#I love they way you defined elder dragons. I like to lean a little more toward the mysticism but I think that’s spot on

[flygonscales]

This was a really interesting read! It’s really satisfying how you can justify some wonky biomes and geography (not a diss. They’re video game designers not geographers) by citing firestone and ice crystal deposits (I really like it when there’s an in universe explanation/theory that expands on the existing stuff rather than contradicting it). Plus it makes the caves under the gen 1 maps feel a bit more plausible but also special.

I also think that this was a really good way of explaining ore use in weapon crafting (I hadn’t really thought about it before) and if the monsters can use the ores as well (it makes so much sense), also light/nova crystals being microbe based has some cool symbiosis sort of implications for gypceros. Perhaps gypceros have a specific diet to help keep their crest microbes healthy? I would certainly expect them to eat certain minerals.

I don’t know if this is going too far off canon but.

Given the fact above that monsters form mineral deposits in their bodies through bioenergy. And elder dragons are all about bioenergy. What would you say the ‘you can mine Kushala scales in The Tower’ thing is?

Below are the theories I think are most likely (well… not really the Elder Dragon War fanon one but it felt weird not to include it)

a) the classic ‘before the elder dragon war humans built a tower out of kushala daora corpses’ (which is cool! I do love some edgy Equal Dragon Weapon type theories)

b) (my pet theory) the rock the tower is built from is deposited and formed in a similar process to how a kushala deposits ores in its scales/skin. Perhaps higher levels of bioenergy helps a kushala quicken this process so the material is formed faster (like. Not on a geologic timespan). Ingame we may be given a decayed scale but perhaps the material is similar enough in consistency/composition that they are interchangeable in common use?

(this is reaching a bit, I know. This probably isn’t developer intent)

c) the general canon which is probably the developers wanted you to find kushala shed scales for flavour like how you find kut-ku scales in the Forest and Hills but didn’t want to implement a whole new gathering spot so added them to the mining item drop pool (because the metal dragon scales wouldn’t be found with plants)

Wow! I finished half of the 120 icons I'm making for my Monster Hunter Map Project! My hand does indeed hurt!

Here's some of my favorites atm

Frozen Seaway (Gen 4) - Volcano (Gen 3) - Polar Field (Gen 3)

Forlorn Arena/Tower Area 3 (Gen 2) - Dundorma (Gen 2) - Val Habar (Gen 4)

Heaven's Mount (Gen 4) - Tower (Gen 2) - Great Forest (Gen 2)

- Please Ask Me About The Stupid Geologic Theory Of Monster Hunter I Have Been Thinking Of For The Last Year - Someone Else Must be Cursed With This Knowledge - That And The Maddening Task Of Making A Good Map Out Of The Goddamn Scramble Of References And Sources The Monster Hunter Devs Have Released - The Tower Haunts Me -

[dgcatanisiri]

So... something kinda hit me abruptly and pushed me to feeling about ready to snap, so... Have a word vomit. Kinda feels like a greatest hits compilation of  my “another angry queer rant” tag, but I need to get it out, so...

I know I’ve been over plenty about how I don’t feel represented even when I have something with gay representation. How I’d give dozens of Dorians and Iron Bulls to get even one run of Inquisition that properly has my male Inquisitor romance Cullen. How when I look at Mass Effect - this franchise that I love - I can only see how much it hates me for being a gay man who dares to seek content for me. How godawful it is that Gil’s story, a story that is explicitly a story centered on a gay man and the difficulties he faces BECAUSE of being gay, was written by a straight person who ABSOLUTELY does not GET. IT. And how fandom as an entity sucks, because so often it feels like the attitude of the people in it comes across as telling me that my desire to be represented in my media somehow comes in second to celebrating the advances solely for women, that my needs as a queer MAN (the emphasis usually theirs) are less important, because I can still see myself AS A MAN in other characters throughout media.

But... That doesn’t change the fact that this is a very real, very tangible THING for me to grapple with. And sometimes it feels like no one ever, EVER talks about this.

I mean, my go-to example is that after Inquisition dropped, you could not say A WORD in criticism of Dorian without people jumping down your throat, chomping at the bit to call you a homophobe for it. No matter what reason - but ESPECIALLY if you thought he was “too stereotypical” - you got hit with that label. Even if you were gay yourself, it was just your “internalized homophobia” that made you dislike him, or even being biased against the people who genuinely do lean in to the stereotypes, don’t they deserve representation too?!

Well, yeah. It’s not like I was saying they don’t. But that it’s a stereotype means it’s often still in media, still often THERE. It’s not always good representation, but it’s something. Meanwhile for those of us who AREN’T? It just meant further exclusion from the narratives. A continuation of our invisibility.

And sure, one queer character cannot represent every queer person, one individual who embodies one letter of the alphabet soup cannot be everything to everyone under that individual label. But, again, it still means that I don’t get to see myself.

If media representation is a life preserver, then I’m getting pulled out to sea while the lifeguards are busy with people who are closer to them than I am. Which, you can call it triage, cast the widest net to hope to get the most people, but when you’re one of those who are not even able to grab on to the net and use it to pull yourself closer, it’s not helping. And, because they’re focused on those who have grabbed on to the net, your struggle continues to be ignored.

Worse, sometimes they aren’t factoring you in the net they’re throwing (yes, I’m aware my metaphor is getting increasingly strained, just work with me here) because they think you’re not in the trouble they think others are - if you can “pass” as cishet, if you can exist without actively fearing for your safety, if you are the kind of person who can walk down the street and not expect to be harassed because you “present” gay, then you’re not as in need as those people who can’t, who are going to be threatened for existing while visibly queer.

But the truth is that you’re still suffering. I’m not gonna get in to the whole oppression Olympics nature of it all, but there is an element that those of us who “pass” as being “straight-acting” (and, for the record, I think these terms are bogus and bullshit, but I’m using them for the sake of simplicity in getting my message across, because I’m stream of consciousnessing this post instead of going to bed so you’re getting babble and word vomit so that this isn’t playing on a loop as I try and sleep) suffer that... I’m not going to say that it makes it worse, but it does have this level of SOMETHING that is a unique pain that you aren’t going to find from the people who are visibly and noticeably queer at a glance - it’s not just isolation, because this is something that you end up not talking about because no one around you realizes that you are queer, but also this voice in the back of your mind that starts questioning “are you REALLY queer? Are you queer ENOUGH?”

And that’s why it hurts that little bit more, is that much more a twist of the knife, when I see these people who push the “joke” of like “why did they even HAVE male Shepard?” or “the only way to play is as Kassandra.” Because it does reinforce this idea - that there is this attitude of this thing, this character that I was seeing as representation doesn’t matter. So that I take strength in that character, well, that’s just me latching on to REPRESENTATION AS A MAN, and we’re not here to protect your fragile masculine ego.

When all I’m looking for is a queer man like I am.

And sometimes, I don’t even feel like the other queer men I can look to get it. Like, there was that time about a year ago that I looked up issues of queer men in video games, and the three videos I found all got an “...and NOPE!” reaction from me - the first argued in math about how “queer people are a small portion of the population, we can’t realistically expect to be represented equally,” even though we’re talking about FICTION, which is, by definition, NOT reality, the second was clearly a cishet who compared not being represented as a queer person to not being represented as a Swedish person, and then a third who first had a thumbnail on a video of “good and bad representation” and Kaidan was the example of bad (so a negative mark against this video to begin with, but I was desperate), only to lead with Dorian as a good example, which... *vague motion above and at the “dorian critical” tag* I staunchly disagree with this stance.

Like... I have to struggle to think of who my role models in being a queer man are. It’s not just who fits my story, but who do I look up to, who inspires me. And, admittedly, the luster for any personal hero seems to inevitable wear off at this point, I’m in my early thirties, and most of the media I consume will have characters who are my age or younger PERIOD, so my queer heroes would have to be people I’d consider either peers or even someone who I am older than...

But then, that’s kinda the thing about being queer period - we lost a generation to AIDS, and for those who followed that generation, we’ve had to live in this world where our heroes don’t exist like us, while trying to pave the way for those who come after us, and who can’t conceive of what it is like to age - as in “go from adulthood to middle age to elder,” not just the matter of growing up from childhood to adulthood - and so even as they’re the one who we want to give all of this to... It still means we suffer because no one is there to offer US that hand.

And yet, try to explain this to media creators, and you get ignored or even shut down. Like, I about a year ago, I directly replied to tweet from Patrick Weekes, explaining how Inquisition failed me, how all bi LIs actually HELP me feel more represented as a queer person than the mix of sexualities that BioWare on the whole has said that they intend to do (re: the difference of LIs in DA2 and Dragon Age Inquisition). It got no response, not even a like to indicate that it’d been read by them. I could form in my head the response I’d have inevitably gotten from David Gaider when he still had an active Tumblr of what would amount to, nicest, “we cannot please everyone, enough people were moved by Dorian’s story to make it worthwhile, sorry.” Given some of my cynicism, I can’t help but believe that it would also have come with a “sorry you feel that way.” Particularly considering some of the comments he’s made about Cullen and Kaidan as LIs, both of whom being characters I connect to more than others in their respective games...

And like... Gaider is a gay man. Weekes is nonbinary. But they are from that generation who view being able to exist openly as queer as a revolutionary statement, which... It’s a statement I want to make, sure, but it’s not a revolutionary one to me - “existence” is the bare minimum. To me, focusing on existence as a queer person is to say that the queer character must justify existing as queer in order to be a part of the narrative. But what is revolutionary to me is to give the queer person a story in the narrative that has NOTHING to do with their queerness.

Like... Fantasy world here, Inquisition drops with Cullen and Cassandra as same-sex exclusive LIs, while every other aspect of their stories are the same. Women can’t romance Cullen, Men can’t romance Cassandra. Other than that, we have Cullen with his addiction/redemption arc and Cassandra not just struggling with her faith but even getting the chance to be Divine. Yes, fandom would FLIP. THE FUCK. OUT. But here’s what it says - the things that these characters go through in the course of the game are not defined by their sexuality. Hell, with these characters specifically, you get characters with MASSIVE relevance to queer stories that AREN’T exclusive to being queer - addiction is a real issue in queer communities, given how many of our safe spaces are bars or clubs, places where alcohol (and thus alcohol abuse) is easily obtained, and, by extension, drugs as well. Meanwhile, there are SCORES of queer people who struggle with the question of faith in the wake of their queerness manifesting.

THAT is revolutionary. To take these stories that straight people get all the time, that certainly have meaning as queer stories for the queer audience... And yet, when they go to these (hypothetically) queer characters, it has that subtext without making the story ABOUT their queerness, while still making it clear that, in this version of things, they are queer - players couldn’t pretend that it’s only in some parallel universe that they are queer, they would only be attracted to the same sex PC. THAT is revolutionary.

Or, y’know, take it back beyond BioWare for a little bit here - all the characters I feel the most connection to emotionally in TV shows are straight. All these men who are my role models only ever get shown being involved with women. At most, they’ll get queerbaited as MAYBE being queer, if you just keep watching! Inevitably, of course, they are not queer by the end of the show - the closest to date is the debacle that is Supernatural.

Yeah, there’s representation for ya.

And then there are those who end up looking at what I see as thoroughly inadequate and... They’re happy. They praise it. They look at this thing that hurts me, that excludes me, that can, when I’m in the bad headspaces, even make me question myself... And they have found something they like with it.

Which, for the record, good for them, genuinely and sincerely, I really am glad that someone is getting something out of this, but... Well, see above: life preserver, isolation, “sorry you feel that way.” Everyone else is getting what they needed, but what about me? When does my representation get to appear? Why am I always being left, scrounging for the scraps of the scraps? Why does other peoples’ representation always seem to get shoved to the front of the line, leaving me languishing in the back.

That’s the real thing about all of those lines of “if you don’t like it, go make your own!” At this point, even if I did manage to get something in my to-write folder cleaned up and ready to go, in reality... How am I supposed to feel like anyone other than me WOULD proceed to read it? That the audience would exist? Because... no one seems to care about this audience. Hell, how would I get anyone to publish it if it is only going to appeal to me?

I feel on the margins of the margins, where no one really cares. Hell, even here in my own blog, I feel afraid of backlash - I’ve had the assholes show up in response to like little brief comments that are off-the-cuff rambles, not worded in a way that makes them a full, detailed accounting, and either take them as evidence that I, personally, represent all that is wrong with fandom at large, or that I am a target for their trolling. Because saying that “I find the jokes about male Shepard not mattering to be diminishing of me as a queer person, can we please stop this?” is somehow not just lesbophobic, but VIOLENTLY lesbophobic. Or that saying that I don’t care that bad things happen to a fictional species is somehow advocating for violence against actual women. Or even explicitly calling out BioWare for lovingly lingering the camera on Miranda’s ass is slutshaming her. And of course, there are the assholes who responded to me saying on the BioWare Twitter announcement post for the Legendary Edition that, if it didn’t have a full trilogy male Shepard/Kaidan romance, I wasn’t buying it, and proceeded to a) call me entitled for it (like, read a dictionary, the very fact that I have to call for this content that doesn’t exist in the game proper is the OPPOSITE of entitlement...), b) tell me that I “shouldn’t deny [myself] a great story just because it doesn’t have gay people in it” and c) just generally be homophobic. Even in rolling with it on the basis of “the trolls are gonna show up period if you make it clear that you care about something, especially if you are trying to get representation for some group that is in the minority... It gets exhausting. It can be harmful. It makes it clear that you’re not welcome, even when you’re supposedly united by the fact that you and these people supposedly love the same piece of media.

I mean, among those examples, I’ve given the statements that inspired those responses no tags other than my own organizational tags, but SOMEHOW they find me anyway, so it wouldn’t surprise me if I got accused of like being another White Gay™ with this post, that I simply want to center the conversation wholly on myself at the expense of all other intersections of queerness and other identities or something for saying all of this, even though this is, and it says so from the start, a vent post, which, by definition, is centered on myself because it’s about me and my experiences and emotions. *sigh*

Anyway...

And, y’know, when BioWare actively refuses to even ACKNOWLEDGE that the absence of a full trilogy M/M romance option is a bad thing, it just ends up saying that the trolls are actually the audience they’re willing to court. That Supernatural ending with a brothers only focus that doesn’t even allow Cas to be mentioned other than offhandedly while suppressing ANY kind of emotional fallout to his admission of love says that they don’t care about the queer people who at the very least the actor was trying to be respectful and representative of. That every piece of media that says that to have a queer person in it, their presence must be explained and justified is saying that there needs to be a REASON for queerness, a reason that is not “because people are queer, and queer people come in as many stripes as cishet people, and so media should reflect that spectrum just as much.”

Even when the numbers of queer characters in media goes up, it doesn’t really move the needle. And that’s not even getting to the difficulties when you are any mix-and-match combo under the queer umbrella, or any other identity that intersects to marginalize someone in our society. It just...

Y’know, it doesn’t feel like “it gets better.” Rather it just feels like being stuck in position, just with a changing backdrop. Sure, things look different by the end of the day, but that doesn’t change that you’re not getting anywhere.

[twh-news]

What We Learned on the Set of Thor: Ragnarok: From Jack Kirby to Planet Hulk

[This post contains somewhat spoilery info, so if you don't want to know more than you already know, don't read below the cut!]

It was just about one year ago exactly that Fandango jetted out to Brisbane, Australia to tour the magnificent sets of Thor: Ragnarok, the third and possibly wildest standalone movie for the God of Thunder yet. You can read our guide to all the characters old and new here, but below is where we’ll answer some of the most pressing questions about the movie, its plot and production.

We last saw Thor (Chris Hemsworth) soaring off into the cosmos to investigate certain disturbances in the Force -- whoops, wrong Disney franchise. Actually, at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, he was going to try to find out why more of the Infinity Stones were suddenly surfacing and who was behind it. In Thor: Ragnarok, he’s been missing for two years and is imprisoned on Muspelheim, where he must fight the fire demon Surtur to escape.

He finds his way back to Asgard, where Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been ruling in place of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and through a series of events that somehow detour to New York City, Thor ends up on the planet Sakaar, where he’s forced into gladiatorial combat at the behest of an Elder known as the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). Little does he know that the reigning champion is his old pal, the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).

Meanwhile, the goddess of death, Hela (Cate Blanchett), has been unleashed and seeks to destroy Asgard -- not too difficult a task with Loki running things there. If Hela can bring about Ragnarok -- the “end of all things” -- what will that mean for Thor, Loki, the Earth and the rest of the Nine Realms?

Here are some of the things we learned in Brisbane:

Where in the timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe does Thor: Ragnarok fall?

The events of the movie will reportedly lay down even more groundwork for the arrival of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, so clearly it takes place before next year’s all-in showdown with the Mad Titan. “In the timeline of the MCU, things kind of happen on top of each other, especially now in Phase 3,” said producer Brad Winderbaum. “They're not as interlocked as they were in Phase 1…so (this) kind of happens maybe on top of Captain America: Civil War, maybe on top of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Somewhere in that ball park.”

The popular Planet Hulk storyline from the comics was heavily mined for material for the story.

The planet Sakaar, the gladiatorial battles presided over by a dictator-like character (the Red King in the comics, the Grandmaster in the movie), secondary characters like Korg, the Hulk getting transported to Sakaar through a wormhole and becoming a champion…all of those elements are from the 2006 Planet Hulk story in Marvel Comics, which fans have wanted to see in a movie for years. As with many of the Marvel movies, Thor: Ragnarok borrows from that story and weaves it into something new that echoes the comics without replicating them.

"In the earliest development of Thor: Ragnarok, we were looking at Planet Hulk as inspiration,” admits Winderbaum. “Maybe not even to integrate the Hulk into the franchise, but the idea of a planet where there's gladiatorial games as being a Thor predicament. It really was a cool idea to us. Somewhere in the early conversations, when it looked like it was going that way, it was like a no-brainer. It started off as, well, maybe we put Hulk in there too? And then as soon as that spark kind of ignited, it became kind of an idea machine and suddenly he was married to the plot."

Thor is a different person than he was in his earlier adventures.

“We find Thor in a drastically different place,” says Winderbaum. “He's now spent years on Earth living with the Avengers, hanging out with Tony Stark. He understands Earth’s sensibilities. He's got a really quick wit, a great sense of humor, he understands sarcasm in a way he didn't in the first film. And so from a character perspective, we're bringing all of that personality into space with him.”

The character also finds himself in a situation on Sakaar where he is no longer the physically dominant and powerful God of Thunder of the earlier films. “Removing Thor from his environment and his world where he dominated a lot of the fight scenes and so on, and putting him in a situation where all of sudden he’s fairly equal with everybody…was a smart thing for the writers to do,” says Chris Hemsworth. “He’s perhaps gonna use his brain more, or as much as, his brawn. He’s up against it the whole way through this and no step he takes is easy when he’s climbing this particular mountain.”

The relationship between Thor and Loki has evolved as well.

Hemsworth did not want a repeat of the Thor/Loki dynamic from the previous two Thor movies and the first Avengers. “In the first films, you know, a lot of the time you’re seeing Thor kind of going, ‘Come back, Loki…’” the actor says. “I think there’s a feeling from Thor now that’s just like, ‘You know what, kid, do what you want. You can’t hurt for trying. You’re a screw up, so whatever, do your thing.’ There’s a bit of that, which is fun, but also something we haven’t sort of played with as much.”

"I've said this about Loki before, but the opposite of love is not hate but indifference," says Tom Hiddleston. “The idea that Thor might be indifferent to Loki is troubling for him, because that's a defining feature of his character: I don't belong in the family; my brother doesn't love me; I hate my brother. And the idea his brother's like, yeah, whatever…it's an interesting development.”

There is a lot more comedy in this film, which also brings out a different side of Thor and Hemsworth.

“I think it's fantastic,” enthuses Hiddleston. “I think Chris is hilarious, and I've always known him as a hilarious man, even making the first film when we first met. So I love that his comedy chops are being flexed and I think it's great for the tone; it's great for the film.”

Both Hemsworth and Hiddleston loved that director Taika Waititi had them do a lot of improv on set: “I’ve never improvised so much with this character, which has been really exciting,” says Hemsworth. “Taika will just yell suggestions while rolling -- ‘Try this, try that,’ and so on. That has, I think, really come to change the game for myself or for the film.

“Taika is extraordinary in his invention,” agrees Hiddleston. “There are so many moving parts (on these big movie sets) and his quickness and the speed of his invention is really inspiring. Even with the sort of weight of this production, he's able to keep the atmosphere light and keep it feeling free and playful.”

At the same time, Cate Blanchett’s Hela may be Marvel’s greatest villain yet.

“Obviously we always think about the movies as standalones, even if they do set up a movie down the road or pay off something from a previous film,” says Winderbaum. “What we hope if we do our jobs right is that Hela is one of the best villains we've had -- maybe the best. Cate has been delivering an incredible performance. She's really scary and really charming.”

“It’s so far from anything I’ve seen before,” says Hemsworth about Blanchett’s work in the movie. “And as intimidating and scary as it is, you have an empathetic feeling toward her a lot of time from what she’s doing. You’re kind of like, ‘Ah, she’s got a point maybe.’ And then you’ve got to remind yourself that she’s trying to kill us all.”

Valkyrie is not exactly as you remember her from the comics.

The comic book Valkyrie was known as Brunnhilde, an Asgardian being and the leader of Odin’s army of female warriors, the Valkyrior. But the movie Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) has put all that behind her in Thor: Ragnarok. She works now as a hunter for the Grandmaster…and in fact it is she who captures Thor to use as fodder for her employer’s gladiator games.

"We're not trying to create a one-to-one emulation of Brunnhilde from the comics,” says Winderbaum. “But certainly the idea of the Valkyrie and what they mean to Asgard and Odin is something that we're going to be leaning into a lot."

For Thompson, she was eager to dive headlong into her first major role in a film utilizing extensive visual effects. “It's a challenge that I was really wanting to take on, a year before this movie was even a conversation,” says the actress. “I kept saying to myself and anyone that would listen, I want to do something that's blue and green screen because I think working in the space of such imagination is such an interesting job. And then I just had no trouble asking my cohorts, ‘How do you do that?’ And they were like, ‘Oh yeah, it's weird. You just do it.’”

For the first time in a Thor film, we’ll get to see how the “common folk” in Asgard live.

Fandango also toured the outdoor set of an Asgardian village -- sort of a first for the Thor films, which have previously stayed relegated to Odin’s palace or the Bifrost for the most part. Not unlike something out of The Lord of the Rings or even resembling a place like Naboo a little, the village has a feel that’s both medieval and futuristic at the same time. It’s also where Hela will wreak havoc on the poor people of Asgard. “This is for the first time in a Thor movie that we’ve embraced this sort of human style of living quarters as opposed to the great big palace itself,” says production designer Dan Hannah. “We do spend some time in the palace, but we also spend quite a lot of time in different parts of the city…partly because of Hela, who as queen of death, needs some people to kill, as you would.”

Oh yeah -- the movie also visits Muspelheim, the realm of Surtur.

Dan Hannah: “Muspelheim is essentially a Dyson sphere, which is an enormous structure around a dying star. The premise is this has been here for a long time and it’s coated in residue of the dying star and drawing energy out of the dying star. It’s populated by demons and dragons and all sorts of amazing creatures who live on the energy that’s coming out of the star. It has internal spaces that are vast holes which are just really like being inside a bicycle frame. If you imagine a bicycle frame stretched around a star, some of Muspelheim is inside, some of it when Thor tries to get away is outside on the surface of the Dyson sphere.”

The design of the planet Sakaar is influenced by the groundbreaking art of the legendary Jack Kirby.

It’s only fitting that on the 100th anniversary of his birth, the work of the late Kirby (who invented the Marvel Universe with Stan Lee) should have a massive presence in the design of Thor: Ragnarok. Touring the outside of the gates that lead into the arena on Sakaar, the bold colors and weird geometric shapes signal the influence of the master. The streets surrounding the gates are also quite colorful and crazily configured, with sharp turns and unpredictable curves.

“Yes, Jack Kirby, 1960s Jack Kirby,” confirmed Hannah as we toured the crazily shifting streets of Sakaar. “That was our inspiration. I’ve read Jack Kirby comics since I was 15 years old. So for me it was fantastic…of course, it doesn’t look anything like Jack Kirby, but it does have the influence and it’s different from anything I’ve seen before.”

"The amazing thing about Jack Kirby is his artwork is dense," says visual effects supervisor Jake Morrison. “One of the anecdotes about Kirby is that he never erased anything. He only continued to draw forward. So you see characters with six fingers and stuff like that just ‘cause he was like, ‘Right, okay, I’ll just fill the page and just continue drawing’…what he’s doing is really just filling the frame. So for us what that means is we can be very dense with the visuals.”

Speaking of Sakaar, it’s basically a giant garbage dump.

Sakaar is the endpoint of a series of wormholes that dump whatever gets caught in them -- from different parts of the universe -- onto the planet, which is apparently how Thor and the Hulk both end up there (Hulk’s Quinjet gets trapped in a wormhole, as does Thor).

“It’s a bit of a sewer,” says Hannah about the planet ruled by the Grandmaster. “There’s no vegetation in Sakaar. It’s purely made up of space waste. All the food is made from space waste.” What Hannah refers to as “scrappers” -- which may include Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie -- work in the dangerous areas outside the main city where things are constantly falling out of the sky. “It’s basically an accumulation of space debris that’s grown,” continues Hannah. “That’s how I think if it anyway . . . It’s like a landfill, basically. “

As for the city where the Grandmaster rules, it’s populated by aliens who have also come to the planet from all over the cosmos. Hannah describes it as “space Vegas.”

Producer Brad Winderbaum delved further into the development of Sakaar: “This is a planet that's like frozen in space between an incredible quantity of wormholes that have been spitting things out into this place for eons and eons. And essentially, if anything goes wrong in your intergalactic travels in the MCU, you're going to get spat out into the toilet of the universe which is this planet.”

The visual effects in the film are among the most intensive of any Marvel production.

Jake Morrison was asked which of the movie’s scenes or effects was the most challenging to create. “All of them,” the visual effects supervisor replied immediately. “It’s literally one of the most involved pictures I have ever been on. It’s visual effects heavy. All Marvel pictures do rely on visual effects to help tell the stories. But this one is absolutely enormous. The scope of the picture and the amount of elements in it is incredible.”

Even Hela’s famous antlers are created through visual effects.

During our day on the set, we saw a scene set on the Stone Arch Bridge in which Thor, Hulk, Valkyrie and Loki all confront Hela. Cate Blanchett was not in full costume, but Morrison assured us that we will see Hela in all her majesty in the final film: “The look of the headdress and all that kind of stuff is very, very iconic,” he explains. “When you have an actor like Cate, what we wanted to do is not tie her down with a physical costume that was overly complicated or weighty…if you're making this film in the 80s or the 90s you would actually have to put the big headdress on and you know exactly what that looks like. You’ve seen actors do this and they basically have a candelabra on there.

“The key is we can base it upon Cate’s physical performance,” continues Morrison about the CG parts of the costume, adding that they now capture 120 samples per second of Blanchett’s body. “We then have the option to make her costume behave in sympathy with her action completely and not have the actor feel in any way like her motion is restricted by the costume. So we’re trying to let the performance drive the picture and then we just add the fun stuff on afterwards.”

Finally, the big question…how does Thor: Ragnarok lead into Avengers: Infinity War?

“Without giving anything away, this definitely bleeds nicely into that,” hints Chris Hemsworth. “As they all tend to do. But this being called Ragnarok -- everyone knows what that means. So obviously it is going to affect the larger universe.”

[heyymonkey2]

First Night Back in Fuuga Chapter 11

Yona and Hak tell the dragons...

Continued musings after Chapter 138

Ao3 Link

"Your Highness, it's time."

Huh? Yona is trying to finish a very good dream. It's about her wedding night. She and Hak are stark naked in bed. His erection hovering right above her. Just one more second... she's dying to know what that full penetration feels like. He's about to do it on purpose -- no reservations. Exactly what he's threatened to, joked about, for so long... put your money where your mouth is, Thunderbeast. Ohhh--

"Your Highness!" now a lady-in-waiting is pulling on her arm.

Yona reluctantly abandons her dream turned fantasy and opens her eyes to the bright light of a new day. Three ladies-in-waiting stand next to her bed. They're expectant, nervous.

"Our apologies to wake you, Your Highness. The elder sent us to prepare you right away."

"Prepare me?" Yona's eyes go wide. People are not to know about... what's happening today.

"For your farewell dinner tonight. We've been instructed to bring you to the baths and do a cleansing ceremony. I expect you'll be praying at the temple for a safe journey ahead."

Yona sighs relief. That works, "Ah, yes. Thank you."

Yona quickly dresses with their help and exits her room to see Hak sitting outside the door. Seriously, Hak?! She told him NO. He should sleep in his own bed. Even if he wouldn't let her sleep there with him (something about respecting the elders while they're there, only one more night... blah blah, for being a mischievous boy, he sure gives credence to a lot of rules). But no, he can never say away. She remembers back to that evening on the cliff... You're everywhere, Hak. Everywhere you are. Damn, she loves him. Though she's scowling at him now.

He smiles apology at her fiery expression -- was she expecting anything different?

"You, too, Lord Hak."

"Hm?" Hak glances at the lady-in-waiting who addressed him.

"The farewell dinner is for you, as well. Your entire party will need to come to the baths."

He rises, looking to Yona as if to verify she, and this, are still real, "Right, the farewell dinner."

Yona blushes. This feels kinda weird in the context of he sitting outside her door as her bodyguard.

It is no longer weird. A million miles from weird.

Yona stares through the cracks of the barrier that divides the ladies' and mens' onsen. On the other side -- Hak's defined abs. The hair on his legs. Sculpted calves. Impossibly strong arms. And that damn sexy hair that falls around his handsome face. She slides down into the hot water to calm herself down. The ladies-in-waiting could walk in and see her. Wouldn't that be difficult to explain!

She's the princess.

But this princess hasn't been thinking straight for a long time now. The worst of it started when Hak told her that her happiness made him happiest of all. Then after, her heart has been stopped by a million things -- him calling her "Yona," smelling her hair, pretending to be Ao, confessing to be in love with her...

What happened? That mean boy who gave her a hard time about suitors and trying anything dangerous, who told her she was wasting expensive makeup and that she danced like a chicken... has become the person who knows her best in the entire world. Her truest friend. And from the depths of her soul, she wants him to embrace her as his lover... that boy! She smiles at life, surprising in the most wondrous of ways.

Then she remembers. She was supposed to share today's happiness with her father. She'd often imagined it. He'd of course be drunk and crying with happiness. Proud. It strikes her -- he would be happy she chose Hak. Overjoyed, even. She'd never thought about this before, but all the time that Soo-Won was a "no," Hak really might have been a "yes" in the king's eyes. Hak was a general and tribe chief. Kouka's strongest warrior. Her father trusted very few people, but one of them was Hak... he left her alone with him all the time. And even elevated him to a position to know all about the kingdom's operations. From the day the king asked Hak to be her bodyguard, had he already been trying to pair her with a good man who'd be loyal, honest and protect her for all her life?

Yona touches her cheek -- cathartic tears running down. The realization of the gift her father gave... she closes her eyes and smiles in profound gratitude. I was so blind, father. He was right there. Thank you.

Ao hops onto her shoulder and she opens her eyes to see the ladies-in-waiting approaching in the distance with flowers, herbs, and towels. It's time to prepare her body.

Hak relaxes in the water, trying not to think about the princess on the other side, her soft, pale skin kissed by the sunlight. Calm down. It's just tonight is a reality he never even thought dreaming of would be reasonable. The anticipation is almost unbearable.

Tonight there'll be no need to suppress the impulses he's fought most of his life. He begins to harden as he remembers the feeling of having penetrated her.

CALM DOWN. Male attendants are about to come assist with the cleansing ceremony. He does not need this to be awkward.

But man, what a relief to be marrying the princess today. All the joy, surprise, disbelief, aside, he was not gonna make it. Dead man walking. Less than 24 hours past their confessions, he'd already been inside her on two separate occasions. Three if you count when she took him in her mouth. Calm down! He's really hoped to be the kind of man who would respect and honor his lover, his wife. And if it's the princess... who is he kidding, in his heart he's only ever had room for the princess. It has always been her. Even when they were six years old. There's only ever been Yona.

Yona... he wonders if tonight she'll let him call her name.

Calm. Down.

Jae-ha was already headed to the hot springs when he found out about the "farewell dinner" he was supposed to be getting prettied up for. Two birds, then. He'd do the thing he's supposed to do while also fighting this damn hangover in a relaxing hot spring.

But as soon as Jae-Ha enters, he sees the Thunderbeast. In especially fine Wind Tribe robes. And girls all around him finalizing the fit.

"This robe is such high quality, it could even be worn in a marriage ceremony!"

"Ohh, one day Lord Hak will make such a fine husband."

"What a lucky woman his wife will be!"

"Lord Hak, must you leave so soon?"

"Perhaps you've seen someone here you like?"

The dragon's blood is boiling, "He's taken."

All the girls turn toward Jae-Ha at once. Hak turns in surprise, then desperately motions for Jae-Ha to stop talking. This appalls Jae-Ha, "You can stop fawning all over him because the girl he's with--," Hak approaches to shut him up, but now really upset, Jae-Ha continues, "Well then, perhaps you should keep at him, it appears he's not interested in being faithful. How ugly. Well, she has other arms to run into--" SMACK! Jae-Ha turns his head back toward Hak who just punched him, blood spilling from Jae-Ha's lower lip.

"Let's take this outside."

Once at a private distance, Jae-Ha looks expectantly at Hak, knowing full well his mouth could quickly get him another fist. Though he might actually like that...

"So this is how you're a lover to her? You won't tell a soul? Even women who'd like to take her place?!"

"How I am is I don't want your blood on my robes as I marry the only woman I'm interested in."

Jae-Ha's eyes go wide, a hand to his chest, though Hak wouldn't notice subtle pain like that.

"You're... that's so... how did this?"

"She might have wanted to tell you herself, but you were making such a fuss in there."

"You could have just cleared it up with those eager ladies. To someone who didn't know, it looked like you were pretending Yona Dear doesn't exist."

Hak runs a hand through his hair in frustration, "I'm not happy about it either!"

'What the hell do you mean you're not happy about it?!"

"You know how I feel about her. To marry the princess is more than I could ask for in this life."

"Than any man could, really. You lucky bastard. So what's the problem?"

"No one can know about it. Except you guys and Mundok."

Jae-Ha stares in shock, "What?"

"Soo-Won would come after her."

It suddenly all registers. And Jae-Ha feels like an ass.

"All the secrecy was to protect her. I should have known," his soft sentimentality switches into a sly smile, "Now that I think about it, it's kind of sexy. Secret lovers."

"Don't get any ideas," Hak warns.

"Now that's a good idea..." and he jokingly means it as he considers adding another secret layer to Yona's relationships.

Hak raises an arm, Jae-Ha points at Hak's robes, "Keep it clean."

Yona walks into the room the dragons have been sharing to find them being groomed by Wind girls. She laughs at the sight -- all of them getting their hair cut, even Yun. Zeno sees her and beams, "Little Miss!"

"Wow, I didn't expect all this!"

"Neither did we," Kija admits, batting a girl with scissors away from his perfectly self-kept mane.

"It must be quite the dinner we're having," Yun states, clearly unsure about all this.

"Excuse me, ladies, may we please have a moment alone?" Yona sweetly requests.

Within moments, the Wind girls are gone and it's just Yona, her dragons (minus Jae-Ha), and Yun. The boys watch Yona as it looks like she's preparing to say something. But her face is bright red. With great effort, she finally just starts--

"Hak and I... we... we were talking and... well, it turns out... our relationship..."

Yun's eyes go wide. Zeno smiles. Kija and Shin-Ah still wait for the rest of the sentence.

"...we have always been close, we've always been special to each other, but yesterday... well really, before that... we're in love."

Kija gasps. Shin-Ah leans forward.

"And being in love... there are certain complications with traveling together. Mundok had some merited concerns. So did we. But we didn't want to be apart... so this would have happened, it's just now happening much more quickly than we imagined..."

"Spit it out, Yona," none of this has been news to Yun so far, but he also just wants to put her out of her misery.

Yona takes a deep breath, "The farewell dinner is cover for Hak and I's secret wedding ceremony. We'd like you all to be there."

Yun surprises Yona with an instant hug, "It's about time!"

"We're happy for you and the Mister, Little Miss!" Zeno beams, not at all surprised either. He's been watching and waiting for this.

Kija is still in shock, "I hate to be prudent at a time like this, but are you sure about marriage and to a beast? No one should be forced into marriage. And in secret? Did he... do anything to you?" Suddenly Kija is realizing what that beast is going to do to her and starts hyperventilating.

"Breathe, Kija," Yun sighs.

"I'm touched," Shin-Ah is smiling, "To be included in something this special."

"Because to us, you are most special," Kija has regained his breath.

Yona smiles that he's already coming around, but then realizes, "I'm sad Jae-Ha isn't here. ...I haven't even seen him since yesterday morning."

"Don't worry about that Mister," Zeno encourages, "He's around. He'll be there."

"You know," Yun begins, "If Hak is your husband, Yona, then you're gonna have to take care of him from now on because I've had enough hassle feeding that beast."

Yona's eyes fill with love just thinking about him, "He's really a pain, isn't he?"

"You don't have to tell me."

Yona's eyes light up -- she turns to see Jae-Ha in the doorway. She bounds and leaps into his arms. He smiles at her immediate and plentiful enthusiasm for him. Oh what she does to him, too.

Yona pulls away and looks up to see his bloody lip, " Oh no..." her eyes go wide, realizing what Jae-Ha just said, "What did he...?"

"It's nothing, Dear. What's more important is that I've come to get you. I've been given the task of bringing you to your very important engagement. Your last flight as a free woman..."

As Yona realizes Hak told him, although also punched him, and that she really is just about to get married...