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ramblingguy54 · 3 years

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True Colors: An Emotionally Fantastic Serious Game Changer.

If we’re to look back at Reunion as Season 1′s dramatic pay off for Amphibia’s message of toxic friendships, as Anne & Sasha’s conflicting dynamic showed us, then True Colors is a colossal expansive note on this big theme of the series. True Colors makes Season 1′s finale look like a walk in the park for what angst goes down between our three main heroins in Season 2′s climatic resolution. Everything that can go wrong does go oh so painfully wrong for these three kids. Anne, to no one’s surprise, gets double crossed by Sasha leaving things between them a Hell of a lot more bitter than they were previously, as if that couldn’t already be topped when Sasha tried to kill the Plantars before. Anne has had enough of her lies and manipulation not being afraid to tell Sasha straight up how awful of a friend she’s been in general, even hitting her where it hurts most of all saying, “No, I’m done listening to you! I’m done trusting you! You’re a horrible person and I am done being FRIENDS with you!”, going so far as to get a shaken reaction out of Sasha dropping her brave face act, making this girl try to wipe away the frog family.

Right off the bat, True Colors makes it highly evident this isn’t just another story of stopping a bigger threat, but one hitting much closer to home, overall. Yes, King Andrias is certainly a dangerous villain, who makes his presence and intimidating nature known to the others by True Color’s final act, which despite this Amphibia isn’t entirely putting him at the forefront, rather focusing on a more intimate study of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy’s big emotional conflict. This finale knows exactly where to put its focus of importance on, so I love that instead of it being action packed we’re getting the spotlight shined on just how screwed up these three of a friendship have, in spite of Marcy claiming in The Dinner episode, “We’re supposed to be friends for life. We don’t split up!’ . Very ironic stuff right there, indeed.

True Colors’ most powerful strength it adds to Amphibia’s ongoing profound story about healthy friendships is the thorough deconstruction of these girls defined “ideal relationship” as people. Before Anne came to the world of Amphibia this kid was afraid to stand up for what she believed in, even knowing especially well that stealing the calamity box was morally questionable, but did it anyway. Sasha was super manipulative, abusive, and used her power to control people, like she did a lot of toward Anne in their lives. Marcy, while very smart, wasn’t the most competent physically, who soon grew into being more independent without needing to rely on Anne always having to be there for her. These three were changed immensely by the events of being thrust into this world of sentient amphibian creatures. Anne benefited morally most out out of all three in taking up the mantle of responsibility and ironing out her own issues. She’s become a much stronger person all around.

This episode asks us an important question though in nutshell with, “Have Sasha & Marcy truly changed for the better?”, since Anne has reached a point in her arc feeling genuinely content with who she’s become and the bonds that have been made with the Plantar family shown most notably with Sprig Plantar. Hence the whole purpose behind the song, It’s No Big Deal, with Anne feeling proud for who she is, yet not noticing a bigger issue right underneath her nose. That previous episode was meant to bring Anne’s happiness up only to bring it all crashing down in a devastating display of new revelations in True Colors. Every dramatic emotional beat isn’t just earned. Each significant moment is completely knocked out of the park by terrific voice acting, beautiful animation, and music composition that gave me serious emotional goosebumps. True Colors did exactly as Not What He Seems accomplished for Gravity Falls in shaking up its own respective dramatic stakes just when you thought it couldn’t get any higher for these protagonists. Shit seriously hits the fan here.

Did it ever occur to you, Anne? Sasha? That one of you knew more, than she was letting on? That ONE of you might’ve gotten you stranded in Amphibia on purpose...?

The big bombshell twist of Marcy playing a part too in getting them into this whole debacle completely flips everything upside down. Sasha pushed Anne into taking the Calamity Box, yes, but if Marcy never sent that photo because of her desire to stay with them together forever, then they wouldn’t have been stranded in basically a world full of dangerous creatures and who knows what else. Easily my favorite part of the episode, considering it adds more nuance to a situation that defined Amphibia’s story. It wasn’t just one person’s fault at the end of the day. Sasha bullied Anne into taking the box, Anne didn’t put her foot down to make a stand for something morally questionable, and Marcy took advantage of them both to benefit her own selfish desires for supposedly a “happy ending” not involving them staying apart, due to her parents moving away for a new job. All three girls played an important part on why they got landed into Amphiba. It’s why Anne’s statement to King Andrias, “The three of us may have made some mistake, but you...You’re evil and I’m gonna stop you!”, holds such a real weight to it, as this story continues to solidify how genuinely fleshed out their dynamic is.

Marcy’s super desperate plea to be understood by Anne & Sasha when Andrias revealed her getting them thrown into Amphibia purposefully was hard to watch. On one hand, I felt for Marcy because she didn’t want real life circumstances to tear apart that close connection she had to Sasha & Anne. Sure, she could’ve just kept in touch with them over the phone or chatting online, too. However, Marcy had known them since very early childhood. When you’ve been so attached to someone it can be a devastating thing, depending on just how vulnerable you are emotionally, to start drifting apart. Marcy represents that embodiment of toxic need for togetherness and couldn’t bear to let a possibility, like moving away, throw a wrench into her happiness and friendship, as well.

Never mind Marcy wanting to stay permanently in a different reality, rather than face her’s, but it made this person feel like something more. It gave her a chance to feel truly special in being able to live out a fantasy dream of having such power and freedom that a kid, like herself, couldn’t have had. The freedom to know she is plenty capable of making it out there on her own without Anne having to watch this kid like a hawk. So, to have someone, or something, try taking it away from her terrified Marcy of facing a terrible truth. That she isn’t strong enough after all to live a life without Anne & Sasha by her side completely, where Marcy will never feel truly worthy enough to blossom into her own person. It’s why that line, “I just...didn’t want to be alone...”, carries such a deep pain to it all. Marcy just crumbles into pieces accepting her greatest weakness. As much as Marcy fumbled the ball big time, it’s so easy to empathize with her on the idea of feeling competent enough. Marcy never meant to hurt Anne or Sasha, but the sad crushing punchline is she very much did.

Speaking of which, Anne had every right to be upset and mad, obviously. Anne has been missing so many things from her life before everything went off the wall. Hopping Mall especially highlighted Anne’s emotional desire to give anything just to hear her mother’s singing again. This teenager has been really dealing with a lot of grief in general quite honestly. Anne got into a high stakes battle against Sasha to save new friends, who’d practically became like an adopted family, which left the poor girl traumatized and heartbroken over the end result. She thought finding Marcy would help compensate for it and eventually be able to mend those complications with Sasha to boot. It’s simply painful to see it all blow up in Anne’s face to know not only Sasha betrayed her trust yet again, but realizing Marcy also played a part of responsibility in getting them thrown here. Matt Braly really just decided to slap future trust issues onto Anne finding out Hop Pop, Sasha, and Marcy were all super dishonest in their intentions at one point or another. Damn, I feel so bad for her.

It makes their embracing hug back in Marcy At The Gates so much harder to watch. Anne was super glad to see her again. Anne had wondered what became of Marcy or even possibly started to think she could even be alive at all. Then come to find out later on Marcy having intentionally ripped her away from a normal life must’ve felt worse then what happened with Sasha. Anne, already done with all of Sasha’s bullshit, thought she could at least expect better from Marcy not letting her down, but that too wasn’t the case. Marcy is very much as flawed as Sasha in what she has done. To think, Anne wanted so badly to get back home, yet she’s staring the very person dead in the eye, who ripped her away from it to begin with. Marcy knew Sasha would talk Anne into taking the box from that thrift shop, even if she wasn’t completely certain it would successfully teleport them away. Regardless of whatever good intentions someone can have in why they did what they did, it still doesn’t absolve them of said mistake. Fact of the matter is, Marcy tragically made her own bed, by choosing to mess with forces she couldn’t begin to comprehend and now has to face consequences, in spite of her not deserving them.

What really got to me was when Marcy tried to spin around Anne’s personal growth and close friendship with the Plantars as all entirely thanks to her. When she said, “I gave you this! I gave you everything!”, I was like, “Nope, that couldn’t be any further from the truth.”, seeing everything that has culminated in Anne’s journey of bettering herself. Marcy didn’t give Anne anything, but a one way ticket to cutting the kid off from her family, presuming she’d be fine with this idea. It’s all kinds of messed up, however what it boils down to is Marcy undermining Anne’s independence and agency. Anne’s moral judgement in decision making was what allowed her to create this new life she made for herself in Amphibia. Anne’s honesty as a whole led her down a path of togetherness, while Marcy’s lying landed her in a result of not wanting to be alone, costing her so much.

“I don’t believe this. We were so focused on each other we couldn’t see what was right in front of us!”

True Colors excels at earning each of its emotional beats because they line up with character motivations down to the last letter. Anne doesn’t want to trust Sasha anymore because of their already rocky past, which leads to her helping King Andrias regain control of his kingdom. Sasha not keeping a lid on her temper, wanting to rule over Amphibia, and trying to reinforce that power dynamic with Anne & Marcy only made things worse for her image of a changed good friend. There wasn’t a chance in Hell Anne would hear Sasha’s reasoning after she flat out tried to take away her frog family, by attempting to use the Calamity Box a bit ago in the episode. Marcy wanted to believe there was a happily ever after in seeing this world traveling idea as their only chance for salvation as friends for life, but it turned out to be something much more sinister, when learning of Andrias’ backstory and his true scumbag nature. All three of their motivations come clashing together, blinding them from a much bigger danger. Something that effectively puts everyone at stake.

Amphibia’s Season 2 finale works so excellently, given it covers important dramatic elements it’s been stirring around since Season 1′s early rumblings. Amphibia is a story centered around people’s need for emotional connections. True Colors builds miraculously off what Reunion already did quite well in showing friendships can become rough and they are never easy to deal with. When you have to make a stand it can be a tough pill to swallow on the reality check of maybe this “good friend” of your’s isn’t as nice as you previously thought them to be. Anne having been hurt one too many times now by her former friend sends that message close to home, so much so even Sasha begins to question her morality as a human being. It poignantly encapsulates how this trio’s complex friendship is a serious growing issue needing to be reexamined, overall.

What if Anne’s right..? What if I am a horrible person...?

Something I absolutely love to pieces about True Colors, also a testament to Season 2′s darn good writing, is how much introspective we get from each character on what they’re feeling. We’ve seen plenty of Sasha’s vulnerability before in other episodes centered on her issues, but now we’re getting to the root of it. Sasha is really taking everything more to heart, little by little. Sasha’s understanding what kind of an effect she has on people, seeing the damage it has caused made evident by Percy and Braddock in Barrel’s Warhammer. Grime once told her, “Some dreams have a price and not everyone is willing to pay it.”, where she’s questioning that idealism every passing minute the invasion plan proceeds further into reaching success. Sasha isn’t sure what to do with herself anymore feeling aimless. Those previous episodes had a real impact on her priorities more than she cared to let on with Sasha’s typical tough girl act. This kid has let her guard down more, which scares and confuses Sasha. She’s always used to playing the role of protector it contradicts everything Sasha stands for when the roles are totally reversed because now Anne has made her feel the tremendous change in their growth as individuals.

Sasha’s lifestyle has been all about control that after somewhat learning to be more considerate to Anne & Marcy’s feelings she feels beyond conflicted about what truly matters to her. The most screwed up part of it all is Sasha didn’t want to fight anymore, taking up a pacifist approach after seeing what King Andrias had been hiding from everyone. It’s a fitting punishment for Sasha to try bringing Anne over to work together once more, but getting her pleas for companionship outright ignored. Anne was correct that Sasha had wasted all the chances to be reasonable. Boonchuy tried to hear out Sasha before at The Third Temple. One wanted to start things over again to iron out their serious issues, but the other was driven by bitterness, while only remorseful to a degree at best, of seeing their once weak friend become so independent, mature, and stronger that it drove her up wall. Sasha wanted to take away that “problem” being the Plantars, since in her eyes they’re the source of Anne’s strength, driving a wedge further between the two girls in their heated Reunion 2.0 battle.

True Colors demonstrates the horrific price of no trust, communication, nor teamwork from the three main girls that Andrias smoothly took advantage of, as if they were fiddles.

“That’s the thing about friends isn’t it? The more you love them, the more it hurts when they go.”

King Andrias is quite literally what I wanted Lunaris to be, where DuckTales’ Season 2 finale didn’t impress me on doing. He’s a serious big baddie to the main cast, who follows through on his threats of violence to demonstrate his wide array of arsenal and power. Andrias doesn’t just emotionally manipulate characters, like poor Marcy, but utterly crush them without an ounce of remorse for his actions. When he dropped Sprig out that window after Anne willingly let him have the Calamity Box back I thought they were legit gonna kill this boy off. The way Anne’s flashback montage of her good times with Sprig were eerily shot really didn’t help either on that note. Anne’s Calamity power finally activating is easily up there among stuff, like Dewey risking his life for Della’s disappearance in Last Crash, where the cinematography is shot and animated brilliantly. You feel Anne’s blind raging sadness in every hit she landed on those robots and Andrias. If anyone didn’t believe Sprig was like a little brother to Anne, then I dunno how anyone couldn’t view their bond anymore as such after this hugely defining scene. Anne went bloodthirsty when she believed Sprig to be dead further evidenced when she hugged him in relief afterwards exclaiming, “Sprig!? You’re alive!? Oh, thank goodness...”, which cuts deep so damn much.

Anne was ready to fight every one of Andrias’ troops in that castle to the death, if need be. Before Sprig came back from falling, thanks to Marcy’s quick acting, to comfort Anne, her only goal was to slaughter every opponent in that throne room, along with making Andrias pay dearly for even daring to lay a single finger on anyone of the Plantars. I’m not gonna lie, this pivotal power up reminded me so much Gohan turning Super Saiyan 2 after Cell curb stomped Android 16 into pieces with a smirk on his face. Anne Boonchuy’s maddening outburst is a classic testament to the idea of, “Piss off the nicest person and they’ll make it their mission to instill the biggest kind of fear/terror into you.”. showing this kid at her most vulnerable mental state, yet. Sprig & Anne’s cathartic embrace really messed me up in reinforcing just how these two respect, love, and would go above any of their limitations to help the other out. Sprig’s “death” scene was a masterful bait by the writers into making us think someone was gonna die and it was gonna be a poor kid, no less.

However, it was actually all just a bait and switch for the real, “Oh, shit. They really just did that”, moment with Marcy unexpectedly getting run through with Andrias’ gigantic sword. In a last ditch effort, Marcy wanted to atone for what she had a hand in getting them all into. Marcy was ironclad determined in making her own stand for what was right trying to save the people she endangered. Akin to what Sasha did in Reunion for saving Anne’s life, Marcy does the exact same here. Although, unfortunately this time, no one is here to protect Marcy from escaping death, like Grime catching Sasha from plummeting at Toad Tower. Marcy couldn’t react in time because she was so focused on helping her dear friends out. She wanted to prove to herself at least one time, “I’ve screwed up so much stuff with my friends. Maybe, just maybe. If I get my friends back home, it’ll prove I’m not an entirely crappy person for setting these events into motion.”. Marcy’s own deep seeded remorse is what saved Anne & the Plantars, while being the cause of her own untimely demise at Andrias’ hands.

This scene is what no doubt encouraged the warning sign for younger viewers Disney decided to make for them. It’s impressive how far Matt and his crew are willing to go for intense dramatic content. Andrias trying to crush Polly with his fist after destroying Frobo with casual ease, dropping Sprig out of the window from up sky high, and stabbing Marcy with his powerful sword displays his cold blooded brutality. Doesn’t matter who you are. If you get in the way of Andrias’ plans for multiverse domination, then he’ll throw anyone into their own grave, be it man, woman, or child. That’s the mark of a truly terrifying antagonist.

Andrias didn’t care who had to be hurt or manipulated to get back the box, so he could invade other worlds with Earth being his next prime target for invasion. Marcy’s fate is a horrifyingly poetic statement, since Sasha stated to Anne in a flashback from Marcy At The Gates, “One of these days, she’s gonna get herself killed.”, with True Colors tying back to this line in a disturbing manner. Something that sends chills down my spine is we get to see the full extent of how far Andrias shoved the sword through her body. We don’t just see the entry point of where it hit her, but it even zooms out to show the whole thing. Real talk, I got serious Avatar The Last Airbender vibes from this scene. Reminded me so much of Aang getting suddenly zapped with lightning by Azula when he tried to enter the Avatar state. Marcy didn’t want to be alone so badly she ended up inevitably dying alone trying to send Anne back home to their reality. One Hell of a way to close off Marcy’s last moments in Season 2, until her inevitable resurrection happens in Season 3 now that King Andrias has her in a tube tank that looks tied to his master.

True Colors ends on a deeply bittersweet cliffhanger leaving the fates of Sasha & Grime totally unknown if they’ll get away by the skin of their teeth, or get captured by Andrias’ soldiers and robots. Anne finally returned home with the Plantars, but at a deadly cost of leaving her other close friends behind in Amphibia. After all the isolation, heartbreak, and endurance she went through with her frog family Anne finds herself at a total loss for words. Once again, Anne is in a state of solitude of not knowing if her friends are really okay or not, mirroring the start of Season 1 when she landed into Amphibia’s world. It’s safe to say to say that, “Finally me and it’s no big deal.”, lyrics have aged terribly for Anne’s realization of finding her own identity came at the expense of getting separated from friends she’s known since kindergarten. Definitely see Anne becoming a lot more protective of the Plantars now more than ever after watching Marcy drop to the ground from being stabbed in front of her eyes.

Amphibia’s Season 2 finale is exactly how you capitalize on a winning story telling formula of dramatic writing, lovable characters with layered depth, and increasing the stakes of your story in an organic manner. True Colors is a finale that should be talked about for a long time to come, as it not only showed how worth the wait it was, but reinforces why Amphibia is a truly great series. It’s unafraid to take its characters to dark places in a way that feels totally earned.

Amphibia Season 2 is everything a sequel to a first film should be.

#amphibia true colors #amphibia spoilers #amphibia season 2 #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #sasha waybright #sprig plantar #polly plantar #hop pop plantar

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chitto · 3 years

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I Analyzed All Of the Songs on Ranboo’s Lore Playlist and Here’s What I Learned.

We can pick a few themes out from the songs:

Time

Fighting something inside of you

Alluding to a villain arc

Transition of a person

My biggest theory from all this is that c!Ranboo is a time traveler from the future (probably before Mizu but after the Haunted Mansion). He traveled to the past, November 27th specifically, to stop c!Tommy’s exile. We can assume that in c!Ranboo’s future, c!Tommy burned down c!George’s house by himself but when c!Ranboo went back, he got caught up in it, thus creating a time paradox. (Evidence from the songs Merry-Go-Round of Life, all songs of Hawaii - Part Two by Miracle Musical, and The Ruler of Everything). Now knowing he is the cause of c!Tommy’s exile, c!Ranboo feels immense amounts of guilt for his actions, the regret keeping him up at night (Ain’t No Rest for The Wicked). This mental stress is something that has resulted in the beginnings of insanity for c!Ranboo (The Mind Electric).

A villain arc is very plausible for c!Ranboo in the near future, most likely brought up by harm coming to c!Tubbo or Michael (Killer Queen, Mr. Bad Guy, I Can’t Decide, Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked, and Live and Let Die)

Full Analysis on Each Song Under the Cut:

(All Song Lyric Analysis Credits go to the wonderful people on genius, I merely fit them into the context of the DreamSmp and c!Ranboo)

Prologue (StarKid) - A simple ticking clock. ARG trailer tie in as well as even more references of time.

Introduction to the Snow (Miracle Musical) - Comes off an album that (storywise) has the listener loop over and over the songs in the album, as a time paradox.

Dream Sweet in Sea Major (Miracle Musical) - Final song in the album (loops). Occurs in three movements. Tells the story of a sailor that gives himself up to the mermaids. Lyrics don’t give much in terms of hints at anything.

Turn the Lights Off (Tally Hall) - About a journey through puberty and adolescence (??) perhaps could be changed to fit. However main name of the song is meant to convey accepting differences and confronting fears, something c!Ranboo doesn’t really do. First line also says ‘Don’t go in there, you’ll become one, Freaky creatures, monster party’ perhaps relating to the enderwalk/possession c!Ranboo goes through.

The Mind Electric (Miracle Musical) - The song starts off in reverse, the singer speaking backwards. Once the song straightens out, we’re shown that the protagonist of the song is a mentally unstable man trying to figure out what triggers a specific fear. The second verse then goes into a young child who’s been held trial for insanity. The child and the judge then have an open dialogue throughout the rest of the verse until the child is sent to an asylum. The song concludes with insane yet peaceful thoughts from the child. Obviously I’m not a psychiatrist but doing some light research into insanity (NOT psychosis, as insanity is more of an umbrella term for unstable mental state while psychosis is a specified disorder) you can see a few signs of insanity that could be applied to c!Ranboo. ‘Denial of obvious problems’ Many times c! Ranboo has dismissed or downplayed his issues and problems, most notably when he’s found in a panicked state by c!Sam who asks him if he’s okay, to which c!Ranboo replies that he’s fine. ‘Delusions or Hallucinations’ this is a big one as throughout the Doomsday arc, c!Ranboo spoke to c!Dream in his panic room, only to realize he was talking to no one. ‘Dramatic changes in sleeping habits’ This is more of a reach as we have no actually confirmation but it could be assumed that c!Ranboo’s enderwalking could be disrupting his sleep patterns.

Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney) - a song about a once young person who used to say ‘Live and Let Live’ but has now changed their maxim to ‘Live and Let Die’. Could be said that as people grow older they grow more cynical. Granted the phrases mean the same thing but one seems much more pessimistic.

The Ruler of Everything (Tally Hall) - Once again a song about time, the entire song meant to symbolize how time controls our lives (once again feeding into a time paradox theory). The song has a verse that is a man and Time itself singing. The song then starts to speed up, representing how short periods of our lives can be in the grand scheme of things. ‘Do you understand that mechanical hands are the ruler of everything’ This lyric of the song is meant to mean that time (the mechanical hands of the clock) are at the root of everything, once again drawing us back to a time motif with Ranboo’s character. This specific line could lead us to believe that c!Ranboo is being ‘controlled’ by time, aka perhaps caught in a time travelers loop.

Merry-Go-Round Of Life (Howl’s Moving Castle OST) - While the song itself is an instrumental without words, one could do some digging into the story of Howl’s Moving Castle, spoilers for the film in this analysis. In Howl’s Moving Castle, there is a sequence in which Sophie goes back in time to find Howl, seeing him as a young boy. She calls out to him, telling him to find her in the future, before getting taken back to her time. It seems pretty insignificant until you remember that in the beginning of the film, during Howl and Sophie’s first interaction he says to her, “There you are, sweetheart, sorry I’m late. I was looking everywhere.” thus representing that Howl has been looking for Sophie his entire life after she called out to him in the past. So what does this mean for c!Ranboo? Well its just more time motif and even more time paradox themes. But what even is a time paradox? A time paradox is when somebody who has traveled back in time, becomes a part of the past and causes the events they set out to stop in the first place. Perhaps this means c!Ranboo traveled back in time to stop c!Tommy’s exile, as it was a catalyst event that resulted in many problems on the server (L’manberg’s second destruction to name one) before getting sucked into the events that caused it himself.

Killer Queen (Queen) - Really can’t say too much for this song as the song is meant to convey how “that classy people can be whores as well” (Freddie Mercury). Freddie also said that anyone else could call their own interpretations of the song as well. I can’t really think of too much about the song that could be molded to c!Ranboo.

Mr. Bad Guy (Freddie Mercury) - This one is more interesting as the bridge of this song details how Freddie is ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ and that he can ruin people’s lives and many people are afraid of him. This could sound like something c!Ranboo would say in relation to someone trying to threaten the people he cares about. c!Ranboo going to any length for those he cares about (most notably his family) is something that recently cc!Ranboo has tried to drive home, making it a tweet under his character’s lore thread on twitter.

Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked (Cage the Elephant) - The main line of this song is a bible verse that means that those who are sin-free can sleep well at night knowing they haven’t done anything wrong but those are commit sins need to keep one eye open at all times. Perhaps c!Ranboo believes that he has done something wrong that keeps him up at night. It could be tied back to the time paradox theory by saying that c!Ranboo is kept up at night by the fact that he couldn’t stop the bad events from happening, even becoming a part of them.

The Bidding (Tally Hall) - While the song itself is about an auction in which men are trying to “sell” themselves to a woman, I would like to call attention to one specific verse. ‘I’ve been training like a Pavlov dog, Let my independence out to take a hike, All you gotta do is activate my bell, and I’ll fetch you anything you like’. The first lyric calls reference to Ivan Pavlov, who ran a conditioning experiment on dogs, training them to associate the sound of a bell with food, whether they actually got food or not. The last two lyrics I find particularly interesting as we have seen somebody “activate” c!Ranboo. c!Sapnap. After c!Sapnap visited c!Dream in prison, c!Dream asked c!Sapnap to deliver a message to c!Ranboo. The message being ‘:)’. When c!Sapnap repeated the message to c!Ranboo, c!Ranboo immediately switched and began to speak in enderman language before wandering off. He then spoke to c!Sapnap in chat saying, in ender, “Doomed are those who try to run, for it always catches up eventually :)’. This is one of many incidents of c!Ranboo being switched into his enderwalk state, in which he does stuff for c!Dream such as burning down the community house.

I Can’t Decide (Scissor Sisters) - This song is a upbeat song about a psychotic killer trying to decide on whether or not he should kill his victim. This song could relate back to c!Ranboo’s relationship with c!Dream. c!Ranboo has been very cagey on whether or not he would like c!Dream, most recently being very eager to break into prison and murder him. This song could also hint towards a possible villain arc for c!Ranboo.

Stardust Crusaders (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures OST) - Unfortunately, this song is another instrumental. And even more unfortunately, I don’t watch JJBA so I can’t comment on what the song could be alluding to. Stardust Crusaders is the name of an arc of the show but reading through the plot summary on Wikipedia doesn’t turn back anything that could be tied to c!Ranboo.

A Mask of My Own Face (Lemon Demon) - While the song itself is relatively simple, a man singing about how he wants to wear a mask of his own face to confuse people, a few lines have sparked certain people to examine the song deeper coming to the conclusion that the singer wants to cause chaos and controversy. The mask of his own face would allow him to mask his identity, as no one would wear a mask of their own face, while still allowing him to be associated with the chaos. For c!Ranboo I can’t really see this pointing to anything but the Syndicate. c!Ranboo really does believe in their core value of dismantling the things on the server that are bad but also he knows many people he’s close to who are at odds with members of the Syndicate, most notable c!Tubbo. However this could be rather lose as cc!Ranboo is a big fan of Lemon Demon and who hasn’t put a song from their favorite artist on a playlist even though the vibe doesn’t necessarily fit.

Stranded Lullaby (Miracle Musical) - Another song of the Miracle Musical album Hawaii - Part Two, which loops itself over within the story. This particular song is about a sailor sailing through a cerebral ocean, which may or may not represent time itself; the sailor being a time traveler who had a mistake in his time traveling. This once again brings us back to the theory of c!Ranboo as a time traveler. There is also a line I would like to call upon, ‘Aimless thoughts and papers blown around, A million moments meant remembered rest in deep dark sound’. These lyrics are meant to relate to memories and how truly fleeting some may be, just papers floating in our brains eventually lost to time. This obviously can relate back to c!Ranboo’s memory problems, which are a known side effect of time travel, as told to us through the story of c!Karl, the only other time traveler on the server (excluding c!Connor who is only theorized as a time traveler for right now).

Hidden In The Sand (Tally Hall) - This is slightly complicated as the song has two meanings. On the surface, the song is about a man who falls in love with a woman who leaves him, however the man is still in love with her. But in the music video, a new meaning can be found. The music video shows a cruise full of people, all very nice and kind until the ship begins to sink and the real, selfish, sides of the people is revealed. ‘Hidden in the Sand’ is meant to symbolize that a persons true nature is covered up by their outward acts and personality. This could apply to c!Ranboo, as he is outwardly very polite and gentle, growing attached to every animal he finds and refusing to kill any Enderman but he could have a whole other personality to him that we don’t know about. If songs such as ‘I Can’t Decide’ and ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ are any hints, we could theorize that c!Ranboo has a secret dark side to him that could be exposed in the events of his family being threatened.

Now I’m Here (Queen) - No statements or theories about what the song means or any of the lyrics.

& (Tally Hall) - This song, as with others off this particular album, deal with opposites. The whole chorus of this song is about certain opposites such as dark and light or cold and hot. Relating back to c!Ranboo, perhaps this song is meant to tell us that c!Ranboo is a foil of a certain character. Possibilities could be c!Dream and c!Ranboo, as c!Dream is very against attachments towards things and is a very outwardly violent person while c!Ranboo is attached to almost every animal and enderman (not to mention c!Tubbo and Michael) and is a very peaceful person, or perhaps c!Ranboo and c!Karl, the two time (theorized) travelers on the server. c!Karl has a stronger control over his abilities and seems to retain most of his memory fairly well so far while c!Ranboo perhaps can’t control his power and has short term memory loss and can’t remember where he came from.

I’m Gonna Win (Rob Cantor) - This song is a description of a fight between the singer and his inner demons, the fight resulting in very physical injuries for the singer. This can relate back to c!Ranboo, as he could be fighting the demons of his enderwalking state. This song has a very cheerful outlook on the fight however, as the singer is very confident in his abilities and knows he will win. c!Ranboo isn’t always the most positive, sometimes believing more in the pessimistic outcome but this could be a new leaf for c!Ranboo or a goal of his to be more positive.

#please rb #this took a very long time #dsmp #dream smp #dreamsmp #ranboo #ranboo dsmp #dsmp ranboo #ranboo lore #c!ranboo #dsmp theory #dsmp analysis #dsmp meta

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chrwrites · 3 years

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SOFTober day 30: Blanket

This is my first attempt at writing dad Luka and family fluff, I hope you like it!

Also, there's a reference to someone else's beautiful fic in this one and I hope you guess what it is 👀 (if not don't worry, I linked it at the end of the work!)

And if you want to read the story on ao3 along with my silly notes here's the link! I hope you like it 💖

Luka was welcomed by the sound of tiny footsteps tapping on the hardwood floor as soon as he entered the house, “Papa!” Harmony called, running towards him and hugging his legs. Luka chuckled, lowering himself to hug his little daughter and greet her, “Hello, mon cœur”, he ruffled her hair when he got up, and let her ramble about her day as he took his jacket and shoes off.

He could hear the sound of the TV coming from the living room, and not seeing Marinette greet him along with their daughter made him suspicious, she had probably gotten lost working on a new project and made Harmony come greet him instead.

“Where's Maman?”, he asked after he picked his daughter up in his arms.

“We were watching Elsa and now she’s sleeping”, she said as he walked towards the living room. The TV was on, showing Harmony’s favourite movie, and Luka found his wife sitting on the couch, head tilted on one side and eyes closed. Her tablet was dangerously balanced on her bump, one hand resting by her side and still holding the digital pen she had been using, there were papers and crayons scattered on the coffee table in front of her and Harmony’s toys were out of their chest and all over the carpet.

“I gave Maman my blankie”, Harmony whispered pointing at her. The small blue and pink blanket Marinette had knitted during her first pregnancy was falling from her shoulders, and he smiled fondly thinking about his daughter climbing on the couch to put it on her mother while she was asleep.

“Well done, little one”, Luka cooed, “We should take Maman to bed, do you want to help me?”.

His question made Harmony nod vigorously, the big blue eyes that resembled her mother’s were sparkling with enthusiasm, showing her eagerness to help her Papa. He instructed her to put her toys in the chest before he carefully picked Marinette up and walked to their bedroom. She nuzzled her head on his chest, garbling some incoherent words when he tucked her into the covers and turned around, her bump sticking out under the covers. He couldn't control the soft expression that appeared on his face as he admired her figure.

This pregnancy was rougher than the first one, and it almost being at the end meant that she always felt tired and drowsy. He wasn't surprised to find her asleep among her projects, it was something she did even before they got together, but he still wanted her to take care of herself and be there for her as much as he could. He pressed a kiss on her forehead before leaving the room and he smiled when he heard her hum softly at his touch.

After he left the room, he found Harmony sitting with her legs crossed in front of the TV, some of her toys were still scattered around the room and she was holding her ice queen doll to her chest. He put away Harmony’s toys before collecting Marinette’s papers and supplies from the coffee table. Some very colourful drawings were topping Marinette’s work, and Luka found himself grinning widely as he looked through his daughter’s works, his heart filling with warmth and pride at the smiling figures that represented their family.

He stashed her drawings on the top of Marinette’s sketches and put them away before walking to Harmony, "Do you want to help Papa make dinner?". The little girl quickly got up to her feet, and giggled when he picked her up and settled her on the kitchen counter.

She accepted the peeled carrot Luka offered, and they waited for the water to boil before he helped her pour the pasta in the pot. When it was done, he allowed Harmony to add the sauce to the pasta and smiled proudly after hearing her say that she did it just like Maman.

They left some pasta for Marinette in case she woke up and craved some, and sat on the table to eat quietly. Harmony later helped him load the dishwasher and they shared a high five for getting their chores done for the day. The little girl cheered when he suggested for her to have a bath and ran towards the bathroom, Luka he couldn't help but laugh as he followed her and pretended not to be able to catch her, "You're too fast!", he said faking a breathless sigh when he caught her and started tickling her. Harmony giggled, squirming in his arms so she could free herself. She walked off to grab her pink bottle of soap when he let her go, and poured it in the tub as soon as Luka had the water running. He watched over his daughter creating scenarios with her mermaids and rubber toys and happily singing the songs from her favourite movies. She laughed as she blew the bubbles in her hands to his direction, and when Luka finally managed to get her out of the water his t-shirt was soaked, Harmony's eyes twinkling with mischief as she changed into clean pyjamas and Luka grabbed a clean t-shirt before he blow dried her dark hair.

"Papa, can you tell me the story about the prince and the lady that in reality is the princess?", Harmony asked when he tucked her to bed.

"Sure", he said, and he launched into the enthralling tale of a prince who had never seen the ocean and his betrothed princess, their fake identities, and the long journey that brought him and the princess' lady-in-waiting together. Harmony listened attentively, cheering when he enacted the scene where the protagonists fought against a group of brigants, and eyes twinkling when the prince and the princess confessed their real identities and got married.

By the time Luka reached the end of the story and the prince and the princess became king and queen, Harmony's eyelids were dropping and she yawned. Luka got up from her bed, adjusting the covers and pressing a small kiss on her forehead. He turned off the lights, and heard Harmony shift before he left the room, "Papa", she called, her voice low, "Will you stay tomorrow?". She was holding onto her pink and blue blanket close as if it would have protected her from a negative answer.

Luka felt his heart tighten in his chest, and tried to hide the flinch in his face with a soft smile. He hated being away for long as much as he hated hearing Harmony cry over the phone and say how much he missed her dad.

Now that he could take a break from touring to help Marinette with the future newborn and enjoy the time with his family he was determined to do so, but despite having been home for several weeks, Harmony would still look at him with sad eyes when she asked him the question, afraid he might answer that he would leave again and be away for a long time.

"Of course I will, ma petite fleur", he reassured. Harmony smiled, and raised her arms in order to hug him. Luka shuffled closer to her, sitting back on the bed and hugging her tight. She mumbled a “Love you, Papa” as she nuzzled to his side that made him feel as happy as the day she was born, and she fell asleep to a sweet lullaby he sang to her.

After making sure that Harmony was asleep, Luka finally got to bed, and Marinette shifted as he got inside the covers. It didn’t take long for her to realize where she was and let out a loud gasp as she stood up, “Oh my god, Harmony!” she screeched, worry clear in her voice. Luka put a hand on her shoulder to steady her, and he felt her relax a little under his touch, “Darling, if you scream any louder you'll wake her up”, he said softly, and Marinette sighed as she moved closer to him, “I-I fell asleep…”, she mumbled as Luka wrapped his arm around her, drawing small patterns on her sides.

“I got distracted! That shouldn't have happened! What if she got hurt?”, she sighed helplessly, and Luka kissed her forehead, “Love, it’s okay. She’s old enough to come to you if she needs anything”.

Marinette shook her head, "But... It shouldn't happen... I’m so tired, Lu… and that makes me be a bad mom and-"

“Shhh…", Luka interrupted her, pressing a gentle kiss on her lips to stop the bitter words that were about to come out of her mouth, "You know that’s not true”, he whispered, pulling her close and running his hand on her back slowly.

“It’s the last month, you were this tired with Harm as well. You’re not a bad mom, you’re doing an amazing job and Harmony loves you, and I’m sure she’ll love you too”, he reassured, putting his hand on her bump and rubbing gently. Marinette sighed, and took a deep breath before finally allowing herself to relax.

“And I’ll be here for all of it, I told you. I’m not leaving my favourite girls alone”, Luka reassured. His words made Marinette chuckle, and she shifted closer to rest her head on his shoulder, “You better, Rockstar”.

He kissed her head, and closed his eyes, “You can sleep in tomorrow, I’ll take care of Harmony and you won’t have to worry about anything”, he said, and Marinette’s protests died down in a soft hum when he kissed her. He fixed the blankets on them and smiled at her wife, “I love you”, she whispered before drifting to sleep again.

Did you guess where the tale Luka told Harmony comes from? You can read Adamaris by @livrever here 💖

#lukanette #lukanette fic #endgame lukanette #softober

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septembercfawkes · 4 years

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Save the Cat! Explained: Beginning

Save the Cat! is one of the most popular modern story structures, used by filmmakers and novelists alike. I admit, out of the most popular story structures, this approach has not been my favorite, even though it's very effective and very famous. But the more time goes on, the more I've come to appreciate it. Like all the other story structures, I feel like Save the Cat! has both strengths and weaknesses. As I explain the structure, I'll also be sharing my opinions on any concepts I feel could be refined and improved upon. Who am I to think I can do this? Well, I certainly don't have the same credentials of the creator of it, Blake Snyder! But I can back up everything I say, and you'll have to decide for yourself what you think. But this structure is a great one to learn, in part because it works for so many writers and in part because it includes elements that other structures do not. Also, I know I have friends and followers who have probably had years more experience with it than I have, so I'd like to invite anyone who can refine our understanding of this structure to leave comments, should they so desire. Again, I'll be referring to Spider-verse--NOT because I'm obsessed with it, but because I want to again show how the same story actually fits multiple structures--not one, as so many tend to believe. (If I had known I was going to do all this story structure stuff, I probably would have picked a different story, but hey, it won an Academy Award, so yeah!) There is also a bigger point all these structure posts are building up to, which will eventually be on my blog, once I get all the groundwork done.

This structure was developed by a screenwriter, and the title comes from a screenwriting method, where you show the hero saving a cat to make them more likeable, although the method is never in the structure itself (I think it stuck, because that's the title of the book it comes from). The numbers next to the terms represent what scene that term takes place in. If you are writing a novel, you often have more wiggle room. But I've left them as a guideline. Is Save the Cat! really the last story structure you'll ever need (as the book claims)? I question that sometimes. But I'll let you decide for yourself. For now, let's appreciate and dig into this wonderful thing Blake Snyder created and decided to share to help all of us writers.

The Beginning

Opening Image (1)

The Opening Image is what it sounds like. It's the "opening image." 😆 But that sounds a little vague, so let's explain it some more. The Opening Image is going to give the audience the first impression of the story--it's going to help set the tone, the type, the scope, and the stakes. Which frankly, seems like a great thing to do when introducing a story to someone.

Typically, it also shows the audience the starting point of the hero (which will not only set the stage, but help prepare us for how he or she is going to arc). There will be a matching beat at the end The Final Image, which will typically illustrate how the hero has changed.

Another purpose of the Opening Image, is to communicate to the audience that this is gonna be a great story.

This is all the first scene. So in Lion King, we get to see all these different animals from all over in the African kingdom, come to meet baby Simba. In A Quiet Place, we get to see a family all together, navigating an abandoned setting in near silence.

My opinion: If you have a story that really pulls off two different tones, or rather, two different draws, then it might be helpful to sort of have two Opening Images--with one as a prologue. This is a situation where a prologue might actually be a great idea. To learn more about that approach, check out my post on prologues.

In Spider-verse

So in Spider-verse, the Opening Image is the very beginning where Spider-man talks about how great it is to be the one and only Spider-man. That whole scene completely sets the tone of the story and establishes the type of story it is (Spider-man saving people), it also gives us the scope--he saves all of New York City, which then gives us the stakes--the people in New York City (and his loved ones). Sure, it doesn't have Miles, but we'll get to him in the next scene.

Because so much of what Spider-man says in The Opening Image is going to be contradicted (and the audience knows this), it promises to the audience that this story is gonna be a great story.

Theme Stated (5)

Not too many scenes later (and in screenwriting, it's usually the 5th scene), someone other than the main character will say a question or statement that, in Snyder's words, is the theme of the movie. Often this is said to the protagonist.

Some of his given examples are, "Be careful what you wish for," "Pride goeth before the fall," or "Family is more important than money."

"It won't be this obvious," Snyder writes, "it will be conversational, an offhand remark the main character doesn't get until later. . . . This statement is the [story's] thematic premise."

My opinion: This is a place in this story structure where my views deviate a bit from Snyder, though honestly . . . I feel if I were to explain my views to him . . . I think he'd probably agree with them--we just look at this differently.

Snyder says a good movie is always "about something," and so you should stick that statement right here.

I personally think this is kind of a narrow definition and approach, especially when I can point to specific successful stories that don't do this exact thing.

I think he's right that there should be a thematic beat around here, but I don't think it needs to be the thematic statement (and maybe this is why he uses the word "premise"). Instead, if you've read my post about the thematic pendulum, I'm going to argue pretty confidently that this is when the protagonist first (or nearly first) encounters an extreme, opposing worldview on the theme topic. It may or may not embody the thematic statement.

Remember, a thematic statement is something like "Love is the most powerful force in the world." And a theme topic, is the topic of that statement, "Love."

I won't repeat everything, but basically, in my opinion, the theme topic will be explored and ideas about it tested through the story. Part of this includes confronting the protagonist with a worldview that is opposite of his.

That's what I think this moment is. For example, in Hamilton, Hamilton meets Burr who has the exact, extreme opposite worldview of him. While Hamilton sings all about not throwing away his shot to ensure a legacy, in the same song, Burr expresses that Hamilton needs to shut his mouth and not make waves if he wants to get anywhere in life. HOWEVER--neither of these viewpoints actually embody the true thematic statement, which is that we can't control our legacy. What the opposing outlook does do is that it works to introduce and kick off the thematic journey.

I'll pull from other examples (some from my pendulum post) to back this up:

In Les Mis, Jean Valjean is shown mercy by the bishop--an extreme, opposing worldview from his (which is focused on justice). In Harry Potter, Harry, who is unloved, must witness Dudley's birthday--a case where a child is so loved that he is spoiled rotten. In The Hunger Games, Katniss, who believes the country can never be changed, has her worldview challenged by Gale, who openly talks about how sick the Games are and asks what would happen if everyone refused to watch it.

Sure, in some examples, the true thematic statement is said, but not always--in a broader sense, it's really an extreme, opposing worldview that enters the picture.

I'm also going to disagree with the fact the theme has to be said. Not even the opposing worldview needs to be said. But it does, at least, need to be shown. (Case in point, Harry having to witness his aunt and uncle dote on Dudley.)

So this is one element in the structure that I think could use some more refining, but Snyder is great at drawing our attention to it. Yes, we need to introduce the theme topic around here.

In Spider-verse

As Miles goes to school, one of his teachers calls him out for intentionally failing his test. She says he's trying to quit, and she assigns him to write an essay about what kind of person he wants to be.

Set-up (1-10)

This is pretty straightforward. In the Hero's Journey structure, this the equivalent of the "Ordinary World" section. For the first segment of scenes, the writer will be grounding the audience in the story, showing who the main character and other key characters are. This will establish why the protagonist needs to change (or arc) in the story. While I usually think of this moment as also introducing the setting ("Ordinary World"),

Snyder emphasizes prepping for the hero's arc, which is nice, because he probably does this more than the other popular structures.

In this section, you need to "plant every character tic, exhibit every behavior that needs to be addressed later on," related to the hero. There is something (or rather, multiple things) the hero is lacking, and the writer needs to show this. These elements will be explored, twisted, and (likely) cured through the course of the story. All these things you show about the character here, can be called back on, later.

While Snyder doesn't use my exact words, he touches on the idea that this establishes what is "normal" for the characters and society--which will begin to be challenged with the catalyst.

In Spider-verse

We meet Miles and other key characters. Throughout his ordinary day, we see him time and time again wanting to quit and not applying himself. He wants to quit his new school. He intentionally does bad on a test. He chooses not to write the essay he was assigned (and instead goes to visit his uncle). His relationship with his dad needs work.

Catalyst (12)

This is what the Hero's Journey calls "The Call to Adventure," or what some call the "inciting incident." In my words, this is when something comes along and disrupts or challenges the established normal. It calls the hero in a different direction.

Snyder doesn't say much more about it than that, and a lot of times, not more needs to be said. Something happens and suddenly the protagonist has to deal with a new situation.

Examples:

Harry learns he's a wizard. Primrose has her name pulled out at the reaping. George Washington asks Hamilton to be his right-hand man. Now of age, Elsa must have her coronation, which includes having guests over.

In Spider-verse

This is the moment Miles gets bit by the spider--it disrupts the established normal and calls him in a new direction.

In Spider-verse

This is the moment Miles gets bit by the spider--it disrupts the established normal and calls him in a new direction.

Debate (12-25)

This is the initial reaction segment--we see the hero first reacting to the Catalyst. In the Hero's Journey, this is basically "The Refusal of the Call," where the hero, at minimum, hesitates before embarking on her new journey.

Snyder uses a different term, which brings to mind a slightly different perspective. That the hero is debating what to do.

Does he run away? Try to get help? Hope to ignore the Catalyst? These are things that might run through his head. We may see the hero trying a few different things.

When you compare different story structure models, there can be some ambiguity on what this means and includes, which I hope to define more in a later post. But for now, we'll stick to Save the Cat!

Snyder states that this section must answer a question of some kind. For example, in Legally Blonde, the Catalyst is Elle getting dumped; during the Debate, she decides to go to Harvard Law, and the question becomes, "But will she be accepted?"

My opinion: To me, the question (or questions) posed in the Debate is really a nod to oppositions/challenges and stakes--or in other words, difficulties and potential consequences. If there are no difficulties or significant outcomes, then what the character does during the Debate doesn't really matter and doesn't carry any weight (which I guess would mean the Catalyst may not be a true Catalyst).

So personally, I'd like to take this a step further and say it's helpful that the audience is aware of the risks in play as the character Debates.

Which is funny, because this is what the Hero's Journey touches on--if there isn't a moment where the character at least hesitates, then the audience can't appreciate the seriousness of the situation. By touching on the risks/stakes, we do that, and give this moment a little more oomph. . . . But . . . I promised to not get into other structures here (oops!)

In Spider-verse

The morning after getting bit by the spider, Miles starts to debate what is going on. Is it puberty? Is it Spider-man abilities? Was it the spider bite? But it had to be an ordinary spider! How can the same thing that happened to Spider-man be happening to him? etc. I'm going to say the stakes are touched on, in that we get a glimpse of what the potential challenges and consequences would be if he is a Spider-man. (Particularly in that moment where he sees his roommate's comic book and imagines the future . . . and then runs away.) . . . in a future post, I'll explain and analyze the middle.

#writing tips #writing tips and tricks #writeblr #save the cat #writing reference #writing help #writing tip

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sibyl-of-space · 3 years

Text

Final Fantasy IX ~ Melodies and Memories

"Jesters of the Moon"

There are a lot of very good video games in the world, but it takes some luck and circumstance outside of a game's control for one to reach me at just the right time(s) and place(s) in my life that it has a tangible impact on who I am -- who I want to be. One that carves out a space for itself in my soul that will never be removed or replaced.

I've just finished playing Final Fantasy IX for the first time, and there's no doubt in my mind that such is the case here.

(Continued below readmore.)

I drew this art last year, when I was mourning my attachment to an old favorite game that I just don't feel the same way about anymore: Majora's Mask. I wanted to draw something that captured my feelings about it, because sometimes art is the best way to talk about something when the words don't want to come.

Why is "Jesters of the Moon," the name of a random song in the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack, plastered in the middle of this Majora's Mask fanart? Especially considering I hadn't even played Final Fantasy IX yet when I drew this?

The reason is exactly that "luck and circumstance" that allowed me to fall so uniquely in love with the game.

"Mt. Gulug"

In 2008, someone on YouTube uploaded a Majora's Mask parody-slash-let's-play series called "Majora's Mask: The Things Which Were Taken Out." The series has since become unlisted and won't be linked here out of respect for the creator who probably doesn't want things they said and made in 2008 being spread all over the internet, but because of Unregistered Hypercam 2 reasons, the series inserted other background music over the video and didn't record the actual game audio.

I didn't recognize any of the music, but I watched these parody videos on repeat because in addition to being funny (...at the time, in my mind, at least), I really really loved the music. It got to the point where I would sometimes be playing Majora's Mask and get disappointed when I approached Goht and the Mt. Gulug theme wasn't playing in the background.

I had forgotten about these videos for a really long time in the interim, but I remembered them at some point when I was thinking about Majora's Mask and I found them again. The creator had cited the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack for virtually all of the background music used in the videos, and I realized that despite knowing literally nothing about the game, I had become really fond of - and weirdly nostalgic for - the songs from it that I now recognized.

So I looked up "Jesters of the Moon" and played it on repeat while I drew out my feelings in colored marker. A few months later, I realized that my backwards compatible PS3 can also play PS1 games, and eBay had FFIX for PS1 at a good price. I had nothing to lose by ordering it and seeing what the source of all that fantastic music was like.

"Vamo Alla Flamenco"

I started my playthrough knowing nothing about what to expect from the game. I'd never played a Final Fantasy game before and my overall JRPG experience has been mostly limited to Tales of, Persona, and more recently, mainline Shin Megami Tensei. The only things I knew about Final Fantasy were a) the Tidus laughing scene, and b) Sephiroth. IX seemed like it had vibes I would enjoy, but beyond that I knew nothing about what the experience would be. So I approached it with a "let's have fun and see how it goes" attitude, naming my party members the first silly thing that came to mind, ending up with "Swaggy," "OwO," "Bitchin," "Gunz," and "SWOOORD" to start with.

(For the record I do not regret those names whatsoever.)

I was immediately struck by how differently the game uses music in comparison to all of my previous JRPG experiences. This was not a game where the composer was given a list of theme songs that were slapped on top of a mostly completed game-- this was a game constructed with the soundtrack in mind as a part of the writing process.

The opening act plays almost like an opera (side note, yes I know one of the other FF's has a literal opera, I haven't played that one): you traverse the same locations from different perspectives as different characters, introducing the cast with lighthearted humor and dramatic irony out the wazoo. While you traverse the city as OwO, OwO's theme is playing in the background, coloring your perspective of the city and the narrative. When you switch to Gunz patrolling around the castle, Gunz's theme accompanies your movement and informs his character and mission. I am so accustomed to "location themes" being the norm in virtually all video games that experiencing character and/or narrative themes as BGM instead while I bumble around town changed my entire perspective on what music in games can do and be.

The operatic feeling is definitely intentional, because the game uses a play-within-a-game narrative device to hit you over the head with its themes in a way that is somehow poignant and artful while also being extremely blatant. That is a hard balance to strike, but it manages. The whole game is like that: it is completely straightforward and tells you exactly what it's about at heart, but it does it beautifully.

At any rate, I was enamored with this intro and had a very fun time, but I wasn't obsessed or anything and ended up putting it down. I spent several months on the first half of disk 1 with weeks passing between play sessions. I liked the game plenty, but life stuff happened and I decided to get obsessed with Dai Gyakuten Saiban and Ghost Trick for a while. No regrettis.

It was already clear, though, that FFIX was going to be special to me. My compositions for my team's game in the Global Game Jam in 2021 were directly inspired by FFIX's opera-like intro. I wrote two character themes for our game that would serve as background music when you play as the two protagonists, coloring your journey differently even when moving in the same spaces. I was intentionally trying to mimic the way music is used in FFIX as an exercise. The themes I wrote are definitely some of my strongest work so far.

(You can check out the game here if you want, I promise it is significantly shorter than Final Fantasy IX.)

"Melodies of Life"

Music caused me to pick up FFIX the first time, and music caused me to return to it. After months of not touching or really thinking about it, just earlier this week I was inspired to play it again, because - again - I listened to the right song at the right time.

I was again mourning the loss of something, in this case a friendship, for reasons I'm not going to share here. I had already heard the song "Melodies of Life" because it came up when I was looking up FFIX songs to reblog on Tumblr a few months ago, and I decided to listen to it again. Even without knowing the game context, the song itself really spoke to me in that moment: "a voice from the past, joining yours and mine, adding up the layers of harmony" - it kind of made me feel at peace with the fact that I had a lot of positive memories of that friendship and I could keep those at heart while also moving on in the present. ...I'm also a sucker for music metaphors, so there is that.

I was really moved by this song, cheesy as it is, and I was also definitely in the mood for a distraction. Picking up FFIX again felt like the best move.

It was, and my life is forever changed.

The game never stopped being beautiful and funny and touching, and the soundtrack never ceased to amaze. I recognized concepts I've seen in other games but never had I seen them used so artfully. I adored the fantasy world and non-human cast, I found myself enticed by random encounter for the first time because it made me feel like I had to struggle to survive a difficult journey. Music, gameplay, visuals, and story felt like one cohesive work of art for the entire duration.

Life circumstances got me to play the game again, but the game itself was so captivating and wonderful that I binged the entire rest of it - disks 2-4 - in less than a week. Everything else that the game had to say, it told me itself, in its own context, and I was ready to listen.

"You're Not Alone!"

This is going to make me sound like an emotionally-stunted twenty-something, but it has been years since a work of media has got me to have a really good cry. I used to cry playing games all the time as a kid but recently I'll find myself getting emotional, sure, often tearing up, but getting completely red-faced and snot-nosed because I physically cannot contain the emotions being evoked by a work? Years. I can't honestly tell you the last time it happened with certainty.

I feel like an emotional band-aid has been ripped off. I was f*cking sobbing during the entire duration of the "You're Not Alone!" sequence. It didn't matter that what was happening was obviously coming from a mile away, because the delivery was so raw and emotional and human!!! A whole game's worth of Swaggy punching first and asking questions later to save his friends, being Protag McProtag endangering himself for others in any and all circumstances, for the payoff of all of his friends forcing him to stop being such a primadonna and let them help him for once. It's true, too! He relies on them just as much as they rely on him! And the game doesn't just tell you this, no, it lets you try to solo all these fights and waits until you realize how boned you are until they come bail you out.

When Bitchin showed up with her "looks like you need a hand" I wanted to straight up yell at my tv. YES I DO!!! YES I DO NEED YOU BITCHIN!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!! I half knew that SWOOORD was going to heal me before I got truly KO-ed but I had been unmercifully wiped in "unwinnable" battles before in this game, so I legit thought I might have to re-do that whole part of the game again, and I was so relieved and thankful when she showed up and healed me.

This moment exemplifies everything that I adore about this game. It doesn't just tell you its story. It shows it to you, it sings it to you, and it and lets you play it out and feel it for yourself.

"Game Over"

This song is all too familiar to me. Gizamaluke's Grotto was very unforgiving for a first-time Final Fantasy player, especially one who didn't happen to pick up Big on the way for a fourth party member early on.

I hadn't heard the piano part in a few months, though, because when I picked the game back up I started just mashing to reload before it got to that point any time we wiped. I didn't hear it again until the game was truly over, this time for good.

I let it play for a while. Not too long, because I have a CRT TV and didn't want "The End" to get burned in. But a while. Enough to meditate on what I'd just experienced, and how I was feeling about it.

There's so much more to say about the game, far more than I could put in a blog post. But I don't think I need to describe these thoughts in words. I can do what the game did, and use music, use art, use stories, use metaphors, and use symbols to communicate what I mean; and hope that someone else is able and willing to listen.

And although a written record of my thoughts likely won't be preserved for all that long, maybe the feelings and the memories will be, so long as they have been shared.

#personal #analyses #ffix

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roselevesque · 3 years

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3 , 6 , 7, 12

Thanks for the ask!

3. What fandoms are you involved in right now?

Right now, I mostly post about Shera and ATLA and I'm starting to get back into actively posting Death Note stuff again since I've been rewatching it.

6. How do you feel about (character) and why?

There was no character mentioned for the character-specific asks, so I guess I'll just talk about the ones I post the most about from the 3 aforementioned fandoms.

ATLA-Aang:

I liked him when I was a kid watching the show for the first time on Nick, but due to the renaissance, I've gained a new level of appreciation for him, to the point I'd consider him my 2nd favorite character ( Toph is just the tiniest bit above him ).

I think his story is very inspirational those who have felt that their values and person were something the world thought it would be better off without. His arc is about change and adaptation in a way that doesn't abandon the roots and this is an interesting tale for a protagonist to be part of, in my opinion.

He's also pretty underappreciated in canon compared to some other characters and I wish to show more love for him, because of this.

Shera-Catra:

I like that she's messy. She's not a saint, she's made lots of mistakes she has to made up for, but regardless of her negative aspects she's still human. She's a female character that goes on a downward spiral only to manage to climb out of the abyss in the end. I appreciate seeing someone hitting rocks bottom and following the aftermath, which includes picking themselves up.

Her journey is one of the show's backbones and it illustrates some if its most important core themes: perpetuating/breaking away from the cycle of abuse, personal growth, the importance of love and self-worth.

She leaves room for a lot of stuff to contemplate about her and the interactions she has with the world pre-canon, during canon and post-canon and this is why she is my favorite.

Death Note-Light Yagami:

He's definitely the most morally questionable out of the three, but the fact that he's a far cry from s good person is what makes him interesting to me. I find him to be the most complex character of the series and despite not starting out as an outstanding citizen anyway, he manages to go through a compelling bastardization arc.

He's charming and very adaptable in all sorts of settings, experimental and driven and all of these traits, plus his vision on the world, make for a fun dynamic no matter who he shares screen time with.

I know many fans hates his guts, because he's an asshole ( which is true and an underestimation at the same time I'd say ), but I don't think the show would have been as good without someone like him in the reigns.

7. What color do you associate with (character)?

ATLA-Aang: Orange mainly, but yellow too!

Shera-Catra: Red!

Death Note-Light Yagami: Also red!

12. What is your favorite headcanon for (character)?

Not necessary the absolute favorite headcanons, but some I've been thinking about more lately.

ATLA-Aang: He learnt how to make jewelry from Gyatso! They used to do it as a way to get Aang's mind of stuff that upset him ( similar to the throwing cakes flashback from the Souther Air Temple). Aang continues the tradition by teaching Bumi, Kya and Tenzin how to do it too.

Shera-Catra: She takes up singing as a hobby post-canon and this is how she and Scorpia begin to reconnect and form a true friendship! The show's intro song, "Warriors", is written in universe through their joint effort and after singing a slow rendition of it to Adora, Catra proposes.

Death Note-Light Yagami: He was excited to start school, since his parents told him he'd get to meet new kids he could talk to and learn new stuff. Once he got there, he went through the curriculum with ease and didn't find anything challenging in it. He also found it hard to connect with his classmates even if they might have a few common topics in mind.

Light was still polite and liked by others, but his dissatisfaction and boredom had begun at a young age.

#avatar aang #aanglove #catra shera #light yagami #raito yagami #atla #shera netflix #spop #death note #dn #headcanons #avatar the last airbender #answered #answer #about rose #catradora #otp: promise

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mcustorm · 4 years

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Thoughts on Love, Victor Season 1

PSA: If you think that you might be gay, don’t get a girl emotionally invested! Please!

Ya know, at first when I thought about what I was going to write about this show, I thought that I should split the writings into the first half/last half of the show. Now I’m thinking “screw it”, if only because if I was going to go that route I should have stopped, parsed through my feelings about the first 5 episodes, and written those thoughts before proceeding with the next half. That, of course, did not happen, so to prevent the back half of the season’s events from miring the first half, I’ll just write about the whole shebang. There’s probably a joke about that word somewhere, I’ll try not to make it.

Anyways, let’s start by saying that on the whole, I really liked this show. It was not as good as Sex Education season 1, yet in my opinion waaaay better than HSMTMTS season 1. Most of the characters were likable and felt developed enough, it moved at a nice pace, and you can tell that a lot of heart went into this. Perhaps because we all watched this in a day, it felt like a 5 hour movie rather than a 10 episode tv show.

Additionally, I of course like the Latinx representation. The intersectionality of the Latinx community and the LGBTQ+ community has been presented on at least five TV shows to my knowledge: Ugly Betty, One Day at a Time, Diary of a Future President, The Baker and the Beauty, and now Love, Victor. Let’s keep it up!

As for the premise of the show itself, I *love* that this show acknowledges that Simon’s journey, at least at his house, was leaps and bounds easier than many other people’s. Victor’s parents are more conservative and religious, and they don’t have their shit together, so this is not the best environment to drop that bombshell in (which is why it was so incredible when Victor decides to do it anyway). Simon and Victor’s DM’s being a framing device for the show was a great way to tie the universe together.

The hook of Love, Simon was that you know all those cheesy and cliche rom-coms that straight people have gotten since the dawn of time? Well LGBT people deserve those stories too! Love, Victor is sort of presented with that same thesis in mind, which is why watching these episodes felt like different things I’ve seen before all over. The whole season ironically feels like Alex Strangelove: The TV Show, right down to the often cringy relationship with the girl, the openly gay love interest who conflicts our protagonist, and the goofball friend who chases after a girl who is seemingly out of his league.

Mia’s character felt a lot like Laila from All-American, being a black girl who is ordained as the hottest girl at school (which I feel like is a title only given in fictional schools), who also has a missing mother and problems with her rich dad. Pilar, on the other hand, feels like Casey from Atypical, in that she is openly rebellious in large part because of her mother’s infidelity.

Victor’s story this season sure was something to watch. The biggest question for me was, just how much sympathy should he be given? The world is inherently unfair to Victor. None of us should have to go through the agony and anxiety that so often comes with being in the closet and coming out. But for Victor to have visited those problems on Mia, who is going through things herself? That makes him pretty morally gray.

But he was still finding himself! But he loves Mia, just not like that! I get it, which is why he should have cut things off as soon as he got back from New York, no he should have cut things off when she asked him if there was “anything else” in her bedroom, no he should have cut things off when he literally felt like he and Benji were the only two people in the room at the concert, no he really shouldn’t have done this to begin with.

The line between Victor finding himself and him deceiving Mia is the conflict of the show, but the moment for me when I was like “Damn, Victor” was after he intentionally derailed Mia’s shebang-ing that she planned, he found the gall to lie to Benji and plan a seduction! That is why the season finale was so glorious. Because yes, while the world is unfair to Victor, he’s being unfair to the people around him.

I have made it a point not to read other people’s opinions extensively so as not to bias my own thoughts, but is Felix everybody else’s favorite? Felix’s character and arc was great. He was a supportive friend yet still felt like he had a story and stakes of his own, something which some TV shows get right (Sex Ed) and some TV shows get various shades of wrong (Jamie Johnson, Andi Mack). I like that he knew his worth and cut things off with Lake, and I like that she realized that her happiness with him should take priority over what others think of her.

I was soooo sympathetic to Mia. Her world is being turned upside down at home. Clearly, she has not even processed her mother being out of her life, and now her Dad is “replacing” her Mom while the baby is also “replacing” her! In Mia’s eyes, at least. Mia just needs to know that she is loved and appreciated. Which she *thought* of all people she’d be able to get from her boyfriend. Shucks.

As for the rest of Victor’s family, I also thought the parents’ storyline was pretty interesting yet unfortunate. Armando just can’t come around to trusting Isabel, which I actually kind of understand. Isabel, meanwhile, is being prevented from doing the thing she loves to do, which sucks especially because she’s in a radically new environment. Adrian is of course great, protect him at all costs. Pilar’s seemingly permanent mode of “angsty” is completely justified, as her friends back in TX are moving on just fine without her, she’s having trouble opening up and fitting in, and her family is WYLIN.

Some things that didn’t go so well for me was Andrew’s character, who feels like he’s just there to obstruct at any given moment. Y'all knew that when Victor and Benji were having that convo in the bathroom, someone was in the stall and someone was Andrew. Also, my guy, how are you not even somewhat aware that you are a total douchecanoe? I liked Benji, but Venji didn’t quite work for me because of all of the cheatation that it took to get there. Benji was pissed and ready to stay away from Victor permanently after the [attempted seduction], but once his relationship was over he was completely fine with putting his tongue down Mia’s boyfriend’s throat.

Overall, I really enjoyed this show. Some of these teen dramas I’m admittedly only watching for the LGBT content, so to have that be at the forefront of a show for once was amazing. The conflict was realistic if frustrating, and to me most of the characters seemed fully realized. Thankfully, the show didn’t even feel too “spin-offy” even with Nick Robinson being all over it.

In any given multi-season serialized show, the trajectory of the show goes one of two ways: the first season puts your feet on the ground of the series, and then later seasons go above and beyond with the storytelling (The Office, Breaking Bad, Bojack Horseman, Jamie Johnson) OR the first season is pretty great TV, and the following seasons fail to live up to its glory (The Good Place, Dear White People, really most every Netflix show ever). Which category Love, Victor ends up in is something to look forward to. Where do we go from here now that Victor is taking his first steps out of the closet?

Stray thoughts from the episodes:

The soundtrack on the whole, was not my cup of tea. I still liked a couple of songs, so that means somebody out there liked more of them.

I completely forgot Natasha Rothwell was in Love, Simon. More of her! More of Ali Wong! More of Beth Littleford! They were all great.

So Roger got his ass beat by Armando, and he still wants to get back with her?? Roger is reckless, man.

Speaking of reckless, Victor’s closet skills completely fell apart towards the end there. Assume somebody’s always watching!

Lake’s mother is a trip.

Good for the family for standing up to the grandparents.

Oh my god, Simon and Bram. Those guys are mine, and now they’re growing up and moving to the Big Gay City. They’ve come a long way.

Speaking of the Big Gay City, we were in Atlanta for a season and got *0* acknowledgement of the vibrant gay community there. More things to look forward to.

Was anybody else singing Selena along with Isabel? That is my favorite Selena song!

By rule of Felix being a male and Pilar being a female close in age, I immediately thought they were going to be a thing. The writers didn’t pull that thread too much...

That moment at the end there when we all thought Victor was going to hold off on his announcement only for him to go “fuck it” and say it anyways? And then he got to exhale? Perfect. chef’s kiss

What with June being Pride month, the SCOTUS ruling a couple of days ago, this entire show premiering today, and Delliot things going down in less than 24 hours, this will likely be the gayest week of the year. I suggest we all enjoy it.

Stay Peachy!

#love victor #michael cimino #venji #benji #thanks for reading #delliot

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whoisaditya · 3 years

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A love letter to The Wombats

First, a brief background about The Wombats: The Wombats is an interesting English Indie Rock Band. They started back in 2003 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The most interesting thing about them is how experimental they are with their albums — considering their vast range. One might think that The Wombats don’t care about what you and I think. They care about their art and what that represents. This is what makes them free to do whatever they want. Now, the album that I want to talk about is some of their earlier work. It was released back in 2007. Damn, that feels like an eternity ago. So let’s begin our journey.

The first track: Tales of Girls, Boys and Marsupials. For me, this track prepares you for what’s to come. It is a good melody and relatively simple. I’ve always enjoyed it because of how strange it is. From this, we move onto the second track.

Kill the Director. This is the song that brought me to the album, and for a long time, it was one of the most played songs for me on Spotify. When I think of this song, I think of the music video which you should watch. The song is different from the first track, and it is faster and has a lot of content. My favourite things are British pop culture references. The nods to Bridget Jones’s Diary and EastEnders make this a quintessentially British song.

Track 3: Moving to New York, this song has always been close to my heart because it is edgy. It tells us what the British think of American cities like New York. I have always had trouble understanding this song due to multiple reasons. Even right now while I’m reading the lyrics and thinking about what to write about them, I am confused. If you look at it literally, the song talks about sleeplessness and Christmas for some reason. Now, let me tell you what I feel about it. This has always been a song to which I headbang and do the air guitar. I never really understood the lyrics. I probably never will. Though, my favourite part has been these lines.

“I put one foot forward and ended up 30 yards back.

Am I losing touch, or am I just completely off the track?

And I don’t know why I want to voice this out loud.

It’s therapeutic somehow.”

Especially the line, “Am I losing touch or am I just completely off track”. Back when I first heard this song, the pandemic was at its peak. I was preparing for entrances, and life was a mess. I related to this, and I’m sure you guys will as well. This song will make you feel things and reconsider life as a whole.

Now, moving onto track 4, Lost in the Post. This is the most popular song on the album. The song sounds surprisingly happy, but when you pay attention, the lyrics are depressing. It is my kind of music because it tells us a story with a catchy chorus. The line that has stuck with me is “She Wanted Mary Poppins but I took her to King Lear”. It represents so much more than you and I can comprehend. It represents not being enough and a theme of overcompensation followed by under-compensation. Its a simple song but the Wombats have done a good job of packing it with references. It is a song about insecurities and love, the two things that are fundamental to any artist.

Track 5: Party in a Forest(Where’s Laura?). Laura, oh, Laura. I will never truly understand this song. Is it a love letter to Laura or is it a desperate man singing for a girl who will never love him back? Throughout the song, he keeps calling out to Laura, but there’s no response. By the end of it, it seems like he has almost given up. Maybe I’m just reading too much into music, or perhaps this boy is writing songs about a gender he doesn’t understand.

Track 6 is something most of us can relate to. Titled “Schools Uniform”, it is literally from the perspective of a teenage boy going through puberty. It is not the typical “Oh. I miss school” song, but maybe a more realistic approach to what school was. Those uniforms, which most of us claim to miss, perhaps made a joke of us. He sings about a girl he likes and who he used to be friends with, but now she has an older boyfriend. The most important thing about this song is how teens romanticise/think that smoking is cool. It’s the whole trope of doing something because someone else is doing it. After all, someone has deemed it cool. The song does an excellent job of talking about how teenagers try their best to fit in to get the validation they so desperately want. This is generally executed by doing things that most of the time is not good for them, and here ends track 6.

Moving on to track 7, the song I’m most excited to write about. Here Comes the Anxiety is the epitome of a cry for help. It is probably the most painful to listen to because it doesn’t even hide that it is sad. I have to give it credit for being honest about its message. In a messed up way, this taught me how to be honest about myself. The song starts by calling out what I think is all music where creators hide the real message behind catchy hooks and other techniques. The essence of the song is hypocritical; it has a catchy hook line(It is literally in the title). The song is just lying to you; it tries to sell an honest image, but it is not. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good song, but it is just like everything else. It is a dark song like it claims to be. It is a song about a lonely man who doesn’t want to be alone, and that’s about it for track 7.

Let’s Dance to Joy Division is one of my favourite songs. So, I have a sort of personal bias towards it. It is happy and real but also quite sad. The lines

“Everything is going wrong but we’re so happy” perfectly captures the essence of this kind of music. It is happy music, so don’t question it. You don’t need to be comfortable while listening to it, maybe sing along and pretend that your life isn’t going to shit. My interpretation of this song is, you shouldn’t question life while it is happening. If something has to go wrong, it probably will, so why even worry about it. Just be happy and maybe play this on a loop.

Track 9 is Backfire at the Disco. It describes a heterosexual first date. A guy gets ready at 8 pm, meets the girl and then gets slapped. The story is pretty straightforward. The guy makes a move at the wrong time. The girl slaps him in response and has to go back home alone at 3 am. What’s important to me isn’t the story but how it’s told. The song starts with how everything is fine and how it is all going okay. It sounds like the girl is in the wrong and that we should feel bad for the guy. The song gets pretty misogynistic when he calls her dress whorish. To give him some credit, he does admit his mistake by the end, but then it is too late, and the narrative has been set. This victimisation of the perpetrator is extremely harmful. It creates a story that men don’t know what to do and how it is an honest mistake. This message is toxic, and anyone listening to this should keep this in mind.

Little Miss Pipedream describes a toxic one-sided relationship. The song is comparatively slower-paced, where the stress is on the lyrics. The song expects us to feel sympathy for this man who is madly in love with this girl. The protagonist is portrayed as a friendly guy who is willing to wait for this girl. This man has selfish ideas of love, and he’s trying to convince the listeners to sympathise with him. These ideas are selfish because they are all based around him. Lyrics like, “Don’t leave miss pipedream cause I love you.” is an example of what is incorrect with this song. Pop culture has often romanticised these ideas and portrayed these men as heroes.

Track 11 is about a therapist named Dr Susan. It is clear that Dr Susan is treating and is prescribing him narcotics. He is infatuated with her and is willing to do anything for her. This is clearly some toxic behaviour. The singer keeps repeating “This Time” which means that he has done this before. The most concerning thing is “Help Me Help Help Me, Susan”. We can see a theme where he asks for help but no one gives it to him and there ends track 11.

Track 12 is about loving a woman who doesn’t want to be loved. The singer has fallen in love with a stripper and is willing to do anything to be with her. His behaviour indicates that he has lost track of reality. In his head, his actions are part of a grander love story but it is psychotic behaviour. This is ironic cause the last song was about a therapist. He clearly knows what he is doing is wrong but he still continues to do so. This entire song does a good job of showing a messed up, toxic relationship between a desperate man and a stripper.

The story of Track 13 is set at the wedding of the protagonist’s ex-girlfriend. It does something unusual by portraying alcoholic tendencies at a wedding. The lyrics make it clear that he still has some feelings for his ex-girlfriend. I don’t know where the blame lies on this one because of the conflicting narratives. The repetition of the line, “She’s not that beautiful” shows us his hatred towards the bride and how our emotions are more complex than they seem. One would assume that after all this time he wouldn’t resent his old partner but he does. This is because humans are complicated and irrational and there’s nothing we can do about it. This also shows how when we are with someone everything seems romantic but when they leave we criticise all their actions. To conclude, the song is quite entertaining and definitely worth listening to.

If you have read this until now and not skimmed as most people will, you must be thinking that all these songs sound somewhat similar. It’s a simple boy loves girl plot which is portrayed in multiple different settings. Before I started writing this, I thought that I would have something unique to write about each song, but I don’t. As I moved on from track to track, I realised that most of these are about the same thing. Does this mean the songs are not great? No, of course not, they are amazing. Each track is unique and has a storyline, the music is good, and that’s why people enjoy it. Music is subjective, and at the end of the day, my opinion means jackshit. Yeah, enjoy the music; I hope what I wrote made you think and introspect about the music you listen to.

#thewombats #british music #Indie

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picturejasper20 · 4 years

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Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts Review

Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts is animated show that was created by Radford Sechrist ( Kung Fu Panda 2, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Penguins of Madagascar) and developed by Bill Wolkoff (TRON: Uprising, Star Wars Rebels and Once Upon a Time). It´s based of the webcomic ¨Kipo¨ created by Radford Sechrist. The show was produced by Dreamworks Animation Television and animated by Studio Mir.

The story of the show takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, in which mutated animals called ¨mutes¨ live on the surface while humans live in underground cities ¨Burrows¨ to ensure their safety from the dangers of the surface.

The protagonist is Kipo Oak, a 13 year old girl, that is forced to leave her own burrow and search for her father, Lio Oak, after she is separated from him. On the surface she meets other humans survivors and friendly mutes than join her in her journey.

Animation

The show was animated by South Korea’s Studio Mir, which is known for animating shows like The Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defenders.

The animation of Kipo and the age of the wonderbeasts is good overall, is not Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles´ animation but it works well for modern animation standars.

At first glance, is easy to notice the show is highly inspired by anime.Radford Sechrist has admitted he is inspired by anime films such as Tekkonkinkreet (2005) and the Studio Ghibli films.

The show has some good character design as well, while they are based of anime, the show has its own style that makes them feel more unique.

While the humans designs are decent, the series really shines when it comes to the mutes designs. Each is different from the other and it is hard to find two mute that looks exactly the same.

It also has some wonderful backgrounds that really make you feel that you are in a post-apocalyptic setting, with human cities ruins that have been abandoned for more than two hundred years.

Soundtrack and sound design

The series has some pretty memorable soundtracks that usually fit well with the scenes and rarely feel out of place.

The person behind the soundtrack is Daniel Rojas, who also wrote many songs for the series.

In a interview, Daniel Rojas explained that while working on Kipo they tried to have diverse soundtrack, they would mix up different genres that would change depending on the episode.

¨Rad Sechrist’s vision for the show was to be diverse and inclusive on all fronts, including the music. We wanted to tap on a ton of different genres and mix them all up: take folky banjo riffs and put them on top of a trap beat, write a classical piece for Scarlemagne but do a hip-hop remix of it – it was a purist’s nightmare!¨

The music and songs of Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts are one of best parts of the show in my opinion, and i think it wouldn´t be the same without them as they are important for story and characters.

As for the voice cast, most of them work well for the show,some performances are better than others but overall they are decent.

Story and characters

The story of Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts is quite unique for modern cartoons: It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, which is rare to find in Western animated series.

There has been some animated series whose setting is post-apocalyptic like ¨Adventure time¨ and ¨Steven Universe¨ but these story elements were usually secondary or part of the lore in those shows. The fact that Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts is post-apocalyptic is very important for the story and characters.

The show also has 30 episodes and each one lasts between 23-24 minutes, which means that many things can happen in one episode. The pacing, however, is well-done despite being a short series. There are some episodes that focus more in the story while others help developing the characters and their relationships.

The foreshadowing is well-executed most of time, sometimes is very subtle, which makes it easy to miss the first time watching it. Since many things are foreshadowed it rarely makes the story elements feel that they came out of nowhere or just appear for the sake of the plot

The lore its very interesting as well: In almost every episode a new type of mute is introduced. Each type of mute has their own culture and lifestyle, which keeps the story fresh and nonrepetitive.

For example: The timbercats are anthropomorphic cats that live on trees and are woodcutters, they love to sing and would do anything they can to protect their home.

One of the main themes is about the unending war between mutes and humans that has lasted more than 100 years. The relationship between humans and mutes is one of the most important aspects of the story and its what drives the main characters.

Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts pacifism and human´s relationship with nature themes seem to be clearly inspired by Studio Ghibli´s films, specially from Princess Mononoke.

Another big theme of the series is that people have the capacity to change, to grow and become better individuals, which shares a few similarities with the animated series Steven universe. It´s not uncommon for the series to have antagonistic characters that become allies later in the story.

As for the characters, they are well developed, each one having its own arc and backstory. Many episodes focus on their relationships which are quite complex and change over time.

Kipo Oak, the main protagonist, is someone who always believes there´s good in everyone, even those who hurt and take advantage of others. She´s unique in the sense that she tries to be positive in a world where pretty much everyone is selfish and only care about themselves.

To quote the exec producer, Bill Wolkoff: ¨I loved Kipo instantly. Here is this relentlessly positive person with this great sense of wonder, set it in a dangerous world, which would turn most people cynical. This was the perfect character to root the rest of the show around.”

While she prefers solving conflicts through talking, Kipo is someone who is not afraid to fight if someone dares to hurt her loved ones. She usually tries changing her methods according to the situation.

The other protagonists are: Wolf, a tough yet caring girl who grew on the surface and has a dark troubled past; Benson, a carefree teenager who loves music and his best friend Dave, a talking bug mute; and Mandu, a small pig mute that is adopted by Kipo.

Each character is given enough screen time to develop and explore their psyche. However, some character arcs can felt a bit rushed at times due to being a short series.

Another thing i liked about the series is how the conflict is not black and white, many characters have a reason that explains why they act in a specific way and we get to learn about both sides of the conflict, no one is 100% good or 100% evil, which feels accurate with post-apocalyptic setting

Kipo and the age of the wonderbeasts has also been praised for having a inclusive cast: Many characters in the show are POC and some even are LGTB+. Wolkoff has talked about how it was important for the show to have this type of representation since times are changing and so does the media we consume.

“We also have a really diverse cast that is reflective of the world today,” he adds. “It was really important for Rad and I to have a creative team that was diverse and inclusive to tell these stories in the best way. We wanted to empower our team to make decisions that we couldn’t have made on our own. That’s why the show feels authentic and has a fresh perspective. It’s also very funny.”

Conclusion

I think Kipo and the age of the wonderbeasts is very well done and is a good example on how to make an good animated series. It would be great if more creators in animation tried taking more risks and making shows that both kids and adults can appreciate.

Due to its setting, characters and story, the series also manages to feel unique and different, which is good in a medium that sometimes relies on using the same tropes and story elements.

It´s a short series but its worth of watching if you enjoy Studio Ghibli films, anime or shows like Steven universe.

Sources cited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipo_and_the_Age_of_Wonderbeasts

https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/its-the-end-of-the-world-and-shes-just-fine-kipo-and-the-age-of-wonderbeasts/

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/interview-with-daniel-rojas-composer-on-kipo-and-the-age-of-the-wonderbeasts/

#Kipo and the age of wonderbeats #KATAOW #kipo kataow #wolf kataow #benson kataow #Western animation #post apocalyptic #sci fi #Series review

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skamamoroma · 3 years

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question! what would you want part.2 to be about? like what topics do you think it would touch on? and what would you /want/ them to touch on? btw thank you so much for recommending the series, me, like you, was a little hesitant bc of the 'bl' label but it's so so good, so thank you ^^

You are so welcome! ❤️

I am NOT a fan of BL genre connotations (just even learned what it is, haha, and that ain’t for me so I understand - again, if it’s someone’s thing then I don’t mean any disrespect, I just don’t think ITSAY fits and also they didn’t promote it as such, I think it was a bit obvious why). It’s a tv show. It also happens to be made by LGBT+ folks (in significant part) and is so clearly made for that audience too as well as for any audience who likes to watch coming of age stories or any extremely good storytelling etc. I didn’t even know what BL was when I watched it as a friend who doesn’t watch that stuff recommended it to me from Japan and she has excellent taste so if someone had suggested there’s a genre out there and this may be linked to it simply because it’s about two guys who happen to fall in love then I’d have thought twice too as I don’t want to watch anything created for reasons that maybe make me feel a bit uncomfortable and where the reasons behind why stuff is made is questionable. This is just a tv show, one that is respectfully made for and about lgbt+ folks - and as a piece of art and a bloody exceptional one that that! I don’t think I quite understand why mlm stories are given a genre title just because they contain those stories... it hints at being made because it has that content for a specific audience and that sits so uncomfortably with me because it seems to be straight women who want to watch two boys kissing and, yeah, no. Where is girls love? And why does any show that has a relationship between two men forced into that genre? Like, we don’t have that for other movies/tv shows, just those that fit that genre and ITSAY just doesn’t fit other than its two boys in a love story amongst other things. Queer/LGBT+ cinema or art, yes, but what I’ve learned about the bl genre doesn’t sit well...! I’m sure there are shows there which have good intentions and are respectfully done but dudeeeeee the stuff I read when someone told me what that was. Safe to say, it isn’t for me.

Anyway, I have had a few asks similar which I hadn’t replied to so felt I’d include that to yours as you mentioned it too 😂

As for Part 2. LORD. I don’t know! Knowing it was always meant to be 10 parts makes me think they have left things where they did for a reason because while it feels VERY well wrapped up as a part of a story, the arc of Teh and his dream feels unfinished if you consider that him finding his peace isn’t as final an end as you’d want. It all enough of an end for me as I never like neatly tied up endings! BUTTTT the possibilities are lovely if you consider where they could take it.

Obviously we have Teh and Oh in Bangkok for Uni but at different places which shouldn’t be too difficult for them as I understand they’re not far apart and so maybe we will get to see what Oh meant when he asked Teh not to stop competing with him? Maybe we will see how they’d navigate that now?

Will Teh still try to get into his dream Uni? Will he end up there alongside Oh or will his current place be something he loves?

Will he get to play Yongjian? The show might give us that? If so, catch me sobbing for days. Especially if Oh is watching. I shall not be able to handle the meaning behind that. Anywayyyyyy just know if that happens I’ll be sobbing on my couch.

OBVIOUSLY we have the fact that Teh is only out to Oh and his brother but doesn’t really have a true understanding of his sexuality... only that he has made peace with what he does feel. That doesn’t mean it’ll be plain sailing and easy for him, knowing how tough he finds emotion at times. He got himself this far with Oh’s help and Hoon’s support but it was messy as hell so will he be able to work the rest out gradually? Will be struggle? I think the prospect these two have as actors to make some of those scenes utterly magical is relatively unmatched. Their chemistry is genuinely insane and because of their comfort which is obvious, the chance to see Teh navigate all that is pretty likely I think. Oh is obviously your demonstrable one, the affectionate one and the one who is just so beyond worrying and questioning. Seeing his joy and wonder at holding Bas’ hand and just being so chill to like and date a boy is the way Boss the director said he wanted it... he wanted Oh to reflect modern LGBT+ teens as he wanted that for himself. So if Oh is going to remain as he has been developed so far there’s a chance there will be conflict between how Oh is and what Teh is able to do. They aren’t on the same page but they weren’t at the beginning of Part 1, and their journey was stunning as was Oh’s ability to know Teh and to be so kind and gentle with his emotions and feelings. I think if they have them both try to navigate a relationship as the director said they will... it could be done so well. We’ve seen how incredibly they managed to handle stuff so far, if it continues even close to that then that gradual progression could be beautifully done.

I kind of don’t want them to go mainstream. I desperately want them to keep it weird and unique and to keep the feel of the show from Part 1. I want Part 2 to feel as refreshing as Part 1 even if the setting may be a little more built up and city based. I want the beauty of THAT shown and the possibilities are endless if they keep thinking out of the box and I have a lot of faith.

One thing I really really really want is them to back to Phuket just once! Either have it start there or for them to go back at some point. I think they will. If they need resonant moments or want Sui, Hoon and Tuty involved then I’d like to think their homes would be involved but especially because I kind of want their beach or some of their spots to feature. I’m so fond of Teh’s room (and his beautiful rug) with his Yongjian picture, of their beach, of Oh’s sweeping staircase, of Sui’s restaurant, of the royal carriage full of coconuts, of Tuty, of the temple... I don’t need them to be there long, I just want it to feature! 🤞🏼

I also just hope they keep the same level of depth. The amount of thought and meaning they placed behind EVERYTHING is nothing short of breathtaking and noticeable and it made the viewing experience so completely moving. It’s like the detail required to pull of the pay off for the colouring scene without a single word being spoken about hibiscus flowers really... or for the Male Protagonist moment to mean so so so much for so many reasons. That type of story telling is my absolute weakness so I want them to find their own ways to tell this part of the story with that same approach. Knowing the first director Boss (who is just so so lovely and damn talented) is producing and also partially writing (and being LGBT+ himself it makes me feel comfortable the level of respect will be there still) and also that the same main producer is still there... alongside one of the original writers. All combined, the potential is ridiculous and with BK and PP, they may be complete rookies but Jesus Mary and Joseph... I have absolutely zero concern.

So yeah, many thoughts! I’m pretty happy for them to absolutely destroy my emotions again. I struggle to see how anything could match Part 1 but I’m 100% up for them having a decent go at it 😂 and if they pull it off again, well, again, you’ll find me sobbing on my couch.

Also, GIVE ME ANOTHER SCORE AND SOUNDTRACK. Have BK sing all the damn songs.

#ask #itsay thoughts

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thereviewbait · 4 years

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The Witcher Review: GOT and Your Next Move

Is Witcher the new Game of Thrones? A question that has been going around the internet since the Netflix original series, The Witcher came out in 2019. This review, here, will answer this question and more. So, let's get started. Overview Adapted from The Witcher book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, the series follows the lives and journey of its three protagonists-- Geralt of Rivia (a witcher), Yennefer of Vengerberg (a witch), and Princess Cirilla of Cintra. Of the three, Geralt and Cirilla are linked by destiny and the law of surprise. The backdrop of The Witcher is set in a fictional landmass inspired by the medieval era known as "the Continent." Image Source: https://gph.is/g/a91WQ58

Consisting of 8 episodes, the series introduces the three protagonists, including their formative events leading to the present timeline and situation. Season 1 of the Netflix original series follows the events in the book series' first two installments-- The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny, a couple of short story collections that merely introduce the characters. The main plot arc will most likely start in The Witcher season 2.

Review

Not just The Witcher

One thing that everyone who has watched The Witcher agrees on is how confusing the timeline of the series can be, which had the viewers scrambling for explanations of the second episode. The reason for this confusion is how the series follows the journey of the three protagonists simultaneously while also following the present timeline. However, this way of direction is what I loved the most about the show. Despite being based on the book series, the Netflix original series gives a 3-D perspective of the three characters involved as opposed to the fixed focus on Geralt in the books.

Enhances the book plot Another thing to love about the series is how, despite certain deviations, the crux of the story has remained true to The Witcher book series. There are only a few book adaptations out there that have retained the essence of the original story, much less enhance it with key changes.

True to The Witcher book series

Now, Netflix had almost turned The Witcher into a movie (Thank the lord, they did not), but chose to go with a series. Even within the scope of the series, they could have chosen to start from the official first book, Blood of Elves, instead, the showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich chose to follow the reading order of the book series. The approach and the fact that Andrzej Sapkowski was part of the creative team gives the show brownie points over other book adaptations and is a testament to why the Netflix series is so good.

Catchy tunes Image Source: https://tenor.com/be7WH.gif While we are at it, might I add just how catchy Jaskier's songs are?! Toss a coin to your witcher had me sing along with the bard and even refrain from immediately going to the next episode, skipping the credits (that is a feat as far as Netflix viewers are concerned). I don't know about you, but the rest of the songs in the Netflix original series had the same effect on me, as well.

Fitting casting This The Witcher review is incomplete without mentioning the great casting. As I read the book series, someone like Henry Cavill is what came to my head, and the book cover only drives the point to the head. Don't persecute me, but I strongly feel that Cavill is better suited to be Geralt than superman (truthfully, I never really liked him as the superman). Anya Chalotra embodies the essence of Yennefer like a second skin, and I can't wait to see more of her in The Witcher season 2. I am waiting for the moment when Cirilla and Yennefer interact (no, I am not pitching the two against one another. Or am I?)

Speaking of Cirilla, Freya Allan has done a wonderful job of expressing the princess's difficulty in trusting others after her great loss. The part where Cirilla was possessed was quite creepy in a series that showcases monstrous creatures. The lion cub of Cintra and Geralt of Rivia have met and now I want to know what is next in the Netflix original series.

What Next?

If you have already finished watching the series, like most Netflix users, and are waiting for The Witcher season 2 to come out, I have news for you. Shooting for the second season was scheduled to have started early this year, with the next season coming out in 2021. With the current pandemic, the chances of a delay are high. Now, that is a long wait. Fortunately, I have got you covered with options for what you can do after finishing season one.

Read The Witcher book series:

If you are adamant about exploring further about the world of The Witcher, then I recommend you to give the book series a try. Doing so would enrich your viewing experience when the next season comes out. Moreover, you will have the fun of comparing the book to the series.

Watch similar movies or series:

Netflix is home to quite a few series that are similar to The Witcher like Viking and Merlin. Aside from these, Spartacus, Game of Thrones, and The Last Kingdom are some of the series you can watch.

The Hexer movie and series:

Before Netflix, the Polish had already adapted The Witcher book series into a movie and series, The Hexer.

Play the games:

The book series has a trilogy of video games that fans can play to continue to experience the world of The Witcher. These games are The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The Witcher vs Game of Thrones

https://www.polygon.com/game-of-thrones/2019/5/19/18631713/game-of-thrones-prequel-new-show-cast-story-release-date-hbo

So after The Witcher review, it is time to answer the question-- Is Witcher the new Game of Thrones? The short answer is not yet. With only one season out and another in production, it is quite early to consider The Witcher as a substitution for the widely popular Game of Thrones (GOT). However, both have similarities that cannot be denied. The two are adaptations of fantasy book series with a fictional medieval era-inspired setting. Another similarity is between Cirilla and Khaleesi; both are descendants of rulers who were despised by their subjects (for very different reasons). The Netflix original show even has an element of incest, however fleeting, like GOT. For now, we can only conclude that they are similar, but not quite. So, what do you think of The Witcher? Which of the four options above are you going to try after finishing the first season? Let me know in the comments below!

#Read The Witcher book series #Watch similar movies or series #The Hexer movie and series #Play the games #book adaptations #Enhances the book plot

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disposedserenity · 4 years

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*rough* review of MOTS:7

The title might say review, but it’s really just my own thoughts that I want to share in the form of verbal vomit. STREAM while u read.

1) Interlude: SHADOW I loved the song right away on first listen. The extended version is soooo good, because it traces back to yoongi’s iconic ‘I want big house, big cars, big rings’ line from NMD. Thematically, this is my favourite concept out of the 3 rap line solos (Persona, Shadow & Ego). Yoongi songs all immediately reasonate with me because the stuff he writes about are what I’ve experienced at one point in my life.... and I feel so deeply when yoongi is rapping about it. At this point, I could go on forever about why I love yoongi songs so much but I will stop here.

2) Black Swan

It took me about three listens to fully appreciate the song, but I KNEW I was going to love it when I heard that trap beat and the bump bump bump lyric... Then I watched the performance, and I just loved it even more. For years, I’ve been fervently wishing that bts (especially jimin) would do a contemporary dance and I AM SO GLAD THEY DID!! Speaking of the dance, that’s another analysis on it’s own.... The way they match the dance steps to the lyrics.... Also this song lined up right after shadow makes perfect sense because Shadow talks about losing yourself into the deepest and darkest recesses of your soul while in Black Swan, the boys step into that shadow and confront it because they realise you have to make peace with your shadow to emerge triumphant.

3) Filter

I swear, this could be an Alec Benjamin song because this song has Alec Benjamin VIBES all over. Well, I guess jimin took inspiration from him because he put a ton of alec’s songs on his spotify playlist and even went to his concert so yey! Both their voice tones are similar ish because it’s very distinct and their singing voices are quite different from their speaking voices so it’d be really cool if they made a song together. Funnily enough, I don’t really like this song as much as I thought I’d would. It’s not a bad song, but I think I don’t gravitate to this song as much because this song was written about jimin for jimin and it’s really himself that he’s singing it to.

This song also radiates BIG libra energy. Libras love changing and moulding their personalities to please other people and they put on various personas to showcase the multi-faceted sides of themselves (sorry, just a huge astrology enthusiast here lolol). Filter has a narcissist undertone to it done in a purposeful manner. The protagonist of this song KNOWS he’s desired and is flaunting it in any way possible. They are aware of the power they hold and are wielding it to control the listener (the pursuers) Ahahaha sounds like someone we know? Recently, I told a friend that Jimin is really good at fan service. He’s the idol of idols, his face and name gets recognised first, everyone wants to be him AND be with him.... To sum it up, filter is jimin showing the world that he has many sides and it doesn’t matter which we are going to choose because he can adapt to whichever one you please (this push and pull reminds me a lot of house of cards hmm...)

4) My Time

Jungkook definitely has some magic where his song always gets to me and I immediately like the song. I think he excels in laying out his emotions bare and this creates a perfect canvas for telling his story. I definitely cannot relate to what he talks about in My TIme because I am not a jetsetting global superstar who vary between time zones (not that I know of), yet I still feel like I’ve been in his exact footsteps and know that feeling. This, my friends, is what true skill looks like. The rarest of musicians are able to write a song about themselves and make it relevant to almost everyone. It’s an impossible task. Yet, this golden maknae has succeeded once again.

In Begin, he talks about leaving Seoul to pursue his dreams and dedicates that song to his 6 members, his 6 newfound brothers, the hardships they go through and again, this hits you hard. You might not have left your hometown at a young age, but everyone has left something or someone behind in their lives. Euphoria ALWAYS makes me melancholic even though I clearly 1) am not young, 2) do not have a first love 3) minus bts, would NOT call anyone the cause of my euphoria but shit, jungkook out here got me feeling things and tearing up.

Thank you jungkook for constantly expressing your thoughts in such a clear way in any song you write, and My Time is no exception (and it sounds like such a r&b banger too)

5) Louder than Bombs

TROYE! SIVAN! You absolutely can hear troye’s fingerprints all over this song because this song sounds like a troye song (in the best way possible, because I looooove troye and his music) This is another classic “happy sounding but sad af lyrics” bangtan moment. Louder than Bombs is a good midway point in the album because they are crossing into the sad, aggressive, heart tearing, no bullshit songs territory.

(I don’t have a lot to say about this because I really love this song and sometimes with songs that I like, I just sit back and enjoy for what it is.)

6) ON

OKAY NOW LET’S GET INTO FORMATION! (yes, this was the first thing that it reminded me of hahaha and her superbowl half time performance had a marching band too) THIS.IS.SUCH.AN.ABSOLUTE.EARWORM. I LOVE IT. The 30 second preview made me so intrigued because it only featured the “hey na na na” part so I wondered what ON would sound like. I was NOT expecting it to sound like that, but what can I say? BTS always blows me away with their title tracks.

Speaking of formation, hooooo boy do I love the formation of this choreography. Mad props to The Lab for pulling this out of their hat because IT IS SO IMPRESSIVE. The set up reminds me of dionysus too, in the way that the choreography is being arranged in the live performances. Big ups to the Blue Devils marching band too, because even though you can’t really see much of them in the mv (or maybe I’m too focused on the boys lol) but you can hear the marching band so much clearer in the audio and I am LIVING for it. Overall, I am utterly thrilled by this masterpiece.

7) UGH!

*gunshots* alright back to 2013 bangtan let’s go. UGH, when will rap line stop making a banger? never I guess, UGH. lord, just let me get dissed by rap line once and then life would be better.

I. fucking. love. the. rap. line. I am definitely not smart enough to try to analyse or decipher the lyrics even with translations because their wordplay is on a whole other level. With cyphers and ddaeng, I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore but I still am. They manage to outdo themselves with every new song they release together. RM, Suga and J-Hope are great on their own but you put them TOGETHER? in one STUDIO? god help us all when this is performed live because someone’s gonna get headbanged out of the venue. I’ll end this with a silent prayer for a rap line concert.....

8) 00:00

This song is so, so, so painful. This song is what Tonight is to me. Ok I’m going to get a whole lot more personal here.

I was in a fucking terrible internship last year during the period Persona was released (I’m actually quite thankful this song wasn’t released then or I’d really have full on goblin ugly cry listening to this). That was the worst job experience I’ve ever had in my life (lao tian ye please don’t deal me any more shitty hands). I spent every day wishing that my misery would end soon and I physically did not want to go to work the next day. Every morning, I was almost crying to have to get up to go to work (and because it was an almost 2 hour journey to the office). By the time I reached home, all I could do was eat (if I had an appetite) and retire to my room and lie on the floor and just stare into my ceiling while mindlessly scrolling through social media looking for some sort of solace. Some days, even bts wasn’t doing it for me. Even though I managed to get out of that hellhole before the end date, the trauma (lol can I call it that?) and emotions stayed with me throughout the rest of the year. Only one friend knew I had depression and constantly asked me about it (thank you friend, even though you won’t read this...) and I even looked up therapists in singapore.

The lyrics ‘An unsettling night, suddenly, I look at the clock. Soon, it’s 12 O’Clock. Will something change. It probably won’t be the case’ hits so hard because this describes my situation to a T. By the time I got home, it was about 8.30 and by the time I snapped out of my mindlessness, it was almost midnight and this cycle just carried on for months.

Zero O’Clock

And you gonna be happy

Midnight is both a happy and sad hour, because for some it could signal the end of their misery or their happiness. Back then, it was my hell because it meant a new hellish day was approaching. Looking back now, I realise it could have been a tiny form of happiness because it meant that the days are passing and the end to my pain was getting closer.

So thank you Jin, Jungkook, V and Jimin for creating such a beautiful song that I didn’t know would end up being so personal. Putting aside the meaning, it is such a great song that I’d put on repeat. But I’m scared to call this a favourite because of how intimate this is for me so I hope y’all understand. But, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

9) Inner Child

This sounds like it should be a in a drama or anime haha. The “whoa ohhhh” vocals in the backgrounds reminds me a lot of Jet Lag too. Inner Child is a very fitting title because as V described, it is a letter to his past self. As an ARMY, I’ve witnessed how much V has matured over the past few years. I mean even though all of the members have also grown, V’s transformation is the one that stands out the most (at least to me). Tae went from a bright eyed outgoing kid to a still outgoing but deeply contemplative adult in front of millions of adoring fans and strangers alike, and I cannot imagine how that must be like for him. V is a notoriously private person, and we know the least about if you reeeally think about it. I will never (nor do I want to) know what goes through his mind but I appreciate the fact he reveals a tiny glimpse of it in his songs (scenery, winter bear and now inner child).

10) Friends

CAN YOU SPELL SOULMATES? NO YOU CAN’T, BECAUSE THERE IS NO VMIN IN IT. Ships are cute and all, but vmin has trascended beyond what ships are and I’m convinced they are all part of a bigger plan arranged by the Almighty that no matter what happens, they will always find each other in their four lives (can you tell I’ve been watching Goblin lolol). Recently, I was listening to a podcast by Jae and the episode was about the probability of soulmates. One of the questions he posed was what is a soulmate? To me, I believe that soulmates exist in many forms. There are the romantic soulmates (hi glenn & benn), friendship soulmates, family soulmates, strangers soulmates and even a bond between a pet and a human. I now think there should be another category of soulmates and that is vmin. *cries I want what vmin have* Not everyone manages to find their soulmates. The lucky ones do, and the rest of us will have to settle for second best.

Also kudos to Jimin for his first ever produced song! woohoo

11) Moon

When I first read that this was a song about Jin’s love for ARMY, I braced myself for a full waterfall of tears. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how happy this song sounds??? (thanks jin for not making me cry again like tonight did). Now that I think about it, of course Jin would make a happy love song (pffft saggis). As we all know, Jin’s way of comforting himself is to comfort others through laughter, smiles and lotsa dad jokes. No one else but Jin would and I love him even more for this. He takes the idea of what you’d think a love song would sound like and turn it around. SAD? NOT IN JINHIT ENTERTAINMENT.

Jin, know that you are more than a handsome face and the oldest member. You are loved more than you think you are. You think you’re the moon to us? No hun, you are the entire galaxy contained in those worldwide shoulders.

12) Respect

My favourite track. I mean starting with that iconic “should I stay or should I go” line? Genuis. Collab of the year. Namgi of the year. Ok, maybe I am slightly (alot) bias since this song is essentially Suga, RM & El Capitixn (yes, THE El Capitixn that helped to produce DDAENG).

Namgi dynamics are so rarely talked about because most people see them as the underground rapper duo who’ve known each other over 10 years and are old friends and that’s about it. Their dynamics just gets to me even more because the trust and respect they have for each other is incredible. Joon looks up to yoongi as an older member and also for his incredible work ethic, while yoongi trusts joon wholeheartedly as their leader even though joon is younger and the way they banter off each other? ugh, where can I get bros like namgi? Their rap and producing styles are so vastly different yet the result that is respect makes ME respect them. Use me as your slave, masters.

bonus: that ending clip of them just having a convo? please share your stories from back in the day, please. I said please. with a cherry on top.

13) We are Bulletroof: the Eternal

Is this MOTS : 7′s answer to Mikrokosmos? I can already imagine this as the ending song of a concert..... A perfect tune to end the album as well. Who knew my attraction to the number seven had a deeper meaning than just simply liking it huh? Is my life preplanned too.... @ universe give me answers. I really like how this song did not go the WABB Part 1 & 2 route and took a softer approacher indeed. It’s almost like they are saying we were seven hardened boys made more tender with the existence of armys.... ok bitch don’t make me cry anymore than I have been suppressing.

“we are not seven, with you” :’))))

14) Outro: Ego

This is the kind of song that gets better the more you listen to it. Not that it was bad on the first listen, but usually such bright and positive songs takes a while longer for the emo in me to process. I say this all the time that I almost sound like a broken recorder, but I LOVE LOVE how hobi has crafted a sound for him that is uniquely his and you will be able to immediately recognise it’s him (which is such a hard feat to pull off, might I add). I’m also immensely proud because he started out as a street dancer to becoming one of the best rappers in the industry while holding his rightful candle alongside two already established rappers that is namgi. I cannot wait to see this being performed live because you just know he’ll get everyone and their grandmas to start vibin right there.

In conclusion, I love bts. what else is there more to say.

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zukadiary · 5 years

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Hoshigumi Small Theaters ~ Spring 2019

I am five entire shows behind on reviews and I hate it!!

But I finally make it to Kansai!! I conveniently managed to see these guys on back to back days upstairs and downstairs in the same building. If nothing else I think I am 500% more educated on Hoshigumi after this trip.

Man from Algiers / Estrellas 2.0

Man from Algiers ticks all the National Tour buttons—old, done many times, ambiguous time period (useful for traveling costume recycling, i.e. why not just use the rainbow sports jackets we need for Estrellas anyway!)—and while I’m not surprised that Coto can make just about anything good, I was a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed the show itself (this was the first time I’d seen it at all, which was a blessing as the surprise ending was my favorite part).

I can definitely envision it in all its original 70s glory, and it made me wonder if they really just wanted to exploit a West Side Story aesthetic’s swoon-inducing abilities and came up with the plot later; the opening looks and choreography were awfully familiar. Am I saying it didn’t work?

No I am not saying that.

(And the resulting prologue number was really cool).

The story, while dated, was simple and easy to follow, and does a great job of making sure you understand each character’s motivation with minimal info (difficult AND clutch for one-acts). There’s a good summary on the wiki, I’m including spoilers not mentioned there.

Team National Tour is definitely the lighter side of the troupe split, especially with regard to upperclassmen, but I thought Algiers was a good fit for this particular arrangement of members, and everyone really nailed their characters. Most notable:

Julien is a despicable person, and it’s a testament to Coto’s pure heart and brimming talent that she made him a totally valid protagonist, complete with moments that made my heart lurch a little (when his old friends are bullying him in his cute little chauffeur outfit; how quickly he abandons everything to stand by Sabine when everything goes to hell at the end).

It was very weird first not to see Aichan in Ocean’s and then to see her hanging out with a percentage of Hoshigumi, but this cast needed her. Her Jacques (albeit very reminiscent of her Bernardo) was a good balance for Coto; they both played unsavory people, but Aichan playing bad has kind of a darker streak that suits the more evil friend well, whereas Coto playing bad still has an undercurrent of goodness that gets you fully on board with his journey to reform.

Otoha Minori as Sabine was a good choice not only for her abs in the gold night club bikini dress, but for her maturity, which lended sincerity to Sabine’s fantasy-level selflessness in her concern for Julien and her desire to watch over him. When she shoots Jacques in her dressing room to get him out of the way so he can’t interfere with Julien’s new life, I was so impressed that it read as an act of sacrifice (however excessive and stupid) purely out of love and desire to see Julien continue to grow and succeed, instead of “look at what I did for you, come back to me!”

Asamizu Ryou played Bollinger, the dude who takes Julien in and grooms him for upper-crust success, opposite not just Coto (her senpai) but Shirotae Natsu (her mega-senpai), and she did it with a surprising amount of gravitas. She’s got that face which definitely helps, but she was a little scary and exuded a lot of authority. Shirotae Natsu was hilarious as the extraordinarily airheaded wife, and her interjections may have even been singlehandedly responsible for keeping the pacing of the show brisk and entertaining.

Sakuraba Mai played the Bollingers’ daughter Elizabeth. She was detestable, but in the way that indicates a great acting job. She’s at that awkward spot where it looks like she’s getting almost heroine weight roles in small theaters and disappearing in grand theaters. I hope they keep pushing her because she’s very strong.

Number one heartbreaker Kozakura Honoka (voice of an angel!) played blind Annabel, daughter of Kumichou/a very influential duchess. She mostly stays inside alone, and then Julien woos her with the intention of climbing the social/political ladder (while developing feelings for Elizabeth and also really never getting over Sabine). Annabel overhears Julien confessing his feelings to Elizabeth and asks her attendant Andre (Kiwami Shin, in love with Annabel) to let her kill herself. Honoka apparently put an immense amount of time and research into acting blind and it showed.

Fellow American Sayaka Rin had probably the most lines she’s had yet, in a role formerly held by both Takashio Tomoe and Hyuuga Kaoru <3

My personal MVPs of this show were Shidou Ryuu and Kiwami Shin, Shidou not even for doing anything particularly spectacular, but just just for having grown so much since I first became aware of her existence via the Koumori shinko 3+ years ago. She’s always going to be on the cute side rather than the devastating side IMO, but she’s developed enough confidence and control in her acting that she’s become a really lovable best friend/brother type; her character’s relationship with Julien and secret-but-obvious admiration of his far superior coolness was really adorable. Andre (Shin) isn’t a super juicy role until the very end, but the way Shin did Andre’s quiet breakdown when Annabel was explaining she didn’t want to live anymore, and then her poise when Andre came out of nowhere and shot Julien just as he and Sabine were trying to run away from shooting Jacques (?!??!) was like, my jaw actually dropped. Granted she’s still super young, but Shin isn’t someone who has thus far impressed me proportionately to the amount they’re pushing her, so this mini breakout was nice to see.

Estrellas (a revue that I loved!), like all tour revues with less than half the cast and no staircase, felt quite small, at least from the B-seki side box. But in the smallness, normally unseen people get to shine, and there were moments that had me bouncing in my chair. Amato Kanon is going to grow up dangerous (if Tennis Daughter doesn’t just consume all the otokoyaku below 98th); in the opening with everyone else beaming she was smoldering. Aichan and Anru took Kai’s medley (with different songs) and made it a very cute douki thing. Sazanami Reira needs to dance closer to the front more often. Ruri Hanaka (who, bless her heart, cannot sing, at least not like a musumeyaku) somehow snagged Airi’s part in Tonight is What it Means to be Young, and despite the singing, absolutely killed it; that girl can DANCE and she’s got sass and arm muscles for days and a look in her eye like she’ll superglue you to your makeup table if you cross her.

And boy, Coto looks good in that top position. The talent is really stupid, but on top of that she has such warmth. I’m really excited for her Hoshigumi.

Kamatari

Kamatari accomplished a feat, because admittedly I went in having already biased myself against it; I thought Beni and Airi getting a weird nihonmono for their last small theater was dumb and just about as NOT THEM as you can get.

But I take it back! It was lovely!

For starters it was visually stunning, which feels like the thing you say when you’re trying to convince yourself that you liked a nihonmono you didn’t actually understand a word of... but in this case, it really was just a bonus. The story (summary here) is not actually all that complicated, and the dialogue was even on the friendly side for nihonmono—no weird dialects (beyond what it always takes to decipher Beni), no 12th level keigo.

Act 1 introduces Kamatari (Beni) and Soga no Iruka (Hanagata Hikaru) meeting as youths in school and developing a friendship, and then takes us, as far as I can tell, fairly historically accurately through the events leading up to and including the Isshi Incident. Act 2 was a little harder for me to follow; but it seems to be just a progression of Kamatari’s struggles living under the new post-incident emperor Naka no Oe (Seocchi), with whom he’d conspired to eliminate Soga no Iruka, and the former empress/Naka no Oe’s mother (Kuracchi), who wants to see Kamatari suffer, because she both loved Iruka and couldn’t side against her son.

Most of the roles were pretty small so there are fewer standouts, but here they are:

This was the third in a progression of Hoshi shows I saw live (the other two being Another World and Elbe) that really helped cement my respect for Beni and Airi’s brand of chemistry. At the beginning of her top run, I was skeptical about Beni’s ability to generate romantic chemistry with anyone at all (Scarlet Pimpernel didn’t really help me with that, and I haven’t seen anything between that and Another World). They definitely don’t have sizzling hot chemistry, and they don’t have that cute newlywed chemistry either, but I noticed watching Kamatari that in the last few Hoshi things I’ve seen, I’ve found it very easy to believe how deeply Beni loves Airi in whatever world they’re portraying. They have like, comfortable old married couple chemistry (yes, even when they’re playing love at first sight). Their moments in Kamatari were very tender, but in a wholesome “aw, she cooked for him” kind of way. Yoshiko (Airi) also had a lovely part at the end, where the two of them are old, and Kamatari’s health is failing, and they go back to the spot where they met, and she says their life wasn’t always easy, and they suffered, and they struggled, but in the end she can honestly say she had fun, and she’s truly happy. I teared up! It was sweet and meta! That alone convinced me it wasn’t a bad last small theater for them.

Hanagata Hikaru was SO much the star of Act 1 that it had me wondering if this was gonna turn out to be HER taidan present (but then she died and didn’t appear in Act 2 at all). I can’t complain because she kicked ass. I feel like I said this exact thing re: Another World, but Mitsuru is normally about as vanilla as it gets for me, but she blew me away. The pompous genius school kid to the idealistic young man to the uncertainty that comes with the reality of seizing power to the change to tyranny mixed with love for the empress and complicated feelings for his childhood friend all flowed seamlessly.

Not that I’ve watched a ton of Hoshi recently, but this was the best role Tenju Mitsuki has gotten in GOD I can’t even remember how long. Esaka is in service of the (state? empire?) as a historical record keeper, and serves kind of as a narrator as well (along with Itsuki Chihiro). I don’t even know how to describe how she characterized him... he’s odd? Maybe a little off? Regardless, she was brilliant. Watch it.

Arisa Hitomi has that empress energy for sure. I read up on the history of the events afterwards, and the explanation of why she had to give up the throne after witnessing such violence (the idea back then that an empress couldn’t be sullied by such things), and that made the sensitivity with which Kuracchi portrayed her feel even more poignant the more I sat with it afterwards.

This was the first show where to me Seocchi felt like she belonged up there with Beni and Mitsuru. She definitely put some weight behind Naka no Oe and was very princely. NOW I wanna see her tackle a more interesting/challenging (and tbh more Hoshigumi) role from up in this spot.

All in all now I’m a little sad I won’t be around for God of Stars.

#takarazuka #reviews #hoshigumi #man from algiers #kamatari #am i 東宝組 now 19

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thisisasupergoodidea · 5 years

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just watched The Guy Who Didnt Like Musicals a second time. i didnt really process the songs properly the first time and didnt like them but now i can actually hear the tunes as intended and i love this whole thing so much. so im gonna ramble about this musical for a bit. spoilers ahead if u havent watched yet (its on youtube)

ive seen a few of the theories ppl have about the delivery of the musical, and about what happens at the end especially. i think i wanna try my hand at it too because sometimes i enjoy interpreting details. and im a gigantic sucker for reprises that stitch together all the songs we just heard into its own frankenstein song that completely changes in meaning or tone based on all the info we absorbed over the course of the program. and boi the last song of the show sure fuckin delivers

ok well i need to start at the beginning though. some ppl are confused by what the opening lil song and dance is within the context of the musical, because it introduces the main character, but at that point no one is infected yet so it just seems like standard musical stuff in the viewpoint of the audience, who expects this. but the entire plot of this musical is that the characters’ world slowly BECOMES a musical due to alien spores from a meteor infecting everyone to act as a harmonious hive mind. so in this sense its two musicals at the same time: the musical that starkid productions wrote, and the looser ‘musical’ that the alien entity is orchestrating during its antagonism of the main character. i believe that the opener takes place after at least a partially successful domination of the populace, mostly because of the fact that the characters who participate in that song are referring to ‘themselves’ in the third person and are dancing all hunched and menacingly, exactly how the alien spore compels people to dance later on in the plot. that plus a line that i might be recalling correctly about how the main character is their final story to tell, makes me certain that this is the alien telling that story

as for the main character paul’s absence from that song, i really think thats something intended in the musical to introduce what paul is like in the most succinct way possible. the guy just did not like musicals. throughout the plot he is constantly defining himself by his lack of participation, so of course the cheekiest way to set that up is to have him not participate in the opener. i think the confusing part here is when the story actually begins, because if the opener was performed by the future infected characters, when is the line drawn to differentiate between the two musicals that are happening (starkid musical vs alien musical)? or is the whole thing a performance by the alien entity? in which case, everyone on that stage is simply acting out the story as determined by the hive mind. but to whom, if everyone’s infected? i’ll get back to that later

another thing i love about this musical is how gradually tired of paul’s shit the alien entity becomes over the course of the plot, as evidenced by the tone of the songs. it just gets worse and worse. the alien’s songs turn from sickeningly cheerful to enticing, to threatening, to evoking hopelessness, then finally to pressuring paul past his breaking point. some of the songs arent even directed at paul but the change still happens, which goes to show the alien entity’s frustration. and at the end when the infected find emma, the song is happy again. they sing that awesome reprise, a really energetic mashup in which its hard not to feel like the alien plague is unstoppable. inevitable, one might say.

speaking of the end... paul’s confrontation with the meteor (my absolute favorite scene that i would rewatch a hundred times except i dont want to get tired of it too fast) contains good information to understanding what happens afterward. paul tries to blow it up, gets distracted by the appearance of his infected acquaintances, and the longer he stays there the more infected he himself becomes, breathing in such a heavy concentration of those alien spores at the epicenter of its activity. until now, he has rejected actively being the ‘star of the show’ like the alien seems to... want him to be? idk, the point is that his character defies musical protagonist tropes despite how the plot follows him. the story is ABOUT the alien, but paul is the audience’s anchor. until he goes to blow up the meteor. at that point, the alien has him. he can barely fight back against his own body synchronizing with the other infected as they goad him into giving in, but he puts up a damn good struggle considering those impossible circumstances. still, for the first time, he participates. he sings. he hates it, but it brings out some interesting thoughts: does he hate it? did he ever? or is this just the spores talking?

but what part, exactly, does he hate? in a musical, the singing and dancing act is usually the method of delivery for whatever the character is truly feeling. it is an opportunity for the audience to connect emotionally with the person who is singing. but we dont have that with paul for almost the entire show. he doesnt participate. and he’s established in the beginning as selfish, kind of a dick, and not available to anyone (except emma who is the only person he even slightly opens up to. he tries to be more friendly somewhat with bill, i think, but even then that couldve just been to get him to snap out of it and escape the school). he said himself that people singing and dancing makes him uncomfortable. so all this is to say that, on a deeper level, i think the aspect of the singing and dancing that he hates, that he fights to resist, is the vulnerability. you can witness the madness and shame for yourself as he sings more and more, letting out his worries, unsure if his feelings are his anymore. but hey, he ends that scene with a statement reaffirming the self he walked in with (which is to say, a guy who hates musicals) and finally pulls his grenade. so its cool that he was able to resist that but. guys. if the spores didnt get him. that grenade absolutely did. he didnt even bother to throw it away from himself, he flung it down right in front of him. theres no way he didnt get blown to bloody chunks, fully intending for that to be his final act of defiance

but i think it was too late by then. he’d already breathed in so many spores, and we were shown earlier on that death is not an impediment to becoming infected. i think after he exploded, he was still absorbed into the collective and reformed as a new addition to the hive mind. his explosives might not have been enough to fully destroy the meteor. and thats why, at the very end, i believe that - despite his admittedly suspicious face journey during the song - he isnt faking it. because if he was, wouldnt the hive mind know that it doesnt contain him within it? not only that, but in the opening song emma is clearly part of the group. given that she is the only one who is undoubtedly not infected in the last song, we have to assume that she will be sometime after the finale of the musical.

and now im left with my unexplored questions: is this a musical played straight, or a ‘musical’ put on by the alien entity after it wins? and who is the ‘musical’ intended for? its fun to speculate but im not sure these are questions that can be answered by watching it a bunch of times. theyre aimed too much outside of the zone of operation, if that makes sense. its like, you cant ever look at your own eyeballs normally. you need a mirror or for someone to describe them to you. these questions exist outside of the limitations of the musical format, so we wouldnt direct them at the video, we would ask them of the creators. or not. its cool to not have all the questions answered too

ah i wrote a flippin essay, huh? i guess i wanted to prove to myself that my brain still works

#the guy who didn't like musicals #tgwdlm #starkid #i did say i would ramble...

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pravin1224-blog · 5 years

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Once upon a time I used to know a 13 year old boy who was convinced that he was destined to become something spectacular in life .

Then one day, he grew up.

Soon, the day slipped into years . And the years into decades . Until one fine morning when he looked into the bathroom mirror and found a stranger in there. A stranger who reminded him of a typical non-hero character out of a Woody Allen movie, someone who was standing at intermission and unable to account for the thousands of days that had slipped by, taking all his innocent and absurd dreams with them.

That 13-year old boy used to be me . Or maybe he used to be you. The you, you left behind – at misty bends and messy ends, as you went about earning your scars and chasing illusions you mistook for real life.

Time is indeed a queer commodity that is reconstructed in memories and deconstructed in regrets as it goes by. Most of us sleepwalk through our youth in trying to win some kind of identity . Then we stumble upon middle age & scramble to preserve that identity . And suddenly, standing at mid-point , we realize that somewhere in this medley of all the artificial races we were enlisting in, we have quietly let go of our greatness. Partly by default , partly by design. The first pangs of urgency hit us. We know this is no dress rehearsal. It is our own life that is gliding past. We straighten up and reach for it.

In many ways, 2019 has been that year for me. The year of pause and reset. The year of recalibration so as to find my personal 2.0. Agree, it might not fetch me that Olympic medal or get me a phone call from Stockholm in this lifetime, but it should at least bring forth the best in the rest of me. Someone had written somewhere that one day in your journey, the you who you became will come face to face with the you who you could have been . This year, and in the years ahead, I have chosen to test this out with my personal toolkit, my realizations from having lived a life of sorts. At least I owe it to the 13-year old who I would like to see eye to eye as we shake hands on the other side of the finish line.

Here’s my 2.0. Do let me know if it matches with yours ?

Find your song – Like Rocky says, ‘Fighters fight..’. Likewise, painters paint. Poets write. You were born with your own song inside you, a song no one else can sing as well as you. Find it. Don’t show up at the finale with your song still unsung.

Toss it up – As we get older, we become suckers for conformity. We join the herd, and get trapped in time capsules that we legitimize as our rule book. And in the process, we lose our fluidity and edge. Find ways to toss your days. Every day is different. Each day has its unique flavor and rhythm. Discover it. Savor it. Live it.

Subtract your busyness – In today’s super connected world, it is very easy to get zombified by irrelevant chatter and numbed by FOMO ( fear of missing out). Get off the bandwagon of manufactured busyness. If anything really needs your attention, it will find its way to you somehow. You don’t need to check your phone every 30 seconds for that.

Be the best first hand You – When people talk of you in your absence, there should be 5-6 consistent things that they recall about you. That is your own personal brand. Work on it, nurture it and protect it. This is what should make people love and respect you beyond your day job title. In 2019, I de-linked my brand from my day job. Its not that I do not love my organization or my job. Far from it. But I prefer an identity that is my own. And I feel glad that I have so many friends, connections and well wishers out there who don’t care what I do as my day job.

Find your well – My favorite among Haruki Murakami’s many metaphors is the ‘bottom of a well’ thing , a place his protagonists often retreat into. We all need a well as we do our 2.0. This is where we need to disappear periodically, to lose ourselves in dark silence every day, so as to find ourselves better. You are not ready to deliver your swansong till you know all that you must know about you.

Don’t be the dinosaur in the room – Keep pace with trends & technology. There is no scientific evidence suggesting that our brains become less capable to embrace newness as we grow older. In fact, I think it is the reverse. We actually develop a wider perspective to apply new things as we have a larger platter of past experiences to draw from. Most people get stuck in the ‘good old days’ syndrome and squander off their precious 2.0 in cynicism and nostalgia. As the saying goes – The good old days were not that good. The good new days are here. And better days are coming.

Don’t be a corporate robot – Most people out there wake up, grimace at the morning news, eat breakfast, drive their Toyota Corolla to work , sit nodding in endless & pointless meetings, grumble about life's unfairness at the vending machine, ‘Like’ their boss’s stupid posts on social media, criticize Trump and Modi, go back home, watch TV and go to bed. Don’t be most people. Your 2.0 should be about finding your unique way to add value. To yourself, to your workplace and to the world you live in.

Find the smaller meaning of life – In pursuit of some unnecessary profound, we often miss the necessary ordinary. Each day is an opportunity to do our own small things for this world. Find few small things to do each day. If each of us took care of the small things, the big things will take care of themselves.

Stop chasing credit for the work you do - The world is a fair place. Every honest effort gets noticed, recorded and applauded in due course of time. Your time shall come.

Find your Zen - Human beings, by nature, are designed for stability and coexistence. This whole discourse on disruption is overrated and temporary . It will soon pass. And life will go on.

Get fit -If you miss your workout for a day, no one will notice. If you miss it for three days, you will notice. If you miss it for a week, others will notice. One of the things you need for an effective 2.0 is robust health. Respect your body. And it will pay you dividends as you slug it out there and compete in the relevance battle with people half your age.

Dress sensibly - Don’t buy skinny jeans. Donate your light coloured suits. No one might tell you so, but they make you look silly.

Decode love - In 2.0, you discover that love is not a few nice words from a Rumi’s couplet , but rather, it is a person we uncover as we grow older – in someone else, as well as in ourselves. Love during your first innings is often impulsive, hormonal & stupid. Love during 2.0 becomes something that grows & triumphs over time and circumstances. Make sure you love your partner. Also make sure you remember to tell your partner that you love her / him. Nothing silly in that.

Draw out your circle of dignity – Youth is about misadventures and compromises. Hungry to get an appreciative nod from the world, we keep making allowances. Each such allowance leaves us with a vague vacuum within, a discomfort we cannot explain . One of the things about 2.0 is plugging the vacuum by drawing your own circle of dignity, your personal code of conduct. This is the line you won’t cross, no matter how big the repercussions be.

The dude in the sky - Mark Twain ( in his 1916 classic ‘ The mysterious stranger ’) wrote – “Humanity has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” Loosen up. Every once in a while, connect with your eccentric friends. Or with your own eccentric self. You are but just a speck in the scheme of the universe which again is only a speck in the larger scheme of a drama being scripted by that brilliant playright in the sky . Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Live fair. Stay kind. Have fun. Finish well.

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