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ardenttheories · 4 years

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Pesterquest Volume 7 notes, all locked under the cut as usual. As a side note, I once a fucking gain didn’t get my achievement for completing the Route, this time Terezi’s, so. Fuck me, I guess.

EQUIUS

Reader’s remembering more without truly remembering it now. The trees, garden, caves, and mall were some of the “most recent” places they’ve been to in Friendsim.

Oh. Reader’s home is the shitty little crumbling building they stayed in during the events of Friendsim. I don’t know what’s sadder; that they still don’t know who they are enough to know where home is, or that everything they know about themself is centred around Friendsim - the events of which they still don’t remember.

The bitterness they feel at that is sad. They really don’t have a home outside of that, huh?

“You freeze like an anime protagonist” - hm. HM. I don’t trust like that.

Equius freaking out at the sight of Reader and actively trying to NOT punch them is sweet. Also, funny as hell.

Oh. That’s. That’s a lot more horse than I was expecting.

AURTHOUR. MY GOD YOU LOOK A LOT BETTER LIKE THIS. Although, nice hint to the theory that Reader is a lusus-like being, with the Reader comparing themself to Aurthour.

Did Equius just fucking growl? This poor fucking idiot doesn’t know how to react to Reader’s non-apparent bloodcaste. You fucking himbo just relax.

Of course they made the fucking “there are two wolves inside you” meme about horses and Equius wanting to get yelled at/yell at

How to befriend Equius: like milk and horses, because apparently that makes you High Status, and not just a very lonely idiot who’s so stuck up his own ass about the Hemospectrum that he can’t see the people around him through the bullshit.

Equius has a lot of gamer shit? Interesting.

Two points:

Reader’s typing style is so fucking cute, and this is the first time I think we’ve seen them type proper. This seems significant. Like, they’ve got a voice now, and it’s distinctive and them and not us. Looks like they might be taking control a little?

Additionally, we just got to see Karkat’s Knight of Blood powers at work; essentially enforcing that Equius befriend Reader and complete the Bonds that they’re trying to desperately to set up, while also allowing Equius someone to be “real” with by stating that Reader exists outside of the Hemospectrum. It’s also just really sweet to see Karkat talking about Reader like that.

Equius really just. Doesn’t know how social interactions work. I think he relies on the Hemospectrum to explain shit for him, because he seems genuinely uncomfortable with the idea that there’s no formula to follow. Especially since he’s giving that power to Reader - that says a lot about how out of his depth he is. Even the dumbass little “I command it” is funny. He’s so out of his depth and he’s trying to pretend that he knows what he’s doing still.

Equius doesn’t have it in him to actually kill people, which is genuinely sweet but also says a lot about why he’s so conflicted with the Hemospectrum. He’s really not cut out to be a Highblood the way it says he should be.

Oh. Oh my god, he’s so excited to see Nepeta. He was shaking with excitement at the prospect of being able to see her.

OH NO HE COULDN’T GO. But how interesting. “Stop trying to skip ahead”. So why did that work with Gamzee (albeit Karkat then chickened out)? Because we never actually saw Gamzee, and it’d probably work with Nepeta?

The text wasn’t coloured but I’m curious if this is Dirk now. Doc Scratch sure as fuck doesn’t swear like that, and as far as I’m aware he’s the only one with narrative control within the main canon/fanon, besides Alternate Calliope. The fact that the thing is trying to keep everything to a strict plot would definitely suggest it. Though if Dirk is T-Posing in a hallway on the Theseus just to talk to Reader, I’m going to flip off the handle.

Equius knowing what narrative control is just threw me through a fucking loop, but I’ll play along. Lets pretend that actually makes some sort of sense, because either he figured it out in that short moment without even knowing what Retconning is or why they were being blocked, or he just. Knows. Which, I suppose as an Heir of Void he might? He inherits Secrets and the Unknown - so maybe him knowing isn’t so odd at all.

Confirmation that Equius doesn’t know how to act outside of a society and is, in fact, very uncomfortable with not knowing but envies how the Reader is just somehow capable of that: confirmed. “How do you know where you belong, or if you belong.”

That’s. Some good advice from Reader, honestly, but also sad? They’re defining themself through their relationships again. I hope this means they’re figuring more out about themself this time. Also that this helps Equius - to figure out that he can define himself and not allow other shit he doesn’t really vibe with define him. Especially if he makes his own community.

Oh. Equius tries to hone his strength in order to figure out why he’s a biological freak. “Reigning in an aberrant traint and defining” himself by it. And he doesn’t know which rules he likes following and which he doesn’t know how to ignore - he’s just as lost about himself as he is about everything else.

“He looks like he might be about to tell you the story, but somehow you keep not learning the lesson where you should just chill and experience something instead of leap to try to figure it out before it happens” - is it just me, or does this narrator not sound like any of the others. Usually they sound like “Reader”, or like Hussie in the comic, or sometimes like the characters, but this... doesn’t. This is that narrative figure admonishing Reader for the previous timeline. Which is a little more interconnected than the last ones have been, and a whole lot more obvious.

“It’s like there’s narrative precedent for this moment existing in more than one plane of truth”. I actively love how that shows A) that there’s multiple timeline-based reasons for the loss of Equius’ horn and B) that trying to view a Void Player’s past isn’t easy because they’re just that naturally hidden.

TEREZI

Oh my god. Terezi that’s so fucking extra.

I’m assuming that means she’s talking to Vriska? She’s seriously mad. Madder than in the comic. I like the fact that we get to see more of her emotions during this whole phase now that there’s no plot to hinder.

Reader pointing out that the Alternian legal system is brutal in a way that’s just completely fucked up and also not typical of how Terezi seems to be as a person, but also highlighting that she doesn’t seem to see that there’s an issue with the system because of its laws and logistics she knows to a T that perfectly align with what Mind is? HELLA. That’s what a Seer do, babey! She learns her Mind from the law, THAT’S her Benefactor, and then she figures it out for herself!

Terezi being confused about the game, expecting him to ask about team leaders and shit, shows that - potentially - Reader’s actions have irrevocably fucked up her powers as a Seer of Mind. Or at least that she’s not looking at the right Options anymore, because she doesn’t know what they are.

(Also, Karkat not shutting up about Dave? Valid.)

TEREZI KNOWS THE HYPOCRACY AND IS JUST DOING THE SAME THING AS TYZIAS I’M GOING TO DIE. She can’t save everyone but at least she can save them for now, until she gets to a point where she can save everyone.

So that weird ass area is “an ambiguous nexus of metaphysical realities”. Definitely a place that doesn’t really exist yet sort of does. Interesting that they haven’t been thrown out yet, though. Maybe because Reader wasn’t really trying to go anywhere? They just remembered, and aimlessly used their powers.

Gamzee called Reader a “themster” and I am wheezing.

Terezi realising she blamed Vriska for shit they did together when she knew it was something their fucked up society made them do, and realising she’s not exactly innocent herself, is really fucking sad. Kids shouldn’t have to go through this sort of shit.

The thing watching them is approving of Reader taking Terezi back to Vriska? I’m wondering if it’s either happy because they’re continuing the plot, or because they’re fixing things. That hulking T-posing figure isn’t there anymore - and it seems a lot more demure. So maybe this entity is something else?

Oh, Terezi admitting she had fun hurting other people and getting upset over it is sad. Shows a lot about how screwed up Alternia is that they make murder fun for kids until it’s just completely normal for them to do.

Best way to explain a Seer of Mind: behind the person everyone calls the Leader, controlling the spotlight.

Oh FUCK yes. Vriska and Terezi are Scourge Sisters again, but this time against the people who really goddamn deserve it. I think this was cathartic for both of them. The blame they’ve been placing on themselves isn’t entirely gone, but it is a little better, and they’ve got no reason to go killing innocent trolls anymore against their own desires.

Hints towards VrisRezi are also back, and I think they both really needed that. They don’t have to be rivals, as fun and as tale-told as it’d be. They can work together and be themselves and go against the shit they’ve been told is normal and that they’ve been justifying their whole lives. And these girls are gonna be healthier and happier for it!!

Not as much external plot in this one, but I get the feeling that Nexus is going to be showing up a lot more and becoming much more important. Interesting, too, that there’s (I think) two entities out there; one trying to stop Reader from skipping ahead, and one that was just watching to see what’d happen. That, or it’s the same entity - but I get the feeling one wants to stop Reader while the other wants Reader to progress in their own way?

On top of that, I really don’t know how to feel about how much of this narrative felt Dirk-esque. I might be paranoid, since a friend of mine pointed out that Friendsim led up to the Epilogues/Hiveswap and onward into Pesterquest, so Pesterquest must be leading into something, too. She thinks it’s Homestuck^2, and I kind of hope so, because if we get ANOTHER game after this I might die... but I wouldn’t be surprised, either.

#pesterquest spoilers #long post//#ardenttheories #ardent liveblogs

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eggoreviews · 5 years

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Nintendo Direct Feb 2019 BREAKDOWN

So, that direct was pretty okay right? If you missed it or even if you didn’t, I’m gonna be taking a look at everything announced and giving it a vague excitement rating! Enjoy!

Super Mario Maker 2

This was a pretty great way to kick off this direct. With the promise of a host of new features coming in this entry to build upon the first, including the introduction of slopes (finally) and a new texture pack based on Mario 3D World, I reckon this is definitely one to mark in the calendar. Mario Maker 2 is slated for a, gratefully soon, June 2019 release.

Excitement Rating: YEEHAW

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

The long awaited third entry in the MUA series, to the surprise of many, is in fact a Switch exclusive. For those who don’t know, this is a hack-and-slash fighting game, of course tied heavily to Marvel comics. This entry seems to be riding in off the back of Infinity War, with Thanos and the Black Order showcased as central villains. Honestly, this game looks like it could be fun, especially with friends, though I don’t think it’ll turn out to be anything special.

ER: Sure, why not!

BOX BOY! + BOX GIRL!

This adorable little puzzle platformer is making its debut on Switch this spring, with the promise of local multiplayer and more levels than ever before. Looks to be a goodun for fans of cute, minimalist art design and box-based puzzles and the like.

ER: Cool! Those boxes can move!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Ver. 3.0

Nintendo sort of slapped us in the face with a lovely, welcome announcement of a new Smash update! Oh boy! New features! And then they turn around and say they aren’t gonna tell us what they are.

Oh.

Kind of makes me question the point of putting this in the direct a little, but I’m sure whatever they’ll add will be cool! On top of that, a tentative release window for Joker was given (before the end of April this year) and we got a cheeky look at some of the new spicy amiibos, being Snake, Simon and the Pokemon Trainer lot.

ER: Yay?

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker Updates

Here’s one that definitely caught me offguard, but I’m more than happy with it considering I just picked up the game. Part of the new Captain Toad content is free, adding in proper 2 player co-op where you can both play as Toad. The paid ‘special episode’ stuff struck me as a little odd, considering this game was already a Wii U port that’s now getting even more paid DLC. Regardless, it’s not too pricey and you can even pick up the first DLC course now, with the rest coming March 14.

ER: That’s cool!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

This not-quite-Castlevania game could easily be mistaken for a knock off of that franchise, but seems to have some defining elements of its own. The art style is bold enough to make it unique and the game seems to have an interesting variety of puzzles and side quests to make this more than just a run of the mill 2D platformer. An obvious choice for those with a Castlevania shaped hole in their hearts.

ER: You go bouncy vampire lady

Dragon Quest Builders 2

What is basically just Dragon Quest Minecraft with a story mode apparently, this oddly charming sandbox game was seemingly popular enough to warrant a sequel. And I won’t lie to you, it got me a little excited. As a fan of Dragon Quest its art style and general building-ness, I think I might have to pick this one up. And it’s got a cool retro map!

ER: I’m not excited, you are

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age: Definitive Edition

In case you hadn’t guessed, I literally adore Dragon Quest. The bright colours, the developed characters, the expansive world, awesome monster designs, great soundtrack and lame sense of humour, it all just gets me. It just sort of sucks I already own this on the PS4, where I can’t access all this new content. Oof. But yeah, pick this up if you can. You won’t regret it if you’re a JRPG fan.

ER: More like echoes of an exclusive age amirite

Disney Tsum Tsum Festival

Oh.

I won’t lie to you right now, nothing screams ‘soulless’ to me more than small Disney plushes with all the personality taken from them being stuck into totally random minigames. Don’t get me wrong, I love Disney (mostly through Kingdom Hearts but that’s besides the point) but I don’t think this elicited much excitement in anyone.

ER: I guess this exists, huh?

Starlink: Battle for Atlas - Spring Update

This was another one that surprised me. Considering how mind meltingly badly Starlink bombed, partly down to its odd reliance on the whole ‘toys to life’ craze that died out in 2013, I really didn’t think there’d be any further support for the game and they’d just sort of slip it under the rug. But nope, we’ve got some more Switch exclusive missions involving some more Star Fox characters, as well as the introduction of Wolf’s buddies. Honestly, I think Nintendo needs to do themselves a favour and just release a new Star Fox game.

ER: Great, if for some reason you bought this!

Rune Factory 4 Special & Rune Factory 5

Here’s a series I’d literally never heard of until last Wednesday, but the only way I can describe it from what I’ve seen is it looks to be a cross between Animal Crossing and kind of also Dragon Quest. You cook stuff, you farm stuff, you fight things and you can get married if you want, so definitely cool if you’re a fan of the series. But also cool if you’re someone who wished Animal Crossing was a bit more JRPG. Alongside the announcement of a remastered Rune Factory 4 later this year, as well as confirmation of Rune Factory 5 sometime in the future.

ER: Cool! Plants and stuff!

Oninaki

An action RPG with an intriguing premise and a rich, dark colour scheme, Oninaki seems very eager to set itself apart from other JRPGs on the market and still manages to stand out just a bit, even in a direct that’s basically been packed with JRPGs. Oninaki explores themes of reincarnation and grief, following the story of one grey-haired dude saving lost souls from a place called the Upside Down the Beyond to stop them from turning into monsters. Another one to add to the list if you like edgy RPGs!

ER: Edgy and cool

Yoshi’s Crafted World

Another update for this adorably cardboard entry into the long running Yoshi series, we’re finally getting close to actually being able to play it. Nintendo showcased some of the more interesting variants of gameplay, with the use of rafts, cars and planes definitely making this seem that there’s some substance here to go with the style. Alongside this, a demo released on the eshop so go play that if you haven’t already and decide if it’s for you!

ER: Wow, this game has a Labo costume! I’ll definitely grind for that!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Finally some more info about Nintendo’s latest instalment in their anime Game of Thrones series Fire Emblem, we got a big ol infodump about some of the stuff to do with the game. While the video itself will explain everything better than I can, this time players will be able to interact with three kingdoms and three main protagonists, all of this centralising around one academy the game is set within. Overall, this game certainly looks interesting to play, but one I’m not quite sure I’ll be picking up just yet. Basically, if you’re unfamiliar with the games but love a tactical RPG, this one is a no brainer.

ER: Edelgard’s design is pretty cool. If one of them has to get into Smash, I hope it’s her.

Tetris 99

The game many have been calling Tetris Battle Royale, this is the very first Nintendo Switch Online exclusive offering and it’s totally free if you’re a member. It’s Tetris and you have to win against 98 other people, also playing Tetris. Nice!

ER: Tetris block for Smash

Dead by Daylight

As a game I got for free through Playstation Plus, it should be fairly obvious that this port isn’t one that excites me greatly, especially after seeing the quality of the graphics in the trailer the direct showed us. While the concept of an online match with several survivors and one killer sounds good on paper, it seems as if the quality of this port may leave a lot to be desired. But still, this could still only be early development footage and we really have no idea how it’ll look by the end.

ER: Tentative

Deltarune

Undertale is one of my favourite games of all time, so of course it excited me to find out I’d finally be able to play the sort of sequel, Deltarune, which Toby Fox has taken in the interesting direction of splitting the game into chapters. The first of these chapters will be free (yay I like free) and it certainly seems like the same abstract sense of humour and charm present in Undertale has been carried over to this sequel. Definitely one to watch.

ER: Always excited about cartoon doggo

Daemon X Machina

This mech-fighter has been floating around in various Nintendo directs for a fair while now and it’s encouraging to see the game come close to release. In a commendable move, the producer of the game has offered a free demo of the game allowing you to pilot your own custom mech and experience a boss battle in the demo known as ‘Prototype Missions’. The aim of this to gain feedback from potential players in order to make the game as good as it can be, which is amazing! It’s honestly a bit of a dream world where every game developer and publisher is as open and transparent as these guys, so kudos to them. As well as this, the game looks pretty heckin’ fun so it’s definitely worth picking up the demo off the eshop and giving these guys your feedback!

ER: Big ol’ robots hell yeah

GRID Autosport

As of yet, the Switch has lacked a realistic racing game. Enter Grid Autosport, which seems to be packed with a variety of cars, tracks and game modes, including all DLC from the original release of the game. Not one for me, but I’m sure there’s plenty of Switch owners out there whose racing fix isn’t quite satisfied by Mario Kart.

ER: V big if ur a car person

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

This game was notably created in collaboration with neurologists and those who experience psychosis in order to properly portray the main character and her mental health struggles. Following the quest of Senua as she fights to save the soul of her dead lover, this game created a huge wave through the industry when it first launched and won major awards for its artistic design and performance. While this isn’t one I’ve had the chance to try yet, it certainly looks as if it provides a brilliant, emotional experience from beginning to end.

ER: A lot

Mortal Kombat 11

This was one everyone basically already knew about, but this direct gave us a reminder of the release date and various features such as custom characters. For fans of this long running, brutal fighting game, get April 23 in ur brains.

ER: Cool

Unravel Two

This adorable puzzle platformer sees you and, optionally, a friend take control of two little creatures made of yarn as they navigate a colourful world and help each other pass various obstacles. For those fans of platformers like the Yoshi series, Unravel is definitely one to consider.

ER: Cool

Assassin’s Creed III Remastered

This is the iconic stealth fighting series Assassin’s Creed’s first outing on Switch, but if this footage is anything to go by, it’s not looking brilliant. While this once again could be put down to unfinished development, the first look at a game is often the most important, and a slow frame rate shown during the direct could mean this game isn’t what fans want it to be.

ER: Tentative

Final Fantasy Release Dates

For fans of the legendary and slightly intimidating JRPG series, several games in the series both new and old will be coming to the Switch in 2019:

Final Fantasy VII on March 26th

Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon EVERY BUDDY! on March 20th

Final Fantasy IX is out now!

ER: Cloud is my favourite twink

Astral Chain

Admittedly, at a first glance, this title in a brand new franchise didn’t particularly excite me. But after having another look, I can definitely see where all the hype is coming from. This looks to be a hack-and-slash sort of action RPG with all the edgy story elements and setpieces of that ever so popular steampunk genre that players seem to love these days. With all these mechs, explosions and edgy voiceovers, it makes me think that Xenoblade Chronicles and Deus Ex had some kind of torrid love affair. On top of this, with a dev team that has Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101 and NieR: Automata under their belt, this is a game that will almost certainly impress when it finally comes out on August 30. Platinum Games might just have another winner here.

ER: Big yes

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

oKAY, let’s be real, this is the one that really knocked it out of the park. At least for me it did. As the final reveal, this made me scream a little tiny bit. I think we’d all heard the rumours of a 2D Zelda coming to Switch, but I was highly skeptical to say the least. But a wonderfully charming and artistically bloody P E R F EC T remake of Link’s Awakening?? HHHHHH. They even kept all the Mario enemies for some reason! Oh boy, whenever they release this in 2019 apparently really can’t come soon enough.

ER: AAAAAAAAAAAAA

That was all for this direct! I hope you enjoyed my silly, unplanned breakdown of all the cool things that happened. Til the next direct!

Oh and if you’ve got a craving for more game news, be sure to check back on my blog March 1st for the second ‘issue’ (lol) of my monthly viddy game mag!

Stay hydrated my dudes.

#nintendo #nintendo switch #Nintendo Direct #zelda #the legend of zelda #mario #super smash bros #super mario #astral chain #Final Fantasy #dragon quest #deltarune #eggoreviews #gaming

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Unleashes Sakura With Episodes 29-35

Welcome to THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH! I'm Daniel Dockery aka That Dude That Won't Shut Up About One Piece, and I'll be your host this week as we make our way through all 220 episodes of the original Naruto. Last week, we covered episodes 22-28, and we continue this week with episodes 29-35.

This week, the theme is Naruto Minus Naruto, as we lose our title character pretty early on. But despite missing someone shouting about how they're gonna be Hokage one day, this actually seemed to work out pretty well, as it gave our favorite boy Rock Lee and the consistently underrated Sakura a time to shine. Sasuke did some stuff, too, I guess. We also got some bad guy reveals and Gaara being as Gaara as possible. So let's dive right in and let the Crunchyroll Features team give you their thoughts on a batch of episodes that didn't have an ounce of quit in them.

So, not a lot of Naruto in this set of episodes, huh? I mean, we've already gotten to know Sasuke, Sakura, Rock Lee, etc. pretty well so far, so it's not like they can't carry the story, but how do you like the show when the title character spends most of it unconscious?

Paul: I'm fine with it as long as the supporting characters have plenty of interesting things to do. Naruto's personal blend of lunk-headed enthusiasm hasn't really clicked with me yet, so I'm happy to see other characters take center stage now and then, and I like that Sakura finally got a moment to prove her mettle in these episodes.

Peter: This was probably Sakura's biggest moment in Naruto... possibly including Shippuden. I forgot they combined her special haircut scene with the Ino flashback. The whole situation with the sound ninja was kind of a cluster but I felt like that sequence was particularly well-done. Episode 30 is easily the best in the series so far, I forgot how well directed the moment where Sakura realizes she's alone is.

Danni: I've joked in my livetweets that I can't tell whether the main character of this show is Naruto or Sasuke yet, but that kind of became not a joke at all this time around, didn't it? That was kind of a shame, given that his material at the very beginning of this batch where he's chiding Sasuke is great. Luckily, the rest of the cast was great all around in this batch.

Noelle: It is pretty funny to have the protagonist absent, but it's clearly not just wasting time. A lot of stuff happens while Naruto is out cold, especially the big fight where Sakura shines, and she needed to shine! A protagonist doesn't have to be there all the time, even if they are carrying the story, and these segments are proof of that.

Jared: Having Naruto out for most of the episodes really made some other characters step up and gave them a time to shine like Sakura (finally) and Ino's group. You couldn't get away with having him be gone or KO'd all the time, but especially when the show just brought forth all these new characters, it worked.

Kevin: It actually helped to up the stakes a bit and create space for more character development. Sakura hasn't needed to do much until now, since Sasuke and Naruto could fight instead. In this set of episodes, the boys were unconscious the majority of the time, so not only did she need to push herself to look after them, but she also needed to fight opponents that even seasoned Genin like Lee couldn't stand up against. Running or hiding weren't options.

Carolyn: THIS is the Sakura I remembered and have been missing this whole time. I am fine with Naruto sitting out a spell so Sakura can rise.

David: While I like that the other characters are getting the spotlight, I'm also not a huge fan of how they're getting it. Lee? He's allowed to be cool for a little bit, but still has to be undermined by his limitations that also define his character. Sakura? We have to square getting her development with her entire character revolving around Sasuke. Oh, and Sasuke? Got cool powers from the new bad guy, so the whole thing feels a little artificial by the end.

Joseph: It kind of makes it seem like they just didn't know what to do with Naruto while other people have the spotlight, because knowing his character he would have to butt in no matter what, dattebayo! If it paves the way for more episodes like 30, which features out of this world choreography and animation, I'm all for it, dattebayo.

Kara: I'm a Doctor Who fan - having the lead unconscious or straight-up missing for major portions of story is familiar territory. That said, I'm glad it was used to good effect here. I was hesitant coming into the Chunin Exam arc because there are Just So Many Characters, and a lot of them are completely new but clearly important. Giving Nart some down time while we get to know how they work (and how characters we've seen before are growing) was a good idea.

These episodes are sort of bookended by two horrific reveals:

1) IT WAS ME, OROCHIMARU, THE WHOLE TIME

2)WTF, GAARA

How do you feel about these two? I've been playing a lot of Gaara in Jump Force, but I forgot that he pretty much opens his character arc in the show through intense murder.

Paul: I mentioned this on Twitter before, but although Orochimaru is clearly coded to be this big, scary, impressive villain, he strikes me as the ninja equivalent of that bad friend whom everybody kinda knows but nobody particularly likes. Orochimaru's the kind of guy who would get a little too drunk at the holiday ninja party, and then he'd awkwardly hit on your ninja girlfriend, and then he'd puke on your ninja couch cushion and then flip it over to hide the ninja vomit rather than tell you about it. Damn it, Orochimaru!

Gaara is just a comical murder-baby so far. Again, I know he's supposed to be frightening, but I just think he's a precious little sandy cinnamon roll.

Peter: Given what Orochimaru's done so far, I'm actually curious if Kishimoto had a plan for him at this point. One of this lines in particular speaking with Anko is hilarious in retrospect. I have a new appreciation for Temari and Kankuro. The scene where they were trying to get Gaara to calm down was particularly good. You got a sense of how desperate and afraid they are of Gaara. Also I don't remember Orochimaru using so many... wind ki blasts? I think Kishimoto wasn't sure what powers he had yet.

Danni: I'm a little disappointed that my perfect snake wife was just a creepy old snake man in disguise. I'm honestly more terrified of Gaara right now. Orochimaru seems like he actually has a plan. Gaara just seems a bit...unhinged...

Noelle: I definitely agree with Peter, where Orochimaru in his introduction definitely wasn't as cohesive power-wise, as opposed to the snakes and more snakes that he becomes later. He is set up to be extremely threatening, but at this point, it's definitely more potential than it is factual. As for Gaara, Gaara is one of my faves, even if he starts out as a murder machine. The murder does not stop my appreciation for him. You go, Gaara.

Jared: Now I want a redub of those scenes with Orochimaru except with the Higher Power reveal audio. They certainly make him seem to be a big deal, although it's still relatively shrouded in mystery. Gaara's showing fell incredibly flat for me. Unlike when we first saw him where he had this mysterious aura about him, this just felt like he was made to be the ultimate edgelord. Which if the folks above me are indicating, he gets better, so hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.

Kevin: For both of them, I feel like their introductions worked well to establish them as serious threats. Orochimaru as a somewhat unknown quantity that even the adults are scared of, while Gaara is a coldblooded Genin that doesn't bat an eye at killing people, to the point that even his teammates fear for their lives when around him. For Orochimaru though, I can't remember any actual reason why he's actually in the Chunin Exam. We'll get to future events in later installments, but why bother actually joining the Genin?

Carolyn: I remember loving Orochimaru the first time I watched the show and thinking he was a major villain. They certainly set him to seem that way. I'm interested to see if my thoughts on that change as we progress. I also remember thinking Gaara was quite impressive and mysterious, though he was never a favorite character of mine. Rewatching the show, they definitely hype up his skills.

David: Gaara having a team that is scared of him is significantly more scary than Orochimaru's clear long-term threat foundation going on here. It's kind of cheating but I think this matters a lot for how impactful this ends up being very soon, whereas Orochimaru's threat is much more broad and lore-spanning in the grand scheme of things.

Joseph: Between Orochimaru, cursed Sasuke, and Gaara, there's so much DANGER in these eps. I love it!

Kara: Holy crow, things got dark. I'm not saying that as a negative, either. I'll be curious to see what happens with Orochimaru, because that's some high-stakes stuff that got thrown into the mix. I had a feeling Gaara was gonna make Sasuke look like a ray of sunshine by comparison, but I'm with Akamaru on that whole situation.

If you had to get into intense anime battles in your actual, half-anime life, and you had to copy a Naruto character's techniques, whose style would you use?

Paul: I will continue to stan for my main man, Choji Akimichi, and his ability to transform into the boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Also, they never kill the chubby comic relief characters, so my plot armor would keep me safe from harm but not from embarrassment.

Peter: I feel like the correct answer is Gaara since you can just stand in place writing poems while sand kills people. Practically I think it's hard to argue that Sasuke doesn't have the most "ninja-like" style incorporating the three "jutsus" and leaning heavily on misdirection and outmaneuvering. Each requires having a pretty particular thing though, so it's kind of a lottery by birth.

Danni: Probably Orochimaru. Less for his actual fighting techniques and more because his Mr. Fantastic powers could come in handy when lounging around the house.

Noelle: Gaara's, having sand do my bidding would be pretty neat, and it's not like I sleep much anyway.

Jared: Rock Lee's techniques are what basically what I imagined myself when I was younger when thinking of having anime type fights.

Kevin: I would probably go for the Sharingan, largely due to how versatile it is. It gives amazing kinetic vision, allowing the user to dodge more and land more hits, lets them copy any ninjutsu the enemy uses, can make [REDACTED], or [REDACTED] or even summon [REDACTED], and that's without even getting into the unique abilities from [REDACTED]! Basically, it allows for a lot of flexible techniques, and just with the slight drawback of [REDACTED].

Carolyn: Ooh, can I redact stuff, too? My favorite hasn't happened yet. Have I mentioned how much I love Shikamaru?

David: Is it wrong to want to be Sasuke just because he gets the most well-animated fight scenes? I want to be as cool as he is in those.

Joseph: I've always been a fan of the Shadow Imitation Technique of the Nara clan. I think this is the first time we've seen it in the anime, but throughout the manga I always found it awesome whenever, BAM, someone found themselves ensared out of nowhere.

Kara: Gonna have to say Ino and the body-hopping. I'm so clumsy, the only way I'll ever effectively beat someone up is if I project into them and beat myself up.

So, Sakura gets a few cool minutes in Episode 32. I especially like the reveal that it wasn't a substitution and that she was actually dropping on Zaku and gutting through those Kunai. However, it's kind of mired in a lot of flashback and a weird "How does my face look?" backstory. How did you feel about it? I will say, for a little bit, I got hyped. Bleeding Sakura descending like Batman on this goon is a dope visual.

Paul: I'm glad Sakura finally got a chance to shine, and I didn't feel that the drama of the scene was terribly undercut by her childhood anxieties about having such an enormous forehead. It contextualizes some of her earlier, snappish behavior, and I was impressed with her growth as a character when she expressed a genuine desire to protect Naruto and when she offered Rock Lee her heartfelt thanks.

Peter: I'm kind of two minds on this watching it for the second time. If anything I feel like her dramatic move was undercut by the fact that there were two more Leaf squads that could have stepped in acting as a sort of safety net rather than anything actually relying on her. That said, I think the balance between her efforts in the moment and Ino remembering the extremely dumb stupid kid reason they stopped being friends was great.

Danni: I adored it. A woman's body in media is often portrayed as a priceless work of art. It's an object whose fragile beauty is meant to be fawned over and protected. The slightest mark of imperfection is detrimental to the whole piece. This either leads to strong women whose bodies remain unscathed or weak women whose bodies exist to be tragically violated. Seeing Sakura use her own body as both a weapon and a shield in this fight was nothing less than refreshing. She cast aside the beauty of her long hair, took three kunai to the body in order to get closer than her target, straight up sunk her teeth into him like a wild animal, and took a beating without flinching or letting go. It was so incredibly refreshing to see a woman actually fight with her whole body rather than an objectified version of one.

Noelle: This is Sakura's big awesome moment, and she nailed it. She doesn't have signature jutsu like Naruto's clones or Sasuke's fire - all she really has are perfected versions of the basics. That she's able to use her intellect to her advantage; setting traps, tricking her opponents, it works for her character. The fact that she is unyielding is fantastic, considering that in a lot of anime fight scenes featuring women it it's rarely conveyed just how brutal they can get. Sakura's desperately fighting, and she will take kunai and even bite her opponents if it means she can help her friends. It's rough, messy, and great. Let girls have brawls too!

Jared: I'm a huge fan of the "cutting your hair to signify a big change" trope, so I was incredibly excited to see it here. This moment for Sakura was essentially what I'd been waiting for this entire time with her and it delivered. I was kind of surprised how much backstory we got here, but I think it fit well with everything that was happening around them with Sakura and Ino. Everything about how she attacks Zaku felt like she was desperately doing anything she could to survive, which included things like biting and not letting go. Plus, I'm surprised they showed her bloodied up.

Kevin: To put it this way, Sakura faking out Zaku is both my highest and lowest point of the week. I love that we finally got to see her fight and even out think her opponent, and I was even okay with seeing Ino struggle with their history when deciding how to act, seeing her friend-turned-rival in trouble. They probably could have cut one or two of the flashbacks and lost nothing from the storytelling though.

Carolyn: I actually loved the flashbacks explaining her desire for long hair to impress Sasuke and her rivalry for his heart mixed in with Sakura being an awesome fighter. We saw where she came from and we see where she's headed. Her cutting off her hair (epic) was not just a clever tactic, it was her moving past her fickle, shallow priorities and stepping up. (And incidentally, finally winning Sasuke's respect.) I liked that contrast and I thought it made her powerful moments more meaningful.

David: I don't like how being feminine was presented so constantly as a negative thing in the lead up to her 'level up', especially because it got immediately followed up by a line from Shikamaru to Choji about how they need to be the 'men' of the situation. I also don't like how it didn't end up even really helping the situation, but Sasuke's unintentional powerup did. I do like how the story clearly realized how drastically it was underutilizing its main female characters and tried to rectify that as well as it could within the characterization it had already established for them. So, basically, I like that it ended up where it was, but I wish it didn't have to do that in the first place.

Joseph: Sakura's moment makes up for a lot of her inaction in previous episodes. It made it feel like a much more significant turn, and I think it's another great argument for the power of anime adaptations in taking certain aspects of the source material to the next level. I would also be remiss not to mention how major of a role she played in stopping Sasuke after he awakened to some straight-up Final Fantasy IV midi cover music.

Kara: Sakura's characterization grew three sizes this week! Normally I have nothing against romance or a crush being a motivator (people in the real world act that way sometimes), but I was getting second-hand embarrassment whenever everyone and their mother used her emotions against her because she was that much of an open book. She was seriously dope in episode 32, and I do like that she didn't drop her feelings so much as compartmentalize them. Was it perfect? No. Was it better than what we've seen for the last few weeks? Very much. Plus we've spent so much time being told she knows her stuff, it was nice to see it in action.

If you've read the manga, how do you feel about the pacing of the anime at this point?

Peter: I appreciate they're not trying to draw things out, past a few recap episodes. The only real filler we've gotten was a few more social scenes that ultimately helped build up the individual Team 7 members more so I'm good with them. Visually the series uses the manga as a direct roadmap the majority of the time but the departures, like in Naruto's fight against Haku, were extremely good.

Noelle: It's definitely a little slower, especially since you can read the same amount content much faster than you can watch it. Different mediums lend to different speeds. At the same time, it's not significantly slower - not like One Piece - so it's pretty tolerable. I can't say I have much complaints with the pacing.

David: It's gotten slower recently, but it's still MUCH better than I expect from long-running shonen adaptations even today. I never feel like a half hour isn't used effectively, which is impressive.

Joseph: They've chopped a few minutes off the absurdly long flashbacks at the start of each episode, so it's much punchier now than when it was covering the Zabuza fight. The adaptation nails some of the big moments, so I think they do a fantastic job of making the most out of Kishimoto's story and characters.

Last but not least, what was everyone's high and low points for this week, along with anything else you want to shout out?

Paul: My high point was the fight between Sasuke and Orochimaru in Episode 30. Pierrot's animation team really pulled out all the stops for that one, and I was frankly blown away by how well-staged it was, especially since the previous episode was so janky, to the point where it gave us the "Naruto, you look kind of cool" silly face meme. My low point was the reveal that Rock Lee's ultimate technique is just a glorified Izuna Drop. I was disappointed by that, because I was expecting something really far out there.

Peter: I'd have to say everyone involved had a low moment against the sound ninja. Rock Lee could have actually just kicked the guys head off so I'm not sure why he pulled out his ultimate technique. The master strategist Shikamaru really handled the InoShikaCho combo poorly (why not just have Ino knock the paralyzed guy out then 3v1 the last guy?). Feels like there were too many cooks in the kitchen while Kishimoto was trying to let Sakura stand on her own. High point was Sasuke's epic fight against Orichimaru... or maybe Gaara being Goth Prime?

Danni: If you can't guess already, the high point of this batch for me is Sakura's battle. Naruto snapping Sasuke out of his daze and the whole fight between Sasuke and Orochimaru are close runner-ups. I can't say there were any real low, low points for me in this batch, but I could have done without the whole prolonged tension of them debating whether or not to open the scroll simply for them to move on without opening it. I really feel like that could have been a lot more condensed.

Noelle: It has to be Sakura's battle. She's the last member of the team who hasn't really had a moment of growth, as she's mostly been stuck fawning over Sasuke. Now she has a moment of her own, to show that she really can be one of their peers in combat, not just because she's assigned to be alongside them. Sasuke vs Orochimaru was also fantastic to watch. Low points would probably be the Sound Ninja fight when Sakura wasn't the highlight, it felt a little too long.

Jared: The true answer here is Sakura finally getting her moment as the high point. The flow of these episodes just kept moving until the end where things really slowed down, but that makes sense. Sasuke pulling out a Canadian Destroyer (front flip piledriver) was something I absolutely wasn't expecting. Maybe my low points would be Gaara's fight and then Naruto wanting to open up the scroll since it felt way too obvious that he'd do that.

Kevin: Sakura's fight somehow managed to be both the best and worst moments. The best moment was when she uses Substitution multiple times to trick her opponent into giving her an opening, even though she needed to take multiple kunai wounds in the process. It was awesome to see her thinking, and there might've even been a bit of Naruto rubbing off on her, given how brazen the plan was. Unfortunately, it led to the end of her plan... biting Zaku's arm and just holding on as he kept punching her head. Great plan, Sakura.

Carolyn: The squirrel and the hair cut were high points for me. Also, just seeing everyone have respect for each other. Sakura thanks Rock Lee, Rock Lee acknowledges Sasuke's ability. Good stuff.

David: It might not sound like it so far, but Sakura's fight is my high point for not just this bit, but the entirety of the show - it's one of the defining moments of the series to me, something that has stuck with me for decades at this point. So, criticisms aside, that matters a lot to me. Low point is how even when the show is trying to make Lee cool is still undermines him just as quickly, making it hard to believe it really appreciates his struggle.

Joseph: Episode 30 is an all-timer, so that's gotta be my high point. The low point was probably the Sound Ninja. Their powers are cool, and I understand jutsu is a term encompassing techniques in a wide swath, but to me they just had prosthetics and weapons. Hey, check out my jutsu *pulls out a gun*.

Kara: Can't decide between Sasuka vs. Orochimaru or Sakura finally Doing Things as my high point. Really liked both. Low point was probably every time I had to see Naruto squiggling around in snake guts.

COUNTERS:

"I'm gonna be Hokage!" count: 14

Bowls of ramen consumed: 2 bowls, 3 cups

Shadow Clones: 115

And that's everything for this week! Remember that you're always welcome to join us for this rewatch, especially if you haven't watched the original Naruto!

Here's our upcoming schedule!

-Next week, on FEBRUARY 22ND, we’re looking at EPISODES 36-42 as I, DANIEL DOCKERY, IN MY TRUE BEAST FORM, hosts as the Forest of Death continues to torment! THIS IS THE ONLY INSTALLMENT WE'RE ACCEPTING QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FOR THIS WEEK!

-Then on MARCH 1ST, we’ll talk about EPISODES 43-49 as NATE MING returns as we enter into one-on-one competition including a showdown between Rock Lee and Gaara!

-On MARCH 8th, we move on to the final stage of the Chunin Exam with EPISODES 50-56, hosted by CAROLYN BURKE!

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

Have any comments or questions about episodes 22-28? What about our upcoming installment, featuring episodes 29-35?

-------------------------

Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. He has a Twitter that he uses.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

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sneek-m · 5 years

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Billie Idle “Not Idol” Interview

Billie Idle was recently interviewed by Natalie about their new album, Not Idol, and its new life as a five-member group after the addition of Pour Lui. The details about those two topics are certainly enlightening, but I think it’s an even better piece of media to introduce the people who make up the group. They all answer so much in line with the personality they put forth publicly as idols, and their back and forth comes across as interactions between long friends. What I loved best is how they define Billie Idle as this group that has a much looser, freer structure as an idol group than any other. They seem to have taken that for granted until now.

I loved the interview as a Billie Idle fan so I translated it for any other Billie Idle fan who can’t read Japanese to enjoy too. If anything needs editing, let me know!

Billie Idle Had to Change

Natalie: I went to go see your show at UNIT in May, and when the surprise addition of Pour Lui was announced, I thought I saw mixed feelings from Uika-san’s expression. There was probably some pride in you about pulling up Billie Idle and building it from the ground up, so I wanted to know how you really felt.

First Summer Uika: There were 4 months between hearing that Pour Lui was going to join and the official announcement, so my feelings were settled. Billie Idle had to change, and Pour Lui had to change. If not, there was a possibility Billie Idle would have been like oil and water, just splitting apart. I thought it would be more fun to take the stance of “let’s try something new” rather than be stubborn and try to protect what we already had. If you’re in a group for 3 years, there are some parts that become routine, and I thought the fans would be happier if we showed them something new.

But you didn’t want to continue along with the Billie Idle you built with the four of you up until Last Album?

Uika: First of all, was I really building the group? [laughs] If you think about it, after old BiS broke up, me and Non-chan (Hirano Nozomi), who both didn’t have a set path on what do next, got invited by Nigo-san to start Billie Idle. Then, some things happened along the way, and we kind of ended up with the four of us. From there, with Pour Lui of BiS joining, Billie Idle settled as a four-person group would obviously be done, and I think it has always been this kind of term for this group.

Doesn’t Pour Lui joining the group feel like a former superior at your work who quit some years ago joining you as your equal at your new job? I feel that kind of a situation would be tough.

Uika: Maybe because I was in BiS for about a year and a half, and I’ve been Billie Idle longer for a long 3 years, but I was able to have the perspective of a director. Why did Nigo-san as the producer want to include Pour Lui? I was thinking about things like that.

Pour Lui: Also, we don’t have a senpai-kouhai relationship. When we were in BiS, we had a rough relationship as members, and we still met up with each after the group split. If we didn’t have that and I just suddenly joined, I think they would’ve been like, “...huh?” [laughs]

Uika: I also record videos with Pour Lui and Non-chan for BYS, so I feel like we are the together as the three of us in a more creative environment than before.

Around the time Billie Idle was going to have a fifth member, how did you feel, Hirano-san?

Hirano Nozomi: I thought Billie Idle as a whole was going to end before Last Album, so I was wondering what to do after being thrown in the world at this age.

Uika: So you were worried about getting a job. [laughs]

What did you think about Pour Lui-san joining?

Nozomi: I was surprised. I thought anything would happen but that. I met Lui-chan when I was 18, so I feel like we both aged quite a bit. [laughs]

The Wide Possibilities of “Not Idol”

Do you think anything changed with the Momose-Akira sisters from working together with Pour Lui-san?

Momose Momo: I think we were able to see our goals more clearly. We started to discuss together about what we want to accomplish after Pour Lui-san joining. Right now, we are doing what we have to do to accomplish our goals one thing at time.

Uika: The staff in charge of Billie Idle also didn’t really give us clear, solid directions like how many CDs we have to sell or let’s play at this venue. I think Nigo-san too had a goal he wanted to hit. We were able to be involved in those thoughts and ideas, and now we’re headed towards that goal as one whole team. We were able to see how we move after three years, and we got more people joining us. I do also feel like the staff want to chase the top.

Pour Lui: We have a clear goal, but we’re don’t feel desperate, in a good way.

Uika: Right, right. Not like kicking off other groups to get to the top, but I just want others around us to fail. [laugh]

Pour Lui: That way, everyone can start to realize, “hey, Billie Idle is great!”

Uika: We’re the turtle in Turtle and the Hare. We’re slowly walking forward and gaining experience.

Pour Lui: When I returned to the world of idols with BiS in 2016, I felt the short lifespan of girl idols. The period when idols can shine the most is about 22, 23, and now, even if I share cute pictures of myself, I can’t compete with young girls. But age doesn’t really matter for Billie Idle. If I wanted to show off my cute side, I wouldn’t step out on stage in a T-shirt and jeans either.

It’s truly in line with the “not idol” theme you started out with.

Uika: Really, we have to move forward like the hare, but there are parts where we’re laid back. Though, we do get asked, “shouldn’t you be a bit more desperate?”

Pour Lui: Billie Idle feels like a group that already got over that sort of competition. We slowly climbed over the mountain, so I feel like we can keep on with this pace even if we’re 35. [laughs] Though, I do also feel like we have to get to the top, so now’s the time to get serious. We’re speed-walking, should I say?

Uika: We’re talking about age lightly right now, but actually, there are things that come my way that really concern me. And who supports me through that are the Momose sisters! There’s a relationship between them as sisters that won’t budge no matter what, so I think it deepens the meaning of “not idol.”

I Think I Now Know What It Means to Grow

It has been almost two years since Akira-san joined, but do you find it tough to be in a group with your sister?

Akira: It’s easy for me!

Momose: It’s easy for me too!

Pour Lui: These two are so funny. And they’re cute.

Akira: I think it’s wonderful to share moments as family while gaining many different experiences through our work.

Momose: We make more memories, and we get to be closer.

Akira: If I just lived a normal life, I don’t think I would’ve ever visited Hokkaido or Okinawa, so it also feels like a field trip.

Pour Lui: Hey, hey, tour isn’t a family vacation!

What was something that stuck out to you touring with five members for the first time?

Uika: Pour Lui looked like she was having a lot of fun. I haven’t seen her have fun too much. [laugh] She has said, “that was fun” in the past but it was more interesting than fun.

Pour Lui: We’re all adults, so Nigo-san tells us to do what we want, so it’s fun. I never understood it when, my time with BiS included, members would say “I feel like I’ve grown.” I wondered, what grew in them? But after doing this for 8 years, I think I finally know what that means.

Uika: That just means Pour Lui has been in the front pulling the rest with her for that long.

For Hirano-san who has known Pour Lui-san the longest, do you feel like her position or anything else has changed?

Nozomi: Since Lui-chan came, she taught us how to mark our spots on stage.

Uika: Hey! Are you dissing me for not using that this whole time?

Nozomi: No, no! We just didn’t really have to use it before.

Pour Lui: I only learned it during BiS’s farewell show in Yokohama, and then kind of figured it out when I was in my band. [laughs]

Lyricists Billie Idle Explain Their Songs

You just finished your first album with the five of you. The album has songs written by each one of you, but what theme did each of you have in mind when you were writing the lyrics?

Uika: I have three songs in the album, but the lyrics all have a rock feel to them. For the first song, “Run3,” I decided to make it something comical with a sense of story while also thinking about the staging. It’s about the bittersweet feeling of love, I guess you can say, with this naive middle-school boy as the main character. The next song, “Everydays,” when I first heard the demo, I thought I could do a J-pop style and wrote lyrics for a cheer-up song with some kind of message. I thought there hasn’t ever been a Billie Idle song in the past that helps push the listeners. [laughs] It’s not something I should say myself, but I thought it should be a song that helps push a lot of different people.

You also wrote the last song, “Message,” on the album.

Uika: The eighth song, “Message,” I aimed for it to be a title song for an anime. I thought it would be great to have a spot in an anime as our next step forward, so I put in a vague message. [laughs]

Seems like Uika-san isn’t the type to pour your own feelings into lyrics.

Pour Lui: I haven’t seen a song with Uika as the main character. I’ve been with her for a long time, but her true self is the biggest mystery.

Uika: But really, I wrote “P.S.R.I.P.” while looking at Pour Lui, and it turned out be a song with lyrics as if I predicted her joining the group. Last Album does also have songs based around my own experiences, and I guess I exhausted all my emotional parts on that album. This time, you can feel the emotional parts of Billie Idle from the songs that the four wrote. And I think the third song, “Doki2,” that Akira wrote is also Billie Idle-ish.

Akira: Recently, it’s been so fun. I’m not kidding, I really do feel excited. [laughs]

Uika: It’s not a metaphor?

Pour Lui: If that’s the case, I’d actually be concerned about her body. [laughs]

Akira: The simple fact that being alive is exciting, I wrote that feeling into my lyrics. There are times when I hate being alive, or people around me are saying all sorts of things, but I think it’s best to think simply during those times. Each person has their own opinions and feelings, so it can’t be wrapped up with just one view. If your views don’t agree with others, I thought you should first take care of your own views.

Uika: That’s something Jaian would say. [laughs]

Akira: But I think you first have to affirm yourself, or you can’t hear out others around you. I can’t put it to words very well, but the bottom line is, everyone is going to die in the end, right? So I wrote the lyrics with a thought that that’s more of a reason for everyone to take care of their own feelings.

Akira-san’s own feelings are definitely in the lyrics then. And Pour Lui-san wrote the lyrics for two songs.

Pour Lui: I wrote “Cinderella Anthem” and “Bye Bye Loneliness,” but it turned out to be the opposite of Ui-pon with the point of view being about me. When I first heard the demo for “Cinderella Anthem,” I had this image of the club on my mind because it was a dance song, but I’ve never been to a club so I couldn’t write it from that perspective. [laugh] I was able to write from the world of Cinderella, so I thought about how it might feel if I was Cinderella.

So it comes from the perspective of Pour Lui as Cinderella.

Pour Lui: Yeah. There are some annoying feelings that comes across through the lyrics, but the way she flirts is like me. I live my life being attached to men so.

...And how about “Bye Bye Loneliness”?

Pour Lui: So you’re gonna skip that part? [laughs]

The members aren’t disagreeing, so I figured it's probably true. [laughs] But other women might relate with you.

Pour Lui: People who relate with me with that probably are a lot of girls who are a lot to handle. [laughs] For “Bye Bye Loneliness,” it turned out to be a sad thing where I sang about being unhappy about the current state of the idol world, but then I realized it was about me.

Uika: Kind of like Dayu Koume? [laughs] “I tried writing about idols of today but it turned out to be about me! Damn it!”

Everyone: [laughs]

Momose-san wrote “Tanchou Na Elegy.”

Momose: I tried to match the China-like music, and I wrote lyrics about wanting to escape. I’m the type to write about myself when writing lyrics too, but from experiencing dark and bright moments in Billie Idle for 4 years, I think you can relate with parts about how everyone has something they’re not showing. I thought I could fit in a lot of words, and I wrote with this feeling of release.

There are certainly a lot of words. Are you good at writing lyrics?

Momose: I can’t really write lyrics. I turned in three songs-worth of lyrics, but my manager told me “they’re all about the same thing.” [laughs]

Uika: Maybe that’s the only thing you wanted to say. [laughs] But there are parts where it sounds like she’s writing about the flip side to Akira-ty’s song, and there’s a contrasting part about them as sisters that’s pretty fun to hear.

“Under the Sun” that Hirano-san wrote for is a metal song and it leaves a strong impact.

Nozomi: At first, the phrase “chi no soko (bottom of the earth)” popped in my head, and it wouldn’t leave my mind.

Pour Lui: That doesn’t sound good. [laughs]

Nozomi: I really wanted to say chi no soko, but it wouldn’t fit music-wise, so I went with jigoku (hell). I can’t write happy lyrics. Even with older songs, if it didn’t have a solid concept, they would be all dark.

Uika: That’s unfortunate because recent stuff from you like “Pet” and “Youki No Beach Side” sounded happy.

Pour Lui: It’s because she had to work with me. [laughs]

Nozomi: There definitely was a feeling that it couldn’t end like this after moving to Tokyo.

From Now On, It’s Billie Idle’s Turn

At the August show at UNIT in Tokyo, Uika said “from now on, it’s Billie Idle’s turn” during her MC section. Can you clarify what you meant by that?

Uika: There hasn’t been a moment where Billie Idle was on the offense. From the music industry to the idol industry, other people really push so they can succeed, right? There are times I think we take an offensive approach, but it has felt like “we’re passing on this one” for the most part, and we were watching our surroundings from the side. But I wanted to let them know now it’s our turn. It’s our time to attack with all our calling cards that we’ve accumulated.

Pour Lui: Billie Idle only has offensive cards left in our hands, so if this was a card game, I think we would have an insane deck. To defend ourselves from attacks, we have to keep attacking. [laughs]

Uika: And it’s up to whether or not we can keep attacking. [laughs]

Pour Lui: Before I got in, Billie Idle has never done 15 in-store events in a row or have been on a bill with another band. Our position has been changing now, and I think that also goes with it being “Billie Idle’s turn.”

Uika: I have it sorted out in my head, but we haven’t had a fight that takes up so many rounds, so I’m going into this slowly by training little by little while trying out new things as the five of us.

From here is Billie Idle’s time to attack.

Uika: Finally our turn is here! Be ready!

#Billie Idle #translation

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trulycertain · 6 years

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All right, so I’m reading Iron Man: Legacy, after having three separate people rec it to me ("It’s got him trying to build his way out of depression after his parents died! It’s got that panel with the winged horse! It’s got the roller skates!”), and I’m currently on Issue 7. I’m enjoying it immensely, and still sad it got cancelled before its time. However, it’s also making me a bit worried for the upcoming run on IIM.

...I should probably explain that, huh?

I'm still hopelessly endeared by Tyree helping Tony solve a problem with the solar cells on a new prototype, and "The way Tony describes tech, he makes it easy - like it was already inside your own head the whole time." And that's because Tony knows it was. It's a much smaller thing with the MCU version, but 616's Stark... his faith in people and his refusal to patronise anyone is a defining character trait. It's one of my favourite things about him. He absolutely has his moments and he does tend to take his wealth and power for granted, but in general, he's never intentionally patronising or trying to hurt unless someone has really, really pissed him off and done something awful. You see it most often with supervillains, or with interfering government execs, or when he’s using it as a persona thing to cut down rival companies. It’s not his default mode.

And connecting to that, I love how this issue contextualises the class thing. He runs off with a hundred from Tamara’s hidden stash, saying that "as soon as my company’s re-capitalized, I’ll pay you back at a thousand percent interest!” Tony's not trying to hurt anyone, but he doesn't get what it's like to panic at someone getting your rainy-day fund when it may be the second-to-last money you've got. But at the same time...he then goes and gives them a controlling interest in his company, because they’ve helped him out and he wouldn’t be able to get it back without them. Because when he says a thousand per cent interest, he means it. That's just who he is. It's not pity, it's not charity, it's just "you did me a favour within your bounds, I'm repaying it within mine.” He does it again and again through his character arcs. He doesn’t see the point of hoarding money to show off rather than to do something useful with it - with some exceptions. OK, a lot of exceptions. But he tends to lavish it on other people instead of himself, rather a lot.

In 616, if he is being an eejit, it's often because his brain is working a million miles a minute and someone else hasn't quite got used to the careening-car way of thinking he has.

There was a shift with Civil War, and partly because Millar has a certain, uh, style of writing characters, but during his own solo storylines, and the issue where he’s in the hands of Bendis... well, that quiet compassion and trying not get in anyone’s way while they’re doing their jobs is still there. When he’s in public, he shows off and grandstands and plays the playboy. When he’s in private and being himself, he’s quieter and more considerate. Both of those come from a place of truth. Heck, this arc I’m reading now is from 2010, explicitly refers to Iron Man 2 coming out, and has kept that.

And that’s my point, I think. I’m reading this and thinking it exemplifies everything I love about 616 Tony and gets him right, in a very real way.

And then I wander back to Chrome and get to an interview with Slott about the next run on IIM, where he’s taking over.

They asked, “What would your take be on Iron Man?” I was like, “Cutting edge technology, Robert Downey Jr. in the armor. Except we’re telling stories out of Black Mirror.”

OK, so that on its own is probably a cool idea. But in the context of 616... It’s not really a 616 idea. There’s also a line about making Tony “cool again” rather than “pained and sad”... Yeah, that’s. Hmm. Again, interesting, but not very 616. Heck, I’d argue MCU is still pained and sad, he’s just a little better at hiding it than 616. And kind of hilarious about it, often.

Many of the newer writers have been importing dialogue wholesale from the MCU without thinking about it or seeing the intent behind it. But while that allows for some cool one-liners, and comics are inherently adaptable in the way all longform stories with so many different tellers are, this just... hasn’t worked, and still doesn’t.

The MCU writers kept a lot of 616 Tony’s traits, they just contextualised them differently and put a whole other slant on it. It's also worth noting that MCU and 616 had rather different childhoods and kinds of abuse to deal with, too, and MCU has had far fewer on-screen struggles with addiction. He also got kicked out of his own arrogance (and OK, we can talk about whether or not that’s a fair descriptor of pre-Afghanistan Tony in either ‘verse and how differently he’s been characterised from writer to writer, yes, but run with me for this sentence?) at a far later age than 616, who has been a superhero trying to help people and putting his life on the line since he was 21.

I mean, I love the movie canon. It's what got me into the character. But 616 and MCU Tonys are different Tonys and I love them both equally. It's like picking a favourite child. Trying to merge them... it doesn’t always work. Much like 616 Tony is different again from Ults Tony, though there are a lot of similarities (and yes, in a lot of ways, MCU is a combination of them both).

616 is an alcoholic, and that fundamentally changes his worldview. MCU may drink a little much and resort to it in times of pain, but it’s never been confirmed he has a drinking problem, and it doesn’t seem to be a fundamental trait in the same way. (It’s just kind of... wrong to see 616 with a cocktail, and yet that’s happened in several issues. And no, those weren’t mocktails. *sigh*) 616 plays the playboy, but is actually pretty monogamous and a bit of a romantic; it’s MCU that does the whole “playboy with a different babe on his arm every night” thing. 616 is very quippy and snarky (he used to be less, but he was always one for a bit of jive talk, and I think this is partly due to styles of writing changing through the eras), but is drier about it and sometimes less obvious than MCU, and his sense of humour, when it isn’t nerdy as all hell, runs towards the darker and sadder more often. 616 cares about his business and actually kind of loves the day-to-day responsibility even when he hates all the paperwork; MCU falls asleep in meetings on paperwork (but still probably takes care of things when he’s not handing them over to Obadiah and then to Pepper, he’s just less obvious and would much rather be the one-man R&D department).

A lot of writers seem to be taking a really superficial “arrogant manchild” read of MCU, which is a misread of him too, and then trying to apply this to 616. It’s like all of the superficial cool with none of the conscience. I mean, the most obvious instance of this is Superior Iron Man, who was meant to be “pre-Afghanistan Tony,” and I just... uh. No.

In general, I’m not one for “the canon writers are doing it wrong!” But this is fifty years of canon, it’s really hard to catch up on and make into something consistent and yeah, and sometimes I see writers who don’t seem to have read the source material before they’ve started writing for it. I don’t mean the whole thing, just... not even the fundamental arcs. Sometimes that can lead to new and refreshing takes, and sometimes that can just lead to confusion and flanderisation.

I’m trying to keep an open mind, but... I’m worried. And I keep thinking I’m really missing the kind of Tony we saw in Legacy and bits of Michilinie and Bendis’ runs.

...Anyhow. Open mind, Tru. Open mind. And if things don’t work out, just wander off and find some more back issues to read for a while. Right.

(I just want to mention: Legacy also gives me Tony getting shoved into a shopping trolley and being carried back in that, chestplate silliness, and Tony in a kind of hideous canary yellow football shirt. Thank you, Legacy. I love you, Legacy.)

#this blog isn't usually very #marvel critical #616 tony stark #invincible iron man #iron man legacy #tony stark #marvel #just... i swear this isn't ranting #take it as mild worry that comes from love?#because that's usually what i do on this blog #go on about the bits i love #which include this guy #who is one of my favourite characters in pretty much anything #anyhow #meta #ie me rambling #616 #tru reads comics #sad beardy dudes full of tech

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joegranatoiv · 2 years

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Wonder Woman, with spoilers

*Anachronistic post archived from the legacied FB Notes*

THE CINEMASOCHIST: 2017 Summer Blockbuster Review #3

THE EXPECTATION:

In 2008, the clumsy silliness that had defined *the super hero movie* was reimagined as legitimate cinema. In May of that year, Iron Man successfully provided the foundation for what would become the ubiquitous MCU. Two short months later, critically acclaimed event movie The Dark Knight demonstrated what a big budget film based on a comic could be with the right amount of respect for the craft of filmmaking. And at some point that summer, Kristen (at the time, my girlfriend, now my wife) and I began a debate that’s raged on for almost a decade.

Would it possible to create a contemporary Wonder Woman film that would be any good?

She said yes. I said no.

My reasoning was pretty simple. There was a distinct question of evolving audience sensibility. Years before the lackluster Man of Steel (and a few after the depressing Superman Returns), I compared it to why Superman was such a difficult film to get right. Current audiences want more of an anti-hero. Characters like Batman and Wolverine were what resonated and amped audiences. I argued that if a filmmaker tried to turn Superman into an anti-hero, it would invalidate all the things that made Superman Superman, yet if they stuck with Superman formula, audiences wouldn’t enjoy it. At the time, I had only Superman Returns (the latter) at which to point as an example, which aptly demonstrated the point. Ten years later, I can retroactively say my suspicion about the former was also correct, illustrated by the eventual Man of Steel and BvS. This was the backbone of my argument as to why a Wonder Woman film would not work. Not that it couldn’t, necessarily, but that it would be sort of a Kobayashi Maru of a film to make, and that Hollywood would find epic ways to choose every wrong path in service of screwing it up most heinously, as they do (Daredevil, Elektra, the Schumacher Batman films, Fantastic Four, Catwoman...and so on and so forth).

Over the next few years, Marvel’s model tried really hard to change my mind. A Captain America film? How goofy is that going to be? Absurd! Oh...wait, that wasn’t that bad, actually. A Thor movie? Come on. There’s no way to do that without devolving into camp. Oh...well that was completely passable. Make a movie about a sentient tree and talking raccoon saving the day? We’ve reached the point of ridiculous. Oh...huh, that was actually a lot of fun.

For a brief moment, I thought that if Mavel could make Captain America and Thor compelling, then DC had potential hopes for characters like Superman and Wonder Woman.

And then...DC courted Zack Snyder. If there was ever to be a mascot selected for cribbing others’ art while not understanding the source material (and favoring style of substance), he would make a good candidate. If his two Superman offerings were any indication, then a Wonder Woman film set in the same universe would surely be abysmal.

Current critical analysis seems to suggest otherwise, but this is my expectation going in. I’m expecting something that will be pretty to look at, but be vapid, soulless, derivative, and likely not make a whole lot of sense. I’m expecting a mess. Will I end up eating my words? Let’s break down the ways in which this film can fail.

In terms of the character, if this movie takes extensive dramatic license with her abilities or her origin story, I’ll be annoyed. I have no problem with a more general reinterpreting, and I have no problem with a tonal shift, but I don’t want to feel like this is an unfamiliar character.

But more importantly, I want there to be a reason for this story to exist. I want to feel a thematic core at the heart of the story, not just a sensory experience. I want the plot of the film to be wrapped around that core, rather than be a series of things that happen (by the way, you’ll see this on many of my rubrics).

There is also the gender issue, which should be a non-issue. It can be a non-issue if it falls on the side of Furiosa from Mad Max rather than girl-power-sign-toting cast of last summer’s miserable Ghostbusters reboot. Yes, the character is strong. Yes, the character is female. I should never get the impression that the film is trying to draw circles around her strength as a female. What do I mean? Well...think of the female characters in the X-Men universe. Other than the poorly conceived Angel Salvadore (and I’d even argue maybe Emma Frost), they didn’t hammer you with the idea that any of these female characters were extraordinary because they were strong and also a girl. There was no pandering to a female audience. There were just characters that were strong who happened to be of the female gender. This will be a difficult line to tow, and is another reason I have cited as to why the Wonder Woman property will be so hard to get right. There is so much feminism entwined with the perception of the character, yet at the same time so much sex appeal historically...how can that be mitigated to just have her be a strong character, regardless of gender, yet also remain true to the spirit of the character?

Then there is the superhero problem. At this point, I’m burnt out on superhero films and their formula. While on the surface it’s easy to say that I shouldn’t hold that against this film in particular, consider if every summer, 4 movies came out with the exact plot of the Hangover. It wouldn’t take long before we were simply annoyed, and the new movies trying to bank on the formula would absolutely be judged for their lack of originality. Superhero stories and summer blockbusters should not be immune to that criticism. So what will this bring to the table that is new, especially engaging, or otherwise executed so well that it becomes a new standard? I really would rather not see the climax of the film be a punching match with a giant, forgettable CGI monster. The climax of the film should pay off emotionally and thematically, not just on a sensory level.

And on that note, I need to feel real stakes. That’s another problem a film like Superman tends to suffer. In both Superman Returns and Man of Steel, Superman overcame his weakness (kryptonite) through sheer will. He just...tried harder, and it negated the thing that was supposed to weaken or kill him. It’s a thematic cheat, and it feels cheap. On the other hand, when we get obnoxious scope creep and the stakes are “the whole world...nay...the universe!”, that is also usually disconnecting. I want and expect more than that. I want to live vicariously through the hero, and to do that I need some touchstones of identification. Real vulnerabilities, honest relationships, and a journey that doesn’t feel like it was run through the screen-o-matic-5000.

Also, I know that this film is supposed to be part of a larger cinematic universe, but give me a self contained story. Don’t invest copious amounts of screen time setting up the next thing.

So there’s a bit of a rubric for Wonder Woman. After I’ve seen it, I’ll write up my review, and we’ll find out which of us, my wife or I, was correct!

THE REVIEW:

I sat with bated breath, waiting for Kristen to tell me her thoughts. I said nothing, and revealed nothing in my expression as to my opinion of the film. I wanted her honest opinion as to whether she, as someone who was very enthusiastic for the potential of this film, thought that the creatives behind Wonder Woman pulled it off or not.

Her words surprised me. She said, “I guess you don’t have to completely eat your words, huh? Damnit.”

Look, there was a lot to really, really like about Wonder Woman. Especially if you want to compare it to last year’s DC offerings, BvS and Suicide Squad. I’ll tell you what. Before I begin to gut the experience with the fatal flaws we both found with the film, let me start by praising it for what we felt they did right. And honestly, there was a lot.

Gal Gadot surprised me. She was great in the role. In her fish-out-of-water arc, she had a perfect and believable balance of naiveté and confidence. So many other movies have tried this and failed. This one worked (though some of this was probably aided by the fact that we as the audience don’t have much of a reference for early 20th century Europe). She managed great chemistry with all of the supporting cast members. She conveyed authentic emotion and the proper amount of vulnerability to feel real enough. Her motivations were consistent. Like Chris Evans in his role as Captain America, she was able to subvert the potential hokey, campy nature of the character and allow us to intrinsically believe in her and accept her. Also, she managed to be a beautiful, powerful woman without relying at all on sex appeal to sell the character. She was ambiguously attractive, in the way that her male counterparts are in their superhero roles. I can not give enough praise to those responsible for managing to pull this off. She was a superhero. That happened to be of the female gender. Not a *female superhero*. Huge positive check marks in this category.

Chris Pine was also excellent. I did note that he was still channeling his inner Shatner in a few scenes, and there was more than one instance where a more modern colloquialism ended up in what was essentially a World War 1 era period piece (which annoyed me). But I thought he did a good enough job at making the character timeless. His portrayal of a WW1 spy was more than passable. I guess what I am saying is that he never distracted me with Chris-Pine-ness. I bought it well enough, though his role seemed incredibly...insular, I guess you could say? But is that any different than other British spies portrayed in film?

The comedy and quips worked, too. In fact, I’d contend that the reason this film is so highly regarded (and why it’s head and shoulders above other current DC offerings) is that the small moments were compelling. I’ve always said the secret to making a good Superman movie is not in creating a bad-ass Superman, but in creating a compelling Clark Kent. The character moments need to be relatable for us to care about the action sequences. It was as if this film understood exactly what I meant by that. The small moments, the non-superhero-moments really allowed us to connect to and care about the characters. This wasn’t explosion porn. It aspired to be more than a vapid sensory experience. So on that rubric point, I completely give the film a passing grade.

Also, in terms of my rubric, this was a self contained film. Imagine that. A superhero film, meant to be a tentpole in a planned cinematic universe, told its story without trying to artificially wedge in awkward tendrils to what comes next. And it was by large margin the best of the cinematic universe so far. It’s almost like those at the helm are starting to get it!

It’s due to all of these things that I concede that I was wrong. I will now completely admit that for ten years, I have been mistaken. An amazing contemporary Wonder Woman film is completely possible.

Unfortunately, though, this wasn’t exactly it.

There was far too much wrong with the film that weighed it down, and kept it anchored as average compared to the film that was right there under the surface. These things didn’t keep the film from being *good* and plenty enjoyable, and with some moments of brilliance, but they did keep the good film from being great. I think Wonder Woman had the opportunity to set a new standard for the genre. It absolutely did not. Its sum was rather middle of the road as far as these movies go (which, admittedly, is an improvement for DC). And as is often the case, almost all problems were writing problems. So let us dive in to some of the glaring issues.

I had an inkling right from the start that I could anticipate story problems. The film begins with dramatic narration, which leads directly into a flashback, which includes a 5 minute long, rather forced info dump by a character within the flashback, who goes on to narrate, and while this character is narrating, there is an animated flashback. It was narrated-flash-back-ception. Narrated flashback info dump inside of a narrated flashback info dump. This was lazy upon lazy upon lazy. It was, perhaps, the laziest possible way to provide backstory. And to add insult to injury, I’m pretty sure it thought it was being clever. So big loss of points for poor and lazy narrative design right from the start.

Then, before we even get into the meat of the film, another truly irksome thing happened, that then continued to happen throughout the rest of the film. We get great training montages of the Amazons. They’re generally well choreographed with lots of practical effects employed. I’m usually not a fan of Snyder-esque super-slo-mo-everything-action, but that’s a stylistic taste issue and I can appreciate the craft in this case (I could go on as to how this demonstrates Snyder’s style over substance, but since he wasn’t the director here, I’ll omit it...but don’t worry, we’ll get to him in a bit). It was working for me in this instance. I connected with those minor characters. They had a foreign culture that seemed to play by its own rules. It managed to keep from feeling like one of those early 90’s era USA shows (Hercules/Xena). Then, as we caught up chronologically to when the rest of the story would be told, we have a sparring/training session where Diana is squaring off against her mentor. In an act of defense, Diana braces for a blow, clangs her bracelets together, and unleashes a shockwave that topples everyone in her immediate vicinity. She is embarrassed or ashamed of this and runs off to ponder this action at cliff’s edge, where the inciting action for the film occurs. My problem with this scene is simple. Did Diana know that she and her bracelets have this ability? Was she ashamed because to do this was considered in some way a cheat or something? If so, why? And if not...if, as seemed more likely from the reactions, she did not know she had this ability and found it rather by accident, did she have no questions about it? She just accepted that this was a thing that she could do? And if that’s the case, why did she run off embarrassed and ashamed? Why wasn’t she amazed and inquisitive? The context was confusing, but more so because in either case, the motivations for her next action didn’t make sense. They were just because the movie had to get her to point b in order to plot.

And so began an annoying, recursive issue. What exactly were her powers, how aware of her powers was she, and how did she know to employ them? There is one example of how to do this right in this very film, by the way. Early on in the film, we see that she is capable of leaping a supernatural distance to the tower. We see her struggle, and her anticipation to try, and her excitement when she succeeds. It was reminiscent of Peter Parker’s first web slinging or Iron Man’s first *hovering*. We come to accept that this is something that is within her ability to do, and that it is also pushing her ability to its extent, acknowledging that she does have limits and is capable of failure, and that she as a character is ambitious enough to test her own limits. This is great. It speaks to character. It gives us a framework for her ability. So later in the film when we see her jump to the top of the tower to take out the sniper, it doesn’t feel like a cheat. In fact, when she manages to grab a ledge with just her fingertips, my first inclination was to scoff and argue that that’s not how physics or the human anatomy works. But then in the next moment where she starts smashing through the brick wall with those fingertips, my mind settled into the appreciation that at least the film was consistent with an illustration of the strength of her fingertips, so I could suspend my disbelief. These are examples of how to do this well.

But too many times this wasn’t the case. Suddenly, she could stop bullets with her bracelets. This is something she’d have no knowledge that she could do. Is there the suggestion that she anticipated the bullets? That she experienced a slow down of time (damnit, the Zach Synder slo-mo explained?), so she could act to get in front and deflect them? That she had superhuman reflexes? It felt more “well, she can do this because we need her to for plot”. They could’ve earned this beat back on the island, the first time she encountered guns. She could’ve discovered this ability organically, thus been confident about it later. But as it stands, it was just a sudden power that she was confident in employing.

She also suddenly could lift up and throw a tank. Now, I’m not saying that it’s unreasonable for her to be that strong. If we’re saying she’s that strong, fine. But if she is that strong, are we saying its because she’s part god? And if we are, then no combat with her Amazon sisters should have ever been a challenge for her...a finger flick should’ve sent them reeling. Unless they are that strong as well, in which case...are we saying they are strong as a god? And if they are, why? And more importantly, why weren’t they also able to repel or dodge the bullets when the German soldiers arrived on the island?...you can see the rabbit hole of questions this leads to.

She could also remain unaffected by toxic gas. I guess this is also because she is a god and, according to the movie’s logic, can only be killed by another god. But that gives us the immortality problem, where there really is no reason for her to even ever raise her shield. If she’s unkillable except at the hand of another god, she could just walk through a raging firefight unconcerned and come out unscathed. That equates to zero tension unless she is squaring off against a god, and how many gods do we imagine populate the DCEU? I’m pretty sure, as defined within this film’s own info dump flashback within an info dump flashback, there is only Ares left. So this lowers the stakes significantly for the character (like I sated above in the rubric: with Superman’s physical weakness being kryptonite, if he can overcome kryptonite by sheer will, it neuters any tension of attacking him with kryptonite because so long as he has strong will it doesn’t pose a threat). Now, there are plenty of ways to still have stakes and compelling stories with immortal characters, for sure. But they won’t involve winning battles with punching, considering the end result of punching would inevitably be ineffective.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe of the film. The thing that, if done right, could have pushed this over to top to reach its potential in my opinion. It’s a fairly involved point that touches on a lot of things with one central thing at its core, so bear with me here.

We need to have a serious conversation about the villain, the source of conflict for this film, and the themes that played out from the *final battle* sequence through to the end. Because despite the first two thirds of the film being very strong, the third act was a silly mess that brought the film down at least a whole proverbial letter grade. It threatened to negate the good will that the positives of the film had generated. It felt...more like the lackluster DC cinematic universe type movie that I feared it would turn out to be.

First and foremost, the film went almost two hours without Diana squaring off against a big, dumb, CG monster. It almost made it to the end without it. I was so happy about this. But...they, too, just had to take it there. It had to devolve into nonsensical physics and dumb, dark, stylized, green screened, computer generated action. Up to that point, it had grounded its fantastic things inside the scope of real world peril, making this final battle feel like some obligatory, tacked on reel from a much dumber film. We get McTwirly Mustacherson, who is evil because...evil...a thing that only hard punching can solve! Sure, there is that tiny bit of attempt at ham fisted commentary over man destroying paradise, but mostly it’s “join me or die” schtick. Again, the correct way to do this is to study the Magneto / Xavier model. In X-men, Magneto is a villain we can empathize with. In good narrative form, he is a reflection of the hero, and in fact their goals are the same while their methods are different. And we get to see the villain character grow, and we connect with him, maybe even feel sympathetic for him despite knowing that he must be stopped. We have a relationship with him because we get to know him over the course of the film. Even if you want a truly sadistic villain who has no redeeming qualities what-so-ever, you create an interesting villain over the course of the feature, not crammed in to a lazy ten second motion design vision just so you can get to the punching. And you really don’t expect to create a credible villain by doing the hackneyed reveal that a character we have spent virtually no time getting to know or care about is the shocking super-antagonist behind it all, trying to pose as legitimate by entering the script late in the third act and monologuing his perspective. Schumacher Batman era villains were more nuanced. This movie was way better than that.

In fact, let’s demonstrate how the film had the perfect set up for a compelling thematic moment, but how Hollywood fumbled (as anticipated in the rubric above). Diana was on a quest to kill Ares in order to stop all war and bring about peace. This worked beautifully throughout the film as demonstrative of her sheltered naiveté. Our surrogate in these scenes was Pine’s Steve Trevor, not Diana, and that was completely ok. It was ok for us to regard her innocence and idealism through his cynical, pragmatic eyes. We understood the world the way he understood the world, and we both pitied and were fascinated by her perspective. We knew, as he did, that war was an unfortunate and natural trait of man, not the result of manipulation by a deity. They drove at this theme beautifully. They set up the perfect existential crisis for our hero. The climax moment *should* have been when she killed Ludendorff, sure that he was Ares, and the fighting inexplicably continued. That should have been the end of her naiveté and the growth beyond ignorance of the real world. That was the end of her innocent idealism; the end of her proverbial adolescence and entrance into proverbial adulthood in her coming of age origin story. This IS the theme of the film. It’s right there. It’s been there since the beginning, weaving in and out of the script.

Why, then, do we not explore that through to the end? It’s as if the writer didn’t understand the theme to his own story (we’re getting there...). Why, instead, do we get the completely unnecessary reveal of a super-bad-guy CG Ares and a punching battle that ends up completely negating that entire theme (once Ares is defeated coinciding with peace effectively returning to the world)? This really bothered me, mostly due to the fact that I saw the fabric beginning to unravel. That the film had fooled me into thinking it was better than it was over the course of its very strong second act.

But let’s take it even further. Her ultimate boon, which both unleashed her power to its full potential and became the actual climax of the film, was...and you can’t make this shit up...the power of love. She even says so in the most trite ending monologue of any superhero film in recent memory. I’d take a thousand iterations of “with great power comes great responsibilities” over a single, “the key to everything is love”.

What is wrong with this? Oh, let me count the ways. Besides being so on the nose, it is wholly unbelievable. The film never earns the beat that single-minded-of-purpose Diana has the time or circumstance to develop romantic love for Steve Trevor, unless what we want to come away with is that she makes it to the end of the movie with as much naiveté about romantic love as she had about war (but that would take all of the relevance out of this being a sign of character growth, which is what the film uses this to suggest). Even more fantastic is that Steve Trevor has truly fallen in any sort of authentic love with her. They go through a bunch of stuff over a matter of days. They don’t know each other at all. A love story should have never been part of this film. Fascination, admiration, curiosity...sure. To cram in an attempt at a *great love story*...not at all.

And the most important reason it should never have been part of this film, and that it absolutely should not have been the climactic realization that settled out as the articulated main theme, is that it made this the story of Steve Trevor’s heroism, not of Wonder Woman’s. Steve Trevor is the one who demonstrated self sacrifice. Steve Trevor saved the day and fulfilled the movie’s more interesting thematic arc. Wonder Woman just found out she was immortal and punched a CG monster to death to meet the sensory overload quota, I guess? All because she found love. And that is just a tragic disservice to the character. She gets tempted for ten seconds to help destroy humans...and that’s...supposed to be a believable moment of tension to serve as a climax? Again, that’s indicative of a much less smart film than the rest of Wonder Woman portrays. That’s the appeal to the 8 year olds playing with action figures and watching Saturday morning cartoons. “Join me or die! The world must be destroyed!” Blam! Boom! Crash!

What would have been much more interesting (on so many levels) is if there never was a love story. And that she wasn’t immortal. And there never was any particular evidence of Ares. If the reality of Ares is left as ambiguous and mysterious as it was in the beginning of the film. If the wound Diana suffers is from the existential crisis she faces upon finding out the horror of mens’ hearts without any supernatural influence, but the hope that lifts her beyond that crisis found in the very mortal Steve Trevor’s self sacrifice and heroism as they work together to do the impossible and make sure the bombs never reach their destination. The realization that he doesn’t share her immortality, and accepts death to stop other humans from suffering. Fighting the war in men’s hearts should have been the climax, not fighting the CG menace (who could converse via angry whispers through firefights, of course). We should’ve climaxed with theme, not explosions. Making the conflict actually be a throw down with Ares to stop the war (and have it actually work, as the dust clears, dawn arrives, and both sides cease fighting and literally hug) invalidates the whole relevance of that last Chris Pine monologue. Or, if you want to argue that Ares was just a catalyst for war, as he defined in his own unearned mustache twirling monologue, then it invalidates the whole reason for animosity against and motivation to kill Ares as the reason for war (since he’s not the reason for war). Either way, the way it shakes out is a mess of motivations and an undermining of the themes the film spent two hours building. It’s not complex. It’s muddled.

And while we’re at it, if we were going for cheesy end dialogue, it should’ve been about the good found in men’s hearts, not about the power of love. This wasn’t a love story. And it never should’ve been. That should’ve never been the climax, unless we wanted to make a central conflict involve some aversion to romantic love, which also would not have made much sense.

While the direction was strong, the acting was strong, the cinematography and set design all beautiful...who wrote this thing off the rails?

Oh. Zach Snyder. Right.

He didn’t direct it. But sure enough, his name is the first in the credits as having written it. Snyder has proven once again that he a master of making something that works as a great sensory experience, but doesn’t seem to have the capacity to really understand the material beyond a basic surface level.

In the end, I would never suggest to someone that this is a bad film. It’s not. It’s absolutely worth watching, which is much more than I can say for BvS or Suicide Squad. It is more comparable to Man of Steel (better, but comparable), which started with a promising take on the character but devolved in the end into a muted, disappointing version of its potential promise. Kids playing with action figures, the end.

If DC films use this as a foundation, can right their villain problem, and follow through on their more ambitious themes, I think Wonder Woman could mark a significant turn in the right direction. But it was not the new zenith of superhero films.

I will say I stand completely corrected. I now firmly believe that a very compelling, contemporary Wonder Woman film is possible. And while this was an admirable attempt and 100% worth a watch, I feel that it fell just short of that.

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redscullyrevival · 6 years

Text

I finally saw The Last Jedi and I liked it - what I wasn’t entirely anticipating is that I also really enjoyed it! I will now commence bullet point blabbering about the film below the cut and it shall not be spoiler free.

I now understand all the raging nerd-hate this movie has been getting - this film aimed to straight up burn this motherfucker down, huh?

Loved it.

Personally I was very… underwhelmed with The Force Awakens. It was a fun romp and I loved the new characters and the nostalgic twinge of the familiar but oh boy the entire thing felt far too beholden to the pedestal of A STAR WARS FILM! in slow steady blinking lights.

The Force Awakens has that octane Abrams pacing but it is also just so damn stiff. So ridged. And obviously deeply afraid to wander off the path.

I understand that the first re-introduction to such a beloved franchise playing it (excruciatingly) safe made sense; but I was still upset with the final product, with the final choice to deliberately aim to be nothing more than what I’ve seen and felt before.

The Last Jedi on the other hand turns out to be a long, cozy, chat about how A STAR WARS FILM! should be struck down so something new can grow.

Hallelujah!

The visceral attack this film must feel like to a particular kind of Star Wars fan is no doubt very intense and in all honestly I do have some pity for folks who found this new film to be dismissing the legacy they feel connected to in deeply personal ways.

*clappy hands*

But oh, I loved it so much!

Every twist and turn, every aspect of this film pushes the anticipated rhythm of A STAR WARS FILM! away; all the momentum the film gains is for the final purpose of rejecting everything easy and expected, for pushing past, well, the past.

Hot damn, the nerds are kind of justified for once.

The Last Jedi came for them! It went so hard! The more someone had dug themselves into the belief that STAR WARS was a solid thing they knew and understood on a fundamental core level then the deeper the cut would go as the film raged on.

The anger, the hate from certain fandom circles makes total sense.

Because this film done changed the Star Wars.

And it was about fuckin’ time.

So prepared was I to sit through The Empire Strikes Back: The Remix that the intense gut fans-hate-it reaction the film got opening friggin’ day got me all kinds of delighted, how I saw it such a reaction signaled that this new film would be something actually new.

And the fresh air of The Last Jedi comes from some pretty drastic subversion of A STAR WARS FILM! It is down right beautiful.

Ultimately, if the choice to change Star Wars was just to grim dark and edge it up then it’d be pretty terrible I agree, but The Last Jedi managed to alter and course correct massive change without breaking the frame of the how and the why and to whom these STAR WARS stories are told.

I mean, in my opinion anyway.

I felt the film put a lot of care and love into explaining to the audience what was right and natural about change, explaining that strength could be found in letting go of our nostalgia and expectations and opening up to new experiences in old sandboxes. I felt The Last Jedi was an oddly gentle film that knew it was going to frighten some while igniting others and did it’s best to show it’s good will towards signaling hope and legend and legacy into a shared experience.

*shrug shrug shrug* YA FEELIN’ ME?!

I know I already have a spoiler warning above the cut but now I am going to really get up in this film and push my eyeball up against it’s eyeball and hey if you wanna see all particulars feel free, but this is now specific spoiler territory, thanks and happy holidays:

I was so enthralled with Finn and Rose’s quest and I was ecstatic when it didn’t work out.

The two went on a space goose chase for a daring rescue mission and got into ruffian escapades and thought on the fly and were brave and funny and were livin’ that STAR WARS life - and they failed spectacularly.

Their mission, their rip’roarin’ escapade, was in fact a brash and ill thought out plan that almost got absolutely everyone killed.

Precious, lovely, daring, and confident Poe Dameron was a horrible leader.

His belief in a desperate gamble; his total confidence that he was in the right and the stuffy Vice Admiral didn’t know when to take a risk; the audience knowing his qualities as sure fire STAR WARS leadership was all for nothing and people died for it.

I said HOT DAMN!

This film made General Organa and Vice Admiral Holdo, two older women who don’t run around with blasters in hand but who have no less twinkle in their eyes the true leaders of the resistance. The true bearers of the spark of rebellion. It was their matured tried and true mentorship that ended up saving them all - not the cocky charisma of a younger good looking man.

Also Leia is confirmed Force Sensitive™ bringing to an end decades long old guard fans bickering and moaning over if she has pretend magical powers or not and why if she did that’d be “not right”.

(Seeing Carrie Fisher bathed in moonlight was emotional)

And then, oh man, Rey’s parents? Wonderful, soulful, bright and strong Rey? Because she is in a STAR WARS film and can use the force everyone including people who’ve never seen The Force Awakens assumed her parents were a part of the legacy, a part of the grand scheme.

NOPE.

In fact, to really drive it home just so fans can’t possibly be confused, Kylo Ren tells her “You’re nobody. You don’t belong in this story.”

He said that with his mouth words!

But there she is all the same, good old Rey. And she’ll remain. Without being so and so from extended universe’s kid or a character only in some comic book or Luke’s secret child or whatever.

Rey is just a character made to be there and to use the force because, hey, it’s a STAR WARS MOVIE! We needed someone to be the Luke this time around so why not Rey?

PS we shattered Luke’s lightsaber and made Rey indebted to jack squat of this franchise. She searched for her purpose and her parents and only found the strength of herself and her own choices. Peace out!

That tickled me senseless, having the cultural institution of STAR WARS being full on assaulted for two and a half hours.

That tickled my pickle.

The Last Jedi is hyper self aware media, but it was still fun. It was still a good time but it laid down hard and fast with changing the lifeblood of STAR WARS that even I, who is nowhere near as big a fan as someone you could probably hit with a stone’s throw, admit to feeling some uncomfortable chafing at times while watching.

STAR WARS is a legit cultural institution by the way, I didn’t just say that for the fun of it - that’s absolutely 100% true.

Star Wars as a media, as a franchise, has an ebb and flow of patterns, style, symbols, and motifs that dictate a tonal cohesiveness which designates something as recognizable as STAR WARS.

What I’m doing when I all caps “Star Wars” is I’m trying to defer attention to the known concepts and ideas of Star Wars media as a whole cultural institution and experience rather than just invoking a cluster of films, only I’m trying to do all that just through the written word.

Star Wars is a film and STAR WARS is all that which defines the franchise as well as our shared cultural understanding of said franchise, ya fell me? That’s how I approach talking about this kinda stuff online anyways. I feel most will understand what I’m doing with the capitalization and all that but hey, now ya know ‘fo sure.

Anyway

Shit y’all! Luke Skywalker is a funky sore spot huh? Loved that too.

Lets get to that Kylo Ren:

Kylo Ren’s entire set up is that he ain’t Vader and fuck, ain’t that the truth. But in a good way. Duh Kylo Ren is not Vader, he is a different character. And, now, he isn’t even remotely similar to Vader as a STAR WARS character.

Everything about Kylo Ren is opposed to Darth Vader; while he gain’s definition with this new film Kylo Ren didn’t even remotely start out as a mysterious villain like Vader originally did.

We all knew, in that STAR WARS fashion, that Kylo Ren had to be tied to the legacy. We all knew that he had to be tied to the lifeblood of the franchise. And Ben Solo absolutely is.

We knew this before Han ever revealed it through dialogue and that’s why it wasn’t a big reveal in The Force Awakens. Of course Ben Solo turned to the dark side and is Kylo Ren. Of course. Of course he has some weird Vader obsession, the character needed to emulate Vader so as to take up his mantel in the narrative and in the franchise. We needed a baddie in a helmet, stat!

But oh, look what has happened though, oh man:

Luke Skywalker in a moment of fear almost murdered his own nephew -because he is in STAR WARS.

We all know if there are Jedi then there is a light and a dark side of the force; we all know that if you are a master of and a teacher in the ways of the force you open yourself and your students up to a choice; and we all know that fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.

Kylo Ren being a direct response to Luke friggin’ Skywalker is as far from Vader as you can get but fits just so right within the cleansing fire that is The Last Jedi.

The hero of the first saga ignited the villain of the next.

That ain’t very STAR WARS and something tells me that is the biggest kick to the crotch for a lot of folks.

I, of course, dug the hell outta that choice.

Kylo Ren is actually interesting now. Mischief managed.

The very not subtle social commentary the film was dishing out was a pretty pie to boot. Bit on the nose but hey, ain’t that STAR WARS at least? Didn’t even have to dig this time around, gems sitting right on the surface.

… Damn, I’m tired. I still have plenty to talk about though. Hmm, well, lets close this out on a different note (and that’s a pun):

The music of STAR WARS is bonkers recognizable. Like, I keep saying Star Wars is a cultural institution that uses motifs and symbols as devices for defining itself, right? Yeah, the use of music in this film is a pitch perfect example of that.

The Last Jedi seamlessly flows from theme to theme, with specific well known scores highlighting emotional call backs and in-story referenced characters - the use of music is the most traditionalist aspect of this new film (they even shook up the editing this time around - shock and awe).

Smart though, if they fucked with how STAR WARS did music then even an impassive twerp like me would be pretty upset.

For my money, the musical score is still the best thing about a good old Star War.

#star wars #spoilers #ignore me

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whitelippedviper · 7 years

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Pop Comics #4: Saga #46. Come Mush with Me

This article originally appeared on my patreon, which you can subscribe to for as little as one dollar a month. As a patreon subscriber you get to see these and other articles sometimes weeks before everyone else. Subscribe now.

It’s a new week in me writing about a popular comic from last week. For the purposes of this column I am defining popular as top ten on Comixology’s weekly list. This week I’m tackling one of the most popular books in all of comics, and last week’s most popular comic overall: Saga #46. Saga #46 is written by Brian K. Vaughn with art by Fiona Staples, with lettering/design work by Fonografiks.

The last Saga comic I read was the first issue. I might have made it to the second issue. But I really only remember that I read the first issue. I only mention this because it’s a context that like with a lot of these monthly comics speaks to that I’m really reading a lot of them from a more mechanical place than someone who has really taken the time to become invested in the work and the characters, and I’m admitting that is to my detriment in terms of giving a complete critical sense of the thing.

Saga #46 starts with some guy with a TV head freeing a horned girl that’s tied up with a tentacle from a lynching being executed by two horse people, and this non horse cowboy dude. TV dude frees Horn girl, and she’s like “I didn’t even WANT you to save me” for some reason. And then we cut to a horned dude with his pregnant but unconscious non horned wife and kid. They are in some field outside a house, where this giant multi-titted fox doctor runs a kind of planned parenthood clinic. Horned dude is very pro-life, so he and the fox have a discussion about abortion with no real resolution. The whole thing is kind of setup like the Fox, who calls herself an Endwife, is going to kill the wife. But that doesn't happen in this issue. I don’t know why these people are in this field or how they just happened to come to this particular house at this exact moment--but hey that’s what happens when you jump right in on issue 46 of a comic.

While horned dude is arguing with Fox doctor about abortion, upstairs the kid is singing her imaginary friend into non-existence for some reason. And then meanwhile the TV Dude and the horned girl are getting drunk and arguing about dumb shit, so they of course want to fuck, and the last page of the book is just a page of them “shockingly” kissing. One of the interesting things to me reading this issue of Saga is that Fiona Staples has been drawing this one book for about 5 years. Which I know is a thing that happens a lot in comics, but it’s interesting to see how her art has changed from the first issue aka the last time I saw her art not on a cover.

This is an image from Saga #1:

Here’s one from Saga #46:

It might be hard to tell from my shitty phone pic of the second image, but if you look at the chins in both images you can see it. Her style has cleaned up quite a bit since the first issue. Her lines are a lot smoother now, and there are a lot fewer of them. Which is fine. But one of the issues that is constant in Staples style is she makes these soft kind of smudgy backgrounds that really hamper your ability to like visualize the world Saga takes place in. And it makes sense that she is that kind of artist, because her strengths are in her forms. She’s really good at facial expressions and body language. Her characters are pretty good actors. People like that don’t per se need to be fussing with backgrounds that much because they can evoke so much dramatically with the acting. Like a great example is a lot of Guido Crepax comics. Which have no backgrounds generally, but rather focus on body language and whatever mechanisms are interacting directly with the body. As a reader, with an artist like that, you can totally fill in the backgrounds with your own imagination. The issue here though is this is a sci-fi setting, being done by a writer who doesn’t seem to have a lot of aptitude for building a coherent space narratively, so the weight of the setting is put so much on Staples, and it goes against what she is most effective at as an artist.

And then her ability to make these trashy character designs for Saga into something that at least looks like it belongs on the body it belongs on comes from this same family of artistic predilections. I mean each individual creature in Saga looks like you just put different body parts into a blender and then drew what came out. Even down to the clothes people wear. The fashion is all over the place. Horned girl in this is wearing like this asymmetrical cut dress with boots and leggings, and then the TV guy is wearing a suit with huge tails, and then the family later in the comic just look like standard comic clothes from like the background of a Spider-man comic. And then the like horse people wear western cowboy clothes. And then the fox doctor doesn't wear any clothes?

The effect of all of that is that you don’t really get much of a sense of culture or like “this is what this world is like because people dress that way”--like Star Wars, for example, takes place across so many planets but there are kind of basic style points that the series coheres around and then the differences just delineate that “oh this is a desert planet, this is a forest planet” ect. So without that kind of coherency in the character design you spend a lot of time on a Saga page scrambling for a foothold, and usually you could skate on this kind of fashion if the backgrounds were there to say “oh this is where we are at” but they aren’t. So the flaw of the incoherent designs is only amplified because they are the only defined thing to look at on a page. So the effect is a mushy undefined sci-fi experience that looks as ill defined in issue one as issue 46, and that’s coupled with the scripting conventions which cram in all kinds of anachronistic political concerns from present day earth USA. Like in this one issue we get an abortion debate and an argument about romance novels? And there are cowboys talking with a shitty southern accent? Huh? But I digress. My point about Staples art was that in cleaning up her line and going more minimalist, she’s stripped her work of the element that was propping up everything else. That rawer dirtier line, and those thick scattered ink brush strokes gave her work a POV, a focus. Like I said, her strength is the form(just look at her cover work), so those lines being the only thing with edge on the page gave her figures more force than they have in this later issue. Back with the older more jagged style her backgrounds still faded into nothing mush, but that was fine because you had shit on the bodies that you were focused on. It was interesting to look at those lines and those brush strokes. You didn’t NEED backgrounds. But you can’t not have backgrounds, AND draw your forms in a clean smooth style AND expect to carry a writer who is all over the map(even though obviously no one cares since she and the book win every award they go up for--so why not simply things I guess? You get paid either way--so from a practical drawing 50 issues of a thing point of view I think it makes a lot of sense--but it is quite cynical toward the reader I think).

Which this was my general reason I never got into Saga to begin with: I just couldn’t find the anchor point. As a sci-fi world this is like sub-serenity, which is also something I hated. There’s something cynical to Saga in that it feels like it’s just a cut and paste of things people liked on tumblr five years ago, and it just keeps going refusing to die, at this point I guess carried on by it’s own momentum because I would imagine if you’ve read 45 issues of Saga, you are going to read 145 really easily. But I don’t get why people aren’t asking for more. Like Twin Peaks ended the other day, and I’m pretty sure I follow everyone who was watching the show. Like Lynch made something truly great and amazing. And...nobody watched it or gave a shit. I get that that’s a thing that has always been that way. And will always be that way. But so, comics are this niche nerd thing, which has as its flag standards things like Dune, Star Trek or Star Wars--how is milquetoast space opera skating so easily? I’d have thought that if there was one genre that comics really exercised discernment on it would be space opera sci-fi.

And not only is Saga skating, it’s winning every award it can. To most people in comics, they would say this book is a testament to the possibilities of the medium. And I don’t know if that’s a taste thing in terms of I don’t have the right taste for comics(and I get it on both sides, it's like every year the Eisners and the Ignatz awards have a competition to see who can give more trophies to shit I give less of a fuck about), or if the people saying those things have just never read the things I have and if they had they’d feel differently? I think it’s the former, because I feel like if I made the biggest Saga fan read Queen Emeraldas they’d not understand why I like it.

Am I doing it wrong? I bet the average Saga fan is much happier about life than I am. Like it must be really cool to live in a reality where the things you like are award winning and wildly popular. That must be insanely validating. Which none of this is to say I hate Saga. Or maybe I do. I don’t know. I just feel nothing towards it. And it’s a testament to its success that despite feeling nothing about it, the book is such a force in comics, that I still ended up writing about it.

And I mean, how great would it be to love a book like this and get so much out of it? And I'd have so many people eager to talk about it. I wish I loved it or I wish I hated it. But I don't. Also this is a lame kiss to take up a whole page for:

Like I get that a kiss between someone with a mouth and a screen is difficult, but that is actually something that should be an opportunity to draw something pretty terrific, particularly for the last dramatic page of a book. The scale is also not saying anything. We are caught between love in a giant fantastic world, and great love in a mundane place if that makes sense. If you zoom in more the focus can be more the mechanics of the kiss. If you zoom way out, it’s like this dramatic camera spinning moment on top of a mountain. But at this shot it’s uncommitted I think, and I think with the characters centered in the frame so much as well it’s just not very dramatic for such a moment that is I think supposed to be dramatic. Instead of being the truth of what this moment means for these two characters, I think it lands more like the idea of the idea of a kiss between these two ideas. A cliche. It’s especially disappointing because as you can see going through Staples cover work, and hell most of her interiors, something like this should be a real playing into a real strength. But I think the mushiness of the decision making of scale screws it up. The only way this page hits with you is if you have as a reader really bought into the idea of it happening enough to carry the image in your mind. But that shouldn’t be enough, and I think it’s worth asking for more.

And this is a lame thing to write:

#My Writing #Sarah Horrocks #Saga #pop comics

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comicteaparty · 6 years

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August 30th, 2018 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on August 30th, 2018, from 5PM - 7PM PDT. The chat focused on The J-Man by Jonny Aleksey.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

COMIC TEA PARTY START!

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning~! Today we are discussing The J-Man by Jonny Aleksey~! (http://jonnyalekseydrawscomics.com/thelatestpage/) For those new or in need of a reminder, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question for participants to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer! If you miss out on any though, they’ll be pinned for the duration of the chat once they’re posted~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comic~! All that being said, let’s get started and have a great discussion!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

HI THERE JONNY

sorry I'll stop the caps locking

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

should I answer the questions too?

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Well, I guess my favorite scene to design was the final pages of #4

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

if you want to answer the questions i wont stop you. though this is basically the only one thats non spoiler-y

and anything specific you liked about designing those pages?

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

There was a lot of quiet still shots . I enjoy writing dialouge enough but visual emotion is more interesting to me.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i do think that shows through the comic throughout. not that the dialogue or other aspects are poor, mind you. but i do think the comic shines strongest when its relying on the visuals.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Agreed.

The comic has a really great art style that lends itself really well to action and dramatic scenes

And the expressive characters

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yeah. although definitely the action. theres something in the movements that feels immensely fluid.

ironically though, i think my favorite scene is the end of #5. i enjoyed the emotional drama of jonny realizing that the world simply just isnt this easy to define black and white thing. and i think that just adds a good emotional layer that helps followup on the fact that #3 had that sense of moral grayness as well. i also just liked seeing jonny having his own little folders for villains. thats just kind of cute. practical but cute.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I just wonder when our boy the J-Man will return

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

(working on next ish

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

yessssss

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

#3 was probably the first true character arc in the comic

I'm glad it followed up nicely so far

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Good to hear

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yes and im really enjoying the balance of the villains. like theres this great moral grayness to them where their motives and backstories are sympathetic. but i like that in this case it doesnt go too far. like the story keeps it clear that nah, theyre sympathetic and have dimension, but theyre 100% the villain and need to be stopped.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Oh, Jonny, I have something to report, if you don't mind

http://jonnyalekseydrawscomics.com/jonny-concept-art

I think the images here are broken

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

oh yeah. I haven't gotten around to fixing that.

There's just so much to do in one day :0

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I can imagine

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

I keep putting stuff like that aside so I can work on the archive stuff.

but Justin what's your fav scene. I really wanna know.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yes do tell SJ

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Crap uhh It's been so long ago

http://jonnyalekseydrawscomics.com/thelatestpage/125 bu I'd say this scene was a pretty fun one

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Oh yeah, that took a long time to make.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

how long?

if ya remember

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Probably the whole day

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

wow, that quickly huh?

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

I wonder if anyone noticed that pipe gag.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

maybe but definitely not me. now i see it and thats a fantastic detail.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

i never saw it either

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

I like sign jokes a lot. Probably cause of The Simpsons.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

i can see that

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i want to say i really like jonny's costume design. i like the contrast of colors but i also like how its this mix of superhero and street clothes. i think it really expresses his personality well that this is his choice of uniform.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I remember when he was drawn with rainbow colors one time

as a joke

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

The rainbow would make a cool special short sometime.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

nice

Aw yeah now I remember

you were doing a Q&A

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

His suit got more "professional superhero" as it went along but I'll be damned if he ever loses his sneakers.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

aw yea

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

tbf sneakers seem very comfy for fighting

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

indeed

for me my footwear of choice are boots

cause they hit hard

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Made it. ^.^ I liked the scene where Abe gave Johnny the costume. Like, I know you're not going to quit this, so I've got your back. And you be styling.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

MATH

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

He'll wear boots in the winter

yo!

That was very nice of him.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

boots good for kicking?

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

boots are made for walking

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

abe is the bestest of best friends. abe is the vip. has the costume, has the science, has the loyalty. A+ friend.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

you sure bout that

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

QUESTION 2. Of all the threads in the comic, there is one that stands above the rest: Who is the Big-Man? What do you think the Big-Man’s ultimate goal is? Is he up to something big, or is his goal simply self-profit? We’ve also seen many people are in the Big-Man’s pockets. Do you believe they’ll stay loyal, or will one of them eventually bail and squeal on the Big-Man? What do you think will happen if Jonny discovers the identity of one of these accomplices? What if it is someone he knows? Do you believe, at current, that Jonny would be able to beat the Big-Man? Or do you believe the Big-Man has something up his sleeve? Lastly, what do you think the Big-Man’s next move will be in regards to dealing with Jonny? Will he continue to try and capture him, or will all efforts move to elimination?

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Ok, this one I can't answer.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

you mean this one?

http://jonnyalekseydrawscomics.com/assets/images/static/Sergei-Sternoff-Updated.png

cause he's pretty big

if you know what I mean

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

no not that one, but fair point. unless this was all a rouse. and if we think sergei is out of the picture well never suspect him of being the big-man O_O

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Sergei's just a hired goon. Not very bright.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

of course cause he has to follow the dumb muscle stereotype, is that it?

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

(Just reading the backlog. Incidentally, I only made it to the end of #5, the two parter. Lots of pages!)

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

That's pretty far. You only missed the prequel. (Hope we discuss that later)

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

I think I noticed that pipe gag in passing, it only really registered subconsciously.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i unfortunately did not include a question about the prequel cause i worried it was too far along, but the questions are optional. and so we can talk about it towards the end if we so choose.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

The Big-Man is actually Johnny himself, who time travelled back into the past and is now trying to set himself up to be a better superhero.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

that would be quite the twist

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

It's the reason he knows so much.

Actually, Big-Man's probably just an extra terrestrial.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

interesting theory

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

that is interesting and not something that occured to me

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Oh I also found this guy on the site

http://jonnyalekseydrawscomics.com/assets/images/static/Unknown-Man.png

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

who's dat??????

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

it's easy

it's [NAME REDACTED]

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

actually can even make that make sense. he was interested in that one energy project cause the big-man needs unlimited energy to get off earth and get home. big-man just homesick.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Oh yeah, and there's the Question too.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

so im gonna assume the big-man's goal is something like world domination. maybe on the underground black market level, but some sort of domination. but one thing from this question set i believe is that one of the ppl in his pockets is gonna squeal. someone somewhere is gonna get a conscience and be like, "nah maybe this is a bad idea."

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Rebel: I like it! It's why he's interested in the scientists too.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

because nothing like becoming the president for a day or two

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

idk, money doesn't talk

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Does Big-Man need world domination though? He's already got all the neatest gadgets, from the stuff used in the first chapter to whatever the heck hypnotized a scientist to smuggle out blood samples via camera feed.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Nonsense

they ALWAYS want world domination

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Maybe shady Question guy is the squealer.

By the way, the smuggling of samples I think means Big-Man doesn't need to try and capture him. In fact, that whole thing could have been a ruse to distract from the real crime.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

that is true. you could make an argument big-man already owns the world. he has no goal and is just playing with his toys. but then jonny came and he was like "a shiny new toy!?"

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Why not just grab Sleepy Bear though? Seems like an easier target somehow.

Guy's more sentimental. (Which is weird for an AI.)

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

J-Mam is too protective of Sleepy to keep him out of his sight. Don't think it'd be easy to kidnap him.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

thats good. i think id be too horrified if sleepy got kidnapped.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

That is a good point. Would need a decoy.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

decoys fooling the big bad

Never fails to amaze me

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

"Wait, you're not sleepy bear, you're... grumpy bear!"

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

i read that as "Sleepy Bar"

"Come get your Sleepy Candy Bars Today!"

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Sleepy Bar is what he's called in Boston

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i think sleepy bear was a great addition. because partners are good. and like, its good for the j-man's image. nobody is gonna look at a superhero with a backpack bear and think he isnt the best superhero.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

XD(edited)

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

good PR

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I also want to give a shotout of my own to Jonny's costume/outfit I like how it almost looks like he's in casual gear or something

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Honestly, sleepy bear creeps me out a bit. I think maybe because of that one panel where he was putting on the outfit, and it felt vaguely like the robot putting on someone else's skin just to blend in better.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

but then you see him from the front and

wait what

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

In terms of someone working for Big-Man who might flip, aside from mystery question man, it could be that female scientist person who got kidnapped.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

gonna blame FNAF. cause i did get FNAF vibes for a moment tbh

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

"Inhale my dong enragement child"

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

But that's why he wears the bear suit. Cause his robot body is scary.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

idk she seems unlikely to flip to me. mostly cause i dont think shes on the end that realizes the extent of evil. that one friend whose name i forget has a dad that got roped in though. and i think hes the most likely to flip and then jonny will be sad realizing the big-man is just basically everywhere.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

orly

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Jonah's dad is the most sympathetic character for me. Sleepy Bear too actually.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

There is that. Not sure I remember which friend you mean in context though.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Jonah Knoxford, Jonny's friend from Cali.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Oh, right! Kinda forgot about him, that's plausible.

Could be that Abe's scientist guy friend gets recruited too.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

it would be reluctantly if that happened

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Yeah, like I don't see him knowing what he's getting into there, but his discovery seemed like it'd be useful to evil purposes if they learned of it.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

maybe theres a twist coming that jonah's dad wanted to protect jonah, but jonah was already working for the big-man the whole time.

to protect his dad

its the whole switcheroo double cross

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Since they're both Jonathans in a way

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Big twist: The big-man is actually the big-woman. It's Jonny's mom.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

hahaha tbf i did consider that possibility. that maybe its a woman pulling the strings. just going pronoun wise by the fact its big-man. XD

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

How better to stay one step ahead of the police than to be married to the chief.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Big-Man could just be a code name

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Actually, it would make sense to obfuscate that way, everyone's looking for a guy, you're in the clear.

Big-Man... code... he is actually an AI.

An alien AI.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i like the alien theory over the AI personally speaking. if only cause an AI just keeps making me think of 2001 a space odyssey atm

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

"I'm sorry, J-man. You can't do that."

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

I'm sorry, J-Man. I'm afraid I can't do that.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

QUESTION 3. Jonny would not be the superhero he is today without the help of the mysterious substance Jaintium crashing to Earth. What do you think Jaintium even is? Is it just an undiscovered element as the scientists believe, some sort of sentient, alien being, or a bit of both? Why did the Jaintium-related entity save Jonny? Was he just a convenient host, or was it a good will attempt to save Jonny’s life? Was the Jaintium crashing on Earth a coincidence, or is there something more to it? Whatever the being was, do you think it and Jonny will continue to work symbiotically? Or is there some dark foreshadowing in the fact we often see a mental embodiment of it goading Jonny into more extreme methods? Do you think Jonny will suffer more side effects, whether they are for better (i.e. new powers) or worse? Do you think others will discover the origin of Jonny’s powers (besides those that know), and if so, what do you think will happen to people’s perception of The J-Man?

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

The one answer I'm pretty sure about is that he was just a convenient host. It's interesting that both Jonny and the Alien had a presence inside, kind of making up the whole being.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

crap I stepped out for a bit, my apologies

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Technically, the superhero's name is just "J", isn't it? (That was an amusing bit, where it's like 'I can't use my name'.)

Waiting for the crossover with Q from Star Trek.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

at first. He's trying to get people to start using J-Man now

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

or Q from Street Fighter

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

"Is this a Q&A? No, it's a Q&J, we're not answering anything."

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I would watch that

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

I guess it's nice to be thought of as a "Man" when you're, y'know, still young.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

haha i did like him almost using his name and then being like "wtf self." i like how no one called him out on the fact that it sounded like he was going to say something else.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

"you da man now, dog"

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

"I'm Jo... J... J. Jonah Jameson. Wait."

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

The next coming of Jojo's bizarre adventure?

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i do agree with math in that i think jonny was just a convenient host.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Yare yare daze.

One thing I kind of wonder, was Jonny actually dead? Like, can Element-J actually revive the freshly deceased? Or was Jonny still bleeding out?

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

gonna go out on a limb and say that i think the crash to earth was a bit of both. in that i think whatever creature was in that meteor left its origin point for a reason but that arriving on earth was not intentional.

im assuming he was dead tbh O_O

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Ooo, I'm saving that question for a later issue, Math

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

itt Rebel influences the future of J-Man

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Rebel: I could go along with that. Might be that arriving on Earth was just the closest place that could support life.

Also, the element seems to be trying to get itself back together, based on Sleepy Bear. Maybe you can use it to find more of the same. They could track J-Man that way, figure out his identity.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

actually could be an interesting conflict. like mr. stone showing up in jonny's living room and then jonny's dad getting home and being like "ITS YOU!!!!!"

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

"You have no chance to survive, make your time."

Though what if it's Abe's father who manages to figure out a way to track using the element? And he tells Jonny's dad?

Plus it is radioactive, even though the cells are preventing anyone from getting dosed. Maybe the half life is such that they can work something out based on concentration in the air.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

damn I should be writing this down

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

You're free to use anything you like as a red herring.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

this is going on the assumption theyd want to devote the resources to that atm. cause tbh theres probably a lot of other things to learn about the element first.

like why is it stable cause iirc past a certain point most elements are not stable

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Rebel: True. But if Big-Man's been stealing it, maybe the police want to track it to find HIM. J-Man's a fringe benefit.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

and can only be made for a fraction of a moment

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Actually, maybe that's what grapple-girl was measuring. That time she poked J-Man in the eye.

I want to see more of her, incidentally.

I feel like she's that Megan person who had moved back into the area?

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

that was my thoughts exactly too

that it was this megan who was moving back

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

write it all down, please J

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Most of the mystery I have worked out. Just the little details I could use.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

I feel like she'd have lots of cool gadgets, because she doesn't have superhero powers (that we know of).

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Actually, that's something I'll mention - at first, I thought the J-Man had kind of attracted more evil to him, what with bulking up Sergei and Big-Man sending in goons. The idea that superheros cause supervillains. But then there's been a few like Heatwave who already existed. So maybe not as much?

I wonder if Megan's defeated anyone.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i usually assume with superhero genres its a bit of both

that some ppl are already super powerful

but that superheroes attract more super powerful ppl to be made as well

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

hmm

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

which is logical

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

maybe

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

cause you cant do the evil unless you can neutralize the ppl who can stop you

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Makes sense to me.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

and thats assuming the superhero lady is megan. it might not be even if we theorize the same. but the possibility exists.

i wonder if the jman's world has like a justice league or avengers equivalent

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

They work out of Sweden.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Maybe in the future. As of right now the only public-known supers are J-Man in New York and The Valve in Seattle. J-Man's on his own.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Until Abe gets his superpowers.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

there's more beings with superpowers in this world?

*shot

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Waiting for the issue where Abe and Jonny switch minds.

I'm not even sure which minds - J-Man's head is crowded.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

actually that was a point i thought that was worthy of discussion. is the being using jonny as a host sapient and when we see those mental manifestations were seeing the creature? or is the creature not really sapient and those manifestations are simply a side effect of the joining that sort of splits jonny's mind into extremes?

QUESTION 4. Besides the bigger mysteries, there are many, many smaller mysteries that have been left unanswered. Who is the shadow person who appeared to help Jonny when Jonny was fighting Sergei? Why did they help Jonny, and how did they know about the tranquilizer? Who was the mysterious masked person Jonny met before getting distracted by Abe’s father’s kidnapping? What was the masked person up to? Have we seen the last of Heat-Wave, or will Heat-Wave come back to exact revenge on Jonny or someone else? What about any of the other villains we’ve seen? Do you expect we’ll see them again, or will they stay away for good? On a less superhero level, do you think Jonny will continue to be able to keep his secret superhero life secret? Who do you think might find out next, how, and what will it affect? Finally, what do you think will happen if Jonny’s dad finds out The J-Man is his son?

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

I feel like it's sapient but still very confused by the Earth.

Good questions, I feel like I already talked about some of 'em.

I'm psychic.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

is masked lady who we assume is megan a crime fighter or is she more an antihero up to her own business that requires a hidden identity? that is a question we havent addressed

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

I think she's up to her own business, but not necessarily an antihero.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Maybe

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Just fashion challenged.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

not a fan of black skin-tight suits?

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Actually, maybe she's the blue character in the 'previously' art.

Jonny: .... Got me there.

I still don't think she's antihero like catwoman though.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

looks at his characters with black skintight suits

hides them in a corner

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i do think shes up to her own stuff. my antihero opinions are out until we see her again. i dont see her and jonny joining forces though.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

We don't know if she was doing any illegal stuff cause J-Man interrupted her. Very rude.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

True. That's a good point actually J-Man needs better social skills. He tends to assume the worst.

His shades of grey skills are getting better though.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i assume illegal cause she ran off and wasnt doing any crime fighting. although tbf vigilantism is pretty illegal so j-man is, in fact, the criminal

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

"I was the criminal all along..."

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

His dad would be dissapointed

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Could it connect back to the prequel that I didn't have time to read?

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yeah i really hope his dad finds out. that sounds like such the epic emotional drama

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

On some subconscious level, maybe his dad suspects.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

maybe. idk about that.

i liked that the prequel had mr. stone. cause in the main comic i always was like "man this is a weird lighting choice for mr. stone." and now it all makes sense. its not lighting. the name is just literal

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

He's stoned?

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Oh man. I hope that wasn't confusing.

I guess I coulda conveyed it better.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

I just thought he looked pale, I think...

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Nah, his skin is pure concrete.

He beats up Jon Sr. pretty badly in the prequel

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Ouchie. Stone cold.

So, two things I want to get out there in the last 15 minutes or so. First of all, WOW, how much time has likely gone into this... because I followed the link of the old vs new fight with Sergei, and it looked REAL different. So, a lot of early stuff was drawn twice, I guess?

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

nah its okay. it wasnt something that really bugged me. just one of those hmmm thats odd maybe theres a reason. i just like knowing now and in retrospect i feel sort of dumb for not realizing XD

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

heh

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Yeah, I first made 6 issues in high school (2011-2012), but I didn't like the art and some story elements so I decided to remake them for the webcomic. #1-3 are those old comics redone.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

that long ago huh?

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Damn, that takes willpower. IMHO.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

yeah. J-Man now is about 4 years old

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

happy 4th!

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Second thing I wanted to mention was all the little cameos and things that were mentioned to be there from other comics. That's classy, like going the extra mile in my opinion. Kudos.

I also remember seeing Christmas arts on Twitter with some of the people I follow.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

I like cameos

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

oh yeah I got one of those last year

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Not sure what I'm gonna do this year.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

I's amazed at having the time and inclination for all that. Whoa.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

that outfit for sleepy bear is adorable

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Works as nice promotion too.

Random question, d'you think anyone could remote into Sleepy Bear and take over? Does he have a good firewall?

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

It started as a thing to do cause there wasn't a Tapas X-Mas collab last year (and this year too, sadly)

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

seriously, thank ya for the awesome art, Jonny

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

if sleepy bear could be remoted into, that sounds like the makings of a personal FNAF

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I hope Christmas J-Claus returns this year

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

The Jaintium in him would probably disrupt anyone trying to hack him remotely. I'd have to be a physical connection.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Rebel: Maybe it's Megan's way of getting a sidekick.

(If Megan's not the girl, this'll look real silly when someone goes through the backlogs.)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

that sounds adorable. fighting over sleepy bear and who gets to have him as a partner

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

(Maybe if SF does a holiday thing Santa-J will come back)

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

sounds good

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Jonny: Fair point. Interesting how it's not ruled out.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

And before we go I wanted to say keep it up with J-Man, you've really turned it into something magnificent. @The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

As to mystery masked person providing tips, maybe it's just another manifestation in Jonny's head.

And I think HeatWave will become a hermit somewhere. If he returns, it might be to help J-man at the climax.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i considered that. but perhaps its that one chick from the prequel you didnt read math.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Rebel: Ahh, hmmm.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i do hope heat-wave returns. and also makes fire puns. "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen."

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

Wait, we haven't mentioned ships! So, anyone out there shipping Jonny and Abe?

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Puns are always good.

LAST MINUTE SHIPS GO

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

(Actually, some of the bonus art is really cool, like for Halloween. I laughed at the BL one for April 1st.)

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

Don't want to burst your theories but the chick from the prequel was Jonny's Mom.

MathTans the super Pun 👑Prince👑

So Jonny's Mom IS the Big-Man. Wait.

The Undefeatable Jonny Aleksey

This year's Halloween pic will be video game based

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Nice

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

COMIC TEA PARTY END!

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party time is now up~! Thank you everyone so much for reading and joining this week’s chat~! We want to give a special thank you to Jonny Aleksey, as well, for making The J-Man and volunteering it for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support Jonny Aleksey’s efforts however you’re able to. All that being said, if you would like to continue discussing this week’s comic, we highly encourage you to do so~!

For next week, Comic Tea Party will focus on MORBIDITY by Charu. As always, please use the next several days to read as much of the comic as you would like. We hope to see you next Thursday on September from 5PM to 7PM PDT for the chat~! Until then, happy reading~! Comic: https://tapas.io/series/MORBIDITY

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #bookclub #book club #comic bookclub #comic book club #webcomic bookclub #webcomic book club #comic tea party #ctp #the j-man #jonny aleksey

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crappycrafts-blog · 7 years

Text

Session 1: Motivational excerpts

I am an artist…

Or so I say…

I am now a working artist in a small indie game company. However, I still think that my skills are not enough to make high quality art hence, the name crappycrafts. I am not saying that my boss was wrong to hire me but it’s just that I want to deliver more.

I am a lazy person. I am ambitious as well. Very contradicting huh? I am aware that I can’t reach my dreams if I stay lazy af but I can’t help it! Sleeping and playing games are just so fun to do!!! Thinking about it though, I have so much passion in playing games to the point that I exert so much effort to finish the story, complete all the missions/quests and get all items/equipments. That is why I don’t understand why I am being lazy to do things for the better of myself, right? I know for sure that if I exert the same effort that I put into games into learning and practicing art then I’ll get to achieve my ultimate goal, my ultimate quest in life and that is to be a professional artist. (my personal definition of professional is “being someone who doesn’t need a diploma or anything but someone who is knowledgeale in his craft and able to produce something that can level the standards of the community and the industry.)

I graduated college with a degree in BSIT with specialization in Digital Arts. It’s not an art school where I studied and as a matter of fact, college sucked. I didn’t learn a single thing in that course that helped me to get where I am now. What it thought me is that I can never learn the fundamentals unless I take interest to it (even without a teacher). So let’s get to the point shall we?

I am starting this blog(?) for the sake of keeping track with my studies. Hopefully I stay motivated. I am very bad at updating stuffs too so I am getting anxious as I am writing this but I have to learn how to negate my lazy self so I can continue forward.

I will be studying the book of Andrew Loomis, “Figure Drawig For All It’s Worth”. Almost all artists I saw online recommends his book and I’ve already read the book before but of course, I didn’t take it seriously. I just read it without grasping things and without applying and practicing those. I already started reading it again and I got some excerpts from it that I think are important to highlight.

All these excerpts can be found in the ‘Opening Chat’ section of the book.

You love to draw. You wish to draw well. If there is any chance, you greatly wish to make a living at it. - pg. 15

Honestly, I never thought that I will pursue art as a career. When I was a kid, I just draw whenever I feel like it. I can’t really say it was a hobby since it’s very rare that I draw although back in high school, I got so much passion in drawing that I draw even though everything I do looks like crap. Well, I still draw crappy art up to this day. I am one of those people who didn’t know what they wanna do in life and I just had to pick a course to take in college and so I said, “yeah well, I draw so maybe do that” I didn’t know I’ll regret that decision so much.

I believe that greater chances of success lie in the mental approach to the work, rather than in sheer technical knowledge - pg. 15

I am lazy… I already said that, right? So even if I get the urge to draw something and be creative, I just shrug the idea and think of it as a bother and that I’ll just exhaust myself. Someone slap me please…

I feel that talent means little unless coupled with an insatiable desire to give an excellent personal demonstration of ability. I feel also that talent must be in company with a capacity for unlimited effort, which provides the power that eventually hurdles the difficulties that would frustrate lukewarm enthusiasm. - pg. 15

Talent, well, I think that there are really gifted people. However, I also believe that talent is worth nothing if it’s not put into practice. It will stay stagnant and will never improve if not taken care of. Like a seed that needs to be watered and exposed to sunlight, talent needs effort to achieve improvement (but exposure isn’t a good deal to take advantage of artists so please stop that nonsense)

…what is of greatest importance and subordinates what must be there is of less importance - pg. 15

I used to get compliments for taking good pictures. So I thought that I have a good sense of composition but that isn’t the case. Taking pictures are a lot easier than drawing a whole scene. In pictures, I just need to position the camera in a nice perfect angle to capture my message but in drawing, I need to think of what things would make up the message I want to convey.

Everything about your pictures is, and should be, a little of you- pg. 16

This is probably the easiest thing I could do in all of these important points Loomis stated. I always put something of me in my art to the point that sometimes, I overshadow the personality of the character I wanted to portray. So far, I have 13 official OCs that I plan to create a comic of and they have varying personalities. I am an introvert and an extreme one so I always find it hard to portray my OC that is an extrovert. I suppose I need to control the amount of me that I put into things.

Good drawing is neither an accident nor the result of an inspired moment when the Muses lend a guiding hand. - pg. 17

THIS HITS HARD because you know what? I always rely on the supernatural being to bless me the motivation and the ability to draw sometimes. And at times when I feel really exhausted, I just thought that maybe the being is not here to bless me. Pretty ridiculous, right? I keep giving excuses not to draw or practice and yet I get frustrated when I can’t achieve what I have in mind.

Use another’s style as a crutch only-until you can walk alone. - pg. 17

There are lots of artists out there nowadays that has a distinct art style e.g, Kawacy, WLOP, Ilya Kuvshinov, Gabriel Picolo, Artgerm, Sakimichan and more that anyone would be able to tell that it’s their artwork without even looking at the watermark. I’ve been seeing other new artists out there that I could tell that they were influenced by some of these masters I mentioned. There’s nothing wrong with that and I am actually awed that they managed to get the technique from another and use it for their own. However, I honestly feel that anyone can have this distinct art style if we keep developing what we gained from others. So far, I have very inconsistent art style since im a crap.

… nurture individuality and not produce imitation. - pg. 17

I started out drawing by merely imitating a photo of a character. From the pose, to the expression, to the colors, and more. Of course, just like most of artists out there, I thought that this is what it means to draw. Apparently, that’s wrong. Drawing as a person can be different as drawing as an artist. An artist adds creativity to the creation and not just imitating what is seen.

Technique is not so important as the young artist is inclined to believe; the living and emotional qualities- the idealization you put into your work- are far more important - pg. 18

Every artist, every person has different experiences in life. These experiences enables us to think differently and have varying opinions. This creates a unique idea and personality within us and we can learn how to turn it into something creative that is new and that will define us.

For the next post, I’ll be tackling the chapter one of the book. I’ll probably take out some excerpts again and anything hat could be helpful to highlight.

#170624 #crappysessions

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