#BUT THIS IS STILL THE BEST SCENE IN CINEMATIC HISTORY | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

meatball-headache · 2 months ago

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I have completed The New War. It is indisputably Warframe's greatest, grandest, epickest, most unique quest.

...so, it's worth a few words, but where do I begin?

Wow. Okay. Well... that's, that's certainly something.

Okay, but... Warframe's story quests... somewhat baffle me. Maybe it's me. As I often confess, I don't play games with a lot of cinematic story these days, FFXIV being the exception to every rule. I played Red Dead Online instead of the actual game, so I could just get to the action without being bogged down by story. That's why I like things like Bloodborne and Warframe, which have this deep, cool lore, but the game just starts with you playing, and you figure it out from the game itself, rather than having it all explained in cutscenes.

So, seeing cutscenes in Warframe is a fascinating experience. I know these characters, Ballas, Teshin, Margulis... or, at least, I've heard of them. But, I feel like I've missed some introduction. Teshin, for example. The first time I saw him was when I did Duviri. This was before I did the Second Dream, even—for some reason, I did Duviri right when it came out. So, Teshin's a Duviri character. But, later, in the War Within, you deal with Teshin a lot, and your Operator speaks as if she knows him well already. There's no mention of Duviri at all! So... what am I supposed to know this guy from?

It's a little like Destiny 2, which I hated. Whenever I'd play that game, once every couple months, it would open with me in a mission, characters I don't know telling me to fight someone I never heard of, all the while someone I never met is congratulating me for killing some boss I don't remember. Then after that mission, you're locked out of the story unless you subscribe for real money... so I was constantly confused.

Let's look at Warframe specifically. Where we last left the story, in the, the Apostasy Prologue, I think? That was just a cutscene where we saw Ballas pull the Lotus from a machine and take her away. No, no—it was the Sacrifice, where we fought the Umbra Warframe, and we kept having these cutscenes where we had the POV of someone sick in bed, playing a board game against Ballas, and someone else watching on. The name "Ballas" was familiar from dialogue in the Second Dream, where we gathered that he was some important figure from Orokin history. But who were we in that scene? Are we supposed to be Teshin or something?

Maybe I'm just dumb, coddled by FFXIV's all-access story where Y'shtola or Alphinaud are on hand to explain everything. Maybe I've been ruined by growing up on JRPGs with tropey plots and bad translations, and never had to challenge myself with actual literary analysis.

No, no. Well, yes, I could still be dumb, but, here's what I think. I think that's the game's intent. It wants to baffle you, drop you into scenes with characters you're sort-of heard of, and let you piece together just what's going on. So, if we look at where we left off and where we began yesterday, in the previous cutscene, Ballas—who's apparently just alive and around—takes the Lotus out of her Lotus machine or whatever and leaves with her. Lotus seems to go willingly. How, and why? We don't get a clear answer. In fact, we don't even get a clear question, we just want to get the Lotus back. With the beginning of The New War, we have a full-scale attack from the Sentients against everything and everyone, and we see the Grineer, the Corpus, the Ostrons, and our old friend (apparently) Teshin himself fighting against them. We hear Erra's comments on our "slapdash" alliance. Wait, we're allied?

Yeah, obviously. See, a lesser game, like FFXIV, would've had a whole series of drawn-out cutscenes where the danger is revealed, the heads of state get together to discuss their options, they agree an alliance is their best hope, they appoint Alphinaud as the overall leader, they discuss their plan... (I disparage FFXIV a little bit. Dawntrail had a similar scene, but it just cut to Vrtra blasting the mothership—thought we did pause on Koana to here him explain what's going on and why.) Warframe did none of that. We had a scene where we saw Erra with Ballas in shackles, apparently, and the Lotus turned into a Sentient, and then we cut to—

Right off the bat, The New War is a whole nother thing. Rather than make you sit through cutscenes ELI5ing you, it goes straight to the action. The game—the devs—trust the intelligence of the player to get what's going on from context, and, they attack your emotions directly by thrusting you into the danger immediately, rather than letting you get settled and learn everything about what's happening.

Kahl-175's chapter was beautiful. First we saw the Ostron get attacked, and Erra approached a child and said sweetly, "Don't be afraid." Is he... going to kill the child? Or... just capture them, maybe? We cut to Kahl, injured, loyally responding to Vay Hek's commands. He bravely sallies forth, but then when he sees another Grineer—another brother—go down, he goes to help, but it's too late. He plans to sacrifice himself as a living bomb to blow up the enemy base, "For the Queens!" So he fights through waves of Sentients, finds a bomb, and finally climbs, injured badly, to the base of the... base, and sets off the bomb, not for the Queens, but, "For my brothers."

...but the bomb doesn't go off. Time stops. Erra is there. "Don't be afraid," he says.

Oh.

He's definitely going to kill Kahl. His noble plan failed. And this means, Erra definitely killed the Ostrons, too. Shit just got really real.

Next we meet Veso in the weak middle act, being berated by Alad V, and "nobly" fighting in the name of profit. (The Corpus' prophet is profit. Heh.) His section is full of puzzles that kind of baffled me. In fact, half the time, I didn't even know I was doing puzzles. That's Warframe for you—it'll helpfully put a waymarker exactly where you need to go, but it won't tell you what you need to do when you get there. (Usually it's Void Sling, which I always forget how to do.) In the end, he has to fight the goddamned Jackal... I strugged with that and died a lot, but eventually got it done. I think the game took pity on me and gave me an automatic win because looking back on it, I don't think it had a life bar on that last attempt? At any rate, Alad V wants to surrender to the Sentients—honestly, a logical idea, because there's no way they can win—but Veso overrides his override and syncs the fleet in one grand, albeit futile attack.

And then Teshin shows up, because of course he does. Teshin's a major character in these story quests, but his introduction is still a complete mystery. This is where I draw the line between "the game trusts the player to understand what's going on" and "okay, I definitely missed an intro quest somewhere." I think he's the NPC you talk to for PVP? Which no one does. My guess is when PVP was added, there was something introducing him. Maybe there's just a video on the Youtube, like how FFXIV 1.0 ended. (I'll do my own headcanon, hang on... Okay, so at the beginning of the game when you first get to your first Relay, Teshin senses the presence of a Warframe and goes to you, saying, "So, the Tenno are back..." Then he leaves and leaves you wondering what the heck.)

Anyway, now you do Teshin's chapter, and, it's worth mentioning, each of these chapters have their own UIs, their own unique skills, their own style of shields and HP. I've noticed this about Warframe: it makes every scene unique. Think back to the scene where you're a sick person in bed playing a board game against Ballas. It's not just a cutscene you watch, you actually play the board game. Someone went through the effort of programming in a minigame for you to play during a dialogue cutscene. Again, this is something any lesser game would have you do separately, so you can watch the cutscene and focus on it, and then play the minigame and focus on it. Warframe, again, trusts the player's intelligence to do both at the same time—or, they trust that it will be just too much to do all at once. I'm trying to solve this new minigame while listening to new information, and it makes it hard to process all of it—which, I think, is the point. Warframe wants to keep you completely on your toes. I kept putting down my controller during cutscenes to take screenshots, only to snatch it up again once I realize, I'm supposed to be aiming that beam or something.

Warframe loves to give you puzzles and no explanation. I can respect that. Some are really confusing, and to my shame, I was not able to first-try... nearly anything in this quest. I did Kahl's chapter on the first try, but everyone else died all over the place. And, what's really interesting, is that it's not a case like, again, the only other game I play FFXIV, where if you die, now you know what that does, and you don't die to that again. In Warframe I just had to try and try again until I figured out, one, what the game was asking me to do, and two, how to do it.

At the end of Teshin's chapter, there's a confrontation, and then the Lotus is sucked into a vortex, the Operator is stabbed through the whole and sucked into a vortex, and then...

What the... What the hell is going on? First, they make you sign a contract to begin the mission, and now this!? ...or... is this because I was idle for like 45 minutes at one point and my computer turned off Wifi when it went to sleep? It's probably the latter, but in the moment, it was certainly a fourth-wall-breaking mindfuck of the ultimate degree. I was already completely hooked, and now this?

Now we see Ballas as a king. Wasn't he shackled by Erra? Why's he in charge now? Was their a conflict between the two that we didn't see? Was this their plan from the beginning? Will it be explained if I keep playing or is this all we're going to get?

Naturally, I kept playing, and then—

...if this dude turns out to be my Duviri guy, I'm going to scream.

So now I'm Human Male, infiltrating the Narmer, which the context tells me is the kingdom Ballas made. "Narmer" is a familiar name. I've heard the song on Youtube, sans context, and I've seen notes saying that certain mods and arcanes and stuff can be gotten from "Narmer bounties," so there's something going on with them later. Human Male has a pistol, radar, and a smoke grenade—and a healing power reminiscient of what I had in Duviri. And that's it. Up against these guys that just dusted the Lotus and my invincible Warframe both, and conquered the entire solar system.

Again, no context. The game is letting us figure that out for our own—who this guy is, where he came from, what he's doing, and why. We're resisting the Narmer, of course. And, it says right there, rescue Ostron prisoners, so you know I'm doing that. He gets to the end of the level, and then there's something called an Archon, so he has to book it, and he goes...

...back to my ship.

Well, all my decorations are missing, but the colors are mine. Why is he in my ship? And then—

YEAH IT'S MY FUCKIN' DUVIRI GUY. Okay! Okay, so we're really doing this! Not only is it my Duviri guy, but he's got Ordis, too—and, somehow, what's left of the Lotus.

Why does he have the Lotus's remains? The game doesn't tell you, but, obviously, he went into the Void and found them. What, you think he ordered it from Amazon? He's trying to revive the Lotus, but so is Erra and Ballas—only, Erra wants to remake her as Natah, Ballas wants to remake her as Margulis, and John Duviri wants to remake her as the Lotus.

Now, in the quest Natah, we learned from Hunhow that the Lotus's real name is Natah. Then in the Second Dream, we heard the Lotus's voice actor being called Margulis. Margulis was apparently executed for treason or something, we don't know what happened to Natah, and now there's the Lotus. So, was Margulis not executed, but turned into the Lotus? Or, what? The Lotus is very mysterious. She has extremely powerful powers and is essentially a Tenno goddess. Perhaps more will be revealed in the fullness of time? But, the game is often content to not answer questions. Half the time it doesn't even ask questions, it just does what it wants and leaves it to you to grok what's going on.

So, we try to find out. First, John Duviri needs to steal a Corpus ship, so for that, we travel to Fortuna—and if "We All Lift Together" jumps into your head just by reading that name, you're not alone. But this time, we're treated to a different song...

"Praise the wise and mighty Ballas . . . "

Powerless against the Narmer, we enter the stealth section of the game... and this was really frustrating. I got caught dozens of times and this took me an hour or so. Especially inside the factory, I just couldn't figure out what to do on the left side for ages, until I finally opened my eyes and saw the extremely obvious way to go—so obvious, in fact, that the game pops up with a "Press L1 to Crouch" tutorial. Bro—do you think I made it to The New War without crouching? What do you think I've been doing for the whole stealth section thus far!? So, I stole a ship and went to Uranus (which is occupied by Grineer, so why do we need a Corpus ship?) where the Natah quest took place, and where we first encountered Sentients, and Hunhow. This time, though, we meet Hunhow in the flesh (?) and he gives us a magic weapon, the S-tier bow N... Nakurak? Nataruk. It's on Overframe.gg's tier list at the top of S rank, masked with a spoiler filter, which made me click it because, how could a weapon's name be a spoiler? It can't be that much of a spoiler, just a teaser, right? So I clicked it long ago and thought: yep this means nothing to me. But! Now, I had it, this famous bow. It must be good, then. And, yeah, it's pretty good—especially compared to my pistol.

Ah, I'm doing that thing again. Everyone hates when a Youtuber provides an "analysis" of some piece of media, and it turns out just to be recapping the story. That's exactly what I'm doing here. But, I'm also not pretending to provide a new and unique analysis—and I'm not writing and revising a script beforehand. I'm just thinking out loud, so to speak—so to type—and getting my thoughts out in writing. And part of that is retracing my steps through the story, refreshing my memory, and just sharing how I felt each step of the way. But you, dire reader, should have already done this quest—so there's nothing new for you, and if there is, shame shame, you're spoiling it for yourself. But that's all right, in the end, because I'm not writing for you, honestly, I'm just writing for myself. So it goes.

So, Hunhow introduces the three Archons to us, and now I'm thinking, okay, so the weird part's over and we're getting back to a normal video game now. Here's the "kill ten rats" part.

Hah.

But, on seeing the Archons, I noticed one thing right away. Actually, I think I saw it when John Duviri got chased by one in his first mission, but, they've got the body of a Warframe—recognizable ones, that's Mag, Rhino, and... I'm not sure about the other one but his powers seemed like Caliban's—and a Sentient on their head, with a crystal stuck through them both at the Warframe's head, like a linchpin. What would happen if you took the crystal out? What would happen if you stuck the crystal somewhere else? I'm vaguely aware that Archon Shards are some kind of game mechanic—can't be that complicated, though, because the top searches on the wiki are always Kuva Lich and Icarnon...

Anyway, right after that, we get a smash cut to a Zariman school? It's first person, but I know who I am. I'm my kid, back Before It All Happened, bored at school, as all kids throughout all time have been. There's a training drill for the crew, and we get to watch—only for it to fade back to Duviriman, and the battle against the Archons.

I went against the Owl first. Well, I went to Earth, first, I wasn't paying any attention to who was where. I kept dying because I wasn't listening when Hunhow was telling me how to attack the enemy weak spot for massive damage, but helpfully after I died, Ordis reminded me just vaguely enough for me to get what to do. Still hard, but I got it done, and just as I had suspected, he pulled out the crystals to kill them. One down, two to go! Thanks to my magic bow, this will be easy and normal!

Back to the Zariman. Something happened. The whole place is attacked and destroyed. Your classmates are crying in the corner, and I'm my kid, as I suspected. So, this is retelling the history of what happened on the Zariman. I just know what... a lot of bad shit happened, everyone was fighting everyone, it's complicated. There's Tenno, Sentient, and Orokin involved, and the Sentients made the Warframes to wipe out the Orokin? All tied together by the Lotus, which only makes things more confusing... But, anyway, yeah, time to see what really happened back then! My kid helps her friends, and then, in the corner...

"Is that me? Nah, we all have the same uniform, and there's only so many hair styles."

...I didn't get a screenshot, but that person turns around and yep, it's me. She has black eyes and says "Thanks, kiddo." End scene.

What the fuck is going on?! Once again—when the devs decided to start having cutscenes in Warframe, they clearly didn't consult any of the standard texts, or they did, and decided to skip all the rules. Half the time I'm playing in cutscenes. The entire time, crazy, weird shit is happening. From the beginning, Warframe has been nothing but baffling—no, no, "baffling" isn't the word. I've just been spoiled by having the Echo in FFXIV to let me go into the past and read people's mind and see exactly what happened to set things in motion. In Warframe, you don't get those Echoes. You just get... the experience, you just see the aftermath, so to speak, and it's on you to figure out what's happening and why.

Did you read Dune? It's fantastic. Better than fantastic—it's possibly perfect. Dune is rife with its own mythology, history, language, culture, all that—and at no point does the narration explain a single thing to you. The characters live in their world, and are completely comfortable with it. It's normal to them, they don't feel compelled to explain what the kwisatch haderach is, just like I don't feel compelled to have to explain who Jesus Christ is. Warframe has a similar aspect to it—you keep getting these scenes where characters might be talking about something about the Old War that they know all about, and you're in the dark, and that's that. They won't light the way for you, figure it out yourself, and if you can't, that's not their problem.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm trying to say—how I feel. Warframe's story is not badly written, but, it could seem that way. It could seem like there's plot holes, or missing pieces, or they're just jumping around at random. I don't have all the answers, and the game isn't telling me that I should even be asking questions. Everything is taken as a given. For instance, when you play as the Drifter, Ordis has a body. Ordis has a body!? When? How? Why? —none of these questions are relevant. Ordis has a body. Maybe the Drifter built a flying computer for Ordis to inhabit because the ship computer was offline. Maybe this is Ordis's true form, finally recovered from an ancient Old War battlefield. Maybe we're in a time loop and this is Ordis's original body, before he lost it and became the ship in the Warframe game that we've played thus far. The game's not putting a spotlight on it and saying, "Whoa, how mysterious, don't you wonder about that?" I do wonder about that! But the narrative takes it as a given and rolls with it, so I've just got to do the same.

And the same happens with bigger plot, too. In, what, the Sacrifice, or the Apostasy Prologue, something in there, we had a cutscene where we just see Ballas approach the Lotus and take her out of her Lotus machine and take her away. Or vice versa. I don't remember, and I think I have a screenshot of Lotus carrying Ballas. So... why is Ballas around? Isn't he an ancient Orokin, and weren't they wiped out? Where's he been, and why'd he get out? Where was the Lotus and how does he or anyone know where that is? Why was it possible to... anything that happened? There are lots of questions, but no time to ask them. The game simply says, "This is what's happening now. Try to keep up, kiddo."

...anyway, after the weirdness with your clone on the Zariman, the Drifter fights the second Archon, in my case it was Rhino on Mars. This was a much easier fight, I won the first time, though I didn't figure out his gimmick where he clones himself. I just shot them until I found the real one. I'm guessing, since the Owl required you to use the smokescreen ability, this one requires the radar ability? In any case, it was an easy fight, and we brought the crystal back to the Lotus, even though she was showing signs of hostility after the first crystal. This time she broke loose and attacked us, Ordis sacrificed himself to save us (but he turned out to be fine anyway), and Lotus flew away to do something mysterious and probably Ballas-related.

Then we're back on the Zariman where the kid is facing her clone who says—with great acting and facial expressions, by the way. This blows anything FFXIV has ever done with animations out of the water... but maybe that's typical of more Western games, there's more of a movie-based inspiration than anime or whatever? I just know every JRPG is filled with scenes of everyone just standing around taking their turns talking, whereas western games seem to be a lot more Hollywood. Anyway, the clone says she can save everyone... something something, I don't remember exactly, but it's a deal with the devil sorta thing. The kid accepts and they shake hands, and then—

I didn't get a good screenshot, but there are thousands and thousands of copies of the kid. And then I realized:

At the game's beginning, you controlled your Warframe, and Ordis called you "Operator," like he was speaking to you, the player, not the person inside the Warframe. There's not a person inside the Warframe, though. As we began to realize that in-world these things are remote-controlled somehow, we eventually did the Second Dream, and learned that it was the Tenno that control the Warframes. In the Second Dream, your Warframe rescues your you, your kid, from the pods in the Reservoir. One thing I wondered was, what about all the rest? Sure, it's a video game, so the bad guy goes after the player, but what about all the other Tenno sleeping in the Reservoir? But, with this scene, I realized...

I am every Tenno.

Every Warframe is piloted by this kid, the one survivor from the Zariman incident. She's copied thousands and thousands of times—infinite times, probably—through some kind of parallel time, multiverse shenanigans. It's extremely magical and totally unexplained. And, the thing is... Hunhow addressed the Drifter as "Tenno." He doesn't refute this at all. The Drifter is a Tenno as well, but there was only one survivor... in this timeline, maybe? Is he from another timeline where there was no Zariman disaster, or, somehow my grown-up self? (I like how they discuss in the cutscene whether he's just her from the future, and the game totally ignores that they're different genders. The kid just thinks "Huh, I guess I trans my gender when I grow up, okay then.") Or, something even more mind-bending? The same timeline, but just a different outcome—but still the same. Somehow.

It's fucking weird.

And I still have one more Archon to beat!

The writers for this game... well, the advice I know is "If you want to have good ideas, have lots of ideas." You come up with an idea for your story... and you throw it out and come up with one better. So they must've just had a lifetime of "Yeah... but what if instead..." and one-upping their ideas until they got to where they are now. The scene where the Drifter—now in a timeframe where he knows what's going on—sits down to dinner with the kid—who simultaneously just experienced the Zariman attack, and is also the kid we later play as, who "got all your Warframes back" as the Drifter asks—this scene is where my brain finally shut down and I understood. You're not supposed to be trying to understand this intellectually. You're supposed to be trying to understand this emotionally. Respond to the impact and magnificence that the game wants you to experience, rather than fussing over the little details of "Wait, why's he standing over there now?" It is beautiful, and it's art in the most extreme and perfect way.

Then, you get a strange choice, for the Drifter or the Operator. "To finish this," they say, so I assume it's just for the rest of this quest? Or, would this actually change my Operator into the Drifter permanently? I mean, this quest made me sign a contract before I started! Anything could happen.

I chose the Operator. I am the Operator. I've always been the Operator. And the Drifter, he's... also me, but not yet.

The Operator got stabbed by Ballas (or was it Erra? I don't remember, I was getting stabbed at the time) and fell into the Void with the remains of the Sentiented Lotus. How did the Operator survive? Obviously, she didn't. This is another identical copy, plucked from infinite timelines. The copy also got stabbed and died in the Void. Everything happened, has happened, will happen, and is happening. That kid was mumbling, "When are we gonna use this stuff?" during our Eternalism lesson, and hey! I wound up having to use it right away.

I also noticed, on the slides for the Eternalism lecture, that the recommended reading was some books by A. Entrati and E. Entrati. Our teacher was E. Entrati (I don't remember her first name)... and it occurred to me... I don't have Grandmother's name on Deimos yet, do I? Hm...

And then, final battle. The Lotus went to confront Ballas and we went to confront both. Erra had a change of heart and died on his own. No pity for bastards. And the fight, in true Warframe form, was a cinematic spectacle—I know FFXIV's trials and raids are spectacles, but Warframe, at its best, is like playing a movie. There's dialogue constantly, and the combat is a puzzle, reflecting beams at targets, baiting your foe's attacks, that sort of thing. I didn't even realize it was a boss battle, I didn't even realize it was a puzzle at first, I thought it was all cutscene for a while. It was intense, and once I realized that I'm part of it, the tension only amped up.

But, in the end, it's a video game. We defeated Ballas, and rescused the Lotus, and now everything is back to norm—WHAT IN THE HOLY NAME OF FUCK IS THAT????

All problems solved, Ballas done away with, Narmer's yoke broken, the mystery of the Lotus solved—and then this insane, preposterous, impossible thing. It loomed up with perfect megalophobia, and then... just grinned and smiled. On top sat the kid's clone, wearing the Lotus mask—the same weird creep that we chased during one early part of the quest. All it did was appear and smile and then it was gone, without a flash or bang or the remotest effect, it simply disappeared.

This is an absolutely bonkers ending to what was a pretty bonkers quest. The New War, as a whole, didn't answer a lot of questions about the Old War, the Orokins and Sentients, or what happened on the Zariman. In fact, it just raised a lot of new questions, introducing the Drifter and his impossible connection to the Operator... and this ending. What. Just... what.

Now, I'm not playing this on launch day back in 2021. I have the benefit of scraps of information that's come since. For instance, there was a new Warframe named Jade—in the Second Dream (or thereabouts) we see that Margulis was sentenced to the Jade. So, whatever Jade's quest is about, it'll reveal more about that time. I also know there's a quest "Whispers in the Walls" that's been on my Codex forever, waiting for me to clear—to even reveal—the prerequisite, "The New War." And I've seen mention of "the Man in the Wall" as a character of some sort, and, uh... I guess I'm looking at him. And, during the tantalizingly named patch "The Lotus Eaters," the login screen seemed to depict the Lotus and this wall-man looming over her.

The New War is unquestionably Warframe's greatest quest (so far). It took me nearly 12 hours. FFXIV's patch stories don't even take me that long! Not even if I combine the raid grind that comes with it! This was absolutely epic and perfect in every way. Every scene kept me completely rapt, and constantly guessing and wondering at what might come next. Everything kept being different, from playing playing as a Grineer and a Corpus with their own title cards, weird new hacking minigames, mashing buttons during cutscenes, and a beautifully perplexing story.

But.

The single reveal in the Second Dream, when they suddenly dump you into a character creator, is a better moment. That moment is honestly the highlight of my entire gaming career. Nothing can touch that... unless it turns out that all of Warframe was just the tip of the iceberg leading us to some kind of ARG or something paradigm-shifting like that. But I've already said my piece on the Second Dream.

It turned out that @chiclet-go-boom sent me the New War trailer all those years ago. My first-ever contact with Warframe was seeing that. I didn't understand anything that was happening, but had grandeur and mystery in spades—though it didn't show any gameplay, it promised some kind of substantial world and story that was more than I expected. I thought Warframe was some kind of PVP game like Apex or Overwatch and just as "deep." When I did get around to actually playing, when the Angels of the Zariman came out, I had all these quests in my Codex that required The New War to unlock... but I didn't have The New War in my Codex. This was telling: clearly, this The New War quest was going to be something special, accessed from somewhere else, perhaps, and with so many other quests hanging on it, it must usher in some complete shift in the game to reveal so many new paths. Plus, just look at the name. "The New War" is exactly what you call your big 2.0 restructuring quest.

So... what do I think happened?

There's been plenty of text ingame about what happened, from the Zariman, the Old War, Lua and the Void and everything. I don't remember most of it. But, I'll try to make a go at... some of the key points.

There's three species here. First is human, the Tenno on the Zariman. We saw the kids, bored at school, flying off Saturn, which means that humans must have mastered interplanetary travel, since it's mundane to them, and they feel comfortable enough to sit kids down for regular classes during trips. Well, they get attacked, so not totally safe. Second species is the Orokin, the blue, long-armed humanoids. Third is the Sentients, really cool-looking alive robotic monoliths... or something. Where the Orokin and Sentients came from I do not know—I think one came from the Void, and the other can't enter the void, or vice versa, or something.

The Zariman got attacked and only the children survived. Margulis took them in, which was an act of treason, so she was sentenced to death by the Jade light. So, the Orokin and the humans must have been at war, or something. Ballas loved Margulis but Margulis loved the children. The Orokin built Warframes—I think some dialogue during the Sacred Grove quests has a person talking about how she's designing Warframes for Ballas. Then, I guess, the Sentients made the Lotus in the image of Margulis to use the Tenno to pilot the Warframes to wipe out the Orokin? Snippets of mention of the Old War suggest that the Warframes wiped out "a civilization," and since we see Orokin ruins everywhere and Orokin people nowhere, I guess it's the Orokins that were wiped out. Interesting is that all the Orokin levels are in the Void, except Deimos, where an Orokin surviving family lives.

But, wait—they're the Entrati family, aren't they? All them on Deimos? Then why would the Zariman classroom slideshow say to read books by A. Entrati, if he's Orokin and they're warring with them? Unless, the Deimosites aren't Orokin? But they're blue, they look like Ballas, who is certainly Orokin I think.

Also, if the Sentients made the Lotus, how come they have the power to do so? How come the Lotus has the powers she has? Why would the Tenno children be particularly good subjects to pilot the Warframes? Is this some Evangelion thing where you mother has to be dead? Why wouldn't the Sentients just make a bunch of Lotuses to attack the Orokin directly?

And, the game begins with the Tenno returning—the Warframes coming back to life. So, where did they go? But, in The New War, the Tenno disappeared again. Is this some more time loop stuff? Are we essentially at the same beginning, but now history is different there's Narmer? Who is Natah, and how—in what way did she become the Lotus?

All this, and now the Drifter, the evil clone, the man in the wall... I know Warframe 1999, or, something, has something to do with the Entratis, so there's more to be dug from that hole. They added a new faction or something when they released Dagath, or Dante, or something. I don't know, I just watched the one dev stream one time to see the Hydroid rework :p But I know the story's going to go down that path.

Also, @maeljade said "Congrats on beating Warframe's Endwalker." What's that supposed to mean? Because it was a grand, epic, emotional, time-traveling adventure? Because it was much-hyped and long-awaited? Because they came out at the exact same time? :P Or... because this is the end of the first story, and now a new story arc begins? From the hints I've seen, it looks like the Entrati family, this man in the wall, and the Lotus are going to be the focus of the upcoming story. But, let's be honest, "focus" and "story" don't belong in the same sentence where Warframe is involved. Don't get me wrong, I love this game, I love how they're telling the story—but it's extremely confusing, completely open, and if you measure from Natah to The New War... there's not really a solid throughline here. In Natah we find out that the Lotus is really Natah, a Sentient. In the Second Dream we find out that we're really the kid on the moon. In the War Within... I forget what we found out but Teshin shows up to help us fight the Queens and unlock the Kuva zone. Some kind of coming-of-age episode, I guess. In Chains of Harrow, we learned that the Void is even weirder than we thought, and perhaps is just a person unto itself. The Sacrifice was about the Umbra Warframe and we met Ballas, and then in the Apostasy and The New War, we have the whole Ballas kidnaps the Lotus, Erra enslaves Ballas, Ballas creates Narmer and conquers the game thing. It's hard to argue that it was all leading up to that, everything just kind of suddenly happens.

Anyway, I've been writing for almost as long as the quest took. It's, no question, the greatest quest in Warframe, there's no comparison whatsoever. It's probably longer than every other previous quest combined. It absolutely exceeded all possible expectations—I was expecting more of the usual, kind of regularish quests with voice overs during, cutscenes between, and some big twist at the finish. This was like playing a movie. So many times I wasn't sure whether I was playing or watching—in a good way! I'm watching something exciting happen and the camera moves just so and I realize "Oh wait, I have to be them now!?" Active time events popping up during cutscenes. This was simply unprecedented. With the Second Dream, the game began to experiment with cinematic quests... and, having instantly perfected it, they then went off to the races with it.

I've been playing Warframe for a couple years now, and I have around 650 hours in it. I know, I know, I thought it'd be a lot more, too! Sure feels like I've been playing for a lifetime. I could've done this quest a long time ago, but I'm glad I waited. I'm glad I let the game steep, let myself sink into it and absorb it, take my time and go my own way, and now, finally, have this phenomenal experience. Like I said, the moment in the Second Dream was, I think, still a more profound, eye-opening, jaw-dropping moment—but that whole quest takes like, half an hour. The New War took me a solid twelve hours, and I did take a break for like twenty minutes to do something else, but I realized... no, no, I have to do this in one go. One massive, monumental, extraordinary adventure. And it was perfect.

...

Man, I don't know what else to say. I don't know what to think. The Second Dream had that moment, but The New War was just a wall-to-wall nonstop experience. It's like the Second Dream was magnificent, and then The New War said, "Ah, but I am not left-handed..." and really kicked it up to 11. It's going to be a long time before I'm ready to do another story quest. I don't know what this has unlocked for me, other than a slew of new quests. I know I've seen tooltips that say items can be gotten from the Drifter's Camp, and now that I finally have that, I can check that out. I've seen that you get some things from "Narmer Bounties" so there must be something about that somewhere. I know that the Zariman will be a zone on the star chart at some point because I have a button for Arbitrations that says I need to complete the entire start chart including the Zariman and a bunch of places on Deimos that aren't on my map... But, there's a lot of quests ahead of me, and we're finally getting to the things that I saw come out: Angels of the Zariman, Whispers in the Walls, the Jade Shadows. Probably it won't be until next Christmas that I get around to doing those... but, we'll see. After all, we're fighting a new war now...

All right. I think that's all for now. My mind is empty. I said some words. That's all for now.

#warframe #6820 words lol

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bedlamsbard · 1 month ago

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i will say—the whole "reaction shot roundup" thing that post is mentioning also just comes off as...relatively bad cinema. like, something you could make work if you were GOOD at it, but also something that a lot of people attempt to do without a lot of skill when they have too many cast members to effectively balance. YOU, on the other hand, do write in a cinematic fashion but you are so fucking good at it. the way you paint pictures in scenes and the way you build and release tension is just pitch perfect. it's tv/movie magic translated into a different medium at its finest

Aw, thank you. I mean, part of my reaction was definitely the bog-standard "this person is saying a thing that I COULD relate to so DOES it relate to me?" which I'm as susceptible to as the next "I am uncomfortable when we are not about me?" birb.

but also I genuinely think that this writer is talking about several different (though related) things and falling back on "it's television's fault!!!" instead of actually like. thinking about them. now I don't know what's going on in creative writing classrooms, I'm a history teacher (though I'm teaching 'how to write research papers' this semester and next semester), but I think these are just...normal "how to write fiction" problems. like the fact that OP isn't using any actual examples from published fiction makes it just sound like they have just noticed something so therefore it's A Problem And Those Darn Televisions And/Or Video Games Are At Fault.

there are very, very good pro writers who are very visual and very cinematic in multiple ways, which is not just about balancing reaction shots or pacing or stunning visuals. John Jackson Miller, who writes primarily tie-in novels, is really good at it. part of that is because he's also a comics writer, so he's used to thinking about things visually and how that translates to prose. (I know everyone thinks about Kenobi and A New Dawn with JJM, but the Knight Errant book and comics are interesting because he did both prose and comics for the same character. Also if you like JJM's stuff, go read his "behind the scenes," there's stuff he said about writing the KOTOR comics that I think about to this day.) Martha Wells is also great at it, so is S.M. Stirling; so are many others, those are just the first three that come to mind because I think they're three of the most visual writers I read regularly. And all three are tie-in writers and very good tie-in writers and good tie-in writers, like good fic writers, have to think about translating between media. (One sign of a bad tie-in writer -- who may otherwise be a very good writer -- is that they struggle with translating between media. Tie-ins are a very specific genre and even medium which I think many people don't realize until you read a terrible Star Wars novel written by an author who writes really great non-IP novels and then can't figure out why it feels Wrong.)

I do think writers (and readers and viewers) should think about how to translate something that's natural in one medium (film, video games, prose, comics, whatever) to another medium, because it's not as straightforward as "you just can't do it because they're different media." You can! You may have to think about it differently, but you can still do it! Some of the best writing advice I've ever read has not come from prose writing, it's come from comics writers about writing comics. Depending on your genre or your medium, advice for writing novels may not apply -- I don't structure my fanfic the way I would structure a novel, because I write serial fiction. My scene beats and chapter breaks are not necessarily translatable to a novel, because that's not what I'm writing and that's not how I expect people to read it. (I mean, for one, if I was writing novels, I would not be writing 10K chapters, because for a novel, that's insane.)

anyway, that was about like. six different vaguely related things, the tl;dr of which is something I don't usually say but which comes down to "perhaps OP, as a creative writing instructor, should think about what they're doing in THEIR classroom instead of blaming the television." (this is based on the whole article and not just that bit that's excerpted.)

#also I write too much dialogue but that one's my problem #and fanfic is its own thing and comparing it to pro fic like in the original post is...a different issue entirely #article op seems like the kind of reader who hates reading descriptions tbh #princesssarcastia #bedlam replies

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astoundingbeyondbelief · 1 year ago

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Kaiju Week in Review (January 21-27, 2024)

Godzilla Minus One made awards show history in both Japan and the U.S. this week. Its Oscar nomination for best Visual Effects is the first of the series (Godzilla [1998], Godzilla [2014] and Godzilla vs. Kong were previously shortlisted) and the first for any Japanese film. Small wonder Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, and their team went berserk when the nomination was announced. The other nominees are The Creator, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Napoleon, and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. According to IndieWire, The Creator has the edge, but Minus One could very well win. And while it naturally made less headlines in the Anglosphere, Minus One also picked up a whopping 12 Japan Academy Film Prize nominations, exceeding Shin Godzilla's 10.

Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color is now in North American theaters. I was intrigued enough to make it my fourth theatrical viewing of this movie, but in the end it did basically strike me as a gimmick. Godzilla Minus One was shot digitally with sets designed for color, so making it actually look like a film from the 40s was always going to be an uphill battle. Even with the regrade, there wasn’t a ton of contrast in most shots, and some of the scenes taking place at night were quite hard to see. Still, apart from the Odo Island massacre, I found the Godzilla scenes as gripping as ever.

Thanks to Minus Color, Minus One made $2.6 million this weekend, crawling back into the box office top 10. Its total in the U.S. and Canada now stands at $55 million, third among all foreign-language films released in the U.S.

Brush of the God, Keizo Murase's directorial debut after a lifetime in movies, is finally complete. It'll play at the Osaka Asian Film Festival in March (link contains more images), and hopefully travel overseas very soon. Murase will also receive an Association Special Award at the Japan Academy Film Prize.

Clover Press shipped out copies of Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett to Kickstarter backers, myself included. It's an excellent art book, and there are plenty of deleted and altered scenes mixed in with more familiar sequences. Believe it or not, Bennett drew the panel above for Kong: Skull Island—they considered having James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) flash back to an encounter with King Ghidorah in Vietnam. Not sure how that would've worked, as Ghidorah is generally not one to lie low for a few decades, but it's the first I've ever heard of it being considered. I'm hoping to post some more scans soon. Here's the order link.

Minecraft social media accounts teased a crossover with the Monsterverse, in what's likely to be the most high-profile of the Godzilla x Kong video game collaborations. The Mobzilla mod was created over 10 years ago, so this is long overdue.

The big toy news this week was Titanic Creations revealing the digital sculpt for its Yongary figure. This guy's had even less figures than Gorgo - I can only think of one, and very few of them were made - so expect massive demand. New Godzilla toys were also on display at London Toy Fair, both at the Playmates booth and among the plushies made by an unknown company.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla minus one #godzilla #yongary #minecraft #king kong #kong skull island #king ghidorah #art #orochi #brush of the god #kaiju #tokusatsu #godzilla x kong the new empire

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fillingthescrapbook · 1 year ago

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Let's Talk About: Mentopolis and Case Closed

This is arguably the best Dimension 20 finale of 2023… so far. Sure, Dungeons and Drag Queens gave us one heck of an emotional ending that was elevated by Jujubee's personal stakes in the story. The Ravening War was a fun romp through time that delivered cinematic-quality twists, plot developments, and tension-filled moments in the finale. And Neverafter's finale was more scary serious and needed a lot of processing.

Mentopolis though… With the mix of catharsis and a table of players that really focused their talents on the fun of role-playing… This finale was just so enjoyable. It gave me everything I didn't even know I wanted.

And the whole episode was truly bonkers. The fight, the player decisions… Danielle/Anastasia Tension glugging down some room-temperature vodka after a wild chase, Hank/The Fix setting the mood with some genre-appropriate steam, and Freddie/Dan Fucks making the ultimate in-character choice of distracting the enemy with his diamond-hard balls.

Trapp rolled the most cursed Nat 1 from Dimension 20 history--and still survived! Siobhan found the best coda for the whole adventure.

And Alex… Alex has done something no other Dimension 20 player has ever done for me: they made me cry for four episodes straight. Maybe five. I'll have to go back to what I said in previous talk-abouts. But Alex was very masterful with how they delivered their emotional gut-punches. As well as the physical ones Conrad delivered.

Hank didn't want to get left behind either. His final scene with the reunion? Magnificent. And the "did you know" speech in the fight that wasn't meant to be menacing but still managed to scare the shit out of everyone (including myself who is watching months and months after they finished wrapping)? Inspiring.

I need to see Alex, Hank, and Freddie in future Dimension 20 seasons. I would love for them to be together, but I would love it even more if we see them interact with other Dimension 20 cast members and/or newcomers. I want Hank to come back in a season with Murph and Emily. I want Alex on a season with Aabria as the game master, and maybe with Oscar Montoya as a fellow player. And Freddie… Freddie, I feel, could fit in with any table composition. I want to see his chaos with Zac and Lou's though. Or Zac and Ally's.

And I want Danielle partnering with Siobhan again. Maybe in another Good Society-run season by Aabria. Maybe in a different system run by Jasmine Bhullar. I feel like we only got the tip of the possible shenanigans we could've gotten from the two… Thinking about it now, what if Murph guest DMs a side quest season with Danielle, Siobhan, and Emily?! The possible combinations are endless.

While I fantasize about possible casts for future seasons of Dimension 20, I leave you with a few gems I will treasure from the finale of Mentopolis:

"The greatest pleasure is punching your boss."

"Mr. Fix? Duck!"

And "57. My favorite number."

See y'all next time. In the stars. In the soup. In the dome.

#let's talk about #dimension 20 #mentopolis #mentopolis spoilers #dimension 20 spoilers #brennan lee mulligan #hank green #freddie wong #siobhan thompson #mike trapp #danielle radford #alex song-xia

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exhausted-archivist · 1 year ago

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Thedas: Not a Middle Ages Fantasy But an Ahistorical, Pre-Industrial, Mega Fauna Fantasy

Part 1: Mega Fauna

The long and the short of it? Thedas is an ahistorical world with magic, two moons, giant fauna - giants, dragons, giant bears, giant arachnids, and has some "ancient" and recent technology that would reach as late as the 1800-1900s in our timeline - such as bunsen burners, smokeless coal, table saw, thresher, heliography, and theodolite. Nothing about Thedas is a 1:1 equivalent for Earth and never has been, we know from the devs that it wasn't the intention either. From a fantasy perspective it is a blend of your typical fantasy stories with adventure, dragons, magic, elves and dwarves, varying mythology, and culture ending events; mixed with a venture into a "what if" ahistorical history.

In the case of Dragon Age, Gaider mentions it was a "what if our own history had magic and elves and dwarves?" and "how might Christianity be different if, instead of Jesus, it had been founded by Joan of Ark?" and subverting tropes of fantasy while still being recognizable: elves being brought low vs aloof and immortal; dwarves bring political schemers vs stouthearted Scotsmen; mages who were feared for good reason.

These were the basic foundations going into Dragon Age, and the spirit of those things is evident through out the series. While there are clear moments of parallels, allegories, and themes of the modern world, our world; I think that, for better or worse, the series has kept to the spirit of those foundations. Keeping things recognizable while exploring the world they've crafted, that grows as the team grows.

Its the spirit of that foundation that really lends to the idea of Thedas being a mega flora and fauna world.

Disclaimer and Considerations:

Take all of this with a grain of salt, whether you take it or leave it. Aside from the actual lore mentioned (with sources next to it) all of this is estimations and based off of known art standards or "canon" as the term is called.

Size is a hard thing to nail down in Dragon Age, the scaling and modeling between the games - main and all additional third party installment - are inconsistent at best largely due to limitations and scope of the game. Such limitations we see reflected in Bull not being 8' and instead is 6'9, the fact that the nightmare demon was scaled down because of scope. Then there are the cinematic scenes, they aren't reliable as they often have models float, sunk into the ground, or given camera angles that force perspectives.

ALT Concept art is a touch more reliable in the idea of the intention but isn't any more hard fact due to the question of if the intention was carried through or not due to tech limitations or design choices.

In consideration of concept art I want to clarify a principal used in art that I will be referencing. Traditionally when drawing characters, artists will use proportional canons. Which is when one uses the height of the character’s head as a unit, to have the proportions of the body match natural ratios. A good write up of this concept is linked here and here.

Content warning for everyone, there will be mentions and/or depictions of the following:

Multi-eyed creatures

Scorpions

Spiders

This post also includes images from the following:

The Missing comic

Dragon Age Absolution

Part 1a: Does Thedas Actually Have Mega Fauna?

Yes, they do. Now the first thought might be the obvious dragons, giants, wyverns, titans, and some magical creatures. But there are some creatures of which we have actual measurable sizes for.

I have the more "concrete" fauna separated into two categories: known sizes and comparable sizes. Known is as stated in lore, if we're given fixed numbers at any point, while comparable sizes are for creatures who we either have vague descriptions or equated to something we know the sizes for.

Comparable sizes are also separated from known sizes as they either have variations, or I am unsure of the lore for them still holds; as with anything dao, game guides, and ttrpg on this blog, these are treated and considered as canon unless clear contradictions are available.

Known Sizes

Giant spiders:

Their scale isn't measured by how high they stand on the ground or by body length but from leg to leg. Or rather that is what you would expect for them to be measured by, but it is hard to say for sure. I run with the leg to leg measurement for the provided size in canon; where they are/can be 12' / 3.65m. [Codex]

Looking at extracted game models (which aren't reliable for in-game models) the giant spider stands at 3' 11.28" / 1.2m and measures 5' 4.2" / 1.63m leg to leg.

Griffons:

Their length is 12' / 3.65m or larger with even larger wingspans. Males can weigh over 1,000 lbs / 453.59kg while females are a little less. [Last Flight ch. 2 p. 31]

For context of how big both of these are length wise, on average: Javan rhinos are 12'5 / 3.8m in length, Indian rhinos are between 10.8’-12.5’ / 3.3-3.8m in length, African forest elephants are between 7.22’-12.13’ / 2.2-3.7m in length, African Bush elephants are 10’-16.5’ / 3-5m in length, thresher sharks can be 10.5’-20’ / 3.2-6.1m long, female great white sharks have an overall length of 15’-21’ / 4.57-6.4 m; males 11’-13’ / 3.35-3.96 m. Most crocodiles exceed that with an average of 13-14' / 3.96-4.26m.

If you're like me and that just is a jumble of words, below are the size comparison to a 6' / 1.83m male figure, the scuba diver is roughly the same length as well. I had to edit the horizontal figures to compare lengths but scale wise they are still 6' / 1.83m. I also spliced together multiple images so they would be easier to see (and tumblr has a 30 image limit).

ALT [Image Sources from left to right, top to bottom: Rhinos: Javan Rhino, Indian Rhino Elephants: African Bush Elephant, African Forest Elephant Crocodiles: American Crocodile, Mugger Crocodile Sharks: Thresher Shark, Great White Shark]

Comparable Sizes

Mabari:

Stated as being as tall and as wide as dwarves*; going off the dwarf heights from Inquisition game models would put them at a range of 4'9-5'3 / 144.78-160.02cm.** This is unclear if they mean from the head or shoulder, which typically you would measure quadrupeds from the shoulder. Something to note however, the mabari extracted models from Inquisition measure at 3' 4.6" / 1.03m at the shoulder but 4' 2" / 1.27m at the head.

ALT

This is also roughly echoed in the concept art, where the shoulder height lines up with the shoulder height of the extracted model from Inquisition, however is closer to the dwarf height range when measuring from the top of the head.

Either way mabari are considered giant breeds when looking at dogs. Regardless of if they are the height of a dwarf 4'9-5'3 / 144.78-160.02cm or the height shown in the extracted model or concept art of 3' 4.6" / 1.03m at the shoulder but 4' 2" / 1.27m at the head. The largest dog in the real world was a great dane at 3' 5.18" / 1.046m.***

*[Dragon Age Tabletop (da ttrpg), Blood in Ferelden] **[Source] ***[Source]

Deepstalkers:

There is a bit of a variant with their sizing scale across all entries. From being able to curl up to be the size of boulders or large rocks.* To The Calling describes them as follows

The “stalagmite” unfolded, revealing a serpentine creature with a long and wormlike neck that ended in a maw full of sharp teeth. Its mottled skin was almost perfectly camouflaged to match the stone around it.

He noticed where the creature’s limbs folded up under its carapace, where it tucked its long neck under its body. Hidden in plain sight, the disguise was almost perfect.

Meanwhile the Missing comic shows them as being much larger than Harding, a dwarf. The ttrpg also describes them as "small reptilian creatures". There also seems to be sizes difference noted between each type of deepstalker: deepstalker, leader, and matriarch.

ALT [Image Sources: BioWare Promo Material, Dragon Age Wiki, and The Missing Comic #1]

Additional measurements include the odd 2' 6.3" / .77m from the extracted model from Inquisition which doesn't line up with the in-game sizing as they're proportionally much larger when next to a dwarf. Then when looking at the concept art scaling from the red dev book shared by Mark Darrah, they stand nearly 6' / 1.83m.

ALT

So there is a stark range of size difference as well as really any consistency when it comes to the bipedal, raptor-like, predators.

*Note the range for what is a large rock and what is a boulder is pretty vague. **This is based on various screenshots as pictured above. Comparing them to Shale, a human character, dwarves, and an elf. *** [World of Thedas (WoT) vol. 1 p. 163, Origins game guide, da ttrpg, The Calling novel, and The Missing Comic]

Dragonlings:

Specifically when they are newly hatched are the size of a deer. At the shoulder they'd be 2'8 - 3' / 81 - 91cm. Their length could be from 3'1 - 7'2 / 95 - 220cm. [Dragonling Codex] *Note the ttrpg does denote that they are the size of a young deer, which would be about 1 1/2 years old. This is distinctly different from a fawn and they are the same size height wise as a mature deer. It is simply a difference in muscle mass.

Here is a helpful comparison of a white tail deer, one of the more common deer:

ALT [Image Source]

Below is concept art from Tom Rhodes that I have cropped for a much clearer view. The shoulder height of the dragonling reaches roughly the same height as deer above.

ALT [Image Source]

Part 1b Sizing from Concept art and Development

Here, I want to look at the concept art of creatures, while acknowledging that they don't always end up on the same scale in game - due to a variety of technical reasons. As we see with the fact that spiders are not 12' / 3.65m in game nor are they close to that.

But with that in mind, we can at least glean the intention if not what might be more reflective of the lore. As we know, not all of da lore is game engine/mechanic friendly and thus there is merit in seeing if we can measure through comparison of in dev work. Especially thanks to the human comparison in some of them.

One piece of such concept art that suggests mega fauna is the design guide for da4 that was teased to us by Mark Darrah in 2016 and in the BioWare: Secrets and Stories From 25 Years of Game Development (B25) p. 274.

ALT

Using this, we can tell what might have been the intended -- again if it is not reflected in game -- size for the animals in Thedas. However, I will note for the sake of clarity that this isn't perfect reference; as some of the scaling seems to be questionable/warping. This is after all, an image of a picture in a book. I would be thrilled to see if we ever get to see a flat image of this.

But what we can see when we clean it up, and line up everything while cross referencing other concept art; the scaling seems to work out something like this with the human figure in the center being the "hero" proportions/ideals that would make his height 6'2 / 1.88m.

ALT

Great Bear

Some of the concept art that we can use for comparisons are pieces such as the concept art for the Great Bear and Quillback (development name dragon bear and vulture hyena):

ALT

Going off the stock hero height for female it is 5'6 - 5'7.5 / 1.67 - 1.71m and for males it is 6' - 6'2 / 1.83 - 1.88m. That would make a great bear roughly 10'11 - 11'2 / 3.34 - 3.42m in this concept art. However in the red book, the scaling suggest it is around 14' / 4.26m. Which is an example of how the book as reference might either be unreliable or the new updated intention for the scaling/design.

Regardless of which numbers you favor, when you look at those scales in contrast to our two largest modern bears:

Kodiak Bear: 3'4 - 5' / 1.02 - 1.52m at the shoulder, 6'5 - 9' / 1.96 - 2.74m in length, and 9' - 10' / 2.75 - 3.05m standing upright

Polar Bear: 3'7 - 5'3 / 1.09 - 1.6 m (male) or 2’8 - 3’11 / .81-1.19 m (female) at the shoulder, 7’10 - 9’10 / 2.4-3 m length, and 8’ - 10’ / 2.5 - 3.05 m standing upright Note: I have edited together the sourced images for clearer scaling.

ALT [Image Sources: Bears: Kodiak Bear, Polar Bear]

Additionally when looking at the tarot cards, which also tend to echo concept art more than the final game we see this massive and dramatic height difference for great bears.

ALT

Another varying size reference we have from concept art is this piece by Tom Rhodes comparing the great bear to the normal bear/brown bear. This is in direct conflict with the scale illustrated in the dev book, though this could simply be due to the stage of development this was created in as it looks to be a draw over of a game model when looking at the great bear.

ALT [Image Source]

Nightmare Demon

The Nightmare demon, or "Blinky" as fans call it, or "Smilely" as Varric calls it. This is however a demon so it's appearance and size can change due to influences outside of its control, I want to acknowledge that. This one was something I wasn't expecting to make a comparison with, as we know that not only was the final version of this demon scaled well as it seems that part of it was cut off in the dev book. But I found this concept art from Heroes of Dragon Age (HoDA) and I believe it roughly matches up with the dev book in terms of scale. It might be scaling larger however, I cannot say with any certainty. And when comparing it to the game model in DAI, this is actually a little smaller in comparison. The extracted game model of the Nightmare demon is 93.47' / 28.49m, while in comparison this concept art implies that it is 54.5' / 16.61m when you measure the silhouette which we can estimate to be 6'2.

ALT [Image Source]

ALT You can see how much they sized down the nightmare demon for HoDA (which is understandable given the constraints of a mobile game), especially when you scale them down to show the actual difference. Which is funny considering the nightmare demon is greatly scaled down from the original concept.

Phoenix

Another piece we have, is concept art for the phoenix. Unlike with the hero figure from before, we are estimating Orisino's height based on the height of elven game models. This would put Orisinao at 5'9 - 6' / 1.75 - 1.83m for an elven male.

ALT [Image Source]

This height reference is echoed and reinforced when we look at the dev book from B25 and Mark Darrah. When you bring the phoenix over to line it up with the hero character in the center, it puts the shoulder a phoenix is roughly 6'2. Implying that, at least for this art, Oresino is within that 5'9-6' / 1.75-1.83m range as his height is lower than the shoulder.

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As you can see the extracted game model is not comparable due to the fact it, like the bears are not at all the same size as their in-game models. They are being scaled up a great deal to what we see in game. The extracted model height for the phoenix is 2' 7.4" / 0.8m, which is much shorter than their in-game counter part that shows it to be around the height of the human/elf character if not a little taller.

Quillback

Shown in the concept art with the great bear, we do have scalable concept art with the quillback and we are able to see that it does line up with the scaling for the dev book. It is also roughly the same size as the extracted game model. It's shoulder height being 4' 10.6" / 1.49m. The quillback also seems to be one of the few creatures where their in game counter part matches up with their model and concept art.

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Part 1 Conclusion

As we can see with all the comparable or confirmed sizing of these creatures in Thedas, most are predators and scavengers, fairly large ones at that. So much so, it would dictate a high oxygen content in the atmosphere, plenty of prey to fuel animals of this size, and plenty of land area to allow for the biodiversity that we see. Even down to the subterranean level as well.

We know that gravity also works differently in Thedas, to a degree it is requires as to allow creatures the size of dragons and griffons fly, and giants roam the surface. But also to allow dwarves ranging from 4'9-5'3 / 144.78-160.02 cm to live 2-4 miles / 3.21-6.43 km below sea level + the distance from the actual surface. To give context, the deepest cave we've explored on earth is the Veryovkia cave at 1.37 miles / 2.12 km deep and the entrance to the cave is 1.41 miles / 2.28 km above sea level. Meaning the deepest cave doesn't even go down to sea level.

But with all that said, I'm only wrapping up here as I'm running out of image allowance for this post. I'll continue this in the next part, and if you've read this far, thank you.

Wanna support this blog? You can check out my ko-fi.

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shipcestuous · 3 months ago

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Appassionata 1974 (f/d) (submission)

Hey Shipcestuous. ShipCestFan here. Didn’t see 1974’s “Appassionata” on your list so thought I’d submit it.

TL;DR:

Eugenia, a voluptuous, curious and coquettish young woman, decides to seduce her suave, sophisticated father with the help of her BFF.

DETAILED SYNOPSIS:

(WARNING - NARRATIVE AND GIFs CONTAIN SPOILERS!)

Appassionata is a 1974 Italian film made when morality was IMHO at one of its least restrictive points in cinematic history. And I say that as a good thing because I’m not sure this movie would be made today. Then again? It’s the Italians, so who knows? LOL Thank God for me that the 2 young women looked older than the 17ish year olds they were portraying.

I couldn’t find a rating for the movie, but I would put it at rated-R for strong sexual content, taboo themes like ‘cest, con-noncon, zoophilia dreams (don’t ask…just watch the movie), and nudity. And while that is all well and good, I rather enjoyed this film more for how it flip-flopped, back-n-forth from familial to romantic/sexual between father and daughter. One moment dad is scolding his insolent, 17ish year old teenage daughter for staying out too late or not picking up her mess. The next moment, she’s intentionally flashing him, and he’s willingly taking it in. One moment she’s innocently asking daddy to take her shopping; the next moment, she’s devilishly removing her panties for him.

The tagline for this movie on IMDB is “deep inside every young girl burns the passion of a woman.” IMHO, they forgot to add, “…woman’s desire for her father.” LOL The film basically revolves around two best friends, Nicola and Eugenia, who are on a mission to explore love, romance and sex. And they decide to use Eugenia’s sophisticated father, Emilio, as the object of their affection! Mom suffers from mental health issues, spending most of her waking hours on the piano or in bed or talking senselessly as she scurries about. Emilio, his daughter and her BFF pretty much do as they please.

As was popular with 1970s, Italian films of this genre, there’s plenty of gratuitous nudity and sex (altho I would not put this in the softporn/sexploitation category). The stars of the movie were big names back then, especially the still very beautiful Ornella Muti, who plays Eugenia – then 19 years old.

Among some of the key scenes for shippers are Nicola visiting her BFF’s dad – a dentist – under the guise of having dental work and screwing his brains out on the first visit and each visit thereafter. Meanwhile, the more nubile Eugenia is executing her plan to seduce dad, flirting coquettishly, and in one of the more appealing scenes, teasing her father mercilessly with her body. The look of agony on his face is priceless! One of the other things I like about this movie was that Emilio looks very much like a middle-aged dad. He has a paunch, graying temples, is mustached and seemed too old for having just a late-teenaged daughter. I’d put his age in the film at close to fifty.

The film ends with mom being committed because she has a particularly bad meltdown after discovering dad and Eugenia consensually behaving as more than father and daughter. So Elisa is locked away while Eugenia and Nicola take the opportunity to complete their final seduction of Eugenia’s dad.

Without Elisa around, Emilio calls up Nicola with whom he’s now having a full blown affair. But the viewer gets the sense that Nicola and Eugenia were expecting his call. Emilio picks Nicola up and they head back to his home where she gets to work seducing him. She relaxes him, bringing him a bourbon, lighting a cigarette for him and unbuttoning his stiff collar. Once he’s relaxed and in bed, she disrobes and surprises him with sex. But as the morning sunlight shines through the window, it’s Eugenia who’s lying naked next to her father in bed. The movie intentionally obscured the lovemaking scenes through the night so it’s not quite evident who’s making love with him? Is it Nicola? Is it his daughter? I like to think it was both.

The movie’s closing scene was quite satisfying for me. It shows the girls leaving the house, happily, arm-in-arm while Emilio watches them from a window. The shipper in me wants to believe that ending was communicating their new life, now, as a throuple. But it could just be that the girls satisfied their curiosity. And life for everyone is back to familial normality. Your followers who enjoy these types of movies should watch the movie and decide for themselves on that ending.

Here are some GIFs from the movie with my editorial comments in yellow. I added the white-font subtitles for clarity.

#submission #shipcestfan #first post #new canon #r: fd #canon #emilio and eugenia #commentary #introduction #noiv #nr #tw: incest #appassionata

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agentnico · 3 months ago

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Conclave (2024) review

This Pope is dope!

Plot: Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with one of the world's most secretive and ancient events - leading the selection of a new pope. Surrounded by powerful religious leaders in the halls of the Vatican, he soon uncovers a trail of deep secrets that could shake the very foundation of the Roman Catholic Church.

Since his stellar 2022 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front that bagged him a Best International Feature Academy Award, Edward Berger showcased himself as a director to keep an eye out for. I did not expect him to be back so quickly, yet here we are with Conclave, and goodness we he may have yet another awards contender on his hands. This movie is all about lies, deception, manipulation and strategy, all encapsulated in this global scale game of chess. From the offset one may question how interesting a movie about a bunch of cardinals picking the next Pope could be. Like it’s just a bunch of men in red caps sitting and talking. But believe me this is far from a boring tale, as Berger manages to turn this intimate and supposedly-holy ritual into a thrilling and tense experience that echoes the scheming, backstabbing nature and intrigue of something like Game of Thrones whilst also feeling strikingly relevant. I’m not saying this thing is full of sex and blood, but truly this movie about priests gossiping is extremely entertaining and engaging. Whenever the ballot result was being announced after every vote, I’m not going to lie, and I hate using this term, I was at the edge of my seat, wondering who the next front runner was.

Part of me wishes this took a Death of Stalin approach with all these cardinals trying to one up each other to get to the top, as there is so much comedy potential in that. However this movie plays it mostly straight, yet it does still manage to find some humour in the interactions, with especially one of the most diabolical vape hits of all time, and I don’t just mean in cinema history. Truly though this is a really well made piece of drama, and also fantastically shot, as Berger and his crew manage to turn the Vatican into a highly cinematic location, with even a small behind-the-scene auditorium darkened in a way that only the red of the cardinals clothing and the turquoise blue seats are highlighted, which I must say was a phenomenal minimalistic approach. Also a bird’s eye sequence of the cardinals holding white umbrellas and walking past a fountain - chef’s kiss! Huge shout out to Volker Bertelmann’s music score, as even though I think his work on All Quiet on the Western Front was overrated and dull, here his style works much better, with his score dominating a specific sound made by a string chamber orchestra, that mirrored the movie’s constant theme of being “stuck”.

With this cast you already expected high class performances, but truly they are great. Elegant, crafty, poised, but never shy of getting emotional when needed, Ralph Fiennes abilities of balance continue to impress me with how he invests in making a good character. It’s a reserved yet powerful performance. Stanley Tucci goes a bit more theatrical, his character the voice of the "liberal" side as his aggressions and passions are artfully delivered in a manner fit for the stage to offset Fiennes' calmer tones. John Lithgow is almost a mix of the two extremes, holding his usual support role that keeps so many of the leading sides held and providing perhaps most of the engaging mystery element in the search for the truth. Isabella Rossellini is unfortunately a tad under-used, though she does get one scene to deliver that powerful note that the Oscars would love to reference should she be nominated. Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto and Carlos Diehz also make notable turns as the other contenders for the Pope role, all of whom get their moments to shine.

In my eyes Conclave is a stunning piece of work. It manages to take what one would assume as such a simple premise, yet manages to entangle it with so many threads of twists and turns, as such turning a political and religious drama into a true mystery thriller, with Fiennes character acting more so as a detective rather than a leader of the conclave. Partner that with the great acting, sublime cinematography and a slow but engaging pace with a script filled with wit and realism, and we have ourselves one hell of a motion picture!

Overall score: 8/10

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archietransdrews · 2 years ago

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literally talking to the walls of my room like. riverdale's internal logic relies on the explanatory power of one's origins to an absurd degree, framing the actions of the protagonists as prescribed by their generational predecessors to such an extreme that the town's founding years not only provide meaning, context, and motive to current events as is typical in an archetypal place-based narrative but futhermore exert a horrifying control over the characters, compelling them to repeat or rebel against the actions of long-dead townspeople to whom they are only distantly related. these scenes from the past, when included in the show, are filmed using the same actors as the present-day scenes, producing the past as not only reminiscent of but in some aspects identical to the present. blood and bloodlines are used by various characters as explanatory schemas for the behavior of different characters throughout; riverdale is a place overdetermined by its own origins to the point that our protagonists spend years trying and usually failing to escape the combined generational curses of an entire town whose entire history consists in the repetition of its own genesis ad nauseum. does this seeming over-reliance on origins exaggerate the process to the point of effective parody, or does it merely & more straight-forwardly reinforce the [genetic] origin as privileged locus of [fictional] meaning?

a potentially conflictual reading of riverdale's historical "origins" is that they are invented or produced through the act of jughead's narration of riverdale as text; this reading posits that there is no "before" the pilot of riverdale, save what jughead invents to give additional meaning to the events which make up his plots. riverdale is his puppet show; everything in the text has been filtered through his point of view, which is to say that everything acquires the exact same level of (un)reality, whether it's a comic book character come to life or the sins of one's ancestors. in this framing, the true origin, and the key to whatever meaning might be made of this text, is the moment jughead's narration begins in the pilot with "our story is about a town.." in foregrounding jughead's ongoing acts of authorship and creation which function to continually produce the narrative & all it contains, riverdale destabilizes epigenetic origin as a locus of meaning by framing it as in some way artificial, invented, unreal; however, it does this by substituting another, no less authoritative, specifically authorial origin in its place.

and there is still a THIRD possible genealogy through which we can read riverdale as understanding itself, namely the genealogy of the cinematic canon. we well know that riverdale is constantly referring back to earlier moments in the history of film, from 70s noirs to 80s coming of age movies to 90s thrillers to etc. etc., not so much situating itself within this history as aiming to encompass all of the various stages of the medium's development. this argument could be broadened to include the histories of other prominent cultural forms, namely the novel and the comic strip; the meaning in riverdale might be said to be primarily derived from comic conventions, the principles of character creation and economy of image that have governed strips for decades and which now cause riverdale characters to wear outfits that have no in-world meaning except to refer back to their original iconic wardrobes, e.g. archie and jughead's S and R t-shirts.

which of these frames has the most explanatory power? which best helps us to understand or analyze why events in riverdale play out the way they do? i think in most cases one needs some combination of the three to be able to even begin getting at what's going on, which suggests that at least part of riverdale's project is the destabilization of the genealogical narrative via the introduction of several distinct, at times competing, narrative origins. riverdale is a story whose meaning is located simultaneously in the past, the act of narration, and the development of cinema and comics as mediums. while this structure does not necessarily step outside of the dominant symbolic framework that looks to origins in order to generate the meaning of a text, it is in typical riverdale fashion that the show wants to do everything at once, meaning in this case that rather than privileging one frame through which we are meant to make sense of the show's content, we are given to several possible readings which are all compelling in their own ways & when taken together succeed in troubling the final authority of any one interpretation.

#took a break from the liveblog this week to watch some other programs but she is still HEAVILY. on my mind #the jughead paradox is going to blow this whole thing wide open btw #syllabus

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mx-nii · 4 months ago

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All of my hyperfixations - past and present - are merging into a chaotic bundle of the Triple Ts (terribly traumatized twinks) and slowly driving me insane.

I can’t focus on my day to day life when I’m constantly thinking of terribly traumatized twinks (not all of them are twinks BUT THEY ARE ALL GAY)

Like genuinely how am I supposed to focus on such trivial matters like pre-calc or my collapsing relationship with my father when all I can think about is:

how Heartstopper isn’t just a cringe teen show, it’s a beautiful representation of being young and queer, and how struggling with mental health can severely impact your most formative years - Charlie had friends and yet still felt completely alone and like he couldn’t burden them with his pain because mental illness fucks with your brain so deeply, it’ll make you believe you have nothing and no one when you may actually have something and someone

or how Dead Boy Detectives isn’t just a silly ghost show (although it’s a wonderful silly ghost show), its a show about how friendship and love can be the most powerful thing in your arsenal (aside from a magic cricket racket) and how your past can haunt (ha) you and how the constant fear of becoming who you hate most in the world will always linger in the back of your mind but your true family can keep you safe and help you heal, and how fucking impossible it is to be gay or a POC at the wrong place, in the wrong fucking time - and maybe you won’t be able to find any peace in your current situation but there is peace out there somewhere, waiting for you patiently. (Charles and Edwin found their peace in their own homebrew afterlife, but seeing as we are mere servants of the mortal plane and not transdimensional beings, we shall have to suffice with sculpting our own peace out of this terrifying world because we fully damn well can, and we deserve it)

or how she-ra isn’t some goofy kid show; it’s a show about how being groomed and manipulated can destroy a child’s psyche so much that it will take years to rebuild (also it’s gay as fuck). catra wasn’t cruel (okay maybe she was just a bit but hear me out guys- I’m due for a rewatch and all I remember is I love that woman more than life itself), she was abandoned again and again and again and all she wanted was for adora to stay, so she wouldn’t be alone anymore, not again. And finally- FINALLY she stayed (giving us one of the most cinematic scenes in history [so just this once, adora: stay]). Adora and Catra are two sides of the same coin. They were both subject to the mental and physical torture of Shadow Weaver and they both responded in different ways due to their own personalities and differences in how they were treated - but they found each other in the end, and always protected each other because that’s what best friends (specifically the really really gay ones) do.

or how the owl house ALSO isn’t a silly kids show, but instead another show about abuse and trauma and growing up queer, and how healing and freeing acceptance is (oh and also some more child soldiers). Amity was so mean to people because meanness and cruelty was all she knew, until Luz took the time to dig a bit deeper and find the real Amity buried deep inside - and how Luz and Amity, even at such a young age, in such a dangerous and confusing world, were ALWAYS there for each other, no matter what

or how 9-1-1 is deeper than just a random fire fire show. It depicts all sorts of personal struggles like post partum depression, PTSD, anxiety, trauma, child neglect/abuse, depression, abandonment, death, foster care, divorce, and ofc: suppressed queerness/comp het! (Eddie literally put Buck in his will and made him the designated legal guardian for Christopher - if that ain’t gay, idk what is)

or how criminal minds has one of the most tragically beautiful found family tropes whilst being a show about the literal scum of the earth? How even in such gruesome circumstances, these people banded together and made the most beautiful family.

or how Percy Jackson is a kids/teen book but delves into such deep and tragic topics so well. Child soldiers, child abuse, being queer at the wrong place and time, coming to terms with being queer, child soldiers, DID I MENTION THE CHILD SOLDIERS??

or how Epic uses expert music theory and lyricism to convey a gorgeous tragedy in the best way I’ve ever seen

or how the grishaverse had so much potential, and is a brilliant literary universe but was BUTCHERED on screen, wasting one of the best casts I’ve ever seen

Genuinely how do I move on with my life when I can’t stop thinking about this (and so many more thoughts that I don’t have the energy to write out at 3:30AM)

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shannonsketches · 15 days ago

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For the ask game: 9 & 24?

9. What is your favorite fight?

Ooooh, so. My kneejerk answer was Majin Geets vs Goku/Buu, because I love my boy having a whole breakdown and deciding he deserves to and will pursue dying violently for all the good and bad and emotional implications it carries, having Goku go 'no, you love your family,' and Vegeta going 'stop telling me things that are true,' then deciding to execute himself by physically pouring his entire self into trying to solve the problem with the express intention of cleaning up his own mess with the backdrop of being told doing so would enter him into a cycle of reincarnation, and then getting to come back and start his new life as a protagonist because the hero can't save us (Earth) alone??? goddamn what a solid fucking resolution to a villain's story. Toriyama changed the game with that shit. That fight is STILL debated as one of the best character arc resolutions in comics/animation history. BUT ALSO, the whole Moro battle,,,,,,,,,,,,,off the charts. Cinematic as hell. No spoilers to my good folks reading the manga but the way my jaw actually dropped.

24. If you could write your own episode, what would it be about?

answered here! BUT IF I COULD DO ANOTHER ONE -- I'd probably do a self-indulgent Brief family one. I love character snapshots, so I think maybe doing a whole filler episode about Scratch's day at Capsule Corp, where we just kind of follow him around while he wanders and hangs out with different people during a bunch of little fun or private character moments because he's a cat. Different characters interacting with him from his POV. Having him in the foreground or bg of every scene. Just something silly and fun with a focus on character reveal and rare domestic life at Capsule Corp. Maybe they're getting ready for a barbecue so everyone can come over at the end and Scratch can wander through the party interacting with the whole cast, and it ends with him falling asleep on Dr Brief's lap at said party. I think that would be a fun episode.

#dbtag #ask game #The Super Broly fight too holy fuck mom #And the Vegeta vs Freeza ResF fight healed parts of my soul I didn't know were injured

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themosleyreview · 1 month ago

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The Mosley Review: Best Films of 2024

2024 was one hell of a year for film! We saw the upswing in quality of the horror genre, the second part of a complete story set in the sands of another world and the first part of beloved musical come to life. I truly loved that the world of the stunt industry got the love it deserved for they are the true artist of cinema. Most years when I put my list together, I tend have an average of 10. Then again, its my list of what I loved so in the end, its up to me if I want to add that many each year. This year there were only 8 films that I loved the most and would consider owning on 4K Disc. As always, just click the title of each film to read the full reviews. So without further ado, here's my list of the best films of 2024!

First up...

Bad Boys: Ride or Die: It is a miracle that this franchise still is running strong without Michael Bay and its better for it. Not many franchises have the guts nor the right direction to reinvent themselves mid stream without straying too far away from what made it great in the first place. That's what these films have done so well and everytime, they keep getting more exciting and hilarious. The chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence is always at the heart of these film and they continued hot streak here. They are getting older and I loved that they fully embrace it. The action was invigorating and even though not all the comedy landed, it still was a blast. There is one character in the film that finally got the respect he deserved and it was the showstopping scene of the film. I can't get enough of the Bad Boys franchise and if there's one more on the way, give it to me, but if they want to stop here, its a great ending.

Deadpool & Wolverine: If wish fulfillment was a movie, then this is it. Not only was this film based on a long lasting idea and joke, but it was the convergence of 2 of the greatest Marvel characters and it went exactly the way you expected. The constant quiping and innuendos of Deadpool balanced against the many insanely violent and annoyed retorts from Wolverine was the strength of this film. It was a bloody match made in heaven and from beginning to end as we finally get to see the comic book accurate costume of Wolverine on full display. Hugh Jackman continued to shine as the best Logan we've ever had so far and especially in a montage that was another love letter to the character's lineage. This film was also a somber thank you and goodbye to the Fox/Marvel universe of films and a special thank you to the one character that got us to this point in history. What a introduction to a new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Abigail: Now here's something that was a bit of a surprise. The premise is straight forward and the trailer almost ruined all the blood soaked twist and turns. The directing team behind Radio Silence have really carved out their niche corner of energetic and fun horror. Their take on the Daughter of Dracula tale was updated to modern day tech and it worked so beautifully. With a cast of talented actors like this, it can be easy to short change a few for the sake of the story. Luckily that didn't happen here. Melissa Barrera has solidified her status as this generation's Scream Queen and Dan Stevens is the Scream King. Alisha Weir was amazing with her playful and devilish smile as the titular character. Even though she's a blood sucking monster, she gave the character such personality and at one point, a soul. This film was just a pure bloody delight.

The Fall Guy: Like I said before, the was for the real heroes of the film industry as they take the heaviest falls and serious bumps for the lead stars that aren't Jackie Chan or Tom Cruise. It was a crime that this film didn't get the love it deserved box office wise. This was not only a loving look into the stunt world, but it was a heartfelt love story that also had a murder mystery vibe to it too. The banter between Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling in a particular scene involving fire, was the highlight of the film. It was an inventive way to capture the moment we've all seen where two former lovers reunite and air out their pain to one another. Aaron Taylor-Johnson was having a ball as well and really played up the Hollywood cliche of actors being overly self centered. The action sequences alone were the best practical set pieces I've seen in a long time. Gawd I loved this movie.

Nosferatu: Bram Stoker's Dracula was the defining novel that truly made you understand the psychology of a tortured soul that is cursed to live forever consuming blood. There was a romantic nature to it that brought his humanity back for a bit. Many have taken that story and adapted it into similar stories derived from that masterpiece. This film, like the 1922 version, gave us an even more iconic take on the legend. This version was handled with such care and mastery in its cinematography, lighting and sound design. It was a nightmarish dream that was unrelenting in its nature and was a true vampire horror story that took the genre back to its more gothic and operatic roots. Lily-Rose Depp delivers a unforgettable breakout performance that is both emotional and physically astounding. Nicolas Hoult knows how to deliver the innocence of a young and hard working man that becomes tormented by visions and a true demon sucking away at his vitality. Bill Skarsgård was truly unrecognizable and creepy as the titular creature also named Count Orlock. His voice and movement was inhuman and I loved every second that he was on screen. Robert Eggers is a true visionary and now his films have become an event to not be missed.

Wicked: Part 1: This was one of those shows as a thespian that is on the list of must see on stage. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened for me yet. It will, but for now, this cinematic experience was everything I have been missing in film musicals. I have missed the grandiose scale of not only impressive musical numbers, but the jaw dropping set design and costumes. This was truly the definition of how to bring back the seemingly lost art of musical filmmaking, but that's not the only thing achieved here. The transfer from stage to screen is immaculate in my humble opinion. I felt I was watching the power of the stage working together with the transformative nature of cinema and it was pure magic. Ariana Grande surprised me as I'm not as familiar with her acting career as I am her singing career. She was hilarious as Galinda and I loved that in the opening scene, before we go back in time, there is a heaviness on her heart. The rest of the time she was just a delight to witness. Cynthia Erivo is a powerhouse in her own right and as Elphaba, she brings that same strength to the character and her voice in not only her redefining rendition of Defying Gravity, but the The King and I. Johnathan Bailey as Fiyero was the MVP of the film for me though. His performance and the entire set design of Dancing Through Life was mind blowing.

Dune: Part Two: After the amazing first part of this epic story, I couldn't wait to see the next half. There aren't many book to film adaptations that have gotten the visual care and epic treatment the story demands. This film continued to receive the same care the first part did and oh my what a satisfying and stunning film. I haven't been so inraptured by a universe that was so vast and yet so intimate in its portrayal. What I loved so much is the fact that each character has many layers and the hero of the film is flawed in knowing his fate and how it will effect the universe. Timothee Chalamet was great and became a badass as Paul Atreides in my eyes. The man is a reluctant hero that knows the weight of his decisions and had no choice, but to accept it. I loved that aspect of the character as it is rarely handled with this much class. Austin Butler was unflinching and menacing as Feyd-Rautha. He was the biggest standout for me and he was almost alien in his approach to the animalistic nature of the character. What a cast and what an adventure.

Now comes the moment you've been waiting for the most. My choice for the best film of the year is unexpected by most and probably lower on other people's list. The best film of 2024 is........

Saturday Night: As a youth, I grew up in the late 80's and all through out the 90's era of the greatest comedy sketch show on television. Chris Farely, Mike Myers, Molly Shannon, Will Farrell, Cheri Oteri and many more were among the line up of talent I came to know and love. The Blues Brothers, Coneheads, and Tommy Boy were always playing in my home. As I got older, I ventured back to the early days of the Saturday Night Live and began hearing all the stories about how it began. It was a real chaotic mess that should not have worked and some how, here we are 50 years later. As a fellow stage performer, I know exactly that feeling of anxiety, worry of forgetting lines, getting the timing right for costume changes and having the props in the right places. This film captures all of that and on a corporate nature as the network wants to know if their investment will pay off. Many legends were to appear on that historic broadcast and the cast brought to life that fateful night and the personalities of the every comedian. Gabriel LaBelle was amazing and endearing as Lorne Michaels. The amount of stress and on your feet thinking flowing through him was staggering and Gabriel did it perfectly. Dylan O'Brien was perfection as he captured not only the cadence of Dan Aykroyd's speech pattern, but also his gift of gab, his walk and attention to detail. Cory Michael Smith blew me away as Chevy Chase. He capture his charisma, comedic timing and sarcastic attitude. This was a fun, stressful and expertly filmed love letter to the fans of SNL and the legacy of the show. DO. NOT. MISS. THIS. ONE!

And that's it ladies and gentleman. That is my list of the best films of 2024. There were alot of other films I enjoyed that almost made the list, but I either ran out of time or I just missed their theatrical run entirely. Here's to 2025 and I hope it produces yet another list of this caliber or better. Thanks for reading!

#best films of 2024 #bad boys ride or die #dune part two #abigail #nosferatu #the fall guy #deadpool and wolverine #wicked #saturday night

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