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rawsanma · 3 years

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In Memoriam of "Shin Evangelion: Curse"

*The following article contains a full spoiler for "Evangelion 3.0+1.0".*

I sat together with a person who was not in birth when EOE was released, and after watching the film we talked a bit and thought about the people who passed away without ever seeing this. I understand that fans from the old series and those who came from the new series may have very different perceptions of Shin-Eva. So I'd like to first correct a few things I said in my first impressions.

It may be somewhere between an honorable movie and a mediocre movie in general, but as Evangelion, it's garbage.

After about halfway through the two hours and thirty-five minutes, I started to look at my watch again and again. The double ending, which is both a personal novel and a product, was a fleeting fantasy, and the two songs "One Last Kiss" and "beautiful world (da capo ver.)" were not used effectively in relation to the story, only being played in the staff roll.

When I saw the first 10 minutes of the movie that was released last year, I thought that perhaps Paris was chosen as the setting for the story of "humanity fighting together in the face of destruction" or "the expansion of the Eva world (not G Gundam, but G Eva!)", but that was not the case at all. He just wanted to depict the battle using the Eiffel Tower as a FATALITY,　I realized that he hadn't made a single millimeter of progress since when he asked Hayao Miyazaki if I could film only this action scene of Her Highness Kushana in the re-animation of Nausicaa, he was scolded, "That's why you're no good!"

At the beginning of the film, they try to carefully describe the things behind the scenes that were not told in Eva Q. The third Ayanami like the TV version is the main character, and they go on and on about living in the countryside, copying "My Neighbor Totoro". The large family of our parent's home that we go back to during the summer vacation is presented as an image of happiness in life and a decent human being. It is also connected to Gendou's narrative during the Human Instrumentality Project but isn't it too Showa-era and too simple a solution? I am interested in how the young fans who are children of nuclear families who left their large families in the countryside and moved to the city saw the too sudden depiction of "life in the countryside". It was almost a gag to see Ayanami walking around in a plug suit which is a sexual orientation that has manifested itself after Space Battleship Yamato, in the images of pre and post-war farming villages depicted by recent NHK morning dramas. The director, influenced by his wife, must have been immersed in the LOHAS and vegan lifestyle as a fashion statement, which is only possible because he is an urbanite with too much stuff and too much money. As for this theme, it has already been presented in the watermelon field scene in the second film, and it is merely a re-presentation of the same theme in a diluted form.

I've pointed out before that Eva Q is "a crack in reality because of the loss of reality to rely on. "It's rude not to eat what you're served!", Shinji was scolded by Touji's father, who looked like a subversion of Hayao Miyazaki's work (Gedo Senki!). I have a simple question, how can the interior of a house become so old and wretched after only 14 years? How can a community of people of all ages be formed in just 14 years?　There was a line that implied that Touji had killed someone for the village, and it is possible that the director had extremely beautified the "Showa era" as a sanctuary where people who are hurt and regret their committing murder during the war as a soldier live nearby, and when he opened the last drawer after using up all the materials, he found the image of the original landscape of his childhood.

Misato and Kaji's child, which is only described for a few minutes, is also abrupt, and I don't feel that it is more than a plot device for the purpose of staging the reconciliation with Shinji later on. Some people seem to be moved by the fact that "behind Misato's cold attitude towards Shinji in Q, there was such a conflict in her mind," but it's the opposite. All the answers are just excuses after wasting nine years of work. Even if the wounds healed and treated with a gentle "I'm sorry," after being beaten severely by a raging DV husband, the fact of the beating would not disappear, and the wife would feel nothing but fear at the sudden change in her husband. To a situation that he had set to minus 100, he spent 2 hours and 35 minutes gradually pouring water drawn from other places and past works to bring it back to zero...I've never seen such a horrible match pump. Well, now that I'm writing this, I'm thinking that I've seen this before.

The relationship between Eva Q and Shin Eva is very similar to the relationship between "The Last Jedi" and "The rise of Skywalker" in Star Wars. In a self-absorbed rampage of conjecture that did not listen to the opinions of others, the historical stage of the series that had been built up was turned into a mess, and then the destroyed story was carefully built up again from the ground using unnecessary length, and only the shape of the story was created to end it without being disgraceful, and every scene that tries to make things more exciting is a copy of past work. As for Star Wars, since 8 and 9 were directed by different directors, I was able to settle my feelings of resentment towards Ryan and gratitude towards Abrams, respectively, but as for Evangelion, the director looks like a child who has been proud to clean up his own mess and have his female cronies praise and pat him on the head. Moreover, what kind of sympathy do you expect when you are told to "I'll make amends" for the mere act of wiping your ass after defecating, in a cool, Showa-era chivalrous tone?

In this film, as a recovery from Q and a summary of new Eva, there are elements throughout the story that critics can easily relate to the old Eva. “Oh, I can talk about this in connection with that!” This is what gives them a good impression and it has nothing to do with how the old fans perceive it. The director seems to have a dedicated person in charge of communicating and negotiating with the outside, but now he wants the critics to communicate with the fans about Shin-Eva. As long as he doesn't speak for himself, he can correct their interpretations later based on the "misunderstandings" of the people in between himself and his fans. This is a very Japanese-style system of surmising feelings, a system of authority that is formed when only a limited number of cronies are informed of the true intentions of the president. If I talk about it in too much detail, right-winged Yakuza will show up very soon, so to make it short, it is an indigenous control structure unique to Japan that originated from the "Mikado behind the bamboo blind". This time the director was very conscious of that, and I was able to see that Eva, who was a challenger, has become an authority that does not tolerate any criticism.

And what fan from the past could enjoy watching the endless battle scenes after Shinji returns to Wunder in the middle of the film? One after another, the sister ships of Wunder appear--there's almost no difference in appearance, but Ritsuko is able to guess their names the moment they appear. Right after the line "I'm pretty sure there's a fourth ship," the fourth ship comes crashing upon them from underneath, with no intention other than to make us laugh, right? As well as the repeated tenseless bombardment fight with no description of damage no matter how many artillery shells are hit, and it's quite painful being poured Asuka and Mari's Me-Strong Battles which are already enough by the time of Q, continuously down my throat like a goose with a funnel in its mouth. There's no way to synchronize my feelings with the screen, and it just creates an atmosphere as if the story is going on with the unattractive super-robot action that I pointed out in Q. It's no use pointing out, but the repair and supply problems of Wille side in a world where the industry has been destroyed were shown in the farming village part, though it was inadequate. But those of NERV side, an organization of only a man and an old man, was completely thrown away.

The last part of the story about the Human Instrumentality Project is like a fanzine where Gendou, Asuka, Kaworu, and Rei are lined up in a row and complemented in turn and then dismissed, whereas EOE was a total complement through Shinji. The director has tried to upgrade his framework by borrowing them from EOE and has failed miserably. Someone who has created works by putting his emotion and flair into a copy has dabbled in copying his own work. As a result, he had to confront his own sensibilities from when he was young and had to compare the old and the new by his old audience. Frankly speaking, only the techniques have been traced, the sound and the screen have become gorgeous, but the emotion and the sense have deteriorated. The face of the giant Ayanami that was replaced with a live-action one -- probably based on the face acting of Shinji's voice actor, and the "untested ordeal" of her tweet means this -- appears in the background like a gold folding screen in the high sand at a Japanese wedding reception. You're getting tired of all this, and you're not making it seriously, are you? The battle between Eva Unit01 and Eva Unit13 in Tokyo-III, which I expressed my anxiety about before the film's release, is a scene where the company's CG team can't produce what the director expects and he is so frustrated that he has the same mindset as in the final two episodes of the TV version, "I'd rather get a minus than a red", and after that, it became like a gag scene, including Eva fights in Misato's apartment and Shinji's school classroom, as if he was staged them in desperation. The side-shooting screenshot of the little Wunder charging at the head of the giant Ayanami is a picture of ”Cho Aniki (Japanese STG)” itself, and it's also meant to be funny, right? It's a series of loose, sloppy, and tenseless scenes that can't be compared to EOE.

What the hell have the CG team been doing for the past nine years, getting paid with no progress and making Eva look like an outdated piece of crap? Didn't anyone have the chivalrous spirit of the Showa era like "Don't embarrass our boss!"? Don't be so relieved when you get the green light! The director has just given up on you! There were a few scenes where the person at the top of the editing and collage, who has been making the coolest pictures, was not given as much good material as he used to be and seemed to make desperate staging in a way that he would never have given the green light in the past. It's been more than 10 years since Xapa was established, but I guess they don't have enough talent to meet the director's vision. Perhaps because of this, the conclusion of the film is exactly the same as the old one, that the director has no choice but to use his personal feelings to finish Eva, but the film ends up being a self-imitation of "Sincerely Yours". It is sad to see a person who "surpasses the original by putting his heart and soul into the copy" start to copy his own past works on the big screen of the theater, because he has become a big name in the animation world after reaching the age of 60, and there are no others left to be copied. However, right after "Komm, süsser Tod" started playing in the old movie, the scene where the titles of each episode and the reverse side of Cels were played in succession was projected on the wall of the studio using a projector -- the title of the new movie was added. It made me mad and thought, "Don't touch my EOE with the dirty hands of the merchant. I'll kill you."

The last things that the man who "transfers his own life onto films" presented in his costly self-published private novel were a naked confession of his own mental history up to the point where he met his wife, which he temporarily entrusted to Gendou, and the words "I think I loved you" and "I loved you" exchanged between himself and the former lover who could not be together and themselves who had separate spouses, just a reckoning of the muddled love affair that existed behind the scenes of EOE. I half-jokingly said that the distance between the director and Asuka's voice actor was important for the end of Eva, but it turned out to be true in a different way. During the recording session, Asuka's voice actor was told by the director, "I'm glad Miyamura is Asuka," which sent chills down my spine as it conveyed the horror of a creator who doesn't hide everything about his life and relationships and uses them to create his works.

In the scene where Shinji says "I liked you too" to the adult Asuka, who is wearing a tight latex suit and drawn in a more realistic character design (making us aware of the cosplay by Asuka's voice actor), while she is lying on the EOE beach, I thought "You guys should do this in a coffee shop or something between recording sessions! Don't make us watch middle-aged man and woman having unpleasant conversations on the big screen of the theater!", I almost screamed out. I think that's the scary part, the director's one-sided love for Asuka's voice actor is falsified by having the character say that she liked him, as if it was a mutual love. The director's statement at the beginning of the pamphlet says that he started working on the sequel right after Evangelion 2.0 without hesitation, using the worldview of "Q". I'm not trying to quote the line "You can change the reality you don't like by getting on Eva.", but it's not as if he's trying to cover up the fact, but he really believes that using his strong imagery, and it made me feel a bit chilly that there was no one around to correct his misconceptions.

At the end of Human Instrumentality Project, I wondered if the fact that a senior member of the movie industry had praised the shooting of EOE by flipping Cels over as a "tremendous deconstruction" was still fresh in his mind. This time, too, it was postponed after postponement, and even though the makings have been done in time, he showed the other side of the production with line drawings and roughs. The reason it was so innovative was that it was the first time anyone had tried it then, and now, 25 years later, it's just a rut. It's disgusting that everyone is praising the master's strange drawing habit and saying, "Oh yeah, that's it, that's it." As I've said before, it's like "defecating in a sixty-nine," which was successful because the first partner happened to be a scatologist. The expression of EOE was sharp and ”Rock’n’‐roll”, but Shin-Eva's "fun of anime images" has gone into the realm of traditional art, like slow "Gagaku".

The director hadn't decided who Mari Makinami was for a long time -- he was so indifferent to her that he threw the actor's acting plan to a sub-director -- but with Shin-Eva, he's changed her into an equal to Moyoco Anno, his wife. In other words, the flashy battle in the middle of the film, which is unimportant to many viewers, is revealed to have been a very pleasant pretend play for the director, in which he has his former love and his current wife fight on his favorite robots. Once again, we are shown the director's so-what-attitude, which has not progressed even a millimeter since "I'm an asshole," and which he can complete his work only by masturbation. So it's no wonder that they couldn't depict the extremely simple catharsis of Shinji's great success with Eva Unit01, which is what most of the old fans want. Because a robot with a pathetic old man on board can't get an erection due to impotence, let alone masturbation!　Oops, excuse me, sir.

And as I said before, it's time to realize that the English language has become so popular in Japan that it's become lame. You use Infinity, Another, Additional, Advanced, Commodity, and Imaginary, just because it sounds cool to you, right?　Everyone criticized the naming "Final Impact", but I never thought I'd see the time when I'd faint from the lack of taste and coolness in Evangelion, such as Another Impact, Additional Impact.

And the ending, with the wedding report in a live-action aerial shot of the director's hometown, newbie fans are screaming that it is like, "They're doing a very positive version of the old "Return to Reality!". But I felt it was too empty and cynical because it was intended to be read that way by the director. It depicts only the elation of marriage, and the pain of getting along with a partner and his or her family with different values is cut off (well, maybe Q was expressing the hardship of married life......). But isn't the emotional weight of a marriage report much higher when you meet your partner's parents?　The fact that he ended the movie by showing his own hometown instead of his wife's hometown leaves me with the impression that he's definitively an egotistical geek through and through. "You may have graduated from a good university and are making good money in the city, but if you're not married and don't have children, aren't you somehow humanly flawed?" After 25 years, Evangelion, which was such a forward-thinking Sci-Fi, is now completely in sync with the earthly ethics of Showa-era's farmers and farm horses. "I got married and it saved my life. I don't know about you, but why don't you try?" You can think what you want, but if you want to convey it as a message of salvation, you have to express it in the content of your work, not in your own talk.

I've been married for 20 years, I have two children, both of whom are about to reach the age of adulthood, I've paid off the mortgage on my home, and I'm finally at the end of raising my children, but all of that is just an outer shell of a social skin that has nothing to do with my true nature or where my soul is! There's no connection between what kind of life an individual lives in the real world and the Sci-Fi sense of wonder, in fact, there shouldn't be any connection! If you're a science fiction fan, take a page from the great Arthur C. Clarke! I was a nerd with a negative value of 100, but when I got married, I gradually poured the "common-sense values" of the Showa era into myself, and now I'm a true man with no negative value? Don't write such pathetic fiction proudly! Listen, what you presented to the audience at the end was the same thing that someone would say to you, "You seedless stallion!" It's the same kind of unethical and vulgar message that you shouldn't be giving! The old Eva became a classic of Japanimation, and no one was able to properly scold you, or you keep away those who tried, and the result of this is directly reflected in the ending of Shin Eva!　You've reached your 60th birthday and you only have such poor social common sense, damn it!

I'm sorry, I was so excited that I lost my control a little bit, just a little bit. I think the director is relying a little too much on his wife, who is ultimately a stranger on, to be his laison d'etre (lol). If they were to break up in the future, it would certainly be the soil for the next Eva, the content and development of which is completely predictable, but that is no longer my concern. I wonder if his wife doesn't like the fact that he's mentally dependent on her like this, and that it's being shown on screens all over the country. If it were me, I'd be furious, but since she's a creator, I guess she understands how he feels. Ignoring the other person's feelings and continuing to force what he believes to be love on her, thinking that it will make her happy, seems to me that there has been no progress at all since the way he treated his girlfriend 25 years ago. The person I want to hear from the most right now is not the self-proclaimed Eva fans who are looking at each other from the side and giving positive feedback in celebration of the final episode, but his wife. If the director had a child, he would not have been able to distinguish between his own ego and that of the child, and would have doted on his child, making a documentary film about his or her growth, but would most likely have turned into a controlling and poisonous parent in his or her adolescence. And he animated his feelings for his child who was rebelling against him, without the child's permission, considering it as a one-sided redemption for the child, and the child who was exposed to the whole country about their home life would have distanced from his father more and more.

In the end, Evangelion did not become a product like Gundam, but rather a robot animation that was the director's weird personal novel. The repeated use of the word "job" in the film has stuck in my mind, but in order for the studio to survive, it had to make Evangelion a product in this new series, and I'm sure that was the initial motivation behind the production of these new films. Your real "job" was to make Evangelion the same as Gundam, to protect the people who came to you because they loved Evangelion. Years from now, I can see a future where Xapa will be like Ghibli, behead the staff and continue as a copyright management company. The director, who didn't want to be embarrassed as a creator by a new challenge adopted the safe way -- I can't believe that I have to use the word "safe" for Evangelion -- to end the new series that relied on EOE only for himself, not for the future of the people who came to admire him. That's what Shin Evangelion is all about.

The good part? The fact that he didn't bring Shin Ultraman trailer at the end of the film makes me think he has grown up a bit. If you're declaring "Farewell, All Evangelions" with the intention of hurting, disappointing, and disinterested old fans like me, then your malice is unfathomable, and that's quite a feat. Brilliantly, your intentions have permanently killed a part of me that used to be an Eva fan.

As horrifying as it is to imagine, it must have crossed the director's mind to reschedule the film and set a new release date for March 11. The only reason he didn't do so is not that he has grown up to be a sensible adult, but rather because the idea of linking Evangelion 3.0 with the Great East Japan Earthquake was a fact that is too painful for him to make it public.

Ten years ago today, many lives were lost and Evangelion was destroyed.

This fact will never disappear, no matter how much the director denies and covers up with the "true" history. If there is any mission left for me as a fan, it is to continue to pass on this fact to future generations as a storyteller. It is a huge loss for Japanese fiction that the end of the great Evangelion has become a self-recovery work of the great failure of the reboot affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and that the potential of the great Evangelion has been consumed by the self-defense of someone who cannot admit his own mistakes, and I sincerely regret it. Shin Evangelion will be forever cursed by the dead, who yearn to see the sequel of Evangelion 2.0, and the living, who yearn to see the sequel of Evangelion 2.0.

This curse will be completed when it spreads, arrives, and is burned by the powers that be as a false history. I pray that my thoughts will reach him!

#evangelion 3.0+1.0

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hamletteprinceofdenmark · 5 years

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36-40

😳 That’s so many!

Top 5 worst moments

1. The burrow scene between Harry and Ginny in 6. Movie Hinny is 🤮

2. The dawning realisation that Clarke wasn’t going to make it time to be part of SpaceKru

3. Woden leaving Brunhilda on the mountain top in Die Walküre

4. When Kaatang happened instead of Zutara (Imnotstillbitterwhaaaaaat)

5. Monty and Jasper’s last scene 💔

Top 5 funniest moments

1. John Mulaney’s Salt and Pepper Diner bit

2. Harry “not to mention the pincers” Potter

3. Any time Ruby is on screen in AWAE. Kyla Matthews is Killing It right now.

4. The entire Gabriel and Aziraphale jogging scene. Delightful. (Good Omens)

5. Benedick eavesdrops on the gang in David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s MAAN. That staging was Masterful.

Top 5 saddest moments

1. Post bomb scene in The Book Thief

2. Satine’s death in Moulin Rouge

3. The murderer reveal in Broadchurch Season 1. Olivia Coleman out here breaking my heart

4. Allison and her dad at the hospital after Victoria died (Teen Wolf)

5. “I love you zillions, superstar” (Broadchurch) 😭😭😭

Top 5 soundtracks

1. The Waterhorse | James Newton Howard

2. Good Omens | David Arnold

3. Pirates of the Caribbean | Hans Zimmer

4. Treasure Planet | James Newton Howard

5. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child | Imogen Heap

Top 5 pictures (I’m not sure what this question means tbh - does it mean like ... screenshots? I’m gonna say it means screenshots)

1. Broadchurch, Episode 1.1 - Ellie looks through the blinds helpless as Mark speaks to Danny.

I’ve already mentioned this scene, and it’s one that always makes me cry, mainly due to Andrew Buchan and the way he delivers that line. But I love that we get shots back to Ellie throughout it, the blinds that obscure her face - reminiscent of bars on a prison window - convey immediately how trapped and helpless she feels.

2. Anne with an E, Episode 1.5: Tightly Knotted to a Similiar String - Matthew and Jeannie have tea.

Are you sensing a theme here? Gods, I just love *clenches fist* the-physical-representation-of-intangible-things. Matthew and Jeannie are super cute, and I love that they introduced this relationship but I super love that they don’t let Matthew’s intense introversion get erased in this new storyline. He and Jeannie may be sitting at the table, but his anxiety and their history still sit between them, just as present as the tea she’s serving. The fact that they’re both framed in doorways - that they’re both open to what may be beginning here - but there is still an obstacle between them?? Ugh, it’s just *chef’s kiss*

3. Into the Spiderverse - Miles rising.

People have talked about this shot ad naseum but that does not stop it being Dope As Hell. It’s so beautiful, especially when put in conversation with the previous parallel shot when he falls out of control. As Miles rises, so do we.

4. North and South, Episode 1.1 - Thornton walks through the factory or “I’ve seen Hell”

Please please please watch North and South.

This is a shot from one of my favourite scenes. Margaret writes a letter to her friend, but her monologue reveals all the things she’s not saying. In it she laments “I believe I’ve seen Hell - and it’s white. It’s snow white.” She’s refering to the local mills, which are filled with white cotton fibres, byproducts of the local trade’s production. As Margaret sleeps, we see Thornton’s cotton mill. The man himself walks across the screen, his silhouette dominating the scene. When the scene starts, the cotton fibres are everywhere, but by the end they’re gone. We later find out that Thornton has installed giant fans which whip them away, reducing the chances of his workers inhaling them and developing the fatal disease, “cotton lung”.

But at this moment in time, we don’t know that, we don’t even really notice as the cotton fibres disappear. We see what Margaret sees, a tyrant dominating his kingdom, not the man we come to know later who is overseeing the wellbeing of those left in his care.

Gah! I love this series.

5. Lord of the Rings - Samwise tends to his garden.

And to round it off, I thought I’d have some fun. I’ve been giving analysis for the last four shots, but the question does say favourite, and there’s not a shot in the film industry I love more than this one.

I love Samwise Gamgee so much. He’s one of my absolute favourite characters and Sean Astin brings him to life absolutely perfectly. If I’m “watching” LoTR I usually actually just have it on in the background as I let the soundtrack and dialogue wash over me, but I always always watch the introduction to the hobbits and in particular this shot. It’s such a beautiful introduction to the Little Folk and to Sam himself - A gardener, first and foremost, looking on his charge with such love and care and contentment. He’s so utterly at peace, so utterly where he’s meant to be, and I love him and this shot so much.

This was hard! (and i loved it)

#ask qwerty #blarke wine club #fun fact i teared up trying to get the screenshot for the Broadchurch scene #when I say it always makes me cry I Mean It

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fauzhee10069 · 3 years

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Kill Bill, should I watch it?

Recently, I’m into action movies and their beautiful choreography. I’ve learned from some of the movie analysis from youtube regarding the choreography, camera and editing techniques. One of the movie I watched was Kill Bill (not the full movies but several clips), thing that got me to this movie actually was “Gogo Yubari”… yeah, I watched the clip for her actually. I am also interested in a character named O-Ren Ishii (played by Lucy Liu), she was really deadly and elegant.

I got little spoilers from youtube comments: so apparently this story is about the circle of revenge, a woman is taking revenge because her wedding got crashed… not an ordinary crash though, it was massacre. What is the full story?

Most audiences prefer not to get spoilers at all, because with spoilers, they can't fully enjoy a work. Maybe you don't agree with me, but I'm actually the type who likes spoilers before enjoying that work. Why do I become such an audience? Maybe because of my bad experience who had seen a work with a disappointing storyline, either because it was bad written or simply because it’s not my cup of tea.

Since then I prefer to be spoiled before I start watching it… I don’t want to waste my time with a story that will only leave a bad taste to me. Fanfic writers generally use their creative ideas to write and fix things that are disappointing in an original (canon) story… sadly I’m not that creative and very good at writing stories.

Enough about me, let’s see how the story goes…

<warning!!! This will sound more like rants, if you are a fan of “Kill Bill”, you may end up not liking it!>

Taken from the wikipedia page:

Kill Bill: Volume 1

A woman in a wedding dress, the Bride, lies wounded in a chapel in El Paso, Texas, having been attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She tells their leader, Bill, that she is pregnant with his baby just before he shoots her in the head.

So, this is what actually happened in the wedding massacre. The Bride had a wedding but got attacked by her former squad. She told Bill, their leader that she is pregnant with his baby just before he shot her in the head. The Bride was Bill’s lover then (her own leader before she defected. So, she was about to marry someone who was not the father of her baby? Poor that groom, he either died or married for nothing. Was the beginning of this story about “jealousy”?

Four years later, having survived the attack, the Bride goes to the home of Vernita Green, planning to kill her. Both women were members of the assassination squad, which has since disbanded; Vernita now leads a normal suburban family life.

Flash forward to four years later. The bitch who was also the member of ‘Deadly Viper Assassination Squad’ finally got her dream domestic life, she was also involved in the wedding massacre. Poor The Bride, maybe this wasn't just revenge, a feeling of envy could just arise in her heart seeing Vernita is living right now.

They engage in a knife fight, but are interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter, Nikki. The Bride agrees to meet Vernita at night to settle the matter, ...

Good, it is wise to not to involve a kid in this.

... but when Vernita tries to surprise the Bride with a pistol hidden in a box of cereal, the Bride throws a knife into Vernita's chest, killing her. Nikki witnesses the killing, and the Bride acknowledges that Nikki may one day seek her own vengeance for her mother's death.

Ah shit, The Bride ended up killing Vernita in front of her daughter. Now she will be haunted by Nikki's anger that will turn to take revenge on her (instead of panicking, she looked cool though). This is what I said about ‘the circle of revenge’, it will never end. To be fair, The Bride did not intend to kill Vernita in front of Nikki.

Vernita was guiltier than The Bride because she immediately attacks her when her daughter was there. To be fair though, Vernita on 1-vs-1 with "the deadliest woman in the world" The Bride won't have a chance to win.

The Bride acted in a self-defense but being a former assassin she was and coupled with the anger of a burning grudge, she cold-bloodly killed her.

Four years earlier, police investigate the massacre at the wedding chapel. The sheriff discovers that the Bride is alive but comatose. In the hospital, Deadly Viper Elle Driver prepares to assassinate the Bride via lethal injection, but Bill aborts the mission at the last moment, considering it dishonorable to kill the Bride when she cannot defend herself.

Back to the flashback, apparently, Bill still loves The Bride. If I am Elle Driver, perhaps I start to question Bill's leadership. He had caused the massacre due to his personal issue. After he could have killed The Bride with his shot at that time, now he was even giving her a chance to live (and get revenge on him). Dishonorable? The mission you gave to Deadly Vipers (out of jealously) has absolutely no honor in it!

The Bride awakens from her four-year coma and is horrified to find that she is no longer pregnant. She kills a man who tries to rape her and a hospital worker who has been selling her body while she was comatose. She takes the hospital worker's truck and teaches herself to walk again.

She was raped when she was in a coma and a hospital worker had been selling her body all this time? Why does this sound ridiculous? This sub-plot is also completely insignificant to her journey of revenge. To be honest, does this scene ask me to sympathize with The Bride as a rape victim or to see her as a badass woman capable of killing right after she woke up from her coma? Yay, strong victim! You raped the wrong woman, FOOL! Don’t mess with her!

Plus, how can a hospital worker have been selling The Bride’s comatozed body? Is there zero supervision at the hospital? How can he get away for four years?

It would be better if The Bride just simply woke up from her coma, then recalled her traumatic wedding and then simply ran away from the hospital to take revenge. Perhaps, have another Deadly Viper who ignored Bill's order and tried to kill The Bride the moment The Bride suddenly awoke. No raping shit.

She barely could walk but she was able to kill a man… was muscle atrophy being picky to The Bride’s body parts?

Resolving to kill Bill and all four members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, the Bride picks her first target: O-Ren Ishii, now the leader of the Tokyo Yakuza. O-Ren's parents were murdered by the Yakuza when she was a child; she took vengeance on the Yakuza boss and replaced him after training as an elite assassin.

I have read a youtube comment (too bad I forgot to take a screenshot), s/he said, “unlike The Bride who took revenge on her own choice, as she married and left Bill and Deadly Vipers of her own choice. O-Ren had no choice in her past, she was just a helpless child who witnessed the murder of her parents.” Although taking revenge was her choice too, O-Ren’s situation was more similar to Nikki.

The Bride travels to Okinawa, Japan, to obtain a sword from legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō, who has sworn never to forge a sword again. After learning that her target is Bill, his former student, he relents and crafts his finest sword for her.

At this point, I feel that The Bride is indeed a very special person (hence her status as main protagonist LOL). Is it a coincidence that Hanzō Hattori doesn't like Bill and inwardly wants to get rid of him too? This sounds like he used The Bride that happened to target Bill to get rid of his former student.

Luckily for The Bride, it seemed like her revenge was running smooth, Bill let her live and now she got the finest sword from her former lover’s former master.

At a Tokyo restaurant, the House of Blue Leaves, the Bride defeats O-Ren's elite squad of fighters, the Crazy 88, and her bodyguard, schoolgirl Gogo Yubari.

Gogo TwT

She and O-Ren duel in the restaurant's Japanese garden; the Bride gains the upper hand and slices the top of her head off with a sword stroke.

That's the best way to make sure your opponent really dies, behead her! Luckily for The Bride, Bill and his Deadly Vipers squad would never do that to her.

She tortures Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's assistant, for information about Bill, and leaves her alive as a threat. Bill asks Sofie if the Bride knows that her daughter is alive.

I'm actually starting to question whether Bill, Deadly Vipers (and The Bride) are truly assassins, maybe I mean they are assassins that sometimes have a standard. Of course they can't work effectively because since the beginning, the background of this story is just a personal issue between Bill and The Bride, Deadly Vipers with their killing ability is just an accessory.

In short, The Bride opens the way for Sofie to get revenge on her… and the daughter is alive.

Kill Bill: Volume 2

Four years before the events of Kill Bill: Volume 1, the pregnant Bride and her groom rehearse their wedding. Bill, the Bride's former lover, the father of her child, and the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, arrives unexpectedly and orders the Deadly Vipers to kill everyone at the wedding. Bill shoots the Bride in the head, but she survives and swears revenge.

Back to the initial backstory and poor the ‘nameless’ groom.

In the present, the Bride has already assassinated Deadly Vipers O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green. She goes to the trailer of Bill's brother and Deadly Viper Budd, planning to ambush him. Budd has been warned by Bill of her approach; he incapacitates her with a non-lethal shotgun blast of rock salt and sedates her. He calls Elle Driver, another former Deadly Viper, and arranges to sell the Bride's unique sword for $1 million. He seals the Bride inside a coffin and buries her alive.

Buried her alive?? The more I see this, the more I get convinced that they are not really assassins, let alone professionals. Selling The Bride’s sword was a brilliant idea though.

Depending on the depth, The Bride may not survive. But considering that this is a fictional story with various flashy assassins who are borderline superhumans (especially The Bride), burying her alive would only give her a chance of survival.

Plus, it’s funny that only Bill's brother Budd managed to subdue "the deadliest woman in the world" and yet he got the same character induced stupidity like his brother Bill for not immediately kill The Bride on the spot.

Years earlier, Bill tells the young Bride of the legendary martial arts master Pai Mei and his Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, a death blow that Mei refuses to teach his students; the technique that supposedly kills any opponent after they have taken five steps. Bill takes the Bride to Mei's temple for training. Mei ridicules her and makes her training a torment, but she gains his respect.

A flashback of how The Bride would survive with her asspull (and it also indirectly involved Bill the lover).

I don’t need to know that Mei had ridiculed her and made her training a torment, it's clear that the awesome The Bride will make it through it all. She is like the best Deadly Viper (and a f*ck buddy) Bill ever got.

In the present, the Bride uses Mei's one-inch punch technique to break out of the coffin and claw her way to the surface.

BINGO!

Elle arrives at Budd's trailer and kills him with a black mamba hidden with the money for the sword.

That backstab is hurt… and the only Deadly Viper (and the guy) who survived from The Bride died by his greed <cough>black mamba<cough>.

She calls Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed Budd and that she has killed the Bride, using the Bride's real name: Beatrix Kiddo.

This bitch is sly.

As Elle exits the trailer, Beatrix ambushes her and they fight. Elle, who was also taught by Mei, taunts Beatrix by revealing that she killed Mei by poisoning him in retribution for him plucking out her eye.

Because you are not special Elle, unlike The Bride- Beatrix whom was easier to taught. Still, Elle has her own right to take revenge for him plucking out her eye.

An enraged Beatrix plucks out Elle's remaining eye and leaves her screaming in the trailer with the black mamba.

That's sadistic!

Will Elle have Beatrix’s bullshit for surviving, just like when Beatrix was buried alive, Elle's fate was also ambiguous. Even though she was blind, there is a chance that Elle managed to get out of the trailer before being bitten by the black mamba. Even if she got bitten, she was the one who prepared that black mamba, as the the professional assassin, she should have prepared the antivenom… only if she had a status as protagonist though.

So other people can't have a revenge besides you, Beatrix? Or because Pai Mei is your favorite master who has praised you so you hate Elle who had killed him for retribution? Yeah, this story is about you.

In Acuña, Mexico, Beatrix meets a retired pimp, Esteban Vihaio, who helps her find Bill. She tracks him to a hotel, and discovers that their daughter B.B. is still alive, now four years old, spending the evening with them. After she puts B.B. to bed, …

Good that she knew that her daughter is alive and finally met her. They have been estranged for four years but of course it was very easy to immediately act as a mother and put her to sleep. No awkward feeling, although of course little kid is easier to approach (than a teenager).

... Bill shoots Beatrix with a dart containing truth serum and interrogates her.

Yeah, you don’t really want to kill her, Bill... because you still love her.

She recounts a mission in which she discovered she was pregnant and explains that she left the Deadly Vipers to give B.B. a better life. Bill explains that he assumed she had died and mourned her for three months; he ordered her assassination when he discovered she was alive and engaged to a "jerk" that he assumed was the father of her child.

If only you two can communicate better, Bill doesn't need to make Beatrix take revenge and he wouldn't lose so many of his precious Deadly Vipers squad members.

This personal issue that started all of this sounds ridiculous, but whose fault is it? Bill who was childish and jealous, without cross-checking immediately carried out the wedding massacre? Or Beatrix who decided to disappear in order for B.B to live a normal life without communicating with her lover Bill? She even took advantage of the poor guy who became her groom and died in vain.

Beatrix disables Bill and strikes with Mei's Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, which she had kept secret. Bill makes his peace with her, takes five steps and dies. Beatrix leaves with her daughter.

Of course her revenge still had to be resolved, but in the end, Bill himself is the one who decided to die.

The next morning Beatrix is shown crying as she still loved Bill, but at the same time she laughs uncontrollably; a collateral effect of the truth serum, Bill's last gift for Beatrix, so B.B. couldn't see her in tears. Understanding his gesture, Beatrix whispers "thank you" to the late Bill and starts a new life with her child.

Congratulation, this tragic assassin couple had caused the death of many former Deadly Viper members and a daughter (Nikki) who lost her mother (Vernita).

Now, it’s time for Beatrix to live Vernita’s life with her daughter B.B. as a single mother.

The Circle of Revenge

Though Beatrix is the main character, the main theme, the circle of revenge started way back when O-ren was a child,witnessing the murder of her parents by the Yakuza, she took vengeance on the Yakuza boss and successfully seized his position after training as an elite assassin.

Far a few years later, it was Beatrix's turn to take revenge for having her wedding brutally crashed. On her way to get revenge, Beatrix killed Vernita in front of her daughter Nikki, her action has the potential to continue 'the circle of revenge' if Nikki intends to take revenge on her in the future. She also let Sofie Fatale alive (after cutting off her hand of course), another one who potentially will take revenge on her.

In addition, there was also Elle who once took revenge on his master Pai Mei for him plucking out her eye (he was such sadistic master). Beatrix indirectly served as the circle of revenge for Elle, apart from taking revenge for her ‘wedding massacre’, she also took revenge for the death of her beloved master.

My thought

Maybe you can guess it from the way I comment. Yeah, Kill Bill’s storyline is not my cup of tea. My issues are:

The flashy and unrealistic portrayal of assassins

The Deadly Vipers weren't like assassins, but more like fighters with murderous intent. They use acrobatic movements and cool ninja techniques to finish off their opponents. Real assassins don't use a lot of acrobatic moves and techniques to kill their opponents. They do it discreetly and inconspicuously, then in one motion when the target is off guard, they immediately executed the target. Besides, they don't have to be a superhuman.

To be fair, we don't see ordinary people as targets in Kill Bill, Beatrix was targeting her fellow assassins (which their capability is quite difficult for her). Of course, Beatrix (who was taking revenge) still didn't do the real assassin code: blending. She wore a very striking yellow jump suit, looking like a woman who was fully prepared to fight (I know that it was Bruce Lee’s reference but still...).

Knowing Tarantino, aesthetics and symbolization are his stronger points than realism. It was possible that Beatrix had this appearance as a symbol that she had indeed left the path of life as an assassin, hence she ignores 'assimilation/blending'. In addition, as the main protagonist, she will symbolically attract attention with her striking appearance in front of the audiences, whereas the people inside the movie just suspended their disbelief and didn’t give a single glance at her.

Unfortunately, Kill Bill which is filled with highly capable people (borderline superhuman) gives ordinary people almost zero chance of being able to deal with them. This is a film about numerous deadly fighters disguised with the word of ‘assassin’.

Over-centralized protagonist

Beatrix is a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who is described as "the deadliest woman in the world", yeah… her character establishment has placed her as ‘the special’. Of course this is not a problem when played correctly or subvertly <cough>Saitama<cough>.

But Beatrix is not just that a deadly former assassin, she is also Bill's ex-lover (so of course, she had received more special treatment from Bill than the other members). Besides that the main plot of these films is about personal matters between Bill and Beatrix. What's annoying is that their problem has involved many other members and their lives.

I have my own life too is probably what the other (non-main) characters have been shouting about.

Even more annoying, Beatrix and Bill's personal lover issue have ruined the lives of others (Nikki).

The rape of the comatozed Beatrix? What for? To pity her (as the rape victim) or to admire her (as the badass who killed her rapist)?

Outside of Beatrix's talent, I feel like the plot hands her everything on a silver platter. First, she avoided the death from silly reason (not the shot during her wedding), when Bill stopped Elle to kill her via lethal injection… Beatrix survived death because of her former lover’s sentimental feeling (aka the plot).

Second, she managed to get the finest sword from her lover (Bill)’s former teacher, Hanzō Hattori because muh revenge.

Third, she avoided death once again because another character induced stupidity, Budd had sealed Beatrix inside a coffin and buries her alive… only to show how awesome Beatrix mastering the so-called difficult technique from Pai Mei.

Only Beatrix did the killing right when she beheaded O-Ren (though not so in Elle’s case).

I would not say that Beatrix is Mary Sue, but she is kinda Sue-ish to me. Her status as both "the deadliest woman in the world" and her (former) boss's lover (Bill) made it so. I think that Beatrix could be a better (and interesting) character if she ditched one of those aspects.

Let's see if Beatrix is just the former lover of her former boss Bill, but with average abilities of Deadly Vipers (perhaps at the level of Vernita or Elle, or even below them). We can see that she will need more struggle on her journey to revenge. She also (should) not get an easy pass like getting a Hanzō Hattori’s sword because of 'muh revenge' and became the favorite student of Pai Mei (and learn the deadliest moves from him) because she's a genius and talented.

Instead of seeing Beatrix as superhuman, we may see her as a cunning woman who may employ cunning tactics to get rid of her opponents. With this we can also see how the assassin portrayed here comes closer to reality. It would be like how JJBA gave Lucy Steel a chance to kill deadly Stand users. Hence, in the true world of assassination, Beatrix doesn't need the finest sword to murder someone.

Now, let's see if Beatrix is just "the deadliest woman in the world" without the convenient privilege from her (then) lover who was also her (former) boss. With her talent, perhaps Beatrix will still be Pai Mei's favorite student, but she will not know about Pai Mei through Bill. Then, on her journey to get revenge, she won't get ridiculous asspull from Bill's sentimental feelings.

I'm also sure that Beatrix knew Hattori Hanzō from Bill as well.

If only Bill was simply her former boss without any love, Beatrix's journey of revenge will be more like O-ren’s.

Beatrix as the top-tier assassin and Bill’s love interest made her got everything on a silver platter as the main protagonist.

Ishii O-Ren could be a better main villain than Bill, she is also more interesting character than Beatrix

Ishii O-Ren was the main villain in volume 1, though I would rather say it as the 'final boss'. Unlike Bill and his sentimental feelings for his former lover, O-ren as a villain has no reason to make it easy for Beatrix.

Bill led the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which has already been disbanded for around four years. O-ren became the leader of the Tokyo Yakuza, she also had the Crazy 88 as her elite squad of fighters, schoolgirl Gogo Yubari as her bodyguard and Sofie Fatale as her assistant.

Too bad, besides Gogo with her potential, none of them were no match for Beatrix.

O-ren’s backstory (in my opinion) is much more interesting than Beatrix's journey of revenge in two-volume. Her childhood tragic past for witnessing the murder of her parents by the Yakuza should be more traumatic than Beatrix's wedding massacre. I don't mean to invalidate the tragedy of Beatrix's wedding, but O-ren’s past as the motivation for revenge is still objectively more tragic than Beatrix's because:

“Unlike Beatrix who married and left Bill and Deadly Vipers of her own choice. O-Ren had no choice in her past, she was just a helpless child who witnessed the murder of her parents.”

”Unlike O-ren, the wedding massacre which became Beatrix's motive for taking revenge was caused by her own choice of leaving Bill secretly and marrying someone else.”

O-ren also successfully took vengeance on the Yakuza boss who murdered her parents and even replaced him as the leader of the Tokyo Yakuza. She had succeeded without the aid of someone having sentimental feelings to her. I wish there will be a separated prequel of Kill Bill about the journey of O-ren’s vengeance.

Kill Bill: Volume 3

From Kill Bill: Volume 2’s wikipedia:

In April 2004, Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly that he was planning a sequel:

Oh yeah, initially I was thinking this would be my "Dollars Trilogy". I was going to do a new one every ten years. But I need at least fifteen years before I do this again. I've already got the whole mythology: Sofie Fatale will get all of Bill's money. She'll raise Nikki, who'll take on The Bride. Nikki deserves her revenge every bit as much as The Bride deserved hers. I might even shoot a couple of scenes for it now so I can get the actresses while they're this age.

Nikki is just like O-ren, the death of her mother (who was murdered) was not the result of her own action. Of course it will be interesting to watch the continuation of this ‘circle of revenge', I felt that Nikki would probably be a more deserving protagonist than Beatrix. Beatrix is more like a selfish protagonist, not intentionally but through the plot that made it so. This was about the lover quarrel between "the deadliest female assassin in the world" and “the leader of the assassin squad” which caused various casualties.

The concept of Nikki’s journey of revenge also sounds promising by involving Sofie Fatale as Nikki's mentor. Of course Sofie also has strong motives considering Beatrix had amputated her hand and tortured her, she had also killed her superior O-ren. If Elle is magically survived (with similar asspulls like Beatrix got in her story), she might join Nikki and Sofie as well.

I'm a little curious though, why does Sofie get all of Bill's money? Didn't Bill love Beatrix so much, why doesn't he leave his money to Beatrix (and their daughter B.B.)?

I'm a little worried about Tarantino needing to wait at least 15 years for this sequel, I hope he (and the core actors/actresses) lives long enough to make Kill Bill volume 3 with Nikki as the main protagonist and Beatrix as the villain.

In December 2012, Tarantino said there would "probably not" be a third film"

It will be a shame if Nikki’s story will be canceled.

However, in July 2019, Tarantino said that he and Thurman had talked again about a possible sequel, and added: If any of my movies were going to spring from my other movies, it would be a third Kill Bill" In December, Tarantino said he had spoken to Thurman about an "interesting" idea for a new film: "It would be at least three years from now. It is definitely in the cards".

Hopefully, we can immediately witness Nikki's revenge in action!

How to end ‘the circle of revenge’

As Tarantino wanted to plan, Nikki will be raised by Sofie Fatale who got all of Bill’s money. I wonder, whether Beatrix will be the leader of another deadly squad which will serve as the sub-bosses for Nikki or will Beatrix live a quiet life with B.B. but hard to catch by Nikki?

Whatever it is, though Beatrix already passed her prime, Nikki still has to deal with the woman who was once known as "the deadliest woman in the world".

In my opinion, Beatrix as "the deadliest woman in the world" might works better as the big villain than the main protagonist, therefore we can see how Nikki will be struggle against her.

I guess that Sofie as Nikki's mentor will die in the middle of the storyline, she was not that tough in the previous story.

The thing that should be noted is that Beatrix still has her daughter B.B. Killing Beatrix while by leaving B.B. as a survivor will only likely continue 'the endless circle of revenge'. Of course within ± 15 years, B.B. has also become a grown-up.

Then considering that B.B. is the daughter of "the deadliest woman in the world", it is highly likely that Beatrix taught her some martial arts and assassination techniques. Although it is also possible that she did not teach her because she wanted to give her daughter a 'normal life'.

But the assumption that B.B. have been taught the art of killing by her mother, what should Nikki do to end this 'circle of revenge'?

By killing B.B. first before Beatrix, leaving Beatrix as the last target.

But what about Beatrix who wants to take revenge for her daughter's death? Of course this will still be different from Nikki’s revenge, because her daughter's death is also the result of her past actions.

Unlike B.B. if she takes revenge for her mother's death, then her revenge will be exactly the same with Nikki's revenge and situation.

The audience will feel the difference regarding Beatrix's revenge for her daughter or B.B.’s revenge for her mother.

There are still ways to play it differently though, let's say that Beatrix dies before B.B. and B.B. intending to take revenge for her mother’s death, the only way to fairly end 'the circle of revenge' is by having both Nikki and B.B.kill each other and die at the end of the story. One could be by instant lethal attack while the other could be by poison that works for a certain time.

Or maybe one of them committed suicide but to be honest I don't like the concept of this one. I feel cheated because suicide is a reflection of the selfishness and arrogance of a character. She died by her own choice, even though it might end 'the circle of revenge', but still… her death will be a 'choice' rather than a 'consequence'.

While Kill Bill: Volume 3 aka Nikki's journey of revenge is only a dream right now, there is this brilliant fanfic that portrays the feelings and grudges of adult Nikki very well:

Did I Make You Proud, Mother? by EpicKiya722

Conclusion/TL;DR

I don't think I will watch Kill Bill until the next sequel exists and tells about Nikki and her journey to get revenge. All of these circles of revenge need to end soon and Beatrix also deserves the consequences for her revenge.

Until Kill Bill volume 3 starring Nikki Green getting released, I would rather watch Stephanie Patrick, Eric Draven or even Yuki (aka The OG Beatrix-Oren’s fusion) over Beatrix Kiddo for another vengeful assassin.

P.S: actually, reading at the ending story of Kill Bill volume 2, I think that I have actually seen this movie. The movie was quite entertaining even though I did not really know the full context. Now that I've read the full spoilers I don't think this story is my cup of tea in any way.

#kill bill #beatrix kiddo #o-ren ishii #nikki belle #sofie fatale #elle driver #vernita green #my thoughts #lucy steel #my personal opinion #my rants

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fytheuntamed · 4 years

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Untamed Wardrobes (4/?) // Nie Mingjue + Fatal Journey

More pictures, commentary, and general nonsense under the cut! (Contains spoilers for Fatal Journey and The Untamed!)

Welcome to episode 2 of fytheuntamed’s admin takes entirely too many screenshots! After deleting all the lesser screencaps, I still had 500+ left over to sift through and use 😅

I may be overthinking it (highly likely), but I really like the Nie clan’s aesthetic because I feel like it’s the perfect metaphor for them! Seems plain and simple from a distance, but up close it’s full of detail and quite beautiful. *insert something here about how other clans probably reduce the nie clan to sword men who are all brawn and no brain when really that just ain’t the case!* Anyways, watching fatal journey increased my love for the nie clan a whole lot and their aesthetic is A++. (I cried a lot watching the movie for the first time, but luckily I was too busy taking screenshots this time around to cry.)

A couple notes before we get into it: the pictures in the edit itself had their colors edited, but all pictures below have their original coloring. if you want to see any of the pictures better, just right click them and open them in a new tab to see them at their largest resolution (or zoom in with your browser).

now without further ado, let’s get it!

i don’t mean to start with an unflattering picture of our beloved dage, but this picture happens to be the one that best shows his layers, so...

I won’t lie, his middle layer had me rather confused at first because the bottom part of it just...wasn’t there? Turns out the skirt of the middle layer is just like the skirt of the outermost layer, therefore it is frequently hidden beneath it, so rather than seeing the two skirts and then the pants of nmj’s innermost layer, all i kept seeing was one skirt and then his pants. It all became clear when he was knocked over, though.

Outermost layer/overcoat: sleeveless, skirt is divided into slits (3 in the front, not sure how many are in the back due to his cape always covering it), color changes depending on the lighting (more on this later), seems to be made of some type of velour (aka i wish to touch it)

Middle layer: long sleeved, skirt is also divided into three slits like the overcoat and rather elusive (see picture below for rare sightings of middle layer)

Innermost layer: standard undergarments, bottom = pants, not a skirt (unfortunately no gratuitous shots of nmj in just his undergarments were provided)

Cape: attaches to shoulder dragons which seem to be attached to the overcoat (closeups included later), may or may not be detachable (unlike a certain someone, he does not seem to be in the business of dramatic cape discarding)

some full body shots:

Pictures 2 and 4 above show nmj when he isn’t moving; the skirt of his overcoat covers the entirety of the layers beneath it. Picture 1 shows him mid-step, but he is walking carefully (given the spooky tomb setting), so the inner layers are still hidden by the overcoat. Picture 3 shows nmj standing still, however moments before this screenshot was taken he was sitting in such a way (see picture below) that yielded us this delightful shot of his legs not covered by the overcoat (feel like a victorian who has just seen an ankle tbh). The faster/more chaotically he moves, the more likely his outfit will look like it does in this third picture. [This third picture also furthers my hypothesis (discussed later) that the middle flap is not part of his overcoat, but rather part of his belt.]

y’all seein’ this? that’s some good shit! usually i won’t tolerate man-spreading, but nmj gets a pass because he’s nmj.

Below are just some more pictures demonstrating how the skirts of his two outermost layers moves along with him.

Now for some full body shots from behind so we can appreciate his cape!

After looking at numerous screenshots of his cape I get the impression it would feel a bit like pleather?

Also, genuine question here, does anyone know how Baxia stays attached to his back? I couldn’t get a clear shot that showed how it stays put and I’m really curious!

Some shots from the side/back:

Some action shots (pretty sure he just killed a man, but hey, it be that way sometimes):

there he go

more cape angles:

something that i thought was really cute was that after nhs storms ahead of nmj on the bridge and then promptly falls through it (rip baby u tried), nmj is in such a rush to get to his baby bro that his sword gets stuck under his cape :’)

okay now going back to the middle-most overcoat flap (say that 5 times fast) that i had mentioned earlier, i find it deeply confusing and i’m hoping one of you will be able to explain to me how it works. before we get to that, though, i just want to point out that this middle flap is longer than the others!

okay now on to my question: is this middle flap a part of his overcoat or his belt? its placement right smack in the middle makes me think it must be attached to the belt, because otherwise how would it work with the overcoat since the overcoat does not close (to my knowledge) in the front? let me make a quick little diagram to explain my confusion lol

hopefully someone knows what’s going on here because i sure don’t! also i think nmj spent 99% of the movie with his fists clenched, like.......relax, darling. i know you’re stressed, but this can’t be good for your blood pressure....

watch him go

sexy dage:

alright time for some detail shots of baxia and nmj’s wrist cuffs!

i’m not sure what was actually happening here, but something about this screencap just makes me giggle because it just looks like decided to stop fighting for a second to have a soft blade touching tm moment in the middle of their epic fight. like, lay your blade upon mine, brother, that we might understand each other better. let us transmit our vibes through our blades (we all saw how well that worked out for them...)

baxia....the blade that you are today

honestly take my labeling of the above picture with a grain of salt because i feel like his cuffs kept shifting as he moved? at least you get the basic gist~

anyone else crying? i sure am!!

alright next up is his belt. it’s really cool even though i don’t actually know what it’s supposed to be? (if you know, please share!) Perhaps it’s supposed to be a bull of sorts? the rings on either side are a nice touch.

definitely one of my favorite parts of his outfit - really adds some spice and pulls the whole thing together! (see what i did there....cause it’s a belt.....)

alright now it’s time for the real star of the show: the shoulder dragons! i think it’s really cool that the cape is attached to the dragons, and given the way the dragons seemed to move in tandem with nmj’s overcoat, i’ve come to the conclusion that the dragons are attached to the overcoat (which officially makes this the coolest overcoat because it has dragons and a cape).

first let me just show you guys how the cape attaches:

simple enough! as for whether it’s detachable or not, who knows! maybe the part beneath the ring snaps open and closed? you can see best in the middle left picture that the dragon, cape, and overcoat seem to be sewn together.

alright now for my attempt at a 360 view of one of the dragons (ended up being more like a 280 or something view):

here we have some shots of the dragons from behind:

some shots from above/straight on:

some shots from the front & some detail shots:

alright i think that’s enough dragons for a lifetime now.

okay now for some talk about textures because i think the different textures of the cloths really help make the outfit, which is why i think it’s a real shame they didn’t show up super well in the movie because of the dark lighting, but i guess that’s what this post is for!

i had mentioned above that the cape seems like it would have a pleather-feel to it just based on its appearance and the way it moves with nmj. also the way it wrinkles and the way the light hits it!

alright now onto the overcoat which is actually quite mysterious in terms of its texture because it appears to change both in color and texture based on the lighting of the scene.

the pictures with red dots were taken when nmj was outside in broad daylight - here his overcoat seems light gray. at certain points inside of the tomb his overcoat still seems fairly light gray (see the picture in the top left corner and the picture directly to its right). in darker lighting within the forest and tomb, his overcoat seems to gain a blue/green tint to it (best seen in the top right picture). as for the red circles, i can’t tell if these darker spots are simply a part of the fabric or if his overcoat got dirty? as for texture, sometimes the overcoat (particularly the bottom part of it, which i’ll show in a moment) doesn’t look like velour at all, but rather like a stiffer, sparkly material (see picture below for direct comparison).

what is the truth 🧐

alright now the skirt of the overcoat, which i’ve already talked a lot about in terms of what the middle flap is attached to, has even more mystery surrounding it.

sometimes it just doesn’t look like it belongs to the rest of the overcoat?? i know it’s just a matter of lighting, but it still messes with my brain.

i know it’s made of the same material as the rest of the overcoat because in the very first picture i posted under this read more you can clearly see that it is, but sometimes it just looks so sparkly!

i’m slowly but surely losing the will to go on, so let’s have some memes and call it a day :)

oh actually one more serious thought/question

is zonghui’s position ever explicitly stated within the movie? because in the screencap above we can see that he isn’t wearing the same outfit as all the disciples, so he must be above them in position somehow? i’d just assumed he was something of a right-hand man to nmj, but i was just curious if it was ever explicitly stated what his role is.

alright now on to memes interspersed with pain because this movie made me go thru it.

behold. it is i, chifeng zun.

me throughout the entirety of the movie:

perhaps he too left the stove on.

okay this next one is killing me because nmj looks like he’s about to do that one viral dance move that was really popular in like...2019?? maybe it’s from fortnite idk but i can’t remember the name of it and it’s killing me so please if you know what i’m on about do let me know!!

we stan bi besties who don’t know how to sit properly

i just think they’re neat :)

i love them :(((

the relief on his face as he watches huaisang be returned to safety :((((

his smile as he falls because he was able to protect his baby bro one last time

in conclusion:

(at this point i’m too tired to go back and reread this entire post and edit it so please forgive any mistakes i may have missed. i am tired and i wish to rest. kudos to anyone who makes it this far!)

#the untamed #fatal journey #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #nie zonghui #qinghe nie #nie bros #untamed wardrobes #wardrobe #edit #meme #uhhhhh i think that's everything?#to the anon who requested this i hope you see this and enjoy it wherever you are #this ended up being way too long rip #and to everyone who left a comment on my jiang cheng wardrobe post i love you and i appreciate you #i read all the comments and tags and they make me happy <3

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gamerszone2019-blog · 5 years

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Empire of Sin: A Brilliant 1920's Era Strategy Game

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/empire-of-sin-a-brilliant-1920s-era-strategy-game/

Empire of Sin: A Brilliant 1920's Era Strategy Game

After playing the first half-hour or so of Empire of Sin, I could easily have stayed where I was and played the rest of the day. While it’s still in a pre-beta state, Empire of Sin feels polished, with deep systems that beg for more probing. After all, this is essentially Boardwalk Empire crossed with XCOM – what’s not to find completely intriguing?

Empire of Sin is set in prohibition-Era Chicago. As one of 14 bosses with different interests (speakeasies, union protection, or casinos), you’re tasked with building an empire built on Chicago’s most precious currency: alcohol. You can get your alcohol that’s produced in breweries, you can get if from your allies, or you can occasionally get it from missions. “So alcohol is the number one currency of Prohibition-era Chicago,” says Game Director Brenda Romero. “So we make it, we consume it in our rackets, without alcohol your businesses aren’t going very far.”

Alcohol can vary in quality, however. “Let’s just say that you’re having a tough month, you tell all your breweries to produce garbage,” Romero says. “So this is great, people will pay the same price for it… but eventually words going to get around and your draws tend to drop because you’re serving garbage. So that’s one thing to think about, in the short term you can do that. The higher your quality of alcohol, the more you can charge.”

Though Empire of Sin is, on paper, a strategy game, there’s a ton of character to it and a real sense of role-playing.

“

Though Empire of Sin is, on paper, a strategy game, there’s a ton of character to it and a real sense of role-playing. From the outset, it’s beautiful, in a sleazy kind of way. This is a Chicago where everyone has a name like “Goldie” and “Ronnie”, men have hard jaws and women have hard edges. I chose to play as the aforementioned Goldie, a tough broad in flapper attire whose empire begins at the speakeasy.

This sense of character carries on into RPCs. RPCs are recruitable player characters who have randomized attributes that evolve depending on how you play, but these attributes also affect their temperament. During my playthrough, an RPC fell in love with another RPC, which can make or break a battle depending on how their stats change.

“RPCs have their unique personalities,” says Romero. “Maria and Bruno, for example, have been in your racket together. They’re compatible. So they’ve fallen in love.”

Empire of Sin Screenshots

“In a boss battle, Bruno gets shot. This makes Maria basically insane. She has a hair-trigger temper. She unloads her entire clip into the person who shot him. And though maybe it was the best possible outcome for me, and feels like a free move, it would’ve been detrimental if she had done that to say somebody that could have been an ally.”

Combat will be familiar to anyone who’s played an XCOM – but the beauty here is in the combat arenas themselves, which look like moody 1920s Cluedo boards.

“

Empire of Sin is, of course, a turn-based strategy game. Combat will be familiar to anyone who’s played an XCOM – but the beauty here is in the combat arenas themselves, which look like moody 1920s Cluedo boards. A 360-degree camera means you can spin the little model around like an intricate toy, getting exactly the right angle to deliver a fatal bloody blow – and Empire of Sin looks gloriously bloody.

Outside of combat, you spend your time managing your resources. These are separated into money, your alcohol, your time – 13 years, the amount of time the Prohibition Era lasted – and your RPCs. But there’s also that deep focus on role-playing, which includes a dynamic choice-and-consequence feature called ‘sit-downs’.

“So if you’ve seen the Sopranos or The Godfather or any of the movies, classic movies, you know that sit-downs don’t happen all the time,” says Romero. “They’re sometimes life and death situations. They’re no different here. They are dynamic, they happen as a result of the hits you’ve done. You pushed buttons, you’ve gone too far, you make friends with enemies.”

During my playthrough I had a sit-down with a boss called Ronnie. I was given the option to take out a mark for him, or to draw a gun on him in order to take over his brewery. I chose to draw a gun on him, of course, and a fight ensued – but it could have played out a completely different way. There’s always that 13 years in the back of your head, ticking along as you make your decisions.

“Time is obviously a critical resource,” says Romero. “You got 13 years… you’ve got 13 years to rise to the top.”

Half an hour was not enough.

Lucy O’Brien is Executive Editor of Features at IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Source : IGN

#Game News #Game Reviews

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 5 years

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What are we willing to cancel people over, anyway?

Beautube continues to be the messy hellscape that it is, but the feud that went down between two major YouTubers just goes to show that nobody is above drama. Still, James Charles has a history of problematic behavior — why did it take until now for the community to cancel him?

YouTube's beauty community was shaken on Friday when Tati Westbrook dropped a 43-minute video exposing her longtime friend and mentee James Charles. Among other reprehensible behavior, Tati also denounced his habit of allegedly sexually harassing straight men.

The takedown followed weeks of rumors, screenshots, and snarky reaction videos from other vloggers, so it wasn't new, but it was the catalyst that has other influencers distancing themselves from the teenage makeup guru.

If you're unfamiliar with the wild world of beauty YouTube, here's a rundown of all the people involved.

James Charles is a 19-year-old beauty maven who went viral in 2016 for not only wearing makeup in his senior photos, but also being extra enough to bring a ring light to emphasize his highlighter. Later that year, he became the first male spokesperson for CoverGirl. Since then, he's amassed an immense social media following — at its peak, he had 15 million subscribers on YouTube.

Charles' nearly overnight fame reached a climax usually reserved for traditional celebrities, not influencers, when he was invited to the Met Gala earlier in May. He raised eyebrows when he called the invitation "a step forward in the right direction for influencer representation in the media" in an Instagram post.

But after his rapid ascent to stardom, Charles is now crashing back down. He's been cancelled.

So I retook my senior photos & brought my ring light with me so my highlight would be poppin. I love being extra 💀 pic.twitter.com/7Qu1yu8U2P

— James Charles (@jamescharles) September 5, 2016

SEE ALSO: Men's makeup brands are discreet — and all over Instagram

Tati Westbrook is a 37-year-old makeup YouTuber who also owns Halo Beauty, a supplement company that sells gummy vitamins for strengthening hair and nails. Her direct competitor is Sugar Bear Hair, a similar company whose products have been endorsed by a variety of influencers, including the Kardashian-Jenner clan.

Tati has been "like a mother" to James, according to James himself. She took the budding star under her wing when his career was just kicking off — and he even did her wedding makeup.

Keeping up? Good, because this is where it gets messy.

On April 22, James posted an endorsement for Sugar Bear Hair on his Instagram story after the company supposedly helped him with a security issue during Coachella. Without naming names, Tati said she felt "lost" and "betrayed" on her Instagram story.

"When you do so much for people in your life and they not only don't return the favor, but they just don't even see you," Tati said in her tearful video. "I feel really used."

James publicly apologized in similarly teary Instagram story the next day, and told his followers that he "did not think about the competition."

"She has been like a mother to me since my first days in this industry," he said in his public apology, adding that he didn't accept any money for the post and that he uses Tati's vitamin brand daily. "And has given me more love, support, resources, and advice than I could ever ask for."

Fellow makeup YouTuber Gabriel Zamora — who you might remember from the YouTube apology fiasco in summer 2018 known as Dramageddon — weighed in on the situation. In a video posted on May 4, he chided Tati for her immature reaction.

"All these videos are being made where James is being made out to be this horrible human being and I'm just confused as to what happened," Gabriel said.

In response, Tati posted a video on Friday titled "BYE SISTER," a play on James' signature vlog intro, "Hi sisters!" The lengthy video dives into why Tati felt unappreciated by James, from his hesitation to promote her brand to his reluctance to collaborate with her. She publicly severed ties with him, concluding that it was "painful to lose someone you care about, that you thought would be in your life forever, but the chapter's closed."

youtube

Since dropping the video, Tati has been rapidly gaining followers as James loses them. Twitter users and other influencers paid attention.

drama aside, i have something to say.... ❤️https://t.co/Hn20TgNSzM❤️ pic.twitter.com/vRPFCTJIEJ

— Shane Dawson (@shanedawson) May 12, 2019

Image: Twitter Screenshot/Jefree Star

As of Monday morning, James has lost more than 2.5 million subscribers in three days, according to SocialBlade. Tati, meanwhile, gained more than 2.9 million since posting the video. To put that into perspective, as vlogger Callum Markie noted, Logan Paul gained 80,000 subscribers after filming a victim of suicide in Japan.

But the backlash isn't just over snubbing a friend — it's over a much more concerning issue. Although the majority of the video was about her personal relationship with James, it also shed light on his toxic habit of allegedly sexually harassing straight men.

"Oh my god, you tried to trick a straight man into thinking he's gay yet again," Tati ranted in her video, recalling a phone conversation she recently had with James. "And somehow, you're the victim."

She continued:

Tati was alluding to just one of many instances where James toyed with straight men. The receipts channel Spill laid out several examples, including his questionable relationship with model Gage Gomez. In April, Gomez posted a video calling James out for continuing to pursue him despite repeatedly turning him down.

"[He] pushed his emotions onto me to guilt me into trying something that I didn't want to do," the model said.

youtube

James has also publicly hit on Shawn Mendes, leaving suggestive comments on the singer's Instagram live videos and tweets.

He later apologized in a tweet, and said he was "sorry if he [Shawn] felt sexually harassed."

After Tati's video, others came forward. Someone who claimed to be a former classmate tweeted that James allegedly sexually assaulted her friend. Singer Zara Larsson also tweeted that James repeatedly hit on her boyfriend, despite knowing that he's straight. And in a supercut of James' vlogs, a Twitter user showed the numerous times the beauty guru admitted he enjoyed pursuing heterosexual men because "it's easier than you think."

It's about time James Charles stopped getting a pass for his repeatedly toxic behavior. But why did it take a video from Tati for the internet to finally cancel him? Twitter user @Quantum_King_ questioned why Tati protected James for years, despite public knowledge that he harassed men both in person and on social media.

Did Tati Westbrook expose a predator or did she harbour a predator until she felt under appreciated by him?

— Brokeryn Martell 🇱🇨🇯🇲 (@Quantum_King_) May 11, 2019

If James Charles would’ve promoted tati’s vitamins, do y’all think she still would’ve made that video exposing him for being trash? Let’s discuss

— femme fatale (@eliesaaab) May 12, 2019

And others pointed out how hypocritical it was for Jeffree Star, another member of the YouTube beauty community, to speak out against James despite his own problematic past. (Star has since deleted his tweet, but there is a screenshot included above.)

seeing my mutuals dragging james charles while simultaneously supporting jeffree star and it’s interesting pic.twitter.com/TJHlxo2tkv

— 𝖙 𝖉𝖆𝖜𝖌 (@tamiamakay) May 12, 2019

Is James Charles being canceled because of his actions, or because the internet loves drama? It's been nearly a year since Dramageddon tore Beautube apart, exposing multiple YouTubers for their racist tweets.

Somehow, James' own racist remarks weren't pulled into the whirlwind of cancellation. When he made a transphobic comment earlier in 2019 about how he wasn't "full gay" because he had been attracted to trans men, he received some backlash but got away relatively unscathed. Why is it Tati's video that's tanking his career?

Maybe it's because the internet is willing to give a pass to its faves, until it's time to grab some popcorn and watch a feud go down. It's good that the internet is finally done with James — the face of the beauty community absolutely should not be a predator. But nobody paid attention or sought to hold him accountable until there was a friendship break up involved.

The influencers at the center of Dramageddon have more or less recovered from 2018's Beautube culling. Gabriel Zamora continues to make videos. Nikita Dragun was just profiled in Forbes. Manny MUA is still releasing products from his makeup line, Lunar Beauty. Even Laura Lee, whose iconically terrible apology video fueled Twitter memes for weeks, seems fine according to Instagram.

Will James Charles' cancellation last, or will the internet accept him into the fold again like it did with Jeffree Star? Despite his many controversies, Star is a multimillionaire thriving on top of a massive beauty empire.

youtube

"A lot of most of my career over the last two years has been about me making mistakes and trying to learn and grow from them," James stated in his apology video posted Friday. "And I haven't always done the best job of that. I can admit that, but I have always tried ... I wish I could say this is the last time that I make a mistake, but it won't be."

And as his beauty vlogger predecessors have proven, he's at least right about that. Will he stay canceled? Hopefully. Will more makeup-centered drama go down in the near future and take down more racist, transphobic predators? God, we hope so.

WATCH: 'Avengers: Endgame' is the most tweeted-about movie ever

#_author:Morgan Sung #_category:yct:001000002 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_uuid:6bc0f913-4c65-31cf-a25e-1faa0342fe5d #_revsp:news.mashable

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