#Also I know Apocalypse probably has the biggest audience that played it out of all the games listed

[pinkeoni]

What Exactly Do I Mean When I Say "Will is Jesus Christ?"

(or Why Will is the Chosen One)

Do I mean that Will is actually the second coming of Christ? Well, no, at least not in a literal sense. All I mean to say by this is that—

Will is the chosen one, and he is the hero of the story who is meant to save the world from the apocalypse.

Apocalypse imagery and references to Revelations is all over the place in season 4. The four victims representing the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Henry "One" effectively being a God-like figure, references to Revelations 1:8 regarding Henry, hell I'll go as far to say that Robin playing the trumpet at the beginning of the season is a nod to the sound of trumpets that is meant to signal the beginning of the apocalypse.

The important thing about Revelations being that at the end of the day, the second coming of Jesus Christ, the chosen one, saves the day.

This really robust old post that I made, which was also one of my first theory posts, goes into detail on how Will fits the criteria of a Christ-figure, or a figure in literature or media that is allegorical to Jesus Christ. Will's biggest piece of evidence being his full on burial and resurrection in the first season.

If I'm talking about Christ-figures in the show then I should probably talk about El, who admittedly has much more in your face Christ-coding than Will does. Walking on water, performance of miracles, the mother who got pregnant out of strange circumstances, along with her own resurrection and so-on.

So then, if El clearly has more Christ-coding than Will, why am I placing the title of Jesus onto Will? Is it just because I like him more than El? Is it because I see Will as a more important character than El?

Just as a general disclaimer, I will admit that I do have a major Will bias, anyone who follows me knows that. He's been my favorite character since I first watched the show. Although, my labeling of him as the chosen one has nothing to do a dislike of El or a belief that she is not an important character. I love El, and it's plain to everyone that watches the show how important she is. However, I just don't believe that the chosen one who saves the day is what her arc is building towards.

They've been building up El's chosen one status while also quietly breaking it down in the background, in the same way that they've quietly been leaving bread crumbs pointing toward Will's Christ status while also seemingly suggesting that he isn't that important of a character. Why have a character tell El that she's "the cure," then make a point that she loses against Henry at the end of the season? Why sideline Will for the past two seasons, but throw in lines of dialogue pointing toward his involvement with the Upside Down?

What I believe they are going for is a classic bait-and-switch to subvert expectations in the final season. Lead the audience to believe one thing, while still leaving clues to suggest the other so that when the twist is revealed it doesn't come out of nowhere.

So what is El's arc actually about? I won't deny El's role in the final battle of the show, it's not like she's going to be completely sidelined, but I don't think that her saving the world on her own while everyone else watches is what her arc is building towards. The real core of her arc is El discovering who she is as a girl, rather than becoming a superhero.

I actually made a post awhile ago talking about El’s monster/superhero dichotomy, and it’s actually incredibly important to my argument. The post itself is more in depth, but tl:dr: El believes that she can either be a superhero or a monster, and bases her worth on her ability to save the world and others, an unfair expectation to place onto one girl.

If at the end of the season, El single-handedly saves the entire world, wouldn’t it feel counterintuitive to her arc? She needs to learn that her self worth doesn’t rely on her ability to save the world, and if she ends the show this way, it wouldn’t create a solution for her cyclical train of thought.

Furthermore, wouldn’t this ending be a bit expected, and even boring? This is what El has been doing for the past four seasons of the show. Continuing that pattern would only feel anticlimactic. From a writer’s pov, if you wanted the ending of you show to be dynamic and interesting, you would want to do something new.

So why do I think that Will is the chosen one?

It’s not like I’m pulling the chosen-one-Jesus-Christ label out of my ass just because I like Will. I actually do have many reasons to believe this.

The first one is the confirmation that Will is going to be a big part and focus for next season. It’s been theorized that this means Will is going to become a villian, and while I do love a good Will villian AU, there are many reasons I could list off as to why he wouldn’t become a villian. Without going into it all right now, let’s just say that it would not only go against what Will stands for, but also what the show itself stands for.

Even in show, we have signs pointing toward Will’s chosen status. Let’s start with the fact that Will is the one who kicks the entire show off in the first place, when he is taken by who we later learn to be Henry. Now, this could have just been wrong-place-wrong-time kind of thing, but given how much has been revealed has actually been part of a larger plan constructed by Henry, I highly doubt that mere coincidence is the case.

Let’s look at some more evidence within the fourth season. Let’s talk about the fact that, despite not even being present in Hawkins and gone for much of the supernatural action, Will is still being brought up by name and even implicated in the strangeness of the Upside Down.

Do I think Will is gonna solo-kill Vecna in the climax of the show? Chosen one doesn’t mean only one. No, despite all my rambling about El not being the hero, I’m not gonna deny her importance to the supernatural plot. I think something else the show keeps building upon is the importance of support from friends and family— saving the world is likely gonna be a group effort. I do think, however, that Will possesses some kind of unique ability that is going to be crucial to winning.

What would being the hero mean for Will’s arc? Well, it would give him a sense of control that he hasn’t had before. Will has had a lot of agency and autonomy ripped from him in past seasons, and this would be his way of reclaiming that. It would be the perfect subversion of expectations as well. The character that everyone expects to be just the helpless victim, or hell even the villian, is the one who rises to become the hero who saves the day in his own way.

#i wanna disclaim here in the tags that i dont think will is a weak person for being a victim #nor do i think that he needs to save the day to reclaim autonomy necessarily #but looking at him as purely a fictional character following beats of a story… then yes this is what i believe they are building towards #also its very likely will is going to save the day in a way that aligns with him and his beliefs #and likely not in a violent way #i know this is very wordy but its been sitting in my drafts for a while #and i realize its kind of an important post for like… the main thing im arguing for #which is wills importance in the story #so *gestures hands forward* here you go #byler #<- target audience #will byers #stranger things #will byers has powers

[gingermintpepper]

After thinking it over for a bit, I've decided that I might as well do a proper underrated 3DS game rec list. I'm a bit of an ATLUS junkie and that's gonna be pretty disgustingly apparent in this list, but it's not my fault that they released hit after hit and all of them were duly ignored.

Due to tumblr's 10 image limit (and my struggle to keep motivated to do one thing for more than three hours) I'm definitely gonna have to break this up into parts and I'm fairly certain one of these lists is just gonna be MegaTen games lmao but I'd like to let people know about these excellent titles and see if I can't at least get people interested in them so they can get more traction.

So, without further ado:

Some 3DS Games that were criminally slept on (part 1)

Monster Hunter Stories

God, where do I begin with this game. Well, the basics: It's a JRPG spinoff title of the now widely successful and popular Monster Hunter series featuring a different take on interacting with the varied and intricate monsters populating the world: Riders.

Yep, instead of hunting the beasties, you play as a young rider who's completed their intiation ritual and can now bond with 'Monsties' as they've cutely labelled the usually ferocious monsters of the wilds. The great thing is that you still fight Monsters--tons of them in fact but this isn't a paid review and in my humble opinion, the most impressive thing about this game is the visual style. The landscapes, the armour, the way they redesigned and 3DS-ified the classically hyper realistic and monstrous beasts to not only be absolutely adorable but still capable of being intimidating when the time calls for it, the stellar animation of special moves and combination attacks--it's delicious, nutritious, stupendous, I can and will consume it like it's part of my recommended caloric intake.

It's very akin to Pokemon in the way its basic gameplay premise is set up, however, instead of catching--or even indeed befriending--the Monsties in the game, you rummage through their nests and steal their eggs, later hatching them and getting yourself a brand new lightly kidnapped monster pal!

Other general things about the game:

Pros:

The armour and weapon sets for both male and female characters slap along with the general character customisation options. They're incredibly diverse (though limited in body type) and you can switch around traits and features whenever you want from your house.

The POGS--these porkers are everywhere and they serve as tiny little achievements for exploring every odd and end of the world. Also they have little outfits. They're so cute. 🥺🥺

You can actually ride the Monsties. All of em. Or, at least the ones that you have available to be your buddies. They all have exploration skills and traits that not only make exploring much more interesting but encourage you to swap out your active Monstie and play around with your options a bit.

Y'all breeding Monsties is complicated and I live for just how intense and ridiculous you can get with optimal builds for these things.

The story is really competently put together! The characters, character designs and even the internal conflict with your starting trio of characters is really compelling along with the mystery of the blight that's infecting Monsters across the world. It's not anything worth awards but it's compelling and it makes you care about the characters if that's what you're in the market for.

Amazing sound design, expansive world, everything about the presentation of this game oozes that Monster Hunter charm even if the art is cutesier than usual. You'll never get bored of its stellar visual presentation!

Available for around twenty quid on the Google Play store, so if you want, you could actually get the full game on your smartphone or tablet. Note though that it would be a battery nuker.

Cons:

If you're on a regular 3DS, frame rate drops are a given. This game kinda pushes the visual capabilities of the 3DS to its absolute limit--a lot like Okamiden did back on the DS.

One save file :( It's pretty much for the same reason as above but still.

If you're playing as the girl, you can't get male armour and vice versa. Since there's only one save file, you'll never be able to have all of the armour sets in a single playthrough and that's criminal because both of the sets for the genders are absolutely breath-taking, thank you.

I 👏can't 👏make👏my👏 own 👏Palico👏

Multi-player for this game is pretty dead seeing as it's almost five years old by now and never got much press or traction. Usually this wouldn't be an issue - this game is 99% singleplayer and you don't really need to fuss about with multi-player to have fun, but if you want to collect all the Monsties, you'll need it since the only way to get Glavenus is through pvp achievements. :/

Final thoughts: Play it if you find yourself getting tired or disappointed with 3DS Pokemon games but still want something that feels as fantastical as Pokemon. It outshines the 3DS Pokemon games at every turn and I will never be over just how thoughtfully put together and fully realised these games are. Of course, if you've ever played Monster Hunter, then you know just how intensive these games are with the lore, biology, cultures and world of their Monsters but seeing that translated into JRPG format was just very sobering and it's a game that, to this day, continues to awe me with just how much love and attention went into it.

Last note: If you're still unsure about it, there's a demo available on the e-shop of the 3DS that allows you to play through the entire initial area of the game. Your data does carry through to the full release and to give you an idea of how much I've been able to squeeze out of it - my playtime for that demo is currently sitting at 22 hours. Make sure to get a hold of that Cyan-Kut-Ku!

7th Dragon III Code: VFD

The title may sound intimidating but the premise is not! A mysterious disease called Dragon Sickness spread by the Dragonsbane flowers that have cropped up all around the world. You and your team are recruited by the Nodens game company after you display extraordinary prowess in their hit virtual reality game 7th Encount. As you go through the adventure, you are tasked with finding out the truth behind the Dragon Sickness and asked to stop both it and the Dragons that are destroying the world.

This game is fun. It's another turn-based JRPG however, in this game you create all of your characters yourself from the myriad of classes available to you from the jump. Different classes of course have very different specialisations - Samurai focus on high powered cutting damage with their swords, Duelists are summoners who can influence the element of the battlefield as well as summon monsters from each element, Agents can hack into your enemies and inflict a barrage of nasty ailments, just to name a few - and you are given three teams of three characters each to experiment with different team comps and find the balance that works for you. There's also a wide variety of Dragons to hunt and kill in the game, which directly affects how infected your world is with the Dragon Sickness causing Dragonsbane. Along the way you will also come into contact with many interesting characters, concepts and confrontations that will make the task of saving the world all the more imperative.

Pros

1. The character creator and differing classes give way for tons of experimenting and playing around with your own unique approach to combat and carrying out your missions. Granted, 'character creation' is generous, it's little more than palatte swaps but the classes are really where VFD shines. Eight main classes may not sound like a lot, but the expaniveness of the character skills, their synergy with their fellow classes and the uniqueness of some of the classes in and of itself allows for so much flexibility and creativity in approaches to even tougher bosses. It also encourages the switching about of your party members to really finagle with the options available to you.

2. God this game is pretty. The locations, the character art, the creature design - all of it is gorgeous and this game capitalises on every bit of the 3DS's presentation limitations as it can.

3. You can romance anything and everyone - yes, you can even be gay/lesbian/poly in this game. In fact, one of the main characters - Julietta - is gnc and he's a constant source of joy as well one of my personal favourite characters, right behind Yuma.

4. Exploration is very very forgiving as the game has healing spots and teleport nodes all over the world to allow for quick, seamless travel between quest points without feeling like anything is too much of a hassle. There are also special enemies that allow for quick grinding as well as quick farming of money. In general, the game does a really good job of making sure that the grind is never unbearable or inconsiderate of your time.

Cons:

1. This is the fourth game in a series the West has never seen any other title for, and from the looks of it, will probably never see any other titles for. Because of that, there are some elements that may seem confusing or revelations in the plot that may seem to come out of nowhere.

2. While the visuals are great, the OST of this one is pretty short making for a lot of reused soundtracks that can get really annoying if you're like me and need your audio to be interesting or consistent so it doesn't distract you too much.

3. This one isn't really a con but it is divisive: This game gets pretty difficult at times. A few of the main dragon enemies including and especially the final boss can give you a serious run for your money in the annoy-o-meter in terms of the kind of absolute JRPG fuckery they can pull out of their magic bag of bullshit movesets and while I generally enjoy that kind of thing, I know it's not for everyone. Most regular combat shouldn't be too tricky once you have a team comp that works well together but you also need to pay attention since the same team that carries you to victory one time might be worth beans against another dragon.

Final thoughts: This is... a really good game. Interesting story, really interesting characters, pretty world and a battle system that really makes you sit down and think. There's also a demo for this available in the e-shop and while your data doesn't carry over - you do receive multiple perks for carrying over your demo data including some exclusive items that, while not game breaking, do help a ton in the early stages of the game.

This isn't a final list by any stretch of the word; I only have the energy to do these two right now, but the next games up for coverage are Ever Oasis and Stella Glow! If you're interested in my full plan of games I want to cover here then my current lineup includes: Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, Project Mirai: Deluxe, Culdecept Revolt, Alliance Alive, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Etrian Odyssey V, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

Finally, if anyone has played any of the games I mention, cover or plan to cover PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME, I AM SO LONELY IN MY FORTRESS OF SAND. On a serious note, I'd love to hear what other people who've played these games think!

Thanks for reading,

-Ginger

PS: @feralpeacock Because a million years ago, on my first underrated games post, you asked that I remember you. :D

#ginger rambles #ginger talks about video games #monster hunter stories #monster hunter #code dragon iii vfd #video games #3ds #underrated games #These take so much energy to make holy shit #There are so many more amazing 3ds games I could talk about #But I legit just don't have the braincells for #Also I know Apocalypse probably has the biggest audience that played it out of all the games listed #But it's criminally underrated because it was different #So it's probably going to get it's own little review thing #Yeehaw

[bluejayblueskies]

Please say more abt how Martin fits the closed off trait I'm begging 👁👁

Okay, so I got a bit carried away with this and it got quite lengthy....

I've put a TLDR above the cut and the details, transcripts, and general discussion below the cut!

.

TLDR: Martin is at his core a closed-off character who keeps his vulnerable feelings hidden and close to his chest. He instead focuses on caring for others and considering their feelings above his own, particularly in the case of Jon, who he cares for (sometimes to the point of self-sacrifice) throughout the podcast. His arc with the Lonely in season four and his interactions with Jon in season five demonstrate this lack of emotional vulnerability, and it's really only during the moments he spends by himself that we get significant insight into Martin's emotional state and inner thoughts.

.

Martin, to me, is a character who is very used to hiding how he feels. He tends to care for others at the expense of himself, has low self-esteem, and has a predilection towards the Lonely, all of which go hand-in-hand with somebody who is very used to hiding their emotions--particularly the negative ones--because they either think they're not important or that they're inconvenient and inappropriate for the situation. On a textual level, that's probably due to growing up with a sick (and likely unsupportive) mother who he had to take care of, where there was 'no time' for his emotions to get in the way or for him to prioritize himself in any way, shape, or form.

Martin is self-destructive, dislikes moments of emotional vulnerability, and (I would argue) genuinely struggles when he doesn't have somebody else to prioritize over himself. (His mother at first, but as the series goes on, Jon settles comfortably into this role for him.) Additionally, the biggest way that we, the audience, know anything about Martin's emotional state is when he's alone and self-reflecting (such as in MAG 170 and 186 or when talking to the tapes) or when he's forced to talk about something vulnerable (such as when Jon confronted him about his CV).

We don't get much insight into Martin's character between seasons one and three (at least not as much as we get in four and five), but I find myself drawn to this bit in MAG 118, when Martin is talking to Elias:

MARTIN

So what? I don’t get to be angry? I don’t get to burn things? Just, just run around, making tea, while everyone else gets to actually have feelings?

I think two things are important to note here. The first is that Elias is surprised (or least intrigued) that Martin is acting in this way--specifically, acting on his emotions in such a dramatic way. (And given that Martin is doing this as a distraction, rather than actually acting out because of his own emotions, maybe he's right to be surprised.) The second is that this line very much implies that Martin doesn't talk about how he's feeling, not like 'everyone else' does. He doesn't talk about it, doesn't act on it--just 'runs around, making tea.' And when Melanie comes back in after Elias is done, Martin immediately focuses on the plan and whether it succeeded, ignoring Melanie when she asks if he's okay or not. He closes himself off, and as far as we know, doesn't talk about it at all after that.

And then Jon goes into his coma, and we reach season four.

Martin is incredibly closed-off during season four. He's self-isolating, self-sacrificial, and approaching a state of genuine emotional numbness by the time he's cast into the Lonely. There's a lot to unpack there, but I'm going to focus on a few main things, many of which can be drawn from this bit in MAG 158:

MARTIN

It’s not him! It’s not anybody. It’s just me. Always has been. I…

When I first came to you, I thought I had lost everything. Jon was dead, my mother was dead, the job I had put everything into trapped me into spreading evil and I… I really didn’t care what happened to me. I told myself I was trying to protect the others, but… honestly we didn’t even like each other. Maybe I just thought joining up with you would be a good way to get killed.

And then… Jon came back, and… and suddenly I had a reason I had to keep your attention on me. Make you feel in control so you didn’t take it out on him. And if that meant drifting further away, so what? I’d already grieved for him. And if it meant now saving him, it was worth it.

When you started talking about the Extinction, though… you had me actually, then, for a while. But then – (laughs sardonically) then, you tried to make me the hero. Tried to sell me on the idea that I was the only one who could stop it. And that I’ve never sat right with me. I mean, I mean, look – look at me, I’m not exactly a – a chosen one. But by then I was in too deep. So I played along. Waited to see what your end game was, and here we are.

Funny. Looks like I was right the first time. It’s probably still a good way to get killed?

This monologue is a big insight into Martin's thought process during this season, and I'm mostly going to focus on two parts: the self-sacrifice and the prioritization of Jon.

Self-sacrifice

There's quite a bit of discussion about Jon's self-sacrificial tendencies, but less so about Martin's, both in this season and in season five. In my opinion, Jon's self-sacrificial tendencies originate from (among other things) survivor's guilt from his traumatic childhood experience with Mr. Spider, his increasing belief that he's less than human, and the fact that he prioritizes the lives of others over his own. Martin's self-sacrificial tendencies, while very similar, come from the fact that he thinks he only has worth if he can help and care for someone else and the fact that he doesn't think he's important enough to live. (For example, he says in MAG 158 that he's 'not exactly a chosen one' and says in MAG 198 that he's 'not important enough to kill.')

It's a subtle difference between these two things, and I would argue that while Jon's tendencies are more rooted in the 'help' (ie, 'I want to help other people and I will sacrifice myself to do it'), Martin's tendencies are more rooted in the 'hurt' (ie, 'I will sacrifice myself and other people will be helped in the process'). There is, of course, overlap, and it's not a black-and-white distinction between the two, but ultimately, I think Martin is so used to prioritizing others' emotions and needs above his own that when he's left mostly alone as he is at the end of season three, with the only person left to hold onto being in a coma (possibly forever), he falls back into the same patterns of self-destruction and closed-offness, only without the 'help' to go along with the 'hurt' because there is nobody left to help (especially after his mother dies). Ultimately, he joins up with Peter because he thinks it 'would be a good way to get killed.'

Prioritization of Jon

But then Jon wakes up from his coma, and now Martin has justification for his self-sacrifice again, because he can protect Jon by continuing to work with Peter!

... Maybe.

Jon isn't harmed by Peter during season four, sure, but he does climb into the coffin and visits Ny-Ålesund and is tracked down by Julia and Trevor and struggles emotionally and morally with his own humanity and is hurt, in a way, by the distance Martin puts between them. And I hesitate to place blame for the apocalypse on anybody but Jonah, but if we're going to argue in-canon that Jon was responsible for the apocalypse (he wasn't, but that's not the point of this post), then Martin contributed to that blame and responsibility because it was his actions and decisions that ultimately drew Jon into the Lonely and resulted in him getting the 14th and final mark. (Again, I don't think Jon or Martin are at fault for the apocalypse, but if we were to blame Jon, we could blame Martin as well.) It was only after getting that mark that Jonah was able to use Jon to end the world, something that was hugely hurtful for Jon. So did Martin really protect Jon at all by staying away from him and continuing to work with Peter? Or was that just a convenient excuse to keep self-destructing?

Jon and Martin, in my opinion, had very similar arcs in season four. Martin was sinking further into the Lonely and Jon was sinking further into the Eye. We hear a lot more about Jon's emotional struggle with this given that he's the POV character, sure, but Jon also talks about this with other people. He talks about it to Helen (MAG 152):

JON

…

When does it stop?

HELEN

(impatient) What?

JON

The guilt. The misery. All the others I’ve met, they’ve been – cold, cruel. They’ve enjoyed what they do. When does the Eye (inhale) make me monstrous?

And to Daisy (MAG 136):

JON

My – (large sigh) My memories of the coma are not clear, but I know I made a choice; I made a choice to become… something else. Because I was afraid to die. But ever since then, I – I don’t know if I made the right decision; I’m stronger now, tougher, I can – (he cuts himself off) If I do die, now, or get sealed away somewhere forever? I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. And I don’t want to lose anyone else, so if I can maybe – stop that happening, and the only danger is to me, I – I’ll do it in a heartbeat; worst case scenario, the universe loses another monster.

But all we really get from Martin are the things he tells the tapes when he's alone and the monologue he gives in MAG 158. It makes sense that he wouldn't be as open, yes, given the nature of the Lonely, but I can't help but think of (MAG 154):

JON

The Lonely’s really got you, hasn’t it?

MARTIN

(no hesitation) You know, I think it always did.

Jon was always curious and hungry for knowledge; the Eye amplified it. Martin was always closed-off and isolated; the Lonely amplified that as well.

But then Jon pulls Martin out of the Lonely, they flee to the safehouse, and three weeks later, the apocalypse begins. Martin isn't as consumed by the Lonely as he was in season four, he's with Jon--the person he loves--for extended periods of time, and they're in an extremely stressful situation that's sure to be incredibly emotionally charged. There's a lot to be said about Jon's emotional vulnerability during season five and how Martin both pressures him for it and rejects it in different ways, but for the purposes of this post, I won't go too far into detail about the motivations behind how Jon is feeling and acting.

I will say, however, that in season five, Martin still continues to place a lot of focus on asking Jon how he's feeling, encouraging (or pressuring) him to share, and getting frustrated when Jon can't or doesn't (MAG 167):

MARTIN

Okay, so how exactly would you describe your current emotional state regarding all of this?

JON

I –

MARTIN

(overlapping) Go on, I’m all ears.

JON

I feel…

MARTIN

(go on) Mhm.

JON

(sigh) I feel… sad.

[Brief pause.] MARTIN

(flat) Sad.

JON

Very sad.

MARTIN

(*very* flat) Very sad.

[He sighs slightly as he says it. Their bags jangle.]

A few moments prior to this, Martin expresses displeasure that Jon is Knowing things about him, specifically pointing out his emotions (MAG 167):

MARTIN

It’s just – it’s weird knowing that you can know literally everything I think and feel. E-Especially since you’re not exactly the most open of people – emotionally, I mean.

I think Martin is making an effort to open up more to Jon. But I still think it's difficult for him to talk about how he feels so openly, and while he is completely in the right for not wanting Jon to Know things about him without his permission, I think it's interesting that the focus is on his feelings and that he brings up how Jon isn't emotionally open immediately after. It scares Martin to think that Jon could know, at any given moment, how he's feeling, and I think it's partially because he's not used to that level of vulnerability. He turns the focus on Jon, away from himself, and doesn't really make an effort to talk about how he's feeling about all of this, instead prioritizing Jon's feelings and mental state like he's grown comfortable with.

And when Martin bottles up his emotions--of which there are a lot, in such a stressful environment, they can explode out in hurtful ways:

MARTIN

(overlapping) I know! I know, okay, I just – (bracing exhale) Look, I j,just – don’t want to get burned, all right? It’s, it’s like my least favorite pain ever.

JON

Is that – a joke?

MARTIN

(a bit faster, a bit shaky) No, no, okay? I, I legitimately hate burns, alright? They’re, they’re awful, and they scar horribly, and they just – it – it just makes me sick; I, I hate it. Hate it!

I don't think Martin really thought about what he was saying when he told Jon, who has a large burn scar on his hand, that burn scars make him sick, and I don't think he meant it maliciously. But he'd spent the greater portion of the conversation talking around the fact that he didn't like burns and that was why he didn't want to go into the building, and so when it finally ended up coming out, it did so in an explosion of emotion rather than a conscious decision to share. Martin doesn't have a good handle on his emotions, and he doesn't have a good handle on sharing them.

(Is it too much for me to say that Martin was more emotionally vulnerable with himself in MAG 170 than he was with Jon when Jon finally found him?)

Throughout season five, Martin asks Jon questions, he expresses frustrations with Jon, he shows discomfort or fear at times, but for as much as Martin feels frustrated that Jon isn't talking about how he feels about their situation, Martin really isn't doing so either. The most he talks about his feelings is in MAG 170 and MAG 186, when he's by himself, and I remember MAG 186 in particular because before that, we really didn't know what Martin was thinking about for the majority of the season! And in this episode, we find out a lot of very important things about Martin's character. Like (MAG 186):

ALSO MARTIN

Look, I know what you know. Maybe I’m just a bit more… open about it.

Also-Martin acknowledges that Martin often doesn't say what he means and hides what he really feels, telling him that it's 'hard to be vulnerable,' and Martin is initially very resistant to the idea. And then, when Also-Martin suggests that Martin wants to stay so that he can be 'quietly sad,' we get (MAG 186):

MARTIN

We could talk to Jon about it.

ALSO MARTIN

We could. But we both know that loved ones make the worst therapists. They’re too wrapped up in trying to stop you hurting to actually help. But hey, we know all about that, am I right?

MARTIN

There’s nothing wrong with comforting people.

ALSO MARTIN

A cup of tea isn’t a resolution. At best it’s a… a plaster. At worst… a muzzle.

This is very interesting to me, because for all that Martin tries to help other people, he also believes that comfort doesn't always help and that you can't be your loved one's 'therapist.' I think this gives a lot of insight into why Martin doesn't share his emotions with the people he cares about, especially Jon; he doesn't want to put Jon in the position where he'll become his 'therapist,' and he doesn't necessarily think Jon can help. So instead, Martin just chooses not to be vulnerable at all, because he doesn't want to burden the people he cares about. But, when it's just him (MAG 186):

ALSO MARTIN

Don’t lie. You don’t need to. Not here. It’s just us.

He doesn't feel like he needs to pull his emotional punches. He can't accidentally hurt somebody or put them in an awkward position; it's just himself. But what's said to himself remains with himself, and (at least on tape), he doesn't discuss any of this with Jon. Not even the bit about, if it came down to it, Martin would have rather had Jon smite him than continue to rule over a domain. He goes right back to being closed-off around Jon, but now we, the audience, know what lies underneath, and how little of it reaches the surface.

In fact, the thing Martin's probably most vocal about is how Jon's feelings about himself bother him (MAG 199):

MARTIN

I guess that’s why it really bothers me, you know? I try, but I can’t actually imagine ever making a decision that I knew meant losing you.

And it… It hurts to know you can.

And I think he has a tendency to use anger and frustration to cover up hurt, shying away from the admission that something Jon's done has hurt him (an incredibly vulnerable thing) and instead relying on the less-vulnerable and more external anger to cover it. This is more speculation than true analysis, but I think that's a lot of what's happening in MAG 200, when he discovers that Jon has already assumed the position of the pupil and has, in Martin's eyes, broken his promise.

.

TLDR: Martin is at his core a closed-off character who keeps his vulnerable feelings hidden and close to his chest. He instead focuses on caring for others and considering their feelings above his own, particularly in the case of Jon, who he cares for (sometimes to the point of self-sacrifice) throughout the podcast. His arc with the Lonely in season four and his interactions with Jon in season five demonstrate this lack of emotional vulnerability, and it's really only during the moments he spends by himself that we get significant insight into Martin's emotional state and inner thoughts.

#tma #the magnus archives #martin blackwood #tma meta #jonathan sims #(because i do talk about jon a bit in this too) #i actually think martin isn't good with emotions at all #both his own and others' #i think he doesn't quite know what to do with them so he puts on a mask and defaults to things he knows will work #*thinks about the low empathy autistic martin high empathy autistic jon post with love in my heart*

[aion-rsa]

MCU Phase 4 and 5: What the Multiverse Means for the Future of Marvel Movies and TV

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Loki spoilers and potential spoilers for the wider MCU.

The ending of the Loki season finale made one pretty substantial change to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The introduction of a full multiverse, caused by Sylvie killing He Who Remains, is an enormous shift in the cosmogony of the MCU. And it opens up some fascinating story possibilities for Marvel’s film heroes. So what does the introduction of a full, unlimited multiverse mean for the future of the MCU?

Hopefully, everything. Literally.

There are obvious near-term implications to Loki’s finale. It answered questions that Spider-Man: No Way Home (with its purported multiversal Sinister Six) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness asked back when Loki first premiered. Specifically: “What do you mean there’s only one universe?” 

The beauty of time travel is that now, there is and has always been a full multiverse in the context of the MCU. Because whatever Kang War happened far in Loki’s subjective past (because the timelines were left to run wild when Sophie killed He Who Remains), the entire history of the MCU is now potentially subject to retcons as necessary. So the strong implication from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse that that movie and all its various spider-people existed on Earths parallel to Tom Holland’s MCU can now be considered accurate, even though the movie came out years before Loki was even a twinkle in Kevin Feige’s master MCU spreadsheet. 

Time travel is a trip, man. It’s also beautiful. Literally anything is possible now. 

What Does the MCU Multiverse Mean for Marvel TV?

This sort of thing happens all the time in comics. The slang is “retcon,” comics-speak for retroactive continuity, where creators reach into their characters’ pasts to change something that impacts their present. 

Loki’s infinite multiverse sets up the entirety of Marvel history for any number of retcons that the folks in charge might deem necessary. It allows current MCU casts and crews to cherry pick what they liked from old MCU projects and fold them into this new normal. All those times Agents of SHIELD didn’t quite line up with what the movies were doing? The show was on an alternate Earth! Want Ghost Rider back without the TV baggage? Blame it on a Kang!

And grabbing the stuff that worked from old projects means porting in the good actors, too. That means people like J.K. Simmons, the Platonic ideal of J. Jonah Jameson, can continue playing the role across from three different Spider-Men, or Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio can show up as Daredevil and Kingpin in Spider-Man: No Way Home while Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings nukes Netflix’s Iron Fist continuity from orbit.   Wondering how Ms. Marvel could potentially deal with concepts from the Inhumans without ever mentioning that disastrous TV show? Now we know. 

Could the MCU Multiverse Retcon Marvel Movies?

This same ability to pick and choose the continuity most appropriate for the story applies to decisions the movies made, too. A full multiverse lets future filmmakers bring back Chris Evans as Captain America or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow (OK…maybe not ScarJo) without burdening the MCU with yet another time paradox. As far as we’re concerned, pre-Marvel Studios curiosities like all those crazy old live action Marvel TV shows or Howard the Duck or Dolph Lundgren’s take on The Punisher are now officially canon somewhere within the multiverse.  

Phil Coulson could show up in Phase 6 leading a Squadron Supreme (just like in the comics), out for vengeance against the Avengers because they let his Earth 20085 brother die. Hell, if they really wanted to get dirty, Nick Fury could hire Deadpool to kill Coulson in retaliation, like in the comics. Wait, that was Secret Empire,wasn’t it? Never mind, don’t do that. 

Anyway, you get the idea.

The possibilities are as infinite as the imaginations of the writers, limited only by Kevin Feige’s patience/sense of humor. Don’t expect anything too crazy: the time travel solution in Avengers: Endgame was wild, but before Loki, that was far and away the most ridiculous comic book science the MCU had trafficked in. Typical MCU adaptations include much more modest nods to comics’ wackier elements – Eternals pending – like secret societies that had taken over SHIELD or Kurt Russell being Chris Pratt’s dad. So that ultra-maxi series that starts out a movie, moves into a TV show, has a comic tie in that directly crosses over with the show, and wraps up in Avengers 6 that we’re all hoping will come to pass is probably not on the horizon.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths Problem

An infinite multiverse doesn’t just mean possibility. It has a trap built in, too. The biggest multiverse story of all time, probably the one that set the template for future interactions with the concept, was DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths. That book set the standard for multiversal destruction, collapsing DC’s infinite comics timelines down to one single Earth and one single timeline. Gone were the separate Earths for the modern Justice League and the World War II Justice Society, replaced by one, unified timeline. And while the comic itself was a masterpiece, miraculously balanced by Marv Wolfman and beautifully drawn by George Perez; what it wrought on the DCU was 30 years of explainers why the Green Lantern of World War II still looked 35, or why Batman has only been operating for five years but went through six Robins in that time.  

The cautionary tale here is one of inward looking stories versus expansionary choices. Post-Crisis DC retcons were about fixing problems the writers and editors perceived with the new timeline, and not about telling the best story they could with the characters and continuity they had. This is an easy trap for a new, expanded (but not all the way expanded) MCU to fall into. There are key pieces of the comics that haven’t been ported to the films yet. 

The Fantastic Four

The temptation is likely huge to use this new, beautiful, infinite multiverse to introduce the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to the MCU. That’s probably half of a good idea.

The cosmogony of the multiverse is ingrained in who the Fantastic Four are. Their story begins as explorers of the unknown – Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm are bombarded with cosmic radiation after an unauthorized space launch. That origin is very of the time when they were created, and would probably hit different now when the only unauthorized space launches are led by giant assholes. So why not take a page from the end of Secret Wars and have them get their powers exploring the new multiverse? It makes so much sense to do it that way that one is almost suspicious of this entire retcon. But that doesn’t make it any less cool.

The X-Men in the MCU

While introducing the Fantastic Four to the MCU by saying they’ve been off exploring the multiverse would make a certain elegant sense, if Marvel tried to introduce the X-Men that way, it would be hugely problematic. 

The core concept of the X-Men is the mutant metaphor, the idea that mutants are hated and feared because of who they are. On a completely superficial level, this is nonsense: what’s the difference between Cyclops’ eye blasts and Captain Marvel zapping Kree ships with fist beams? Why are mutants singled out for scorn and bigotry when someone like Doctor Strange has MUCH more terrifying abilities?

The difference is the idea that mutants are humanity’s destiny. There’s no concern that the majority baseline human population is going to someday be replaced by handsome super-soldiers or radioactive Catholic lawyers. But that genetic distinction – the idea that Magneto and Apocalypse and Pixie and Skids all share a distinct identity, while Captain America and Daredevil and Dr. Druid and Tigra do not – creates tension that allows real world out groups to superimpose their struggles onto X-Men comics and makes them infinitely relatable.

As superficially attractive as the idea of plopping the mutants on their own parallel Earth might be (and trust me, this definitely seems like the simplest justification for keeping Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool in the MCU while jettisoning anything else that is less appealing for audiences or studio execs), putting the mutants on their own separate Earth strips that struggle from the story and makes them just another cape crew.

Worse, using the multiverse as justification that suddenly mutants are here because they came from a parallel timeline disrespects the marginalized people who identify with the X-Men who, like left-handed people, have been here the whole time. Whether society noticed or not.

The Sony Spider-Man Problem

What keeps me up at night about the new Marvel multiverse is the Spider-Man family. The Marvel/Sony relationship has always been…complicated. 

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While the new multiverse provides creators with endless storytelling opportunities that could expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also sets up an easy out for the studios to separate the Spider-Man movies from the rest of the MCU. Cleaving off the Spider-family movies wouldn’t be great – I don’t need to be reminded of complicated business deals while I’m at the movies. Dedicating all of a future Spidey movie to explaining why Pete isn’t in the master MCU and can’t talk about Iron Man anymore would almost certainly be a nightmare.

But these inward-looking continuity fixes are the types of stories that Marvel, on page and on screen, has generally avoided (before you jump in the comments to shout “CLONE SAGA” please take into account how much work “generally” is doing in this sentence) with its big multiverse stories. Hopefully they’ll keep making those wise decisions going forward.

The post MCU Phase 4 and 5: What the Multiverse Means for the Future of Marvel Movies and TV appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Vqw7iX

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[script-a-world]

Clearly there are some settings which make no sense scientifically. But how do I decide when to intentionally ignore reality, can't bother to do research, don't understand research, and thus create scientifically impossible places? When are such things considered be offensive or overused cliche or have a reader point out the impossibility and can't get into the story? I'm guessing some of this might be structural issues instead of world building?

Tex: One of the perils of attempting to write about highly technical subjects is that you run into the issue of not understanding your writing. I do raise a nominal objection as your first sentence, because sensibility is a sliding scale based on one’s familiarity with a given subject. I don’t know crap about, say, textile art (however much I might have bluffed readers in the past - no, no, this is just good googling skills on my end), but that doesn’t mean the textile arts are an inherently incomprehensible subject.

Scientifically, automobiles were once thought to be insensible. Scientifically, phones were thought to be a flight of fancy. Scientifically, 3D printing was improbable. Scientifically, quantum computing was the stuff of sci-fi nerds who just wanted to slap the “quantum” label on everything.

And yet we are now on the verge of robotic vehicles, mostly functional smartwatches, laser printing cells (PDF), and quantum computers (VentureBeat, IBM).

So I would argue that the insensibility of a setting would be due mostly to, yes, a structural issue - on the part of the author. No matter what you put into your world, internal consistency is key; nothing, no matter how ostensibly outlandish, will make sense if you contradict yourself.

I’ll volley a few questions back to you:

“[...] when to intentionally ignore reality” - Are you ignoring reality entirely, or just parts of it? Why? How does that decision benefit your world? How does it detract from your world?

“Can’t bother to do research” - Is it because you are discouraged by the breadth of your comprehension of a subject, compared to the subject’s depth? Or is it because of something else?

“Don’t understand research” - Is this because you don’t understand the academic papers that turn up in your search results, or because you have a fundamental lack of or misunderstanding of the given subject? Or is it because of something else?

“When are such things considered to be offensive or overused cliche” - As someone who intentionally arranges their studying around the plausibilities of the future, I would quite frankly be delighted to see more conceptual stretches of the imagination in this regard, as do many others on this blog, and beyond it. Why have you already passed judgement on the offensiveness or clichéd-ness of incorporating scientific things? Is this related to your other comments?

“[...] or have a reader point out the impossibility and can’t get into the story?” - If you are writing to please a specific individual or demographic, you are inevitably always going to fall short, because it’s genuinely impossible to meet every single item on a group’s wishlist without devoting your life to it (not an entirely worthy pursuit, in my opinion, but alas). What made you decide to be so concerned over the potential reaction to your stories that you worry about it before the story is even written?

I think I will put the majority of my curiosity’s weight on the last bullet point, as I’m seeing similar themes with the other portions of your question. It’s a fruitless endeavour to tie yourself into knots over a possible (not necessarily probable!) reaction - and quite likely from a stranger, to boot. Education is a relatively easy situation to fix, so long as you’re patient with yourself; dealing with anxieties over readers is… not so easy.

I can really only recommend that you take a close look at the goals of your worldbuilding, and see where you contradict yourself - once you have that in hand, it’s a relatively simple yes/no process of what concepts you want to keep. If the issue of decision comes from a lack of understanding, then make a note to yourself to seek out either the million wikis we Pylons utilize ourselves like any other worldbuilder, or to chalk it up as a genuine lack of context.

Please understand that even someone who’s dedicated their life to a certain aspect of science won’t know everything about it - that’s the point of research! We’re constantly asking ourselves questions, and pushing the envelope of known boundaries. Star Wars has lightsabers, but we don’t need to know how they work; likewise with holodecks in Star Trek. So long as an audience is reasonably entertained with the least amount of head-scratching, you can get away with handwaving quite a lot.

Lockea: On a scale between Star Trek and Star Wars, how “hard” is your science fiction?

I mention that mostly to illustrate that science fiction exists on a continuum, wherein science fiction with more “science” than “fiction” drives a story towards the harder end rather than the softer end. Also, a story’s place on the continuum will change based on what we know and understand about science.

I feel like everyone always beats me to saying all the important stuff about questions, so I’ll just give a few thoughts from my personal experience as a science fiction fan with two engineering degrees and a thesis about robots on the moon (yes really, I wrote my thesis on AI for moon robots). I really, really, love the creativity of science fiction writers. I think so often in defending the genre, we can get caught up in saying things like “science fiction predicted XYZ!” Well, sure, I may have studied Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics in my introduction to engineering ethics course, but I was also greedily reading my way through “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins at the same time. The fact that I sincerely doubt Panem will ever happen didn’t dampen my enjoyment of Katniss’s story. It was a fun read and it gave my friends and I something to talk about that wasn’t “feasibility of Battlestar Galactica” during our daily lunches.

The thing about writing science fiction is that, without a doubt, there will be someone who knows more than you about a topic who reads your story. Most of the time, I end up being that someone since everyone likes to talk about Skynet and robots taking over the world to a roboticist who sincerely refers to artificial intelligence as artificial stupidity. Y'all are seriously overestimating the field, my friends. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” even as I thought how impossible Project Insight would be. Honestly, something every READER of science fiction needs to make peace with is the fact that writers will get something wrong. Writers, despite their best efforts, are not always going to understand that a facial recognition algorithm will fail if you introduce tiny amounts of random noise and are thus going to treat The Algorithm™ as infallible in your crime drama novel.

It’s not the writer’s fault, though.

That deserves to be on its own line. It is not YOUR fault if you get something wrong. Would it be nice if science literacy was just better all around? Of course! But it’s not your fault if your science literacy isn’t up to snuff enough to parse the article I cited above. It’s also not your job. Your job as the writer is to tell the most interesting story you can and to maintain your own internal rules and logic such that the reader never breaks the willing suspension of disbelief.

I watch Star Wars and get really into the light saber fight scenes and forget that light sabers are basically impossible to make. Star Wars has the Force, which is basically magic, and that’s okay. Really. I KNOW it’s not possible, but I still have a lot of fun watching it!

So yeah, write that story about how the robots are going to take over the world. I’ll probably enjoy reading it even as I laugh off my friends telling me that I will be the first to die in the robot apocalypse (of course I will -- I have five robots in my living room alone).

Constablewrites: Tone and consistency are the biggest pieces of this for me. If it’s the kind of story where the answer to “How does this work?” is usually a detailed and plausible explanation, then getting an answer later that is implausible or slapdash will stand out more. But if it’s the kind of story where the answer to “How does this work?” is “You push that button and it goes whoosh” from the start, my expectations adjust accordingly. (It’s possible to have the latter version in a story that is mostly the former, frequently when it’s played for last. Again, tone is key.)

So yeah, a lot of this is execution and the way the story sticks to the rules it sets for itself, and also how central the implausibility is to the story. A realistic thriller that relies on cartoon logic for a background bit might be a little jarring, but not nearly as much as a realistic thriller that relies on cartoon logic to set up its main showdown. The more central it is to the story, the more consistency and accuracy matters. Learning how to balance this can take some practice and some insight from beta readers.

#pylons #research #believability #worldbuilding #Anonymous

[deanxcasficrecs]

Less than 5K, vol ??

I’m sorry, I’m not sure how many ‘less than 5K’ posts I have made already. They are like the fallen Cas posts, they just keep happening. I’m telling you, I’ve got plenty more to come. 

When I started these, I called them ‘bedtime stories’ but I’m not so sure if I really wanna call them that anymore. Turned out, smut kept happening while putting together these, so I don’t know what kind of dreams you would have if reading these as bedtime stories.

Anyway, all of these are from my favourite folders: some are older favourites, some newer. Hope you find them... Entertaining.  – Admin J

Title: New Tricks

Author: misha_anon

Rating: Explicit

Words: 4,835 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: There are things in life I’m very much not into, except when it comes to fanfiction. Panty kink is definitely one of those. I really, really don’t have a thing for guys in panties, but Dean in panties doing naughty stuff with Cas is always welcome. Also, let’s think about the fact for a moment that this was written about Dean’s 30th birthday. That was some years ago :’D

Summary: Dean reluctantly agrees to a thirtieth birthday dinner in an upscale burger joint with Castiel, Sam, and Gabriel. When Gabe was picking out the gag gift to embarrass his brother’s husband with, he probably never dreamed it would go to such good use.

( Read here )

Title: Electric Feel

Author: lilypond

Rating: Explicit

Words: 3,805 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: This is here to honour the memory of Omegle. I mean, the best thing years back was to go to Omegle and wait for the creepers to arrive. We did that with Admin A quite often. Must say, when you grew up with Omegle, a few dick pics on Tinder are nothing. (The fic is good, it really is.)

Summary: He’s actually had some interesting conversations through Omegle before, made a couple friends, even, but that’s not what he’s here for tonight. He finds a couple of alphas that look interested, and it’s not that he doesn’t enjoy that sometimes, but he knows what he needs right now, and it’s not an alpha or even a beta. He’s been searching for an hour and is about ready to close the damn thing and force himself to get dressed and go out when he finds him.

( Read here )

Title: ‘Stonehenge’: Post-Apocalypse

Author: strangenessandcharm

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 4,268 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: I love everything in this fic. I can’t understand how it could break my heart in less than 5,000 words, and how the characters could be so, well, in character. This is how you write a masterpiece!

Summary: Do happily-ever-afters work on angels? Castiel gets to find out, but it’s bittersweet…

( Read here )

Title: The Minutes Kick and Play

Author: thepinupchemist

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 2,452 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: I’m somewhat sure you all have read Pick It All Up because we have recced it so many times that I don’t even dare to mention it anymore. This is a sequel for it and it has a puppy, and I love puppies and dogs, so I naturally loved this one too. Did I mention it’s a sequel for Pick It All Up?

Summary: Castiel has been angling non-stop for a puppy.

Dean caves in.

(Timestamp for Pick It All Up but can stand alone)

( Read here )

Title: Love Blossom

Author: youaresunlight

Rating: General Audiences

Words: 2,341 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: The fic is from POV Jess which is always curious. I like to read stories from clever point of views, to get different sides of the things, and this didn’t let me down.  The part in which the boys are in the hallway is hilarious, I liked Mary (I kind of stopped liking her after she came back to the show) and overall, it’s amazingly spent 2,300 words.

Summary: The entire family comes together for John’s birthday dinner, and Jess believes that Dean’s college roommate-turned-best friend Cas just may also be his adorable boyfriend. In which Sam has a girl crush on Cas, Dean’s the older brother Jess never had, John is far from a douche, Mary is wonderful, and everyone is disgustingly happy.

( Read here )

Title: Dean’s 40th Birthday Fluffstravaganza!

Author: Amelia_Clark

Rating: Explicit

Words: 4,053 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: I’m not picky when it comes to shipping Sam, but I must admit that Sam and Jody is always a bit odd. I just don’t see it happening. Anyway, the fic was great, even if I’m not the biggest fan of mentioning how people get old (I’m a soon-30-years-old who just spent one night telling myself that I’m young and hip and cool, and didn’t believe any of it. Yes, that’s called age-crisis.) Also, since when I have thought that forties are the new thirties? Friends, I’m old.

Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin: Dean turns 40! Everybody’s married! Cas and Dean have a little girl with awesome fashion sense! And Sam doesn’t realize tapioca pudding’s not the same as tapioca starch.

( Read here )

#destiel #destiel fic rec #destiel fanfic #destiel fanfiction #destiel fanfics #destiel fic recs #admin j #less than 5k

[scifigeneration]

The end of the world: a history of how a silent cosmos led humans to fear the worst

by Thomas Moynihan

NASA

It is 1950 and a group of scientists are walking to lunch against the majestic backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. They are about to have a conversation that will become scientific legend. The scientists are at the Los Alamos Ranch School, the site for the Manhattan Project, where each of the group has lately played their part in ushering in the atomic age.

They are laughing about a recent cartoon in the New Yorker offering an unlikely explanation for a slew of missing public trash cans across New York City. The cartoon had depicted “little green men” (complete with antenna and guileless smiles) having stolen the bins, assiduously unloading them from their flying saucer.

By the time the party of nuclear scientists sits down to lunch, within the mess hall of a grand log cabin, one of their number turns the conversation to matters more serious. “Where, then, is everybody?”, he asks. They all know that he is talking – sincerely – about extraterrestrials.

The question, which was posed by Enrico Fermi and is now known as Fermi’s Paradox, has chilling implications.

Bin-stealing UFOs notwithstanding, humanity still hasn’t found any evidence of intelligent activity among the stars. Not a single feat of “astro-engineering”, no visible superstructures, not one space-faring empire, not even a radio transmission. It has been argued that the eerie silence from the sky above may well tell us something ominous about the future course of our own civilisation.

Such fears are ramping up. Last year, the astrophysicist Adam Frank implored an audience at Google that we see climate change – and the newly baptised geological age of the Anthropocene – against this cosmological backdrop. The Anthropocene refers to the effects of humanity’s energy-intensive activities upon Earth. Could it be that we do not see evidence of space-faring galactic civilisations because, due to resource exhaustion and subsequent climate collapse, none of them ever get that far? If so, why should we be any different?

A few months after Frank’s talk, in October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s update on global warming caused a stir. It predicted a sombre future if we do not decarbonise. And in May, amid Extinction Rebellion’s protests, a new climate report upped the ante, warning: “Human life on earth may be on the way to extinction.”

Meanwhile, NASA has been publishing press releases about an asteroid set to hit New York within a month. This is, of course, a dress rehearsal: part of a “stress test” designed to simulate responses to such a catastrophe. NASA is obviously fairly worried by the prospect of such a disaster event – such simulations are costly.

Space tech Elon Musk has also been relaying his fears about artificial intelligence to YouTube audiences of tens of millions. He and others worry that the ability for AI systems to rewrite and self-improve themselves may trigger a sudden runaway process, or “intelligence explosion”, that will leave us far behind – an artificial superintelligence need not even be intentionally malicious in order to accidentally wipe us out.

In 2015, Musk donated to Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, headed up by transhumanist Nick Bostrom. Nestled within the university’s medieval spires, Bostrom’s institute scrutinises the long-term fate of humanity and the perils we face at a truly cosmic scale, examining the risks of things such as climate, asteroids and AI. It also looks into less well-publicised issues. Universe destroying physics experiments, gamma-ray bursts, planet-consuming nanotechnology and exploding supernovae have all come under its gaze.

So it would seem that humanity is becoming more and more concerned with portents of human extinction. As a global community, we are increasingly conversant with increasingly severe futures. Something is in the air.

But this tendency is not actually exclusive to the post-atomic age: our growing concern about extinction has a history. We have been becoming more and more worried for our future for quite some time now. My PhD research tells the story of how this began. No one has yet told this story, yet I feel it is an important one for our present moment.

I wanted to find out how current projects, such as the Future of Humanity Institute, emerge as offshoots and continuations of an ongoing project of “enlightenment” that we first set ourselves over two centuries ago. Recalling how we first came to care for our future helps reaffirm why we should continue to care today.

Extinction, 200 years ago

In 1816, something was also in the air. It was a 100-megaton sulfate aerosol layer. Girdling the planet, it was made up of material thrown into the stratosphere by the eruption of Mount Tambora, in Indonesia, the previous year. It was one of the biggest volcanic eruptions since civilisation emerged during the Holocene.

Mount Tambora’s crater. Wikimedia Commons/NASA

Almost blotting out the sun, Tambora’s fallout caused a global cascade of harvest collapse, mass famine, cholera outbreak and geopolitical instability. And it also provoked the first popular fictional depictions of human extinction. These came from a troupe of writers including Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley.

The group had been holidaying together in Switzerland when titanic thunderstorms, caused by Tambora’s climate perturbations, trapped them inside their villa. Here they discussed humanity’s long-term prospects.

Read more: Why a volcano, Frankenstein, and the summer of 1816 are relevant to the Anthropocene

Clearly inspired by these conversations and by 1816’s hellish weather, Byron immediately set to work on a poem entitled “Darkness”. It imagines what would happen if our sun died:

I had a dream, which was not all a dream The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air

Detailing the ensuing sterilisation of our biosphere, it caused a stir. And almost 150 years later, against the backdrop of escalating Cold War tensions, the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists again called upon Byron’s poem to illustrate the severity of nuclear winter.

Two years later, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (perhaps the first book on synthetic biology) refers to the potential for the lab-born monster to outbreed and exterminate Homo sapiens as a competing species. By 1826, Mary went on to publish The Last Man. This was the first full-length novel on human extinction, depicted here at the hands of pandemic pathogen.

Boris Karloff plays Frankenstein’s monster, 1935. Wikimedia Commons

Beyond these speculative fictions, other writers and thinkers had already discussed such threats. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in 1811, daydreamed in his private notebooks about our planet being “scorched by a close comet and still rolling on – cities men-less, channels riverless, five mile deep”. In 1798, Mary Shelley’s father, the political thinker William Godwin, queried whether our species would “continue forever”?

While just a few years earlier, Immanuel Kant had pessimistically proclaimed that global peace may be achieved “only in the vast graveyard of the human race”. He would, soon after, worry about a descendent offshoot of humanity becoming more intelligent and pushing us aside.

Earlier still, in 1754, philosopher David Hume had declared that “man, equally with every animal and vegetable, will partake” in extinction. Godwin noted that “some of the profoundest enquirers” had lately become concerned with “the extinction of our species”.

In 1816, against the backdrop of Tambora’s glowering skies, a newspaper article drew attention to this growing murmur. It listed numerous extinction threats. From global refrigeration to rising oceans to planetary conflagration, it spotlighted the new scientific concern for human extinction. The “probability of such a disaster is daily increasing”, the article glibly noted. Not without chagrin, it closed by stating: “Here, then, is a very rational end of the world!”

Tambora’s dust-cloud created ominous sunsets, such as this one painted by Turner, c. 1830–5. © Tate, CC BY-NC-ND

Before this, we thought the universe was busy

So if people first started worrying about human extinction in the 18th century, where was the notion beforehand? There is enough apocalypse in scripture to last until judgement day, surely. But extinction has nothing to do with apocalypse. The two ideas are utterly different, even contradictory.

For a start, apocalyptic prophecies are designed to reveal the ultimate moral meaning of things. It’s in the name: apocalypse means revelation. Extinction, by direct contrast, reveals precisely nothing and this is because it instead predicts the end of meaning and morality itself – if there are no humans, there is nothing humanly meaningful left.

And this is precisely why extinction matters. Judgement day allows us to feel comfortable knowing that, in the end, the universe is ultimately in tune with what we call “justice”. Nothing was ever truly at stake. On the other hand, extinction alerts us to the fact that everything we hold dear has always been in jeopardy. In other words, everything is at stake.

Extinction was not much discussed before 1700 due to a background assumption, widespread prior to the Enlightenment, that it is the nature of the cosmos to be as full as moral value and worth as is possible. This, in turn, led people to assume that all other planets are populated with “living and thinking beings” exactly like us.

Although it only became a truly widely accepted fact after Copernicus and Kepler in the 16th and 17th centuries, the idea of plural worlds certainly dates back to antiquity, with intellectuals from Epicurus to Nicholas of Cusa proposing them to be inhabited with lifeforms similar to our own. And, in a cosmos that is infinitely populated with humanoid beings, such beings – and their values – can never fully go extinct.

Star cluster Messier 13 in Hercules, 1877. Wikimedia Commons

In the 1660s, Galileo confidently declared that an entirely uninhabited or unpopulated world is “naturally impossible” on account of it being “morally unjustifiable”. Gottfried Leibniz later pronounced that there simply cannot be anything entirely “fallow, sterile, or dead in the universe”.

Along the same lines, the trailblazing scientist Edmond Halley (after whom the famous comet is named) reasoned in 1753 that the interior of our planet must likewise be “inhabited”. It would be “unjust” for any part of nature to be left “unoccupied” by moral beings, he argued.

Around the same time Halley provided the first theory on a “mass extinction event”. He speculated that comets had previously wiped out entire “worlds” of species. Nonetheless, he also maintained that, after each previous cataclysm “human civilisation had reliably re-emerged”. And it would do so again. Only this, he said could make such an event morally justifiable.

Later, in the 1760s, the philosopher Denis Diderot was attending a dinner party when he was asked whether humans would go extinct. He answered “yes”, but immediately qualified this by saying that after several millions of years the “biped animal who carries the name man” would inevitably re-evolve.

This is what the contemporary planetary scientist Charles Lineweaver identifies as the “Planet of the Apes Hypothesis”. This refers to the misguided presumption that “human-like intelligence” is a recurrent feature of cosmic evolution: that alien biospheres will reliably produce beings like us. This is what is behind the wrong-headed assumption that, should we be wiped out today, something like us will inevitably return tomorrow.

Back in Diderot’s time, this assumption was pretty much the only game in town. It was why one British astronomer wrote, in 1750, that the destruction of our planet would matter as little as “Birth-Days or Mortalities” do down on Earth.

This was typical thinking at the time. Within the prevailing worldview of eternally returning humanoids throughout an infinitely populated universe, there was simply no pressure or need to care for the future. Human extinction simply couldn’t matter. It was trivialised to the point of being unthinkable.

For the same reasons, the idea of the “future” was also missing. People simply didn’t care about it in the way we do now. Without the urgency of a future riddled with risk, there was no motivation to be interested in it, let alone attempt to predict and preempt it.

It was the dismantling of such dogmas, beginning in the 1700s and ramping up in the 1800s, that set the stage for the enunciation of Fermi’s Paradox in the 1900s and leads to our growing appreciation for our cosmic precariousness today.

But then we realised the skies are silent

In order to truly care about our mutable position down here, we first had to notice that the cosmic skies above us are crushingly silent. Slowly at first, though soon after gaining momentum, this realisation began to take hold around the same time that Diderot had his dinner party.

One of the first examples of a different mode of thinking I’ve found is from 1750, when the French polymath Claude-Nicholas Le Cat wrote a history of the earth. Like Halley, he posited the now familiar cycles of “ruin and renovation”. Unlike Halley, he was conspicuously unclear as to whether humans would return after the next cataclysm. A shocked reviewer picked up on this, demanding to know whether “Earth shall be re-peopled with new inhabitants”. In reply, the author facetiously asserted that our fossil remains would “gratify the curiosity of the new inhabitants of the new world, if there be any”. The cycle of eternally returning humanoids was unwinding.

In line with this, the French encyclopaedist Baron d’Holbach ridiculed the “conjecture that other planets, like our own, are inhabited by beings resembling ourselves”. He noted that precisely this dogma – and the related belief that the cosmos is inherently full of moral value – had long obstructed appreciation that the human species could permanently “disappear” from existence. By 1830, the German philosopher F W J Schelling declared it utterly naive to go on presuming “that humanoid beings are found everywhere and are the ultimate end”.

Figures illustrating articles on astronomy, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. Wikimedia Commons

And so, where Galileo had once spurned the idea of a dead world, the German astronomer Wilhelm Olbers proposed in 1802 that the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt in fact constitutes the ruins of a shattered planet. Troubled by this, Godwin noted that this would mean that the creator had allowed part of “his creation” to become irremediably “unoccupied”. But scientists were soon computing the precise explosive force needed to crack a planet – assigning cold numbers where moral intuitions once prevailed. Olbers calculated a precise timeframe within which to expect such an event befalling Earth. Poets began writing of “bursten worlds”.

The cosmic fragility of life was becoming undeniable. If Earth happened to drift away from the sun, one 1780s Parisian diarist imagined that interstellar coldness would “annihilate the human race, and the earth rambling in the void space, would exhibit a barren, depopulated aspect”. Soon after, the Italian pessimist Giacomo Leopardi envisioned the same scenario. He said that, shorn of the sun’s radiance, humanity would “all die in the dark, frozen like pieces of rock crystal”.

Galileo’s inorganic world was now a chilling possibility. Life, finally, had become cosmically delicate. Ironically, this appreciation came not from scouring the skies above but from probing the ground below. Early geologists, during the later 1700s, realised that Earth has its own history and that organic life has not always been part of it. Biology hasn’t even been a permanent fixture down here on Earth – why should it be one elsewhere? Coupled with growing scientific proof that many species had previously become extinct, this slowly transformed our view of the cosmological position of life as the 19th century dawned.

Copper engraving of a pterodactyl fossil discovered by the Italian scientist Cosimo Alessandro Collini in 1784. Wikimedia Commons

Seeing death in the stars

And so, where people like Diderot looked up into the cosmos in the 1750s and saw a teeming petri dish of humanoids, writers such as Thomas de Quincey were, by 1854, gazing upon the Orion nebula and reporting that they saw only a gigantic inorganic “skull” and its lightyear-long rictus grin.

The astronomer William Herschel had, already in 1814, realised that looking out into the galaxy one is looking into a “kind of chronometer”. Fermi would spell it out a century after de Quincey, but people were already intuiting the basic notion: looking out into dead space, we may just be looking into our own future.

Early drawings of Orion’s nebula by R.S. Newall, 1884. © Cambridge University, CC BY

People were becoming aware that the appearance of intelligent activity on Earth should not be taken for granted. They began to see that it is something distinct – something that stands out against the silent depths of space. Only through realising that what we consider valuable is not the cosmological baseline did we come to grasp that such values are not necessarily part of the natural world. Realising this was also realising that they are entirely our own responsibility. And this, in turn, summoned us to the modern projects of prediction, preemption and strategising. It is how we came to care about our future.

As soon as people first started discussing human extinction, possible preventative measures were suggested. Bostrom now refers to this as “macrostrategy”. However, as early as the 1720s, the French diplomat Benoît de Maillet was suggesting gigantic feats of geoengineering that could be leveraged to buffer against climate collapse. The notion of humanity as a geological force has been around ever since we started thinking about the long-term – it is only recently that scientists have accepted this and given it a name: “Anthropocene”.

Will technology save us?

It wasn’t long before authors began conjuring up highly technologically advanced futures aimed at protecting against existential threat. The eccentric Russian futurologist Vladimir Odoevskii, writing in the 1830s and 1840s, imagined humanity engineering the global climate and installing gigantic machines to “repulse” comets and other threats, for example. Yet Odoevskii was also keenly aware that with self-responsibility comes risk: the risk of abortive failure. Accordingly, he was also the very first author to propose the possibility that humanity might destroy itself with its own technology.

Acknowledgement of this plausibility, however, is not necessarily an invitation to despair. And it remains so. It simply demonstrates appreciation of the fact that, ever since we realised that the universe is not teeming with humans, we have come to appreciate that the fate of humanity lies in our hands. We may yet prove unfit for this task, but – then as now – we cannot rest assured believing that humans, or something like us, will inevitably reappear – here or elsewhere.

Beginning in the late 1700s, appreciation of this has snowballed into our ongoing tendency to be swept up by concern for the deep future. Current initiatives, such as Bostrom’s Future of Humanity Institute, can be seen as emerging from this broad and edifying historical sweep. From ongoing demands for climate justice to dreams of space colonisation, all are continuations and offshoots of a tenacious task that we first began to set for ourselves two centuries ago during the Enlightenment when we first realised that, in an otherwise silent universe, we are responsible for the entire fate of human value.

It may be solemn, but becoming concerned for humanity’s extinction is nothing other than realising one’s obligation to strive for unceasing self-betterment. Indeed, ever since the Enlightenment, we have progressively realised that we must think and act ever-better because, should we not, we may never think or act again. And that seems – to me at least – like a very rational end of the world.

About The Author:

Thomas Moynihan is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Oxford

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

This article is part of Conversation Insights

The Conversation’s Insights team generates long-form journalism derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges. In generating these narratives, we hope to bring areas of interdisciplinary research to a wider audience.

You can read more Insights stories here.

#featured #space #extreterrestial life #climate change #extinction #fermi paradox #enrico fermi #end of the world

[orionsangel86]

Would a possible "no homo" moment be the death of Michael and freeing Dean/all of TFW from those kind of cosmic threats? Granted, not nearly as big a dramatic moment as a kiss or love confession, but maybe? Like, all finally seems well, they're all at peace, and they get to beach, toes in the sand, sun on their faces, and *yoink*? That's the only other plausible thing I can think of, thinking that all supernatural dangers have passed. (I'm desperately trying to temper my expectations too)

Yeah I can imagine that it could happen that they all beat Michael and Lucifer (if he comes back urgh) and are all together on a beach in Hawaiian shirts just enjoying the peace and then Cas looks up at the sun and that’s when it takes him...

I suppose.

But I just don’t think that has the same level of drama as some epic moment where something clicks into place right before he is taken ya know? It HAS to be a moment that for the audience is some big reveal, otherwise I just don’t think its worth it. Just having Cas sit on a beach with his family and enjoying the sunshine doesn’t have the drama.

This is WHY the star crossed lovers trope is SO popular. It’s one of the oldest known tropes out there (like it literally dates back to ancient times).

The only other thing I can think of is that it is something like saving or restoring heaven, because Cas has always been weighed down by his own guilt over that - something that was focused on at the end of season 13 as well. Which is why I feel like this “permission to be happy” situation will be a several step programme for Cas. 

It will start with them finding and capturing Michael and ridding whatever connection Dean still has with him.

Then Cas will find a way to restore and stabilise heaven for good - probably with Michael being locked up in their dungeon or his grace being used as a power source I’d imagine.

He gets a big thanks from Naomi and Heaven’s official permission for him to go live his life on Earth, and that will be a weight lifted.

Then back on Earth, he is surrounded by his family, and a larger team of hunters who all work for Sam in making the world safer for all, showing that his family are relatively safe from threats and chaos.

Perhaps Jack has managed to recover back up to his former nephilim state and is happy with himself once again.

Then we need a scene where Dean is in the kitchen, and he does something like makes Cas a burger and hands it to him and tells him he’s really proud of him and how happy they all are that things are quiet, that they are safe and together. So Cas accepts the burger and takes a bite, and is happily smiling at Dean and Dean smiles back and he eats his burger and then THAT is when the Empty takes him...

That could be a way to do it and still have the DeanCas stuff remain platonic I suppose, but even THAT doesn’t have the PUNCH of a scene that the majority of the audience would recognise as being highly emotional, high stakes, and being robbed of true happiness just when you get it (and it is human nature to equate true happiness with getting true love anyway - like I said, the trope is old as dirt.)

Besides, adding Destiel is also robbing DEAN of HIS happiness right at the moment that he gets it. Like with all the times its been done before, the most emotional, dramatic and heartbreaking thing for writers to do is separate the lovers the moment they FINALLY get together. 

If they end this season by defeating Michael and Lucifer, getting rid of the big bads and being in a truly good place, it will make Dean losing Cas all the more painful.

Also, I just had a great thought, that by making Destiel canon and then taking Cas from Dean, before this season ends we could actually have Dean find his way into the Empty to defeat it and save Cas, and in doing so manages to somehow wake up every single angel and demon currently sleeping there - which would cause utter chaos in s15, and lead to a huge plot where literally ALL of their biggest adversaries are back and the apocalypse is nigh. This time, Dean and Cas may be together, but they now have to defeat EVERYONE again. Azazel, Alistair, Lucifer, Michael, Zachariah, Raphael, Lilith, Crowley... etc etc.

That could be a HUGE way to end the series. Bring everyone back. Like, EVERYONE. I actually think that would be a great way to go. 

So there is a lot of potential in this story, but I am still struggling to see how it plays out in any way OTHER than Destiel. 

#destiel #supernatural #spn speculation #help me find the no homo! #14x08 #spn spoilers #season 14 #castiel #my poor angel #asks #anon #Anonymous

[sometimesrosy]

You really think they’re going to go back to earth?? I mean, I could see Bellamy and Clarke landing at the dropship site all ready to rebuild humanity with radioactive playing softly in the background, fade to black. But I can also see them really leaving earth in book one.

It is, of course, only a speculation. I don’t know. I recognize that I am leaping ahead of canon evidence to make that speculation, but then, I have done that before and been correct. I guessed, from out of nowhere that cryo sleep would be a solution, but my guess came too early. I guessed that for the COL they would save everyone instead of losing everyone like MW, because that’s the kind of twist that would keep an audience on it’s toes. Once i accepted the time jump and clarke left behind, I guessed that she would become a mother, although I said it woud be bellamy’s child. So i got the motherhood right but not the shipping spec. When you spec on this show based on shipping it’s almost never right, that’s not how they make their narrative choices. I guessed that s5 would end with Bellamy and Clarke would lose the war for Eden (McCreary cheated) and take their people who stopped fighting into the wastes for an exodus. As the season went on it became probable that the exodus would be in the stars instead of on earth. So like, these big conceptual stories? I’m picking up on. I think it’s because I speak the same language as JR, 90s scifi geek who went to college to study writing. We have the same references in our heads. Once I started LOOKING for his symbolism and allusions and archetypes, the whole show fell into place and made a lot of sense to me. This show is NOT random. He’s not changing the story to please fandom or to hurt them (except in cases where he can WORK with the changes.)

I’m not intending to brag, I’m intending to show you that although my spec seems like it comes out of left field and there’s no basis for it, the basis actually comes with the TYPE of story he’s telling and the common language in the GENRE. Like, I started picking up on his symbolism in s3, but if I didn’t keep getting confirmation that I was right with the themes and archetypes and symbolism and allusions, I would have changed my theories. But I keep getting confirmation that I’m on the right track. JR is going down a familiar path for me. So I’m trying to find the street signs and show them to you so you can follow the path too.

So WHY did I come up with this wacky theory about Clarke and Bellamy returning to earth? HOW? It didn’t happen until s5 was over and I started getting asks and started reading/watching those references he told us about and started thinking how all the storylines converge.

long and involved, so, below the cut.

Snarky foreshadowing– This was when I first went, wait, what? Raven, when she flew the last ship off of earth said, “Just once I’d like to take off from a planet while it wasn’t burning.” TWICE she’s done that. Third time’s the charm. They’ve been fixing the traumas, I think we’ll get this one again too, only this time the planet won’t be burning. They’ve got ONE planet left. The new one. Therefore, they will be leaving the planet and it won’t be burning. But WHY would they leave the planet when it’s not burning? Then I had to find a REASON for them leaving the safe haven planet. 

History repeats itself– This story is about how pre-apocalypse humans were ruining the world. Becca is the real wanheda. She, her creation, eradicated humanity. That’s the genocide. She started the harshness of the Ark because of her madness. She started the harshness of the grounders as Pramheda. She came back and we saw her trying to fix what she’d done. She ALSO had to do with the eligius program and invented their nightbood. THEREFORE, the new planet colony is a descendent of Becca’s original crimes against humanity. Was it all an accident? Sure? But also it was the result of her choices, her hubris, her genius.  She is Doctor Frankenstein. (Actually I just made that connection and I feel stupid for missing it. Does it work? Anyone see it also?)

You are responsible for your monster when you let it out– Lincoln’s words. VERY IMPORTANT. This makes EVERYTHING in the story make sense. If people don’t take responsibility for their evil, they are the monster. If people TRY to take responsibiilty for their evil, they are the hero. That’s why leaders sacrificing others is not a sacrifice, they aren’t taking responsibility they are using people. But Clarke or Bellamy risking their lives to fix their mistakes IS heroic. It’s not always smart, but that’s the good guy move. hero/monster has been a theme since s1.

The structure of the story is a spiral– They are returning to their greatest traumas and FIXING them. Making the right choice this time. Teaching others to make the right choice, learning from their mistakes instead of doubling down on their evil actions in order to make it worth it, like Octavia all season 5. Or Lxa in s2. Or Jaha the whole show. Or Cage Wallace. Redemption comes through recognizing your monster and DOING BETTER. Redemption is a MAJOR theme of post-apocalyptic stories. 

Eligius 3 are Colonialists, NOT refugees– Monty said that they went to the new planet to USE the resources because the resources of the earth were used up. They aren’t looking for a home, they’re looking for another planet to consume. THIS IS WHAT STARTED THE ORIGINAL FALL OF HUMANITY. They reflect the values of Mount Weather who believed the earth was their birthright and treated the people on the surface as cattle to be used and tortured. This is a repeat of the MW conflict.

Eligius 3=Mount Weather– that means we’ll be getting a redo of the biggest and most traumatic “failure” that Clarke and Bellamy had. Except, it never really was a failure. It was the RIGHT thing to do. It happened also to be best for their people, but it was GOOD, even though it caused harm to some innocent people, because as Maya said, none of them were innocent. They were the disease. Clarke (med student, remember?) had to KILL the mountain to put it out of its suffering (like Atom) and to save the rest of humanity. This means that Eligius 3 will ALSO be the disease. They ARE the disease that caused the apocalypse. 

JRs reading/viewing list: all about the aliens– Weird non linear, non reality hybrids of alien and human. Consciousness. AI. Philosophy. Religion. I have not gotten to see ALL of the films or read the books, but I’ve researched them all a bit and they share themes. Also Avatar (blue not airbender) And I believe that we’ll have a non-humanoid kind of alien that bonds with the humans to create something new (also if you’ve ever read Ender’s Game which JR certainly did, it actually moves on to tell the story of Ender as Speaker for the dead, and his psychic connection, facilitated by an AI in his head [JANE!] who brings back the dead species and allows another very odd species to be recognized as sentient.  HOLY CRAP Madi is the speaker for the dead. omg i just realized!

If humanity is to be redeemed, they have to be responsible for their monster – They have broken the cycle of violence amongst themselves. They encounter a society that will be JUST as poisoned as the pre-apocalypse society that started this all. Russell’s people will BE the monster. Their enemy (the aliens who are NOT their people) will be the victims.  To be the good guy, they will have to CHOOSE their enemy over their people. Lincoln did it. Maya did it. They were The Good Guys. Clarke and Bellamy will have to end Russell’s people. In doing so, they will replay the MW trauma, but this time they will understand WHY it had to happen and will heal the trauma of the past, because they are HEALING humanity.

If humanity is to be redeemed, they must FIX what they have broken, that is The Earth itself– They can’t drop Earth when it’s no longer providing for them and move onto another planet that they can use up. If you look at The 100 in terms of environmentalism, which you can, you can see this would make them the bad guys. To be the good guys, they have to go back to what they did and start over. This fits the spiral structure, as well as being the Good Guy and being responsible for your monster. 

They aren’t going to discard the earth, or humanity– Why? Because they wouldn’t let Octavia martyr herself. She represents humanity. She will now be forced to WORK to redeem herself and fix what she did. So will humanity. They do not OWN the Earth, the Earth owns them and they are the caretakers. Octavia needs to go back to earth and treat it like her responsibility, not her property. She needs to follow what Lincoln believed. The attempted martyrdom was a reference to Lincoln. But she was cheating. She can’t cheat redemption.

THEY CAN’T CHEAT REDEMPTION: THEY HAVE TO GO BACK TO EARTH. In real life, none of this would have to happen, but this is not real life. This is JR with a story he wants to tell. The story is about the redemption of humanity and two mythic heroes who save humanity, not by keeping them from dying, but by leading them to redemption. THIS IS EPIC. 

When I started thinking about all these thematic questions, I saw that it started to form into a narrative, and many of the characters had roles to play within this narrative, some more than others. When I looked at those characters and their relationships, it completely connected to the long game stories of the relationships of the delinquents and the storylines that are actively being told and have been left open at the end of season 5. 

This theory slots the character arcs into the themes of the show as a whole AND the new main plot story of aliens, new planet, russell’s “peaceful” (yeah sure) society, bellamy and clarke’s commitment to be the good guy. 

So yeah. I see them leaving the new planet to take responsibility for the planet humanity killed, destroying russel’s peaceful society so they can’t destroy the new planet, and leaving Madi behind (she is special) as the steward for the new people. 

Because of the ORIGINAL foreshadowing that brought on this spec, Raven wishing to take off of a planet that isn’t burning, we know that they won’t destroy the new planet. They will save it. And leave it. In order to redeem humanity. 

leaving madi and echo behind with the aliens is not necessary for this redemption plot, but it fits the youth shall inherit the earth generational story and reflects Abby’s struggle with letting go of Clarke, and also Echo’s story of belonging and family and loyalty, and with her stated backstory. You see how this theory connects the larger themes to the character arcs? it just makes sense to me. It isn’t convoluted to me. It is a direct if this, then that, kind of logic. It’s just that it is bringing together MANY past concepts and lessons to save humanity. I don’t know if it sounds convoluted to other people, so if it does, ask me question and we can see if i can get it any clearer.

I can tell the entire story now, with places for the main characters dealing with their personal stories. And it all fits. It’s CRAZY but I’m so excited about it, I can’t wait to see if I’m on the right track. Because if I am it is going to be SO GOOD. Like REALLY. Like miraculous. And everyone who ever hated on this show is going to have to eat their words. Just. I mean. WOW. 

And all the characters people think were discarded and deserved better? They all have an important place, too. Wells has the vision for a life well lived. Lincoln’s idea of being responsible for your monster. Lxa’s power will actually be related to how they can save the new people (the flame), Maya’s conviction that she needed to stop her people because they were doing the wrong thing. Jasper’s belief that the problem WAS humanity and it might not be worth saving. Luna’s desire for peace. HOLY SHIT. 

#the 100 #the 100 speculation #speculation #return to earth theory #aliens theory #i'm not really interested in 'no it's not' commentary because no one can KNOW if it's not because it's a spec #but i am interested in questions about how it would work or things i haven't considered or haven't seen #even if those things seem to oppose this spec #if something disproves it i'd like to know and see if i can fit it into the spec

[thedeaditeslayer]

Ray Santiago On the End of Ash and the Future of Evil Dead.

Ash vs. Evil Dead was a beautiful, disgusting, hilarious and horrifying show that deserved a much bigger audience. With Bruce Campbell reprising the role of Ash Williams for what would turn out to be the last time, the show followed an aging has-been stumbling his way through a demonic assault on Earth. Along the way, he and his companions covered in blood, guts and pretty much any other fluid you can think of. If you haven’t been watching this show, you’ve been missing out. And hey, now’s the perfect time to fix that. With the first two seasons on Netflix and the third out on blu-ray and DVD today, you don’t even have to have a Starz subscription to see the whole thing.

Though Bruce Campbell was the biggest star of the show, Ray Santiago’s Pablo is the heart. Over the course of three seasons, you get to watch him grow from a nervous, directionless kid into a full-fledged horror-action hero. Santiago talked to us about his character’s growth and how he looks back at the show now that it’s all over.

“Overall, I’m just so happy that everybody sort of welcomed me into the franchise, and that Pablo made such an impact on the story,” he said. “He started as this naive loyal sidekick, and we got to really see him evolve and become his own hero. And in a weird way, it’s all because of him following Ash and idolizing this bogus guy.”

On the show, Pablo grows into a hero because he follows Ash. Things weren’t that different on set between Campbell and Santiago. The difference is real-life Campbell sounds like a much nicer guy than Ash. If you’ve ever seen Campbell speak in an interview or at a comic con, you know he always brings a show. His bombastic personality fills the stage, and it’s almost enough to make you believe he is Ash. When you work with him, Santiago says, that’s not so much the case.

“Bruce tends to amp up the personality when he’s doing the cons and interviews. He is that way, but he’s also such a warm father figure, and such a great leader. He took such good care of us, and I learned so much from him,” he said. Campbell taught Santiago technical things, like how to hit his mark so the camera could pick up what he was doing, as well as some general acting advice. “Little things like if you’re not having fun, then you’re doing it wrong. I’m so glad I got to work with Bruce on this TV cult classic.”

Santiago clearly loved being part of this show. He described filming with the rest of the cast and crew in New Zealand as feeling like being at camp. He learned not to take horror too seriously and, as we all did after the show’s sudden cancellation, that nothing good lasts forever. Playing a character like Pablo, and growing into a hero, also meant a lot to Santiago.

“As a kid, I grew up watching horror films, and I wanted to be the person being chased by the monster, and I wanted to save the world from evil. On Ash vs. Evil Dead with Pablo, we got a chance to see me become my own superhero. As a latino actor, and Pablo being an illegal immigrant, we got to see… well, I feel like both of them are heroes in their own special way,” Santiago said. “I was really happy to have that, Pablo in general, having him out there so somebody who’s younger could turn to the show, as fun as it is, and see somewhat of a role model. See that it doesn’t matter where you come from, how naive or vulnerable you might be, you might be able to save the world one day. If you believe in yourself.”

And that all comes after the show subjected Santiago to some pretty disgusting stuff. For him, nothing was quite as gross as something that happened all the way back in Season One. “I birthed demons out of my mouth,” he said.

I’ll give you a second to let that image fully form in your head. Got it? Good, because Santiago went on to describe exactly what that scene entailed. “So… never in my life did I think I’d call my mom and say, ‘hey mom I just finished doing my birthing scene.’ But on Ash, we did. And the way that it went down, they were like ‘OK, sooo your mouth’s a portal for the demons, the baby demons, and we need you to put this in your mouth, and we need you to spit it out slowly.’ And I was like, ‘What? That was definitely not in my job description, but uh OK?”

Despite all the gross things that happened to him, Santiago says he had the most fun doing all of it. Including the time he was a Deadite and they took his fingers away. “It takes about an hour to put each hand on, so once they put those hands on, you’re not going to the bathroom,” he said. Santiago didn’t even get the worst of it. Though he feels like everyone got their share of blood and “gross torture” on the show, nothing really topped Bruce’s morgue scene in Season Two.

“Bruce was covered in shit and cum, so you can’t really beat that, can you? I almost didn’t say it, but it’s the truth! You know what? Season two, shit happens and Season Three, we blew our load.”

SPOILERS

If you’ve seen the show, you know it has a very Army of Darkness-like ending. Spoilers from here on out, so be warned. Ash ends the season by waking up in a post-apocalyptic world. Sadly we won’t get to see what Season 4 would have done with it, but Santiago told me what he was envisioning. First of all, yes, Pablo is still alive. Santiago said IO was the second person to ask, and his first reaction is “Why wouldn’t he be?” He explained what he meant.

“I think Pablo and Kelly are definitely still alive. I think what you saw was Bruce (Ash) has been taken to the future, but I still think that we exist in the present day or the past. What you would have seen in Season Four would have been the journey to get back to the same time zone. Whether it’s Bruce coming back to save us or us trying to find him,” he said.

Santiago said we’d see Pablo trying to fill Ash’s role, which would have made for great TV. “I think there would have been two parallel universes going on. You would have seen Pablo leading the Ghost Beaters in his own way, trying to keep what Ash taught him alive and doing his own thing.” He also hinted at where the love story would go, which I’m always a sucker for. “And maybe you might have seen a little Pablo and Kelly baby with, like, Pablo hair and Kelly’s voice.” That would have most likely happened in the future timeline. Man, why did Starz have to deprive us of that?

Their ideas for Season 4 got real weird too. If you wondered what Pablo would have looked like in the post-apocalypse, Santiago has an answer. “We had this idea of me in a glass case. It would just be my head and hair in a glass case. And I was like, ‘uhhhh… OK, that sounds fun.'”

It’s not quite the post-apocalyptic Mad Max version of Pablo I envisioned, but when I mentioned that, Santiago appeared to have given the matter some thought as well. “We could have gone so many different ways. In the future when we see Bruce, he could get in his car, drive somewhere and then we’re there. And we could explain how we got there, so you might have seen a Mad Max version of Pablo.” Santiago even knows exactly what that would have looked like. “In my head, if that were to happen, I would have completely shaved my head and gone full blown warrior mode. Shed the young, innocent version of Pablo and be more, sort of, kick ass.”

SPOILERS END

While the show is ending though, Santiago doesn’t necessarily think it’ll be the end for the Evil Dead franchise. “It’s been really nice to be part of a franchise that will live forever. It’s been 30-something years, and I think that we’ll, you never know, we’ll be wheeling Bruce out in 30 more years. You never know what will happen.”

Though Bruce Campbell is retiring the character of Ash, that doesn’t mean the end of Evil Dead. As the excellent 2013 remake proved, Evil Dead can (and probably will) continue on without him. “[Bruce retiring Ash] doesn’t rule out Dana and I, and the Fede Alvarez version with all the people in the remake,” Santiago said. “You never know. I think what’s going on right now is basically what happens in the Evil Dead franchise all the time. Which is giving it some time to breathe and then something will definitely be coming your way soon enough. No one’s ever truly dead in this franchise, and the franchise itself is never truly dead. I would say keep your eyes open for another version of what you might want out there.”

As far as a spinoff goes, it’s definitely a possibility. The show has been performing well on Netflix, and we know how much they like to bring back shows with dedicated cult followings. Santiago says Campbell, though he wouldn’t be in it, is all for the idea. Bruce has given us his blessing to move forward and do a spinoff if we want. I think right now, I’m working on another show and I’m working on two films. It’s nice to sort of do a different thing, but I do miss Pablo… If the offer came in for me to revive the Ghost Beaters on Netflix, I’d have a really hard time saying no,” he said.

For now, you’ll be able to catch Santiago on a new Hulu show from horror production studio Blumhouse called Into the Dark. Santiago describes it as an anthology series where every episode is basically a horror movie, each one with a different cast. Santiago is one of the leads in the first episode which premiers October 5. Despite it being a very different character from Pablo, Santiago couldn’t help bringing some of his Evil Dead mindset with him.

“I was on set and I was like, ‘We need more blood, this isn’t enough blood,’ and they were like, ‘this isn’t Evil Dead man,’ and I was like ‘yeah, but still we need more blood.’ So I’m still traumatized, and I’ve become very masochistic with blood,” he said.

Ash vs. Evil Dead may be gone, but its spirit isn’t going away anytime soon. Season Three was the wildest season of a show that went all the way from the very beginning. If you missed out, or if you just want to watch it again, it’s available on Blu-Ray and DVD August 21.

#Ray Santiago #Ash vs. Evil Dead #Ash vs Evil Dead #Starz #Lionsgate

[theonyxpath]

Fall is in the air, and it is time for the aroma of pumpkin spice to waft around us wherever we go. And yet, somewhere beneath and behind that ubiquitous scent, is there another crueler tang? Perhaps a tinge of pumpkin guts, that suggestion of orange lives given up for our autumnal habit?

Naaaaaaah.

But the idea that there are darker things beneath the surface is surely imprinted on our thinking as gamers, and it features in pretty much all of our games – and quite a few other Tabletop RPGs that we enjoy even if we’ve never worked on them. Secret knowledge, buried secrets, layers of conspiracy (and lairs of conspiracy, and liars of conspiracy, but those are different things); these are all part of the draw for our gaming. At its simplest level, winnowing out those secrets gives us the story we’re playing.

From time to time, as fans, we can even see conspiracies in the mundane world of the business side of our hobby. I guess it’s natural, but it is odd, when you know the folks involved, to ascribe these complicated schemes to folks you know are just acting from mundane motives like increasing their profit margin. Which might be handled in a less than nice way, but it’s still a pretty non-complicated thing.

Plus, we have the human need to be important – every game designer I know has had a “confidential” conversation with someone who games where the designer has the complex plots of the creators and publishers explained to them concerning a project they were deeply involved with. I just saw someone start explaining to Justin Achilli how Vampire: The Requiem sold so poorly that it never outsold anything from the old WoD. Justin, pithy as ever replied: “Man what. Requiem was the biggest autoship in White Wolf history.”

    Trinity Continuum Core art by Bryan Syme

    Also, we do love our myths, we gamers. Whether the epic tales of gods and demi-gods, or that story about company X was a tax dodge so they let your favorite game tank in order to get a write-off, we do love stories.

Anyway, I bring this up because the occasion of White Wolf‘s CEO leaving the company last week has caused all sorts of pet theories to pop up as to the causes and effects. Well, I think you could easily just look at how these corporate things go and see that the reason Tobias gave, differences in the direction of how to manage WW, are exactly the sorts of things that happen in upper management.

As for how this affects Onyx Path? It hasn’t. Maybe it will, and I liked working with Tobias so I’ll miss him, but that’s not something we’re worried about here. That isn’t blissful ignorance speaking, it’s just that we’ve been riding the waves of this license for seven years now. Somehow, knock on Mirthful Mike Chaney’s wooden leg, we have managed to keep on making gorgeous and excellent projects for WoD, CofD, and Exalted.

Thanks to all of your support, we have been able to do so much with not only the WW game lines, but with our other licenses and our own games. We’re organized better than we’ve ever been in terms of being able to adapt to changing situations, and we’re even looking at getting out Kickstarter rewards a year to several months in advance of estimate for our next couple of ship-outs.

      VtR2 Guide to the Night art by Felipe Gaona

    So, I’m taking the time to give you these thoughts as a “so you know” sort of thing, should any of you need a bit of the reality of where we are right now. Plus, I don’t really want to always be chatting about business stuff here, and that’s all this is, so let’s get on to Monday Meeting talk:

1- We talked about the Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter, and while we had hoped for more buy-in from our respective communities, the consensus is that like Cavaliers of Mars, the KS gave us a good idea of our “early adopters” audience and a great start to put together the first projects of the line. This will let us see how things grow as we get into sales in stores and on DriveThru.

2- Related to the above, we’re slating in Dystopia Rising: Evolution demo games at Mid-Winter Con in Milwaukee in January. Also, Fetch Quest, Prince’s Gambit, and early testing of a couple of games I’ll confirm in the months to come. Some of these will be special “secret” sessions, and some out in the main gaming areas, but one that definitely will be out where other folks can see and hear the fun is They Came From Beneath the Sea!. All of the demos and playtests for this have shown us just how much players laugh when they play this, and we want people to see that!

Eddy and I will be at Save Against Fear in a couple of weeks as noted below along with a few of the other cons our gang are headed off to soon, and a whole slew of the Onyx Path crew will be at Pax Unplugged in November. A lot of our talk about these cons is Might Matt McElroy making arrangements, and since we’ve doubled our booth size and demos for PaxU, there’s a fair bit of logistics to check and double-check.

3- Our next Kickstarter is for V5 Chicago By Night and we’re going to give it a start date of “October” right now. A large part of what we need to do is get as complete text for the whole book as we can, and for that we need to work with WW – and they have been heads-down over the Camarilla and Anarchs books, so we want our stuff signed off on and that will take the time it takes.

4- Thanks to all of you for your support of last week’s VtM/WtA/MtA PDFs sale on DriveThru! Your efforts in trying to buy everything DTRPG had up are greatly appreciated! The Vampire: The Requiem/Werewolf: The Forsaken/Mage: The Awakening PDF sale is running for the rest of this week, and we hope you’ll check it out too!

5- Last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast interview with Satyr Phil Brucato, Mage: The Ascension Meisterburger, was discussed at our meeting today, as the M20 Book of the Fallen has the potential to be one of, if not the, darkest books ever put out for WoD in terms of the evil nature of the subject matter. Satyr Phil’s interview with Matthew does an amazing, if sometimes deeply personal and potentially disturbing, job of explaining why such a book is important from Satyr Phil’s point of view, and why we can’t ignore evil. Well worth seeing beyond the logistics of making a book like this and into the creative maelstrom.

You can hear it here, or at your favorite podcast venue: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/ 

This Friday, Dixie tells me they talk about ” …various pop culture things that influence us or that are good inspiration for our games, mostly movies, shows, and books. We also completely fail to mention Dracula. Or like six other obvious ones.”

    Trinity Continuum Core art by Marco Gonzales

    Finally, next week I’m starting a little project that isn’t directly related to any of Onyx Path‘s game lines, but does speak to the drive all of us here have to create, even beyond those parts of projects here we contribute to. In my case, it is often a battle to juggle the business stuff I have to do with the creative side of things.

So I’m joining those artists who create an ink drawing a day throughout October, or as this project is known: Inktober. There is an official “prompt” for each day of the month that gives the artist a theme word to work off of, and I’ll be using that. My plan is to create and post a character a day, and while technique and materials may – hell, will – vary from day to day, and I’m not revealing yet what I’m drawing these characters from, there is an overall method to this madness.

I expect to post on both my Twitter and FB accounts, and Impish Ian will probably retweet from our Onyx Path account, so if you’re interested, you should be able to catch them day by day. Let me know what you think!

And now I return you to your regularly scheduled notice that we at Onyx Path create:

Many Worlds, One Path!

  BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

With the finish of the Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter last week, we now turn our eyes towards the darkness that lies like a pall over Chicago. The V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter arises in October!

    ELECTRONIC GAMING:

      As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

And our latest, the dice for Werewolf: The Forsaken 2e:

  ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

  OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Ending this coming Friday! DTRPG presents the 75% off sale on all Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, and Mage: The Awakening PDFs!

    This Wednesday we offer our Monthly PDF additions to Hundred Devils Night Parade and Adversaries of the Righteous for Exalted 3rd – only on DriveThrough RPG.com!

    CONVENTIONS!

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at SIEGE in Atlanta to talk about Kickstarters. His panel is Oct 6 at 2pm. Info on the show is here: https://siegecon.net/

Eddy will also be a featured guest (and RichT will be there at some point, too) at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

Monica Valentinelli will be a professional guest at Great Falls Gaming Convention in Montana the first week of October. http://gfgr.org/guests-of-honor/

Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City October 12-14, running a Women in Game Design panel, Eddy’s RPG Developer Bootcamp, and possibly making a surprise appearance at another event!

  And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

  Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

  Development

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

  Indexing:

Changeling: The Lost 2e

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

  In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – KS is wrapped up.

M20: Gods and Monsters – AD’d and Contracted.

Geist 2e

The Realm

Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core) – AD’d and Contracted.

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Finals with WW for approval.

Chicago By Night – KS art sketches and finals coming in.

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Trinity Core

Trinity Aeon

  Proofing

Scion Hero – Need Neal’s 2nd proof changes.

PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented – Corrections over to KT.

Scion Origin – Doing Neall’s errata changes, and swapping out the font.

VtR: Guide to the Night

Fetch Quest – Package design done

Requiem Clan Journals – At WW for approval

  At Press

Monarchies of Mau – Printing. Dice and buttons printing.

Cavaliers of Mars – At Studio2. PoD proofs coming.

Wraith 20th – Prepping the Deluxe files.

Monarchies of Mau Screen – At Studio2.

Cavaliers of Mars Screen – At Studio2.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Cav Talent cards – PoD proof coming.

Lost 2e Screen – At WW for approval

Prince’s Gambit core deck and booster PoD – PoD proof coming.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: It was yesterday that it started, but it’s still the start of Fall. Or Autumn, if you prefer. Anyway you say it, this is my favorite season here in the US, and even more-so in the Northeastern US where the colors of the trees have a vibrancy we just never saw in Hotlanta. Crisp air, finally, and cool breezes. Aaaah. Also all that pumpkin spice hype, but that’s OK (and it’s the constant hype that is the gadfly, not that you personally enjoy the flavor). And it all leads to Halloween and Thanksgiving!

#Onyx Path Publishing

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 10/8/21 - NO TIME TO DIE, THE RESCUE, MASS, LAMB, NIGHTSTREAM, and More

It's a very special week here at the Weekend Warrior because October 10 will be my 20th (!!) anniversary as a film critic and the 20th anniversary of me doing a weekly movie preview column, mostly about box office but also with reviews and other stuff. Pretty cool, huh? (I’m celebrating this occasion by writing this column to the music of Public Enemy’s Apocalypse 91 which is 30 years old this month.)

Of course, this column wasn't called The Weekend Warrior in the early days, as I was instead doing "Half-Assed Analysis” at a long-gone Hollywood Stock Exchange fan site called HSJ.org. But then, it was a conversation with Mirko P. from ComingSoon.net (R.I.P.) that got me on the track of changing the name to "The Weekend Warrior" even though it would be a year before I would actually bring it to ComingSoon for 12 ½ wonderful years. The column has gone through a number of transformations and evolutions and iterations over the years, sometimes it being called something different just 'cause I didn't want to go through the ordeal of explaining to one of my bosses at a website that "The Weekend Warrior” is my own, and if I leave, it goes with me.

Anyway, I have taken a few weeks off over the years, particularly earlier this year when it just didn't seem a good time to be trying to predict box office, and I was starting to get burnt out on reviews. Now, the column is kind of back to being mostly about box office but with a few reviews, which is how I've always intended it.

Who knows if I'm going to continue this on that much longer, because honestly, there's no money and very little reward, and it does take a lot of time to write this up each week, especially with all the work I have to do for Below the Line. Anyway, for now, I'm going to keep it going, and we'll see how it goes. But Happy 20th Anniversary to me, and I can promise you… there won't be 20 more. NO FUCKING WAY.

Before we get to this week’s theatrical releases, I feel the need to mention the first of a bunch of October horror film festivals, as NIGHTSTREAM will begin on Thursday and run through Oct. 13. This is an amazing streaming horror/genre film festival that was instituted last year by four festivals, the Boston Underground Film Festival, the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, the North Bend Film Festival, and the Overlook Film Festival when all four were cancelled due to COVID. Some of these are still happening this year as physical in-person festivals but Nighstream continues on. Some of the guests at this year’s Nightstream are The Green Knight director David Lowery; Akela Cooper, who wrote the recent James Wan horror film, Malignant; horror and special make-up FX legend Greg Nicotero, who is also the showrunner on the Creepshow anthology series, and more.

There are so many movies and events going on in the week of Nightstream but some of the highlights include the World Premiere of Jefferson Moneo’s Cosmic Dawn, Scott Friend’s feature debut, To the Moon, and the Virtual Premiere of Scott Barber’s doc, This is Gwar, as well as much more.

You can see the full list of movies here and learn how to get a pass at the official site.

Let’s get to some other movies hitting theaters...

Obviously, the big release of the weekend and maybe the month is the 25th James Bond movie, NO TIME TO DIE (MGM), once again starring Daniel Craig in his final outing as 007, his fifth movie in a run that started with Casino Royale in 2006 and 15 years later, it’s coming to an end.

Obviously, this being Craig’s last stint as Bond is a big draw for the movie, but there are other interesting things to note First, it’s directed by True Detective’s Emmy-winning director Cary Joji Fukunaga, who is making his biggest budget movie to date, having started with smaller films like Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre, and then getting more attention for his festival favorite, Beast of No Nations, starring Idris Elba, who for a while, people seemed to want to play the NEXT Bond.

Much of Bond’s colleagues and friends from past movies are back including Naomi Harris as Moneypenny, Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as Q, but it also brings back Jeffrey Wright, who was introduced as Felix Leitner in Craig’s first film, Casino Royale, and also a few people from the last Bond movie, Spectre, which wasn’t received as well as the previous one, Skyfall. (More on those things in a bit.) Christoph Waltz played Blofeld in Spectre (for better or worse), and he’s back, as is Léa Seydoux, who played Bond's love interest, and actually she continues said role but brings more to the plot.

The new cast is pretty significant, starting with Oscar winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) as the new arch-villain, Safin, and actually, there’s also a new 007 in Lashana Lynch, who replaced Bond after he retired from MI6. There’s another “Bond Girl” (if you don’t mind the outdated trope) in Ana de Armas, who previously starred with Craig in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, which feels like it was made 500 years ago but actually has a sequel shooting as we speak. In fact, Armas seems to be getting the best notices from everyone who writes about the movie, even though her section probably isn’t more than 15 minutes long.

I’m not going to say more about the plot. You either don’t need to know it in advance cause you’re seeing it anyway or you don’t WANT to know anything, and good for MGM for being able to keep the plot and lots of stuff secret despite the movie being delayed for 18 months due to COVID.

That’s right. No Time to Die was probably one of the first movies delayed due to COVID, and it definitely wasn’t the last, but MGM (and EON Productions) really stuck to their guns, and didn’t allow a streamer to come forward with millions and millions of dollars to put James Bond on streaming. (Granted, Amazon did come forward and ended up buying MGM outright earlier this year, and we’ve yet to see how and when that will come to fruition. As far as I know, Amazon has nothing to do with MGM’s 2021 releases, of which there are a few still to come.)

Actually, the fact that MGM is releasing this one on its own is an interesting point in itself, because it’s been almost 20 years since the studio has done that with Pierce Brosnan’s last Bond film, Die Another Day. In the time since then, MGM has been co-distributing its films with other studios until fairly recently -- the last four Bond movies were released by Sony Pictures. I’m not gonna throw shade at MGM, because they’ve been doing a fantastic job with No Time To Die, essentially marketing the movie once back in early 2020 and then again for its final release spot this Friday. In between, the movie has moved a number of times as COVID just kept ambushing its planned release date. Any weaker studio (like, say Sony) would have just sold the movie off (as Sony has done many times over the past 18 months until finally having a theatrical hit with Venom). Interesting how that works out, huh? MGM took over Bond, and now it’s releasing the new Bond a week after Sony’s biggest 2021 hit, essentially killing its chances at having a decent second weekend.

Others are seeing how well Venom did and are assuming that the box office is back, and that Bond can do even BIGGER numbers, but you need to take a few things into account, including something called REALITY. And it comes from the wonderful box office archive site, The-Numbers.com, which I have been using for those 20 years mentioned above.

Up until Daniel Craig took over the role, the biggest opening for a Bond movie (not accounting for inflation) was Brosnan’s Die Another Day with $47 million. Casino Royale opened with just $40 million in 2006, but it proved to have significant holiday legs as more people discovered it and decided that the new direction of tougher and grittier and more violent action was for them. It made $167 million domestically and $594 million globally. A few years later, Quantum of Solace had a much bigger opening of $67.5 million but made almost the exact same amount domestically -- the reason? People didn’t like it as much as Casino Royale, so it was more frontloaded.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes took over the 50th anniversary Bond movie, Skyfall, four years later, and that was generally as well received as Casino Royale, so that it set a new opening record for the franchise with $88.3 million and OVER A BILLION worldwide. Woo! Three years later, Spectre was going to introduce two classic Bond villains, Blofeld and Jaws (played by David Bautista) but it once again wasn't received that well, and it opened lower with $70 million and “only” made $200 million domestically vs. the $300 million of Skyfall. It still made over $879 million globally, but a final movie for Craig was always going to happen.

Now I’m going to talk about why I don’t think No Time to Die is going to break the opening record set by Skyfall, and believe it or not, it's not because of COVID. This is the thing. Bond clearly peaked with Skyfall and then it dropped down with Spectre, and that movie wasn't that well-received either by critics or fans with 63% from the former on Rotten Tomatoes and 61% from audiences. That is basically Quantum of Solace numbers and down from Skyfall's 92% and 86%. You take that disappointment and then you add six years, which is how long it's been between Bond movies, and you have a lot fewer people interested in shelling out money to see another Daniel Craig movie. There's no way around the fact that people are just burnt out on Craig and maybe Bond himself, and it really would take a huge wave of positive reviews to get them back.

Also, and unlike Venom, Bond is about as white as you can get in terms of a fanbase. I'm sure there's some African-Americans and LatinX movie fans who enjoy the action and stuff, but do you think you would see the entire James Bond collection in their Bluray libraries? I'm sure there are some, but they may be outliers, because Bond is the kind of Baby Boomer anti-woke un-PC franchise that the Millennials have been warning you about for years. It also doesn't have as big a female fanbase as other franchises (like Marvel) so that's another audience that might not rush out to see the movie. Sure, some changes have been made, including additions like Lashana Lynch or as she's better known, "WHO?!?!?", and de Armas, as well, but it's still the same old James Bond. Fukunaga just didn't try hard enough to make the necessary changes, or maybe he wasn't allowed to, because EON's Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. WIlson still hold very tight reins on the Bond films. Whatever has been done may not just be enough and who knows how many will want to see No Time to Die just to give Craig a glorious send-off? There's also the matter of No Time to Die being almost an hour longer than Venom -- longer run time, less screenings, less money per screen. It's simple math.

I already reviewed the movie for Below the Line -- I liked it but had some issues -- and it’s sitting pretty at 83% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a good sign for getting the interest of fans to return to theaters for a movie that won’t be available on streaming on VOD for quite some time, I’d imagine.

I’m feeling generally bullish (or is it bearish?) on No Time To Die, especially with how much better Venom: Let There Be Carnage did last weekend compared to my prediction (OUCH!) but I’m also keeping track of that REALITY I mentioned before. Not just COVID on this one, but also opening the movie earlier overseas where the movie can be easily bootlegged and put on piracy sites for people who just don’t want to chance it at movie theaters yet. (I’m going to be writing more about this soon, but I have seen probably 100 movies or more in theaters since they reopened in NYC, and I get tested regularly. I have not tested positive for COVID once.)

The movie has done very well overseas, scoring $121.3 million in its first weekend, but I still don’t think it will open over $80 million in North America. But I do think it will be close, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it opens somewhere between $75 and 80 million.

Without knowing if any of the movies below might be going wider (but highly doubting it), here’s what the weekend Top 10 might look like. Actually, let’s make that the top 8 cause last week’s #9 and 10 were so odd and I have no idea if anything is expanding wider, as I write this:

1. No Time to Die (MGM) - $76.5 million N/A

2. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony) - $31.5 million -65%

3. The Addams Family II (MGM/UA Releasing) - $9.3 million -45%

4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Marvel/Disney) - $ 3.5 million -43%

5. The Many Saints of Newark (New Line/WB) - $2.1 million -55%

6. Free Guy (20th Century/Disney) - $1.3 million -45%

7. Dear Evan Hansen (Universal) - $1.1 million -57%

8. Candyman (Universal) - $700,000 -47%

I think there are just way too many great movies to pick just one "Chosen One,” but since I probably should decide, I'm going with Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's new documentary THE RESCUE (National Geographic). You may remember Jimmy and Chai from when they won the Oscar for Free Solo, and their latest is just as good. The rescue in the title refers to the 2018 rescue of an 11-kid Thai soccer team called the Wild Boars and their coach when they became trapped in the Tham Luang caves in Northern Thailand, as the annual monsoon season hits early, flooding the caves in which they’re exploring.

To fully understand how they got trapped, you have to have some idea of the structure of this underground cave system, and this film does a great job explaining how the monsoons create flooding in the caves and how much harder it is to get someone out of them when the rain just won’t stop. Two British cave divers, John Volanthen and Richard Standton, are called in to survey the situation and figure out if there’s a way to get the dozen trapped out alive, as time keeps passing until it seems like those kids are trapped without food longer than any human can survive. Seemingly, thousands of locals and foreigners come to the caves in hopes of helping, whether it’s trying to pump out water or dig new tunnels to try to find where the kids are trapped (which is a difficult task in itself).

There’s a good chance you were watching the news and you know the results of this elaborate and daring cave diving rescue, but you definitely don’t know how the plan was developed and pulled off until you actually watch it as it’s taking place. The underwater and cavern footage of the kids and their saviors is absolutely second to none, and it’s hard not to get emotional in the way Chin and Vasarhleyi assemble the footage with the music.

The Rescue is an amazing movie, maybe as good as the duo’s previous one, Free Solo, and it may be the best recapturing/documentation of an important news event that I’ve seen in recent memory.

I was seriously close to having multiple "Chosen Ones” this week, because there are a few other very good movies, including Fran Kranz’s directorial debut MASS (Bleecker Street), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and deservedly received mass praise and stellar reviews. I don't want to say too much about the movie, because its emotional power may lay in not knowing too much about it in advance. The simplest plot is that it involves two couples meeting in the room of a church to have an important face-to-face about a difficult subject, one that needs resolution and absolution from both parties. If you like great writing and amazing performances, than the work of Reed Birney and Anne Dowd (as one couple) and Jason Isaacs and Martha Plympton (as the other) will make this movie a can't miss.

Again, without getting too deep into what the couples discuss, Mass is written and directed similar to one might do a 90-minue one-act play, but it begins with us seeing the people who work at the church trying to set up the room where this eventful tete a tete will take place. It’s surprisingly witty and even elicits a few laughs from Breeda Wool, who is so nervous and awkward about the meeting that’s about to happen.

When the two couples arrives, that’s where we really get into it, but it still starts out slow, a re-aquaintance phase between the two couples, who clearly have a difficult past, try to get through the niceties before getting into the serious conversation at hand. And here is where I’m gonna put a HUGE SPOILER IN HERE FOR THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.

As with so many movies, Mass deals with gun violence and the survivors of the types of school shootings we’ve seen far too many times in the last two decades. Isaacs and Plympton’s son was killed by the other couple’s son, who turned the gun on himself. It creates this dynamic where both couples have lost a son they loved, but Dowd and Birney are put in a spot where they have to try to explain their son’s behavior and if they saw that he was capable of such violence before the shooting took place.

The actors are all terrific, and while you might think a dialogue-heavy movie with four actors sitting at a table might not do much for you… well, first of all, you can go see No Time to Die if that’s more your speed … but Kranz’s direction is more than just getting these emotional performances out of his actors but also capturing it on film and editing it to best effect. There’s even an imperfection to the camera work, sometimes focusing on one actor while another is talking, that makes this long conversation feel even more authentic, as if you’re a fly on the wall in that room.

Again, the writing and performances and direction of Mass makes it one of the most powerful dramatic works this year. I’d love to see any of the four main actors get awards attention, but especially Dowd and Isaacs, who have been so deserving of awards love for a very, very long time.

Icelandic filmmaker Valdimar Jóhansson's LAMB (A24) is a very different movie, this one starring Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason as Maria and Ingvar, a couple living on a sheep farm (or rather, a lamb farm -- I honestly don't know the difference) who make an incredible discovery when a lamb gives birth to a child they decide to raise as their own. Invar's brother Pétur is not only not impressed but he thinks they’ve gone crazy, but there’s a lot of far more nefarious things going on in and around their remote and isolated farm.

This is a really fascinating film, one that’s fairly subdued but Johansson and his cinematographer (Eli Arenson) beautifully capture the vast landscapes of Iceland and gives us a real idea of how remote and isolated the farm where it mostly takes place is. He also does a great job building on the mystery of this child and the tension that surrounds where it came from, and yet, I’m not sure I’d consider Lamb to be horror, even if A24 is maybe marketing it in that direction. Really, it’s more magical fantasy mixed with character drama, and Rapace is just great as always, really impressing me with her skills delivering baby animals and driving a tractor.

If you dig a bit deeper, you’ll discover that Jóhansson wrote the screenplay with one “Sjón,” an author who has contributed to Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (one of my favorite musical movies) and also wrote The Northman, Robert Eggers next movie.

This is a terrific debut by Jóhansson -- I have an interview with the director over at Below the Line, too -- and it will be highly interesting to see where he goes from here.

I was hoping to watch and review SOUTH OF HEAVEN (RLJEfilms), the new movie from Aharon Keshales, the co-director of the fantastic Israeli thriller, Big Bad Wolves, which stars Jason Sudeikis, Evangeline Lilly, Mike Colter, and Shea Whigham, but I fell foul of a lousy screener and just didn't have tie to watch it before writing this week's column. Sudeikis plays Jimmy, a convict who has served 12 years for armed robbery who gets early parole, and he swears to give his childhood love Annie (Lilly), who is dying from cancer, the best final year of her life.

I also didn't get a chance to watch Russian filmmaker Evgeny Ruman's comedy GOLDEN VOICES (Music Box Films), which opens in New York and L.A. this weekend. It stars Maria Belkin and Vladimir Friedman as Raya and Victor, the Soviet Union’s popular film dubbers who have been translating film classics into Russian for decades. When the country collapses in 1990, the Jewish couple decides to move to Israel in hopes of finding employment. When she answers a help wanted ad looking for “pleasant voices,” she ends up working as a phone sex operator catering to the Russian community in Israel while he falls in with black market film pirates.

I also just haven't gotten around to JUSTIN BIEBER: OUR WORLD (Amazon), directed by Michael D. Ratner, which seems like the fourth or fifth documentary about the global superstar, this one that goes into the making of his 2020 New Year's Eve concert after a three-year hiatus atop the Beverly Hills Hilton for 240 invited guests and millions via livestream. It will stream on Amazon Prime Video this Friday.

A couple horror movies streaming this week are THERE’S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE (Netflix), the new movie from Patrick Brice (Creep), which hits Netflix and involves a masked assailant targetting a high school graduating class to expose the darkest secret of each victim, forcing a group of misfits to band together to stop the killings.

Shudder gets V/H/S 94 (Shudder), the latest anthology horror movie made up of five installments, directed by Simon Barrett, Chloe Okuno, Ryan Prows, Jennifer Reeder, and Timo Tjahjanto. I haven't watched it yet but that's quite a rogue's gallery of horror/genre filmmakers there.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video are the next two installments of this year's batch of Welcome to the Blumhouse movies, Axelle Carolyn's The Manor, an eerie tale set in a retirement home and starring the legendary Barbara Hershey, and Ryan Zarazoga’s Madres about a young Mexican-American couple having their first child in ‘70s California where he’s sent to work on a farm where the wife finds a talisman and a box with belongings of the former resident. Both of them debut on Amazon Prime Video this Friday, too. Also, you can read my interview with Ms. Carolyn over at Below the Line.

Other movies that just didn't fit into my schedule this week include:

ASCENSION (MTV Documentary Films) VENGEANCE IS MINE (Vertical) PHARMA BRO (1091) KNOCKING (Yellow Veil Pictures)

Next week’s wide release is David Gordon Green’s horror sequel, HALLOWEEN KILLS!

#Reviews #Movies #No Time to DIe #Mass #Lamb #The Rescue #Box Office #Streaming

[framedepth]

A Defense of Iron Man 2

With the world currently preparing to probably be somewhat “whelmed” by the upcoming mega-crossover Avengers: Infinity War, I, like most of the film-viewing planet, have been re-watching the Marvel oeuvre in order to enter the correct headspace to really take in what that movie is going to be. The product of a ten-year long waiting game that most audiences have been more than happy to play, built on the foundation of a 2008 film that set the film industry on a path that we’re still going to be following another ten years from now. I’m still early into this project of sitting on my couch and reliving so many memories of speculating with high school friends about what superhero the next end-credits scene will tease, and it has already given me some shocking realizations: the first Iron Man is still the best Marvel movie, Captain America: The First Avenger isn’t the rollicking, Indiana Jones-esque adventure classic I remembered it being, and, maybe most shocking to even the biggest Marvel fans, Iron Man 2 is still just as good as I thought it was when I was 16.

I so often see it ranked in the bottom five of the Marvel listings, and because it has been a few years since I watched it incessantly following the Blu-Ray release, I figured it was a movie that just hadn’t aged well when compared to the more recent Marvel works. Despite my loving it upon release, I never argued for its merits when people declared it the “worst Marvel film”, or “boring”, or “meandering”. I’ve been a life-long Iron Man fan, first of him as a character in video games before getting into the many, many trade paperback collections of his solo comics. My obsession with Tony Stark made me completely eat up anything Marvel Studios put out featuring him until recent years, when I had the realization during my first screening of Captain America: Civil War that I didn’t care that I was seeing Iron Man in a movie anymore. And I realized I hadn’t cared when I saw the Hulkbuster in Avengers: Age of Ultron either. I enjoy both movies fine, but Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark doesn’t give me that same jolt of excitement he did just a few years previous. It could be a writing or performance issue, but I think the real reason is that Tony Stark has stopped growing as a person in any kind of believable way. When taking a look back at the first two Iron Man films, and from my memories of the third, Tony used to feel like a real person that had real issues to overcome.

2008′s Iron Man showed us a man being forced to experience all of the damage he has been causing the world first-hand, and being broken by this. When he emerges from that cave in that armor, he is beginning the journey down a path to becoming a better person. Tony spends a lot of that movie being angry, of course at Obadiah Stane and the Ten Rings, but mostly at himself, for creating the monster that took the lives of Yinsen, his family, and nearly Tony himself. He failed to see that he inadvertently had been arming both sides of the war on terror, taking money from both the military industrial complex and the terrorists that kill young American soldiers, and spending that money on alcohol and sex. That rage is what fuels Tony in that film, and allows him to purge Stark Industries of Obadiah Stane, the first steps into making up for the terrible things he has been doing for his whole life.

Thinking this is enough to be a better person, Tony reverts back to some of his old ways, but now equipped with the Iron Man armor and a whole new level of fame he didn’t even know was possible. This is where we begin Iron Man 2, where he is once again bragging about how he has achieved peace through his designs, and reveling in the fact that he has the press and the public groveling at his feet. It is no question then that he and Pepper Potts have gone back to their familiar dynamic as well, as he is not yet ready for that level of commitment to anything. He is also drinking more than he ever has before, a characteristic that his comic book counterpart had been known for best before any sort of film adaptation came around. Alongside all of this toxic behavior is a handy plot-device of the palladium core in his arc reactor poisoning his blood, which gets worse as his attitude and decision-making does. Of course, the higher the percentage gets, the crazier his decisions and personality become, as he tries to comes to grips with his imminent death, creating a sort of feedback loop that causes things to spiral for him. This is where Tony starts to become aware of the other parts of himself he must purge if he is to complete the journey he began when he stomped out of that cave in that hulking grey armor.

If this weren’t already too much for Tony to deal with, the movie also introduces one of the roots for the various character flaws Tony has under his belt, his father Howard Stark. A mixture of Walt Disney and Howard Hughes, Howard Stark is first introduced as a genial, smiling older man standing next to a model of “the city of the future”, putting on his best face for the American public. But he is later referred to as a “lion” by the Justin Hammer, and as a “thief” and a “butcher” by Ivan Vanko. Like Tony, Howard had a duel life, one as a cheery hero to the common man and another as a death dealing weapons manufacturer. He never got around to being a father to Tony Stark, who was following in his exact footsteps right up until the shrapnel entered his chest. But in a video revealed to him by Nick Fury, Tony sees that Howard went through the same struggle of identity, and also had to come to grips with all of the terror and pain that he has unleashed upon the world. Howard’s method for redeeming his incredibly spotty legacy is Tony himself, and leaves him a secret within the Stark Expo floorplans in an attempt to rebuild the world he once helped destroy. Similarly, Tony realizes that his gift to the world is Iron Man, but has been wasting that gift on himself. This is of course all mixed in with Hammer and Vanko making plays against Stark, as well as Black Widow being set-up for her inclusion in the rest of the franchise.

All of that would be well and good, except for the frustrating fact that not a lot of these very disparate and seemingly unrelated plot threads are not fully resolved till later movies or just not picked up at all. Tony’s drinking comes to a head in this film in a scene in which Tony pilots the suit drunk in order to appease a house full of partygoers and nearly decapitates a few with a repulsor beam, but this is seemingly glossed over by a fight he has with Rhodey minutes later. He experiences no real consequences for being an out of control alcoholic, and it still has not been addressed as of Civil War, and I highly doubt it will come to pass in either of the Infinity War movies. It really seemed to be the big emotional climax that the first two films were building to, the final “demon” that Tony would have to conquer on his road to betterment. Instead, he receives a much needed humbling moment when he enters the wormhole at the end of The Avengers, and sees that the universe is much grander than he anticipated. That continues the arc of his personality issues and carries into Iron Man 3, and we see a much more cooperative Tony from thereon out. Iron Man 3 completes his identity crisis by proving to him that he is not overshadowed by his work, either good or bad, like he fears he will be in that cave in the first film, and showing that he still has things to offer the world despite just being “a man in a can”. The less said about what Age of Ultron and Civil War do for Tony’s character, the better. At this point, his character is completely dependent on what the plot needs it to be. I have already forgotten much of what he does in Spider-Man: Homecoming, but I do remember thinking the mentor role serves him well.

So why defend Iron Man 2 if it fails to deliver on the plots it sets up? Mainly because it dares to address these things in the first place. The only other movies in the Marvel canon to come close to the level of introspection Iron Man 2 attempts to do are Iron Man 3 and Black Panther. The moments we see of John Slattery’s Howard Stark are eye-opening in terms of Tony’s character, and show that he does have something to relate to his father over. The many attempts to recreate the Iron Man armor show Tony that what he thinks is the ultimate arbiter of peace by way of obsolescence is just the opening of a can of worms that may lead to the next arms race. It asks if Tony Stark can truly overcome his immoral past, or if he is doomed to be the leader on the world’s ultimate path to the apocalypse, despite what his intentions may be. That’s not a question that gets asked in your more typical Marvel fare, which many people still claim this movie is.

Secondly, while there are of course things to tear apart story, character, and performance wise in some areas, the action and effects are top notch. Black Panther this year showed how bad VFX can be in blockbusters, but that is not something Iron Man 2 suffers from, even eight years out. While it is infuriatingly short, watching Iron Man and War Machine fight the Hammer drones works as pure spectacle, to say nothing of the entire chase sequence that precedes it. There have been of course better action sequences out of Marvel since then, but it has been a very close race with the climax of this film always in the discussion for me.

Lastly, Sam Rockwell’s performance as Justin Hammer makes it a true tragedy that he no longer seems to be a part of the MCU in spite of the fact that he is one of the few Marvel villains to survive the entire run-time of a film. He does make a brief cameo in the short film All Hail the King, but it is not nearly enough for what he deserves. Rockwell was in the running to play Tony in the first film, and it’s not too hard to imagine an alternate universe where we see a pre-shrapnel Tony acting very similarly to Hammer in this film. In different moments he can be smooth, buffoonish, intimidating, and weaselly. He deserves to return in Iron Man 4 (if we are ever blessed enough to receive one) for the dance he does onto the expo stage alone.

I’m not calling for a complete critical re-evaluation of Iron Man 2 in order to establish it as one of the best films of the decade or anything, I just wanted to call attention to the fact that there seems to be more going on in the movie than people give it credit for. It of course doesn’t hold a candle to its predecessor, but it does shine some lights on Tony’s character that would have been extremely fascinating threads to follow had things gone differently with the franchise. My only hope is that Infinity War cares enough to make it seem as though Tony Stark is a real person again.

#iron man #ironman #marvel #movies #film #film essay #superhero #robert downey jr #rdj #gwyneth paltrow #don cheadle #mickey rourke #infinity war #avengers #infinitywar #civil #war #civil war

[miscellaneousfurbies]

Previous years: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 It is again time for the annual roundup! It feels this was not a particularly good animanga year in terms of amount of series consumed, but when it comes to enthusiasm Attack on Titan has single handedly offered more excitement than anything else in the past... I dunno, 3 or 4 years. Attack on Titan

Finally ended up giving this a proper chance, mostly by accident, and I'm still in that hole. I'd say that a sizeable amount of my appreciation for this manga comes from how it stands out from all the other action shounen I've read in terms of how it deals with common shounen characters, themes and tropes, but as of late I've learnt to appreciate more how it stands on its own as well. Also as upset as I am that I'm so late to the party at least catching up to happened at a relatively good spot, since I found it was easier for me to get into the new arc without the main cast when I just had gotten some 50 chapters worth of material with my favourites. And with the new developments the wait was definitely worth it, even if I'm as thirsty as everyone else for the rest of the main cast's new designs.

Awards given: Best manga, Best boy (Eren), Best OP that I didn't actually see (didn't watch the anime outside listening to some music), Best friendship (Eren and Historia), Best mentor (Levi)

Made in Abyss

Heard this got a lot of praise so I decided to check it out too, knowing only that it's supposedly pretty grim. At first it seemed like just a "plucky kids go on an adventure" kind of show, even if the darker elements were always there (like how the main characters embarked on their journey fully aware that they won't be coming back). The upper layers of the titular Abyss felt pretty easy for their rumoured danger level, but when things finally went south they did so spectacularly. Very bad things happen to children in this show! Overall I really liked the Abyss as a location, the characters were great and especially the female characters were way above average (as in, pretty much got treated equally with the dudes). 

Awards given: Best anime, Best OP I actually saw

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

This one I watched just because it looked cute. Which it was I guess, KyoAni's animation is always a pleasure to watch, but I got little else out of it. Kanna teeters between actually cute and manipulative-and-kinda-disgusting.

Awards given: Best cute animation, Best side boy (Fafnir)

Spirit Circle

Finally bothered to get into another manga from one of my favourite authors, and it was definitely worth it. The story revolving around the two protagonists reincarnating in different periods and often ending up killing one another was definitely something more unique than usual, the plot was well thought out, and the character work was just as great as I had learned to expect from the author (plus the female characters don't suck). On top of it all there is the strange calm and positive atmosphere despite sometimes grim subject matter that Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer also had. The art still isn't that amazing and sometimes the space-time talk gets way over my head but otherwise an excellent read.

Awards given: Best girl (Kouko (and iterations)), Best laughs, Best romance

One Piece

Not sure if it's because of the quality of the manga itself or because Attack on Titan dethroned One Piece from the top spot, but my interest in OP has waned a little in the past year. I haven't been able to get into Sanji's family drama, and the stuff with Big Mom has raised some good expectations but so far hasn't quite managed to live up to them. However my interest has only decreased in relation to the series itself, and compared to everything else I've consumed OP still stands tall, and Best Bunny Carrot even got to do something so I'm good I guess?

Awards given: Best side girl (Carrot)

The magical girl corner:

Doki Doki! Precure

I thought this was from last year but apparently no. So here it is, my least favourite magical girl series of all time! Might also be the least favourite anime in general (judgement pending)! Those interested can find a long rant here, but the tl;dr is that the show revolves around glorifying the main character who has no flaws, has no character development since she's amazing from the start, gets all the other characters' personal storylines be about her too, gets the story to bend so that she's always right in the end, and so on. Ugh! Though I must say that at least that in a way the series was interesting in how blindly and confidently it assumes everyone in the audience has the default assumption that the main character is the most amazing thing to ever grace this earth with her presence.

Awards given: Worst anime, Worst girl (Mana), Worst “romance"(whatever it is when everyone proclaims their 'love' for Mana), Worst friendship (Mana being the center of everyone's universe)

Kira Kira Precure a la Mode

Tried watching an ongoing Precure series this time, and while I'm still some episodes behind it could be a lot worse. Overall a really lackluster season and suffers from the same problems as the other Precure seasons I've seen: generic, unambitious, noncommittal, repetitive... There's very little going on with the plot, and while I do like some of the characters it's hard to care when the show is so adamant at doing nothing interesting with them. However it's still the best out of the Precure seasons I've seen so far properly, which probably says more about the other two's (HapiCha and DokiDoki) quality. And I do have to commend KiraKira for sticking to the sweets theme; at least it's clearly about something.

I've also watched some Go! Princess Precure which blows the other three Precure I've seen out of the water, but I haven't made very far. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it next year.

Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero: Washio Sumi chapter / Hero chapter

Why is it always the dark magical girl shows that try anything new and interesting!? I find that the new YuYuYu stuff has had some really clunky and awkward direction, stock characters, limited animation and ham-fisted drama, but I still appreciate what it's doing with its plot. Also gotta love the veteran magical girl's reaction to the new magic system which allows them to trade defence barriers for +1000% power: "lol back in my day we didn't have any shields in the first place!"

Awards given: Best magical girl outfits

Also finished Flip Flappers (final verdict: cool premise and looks interesting, execution a little uneven but still worth watching), Punchline (an uneven but still interesting little thing with great character designs), Uta Kata (a slow moving dark magical girl show with some nice ideas, good outfit designs, poor animation and awkward fanservice) and Pop in Q (mostly forgettable upbeat magical girl thing; though it did manage to hold interest for its short length).

Awards given: Biggest WTF (Uta Kata's poorly implemented fanservice), Best character designs (Punchline)

I also watched the second season of Hibike Euphonium, but I can't remember if it was at the end of 2016 but either way I don't have a lot to say about it.

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp

Good old Animal Crossing in mobile form, there's not much else to it and there's very little to do, but I'm a sucker for collecting and the leisurely and friendly atmosphere is worth it. Seeing Tom Nook ask for real money this time was definitely the highlight even if I'd never pay for a mobile game myself.

Awards given: Biggest Time-Waster (but I still keep playing it)

I've also kept playing Pokemon Go but there's not a lot to say about it, like can you add some new gameplay stuff to it please? Also did not get Ultra Sun/Moon. I didn't care too much for Alola and most of the new content seems to be about the Ultra stuff which is unlikable to me by default; I've never been into the legendary/mythical/ultra/save the world from apocalypse aspect of the games, like just let me train my pets to become the very best like no on ever was.

Not a lot of negative awards this year it seems. The bad stuff I read was just forgettable instead of bad in a funny way or so bad it's fun to hate it.

Plans for 2018:

Finally watch the Attack on Titan anime to catch up with the rest of the fandom and prepare for my favourite arc getting adapted

Finish with the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure Tri.

Watch the newest Precure as it airs, finish Go! Princess and at least one of the earlier seasons

More magical girls! Maybe finally check out Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card arc, finish Matoi the Sacred Slayer (which has been on my list since 2016...), Pretear, series where the magical girl is a side character (Concrete Revoutio, Samurai Flamenco, re:Creators, Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?)

Finally watch Neon Genesis Evangelion (been working on it since 2005) and finish Gurren Lagann

Finish reading Neuro

Read Sengoku Youko, NaruTaru and Rozen Maiden

maybe get a Switch and the new Zelda and Mario games for it

Maybe I'll get to at least a fourth of these...?

#my stuff

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #173 - X-Men: Days of Future Past

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes. #294

Format: Blu-ray

1) The film marks Bryan Singer’s return to the franchise he helped to start, making it his first X-Men film since X2. He was a producer on X-Men: First Class and originally Matthew Vaughn was slated to direct this film. But Vaughn dropped out to speak with Lucasfilm about Star Wars: Episode VII before focusing his efforts on Kingsman: The Secret Service allowing Singer to step back into the director’s chair.

2) Magneto, Xavier, every mutant in the X-Men films (especially the original trilogy) had fears about war. The X-Men tried to avoid it while Magneto was preparing to win it. Well now everyone’s worst fears have come to past in a dark and desolate future were Magneto was right and the X-Men are forced to band together.

3) John Ottman’s theme from X2 plays in the opening credits, making this film feel like a triumphant return to form from the get go. It fills the audience with an energy, hope, and even nostalgia that helps make the film as great as it is. While I absolutely adore Henry Jackman’s score for First Class, Ottman’s theme has now become the (unofficial?) theme for the franchise in a lot of ways.

4) We’re off to a strong start with the movie’s opening action sequence.

This film features - by far - the best action sequences in the entire franchise. It embraces the powers of its mutant characters in a way no film has before it. This leads to incredible visuals and extended action scenes which never lose the audiences interest. It does what some films (The Last Stand) have failed to do before: show off the X-Men’s powers in incredible and memorable ways. The opening action sequence alone feels like something out of a comic book or (dare I say?) the 90s animated series. Characters like Iceman and Colossus have finally reached the full potential of their mutant powers, making good on a promise any X-Men film makes. New characters too have small roles but are wildly memorable. Blink, Sunspot, Warpath, and Bishop come across as unique with not a lot of lines and not a lot of screen time. But they have an impact because of the visuals of their powers/fighting styles.

From a storytelling standpoint the opening scene also works to set the stakes of the film. We understand immediately how much of a threat these sentinels are, they are able to massacre an entire squad of mutants with relative ease. If it weren’t for Kitty’s ability to send people back in time this war would be over very quickly. The dark tone and sense of dread this future has is established immediately through the action sequence, making the rest of the film carry that weight in a conflict driven/interesting way.

5) I am so impressed and so grateful that this film was able to get all the original cast back they wanted. Kelsey Grammer couldn’t participate because of scheduling conflicts with Transformers: Age of Extinction (ew), but most of these actors have gained a higher price tag since X-Men: The Last Stand. Ellen Page in particular is a critically acclaimed and Oscar nominated actress who comes back for what is essentially a supporting role, but she (like the rest of the returning cast) commits to it all the same. It provides a nice amount of fan service which also feeds into the story and I love it.

6) It is so weird for me to hear Patrick Stewart Xavier talk about this.

Professor X: “I knew [Mystique] as Raven...she was like a sister to me.”

He never talked about her like that in the original trilogy, it first came up in the First Class prequel. But it adds something to Professor X’s character: he walls parts of himself and his past off for the sake of the future.

Note: In this post Patrick Stewart will be referred to as Professor X and James McAvoy will be referred to as Charles.

7) The decision to send Logan back instead of Kitty might upset Kitty Pryde fans and comic book purists (as Kitty was the one to go back in the original storyline), but I think it makes the most amount of sense. The original story was published in the 80s or 90s and Kitty came back from 2013 into her younger body. Movie Kitty has no younger body in 1973 but Logan does. So that’s why it makes sense from an in world decision, but also from a filmmaking standpoint it makes sense too. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is the face of the X-Men films primarily, with only one film up to this point not having him in a prominent role. So it makes sense to put stock in his character as you have in the past. My biggest regret though is that I do LOVE Kitty Pryde and so it would’ve been nice to see her do more, but she still serves a more important role in this film than she does in The Last Stand.

8) I absolutely love this.

Professor X: “Logan, you’re going to have to do for me what I once did for you.”

I am a sucker for character development and having watched now seven X-Men films in a row seeing Wolverine in this role is incredible to me. This was the guy who originally wanted to ditch the X-Men, who was a loner and who primarily looked out for Rogue. Even with that he was mostly out for himself? Now. He’s invested. He’s older, a bit wiser (if not perfect), and gets to repay the kindness Professor X showed him by helping Charles along his way. It puts him in a new role, a role he’s not all too comfortable with, but it is just so damn interesting and I love everything about it.

9) The extended prologue in 2023 as well as the fact that this film will cut back to that time occasionally helps make this film a worthy ending to the cast and characters first introduced in X-Men. It could’ve ended that series entirely, a farewell tour for all the actors we came to love in their respective parts. Despite this, at its core this film - more than anything else - is a sequel/continuation of the story set in place by X-Men: First Class. Doing both of these things is no easy feat but the film is able to pul it off beautifully.

10) Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask.

Dinklage is one of the finest American actors around right now, notable for his work in “Game of Thrones”. And his performance as the villainous Trask gives us the best X-Men villain since William Stryker in X2. While I do LOVE Sebastian Shaw in First Class, there is something fundamentally more unsettling in Dinklage’s performance. He is chilling, focused, intimidating. You know this is not a guy you want to mess with. And Dinklage himself has a unique look on the character. This according to IMDb.

According to Peter Dinklage, Bryan Singer picked him to play Bolivar Trask because of his height, stating, "With my dwarfism, I'm a bit of a mutant. I can't move metal or anything, but I thought of it as self-loathing. Deep down, Trask is quite sensitive about that aspect of himself."

11) Mystique in Saigon.

The scene of Mystique saving a group of mutants in Saigon from being shipped off to Trask (including Lucas Till’s return as Havok) works really well for a number of reasons. First of all: it helps not only re-introduce her character but also her motivations for this film. She has gone through a lot between First Class and now so this scene helps to establish just exactly this NEW Mystique is. She’s one with a lot of pain, working towards avenging the loss of her friends. Mystique is also much more of a fighter in this film than in First Class, with her choreography and skills leaning much closer to what we would expect from Rebecca Romijn. She has been pushed up to the point of no return but hasn’t crossed that line yet and that’s what this film is about. If she’s going to become the Mystique she does in the original timeline or if this is her second chance. The writing for her character is conflict filled and amazing, I absolutely love it.

12) Logan really needs to give people a spoiler warning about their futures.

Logan [before punching out Beast]: “You and I are going to be good friends.”

13) And because he’s Wolverine, it doesn’t take long for Logan to cause shit.

(GIFs originally posted by @ofsagitta)

14) James McAvoy’s return as Charles Xavier.

So First Class was really about Erik becoming Magneto, this is about Charles becoming Professor X. We have never seen the character so low, he has never been so low. He is a broken man with the events of First Class changing him more than he - or the audience - even expected. He tried soldiering on but the war in Vietnam led to his school being shut down. Charles is wallowing in pain, in self pity, he is exactly what Professor X said he was: as lost as Logan used to be. Hell, he’s a drug addict! The serum to give him his legs is a not-so-subtle parallel for drug use. There is a great conflict there, a great pain, and it leads to an incredible story.

15) This is kind of a perfect representation of how continuity works in the X-Men films. The movie tries to remember something from the past, tries to have continuity track, only to get something about it wrong and make everything more confusing.

(GIFs originally posted by @mcavoying)

In fairness the original line in the First Class script WAS, “Fuck off!” but First Class was released three years before Days of Future Past meaning they knew that wasn’t the actual line for a while. Granted I’m probably just nitpicking.

16) In this film we learn that Emma Frost, Zoe-Kravitz-Angel (as opposed to the Angel from The Last Stand and Apocalypse), Azazel & Banshee are all dead by the hands of Bolivar Trask. Which is sickening and heartbreaking but left a unique opportunity which Apocalypse never took with the characters. I’ll talk about it briefly now but go in depth during my Apocalypse post but in the comics Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen are resurrected dead characters. Using this to bring back the four mutants I just listed would have been a smart move I think.

17) Let’s share what IMDb has to say about the rights to Quicksilver:

The addition of Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver to the cast sparked wide discussion over the direction of the character who is also slated to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Quicksilver had been discussed previously as a potential character in both X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and The Avengers (2012), but legal complexities over the license to the character resulted in his omission from both films. However, in May 2013 both Marvel and Fox Studios announced a resolution to the previous legal issues, and that Quicksilver would appear in this film as well as an Avengers sequel, though under certain parameters: no reference to Quicksilver's membership in the Avengers can be made in an "X-Men" film, and no allusion to his relations to the X-Men or Magneto (the character's father) can be made in an "Avengers" film; the rights agreement between Fox and Marvel even goes so far as to stipulate the character cannot be referred to as a "mutant" in any Marvel film. Additionally, the day after the announcement of Peters's casting, Marvel and Fox entered into a legal standoff over provisions of the rights agreement for the character, including the issue of whether Peters would be allowed to portray Quicksilver in any other film outside the "X-Men" franchise, possibly necessitating a second actor to play Quicksilver in any Marvel film, resulting in two different versions of the same character appearing in two competing film series. Ultimately, Fox and Marvel decided to cast different actors in the part for the "X-Men" and "Avengers" films, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson taking on the role in the latter sequel, thus preventing any connection between the two franchises and keeping the X-Men confined to a separate universe from those of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

18) Evan Peters as Quicksilver.

No, I said EVAN PETERS as Quicksilver!

That’s better. Anyways: Evan Peters’ performance as the speedster is the definite scene stealer in the film. His screen time doesn’t amount to much - with a more significant role in 2016′s X-Men Apocalypse - but every time he’s on screen you are drawn to him. The character is wonderfully fun, with his smart assery amusing to us as the audience without being totally annoying. There’s a unique and vibrant energy that Peters brings to the character which is 100% captivating. By far one of the best new elements of this film.

19) Peter Parker could learn something from this.

Quicksilver [to Erik]: “I’m holding your neck so you don’t get whiplash.”

Erik: “What?”

Quicksilver: “Whiiiiiiplasssssshhhh!”

20) Okay, so Logan knocks out a bunch of Pentagon guards with a frying pan. Is it wrong that this is the only thing I could think of?

21) Oh boy....

(Screenshot taken from a GIF set originally posted by @barrel--rider)

22) It is unique and conflict filled to see Charles filled with such intense hate/loathing towards Erik when Professor X always has hope for his, “old friend,” Magneto.

Charles [upon first meeting Erik]: “I’m never getting inside that head again.”

Note: In this recap Michael Fassbender’s character shall be referred to as Erik while Ian McKellen’s shall be referred to as Magneto.

23) THE QUICKSILVER SCENE!!!!!

This is without a doubt the best scene in the entire film and it is absolutely brilliant across the board. Like the earlier fight scenes it takes the concept of mutant powers and is able to translate it into absolutely phenomenal visuals. From a technical standpoint the scene is a masterpiece, as the seams are practically invisible. It’s hard to make, but you don’t want the audience to know that. Which makes it all the more impressive that it seems so relaxed. The scene pulls your interest and never lets go, using music and point of view in absolutely stellar ways. How boring would this scene have been if it were from Erik’s point of view? Or Charles’? The most interesting way to do this moment is through Quicksilver and that’s what we get. It is intelligent, organic, full of small surprises, and despite its short length is strong as hell. If they were to teach this class in film schools some day, I would not be surprised.

Although it does raise the question: why don’t they just bring Quicksilver to Paris? It seems like he’d be really helpful.

24)

Erik [looking at Wolverine’s bone claws]: “Imagine if they were metal.”

25) Erik and Charles having it outis very key to the film. Right now the audience sees Erik as the one who messed up. Taking away Charles’ legs, getting arrested for killing the president, etc. But Charles needs to know he’s made some pretty crucial mistakes.

Charles [to Erik]: “You abandoned me!”

Erik [after bringing up the dead mutants]: “We were supposed to protect them!...You abandoned us all!”

26) A part of me gets why Raven seduces the Vietnamese general in order to take his place at the pace conference. Another part of me lives in a post Wonder Woman world and A) never sees male characters doing this and B) thinks there was probably a different way she could’ve gotten into the peace conference. And this isn’t a comment on a woman using her sexuality in a way she is comfortable with, this is a comment on men trying to shoehorn scenes were a woman’s defining feature is her sexuality.

(GIF originally posted by @marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer)

27) I love the added conspiracy theory that JFK was a mutant. I remember reading a promotional material at the time that Bobby Kennedy was a mutant too and that’s why he was assassinated. I’m a nut for conspiracy theories though.

28) Okay, I just need to take a minute to geek out about HOW HAPPY RAVEN IS TO SEE CHARLES!!!!

29) And this is the turning point of the film.

Wolverine gets rocky and weak when he sees Stryker, injuring Kitty in 2023

Erik tries to kill Mystique

The world can’t deny the existence of mutants anymore and reacts with fear

Charles & Erik are now against each other again

Trask gets Raven’s blood

The tone of that is not lost. There’s a sense of darkness and dread which falls upon the film as it moves forward. It has an impact on the audience and helps to raise the stakes.

30) Okay, this is funny as hell to me. In an effort to calm Logan down:

(GIFs originally posted by @marvelheroesdaily)

31) Hey look, a Bryan Singer cameo!

So now in the X-Men universe, Bryan Singer is someone who first introduces mutants to the larger world through his movies. How meta.

32)

Erik [after Mystique pulls him into a phone booth and holds a knife to his throat]: “It’s been a long time since we were this close.”

(GIF originally posted by @rocktheholygrail)

I don’t know why, but I don’t like the idea of an Erik/Mystique relationship. Maybe it’s just a hold over from how I felt about their seduction scene in First Class.

33) And this right here is Mystique’s motivation, clearer than before.

Mystique: “I’ve seen too many friends die, Erik. I don’t want a war. I only want the man who murdered them.”

Mystique is no longer an idealist. She does not subscribe to Charles’ or Erik’s way of thinking. She is on her own now, which she said in the very beginning of the film. It makes her character and the conflict she has all the more interesting.

34) The first step in Charles accepting who he is comes from accepting his powers. He tries Cerebro, but it’s too much at first. All he has is pain and suffering. But then - and I can’t understate how much I love this - Logan helps guide him.

Logan: “I was your most helpless student.”

Logan is able to guide him, showing off not only his own growth but also the strength in his relationship with Charles/Professor X. We are reminded of all of Logan’s pain as Charles sees it, but we see now that he has moved past it. It is absolutely incredible for me and leads to an amazing scene.

34) Charles (McAvoy) and Professor X (Stewart) meet.

This scene has much more of an impact now than I was expecting. Charles is at his most broken in life, it will never get worse for him than this. Or so he thinks. He looks into the future and sees just how awful things have gotten and he sees his older self in Professor X. Except when Professor X speaks of the future...he still has faith that it can turn out well. He still has HOPE. Professor X’s endless search for hope has always been his defining feature and it is something he has even in a dark future. It is something Charles has lost and which his older self helps him find again. It is an absolutely beautiful and moving scene, perfect in so many ways. Developing Charles, giving us a peek into the mindset of Professor X, we even get an incredible new theme from composer John Ottman. “Hope (Xavier’s Theme)” I think might be the most moving piece of music in the entire X-Men franchise and I absolutely love it.

35) If you’re a writing student, I suggest you analyze Raven’s character in this film. Particularly the scene where she and Charles are talking about Trask in an airport. It’s an excellent example of how important stakes are to a story and its characters. If a character can leave the scene without what they want and not be devastated, the stakes are too low. Raven’s personal stakes are high as are Charles’. And the fact that Raven doesn’t is still set on this path leaves Charles - in some shape or form - devastated.

36)

Hank [about where his device monitors news]: “Over all three networks. And PBS.”

Wolverine: “All three? Wow.”

Hank: Yeah. And PBS.”

37) The effect of Charles’ discussion with Professor X has an immediate effect and shows that he IS now that man. He is the man who has hope when all is lost, when everything looks grim. He still has faith in people and hope for the best.

38) How powerful do you think this is to hear?

Logan: “Storm, Scott, Jean. Remember those names.”

Charles [after a moment]: “I’ll do my best.”

Logan: “You’re best is enough.”

Can you imagine what that would feel like? This guy from the future telling you that you’re best is enough. Because that’s all we can ever do is our best. And to know that that is enough is just...I cannot tell you how happy I would be in life to hear those words.

39) Thanks to @orsonkrehnnic for this amazing GIF set that perfectly captures this scene:

40) The dual climaxes are edited between wonderful, carrying pacing between the two wonderfully and interesting throughout. Cutting between 2023 and 1973 could have been a mess but John Ottman’s editing helps bring the scenes together spectacularly. When one breathes, so does the other, and that’s what works.

41) Logan...

Hank: “In the future, do I make it?”

Logan: “No.”

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

42) Of course Wolverine still gets his ass kicked by Magneto, even without the metal bones. But I will say that removing him from the final conflict is a strong story choice. Because at this point what’s going on between Erik, Mystique, and Charles isn’t about him. It’s about them. The future is about him but it is much more impactful if it results from a choice by everyday people as opposed to the guy who knows what is about to happen. It’s very smart.

43) If this isn’t a beautiful final line for Ian McKellen’s Magneto I don’t know what is.

(GIF originally posted by @hughxjackman)

44) I love this.

Charles [when he can control Raven’s mind]: “I’ve been trying to control you since the day we meet. Look at where that’s got us.”

Charles TRUSTS Mystique. He trusts Raven. He lets her make her own choice and she choses life. She choses to be better. She choses not to become the murderer that Mystique is in the future. But her journey isn’t over yet. That won’t come until Apocalypse.

45) Did I mention I love that Charles embraces the Professor X philosophy?

Hank [about Mystique and Erik]: “Are you sure you should let them go?”

Charles: “Yes. I have hope for them.”

46) I cannot begin to express how satisfying this ending is.

I wish I could find a video clip of the ending so I can perfectly illustrate just how amazing it is, but everything about it feels EARNED. Everything about it breathes HOPE. And not just for this movies. It may be most effective while watching these back to back, but I geeked out at seeing everything. Seeing Rogue and Bobby back together, Kitty and Colossus teaching a class together, Kelsey Grammer’s brief cameo as Beast, Storm as a teacher. THEY EVEN GOT JEAN AND SCOTT BACK! Everything about it just feels SO GOOD! The characters we’ve cared for and loved for 14 years now are happy and at peace. And so what if Logan fucks up their lives again? Right now, everything is just good.

Note: I also own The Rogue Cut version of this film, which reintroduced a subplot featuring Anna Paquin’s return as Rogue that was deleted from the theatrical release for pacing issues. I WILL be doing a post about that sometime in the future. I’ve never seen it before so whatever that post looks like it’ll be a first time viewing. That’ll be labeled as 173.1.

There is a chance that X-Men: Days of Future Past is the best X-Men film yet (as in has X-Men in the title, so discounting films like Deadpool and Logan). It seamlessly blends together a large cast of characters from both the original trilogy and the First Class cast in a story which does the same. With strong performances throughout and incredible character drama (ESPECIALLY for Charles), it marks a triumphant return for director Bryan Singer. The action is better than ever, featuring that amazing Quicksilver scene, and it is practically perfectly paced. X-Men: Days of Future Past is an incredible entertaining and emotionally satisfying film all fans of the series - old and new - should watch.

#X Men #X Men Days of Future Past #Hugh Jackman #Jennifer Lawrence #James McAvoy #Michael Fassbender #Patrick Stewart #Ian McKellen #Peter Dinklage #Nicholas Hoult #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Ellen Page #Bryan Singer #Evan Peters #Jimming the Camera #Movie #Film #GIF

[cinnamaldeide]

Hannibalwriters’ Alternative Universe #FannibalFicRecs

This is one of the most challenging thing I’ve ever done for this fandom; there are so many Alternative Universe stories, some of them are so different from the canonical Vampire AU which every fandom has to offer. I think I’d want to reward the originality, in this case. I tried to organize my reccs in a sort of “alphabetic” order. I didn’t rec the same author twice: I choose only one work per writer, but this doesn’t mean that the one is their best work, their only Alternative Universe or their only work worth reading; on the contrary! This is supposed to encourage the diffusion of different perspective of the same Universe!

Animal Alternative Universe: The One Where Hannibal is a Cat by @coloredink

Summary: Specifically, he’s Alana’s cat. And Graham is Jack’s dog. They meet. That’s it. That’s the story.

General Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Alana Bloom, Jack Crawford

Generally Animal AUs tend to antropomorphize the characters involved, partly keeping human traits; in this one that’s not the case. This is an interesting asexual interaction between two animals that don’t need to partake the same specie to fluently interact with one another.

Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics: Mise en Place by @thehoyden

Summary: Pre-heat left him short-tempered and irritable, even worse than usual, but Hannibal had lingered in his office doorway and said, “Come along, Will. No reason to grade on an empty stomach.”

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham; Hannigraham

Of all the A/B/O I could think about, this one strikes me because it permeates the biological aspect so typical of this genre; I’m not even sure I can consider A/B/O an Alternative Universe, and I’d have gladly chose at least one Omega/Omega and one Alpha/Alpha if I could, but there’s always @hannigram-a-b-o-library to thoroughtly look into the matter.

Birds Alternative Universe: Black Swan by @genufa (Warning: still ongoing!)

Summary: “Don’t say Hannibal,” said Beverly. “I’m saying Hannibal,” Will said. Beverly slumped back in the passenger seat, throwing up her hands. “Swans defend territory, Will! They don’t travel! We’re not talking Garrett Jacob Hobbs killing girls in five states, here!”

Teen and Up Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Beverly Katz, Brian Zeller, Jimmy Price, Bedelia Du Maurier, Jack Crawford, Mason Verger, Frederick Chilton, Leonard Brauer, Chiyoh; Hannigraham, Marlana

Despite the status of this story, I deem important to include this in the Alternative Universes that this fandom has to offer: the writer takes inspiration from the story of an aggressive swan to recreate his relationship with his momentary attentive and confused keeper, but the magical component renders this work original and worth waiting for the next chapter every time.

Guardian Angels Alternative Universe: Chapter 44 of Eggs in a Basket by @granpappy-winchester

Summary: Guardian Angel AU, where Hannibal and Will are guardian angels whose paths cross on occasion and who have different approaches when it comes to their charges.

Teen and Up Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Abigail Hobbs, Garret Jacob Hobbs; Hannigraham

It has been so difficult to decide which one of this serie of one-shots to include in this post, but I ended up choosing the one where Will and Hannibal have a philosophical discussion on the meaning of being seen and understood by your beloved; I suggest to read all of them, but this one was particularly well done in my opinion.

Horror Alternative Universe: Fais Do-Do by @moku-youbi

Summary: Will finds himself in need of staying at a comfortable and suspiciously remote bed and breakfast. He doesn’t know that its manager is reluctant to let him leave. (I took the liberty to provide one)

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Mischa Lecter, Jack Crawford; Hannigraham

This is not a typical romantic setting; it makes the skin crawls during the reading, but stopping is impossible until the story is finished. As the reader, Will has no idea of what’s appening until it’s too late but, as the saying goes, it takes one to catch one.

Mall Alternative Universe: Make the Yule-tide Gay by @destinyawakened and an orphan account

Summary: What if Hannibal Lecter was Santa and Will Graham was a Mall Cop? Would Christmas still blow white?

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham; Hannigraham

This whole serie is completely out of every possible projection of the canon Universe, but let’s start from the beginning. Will and Hannibal share the same working environment and a certain propencity for unorthodox festivity celebrations.

Multiple Personality Alternative Universe: Multiplicy (serie) by Not_You

Summary: The one where Hannibal is multiple, not (very) murderous or cannibalistic, and all five of him love Will Graham.

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, but there are a lot of them, Will Graham; Hannigraham

In perfect agreement with this writer’s style, this work has a certain sweetness that permeates Will Graham and his life; Hannibal and his disparate selves show how difficult it can be to room with more than one personality and getting romantically involved at the same time, with every one of them.

Pianist Alternative Universe: Unchained melody by @mazephoenix

Summary: Will is a concert pianist who’s retired after an ordeal. His biggest fan comes to offer some comfort.

Mature

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham; Hannigraham

As so many of the stories this writer created, this work is synthetic but meaningful; the setting recreates a casual encounter between Will and Hannibal in a bar, which evolves in the beginning of their becoming. This is not the only one story I’d suggest of this author, even if I understand their style is peculiar; I enjoy it very much, anyway.

Pokemon Alternative Universe: Chapter 16 of Tasting Flights: Hannibal Drabbles by @unicornmagic

Summary: By request from soundingonlyatnightasyousleep, who wanted a Pokemon AU.

General Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford; Hannigraham

No matter how short this story is, no matter the fact that this writer is talented and came up with works more elaborated than this one, no matter why they did it, no one made an Alterative Universe just as perfect. I fell in love with it. There’s no way I’m recc’ing something else, not for this post. But you should take a look at the rest, because there’s a whole word of words behind that AO3 account.

Pornstars Alternative Universe: Literally Speaking by @halotolerant (Warning: still ongoing!)

Summary: So someone prompted me with: 'could you write some old-fashioned 'Will getting his prostate stimulated for the first time and going completely out of his mind' porn? Please? And I took that and ran with it and wrote 'Will getting his prostate stimulated IN porn AS as a porn actor'...

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham; Hannigraham

This probably started as the classic story of two pornstars ending up with one another, which is what at the time I wanted to read, but then it completely derailed into this perfeclty fitting Alternative Universe where Will is not only getting the abovementioned prostate stimulation, but also some of his personal tragic events of the first serie; this fic made me realize just how sorrowful the encephalis should have been, more than the show itself did.

Post-Apocalypse Alternative Universe: some say in ice by peppermintquartz

Summary: The end of the world came suddenly.

General Audiences

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Will Graham’s dog; Hannigraham

This is beautiful in the sort of hannibalesque way that could lead the intere evolution of Will Graham in a fanfiction instead of three slow burning series: Will has to face the fact that life can suddenly change and moral could slow down his escalating evolution. It’s a cold story, made of snow and estinguishing fire in the chimney, and the writer uses a cold style, where taking a hand in your own can warm you up more than the sun.

Professional Killer Alternative Universe: Cu Sith by @slqtherin

Summary: Verger hires Will Graham, a professional killer, to murder Doctor Hannibal Lecter. Will gets a date with a serial killer instead.

Explicit

Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Will Graham’s dog; Hannigraham

Will is equally frustrated and exasperated by his target, and that’s probably the reason why he wants to shoot in his mouth right after their first banter; fortunately that’s not the case. He hopes to profite from the occasion, but things don’t end the way either he nor Hannibal predicted. But you need to read also the sequel to reach this part.

Role Reversal Alternative Universe: Sleeping in the Knife Drawer by @emungere

Summary: Hannibal’s an FBI agent. Will’s a serial killer. He still has a lot of dogs and dislikes being sociable. Hannibal still wants to wind him up and watch him go.

Teen and Up Audiences

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford

In the remote possibility that Will finds the FBI Agent Lecter interesting, he would take much pleasure in not showing him he’s intrigued. That’s what happens in this story, or at least that’s how I see it, because Will probably wants to push away him, for their own good, playing the aggressive psychiatrist, but ends up fashinated with the darkness that Hannibal doesn’t particularly care to hide.

Single Parent Alternative Universe: Pi’s Lullaby by @t-pock (Warning: still ongoing!)

Summary: Will loses his daughter at the mall. Hannibal returns her to him.

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Alana Bloom, Aleksandra Graham (Original Character)

Hannibal falls in love with her, first. Then he sees his father and decides that he’s not a man that settles for less than the whole Graham package; that’s how he decides to start his slow pursue of his beloved little family, instead of Will’s darkest inclinations.

SCP Foundation Alternative Universe: Alive Humanoid Sensory Euclid by @berlynn-wohl

Summary: AU in which Will and Hannibal (and Jack) work for the SCP Foundation. This is also a fill for two prompts on the Hannibal kinkmeme.

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford, Freddie Lounds; Hannigraham

To be honest, more than the story itself, the Alternative Universe fashinates me, when I think about this fic: the writer revisits with a certain fidelity what happens in the first serie, so it’s not the originality per se that I would recommend in here, so much as the way the author adapts this sci-fi Universe to our fandom. It has been incredible reading all about the eccentric objects that Will and Hannibal daily get in touch with.

Soulmates Alternative Universe: Chapter 4 of Alana Finds Out by @victorineb

Summary: In which Alana and Hannibal don’t match, but someone else does.

Mature

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Alana Bloom; Hannigraham, Hannibloom

This entire serie is probably the quintessence of what this challenge is about: every chapter has its Universe, its dynamycs, and this one beautifully represents the fact that Alana might be perfect, lovely for anyone, but Hannibal and Will are just too taken from one another to see anyone else; obviously they need incentive to admit it.

Unpleasant Theme Alternative Universe: Yourself and People Like You by @metaphoregoneawry

Summary: Meet someone like you.

Mature

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Frederick Chilton; Hannigraham

I can’t even begin to describe how this story hurts. All over. But this is not a good reason to not read it: their tragic situation can’t end well, the writer promisses suffering and desperation in a subtle, constant way; this doens’t stop Hannibal from trying to grasp what little happiness he can afford in Will.

Zombies Alternative Universe: Hierarchy of Needs by @xzombiexkittenx

Summary: It’s the end of the world and everyone’s immediate needs have changed. It’s also Hannibal’s chance to have everything he wants.

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Bedelia Du Maurier, Margot Verger, Mason Verger, Judy; Hannigraham, MargotJudy

Instead of a confused battle for surviving, this story describes every stages that the humanity should go through in order to gain what it has lost. Will knows about Hannibal’s proclivities, but he has to adapt to a new world, where being a cannibalistic serial killer doesn’t make him the worst monster in the planet.

This has been exausting; the computer shut down twice and so I had to learn how to save drafts, but it’s finally finished. I know there could be a lot more to rec, and I hope someone takes the trouble to rec Shark Tank, since I went for the Zombie AU one. I didn’t include Crossovers or Rarepairs, nor did I went for pairings different from Hannigram, if not secondary, but I suspect this post is already too long for anyone to read it all; if your’re here, I’m obviously wrong, and I’m happy to be! Thank you very much @hannibalficwriters for this opportunity to remember that this fandom has so much to give, so much to discover, still after so much time.

#Reading Suggestion #FannibalFicRecs #Hannibal Lecter #Will Graham #Hannigraham #Alternative Universe #Multiple Fic Rec #I discovered many interesting AUs unfortunately after posting this selection #You have to discover on your own the rest #Original post #Sfw