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sailor-arashi · 3 years

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Thanos Myths (AKA: You never actually read the comics)

Spoiler alert: ‘The universe is overpopulated’ is from the comics.

Because I keep seeing posts about comic book Thanos vs MCU Thanos that get comic book Thanos completely wrong, I figured I’d go ahead and make my own post about it to reference back to. I think a lot of the misconceptions stem from the fact that the key stories here were published over thirty freaking years ago, and only the very very end of the story (The Infinity Gauntlet TPB) is still widely available today (and the rest of you only know him from his appearances in Deadpool ;) ).

The problem with this is that when it was initially published, The Infinity Gauntlet assumed you’d been reading the past two years worth of Silver Surfer comics that actually set up Thanos’ motivations. What you see in Gauntlet is the final act of the story, where Thanos has already become omnipotent and pissed off Death, giving a wildly skewed impression of their relationship and his goals. I’ve got a bunch of scans of the relevant plot points to clear things up a bit. Also note that this doesn’t include anything recent, just the stuff related to the original Infinity Gauntlet (and the 2004 Thanos series). Comics are rarely eternally consistent on characterization, so I wouldn’t be surprised is “Stupid Incel Thanos” is a real thing now, but that’s irrelevant to this post.

1: Thanos is a creepy incel-type who stalks Death.

It’s actually the other way around. Death follows him around everywhere because she’s fascinated by him. Throughout the Thanos storyline in Captain Marvel (1974) she’s literally just standing behind him for no reason for several issues with nobody even noticing or referring to her presence until this page:

Captain Marvel #31 (1974):

She’s actually doing the “Peggy Carter checking out Steve’s new abs” pose there! That’s hilarious.

It was implied that she’d been doing this for his entire life, which was elaborated on in later comics:

Thanos #1 (2004):

2: Thanos Kills Half The Universe To Impress Death

Incorrect. He kills half the universe because Death ordered him to do it. He was actually dead at the time, and she resurrected him for that specific task. Then kept hounding him when he wasn’t moving fast enough for her tastes.

Silver Surfer #34 and #38 (1990):

3: Death Thinks Thanos is a Loser (LOLDEADPOOL)

The problem with only reading The Infinity Gauntlet is that it takes place after Thanos has pissed Death off. So just reading that, you get the impression that he has basically forced her to be there so he can show off, and she just wants to get away from him. In actuality, as shown above, she’s been stalking him his entire life and she’s the one who ordered him to kill half the universe in the first place. The reason she gives him the cold shoulder in The Infinity Gauntlet is because she wanted him to do it the old-fashioned way. She even gave him greatly enhanced power so he could go out and slaughter in her name:

Thanos Quest #1 (1990):

Instead Thanos went out and made himself a god. Unfortunately this places him above her in the cosmic pecking order, and Death is strictly a top:

Infinity Gauntlet #1 (1991):

The problem is essentially that Thanos never really grasps what she’s so upset about. He’s a scheming power-mad tyrant, so can’t accept not being able to take control of any given situation. This also means he doesn’t understand why Death isn’t comforted by his promises to never use that power on her.

She does actually love him, though. Deadpool is a parody comic, folks.

Thanos #7 (2004)

(don’t ask why she’s a kid, even Thanos remarks that it’s weird and creepy)

And finally....

4: The Nonsense Population Control Motivation Was Invented By The MCU

This is the biggest misconception, because it’s not really brought up at all in The Infinity Gauntlet proper. But as established above, we know that Death herself ordered Thanos to kill half the universe. Why does Death want this? For the exact same reason Thanos gives in the movies.

Silver Surfer #35 (1990):

All the movies did was remove Death as a character and transfer her motivation to him. The reason it’s being done is still the same reason as in the comics.

So there you have it. Thanos isn’t a creepy incel making grand romantic gestures to a woman who isn’t interested. Thanos is a power-mad tyrant who doesn’t understand why the woman who groomed him from childhood is giving him the cold-shoulder for not murdering half the universe the way she wanted him to. Whether that’s better or worse is up to you,

I leave you this has a parting gift.

Remember kids, Thanos says “Practice eugenics Save the environment...OR ELSE!”

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eyeodyssey · 5 years

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Film Production Log #3

A frame from “The Death Of A Home″. What year is this? It’s been a long time coming that I finally got around to writing another one of these things. It’s three months into 2019 already and I hardly even noticed, made a rude awakening when I looked to the calendar to see that it went from 28 back to 1. With all that, it hit me that I hardly wrote about the progression of any of my current film projects in that period of time. I thought I had a rough idea of how the passage of time worked, as it turns out I know as little about a concept as abstract as time as I do about every other thing in life that defies explanation. There’s a reason why I simultaneously dread everything and nothing after all. I’ve written through many variants of this first paragraph beforehand, each draft starting off with the same “long time coming” comment, which gained further relevancy with each rewrite. Let’s go and cut this ongoing habit before it goes beyond simple procrastination into flat out absurdity.

A frame from “The Death Of A Home″. Like mentioned with the second production log, we spent most of the December of 2018 haphazardly preparing a forced move that we had to undergo with the sudden gentrification of our apartment at the time. This wasn’t the first time I faced the systematic Kafkaesque horror of gentrification. I was pissed, to say the least, and I did the only thing I could do, I documented it. With The Death Of A Home as it is currently, all the footage from the move itself has been compiled and made into a rough cut, adding up to my first proper feature length film at an hour and 12 minutes. The film is comprised of long shots, with scenes ranging from a crew of biohazard workers cleaning the basement of a black mold infestation that was never reported to the tenants to a sequence where long kept hand-painted furniture is forcibly discarded (tossed down a staircase into the back lot to lead to a rain of multicolored paint shards). The whole film will also be accompanied by a harsh noise soundtrack, I mostly have Merzbow stuff playing throughout as a placeholder. I’ll be shooting on the side some abstract visual sequences for the documentary, communicating certain details of our story that weren’t captured on film. I have a lot of ideas brewing for the mixed media techniques I could use for creating these images in a live action format, specifically ones that return to the sort of trash bag special effects that I used in my prior film concerning the subject of gentrification, Weightless Bird In A Falling Cage. Setting foot in the new apartment, the first thing we came to notice was the absolutely vacant house next to us. The building was completely abandoned with electricity still hooked up, looked like no one set foot there in years. Having it face the bedroom every day, with our constant visual subjection and time to contemplate we came to the conclusion that something was gonna happen to the building at some point. It was clearly the middle child to an estate that left it to rot. Just in time for when we wrapped up unboxing everything, the building caught fire. At first I didn’t pay much mind to the sound of sirens driving through (it’s an Atlanta custom). It eventually hit me that something wasn’t quite right when I looked to one of the windows to see bright red, Suspiria technicolor light shining through.

A frame from “Burning Fragments: Mode 3 - Winter 2019″. Did I go out to have a look? Of course, so did the rest of the neighborhood. Made an interesting meet your neighbor type of gathering, to say the least. I also brought my camera with me, and I came back with a metaphorical stack of raw footage along with a slow-cooked pair of lungs, the film is more important though. From that raw footage, I got the visual edit for the short Burning Fragments, a part of my seasonal “Mode” series that was first kicked off by Hard Drive and continued by my currently unreleased Factory Dreams. Burning Fragments is a montage of morbidly humbling sequences, from a roof visibly caving in through the smoking windows to medical staff cautiously carting out a stretcher, prepared for the worst case scenario. No one came out injured luckily, though I don’t mention that in the film (to keep up the haunting atmosphere). Power was cut to the building, the fire was put out and the street stunk of smoke for the next month. I thought it smelt like a smoked rib, one neighbor of ours said it smelt exactly like pot smoke.

A frame from “Factory Dreams: Mode 2 - Fall 2018″. Right around there was where we thought the story would end, but several days later the building went back up again. This time around I went to one of the firefighters to ask what started the fire in the first place. As it turned out this second eruption was from the ongoing work of someone who had a great disdain to a singular sofa in the abandoned building. The first fire was started off by the arsonist setting this certain sofa aflame, and the guy returned to the scene of the crime to incinerate it for good. Our friendly neighborhood sofa arsonist is still on the run to this day. Going into rapid-fire mode, some other noteworthy moments of the year so far include: OS updating, film editor street fighting, more OS updating, cool experimental film screenings (as seen in my documentary Moonlight Tunnel), one last OS update for good measure and discovering the new OS is as thought out as a tumble down a staircase.

Kafka’s Supermarket sorta ended up bunched between everything, seeing one quick, sporadic development at a time. The issue with actors still stands, gotta track down some people for the film to act in those pesky performed segments. It all goes smoothly until you’ve gotta spend the time and physical resources of other living, fleshy beings into your freaky unscripted cinematic daydreams. Around the end of February, I collaborated with local collage artists Steven and Cassi Cline to write the dialogue for the film, collage literature style. We took several different approaches when it came to fully fleshing things out, some were done as experimental writing games while others were the more familiar cut n paste technique. The script took a wide variety of resources, including the FBI documents printed from the internet archive, the prologue of a Georges Bataille philosophical text and a book on nuclear weapons. I was largely the supplier when it came to the process, while I do visual collage stuff often I’m less of a writer (both letter by letter and cut up source by cut up source). Readings of the literary collages will be interspersed throughout the film with an announcer who seems completely detached from the surreal nature of the scenes he describes. Burroughs’ approach for writing Naked Lunch aside, the primary source of inspiration for this detail comes from my memories of a radio clock that we had during my childhood. I would tune through channels with it searching for classical music, but most often I’d find news stations. Not knowing anything about politics at the time (being 5 to 6 years old and all), the nature of what was being discussed was completely alien to me. With how Kafka’s Supermarket is focused on the nightmarish distortion of everyday life in capitalist America, I felt it was necessary to recreate the atmosphere of those broadcasts that confused me all those many years ago. One detail that left the production hung for a significant amount of time, as minuscule as it may seem, was the masks the actors would be wearing. The visual style of Kafka’s Supermarket was adapted from my 2017 zine What Brought Me To This Point, an experiment in nihilistic writing that focuses on the mental state of a man with prosopagnosia and a non-specified mental illness. My general understanding of prosopagnosia at the time was admittedly limited, I had just heard of a condition where someone couldn’t recognize faces and something about the idea creatively resonated. From this, all the characters were designed with the same basic facial template, prioritizing the bare essentials of the human face with an emphasis on the uncanny. Kafka’s Supermarket further branches out this aesthetic in using it as a wider embodiment of the lack of individual personality in a capitalist state, where everything is selling to a set of categorized markets that represent the general populace.

A frame from “Kafka’s Supermarket”. The thing is, human heads aren’t structured like these figures I was drawing. I spent an absurdly long time contemplating how exactly I could recreate the look of these characters not only with a budget but with a budget without having it look too “store-bought” in a way. The main catch was I was going by realism and not surrealism. At that point, I briefly lost sight of what exactly I was doing. We all make mistakes. I brooded on how I could convincingly recreate an abstract illustration. It took until I started reading the screenplays of Kōbō Abe that sense hit me again when I questioned how it would be done in a theater production. That was when I remember that I’m making a non-narrative experimental film, not something like a superhero fan film where a certain level of suspension of disbelief is expected. Since then I plotted out an alternative that’s simultaneously more affordable than anything I was theorizing beforehand while also being more surreal and true to the theories and atmosphere behind Kafka’s Supermarket (and even it’s predecessor, What Brought Me To This Point). Since then I’ve found myself further experimenting with the fusion of film and theater, specifically the use of minimal props and images to convey a greater concept. I’ll be reposting cast calls for actors through the next several days, hoping for the best while I also simultaneously pester a nearby grocery store for permission to shoot a short sequence on their property. Productions like this are the ones that leave me realizing the oxymoronic nature in pursuing capitalist chains about the production of strictly anti-capitalist cinematic rhetoric.

A frame from “Empire Of Madness: A Wilderness Within Hell 2″. While juggling well more than a handful of personal projects (all the films mentioned earlier, a second chapter of Iron Logs and a harsh noise album experiment), I also convinced myself that I can get back into animation again. I was publicly tiptoeing around the idea of a second Wilderness Within Hell film for a while, and now it seems that it will likely be a thing with Empire Of Madness. It’s not really a direct sequel as much as it is a continuation of the style that was first started with Madhouse Mitchel. Set in the same age of industrial totalitarian inferno as Madhouse Mitchel, Empire Of Madness follows the life of Prometheus after his divine punishment for giving mankind knowledge. Having finally passed physical torture in the complete separation of his physical body, Prometheus wanders the Earth as an anomalous figure that assembles itself in a seemingly manufactured, mechanical nature. With pieces of his blood and flesh inherited by every man and woman with his given wisdom, he is inconsequently responsible for a curse put on all of humanity that destines man to collapse in paranoia and violence. Prometheus is shunned by everyone who crosses his path, seeing him as a sickly demon. Prometheus comes to realize that aside from his physical torture, the true act of divine punishment enacted on him will be the experience of having his own creation slowly destroy itself while it collectively tries to kill him.

A frame from “Empire Of Madness: A Wilderness Within Hell 2″. I’m simultaneously writing the film’s screenplay while I draw certain visual intensive scenes. Like I mentioned I’m still a bit rough around the edges with writing, so for this phase of production, I’ll actively study Kōbō Abe’s scripts and also the screenplays to an Akira Kurosawa film and Battleship Potemkin. I’ll still in a way aim more to minimalism with how certain things play out, with this series’ influences in Japanese guro art it’s more inclined to create a certain nightmarish atmosphere above all else. While Madhouse was largely anti-systemic rage, this film leans more to bleak existentialism. Bits of the soundtrack are already recorded, the main theme can currently be heard here. That’s about all I have to write for now. Now to wait another four months until I post anything text based on here again.

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xaeneron · 6 years

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On Daybreak

Living World Season 4 is here and I guess that means it’s time to babble a bit about the first episode, Daybreak!

Overall, the patch was a solid release, not without its bugs, but a solid release. I’m super glad to have something new to do (a lot of new things to do), especially with a new raid wing out 9 months after the release of Bastion of the Penitent. I am curious enough to stay tuned to see where the story goes, but I was definitely more distracted by the nostalgia factor than anything. The new zone was incredibly nostalgic for me as an old hat GW1 player, but before we start bullet-pointing, let’s put in a line break to avoid spoilers front and center.

In General

THANK GOD KEYRING.

QoL Astral Force refilling to full automatically after a party wipe in fractals and raids is a godsend. No more asking for corpses before every encounter/after every wipe. I am a happy druid.

The Binding of Ipos wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it’s an incredibly nice-looking focus. I like the floating book, but the demon hand is a bit of a deal-breaker for the characters I would use the focus on (i.e., Eet). Oh well. It’s detailed and has great animations, which is nice.

On Fractals (Twilight Oasis, instability changes, Deroir)

I find it really amusing and fantastic that the new fractal vendor is named after Deroir. Props to him; he’s done a lot for the fractal community and it’s awesome that he got recognition like Dulfy and WP.

The new fractal relic sinks are hilarious and ridiculous. When they said sinks, they meant sinks. I have a few months’ worth of everything saved up (infusions, [pristine] fractal relics, integrated fractal matrices, pages, etc.) and I was only able to afford the first level of mist attunement. So much raw stuff.

The karma one seems most useful to actually max though.

I wish they had introduced more things to buy with cosmic essences (from Shattered Observatory CM), or trades for them. I have almost enough for an infusion and a tonic, but I want neither. ;-;

Fractal Vindicators are actually a bit of a threat? More than Fractal Avengers anyway.

I haven’t tried the Molten Boss rework yet, but the Mai Trin rework is amusing. And I’m glad that you can push through the timegate cannon section.

Not having Social Awkwardness on Nightmare and Shattered Observatory is hilariously nice. Like seriously they’ve honestly gotten easier.

Speaking of, SO still has a bunch of bugs. SURPRISE. Although it sounds like the fractal dev found the problem, so...we’ll see?

Twilight Oasis was...dark. Like twilight. /shot

Okay but really. Playing as Sunspear traitors and helping Palawa Joko by slaughtering Sunspears and villagers is dark. And you get an achievement for stomping all the injured people.

Dying and being resurrected by Joko was confusing but pretty great? Also boing.

Dervish feels.

That ending doe.

On Hall of Chains

NEW RAID. IN THE UNDERWORLD. I AM A HAPPY HUMAN. SALAD. MIDGET. THING.

I’m super excited about the Underworld and Dhuum. Stuff that hasn’t been touched on in years, and a good bit of lore that I’m glad that they were able to find a way to visit again.

Also the encounters, particularly Dhuum, look legitimately challenging. I’m so excited to go hit Dhuum and die repeatedly.

We’ve been poking the new raid this week and I might post some progress stuff later on? We only have a few bite-sized sessions each week so we can’t spam it for hours on end like others, but we’re making progress and it’s exciting! Having new stuff to do is fantastic.

We have a lot of stupid deaths (including dying immediately on flying in because someone didn’t take the champion buff) already and it’s amazing.

I saw the ending cutscene. I have so many Underworld feels. Dhuum’s fight seems very reminiscent of his fight back in GW1, which is pretty clever. And nostalgic.

I kind of wish Anet would hide Glenna’s vendor items tied to each boss in her inventory instead of just having them greyed out. You can spoil the whole wing by scrolling down and seeing there’s a Dhuum mini. Oh well.

Hi Gwen.

On the Domain of Istan

There are so many “Praise Joko!” and “TO VABBI!” references. When we found out that you could drink from the fountains of Joko in the main hall before destroying them and would shout “Praise Joko!” every time, we kept clicking them repeatedly hoping for a hidden achievement. rip.

Nostalgia feels everywhere. I didn’t think I missed Istan, but I guess I missed Istan. Also super exciting that they kept most of the geography the same. Kamadan/Palawadan is set up essentially the way it was in GW1, except it’s been Joko’d. They’ve been consistent about doing that for a lot of things now, things like the location of the Temple of the Ages and Droknar’s Forge and things like that), but seriously. Kudos. I’s happy. xD

I find the zone pretty and interesting to run around in. There’s a lot of random little achievements and random places to make use of different mounts.

Bunny-hopping all over the cliffs is life.

So is griffoning. Good god it’s nice to griffon places and just fly around and look at things.

The meta events are amusing, and I enjoyed running into Amala again (after Twilight Oasis and the story). Also raiding Palawadan. Fun events with a relatively forgiving timer.

Although I’m disappointed that people are already “multilooting” these. You’d think Anet would have learned their lesson from AB multiloot and made account caps on the chests per cycle.

On the story (Daybreak)

Hi Aurene. You got bigger. And less cute. But still Aurene. So. pls come back ;-;

Rytlock and Canach continue to amuse. Best bromance 10/10.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not sure why anyone would be surprised that Kralkatorrik is now obnoxiously powerful. Letting it absorb a couple Elder Dragons’ worth of magic will do that.

I know some people get upset with all the one-liners, and honestly sometimes they are a bit to much and could be done without to keep tension going, but I appreciated a lot of them. Especially since the characterization of the PC is very close to a general perspective of how Ive normally reacts to things - with dry humor and snark to prevent himself from getting overwhelmed.

“I died once. It’s overrated.”

KOSS. OMG KOSS. Another sad fate for a GW1 hero (alongside the fate of Tahlkora), but nice to talk to him again.

Although the encounter definitely shows that the story instances are tuned to 1-2 people. We did it with 3-4 at various times looking for achieves, and absolutely murdered him before his first breakbar showed up. Welp.

References to a bunch of old characters from GW1 ayyyy

I love the fact that the prison cell break is unique per class. I didn’t think much of it because Ive is a thief and picking the lock just seems like the reasonable thing to do, not the thiefy thing to do, but they’re class unique! I replayed it with Cyra (my adorable sparkle charr) just to see the Legendary Prisoner Stance (Palawa Joko).

Fahranur. Oh my god. From the ibogas outside to the giant smashy bells. Nostalgia everywhere. I love that these elements came back.

Seriously Joko wtf.

What are these bugs you’re experimenting on.

Joko pls.

That’s a lot of dead Inquest.

Hi Braham. No, I didn’t really want to see you again. Thanks for acting like it’s all my fault. Which it honestly is, but hey. Still a grump. At least Rox is here?

I am curious that Anet brought him back here and now. But I’m willing to see what they planned for him.

Also news that Awakened are portaling around Tyria is mildly stressful.

Taimi’s voice actor, Debby Derryberry. A+ work. That sense of fear and dread from Hero of Istan through Fahranur, the First City was well done. Probably one of the highlights of the release. Happy that Taimi didn’t die though :>

...to Vabbi?

#guild wars 2 #gw2 #living world season 4 #living world season 4 spoilers #Daybreak #story chatter a bit spotty this time #but I got super distracted by Hall of Chains #ahhhh #months of eh and now plenty of things to do #yay

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