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thefanficmonster · 3 years

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You Never Notice

Sykkuno x Reader (Female)

Warnings: None

Genre: Fluff

Summary: The center of someone’s world is never aware of their importance even when everyone else is in the know. People are hard to understand, no denying, but if we all spilled our truth like how Y/N admitted her feelings to Sykkuno, mutual understanding would be achieved a lot more easily. JK, she needed an eternity and maybe a thousand pushes. What’s important is the result though, right?

Requested by Anon. You are my first Sykkuno request and I wish I could thank you with a tag. Instead, I’m gonna thank you with a fic in which I put my all. Thank you for the request, hope the final product doesn’t let you down. 🥰

Here we go again. Sykkuno’s love life is brought up. This time it’s more frustrating cause I can’t shout how wrong he is about himself and the effect he has on the people around him. He has no room to speak, he hasn’t experienced what I have - one of your best friends living in your head rent-free because you’re just that whipped by them. That’s right kids, some of us never grow past the middle school crushes - they are a constant for some. That can be a good or a bad thing, it completely depends on how you view it.

Currently, him and Rae are addressing some dating rumors that started spreading about them earlier this week while Felix, Sean and I are kicking each other’s butts in Party Animals. We’re not all playing together, actually, we were all playing different games when we hopped into the call and just grouped together after playing solo got boring. Rae and Sykkuno are playing Among Us on a random server, her being the only person who’s streaming right now. She said she just wanted to clear up the dating rumors cause they were annoying to see popping up on her feed on every social media platform she’s active on.

“It’s ridiculous, really. People just look for online personalities to put in imaginary relationships. Are they that bored? I know quarantine is getting to everyone, but damn“ Rae says, laughing a bit to take the edge off her words but I know she’s bothered by this ordeal more than she’s letting on. I know how much it bothers her when people ship random youtubers and streamers together, even when she’s not involved.

And I agree. Ever since I started streaming I’ve been shipped with my friends left and right. First Corpse, then Dave, Joel...you name them. It gets kinda gross cause these people are legit like siblings to me. Unlike Rae, though, I don’t waste my breath trying to clear those ‘talks of the net’ up. I don’t know if it’s for better of for worse that I remain silent on the issue when I’m involved but am willing to stand up for my friends when they find themselves in a similar situation. Some people think the reason I don’t share my thoughts is because the rumors are true, but the hint is most often taken, resulting in the ship ending. Well, that ship ending, there’s always a new one popping up. As Rae said, it’s ridiculous.

“Why does everyone think I am ever dating anyone? I’ve already commented on this: no one would date me.“ Sykkuno says through a sigh-like laugh.

“Why are you so sure?“ I blurt out without as much as a second thought

My eyes widen just a bit, just a bit. I’m not too surprised with myself. I am slowly losing control of my raging emotions and I’m afraid of what I’ll turn into when all my restraints snap. A mess, that’s the most likely answer.

“Well....“ Sykkuno trails off, clearly more than a little nervous, “I don’t have a girlfriend right now, and I haven’t had one in a while...Nor has a girl shown any interest to be more than friends with me in what feels like forever.“

“I’m sure you just don’t notice the hints girls drop. We can be pretty subtle.“ I try to sound as nonchalant as possible while I’m still in my panicked animal mode. And by animal I mean a cub. A scared cub that is now showing confidence but will run and hide right afterwards. I silently thank the universe that I’m not streaming right now. I can feel the heat on my neck and cheeks which is pure embarrassment and would have been more than evident on-camera.

“Yeah Y/N’s right, Sykkuno. Girls can be very subtle, but they will always let you know if they like you, even through the smallest of gestures. You gotta keep your eyes open.“ Rae backs me up reassuringly.

“Guys never notice anything.“ I say, rolling my eyes. I feel the pressure lessen thanks to Rae’s involvement in the conversation.

“That’s not true.“ Sean protests, “We pay close attention, especially to girls we are attracted to.“

“Yeah!“ Sykkuno pipes in again, “I’m pretty sure I would notice if a girl was dropping signals that she likes me.“

Now that stings. That legit makes me wince and cringe as though his voice delivered an actual physical hit to my chest and stomach. It’s really unpleasant, painful even.

“You never notice.“ There’s something about this triple opportunity - proving him wrong that he’d catch onto a girl’s signals; proving him wrong that girls aren’t attracted to him; coming clean about the biggest emotional struggle I’ve experienced in recent years; - that snaps my last emotional restraints. I will totally regret this later, but after the regret comes the relief which is 100% worth it.

“What?“ He sounds very puzzled. I can just about imagine him frowning as he tries to wrap his brain around something even I can’t wrap mine around.

“You say you’d notice a girl’s hints of attraction. OK.“ I nonchalantly throw Felix off the submarine in Party Animals while I keep talking, “Would you notice if a girl purposely doesn’t kill you in Among Us when she’s impostor? Or would you notice that a girl always sends you links to videos she finds funny? Or that she always shares music and movie recommendations with you and you only?“

Dead silence ensues. I feel like they have all glitched, considering Sean didn’t even try to put up a fight when I lifted him and threw him in the ocean as I previously did with Felix’s avatar.

Maybe I was a tad too specific and made the whole situation hit a little too close to home for me.

Sykkuno and I have become really close friends and we chat and play games regularly. As I mentioned, I give him movie and music recommendations and I only recently started acknowledging the fact that I’ve never killed him in Among Us. Natural instinct I guess. In fact, I feel the need for vengeance when he’s killed. I refuse to even vote for him unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Now that I think about it, it’s not his fault he has no clue. I just don’t know how to properly drop hints.

“Um...I mean, I guess I would notice but I’d never think they are that type of hints.“ He finally replies.

On point there, dear. On damn point.

“What does it take for you to be convinced that a girl is into you?“ Who cares that a bunch of people are about to witness this outpour? It’ll make it more real, yes, but it will also help me believe that it happened so I don’t try to crawl back to the point where return is an option. No return now. You’ve already passed two thirds of the way. The last one will set you and your mind free.

“The only way I can be sure is if she tells me, really.“ He sounds so nervous and shy, like he’s trying to draw as little attention as possible.

He doesn’t have to worry. I’m about to pull all the attention on me.

“Well in that case....you leave me no other choice.“ My screen displays me as the winner of this round of Party Animals - an easy one considering my friends are glitched in real life. “I like you, Sykkuno. I like you a lot. And I know you will see it from every context except the one its meant to be in so I’ll be even more head-on - I’ve liked you, as more than a friend for quite some time now, but buddy, you can be sooo oblivious sometimes. Anyway...“ Here’s that regret I was talking about, it’s already creeping in. “Don’t feel the need to say it back. I don’t wanna hear it if you don’t mean it. And Rae,“ I can’t help but laugh at the thought, “Sorry for making your chat go crazy. Peace!“

And I disconnect from the Discord call.

“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?“ I say out loud, staring at my desktop. “The cat’s out of the bag and you can move on now.“

I push myself to get some work done in order to get my mind off the mess I’ve created. I’m afraid of thinking about it, I know I’ll get too upset to do anything with the rest of my day if I do.

Suddenly, just as I’m about to open my email, my phone chimes. My brain doesn’t bother to stop my arm from automatically reaching out and checking the notification. A message.

From Sykkuno.

~ I knew you didn’t suggest me ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ for no reason

Me ~ So...?

~ So, I’m not the only oblivious one here, Y/N

Me ~ Wait WHAT?

~ ‘Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist’?

Me ~ Oooohhhh...I see

It takes him a few seconds to reply, the bubble with the three bouncing dots popping up and disappearing a few times now. I just now feel my heart banging against the inside of my ribcage, my pulse echoing in my ears.

He did seem a little too eager for me to watch that movie...

~ So, movie date?

I laugh, wholeheartedly and honestly. Genuine joy running through my veins.

Me ~ So it is.

The grin that is now decorating my features promises to stay there for the rest of the day. I bite my bottom lip at the thought that pops into my head.

Me ~ Phew, I can stop sparing you in Among Us from now on

He sends me three cry-laughing emojis in return, but I don’t need those. I can just imagine him laughing as he usually does with one hand covering his mouth. And here I thought my grin couldn’t grow wider.

Imagining him happy makes me smile. His happiness makes me happy. He makes me happy.

Even better...

I think the feeling’s mutual.

#sykkuno #sykkuno fanfic #sykkuno fanfiction #sykkuno x reader #sykkuno x y/n #x reader #reader #reader insert #x y/n #y/n #fanfic #fanfiction #among us #requests open #requests #fluff #love #crush #happy

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chalkrevelations · 3 years

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Street Dance of China S3, Ep 3. It sounds like maybe I should step up my pace on these, as they’ve announced the captains for S4 now? (Yibo back, Lay Zhang back, plus a couple of new guys I don’t actually recognize yet.) When is this going to air because it is just LAUGHABLE that I can keep up with 3+ hours of this a week. Particularly if I’m going to keep obsessively re-watching Word of Honor AND try to finally finish Killer & Healer in the miniscule free time I actually have for teevee. There’s certainly no way I can watch and dither on about 3+ hours/week worth of dance show in realtime before January, at least.

ANYWAY, this ep, we get a recap of everyone falling out after the captains’ cypher, and we learn who got the final extra towels and passed through to the next round: Lu Jiao Ni, who we barely see, on Team Jackson Wang; Yuan Ye (as promised) and A Li (who we barely see) on Team Lay Zhang (ETA: Wait, we find out later that A Li isn’t even on Lay’s team, she’s on Yibo’s - he wouldn’t move her on, and she gets one of Lay’s towels instead); Bullet (as promised) on Team Wang Yibo; and Xiao Ming (as promised? maybe? as we’ve barely seen this guy?) on Team Wallace Chung.

This week: Out of 400 people, we’re down to 105. Not all of these faces are familiar, and I suspect I don’t really need to learn 90 percent of the unfamiliar faces. I … am going to go out on a limb and make a guess that one of the dancers whose name has been bolded in one of the past two episode recaps is going to be the ultimate winner, because I have umpty SYTYCD episode reactions on my LJ, and I suspect I know how this works. I wouldn’t even put money on any of those five bolded names in the previous paragraph, quite honestly. Anyway, now it’s time to start culling down to 60. We bring out the team captains, and my first reaction is “MY EYES” because wth are some of you wearing? Wow. Yibo’s shoelaces are all over his jacket. Wallace looks like he rolled a flasher on the street for his trenchcoat. Lay Zhang is wearing a baggy pink jumpsuit, and I guess, OK, it’s easier to maneuver bathroom breaks in one of those when you have a dick, but that’s definitely a fashion trend that should have stayed back in the ‘80s. I guess questionable fashion is an international phenomenon.

There’s also an empty chair for the promised Mystery Guest, and there’s a game with clues, and a lot of guesses from our captains about who the Mystery Guest will be, and Jackson does A Bit through the whole thing. I don’t know whether to be entertained or annoyed by him. He’s the only one without some egregiously questionable fashion choices (so far) this episode, so maybe he gets a pass. Anyway, I don’t have the pop cultural context to understand the guesses, and I also don’t have either the pop cultural context or the knowledge of this area of dance to grok the Mystery Guest’s identity, but he’s Huang Bo, and apparently he had more than 1000 dance performances in the 1990s, so he must be at least as old as me and Wallace, if not older. Yibo takes the opportunity to make the – very NON-politic – remark that maybe HE wasn’t even born yet at the time? That … is not the way to win friends and influence people, Infant. Also, the Mystery Guest is NOT the person Jackson kept doing A Bit about. The reveal is all very dramatic, and he does a lil’ bit of choreography from of each of the four Extant Captains’ videos before he takes off his mask, and they act appropriately impressed, and there are some girls with short shorts among his backup dancers, so that all happened. The show obviously wants me to be very impressed by him. Show also tells us he’ll have a special skill that will be very important and at least leads us to believe that he’s going to be the “life-saver,” so the audience immediately curries favor, or at least plays at it.

Next up: Rules. Eliminations this week involve contestants self-selecting into groups of anywhere from one to five people and performing for a panel of all the captains. Teams pull a number out of a hat for performance order. Thumbs up from all four captains, you go to the next round. Abstentions from all captains, you go home. Thumbs up from some and abstentions from others, you face the possibility of a call-out from other contestants, whereupon you have to dance for your life battle to find out which of you stays and which of you goes. Oh, and we’re only going to keep going until the 60 available seats are filled, and then we’re done. If you’re number 35, you’d better be prepared to battle someone earlier and kick their ass, or you’re fucked, you don’t even get to dance. I’ve said it before: Audentes Fortuna adiuvat. Only wait, ETA: There will be some last minute BS rules fuckery, in a way that is clearly intended to save someone in particular, which I feel some kind of way about - and it is not really the way that almost everyone on the show seems to feel - but I guess we’ll get to that later.

And cue ridiculously long nattering, so we’re going to cut here.

First group is Lin Meng (Team Wallace), Teng Zai (Team Lay), Bing - of the infamous motorbike flirtation - and Dian Men (both Team Yibo), along with a dude we haven’t actually seen yet, Tang Qian (also Team Yibo). Your lack of even B-roll so far is concerning re: your chances in this competition, Tang Qian. I’m just sayin’. Anyway, this is a powerhouse group, and at least Lin Meng and Teng Zai are familiar with each other because they’re from the same crew, and Xiao Bao remarks from the audience of contestants that these guys are going to go through, no matter what. They’re going to do a totally popping routine. My sound drops out at the beginning which … yeah, makes them look even more like a boyband at the beginning, in their matching baseball uniform shirts. So, here’s the thing, they’re a little muddled, they don’t move smoothly around each other on stage - their dance moves are coordinated, but they’re not moving in space like a group that understands each other. (Somewhere in here, my sound comes back, and Yibo already can’t hold still to the music.) The other thing is, though - all of these guys are very good at what they do, they finally hit their stride a minute or so in, and when they do, they hit it hard. I’m frankly surprised they don’t get passed right through to the next round, but Jackson abstains on the vote, and when called upon to explain himself, it turns out he just wants to see them battle. I can understand the impulse, Jackson, but this is already super stressful on all the dancers, and it doesn’t escape my notice that you’re the only one of the four captains without a dog in this particular fight, so a little bit you look like you’re doing this just because you can. Remember this, because it will set a bad example for an 11th -hour vote. Anyway, there’s the chance for a callout, which no one takes because the entire audience is convinced this group is too good to beat. Five of 60 seats taken.

Group two is Shen Kai Xiang – the Jack Ma lookin’ dude. He’s flying solo. He gets to stand around uncomfortably for a while onstage while Special Guest Huang Bo does A Bit making fun of all of the captains’ speech patterns and accents and pronunciation, except Yibo’s, because Yibo apparently never talks. Ha ha. (I’m also wondering if there’s some socio-cultural stuff underlying some of this that I’m not cued in enough to fully understand.) Huang Bo then tells the contestant that Jackson has probably fucked him over by praising him too effusively (he came from Jackson’s team, and Jackson already is displaying a tendency to rhapsodize about how everything is “ART”), so all the captains now will have inflated expectations that Shen Kai Xiang is surely only going to fail to meet. I’m beginning to suspect that Huang Bo’s Special Guest Superpower is not “lifesaver” but “kind of annoying asshole.” Maybe it’s to take that particular spotlight off of Chick. ANYWAY, Shen Kai Xiang FINALLY gets to perform, and he gets a little bit of a slow start, but he packs in a lot of elements and gets a LOT of good air in his moves once he gets wound up. He’s lyrical and super emo about it. I’m kind of “eh” on him – technically, he’s good, but I’m not particularly connecting with him, which I’m willing to admit could be a me thing, as everyone else seems super-impressed. Three captains pass him through. Yibo does not and explains this decision as personal preference – he likes more “underground” styles, more battle styles. Huang Bo brings back the issue of too-high expectations to help explain why Shen Kai Xiang isn’t being passed directly to the next round, even though Yibo just explained his decision and that is literally not the reason he explicitly gave. Anyway, Shen Kai Xiang gets no call outs, which seems to surprise Yibo, and we’re at six of 60 seats taken.

In quick succession, we move through Liang Hua Jie – we don’t see much of him, but we learn that while Wallace likes his musicality, Yibo doesn’t like his face (OK, doesn’t like his facial expressions, which, what can I say? I get this. If I’d had the power to unilaterally send home Lacey Schwimmer on her season of SYTYCD, I’d have done it, that’s how fucking annoying I found the way she’d mug for the camera the entire time she danced. Like I couldn’t even watch her dancing, because I was too distracted by what she was doing with her FACE the whole time.); Jian De Chao (wait, is this Chao from the first episode?) & Chen Zui – who, from what we get to see of them have some good flow and move pretty well together, but can get a little bit mushy in their moves, and Yibo likes their skills, but Lay thinks they don’t feel like a group, which what? Incorrect; and a group that’s dubbed themselves Purple Storm Show, which includes Alex from Jackson’s team and four other people who I can’t even catch – we barely see their performance, and Lay likes them, but Jackson thinks they’re flat. I can’t tell if any or all of these guys were sent through to the next round or sent home, but if they didn’t make it, then :( because I liked Alex, and he got hit in the eye for this, he deserves better than to get sent home because his team can’t get it together. We still have no group that’s been passed through by all four captains.

And then, next up is another powerhouse team: Gongsu Wu Ming and Hei Zai (Team Lay), George and Xiao Ming (Team Wallace), and (Xiao) Bai (Team Jackson). Yibo is skeptical about an all B-boy group, and don’t make me fight you, Yibo, because an all B-boy group is like my dream come true (sorry, poppers; sorry, lockers; my heart truly belongs to the B-boys, they are my favorite). We learn they added a flip at the last minute – an assisted flip, with a couple of them flinging George into the air over the other two of them. Wu Ming thinks that George is the only one of all the competitors who could do it, but George – who has a little more skin in the game than anyone else, as the guy who could potentially land on his head wrong - is a bit concerned about whether they’re going to pull it off. They start, and they’re all good, a little bit muddled before they hit their stride, but the slo-mo cartwheel is great, and from there, they’re off and running. This is why I like the B-boys – I know it takes a lot out of you to do this, but there is nothing – nothing – like the magnetic energy they can generate when they’re in their performance headspace and everything is flowing. This is a performance, and Wu Ming has talked a little bit about wanting to step up breaking, and if this is the sort of thing he wants to do, I’m all for it – give him the platform now. I’m going to take just a minute to single out Bai and say that he’s better when he’s not doing A Bit like he did in his initial performance for Lay Zhang – he’s much more electric here, and someone else’s choreography may make the difference. Jackson, Yibo, Lay – they’re all out of their seats, none of them can hold still in the face of this. We get to the end, and unfortunately, everyone else is kind of cluttered and mushy moving into position for the flip – that is not a way to go out guys, DO NOT DO THAT at the last minute – but then George f’kn NAILS the flip, so that’s thankfully the last impression they leave. The captain’s faces are a picture. (Except Wallace, who’s suddenly too cool to give us anything, apparently.) FIRST ALL-PASS. George’s assessment: “Not bad.” :facepalm: OK, Mr. Cool Guy. They also cut in a post-interview bit with Bai about the performance, and he notes that they all know each other, they’ve been battling each other for like, a decade, now. Dance together more, guys.

Moving on, we fortunately have another very strong group to follow them: Gai Gai, Wang Tao and Huang Xiao, all from Jackson’s team, and you can tell he badly, badly wants to start in on the ART! bit but he (loudly) keeps his mouth shut about this group until after the performance. The only one of these three we’ve seen so far this season has been Gai Gai, but they all dance in the same group together, and they seem to be well-known by a lot of the other competitors, particularly Huang Xiao, both as a dancer and a choreographer. They say they’re doing jazz, although I’d be more likely to call this contemporary, if I was going to put them in a box. They are gorgeous – lyrical, fantastic dance vocabulary, amazing choreography, beautiful musicality, and the way they move together as a unit is … :chef’s kiss: I think Huang Xiao may be the best of the three, technically, but there’s something ineffably charismatic about Gai Gai that’s pulling focus a bit – just a bit – more than the other two in this performance. If there’s a weak link, it’s Wang Tao, and really, that’s only by comparison with the other two, which is a really high bar. We get some shots of the audience of competitors worrying about Yibo’s reaction, given his preference for the old-school battle dancers and an apparent “strictness” with urban dancers and related genres, but these three also get an All-Pass to the next round, and Yibo talks to them a little bit about the choreography and his (complimentary) reactions to the performance before they leave the stage.

And then. Oh, dear. Then we get a group of three – Da Mao, A Li and Tall(? Maybe? It looked like he was going to get out of this anonymously – probably lucky for him – but then the subtitles threw up this name on him at the last minute) – who are the only krumpers who’ve made it this far. Lay Zhang is really promoting them, because he really wants to see a bigger krump presence, and he’s really nervous about their performance, and he really, really should not have pinned his hopes on these three, because I hate to say it but they are a hot fk’n mess. They are … not good. I can’t believe any of the three made it this far, and in fact, we learn after their performance, while everyone is sitting in a kind of stunned horror (and y’all, I am not exaggerating for effect there), that Yibo did not pass A Li on from his team, that she got one of Lay Zhang’s final extra battle towels. I mean, there’s an obvious gap in the quality of this performance compared to everyone else we’ve seen. There’s also a lot of pacing around and standing around instead of dancing. They’re trying for the attitude, but they’re not managing it. They do manage to get an embarrassed reaction from Chick, which says something all on its own, as I wasn’t aware that he had any shame. Other competitors also are doing the embarrassment-squick cringe in the audience. Lay Zhang is literally hiding behind his clipboard. This is the first All-Out we get, where they’re directly eliminated – not even Lay can bring himself to vote “yes” on them. Now, all the krumpers are gone, and Lay is visibly sad and frustrated, but as we appear to move to a little bit of a break, Yibo displays the most emotional intelligence of anyone there and asks Lay to teach him how to krump, to distract him and get him actually doing the dancing he enjoys for a little bit. It’s also a chance for Yibo to learn a new thing, and he talks about his chance to improve in a little interview bit from later on that’s cut in here. I mean, yes, that actually was kind of a sad attempt at krump during the cypher, my dude, so this can only help you, but you also are being an extremely good guy, giving your fellow captain some emotional support right now. Thumbs up.

Next up, we have AK Dong (Team Wallace), also flying solo, and they give us a little heart-tugging B-roll about how he doesn’t have a team with him there, so he’s going it alone. He’s fantastic right out of the gate - good musicality, clean and precise, and he’s got a nice texture to his performance, it feels … full even though it doesn’t feel as big and expansive as some of the other dancers. Unfortunately, Lay doesn’t agree with me (incorrect), says he wants a performance that’s more elegant and “balanced,” and is the single holdout vote, which opens my dude up to a call-out challenge. This is the guy who looks like comedian Hank Chen, which has overshadowed his dancing twice now, because he had to listen to it from Haung Bo when he came out to dance, and he CANNOT catch a break, because now he gets challenged by three teams, including Bouboo’s team, which also includes Klash, Bullet and Colin (all Team Yibo), plus Boris (Team Lay), who we’ve only seen B-roll of so far although he speaks good Chinese, despite being from … I’m not sure where, but not China? AK Dong complains about how Boris looks at him with innocent eyes and tells him that they have no option other than to challenge, which is true (ETA: insofar as we know at this point), because they’re #36, and the 60 slots would almost certainly fill up before they even get a chance to dance. This team wins the bottle spin against the other two challengers, and I mean. :hands: This is a slaughter. They’re five-on-one, and they’re all really good at what they do, they make it look effortless, and AK Dong’s face is going to kill me. Wallace actually does vote for him, but the other three vote for the team, and that’s five more seats filled, and AK Dong eliminated, and I’m annoyed (although not as much as I’m gonna be) because I liked him, and I would have liked for him to get a chance to dance without having to listen to the Hank Chen nonsense at least once.

Next, we have Li Yue & Sha Sha, who appear to dance together on the regular. They have a kind of sultry number put together as the Green Snake and the White Snake that is … hm. I don’t know if we’re classifying this as urban or jazz for the purposes of the show, but it’s another piece that fits more into my contemporary box, if we were classifying them for most of the Western dance spaces I’ve seen. They’re good, as befits this stage of the competition, but a little inconsistent, technically. Also, I don’t find them particularly exciting to watch – I feel like something’s missing, although I can’t quite put my finger on what. I’m not sure their flow is consistent, and they’re probably not helped by following Gai Gai, Huang Xiao and Wang Tao. They get three yes votes from Lay, Yibo and Jackson, although they are … enough to maybe make Yibo a slight bit uncomfortable, being the shy and fragile homosocial forest creature that he may be, or that he may be getting edited as, who knows. Huang Bo pokes at Lay Zhang about his reaction to and vote for them. He also basically says that Wallace didn’t vote for them because Wallace wasn’t turned on by them, because Wallace is still doing his imperturbable cool-as-a-cucumber routine. Wallace’s hold-out vote opens them up to a call-out, and several groups come down to challenge, including – bad luck for Li Yue and Sha Sha – TI, who win the bottle spin. This group includes choreographer Zheng Jian Peng, as well as Su Lianya, who I didn’t realize was a TI member, both Team Wallace, along with … oh my god, Wei Ming, who’s the “Sir, what are you doing?” guy from Episode 2 when Wallace was giving out towels to poppers like candy, and I’m kind of pleased he’s made it this far, just based on that moment, alone, never mind any dancing skills. Rounding out the group are Long Long and Wei Lin, both from Team Yibo, and I think we got B-roll of Wei Lin at some point during Yibo’s eliminations in the first couple of eps. I know nothing about Long Long at this point. At any rate, everybody in this group is so good, I can finally see how they got their rep – fantastic musicality, and a great job of working as a unit. They feel like a team, even when they don’t manage to be quiiiiite synchronized. I’m not really feeling their costumes. Su Lianya continues to be a standout, even in a group that sets the bar this high. Wallace’s composure finally breaks when the other team captains evince interest in poaching her, and oh my god, he still has the hair elastic that he held for her at her initial performance, that they said would be a token of their vow to go all the way in the competition together. OK, I give Wallace a lot of shit, but this is actually kind of adorable. He literally pulls it out of his pocket to tell the other captains they can’t have her and to plead with her to remember their promise to each other. TI gets three votes and moves on. (Lay, still apparently captivated by the snake ladies although not enough to bald-facedly vote for them in the wake of TI’s performance, abstains.)

Next up are Tao and CiCi, and OK. I’m going to be honest here. I think they’re leveraging the “couple” schtick for all it’s worth, and good for them, it looks like they can pull it off, because I think some of the amazed reaction we get from the captains and from the audience is influenced a lot by their coupleness, but at the same time, I think some of the amazed reaction we get from the captains and from the audience is actually influenced by their coupleness rather than their dancing. I mean, Su Lianya and Wei Lin are in the audience of competitors clutching each other’s hands and crying, and it seems to be just as much about Tao telling CiCi out loud that he loves her just before the music starts and the fact that they kiss as part of the piece, if not more than it’s about their actual dancing. The show is also really pushing me on this, because whereas, with everyone else, it tosses up closed captions that tell me what moves are happening (in addition to dialogue subs), now I’m getting things like “heaven-made match.” They’re good, but I think they actually also suffer a bit from following the Gai Gai/Huang Xiao/Wang Tao powerhouse, because I think we’re unlikely to get anything on the lyrical side of things that’s going to match up to that for the rest of the day. Tao and CiCi are better than Li Yue and Sha Sha were, and it is pretty badass the way she manages to make herself so small and compact she literally disappears behind him for that last little bit, and if they’d won the bottle spin on the last callout, they would have won the challenge, I have no doubt. But. :hands: I think the show has actually done that thing Huang Bo accused Jackson of earlier and set my expectations too high. I’m’a sound like Yibo – or like Yibo normally would, because he also seems to get suckered into the overwhelmed reaction for this – and say that I think Tao was better in the less lyrical style when he danced with Yibo and Bing in the Ep 2 towel battle. They get an All-Pass from the captains and talk about their inspiration for the piece, which apparently is a couple who confessed their love to each other the day before the girl had to go into COVID quarantine, and well, now I guess I feel like just a little bit of an asshole for not appreciating the COVID love story properly? Anyway, the captains then keep asking them intrusive questions about their relationship, and Huang Bo mocks Lay for apparently never being in love so he won’t understand what it’s like, and I’m cringing in my seat a little before Jackson gets us back on track and Tao and CiCi finally go sit down.

Then Huang Bo takes the chance to go over to the contestants who haven’t performed yet and stress them out about how few of the 60 available seats are left. I mean, I guess it’s part of competition, but come on, dude.

ANYWAY, next up, we have a group calling themselves Team Wake Up – it’s the waackers, and this group includes Xiao Bao and San Jin from Team Lay, along with a guy we haven’t seen yet, Tu Zi; Meng Di from Team Yibo; and Gao Shi Yu, who we also haven’t seen, from Team Wallace. They start working it, and I’m like, oh wait … and then they hit the Cat Walk, and I’m like, oh shit, and a light bulb finally goes off, because I’ve been super-fk’n slow, but now they’ve shown me what this genre is about, and I’m interested to see what they do here, because a lot of this performance could be straight off the floors of the ball scene. The entire group is pretty good, although I do think Gao Shi Yu is the weak link, she’s not quiiiiite up to the standard of the rest of them. They move well as a group, though, good coordination, sharp and clean, fantastic musicality, high energy all the way through, with EXCELLENT attitude, which is half the battle, because if you’re not confident for this kind of thing – or if you can’t at least fake it flawlessly – you might as well not even be out there. They all do lose a little bit of focus when they’re in the background as they break out for their individual moves, and they fall apart a tiny bit near the end. Also, Meng Di’s belt is off-center, and I know that sounds super picky, but it kept distracting me, so I wish that hadn’t been the case. Xiao Bao is definitely still the standout here – he takes the lead from the minute they come out, with the mic, and never really relinquishes it. We finally get to see San Jin perform, and his extension could be better. Tu Zi must be lacking in the charisma department to not have shown up before this, because he’s better than I expected. Before they started, the group that Xiao Jie and Yang Kai are in together – who still haven’t performed – were debating if they should challenge this group, but Xiao Jie advised waiting to see how good they were, and then after the performance is all, “nooo, we should not challenge,” and props to you for not just writing off the waackers, my man, because they get an All-Pass, and there’s not even a chance for a callout. Before we move on, Wallace clams he’s learned some waacking during the show, and the other captains (led by Jackson, who calls him gege) make him demonstrate, and the contestants, who know what side their bread is buttered on, applaud.

Available seat check. Yibo participates in further stressing out the contestants by saying “Like, a dozen?” All y’all need to be challenging whatever chance you get. Now I bet you’re sorry you didn’t challenge Shen Kai Xiang back at the beginning, aren’t you?

Next up is our group of X-Crew representatives, hop-hop, and Yibo is excited. I almost expect him to do a little dance in his seat. Yang Kai helpfully lets me know that this group is from the top hip-hop crew in China. Oh, hey, that’s Qin Yu, from Team Wallace, the guy who Gongsu Wu Ming immediately recognized as the weak link in one of the towel battles and got up on; the guy who subsequently got taken out by Teng Zai, My Beloved. Qin Yu, the guy we hadn’t even had B-roll on, and still don’t. I wonder if I’m reading too much into that. He’s joined by Flea (which I’m assuming is a direct translation, as it doesn’t sound like “flea” when he says his name?) and Ding, also from Team Wallace - neither of whom we’ve seen before, I think - along with Ting and Lei Xiao Yang from Team Jackson. This is also the first time we’ve seen Lei Xiao Yang. I … feel weirdly unconfident about the famed X-Crew, given we haven’t seen more of them before this. Then again, we’d only seen Gai Gai from her group, so maybe this is a BigSurprise!edit … Ting comes out hard and heavy, and I actually think this is the best performance we’ve seen from her so far. She spends a lot of time out in front on this one, and I don’t think I got from her initial appearance or from her towel battle performances just how good she actually is. Overall though … I am … not that impressed with this group. They start out strong, but then they get sloppy. They have trouble working as a unit, which is surprising from people who supposedly have experience dancing together. They’re all very good, but they’re not synchronized. A lot of their solo showcase bits lack complexity, and that is an understatement. Qin Yu still has some of that nice fluidity along with his pretty face, but he’s not balanced, and he absolutely does not have the finesse he needs to pull this off. They all do move into the end strong, together again, hard, power behind their moves - almost everything from the slo-mo move is good - but … it’s a little late, y’all. That took way too long to get back together. And then, they inexplicably descend into … it’s not even sloppiness, it’s an utter hot mess during, like, the last 15 seconds of the performance, which is absolutely not the final impression you want to leave. And … wow. Shit. There are captains who actually agree with me on this. Sometimes you see the expected top dancers allowed to slide some in these early rounds of competition shows, but not this time – Wallace and Yibo both vote yes, but Jackson and Lay both abstain, and Jackson … wow. Wow. Is disappointed in them and expected more. Despite the fact that he’s like, 12, and that he’s done this to past groups just because he wanted to see them battle, a little bit this actually has a vague feeling of your dad telling you how much you’ve let him down. The audience is shocked, but I’m glad to hear someone say it. It was a good - if spotty - performance but certainly not the best we’ve seen.

So, we have a callout, and the group with Xiao Jie and Yang Kai, which also includes some guys named Shen Zi Hao, Xiao Zhi Bin and Oscar, pounces. And that is a very deliberate word choice, because these guys are on X-Crew like a lion on the trailing gazelle. They’re in their Men In Black suits (ETA: Wait, no, I think maybe they’re Agent Smith suits), and the audience of other competitors is losing it. Xiao Bao is very excited about Xiao Jie. Both Yibo and Jackson look like they’re in actual physical pain, to be forced to make the choice that’s coming up. Ting looks like she’s getting ready to throw up – she’s accepting this with less equanimity than she did the possible results of her initial performance, at least on the surface. I … am dreading losing her, actually, because I suspect that’s what’s getting ready to happen, and I am so so sorry, baby, that you worked so hard to carry your crew like that and they couldn’t keep their shit together. On the one hand, I’m impressed they’re pitting this level of competition against each other so early. On the other, I feel Jackson’s and Yibo’s pain. God. God. The Xiao Jie-Yang Kai group is here to f’kn battle. This is shaping up to be a slaughter. They are fast, clean, precise, great musicality, complex moves, super performance. They’re synchronized, high energy, fantastic animation – which could be a little cheesy, but they’re confident and fearless enough to pull it off - fun and interesting. They are maybe a little bit too gimmicky to be perfect for my taste, but I’m not the one voting them through, and what they’ve come up with is perfect for the audience that matters – the captains, the majority of which are 20-something-year-old boys – and knowing your audience, and performing for them, is a skill, too. BIGGEST (and frankly, only) ISSUE: Somebody fucked up a move, right at the beginning … I think maybe Yang Kai? (ETA: Yah, it was Yang Kai, ugh, what a time for that to happen.) If you’re going to fuck up, best to do it at the very beginning, I guess, and then give this performance afterward, to mitigate it as much as possible, but that one misstep gives the captains enough excuse put off a decision they really don’t want to make, like it’s not just going to make it worse to kick the can down the road a few minutes. Split vote, 2-2 (I thiiink, Yibo and Jackson for X-Crew, Lay and Wallace for the challengers?), which throws it to a further battle. Ting and Xiao Jie, one-on-one, and both of them are feeling the pressure of competing for their entire team instead of just themselves. Two rounds, hiphop and locking. So, each of them is better in their specialty. Ting’s got some fantastic, precise moves for the hiphop round. Xiao Jie is not as good in this round; I do notice he’s got a more directly confrontational style when he’s battling. I feel like she’s doing more waacking than locking in the locking round. Overall, she’s cleaner, more precise, he’s got a little bit more energy. I wouldn’t want to make this decision, frankly. I think Ting was better technically, but Xiao Jie might be the better performer – better at all that other stuff that adds up to stage presence. I do wonder how much of the captains’ decision is influenced by the groups, and who the captains are or aren’t willing to lose, even though it’s supposed to be based on this 1x1 battle. Just looking at who the show has put emphasis on already, we’ve got Ting vs. Xiao Jie AND Yang Kai, and I don’t know that they’re going to want to let that one-two punch go. Wallace votes Ting and X-Crew. Yibo and Lay vote Xiao Jie and the challengers. Jackson, the coward, abstains. Looks like Ting and X-Crew are going home, and this is the first cut that I’m genuinely upset about seeing. Ting feels bad for letting her crew down, but they let you down first, baby, or you wouldn’t even have been in that position.

Available seat check: 12. Dancers left: 27. Well.

We’re coming up on two hours now, and there’s clearly some kind of drama we want to get to, because we whip through the next few performances – few names, limited time spent on them. The ones who do make it through are likely cannon fodder in the next couple of rounds. There’s a group of four in khakis that gets sent through to the next round; Yibo liked their moves. Guy named Zhan Ke in a suit goes through to the next round. We’ve turned into a clip show now, and the screen literally says “ … ” at one point as each group of competitors gets 3 seconds of airtime. Cut to three seats left out of the 60. There’s about seven people left, and … that includes Chick. I have a sinking feeling this guy is going to be the real focus, at this point. He’s paired up with some dude named Long, and they have lost the bottle spin on callout after callout after callout, so they’ve never had a chance to challenge, and now, look at these morose motherfuckers, still sitting in the bleachers. I almost feel bad for them.

So, three seats left, and the next group is three people: Yang Qi aka “Apple” from Team Jackson, Lin from Team Lay and Bobo from Team Wallace. Urban dancers. I lose sound on them right at the beginning, but they’ve got some nice sharp moves, good choreography, they work well as a unit. Solid performance, if not the best we’ve seen. Apple’s got the best technique, I think. Audience likes them a lot. We get a cut to Chick and the other competitors who haven’t danced yet as we count down for the vote, and they are all dying. Three votes yes. Yibo abstains. Huang Bo is so prepared for this group to be sent right through that he starts clapping and congratulating them, and Yibo has to be all, “Wait, no. Not yet.” The captains give their reasoning: Jackson says that he felt their power, emotion, speed all deserved full marks. Yibo agrees.

Yibo agrees.

…

...

…

Their faces in response, y’all. Their little WTF faces as he explains that he really just wants to see the other dancers, too. Oh my god, Yibo. You can’t just say that out loud. Are you serious with this, you can’t even make up a thing to fake critique them on? Cut to a later interview with Bobo, who’s been the least able to school his face journey in response to this: “Wang Yibo, I won’t forget.” Also, Bobo says, you’re not even hot. (lol) Joking aside, the group goes on to make all the correct noises about sure, it’s a competition, you face competitors, it’s what happens, because what are you gonna say? Meanwhile, to be completely honest, I’m probably the person who’s been least able to school their face journey in response to this, because come on, Yibo. It’d be one thing if you were making some kind of statement about the way they set this up from the beginning, with all competitors unable to participate, but I’m pretty sure you’re actually doing this to give Chick another chance, because you have been inexplicably all up on his jock since he showed up, what is it about this guy? I don’t get it. At all.

So, we get a callout, and everyone left challenges, of course, because this is probably the last chance. The audience is rooting for Chick. I still don’t get it. Bottle spin ends up on … Zhao Hai Jie, from Team Wallace, who we’ve never yet seen perform. Here’s the thing: If he can win this battle, then he only takes one seat, leaving another two seats available. However, he is NOT going to win this battle, not without ripping off any figleaf of fair competition that the show may have, because he’s just not that great. If he wins, there’s no way around the fact, right in your face, that it’s a strategic vote. He does not win. Four votes for Apple, Lin and Bobo. Sixty seats filled.

HOWEVER, just in case you were worried there may be any integrity here, director Lu Wei comes ambling out to say, hey, you know those rules we have in place? Well, fuck ‘em. Who cares. Let everybody left battle, and whoever wins that battle can have a seat along with the 60 other people. I’m going to translate this one, because despite the limitations of my Level 1 Duolingo Mandarin, I have umpty SYTYCD episode reactions on my LJ and I feel like I’m pretty fluent in Dance Show BS: “We really want to keep somebody who’s left, so there’s going to be some chicanery on our part.” They really do not want Chick to go home, y’all. I know it’s him. It’s super extra obvious they’re desperately trying to save him, at this point. And I am here to tell you that if Chick ends up on this show and Ting goes home, there will be nothing on this earth that could possibly resurrect Chick from the Pit of My Dislike.

Anyway, we get Dai Dai from Team Lay, who describes herself as a fusion dancer and is pretty good for the first 40 seconds or so of her music and then completely loses the thread and kind of falls apart. The captains do not seem impressed. Possibly they also know we’re just killing time until we get to Chick. Up next is Su, who is Very Dramatic. He doesn’t say what team he’s from, but given Wallace’s reactions, I suspect he’s from Team Wallace. I suspect Yibo’s not going to like his face. His performance goes increasingly off the rails as he goes on. He’s got a lot of goodwill from the audience of competitors, but no. This is not a winning performance. And then we get Chick & Long, literally the last to perform. Chick spends the entire time doing A Bit. Long, who anyone barely remembers is even there, does 2/3+ of the dancing. Everyone – everyone – is apparently vastly entertained by Chick, and I just … :hands: Fine. He’s a character, but I have yet to see anything in three episodes, across, like, 7 hours, that lets me see whether he can really dance or not. Yibo literally tells Jackson, “He doesn’t have many tricks, but he’s got a ton of ideas” and later says he’s a B-boy without a power move. Anyway, one vote for Su (Wallace), three votes for Chick and Long. We’re at 62 dancers, and I cannot believe I’m going to be subjected to Chick’s continued clownery when Ting has to go home.

Thank GOD we’re activating the Special Guest Host Powers, the first of which is “REVIVE,” i.e., bring someone back who was eliminated. Yibo is immediately like, omg, the hip-hop group. Then we do Yet Another Bit where the captains cater to Huang Bo so that he’ll take their advice on who to revive, and it goes on too long when we are, my god, two hours and fourteen minutes into this. Meanwhile, Yibo reiterates, the hip-hop group. Yeah, Yibo, this I approve of - if I gotta watch you fall all over yourself over Chick, you need to get Ting back for me. So, we’re finally getting the captains’ actual recommendations: Jackson says the hip-hop group, possibly feeling bad about the fact that he’s the one who spiked their chance the first time around? Yibo is all, me too! Yes! That one! It’s kind of adorable. Also, yes, Yibo, you need to get Ting back for me. Lay says Li Yue and Sha Sha, the white and green snakes. Wallace recommends a popping group that I don’t even know if we saw perform? At any point in the past 7+ hours of three episodes? Wallace, are you high? Anyway, THANK GOD, Huang Bo brings back the X-Crew group. We’re at 67 dancers.

Second Special Guest Host Power is … “battle?” So, we’re setting up Qiang Qi Da Zhan, aka Seven to Smoke, which they’ve apparently done in past seasons? Each captain picks two people – eight total – to participate. Twenty minutes total. Increments of 30 seconds each to battle. And I guess you have to accumulate seven points in various battles. We don’t get to hear the captains’ picks, but I can see that AK Dong is called back for this one. Also, I spot one of the krumpers. (:eyeroll: Really, Lay? Because I know that was you.) We see some clips of this. We see AK Dong get to six points. He … maybe gets his seventh point? Anyway, he says in the last interview clip that he’s here. I guess we officially find out the Seven to Smoke results next ep?

Also next episode: Divided into two groups and battling by genre for the next elimination. Five rounds. Also looks like captains might get a chance to poach from other teams. Also some wacky fuckery with the dancers’ heads that looks like it’s going to be stomping all over my embarrassment squick, argh.

Finally, we get a peek at hotpot, and it sounds like they ended up with 70 dancers, so three people managed to get seven points in Seven to Smoke? And somebody’s mom is apparently coming to hotpot, but I’d have to watch the actual hotpot show to find out whose mom, and we’re out.

#wang yibo #jackson wang #lay zhang #zhang yixing #wallace chung #street dance of china #sdoc episode reax

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sanstropfremir · 3 years

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would love to hear ur thoughts re. these street woman fighter's performances and who you would personally vote as the "better dance crew" in how they interpreted each other choreos and the song.

this was for their first elimination round (ep4) and it was interesting to hear from the judges + why they gave the points they did. (i'm not entirely sure if you're watching the show's episodes. they are roughly 2 hours long. so if you would like more context, pls let me know! i wrote brief comments underneath each one as well as the winners [spoilers ahead!]. assuming you are not: for this mission, each crew is paired with another crew and they have to choreograph one of the soloist songs. songs were "split" into two parts: part one [would be one song] and part two [another song]; one crew would choreograph one part and follow the other's crew choreograph for the other part.)

1. boa - eat you up (want choreo) + better (ygx choreo). dance crews: ygx vs want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCfK_qWAhM0&ab_channel=MnetTV

winner: ygx. boa gave 151 pts to ygx and 49 pts to want (the biggest gap in points between crews), sharing that although want choreographed eat you up, ygx was more cohesive (pointing to how want wore hats and it was messy). additionally, ygx had better stage presence and was able to capture the camera more. also, because ygx is the only crew to have a b-girl and use it in their routine, the judges applauded want for doing the best they can.

2. cl - doctor pepper (wayb) + hello bitches (prowdmon). dance crews: prowdmon vs wayb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEEpZ9SrvaE&ab_channel=MnetTV

winner: prowdmon. judges shared that doctor pepper's routine is a trademark of wayb and that they should have been the standout. however, they felt like prowdmon did it better.

3. hyuna - crazy (4minute) (coca n butter) + i'm not cool (hook) + lip and hip (hook). dance crews: hook vs coca n butter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1ikpPKEA30&ab_channel=MnetTV

winner: hook. the two dance crews are VERY different in terms of style. coca n butter is described to be more hip-hop while hook is definitely more reflective of the current/newer trends. (when hook was first introduced in the show, they were known as the crew who was famous only for tiktok dances.) the judges shared that hook was more fun and interesting, given their stylistic choice of wearing the pink wigs. whereas it seemed for coca n butter, they felt like something was lacking (they showed something but it didn't feel they did.)

4. jessi - what type of xx (lachica) + nununa (holybang) + gucci (holybang). dance crews: holybang vs lachica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtZzI11oyqc&ab_channel=MnetTV

winner: lachica. (this was the only battle where both crews came in v close pts. whereas for the other crews, there were huge point-gaps.) judges had a hard time choosing, sharing that for lachica they were more detail-oriented while holybang had better teamwork.

imo, i agree with the judges' choices. though i would have to say i think wayb did their routine (doctor pepper) better than prowdmon. they stood out to me then, but when it came to the second part (hello bitches), prowdmon was better. i loved lachica's performance - it was v clean + reminded me of something a kpop group would do (which like, the crew largely works with kpop acts like chungha, boa's better, etc. so it makes sense).

this was LONG. thank u if u do read it and post! i miss the kingdom "era" when u would post weekly reviews. the two are v different but this new mnet competition show is the only one i'm invested in. i'm not sure if it's big internationally? i know it is v popular in korea right now. while i've only seen i-fans talk about the show as it relates to chaeyeon (want) because she's an idol. - swf (streetwomanfighter) anon :]

omg this is so long and well organized, forget me writing reviews anon you should do it!! i'm not currently watching the full episodes but i've been catching the few clips that pop up in my youtube recommended occasionally, so i definitely don't have all the context but i'll take a crack at it!

ok so my assumption/from what i can tell, they have a bit of leeway to alter the competing group's choreo as needed to better suit numbers and formations. i also went and found the individual versions of these because why did they make them so small on the split screen, don't they know i'm old and wear glasses. also: MNET FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY STOP MOVING THE FUCKING CAMERA. WE DO NOT NEED SCROLLING VERTICAL BOOM SHOTS OF THIS. just keep the same lens at eye level it's really not that hard. this is like, one of the worst possible ways to shoot dance it is SO annoying. ok i'm done bitching about that let's go.

1. boa - ygx vs want i agree with the big point gap on this one, and i think want made a couple of choices that were not cohesive enough, and obviously they also got set up to fail by ygx. actually i think both groups made choices that were not particularly good, but ygx had more of the skills to back up what they were doing than want did. breaking is very difficult and requires a lot of upper body strength and a higher centre of gravity, which are two physical traits that are less common in women. personally i wouldn't have tried to break to better because although boa songs do have more of a beat than other idol music, it's still not at all the right type of music for breaking. it's gotta be fast, breakers rely on speed, because it's all about momentum; they're literally throwing themselves around the stage. here's the final from battle pro 2019 for example. the music is basically beats only; heavily lyric based music, like idol music, is bad for battling in general because there isn't a lot of consistency. i have more to say about this but i'm getting off track. basically by choosing to handicap the other team (because they don't have a bgirl at all) they shot their own bgirl in the foot because the song is too slow to properly show off her skills. i applaud want for making bold choices, like the hatwork and attempting the breaking, but ultimately when combined with their styling the performance looks disjointed. also they have some formation cohesion issues that make it look a bit like they'e struggling to keep up, even with their own choreo.

2. cl - prowdmon vs wayb i agree with the judges, i think prowdmon bodied the wayb choreo. i actually thought that was their choreo at first. they have the best presence that i've seen of all the groups and the performative "hard bitch" attitude fit in with their genre setting. wayb had several mistakes and synchronization issues that in my opinion made them look sloppy in comparision to prowdmon, who were sharper and had two more people to put into formations. 3. hyuna - hook vs coca n butter ok personally i don't like either of these choreos, but i'm agreeing with the judges here, i think hook's was the mildly more engaging. i can tell that they're very young and do mostly short form tiktok content because i see a lot of eye catching moves, but i don't see a lot of strong connective tissue between those moves. they have good ideas but they also really struggle with putting people into formation and balancing it out well. it doesn't help that they're a seven member crew going up against a four member one, so they have three extra people to figure out what to do with. there's a lot of empty space where there are members waiting in position for a group formation. it also doesn't help at all that they (mnet) appear to just be rawdogging the songs together without any kind of mixing, which is a huge detriment to groups that have to choreograph for two in their section. i'm not cool and lip and hip have two totally different feels and kudos to hook for at least trying to get them to at least visually be cohesive when mnet is go girl giving us nothing sonically. coca n butter has much more of an old school hip hop style, so putting these two up against each other was (probably a random lot draw) an interesting choice. personally i would have been more interested to see hook against want with the boa tracks and ygx against coca n butter with the hyuna tracks. however, i think the reason why coca n butter's stage felt like it was lacking is because they tried to emulate hyuna, without having the stage presence or the weirdness of hyuna. it feels like they're trying too hard and there isn't really any personal character in the piece, versus with hook, who embodied hyuna's weirdness a little more authentically and took a completely different direction. 4. jessi - lachica vs holybang lachica took this one easily, although their formations were a bit wonky for nununana, they covered it fairly well and i think they managed the best transition between songs (between nununana and gucci). they were sharper with good stage pictures and had a good gimmick with the double fringe on the gloves and hats. holy bang had some issues fitting their extra person into the what type of x choreo, but they did well with their own choreo. however, like with coca n butter and hook, because lachica took a new visual spin, this felt too derivative of jessi, so it wasn't that interesting for me to watch. i do think they are one of the groups on the stronger end of skills and presence. --- as far as visually what performances i liked the best, since would this even be a writeup by me if i didn't talk about design, here's a quick breakdown:

prowdmon - got some rudimentary setpieces, got a theme, got some fun variations on a uniform look; excellent for what i assume was limited budget capacity and also it's a dance crew show.

lachica - great continuity of effect in costuming with the fringe, and using the gloves as a mouth/lip effect was one of the most interesting choices of these routines.

hook - the pink wigs and the black latex on the checkered floor was a nice gimmick that was a bit of a nod to hyuna's weird without being too derivative. i'm not expecting a whole lot because these are dance crews but i think this was a decent amount of styling effort.

want - they made a bold choice with the hats and even though it didn't quite pay off for them i still respect it.

coca n butter/ygx/holybang/wayb - ygx and wayb did basic hip hop type styling and while it's absolutely fine, it's just boring. holybang went for a directly inspired jessi look, and although yes bodysuits, overall it wasn't that interesting either. coca n butter get props for doing a costume change and actually incorporating that into the choreo but it feels too much like it's trying to be hyuna weird with the caution tape strapped over their tits and asses.

---

as a final note/question to you, my lovely invested swf anon, what's the format of the show? are there stages like this every episode to review? if these were from the fourth one only, is there anything worth me reviewing in the first three? i'm not particularly interested in the aggressive competitive nature of the show and editing so i don't particularly want to watch the full two hour episodes, but if you think it's worthwhile for me to review stuff then i will. otherwise if there's a set structure (like with kingdom) i can seek out the stages specifically and review them if i know what i'm looking for.

#street woman fighter #swf #swf reviews #i dont really know what the international reception is. the very few people ive seen talking about it on twt #have been insane kpoppies disrespecting boa. so not the best ifan showing so far #am i back in my review era already???? we shall see #(while i still have like EIGHT different asks left. if you wonder why im taking so long to get to some of them. that is why)#(OH plus the first half of the stylings post. and the fabled fave choreos post. so many things in my drafts rn)#(but also please dont stop sending me questions it makes me very happy. the gerbil in my brain is just slow)#dear anon who just asked me about red lights and kink. mwah you are welcome to slide into my dms anytime you like #wait by putting kink in the tags did i just invite a bunch of pornbots onto this #whatever lmao #might need to start a new organizational tag for this because it's only kpop adjacent. thoughts for later #text #answers #ngl these group names are gonna drive me insane. why are all dance crew names so fucking weird

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1180

The last time you washed your hair, did you use conditioner? Yeah, I’m pretty paranoid and always feel the need to use conditioner because of a bad rebonding job from like a decade ago that stiffened up my hair as soon as it would get wet. It lasted for around a year, so I formed the habit of always using conditioner every time I shower. I don’t think I’ve ever used just shampoo since then.

Do you prefer light or dark jeans? Dark, but I suppose it would be nice to start experimenting with lighter shades as well.

When you listen to music, do you generally sing along, or just listen? It depends if I know the lyrics or I’m feeling the song at the moment. Obviously with my new obsession with BTS I can’t really sing along to entire songs, but I do sing the few English lyrics they have per song, hahaha.

Do you have any of your exes as friends on Facebook? Yeah but she’s been muted for like half a year already, as is the rest of her family. I do have plans to unfriend her entirely; I’m just not sure when I would push through with it, and I already gave Angela permission to log onto my account one of these days to be the one to do the unfriending.

Who was your first love? Do you ever miss that person? Gabie. I miss the friendship sometimes; I don’t think I’ll have a friendship as deep and connected as the one we had, so I will always feel sorry about how that went to waste. But I don’t really think about our relationship anymore as I’m pretty good at blocking off certain memories, so I don’t miss her in that sense.

How many cars are parked at your house right now? Two.

Do you have any Italian ancestry? I highly doubt so. If anything there’s probably a tiny drop Spanish blood in there but that’s the most European I’ll ever get.

Do you prefer water to be ice cold or at room temperature? Like, drinking water? Ice cold, always. I hate warm water.

Has anyone ever told you you’re a control freak? Not to my face, but I know I’m one so I’m sure other people have said that about me at least behind my back.

Do you know anyone who has gone missing? If so, were they ever found? Yes, my friend Mik and one of my aunts. They were both found eventually.

What was the spiciest thing you’ve ever eaten? Eating ghost pepper instant noodles was a pain I would never want to go through again...I threw that shit out after my first forkful, lmao.

Do you need to talk to someone? No, not in particular. In a more general sense I do wanna start gaining more friends though, so I’ve been meaning to expand my circle by creating a new Twitter account just for my BTS dump. In other words, I am a 23 year old with a stan Twitter HAHAHAHA

Is something confusing you at the moment? No, I’m good.

When was the last time you had a real deep chat? Maybe my conversation with Andi a couple of nights back. We were talking about a tricky situation with their ex-friend who turned out to be a real dick when they came out to him a year ago, and they just wanted to get my perspective on how I would handle it.

Who did you last see on webcam? The PR manager for one of our clients, who we all despise because he doesn’t know how to do his job. Thankfully he’s resigning soon so we’re all just waiting for him to leave and finally meet a much more competent replacement.

What’s your best friend’s pet’s name(s)? Angela has two dogs, Hailey and Kennedy. Andi had Apollo, who I wanted to meet so badly but sadly he passed away a week ago at 15.

Have you ever taken a picture while laying in the grass? There are photos of me sitting on grass, but not lying in it. I would imagine that would feel very prickly and uncomfortable.

Who’s your favorite Disney character? Baymax or Flynn Rider.

Have you ever deliberately tried to get someone drunk? I’ve made my friends chug drinks or down shots and it’s happened vice versa, but it was always in good fun and we never made each other harassed from it. It’s just your typical college rambunctiousness, and if anyone felt uncomfortable or iffy then we didn’t hesitate to move on.

When was the last time you used a pay phone and who were you calling? I’ve only ever seen those in my first school, when I was in kindergarten. I never got to use it and they also took them out not long after.

Do you like being kissed on the neck? Yessssssssss

Have you ever had sex with someone you weren’t dating (but had feelings for) in the hopes that they would ask you out later? Nope. I don’t think I would have sex with anyone I wasn’t dating.

What’s the most you would be willing to spend on a good bra? Probably a couple thousand bucks if I thought I looked good in it.

Do you have any of your teachers’ personal cell phone numbers saved in your contacts list? I don’t think so. I never tried getting close with any of them, and I always tried to stay hidden as much as possible. I was just in class to get good grades and pass.

Do you ever stalk peoples’ personal blogs, even if you don’t know them very well? I never really scroll through people’s Tumblrs anymore. That was more of a thing I did in like 2013, but these days going through my dashboard is enough.

What’s one thing about today’s generation that you just can’t stand? Some social media trends done for clout make me revolted, especially when it has anything to do with wasting food. I also hate when they do extreme pranks that I know I wouldn’t find funny if I were ever the victim, like tossing someone’s phone into the ocean.

Be honest: how do you feel about abortion? Pro-choice.

Is there anyone you currently want to reach out to? I would love to catch up with Katreen at some point, but I know we’re at different points in our lives now and it would probably never happen.

What is your favorite piece of art you own? I commissioned my sister to make an artwork of the 2D1N cast, and she did a great job making it! I haven’t gotten to use it or promote it yet, but I will soon. It’s really well-done.

What’s the one thing you apologized for this month? Replying late.

My favorite color is ______? Pastel pink.

I wish I had _____? Longer weekends.

What did you buy today? Nothing – I’d call that a success lmao, I’ve been spending money as if I had a million fucking bucks over the last week. I did have some packages arrive today though: my own copy of 2 Cool 4 Skool (my first physical BTS album!!!!!!); the official poster from their album BE; the Ivy Park sneakers I ordered earlier this month, and an Ivy Park bucket hat Bea had apparently gotten for me as a birthday present.

What has challenged your morals? Vices.

What made you pick up the last book you started reading? I had to read it in preparation for a one-on-one session with my employer’s CEO.

What about your life concerns you the most? Whether a stable future is in the cards for me.

What do you find particularly offensive? Would you say you’re easy or difficult to offend? Probably Filipino-American comedians or influencers who use stereotyping of Filipino accents and habits as a punchline; they do more harm to the culture than good. I can tell you not one Filipino who lives in the Philippines actually finds those funny, and Bretman Rock is probably the only personality who’s able to flaunt the culture in an entertaining and hilarious yet classy way.

When it comes to being offended, I guess it depends on the context. My humor can get pretty dark and low-blowy, but I would have a problem with someone who I know has genuinely problematic views.

What was the last series you finished watching? Do you have any plans to begin another? I think it may had still been Start-Up from last December. I’m not too big on Korean dramas since I find one episode waaaaaaayyyyyyy too long. I don’t think I’ll be starting on anything soon, Korean or otherwise.

What is one way in which you are different from a year ago? What is one way in which you are still the same? I’m single now, for the first time in technically six years. I also think I’m doing better and happier, breakup notwithstanding. OH and I love wasabi now, hahah. As for what’s unchanged, I still like taking surveys and I’m still stuck at home, though the latter’s not really in my control anymore.

If you could learn about anything without the stress of grades or cost, what kind of classes would you take? I’d just go back to UP for the free tuition. We also have the widest range of programs out of any university in the country, so it’s a damn good deal.

Name a song you’ve listened to today? Fly To My Room - BTS

When you were younger, did you have a swing set or a playhouse in your backyard? We didn’t; but one of our relatives that we’d regularly visit did have a playground that I’d use all the time. It’s still there, just very unmaintained since no one uses it anymore.

Is your mall nice? Which one? We have five different malls nearby lol. Mall culture here is on another level.

Do you have a Sonic near you? If so, what’s your favorite drink from there? No. I’m not so sure what they serve there, either. I’m guessing milkshakes?

Will you be voting in the presidential elections next time around? I’ll always exercise my right to vote.

How do you feel about chocolate-covered strawberries? I hate strawberries and I hate fruits, so even if you coat that shit in Nutella and cookie butter and chocolate syrup I still wouldn’t touch it.

Did you ever stop having feelings for someone and then started having those feelings again for them? No.

Do you hate the last guy you had a thing with? I’ve never had a thing with guys.

To whom did you last give the finger? I haven’t had to do that in a while.

What was the last musical instrument played in your presence? My sister’s keyboard.

Do you like sprinkles on your ice cream? Not particularly. They make things look cute, but they never taste like anything tbh so I never saw the point in paying extra just to have them on my desserts.

Honestly, have you ever crashed a party before? Nah. I cringe thinking about that.

Do you know how to do the moon walk? I don’t.

Has anybody ever told you that you have a good singing voice? Never gotten that specific compliment before because I know I don’t have one.

Onion rings or french fries? Onion rings.

Has anybody ever described you as a heart breaker? No.

Has anybody ever told you that you talk too fast? I don’t think so, but I know I have the tendency to do so occasionally, especially while I’m presenting a deck. Once I notice it I make an effort to pace myself.

Who is the best cook that you know? My dad and both my grandmas all deserve that title.

Which meal throughout the day do you skip the most? I literally never have lunch ever.

What’s the largest amount that you can juggle at one time? I can’t juggle.

What was your favorite thing to go on at the playground as a kid? Sandboxes, since I liked the texture; the sandboxes in school were also often empty, which worked well for my introvert self. I find that it’s carried over to today, since I still enjoy touching things like slime and kinetic sand.

Do you know how much you weighed at birth? How much? I think 5 or 6 lbs, I’m not exactly sure but it’s definitely somewhere in that small range.

Which aspect of your daily routine takes the most time? What do you do? Work, for sure. I work a normal 9–6 so that’s already 8 hours out of my day, but I also OT a lot after hours, and I work throughout my lunch break as well so that technically makes it 9 hours. I also like getting up earlier and starting some work before my shift so that I would have less tasks on my plate for the day.

Do you enjoy buying gifts for others, or could you do without this? I LOVE getting people gifts. Food is especially my love language, and I always get food delivery for my friends, family, and my team at work.

What is one thing you are expected to do, if anything? I mean, I have work deadlines tomorrow so there’s that.

How do you tend to view driving? Monotonous or entertaining? I love driving. I don’t think I ever complained about having to do it. It’s calming and relaxing when I’m doing it alone or with a partner; and it can be entertaining with the right set of people.

Do you enjoy talking about music with others? Not always. If I don’t listen to the artist then I can find the conversation quite boring, like if my friends would get into a full-blown discussion about Taylor Swift.

Is acting something you enjoy? No. It wouldn’t even be something I’d be interested in doing.

When do you feel most accomplished? Finishing a work day with no tasks left behind.

Do you think Manwich is amazing or completely gross? Idk what that is.

How many best friends do you have? Two.

Are you a smoker, drinker, pothead or none of the above? I drink sometimes. I also kinda smoke, I guess.

If you have your ears pierced, when did you get them pierced? My mom had them pierced when I was a month old.

Do you own any exercise machines? My mom has this rowing equipment thingy. I don’t have any of my own, though.

On Facebook, do you have people listed as your siblings who aren’t really your siblings? No.

Have you ever drawn or painted a self-portrait? I remember having to draw one as a school assignment, but I’m pretty sure I half-assed that because I couldn’t care less for art class back then.

Who was your last voicemail from? We don’t have voicemails.

Have you ever been falsely accused of something serious? I don’t think so. That’s the sort of situation that would stick out in my memory if ever.

Did you ever set up a lemonade stand when you were a kid? No, not a thing here.

When was the last time you spoke to someone in a different language? Around an hour ago when I went downstairs and chatted with my sister briefly.

Have you ever received an anonymous gift? Nope.

Have you ever camped out somewhere for an event the next day? Nope but I definitely still wouldn’t be opposed to doing that haha.

When were you the saddest in your life? 2016 was fucking miserable. < I’d have to agree. 2017 was also awful.

Do you know anyone, personally, who is in an abusive relationship? Are you? I used to know one but she got out of it. In a sense, I suppose I also was in one.

If you have siblings, have they moved out or do they still live with you? Well they’re younger, so they definitely still live here, with our parents. I’m the first one expected to move out, but I’m taking my time.

Have you ever gotten searched by the cops? No.

Do you like fried rice? Of course. I like any kind of rice.

What was the last thing you drank? Water.

#survey #surveys

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empty-movement · 5 years

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Anthy’s Sword Summon and Juri’s Fate: A Semantic Adventure

Friends, join me on a trip down the rabbit hole of discovery! While watching Utena with friends, as one does, I noticed that Anthy's opening to her sword pull sounded different than I was used to in episode 28, "Whispers in the Dark." The word 'omoi' appeared and I didn't recognize it from the shitloads of work I did on the musical. Confused, I figured I'd wait until the next episode, and see if I heard it wrong...and then, in episode 29, "Azure Blue Paler than the Sky"...she used the original line I was familiar with.

Uh-oh. Well this spiraled into an adventure. The facts, because of-fucking-course I went back and checked everything, are as follows:

Anthy’s sword summon in the Student Council Arc: 気高き城のバラよ。。。私に眠るディオスの力主に答えて今こそ示せ。 More or less: Oh rose of the noble castle, Power of Dios that sleeps within me, heed your master and come forth!

Anthy’s sword summon in the Akio Arc: 気高き想いの薔薇よ。。。。お願い、示して。。。 More or less: Oh rose of noble feelings/sentiments/idunnohelpme...please, reveal yourself...

*EXCEPT* For episode 29,where her sword summon is: 気高き城のバラよ。。。お願い、示して More or less: Oh rose of the noble castle...please, reveal yourself...

This line, a blend of the different versions, is in the original and the remaster. Furthermore, based on how she says "please, reveal yourself," it's clear this was re-recorded to create this line, not just spliced from the different pieces of original audio. It's also worth mentioning that the Nozomi translation doesn't distinguish at all, and uses the phrase "Rose of nobility," for both arcs. If I'd known about this when they asked, I would totally have rallied to change this line, but whoops.

The change in the summon is not hard to rationalize. In the first arc, the sword is being pulled from Anthy, from the noble castle...from the illusion machine, to use a very old fandom term. What exactly she's pulling is the subject itself of a lot of debate. Is it her soul sword? Is it Akio's? Because Akio duels with a similar sword, though blackened, drawn from her chest. It's the sword used for all the duelists, it's the sword with the least intimacy. It's the sword used to direct the course of events, up to the point where Anthy rebels.

In episode 25, "Our Eternal Apocalypse," the Sword of Dios disappears, and against Akio's wishes given his reaction, Anthy draws a sword instead from Utena. Now she beckons to the "rose of noble sentiments/emotions/whatever, this is a hard phrase to translate," because it's no longer the castle, no longer the illusion machine, that is the source of the power she seeks. It's Utena herself. The "omoi" she is referring to is Utena's. In true magical girl form, this is a significant upgrade to the previous sword.

It's with this pattern set that the Akio Arc proceeds, until we hit a single, lone exception: Juri's last duel. The incantation changes. Just this once. Why?

Utena is handily undefeated in this arc; every time Dios comes down, every time she manifests the princely power her soul contains, she wins. Except this once. This time, her winning attack fails, just as it does in the first arc. Juri's capacity to deflect the Dios manifested attack follows from the obvious skill she has. It's never surprising in the context of the show that of all the duelists, she is the one able to successfully defend herself in that moment.

But this, that Juri successfully deflects this move, is the only thing that marks this duel as unique in the Akio Arc. It's the only thing that connects at all to why Anthy's sword summon would also, just this once, be a little different.

My theory? Though the sword pulled is still Utena's, true...Anthy has taken over command of this duel's outcome by calling not to Utena's noble spirit, but to the castle instead. The illusion machine. The means, whatever it is specifically, by which Akio and Anthy control the world of the duel arena. Because she is controlling, ultimately, where the sword is going to go. Anthy deliberately choosing to direct the sword to one end in this duel also implicates her as the reason why Juri loses her first duel, though that is made far more evident than it is here in the first place.

There are no miracles. But there are also no coincidences. There is only intent, and for Juri, it's intent turned against her. The wording of the summon in this duel is different, because the goal of this duel is different. The miracle that must be performed is different.

"Juri, she's a fool! She doesn't realize that you get miracles only by standing on the sacrifices of others! Yet miracles only come to people like her! Don't you find that unfair, Juri?!"

Ruka's intentions, and even who Ruka is referring to in this moment, are the subject of a lot of debate. I've always found it interesting that this dialogue works regardless of whether you assume he's talking about Shiori or Utena. Shiori seems the more likely subject, after all she's the person Ruka's trying to sever from Juri. She's the one he's angry at. But also, in his duel, Ruka sees Anthy seem to be praying for Utena's success, and he surmises from that that the Rose Bride is the source, at least partly, of Utena's ability to win. So, it can also be Utena who is the fool, standing on a sacrifice she hasn't noticed. Framed this way, where Ruka imagines the Rose Bride to be the source and the sacrifice that grants miracles, his placing himself in the position of Juri's Rose Bride is him willingly being the sacrifice he imagines necessary that buys Juri's miracle.

It's unfair, it's true, for a miracle to belong to someone unaware that a price was paid for it...but even as he says this, he pays in secret that price himself. Whatever transpired in the car, between him and, we'll say...the powers that be...decided Juri's fate without her input. It's why the outcome of this duel is made different, and it's why Anthy intervenes directly in the course of events to create that.

The Sword of Dios is a weapon wielded by Akio and Anthy, regardless of whose fingers are wrapped around the hilt. In episode 25, Anthy chooses to give up some of her control over events in favor of letting Utena defend herself and protect her. It's a sign of her growing trust in Utena that she lets Utena wield, literally, her own will. It's also a vote of no confidence in Akio and his plans, and it's why Akio is so pissed off about it. Letting Utena wield her own blade implies a trust in Utena to create the outcome Anthy wants. A trust it took her this long to grow.

However, in this duel, the goal has shifted. Ruka, for whatever reason, has intervened behind the scenes to create a different result, and that result cannot be left to the even minuscule random chance Utena represents. Anthy invokes the castle this time, because she wants absolute control over the outcome.

This may or may not be why the line is changed. It seems to me as good a theory as any, especially given how deliberately this is done. It doesn't shorten the sequence for timing. It's not a splice of existing audio. It's an explicit change made only for this one episode. It's the kind of minor detail, so easily missed, that really sends home to me why I love this show so much.

I, certified trash for entirely different characters, don't dip my toes into Juri's business much, I admit. I will, however, also be the first to say that Juri's duel episodes are some of the best directed and most powerful episodes in the series. They don't waste a single frame, their scripting is tight, their visual language both clear and almost a whole separate thing from the rest of the story. Little details like this utterly don't surprise me to find hidden here, in an episode where chairs shift and move. Where two duels happen at once. Where the color palette is made to reflect Juri's state of mind. Thank you, Revolutionary Girl Utena, for being the kind of garbage where a minor script change in a repeated sequence can lead to realizing Anthy straight up nerfed Utena for the duel.

PS. Fun thing we learned when trying to sort this all out: Yoji Enokido’s scripts for the first arc use a different phrasing than what ends up in the series:

薔薇の剣よ、私に眠るディオスの力よ・・・主にこたえて今こそ示せ。 More or less: Sword of the Rose, Power of Dios that sleeps within me, respond to your master and come forth.

This line is included in Enokido’s script for episode 14, though it is not used in the series, because for the BRS Anthy doesn’t do this bit at all, it just goes straight to Utena’s “Grant me the power...” line. His script for episode 26 matches the line used in the series, but since he didn’t write episode 29, there’s no written record of this being deliberately different.

Additionally, one of the artbooks has the line “ Ô rose de nobles sentiments!” in it, which apparently has a totally different connotation to the English word 'sentiment.'

#utena #revolutionary girl utena #juri #Juri Arisugawa #ruka #rgu #sku #utena meta #anthy running the fucking show literally #yes i realize that akio and anthy still control the fate of the duels in this arc #Dios is literally a projection still #also this change in the script is entirely for the benefit of the viewer #and our dumb asses haven't noticed???

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mikami · 5 years

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Death Note Audio Drama 02

Disk 2: Collateral Damage - a summary / partial translation

Disk 1 and an attempted explanation of What This Is are here.

This episode also isn’t particularly wild as far as plot diversion goes, but it changes a key element of how Death Note manipulation works and.... introduces a whole lot of Matsuda trivia, somehow. We also say hi and bye to Naomi.

___________________

We begin with Naomi tracking down the bus driver of the busjacking. The driver is really annoyed that people keep tracking him down to ask him about it. Naomi asks about Raye. (Her vacation pic is from Honolulu in this version). Naomi presses the driver to tell her as much as he remembers about the other passengers.

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TITLE MUSIC PLAYS

_____

We’re back in time. Light is trying to think about how to get Raye Penber’s name. His dad’s computer has no notes about it. Light deduces that his dad doesn’t even know about the tailing. Ryuk brings up the eye deal.

RYUK: I can offer you the eyes of a shinigami.

LIGHT: U-uh, you mean a real pair of eyes? That’s disgusting!!

RYUK (amused): No, I just mean the power of those eyes.

The lifespan halving gets brought up and Light just goes “uhm... no thanks”, literally.

LIGHT: Are there any more surprises? Some kind of bonus point system? Fine print?

RYUK: Uuuuuhm, can’t think of anything much right now.

LIGHT: You could have written it into the Death Note, alongside the other rules. I don’t like to be led by the nose, I’m not your goddamn----

RYUK: ... what?

LIGHT: I am not your puppet.... But I can get one for myself.

RYUK: I don’t get it.

LIGHT: I know now, how to get my pursuer’s name. And that’s without making any kind of contract with you.

_______

A TV transmission. An attorney has issued a lawsuit against prisons for the way prisoners die. His client died of heart attack after writing a pentagram in his own blood. He was close to being pardoned. The lawyer says that the government has a duty to ensure safety of the prisoners, no matter what they are in for.

_______

L and Soichiro discuss the murder and other abnormal murders like it. They have Soichiro be the one to discover the “L did you know” message, oddly. But they don’t really detail how it is coded, so it might have just literally been written down word by word in this version. L tells Soichiro to not tell anyone about this, not even his team. Soichiro immediately says he’ll only keep it in her personal data files.......

_______

RYUK: Are you really sure you should snoop around your dad’s office like this?

LIGHT: If you want a useful way to keep your eyes busy, why don’t you keep watch?

RYUK: I am not your partner. Oh, an apple. [eats]

LIGHT: Luckily, I can do just fine without your help. A-ha! Interpol listed them all!

RYUK: All your extremely dramatic deaths?

LIGHT: More or less. Seems like not all I wrote into the notebook actually happened.

They go over the stipulations of manipulation needing to be physically doable for the victim.

LIGHT: And now I just need... a catalyst.

_______

News transmission. A news entry about the killer of the Amane parents having died. Channel switch. A Christmas-themed advertisement for Space Land. Channel Switch. A news feature about Kiichiro Osoreda and his failed bank robbing.

______

Light meets Yuri and Yuri’s dialogue is kept pretty accurate to the manga, which is something that I found really disappointing actually. Light’s and Ryuk’s dialogue here is also very close to the original.

Raye Penber complains that he’d like to do real policework at some point again, otherwise he acts the same as in the manga here.

The whole busjacking is just really manga-close. But when Raye says he’s police undercover...

LIGHT: Oh, really? And how do I know you’re not in cahoots with this madman?

PENBER: And who are you? A detective?

YURI: His dad is a detective, that’s why he’s so smart.

LIGHT: Do you have ID? Otherwise I’ll have to deal with you first.

PENBER: Of course! Here.

LIGHT: Raye Penber... FBI? What is the FBI doing on a bus to Space Land?

PENBER: This isn’t really the time for that, boy.

LIGHT: Alright, cowboy, then toss your lasso already.

I cannot overstate that he literally says this. Word by word. After that, the scene returns to its canon version. The bizarre thing is that Ryuk explains the plan out loud, including telling Light’s name to Otoharada. Of course, Otoharada is brainwashed and acting according to script, but still weird.

_______

News transmission. The busjacking gets described. Light turns the news off and shows the Death Note entry to Ryuk, who reads it out loud.

______

We hear a New Year’s countdown.

WATARI: What in Hercules’ name was that?

INTERPOL REP (still clinking champagne glasses): It’s the time difference, Mr. Watari! It’s midnight, here in the USA.

WATARI: Oh... I am so very sorry. I must have lost my overview.

INTERPOL REP: Forget about it. Just a moment.

She leaves the party room. She informs Watari of the deceased FBI agents. It happened three days ago, but she only got the report now, thanks to the holiday crunch. She now refuses to involve the FBI further.

______

Soichiro calls L. He’s pissed about L involving the FBI, now that he’s heard.

______

Back with Watari and the Interpol Rep (her name is Paula Virilio and she’ll be referred to as Virilio in the future) are still talking about the matter. She tells Watari that on Dec 28th all the agents asked about names and photos of their coworkers, so she gave the first four the file and asked them to pass it further.

______

Soichiro is really mad about Virilio’s miss-step too. L and Soichiro work out that they need to know who sent the first email about the files. The phone call ends.

The Task Force is really mad about L still not taking the same risks as them. They actually seriously consider L being Kira for a moment.

______

The Task Force enter the hotel L is staying in. Pardon me for sometimes just saying ‘someone’ as the speaker, I find the Task Force really hard to tell about and without context cues I am often lost.

MATSUDA: A whole hotel suite? How do you earn the money for this stuff?

L: By being smarter than everyone else, Detective Matsuda.

MATSUDA: You are... [He corrects himself from the formal ‘you’ used to address adults to informal ‘you’ here] You are L....?

L: The one. Please sit down, gentlemen.

MATSUDA: He’s still a child...

L (laughs): I am old enough to vote, Mr. Matsuda. Old enough to carry a weapon, to marry, to fall in love... and to catch a murderer. And you are Chief Inspector Yagami. I also know you from TV.

SOICHIRO: Yes, here’s my ID, for protocol. This is Matsuda, as you know. Detectives Aizawa, Ukita, Mogi...

L: A group of dead men.

SOICHIRO: Excuse me, what?

L: If I really was Kira, you’d all be dead now.

MATSUDA: How can we know that, boy?

L: Because you are not dead, detective.

MATSUDA: We call that kind of thing circular logic.

L: I call someone like you an idiot.

MATSUDA: I don’t need to listen to this from a civilian, you little shitty---

SOICHIRO (softly): Matsuda.

L: You name is Touta Matsuda. Graduated from Kumamoto University. Passion for sports cars and every Thursday, you go to the cinema. Big drama. Not in a relationship right now, but in pining hope for something complicated with Noriko Takai. Hm. A very concerning sympathy for both [???? I DONT KNOW THE WORD] as well as country music. Loves Korean cuisine, but....

SOMEONE: He’s got your number, Matsuda.

MATSUDA: So what? You all can easily figure out the same from social media.

L: Yeah, that’s what I can do. Everything. About you, and your sister, and your stupid aunt who doesn’t know how to properly set the privacy settings of her account. I know where you live, you tool--

SOICHIRO: I think we got it, L.

L: Really? Kira plays this game to win. I agreed to meet you, because you were all getting nervous about working with an anonymous specialist, so I am here. To get my hands as dirty as yours. But really, is this necessary...?

SOICHIRO: What do you want, L?

L: I want you to take this seriously.

SOMEONE: In the face of 12 dead agents, matters are serious enough, I think.

L: Correct, so you take care to not become number 13. All of you have to disappear. Get off social media, get new email accounts. If you address the public or the press, you will introduce yourself with these names. You are not going to tell anyone your real names. That’s exactly why I am still alive.

And this is how we get the fake IDs.

_____

Naomi at the NPA. The receptionist refuses to let her speak to anybody from the Task Force. Light steps in, to hand in the spare clothes for his dad. His dialogue with Naomi is similar to the manga, but audio drama Light’s insistence and volunteering of excessively much info he shouldn’t have.... it makes me laugh.

LIGHT: And you are looking for my father?

NAOMI: Uh, yeah, I--

LIGHT: I can tell you’re up to speed, miss. You’re definitely correct to not just tell your matter to the next best person. Especially after those FBI murders. We’re all suspects, am I right?

NAOMI: U-uh, I didn’t say that---

LIGHT: If you’d like, I’d gladly get you in contact with my father. I’ll get through to him, even if he usually rejects calls.

RYUK: Take the bait, missy, take it...

NAOMI: Would that be alright, u-uh, Light?

RYUK: Aaand, bullseye!

LIGHT: Why don’t we take this conversation somewhere else?

RYUK: There’s just too many video cams here.

LIGHT: As long as we don’t know how Kira kills his victims, I’d suggest a less public place.

_______

LIGHT: Okay, where were we? My name is Yagami. Light Yagami.

NAOMI: Shouko Maki.

RYUK: And my name is Ryuk, but you’re not actually able to see or hear me.

LIGHT: I think Kira is capable of more than simply killing people. It seems as if he could influence their actions before their deaths.

NAOMI: I think the same. And here I thought I was alone with it. Yes, he can control people before he kills them. But that’s not all. He can also kill them through other means than heart attacks.

RYUK: Who is this little snooper?

LIGHT: Should that be the case, we might be facing even more murders than thought. There are cases that haven’t been considered in connection to Kira yet.

NAOMI: Exactly. Those might be cases Kira hoped would stay secret. I am fairly sure that someone... someone I know... has met Kira.

LIGHT: Hah. It might be hard to get someone to believe this statement.

NAOMI: That’s why I came in person to explain the circumstances of the case.

LIGHT: Wouldn’t it be even more convincing if your friend told his own story?

NAOMI: He can’t. He was one of the murdered agents.

RYUK: Oh, now it’s getting interesting.

NAOMI: He was my fiancé. He told me that he got involved in this busjacking. By now, I assume that Kira was on that bus as well.

RYUK: She’s talking about Raye Penber, wow.

NAOMI: Something wrong?

LIGHT: Why are you assuming that Kira was on the bus?

NAOMI: Name and face of the culprit were on the media day by day. He was on the run after a totally miscalculated bank robbing. And then, 8 days later, shortly after Christmas... My fiancé dies. Together with his 11 colleagues.

LIGHT: The connection seems vague to me.

RYUK: What he wants to say is.... perfect match.

NAOMI: Something must have happened there. I think that my fiancé and the culprit were used by Kira to get to the other 11 agents.

LIGHT: The culprit was hit by a car, it wasn’t a heart attack. This is how you got to the conclusion that Kira can control actions?

NAOMI: Yes.

LIGHT: That seems pretty far fetched.

RYUK: It really isn’t, lady.

NAOMI: Even the first time I heard of the busjacking, the circumstances seemed strange to me. I kept asking my fiancé questions, I basically interrogated him to tell me the story again and again.

LIGHT: And... what was his story?

______

We flash back to Naomi and Raye talking. Both of their voices are tense.

RAYE: Yes, I showed my ID to one of the passengers, okay?! Are you happy now?

NAOMI: You shouldn’t have done that!

RAYE: I know that! It was complicated. The guy wouldn’t have cooperated without me proving that I’m a cop.

NAOMI: You were undercover, Raye!

RAYE: Stop that! You weren’t there.

NAOMI: You had explicit order to not blow your cover.

RAYE: And you are the only person who knows I have done that. If you don’t tell anybody, nobody will ever know.

NAOMI: But I am not the only one. Isn’t that right? We still don’t know how Kira finds and executes his victims. You can’t afford even a single misstep.

RAYE: You’d probably prefer he’d shot all the passengers then.

NAOMI: Ugh, Raye, that’s not the point---

RAYE (hitting the table): Of course that is exactly the point!!

______

LIGHT: This whole situation isn’t free of emotions.

NAOMI: So?

LIGHT: I just want to make sure your feelings aren’t influencing your analysis skills.

RYUK: Which are working quite excellently.

NAOMI: Hey, you. I was a special agent with several decorations before I gave up my career to marry Raye. I’m not just some random brat.

LIGHT: I agree with you, the suspicion warrants a closer inspection.

They keep talking, Light himself brings out the deduction that the person Raye identified himself to was Kira.

______

We’re with Ukita on phone duty. Someone who thinks they are Kira is calling. Ukita is already pretty annoyed, even before the guy talks of other hallucinations. He hangs up quickly.

_______

SOICHIRO: is it important?

MATSUDA: No, boss. Ukita is just whining again. He doesn’t want to be on phone duty anymore. He texted: “When do I get a hotel suite with 24/7 room service?”

SOMEONE: Does he think we’re just chilling here?

SOMEONE: Probably. Uhm, do you want the final shrimp?

SOMEONE: Take it.

They then move on to talk about surveillance footage of the FBI agent deaths. They have footage from 3 deaths, one of them is Raye Penber. They have the most material on him. They realize he’s done more than a full round on the Yamanote line. They also notice him having an envelope that disappears. They conclude Kira was on the train, receiving it.

______

Light makes his first attempt to kill Naomi, same cause of death as in the manga. Naomi wants to go back to the NPA building now. Light comes with her, as he notices she isn’t dying.

_____

Ukita on the phone again. Akiko Misora is calling about her daughter Naomi being misses. Ukita is pretty annoyed (”Oh really? Was she kidnapped by aliens or something?”). Akiko explains that Naomi came to Japan with her fiancé, but he died and shortly after Naomi also fell out of contact. Akiko complains about how much paperwork getting the ashes to the US was, and says how charming Raye was and how good his Japanese was...... Ukita wants to get rid of her, until Akiko tells him Raye’s name.

____

The Task Force discusses Naomi’s existence and disappearance. She left her hotel at Dec. 29th and has been missing since. They all suspect that Naomi, being an ex-agent, has started her own investigation. But they also worry someone found her.

_____

Light explains to Naomi that the Kira team doesn’t meet with people on principle, because of the risk. He calls them ‘us’ and Naomi picks up on it, leading Light to explain he is a member of the task force. (Ryuk: “And if you believed that one, you might as well buy a fake Rolex of him now.”) Light invites Naomi to the team, like in the manga. Naomi does a lot of nervous laughing in this scene, but she does give him her real ID.

______

The task force think about Naomi, and her existence in connection to Raye being the first one to send an email to Virilio. They decide to place cameras and bugs in the houses of those who were investigated by Raye. It’s the families of Kitamura and Yagami.

______

Light writes Naomi’s name down again, this time her real one. They walk together some more. Light points out that Naomi doesn’t just want to investigate but also to hear the full story about Raye’s death.

NAOMI: I already knew on the day of that something was wrong. Raye was acting really strangely. He got up and left, without a word. He even forgot his cellphone.

LIGHT: Oh, is that unusual?

NAOMI: I followed him downstairs. He was at the reception and made them print something for him. I gave his phone to him, but he said nothing at all. He was so.. empty.

LIGHT: Distracted?

NAOMI: ... empty. Not a smile, not a kiss. He took the phone and left. At the time I still thought ‘well, maybe an order’. Next thing you know, the police arrives at the hotel. Asked me to come with them... identify the body. I have no idea what happened in the final hours of his life.

LIGHT: I do. I know the details of Raye Penber’s death down to the very last second.

NAOMI: I haven’t even told you his full name yet...

LIGHT: He entered the station via the west entrance. Past the street musician who always plays there. He passed the ticket entrance at 11 past 3. He went down to the Yamanote line, in the direction of Kanda.

NAOMI: I don’t understand... That’s only too stations if you directly take the Chuo line. Why this giant detour?

LIGHT: Because someone was waiting for him. The Yamanote line is the perfect place for a meeting. It has stops everywhere and nowhere.

_____

We launch into a flashback to the Yamanote line. Light walks up to Raye and greets him, but Raye does not answer him. Light introduces himself at more depth, even using his full name and calling himself Kira right after. Raye continues to not answer. Ryuk realizes that Raye cannot answer because that is how Light has written it down. Light keeps chatting, explaining his plan to Raye. On the train, he makes Raye watch as he writes the names of all his colleagues. He also touches Raye with the notebook, to let him see Ryuk. Raye can’t do anything.

____

LIGHT: Well, Naomi, I’m afraid Raye was just sitting there. His eyes widened a little. Panicked, you know?

RYUK: Yes, panic just about cuts it. Just like the face you are making right now, darling.

LIGHT: But he couldn’t move. Just like you right now. I was quite precise with my orders, you see?

Light continues to explain that he needed the names of the other agents and that he can do anything to people whose names he has.

_____

The task force discusses the family surveillance further. Light says the chance of Kira being among those people is 5%, but this is their only lead. Soichiro tells L to be thorough with his surveillance, like in the manga.

_____

LIGHT: All Raye could do was sit there until the time was ripe. And then get up...

RYUK: Without a word, Naomi. Silent like a fish.

LIGHT: And he left the train at Kanda station.

RYUK: And then he died.

LIGHT: Right on the platform, so to say.

RYUK: He extended his hand like in a bad movie. As if he wanted to say ‘I am cursing you’ or something.

LIGHT: And thus, Raye Penber died. I find it regrettable.

RYUK: Because he wasn’t a murderer. Which you also aren’t, Naomi. Just wrong place, wrong time... Collateral damage.

LIGHT: But I think you understand, Naomi, that I can’t leave you alive, if I want to keep working. I know you want to move, to hit me. I know that you wish above all else to take the gun out of your pocket. But none of that will happen, because I already put your final moments into motion. And that means I’m the one who’s in power here.

Ryuk asks what she’ll do. Light explains that he wrote the same conditions as on the first try, about her suicide.

LIGHT: So Naomi, I think you know what to do. Now go.

RYUK: And there she went. A woman with a mission.

LIGHT: Hey, Naomi! Want me to call my dad? Still want to talk to him, tell him everything you learned today? Hm? .... and she just keeps walking.

RYUK: She didn’t even say goodbye. I hope it was worth it. This new direction you’ve taken, it’s going to change everything.

LIGHT: What new direction?

RYUK: Now you’re no longer simply a criminal. You’re a police killer.

#death note #light yagami #l lawliet #naomi misora #touta matsuda #audio drama translations

108 notes · View notes

twiststreet · 5 years

Video

youtube

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019): This is one of my favorite videos-- I love it so much. I’ve seen it over and over. There’s so many things going on in it for me-- just Hefner being a sex weirdo, Tate being super-stoned and just saying “America” at one point just to feel the word in her mouth, just the pot stupor of it all. Sharon Tate’s pretty good in the Wrecking Crew, and she’s obviously lovely in the Fearless Vampire Killers, but this is my favorite thing of hers she ever did...

Anyways, the new one-- it’s interesting. Pleasurable-- yeah, though slow. It’s another “hang-out” movie like Jackie Brown, or the first half of Death Proof. Tarantino just wanting to soak in the era he’s writing about, like it’s a hot tub. Plus, a bunch of great shit from Pitt and Dicaprio, and fun faces in the background (Kate Berlant’s in everything now!! I’ve seen her like a dozen times this year-- good for her...). A bunch of great scenes, though. Sally Menke is missed perhaps, but I think future folks are always going to divide his career up into pre-and post- Menke, so...

Past the surface level though, things sure get tricky on that one. This morning I’m linking it in my head with LOEG: Century since I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, I guess, but just how ... Can you make a movie about a Golden Age being lost, without being just sort of accused of being regressive? Or can you make a movie about a lost Golden Age that has imperfect characters, and tries in its own ways to acknowledge the imperfections of that Golden Age in those imperfect characters, without the audience just glossing over it like “ahhhhh you’re just glorifying the whites” or whatever? There’s always that segment of the audience that doesn’t acknowledge built-in messiness, even if that messiness is plainly there and intentional...? I don’t know.

Like Inglorious Basterds being an Iraq War movie, there’s a political reading that I don’t think people have generally reckoned with here, one some people who like thinking about this kinda stuff sure might not like, of... You know: you talk about Manson, it’s hippie killers. You can read a lot that he put out a movie about bad guy young hippies after Me Too ended and with social media generally being how it is, which is to say completely shrill when it comes to certain political topics-- I’ve lost count how many times I’ve just seen people online get angry about hearing that a second point of view even exists. Tarantino’s 56-- he’s perhaps not going to be super-into the conversations young people have (”Don’t punch down” or “Check your privilege” or whatever), especially as those people’s demands on artists or culture generally are fucking boring. Just how tastes in comedy have changed alone...

Or at least, I myself am regressive in certain ways, having been reared pre-panopticon, I guess, though I just generally avoid talking about topics I know are going to get me into trouble... I don’t use the phrase “oh, these people have messiah complexes instead of therapy” nearly as much as I think it, when I talk about stuff I see on the internet, anyways.

Like, I don’t suspect this movie’s going to be the internet’s favorite movie after a while. Or I suspect that people are going to vastly overstate the “racial politics” of fundamentally silly scenes like the Bruce Lee scene, say (while disregarding or diminishing the racial politics of the rest of Tarantino’s career, which I think are more interesting and thornier than the “conversation” allows, though with its obvious deficits as well). Or understate the movie’s own awareness of the flaws of its characters / Golden Age...

At the same time, I like the young people generally and I lean left on some stuff, so I’m generally not sympathetic to “Oh the young people with their tweets” stuff from old dudes, even if I myself take a lot of issue with the young people and their tweets sometimes. I just think it’s messier than that-- because however obnoxious all that sometimes is, that’s simultaneously going on as a much worse fascism or whatever-ism is really going nuts, right? So to pick that out more than what’s around it just always seems kinda silly if not inaccurate (though I think just going “oh it’s just white folks protective privilege” or whatever is a stupid and dull sentiment too because it assumes that the person saying that is of course on the side of the perfect, that there isn’t anything to take issue with -- it glosses over the obnoxiousness and the utterly unpersuasive qualities of what’s out there in a way that I don’t think benefits anyone, either). But yeah: it’s like complaining about the decorations of a house on fire.

... I don’t know-- it’s a hang-out movie, is the thing, so I’d love to see it again because those generally improve the more you watch them and just get to put aside whatever minimal plot concerns you have, and get to focus more on just hanging out with the characters. My head’s kinda going in circles on the context the movie is fitting into. But simultaneously... the thing I also think can’t be understated is... I don’t know how much Tarantino cares or was motivated by that particular context?

Like, I think he’s making a movie about an era in film being over because he’s in an era of film that’s ending. And I think that’s his more dominant concern here, is what’s happened to the movies. And that’s sort of what I took from it more than the other stuff, while I was watching it, just the sadness of... What’s happened / happening to the culture-- in this case, film culture specifically, but it’s happening to everything. This is a movie about these two actors trying to survive the moment changing on them, and I think that’s really the thing he’s wanting to talk about (and generational anxiety) and... I was very sympatico with that because... I find people who yell at stuff like this or yell at stuff like LOEG Century (to bring that back) have rose-colored glasses on, as to how things have gone. People are less educated-- people are voting worse-- why would anyone think our culture’s okay, just because they let somebody make Black Panther?? Saying that isn’t regressive just because they let a couple minorities past the goal line. I mean, just that experience this year of ... being in an audience rapt and/or crying because Captain America was in group therapy... I don’t know. I’m supposed to be okay with that because they let someone make Oprah Winfrey’s A Wrinkle in Time? That’s silly.

But I mean, I’m getting older too, though, so maybe this is just me being an old person, I don’t know. It’d be a fucking interesting movie to retire on, anyways. Anyways: I had fun-- I enjoyed it a lot. I saw it at the Dome-- they gave away free OUATIH magazines! And finally another great soundtrack after all the pre-fun-music period pieces. I enjoy the Tarantino movies...

#movies i saw in 2019

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crinkliedfries · 4 years

Note

for the musicals ask thing: hamilton -🐸

this is probably going to get long so i’ll put it under the cut

Funniest lyrics:

honestly. for some reason all of aaron burr, sir, gets me, but. specifically:

-“Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, sir? / That depends, who’s asking? / Oh well sure, sir, / I’m Alexander Hamilton, I’m at your service, sir, I have been looking for you / I’m getting nervous / Sir… I heard your name at Princeton, I was seeking an accelerated course of study when i got sort of out of sorts with a buddy of yours I may have punched him, it’s a blur, sir, he handles the financials? / You punched the bursar. / Yes!”

-“He looked at me like I was stupid, I’m not stupid,”

-The whole. introductions of laurens, mulligan, and lafayette (i almost spelled it lafayeet help)

-”Then King George turns around, runs a spending spree��

-”‘Onarchy? How you say, how you say, ‘anarchy?”

-”To socially advance, instead of sewing some pants!”

-“Burr, check what we got/Mister Lafayette, hard rock like Lancelot/I think your pants look hot/Laurens, I like you a lot”

-“Burr, you disgust me./Ah, so you’ve discussed me, I’m a trust fund baby you can trust me”

-All of Farmer Refuted gets me every time

-Same for all of King George’s songs

-“Yo… let’s steal their cannons!”

-”Your excellency, sir!” “Who are you?” “Aaron Burr, Sir?/Permission to state my case?” “As you were” “Sir/I was a captain under General Montgomery/Until he caught a bullet in the neck in Quebec/And well, in summary/I think that I could be of some assistance/I admire how you keep firing on the British/From a distance” “Huh” “I have some questions, a couple of suggestions on how to fight instead of fleeing west” “Yes?” “Well—” “Your excellency, you wanted to see me?” “Hamilton, come in, have you met Burr?” “Yes, sir” “We keep meeting” “As I was saying, sir, I look forward to seeing your strategy play out” “Burr?” “Sir?” “Close the door on your way out”

-”To be their secretary? I don’t think so.” “Now why are you upset?” “I’m not.”

-”Watch this obnoxious, arrogant, loudmouth bother…”

-”Martha Washington named her feral tomcat after him!”

-”You are the worst, Burr.”

-The comparison between Hamilton and love/death/life in Wait For It (i understand that it’s not. Actually funny but,,, out of context it’s just. “ah yes, the four uncontrollable things in life: life, love, death… and hamilton.”)

-”LEE DO YOU YIELD” “YOU SHOT HIM IN THE SIDE, YES HE YIELDS”

-Non-Stop. A lot of it is funny

-What’d I Miss

-The Cabinet Battles

-Hamilton refusing to say M*cbeth and then saying it anyways in Take a Break

-All of Washington on Your Side

-All of the Adams Administration

-”John Adams shat the bed, I love the guy, but he’s in traction,”

-”And they say I’m a francophile–at least they know I know where France is!”

- “Talk less!/Burr!/Smile more!/Burr!/Don’t let ‘em know what you’re against or what you’re for!/Burr!/Shake hands with him!/Burr!/Charm her!/Burr!/It’s eighteen hundred, ladies, tell your husbands: vote for/Burr!”

-”I have never agreed with Jefferson once/We have fought on like seventy-five different fronts”

-”Here’s an itemized list of thirty years of disagreements” “Sweet Jesus”

Most relatable lyrics:

-”Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for,”

-”Oh, am I talkin’ too loud? Sometimes I get over excited, shoot off at the mouth”

-”I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory/When’s it gonna get me?In my sleep? Seven feet ahead of me?/If I see it comin’, do I run or do I let it be?/Is it like a beat without a melody?/See, I never thought I’d live past twenty/(Where I come from some get half as many)/Ask anybody why we livin’ fast and we laugh, reach for a flask/We have to make this moment last, that’s plenty”

-”It’s hard to listen to you with a straight face”

-”My dog speaks more eloquently than thee” (@ my father specifically)

-”Don’t modulate the key then not debate with me!” (sometimes)

-Honestly,,, you’ll be back, kind of? it could also just be because i listened to it after an argument with my father, one of the first times i actually,,, stood up for myself. but i relate to it in the sense of “oh yeah that’s an actual thing people do and someone’s kind of been like that to me”

-”Any hope of success is fleeting”

-”Your reputation precedes you, but I have to laugh” i guess?

-”I have some friends!”

-”Watch this obnoxious, arrogant, loudmouth bother”

-“Oh shit…”

-”love doesn’t discriminate/between the sinners and the saints/it takes and it takes and it takes/and we keep loving anyway/we laugh and we cry/and we break/and we make our mistakes…there are things that the homilies and hymns won’t teach you…death doesn’t discriminate/between the sinners/and the saints/it takes and it takes and it takes/and we keep living anyway/we rise and we fall/and we break/and we make our mistakes…life doesn’t discriminate/between the sinners/and the saints/it takes and it takes and it takes/and we keep living anyway”

-”He dismisses me out of hand”

-”Indecisive from crisis to crisis”

-”What is the meaning of this?”

-can i please put guns and ships. please.

-”at least i have a friend with me”

-”we had a spy on the inside"

-”What comes next?/You’ve been freed…You’re on your own. Awesome. Wow! Do you have a clue what happens now?”

-”I’m curious, bear with me… I intend to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt”

“Why do you write like you’re running out of time?/Write day and night like you’re running out of time?”

-”Talks for six hours!”

-”I know I talk too much”

-”I’ll keep all my plans close to my chest/I’ll wait here and see which way the wind will blow…watching the tension grow”

-”I’m a polymath, a pain in the ass, a massive pain”

-”i hadn’t slept in a week”

Most profound lyrics:

-”If you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for?”

-”Raise a glass to freedom/Something they can never take away/No matter what they tell you”

-”How can I keep leading when the people I’m leading keep retreating?”

-”dying is easy, young man. living is harder”

-”The gossip (in new york city) is insidious”

-all of wait for it

-”Duel before the sun is in the sky/pick a place to die where it’s high and dry/leave a note for your next of kin/tell ‘em where you been. pray that hell or heaven lets you in”

-all of history has its eyes on you

-”Why do you write like you’re running out of time?/Write day and night like you’re running out of time?/Every day you fight like you’re running out of time/Keep on fighting.”

-”What are you waiting for?/What do you stall for?/…then defend it.”

-”But the sun comes up and the world still spins”

Prettiest lyrics:

-All of Helpless!! It’s just,,, a pretty song

-”Oceans rise, empires fall” (the way it’s sung!!)

-”From your sister, who is always by your side”

-all of wait for it

-all of that would be enough

-all of dear theodosia

-certain parts in take a break

Most uplifting lyrics:

-”In (new york) you can be a new man”

-There’s just. something about my shot that feels uplifting?

-”Raise a glass to freedom/Something they can never take away/No matter what they tell you”

-All of Schuyler Sisters?

-”From your sister, who is always by your side… and the hope that you provide,”

-all of stay alive

-all of that would be enough

-”Keep on fighting”

-”But the sun comes up and the world still spins”

Most depressing lyrics:

- “Talk… less. Smile more. Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for,”

-”It was my parents’ dying wish before they passed.”

-”I remember that night I just might regret that night for the rest of my days”

-all of wait for it

-all of history has its eyes on you

-The Laurens Interlude

Character with the best lines:

Either Hamilton, Burr, or Jefferson

i’m stopping here because. it got long but

2 notes · View notes

snkpolls · 5 years

Text

SnK S3E13 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 539 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!

RATE THE EPISODE 534 Responses

WIT kicked off the arc fantastically according to the viewers! This episode got overall positive reviews, with 95% of respondents giving it a 4 or 5 rating.

An ideal opening episode in my opinion!

Incredible start for possible the best season yet ♥

Awesome opening episode to set the stage for the arc to come. Pacing was just right, imo.

HYPE MY SOLDIERS

I think it was a great ep and did pretty well with the chapters it adapted. The dialogue was there and so were the scenes, the ending hyped what is coming so much so I'm already in love!

Lack of creavity when it come to the OP and ED visuals, but the ep overall was good.

The soundtrack slaps, voice acting is on point, and the animation proves to be very promising. Overall, it's a great episode to start off the second cour!

Awesome episode with awesome soundtrack.

One of the best episodes of the whole series, which was surprising.

RATE THE OP 533 Responses

Overall respondents liked the new Linked Horizon opening, which was a great summary of the current arc, but overall it fell flat as a song that most would be willing to label as their favorite.

OP depicts the upcoming battle well!

Great adaptation, just wish the opening was a little more original

It is the worst OP of all. The song is disappointing; it sounds like typical, boring song from random shonen series.

The opening definitely had some parts to it that felt recycled from previous openings, but I guess it's just Linked Horizon's way of linking them all together.

SPACE OPERATION RAINBOW!!!

To me it looks like they ran out of time to make an OP so they slapped a green filter on what they had done already.

RATE THE ED 530 Responses

The 104th-centered still-frame ED has some mixed reviews with most of the fandom sitting somewhere in the middle between loving and hating it. Respondents overall are leaning more toward the positive, however.

ED is perfect with the time skip just over the horizon

WE GOT A FEW NEW SAWANO TRACKS. HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT THEM? 530 Responses

Well over half the fandom are already pumped for new music from the series’ composer Sawano Hiroyuki! A whopping 76% already feel that he’s killing it. 22% need more time to decide how they feel. A small sliver of respondents don’t really care for the OST. Who hurt you?

ost perfect as usual

It was good but at this point everything sounds like it's been reused a bunch of times. Hopefully we get some new great tracks later on..

Hyeh

The bassline in the new rendition of "Attack on Titan" (or however Sawano spells it) is amazing. I cannot wait for the S3 soundtrack to be released.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT? 532 Responses

The scene with the Beast Titan appearing with his army of titans took 30% of the vote, with Levi attacking Reiner as a close second with 22% of the vote. 10% overall liked the entire episode, and 7% favorited the cliffhanger staredown. We can all agree the battle to come has us all hyped!

I repeated the scene where Reiner appears until the end of the episode tons of times already

Did they really had to skip Levi's frustrated expression after he failed to kill Reiner? It was my favorite moment…

Levi attacking Reiner and everything after that has become one of my favorite scenes in the series. Damn!

Nice Erwin Screentime, nice Levi nyooming behind Eren

Best girl makes her appearance

the last three minutes of the episode where the warriors show up was fucking amazing

ON SCALE OF ARMIN TO ERWIN, HOW GOOD ARE YOU AT GIVING ORDERS? 526 Responses

The majority of respondents relate to Armin’s timid nature a bit more when it comes to overall confidence in giving orders. Just a small 6.3% of you guys feel you have the charismatic swag that Erwin brings to the table.

I loved Armin giving orders politely.

How was Armin overcoming social anxiety a billion times cooler then eren flying over a 60m wall, becoming a titan and basically saving humanity.

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO GO HORSEBACK SURFING? 528 Responses

This was in no way a serious question. But at an almost even split, 35.8% of voters would totally try their hand at horseback surfing, while 35.2% would never risk their life doing such a dangerous activity!

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ANIMATION QUALITY IN PART TWO SO FAR? 529 Responses

Overall respondents are pleased with the animation in the first episode of the RtS arc, with 54% stating that it’s the best animation they’ve seen from the series yet. 42% feel it could be better, but is also not the worst. A small percentage don’t find the animation all that impressive.

I can’t believe how clean all of the animation is looking. SUPER impressed with the difference in art-style compared to season 1 as well.

The animation is on the highest level.

i miss the thick lines the show used to have

i really love the colour palette of this season and the op especially.

IMO the color tones on this episode could've been handled better, it was too gloomy on some scenes :(

The animation & art style was almost as good as season 2’s (which is one of my favorite pieces of animation of all time) but still lacked in some areas.

Looks like they went all out with budget on this season and I'm loving it

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE CG COLOSSAL TITAN IN THE OPENING? 532 Responses

57% of respondents aren’t too upset about the GCI Colossal Titan in the opening and say they don’t mind either way. 35% aren’t happy at all with the decision to make the Colossal CGI, while a few actually find the effect super cool.

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO FINALLY SEE THIS ARC ANIMATED? 533 Responses

The overwhelming majority are extremely excited to see this arc animated after all these years. With its high levels of action and drama, it’s no surprise to us to see that the fandom is looking forward to getting this arc in an animated form!

IVE WAITED MORE THAN 2 YEARS FOR THIS IM NEVER BEEN SO FUCKING HYPED IN MY WHOLE LIFE

I've waited so many years that I'm satisfied and ready to pass now that my favorite arc is being animated

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ADAPTATION OF RTS SO FAR? 532 Responses

67% of respondents are feeling very satisfied with the way the arc is unraveling in the anime, finding that it’s a very close adaptation of the original source material. 23% feel that it’s still too early to judge the adaptation properly, and a few less feel that the adaptation so far is somewhere between good and bad.

Fantastic adaptation.

Good pacing jumping right into the action, while staying faithful to the manga.

Overall very good, but could be a TAD better

I think the adaptation so far has been great, but I need to see how the action is handled before I say for sure whether it's well adapted or not.

It was ok.

It was very well-adapted! All the important details were there and nothing important seemed to be missing, which was something I was sad about in the last arc. It seems like everything I want will get covered.

How do we come back from there without breaking my heart?

PART 2 IS SLATED FOR 10 EPISODES. DO YOU THINK THIS WILL BE ENOUGH TO ADAPT THE ARC WELL? 531 Responses

Voters are confident that WIT knows what they’re doing by shortening the amount of episodes that will air for this action-heavy arc, with only ¼ of respondents feeling that they haven’t given themselves enough screen time to cover every last detail. 10% don’t want to say either way.

i was disappointed in knowing it was a 10 episode arc, but seeing the quality and taking into account that this is an action-heavy arc, i'm bouncing off of the walls to see what wit has underneath their sleeve. hopefully they don't ruin the best arc

one advantage of the short season is that they cant draw out the serum bowl for too long. God, that was a painful wait when the manga was dropping those chapters.

Really well done, the pacing in particular was great. After seeing it I was convinced 10 episodes was perfect for this arc. A 6-4 split is perfect.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE VERY SPOILERY OPENING? 532 Responses

61% of respondents agree that the opening, while spoilery, is a great summary and teaser of what is to come for those who only watch the anime. Without context, they can’t know what every last symbolic image in the opening means, after all! 23% of voters expressed distaste at how much WIT is spoiling the viewers, however. 9% aren’t even concerned about it.

The whole opening was just one big “fuck you” to people who don’t read the manga.

it only becomes obvious b/c manga readers keep pointing stuff out. Yes, the intros have always hinted at things but it goes so fast that I don’t think every person will know exactly what something means if they’re anime only.

The Opening is good representation of this phase of the story ending.

I don't get why people are making a big deal over the "spoilers" in the opening when they're not even anime-onlies themselves in the first place.

Man, it only seems spoilery for those of us who know what's coming. Anime onlies don't understand the context of the images, so they can't recognise them as spoilers unless it's directly identified as such! We gotta stop judging this stuff from the perspective of someone who already knows what's coming.

It's definitely not holding back on the indications that'll happen in the arc

HOW DID THE NEW ED MAKE YOU FEEL? 527 Responses

61% of manga readers felt nostalgic seeing the images of the 104th during their trainee days coupled with a somber song. 20% felt sad about the ending, and 15% were just disappointed with the entire thing.

Lazy ending.

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE RED EYES ON THE TITANS? 533 Responses

Just over half of the fandom feel that the red-eyed pure titans was a cool aesthetic to add to show that they are under some form of control by a shifter. 33% feel it’s a cool addition, but not really necessary. 11% don’t care.

I was on board with the red eyes until the cart titan also had them. No longer made any sense.

I don't get why Pieck's eyes are red when she's not a mindless being controlled by Zeke…

Like the red eyes but why does Pieck have them too.

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 530 Responses

Perhaps unsurprisingly, over half of the fandom is most hyped to see the Eren vs. Reiner showdown in Shiganshina. Although not far behind, 28% of respondents are excited about Erwin’s badass unhooding moment as he challenges Reiner.

THUNDER SPEARS FOR NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

Even though I totally know what will happen, the episode is written and directed in a way I still get goosebumps and forget I actually know what will happen. And the music, oh god. That's amazing. These two together have a really good effect.

I need the next one RIGHT NOW.

AAAAAHH!!!!

It was an introduction episode, so imo, it's just there to put the basis for the rest of the season. There was a good balance between the "emotionally charged" scenes and the more quiet ones, all this accompanied with an increasing tension in the background.

I wish theyd reanimated the scene of armin talking to eren about the opening instead of just reusing the animation from season 1.

that Zeke smile is like : hey there, i am here to euthanize you all. Love it !

I'm buying tickets into denial islaaand, bye, bye!

Airpipes. AIRPIPES. p.s. cracking soundtrack

Reiner has been enjoying himself some Marley protein, he extra swole now.

Armin was the MVP

PIECK!!!

I don't like the fact that WiT decided to spoil a lot. Some anime onlies already have guessed that Armin is going to be burned and then will become the next CT. So the serumbowl won't be as emotional and exciting for them anymore. I don't understand why WiT decided to do such thing. Don't they want anime-onlies to enjoy the show?

Exactly as expected you'll find a strange titan next to the beasty

I love Mikasa’s improved design and hope they show more of her working in a team like the manga. Focusing on the mission ect without pandering

RIP nameless soldier killed by Reiner.

Very happy to get a glimpse at best girl Pieck

Really no questions about our exactly right girl in this poll ? I am dissapointed :/

Watching this episode is bringing back all the suspense and awe I felt when I read this part in the manga. What a treat to be able to relive it!

They did a great job at keeping the tension and the "well shit everything's about to go wrong" from chapters 73 and 74, and managed to make the explosion at the end worth it, despite the fact I still think Reiner's continued survival throughout the arc is stupid and wish the anime had changed it so it'd be more believable, but here we are.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 514 Responses

Thank you to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again in a few days!

#snk poll #snk polls #snk spoilers #snk s3 #poll results

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years

Video

youtube

BECK FT. ROBYN & THE LONELY ISLAND - SUPER COOL

[4.31]

Now presenting a lineup probably thought up previously by some fanfic writer, probably one of us, in 2009...

Julian Axelrod: Finally, a song 10-year-old Julian, 15-year-old Julian and 23-year-old Julian can agree on. [7]

David Moore: Ha, pegged this as the Lego Movie sequel immediately! I would say "I must have kids," heh heh, but no, it's just me -- c'mon, my son is terrified of all screen media, my parenting is on point. (Wait, Beck is on this?) [5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The best thing Beck has done in a while -- and I actually like late period Beck. [8]

Alfred Soto: Confusing pastiche and parody with a L.A. nihilist's glee, Midnite Vultures had several tracks that borrowed Peter Gabriel's "Steam," added thicker booties, and painted a Morris Day face on them. If "Super Cool" is parody, the target's a mystery; if pastiche, well, Robyn and Beck can't light novena candles to their cooler younger selves. Or can they? [5]

Ian Mathers: Beck has fallen off so hard that even with these collaborators I was bracing myself, but luckily enough his vocal performance here seems to at least remember that Midnite Vultures was a thing; meanwhile Robyn doesn't have much to do but does it well, and the Lonely Island make me wish someone would give them a budget (again; if you haven't seen Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, you are in for a treat). [7]

Jessica Doyle: If you find The Lonely Island funny on repeat (and I do), most of the pleasure comes from them taking a pop-musical idea, immersing themselves in said idea, throwing in some mental trash, and serving up something gleefully askew. That's what I thought, at first, was going on here: The Lonely Island bringing in Beck and Robyn to help them channel Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT, for some reason, and since to this day I will sing "You've got sixty percent less fat than potato chips" at the drop of a hat, I was all for it. Especially once we got to "Like a stray dog on the freeway, we'll fly." (The husky we adopted two weeks ago has so far wiggled out of her collar, bolted for the front door and the garage door, destroyed the back screen door, and managed to escape a locked, chained gate at the local dog park; my flinching at that line is not a problem but a salute.) But then the song degenerates into two --two! -- verses about reading the end credits, and those verses are not funny, completely unconnected to the preceding setup and nauseatingly bland. This is exactly the kind of schlock The Lonely Island used to refrain from delivering. [2]

Thomas Inskeep: Well, by sticking the Lonely Island on here with a pair of "rap" interludes about film credits, whoever put this song together ruined it nicely. Beck sounds like he's having fun, and Robyn sounds like -- well, a backup singer getting her big break (she deserves better) -- but without editing out Samberg et al., this is fairly unlistenable. [4]

Edward Okulicz: Doing verses about credits is super dumb (but then again, I thought the verse/chorus disparity of "Jack Sparrow" was stupid and not funny at all) and meta in a bad way. But that's the only thing I don't like and both of those bits are over quickly if you want to tune out and dream of Andy Samberg's ridiculous yet beautiful face, which I don't always. Beck's verse is like he mashed up "Mixed Bizness" and "Nicotine & Gravy," which are two of his most fun songs, and the chorus sounds terrific on the radio -- I heard it in a shopping mall on the weekend and it really made me want to buy things. Not necessarily Lego, but not not Lego! [8]

Iris Xie: Andy Samberg doing an E-40 impression and Beck repeatedly singing "everything is super cool" makes me panic from the suggestion that my genuine joy of childhood can be seamlessly reproduced with no errors. Except this is all glitches. Cheery, forced conformity that rips open itself in a twisted form would be cool if it were more self-aware. This is late crisis capitalism -- get me out of here! [0]

Jonathan Bradley: Seeing "Everything is Awesome!!!" in the context of The Lego Movie didn't make it a better song, but it did make it a more awesome one -- the film translated a lot of that infectious idiotic glee. I don't know if, in context, "Super Cool" actually becomes super cool; out of, it's awfully thin. Beck has the ability to be silly, which makes it all the more unusual how stiff his funk is here. Robyn is at her worst when she is silly -- that's how "Konichiwa Bitches" happened -- so it's for the best that she sticks to hook duty. (The Lonely Island is meta. You know how it goes.) [3]

Katherine St Asaph: Beck does his best Kaytranada, Robyn is dissolved in the beat like she's Cassie, and then The Lonely Island show up, in case you were into it, to remind us it's all a joke. [5]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I'm not a fan of musicians who can neatly and primarily be labeled "comedy." Their existence and exultation highlight an odd, prevailing notion that art (particularly music) must be serious in order to be taken seriously, and that comedy is something else. There's also the fact that everything is funnier when you aren't going into it expecting to laugh. All this said, The Lonely Island's feature here is abysmal even for their low standards. Haha yea they're pointing out the not-so-exciting act of watching the end credits! Hilarious. At least "Everything is Awesome" featured a "XD so random!" element that didn't feel so tethered to when it played in the movie. As with many songs for soundtracks, children, or soundtracks for children's films, "Super Cool" finds every artist's personality here sanded down to the point of non-existence. And for what purpose, exactly? Accessibility? A digestible message? Hooks that need to be watered-down in order to sound peppy? Kids deserve better animated films than The Lego Movie franchise, and they certainly deserve better music than "Super Cool." [0]

Alex Clifton: I am honestly too old for this shit. [2]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Beck #Robyn #The Lonely Island #The Lego Movie 2 #pop #music #music review #writing

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script-a-world · 6 years

Text

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Worldbuilding Discussion

Just in time for Christmas, mods Miri and Werew have written up some thoughts about the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas and the worldbuilding within. We hope you enjoy!

The world in Nightmare Before Christmas is an interesting one from a world building perspective. (And one that goes along with several questions we’ve received over the last year.) Here you have a world, the human world, and you also have these separate, town sized holiday worlds. Each of these holiday worlds is completely different. Different climates, vegetation, animals, people. Each world is accommodating to the populace that lives within it.

Halloween Town is just what its residents need. There is an appropriate level of darkness, pools are the right toxic contents that they aren’t toxic to the locals. Ceilings are high enough to pass beneath. An outsider in Halloween Town is going to have trouble finding the things they need to survive. When Jack falls into Christmas Town, he reacts with amazement at how different everything is. He wonders at why things are what they are. He searches for monsters under the bed and is surprised to find none. He makes a lot of comparisons to how things are different. That is often how we relate to new things. When Jack tries to explain Christmas Town to the people of Halloween Town, they have trouble imagining anything but what they know. They try to rationalize the objects with what they would expect. A box they understand. The look of it is unfamiliar, but surely what is inside is what they would expect to find in a box. Jack decides to approach Christmas from scientific means, taking it apart to try to reconcile it with what he knows of the world. He learns as much as he can but still can’t understand the meaning of it all. Eventually he decides that he doesn’t have to understand it to believe in it. He takes what he has learned and tries to apply it in his terms. The results are not recognized or welcomed by the residents of the human world on Christmas Eve. It is. It what they have been cultured to expect and they react with both fear and violence. In the end Jack realizes that Christmas is not where he naturally belongs, and really, it isn’t where he wants to be. He’s had his look at the other side and chosen his path.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a yearly staple in my household, both for the movie itself and the incredible stop motion work. Not to mention the sing along aspect of it. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t seen it, and worth another if you already have.

Happy holidays, and may one of your gifts in the coming year be the answer to all your world building dilemmas.

Mod Miri

Let me start out by saying that I LOVE this movie. It was a staple of my childhood, and it’s an all-around awesome movie. Honestly, even when looking with an intentionally critical eye, I didn’t see much that I thought should be improved. I hope you enjoy this analysis!

The Nightmare Before Christmas is set in a very fantastical world, and one that isn’t really like anything else in mainstream media. This originality is great, but with unique worlds there comes the problem of trying to convey the basics to the audience without getting in the way of the story. Because TNBC is a musical, it allows for a certain amount of suspension of disbelief and a certain amount of exposition by song. It uses the opening number in a particularly effective and believable way to introduce the world, by starting off on halloween and showing us the celebration that the residents put on; this introduces all of the characters (at least to our sight), explains the basic premise of the world, and shows off a lot of the settings and themes.

The introduction of the world by the first song allows the story to get right underway immediately afterwards, with the audience happily on board. Because the setting is introduced so quickly, the movie doesn’t have to waste dialogue time explaining the world, and this allows Jack’s motivations to be introduced within the first ten minutes of the film. This isn’t really worldbuilding, but I think it’s related and I also think that it’s a great and effective way to get the audience hooked right away. Wow, this world is so cool! What, the ruler of it is unhappy with his unchanging life? It’s an immediate, relatable look into his character and drives the rest of the story.

One thing that really sells Halloween Town as being very different from the real world is the culture. This is shown in small, subtle things, especially the idioms and phrases that the people use in ordinary conversation. A few examples that I enjoy:

“Curiosity killed the cat, you know!” -said in a delighted tone rather than a reproachful one.

“Like a vulture in the sky”

“This fog's as thick as, as... Jelly brains!”

There is also an obvious, recurring cultural tendency to see a lot of somewhat negative things associated with Halloween--death, fright, dark themes, and even violence--as positive. This makes it obvious that the world is very different and that the scary themes of Halloween are commonplace and positive to them. It’s a little bit tricky to pull this off in normal conversation without making the audience feel like you’re beating them over the head with it. It’s also tricky to make sure that no idiomatic or cultural phrases that don’t apply end up in your world! Sometimes the things that we think and say are so ingrained that we don’t even register that they might not make sense in a different context.

There are only a few things that I found to be critical of. Most of them aren’t very plot-relevant, and are honestly unimportant to the story. Still, there are a good handful of odd, unexplained things that don’t make logical sense.

The population of Halloween Town doesn’t seem to be very large, yet they have two rulers--Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King (also referred to as the King of Halloween) and the Mayor. These two do not seem to conflict, and the Mayor definitely defers to Jack. In such a small community, it doesn’t really make sense to have two different ruling parties, one elected and one not.

For that matter, the Mayor IS an elected official--or at least he says he is. Yet not once, even as a throwaway line, is anything about an election or voting mentioned. His character is presented as being The Mayor, as though that is the majority of his identity. He’s not just a random citizen who happens to have been elected; he Is The Mayor. That’s his entire being.

Halloween Town seems to be in some kind of limbo as far as its relation to other worlds goes. They seem to be at least aware of the real world, but don’t appear to interact with it; their Halloween celebration takes place in their town and they never talk about traveling outside of it until Jack does. They also clearly have never heard of or seen the other holiday worlds, which Jack stumbles upon completely by accident. Yet, when he sets off to do his own version of Christmas, he doesn’t seem to have any question in his mind about how to get to the real world, or how to get back. While this isn’t really that important, I kind of wish it had been explained.

One last thing that struck me as a little odd is how different Sally is culturally, as compared to the others. She seems to be more aware of the world as an outsider might see it, and she doesn’t use as many Halloween-ish phrases. Her sense of beauty is unique in her world, yet there is no indication that she has ever been outside of it.

Though I discuss these things as problems, I honestly do not think that it’s a bad thing that they went unexplained. The movie’s runtime is fairly short, and the pacing is excellent. Sometimes the world and the explanation of it needs to fall by the wayside in order to tell the story in the best way possible, and that’s fine. The only time when world problems bother me is when they are inconsistent AND directly influence plot events, but all of the idiosyncrasies I noticed in this movie were in the background.

All in all, I think that The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fantastic example of a unique, fantasy world that is presented in a fun and effective way.

Thanks for reading!

Mod Werew

#the nightmare before christmas #magic #culture

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toldnews-blog · 5 years

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A New Kind of ‘Hamilton’ Show, This Time on Lake Michigan

CHICAGO — Audrey Burcham and Grace Troelstrup got up at 5 a.m. Saturday to be sure they’d make it on time. By 7, three hours before a large “Hamilton” exhibition opened here, they were standing at the front of the line with their moms. Audrey, 12, was clutching an Alexander Hamilton doll as well as a hard-bound collection of inspirational tweets from Lin-Manuel Miranda and, of course, a Playbill; Grace, 13, was wearing a gold star “Hamilton” knit cap and toting “Hamilton: The Revolution,” the explanatory book known to fans as the Hamiltome.

“We’re obsessed,” Audrey said. Grace nodded in agreement. “Hamilton is our life now.”

Hamilfans (yes, that’s what they call themselves) have a lot of ways to engage with the juggernaut musical. There’s the show itself, of course, now playing in six productions in North America and Britain, with a seventh expected at some point in Germany, and the books and the app and the cast recording and the mixtape.

But now “Hamilton,” created by Mr. Miranda, has taken a step that appears to be without precedent in the theater world. On an island in Lake Michigan (well, it’s called Northerly Island, but it’s really more of a peninsula attached to a popular park) the show has erected a huge shed in which it has created a high-tech exhibition that combines entertainment (a 3-D theater offers a rare you-are-on-the-stage view of Mr. Miranda leading the Washington cast in performing the show’s opening number), education (more than you probably want to know about the Articles of Confederation) and commerce ($25 for your very own pair of King George socks).

The exhibition is a commercial venture, overseen by Jeffrey Seller, who is the musical’s lead producer, and designed by David Korins, who is the musical’s set designer. It has been capitalized for $13.5 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission — more than the cost of the original Broadway musical, which was $12.5 million. Tickets are $39.50 for adults, $25 for children and free for Chicago public school groups.

The show is betting that interest in “Hamilton” remains so high, both among those who have seen the show and those who have not, that it can sustain the exhibition here for months and then move it to another location — San Francisco or Los Angeles are “logical options,” Mr. Seller said. It is built to tour, although it will require space — the exhibition occupies 35,000 square feet in a hangar-like structure that is 300 feet long and 100 feet wide — and expense: Moving it will take 80 trucks, compared to just seven to move a touring production of the show.

The exhibition is starting in Chicago in recognition of the musical’s success here, where the first production outside New York opened in 2016, and the musical has now been seen by more people in Chicago than in New York.

Among those who attended a ribbon-cutting on Friday was the mayor-elect of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, who said she had seen the musical four times (once in New York, three times in Chicago), and was “blown away by everything about it.”

The exhibition is a cousin to any number of museum-lite shows, often combining artifacts and fun-for-the-family activities in a selfie-conducive setting, that have been mounted in association with television shows (“Downton Abbey”), movies (“Jurassic Park”), games (“Angry Birds”) and musical groups (the Rolling Stones). Some are mounted at nonprofit institutions — just within the last year, New York has seen museum exhibitions about David Bowie (at the Brooklyn Museum), Harry Potter (at the New-York Historical Society) and Tolkien’s Middle-earth (at the Morgan Library & Museum). But many are in less rarefied for-profit settings — at shopping centers, for example. Just this week, a “Hunger Games” exhibition is opening inside a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

“Brands are looking to connect with consumers, and people are looking for an experience that is more than being on their phones all the time,” said Tom Zaller, the chief executive of Imagine Exhibitions, which helped conceive this project but is no longer working on it. “There have certainly been other ‘Hamilton’ exhibitions that museums have done, but your typical ‘Hamilton’ theater fan is probably less likely to go to a history museum than to hear Lin-Manuel Miranda tell them the story.”

The immersive exhibition tracks the life of Alexander Hamilton, who was the nation’s first Treasury Secretary, from his childhood in the Caribbean to his fatal shooting on a dueling ground in Weehawken, N.J., and it also uses his life as a tool for exploring early American history.

It follows the arc of the musical, but also delves into issues that are only lightly mentioned onstage — like the role of slavery in the economy of the Americas, including colonial New York, and offers information about soldiers of color, women at war and Native Americans. A room focused on the election of 1800 features silhouettes of those excluded from voting in early America, including women, enslaved African-Americans, Native Americans and poor whites.

There are carnival-game-style exhibits that try to help visitors understand Hamilton’s concern with debt, banking, and manufacturing policy, and, inside a facsimile of George Washington’s wartime tent, there is a tabletop plan for the Battle of Yorktown featuring toy ships and soldiers that move by magnetization. There is a room with a spiral path to represent the hurricane that affected Hamilton’s early life, there are quotes about Hamilton from famous Americans and there’s a legacy area where visitors can write down their own wishes for America.

“I have so many people come up to me and say, ‘I hardly knew anything about Hamilton, and I want to know more,’” Mr. Miranda said in an interview here. “This is for them.”

There are, of course, many nods to the musical, including an audio guide narrated by Mr. Miranda and two other member of the original cast — Phillipa Soo and Christopher Jackson. The exhibition also has a soundtrack that will be familiar to fans — it’s a reorchestrated instrumental version of the show’s score, recorded in a Los Angeles studio by a 27-piece band.

Scattered throughout are small white signs that correct historical inaccuracies in the musical. On the audio guide, Mr. Miranda refers to them as “tweaks to history” and “fun facts that set the record straight.” The most significant, given the debate in some circles over how the musical depicts its hero’s relationship to slavery, is a sign that says that “The real Hamilton wasn’t an abolitionist, but he did oppose slavery.”

Mr. Miranda is straightforward about the fact that his musical is not precise history. In a welcoming video to the exhibition, he says, “I made a lot of things up,” and in the interview he said, “Don’t expect to pass a test on Argentinean politics by watching ‘Evita.’”

The exhibition aspires to greater historicity. Joanne Freeman, a professor of history and American studies at Yale, served as an adviser and narrates some of the audio; Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of American legal history at Harvard Law School, served as a consultant.

“There are two ways to respond to the musical — one is to say, ‘Everything is not accurate, and I don’t like that,’ and the other is to say, ‘Everything is not accurate, so come with me and let me tell you more,’” Professor Freeman said. “I’ve been studying this period for many decades, and I’ve never seen this kind of interest — people want to know more, and it’s a wonderful thing that the show wanted historians to come in and offer a responsible version of more.”

Professor Gordon-Reed, who called the musical “fictionalized biography,” said the exhibition “attempts to tell the story in broader context.” “I imagine lots of young people will be there, and this will give them a more nuanced view of what happened in early America,” she said.

Early attendees seemed impressed. Among those lined up for the opening were Alex Lipp, 19, of Chicago, and Cyandra Bennett, 19, of Sheldon, Ill. On Friday night, they had seen the musical in Chicago — Ms. Lipp cosplaying as King George and Ms. Bennett as Hamilton. And on Saturday morning, Ms. Lipp showed off a forearm tattoo with words from the show’s libretto, “History has its eyes on you,” while Ms. Bennett had the show’s signature star drawn in black makeup under her left eye. Because they were in the first group to move through the museum, they got an unexpected bonus — they spotted Mr. Miranda in the last room, and got a selfie with him. “It was surreal — I was shaking really hard,” Ms. Lipp said. As for the exhibition, she said, “There was literally nothing I didn’t like.”

#m1 travel news southbound #snow and travel news #travel news 2br #travel news buxton #travel news m4/5 #travel news underground

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sorenphelps · 7 years

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Ghost in the Shell (2017) Review

Here is my Ghost in the Shell review, as promised. Brace yourselves, it’s gonna be long!

(I will probably rant about the movie some more in separate post, this is now my general impression of the movie.)

Let’s make it clear right at the beginning: the new live action movie is good. Could be better, of course, but it’s not bad. It’s definitely worth watching.

Before anyone would come at my throat, let’s make it crystal clear as well that I am an absolute fan of this franchise. I’ve never watched anything as many times than basically everything that GITS ever released. I am unable to get bored of Stand Alone Complexseries, and the movies can make me think about philosophical questions like nothing else. Not to mention the breathtaking animation and exciting action scenes. To sum up, I am a hardcore fan.

But I liked the new movie regardless. A whole rant explaining and some spoilers under the cut.

That’s beyond questioning that the live action movie is different than the original. It looks at the same theme from a very different point of view – but why wouldn’t it? The new movie is made by Americans, of course they won’t have the same approach as the Japanese. I personally don’t feel that they disgraced the source material, they just told a similar story another way. Even the original Japanese anime adaptations did this: The 1995 movie changes quite a bit of the manga, S.A.C. focused on other elements of the story more, and ARISE basically rewrote the whole thing. It’s absolutely useless to argue about the live action movie’s different approach. I think it’s quite faithful to its source material anyway.

The story is basically a mashed up version of every Ghost in the Shell adaptation which somehow still makes perfect sense on its own. Moreover, some parts are quite creative and – I dare to say – even smart! This was a complete surprise for me, to be honest I didn’t expect such a thing from Rupert Sanders.

However, the movie doesn’t really pay much attention to the main question of the series (what makes a human human?), and only contains traces of the connection of the physical body and the ghost. Instead it approaches the subject through memories. It’s mentioned in the originals as well that having memories plays a big role in being human and having a soul – a ghost if you will, so it’s actually not a blasphemy on Sanders’ part. And the main message is way easier to understand this way, fact. (Personally I’m even a little glad that they didn’t try to bullshit some ridiculous fake science/philosophy up to hide the quite obvious fact that they have no fucking clue what the heck a ghost is and why it is important. If they don’t understand something then my vote is on leaving it alone and give it a go again after some proper research. I’d have never forgotten them if they made GITS a giant pile of stinking shit as Transcendence.)

I really liked how they basically copied some scenes from the source materials from pixel to pixel, especially that they referenced not only the 1995 movie, but Innocence and the TV series as well. They totally got me as a fan there. I could write a whole essay about these easters eggs only, but that’s for another time.

We need to mention the whitewashing which got handled pretty well in my opinion. Though it’s a fact that the main cast is all white, I don’t want to go deep in this topic because many have given their two cents probably better than I could, but holy shit. I have no idea when I saw this many people of colour, especially Asians in a western mainstream movie last if ever. (Also, if you look at it from a different angle, the moral of the whole story could be that white people are all awful profit hunting monsters who ruin everything…) However, the biggest surprise of the whole movie was when it suddenly grew some balls and dared to reflect to the whitewashing. They put it in context perfectly, they actually explain why the Major can have Scarlett Johansson’s body. I wasn’t expecting that they would even mention the problem, and I’m all amazed that they actually did, and how well they did! Note to everyone who complains: the Major is indeed Motoko Kusanagi, an Asian woman – only her cyborg body was designed as white, modeled after ScarJo.

Scarlett does a decent job, only her walking seemed a bit weird, but otherwise her acting was fine. And yeah, she’s also very hot in that thermo-optic body suit, I’m not gonna lie. The other big surprise for me was Pilou Asbek as Batou, the role suited him very well, I wasn’t expecting much of him at first, but his performance was actually the best. I’d have preferred him a little bigger and more robot-like, but it’s just nitpicking, the character was all okay.

However, we can’t deny that the movie sucks at some aspects. The music is criminally awful, the biggest fail of the whole production. It’s just some generic movie music all along, there’s not a single beat that has any characteristics or distinctive tune whatsoever, it fails so hard at setting the mood. The very first scene of the movie is the iconic shelling sequence and these bastards didn’t use Kenji Kawai’s masterpiece for it – not even the weak remix version by Steve Aoki. It just makes me so mad, it’s truly a shame, I am unable to ever forgive this.

The other thing that I missed is the actual high-tech. It’s a little problematic to make a cyberpunk movie and then lack the cyber element. They briefly mentioned some hacking and coding here and there, and showed some clishé holograms, but that’s it. (How ironic that they left out the machine as well and not just the ghost. Must be their lack of understanding again, but if that’s the case, then maybe it’s for the better that they didn’t try to fake tech blabla us.)

The worldbuilding looked a bit weird for me, especially those big ass holograms, but it’s easy to get used to them. I’d have preferred a little more dirt on the streets tho. For fuck’s sake, the city is modeled after Hong Kong, you shot half of your movie there! But it’s just nitpicking on my part again. Otherwise, the visuals are amazing. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Every frame looks stunning, the whole movie looks beautiful. The geishas and the thermo-optic suit are perfect (I wouldn’t expect less from WETA though), the effects are very nice. The action scenes are well choreographed and exciting (unfortunately without any blood because of the PG-13 rating). I could only talk superlatives about the visual orgasm the movie gives you. (Except for Batou’s ranger eyes, they look absolutely ridiculous, even the characters laugh of them. But I like it when a movie is self-aware like this.)

TLDR, the new live action Ghost in the Shell is a decent movie, I would definitely recommend it. It has its flaws, but it can entertain the hardcore fans as well as the newbies to the franchise. The plot is fine, the world is interesting and they got the general atmosphere right, it’s funny and entertaining, and visually so pleasing I can’t even describe it with words. 7/10.

#lau gets personal #ghost in the shell #gits #i should probably have a separate tag for gits by now #rant #review #ghost in the shell 2017 #also please excuse my english im v tired atm

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ladystylestores · 4 years

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Why Isn’t the ‘Southern Strategy’ Working?

Want to get The Morning by email? Here’s the sign-up.

Good morning. There are long lines for coronavirus tests. Tech companies are pulling back from Hong Kong. And President Trump’s racial appeals don’t seem to be working.

The so-called Southern strategy — appealing to white voters by focusing on racial issues — has worked very well for the Republican Party. It has helped the party persuade many frustrated white working-class voters that the Democratic Party doesn’t care about them.

Richard Nixon’s campaign invented the strategy, and he won the presidency twice. Ronald Reagan praised “states’ rights” in a tiny Mississippi county known for a Ku Klux Klan triple murder. George H.W. Bush ran the notorious Willie Horton advertisement. The Southern strategy has been “the most successful strategy in the history of modern politics,” Cornell Belcher, a Democratic strategist, told me.

The basic bet has been that Republicans win when voters focus on race. Steve Bannon, who helped run President Trump’s campaign, described the flip side of the idea, in 2017: “The Democrats,” Bannon said, “I want them to talk about racism every day.”

Sure enough, Trump has put race at the center of his re-election message. He did so in two aggressive speeches over the weekend and defended the Confederate flag yesterday. “Almost every day in the last two weeks, Mr. Trump has sought to stoke white fear and resentment,” Maggie Haberman writes. (She’s also on today’s episode of The Daily.)

And yet this time seems different: The strategy isn’t working. Trump’s poll numbers are slumping, and some of his 2016 supporters cite racial issues as a reason they plan to vote for Joe Biden.

Why is the Southern strategy suddenly flailing? I count four main reasons:

The country is changing. It becomes more racially diverse each year. And most Americans under age 35 are quite liberal. The horror of the George Floyd video and the ensuing protest movement have also changed the minds of many Americans.

People are afraid. Historically, many white Americans didn’t see how racism hurt them, Belcher said. But he now hears white voters in focus groups say they’re worried that the country is coming apart. “They talk about, if we continue on this trajectory, it’s going to be dismal for our kids,” he said.

Trump has gone too far. Most white Americans remain moderate to conservative on immigration, affirmative action and more. But many also believe police departments are biased, and many don’t like symbols of slavery. Reagan offered an optimistic, patriotic message that let many voters downplay or overlook his racial appeals. Trump is practically forcing voters to take sides on racism, Terrance Woodbury, another Democratic strategist, told CNN’s Ron Brownstein.

Voters are simply too unhappy with Trump’s handling of the coronavirus. “As long as that’s true,” The Times’s Nate Cohn told me, “I don’t see how he has the freedom to employ wedge issues.”

Of course, the usual caveat applies: The campaign still has four months left.

For more: FiveThirtyEight’s Clare Malone has written a brief history of how the Republican Party “spent decades making itself white.” And The Times’s Emily Cochrane reports from Maine on Senator Susan Collins’s effort to win re-election despite Trump’s unpopularity there.

THREE MORE BIG STORIES

1. Testing troubles

As the United States nears three million coronavirus cases, many cities and states are still struggling with testing. Sites in New Orleans have run out of tests five minutes after doors open. In Phoenix, where temperatures have topped 100 degrees, residents have waited in cars for as long as eight hours to get tested.

While testing has increased considerably since April, it has not kept pace with the recent explosion of the virus. Some experts blame the lack of a federal system, which has led cities to compete for testing labs and supplies.

In other virus developments:

2. Plans for the fall semester

The fall semester is starting to take shape, with most colleges planning to open — but not with business as usual. Harvard will teach all courses remotely and no more than 40 percent of undergrads will live on campus. Georgia Tech plans to resume in-person classes without requiring face masks, leading more than 850 faculty members to sign a letter expressing concern.

One deterrent for going online-only: Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced yesterday that international students enrolled at universities without in-person classes would have to leave the country or transfer to another college. It’s part of the Trump administration’s continuing crackdown on immigration.

3. Unrest over Phoenix police shooting

Another video of a shooting by police — this time with officers in Phoenix fatally shooting a man in a parked car over the weekend — is leading to protests.

Police officials said the victim, James Porter Garcia, had pointed a handgun at one of the officers before he was shot. But a friend told local news media that Garcia was unarmed, and activists have demanded the release of body-camera footage from the officers who shot him.

IDEA OF THE DAY: Pop culture at the Supreme Court

In a unanimous Supreme Court decision yesterday — holding that members of the Electoral College cannot vote for whichever candidate they want — Justice Elena Kagan referred to both the musical “Hamilton” and to the television show “Veep.” We asked Adam Liptak, The Times’s Supreme Court reporter, for some context, and he replied:

The two best writers on the Supreme Court are generally thought to be Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Elena Kagan, and neither is a stranger to pop culture references.

In 2008, Chief Justice Roberts quoted (some say misquoted) Bob Dylan in explaining why the plaintiff lacked standing in a dispute between two phone companies. Instead of citing a case to back up a legal proposition, he cited a lyric: “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.” (What Dylan actually sings, of course, is, “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”)

The chief justice, 65, also drew on the classic rock canon at the argument of a copyright case in 2011. “What about Jimi Hendrix, right?” he asked. “He has a distinctive rendition of the national anthem.”

Justice Kagan, 60, has made her own contributions. In a 2013 case concerning signs on trucks, she gave a hypothetical example of one: “How am I driving? Call 213-867-5309.” That was a sly reference to “867-5309/Jenny,” Tommy Tutone’s indelible 1981 hit, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and will still get people of a certain age onto the dance floor at college reunions.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT, CHEER

Get baking

Maple-blueberry scones are “the perfect thing to bake when you’re looking to funnel some angst into something delicious,” writes the cookbook author Dorie Greenspan.

They are big and glazed and possess a unique texture — tender and flaky at the same time — thanks to a technique for mixing the butter with flour. Created by the chef Joanne Chang for her Flour Bakery + Cafe in Boston, you can find the recipe here.

Read a timely new memoir

“The Beauty in Breaking,” written by Michele Harper, chronicles her life as an emergency room physician through the lens of the patients she has treated. Each chapter highlights a different case, like a newborn baby who isn’t breathing. Along the way, Harper tells her own story — of experiencing abuse, divorce, racism and sexism, and of becoming a doctor. Elisabeth Egan, an editor at The Times Book Review, called the book a “riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring story.”

Baseball sets a date

Major League Baseball announced that its season would begin on July 23 with a game between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals. But will it actually happen? Some players and managers are skeptical.

At least four teams have canceled workouts this week because of virus-testing delays, and several players have already said they will sit out the season. “We haven’t done any of the things that other countries have done to bring sports back,” Sean Doolittle, the Nationals’ closer, told The Washington Post. “Sports are like the reward of a functioning society.”

Diversions

Games

Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Guacamole ingredient (five letters).

You can find all of our puzzles here.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David

P.S. Dana Canedy, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes and a former Times journalist, will run the namesake imprint at Simon & Schuster. It is one of the biggest jobs in book publishing, and she is the first Black person to hold it.

You can see today’s print front page here.

Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about Trump’s re-election campaign.

Subscribers help us report stories from around the world. Please consider subscribing today.

Ian Prasad Philbrick and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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