#A bit like that 1984 line but out of context. And there's something more... I don't think it's Kant or Wittgenstein

[jacksintention]

.

[that-darn-clown]

so...i know i already sent you a message about Rewrite!Animatronics singing Heartaches, but! i have a sadder/creepier one! (it's both. trust me, you'll see how)

so...the Diner Animatronics are meant to be more "old fashioned," based around old cartoon characters and the sorts of culture and whatnot that both Henry and William grew up around: Fredbear was meant to be an old southern gentleman, goofy but wise, not unlike some of the older men Henry would've met/seen growing up. O'Hare was based around those silly and eccentric book characters set in England, as well as characters like Mickey and Bugs (and perhaps William's actual personality that he wished to express more openly). due to this, most of the animatronics would sing older songs, but in a way that they'd still be popular with the children and families that visited.

and that included the older version of Heartaches. like the 1930s version. not like the newer version along the lines of how RAE sang it.

songs would be sung one of two ways: either Henry and William would sing it themselves onstage, or they'd play the music prerecorded. depended on if the suits were being used by the pair or not.

so, with this context out of the way, now let me set the scene for you:

it is late 1983-early 1984. William is working during the short amount of time he has before the animatronics awaken and immediately try to tear him limb from limb. he's trying to make sure the old springlock animatronics still work.

("Just in case we ever get the chance to reopen the diner," William says, only somewhat jokingly.

the look of hatred that Henry's been giving him lately is now mixed with something else: Pity.

as though William's hopes were naive, unattainable.)

one of the many tests he regularly does include making sure the animatronics could still "sing." in other words, making sure the prerecorded voice lines and music weren't corrupted, out of time with the movements, or too scratchy.

so he gets to Fredbear, and decides to try and play a specific track from Fredbear. not Heartaches. but as he tries to get the song to play, it...only plays Heartaches. of course....a version of Heartaches Henry sang. O'Hare had only done some vocals like humming in the background, nothing too noticeable.

William is a bit frustrated, but just shrugs it off. eh, these things have gotten a bit buggy since...You Know What. so perhaps that's why it seemed to ignore his choices and override them. he ignores it...for now.

(he can ignore the pangs in his heart that this causes. if he just pretends Henry is singing to someone else.)

eventually, William is satisfied with the results, and goes to turn Fredbear back off, trying to turn off Fredbear's voice box. it...seems to work very briefly, and William turns to leave the backroom.

...only to hear the song start all over again, without his input.

William, now startled, tries to get the animatronic turned off, to get the practically taunting music to stop. hearing Henry's voice singing a song about how the subject broke his heart...well, when directed towards William, he can tell what the purpose is. guilt. "see what you've done to him?" it says.

at some point, it clicks for William that this isn't a simple animatronic malfunction. this is some Paranormal Shit. and maybe it's not just that the animatronic won't turn off despite his inputs.

...maybe it's also that the animatronic is leaking some black fluid out of its eyes and mouth as the song starts to distort.

he leaves. uneasy, frightened, and utterly baffled. there's no logical explanation for any of this, certainly not the fluids. he'll tell henry about this in the morning, after William's calmed down and got some sleep.

but his biggest mistake was assuming that Kelsey was the spirit behind this...event.

because there's no other spirit that could possibly be inside of that thing, right?

(tl;dr - Cassidy decides to taunt his murderous father by using his homoerotic feelings for his business partner against him.)

yebdebdebdebbwebwebwebumbumbumbumbobobobobumbumbumbumbumbumheartaches

[illnessfaker]

"thought police" isn't a solid concept to appeal to imo when it comes to "progressiveness" because like, on one hand it's 1984 lmao, and on the other hand, i feel like a pretty basic tenant of "social justice" is identifying and unlearning lines of thinking and beliefs that society ingrains in people that are rooted in systems of oppression and maintenance of the status quo. so the idea that what people think is somehow irrelevant to "activism" or w/e is a bit silly to me. everyone has something they need to unlearn and countering that indoctrination is a continuous process.

but that also like, that isn't necessarily referring to the kind ego-dystonic thoughts people usually associate with OCD and stuff, because that's not necessarily about whether you believe certain things or not. but then you also have people like "i'm afraid of [x] marginalized group due to trauma" and there are issues people bring up w/ that in the broader context of a society where said marginalized group are cast as subhuman, or who might be routinely stereotyped as violent aggressors or as predatory, or other facets of broader sociocultural context (a minor example of this is something like "women dni.")

it's less a matter of "thought police" to me and more a matter of using thoughts as a moral indictment or whether those thoughts should be worthy of punishment or not, or carceral logic. like, i think there are thoughts that people shouldn't have, but i think whether someone is a "bad person" or not is defined by external things vs. internal reality. but i'm also not comfortable w/ people whipping out "thought police" usually when it comes to discussion of sexual fetish/kink shit, idk. it feels like a way of dodging the hard conversations that a lot of people on here don't seem to want to have in the same way some people pedojacket or whip out "pornsick."

[altersidearchives]

[1/2] Nintendo: Preparing the Famicom

First off, uhhh... happy new year! It's been a bit, mainly because I had to get some shit sorted out before I could continue. Turns out the people at the labs found out I got it working. I was able to make an agreement with them that I can keep this going as long as I stick to pop culture (video games, television, movies, consumer tech, etc) and that I can't specify too much about real people, unless it's needed for context. So yeah, no personal stuff about the people involved in this stuff in this timeline, makes sense.

I might as well use this quick intro to bring something up; The 1983 American video game crash didn't happen. From what I could gather, Atari had tried harder to combat the lower quality stuff being pumped onto the VCS (it never got renamed to the 2600 it seems) and actually released a new console proper much earlier, around 1982. It's called the "Atari XE." Coleco and Activision also entered agreements and Activision started to help on the ColecoVision's exclusives. The Intellivision just died a quiet death, I guess. So… no crappy 2600 Pac-Man, since the XE launched with a better version instead, and the E. T. game had much more effort and resources put into it, making it a MUCH better game on the XE. I was looking around and it looks like it's considered a beloved classic in this timeline and even got an arcade conversion a year later. That was… certainly bizzare to read. Figured it was important to mention before getting into the Nintendo stuff.

Alright, let's go.

As the 1980s were starting up, Japanese game developer Nintendo began releasing games in arcades outside of their home region, starting with Sherrif, Lunar Scope, and a few others. A modest success, but especially in America, failed to capture a mainstream audience. After a few internal reworkings at the company, reuse of the cabinets, and a creative visionary in Shigeru Miyamoto, they would later release Donkey Kong in 1981 to massive success and mainstream appeal, coming close to that of Pac-Man the year prior.

Follow-ups would soon be released, along with many console and home computer ports of the time. Donkey Kong Jr. in 1982 would be the direct sequel to the original, gaining sucess, albeit much less than its predecessor. A spin-off featuring the original star of the first game, now renamed "Mario," would also release in 1983, introducing his brother Luigi. This would be the first entry in the ever-popular Mario Bros. series of games, which would soon become Nintendo's flagship franchise. Shortly after, in 1984, a sequel called Mario Battle Bros. would release in arcades, being an evolved take on the original game, focusing more on competitive play and introducing a proper power-up, the Punch Ball, which was thrown and bounced off walls at enemies or knocked back your opposing player. Unlike their previous arcade games however, Nintendo did not license either of the Mario Bros. titles to receive outside ports. This was due to the company wanting to release proper "accurate" ports to their own upcoming game console, the Nintendo Famicom.

The console was being developed with the goal of achieving quality much more closer to the arcades than was capable of the other home machines of the era, while still using swappable cartridges. Alongside Nintendo's own in-house developers, other Japanese companies were working closely with them to bring a strong launch line-up of arcade-quality games and conversions to the new platform. Namco was a strong partner for Nintendo, developing a Famicom conversion of their awaited Pac-Man follow-up alongside the arcade release.

Although a focus on the Japanese market was important, Nintendo wanted to make the leap into overseas markets as well with the Famicom, it was a matter of how to go about it.

[stxleslyds]

Robin Jason, a friend and ally of the Titans.

PART 1.

Last Friday I was feeling extra rage-y after the news about the Titans mini with the Titans show line-up of heroes. I still think that a) Jason shouldn’t be considered a Titan or be in the team as Red Hood and b) that him going back to wearing a bat symbol on his chest is just bad but as @randomlut said there is a possibility of that book not being set in DC’s current universe and if that’s the case then okay, I will not complain about it anymore.

But this post isn’t about that Titans book it’s about Jason’s Robin’s appearances in volume two of the New Teen Titans!

Now, this won’t be an in-depth review of those issues from a story point of view, it will be a post in which I talk about Jason’s characterization and interactions with the Titans. Maybe I will even dive a little bit into why I think that the interactions that Jason and Roy have in those issues makes the relationship that they had in New52 very out of place.

Let’s begin!

·         NTT (1984) #19

Jason as Robin appears here only in the last page of the issue. After the current team of the Titans appears to be falling apart Donna calls Jason and others to help in a mission, this team that she puts together resembles the “original” line-up with Robin, Speedy, (Kid) Flash, Aqualad and Hawk.

·         NTT (1884) #20-21

Jason appears in the Titans tower along the OG Titans, when Donna finally tells them what the mission is all about (stopping Cheshire from interrupting a meeting) she asks if they are in on the job, Jason is not only excited about being there but about Batman actually letting him come all the way to the tower. A little bit of what Jason thinks or saw in Bruce is shown when Wally says that he “didn’t think the Batman could be thrilled by anything. He is always so grim.”

Basically, what Jason says is that the Bat isn’t that bad if you get to know him and that he cares about Jason’s education outside of vigilantism. Also, Jason seems to be grateful and very receptive of the things that Bruce taught him, he regards him as a very good mentor.

After everyone decides to help, they get on their jet. Here we have a very important interaction between Jason and Donna, she is telling him how she is feeling about the attitude of the rest of the team and about how she is a little bit lost now that she is in charge of the Titans and then she asks what Robin thinks about the whole thing, Jason is obviously thrilled once more, someone as experienced as Donna is asking him for his opinion? It blows his mind away! Batman never does that, he is always following his lead and never has a say on what they do so, to him, helping the Titans is only getting better and maybe he will ask the Bat to let him join them permanently.

Because they were talking Donna wasn’t paying much attention while flying and after they barely avoid crashing the jet, she apologizes to everyone and once more looks for reassurance with Jason, this time Jason is caught off guard but after Hawk teases him about his hesitation he tells her that “everything’s okay”.

When they arrive to Switzerland (where the meeting will be held) we have Jason’s first interaction with Roy Harper and him also slowly transforming into a burrito, that boy was cold and pissed off about it!

It’s really funny to me that Roy talking about Oliver’s pervy arrows is his very first interaction with Jason, who would have thought that a mad man would later make them besties?

They all go inside a building to get warm and for a while Jason is just chilling while the other Titans are all having an existential crisis, because here is the thing, Jason is a kid, he was presumably 14 here while all the other are in their twenties. Donna is having trouble with her new position as leader of the Titans, Wally is trying to live up to Barry, Garth is grieving his love, Roy is still very uncomfortable about being on a mission that involves Cheshire and Hank is just crazy. The others are trying to complete a mission while their real-life problems loom over them and Jason is just on an adventure with cool people.

Its not much later than Cheshire attacks the Titans, she first takes on Wally because he is her biggest threat and then detonates a bomb, now here I will give a little bit of context, Cheshire does not want to kill the Titans as of now, she just wants to incapacitate them because them being there is making her own mission more complicated, all I will say is that she doesn’t truly have villainous intentions and that she has a very weak spot for Roy.

Anyway, the bomb incapacitates Garth and Roy and Cheshire also managed to shoot Wally so only Donna, Hank and Jason are left standing to capture Cheshire, but here is the thing, Hank doesn’t want to capture her, he wants to kill her.

Jason has interacted very few times with Hank so far and it has always been Hank teasing him but now as Jason is going to fight Cheshire Hank interrupts him telling him that he will do “what has to be done”. Cheshire of course wont fall easily and I think that at this very moment she is thinking that killing Hank wouldn’t be a bad idea because he is going to mess her plans up! But not to worry as she is raising her gun Jason comes in to save his ass!

Jason is not a match for Cheshire and after that she quickly subdues him. But what’s important here is two things, first Jason doesn’t want or consider the idea of killing Jade, he just wants to capture her and bring her to justice, secondly, he doesn’t even want her to kill Hank, who has been violent towards every Titan and rude to Jason every single time that he has interacted with him. What I am trying to say is that this IS Robin Jason, he doesn’t think or act the same as Red Hood will in the future, he has his opinions on what punishments killers should get but he is not there to kill anyone himself.

There is this whole page where Donna beats Hank against a tree so he stops killing, because that’s not what the Titans do, she explains that if they do that then the public (that is already quite afraid of them) will just fear them more and they don’t need that, plus she believes that he is acting that way out of grief after losing his brother, as she is saying all of this though she is putting quite a lot of pressure on his chest and that might have ended up in her actually killing Hank if Jason hasn’t been there to stop her.

Donna is obviously not having a good time and after this she says that she “has had it” and that from now on Robin should “take command” because “its his group anyway”. Oh man…its clear to the reader that Donna is not having a good time being team leader but she also misses a certain person a lot. She is obviously not seeing Jason there, she is seeing Dick, the person that she is used to take orders from but he is not there.

Jason is aware of this, he might be a kid and might not have as many problems as the other Titans as of now but he is not a fool and he doesn’t want people to see someone else when they look at him, so he confronts Donna about what she just said/did.

Jason is just great in this scene; he just doesn’t want people that he admires to treat him as if he were someone that he isn’t. Just because Dick isn’t there doesn’t mean that he (because he is Robin) can replace him, they are not the same person and they do not have the same experience. He calls out Donna on her behaviour towards him and Donna being an adult takes responsibly for her actions and understands that ultimately, she was hurting Jason’s feelings. We have a kinda wholesome moment when they hug but because this is written by Marv Wolfman and he just can’t help himself, he proceeds to write Jason as a horny teenager. What a way to ruin the moment Marv…

Back to Cheshire, she is about to kick Wally’s face in when she decides to first tell him what he has to tell the others when they wake up, which is “Cheshire remembers”.

Wally tells the Titans Cheshire’s message but none of them truly understands what it means, Hank says that he doesn’t even understand why they are alive. Donna comes to the conclusion that Cheshire might want something from them and this is where Jason gives his thoughts, he says “Doesn’t matter what she wants. We take care of her. She’s a killer.”, its clear once more than although Jason (as Robin) wouldn’t kill anyone he does feel a certain type of way about criminals and wants them to be locked up.

After yet another verbal fight between Hank and Donna the Titans take a cable car to their next location, Jason is shown as exited about the view and the whole experience once more. When they arrive, they find Faraday (the guy that called Donna for help in #19) and he explains a bit more the situation but Jason once more is having trouble staying warm so he goes to the cable car tunnel nearby, but he doesn’t go alone, Roy goes with him because his “costume wasn’t made for this kind of weather either”, in this second interaction between these two we get to see Jason’s detective skills shine.

Jason has been watching Roy and he found his reaction to Cheshire’s message quite sus. Not only is he showing his detective skills here but he also said in a previous panel this: “The Batman keeps telling me to watch people’s eyes. And every so often I notice you become awfully agitated…like something was going on you didn’t want to be part of”.  Zdarsky, hey pal, I am talking to you, look at this dude! He read Roy like an open book, this is Robin Jason, he likes being Robin and he is brilliant at it, he is methodical because he learnt from paying attention and working with Batman, so, you sir are wrong, not only did UtRH disprove your dumb narrative but so does this interaction (along all his appearances in this book).

Roy is impressed by the kid, and yeah, he calls him kid because he is a kid…Roy is visibly older than Jason as he should, do you see it Lobdell? Yeah, there is no dubious age gap between those two as you made it seem. Roy is impressed because between both of them he is the one that is most experienced, not the other way around. How did Lobdell manage to make up a whole as run where not only were Roy and Jason close in age and besties but also Jason was better at vigilantism than Roy and Roy was the one being impressed. It’s wild, wild and bad.

Back to the issue, Jason taken out of the fight quite fast once more by Cheshire and she proceeds to talk to Roy, that’s where we find out that they were lovers and that she feels weak when she is around him because he makes her feel feelings but that’s not all, she tells Roy that he is “the man that fathered my child” …Oh and now she does want to kill him. That’s where #20 ends, so let’s see what happens with Jason in #21.

In the beginning of #21 Jason is conscious once more and when he hears Cheshire’s threat, he attacks her so she can’t shoot Roy, he also says this “Sorry ‘cat’ that’s a definite no-no. Don’t you know mommy’s and daddies should never fight” I, I don’t know why he had to say it like that…the 80s were weird. While Jason is being himself Roy is thinking “Don’t be cocky kid, Jade hasn’t got a sense of humour…” but because he wants to talk to Jade, he tells Jason to go, that he will handle Cheshire and he leaves.

Roy and Jade talk, Donna and Hawk are fighting bad guys and each other and at some point, Jason joins Garth and helps him take down a couple of guys, he also tries to make conversation with him but Garth is still not talking to anybody.

Cheshire tells Roy that he will never hear about their child again and that he needs to let her do her thing and stay out of it because he doesn’t understand what’s going on, Roy doesn’t do what she asks and she “poisons” him. Donna saves a guy that Hank was trying to kill. After Cheshire leaves Roy comes to the conclusion that she wasn’t there to kill the people from the meeting or that she poisoned him, but because they were there and everything went to shit now the people that were getting together are blaming the Titans for the interruption. The whole thing is a mess and the news channel are not nice about the Titans as a whole, but I am not interested in exploring that here. All you need to know is that the people that made Cheshire do what she did to the Titans were the Brother Blood people.

It’s on the jet that we see Jason again, he and the others are going back to the tower. Because the news are painting the Titans as bad when they are arriving to the tower Jason sees a lot of people protesting about them and he feels bad. This was his first job with the Titans and he is a kid, imagine how sad it would make you if you wanted to help and after getting the job done people were mad at you. But even though he is sad about that he takes time to ask Roy if he is okay after he sees him almost running away from the tower, he doesn’t get a response but he isn’t mad about it.

Jason’s stay with the Titans comes to and end and he says that he loved hanging out with them and is grateful for having been invited, he is so sweet!

·         NTT (1884) #24

Here, for some reason, we see Jason saying goodbye to the Titans again and unlike at the end of #21 Roy is there to see him leave.

I am not going to lie though; I liked this goodbye better it feels like it’s more complete than the other one. Here he says that Batman wants him back in Gotham but that if the Titans ever need him again all they need to do is call. He also mentions Nightwing which is funny because he will be called by Donna again in #26 to help the Titans get Dick back from Brother Bloods Church.

I am going to cut this part here because issues 26 to 31 have a lot of Jason content that I want to explore and I can’t put any more pictures here, also this post is already long as it is now!

I just love Jason’s little moments in these issues, him confronting Donna and reading Roy like and open book in #20 are my absolute favourite, I just think this is a nice way to kinda show how wrong some current characterizations of Robin Jason are and what better way to do that than reading and looking into some good stories.

Oh! Before I forget, in #21 Roy leaves the Titans’ tower to go see Jade and he actually gets to meet his daughter Lian for the first time, so yeah, that was a wholesome moment!

[everygame]

King’s Quest I: Quest For The Crown (PC)

Developed/Published by: Sierra On-line Released: 10/5/1984 Completed: 16/05/2022 Completion: Finished it with a score of 141/158. Trophies / Achievements: n/a

As I’m into 1985 in my chronological playthrough of games own/have immediate access to and/or just think are especially interesting and want to play anyway, I took a look forward after the demoralising experience of playing through Ice Climber and noticed that I hadn’t played any Sierra games yet. Checking some dates I noticed that technically, Kings Quest II would be coming up in May 1985, meaning that I’d actually missed a chance to place King’s Quest I in its proper historical context. So why not go back to it? And hell, while I’m at it, why don’t I ease myself in by playing through the 1990 EGA version, so not play it in its proper historical context at all anyway???

Sierra is an interesting bit of nostalgia for me. When I joined the ranks of PC gamers, we were well into the VGA era, and it was that particular period that captivated me, with my first love truly LucasArts’ cruelty-free adventures. Of course, LucasArts only made so many of those, so you ended up looking to a battery farm like Sierra to get your fix. 

Even at that though, I was pretty choosy–I bought only the ones considered the best of the best (Gabriel Knight, most memorably) and it wasn’t really until I got a modem and access to websites like Home of the Underdogs that I started to work through the likes of Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, considering that while they might have some nice VGA point-and-clickers, there were also some pretty raw EGA, parser-led kill-a-minute titles to work through. And I’m pretty sure back in the day I did–at the very least, I remember working through the first three Leisure Suit Larrys.. probably in the hope of seeing an EGA boob.

Kings Quest, however, until this I’d never played a single one. I just wasn’t that interested in it, never having had a taste for generic fantasy, and by the time the series had graduated into something a bit deeper, well, I’d already moved onto the likes of Gabriel Knight. An interest in things like The Crow rather than, uh… the crows that are in Dumbo.

That said, at the time I didn’t really know or respect how unbelievably important at least the very first King’s Quest is. It is, really, the first “graphic adventure” as people would really know them, even if (as I’ll go on to discuss) the design is more divergent than you would expect. It also rescued Sierra, who had expanded too fast, hot on the success of their “Hi-Res Adventures” line, hit some late releases, failures, and bad bets on which format to support, before they handily managed to get IBM to stump up most of an $850,000 (!!!) budget to create a game for their upcoming PCjr hardware. Ironically, the PCjr would also turn out to be a bad bet of a format, but King’s Quest programmers savvily created the game in an interpreter language allowing quick ports to other hardware, and as they say, the rest is history.

Now, you might notice here that I haven’t played any of the Hi-Res Adventures; you could argue that Mystery House is if anything more important. The reason is, of course, is that they nigh-unplayable–even the fact that the second one, The Wizard and the Princess, technically ties into the Kings Quest franchise can’t convince me to delve into that cavalcade of poor game design.

Indeed, Roberta Williams is a complicated figure in the history of video games. Don’t get me wrong: she’s a pioneer, and deserves tribute for that alone, turning from a dreamer to a COBOL programmer to a housewife and then, dissatisfied, a game designer. But her legacy is muddied by the fact that few people would claim she was ever that great of a designer.

That said though, in a time where there really were no rules or standards for what a video game of any genre should be (just look at Lords of Midnight, released in the very same month as King’s Quest!) Williams had idiosyncratic successes in the face of what could be considered a sort of raw sloppiness. Mystery House, for example, isn’t just a text adventure with graphics; items you pick up disappear from the images and appear if you drop them elsewhere. It just happens that you might not even be able to tell what an item is...

Which I suppose brings us to King’s Quest. Sure, you use a parser to actually interact with anything, but this is a graphic adventure: you walk around, you pick stuff up, you interact with NPCs and the world by using items. But IBM had actually come to Sierra with some pretty strict demands (as recounted by The Digital Antiquarian): “They asked for a game that could be replayable, that would be more dynamic and complex in its world modeling, sort of like Ultima and Wizardry … They specifically asked that puzzles have multiple solutions, that there be many different possible paths through the game.”

This, as you well know, is not really what graphic adventures are known for. And as much as it looks like one, King’s Quest doesn’t exactly feel like one. There’s a pretty good line, I think, from the sophisticated design of a game like Planetfall (easily the most accessible and pleasant adventure I’ve played so far, chronologically) to something like The Secret of Monkey Island, but by comparison King’s Quest feels almost un-designed, just dropping you into the world and going “hi. u r graham. get three treasures, be king. ok bye.”

(Williams was, apparently, a big fan of the earliest adventure games such as Colossal Cave Adventure, and you can absolutely see the influence in her, er, somewhat messy and often sprawling designs. Infocom’s more polished works were appearing contemporaneously with her own, and one wonders if she ever played them. Did she not have time? Did she simply view them as competitors? With such a lack of DNA shared, it’s actually quite fascinating.)

So in King’s Quest, rather than (for example) an smaller tutorial area to “warm up” into the game, or any thoughtful interweaving of puzzles, you are simply dropped into a map of 6x8 screens that wraps (what’s with early games and their obsession with wrapping? Wizardry did it too, and it makes as little sense here) and you have to hope for the best, as you wander a map where enemies such as ogres can kill you, dwarves can steal from you, and, oh yeah, your hero will quite happily walk into a river and drown if you step to close to it.

I’m not going to lie: the lack of guidance at the start makes this basically sort of unplayable, and after wandering about with a pocket full of pebbles long enough I just pulled the game up on the Universal Hint System as if I was playing an Infocom game and took some prompting (or really mostly just used the maps, which point out when there’s something to get on the screen.)

You see, in terms of Williams’ bad instincts honed on Hi Res Adventures… there’s a lot of that here. It’s important that the graphics matter, but often the parser works against you. Ok, you say, I know there’s a dagger here. I’ll look at the rock. Oh, there’s nothing special about it. I’ll… touch it? I’ll search it?

You, of course, need to know to push it. They don’t want to hint to us that it looks like it’s been moved, or there’s fresh dirt around it, or something? Or how about the pouch in the tree trunk, where you have to look in it, you can’t just look at it. Never mind how everything requires you have to walk to it to interact with it (which feels like a pain when you’re using a parser)

It sounds like I’m splitting hairs, but even in a game with a smaller map (let’s not forget that Sierra were coming off the back of Time Zone, with its nonsensical 1300 screens) having to wander about and pretty much look at or in every tree and rock or element on screen gets pretty tiresome fast especially considering that you regularly have to dodge in and out of screens to avoid getting killed by a wandering enemy.

The interesting thing there though is that’s honestly most of the challenge of the game. If you have the right items, there aren’t (really) much you would call “puzzles” here, considering in almost every situation you just need to remember a fairy tale and do, uh, that. Like, once i had a carrot, I thought, oh, I’ll give that to a goat. Once I had a goat following me about, I was immediately like “oh this goat will help me with the bridge troll.”

I couldn’t, at the time, remember why I even knew that (although it’s from Billy Goat Gruff, of course.) It’s all pretty much that simple, and I did have to laugh when, when dealing with a witch, the text explained how I “courageously” tossed an old woman into a pot of boiling soup where I assumed she died in agony.

Which actually leads me to the other issue–the game’s slightly strange insistence on dexterity at points. Creeping up on an old woman after robbing her house? Er, better make sure you’re moving slowly or from the right angle or something or die. Climbing a beanstalk? Get the angles right or watch a really lengthy death animation!

But that said… King’s Quest does manage to be one of Williams’ idiosyncratic successes. IBM’s demands might have led to an open map with frustrating enemies, but they also lead to a open-ended design where players are able to solve puzzles in a variety of orders* and with different solutions–you can kill a dragon, or just chuck water at it, for example, although the game’s scoring system does imply there are better solutions than others.

*And, for some reason, the 1990 version I’m playing now will only let you access an area with one of the artifacts by doing an annoying dexterity-test with a condor that appears on a pretty-much random screen only some of the time and only if you have the other two artifacts. Hope you like wandering about lost if you don’t want to look up a hint!!!

Anyway, where am I going with this? It’s that Kings Quest isn’t, exactly, a graphic adventure, but what it is somehow manages to balance out a bunch of frustrations and irritations (that exist just as horribly in its 1990 release) with a charming sense of progression that comes from solving its simplistic puzzles in an order and style that suits you. It’s not exactly good, and it’s not exactly something I can recommend (at least not without a map and a few hints in hand) but I actually appreciate that it’s not just an infocom adventure with graphics.

Will I ever play it again? No, and I admit I’m a bit worried about moving on to King’s Quest II and III as they are quite a step backwards from the EGA King’s Quest, but I’m intrigued to see how William’s game design progresses: does she get more “traditional”, I wonder?

Final Thought: I haven’t talked too much about the 1990 version specifically here (outside of the strange decision to make it more linear for what seems to be no good reason) but I was really fascinated to read in my research that it was a big time failure, rejected by fans by being “compared to the controversial practice of colourising classic black and white movies.”

That seems… wildly histrionic? The only source I can see for it also is Sierra themselves, which makes me wonder if it’s a bit of self-mythologising–I don’t remember anyone reacting that way to the VGA Leisure Suit Larry or Space Quest remakes. For what it’s worth, it’s a much nicer looking version with some lovely perspective on interiors such as the witch’s house, but you really struggle with navigation, with entrances and exits to screens often totally obscured by foreground art, and it being a bit too simple to drown Graham. But it looks nice in Retroarch ScumVM with a CRT filter.

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[deputychairman]

List the first lines of your last 20 stories. See if there are any patterns and choose your favourite opening line!

Tagged by the inimitable @cicaklah ! It’s an interesting exercise; i realise i definitely don’t invest in one single knockout opening line, and if there are any patterns it would be that my openers fill the function of “in this essay i will” - they set up that this is a concluded story with an ending, told by someone who knows the ending. Could be interesting to get away from that and try a different narrative structure, but at the same time that sounds like so much work? 

“It started with emails, and he just never expected anything so mundane.” (Fool me twice) A thematically appropriate mundane opener?

“The first time you speak to him alone, when it’s not an audition and there’s no one watching, he jumps.” (The physics of mass and velocity) idk why I did the open and close to this fic in 2nd person but I just think it works, ok. References a much referenced encounter, but makes it intimate again? So different from all the others that it might actually be my favourite.

“In 1984 he won the Valley’s most famous karate match on a fluke – or did he?” (Daniel LaRusso, karate, and the soul of the San Fernando Valley) Sounds like clickbait, was supposed to sound like clickbait – possibly I put more thought into this first line because my POV journalist would also have put more thought into it?

“Waking up with Daniel LaRusso in his bed is really fucking weird.” (Like a coastal shelf) Sets the scene, gets to the point but otherwise meh. Although good echo of previous story’s opening line, which is also Johnny waking up in his own bed and being surprised by the person he finds there.

“There’s an old Asian guy standing at the end of his bed when Johnny wakes up, frowning at him like he’s a disappointment to him, personally.” (Anabasis) A little bit funny and better than the above. Also sets up a good joke in the next line.

“It was weirdly easy to convince LaRusso sneaking into the All Valley Sports Arena at night was a good idea, and maybe that should have tipped him off.” (In the arena) I like the warning of impending something, and the implication that these are people who do not openly discuss things that it might be a good idea to discuss.

“Amanda opens the front door to hear yelling coming from the kitchen.” (Sometimes there is a luxurious amount of time (before anything bad happens)) I was proud of this fic and the writing but this is a weak first line. I knew it at the time but it was just too much like hard work to think of a better one.

“Anthony LaRusso pushes open the door to the guest room to take a fancy white towel he’s not supposed to touch, and trips over a pair of boots.” (The morning after the night before) Another opening door? Move on already. But I like the rhythm of it and Johnny’s boots disrupting life in the LaRusso house just as Johnny disrupts life for LaRusso pere.

“If he’d known Amanda wasn’t going to come, Daniel would never have suggested to Johnny that they go in the first place.” (High School Reunion, class of '85) A pattern is starting to occur to me: I use the tags, summary and author’s note as my marketing material (ugh), so I’m not really asking the first line to do much work. These are all REALLY weak out of context, but does that matter when people are reading them IN context? If I want to half-ass my fic, who’s gonna stop me, the Fanfic Effort Police?

“Rosalind became the Countess de Stael when she was nineteen years old, and even then she knew she’d been lucky.” (the other half of his life) Functional! But the tags and the excerpt I used for the summary were great.

“It was highly gratifying to be approached by not one, not two, but three beautiful women together who apparently just adored his music.” (La belle au bois dormant) It works, nice rhetorical flourish that suits the character, ‘apparently’ is working hard there.

“The path down from the mountains was steep and the stones slid treacherously underfoot, and it took all Jaskier’s concentration to get down without falling.” (A history of dragons in popular culture) Workmanlike, should have avoided repeating ‘down’; there must be 10000 Witcher fics out there that open in a similar way. Again, the excerpt I chose for the summary was much stronger. And that’s why I chose it.

“In hindsight, there had been clues. One of them was in the British Museum, in the Mesopotamia room.” (is that your flaming sword (or are you just pleased to see me)) All the way back to Good Omens already! Apparently I like the ‘in hindsight’ construction for my first lines, I’ve used it since even if not in so many words. For a certain length of story with a certain degree of conclusion to be had, it works. Sets up the let me tell you a story which is complete vibe.

“After She’d done her first six days of work and decided that it was all Good, the Almighty wasn’t given much to editorialising.” (a design for life) C’mon, I’m mildly amusing. Sensible chuckle-worthy. Good imitation of the Gaiman & Pratchett writing style.

“For many years, the King’s Cross area of London was known for its grim and noisy railway station and the drug addicts and sex workers who frequented the streets around it, which also boasted a handful of insalubrious nightclubs and a cinema known as the Sodom Odeon.” (the technology is neutral) I was writing about the Scala cinema and Kings Cross as much as Crowley and Aziraphale, and the opening line does reflect that.

“On the Tuesday after the apocalypse wasn’t, they went to the theatre.” (the first week of the rest of their lives) I like the contrast of the very human concepts of Tuesday and theatre with the huge religious concept of apocalypse.

“It wasn’t at all what he was expecting Aziraphale to say over the second bottle of champagne after their truly spectacular lunch at the Ritz.” (the sublime physical manifestation of divine love) Barely makes sense when taken alone! Obviously first lines are followed by second and third lines so that’s ok. 

“A successful thief knows how to leave the past behind, and Peter Nureyev is not just successful, he’s exceptional.” (theories of (in)secure attachment) Look at that, a first line that does stand alone! I guess I can do it when I want to.

“There is no Resistance any more.” (scenes from a revolution) ah, Star Wars of my heart, back when we still thought they knew Finn was the main character.

Sleep like unconsciousness, dreams that are closer to hallucination. That’s what he chiefly remembers from that time as they escape. (the fall of rome) yes this is two lines but they fitted on one line. I like the backwards construction of somebody very tired, the detail before the context.  

Would love to read other people’s, if you’re reading this you are invited to participate and I’d especially love to hear from @bomberqueen17 @aimmyarrowshigh (i know you’ve done a tonne of drabbles so you’re probably hyper aware of every word you write!) @ted-imgoingmad @an-sceal @thorniest-rose @trinityofone @some-stars @nomercyonlytears if you enjoy doing this sort of thing! An excellent displacement activity, for sure. 

[four-loose-screws]

An Interview with Mr. Toshiyuki Toyonaga about Fire Emblem (Claude‘s Japanese VA), Pg. 10 (The Grand Finale!!)

Being a Part of FE Like This Is Toyonaga-San’s Dream Come True! And His Thoughts for the Future

How do you feel right now about being asked to appear in official live broadcasts for the FE series?

Toyonaga    To be a part of the FE series like this is a dream come true, and I can hardly believe it’s all real. I was so thankful for being requested to come to the broadcasts and that I was able to talk about the series. I think my school age self, who was just a player of Genealogy of the Holy War at the time, would have slowly fainted if you told him where I am now!

Because this is a special series that you’ve loved for thirty long years! If you have any final words that you want to share here at the end, please go ahead.

Toyonaga    Something I want to share to congratulate the thirty year anniversary? ...Hmmm… I want to request that they make me another “Waku Koyasu,” and call me “Waku Toyonaga!”※ Laughs.

Image on the right:

We’re giving away a signboard Mr. Toshiyuki signed personally! (see page 97 for details)

Signboard reads: “Nindori November Issue” and “Claude Von Reigan”

Mini Q&A

What is your favorite class in the series?

Toyonaga     I use Knights when doing challenge runs, but it would be more accurate to say that I like the feeling after they class change to General and all the hard work pays off a bit. When I’m playing normally, I like magic users. Mages, Sages, and so on… The magic classes are thrilling to use, don’t you think? Their magic stat is high, so they can rout the enemy during the enemy’s phase, but because of that, their HP could be slowly chipped away at. They can easily be killed, and it makes you feel so tense. I think I like the feeling of the thought, ‘Please don’t defeat any more enemies!!’ I personally really like the feeling that they contribute a lot to the fight, but also that any little thing could make their situation take a turn for the worst!

Please tell us your impressions of the illustration made for the promotional card included with this issue.

Toyonaga     Where he’s inviting someone to the dance floor? And, of course he’s winking, just like always! Laughs. It’s so unfair when he winks! From the viewpoint as a member of the cast, I’m quickly filled with complex thoughts when I see him and the other characters in a situation where no one knows yet what’s going to happen next. But I wonder if this scene was chosen because it was the most memorable for everyone who played the game, and it is from the Academy Phase where all three of the class leaders are together.

And we’re all really curious about the fact that he’s taking someone by the hand, right?

Toyonaga     Yeah… Claude will even do this to male Professor Byleth, so I think that was a bit surprising to see! As the person who performed his role, when I think that this scene, where he takes the professor’s hand, might be what made him so popular with everyone, I feel very deeply that everyone is saying “Thank you for making it!!” Laughs.

Please tell us your impressions and thoughts about recording the FE Three Houses Extra Drama CD: An Officers’ Academy Sleuthing Story.※

Toyonaga     Having the three class leaders team up together is something that isn’t possible in the main game, or the Ashen Wolves DLC, so when it was decided that a drama CD would be produced, I was personally happy and glad they were able to do something together. As drama CDs are especially known for their fanservice, I felt that I would be the one amongst the three making things fun and lighthearted. As I performed Claude’s lines, I had the thought in my mind that he would especially carry the burden of relieving the tension between the trio.

Toshiyuki Toyonaga

Birthdate: April 28th, 1984

Height: 162 cm (5’4”)

Title: A jack-of-all-trades who can even do voicework!

Hobbies: using computers, video games, writing, spending time lost in thought

Likes: his house

Dislikes: coriander, sea urchins, oysters, spicy food, people who are too friendly

Favorite tea: darjeeling

Favorite flower: sunflowers, dandelions

Q: Which do you prefer: sweet foods or spicy foods?

A: Sweet foods (I can’t eat spicy foods.)

Q: Which do you prefer: meat, or fish?

A: Meat (I can’t stand the smell of fish.)

Q: Are you a dog person or a cat person?

A: A cat person.

Bonus     Can we ask you about Earthbound as well?*

We know that this is a totally different series, but we’d like to ask you about Earthbound as well.

Toyonaga     Oh! Ah ha, okay.

It’s a very popular game with Nintendo Dream readers even now.

Toyonaga     Wow, really!? That’s amazing! But I had a feeling that was the case. This brings me back to my aunt again, but she played the first game. I was a bit older when Earthbound came out on the Super Famicom, but my aunt bought that game as well. As I watched her play it, I wanted to play it, too. So, since there were three save slots, I believe? She chose one for me to use, and let me play it.

That was so nice of her!

Toyonaga     I was stuck on the name entry screen for about two to three hours, choosing my favorite food, and then after that, my favorite thing! I remember thinking while entering them, ‘Why are they asking me something like this?’ and things like that. I loved collecting the melodies. Of course, I also thought that Shigesato Ito-sensei’s script was amazing as well, but I was really moved by the music. I thank the game so much for its superb music! Later on, I was also moved when the third game came out.

*T/N: In the English-speaking world, we better know Mother 1 as Earthbound Zero. The popularity of the Mother series has resurged in Japan, to the point that new merch has even been a frequent occurrence over the past several years! A two page spread about a merch line in 2021 was even included in this issue, so Mr. Toyonaga being asked about the series as a part of this interview makes perfect sense in context.

※Waku Koyasu: Refers to Mr. Takehito Koyasu, the voice actor who voiced Navarre in the first FE radio drama, alongside some other appearances; and is known for being a huge Fire Emblem fan. His passion for the series has led him to perform roles for every game since Awakening, and earned him the title “Waku Koyasu.”

※Three Houses Drama CD: You, the listener, appear as the game’s main character, “Professor.” The story is about the three house leaders and Sothis wandering around inside Garreg Mach Monastery together to search for a very important missing key.

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: lots of people love Gary Numan. But they tend to love his very early work, and his very recent work, without a whole lot vouching for the stuff in between. My favourite work of Numan’s is 1984′s Berserker, a true gem buried in the sands of many, many mediocre albums. Find out what makes it so great by watching my video, or reading the transcript below!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! This time around, we’re looking at a fairly famous artist, and at one of his not-as-famous works: Gary Numan’s Berserker, first released in 1984.

For the most part, if you’re a fan of Numan, you’re either a fan of his earliest work, and/or, his recent work since the 1990s, and there’s a substantive slump in between these two. In 1979, the artist made a tremendous splash with his initial hits “Cars” and “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?”, but after the release of his second solo LP, Telekon, only the following year, the public rapidly began to sour on Numan’s android antics. While his early work is held in high regard, and perhaps even unassailable for synth fans, most of his other work in the 1980s is met with a lot more scrutiny.

Numan’s bad days arguably came to a head with 1983’s Warriors. Warriors was initially meant to have been produced by the great Bill Nelson, whose work Numan evidently much admired. However, the artists’ clashing personalities allegedly made it impossible for them to work together, and Nelson left the project and had his name removed from it. Besides this period’s poor aesthetic decisions, showcasing Numan with blond hair and head-to-toe leather like a very sorry Billy Idol clone, Warriors feels like a mess of disjointed sonic ideas, losing the nucleus of what had made Numan special.

Music: “Sister Surprise”

Like most of Numan’s work from this period, Warriors was not only a flop in the eyes of critics, but also an arguable commercial failure. It would go on to be the final record he released on the Beggars’ Banquet label; after its release, he decided to take matters into his own hands and start an independent label, Numa Records. This is where Berserker comes in, having been the first independent release Numan got to make. And I think it shows, in that the album comes across as extremely focused in its themes, as well as very willing to do things that are more novel and unique.

Music: “Berserker”

The album’s title track was its lead single, as well as its opener. As it opens the album with the line, “I’ve been waiting for you,” I can’t help but feel that I, too, have been waiting for Gary Numan, whose true genius lay dormant for some years, like the fabled king under the mountain. The title track’s screeching guitar is, perhaps ironically, more reminiscent of Bill Nelson’s famous guitar work than anything on Warriors. Overall, I can’t help but feel it resembles the general template of Numan’s celebrated later work, with its emphasis on jagged electronic textures rather than traditional instruments, as well as its lyricism, portraying an abstractly menacing narrator who seems as inscrutable and inhuman as they do dangerous. In that sense, it’s a bit of a glimpse into Numan’s future. Still, one can’t deny that Berserker remains an album that feels “of its time,” take it or leave it, as on the second and final single, “My Dying Machine.”

Music: “My Dying Machine”

“My Dying Machine” seems to revolve around its woodsy, sample-based percussion track, perhaps reminiscent of Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s work with gamelans and jegogs for the soundtrack of the famous film Akira, later in the 1980s--albeit less organic and more precisely mechanical. It’s a sound that I can’t get enough of, personally, but it’s also something that springs directly from the advancements in sampling technology that were becoming more accessible by this time. The use of female backing vocalists, heard on many tracks throughout the album, is another touch that grounds Berserker in a mid-80s context, as it was a fairly common trend at the time. But I’d argue that the employment of this technique enriches the album: Numan’s backing choir seem no less haunting than he does, surrounding him like sirens on a desolate crag, harrying us with hooks that in the past might have been played on an early synthesiser instead. The contrast of these female voices also helps highlight the greater vocal range that Numan himself attempts on this album. Squawking at higher pitches had been serviceable earlier in his career, when he remained more indebted to punk, but on Berserker, we really get a lot of his chest voice, and he proves himself to be a surprisingly competent vocalist on tracks like “Cold Warning.”

Music: “Cold Warning”

Earlier, I argued that Berserker’s title track prefigured Numan’s later albums, but I was mainly comparing lead singles to lead singles. “Cold Warning,” I think, sounds a lot like the typical album track on a recent Numan album: slower-paced, somewhat atmospheric, and ominous in a more moody and subtle manner as opposed to directly threatening. Note also its intro, with its prominent use of a viola, which really stands out against Berserker’s overall more electronic soundscape. By this point, Numan had been no stranger to incorporating traditional instruments; earlier in his career, he’d been impressed by the work of Billy Currie of Ultravox, who played not only synthesisers, but also string instruments like viola, in the context of a rock group. Numan had gone as far as to hire Currie to perform on his 1979 LP The Pleasure Principle, and its accompanying tour. Still, I think “Cold Warning” reminds me less of The Pleasure Principle, and more of Numan’s more recent efforts--particularly his 2021 album Intruder, which features Gorkem Sen playing the yaybahar, a novel string instrument of the latter’s own invention. Still, for as much as Berserker stands out as one of the least commercial endeavours from this period of Numan’s career, it’s not totally devoid of pop influences. Take, for example, the track “This Is New Love.”

Music: “This Is New Love”

From its title alone, “This Is New Love” seems to announce itself as something more conventional and accessible, and indeed, its lyrics are more straightforward than what you’ll find elsewhere on Berserker. Those omnipresent backing vocalists are given a pleasingly hooky assignment here, and the instrumental arrangement, dominated by that oh-so-80s slap bass, is also less abrasive, and an apparent nod towards pop. If this track were also a scrying crystal, I’d say it looks ahead to Numan’s near future, and lighter, more funky tracks like “Your Fascination.”

Of course, I can’t do Berserker justice without talking about the visual side of this period in Numan’s career. Front and center on the cover of the album, as well as contemporary supplemental releases like singles, we see Numan in the distinctive makeup associated with this era: solid white skin, with striking, solid, deep blue hair, eyes, and lips. On one hand, his appearance here shares a lot in common with where he got started, generally painted white with a lot of dark eyeliner, but there’s also an element of newness about it, in the use of that brilliant blue. Visually as well as musically, Berserker feels to me like the ideal thing for an artist to be doing by the time of his eighth major release: whittling down to the very best elements that defined their initial work, while incorporating and experimenting with new ideas at the same time. The last time we saw a headshot of Numan on the cover of an album was the aforementioned Telekon, but in contrast to the ambiguous and perhaps diffident expression Numan had there, on the cover of Berserker, he seems much more sure of himself. Staring directly forward, with perhaps a hint of anger suggested in his brows, he seems to regard us with confidence, and a certain single-mindedness.

Taken together, Berserker is an album that “convinces,” expressing a clarity, certainty, and cohesiveness of creative ideas. Like the savage and frenzied warriors of the Old Norse skalds, Berserker comes after us relentlessly, invoking something otherworldly as it does so.

But as much as Berserker seems like such a determined statement, Numan never necessarily made an album that was exactly like it. He seems to have a relative soft spot for it, in that he still performs tracks from this album in live sets despite largely snubbing the rest of his 80s output, but Berserker didn’t exactly revolutionize the way he approached music at the time. For Numan, the 1980s were largely a time of throwing things at the wall to see what stuck, and, as mentioned above, we know he wouldn’t find what stuck for him until a decade after the release of Berserker. If you’re looking for more of this sound, your best bet might be the 1985 single “Change Your Mind,” a collaboration between Numan and Bill Sharpe of the jazz-funk outfit Shakatak. While combining Numan’s sound with funk may sound a bit strange, it’s something that many of the synth whizzes from earlier in the decade had started doing to remain relevant in the mid-to-late 1980s, and at least on this cracking single, it seems to come together pretty well.

Music: “Change Your Mind”

My favourite track on Berserker is “The Hunter.” While I’ve emphasized the extent to which Berserker is a forward-looking album for Numan in a sea of mostly forgotten mistakes, “The Hunter” is the track that feels the most to me like it could be a classic Numan work, and I can easily imagine a lower-tech version of it appearing on Telekon. Just listen to that delightful air-raid siren synth rendition of the main vocal hook, and I’m sure you’ll agree! That’s everything for today, thanks for listening!

Music: “The Hunter”

[mostlymovieswithmax]

Movies I watched in September

I skipped a month again. But not to worry. This is a wrap-up of all the movies I watched in the month of September (2021). I think I maintained a steady ratio throughout but perhaps there’s not as much on the list this time because I wanted to get on with other things, be that work-wise or just trying to get out to the beach as much as possible and make the most of the last dregs of summertime. I went swimming in the sea a lot! But I also got to catch the new James Wan movie, Malignant (twice!) as well as the new James Bond, No Time To Die. Not to mention a couple of classics! My hope again with this list is to introduce people to new movies that they may otherwise not have seen or perhaps have never have heard of. These short reviews are my own subjective opinions on each individual movie. I’m thinking maybe a more informal approach to movie criticism can help include others who are just passing through. So here is every film I watched from the 1st to the 30th of September.

Fanny and Alexander (1982) - 8/10

Coming from Ingmar Bergman, I was surprised to see just how warm this was. I’m a big fan of the Swedish director and while this isn’t my favourite from him (perhaps due to it needing a second watch, or the fact I watched it in three chunks because it’s about three hours long and I overestimated how much time I had in the day) it’s still an interesting departure from what I’ve come to expect from him. Fanny and Alexander is a dreamy Christmassy movie that presents an overarching theme of love, spending a large portion of its runtime just hanging out with this big family on Christmas and showing how close they are. I would love to watch this again at some point in December and see how my opinion shifts but for now, while it could meandre in places, I can’t deny how unique a movie it is.

Another Round (2021) - 10/10

I had seen Thomas Vinterberg’s latest film before this point but this was the first time I got to see it in a cinema. Luckily for me my local independent cinema was showing it one night and while they had a few technical hiccups with setting everything up, the movie itself was still fantastic. Following a handful of school teachers who experiment with whether they can maintain a certain level of blood alcohol throughout the day, Another Round demonstrates a sense of unease and sadness throughout an otherwise comedic tone. These emotions are balanced perfectly, boosting an already intriguing concept that examines our relationship with alcohol from every angle.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) - 4/10

Straight after Another Round, I made my way to the chain cinema to meet up with friends to see the new Marvel movie. At this point, having had my second dose of the Covid vaccine that morning, I was starting to feel the effects and I was not doing well. But I watched the movie anyway, all the while wanting to be in bed. Shang-Chi was massively underwhelming and I’d go as far as to say it was even incompetent. Truth be told,  I like the Marvel Cinematic Universe but from the get-go I already wasn’t hyped for this movie and I was expecting it to be about mediocre but what I got was something a lot worse. I won’t rehash what I’ve already said on this film so if you want to hear me rant about it a bit then I would recommend checking out episode 47 of my podcast, The Sunday Movie Marathon.

Your Name. (2016) - 6/10

Ultimately this was a fun little romance movie but I can’t say I understand why people adore it, nor do I understand why it needed to be animated. For what it’s worth, I found it cute and entertaining but nothing much jumped out to me.

Phil Wang: Philly Philly Wang Wang (2021) - 7/10

I’m always stumped on what to say about stand-up shows. It was good! I enjoyed Phil Wang talking about different things in a funny way and it got some laughs out of me. Admittedly I’m writing this a couple of weeks after watching it but it’s certainly a decent way to spend an hour if you’re looking for something light and fun.

The Lego Batman Movie (2017) - 6/10

I remember seeing this in the cinema with two of my friends and the theatre wasn’t exactly packed but those that were there were either children or parents. But I like The Lego Batman Movie! Clearly this was made by fans of the character as it’s packed with a lot of details and references from old comic runs but as someone who has never read the comics or seen those older movies, it still managed to be entertaining and while I won’t say it’s quite as good as The Lego Movie, the animation is still top notch and the voice actors are certainly giving it their all, especially Will Arnett as the titular character. It’s just a bit of fun!

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - 10/10

A friend of mine told me to go to the screening of Terminator 2 at my local because they themselves weren’t able to attend. The first Terminator movie is a real gem and one of the most 80’s-type movies I’ve ever seen. I was excited to watch T2, remembering next to nothing about what I watched of it when I was a child. So it was just me in this screening, with one person in a row in front of me, and one other person behind me. If I had it my way, I would have been the only person there because this is honestly one of the best movies I’ve ever seen and it was very hard not to yell out every time something incredible happened, especially when it’s so action-packed and basically goes all out at every opportunity to deliver some of the most jaw-dropping effects or choreography. Truly there is never a dull moment and I was grinning like a lunatic the entire time. This film rocks!

Mirror (1975) - 7/10

Andrei Tarkovsky is one of my favourite directors and the new Criterion release of his film, Mirror, had been on my shelf for a while. My friend and fellow podcast co-host, Chris, was also interested in watching this movie so we decided we’d give it a watch and review it on the podcast. But this is such a weirdly structured film that the entire way through, neither of us knew what on earth was happening. What we got from the experience is reflected in the episode we made and I would love to watch this again at some point, hopefully with more context and a better understanding of what I’m in for. But in the meantime, you can hear the discussion on episode 46 of the podcast.

The Night House (2021) - 6/10

The Night House is David Bruckner’s follow-up to his previous movie, The Ritual and while I’ll say I prefer The Ritual, this is still a decent watch, just don’t go in expecting horror. More of my thoughts can be found in episode 46 of the podcast.

The Ritual (2017) - 7/10

After watching The Night House, I decided to go back to the director’s previous film, The Ritual and I got a lot more out of it this time around. Themes of guilt and grief permeate the movie and the result is this weird and unnerving film about a group of guys who go hiking in Sweden after the death of one of their friends and encounter dark forces beyond their comprehension. It can be drawn out at times and probably could have been boosted with a better script but there are so many interesting and strange ideas presented that culminate in a haunting third act that it’s worth watching just to see what on earth they’re being hunted by.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) - 10/10

Straight after recording an episode about our favourite movies on the podcast, I returned to one of my all-time favourites. Holy Grail is such a fantastically funny movie with so many memorable lines and moments that it’s become a staple in the comedy genre. Setting it in Arthurian England is a surefire way to make sure it stands the test of time, making use of the budget in a way that heightens the comedy, for example: not being able to get horses and so resorting to having a man banging two coconut halves together as they skip through the grassy terrain. It’s the writing that really takes centre stage here; the guys from Monty Python were/are geniuses. A couple more points were made on my podcast so please do listen to that to hear more: Episode 46 of The Sunday Movie Marathon

Malignant (2021) - 7/10

The new James Wan movie was bonkers! I saw this one twice in quick succession without hesitation. To find out why I love it so much, listen to episode 47 of the podcast.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - 8/10

We got a marathon of the first three Nightmare on Elm Street movies on the podcast so we watched them in quick succession within a day. This first movie is a true masterpiece of its time. For more insight, listen to episode 47 of the podcast.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) - 2/10

Quite an embarrassing departure from the genius and fun of the original. Elm Street 2 is not only technically unfulfilling but a wholly unentertaining movie to boot. More thoughts in episode 47 of the podcast.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - 3/10

While only a few hairs better than its predecessor, Elm Street 3 is still a mere shadow of the original. All in all, these second and third instalments in the franchise have put me off watching any of the others. More thoughts in episode 47 of the podcast.

Her (2013) - 10/10

Her is at once a beautiful love story between a man and an AI, and a scarily accurate look at how technology is expanding and moving forward. It uses warm colours and smooth camera work to create something that feels homely and safe, juxtaposing the often cold and dark feeling of science-fiction films to tell an intrinsically human story. What would it be like to go through this and what are the hurdles that need to be overcome? Her is a masterpiece of filmmaking and it left me emotionally exhausted in all the right ways.

Alien (1979) - 10/10

First time I’ve seen Alien in the cinema (as I was too busy not being born yet to see it on an initial release) and it was amazing! This is cosmic horror at its best. With all the eerie sound design, slow and deliberate camera movement, and outstanding effects, there’s no wonder as to why this is considered one of the greats and seeing it on the big screen was enthralling.

Aliens (1986) - 8/10

I had never seen Aliens before so the opportunity to see it for the first time in a cinema was one I could not pass up, especially since I was able to see it straight after the first. This is more of an action movie than the first one and as that, it was really something to see. While I don’t think it quite measures up to the original, James Cameron does bring a style to it that makes it something completely different while still feeling in line with its predecessor. A problem I’ve found as time goes on is that I don’t find myself thinking much about Aliens whatsoever and that’s probably down to its characters who generally I found quite weak. I’m already not big on standard action flicks and this is a clear cut above those but it does still fall victim to the trappings. That being said, I would in no way call this bad or even mediocre because it was a lot fun and being able to see it in the cinema is an experience I’m very grateful for.

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) - 6/10

Gunpowder Milkshake is trying very hard to be John Wick and although it never really manages it, there is still fun to be had with its action (because really that’s all this movie has to offer). There’s a very creative scene in which Karen Gillan has to fight some goons in a hospital with a gun taped to one hand and a scalpel taped to the other, with the caveat being that her arms don’t work. Despite that and a good enough performance from Gillan, the rest is very goofy, with a villain about as intriguing as an advert for life insurance and a story that to say the least, leaves much to be desired.

I Lost My Body (2019) - 10/10

Another one for the podcast, I Lost My Body is a glorious cerebral animated piece that hits every nerve in my body. Listen to episode 48 for more.

Alice In Wonderland (1951) - 10/10

Perhaps the best early Disney movie in my humble opinion. Alice In Wonderland is complete insanity, doing things simply for the sake of it in a beguiling dreamlike take on Lewis Carroll’s classic book. Listen to episode 48 of The Sunday Movie Marathon for more.

WALL-E (2008) - 9/10

WALL-E is one of Pixar’s best. It is a cautionary tale of where the world is headed wrapped in a sweet story about going to the ends of the solar system in order to help those you love. I do however have one big problem with this movie and you can find out more in episode 48 of the podcast.

Killing Them Softly (2012) - 6/10

A lot about America’s economy at the time, Killing Them Softly goes about showing the lengths people will go to for money and yes it is generally solid with a fantastic speech by Brad Pitt to cap it off, but it cannot avoid meandering scenes of listless dialogue that neither engage me nor make me care about the characters it presents.

The Dirties (2013) - 6/10

Funny! The Dirties is a mockumentary about two guys making a movie about bullies in their school. While often it was generally chugging along and making me laugh, it tended to err on the side of plain as regards its presentation. A lot of scenes happen for the sake of it and in a movie that’s around an hour and twenty, it’s amazing I still managed to dip out in the latter half. More thoughts in episode 49 of the podcast.

Telstar: The Joe Meek Story (2009) - 3/10

Ah, I really hated this. I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. Just listen to episode 49 of the podcast to hear what I had to say.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - 10/10

This is my favourite movie! I got to talk about it on my podcast! Listen to episode 49 of The Sunday Movie Marathon to hear what I have to say!

No Time To Die (2021) - 8/10

Best Bond movie? Perhaps. I’ve not seen every Bond movie but of the ones I have seen (which does include all of Daniel Craig’s run), this is as good as it gets. Despite a near three hour runtime, No Time To Die felt as though it wasted very little. I’ve always complained that I could never follow the plot to these movies because often I simply didn’t care about it; for me it’s more about the action and seeing Daniel Craig be James Bond. No Time To Die does not escape some of the general tropes that often don’t leave me thinking I’ve watched something masterful but what I will say in its favour is that it’s fucking fun! Don’t expect to love it if you already dislike these movies because generally it stays in the same vein as the others before it, but for Bond fans it’s something totally enjoyable. Captivating cinematography, biting fight choreography and action set-pieces, a core struggle for James who actually goes through relatable hardships his time round, coping with being part of a family and trying to keep them safe.

I was happy to see a bit more attention paid to female characters this go round; in a franchise that often glamorizes Bond’s sexual promiscuity and ability to woo any woman he likes, it was much more refreshing to see that he often did need help from a lot of badass, well written female characters.

No Time To Die has been waiting to be released for a long time now and now it’s actually out, I’m pleased it’s not hot garbage. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The final swan song for Craig’s fifteen-year tenure as one of cinema’s most recognisable heroes outdoes all that came before it. Bravo.

[radramblog]

Radiohead Retrospective Part 6: I try to sing along but I get it all wrong (‘CAUSE I’M NOT)

I don’t have as much to say about the lead-in to Hail to the Thief, much like I didn’t have much to say about that for Amnesiac. There isn’t as earth-shattering a shift as Kid A, and there isn’t a big story like with The Bends or OK Computer.

Hail to the Thief was (probably) the first batch of music Radiohead recorded after the sessions that produced Kid A/Amnesiac, meaning they had the full breadth of that experience to work with. What we received as a result was somewhat of a fusion of the electronic/jazz-influences of those albums and the rockier stuff of the band’s past.

Now I’ve heard a fair few complaints that this album is too long. That’s probably fair, it’s their longest album, with a total of 14 tracks, meaning it does kinda drag on a bit. Thom Yorke apparently agrees, seeing as he put out an alternative tracklist in ’08 (link) missing four songs. At the same time, I’m going to pull Death of the Author on this one, because as much as I’ve seen people complain that there’s too many songs on this, nobody ever seems to get along with which ones they’d cut- let alone people wanting to pull B-sides in the mix.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves there, aren’t we? Suppose I should just talk about the fucking album.

We begin this record, like all Radiohead records, with studio chatter. Wait, what the fuck? Yeah, it’s quiet but it’s there. Why not, right?

2+2=5 is a lovely little banger to open on. Unquestionably a rock song, it features a very slow and quiet (and heavily panned) first half before just fucking exploding in the latter half. It genuinely might be the most aggressive track the band has put out, a manic cascade of energy and breathy falsetto that’s genuinely headbangable. It’s also a fun thing to try and read the lyrics for, since the booklet the album comes with gives up for this bit and just goes “eezeepeezee NOT” or something along that line.

Oh yeah, that’s actually something worth bringing up. Neither Kid A nor Amnesiac had lyric booklets, deliberately obscuring the actual words to the songs, to the point where people had pretty wide interpretations of what they actually were. Considering the incompleteness of 2+2=5’s entry in it’s booklet, perhaps similar occurred with that. I’m still unsure if the subtitle of this post is actually the real lyrics.

Most people, I think, read the name of this track and just kind of assume it’s about 1984, the book boomers bring up whenever their freedumbs are impinged upon. And it’s not not about 1984, but there are extremely specific political references as well- Hail to the Thief, title of the album and line in the track, is a quote regarding the U.S. President of the time, George W Bush, who lost the popular vote but won the electoral college- something that sounds awfully familiar to those of us living in 2021. “January has April Showers” similarly refers to the unseasonable weather of Bush’s inauguration.

The last thing I’d like to bring up before we finally move onto the second track is that every single song in this album has a subtitle- for 2+2=5, it’s (The Lukewarm). According to Yorke, it’s a reference to Dante’s Inferno- the Lukewarm being the people around the edge of hell, damned due to their passive indifference- the kind of people the song’s lyric, “you have not been paying attention”, is referring to. I’m literally learning these meanings now, so we’ll see how many are worth bringing up.

Perhaps fortunately for my word count, Sit Down. Stand Up (yes the full stop/period is part of the title) (that’s not the subtitle) doesn’t have quite as much going on. Though it does have a video, for some reason. It’s a sort of repetitive trance of lyrics set to an electronic percussion, distant piano, and….I don’t know what other instrument is making those light dings. A xylophone? Interestingly, much like 2+2=5, it’s one that builds slowly into a chaotic finish, the raving of that track reflected in the almost cold mania of the raindrops the raindrops the raindrops the raindrops the raindrops……. It’s a decent enough song, but I legitimately cannot imagine listening to it ever outside the context of this album. Which is weird, because I definitely remember doing so when I was younger.

Track 3 is Sail To The Moon, a lullaby or ballad or sorts, a calm after the storm that is the previous track. Quite literally, considering it’s repeated lyric. And also literally, in that it was actually written for Thom’s son at the time. The subtitle, (Brush the Cobwebs Out of the Sky) evokes a very literal interpretation of the song’s title, which doesn’t actually reflect the lyrics.

Sail To The Moon is, as any good lullaby should be, utterly soothing. It’s calm, with Thom’s vocals just drifting across the piano, loose guitar, and percussion like a low tide. This is one of those songs I’ve come around to much more with time, because I distinctly remember skipping this a lot. You’ll find I’ve listened to this album a fair few times, though the section between 2+2=5 and Go To Sleep is one I skipped a fair bit, I think.

Backdrifts is a heavily electronic song that apparently in part predates Kid A and Amnesiac, which is kind of interesting- we’ll see a bit more of that later. As a track, it’s kind of spacy- the synth instrumental feels like something out of an eerie sci-fi film, if you notched the tempo up a bit.

Backdrifts is also the first song where I can see the “too long” argument come in. Not for the album (though I believe it’s one of the ones the alternate tracklist leaves out), but the song itself- I’m not sure this is a song that needs to be the second longest on the album (and only by a second). It’s fine, but considering what it comes off and what follows it, it’s in a bit of an awkward spot.

Go To Sleep is another one that kinda took me a while to get. I always heard it as being one of the top tracks on the thing, but it never really clicked with me for a while. I suppose I’ve never been massive on purely acoustic-guitar-led affairs? With age, though, I’ve better appreciated the depth the song has. Possibly the folkiest song the band has, it might have taken me getting into R.E.M. to recognize what the song is.

And the song is good!

But unfortunately for Go To Sleep, Where I End and You Begin is my favourite Radiohead track.

Holy shit, this song sounds so fucking sick. That percussion, that bassline, those fucking Ondes Martenot babyyyy. The song is spacey and ethereal, but tied down by the more traditional elements of the instrumentation. The fantastical lyricism tying into very real themes of personal boundaries, how they define how people interact, and how when they fail, things tend to go badly- “There’ll be no more lies, I will eat you alive”. It’s just an absolute fucking track.

I don’t think I can possibly explain why I like this song so much. Opinions and favourites are kind of like that. But it just speaks to me. The hyper-fuzzed out guitar soloing in the bridge, the loneliness of the second verse, it’s just incredible.

Also it possibly references Optimistic with the lyrics which is cool! I also like that song a lot.

The subtitle, (The Sky Is Falling In), is something I’ve not been able to find a reference for regarding it’s meaning, but since I like the song so much, I’m going to do some interpreting. If we assume the song is about boundaries in a relationship, it’s clear that the final lyrics are the utter devastation after those boundaries are breached. But “The Sky Is Falling In” fits better with the third verse, what with the house falling into the sea- the tipping point has broken, the household (or, the house) is in freefall, the sky is falling with it. But that’s just my opinion, man.

Still with me? We’re not even halfway.

We Suck Young Blood can best be described as off-kilter, perhaps even deliberately out of tempo. A very pointed use of handclaps, typically a part of substantially more energetic tracks than the dirge this song presents. I’m sure this isn’t what the song is about, but at face value the lyrics read like some sort of social service run by vampires- give us your young blood, and we’ll make things better for you. In a way, it’s kind of fun, silly even. I suppose the claps help with that. The track is otherwise just, melancholic- slow, piano-y, even the sudden pickup barely lasts- though I always forget it’s there, making it kind of a surprise every time. Like, oh shit, we’re going somewhere for a bit, I need to put my seatbelt back on- ah never mind it’s over (and then the song keeps going for a while).

We come now to The Gloaming, the song that was originally going to be the title track for the album. They changed it, apparently, because it got rejected- too gloomy, apparently. According to Wikipedia, a fair few of the subtitles from the album’s tracks also came from proposed names for the album proper.

The song itself is also pretty gloomy, as it happens. Apparently, it’s literally about the rise of fascism, so fair enough. An electronic track, with many a repetition, feeling uneasy and cold the whole way through (making the subtitle, Softly Open our Mouths in the Cold, pretty apt). It feels almost minimalistic at times, without especially many lines running through it- and without a big crescendo like many to most of these songs have, it feels somewhat lifeless- a deliberate choice, no doubt.

Oh shit, are we up to There There? We are! God this song fucks. Those opening drums are iconic, not to mention the way it layers onto itself. And the video! Eerie horror at its finest.

Like, I know Where I End and You Begin is my favourite song on this album unquestionably. But there is no doubt in my mind that There There is the best song on the album.

Good enough that I don’t have anything really interesting to say about it? Like many songs on this album, it’s got a big old crescendo, but the build is just so smooth, and the climax is just such a swelling. “We are accidents waiting to happen” is such a powerful lyric, and it’s hardly the only one on the song. A comment I’ve seen about the song describes the guitar as akin to laughter, a mood I can definitely see in the track itself.

Anyway the song ended so I guess I gotta move on.

I Will is kind of an interesting case. It’s unquestionably one of the most emotional songs on the album, considering it was written about a U.S. bombing of a shelter that wiped out 408 innocent people, and that’s fucking horrifying (S.O.P. for the Army it seems). It’s short, and…well it’s not sweet, but it is tragic and haunting.

It’s also a song that went through variation on variation before finally appearing on this album. Early live performances date to 5 whole years before Hail to the Thief, and considering the bombing was in 1991, it was probably written well before then. Versions of this track are kind of everywhere as a result- one early version was eventually chopped up and reproduced into Like Spinning Plates on Amnesiac- reconstructions of the process are available on citizeninsane.eu- or they were, at least, because apparently that site’s embeds relied on Flash.

I do particularly want to highlight the Los Angeles version of the song, which was a b-side on 2+2=5 (and also was on the Com Lag EP), because it’s a fuller version of the track- not necessarily better, but the full band is involved, making it a much different experience.

Track 11, A Punchup At A Wedding, has become somewhat of a meme on the Radiohead subreddit. Mostly it’s a result of the opening lyric, literally “No” 42 times over. The subtitle, for reference, is also all “No”s. On a similarly lighter note, the track is apparently a result of the band stumbling upon just a needlessly scathing review of one of their live shows, making it one of the few Radiohead tracks I could confidently say is about one person in particular. With all the second person, the lyrics probably wouldn’t be out of place on an early Linkin Park track (whether that’s an insult or not, I’ll leave as an exercise to the reader).

The slow, almost marchlike rhythm of the song well suits the tone of the lyrics, and to be clear, the tone is pretty much “Man, what the fuck is wrong with you?” and the emotions that come with being torn down by someone who doesn’t know you or really recognise what they’re doing. I suppose it’s refreshing for the metaphor to be this obvious for once. It’s a pretty decent song, piano-driven like many a song on the album, which means theoretically if I ever relearn the instrument I could play it. Maybe.

Myxomatosis, while a pretty fucked up disease, is an absolutely excellent song. If 2+2=5 is the heaviest rock song on the album, Myxomatosis is the heaviest electronic song on it. The lyricism is incredibly dark, unsettling and violent, suiting the harsh buzzing synth line. They say fuck in this one! And the way the entire song save percussion drops for the key line (I don’t know why I feel so tongue-tied/skinned alive) is so excellent. Interestingly, said line also appears word-for-word in Cuttooth, a B-side from Amnesiac, though the mood is profoundly different.

I suspect the song being named Myxomatosis and being pretty clearly about public perception and fame should give you a hint as to how the band views the media and the world of the rich and famous- the subtitle, (Judge, Jury, & Executioner), certainly adds to that. Thom sounds a mix of hesitant, confused, disgusted, and frustrated on the track, and it works incredibly well.

We’re finally on to the penultimate track, Scatterbrain. And I’m going to be honest, I don’t know what this one’s about. I’m out of patience to figure out what Genius is going on about, though it’s fairly incomplete for this track anyway. It’s relatively simple, for a Radiohead track, and pretty enough, but I can see why people don’t tend to like this one as much. I distinctly remember it being bottom of the list or close to it on a subreddit poll at some point (might have been above We Suck Young Blood, which I don’t agree with).

Scatterbrain kind of just has the problem of being a pretty decent album track, right between two of my favourite songs on the album. Which is awkward as always.

Our final song is A Wolf at the Door, and talk about a closer. Thom has described it as like waking up from a nightmare and finding out reality is worse, which is both relatable and upsetting. The song is grim, with confusing imagery in the verses leading to a desperately emotional chorus about someone’s children being fucking ransomed. Also, a bridge with more Nos than A Punchup at a Wedding, where are your No (x105) memes Reddit, get it fucking together!

The lyrics of the verses in A Wolf at the Door have a swaying flow to them that’s almost rap-like, especially since the falsetto that Thom usually sings in around this time is completely absent from them. This makes it one of the few rap-ish songs I’ve actually tried to perform, and I’d probably be pretty okay if I didn’t keep forgetting bits.

The song is just, frustration (verse 1), desperation (chorus), anger/frustration (verse 2), and back to desperation (chorus) again, which doesn’t quite fit the stages of grief cleanly, but that’s probably fine. The final vocalisation of the song (and thereby the album) feels almost like a sorrowful howl, which makes less sense the more I think about the imagery and intent of the lyrics, so maybe just ignore that actually. There is just so much imagery packed into this track, especially in the second verse, that listing it out is pointless- but it all just clicks so well, into this deluge of frustration and madness carried along by that instrumental that just seems to get lower and lower forever.

Anyway that’s the whole album, isn’t it? I’m going to keep this outro brief, because we’re approaching 3000 words at this point, but I think that fact says it all. There’s a lot of Hail to the Thief, but it never really misses per se. It has less great songs, but no bad ones. I’d argue my own biases probably cloud my judgement, but even if some of the tracks are more forgettable, the highs are so high for me that it easily stands among the band’s best.

Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with me. But that’s fine, this is my opinion, the rest of the world is allowed to be wrong.

A lot of things would happen between Hail to the Thief’s release in 2003 and the followup, In Rainbows, in 2007. But that’s ultimately a story for another day. A week from today, to be precise.

See you then?

[kendrixtermina]

(Fe3h discourse incoming) So I'm not sure if this is still around but I remember some people calling characters "racist" due to how they initially view the Almyrans and it just annoys me? If you lived in basically medieval times and all you knew about a group of people was that they invaded your homeland and are good fighters it makes sense you'd be wary about them. The fact that we see them easily discard any initial opinions to work with them in VW shows the opposite and how accepting they are

Part of this does probably come from this purity culture sentiment that there is one obvious right answer that should be apparent to anyone not evil when we’re really all to an extent limited by the knowledge we can access. 

This is something I feel strongly about precisely because I know how much I don’t know and how much ppl have been wrong in the past - so much BS is still widely believed these days like Diet culture or counter-evidential beliefs about economy. So that makes me be careful to claim we have the truth now. As my grandfather used to say, “the middle ages will step on us”, that is as long as our time isn’t barbarism free it will come to be considered barbaric times eventually. 

In the middle ages people used to give their children mercury and bankrupt themselves as someone might for real medicine. Emotionally to the mammal brain it’s the same. That’s why knowledge is power cause it helps you know the real consequences of your action. Otherwise you get what seems like caring parents wondering if they're harming their children by not doing barbaric stuff like physical beating or fgm. One can notice by oneself that it’s wrong and causes suffering but someone who only believes their own ideas and never takes outside data into account would be either mad or an arrogant jerk. At some point you need to consider outside data unless you can discover all of science and psychology by yourself. 

So to put it short no one is immune to propaganda and the closest thing to a cure is self-awareness and self-questioning, no one is born with all the answers; instrict, thinking, emotion and intuition can all lead you astray. 

Though the correct word here would be xenophobia. (generic distrust/prejudice about foreigners)

‘Racism’ is a very specific early modernity variant of it with pseudoscience mixed in, or maybe it could be thought of as an ideology meant to keep xenophobic-like distrust going in a mixed society. Normally that sort of prejudice desintegrates as people interact more (a big plot point here actually) - or rather, communication & interaction changes how people define in group and out group, which is ultimately arbitrary. A lot of what is thought of today as countries or races used to be considered wildly different peoples when the reach of communication reached further. 

But if you spread some ideology that leads people to be artificially segregated, or indirectly causes that through economic disadvantages, bam, you can keep prejudice alive & well for centuries and whatever institutions you built on it, like colonial resource extraction gigs or political hegemony. 

That said tho, certain lines there are definitely written to evoke rl xenophobic comments as people commonly experience them, and to tell people who recognize this & might have charged responses because of their own backstories that their lying eyes deceive them because you like those characters is not good.  “Oh but they’re a good person with a bright future” is exactly how this behavior fails to get recognized in real life. So to that extent I’d disagree with you.

At least their past incarnations at the point that they said those lines they were “xenophobes”, that is, fulfilled all criteria of the definition & engaged in typical behavior as people affected by xenophobia experience it. 

Hilda, for all her good qualities (and don’t get me wrong I love her to bits) is still sort of a frivolous rich girl. Sylvain for example did take the time to inform himself ‘bout the neighbors (See that lost item that’s info about sreng) though his family also holds a border territory & much depends on its defense. The system isn’t an universal brainwash, the truth is that both system and individual responses matter and dynamically influence each other.

But note that that’s all I’m talking about: Recognition, sober reasonable acknowledgement of bad behavior. You can’t talk about bad behavior if you don’t show anyone doing it and if it was only irredeemable monsters that did it, it wouldn’t make ppl question themselves. 

To acknowledge that they acted xenophobically (adverb) isn’t to say that they’re an embodiment of all xenophobia ever (noun) and that you’ve got to hate them now. But as long as they don’t hate at you for liking them ppl affected by xenophobia are allowed to vent & use a story as a projection space for it because that’s how everyone uses stories - the same story can in fact mean different things to people without either being “wrong”

Also, scale. Hilda making one or two not even especially malicious comments is on a whole different level than Ingrid actually cheering for destruction. Neither of them compares to the various unrepentant antagonists who never change their views when confronted with evidence cause it benefits them. 

Some of that distinction is lost if you just slap the same label on all and demand they be reacted to the same way, or that ppl add a disclaimer each time they want to talk about a character they like. We don’t make everyone who likes Jeritza say “mass murder is bad” first. 

But also context: After all a big plot here is that the system these characters live in encourages and cultivates such attitudes  - that’s why the various leader figures you can choose to back all want to change it it different ways.

That’s why Winston in 1984 starts the story very paranoid, repressed & full of violent fantasies, to show the effect the dystopia has on people. 

  (important point imho, a lot of ppl look at atrocities and judge that human nature is just bad but actually human nature is programmable. Evil can be engineered as much as civilization and education can foster good)

It’s generally the problem with Purity culture (wether it wears a right or left wing hat) that it’s more focussed on applying loaded, out of context labels (which are then treated as static) than constructive solutions focussed on promoting the desired end goals. 

The labeling tactic is probably appropriate sometimes (active, unrepentant nazis, that you thereby deprive of big dollar platforms or ad revenue) but no tool/tactic is ever a silver bullet. 

tl;Dr I agree with you that labeling/purity culture doesn’t have the right approach to it,  but ppl should be able to call a spade a spade and say & respond to depictions of xenophobia because to say otherwise would be tantamount to saying that victims of xenophobia or racism aren’t allowed to have feelings or engage with media. 

Obsly the characters can’t be reduced to that & you’re right about that & the importance of context, but if just stating/acknowledging that they at one point fulfilled the criteria for xenophobia feels like bashing to you I’d work on decoupling those emotions to see clearer. 

People can have done something wrong at some point & still be interesting people - especially in a media context where they’re as imaginary as their victims, it’s not like you’re giving money to real unrepentant perps. 

I’d ease up on real ppl too if they repent simply because then they stop being a problem and solving it so it stops harming RL ppl takes precedent over cathartic punishment that makes you feel good, the goal should be always to stop the harm (at the root, if possible) because it’s intolerable for ppl to be harmed

Or that’s my 2cents anyways. 

[violethowler]

Dea Ex Machina: Goddess from the Machine

As pointed out in @leakinghate’s Seek Truth in Darkness meta, there is a significant chunk of the last three episodes that was excised during the edits brought on by executive meddling: How the Paladins caught up to Honerva in the other reality. As noted, you can tell from looking at Keith’s expressions here (images brightened to better distinguish the expressions; Image comparison borrowed from Hate’s meta):

That the Paladins fail to make it through the portal to the next reality in time and are left outside reality. Hate’s meta has posited that this shot was removed because Lotor was pivotal to whatever they did to escape back into reality and catch up to Honerva, as many of the edits in the second half of the season were done to remove him from the story. I’d like to offer the suggestion that in addition to Lotor, their catching up to Honerva was aided by another character, one whose existence thus far was only hinted at: The Lion Goddess, first mentioned by the Arusians in Season 1.

For those who don’t know, here’s a brief tidbit of Voltron history:

The anime Beast King GoLion on which Voltron was based featured two brief appearances from a divine figure only referred to as The Goddess of the Universe, her first appearance being at the start of the series, in a scene set thousands of years before the main timeline, in which the robot GoLion (Voltron’s original incarnation) arrogantly challengers her to a battle, and she splits it apart into five lions and casts it down to Altea as punishment so that it might rise again as the legendary protector audiences are familiar with.

In 1984’s Voltron Defender of the Universe, the context of that scene is changed to Haggar impersonating a goddess and splitting Voltron into the five lions herself on Zaron’s behalf when it comes close.

Voltron: Legendary Defender first references her in season 1 with the Arusians mistaking Allura for their “Lion Goddess”. While played for laughs in Season 1, the use of the Lion Goddess for a single one-off gag raises several questions:

How would the Arusians have known the Castle had anything to do with lions? The only lion present for ten thousand years was Black, and the only way they would have known that was if they had gone inside, which would have woken Allura and Coran up much earlier than canon.

Despite Pidge referring to the Trans Reality Comets as a naturally occurring phenomenon, floating rocks with the exact same colors as the Daibzaal comet Voltron was made from are visible in the background during Lotor and Allura’s trip to Oriande in “White Lion” implying that the Lions of Voltron were modeled after the realm’s guardian.

After passing the trial of the White Lion, a disembodied female voice tells Allura “there is no need to kneel”, nearly the exact same words Allura used in Season 1 when the Arusians believed she was the Lion Goddess.

All of which point to the idea that the Lion Goddess is a real character who exists in the VLD universe and serves as Voltron’s divine patron. But if she does exist, why hasn’t she shown up to help before? 

Except the Lion Goddess has already been helping the Paladins all along. It’s wouldn’t be out of left field for her to magically transport Team Voltron to where they need to be because she’s already done it before, when she accelerated their return to Earth in “The Journey Within”.

On the surface, the visions the Paladins see are the result of either space madness or the gigantic creature that shows up out of nowhere, and the mysterious energy that disables the lions magically transports the Paladins to Earth’s solar system, conveniently arriving right as Sam Holt and the rest of the Garrison are preparing for their last stand. It honestly feels like a deus ex machina and is never elaborated on or explained…Or is it?

Let’s take a look at the visuals in this episode. Specifically, this image:

Now let’s take a look at this image from the 1984 cartoon, which depicts Voltron flying towards the Goddess of the Universe.

Other than the color schemes, the paladins being outside their lions and the physical image of the goddess, these images are pretty much the same.

So, the “hallucinations” start with a vision of bird-like creatures flying around in a formation that is deliberately evocative of a recognizable shot from the original 1984 series, showing us rather than telling us that these visions are not hallucinations, but rather, are the work of the Lion Goddess.

The narrative that the visions were caused by the nameless creature hunting the paladins doesn’t hold up, because why would it wait so long to try and eat them?

But if you look at the geometry of the space monster, there’s something familiar about this beast.

Don’t see it? Look again.

The geometry of this creature’s face is found directly on the front entrance of the Castle of Lions when the Paladins arrive on Arus in Season 1. The outline of the doorway even follows the general shape of the creature itself. Cleary whatever this monster is, it’s something associated with Altean history or folklore to such an extent that its design is prominently featured on the Castle of Lions.

(On a side note, the visual association between the space creature and the Castle of Lions presents a beautiful parallel: the Paladins symbolically enter the creature’s maw when they leave Earth and must literally escape the creature’s jaws in order to return to Earth).

Something else to make note of is that the winged creatures in this scene greatly resemble the Altean crest visible on the back of the Green Lion’s shield. 

We know that despite it being used as the banner of the old alliance of the original paladins, as stated by Lotor in S5E5, this is an Altean signal because both it and the the hilt of Lance’s Altean broadsword have the same distinctive Y-shape. 

And something else to remember is that in Season 1, the Arusians didn’t declare Allura as their goddess until she established the castle as hers. Right from the start the series equates the lion goddess with ownership of the Castle of Lions. Imagery associated with the Castle of Lions can therefore also be considered imagery associated with the Lion Goddess.

And though the energy surge that disables the lions and later magically transports everyone to Earth is never explained in Season 7, there is one thing in the VLD universe that has been established as powerful enough to disable the lions, can teleport beings, and is associated with the color white:

For a better comparison, this what the shot of the White Lion psychically attacking Clone Shiro in “Omega Shield” looks like:

And this is what the energy surge in “The Journey Within” looks like:

Note the ropy energy lines and the cloudy/nebula-like bits. 

Something else to note, it’s very convenient that despite being months, if not at least a year – from returning to Earth along their normal route, with the energy surge they manage to arrive just as the Garrison is preparing for humanity’s last stand against Sendak. Almost as if it was… Divine Intervention.

A lot of foreshadowing works on the basis of Microcosm to Macrocosm storytelling: a story element that plays out on a small scale within a single arc is later repeated on a larger scale later in the narrative. I can’t find the post for it but I think someone on TeamPurpleLion explained it by demonstrating how it played out in Harry Potter: “In the microcosm (The first book) Harry thinks Snape is working for Voldemort but Snape turns out to have been Dumbledore’s agent all along. Later on in the macrocosm (the overarching narrative of the series), Harry thinks Snape is working for Voldemort after Snape kills Dumbledore, but Snape turns out to have been a double agent for Dumbledore all along.”

As for how that plays out in VLD, in the microcosm of The Journey Within, We have the paladins lost in an unfamiliar location, cut off from everything and everyone but each other. They encounter imagery associated with the lion goddess, something that evokes comparisons to the guardian of Oriande, and are then transported to where they need to be at the right time to stop the Big Bad of the season.

And in the macrocosm of the last three episodes of Season 8, we have the paladins trapped in an unfamiliar location when Honerva’s port closes before they can make it through, cut off from everything and everyone but each other. Then they suddenly arrive where they need to be at the right time to stop the Big Bad of the season. But because of Lotor’s removal from the season, the important parts, the ones involving the Lion Goddess that explain how the Paladins caught up to Honerva in time to stop her from destroying all realities, were cut out, leaving one more plot hole in the final season.

[fire-toolz]

Infinity and “I”: An interview with Fire-Toolz

Sometimes you encounter music that opens your ears to new possibilities in such a way that your subconscious burns the moment of impact into your memory. For me, the most potent of these include an early adolescent exposure to the cyclic, minimalist bliss of Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way as in-between-set music at a neighborhood basement show, doubling over laughing with my sister on our drive to school at the vocal-sourced percussion of Björk’s “Where is the Line?”, and having my 19-year-old shit permanently rocked amid my (still) daily breakfast of eggs and oatmeal by the opening few tracks of Fire-Toolz’ Drip Mental.

At least to my ears at that time, the breakneck transitions between Mego-style avant-pop glitches, digitized metal skree, snapshots of vapor memories and scream-led dance pop offered up a vision of shape-shifting music that felt wholly new, almost sacred in its profane blend of styles and sound. “To me, that constantly shifting atmosphere and mood is the ebb and flow you perceive,” says Angel Marcloid, the face behind the Fire-Toolz moniker. “Lots of waves and conditions to pass through, but they all make sense to me … Ideas flow out of me with absolutely no effort made, my body records as many of them as it can and the song gets built in little bits at a time.” The idea of musical “sense” might seem at-odds with the free-wheeling, genre-agnostic sounds of a Fire-Toolz album, but sustained exposure breeds familiarity: By the time I rolled around to my third or fourth listen through Drip Mental, the chaos began to cohere into a logical world of its own.

If my ears grown more accustomed to the utter uniqueness of Marcloid’s art, so too does it seem that “Fire-Toolz” is becoming a musical language of its own. Every new release brings the euphoria of Marcloid’s music toward higher and more mind-bending plans, and nowhere is this more true than on Rainbow Bridge, Marcloid’s new album for Hausu Mountain. The music is distinctly Marcloid, taking the same hallmarks I found on Drip Mental and refining them into sharp gems. A monophonic hymn drives “⌈Mego⌉ ≜ Maitrī,” making for one of the most patient and profound Fire-Toolz composition to date. At the other end, “Rainbow ∞ Bridge” hurls in with synthesized black metal fervor before it combusts into a grooving, tuneful section of electronics. A soaring electronic guitar solo dominates the middle third, and the track eventually loops around on itself into the ear-splitting pulses and crashes of the opening. “It’s less stitching sounds together, and more like inventing gigantic puzzles made of both large and tiny pieces dancing around and overlapping each other, interacting with each other,” Marcloid says of this segmented composition process.

A standout sonic quality of Fire-Toolz’ music—on Rainbow Bridge and all its older siblings—is its embrace of the sounds, chord structures of new age, jazz fusion, prog and a host of other styles based around extreme musicianship, and exacting production. Born in 1984, Marcloid finds that many of these sounds are inseparable from the nostalgia of her childhood. “I wasn’t raised on jazz or electro-pop or adult contemporary or electronic music, but in the distance, there it all was—in waiting rooms, in the background of movies, at the mall, in TV shows, in educational films, in video games, in my friends’ parents’ vans,” she says. These musical encounters all share a sense of accidents. From muzak to soundtracks to chance encounters, Marcloid never supposed to take this stuff in.


Though that’s precisely the path she took, and Fire-Toolz takes a magnifying glass to these background sounds and exposes their inherent beauty and strangeness. “Because of the internet, and having the privilege of being able to access those sounds and use them creatively, I am living out my second childhood in a heartfelt, authentic way,” she says. This “second childhood” is an apt analogy for the giddiness that Fire-Toolz music exudes. These sounds and harmonies are familiar—some would argue overused and tired—but Marcloid approaches them with a renewed sense of optimism. At their core, these styles hunt for religious ecstasy and otherworldly piece, cosmic qualities that Marcloid’s art exudes with boundless glee.

These ideals of grandiosity that run rampant through Marcloid’s music also appear in the conceptual and philisophical framework surrounding the Fire-Toolz project. The track titles alone convey this sense of out-of-body msyticism. Through a combination of between cheeky, internet-based puns, dense transcendental philosophy and creative linguistic construction through the use of atypical spellings, punctuation and word structuring, Marcloid constructs a verbal world inside which her singular music lives. “Infinity and wholeness is a constant theme, but it is by default. It is a framework from which I operate,” she says. “I’m on a journey; steadily growing every day, until my body no longer works. I’m not even saying I’m getting better and better, but I’m always changing. I’m constantly falling, and there is no ground.”

Stand out examples of these constructions from the past include the warm, nostalgic hum of Skinless X-1‘s “In The Computer Room @ Dusk ☕” or the scattered sonic metamorphosis of “Fluids Come Together & The ‘I Am’ Appears.” On Rainbow Bridge, one of the most stunning realizations comes on “dEcRePiT φ PhOeNiX,” a track which Marcloid says  “is a direct reference to myself and evolution. A decrepit phoenix is kind of how I see my body-mind and personality. Always escaping from the ashes, sore and tired … But, a phoenix nonetheless.” With its wobbling chromatic synthesizer melodies and arena-ready drum slaps, the music presents a colorful foundation atop which Marcloid’s screamed vocals delve head first into this beautiful crisis of change: “Melted and melded and molding crashes / Illusion of self reduced to ashes,” she sings, highlighting the twin agents of destruction and rebirth that accompany any process of change.

While these ideas might traverse the breadth of Fire-Toolz’ discography, the new album places the themes in a more specific context. “For Rainbow Bridge, I felt like I had an enormous amount I needed to say and express; so many questions to ask, and expressions of energy I needed to release. I just make music with that in mind,” says Marcloid. Specifically, “the title references the pathway that our pets take when they leave us. My cat Breakfast, who passed away in December of 2018, is the talking point of the album. A lot of it is about her, or speaking to her.” Breakfast also appears on the album (as she has on a number of previous Fire-Toolz releases), creating a sort of living/lasting artistic tribute to the lost friend. In this light, the epic constructions feel even more special, as if the explosions of colorful sounds on Rainbow Bridge are paeans to Breakfast. The songs build towers that stretch toward the bridge in search of communication.


“Fire-Toolz has always been sincere,” Marcloid says. “Melodramatically sincere.” It’s this sincerity that’s kept me coming back time and time again after that fateful February morning encounter. Especially at its most bombastic and indulgent (see: the sing-along chorus of Rainbow Bridge‘s “It’s Now Safe to Turn Off Your Computer,” the neon, fusion-drenched guitar outro “Clear Light” off 2019’s Field Whispers (Into the Crystal Palace)), Marcloid’s music teethes with a sense of purpose and meaning. What might illicit chuckles of disbelief upon first encounter transforms into a beautiful sonic odyssey that offers more intruige and magic over time.

Like each and every Fire-Toolz album, Rainbow Bridge is a mind-bending excursion that blows up music into a cosmic, surreal land, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg: In the last year or so alone, Marcloid has put out equally incredible music through her Mindspring Memories, Angelwings Marmalade, Nonlocal Forecast and Path to Lobster Believers projects, as well as a number of mastering jobs (some personal favorites include The Car? and w i n t e r q u i l t 愛が止ま). A number of these projects (including Fire-Toolz) have future releases already in progress, and there’s a high chance I’ve even left of a name or two in this list. If this seems like this stretches the limits of what one entity can perform and produce, Marcloid suggests that there’s other energy at play: “Something tells me it’s not me doing it. ‘Me’ in the individuated sense,” she says. “It feels more like something I am a part of is doing it through me.” What form this ancillary force might take is unbeknownst to anyone save Marcloid, but let’s hope their fruitful collaborations continue for years into the future. We’ll always need more rapturous shock; we’ll always need more Fire-Toolz, ad infinitum.

-Audrey Lockie/Slug Mag

https://www.slugmag.com/music/interviews/music-interviews/infinity-and-i-an-interview-with-fire-toolz/

[qveenpoppy]

kingsman the golden circle: a review

so, i kinda just jotted stuff down as my reactions during the movie, so i’m just gonna copy that over here and have that be my review. figured that’d be more authentic and i also just kinda did it for fun. i mean, it made my viewing a lot longer than it should have been but hey, i had the time, so why not? enjoy, my friends. i’ll add some overall thoughts and a score at the tail end. (i’ll bold it, for anyone who wants to jump right to that.)

Gosh that opening action sequence was BONKERS, so high-energy and kinda unrealistic that Eggsy would survive that but incredible to watch nonetheless. And it's been so long since I watched the first film in full, I've forgotten about my love for the theme/score. It's so gorgeous and epic.

I made a mistake starting this before dinner, and that first scene at Poppy's dinner was one of the most disturbing things I ever saw. I find these characters so interesting but the violence in these films is a little too much for me. I tried closing my eyes during the scene but I did so too early and then opened them back up during That part. I gotta make sure to keep them closed if something like that happens again (which I'm guessing it might).

The transitions in this movie are phenomenal, I love continuity with shapes that tie each scene to the following ones.

Because I'm watching this two years late, I saw some spoilers for the movie online. Like,  a while ago. Like, back when it first came out. I was curious and only moderately liked the first movie (it was visually great but as I said, not one for R-rated violence). That being said, the scene in which Harry gets his memories back is WAY better viewed in context. Whether you think of Harry and Eggsy as an item or not, it's very good. Eggsy knew EXACTLY what would bring Harry's memories back, and I adored their hug after Harry calmed down. (The height difference!!! Eggsy went on his toes!!!) Also, I hope Harry got to keep the puppy after that and named him Mr. Pickles Jr.

Anyone else get super hyped when they hear Colin Firth say, "Manners maketh man"? It's like you just Know shit is about to go down when those words are said in these films. I hope the prequel next year gives us an origin of that line being a battle call. Also, I heard Pedro Pascal did some rope training for this film but holy wowness, it's so good! Yeah, it's enhanced with CG effects and probably some switch-ins with stunt doubles, but it still makes for an incredible action sequence! I hope Pedro gets to show off some of these skills somehow next year in Wonder Woman 1984 or Mandalorian s2. (Can't believe I slept on him for so long as an action star, what a talent!)

You know, I can kind of see where this president is coming from? I mean, as his female aid reminds him, it's a gray area, considering those who experiment with drugs or self-medicate or teens/kids, but I can also see how taking out those who use illegal drugs kinda ends the whole "war on drugs". There's logic to it but considering those mentioned parties, it's got a devious, ignorant edge to it. I can at least say I like this movie having a little bit more of a political edge to it than the first one. I wonder if anyone had a debate like this while/after watching the movie, whether they agree with this president's stance or not. I would guess the red tie he wears points to him being a Republican, so you know most Democrats would be quick to disagree, given the climate of the country following the 2016 election (aka, more divided than ever).

Also why is Charlie hotter in this movie than he was in the first one? Is it because he's evil? The shaved head? The robot arm? (I mean, being a legit villain isn't a good thing, but he's not as psychotic as Poppy and kinda has a foot in both sides, at least since he's English and now his girlfriend is infected with Poppy's disease. I wonder if he'll change sides at some point, or just die at the hands of the Kingsman, considering what he knows about them.)

(Oh wait, nevermind, he gave her the antidote. But maybe he went behind Poppy's back to do so? Or it's a placebo version and he'll wind up turning on Poppy??? Also does he know his girlfriend got fingered by Eggsy?)

(Yeah, think I can kiss that redemption arc goodbye. Eh, at least there will be fanfics for that. Or at least ones where he and Eggsy have hot hate sex.)

Oh shit, Whiskey made Eggsy drop the antidote. But at least Eggsy and Harry are okay. But how the fuck are they gonna save the day now?

Was Harry seeing butterflies as part of the delusion stage of Poppy's virus? Did the Statesmen unknowingly treat him with one of the drugs she infected? Is he gonna die AGAIN?! (Oh wait, I saw the spoilers, he'll be fine. But they might have to use the antidote on him.)

Okay I also knew from spoilers that Whiskey wasn't gonna survive the movie but delusional Harry took him out?! Why?! Will he be revived by the Statesmen like Harry was? (Whiskey's just too cool a character to lose in one movie.)

Nevermind about the agreement thing, this president is one sick motherfucker.

Sorry this commentary is becoming much briefer and summary-esque, but Whiskey (aka Jack; they did that on purpose, didn't they?) is back. But I still don't think he'll make it till the end of the film. Is he gonna try and take Harry out? Is he actually a double agent? 

You know, with them bringing Harry back, it kinda lowers the stakes of these movies. Like, is anyone ever fully dead? 'Cause this movie especially seems to keep bringing people back, at least with that Statesman tech. So it's hard to be all that sad about Merlin's death. I mean, obviously him fucking BLOWING UP seems like a pretty permanent way to die, but I thought I saw - again, around the time this came out - behind the scenes photos of Mark with some sort of green motion capture pants, as if they'd given him some metal robot legs like I guess Gazelle's in the first film. Like he just got knocked back by the blast and could no longer use his legs, if revived. But apparently it didn't make the final cut. Still, wouldn't be surprised if they used that footage for the third film as a way to bring him back. 'Cause clearly Merlin, Eggsy, and Harry are the main trio in this franchise. (Sorry, Roxy fans.)

Ohhh, look at Elton getting in on the action sequences. Yes, Sir!!!

I love when action sequences are set to more creative choices of music :)

Harry & Elton, huh? I ship it

Oh, Whiskey is actually a bad guy. Damn. Take back all the praise I had for him. Pedro, I love you, but fuck Whiskey.

Thank god I covered my eyes this time when That happened. Ugh, gross.

Ohhh, an impeachment and removal from office. If only life could imitate art... (But only in that way, nothing else from this movie should happen in real life.)

Tequila works for Kingsman now?!

overall thoughts: a suitable sequel for this franchise. obviously pretty similar tone-wise with the humor and language and violence. i always forget that these films aren’t exactly my taste. kinda triggered my anxiety with all that violence and the whole drug-triggered virus (not that i’ll be experimenting with any illegal drugs anytime soon, but my paranoid brain will definitely keep me even further away from them now.) like, they’re well-shot and i like the characters, and i mostly wanted to watch this for some explanation of how harry was brought back from the dead, but i’m at least glad i chose to watch this at home and on my laptop/tablet. it would not have been good for me to see this on the big screen. (and i managed to watch both movies for free, and completely legally. first on xfinity on demand, this on a free rental from fandago. go me!)

as i said, the political aspects did at least make for some cool thought-provoking moments and debate. i do love when movies make you think like that. mindless action movies are the absolute worst (i’m looking at you, marvel and transformers franchises). 

i’m at least curious about that third film, how they’ll handle the loss of so many significant characters, or if they’ll magically be brought back to life, again. yeah, as cool as it was, bringing harry back may have been a mistake for this franchise. but i understand that it’s the main relationship of the series, even if eggsy is now married to that swedish princess, tilda or whatever. (meh.)

rating: 7/10. it’s hard for me to give a film any lower than that, unless i turned it off or got particularly tired/bored while watching it, so. good action, good characters, fun humor, smidge too violent. 

till next time, my dudes!

[theamberfang]

Day 13; NaNoWriMo 2019

Read from the start.

Argh!

What? What’s going on? Did something happen?

“I can’t think of anything to write today. Without any direction I’m having trouble focusing.”

Any idea why?

“Well, yesterday was a large diversion that didn’t leave me with any plan for today.”

I see; and I suppose it wouldn’t be easy to adapt anything that you discussed yesterday. There are some big-picture thematic similarities, but at that point nothing is really changing. What if you ignore yesterday and think back to the day before?

“I had ended off Day 11 with a discussion about how Arca operates as a military and economic superpower on the global stage, which are things that I might be able to touch on in a case for Sharla and John,” I review. “But the primary direction I had left with was the possibility of starting an actual narrative with that—potentially convoluted—premise of an estranged child from a wealthy family.”

Well, those are two separate things, so let’s think about them one at a time. Can you think of a case that touches on those global politics?

“I have one possibility at the moment: a struggling veteran as a client,” I posit. “Though, with the nature of Arca as I’ve set it up, I have trouble imagining someone being around to talk about the goings-on of the outside world.”

Right, you have something similar to 1984 in mind with the majority of people being unaware of any truths. If you do go that for though, you could play into it: maybe most people don’t believe the struggling vet.

“That’s a possibility—one I like actually. There are real people that would consider discussing some of the atrocious things that our military does as ‘unpatriotic’—preferring American propaganda over international realities.”

Maybe we can work with that in a bit. But first, there’s that other line of thought: how do you feel about starting that actual narrative? Maybe with that specific premise, but maybe something else? You were distracted yesterday, but how about today?

“Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more convoluted that premise began to sound, especially when thinking about removing it from the greater context of the setting it came from. I may have underestimated how important that the Impurity of the child was. At the least, I don’t feel comfortable translating that degree of bigotry into a more realistic setting, especially since the closest analogue would be the child coming out with some sort of LGBTQA+ identity.”

Okay, so that specific premise is out—for now at least; I do you think you maybe just been overthinking it. Still, you have a much better handle on your main characters than you did last year, so maybe you can actually try writing a proper draft? Even just one scene—a small interaction or conversation.

“I’ll admit: the possibility feels more doable than it ever has before. I have lunch to eat, so I’ll take the time to stew on it.”

A break it is then. We agreed to writing down when you should be back though, so that you don’t take forever—especially since you have a support group this evening. Let’s say you should be back by 15:30. That’s nearly an hour for you to eat.

…

Hey, you’re back on time—close enough at least.

“Yeah, making a commitment in writing seems to work.”

So do you feel like trying to draft a scene of some sort?

“I’m willing to give it a shot. I think it would be best to keep it small, though. Maybe Sharla and John just meeting up about a case or something.”

Wouldn’t you need details about the case?

“Maybe? I think it would be possible to keep things ambiguous enough.”

Having a few details in mind could still give the scene direction.

“Fair enough. I can definitely imagine myself spinning my wheels not going anywhere if I leave things too vague.”

You’ve come up with a few options so far. The simplest is probably the burglary; then there’s the terrorist hate group; there’s also the struggling veteran; oh yeah, almost forgot about the missing person who ended up at a company reservation.

“I agree about the burglary being simplest, and I think that makes it the most ideal.”

Can we make things even more specific? Is it the start of the case? Perhaps with Sharla talking to—or having talked to—the client and John having investigated the scene of the crime? Or maybe it’s later, regarding a likely suspect?

“I like that latter one; the two are likely to disagree about things. The contrast would make it easier to imagine what they might say.”

What are those contrasts?

“Sharla would be more likely to sympathize with suspect/criminal. She could try to compromise that it would be enough to return the stolen goods and that they don’t need to turn the thief in. John would be on the side of conventional justice, and would rather have the thief arrested, assuming they find enough evidence.”

That sounds pretty good. Are you ready to give it a shot?

“Honestly, I don’t feel great at the moment. And it’s not due to anxiety. I made the mistake of eating some junk food, and now I feel like junk myself.”

Oh jeez, why do you do this to yourself.

“I don’t know if I’ll feel better before I have to leave for group, but maybe I’ll be able to get a bit more writing done afterwards. It’ll be pretty late, but I’d like to match the pace I need for NaNoWriMo—at least give it an earnest shot, despite the difficulties I’ve had today.”