#A spider almost killed me when I asked you for some alternatives to this translation are: SHOCKER

[sbnkalny]

Wth I asked you for some alternatives to this translation are: Shocker, sparky, zappy, Zappy Dan the magnet man, Thorfinna, the shock locker, static shock, Buzzer, zap ‘n’ fap, Zapette, Bzzt, pikachu, microwave, Bug Zapper, spark plug, Zappity zaps, the other end of the corridor FOR A few seconds

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and So I'm a Spider, So What? Lead Voice Actors

  In coordination with the current season of So I’m a Spider, So What?, Crunchyroll News was given the opportunity to officially translate interviews with the staff and cast of the series. You can read the original Japanese interview between Aoi Yuki and Miho Okasaki right here.

The interview was conducted by Daisuke Iwakura. 

  So I'm a Spider, So What? x That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Crossover Interview! "Me" (a.k.a. Kumoko) Aoi Yuki and "Rimuru Tempest" Miho Okasaki.

  It's a dream crossover between two anime airing in January: So I'm a Spider, So What? and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime! The interview was held on December 19th, 2020 as part of the Isekai Miracle Crossover broadcast featuring Aoi Yuki, who plays "Me" (a.k.a. Kumoko), and Miho Okasaki, who plays Rimuru Tempest.  

  These two characters were reincarnated as monsters, and while they have their similarities, they have their differences, too. We spoke to Yuki-san and Okasaki-san about what they have in common, where they're distinct, and what makes each of the shows so interesting. 

    A shared concern ... being reincarnated means having a lot of dialogue?!

  —I've heard this is the first time either of you have encountered each other's projects. For starters, could you give a brief description of the show? Yuki-san, if you could go first.

  Yuki: Kumoko is a girl who was unfortunate enough to find herself reincarnated as a spider after her classroom was blown up. And the type of spider she was reincarnated as happens to be the weakest monster in that world. She's initially pretty pessimistic about what's happened, but her naturally positive and free-wheeling personality allow her to tackle the situation with gusto. She's got a lot of strengths like being quick-witted and staying calm under stress, but I think her biggest appeal is that she's very self-centered, in a good way. The way she's able to focus on what she needs to do, and what she needs to pursue to become happy makes a good match for having been turned into a monster, and really ties into her determination to survive. 

  Okasaki: Before the interview, they showed me the first episode of So I'm a Spider, So What? and while I did think Kumoko's optimism was charming, I was amazed by how many lines Yuki-san had!

  Yuki: It's pretty brutal, right?! It gives the impression that being reincarnated means having a lot of dialogue. (Laughs) 

  Okasaki: I know what you mean! Rimuru is the same way, he has a lot of monologues. 

  Yuki: Chalk it up to "things that happened when you're reincarnated." I've reincarnated a few times before ... by which I mean my characters have, of course. (Laughs) But the amount of lines Kumoko has is incomparable to all the rest. 

  Okasaki: The way she talks to herself so amusingly is really entertaining, and it really speaks to Yuki-san's strengths as an actress. I was amazed.

  Yuki: Thank you so much!

    —Now, Okasaki-san, if you could tell us about Rimuru. 

  Okasaki: After reincarnating as a slime, Rimuru ran into a character named Shizu-san, and as a result gained an alternate human form. And while I think being able to change shapes is kind of cheating (Laughs), both are really cute, and I really enjoy making each form sound distinct during the recording. In terms of personality, he's got a really big heart. He encounters characters that oppose him, but he considers their circumstances and ends up making them into allies. His humanity really attracts others to him. It's that kind of personality where you can understand how he ended up as a leader. 

  Yuki: I was shown Episode 25 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. Even in that one episode, you could tell how beloved he is in a way that makes you kind of jealous. Kumoko would love to join Tempest (the Jura Tempest Federation)! 

  Okasaki: We'd be glad to have you! Our country is very accepting of monsters. 

  Yuki: Meanwhile, I'm stuck in a cave having to kill other monsters! (Laughs) The problem is none of them will listen to reason, so I just have to eat them.

  Okasaki: (Laughs)

  Yuki: I also like how easy-going Rimuru is. Even when everyone is desperate and fighting, he never loses his cool, which really impresses on you how big of a deal he is. It's the kind of composure that comes from being really strong. 

  Okasaki: That's true, being able to take a step back and look at things analytically is one of Rimuru's strengths. 

    —I'd like to discuss the similarities and differences between the two characters. First, since Kumoko and Rimuru have both reincarnated, let's talk about the differences between who they originally were.

  Okasaki: Rimuru was originally a 37-year-old office worker.

  Yuki: Kumoko was a high schooler, so that's about a 20 year age difference.

  Okasaki: Since he's an older guy, Rimuru gets really, really excited whenever cute girls show up. 

  Yuki: I remember him riding on top of someone's boobs. (Laughs) 

  Okasaki: That did happen. He often uses his slime form as a means to get to sit in girls' laps. When we were recording that scene, the audio director had to explain the male point of view in that situation. His direction was along the lines of, "You need to sound happier about it." (Laughs)

  —Do you try to be conscious about him being a  37-year-old man when portraying Rimuru, Okasaki-san?

  Okasaki: I do. I really think his perspective on things tends to be on the mature side. He doesn't feel desperate to survive like Kumoko, and when confronted with an enemy, his reaction is to think, "Well, I'll give it a shot," instead of, "I'm gonna win!" He reincarnated, ended up with a variety of skills, and before long he became a ruler, but he lived 37 years of his life and developed an outlook that keeps him from feeling desperate, and I try to capture that maturity when I perform as him. 

  Yuki: When you're 37 years old, you're an adult who's dealt with things like taking care of bills and paying into your pension, and you'll have experienced both the sweet and bitter parts of life, letting you see how it all balances out. You're able to approach life in a way where the overarching thought is, "Well, that's just how it is." Compared to that, Kumoko hasn't even started paying taxes yet, and hasn't really developed an outlook to approach life with. As a result, she tackles things with a gusto that makes you wonder if she's going to burn out, which really shows how youthful she is. But I also think the world she's reincarnated into is one where that kind of ferocity is necessary for survival.

    —There's also the fact that currently, Rimuru is surrounded by friends, while Kumoko is all by herself.

  Yuki: There's a part in Episode 25 where Rimuru's friends are having him dress up in different outfits, almost like a doll, and I thought that was wonderful. Kumoko has been on her own this entire time, in a cave, and is only able to fantasize about getting to wear clothing.

  Okasaki: For as much of a social butterfly as he is, Rimuru actually never had a girlfriend in his past life. 

  Yuki: Maybe he never seemed like boyfriend material? The kind of person who finds the object of their affection asking for romantic advice. 

  Okasaki: Oh! I kind of feel bad for him, now ... maybe he lacked that extra spice that's necessary.

  Yuki: He's nice, and seems smart, and gives really good relationship advice. 

  Okasaki: And ended up as a bachelor for 37 years as a result ... But when I think about it that way, the world he was reincarnated to might be suited to Rimuru. It's a world where you get judged for the amount of power you have, so by being both powerful and lovable, he and the world have a mutual appreciation for each other. Rimuru's past life didn't end up being very personally productive, so his reincarnation doesn't seem so bad now that he gets to be surrounded by friends and enjoy life. 

    —Since Kumoko is by herself, it sounds like you end up doing a lot of recording by yourself, too. 

  Yuki: It's so lonely! The second set of key visuals show four different versions of Kumoko, but they're all played by me.

  Okasaki: I didn't know that!

  Yuki: I'm still alone, but at least there's a little bit more back-and-forth now. (Laughs)

  Okasaki: That seems like it'd be a lot of lines ...

  Yuki: It feels like things have gotten even more hectic with the four of her.

  —Another interesting point of comparison is how the characters both have encounters with dragons. 

  Yuki: The Earth Dragon I run into is bad news. Unlike Veldora, it's not interested in talking at all. 

  Okasaki: I guess communication is off the table. It's also pretty scary looking! (Looking at the art in the teaser visuals.)

  Yuki: And it's really strong! And it's definitely going to threaten Kumoko again. The thought of becoming friends didn't occur to me.

  Okasaki: I'm not so sure that'd work, even for Rimuru.

  Yuki: Rimuru-san's strong too, though, so he'd be able to deal with it.

    —In comparison, Veldora is almost like Rimuru's partner.

  Okasaki: That's right. He might look so scary that Rimuru fainted when he first saw him, but he's actually pretty charming when you talk to him. And a tsundere!

  Yuki: That's great!

  Okasaki: When Rimuru approaches him about being friends, Veldora says, "Well, I guess I can consider it!" But in the end, they become friends anyway. 

  Yuki: That's so nice. This might be a little weird, but I always find the fantasy races in stories like this to be charming. That goes for the humanoid ones of course, but even the monstrous ones can really pull on my heartstrings. When I was talking to a friend who feels the same way, they mentioned that Veldora-san is super cute.

  Okasaki: That's interesting! Veldora is definitely a popular character. 

  Yuki: Everyone who finds dragons cute mentioned him, so I've looked at some character art before. Rimuru was in slime form too, so it was like, "This is some good fantasy race content." 

    Their circumstances may be different, but these reincarnations would definitely get along!

  —We've discussed the things they have in common, and their differences, and now I'd like to ask: Do you think these two characters would get along?

  Yuki: I don't think they'd have any trouble in that regard since they'd be able to communicate and understand each other. 

  Okasaki: The fact that they've both reincarnated is something they'd be able to bond over, and I think Rimuru would be thrilled to encounter another former human who reincarnated as a monster. 

  Yuki: Kumoko is friendly as long as she's not hungry ... then again, I think she'd realize she's outmatched. And since she doesn't pick fights she can't win, I'm sure they'd get along fine. I apologize if she accidentally eats anyone from Tempest, though!

  Okasaki: That would not be okay! (Laughs) Rimuru really cares about his friends, so please try and show some restraint. There's plenty of actual food to eat, instead!

  Yuki: As long as there's food.

  Okasaki: That's a relief ... but after talking it over, it'd be interesting to see Rimuru and Kumoko actually interact.

  Yuki: It'd make a great short anime!

  Okasaki: Good idea! They've crossed over before, so I'd love it if they adapted that story! ["Monster x Reincarnation Fair" was an original short story by So I'm a Spider, So What? author Okina Baba-sensei.]

    —Since you're both here, do you have any questions for each other? 

  Okasaki: Hearing Yuki-san's performance, she's doing a great job of establishing Kumoko-san's character, but at the same time, you can imagine a normal human high school student with the same performance. How did you manage that? 

  Yuki: To be honest, I already knew going to the audition that I'd be talking a lot with this role, and I realized if I went too hard, the performance would fall apart. (Laughs) For example, talking in a really high voice for an extended period of time wouldn't be possible, right? The end result is what comes from eliminating stuff like that. And since she's a character who can go from really low energy to being super excited pretty quickly, I tried to use a neutral voice that would let me do both. 

  Okasaki: That's really interesting! You knew you would be talking a lot beforehand, right?

  Yuki: You should always be careful with any project that has "reincarnation" in the premise, because you'll end up talking a lot.

  Okasaki: Hahaha, you're right! I'll have to remember that. (Laughs)

  —Do you have any questions, Yuki-san?

  Yuki: Rimuru-san has no gender as a slime. Was there anything special that you did considering that? 

  Okasaki: I thought he would sound gender-neutral, so I tried to craft a voice that would give that impression. That being said, I'm a woman with a feminine voice, so what worked best was leaning into a boyish direction. I would record the voice I came up with and listen to it, searching for a voice that suits the genderless Rimuru. My own voice isn't particularly exuberant either (laughs), and since I've a relatively huskier tone, I was eventually able to nail it pretty easily. That helps make it come out naturally. 

    —Thank you both so much. Before we go, what do you think is the main appeal of your projects?

  Okasaki: In Season 1, Rimuru was reincarnated as a slime, got a humanoid form, made friends, created a nice country, and it ended on a peaceful note. But in Season 2, he's going to be encountering a lot of opposition and forced to make some major decisions. Things have been smooth sailing so far, but now he's going to have to think about what he can do for his friends. I've been portraying a new, more heroic side of him, which I think will be a lot of fun to see.  

  Yuki: Kumoko's story has an element of "survival of the fittest," and there's a kind of exhilaration you get from seeing that unfold. She faces a strong enemy, grows from the experience, and then encounters something even stronger, continuing to evolve. That cycle is really interesting to watch, and her positivity can make you happy just from seeing it unfold, so it might be a good idea to end a long day with watching So I'm a Spider, So What?

  By: Guest Author

[orangeoctopi7]

Is this a destiny?

*insert that one meme here*

@forduary is technically over, but they’re still taking submissions into March. Sorry it’s so late, I’ve been distracted by other fandoms and spiders apparently declared war on me. ***

When Stanford Pines was still young enough to believe his mother was really psychic, she’d often read his palm, or look into her crystal ball for him on days when he came home crying after the mockery of the local bullies got to be too much. She’d tell him that his extra fingers were a sign that he was special, that he was destined for greatness. And he believed her. Even as he got older and learned that his mother’s psychic powers were really just a combination of keen observations, good luck, and showmanship. 

He always hung onto the notion that his abnormality made him special, because the alternative was listening to all the people who said he was just a freak.

As he progressed in school and teachers started to recognize that Ford was a genius, his belief shifted. It was his academic intelligence, not his extra fingers, that made him special. He was destined to change the world with his knowledge, invent or discover things that would make people’s lives better. 

If he was recognized for his intelligence then maybe people would think of him as something other than just a freak.

***

For years, Stanford placed all his value on his academic intelligence. It was the only thing standing between him and freakdom, after all. It wasn’t until he got his first Doctorates and started research that his focus shifted again. Rather than working towards some nebulous concept of “Do something great in the field of science in order to gain recognition and rise above the image of a mere freak”, he was going to learn more about anomalies, and what caused them. He was going to make the world appreciate and respect freaks. 

The going was slow at first, and Ford found himself losing confidence until one fateful day when he went exploring in the caves above Gravity Falls. He almost didn’t read the incantation out loud when he translated the warning, but nothing ever got done in science if you didn’t experiment. And he was soon rewarded for his risk.

Bill gave Ford purpose like he'd never had before. Finally, he knew exactly what his destiny was: to bring humanity into a new era of enlightenment by connecting them with worlds beyond. Finally, people would understand anomalies instead of fearing or ridiculing them.

Stanford Pines was destined to change the world, and for the first time, he knew exactly how he was going to do it.

***

Change the world. It had seemed so clear at the beginning, but in hindsight, Ford saw through Bill's purposely vague words. All this time, he'd thought he would change the world for the better, but no! The destiny Bill had shown him was to destroy the world, not make it better. 

Had this always been his destiny? He thought back on all the people who had been repulsed by him in the past. Had they known? Had they somehow sensed he would bring about the end of the world? Were his fingers some sort of omen or early warning of his eventual fate?

He thought back on all the people who he'd driven away over the years. His brother, his parents, even his best friend. Was that for the best? Had he subconsciously pushed them away so they wouldn't become entangled in his mess?

No! No, he refused to believe this was his destiny! There was no such thing, and he was a fool for believing in it for so long! And if there was no such thing as destiny, then he could still fix this, no matter the cost!

But a small part of him didn't want to let go of that belief. Because if he had no destiny, then he really was just a freak. A freak and fool who'd fallen for a demon's tricks.

***

Out in the multiverse, Ford didn't have a destiny as much as part of him still wanted it. He had a mission: Stop Bill. Kill him, destroy him, whatever it took. 

The researcher refused to give up or die until that mission was completed. After that… well, if he was honest with himself, there probably wasn't going to be an "after that". Best not to think past that point.

This mindset got Ford through circumstances he'd never dreamed he'd be able to survive. But eventually, he found himself in a situation he couldn't power through with sheer determination. Caught in a two-dimensional plane, with no way to communicate with its hostile denizens, and no way out. He was trapped, and they were going to kill him before he'd even learned a single thing about Bill's possible origins.

When Ford blacked out, he was sure he was done-for, his mission incomplete. But he awoke in a strange dimension he’d never seen or even heard of before. A towering, seven-eyed humanoid had saved him and healed him. She called herself Jheselbraum the Unswerving, and she claimed to be an Oracle. Ford was skeptical at first. Look what had happened the last time he’d trusted a strange creature claiming to be his muse. Yet, she already knew his name, and his mission. She’d healed him. Most importantly, she was an enemy of Bill, and any enemy of Bill was an ally in Ford’s book. So, he trusted her to perform a dangerous cranial surgery to protect him from Bill’s control in the future.

Towards the end of his recovery, Jheselbraum told Ford he had the face of the man who was destined to destroy Bill. That small part of him that still wished for a destiny latched onto the information. His resolve in his mission had never wavered, but the latest near-death experience did make him wonder if it was a hopeless cause. Now, he knew he was destined to destroy Bill, and nothing was going to stop him!

***

Stanford had lost, and Bill had won. Now the only thing standing between the king of the Nightmare Realm and the rest of the universe was Gravity Falls’ Law of Weirdness Magnetism. And Ford was the only one standing between Bill and the formula to reverse it. 

Well, “standing” in a metaphorical sense. In reality, he was hanging in chains in Bill’s throne room, awaiting further torture. 

Was this the destiny Jheselbraum had told him about, forever locked in a battle of wills with Bill Cipher, so the universe outside this town could carry on? Or was she as fake a psychic as his mother? Ford wasn’t sure which option he liked better. 

If this was all destined to happen, then all that work he’d done to protect his family was for nothing. Sure, he was stopping Bill from spreading chaos throughout the universe, and he’d continue to keep the formula a secret for the rest of eternity if he had to, but his niece and nephew, his brother, his last friend, and the town he’d grown to love, they were what he’d really wanted to protect, and Bill had taken them all from him.

But if this wasn’t destiny, then everything that was happening was his own fault. He was the one who’d summoned Bill, who’d let the demon into his mind. He was the one who’d built the portal and failed to heed his friend’s warnings about the danger it posed. He was the one who hadn’t listened to his brother and just destroyed the blueprints and any directions on how to operate the thing. He was the one who’d failed to seal the rift, all because he’d entrusted its safety to his nephew, who was just a little boy and never should have been involved in something as horrible as this. He was the one who’d upset his niece by asking her brother to stay there in Gravity Falls, which led to her running off with the rift. He was the one who’d failed to tell her what the rift was or what danger it posed.

His choices. His mistakes. His failure to fix things.

Or no choices. No mistakes. No chance to fix things.

Ford was spared from having to think about it further when Bill and his Henchmaniacs returned from lunch.

***

Jheselbraum had said he had the face of the man who was destined to destroy Bill. Now that Ford stood with the memory gun in hand before his dreaming brother, her odd choice of phrasing suddenly made horrible sense. Part of him wished she’d just spelled it out for him earlier, but he knew if she had, he wouldn’t have believed her.

It wasn’t fair! His brother shouldn’t be the one to pay the price for Ford’s mistakes! Destiny or not, his brother shouldn’t even be involved in this mess! Not for the first time, Ford wished he’d never asked his brother to come to Gravity Falls, but for very different reasons than before. 

But they had no other choice. Not if they wanted to save the kids.

Stanford closed his eyes, unable to watch as he pulled the trigger.

***

A few days later, and the kids are busy packing up their things to return to Piedmont. Ford is back from the hospital, and his brother has recovered most of his memories. The old researcher’s mind wanders once again to his destiny. All these years, he’d avoided thinking about what would happen after his final encounter with Bill. He hadn’t expected to survive. But the final encounter with Bill had gone much differently than he’d thought, and Ford finds himself wondering: now what?

“What’s goin’ on in that big head of yours?” someone asks to his left. Ford turns to see his brother take a seat beside him.

“Just… thinking.” Ford answers slowly.

“Yeah, I guessed that part. It’s kinda what you do. I mean what about, genius.”

Maybe it’s the cool night air. Maybe it’s the relief that they all made it through this ordeal in one piece. Maybe it’s the comfort of knowing that he can talk to his brother again. Whatever the case, Stanford finds himself unloading all his thoughts about destiny, about his failures, and how he always seems to push away the people he cares about, or endanger them, or both.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t blame you for wantin’ to have a destiny. Everybody wants to feel like they’re special, right?”

“Yes, but… but Stanley, if I never had a destiny, if I’m not… not special, then I really am just a freak.” Ford laments. “A freak and a danger to everyone around me.”

“Ford, look at me.” Stan demands. He turns to look at his brother. “You know those aren’t your only two options, right? Bein’ destined for greatness, or bein’ a freak. That’s stupid! Sure, you got more fingers an’ brains than most people’d know what to do with, and sure, a lot of jerks’ll call you a freak for it, but that doesn’t make it true! You're a man tryin' to live his life, same as anyone!

"As for bein' a danger to everyone else, you don't think I feel the same way? You don't think I cursed the day I agreed to watch the kids for the summer the very first moment they got into trouble with all this town's weird nonsense!? You don't think I worry that one of these days somebody from my drifter days is gonna figure out I'm still alive out here, and they'll come and make trouble for the whole town?

"So maybe you pushed away the people who cared about you before. It ain't too late to change that. You got the kids, especially Dipper, he seems to think you're some sorta hero or something. Your old pal McGucket seems to wanna make amends. And I-" Stan pauses, like he's choosing his next words carefully. "I'm just happy to have you back."

Ford doesn't have words to reply. He manages a weak smile, nods, and takes his brother's hand. Stan's words help a bit, but it's hard to shake these feelings, like he'll always be alone. Like he'll always end up hurting the people he cares about. But the longer he sits there in the company of his brother, the more those feelings fade away.

At least now, sitting here with his brother and looking out at the night sky, he has an idea of what he wants to do with his life next.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Worm asks

Have you tried to give D&D alignments to The Travelers yet, and if not how would you classify them?

Hmm.

Trickster: True neutral

Sundancer: Neutral good

Ballistic: Chaotic neutral

Genesis: ???

Noelle: Lawful? good

Oliver: Chaotic nerd

Gurer’f abguvat vaqvfchgnoyl njshy tbvat guebhtu, ohg V’q qrsvavgryl yvxr gb frr yrff uvagvat znxr vg guebhtu gur fperravat gb Xevk

Sharks: Fher guvat. V’ir orra ehaavat bss gur vqrn gung vs vg’f va gur sbezng bs na ubarfg dhrfgvba, va beqre gb nibvq nabgure Fpragyrff Zna vapvqrag, ohg V pna svarghar vg vs crbcyr jnag?

As usual, translate here.

While you’re checking out all the Simurgh fanart, you should listen to this theme someone made for her: (google Simurgh Husr, first result. Hopefully sharks can just replace this with the actual link) Same person who made that Leviathan theme linked way back.

https://soundcloud.com/user-371879520/simurgh

This was really nice. I like how it does sound like a good melody while at the same time exhibiting some of the pattern-defying nature of the tune. 🙂

I think you miiiight have jumped to conclusions from an ask that simply asked you if you could list the Traveler’s cape and civilian names. Miiight have. Also, I’m pretty sure most of them where refered to by their civilian names in previous arcs.

It’s certainly possible.

It’s not so much that I jumped to the conclusion as that the ask opened my eyes to the possibility of it, which I hadn’t considered before. From there, I had to reevaluate things and consider how things would change if it turned out I had gotten the two mixed up. Ultimately I think I’d prefer for Cody to be Ballistic, but I’m still not sure either way (even with this ask heavily implying it’s Luke).

As for names, most of their names did show up (all the more reason for an ask about matching names to capes being kind of odd if it wasn’t trying to set me thinking of something), but I can’t recall Ballistic’s being one of them. But you know how my memory can be.

That smurf song you posted definitely says “dab dab dab” several times, despite the video being uploaded to YouTube in 2009, and the song supposedly being from 1978. So that’s suspicious as hell.

I… think that has to be the bits where it actually says “tramp, tramp, tramp på en smurf” (“stomp, stomp, stomp on a smurf”).

Either way, now we’re all forced to consider the concept of the Smurfs dabbing, so thanks for that. 😛

“Dragonberry” was Scarfgirl’s old character on City of Heroes, a MMORPG with a superhero theme that no longer exists. I know you’re not reading the chapter comments, but if you ever go back to read the early ones, you’ll see that quite a lot of the early readers were City of Heroes players who had an interest in superhero fiction. That’s why Scarfgirl’s art is signed “Dragonberry”, because it’s how people knew her back then.

Ah, interesting. Fun to hear a little about the fandom’s early history. 🙂

I’ve had many names, myself. Once upon a time I used to make a different name, if not more, for just about every site I was on. One of the names that stuck with me the most was Elementarion, which I used in the game Godville and a few other places (not every Elementarion that comes up on Google now is me, though), because I found long-time friends while using that name.

Though for some reason I wonder why 😛, nobody seemed to want to type it out every time they wanted to mention me. I’ve been called almost every short form of Elementarion there is. El was the most common (made watching Stranger Things kinda odd the first time around, even though I’d long abandoned the name), but I’ve been called Ele, Elem, Eleme, Elemen, Element…

A couple other highlights I remember were Hiatus (in a browser game I don’t remember the name of), OldHeavens (NewGrounds) and Barbute (ArmorGames).

It wasn’t until I came up with Krix Jace, later Krixwell Jace, that I started stabilizing my name.

1. Do you think people ever submit misleading questions just to fuck with you?

Some, probably. And that might be a good thing — if there are some asks that deliberately imply things that are wrong, it makes it harder to trust accidental implications of things that are right.

2. Have you ever noticed that Danny and Eidolon have never been in a scene together?

Hmmmmmm 🤔

Still no Travelers interlude… do you still think you’ll get one, or has this dashed your hopes?

Ahaha

Yeah, no, I’m counting this as everything I asked for and more. 😛

Sharks:

http://www.nospoiler.com/y/WenCYI_Bn7I

Sent in by “ewerwqer”. “Simurgh Scream” by person257 Don’t… Open it with headphones on. Trust me. Don’t.

I’m scared.

*disconnects his headphones*

…not as bad as the description sounded, but yeah, probably a good idea to not use headphones. It’s a well put-together bit of mind noise, nice work. 🙂

Worm fanart

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By Winkle92

Oooh, there are more of these? Awesome! They’re all going in my backgrounds folder.

I love how Behemoth just kinda peeks around the corner of the image border. It’s okay, don’t be shy!

(Also I just discovered I can do slideshows. Neat.)

K6BD ask

My favorite part is the Master of Aesthetic saying “she is an idiot, and a loathsome schemer!” and YISUN is all “YEP, YOU GOT THAT ONE RIGHT 😀 😀 :D”. With Aesma standing right there.

YISUN is the type of person who has “precious trash babies” in every fandom they’re in. 😛

I feel like you all need to know, even if you don’t care about MLP:FiM, that the final episode of the show proved us all wrong.

The show’s resident Skitter is not Queen Chrysalis, the villainous, scheming ruler of a hive full of insect ponies.

Nor is it Twilight Sparkle, the mainest character and socially awkward brainiac who leads a team of five other main characters and always does her research if she can.

No, because of this one episode, it becomes clear:

It’s Rarity.

…

Okay, that’s just a joke, Twilight is still the best fit among the Mane Six, but Rarity using spiders for her fashion did immediately make me think of Taylor.

Twilight – Taylor

Applejack – Brian

Rainbow Dash – Rachel

Rarity – Lisa

Fluttershy – Alec??

Pinkie Pie – Aisha??

(Spike – Shatterbird??????)

K6BD patron comments

1. “What happened to Hansa” is addressed in the Prim story so that’s still out there if you want to know.

Ahh. That would explain why it was left unexplained in Aesma, aside from acting as a noodle incident if you haven’t read Prim.

2. As you observed, the word “demon” has appeared very rarely in the comic, outside of epic title drops & an instance where drunk Allison used it in place of “devil”. It’s used in some of the bonus texts but without a clear definition. Can you speculate further on what it might mean?

The priests seem to call Aesma a demon in the sense of a being of evil, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a definition that’s relevant to the comic’s title (and what appears to be Allison’s “name” in some sense, though the Demiurges do seem to have misinterpreted other parts of the prophecy and Zoss didn’t unambiguously use it as a name). It may be more about inner demons, Allison killing her fears, doubts and insecurities as she grows into the role of a king/queen of the cosmos. Six billion might be hyperbole, in that case, but still.

Alternatively, the prophecy and name might actually refer to Zaid, who could easily end up being the final villain of this thing even if he’s not actually Zoss’ intended successor. In that case, “six billion demons” might refer to humans, if Zaid gets really nasty with his own species. We know very little about Zaid’s base personality beyond “kinda sleazy boyfriend”, so a lot of developments are plausible on that front.

Though there are other parts of the prophecy, as well as illustrations, that do fairly clearly indicate Kill Six Billion Demons is Allison and will be flanked by White Chain and Ciocie, so it referring to Zaid is unlikely.

3. I think the author once said that there are still Aesma-worshippers active in Throne. What do you think they’re like and what would she think of them?

(Somehow the flesh sellars come to mind.)

Well, clearly they’d be Slytherins, if they understand her teachings. Aesma might treat them as ants, if she were still around, but bask in their adoration.

4. Kalpa — a Hindu / Buddhist concept meaning a really fucking long time. Besides in the story you just read, the term has also appeared in the comic at least once so far.

Good to know. I think I kind of just assumed it was Throne’s equivalent of a year, however long it might be.

5. Panopticon — a prison design envisioned by philospopher Jeremy Bentham, allowing all prisoners to be observed from a central point.

Makes sense. When I read it in Aesma’s story, the word’s construction was clear enough that I figured out what it was immediately, before I finished reading the sentence. It very clearly means a place from which to see everything.

6. Root — penis.

Yeah, I figured that one out. 😛

7. To offset the unfortunate scarcity of Cio in your life lately, here’s some of the old concept art:

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(The quantity of arms was somewhat uncertain.)

Oooh.

Her arms and legs look so spidery here. I suppose that might be why she was introduced with the Coat of Arms.

Can Skitter control her?

8. Not related to K6BD but Abaddon has also been working on a tabletop mecha RPG and here’s the very nice cover art:

Ooh, you’re right, this looks very nice. It kind of gives me a K6BD x Steven Universe x Star Wars vibe. And a little bit of RWBY with that one guy that reminds me of Tyrian. I can definitely see the resemblance between this an K6BD in terms of character design style, despite the genre shift.

I particularly like the blonde in the lower left.

In the interest of transparency, I should also mention that the patron has said he probably won’t sponsor full liveblogs of any of the other bonus texts, but has sent me a few recommendations and links to some of the ones I’ve passed (besides Prim). I might read some of those on my own time, though, especially the second Aesma story. If I do, I will of course let you know and discuss any particularly notable observations.

Between: PB7

[meggannn]

the itsv commentary is so full of great facts and bts info so i wanted to write down all my favorite parts, but i just ended up writing down anything that was interesting, which was honestly most of it. four thousand words later i ended up with their commentary on practically half the movie. i’ve put the interesting or funny bits that i jotted down behind a cut if anyone is interested.

this commentary audio had Phil Lord (co-writer, producer), Chris Miller (producer), Bob Persichetti (co-director), Peter Ramsay (co-director), Rodney Rothman (co-director, co-writer), but it was kind of difficult to tell who was talking most of the time, so i didn’t include names on who said what, unless I knew for certain who was talking.

The first Miles sticker in the film is a “glitch” flashing on the Sony Pictures Animation logo. “Already putting his stamp on the movie.”

RIPeter is meant to be an amalgamation of all the Spider-Man we know, “good and bad” (as the dance happens, someone corrects him:) “Good and GREAT.”

(“I’ve got an excellent theme song, and a... so-so popsicle.”)

“That joke saved the movie.” “The dance move or the popsicle?” “The dance move. I resisted that dance joke and Rodney pushed hard for it (…) It told the audience what movie they were watching.”

“It was Rodney who was really pushing for him to be in this relatable idea of [Miles] not knowing the lyrics to this song but singing along.” “We started animating before the song was finished. It was really easy to not know the words then.”

“There are three very long shots that introduce Miles.” (The shot at home, the shot of him walking past Brooklyn Middle, the shot of him entering Visions.) “That was a deliberate choice, to open with a big crazy Spider-Man montage, and then with Miles, start a different pace, long shots, and just watch him and how he is, and don’t get too fancy with it. Although ironically these shots are really fancy.” The shot of him walking past Brooklyn Middle and the one of him walking into Visions are meant to directly contradict each other: his comfort zone vs him out of place in new surroundings. (Megan’s note: My take is that with these shots they might have been trying to represent his home, his past, and his future.)

“Everything [in this scene from color to sound] is meant to go from a very heightened experience with Peter to a very naturalistic experience with Miles.”

For the scene in the car, Shameik and Brian sat in chairs to set up in a car, with microphones and a rearview mirror. “Brian might have even been a little annoyed at Shameik a couple of times, and I think you can feel it in here, in a really wonderful way.”

(Talking about the chromatic aberration) “Sometimes it looks like you’re watching a 3D movie without the glasses on.” “That was on purpose.” “Every frame is supposed to feel like a piece of printed art.”

“On the cover of Great Expectations, there’s an image of Magwitch grabbing Pip’s shoulder in a cemetery.” “Foreshadowing!”

A side character named “Smiley Kid” is in several shots of miscellaneous Visions students. “Because he’s not a real person, I think we can say he is our least favorite person.” “I think he comes around. He’s great, then he’s bad, then he’s great again.” “He’s like the extra in every live action who worms his way to the front of every shot.” “He just almost always looks in the camera.”

Miles’s expression when the teacher calls him out at trying to fail was “completely ripped off of President Barack Obama.”

Benson Avenue was meant to call back to where one of their fathers grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

(“Hypnotize” by Notorious BIG playing on Aaron’s stereo) “Biggie Smalls in an animated Spider-Man movie. In what universe?” “This is the ideal timeline that we’re living in.”

(This comment is said as Miles presses his face on the glass:) “That changed people’s perceptions of the movie. When we had this in, it really lit people up.” (To be honest, I can’t tell if this comment was made in response to Biggie Smalls, or to Miles pressing his face on the glass.)

They all loved Mahershala Ali. “The shoulder touch would work if your voice sounded like Mahershala’s.” Everyone was in awe every time they recorded with him. “He makes you want to be a better person when you’re around him.” “He’s got a high bar.” “Then he goes away and it kinda wears off.”

The subway Aaron brings Miles to was a place he and Jeff used to paint in when they were young, which adds another layer to him talking about/missing Jeff when he mentions it to Miles. The age difference probably means Aaron was younger than Jeff, and now he’s the older one with Miles here.

There’s a bigger history between Jeff and Aaron that’s only hinted at, and part of it is the reason why Miles has his mother’s last name, not his father’s. It’s implied Jeff was worried his bad history would follow Miles if he took his last name. Also because “then he would be named Miles Davis.”

They were excited to depict a spider-man experiencing spider-sense for the first time.

“We did the most expensive thing. In all choices.”

“People ask, How does Miles with a cop and nurse parents afford Jordans? And the answer is, they were a gift from his uncle.”

(On Kingpin’s animation possibilities.) “We always had this idea that he was the living expression of a black hole. The right for him is this floating head on a body that we could scale up and down depending on the shot with hands at the end of arms.” “While creating a black hole, he is a black hole.”

Someone felt very passionate about including the dimensional map showing the other universes the collider was connecting with. “It felt so important to me.”

(Paraphrasing this one) “Once Phil and Lord gave the MO to push convention, the gauntlet had been thrown, we started getting crazy stuff back. And a lot of the time our art direction would just be like, ‘Yeah! COOL!' ‘Do more of that!’”

(Peter rolls his eyes as the Prowler menacingly steps forward) “I like that [RIPeter] is exhausted at the idea of being killed.”

“The Prowler chase sequence was the first sequence that went through the whole pipeline.” (This and the cemetery scene were the first.)

(The burst card of Miles jumping over the subway tracks) Bob Persichetti: “I had such high hopes to do a lot of burst cards, I think that’s the only one I actually did.”

(as Rio comforts Miles in Spanish) “We never translated on screen (…) The idea being, this is the fabric of Miles’s life.” “This was inspired obviously by Brian Michael Bendis” (co-creator of Miles Morales and his longtime writer) “and Miles’ bicultural background. But also Phil Lord grew up in a bilingual house.” “And I took Spanish in high school.”

(Stan Lee cameo) “[Stan is] the only performer in the movie who we went to. Everyone else came into recording studios, but Stan Lee, we dispatched the microphone to him.” “Everybody wanted to animate Stan.” “If you hit pause any time a train goes by, because everyone wanted to animate Stan, he’s in almost every single train.” “He’s an extra in a lot.”

(Miles reading comics before jumping off the building) “If you notice in that comic book, it’s True Life Tales of Spider-Man, and to keep his cover, his name is not Peter Parker. In the comic book, his name is Billy Barker.” “Great.” “Who could ever figure that out, right?”

A bunch of drawings around the grave of Peter Parker’s tombstone were all done by different kids of people on the show.

They mention the cemetery scenes was one of the first ones finalized. When they were still trying to figure out how to bring Miles to life, “you can see that his performance evolved from this [cemetery] scene.” “It’s super expressive.”

There was lots of debate on how much paunch should be on Peter B’s stomach. There are something like 3-5 different body models used throughout the movie.

They all loved the scenes of Peter B in his apartment: the cut to him crying in the shower, to pinned to the bed with his butt out, to his pose on the futon flipping through channels. Someone really liked “[his] little quivering [spidey] eyes on the seahorse shot.”

The comic book page-flipping device was a “late breaking” realization of how to transition between flashbacks and present day.

Chris Miller did the voice of the cop dispatcher on the radio saying the “Child dressed like Spider-Man dragging a homeless corpse behind a train” line. “The role I was born to play.”

In the walk-and-talk scene in the alley, they felt inspired to take a lot of crazy shots. “We were passionate that a Spider-Man movie needed to be shot from their point of view, where every surface can be the ground.”

“Because of questions on the internet, we took of one of Miles’s shoes. Just in case anybody wanted to know why he was sticking.” “Another thing that I was passionate about but nobody cared about but me.”

“One of the big tricks of this sequence and of this relationship was to let you believe that Peter was a good guy even though he was being a real… turkey… to Miles.” (Peter saying “No, does it look like it’s working? No! No, it’s not…”) “This was one of the few moments that we added kind of late just to know that he was a sweet pea underneath it all.” “Finding the right level for his not caring about Miles, and then learning to care about Miles, finding the right level from the beginning all the way through to the end, was something that took a lot of nuance.”

The interrogation/alley and burger scenes probably went through the most amount of reworks and rewriting than any others, because there was so much exposition and “you got tired” watching two heavy information scenes in a row. And given how often they said “this scene went through so many iterations” in this commentary, these two scenes must have been a LOT of rewrites. (Some of the alternate burger scenes can be seen in the film’s trailers and alternate universe cut.)

“I still kind of miss the unfinished version of this shot, where his feet… He had no toes for a really long time for some reason.” “You had to say like fifty times, ‘We’re gonna add toes right?’” “‘We’re gonna get his toes on there, right?’”

“One of the things about Kingpin is that he just magically appears outside of the car. Because there’s no way he could get actually get through the doorway.” “Maybe in the future where you guys are watching this ten years from now, someone will have figured out how to animate that. But in 2018 it’s still impossible.”

(Miles finding Peter in the vents) “These moments were really when you started to feel the relationship between the two of them develop.” “I love that Miles has to fight to occupy the same space and become an equal to Peter.”

(Peter mockingly blah-blahing as Doc Ock explains the danger of the collider, then saying afterward “Oh nevermind, that is bad.”) “For the sake of a laugh, we undercut the stakes, and then immediately had to buy the stakes back.”

“We went through probably 70 different version of what Miles would look like while invisible … and I like how how he comes in and out of invisibility was stylized to some degree.”

They say the Doc Ock/Peter scene was “really really bad at one point” and now it’s “one of the most wonderful surprises.”

Ock’s computer is based off of Phil Lord’s actual desktop. Some files are cut off the edges of the screen because they just dragged things off of the internet.

(Peter glitching in the chair) “I’m remembering all of the conversations that determined that it was funniest if you left Peter’s head unglitched.”

It was Justin Thompson’s idea to use soft robotics for this version of Dock Ock’s tentacles.

Everyone, from animation to the sound team, saw Doc Ock’s tentacles about 3 months before completion, went (exasperated) “Oh THAT’S what they look like? We’ll have to redo X Y Z whole thing…”

You can tell they loved the monitor joke. “Very silly things happening around very cool things.”

The Bagel! text was added last minute. “That was a joke pitch by Justin that was taken seriously.”

“Everyone felt empowered to pitch crazy ideas, and that’s why it felt so rich and deep.”

“It’s no understatement to say that this look in the forest is one of the hardest things in a movie like this. To make something look realistic is something we know how to do pretty well. But to make it look graphic and illustrative is almost impossible.” “Especially when you’re close and far to trees within the same shot at times.” “We had so many conversations with Danny, our V Effects supervisor, like, ‘But, you guys, we’re going to be in a forest, you really don’t want the leaves to rustle in the wind?' ‘No, we’ll be okay!’” (Later, when Peter and Miles swing off together, the leaves rustle:) “See, the leaves can move, guys!” “We just CHOSE for them not to.” “It was an absolute creative choice.”

“This is another moment in the story when we really open this beat up to let Peter and Miles have a victory together and cement their bond, that you really were rooting for their relationship. We breezed through this quickly and you didn’t have the same connection with the two of them.” “One of the things in the screenplay that we discovered really late is that you needed to have a lot of smaller, positive accomplishments throughout the center of the movie to have it work right.” “(…) This middle section of the movie is about Peter and Miles learning to fall for each other, basically.”

(During Gwen’s intro) “We give just enough to hopefully tease you guys into being really into each one of these characters’ origin story.”

“One week of days and nights just passed in that one shot.” “She hit a time anomaly on her way to this dimension.”

“She vibes with Miles after he had been bitten by the spider, and she purposefully bumped into him there, in case you didn’t catch that.”

“We were trying to make Ock such an intelligent and socially awkward person that then turns into this really formidable equal to Kingpin.”

(When Peter thwips May’s doorbell and then exhales with his hands on his hips.) “One of my favorite poses in the movie.” “That pose gets a laugh all by itself.”

“‘You look tired’ is a thing my mom says to me every time I see her.” “It’s accurate.”

“I fought hard to have (May) kick that door open.” “I tried to cut that and then you uncut it, correctly.” “Let’s be honest, she’s not treating her house very well.”

(In the Spidey Lair) “Lots of Easter eggs here.” “We should’ve put an actual Easter egg in this shot.”

They debated for a long time putting the B-team spiders in the picture at all, knowing it would be more work, wanting to make their characters worth being in the picture without taking away from Miles. “Nothing worked in the movie until it had something to do with Miles and his story.”

(On the spider team testing Miles:) This angle was “late-breaking, on the backside”: “This made it feel like they all cared about Miles, even though they maybe didn’t believe in him.” “Just Peter going ‘Cool it.’ For the longest time we didn’t have something like that.”

(Pretty sure this is Peter Ramsay) “When you’re making a movie it’s like you’re building an emotion machine. You’ve gotta have all the parts calibrated the right way, make sure it’s properly oiled, cause if it isn’t, the gears are gonna stick, and you’re not gonna feel right.”

The Prowler Sound™ is not a jaguar or cat, but an elephant. “We only did the dark scenes first cause they were easier to light.” (Some of those scenes they mention are Miles running from the Prowler, the cemetery scene, Miles writing the note in Aaron’s apartment.)

They tried about a million songs for Peni while she makes a new goober. (The song used is not in the soundtrack, but it’s “Want It Here” by Xenia Pax.)

(On Peni’s Heelies) “This shot’s not long enough to get her from the kitchen to the couch.” “Is that why?!” “That’s one hundred percent why. Just put those little wheelies on here!”

In the first draft, there was an idea there RIPeter was a grad student under tutelage of male Doc Ock so that’s how Liv and Ock knew each other.

“The table pushing into Miles. That was something my older brother, when we would fight when we were kids, he would do that to me.”

(When Aaron closes his eyes, refusing to kill Miles:) “That little look. ‘Cause he knows what’s coming.”

(They’re all quiet as Miles carries Aaron to safety, caught up in the scene.) “We’re all kind of gripped.” “We’re supposed to be giving interesting anecdotes here, guys, come on.” “It was so cold that day…”

Prowler’s death was the first session they did with Mahershala. “He’s a method actor, and his death scene, it was like he was really dying.”

“We gave animators the freedom. You can make Miles unattractive. He can ugly cry, because this is raw and it feels so emotional.”

(When Miles throws his sketchbook out the window, only for it to immediately come flying back in:) “It’s a one-shot transition from deep emotion and regret and pain. We said, ‘He’s gonna throw the one thing out that really represents his uncle, yet it’s gonna come flying back in.’ It was hard to make that shot work.” “It’s a great story statement that you can’t lose the things that make up your past.”

When everyone is talking about someone they’ve lost, an alternate line has Ham saying “I lost my uncle. He was electrocuted, and it smelled so good.” It got a lot of laughs, but the team says that from then on, the audience “resisted” Ham because he killed the mood, and it was hard for people to see him as anything other than a goofy cartoon, so they changed the line to “Miles, the hardest part about this job is you can’t always save everyone.” (Megan’s note: I think they probably didn’t bother to re-animate the others’ facial reactions after changing Ham’s line, because judging by the reactions from Peter and Miles in this shot it feels like Ham just said something annoying/out of place lol.)

When Peter says “It wasn’t their decision” (for Miles to stay behind), Miles has a very quick reaction shot where he turns away, bites his lip, and shakes his head. Someone mentions it’s one of their favorite shots of Miles.

(On the scene with Miles and his dad at the door) “When Brian Tyree Henry saw this scene [with a rough performance, just animation], he got the movie. It made such an impression on him. He was very happy to come in and pick any lines up for us and just keep working.” “We were working on the shots on layup for this. The idea of having them be on thirds to start, then coming closer, and finally ending with the final split-screen shot at the end.” “And Jefferson crosses the scene, which I think is really interesting. They start off on opposite sides of the screen. He makes the first move.” “It’s amazing to me to see Miles transformed by his father.” “It feels earned.”

“In an earlier version of that scene, Aunt May gave him a version of that speech, which was nice, but it needed to be Dad.”

(Later on, someone mentions:) “Tom was the first one to say ‘It shouldn’t be Aunt May at the door, it should be Dad.’ And we all sort of slapped our foreheads going ‘That’s absolutely right.’”

“After our premiere, my 9yo son [Luca? Luka?] asked me this. ‘So Papa, you know Miles spray-paints one of those suits and it becomes his suit. Super cool, Papa, but it shouldn’t fit him. It’s way bigger.’” (Laughter) “Did he have to wait a few hours for it to dry?” "We cut out the sequence where Aunt May sewed it tighter and altered it.” “And they had the hair-dryer express drying it. ‘Your friends are in danger.’ ‘Well just let me let it dry first!” “I tell you, spray paint, five minutes and you’re dry.” “She pre-altered it. She knew he was coming. She said, ‘It took you long enough.’ It all happened in advance.”

“The scene of Miles falling and everything slowing down and I always appreciated that Phil called out he was ‘falling and rising’ and the same time.” “It made the movie. A rare thing that goes from the stage directions all the way through production and onto the screen.”

“This sequence used to end with him getting hit by a truck. But really felt like it was time for Miles to get a big victory.” (Megan’s note: This scene is shown in draft stage in the alternate universe cut. Miles makes his leap, free-runs over some trucks and buildings, and his scene is interrupted when he gets hit by a truck and crashes to the ground. There’s a moment where he collects himself, the pushes himself to his feet and runs off into the city to join the others at the collider. I interpret this idea to be their showing how Miles fully embraces the “Get back up” lesson, since Miles’s pose in the sketches imitates the same one in the basement when the spiders are hazing him and he’s on the ground.) “And now people applaud.” “There’s a general attitude with this movie that was like, ‘How can we do things differently?’ That was a case of when we were like, ‘What if we didn’t have the audience feel really good in this moment?” (Laughter) “What if we had them feel really bad? Right at the moment they want to feel good, what if we made them feel terrible?” (Joking) “Let’s poke THEM in the eye.” “I think in early drafts, we just were like, Miles is losing and falling short the whole movie until the very end. And when we put that up, we realized that you needed to see him slowly winning and winning and winning until he won even bigger at the end.”

A set-up that never fully made it in the movie is that Fisk runs charities for Spider-Man and that’s why the dinner was set up like it was.

The bread scene was on the chopping block for a long time. “By adding this interaction, and making it about Peter and MJ and something real, all of a sudden this scene was worth it.” “It’s necessary to know what Peter’s giving up by sacrificing himself.” “It lasts just long enough because we learned that if you stay way from Miles too long--” (They interrupt here to point out two cameo people at dinner, “Danny and Josh,” who I couldn’t get a cap of) “--We lose our connection to the movie in a way. But at this point we care enough about Peter to want him to get back to MJ too.”

“The servers that were holding the movie were moving slow by the end of this shoot. And we had the best computers.” “At a certain point I think we overloaded Imageworks’ server. There was a moment they were afraid the movie was going to break their machine.” “Which was our whole idea. Our whole approach was, how do we break these pipes that make the movie?”

(During the final collider fight sequence, but they don’t specify what idea this was about specifically:) Chris Miller: “One of the only times I can ever remember saying ‘Okay you’ve gone too far.’ There was one brand where I was like, ‘I don’t get this.’ A few of the drawings that were somehow even more insane than this.” “What you’re saying, Chris, is that there’s a version of this scene that’s even crazier than this?” “Literally the only time I can remember going, ‘Okay guys, you’ve done it. You’ve broken it.’”

“I’m sure there’s are filmmakers watching this, so I think this is a learnable lesson from this sequence. Which is if you want to put something super crazy in your movie, wait until the very end when a lot of movie has been spent on your movie and your release date is 3 to 4 months away and they literally cannot stop you or else they have no movie.”

One of them points out Miles webs a turntable to propel himself upward. (Megan’s note: Miles also does this just as his own theme starts playing, which starts off with a record-scratch. I thought that was cool.)

(The moment when Gwen calls Miles “Spider-Man”:) “That choice went through a lot of iterations like “What’s the end of their relationship?” That she calls him Spider-Man instead of giving him a kiss on the cheek? It makes me well up just thinking about it.”

Kingpin breaks the glass of a building and the pieces fly toward Miles. Bob Persichetti calls these “Dorito chips.”

After the train enters a collider steam, there are versions of the interior of the train that flash from all five dimensions. There’s a futuristic Peni version, an old-timey Noir version, there’s a Gwen version… “As it passes through the beam, you get to see five versions of the train existing at once.”

(Vanessa and Richard seeing Kingpin) “This idea of repeating mistakes (for Kingpin). No matter what, he was gong to keep repeating these mistakes.” “He’s still who he is.”

“It was my dream to have Kingpin headbutt Miles and it finally came true.”

Each one of these character is in a black costume, and black surrounds them, and yet you can still see what’s happening.

“I remember people wanting to cut the shoulder-touch at the end.” “Who wanted to cut this?!” (Overlapping chatter) “No names in the screen.” “I remember feeling, oh my god. You’re LUCKY you got the shoulder touch in.” “The fact that you could pay off a set up that wasn’t even a set up…”

(On Miles seeing inside the universe as the collider explodes) “And then this. How long can it be? Let’s make it way too long!”

“The Anvil (that clanks at the end) was in Ham’s pocket?” “In the hammer space.”

(Miles hugs Jefferson) “This was the moment everybody went ‘Oh, YES.’ No matter what, we have to get to the hug, and the disguised voice, and the ‘I love you.’”

Someone describes the ending soundtrack as “Miles’ playlist meets Aaron’s playlist meets a superhero movie.”

They indirectly confirm Peter B and MJ do get back together. “Peter B gets his happy ending.” Another bit someone mentions was a late addition.

“I like that the movie starts and ends with Miles in his bedroom by himself.”

“We could do a whole other commentary saying completely different things.” “Probably four.” “We should do an alternate universe commentary.”

“You’re your own champion, I think that’s the idea. This is a story of empowerment. A champion is not coming from outside of you to come and save you. It’s your job.”

(As the credits roll) “Every name you see right now, we’ve seen them cry.” “We’ve made them cry.” “Every name you see right now has yelled at us.”

(On the post-credits scene) “We thought of this (post-credits scene) two months ago.” (They recorded this commentary in Dec 2018.) “We wanted to get Miguel in there and show the opportunities of where the multiverse could go.”

“I looked this up. This IS the most expensive dumb joke of all time.”

“We didn’t finish cleaning the cell on that close-up of Spider-Man.”

[mechagalaxy]

John T Mainer 28840:  Happy Faction War to all, lets have a good fight.

I climbed the last of the steps to my Redeemer using the hand holds on the chest vents.  Its a bitch coming down because the Redeemer is a steam powered machine for its internal suspension, so you can get burned bad if you forget to armour up before dismounts after a rough battle, but the Redeemer isn't from around here.  It is a Metaverse machine, from the alternate dimension those lunatics from Xeon and Unification tore open when they decided their civil war couldn't die with their worlds.  The poor innocents in the Metaverse didn't know a lot that we do now, we had to teach them about the Clans, and the way free warriors could stand together against the nations, and keep war from spilling into the cities and turning them into abattoirs filled with civilian dead who had neither stake nor vote in their fate, and had no reason to die for it.  In return, the silly bastards taught us it was possible to build bigger than 100 tons, my Redeemer stands a proud 105, and Ramba Ral's Penner stands a brooding 110.  Time marches on, progress they tell me, but the old ways are still best for some things.

"Berserker Actual this is Slaughter 6, Contact"  Jim Faust was calling on  the Berserkers strategic channel, we were not grouped in our clans, or he would be standing with his Slaugherhouse 5 against what came, and be ground to pieces.  He would be running his local tactical net for the scouts he was running for the Berserkers, and I had Darren, Christine, Rob, and others already coming on line as they heard the Contact call.  Each of them commanded a battle group in the Berserkers, each of them a skilled and proven Clan leader in their own right.  I had a dozen officers on line right now that could take command and run the battle that would develop like seasoned professionals; that was the strength of a Faction, the depth of talent not just in fighters, but in command.  I was going to use it.

"Slaughter 6, break it down, what are we facing?"  I had the tac feed from his machine, that told me what he was facing directly.  He had a dozen Reindeer, some of those crazy orange abortions and blue Vupa Walkers that no sane manufacturer knew how to make on his screen trying to punch through his scouts.  They were screening something, and sensors couldn't tell you what, just a tonnage range from seismic sensors and a rough energy signature that told you not a lot, save that it was making the warbook go schizophrenic as it changed like the best EW known to man, or insane AI in the case of I AM on Vupa 6, could do.  Jim was a pro, he had seen it all, a true leader makes the tough call based on instincts won by surviving based on trusting instincts and committing before your computers had enough to react on.  Faction War gave me enough leaders I could let the man on the scene make the call because he could see enough to guess, and the rest of us could trust it enough to commit like it was our own guess.

"I read it as Elves boss, call it a minimum Legion strength"

Well bite my Yule Log, it was true.  Santa Clause was coming to town.

Orders snapped out almost without thinking.

"Don, Mariea, Holy Damn, Werewolf on me.  Move to the gap at Epsilon 89, echelon right, refuse flank, pivot on me.  We are NOT going to stop them, we are going to turn them, let them push us against the Lesser Ural Mountains.  We make them take the long way to the gate.  Rob, Sten, Caitlyn, get in your Novums and Axebots and get into those hills, I don't want Santa getting any scouts up there to let him know we don't have the Faction behind us, or he will pin and slaughter us, not punch through and break for the gate.  Christine, set up a secondary blocking position at Delta 5, not too strong, let him punch through your center, just harass and slow."

A legion of Elves, 1200 plus of Santa's little helpers, each one cranking top rated cannons, forests of Xmas trees haunting the flanks with Tandem Bomb wide forking missiles to sweep both scouts and mines from their path, and those damned Reindeer scouts with their crazy antler EW suites that jammed higher communication once they closed.  Let them get in close and higher level command became impossible.  In a normal fight, that meant disaster, as troops couldn't respond to changes without orders.  In a good Faction, you had clan level commanders scattered with their command teams throughout the formation, and local command devolved onto someone who was not only up to the job, but used to it.  We couldn't stop them force on force, but we could stop their mission.  It was not about machines in the end, not about niodes or glory, it was about trusting people, and getting the most out of them.

"Berserker Actual to Banzai 6, join me on discrete"  I was calling Darren Jackson from Myth and Legends Team Banzai to play our trump card and shut down Santa for the moment.

"Go for Banzai 6,"  Darren's voice was tired and half awake, and the panting in the background told me he was racing to his machine as we spoke.  Even right from the rack, true professionals were ready for combat.

"Banzai 6, has the Good Doctor worked his usual magic, he thought he might be able to reconstruct that signal that Artemis Molly scrubbed from her Vizi when she got jumped on that courier run for the Craftsmen by the Kanabo Crushers"  Doctor Banzai thought he knew what it was.  He understood gate codes better than Drocha did, and was less likely to destroy the universe with it by playing around, and he thought he saw a Crafstman override in that code.  If he got it, we might be able to stop Santa from breaking through.

"Berserker Actual, Doctor Banzai says it will work, Perfect Tommy says it will just blow up, but New Jersey says the math looks solid, and it will hold for at least a week, two at the outside"  That was Team Banzai for you, mad bad and dangerous to bystanders, but I was a Bunny myself and not over prone to fear or good sense.

"Banzai 6, screen the gate until Doctor B says he's uploaded the code, then let yourself get pushed off it.  Just try to get a trailer on them when they pull back, we need to find out where Santa is staging out of, we need to get the Factions together to stamp him out, or its going to be a White Christmas when his mecha stomp our burned out ashes into the snow.  Get me his vector, and maybe this was worth it"  Dying to buy time is a soldiers job too often, living to buy information is a professionals job.  We were about to see if we were good enough to do it.

The reactors in my Redeemer were shunting power to my amplifiers, my cannons would be running about 130% at base, with about a one in two chance of both x2 and x3 amplification, an outside shot at more, I was more happy with the one in three chance of an outright critical kill, as if the fat man was there himself, nothing less than a critical kill would take him down.  I have seen him take a 12000 point shot to the beard and cut the firing mecha in half with enough left over to shut down both his wingmen and blast the mecha behind right off its legs.  Against him, you were better off praying for lucky than good, he was just too much, well everything.

Paladin was the name of my Redeemer, a tarnished knight with bunny ears was the logo.  That was me, not the strongest by far, there were whole clans of 400 level niode monsters who could brush me aside, there were even people at lower level who had so much power in their lineup that they could stand off my best attacks, match my top lines mecha for mecha, then cut through the back half of my machines like tissue paper because they were top line machines, weapons and gear front to back, and I was, well, not.  Paladin's didn't fight the safe fights, didn't ask for a chance at victory, they raised their banners to defend the weak and damned be any that stood against them (also most who followed them, but hey if you wanted safe, become an accountant, not a mecha jock).

Werewolf howled, and Holy Damn screamed curses of binaric machine cant.  Not what you would call rational, but at least as good of a contact report as I needed.  I translated for those who hadn't twigged in already.

"Shields on full, weapons hot, here they come!"  I screamed as I put my massive ceramite shield in front of me.  Sandwiched layers of Ferro/crystaline armour powered by a shield net that disrupted energy weapons and scrambled incoming missile active targeting systems, it wasn't just a big block of armour to hide behind and shoot, but it was also a big block of armour to hide behind and shoot, because Paladin had over twice the precision of his dodge, because he was here to kill not to survive.  Survival was secondary to mission, so if I wanted to get out of this alive, I had best get tot he shooting.

A howling mob of missiles arched in before the mecha crested the saddle pass, but my shield caused them to thunder in well short or howl past harmlessly.  I read the seismic sensors and plotted the vector of the incoming and fired my Juggernaut as the first signal should reach the crest.  I watched as it caught one of the Elves right at the pointy cap line and slammed the tall machine to the ground as its cockpit soared overhead to land in the rank behind, crashing into another machine at the left shoulder joint, I let my burst wander over the same machine with the last few of that casset before it spat from my gun.  The second line wasn't so perfect anymore.

Seig Zeon my Penner fired next, his cannons were deadlier than mine, and his Elf split in half, showering its neighbors with bits of dead elf.  They got their own back though as a spider like leg soaring overhead indicated the loss of signal from Ugly MOFO wasn't jamming, someone had turned the spider like fire-support mecha into a nice holiday fire, along with the Predator drones I was counting on getting some kills with.  That seemed to fire up Rover, my big golden kitty, as the 110 ton brute let fly his rage from his Okha flamers bathed the whole hillside in wide forking hellfire.  

It didn't stop them.  I felt the hit on my shield as an Elf physically rammed me.  I set my heel and pushed back, then rammed my gun against his pointy head and Decimated his brainpan with some depleted uranium through the cranium.

There was a shattering explosion and the turret from Rover, my wing Cyberdon knocked my cannon arm out of line.  His killer stepped close.

“He was dressed all in flames, from his head to his foot,

And his armour was all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of guns he had flung on his back,

And he looked like an army with a city to sack.

His shields -- how they twinkled! his gunsights how merry!

His capacitors were like roses, his lasing crystals like a cherry!

His EW emitters were all powered with a glow,

And my displays all dissolved in meaningless snow;

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I was pretty much dead;”

The Tinsel EMP shorted my control systems through my implant, but the tinsel bridged the breakers and wouldn’t let the surge suppressors and emergency cut outs break the link, so I fell screaming with Paladin, the AI and I joined as the mecha spasmed apart, its electrical and powers systems shorting through the hull, the steam of its suspension systems blasted through the cockpit and unconsciousness kept me from the rest of the experience.

When I came to, the icons on my rebooting display told it all.  My command was crushed, Santa and the horde were pressing Christine in the final blocking position.  She was singing.

“Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Eating all the gum drops he can see

Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!

Leave some there for me”

That is a bad sign, she only sings the Kookaburra song when she gets a chance to stick somebody with her Vorpal Sword.  She was supposed to let them push her forces out of the way, not let it turn into a slugging match we couldn’t win.  I opened her display to see her Guardian (Mama Bunny) kick an Elf off her Vorpal sword, and bring her shield in line against Santa himself.  It didn’t help.  He frosted her from head to foot with a Proton Blade, the ice shattering the superconductive coils in her weapons, the magnetic repulsion powering her joints, and sending microfactures through her engine amplifier shield emitters.  Emergency shunts screamed as they ejected her fusion core out the back blast plates as her machine gutted itself to prevent pilot and AI death.

I saw Darren withdrawing Team Banzai from the gate and punched through direct.

“Did we do it?”

Dr Banzai himself replied.  “Berserker Actual, the code recovered from Artemis Molly is holding, the gates in this sector have been reprogramed to Single Rainbow lock.  No one is getting mecha out of here more than a handful at a time.  Evil Santa won’t be going anywhere for between one to two weeks.”

Evil Santa’s reaction was Claus for alarm:

“He continued to slay, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he strode from the fight,

BACK AT CHRISTMAS FOR YOU ALL , AND WE’LL FINISH THIS FIGHT!”

John T Mainer 28840

Happy Faction War to all, lets have a good fight.