on Even: Googling him, looking him up on social media, trying to find out everything about him. We did not have Robbe taking gay tests online. Yet he goes from meeting Sander to trying to kiss him within days.

And I think the lack of sexuality crisis further diminishes the already weak tension of the episode. If Robbe was more strongly dealing with his sexuality, then I would be able to accept him falling for Sander so fast and so hard a bit more easily, to the point of almost kissing him, even if their emotional connection wasn’t really established. But he hasn’t been given the space to do that. He hasn’t been given the space to even think about being gay or what that means. So he’s supposedly going from internalized homophobia to almost kissing Sander, with none of the introspection shown on screen. Why? What is running through his head?

So obviously, in rewriting the episode, let’s set up some actual sexuality conflict with Robbe. Maybe he’s trying to look up gay stuff online while he’s locked himself in the bathroom or when everyone else is asleep at night, or he’s trying but unfortunately he’s paranoid people are looking over his shoulder, or the boy squad grabs his phone as a prank and he’s terrified they’ll see that he was searching “how to know if you’re gay.” Maybe other people start talking about a sexuality-related topic, a gay celebrity, something like that, and Robbe’s reaction matters - like he makes an ignorant comment and someone schools him, or he makes a downright offensive comment and someone chews him out. Someone makes a gay joke and we see how it makes Robbe squirm. Someone makes a gay joke and then gets called out on it and we see how it makes the wheels turn in Robbe’s head.  Have Amber or Noor or whoever make a boneheaded comment about gay people and Sander schools them so we see Robbe get a HMMM moment. HMMM, does Sander like dudes? HMMM, maybe I should reconsider my opinions on gay people? I don’t know, man! Literally! Anything! 

Maybe have his advice to Aaron be more obviously bad? More fuckboyish? We see him overcompensating for his sudden Sander feelings by doling out some uber-heterosexual manly man advice to Aaron about how to impress a girl. Aaron is like, are you sure that’s a good idea? Robbe is like, pffft, obviously, what, are you gay? Are you too gay to make a move on Amber? Show her what’s what. This leads Aaron to do something very stupid and insulting and sexist with Amber, which leads to Amber getting mad at Aaron and Aaron getting mad at Robbe for Robbe’s dumbass advice. Maybe Jens and Moyo jump in because God knows we need some good moments from them, and they’re like, seriously, Robbe? Why did you think that was a good idea? Robbe gets mad and storms off. 

To some degree I’m like … well, what IS Robbe’s problem with Sander dating Britt, really? He met this hot and cool guy, but a few hours later learned the hot guy had a girlfriend. It sucks, but what is pulling him in so hard and so fast other than Sander being so hot? It’s a disappointment, but is it this truly devastating thing? He doesn’t know much about Sander, they’ve had so much less of a connection than Isak and Even. They had one fun morning, basically. It’s true that crushes aren’t rational and that a teenager can fall for someone based on crumbs and hotness, I fully realize you can’t turn off your romantic feelings like a faucet. But the show didn’t put in the work of making me believe in the strength of those romantic feelings in the first place. The fact that it is realistic for teenagers to have shallow crushes does not mean that I have to accept weak writing to fill in the blanks for this romantic connection that is supposed to be a powerful love story. Actually, let me bold that and rewrite it as a general rule: The fact that something can be realistic does not mean we have to fill in the blanks in order to make up for weak, lazy writing. 

I know that Isak and Even didn’t have a TON of interaction before episode 3, but they definitely had more, and Isak had time to research Even and develop a crush him based on what he found: he learned a bit about Even’s hobbies and interests, he was touched by a piece of art that Even loved. They bonded, they BOTH opened up - we saw Isak melt a little and banter whereas Robbe hasn’t really loosened up with Sander, except running around the grocery store (oh, and letting him stick a croque in his mouth, I guess). In the kitchen scene after getting groceries, for example, Robbe basically says nothing noteworthy, nothing to give either us or Sander a better understanding of him, or an appreciation of his sense of humor. There’s no real banter. If you watch the Robbe/Sander scenes, it seems like Sander dominates them, and that’s great for learning about Sander as a character, not so much for feeling like they’re mutually connecting. And if they want to portray Robbe as shy or awkward around Sander, I get it. But I don’t get where the emotional connection comes in, and frankly I don’t feel like I know much about Robbe as a person. 

So here’s my suggestion: Don’t do the almost kiss.

I know, I know, it’s a Skam S3 staple. But wtFOCK has really not earned this moment. We’re not in dire need of confirmation that Sander likes Robbe because wtFOCK is making it obvious. The tension is not developed enough to merit an almost kiss, Robbe’s sexuality journey is not far along to make it super believable. If they’re kissing next week for real, just let that happen without the episode 3 interrupted kiss. 

If you do want an almost kiss, maybe one or both of them is a little drunk? Or a lot drunk. Like, noticeably tipsy. Their inhibitions are lowered. I could buy that, especially if Robbe has a morning after freakout. oh god i was drunk and about to throw myself at sander!!!!! OR hahaha we were pretty drunk so it didn’t mean anything ... unless...? So long as there’s some effect on Robbe.

Because it’s a Skam remake, we probably do need a big end-of-episode clip, though. A turning point. Personally, I would be fine with just some smoldering unresolved sexual tension that doesn’t go as far as an attempted kiss. (I mentioned above that I am a diehard shipper of Ronan/Adam from The Raven Cycle and let me tell you, you do not need an almost kiss to get across the sexual tension. Once upon a time I wrote a draft of a post charting their relationship development through all their intense stares.) Perhaps Sander and Britt start fighting, Sander walks off, Robbe finds him or maybe he finds Robbe and they’re like, sitting together on the beach, and they have this personal and possibly subtext-laden conversation, or maybe this is when Robbe finally opens up about something personal (like he mentions when his parents used to fight, IDK). They don’t touch. Or maybe their knees brush. They stay perfectly still and don’t lean in. But they look at each other and don’t look away until someone calls for them or comes to collect them, and that’s how the moment is ruined and the spell is broken. That would be enough for me.

Maybe we could end on a non-dramatic note and Robbe and Sander end up sharing earbuds and listening to a David Bowie song. Or a song by someone that Robbe likes and wants to share with Sander, IDK. We leave them staring at the beach and trading surreptitious glances and catching feelings. A real butterflies in the stomach scene.

This also would have been a great episode to hint at Sander’s mental illness. You could show Britt hovering and telling him not to drink or smoke, you could have Robbe walking in as Sander is taking his medication (but obviously he doesn’t know what type of meds they are yet). You could have the suggested ending fight between Britt and Sander contain veiled references to his mental illness because Britt thinks that Sander was skipping his meds or he was doing something that she thought was a red flag. Robbe overhears them arguing but again, he doesn’t realize the real context. 

I felt like Noor was kind of in the background for this episode, and look, I thought she was overused in the first two episodes, but in this one, her presence would have been more useful for Robbe’s storyline, such as having her interrupt a Robbe/Sander moment, or showing us that she’s growing frustrated with Robbe’s lack of attention to her. 

Stay in Robbe’s POV, I beg you. Do this one simple thing. It’s OK to give random scenes outside his POV from time to time (like the girls doing their Halloween makeup) but anything relevant to his arc should be from his eyes only, and anything not relevant to his arc needs to be managed carefully so it doesn’t suck up too much screen time from his story.

I’ve been looking at the social media that was posted for this season, but I don’t really have a ton to say about it. wtFOCK seems pretty active with the characters’ Instagram accounts, so I commend them for that. So far the text messages don’t seem to be adding a ton to Robbe’s story - I specify Robbe’s story because a lot of them are not even texts that involve him, lmao. Like there’s a text between Zoë and Senne that effectively sets up trouble in that relationship, and it’s way more enlightening than texts that actually involve Robbe.

I think there’s legit potential with this cast. I like all the girls, I think Sander’s actor has some good onscreen presence… even though I don’t care for how the boys are written, I think they have potential. It’s just frustrating when you see the potential being squandered even more than if there were little potential to start. 

Just to add, like I said above, this isn’t my culture or language, and I know that I’m missing context. Let me know if there’s anything I didn’t get on account of not being a teenager in Belgium.

[pangtasias-atelier]

This is not ask about kinks (No offence btw i don't which word to replace kink with). in previous ask, you said you didn't like the canon of Tormod and Muarim origins right? so i would to ask what type of canon would you give them if you could? I also like ask, if the Tellius saga ever get a revamp/remake, what would be biggest wish fullfill? for me its Tormod reclassing into a melee class / Laguz Army to availability more...

Oh, it's okay! No worries lol, this is a kink blog after all.

As for Muarim & Tormod, I would honestly just prefer it for Muarim to have literally found Tormod out of nowhere and took him in. Like that's just so much better than the wierd little dynamic of Tormod basically being the son of Muarim's ex master and Muarim taking him Tormod in when the noble house falls.

Honestly, my biggest wish fulfilment would just be getting supports in RD. Like, that alone would be so beautiful. Hell, they could even keep the mini supports and make it so that those are a super small in battle bonuses.

And although a remake with both games would be phenomenal, let's face it, Nintendo is a company and they are as greedy as all hell just as every other company so they'll be their own remakes

Though there's a lot more to help RD. Even though it's already really damn great imo. But if the legitimate fixes, I'd say this:

Fix availability. Tormod, Muarim, and Vika really have no business joining for like 3 chapters before leaving until the last 6 chapters with their stats from part 1 lmao

Also, BALANCE. When people say RD is the second most unbalanced game, they mean it. The difference in usefulness in characters is astounding. Also, Dawn Brigade still in tier 2 classes while Greil Mercenaries are already hitting tier 3 is ridiculous and pretty dumb

Laguz gauge. It's not terrible but I still feel that PoR gauge would work much better, especially with olivi gras and such. Also , Laguz being locked to single range hurts them so much since RD is pretty enemy phase heavy.

Weapon balance. Magic is pretty bad and also had terrible caps. Laura has amazing speed growths but can't take advantage of it since her caps are awful.

Difficulty balance: Part 1 shouldn't be the most difficult part of the game when there's three more parts after it.

Writing: part 3 aside, (I don't know how to fix it without making Pelleas look ever worse than he already did by signing that blood pact lmao) part 4's writing kinda comes across as a generic "series crossover game" it's not bad and it also serves in showing tensions between characters. But it also highlights favoritism, Skrimir praising Micaiah while ready to murder Naesala. And also Pelleas getting off the hook easy from Tibarn.

And as for personal wishes:

I wanna save Zelgius. He's by no means this innocent character people love to paint him as, but it bothers me that you can save Lehran but not Zelgius

Change Pelleas's "death" scene in part 2. The fact that the only difference is suddenly getting the option to have Micaiah jump in the way just feels so cheap. I will say Pelleas' death is kinda just a punch on the first playthrough since the option kinda does give some false hope to sparing him. And it ultimately becomes a complete waste. (though Pelleas does get forgotten afterwards sadly)

Give more screentime to Skrimir and Sanaki. The two are great characters as is, but it would've been fun getting a chapter or 2 with them to help solidify their arcs.

Also, give Pelleas and Elincia some more screentime

Ike. He's great and I love him, but godamn is he just this absolutely perfect child that can do no real wrong and everyone praises him so much. Granted, his growth was already in PoR but still. (Praise Micaiah's lines dissing Ike, it's just such a great fresh view in seeing how the losing country sees the game's hero after that other FE games don't do)

Speaking of Ike, it honestly would've been cool seeing him get a more supporting role instead of just blindsiding everything and taking over. But that never goes well in games. Look at the fandom with Micaiah lmao. (And also Tales of with the Symphonia sequel)

Stop the whole Astrid x Makalov thing. I just hate the ship lmao

And that's just for RD sjdhsjnsksb it's really obvious how much I love Tellius. But admittedly, they're all nitpicks than any actual true flaws.

As for PoR, it's been so long since I played it, but it honestly has like no real narrative flaws that I can find? I just vastly prefer RDs ambitious scale of writing vs PoR's take on the whole basic FE plot.

As for gameplay stuff

Balance magic a bit, lightning is too good. And that not, bring back tier 1 light mages and also bring back dark magic.

Give us Maniac Mode!!

RD's improved UI and models alongside the skills

Make knives way better and let Sothe promote. Unpromotable tier 1 classes is the worst idea ever. Unless you're a dancer, you should be able to promote.

Let Laguz weapons rank up

FIX THE AWFUL WEAPON RATE GAIN

OMG SERIOUSLY THAT WAS SO AWFUL

I DON'T EVER WANT SUCH A SLOW WEAPON RATE EVER AGAIN

Give Elincia more screentime. I love her and like yeah, not every women needs to be this badass warrior, but the Nyna archetype is just so done at that point. (But hey, she still turns it on it's head by the end. And so does Pelleas)

And that's all I can think of really.

Again, I'm such a huge Tellius nerd lmao. Though I currently believe FE6 will get remade first. Tellius is still too recent, and intys probably doesn't wanna touche the incest plot shit in FE4 and FE5 also has to get passed up for a remake due to being in Jugdral.

God this is so fucking long sjdbjsvavsvs

[scripting-life]

FFVII: returning to my first love

 *peeks out of the corner of my lurking spot*

Hello? Anybody out there? It’s only been, oh you know, four-ish years since the last time I’ve posted anything here. I apologize in advance for anybody who’s still following me from my Castle days. If you couldn’t tell from my extended absence, I’ve mostly moved on. Castle and Beckett were fantastic characters that let me to play with some deep-dive analyses, and Castle will always hold a special place in my heart as my comfort show and my first real and extended experience with online fandom. I’ll always be grateful to the community I’ve had the joy of interacting with (or, the community with which I’ve had the joy of interacting, as Castle would correct me my dangling preposition).

I honestly didn’t think I would ever have reason to come back to Tumblr after Castle ended. But the FF7 Remake has returned me to my very first love--when I was young and innocent and before I knew anything about OTPs or ship wars. I’ve been back lurking for several months now and seeing all the fanart/fanfics and fun theories and analyses has reignited my enthusiasm for the FF7 franchise. It’s also fun coming back to this franchise with a more mature understanding of the themes/concepts that completely flew over my head as a young preteen.

(This ended up being super long, so the rest is below the cut to spare everyone the pain of scrolling. Apparently, my rambling tendencies have not changed at all. lol.)

When FF7R was officially announced (five freaking years ago!), I was filled with apprehension. FF7 was my first taste of a “grown-up” game. I was 11 and played my brother’s copy of the OG on PC in 1-2 hours spurts on the weekends when I visited his apartment. It took me months, if not years, to finish the game (I ended up stealing his copy to play on our computer at home...lol), and I was so blown away by it. I remember the exact moment I finished it and how I was literally shaking as I watched the ending FMV.

Later, when I found out my brother had a copy of FF8 (my poor brother was so accommodating to his annoying little sister...haha), I was so excited to play, in large part because I thought it would continue the story of FF7. Young, naive me didn’t understand the numbering conventions of Final Fantasy titles. I was madly theorizing and breaking my brain trying to find connections between the two games’ plots and had literally played through more than half the game before I finally realized the storyline of FF8 had absolutely nothing to do with FF7. I was sorely disappointed, and I think that has somewhat tainted my appreciation of future titles. Not to say I haven’t enjoyed the subsequent FF titles, but I think a little part of me is always comparing them to that first experience of wonder and awe that I had with FF7.

I discovered fanfiction in my teens and starting writing FF7/Cloti fics in college. Aside from interacting with a few fic writers at the time, I was not involved in any online communities, so I kept myself pretty free of any ship war drama and the like. When I did research for my fics, I’d sometimes see shipping sites and theories where I didn’t always understand the logic of how certain conclusions were reached, but frankly, I didn’t much care and didn’t realize that Clerith vs. Cloti was such a touchy subject. I was peripherally aware that some sort great LTD war was waging, of course, but it didn’t really touch me. I stayed in my Cloti shipping/fic-writing lane and was probably a lot happier for it. And, to be honest, based on FFN’s listings for FF7, I felt like I always saw a bunch of Sephiroth/Cloud fics and thought that was just as popular as the more conventional ships.

Graduating college and entering “real life” pretty much ended my FF7 fanfic-writing journey. In the intervening years between college and the release of FF7R, I haven’t gone back to the OG too much. I’ve played almost all the Final Fantasy games since then, and I always enjoy getting my FF7 crew fix when I play the non-canon mobile games or the Kingdom Hearts franchise. But FF7 was a happy part of my teenage years, and I was content to think on it with sweet nostalgia.

Remakes, in recent experience (*cough cough* Disney, why?), have been hit or miss, with a lot of misses. It’s hard to strike a good balance between catering to nostalgia and delivering a fresh product, never mind the change in social mores through the decades. I was so afraid FF7R would screw up my memories, especially since I wasn’t the biggest fan of Advent Children. The graphics were great and the action scenes were fun, but the story felt like a let-down. Cloud, in particular, felt so different (and yes, moody) from where we left him after the OG. I understand now that a lot of his character motivation was better explained in the On The Way to a Smile novels, but back then, I just felt like AC came out of nowhere. 

Btw, because I see this question a lot on other blogs when I’m lurking, I’ve ALWAYS thought that it was very clear in AC--even without reading anything else--that the reason for Cloud’s depression was due to guilt and not because he was pining for Aerith. The only reason I didn’t like his characterization in AC was because it felt like it came out of nowhere since AC is set 2 years after OG and by the end of the OG, he seemed to be in a pretty decent place mentally and emotionally. That being said, I can absolutely understand why some traumas resurface years after the originating incident and how times of peace might actually be worse because he is no longer solely focused on saving the world, but I was just surprised and a little bummed that this was the direction the devs chose to take AC at the time. Now that I’m older, I do better appreciate the complexities of Cloud’s mental state and the fact that they depicted a hero with lingering mental health issues is actually pretty awesome. I’m drawn to characters that have flaws--sometimes serious ones--but try their best anyway. Hence, why why Tifa Lockhart and Kate Beckett are some of my all-time favorites.

Anyhow, that didn’t stop me from pre-ordering FF7R, of course. I avoided reading any reviews as I didn’t want my first impressions to be swayed, and boy, was I happy that I went in mostly blind. That sense of awe really almost felt like playing the OG for the first time again, but somehow more. The combat system is incredibly fun and the world-building is nothing short of incredible. The variety and abundance of NPCs gives the game so much flavor and the locations have been rendered so well. As I’m going through areas like the Sector 7 train station and Wall Market and Aerith’s house, I can almost superimpose the layout from the OG in my head, but now it’s in 3D and so rich and full. It’s obvious that a lot of attention was paid to details, and I love all the head-nods and homages to the OG.

And oh, the characters!

This is the Cloud I’ve been wanting to see in glorious HD and the Cloud I remember from the original game: all awkward, dorky trying to be cool, socially inept, mentally unstable, abrasive-at-times, reluctant to act depending on who’s asking, wannabe hard-ass who’s actually a big softie inside Cloud. I remember reading an article a few years back about how the devs basically redid Cloud for the Remake because they wanted him to go back to his dorky roots--which ends up making him closest to his personality in the OG than his appearances in other franchises--and I was SOOOO incredibly happy to hear that. I was so sick of the way Cloud was constantly depicted as this cool, broody McBrood in his cameos when he was a pretty big dork in the OG. (Anybody remember him doing squats in the Highwind when Tifa says it’ll be lonely with just the two of them and Cloud responds that he’ll make enough noise to make up for it? Like I said: cute, but a dork.)

I WAS surprised by how comfortable and sweet and touchy (so very very touchy) the devs made him with Tifa from the beginning. That initial scene of Cloud being such a smooth operator giving Tifa the flower had my jaw-dropping and every single flirty interaction after that (and there are many) had my Cloti heart overflowing in shock and bliss. Throughout most of my years as a Cloti shipper, even though I believed Cloti was supported by canon and pretty clearly together, I was also under the impression--mistakenly or not--that Cloti was the minority ship. So for Square Enix to make it so blatantly obvious that Cloud is really into Tifa at such an early stage has been an unexpected gift.

Also, they’re just really hot together. (Clotiscrew tunnel--be still my heart!)

As for Tifa...oh, what wonderful character development we’ve already gotten for Tifa. Tifa has always been one of my all-time favorite characters ever since reading her character blurb in the OG game manual. Initially, as a child, it was because I saw so much of myself in her. She was outwardly bright and optimistic, but tended to hide all of her stronger feelings inside. She fought with her fists, and for someone who was a tomboy growing up who liked playing contact sports with the boys, I connected with her in a way that I had never been able to connect with other female protagonists who were primarily back-row specialists. (I also aspired to grow to her listed height of 5′4″, which alas, did not happen...lol).

I love how the Remake delves into more of Tifa’s moral conflict between the destruction that she causes as part of Avalanche and needing to do something to stop Shinra, and yes, even seeking revenge. They touched on this in the OG lightly, but the Remake really hammers it home. She’s perhaps the most conflicted character in terms of motivation in Part 1. That scene with the Shinra manager on the train is actually one of my favorite scenes of her because it highlights that tension. The elevator scene, if you opted for it instead of the stairs (or if you did one, saved, and reloaded to do the other one, like me), is also underrated in terms of how much it reveals about Tifa’s inner struggle.

On this point, I also appreciate that the Remake has the characters reflecting on the damage they’ve both indirectly and directly inflicted--the Avalanche team all do this to a certain degree. In particular, Jessie’s constant inability to figure out what she’d done wrong with the bomb to cause such a massive explosion and her remaining feelings of guilt during her death scene (”they were my victims” ouch!) were heart-breaking.

Aerith’s depiction was another pleasant surprise. I’ll be honest; I didn’t much like her in the OG. She was too pushy and willfully oblivious to the point of being mean at times. In the Remake, much of her sometimes too in-your-face playfulness was kept--perhaps still a little too much--but I appreciate the nuance that they gave her. The train graveyard scene tells the player that she didn’t have friends growing up, and I think that partially contributes to her lack of social tact at times. The other factor that gives her personality more nuance is the hint of special knowledge that affects how she interacts with the rest of the group. It gives her additional hidden motivation and adds to her mystery for new players while simultaneously pulling at the heartstrings for old players who get the impression that Aerith is somehow aware--to a certain, unknown extent--of her own fate. 

I also appreciate that Aerith is more grounded as a real person than as some sort of revered being. I do blame AC for some of that. When you have the power to cure a fatal disease from the afterlife and send the dead back to life, it gets into some godlike territory. Maybe it’s a fair depiction of her powers as a Cetra, but I just get the feeling that Aerith herself wouldn’t really appreciate being made into this goddess-like figure. Remember that her character blurb in the original game manual implied that she was more interested in earthly things (i.e. the love triangle) than in exploring her own powers. I personally think that Aerith used the “love triangle” in the OG as a form of escapism from the weight of her burdens rather than genuine interest, and I just think she’d want to be thought of as a person rather than as a god. One of my favorite scenes for Aerith is when she and Cloud are traversing the rooftops and she slips on the ladder, letting out a simple, “Shit.” It humanizes her in a way that combats some of the ways she’s sort of been deified in the last 23 years. Also, Aerith wielding a folding chair like it’s WWE never fails to make me laugh. Overall, she just comes off as a more reasonably flawed and--as a result, to me--a more likeable character in the Remake, and I do very much like her now.

Barret is pretty much the exact larger than life character I imagined in my head, only somehow even better, and I really love how expressive and emotional his eyes and facial expressions are. His scenes with Marlene are truly the cutest thing ever. Red XIII is a big, furry ball of sass, and I need so much more of him in the coming parts (Cosmo Canyon still wrecks me to this day). The interactions between the Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie are incredible, and they really feel like people who’ve been friends and basically each other’s family for years. The Turks and Rufus are pretty much as cool as I imagined them in the OG.

There’s still so much more I haven’t even started touching on about the Remake, and I think that’s why I’m finally posting this now. I just can’t contain my love for this game any more, and I really really need a place to express myself. I don’t know if anybody is still reading, but I appreciate having the opportunity to finally gush about this game and franchise that I’ve loved so much for pretty much two-thirds of my life.

[indowolfgang]

About Jurassic Park’s lack of feathers: (y’all this is long)

most dinosaur related media doesn’t have feathered dinosaurs and a lot of people blame Jurassic Park. dinosaurs are my special interest and Jurassic Park is a big part of that so ima prove them wrong. first off i wanna say haters get owned: 2011: NASA scientists said it was the 7th best SciFi movie and 2012: Popular Mechanics said it was the 6th accurate and “was faithful to early '90s speculative genetics theories”

anyways... lets get into it

Games (that i have lol):

Ark: Survival Evolved: 10/29 dinosaurs

Compsognathus,  Deinonychus, Gallimimus, Megalosaurus, Microraptor, Oviraptor, Raptor, Therizinosaur, Troodon, Yutyrannus (this dino was actually found with direct evidence of feathers!)

at first i had no idea what type of ‘raptor’ they were referring to, but i checked and its a Utahraptor. the largest-known individual of Utahraptor was about 7 meters (23 feet) long so size is a-okay with me

i debated including the Pegomastax because the wiki says it has fur and quills, which could be argued as protofeathers, but since its from the early Jurassic its hard to say.. just to be safe i left it out

i only looked at dinosaurs cause there are a ton of made-up/mythical creatures, prehistoric birds/reptiles, and just a straight up vulture

The Isle: 3/30 dinosaurs 

Therizinosaurus, Orodromeus (AI), Austroraptor 

none of these are playable in survival mode btw

also i’m not sure if the game is going for accuracy or not, Dilophosaurus and Velociraptor are the right size but still... no feathers on known feathered dinos: Velo, Rex, or Utahraptor

technically feathers have never been found on Utahraptors but there is strong evidence that all dromaeosaurids had them since Microraptor and Dakotaraptor had them

Jurassic World Evolution: 0/69 (nice) dinosaurs

based on the movies Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom, and eventually they added a Jurassic Park DLC. despite the Jurassic World movies not counting the Jurassic Park sequels (Lost World and JP3) as part of its time line, the Jurassic Park DLC includes skins from those movies. not much to say here... i’ll get into the movies further down

i didn’t count the pteranodon, cause its not a dinosaur and, still, no feathers

Saurian: 4/8 dinosaurs

Dakotaraptor, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Acheroraptor, Ornithomimid

i’ve only included the dinos that are currently in-game, the wiki says they are planing to add another playable dino, Anzu (feathered), but so far it hasn’t even been added as an AI yet

they are actually going for scientific accuracy so all the dinos that should have feathers do and they are, as far as i can tell, realistically placed. Good Job!

games are hard to talk about... usually games that feature dinos will have an element of ‘fantasy’ (Ark especially) and JWE is based on the Jurassic World movies so its dinos can only look like the movies dinos. The Isle is most likely suffering from the status quo, most dinos in popular media look like big lizards so they didn’t want to take a risk. the game isn’t finished and its possible it’ll go from a dinosaur sim to a shooter, since there are human models in game and controls for weapons. i’ve also heard players rumor that you’re not actually playing as the dino but as a camera that follows it around (which would explain the nigh vision mode). chances are The Isle will end up like Ark: man vs dino

Movies:

i thought about discussing The Land Before Time movies (cause i was obsessed with them as a kid lol), but that was pre-Jurassic Park so i’ll give it an honorable mention. ANYWAYS... Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park: Lost World, Jurassic Park 3, Jurassic World, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. none of them have feathered dinos. lets look at why that might be 🤔

Jurassic Park:

no feathered dinosaurs. BUT, feathered dinosaurs were not very mainstream in the scientific community until about 3 years after the movie came out,

“Three years after the first Jurassic Park debuted, paleontologists announced that the small theropod Sinosauropteryx was covered in a fine coat of fuzzy protofeathers. This was just the initial drop in a flood of feathery dinosaur discoveries which confirmed that a wide variety of dinosaurs bore archaic forms of plumage, from simple filaments to asymmetrical feathers that would have allowed them to fly.”

[from this National Geographic article (x)]

looking more into the history of feathered dinos, i found well... a lot. its really difficult to find a concrete time for when paleontologists discovered (and agreed on) feathered dinos, some places say 1860, 1923, 1979, 1983, it goes on forever, one source even said 2001. Archaeopteryx, which an early Jurassic creature, had complex, bird-like feathers. so why no feathers on other dinosaur reconstructions? its possible these discoveries were ignored by the larger scientific community in favor of the well established depictions of big, slow lizards

[if u wanna do even more reading about feathers check out this All About Birds article (x) and the History of discovery section on the Archaeopteryx’s wiki (x)]

JP definitely upped the Velociraptor’s size and did my Dilophosaurus dirty, so i will fault them for that. the big ass raptor has stayed in pop culture for-fucking-ever. it feels like everyone is making naked Utahraptors and calling them Velociraptors. and g*d... my poor Dilophosaurus... why’d they make you spit? and why so small? you’re really 6-7 meters (20-23 feet) long! you are a large carnivore!! also it is possible that Dilophosaurus had feathers, though again, because its from the early Jurassic, it would have been more like a fur

Lost World:

no feathered dinosaurs. i cant really fault them for not changing the dinosaurs looks in a sequel, also trust me when i say it could have been worse the dino depictions in the book are insane... Chameleon Carnotaurus anyone?

the movie also didn’t explain why there were different dinos at Site B compared to the actual park. my best explanation is from the book: Site B was where the dinosaurs were actually hatched and raised, they were moved to the park just before they got to big to handle. so we are to assume that any non-Jurassic Park dinos we saw in Lost World were originally planned to be moved. sucks that they left this detail out of the movie adaptation, cause a lot of fans got confused (including me lol)

Jurassic Park 3:

no feathered dinosaurs. an incredibly mild attempt at ‘feathered’ raptors was made in JP3 by giving the males quills, but at that point the movies had an established ‘science’ and completely changing the look of the animals at the end of a trilogy might have confused a few people (even if it was more scientifically accurate)

Jurassic World:

no feathered dinosaurs. they literally stated in the movie that they left out accurate feathered dinosaurs because Dr. Wu was asked to create: “Dinosaurs that look like what the public expects dinosaurs to look like. Scary. Scaly. Wild.” Dr. Wu also states that the dinosaurs have never been actual dinosaurs. their DNA is a melting pot of DNA.

(i swear i read something about Dr. Wu attempting to make feathered dinos, but because of all the non-dino DNA he couldn’t get the genes to stick, i can’t find a source or any proof of this so i guess that can be our lil headcanon lol)

though for a more real life reason,

“The reasoning behind this being continued through the subsequent movies, though, is more about how imposing the featherless versions look.” ... “It seems more likely that the filmmakers went with how most people would perceive dinosaurs in the hopes that dino experts would take notice.”

[from this Screen Rant article (x)]

so basically JW cared more about scary, recognizable dinos than accurate ones

Fallen Kingdom:

no feathered dinosaurs. again a sequel is a bit too late to change up your designs. unfortunately the change had to happen in JW or not at all

In Closing:

basically Jurassic Park came out just before paleontologists announced Sinosauropteryx, which popularized feathered dinos. even then Jurassic Park was restricted by the technology of the time. the early ninety’s was not the best time for CGI and i can’t imaging making feathered animatronic dinosaurs that could stand up to the rain they filmed in. new media is definitely stuck in the past, look at the movies that come out and compare how many are sequels or prequels or remakes or whatever. Jurassic Park was a great movie and obviously the vultures that make movies are gonna try and ride its brand into the sunset. blaming the movie for stopping new scientific discoveries from entering the mainstream isn’t fair. the movie did a lot to bring current science into the lime light, it popularized warmblooded, avian dinos and showed them as intelligent, fast moving animals instead of slow movie monsters

but JW had no excuse!  they should get majority of the blame for making the public afraid of feathers cause they themselves were afraid of feathers! they had the technology, the budget, and the opportunity to follow in its parent movie’s footsteps. they could have at least TRIED to be accurate but they just stuck to what people knew cause that was more profitable. science is only as interesting as the toys you can make of it i guess...

a final note, just for my sanity: JP dinos aren’t real dinosaurs. not even in fiction. they’re DNA is so full of garbage that their inaccurate appearances could be explained away with that alone. the books get into this more, talking about all the failed embryos and how many diseases these creatures had. even delving into their lack of social skills and how the raptors didn’t act like a pack, but a group of aggressive individuals. unfortunately the average viewer isn’t gonna know about all this set dressing. hell, i didn’t even read the 2 books until recently (end of 2019/ start of 2020) so i was as ready to believe whatever the movies showed me. honestly the books and movies are all good in different ways, not accurate, but good. read the books if you want more gore and technical explanations and the movies if you want, well... more story, they add a lot of stuff that wasn’t in the books

one day i’ll get into the differences in the books and movies.. one day

[ this was originally a response to someone but tumblr hid it, cause links. so i’ve edited it to be a standalone post and also WAY longer. feel free to add on or correct any mistakes i’ve made (be respectful tho) ]

[invisiblemelonmoose]

Unpopular Poképinions Ahead

As Gen 4 approaches it’s remake and Gen 5 will hit it’s inevitable “Gen 5 remakes confirmed” stage, etc. etc., I would like to state for the record that

1. I have always loved Gen 5 and 6.

There was a lot of bullshit passed around and people hating it, but 5th gen literally got me to not only play Pokémon again but also beat the full game after Crystal (I had no GBA nor have I ever actually finished HGSS, which is main reason I actually cared about 4th gen in the first place until I got older lol) I’ve noticed a lot of people jumping the “5th gen was always good” bandwagon, but those people are liars who gave it shit because of the “unoriginal designs” and “dumb, unnecessary story”. 6th gen, though a little lacking, was still amazing, and idegaf about megas. We could sit on benches and take photos, and dress up as ourselves for the first time. I’ve been seeing people memeing how there are no 6th gen fans and that’s only because enough time hasn’t passed for people to be hipstely, retroactively loving it yet. My only criticism is fuck France Kalos.

2. I will never actually admit to liking 8th gen.

When the wheel once again inevitably returns to Galar, I will stand by my past (present) self and stand firm in the belief that this was one of my least fave gens of all time. I haven’t even finished any of my 3rd or 4th gen runs and I can say that with absolute certainty that 8th gen was not worth the money it cost (it was gifted to me, so I can’t say the money I paid lol, but I still feel guilty that money was paid for it). Even somehow ignoring the glaring controversies, Galar felt so incredibly small and lackluster for our first big Switch entry. There will probably never be a generation that gives us absolutely nothing, but there’s so little for me to say I actually liked. There’s nothing for me to miss when this gen leaves us for the next. Cooking is fun, but I won’t bat an eye when it leaves because it wasn’t even the first game we had a “cooking” minigame.

Like, if I do a comparison between 3rd +4th gen and 8th gen, even though I haven’t technically finished any of them yet (barely past the first couple gyms in the former, don’t feel the motivation to finally beat Leon in the latter) there’s more much more from my previously held “least fave” gens that I enjoy.

3rd Gen/Hoenn

Contests - kinda cool and something other to do than battling

PokéBlocks - the beginnings of the cooking mini-games

Secret bases - expanded on your customizble room from 2nd Gen which, like, probably 10 of you remember

Team Aqua vs. Magma - I love these pair of failure of 9th grade earth science distasters. Archie and Maxie and garbage himbo otp

Abilities - natures drive me insane, but abilities are so useful and make so much sense and I don’t know where battling even in-game would be without them

Coherent box system - it was a logical jump, but still

Braille - Ngl, I was super butthurt when, as a child, I learned that the unnown weren’t used in this game like before, but as an adult that can appreciate things, props to Gamefreak for using a real written language that’s actually only read by minority of people and encouraging people to learn it just ‘cause

4th Gen/Sinnoh

Super Contests (again) - look, my first experience with 4th gen was my brother’s best friend letting me play contests on his DS because my brother and I did not own one (a different friend accidentally broke my GBA my brother was borrowing before we had the chance to own RSE). I’ve always seen my trainer-sona as a professor/researcher, but you can peel contests out of my cold, dead hands.

Poffins - more cooking mini-games, A++

Looker - I love him, go away

Pokétch - As a second gen fan that is absolutely biased and will give extra points to all things Johto, the pokétch was the best tech device, fight me

Mining - same as super contests because I love any mini-games with attention to detail

Sex differences - I love how Gamefreak remembered that these are animals and may have sexual dimorphism, some done better than others, but still

Day/Night - I was very angry at 3rd gen for getting rid of this and pleased at it’s return in 4th gen

8th Gen/Galar

Curry - because as mentioned before, I’m a slut for cooking games

Marnie - little (titty) goth GF

Visible wild pokémon - which tbf were already showing up in other games, but I’ll give them credit for keeping them in these main series games

Regional mons - I’ve been a sucker for these guys since the previous gen and they kept going with those sick designs

I’m genuinely having trouble thinking of things I genuinely liked from these games that I remember more things I enjoyed from the other two gens

Honestly, 3rd and 4th gen had my least fave designs while there aren’t really any I dislike from 8th (tho those fossils make me angry), but that doesn’t really “fix” my lack of interest or draw to the games as a whole. Camping was a downgrade because even if I can see everyone together, I’m not allowed to pet my babies.

Anyways, my original point was, Gen 8 sucks and you won’t see me acting like those liars or reddit acting like it wasn’t an unpopular opinion to hate on it once time has passed. I’ll stand my ground and feel free to call me out on this should the moment arise (it won’t).

[thenightling]

What is the best vampire movie you have ever seen? I am in desperate need of some good ones to quench my thirst. Lol I apologize for that joke XD

Hehe.  I love the pun.   I like cheesy things.

1.   Dracula (1979 version).   This version of Dracula is one of the few romantic incarnations of Dracula that still seems to enjoy what he is and isn’t suicidal.  I chose to believe he faked his death at the end.   Also the Mina character (renamed Lucy) is delightfully aggressive and Laurence Olivier plays a fantastic Abraham Van Helsing.

2. Bram Stoker’s Dracula.   Though this version is more faithful to The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen than it follows Bram Stoker’s novel it’s the only version to leave Quincey Morris in tact and still the most faithful film adaptation to date despite the added love story between Mina and Dracula. And that odd origin story they gave for Dracula’s vampirism. 

3.   Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula.  This film can be found on Youtube for free.  It stars Rudolf Martin, who also played Dracula in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode Buffy vs. Dracula.  It’s surprisingly respectful to the history while also implying Vlad the Impaler became the famous vampire after death and actually works as a very good prequel to most recent (within the last thirty years) adaptations of Dracula.

4.   Fright Night (original 1985 version).  If you love eighties music, traditional vampires, and loving homages to classic Hammer Horror and Dark Shadows I strongly recommend this movie.   You don’t see too many serious modern vampires able to turn into a bat, wolf, or mist anymore and it’s just a fun movie.  Also Roddy Mcdowell played Peter Vincent (a sweet homage to both Peter Cushing and Vincent Price) masterfully.   You see excellent and well portrayed character growth and I highly recommend it and even it’s 1988 sequel, Fright Night: Part 2.  I miss the traditional vampire powers to summon storms and change form into a bat, wolf, or mist and age and de-age at will and most of those lost powers make an appearance in this movie but not in the 2011 remake which lacks heart and passion on the part of the film makers behind it.  

5.   Lost Boys.   Much like Fright Night this is a fun eighties movie.  Like Fright Night it has an excellent soundtrack and humor with the horror.  The sequel’s not very good but the third one is decent.  Not as good as the first but decent.  

6.    Interview with the vampire.  Despite what Anne Rice hopes I doubt she will ever be able to make a better film adaptation of the original source material than this movie and it’s a shame that a version of The Vampire Lestat was never made by the same people.  If you can find it the San Francisco (NOT the New York) adaptation of the Lestat musical actually works pretty well as a direct sequel.   The San Francisco version of the Lestat musical was never officially released to video but there is a good quality bootleg out there.

7.   Let the Right One In.   An eerie and beautiful platonic love story between a boy and a vampire. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name.  Also it’s far better than it’s awful American remake.

9.   The vampire Lovers.  Despite deviations from the novel and two character name changes this is still a far better adaptation of Carmilla than many other film versions and it does capture the atmosphere and ambiance of the original novel, something few adaptations seem to manage.

10.    Demon Under Glass.  This one is extremely low budget.  It’s so low budget it might as well have been filmed in someone’s basement however it has a very clever premise and a tie-in novel (with twice the plot) by the woman who wrote the script.  It deals with what happens when a kindly doctor is roped into working with the government in regard to studying a captured vampire.  

11.   Scars of Dracula.  This was Christopher Lee’s favorite Hammer Dracula movie to work on and you can tell.

12.   Nightbreed.  Not specifically dealing with vampires the main character does rise from the dead as a vampire who craves blood.   Seek the director’s cut or “Cabal Cut” if possible. It’s based on the novel Cabal by Clive Barker.  And it has a haunting score by Danny Elfman.

13.  Monster Squad.  This is a mulltimonster movie but Dracula is the ring leader and it’s fun.  Another 80s gem.     

Bonus mentions: F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu.  Though I hate that people now think the word means a bald and bucked toothed vampire when it just means vampire.  Vampire The masquerade helped popularize that idea and this movie popularized the idea of vampires burning in the sun, which didn’t exist until the movie.   However, as terrifying as Count Orlock might be, I like Murnau’s Faust better than his Nosferatu.  His adaptation of Goethe’s Faust is very underated and I highly recommend it even if it’s not a vampire movie.

And of course the 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi and the Spanish film also made at the same time using the same sets.  Who can forget those?  And Dracula’s Daughter.  Son of Dracula.  House of Dracula and House of Frankenstein and Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. (those require watching the other Universal Monster movies first). 

The Subspecies movies.    Cult classics and very under-rated.   Radu (named after the real life Dracula’s brother) is not a sexy vampire but an intriguing one. 

The Hunger starring David Bowie, based on the novel by Whitley Streiber.  

Hammer’s Dracula movies:  Dracula (1958) AKA Horror of Dracula. Brides of Dracula.  Dracula: Prince of Darkness.  Dracula has risen from the grave.  Taste the blood of Dracula.  Scars of Dracula.  Dracula 1972 AD.  Satanic Rites of Dracula (AKA Dracula and his vampire Bride).   

Innocent Blood.   This one deals with vampire mobsters after a female vampire bungles a feeding and has to team up with a cop. 

For vampire comedies I recommend Love at First Bite, What we do in the Shadows and Dracula: Dead and Loving it.     

TV shows: Castlevania (new animated series),  Dracula: the Series (not the awful NBC series, but the 1990s kid friendly one, it’s weirdly respectful to the novel despite giving Dracula blond hair).  Forever Knight.  And Buffy The Vamprire Slayer.   True Blood’s first few seasons were good but around the Lilith / Billith storyline it went down hill and never recovered.  The “Hep V” storyline was God-awful.     Midnight Texas is pretty good but not strictly vampire related.  And for anime Hellsing and Hellsing: OVA.  

For “So bad it’s good” I recommend Dracula 2 (sequel to Dracula 2000) and Dario Argento’s Dracula or as my friends and I have nicknamed it “Mantis Drac.”  It’s like the Plan 9 from Outer Space of Dracula movies.  And the badly dubbed anime Dracula: Sovereign of the damned (which can be found on Youtube).  It’s meant to be an adaptation of Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula but they couldn’t get the rights to Blade and had to work around him. They also tried to condense years worth of comics into an hour and twenty minute animated movie.      

For comic books I recommend Tomb of Dracula from Marvel.  Morbius The Living Vampire, also from Marvel.  Legion Of Monsters (2010 version).   And Dracula: The Company of Monsters (independent and very good graphic novel series).

For plays I recommend the musical Dracula by composer Frank Wildhorn. It’s pretty much a musical adaptation of the 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula movie.

For novels I recommend the sorely under-rated Dracula books by Fred Saberhagen.  There are ten in all and three short stories.  The first book is The Dracula Tape.  The audio books are available on Amazon and Audible (but sadly not the printed versions except used or digital) and the audio books are brilliantly read by Roblin Bloodworth (I kid you not.  That’s really the reader’s name.).  I strongly feel Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula novels deserve more positive attention than what they get.

And of course other books: Dracula, Carmilla, Let the Right One In.  The first three Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice (and possibly Tale of the Body Thief for comic relief), All the obvious staples.   But also try Quincey Morris: Vampire by P. N. Elrod.   

For short stories try Box Number 50 by Fred Saberhagen which can be found in the Saberhagen vampire Tales and the Dracula in London short story collection edited by P. N. Elrod.

I’ll probably think of some better ones later.  My mood about these things changes on a whim.

[savetopnow]

2018-03-19 22 MOVIE now

MOVIE

Birth. Movies. Death.

SXSW 2018 Review: TAKE YOUR PILLS Shines A Light On An Alarming Problem

Is Denis Villeneuve Still Making a DUNE Movie? Nope! Now He’s Making TWO Of Them

FIRST MATCH Trailer Takes A Girl’s Troubles To The Mat

Wes Anderson And Bill Murray: A Cinematic Rapport

Book Review: S. Craig Zahler’s HUG CHICKENPENNY Is A Touching Gothic Parable

CineVue

Film Review: The Square

Banking on a box office hit

DVD Review: The Barefoot Contessa

Film Review: A Prominent Patient

Film Review: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

Cinema Blend

This Rotten Week: Predicting Midnight Sun, Pacific Rim Uprising, Paul, Apostle of Christ, Sherlock Gnomes and Unsane Reviews

Will The Walking Dead's Georgie Return? Here's What The Actress Told Us

The Walking Dead: 4 Questions We Have After Rick And Negan's Latest Big Brawl

The Walking Dead's Saviors Are Falling Apart, And We're Loving It

Who Is The Walking Dead's Georgie? 5 Important Things The Actress Told Us

Cinema Scope

Madame Hyde (Serge Bozon, France/Belgium)

The Green Fog (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, US/Canada)

Cocote (Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, Dominican Republic/Argentina/Germany)

The Uses of Disenchantment: Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water

3/4 (Ilian Metev, Bulgaria/Germany)

Comicboook.com

'Wonder Woman 2' Reportedly Filming in the US in June

'The Matrix' Relaunch Writer Teases Expanded Universe of Movies

'Star Wars: Episode IX' Will Go in "Unexpected" Directions

Mark Hamill Says Playing Luke Skywalker "Is Much More Enjoyable Now" Than in Original Trilogy

Daisy Ridley Has No Idea About 'Star Wars: Episode IX'

Film Comment Magazine

SXSW Interview: Eugene Kotlyarenko

Film of the Week: 12 Days

SXSW Interview: Lauren Greenfield

Deep Focus: Tomb Raider

Queer & Now & Then: 1932

Film Inquiry

Adventures in Austin: A Love Letter From SXSW

SXSW Review: Short Films

SXSW Review: PROSPECT: A Slow-Burning, Atmospheric Hard Sci-Fi

AGAINST THE NIGHT: A Thoroughly Dull Horror Effort

THE FORGIVEN: Whitaker & Bana At Their Respective Bests

Film School Rejects

‘Black Panther’ Just Did Something Not Achieved Since ‘Avatar’

Matt Damon and Christian Bale Eye Roles in James Mangold’s Ford vs. Ferrari Movie

Shia LaBeouf’s ‘Honey Boy’ Will Be A Twisted Tale of Child Stardom Gone Wrong

John Cho Boards ‘The Grudge’ Remake

‘Profile’ Review: Imagine an Even Less Frightening Windows Desktop

Reddit Movies

Dave Bautista in Ip Man Spin-off 'Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy'

Sonic Movie to begin filming in Atlanta in July

Coco was great, Loving Vincent was gorgeously unique but in my mind, THE BREADWINNER should have won the best animation Oscar.

I spent a lot of time getting the movies to sing Frank Ocean’s White Ferrari

Making of Mario Bros Movie japanese art book

Roger Ebert

Flower

SXSW Film Festival 2018: "The World Before Your Feet," "Alt-Right: Age of Rage," "First Light"

SXSW Film Festival 2018: "The Dawn Wall," "They Live Here, Now"

SXSW Film Festival 2018: “Friday’s Child,” “Sadie,” “Prospect,” “Write When You Get Work”

Benji

Screen Rant

The Crown: Petition Asks Matt Smith to Donate Pay Difference to Time’s Up

Ava DuVernay Hints at Epic New Gods Story in New Instagram Post

Bizarro Superman’s Wife and Son Join The DC Universe

Walking Dead’s New Character Could Be Setting Up Season 9

20 Superhero TV Show Easter Eggs That Didn’t Go Anywhere

Slash Film

LOL: ‘Jurassic Park’ Auditions Reel Uncovered on ‘Saturday Night Live’

Theme Park Bits – Overnight Parking Fees for Disney World Hotel Guests, New Pixar Pier Artwork and Videos

The Morning Watch: Frank Oz Remembers Jim Henson, ‘Infinity War’ Trailer Easter Eggs & More

‘Patrick Melrose’ Clip: Benedict Cumberbatch Has Dinner With Voices in His Head

Netflix Abandons the Idea of Gamifying Binging For Kids; Here’s How They Could Use That Tech Instead