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giantroboticplatypusbutt218 · 3 years

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I finished watching Loonatics Unleashed and I have Some Thoughts. I guess this is like a part 2 to the other post I made about the show so yeah.

I swear I don’t intend for everything I write to be an essay but whatever. It’s all under the cut. No massive story spoilers, but I will talk about episodes and will warn accordingly. (But who actually cares about being spoiled on the plot of Loonatics Unleashed?)

Alright so I finally figured out why Ace has laser vision. ...It’s kinda dumb but it’s because rabbits eat carrots(in cartoons). It’s... a reason at least. Still kinda sucks that it’s his only power when everyone else got 2 and some change. Kickass swords don’t count, even if they are magic. Seriously; Transformation. Duplication. Imitation. Tons of other “ation”s. They could’ve leaned into his trickster side but no. He eats carrots... so he got laser vision. Also he only ate carrots like three times in the show so wtf...

Okay so the pacing... improved somewhat in season 2. Don’t get me wrong there were still problems in some episodes but at least they learned how to build the stakes until the climax. They still sometimes went from zero to eighty after the opening credits, but at least it wasn’t zero to a hundred. Much less whiplash was had is what I’m saying.

I don’t think I really mentioned the villains before but they’re uh... generally not very good. They’ve got cool gimmicks but most of the time they’re just two stereotypes and a cliche in a trench coat. Season 2 brought back classic anthro characters to be villains a few times, and while they still weren’t well written and just referenced old bits half the time... at least they weren’t dehumanized humans.

I also don’t think I mentioned the animation so... it’s fine. It’s got cut corners but all cartoons do. Sometimes fight scenes look cool, sometimes they’re stiff. Sometimes the slapstick is well timed, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes the facial expressions match the voice acting, sometimes they don’t. Speaking of voice acting, it’s good. There’s not really anything stand out to perform in the first place but everyone does a good job with what they have.

Okay random note before getting deeper into things... the intro themes were... not good. I swear the first song ended on a note that it wasn’t supposed to. The second song fixed that but added people announcing the characters which... is just worse to me. Not much else to say because I skipped them after the first few times.

(Very mild spoilers for the general plots of episodes past this point.)

Ace and Lexi improved a little in the second season, but I still find them kinda bland. Ace still just feels like zero calorie Bugs Bunny. His wit is confined to being the leader, snarky comebacks, and some decent sleuthing skills... and that’s really it. He doesn’t really play around with the villains the way Bugs would. Ace was also supposed to have an arc learning to use his magic sword which... didn’t really happen. Lexi’s defining trait outside of her powers is still that she’s “the girl” which... sucks... Uh... she upgraded to Gamer Girl in the second season which while neat, amounted to nothing outside that one episode. At the very least she was never kidnapped for more than 5 seconds?(That “honor” goes to Zadavia) They also never really brought up their backstories in a meaningful way again, which sucks.

I still like the rest of the team. Slam got an episode about wrestling that built on his backstory and was fun to watch. Duck discovered that his egg powers work differently in water which was neat and matched him being a waterfowl.(Lexi’s powers work differently in water too but it’s never brought up again). Rev is still Rev and I still love him. He got an episode about his family and struggle to impress them(specifically his parents) despite his career choice which was also neat, but I will be coming back to this episode later. Tech is also still Tech and I also still love him. But uh, every character and also me wanted to see him get out of the lab more, and then he got like a nibble of an episode to get out of the lab, and then the show was over. Oof.

Speaking of Tech, it might be for the best he hardly ever left the lab because his powers are... possibly way too effective against all the robots and machines the team fights. Now, him being “overpowered” could’ve been used as a fun writing challenge. Robot goons aren’t a good option for villains anymore. Fighting against him in a city filled with metal is harder. Villains can’t rely on simply killing him thanks to his regeneration. Fight scenes including Tech would have to be handled in a fun and interesting way. But... no. In a team with two tech guys, the one with super speed and flight comes with while the one who can control metal and literally can’t die stays behind. Oh well. Doubt they could’ve added him into more fights without accidentally dumbing him down anyway.

Oh crap I forgot to talk about Zadavia! Uh... she exists. She’s the team’s boss who sends them out on missions. Uh... I can’t talk too much about her without spoiling what little overarching plot this show has, but just know that she’s neat, but affected by the usual sexism going on in the show’s writing.

(Character and episode spoilers past this point.)

You know, for being The Loonatics the main cast wasn’t very loony. You know who were though? Basically all the villains. Yeah I don’t wanna go there but oops here I go anyway. It’s pretty messed up that all the main characters’ zany traits were dialed down, while the defining feature of practically every villain (besides their stereotypes)is that they’re insane. I mean, if you’re looking for good mental illness rep in The Looney Tunes you’re gonna be disappointed, but at least in the shorts almost every character was a little unhinged and a bit of an asshole, making none of them stand out for those traits specifically.

Also messed up is that a lot of the villains are disfigured and made fun of for it by the main cast. Hot take of the century, but I think making fun of people for having a big head or only one eye is... bad. Oh and if they’re a woman then they’re also judged on how hot they are. Actually all women in the show are subjected to sexist writing. I remember like one episode where women were treated with a sliver of respect for a split second and that was in the obligatory “the cast comes across an island of amazon women” episode. However since most of the time was spent painting them as villains until the “actually sexism is bad” ending, there was hardly a moment of reprieve from the bullshit if a woman was on screen.

I’m not the best person to speak on this but uh... it’s fucked up that since literally every notable human is a villain, all the people of color are bad guys, right? Like, obviously it’s not as bad as some of the shit the old shorts pulled, but that’s like saying getting punched is not as bad as getting stabbed. It’s true... but I’m sure most people would prefer neither.

And here’s where I bring up that Rev episode I mentioned earlier. Rev’s parents are racist against coyotes (cartoons sure love to make carnivores allegories for black people don’t they?) and obviously with Tech E. Coyote being his close friend, that causes trouble. ...Right? Uh, no. They say some racist crap to Tech, and that’s it. There is not even an attempt to correct their behavior from anyone. It’s just treated as some unfortunate quirk. In fact the episode’s conflict actually revolves around Rev’s brother, Rip. Honestly, I doubt that they could’ve handled a decent “racism is bad” episode anyway. But they could’ve also... just not brought up racism if they couldn’t handle it? I’m sure having no racism topic at all would be better than having Tech just take the parents’ racist bull crap lying down and then help Rev impress them with an invention he doesn’t get credit for. Also at one point Rev says if Tech wasn’t a coyote and a guy he’d kiss him, which has two uncomfortable implications, but this section is already too long.

(Spoilers end here.)

Overall... yeah the show’s not very good. Of course it wasn’t. It was always going to be a little garbage. And no not because of the darker style or strange setting or any of that superficial crap. Team dynamic shows are popular and with Teen Titans doing so well WB probably thought they might as well shove out a 2 season Looney Tunes version to grab a little more cash, probably minimizing the budget to squeeze out as much profit as possible. If anyone working on the show was passionate about it, I doubt they had the budget or time to act on most their ideas.

Still, there were things to like. There are some funny jokes throughout the show, a few of which even managed to come out of Ace’s mouth. Danger Duck was literally just Daffy and he’s always great. Ironically, Rev and Tech were the most fun to listen to, and also to watch interacting in general. Slam didn’t do much but was a sweetheart who deserves success. There managed to be some decently twisty twist villains, if only because Disney ruined my brain with their ceaseless and lazy attempts at them, and I wasn’t looking out for them in this show. And, while almost nothing was properly developed, at least the concepts and characters are fun to think about?

I can’t say I’d recommend this show to everybody, but uh... if you’re a Furry with low standards and too much free time like me, maybe you’ll like it? Just go in with low expectations so when nice things happen you’re decently surprised.

#This took me like 5 hours to write what is wrong with me?#Why can't I dedicate this much time to one thing when it comes to finishing my fanfics?#Loonatics Unleashed #Random Thoughts #Now if you excuse me I'm going to obsess over Rev and Tech for who knows how long.

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mickstart · 3 years

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what do you think are some iconic/memorable schumi moments? i just got into f1 and would like to know more about him bc somehow i can’t really find anything like that about him.... just stats which are incredibly impressive but i can’t find anything about how he behaved or just anything about his personality..... thanks <3

:) Hi anon, thank you for unleashing the beast.

Ok I love you for asking me this thank you SO MUCH. Welcome to the circus I’m glad you’re here! Also yeah, Schumi is often talked about in terms of statistics and not as a human, Which is a shame bc like! Schumi is fascinating and the dynamics on the grid in late 90s F1 is so much fun! Also, this is mainly going to be late 90s -> early 2010s stuff bc I was born in 98 so uhhh I didn’t properly witness ANY 90s stuff and had to learn about it.

OK so I got super carried away but I’ve divided this into 3 sections: Drives/races that I think showcase some of his talents, human moments we need to talk about more, and Chaotic Little Bitch moments. The key thing to remember w/ Schumi is that he personally tends to be nice but as soon as you put him in a competition, Bastard Mode activates like a cat’s pupils going wide.

I am so sorry for the following short essay. Also some crashes are briefly mentioned but only ones with absolutely no injuries and there’s no details.

Chaotic Little Bitch Moments

Schumi debuted as a SUBSTITUTE driver for Jordan when one of their drivers was in police custody (yes. really.) The highest a Jordan had qualified all year was 10th and in his DEBUT at SPA, one of the toughest tracks, in the middle of the season, Schumi qualified that Jordan 7th! THEN his clutch failed before the first lap was even complete, but Benetton and Jordan WENT TO COURT to fight each other to sign him for their team before the next race in Monza. He couldn’t debut normally he HAD to cause a scene and set the tone.

The Red Strings of Fate: He qualified 7th, his iconic 7 starred helmet, his first victory next year was ALSO at Spa - his first complete race would be at Monza, Ferrari Holy Ground, and he finished 5th which 👀 1) he was immediately racing with The Greats. 2) Mr 5 Championships With Ferrari.

Winning a race by taking a stop and go penalty on the last lap, crossing the finish line in the pits, and making such a complicated argument about said penalty that in a hearing that was SUPPOSED to be Mclaren protesting the race result the stewards scrapped the entire penalty and the 3 who awarded it handed in their licenses??? Iconic.

Austria 2002 where Rubens was ordered to give the win to Michael. And then Michael fucking made him stand on the top step on the podium like “oh no no no RUBENS deserves this” and made a big SHOW out of it and its like “Michael stop you’re not making it heartwarming you’re making it WORSE Michael STOP” The Tension of germany 2010 podium VS the theatricality of THIS podium.

Team orders were banned because of this which also makes this indirectly responsible for Fernando Is Faster Than You having to be a coded message. You can’t escape him,

Blocking Alonso in Monaco qualifying and then, years later in 2010, overtaking Alonso technically illegally at Monaco (the race was ending under safety car, but the safety car doesn’t lead them over the line it pits and they’d crossed the safety car line and the regulations were NOT specific about the rules) and getting a 20 second penalty bc Damon Hill was a steward. Haunting FERNANDO specifically at Monaco like the ghost of christmas past? Getting a harsh penalty because ANOTHER driver he’d fucked over was a steward? Forcing the FIA to rewrite the rulebook to account for his nonsense when he was in his FOURTIES? I don’t know another chaos king.

Winning the 1995 championship by crashing into Damon Hill, getting AWAY with it for some reason, and then trying to do the same thing in 1997 to Villeneuve, failing to do so and simply rebounding off of him harmlessly, almost COMICALLY, and beaching his own car in a gravel trap at which point the FIA said “I have had ENOUGH of you Wacky Races Man!” and disqualified him from the entire championship

Forcing Mika off the track so bad at Spa 2000 that Mika realized the only way he was gonna be able to get past him was to re-invent the overtake and go for it whilst they were passing a backmarker. (The overtake itself is at 2:05 in the video but the build up to it is Important bc the key part it’s not just badass, it only happened bc Mika knew who he was dealing with.)

Spa 1998 was a Ridiculously Chaotic race it truly was the Mugello 2020 of its year, and after a crash at the start that took out almost the entire grid Schumi accidentally collided with Coulthard later in the race. (The teams used to have a spare car at every race then, so the race was able to continue after a restart.) This wasn’t a racing thing, Coulthard was getting lapped. So something in Schumi SNAPS, and he storms down the pitlane and tries to fight Coulthard while the mclaren and ferrari mechanics both hold him back and finally drag him away. He projected into the future, saw Coulthard was gonna talk non-stop shit about Seb, and acted accordingly.

Monaco 2012 Pole don’t talk to me about this I still can’t believe the audacity of this man to get the only pole of his comeback, at MONACO, at the ONE RACE where he had a 5 place grid penalty to take!!

In general, I know Cheating Bad but. I HAVE to admire the brainpower it must take to have the rulebook so memorized that whilst driving an F1 car Schumi could spot a loophole the size of the eye of a needle and then dance through it, forcing the FIA to add ANOTHER page to the rule book specially for him bc nobody else even REALISED that loophole existed.

Human Moments

A quick rant about Mika and Schumi’s entire friendship. After Spa 2000 Mika goes up to Michael, says something like “Don’t ever do that again” then they’re friends again. They had this mutual understanding that Racing was not Reality. This goes all the way back to their F3 days they were rivals AND friends for their entire career. They truly were the Sewis of the era if Sebastian was like 50% more evil. Their entire dynamic is “You’re the only motherfucker in this pit lane who can handle me”. Schumi would do some bullshit and every other driver would throw up their hands in frustration and Mika would just go “Okay” and drive better to put him in his place bc he was the only one who could keep up, and Schumi very visibly LOVED that he’s grinning after Mika owns his entire ass with that overtake at Spa. They were unstoppable force meets immovable object and I’m so sad their rivalry isn’t more talked about bc the way Mika is the only driver who can get him to behave like a normal human being is SO entertaining.

This is a sad one so I won’t link it but he started crying in the 2000 Monza press-conference with his brother and Mika when he equaled one of Senna’s records. The press kept trying to ask questions about it and Mika just has this death grip on his shoulder and tries to get them to stop or let them take a break and it’s so sad but also important to know about.

Once said he didn’t want Mick to race in F1 bc the pressure of his name would put Mick under so much stress and he wanted his son to be happy. (He fully supported Mick in his endeavors! But only after making absolutely sure it was what Mick wanted, and making sure he knew he could just race for fun if he wanted and it didn’t have to be F1)

This whole interview just after Mick was born with the Schumacher family. Special shout out to Gina on his head the entire video and also Corinna talking to the press while Michael is captivated by Mick. Me too Michael.

Once allegedly pleaded to take a stray kitten home from the track?

I reblogged this yesterday but. Sticking like glue to Sebastian at an F1 test and immediately being like “This is my new son he’s gonna go far”. There’s a lot of pictures out there also of Michael being a guest at the karting races Seb went to as a kid and baby Seb visibly losing his fucking mind at being given a trophy by his idol. Every day of my life I think about him trying to ruffle Seb’s hair through his helmet at Brazil 2012

WInning the championship in 2000. Him thanking the entire team individually and pausing mid-celebration to kiss his wife Corinna so tenderly it’s in the F1 opening. Also, the way it literally cuts from the rest of McLaren looking like they’re attending a funeral to Mika grinning at him and hugging him fucking SENDSSSSS me.

Schumi was a little shit in all the 2010-12 press conferences like, lowering Lewis’ chair, playing with a microphone wire, but ESPECIALLY corrupting baby Seb and getting him to mess with Nico Rosberg.

He’s just GOOFY! Like I refuse to let him be remembered as a terrifying force of nature he was so goofy kind of similarly to Seb. PLEASE watch this incredibly awkward interview he did with Coulthard on a golf buggy where they both had to pretend they hadn’t thought about murdering each other at least once. I think Sky F1 should force Brocedes to do this when covid’s over. “Do you mind if I drive?” “Yes.”

EDIT: I CANNOT BELIEVE I forgot the 1999 Canada press conference where Eddie Irvine and Mika Hakkinen get into a water fight and Schumi immediately grabs a towel and hides behind it and is like “I had NOTHING to do with it” 🥺 adorable, actually

A lot of people at Ferrari, including Rob Smedley (who was on the other side of the garage with Felipe Massa so not in his inner circle) have said that a lot of the success of the team came from Schumi’s LEADERSHIP more than anything, that he’d make the team get together to bond all the time. When Schumi moved to Ferrari in 1996 they were NOT dominant. He did the same thing Lewis did - went to a team that everybody said would be a huge mistake and helped build them up behind the scenes.

THIS bit of the Canada 2011 Rewind where his engineer gives him the strategy and he’s like “... OkaAaAaAay?” and then when it turns out to be the wrong strategy he cheerfully tells them it’s too late. Little shit.

Speaking of Mercedes I also wanna say that like. They were a MESS in 2012 and his car DNF’d because of a failing on their part MULTIPLE times. (In Canada qualifying his DRS was stuck open and they couldn’t close it.) He did not say a single bad word about them EVER even though the press used this to attack him non-stop as washed-up and bad without Ferrari to cheat for him. At Ferrari he was the exact same with the team, any bastard antics Schumi had for his rivals did not extend to the engineers and crew.

OK this one is soured bc Top Gear is trash BUT if you were like, a kid in England who followed motorsports? Schumi’s fake reveal as The Stig on Top Gear was like the coolest, sickest thing,

Please view this image of Schumi and Mika when they were young and stupid

Iconic Races

ok so I have limited myself to a few races that show off some of his key strengths!

Hungary 1998 / France 2004 - STRATEGY/SPEED - Schumi switched to a 3 stop strategy in 98 and a FOUR STOP strategy in 04 and won both races. In order for the strategy call to work he’d have to basically make every single lap a qualifying style ‘flying lap’ and you best fucking believe he DID THAT. God I fucking miss when Ferrari was the king of strategy.

Argentina 1998 - has it all. Talent, battling Mika, pit lane mind games with mclaren, and bullying coulthard xxx

Spain 1996 / a majority of the wet races - RAIN - One of Schumi’s nicknames was Rain Master bc he was so fucking good in the wet. If it started raining and you were a Schumi stan you were cackling evilly before the red lights even went out. I single out 1996 bc it was his first win for Ferrari and it was unexpected but in most wet races, even Canada 2011 post comeback, you can see Schumi thriving.

Malaysia 1999 - Schumi missed pretty much the entire second half of the season with a broken leg, came back for the last 2 races with everybody murmuring about whether he would struggle, and immediately put the Ferrari on pole. Also worth noting is that he was the number 2 driver for these 2 races bc his teammate Irvine was fighting Mika for the championship and he went along with that without complaint, allowing Ferrari to win the constructor’s championship if not the driver’s.

Monza 2002, 03, 04, or 06 just because it has the energy of the tifosi kneeling at the feet of an idol to their red god.

Brazil 2006 - Fuck All Y’all - Schumi’s last race for Ferrari. He got a puncture and ended up almost lapped, and then drove his way back from that to 4th bc he couldn’t go out without reminding us he’s a bad bitch.

Monza 2012 - Defending - Don’t tell F1 Twitter that there’s actual footage of Lewis and Michael having a genuine lengthy battle on track but DO watch Michael defending like a motherfucker and Lewis breathing down his neck for half the race we need to talk about this more.

Valencia 2012 - This isn’t necessarily anything special but I cried in my living room over the only podium of his comeback so it goes on here. It doesn’t have the same impact if you haven’t been watching him struggle with the car for years, DNF-ing from car failure most of 2012, and having BBC F1 telling you he’s washed up every single weekend, but you can just enjoy one of the best drives of FERNANDO’S entire career as he DRAGS that Ferrari by its hair to a home grand prix win and then watch the crowds embrace him like jesus and also Schumi being happy on the podium. Also, the very start of this clip from the press conference: him forgetting what language he’s supposed to be speaking

Basically, Schumi was a hyper-competitive ambitious bitch who turned into a goofball as soon as he switched the engine off. This is by NO MEANS everything if I was making an exhaustive best races guide I’d do more research and another post but I hope this is what you were looking for?? THANK YOU SO MUCH for letting me go MAXIMUM SPECIAL INTEREST and I apologize.

#asks #Schumi #Mika #Alonso #long post #god I'm so fucking sorry #Anonymous #This is not comprehensive bc I didn't want to accidentally turn this into a whole research project especially if you're new to it!

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fireproofheart · 3 years

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Endgame Speculation

So I accidentally wrote a three page essay.

Tldr:

Caleb is consecuted,

the city(tm) is full of evil mages doing blood sport who want to unlease the chained oblivion,

Molly and Lucien are totally separate souls,

The empire knows more than it should about the beacons and the city

Ok so I decided about ten years ago that the astral city was actually where the souls that are stored in the beacon exist while they’re waiting to be reborn. Initially, I’d thought that they’d find Molly there, but clearly his body is already up and running. Anyways I think the city is some kind of phantasmal double of Aeor that they created to store the souls of mages who had reached umavi. Now I know there’s been lots of talk of a god killing weapon, but what if it’s that all these super powerful mages souls are in the city waiting to be unleashed. And then if you take to alpha and alpha to be a reference to the rebirth cycle (I go into that in this post) “We trek 'til homeward bound we be” makes sense as something like we drag ourselves through life after life through the rebirth cycle until we reach enlightenment and head back to the city and I think Lucien has figured this out, but Vess hadn’t (remember she was so close to figuring out the book).

I also think it’d be fun if the mages do actually have a god killing weapon up there but what they have is that they think they’ll be able to control the chained oblivion (I don’t think they actually can) but like what if they want to set it free so that it will destroy the divine gate and go kill a bunch of gods so that they can ascend? They might not even think that they can control it, they might just be banking on becoming gods and being able to defeat it.

So like what if there’s all this talk about umavi and perfecting your soul in the Dynasty, but that’s not it at all. What if it’s actually go through lives until you get powerful enough that the mages in the city are like oh hey come on in. We also know sometimes if you go through too many of these cycles you can go nuts. So like I wonder if the black city mages are just nerfing people who get too powerful and who aren’t good candidates to join them, or if they’re like trying to shape a world they want to come back to.

Like maybe ‘umavi’ is really just a shitty club running around hunting shit, like Halas had dreadnaught chained up in his basement essentially and also was messing around with using astral projection to achieve immortality, so why wouldn’t other mages be doing similar bullshit? We know something related to the city is hunting through the planes like Vokodo was Terrified. And if these beings are so enlightened why would they be sitting on top of like some kind of literal hell and engaging in blood sport?? Also what if the wizards knew it would be a hell city so they're all asleep and everyone who wasnt prepared to go is having a miserable time being hunted through an otherwise empty city? And this also works with Matt’s themes about false gods and blind faith!!

So, If we follow the line of thought about the city, it makes sense that the beacons are ancient Zemnian artifacts, created by the mages to ensure their immortal life. Halas was obsessed with immortality, so I think this tracks. I also have a suspicion that nine eyes is related to the governing structure that the mages used pre-calamity, possibly like a Cerberus Assembly type deal, like one for every school of magic.

Anyways! I think at least one of the assembly members possibly more have figured that out and that’s what they’re actually trying to do with the beacon. I think that initially, the assembly thought that the beacon was the ancient weapon, but I think they’ve realized it isn’t. So I think Trent is trying to recreate the consecution process so that they can continue using the rebirth cycle. That man has made some weird comments that hint about immortality, like how he doesn’t ever plan to leave his office, how he wants caleb to kill him etc. I think this raises the possibility that he’s already figured out consecution I also think it’s an interesting possibility that Trent himself is consecuted and has the memories of a pre calamity wizard, but probably the only way that’s possible is if he wasn’t that powerful, otherwise he’d know all these secrets the Empire is trying to decode.

I think what he is doing is looking for Zemnian kids who might be consecuted souls. We all know Trent loves to fuck with memories, he does this shit constantly. So he’s picking up kids he thinks might be cycling souls and trying to extract or trigger their memories while he trains them to be loyal to the empire, so he can command some real powerful mages. I think it’s also very possible that some of the experiments he ran on them were to try and discover or recreate this consecution process. We know he was up to some Bullshit, but not what exactly. We also know that he’s doing all this when they’re teenagers, which is when their memories are supposed to be returning.

My guess is that only Caleb is actually one of the souls from the city. Also it’d be super fun if he was the soul of Mr. Destruction council member because I think that’d be a fun motive for Trent to be beating destruction magic into him (aside from the practicalities of course). But if Caleb is consecuted, it explains his dream when he slept near the beacon. Where he saw a dark sphere, which I think was the city, and multiple versions of himself. Matt also particularly said there were 17 selves which is a high number of rebirths (the bright queen has like 8 and shes starting to lose it) which goes to my theory that he has a super powerful soul. Also aligns with Trent telling him that ‘he has unlimited potential, unlike Astrid and Eodwulf’. And another thing he saw which tends to get overlooked, is a flame and when he looked at it, it felt familiar and overwhelming and he had to stop focusing on it bc he could feel all of his selves pulling at him. Which brings me to my next point.

Trent said that he traumatized Caleb to help him grow and that man basically never lies, he just talks around the truth. He also said that he thinks Caleb could be an assembly member and that other assembly members have been through similar situations. In the Dynasty, the memories don’t come back automatically, it’s just little flashes and then you have to have someone train you to remember your past lives. But the Empire doesn’t know about that process bc its super secret, so they have this other one that uses trauma to trigger the memories.

So I have two thoughts, one that maybe this works for some of the other souls that have gone through it, but if Caleb is one of the Pre Calamity assembly members who had reached a state of ‘umavi’, there was too much information coming through and his mind broke. And now he can’t access those memories at all, not because they’re magically supressed, but because they’re too wrapped up in his trauma. He started freaking out a bit in the dream when he felt the souls pull at him and looked into the fire and I think until he deals with allll that, he’s not going to be able to remember, if he ever can.

Or! I think it’s also possible If his soul was up there in the party part of the city and was like oh hi I don’t feel like hunting people for spORt anymore and got reborn on purpose and actively doesn’t want to remember. Who really knows.

But if this is the case and Trent was trying to run that process, it would also makes sense as to why he would keep Caleb around for that long in the asylum if he was still trying to dig them memories out. If the second possibility is right it also provides an interesting possibility that the woman in the asylum went nuts when she healed his mind, because if she tried to heal the second part and his soul was actively resisting and lashed out… like heyooo. Caleb being secretly super powerful and evil in his soul, but choosing to act against that also is a nice tie in with the themes around identity that we’ve seen so far.

Where do Vess and Lucien come into this?

I think Vess is trying to release the souls from the city and hadn’t quite figured out how. I think that she used Lucien as a test run for being the nonagon and sent his soul to the astral plane to go into the city using the book and then as part of the ritual, cut the tether to his body so he could go off and do whatever. So it tracks that he killed Vess if he thought that she tried to kill him/did kill him/didn’t tell him that he could die or whatever. It also wouldn’t surprise me if she was prepared to be the nonagon herself even at that point, but wanted to use Lucien because the risk of death was so high.

So anyways, the ritual failed technically, because an ‘umavi’ mage didn’t pop into Lucien’s body to come tell her how to release the souls (possibly by unleashing the chained oblivion lmao) When you cut someone’s tether, they die instantly so I think she did that, a soul didn’t appear and she went fuck ok so that didn’t work. They tried to resurrect him, didn’t work, so they left. But I think the ritual did work in a way. I think they called a soul from the city, just not the one they wanted and it took longer than they’d expected.

So Molly wakes up, has no memories of this nonsense, because as he said the entire time he was alive, whoever he was before isn’t him. And if the souls can’t interact with other souls there and they think it’s an empty hell city what if that’s why Molly came back saying empty because that’s how it seemed to him??

So Lucien accidentally gets stuck wandering around with all the other trapped souls. And what if that speaks to Lucien’s motivation to try and bring them all back. Like he’s been wandering around the shitty part of the city for years while Molly was up and running and the black city mages have promised him that he won’t have to go back there if he brings them back to the material plane. So I think Lucien mostly knows how to do this and like maybe needs that book for the technicalities, but I also think he’s going to Aeor to go find another beacon to use for the ritual. And obvi when Kree resurrected Lucien, he actually came back this time because his soul was willing and Molly’s wasn’t.

So I think Vess was trying to figure out how the ritual had failed, but I think after the nein told her about Molly and shit, she’s probably figured out that really the only piece she was missing was how to get the soul she wanted. I think that missing piece is probably a beacon and that you could possibly use them to communicate in a way or draw the specific souls from the city. But I think it took her too long to figure it out because the beacons are super important to the peace effort, and I don’t think she’d be able to sneak off with one right now, so I think she was going to Aeor hoping to find another one. I think if she had, she would have become a vessel for an umavi mage and she would have learned how to bring back the city and I think right now, we’re in danger of Lucien doing exactly that.

My final point is that a lot of people have been saying it feels like we’re getting into the endgame of the campaign with the stuff that’s happening now. I agree. I also think it would be very tidy if Matt had wrapped Molly and Caleb’s story arcs around each other to end the campaign. Also having them defeat the literal past, the assembly and possibly a god would be a baller way to end it.

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coeurdastronaute · 4 years

Text

Essays in Existentialism: Kiwi 10

previously on Kiwi

As grueling of a schedule as it was, there was a bit of normalcy to the routine of it all that was an almost welcomed addition to her life. Each day had an itinerary, had a designated time for everything, nearly down to bathroom breaks and time to think. The entire operation was efficient and orchestrated a year in advance. At a very very recent point in her life, Lexa didn’t like the sanctity of the routine and often balked under the weight of it, rejecting regularity for sleepless nights and people who broke her, and for too much manufactured joy that came at the end of a straw or bottom of a glass. Strung out and hung over, she performed without remember, and found herself missing the joy of it all, digging a deeper pit into her own body and soul that she could ever fill up.

But she was finding a way to make up for it.

It started with her sister, as most things seemed to always. It started with apologizing and promising and fixing a lot of things she once thought to be irreparable. And once that was mended and blossoming, Lexa watered different parts of herself, allowing a small bit of her own forgiveness and honesty to shine through.

There was rehab and therapy, of course. And more apologizing and promising and setting realistic goals and avoiding stressors and things that would make her weak. But from that was a kind of strength, and people saw it, the improvement, the urge and need to be good, to be an artist. That was what saved Lexa’s life, at the end of the day, her overwhelming urge to create and interpret and give back something to the world.

Tour was debated hotly for an entire month before it could be completely agreed upon between the bandmates, but in the end, it was the absolutely gruelling schedule that Anya decided truly was the best way for her to keep an eye on her sister. She couldn’t do drugs if she didn’t have time.

And even though Lexa found herself missing someone, something she hadn’t originally planned on experiencing, she welcomed the road life with open arms, hitting meetings in every town almost, and talking to a girl on the other side of the country almost non-stop. When she wasn’t bugging Clarke, she was writing, practicing, working out, or performing, and in the end, those were almost the only things that truly mattered.

Deftly, Lexa’s fingers moved along the frets of her favorite guitar as she lounged on the couch in her suite. She knew she was in Texas, but not entirely sure which city, and she didn’t mind. She had the sunset and she had a great view. In a month she’d be in Europe before festival rounds, and then back on the second half of her tour until the fall. There was a schedule.

Without noticing her sister approaching, she hummed along to a melody she’d been stuck thinking about but not sure what to do with entirely. The album they were touring on was heartbreak and pain and partying. It was some of her favorite things because she loved seeing those who understood her and the words. But it scared her to write something different and new. And as many times as she promised an ode to Clarke’s ass, she was afraid to write something so loving. So she strummed along and already felt a different kind of grit sneak into her words. She sang a few lines and wrote in her notebook, pausing and reworking and thinking out loud. She recorded a few bars on her phone before putting it together somewhat.

No one would say she was unprofessional when it came to her work. It was important that she got things out, and she came with a full idea, formed and ready to be put together, a concrete idea that she was always eager to capture. Her words got a little better and the process got a little easier when she was sober, something she feared at first, if she was being honest. She didn’t need the crutch. Her entire last album was a way to heal.

“Sounds good,” Anya finally offered, pushing herself from the wall where she leaned. “Different,b ut good.”

“I thought we discussed your lurking.”

“I lurk out of love.”

“Hm,” Lexa grunted, tossing her pencil down on the notebook. She kept working on the guitar though, trying to get it right.

Anya took a seat on the coffee table her sister’s feet were propped up on, and she grabbed the notebook, carefully skimming through the words jotted there in a deceptively neat hand despite how quickly they were laid upon the page.

“I like this a lot, actually. Powerful.”

“I don’t want to wri--”

“I know, I know. The basics. Universal human emotion with killer guitar. Nothing personal, blah blah,” the drummer muttered, hunching over as she flipped a page and looked at another idea, waving away the inevitable diatribe she’d already heard.

“I don’t want to write sad songs anymore,” Lexa shrugged. “At least… I don’t know. I can’t say never. I just-- singing these songs, it’s been heavy. I kind of want to bring back some fun. Remember our EP?”

“A lifetime ago.”

“Yeah, but like pure rock’n’roll right? Like gritty guitar, quick fucks, bad drinks, having fun. Dirty but something to sing along to.”

“Except you don’t do any of that.”

“No, but I miss… Do you miss having fun up there?”

“I always have fun,” Anya shook her head, pushing aside her mane of hair as it fell in her face. “I have fun playing with you.”

“I do too, I just… Clarke said something-- before you complain,” she interjected as Anya began to roll her eyes, “She said that she could see me enjoy certain songs more, and a lot has to do with who they were about.”

“You’re afraid to write about Clarke.”

“No… yeah, I mean. No one tells you that when you write about people, you’re stuck with the song, even when they’re not around.”

Lexa sulked slightly as she fiddled with her strings and looked away from her sister with the confession.

“You like her a lot,” Anya observed after a few moments of quiet and flipping through the pages until she caught something she liked.

“Yeah, obviously.”

“Good. I like her too.”

“I think I might invite her out again before we head to Europe.”

“You should.”

“Is this…” Lexa took a deep breath and stilled her movements, almost a complete statue as she tried to formulate the proper words. “Is this what it feels like to exist, like normal?”

“Relatively, yeah, probably,” her sister snorted a laugh and smiled as Lexa’s face twisted slightly. “You’re so used to living at extremes, but what you don’t realize is that life is exceptionally average most of the time, and my favorite things are moments of beauty in the most mundane spaces. Aiden smiling at me when he pulls my hair and bites my chin because that’s how he kisses. You, holding him. You and me on stage when we are perfectly in sync and the world is right. The best bite of a piece of pizza. Watching you the past few months, come alive. Fighting with Luke about not having enough wipes in the diaper bag. There is nothing wrong with feeling those moments and realizing they’re enough.”

Lexa grit her jaw and nodded, still unflinching and unwavering, afraid to move an inch because she was certain the dream would end, and perhaps this was one of those moments, because the sun was setting, and her sister looked beautiful and alive and not like she was ready to commit her, but like she actually enjoyed being her sister again.

Anya didn’t mean to say as much, but she closed her mouth and looked down at Lexa’s notebook again.

“Invite Clarke for a few days. Let her get a feel of your life here. She won’t break your heart.”

“You’re psychic now?”

“No, but I think she couldn’t hurt to offer you a muse, even if you don’t want that.”

“I can’t write about her.”

“I think you already are.”

“Nah,” Lexa disagreed, back to plucking the strings haphazardly.

With a victorious smile, Anya picked one she liked the most and read it a few more times, attempting to hear what her sister had beneath it all.

“I like this one,” she finally offered, handing over the page, bookmarked and dogeared in a way she knew would piss of her sister. “Tell me how to hear it.”

Lexa took her time, looking at the page and debating as her sister looked on expectantly. This would be the moment, she was certain, that they began the next album in earnest. That alone was a journey that made her wary, which was why she hadn’t approached her sister with anything finished yet.

“Low and singular at first, up to the first bridge and then BAM you come in, hard and heavy, just a beat, a heartbeat. I want it to be a blast, a catharsis, an unleashing.”

“Fitting,” Anya agreed and nodded as she read, dashing a note here and there, drawing lines to indicate the swelling.

“See, I can write songs not about girls.”

“You can, I just think you want to write about a girl. So just let yourself.”

“It’s hard, being away and stuff. Kind of a weird time to start a relationship.”

“When have you ever done anything the easy way?”

As much as she wanted to argue, Lexa stopped herself and agreed. It didn’t matter. She knew her sister was right, and maybe that was okay this time.

XXXXXXXXXX

Even though it was nearing the end of her shift, the bar still felt full of people in a way that weighed on her. She was hoping to leave at a mildly reasonable hour to crawl into bed and get a reasonable amount of sleep for the first time in a long time. The universe didn’t seem aware of that plan as she tried to re-read the letter left in her letterbox the day before.

“You going to grab that order at the end?” Raven interrupted her thoughts.

“Why fucking not.”

Struck by her sour demeanor the entire night, Raven debated how to handle Clarke. There were different moods for her that required different responses. She wasn’t quite sure which kind of friend she had to be for the evening.

Even though she couldn’t admit it yet, Raven saw that Clarke seemed oddly different after meeting Lexa Woods. She was driven and happy and doing more. She was content and afraid of the future, but for different reasons.

“Are you being a little crabby because you miss your girlfriend?” Raven sang, clearly aware that she was annoying her friend.

“She’s not my… well maybe-- no wait. That’s not why I’m-- And I’m not crabby,” a flustered bar tender shook her head, processing all of the words and how wrong they all were.

“You miss her.”

“How can I miss someone I never had?”

“Oh, you have her,” Raven rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she watched her friend huff and be annoyed at the common knowledge. “She’s flying you out again to see her, for a few days and two different cities of tour dates. You’re dating Lexa Woods.”

“I think I would know if I was.”

“I’m honestly not sure you’d know.”

For the rest of the evening, they worked and waited until the bar cleared out and they could wrap up the hard part. Raven poured them both a drink when the door was finally locked and sat down across from her friend, unperturbed by the sticky bartop or the cleaning they were about to do.

With a flick of her head, Clarke took the shot and hissed against the feeling of the painful liquid on her throat.

“They’re tearing down my building,” Clarke sighed. “I’ve got a month.”

“No wonder you’re in a snit,” Raven nodded.

“And I haven’t gotten laid in a few weeks.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

“It’s just… It’s just… It’s just... “ she sighed and shook her head before pausing to pour herself another drink and taking it back. “I think I’m getting ahead, right? Like if life is broke up into categories, love, money, job, happiness-- and I can’t get all of them to be okay at the same time. It’s exhausting.”

As she spoke, Raven finished counting the cash and carefully handed over the split from the tips, handing a pile over to the barback that wiped down the tables while they stood there, veterans and exhausted by the night, no longer excited to keep drinking and stay up until about four. Clarke braced herself on the counter and stared at the empty shot glass, watching a droplet drip down the side slowly then all at once.

“So what do you have together now?”

“Hm?”

“Out of those things, what is working for you now?” Raven asked. “I mean. You’re dating a rock star. You have a great internship and you are somewhat decent at it. You have to move and that’s it.”

“It’s a pretty shitty thing. I can barely afford the shitbox I live in now, let alone another place.”

“Come live with me.”

“In your studio? No thanks. We’re close, but I don’t think we can be that close without killing each other.”

“Why don’t--”

“I’ll figure it out,” Clarke sighed. “I can’t think of solutions tonight.”

“We can drink, if you want.”

“Yes please.”

“And,” her friend grinned, complete and utter mischief and nothing good at all as she dug behind the counter and pulled out a magazine. “We can read all about a sexy singer and a mysterious blonde she’s been seen with.”

“Are you kidding me? Where did you get that!”

Even though she moved as quickly as possible, Raven dodged Clarke’s advance, wiggling her eyebrows as she surveyed the pictures and laughed, enjoying her friend’s discomfort. Stretch as she might, Clarke couldn’t grab the offending image and she groaned, growing agitated in a way that her friend enjoyed.

“I’ve just been saving this to enjoy when I had a free moment. Thinking about how much I could make by telling them who the cute blonde sucking on Lexa’s Woods’ neck is.”

“I wasn’t-- They didn’t-- We weren’t--”

“Hmmm interesting,” Raven mused as she opened the magazine and Clarke got a glimpse of the front cover for the first time.

Completely mortified, she blanched, the blood disappearing from her ears and face as she saw a grainy image of the two of them out to a lovely late dinner post-concert last time she visited. It was a good night and she thought they were alone. She also just really liked to kiss Lexa and she didn’t want to wait.

“When aked about the new friend, the singer simply smiled coyly and said she was very happy,” the bartender read before flipping another page. “And my horoscope is trash.”

“Give me that,” Clarke finally snatched the paper, flipping through the rag before coming face to face with herself.

There was no way for anyone else to know it was her, at least not really, but Raven knew as she slipped her beer and started sorting the receipts. She knew and she knew the right thing to say most of the time, too. It only took a few moments of flipping for Clarke to toss the magazine back ont eh counter and shake her head before pouring another shot.

“You’re going to be fine, Griffin,” Raven promised. “You’re ready to be happy.”

“I don’t know how to be happy.”

It wasn’t quiet in volume, but it was hones and quiet in its purpose. Clarke took the shot and slumped slightly under the weight of the honest and the feeling of maybe trying to believe how her friend’s suggestion could be real.

“You do.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Defeated by the rain and the past week, Clarke adjusted the bag that hung on her shoulder and leaned slightly against her large suitcase in the lobby the chic high rise. No one else was around save for the attendant at the desk who casually watched her without actually looking, keeping an eye on the happenings for very important people lived in his building, and he took his job very seriously.

It was an act of utter failure and somewhat dependence that Clarke despised above all else. She never wanted to need anyone, and she never wanted to be a burden. When it came down to the fact that she needed help, she recognized a kind of guilt and shame that made her rile against herself, as if her own bones were bending and getting smaller.

With an uncoordinated effort, she made her way to the elevator when it arrived in the lobby, and she tried not to think too much, instead looking forward to a good bath and a good sleep to get her head back on straight.

She was going to make short business of needing someone’s help. She wasn’t keen on being given charity, and she certainly wasn’t ready to make Lexa feel like she was being used. That scared Clarke more than anything.

As soon as Clarke stepped into Lexa’s empty place, she was afraid she’d gone into the wrong place because it was not actually empty, but rather warm and alive. The warm lights and candles glowed against the dark of the windows, while a sound of sizzling and the smell of garlic came from the kitchen. A record scratched in the corner.

“Hey, I was wondering when you’d get in,” Lexa smiled and reached to grab the bottle of wine. “I was afraid you’d be later and it’d get cold.”

The bags dropped.

“What are you-- Wh-- How?” Clarke furrowed and shook her head. “You’re supposed to be in Philadelphia.”

“I play there tomorrow. I thought you were a real fan.”

She was putting the finishing touches on the small dinner prepared and plated on the dinging room table, but Lexa was every bit comfortable, as if she hadn’t been on tour for the past three months and not anywhere close to New York.

“But what are you doing here, now?”

“Came to welcome you to my place, well, your place, our place? No, your place.”

“It’s your place, Lex.”

“Yeah, but it’s yours when I’m not here, so tonight it’s ours, I guess.”

Happy and cozy, bare feet moving around and finally standing in front of her girlfriend, Lexa smiled and towered there in Clarke’s confusion.

“Did you miss me?” Lexa grinned, and despite all of the feelings and the anger and the self-hatred, Clarke melted at it.

“Why are you here?” Clarke shook her head, feeling bad still. “I didn’t--”

“I wanted to make you feel welcome. Nothing less welcome than a dark place, with no food. I wasn’t even sure I’d left the heat on to be honest, and it’s been cold the pas--”

Without meaning to do it, Clarke lurched forward and hugged her girlfriend tightly. She buried her face in her neck, making them both wobble slightly but leaving her undeterred.

“I got you a key made,” Lexa whispered, surprised by the outburst. “I want you to be comfortable here. I like… I like the idea of you being in my bed.”

“Even if you’re not here.”

“I’ve never had someone to come home to.”

It was quiet and honest and even though dinner was on the table, and even though the record was done on its side and it stopped, creating a silence that prevailed the many tired thoughts that possessed both, they stood there.

“You’ve been having a rough time. I know I can’t be physically here that much, I want to be around for you,” Lexa whispered. “I made you room in the closet.”

“I won’t be here long.”

“You can stay as long as you want. I mean it.”

“It’s been a real shit month.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Aren’t you tired? Weren’t you in DC last night?”

“So you are a real fan.”

Clarke laughed even though she didn’t want to. Lexa’s arms stayed around her as she pulled away and she sighed because she had no other alternative-- there were too many feelings and thoughts that left her frazzled and she needed to hide all of that to savor this moment, regardless of the fact that she’d lost her home and was desperately missing the girl that cooked for her.

“Want to come to my show tomorrow?” Lexa asked. “You can come up with me for the night and we could have two consecutive days together.”

“Two? Wow, you must like me.”

“I don’t just let every Tinder hook up house sit for me.”

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shannonallaround · 4 years

Text

More thoughts on characterization in the Sonic Game Universe

My brain’s not done apparently...

So, I just watched a video on youtube about Shadow’s 2005 edgelord side and how that selfish, overly-rough-around-the-edges, rude and violence-oriented interpretation of his character seems to have been the inspiration sega has used for his character lately. (Go check out the video if you wanna, he’s got some really good points, even though I still like Forces and TSR which he mentions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74wsgvH7er8&list=WL&index=7&t=0s) That coupled with some other thoughts I’ve had over the last month or so made me conclude this:

I think the reason I personally, at least, am not super happy with the recent characterization of some of the Sonic characters in the games universe is that it feels like certain people have matured in reverse. What I mean by that is that these characters seem to have backtracked almost in a straight line in their overall development. Shadow is a great example. I personally think his character in Sonic 06 was very nicely done. Was it perfect? No, but he definitely had some great moments and overall good character portrayal. A lot of these ideas are from that video linked above, but Shadow in 06 was a very thoughtful, introverted character who genuinely cared about doing good in the world and who cared about other people, especially his teammates. He respected Sonic as a rival who he probably raced with for fun when he wasn’t on duty, but was NOT all like “you’re annoying, I’m better than you, yadda yadda yadda.”

This turned into a long post, so more under the cut!

However, after that game, Shadow seems to have gradually reversed back into who he was before he discovered his true purpose in SA2-- super arrogant, underestimating others, selfish, and so forth. (Though even then, he wasn’t drawn towards violence for the sake of it, like he’s been portrayed a few times as being since-- his memories were manipulated at the time to think that he was meant to destroy the world and the evils in it.) His arrogance has become the central piece of his character, which honestly just feels weird to me.

For sure, Shadow can still be very proud of the fact that he is the Ultimate Life Form, but he shouldn’t be a total jerk about it! Shadow is actually extremely compassionate when done correctly, as he sees the purpose of his abilities being to help others (which I think has developed beyond just his memories of Maria at this point, now also stemming from his positive experiences in the world with his friends and good, innocent people that he sees). That understanding of himself alone should naturally lead to at least a little bit more humility, I think. And again, Shadow respects Sonic for the good he does and for what he is capable of doing. I wish that would come back, rather than what they do now, where Shadow considers Sonic a nuisance who is only good to race against to prove he’s better.

Sonic also feels like he’s matured backwards. I’ve talked about it before how Sonic feels too flippant at times when you would expect previous portrayals of him to take things more seriously. That’s actually one thing I really like about his portrayal in Unleashed, 06, and Secret Rings, is that ability to switch between fun/happy and serious mode when the moment calls for it. This is true even if it’s not always outwardly obvious because he’s putting on a brave face for the sake of those around him. There is a difference between trying to uplift those around you despite your insecurities, and having no insecurities at all, which is what Sonic sometimes feels like now.

On occasion, it seems Sonic is almost reduced to an over-peppy cheerleader with no inner problems whatsoever, and that doesn’t feel realistic to me. Everyone, even the happiest people in the world, have little insecurities or worries or fears, or personal things they don’t like about themselves that they are trying to improve on. Sonic should have that too.

Now, you do not need an entire game dedicated to delving into the personal psyche of Sonic in order to portray that. Just little glimpses here and there are enough: a word, a gesture, an inflection in his voice, etc. These little details show that Sonic is also a person with deeper feelings that are impacted by the things he experiences.

And Sonic’s characterization affects other people. I think it is a lot easier to portray Shadow as respecting Sonic when Sonic isn’t portrayed as almost obnoxiously positive. When Sonic has a better balance of chill, playful, determined and kind (again, more like 06, Unleashed, and Secret Rings in my personal opinion), then Shadow has more clear reasons to respect him. When Sonic doesn’t have that balance, it’s much easier to see why Shadow, especially his modern interpretation, would see him as annoying.

Now, a big fat disclaimer here: I love positive characters. I love characters that have a bright outlook on life. I personally am a very openly optimistic person most of the time. However, I think what makes that outlook feel like a deep part of a fictional character is when that positivity is a choice. It is a proactive decision. In a lot of ways, positivity is simply naivety until someone is put into a position where they have to actively choose to have that outlook. Despite the darkness they see in the world, and despite how hard it tries to drag them down into despair, when a character chooses to have hope, that is when their positivity feels justified and you respect it. It takes a lot of strength for a character to retain hope in difficult times.

Now theoretically, with all we know Sonic has gone through in previous games, logically we can know his positivity is indeed a choice. However, I think the feeling of him having made that choice has been lost somehow in a lot of his more recent portrayals, and that is what makes attempts to show his upbeat, positive attitude feel just a little bit more shallow.

Whooboy now that was an essay, thanks for listening to my Ted talk guys. That got really philosophical but I hope someone enjoyed it. :) I’d love to hear people’s responses to this, agree or disagree, so please share!

#shannon's rambles #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #character arcs #characterization #character #sonic game universe

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breannacasey · 3 years

Note

Writing meme

1, 8, 12 for Carlos Reyes

1. give short descriptions of all your current WIPs.

All my current WIPs have titles, that’s rare

In Cicatrices Amor: Buddie Soulmate AU. It’s a scar sharing soulmate AU, that alternates between the POVs of Buck and Eddie, it starts pre-season 1 and will end either sometime in season 3 or around the end of it, I’m rewatching the show as I write and things are developing maybe a tad faster than I originally planned, still very much a slowburn with mutual pining though. I’m over 14k in.

The Holiday Dinner Job: it’s a fic for the Leverage Secret Santa event so I don’t want to get into it in case the giftee is around, but it’s mostly domestic ot3.

8. which of your own projects have shaped your writing the most? in what way?

Obviously, there are more, I could mention Unleashed for the umpteenth time, but I don’t want to write an essay here so I’ll just limit to a few. The Potion Master’s Daughter is the longest fic I’ve ever written. I thought about it for months before I actually decided to write it, because it was the most ambitious thing I had done that far, following the plot of 6 of the 7 HP books. It was a lot of work and a lot of trying to work details in and asking myself how the changes I made influenced everything else. But it did show me that I could do it, that I was able to write something of that length and that I was able to dedicate months on a project. I encountered different problems than I thought and it taught me a lot (like i thought i would have a harder time working out who Snape made a kid with but it actually came pretty easily, whereas working out where Adriana fit in Goblet of Fire outside of Death Eater relations was much harder than I originally believe, for example).

The entire 1998, or the year everything changed and Bad Things Happen Bingo series really allowed me to push myself, to explore different things, have fun with my writing and try things I had never done before so that definitely shaped the way I write now.

12. give three songs or images that fit Carlos Reyes.

Can’t Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley

Honest Man - Ben Platt

Things I’ll Never Say - Avril Lavigne

#asks #anon #my writing #my post #about me #my multi fandom is really showing here #the soulmate au has had a title for weeks but this is the first time i mention it it makes me nervous #i mentioned i have questionable taste in music before right

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askaceattorney · 5 years

Text

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod:

Mod Kristoph: F

(Previous Letter)

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: You’re welcome! That’s basically what happens when you ask a scatterbrained Sonic fan to write an essay. I actually wrote a short critique about Sonic Mania over on my blog. I love any sort of game that creates a good mixture of the old and new elements of a series, and Sonic Mania did it almost flawlessly.

My favorite sonic game happens to be the one my favorite character originated from -- they are Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and Shadow the hedgehog. I might be biased because it was the first 3D game I ever purchased, but it didn’t take me long to fall in love with the game’s music, mechanics, and touching story. I’m still waiting for a Sonic game that even comes close to that level of quality. I also enjoyed seeing a new hedgehog rival who tried to out-speed and out-cool Sonic. I even liked pretending to be him in elementary school. No, for real.

Mod Kristoph: I’ve only played part of Sonic Unleashed. Never really cared for it either. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure the games are fine. Still, I was never much of a Sonic fan. I’m more Mario.

Dear forceofnatureandcorn,

Co-Mod: It’s hard to say, considering how much we know about each of these characters (i.e. practically nothing), but I’d probably go with Ema, since she’d be the oldest of the three.

Mod Kristoph: It’s close but I’d have to give it to T&T Apollo.

Mod Maya: I give it to Maya because she sits under freezing waterfalls for training, she’s hiding something, I know it.

(Previous Letter)

Dear jnv11,

Co-Mod: Ah, okay. Again, that hasn’t been a problem yet, but I’ll probably look for some way to dance around the contradiction. For example, if Apollo and Trucy discovered their relation to each other in the next game (which I’m hoping and praying will happen), and someone sent Phoenix a letter asking if he’d ever break his promise to Thalassa and tell them, I’d have him respond with, “That’s no longer an issue, actually.” Hopefully it won’t get too complicated.

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: You don’t need our permission, pal.

(Previous Letter)

Dear Inferno,

Co-Mod: She’d probably be all right, considering she has an uncanny talent for not dying.

Mod Kristoph: KILL IT WITH FIRE!

(Previous Letter)

Dear sinyove,

Co-Mod: If you’re referring to finding random illogical letters and answering them,

Dear Anthony,

Co-Mod: Different platforms don’t really mean a lot to me as long as it’s the same game, but I’d definitely going to miss it, too.

Mod Kristoph: Technically the Switch has a touch screen but it’s rarely used. Personally, I don’t have much of a problem with it. I mean the Paper Mario series went from turn based to platformer in Super Paper Mario and people (mostly) didn’t have a problem with that. (Instead, that was saved for Sticker Star.) As long as the game is still fun, the mysteries are clever and it still carries the AA charm we all know and love, I don’t really see an issue with the touch screen being gone.

Except maybe the investigation sequences being changed for the worse. Prove me wrong, Capcom.

Mod Maya: Hm they might just handle it like they do their current mobile ports, I think, it’ll just take a bit of getting used to not having the double screen.

Dear Inferno,

Co-Mod: It was amazing, all right. I’m not sure if you meant to say Franziska’s speech, or if Maya had a speech that I’m forgetting, but I agree that the ending was very satisfying. I also loved the short canon-breaking skits with Edgeworth, Kay, and Gumshoe at the end of each episode.

Who'd have thought I would run into 999 again after all this time?

-The Mods

#Anonymous #forceofnatureandcorn #jnv11 #ajanisapprentice #sinyove #Anthony #AnthonyDeadman #Infinity Sparks #Mod Post #Co Mod #Mod Kristoph #Mod Maya

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ckret2 · 5 years

Text

Okay time for some Actual Thoughts about Detective Pikachu, particularly the villain. Spoilers below.

In This Essay I Will compare and contrast the game’s villain to the movie’s villain, explain why I like one better than the other, and then talk about something that bugs me about both and tbh about a lot of action movie villains.

I liked the movie villain more than the game villain, for one specific reason: I thought the game villain’s motive was dumb for the game. Not dumb overall for a villain to have, but dumb for him.

Quick overview of the game villain: this hotshot rising star in a news station has been secretly using a chemical to make Pokémon go berserk; and every time they do, he just so happens to have a couple of his reporters on the scene, to cover the carnage. A couple years ago the station was sinking fast. Since he’s joined—and since they’ve started airing broadcasts about Pokémon going berserk—the once-struggling station has flourished. Now, they’ve got an exclusive deal to cover a huge Pokémon parade... where the station exec is planning to unleash a monstrous supply of this chemical, sending every Pokémon in the parade on a rampage.

Why, you ask, is he doing this? If you said, “Because he’s a corrupt, sleazy exec, who’s manufacturing emergencies and sending people to record them to boost the station’s reputation and make himself rich,” you’d be wrong!!

No, he wants to take over the world. Sssomehow.

It’s over-the-top, it’s out of nowhere, and it doesn’t line up with what he’s actually been doing the whole game. He hasn’t even taken over the station yet, and we’re supposed to believe he wants to take over the world?

And it’s unsatisfying. The fun from taking a villain down comes from stopping them just before (or even just after) the culmination of their master plan. We stop the exec just before he ruins the parade and films it all. If his goal were to make his station rich and famous by filming disasters, then we would have narrowly thwarted his master plan! Except, it turns out, it wasn’t his master plan after all. It was step 1 in his 20-step master plan. We thwarted his ambitions before they could even get started. He was nowhere near taking over the world when we stopped him. Where’s the satisfaction in that?

In contrast, take the movie’s villain: the father of the aforementioned news station exec. (The station exec who gets framed in the movie, to great effect. I’d suspected the dad was lying, but I’d thought he and his kid were in cahoots—I did not catch on to the sunglasses. brilliant.) He’s a rich idealist futurist, kinda Tesla-esque in a way—he struts about boasting about grand ideas for the future and throws a lot of money at making them happen. The city that practically the whole movie takes place in is in fact his own pet project. It’s so much his personal project that visitors to the city are treated to a video of him talking about how and why he made the city: it was a response to his concerns about his own ailing health, and it was a realization of his dreams to bring humans and Pokémon together in a way they never had before.

When we find out his master villainous plot, what is it? It’s both a response to his concerns about his own ailing health, and a realization of his dreams to bring humans and Pokémon together in a way they never had before.

The motivations line up perfectly. Everything we need to understand what he’s doing—from the method itself to the breathtaking scale of it—is presented in the little promo video where he talks about his utopian city. It doesn’t show you what’s going to happen, but once you know, you can see how it was coming. Ryme City is step 1 in his master plan. Fusing humans and Pokémon is step 20.

The method also perfectly fits his character. The game villain? Not so much. A TV exec should have a TV exec’s evil plan, not a burgeoning dictator’s. What kind of evil plan would an unhinged idealistic billionaire have? Something unhinged, and idealistic, and expensive.

In real life, you might see the absurdly rich postulate that the solution to starvation and disease is spreading to Mars rather than paying their own lowest-level employees enough to eat and go to the doctor, or that the solution to traffic is self-driving cars instead of having less cars on the road to slow each other down. The movie’s villain sees a problem—the frailty of humanity, the sickness and weakness that comes with disease and aging—and, instead of solving the problem in a mundane but realistic way, like pouring more funding into health care, he reaches for a lofty, flashy, futuristic ~Solution To Everything~: human/Pokémon gene therapy—no!—human/Pokémon FUSION!! And, just like similar flashy futurist plans from the absurdly rich in real life: it’s not a solution that anybody asked for; it either solves a problem too far outside normal people’s real lives for them to care about or else doesn’t do a thing to solve any real problem at all; and the rich dude with the funds to make it happen is going to pursue making it happen anyway, whether or not anybody wants it.

(To be fair to irl useless billionaires, at least self-driving cars and spaceships don’t actively directly ruin anybody’s lives like fusing humans with animals would, and in fact are actually cool if you don’t think about all the things not being done with that money; but then, irl useless billionaires aren’t over-the-top movie supervillains, so the point is moot.)

His motive makes perfect sense, character-wise. The scope and shape of his plan fit perfectly within the type of character he’s been presented as. Unlike the game villain, the movie villain is thematically cohesive. He’s MUCH better put together.

... Except, the thing is, his evil plan is “make a bunch of Pokémon at a parade go berserk with Mewtwo’s genes, put Mewtwo itself in a berserk state with its own genes, and use this berserk state to control Mewtwo and then use Mewtwo to dissolve humans and put them into Pokémon bodies to pilot, which is, apparently, a power that Mewtwo, just, has.”

And it’s all kind of... silly.

In contrast? The grand plan of the game villain—not taking over the world, but what he was actually doing—was “make a bunch of Pokémon at a parade go berserk with Mewtwo’s genes... and put the incident on the news. Eventually build up to conquering the world from there.”

It kind of makes a lot more sense. Like, it’s a very workable plan. It doesn’t rely on giving Mewtwo supernatural powers that go beyond the scope of the drugs-and-gene-splicing we’ve seen in the movie up until now—venturing out of sci-fi into what looks like straight up magic. Sure, the plan fits the villain, but it’s... a bit too much.

That’s the thing that bugs me the most about both villains—and, quite honestly, a lot of other villains in a lot of other movies. By all means, villains SHOULD be over the top, they SHOULD pose a big threat, and they SHOULD be at their most dangerous during the climax; but if the rest of the movie has been about elevating the threat from 1 to 20, and then at the end instead of more naturally jacking the threat up to 40 or even to 100 it blasts off to 1000, it’s... it’s a bit disproportionate, you know? “This villain has been all about drugging Pokémon and filming them, because that’s what he does, he’s a TV exec... but now he wants to take over the world, that’s a bit much, isn’t it?” “This villain is a big, powerful billionaire who’s channeled normal fear of aging/death and love of human/Pokémon companionship into an overzealous Pokémon gene therapy project with a dangerous drug byproduct... but now he’s magically sticking humans in Pokémon bodies, that’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

It’s not just a problem with Detective Pikachu. The first time I can recall going “isn’t that a bit much?” at a movie was with Iron Man: the main villain, for most of the movie, was a greedy sleazy corporate exec who was making immoral business deals behind the hero’s back and alternating between trying to get the hero killed and trying to get him kicked out of his own company so that greedy exec could take over it. Buuut at the end of the movie, after very carefully keeping his hands clean and keeping himself coldly distant from all the violence he’s helping perpetuate, suddenly he’s ready to climb into a double-sized Iron Man suit and brawl with the hero directly? Instead of, as he did the rest of the movie, paying some mercenary to fight his fight for him? Isn’t that a bit much?

I get that the urge is there to go for the biggest possible threat they can squeeze out of their villain. But there are a lot of movies where it feels like, in the final act, the threat is disproportionately large, or fantastical, or out of character for the villain they’ve written and the story they’ve told. The biggest possible threat feels unwieldy if it’s bigger than the story that they’re telling.

I wouldn’t mind a few less explosions and slow-motion punches and previously hands-off villains who are suddenly inexplicably fighting their own battles, if in return it meant less action movies and the like where it feels like in the last twenty minutes the villain and/or villainous plan have suddenly been replaced by something a couple orders of magnitude bigger and grander than what we’d been following up until then.

#detective pikachu #pokemon #spoilers #meta

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midotakaism · 5 years

Note

Hi, what made you start shipping Tianshan and what do you like about the ship?

ANON ARE YOU ARE AWARE OF WHAT YOU’VE JUST UNLEASHED IN THIS ESSAY I WILL

no, okay, just kidding, i swear i will try to contain myself, i can do it (edit: to no one’s surprise turns out i actually cannot…….. so buckle up kids we’re going for a ride)

so, i actually started to ship tianshan way back when chapter 144 first came out, which is when he tian brings guan shan to his house for the first time to make guan shan cook for him, and by that time i was starting to warm up to guan shan after the fight with zheng xi and to get really curious as to what old xian wanted to do with him in the story, so that chapter was the moment where i realized that maybe old xian was trying to start building something between these two characters and i was incredibly intrigued by it

im still very fond of that chapter, because looking back on it now, i know that that was the moment that sealed the deal for me and made me aware of the fact that i was gonna be in it for the long haul with tianshan

(more blabbering under the cut)

i think what made it for me was that until then we’ve had really only seen he tian interact with jian yi and actually hadn’t seen that much of he tian at all, and the first few deeper glimpses we got into his character was when guan shan started to be around, so to see he tian go as far as bringing guan shan back to his apartment and asks him personal questions was very surprising and interesting for me. of course there was also the fact that there was something in their dynamic that i really liked, i could feel that good kind of tension and chemistry that it’s more difficult to find in 2D characters than when you have actors playing things out, but that i did find between them, and i could see the potential they had

right now, after so many years of following them, i could really write down so many reasons why i ship and love them so much, and i actually did start to do that, with bullet points and panels from the manhua, but halfway through that i realized that all of it could be summarized by one single main reason, which is that, despite all their imperfections and all their mistakes (they still are only two 15 years old boys after all), he tian and guan shan are just good for each other

guan shan has a lot of wall that he built up because of the different traumas that he went through (having to see his dad going to jail at such a young jail, having other kids making fun of and accusing him of stealing and other things just because of that, knowing that they had a debt and that there were people that could hurt his mom if they don’t pay it off, his whole experience with she li), which also shaped the way he sees the world and other people as a whole: he will never ask for help, because in his experience that’s something that always comes with a price to pay. he tian is probably the first person that actually keeps challenging this world view guan shan has: since the very beginning guan shan kinda accused he tian to be that kind of rich entitled person who would take advantage of others and always expected the other shoes to drop with him, but he tian never asked anything of him, he always gives guan shan his help freely and that’s a first for guan shan. He tian is also not the type to be easily scared or put off by guan shan’s temperament and ‘bad boy’ mask, and most of all – something that differentiates he tian from jian yi and zheng xi as well – he tian really tries his best to understand and respect guan shan. the best example i can think of for this, it’s how in chapter 254 jian yi offers the bag of money to guan shan and then calls him an idiot for not accepting them in chapter 258, while on the contrary he tian always tries to make guan shan work or do things that would make him earn the money because he understands that guan shan would never just up and take them from someone, that he doesn’t want to owe anyone, but he tian also understand that there are some boundaries in the things guan shan would do and he respect those (see how he didn’t push guan shan to accept the modeling job)

as for he tian, maybe it’s harder to see how guan shan is good for him because of guan shan’s character, but really, just the fact that guan shan makes he tian happy is more than enough of a reason why he is. i actually think that guan shan has the perfect character for someone like he tian, because guan shan is someone that would always challenge him and for them it’s actually a good thing, because that’s something i feel like he tian needs. guan shan is also not someone who would like he tian just because he is good looking and has money, and while i expect for some possible drama to happen between them because of he tian’s family’s involvement with the mafia, i do believe that if there is someone who can look past that and see only he tian for who he really is, that’s guan shan. we also know that deep down guan shan really cares and worries about he tian (im thinking about chapter 233 where guan shan misunderstands and thinks he tian is badly hurt and leaves immediately to go to him and even write to him that he doesn’t actually hate he tian that much), and i personally think he tian knows as well and is really grateful for it

so, yeah, this got long, and i swear im gonna shut up now, but yeah to sum it up you could say the main reason why i like tianshan is that i think they are good for each other and help each other grow and be better, and no other character could do for them what they do for each other

#..does any of this make sense #i feel like this wasn't english especially the last part #im so sorry im gonna go back in hiding #just thank you so so much for this ask anon im always so happy to talk about tianshan even if i always end up doing.... this................#i hope you won't mind and i hope you're still around to read it #..well maybe you should save yourself and do not but still #thank you again and i hope you're going to have a wonderful day!!#ask #anon #19 days thoughts

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lilyjcollins-news · 5 years

Text

Lily Collins - Carita Rizzo.

Usually the words “celebrity” and “unfiltered” indicate a series of explicit photos, the involvement of a tabloid magazine and a juicy exposé. Not for Lily Collins. The 27-year-old (turning 28 on March 18) English-American actress’ first book, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me. ($14, Harper Collins), which releases March 7, is an honest look at the person behind the public persona and the glamour of the silver screen. But those salivating at the thought of behind-the-scenes gossip may want to simmer down. This is not a tell-all. In her debut essay collection, the actress pens a poignant, honest conversation about things young women struggle with, including body image, self-confidence and relationships. Nevertheless, Collins has jitters. “I’m anxious,” admits the petite actress, looking impeccable in black Paige jeans, Stuart Weitzman suede boots and a loose white Tularosa top.

Her nerves are understandable. The last time we chatted with Collins about her award-nominated turn in Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply, she said: “Keep private whatever you hold dear,” a reasonable mantra in a celebrity-obsessed world where privacy is hard to come by. Now, she’s about to willingly open the door to some of her deepest secrets, from her yearslong battle with eating disorders to an emotionally abusive relationship.

“I still believe that,” she says, when reminded of her mantra. “But these are things that I felt I wanted to put out there. Not necessarily so people know that I experienced them, but to create, hopefully, a space for more open conversation about the topics I discuss.” And some things are still off limits: “When I talk about relationships, I don’t reveal any details about it or names because that is not important. That was not the point of why I was going there.”

Collins’ life has certainly appeared charmed from its inception. The daughter of English musician Phil Collins and American Jill Tavelman was born in England and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 6. Collins has always been a self-starter. She cold-called magazine editors as a teenager, which landed her a column in ELLE Girl UK, and initially pursued a career in broadcast journalism before her role in The Blind Sidetook her on a different path. Leading roles in Mirror Mirror; Love, Rosie; and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones followed, but it is in the past year or so that Collins’ career has really hit its stride, with Rules Don’t Apply (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination); the upcoming Amazon series The Last Tycoon, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last book about 1930s Hollywood; the Netflix original film Okja, in which she stars alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton; and To the Bone, which premiered in January at Sundance to rave reviews and was purchased by Netflix for $8 million. Even her colleagues can’t stop gushing over her. “She’s very much in charge of her life and her professional life in a way that I think is really admirable,” says her Rules Don’t Apply co-star Annette Bening, who refers to Collins as a “badass” who “has her sh*t together.”

Yet despite a successful career and her Audrey Hepburn-ish looks, the actress was anxious to reveal she is susceptible to the same feelings of inadequacy and insecurity as the young women who look up to her. “What really inspired me to write the book is that I was getting all these young girls interacting with me on my Instagram, and they would tell me their stories about what they’d gone through, but they would always add in there that they didn’t think I could understand because I’m an actress,” she says. “And I thought, ‘Oh, my God. You have no idea.’”

Collins understands them better than most. Her intense struggle with body image started at age 16 and continued in ebbs and flows for 10 years. And right as she was revisiting her own harrowing journey with eating disorders for the sake of sharing her story, To the Bone—Marti Noxon’s script about an anorexic girl confronting her addiction—happened to come her way. “When I read the script, and I knew what the story was about, there was a slight hesitation at first because it’s something that’s very close to me,” says Collins. “You have to re-enter that mindset.”

In the end, her deep understanding of this character won out and the ability to revisit the struggles of her youth with the help of a nutritionist and a support system is an experience Collins calls “the best form of therapy.” She adds: “I think most people will assume the movie experience was probably hell, and it wasn’t at all. It was one of the most fun, freeing experiences I’ve had. Within playing Ellen, I got to come to terms with a lot myself. That was a proud moment for me.”

Collins also credits her ambassadorship with Lancôme as grounding her among an incredible set of women, including Kate Winslet, Julia Roberts, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz and Isabella Rossellini. “It’s the most inspiring group of women,” she says. “We do amazing work with making women feel good in their own skin and enhancing their inner beauty.” Collins is grateful the company’s message encourages what she has always been passionate about encouraging within young women.

Admittedly, the hardest chapter for Collins to put down on paper is the one in which she sheds light on a long-term relationship during which she experienced an incredible amount of emotional abuse. “For a long time, I wanted to shy away from talking about that experience,” she admits. “But it’s a part of my story, and it’s a part of how I interact in relationships with friends, with family and in romantic situations. And to write all that stuff down, and to then say it out loud, made it so much more real. And it actually made me feel strong because I’d moved through that, and I’d moved past that. And I’ve learned so much more about myself and about what I deserve or how I deserve to be treated.”

She offers no details on who this man might be, but hints that any cross-referencing with her public relationships might be a fruitless exercise. “It’s funny because I think everyone’s going to assume certain people I talk about are famous people, but they’re not,” she says. “Just because I kept people anonymous doesn’t mean that people would have known who they were anyway.”

There is, however, one man in her life she cannot keep anonymous. “I couldn’t not talk about my parents in this story, obviously,” she smiles. In her book, Collins reveals to readers that her father’s absence took a toll on their relationship. “It’s hard when that person isn’t around a lot,” she says. “I have amazing memories of being able to travel and being able to have family all over the world. Were there things that would have been nice probably to experience as a family? Of course. But it didn’t happen that way. And I’m me for a reason. I mean, everything that happened made me who I am.”

Collins addresses these feelings in an emotional letter addressed to her father. “That was a hard chapter to write because he is public. It’s a weird situation to be in, to be writing about someone that people already know, but they don’t know my experience with [him],” she says. “I am just a daughter talking to her dad, and I think that a letter felt appropriate because it can be translated to any relationship with daughters and dads. As a girl, you always want them to see you as their little girl, and you’re always going to need them and want them. And even if you say you don’t, you really do.”

It feels oddly comfortable delving so deep into one somber topic after another with the actress, perhaps because Collins radiates such peace with herself. Hers is a lesson that even the seemingly most impenetrable package comes with some fragility. After opening up about her experiences, Collins says she feels truly unleashed. “I think it’s allowed me to let go a lot more,” she admits. “I kept hearing from certain directors or people in my life, ‘You should just let go more. Let go more.’ And I said, ‘What does that mean? I am free!’ or ‘I am letting go!’ But I realized I was holding on to a lot. And the second I put it out there, I could just kind of live and breathe in the moment.”

She now dreams of starting a family, but is in no rush—especially since there is currently no man in the picture. “I’m in a relationship with myself,” she quips. “I think a lot of young girls should do that. I think it’s important to figure out you and to have fun and to be dating and to figure out what you like and what you don’t like. It’s what growing up is all about.”

Besides, right now, her focus is on work and living life to the fullest. “I want to keep doing what I love to do,” she says. “Last year, I would never have said, ‘This year, I’m going to shoot a TV pilot, three movies and finish a book.’ Never, would I ever have thought it was possible. So I want to keep being terrified to try new things. That’s what pushes you beyond your limits—and to never take any of it for granted.”

Photography by Andrew Eccles | Styling by Jordan Johnson and Jill Lincoln//Photo Assistants: Jason Johnson and Tarik Richards | Digital Tech: Maxwell Tiggas.

vía caritarizzo.

#lily collins #interview

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madscientistjournal · 5 years

Text

Fiction: Excerpts From the Audio Notes

An essay by Jim Dennath, P. (Eldritch) E., as provided by Jonathan Ficke Art by Leigh Legler

Day 1

Finally, a place where my desire to dream beyond the bounds of what a rational engineer may dream, to build that which ought never be built, to be the mad engineer that breaks down barriers, and possibly ends the world–Fimbulvetr Industries. I confess that I saw their job posting and sent my résumé to them on a lark–who would have thought that the premiere apocalyptic science and engineering conglomerate would want me? But they did, so here I am walking the austere gunmetal hallways, seeing the laboratories where the cutting edge of apocalyptic science is conducted. And everything is so clean! It’s the platonic form of Nordic design. I couldn’t imagine a better place to undergo hours of trite human resources onboarding nonsense.

At least they have a slogan: Building a Better End of Days, Today.

It’s perfect.

Fimbulvetr is not screwing around. I’ve been here a day and have access to the development lab of my dreams. Good devils below, there’s an entire team of assistants at my beck and call. The job is simple–as simple as engineering a possibly world-ending device is concerned that is–build a device to create a stable planar gateway to the nether realm to allow the creatures of the dark beyond access to the mortal plane of existence.

Should be fun!

Turns out the ancient Assyrians were super into the nether realm. The Fimbulvetr archives have hundreds of original clay tablets recovered (read: stolen or plundered) from archaeological sites across the Levant. As it so happens, however, I cannot read cuneiform.

Good news, though! Ivan, a twitchy Russian ex-pat with an eyepatch, has been the most useful in that regard. He tells me he studied and taught ancient languages at a university in Kiev, stumbled on something he’s only muttered about as “the impossible realities,” and they fired him for gibbering too much during lectures. Their loss is my gain.

There’s also a linguist to help interpret the texts, Bernice, an Alabaman with absolutely the sweetest accent and the keenest eye for the dark logic employed by the forces of darkness. Who would have imagined that demons employed passive aggressive language? When I expressed my disbelief, Bernice said “bless your heart,” and told me it makes her feel right at home. What a lovely person.

With Ivan and Bernice’s help, the task came into focus. We have a great deal of work ahead of us.

There’s also Jeffrey. He doesn’t talk much, and near as I can tell, he’s mainly here to pick up heavy things at my direction. He does so at a languid pace. He must be hourly.

Day 3

This was prototyping day. Based on Ivan’s translations, and Bernice’s helpful interpretation of archaic Assyrian linguistics, we needed both a lot of eldritch energy and a focusing medium to stretch the planar gate across.

First thing first, we measure eldritch energy in crowleys, like proper modern folk who are concerned with repeatable design. Ancient Assyrians? No such luck. They simply killed an absolutely mind-boggling number of people until they got what they wanted. I’m honestly a little impressed by their can-do attitude. It worked for them, so what grounds do I have to criticize? I can, however, complain that it makes their cuneiform tablets as hard to use as blueprints in a modern workshop.

Anyway, since we don’t know exactly how many crowleys we need, I’m ball parking the sum at: a lot of crowleys.

Also, we need something to channel the crowleys into a cascading web of interconnecting focus points–essentially a matrix of dark energy that can fray the boundary between our world and the eldritch void we seek to contact. The ancient Assyrians came up with an answer for this too. That answer is femurs. We need a lot of femurs.

If we need a lot of femurs, then we’re going to need a lot of volunteers. After all, each one can only contribute two femurs, and we’re going to need twenty-three femurs. That means approximately twelve volunteers, assuming our pool of volunteers does not include too many above-the-knee amputees or people with low bone density. This might be tricky.

Day 4

Not that tricky! You know what was tricky? Getting Jeffrey to gather all of the human thighs and separate the meat from the bones. It was a simple request, Jeffrey!

But, I digress. Did you know there’s a group of people on the internet who call themselves “thigh enthusiasts?” Naturally, I gravitated toward this group of people, as I figured that anyone so enthusiastic about thighs would likely have high quality femurs.

This was not, in fact, the case. The yield of quality femurs from a single thigh enthusiast, which one could reasonably assume be close to, if not precisely, two femurs, is actually much closer to 1.1 per enthusiast. Most are men in their thirties; how is their bone structure and density so bad? What comprises their diet that they have the bone density of an elderly person with a severe calcium deficiency? This is, of course, not the question I’ve been hired to solve. It must remain a mystery for another day.

What we lacked in quality, we were able to make up for in quantity. Thigh enthusiasts are an easily baited group. Promise an internet message board an abundance of thighs, and like ten grand each, and boom, even with the comically low femur yield, I’ve got all the femurs an engineer could possibly desire. Really, it’s almost a problem. I’ve practically got too many femurs. Jeffrey certainly thinks we have too many femurs, but that is a Jeffrey problem.

So, with a massive stockpile of femurs at our disposal, it’s time to begin constructing a web of twenty-three femurs arranged in a circle with a radius precisely calibrated to focus crowleys!

Day 6

Well, I’ve summoned a demon. More on this later. At least I won’t have to worry about Jeffrey slacking anymore. More on this later as well.

I rate this experience as a qualified success.

Day 7

Good news! We’ve sealed the demon in my original development lab. Fimbulvetr has given me a new workshop. It’s buried farther underground.

The boys upstairs have also given me a squad of armed guards at all times. Hans Jürgen leads the team of barrel-chested men with assault rifles and bandoliers of grenades. Seems a touch of overkill, but it wouldn’t do to have a demon ruthlessly dismember a useful member of the team.

(Oh … right, Jeffrey was–literally–pulled limb from limb by a seven-armed reptilian beast with eleven mouths and three wings. As it happens, and this would be a subject better suited for a mad evolutionary biologist, demons have very strange anatomy.)

In any case, we have a very solid prototype planar gateway generator in existence. No idea how to control it. No way to manage what passes through. No clue what’s on the other side, and the boys upstairs tell me it’s not nearly big enough.

On account of me not being dead, I am willing to increase my assessment of this situation from qualified success to moderate success.

Add in Jeffrey’s demise and we might be flirting with major success territory.

Day 5

Yes, out of chronological order, but I was far too busy fleeing a rampaging hell beast to take proper notes on the actual Day 5. So let’s all be aware that it was recorded on Day 7, but ought to slot in at Day 5. Deal? Deal.

So, get this, turns out virgins, not super effective conduits of eldritch power. I know, really came out of left field to me too. It’s all you ever read about: virgin sacrifice this, the world’s running out of eligible virgins that. Guess what, virgins, you’re not that special!

Turns out, the sanguineous humors of debauched people–now that’s the blood you want to charge a planar gate. So we threw an orgy. Well, we advertised an orgy, lit some candles, provided massage oils and a room full of impractically sized pillows, and once we had a room full of good old-fashioned debauchery underway, that’s when we threw a massacre. It was all very efficient.

I was able to capture thirteen crowleys of spiritual energy in the blood agony harvester (which we constructed mostly from tibias and fibulas, the ancient Assyrians–a very efficient people when it came to human sacrifice–were big on using every part of the sacrificial victim, particularly leg bones). Granted, we’re still getting a handle on precisely how many crowleys of energy will be necessary to sustain a transplanar crossing, but I figured what we had was a good first effort.

Naturally, excited as I was from that success, I couldn’t help but turn to my assembled femur matrix and plug in all that sweet human suffering. It worked, and after experiencing the fabric of realty shred before my eyes, and hearing the distilled shriek of millions of disembodied souls, a demon ripped through the planar gate and started absolutely taking Jeffrey to town.

I ran, sealed the door, and changed my drawers.

Day 14

Good thing I had all those femurs, because the boys upstairs want a lot of transplanar gates constructed. Without Jeffrey (typical Jeffrey, even in death he’s slacking off), it took more than a week to build a whole bunch of gates in reinforced containment cells. That way, when the demons rip through, we’ve got ’em right where we want ’em. Locked up nice and tight until we can figure out how best to unleash them on an unsuspecting world.

So here we are, two weeks into the job (they’re paying me in arrears, which means I don’t get paid until the second pay period is complete, truly barbaric; hopefully my benefits are already accruing. I don’t want to miss out on any compound interest.), and I have twenty-three individually contained planar gates made from five-hundred-twenty-nine femurs. I wonder if I hunted thigh enthusiasts onto the endangered species list? Each planar gate sits in a specially constructed holding cell built of concrete and steel.

The holding cells themselves are all on a central corridor buried deep underground. At the end of the corridor is the control room, where I work. From there, I have the ability to route crowleys into the planar gates, as well as control each individual cell door.

Behind the control room, a twenty-three-foot diameter vault door that is twenty-three-feet-thick seals the whole operation off from the access shaft that leads to the rest of Fimbulvetr headquarters.

We are so ready to summon some demons.

Or, we would be ready to summon some demons, if we had enough crowleys. This is going to take a lot of massage oil.

Day 20

It’s been a tiring but productive six days. I like to think we’ve done the ancient Assyrians proud. Good thing we got a bulk rate on massage oil.

The blood agony harvesters are practically humming with energy, and the boys upstairs have quintupled my detail of armed guards.

A few keep very close eyes on me, and with the exception of Hans Jürgen, they communicate exclusively by way of hand signals, and are frequently checking their weapons and ammunition. It’s as if they assume that at any moment a demon might leap into this world. I asked Hans Jürgen about the increase in guards, and he says that they’re here to prevent anyone from being Jeffried.

Jeffried. His laziness has been immortalized by becoming a verb in the Fimbulvetr lexicon. Where’s the justice in that?

But let’s not let Jeffrey’s perpetual incompetence interfere with our objective. In the morning, we get to channel distilled human suffering into a series of arrays constructed from human long bones. What could possibly go wrong?

Day 21

A lot can go wrong.

Holy shit, a lot can go wrong.

I threw the switch and opened the crowley reservoir. The hair on the back of my arms stood on end as the cables that ran from reservoir to the holding cells and attached to the transplanar gates inside writhed like live serpents with the energy.

As had been the case with the first rift, reality shifted in front of my eyes, and an otherworldly howl threatened to burst my eardrums. The screams faded, but then a series of sounds like the piercing chime of twenty-three bells rang through the corridor, and I heard it even in the control room. A tiny red light blinked on the control panel indicating lock failure on each door.

Hans Jürgen flashed hand signs to his men and everyone spread out, rifles at their shoulders, covering the cell doors. It didn’t matter. Moments later, the cell doors ripped open and twenty-three demons tore out of confinement into the corridor.

Ivan and Bernice had volunteered to check each containment cell, so they were in the hallway and were the first to die.

The snare drum report of automatic weapon fire filled the air, grenades provided a tympanic percussion beneath the gunfire, but none of it mattered.

Everyone got Jeffried.

Everyone but me. I’m sitting in the control room behind a pane of glass staring into the nearly countless eyes of twenty-three demons and hoping they don’t realize that the control room door doesn’t actually have a lock on it.

Oh, shit.

[Inarticulate screaming]

Jim Denath, P. (Eldritch) E., holds the distinction of being the only youth scout to be dismissed from the national organization for designing an autonomous drone that hunted down and cooked ants with a magnifying glass. He parlayed that (minor) infamy into a scholarship to attend the Polytechnic Institute of Apocalyptic Studies, and subsequently a position at Fimbulvtr Industries, where he is now the only person with a professional engineering license currently being used as the torture plaything of twenty-three demonic fellbeasts.

Jonathan Ficke lives outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his beautiful wife. He graduated from Marquette University with a degree in public relations, which (in a manner of speaking) is another form of speculative storytelling, His work appears in Mad Scientist Journal Spring 2018, Writers of the Future: Vol. 34, and Tales of Ruma. He muses online at jonficke.com and on twitter @jonficke.

Leigh’s professional title is “illustrator,” but that’s just a nice word for “monster-maker,” in this case. More information about them can be found at http://leighlegler.carbonmade.com/.

Fiction: Excerpts From the Audio Notes was originally published on Mad Scientist Journal

#Demonology #Jonathan Ficke #Leigh Legler #Science Fiction #Xenobiology

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cadem28 · 6 years

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180804 Dreamcatcher Fanaccount

Dreamcatcher fannaccount

Hello everyone, I went to the dreamcatcher concert in Bogotá and I’ll try to capture how my experience at their concert was. Obviously I’ll preface this with the fact that English isn’t my first language and it’s been a while since I’ve written essays or any long form piece so just try to bear with me and if something isn’t clear just ask me and I’ll try to clarify.

Going back a bit I bought the tickets the day they went on sale, one for me and one for my friend who isn’t really into dreamcatcher but thought it was gonna be fun (which it was) so he tagged along.

We got to the venue and started lining up at around 4:30, the theatre was in a somewhat sketchy area on a closed street (idk how you call that someone help me here) so for the most part I was a bit paranoid that something was gonna happen, either to us or just in general. Stuff actually did end up happening, for example someone broke a glass bottle, and we saw a guy scream at a woman on the street over some altercation they had, initially I thought the guy was shouting at his wife, who promptly responded “No one IN THIS COUNTRY speaks like that to me”, but in fact it was just some random woman and he went with his actual wife and baby later, real crazy shit.

Interestingly enough, there were a lot of street vendors selling unofficial merch to the people in the line, mostly hats and t-shirts with different DC logos. I noticed the guys weren’t selling too well considering that every time they passed they had the same exact pieces and people didn’t seem too keen on buying them. Originally their asking price was 15K pesos for a hat (around 5 US dollars, exchange almost 3K pesos for 1 dolar) and 25k pesos/12 USD for a t-shirt, at the end of the concert the guy was selling them for 10K pesos/3 USD for the t-shirts so I hope it wasn’t too rough of a day for them. Annyways damn this is getting long and I haven’t even begun with the concert.

Anyway, at around 5:40 the line started moving and we began entering the venue, which was really pretty inside and gave me a good vibe. When we got in we were given a number which was going to be used for a raffle but I didn’t win so idk what they got. At around 6:40 the venue started playing the dreamcatcher songs so we were sure that the concert was finally starting but the curtains weren’t opening, so I thought it was a mistake and that someone from audio had fucked up but no, they let You&I, Fly High, Good Night and Chase me play. Surprisingly people were going fucking crazy JUST for the audio of the songs, they did the fan chants and clapped and cheered after every song, and they screamed loud as hell too, the gender distribution of the concert was around 65% girls and 35% dudes so the girls screamed for literally everything and anything. People really where having a mini concert with just the audio before the concert actually started.

So the concert eventually began, and immediately people started putting their phones up to record. We had floor/pit/idk how you people call it tickets and it was standing room only so essentially this meant that we were gonna have to see the concert through these people’s screens and I was just so heartbroken that it wasn’t gonna be the experience I thought it was going to be. Fortunately, my friend had the genious (and I mean it) idea of actually moving back, because due to the angle or elevation or like physics dude idk, and we actually had a clearer view of the girls that way.

Fly High, Emotion and their other ballad uhhhh how is it called.

The curtains opened and RRAH, they were there, these K-Pop people we had all been seeing on the internet for our entire fan lives were there, they existed, Siyeon, Gahyeon Dami, JiU, Handong, Yoohyeon and SuA, they were REAL, but even more so, people in this country haven’t had a K-Pop concert in like never (aka 5 years) so for this new generation of fans that attended it finally felt like K-Pop was something real, that it existed outside of the internet and it was finally in front of our eyes, it was extremely surreal. As for these first 3 songs I personally was just kinda sorting my view so I didn’t really pay too much attention to them, plus Dreamcatcher’s ballads are kind of weak and Fly High isn’t their greatest title imo so yeah didn’t miss much (I think).

Group, Individual and unit covers and You&I

Here’s where the real concert started, at least for me. I didn’t look at any of the setlists of the previous concerts in the tour so every cover or special stage was unknown to me. I don’t exactly know the order in which they came so I’ll just try my best to remember. At first they started playing this sort of weird dubstep freaky music and I was confused as to what was happening, but then the song started playing, Imagine Dragons – Believer and holy fucking shit, I had seen videos of the cover and was personally underwhelmed by it, but IRL? Just Woah, they hit every move with inch-perfect precision and “punch” in it, they really out here looking like they were trying to prove a point, to who? For what? I don’t know but they made it look like if they were doing some indigenous exorcist ritual that their life depended on. Every kick, every move, every time the chorus hit they just fucking unleashed, I adored it and at multiple times I audibly screamed “Que gonorrhea”, the upper latin america equivalent of holy shit to my friend, who despite being as impressed at me didn’t really show it, but more on that later.

I think after that they did You and I which was the performance in the entire concert, just the intensity and Dami doing her magic trick which idk where it even came from blew me away. People did the fan chants super loud and went even crazier for this song than the others. If this concert was an album then this was the title track.

After that, the unit covers started, for every one we’d get a mini VCR/Video on the screen hyping up which members where to come. First came Yoohyeon and Gahyeon covering Tayeon – I. This was a special song for me since I knew Dreamcatcher had a cover of SNSD ITNW so I really wanted them to do it since I love SNSD, so instead of that we got this and just wow. The song being the power ballad it is gave Yoohyeon the chance of hitting the incredible high note in the middle of the song and it was this magical moment where everyone in the audience could feel it, her strength and the power in her voice. Having never seen anything like it live, through my mind came the thought of “Wow, this really what we live for, this K-Pop stuff might be weird and a lot of people might not get it but damn, moments like this are what we’re here for”.

Next up was JiU and Handong doing Troublemaker – Troublemaker. Obviously I knew the song was a bit raunchy but JiU and Handong really said fuck this PG shit we doin it how it meant to be done and they WENT FOR IT. There was none of this hover hand stuff I had seen on the performances on Korean shows, they were grabbing each other’s ass, breasts and anything in between and not apologizing to anyone for it. On the contrary every time they crossed any physical line people went nuts, screaming like I had never heard. Real strong cover.

Coming up was SuA and Dami with Taemin – Move. Strong cover but I don’t remember much of it, Dami was the most popular member but she also seemed kinda tired.

Finally came Siyeon’s solo with Alan Waker – Faded and god damn. Ya girl was born to be a rockstar, I figured it out 2 seconds after she started singing, her voice just had such projection and she had the superstar vibe going on so hard. When she sang people payed attention, she grabbed us and didn’t let us go ever. At the end she set up the microphone stand and kicked it down in a real power move which kinda made me realise that she was the one running shit around here. Thinking back she 100% was the MVP of the concert, not just because of her stage but also because in every performance she was the one who went the hardest, both singing and dancing, she put the concert on her back and if I you asked me who is main dancer and main singer in that group, just based on this concert it would be both her. Back to the song however, my friend commented to me that he actually did know this song, so I was like “okay, my boy gonna get hype finally, maybe sing it a bit or something” but nope, he just stood there and I know it’s just the way he is but I think on some way he certainly affected my concert experience, I saw everyone going crazy and in some ways I felt like I was separated from that because I payed attention to my friend having a good time, which he didn’t seem to be having even though later he told me he loved it, but also because we were so far back in some ways it felt that yes we could see better but we weren’t really part of all the concert.

Then came the Q&A segment which was just messy all around, Dami did despacito and every girl did some variation of sexy dance to a song I couldn’t really recognize. They did great, all of them. They tried answering fan questions later but the translator was just not good at all, I couldn’t understand anything she said so idk what they were asked or what was answered, groups that come in the future get a better translator please, also they did the raffle with the numbers for the prizes but since I didn’t win I don’t know what they won, maybe I would’ve talked about it if you had chosen me @WhoeverOrganizedThis but no. They also did the usual K-Pop fan service stuff like aegyo, however they did at one point start “kissing”, I use the quotation marks because they did that thing of turning around and covering themselves with their hair so no one could see their faces which tells me they almost certainly were faking it. Personally I really disliked this, they more than likely aren’t kissing like that in their personal lives and I just don’t see the need of these world class dancers, singers and performers lowering themselves to doing something they probably aren’t all that comfortable in doing even if they’re faking it. It ain’t necessary and unlike in the Troublemaker performance there wasn’t any rhyme or reason for doing it other than getting a reaction out of the fans, but they did that all throughout the night based on their talent alone so I just don’t see why. Please cut it off.

After that I think they did the B-sides of their newest album, the You&I one which personally I don’t care for so I just remember they used Which star as the fan engagement song (i.e to wave to people do hearts, finger hearts, take the flags given to them, etc.) and that I went to the bathroom, nice bathrooms in the venue but for reason the door started opening when I was peeing so like if anyone that owns the theatre is reading this please fix the left room door dude that shit don’t close I promise.

They also did some Maroon 5 covers but who cares about maroon 5, their only good songs are Maps and Animals.

Remaining title tracks, Sleepwalking and Full Moon

This was the best part of the concert. Re-energized after the break they went HARD on every single track, the formations, the timing, these girls danced like they had a death wish or as if their lives depended in this concert only. The line they form in Sleepwalking with the gun sounds, the riffs before the chorus on chase me, good night and full moon as a whole, just woah. By the second these girls were redefining what I believed was possible to do with the human body and the crowd were with them every single step of the way, screaming, fanchanting and getting lost in their music in a way I wish I could have done too, but just my friend wasn’t with the hype and I could never immerse myself in the vibe and the mind of the crowd unfortunately. They closed with Full moon and we left after that.

Closing thoughts

Couldn’t have asked for a better show, on the girl’s side everything was sharp as diamond. External factors like my friend, who I love but I don’t think this is his scene or the translator took me out of the event enough times that I feel I didn’t get to enjoy the show as much as I should’ve, which makes me incredibly sad since this is probably one of the top groups in terms of performances in the entirety of the genre. Unfortunately I think my friend was the biggest factor out of those, and like I said I love him but it did really feel like he was there as a favour to me rather than enjoying himself, which I don’t want at all. KARD is coming up so I don’t know what I’ll do, I could get him a bit drunk but at the end of it I just think it’s better for me to go with people who are more into the genre and allow me to be my real crazy fan self which obviously is hard to be with people who don’t entirely “get it”. Annyways this shit long as fuck I don’t think anyone actually read it up unitl here considering I’m not that good of a writer, so I’m sorry (again).

Best original dreamcatcher songs: You & I

Best Cover: Imagine Dragons – Believer & Siyeon – Alan waker Faded & JiU Handong – Troublemaker, actually all of them man this group talented af.

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years

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Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: April 19, 2018

5 NEW TO NETFLIX

"Beyond Skyline" "Eddie Murphy: Delirious" "Lakeview Terrace" "Nowhere Boy" "Porto"

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I love when the Criterion Collection digs into the comedy archives and unleashes films like those of Preston Sturges or the prime of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. And so I was ecstatic to hear they were restoring the truly phenomenal "The Awful Truth," one of the best films of its kind ever made. He made a lot of wonderful films over the course of his notable career, but if you wanted to put one movie into a capsule and shoot it into space for other worlds to know about the star power of Cary Grant, this might be the one. He's so effortlessly charming here, and his work is well analyzed by David Cairns on a special feature. As for other bonus material, this one is a little light when compared to other Criterions, but you get an amazing film and an essay by the singular Molly Haskell. That's reason enough to click on the link below.

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"The Commuter"

Seeing this film at Ebertfest on the same day I caught a screening of Andrew Davis' "The Fugitive," I was reminded why I like the Liam Neeson action films, especially those directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (who did this, "Unknown, "Non-Stop," and "Run All Night"). I actually think history will be kind to these movies, especially in the "watch every time they're on cable department". This one is blissfully simple as Neeson plays a man on a commuter train who is offered $100k simply to find someone. When he realizes why he has to find this person, he tries to turn the tables on the people involved and, well, things get crazy. I'm a sucker for streamlined action films and the great majority of this movie takes place on one train. It's effective and fun. Kind of like the story of Richard Kimble.

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Special Features End of the Line Off the Rails

"Knowing"

Alex Proyas' "Knowing" has been a fascinating film for me since it was released for one simple reason: Roger Ebert gave it four stars! It's often pointed to as one of those films that illustrates how much Roger was willing to go out on a limb. We're increasingly in a world of film criticism that often feels like it's built around consensus, in which everyone has to agree that something is fantastic or awful, but Roger never cared about that. Not once. He always went his own way, and he was willing to embrace a movie like this that spoke to him even if the rest of the critical body didn't agree. It's been re-released in a 4K Blu-ray and it's a better film than you remember (even if Roger's perfect rating may not be something I agree with) but it's a reminder that it's important to be in the minority sometimes when it comes to opinions. It's what makes us human.

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Special Features Audio Commentary with Director Alex Proyas Knowing All: The Making of a Futuristic Thriller Featurette Visions of the Apocalypse Featurette 5 Things Worth Knowing About Knowing Featurette (4K Blu-ray Only)

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Ted Geoghegan is a long-time associate as a publicist and a friend, but I really don't think that colors my opinion of his work as a filmmaker. His startling "We Are Still Here" announced a director who was willing to do things a little differently from the rest of the indie horror scene, and this film really makes his unique voice clear in that it doesn't feel like anything else that came out last year. It's a story of Native American culture that's also a thriller and a story of empowerment, and in an era in which so many genre films look alike, it's so refreshing to see something like "Mohawk" that stands apart from the crowd. You should check it out.

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Special Features -None

"Molly's Game"

This column largely consists of films that I would recommend to buyers or renters, but I often extend it to include things that I realize more people like than I do, which is the case with Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut. I recognize that my opinion of this film is in the minority and that people who like it may want to know it's on Blu-ray and DVD. I will say that I still find it highly overrated, largely because of the issues I have with Sorkin's writing lately, and the deep misogyny embedded in it. Even this story that should be empowering given its protagonist culminates in a scene that fractures the entire narrative purpose of the story. I will say that the performances here are uniformly strong, including Jessica Chastain, Michael Cera, and Bill Camp, but I wish another director could have smoothed out some of Sorkin's rough edges.

Buy it here

Special Features Building an Empire

"Phantom Thread"

There are no rough edges in P.T. Anderson's latest, a film that I'm increasingly thinking might actually be the best of 2017. Talk about a film that holds up well on repeat viewing. This movie is a masterpiece of tonal balance and production value, anchored by not just one great performance but three. I love everything about "Phantom Thread," and have written about it too many times to add anything new to the conversation, other than to mention that it's a film that has gotten better every time I see it. That's not uncommon for Anderson films.

Buy it here

Special Features Camera Tests – With audio commentary by Paul Thomas Anderson For the Hungry Boy – A collection of deleted scenes. Music by Jonny Greenwood House of Woodcock Fashion Show – Fashion Show narrated by Adam Buxton Behind the Scenes Photographs – Photographs from the film by Michael Bauman with demo versions of Jonny Greenwood's score

"The Post"

I am a HUGE fan of Steven Spielberg's historical dramas, going to bat for "Lincoln," "Munich," and "Bridge of Spies" as being among the best works of his career. And so I was remarkably excited for "The Post," but consider second-tier Spielberg, in the good-not-great category of his career. Sure, the film is technically unimpeachable, and it contains the most interesting Meryl Streep performance in years, but it's easy to see how rushed this production was, and I wish everyone involved had taken a little more time to round out the reasons why they were making it and imbue it with a bit more heart and soul. Still, second-tier Spielberg is well-worth seeing.

Buy it here

Special Features Layout: Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee & The Washington Post Editorial: The Cast and Characters of The Post The Style Section: Re-Creating an Era Stop the Presses: Filming The Post Arts and Entertainment: Music for The Post

from All Content https://ift.tt/2HMxQ7f

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healthytalkzone-blog · 6 years

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