#but had very deliberate choices in their design with respect to the character and inspirations

[dweemeister]

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

In the late 1950s and 1960s, American International Pictures (AIP) was a minor Hollywood studio with an outsized reputation. AIP, which made nothing but low-budget pictures and B-movies during its existence, focused on cornering the market for teenagers and young adults. Rather than making an endless string of superhero movies, AIP instead relied on its Beach Party series and related films (1963-1967) and inexpensive horror movies (usually involving producer/director Roger Corman). One of AIP’s mainstays for its coterie of horror films was none other than Vincent Price. A longtime character actor for 20th Century Fox, Price had only begun to regularly feature in horror films beginning with House of Wax (1953). From there, he became a regular on AIP’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations (very loose adaptations, mind you) under Corman’s direction. No matter how dastardly Price’s characters schemes were in his numerous horror films, Price’s almost effortless charm always pored through, to the point that one cannot help but root for his schemes to succeed.

Though Roger Corman was not involved in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Phibes rhymes with “bribes”), a portion of Price’s fans point to his performance here in the title role as the Vincent Price-iest of all. In this darkly comedic horror film directed by former production designer Robert Fuest (the 1961-1969 TV series The Avengers, director on 1970’s Wuthering Heights), the film’s deliberate campiness demands more absurd motivations, plot developments, and aesthetic choices than some viewers might be comfortable with. In short, this is not the ideal introduction to Vincent Price or AIP’s horror movies. To enjoy the first Phibes film is to be in on the joke, to accept the film’s inherent silliness.

The opening credits help set that mood. As they roll, Dr. Phibes (Price) ascends from beneath a flight of stairs, playing on organ Felix Mendelssohn’s “War March of the Priests” from Athalie. His only company in this fiendish lair are his tall, silent assistant Vulnavia (Virginia North) and his animatronic band, the Dr. Phibes Clockwork Wizards. Reported killed in a Switzerland car accident in 1921 alongside his wife Victoria, Phibes (who carries heavy facial scars and lost his speaking voice in the crash) is hellbent on seeking revenge against the British doctors who presided over Victoria’s failed surgery. Instead of going to therapy, Phibes murders the doctors instead. One after another, the doctors die in increasingly elaborate ways – each homicide inspired by one of the ten Plagues of Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus. After the third doctor dies, Scotland Yard finally begins connecting the dots under Inspector Harry Trout (Peter Jeffrey). Trout soon realizes that the deceased were all directed by Dr. Vesalius (Joseph Cotten). This revelation only begins to unearth Phibes’ wicked plot.

Elsewhere, Hugh Griffith plays a helpful Rabbi and Terry-Thomas plays one of the doctors. Derek Godfrey and John Cater play Inspector Trout’s superiors, Crow and Weaverly, respectively. Aubrey Woods, whom most know as Bill the Candy Man from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), plays an eyewitness named Goldsmith.

The screenplay by William Goldstein (who returned for the sequel), James Whiton (his only major writing credit), and Fuest, is no one’s idea of sensible, intelligently structured writing. The transitions between the scenes involving Phibes, his assistant, and the victims to Scotland Yard and Dr. Vesalius are untidy. Goldstein, Whiton, and Fuest attempt to make more of a mystery out of this film than they should, but it only serves to make the investigatory half of the film as a dumping ground of expository dialogue. The scenes with Phibes are the zanier, far more interesting parts of the screenplay – even though the character can no longer speaker (the writers engineer an inexplicable workaround, but this unlikely development can have a pass in the context of this bizarre work). For the scriptural scholars among us, some of the stylish killings of the unsuspecting doctors take liberties with the stated Ten Plagues of Egypt. Though perhaps unacceptable to those demanding strict adherence to the holy texts, the thematic divergences of those murders are still so cockamamie that most viewers probably do not mind.

Dr. Phibes’ murders would make Jigsaw from the Saw series (2004-present) proud. To be clear, The Abominable Dr. Phibes is not a slasher film (a subgenre that was beginning to find its foundations by the early 1970s), but it contains elements that would become slasher hallmarks – an individual committing several revenge killings due to a past event, a sort of catharsis (in later slasher movies, sexual gratification) in the act of killing, and unusual manners of murder. Instead of horrifying the viewer with the wanton death, it is Vincent Price’s performance that keeps The Abominable Dr. Phibes within the confines of comedic horror. Due to reasons that I do not wish to spoil, Price’s Phibes scarcely makes a facial expression aside from his default, neutral gaze. His gait is deliberate and steady. Without the possibility of any facial muscular contortions or Price’s trademark smirk, so much of Price’s performance is through his eyes. From his thousand-yard stares, contemptuous gazes, world weary looks, and bemused glances, Price provides an enormous amount of the film’s soul and tenor with so little of his body. This sounds like a silent film director’s dream, but Price’s performance is a commanding one, in any era. His Dr. Phibes may not be in full control of his movements (thanks to Trevor Crole-Rees’ excellent makeup design), but Price is always fully in control of his acting. No surprise to anyone who knows Price’s work – always dependable to provide his utmost effort, no matter how dire the material.

The screenplay, nevertheless, keeps some emotional distance between the audiences and the title character. Though the film’s absurdity allows the viewer to scrap their sense of morality while watching Phibes slaughter each of the doctors, Phibes’ psychology is inaccessible until the film’s second half. The filmmakers, by not prioritizing Phibes’ mindset as much as they could, continually frame him as the villain amid bumbling detectives, the privileged victims (ensuring that the viewer cares not too much about their deaths), and the prideful Dr. Vesalius (whose hubris erodes as the film progresses, revealing his desperate humanity).

If anybody could be considered a co-lead here, that would be Joseph Cotten as Dr. Vesalius. The underrated and undermentioned Cotten, not at all known for his horror work and more for his collaborations with Orson Welles (namely 1941’s Citizen Kane and 1942’s The Magnificent Ambersons), performs ably here. Cotten replaced Price’s friend, Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin in 1977’s Star Wars, a regular as Baron Frankenstein and Van Helsing in Hammer horror movies), after Cushing fell ill. Cushing would have been ideal in the role, but never does Cotten act as if the unconvincing dialogue is beneath him, even if he doesn’t attempt to hide his American accent. As Dr. Vesalius, Cotten wonderfully inhabits his character’s desperation as his colleagues meet their ends, as if prophesied.

Set designer Brian Eatwell (1973’s The Three Musketeers, 1976’s The Man Who Fell to Earth) runs rampant with his design to Phibes’ lair. A curious combination of art deco and the garishness of 1970s colors serves the film’s ludicrousness. I am not sure how livable Phibes’ abode is – there are nary any bedrooms or any other amenities depicted – but the central chamber could be an ideal place for a raucous, demented soiree. Vulnavia’s ever-changing wardrobe in each of her scenes is also a delight, thanks to costume designer Elsa Fennell (1964’s Goldfinger, 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever). Perhaps there isn’t too much of association between campy costumes and sets with heartrending motives for murder, but that is exactly what transpires in The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

In addition, a laughably anachronistic soundtrack of swing jazz and Great American Songbook standards dot the film. I was not prepared for the appearance of either Mendelssohn’s “War March of the Priests” nor the legendary song that rounds out the closing credits. Phibes’ introduction while playing the former on organ readies the viewer not to take everything that is about to unfold seriously. For the latter song (again, I dare not spoil this), a brilliant solo trumpet takes the easily recognizable melody and swings it. Lyrically, this song’s placement in the end credits is fitting for what happens to Phibes. But I could not help but laugh the moment I heard the opening notes – a fitting send-off to a gleefully daft movie.

When The Abominable Dr. Phibes arrived in theaters, its poster showed the mutilated Dr. Phibes appearing as if he is about to kiss a woman. Above them read the tagline: “Love means never having to say you’re ugly.” This was a reference to Love Story (1970), with its (in)famous tagline and in-movie quote: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” The marketing for The Abominable Dr. Phibes confused audiences – was it a romance? horror? parody? – and the film struggled initially before AIP retooled its advertising to market the film as a horror film. On its low budget, the film was successful enough to warrant AIP to greenlight a sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972). That sequel marked the beginning of the end of Price’s association with AIP, due to conflicts over his pay (while AIP’s box office fortunes were dwindling), his lack of satisfaction with the scripts coming his way (not even Price wanted to star in two Dr. Goldfoot movies in two years), and AIP’s plans to replace him with Robert Quarry as their primary horror star.

In the years since the film’s debut in cinemas, The Abominable Dr. Phibes has garnered a deserved cult status. There was no stopping Vincent Price from leaving AIP, but AIP – with their Robert Quarry plans not even a secret – somehow undervalued the actor who was their principal attraction through the 1960s. An essential in Price’s filmography, The Abominable Dr. Phibes defies genre conventions, genre categorization, and any semblance of rationality. For those looking for some bloody horror as the mercury drops, look no further than here. The first Dr. Phibes films guarantees murders with a wink and, though not a smile, an animatronic band playing hits that have yet to be composed.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

#The Abominable Dr. Phibes #Robert Fuest #Vincent Price #Joseph Cotten #Peter Jeffrey #Virginia North #Hugh Griffith #Terry Thomas #Derek Godfrey #John Cater #Aubrey Woods #William Goldstein #James Whiton #Sean Bury #John Laurie #Trevor Crole-Rees #Maurice Kaufmann #TCM #My Movie Odyssey

[glowyjellyfish]

October Halloween Movie Fest Day 27:

Tonight I watched Idle Hands! I’ve seen it before, and liked it, and then promptly forgot about it right up until @devantheimpaler recommended it, and I’m glad they did! I remembered it being fun and dumb, and it was, but it was like intentionally dumb in a way that made it more fun. The characters were more dumb than the movie, if that makes sense. All of this in a good way. It has good effects and a fun spooky vibe, and some AMAZING Evil Hand acting which I am a bit of a sucker for, and Seth Green is always great. My only complaint is the paper-thin personality of the Sexy Love Interest, and I’m sure she gave the target demographic exactly what they were looking for, and she improved a bit by the end. Good choice, will definitely watch it again sometime.

Treehouse of Horror 27 (Dry Hard/BFF R. I. P./Moefinger)

I think these segments were pretty good generally, but I am really noticing how short each segment is and how overstuffed the episodes have become. I get that this was the 600th and they wanted to go crazy, but they had a respectable opening with past villains, then a second opening that was a overly long couch gag masquerading as a segment of its own, and then three whole segments after that, each of which felt like they ended too soon. It was too much to cram in, really. Anyway, Dry Hard was a great mixed parody of The Hunger Games and Mad Max Fury Road with cool designs and lots of fun character deaths—and the “part one” “part two” etc title cards got funnier the deeper they went. Not terribly spooky other than the death, and as I said above it did feel slightly rushed, but i think this one did a little better on that front than the others. BFF R. I. P. was a very good little Lisa story—I will have to update my stats someday—and brought the most Spookiness IMO. Also, if I had a nickel for every time I saw a living thing be put in a microwave and zapped to death tonight, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice. Moefinger had the most abrupt ending I think, but did have a spectacular fight sequence like it’s inspiration, antagonist Homer was a lot of fun, and I think it was a more interesting and creative use of Moe than some of his other THOH outings. Pretty good overall, I just wish each segment was a little bit longer. Oh, and TheRealJims’ video about THOH deaths mentioned that he’s convinced the writers were very deliberately killing off a huge number of characters in this episode, perhaps for the 600th occasion, and I can’t unsee that. There were a lot of deaths! My list is now 1, 5, 4, 7, 6, 3, 2, 20, 9, 8, 17, 27, 23, 16, 15, 25, 26, 19, 13, 24, 21, 12, 14, 10, 18, 22, 11.

#Halloween #Halloween movies #October movies #October Halloween movie fest #idle hands #the Simpsons

[littleeyesofpallas]

So i kind of went on a brief tangent in my last Bleach post about how it always stuck out to me that Kubo designed a lot of the Visored as being very kind of specific to the 1970s, or at least not contemporary.  And other than the styles themselves being fairly distinct to anyone who’d recognize them, what also pushes the contrast into the spotlight is how unlike Kubo’s sense of style it is otherwise.

But let’s talk about what that even means...

Kubo was kind of well known for his chapter covers and impeccable sense of style by the time the Arrancar was well underway.  But it wasn’t always like that, his early sensibilities were very street and sporty (and frankly kind of ugly if you ask me) A lot of graphic tees, random English, and things like windbreakers or other utilitarian outer wear.  His idea of accessorizing was sweatbands, sports watches, and scarves/bandanas.  And a LOT of different colors, often bold primaries, in every individual outfit.

Also a lot of goggles and headphones, which strikes me as funny, because he also tried to throw goggles into a lot of actual character designs, yet always wound up ditching them in the end... Ganju and Renji both started with goggles that they ditched without explanation.

(the above are actually from the digital colored manga release, but tiling them in black and white at that scale was just going to be illegible.  Only the Chapter 5 cover(top row: 2nd from left) was originally a color page.  The digital colorist seems to have a pretty firm grasp of Kubo’s sense of style though.)

It seemed like he started picking up a taste for semi-formal wear around the Soul Society Arc, but he also started doing more cover art that was just characters in their in-story outfits, and the series of Shinigami with their names in a kind of calligraphic style, so Kubo’s fashion sense kind of vanished from sight for a while.

(The calligraphy and general wet and heavy brushwork is something else that Kubo picked up and developed into his style over time.  It definitely wasn’t in his early Bleach work, or his earlier work.  He seemed to start with hand lettering his sound effects, but over the course of the SoulSociety Arc he really started incorporating it into his actual illustration.  But that’s a different subject...)

It’s not uncommon for manga artists to pull from real world reference material, although I think it tends to be more common in shoujo artists, but Kubo clearly started perusing fashion magazines, or maybe just google, for inspiration as things went on.  And whether he kept working off reference material or eventually developed kind of an eye for design himself, he clearly has the ability to focus in on one particular style over another when he wants to; That is to say, he can work in starkly different styles, and doesn’t just have one core kind of fashion he makes small variations on.

So, when he does something like Shinji’s very 60s-70s British mod wardrobe, with a blonde moptop and a toothy grin, it’s not a coincidence.  He knew what style he was going for and he homed in on it, and probably searched it by name when looking for reference.

And that’s the reason I get so hung up on these lingering features of the Visored that didn’t actually go anywhere...  Shinji’s thing about Jazz in Turn Back the Pendulum even solidifies this to me, because the “110 years ago” timeframe, be it from the in-world time or the publication date just doesn’t add up.  So why have it at all?  The obvious answer to me is that because, even if Kubo never intended Shinji to have been around 110 years ago, he did always intend Shinji to be into Jazz.  And again, the deliberate fashion choice with Shinji side by side with a Jazz theme points to the 1960s-70s Jazz-Rock scene.

Also, just a random detail, but every other Visored has just one outfit, yet Shinji changes clothes EVERY time the day changes during the Arrancar Arc.

Then there’s the distinct 1970s shoujo vibes with Rose that place him in a very specific time period.

And Mashiro’s tokusatsu bodysuit, heart-shaped and bug-eyed hollow mask, and gogo boots+goggle glasses look, are all 1970s staples.  The overall outfit I believe a bad pun on Gogo Dancers and Gorenjaa(5-Ranger), her hollow mask is a mix of Momorenja(Pink-Ranger)’s heart shaped visor and Kamen Rider’s grasshopper helmet: The original Kamen Rider and Himitsu Sentai Gorenja series airing in 1971 and 75, respectively.

It’s just super apparent that Kubo had the 1970s in his crosshairs, and it’s hard to really take a concrete guess at exactly why.  But by proximity some of the others like Kensei start to naturally fall into place as their more obvious themes have their own links to the 1970s.

And this is just a bunch of Arrancar Arc covers for comparison.  Unlike the other two image sets these are actually mostly originally color pages; in fact only the 1st-4th, and 7th(Uryuu) tiles in the top row were originally black and white.

#bleach #Hirako Shinji #Kuna Mashiro #Visored #Kubo Tite

[briesonoflars]

Braylor Masterpost

(Sherlock: The Sign of Three, 2014)

Disclaimer: All media shown on this post is not mine. All Tumblr posts will be credited to their respective owners, unless stated otherwise. The only thing I own is the compilation of the posts and media shown in this masterpost. Please do not repost without credit. 

Intro

In this masterpost I will be cataloguing the coincidences, overlaps, and references present online between the singer Taylor Swift and the actress Brie Larson. Over the past several months, initially beginning with the release of the Captain Marvel film that Brie starred in and ramping up with the release of Taylor’s 7th album Lover, there have been an increasing number of connections and coincidences between the two. At the behest of several other accounts on Tumblr, I decided to compile a masterpost containing as many examples of such coincidences as I could. This is not meant to offend anyone. It is simply an exercise in observation. 

Vocabulary 

Braylor- a “ship” name, a word referring to the friendship and/or relationship between Taylor Swift and Brie Larson (@jennyboom21).

PR- shortened form of public relations. Public relations is the practice of deliberately managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public (Wikipedia). 

Aesthetic- a particular theory or conception of beauty or art: a particular taste for or approach to what is pleasing to the senses, especially sight (Merriam-Webster). 

Beachella- a phase that Taylor Swift went through back in 2016 where she bleached her blonde hair (Urban Dictionary).

Easter Egg- A hidden item placed in a movie, television show, or otherwise visual media for close watchers (Urban Dictionary)

Old Hollywood- Classical Hollywood cinema, classical Hollywood narrative, the Golden Age of Hollywood, Old Hollywood, and classical continuity are terms used in film criticism which designate both a narrative and visual style of film-making which developed in and characterized American cinema between the 1910s (rapidly after World War I) and the 1960s, and eventually became the most powerful and pervasive style of film-making worldwide. (Wikipedia)

Premises

In this masterpost I will assume that A) both Brie and Taylor are not straight. Whether you want to label them as lesbian, bisexual, or queer is up to you. Additionally, I will assume that B) both Brie and Taylor are either in some form of PR or otherwise non-legitimate relationship with their supposed significant others. This means that they are not dating, engaged, married or otherwise in a relationship with these men

Background

In the upcoming weeks to the release of her first single ME! With Brendon Urie, Taylor began a countdown across her social media platforms, ending on the date of April 26th, 2019. A significant amount of hype was generated around this countdown, and many fans speculated as to what it would mean. Many suspected new music, and were proved right when she released the music video for the song at midnight Central Standard Time.

On the same date, the much anticipated movie Avengers: Endgame was released in theatres nationwide. The film was anticipated greatly by many as it would serve as a conclusion to the events of the previous film, and would signal the end of the six original Avengers’ involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Captain Marvel was released earlier in the spring (March 8th, 2019), detailing the origin story of Captain Carol Danvers, played by Brie. Much of the hype online, specifically in female oriented circles, was generated due to Brie’s involvement in the film. 

On April 5th, 2019, Unicorn Store, which Brie directed and starred in, was released on Netflix after distribution rights were initially held back since the film’s initial release was September 11th, 2017. Fans of both Brie and Taylor’s work were were quick to note the aesthetic similarities between Unicorn Store and the promotional posts, music videos, and styling choices of Taylor during the Lover era. This is where we begin. 

Just to note, the coincidences are listed in no particular order. 

Time 100 Gala 

Both Brie and Taylor attended the Time 100 Gala on April 23rd, 2019. Brie was there to promote Avengers: Endgame and Taylor was there to promote Lover.  Taylor performed there. During her song New Years Day Taylor used female pronouns. During Taylor’s performance, Brie was allegedly sat near Taylor’s friends and family and almost fell out of her chair. Additionally, the pair were seen talking throughout the night, but neither publicly confirmed it. 

Source

Source

Source (@path-of-my-childhood)

The pictures below help confirm that the pair did indeed talk in the previous source. 

Met Gala 2016 

Both Brie and Taylor attended the Gala, but there was no known interaction between the two of them. However, some pictures that surfaced later beg to differ. 

(@jennyboom21)

It’s hard to see what’s going on, I’ll admit. It appears that there is a group of attendees in an elevator. Brie is the figure in the silver dress closest to the man taking the picture. Taylor is behind her, in a similar dress. Her face is much clearer in the mirror reflecting her image. We know this is her because A) this was during her Beachella phase and B) she wore a silver dress that night. 

In addition to this photo, there is a striking similarity between the dresses they both wore that night. Is it possible they might have shared the same styling inspiration?

Source 

(@jennyboom21)

Looking at these photos, it is clear that the two women in silver dresses that were in the elevator were Taylor and Brie. Despite never publicly acknowledging their interaction, it is clear that the two at least shared an elevator that night, and possibly more. 

Alex Greenwald

“In 2013, Greenwald began a relationship with actress Brie Larson. In May 2016, Larson's representative confirmed that the pair were engaged. On January 10, 2019, it was reported that Greenwald and Larson had called off their engagement.” (Wikipedia). 

Some fans have speculated that Greenwald is not straight. This is not a coincidence per se, but it does point to the supposed use of PR strategies involving Brie’s personal life. 

Similar Styles when playing guitar 

Both Brie and Taylor are fond of posting videos of them playing guitar at home. Their attire in such videos is strikingly similar. Below are some videos of both Brie and Taylor singing. 

Issues by Julia Michaels (@briesonoflars)

Pieces of Us by Mark Ronson and King Princess (@briesonoflars)

Dancing with a Stranger by Sam Smith and Normani (@briesonoflars)

Needy by Ariana Grande (@briesonoflars)

God is a Woman by Ariana Grande (@briesonoflars)

King of My Heart by Taylor Swift (via Youtube)

Both dress in a similar way that some fans have noted is not the way that society perceives a straight woman would dress. 

Association with LGBT Individuals 

Brie hosted SNL with Janelle Monae and is good friends with Tessa Tomphson. Not a connection, but goes to show that she is an LGBT+ ally. 

Taylor is a known friend of many LGBT people and supports many LGBT causes. Just look at the You Need to Calm Down video. 

Source (@jennyboom21)

Source (@/brielarsonupdate via Instagram)

Grace Kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American film actress who after starring in several significant films in the early- to mid-1950s became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956 (Wikipedia).

This is her in the film Rear Window (1954)

Brie wore a Gucci dress to the LACMA Art and Film Gala on November 2nd, 2019. 

Taylor wore a similar dress in the opening sequence of her Me! Music video. 

Brie cosplayed as Grace Kelly for Cinespia during a showing of the film Rear Window. 

Source (@/brielarson)

Both Brie and Taylor’s outfits above are very similar to Grace in Rear Window. Taylor has previously said that she loves Old Hollywood and it often inspires her style. The dresses the pair wore are an obvious nod to Grace’s iconic dress. 

Source

The Archer 

The Archer is a song by Taylor from her most recent album. The song takes the fifth slot on the album, a spot which Taylor reserves for her most emotional songs. Fans have long speculated as to which archer Taylor was referring to, if she referencing a specific one at all. Theories range the character Artemis from Greek Mythology to popular culture with the likes of Katniss Everdeen. The point is, this mysterious archer is significant. 

Brie seems to be incredibly fond of picking up new hobbies, including playing guitar, rock climbing, and most interestingly, archery. Connections were quickly made between a picture posted on Brie’s Instagram story and the message of Taylor’s song. Could Brie be the archer that Taylor sings about?

Styling Choices 

(@/carolmfdanvers via twitter)

Brie attended the LACMA Art and Film Gala on November 2nd, 2019. As shown above, Brie was seen wearing silver cat earrings that had blue eyes. Brie has stated before that she is allergic to cats and does not like them, and reinforced this during her promo for Captain Marvel, because in the film she had a multitude of interactions with a cat, Goose. 

While filming the Me! Music video, there is a scene where Brendon Urie presents Taylor with a small kitten. Taylor later found out that the kitten did not have a home, so she adopted him and named him Benjamin Button, an homage to the story of the same title by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

Benjamin is pictured in the post below (@/TaylorSwift via Instagram). Notable features of the cat are a white coat with brown accents, undeniable cuteness, and striking blue eyes. 

Additionally, for a woman who hates cats, she sure does talk about them a lot. She mentioned cats in an interview on Ellen and in an interview with iMDB she mentioned watching a cat documentary. Perhaps someone has slowly begun to change her mind?

Source

Source

Source

“Captain Marvel but of Music”

Taylor Swift is a mentor on NBc’s “The Voice” this upcoming season. In a promotional video, via NBC’s The Voice Instagram account, Blake Shelton, a judge on the show, referred to Taylor as “the Captain Marvel but of Music”. Why didn’t he call her the “Wonder Woman but of music’? Wonder Woman tends to be people’s go to character when referencing female superheroes. Maybe Taylor told him of her love for the Captain?

Source 

(@/ncbthevoice via Instagram)

Halloween 2019

The link below shows both Taylor and Brie retweeting fans dressed in costumes from their various performances on Halloween. Admittedly, many celebrities are known to do this, but the timestamps of the retweets are oddly close. 

Source (@jennyboom21 and the respective owners of the original posts on Twitter)

Vanity Fair Oscars After Party 2016 

At the 2016 Oscars Brie won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Room (2015). She was seen attending the Vanity Fair party afterwards. Taylor, who also attended that evening, was seen at the party as well. The article below, via the online publication Hollywood Life, chronicles an interview in which Brie was asked if she stayed out all night. “When Kelly asked Brie if she stayed out all night, she joked that there was no way she stayed out partying with Taylor and Lorde all night.” The original interview was aired on “Live! With Kelly and Michael” on February 29th, 2016. 

Source 

Source

Kacey Musgraves 

With the release of the Lover album, a multitude of popular artists and celebrities took to social media to express their support for the album. Among them was Kacey Musgraves, a country singer who has made waves in recent years for putting progressive themes in her music. The singer confirmed that she and Taylor were on good terms and promoted the album on her Instagram story. 

Over the summer Brie attended a concert that Musgraves put on. She also covered one of her songs on her Instagram. Six degrees of separation, anyone?

Source

Source 

Source

Taylor’s back in the You Need to Calm Down music video 

This is Taylor’s back in the video. 

(@/TaylorSwift via Instagram) 

This is Taylor’s back in 2017 during a performance promoting Reputation. It was hard to find a picture of her back, other than in the music video (above), but I did the best I could. 

(GQ online publication, August 25th, 2017)

The two photos are different. In the first photo, the muscle is far more developed. There is clear definition is the deltoid, trapezius, and latissimus dorsi. Here is a link to a diagram of the muscles in the back. Now, admiditally she could have beefed up a lot in between when the two photos were taken (she was seen at the WeHo gym recently), and fans have noted a slight healthy weight gain between her previous album cycle and the current one. However, The first photo is very similar to Brie’s back. Brie has been hitting the gym a lot, and easily could have the muscle definition in the first photo. 

Now, here are Brie’s back muscles. 

Both were taken in the Spring promotional tour for Avengers: Endgame. The overall shape of her torso and the muscle definition are much more similar to the first photo than Taylor’s is. This observation is in no way meant to body shame Taylor or Brie. It is simply a comparison of their backs pertaining to the You Need to Calm Down music video. 

Taylor on Avengers: Endgame 

An article from AV Club commented on the countdown on Taylor’s Instagram. They theorized that either she was releasing new music or she was really excited to see Endgame. The site even commented on Captain Marvel’s addition to the Avenger’s squad. 

Taylor appeared on the Ellen show last Spring to promote her new album. Ellen asked her what some of the worst theories were regarding fans guesses about the Easter Eggs she planted. Taylor responded that some fans thought she had something to do with beating Thanos in Endgame. Taylor responds that she had nothing to do with the film, but that she had a song coming out the day of the movie release and she had a song from her album Reputation called Endgame. 

Source

Source (conversation starts at 7:40)

Emma Stone 

Both Brie and Taylor are good friends with Emma Stone. An idle observer such as myself wonders if they ever hung out together. After all, Hollywood is a notoriously small town.

Source 

Source

Source

Commissioned Art

Brie commissioned artist Carly Jean Andrews to do a piece of art for her house. Andrews stated that Brie told her “just do whatever you want”. The piece is of a blonde woman with bangs who is surrounded by butterflies and flowers. Who is another woman we know that fits such a description? Hmm...

(@/carlyjeanandrews via Instagram)

Source 

The Red Jacket

Both Brie and Taylor were seen wearing a very similar red jacket on separate occasions. Brie wore it to Disneyland and to a meeting at Netflix headquarters. Taylor wore it on an outing when she was papped. It almost seems like it’s the same jacket, because it falls shorter on Taylor than on Brie. This is because Taylor is taller than her. It seems like they are sharing items from their respective closets. 

Silver Earrings

Brie wore some sick earrings while promoting Captain Marvel and Endgame. Who also wore the same exact earrings? Alex Morgan, who is good friends with Taylor. 20 bucks said Alex saw the earrings on Brie, phoned Taylor to ask if she could borrow them. 

Brie’s friends watch the Me! Music Video 

Faye Megan Orlove is a friend of Brie. She is a tarot card reader with the Instagram username @/fayeorlove. During a get together that Brie was at, Faye posted a picture to her Instagram story of them watching the Me! Music video. 

The Rainbow Shirt

Taylor was seen wearing the shirt below at a rehearsal for a Reputation show during Summer of 2018. Brie posted a photo of her in the same shirt. It seems like they dipped into each others closets again, because Brie fills out the shoulders more than Taylor due to her bulking up in the gym. 

USWNT

There has been an ongoing discussion in recent times over the wage gap present between professional male soccer players and professional female soccer players. Many celebrities have joined in on this conversation, especially since the USWNT (United States Women’s National Soccer Team) won the World Cup in the Summer of 2019. Both Brie and Taylor have shown their support for a pay increase for female players via their social media. 

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Samantha McMillen

Brie’s stylist, Samantha McMillen, has dressed her on many events. The outfit that is most interesting in this context is a giant butterfly she wore at the MTV awards. Who else do we know who loves butterflies? Our baby Taylor. The mural she commissioned is proof enough. 

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Ace Comicon

At Ace Comic Con 2019 on October 11th through the 13th, during a panel with Tessa Tomphson, Brie made some interesting comments on Captain Marvel, her heroes, and what fans wanted in future Marvel Films. The comment most important to us came when asked who her heroes were, and Brie responded with “All my heroes are pop stars.” Interesting right? Who is a pop star we all know and love? Taylor Swift. 

In what is seemingly a follow up to this comment, Brie dressed as pop star Brittany Spears this most recent Halloween. 

In addition to the panel, Brie participated in a series of meet and greets and autograph signings. Brie asked one fan what they would like to see her cover in the future. The fan responded “Anything from Lover” to which Brie responded “I’ll see what I can do”. 

Among the stars attending Comic con, was Spiderman actor Tom Holland. In one photo set he was seen wearing a hat from Taylor’s Reputation stadium tour. I wonder who hooked him up with the hat?

(@/TheMarvelReport via Twitter)

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Unicorn Store x Lover Aesthetics 

During the weeks leading up to the drop of Lover, Taylor’s Instagram account transformed into a series of bright pastel colors, flowers, butterflies, and rainbows. A look through her account from February 10th onwards confirms the aesthetic change. 

The theme of Brie’s movie Unicorn Store has a strikingly similar aesthetic. The movie is all about, you guessed it, unicorns. Watching the movie on Netflix is all the confirmation one needs to see that she was all about rainbows, unicorns, and bright colors in the film.

Fans of both Brie and Taylor were quick to note the similarities between their respective aesthetics, even going so far as to suggest that they coordinated their looks so they would be linked in the public eye. Either way, both aesthetics are bright, happy, and remind the viewer of what a Pride Parade looks like. 

Over the summer it seemed as though the two of them were in a race to see who would come out of the closet first. Taylor would do something gay, then Brie, then Taylor again. Unfortunately, neither of them came out. But, one has to wonder if it was a coordinated effort to generate interest in both of their respective projects. 

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Someone Great

“Someone Great is a 2019 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. The film stars Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow and DeWanda Wise. It was released by Netflix on April 19, 2019” (Wikipedia). 

Taylor has stated that this Netflix Original film was the inspiration behind her song Death by a Thousand Cuts. The true muse behind the song is up for debate among skeptics, but it does establish a viewing habit with Taylor. She watched a Netflix Original film, and it impacted her so much that she wrote a song about it. In browsing recommended movies, it is entirely plausible that she would have wandered upon Unicorn Store and decided to watch it. 

The message of the film probably would have resonated with her. In the film, the main character Kit creates art that the general public doesn’t like and is forced to take a desk job to make ends meet. Here she felt like it wasn’t a good fit and she wasn’t truly happy, but was eventually able to find a way that she could express herself through her art. 

This might have resonated with Taylor because she was ridiculed by the general population after a series of songs involving love and breakups, she was forced to stay with Big Machine Records in an attempt to get the rights to her master recordings back, and eventually found a place at the Universal Music Group. The stories are incredibly similar. 

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Pokemon 

Brie is a giant nerd. This is common knowledge. One of the things she geeks out about is Pokemon. In one instance she retweeted a thread on Twitter called “Brie Larson as Pokemon”. In the movie Detective Pikachu, Ryan Reynolds voices the leading character Pikachu. Who is good friends with Ryan? Taylor. So much so that in her Look What You Made Me Do music video she had Ryan and his wife’s names on a shirt of all her real friends on in one scene. 

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Gestures 

It is well known that the more time you spend with someone, the more you pick up their gestures and phrases and incorporate them into your life. Fans have noticed several gestures that both Brie and Taylor do that are similar. Maybe it's because they spend so much time together?

Karlie Kloss 

Brie has hung out with Karlie at several different events over the years. She was in awe of the model and expressed so on her social media. Taylor and Karlie…. I’m not even gonna go there. Go look up a Kaylor masterpost. Chances are if you’re reading this post you already know what they are to each other. But, the model is another link between Brie and Taylor. Perhaps they all hung out and baked cookies together?

Christmas Scenes 

Adorable family Christmas scenes appeared in both the Lover music video and in Captain Marvel. They are shockingly similar. Perhaps they were inspired by a shared Christmas together?

The Green Flannel 

Both Brie and Taylor were seen wearing the same green flannel in videos they posted to their respective social media accounts. Girlfriends sharing clothes again? It seems so. 

Time Post 

Taylor was featured on the cover of Time Magazine’s person of the year issue in 2017. Brie posted a picture of the cover on her Instagram. Obviously, she was voicing her support for the strong women on the cover, but Taylor being on the cover as well is a mighty fine coincidence. 

Haim Sisters

The Haim sisters are good friends of Taylors and could even have been considered a part of her “squad” back in the day. Taylor loves their music and vice versa. 

In 2016 Brie appeared in a Funny or Die skit in which she auditioned to be the fourth member of the Haim sister’s band. Needless to say, her audition was not received well by the sisters, but it was a hilarious video nonetheless. 

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The Arm 

In 2012, Brie appeared in a short film called The Arm. The director, Jessie Ennis, mentioned the co-director of the film, Sarah Ramos, singing  Long Live, by Taylor, to her after they found out the film was entered into the Sundance Film Festival. The  goes on to express their love for Taylor and how they wished she would notice them.

Source

Additional Information

Captain Marvel is Gay (@dianas-shortgalpal, original video from Rowan Ellis)

Brie Larson supporting Carol Danvers and Valkyrie Ship (@caroldanversenthusiast)

Brie Supports Lesbian Romance for Carol Danvers (@bingobongohaught)

Advice from Costars (@/BrieLarsonHQ via Twitter)

Brie’s iconic statement at Ace ComiCon (@caroldanversenthusiast) 

Conclusion 

If you read this far, thank you so much! Please send in any other coincidences I might have missed. Huge thank you to my fellow Braylor Crackheads @jennyboom21​ @justasupercorpofus​ @kaleidoscopesanddreams 

#braylorpedia #braylor #braylormasterpost #brie larson #taylor swift #mine

[stifledlaughterao3]

How writing recursive fic (fanfic of fanfic) has made me a better author and member of fandom

After doing the math, approximately 45% of my AO3 works are recursive fanfiction. (I am actually excluding a large translation I did which was a translation of a recursive work itself!) The majority of that is from one single series, with the rest being significantly below that. 

There are a few fanfics for which I've written fic. 

1. "ReSWAN: The remix of Song Without A Name" by LadyYatexel

2. "Deep Dish Nine" by LadyYatexel (which turned into a community-wide AU where I took inspiration from other authors as well, such as tinsnip)

3. "Doing the Unstuck" by TempeTot

4.  "Designation: Miracle" by umisabaku (the large majority of my recursive fic is for this series, most within a collection work, as well as a few stand-alone works.)

I've noticed a few patterns in fic that I am writing fic for. They are always:

1. An AU where the characters, changed by their AU circumstances, have aspects of them that are unique to the AU application and reflected strongly in their personalities and actions

2. There is more depth / possibilities of emotional interplay in the AU presented than the canon 

3. Queer in both pairings and mood (relying heavily on found family, introspctions about sexuality, subversive responses to mainstream sexuality) . There sometimes are M/F pairings in the fic I base my fics on, but at least one pairing within the fic is always queer. 

Permission

Something that feels different from writing regular fic as opposed to recursive fic is permission from the author. When writing regular fic, I feel that I do not owe the creator any sort of heads up or permission to write. There are entire laws protecting me on this.

Therefore, theoretically, there should be nothing stopping me from just writing recursive fic, posting it, and saying ,"This other fic was inspired by this other fic". However, having been in fandom since 2004, I don't feel it would be good fandom etiquette to do that without at least inquiring first.

I've never been told I cannot write the fic - however, if the author preferred that I not post a fic of their fic, I'd adhere to that. Would I write it in private? If I felt moved enough, yes, but not post. There's nothing stopping me except that I, as a longtime member of fandom, want to do my part to make fandom a kind place that acknowledges reasonable requests. 

Perhaps it is hypocritical of me to write and post fanfic without the permission of the original media creator, whether it be a single author or a giant franchise, but when it's a fellow fanfic creator, that's where I draw the line? Maybe it's because I can usually easily message the fanfic creator and ask. Whereas, if the creator of the anime I am writing about personally messaged me to ask me to stop writing their characters kissing (or, more likely, having extended conversations over food), maybe I would pull my fics. Or, in the long-standing tradition of fandom/media relationships formed on defiance, I would wave my hand at the OTW Legal Team and say, "Go talk to them." It hasn’t happened so I honestly am not sure how I would respond. 

In every instance the fanfic author has happily given me the go-ahead. Some have linked my work in the "works inspired by" section at the bottom of their fic, and others haven't, and I'm fine either way. I'm discomfited by the idea of the recursive fic author requesting the author link their story in the original fic - it feels like asking for free advertising, which then gets into the capitalism aspects of fandom that in general make me uncomfortable (in this case not cash capital but social capital/views.) 

Posting etiquette 

Another piece of recursive fic etiquette that I've done is, after I figured this particular etiquette out, was that I kept all of the stories for my recursive fic in one AO3 work and added chapters. (My earlier recursive fics are their own works as I hadn't gotten the hang of how I wanted my recursive fics displayed.) Even if the stories are long and disparate, they are 95% of the time one-shots, so that would be A. many stories filling up the AO3 feed for that fandom and B. filling up my AO3 works list with many one-shots for this specific AU.

For the fanfics that are longer or are really deserving of their own works, I try to really limit it and then post all of the chapters at once so it does not appear multiple times over days. These however are rare. The majority are held within one work that I call a collection. For example, "A Handmade Scrapbook" (which hosts the majority of my "Designation: Miracle" recursive fics), at this time of writing, has 23 chapters, all of which are completely unrelated one-shots and AUs. I sometimes would save up a handful of shorter stories I had written and post those chapters all at once so as not to clog the Kuroko No Basuke tag (which is canon for the D:M AU.) Sense I cannot assume average KnB fanfic reader has context of D:M (even if they read the first story, the majority of my works are based on the most recent addition to the series), they cannot read that fic, and thus I feel a bit guilty if I were to clog the tag with my recursive fic. I also do not tag the canon tag on tumblr if it is a recursive fic, especially one that requires a ton of source fic knowledge in order to begin to understand. 

Again - is this necessary? In theory, it’s not. I could post a 100-word recursive fic every day forever on the AO3 tag and be completely in my rights to do so (I mean, I’m sure there’s some rule about spamming but that aside). However, something in me is feeling that it would not be considerate of other readers to do so. (I could probably look at my actions and think, “Hmm, is this influenced by my gender and how women are taught to not take up space, even if it’s okay to?” but we shan’t be getting into that now.)

I know that posting frequently, spreading out those frequent posts, and advertising gets more comments on fics. However, for my recursive fics, I genuinely don’t expect them to get views -and that’s okay! They often require pre-reading of another fic, which narrows down the readership considerably, and if it’s something huge, like my longer D:M fics, that’s a big investment. Therefore, writing recursive fic is genuinely a for-me practice that lets me be very self-indulgent and narrow with my interests. It's an interesting catch-22 - I truly enjoy comments and kudos, and love hearing feedback on my work. But the less I assume that someone will read a fic, the more off the rails I feel I can go with it, and thus why some of my favorite fics I've written are the recursive ones. 

That does mean, however, when people read my recursive works, I cherish those comments and interactions a little more than my other fics, as I know that it took a little more to read my works and comprehend and appreciate them. 

Characterization

Something specific to writing recursive fic is that it differs from regular fanfic in how precise the characterization is. Generally, when writing fic, you have to align (at least somewhat) to the characterization portrayed in canon. However, your interpretation of it can vary pretty wildly, and while you probably would be called out as writing someone as out of character if it skews significantly from canon, you can get away with your various interpretations. 

With recursive fic, you’re deliberately working with a fellow fanfic writer’s interpretation. The entire point of your writing a fic of one of their fics is that their interpretation or worldbuilding grabbed you enough to want to write from it. Of course, there are instances where a characterization of a character is popularized enough to where you can just write it and it’s not necessarily a ‘recursive fic’ as much as ‘using a fic’s interpretation as a template’. In a recursive fic, you’re specifically writing to that characterization. 

That’s why I think writing recursive fic has made me a better fanfic writer- writing regular fic, I did not feel particularly beholden to the canon characterization, and could shrug off writing a character a specific way if I felt like it. It is, after all, my right as a fic writer to do so. 

However, with recursive fic, the entire purpose of me writing a recursive fic is so that I could make an homage the author’s characterization. It’s the characters that drew me in, after all (although it is occasionally the worldbuilding as well, which is when I bring in my own OCs, but that happens infrequently.) In many instances in the fics I’ve written recursive fics for, the characters had become so distinct that they were basically OCs at that point (or, I was writing about actual OCs from the fic). Therefore, I had a fairly strict characterization to follow if I really wanted to be writing recursive fic and not just “loosely inspired by this fic”. 

Which leads back to another point about being a more conscientious member of fandom. The likelihood of anyone from the media I engage with reading my fic is slim to none. However, since I do ask each writer if I can post a recursive fic based on their fic, the likelihood of them reading it goes up significantly more (not necessarily 100%, but definitely higher than 0%!) Therefore, I feel slightly more beholden to ‘getting it right’. 

I’ve also asked if I can write NSFW content of the characters for some stories, particularly if they were OCs. Again - something I am not required to do, but it’s part of me being respectful of the author’s choices. It also wouldn’t fit some character’s arcs or personalities if I were to write smut of them, so I do not do that, but for other characters, there were fade-to-black scenes that I wanted to fill in the gaps of. However! Just because that existed in the fic didn’t mean it was alright for me to write it, so I checked. 

That said, per my earlier comment, I clearly write regular fic of characters having sex without checking in on the creator’s wishes. In fact, if a media creator came out and said, “X isn’t gay, stop writing them gay” I likely would not care. (See: Star Trek DS9’s butchering of Garak/Bashir. In my head, however, they are happily married and living together on Cardassia.) Therefore, it could be something else to examine within myself, as to why I give more consideration to fellow fans over the wishes of the media creators. 

Conclusion

I write recursive fic for the same reason I write regular fic- I am so incredibly compelled to write it that I legitimately cannot stop myself. The same daydreaming+plot bunny herding+fannish actions I do when I engage with a new media I like occur for fics that I read, particularly well fleshed-out AUs with a strong worldbuilding premise that I’d like to expand upon. 

However, unlike regular fic, the engagement with the author of the source fic means I am interacting with other writers on a more personal level than just leaving comments, something I really hadn’t done in fandom when I first started writing fanfiction when I was much younger. 

Writing recursive fic has made me friends and helped me understand my own writing more. Even though it narrows my reading audience considerably, it brings me back to why I write in the first place - my own joy. Comments, views, kudos, and feedback are wonderful, but in the end, writing something because it makes me happy, no matter how niche or narrow, is why I write. 

#fanfic

[aikasacolle]

Origins of Mizuchi - Creator’s Inspiration

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/134638137/mizuchi-visual-novel

Hello, Roxie here. The team is extremely pleased the alpha demo was released and overall well received by players. However, there is some confusion about the game’s setting that needs to be addressed from first impressions. It was somewhat explained on my very first post discussing character designs. Which you can find here: Mizuchi 白蛇心傳 Character Designs

If you would like to know “why” I made the decisions as I did, read on. I will bring up some backstory as to why Mizuchi was created as well. There’s also some spoilers if you haven’t played the demo.

Demo Here: https://aikasacolle.itch.io/mizuchi

You have been warned. Now please bear with me in the below ramble.

Aikasa Collective is a team with a majority of us being of Asian descent. I’ll mention those that make up the general character design and setting. I am Vietnamese-American, Moonsta (Artist) is Taiwanese, and NatalieAO (Colorist) is from Hong Kong. We were all familiar with the Legend of the White Snake 白蛇傳 in our own way as it is that famous.

Character Design Set-Up

I hand over the character profile and country to Moon, advising her to do her own interpretation of the traditional design since it’s a “fantasy”. She did her own research and after a few drafts we settled on the lineart only. Natalie was found after the first artist could no longer commit. I gave her the same profile, and gave her free reign with colors and patterns. She gave multiple color combinations, some internal voting and voila, the characters were completed. I believe some of the designs are wonderful derivatives, but they are only tributes to their traditional outfit.

I will need to sidetrack a little bit now.

Why was Mizuchi  白蛇心傳 made?

As an avid yuri fan and a bi/pan woman, I really wanted to tell a yuri focused story. I wanted a “pretty” visual novel that had a gritty vibe in order to challenge myself writing things that made me uncomfortable. The story of the White Snake left a memorable impression on me when I was less than 10 years old. I remember going to a friend’s house, watching bits of it in Vietnamese dub (oh yes childhood). It was such a tragic story it affected me still as the image is seared in my memory. Reading up on it, I realized there has been many variations of the legend, but none with a yuri version ;D (that I’m aware of...). I’ve avoided watching any recent iterations of the legend to avoid being influenced as I’m encroaching on much different themes.

So... is there any resemblance to the original tale in Mizuchi?

There is a main character that helps the “snake woman,” they fall in love, and the monk character plays a role. The monk’s role has changed through iterations as well, evil jealous villain to man who must save the MC’s soul. In my case I wanted to make a very kind and responsible nun. Jinhai was influenced by the Buddhist nuns who lived in my bedroom once I left to college. (Long story). I’m sure my “former nun now traveler” being a love interest was a very atypical choice. Is the game religious? Not at all. I love folklores, and I wanted to combine them also within this story :D I’ll give you a rough idea.

1) Legend of White Snake (Viet dubs, yep...)

2) Secret - Small Asian Tale (Dad taught me this one first, Puns)

3) Secret - Not really a tale (But I’ll use them...)

4) Beauty and the Beast (Subconscious I swear)

Where is Mizuchi taking place?

“Ancient Asia fantasy land”. Linh is from the “south”, Jinhai from the “north”, and Ai from ... (you play you learn).

But the house looks Japanese!

Yes, I really think Japanese homes would be a culture shock to someone like Linh, it’s intentional. Tatami mats for example is not common in areas that have a high humidity levels. It’s much harder to maintain.

So where are they exactly?

You will find out in the main game. There is a (silly) explanation as to the house itself.

Why did you pick Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese stuff in your game?

Vietnamese - It’s what I wanted to see, but I’m still American so I’m sure I didn’t capture anything right. Even the dress isn’t quite right... on purpose of course. After all, I wore it for every Tết growing up. I played off the timelines a little bit just to make things stand out more, or a bit of symbolism as one may see later.

Chinese - I married into a chinese culture and learned the language. I even studied abroad too.

Japanese - This particular culture also has a large role with my in-laws, and I learned this language first during college. Languages play a role in this game.

No country is ever named in the story. I didn’t want to misrepresent any culture, so I thought providing deliberate differences from the source, it would be a more respectable gesture. I’ve also merged material from other cultures around the world within this story. Why? Well... I think it’s worth noting that some things (such as being stoned to death) still happens in real life somewhere, and that is a real type of fear that some people face. Visual novels have the ability to give you an opportunity to see things from someone else’s perspective. If you gain some level of empathy, worry, or understanding of what Linh and others may have gone through, that would be my greatest accomplishment with this game.

Tell me about the game title. (Spoiler-ish below)

We considered before having the game made in multiple languages, including Japanese and Chinese. Skilled translators are VERY expensive. Roughly it’s 10 cents per word: 5 cents for translating, and 5 cents for making it sound good in that language. If I hit the wordcount I was hoping for, it would cost more than the entire game budget for just one language! (This is why bigger companies can afford this for their games). It’s also a lot of work to put it all together... so we decided against it at this time. We also originally wanted to translate the Chinese title 白蛇心傳, which is roughly “The White Snake Love Story.” But “snakes” carry a mixed meaning/stigma across different cultures. It’s also pretty long for a title. So a short Japanese name felt like a better fit considering what we wanted at the time, and it stuck. It worked for Inuyasha and Naruto haha.

You have Japanese text in the demo, why?

It plays a small role. We wanted English-reading players to be as confused as Linh was. If you do manage to understand the Japanese, it will only add to the mystery (not much is lost). Don’t worry, everyone will understand it one way or the other in the full story :D If the game was ever in Japanese, the text would have been in Chinese instead. It was suppose to be interchangeable either way.

I believe that is all I have left to share. Sorry again for the rambling! I hope you found some of it interesting at least... some details will be found in the full game and artbook commentary.

We are still running a Kickstarter campaign for Mizuchi to be made :D As you can tell, I put a “lot” of thought into everything about the game. I am confident with what I want to accomplish with the story, and have been fortunate to have very reliable and consistent teammates! I really want to share a lot of neat things with you, so I’d love your help and support for the game!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/134638137/mizuchi-visual-novel

See you again!

- Roxie

#mizuchi #Mizuchi 白蛇心傳 #gamedev #vndev #indie dev #indiedev #indie game #renpy #monster girl #shapeshifting #art #visual novel #english visual novel #english VN #lgbtq #queer #yuri #yuri game #naga #mermaid #asian #writing #folklore #fairytale #百合 #lamia #lgbt #lesbian #Kickstarter #anime

[herocentral]

Voltron Frozen Defender

Written by Alexander Montgomery

Well folks heres the first chapter of my crossover fiction between Frozen and Voltron Legendary Defender. I first came up with this story back when seasons 1&2 were released and was inspired reading the fan fictions of others. And so let us begin.

Frozen © Disney

Voltron Legendary Defender © Dreamworks /netflix.

I do not own any of the characters in this story all belong to their respective owners, any fan characters/monsters in this story are created by me so no one is allowed to copy, trace, steal etc without my permission THIS IS JUST FOR FUN!

Chapter 1: Rift between worlds.

Far away in the cold darkness of space, thousands of lightyears away from Planet Earth an asteroid belt of ice covered asteroids, float quietly in the void. From a distance, a large ship appears with large curved spires on each side glowing blue with energy. This was the great Altean flagship The Castle of Lions, and on the bridge of the vessel are the Paladins of Voltron; Shiro, Kieth, Pidge, Lance and Hunk manning their stations along with Princess Allura and her advisor Coran, the lone survivors of the destroyed Planet Altea and the Altean race. The castle bridge holo screen displays shows a small hexagon shape on the Ice cluster indicating the presence of a signal. 

“According to the castles sensors, the distress call came from this area.” Coran relayed to the team. 

“I don’t like this guys” Kieth said with suspicion in his voice “ doesn’t it seem weird that we just happened to get a distress call just as we’re planning to take down Zarkon?”

“Paranoid much Kieth?” Lance cracked.

 The Paladins, who had been brought together by the discovery of an alien mechanical lion on earth, to find the lone survivors of a race wiped out ten thousand years ago and reassemble the mighty Voltron, Legendary Defender of the Universe. Together they battled an evil war like race known as the Galra who have one intention to capture Voltron and conquer the galaxy. The Defenders of the Universe recently found allies in a secret group of Galra known as the Blade of Marmora and have been working on a plan to defeat the Empire and restore peace. So to receive a distress call at this time would be a dangerous coincidence.  

“He does have a point you know” Pidge agreed “ this iceberg grave yard looks like the perfect place for a trap.”  

“ I realise we have concerns about this” Allura began “ but lets not forget as Paladins of Voltron, we are honour bound to help those in need, no matter the circumstances.” she reminded. 

Shiro, the leader of the Paladins looked at the ice clusters and considered everything that was said before coming to a decision. 

“ Alluras right, so lets get to our lions and take a look, but stay alert just in case.” He decided. 

On the bow of the castle ship, the four spires and the centre spire opened and from them emerge five giant mechanical lions in the colours of red, green, blue, yellow and the largest in black bearing large red and white wings. These were the Lions of Voltron, the five that would unite to form Voltron itself. They fly towards the clusters of ice in formation, red and blue on the right, green and yellow on the left with black in the centre. 

“It looks quiet.” Hunk observed from the durable Yellow Lion, “Yeah too quiet for my liking.” Kieth agreed from the temperamental Red Lion. Shiro in Paladin armour looked around the area from the violet lit cockpit of the Alpha Black Lion and even he could tell something wasn’t right. 

“I’ll scan for Bio rhythms.” Said Pidge from the intellectual and daring Green Lion. The screens and instruments on her dashboard begin scanning the area, but then a red screen with a hexagon shaped cross appears indicating theres nothing in the area.

“That’s odd, theres no sign of life here?” Said Pidge in surprise. Lance looked to his instruments showing the presence of the signal in the compassionate and fun Blue Lion “But we’re getting close to the distress signal maybe we’re not close enough yet.”He assumed. 

“Everyone keep a tight formation but be ready, I have a bad feeling about this.” Shiro said with caution.

As the lions flew deeper into the ice clusters the signal gets stronger, but as a chunk of ice flies by it reveals another chunk with what appeared to be a beacon like device piercing the surface. The lions loom over the device and see no sign of a crashed ship bringing concern among the Paladins. 

“What the cheese?” Exclaimed Lance. “ Its a beacon of some kind.” Said Pidge “and that means….”

Suddenly without warning purple energy blasts bombarded the clusters and the lions. The lions grunted as they looked up and saw above them a fleet of small alien fighters  lead by a giant alien warship with a cannon mounted in the centre, the design of the ships lead to the origin of only one alien race.

 “It’s the Galra! Its an ambush!” Shiro Exclaimed. “Scatter!” 

The lions broke formation as the fighters flew in after them. Onboard the Galra warship the bridge is manned by two lieutenants wearing grey armour with glowing purple alien symbols and helmets to cover their eyes. With them are a battalion of robotic Galra sentries. On the command station stands the fleets commander the most obnoxious and shortest of them all Commander Morvak who stands with a sinister grin on his face. 

“The fools fell into our trap” Morvak laughed “ Now capture those lions for the glory of the Galra Empire! Vrepit sa!” 

The Galra fighters fly through the clusters chasing the lions whilst firing on them but hitting the clusters. The lions try to avoid the blast but whilst the Red Lion flies to avoid them the other lions are struggling to navigate the clusters. “Guys we can’t manoeuvre in these clusters!” Lance shouted. “ We have no choice, we’ll have to get out and face them.” Shiro said” Kieth deal with the fighters in the clusters, Hunk, Lance take the left flank, Pidge take down the fighters on the right I’ll attack the warship head on!” He commanded. 

“Yes sir” Kieth replied, “Rodger that” Responded Pidge “ Lets do this.” Hunk exclaimed “Right behind you!” Exclaimed Lance as the lions separated with Blue, Black, Green and Yellow heading out of the ice clusters whilst Red stays to fight the pursuing fighters. 

The Red lion flies through the clusters avoiding the laser fire using its enhanced speed and agility. The fighters turn a corner round a large chunk of ice only to find their target is no longer present. Suddenly from behind one of the clusters the Red lion flew in fast and an invisible force slices through all the fighters which is the Red Lions jaw blade and the fighters explode behind it leaving Kieth with a grin on his face. 

Outside the cluster the Blue lion is avoiding the blasts from the chasing Galra fighters but suddenly takes a hit, shaking up Lance in the cockpit. “Whoa! things are heating up!” Lance said but then puts on a look of determination. “Time to cool’em down!” He moved the flight sticks and turned the lion around facing the fighters. The lion opens its jaws, and fires a large white beam which upon contact encases the fighters in ice and the immense cold renders them powerless. 

“ Heh heh looks like the Galra have a case of brain freeze!” Lance cracked. 

Meanwhile the Green Lion is outflying the Galra fighters but nearly gets hit with an energy blast, the lion then flies over the fighters then forms a green, grey and black cannon on its back. The cannon then fires a green energy beam at the four fighters. Upon contact without warning vines begin to grow on the fighters which then crush them in a tight grip and explode soon after.  Green emerges from the blast with a victorious roar. 

“Gee who knew the Galra had a green thumb!” Said Pidge with a smirk. 

A fighter was about to fire on the Green Lion until from the left the Yellow Lion charged into its side crushing it. The lion charges and deliberately crashes into three other fighters and tosses them off its face, and into an incoming group of fighters. The Yellow Lion could handle the beating of their laser blasts with its durable armour. 

“Wa-hoo!” Hunk yelled “ Looks like its demolition derby season for Galra fighters!” 

The Galra warship fires all its weapons on its intended target, the Black Lion, which flies to avoid the blasts from the starboard cannons, and begins to charge its Ion Cannon. The lion forms its double jawblade in its mouth and charges forward with the jets in its wings. The Ion cannon fires an enormous blast at the Black lion but it moves to avoid it and targets the cannons main supports using the jaw blade to slice into the support separating the cannon from the ship. The cannon explodes and Black flies away. The lieutenant checks the screen on the bridge and sees that the Ion cannon is destroyed. 

“Sir, the Black lions destroyed the Ion cannon and our fighters are destroyed. Shall we retreat?” He said.  

Morvak was about to answer until. “We shall not retreat.” Another voice answered for him, a voice that sent a shiver down his very spine. He turned to see a hooded individual who’s cloak covered half her face with glowing yellow eyes and blue skin with red marks on her face. It was Haggar high priestess of the Galra Empire. 

“If you are too incompetent to capture the lions Morvak. I shall handle this, personally.” She said with a hint of venom in her voice. Outside the Lions had defeated the remaining fighters as the Black lion flies towards them. “Team report.” Shiro called “Fighters are down Shiro.” Kieth replied “ Then lets take down that warship.” Shiro ordered knowing what to do next. “Everyone get ready to form…” Suddenly Shiro cries in pain as he begins to feel a surge of power striking him and his lion. “GAAAAAAAA!” 

“Shiro!” Exclaimed Kieth. “Look” Pidge pointed the other Paladins to the source of the dark energy striking the Black Lion. It was coming from the warship emanating from the hands of Haggar. “It’s the witch!” Lance exclaimed “ We can’t let her get the Black Lion, TAKE HER DOWN!!” Kieth ordered as the four lions fired energy blasts from their mouths and at the warship to blast the witch. She moves quickly to avoid the energy blasts almost like a black blur. Haggar fires a dark blast at the lions which they are quick to avoid before returning fire. 

The Red Lion looks back to see the Black Lion floating lifeless in space. “Shiro, you okay?! Shiro!”Kieth called but got no response until Kieth hears a groan over the comms. In the lions cockpit Shiro is recovering from the blast he took. “I… I’m okay” He breathed as he tried to reboot his lion by moving the flight sticks but theres no response.”But my lions not responding.”He said. The Lions continued to stand their ground against Haggar, who is about to fire another blast until an incoming blast from the starboard side of the warship knocks her off balance taking her by surprise. She turns and glares at the source of the blast. The Castle of Lions. 

“Coran focus fire on the warship!” Allura exclaimed from the bridge “Rodger that Princess!” Coran replied firing on the Galra ship. Using the opportunity the lions group up towards their alpha. Though Haggar tries to defend herself from the castle she sees the lions grouped together in one place and decides to strike, giving a yell as she generates a massive orb of dark energy and fires it at her prey. In the Blue Lion, Lance caught sight of a dark glow from behind them and sees the energy blast coming towards them. 

“LOOK OUT!” Lance shouted as he quickly turns his lion to face the energy blast and fires a blast from its mouth, colliding with the witches dark magic. The energy builds up and an orb begins to form. Pidge looks at the energy readings coming from it and realises the collision is causing something to happen. “Lance stop it!….” Suddenly the orb explodes and engulfs everything in a bright light blinding The Paladins, Haggar, Allura, and Coran. The light soon fades, the Galra Warship has been reduced powerless and Haggar is unconscious. In the Castle of Lions, Allura and Coran are also rendered unconscious. However, there is one party not present and that was the Voltron Lions almost as if they’d simply vanished. 

Elsewhere

High in the cool night sky, the Northern Lights shine, whip and flicker in the silence of the night. Far below this vibrant majestic sight was the kingdom of Arendelle, its populace were all sound asleep in their homes. High in the hills close to the snowy mountain five individuals sat on the grass covered ground near the forest.  These were the royals of the kingdom, Queen Elsa and her sister Princess Anna with the Kingdoms Ice master and deliverer Kristof, his reindeer companion Sven and Olaf the little snowman who was created by Elsa. They all sat in front of a large rock and the evergreens around them had small traces of snow on the ground. They looked up at the night sky waiting for something. 

“Ohhh how much longer do we need to wait?!” Anna said excitedly “Relax Anna, you won’t have to wait much longer.” Chuckled her boyfriend in assurance. “I can tell why your excited” Said Elsa putting her hand on her sisters shoulder.” Its only once every three years that millions of shooting stars appear in the sky above Arendelle.” “Yeah I’ll bet its the most amazing thing ever.” Said Olaf with a smile.

A month had passed since Arendelle had been thawed from an eternal winter accidentally caused by Elsa during her coronation. However, thanks to her sister the kingdom was saved and the two sisters were reunited after years of being apart. Sven then notices something in the sky and nudges Kristofs shoulder with his large nose getting his attention. Kristof sees what his friend is seeing and points it out to Anna and Elsa. As they look up to the sky they saw an amazing sight, millions of shooting stars soar across the sky through the Northern lights harmonsing with the very colours of the sky itself. This vibrant display reflected in their eyes and Anna all but marvelled at this display.

Although a beautiful sight, Anna looked to her elder sister and noticed a mild look of sadness on her face. “Elsa?” getting her sisters attention. 

“Its nights like this that make me think of when Mom and Dad took us to see this when we were kids.”Said Elsa sadly. Annas expression turned to sympathy as she too remembered how their parents brought them to this very spot years ago. She placed her hand on her sisters shoulder, 

“ I know”she said” I wish they were here too.” making her elder sister smile a little. “ Hey look there.” Called Kristof bringing their attention to the sky. They looked to see five stars shooting across the sky in colours of violet, red, green, blue, and yellow. 

“Ooo pretty.” Awed Olaf, whilst Anna and Elsa looked up in amazement. A notion then popped into their heads and so they closed their eyes, as its said that making a wish on a shooting star before it disappears the wish would come true. Elsa took a moment to think about what to wish for, and out of everything she could think of only one thing came to mind.

” I…I wish… for someone to bring me happiness” she whispered quietly so that even Anna couldn’t hear her, but its said we must be careful what we wish for.

High above, the stars are actually the Voltron Lions crashing down from the sky. Inside the powerless Black Lion, Shiro who is finding it hard to stay conscious is trying to guide his lion down to the ground. Black begins to fall away from the rest of the group, and inside the other four lions Kieth, Lance, Hunk and Pidge are doing the best they can guide their lions into a controlled crash. 

“Come on come on!” Kieth growls trying to pull his lion out of the crash. “ Yellow come on work for me!” Hunk tried.”Come on Blue anytime now!!” Lance panicked. Pidge looked outside and saw they were drawing ever closer to the ground. “Theres no time!” She cried “ EVERYONE BRACE YOURSELVES!” Shiro shouted. 

As they braced themselves for the crash and the ground drawing ever closer Lance could only say one thing. “ Oh Quiznak!” The Lions crashed to the ground knocking down trees and leaving a trail of drag marks behind them sliding on the ground, building up a mound of dirt and rocks in front of them eventually bringing them to a halt. Steam poured from the lions as they cooled down. 

Inside his lion Shiro begins to stir groaning as he did. He could see his lion was depowered, and the cockpit was completely dark. He emerges from the Black lion via the escape hatch located in the top of its head. He looks around his surroundings and sees he’s crashed in the middle of a forest at night. Shiro climbs down from his lion, but upon touching the ground he feels weak and dizzy realising he hasn’t fully recovered from his attack, but never the less, fights to stay awake. 

“Princess. Come in.” Said Shiro activating the com channel in his helmet, but can’t get any response.”Coran respond please.” still no answer. “ Anyone.” There was only one sound static. He walks through the forest to find where his teammates crashed. He begins to climb a steep hill looking to see the Black Lion a distance behind him. 

He feels tired and exhausted but forces himself to stay awake.

“…Shiro…re…..ou…re?….” Suddenly he heard a weak transmission coming through and he recognised the voice. “Kieth, is that you? Can you hear me?” Shiro answered back but there was no answer. He guessed it was due to the dense forest so he heads higher up the hill. 

“Shiro, Come in are you there?” The signal got stronger. “Kieth, I’m here you guys okay?” 

Not too far away the other Lions had crashed and their Paladins had just climbed out of their lions, and Lance anime style fell face first to the ground.

 “Shiro, you made it are you okay?” Kieth said in relief that his friend was okay. “Yeah I’m okay how about you?” Shiro asked “ We’re a little battered but alive.” Kieth answered “Speak for yourself.” Groaned Lance as he got up.” The last time I got a headache like this there’d better be a simulator involved” “Oh no Lance” Said Pidge looking around the crash site “ this turned out a lot worse than the last time you crashed a simulator.” Suddenly they heard the sound of someone hurling and they all knew who it was Hunk as he was being sick after falling from space. 

“ Sorry so sorry” he breathed before vomiting again much to the teams disgust “Hey you have to admit, thats a new record he’s never gone that long before” Pidge observed tilting her glasses. “So where are you?” Kieth asked.

In the hills deep in the forest

Shiro looks around to get his bearings.”I’m not too far from you, but I’m not sure where…” Shiro then groaned slightly and leaned against a tree. “Shiro, Shiro you still there?!” Kieth called “ Ngh, I’m fine” Shiro groaned “I just…” “You don’t sound fine, your probably still beat up from the blast you took.” Pidge interrupted. Suddenly they were startled by a howling sound echoing through the forest which spooks Lance and Hunk.

 “W… Was that a wolf!” Lance said in surprise. Shiro could hear this too, and he activated the torch light on his gauntlet and shined it towards the trees. He looked closely and in the darkness he could see something disturbing, it was white eyes with growling. He wasn’t alone. 

“Shiro, whats going on?!” Kieth said over the com Shiro moved his right hand and it began to glow purple and tried to stand his ground as the wolves emerged from the shadows growling and staring at their prey. Shiro soon realised he was too weak to fight and so there was only one choice. Run. He scurried down the hill with the wolves close behind, Shiro uses his cyber prosthetic hand to slice down a tree to try and slow them down but the wolves jumped over it. 

“Shiro whats going on SHIRO!” Kieth shouted over the com Shiro couldn’t answer as he was trying to evade the wolves. One was getting very close to him and tried to leap onto him but he was able to swat it away with his prosthetic hand. Suddenly he saw the edge of a cliff he could see the jump was too far but he had no choice, he activated his armours jet pack which gives him a powered jump across the gap. 

Suddenly the jet pack over heats mid way across, Shiro can see he won’t make it so he thrusts his prosthetic hand into the rock and screamed in pain as he dangles from the cliff edge. The wolves stop at the cliff edge and bark at their escaped prey as he climbed back up onto the ledge and rolls on his back in exhaustion. Later , he continues walking down hill but he’s tired and exhausted and begins to see double vision. In doing so he doesn’t see where he’s going and trips on a rock sending him rolling down hill hitting some rocks, loses his helmet and finally hits the ground and loses consciousness. “Shiro, are you there, Shiro, Shiro!” Echoed Kieth on the helmets com. 

Nearby the Arendelle royals, Icemaster and snowman were riding back to the kingdom on Kristofs sled pulled by Sven going down the hill slopes. As they rode along Sven smelled something in the air and then out of the corner of his eye he saw something near the forest. He stops rather suddenly to the surprise of the passengers. 

“H-hey whats up Sven? Why’d you stop?” Asked Kristof, Sven began snorting trying to point them to something but they couldn’t understand what. “Buddy I can’t understand you when you talk like that.” Said Kristof, Sven frowned and moved his head to the right. 

“ I think he’s seen something.” Anna guessed so they looked to the right to see what it was the reindeer had seen. Olaf then saw something. 

“Hey guys, not sure this is going to help but theres someone lying down over there.” He said directing their attention. They looked and Elsa could see what looked like a man lying down on the ground.

 “ Oh no!” Said Elsa who immediately dismounted from the sled in concern she Anna, Kristof, and Olaf ran over to where the man was. 

They came up and saw the man was wearing black and white armour with some glowing blue lines and an arrow like shape on the chest plate. He had black hair with a white forelock and on his face he had a large scar across the bridge of his nose. The sisters knelt down and turned him on his back and saw he was rather beaten up.

 “Is he…” Anna asked “No he’s alive, just unconscious” Kristof said checking for a pulse. “What happened to him?” Anna asked her sister” I don’t know” Elsa answered “ but right now he needs help lets get him back to the castle.” With that Kristof picked up the man and carried him to his sled and loaded him onto the cargo area. However Elsa couldn’t help but wonder who was he?

Elsewhere:

Far in the darkest corners of space, stood a large alien fortress surrounded by fleets of warships in the centre of the star system surrounded by gas planets. The sight of the fortress sends fear down the spines of even the bravest of warriors for this was the stronghold of the Paladins of Voltron’s most hated enemy. On the bridge of this warship, Haggar silently enters the room aproaching the throne in the centre of the room and knelling before her master, the most vile of all the Galra race Emperor Zarkon.

“Sire” Said Haggar eerily “I regret to inform you our ambush has failed, and the Voltron Lions have… disappeared.” Zarkon sat on his throne tightly clenching its arms in anger.” How” he spoke.” I attempted to render the lions powerless,” Haggar began “ but the Blue Lion intercepted my dark magic with its own blast of energy, the collision of which caused an explosion. What happened to the Paladins after that I regrettably don’t know.” She finished awaiting her emperors response.

“Do not despair Haggar.”Zarkon began with darkness in his voice “ There is nowhere in this universe that they can hide from my visions reach. We will find them, we shall wipe the Paladins of the face of the universe forever and claim Voltron once and for all.” Zarkons eyes glowed with purple energy as the hunt for his quarry had begun. 

Chapter 1 done folks chapter 2 will come soon.

#Voltron Legendary Defender #Cartoons and comics #Frozen #Shiro #Elsa #Anna #Pidge #Hunk #Lance #Cartoon Crossover #fan fiction #Voltron #Action #Adventure #Disney #Dreamworks

[nemolian]

Dune Is the Jaw-Dropping Sci-Fi Epic You've Been Waiting For

Dune feels like a product from another time in Hollywood history. A movie with the scope and vision of modern blockbusters that tells a complex, mature story usually reserved for independent dramas. It’s hugely ambitious, not always straightforward, but accessible and lived-in in a way that makes watching it completely engrossing, even when the thrills and chills aren’t quite as abundant as recent hits have made us accustomed to. It’s an old-school blockbuster told with visuals that’ll delight a new-school crowd.

Based on the legendary novel by Frank Herbert, Dune was directed by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) with a screenplay by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth. It tells the story of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), the son of the powerful Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) and mysterious Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). Paul’s parentage makes him not just the heir to the formidable Atreides army thanks to his father, but a man with a magical, mythical side too, thanks to his mother. When the Atredies are given control of the planet Arrakis, which contains the most valuable substance in the galaxy—spice—Paul and his family find themselves at odds with the villainous Harkonnens, who previously controlled the planet. Through that conflict, Paul struggles with the burden of his dual destiny as a leader of men as well as a potential prophet.

Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac in Dune.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Villeneuve’s biggest challenge with Dune is dropping us in a brand new world. Sure, some people will have seen the previous adaptations or read Herbert’s books, but the director never relies on that. Instead, he delicately balances plot and character development with establishing the rules of this fictional universe, all through attention to detail. Nothing in Dune is an afterthought. Every single frame, every single sound, every single choice, feels like it’s been deliberated for months and the filmmaking proudly relishes each detail. Establishing shots linger a few extra seconds. Costumes are introduced fluttering in the wind for maximum beauty. Characters who aren’t on screen for more than a second feel like they deserve their own spin-off movie. Even the sci-fi props are presented with a certain reverence for their design, hitting a bullseye between looking cool and innovative as well as old and worn out. This is a new world for us, but not for the characters.

Thankfully, none of that filmmaking opulence distracts from the story. All of the mise-en-scène works together to establish a grandiose, awe-inspiring canvas for the story and characters to play on, but it’s never the point. Your eyes will dart around the frame exploring all the gorgeous vistas and technology, your ears will perk up with the complex sound design and distinct Hans Zimmer score, but after that, everything comes back to Paul, a young man beginning to explore the ways of the galaxy while also figuring out his part in it. And this Paul is a perfect vessel for the audience’s journey. His story is at the center of the more layered political intrigue happening around him and yet, thanks to Chalamet’s performance, none of that is ever overwhelming. His Paul is confident and grounded, but playful, too. As he discovers more about the ways of the world, we enjoy his reactions and relate to his trepidation. When he learns, we learn. When he evolves, the story evolves.

Timothée Chalamet as Paul in Dune.

Photo: Warner Bros.

With so much character development and world-building, though, Dune does, at times, feel almost too ambitious. A tad too slow. Even a bit incomplete. It helps immensely that the film begins with the card “Dune: Part One,” because then you realize this two-and-a-half-hour movie, much like the first and second Lord of the Rings, was made on the hope and prayer we’d get to see another. That seed helps cover the fact that the first hour of the movie favors character and planet introductions over action—the biggest set piece of the film comes with about an hour left—and that the film’s climax is between two characters, and not two million (as one might expect in a film this size). Villeneuve’s Dune is clearly about the growth of Paul first, and showcasing this world in a way that will delight and mystify second; in those aims he succeeds. Soaking in this endlessly wondrous world for two-plus hours absolutely carries a bit of the narrative detriments.

Another thing that helps Dune overcome a few of its flaws is the casting. Beyond just the Atredies family, Villeneuve has filled Dune with very famous, talented actors who are a pleasure to watch. Some—like Jason Momoa as Atredies soldier Duncan Idaho and Stellan Skarsgård as the evil Baron Harkonnen—have excellent roles in this movie. Momoa, in particular, bringing a swagger and excitement beyond anything we’ve seen from him before. Others, like Dave Bautista as a Harkonnen leader, and Zendaya and Javier Bardem as crucial members of the Fremen people, have smaller roles in this installment. We see them, they’re compelling, but we’re left waiting to see just how exactly that could play out in the future.

House Atreides.

Photo: Warner Bros.

What could happen in the future isn’t something you can think about when critiquing a movie though. There’s this movie, this story, and if it doesn’t work on its own, that would problem. It’s not a problem here. This Dune, by itself, even if we never get another movie, sets a new standard for modern sci-fi epics. Villeneuve’s attention to detail in design, combined with his expansive vision of multiple worlds, conveys a reverence and respect for the material that makes the film feel even more majestic than it already is (and it’s pretty damn majestic). 

It would be a travesty if we never got to see the second part of this story, but Part One has satisfying narrative threads with a logical endgame that leaves you wanting more. The set pieces, while sporadic, are exciting and the movie presents such a fantastic, robust sci-fi world, you could watch it a million times and find something new with each viewing. And yet, that dense, complex world exists solely to enhance a personal, relatable, emotional story. A story of a world where a boy grows to be a man with all sorts of unfathomable expectations—expectations this movie probably has on it too. But don’t worry, Dune is awesome in every sense of the word, and it’ll be a movie fans cherish for years to come.

Dune just had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. It opens in theaters, and on HBO Max, October 22.

Wondering where our RSS feed went? You can pick the new up one here.

via:Gizmodo, September 3, 2021 at 11:51AM

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[murroyilodel]

The Art of the Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo (link) | Esmeralda (link) | Frollo (link) | Phoebus (link) | Clopin (link)

The Misshapen Bell-ringer

The character and his journey from oppression to freedom aroused empathy in many key contributors to the project. Marshall Toomey, the cleanup key for the character and an African-American, asserts, “I’ve lived Quasimodo’s life. I was one of the first people to get bussed in the early 1960s. I got called all kinds of names. I felt so inferior and so ugly. I know what’s in Quasimodo’s heart because of what I’ve been through in my life.” Writer Noni White asserts, “Someone once said that anti-Semitism is a light sleeper. All bigotry is a light sleeper. Because Quasimodo and the [Romani] are outcasts, the story touches a universal theme: Why can’t we see each other as human beings and not judge one another based on looks, beliefs, or race?”

Full write-up behind Read-More

Taking that step forward required the filmmakers to extract the essence of some of literature’s more memorable and sharply etched characters Hugo evokes Quasimodo, for instance, as “a giant broken in pieces and badly reassembled,” with “a huge head sprouting red hair; between the two shoulders an enormous hump, the repercussions of which were evident at the front; a system of thighs and legs so strangely warped that they met only at the knees and looked, from the front, like two scythe-blades joined at the handle; broad feet and monstrous hands.” Still, beneath the surface, “There was a radiance about that somber and unhappy face.”

In the novel Quasimodo may be viewed as a symbol of the unacknowledged evil of his guardian, Claude Frollo, as well as a scapegoat for the fears and superstitions of the medieval populace. Yet the Disney filmmakers saw that behind these misconceptions lay another Quasimodo entirely. Observes concept artist Jean Gillmore, “Quasimodo was limited not so much by his own physical restrictions as by people’s opinions of him. People of that time feared anything out of the ordinary, and Quasimodo embodied those fears, fuelled by the superstitions and dogma of the church. To them something that hideous on the outside must also be hideous inside.”

Rather than dwell solely on the physical qualities of the character, whom Hugo variously describes as “a living chimera,” and “hunchbacked, one-eyed, and lame,” and with a “dome for a back and twisted columns for legs,” the Disney moviemakers chose to dramatize Quasimodo’s internal struggle with the shame, insecurities, and self-loathing Frollo has created in him. Don Hahn, who previously produced Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King before being asked to produce The Hunchback of Notre Dame, views Quasimodo as “an abused child who has to struggle far less with his physical challenges than with the huge oppression of being told by his father figure, Frollo, that he is a monster, a freak unfit to venture out into the world.” Kirk Wise terms the relationship of Quasimodo and Frollo “classically dysfunctional. Frollo constantly reminds Quasimodo of how ugly, how worthless, he is and whenever the poor kid gets his hopes up, Frollo smashes them down. It’s almost like some insidious form of brainwashing that keeps Quasimodo in a trance.”

The moviemakers determined that their Quasimodo should hew close to the age Hugo ascribes to him, about twenty, rather than the fortyish man he appears to be in previous film versions. The choice lends him an innocent appeal. Hugo’s conception that Quasimodo was “vicious in fact because he was anti-social; he was anti-social because he was ugly” evolved in the filmmakers’ minds to a more modern conceit. Gary Trousdale maintains that it was crucial for Quasimodo to not be “malevolent, bitter, and vicious, but a put-upon guy who, beneath his surface appearance and his being emotionally stunted, has a loving heart of gold.” “It’s not so much how much he looks, it’s a really his inner soul trying to break free,” concurs Kirk Wise.

No Disney animated character, from Mickey Mouse to Captain John Smith or from Snow White to Pocahontas, has sprung easily into existence. Few could have presented more challenges than Quasimodo, whose transcendent spirit can be glimpsed only be those willing to see beyond his unconventional outward appearance. Key decisions were required as to how he would look and move, and how great his physical challenges should be. It had been suggested, for instance, that half his face might be deformed, but hidden under a cascade of beautiful hair. The filmmakers vetoed that notion because, as writer Bob Tzudiker put it, “This is a story of someone who must overcome his perception of his own deformity. If we hid his deformity, we’d be avoiding telling the story.” Many of the Studio’s most gifted artists – among them Joe Grant, Burny Mattinson, Ed Gombert, Jean Gillmore, Thom Enriquez, Rick Maki, Geefwee Boedoe, Kevin Harkey, James Baxter, and Rowland Wilson – created prototypical inspirational approaches to the character that ranged from nightmare creatures to singular-looking boys. In the end, a blend of the designs of illustrator Peter DeSeve, whose surrealistic style is perhaps known best from his New Yorker work, and animator James Baxter, best known for his work on Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, were chosen to balance Hugo’s Quasimodo with Disney’s. From the first moment Quasimodo appears on screen, lovingly urging a hesitant, frightened young pigeon to at last fly free of Notre Dame, the character, as animated by Baxter, appears sympathetic, psychologically battered, winsome, a full-hearted and appealing underdog. “James Baxter’s animation of Quasimodo is so moving, that it’s easy to forget that the performance as created with a pencil and paper,” producer Don Hahn says. “The energy from his animation is something audiences can feel when they look at the screen.”

Baxter designed Quasimodo with a stress on horizontal shapes rather than vertical ones. Says Baxter, “His shape contrasts deliberately with the other major characters, especially Frollo, who is very tall and Gothic. Frollo seems to fit in with the Gothic architecture while Quasi doesn’t.” Despite Quasimodo’s physical appearance, he had to be designed to be very adept and active. “He’s deformed but not disabled,” says Baxter. “His being bent over was a metaphor for his wanting to hide. We wanted him wrapped in on himself, able to bend over and cower in his most oppressed moments.”

The artists of the layout, background and effects departments worked to create an environment for Quasimodo which reflected his character and his moods. Psychologically, the cathedral is, in Baxter’s words, “Quasi’s comfort zone. When he’s on his own or with the gargoyles he’s at ease; it’s very different from when he’s in the square.” Says head of layout Ed Ghertner, “There are places in the belltower where Quasimodo has all these found and manufactured objects and they really tell you a lot about who he is, what his preoccupations are.” As the movie progresses the color and environment change subtly to suggest changes in Quasi’s mood. “Though his environment starts out cold, it becomes warmer when he shows his space to Esmeralda and magical and ethereal when he dreams of heaven’s light,” says head of backgrounds Lisa Keene.

It is through his relationship with another element of the cathedral, the gargoyles Hugo, Victor, and Laverne, that the directors chose to reveal an important aspect of Quasimodo’s character. Voiced by Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, and Mary Wickes, respectively (Jane Withers took on the role of Laverne after Mary Wickes passed away in October 1995), “the gargoyles help us see the warm and funny side of Quasi that shuts down when Frollo’s around,” says Gary Trousdale. “Not only does this add humour and lightness to the film, it shows an aspect of his character you wouldn’t otherwise see, an aspect that he isn’t allowed to express to others.”

The character and his journey from oppression to freedom aroused empathy in many key contributors to the project. Marshall Toomey, the cleanup key for the character and an African-American, asserts, “I’ve lived Quasimodo’s life. I was one of the first people to get bussed in the early 1960s. I got called all kinds of names. I felt so inferior and so ugly. I know what’s in Quasimodo’s heart because of what I’ve been through in my life.” Writer Noni White asserts, “Someone once said that anti-Semitism is a light sleeper. All bigotry is a light sleeper. Because Quasimodo and the [Romani] are outcasts, the story touches a universal theme: Why can’t we see each other as human beings and not judge one another based on looks, beliefs, or race?”

To voice and sing the character, Tom Hulce, an Oscar nominee for his role as Mozart in Amadeus, was, according to coproducer Roy Cohn, “the guy as soon as we heard him sing because he has this wonderful, innocent quality to his voice, yet it still has the kind of power and depth you’d expect from Quasimodo.” Hulce got put to the test on “Out There,” the song written for Quasimodo by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz in which the character’s feelings well up, compelling him to express his longing for one sing day amid the throngs he watches from the distant heights of the belltower:

            All my life I wonder how it feels to pass a day,             Not above them,             But part of them…

For Gary Trousdale, the song “defines Quasimodo as a yearning, child-like guy watching life pass him by from the belltower, as frustrated as anyone might be if the Tournament of Roses Parade or Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade passed by your window, but you could never go.” Victor Hugo probably never imagined his malformed, melancholy creation breaking forth into song. Yet, Baxter’s animation, Menken’s melody, and Schwartz’s lyrics speak powerfully of the character’s lonely isolation, oppression, and feeling of being an outsider.

#the hunchback of notre dame #hunchback of notre dame #mickeyandcompany #quasimodo #frollo #esmeralda #phoebus #clopin #disney #concept art #hunchback disney

[smashmusicideas]

June 7: Going through the Smash E3 Trailers

Well, the title says it all. How to best predict or understand what we might see on Tuesday? Look at the history. I should note I’ll be ignoring Melee, as the nature of how information on it came out (and how people reliably accessed it) makes it more of an outlier.

E3 2005: A new Super Smash Bros. game for the Wii, then-called Revolution, is announced.

E3 2006: The first trailer for what is now named Super Smash Bros. Brawl releases.

Veterans: Mario, Link, Pikachu, and Kirby - four of the five main Smash fighters. Samus is also shown, albeit in a way that doesn’t confirm her inclusion in her classic form.

Meta Knight (Newcomer): One of the most popular characters requested, Meta Knight follows Peach as the first newcomer revealed and part of a franchise already represented. You can also argue his placement references his (and the Halberd‘s) involvement in “The Subspace Emissary.”

Pit (Newcomer): Another highly requested character, filling the Ice Climbers’ role as an iconic retro hero. Notably, he also sports a drastic redesign.

Zero Suit Samus (Newcomer): ZSS was probably never anyone’s most wanted character. However, her inclusion is necessary; she obliquely represents the new Final Smash mechanic.

Wario (Newcomer): Outside of Sonic, Wario probably was the most wanted character - but fans assumed he would use his classic costume. This shows he will be fighting as a wildly new fighter, one who represents a sub-series that started after the release of Melee.

Snake (Newcomer): Shocking everyone, the last reveal is of, for the first time ever, a third party character into the battle, and one no one would have rightly expected. Snake’s inclusion sparks a change in the Smash community where previously laughable, mocked suggestions can “potentially” be plausible.

Alongside characters, we also see new, unnamed stages: Battlefield, Halberd, Castle Siege, Pokémon Stadium 2, Skyworld, Mario Circuit (Brawl), and Yoshi's Island (Brawl) (Shadow Moses Island would be revealed in accompanying screenshots). A Nintendog hints at the new Assist Trophy item. And we see incredibly “super attacks,” later dubbed Final Smashes, which fighters can acquire by collecting a ball with the Smash logo.

E for All, 2007: While not part of E3, this is the period in which the public is allowed to play a demo for Brawl, featuring Sonic the Hedgehog - who had been revealed only eleven days prior. As for E3 itself, 2007 has a fifteen second video revealing only Donkey Kong. I’m not going to highlight it here for space.

E3 2011: A new Smash Bros. game is announced, which will appear on both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

E3 2013: The first trailer and sizable accompanying information for what is now named the collective Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U are released during a Nintendo Direct.

Veterans: Mario, Link, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Pit, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, and Bowser.

Villager (Newcomer): while Villager’s chances and popularity were debated and debatable, Animal Crossing is a huge franchise for Nintendo. Using him to almost literally lead off the cast makes sense.

Mega Man (Newcomer): A new precedent is set: unlike with Brawl, newcomers to Smash For (excluding clones) were given individual trailers. Having Mega Man’s be the first makes sense; he was possibly the most requested guest fighter after Sonic.

Wii Fit Trainer (Newcomer): Unlike the other newcomers, Wii Fit Trainer - the game’s new surprising, out of nowhere fighter - is now revealed in the Direct itself but on the show after the fact. Her reveal comes at a demonstration in which Sakurai plays a match, and before a video of him discussing the game’s ideas is released.

Altogether, we see extensive information from those trailers. New stages are later revealed to be Battlefield, 3D Land, Gerudo Valley, Spirit Train, Skyloft, Arena Ferox, Living Room, Boxing Ring, Town and City, Wii Fit Studio, and Wily Castle. Of noteworthy shots, one is of a jungle-esque stage, and the other is a platform-less version of Battlefield; in an April 2014 Smash-centered Direct these would be revealed as part of Smash Run and an Omega Form, respectively. Finally, one CGI scene shows Mario followed by five other fighters on Battlefield, arguably hinting at the Wii U version’s Eight-Player Smash mode.

E3 2014: Attention ahoy. You’ll note that this isn’t a trailer; instead of taking up one part of the Direct, Smash bookends Nintendo’s (rather good) showing.

Mii Fighter (Newcomer): The Miis were no one’s favorite choice for a character, but they excite because they introduce to the series the ability to actually customize your own fighters - a godsend in a series beloved and notorious for how wide its breadth of inspiration reaches. This also dovetails with the end of the show, in which Palutena, the newcomer and only other fighter whose special attacks vary wildly like them, closes out the event.

Pac-Man (Newcomer): Pac-Man is unveiled at a private showroom after a massive Smash Bros. invitational tournament, one in which sixteen competitive fighters play on a build which would later be available to E3 attendees. The invitational itself provides some information that had been revealed and clarifies other points, from how certain Assist Trophies function to the utility of different items.

E3 2015: While Nintendo does not feature Smash in any capacity during its Direct and only minimally during its post-show “Treehouse Live at E3″ segments, they announce and release a wealth of downloadable content for Smash For. Lucas, announced months prior, is released alongside fellow veteran Roy and newcomer Ryu, from Street Fighter.

So...what can we take from this?

Well, I think it says a few things. Mostly, the newcomers shown off will be fairly big in terms of fame and popularity. I know that seems insultingly obvious, but it’s true. A third party fighter especially seems likely; if the game really is coming out this year, it makes sense to show any and all they can. Like, I feel like if Ridley is coming to Smash, showing him off here seems the smartest, given his colossal popularity, instead of on the side or as an unlockable fighter.

I think it’s also interesting how some are chosen. Of all the newcomers, only three - Meta Knight, Zero Suit Samus, and Palutena - came from prior series. And of those, Meta Knight’s the only one whose entire design isn’t tied to a mechanic introduced in that game. This isn’t to say they’re not going to appear here at all, just that most likely we may see new series represented.

Those two fighters lead me to something else: there will very likely be mechanics, items, powers, or modes the trailers will obliquely show or reference without explicitly saying. I do suspect that those 2005 and 2013 trailers deliberately hinted at the story mode and Eight-Player Smash, respectively. So while most crazy theorizing will be just that, maybe you will stumble upon or uncover something that’ll turn out huge.

However, this also says we should not put all our stock in only this showing. In an interview today with the Hollywood Reporter, Bill Trinen admitted that they will be keeping some Smash surprises for after the event. It shouldn’t surprise anyone; this series has never been one to show all its cards. So be excited, hope for more stuff, but also remember that this won’t be the be-all and end-all of this new iteration. All of these videos only prove how no matter how much information we get, so much can, and will, be hidden.

Also, as a minor point, it’s likely that Smash may not be relegated to just one section of the event. I suspect it’ll both start and end it, the way it was in 2014. As important as this game is for Nintendo, they have other stuff to show. Pokémon Let’s Go is a big deal, there’s potentially Fire Emblem for Switch (and other announced games in development), there’s the increasingly inevitable announcement of Fortnite; they may have a lot on their plate (one rumor says it might be upwards of forty-five minutes - which is apparently about twice as long as the fairly packed one last year).

But finally, just remember that all of these are nothing more than precedents and commonalities. A lot of Sakurai’s general directions here make sense, but we don’t know if he’ll be using the same kind of character trailers the last game(s) did or going back to the Brawl “general stuff” kind of trailer, or something entirely different.

(Link to my writings on Smash Bros for Nintendo Switch)

#Super Smash Bros. #Nintendo Switch #Smash for Switch #E3 #Nintendo Direct

[flarechaser]

Sabine may not be the warrior to unite Mandalore yet, but she will be

I will literally fight, her character development is pointing in this direction and it’s all I care about

We’ve only seen her past in fragments that she drops in moments of emotional upheaval; despite her natural exuberance and how expressive she is in her art, she plays things very close to the chest.  Even Kanan didn’t seem to know the whole story of her past, or at least the depths to which it affected her.

As far as I’ve seen, Rebels is a story about growth.  The rebellion is in its infancy, and we follow the Ghost crew as they and others make connections with other rebel cells or pirate starships or generally do the organizing that will eventually bring down the empire, but they aren’t there yet.  No one is.  Hope is still metamorphosing, on Tatooine, on Alderaan, on Chopper Base and in a million little hidey-holes throughout the galaxy.  Everyone is still growing.  No one is who they need to be to defeat the empire soundly.  Not yet.

Sabine is still growing as a person too.  She feels disconnected from her Mandalorian roots in some sense, though she uses the starbird as her tag and still wears the armor.  It’s a conscious choice to feel her own exile as strongly as possible, to exert some control over her circumstances, and to hold on to the last part of her family that can’t really abandon her, some shred of identity while she fled and built a new life for herself.  Her Mandalorian training provided a strong foundation for the rebel she would become.

Its likely that being forced to design a weapon, the details and circumstances of which are still unclear, made her feel some sort of disconnect with her personhood as well.  She chaffed against rigid imperial rule, she lived in an occupied society, and her labor was being used to support that occupation.  Imperial requirements of compliance and conformity being what they were, she might have felt even her personality was slipping away, buried in whatever the empire was forcing her to become.

What struck me about this episode was how Sabine was a deliberate splash of color against the cold landscape and the people who inhabited it.  Clan Wren seems to have a very muted aesthetic - the emblems are the same, but there’s hardly any color there.  Sabine’s mother is the exception, but the gold in her armor is an accent, and darker, dull.  Sabine’s armor is splattered with color, right down to her gloves, and all of it is bright and loud.

Sabine’s brother takes this to an extreme, though unwillingly.  Instead of wearing his house emblems, he wears the armor of imperial super commandos, enforcing the conformity encouraged by the empire.  His is the fate that Sabine would have faced had she remained with her family or continued to serve the empire.  Her colorful armor, her non-regulation hair, her quick wit and her compassion buried under mass-produced plates.

Sabine had to leave, not just her family but her cultural sphere, in order to survive both physically and emotionally.  She had to leave, and learn to grow somewhere else, had to heal somewhere else before she could return to her home and her people.

Mandalore is suffering; it has been since before the clone wars and will continue to do so without revolution.  Their warrior ethos is central to their culture, but it had killed their planet and nearly killed them.  But identity is powerful and important, and they weren’t able to let it go.  The political manuverings of outsiders and greed both within and without destroyed any hope of transformation or synthesis and the wounds remain raw.

If Mandalore is going to survive, it needs something new to grow from within.

Sabine, who hasn’t forgotten Mandalore’s traditions, who carries her culture as literal armor, whose art has revolutionary inspirations melded with historical symbols - she can be the necessary change.  Or she can inspire it.

Sabine’s mother has said several interesting things concerning the darksaber and how it is used to determine succession.  First she implied that Sabine couldn’t be its true master without having defeated Maul, and underlined again the danger of possessing it at all.  Then she simply tossed it to Gar Saxon like a common blaster and not the most powerful symbol in Mandalorian culture.

Ursa Wren is framed immediately as a political creature, so she could have any number of reasons for acting as she did.  Its likely that her conversation with Sabine was meant to scare her daughter off of a dangerous course.  Ursa is making an attempt to hold together the political power of a clan that is absolutely hemoraging influence.  Power is strength on Mandalore, and strength is safety, which seems to be in short supply for her family, with a daughter branded a traitor and on the run, a political hostage husband, and a military hostage son. 

She may have even been mostly telling the truth, believing she was saving her daughter by giving up the Darksaber without providing Saxon any meaningful victory.  If the Darksaber really is meaningless without having defeated its previous holder in combat, then Saxon won’t be any more powerful that he already was - which, as a governor and military leader, was an already substantial amount.

But in Legacy of Mandalore, Sabine does defeat the weilder of the Darksaber - she stands over a defeated Saxon in a deliberate visual echo of Anakin standing over a defeated Count Dooku, two lightsabers held crossed beneath the enemy’s chin.  She didn’t kill Saxon though that would have been permitted or even expected in a struggle for the Darksaber (and subsequently gave me my most recent heart attack since the end of mag7), but it was clear that she absolutely crushed him.  With the Force Suite playing in the background through parts of the battle, I feel like there are some implications we can explore.

Sabine had, by the end of the episode, decided to stay with her family.  This will be a difficult transition for her, not only reliving old traumas but also doing so without the support of her found family among the ghost crew.  Hera and Kanan seemed much more concerned about her mental and emotional wellbeing than her biological family, who are clearly in survival mode themselves.  She believes her place is with her clan, doing what she can to find whoever is meant to unite Mandalore and free it from the empire.  She doesn’t believe that person is her.

As I said early on in this ramble, Rebels is a story about growth.  In the beginning of the series, Sabine wouldn’t have been able to unite anyone.  She was still hurting, though in a way that we the viewers could not always perceive.  But we did see her heal an old friendship, develop new ones, and secure powerful allies for the fledgling rebellion.  Now she’s functionally rescued her clan for the moment, soundly defeating the hand-picked imperial lapdog (though mom helped).  She has the respect again of her clan.  Her exile is at an end, though it has changed her.  She’s a warrior in her own right, not just a troublemaker on the run.  So what would it take for her to unite Mandalore?

She has to symbolically and publicly win the Darksaber.  Again.

She could do this by defeating Maul, though he’s probably one of the most dangerous people in the universe and going after him without the force is foolish and probably deadly.  But it would be poetic and I want to see someone put him in his place.  His dance with Obi Wan never seems to go anywhere, and it’s time for someone else to step in and End It.

She could also fight Thrawn.  There’s symmetry there - artist kills art critic - and Thrawn is a likely candidate for putting down rebellious Mandalorians before they can become A Problem.  But he would have to be visibly in charge and impacting the lives of Mandalorians in a meaningful way for it to make any sense.

What I think is likely to happen is that Sabine will start stepping up and organizing.  She’ll use what she learned about putting together a rebellion and whip the Clans into shape to get the empire out of Mandalorian space.  She’ll be so busy leading her own rebellion that she won’t notice that she’s . . . actually the leader.  She’ll grow into the role.  She’ll make mistakes, but she’ll get there.  And the empire, stuck fighting two rebellions united by legendary legacy swords, will be too distracted to put out all the fires.

Sabine is going to wield the Darksaber by right, not default

#sabine wren #star wars rebels #star wars tag #swr tag #swr spoilers #im lvoe her #I love my daughter

[tornrose24]

Only a Voice part 3 (A Moana fan fic AU loosely inspired by the Little Mermaid)

In which Maui has to sacrifice a lot of things if he wants to go back to being a mortal, Tamatoa almost gets to sing when he traps Maui in a deal, and Moana has no clue what she’s about to get herself into.

Then the writer must pay for committing a terrible crime.

This fan fic can also be read under my alternate name HolyMaiden24 at fan fiction.net

First part: http://tornrose24.tumblr.com/post/155221003377/only-a-voice-a-moana-au-fan-fic-loosely-inspired

Second Part: http://tornrose24.tumblr.com/post/155315044717/only-a-voice-part-2-a-moana-au-fan-fic-inspired

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Oh boy.... trust me when I say ‘loosely inspired by the Little Mermaid’ but when I realized what I had to do to Maui in order for this AU to work, I had to look into something important. I like the uniqueness of Maui’s character design, and I admit that I didn’t want to do this to him. I tried my best to look into the history of tattoos in Polynesian culture to see if deliberately removing tattoos or burning them is considered highly offensive, a sign of bad luck, or sacreligious in any way. I still have not found out anything in regards to this, other than it is not acceptable to make your own tattoo identical to another’s. As I may have said before, I want to try to respect the cultures that were represented in the original film because I am aware of how important it is to accurately depict another culture or religion without making a big mistake. Most of Maui’s tattoos are a pretty big give away to his identity and while you can predict what is going to happen with this note in mind, I only want to do this with the knowledge that I am not commiting a serious offense. Please let me know and I can try to find a way to work around this if what happens is not acceptable in the Polynesian culture.

Chapter 3: A devil in all his splendor

“Well for starters I’d like to know why you decided to stalk me like an unwanted fan.” Maui demanded as he tightened his grip on his fish hook. This earned him the rather enjoyable sight of Tamatoa flinching back in shocked offense. The crab quickly recovered as he rolled his his eyes and moved forward. “Oh please, like I’d want to do that when I got other things to look into that are more important.” “If you’re just here to torment me, I’ll let you know that its working on a scale of how annoying it is.” Maui slowly raised up the fish hook and began tapping it against the palm of his free hand. “So why don’t you go back to Lalotai and leave before I’m tempted to do something we’ll both regret.” “Well if the hero of mortals isn’t the same as he used to be and he’s acting like he’s about to turn his back on the people he adores, then of course I’d be curious!” The giant crab scoffed. “The way you were going, it’s like you want to renounce your status as a demi-god and–” Tamatoa stoped at this as a thought struck him. “Wait... wait a minute...” A smile was slowly creeping up on his face. “You want to stop helping the humans–” He was trying his hardest to supress a laugh– “and go back to being one?! Is that it?!” When Maui did not deny this in any way and took too long to do so (a big mistake in itself), the crab let out a “Pffft- HA!” and proceeded to let out a series of roaring laughs. “AH, HA, HA, HA, HA!” He was struggling to breathe and lowered himself as he tried to hold onto something but failed and ended up pounding one of his claws against the sand. Each pound sent a tremor through the ground as well as send sand flying up and Maui could barely keep his footing on the ground. Each pound felt like he was about to topple over at any moment if he couldn’t keep still. “AH, HA, HA, HA, HA! OH G- HA, HA, HA, HA! THAT HAS TO BE THE FUNNIEST THING I’VE EVER HEARD! OH GODS, I CAN’T BREATHE!” Tamatoa was already during a dark shade of red and purple as he struggled to get his breath. “HA, HA- ah ha, ah haaaaaaaahhhh!” The last laugh was drawn out as a cross between a laugh and a wheeze. An uncomfortable Maui waited patiently for the crab to recover and once that happened, Tamatoa was still trying to get some air and he looked like he was about to cry because he had laughed that hard. “No seriously, you actually want to go back to being like the ones you tossed you into the ocean like a rock?! The very same things that you’ve tried so hard to win the love of that you can’t get enough of?!” He snorted. “Maybe you did hit your head on a rock.”
Maui wanted to deny it and yet he couldn’t after being put on the spot like this. Worse yet, Tamatoa could see what his answer was through the long silence alone and he had a way with tearing into one’s insecuriities that Maui was not fond of. “You know it’s words like those that caused me to lash out and take that leg off.” Maui growled. “I miss the old days, but you had to keep getting into people’s heads and making them feel like they were nothing!” This caused all humor to vanish from Tamatoa’s features as his eyes narrowed at Maui. “At least I’m not the one who could risk going to extremes just to win everyone’s approval!” The crab growled in a low voice as his head moved towards Maui and his crooked teeth were bared out. “Whose to say that the next thing you try to do for them will either end in you dying or the whole world collapsing in on itself?!” The two stared each other down and there was no telling who would make the first strike. Finally Tamatoa moved back as his voice raised back to its natural pitch. “Funny thing is that I do know a way to turn someone into a mortal.” He casually smirked like he wasn’t angry at Maui just mere seconds ago. “Of course it’ll cost you, but hey, why keep up this hero act if it causes you so much emotional damage? And who knows what you’ll do to try to earn proper adoration from someone who won’t die in under one hundred years?” He made to turn away and head back into the sea before adding something as an after thought. “I mean it’d probably be much easier to find what you seek as a mortal. Besides, isn’t watching all those precious mortal children who adore you die off from old age getting to be a bit too much for your mental health?” Tamatoa then turned back to the sea. “You know where to find me when you made up your mind, Maui.” He almost sang as he crawled into the waters and sank into its dark depths. Maui stared at the spot where Tamatoa had been before he sighed and sat back down. He felt Mini Maui try to catch his attention and when he looked down he could see the tattoo was shaking his head with a worried frown on his face. “You don’t think I should take up his offer?” He asked. The tattoo pointed to the people that were also on his skin as well as the monsters. He was trying to remind his host of his responsibilities but it wasn’t working. “Yeah, I know, but someone will have to eventually replace me, right?” He asked as he let out another sigh and held his face in his hands. “I hate to admit this, but he’s right; I can’t keep doing this forever. And I don’t want to put the ocean in jeporady if I try to make every mortal immortal. I’d totally do it, you know.” He warned. “That would be the ultimate gift I could ever give to humanity.” He weighed his options carefully; whatever he would chose would have some sort of consequence in the future. He didn’t trust Tamatoa, but the selfish part of him that he tried to supress for the sake of everyone else was giving into temptation. It took him a few hours to think things over for a bit until finally he came to a decision. Without so much as looking back, he headed to the ocean where he transformed into a shark and headed to Lalotai.

“So you actually came.” Tamatoa smirked as he turned around. “I’m almost suprised at you Maui, but hey i’s your choice and lifestyle, not mine.” He looked down at the demi-god who had entered his large (and beautiful) home in Lalotai and who only momentarily eyed the treasures within. Tamatoa’s possessive nature over his treasures almost took over when he saw this and was about to give out a warning before Maui glanced back at the crab. “Let’s just get this over with before I realize what I’m doing.” Maui began as he walked towards the crab with his hook over his shoulder. Tamatoa was secretly delighted; he knew that this plan would work in his favor either way, but if there was a way to get back at Maui or even humiliate him in the process, then it was even better. “I admit that in the past that I’ve been a nasty,” Tamatoa’s voice changed as it sounded like he was about to sing. “What with insulting you and giving you some heck, but as a favor to a friend, and a hand-er-claw to lend, I can-” “Please no singing.” Maui grimaced. The last thing he needed was to turn this ordeal into some ridiculous musical number, which, no thank you, by the way. No really, he did not want any singing involved. Tamatoa frowned in annoyance. “And suppose there is someone out there who wants to hear me-” “NO SINGING!” Maui yelled in frusteration as he pointed his hook at the crab. “I swear I’m going to head right back if you do!” “WELL FINE!” Tamatoa snapped right back as he sighed, went to get what he was going to use, and began to grumble. “Stupid... ugh... doesn’t like my singing...” He found the huge oyster shell and set it on the ground near Maui. The shell itself was tall enough to almost reach the demi-god’s knees. “His loss.” Tamatoa scowled as he grabbed a few strange things like seaweed, some sort of bone, bright blue fragments of a rare type of coral, and a few other things that Maui did not want to recognize, before tossing them in the shell. Maui almost flinched when the giant crab started crushing them up with the end of his giant claw before reaching over to grab a rare species of eel that was alive and thrashing for its life in his grip. When Tamatoa held it over the shell, Maui closed his eyes before he could actually see the crab snapping the thing in two and did who knew what else to it before tossing that all in too. “Ok, now here’s how this will work.” Tamatoa said in an almost too eager tone. Maui opened his eyes to see the crab giving him another toothy grin as he rested against the ground behind the large shell and he himself cautiously approached it as he rested his hook over his shoulder again. “So as you are already aware, you will lose your immortality and your enhanced strength when you get turned into a mortal.” Tamatoa started. “Now this dosage will be just enough to turn you into a mortal but its only going to last for about three weeks at most.” “But–” He smirked and stopped Maui before he could ask any questions “–in order for you to become fully human and make the change permanent, you have to prove that you would be welcomed as one and have a place in the world of mortals. You have to find and make a good connection with a mortal who appreciates you for who you are rather than what you are. Basically being like a hero or a Chief would mean ziltch, so status alone isn’t going to make the cut. Yeah, good luck with that one.” The crab quietly scoffed that last one to himself before continuing. “Anyway this one mortal must not only have to want you as part of their life, but they have to actually say something along those lines or show a gesture that proves just as much before the sun sets on the last day. And they actually have to mean it with all their heart.” He added. “It can’t be some sort of on the fly thing or out of infatuation. And again, they have to appreciate you for who you are and not what you are, so that’s going to be important too.” “That’s not going to be difficult.” Maui couldn’t help but smirk. “What, it couldn’t be to get someone to kiss me or find someone to get married to? It’s not that hard to get someone to like me, you know.” Maui immediately regretted saying this when he saw the look on Tamatoa’s face. It was the look of someone who knew something that he didn’t and it was not going to be pleasant for the listener. “Well, maybe it would, but I didn’t say it was going to be easy, mon ami.” Tamatoa gave him another grin as he waved a claw in the air. “And this is where I’m interested in getting involved in this matter.” “What, you want something like this?” Maui smugly pulled the necklace off one of the binds that was attatched to the leaves that he wore and he held it up. The crab eyed the necklace hungrily but he shook his head with that grin still on his face. “Oh no, payment in treasure isn’t the problem but I’ll gladly accept it as the entrance fee.” Maui took that as the cue to just throw the necklace to the side since he no longer had any use for it. “No, you have to give up three more things during this trial period because they also make up a part of what you are to the mortals. First,” Tamatoa tapped a claw against the ground “You can’t use your magical fish hook to transform, nor would you be able to use it if you tried. Second,” He tapped the ground again “You have to give up almost all those tattoos that the gods gave to you.” “WHAT?!” Maui dropped his hook as his eyes widdened in shock at this requirement. He felt almost every inch of his body crawling and sqwirming as all the tattoos protested against this. He couldn’t even dare bring himself to look down and see how offended or betrayed they would be at this news. “Those precious tattoos make up a part of your current identity, Maui.” Tamatoa merely shrugged. “Someone would immediately figure you out if those stayed on you. This will help you out with that, but I can’t guarantee its going to be as comfortable as when you got them in the first place.”
Maui was very concerned about that part. “You don’t think the gods would take offense to that, do you?” He asked nervously. “I wouldn’t just be throwing their gifts away like an unsatisified kid who didn’t get what he wanted.” “Well you didn’t have much control over which ones you got, did you Maui?” Tamatoa countered. “Including the one on your back that you always try to hide? The one of ‘dear ol’ mum’ tossing you into the ocean?” That struck a nerve in Maui; that was the one tattoo he would be willing to get rid of, but  was he willing to go even further with this? What could be worse than losing the tattoos? “Ok, fair enough.” Maui admitted with a nonchalant shrug as he tried to hide his discomfort. “Now what’s the final thing I got to give up?” And please don’t say something like my hair. He mentally added. “Oh, nothing much, just one simple thing.” Tamatoa waved his claw in the air as if this wasn’t a big deal. “You have to give up your voice.” That made Maui hesitate. Did he hear Tamatoa correctly? “Wait a minute, what was that again?” “You, give me, your voice.” “Ok, first off,” Maui held his hands up in protest “That’s going to make things way too difficult for me! How the heck can I make a connection with a mortal if I can’t talk to them?! Second- why do you need my voice?! What, are you finally getting tired of listening to your own?!”
Tamatoa’s eyes started twitching as he fought the urge to just kill Maui. “My voice is far superior to many other voices in the world, thank you very much!” He hissed. “And I’ll give it back if by some miracle you manage to succeed since I don’t have a use for it!” “Besides, it’s not as beautiful as mine, of course.” He added in a vain tone as he relaxed somewhat. “Plus I’m sure you won’t need it too much. You got other ways to impress someone, right? Or have you been so dependant on all those things to make them your entire identity? Are you really Maui if you don’t have your hook on you?”
Now caught up by the challenge and because he himself was not one to turn down said challenge, Maui pointed at the crab and snapped “I bet I could, crab cakes! I’ll brefriend someone, get my voice back from you, prove you wrong, and I’ll laugh about it for days when its all over!” Tamatoa chuckled. “You’re really that confident about this, Maui?” He turned around to look at his treasures before finding something and picked it up with his claw. “Ok, then I’ll add something to counter your funny little bet. If you win, you get your voice back and maybe more depending on how things go. If I win,” Tamatoa held up what looked like a necklace made with abolone shell fragments, pearls, and a dark purple sea shell at the very end that had flecks of gold embedded onto its surface “I get to take something of yours that you hold dear.” He warned in that sinister tone of voice that he took on when the mood suited him and for one moment it sounded as if he sang those exact words. “And I will be thinking about it the whole time you are up there doing who knows what.” As Maui stood there in silence, Tamatoa noticed that the concotion in the shell was starting to smoke. “Oh, look at that!” His voice took on an abrupt cheerful tone as if he didn’t sound like he was threatening Maui to begin with. “Looks like you’d better drink it before it goes sour!” Maui shut his eyes as he felt his tattoos try one last time to plead to him to not do this. It was now or never and there would probably never be another chance to try this out again. Except he would need to win the challenge if Tamatoa was going to steal any part of him that could be a danger if used incorrectly. Could he be able to do this if he was robbed of most of his identity? His voice? “Go ahead, make your choice.” Oh gods, was Tamatoa singing? He didn’t care anymore. Don’t do this! He could almost hear the tattoos plead. Who will protect the humans if you can’t?” “I’m a pretty busy person and I haven’t got all day!” His mind flashed back to that little girl who had been afraid of going blind but was still able to function with a smile despite the terror she had to go through. She was able to deal with the kakamora without her sight for a brief time and met him without knowing it before she got her sight back, so perhaps he could be the same as her. “If you want to cross a bridge my friend, you got to pay the toll!” Only without a voice. He proceeded to go up to the shell (against the protests of the tattoos), knelt beside it, and quickly scooped up his hands into the liquid within. Even though it was burning his hands, Maui didn’t stop as he quickly brought the liquid to his mouth and took a big drink of the foul tasting stuff. He continued to try to drink as much of the concoction as he could against the protests within and outside of his body until finally it was like something was thrashing inside his stomach. Then it felt like something was trying to force it’s way out of his innards by stabing him repeatedly from within. He let out a strangled sound and he grabbed his mouth with one hand as he crawled away from the shell. Something was steadily rising up inside him and then began to attack his throat; he almost wanted to cry as he felt himself choking on whatever was inside his throat but he dared not until he finally let out a scream that died out before it could even come when he heaved and vomited up a small, pale green orb that shone like a pearl. As Maui panted to try to catch his breath and try to clear his head while his stomach still felt like it was being attacked, the orb was carefully scooped up into the opened shell of the necklace in a delighted Tamatoa’s grasp. “Huh, I guess that made you the oyster then.” Tamatoa couldn’t help but comment. “Got to love the symbolism going on here.” “Oh, and the transaction is almost complete.” Tamatoa hissed and his grin widdened as he carefully closed up the shell with one claw while the other carefully held onto the necklace so that nothing would break. After carefully putting the necklace on his shell, he grabbed the shell on the ground and procceded to splash the rest of it’s contents over Maui before setting it back down. Maui’s panting became louder as he looked up at Tamatoa with pained eyes as parts of his flesh began to feel itchy from the neck down. He opened his mouth in an attempt to give the creature a few choice words before he felt as if he was begining to burn up as the heat inside him went up. Then the sensation got so intense that it felt as if he had been tossed into the heart of the fire that he once stole for the sake of men and it changed from his skin itching to outright burning in agony. It was so unbearable that he collapsed to the ground and couldn’t help but writhe on the ground as he let out screams that never came out. He felt himself already regretting the choice he had made. He had no clue what was happening to him right now, but he couldn’t think straight. He even began to tear his own fingernails through his flesh in protest against the fire that wasn’t there and yet felt as if it was there to begin with. Certain parts of his body were being spared from this unbearable illusion but even that wasn’t a relief as he felt a weariness take over and drain him of his strength as well as his will power. There were very few times where he wished he could just die and this was one of those times. He was almost convinced that he got his wish as his eyes gazed at the top of the lair and the hole where the water was right above them all and his world darkened to sweet oblivion. His last thought was a prayer to be tossed into the water and for this invisible fire to stop hurting him.

That... that was not a sight he wanted to see ever again. Yes, he could have a sadistic side now and then, but what he just saw happened to his former friend was not as enjoyable as he initially thought it would be. Maui–the legendary hero in all of the southern seas– was laying face up in the sands of his home and was now trapped in the body of a mortal man. A body that was missing almost all the original tattoos except for some that had been altered to the point of being unrecognizeable. Some were on part of the left side of his chest and most of his left shoulder and upper arm. There were some noticeable tattoos on his legs that also appeared to have been changed as well, but not to the extent as the ones that were left on his upper body. The rest of the body, however, had quite a few nasty looking scars or patches of red, irratated flesh, as if he had been burnt on the places where some of the tattoos used to be. No, it was more like most of those tattoos had been burned away. It even looked like that was what had happened when Tamatoa was watching the change and it was not a pleasant sight to behold. Perhaps that was the punishment that Maui worried about. In removing the tattoos given to him by the gods, they were replaced with scars that served as proof of what he had done. It was probably going to be another hinderance in his attempt to stay mortal since it didn’t make him look that attractive to the eye. Oh well, his loss. “You poor unfortunate soul.” Tamatoa picked up Maui and he could feel just how mortal he really was. One strong squeeze would be all that he would need to just kill him, but there was no fun in that. “You’re going to regret what you did, old friend.” Tamatoa smirked at the still asleep demi-god who was now currently a mortal. “You are lucky I don’t want to kill you right now.” Before he knew it, he felt something come splashing down upon his face. He flinched back with a startled cry and let go of Maui before backing away as far as he could and shook his head. “What the–?!” He looked up in time to see a pillar of water come out of the hole in his home. It came down upon Maui and sucked him up right into it before taking him out of the cave and up into the ocean above. Tamatoa was transfixed by the sight until the water rose back up and completely vanished from the cave. “What was–?” He tried to comprehend what just happened until he realized something he didn’t consider. “Oh.” He gulped as a feeling of dread came over him; the ocean was said to be alive, which meant that if it was not aware what had just transpired, then someone else had to have known about it. If one of the gods knew what happened, he was probably going to get in as much hot water as Maui would, if not worse. “Then again, they can’t really do anything about it since its already too late.” He shook the concern off as he turned to the abandoned fish hook. “I’m not trying to do anything that’ll cause harm to the world and besides,” He picked up the fish hook in one claw and  he grabbed the purple shelled necklace that contained Maui’s voice off his back in his other claw “I’d like to see if Maui thinks he can get away with pretending to be a mortal before something happens to him.” His grin was so horrific that it would give one nightmares. “There’s no telling what could happen.” He added as he examined both objects. And anyway, even if Maui didn’t have to worry about the consequences of his actions or the enemies he had made as a demi-god, then who in all of the southern seas could even come close to tolerating him as he was now?

“You seem distracted.” “Huh?” Moana looked up from weaving the basket to look at her mother who was giving her a patient smile as she also worked on a basket alongside a few women and girls. “The pattern doesn’t look that well bounded together.” She pointed to the basket Moana was working on. Moana looked down and saw that at some point her weaving became quite uneven and there were a few holes that were too big to make the appearance of the basket look visually appealing or even passable as a proper basket. “Oh,” Moana sighed in disapointment as she stopped and examined the basket. “I suppose I did.” “Perhaps you need to clear your mind for a bit.” Sina suggested. “Its possible to get too lost in thought during a task.” “Maybe I shouldn’t.” Moana frowned as she examined her mother’s own basket. Sina started the basket at the beggining of the day and already everyone else was about to finish their own, while her’s was about half way done. Sina also looked a little worn out for some strange reason, as if she did not get enough sleep the night before. “I don’t want to abandon you when I’m not even done yet.” “It’s fine, Moana.” Sina shook her head. “You’ll be very busy soon, so take a moment to enjoy some time off.” “You won’t be able to finish before the sun reaches the highest point in the sky. Are you sure you don’t–?” “I appreciate your concern, but please go and have some time to yourself.” Sina politely declined before looking up at the sky. “And please behave yourself!” She reminded the glowing orb up in the sky as she pointed a finger at it. “Didn’t you learn your lesson the last time?!” Moana laughed as she set her basket aside and walked away. Pua noticed that she was leaving and, believing that she was done, he followed her. Moana hummed a song as she walked away from the village and checked her surroundings while Pua trotted beside her. She picked up a stick and pretended that the kakamora (she learned what sort of creatures they were from Grandma Tala) were about ready to tackle her but she swated them away as swiftly as she could. True, she still needed to work on her accuracy, but she was convinced that she was getting better. When she had gotten so far away from the village that no one would have seen her, Mona realized something when she looked at her surroundings. “I’m alone!” She grinned. No one had known exactly where she had gone off to and now she could head towards the ocean. She quickly picked up Pua and hurried off towards one of the many shorelines, where she dared not make a sound until she knew that she was completely alone. With a delighted laugh, she set Pua on the ground and began to sing as she ran ankle deep through the water to her heart’s content when she got close enough. Fulfilling the urge to enjoy this forbidden delight felt more satisfying than anything she could imagine. She bent over to place her hands in the water and felt it surge between her fingers as she also ran through it. She was proud to be next in line as the Cheif of her people, and she adored her village and its people, but if Moana would be able to have the ocean in her life, then she was sure that her life could be completely content. When she saw an abandoned fishing canoe that was not so far away, she let out a delighted gasp and hurried towards it. “Oh my gosh!” She knelt beside it and ran her hands across it’s surface and enjoyed the slightly worn down texture of the wood against her fingertips. She pressed her nose against it and she could smell the salty sea infused within the wood. “I am going to ride something like you one of these days!” Moana told the boat. It wasn’t as marvelous as the other boat she had once found some time ago, but this one was still a good looking boat. “Or maybe I’ll take you out today?” Moana grinned mischievously.
As she thought about this, Pua noticed that Heihei had somehow gotten this far away from the village as well. In fact, the rooster was pecking at something on top of a small cliff in the distance before walking forward and falling right off it with a loud cry. He let out a snort; the bird creeped him out sometimes, but his stupidness balanced it out in a weird way. Still he had to make sure that Heihei didn’t finally snap his neck in half so he headed on over as fast as he could while his human friend admired the boat. Pua slowed his pace when he made it to the cliffside and walked around to find a spot of sand and stones and Heihei, who had miraculously survived. In fact he was already pecking at a head with dark hair that was so wild looking that would put many other heads to shame. Wait a minute. A head of dark hair? Pua looked again and realized that Heihei was pecking at the head of a man who was laying on his stomache in the sand. A large bodied man (bigger than any human Pua had ever seen) who looked unconcious but was clearly breathing. He quickly shot off and let out a loud series of squeals to alert Moana. Moana herself had managed to get the boat into the water, get on it, and just as she was about to grab the oar, she heard Pua squealing. She turned around to see him call to her and she could sense that something was wrong by the way he was frantically running around in circles. Alarmed by this, Moana jumped off the boat and was almost knee deep in water, but she ignored how wet her skirt got from this as she ran towards Pua, who lead her towards the small cliffside. “Pua?! Pua what’s wrong?!” She called. Unknown to her, the ocean itself was carefully watching what she was doing. It had watched many people before the young child, including her own grandmother who loved to dance in it. It had been watching this girl for as long as she first swam in it and due to certain circumstances it had been watching her ever since. Watching her try so desperately to go back to it, talk to it, and forced to sacrifice her chances to go to it, whether it be for a family reason or out of compassion for others. The ocean was able to do one thing for the girl this time, even though it would come at a serious risk for her and her people. No matter how much either of them changed over the years (quite drastically in one case), it was time for Moana to finally see the face of the one who had saved her life those many years ago.

I’m a jerk and so is Tamatoa. It’s fun to be a sadistic jerk through characters like Tamatoa, isn’t it? :D No seriously, its fun to write someone who can be really mean once in awhile. That’s one of the things that makes writing enjoyable. I thought he could be just antagonistic instead of outright evil, but we will see how things go and if that can even be possible. I was nervous about the removal of the tattoos, since- well, you proably saw my note at the beginning, didn’t you? Granted, I don’t think all of them would come off or leave scars behind. What was left behind was drastically altered on purpose because I heard that you can’t copy another’s tattoo in the Polynesian culture for your own (and I admit I was a little inspired by Dwayne Johnson’s tattoos, but its not going to be exactly like his for that same reason). I also did it because... well, if you look at the Art of Moana book and see how many tattoos are actually on Maui’s legs, you also see how far they extend upward... Uh, yeah let’s just leave it at that. I think I did Maui a big favor by not getting rid of those tattoos. “But will this be permanent?” you ask in concern? Uh.... I can’t spoil anything right now. I gave Maui three weeks to be fair instead of three days. (Three days just to get someone to kiss you through true love, Disney? Yeah, THAT’S the kind of message you want to send to kids *sarcasm*.) And as you can tell, I made it so that it is possible to make it so that a platonic relationship can be used to make the spell permanent (IF it happens, of course) instead of ‘Oh just kiss her/get him to marry you.’ Oh.... uh, about the Poor Unfortunate Soul bit not working out... I couldn’t think up any decent lyrics beyond what I gave you and it was hard to come up with good rhymes for it. That’s why I had to cut it short and-

“YOU WHAT?!” The writer looked up from her laptop to see one large and very angry (and very sparkly) crusteacean in front of her. “Wh-?” The writer’s jaw dropped. “What–?! WHAT?!” She threw her hands out at the crab. “HOW?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!” “I DEMAND YOU GO BACK AND FIX THAT!” Tamatoa yelled almost right in her face. “DO I LOOK LIKE I’M HOWARD ASHMAN OR LIN MANUEL MIRANDA TO YOU?!” The writer yelled back. “AND HOW IN THE HECK DID YOU BREAK THE FOURTH WALL?! I THOUGHT I LEFT THAT GAG BEHIND IN MY ZELDA FAN FICS!” “Watch it, sweetheart.” Tamatoa growled. “I’ve heard that some pretty nasty things had happened to you whenever you made cameos in your own stories. You really want to tempt that?” The writer went silent for a moment. “Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me!” She pressed a button on her laptop. One of the pirate ships from the Peter Pan ride at Disney Land appeared and she quickly got on it (with laptop in hand). “LATERS!” She yelled as the ship sped off. “GET BACK HERE!” “NOT WHEN YOU’RE THREATENING TO KILL ME, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”

#disney's moana #moana fan fic #little mermaid au #moana #maui #tamatoa #tamatoa tried to sing 'poor unfortunate souls' #he gets stopped #poor unfortunate souls #possible trigger for someone getting burned #its not shown but its implied to be similar

[centrepieceart-blog]

Art History

For this process of researching art as it evolved, influencing architecture and graphic design, I decided to analyse two artists of these decades to contrast their work and delve into their historical implications.

Clyfford Still

1930s – 1980s Abstract Expressionism

California, Virginia, New York

Historical Background

Clyfford Still is known for being a pioneer of the Abstract Expressionism art movement, developed after World War II by Still and his contemporaries, such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Despite this legacy, Still never considered his work to be associated with this movement and was sensitive to his work and how others interpreted it.  He believed that no other individual could fully understand his paintings expect himself, hence his reluctance to sell and display his work. For many artists it is about finding any exhibition space to display your work, however for Still it had to meet different requirements for himself to be satisfied. This included his work being displayed solely, with no other artists alongside his work. Although these facts may paint Still as a bitter man, it highlights his love for his art, as well as his perfectionist nature. This nature is difficult to detect within his work, due to the chaos conveyed upon the canvas. However, most of compositions were planned, each mark was added to contribute to the outcome, Still believed each brushstroke was very deliberate. "Each painting is an episode in a personal history, an entry in a journal," Still required his work to be displayed together and never separated as he felt that his atmosphere and feeling of his painting would not be successfully conveyed within each present form. Each painting does not contain its own narrative; each painting contributes to the concluded outcome. It is further apparent of this significance for Still based on his naming titles for his works which often featured characters and numbers to organize his works.

The time period of the Abstract Expressionism art movement was developed a few years after World War II, and thus was an extremely difficult time for some, due to struggles which occurred during the conflict. These events within our history directly inspired and influenced Abstract Expressionists including Still. Within this movement, painting often depicted struggles, life and death, within their visual context due to their significance during this time. In contrast to this, hope and positivity were also being adopted by some due to the end of something which was horrific, offering a new fresh start at life. Still was inspired by both spectrums, relating more to struggles due to the lasting effects of war. In 1948-C (1948) his work showcases a mature application of his ‘abstract expressionism’ style with contrasting colours of lights and darks within its composition. His light yellow subject and dark black subject represent life and death, present together instead of apart. "Life and death merging in fearful union." The painting also highlights a characteristic of Still’s later works during the later 40s, in regards to his choice of colour which dominates the majority of the canvas, in this case it is yellow, an extremely warm colour. This indicates that there are happier occurrences within the world despite the rough visual division of the canvas. Black only cracks through in small areas, to suggest a disruption in life, perhaps a death, or other negative outcome.

Clyfford Still - 1948-C (1948)

Influence/Inspiration

Although Still believed his style of work is original and his own, it is inevitable that different aspects of art history influenced and shaped his form of painting. Still was known for establishing the Abstract Expressionism movement, however he did not believe this to be true. His painting did follow an abstract expression style and thus are associated with this movement within art history, despite disregarding himself it is apparent for his work that Still was an essential part of movement in regards to conceptualising and contributing to the movement. His journey to developing and adopting his later expressive nature began with influence of other artistic movements including Cubism and Surrealism. In Untitled (1935), Still’s painting interprets the human head and hand in a linear fashion, almost extinct from its previous form. Untitled (Indian Houses at Nespelem), 1937 however, follows a more Regionalism style to his outcome for its glooming, rural scene. It interesting that Still is perhaps known famously for his abstract expressionist work, yet his exploration and works expand into other movements before this. This showcases his range as an artist as he did not limit himself to a particular style during his early, explorative stage, however slowly but surely he settled with the abstraction expressionist style. Still was also inspired by a range of artistic during his artistic journey, ranging from Pablo Picasso to William Blake. However, Paul Cézanne is an artist who has appeared to inspired him during his early work, and continued to later abstract expressive works. When contrasting Clyfford Still, Untitled 1935 and Paul Cézanne, The Boy with a Skull 1898, they appear to be visually different in terms of style. In that Still follows a surreal approach compared to Cézanne’s realistic outcome. However, when contrasting colours and compositions, the two begin to become noticeable similar. Their facing positions are alike, in addition to their use of warmer colours for the subject and foreground, and cooler within the background. It is clear that Cézanne has influenced Still in this piece.

Clyfford Still - Untitled (Indian Houses at Nespelem) (1937)

Paul Cézanne - The Boy with a Skull (1898)

Clyfford Still - Untitled (1935)

Significant or Important Features

With Still and many other contributors of the Abstract Expressionism, they each share different attributes with each other despite being visually different. A common feature which is often expected within an Abstract Expressionism piece relates to movements. Although this is true for many of Still’s contemporaries, Still did not follow a process of physically reacting with his canvas, however his application of paint often suggested a sense of motion due to the thick range of marks found, as well as his compositions which often directed viewers’ eyes based on colour, contrast and areas of thicker or sparser paint. There is not a single focal point within most abstract expressive painting, and it is via an artistic technique that viewers’ eyes are directed.

The idea behind the abstraction expressionism art movement is to enable artists to produce abstract works with no limitations to how this is achieved. This meant that this movement removed rules often found within traditional art, and allowed any tool to be used as a ‘paintbrush’. Therefore, works are often understood by viewers based on the motion they captured as opposed to their actual subject matter. This is especially true with works by Pollock, however Still’s work could still be viewed and interpreted in relation to its sense of movement, due to his limited amount of inclusion of expressive and motion during production. It’s true that Still wanted his work to be experienced as opposed to being viewed, hence his need for works to be displayed together. As well as this, scale is another important feature of Abstract Expressionism which contributed to users experiencing work and not seeing it. If a work is larger, then viewers can be greater immerged into a painting, this is especially true for Still, whom required his series of painting to exhibited together leading to a large collection of larger works each sharing the same artist. This would obviously have a much larger impact on its audience oppose to a single painting.

Working Methodology/Process

Within the Abstract Expressionism movement each artist created their outcome via a different method to each other. Although they are each different visually, they often share different attributes in terms of their application of painting, as well as physical properties such as scale. Still was known for using a trowel or palette knife within his outcomes, using a thick application of paint, plastering large areas of paint on his canvas, in contrast to his lighter, sparser areas. Still also used more traditional tools such as brushes at times; however, they were not essential for the production of his painting. Unlike his contemporaries, Still was unique in that he prepared his own pigments to be used within his paintings. This idea further suggests how important Still’s work was to himself, as he applied himself to each aspect of the painting’s production. His technique for applying paint followed a jagged application, and often used uneven and imperfect ground to apply his paint to. This contributed to the outcomes overall texture, and the rough nature of his work. Once completing a work, Still would varnish his outcome to prevent it from becoming “too dry.’ I feel that his act was a way for Still to tell himself when his work was completed, to close off a project.

Personal Evaluation

I was personally interested with Still’s work based on his dynamic compositions which I found represented old, decayed, textured surfaces. I enjoy his use of bright colours in contrast with darker ones, as well as areas which are left unpainted showcasing the white of the page. However, after my research I found my interpretation and view of his work very different to both Still and other artists. Still did not like others interpreting his work, and this is a view I respect from the artist. I feel that Still was an artist who loved his craft too much, to the point of struggling to share a part of himself with others. This did slowly unravel as he aged, however a number of works have still and never will be seen by the public. This idea is sad, however it also keeps his legacy alive, as it ensures that his interpretations and views remain with him forever.

Juan Gris

1900s – 1920s Cubism

France

Historical Background

Gris was an early adopter of the cubist style, founded by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, however his contribution to this movement allowed him to develop his own visual identify within the style. The Cubism style relates to simplifying a composition into an appearance which captured their vision, known as the first movement of abstraction in modern art, and ultimately one of the most important movements of the 20th century. As an early form of abstract art, Cubism featured both abstract and semi-abstract pieces under its style, which was often deciphered depending on an artist’s chosen theme. In Still Life with Open Window, Rue Ravignan (1915), Gris gathered inspiration from a still life arrangement as the basis for his painting, which can be noticed within his outcome after inspection. The use of still life as a basis for Cubism during its initial stages was common amongst artists, as still life arrangements consisted of objects which are easily recognized once translated and simplified into the Cubist style. The overall appearance of Gris’ painting appears to have a design aspect, similar to that of a poster. The style is truly modern, and is often used in today’s society to inspire graphic designers for its simplistic approach, but dynamic appearance and message. Unlike other examples of Cubist art, Gris followed a level of precision when producing his work focusing on each formal element. In this piece alone it is apparent, based on his transitions of colour and complexity within his foreground compared to his cool, calm background. This complexity suggests the clutter present on the windowsill, as each colour symbolizes memories associated with each object. Perspective is an essential component of fine art pieces; however, cubism does not follow a single pane of perspective. Unlike traditional painting which is designed to a real life viewpoint, cubism promotes implementation of several perspectives within a single outcome. This enables a fuller sense of objects and forms within a scene to be established, showcasing the intricacy of our real life subjects which is often misrepresented in single perspective outcomes.

Influence/Inspiration

As well as contribution to cubism, Gris was also directly inspired by this movement, and thus influence by its founders, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. This is particular visually highlighted with Braque’s Pedestal Table, when compared with Gris’ Guitar and Flowers. Although they do not share similar colours, their overall compositions follow a similar layout. The two outcomes showcase a visual contrast between analytical and synthetic cubism, with Braque’s outcome following an analytical cubism style with a limited palette and monochromic outcome. Gris however, contains a range of colour suggesting a synthetic cubism painting. However, his influence and inspiration enabled him to apply himself to this movement, from which he shaped and evolved the style to further inspire other artists for year to come. In addition to this, Gris was also directly inspired by artists Jean Metzinger and Robert Delaunay. Metzinger was another Cubism artist whom produced a range of pieces which are considered distinct outcomes from the movement. His piece Le Goûter (Tea Time) (1911) is known as “The Mona Lisa of Cubism.” Gris produced an outcome entitled, Portrait of Picasso (1912), inspired by Metzinger’s outcome. Gris’ piece follows a higher level of abstraction as opposed to Metzinger, with distortion within the face of his figure. The colours used are light greys and blues, with a small amount of adoption of Metzinger’s warmers tones within his background. They both share the approach of limited colours, with Metzinger using warm colours compared to Gris’ cool colours. Lastly, Gris displays his Picasso subject in a large fashion within his canvas, suggesting his energy and confidence, compared to Metzinger whom displays their entire subject within their frame, displayed in a stiff aesthetic, relaxed and content. Despite their various differences, their opposites are directly inspired. Metzinger on the other hand, follows a much fluid and real style which is relaxed and distinctive. Delaunay inspired Gris based on his choice of colours used, opting for brighter colours and a similar to palette to complete his abstract style.

Georges Braque - Pedestal Table (1911)

Juan Gris - Guitar and Flowers  (1912)

Jean Metzinger - Tea Time (1911)

Juan Gris - Portrait of Picasso  (1912)

Juan  Gris - Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux (Still Life with Checkered  Tablecloth) (1915)

Robert  Delaunay - Windows Open Simultaneously 1st Part, 3rd Motif (1912)

Significant or Important Features

Gris’ Flowers (1914) was one of his first synthetic cubism outcomes, incorporating newspaper and wallpaper within the final piece. However, each outcome highlights Gris’ transition from analytical to synthetic cubism, in terms of adoption of brighter, as well as a wider range of colours within his outcomes. His works follows a flat aesthetic, yet showcases further form from his imagery via shifting perspective and viewpoint of each object within his paintings. I found particular interest in Gris’ still life paintings which are often complex, and thus full of colour. The technique of Cubism allows dynamic colours and patterns to be applied to a single subject as present on Portrait of Picasso (1912) or a busy scene as showcased in each of his still life outcomes including Flowers (1914) and Still Life Before an Open Window (1915). Gris is believed to be one of the main contributors of the synthetic movement within Cubism, due to his use of colour and mixed media. Although he was not an original founder of Cubism, his dedication and contribution to the movement placed him as an iconic figure within our art history, as well as the title of ‘the third cubist.’

Working Methodology/Process

Gris worked within the analytical cubism style initially, before transiting to synthetic cubism, which consists of a wider range of colour and inclusion of other elements and collage within his works. Many of Gris’ works are directly inspired by still life and thus required his direct observation skills to interpret his vision into art. With Cubism however, this required Gris to communicate and deconstruct objects into simple geometric shapes in order to present them within their most essential form. When considered, this format of art is a lot more complex to compose compared to a traditional painting, as sections have to be divided and coloured appropriately to support the final outcome. The Cubism movement was open in regards to mixed media, and thus Gris used a range of media throughout his career, with oil being his main choice for painting outcomes.

Personal Evaluation

Gris did not live long for the impact he left on the art world, especially the Cubism movement. Without his contribution, many factors of cubism would have been left unexplored, including the expansion of the synthetic style. I researched a range of different individual artists related to the Cubism movement, including its main founders and adopters. However, I found Gris work most relatable. Initially, the Cubism style felt simplistic and lacking clarity when viewed, however, now I understand its beauty and message which it conveys. Gris’ Cubist work drew me to the movement due to his range of contrasting colours, often focusing on palettes from both sides of the spectrum. His work suggested a sense of luxury with his warm dominated paintings, and a relaxed aura with his colder ones. The precision which Gris expected within his work, truly shines through when viewed. Each line is solid and transitions are contrasting, resulting in an aesthetically pleasing outcome. Despite his short life of forty years, it undoubtable that Gris has had an impact on both Cubism as well as art history. In commemoration of his 125th birthday, Google produced a Google Doodle adopting a similar aesthetic to Gris’ work, highlighting his continued admiration from communities to this day.

Google Doodle Commemorating Juan Gris' 125th Birthday (March 23, 2012)

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