#the original is good too but I prefer the score in the new one

[altaruwusmolboiz]

It's always "are you lalala or okokok" and never "Which version of side show do you prefer"

[come-see-our-show]

I saw an early screening of the Mean Girls movie last night, so here is a summary of my thoughts, comparing the movie musical to the Broadway musical, which I was lucky enough to see live in 2018!

Changed that I liked:

The usage of social media in the Broadway show made it very clear that it was written by adults who didn’t know much about Gen-Z. It was probably one of the worst parts of the show in my opinion. But Tina Fey must have done her research since 2018, because the way the movie uses TikTok, memes, vlogging, and FaceTime to push the story forward worked VERY well. I think there were some influencer cameos, but it didn’t feel they were included to show how “young and hip” they were, It actually added authenticity.

The diversity within the cast and changing last names to reflect the characters’ backgrounds (Karen Smith ➡️ Karen Shetty, Janis Sarkisian ➡️ Janis 'Imi'ike)

Cutting down “Meet the Plastics.” It’s a very exposition-heavy song and doesn’t need to be super long, even though the full version is quite catchy and fun.

All of the new jokes landed so well, probably because Tina Fey’s writing style is better suited for the screen as opposed to the stage.

This is more of a comparison of the musical vs. the original film, but a big change was The Plastics’ weaponized wokeness (which I talk about here).

The production design for most of the songs was very different. The stage musical has a lot of rock songs, which were changed to a pop sound for the movie. I personally prefer rock musicals, but it was a good way to give the movie a separate identity from its predecessor so it doesn’t risk becoming a carbon copy. It worked on some songs (“Someone Gets Hurt” and “World Burn”) but not on others (“A Cautionary Tale” and “Revenge Party”).

Cutting the joke about Regina’s ass being big. It was a very low-brow joke, which I’m not a fan of, and was just really immature. Thank God that was changed to her falling, which still shows her being embarrassed without her body being the joke.

Explicitly making Janis a lesbian! (It’s only implied in the stage show with “It’s not even true… I only have one butt”) And she goes to prom with a girl while Damien dances with a boy! ALSO THERE’S REJANIS LORE AND IT’S SO HEARTBREAKING I LOVE IT

megan thee stallion just… being there

Miss Norbury and Principal Duvall being a couple and owning a dog together!!!

As a low mezzo, I appreciated whoever decided to lower the key for “I’d Rather Be Me.” I felt very represented 🩷

Having Cady be raised in a single-parent household so it focuses in more on her relationship with her mom. Jenna Fischer was so motherly and sincere and brought a warmth to the movie. Their scene together near the end made me emotional (you’re never too old to ask your parent to stay with you until you fall asleep) (also this is my request to make jenna fischer my mom)

Changes that I didn’t like:

Cutting BOTH of Damian’s solos??? (SHE’S LEAVING!!!!!!!! JUST LIKE MY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Cutting “More Is Better.” It wasn’t necessarily a memorable song, but it did give both Cady and Aaron more depth, both as separate characters and within their relationship.

While cutting some of the songs helped with pacing, cutting HALF of the score made me forget that it was a musical sometimes, which sucks because I really like musicals!!!

Other stuff:

The movie was marketed horribly. One of my friends didn’t even know it was gonna be a musical because there were no songs in the trailers 💀 (Also, this isn’t just a Mean Girls problem. The Color Purple also didn’t have any songs in the trailer. I didn’t even know Wonka was a musical until I saw it in theaters, so that was a bit of a shock.) If you’re producing a musical movie, maybe your focus groups should be musical fans, because that’s still a HUGE market.

Auliʻi Cravalho’s voice is STUNNING! She and Jaquel Spivey had great chemistry and their friendship felt so genuine!

The opening and ending transitions from the garage were everything to me

The EDITING

Angourie Rice is a great actor and fit Cady perfectly… except for her singing. Out of the entire cast she was easily the weakest in terms of vocals and it was pretty disappointing since she’s the LEAD. I could barely hear her in the new song “What Ifs” because of how quiet and breathy she was. I think it’s a better written song compared to “Roar” though.

Jon Hamm cameo!

Ashley Park cameo!

I cannot stress enough how funny this movie was. I was probably laughing louder than everyone else in the theatre.

I lost my shit during “Meet the Plastics” when Regina unzipped her jacket and Cady was staring at her boobs. She’s just like me fr 🏳️‍🌈

I know that Regina is a horrible person but I couldn’t find it in me to dislike her in the slightest. She just served too much cunt 😩

Christopher Briney is a good actor, but I don't think he was the right choice for Aaron Samuels. I would hate to ridicule anyone for their looks, but it still plays an important part in casting. Aaron is supposed to be a somewhat naive, wholesome, hot jock (and Regina has high standards, so he better be a fucking model). Briney is definitely a cutie, but gives off “smoldering badboy with a secret sensitive side” energy, which isn’t what Aaron should be.

The fantasy sequences (Stupid With Love, Revenge Party, October 3rd). I LOVE when movie musicals USE the medium to tell stories in a way that they can’t on a stage!!!

THE CHOREO!!! Everyone freezing then shaking in “Someone Get Hurt” AHHHH that entire number was HYPNOTIZING!!!!!!!!!!! My friend told me the choreographer’s name is Kyle Hanagami, so shout out to him. (also reneé rapp was so fucking hot while singing that oh my lord)

I will be calling my pimples “face breasts” from now on (avantika ilysm)

DAMIAN’S FRENCH COVER OF THE ICARLY THEME SONG 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

why was there a 0.5 camera shot of cady during revenge party 💀

“I’d Rather Be Me” was so much fun and I felt so fucking empowered. And the transition from the song to the bus was just *chef’s kiss*

“donut worry i am still your freend” 🥺

Lindsay Lohan cameo!!!!!!!!!

NOT ENOUGH RENEÉ RAPP 😭😭

Overall, the movie was not perfect, but the Broadway show already had plenty of flaws, so it’s understandably how that would affect the adaptation. I still a LOT of fun and would definitely see it again. Go stream Snow Angel by Reneé Rapp. i love women 🥰🥰🥰

[toxicanonymity]

Hope you don't mind me spamming you a bit. I appreciate your reviews and commentary! Other movies that came to mind which I enjoyed were Ready Or Not, The Invitation, Don't Breathe, Black Christmas, Last Night inSoho (technically this is a horror movie). And because it's popular, what are your thoughts on A Quiet Place?

I don't mind one bit. These are fun questions, especially this one. Buckle up lmaoooo.

Ready or Not - I liked it, and it inspired the wedding dress in one of my darker stories.

The Invitation - Hell yes, love a dark dinner party movie. Won't spoil why.

Don't Breathe - Loved. So depraved. If you haven't seen it I won't spoil, but holy shit lol. Kink alert.

Black Christmas - Yes! Prefer the original by a mile, but enjoyed the Blumhouse take too.

Last Night in Soho - Need to see this, it's on my list.

A Quiet Place - Okay. . .Just my passionate opinion: I fear there is no movie I despise more. My disdain is well-known among friends. I'm about to go off.

Krasinski referring to his film as "elevated horror" put him on my bad side from the start. Really low to put down others to promote himself. Dismissing an entire diverse genre, disrespecting everyone who paved the way.

Krasinski gets (takes) far too much credit for things that have been done and done better, including the climax which mirrors The Descent Part 2, shot-for-shot. Don't Breathe is another example of the have-to-be-quiet premise.

Huge hit among non-horror fans who didn't know better and raved about its originality. Meanwhile gushing, "I'm not even into horror." Soo maybe they hadn't seen much? Especially lesser known movies. The horror tent is big enough for all, but he brought new fans into it while infusing them with his condescending attitude.

Far too many gratuitous close-ups of himself going 🤫. This man's ego, stg.

Some of us detected a strong whiff of right-wing energy. Pro-life in a risk everyone's lives for a fetus way. Pro-gun in a rural, white, get off my land way (btw I'm obsessed with John Wick. it's not the use of guns in this, it's the energy).

He bragged about how his wife was so unaffected by her most intense scene (childbirth) that after it she said, "Who's ready for lunch?" Why is that so good, John? Is your view as a director that actors should snap in and out of character and not be affected by their roles? If she needed to cry or rest, would he think less of her? Personally I admire people who feel. Also, harder to imagine paying a man the same compliment.

I have one nice thing to say, which is that it's nice to see deaf/hard-of-hearing representation, and it was the least they could do good to cast an actress from the community as his daughter.👍

If they committed to total silence instead of using a dramatic score, that would've been cool.

You can do your own take on an old concept and make it good. But to meanwhile put down everything else to distinguish/promote himself?? That ain't it.

Anyway, I still hate-watched the sequel (not nearly as bad) and may do the same with the prequel 🤪.

[c-schroed]

Podcasts I Adore - Re: Dracula or This Year, Our Friend Jonathan Has a Podcast!

"I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Memorandum: Get recipe for Mina.)"

I wanted to join "Dracula Daily" ever since I heard of it. To me, this is a stroke of genius; it's just the perfect approach to this book. I mean, not only is Bram Stoker's horror classic an epistolary novel with precise dates given for every journal entry or letter written by one of its protagonists, it also spans quite an ideal amount of time, i.e. roughly half a year. Long enogh to give it a feeling of something interesting and important slowly unraveling, short enough to not feel like too much of a commitment.

So yeah, I really wanted to join "Dracula Daily". Especially because I wanted to read the novel in English for years already (so far I've only read its German translation, because that's my native language). But, alas, I do not find the time so easily to add a book to my to do list, so I ended up not joining this lovely book club last year, fearing I'd miss out on most of the entries sooner or later.

Enter "Regarding Dracula". Right after seeing it for the very first time I knew this will be perfect for me. I already have a habit of listening to audio drama on my daily commute, and preferably in the form of fictional podcasts. So quite literally, @re-dracula had me at hello.

And gosh, they did not disappoint. Although I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed to find out that the format is more that of a classical audio drama, with voice actors speaking every line of their respective character. Originally, I was hoping for a more podcast-like approach, meaning that each actor speaks all of the text of a journal entry or letter, period. As if Jonathan would make a podcast instead of notes in his journal. I simply like it when audio fiction uses the possibilities of podcasts, and "Dracula" felt like something that could profit from this way of storytelling, too. So yes, I admit it: I was a bit disappointed. But not for long.

After hearing just a few sentences of Karim Kronfli as Dracula, I immediately understood the decision to breathe life into each character this way. I mean, I love Ben Galpin's work as Jonathan, but Dracula really, really profits from Kronfli's nonchalant but still breathtakingly powerful and confident take on this charakter.

And Mr. Kromfli is not the only one who makes a redefiningly marvellous job here. So far, all the voice actors go far out of their way to make me fall in love with each and every one of them: Ben Galpin's Jonathan is heartbreakingly relatable, Isabel Adomakoh Young's Mina is capable and charming beyond measure, and Beth Eyre's Lucy is just gorgeous. Yes. I'm in love.

In addition to all that talent of its cast, "Re: Dracula" also has a neat and absolutely on point score and sound design. And, just like the basic idea of "Dracula Daily", it really gives you a feeling of how time passes between the journal entries and letters. Haven't heard anything of Jonathen for a while? One does start to worry a bit. Lucy answering to Mina just two days after the Mina's letter? Wow, that was quick, I guess (not sure how quickly the postal service worked back then, though). Even if one has read "Dracula" again and again, I am sure this form of presentation can grant new insights!

So, if you, like me, are a more eager listener than reader, or if you happen to like close-to-perfection audio drama, then please give this a shot! I bet you, like me, will soon be finding yourself eagerly, yearningly awaiting the next bit of news from your good friend Jonathan, who hopefully soon returns from that terrible business trip of his. 9 out of 10 points.

[enchantedchocolatebars]

Gorillaz Teacher! AU Headcanons

🍎 Original headcanons ✏️

🏫 Ao3 version 🎒

Murdoc:

• Wait, how did he even get this job and why hasn't he been fired yet?

• Teaching is honestly just a shitty day job for him. Once he earns enough, he's quitting to become a famous rock star with his own band! He could see it now: fame, glory, girls. It sounds like a dream come true. But until he had the money to make that dream a reality, he was stuck as the school's social studies teacher.

• When he quits his job as an "educator", it's going to be very similar to the fuck you scene from the movie "Half Baked".

• He is disliked by the students in all of his classes.

• He has a habit of arriving 30 minutes late to class. Sometimes he'll show up completely sober, while other times he'll show up drunk.

• The pickle has WAY too many political views that he refuses to keep to himself.

• If Murdoc falls asleep at his desk, one of the kids might try to either draw a dick on his forehead and take a picture of it, or they might try to put a 'kick me' sign on his back. But they have to be EXTRA careful or they might wake up the grumpy goblin!

• If he does wake up, he'll be extremely mad and end up giving the whole class a pop quiz first thing tomorrow morning.

• He finds grading papers to be too difficult, so he doesn't bother doing it.

• The only time Murdoc actually teaches his class something about social studies is when the principal or some other important staff member walks into the room to see what's going on. Once they're gone, he goes straight back to sleep.

• He believes that Stuart Pot, the new music teacher at school, is an idiot. He decides to give him the nickname '2D' because he feels that the man is too dense. Murdoc has walked by Stuart's classroom a couple of times before and has overheard him and his students singing while he plays the piano. To hear more, he would usually place his ear against the door. He had to admit that the guy had some really nice vocals. Plus, he's tall, pretty, has blue hair, and both eyes! Murdoc makes a mental note to remember to make that Stu-Pot guy the front man of his future band once he gets the money he wants and decides to quit.

• Murdoc only tries to 'befriend" 2D because he's a music teacher and also because he wants him to be his future front man.

• When he learns that the teacher of the class with the highest test scores will receive a large bonus pay, he decides to change his style of "teaching", forcing the students in his class to study intensely for the upcoming test. However, the kids end up getting low scores.

• He has been embezzling money from the 9th grade bake sale.

2D/Stuart Pot:

• He is the new music teacher!

• He quickly becomes well-liked by students and co-workers.

• Stuart is a nice teacher who carries himself off as a goofy professional who knows what he's doing.

• Believes that every one of his students will become a great musician one day.

• At times, he enjoys teaching while music plays in the background.

• He may accidentally give students test answers when they ask for clarification on a question

• He will write original songs for his class to perform.

• Has an after-school club where he teaches students how to play piano, keyboards, and melodica.

• I can imagine him being an actual teacher in real life.

• Stuart is a bit terrified of Murdoc because one time, when the two were on lunch duty together, Murdoc was explaining to him a dream that he had last night where he launched his car through a music shop that Stu-Pot was apparently working at and had knocked one of his eyes out! “ Oh, uh, o-okay… W-Well, it’s a good thing you aren’t actually going to run me over with a real car, right?…RIGHT?!”

Noodle:

• She has a full real name, but prefers to be referred to as Noodle, which was a nickname she received in her childhood.

• The children generally call her Ms. Noodle.

• She's the teaching assistant for Stuart's class!

• She's kind because she helps everyone in the class who needs it, even the spoiled kids.

• She's in charge of the guitar club after-school!

• She really likes the guitar club since it provides a safe and fun environment for students to come together and enjoy music.

• She's a master at playing acoustic guitar and ukulele!

• You'll most likely find her in the teacher's lounge playing on her pink handheld game player while drinking tea and munching on the candy and snacks that they have in there.

• The teacher's lounge is her favorite room to be in for obvious reasons.

Russel:

• He's a no-nonsense math teacher who will joke around with his students from time to time, but then gets very serious with them when it comes to their grades.

• Mr. Hobbs is skilled at making math fun with a capital F!

• They didn’t do so well on a test? Not a problem! Russel will happily allow a student to retake it, as long as they go home and study.

• He will greet each student by their name when they enter his class.

• Russel has a general concern for his students and desires the best for all of them.

• His students can count on him being genuine

• Will bring treats for the class if they did really well on a quiz or test!

• Allows his students to use their phones once they have finished all their work.

• When his students throw him a surprise party in the classroom on his birthday, he breaks down in happy tears.

• Murdoc's classroom is situated across the hall from his own.

• Russel doesn't know why, but he feels that Mr. Niccals is teaching for all the wrong reasons.

• He really doesn't think Murdoc should be teaching teenagers, or really anyone. Russel couldn't think of anyone less qualified to be a teacher.

• Whenever he's in the teacher's lounge, he likes socializing with other teachers like 2D or Noodle, but never with Murdoc. Russel tries to avoid him.

[thecomicsnexus]

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #150 (FINAL ISSUE)

April 2024

By Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman , Vincenzo Federici, Fero Pe, Dan Duncan, Ronda Pattison, Luis Antonio Delgado, and Shawn Lee.

Donatello... does things. Venus does things. The other Turtles are there somewhere.

SCORE: 5

It's not an easy issue to discuss without spoilers... so what can I say here?

The book finally solves a plot that started with the first five issues of volume 5 (and specifically, issue 50). But overall, the story is a little too abstract and I'd be surprised if people could look back and explain this saga to me without getting lost (something that happens to me any time I try to remember "Final Crisis")

I got lost many times. And the fact that new characters were introduced in this issue just to make up for the missing turtles, made it all the more puzzling.

This is not the ending that this volume deserved... I think there is something valuable here, but I am afraid it didn't make it to the page intact. This sounds too abstract on the page, and characters are just going with the flow. It's almost like someone cut the number of chapters by half and this was the result.

There are interesting moments, visually. Like a whole sequence that takes place at the beginning of this run (with guest star Dan Duncan). And another beautiful moment by Sophie Campbell. The rest was good. Fero Pe is definitely the highlight for me.

Spoilers after the break...

Jennika, Mikey, Leo, and Raph are not in this story... did we really need three more turtles? I guess they had the know how necessary to defeat Armaggon, but this felt like the wrong time to introduce new characters. I would have preferred the five (and Venus) Turtles fighting together.

Still, it was interesting to see this volume's version of making characters permanent (in the Mirage books, ink did the trick).

Things got a bit too abstract at this point. I couldn't understand what was happening to Armaggon anymore.

I am sure Armaggon's story is all a metaphor for humans not leaving things alone, or something similar, and I can recognize the story beats. I am just... a little confused on the how.

It also seems like Lita is not turning back to Turtle (her QNA was absorbed by Bob from the future... who was left in Feudal Japan, I think...?)

So Venus was in charge of helping the Hamatos reincarnate, and then she joined Yoshi and Shen in the afterlife. Well... she could definitely reincarnate!

I have to make sense if Sophie's run, and knowing how it ends will very likely help me follow the story better. While this Armaggon plot started with this saga, there are several moments before and during Armageddon game that made this story so hard to follow.

There is one question I have left, though... what was the role of the mutagen in all of this?

Something was different about Splinter and the Turtles, and that was why Slash was initially a savage. It wasn't until they added a special component to it that Slash became intelligent. Is that now present in all types of mutagen? Sorry for the tangent.

I think overall, Sophie's run was good. It had an indie feel that reminded me a lot of Volume four. She was only going to do 12 issues and her run extended until the end of the book. Of course, in the middle the Armageddon game happened that took almost an entire year.

I think the Turtles universe became just too big. So big, that the main characters were competing for attention (Casey Jones, anyone?). This is why I think it is a good idea to expand the titles and give more space to the original four turtles. I will be reading Mutant Nation (of course), and I bet it will feel much better knowing that all these characters have now a proper place to grow.

That is, assuming a year from now all the announced books are still going (not an easy feat with comic books).

[cobraonthecob]

apologies to all my followers who do not know what f1 is. this fucking rich man's sport has grabbed my brain and is not willing to let go

I am. several months late but my thoughts have been marinating this so um. here we go. a formula 1 post about Nyck De Vries because i really think he deserves a lot better but i understand this sport is cutthroat and red bull happily tosses drivers if they see them as underperforming, which i get. if you underperform, you get the chopping block.

That being said...Nyck being dropped ten races into a season feels like a punch to the face, especially after m/zepin, who at least got a season in (no surprise, money talks big in this rich man's sport, especially if your russian oligarch father sponsors the team) despite posting in his instagram story a video of him groping a woman on his public account. classless.

I will say, Nyck did start off the season coming off as highly arrogant, not wanting to be called a rookie because he is 28 and has been test driving for years (okay fair, he could just be referred to as 'new to officially f1 racing' but that's too long), and thought he was going to be the team lead because of that experience. I do think that was the worst thing he did; was to try and brand himself as not a rookie and thinking he was team lead over Yuki Tsunoda, who has been at alphatauri for much longer than he has. In the eyes of fans, this damned him (seriously, why did no one at PR try to stop him from thinking he - the new guy - would be team lead), and his racing results were lacking.

I honestly think that they should have waited out the entire season to judge him, and that alphatauri had no business tossing Nyck for underperforming in the worst car on the grid. I think that Perspective on youtube has some good points in this video about nyck, and I can't remember at the moment if it was perspective or another youtuber who talked about Nyck in a respectful way, but one stated that in their opinion, drivers should at least have two seasons to be properly judged on their performance. Given how cutthroat redbull is, I say one is enough of a judgement, since they seem to be waiting or searching for the next driver that can measure up to max.

I also do think that Nyck got screwed over by transferring from williams to alpha tauri, instead of signing onto alphatauri, but i wonder if the only reason why alphatauri wanted him specifically was because he's only three inches taller than yuki and they wanted to give yuki preference on the car, rather than say, designing the car around logan or oscar (let's just pretend that these three new drivers are all up for grabs, i don't know how or who gets which driver and i'm not part of that world), who are much taller. though, i'll admit, that thought kind of gets thrown out the door once alpha tauri decided to take on daniel ricciardo and later liam lawson, both of whom are quite tall (and is something mentioned in f1's analysis about alpha tauri)

There's also Nyck being very much hyped over his first race in F1, when he had to stand-in for Alex Albon (who is 6'1, keep that in mind), managed to score P9 in his first official F1 race, and it's not an easy feat for someone who is a test driver, as he couldn't get out of the car at the end of the race, as he stated he was unable to lift his arms. It's one thing if he had just managed to stay in the race, but to be able to score P9 while being pushed to his physical limit. Yes, williams may have the advantage of being perfect for monza, but to manage to climb P9 in a car at the bottom in the constructors' championship and it's not a car that suits you - the original driver being 7 inches taller - I'd say that's pretty impressive to pull off.

and I think that the hype probably put a massive weight on his shoulders. He had so many expectations for himself, the team had expectations for him, and the fans had expectations, and then a series of unfortunate events of getting a car that is fighting to be the worst on the grid and unfortunate incidents leads to him being shown the door.

I think Nyck would've thrived a lot better if he remained at a team whose car he would at least be familiar with, and at a team that would not toss him to the side for underperforming. But unfortunately, time marches on, and I can only wish Nyck the best in life, and that this becomes a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to sign onto red bull/alphatauri.

The overall conclusion is that he deserved a better team and that I can only hope anyone who is similar to him (i.e. been in motorsport for so long that your F1 debut is when you're over the age of 23 and not having a rich parent to buy + protect your place on the team) will learn from the errors Nyck made (the arrogance, specifically).

[holofoiltowercard]

The Journey of The Tarot Haiku

IV: The Emperor - Structure and Order

Today I thought I would talk about structure with regard to how the book came about.

First, the structure of the poems: believe it or not, I was first considering limericks just because I really love the structure and flow of the limerick, and I enjoy a good challenge. At the same time, I don't think I have ever written a single limerick in my life - this is a case of "I love to eat it but I never cook it for myself" I suppose. Haikus, however, are a different story: I have written them on and off in the past, usually on the spur of the moment and mostly for the fun of it as I was chatting with friends. When the Eight of Swords card inspired me, that first ever haiku came very naturally, fully formed: the poem you will find in the book is that very first poem just as it had come to my head. Of course, this doesn't mean that all of them were so easy to write - as evidenced by the fact that I still had about forty poems or so to go when I first burned out.

Speaking of writing the poems: as I chose to use Scrivener to assemble the book's contents, that was the same place where I kept track of the poems, and I kept tallies of them. Not to overwhelm myself, I always set goals like, "for your next milestone, write 20 new poems". I wish I still had an in progress picture for Scrivener, but I kept editing the page where I kept track of everything. I do, however, have evidence of keeping score in various bullet journals!

I loved making these, and by now I'm also glad that they show an incomplete state of things, because it gives you an idea of how hard I was trying to motivate myself with colorful tallies.

Just for comparison, this was the progress page in my Scrivener:

See the sidebar? I was not kidding about being meticulous about the structure and squirreling those poems away.

Speaking of which, a bit about the structure of the book: in it you first find some fundamentals, such as poems about the Tarot in general, some key concepts like context and reversals, and then the number system and Court Card personalities. I originally wondered if I should include the latter two with the Minor Arcana section, and have it precede the Suit of Cups (I went in the order of Cups, Pentacles, Swords and Wands because it seems to be the customary order, but now I wonder if people have any preferences about the order of the suits) - but I decided against it because I thought it might break up the flow too much, so even though the number system and the Court Card personalities are strictly about the Minor Arcana, they form part of the first section. This way you basically have two major sections in the book: the first one providing basic information and featuring all digital illustrations, and the second one is a handful of digital illustrations to introduce the cards, followed by the traditional Rider Waite card illustrations.

I'm really happy with the final structure(s), I think they all worked out for the best!

Buy the ebook

Buy the paperback

Buy the hardcover

[night-city-valentines]

Hi-Fi Rush Review

I knew nothing about this game prior to its release, other than two things - people said it was similar to Jet Set Radio Future, and it was coming to Game Pass.

I've never played JSRF (but I've always wanted to) and I have Game Pass, so I downloaded and booted it up.

I was hooked from the start.

Hi-Fi Rush is an action-rythym game, with platforming, puzzle, and collect-a-thon elements set on the futuristic island owned by the Vandalay Corporation - a robotics company, currently giving out replacement limbs as part of their 'Project Armstrong'. Our protagonist, Chai, signs up for a replacement arm, but a mishap with his legally-distinct-from-an-iPod MP3 player ending up where his heart should be makes him perceive the world to the beat of his rock music. It also makes him Vandalay's Number One Target, as they label him a defect to be destroyed.

This all happens in the opening cutscene.

The game is gorgeous, going for an animation style similar to Spider-Verse, with the visuals being incredibly comic-like. The anime inspiration is also clear, with all the panicked and OTT movements of Chai as he scraps his way out of trouble. Along the way, you run into a host of other characters, such as a robot cat named 808, a badass hacker called Peppermint, a gentle giant called Macaron, and a therapist robot named CNMN (Cinnamon). And they aren't just supporting characters in the narrative sense, they also help you out in gameplay too (well, not CNMN, but what can ya do). Peppermint can crack through energy barriers with her laser pistols, Macaron can bust through walls and knock heavy objects into place, and 808 serves as an understated beat-counter, their lights pulsing along to the beat of the song that's playing.

808 isn't the only musical gameplay indicator, though. The entire world moves with the soundtrack, not just to the beat, but adding flair to the current track, like platforms rapidly shifting, and certain puzzles following their own beat. Even the combat has rythym to it; security lasers with unique timings, having to attack, dodge, and jump on-beat to do more damage and build your score multiplier, and parriable mini-boss moves that let you get a 1-hit KO. Chai's weapon of choice is a guitar made from scrap, and every hit, combo, and parry comes with a musical element.

The story is a fairly standard fare - Chai wants to GTFO, but he can't until he helps Peppermint take down Vandalay. Full disclosure, I haven't finished the game yet (I'm about halfway done), but what I have played I have adored. The game is packed to the brim with charm too. Chai is a quippy slacker, way in over his head, but loving every minute of his adventure. Peppermint is hot-headed, but bounces off of Chai well, and puts him in his place. The 6 bosses of Vandalay are all wonderful too, from the aggressive Southern wrestler-type Rekka, to the obviously JJBA-inspired Zanzo. Like many games nowadays, Hi-Fi's characters like to make meta-jokes, and while I am tired of that as a concept, in Hi-Fi it's sparing enough that I don't hate it (unlike a certain OTHER Game Pass game that also starts with an 'H').

And the soundtrack, oh MAN the soundtrack. It goes hard. There isn't much more I can say! It features both original and licensed music, but the originals are so freakin good I can barely tell the difference. Obviously if you aren't that into rock music, you won't like it, but that's a matter of preference.

With regards to what I DON'T like, I found the part that teaches you about parrying to be way too obstructive. Like, the otherwise fast-paced game screeches to a halt to teach you about this new mechanic, rather than all the other tutorial segments, which are over really quickly. I also find it hard to stay on-beat, even with the optional big on-screen indicator. This may be a problem with my controller, but more often than not I would hit the buttons in time with the beat, but only like 2 out of a 4 hit combo would be on time, which massively brings down your score, which sucks. Also, some of the combos just...don't work? Like I don't know if I really am doing them wrong, but I do the input, and no special move happens. That sucks too. Also I would have preferred to be given the choice to play as Peppermint over Chai but that's just me being nit-picky, let's be honest.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed this game so far. I would definitely recommend trying it out if you have Game Pass, and I'd say it's worth the £30 price tag IF you like the music used. Even then, the gameplay is fun enough that you could mute the music and play to the beat on-screen if you just want a fun hack-and-slash adventure. The game is available on Steam, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S.

Hi-Fi Rush - 9/10

Pros:

- Great soundtrack

- Fun and addictive gameplay

- Wonderful characters and humour

Cons:

- Timings can be a bit wack

- The parry tutorial suuuuuucks

[armedjoy]

a long and (later on) personal post about my engagement and future on this site beneath the cut

to start, some observations about my time here:

disco elysium holds the record for the first fandom im truly engaging with. i check the tags, read the 'spinoff' fiction, its fun. one could say our ideological milieus here are themselves a fandom, but in terms of something thats strictly media, this is it. going on 11 years here and thats what broke the streak, its that fucking good.

i regret deleting my sideblog 'information-nexus' back in '15. it was an organized and well-tagged news, theory, "how-to", and resource blog, but it was taking way too much of my time. i was attempting to make a whole ass virtual library on tumblr, which is far too ambitious for one person, especially considering that it would never pay bills. i shouldve opened it up to some friends to co-mod it and dialed back my involvement. oh well

i regret less the deletion of 'film-space' in '14. posts were just the movie poster with a brief summary of the plot and then a quick review. i came up with my own system that reworked the 4 star ratings into how id recommend based on genre preferences. film reviews in print seem to belabor the point and online reviews seem to lean too heavily on arbitrarily defined scoring. the point should be to either encourage or dissuade readers from seeing it, not remind them you're the wittiest person in the room or that you've atomized the medium into an exploded diagram, and i held to that. it forced me to watch movies more critically wrt to both the art form and the politics it portrayed. but i took an extended break from the site and lost momentum. it just seemed... pointless

ive been pretty bad with managing every inbox/ chat ive ever had - except this one, the personal blog. i tell myself "i'll get around to answering that" and thats been a lie most of the time. the vast majority of my time here is spent reading things that cross my dash, so getting a question on a completely different subject seems to exceed my bandwidth. i genuinely enjoy most of my interactions here but im simply not in the correct mindset most days. that said, most of the mail 'left-reminders' has gotten just feels like im being asked to do an undergrads homework.

i havent posted my face in, what, 8 years? which i might change. i mean im already fucked - ive posted some wild shit before [REDACTED] was a meme, and my face is already linked to this blog & backed up somewhere at fort meade. whats another hole in an already sunk ship, yeah?

funnily enough, i originally joined to post my photography & short stories. look how that turned out lmao

why am i posting this? ive been seriously evaluating my continued presence here. for some time ive had a desire to leave, which up to this point has been greatly outweighed by the reasons to stay. there are other platforms that are bigger, faster, algorithmically supercharged to provide every niche interest you allow it to know... but im still not as invested as i am here. tumblr's appeal is equal parts utilitarian and sentimental - no other platform has been this educational, informing, and entertaining. this place really is the internets bleeding edge for both humor and anarchist/ communist discourse. and for more personal reasons, i have greatly valued sharing this little corner of the internet with you all. i have enjoyed sharing each of your interests and discussions, witnessing your personal developments. know that this random guy on the internet is & always has been rooting for you.

ive had some serious rough patches over the last decade, and ive used this site as a grounding rod as much as a resource and social outlet. but my friend group is vast now, im living healthier, and im making positive changes. for the first in a very long time, i am truly feeling better, finally moving beyond 'managing' into 'growing.' and more than anything, i need to grow creatively.

simply put, writing fiction is the calling of my heart. and if im to commit to it, i cannot divide my attention. beyond being my sole committed creative outlet, it helps me manage daily life. writing feels like gardening: in the structure it builds to do it right, the determination it requires to continue when i fail, and the joy it inspires when i create. when an idea settles in and i can piece it together while going about my day, only sitting down to write when i know most of it. the emotion i experience after unwinding something that has rooted itself around my mind is tremendous and complicated - it feels like an exorcism, of sorts. the feverishness that seizes me to get it all down before it slips away, the relief when i know i can finally move on, the pride of creation, and the dreadful anticipation of being read - all of it is a bittersweet cup that i will gladly return to.

i need to make space for that, with whatever little amount of bandwidth i have to work with. i refuse to wake up one day knowing that i have postponed the only thing thats ever meant a damn to me, only to realize ive run out of time. i will not squander whats left.

at some point, i know i need to put this behind me. this, and several other self-imposed obligations, must greatly diminish or disappear entirely. it might be in a few weeks or a year, but it has to happen. i might keep this one up, sporadically popping in for occasional exchanges, and pass off the sideblogs to someone else. i've already scrubbed the archive. or maybe i'll just delete entirely; perhaps virtual presences are best if they resembled a sand mandala, something designed to be swept away to make space for something - or someone - new.

i had to write this down, get this all out, if only for myself. i cannot begin to estimate the amount of time ive spent here, so it had to be said for my own reconciliation of that time... and to keep myself to it.

when im ready to leave, i'll let you all know.

[darlingpwease]

I REGRET TO COME TO YOU TO TELL YOY VERY VERY BAD NEWS BUT ITS INDEED VERY VERY BAD NEWS </333333 I LIKE A BLOND MAN NOW </333333 jinxed it. been CURSED. my favorite isn't even silver now. it's ROOK HUNT. what makes it even worse is that he's FRENCH /j

my other favorites are azul ashengrotto and rollo flamme too so it's like. light haired man after light haired man after light haired man after light haired man. A DISEASE!!! ANOTHER INFECTION!!!!! darling love of my life this must be purge instantly do you see this very big frying pan? ok now hit me over the head as hard as you can okay sCORE A HOME RUN WITH MY FRONTAL LOBE OKA

... i knew. i knew this was going to happen. i prayed it wouldn't, but here it is. shokan. starboo. love. every day you are further away from your original standards— /hj /pos

NOOOOOOOO HOW DARE YOU???!!! how DARE you look into the eyes of your black-haired men now?!!!?1!!1!11??you, you had to FIGHT evil!!! fight!!!

not to take them as your poor meow meows!!! not take them in your mouth, pocket or head!!! fight!!! I understand that if you can't win, then lead, — but what if one day there will be more than black-haired??? what are we going to do??? what if one day you take SATORU as your other favorite because you've accepted that blondes are good too??? or, i don't know, Vil? Epel??? Ace—

look. look at them. these are the new three horsemen of the blondecalypse. we are locking the house from the new ones /j /ht

gosh— wait— french???😰😰😰 a thing for a frenchman? my love... your tastes can't get any worse.

do you, do you realize that you have reached that Mariana Trench where no one can knock any lower??? do you realize that you literally can only knock up now because there is nothing below??? do you realize that this is your biggest red flag of all red flags??? handsome?????? I'm not going to ask if you're okay — I want to ask if we're going to be okay???

'hit me over' AJAGHSGSHDGHS 1) I prefer when my men (/hj) don't have traumatic brain injuries EVEN if they are into, khkhkh, blondes; 2) what if after that you realize that blondes are better than dark-haired??? what if your next favorites aren't swordsmen??? what if they're not *GASP* pathetic anymore??? I can't take that risk. while we are not sure why blondes have appeared now, we cannot make sudden movements. just try not to be simp for the blonds... I don't know... like five minutes and we'll figure something out /t /j /pos

you're already into the french, but let's not make things worse, okay??? just, just put your new blonde man on the floor and raise your hands—

[ariadne-mouse]

I would LOVE the hear about escape room shadowgast, for the WIP meme

This one spawned from discord! I posted the premise and a snip here for another ask, but I have more to share! In the tags of that post I mentioned Shadowgast met in an escape room also. The specifics are currently undefined, but here is my noodling:

They see each other before they meet: the victory photos from the leaderboards of escape rooms in various cities. Caleb is often pictured with a rotating cast of the M9, but sometimes he is very smugly alone, having solved the room himself. One time he has his cat on a leash. Essek appears with Verin and Uraya, among others, but also has a number of solo pics. Solo pics are unusual because escape rooms usually have a required minimum number of people per booking (they are businesses, after all). It's possible that shadowgast have developed enough of a reputation that they can sweet-talk the admins into a solo booking.

Haven't decided if they are super competitive and thus have thought about "that other guy who's always jockeying for best times on the board" or if it's more that when they do finally meet in person, they both have that "god you look so familiar" thing going on for the longest time before they put it together. Hm, maybe both. I think both of them would also love the puzzles for the puzzles sake, and may even be disappointed if they complete one too quickly.

How they meet: they’re both in the same city when a new puzzle comes out - Ruins of Aeor - and they both show up at the same time trying to score a spot. Both might prefer to try it solo first, or with a group of close friends, but the room is new and very popular. No solo bookings are possible. And because they're both travelling for business, neither have their friends around either. With limited time - curse those real life priorities - they both independently decide they're just going to do the room with whatever booking they can get. It's very common to add people onto partially full bookings.

The only time slot that’s not fully booked… is a bachelorette party of 7 people who have never done an escape room before.  They’re tipsy, good-natured, and just there for a good time. Chaos ensues. They are absolutely lovely but their inexperience throws wrenches in shadowgast's game. One person accidentally sits on a clue for a good 20 minutes. The sharp-eyed bride-to-be actually solves part of the puzzle almost immediately, but is more engrossed in an unrelated conversation, and doesn't bring it up until much later. Another guy eagerly gathers clues but doesn't keep track of where they came from. It's added difficulty level 100.

Shadowgast unite in their grim frustration at first, but the group is so gregarious that both of them get steamrollered (M9'd?) into helping, including, and eventually both get super invested in the successes of their fellow players. Both have the canonical capacity to be patient teachers (Essek with Caleb, Caleb with Nott/Veth) and at a certain point this overcomes their original drive to "optimally succeed". They make it out of the room with 9 (nein!) seconds to spare. The group - including shadowgast - go absolutely bananas. Shadowgast are absorbed into the bachelorette party for celebratory drinks.

Shadowgast exchange numbers and part ways with the suggestion that perhaps if they cross paths in the same city again, they'll team up a second time.

The victory photo of Caleb and Essek together at the Ruins of Aeor is like an easter egg for others who frequently do escape rooms and have seen the leaderboards, because their photos are everywhere but always, always separate.

Okay apparently I do have specifics 😂 hope you enjoy!

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and some language

Score: 4 out of 5

The Evil Dead series has what may be the single best track record for quality out of any Hollywood horror franchise. With the big slasher franchises of the ‘80s, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, I can name at least three movies from each series that are downright wretched. The Universal monsters fell off in quality during World War II and only came back when they let Abbott and Costello do an officially sanctioned parody of them. Saw fell off starting with the fourth movie and never fully recovered, even if it still had some decent movies afterwards. Even Scream and Final Destination each have one bad or otherwise forgettable movie marring their otherwise perfect records. Evil Dead, though? The original trilogy is golden and has something to offer for everyone, whether you prefer the first movie’s campy but effective low-budget grit, the second movie’s slapstick horror-comedy approach, or Army of Darkness’ wisecracking medieval fantasy action. The spinoff TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead was three seasons’ worth of horror-comedy goodness that fleshed out the franchise’s lore. Even the remake was awesome, a gritty, ultraviolent bloodbath that took the first film’s more serious tone and put an actual budget and production values behind it, making for one of the most graphic horror movies to ever get a wide release in American theaters. This latest film delivers on the same, with a tone and levels of violence akin to the remake and most of its strengths as a pure, straightforward, whoop-your-ass horror movie with lots of muscle and little fat once it gets going. It may not be revolutionary, but Evil Dead Rise is still as good as it gets, and exactly what I hoped for given this series’ high bar.

Like its predecessors barring Army of Darkness, this is a self-contained story set within an isolated, closed-off location, in this case the top floor of a Los Angeles apartment complex instead of a cabin in the woods. Our protagonists this time are a family, led by the single mother and tattoo artist Ellie with three kids, the teenage DJ son Dan, the teenage activist daughter Bridget, and the adolescent daughter Kassie, as well as Ellie’s sister Beth. After an earthquake reveals an old vault beneath the apartment complex (which used to be a bank), Dan explores it and discovers the Naturom Demonto, an evil-looking book bound in human flesh, along with three records recorded by the renegade priest who had last had that book a hundred years ago. Dan takes the book and the records back home, plays the latter on his turntable, and turns this into a proper Evil Dead movie, with Ellie winding up the first one possessed by the demon it unleashes.

Much like how the remake built its human drama around Mia’s friends staging an intervention for her, so too does this film root its central dynamic in the relationships between its human characters, in this case crafting a dysfunctional yet believable family. Lily Sullivan as Beth and Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie are the film’s MVPs, making their characters flawed yet sympathetic figures whose perspectives are understandable but who both clearly made mistakes in managing their relationship. Beth, an audio technician for a rock band, is visiting Ellie because she just found out she’s pregnant, but is naturally hesitant to tell her sister, given that Ellie sees Beth as a glorified groupie and still harbors some resentment for the fact that Beth wasn’t there for Ellie when her husband left her. News of a pregnancy would do little more than confirm Ellie’s suspicions of Beth and her lifestyle. After all, Beth abandoned Ellie and failed to return her calls, and Ellie readily sees that Beth’s motive for visiting is self-serving even without Beth telling her exactly why she’s there. Ellie herself isn’t blameless in the breakdown of their relationship, though. She clearly has a chip on her shoulder, somebody who sees herself as the more responsible sibling even though Beth is the one with a successful career while she’s living in a run-down apartment struggling to raise three kids after her husband walked out on her.

All of that is heightened when Ellie gets possessed, as the demon, inheriting all of Ellie’s memories, uses them to taunt Beth and go completely mask-off on all the things that she wouldn’t directly say in life, calling Beth a whore and her own children leeches. Not only do we get the metaphor of a family tearing itself apart made literal, it’s here where Sutherland truly shines as not just a working-class single mother but also as the terrifying demonic parody thereof that she turns into, demonstrating what separates the Evil Dead series’ “Deadites” from many other zombies: their sense of personality. The series takes George A. Romero’s already scary idea, that of a ravenous monster that looks human, used to be human, and is able to turn others into similar monsters with just a bite or a scratch, and adds the twist of a demonic component that gives the monster that person’s intelligence and memories as well, which it then uses to torment the people who knew them in life before it devours their souls. While the more comedic direction that the “main” series films and the TV series went in is more iconic, the remake showed that there’s just as much room for a straightforward horror take on the idea of combining a zombie film with a demonic possession film, and this movie takes that idea and runs with it even if it still retains a measure of camp in some of the one-liners and gore gags.

Dan and Bridget’s relationship, too, takes center stage in the second act as they have two very different reactions to the evil book that Dan brought back to their apartment, with Morgan Davies as Dan and Gabrielle Echols as Bridget giving their characters plenty of life and personality. Bridget is suspicious from the word “go”, and when Ellie gets possessed, she blames Dan for unleashing a dark, evil force in their lives, with implications that they had a fraught relationship even before this. Even Kassie, the youngest among them, was good, with Nell Fisher taking a role that could’ve easily turned annoying and making her character feel believably scared without being completely helpless or whiny, getting in one of my favorite lines when, after Beth tries to calm her down and tell her that they’ll be okay, she responds by telling Beth that she’ll be a great mother because she knows how to lie to kids. The only weak link in the cast was the family’s neighbors, who show up briefly early on but all of whom clearly existed as cannon fodder for Ellie to slaughter in a single sequence in the second act, even though some of them felt like they’d wind up more important or at least get more scenes to shine before they were killed. With how little they’re in the film, you could almost feel the pandemic filming conditions, getting the sense that some of them (particularly Gabe and the shotgun-wielding Mr. Fonda) were originally written to have larger roles but they couldn’t find a way to have that many actors on set at once.

Another thing I felt that made up for it, though, was this film’s unflinching brutality. One of the other things that even the more lighthearted entries in this series are known for is their absolute geysers of blood and gore, the fact that most of the carnage is inflicted on zombies seemingly giving it a pass in the eyes of an MPAA that normally slaps this kind of shit with an NC-17 when it’s done to living humans. And here, we get it all. Stabbings, a cheese grater to the leg, somebody getting scalped, an eye bitten out, multiple decapitations, a wooden spear through the mouth, Deadites puking up everything from vomit to blood to bugs, the good old shotgun and chainsaw (this series’ old favorites) taking off limbs, a woodchipper, and some gnarly Deadite makeup, most notably the freakish, multi-limbed monster at the very end. This movie does not play around, and it is not for the squeamish. The only gore scene that didn’t really work for me was one Deadite transformation that was let down by some dodgy effects shots of fake-looking black blood coming out of somebody’s face; the rest, however, was some seriously nasty-looking, mostly practical stuff. That’s not to say it’s just a parade of violence with no tension, though. Director Lee Cronin employs all the classic Sam Raimi tricks that have become staples of this series as much as Raimi’s career in general, knowing when to keep the monsters in the shadows, lurking ominously behind our characters, or coldly mocking them. Ellie especially is a key source of the film’s less bloody but no less effective scares, especially with how she tries to manipulate Kassie into letting her back into their apartment, as are the scenes of characters succumbing to possession and hearing voices in their head taunting them. Once the film gets going – and you will know when it gets going – it never once lets up or gives you much room to breathe, instead maintaining a heightened level of terror and suspense throughout.

The Bottom Line

This was a welcome return to the big screen for a classic horror franchise, especially with how certain plot threads at the beginning and end leave the door open for a sequel that, going by the box office returns this past weekend, is likely inevitable at this point. Right now, the Evil Dead series is five-for-five in my book.

[suvarnarekha]

*knock knock* I have a few study tips for my fellow Humanities student :) I don't know what subjects you have so I'll leave about History, Pol. Sc and English <333

English: This is one of the most important subject because it's a compulsory one so pay it a bit extra care. Writing, writing, writing. If you practice writing well then it'd be a lot easier! Try to write short yet complete. CBSE prefers concise answers to essay ones... also one of the toughest part of this subject is that, the paper is very lengthy. Try to speed up your writing speed <3

History: Study the NCERT books thoroughly. Trust me, 99% time no question comes from outside sources. Make a timeline/chronological order for every subject. Also "comprehension-based" questions often come from the "Source" section (the purple boxes), they are very scoring.

Political Science: For this one, you need to keep up with daily issues. This year around 5-7 marks question came out of syllabus from current affairs... Also the NCERT books are important too, timeline helps in this one as well!

For overall: do not repeat my mistakes T~T and complete the project work early... they don't carry much marks but a good file is the key to making a good impression on the external examiner. Also, it helps a lot in study too! <3

And lastly but most importantly, YOU matter more than your grades. Your health, both physical and mental, is the top priority. Grades don't define you. And remember to take care of yourself and do something you love! Journalling can be good stress relief! :) also... try to make studying enjoyable. It works miracles. Say you like listening to music, you can perhaps use ambient music while studying!

All the best for you studies, and sending you lots of love <333

i-i--i---

are you a FREAKING ANGEL in disguise!? oh no, considering your love for antagonists, i suppose you'll prefer 'devil's angel'? (eh, lame me being lame)

dude i swear it is SO difficult to find people who let alone advice, at least support you for taking humanities and you, my love, are literally a limited edition that i'd preserve for eternity (this word reminds me of you- ashwapallvam and your divinely sweeter-than-honey nature ^^)

wait- cbse prefers concise answers? our teacher makes us write essays for even a 2 marker! we wouldn’t know since our board exams were canceled ugh. also, question from current affairs in exam; really? i thought that happened just in entrances and clat but damn. i do keep up with the news but the world is too big smh. yeah projects are weird but they’re quite scoring agreed. 

there’s so much going on rn and it’s so hard to keep up and manage. like i should study geography and complete my pending work but here i am watching pll original sin on hbomax.

anywhooo~ THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH! i cannot believe you took the time and effort to guide me like this man- tumblrinas are too precious to be true! 

please ask/rant about anything you feel i’m worth taking suggestions for. i owe you bestie! 

[unproduciblesmackdown]

would have too much to say that inevitably repeatedly breaking things up into tweets wouldn't be a pain but already going back like, lets check out andor episode one again in full true connoisseur mode and i'm not pressed if i make it into a proper in order rewatch, also when the bonus for me is that i'm always more likely to better keep track of names or faces or pick up on something that was supposed to be like a straightforward plot moment or whatever else, right, though i didn't have any especial problem with that. anyways i'm just already like oh this entire first sequence fucks, and i didn't really go into this that skeptically but do remember like yeah first time around it was like with this intro premise alone like ah i see this fucks then

like first of all an initial shot choice that is stylish, which tells us that there will be stylishness. fun that the couple evil [police procedural] characters are great at being pathetic zero charisma soaking creepy & wet disgusting in their own special ways, but cassian is getting rained on all the time he's cutting the plumbing line he swam here soaking wet literal treatment

things feeling figuratively and literally grounded (walking, only seeing that walkway, streetview, no soaring establishing shot to show This Isn't Your Ordinary City (scifi edition)) like, also still clear enough it's scifi but really with the Magical Realism type of approach, which i do imagine i enjoy more

the scoring is so good. BANGER of a track used when walking into the bar, also used later when dropped into the introduction of his beach getaway new life scene, brief as it is. the sexy edm style track, and it Is also like "well i mean. sure then" getting so far into this scene before it's evident like oh you're not actually here to have sex. pretty flirtatious w/this proprieter but it's like, maybe discreetly acting natural, maybe just acting naturally for real and it's just like that, we've all been there re Blend In, Follow Their Lead as a rule for operating anywhere ever, presumably relevant here, the Everyone's Wary nature of the whole series....tbt talking about jyn like yeah idk maybe her brand of wariness that's not charismaticly intense enough nor closed offedly intense enough is like, itself confusing or whatever but absolute "what's not to get or like" sense from me, and naturally cassian cropping up like it's your wary kindred spirit

anyways then having fun in there. looking at the required sexy hologram dancer like hmm they're a little space androgynous. a little space gnc af. the guys who are just immediately pissed off b/c the supposed new customer is getting preference. the delay after the proprieter lady is like Behave to them and cassian looks at her, then them. his immediate brooking no nonsense w/the two as soon as they're all hostile mode at him about all of it, at least in terms of like, not playing it utterly neutral. the It's Political times of him asking about a woman from kenari, proprieter lady going for both a) how about this other planet of origin and [names an inferred similar feature] as well as this kind of establishes already that [from kenari] can be space racially profiled, since cassian doesn't have to explicitly confirm that's where he's from too, and her inferring this is a Preference that can be catered to around physical features, and certainly once cassian's Wanted about this, the urgency around maarva & co asking who they've ever told that cassian's from kenari is sure like ah, space borders, space immigration, space [indeed the racial profiling when the soaking is he creepy or wet pathetic heinous cop pulls up an Image], the repeated like space colonialism and space indigeneity and space resource extraction that gets to come up more with [i've been in this fight since i was six years old] flashbacks....it's great like, the magical realism aspect where it's like [yeah Real Life but slight au] feeling immediately relevantly recognizable and as viscerally dramatic as you'd want, like, everyone's daily lives involving this inherent lack of safety that can turn into the stress of imminent danger on a dime. also the eventual b) asking if he's a Boyfriend or Husband like, space gender, magical realism style where it's like of course the space misogyny power disparity they'd be on the lookout for, might be vulnerable to a partner who is a space man. oh and then also the shift when he says it's his sister he's looking for, from more guarded to sympathetic when it's like, the context then isn't the woman's vulnerability being heightened if this is someone here out of like, a possessive angle, and rather that he's now not only presumably sympathetic to her as well, but potentially some of that vulnerability being extrapolated to him as well. which is not inaccurate

obsessed w/the Long Shot where cassian's getting held up by the two company sentry guys and it's him close up center frame slightly from above and just tearing it up acting while we only hear the other two for a good while until they wander in out of focus, that at first we also can't see and thus can't immediately Know they're talking to him....as well as again establishing like, yeah this is a prequel where we know our protagonist won't die no matter how [people are definitely dying] the situations are, yeah we know he's cool action guy even, but he's not operating in a story here where it's all about his protracted solo epic action sequences, he wants to avoid those, other people want to avoid those, everyone's better off operating more stealth mode if they can help it, but also that it doesn't matter to him that We know he's not gonna die, he doesn't know it, and Everyone knowing those stakes and reacting to the stress rather than being like stoic too epic to be at all fazed badasses. d luna crushing it, everyone's great but yeah sure acting as hell huh

also this time around i was just so much more noticeably affected by like oh i feel bad for this guy who's realizing his buddy who also sucks is dead and now that he's in over his head majorly life and death....everyone acting in every part is just going ham like bevy of these varied performances in varied roles and nobody dropping the ball in the least. while it's obvious too that like, feels bad for the panicky source in rogue one intro as well but cassian can't give much away then b/c he's not the protagonist and it's all very mysterious at this point. and that in addition to upping the surprise, it's presumably nonzero meant to be a kindness from him to take the time to comfort the guy before then blowing him away. whereas here the guy sees it coming and like, really brought this upon yourselves and you made this potentially life or death for cassian from the start, as he was aware, but this time it's like yeah cassian wasn't expecting that to turn into [bad luck, that headbutt killed you. and/or also the fall] and is Not so mysterious to us so can be clearly surprised and less than thrilled about things as well....but feels apropos that also w/ this intro of these two rando sentry guys from the bar who the proprietor was like yeah they're not really cops but they annoyingly like to act like it, it can be a bit more genuinely pathetic vs the Pathetic(tm) quality of the like imperial space feds characters. like oh i do feel bad for this guy and all the time he has here to plead for his life :( but doesn't feel like it's meant to be some [dun dunnn?] moment re cassian b/c it's like, tells us the stakes, tells us he's not fucking around and Will shoot someone but we've also been told he's not like here to be, or feel, badass invincible, is not unaffected by fear of death nor of having killed someone / death in general, but also Will be blowing you away if need be, also speaking to like, he's run calculations before abt like, whaddaya gonna do, what are the risks and which are you willing to take, and obviously has fought before and if he's ever killed someone before it wouldn't be surprising, some like "my god i've never done that before / now i'm out for blood, never look back" factor does not seem to be relevant. but fr was fun to be surprised by like oh i feel bad for this guy this time around lol noticeably much more than affected me the first time around. true [oops in over your head] vibes but which also then speak to like, yeah probably would've stopped pretending to be cops, just feels like yeah he's more distant from [uh oh, attention from Empire cops now] figures so it's like, ah, you bring it upon yourself but. i'm not quite sure what got me this time around lol, again i guess just more ability to focus on details and thee moment b/c i'm not like, needing to intently devote my attention to potentially following names and faces and plotlines b/c it's the opening scene here and don't get lost before things even happen. maybe it's having subtitles on where i'm all the more sure of the dialogue and him talking about "we'll go in together" has me like "there but for your fucking around, no need for this, i remember the vaguely friendly acknowledgment before your egos were bruised and you got hostile about it and escalated it to This" maybe it's even him offering a story and phrasing it like "we played too hard in hitting" when i have this like, vulnerable association lol like if anyone's upset / distressed enough And there's the immediate proximity / presence of something meant to be like, purely fun, where even talking about Playing may be enough to be like oh no lol, even when that's not really what happened. again, the acting from everyone, maybe it's just focusing all the more on that, wherein truly epic seeming distressed and miserable, maybe it also helps that we also get shots of more diego luna acting which is also to the effect of: pretty distressed and miserable, soaking wet. i dunno but i'm like hell yeah being all the more caught up in whatever.

also that this was like, oh a seeming potential thread establishment? and of course "whoops killed two guys" is indeed an established thread, the [looking for his sister] remaining latent as the setup to that inciting event and otherwise like, just something he does, characterization and [backstory thread] relevant, but only that. and yet, the way that opening scenes are generally meant to do, this whole sequence conveying plenty about how things are going to be, establishing overall contexts, thee vibe, that the soundtrack fucks, that nobody's messing around here in the least like. just as these first minutes didn't have to go so hard, so neither will the rest of the series have had to. i also didn't have to say all this or post at all but i get hype and when i have anything to say i really do. no concision. oh shit and we end with like the directional reverse of the first opening stylish shot but w/cassian in frame as well yeahh boyyee

[randomclicheusername]

Image: unknown

The Battle of the Velmas

Before I start uttering a single syllable, I should remind you of the wise words of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Repeat to yourself its just a show, I should really just relax.

Whether it’s comics, movies, shows or whatever it is, it’s just what it is. A show.

I don’t care that Velma is a person of color. More representation is needed in all forms of media. I prefer new original characters rather than an original character being race swapped. But then again’ I’ve seen kids face light up when they see themselves reflecting in any media and that trumps everything else within my eyes. Thus, to me it’s not a big deal.

What’s a big deal is the mischaracterization of an established character. I get perhaps tweaking a character to match the changes culturally and respectfully while still maintaining the essence of said character.

Which brings me to the new “Velma” show.

Velma doesn’t feel like Velma. The scoobie gang don’t feel like the characters we’ve come to know over the decades. That’s a valid creative choice but one I find will have many detractors.

It’s the same art style and humor as the Harley Quinn show. Even if the characters are heavily parodied from the source material… they’re still recognizable and familiar.

I think the “Velma” missed the mark on that. I hope that if the show continues they’ll be able to find a compromise of their vision and aligning on the familiarity of establish characters. Even if it’s an opportunity to flip expectations.

And no, I’m not bother by the lack of the famed dog that tends to be the centerpiece of the franchise. He could be introduced later down the line or whatever.

At the end of the day, I’m passing on this show. I hope for its success and hopefully course corrects itself to the satisfaction of all parties involved.

If you don’t want to watch the show then don’t. The previous shows featuring these characters still exist and can be watched.

If the show is giving you that much stress then relax, as it’s just a show. Hate-watching a show just sounds like mental self-harm and a waste of time.

Plus, you’re boosting ratings by hate watching.

There’s valid critiques surrounding the show and I’m sure the creators will be receptive. And they’ll be receptive because they’ll want their show to be a success and it’s brutal out there in the industry as a show is lucky to even air its pilot episode.

The show became the streamer’s most-watched animated series debut ever. It makes sense why a Season 2 was green-lighted. Granted, it’s reviews are stinkier than a literal rotten tomato.

Rotten tomatoes has the critics giving it a 55% rotten score while the audience score is a nice low 6%. The online chatter hasn’t been all flowers and birds since the show is being eviscerated by those online. Whether justifiable or not.

I think season two needs to course correct but even if the creators make the necessary changes, would it be too late? Would enough if the audience move on to where the show just fades into memory and becomes a cautionary tale?

Again, I think the premise is interesting. Changing the appearances of the characters isn’t a big deal to me nor the lack of the dog. I think they missed the mark on the characters and they can adjust enough to not lose their vision.

It’s a good show in my opinion. It’s not a show I have interest in watching personally but that’s okay. I still want it to succeed and I think Mindy Kaling vision is valid and with a few tweaks, could get everyone else on board.

If Kaling wants to stick with her vision without compromise then that’s her right as a artist and creative. She’s incredibly talented enough to make the show work and the show will find it audiences. If the pre-sequel Star Wars movies can fan an audience to live their films then “Velma” can find its audience too.

It may just take a while.

All I know is that it’s going to take more than a scoobie snack for people to give Season 2 a chance.