#plus its doing the character a huge disservice | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

canmom · 9 months

Text

Music theory notes (for science bitches) - part 2: pentatonics and friends

or, the West ain't all that.

Hello again everyone! I'm grateful for the warm reception to the first music theory notes post (aka 'what is music? from first principles'). If you haven't read it, take a look~

In that stab at a first step towards 'what is music', I tried to distinguish between what's a relatively universal mathematical structure (nearly all musical systems have the octave) and what's an arbitrary convention. But in the end I did consciously limit myself, and make a beeline for the widely used 12TET tuning system and the diatonic scales used in Western music. I wanted to avoid overwhelming myself, and... 👻 it's all around us...👻

But! But but but. This is a series on music theory. Not just one music theory. The whole damn thing. I think I'm doing a huge disservice to everyone, not least me, if that's where we stop.

Today, then! For our second installation: 'Music theory notes (for science bitches)' will take a quick look through some examples that diverge from the diatonic scale: the erhu, Japanese pentatonic scales, gamelan, klezmer, and blues.

Also since the first part was quite abstract, we'll also having a go at using the tools we've built so far on a specific piece, the Edo-period folk song Sakura, Sakura.

Sound fun? Let's fucking gooooo

The story so far

To recap: in the first post we started by saying we're gonna be looking at tonal music, which isn't the only type of music. We introduced the idea of notes and frequencies by invoking the magic name of Fourier.

We said music can be approximated (for now) as an idealised pressure wave, which we can divide into brief windows called 'notes', and these notes are usually made of a strong sine wave at the 'fundamental frequency', plus a stack of further sine waves at integer multiples of that frequency called 'overtones'.

Then, we started constructing a culturally specific but extremely widespread system of creating structure between notes, known as '12 Tone Equal Temperament' or 12TET. The main character of this story is the interval, which is the ratio between the fundamental frequencies of two notes; we talked about how small-integer ratios of frequencies tend to be especially 'consonant' or nice-sounding.

We introduced the idea of the 'octave', which is when two notes have a frequency ratio of 2. We established the convention treating notes an octave apart as deeply related, to the point that we give them the same name. We also brought in the 'fifth', the ratio of 1.5, and talked about the idea of constructing a scale using small-integer ratios.

But we argued that if you try and build everything with those small-integer ratios you can dig yourself into a hole where moving around the musical space is rife with complications.

As a solution to this, I pulled out 'equal temperament' as an approximation with a lot of mathematical simplicity. Using a special irrational ratio called the "semitone" as a building block, we could construct the Western system of scales and modes and chords and such, where

a 'scale' is kind of like a palette for a piece of music, defined by a set of frequency ratios relative to a 'root' or 'tonic' note. this can be abstract, as in 'the major scale', or concrete, as in 'C major'.

a 'mode' is a cyclic permutation of an abstract scale. although it may contain the same notes, moving them around can change the feeling a lot!

a 'chord' is playing multiple notes at the same time. 'Triad' chords can be constructed from scales. There are other types which add or remove stuff from the triads. We'll come back to this.

I also summarised how sheet music works and the rather arbitrary choices in its construction, and at the end, I very briefly talked about chord notation.

There's a lot of ways to do this...

I recently watched a video by jazz musician and music theory youtuber Adam Neely, in which he and Philip Ewell discuss how much "music theory" is treated as synonymous with a very specific music theory which Neely glosses as "the harmonic style of 18th-century European composers". He argues, pretty convincingly imo, that 'music theory' pedagogy is seriously weakened by not taking non-white/Western models, such as Indian classical music theories, as a foil - citing Anuja Kamat's channel on Indian classical music as a great example of how to do things differently. Here's her introductory playlist on Indian classical music concepts, which I will hopefully be able to lean on in future posts:

There's two big pitfalls I wanna avoid as I teach myself music theory. I like maths a lot, and if I can fit something into a mathematical structure it's much easier for me to remember it - but I gotta be really careful not to mathwash some very arbitrary conventions and present them as more universal than they are. Music involves a lot of mathematics, but you can't reduce it to maths. It's a language for expressing emotion, not a predicate to prove.

One of the big goals of this series is to get straight in my head what has a good answer to 'why this way?', and what is just 'idk it's the convention we use'. And if something is an arbitrary convention, we gotta ask, what other conventions exist? Humans are inventive little buggers after all.

I also don't want to limit my analytical toolbox to a single 'hammer' of Western music theory, and try and force everything else into that frame. The reasons I'm learning music theory are... 1. to make my playing and singing better, and be more comfortable improvising; 2. to learn to compose stuff, which is currently a great mystery. How do they do it? I do like Western classical music, but honestly? Most of the music I enjoy is actually not Western. I want to be able to approach that music on its own terms.

For example, the erhu... for erhuample???

The instrument family I'm learning, erhu/zhonghu, is remarkably versatile - there are no frets (or even a soundboard!) to guide you, which is both a challenge and a huge freedom. You can absolutely play 12TET music on it, and it has a very beautiful sound - here is an erhu harmonising with a 12TET-tuned piano to play a song from the Princess Mononoke soundtrack, originally composed by Joe Hisaishi as an orchestral piece for the usual Western instruments...

youtube

This performance already makes heavy use of a technique called (in English) 'vibrato', where you oscillate the pitch around as you play the note (which means the whole construction that 'a note has a fixed pitch defined by a ratio' is actually an abstraction - now a note's 'frequency' represents the middle point a small range of pitches!). Vibrato is very common in Western music too, though the way you do it on an erhu and the way you do it on a violin or flute are of course a little different. (We could do an aside on Fourier analysis of vibrato here but I think that's another day's subject).

But if you listen to Chinese compositions specifically for Erhu, they take advantage of the lack of fixed pitch to zip up and down like crazy. Take the popular song Horse Racing for example, composed in the 1960s, which seems to be the closest thing to the 'iconic' erhu piece...

youtube

This can be notated in 12TET sheet music. But it's also taking full advantage of some of the unique qualities of the erhu's long string and lack of frets, like its ability to glide up and down notes, playing the full range of 'in between' frequencies on one string. The sheet music I linked there also has a notation style called 简谱 jiǎnpǔ which assigns numbers to notes. It's not so very different from Western sheet music, since it's still based on the diatonic major scale, but it's adjusted relative to the scale you're currently playing instead of always using C major. Erhu music very often includes very fast trills and a really skilled erhu/zhonghu player can jump between octaves with a level of confidence I find hard to comprehend.

I could spend this whole post putting erhu videos but let me just put one of the zhonghu specifically, which is a slightly deeper instrument; in Western terms the zhonghu (tuned to G and D) is the viola to the erhu's violin (tuned to D and A)...

youtube

To a certain degree, Chinese music is relatively easy to map across to the Western 12-tone chromatic scale. For example, the 十二律 shí'èr lǜ system uses essentially the same frequency ratios as the Pythagorean system. However, Chinese music generally makes much heavier use of pentatonic scales than Western music, and does not by default use equal temperament, instead using its own system of rational frequency ratios. correction: with the advent of Chinese orchestras in the mid-20thC, it seems that Chinese instruments now usually are tuned in equal temperament.

I would like my understanding of music theory to have a 'first class' understanding of Chinese compositions like Horse Racing (and also to have a larger reference pool lmao). I'm going to be starting formal erhu lessons next month, with a curriculum mostly focused on Chinese music. If I have interesting things to report back I'll be sure to share them!

Anyway, in a similar spirit, this post we're gonna try and do a brief survey of various musical constructs relevant to e.g. Japanese music, Klezmer, Blues, Indian classical music... I have to emphasise I am not an expert in any of these systems, so I can't promise to have the most elegant form of presentation for them, just the handles I've been able to get. I will be using Western music theory terms quite a bit still, to try and draw out the parallels and connections. But I hope it's going to be interesting all the same.

Let's start with... pentatonic scales!

Pentatonic scales

In the previous post we focused most of our attention on the diatonic scale. Confusingly, a "diatonic" scale is actually a type of heptatonic scale, meaning there are 7 notes inside an octave. As we've seen, the diatonic scale is constructed on top of the 12-semitone system.

Strictly defined, a 'diatonic' scale has five intervals of two semitones and two intervals of one semitone, and the one-semitone intervals are spread out as much as possible. So 'diatonic scales' includes the major scale and all its cyclic permutations (aka 'modes'), including the natural minor scale, but not the other two minor scales we talked about last time!

However, whoever said we should pick exactly 7 notes in the octave? That's rather arbitrary, isn't it?

After all, in illustration, a more restricted palette can often lead to a much more visually striking image. The same is perhaps even more true in music!

A pentatonic scale is, as the name suggests, a scale which has five notes in an octave. Due to all that stuff we discussed with small-number ratios, the pentatonic scales we are about to discuss can generally be mapped quite easily onto the 12-tone system. There's some reason for this - 12TET is designed to closely approximate the appealing small-number frequency ratios, so if another system uses the same frequency ratios, we can probably find a subset of 12TET that's a good match.

Of course, fitting 12TET doesn't mean it matches the diatonic scale, necessarily. Still, once you're on the 12 tone system, there's enough diatonic scales out there that you can often define a pentatonic scale in terms of a delta relative to one of the diatonic scale modes. Like, 'shift this degree down, delete that degree'.

Final caveat: I'm not sure if it's strictly correct to use equal temperament in all these examples, but all the sources I find define these scales using Western music notation, so we'll have to go with that.

Sakura, sakura and the yonanuki scale

Let's start with Japanese music. Here's the Edo-period folk song Sakura, Sakura, which is one of the most iconic pieces of Japanese music¸ especially abroad:

youtube

This uses the in scale, also known as the sakura pentatonic scale, one of a few widely used pentatonic scales in Japanese folk music, along with the yo scale, insen scale and iwato scale... according to English-language sources.

Finding the actual Japanese was a bit difficult - so far as I can tell the Japanese wiki page for Sakura, Sakura never mentions the scale named after it! - but eventually I found a page for pentatonic scales, or 五音音階 goon onkai. So we can finally determine the kanji for this scale is 陰音階 in onkai or 陰旋法 in senpou. [Amusingly, the JP wiki article on pentatonic scales actually leads with... Scottish folk songs and gamelan before it goes into Japanese music.]

However, perhaps more pertinent is this page: ヨナ抜き音階 which introduces the terms yonanuki onkai and ニロ抜き音階 nironuki onkai. This can be glossed as 'leave out the fourth (yo) and seventh (na) scale' and 'leave out the second (ni) and sixth (ro) scale', describing two procedures to construct pentatonic scales from a diatonic scale.

Let's recap major and minor. Last time we defined them using semitone intervals from a root note (the one in brackets is the next octave):

position: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, (8) major: 0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, (12) minor: 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, (12)

From here we can construct some pentatonic scales. Firstly, here are your yonanuki scales - the ones that delete the fourth and seventh:

major: 0, 2, 4, 7, 9, (12) minor: 0, 2, 3, 7, 8, (12)

Starting on C for the major and A for the minor (the ones with the blank key signature), this is how you notate that in Western sheet music. As you can see, we have just deleted a couple of steps.

The first one is the 'standard' major pentatonic scale in Western music theory; it's also called the ryo scale in traditional Japanese music (呂旋法 ryosenpou). The second one is a mode (cyclic permutation) of a scale called 都��音階 miyakobushi, which is apparently equivalent to the in scale.

In terms of gaps between successive notes, these go:

major: 2, 2, 3, 2, 3 - very even minor: 2, 1, 4, 1, 4 - whoah, huge intervals!

The miyakobushi scale, for comparison, goes...

miyakobushi (absolute): 0, 1, 5, 7, 8, (12) miyakobushi (deltas): 1, 4, 2, 1, 4

JP wikipedia lists two different versions of the 陰旋法 (in scale), for ascending and descending. Starting on C, one goes C, D, Eb, G, A; the other goes C, D, Eb, G, Ab. Let's convert that into my preferred semitone interval notation:

in scale (absolute, asc): 0, 2, 3, 7, 9, (12) in scale (relative, asc): 2, 1, 4, 2, 3 in scale (absolute, desc): 0, 2, 3, 7, 8, (12) in scale (relative, desc): 2, 1, 4, 1, 4

So we see that the 'descending form' of the in scale matches the minor yonanuki scale, and it's a mode (cyclic permutation) of the miyakobushi scale.

We've talked a great deal about the names and construction of the different type of scales, but beyond the vague gesture to the standard associations of 'major upbeat, minor sad/mysterious' I don't think we've really looked at how a scale actually affects a piece of music.

So let's have a look at the semitone intervals in Sakura, Sakura in absolute terms from to the first note...

sakura, sakura, ya yoi no so ra-a wa 0, 0, 2; 0, 0, 2; 0, 2, 3, 2, 0, 2-0, -4

and in relative terms between successive notes:

sa ku ra, sa ku ra, ya yo i no so ra-a wa 0, 0, +2; -2, 0, +2; -2, +2, +1, -1, -2, +2, -2, -4

If you listen to Sakura, Sakura, pay attention to the end of the first line - that wa suddenly drops down a huge distance (a major second - for some reason I miscalculated this and thought it was a tritone) and that's where it feels like damn, OK, this song is really cooking! It catches you by surprise. We can identify these intervals as belonging to the in/yoyanuki minor scale, and even starting on its root note.

Although its subject matter is actually pretty positive (hey, check it out guys, the cherry blossoms are falling!), Sakura, Sakura sounds mournful and mysterious. What makes it sound 'minor'? The first phrase doesn't actually tell you what key we're in, that jump of 2 semitones could happen in major or minor. But the second phrase, introduces the pattern of going up 2, then up 1, from the root note - that's the minor scale pattern. What takes it beyond just 'we're in minor'? That surprise tritone move down. According to the rough working model that 'dissonant notes create tension, consonant notes resolve it', this creates a ton of tension. This analysis is bunk, there isn't a tritone. It's a big jump but it's not that big a jump.

How does it eventually wrap up? The final phrase of Sakura, Sakura goes...

i za ya, i za ya, mi ni yu - u ka nn 0, 0, 2; 0, 0, 2; -5, -4, 2, 0, -4, -5 0, 0, +2; -2, 0, +2; -5, +1, +4, -2, -4, -1

Here's my attempt to try and do a very basic tonal/interval analysis. We start out this phrase with the same notes as the opening bars, but abruptly diverge in bar 3, slowing down at the same time, which provides a hint that things are about to come to a close. The move of -5 down is a perfect fourth; in contrast to the tritone major second we had before, this is considered a very consonant interval. (A perfect fourth down is also equivalent to going up a fifth and then down an octave. So we're 'ending on the fifth'.) We move up a little and down insteps of 4, 2, and 1, which are less dramatic. Then we come back down and end on the fifth. We still have those 4-steps next to 1 steps which is the big flag that says 'whoah we're in the sakura pentatonic scale', but we're bleeding off some of the tension here.

Linguistically, the song also ends on the mora ん, the only mora that is only a consonant (rather than a vowel or consonant-vowel), and that long drawn-out voiced consonant gives a feeling of gradually trailing away. So you could call it a very 'soft' ending.

Is this 'tension + resolution' model how a Japanese music theorist would analyse this song? It seems to be a reasonably effective model when applied to Japanese music by... various music theorist youtubers, but I don't really know! That's something I want to find out more about.

Something raised on the English wiki is the idea that the miyakobushi scale is divided into two groups, spanning a fourth each, which is apparently summarised by someone called Koizumi Fumio in a book written in 1974:

Each group goes up 1 (a semitone or minor second), then 4 (major third), for a total of 5 (perfect fourth). The edges of these little blocks are considered 'nucleus' notes, and they're of special importance.

Can we see this in action if we look at Sakura, Sakura? ...ehhhh. I admit, the way I think of the song is shaped by the way I play it on the zhonghu; I think of the first two two-bar phrases as the 'upper part' and the third phrase as the 'lower part', and neither lines up neatly with these little groups. Still. I suspect Koizumi Fumio, author of Nihon no ongaku, knows a little more about this than I do, so I figure it's worth a mention.

Aside: on absorbing a song

Sakura, Sakura is kinda special to me because it's like the second piece I learned to play on zhonghu (after Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star lmao). I can't play it well, but I am proud that I have learned to play it at least recognisably.

The process of learning to play it involved writing out tabs and trying out different ways of moving my hand. I transcribed Sakura Sakura down to start on F, since that way the open G string of the zhonghu could be the lowest note of the piece, and worked out a tab for it using a tab system I cooked up with my friend. Here's what it looks like. The system counts semitones up from the open string, and it uses an underline to mark the lower string.

(Also, credit where it's due - I would never have made any progress learning about music if not for my friend Maki Yamazaki, a prodigiously multitalented self-taught musician who can play dozens of instruments, and also the person who sold me her old zhonghu for dirt cheap, if you're wondering why a white British girl might be learning such an unusual instrument. You can and should check our her music here! Maki has done more than absolutely anyone to make music comprehensible to me, and a lot of this post is inspired by discussing the previous post with her.)

When you want to make a song playable on an instrument, you have to perform some interpretation. Which fingers should play which notes? When should you move your hand? How do you make sure you hit the right notes? At some point this kind of movement becomes second nature, but I'm at the stage, just like a player encountering a new genre of videogame, where I still don't have the muscle memory or habituation to how things work, and each of these little details has to be worked out one by one. But this is great, because this process makes me way more intimately familiar with the contours of the song. Trying to analyse the moves it makes like the above even more so.

More Japanese scales

So, to sum up what we've observed, the beautiful minor sounds of Sakura Sakura come from a pentatonic scale which can be constructed by taking the diatonic scale and blasting certain notes into the sea, namely the fourth and the seventh of the scale. But what about the nironuki scale? Well, this time we delete the second and the sixth. So we get, in absolute terms:

major nironuki (abs): 0, 4, 5, 7, 11, (12) major nironuki (rel): 4, 1, 2, 4, 1 minor nironuki (abs): 0, 3, 5, 7, 10, (12) minor nironuki (rel): 3, 2, 2, 3, 2

Hold on a minute, doesn't that look rather familiar? The major nironuki scale is a permutation, though not a cyclic permutation, of the minor yonanuki scale. And the minor nironuki scale is a cyclic permutation (mode) of the major one.

Nevertheless, these scales have names and significance of their own. The major one is known as the 琉球音階 ryūkyū onkai or Okinawan scale. The minor one is what Western music would call a 'minor pentatonic scale'. It also mentions a couple of other names for it, like the 民謡音階 minyou onkai (folk scale).

We also have the yō scale, which like the in scale, comes in ascending and descending forms. You want these too? Yeah? Ok, here we go.

yō scale (asc, abs): 0, 2, 5, 7, 10, (12) yō scale (asc, rel): 2, 3, 2, 3, 2 yō scale (desc, abs): 0, 2, 5, 7, 9, (12) yō scale (desc, rel): 2, 3, 2, 2, 3

The yō scale is what's called an anhemitonic pentatonic scale, which is just a fancy way of saying it doesn't have semitones. (The in scale in turn is hemitonic). The ascending form is also called the 律戦法 ritsusenpou. Here's the complete table of all the variants I've found so far.

So, in summary: Japanese music uses a lot of pentatonic scales. (In a future post we can hopefully see how that applies in modern Japanese music). These pentatonic scales can be constructed by deleting two notes from the diatonic scales. In general, you land in one of two zones: the anhemitonic side, where all the intervals between successive notes, are 2 and 3, and the hemitonic side, where the intervals are spicier 1s and 4s and a lone 2. From there, you can move between other pentatonic scales by cyclic permutations and reversal.

If you analyse Japanese music from a Western lens, you might well end up interpreting it according to one of the modes of the major scale. In fact, the 8-bit music theory video I posted last time takes this approach. This isn't wrong per se, it's a viable way to getting insight into how the tune works if you want to ask the question 'how does this conjure emotions and how do I get the same effects', but it's worthwhile to know what analytical frame the composers are likely to be using.

Gamelan - when 12TET won't cut it

Gamelan is a form of Indonesian ensemble music. I do not at this time know a ton about it, but here's a performance:

youtube

However, if you're reading my blog then it's likely that if know gamelan from anywhere, it's most likely the soundtrack to Akira composed by Shōji Yamashiro.

youtube

This blends traditional gamelan instrumentation and voices with modern synths to create an incredibly bold and (for most viewers outside Indonesia!) unfamiliar sound to accompany the film's themes of psychic awakening and evolution. It was an inspired choice, adding a lot to an already great film.

'A gamelan' is the ensemble; 'gamelan' is also the style of music. There are many different types of gamelan associated with different occasions - some gamelans are only allowed to form for special ceremonies. Gamelan is also used as a soundtrack in accompaniment to other art forms, such as wayang kulit and wayang wong (respectively, shadow puppetry and dance).

Since gamelan music evidently uses quite a bit of percussion, and so far we've been focused on the type of music played on strings and wind instruments - a brief comment on the limitations of our abstractions. Many types of drums don't fit the 'tonal music' frame we've outlined so far, creating a broad frequency spectrum that's close to an enveloped burst of white noise rather than a sharply peaked fundamental + overtones. There's a ton to study in drumming, and if this series continues you bet I'll try to understand it.

But there are tonal percussion instruments, and a lot of them are to be found in gamelan, particularly in the metalophone family (e.g. the ugal or jegogan). The Western 'xylophone' and 'glockenspiel' also belong to this family. Besides metalophones, you've got bells, steel drums, tuning forks etc. Tuning a percussion instrument is a matter of adjusting the shape of the metal to adjust the resonant frequency of its normal modes. I imagine it's really fiddly.

In any case, the profile of a percussion note is quite different from the continual impulse provided by e.g. a violin bow. You get a big burst across all frequencies and then everything but the resonant mode dies out, leaving the ringing with a much simpler spectrum.

Anyway, let's get on to scales and shit. While I have the Japanese wikipedia page on pentatonic scales open, that it mentions a gamelan scale called pelog (written ᮕᮦᮜᮧᮌ᮪, ꦥꦺꦭꦺꦴꦒ꧀ or ᬧᬾᬮᭀᬕ᭄ in different languages) meaning 'beautiful'. Pelog is not strictly one scale, but a family of tunings which vary across Indonesia. Depending on who you ask, it might in some cases be reasonably close to a 9-tone equal temperament (9TET), which means a number of notes can't be represented in 12TET - you have that 4 12TET semitones would be equivalent to 3 9TET semitones. From this is drawn a heptatonic scale, but not one that can be mapped exactly to any 12TET heptatonic scale. Isn't that fun!

To represent scales that don't exactly fit the tuning of 12TET, there's a logarithmic unit of measure called the 'cent'. Each 12TET semitone contains 100 cents, so in terms of ratios, a cent is the the 1200th root of 2. In this system, a 9TET semitone is 133 cents. Some steps in the pelog heptatonic scale would then be two 9TET semitones, and others one 9TET semitone. However, this system of 'semitones' does not seem to be how gamelan music is actually notated - it's assumed you already have an established pelog tuning and can play within that. So it's a little difficult for me to give you a decent representation of a gamelan scale that isn't approximated by 12TET.

From the 7-tone pelog scale, whatever it happens to be where you live, you can further derive pentatonic scales. These have various names, like the pelog selisir used in the gamelan gong kebyar. I'm not going to itemise them here both because I haven't actually been able to find the basic pelog tunings (at least by their 9TET approximation).

Another scale used in gamelan is called slendro, a five tone scale of 'very roughly' equal intervals. Five is coprime with 12, so there's no straightforward mapping of any part of this scale to the 12-tone system. But more than that, fully even scales are quite rare in the places we've looked so far. (Though apparently within slendro, you can play a note that's deliberately 'out of place', called 'miring'. This transforms the mood from 'light, cheerful and busy' to one appropriate to scenes of 'homesickness, love missing, sadness, death, languishing'.)

The Western musical notation system is plainly unsuited for gamelan, and naturally it has its own system - or rather several systems. In one method, the seven tones of the pelog are numbered 1 through 7, and a subset of those numbers are used to enumerate slendro tuning. You can write it on a grid similar to a musical staff.

But we could wonder with this research - is the attempt to map pélog to 'equal temperament' an external imposition? Presented with a tuning system with seven intervals that are not consistently equal temperament, averaging them to construct an equal temperament hypothesis on that basis, and finally attempting to prove that gamelan players 'prefer' equal temperament... well, they do at least bother to ask, but I'm not entirely convinced that 9TET or 5TET is the right model. Unfortunately, most of the literature I'm able to find on gamelan music theory with a cursory search is by Western researchers.

There's a fairly long history of Western composers taking inspiration from gamelan, notably Debussy and Saty. And of course, modern Indonesian composers such as I Nyoman Windha have also been finding ways to combine gamelan with Western styles. Here's a piece composed by him (unfortunately not a splendid recording):

youtube

Klezmer - layer 'em up

If you've known me for long enough you might remember the time I had a huge Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird phase. (I still think he's great, I just did that thing where I obsessively listen to one small set of things for a period). And I'd also listen to old revolutionary songs in Yiddish all the time. Because of course I did lmao. Anyway, here's a song that combines both: Kahn's modern arrangement of Arbetlose Marsch in English and Yiddish:

youtube

That's a style of music called klezmer, developed by Ashkenazi Jews in Central/Eastern Europe starting in the late 1500s and 1600s. It's a blend of a whole bunch of different traditions, combining elements from Jewish religious music with other neighbouring folk music traditions and European music at large. When things really kicked off at the end of the 19th century, klezmer musicians were often a part of the Jewish socialist movement (and came up with some real bangers - the Tsar may have been shot by the Bolsheviks but tbh, Daloy Politsey already killed him). But equally there's a reason it sounds insanely danceable: it was very often used for dances.

The rest of the 20th century happened, but klezmer survived all the genocides and there are lots of different modern klezmer bands.

The defining characteristics of klezmer per Wikipedia are... ok, this is quite long...

Klezmer musicians apply the overall style to available specific techniques on each melodic instrument. They incorporate and elaborate the vocal melodies of Jewish religious practice, including khazones, davenen, and paraliturgical song, extending the range of human voice into the musical expression possible on instruments.[21] Among those stylistic elements that are considered typically "Jewish" in Klezmer music are those which are shared with cantorial or Hasidic vocal ornaments, including dreydlekh ("tear in the voice"; plural of dreidel)[22][23] and imitations of sighing or laughing ("laughter through tears").[24] Various Yiddish terms were used for these vocal-like ornaments such as קרעכץ (Krekhts, "groan" or "moan"), קנײטש (kneytsh, "wrinkle" or "fold"), and קװעטש (kvetsh, "pressure" or "stress").[10] Other ornaments such as trills, grace notes, appoggiaturas, glitshn (glissandos), tshoks (a kind of bent notes of cackle-like sound), flageolets (string harmonics),[22][25]pedal notes, mordents, slides and typical Klezmer cadences are also important to the style.[18]

So evidently klezmer will be relevant throughout this series, but for now, since we're trying to flesh out the picture of 'how is tuning formed', let's take a look at the notes.

So it's absolutely possible to fit klezmer into the 12TET system. But we're going to need to crack open a few new scales. Though the Wikipedia editors enumerating this list caution us: "Another problem in listing these terms as simple eight-note (octatonic) scales is that it makes it harder to see how Klezmer melodic structures can work as five-note pentachords, how parts of different modes typically interact, and what the cultural significance of a given mode might be in a traditional Klezmer context."

With that caution in mind, let's at least see what we're given. First of all we have the Freygish or Ahavoh Rabboh scale, one of the most common pieces, good friend of the Western phrygian but with an extra semitone. Then there's Mi Sbererakh or Av HaRachamim which is a mode of it, that's popular around Ukraine. Adonoy Molokh or Adoyshem Molokh is the major scale but you drop the seventh a semitone. Mogen Ovos is the same as the natural minor at least on the interval level.

Which means, without the jargon, here are the semitones (wow wouldn't it be nice if you had tables on here?):

position: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, (8) freygish: 0, 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, (12) deltas: 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2 mi sberakh: 0, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, (12) deltas: 2, 1, 3, 2, 2, 1, 2 adonoy m.: 0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, (12) deltas: 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2 mogen o.: 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, (12) deltas: 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2

...that's a big block of numbers to make your eyes glaze over huh. Maybe this 'convert everything to semitone deltas' thing isn't all it's cracked up to be... or maybe what I need to do is actually visualise it somehow? Some kinda big old graph showing all the different scales we've worked out so far and how they relate to each other? ...hold your horses...

[It seems like what I've done is reinvent something called 'musical set theory', incidentally.]

OK, having enumerated these, let's return to the Wikipedian's caution. What is a pentachord? Pretty simple, it's a chord of five notes. Mind you, some people define it as five successive notes of a diatonic scale.

In klezmer, you've got a bunch of different instruments playing at once creating a really dense sound texture. Presumably one of the things you do when you play klezmer is try and get the different instruments in your ensemble to hit the different levels of that pentachord. How does that work? Well, if we consult the sources, we find this scan of a half-handwritten PDF presenting considerably more detail on the modes and how they're played. The scales above are combined with a 'motivic scheme' presenting different patterns that notes tend to follow, and a 'typical cadence'. Moreover, these modes can have 'sub-modes' which tend to follow when the main mode gets established.

To me reading this, I can kind of imagine the process of composing/improvisation within this system almost like a state machine. It's not just that you have a scale, you have a certain state you're in in the music (e.g. main mode or sub-mode), and a set of transitional moves you can potentially make for the next segment. That's probably too rigid a model though. There's also a more specific aspect discussed in the book that a klezmer musician needs to know how to move between their repertoire of klezmer pieces - what pieces can sensibly follow from what.

Ultimately, I don't want to give you a long list of stuff to memorise. (Sure, if you want to play klezmer, you probably need to get familiar with how to use these modes, but that's between you and your klezmer group). Rather I want to make sure we don't have any illusion that the Western church modes are the only correct way to compose music.

Blues - can anyone agree?

Blues is a style of music developed by Black musicians in the American south in the late 1800s, directly or indirectly massively influential on just about every genre to follow, but especially jazz. It's got a very characteristic style defined by among other elements use of 'blue notes' that don't fit the standard diatonic scale. According to various theorists, you can add the blue notes to a scale to construct something called the 'blues scale'. According to certain other theorists, this exercise is futile, and Blues techniques can't be reduced to a scale.

So for the last part of today's whirlwind tour of scales, let's take a brief look at the blues...

There are a few different blues scales. The most popular definition seems to be a hexatonic scale. We'll start with the minor pentatonic scale, or in Japanese, the minor nironuki scale - which is to say we take the minor diatonic scale and delete positions 2 and 6. That gives:

minor nironuki (abs): 0, 3, 5, 7, 10, (12) minor nironuki (rel): 3, 2, 2, 3, 2

Now we need to add a new note, the 'flat fifth degree' of the original scale. In other words, 6 semitones above the root - the dreaded tritone!

hexatonic blues (abs): 0, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, (12) hexatonic blues (rel): 3, 2, 1, 1, 3, 2

Easy enough right? Listen to that, it does sound kinda blues-y. But hold your horses! Moments after defining this scale, we read...

A major feature of the blues scale is the use of blue notes—notes that are played or sung microtonally, at a slightly higher or lower pitch than standard.[5] However, since blue notes are considered alternative inflections, a blues scale may be considered to not fit the traditional definition of a scale.

So, if you want to play blues, it's not enough to mechanically play a specific scale in 12TET. You also gotta break the palette a little bit.

There's also a 'major blues' heptatonic scale which goes 0, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, according to one guy called Dan Greenblatt.

But that's not the only attempt to enumerate the 'blues scale'. Other authors will give you slightly longer scales. For example, if you ask Smallwood:

heptatonic blues (abs): 0, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, (12) heptatonic blues (rel): 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2

which isn't quite a mode of any of those klezmer scales we saw previously, but nearly!

If you ask Benward and Saker, meanwhile, a Blues scale could actually be nonatonic scale, where you add flattened versions of a couple of notes to the major scale.

nonatonic blues (abs): 0, 2, 3/4, 5, 7, 9, 10/11, (12)

There's also an idea that you should play notes in between the semitones, i.e. quarter tones, which would be a freq ratio of the 24th root of 2 if you're keeping score at home.

The upshot of all this is probably that going too far formalise the blues is probably not in the spirit of the blues, but if you want to go in a blues-y direction it will probably mean insert an extra, flattened version of a note to one of your scales. Muck around and see what works, I guess!

Of course, there's a lot more to Blues than just tweaking a scale. For example, 'twelve bar blues' is a specific formalised chord progression that is especially universal in Jazz. What it means for chords to 'progress' is a whole subject, and I think that's the next thing I'll try to understand for post 3. Hopefully we'll be furnished with a slightly broader model of how music works as we go there though.

To wrap up, here's the spreadsheet showing all the 12TET scales encountered so far in this series in a visual way. There's obviously plenty more out there, but this is not ultimately a series about scales. It's all well and good to have a list of what exists, but it's pointless if we don't know how to use it.

Phew

Mind you even with all this, we haven't covered at all some of the most complex systems of tonal music - I've only made the vaguest gesture towards Indian classical music, Chinese music, Jazz... That's way beyond me at the moment. But maybe not forever.

Next up: I'm going to try and finally wrap my head around chords and make sense of what it means for them to 'progress', have 'movement' etc. And maybe render a bit more concrete the vague stuff I said about 'tension' and 'resolution'.

(Also: I definitely know I have friends on here who are very widely knowledgeable about music theory. If I've made any major mistakes, please let me know! At some point I hope to republish this series with nicer formatting on canmom.art, and it would be great to fix the bugs by then!)

#Youtube #music theory #music notes #music #notes #japanese music #gamelan #chinese music #klezmer #blues #i took my new adhd meds and hyperfocused on this all day instead of working ><

128 notes · View notes

foolsocracy · 11 months

Note

I love felicia. Why is she written like that. How is she so badly and well written simultaneously. I hate it. I hate her. Its bad. Its good. Why did they make her sleep with noir. Why is she reduced to an object. She's so much more than this and I know it. She's more than her relationships with men. But also they're so vital to her in ways no one understands. I'm crazy about her.

felica is unknowable. she is an enigma but ive been itching to talk about her.

There's a lot about her that I do really like! She has great bones for a complex character and if there was more source material I feel like she could have had more time to be understood and explored.

I really really wish that there was another woman present she could have riffed with. Spider noir is a man-fest which makes her really man-centric because thats all she's got to work with. Its a huge disservice! I do understand that nightclub life and working with powerful NY politicians and criminals will lend itself towards men, but come on now. Easy spot to throw Gwen into (fanfics love to do it lol), or even swapping the gender of someone else like they did with Jean DeWolfe.

I love that she runs a speakeasy which lets her get right in the middle of soo much information. And historically this can pull really well from 1920s hostesses.

In fact, one of the most highly developed skills of nightclub hostesses in New York was their ability to fleece unsuspecting customers. Trained by their bosses "to get as much information as possible from prospective suckers regarding their bank accounts and business," hostesses come on to male patrons with the express goal of "mounting the check." "After enough money is spent," one hostess recounted [...], the goal is to get "the sucker drunk and the works [will] follow." (Dry Manhattan)

[at high end speakeasies] these hostesses earned tips and commissions on the checks they mounted, often as much as one-third of the total, which could bring them from $150 to $400 a week. (Dry Manhattan)

And this was during a time when the average yearly income was $3,269.40. I could totally see her finding her way like that in the early 20s before opening up a place for herself w/ all that money. The only shitty part is it makes her an accessory to men, plus w most of the story being told from Peter's POV we aren't privy to her thoughts. I think because she's basically the only woman with agency that her narrative relationship with men is so bad tasting.

Her character has so much beneath the surface. She knows everything about everyone!! and we never get to see it because she's jaded and secretive and doesn't trust anyone like that, especially not a dumbass teenager with a death wish.

AND HER RELATIONSHIP WITH PETER. don't even get me started. 1) WHY? They didn't have to go there. I know I know its a noir trope. As per the BBC the first rule of Film Noir is "A Dame With a Past and a Hero With No Future." And the Spiderman Noir team committed to it. If only they didn't commit so hard to Felica making multiple comments about how much of a kid Peter was after she was introduced as his mentor's ex. There has to be at least like 15yrs of an age difference between them.

but theres also the flip side that the noirverse is obviously fucked. Media doesn't have to be 100% moral and whatnot (especially in a noir setting), but it doesn't mean i have to root for pete and felica as a romantic couple LMFAO. Ive seen people rewrite their relationship as the strangest, oddest, most fucked up dysfunctional family and you know what i'll take that.

even having that aspect of her character being something where its telling of her past/present, where she doesn't know how to separate pete, a (frankly) dangerous person she needs to keep tabs on and know his secrets, from everyone else she works with. She's been so deeply enveloped by her need to keep herself one step ahead, to have physical power over another in any way (the only way) she knows how, that this is the means she resorts to. but of course we dont know any of that because they didn't bother delving into her more. it does make for a dimensional character at the very least. now if only she wasn't the only main woman.. so that character arc doesn't seem so sexist. and if only pete wasnt so fucking young my gooodddd. but thats what we're working with. such is life

#she makes me crazzyy whyyyy #there is so much in my head i dont know how to get the words out tho #and before anyone raises an eyebrow im not defending her lmfao im just trying to piece together what we're already working with #tw age gap #felicia hardy #asks #anon #yeah if anyone wants to rationalize felica w me hmu im down to hash it out #thanks for the ask!

40 notes · View notes

real-total-drama-takes · 1 year

Note

im bored and kinda high so heres my opinion on all the reboot characters

caleb - is a character

axel - im just as gay for her as the next guy but there's no way in hell she's final two next season lol but i wanna hold hands w her

nichelle- yass girl give us nothing 🥰

scary girl - idc idc she was funny asf but i am glad she went early bc if she stayed any longer i wouldve hated her lol

damien - one of the best things to come from the reboot and yall are doing him a huge disservice shipping him w priya 🥴 that shit is so boring but honestly? there might be something there somebody's gotta make me a believer tho. CONVINCE ME

mk - as a bitter, annoying, sarcastic individual myself i could not stand this bitch omg 💀 her character has a ton going for it but all they did w her is make every single one of her lines sarcastic n shit and i was BORED

raj - dumb gay man i love him

wayne - dumb ace man i love him

ripper - bro just wasnt funy. i dont get why they make characters who just pride themselves in being nasty n shit kind of a waste of development idk

zee - we can all agree that he was great but he gives me early boot vibes for next season bc like if we're demanding development for all the first season early boots then he's just gonna be there ig. dumb can only get you so far yknow?

chase - him and emma both are such wasted potential like BREAK THE HETEROS UP OMG their relationship dragged the second half down so bad like chase is just bad for the sake of being bad. like he wasn't even funny either just a waste of space by the time he was gone 😭

emma - first i'll say im glad we got a plus sized girl w some fucking athletic ability beCause THEY EXIST yay happy but anyway she was so funy until she got back with chase and that whole shit w him throwing that challenge for pizza was so DUMB like she honestly thought he did that shit for her 💀 like she was CONVINCED bro the straight delusion was insane

julia - she was the bad bitch we all needed and deserved but i cannot sit here and let you mfs say that she played the game well bc she absolutely DID NOT. girlie had no actual strategy other than winning and thas not even a strategy. even her trying to "manipulate" chase that one time sucked too lmao. bro her goal was to get everyone to hate her and win out of spite that shit is so dumb but it's so her so idc we love her anyway

millie - there were so many times where i lowkey forget she existed lmfao i don't even dislike her it was just "oh yea she here too lol" but i gotta say it kinda feels like they used her as a scapegoat to make writing her outta the finale easier idk maybe it's just me. but her crying after bowie clowned her ass when she was eliminated was the funnies bit in the entire show i was giggling n shit bc she honestly did that to herself lmao rip

priya - people compare her to zoey and sky way too much honestly (its me, im people) but when you look at it we have a mary sue that was infuriating to watch , the same girl but olympic flavored whos existence i have to be reminded of every two months, and priya. priya is perfectly fine and she was a nice winner even if i knew she was gonna win the second she was onscreen lolZ but when she read millie's notebook and absolutely demolished her ego i was living. like girlie ate her up w absolutely no crumbs left idc

bowie (the real winner) - i was fully prepared and ready to hate this twink istg. like i was in my homophobic era and ready the second his name was called but omg i love him sm. he was the queen i never knew i needed in my life. and to all the mfs who say his gayness is his entire personally have never met an fem black man and it shows 💀 idc what anyone says he's the best writer character in the entire show 🤭 as much as i love him i cannot let his fit slide. the pearls can stay bc those were a serve but the pants??? THE FUCKING PANTS??? THOSE FUCKING FLOOD WARNING HIGH WATERS.?? why would they do him like that omg. fits like that are why we get hate crimed 😔

ok im done good luck to anyone who actually reads this lmao

#total drama #total drama 2023 #td Millie #td priya #td caleb #td wayne #td raj #td bowie #td axel #td Nichelle #td scary girl #td julia #td mk #td emma #td chase #td zee #td ripper #td Damien

37 notes · View notes

bedlamsbard · 1 year

Note

1, 21, 13 for the choose violence

1. the character everyone gets wrong

STEVE ROGERS. There's an overwhelming tendency to smooth down Steve's sharp edges and generally make him softer, sweeter, gentler, more innocent. This man is all sharp edges and while he's not always going to push himself past his limits, when he's holding himself back from them you can tell and it's -- it's very weird to see. It's most common in the ensemble films, like Avengers and AoU and Endgame, there's this air of like...restraint? And then the sharp edges come out when he gets too tired of holding himself back. One of my favorite Steve scenes is in CATWS, during the fight with Batroc, because it's a perfect kernel of Steve characterization. Not just the on va voir part, but the actual fight itself.

But also, like, Steve is mad ALL THE TIME. He's probably the angriest character in the MCU, Bruce Banner included. It's true from CATFA onwards. (I talk about his anger in CATFA a little in Horizon, so I won't reiterate it here.) I see Steve as someone who's always struggled with depression, and his anger is part of that, because he does have those lightning flickers from being functionally depressed and going through the motions to suddenly being blindingly, furiously angry -- Avengers is the most obvious example of this, but it turns up in AoU, CATWS, and CACW too; I don't think he ever hits angry in Endgame, though. He's functionally depressed but there's nothing in that film that kicks him into the anger side of it. (Caveat: my specific brainweasels function this way, which is why I read Steve's as doing so.)

also, uh, here is probably the really controversial read on Steve: there's a tendency in this fandom to give credit for anything and everything Steve does to his feelings about Bucky, and I don't...think that's true. yes, Steve cares a lot about Bucky, but it's a huge disservice to his character to say that Steve only went to Krausberg for Bucky or that he only crashed the Valkyrie because of Bucky or that he only destroyed SHIELD/HYDRA for Bucky or that he was only opposed to the Accords because of Bucky. sure, Bucky is a factor in most of those situations, but Steve would have done all of them anyway. give the man some credit for his own agency!

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

outside of this side of the fandom, probably Endgame, but that's a given. on the Tumblr/AO3 side of the fandom I don't think that's true at all lol.

in this side of the fandom -- uh, Thor, the first one. I've been going through Phase 1 lately and the first Thor film, which a lot of Thor and Loki fans I know feel very strongly about, is a chopped up mess -- I think it's the only film in the MCU that really, really suffers from having its deleted scenes removed, but even with those it's trying to do too many things at the same time and it can't give any of them enough space, plus its Asgard design is a hot mess -- TDW and later Ragnarok had to essentially bend over backwards to fix it. It does a lot of things very well, but it also does a lot of things not well at all. The Thor films are all inconsistent across the board, though; it's the weakest line in the entire MCU.

13. worst blorboficiation

I have THREE answers for this, all of which are bad in their specific ways, but for absolute worst: Tony Stark. I like Tony! He actually is a character I like! He is also super fucked up in ways that Tony fans just ignore or soften or whatever; the weirdest part to me is the desire to make Tony a ~soft dad to Peter, Shuri, Loki, Nebula...Morgan sometimes. This man took a fifteen-year-old kid to Germany to fight Captain America without telling him why, y'all. what about that says "good father figure" to you. he's also brutal to Bruce in IW.

the other two answers are Peggy Carter and Loki, which are pretty self-evident. I think I'd also actually put Natasha on this list, too, because she's another character who people really want to soften.

#thelurkinglark #bedlam replies #bedlam watches the mcu

24 notes · View notes

mzannthropy · 1 year

Text

I can't help feeling that lately everything I've watched has been a bit of a letdown. Not completely terrible, just not as good as it could have been. Or entirely throwing away its potential. DJATS burned me so badly, I will need the rest of this year to recover (and worse that it had to do with the very guy I was even in this for). Star Trek Picard was a nostalgia soup and while it was good to see the old squad back, I still haven't forgotten about the characters from S1&2 and I still miss Rios and I'm not getting over it any time soon! Plus they pulled my most hated trope of all time (the one with a dude having a kid he didn't know about bc the mother didn't tell him) and I honestly don't care about Jack Crusher. Shadow and Bone, I haven't read the books but as a purely show watcher, the series descended into some cartoon villainy with Darkling. It was a huge disservice to Ben Barnes. Yeah, the crows are cool and all that, but I think they should have had their own series. Heist is too low stakes compared to war between good and evil. As for Marvelous Mrs Maisel, I didn't expect much from S5 anyway, the writing has been on the decline since S3 and the show keeps relying on the same gimmick. ASP is good with dialogue and jokes, but she needs to partner with another writer for character arcs.

On the other hand, I've also been watching Elementary, am almost at the end of S2 and so far, no complaints. But that's not a recent show, ofc.

#rambling #my thoughts and my thoughts only #i WANT to like things #and i'm not normally like this. i liked GOT ending!#but i'm afraid we're past the peak of golden tv era #see all of these could've been so much better if the writers made better decisions #much of it is actually telling rather than showing #aka the most basic rule of fiction writing #i will not care about your pet character or your pet ship just bc you tell me to #in fact quite the opposite. i will start hating it #bc that's how i roll #i seem to be posting more negatively lately #but it's a relief to be able to write it out #and not bottle it up #sometimes you just hate things #mypost

3 notes · View notes

myst1calx · 3 months

Note

Okay, this is gonna sound inconsequential... but this actually reveals how large swaths of, what I dub, "Cap-not-Steve fans" Do Not Understand Steve Rogers

I don't like September 28th (or w/e the day was) as Steve's birthday either (January 3rd winter baby born of hardship is so much more symbolic) but anyone begging for Steve's real b-day to be America ca-caw 🦅 🇺🇸 does not get him tee bee aich¡

And really it speaks to just how much Marvel has (to this day) flanderized Steve into a generic cardboard cutout Mr. Murrica Sweet Home Alabama Man that his "fans” can get mad at any time Steve finally gets humanized like a real person and not a 🇺🇸🦅 propaganda bland white bread blank slate

the name "Captain America" was in-universe just a propaganda dancing stage show persona that Steve was put into, he hated it and wanted to actually fight for real. Every "Cap" thing should be treated as a foreign imposition that Steve has to muscle past in order to be a Real Hero.

A core (but often forgotten) part of Steve's character is him being treated as a joke even after the serum at first, and this is in part of his foil-ness with Bucky, who was in the military first and given the more dangerous and bloodier missions while Cap is pushed out to look good for the military propaganda camera crew that followed them around. A huge part of the Spectre of Captain America is that the identity was superimposed onto Steve and he was forced to play a part so he can strive to be a Real Hero too, and repeatedly a lot of those Real Hero moments are of Steve being in defiance to the flag that the Cap persona was made to serve. Steve's most human moments is when we remember that he was a person before he was told to be "Cap". So, ofc July 4th ain't his birthday lmaooo.

a lot of yall onhere&twt seem more about making him a "whimsical" unironic Sat morning cartoon/caricature of unrionic 🇺🇸🦅 propaganda, but that's literally when Steve's character is most disservice and least memorable. Him being a regular person sucked into the machinations of military and propaganda to then defy & forge his own identity through it is when the character is human and compelling

I'm not sure if you're the same person from last time, but I want to say smthn rq: his birthday is July 4th because it's fun and whimsy to do so, it was just fucking silly dude it's not that deep!!

The one of reason they chose Steve was bcz his birthday landed in July 4th, not he main reason but its a key fun little tid bit that doesn't need to be changed because it's LITERALLY his birthday. (And the fact that like,, his mom told him that the fireworks were "for him?" AWH. LIKE DONT REMOVE THAT THATS KEY TIME WITH HIS MOTHER-- It doesn't contribute much other than to say "hey your birthday is in independence day you might be viable for this cap thing alongside being a generally great dude lmao" changing it to September 28th doesn't add much other then removing fun little stuff like his july 4th birthday because marvel wants dumbass MCU syndication and makes everything boring and no-fun because of how the marvel movies are set up like a weird mishmash of All the worst parts of ults and Hickmanvengers alongside removing all the fun bits.

Also Chris evens is a Zionist I don't trust that fucker as cap anyway don't bring that shit over here 😭

Plus, on the part where you said that he "hated" being cap you are WRONG. dead ass wrong. MCU!Steve hated being cap, because it was a trait copied from ults.

Normal Steve (616 Before civil war, AA, MAA, emh, ma, you get the idea, even Hickmanvengers and ults Steve) all enjoyed being cap because they were able to be a moving force for young people and as we all know if you've read the comics steve loves doig stuff as cap and teaching kids and making people say and helping people and shit! He love it! He likes helping people and he has a strict moral code he abides by!! helping people isn't a job he just wants to do it because he can and he will and it's the same reason that the avengers aren't coworkers because they desire to do these things (helping people, seeing kids, saving the city,) because they chose to be that force that could guide people out of bad situations and HELP people with the power they have. MCu!Steve acts the way he does because the people writing him don't get his character and it seems to be neither do you.

The thing is is that Cap suffers from the fact that most people can't tell the different between the mask and the man behind it and that was a clear internal thing he struggled with as he comes to terms with living in the ultra modern 21st century 😭(and even then I have alot of gripes with the fact that people still think that Steve doesn't know how to operate technology: shut the fuck up he's like in his mid 20s he can figure it out easily he not a old cretin he has good reflexes and memory it shouldn't be that hard, also: watch The Episode "Super adaptoid" from the cartoon avengers assemble , or go watch the entire show while your at it, genuinely. he's the best characterized Steve we've had in such a long time)

As much as he is the personifying thing of a flying flag and some adaptations go to that stuff as being the core of his character it is only a small part of what is a symbol for peace and I think you don't realize that because on multiple occasions he disavows his captain America identity(Sentinel of Liberty, Y'know when he handed his Cap identity to Sam???) to help people without the ties and I think that's something alot of people forgot that despite the fact that due to the entire of who Steve is it wasnt the suit that built who he was and what he represents it was his character and choices.

That man is not a blank slate. He represents more than the war he faught in and the country he faught for and saying he's just that is a misservice to his character and who he representss outside and inside of the suit, any suit.

End of Ted talk uhhh (explodes) watch avengers assemble and pick up a cap comic from like.. pre-90s idk if you want I'll give you a reading list?? Read Man out of Time first though, yeah?

#myst.txt #[ myst asks ☆ ]

1 note · View note

elytrafemme · 2 years

Note

Aww thanks so much! You've absolutely knocked all of my expectations out of the park with cough syrup (plus, I'm also a huge sucker for high school au's). You 100% deserve all the praise for the fic.

God I'm so happy that cs!tommy is going to be explored it's literally been driving me insane ever since it was mentioned and hearing that it's going to be plot relevant is making me more insane. I've started theorizing on what happened to the poor kid already that tore the household apart and have a few rough ideas I'm working on (ahhhhh I can't wait).

But of course please take ur time! No pressure at all, despite my excitement. Remember to take care of yourself if you need it <3.

this means so much to me anon thank you :) i can't believe that like. people have enjoyed cough syrup this much especially since the chapters started out kind of rocky but i'm so so grateful you like it

yes yes yes i love it when people theorize n stuff!!! cs!tommy matters SO much to me and like. i dunno when i started CS i was going to make a lot of the secondary characters less in the forefront but i found that it felt a little like i was doing a disservice to them? obviously in a cohesive narrative characters typically have roles and if you only have two POVs its not like everyone's a protagonist, but especially characters like cs!niki and cs!tommy i wanted to expand upon. and cs!tommy is especially just like so incredibly important to cs!tubbo and so when i started planning things he kind of jumped into a lot of the stuff i sorted out

i appreciate it lots thank you!!! i initially kind of wanted to go back to weekly uploads but honestly, at least until summer, i reckon i might just stick with biweekly? gives me enough time to make sure the chapters are good quality (+ time to send it over to my beta if needed) and also gives people time to catch up cos like. the chapters are amping in word count now so

sorry for the rambling but i appreciate it lots! i'm very excited about cough syrup now just from the surgence of support and i sincerely hope it meets and even exceeds people's expectations. trying my very hardest to give u all good content :D

#nightmare.ask #nightmare.cough-syrup

2 notes · View notes

battlestar-royco · 3 years

Text

IT'S BEEN 84 YEARS. LET'S TALK ABOUT NETFLIX'S SHADOW AND BONE.

8.7/10 ⭐️

spoilers for everythingggg under the cut! i'll be discussing its merits as an adaptation vs as a show, characters and plots, and the overall aesthetic and magic/world.

SHOW VS ADAPTATION:

i say this as someone who knows all the books very well and has been in the fandom for nearly a decade, so i'm biased. but. s&b functions better as an adaptation than as a standalone show. alina's plot moves so well, and satisfyingly renders so many iconic scenes and sites from s&b. the worldbuilding is also pretty easy to fall into, with a forgivable amount of voiceover/infodump. and, hurting budget aside, i mostly liked this visual interpretation of the gv.

(sidebar: the in-universe racism... doesn't work. i tried to view it in good faith but imo it was very heavy-handed. if it was framed like, "wow it's a SHU WOMAN saving the world!!!" it might've been better, but it's just racism without recompense. and it's a terrible look to make other characters of color racist. i just. why?)

as for the crows, however... i'm just not sure how strong they'll be for new viewers? i totally understand why they were included, and i really like certain connections the show made between the two series. it was a great decision to introduce the druskelle in the first Cut scene, and showing nina as a ravkan spy.

the new crows stuff felt in character, but i think the show is at its height when it sticks to the books. the first couple episodes switching between tgt and proto-soc gave me whiplash, but luckily it got more organic as it progressed. if i didn't know and love all the crows before going in, i wouldn't be that invested in them based on season 1. aside from a couple fantastic scenes, it really felt like the writers were trying to make fetch happen for like 4 episodes before they figured out what to do with everyone. plus, ravka is such a different vibe from ketterdam--tonally, sartorially, technologically, etc they didn't totally feel like the same world. it was pretty jarring. although i prefer the duo to the trio, s&b is alina's story and she is That Bitch who walked so the crows could fly. so i didn't hate their inclusion but the shoehorned content did at times disservice both plots, imo.

CHARACTERS:

way too many, which is yet another consequence of smushing everyone into one season.

MAL/ALINA/DARKLING: first and foremost, and i PROMISE i'm not saying this just to be a hater, but there needed to be less malina. i'll be the first to say that show!mal really has what book!mal wants. the new pre-fold scenes were so good. li and renaux have amazing chemistry, and their laughter over stolen grapes was a highlight. his stag plot was also good. THAT SAID, there were way too many keramzin flashbacks and malina parallels like.. 🤢🤢why do they want us to love mal so much. for what. they only needed the teacup scene but they clearly thought they were doing something with micro-aggressions and that meadow shot they showed like 6 times. knowing mal's original character, and how they scrubbed his show counterpart almost to the point of flawlessness, he's just never going to be my fave even though i do respect what they did with him. also, why were there like 5 fake deaths for this dude? boring.

the darkling was great. ben barnes knows what the fuck he's about, and he funneled manipulation and charisma into every scene. as for the backstory: at first i really wasn't feeling it, but i eventually did warm up to it and i'm so glad they showed it because oh god the cut and the creation of the fold were SO FUCKING ICONIC. also, love love love the baghra development. WE LOVE TO SEE OLD WOMEN/MOMS WHO AREN'T "EVIL"/"CORRUPTED" BY THEIR MAGICAL POWERS!!!!!!! BITCH! it didn't have to be 12 minutes long though.

i honestly don't have much to say on alina. jml was excellent in her role and very true to the book. without her book narration she feels much more consistently written.

TRILOGY CHARACTERS: i really felt the lack of genya and zoya. genya's character and actress are perfectly layered and effective, even though their roles are relatively minor. i'm so looking forward to her razrushost moment, but i wish they'd laid more groundwork for it. (and i hope throw out the wig and just dye her hair next season.) also like. WHY KEEP THE IRRELEVANT MEAN GIRL/DARKLING THIRST PLOT FOR ZOYA??? AFTER ALL THE EFFORT THEY PUT INTO IMPROVING MAL? they sacrificed so much for malina at the expense of other characters. finally, it was interesting how they decided to kill marie. i love the tailor magic flex. but also they clearly just did that to emotionally manipulate us and connect the crows so. hm.

CROWS: speaking of! the crows storyline felt a little like filler. honestly i wish they waited to roll crows into later seasons. i'd prefer little foreshadowings about them, a la the druskelle cameo or the references to nina and matthias. introducing the crows so soon makes the ice court heist feel less special. the recruitment was super tight and pragmatic, so this felt a little fluffy/fanservicey. kaz also comes off as sooooo old again. especially without the vulnerability of his book counterpart, he just seems like a 40-year-old in a 20something body.

i was pleasantly surprised to find jesper my favorite crow. like wow.... second amendment rights for jesper fahey only!! i like all the crows but book!kanej are my faves by a long shot. they felt a bit stiff tbh, like the actors were a little uncomfy with each other and/or their exposition-heavy lines. however, the one scene that felt EXTREMELY kanej to me was when they killed that dude in the church holy fuck oh my god. WE STAN AN ANGSTY BATTLE COUPLE WHO ARE BOTH DEAD INSIDE. highlight for sure.

and i actually kinda loved helnik? i know helnik is controversial for very valid reasons, but i thoughy their dynamic was fantastic and they were among the strongest performers. it was much less overwhelming than the constantly interweaving kaz/inej/jesper imo. they need to fire their location scout though. those green screen mountains and beaches were um. interesting.

aesthetic and magic:

i really hope they get a bigger budget for costumes, cgi, and sets next season! the keftas are serviceable, but they look a little cheap at times. i will also never forgive ANY of the crows' hats. it's mostly just a personal aesthetic thing but god i fucking hate them. the darkling was best dressed, but in general i liked the ravkan look more than the kerch. why were the crows always in the most elaborate getups? why couldn't they just chill in their waistcoats??? they never seemed relaxed in the way alina and co did; the clothes never felt worn or broken in.

favorite sets: the darkling's room, the crow club, all the grisha tents, the matthias/nina ship, the church where inej killed the squaller, outdoor fountain where they told the story of the black heretic. the lighting was almost always right for each scene, and there was so much detail in every one of them.

THE MAGIC WAS SO COOL! my greatest beef is alina's light--it often looked so fake, and it washed out jml. oftentimes it was fluorescent or blue, and it was used as a forcefield or orb. it's supposed to be sunlight bro. what is so hard about that? the darkling's magic looked good, other than the fold. i've always imagined the fold more like a huge black fog rather than a literal wall. so that was a bit game of thronesy, but not terrible.

and can we talk about the amplifiers? amplifiers are my personal favorite gv lore but season 1 barely gets into them. they never mention the bear zoya slew, nor do they establish the unique strength of the stag, sea dragon, and firebird. BUT THE ANTLER COLLAR FUSED INTO ALINA'S SKIN WAS SUPER DARK AND MACABRE AND I KINDA LIKED IT? ALTHOUGH I HAVE TO WONDER HOW TF IS SHE GONNA SLEEP???

if you made it this far, thanks so much! that's all i have for today.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone spoilers

23 notes · View notes

margotverger · 4 years

Note

top 5 best hannibal takes and worst hannibal takes. go

okay i’m going to do this generally on what other people’s takes (that i’ve seen or read somewhere) are because none of my hannibal takes are bad.

top 5 best:

that margot should have been butch in the tv show and that the margot/alana romance could have been developed a little more, i’ll elaborate more on the butch angle in top 5 worst, but i think while i enjoy marlana in s3 (who doesn’t) i do think that there could have been a Little More to it, especially since there was admittedly a lot of gratuitous metaphorical work on a visual or verbal level in early s3 that didn’t... really do much after the first few, and that i think bryan fuller definitely got a bit self-indulgent. while i love s3 i think it was weaker because it got quite ensnared in feeling like it had to explain everyone’s individual recovery (not a bad thing necessarily and the looping narrative definitely had this feeling of “time has been changed, mutilated, adjusted after mizumono”, but on a narrative level it could have probably still been achieved but left more room for things to. Happen) and i think that some of the excess could have been trimmed to allow for more margot-alana development beyond simply talking about taking revenge, i would have loved to see some genuine conversation that only affected both of them that made us realise just why alana would raise the child with her, why they would get marriedーalana having very little dating life and presumably trauma around relationships since her immediate ex tried to murder her and is also a serial killer, and margot having been traumatised repeatedly due to being a lesbian in a very homophobic family, they deserved some space in order to explore why exactly they mean a lot to each other. even a singular scene that didn’t depend on taking vengeance on the men who hurt them would have given us enough i think.

lara jean chorostecki’s hot take (implied) that freddie would have a wife. groundbreaking. love that. regardless of bryan fuller i am assuming with full confidence that freddie lounds has a wife after the timeskip

autistic will graham. enough said. hugh dancy’s only stupid thing was saying will isn’t autistic. that was a sin. will graham is autistic

lesbian abigail hobbs. lesbian abigail hobbs!

the hot take that hannibal doesn’t do its women characters justice, this isn’t just about deaths (i do agree that for the gothic horror narrative characters are doomed to some extent, and i don’t overly grieve over deaths that came too early, so i’m not too fussed) but on a writing level, bryan fuller definitely tries to portray himself as a very woman-positive author who introduces feminine energy - and he does! but at the same time there is a lack in developing relationships between women, and for a story to truly give space to be a genuinely woman-positive story there needs to be strong relationships between women that don’t depend on men; obviously since hannibal’s presence is insidious and infects everything, as is his luciferian ways, and will’s often the binding agent, this can’t be entirely avoided but regardless of hannibal they can exist, on some small level, individually. we saw that a lot in s1! between abigail and freddie and alana and abigail mostly, plus there was a small glimpse at it in season 3 with bedelia and chiyoh (underrated imo i would love to see further into why bedelia has her views of chiyoh and what that means ... i hope they interact again if hannibal s4 comes to pass!). so it proves there is room for it. it doesn’t need to be every episode or even have a huge arc but seeing hannibal pass the bechdel test more than like. twice a season would be nice!

top 5 worst takes:

that bedannibal is more romantic than hannigram (lol)... i love bedelia and bedannibal a lot but that’s just. hm. incorrect

that hannibal has never loved anybody except will. i’ve wrote about this before but i think that’s a deliberate misunderstanding of the character hannibal. what is unique about hannibal and will’s relationship is not the presence of love but the presence of being changed by that love; transformation is at its core, the openness to being adjusted or altered... recognition, seeing, understanding, and that allowing compassion not only for the other (in hannibal’s case) but for the self (in will’s case). hannibal loves a lot, but his love is not separate from crueltyーi think this is where people misunderstand. just because he is willing to hurt or harm people isn’t, in the narrative (not in real life), because he doesn’t love them. his cruelty is because he loves people enough he wants to bring them to the height of their being, in extremis. he loved alana, which is why he showed her a chance at mercy. he loved bedelia. he loved jack. he loved abigail! he loved bella especially, and he genuinely mourned. these went beyond fascinations; these were genuine expressions of affection, love, whether they be platonic or romantic or familial. hannibal’s flaw is not that he is incapable of love. and personally i think to disrespect his relationships with other characters (who are all women, black or both lol) in order to further isolate the white m/m relationship is... not ideal. not a sign that someone is wholly prejudiced but i think it’s something we should be critical about, especially when hannibal through word of god is confirmed to love other people.

bryan fuller’s own take that margot being femme is somehow less prejudiced or problematic than if she was butch. i haven’t read the book yet but i already know that margot’s portrayal as a butch lesbian was problematic but thomas harris is . undoubtedly prejudiced in many ways and that’s a fault of him, not a fault of the existence of being butchーbeing butch isn’t just a “stereotype” it’s a genuine mode of existence, it’s an intricate relationship with gender, sexuality and love, and butchness deserves to be represented as something beautiful, desirable and complex... instead of just deciding she should be conventionally feminine because that’s somehow more progressive. but then again he also made her have sex with a man so you know. lol

ANY take that involves over-analysing who is a top or who is a bottom and then rendering the characters into homophobic/fetishistic stereotypes. it’s ugly! it’s weird! keep that shit away from me. also any take involving “dark!will”. again that just does the character of will disrespect lol. the whole point of will is that he is morally complex and perhaps beyond the human scopeーhe is not just an echo of hannibal... i’ve seen one too many fics where will just becomes a savage brutal unfeeling murderer who only cares about hannibal after s3. like please watch the show

that hannibal is a narcissist/sociopath... or any other ableist interpretations. not every villain is a narcissistic (a genuine disorder) sociopath (just another word associated with npd etc) just because they do bad things. they’re very real disorders that people deal with and are infinitely more complex than just a character having a god complex and killing people. the whole point about hannibal is that he exceeds what is considered neurodivergent and while i don’t mind if people with similar disorders relate to him (much like how i relate to will’s autistic traits) i think a lot of bad comes from people throwing the label sociopath around because it becomes dehumanising and leads to further stigma against truly vulnerable people.

basically any trope that just does a character a disservice or neglects the actual story in further of fetishistic thinking, prejudiced thinking, ableist thinking... will graham can be autistic because of his empathy (i’ve seen it implied that he can’t be because of it when, as a very empathetic autistic person, hyper-empathy is a very common if not universal symptom, it just appears differently) and hannibal is not a sociopath just because he kills and eats people. and we should all have a little sip of critical thinking juice

#ty lear <3 <3 #bluebeardsbride #inbox

89 notes · View notes

thetaylorfiles · 4 years

Note

Republican anon here. I love politics so happy to come back. Let me preface with my problem with democrats is they live in the twitterverse, which is one heavily censorshiped and two not really used by as many people they think, (I think there is even a study that shows 80% of the activity is by 20% of the users). They make their decisions by the radical left that live there and think thats a populas thought. 4 weeks ago if you had asked me who I was voting for I would have said Biden. Unfortunately if I had to walk into today, I would vote for Trump. Its not a vote for him its a vote for the constitution. I don't see Biden as strong enough to fight off Sanders, AOC and Pelosi and also think we all know it's gonna be President Harris. So I cant vote for his tax hikes, packing the court, eliminating the electoral, adding seats and the green new deal. I didnt realize what a flawed candidate he was until I really looked into his 47 years in politics, and both him and Harris just come off of as liars. I'm waiting for something to change my mind in the next week but honestly I dont know what it could be because he has been caught in so many lies I can't believe him. Also everything with Hunter scares me because he clearly owes someone something (and clearly its China). I cant have a President willing to sell out our interests if his son becomes compromised. My biggest group of friends are basically like me liberal conservatives and conservative liberals and we all sort of feel the same. Thats probably why one of the biggest google trends is "can I change my vote". I also think you cant not acknowledge the huge gains Trump has made with the hispanic and conservative black votes. I think this year we are looking at another redo of Regan 1984. Either way whatever happens happens and I will just deal with it and hope Pelosi doesnt 25th amend him. Although to wrap up this ramble the twitter thing I memtioned is the same as the original tumblr point I made. No one in politics cares about people shipping in Tumblr or the trending topics on Twitter. So again I just find it funny they dont know enough about it, but think they know everything about it.

Hopefully that makes sense... Also hope I didn't disappoint you on my voting answer. It's really a tough decision this go around.

I don’t want to get into this too much because I don’t think it’s ideal to discuss politics online. It’s much better done in person because you need tone of voice and humanity. For me, anyway.

And while I get what you don’t want (and believe me, I am not as far liberal as the ones you fear taking over. And I also strongly disagree with the fact that they will take over), I think that to be able to gloss over what an abhorrent and unintelligent man Trump is is to truly do a disservice to our country.

And I when I say this, please know that I’ve never been a supporter of Republican presidents as I didn’t love their policies and such, but I sure as hell respected them. And I sure as hell admired them. And I thought them all to be genuinely great men. People who I believed to have the country’s best interest at heart and any persons best interest at heart. I trusted them, and their leadership, even when I didn’t agree with the decisions they made (some not all).

For as far back as I can remember, I have respected each Republican President. Trump is an absolute game changer. His character and lack of empathy and care and honestly, intelligence, plus the fact that the man is incapable of lying every second sentence, is something that I feel like should supersede any “voting for the constitution”.

Biden? At least we know he’s a good man. Both sides of the aisle - everyone has said that the one thing they can say about Biden is he’s a truly good man. And I long for a genuinely good person in office. Because we don’t have one now.

What you think is going on with Biden’s son should t matter for two reasons: one - most of it is unsubstantiated and two - no one cared about what the presidents children or siblings or family was doing before Trump brought his whole damn family on board into the White House. If you want to talk corrupt? Having something on them? Let’s look to the Trump family. If it doesn’t bother you there, why would Hunter bother you?

Those are rhetorical questions. I really don’t want to get into this. I am happy that it seems to be that the polls are showing a good lead in favor of Biden. Is he ideal? Of course not. But he’s moderate compared to the liberals out there ans I personally think he’ll do a good job of keeping it that way. I am liberal and I think my side has gone too damn far left. Biden isn’t perfect, Biden isn’t amazing, Biden isn’t going to make America a superpower. But he’s genuinely a deeply good man who knows his way around politics and respect and is liked by both sides of the aisle. All we need right now is some good leadership to get us out of this shitshow that is Covid. We need a president who doesn’t lie to us about it. Who doesn’t send us mixed signals. Who listens to scientists. Who gets us to where the other countries are who have beaten this thing down better than we have.

We are an embarrassment around the world. We never were before Trump. And now we are. People pity us and laugh at us. Thanks to Trump. I’m so tired of being a laughingstock.

I hope you reconsider. I hope the scare tactics don’t get you. I genuinely believe Biden will not step down so that we will have a Harris presidency. I genuinely believe he will be moderate and work to keep things the least devisive as possible. Please vote for a man who doesn’t call people names. It’s like, the number one thing you teach children: don’t be mean. Don’t call names. Don’t hurt feelings. Let’s strive to be better than that. Let’s have a President that doesn’t call anyone and everyone he doesn’t like a mean name and who also doesn’t lie constantly. (I know politicians all lie to an extent, but no one can argue that Trumps grandiose sense of self causes massive lies to erupt every time he speaks).

I beg of you to reconsider.

Thanks for having this discourse with me.

Ans btw, agreed about Twitter. It’s a cesspool of the worst of the left in an echo chamber. Trust me. I can see the worst of my side!

5 notes · View notes

kihaku-gato · 3 years

Text

OC Ships / Ship Dynamics

For whatever reason I fizzled out mid-writing so I had to power through last night to try to follow through what I wanted to ramble about Valentine’s Day night. Probably full of typos and incoherence once you hit the Harriet X Anne section onwards, but I’m not proofreading for typos cause brain frustrated trying to spit this out into words so WHATEVER TAKE HERE IT AND SHIP THE CHARACTERS hopefully

If the ship title is wrapped in “*“ it means it’s a canonical ship in the main canon story of said OCs. Also since AUs will be mentioned, if a specific sentence is wrapped with “*“ it means its a specific thing to the canon story and may not be consistent in AUs.

LETS GO

*Terra X Kayla*

My first OC ship so one of the ones closest to my heart. The serious-chivalrous X bubbly-princess kind of ship (Xena/Gabrielle and Lucia/Sumire are good comparisons). Terra sees Kayla as as an innocent woman that needs to be protected *though Kayla in reality is plenty capable of taking care of herself, and may not be as naive/innocent as Terra thinks*. Despite Kayla’s capabilities, Kayla fantasizes being swept off her feet by Terra as if Terra were a prince charming- but quickly learning Terra’s boundaries she does not force those fantasies onto Terra. Do not mistake Kayla’s damsel-esque fantasies to mean she would not protect Terra in return, if Terra is truly threatened Kayla is far scarier *and more powerful* than Terra could ever be.

*A lot of their developing relationship is them realizing that they both have severe scars from major points of their childhoods, that though both coped with it very differently, they are not so different in many regards.*

Kayla is very physically affectionate, at least having body-to-body contact, hand/arm holding, and if able, rubbing her face against her s/o. Terra’s affection is more aloof but shows her affection by wanting to at least be in the same room/space as Kayla, *craft/curate magical items/trinkets with Kayla in mind* and at times when lost in thought/focus sometimes ends up catching herself stimming via twirling Kayla’s hair in her hands. I could nonetheless see Terra potentially caressing Kayla’s face with her hand though less common.

More direct affection between them is show via kunik kisses (rubbing/touching their noses together), less so actual lip to lip kissing though it happens rarely.

Among the ship complexes they are one of the least sexual of the ships, though among the Terra related ships its the one where I could most likely see Terra having sex (despite Terra not being a sexually driven person); being that Kayla is extremely respectful of Terra’s set boundaries and Terra wanting to please Kayla best she can.

*Riivar X Demauria*

*Their relationship starts as an unofficial Royal X Guard relationship, even though it’s purely for the title and not cause Riivar needs protection*. Between Riivar’s very flirty sexually open nature, and Demauria’s tsundere-esque will-not-admit-she-has-high-sexual-drive/attraction nature, this ship is very sexually tense even though a lot of their starting relationship doesn’t even remotely have sex involved (Riivar doesn’t even make any sexual moves on Demauria as she does not want to make Demauria uncomfortable, rather it’s Demauria later on that makes the move).

Demauria sees Riivar as a tall powerful, confident, knows-what-she-wants-in-life person, and eventually seeks to understand how she came to be so *since a lot of Demauria’s character arc is about finding her drive/purpose in life*. Riivar sees Demauria as a small almost-child that needs room/space/resources and love to grow *though later in the story believes she is not the one that can give enough for Demauria as she feels Demauria has outgrown the need for Riivar*.

Riivar is very open and affectionate and is all about pleasing her partner however her s/o wishes, so as such tries to keep Demauria as comfortable as possible, and only pushes Dema out of her comfort zone is she believes it’s something of benefit to Demauria. Demauria in contrast is very closeted in her emotions, and struggles to regulate them; though she likes the affection she is prone to snapping at Riivar, as such she tries to be more aloof to avoid accidentally snapping at Riivar altogether, as she does not want to hurt the very person doing so much for her. It takes a long time for Demauria to open up and better manage some of her more major intense emotions.

Relationship-wise Demauria wants to try to take the lead but is often strongly outshone by Riivar though not intended.

Among the canon ships this is one of the ships I’ve wanted to drop canonization of; being that I struggle to read/predict how the two interact with each other, plus though unintended there is an accidental power dynamic between Riivar/Demauria that I don’t like (some of it is Riivar having more experience, some of it is that *the canon story has Riivar in the position of hero / good summaratin, which puts Dema in almost a child-like position*), despite my attempts to remove/nullify said power dynamic.

*Harriet X Anne*

This ship is relatively new as far as canon ships go and I keep beating around the bush when it comes to Anne (as a character and her motives etc.) so excuse the disservice of how short this may be for them. Chivalrous Prince X Princess, but in contrast to Terra X Kayla, the energy is reversed; Harriet is the more energetic/open “prince” while Anne is the more aloof “princess”. Probably the ship with the most pining of the 3 canonical ships; Both hold each other with utmost respect.

Harriet puts a lot of effort in treating Anne like a lady when she’s not treating her like a “partner” (non-romantically), which just absolutely squeezes Anne’s heart. A huge arc in their relationship is putting trust that they can help each other in their times of need, being both have a habit if shouldering responsibilities on their individual selves instead of taking the helping hand. I originally was gonna give Harriet a rivalrous energy with Anne at the start of their story, but Anne ended up becoming much much softer/gentler of a character than initially planned, so it became a gentle chivalrous/comradic energy towards instead.

Harriet X Terra

One of the non-canon ships I think about a lot. I think a lot of it is my enjoyment for seeing Harriet’s feathers getting ruffled by Terra being very attractive in Harriet’s eyes w/o Terra even caring or doing any effort to be so. So yes, the majority of the variations of this ship are rivalrous, whether it is or not really depends Harriet and the context of the AU and how they meet.

In the DnD and MHW AUs for example, Harriet treats/sees Terra in a “broski” sense since they meet each other in a more socially null environment, while most other AUs (and for that matter even in the canon main story where they aren’t a ship) they meet indirectly while in their own social cliches, leading to Harriet to quickly see/treat Terra as a rival/nemesis, due to feeling Terra as a threat to her social/romantic spotlight. It doesn’t help either that Harriet likes to be the center of attention and Terra by no direct fault of her own has a presence that “robs” that of Harriet when the eyes turn to Terra instead.

Terra on the other hand sees Harriet dismissively at the start of their ship/non-ship stories, changing to either “an interesting person” when seeing Harriet’s skills/specialities/morals, or to “a loud nuisance” when Harriet is attempting to instigate competitions/fights with Terra. Later in said ships Terra tends to grow a respect for Harriet even though they don’t entirely play to the same tune.

Interestingly I think they’d both try to get along quicker if they both saw some of the similarities in each other; one being they both will risk their necks to protect other women in their somewhat chivalrous ways, the other being my not-officially-canon-yet-cause-hesitancy is both of them being Autistic (Terra leaning more to the what people expect, while Harriet is not what one would expect- but “how/why my OCs are/should be canonically Autistic, writtern by their creator who is also Autistic” is for a different ramble).

One thing I enjoy is thinking about the point of the ship where Terra may start to open up to Harriet and show her more vulnerable side (either out of long term built trust or out of bad luck / inconvenience if they are earlier yet in the ship) and Harriet being outright disarmed by it. Tbh a lot of this ship is Harriet getting disarmed by Terra in various ways.

Kayla X Demauria

A ship I initially did not think of till a friend drew fanart of it, but has since become a nice one for me. Kayla’s bubbly friendliness/openness and Demauria’s cold angry/pissyness is a grand contrast. Demauria is a lot more aggressive with Kayla than with Riivar (whether that being in the “make the first move” sense or actual behaviour) *which is a lil ironic if you learn towards the canon story where Demauria is actually scared of Kayla’s capabilities hidden under the warm smile*. Despite Dema being the more “aggressive” one I like to think they are on equal grounds as far so “who make the first move” since Kayla is very physically affectionate.

Also while Dema is more closeted with Riivar even when they become a couple, I like to follow my friend’s headcanon that Demauria would be much more physically/sexually open to Kayla than she is in the Riivar ship.

While I don’t have much for ship AUs between the two compared to the others, my one favourite that sometimes comes to my mind is an AU of an AU; the College/roomates AU where they are crushing over Terra and Riivar only to instead fall for each other instead of their crushes during the time they try to pursue them (if you are familiar with the Toradora anime you will sort of know what I mean by that).

Riivar/Abbey X Harriet

Do I mean Riivar or Abbey or do I mean a poly ship? The Answer is both, also it is categorized together as the results would be very similar whether it’s Riivar, Abbey, or both being together with Harriet. One word; SPICY! While Terra X Harriet is indulgent for me storywise/emotionally, this ship here is tbh is the steamy kind of indulgence and I both apologize and don’t apologize for it.

Harriet has a huge celebrity crush on Riivar (both canonically and in several AUs), and while Harriet never meets Abbey in canon I would like to believe Harriet would be just as weak for Abbey as she is with Riivar. Both Riivar and Abbey would find Harriet absolutely adorable and too fun to tease/please.

Riivar is all about giving her partner comfortable pleasure, while Abbey is more one to be a lil sadistic with her partner(s) liking to bite or give a lil pain to the pleasure if her partner allows. So unsurprisingly such a combo put upon Harriet is quite fun, as she can just crumble into a mess from so much as a pretty girl smiling at her, much less two VERY pretty/beautiful women going ALL-IN as far as seduction/flirtation goes.

As I said, this ship is VERY indulgent even if imo it is one of my shallowest ships.

Kayla X Kal

Almost forgot this one when posting but is one I CANNOT IGNORE; a ship between Kayla and my friend Shiro’s OC Kal. THEY’D BE SO CUTE TOGETHER AND IM GLAD SHIRO LOWKEY SHIPS IT TOO. Kal flexing her muscles to flirt with Kayla? Kayla absolutely losing it / swooning cause she is a woman who loves beefy ladies? YES PLEASE. Also Kayla being stronger than she looks catching Kal by surprise is a hella nice bonus too.

#oc ramblings #wall of text #oc ships #shipping #ocs #original characters #ramblings

1 note · View note

the-desolated-quill · 4 years

Text

If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own - Watchmen (TV Series) blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. if you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own feels like a tale of two episodes. One has well written characters, emotive storytelling and exciting possibilities, whereas the other contains ham-fisted, painfully obvious subtext and annoyingly long infodumps told to the audience with all the grace and subtlety of a brick to the face.

Let’s start with the positives. At the beginning of the episode, we’re introduced to the character of Lady Trieu, played by Hong Chau, who buys a farmhouse from an Oklahoma couple by offering them a genetically engineered baby. I love this scene so much. It’s by far the most tightly written and engaging scene so far this series, and serves as a perfect introduction to a genuinely interesting character.

Lady Trieu is a Vietnamese born trillionaire industrialist who absorbed Adrian Veidt’s company after his disappearance and seems to take heavy inspiration from him, even going so far as to have a gold statue of him in her complex. It’s unclear whether she knows about his involvement with the squid (how could she possibly know?), but she clearly shares his vision of making the world better.

Or... does she?

That’s precisely what I love about this character. Trieu is clearly the secret mastermind behind whatever is going on here (more on that later) and it would have been easy to just simply have her be a carbon copy of Veidt, but she isn’t. There’s a subtle, but clear distinction between the two. In my review of Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty, I talked about the paradox of a liberal capitalist and how it’s often not enough for Ozymandias to simply save the world. He needs to be seen to be saving the world. He wants something with spectacle in order to appeal to his own vanity. This is true of Trieu as well, except, despite all his flaws, Ozymandias clearly at least wanted to help people, albeit in an incredibly flashy way for his own aggrandisement. Trieu doesn’t even want that. She just wants the attention and the good will.

The opening scene is a perfect illustration of this. Giving that married couple their own DIY baby was one thing, but all the crap with the hourglass and the silly monologue and everything, there was no need for any of that. And lets not forget, she didn’t give this couple a baby out of the goodness of her heart. She did it solely because she wanted their land so she could claim a fallen object from space. The same is true of this Millennium Clock she’s building. I’m pretty sure its purpose isn’t just to tell the time, but that’s not the point. It’s described by her daughter as not the Eighth Wonder of the World, but rather as the First Wonder of the New World. Plus, of course, she is a trillionaire. If she just handed out even a small portion of her vast wealth, it would make a huge difference, but then there would be nothing in it for her. Nothing to gain. Unlike Veidt, Trieu is a character driven by pure cynicism. She has no interest in saving the world, but rather the attention and adoration of the world around her. She wants the world and the people around her to rely on her to save them. Basically if Ozymandias is an altruist tempered with narcissism, then Lady Trieu is a narcissist tempered with altruism. It’s a beautifully realised character and one I’m most excited to see more of in the episodes to come.

I also like the connection she has with Angela. Both were born and raised in Vietnam, except Trieu’s mother was a native to Vietnam before the US invaded and absorbed the country, turning it into the fifty first state. This puts Angela in an interesting position. Being an African American, her family obviously has history of being the victims of colonial oppression, but in this alternate history where Vietnam is part of America, Angela is also now in the role as one of the colonial oppressors. A settler in a country stolen and plundered from the natives. It’s an interesting position for her character to be in and I’m very curious to see where the show takes this.

After taking a backseat in the previous episode, Angela mercifully gets to take the lead again this time around and she’s great. With the FBI breathing down her neck, Angela continues to get to the bottom of the mystery involving her grandfather, the murder of Judd Crawford, and the Seventh Kavalry, and I really like where this is taking her character. She privately confides in Wade about what she has learned, even asking him to hide Judd’s Klan robe. This is the kind of character stuff I wanted to see in the previous episode during the funeral. How do you react to the knowledge that one of your closest friends was a hateful bigot? And from the looks of things, it seems as though Angela is doing her level best to protect Judd’s memory, at least until she gets to the bottom of what the fuck is going on here. I love this because it feels totally believable.There’s still a part of her that doesn’t want to accept Judd’s racist ties to white supremacy and clinging onto the idea that he might be misunderstood or that there’s something else going on underneath. This is an excellent internal conflict that has so far been handled exceptionally well. You don’t think less of Angela for not wanting to accept the truth because it’s totally understandable and believable.

Also I just want to briefly talk about what we learn about Wade, aka Looking Glass, in this episode. The man’s a doomsday prepper, living in a bunker in his back garden, preparing for another squid attack. I LOVE this so much. It makes total sense in the context of Watchmen and, like with Lady Trieu, it serves as a really nice inversion of an existing character. Like Rorschach, Looking Glass is a paranoid conspiracy nut, but unlike Rorschach, there’s actually some truth and logic behind his paranoia. Again, it’s a subtle distinction, but it’s enough to allow the character to go off in his own direction.

Here’s the thing. The bits I like about this episode, I really like. Unfortunately the bits I don’t like, I really don’t like.

Let’s begin with Laurie. What is she even doing here? Not only is she so utterly divorced from the character in the graphic novel, she doesn’t even contribute anything meaningful to the plot, other than to bicker constantly with Angela (which, considering this is the first time in Watchmen that we’ve had two female characters together interacting with each other, it feels immensely disappointing that this is the best the writers can come up with) or to spout gratuitous fanwank and pop psychology. The pop psychology in particular irritates me because it simply doesn’t gel with the tone and themes of Watchmen. I’m really hoping all that stuff about trauma and wearing a mask to hide the pain doesn’t in fact apply to Sister Night, otherwise I’m going to be extremely annoyed. Not only is that cliched beyond belief, it also stands directly against the whole point of Watchmen as a concept. Alan Moore’s intent was to scrutinise the reasons behind why someone would put a costume on and fight crime. Some just want the attention, others want to compensate for their own inadequacies, and some just want to live out their own violent, hedonistic fantasies. Only Rorschach fits the trauma model proposed by Laurie, and even then it’s not really accurate. Rorschach uses his trauma more as an excuse than a motivation. Watchmen serves as a deconstruction and criticism of superhero archetypes, so to potentially give Sister Night an obligatory tragic backstory would feel like a grave disservice to the source material.

The pop psychology also represents another problem this episode has. It seems to spend an awful lot of time telling its audience about its themes and commentaries rather than just showing them. One of the things I loved so much about the second episode was that it respected the audience’s intelligence. The connections it was making between the police and mob psychology, the superhero genre and its roots in US propaganda, and the KKK and the moral absolutism of most comic book heroes were apparent in the episode’s visual language and symbolism. It didn’t try to highlight them in fifty foot high neon lettering, instead trusting the audience to make the connections themselves. Here, however, completely the opposite. At numerous points, it feels as though the episode is sitting me down like a naughty school child and straight up telling me the plot, rather than trust that I’m a grown man who is perfectly capable of following this by himself, I pinky promise.

Take the whole subplot with Adrian Veidt for example. By watching the previous episodes, you can deduce that he’s trapped in a prison of his own making and is trying to escape (although admittedly it turns out that the clones aren’t in fact his creations, which is a pity because I think that’s less interesting, but still). Awesome idea. Love it. But showrunner Damon Lindelof is clearly worried that the idiots sitting at the back of the class didn’t get this, so Adrian spends his limited screen time here just explaining his subplot to the audience. It’s really annoying.

Or what about the Millennium Clock? The Seventh Cavalry are clearly in league with Trieu for some unknown reason, and in their video message to the police in the first episode, they say ‘tick, tock’ a lot, which is clearly a reference to the Clock. All a bit goofy, granted, but do you know what’s even goofier? Will getting up out of his wheelchair, staring dramatically into camera and saying ‘tick, tock’ for no fucking reason whatsoever other than to spell out the connection for the slow people in the audience who didn’t make the link. Dude, I promise you, we are following this. It was just pointless. But not nearly as pointless as...

Good God, do I hate Lube Man!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against there being humour in Watchmen. The original graphic novel had moments of dark humour, but there’s a time and a place. It just feels weird and kooky just for the sake of being weird and kooky. And again, it serves as a less than subtle reminder to the audience of the themes of the show. The police are abusing their powers and letting smaller crimes fall by the wayside, but rather than let that come up naturally in the story, we get a random excerpt from the Silver Slider here. All I can say is Lube Man had better play a vital role in the episodes to come, otherwise I’ll be pissed.

See, when Good Lindelof is writing the scripts, I’m enjoying this show immensely. When Bad Lindelof takes a turn at the keyboard, however, that’s when I start to get worried.

#if you don't like my story write your own #watchmen #watchmen hbo #damon lindelof #dc #hbo #review #spoilers

11 notes · View notes

sirbadgerduke · 4 years

Text

Retrospective Thought: Top Ten Games of The Year 2019

Another year down and just on the horizon beckons another year into the light, and this year was a real wild ride for games. From triumphant returns ala Devil May Cry V to huge disasters ala Anthem. What is a defacto truth though; there’s plenty of great games that came out this year, and can only make us wonder what is brewing for the new start of a new decade. As we close out the 2010s and enter the 2020s, I think we should look back on the great games that came out in 2019. Obviously this is MY list of games that I LOVED playing this year, I haven’t played every game to ever come out this year so there’s bound to be a favourite or two of yours not on this list. I respect you either disagreeing or agreeing with me. So here goes, the Ten Games of the Year. Honourable Mentions: The Surge 2, Mortal Kombat 11, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Blasphemous, Oninaki, My Friend Pedro, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3:The Black Order, Dusk Diver, Daemon X Machina, Death Stranding, MediEvil Remake, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

10) Plague Tale: Innocence(PS4/XBO/PC) This title is very much a sleeper hit in my opinion, a game published by Focus Home Interactive, who have been killing it in the “AA Experience” space of games with the likes of Styx, Greedfall, etc and Plague Tale, is a game worth checking out. You play as Amicia De Rune, who must protect her younger brother, Hugo, from Inquisition guards, villagers and a deadly swarm of plague carrying rats during 14th century France. The story slowly builds drama, tension and atmosphere with a fantastic setting that is surprisingly overlooked for more contemporary settings and locales, the idea of making Rats(for most of the game mind you) as this unstoppable almost “supernatural” force is both genius and frightening. Above all else the characters are well written, many parts believable and many parts relatable, you’ll be feeling their trials and tribulations as you go through the games 17 lengthy chapters. The gameplay is surprisingly both solid and janky at times; taking on a stealth system that mostly works well, you gradually gain a number of tools to deal with both human and vermin obstacles all the while with a small number of bosses that feel more like a mix of combat and puzzle solving. The game is worth picking up if you’re craving a smaller, less busywork heavy kinda game.

9) Astral Chain(Nintendo Switch) Platinum Games is one of my favourite Action Game developers currently in the industry; they make great combat systems with deep mechanics all the while adding more depth than you initially thought could possibly be able. While it’s not on the same level as NieR: Automata, Astral Chain continues the trend of Platinum Games nailing their signature style of gameplay; over the top whacky combat with anime as hell storytelling. This time you play a cop of a special police division that focuses on investigating the Astral Realm with your own Jojo-like Stand called a Legion. You’ll go on missions to battle these weird creatures, investigate the areas, even helping people and picking up litter(yeah, really) all the while slowly opening up your repertoire of Legions at your disposal. This is standard “Goofball anime nonsense mixed with badass tier combat and gameplay” that you either love or hate from Plat. While it’s not the deepest combat system out of their library, it is a rather interesting and fun premise with the combat focus being on the switching between Legions and their placement on the battlefield, the game offers its own level of depth, even if its a pond compared to the likes of Bayonetta 2 and NieR: Automata. If you want an anime as fuck, fun romp, Astral Chain is for you.

8) Code Vein(PS4/XBO/PC) The Soulsborne-like clone fad is a weird beast to look back on; while some heavy hitters have come out of it(NioH, Surge to some extent, hell Hollow Knight,Jedi Fallen Order) there’s been some real stinkers( Lords of The Fallen, again, Surge to some extent), it seems to have caught the industry hard as you could easily find at least one clone you’ll like and one you despise. Code Vein is a very weird Souls-like game in that it’s focus isn’t really a particular gameplay mechanic they introduce into it, or even how it offers “loot” but more on its focus on a narrative and characters. You play as a nameless revenant that wakes up with amnesia and a pretty white haired but barely clothed girl. It’s your duty to collect blood beads to keep your hunger sated. As you explore and push on the story opens up, introducing new characters and locales with a enough variety to keep you interested. Gameplay wise? Combat is solid, it’s admittedly very soulsy, so love it or hate it, that’s how it does things, plus you have the option of having a CP controlled companion with you on your journey to help alleviate some of the difficulty. Where the game shines in gameplay is it’s endless combinations and build opportunities, allowing you to really cater to a unique playstyle best suited for you or a more typically fantasy build if you so choose. Bosses, however are a huge mixed bag of good, bad and just outright frustrating. If you really want an Anime Souls-like, you would do yourself a huge disservice to miss out on this one.

7) Outer Worlds(PS4/XBO/PC) Obsidian Entertainment does a really good job on making some great RPG titles. From KOTOR2 to Fallout: New Vegas and even their own IPs like Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, Outer Worlds is no exception among this collection. While the game is set in an alternative future, you are awakened by a mad scientist named Phineas Welles from cryosleep only to find that most of the passengers are still in hibernation aboard a colony ship. The game features several factions and a branching story that reacts to the player's choices. The writing is pretty damn great, witty and intriguing, something severely lacking in later day Fallout titles. Outer Worlds is pretty much a Fallout Game without the fallout licence only it builds from New Vegas’ strengths rather than let it get muddled down with Bethesda’s weaknesses. It even comes with it’s own take on the VATS system. The gameplay is solid, it’s just New Vegas but better, whilst in the grand scheme of things? It’s not the thing that will win you over in the long run. If you’re a Fallout Fan sick of the current trend Bethesda is in or whether you’re looking for a great Space Adventure, Outer Worlds is not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice!

6) Greedfall(PS4/XBO/PC) Oh Spiders, Spiders, Spiders. This dev company has steadily grown strong from game to game. From it’s rocky beginnings with Of Orcs and Men and Bound by Flame to the almost good Technomancer, Spiders have, in my honest opinion, have found their major hit and boy has it been a hit for Focus Home Interactive. You begin as De Sardet, a human who’s sent with his cousin to govern newly discovered island, neutral in the varying factions and war that is happening all the while you seek to find out more about the this mysterious illness that plagues the De Sardet family, so that you can cure Greedfall, honestly, is such a weird game to come out in 2019 but one I do not regret having played at all. It’s reminiscent of old Bioware titles like Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age: Origins; the gameplay is solid and fun allowing you a nice enough variety to go deep as you want whilst having a rather engaging story and narrative that is populated with companions that all have very different opinions and often clash with one another’s. It feels like a game that should’ve been released back in 2010 from Bioware, in a good way obviously. While it’s not graphically impressive, the art style is really nice and the world is both intriguing and bleak. Worthy a look into if you’re seeking that old bioware-esque flair that’s seriously missing from Latter Day Bioware.

5) Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice(PS4/XBO/PC) One of my all time favourite games is a From Software developed title by the name of Bloodborne, which is also my all time favourite PS-Exclusive. My hype for Sekiro was almost reaching the moon since the teaser was shown back in 2018, a chance to travel to Japan with that Souls-like style if you will. Only it’s the least Souls games in the Souls style of games that is developed by the originators of the brand. The focus here, is less on builds, blocking and dodging and more about your posture, parrying and loadouts and the gameplay absolutely, masterfully services that to a T.The Bosses are some of the best in the series, almost better than Bloodborne’s roster, but with the addition of mini bosses that roster is pretty huge(for better or for worse). You take the role of Sekiro, a ninja who’s service is needed by Kuro, a bearer of the Dragon’s Heritage; power/curse that grants anyone they deem worthy with immortality, however, when they die and resurrect it runs the risk of infecting people with Dragon Rot. The more narrative focus is a nice change of pace in my opinion and with the added blend of japanese history with mythology giving it a rather rich and surprisingly lived in world. Sekiro is definitely worth getting if you fancy yourself more dueling style gameplay.

4) Judgment(PS4) Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios have become another of my favourite game devs in recent years. Their work on the Yakuza Franchise is a blessing for a revamping of a classic Adventure/Savage Beat’em’up Hybrid, though they’ve since become the most popular and one of very few to exist. Judgment is a sorta separate entity/spin-off to the mainline franchise but still somehow connected(Unlike the great Fist of The North Star: Lost Paradise title.) to the Yakuza story in a much smaller degree. You play as Yagami, a private detective who was once a renowned lawyer until he was disgraced by one his star client who went on to murder another victim despite being found innocent. That’s as much as I can say about the story since the game is essentially a Crime Drama/Mystery with a little bit of Yakuza DNA. The cast of characters are all great, the villains make you want to absolutely bring them down a peg and the good guys really makes you root for them to win and push through the struggles. As is with Yakuza, the meat and potatoes of the series, the gameplay, is on point. Continuing the savage Brawler system but extending it into a more personalised style for Yagami, with his own heat moves and skills to boot, it’s fantastic and absolutely a treat to pull off combats, especially switching between all three of the styles. The Boss battles are a sweet as all hell, especially Cane Guy, who’s probably the most anime as fuck character you face of against. Buy it if you love Yakuza and crave for more, or if you’re new to the style of games.

3) Resident Evil 2: Remake(PS4/XBO/PC) Survival Horror is a genre that seems to struggle, with the occasional surprise hit that everyone gets behind. With that in mind, Resident Evil 2 Remake is a fantastic survival horror game that brings back the franchise to its roots and redoing them with a great, brand new shine and paint. Resident Evil 2 Remake puts you in the shoes of Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy during the Racoon City Incident, while Claire searches for her brother and Leon goes to his first day on the job at RCPD, despite being told not, they must survive and avoid the monstrosities that roam the city, zombies, Lickers and the big bad Tyrant himself Mr X. A very nice remix of an old formula that gives it some new life, RE2R has impeccable atmosphere, tension and horror, half being brought to you via exploring and solving puzzles and the other half from Mr X himself who stalks you down with a purpose; to take out any survivors in Racoon City. Gameplay is super solid, and surprisingly does not make the game a pushover, solid shooting mechanics with some great puzzle mechanics and ofcourse exploration whilst not being an open world make this a title worth having in your collection. Whether you’re a survival horror fan, RE fan, Old Skool style RE fan, you’ll do yourself a massive disservice not picking this gem up.

2) Devil May Cry V(PS4/XBO/PC) Honestly, you can just call 2019 the Year of Capcom’s return to form, by nailing it with RE2, MHW in 2018 and obviously Iceborne later in year, it was only time that DMCV would come out between those mammoths titles. After the disastrous ReBoot, everyone including me too were sure that DMC was put back in the ice for good. That’s of course before DMCV’s triumphant teaser at E3. Devil May Cry V continues the story of Sparda’s progeny, Dante as he helps out returning upstart Nero and intriguing newcomer V as they take on the new Demon King; Urizen. This game is absolutely fantastic and I can’t fanboy over it enough. The story, while simple and easy to follow, has great character development and pacing, bring characters into their arcs in ups and downs that steadily build up to a final confrontation that just might be my new favourite boss battle of all time. The gameplay! The gameplay, is, to put it bluntly; absolutely sublime. From Dante’s weapon variety and DT craziness to Nero’s new gadgets in the form of his robotic arms to the weird Summoner-style gameplay of V, the game is its most diverse gameplay wise and not once feeling janky and sluggish at all. The Boss Battles are all fun and really bring something to the gameplay to both push and test you to your limit. Devil May Cry may just be one of my all time fave franchises and to see it return so triumphantly? Actually brings a tear to my eye. A must, must, MUST buy if I’ve ever played one.

1) Control(PS4/XBO/PC EGS Exclusive) Aaaah, Remedy, bringing such classics like Max Payne and Alan Wake into this world, Microsoft did you dirty with Quantum Break. So where did it leave them to go? To spiral into the weird worlds of Stephen King, Cosmic horror and the SCP Foundation for inspiration, to which Control is born, a phenomenal Third Person Shooter Metroidvania-esque game with a solid narrative and a beautiful visual and art design. You are Jesse Faden, a person of interest that has been searching for the Federal Bureau of Control since an incident with them when she was young had taken her brother. I really don’t want to say more than that, it’s better for you to experience the story for yourself. Narratively speaking? It has some great SCP-esque world building and lore with a solid to really good story that’s pacing 80% of the time really well. Gameplay and visuals with music are essentially where this game shines for me. Solid as hell shooting mechanics with some really badass powers helps to bring this game alive, but you don’t have all those powers from the get go, they are steadily paced throughout to make sure you’re not vastly overpowered or underpowered, it’s rather nice actually. Visuals and music are sublime, both together make for some truly memorable moments and areas. As stated, this is a Metroidvania and so has a lot of isms associated with that style; locked off area you’ll obviously return to with new powers to explore further, a semi-open world map, etc. I can’t sing this game’s praises enough, I think this might’ve just beaten out Alan Wake for my favourite Remedy game. Absolutely get this game NOW. So there’s my top ten list to round out 2019, a truly great year of great games. I’m honestly really excited to see what comes out in 2020, as it looks to be quite literally STACKED with potentially great(and shite) games. Hope you all had a spiffn’ new years, and here’s to 2020, let’s see what’s in store for us now!

25 notes · View notes

lostgirlrewatch · 4 years

Text

1x08 - Vexed

Original Air Date: November 7, 2010

Written by: Michelle Lovretta

Directed by: John Fawcett

Okay, so. Vexed.

This is the original pilot. I don’t think they necessarily presented it as the first episode chronologically—more like, this is what you can expect from our show. Showcase picked it up and it went to series. Vexed became episode 1x08. You can find more info about it in this interview with Michelle Lovretta and Jay Firestone.

Anyway, this episode was shot earlier than the rest, and you can tell. Makeup and styling is different, and they hadn’t quite settled on the tone they eventually went with. As such, this episode is a bit grittier than normal. I find it interesting both for its different tone and for the fact that many of the decisions they made for the episode were made in the interest of selling the concept to Showcase.

This fucking article is great and is a much better review of this episode and why it’s so god damn good than my shit below. It also provides an extremely detailed look into...exactly what I just described above. All of the behind-the-scenes production stuff. Check it out.

The premise: Bo finds a lead on someone who might know about her mother--a falsely accused death row inmate named Lou Ann. Bo vows to prove her innocence in exchange for answers, but her quest leads her into contact with a vicious Dark Fae named Vex.

I do wonder if they wrote this episode without really knowing where it was going to fit into the first season, assuming they had an outline. It works as a standalone and in some ways it feels a little disjointed from what came before in episode 1x07, right from the beginning. Dyson coming right out and saying something so blunt as, “She’s never gonna love you,” feels a bit off to me. But then again, all the characters in this episode are a bit “off,” which is understandable. This episode is like…the prototype. The beta.

“No offense to my own kind, but humans are a little pedestrian now.” *awkwardly laughs* Right... “your kind”…haha you’re enslaved. Lauren are you okay.

“Once you go Fae you never go back, huh?”

“So I hear.”

Me:

Bo feels a little bit more aggressive to me in this episode, like when Siegfried mentions her mother and she wigs out. It’s her normal desperation plus a bit of added homicidal urges. She’s a slightly grittier Bo.

As we can observe from the opening sex scene between Bo and Dyson, this episode is a bit more sexually explicit than we’re used to. This, I am not super a fan of on a personal level. However, the episode is also more violent than usual and incorporates horror elements. This, I am super a fan of because that’s kind of my shit, and it’s something I wish they would have leaned a little bit more into in the rest of the series.

There is nothing I don’t love about this scene. The creepy opera music that sets the stage, the gourmet meal prep (those gourmet meals always end in murder).

(Am I the only one who loves this random little detail they plopped into the background?)

Vex’s entrance—not overly dramatic, just, boop, there he is.

The tense build-up as we’re drawn to the knife, not sure where it’s gonna go—

--oh, oop, there it goes.

We know what’s going to happen now, but we build up to it, agonizingly, anyway. Surely we’re not actually going to sit here and watch as he shoves his hand into the disposal and then keep watching as he turns it on and it grinds his hand up. Oh, but we are.

Some scenes have a way of sticking with ya.

So I guess even the Lost Girl universe isn’t all camp and games. People are still people. Especially when they’re ancient as fuck and have all that time to stew in the cesspool of their fucked up emotional and psychological issues. So divorced are they from the concept of mortality, growing up and growing old, that their maturity level laps itself and becomes immaturity—they tend to to behave like children.

Not all Dark Fae are curmudgeonly, innocuous old grandpas who own restaurants or absolute Queens like the Morrigan. Some of them are like Vex. And just like, fuckin murder people—and each other. Vex’s world is different than Bo’s world. Vex lives in a world where violence is mundane. Empathy is nonexistent and pointless anyhow. Sometimes I wonder if immortal characters are drawn to violence and death because it’s as close as they can get to experiencing a sort of vicarious mortality.

I love Vex’s character throughout the series—up to a certain point—but I love him best in this, his original episode. In later episodes, Vex is portrayed as a sort of morally ambiguous anti-hero, or anti-villain, whichever you prefer. I have mixed feelings on how well the transition from villain to anti-hero is handled. The farther along you get in the series, the more he becomes reduced to a shell of his former self, purely comic relief, and just…sucks.

But in 1x08, Vex is a villain. Straight up. The things that he does are horrifying and the show does not bother trying to get you to empathize with him. And to be clear, this does not mean that he is not a multi-dimensional character, that he isn’t worthy of empathy, or that he is pure evil. What it does mean is the show does something I wish more shows would do. It creates a genuinely threatening and reprehensible villain that is both worthy of your analysis, even your stanning (I stan), and yet whose actions are still inexcusable.

In that interest, let’s talk about him. At this point, his most defining characteristic, the simplest way we can begin to understand his motives, is that he utterly lacks empathy. Vex is the kind of person who would puppeteer a woman and force her to drown her own children.

He is ordered to kill this woman’s family as punishment for betraying the Dark Fae’s rules. And in this episode, Vex is shown to be someone who rigidly follows the Dark Fae’s orders without question, and without any particular investment in them either. But he doesn’t just kill the kids—he uses his powers to force the mother to do it. To drown them. For no real reason other than his own amusement. That’s another level of sadistic. For a less intense example, in his introduction scene, he gruesomely tortures Siegfried before killing him. Just for funsies. (Well, okay, and to get information.) Vex lacks empathy, clearly, and may scan as a sociopath, but he’s not a stoic one. He gets enjoyment out of tormenting his victims.

Is this the kind of guy the writers are going to try to later convince us is a harmless comic relief mascot? Surely n—

Yes. Yes he is.

I am not at all opposed to the idea of Vex slowly becoming a morally ambiguous anti-villain, even a member of the gang. In fact, I think that premise is interesting as hell. But what I feel like happens later is that the show kind of forgets that Vex did all this horrible shit in the past. Kinda brushes it under the rug. Not only does this make it a lot harder for me to get behind him becoming one of the gang, it also does the character himself a great disservice. I’ll probably get into this more once Vex starts showing up more frequently, and why I feel the writers mishandle him.

To be clear, in spite of how sadistic he is, Vex is not a malicious person. He doesn’t have any enmity for the people he’s ordered to kill. He’s not angry, not hateful, not spiteful. He just doesn’t really care. He’s almost a kind of nihilist. None of it really matters. Somebody who thinks like that would have a fairly breezy time killing people.

Because I like when in-universe politics make things complicated, I like that the in-universe politics of the Light and Dark Fae makes things complicated. Bo wants to free Lou Ann, and she wants the Light Fae’s help, but they can’t help her because it would mean basically declaring war on the Dark Fae. MAJOR no-no. Likewise, they can’t go after Vex because all of his actions are sanctioned by the Dark Fae’s government. Bo’s unalignment gives her freedom, but it’s not without its downsides. She has no influence and no resources when things get too big for her to handle.

“Smells like fried bitch.” An icon. If I remember correctly from one of the behind-the-scenes features, they brainstormed and tested out a bunch of different one-liners to use for this moment, until Ksenia Solo ad-libbed this.

Lol. Kenzi is just so done with Bo and Dyson’s drama.

Lou Ann, the Fae woman who is on death row for killing her kids, obviously strikes a nerve with Bo.

It’s kinda weird, because when we first meet her, Bo’s main motivation is that she wants to be able to live her life without being forced to kill others and stay on the run to do so. Those problems kinda get solved in the first episode.

Since then, her motivation has been to live her life without these big mysterious Fae governments telling her what to do. In the first episode, Bo, like Lou Ann, says that she chooses humans. Bo was raised human and wants a normal human life, or as normal as she can get. At the same time, most of the other characters on the show, including her friends, spend a lot of time trying to convince her to embrace her Fae identity and a Fae lifestyle, because it’s “who she is” and she has no choice but to embrace that. “Choice” is a keyword that gets thrown around a lot in this show. But what is the show really trying to say about it? There’s some kind of nature vs. nurture conflict going on here, and I don’t feel like either Bo or the show itself has really decided on which side of the line they fall. On another note, this show has huge Fuck the System vibes. Which I appreciate. We stan an icon who chooses to reject a static, repressive, harmful system even at great personal cost.

A few episodes ago, Bo and Lauren went on a mission together and cemented their bond of trust. In this scene, Lauren breaks that trust.

She sleeps with Bo to distract her from going after Vex, under the pretense that it is simply the culmination of them both being attracted to one another. The next morning, it doesn’t take long for Bo to figure this out. She is appropriately hurt. She has feelings for Lauren, there was an intimacy there, and she trusted her in a way that she doesn’t normally trust other people, because of her past. Lauren took advantage of her feelings and used her. Whether Lauren wanted to do it or not, whether she had any way of refusing, isn’t relevant in this moment; it was cruel regardless.

But what does Lauren say?

“I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Oop. There it is. There’s the Lauren I remember.

She hasn’t done anything wrong, y’all. Well, I’ll be damned. Lauren never did anything wrong ever in her life. *Lauren did nothing wrong meme*

The way Lauren says this line, with so much conviction, makes me feel like she genuinely believes it. She believes that she did nothing wrong. She is legitimately deluded about what just happened.

This is only the first in what I remember to be a very long string of instances where Lauren pushes blame onto others and denies any culpability in her shitty actions. At least, in this case, Bo isn’t buying it.

Waiting for Bo in the most extra-ass, goth, flamboyant setup possible is exactly the kind of quality villainy I expect from Vex.

It’s criminal that Bo never gets to use this awesome sword.

And…I love that Vex just gets to walk out of there, laughing. Because the system. And he’s not even really evil. He’s just a sadistic asshole. With a job. It’s. *chef’s kiss*

#lost girl #bo dennis #kenzi malikov #lauren lewis #vex #doccubus #dybo #dyson #1x08

8 notes · View notes