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otakween · 6 months

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Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning

So, I saw The Beginning yesterday at an AMC theater. I saw it subbed to keep things consistent. I'm gonna split up my reaction into two parts: experience and the movie itself. Angry rant ahead...

Side note: Why is this movie called "The Beginning?" Are they planning more...? (I mean, they're always planning more I guess lol).

Theater Experience:

Always such a delight to see an anime movie in theaters, it's becoming as common as every-other-month these days which is very exciting! It's very rare that I get to see a movie like this that's a continuation of a series. Usually I'm not caught up enough to do that (although I did watch the Shirobako and Jujutsu Kaisen movies without watching the shows lol).

I had no idea that they were going to give me trading cards as I walked in!! This seems to becoming a more common gimmick these days. When I saw the most recent MHA movie they gave me a mini manga. More of this please! I know it's just cheap junk, but it makes the whole thing feel like an experience :D

Theater was more crowded than I expected and full of geeks, of course. I heard someone's ring tone go off and it was a Digimon sound effect. When the ad for the vital bracelet played one dude proudly shook his wrist in the air. I saw a Gatomon plush and the dude in front of me got so hype for the digivolutions that he started filming it on his phone (which I don't condone, but it was kinda funny seeing how into it he was).

Not a single child in the crowd. I guess this movie is obvious millennial-bait tho, so that's to be expected. (Also it was 7pm on a dark Thursday).

Cute little intro interview with the director was cute. My brain had to adjust to reading subtitles on a big screen. I guess I just don't watch foreign films outside the home too often.

Movie Reaction (MAJOR SPOLERS AHEAD):

WTF did I watch!? This movie was batshit crazy and I have many conflicting emotions. I feel like it was simultaneously super intense and really bland at the same time? Let me elaborate...

Putting aside the new dude for a second, the 02 cast really didn't do much in this at all. They all kind of acted as a collective instead of feeling like distinct people with their own roles to play. Their entire motivations/existence revolved around Lui's plot line which is really a bummer. Some characters, like Iori and Hikari were especially sidelined and bland (not that Iori was that great to begin with lol).

The only scenes I really liked with the 02 cast were when everyone (especially Miyako) was telling Lui to cut the edgy crap and just talk to them. I like when aloof characters are called out like that. Also, I liked the part where Miyako accused Daisuke and Ken of flirting teehee (queer baiting!? In MY digimon??) That got a laugh out of the audience too.

Okay...moving onto Lui's story. Jesus Christ. I liked where it was going at first and thought the whole grimdark, Madoka angle (major Kyuubey vibes) was interesting (if not a little too over the top), but then (in my opinion) they COMPLETELY bungled things!! So essentially, Ukkomon kills Lui's parents and potentially multiple children in their efforts to "make Lui happy" by making all the humans in his life behave "correctly." Horrifying and effectively creepy (especially in the scene where they "puppet" Lui's parents). This all culminates in Lui "killing" Ukkomon and losing his eye (which then gets replaced with Ukkomon's eye). I was on board for this horror angle, but then the 02 kids were like "awwww, poor Ukkomon~" WHAT. THE. FUCK. A kid tells you that a monster thingy killed your parents and your reaction is "but did you try being their friend??" Nooooo! So basically the rest of the movie is the kids victim blaming/gaslighting Lui into submission and he's like "you know what? It IS my fault that my parents died! I should have been a better friend." NOPE. This madness just ruined the whole thing for me. Like, what the hell were they thinking? Anyway, rant over. I'll go back to talking about the not as heinous things now.

I liked Ukkomon's sea angel-based design. I didn't exactly find them cute but they were good at being creepy. It was definitely disturbing to see what happens when a digimon partner is HATED by their human.

The "Unkomon" joke was funny but they didn't give a translator's note or anything so I was wondering how many people in my theater got it lol (I guess it depends on how much anime you've seen).

Lui's digimon eye looked really stupid and I think they knew that because they covered it up for most of the movie. I think it was more effectively shown in brief closeups but anymore than that it was just too goofy looking to take seriously.

The scenes about digimon bonds and the (obviously fake) threat of losing them were boring and cheesy. I think they were going for heartwarming, but something about it was very forced. The stakes definitely never felt real.

At the beginning of the movie they used smartphones to digivolve instead of their D3s...wha...?

Speaking of D3s, when they faded away (weirdly slowly) at the end and Hikari was like "what even was the digivice for anyway?" I had to laugh. That's what I've been saying! The lore around digivices, D3s, Arcs (or whatever Tamers wanted me to call them) has always been so vague. Anyway, I feel like they should be more concerned. Doesn't this mean they can't digivolve now...? (They acted like the power of friendship would just make it happen somehow, but I'm not convinced).

The updated digivolution scenes were fun (and funny to see on the big screen), but after watching Tamers, they still seemed lazily done comparatively. I still dislike that they show the greater digivolution at the start of the sequence. What's the point of that?

The movie started with Bolero, because of course. I had to roll my eyes at the nostalgia pandering. We also got a random reference to the first Digimon Adventure short film. That felt jarring since the animation style is so different.

So like...Lui time traveled and told his abusive mom to "be nice cuz your son loves you" and that just stopped all abuse forever? Riiiight...What is it with anime's crappy handling of child abuse lately? They pulled this same shit in Belle. You can't stop domestic violence by going "tsk tsk" to the abuser!

Rolling my eyes at Lui's introduction: "He's the first kid to ever partner with a digimon AND he has a super special eye AND cool grey hair AND his digimon can grant wishes." Serious "My OC don't steal!!" vibes.

Wait...I don't think they ever followed through with the "Ukkomon is connected to a digimon God" plot thread. Is that for the sequel or something? (Digimon 02 2 - The End? lol)

We got a little shipping stuff with Miyako and Ken at the end there. They had zero chemistry in the show and they continue to have zero chemistry in the movie...yaaaay.

I feel like, other than Daisuke and Lui, they just gave all the other guys the same haircut and they faded into the background lol. Ken just looks like some guy now.

Ukkomon's eldritch design was cool. I wish they just let him be evil instead of misunderstood...

So yeah, the writing in this was kind of a train wreck but I had fun regardless! Very curious to hear the dubbed version someday. How many people reprised their roles?

#digimon adventure 02: the beginning #digimon adventure 02 #digimon #movie #film

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trackernivrig · 1 month

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A work (in any medium) that has extra meaning to you because of when or where you experienced it?

Took me way too long to respond to this sorry.

This is an amazing question, and there's a TON of shows that I can think of that are special because of when I watched them. Here's a list of a few.

Bleach. This was my first anime, and I watched it with both my father and my brother every day, staying up way past my bedtime watching it. The end of the Soul Society arc was amazing, and it was somewhere within the bount arc that both my father and brother grew bored of the series, and I continued on my own. This portion is still special to me though, because I remember watching a bunch of it on VLC until the subtitles were corrupted. This prompted me to look on youtube, and I found a few of those ancient part 1/3 with part 2 missing Spanish sub videos that had the English subs overlayed on the Spanish subs. It was horrible but I look back on it fondly. Eventually I found Crunchyroll, and watched on that until the end of the Aizen arc and started FMA:B instead.

Your Name. I remember that one of my friends that wasn't huge into anime recommended this to me, and I really wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, I didn't know anything about anime piracy sites, and only watched on Crunchyroll, and at the time Your Name wasn't on Crunchyroll. So I did a ton of googling and eventually found this really sketchy pirate site that hosted it. It had constant ads that would pop up new windows that I had to close (this was also before I had UBlock Origin), and the video would buffer every 3 or 4 minutes for at least a minute each time. Again, horrible to experience in the moment, but this had a pretty funny effect. Because I had to spend SO MUCH more time to actually watch it, I felt like every scene was like triple the amount of time that it actually took up, making me grow way more attached to the characters that I would be otherwise. I didn't even realize that this was due to the video buffering so much until years later when I was showing it to another friend and felt like it was going at a breakneck pace lol.

Fallen Skies. I don't remember anything about this show, but this was another one of the shows I used to watch with my dad and brother every night. This one we watched for longer though so even though I don't remember the show itself, I have fond memories of the time we spent watching it. This was also before my parents got divorced and we were forced to move, so it reminds me of what our old basement used to look like.

Re:Zero. This was another one of the anime I watched early into my "career" watching anime. I had been watching a lot of FMAB at the time, and still didn't really know much about anime (so I didn't even know what isekai was). I watched it by myself and I couldn't really place how I felt about it for a while. It seemed really good, but I didn't know anybody that had seen it (as opposed to everyone that I knew saying that stuff like FMAB and AoT and everything was the best of anime). I ended up rewatching it at least 4 or 5 times thinking it was good, but unsure if it was just me or not. Eventually Season 2 came out and I rewatched it with a friend and they finally made me feel like I wasn't crazy and said it was amazing lol. It wasn't until about halfway through the second season that I realized the first season was highly acclaimed. Season 2 also reminds me of when I would watch the show weekly with a ton of friends. We'd all get in a discord call and watch it together on Watch2Gether. It was a fun time, and while we still occasionally do it, we don't do it nearly on the scale we used to. Hunter x Hunter, No Game No Life, Made in Abyss, and Mob Psycho 100 are all other shows that I watched in this era and thus have fond memories of.

Steins;Gate. I distinctly remember watching the entirety of S;G (not 0, that was more drawn out). I had watched HalcyonMusic's "100 anime songs in 30 minutes" piano medley a TON of times, trying my best to follow along myself (largely unsuccessfully), and I wanted to watch some of the shows from it (video link: https://youtu.be/JPZ-QyVBOf8?si=cLMYPoJyUK05UT_v&t=1067). I had added anything that sounded good to my to watch list, and one of the songs I really liked was Gate of Steiner. It sat on my watch list for ages until eventually I decided to watch it. I read the description on whatever pirate site I was going to use to watch it, and saw that it was about some organization and a mad scientist. This led me to believe that Okabe's insane ramblings were actually all real for half of the first episode lol. I know a lot of people say that S;G has a slow start, but I was IMMEDIATELY invested, and ended up watching half the entire show until around 3AM. I had online morning classes (was in high school during COVID), so I went to bed right as one of the saddest parts had occurred. This led to me stewing in the depression in my bed for a while and I ended up crying to it. This was the first show I had cried to in probably over 5 years, and I don't think anything has made me cry since. After waking up I did my online class and the proceeded to finish the entire series, meaning I finished the entirety of Steins;Gate within 24 hours. After this I spammed my friends on discord and about a week later started watching it with one of them. After watching with him, I watched it with another friend. Then another. Then another. This happened so many times that in the end I think I had watched the show with 5 or 6 different people, and had seen the show 10-11 times (due to rewatches). It is still my all time favorite show, despite how much I love Fate.

Fate. I had to put this on there. It's my favorite overall series (while S;G is my favorite individual show). I had heard somebody in an ani-piano discord community I was in talk about it, and it seemed interesting so I asked what it was about. This led to me getting the whole "well the community is very divided on where to start" talk, which ironically made me even more interested. I started making my own list of the watch order and how everything worked together in order to figure out what everything was. The thing was, I did this pretty much by myself, so I got A TON of misinformation that I have no idea how I got. Apparently Grand Order was the 1st Holy Grail War, Apocrypha was the 3rd, and a ton of other super weird things. Eventually I watched UBW, enjoyed it, and watched Zero and REALLY enjoyed it. There were only 2 HF movies at the time so I didn't watch that until the third came out. I'm now really into Type Moon as a whole and intend to play through a bunch of their VNs. I just haven't had the time yet.

Switching gears a bit, I'm going to go into books for a second. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. My mom actually recommended I read this book, and I read it on her old Kindle. This was the only thing I had ever really read on a kindle, until recently when I bought my own and have started re-reading some of my old favorite series. I also look fondly on it because it was my mom's suggestion.

Talking about how my mom suggested the previous one, she also had me watch Game of Thrones with her. I feel bad because I am a very quiet watcher of things, so I showed pretty much no reaction to a lot of the really good twists despite them really surprising me. Even so, I enjoyed my time watching it with her. I also watched The Tudors with her and while I didn't enjoy it as much as GoT it was also really good.

There's probably TONS more that I could put if I were to think of it, but these are the first that came to mind. A vast majority of the reason I enjoy watching shows is due to being able to watch them with others, or the circumstances that led me to watch them. I could put shows like Code Geass down, for a very memorable argument following the final episode of R1, or the fact I knew about the series from Madder Sky, or that I watched a "meme' that literally had the entirety of the Zero Requiem before watching it only to completely forget what happens (ok that's a good one I should have put it down). Or I could put down something like Star Wars, which I have enjoyed with my brother since I was a kid. Another great contender is Erased, which was the first anime I got my sister to watch, and was the thing that finally allowed me to show here how good anime can be, and why I enjoy it so much. Doctor Who I have watched with my family quite a bit, restarted every time we finally wanted to try getting into the Capaldi era before inevitably giving up (insert Sisyphus meme here). Pretty much every show I watch has some sort of significance to it because I watch shows as a social experience. I pretty much only have 4 hobbies and that's TV, Video Games, Books, and Music. Because of that, the only way I really bond with people is getting them to watch, read, or play something with me. I'm hoping eventually my friend that is learning guitar gets to the point we can play stuff together to add music to that list of things to do with friends lol.

Thanks a lot for the question. Sorry again about how long it took me to respond to it. I have been super busy and I had way too much stuff to say to respond on mobile lol. I hope the fact that I ranted so long makes up for it.

#ask #anime #books #Bleach #Your Name #Fallen Skies #Re:Zero #Steins;Gate #Fate #miss peregrines home for peculiar children #Game of Thrones #The Tudors #Is it clear I suck at making tags #Code Geass #Star Wars #Erased #Doctor Who #post that is way longer than was probably expected by the person who asked

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 2 years

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IOTA Reviews: Psycomedian

Okay, so not only is this episode going to focus on comedy, something that has always been one of Miraculous Ladybug's weaker aspects, but a celebrity guest star gets to be the Akuma for the week. Doesn't that sound fun? Surprisingly, yes, kind of?

Let's get into the twenty-second (chronologically the fifth) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Psycomedian

We start off with Marinette talking with her friends about all the times she's failed to confess her feelings to Adrien, where we get a little highlight reel of some of the times she's embarrassed herself in front of Adrien while the writers, I mean Mylene, tries to reassure the audience, I mean Marinette, that she and Adrien have made progress and are friends, even though they barely hang out together.

Marinette comes up with a plan to change the way Adrien sees her as “more than the funny friend”, referring to the events of “The Puppeteer 2”, where the clip featured had her and Adrien talk about they should stop pulling pranks on each other... even though Adrien was the one who tried to prank Marinette by pretending to be a statue, and Marinette only acted like she was pranking Adrien back to justify her creepy behavior around him while she thought he was just a statue. This has got to be one of the flimsiest excuses for an episode, and given the plotlines this show has, that's saying something.

Alya tries to reassure Marinette to be herself, though with the way she phrases it, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw it as her subtly insulting Marinette instead.

“I know you're super insecure about how Adrien sees you, but can't you see the flaws you're ashamed of are what make you who you are?”

Nearby, Adrien's friend Nino is showing him a video of standup comedian Harry Clown, voiced by real life French comedian Franck Dubosc.

While I made a joke about it at the end of my last review, I don't think all celebrity guest stars in cartoons are inherently bad, as there have been a lot of standup comedians with great roles in children's media, like Howie Mandel and Weird Al Yankovic in Bobby's World and Milo Murphy's Law respectively. What I think made those shows work more was that they didn't really rely too much on the image of the comedians in the leading roles (although Mandel did appear at the beginning of every episode of Bobby's World and also voiced Bobby's dad), and focused more on the characters they played, trusting them to be entertaining in their own right. The Genie in Aladdin is another good example, as Robin Williams' energetic and upbeat performance was perfect for a character as eccentric as him. I'm going to talk about this more when I review “Penalteam”, but these characters and shows work more because you don't have to know who someone like Weird Al is in order to enjoy a show like Milo Murphy's Law.

The problem here is that Harry is clearly based off a real person, therefore, a lot of kids won't get who he is. In addition, despite being a standup comedian, the jokes don't really match up with the kind of jokes you're used to seeing from those kind of entertainers. While I haven't been able to find a lot of Franck Dubosc's routines with English subtitles, his delivery is pretty good, as is his performance in this episode, but a lot of the “jokes” he tells are either standard puns or just random things he says peppered by him honking the clown nose he wears/pretending to honk a clown nose when he isn't wearing it.

What, did adding “Bazinga!” to the end of every joke not go well with test audiences?

Standup comedy is about overdramatizing everyday life by telling stories about fairly mundane subjects and making jokes about them. When you get down to it, a lot of John Mulaney's most memorable routines are about things that happened to him, like the Stranger Danger seminars his elementary school had, a party he went to in high school, or his experiences trying to get a flight at an airport, but the way he describes them are done in such an energetic way, they become hilarious to watch. Hell, one of my favorite George Carlin bits is just him explaining the etymology of the term post-traumatic stress disorder.

Here, the jokes don't really feel like they're coming from a standup comedian, and while I understand comedy is subjective, the jokes Harry Clown makes here just aren't that funny in my opinion.

And then there's the fact that Adrien didn't find the sock joke funny, when a lot of the jokes he makes as Cat Noir are puns. Instead, while Nino was showing Adrien the video, Adrien laughed at Marinette making some erratic movements while describing her fantasies to be with him. Once again, this isn't exactly the high praise the writers think it is. While Marinette is making Adrien laugh, it's not intentional, and they're playing up Adrien laughing at Marinette's eccentric behavior as a good thing.

Marinette sees Adrien laughing, not knowing he's laughing at her, decides to come up with a way to make Adrien fall in love with her by making him laugh. Ah, going for the Roger Rabbit approach, I see.

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Apparently, Harry Clown is a regular at the bakery Marinette's parents own, so she rushes over there to meet up with him while he buys a baguette. Harry figures out Marinette has a crush on Adrien, and reveals he and Gabriel actually go back, as Gabriel designed a French fry costume for his first movie.

Ah, yes, my favorite superhero: Artery Clogger.

Harry promises to give Marinette and Adrien tickets to his latest show, and goes over to Gabriel to offer Adrien a role in his latest movie, where “Super Fry” has to save the world with the help of “Camembert Justice” and “Wonder Potato”. Despite the strange premise and Harry honking his nose while explaining it like one of his jokes, it's supposed to be a serious movie. So is he going the Man of Steel route or the Titans route? While Gabriel seems to be okay with the script as long as the movie gets produced, he has a feeling nobody will actually take this guy seriously.

After happily running out of Gabriel's mansion, Harry and Marinette go over some jokes based off the former's routines, leading to Marinette performing prop comedy in front of Adrien.

Unless you've got Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot hiding in your purse with Tikki, I'm not interested. While Marinette keeps making Lucille Ball and Betty White cry from Heaven with her abysmal performance, Harry gets a call from the only agent in Paris, Bob Roth, and has to get there as soon as possible. While presenting his script to him, I know this might break your suspension of disbelief but Bob can't see how dramatic the standup comedian's movie about a talking french fry really is, and just sees it as a comedy. Is this another jab at the fans who supposedly underestimate the depths of this show? Bob makes a good point that Harry is a comedian at heart and a movie as dramatic as this is a real risk and probably won't bring in a lot of money. Then Harry says his dream was to be a superhero like the French fry and Bob laughs off his dream before tearing up his script, leaving him heartbroken and unable to console an upset Marinette. Right before he goes on stage for his show, Shadowmoth akumatizes him into Psycomedian

Psycomedian himself is... okay. The design reminds me a lot of Reverser from Season 2 with the use of black and white, only with a red cloak for some reason. I like the emblem being a mix of the classic comedy and tragedy masks. As for his powers, because Harry wanted to make people feel more emotions other than joy, Psycomedian has the ability to force people who look at him to feel the emotion reflected on his mask whenever he squeaks his nose, also like Reverser, but with a wider range.

Gee, where have I seen that before?

Adrien quickly ducks out to transform into Cat Noir, right after making one of the only funny jokes in this entire episode.

Marinette transforms into Ladybug as well and soon meets up with Cat Noir, quickly figuring out they can't look directly at Psycomedian. After retreating into a safe place, Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a makeup kit. She plans to apply makeup to her eyelids to make it seem like her eyes are open, and lures Psycomedian into a trap. She takes his clown nose, believing it to be where the Akuma is, and gives it to Cat Noir to Cataclysm. However, the Akuma is actually in his fanny pack, where he takes out a new nose and uses his power on Ladybug.

Rather than making her cry like he tried to do earlier, Psycomedian thinks it's better to make Ladybug angrier than the Incredible Hulk after stubbing his toe. Ladybug is now far more aggressive and doesn't even care if civilians get hurt in the crossfire, so Cat Noir has to retreat with Ladybug once again. Admittedly, I like this twist, as it's a different take on the usual formula where this time, Cat Noir has to be the brains of the two while Ladybug is handicapped by the Akuma. They go to the sewers to recharge, and after Ladybug is still literally too angry to die, Cat Noir has to restrain her in some kind of rug while they search for the Akuma, but temporarily lets her go to use her Lucky Charm, which gives her a motorcycle helmet... which she immediately breaks.

But I thought being simple was good! Wasn't that the point of Thomas Astruc's magnum opus, “Simpleman”?

While Psycomedian goes to see if Bob still wants to make the serious movie he originally proposed, Ladybug uses Cat Noir's belt as a blindfold while she steals another motorcycle helmet. Cat Noir uses some makeup lying around to paint over said motorcycle helmet in order to blind Psycomedian before Cataclysming him. Again, I like how Cat Noir figured out what to do, and I really wish we got more episodes like this.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, gives Harry a Magical Charm, and Cat Noir says the obvious and tells Harry to get a new producer after Bob turns down his revised idea for his movie,

Marinette goes to apologize to Adrien for her behavior, and Adrien clarifies he was laughing at her earlier, which again, she's cool with for some reason. And so the episode ends with a rare example of Marinette talking to Adrien before they see Harry go on stage again.

Surprisingly, putting aside the first act, this episode wasn't all that bad. Admittedly, for a comedy episode, there were barely any jokes that I found actually funny, and even the ones I liked like Adrien's dark humor comment only mustered a light “Heh.” from me. While the Akuma was more of a repeat, the way the powers worked made the fights more interesting because they couldn't look at him, even if Ladybug suddenly became Daredevil at the end with how she perfectly managed to parry Psycomedian's punches. And again, I liked the idea of Cat Noir being the one to stop Psycomedian with the helmet, even if he didn't have to paint it, just put it on Psycomedian backwards so he still can't see.

Angry Ladybug was also a really enjoyable part of the episode and it was nice to see Cat Noir play the straight man in their partnership for once. But like with him doing more to save the day, I really think this episode should have been a learning experience for Adrien. He could have learned how reckless he was as Cat Noir after seeing how reckless Ladybug is under Psycomedian's influence, but instead, he became just as angry as she did in later episodes (Sentibubbler, Kuro Neko).

But I still had problems with how Franck Dubosc was utilized for his guest appearance. I already talked about how I think his jokes aren't that funny and not like an actual standup comedian, but the whole movie idea was just really confusing. On the one hand, I like how this is a representation of actors being typecast into certain roles, but on the other hand, it's hard to really take his movie idea seriously because we know so little about it other than it being about talking food and that he makes quips about it. I think if we knew more about it like a better description of the emotional scenes or if maybe the hero was clown-themed like a heroic version of the Joker, Harry's akumatiztion would be better in my opinion.

I was honestly expecting this to be a real bad episode, one of the more frustrating and least funny with tons of Unfunny Marinette Slapstick, but I was surprised to see the Marinette humiliation only last for the first act, and it was mostly a single scene that wasn't even that cringeworthy. Even after she made a fool of herself in front of Adrien, her feelings are taken seriously. When she cries, it's framed as a serious moment. I was surprised that Psycomedian didn't make her sobbing constantly to ruin the drama of that one scene. While I don't get why the writers think Adrien laughing at Marinette's weird behavior is a good thing, especially since we've rarely seen him laugh around her whenever she does stuff like this (Mr. Pigeon 72, Simpleman), I still liked the resolution for how straightforward the conversation was, and other than a simple gag of her gushing over sitting next to Adrien. If we got more scenes like this this season, ones where Marinette and Adrien got to talk more as people, I'd have an easier time believing Adrien when he calls Marinette one of his best friends in “Ephemeral”.

But overall, while it was heavily flawed, I still thought this episode was decent, and given the other episodes I've seen, I'll take decent any day.

For my next review, I'm going to take a look at “Qilin” next for two reasons. 1) Since it leads into the season finale, I want to take a look at “Penalteam” before the last two episodes air, and 2) I would rather take a look at Miraculous Ladybug's attempt to do a racism episode before I have to watch “Penalteam” again for the review.

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healingchildhoodtrauma · 3 years

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“Gratitude is a thought-correction practice that gradually eroded the negative noticing of my toxic critic. Now, I refuse to let all-or-none thinking throw out the baby of daily niceties with the bathwater of normal disappointments.

Here is how I keep this practice fresh. I accept that I do not always feel gratitude while I am expressing it. As I argue in my first book, our feelings are rarely a matter of choice. But gratitude is more than a feeling.

Gratitude is also a health-inducing perspective that with enough practice grows into a belief. So while I may not feel grateful for my wife while we are struggling about something, I almost always know she is a blessing in my life. And although life can bring unpredictable difficulties, bounteous wonder usually tips the scale and makes me grateful to be alive.

Sometimes I have difficulty with the homily "Stop and smell the roses." In my old all-or-none days, I was bitter when their perfume did not rescue me from feeling bad. Nowadays though, I still love flowers even when they do not move me. And, I still dislike it when someone tries to fast-fix my pain by pointing them out.

On a larger scale this is true of gratitude and love in general. At times Monet's paintings, my favorite songs or even kindnesses from others do not impact me.

Yet, in a wider spiritual sense, I am always grateful for these gifts because I know from experience that sooner or later I will fully appreciate them again.

So, I accept the cyclical nature of feeling love and gratitude, knowing that I will repeatedly be moved by the bounty of the world. Color, flowers, nature, food, panoramas, music, movies, kindnesses, pets, and so on, will inevitably move me again even when they momentarily leave me cold.

Back in the late twentieth century, the practice of Be-Here-Now [based eponymously on Ram Das's book] was considered to be the height of wisdom in many spiritual circles. Invoking "Be Here Now!" was supposed to make you instantly return to feeling grateful and loving.

I soon came to hate this phrase however, because I hated myself for not being able to do it on command. Even worse, be-here-now was often callously shoved in the face of anyone who was having a hard time.

Once in a JFK group, a student sporting an ascended master persona told a woman distraught about the recent demise of her twenty year marriage: "If you weren't so attached to the past, you wouldn't be so upset. Try to Be Here Now!"

Over time, "be-here-now" morphed into "just be grateful!" which in turn acquired a flight-into-light subtext: "If you just get your mundane head out of your unspiritual ass, and flip the gratitude switch, your pain will instantly vanish."

Unfortunately I still regularly see this shaming corrective use of gratitude…especially in Marin County, the nesting place of the world's largest population of flight-into-lighters.

For my own use, I have ironically converted be-here-now from an elixir to a reminder: Be here now, Pete. Drop down into that pain and feel your way through it. Usually this soon restores me into authentically being here now.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff is a more modern version of be-here-now. It's a great book title and idea by itself, but it's instantly ruined by the book's small print subtitle: And it's All Small Stuff. Hopefully at this point I don't need to explain the nonsense in that.”

- Pete Walker, M.A., MFT

What’s funny is I read those books when I was 14 - my “parents” refused to get me mental health treatment and I was desperate for any kind of help. I think some concepts were good but some definitely just added to the gaslighting and emotional suppression I was already so accustomed to from my “family”. I can see now how it was really the only way I knew how to survive being trapped in such overwhelmingly negative circumstances. Before learning about CPTSD, toxic positivity (suppressing any/all negative emotion), focusing solely on my own cognitive distortions (instead of what caused/enforced them), and spiritualizing “bad vibes” (that were actually my nervous system telling me someone wasn’t safe) kept me stuck and continually retraumatized in dysfunctional/abusive relationships for over a decade.

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auroraayyye · 4 years

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SKAM: An analysis

Part 3

Tonight i’m analysing one of my personal favourites, a beauty among the remakes. It is none other than...

SKAM Italia (The one that rose from the dead)

Likes:

This is probably the most basic thing but italian is such a beautiful language. Sometimes i forget to put on subtitles to understand what they’re actually saying.

I like Eva’s red hair

All the curly curlssss

Norwegian and Italian culture is very different. So it was fun to see which major changes had to be made to make the series Italian in a cultural way.

I personally find Martino’s season to be one of the most interesting interpretations of the «Isak-season».

Many international viewers did react to the lack of parents in the original series. Which is true! In Norway youth tend to become independent from an early age and often move away from their parents as early as 15. That doesn’t mean that parents are not a part of their life at all, but ofcourse less than if the youth was living at home. Therefore it was very nice to see how SKAM Italia changed that and the role especially Martinos mother played in his season, which was not as physically present in the original.

I also liked that they switched out the bus with a radio station! This is not something that’s regular in my country, so it added this foreign, interesting background that mixed up the story slightly.

I think this remake is very beautiful. The cinematogrophy really gives me an «italian vibe» and a certain beauty to scenes i haven’t necessarily paid as much attention to in other versions.

The boys in this remake are supreme. They’re all really funny and supportive, and they’re probably one of my favourite remakes of the boys.

I think Eva og Martino’s friendship is very well displayed in this one, including the drama from Eva’s season. I really think putting those seasons right after eachother, not with a season between, really helped that storyline. I think Eva, Isak, Noora, Sana, is a much more natural progression that the original one.

The struggle of homophobia and discrimination based on that was a much clearer and concrete topic in this version. Which Martino also speaks about in the «speach» at the end of his season.

I like the Filippo/Elia thing that the fandom really pushed on with. It was fun and sweet. Generally a very nice fandom.

The scenes with the boys at the cabin in season 2. They’re all great, honestly the best part of the season.

Based on the subtitles i could find many of the dialogues are very good and actually discuss the topic. Some remakes are guilty of just never talking about the shit that happens, but Italia isn’t one of them!

First off I am not Italian myself, but through my experiences and research about Italian culture I think i can say that some of the topics from the series are definitely even more taboo than they were in Norway. I appreciate that courage to make a series about topics such as homosexuality and Islam, in a culture where it isn’t as easy as in my own. I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant and that you understand what I mean. OG SKAM was a brave show, although in a very liberal country.

Dislikes:

The inavailability. Some versions have geoblock and some don’t. I respect both solutions. But when TIMvision was asking people to pay for that content alone, it got a bit frustrating. The SKAM concept has a very large international audience, and to shut not only them but also the national ones out was a bad move. I understand that the budget was low but I still don’t think that was the way to go. One did not «stumble upon» SKAM Italia, you searched for it, badly.

The cancellation and The Netflix take over. Don’t get me wrong, i LOVE netflix for taking on SKAM Italia (which was very much thanks to engaged fans!!!) and giving it it’s fourth and final season, and making sure that the important Sana season was made. But there was a big gap between the third and fourth, which for me harmed the continuity. Also season four didn’t follow the original SKAM posting pattern, just dropping the entire season at once. All of this i really think cost them a lot of viewers, as it became less exciting to follow.

I’m gonna admit right now I have not seen the last season. It was just recently uploaded to Italian Netflix and there are much fewer accounts that are posting it online. For me Martino’s season stands out as the golden star of the show. Eva’s season was okay, and I feel Elounora’s season (although the rainscene was beautiful) was very predictable and less exciting. Might be an unpopular opinion, but that’s what I think.

You know I love Italian, but compared to my own language, my oh my are your words and sentences long. They’ll be talking for ages, and the english subtitles will consist of five words. Sounds beautiful though, it’s not really a complaint.

Favourite characters:

Martino Rametta. If you read through all of this it probably doesn’t come as a shock. It’s a very well written character and Federico Cesari performed it beautifully. I think it really portrays the loneliness, anger and frustration within the Isak-character, at the same time as Martino made it his own. Because it also shows all the love and will within the Isak-character, which are two different emotional weights that can be hard to balance, so kudos to the writers and actor. Building the character so well made sure that the «Martinico»-storyline didn’t take over the entire season. Additionally i also enjoyed his relationship with his mother, the boys and Eva.

Giovanni Garau. If Gio isn’t one of your favourite characters, did you even watch the series? He’s such a nice and trustworthy guy, and such a good friend. The coming out scene is almost better than the original. Although I love the fact that Jonas simply does not give a single frick is great and also a bit funny, it was nice to see a reinvention of the scene. It still wasn’t a «big deal» but you can still see that it meant something, in a greater deal than other remakes. You can tell that Gio finally understands and that he’s also relieved that Martino told him. And you can also tell how much it meant to Martino. Idk man, i just think that scene is beautiful. Gio was a good friend before that, and follows that up after that scene as well. There’s a reason that multiple remakes’ tumblrtags have at some point contained posts like «Fly in Gio Garau».

Filippo Sava. Fun twist to make him Elounora’s brother! Defintely played an important part in multiple seasons. He was a great Eskil, and I like him for many of the same reasons that I liked the original character. He’s caring, serious and funny, with slightly better timing than the norwegian one. He’s more of a natural part of the gang, and I like him. And the last episode of Martino’s season when he sees Niccolò, and just gives this thumbs up and «not bad» face to Martino, priceless.

Okay so that’s it for SKAM Italia, hopefully I will get to watching the fourth season sometime soon. If I were to give this one an award I would say it is the most beautiful remake and I think it is slightly more poetic and artistic than the rest. Let me know if you agree or disagree! Which one should I do next?

#skamverse #skam italia #skam it #skam #skamily #skam italy #martino rametta #martinico #trying not to crosstag too much #skam rekames #skam remakes #auroras skam analysis

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adamwatchesmovies · 4 years

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Adam Watches the 92nd Academy Awards

The 92nd Academy Awards have come and gone. As always, there’s plenty to be happy about and plenty that’ll make you wonder what the heck the voters were thinking. I watched the ceremony and while I may say that I don’t care… I do. Those awards are a big deal. Legions of people who would’ve otherwise dismissed Parasite as some movie that requires them to read subtitles saw it because it was nominated. One of those golden statues can make a career and let’s face it, you like to hear your love for something validated by people who have even the semblance of authority on the subject.

But here’s what you may not know: most of the voters really don’t know what they’re doing. While cinematographers NOMINATE what films are up for that Best Cinematography Award, EVERYONE in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gets to vote for the winner and there’s no guarantee they’ve actually seen every nominee, know what the technical terms mean or are voting because what they saw is what they actually believe was “the best”. Once you take into account the dollars required to produce a nomination campaign, the stigma many genre films face, the prejudices against certain types of roles and/or actors, and how popularity influences votes, a win hardly means more than a bunch of people you don’t know saying they liked a movie.

If you want a better idea of which of 2019’s films were “the best”, you’re better off asking someone you know and trust, someone who can prove they’ve done their homework and aren’t just voting for their friends, the one they’ve heard is good from their kid, or got a special gift basket from. I may not be a paid professional, but I have put in the time and effort to see EVERYTHING nominated (with a few exceptions I’ll detail below). Reviews for some of these (The Irishman, Judy) are coming to the blog in a couple of days. If it were up to me the list of nominees would be different but we’ll get to that later. Without further ado, here’s who SHOULD’VE won.

Best Visual Effects

1917 – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, and Dominic Tuohy The best special effects are the kind you don’t even notice. I couldn’t tell you where the explosions, sets, and actors in 1917 begin, and where the computer-generated imagery takes over. It’s seamless.

Best Film Editing

Parasite – Yang Jin-mo Got to hand it to Parasite for its amazing use of montage and the way it stitched its footage together. Some shots I initially thought initially were one take I realized under carefully scrutiny - and by that I mean frame-by-frame examination - were actually two melded together. The scenes showing how the Kim family infiltrate the Park’s household should be shown in film class to demonstrate how the art of montage is at its best should be done to maximum effect.

Best Costume Design

Little Women – Jacqueline Durran Funny how every single film nominated at the 92nd Academy Awards was a period piece. My vote goes to Little Women not because it was necessarily the most accurate (I couldn’t tell you what people wore in 1868) but because of the way the costumes were used. You can tell a lot about the characters from the multiple outfits they wear throughout the film - check out that purple bonnet adorned by Aunt Marsh (Meryl Streep).

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Bombshell – Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan, and Vivian Baker I called it when I reviewed the film. The makeup used to transform John Lithgow was nothing short of incredible. It was an easy pick.

Best Cinematography

1917 – Roger Deakins I’m glad to see The Lighthouse on this list but I have to hand it to 1917. The one-shot motif adds so much to the story. Then, there are the individual shots I remember so vividly. The quiet meadow just outside of No Man’s Land, the raging inferno Schofield sees when he wakes up, the trench he must run in front of to reach the Colonel are all shots that permanently imprint themselves into your memory.

Best Production Design

1917 – Production Design: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales Tempted to hand it to Parasite for the house they constructed for the movie but I’m give it to 1917. The trenches, the blasted landscape of No Man’s Land still haunt me. When you see the craters, it’s jarring. Then, as your eyes become adjusted, you notice the rats. Then, the chunks of bone and charred meat that have now become part of the landscape. It’s horrific.

Best Sound Mixing

Ford v Ferrari – Paul Massey, David Giammarco, and Steven A. Morrow What you remember most from Ford v Ferrari is that big race at the end. The climax wouldn’t have been the same without the sounds we heard. The roar of the engines, the clacking and grinding as the pedals are pushed and gears are switched… the air rushing by. Out of the nominees, it’s the one whose sounds I most remember.

Best Sound Editing

Ford v Ferrari – Donald Sylvester This year, the Best Sound Editing award goes hand-in-hand with the sound mixing. Obviously, the actors were never moving at the kind of speeds depicted in Ford v Ferrari but you wouldn’t be able to tell because of the foley and sound design.

Best Original Song

Stand Up from Harriet – Music and Lyrics by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo Stand Up plays during the end credits of Harriet and it perfectly caps the film. Whenever I hear its lyrics, I’m transported back to that moment. It’s the most memorable and emotional song on this list.

Best Original Score

Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir I chose the best song for its ability to stand out. In this category, Joker wins because its music doesn’t stand out… at least not at first. While you’re watching, those notes don’t draw attention to themselves. They subconsciously build the mood, augmenting the performance by Joaquin Phoenix, the visuals, and the story. You don’t notice how much of an effect it has on you until you see isolated clips. When you do, it’s shocking.

Best Animated Short Film

Abstaining (I’ve only seen Hair Love)

Best Live Action Short Film

Abstaining

Best Documentary Short Subject

Abstaining

Best Documentary Feature

Abstaining

Best International Feature Film

Abstaining, as I’ve only seen 2 films (Pain and Glory and Parasite)

Best Animated Feature Film

I Lost My Body – Jérémy Clapin and Marc du Pontavice I Lost My Body is the most audacious and inspired of the animated films nominated. The only movie among these to be aimed at adults, it often tells its story through visuals alone but when you get to the end, you realize it’s about more than just what was on-screen.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Little Women – Greta Gerwig based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott Greta Gerwig does more than merely adapt the classic novel, she breathes new life into it, makes it her own, makes it feel wholly new and modern. This version of the film surpasses all others we’ve seen before because of the changes she’s made to the story’s structure.

Best Original Screenplay

Knives Out – Rian Johnson What a ride Knives Out was. It’s got so many twists and turns, so many delightful characters you want to re-watch it the second it’s over so that you are no longer distracted by its central mystery and can simply step back and admire the handiwork by Rian Johnson. A sequel’s been announced and I can’t wait to see it.

Best Supporting Actress

Laura Dern – Marriage Story as Nora Fanshaw Laura Dern was also in Little Women and her two roles couldn’t be more different. Here, she’s loathsome and captivating. As soon as I saw Nora take off her shoes before she kneeled down on the couch to console Nicole, I knew there was a whole lot more to her character than what we were told. The more you see her, the more you want.

Best Supporting Actor

Al Pacino – The Irishman as Jimmy Hoffa Al Pacino has the advantage of getting A LOT of screen time as Jimmy Hoffa. The Irishman clocks in at over 3,5 hours and he isn’t in the whole movie but when he is, the seasoned performer gives us so much. At different periods of the story, you’ll feel differently about him. There’s no point comparing him to the real-life person. He takes the meaty role and makes it his own. His voice, his mannerisms, I can’t think of anyone who could’ve done it better.

Best Actress

Renée Zellweger – Judy as Judy Garland Judy was the very last movie on my list to watch, having missed it when it came to theatres. When I think back to Zellweger’s performance, I don’t see her. All I see is her character, a rich, complex person you sometimes hate, sometimes love and feel sorry for. The movie is not going to be on my “Best of” list but she is.

Best Actor

Joaquin Phoenix – Joker as Arthur Fleck / Joker To me, there was no question Joaquin Phoenix would take this one. I saw Joker three times and each time, I found something new in his performance.

Best Director

Sam Mendes – 1917 With this award, I’m awarding Sam Mendes for the craft he displayed in 1917. It’s such a visceral experience that when people asked me how it compared to Dunkirk, it felt weird to lump both together. This is coming from someone who gave both pictures a 5-star review, who put both on their respective “best of the year” lists. It’s a movie I’m going to go back to and wondering “how did they do that?!

Best Picture

Little Women – Amy Pascal It’s a tough call for me this year, partially because I loved Parasite, 1917, Joker, and others so much. I’m planning on adding those three films to my collection so I can pop them into my Blu-ray player any times I feel like it. That said, I would’ve given the Best Picture Award to Little Women. You’re so emotionally invested in this little story that telling you why with merely words is impossible. You fall in love over and over. It made me cry and every time I think back to that scene at Christmas, I tear up again. I’m choosing it because of all the things it does differently from the other films. At the end of the day, it isn’t a big story. It isn’t about people with guns, corruption, war, a turning point in history or even necessarily the biggest event in the lives of the characters but it feels like it is. That’s exactly why it’s so good.

Disagree with my choices? I don’t blame you. What kind of idiot finds a way to leave out Marriage Story from their list? You let me know where it should’ve gone. Hopefully, commenting keep you warm until MY Best of 2019 list gets posted in the next few days.

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lycanresistance · 4 years

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rate the mystreet seasons and aphmau series aarons

mystreet seasons ranked

1. season 4 - emerald secret!!!!! this one is obvious for me haha. its the only one with a coherent plot that is followed through without ruining it, has some really great scenes, the visuals are nice without being overdone like in some later seasons, etc etc whatever this is the best season there’s no competition in my eyes. the way s6 affected this season makes it harder to go back to but it still stands the best on its own! the epilogue actually wraps it up very nicely instead of opening more plot threads like... other seasons. is it so much to deliver on a quality, consistent experience for a season? apparently. but not for emerald secret! it knocks that out of the park

2. season 3 - lover’s lane! this one is fun for most of it (albeit boring at times) and the later parts have some good character development! i started shipping garron during this season lol it holds a special place in my heart. i’m counting post-third as a part of this too, which is the best of all. maybe the only time the actual comedy of mystreet works for me outside of a metatextual way

3. season 6 - when angels fall. does this season fucking suck? yes. is it somewhat more bearable than the others? also yes. honestly the list is downhill from here, but s6 gets points for having a promising beginning that it completely ruins and being so short that i got to minimize the pain of it all

4. season 1 - this one doesnt have a subtitle. i have nothing to say about this season. it is miserably boring

5. season 2 - love~love paradise. mostly the same as above but some points added for garroth and aaron sleeping together, a lot of points taken away for everything that happened this season

6. season 5 - starlight. this season sucks. this season sucks so bad. season 5 is comprised of jessica bravura personally beating me over the head with a baseball bet trying to convince me yes, aaron and aphmau are in love, and yes the do fuck, but as a person with a brain i know she is wrong. derek admitting to hurting aaron in the first episode and then being Funny Pancake Dad for the rest of it. kc’s harassment reaches a new worst. while the narrative establishes aphmau is Accidentally Racist, katelyn is openly committing racist microaggressions left and right. my second ever post on this blog from 2017 is about why starlight sucks. this season is above all inexcusable for its runtime of ALMOST 40 EPISODES, which is UNBEARABLE. almost the entire plot of this season is inexplicably summed up by the front bottoms’ song santa monica, which, at a crisp 4 minutes and 10 seconds of runtime, is much better

series aarons ranked

1. mystreet!!!!! this is kind of obvious haha. i could go on about mystreet aaron forever! really just take a glance at my blog and you know i love him. he’s by far the best written and the only one who has like... a full character so he wins

2. upsidedown stories!!! are you KIDDING? uds aaron is literally perfect in every way. does he only appear for exactly 38 seconds of screen time, during which he says 11 words? yes. but i am still in love with him. please watch upsidedown stories if you haven’t. it’s a gift. a respite.

3. minecraft diaries. we do kinda go downhill pretty early like the last version because im not THAT big of a fan of diaries aaron. i love him for his connection to mystreet aaron but he doesnt... really do anything? he had sex with god in the woods and then killed himself. that was pretty funny he gets points for that

4. mermaid tales. valid to be a gay pirate

5. royal tale. why is he like this? there is no explanation. i dont even know how to describe it but the dichotomy is so jarring. all he does is fuck because he doesnt have a dad to abuse him. he just has an omniscient orb

#my post #ask #Anonymous

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mulanxiaojie · 4 years

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We were all thinking it, and finally someone had to ask: Why on earth would Disney cut Mushu? “Well, we made it 10 minutes in,” joked Mulan producer Jason Reed.

In case you missed the trailer, the headlines, and the tweets — so many tweets — the live-action Mulan will cut Mushu, leaving it bereft of the comedic energy from a dragon sidekick. The world has changed since 1998, and Disney has made a serious, more violent Mulan that’s truer to the Chinese folklore.

“Obviously Mushu is a beloved character, and one of the most memorable elements of the animated film,” Reed explained to a group of journalists huddled inside a tent on Mulan’s mountainous New Zealand set in October 2018.

“It turns out that the traditional, Chinese audience did not particularly think that that was the best interpretation of the dragon in their culture. The dragon is a sign of respect and it's a sign of strength and power, and that using it as a silly sidekick didn't play very well with a traditional Chinese audience.”

It's one of many indications that unlike with The Lion King, Disney is not going for a by-the-numbers Mulan remake.

While a classic to kids of a certain generation in the West, 1998’s Mulan flopped in China, released a year late after Disney was effectively banned for releasing the film Kundun, a film sympathetic to the Dalai Lama. On screens in Mulan’s birthplace, Hunan, the film only made $30,000 at the box office after three weeks.

You could blame the film’s late release in China, which caused some audiences to watch pirated versions months before its eventual arrival in theaters. But it's also likely that local audiences didn’t warm to the idea of Americans taking on a Chinese legend, especially one which already had multiple adaptations on film, TV, and stage.

“This is not a Chinese dragon," one Chinese moviegoer told The Baltimore Sun in 1999. "I can tell the people who designed the dragon are from America."

In that light, Disney’s resistance toward a comedic dragon sidekick in the new Mulan makes financial sense. Once chump change for Hollywood, China’s film market is set to overtake the U.S. this year. For Disney, its three biggest 2019 releases in China — Captain Marvel, The Lion King and Aladdin — accounted for more than $320 million in takings.

Despite the omission of Mushu, Reed promises the film will be funny. Just admittedly not Eddie Murphy funny.

"We have some scenes that, although they're played very real, are gonna get some very big, big laughs.”

“Take one of the greatest comedians of all time, make them a dragon, have him prance around, and give him like, two years refine the jokes — we're not gonna beat that, in terms of raw slapstick comedy,” he said.

“But we have added a couple of elements to this movie which I think really do the same thing of grounding it, bringing you into it, we have some scenes [that], although they're played very real, are gonna get some very big, big laughs.”

Other big changes are afoot as well. There aren’t any of those singalong theatrical musical numbers like “I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” “Reflection,” or “A Girl Worth Fighting For”, although Reed promises there will be “songs that you recognize and remember” in the movie.

Also gone is the cathartic scene in which Mulan cuts her hair in preparation for battle, which Reed admits he gets mocked for during meetings in China. “[It’s] actually a Western anachronism,” Reed explained. Chinese male warriors wore their hair long, and to cut Mulan’s hair would make her look more of a woman.

Nor will you see Mulan’s smart-mouth grandmother, Fa, or Li Shang in the live-action film. The latter decision has been particularly controversial, given Li Shang’s status as a bisexual icon. Reed was surprised by the backlash, but the decision was made in the light of the #MeToo movement.

“I think particularly in the time of the #MeToo movement, having a commanding officer, that is also the sexual love interest, was very uncomfortable. We didn't think it was appropriate and we thought that in a lot of ways, that it was sort of justifying behavior that we're doing everything we can to get out of our industry,” Reed explained.

Instead, the character of Li Shang will be split into two characters: Commander Tung, played by Ip Man star Donnie Yen, will serve as Mulan’s surrogate father and mentor in the film, while Chen Honghui, a role filled by New Zealander Yoson An, will be an equal to Mulan in the army and her eventual love interest.

It still leaves questions about how the queer element of the relationship between Mulan and Honghui will play out, or whether it will even be present. While homosexuality was decriminalized by China in 1997, Chinese censors are infamous for cutting out LGBTQ TV and movie scenes.

Chinese moviegoers saw no reference to Freddie Mercury’s sexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody, while Call Me By Your Name was pulled from official screenings (although it soon gathered a cult following). Disney doesn’t believe censorship will be a problem for Mulan, with Reed explaining it worked “very closely” with censors and its releasing partners in China.

“We feel that we are secure in the censorship issue, that we have our permits approved and I believe that we will continue to have a good relationship with the releasing entities in our various partners in China,” Reed claimed.

While the storyline will largely remain similar, new characters are joining the fray. A powerful shapeshifting witch, portrayed by Gong Li, will feature alongside the main antagonist Bori Khan, played by Jason Scott Lee. The story will begin with Mulan as a child, and she will have a younger sister in the film, something present in other adaptations of the folklore.

“It makes it more than just her having to take care of her father and mother, who are sort of in the role of taking care of her,” Reed said. “By adding a younger sister we thought that it added sort of a broader emotional context, and added more motivation for her, particularly for the end.”

On the monitor inside our tent, actor Yifei Liu is effortless in her swordplay. It’s no surprise she’s landed the titular role; she is Mulan. Liu battled through a tough physical audition for the role, admitting to us she couldn’t walk properly after.

“I wanted to thoroughly explore this girl,” Mulan’s director Niki Caro told Empire in February 2020.

“Because I needed a warrior, and I needed a partner. So she did this grueling audition and then we sent her straight to the physical trainer to do an equally grueling physical assessment. Weights, push-ups, pull-ups, everything. She was brilliant in the dramatic part of the audition, and in the physical part she never stopped, never faulted. I knew at the end of that day that I’d found my warrior.”

Liu has plenty of experience acting in wuxia films, a genre of martial arts films in China. Besotted, Mulan's filmmakers even pushed back production five months for Liu.

“She was doing a television show and so she wouldn't be available to a certain point, and the point when she was available was terrible weather for us,” Reed said.

Liu, who exudes confidence onscreen and is praised by her co-stars for her professionalism, is more reserved in conversation. She said she doesn’t try and think too much about how Chinese audiences will perceive her as Mulan. Nor would she be drawn on a question comparing the character of Mulan in the animated and the live action version.

“I would not really compare, because I think each creation was its own form, and I really respect that,” Liu explains. “I’m also open to Mulan’s possibilities. We tried not to fix too many things.”

For Honghui actor Yoson An, who only has a handful of credits — mostly in his home country of New Zealand and in Australia — the whole international fame thing hasn’t quite set in.

“I don't think it’s hit me yet, I don't know where it's gonna go until this movie’s released, I guess. I'm still kind of rolling with things, just one day at a time,” An said.

Admitting that he would’ve been looked over if the live-action Mulan had been a musical, An said he only picked up acting in his late teens, disillusioned with his university studies.

“When I heard that Niki [Caro] was set to direct this movie back in 2014, I was like, ‘Oh, so cool. A New Zealander is set to direct Mulan,’ and I was just walking back to get my car and I was like, ‘Wouldn't it be cool if I played the love interest?’, just like a little thought in my head, and I'm thought, ‘No, that's never gonna happen.’ And then, four years later, here I am,” he said.

"It really dispels all the classic Asian stereotypes from all the other films."

The world of Mulan is inspired by the Tang dynasty, a golden age of imperial China during which it experienced flourishing trade with foreign nations and cultural advancement. In An’s eyes, Mulan could be a major moment for Asian diaspora worldwide — although Liu’s praise for police during the Hong Kong protests last year has prompted calls for a boycott of the film.

“In this film, the cast, you see people from different kinds of cultures interacting with each other and every single character has a multi-dimensional layer for them. So it really dispels all the classic Asian stereotypes from all the other films,” he explains.

“And with what Black Panther has done for its community, and I really feel that Mulan is gonna do the same for the Asian community as a whole, taking on what Crazy Rich Asians has already done for Asian community, with the momentum it created.”

Like Crazy Rich Asians, Mulan looked far and wide for Asian actors. There’s a mixture of Asian New Zealanders, Asian Australians, Asian Americans, and of course, Chinese actors. Mulan is mostly in English, to the joy of the subtitle-averse out there, and thus all actors are aiming towards a Chinese-influenced American dialect — a goal which Reed admits has been “complicated.”

It’s no problem for An, who said he’s performed Chinese accents on screen before. Reminding us how young he is, An mentions he practiced as a kid to YouTube videos of Canadian stand-up comedian Russell Peters, who went viral a decade ago for his “Be a man! Do the right thing!” bit.

“You guys know Russell Peters? Right? As a kid, I’d watch his stuff and do exactly as he did. But that's a very comical version of the accent, it’s very different to what we’re doing,” An said.

In research for its live-action reboot, Reed and the production team went back to the original ballad and the “many, many variations” which told in China since, including several modern film and television adaptations made in China — before watching the Disney animated version again, thinking how Mulan would appeal to multiple audiences.

With the coronavirus shutting down all 70,000 of the country's theaters since Jan. 24, it's unclear — and more unlikely every day — that multiplexes will reopen in time for its planned release.

"It certainly has worldwide and global appeal, but there's no denying that this is a very important film for the Chinese market," Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a huge blow for Disney if it doesn't release in China." Disney president of production Sean Bailey told the publication he's "looking at it day by day."

Whenever and wherever it arrives, the hope is that Mulan will appeal to four audiences: the Asian diaspora community worldwide; women; Disney movie fans; and of course, a Chinese audience. But why would a Chinese audience watch another adaptation of Mulan? The answer lies in the hope that Disney can create something exceptional this time around.

“One of the things that was made clear to us from the very beginning was, make a Disney movie. Don't try to make the Chinese version of Mulan, because they've already made it several times, and they've already seen it,” Reed explained.

“So if you wanna make something that's going to play to the Chinese audience and be interesting to them, make the Disney version. And what that meant to us, was that we had to bring the highest level of execution, production, design, costume, hair and makeup, the cinematography.

“The people that we hire, they were hired with the expectation that we wanted awards-caliber work, and they weren't meant to think about this as a kids movie or an animated remake, or any of those things.

“Our references are David Lean and [Akira] Kurosawa — we're not looking at 101 Dalmatians.”

#entertainment #disney #mulan #live action mulan #article #I'm all four audiences so let's see if it appeals to me lmao

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emanuelgr018 · 4 years

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dvp95 · 5 years

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quiet on widow’s peak (1)

pairing: dan howell/phil lester, pj liguori/sophie newton/chris kendall rating: teen & up tags: paranormal investigator, youtuber phil lester, dan howell is not a youtuber, online friendship, slow burn, strangers to lovers, nonbinary character, background poly, phil does some buzzfeed unsolved shit and dan is a fan word count: 3.2k (this chapter & total) summary: Phil's got a list of paranormal experiences a mile long that he likes to share with the world. Abandoned buildings, cemeteries, and ghost stories have always called his name, and a particular fan of his has a really, really good ghost story. Bingo squares: met on tumblr

new wip? NEW WIP.

read this chapter on ao3 or here!

The wind is loud in this one. That's frustrating, and it makes Phil's job a lot harder, but he can't control the weather. Be cool if he could. He does his best to level out his voice and the background noise of Mother Nature before he settles in with his good headphones and really cranks the volume.

It's even more annoying to listen to the alternating crackle and whistle right in his ears. Phil has dealt with worse during this whole process, though, so he finds the strength to power through it. He listens to the full thing three times, scribbling a few timestamps down on a Post-It pad as he does. He takes a break after that, does some stretches around his tiny bedroom and tiptoes out to get a snack without waking the whole damn house, and then he's right back in his apparently ergonomic office chair to subject his ears to more of this nonsense.

Wind, wind, and more wind. And sometimes just Phil's own voice. Nothing of note.

Phil is about to give this video up as a loss altogether when he hits one of the final timestamps and... can't figure out what that noise is.

For the first time since he opened this file, Phil grins. He exports the clip and plays around with it in Audacity. Some videos are always more fun than others, and Phil had felt like he was slogging through this one until now.

"Do you hear that, Theodore?" Phil murmurs. The tiny cactus on his desk, thankfully, does not respond.

It sounds like a person. It sounds like a person, whispering, and it definitely isn't the wind, and it isn't Phil's own voice, because he's in the middle of a question in this clip.

Phil might just be going crazy from sleep deprivation or wishful thinking, though. He pulls out his phone and texts the only group chat that doesn't cause him anxiety, which is comprised of the housemates that he actually gets along with. Anyone up? he asks, adding a single eye emoji for good measure.

Even though it's gone two in the morning, he gets immediate responses from all of them. A string of vaguely dirty emojis from Chris, a simple yeah from Sophie, and a cheerfully morbid did you know that insomnia leads to an early death? from PJ.

Wanna listen to a noise for me?

Within three minutes, Phil's bedroom is full of people in various states of sleepiness. All of them are in ridiculous pyjamas - including Phil - and PJ's hair in particular has taken on a mind of its own. Phil's room isn't really big enough for all of them, so there's some awkward shuffling before PJ claims the office chair. Phil sits at the foot of his bed with Sophie and Chris on either side of him, pressed close against each other's shoulders. It's a good thing he likes these people.

"I mean, it isn't the wind," is PJ's confident opinion. "Did you have anyone with you?"

"No, it's just me and my camera against the world," says Phil.

"No need to be a twat," Chris informs him. He taps at PJ's upper arm, impatient. "Let me have a go, then, if there's something there."

Chris is famously bad at hearing things in white noise, but PJ acquiesces the seat easily enough. Phil laughs, watching them do a weird step dance around each other in the small space between Phil's bed and desk.

"I can't hear any specific words," PJ says as he flops down across Phil's pillows, making himself comfortable. Phil just nods, because neither can he.

"How d'you know it's a person, then?" Sophie asks. Her voice is probably the only one soft enough for the hour. Their other housemates hate them for their frequent all-nighters, but Sophie is kind and quiet enough that she slips under the radar.

"You'll see for yourself."

When Sophie goes to respond, Chris interrupts in a hilariously loud voice, as if he's forgotten that having headphones on doesn't mean they can't hear him. "It's some kind of ghoulie or ghostie! I can barely fucking hear it, Philly, why didn't you mic it?"

"Why didn't I mic the ghost?" Phil asks, bewildered. Naturally, Chris doesn't hear him.

Sophie taps Chris on the shoulder and stands, leaning over his shoulder as she takes her turn listening to the sound clip over and over. Chris spins in the chair a few times and gives Phil an unhinged sort of grin.

"You got something this time," says Chris. He sounds like he's having just as much fun as Phil is, now that there's actually a thing to listen to besides his own voice and the loud, loud wind.

"I think so," says Phil. "Why didn't I mic the ghost?"

"I'm saying it would make your job a lot easier if you mic the ghost, yes."

"If I could mic a ghost, I'd be a millionaire."

"Then you better get on it, eh?" Chris laughs, spinning a bit faster. Phil has never seen the man sleep. It's a little bit worrying.

"Sure," Phil says, giving up on trying to teach any logic to someone who's clearly long lost their hold on it. "Next time I spend all night in a graveyard, I'll mic any spirits that might be hanging out."

"Shut up," Sophie tells them, mild.

Chris mimes zipping his lips, wrapping an easy arm around her waist, and PJ laughs.

For the first few months they all lived together, Phil had struggled to keep up with whatever dynamics were going on between the three of them, but he's long since given it up as something he's not going to understand.

After a moment of quiet, Sophie nods. "I hear it," she tells them. Even with the headphones on, she's quiet. "It's not words, I wouldn't put any subtitles over it."

"Yeah," PJ agrees. "Just let your audience duke it out in the comments like they always do."

"Thanks, guys," Phil says, feeling a sort of warmth sink into his shoulders. He notices that Chris is pulling up another application and half-heartedly protests. "Chris, you don't need to edit this one for me. I still haven't paid you for the last video." Or the one before that. Or the three or four previous. Phil has it written down somewhere.

"Don't be stupid," Chris hums, already clicking around erratically. It makes the editor in Phil want to scream, but he has to admit that Chris manages to find more weird visual stuff to isolate than he could on his own.

"I feel bad," says Phil, chewing his lip.

"I've told you," says Chris, "you can pay me back in chores and sexual favours."

PJ's slippered foot knocks against Phil's hip, and he grins brightly when Phil turns to him. "You know, I do have a bit of a laundry backlog."

"Funny thing, that," says Sophie.

Biting back a laugh, Phil shakes his head. "Alright, alright. Everybody leave their laundry in front of my door tomorrow."

"That's a no on the beej, then?" Chris asks, raising a single eyebrow and pointing dramatically at Phil. It has been near two years of this, and Phil is still too afraid to ask if it's a joke.

It's not as if Phil's answer would change if it wasn't a joke, because he's not interested in Chris, and he's especially not interested in becoming entangled in whatever nonsense his housemates have gotten themselves into. But, still, he might be kinder about letting Chris down if he were being genuine.

"That is a no," Phil confirms. "But I will wash your pants."

"Kinky," says Chris. He turns back to the screen and makes an incomprehensible hand gesture. "This is pretty shit. You know that, right?"

Yeah. Phil does know that. It's getting harder and harder to have the same optimism in every video that he'd had when he first started recording his wanderings around the supposedly-haunted places of Rossendale. He'd brought the camera with him when he left, but might have left that optimism behind. Phil only kind of believes in supernatural things - the way he only kind of believes in giraffes or true love - but it's been more fun than anything else to pick up a camera and try to find some evidence.

He's been doing this since he was nineteen, though, and he's getting a little bored by the formula of it all. Go into a haunted place, try to communicate with the spirits, pick up some garbled words or creepy noises, highlight visual oddities like orbs, and let the internet tear it all to shreds. Honestly, he'd have more fun making proper horror at this point in his life.

Phil shrugs and pulls his knees up to his chest. He wants to hide away from the sympathy in Sophie's eyes, from Chris' blunt words. "Yeah. I'm getting kind of... I don't know. Restless."

"Maybe you should ask people to submit things again," PJ suggests. "That went well last time."

It had, actually. Phil had needed to sort through a lot more ridiculous stories and obvious hoaxes than usual, but he'd found some nuggets of gold in all that hay. Or however that saying goes.

"People did like having their stories read out," Phil says slowly. "I'd just need to be extra sure that nobody's, like..."

"Ripping off r/NoSleep," says PJ.

"Yeah, exactly."

"We can help," Sophie says, and Phil could cry at how easily PJ and Chris agree with her.

He really doesn't deserve to have such great people around him. They've got work and lives of their own, but they're always happy to spend time crowded around Phil's computer listening to weird noises together. Phil sometimes wonders what they get out of it. Do they just like helping him, the way he has fun holding the boom for PJ's films or testing Sophie's concoctions? Or are they just as fascinated as Phil by the weirdness of it all? Do they want to see the cool instances of paranormal activity, too? At this point it feels nearly impossible to ask.

"That's going to be a lot of washing pants for me," Phil sighs. He doesn't know how to thank them, not when they always just wave it off.

"Sure is," says PJ. "But you should... ask the audience!"

"Your Chris Tarrant is pretty good," says Phil, only a little surprised by it. PJ's voice is as much of a tool to him as the rest of his body, and it's one he's always been skilled with. The impressions still tend to catch Phil off guard sometimes.

PJ tips an invisible hat. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week."

At his friends' not so gentle encouragement, Phil makes a few posts on his socials to ask his followers for new creepy things to explore. It might be the middle of the night in Brighton, but he has a feeling that Chris isn't leaving his desk until he's found every instance of an orb or strange shadow in the fifty minutes of currently uncut footage.

It seems like Sophie is on the same page, because she excuses herself to make tea for everyone. PJ leans over Chris' shoulder and watches the clips without sound, his lips moving as if he's murmuring to himself.

Sometimes this feels more like a group effort than Phil is comfortable with. He's never been very good at asking for help. As grateful as he is, he still itches with the need to take back control of the situation. He uses the slow trickle of fan submissions to distract him from that feeling, because all three of them do make his videos better when he stops being so possessive over his footage. Phil flops onto his back and scrolls through the incoming emails, tweets, and Tumblr messages to see if there's anything promising.

For the most part, the answer is a resounding no. Some things are blatant lies - there are countless ripoffs of films or novels that Phil happens to be familiar with, a few things swiped from creepypasta or subreddits, and his usual amount of conspiracy theorist fans insisting that some high profile person or other is a lizard - but most of it, to Phil's dismay, just doesn't grab his attention the way he wants it to.

Sophie comes back with tea and snacks. She leans her head against Phil's shoulder and watches him cycle through his apps, fact-checking idly and sighing every time something easily proves to be a hoax. Her hair smells like coconut and she makes a soft humming noise every time she lifts the mug to her lips. Her presence alone, small and warm and supportive, is enough to keep Phil from throwing his phone across the room and having a right sulk about how his career is in a tailspin because nobody makes ghosts like they used to. At some point in the night, Sophie's breathing evens out to the point that Phil thinks she's asleep, but then she reaches out to tap a tiny finger to his screen.

"What's this, then?" she murmurs.

Phil has been zoned out entirely for at least fifteen, and he blinks back into reality. There's a new message in his Tumblr inbox, one that seems like it must be over the character limit for asks. He must have submissions turned on or something, that's the only possible explanation for an actual essay being sent to him. It's barely broken into paragraphs with very little punctuation and no capitalization, and Phil has been staring at screens for far too long to try and parse this on his own.

"Can you please make sure this isn't, like, the entire Bee Movie," Phil asks, handing Sophie his phone with only a slight twinge of anxiety. He trusts her not to go snooping, but. Still. "I need to pee."

"Mhm," Sophie hums, already apparently lost in whatever stream-of-consciousness has been dropped into Phil's inbox.

The floorboards in this old Brighton house creak, and Phil has always envied some of his housemates for being able to sidestep the noises. It doesn't seem to matter how long he lives here, how much he tries to avoid making any noise, it's like the floorboards are determined to creak under Phil's weight. He winces as he passes two bedrooms whose occupants surely don't appreciate creaking outside their doors at such an ungodly hour.

At least he doesn't run into any walls this time. The nightlight in the bathroom at the end of the hall is the only thing lighting Phil's way, and he tends to stub his toes on absolutely nothing in this kind of semi-darkness.

When he makes his - very, very creaky - way back to his own room, he's bewildered by the scene that greets him. PJ and Chris have joined Sophie on his bed, and all three of them are poring over Phil's phone as though they're looking at a map to the Holy Grail.

"Hello," Phil says slowly, closing the door behind him. It creaks, too. "You aren't going through my pictures, are you?"

"No," Sophie and PJ chorus without looking up.

"You got nudes on here or something?" Chris asks with a mild sort of interest, clearly also too engaged in Phil's phone to put his all into the flirting.

"I don't," says Phil. It doesn't sound convincing, even though it's true, and he waits for Chris to tease him about it some more. When he doesn't, Phil has to admit that he's curious. "So I guess it isn't a meme or something?"

That makes them look up, in almost comedic synchronicity. Sophie blinks a few times, as if she's coming back to herself. She holds out Phil's phone and shakes her head.

"It's not a meme," she says. "And near as we can tell, it's genuine."

Phil joins them and takes his phone back, adjusting his glasses. His bed really wasn't made for four people, but his housemates have never had any personal space amongst themselves, and Phil isn't one to say no to human contact when he isn't getting it anywhere else.

The message is just as hard to read as it was at first glance, but Phil puts his brain to work. If his friends are reacting like this, it usually means he's in for something good.

hi ok so the thing is that this is completely ridiculous and i dont think its what youre looking for at all but theres a building near my uni thats got a ton of stories around it and it only started happening like this year like it isnt an old obviously haunted type of place but theres a lot of weird shit that goes down there so i found all the references to it online that i could and ive summarized them here (w/ sources ofc im not a dick) and its all just this side of strange so it seems like the sort of thing you might be interested in ok here we go SO

And it goes on like that. Phil feels his eyebrows raising as he clicks the provided links in the following walls of text, which are exactly what they're advertised as. Not a single rickroll in there. Just a handful of posts on Reddit and Facebook and independent blogs about various experiences people have had with a particular abandoned building in -

"I know this place," Phil says, surprised. He looks up at PJ's grin, Sophie's wide eyes, Chris' palms rubbing together in exaggerated interest. "I've been to parties here. Well, okay," he corrects himself before his friends can do it for him, "I've gone with Martyn to parties here and left early."

"Yeah, it isn't far out of Manchester," PJ hums. He bounces in place a bit, like he's suddenly energized enough to go jump on the soonest train up north.

"It didn't seem that weird," says Phil. "It's been a few years, I guess, but it wasn't even that scary."

"Sounds like it's only just started, though," Chris pipes up.

Phil isn't sure how much he likes that. The idea of a place he's been a few times, half an hour from his childhood home, being so suddenly full of haunted activity feels... weird. Still, it's catching his interest in a way that nothing else has in months, so.

"I'll look into it some more tomorrow," he decides, glancing at the time. His brother is probably still awake, to be honest, but Phil doesn't want to be that guy asking 'hey, do you remember the Wilkins place?' before dawn has even broken. Again. He has definitely done that sort of thing in the past. "I'll have plenty of time while I do, what, seventeen loads of laundry?"

"Something like that," PJ laughs. "Want us to clear out?"

As nice as the company and help has been, Phil still feels a rush of relief at the concept of being left alone again. He nods, still scrolling idly through the Wilkins place submission.

It hits him, very literally, too close to home to ignore. He wonders if his fan knows that, if this is somehow an elaborate prank that will end up just wasting Phil's time, but he's too curious to leave it alone. He'll just have to ask around, see if anyone else has heard these murmurings.

Til then, maybe he ought to try and get some sleep. Phil's computer, still open on the editing software, tempts him.

Well. What's another couple hours at this point?

#phanfic #phanfiction #dnp fic #words words words #qowp..... mayhaps i made a mistake w this title......#quiet on widow's peak #YES it's another marianas title what are you the marianas title police?#bingo

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jolivira · 5 years

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season 11 ranking!

Jodie Whittaker is freaking fantastic, let me just get that out of the way. Thirteen is becoming one of my favorite doctors easily.

Spoilers bellow! Don't read if you haven't watched all 11 episodes of season 11! Well, you can read if you don't care about that stuff, just a warning =D

I like all the main characters but (just like many people have pointed out) I don't think the three companions shouldn't have been introduced at the same time. Or actually, they shouldn't have become companions at the same time. The TARDIS was too crowded and we didn't get a lot of focus on the Doctor herself because of it.

IN MY OPINION, I believe it would have worked best if we had met Yaz, Ryan, Graham and Grace in episode 1, then only Yaz ends up on space with the Doctor (episode 2) and they travel together for maybe 3 or 4 episodes. That way we get to know her and flesh out her character and start setting up thasmin and the sexual tension between those ladies.

Then have Ryan, Graham, Grace and Tim Shaw show up again (set up for the finale) and THEN Grace dies. Imagine how much more impact that would've had on us, how deeper it would have felt.

Later the Doctor invites Graham (who is running away from the empty house) and Ryan (who is learning to accept Graham) and from there develop their relationship.

Just some alternate ideas.....

Now.... to the episode ranking!

11- Tsuranga Conundrum

It's not that bad, I was just feeling uncomfortable the whole way, probably because it's hospitals and also pregnancy. We also should have had more backstory about that general! She seems awesome. And if her brother knew how to pilot the ship why didn't he do it from the start? Oh but I loved that initial scene where the Doctor is kind of dazed and selfishly tries to mess up the ship to go back and the medic in charge argues with her. I liked that.

10- Arachnids in the UK

Little bit too boring. It's a DW episode, I wanted giant alien spiders! Also missed opportunity to learn more about Yaz's family or just her character in general (thanks for creating thasmin though!) And we already got one donald trump no need to create another.

9- The Ghost Monument

I liked it just didn't feel it was that memorable compared to the others. I liked the idea of an intergalactic race and that fun stuff, though! Also new TARDIS, I just love the Doctor talking to her ship in general.

8- The Battle of Ranakoor Av Kolos

Horrible name for a planet but Jodie shined here, perfectly captured the Doctor's essence. The Ux are a really fun (actually really tragic) concept, I hope they return sometime! There were some frustrating parts for me but the good stuff balanced it out. Also a companion disagreeing and going against the Doctor? My jam. And it was so funny when Graham shot him and shouted "it was just the foot! Doesnt count!"

7- The Women Who fell to Earth

I'm just a sucker for post regeneration stories. And this one in special, everything was so new and fresh and exciting! But Jodie's accent (all of their's to be honest) is so strong that it shocked me the first time I watched it. English is not my first language so I needed subtitles, couldn't understand anything! Hahaha

6- Resolution

This reminded me of the episode "dalek" from season 1. I love me a full blown out dalek attack with ships and thousands of those little shits but honestly? Just one dalek can cause so much harm, that's why they are so scary. Also the closest we got to dark 13! I loved the scene where she confronts it face to face. This episode also finally showed the TARDIS interior properly! For all the other episodes it almost felt....smaller on the inside. The panels and buttons were also lacking, in this one they really made it look incredible! But again, the TARDIS was too crowded. Why introduce two new characters added to Ryan's dad? Didn't really like how Ryan forgave him at all in the end either :/

5- Witchfinders

The Doctor could go anywhere in time because he was a white brittish male, I liked seeing her getting frustrated about it a little but never actually regretting being a woman you know? The alien stuff in the end was pretty bad and the king was acting really creepy with Ryan, didn't like that at all. But yes! If anyone would be a witch in there it would be the Doctor. Also that hat, kudos for the hat

4- Kerblam!

Pretty fun! It honestly reminded me a lot of Tennant's era, I'm not sure why though..... Clever episode with interesting charcaters. OOOH! I also have a theory that before trading with Graham, the Doctor was placed in cleaning and stuff right? That's because the system knew Charlie was the problem so she was sent to work with him.

3- Rosa

I love how the civil rights movement is symbolized by Rosa and not MLK, although he has a great appearance in it! I am glad that there was no speech to inspire Rosa to protest, none of the characters told her about her impact on the future or how she needed to do this. It all came from her. Oh and important to see how Graham and the Doctor felt to be on the other side, on the ""evil"" side of history, being white during apartheid and having to act accordingly. I feel that's also important. I missed more talking between Ryan and Yaz about their experiences but oh well, nothing's perfect...

2- Demons of the Punjab

Teaching parts of history we don't hear much about! Yes!! And the only reason I have it second and not first place because I felt the Doctor and Yaz didn't properly... react? I mean, no tears and no talking about what just happened? They followed her nan and saw Prem die, knowing they could have easily stopped it. It's some heavy stuff, also the reason why he died. But I LOVE how the aliens aren't actually the villains, the doctor got it wrong, it happens. And she immediately apologized and thanked them. Beautiful.

1- It Takes You Away

The setting, the acting, the plot. I loved it start to finish. I even got emotional with the whole writing on the wall thing (assume her dad is dead, take care of her, etc). And eventually when the dad got back and read it, realizing how stupid he was. It portrayed a really messed up relationship between father and daughter, but also showed us the doctor can't fix something like that. I would have made the conversation with the frog (the solitract) deeper and to make more sense? It didn't feel earned when it allowed her to go back to her own dimension. They needed to have talked for longer but I understand the episode has a time limit.

And that's all! Thanks for reading and feel free to comment with your thoughts, whether you agree or not. See you in 2020 with more! *me sobing in the background*

#doctor who #resolution #dw spoilers #jolivira #rambles #my thoughts #my opinion #episodes ranking #13th Doctor #thirteenth doctor #dw #I haven't rewatched the series yet so this might change

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tekinapp · 2 years

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keepingupwithlinmanuel · 7 years

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In New Zealand, a Translated ‘Moana’ Bolsters an Indigenous Language

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The families lined up at the theater above a shopping mall here in New Zealand’s biggest city and filed past posters for Stephen King’s “It” and “Captain Underpants” for a film unlike any they had ever seen — the Disney hit “Moana,” translated into the indigenous language of New Zealand.

“Kei te pehea koe?” said the ticket taker, Jane Paul, greeting groups of children with a phrase meaning, “How are you?”

“Are you Maori too?” one girl asked.

About 125,000 of New Zealand’s 4.7 million people speak the Maori language, or “te reo Māori,” as it is widely rendered here. There are concerns that numbers are declining, putting it at risk of dying out. But with one in three Maori people in New Zealand younger than 15, experts said the chance for youth to see a wildly popular movie in their own words could turn the language’s fortunes around after more official efforts faltered.

“The language has got to be made cool and sexy and relevant to young people, and this movie is the perfect way to make that happen,” said Haami Piripi, a former head of the government body charged with promoting te reo Māori as a living language.

...

Taika Waititi, a New Zealand writer and director who worked on the original English-language version of “Moana,” also approached Disney early on about translating the film, and his sister, Tweedie Waititi, went on to produce the translated version.

The film was screened free at 30 theaters around New Zealand at the end of the annual Maori language week. It did not have English subtitles, but screenings were fully booked within 30 minutes, leading to plans in at least one town for additional showings.

Many of those attending in Manukau, in southern Auckland, said they had never seen a film at the theater entirely in their language before.

...Parents entering the theater said they relished the chance for their children to see themselves and their language reflected on the big screen, in a different kind of story that they hoped would instill pride in being Maori.

...

Most of the efforts to revitalize the language that have worked so far, he added, have been initiated by protest or court action. But Mr. Piripi said the film “Moana reo Māori” had given him hope there was another way: making the language “cool, relevant and useful” to young Maori.

“There’s no other film in the Maori language that would attract whanau and kids like that,” he said, using the word for families.

The entire process, including translation, recording the voices and mixing the sound, happened over three months.

Katarina Edmonds, a senior lecturer in Maori education at the University of Auckland, and one of three people who translated the film, said the team worked not only to find the exact equivalents of words in the Disney script, but also to remain true to the Maori language and tikanga, or cultural values.

Some moments of the film posed a challenge; Moana raging at the ocean, for example, contravened a Maori cultural rule to never curse or turn one’s back on the sea, so they turned it into a more humorous moment using careful wordplay.

At the same time, Ms. Edmonds said, the translation gave the film a uniquely Maori flavor of humor, while staying true to the spirit of the original script.

Rachel House, a New Zealand actor who voiced the character Gramma Tala in both the English and Maori versions of the film — and who was also the performance director of the Maori production — said she had been blown away by the response to the film, and the 30 theaters that screened it free.

“I’ve been on a very slow journey with the language for years, and now I feel like I can sit back and really enjoy the film, and experience the learning tool that it represents,” she said.

In Manukau, most families left the theater beaming. Many said they were eager to buy a DVD of the film, which is expected sometime in the next few months.

Desiree Tipene, 30, said that having grown up with immersion schooling, she was determined to give her children a similar experience — for a sense of identity and spiritual connection. She described “Moana” as a “funny and beautiful” way for her four children to connect with their culture.

“I just enjoy our language being spoken,” she said.

#lin manuel miranda #moana #aotearoa #articles #nyt #representation #hey real quick nyt - don't diss manurewa #come on

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hamminnam · 6 years

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Moving to Da Nang Part 2 (Finally...)

Subtitle: Finding an apartment.

The next step in moving to Da Nang overlapped a bit with the first. While I was staying in the hotel, I enlisted the help of my girlfriend (Hà) in aprtment hunting. Thus, this post is about FINDING AN ADEQUATE PLACE TO CALL MY HOME. I think maybe I can offer some useful advice in this one, so listen carefully.

Before returning to Vietnam I had done some casual apartment hunting in Danang. Well, more like apartment stalking. Find a place you like, obsess over it for a while, stare at it on Google Maps, imagine what it would be like to live there, then move on with your life. In my snoop-searches, I had seen some incredibly nice (seeming) mostly 2 or 3-bedroom places for about 400$ or $450 Canadian. It stood to reason that a 1 bedroom or a simple studio would set me back 1/3 or 1/2 that.

After my last experience in Vietnam, I had some basic requirements. Some such requirements were: not live in a hotel, live in a quietish area, have a large-ish fridge in an actual kitchen. Sure, being near the beach would be great. Yes, a brand new, modern building would be good. Of course I’d love an extensive kitchen, no kidding that I’d love to be as far removed from any mot-hai-ba-yo’ing as possible, but as long as I had the basics.

My approach to finding an apartment was simple: go on the apartment websites, open tabs with all of them that seemed acceptable and met my basic criteria, then call and set up appointments early the next day. Well, actually, it was Hà’s job to call and arrange. So, that’s what we did. We (she) began calling all the locations (easily 30 or more) I had highlighted. Now, I do recall a certain someone saying “Derek, you don’t need so many. Just choose a few you like”. Well, it turns out, that as we (she) called, certain trends began developing. Either:

1. The place had been rented already

2. That place was simply an example of what’s (supposedly) available

3. The agent who listed it didn’t work for that company anymore

4. The ad was actually for a different place

Of course, something can be said about each of these (if you’re new to my blog, you’ll quickly realize that something can be said about everything…). For #1, well, the question is, did it ever exist in the first place? The fact that it had been posted no more than hours before our phone call had me wondering if it were ever available at all. The matter-of-fact way the receiver of our phone call acted when nonchalantly expressing that an apartment posting not even up long to have been visited had been rented seemed a bit odd. Indeed, the rabbit hole is deep on this one.

For #2, this is a bit of a stretch. These may have been examples, but not of what is available, but more like examples of what is not available. So, these agents just posted things onto the web as a fun activity, perhaps. Maybe they just posted pictures of a home they liked, then fielded calls, telling people it wasn’t available. Does sound fun.

For #3, the follow up question was naturally “how can I get a hold of the person who does work there still. The answer of course was “I don’t know”. The next question was “do you have any other listings, maybe at a new job”, and their response was that they had left the industry. At this point, I hardly blame them.

#4 was quite interesting. In fact, the more we looked at apartments, the more we saw the same photos for different ads. Same kitchen, same living room, same balcony: different location, different phone number, different price. This, as you can imagine, became problematic. If you see photos, you would like to rent the place that match those photos. Perhaps this is wishful thinking. Perhaps my standards are too high in this digital age, but this is how I feel.

Nonetheless, I made some appointments. Out of the thirty, we got about 3 or 4 and a couple tentative ones. The first one or two were awful or were nothing like what had been advertised. Funny what selective photo taking can do to beef up an ad. There were a couple that were okay, but out of my price range. Some stated ‘kitchen’ but took the term very loosely. A dirty old sink in the corner of the bedroom does not a kitchen make. One place showed us what they were building, and what they hoped would be ready in a few months. We saw them laying the bricks and the plan of the apartment. Was I interested? If you read about my hotel, maybe you know.

Nothing was really going my way, and I was beginning to become despondent. Just the same, we kept calling any lead we could get. Hà would hear about a place and a guy who knew a guy who might be renting a place. She would then direct me, the driver, to go to this part of town or that part of town, while she was fielding more calls and taking notes. It was like a mobile office behind me. Quite impressive really. I think it could be the premise of a successful legal drama: Hà’s Mobile Law it would be called, and I would drive her around on a scooter while she solved court cases. (NBC, if you need to get in touch, just DM me…)

Against all odds we found not one, but two places that I might be willing to call home. One night I found a good one (apartment A) on a quiet street, though a bit far from the beach. I decided I would sleep on it. We found another the next morning (apartment B), on another quiet street, this one closer to the bridge, and a bit smaller. We went for lunch and discussed which I would prefer. I decided on apartment B and we called the landlord back. No response. We had our afternoon coffee and called again. Nothing. While Hà remained unconcerned, I was starting to get worried. What had happened? I wanted to rent it. Why wouldn’t they answer. Had somebody offered more? At Hà’s advice, I got the damage deposit and we went there to deliver the cash in hand, after all, money talks.

Upon arrival at the apartment, we saw an interesting sight. There was an agent – a separate agent from the one who had led us there initially – sitting with the owners and another foreigner, a young South African woman. Strange indeed. I realized that Hà had the best English in the group, so I decided to find out what the young woman was doing, by speaking faster than anybody else, outside of Hà, could understand. Well, she was there to see the apartment we had been trying to rent. She was interested. That’s odd. I explained to her what we had been up to, and she also agreed it was odd. “How much are they charging you” I asked, thinking for sure my fears of being outbid were coming true. Well, actually she was offered it for about a million less than us. Come again? I was underbid. I didn’t really know what to say or do in this situation, but the woman didn’t want to get in the way, so she backed out and instead of her, I proceeded to sign the contract, for the price she was going to pay. It had worked out after all.

Now, the main drawback in this place is that the main front window opens up to the lobby, not to the outside, and as such, there is no balcony, like the other suites. It’s a bit awkward, but tolerable. On multiple occasions I told them that should something above me become available, I want it. Come to me first. Well, something did come about, and about a few weeks later, my South African peer moved in upstairs. I guess I didn’t make the cut.

My first night at my new place was spectacular. I was just happy to be out of the hotel. In my own place. On a quiet street, away from traffic noise, bars, and karao- wait….what’s that? My very first night had wall-shaking karaoke for 3 hours. Right. Next. Door. I guess you just can’t win.

*The events depicted above occurred in the month of April, and there have been some developments since then. The karaoke house was torn down. That was fun. (By fun, I mean loud). It has yet to be replaced, but I’m in constant fear of the construction noises that will occur when it is. I am also waiting to move up apartments. There was somebody moving out in August. Perfect: I am away in July, and so I can move in then. Well, turns out that was a piece of misinformation. He is indeed extending. Fortunately, during our meeting about extending, the owners informed me that the English bloke on the top floor is on his way out. During that time, he appeared and I conferred with him about this. Not true. So, there’s that. Looks like another few months on the bottom floor. Let’s just hope there’s no construction starting up!

(*UPDATE to the updat: It has taken me so long to post this that I have now moved up a couple of floors. Typical Hamminnaming.)

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uh--nope · 4 years

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WHY I AM BOTH TERRIFIED AND HOPEFUL FOR HYMPIC'S ENGLISH DUB

I think I should just say that I am no all-knowing enthusiast who knows everything about dubs. I'm merely a viewer, a consumer, if you will. And as a consumer I have no knowledge of what is happening behind the scenes unless I go out of my way to look for it or I talk to other people who know it first hand.

I should also mention that I have always been a fan of youtaites since I was in 5th grade. I listened to OGs like Juby, Lizz Robinett, AshestoashesJC, Razzy and so many others. Back then people did fan translyrics of the openings of animes that were popular at the time (and they still do today). Some anime got their own english openings/endings like in the case of Black Butler and Ouran High School Host Club, both of which were dubbed by Funimation. Of course there are other animes that recieved english openings that weren't dubbed by Funimation, but I want to focus on Funimation for the sake of this post.

For a while, Funimation didnt do these sorts of english openings/endings. At least, none that I'm aware of. (If there are some let me know!)

Then Show by Rock graced us with their presence in Fall 2015(?)

In 2015/2016, I was in middle school. I remember watching Show by Rock and I loved the fact it was a musical anime. The bands were funny and engaging, and the music was top tier. Although I watched it in dub, I didn't mind the fact that they didn't dub the music. Then the DVD/Blu-Ray came out and it gave them the opportunity to do English covers for the music. I did not expect it, and what middle school me didn't like about it was how it sounded. I get that they were trying to sing in their character's voice, but I had lost the soulful hum of Crow's voice and the sweet voice of Cyan. Of course there were a few of them that did well, but I just couldnt vibe with it

After a seceral years pass, and watching and understanding what happens behind the voices and the opinions of other people who enjoy the dub. I now understand that dubs arent always supposed to replicate the sub, but rather keep and respect the spirit of the character.

(I could off on a whole tangent on that but that is for another post)

I listened to all of the official dub covers I could find on Funimation's Youtube. I now really appreciate Brynn Apprill's performance. Although I still don't vibe with it, I can still hear the passion and effort Mike McFarland put when singing Falling Rose and Re:Climb. One thing that I absolutely LOVED about the dub cover was the lyrics.

HOLY

MOTHER

OF PEAS

I completely adore how catchy and bouncy the lyrics were. Every song I came across as was so good and meshed well with the every band's theatrical theme. ESPECIALLY THE EMO BANDS MY GOSH.

NOW WHAT THE HECK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HYPMIC????

Well, Hypmic is a yet another musical property (that Funimation has licensed), but it stands out the same way it stands out of with other music properties. Its a rap anime...

There may be some rock or pop or hip hop music in it but overall its rap. Now I'm fine with whatever English VA they use for the characters. But my one concern is the rapping.

Theres a two-part article on Funimation's website [Part 1, Part 2] about making these english covers. In it they describe that they tend to add syllables or more words to elaborate on the meaning of the song when needed. I highly reccommend reading it to get a glimspe of how they may potentially dub Hypmic music. As someone who has been making translyrics of Japanese music (but has yet to publish them), this makes sense as many youtaites already do something similar to this.

Ex: Ore ga Ichiro: 6 syllables

Translation: I am Ichiro: 5 syllables

Possible lyrics: Yeah I am Ichiro: 6 syllables

Looking at the way they script their lyrics and how the anime is animates the rap battles in its two episodes so far. Theres going to be alot of things going on. I don't know if the Funimation's staff has experience with rapping in anime, and if so, how are they going to do it? It's convient that a good chunk of it is in English, but that can also hinder the flow of the potential English rap lyrics. I'm not worried about the lyrics of the rapping its more of the deliveries. Will they hit it out of the ballpark? Of course with my experience with Show by Rock, it may be a little average, I might like more performances than others. Also will the Japanese subtitles stay or will they edit that out and put in english lyrics? Will they have rapping Shakespearean Gentaro? Can you see the concern in my voice?

But whether or not we get a rapping dub in the near future or not depends on the company.

According to the article, Funimation can only dub the rap if the King Records or whoever in charge wants it dubbed. There's also the fact that there's a pandemic so dubbing music may be a bit more challenging especially since dubbing companies only release dubbed anime around the anime's 8th or 10th episode (at least that's what I have observed), we may not hear our boys rap in English until the near future, or never at all. I should also add the dubbed songs in Show by Rock were added with the release of the DVD/Bluray release. So if Funimation is allowed to dub the rap and follow suit with what they did in the past, we might not get it for a really, really long time.

And this is where I get super...um contradictory. I want to see Funimation try their hand at this. Like I said I may not like all of it, but I want to hear Ore ga Ichiro in english, I want to see how they handle the line "thuggy refugees" and other wacky lyrics. I want them to present Gentaro better. I'm really interested to see how everyone's english voice will sound like and what part of the character are they trying to emulate.

TLDR

I'm terrified because rapping isn't really a part of Funimation's experience so how to deliver and present these sorts of things in English could pose a challenge for them. However, I am also optimistic about how they do it. English VAs are just as talented as seiyuus and from what I've listened to in the dubbed music of Show by Rock, I think there is hope.

However whether or not dubbed rap happens depends on the anime's company.

#hypnosismic #hymypmicanima #anime #hypmic #hypmic anime #hypmic arb #hympic ichiro #funimation #funimateedits #anime dub #dubbed anime #hypmic thoughts #hypnosis mic: division rap battle rhyme anima #hypnosis microphone #hypnosis mic #english va #i really hope there a rap dub but even if there isnt ill live #i wouldnt mind it #english dub

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adrielreed · 7 years

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A Wild Night || Adrian & Celeste & Adriel

(under read more bc, chatzy)

Celeste: "Are you always this, how do you say... self-centered?" She asked, straightening up in her chair. It was a joke, but Celeste stayed serious. "I know because there is no other creature who could dream walk. I suppose someone celestial would be able to," she shrugged a bit. "But it's also around your aura." There was just something around a witches aura... She could just feel something there. "And you're not dreaming because this isn't your dream," she said simply, as she made everyone go back to what they were doing. "Do you want more coffee?" She snapped her fingers and a waiter came immediately.

adriel: Adriel had never been called self-centered before, and the biting remark stung. "Hold on, dream walk?" the witch asked, the phrase ringing a very faint bell in the back of her mind. She had learned something about it in the past, from her mentor, but the details were too foggy to remember. Adriel was able to conclude that the woman she was sitting with must've been a witch as well - for how else could she know about witch auras and dream walking? "How am I dream walking? I've never been able to do that before."

Celeste: Since the other witch didn't say anything, Celeste ordered herself another strawberry lemonade. At her question, she shrugged. That sounded more like a personal issue. "Maybe you tapped into your magic? I do not know. Perhaps it is that illness going around..." She paused and eyed the other witch "Are you sick?"

adriel: The illness. It made perfect sense. Adriel hadn't heard of what the next stage in the illness was, but seeing as she had uncontrollable magic spurts, it didn't seem unlikely that dream walking was another symptom. "Yes, that must be it," she agreed with a nod, sitting back in her chair with a sigh. She had to admit, the dream world was much better than the real one, and at least now that the confusion was sorted out she could enjoy what it had to offer. "How much longer do you think this will last?"

Celeste: "Seeing a doctor should be your first stop when it is morning," the witch suggested. The more people that were sick, the more likely it was for the illness to spread even faster. "Are you not enjoying my company?" She asked, offended. Celeste moved her head so she wasn't looking at the other witch. Another joke, not that the other woman knew that. "It will last until I wake up. Or you get killed. In the dream of course."

adriel: A solemn nod was all Adriel offered as a response. She had been dreading a trip to the hospital; with all the others that were far worse than her, it didn't seem fair. But, if her condition really was spiraling down, she might not have another choice. "No, no, it's not that at all," the witch answered quickly, "Although, it is weird being in someone's dream without even knowing their name. Mine is Adriel." One of the two options to end the dream walking experience didn't sound pleasant Though she knew the pain would only be temporary because none of it was real, the idea of dying still wasn't appealing to her. "I guess we'll wait until you wake up, then."

Celeste: Celeste nodded her head towards the other witch, Adriel. "Enchante. Je suis Celeste," she said introducing herself in her native language. "And I went to sleep a bit late, so we may be here for a while..." She stood up , stretched out her limbs and looked towards Adriel. "Shall we explore a little?"

adriel: Adriel didn't know French - her knowledge of the language was based off of subtitled movies on Netflix - yet she was able to understand the introduction. Celeste. A beautiful name. As Celeste stood up, Adriel nodded and followed suit. "That sounds like a good idea, seeing as a day this perfect shouldn't go wasted," she replied as she walked beside Celeste. After a few moments, a faint sound of knocking seemed to be coming from Adriel's right. A quick glance in that direction offered no clear source of the sound, yet it continued. None of the strangers on the sidewalk seemed to have heard the noise, either. Curious, Adriel glanced back at Celeste, an eyebrow raised. "Are you doing that?"

Celeste: As they both began walking, Celeste pulled her hair up into her usual ponytail. It was true, in her dream world the day was perfect. And it would stay this perfect unless she changed something. Though, she tended to keep her dreams simple and easy. "Am I doing what?" She turned towards the other witch and looked around. They were on a path that would lead them towards the park, the residents occupying her dream world seemed to all be fine, her emotions were in check and the world wasn't crumbling. Everything appeared as normal as it could be. "What are you talking about?"

adriel: Celeste's apparent uncertainty about the knocking made Adriel wonder if she was just imagining the noise - maybe a side effect of the illness? Just as she was about the disregard the whole thing, a voice was added to the crescendoing knocking. A male voice - and though it was distant, Adriel could just make out the words it was crying out. Adriel. Her name. The witch's heartbeat quickened, and she looked around wildly. "I-I don't know what's going on - there's knocking and now there's a voice and it -," she paused as she listened to the voice. "it sounds like someone I know."

Celeste: The witch stopped walking and stared at the other woman as she tried to explain what was happening. It was odd... Then again, if it were happening to the other's body and not her own, she would have no way of knowing. "Like someone is in your home?" Celeste looked up towards the sky, shielding her eyes from the sun. "Perhaps you should go back? I could kill you if you'd like. It will be painless, like falling asleep." Her words were not promises. She could not promise that, the French Witch had no idea if it would hurt or not. She murmured a spell into her fingers before reaching into the back of her shirt, touching the skin there. With a touch to the ink that was on her back, she pulled until her swords were physically in her hand. "It will be quick too," that she could promise, she was skilled afterall.

adriel: "I-I don't know, maybe?" Adriel stammered, trying to concentrate on the voice. It was getting louder with each passing moment, and suddenly it dawned on her who it was. "Adrian," she said aloud as the revelation hit her. What if he needed her help, if he was in trouble? Before she could say anything else, she was watching Celeste literally pull out a sword from behind her. Did that appear because it was a dream? That question wasn't important for the moment; Adriel watched the sword with wide eyes and nodded, collecting herself. "Yes, yes, okay. He might be in trouble, I need to wa-"

Celeste: Adrian? She could have sworn she heard the name before, perhaps from her employer or one of her clients, she just couldn't put a face to the name. It didn't matter anyways, the other witch needed to get out of her dream. Celeste swung her right sword in a half circle as Adriel spoke. It would be best if she just.... Mid-sentence, Celeste plunged her left sword into the witch's heart. "Au revior," she murmured before pulling out the sword. It was only a moment later before she all but disappeared. Finally, she would have peace and quiet.

adriel: Fire. That's what Adriel would equate the feeling of a sword being plunged into her chest to. It was a searing pain, and as soon as she felt it, the witch was suddenly in her dark room, sat up right and her neck wet with a cold sweat. Instinctively, she had her hands placed over her heart - where just moments ago a sword had been - and was working on controlling her breathing. She suddenly became aware, slowly, of her environment - Larkspur purring peacefully at the edge of the bed, the warmth from her blankets, and the knocking. Adrian! Adriel jumped out of bed, threw on a large cardigan, and had the front door open in a matter of seconds.

Adrian joined the chat 4 days ago

Adrian: He was just about to knock again when the door swung open. He stared at his friend before waltzing in. "So uhm, I have a problem." That would be an understatement. Funny, how he had had such a wonderful afternoon speaking with his wolf and now.... "You heard about those killings right? The vampire ones? I mean, could we consider it murder? We're already dead," he laughed. The vampire was babbling, but he couldn't seem to /stop/ talking. "So yea, they got burned right? Well okay, so. A portion of my house is kind of the same now. " He ran his fingers through his hair and laughed again.

adriel: As soon as the door opened, Adriel's wide eyes focused on Adrian. Immediately, she tried searching for any signs of injury or a twisted expression - but only found her friend in a relatively normal state. He walked in from the dark hallway, and Adriel quickly closed the door behind him and listened as he spoke, wondering why he came at such a late time if nothing appeared wrong. Then, she heard the last sentence - almost didn't even notice the gravity of the words because of Adrian's laughter. Her next questions came out in a flurry. "Wait, /what/? Someone set your house on fire? Oh my - Did you get hurt at all? Did you see who did it? How bad is it?"

Adrian: He settled himself onto her couch and put his face into his hands. "It's uhm.. The fire was put out, but. A good portion is, well, /gone/. My bedroom was in that area. " Adrian turned up to look at her "I've died before you know, but... I mean, I could have /died/ died tonight? That was my /room/. I just.. I'm baffled? Flabbergasted? I'm fucking pissed." The vampire let out a rather large sigh. "But no no, I'm not hurt. I kind of just walked up and my house was on fire.. I didn't see who did it." He quickly stood up and gave her an apologetic smile "I didn't actually realize how late it was... I'm sorry for bothering you.. I'll just let myself out."

adriel: Adriel sat in the chair across from the couch, angling herself so that she was fully facing the vampire. With his own realizations, Adriel felt her chest tighten as she thought about how close Adrian was to being /dead/ dead. The witch had always looked at him as an immortal creature, and though she knew vampires had weaknesses of their own, she never imagined that Adrian would die before she did. The thought scared her, as she realized that losing him would be a huge heartbreak she might not recover from. "No, don't be silly," she interrupted his intentions of leaving. "I always have time for you. I know you don't need sleep, but you can rest here for the rest of the night."

Adrian: As she spoke, he couldn't help but smile. Adrian took a hold of Adriel's hands, brought her up to a standing position and pulled her into a rather large hug. He buried his nose into her long,dark hair and inhaled deeply. The vampire could trust this witch, he would trust this witch with his immortal life. Indigo had made a very good point earlier that day, not trust anyone. But he knew he could trust both this witch and the wolf. "Would you mind terribly.. Would it be okay if I did stay here? I don't want to be a bother or anything?" He took a step back, his leg hitting the back of the couch and plopped down, pulling her along with him.

adriel: though she was rather taken aback by the sudden hug, Adriel wasted no time in reciprocating the gesture. Her arms wrapped around the vampire's back as she rested her head on his shoulder. It was a fleeting moment, yet it was also one that transported her briefly away from the troubles and tragedies of the world. For a moment, in her friend's arms, the only role that mattered was her being there to console one of the most important people in Adriel's life. "The day you become a bother to me is the day I've officially gone off the deep end," the witch joked. She allowed herself to be pulled down to the couch with Adrian, and rested comfortably against his side. "You can stay for however long you need - no need to waste money on a hotel or anything."

Adrian: "Oh really?" He chuckled and nudged her slightly with his shoulder. Adrian leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to her temple. "You're the best. Though I can always get a hotel, money is no issue... I'll have to start fixing up my place. Shit. Perhaps I should tell Bellissa..." He was mostly speaking to himself, but it was true. If a portion of his home was burned to a crisp, he really need to get that fixed as soon as possible. He probably needed to text Indie as well... Tell him before he saw the news. "You know, I feel tired? And it's irritating because I know I can't sleep it off. You mortals have it so easy," he teased.

adriel: "You think I'm going to let my best friend stay in a hotel when there's a perfectly good, welcoming apartment right here?" Adriel asked rhetorically, nudging him back. "Maybe you inhaled some of the smoke and it's making you not think clearly," the witch teased. She scoffed at his remark, pretending to roll her eyes at the vampire. "Says the vampire, who never has to deal with a sore throat or stuffy nose," she pointed out. The mention of sleep reminded her of the events that transpired before his arrival. "If anything, I wish I didn't have to sleep. I think I was ... Dream walking? It was weird, and I'm glad you woke me up from it. I don't want to experience /that/ again," she commented, remembering momentarily how it felt to have a sword thrust into her chest and wincing at the thought.

Adrian: "Well listen, I'm not used to living in these sorts of conditions?" He sniffed and stuck his nose up in the air, laughing after a moment. "I just hope it won't be too crowded for you? I mean, it would be you, me, your genie and cat. One of us is going to go insane I think. But I promise to do... stuff... around the house." By that, he meant hiring someone to do the cleaning up, but /she/ didn't have to know that. "Oh yea, that's true. I don't want to remember what it felt like to get a cold or sore throat," or be cold and hungry. His thoughts quickly shifted from his human life to the idea of dream walking. "I've heard of that. It sounds like fun? I want to dream walk, it would be so cool to see what others are dreaming. I didn't even know you could do it."

adriel: "'You, me, a genie, and a cat' sounds like a cool idea for a supernatural sitcom, don't you think?" Adriel reasoned aloud, giggling softly. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can all handle each other around. And trust me, I don't expect you to do too much around - just don't, like, break anything, okay?" she teased. His comment caused her to shake her head as she sighed. "I wish it was as fun as it sounded. Maybe it was just because of who it was with. I mean, she /stabbed/ me. Like, a sword and everything. It didn't hurt when I woke up, but still, who stabs a stranger, you know?"

Adrian: "I would pay good money to make our lives into a sitcom or a reality tv show. Though, we would really have to spice up our lives." In truth, he would hate being filmed the entire time.... Well after a while. For a bit in the beginning he was sure it would be fun. "I won't break anything and I won't bring anyone home, cross my heart and hope to die," he gave her a wide grin. Adrian listened to her story and squeezed her shoulder "You got stabbed? Where? Here?" He began to poke her sides then started tickling her.

adriel: "Good, I'm going to hold you to that promise," Adriel warned in a feigned commanding tone, though she knew there'd be no real penalty for breaking any of the rules. As soon as Adrian began poking her, Adriel knew how it would end. No amount of mental preparation could aid the witch in her resistance against Adrian's tickles. Her laughter rang out loud as she tried to wiggle from his grip - a hard feat to accomplish against a vampire - until she twisted at just the right angle to slide from his hands move to the other side of the couch. Her chest heaved as she caught her breath. "/Rude/. I'll get you back for that one of these days, Belluci."

Adrian: He shrugged, then took a hold of her feet to drag her back to his side, gently of course. Having a good laugh with a friend is what he needed to calm down, though he was still upset about his home. He let out a breath through his nose deciding to just take it a day at a time. He would have his house fixed in no time and perhaps they could catch whoever did it. In the mean time, he refused to live in fear... But living with a friend did mean he was putting said friend in danger. They all needed to be careful. "Oh pfft, you wouldn't. You can't take me on Reed." The vampire patted her head and turned towards her TV "Can we watch something on Netflix or something?"

adriel: "I think you underestimate my abilities," Adriel crossed her arms over her chest defiantly - though the whole gesture lost its power after just being dragged back to her friend's side by her feet. "It'll be a sneak attack - you won't see it coming," she warned with an overly dramatic eerie tone. At his question, she extended a long arm to grab the remote from the coffee table and flicked on the TV. After scrolling through the titles on the Netflix page, Adriel giggled in glee and selected a movie. "Trust me, you're going to /love/ this one," she replied as the Disney logo appeared on the screen.

#k so chatzy like won't let me go back to all the messages #but it only started like two or so before this which is not too important i guESS #adrian3 #celeste1

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