#I feel like it’s too rooted in a real-world setting for my suspension of disbelief to kick in like in smth like dr. stone

[hms-tardimpala]

I love Cobra Kai, it's my Cringey Bad Show With Moments Of Brillance™.

(long-ass gushing/rant and spoilers ahead)

Cobra Kai requires constant suspension of disbelief, it doesn't have the best pacing, half the humor is horrendous, the character writing is often stupid as shit, it's such a dumb show!

It also has insanely satisfying setup-payoffs, good dramatic irony, it's at its funniest when it's self-aware and laughing of itself, which it does gladly, and it goes to the trouble of giving you gray characters who go through multi-seasons arcs to better themselves (or the opposite). It's such a fun show!

And very importantly in today's media landscape, it pulls off being the necromantic resurrection of a beloved 80s franchise. It could easily have kept the black-and-white naive, squeaky-clean tone of the Karate Kid movies, but it said "Fuck it" from the first episode. It respects its KK roots but expands on them, adds depth and layers it didn't have to. Does it always do it well? Hell no. But seriously, this show didn't need to make that effort. With its premise, it had no right to be that good.

Obviously the show leans heavily on nostalgia, but it manages not to be a total nostalgia fest and brings some interesting things to the table.

Now, having just finished S5 (a lame season, but which had moments that made me cheer and curse out loud), I want to say how much I love how dark CK can get.

Like, it starts easy. A bullied kid, some teenagers slugging it karate-style at a school dance, a tournament to tell who's the winner. Then the brawls get less and less funny. There's slut-shaming. More kids get involved, more get hurt. A teenager gets his spine broken in his high school staircase. This is more the real world than KK, so you've got kids going to juvie for their actions, others who are scarred and traumatized for life.

Then the show goes further. Adults are involved in this now. They beat each other up directly and by proxy through children. There's breaking and entering, destruction of homes, arson. An adult sexually harasses a teenage girl in a precarious living situation. Vietnam veterans' trauma and domestic violence get discussed. There's physical and psychological abuse and manipulation left and right, between adults, between teens, from adults to kids. A grown man destroys another's hard-earned mental health because he feels lonely. There's assault and attempted murder. Kids breaking each other's bones in public settings.

And season 5! The violence keeps escalating. It's the only language some of these kids know by now. And the adults who taught them are just as traumatized and wrapped up in it and they can't stop either. There's arson again, people's lives are getting ruined by what started as a petty rivalry. A teenager is forced to injure herself to prove her loyalty by a group of adults who won't let her leave. A man teaches a child a karate strike that can break a ribcage and suffocate an oponent, and the only reason it doesn't happen is the child in question isn't strong enough yet, but he tries. You've got a sword fight and a man left to bleed out in a pool. A group of four men trying to beat one to death because they've been ordered to. A guy gets his finger cut off. Constant child endangerement and serious injuries that are ignored, and the psychological toll of all that isn't even acknowledged by the characters most of the time.

And of course all ends well, wounds heal and nobody dies, and it's not even gory, but still, it gave me the chills. As someone who enjoys on-screen violence immensely, it's very rare that I wish said violence would stop. That show is unbelievable, ridiculously over-dramatic, cheesy, and also too fucking real sometimes. Like a guy who's always laughing and making jokes, and one day he has too many drinks and lets slip something that reveals how much trauma he's suppressing.

I love this show and these characters. Out of this huge ensemble cast, there's only one character I haven't changed my mind on from the beginning and gone from hating or loving them to the opposite. (and it has great ships for all tastes!!)

Anyway, season 5 was awfully bad. And I enjoyed it. I'm done talking about the karate soap opera on this tumblr for a while, I think.

#cobra kai #cobra kai season 5 spoilers #karate kid

[animeboyswhump]

Tokyo Revengers - Ep 20

Matsuno Chifuyu

#injury #blood #other #crying #i’d feel guilty if i was emotionally attached to the characters. this show is rly hard to take seriously #I mean poor dude right #I feel like it’s too rooted in a real-world setting for my suspension of disbelief to kick in like in smth like dr. stone #the production value isn’t good enough to be a major selling point #and it takes itself too seriously to be enjoyable in the same way as like drrr. maybe the manga is better idk #adults just don’t exist apparently. ​and oh god the whole 26 yr old guy getting into a relationship with a 14yr old girl... #also there’s so much violence and almost none of it is aesthetically pleasing imo? #initially dropped after 4 eps then came back for toki after seeing promo on his twitter #but anyway he’s Very cute #i love his hair #his name also speaks to me for whatever reason #his voice actor seems...new #tho I know sometimes it seems like vas get a major-ish role outa seemingly nowhere but rly been around for a while & just new to us #the only other thing I sorta know him from is side m and that was literally one concert where they did one number #my posts #not video #add show tags later #missing info. to fix

[allywrites360]

Red Shoes - Analysis/Review

“You’re the most beautiful woman in the world… whether my eyes are open… or closed.” - Merlin

““But I’m still that Merlin inside.” - The one who grew. The one who changed, and learned to love himself and others for more than what’s on the outside. I know Snow is the main example of self love in this film, but Merlin provides a great example of this; something we don’t often see in male characters.”

--

So this film just released in North America, and I thought I’d share some thoughts and overall themes/metaphors from this film. But first, I’d just like to encourage you (if you haven't already) to go and support this film. It pretty inexpensive, and was made by an independent animation studio, which I think is absolutely amazing. Now onto the analysis!!

Love the concept of everyone being an adaptation of a fairytale character; adds to the society being shallow and appearance focus as a whole, as fairytales were traditionally focused on dichotomy and physical beauty.

The lighting, and really animation as a whole, is phenomenal for a film made by an independent studio. The shading and colour grading is a real standout, though. And the landscapes!! They feel really three dimensional, and gorgeous.

[ID - A shot of a sunrise, beautifully lit behind a belltower - End ID].

Scoring/motif for the main villain is amazing.

Introduction to the protagonist is really not setup well. Did she actually get sent away from the palace? How long was she gone? How desperate is she to save her father? All of these questions are left unanswered, and no prominent character traits are shown through her first scene. She could be clever? All she did was change her hiding spot, so even that’s a stretch.

I hate the king’s narration. The dialogue is choppy, and repetitive in a completely irrelevant way.

The lore around the tree is really unclear. Why haven’t the shoes worked for Regina? Why do they work for Snow? Will they not regrow?

Love the transition scene to the dwarfs; makes it feel as though they’re just been walking listlessly since the spell was cast. Which, y’know, more or less true.

[ID - A shot of the seven dwarfs walking together through the centre of a forest in midday, looking slightly dejected - End ID].

Love the fact the mirror points out that ‘wisdom’ and ‘kingdom’ don’t rhyme; I paused to point that out.

I will say that the action scenes are really well directed/choreographed. The camera flows really nicely, and always follows our protagonists (ooh, tying into the dichotomous nature of fairytales overall?), which makes the stakes and emotions feel higher/more personal.

The villain’s voice acting and dialogue is really sharp and entertaining. She feels like a real threat (and also uncannily similar to Gothel but).

Love the wooden front on their house disguised as a castle. Really nicely done metaphor for them clinging on to a cheap version of their pasts; refusing to move on, which is torn down when she arrives. Also ties in to the “what’s on the inside outweighs what’s one the outside” moral.

[ID - The seven dwarfs’ house, which is a cave, with a wooden cutout shaped and painted like a castle sitting in front of it to give the illusion of a grander living space - End ID].

Can I also say I love that her first reaction isn’t insanely positive to her new appearance? In general, she just notes there’s been a change, which is a really nice subversion of the ‘overweight people have to be unhappy at the outset’ trope.

Her facial expressions are also really animated, which is something I’ve always loved (see Ariel, Anastasia, etc.), especially her eyes. Really well designed. Actually, all the expressions suit the characters’ personalities really well. Great job, animation department!

The fact that all seven dwarfs are names after popular mythical characters is really inventive (much more so than simply naming them after a character trait), as well as having their diverse fighting style be built from that, which I loved. Could even be allusions, but I don’t know enough about the original stories to say.

Hate the electric guitar of Prince Average. Highlights how much he doesn’t belong in this movie. His name is horribly uncreative, and his pop culture references break the forth wall, and aren’t funny, as they aren’t used properly. With him as the involved antagonist for most of the film, I can’t take the threat seriously. Other comic villains have been done so much better, such as Prince Charming from Shrek. The only valid line he has is about ‘dwarfs’ vs. ‘dwarves’; I never know which to use. “Finally, the big guns, thank you!” One more fourth wall break from this man I swear.

Love the added detail of the shoes not being able to be removed once you place value on the beauty they give. It’s hard to let go of that temptation; and if you don’t, you won’t be seen as your true self. It also highlights how she loves herself at the outbreak of the movie, and is therefore able to remove them freely. Also gets rid of the the deus ex machina of her shoes coming off freely in the water.

Wish we could’ve seen her doubt grow as she realizes they wouldn’t have helped her in her original form. Feels like we were a bit disconnected from her emotions. Which might not be a bad thing… if we assume Merlin in the protagonist.

Nice foreshadowing to her father being the bunny; if you know to look for it.

References such as ‘#blessed’, or ‘Pablo Picasso’, don’t work in the slightest. They serve no purpose, and aren’t funny simply because most would recognize them.

Normally I would make a note about Merlin and Snow having really standard, basic designs, but one, this animation studio is small, and on limited resources, and two, it, again, relates back to the shallow, uninteresting societal expectation of beauty that refuses to be unique.

Ahh, nice that apples are what trip the guards up in the chase scene through the market. Symbolic.

Love that she’s willing to defend the dwarfs even when she realizes they won’t help her in her original form. Again, wish we could’ve seen her emotions pertaining to that a bit more, although the reflection shot in the mirror (reflected from the shot at the start of the scene) was nice. Speaking of that, the broken, fragment reflection of her ‘fake’ self, is beautiful, because it isn’t a representation of herself, however at the end of the scene, we see the reflection in the same manner, but with her original self, but due to newly inflicted self doubt, we get a split second of that reality being fragmented too.

[ID - Snow White frowning as she looks into a shattered mirror leaning against the wall of an alleyway in her society-dictated “beautiful” - End ID].

[ID - Snow White looking into the same mirror, frowning, and having removed the shoes, restoring her to her original appearance - End ID].

The three bears (I’m assuming an allusion to the Goldilocks mythos) don’t really serve any plot relevance… however they are cute, so make of their inclusion what you will.

Again, the scene where she exits the dwarfs’ home; it would’ve been great to see a shot of her internal conflict before she submits herself to giving up her freedom for Merlin and Arthur’s. Relating to that, I have noticed that the hostage situations have shockingly low stakes in this film. For instance, at the end, Merlin is simply held in a branch, and a second later, Snow is willing to give up her life to set him free.

The movie didn’t end up using this (which was a nice subversion of expectations), but if Merlin had used all his spells in the final battle, and needed just one more shot, it wouldn’t have been a deus ex machina, because we establish previously he has the one Snow gave him for luck. I assumed it’d comeback again, but turns out they just used it as a symbol (for having the flower, a symbol of outside beauty, float out of his hand), for him letting go of his shallow mindset.

[ID - Snow White (wearing the shoes which change her appearance) smiles at Merlin, in his dwarf form. In his hand there’s a paper flower she folded from one of his spells - End ID].

Really love the joke about the mirror being hurt by smoke. Get it? Smoke and mirrors? Now that reference is funny; and also ties into the theme of false fronts/illusions. But not gonna lie, all that was an afterthought. It genuinely made me laugh.

Love that they rebuild the house too. It’s not beautiful, at least in a traditional sense. It’s cracked, uneven, but personal to them; they did it as a family. I’ll give the writers credit for so fully entrenching the theme into every frame and action. Nothing is meaningless in this film. Well, at least surrounding the protagonists.

Ooh, ooh, I could forgive the use of pop as their love motif if at the end, when there are no facades, it’s replaced by original scoring. I don’t remember that scene in all that much detail though.

The tree thing is… strange, I’ll admit, but considering Regina puts all her stock in the beauty which comes from the magic tree, it makes sense it’d be rooted into her magic in some way. The apple details are cool (notches shaped like seeds on the trunks), if nothing else, considering the scene with the three attacking is not investing the slightest, beyond some inventive attacks from Merlin (the action and attacks surrounding him aren’t executed all that poorly).

The directing in general is phenomenal in this movie; which is something I’ve been trying to put a bit more attention on lately.

Love small details like Merlin holding his back after the fight, circling back once again to the fact these characters are more similar than they realize (if you remember, that’s what she used as a cover when she first woke up).

[ID - A shot of Merlin running, pressing a hand against his back as he does so - End ID].

Okay, I can suspend my disbelief for a lot of things in this movie, but when Snow dives into the lake, that surface tension would’ve seriously hurt her. If even some waves would’ve been added, it would’ve not only added suspense to the scene, but made it a bit more grounded as well.

“Who do you like more, Snow White or Red Shoes?” “Easy, it’s Red Shoes.” “Who does Red Shoes love more?” “Easy, it’s me. Wait… no. It’s you.” That line is by far my favourite from the film. I love that it shows his guilt. She’s chosen to love him despite his appearance, but he won’t do the same for her. And now he has to look in the mirror at that ugly part of his personality.

[ID - At night, Merlin in his dwarf form stands beside Merlin in his human form. The dwarf version of him looks irritated as he looks up - End ID].

(Assuming Merlin named the rabbit, and if I’m being honest I didn’t pay attention to that) It’s sorta fitting to his character that he named it ‘Long Ears’ - a notably physical attribute.

While I do like that, just because the climax called for it, the sword didn’t suddenly lift from the stone, I really dislike that it was broken out by sheer force; which goes goes against the entire magic system/point of the sword and who gets to hold it.

Kronk as the magic mirror is hilarious. I want to credit the screenwriters for his lines… but I have a strong feeling it was mostly improv. Well done whoever is to credit for that.

Now this action scene, with Merlin being attacked by the tree roots, is insanely well done. For maybe the first time in this movie, I feel the suspense I’m intended to, and the setup and just character movement in general is really inventive. You feel his emotions and breath in this scene, which takes serious talent.

“How could she possibly want to save you more than she wants to be beautiful? Did you cast a spell?” - On a related note, I’m proud of this movie for not falling into the traditional ‘misunderstanding breaks up characters before the final battle’ (they technically do split up, but it’s the fault of Merlin’s unresolved selfish intentions rather than a petty matter) through Snow seeing the love spell, and assuming the worst even though Merlin never uses it.

The vines could be a metaphor as well; in this battle, they’re the shallow desires holding him back, while he, with the assistance of others, has to break his own way out (as shown by him using his lighting to crack a small hole in the doors (or exit) of the room.

[ID - Merlin is running towards the “camera”, however, he looks surprised as a vine grabs his waist, and attempts to drag him back into the castle - End ID].

“I’m sorry, Snow White.” That’s the first time he uses her name; and he does it mentally; in a voiceover. It isn’t to impress her, or win a competition. It’s how he truly sees her now. Also, so beautiful how his motives go from being self centred, to focused on her; he changed because of her influence. It’s been done before, but that doesn’t make it any less meaningful here.

“You’re the most beautiful woman in the world… whether my eyes are open… or closed.” That wasn’t his final line (he survives), but if it was… that would’ve been so powerful. Still is, just in a different way.

“I kinda liked the short and green Merlin.” “But I’m still that Merlin inside.” - The one who grew. The one who changed, and learned to love himself and others for more than what’s on the outside. I know Snow is the main example of self love in this film, but Merlin provides a great example of this; something we don’t often see in male characters.

And I loved that it was a hug immediately after his spell is broken. He isn’t trying to gain anything, he’s just happy to be with her, which is super romantic. 

[ID - Both now restored to their original forms, Merlin and Snow White sit on the ground just outside the palace hugging each other, both smiling with their eyes shut. The king, and a few of the dwarfs stand in the background - End ID].

Onto a few of my favourite lines;

“I was worried about you!” “I was worried about me too. But- but mostly you!”

“If you could see the real me…” “I think I can see the real you… eyes open or closed, I still see Merlin.” What a great line. What a great theme. You don’t need to know the facts about someone, or see their original appearance, to know who they are. And I think that’s beautiful.

“Someone you’l be proud to be seen with.” “I think you’re right.”

“I thought that we were both under the same spell… but I was wrong.”

“He likes you more than he likes me,” as she looks down at the shoes.

“Who do you like more, Snow White or Red Shoes?” “Easy, it’s Red Shoes.” “Who does Red Shoes love more?” “Easy, it’s me. Wait… no. It’s you.”

“How could she possibly want to save you more than she wants to be beautiful? Did you cast a spell?”

“I’ve never been so glad to be chubby and green again.” - Because it means he’s not alone.

“I’m sorry, Snow White.” 

“You’re the most beautiful woman in the world… whether my eyes are open… or closed.”

“I kinda liked the short and green Merlin.” “But I’m still that Merlin inside.” 

I’ll just say, as an ending thought, that the 2D animation of their wedding is adorable.

Overall, I’d give it 8/10. Nothing phenomenal that was entirely groundbreaking, but there’s a lot of heart to be shown here, with some truly amazing characters, even if some of their universe isn’t all that intriguing. Would highly recommend.

#red shoes and the seven dwarfs #red shoes and the 7 dwarfs #film analysis #animation #animation analysis

[iggytheperson]

Professor Bigfoot’s speech in “Stephen and the Suspension of Disbelief”; compiled for ease of analysis

-henry from the comments writes in: “first time last time. tuned in for traffic + weather and got two dudes rambling about conspiracy theories like a terrible podcast. cryptids, aliens, psychic powers, GHOSTS...seriously, what makes you dorks believe in all this junk?” well HENRY - hold on, i’m gonna need the soundboard for this one...-

[ Actually, if I may...That’s an excellent question, Henry. What does make us believe in “all this junk?”

Now to me, it’s understandable why conspiracy theorists get a bad rap, but I believe what makes us believe stems from some of the simplest instincts that make us human. ]

-well professor, this sounds like a super slow burn you’re cooking up, just a really ‘round about roast, but partner if you’re down to dunk i’m up to alley-oop. ahem...what sort of instincts, professor?-

[ Well the first, I’d say, is skepticism...the basic building blocks of rationality itself. The human body is rebellious, you see. It questions. It denies authority. Despite every would-be jailer’s efforts, it is just not good at doing what it’s told.

In minds like ours, that healthy skepticism is simply heightened to its peak, the same way an Olympic athlete perfects their physical health. Through practice. For instance, most people just accept that the moon is real, but if you told me so, I’d say “how come?” And if you said there’s no such thing as Loch Ness Monsters, I’d say “not with that attitude there isn’t.” This is what it means to practice healthy skepticism. ]

-...is...is it?-

[ Ho ho, exactly, my dear friend, exactly. But yes, yes it is. And it’s a vital mental muscle to build up!

After all, you never know when having the strength to not believe in things might lead you to a cause you DO believe in. Which leads me to the next instinct...

RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Allow me to explain. Righteousness is a flame that sparks at the friction between our sense of right and of wrong. While the average person’s sense of right and wrong is limited to what their other senses can perceive, we conspiracy theorists can extend our senses further, and sense the world’s ambient wrongness without the need for evidence. ]

-wow! like, uh, spider man.-

[ No, friend. Even better than Spider-Man. But with greater power than Spider-Man comes greater responsibility than Spider-Man: the responsibility not just to rage against injustice...but to keep our rage in check. You see, with all that extra surface area inside our field of perception, the flame of righteousness we bear, unleashed, becomes a WILDFIRE.

Now, some might say that our extraordinary abilities make us larger than life, that our unmatched fury makes us monstrous, but I would argue that being superhuman make us just that: super human. We’re just as likably flawed as we are superior to normies, and sensing wrong, raging against it, does not always mean our strength’s enough to set it right.

Still, I like to think that even a little guy can tower over evil if he has the moral high ground, uses the weight of their sins against them, and gets some help from his fellow underdogs.  

At least...that’s what I like to think.

Liking to think, what’s more human than that? A conspiracy theorist knows that every answer’s found by someone looking for it. We entertain the possibilities that entertain us! Skepticism guides us, righteousness fuels us, but if you ask what makes us believe, well...to quote my favorite documentary series, the X-Files, we WANT to believe. 

We fill the unknown with our pet theories and seek the truth to greet like an old friend. Ask yourself, “what do I want?” You might find, like us, that you believe your wish could -WILL- come true...with no evidence besides what’s in your heart. ]

-in...in my heart? what i...want?-

[ That’s right, friend, what do you want? ]

-i...want...to...make...henry...feel bad?-

[ Is that really what you want? 

We conspiracy theorists might like to think we’re guided by facts and reason, but truthfully we’re following our hearts. Because of this, we might not always reach our destination, but we’re guaranteed to enjoy every step of the way. ]

-hey, professor bf...i know we...agreed not to talk about what happened at chupacon ‘99, but...if your feelings haven’t changed, do you think you’d want to--

[ ALAS. The heart, I fear, is a double-edged sword. Wishful thinking- Thinking with our hearts- It might give us direction, but...that doesn’t always mean it’s made us face the truth.

Sometimes, the world we build up in our hearts is not the one we live in. Why do we believe, you ask? Because...to err is human, and that’s all I’ve claimed we are all along. Still, a steadfast, unyielding clock is right twice a day. Are we willing to bet on those slim odds? Are we ready to face the reality of our fantasies, should they become real? 

So...that’s that. Skepticism, righteousness, a willingness to bet on what we love...I can’t say they’re always virtues, but our hearts are in the right place, at least. Our instincts, too, perhaps, if not our theories...Sometimes, listener, I suspect...that the greatest trick this world’s worst devils pulled was hiding in plain sight, and convincing us we had to search for evil.

It’s no hidden secret that the system’s filled with willing pawns of power...Those at the top grab for more control in daylight, not in darkness. We rightfully fear secretive manipulation, chemicals and waves, but the most persuasive pressure’s from our peers, the status quo need only preach “it’s with us or against us”, and one convert can make agents of us all.

Then there’s doomsday conspiracies...the many means by which our Earth could end. We’re sure they’re waiting in the wings: evil schemes, unnatural disasters hidden behind friendly faces, our leader’s secrecy, or the sheer scale of the unknown world itself.

But...I cannot help but wonder, if we focus on apocalypses covert and fantastical...

I cannot help but fear, dear listener...that we entertain a grand finale to existence just to entertain ourselves, and distract us from the mundane end in sight.

So...where does that leave us? My fellow conspiracy theorists...what ARE we? Are we shepherds heeded only in hindsight, crying wolf into our flock’s deaf ears? Or are we sheeple herd ourselves, unwittingly echoing domesticated dogma in bleating harmony with power?

If our dogged whistleblowing’s sirens of alarm serve as the dog whistle siren song that leads the system’s lambs to slaughter, then perhaps we’re more sheepdogs in lone wolf’s clothing. 

Maybe where THAT leaves us is what answers who we are...Learning your leash’s length, would you obey? Or bite the hand that holds it?

Maybe these endless questions are the truth of who we are, and our theories aren’t meant to become fact. Maybe we don’t want answers. Perhaps our path is paved with stones best left unturned. 

Perhaps...and perhaps not. In the end, it’s our choice. Knowing what we know, what we feel, and why we feel it...Knowing what we DON’T know...who we are, and where we’re headed...These opposites have undeniable attraction. 

Together, they form a theory’s essence - A root in reality. A seed of unexplored mystery. Whether the tension between the two grows into something more...THAT’S our choice. With our facts and fears laid bare...do we commit to this pursuit? Or let our truth remain conspiracy?

But I’ve rambled enough. If you have another question, I’ll be waiting. Until then..

I hope this answer will suffice. ]

-THIS has been 98.6 ‘the fever’, bringing you nothing but the best in traffic and weather, and I do mean nothing but. hahahaaa don’t snitch okay. i need this. AHEM until next time, what do we say, professor?-

[ As always...no matter what tomorrow holds, be it bad traffic or bad weather...I believe we’ll make it through. Because, more than anything else...I believe in us. ]

#paranatural #professor bigfoot

[iamanartichoke]

To kind of add on to that “are you excited about phase 4″ ask I got a few days ago, I think something that I have felt for quite awhile but haven’t known how to put into words is that, honestly, I feel like IW/Endgame really ruined the MCU as a cohesive universe, in addition to screwing over the characters and the stories. 

What I mean is, after Avengers 1, we had a pretty tight-knit, cohesive world where all of the connections made sense and allowed the characters to both function together as a team while realistically going off in their own directions to continue their solo stories. Each character who had a movie prior to Avengers 1 got a fleshed out background and a narrative that got rid of a lot of the convoluted tropes so rampant in comic books/superhero movies in general. That’s what used to set Marvel apart - that they took their time to really build up to Avengers and make the story as satisfying as possible. 

After that, not only did the OG Avengers continue on with their own stories, but Avengers also set up a narrative that allowed for spin-offs to simultaneously exist while also being autonomous stories - Agents of SHIELD was made possible due to the groundwork laid by Avengers, Coulson’s resurrection storyline was solid and believable (for this universe), there were tie-ins linking it to the main universe, including appearances by the movie characters, up to and including Nick Fury. When the Winter Soldier came out and SHIELD collapsed, AoS followed suit and became an even better show, while still staying true to its MCU roots. 

Simlarly, the Netflix shows took the audience on a super realistic view of what the every day world could and would look like post-Avengers, in that after the porthole closed and the aliens were defeated and the government agencies moved on, there were still regular, every day people who had to create a new normal. This normal closely resembled the old, in that these people still went to work, rode the subway, went out to eat, spent time with friends, experienced trauma, and so on and so forth, but with the caveat that everyone is aware that Strange Things Are Possible and Super Powers Are a Thing.The events of Avengers were referred to and shown to have an effect, as it would, but life goes on. Characters like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage showed us what happens when regular people - not gods, not billionaires, not government spies, just people - are thrust into situations that could happen every day, like theft, murder, betrayal, vendettas, and so on, but with superpowers. And the results were so, so engaging and satisfying, overall. 

Up through Age of Ultron and even Civil War, in that the Accords had ramifications on AoS and the Raft became a real threat for Jessica and for Luke. The movies and its spinoff shows were still very connected, even as they did their own thing. 

And then .... Infinity War happens. Setting aside my personal grievances with the film, what its plot basically does is set fire to the cohesive unit of story-telling that had been happening previously. Yes, the universe had been getting kind of large by this point, and more and more characters are being introduced/given movies, but it still more or less made sense. More suspension of disbelief was going on, probably, but it wasn’t too confusing. 

IW changes that. Thanos comes along with his plan to wipe out half the universe. Wakanda, which has only just revealed itself as a powerful nation to the world, becomes the site of a huge alien battle, much huger than the Battle of New York. 

Half of the universe literally turns to dust, with nobody knowing what the fuck has just happened. People living their every day lives suddenly have their friends and loved ones vanish into thin air, and no one knows why.

 The Battle of Wakanda goes largely unmentioned. AoS and the Netflix shows don’t even address these events. 

The Avengers either go their separate ways or hole up in the Compound, running some version of SHIELD. (No mention of what the AoS version of SHIELD is doing, especially since in that show’s canon, Coulson  made Mack director, but it’s implied in the main canon, Nat’s acting director since Fury got dusted, and Fury’s return in FFH implies he’s still very involved in SHIELD. So I guess the SHIELD in AoS is redundant, or ...? I honestly have no idea how they’re connected anymore.)

Five years pass. 

General Ross doesn’t show up, either during the passage of time or after the battle. There’s no mention of what’s happened to the President, or the government in general during this time. 

The Avengers decide they’re going to bring everyone back.

The Avengers Compound is blown up by an alien army and a massive battle follows. There’s not a peep from the government about this. 

The dusted people return without explanation. 

Five years have still passed. The Compound has been destroyed by aliens. No one seems very concerned about this. The dusted people go back to their regular lives. From what I understand, in FFH, Tony Stark/Iron Man is mourned, but that’s about the extent of the ramifications of all of this. 

Captain America is gone, but might have created a new timeline, but maybe he was in the main timeline all along, but is a new timeline the same as a new universe, so is the multiverse real? but no, Mysterio made up the multiverse to fuck with Spiderman, but something alternate has to exist bc the Ancient One specifically said that new timelines will be created if the stones are moved/changed, but but but - 

What I’m getting at here is, the further we get into the events of IW/Endgame, the less and less sense the overall story makes, not only in the films themselves but in setting a foundation for the Phase 4 movies. The MCU world is all kinds of fucked up now. There’s seemingly no explanation besides “that’s just how things are now” to explain how this whole convoluted mess works once the fancy explosions and fan service are over and the story has to continue.

And just like that, the MCU has become just as convoluted and outlandish as the genre stereotype it was originally trying to establish itself away from. For me, that’s the other side of the coin - yes, I am disappointed in the MCU and the decisions Marvel is making and how my favorite characters have been treated, but there’s also the fact that even if I was still invested in the new movies, I would be confused as all fuck about what story they’re even trying to tell at this point. 

It’s not fun if it doesn’t make sense, or if extensive mental gymnastics are needed to put it into some semblance of coherence. It’s not enjoyable to me. I’m here for good, solid stories and characters I care about. And it actually really, really bugs me that logic has been tossed in favor of narrative decisions made purely for shock value rather than genuine investment in telling a satisfying story. 

Which is also why I’m not excited for phase 4. 

#charlotte bitches about iw #charlotte bitches about endgame #mcu phase 4 #ffh spoilers #far from home spoilers #agents of shield #marvel netflix #meta #not really sure what else to tag this #this is just a brain dump #hopefully it makes sense #long post

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Far From Home Thoughts Part 3 a.k.a. Iron Man Junior: Far From Spider-Man

This will be the final part of this essay series and here I’m going to go through how this film holds up as an adaptation of the source material.

Shockingly the answer will be that it’s fucking awful.

I’ve already made what must be over a dozen posts about how terrible Far From Home is as an adaptation and representation of Spider-Man but screw it let’s go over it more!

Before I start to rant let me qualify something.

When you are adapting a character as famous, iconic and beloved as Spider-Man you don’t have to be a 1:1 translation of the source material. But you 100% do have to respect the spirit of the source material as much as practicality will allow. You have to respect the essential ideas, original intention and core themes and concepts underpinning the character and his world.

That is the root of my objections in this post and so many others.

Homecoming and Far From Home misunderstand Spider-Man on a fundamental level. Or worse they do understand him and actively chose to ignore what he’s about, what he represents.

He’s all about great power and great responsibility within the context of being a relatively relatable Average Joe.

This isn’t making him an everyman the way Bilbo Baggins or Luke Skywalker are. For Spider-Man he has to much more accurately reflect the average person and the world the average person lives in. He has to live in a real city, he has to worry about bills, laundry, studies, getting a job, holding a job, maintaining friendships and romantic relationships. He just has to be Spider-Man ON TOP of that and that must clash with his normal life. Being Spider-Man is one more additional responsibility he must juggle.

Before I rip this film to shreds for so aggressively NOT doing that let me get a few scant positives out of the way.

First of all the action scenes were not just generally improved from Homecoming, but honestly felt more like Spider-Man. I could easily see the way Peter and Mysterio attacked, defended, countered, etc, being something from the comics. Particular praise must go to the Berlin action sequence.

For many years Spider-Man fans have understandably claimed that Mysterio would be the perfect villain for the big screen due to his skill set being about generating great visuals. And we were right because we get not just a classic Mysterio action sequence in Berlin but outright one of the all time best ones from any version of Spider-Man. The film even drops us some appreciated fan service, firstly by putting Peter in his red and blue costume so it feels like the comic come to life and secondly via the giant Mysterio hand ripped straight out of ASM #66-67. The snow globe sequence in particular, if it wasn’t from a comic (and off the top of my head I can’t recall it being so) was simply inspired.

Equally Mysterio’s look was a different yet ultimately brilliant realization of the comic book. To an extent Mysterio is also a spiritually faithful rendition of the comic book character. In the comics he was a special effects master, stuntman and failed actor who craved fame and was frustrated by the lack of recognition he got.

In the movie he created highly realistic holographic technology, was frustrated by it’s small scale use, the lack of recognition he got for it and with a whole crew of helpers fabricated his Mysterio identity in the hopes of becoming the most famous superhero in the world, although he was himself rarely in the costume.

Traditionally Mysterio is a practical effects guy and this makes the most sense given how he physically fights Spider-Man, but the updating of that to holographic technology is fine and dandy because CGI has, for better or worse, supplanted practical effects. Even in the 1994 cartoon when that wasn’t the case the showmakers gave Mysterio holographic tech.

Him not being a stuntman is more of a mixed bag. On the one hand being a stuntman is what enables him to sort of fight Spider-Man himself, but on the other hand outside of his debut Mysterio’s usually been more effective when not physically fighting people but rather tricking them and manipulating them. So if you are focussing more on that aspect of the character dropping the stuntman angle is fine.

In fact one of the two things (and we will talk more about the other later) which does spiritually undermine this version of Mysterio is his lack of explicit connection to Hollywood. However he is still an actor just not a professional actor in the film or TV industry. And a great actor at that as he is so capable of fooling everyone.

We might also argue that having a crew of helpers undermined Mysterio’s independence and intelligence, but I think it works for the movie fro 2 reasons. First of all in a movie for general audiences suspension of disbelief doesn’t stretch as far so savant characters are less acceptable. Mysterio is 100% a savant. He’s a skilled actor, stuntman, manipulator and technician who knows holographic technology, robotics and all manner of things like that. In the movies you could maybe buy someone having a grasp of the purely technical side of things, but even Tony Stark wasn’t an expert on biology or chemistry, maybe he knew enough to get by but remember he needed to read up on stuff in Avengers 2012.

By giving Mysterio a group supporting him it makes it more believable that this villain is capable of all these things. More poignantly, and you can see this especially when they were ‘rehearsing’ for the London attack, it renders Beck something of a director, thus subtextually giving him yet more connection to the world of film. Again it’s just a shame this was not more explicit and instead his abilities and motives stem from...well we will get there.

On a final note Mysterio can in truth be one of the creepier Spider-Man villains and you don’t really get that vibe outside of the Berlin fight scene (and even then only a little bit). I think that’s fine as he was still manipulative which is one of Mysterio’s better skills in the comics.

So there is a lot this version of Mysterio has going for him, he’s faithful in the idea but not in certain details. Unfortunately those details sink this take.

Other positives include the set up of Chameleon as the stoic and silent agent Dmitri within SHIELD. This will not only pay off in MCU Spider-Man 3 but will is also a great example of irony and foreshadowing. Chameleon was introduced as a saboteur and enemy agent so him being a mole within SHIELD lends itself well to his character and the fact that he is an imposter amidst imposters (the Skrulls) is deliciously ironic.

Also this movie gave us the best version of Ned and Betty’s relationship ever because no one died or got cheated on. Finally I liked Aunt May running a homeless shelter. It gives her something to do and is a very fitting role for her.

I want to go back to Mysterio for a moment though as this isn’t really a positive or a negative of his character.

He’s a very tricky character to adapt. In his debut he is pretends to be a powerful new superhero who wants to bring down Spider-Man whom he’s obviously framed.

In a movie I can understand how framing Spider-Man might not sustain a 2+ hour movie.* However the bigger question to ask is whether or not you bother with having Mysterio framed as a hero or not.

In the 90s it was easier as Spider-Man and his mythos wasn’t so prevalent so people simply know a lot of stuff via osmosis, and in the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon the showmakers simply present him as a criminal off the bat.

If you do go with him pretending to be a hero it’s tricky to pull off without feeling like you are going through the motions.

All of which is me saying the movie is faithful to the comics in presenting Mysterio as initially pretending t be a hero but I don’t know how good of an idea that is. I don’t know anyone who walked into the movie not knowing he was the bad guy.

That’s about it for positives.

So...FUCK THIS MOVIE!

Once again in this Spider-Man  movie everything revolves around Iron Man.

I’ve written in posts past how this undermines Spider-Man’s agency simply as a character in a movie but as far as adaptations go this is beyond insulting.

Spider-Man was in part created to be an independent superhero. In part created to literally NOT have the kind of relationship he has with Iron Man in this movie.

I cannot describe how much of a fundamental misunderstanding of Spider-Man’s character it is to have Iron Man be utterly integral to who everything about him.

He’s so goddam integral that Peter’s alleged character arc in this movie is about becoming him (in the most obnoxious of ways too, see Part 2) and he is the wellspring from which 99% of this movie springs from even though he’s fucking dead. I mean my god the plot device everyone is after is Tony Stark’s glasses!

Spider-Man doesn’t get to be his own man even when Iron Man is literally not alive!

Shit even Mysterio is motivated and built to be a dark reflection of Iron Man. And this kills his character not just because it denies him independence because it makes his ambitions entirely too big scale to work as a Spider-Man villain. His motivation is to gain access to Tony’s magic glasses. At least Vulture with a tweak could have worked as a regular Spider-Man villain. He had the working class down to Earth and relatable ambitions and lifestyle down. Mysterio is doing everything to both spite Tony and become him.

Jesus, even Iron Man’s dead weight and most irrelevant supporting character Happy Hogan is not just in this movie but plot relevant...for the second movie in a row! He’s even dating Spider-Man’ aunt. At this point given how she’s never even mentioned him is Uncle Ben even dead in this universe or did he just run off with a somehow even sexier 50 year old?

Oh...and let’s talk about Uncle Ben, whom I was naive enough to think was going to be referenced when that gravestone appeared but noooooope, fucking Iron Man again.

From Endgame onwards disgusting posts and articles were written about how Iron Man’s death now truly makes him MCU’s Uncle Ben. Because you see he was Peter’s father figure and he died...so that’s the same thing.  Nevermind that he didn’t die because Peter was inactive and selfish, or the fact that his death didn’t widow his aunt, or anything like that. Shit Peter doesn’t even seem that upset about it beyond 1 or 2 scenes. And yet that’s one or two scenes more than we’ve ever seen Uncle Ben get referenced. Think about that we’ve seen Iron Man mourned more than Uncle Ben in a SPIDER-MAN movie!

We see that more than we see Aunt May even. Aunt May is just there in the MCU movies which is not just a waste of Tomei as a talented actress but it is again insulting as an adaptation. Even in Spider-Man 3 and ASM2 she had more to do and delivered a good scene or two. In these movies she’s eye candy and nothing more. She is more relevant as a punch line about how men are attracted to her than as her own character.

And now that we are on the subject of supporting characters, I talk about this more in other posts, but Michelle is so bad. The romance comes out of nowhere there is no justification given for their respective feelings for one another and to say she’s not Mary Jane would be redundant.

She fails to be anything like Mary Jane on any level beyond her nickname. This is not okay for several reasons. Among them is the fact that the Spider-man movies have had a problematic habit of treating the love interests as interchangeable characters as opposed to being their own distinct characters. Worse we’re screwing up Mary Jane not only a second time on film but worse than before. This is the Lois Lane of the Spider-Man mythos, she’s an iconic beloved character integral to the over all story of Spider-Man. And we’re treating her as so insignificant as to able to present an OC with her initials and claim that’s good enough.

As for the other supporting characters they continue to be broken. Like how the fuck did Betty Brant wind up the relatively most faithful character? Ned is just a repurposed Ganke except now they’re writing him as a lame Disney Channel sidekick character so he’s not even got the depth of comic book Ganke and Flash...oh Flash. He’s not just irrelevant to the movie, he’s not even really a bully in this film. He’s just a preppy docuchebag no one takes seriously and in fact gets treated as the butt monkey on more than one occasion. The only redeemable moments for his character were when he sang Spider-Man’s praises and was stoked that Spidey follows his social media channel.

All the characters feel like shallow attempts to make Spider-Man ‘about youth’ which as I’ve said countless times in the past, he provably isn’t about and never was. But this film not only continues to lean on that misinterpretation but lean harder on it. Like the premise of this movie is literally about Spider-Man trying to enjoy his summer vacation and school field trip.

But the film fucks up Spider-Man’s defining values in so many other ways.

Of course there is the blip.

People were so hype for Spider-Man to be in the MCU but hindsight is painful because that fact just hurt Spider-Man movies on a fundamental level.

In Marvel comics, we never know for sure if any of Spider-Man’s friends or family died in the Infinity Gauntlet and no one remembered it happening anyway. It also didn’t happen in a Spider-Man story so it could be safely ignored as is the nature of a shared universe.

But in the movies Far From Home acting as MCU Chapter 23 creates an ongoing problem for these Spider-Man movies. The fact that Spider-Man and everyone he knows died and came back but also there were some people who are five years older than him now creates a fundamental dissonance undermining the more grounded, relatable angle of his character. The only solution of which is to simply wilfully ignore the elephant in the room that represents that dissonance. In short these Spider-Man movies would’ve been better off not being connected to the MCU or at least being on it’s fringes.

This applies to even the post credits scene of the movie as now in our movies that are supposed to be about the grounded and relatable hero we have fucking aliens! And they were there the whole time. The movie even gleefully plants its flag in rejection of the idea of having a more grounded Spider-Man by saying Spider-Man ISN’T a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man by virtue of having gone to space. I was okay with that in Infinity War as that was not a Spider-Man movie but by actively rejecting that idea in this movie it showcases how the film makers treat Spider-Man as a more generic hero who can be anything and everything...and therefore nothing. There are no definitions to the type of things he will get involved with.

You might counter outside of the opening school scenes and post-credit sequence the alien involvement isn’t that much of a problem because all the interdimensional and alien stuff wasn’t real in the movie.

But that leads us to the next problem. Spider-Man as a globetrotting super spy agent. Again...this is not Spider-Man. Spider-Man is more domestic, more down to Earth and sans space travel there is nothing less grounded and down to Earth that globetrotting and secret agents. There is a reason James Bond is indulgent escapism!

Worse the spy stuff essentially hijacks the movie, it’s not even something that flows out from Peter’s character or world, it comes out of nowhere to appropriate his story.

Speaking of which...SHIELD have to hijack Spider-Man because...Spider-Man doesn’t want to get involved...

...what?...

I will repeat that.

Spider-Man, the character defined by a low level burglar he chose not to stop who then killed his uncle thus teaching him that having super powers gives him a responsibility to use it to help others...chooses to not help out against giant elemental monsters threatening all life on Earth...because he wants to enjoy his vacation...

...words simply cannot do justice to how beyond broken that is as an interpretation of Spider-Man.

This isn’t even a case of he quits because being a hero has taken such a toll on him and he’s had a wobble.

This is him still deciding to be Spider-Man but actively tries to avoid it because he wants to have fun for an extended period of time. MAYBE that’s okay. MAYBE him deciding to not take his suit along on vacation could be justified and in character.

But when presented the means to be Spider-Man and a major crisis that requires his help (it isn’t like there is a small group of equally or more powerful heroes to cover for him) for him to simply reject it, to have to be forced into helping and when he reluctantly does only doing the bare minimum until he realizes people he cares about are in danger...no.

Just no, whoever was responsible for that characterization you should not be allowed to write for Spider-Man.

It’s not even consistent with Homecoming’s already misinterpreted version of Peter Parker. In Homecoming Peter was screwed up because his intervention made everything worse near 100% of the time but even that’s better than presenting Peter as choosing to not intervene at all for purely selfish and unsympathetic reasons. And to rub it in our faces when he does choose to intervene he does it with more high tech Stark crap. No him making the suit himself doesn’t make it okay, Spider-Man shouldn’t be using technology from other people like that nor consistently having access to such high-tech. It goes against the idea of him being independent and of being grounded.

The Stark tech crap is also relevant to what is a major contender for the single worst scene of any Spider-Man film to date. The drone strike on a bus.

In this movie about the superhero who’s supposed to be relatable and like us, Joe Average, we have a scene where he uses a pair of high tech bequeathed to him by his dead superhero father figure accidentally to launch an orbital drone strike on a fellow school student on his bus because he’s about to ruin his chances with hooking up with a girl. Then he has to engage in wacky hijinks to save the kid and everyone else.

Do I need to say more about that scene? To call it jumping a shark would be an insult to other shark jumping moments. It shatters the verisimilitude of the movie maybe even more than the blip.

Let’s switch back to Peter’s personality in this movie. I’ve already talked a lot about it in prior posts but I do have two more things to point out.

The first of these is that we have less quips than in prior Spider-Man movies. And I don’t just mean the most recent ones I mean of any of the movies going back to 2002. And by less I mean 0. Spider-Man NEVER quips or jokes in this movie. Ever. It’s like they’ve grown to understand Spider-Man even less than in the last movie!

The second and more significant is how stupid Peter is when it comes to his secret identity. In the comics Spider-Man is famously secretive about his identity, to the point where it’s almost paranoid.

Here though he isn’t concerned about SHIELD or random SHEILD agents knowing who he is, or Mysterio, or everyone in a bar or anyone looking at the bridge in London where he unmaskes makes out (awkwardly) with Michelle.

The movie pretends like it cares about this aspect of his character by having Peter point out if he goes out as Spider-Man abroad people will deduce it’s him.

Not only is this an attempt by him to weasel out of hero duties but it’s moot because Betty immediately figures it out (leading to the cringe Night Monkey gag which doesn’t even make sense since monkeys don’t crawl on walls or shoot webs!), Michelle figures it out and Peter was cavalier with his identity before and after that scene.

All culminating in just everyone knowing his identity which like in the comics fundamentally fucks up the idea of him as the everyman even more. Forget space aliens and spy shit now he’s a celebrity. Celebrities are the exact opposite of the everyman, that’s why they’re friggin celebrities!

Big take away from this movie as an adaptation?

It was fucking insulting for it to have been dedicated to Lee and Ditko.

Fuck this movie. Fuck this direction for Spider-Man. Fuck Marvel for ruining Spider-Man again.

*That being said I did once hear a brilliant pitch for Spider-Man 4 wherein Mysterio frames Spider-Man and the police call in aid from Kraven the Hunter to catch him. 

#Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Spider-Man: Far From HOme #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #mysterio #quinten beck #nick fury #iron man #tony stank #Avengers #Avengers: Endgame #Aunt May #May parker #Happy Hogan #mjwatsonedit #Mary Jane Watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #mj watson #Flash Thompson #Eugene Flash Thompson #Ned Leeds #Betty brant #Molten Man #Sandman #Hydro Man

[orpheus-type-beat]

Percy Jackson part 1

Confession time: I was a gigantic Percy Jackson and the Olympians fan as a kid, so this book is very nostalgic to me. I haven’t reread the series in a long time though, especially not the first book, so it’s very interesting to read this stuff again as an adult. I was struck with a couple of observations. First, It’s a pretty good book, which is a relief. I can defend my 11-14 year old self’s tastes, this is mostly a solid kids fantasy novel. 

More relevantly, it’s very different in tone and in execution than Rick Riordan’s later books, especially his sequel series Heroes of Olympus. Those books bounce between different perspectives, and the whole thing is written in a close third person. Moreover, they are so caught up in the lore and the universe and the Percy Jackson formula that they, I feel, lost touch with something the original series had that made it feel special to me. Rereading the first book in the series, I think I have a better understand why.

Perspective

I’m a sucker for first person narration in novels, I’m realizing. Another one of my childhood favorites, the Animorphs series (shoutout to anyone who read those), was also written in this same sort of first person. Each book began with a very post-modern, “if you’re reading this it’s too late,” exposition machine that explained the premise of the series, who the important characters were, and set up the events of the book. The meta, post-modern framing device is never fully explained (why were the characters of the Animorphs, or Percy Jackson himself, writing any of this down?), but are used as a framing device to enhance suspension of disbelief, and to enable humor (through snarky asides).

This close first person, a sort of refined stream of consciousness that feels like a combination between a movie shot entirely in one characters’ POV and a letter written to a friend, is missing in the later Percy Jackson series, I think to its detriment. Not only does the first person narration makes sense in a Greek setting — it emphasises orality, putting this book in conversation with orally transmitted greek myths — it also enhances the series’ humor. A lot of the humor comes from Percy’s wisecracking during fightscenes, which gives the series an action-comedy feel. The comedic portrayal of many of the gods and supernatural beings adds to that, but much of the comedy comes from Percy’s reaction to events, not from the events themself. This enables the events to be able to be taken seriously while simultaneously being mocked and used for humorous purposes.

The first person perspective also differentiates this series, tonally and technically, from Harry Potter (which is a much more obvious influence in this first book: he goes to boarding school, has an abusive home life, and lives in the legacy of a mysterious parental figure). In many ways, this book reads like post-modern Harry Potter — the sense of wonder and fairy tale magic is replaced with humor and a system of magic that feels more logical and rule based. Stuff like the Mist, as an explanation for how the magic in the world remains hidden, and the fact that monsters explode into dust makes this an urban fantasy, akin to sci-fi as much as fantasy. Harry Potter, in contrast, is firmly rooted in fantasy.

The second Percy Jackson series moves to a close third person narration style, and while there are benefits to this (for example, there isn’t the need for the dream sequence exposition hack, and the series can accommodate diverse perspectives more directly) I think something tonally and structurally is lost. It loses the sense of orality, the primacy to the action and humor lent by a first person narrator with a “unbelievable true story” framing device. That blending of the border between fact and fiction is what myth accomplished in Greek times, and what the original Percy Jackson series accomplished for a lot of people, and surrendering that means surrendering something special.

Disability

I had forgotten what a big deal disability is in these books. The thread of all demigods being troubled kids with mental disabilities, specifically learning disabilities, is I think really interesting and radical. We still live in a world where mental illness is taboo, but some mental illness are less taboo than others. In particular, when people say “mental illness” they usually aren’t referring to all mental illness. Usually, they are referring to a subset of mental illnesses, issues like depression, various types of anxiety, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc. — mood, personality, or anxiety disorders. 

Of course, those illness are all still massively stigmatized, but all of those disorders tend to leave cleverness, speech, and some behavior intact. It’s easier to “pass,” in a sense, with those disorders, than it is with other mental illness. We can understand the troubled genius better than we can understand someone who is intellectually disabled. 

That’s what makes the learning disability angle so interesting. In theory, these demigods aren’t troubled geniuses, they’re normal, unexceptional kids (discounting the water bending and sword fighting) who can’t read or write well, can’t focus, and don’t always succeed in the classroom. They aren’t brilliant, but fragile minds. They’re just C, D, and F students, with gifts that are incompatible with our school system’s expectations about the pace of learning and what achievement looks like.

These are the kind of kids we don’t tend to recognize as valuable, and worthy of being written about and made heroes. And if I remember Riordan’s impetus for writing this series was his son’s own struggles with learning disability: dyslexia and ADHD. But in the Heroes of Olympus series, this disability angle is really de-emphasized, and I think to its detriment. It loses the “it gets better” message and inclusivity to people who, even in narratives about mental illness, often get left out. 

Myth Making

This brings me to the interesting ways this book is in conversation with Greek myth, and myth in general.

First of all, having all the demigods have dyslexia and ADHD is a clever inversion of the typical Greek hero’s childhood. Usually, Greek heroes were preternaturally gifted, succeeding in and out of school, and are immediately recognized as different and special. In this book, the heroes are recognized as different, but not as special, but as lesser than. This transform the Greek hero’s sense of inevitable destiny into an underdog story — one that works for modern audiences, the way a gifted noble’s path to glory worked for ancient ones. This reflects modern conceptions of democracy, and the mobility of class, that didn’t exist in ancient times (reminder that Athenian democracy was for rich, landowning men).

Second of all, there is a distinctly non-Christian concept of cycles at play in this book, and in this series. Threat to Zeus’ rule by Titans is thematically compatible with ancient Greek succession myths. And the bit about monsters turning into dust and then reforming eventually creates an overarching them of balance: the war between good and evil is eternal and constantly shifting. The best anyone can do is try to shift the balance, temporarily, in a positive direction. This makes all of the fun bits, like locating the modern Mount Olympus in New York City, having the gods adopt modern trends, work thematically as well as humorously. There an almost Eastern theme of yin and yang, which in all honesty is reflective of Eastern influence on the Greeks and Romans.

Thirdly, Rick Riordan has one mode, it’s just the Odyssey, and that’s fine. The road-trip rompy with constantly shifting objectives leading up to some climax that reveals itself to have been behind the scenes all along is a classic narrative structure that is very ancient Greek, and so works in a story so deeply in conversation with ancient Greek myths.

Conclusion

Finally, by way of conclusion, the thing that makes this first Percy Jackson book/series work, and interesting in conversation with fantasy, myth, and stories about heroes, is one of its central themes: the deification of humanity. The gods in this universe are static, comic figures. Humans are the ones that are able to change things — that’s why the gods love them, and keep making demigods all the time — and humans are the ones, in the series, that are capable of real good and real evil. 

(Semi spoiler alert) In the last book, it is the human capacity for love, sacrifice, and good that saves the day, and produces positive change in the world. The gods are powerful and eternal, but the real source of beauty in the world is humanity, in its capacity for change, rebirth, and renewal. Gods get bored, get cynical, get complacent. They decay, eternal and unmoving. In contrast, humans die and new ones are born, and to them the cyclic war between good and evil remains fresh. Humanity can continually change without movement or exhaustion, constantly relearning the same lessons and experiencing the same joys and sorrows afresh. Gods, locked in a cycle, go around once and are bored and numbed forever, while the human experience stays continually vital and alive.

That’s why this series, despite being so rooted in Greek myth and fantasy, feels so modern and sci-fi influenced (as a huge sci-fi fan, that’s probably why I like it so much), and why this story — despite its post-modern trappings — reaches for sincerity. Gods, in the Percy Jackson universe, can’t survive on their own. They are immortal, but they can grow tired. They can be broken by endless living, and fade away. The gods rely on people to break up the monotony, to remember them and keep them alive: humans are the source of life in this universe. 

(real spoiler alert). The series ends with Percy being offered godhood, immortality, which he rejects. That’s the thematic conclusion to the entire series, and its significant. Besides true love or whatever, the reason Percy rejects immortality is that he realizes that to live and die, taking part in the cycle, is more meaningful than eternal life. Becoming a god would mean forfeiting that meaning. This is a series about gods and monsters and nymphs, but the real magic in this world is humanity. 

Our magic is thus: unlike the gods, as time streams past, we remain untouched by eternity. And I’d argue, like this series does, that that’s real immortality.

[misscrawfords]

I can’t stop thinking about that terrible movie, The Christmas Wedding Planner. It doesn’t deserve 1/10th of the mental energy I’m giving it and yet here we are.

The main problem is that just a few tweaks could have made it a decent film and that the things that were wrong with it were just so wrong. So I’m making two lists. The first is its greatest atrocities. The second is what I’d tweak to turn it into something watchable, even good.

The premise: Kelsey is a rookie wedding planner, about to get her big break with her rich cousin Emily’s wedding to the oh so charming, Todd. Then she bumps into Connor, Emily’s ex, a private investigator mysteriously charged with investigating Todd. He wants to recruit Kelsey to help him with his investigation. She wants him to piss off. Sparks fly while my suspension of disbelief remains firmly rooted to the ground.

This post will contain spoilers. I really wouldn’t bother caring. Buckle yourself in - we’re going for a very inane ride!

Problems

The leads have no chemistry at all. This is obviously a problem. Buying a romance and attraction between them was just impossible. Their first kiss was meant to be awkward but, my god, surely not THAT awkward! 

This lack of chemistry was added to a flat script that clearly was trying to present Kelsey and Connor as a sparring love-hate dynamic who grow to appreciate each other and eventually come to realise that their connection is really deep as they share the same values. But, uh, that may have been the intention but not the story that came across on the screen. Which was just two people who irritated each other suddenly and for no reason getting upset about how the other was behaving after knowing each other for about three days and then...

THEY GOT FLIPPING MARRIED. I mean. WHAT. They’ve kissed twice. They know basically nothing about each other. Half an hour previously she thought he was a villain. This isn’t romantic, this is INSANE. I give them till the end of the honeymoon.

She’s called Kelsey. Like, that’s not a name. It’s just a random word. (This is petty as hell, but still.)

Kelsey has a “tragic backstory” where her mum died and she’s narrating her life in text messages to her mum which are text message overlays of exposition in case the viewer is finding the plot too complex to follow. I have no idea why this exists. It goes nowhere.

A romantic comedy ends with Emily, described as the most perfectly lovely and sweet person, discovering at the altar that her almost-husband was cheating on her and got a maid pregnant and then dumping him. And then she watches her wedding planner get married to her ex-boyfriend who she barely knows. I don’t particularly care about Kelsey and Connor but I’m very, very concerned about Emily! Make your beta couple happy, you cowards!

Todd was cheating with the maid. Wow, what a radical secret. And then Emily just doesn’t even talk about it. She just accepts the wedding is off and wants to plan a girls trip away instead. She was going to MARRY this guy. Doesn’t she want to IDK hear his side of the story? Why so quick to believe the worst? I mean, wow, clearly she shouldn’t be marrying this guy if she doesn’t care, but she’s meant to be intelligent as well as beautiful!

So basically none of the characterisation makes sense. In that there basically isn’t any. Just plot points that apparently have to be hit. Like, Aunt Olivia is a bitchy Rich White Woman (tm) half the time and a caring, mother-figure the other half. I was getting whiplash keeping up with her 180 degree character changes.

Connor isn’t even vaguely attractive. Physically or emotionally. That’s kind of a problem in a romance film. (I mean, YMMV with the physical aspect but, eurgh really.) He’s as charismatic as a block of wood. She’s... eh. She’s a generic Hallmark movie protagonist.

The way these characters dress and look. It’s so... 90s? I don’t mean that exactly. I mean, everyone looks the same and it’s a kind of glossy Clueless vibe. The women are all in tailored mini dresses and with long waves of hair. The men wear slacks and a shirt and have a bit of stubble. They all live in massive mansions or cute apartments that are all spotlessly clean and neat. They literally look like Barbie dolls except even my dollhouse was more realistically lived in than any of these sets. It’s such a weird aesthetic. And it makes no sense for the demographic these people supposedly belong to.

Perfect, sweet Jane Bennet Emily has three caricatured bridesmaids who are horrible. Why? Why are bridesmaids always jealous, miserable bitches? WHERE ARE HER ACTUAL FRIENDS? Speaking of, who even has weddings like this? What is the deal? Who WANTS this kind of wedding? Who behaves like this about their wedding or their child’s wedding? I’m so confused. If this is some kind of fantasy, I wonder whose it is, because everything about it is horrible. Which brings me back to this all feeling very dated in its aesthetic and early 2000s obsession with skinny women getting carried away with designer weddings in romcoms written by men. IDEK. This is 2018 and we have Set It Up and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. This kind of film just doesn’t belong any more.

So that’s quite enough issues. Let’s try to solve a few and make this a better film.

Most of the problems could be solved by making the lead couple appealing. Cast different actors and write the script that they think they already have. If you can actually buy the narrative of two people who have more in common than they think growing closer from antagonists to partners, then the ridiculous ending where they decide to just get married could potentially work. POTENTIALLY. If they had more lingering looks that were genuinely hot, their awkward kiss melted into something real, their interactions sizzled with wit and suppressed passion then... yeah. Maybe then the spontaneous decision at the end would make you think, “Actually, yes, it’s mad but LOOK AT THOSE TWO CRAZY KIDS!”

Work on characterisation. So Kelsey’s deal is she’s concentrating on managing other people’s happiness instead of concentrating on her own because she can’t let go after her mother’s death. This is kind of heavy for a romcom. Let’s scrap the dead mother altogether. Make Emily her actual sister instead of the cousin who is like a sister and make Aunt Olivia her mum. Streamlines everything. This is better. So Emily is the perfect daughter who is beautiful and sweet and having the perfect wedding and Kelsey is the younger daughter who is determined to make her way in the world without the family money. This causes friction because she thinks her mum favours Emily and her determination leads her to believe that if she gets involved in a serious relationship which would please her mother then she is compromising her desire to be independent. Cue touching moment near the end when her mother admits she’s got it all wrong and she admires Kelsey’s entrepreneurial spirit and reveals that it’s possible to have a career AND a relationship. None of this is rocket science or even that interesting but I’m trying to make this a better Hallmark movie, not Citizen Kane.

Connor’s turn. Good grief, get a better actor for a start. And the entire plot here needs to change now. Because the PI bit is good but being hired by Aunt Olivia because Todd is cheating is just... so BORING. So before we can improve Connor we need to work on what he’s there to do.

Time to look at the actual plot. Wedding planner forced to work against her will with PI to investigate the wedding she’s planning is a genuinely cool concept. We have a bunch of tropes here: spies! we had to kiss for cover! love to hate! fake dating! All of these need to be fully exploited and above all the spying has to be funny. This needs to be the centre of the film. Not a single montage. It needs to circle through every conceivable trope to romantic and comic effect. We need to see these two bickering and flirting and denying their attraction in ridiculous undercover situations. This should be basically 90% of the film. Because that I would watch. But “Todd is cheating” is beyond boring. So what will the scenario be?

A couple of options and I’m not sure what I’d go with at present. Firstly would be sticking with the “Todd is cheating” plotline but... he isn’t. He’s a great guy! The spying is all pointless and both Kelsey and Connor realise that but... just... can’t quite bring themselves... to stop... because that’s their excuse to see each other. Todd and Emily find out in the most embarrassing way possible, and find it hilarious. Because they’re a well-adjusted couple ready to take the next step into married life. Either Aunt-now-Mum Olivia did start it and then has to eat humble pie and realise she was wrong about everything or someone else instigated it. Maybe a jealous ex? IDK. It doesn’t really matter. They’re proved totally wrong and true love triumphs!

The alternative is that Todd is really a bad egg but in that case we need to play his relationship with Emily differently so she doesn’t come out looking like a robot or an idiot. We can do a Much Ado situation where their superficial relationship - Emily desperately trying to please her mother as much as Kelsey is trying to distance herself (two sides of the same coin) - is contrasted with the real and flawed relationship that develops between Kelsey and Connor. Meanwhile, because this is a romcom, while Todd and Emily’s relationship is obviously wrong from the start, Emily builds up a cute friendship with the adorable baker making her wedding cake - who is the only appealing character in the film as it stands. Once Emily’s relationship with Todd is exploded, then give her a shoulder to cry on and the hope of something real with the lovely baker in the future.

But even if Todd is a genuinely rotter, the spying needs to be a smokescreen. If Kelsey and Connor do discover whatever is dodgy about Todd, it needs to happen accidentally and so all their spy antics need to be a complete waste of time except to lead to them falling in love. Because actually spying on people and so on is... not very nice and turns this into a spy film rather than a romcom. Even better, let Emily come to the realisation herself. When Kelsey breaks the news to her (she has to do it, not Connor for maximum emotion, and not ridiculously while she’s at the altar) then Emily has to admit she already worked it out so she can make a really informed decision.

If you’re going to have Connor propose at the end (which is stupid) then the correct response is for Kelsey to laugh hysterically and say something like, “Are you crazy? But you can take me out for a real date!” Cue kiss, applause and credits.

So Connor. Firstly, his background needs to be simplified. He shouldn’t be Emily’s ex. That’s just weird. And the whole money business is dubious and overly-complicated and doesn’t make him look great and is just shoe-horned in for ~drama. He’s just a stranger who is a PI. The end. This ought to be an easy job for him, a boring one. He didn’t count on the genuinely smart, witty wedding planner he got entangled with. Bless his snarky, so over-it cotton socks.

So, I can see you wondering, haven’t I removed all sources of tension? No issue with the ex, no money problems, Kelsey and Connor don’t even affect Emily’s relationship. What is the massive problem that will occur 4/5ths the way through and make our hero and heroine desperately miserable for five minutes before the final denouement? But, my friend, if you think this is a problem, then you’ve completely missed the central premise of this story. They think they’re just forced to work together! As spies! Undercover! But actually! They have real feelings! For each other! Isn’t that enough of a plot? When Emily and Todd’s wedding either goes ahead without problem or is broken up no thanks to the inept spy duo, they have no longer any reason to see each other! And thinking that the other one doesn’t care, they just sadly say goodbye and prepare to part for ever... BUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SHOCK YOU. Look, this is all the level of conflict this film needs. Nobody is watching this because they want this part of the film to last more than a couple of minutes maximum. Just let them roll their eyes at each other like the Beatrice and Benedick dynamic they so desperately wish they had and kiss!

THE END.

#The Christmas Wedding Planner #I can't believe how long I've spent on this #literally hours #I am wasted as a teacher #I should write Hallmark movies #I know this is Netflix not Hallmark but let's no quibble over details #Netflix should be able to do better #I'm tempted to write this #I mean I think the plot would be sufficiently different to the original I think I could get aaway with it

[swampgallows]

Final thoughts on Bright under cut (contains spoilers)

As far as a mainstream film I can imagine a lot of people not being on board with it. Urban fantasy as a genre is pretty niche as it is which is essentially why more urban fantasy probably hasn’t been made. It’s hard to balance the concept of magic with the reality of technology. In my opinion Bright had a bit of The Dark Knight syndrome, I guess; I personally thought The Dark Knight was insufferable and hokey as hell, saved solely by Heath Ledger’s Joker which, I think if it were a less-than-stellar performance, would have shown the film’s true colors. I can’t go too dark in the realm of superheroes or fantasy because it’s ultimately a very lighthearted thing, and it has to take root in reality for it to pull off darkness well. So, to me, The Dark Knight felt like just an everyday crime drama/action film a la James Bond or Bourne Identity but with two technicolor off-the-wall characters thrown in. Solely Two-Face could have kept it in the realm of being believable (something like American Psycho, a man going off the rails), but having the Joker and Christian Bale’s hilarious throaty Batman just swung the pendulum too far in the other direction. Like, it’s dudes in spandex and literal clown makeup; Ledger’s portrayal of such a concept as disturbing rather than admirable (as we tend to view costumed vigilantes within the superhero genre) is what saved the film. 

So I’m getting a bit of that with Bright. Telling a story of discrimination with fantasy races as if we live in a post-racist society is clumsy at best and violent at worst. Jakoby’s story is essentially that of the “whitewashed” POC straddled between worlds: not orc enough for other orcs (not “blooded”, clan-less, round-toothed) but not human enough to fit in with humans. I’m watching this as a white woman, so while I might identify with orcs in fantasy as their being outcasts, how a person of color relates to this story can vastly differ. Orcs as a construction of white fantasy (Western, European, however you want to phrase it) are riddled with racist undertones (and sometimes overtones) as it is, so in the context of the real world you can end up with some echo chamber racism in a setting like Bright’s. Orcs predominantly portrayed as gangsters living in the hood, shown as existing only in seedy or “ghetto” type environments with almost clownish stereotypical baggy clothing, jerseys, and chains, was heinously tone deaf. And the “cuerpo” jeers of the Altamira gangsters just felt like the writing of someone who believes in “trickle down racism”, that oppressed groups can be “racist” against one another rather than all subject to the ruling class. Additionally, it seemed like a shoddy way for the writer to absolve himself by saying “see, orcs are even LOWER than humans. Even dark-skinned humans! Because Will Smith is black and he’s a successful cop and also here is a latino and an asian cop...who is a WOMAN, and also he has a WHITE WIFE RACISM IS OVER”

I’m still reeling from just watching the film so I’m still in a bit of the afterglow of just having a movie MADE in this genre. And with an orc as a MAIN character, not off to the side or played for laughs as a dopey peon, etc., it made me very happy. But “positive orcish representation” only puts points in the fun meter and has no actual validity or importance; the real world representation lodged quite a wedge in my suspension of disbelief. It was hard to go along for the ride seeing actual places in L.A. that I visit in reality (like... was that rolling shot of all the tents on San Julian Street necessary?) being treated like props for “orcish oppression”. It’s hard to summarize my feelings on this particular subject, but ultimately this is not the time or era to be making a buddy cop film, truly, and the trope of the cookie cutter thug is tiresome. But that’s probably why I don’t watch these kinds of movies to begin with: the expectations are low, the story is the same, and it’s just a vehicle for shoot-outs, car chases, and combat scenes. 

Women in this movie were nonexistent. Just accessories or one-dimensional plot devices. And that incestuous “sister” shit always gets to me; I dunno about you, but I’ve never stroked my sister’s face and hair and given her nose kisses while straddling her. Who the fuck is that for? Tikka was rolling around like a damn e-tard half the time, completely nonverbal and helpless, fridged-but-not-really, and pretty much just inconsequential. Did not pass the Bechdel test.

I wish more of a backstory had been fleshed out. We heard a lot about the Shield of Light but we never saw them in action. We were told stories about “what happened 2,000 years ago” but there weren’t even flashbacks or any residual effect of those except the existence of the wand. And where is the wand now? How do we know it’s safe? How do we actually know the steel-blue-haired elf man who apparently had no name except that he was the “Magic Fed” elf can keep it safe and that he doesn’t want to bring about the Darklord? How do we know the Darklord was real? There were apparently “fanatics” but if it was that influential of an event, would there not be more evidence? We have human artifacts that are tens of thousands of years old; 2,000 years is nothing in comparison to Niaux cave paintings or Sumerian cuneiform. 

If this movie was trying to be Shadowrun in terms of urban fantasy, then it failed to understand what even I, with only passing exposure to it, know: it’s for nerds, and nerds love knowing shit. That means the more background information and minutiae, the better. Having a superficial story driven by tropes or special effects rather than by fantasy means it will ultimately flop. We live in the here and now; so focus on what we don’t have! There were little things: elves like shopping, orcs have great sense of smell and remote understanding of human facial expressions, and fairies are apparently... pests? But beyond that, the story was just about a bunch of people. The point was supposed to be “orcs are people too”, which is a shit benchmark, really, when the people going in to a movie about urban fantasy have already accepted this tacitly. The whole point is that they are “people too”, but they’re different. Nobody is interested in aliens because they’re gung-ho about meeting tunicates from another atmosphere; we want to meet people: conscious, sentient beings who think like us but are not us, who have their own culture and behaviors and mannerisms and so on. That is part of the huge appeal of orcs, to me. They’re everything I’m not, but of course I see them as sentient people; not better or worse, but different.

So, really, the “message” of this movie is lost on everyone: its stereotypes are insensitive to actual oppressed groups and its bullying of the humanoids we came to see is disheartening, insulting, and annoying for those who are already initiated with the genre. They should be working side by side because that’s what we came to see, not spending two solid hours treating the fantasy races like shit just for a shitty “human after all” sentiment. Where’s Bright 2 so I can watch a human and orc getting taco cart burritos together, elves and orcs and humans all moshing at an underground metal show, and Ward and Jakoby actually solving some real shit together instead of Ward making his partner a punching bag?

Bright missed a lot of very major opportunities to bring urban fantasy to life. Hellboy II’s single scene in the troll marketplace provided more magical backdrop than Bright’s entire running time (a statement I am unintentionally echoing from a film critic on rottentomatoes; but let it be known that Hellboy II is one of my favorite films purely for the perfect urban fantasy themes, a genre I felt at home in before I even knew there was such a thing). That being said, it was still a lot of fun and it’s definitely worth a watch if you’re even vaguely into orcs or the urban fantasy genre, and also I will protect Nicholas Jakoby with my life. 

#bright liveblogging #bright spoilers #blathering

[media-mel]

VFX ARTISTS REACT EPISODE 2

EPISODE 2

Detective Pikachu

Bulbasaurs walking

Contrary to Sonic from Episode 1, the green on the CG Bulbasaurs match the green of the grass in the background, selling the realism. The eyes are pushing it a little, but even then, not that much.

Pikachu

The hairs on pikachu clumps up; it tuffs. It's not all evenly spaced apart. This is also realistic to IRL animals. 

Hair has a lot of ambient occlusion. Underneath the hair, near the roots, most of the hair above is blocking a lot of the light. And you can see the layers of the hairs on top of each other. Hair is not 100% opaque, it is actually slightly translucent. So the fringes of the hair on Pikachu's tail is still catching the light, creating an outline of lighter hair against the rest of his tail in shadow. So the little tips of the hair catches the light, then the light passes through it after being diffused a little.

specific 1-point, directional lighting helps a lot in creating cg scenes. 

Jurassic Park 1

T Rex in rain at night

Radiocity, global illumination = The way light bounces [ img: the "under highlights" on an egg when its on a white counter ]. If I shine a flashlight on my hand (which is near someone else's face), you can see the bounced light still appear on the other person's cheek. In CG, to get that, you have to simulate a ray coming out of the light, hitting a surface and scattering and bouncing off. But you have to do that many many times to get your scattering and get your environment.

So they couldn't do that in 1993, so they set their scene at night with a single source of light. Notice the rest of the T Rex (where the headlights of the cars aren't hitting) are just pitch black. So you don't have to worry about bounce light- great! But they also make it rain, so they can have specular lighting, make it feel like it's reflective, but all they have to reflect is a white spot. He's shiny on his hands, his toes, his thighs, but all it's reflecting is a blob of white (because of the singular direction of lighting).

Because of the animatronic T Rex, they had the perfect reference for lighting.

The museum scene

For one frame, the velociraptor that the T Rex picks up is completely missing. "What I think happened was that the actual files, the 3D models they sent to the cache to be rendered, for whatever reason on that 1 frame the velociraptor model disappeared." [ The way they talk about it, it's like it was a simple computer failure that could have happened at any point, at any frame through out the whole movie, and that they're lucky it failed then and not during a focused part on the T Rex or something ] "AAA we have to re render this and we have two weeks and it takes to months to render!"

Jurassic World 1

The effects here are technically better then they were in Jurassic park, so why do people think it looks worse?

In Park, when you see the raptors, they're real animatronic costumes, so that's what they're going up against. 

There's two things you get with real:    1. Motion looks a lot more realistic, because when you're animating CG by hand, it can go anywhere *waves hands around*    2. Acting. These kids are acting so much better with real pots and pans falling on them and real velociraptors chasing them VS J World which is "aight look at this man with the green tennis ball" Because no matter how good these dinosaurs look, our eye can still register it as fake. So, we will always recognize subconsciously that the actors are never in any real danger-- and your suspension of disbelief is a little shattered. 

J Park treated the dinosaurs as if they were real, they didn't make any shot last more then they need to. But because World is-- they can do whatever they want. So they're going artistic with it and creative-- but as they're being more artistic and creative, it's being less real. 

Aladdin ( 2019 )

Genie (bad shot)

There's a specific part of our brain that recognizes faces. All the checkmarks are there, that's not just a person-- that's clearly Will Smith. And it's not even the fact that he's blue. It's like his proportions. His face looks a little too small for that size of a head, his neck looks a little too thick, and I think a lot of that is driven by the actual camera focal point, length and placement, and what not.

Amazing CG body. The muscles on his back, they flex, and they move, and they indent, pull the skin with them. And from the front, the body still looks good.

But it feels like a face of a man who does not have that body was just pasted on there. It almost looks like the blue on his face doesn't match, it may be a color grading thing where they just put a mask there and brightened his face.  "Oh like a power window ?" "Yeah!" But now his face should be only as bright as his left peck, but it's brighter. 

Genie (good shot)

This looks great, cause it's lit well and you're not showing too much. And also because of the lower angle, the proportions are specifically thrown off. He looks super huge, so it's triggering our brains a little bit less.

A big thing is the lighting. In this shot, there's a nice edgelight, and there's a clear defined keylight, and it's giving his face volume and character. Versus the other shot, which is just this ambient wash, with just like this little bit of light from the side.

See and this once again comes back to very specific directional lighting.

Genie (desert)

Notice the discoloration on his abs, almost as if it was body paint. So a lot of we know about media's reality is not actually reality, but what we've seen in special effects. So for example, when people get shot in movies, we expect there to be a pop and dust and blood, and that's not actually what happens when people get shot. When you do visual effects, you're not always going for reality, you're going for a simulated special effect. And therefore you'd have slight discolorations like this, this actually makes it look more real, like makeup, as opposed to an actual blue person.

Terminator 2

Dogget's character blending backwards to forward

This is mostly a compositing thing. This isn't CG 3D modeling or anything, this is classic After Effects type stuff.

With this shot, ILM kind of pioneered morphing. And morphing is actually pretty simple, it's a distort while  doing a cross fade.

Michael Jackson's Black or White

You're not even really able to see the crossfade of these morphs, in fact they may have kicked it up a notch where they don't actually do a crossfade but rather a pixel color change. 

(Lady's hair grows from short to long) The use of practical shot to drop her hair to help the morph. They have enough of this choreographed where they know when they needed to drop her hair to help achieve the morph.

It's important to note they're not doing an overall crossfade uniformly, they're doing splotches and bits of crossfading though different intervals of time. First it was her hair coming down, then parts of her face, parts of her shoulders, it all flows consistently.

#VFX Artists React notes

[fabermemorialrink]

some mistake, part 3

This part marks the end of what would be chapter one! Still a good handful of sections to upload after this one, but uh I should warn you I probably left off in the middle of writing the most important part, so I hope y’all don’t mind some suspense later on haha. Thanks again for reading!!

So Derek takes Dex’s advice to heart and tries, he really does, and...it kind of works. There are some people in each of his classes that he becomes friendly with, that he can grab a bite with or have study sessions with. And the team has several guys he's pretty close to now. There's Shitty, who’s easy to talk to and shows his support for Derek in his free-spirited, oft-naked way, and Ransom and Holster, who take him under their defensive wing. Ollie and Wicks, Indy and Alph and manager Sierra who treats them all like her out-of-control little brothers.

Derek likes them all but just even being in school drains him every day, over time. There's nothing wrong with any of them, per se, but they're all part of the same system, and it's like a vortex of bleakness that everyone at Andover is caught in. So he goes to class and talks to the tolerable people, and re-learns every single morning how to ignore the intolerable ones, and he goes to practice and bonds with the guys, and when it starts cascading into the always present shadow of pressure and prejudice, he escapes to where he can take a moment, just to be himself without being berated for having the audacity to exist.

He doesn't usually see Dex when he's just meditating in his hidey-hole, his head poking out to rest on the roots and stare up at the treasured glimpses of sky that are revealed to him through the shifting leaves. But he realizes soon enough, shortly before he heads back to the city for Thanksgiving break (because all three of his parents are actually going to be home simultaneously for once) that when he dares to delve deeper, and the woods entangles itself around him slowly and imperceptibly until he's lost in a dark corner again, Dex appears like clockwork to rescue him.

It's an accident at first, just a genuine attempt to try and teach himself more about the outdoors. He read up on camping and shit, and some Thoreau for good measure, but putting what he read into practice doesn't seem hugely successful for Derek. Inevitably, he ends up stranded in the unknown - in the inner ring, as Dex finally tells him one day when they're sitting by a pond Derek's never seen before and eating trail mix he swiped from the dining hall - where his sense of direction fails him.

Dex is nothing if not supremely reliable and strangely, suspiciously, always aware of Derek's whereabouts, so Derek is never left waiting long before Dex storms out to chastise him for endangering himself. Derek still doesn’t get it, because literally nothing seems to live in the goddamn woods except his ginger stalker/self-appointed bodyguard/friend, so he continues to tell Dex to chill and make half-baked promises to not get himself murdered. Dex always does this hilarious hand-clench of frustration when Derek brushes off his concerns, but nevertheless semi-reluctantly puts up with his company until he deems it too dark or too cold for Derek to stay any longer.

Soon it becomes habit to search Dex out whenever Derek's feeling numb. On good days, they get along, talking about the junk they’re interested in. Dex isn’t up to date on the newest shows or movies that Derek likes, but they bond over the nostalgic films of the past, and Derek gives quick and dirty summaries of all the shitty books he’s read on long plane rides. If he exaggerates the inanity of some of the plots, well, it gets a laugh out of Dex, so whatever.

On not-so-good days, at least he has someone he can argue unapologetically with. Sometimes it's important stuff, because Dex is still very much a know-nothing white boy who doesn't understand what Derek goes through on a daily basis. And though Derek still doesn’t actually know much about Dex at all, he does know that Dex thinks he’s too damn rich to understand his hang-ups about buying nice but frivolous things, and dropping more than eight dollars on brunch. So they fight about these things sometimes, but because Derek can’t physically find his way back home without Dex’s assistance, it becomes a forced learning experience for the both of them, to learn to listen to one another without tussling like elementary-schoolers. It works more than it doesn’t, but they’re also both dumbass fifteen year olds who don’t know when to quit, so there are nights that Dex dumps Derek at the field without another word and Derek spends the next day moping in his bed, then moping in his hollow until one of them has enough guts to go and apologize.

And sometimes, their arguments are about whether the pet rock was the best cash grab of all time, or how much money it would have cost to fake the moon landing, or whether it’s a terrible idea for Derek to try a backflip on the ice.

What it comes down to is this: even when they fight, at least Derek feels alive. At least he knows the person he’s talking to cares, about something. They’re not always in sync about how they see the world, but Dex is real in a way the kids at Andover never are, and willing, in his mulish way, to consider Derek’s point of view after a shouting match. And, for all the faces and weird noises he makes, he’s a good listener. Derek practices his public speaking assignment on him and his oral presentation for Spanish; Dex claps in the right places and throws pebbles at him when he’s avoiding eye contact too much. He asks after Derek’s family and his team, and almost always remembers to ask Derek about his games. Derek thinks he probably follows Andover hockey more closely than Shitty’s parents do. Several invitations to their home games have been extended, but Dex always apologizes before turning them down.

Derek doesn’t put it into words until the day Dex sets him to work gathering herbs “for reasons” and they’re sitting in the dirt and fog picking through weeds and chirping each other about their bad hand-eye coordination. Derek has mist in his face and there’s soil caked under his nails from digging up tiny sprouts and silvery roots, but it’s been the best part of his day by far.

“How’d you get dirt on your nose?” Dex asks when Derek delivers another handful of shoots to him.

“Just living that natural life, Dexy.” Derek swipes at his face with the back of his hand, but from the look that crosses Dex’s face he’s not finding much success. He makes another attempt with the heel of his palm this time.

“No, you- there’s even more now,” Dex says irritably. He reaches up, as if to brush the smudge away himself, but aborts the motion halfway and digs him hand harder into the ground instead.

Derek grins, and tries again. “Did I get it?” he asks as he deliberately streaks dirt from the bridge of his nose across his cheek. The corner of Dex’s eye twitches as he fights with himself, until Derek slowly and deliberately digs up a solid handful of muck, ready to plaster it to his own face.

Dex dives for him as he brings his hand up in slow-motion, flattening him to the ground as they battle over Derek’s hand.

“You’re a literal child, I swear to god,” Dex hisses, wrestling Derek's arm in place long enough to smear most of the dirt off.

“Lots of adults enjoy the rejuvenating properties of a mud mask, bro.” Derek pats his cheeks gently with what's left of the soil on his hands, and offers the remainder to Dex. “Give it a try. Refreshed skin will bring out your freckles more.”

“Why would I ever want that.” Dex has to pin Derek’s arm down with his shoulder to protect his face.

“Seriously? People would kill for the Look you got going on, dude.” Dex’s eyes narrow when he hears the capital L, but Derek continues. “You're like a concept painting of autumn. All gold and red and orange.”

“What does that even mean, you weirdo?” Dex groans into the dirt as he rolls away from Derek, ending in a patch of brambly leaves that stick in his shirt.

“It means you’re beautiful inside and out. Own it.”

“Were you put on this earth to torment me?”

“Maybe! Aw, that's cute. Like we were made for each other.”

“What.”

“Well, like, if I exist just to annoy you, and you exist to be my bff, then it's kinda like we were made for each other, right?”

“Wait- are we even having the same conversation right now?” Dex asks, confused. He bounces up like a pop-up book insert to give Derek his classic squint of suspicion. “Who's what now?”

“You’re my best friend, Dex, is what I’m saying,” Derek tells him, smiling at him sideways from where he's still tipped over into the mud. This is what it should feel like, right? This comfortable, unfiltered ease that Derek has grown used to in Dex’s presence. No pretenses, no fear of letting his chill slip or his anger surge. Derek is Derek, and Dex, even with all his secrets, is Dex, and that's all they need.

“Oh. That’s not where I thought this was going. Are you sure?” Dex asks, scratching awkwardly at his hair tucked under his cap. He cut it recently, choppy and slightly uneven; Derek suspects he may have done it by hand himself. Hopefully not with the hatchet. He seems to be in disbelief, so Derek solves the problem the only way he knows how: by being extra annoying.

“No, actually, now that I think about it more, I don't know if I can be friends with someone who’s afraid of barbershop quartets.”

“Oh my god, I'm not afraid of them, I just think the striped vests are fuckin’ weird! And the hats, too, Jesus. It's creepy, okay?”

“You are legit the strangest dude I know. You scared of 90s boy bands too? Leather pants, frosted tips?”

Dex undergoes a deep, full body shudder of disgust, visibly trying to shake the memory off himself. “Quit it, Nursey-”

“Matching track suits! Bandanas and denim overalls!”

“I don't understand how the hell we’re still friends,” and Derek’s smile must be embarrassingly real, because Dex flushes that nice shade of red he gets when he's flustered but not angry, and half-heartedly gives Derek a “yeah, okay, me too,” which, in the current flow of the conversation is a non-sequitur, but Derek gets it.

When it draws close to six, Dex packs up his basket and walks Derek back out, even though Derek has got a pretty good handle on navigating the outer ring by now, where the forest isn't yet labyrinthine and dim. Like always, he halts at the edge, but this time, he stops Derek with a hand to his arm, his skin warm despite the biting coldness in the air.

Dex is about to say something, but Derek word vomits on him before he can speak up. “You wanna come visit my dorm? We could watch Netflix, eat stale pop tarts.” It's such a fantastic proposition that Derek is surprised Dex doesn't immediately begin heckling him.

“Sorry, but I, uh, also gotta get home. Besides, you know they'd never let me into your prep school dorm room. Blue collar cooties,” he says with the sort of uncasual shrug that says he's accepted long ago there are places he isn't meant to go.

“I can't believe you just used the word cooties in a sentence,” Derek says, trying to lighten the mood, because even he's more than willing to sneak Dex in, doesn't mean his friend wants to go. He probably wants to keep their lives compartmentalized. They can share the woods; everything else is off-limits. That's okay. Derek can handle that.

“Some of us have to make do with our dollar store vocabulary.”

“I didn't say I didn't like it. You have the best cooties,” Derek says solemnly and clasps Dex’s shoulder.

Dex shakes him off, but cracks a smile, so it's a solid win. “Shut your face, Nursey. You know I wouldn't fit in with those guys. You'll just have to bring your pop tarts here. Not the laptop though; electronics don't work right in the woods.”

Derek swallows thickly, suddenly overcome with this invitation. It's new. Dex almost always sees Derek off with a demand that he watch his back and stay in school, like some kind of twisted after-school special. He never makes any indication that he actually wants Derek to visit, though Derek’s learned enough of his tacit signs by now to know that Dex doesn't mind his company. “Yeah? What flavor?” he asks when he unties his tongue.

“Wild berry. Extra stale.”

“I'll open a pack and leave it in my math binder for a week.”

Dex must remember that Derek avoids even touching his math materials if he can, because he laughs, and gives Derek a little shove closer to the field. “I'm counting on it. Hey, we need to make some ground rules though.”

“Rules? Like the name prohibition.”

The first couple of times they ran into each other again Dex had reiterated the ironclad importance of Derek never, ever uttering his name while in the woods. Dex nods now, relieved that Derek’s been bludgeoned with that information until it stuck.

“Right. Never tell anyone your name; that’s the most important one. Rule number two: don't trust anyone you meet in the woods. Got it?”

“Uh, what's that supposed to mean? Didn’t I meet you in the woods?”

Dex makes a complicated face and a jerky, ambivalent motion with his hand that Derek does not understand at all. “There's just some strange people in here sometimes,” he says, still hedging around something. “Be wary around them. If they ever try to make you break rule number one, get the fuck outta there. Even if it’s me, okay?”

What? Why would Dex ever…”Okay? If you say so?” What’s Dex afraid of? Brainwashing? Doppelgangers? Clones??

“Promise me, Nursey,” Dex says intensely, gripping Derek’s elbow tight. “I might not always be around to watch out for you.”

Derek must look too hesitant still, because Dex pinches his arm and he lets out a yelp. “Alright, chill, Dex. I promise.” Then, narrowing his eyes, he ventures to ask, “Is this a cult thing? ‘Cause my parents know people. We can help.”

“It's not a cult thing. And if it were, it’s not like I’d admit it.”

“Hmmmm.” Derek looks around, giving the woods a leery once-over, before leaning in to hiss, “Blink twice if they’re watching us. Blink three times if they’re holding you against your will.”

Dex stares at him for a few seconds before blinking deliberately twice (!), then a few more times for a total of five. Derek’s brain flies into overdrive as he tries to decipher this. Is it five as in two plus three? Is he giving Derek a signal? Or is he just messing around?

While he dithers over this, Dex purses his lips and blows a sharp stream of air right into Derek’s eyes. He recoils, clutching at his face.

“Ow, what the fuck, Dex!”

“That’s enough cultist bs for one day. Time to go home, Nursey. Walk slowly; wouldn’t want you to trip on literally nothing again and ruin your pretty face, city boy.”

“Ha ha,” Derek grouses, still rubbing his eyes. He’s well aware of his bad skin and awkward legs. Dex doesn’t need to rub it in. “D’you practice those lines on the squirrels before you try them on people?”

“Don’t be dumb. You ever seen a squirrel around here?” Dex snipes back, but the corners of his eyes crease in a smile and he mutters, “I practice on the trees.”

Derek is still laughing as Dex shoves him out onto the field toward home.

#nurseydex #nursey #dex #omgcp fic #some mistake #nursey's parents are a beautiful loving poly triad if that was not made clear yet

[barbecuedphoenix]

I'm the one who requested the guardian being glad for the potion; I fucking love it, you're amazing.

*blows kiss back to the Anon* 

Angst is all in a day’s work my dear. All in a day’s work.;) 

Actually,I should be thanking you for sending that particular request: synapses juststarted firing on reading the words ‘bad life’ + ‘potion stunt’ + ‘doesn’treally need to return’. It was a plot-twist that was too good to pass up. :D

Tostart with, it’s very expedient for the storyline to start with. It settles thequestion of the MC returning home early on, and in a peaceable way, therefore removingthat as a sub-plot in later episodes to focus on the world conflict andrelationship-building. This type of scenario would also foster a deeper bondbetween the MC and her sentencers love interests (i.e. overcomingtragedy together is actually a good time for a dramatic first kiss), butwithout first driving a massive wedge of distrust andresentment between them. Sudden sharp stings of betrayal are tempting forwriters of a story that evolves per episode, but there’s a fine line betweenwriting a full-force drama and a relationship-building story. In the end, most humanbrains recognize that corkscrewing relationship dramas aren’t very viable inreal life, and with too much of it, they lose the suspension of disbelief andthe ability to identify/self-insert with the story.

Contraryto belief, a voluntarily-accepted potion won’t undermine a fantasy tale that seemsto revolve around the consequences of world-jumping. Making the MC genuinely reluctantto return home would be an interesting twist to the stock fantasy tropes of ‘thedisplaced human is driven by homesickness’ and ‘there’s no place better thanhome’, and open up an entirely new level of plot-development of how she’llcreate a new life for herself in an alien realm (which is not in fact worsethan what the human realm can give her). Not to mention that it’s good fodderfor the imaginations of role-players and self-insert fans (“what would I belike if I really had to live in the faery realm for the long-haul?”) For bothadults and young adults (on their way out of high school to the scary adultworld), the theme of moving past tragedies, making a personal transformation, andbuilding a life for themselves it in an entirely unfamiliar place through sheergrit would resonate in a powerful way, and perhaps even inspire them.

Theconflict that the game seems to be building up between the humans, faeliens,and faeries could still be pursued even with this twist to Episode 13’s potionbusiness. The Guardian automatically feels sympathy for fellow humans andfaeliens, and with the voluntary loss of her own roots, can still be driven totry to protect the latter parties’ interests in the faery realm out of a senseof species solidarity (and lingering homesickness). Especially if she learns that the Guard of El aren’t saints in the way they treat the humans they deem ‘hostile’ (as she would know from Episode 1 & 2). Speaking as someone now livingoutside the country I was raised in, I can tell you that the more of your rootsyou seem to lose, the more powerfully you are drawn to people with a commonbackground, whether or not you actually enjoyedthe place you grew up in or even get along with your countrymen– it’s pure pack instinct. 

Onthe other hand, the MC’s relations with the faeries in return won’t be definednow by lingering distrust and ‘their quest for forgiveness and redemption’ (which,though dramatic, is actually a bit limiting in exploring interpersonalrelations), but by how they’re worried now about her fully integrating intotheir lives after taking the final dive to join them (which is more realisticand open-ended; that’s the riddle of all long-terms relationships). I don’tthink I need to mention that pursuing a relationship withEzarel/Nevra/Valkyon/Leiftan will feel less bitter for some players if thepotion was a voluntary affair on the MC’s part. But what I will say is that avoluntary stay in the faery realm doesnot necessarily dictate a happy ending. Integrating two very differentlives to start fresh together sounds positive on the onset, but anyone who’sseen long-term relationships knows that that’s still a huge challenge:conflicts of interest, divergent views, and misunderstandings are rife in years-long relationships betweenpeople of very different backgrounds. Especially if one of them made the biggersacrifice that they can’t rescind. So a more low-key, organic conflictbetween the lovebirds in this way can still catalyze strong sympathies with thehuman rebels in the game. At its worst, if the MC starts to feel trulyalienated from their faery friends/lover, they’ll feel serious regret at voluntarily sacrificing their roots, and emotionallywill be driven to seek out the human rebels. (Pseudo-)marriage drama reallysells; just ask novelists and screenwriters from a variety of genres.

Froma character development standpoint, the MC’s own less-than-stellar lifeexperiences to date would add more color and more of a survivor’s mindset toher own reactions throughout the game. She won’t simply be a reincarnation ofthe ‘naïve heroine’ trope in otome games, but something else entirely– like ajaded, modern Cinderella with a spine– that *would* set Eldarya apart as a game geared to an audience of more mature teens andabove. The MC/Erika will likely get even more of a personal fanbase fromplayers; she sorely needs it.

Theguys themselves will also receive some major character development that’ll garner abetter reception among the audience: from how they’re reluctant to make a hugeethical transgression when it’s actually an unexpected source of relief forsomeone with a miserable life. It’s a moral conundrum that can be a tear-jerkerinstead of a hot-button-for-hate: do something terrible out of kindness, andfeel intense responsibility for the recipient’s welfare, even though they’rehappy. Thus, the guys won’t be seen as toadies of El employees with a problematicsense of loyalty to the Guard, but a type of provider and (seriouslyambivalent) benefactor with more intimate emotional ties to the MC.

Inshort, there is a huge amount ofpotential for non-divisive, but still ambitious plot-crafting, character development, and relationship-building with the simple twists of a.) making the MC’s home-life reallymiserable, and b.) having her volunteer willingly for a permanent life in Eldarya.This is why I was more than happy to offer you a nice, detailed, 3-part scenario, Anon. ;) 

Edit: Now putting this under ‘Analyses/Headcanons’ in the Master List. Because I spent way to much time on this mini-diatribe to leave it as a ‘reader response’. >_>   

#reader response #Eldarya #general! Guardian #Ezarel #Nevra #Valkyon #analysis #headcanon

[yourmajestysworld-blog]

In game UX

In game UI and UX is a bit of a tricky one. There was two things that would define this game, speed and style. Speed for the gameplay, style for the graphics. The idea is pretty simple, its everything else around it, that needs to support this ideal. This coincides with the game design choices, and just like with the gameplay, handling, sound design, the UI and UX needs to do so as well. For me, already having done a website and an app, this where the bulk of the challenge comes from for me. Other screens and UI are static. In game is not. This creates an entirely new set of challenges and considerations to tackle head on when designing the UI.

This creates an even bigger set of challenges when designing the UX for the game. The big three for this particular game are the following. How do I make the UI function without doing the following

Being too obtrusive

Being too out of the way

Being visible at all times WITHOUT interrupting gameplay (e.g. having to look away from the action at a UI element)

Breaking immersion of the games world (the “gamey” point)

Presenting the information in a way that suits the gameplay’s themes AND the UI themes at the same time

Now, to me, much of this sounds like common sense. But not everyone is a gamer to the point where they notice subtle changes, or even subtle artistic decisions to support the design. To all five of these points will need to be explained for the more casual readers. The first is being too “obtrusive”.  

Obtrusion

Obtrusive game elements are probably one of the more annoying things a gamer can experience. The thing is, there’s no imaginary slider that tells you too much is too much. You add one thing, and suddenly, the UI is clunky and cluttered. This is very prevalent in AAA games in my opinion (ironically though, MMO games have this in spades at times, as you can see from the above picture), there has to be an aiming reticle, a mini map, a health bar, and whichever additional mechanic is on the screen. The problem of all this is obvious. Information overload. The way, in my opinion to avoid this, is to only have something appear on screen if it needs to be there. Others think this way too, considering how often its been utilised.

Being too out of the way

One of the key things to take note of in games, is where the users eyes are going to be centred. This is absolutely key for several reasons. Your eyes are effectively where the action happens. Things outside of this circle of attention, unless they identify themselves, do not exist. It is impossible to overstate how important this is. Not just for the game as a whole, but for UX. Have you ever played a game where something “suddenly” hit you without a chance to react? The disregard of this principle is precisely why. This rule alone, is why many games have a sound cue that plays when important events (such as your health bar being low), otherwise you would just die “suddenly”. If you didn’t have this, you realize that you would have to take your eyes off of the action, which could lead to you making a mistake you can’t realistically react to. Think about where you would focus your eyes in that picture, and then look at where the health bar and the ammo is. 

For the record, war-frame is very much a one hit kill game at higher levels.  I can personally attest to this. Digital extremes knew this UI didn’t cut it and redone it. Sadly, the same problem persists.

The map and health bar might as well be invisible. Don’t get me started on the ammo counter neither.

See how just one small removal of an element transforms a game from “challenging” to “false difficulty” This is what happens when a UI element, is shifted out of the way without its regard for importance to the scene at large.

There is an entire page worth of these sorts of bad experiences on TV Tropes. Under the page “fake difficulty”

See here - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeDifficulty

Ultimate I am saying that it is imperative that the UI is visible at all times WITHOUT interrupting gameplay (e.g. having to look away from the action at a UI element)

This is the true hard part. Because not only is it somewhat subjective, but its also important to the point where it can break the experience do to what I mentioned before. The game that I look to for reference on this, is actually the street fighter series. From Super street fighter 2 turbo (where the series added supers), this was handled expertly. They’re placed in a way that you can always keep an eye on them, but not so far off to the point where again, you have to actively search for them. The health bars are handled the same, keeping the user constantly informed of what is going on, without them having to force feed it into themselves. Fighting games have this the hardest, because they’re arguably the most intense genre of competition, as they’re solely player vs player, not team vs team, so all of the work has to be done yourself.

This manifests itself into my game, because whilst its not this intense mentally, there is a lot of action In the game and it is very very fast paced, being comparable to the wipEout games of old. A split second lapse results in a crash every time in this title, so the user cannot and shouldn’t have to ever take their eye off of where the camera directs them.

Breaking immersion of the games world (the “gamey” point)

This tends to apply to more realistic games, (you wouldn’t have a mini map on the corner in real life for example) but the root of it is, anything that breaks immersion and reminds you “you’re playing a video game”. It doesn’t really matter on the direction of the game, its just a far easier rule to break when your game is realistic, because your mind will be trying to differentiate what is going on, and then notice things that are awry.

hyper realistic shooter...with a health bar. also, note where its placed. 

This doesn’t “sound” like much in the way of UX, but immersion is a key factor to video game. The user wants to be led on, they want their suspension of disbelief to be satisfied, they want to feel like their a part of the world they are interacting in, and that in a way, that world could feasibly exist. When this is done right, this difference is immeasurable. This is, ultimately what sets trend setting video games, like metal gear solid, goldeneye 64 and doom apart from other competing titles.  

Everything has to be considered here, the immersion isn’t part of the UX, it IS the UX. If this breaks at any moment, the design is a failure.

Presenting the information in a way that suits the gameplay’s themes AND the UI themes at the same time

This is another one of those “needs to be explained” sort of things. What it boils down to, effectively is this. Gaming is a medium, much like books, much like film. Gaming has a different set of tools that can be used to present its information, its story, and its theme. Once again, the main rule prevails and is always at work here.

Show, do not tell.

The problem is. Gaming is a different medium. Showing in a movie, is not the same as showing in a game. Showing in a book, is not the same as showing in a movie.  

To tell in a movie, is to have pointless expedition (normally a conversation) that just reveals a plot point. An example is someone talking about someone's abilities, but this never being shown. This is known as an informed ability.  

To show in a movie, is to have a plot point presented to you with action. Action speaks louder than words. It doesn’t have to be a big micheal bay explosion, it can be in body language. This is shown masterfully in the wire.

In games, you can not, I repeat, can NOT use this same principle. To tell the player something, often means to take control from the player, and play a cutscene.

Nine times out of ten, this cutscene can be playable.

To show a player, have them experience what you want them to experience. The designer is the master of the show, he can dictate what the user needs to feel and when.

Always show, never tell.

This distinction is absolutely important to make, because it a lost art in gaming. Many of the most iconic moments, are cinematic in ways only gaming can be. Let’s take a look at this iconic scene. The psycho mantis boss fight. Half way through the boss fight he scans your memory card and reads it. For reference. Psycho mantis is a psychic who reads and controls the minds of his foes. For any first time player, this throws you in a loop. The user isn't’ told he is psychic, they’re merely shown it when they have to fight their friend. But in this moment? The player is SHOWN that the man is a psychic. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0oHnGM_iQw

This, in any other medium is simply not possible. The character is reading game data,  and using it to comment upon the player. This was ground breaking at the time, and in many ways it still is. It highlights how to “tell” in a game and how to “show” in a game (because the scene where he possesses the woman COULD be done with gameplay, simply have her attack you out of nowhere whilst on your side, but I digress. it’s a classic moment regardless)

So how does this apply to my game? Simple, the game is stylish and fast. The UI and UX needs to convey that in a way that only a game can. This means that with the design of the UI the user at all times must have control, even something small like manipulating the UI to coincide with the speed of the game, adds to the dramatic effect that I am trying to sell to the user.

Once again, immersion isn’t part of the UX. Immersion IS the UX.

#warframe #games #ui #ux #gaming #racing #game #gamedesign #design #graphic #metal gear solid

[momtaku]

SnK Chapter 91 Poll

I’ll be closing the chapter 91 poll tomorrow, so this is your last chance if you’d like to chime in.

Take the Poll

I’ve gotten 350+ responses thus far and tbh these results are the most interesting I’ve seen in terms of lack of consensus. 134 people have left their chapter thoughts, I’ll share a bunch of those below the read more. My favorite is listed first :)

*patrick star voice* WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE

If Levi is taking down the beast titan and he finds out that not only is Zeke already dead, but his replacement is a weak-brows version of Erwin, I really hope it gives him pause.  That could be such a heartbreaking, earth shattering moment for him and I hope Yams handles it right.

GABI! Just Gabi. She's perfect

Timeskips should be illegal

Seeing the extent of Marleyan brainwashing was exceedingly well done.

Imagine how the poor kid that inherited "Cartman" felt like upon learning that that thing was their award for winning the marleyan hunger games.

Very unexpected change of character view from our beloved heroes to their"enemy"'s point of view. But I also think it's come at a good time in the overall SnK storyline...let's not forget that the walled society probably has no records on how to build ships or sail on the sea.

Can someone just tell Isayama‚ preferably someone close to him so the message gets across‚ that this isnt how trench warfare fucking worked? WW1 didn't have pre-teen, half-naked Genki girls hopping over trenches, tossing dynamite sticks at armored trains. This chapter destroyed my suspension of disbelief beyond repair.

I liked we got more info about Marley, but the fact that Isayama isn't willing to confirm Ymir and Annie's fate is getting a bit annoying

I thought this chapter was actually pretty cool. I've fallen hopelessly in love with Gabi! Fingers crossed that Annie gets the f*** outta that crystal soon though!

The time skip was needed for story progression but a lot of important questions and interactions were skipped in terms of character development. I just hope we get some of them in flashbacks and not have them completely disregarded don't care about the new characters, but I'm okay as long as they don't take so much screen time and we can go back to our main cast soon enough

I honestly dislike how Isayama uses these new characters to show us what Marley and being a warrior is like, instead of showing us RBA and Zeke's past :(

I think the after-chapter freakout was a big overreaction. I mean we could kinda forsee the direction the manga was going to take after we learnt about the whole Marley/Eldia thing.

After reading the full chapter and talking to someone else about it, I feel better about the timeskip. This chapter made me feel for RBA more, because they must've started out like Gabi and the rest. I only hope that those kids don't have the same fate (but considering that it is snk, it's likely that they are going to suffer lbs). I'm just worried about the 104th and what's been going on with them. They've all grown, and Eren and Armin are closer to their death now :( I don't think I would've had a problem with the time skip if it wasn't for the 13 year thing. But overall, I'm pretty optimistic with where the story is going. I trust Isayama with his story telling. I just have to prepare myself in case of the worst.

Warriors were cool. That's what I consider to be AoT. But without actual Titans, it's just not as interesting. Neither are the WW1 vibes. I just want titans back.

I thought this was a pretty good world building chapter (despite the jarring time skip), especially since we've been waiting many chapters to see this place.  I don't ADORE these new characters, I'm more intrigued, which is better then hating them.  This is also a good set up chapter.  I'm interested to see if Reiner will interact with these new characters.  Since they look so similar to the 104th (design and personality), will he constantly be reminded of his past relationships with them?  Plus, will he see some of himself in them (specifically Gabi) and through them reminding of himself we'll see his backstory?  And is he going to just except his fate and get eaten, or be like "Screw this, nope, not dealing with it."

"WHAT" was legitimately the keyword for this chapter but I trust Isayama with the story and with our heroes+ I hope we'll get to see the Jaegers reunion before anything bad happens to Zeke...

Gabi is such a badass, omg, do you see it Eren? This is how you gettting out of horrible situations!

This chapter has really grown on the more times I read it.

Really enjoyed the way the characters were presented. It gives the reader the chance to see Marley's side of things without being forced to have a story-generated opinion on them (aka screaming at us to hate them) because quite frankly, I was rooting for those Warrior kids to succeed with their plan!

I think it is a very unusual way to tell a story,  however I also feel this could work for the best.... I think this time skip can actually go a long way towards making the coming conflict realistic. Rather than our protagonists taking them on with nothing but grit, hope and friendship, we have the possibility of them having actual time to prepare. I think this might lead to a battle between Marley and the people of Paradis that will be more evenly matched, and most importantly, realistic in how that happened.

i like the much needed change in perspective

While this chapter was certainly not a bad one, I only wished that more of the spotlight was on the original characters, seeing that there's only a few more arcs before the end of the series.

Dammit you Gabi! Fresh Face, Fresh Outlook in Life and Cute! I want to cosplay as her!

Next chapter : Gabi's underwear vs Survey Corps hundred of casualties.

UGH. This is no longer the story I used to enjoy. It's deliberately shifted from inspiring, against-all-odds heroism to a pile of absurdist, everything-is-relative garbage determined to prove that our 'heroes' are no more heroic than their opposition. If I wanted to be slapped in the face with a message of humanity's grayscale depravity, I'd read the news, thanks. :( I'm probably done with new chapters at this point, this isn't what I signed up for :P

I understand why the story is going in this direction and why it makes sense to skip three years...but I feel like we're moving further from our emotional center of the series, like the characters we love and their reactions to recent events.  I'm also concerned about the dwindling lifespans of Armin, Eren, and Reiner.  So I'm excited but scared for the changes our kids have gone through in three years...wish we could've seen it but I get why it's not feasible.  The world is cruel....:'(

if i pretend that this is a new manga i just started, it's interesting I guess. Wish we could have seen the warriors story from the Titan Trio's Pov. The fact that we get these new kids instead tells me that they will be sticking around. Not sure whether my investment in the story will ever go back beyond mjpopcorn.gif if that's the case.

I will like this chapter, but only if Isayama concludes this story with a good twist, that is. If not, chapter 91 will in my opinion be the beginning of the end (end in a bad way).

In the four year time skip, it could have been possible for the sc to build a ship (or multiple ships) which is good enough to cross the ocean with. Which leads me to think that the main characters will cross the ocean in some of the next chapters.

This chapter shows the bigger picture. what to come & what was in plan for years. This is the real thing now.

This was obviously a set-up chapter for things to come, but unfortunately I found it to be dull except for the part where they talk about the mission in the wall. That's all I care about, and this chapter did nothing to make me care for the plight of Marley and whatever stupid war they have to deal with.

Part of me wants to say that some key characteristics about Gabi not only resemble Eren or a younger version of him, but may also express some of the characteristics Isayama originally wanted to use for Eren when he considered making him female (I mean, Gabi even has nearly the exact same hair style as fem!Eren). But although they both are quite similar in a sense and could have had potential of being even more similar, until you reach a certain degree, they split in very different directions. Gabi tends to appear significantly more childish and carefree in the sense that everything is a game, while Eren has always been quite serious and often characterized as "angry". She and Eren both make similar reckless decisions and both speak similar dialogue, but they're quite different at the core based on assumable experiences and the environments they grew up in.

There are so much new good elements, I hope Isayama will do well 'cause the story is really interesting. Aside from that, the fact that Eldians (Gabi&Co) seem to enjoy fighting with their oppressor is disturbing, it's like a Stockholm syndrome...so different from Grisha and the revolutionist but to me they're all too radicals. Can't wait to knoe more about other nations

While there were definitely aspects that deserve creation (for instance we all know the amnesia thing was lazy writing) but overall I don't think the chapter was bad. I think the kids' unrealistic attitudes in battle was purposeful juxtaposition to the way our main cast has experienced war--it shows the extent of the brainwashing (I don't think it's that Isa is unable to consistently portray war's effects on people in a realistic way, like some claim). I'm wary but I think the story could be taken in some interesting directions. It would be really interesting to be reintroduced to our main characters through the eyes of the new ones, especially if our heroes come storming in like enemies--really playing into the moral grayness.

Time skip means we will see older version of the main characters and that's both exciting and terrifying af

One can only hope that Isayama graces us with Levi wearing a ponytail after this.

I was waiting for the story to explain what's going on the other side of the ocean. But not from these "copy and pasted" brats. Reiner is seen in just one panel and Zeke is barely mentionned. That's a shame.

I'm not buying the racial war yet. Grisha's sisters death was a stand out moment where I actually felt the horror of the war/racial conflict. So I have faith Isayama still has some gut punches left. But the clunky worldbuilding and shallow new characters are just not doing it for me. Isayama needs to invest in character moments because the human war narrative he has going right now doesn't have enough nuance or intrigue to stand on its own as of right now. This new outside of the walls world isn't immersive enough yet. Thanks momtaku for having these polls! They are always fun. :-)

I personally don't like Gabi that much. She put herself in danger, and I'm sure Marley would prefer to have someone much more tactical, or at least someone who doesn't put their whole life/operation in danger by pulling some silly stunt in hopes of getting noticed. I thought it was a very risky thing to do. But that's just my opinion.

meh

#snk poll #snk chapter 91 #snk 91

[loveinpanem-blog]

Love is...Unconditional (Epilogue)

Banners by the astounding @akai-echo . Beta’d by the talented and inimitable @eala-musings . Written for @thegirlfromoverthepond .

Summary: Even after three years, Katniss Mellark still cannot resign herself to the death of her husband. When Peeta Mellark returns, she is willing to go to any lengths to keep him with her, even agreeing to abandon everything and embark on a journey that will change everything she believes about love, regret and the persistence of hope. A story in three parts.

Also on AO3/ffnet

Epilogue - Five Years Later  

I wiped down the last of the tables just as the sun set beyond the mountains that were visible from the main thoroughfare of District 12.  Open only one year, Mellark’s Tea and Coffee Shop was already considered a fundamental part of District 12’s downtown culture. Some of it had to do with the clever nature of the shop, which doubled as a used bookstore where people could read as they took their coffee or tea.  But I could not deny that the use of the already familiar Mellark family name was also critical to its success.

Why not? I will always carry the name Mellark.

Switching off the lights, I walked towards the stairs, where the sound of my daughter’s laughter mingled with that of my sister’s. After completing her nursing degree, Prim had moved back to 12 around the period when I’d returned home, just in time for the birth of Amada.  There was a great deal of shock when my family found out I was pregnant, and a powerful suspension of belief was required to absorb my explanation: that somehow, Peeta and I had availed ourselves of a sperm storage facility so that in the event we could not conceive naturally, we would still be able to have a child that was biologically ours. It was a ridiculous fabrication and, because I was a terrible liar, the doubt persisted all throughout the months I carried our child, especially on the part of the Mellarks, who believed me to be crazy.

But when Amada was born, those widely-held doubts were dispelled, melting away further and further as she grew, to the point that even Mrs. Mellark had to begrudgingly acknowledge the girl’s connection to her family.  Olive-skinned, like me, with the same Indian-black hair, it was her eyes that could not be denied - round and uniquely blue, with brilliant, gold flecks, just like her father’s.  The sweet expression, an invitation to an open and gentle spirit, was one that Peeta had always possessed, the same one that now graced the little girl’s face. Whether it defied all logic or reason, there was no denying that Amada was Peeta Mellark’s daughter.

I opened the door to the apartment to find Prim seated cross-legged before the coffee table covered in a child-sized tea set.  Amada primly served her aunt tea in the company of a pair of stuffed bears and a tiny pink pig. When Amada looked up, she smiled and dropped the things she held to run towards me.

“Mommy, mommy!” she squealed, melting into my arms.

“Hey, baby,” I said, snuggling into her neck, the warm, sweet smell of baby filling me with a deep sense of contentment.

Prim stood, dusting off her pants. “She did all her reading and had a snack.” She poked Amada’s nose, provoking another round of giggles. “She also got into my things again and tried to put on my nursing uniform! I even took a picture of her.”

Amada giggled, hiding her face to escape the accusations.

“Honey, I told you that you shouldn’t take things out of your aunt’s room. Remember?”

A muffled “Mmm...hmm” came from somewhere below my chin but Prim protested, “I don’t mind. She was too adorable!”

“Trying to discipline here!” I hissed but that only resulted in more giggles and my squeezing Amada to me even more.

“Are you all packed up yet?” I asked, setting her down finally. She was four years old but she was a heavy child.

“Yes!” she said. “I packed all the toys I’m going to take.”

I looked at Prim over Amada’s head and winked. “Are there some clothes in there too?”

“I double-checked and made sure,” Prim reassured me with a laugh. “One whole week of beach clothes for my little goose!”

“Do you want to come with me while I pack?” I asked Amada, hoping to give Prim a break. She had picked Amada up from school and stayed with her the entire afternoon.

“Yes, yes!” Amada said, grabbing Prim by the hand. “You help too, Primmie!”

I began to protest, hoping to give Prim a reprieve, but Prim just held Amada’s hand tighter and let herself be dragged to my bedroom.

“We should help your mommy. Then we’ll call grandma together so you can say goodbye. Your train leaves too early tomorrow morning to call her.”

“Okay!” she said, letting Prim’s hand go and skipping ahead of us, having become distracted with some scheme or other. I watched my little girl, my heart swelling with love and gratitude, as it often did, for the gift of her existence in my life.

“I’ll try not to take very much - just a few dresses and my bathing suits,” I said as we entered my bedroom and Prim reached into my closet to take out the rolling suitcase.

“Makes sense,” she said. I could feel her eyes on me as I moved about the room, pulling things from drawers to place them inside my suitcase. “Are you staying in the same place?”

“In the Sea Comber? Yes. Cecilia and her family know me already. They are always so kind to Amada.”

Prim nodded, passing the things I’d set out so that I could fit them in the small space. No matter how practical I was, I always ended up taking too much.

My sister went quiet again, like a song that pauses but you know will soon start playing again. “Katniss?” she asked, her voice now sheepish and small.

“Yes?” I answered, pretending to be oblivious to the way her voice, her entire attitude had changed.

“I know you like to go alone to the sea with Amada - your own special vacation and all. But...I mean...are you really alone when you go there?” She looked up and caught my eye, holding my gaze. She knew how hard it was for me to lie when she stared at me like that.

“Why would you ask something like that?” I asked defiantly.

She glanced away at her hands, releasing me momentarily from her penetrating examination, which she took up again after several moments.  “It’s just...I’m your sister. You can tell me anything. About you. Or about Amada…”

“I…” I tried to break eye contact with her but she rounded the bed and stood before me. My sister - all grown up, her thick, blond hair loose and wild, gentle eyes capable of turning to steel at a moment’s notice. Besides Peeta and Amada, Prim was always the great love of my life.

“You’re right. I’m not. Peeta’s there. I go there because it’s where I feel him the most. And he never leaves me alone.”

“Katniss...” she began, the disbelief clouding her eyes, making her hear, not the truth, but what she wanted to hear. That’s what we all do, I guess. When things are too incomprehensible or unbearable, we bend reality so we don’t have to accept it.

“Look, I don’t want to hear the ‘It’s time you move on’ lecture from you.” I took her by the shoulders, squeezing her gently. “Some days, I pray that you will love someone the way I loved Peeta. But then there are other days…” I bite my lip. I don’t want to be foolish and cry. “I hope you will never love a man the way I loved him. Because that kind of love takes hold of you and never lets you go. He rooted his way into my heart and I will never pull him out again. I’m perfectly fine with that. And you need to be, too.”

“Is it enough, though?” Prim asked.

I sighed, thinking through my answer. “We didn’t get much time together, but what we had is enough to sustain me for a lifetime.”

“It just sounds so...lonely,” Prim said, pulling me into her embrace.

I shake my head, holding her close to me. “I’m not lonely. Peeta is always with me, no matter what.”

XXXXX

We took the first train out of District 12. It was the express so we were scheduled to arrive by the next morning. This worked out for Amada in particular, who would have had a terrible time staying inside that train for more than a day and a night. The novelty would have worn off, and she would have become unrequited.

As it was, she spent a good portion of the trip familiarizing herself again with the train, visiting the different train cars while I trailed her to keep her from getting hurt or lost. When lunchtime arrived, we ate in the dining car, after which she finally settled down enough to color and work on her own drawings, being in possession of a talent for art similar to her father’s.

Those moments of calm gave me a chance to think about this trip, the one I have taken every year since Amada was born. Prim thought it a lonely journey, but what she couldn’t understand was I had left someone on that beach, not once, but twice, someone who was integral to who I was a person. She didn’t understand the way I missed him, the way I needed to feel that he was still there, waiting, so that I could find the courage to get through the rest of my life without him. It was crazy, I know, but I had never claimed to be a perfectly sane woman.

One day, I might invite her to come. I can’t help but think that was what she was waiting for. But not yet. These trips, these moments, they still belonged to my husband and I, and eventually, to my daughter. I was not ready to invite the outside world, with its cold rationality and its therapies and ‘moving ons.’ I didn’t want anyone trying to talk my way out of this. I had lived something, real and concrete, even if it involved things I would never completely understand. But I was prepared to coexist with that uncertainty.

When the trained pulled into the station and opened its doors, I was assaulted by the exact same smell of sea and vegetation as my very first visit. I gripped Amada’s hand as our bags trailed behind us and began the usual running commentary of the place, pointing out the shops and restaurants that Peeta and I had visited. Amada was getting to an age where she was beginning to remember my stories.

“There’s an ice cream shop down that road. I’ll take you there. They make homemade ice cream in a funny machine.”

Amada giggled, nearly jumping up and down in excitement. “Can we go now? Can we go now?”

“Not right now. I want to check in first and put our clothes away. But I’ll bring you tomorrow afternoon, okay?”

Amada was captivated by everything she saw. I know she remembered something of our previous trips but she had been so small, and had napped so often, that I wonder if it was only an impression of the place that had stayed with her.

When we finally arrived at the Sea Comber, Cecila greeted us warmly, scooping little Amada up into her arms as Caleb took our bags. I protested that I could carry them, but Caleb shook his head and said, “You have enough with that little one right there.” I didn’t miss the wistful look they gave Amada, fawning over her to the point of ignoring me completely, but they had never spoken to me directly about Rue and I would not be the one to press the issue.

I searched the small office for Thresh, but Cecila told me he’d gone out on a supply run and would be back soon enough.

“We’re a little early,” I said, signing the room receipt. “I’ll catch up to him later.”

“He’s doing so well. He’s been working at a small firm not 15 miles inland so he commutes from here every day. Says the day will never come that he’ll leave.”

“He’s a good, loyal man,” I said sincerely, to which Cecilia responded by giving me a strong hug.

“He thinks mighty well of you, too. He was looking forward to you ladies coming all week,” she said.

“Mommy’s going to buy me ice cream tomorrow!” Amada exclaimed.

“Is she, now?  Why, if you have dinner in the diner today, I bet we could rustle up some dessert for you. What do you think about that, sugar pie?” Cecilia said.

Amada squealed in delight and it was all I could do to tear her away from the front desk.

When we arrived in our room, Caleb had already left the two bags inside. It was the same room every time - the honeymoon suite, overlooking the sea. When I’d settled Amada in front of the television, I stepped out onto the large balcony, letting the feeling of the room settle over me. I closed my eyes and imagined Peeta behind me, his arms around my waist, chin resting on my shoulder, and I had to take a deep, noisy breath to keep from crying.  He was everywhere in this room, this beach, this sea, and I let my mind wander, let myself self search for him.

The blaring of a television commercial pulled me from my thoughts, forcing me back into reality. After washing up, we descended to the small restaurant and ordered our dinner. Thresh bounded up, bigger and stronger than before, if possible. There was a special understanding between the two of us - he was the only person in the world who had captured Peeta’s true nature. We had both held back the ones we loved with chains made of regret. We had both glimpsed behind the veil of reality and seen things few others ever would in their mortal experience.

Thresh hugged me tight before tossing Amada up into the air. “You just keep growing, don’t you, half-pint?”

“I’m flying!” she cried out as Thresh flew her through the air like an airplane.

After they’d tired of their game, she raced to the large window of the dining hall and looked out at the surf. She was ready to get into the sand, her restlessness causing her to squish her face against the glass, leaving cheek and nose marks on its smooth surface.

“She’s a happy kid,” he said, watching her slide ever so stealthily towards the door that lead to the beach front.

“Yeah. She’s the only girl in the family right now, so she gets spoiled by everyone.” I glanced over at him, appraising him. “You look pretty content too.”

He smiled a wide, toothy grin that was designed to turn heads, while hiding all its own secrets, secrets that every young person should have. “I can’t complain.”

I crossed my arms, nodding. “I bet.”

When I looked back, Amada had succeeded in slipping out the door onto the wooden deck that led to the sand dunes, and eventually, the sea. I waved Thresh off, who let his gaze linger on me in a way I was no longer accustomed to.  It was an invitation, a promise perhaps but I didn’t think I’d ever again be a girl who would hope for such things. I’d had my moment of perfection with Peeta and it had been enough. I turned, breaking that weak hold his gaze had on me, pushing it firmly out of my mind and followed my daughter out the door.

I set up our beach blanket and toys along the shore while Amada did her best to scatter the birds that settled in flocks to dig for sand crabs with their narrow, sharp beaks. She ran between them, dispersing them like a cloud of smoke before they coalesced and settled a few feet from her, only to invite Amada’s attention again. I laughed at her as she raced down the beach like a wild puppy until she got too far and I had to run after her, carrying her back to our spot on the sand.

“Sand castle time,” I said, handing her a neon-green plastic shovel. I collected water from the sea, my mind only half on the task as Amada became more and more focused on her construction. I’m here, I whispered to the breeze. I’m waiting.

Amada worked and I drifted mentally, the sun waning slowly until it was just hovering over the horizon. I leaned forward as my husband’s colors banded, warm and gentle, over the sky. The wind picked up, caressing my back, my shoulders, resting warm and soft on my neck, my cheek. I watched my daughter who, in the eternal purity of a child’s instinct, paused in her work to cast a glance at that sunset.  The foam shimmered, silver and grey as the water became insistent, reaching for my feet. I allowed it. Touch me, I whispered. I’m here.

He never appeared. He was no longer in a place where he could do that. But Peeta was everywhere - in the beauty of the sunset, the warm rush of water on sand, the wind that engulfed me, held me, rocked me in welcome, like a prodigal returning home. My daughter sighed, unconscious but not unaware of her father’s embrace, even if she could not quite verbalize it. He said we were all made of the same things - of light and mass and love, so much love. And I bathed in the warm glow of his love and sent it back to him, fierce and eternal. I whispered his name and he whispered mine back, on the salt and current of the sea.

One day, she will ask me if it is her father she feels on the beach at sunset. And I will tell her the truth. Yes, he is here. He is more than your father. He is love. And he surrounds us with himself. Because you are beloved. We are beloved. It is the fuel of my vigil, the secret to my survival. It is at the very heart of my existence. And it is in this place of hope and love where he can be found. Waiting for me. 

Always.

#LIP 2017 #valentine's day 2017 #LIP drabbles #VDAY 2017 Day 4 #loveinpanem #titaniasfics #unconditional #everlark #everlark fanfiction #thg fanfiction

[marginalgloss]

the belly of an architect

When The Beginner’s Guide was released in late 2015, there was a sense that the current lexicon of video game writing was somehow inadequate to properly describe it. Here was something that was entirely in keeping with every trend in indie games: it was personal, political, metafictional; it was witty and ironic, in the highest sense of those terms; it was a game about games, and it was a game about people. It was also funny, visually inventive, and above all it felt like something genuinely new. It was received with good reviews, tempered with caution. Even players who were affected by it seemed to hold it at arm’s length. Much like the sight of somebody having an emotional breakdown in public, the implication was that it was powered by something that was somehow beyond criticism.

The game had a certain amount in common with The Stanley Parable, the previous work by creator Davey Wreden. Both games are told from the first-person perspective with 3D graphics, and place a very limited range of interactions at the player’s disposal. There is not much to do in these games; you wander alone through a world while an unseen narrator comments on what you’re doing and what you are looking at. Indeed, The Beginner’s Guide is even more limited in this respect than The Stanley Parable — there are none of the alternative paths, hidden endings and secrets that many players found so endearing in the latter title. But both games are full of jokes about the absurdities of game design, and in spite of their sometimes acerbic tone, both are made with a rich empathy for players and designers alike.

Where things differ is in the uneasy relationship of The Beginner’s Guide to reality. It purports to be a set of unfinished games originally created by somebody called Coda. (This requires some suspension of disbelief: we know from the credits that a small team of other people worked on this game as well, but within the fiction of the game, they might as well not exist.) 

The story goes that Wreden has spliced fragments of Coda’s creations together into a semi-coherent experience in the hope of demonstrating the work of his talented friend. As the player moves through Coda’s worlds, Davey’s voice is their tour guide. His explanations provide a ‘story’ to what otherwise might seem a totally abstract set of design decisions. But Davey is more than a narrator: he’s the architect of the entire experience, warping the player from one section to the next, and often interfering directly with Coda’s work in order to make it possible to play.

This question of possibility is key to understanding The Beginner’s Guide. For Davey, everything in life seems possible, or can be made so; for Coda, it’s the opposite. Coda was, we are told, a socially awkward person. To borrow a phrase from Sarah Baume, he is ‘not the kind of person who is able to do things’. Yet Coda’s levels seem quite straightforward at first. He dabbles with a map for Counterstrike, and a science fiction thing that almost feels like the start of a ‘real’ game. But even in those early examples, his work demonstrates a tendency to add inexplicable elements which interrupt the experience entirely. 

A bizarre bug in the sci fi game means that if the player walks into a laser beam — which they have to do in the absence of other options, even though they know it’ll kill them — they actually end up floating slowly through the ceiling, and then up and out of the map, so that the whole of the crafted space is visible to them. Is this a sort of expressionism, or is it simply a mistake? Why would somebody put something like that in a game? What were they trying to tell us?

The basic situation between Davey and Coda is emblematic of a certain tension present in the way we think about games today. On one side, we have the idea of games as personal expression: the idea that in a game one might be able to turn one’s own experiences into a kind of machine for empathy. On the other, there’s the notion that games don’t need to be ‘about’ anything except their own mechanics: that they should be accessible and rewarding and coherent and, you know, fun. The Beginner’s Guide is an attempt to resolve this tension -- both within a creator’s work, and their life. Is it possible to make a game which is complete, rational and enjoyable, when none of those things are true of life?  

The personal approach is Coda’s modus operandi, but his games aren’t expressive in any kind of straightforward way. At times, they have all the cold unreality of conceptual art. And it’s hard to tell how they might be encountered in isolation, since as it stands, they can only be appreciated alongside the insight that Davey provides into their methodology. He’s like the curator of an exhibition who creates an experience by placing one work alongside another, by colouring the backdrop, by writing the cue cards. At every stage we are told what to think about we are seeing. And like any good critic, Davey isn’t hesitant to root around in the guts of Coda’s work if it means he can get his point across better.

(considerable spoilers to follow.)

Davey finds a lot of things to show that were never meant to be seen at all. A distinguishing feature of video games is that a great deal of extra craft can be present in the work itself, but also be totally invisible to the audience, even though it represents a deliberate artistic gesture. Imagine a writer who encoded whole extra passages in a novel by sealing them up within the endpapers: the equivalent of this comes early on in The Beginner’s Guide when Davey strips away the walls of an innocuous hallway to reveal a vast network of interconnected passages floating in the void; an entire hidden labyrinth, forever unreachable by the player.

This is emblematic of the eternal problem for Davey. Coda’s games were never intended to be ‘played’ in the commonly understood sense. Coda created a staircase that would slow the player’s movement speed in proportion to their progress along it, making it almost impossible to ever reach the top. He built a cell within a huge, elaborate prison, where the player had to spend hours and hours in real time before they would be allowed to proceed. In one of his more detailed creations, Coda made a little house in which the player can only repeat a cycle of tedious domestic chores while a nameless companion provides a stream of inanely optimistic chatter. Davey allows the player a taste of all these, but he cuts them short too. For him, the work cannot be allowed to speak for itself: context is king. And who else is there to provide context but Davey?

Over time, Davey begins to build up a portrait of Coda in the player’s mind. These are the creations of a person who is anxious and depressed. This is the work of someone who is subject to a kind of creative paralysis; a sense of crippling inertia which sees him repeating the same small, obsessive routines that have damaged his personal life. In Davey’s version of their relationship, Davey himself only exists as a helpful counterpoint. He tells the player how he encouraged Coda to share his work, and to make it more accessible to a wider audience by toning down some of the more difficult aspects. And eventually, Coda’s creations begin to take on a different shape. Davey is delighted to point out when a clearly defined end point appears in the levels, marked by an old-fashioned lamp post.

But at the same time, things seem to be progressing towards a very uncertain place. In this sense, the ending of The Beginner’s Guide has a certain shape to it reminiscent of Gone Home. Players approach both having worked through a great deal of dark subject matter, much of which suggests that something horrifying might be around the final corner. But instead, the game has one final curveball to throw.

The last world Coda shared with Davey was his most impressive, and his most demanding. An enormous tower that stretches upwards through endless dark space. To approach it, the player has to make it through a maze with invisible walls: touching any wall means death. And even if they manage to get through this, there’s a locked door where the switch is on the other side of the door — it’s simply impossible to open. (As ever, Davey is on hand to warp the player past both of these obstacles, if they choose.)

Once the player has passed through every one of Coda’s impossible challenges, they find a gallery, with a series of messages on the walls.

‘Would you stop taking my games and showing them to people against my wishes?’

‘Would you stop changing my games? Stop adding lamp posts to them?’

‘The fact that you think I am frustrated or broken says more about you than about me.’

This, then, is the real story of The Beginner’s Guide. It is a confession of sorts: Davey’s interference with Coda’s work has gone beyond packaging it in an accessible way. He’s adopted it entirely. And as Davey explains, in a rare moment of honesty, he’s come to directly identify with certain aspects of it. Coda’s worlds express something that Davey’s conventional persona cannot talk about. And Davey wanted to share them with the world because the ensuing admiration made him feel valued; but in doing so, he may have destroyed something essential about them.

Perhaps Coda wasn’t a depressed person after all. His messages to Davey seem to suggest as much; or as Davey puts it: ‘Maybe he just likes making prisons’. Depression and anxiety are not generally conducive to creativity, and Coda was nothing if not creative.

But we aren’t quite at the end of the game.

The final sequence is an epilogue. It’s the only part of the game which isn’t framed as Coda’s work. 

A train station leads to a windowless train carriage. The train leads to a station outside a stately home, the lofty rooms filled empty but for heaps of sand. More caves, more columns of dark and light. Then we are out into a little empty abstract space of bright yellows and blue skies, a visual tone not dissimilar to Coda’s first map for Counterstrike. And then down a little hole in the ground and we’re in that space ship again from the start of the game. Here again is that laser beam, so strangely broken; what do you think will happen if the player walks into it?

Davey is talking again, but this time from the heart. He’s no longer interpreting, nor commenting on the environment: he’s just telling us how he feels. It’s refreshing, and true. In this moment, what we have suspected all along comes to pass: Davey and Coda have become one and the same. 

It’s to the game’s credit that a player might feel uncomfortable at this stage, as though they had accidentally wandered into a personal conflict between two old friends. But nothing happens by accident here, no more than it does in any other video game. The question of whether or not Coda ought to be considered a ‘real person’, so often raised around the release of The Beginner’s Guide, is not without interest; but not for the reasons many people thought. In the reality of the game, Coda is no more or less fictional than Davey Wreden.

The world was always Davey’s, in every sense. Perhaps Coda was only ever a part of him: one that he originally believed he could hold at an arm’s length, but which he eventually comes to embrace. By the time we reach the end, he’s absorbed Coda’s lessons and moved beyond them. He knows that the home is a prison, and that the prison is the maze, and that the maze is a the world. He’s realised that it might be possible to create a thing which is both an entertaining experience and a valid means of personal expression, without necessarily telling the player how to feel about it at every juncture. In other words, he’s ready to create something that looks a lot like The Beginner’s Guide.

#gaming #the beginner's guide #the stanley parable