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felassan · 4 years ago

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Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 annotations & additional pages/art compilation

Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 is a hardcover collection of some pre-existing Dragon Age comics that was released in 2014. It comprises of all issues of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. In places, it includes additional annotations/commentaries by the illustrators and authors, as well as a few additional pages with additional art. iirc these additional annotations and pages/art aren’t featured or available anywhere else (in the franchise I mean; other people have probably put them online at some point I’m sure).

From what I can see at least, Library Edition Volume 1 is no longer in print, and as such listings for it on resale sites etc are.. price-inflated & prohibitively expensive (~£100+, which I’m sure we can all agree is just not reasonable or accessible to most people). Due to this, I’ve compiled the additional annotations and pages here in this post. Thank you and credit to @artevalentinapaz, who kindly shared the material with me. This post has been made with their permission. The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

These commentaries are in the context of The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. If you notice any errors or annotations missing, or need anything clarified, just let me know. I think the annotations are in chronological order. In places I elaborated in square brackets to help explain which part of the comics an annotation is referring to. A note before you proceed further: some of the topics referenced in the annotations/additional pages are heavy or uncomfortable. The quotes here are word-for-word transcriptions of dev/creator commentaries, not my personal opinions or phrasings.

(Also, I do recommend always supporting comic creators by purchasing their comics legitimately. I own each issue of these comics having bought other editions of them all legitimately. The reason I put this post together is because this specific Library Edition volume has been discontinued and the consequently-inflated cost is so high, rendering the additional material inaccessible to most.)

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The Silent Grove annotations

Illustrator Chad Hardin: “I used to be an environmental artist for video games, so I built a 3-D model of Antiva City using the program Silo. Many of the buildings are simple cubes, but a few are more detailed. Overall, I spent the better part of a day building it, but I used it again and again throughout The Silent Grove to maintain continuity in the backgrounds.”

Script Writer Alexander Freed: “Even working with David Gaider, it took me several drafts to find Alistair’s voice. His narrative had to convey his humor and self-doubt from Dragon Age: Origins while suggesting a newfound weariness earned during his years on the throne. For readers familiar with the character, he needed to seem like a changed Alistair - but Alistair nonetheless.”

Chad Hardin: “If you read a lot of comics, you might wonder why the majority of the heroes wear skin-tight suits. Well, I can tell you: they are easy and quick to draw. In video games, you build the model once and then animate it, so details don’t slow you down. In comics, everything has to be rendered by hand. Varric and Alistair’s outfits were quite detailed. It took me a long time to get used to them, and even longer to memorize the designs until drawing them was second nature - Varric’s knee armor in particular! Oy vey!”

David Gaider: “One of my favorite scenes in the entire series [when Varric and Isabela are disarming traps and picking locks together while Alistair looks on]. Isabela and Varric, doing what rogues do. I had a suggestion for how to put it together, but Alex managed to make it fit and did a great job with it.”

Chad Hardin: “I never used to keep any of the artwork I created for comics. I would just hand the pages over to my agent to sell. This page [when Alistair, Varric and Isabela are in a tavern together, with hookah in the foreground] I kept for myself. I love the hookah-smoking elves in the second panel and Isabela’s face in the last panel. I rendered the first four chapters of The Silent Grove in grayscale using ink washes, gouache and Copie markers.”

David Gaider: “For a little while, Varric [in these comic stories] was supposed to be Zevran from Dragon Age: Origins, which would have made sense, Zevran being Antivan and all. I know that some fans would have loved to see him, but the dynamics of the group just didn’t work as well. Then a planned cameo later had to be cut for space. Ah well, Zev, another time.”

Alexander Freed: “Isabela at her most dangerous [climbing up the side of the cliff]. This scene - featuring a scantily clad, dripping-wet woman who tends to flaunt her sexuality - could easily have come across as exploitative, but Chad did a lovely drop portraying Isabela as purely focused and deadly.”

Chad Hardin: “Isabela rising out of the water and scaling the cliff with the knife in her mouth is one of my favorite parts of The Silent Grove. It is one of those moments where the writing really inspired the art. Hats off to Alex and David. This is another page I kept for myself.”

Colorist Michael Atiyeh: “This is one of my favorite Dragon Age pages. Chad is such an amazing artist; I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him.”

Chad Hardin: “I love that this page [when a guard spots Varric and shouts ‘Intruder!’] made it in uncensored. So many times in comics, I draw something and some stuffy lawyers come out of the woodwork and tell me to tone it down. Dark Horse and BioWare always let me have fun, and this turned out to be one of my favorite pages with Varric and Bianca. Any guesses to which word he is mouthing in the second panel?”

Alexander Freed: “Note the simple decency of Alistair as he gives his cloak, without comment, to Isabela. For all his flaws, he’s genuinely kind at heart - a rare enough trait in Isabela’s world that I think it’s much of what she values in him.”

Chad Hardin: “I love the opening panel to this chapter [the opening panels to Chapter 3, when the team are on a ship at sea]. It’s the image I use on the homepage of my website. This page was a gift to my cousin Wendy, who loves pirates. Seascapes with sailing ships might be clichéd in fine art, but for me it was a first.”

David Gaider: “I wanted to have this story center on the group travelling to a Witch of the Wilds other than Flemeth, and originally I had set it somewhere else - until I remembered a Codex entry from Dragon: Age Origins that offhandedly mentioned a witch in the Tellari Swamps. Brilliant! It’d look like I planned it all along. I didn’t.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love opportunities where I can show a change in the time of day as you move from panel to panel [when the ship heads towards and the team arrive in the Tellari Swamps]. I feel the palette of each panel is very distinct and beautiful.”

Alexander Freed: “Why did Alistair choose two people he barely knows to be his companions on this quest? We never make this explicit, but of course Varric is on the right track. Alistair wants to surround himself with people who don’t know him and won’t judge him, yet it’s Alistair’s idealism that Isabela and Varric work to preserve.”

Chad Hardin: “Another page where the writing inspired the art [when the group suddenly encounter a dragon]. I love the dragon bursting onto the scene and Isabela’s stare. Some writers will try to cram six or seven panels on a page like this and the pacing just doesn’t allow the artist to give each moment the right punch. Can you imagine if the first panel was crammed into a single square inch?”

Chad Hardin: “Yavana was one of the only characters that we did no preliminary sketches for. I don’t know how that happened, but thankfully it worked out.”

David Gaider: “I love how Yavana looks like a cross between Flemeth and Morrigan. Flemmigan? She’s totally Chad’s design, and it’s great. Typical for these witches, she never says things straight. In my mind, this Alistair is the one who did the Dark Ritual in Dragon Age: Origins - and I was half-tempted to have him lose his cool in this first scene [opening panels of Chapter 4] with her. Too early, though.”

Alexander Freed: “Through this whole sequence [the page when Varric aims Bianca at Yavana], Yavana is dropping cryptic hints and Alistair is refusing to play along. He’s met Flemeth and Morrigan - he knows Yavana won’t give him a straight answer, and he won’t give her the satisfaction of asking needlessly.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Sometimes it’s the little things on a page that spark my interest. Here [when the team navigate vines and mud to get to the temple], the sunset panel came out great and the mud looks really thick and gooey. It’s fun to focus on these details and make them stand out.”

Chad Hardin: “I hated drawing this scene [when Isabela gets kicked] where Isabela gets the boot to the face. Call me old fashioned, but I was raised to believe that only a coward would ever hit a woman (even a battle-hardened pirate adventurer). I draw at home, and my girls often watch me work in my studio. This was a page I didn’t want them watching me draw. I do like, though, that Isabela gets up, yanks the arrow out, and then soldiers on (and later extracts brutal revenge).”

Michael Atiyeh: “Poor Isabela. It seems I gave her more bruises and black eyes than any of the other characters. [when Isabela is yanking the arrow out]”

Chad Hardin: “It’s always interesting to go back and look at artwork because it reminds me of what was going on in my life at the time. I inked this page [opening panels of Chapter 5] at a ‘draw night’ session at an anime convention in St. George, Utah. I was one of the special guests, but I missed the first day because I was at my grandfather’s funeral in Las Vegas, Nevada. Seeing this page brought back those memories.”

David Gaider: “‘Bianca says hello.’ [quoting the panels being referenced] I adore Varric. I was tempted to have him narrate the entire series [in reference to these three comics], but then again I liked the idea of having each series center on one of the trio’s viewpoints. This book belongs to Alistair, but that doesn’t stop Varric from getting all the best lines.”

Alexander Freed: “Claudio, of course, is not a terribly sympathetic figure. But I wanted to emphasize that he takes this fight as personally as Isabela - he sincerely loved Luis and blames Isabela for the man’s death. I think it’s important to give every character, even the most loathsome, some dignity. [when Isabela and Claudio are fighting]”

Chad Hardin: “Payback! Here is where Isabela extracts her revenge on Claudio [when Isabela stabs Claudio]. I never enjoyed killing off a character so much. I particularly enjoyed putting the look of shock in his eyes. He had it coming. There is something satisfying about killing a ‘made man’.”

Chad Hardin: “Every now and then when drawing comics, I wish I could animate some panels and watch them as a cartoon. It would be great to see this sequence [when Yavana catches Claudio’s soul] in full motion as Yavana snatches Claudio’s soul, makes it reenter his corpse and then extracts information from him until he bursts into flame. It was a very Hellboy-ish moment. I enjoyed the movie that played in my mind while drawing this scene. Hope everyone liked the result.”

Chad Hardin: “As I mentioned on page 17, I rendered the first four chapters in grayscale, which made the black-and-white art look great, but had a neutralizing effect when it came to colors. By the time I drew chapter 4, I had seen the effect it was having and decided to stop using the grayscale so the colors would pop. When I saw this page [when Alistair says to Yavana ‘And we helped you find it’] in print, it confirmed to me that I made the right decision. I honestly feel this art was the best of The Silent Grove.”

Chad Hardin: “I practically painted these pages [when Yavana says ‘It is permitted. Tonight and only tonight’] in thumbnails hoping it would help me choose how to render them in ink. It is so hard trying to figure out how to get a full range of value out of just black and white. There are some artists and inkers that make this look easy. Mark Schultz comes to mind. Michael saved my bacon. Colorists really do so much work when it comes to rendering; this page came out awesome because of him.”

David Gaider: “Here we reveal the existence of Great Dragons (as opposed to High Dragons), and also that Yavana was the source of the return of dragons to Thedas after their departure for so many centuries. But why? There’s the rub, and not even Alistair can trust that she’s telling him the truth.”

David Gaider: “Here’s the controversial scene [Alistair killing Yavana]. I think some fans don’t like that Alistair did this, and have said they consider it out of character. I don’t. From his perspective, Flemeth and her daughters have been toying with the world for reasons that can’t be trusted. They dragged Maric away from his family, from him. One might think his judgement foolish, but considering what Alistair was capable of deciding even back in Dragon Age: Origins, it’s certainly not out of character.”

Chad Hardin: “[same scene as above] This was a controversial page, and there were a lot of people who thought it was out of character for Alistair to kill Yavana (I didn’t see it coming - I mean, you just don’t kill a Witch of the Wild), but here is the thing: this page is Alistair acting as a king. Yavana has been manipulating him, trying to play him like a pawn, and he just can’t allow that. There’s too much at stake, for himself and for his subjects.”

Alexander Freed: “The end? An end, at least [the trio walking off into the distance]. The series needed a note of closure while leading into Those Who Speak (which wouldn’t arrive until many months later). David tweaked the ending in the outline several times, and I did my best to balance resolving Alistair’s emotional journey without resolving the quest. It’s not as clean as I’d have liked, but fortunately, now it’s all in one volume...”

Those Who Speak annotations

Alexander Freed: “Capturing Isabela’s narrative voice was much easier for me than capturing Alistair’s - partly because I’d already written The Silent Grove, and partly because of my own writing proclivities. Rereading now, I wonder if I laid on the (mild) profanity a bit too thick. I’ll leave you to judge.”

David Gaider: “I like the additional detail Alex and Chad put in, letting us see more of Qarinus and more of Isabela’s crew. Alex wanted to give her crew more of a presence, and let her first mate have some face time, so they weren’t just parts of the scenery. Good call on his part.”

David Gaider: “I’m really fond of the formal getups Chad made for the party. Isabela’s actually comes from a concept we didn’t use from the cancelled Dragon Age 2 expansion, if I remember right. And Maevaris came from me asking for ‘someone who looks like Mae West’ - with the wonderful outfit all Chad’s doing.

Chad Hardin: “Maevaris. I love Mae. When David and Dragon Age art director Matthew Goldman spoke to me about designing Mae, they wanted her to be fully female with the exception of her biology. They told me to think ‘Mae West’. Well, when I think of Mae West, I think of her... womanly shape. So, drawing Maevaris was always walking a fine line between portraying Mae’s identity and her biology. The process endeared her to me.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Just like in The Silent Grove, we are introduced to another gentleman from Isabela’s past [when the team meet Lord Devon and Isabela threatens him]. As was the case with Claudio, he will meet his fate at her hands.”

Chad Hardin: “When I was drawing Titus, my kids asked me why I was drawing ‘angry Jesus’ or ‘evil Jesus’. I can’t remember which term they used exactly, but it made me chuckle. I was going for a mix of Rapustin and Joe Stalin, but ‘evil Jesus’ would do.”

David Gaider: “I’m not sure it’s apparent here [when Alistair says ‘I’d really rather not’], but Alistair was supposed to be using one of his Templar powers on Titus (that’s why Titus recognizes what he is on the next page) and disrupting his magic.”

Alexander Freed: “Isabela is witty and charming enough that it can be easy to forget that she’s not, in fact, a nice person. Even after finishing the outline, David was concerned about making her too unsympathetic - but I loved his approach in this series. The dark deeds Isabela commits - this murder included [Isabela killing Lord Devon] - are what make her guilt tangible and no easy matter to overcome.”

Alexander Freed: “I thought the notions of Isabela’s pride in her captaincy and dedication to her crew were some of the most interesting aspects of her character in David’s story. In scenes here [when Isabela is on her ship saying ‘Keep them focused and keep them sober’] and elsewhere, I did my best to emphasize their place at the core of Isabela’s world.”

Chad Hardin: “Most of the time I draw from imagination, but because of the complexity of this page [Qunari trying to board Isabela’s ship] I decided it would work better if I had photo reference. On this page are my nephews Jared (Varric) and Adam, my niece Melissa, my kids Erica, Tasey Michaela (Isabela) and Chad (Alistair), my friend’s daughter Amy, my wife Joy, and the neighborhood kids as Isabela’s pirate crew. (The crew member mooning the Qunari is out of my ol’ noodle.) I paid their modelling fee in pizza and root beer. Also, I had originally drawn cannons on Isabela’s ship, so if there are parts of it that look slightly wonky, chances are there was a cannon there.”

David Gaider: “Ever since the BioWare artists finally did a concept for female Qunari, I’ve been itching to include one in the game. It’s always slipped through my fingers, so I was going to be damned if I’d have a Qunari plot in a comic - without the same technical limitations - and not have one present.

Chad Hardin: “I had no idea this was the first time anyone outside of BioWare had seen a female Qunari.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I really like the lighting in this sequence [Isabela in her cell thinking ‘I haven’t eaten in days’], especially the strong white light and the characters in shadow.”

David Gaider: “The entire sequence of Rasaan interrogating Isabela was something I plotted out in detail when this series began. Here they discuss names - something treated in a manner peculiar to the Qunari, considering how much importance they apply to what things are called (and not called), because it forms the core of their identity. Isabela brushes it off, but as we find out later it’s also at the core of her identity. I liked that parallel.”

Alexander Freed: “To balance out the relatively static talking pages elsewhere in the issue, I hoped to make the interrogation and flashback sequences beautiful and full of information. I proposed an approach to Chad, and he wisely reshaped it into what you see here [the page with the scene where Isabela says ‘I’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes’]. Anything that succeeds on these pages should be credited to him; anything that fails is my fault.”

Chad Hardin: “Probably the most challenging spread I have ever done. My friend Stacie Pitt was the model for Isabela on this page, and my wife Joy was Rasaan. I saved these pages [around the scene when Rasaan says ‘Mistakes can be corrected’] for myself.”

David Gaider: “Sten from Dragon Age: Origins becoming the new Arishok of the Qunari was something we'd planned even during Dragon Age 2. This was a great opportunity to show that, and also to show that Sten didn’t acquire horns even despite the makeover the Qunari received in DA2. Hornless Qunari are considered special, and Sten is no exception.”

Michael Atiyeh: “I think that David, Alex and Chad handled Isabela’s flashback [to when she was sold by her mother] in an interesting way, and it created a nice flow to the story.”

David Gaider: “This was a controversial scene [what happened to the slaves Isabela was transporting], the end result of a lot of discussions between me and Isabela’s original writer on the team, and it went through a lot of revisions over that time. It needed to fit with the story Isabela told the player in DA2, but fill in the blanks of what she didn’t tell. We didn’t want Isabela to be someone who became who she is because she was ‘broken’ but instead as a result of her own actions - yet also not be completely beyond redemption.”

Chad Hardin: “These were hard pages [as above] to draw. It was difficult knowing that events such as this are part of human history, such as the Zong massacre in 1781, where the British courts ordered the insurers to reimburse the crew of the Zong for financial losses caused by throwing slaves overboard when faced with a lack of water. Horrifying beyond words.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Here, Isabela visits here crew, and I wanted to play up that she was in the light and they were in a dark cell. The light streaming through the bars gave me the opportunity to highlight Brand, who also had dialogue in the scene.”

Alexander Freed: “I struggled to find a way for Varric to contribute to victory without distracting from Alistair and Sten’s big fight. I’m happy with the solution: a brazen lie seemed appropriate to the character without taking away from the main show.”

David Gaider: “I believe my original plan had Isabela’s and Alistair’s fight scenes happening separately, but I like how Alex intertwined them in the script and I especially like how this ends up highlighting the differences between their characters when their fights are resolved. Isabela is defiant, revealing her name not because Rasaan demands it but because it’s her choice. In both cases, mercy is strength.”

Michael Atiyeh: “The brush I created for the clouds really gave them a nice watercolor effect here [on the deck of the ship, Sten calling Alistair ‘kadan’]. That brush has become a staple in my toolbox.”

Alexander Freed: “With the strong theme of names running through these issues, I liked the notion that Isabela had outgrown being, well, ‘Isabela’. When her name comes up in Until We Sleep, it’s largely played with ambiguity.”

Until We Sleep annotations

Alexander Freed: “The story of ‘Arthur’ is one of my favorite minor sequences [Varric infiltrating and fighting his way into the fortress]. It tells us something about Varric and it delivers plot information - and it’s also a reminder that our heroes kill an awful lot of people during these series and cope with it in their own ways. In general, writing Varric let me skirt the edge of metacommentary, which I greatly enjoyed.”

David Gaider: “Varric, as always, is my ‘voice of the narrator’. Here he’s expressing some of my own amusement at Alistair’s growing list of peculiarities [‘Your majesty is quite the special snowflake’]. To think, back at the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins he was just the player’s goofy sidekick who grew up in a barn.”

Michael Atiyeh: “By the third series, Until We Sleep, I really started to have a complete feel for what I wanted the final art to look like. As an artist, it’s important to continue to evolve and grow. The close-up of Sten’s face [same page as above] is a perfect example of how I wanted the rendering on the characters to look.”

Alexander Freed: “David’s outline called for a short, somber reveal of the Calenhad story by Sten. Fueled by my desire to avoid ‘talking heads’ sequences, I scripted it as a full-on storytelling flashback. David made sure the history worked (at least from the Qunari point of view), and Chad did a beautiful job handling it in a mere two pages.”

David Gaider: “Blood is important in Dragon Age, as a theme. Here we tie in the dragon blood that was mentioned all the way back in The Silent Grove and explain what it means at last. I was a bit hesitant to tarnish the legend of Calenhad the Great in this way, but I comfort myself with the knowledge this tale is but a viewpoint and not necessarily the entire truth.”

Michael Atiyeh: “Titus melting the attacker is a great example of classic comicbook storytelling and exactly what made me fall in love with the medium.”

David Gaider: “I was really happy with how Chad handled the reveal of Mae as transgender [the scene with Mae in the cell]. My worry was that Varric finding her disrobed might be potentially titillating, but I think he handled it nicely. I only wish there was more time to have Mae properly respond to being exposed in this manner, even to a friend.”

Chad Hardin: “I originally drew Mae as female [same scene as above], then changed her anatomy, so the psychological violation and humiliation she felt would be the focus. Hope that came across.”

Chad Hardin: “When in doubt, have Bianca shoot it [Varric shooting the artifact].”

David Gaider: “This scene [Varric and Bianca the dwarf] with Varric was one I wanted to do for a very long time. We’ve hinted that Varric’s crossbow was named after a real person, someone he never wants to talk about. Now I finally had the chance to show why.”

Chad Hardin: “Of all my Dragon Age pages, this scene was hands down my favorite, because Varric is my favorite. It was awesome to get to draw Bianca in her dwarven form. These scenes give you a glimpse of the love Varric and Bianca shared. It doesn’t tell you the whole story, but you can assume plenty from what is shown. You get to see Varric mostly naked (you’re welcome), but most of all you witness Varric’s heartbreak. I felt privileged to draw it. I got so obsessed with drawing this page I did an entire watercolor painting based on the last panel [Varric gets up to leave, ‘This isn’t right’ - ? or perhaps the scene where he opens the door to leave].”

Alexander Freed: “Unreliable narrators are always tricky - done wrong, they can just confuse the reader. But I’m fairly happy with Varric’s lies throughout this series, most of which are used to downplay the emotional cost of events rather than whitewash the events themselves.”

Michael Atiyeh: “This palette worked perfectly [Varric standing in front of the doorway/portal in the Fade proper], but I can’t take all the credit because BioWare provided reference for the Fade. I added the hot orange energy for the doorway, which looks great with the sickly green sky.”

David Gaider: “This scene [Isabela’s Fade nightmare] was actually inspired by a fan named Allegra who did a cosplay as a Qunari version of Isabela. I knew I wanted something like this for Isabela’s Fade section of the comic, but it didn’t really solidify until I saw the cosplay.”

Chad Hardin: “Isabela is more affected by her encounter with Rasaan than we were led to believe. A portent of things to come?”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love this shot of Mae in the fourth panel [on the page where Isabela is affected by vines]. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what a great character she is in the series, and Chad captures her beautifully in this shot.”

Alexander Freed: “I saw this issue as a sort of downbeat victory lap. Over the course of the previous series, our protagonists largely came to terms with the inner demons the Fade confronts them with here. The fact they’ve come so far lets them win this last battle... but they still have scars that will never completely disappear.”

David Gaider: “Maric was in the first two novels I wrote for Dragon Age. Seeing Chad’s rendering of him as a regal, grown-up version of Alistair made me incredibly nostalgic. Some characters you just never let go of.”

Alexander Freed: “I feel Varric’s lines (‘tell yourself the stories you need to tell’ but ‘never live your own lies’) are the natural endpoint of all the exchanges he’s had with Alistair, starting from the end of Chapter 1 of The Silent Grove. And of course it plays off the story of ‘Arthur’, as well.’’

Chad Hardin: “I’m happy with the way Titus came off in these pages [Titus attacking and saying ‘The last magisters of Tevinter were so close’]. He looks threatening and powerful when fighting Alistair, Isabela and Varric, but genuinely confused by his inability to defeat Maric. Bye-bye, evil Jesus.”

Alexander Freed: “I can’t help but feel for Titus. He was unthinkably corrupt, but I see him as genuinely motivated by Tevinter’s glory. (The fact Alistair reads zealous ideology as a lust for power says a lot about both characters.)”

Michael Atiyeh: “I love the seamless transition of color from Titus’ magic to the dragon breath and then back into the orange remnants of his magic in the smoke. This was a really fun panel to color [Titus saying ‘Die by what wrought you’].”

David Gaider: “‘You are not the dreamer here. I am.’ I always have a scene or a line that’s in my head when I begin a tale, and this line of Maric’s was one I wanted all the way back when I started working on The Silent Grove.”

Chad Hardin: “I love this page [Maric and Alistair clasping hands]; Mike’s colors are spot on. We get to see all our heroes in an ideal state for the last time. This is the last Dragon Age page I saved for myself.”

David Gaider: “This scene kills me [Alistair destroying the Magrallen]. I knew it needed to happen; I knew I wanted it to happen even back when I began the story. Alistair lets Maric remain in the Fade rather than dragging him back to a world which has moved on. Alistair’s ready to move on, but forcing him to give up that hope... it makes me feel like a bad person.”

Chad Hardin: “Heartbreak for Alistair as he realizes that once again, as a king, he must kill: this time, his own father (granted, the Magrallen did most of the work). I really like how Maric crumbles away in the end. This was my last page, and the emotions on the page and in my studio were very final. Altogether, this was a year of my life in the making. On my last page, I wrote a thank you to everyone involved, the crew at Dark Horse and the crew at BioWare. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them again. It was a thrill. Finally, a huge thank-you to the Dragon Age fan community, whose support was overwhelmingly awesome.”

Michael Atiyeh: “As the story came to an end, I knew I was going to miss these characters. Writing these annotations reinforces the fact that I hope to work with this great creative team again one day. Many thanks to Dark Horse and BioWare for the opportunity to work on Dragon Age.”

Alexander Freed: “The tension between the art and the narration on this page [the one with Alistair sitting on his throne while nobles argue] is something you can only pull off in comics. Neither tells the full, bittersweet story alone. Similarly, these issues wouldn’t have been possible without everyone on the team; thanks to David, Chad, Michael, and everyone I lack space to list!”

Additional pages / art

Library Edition Volume 1 also came with some additional pages, with additional art and commentary. These are as follows (I’m including them for the sake of completion, click the links to see):

1. Alistair and dragon concepts

2. Rasaan and Maevaris concepts

3. Sten, Titus and Yavana concepts

4. A series of cover pages 1

5. A series of cover pages 2

In case anyone has trouble reading the notes that accompany these images, I’ve transcribed them below:

1. Dragon Age Sketch Book

Alistair Concept

Dragon Age / Dark Horse

Chad Hardin: “The headshot of Alistair is from a finished sketch with a rejected armor design. In order to save time, the redrawing was completed on the computer, where tweaks and changes are quick and easy, if somewhat less glorious.”

[Dragon] Head #1 / Head #2

Chad Hardin: “Everyone liked this dragon sketch so much that Dark Horse printed it for signings at conventions. You can see I did multiple proposals for the dragon’s head. It was more effective than drawing the body over and over.”

2. [arrow pointing to Mae’s sleeve] concealed [I think that’s what it says anyway] daggers / shurikens?

Chad Hardin: “When designing Rasaan and Maevaris, I wasn’t exactly sure how their roles would play out in the series. Maevaris’ outfit was inspired by brothel madams of the Wild West. I thought it would be cool to have some weapons concealed in the formal wear. These never came into play in the series, but they were there in my mind.”

3. Chad Hardin: “Although we only see Titus in his battle garb in one issue, I really liked the design of his armor. The sketch of Yavana was done on the fly and served as both a rough preliminary sketch and as a panel layout. You have to work hard and smart in comics to keep up with the deadlines.”

4. Cover Artist Anthony Palumbo: “This was my first assignment for Dark Horse, and I was both excited and nervous. I drew pencil sketches of the main characters, scanned them and played with different arrangements, poses and color schemes in Photoshop.”

5. Anthony Palumbo: “Fellow illustrator Winona Nelson helped me by sitting for photo reference. I created the mock-jewelry with gold-painted Sculpey. That’s a quick photo of my own gaping maw, to help with the image of Varric.”

#dragon age #bioware #video games #artevalentinapaz #alistair theirin #fav warden #morrigan #queen of my heart #long post #longpost

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managedmischiefs · 4 years ago

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unauthorized//matthew gray gubler

based on mgg’s new unauthorized documentaries

genre: fluff

warnings: none!

word count: 3.4k

one last apology for the delay on posting these. fuck migraines!! iykyk. anyways, here it is. im really close to 200 followers and when i get there, ill be doing a preview of my new spencer fic called “north” so be ready to see that v soon! enjoy and don’t forget to give me some feedback!🖤

Getting to visit Matthew while he’s filming is a rare, yet special, occurrence. I always try to make the best of it when I get the change to head up to Vancouver, whether it be for a quick weekend or a whole week. When the final season of the show started, I did what I could to get to Vancouver for as long as I possibly could. I’d grown close to the cast, not to mention my boyfriend of six years. I wanted to make the best of this final season and make as many memories as I could, even if I’m not a member of the cast. They always joke that I’m an honorary member.

When, one night, Matthew mentioned reviving the Unauthorized Documentaries for the final season of Criminal Minds, I thought he meant it as a joke. He mentioned it so nonchalantly that I’d almost laughed. I thought he’d be too busy to worry about filming something on his own. But on his first week filming, during one of our first nightly FaceTimes, he ran a whole slew of ideas by me and I knew he was serious.

At least once a week, he would run an idea by me and would judge the quality by my quantity of laughter. I didn’t even need to comment or give my input, he’d just rattle off jokes and concepts and then either check them off or cross them out when I react. He did this every week up until this week, when he started filming.

“Do I look good?” Matthew brings my attention up from my laptop as he tugs on the lapel of his dress jacket, then holds out his hands to reveal his outfit. He’s dressed for the scenes he’s filming today, a scene with

Aubrey, so I’m not entirely sure why he’s so worried about how he’s dressed, but I’m not composing about the open request to check him out. “I’m about to go start filming the documentary with Andy,”

I drag my eyes up and down his body, my fingers stilling over the keys as I admire his figure. When I reach his eyes again, his eyebrows are raised because he can tell I’m doing more than just evaluating his outfit. I suck my bottom lip between my teeth as I nod, pushing my laptop aside and reaching my hands out for him. “You look very good, bunny,”

Matthew chuckles as I successfully grab his hands and tug him closer to me. “No, no,” he doesn’t resist as I twist my fingers in his belt loops, “I gotta go work,”

“I know,” I pout, letting go of him and sitting back in the too-comfy armchair I’m in. I’d give anything to grab him again and drag him into this chair with me. “Go film, I’ll probably be here when you get back,”

“Probably?” He picks up his script and, like the diva he is, checks his hair in the mirror and heads towards his trailer door, peeking back at me.

“I might follow you, I might stay here and keep doing the work I’ve been procrastinating,” I shrug and gesture back to my discarded laptop, flashing with a blank Google Doc, a doc that has been blank for weeks on end. Being a writer is hard and frustrating and not easy, by any means. What made me think getting a degree in writing would be a good idea? Shaking off my frustrations, I smile cutely at my boyfriend, tilting my head to the side. “Give me a kiss before you leave?”

Matthew nods and stalks back over, leaning over to peck my lips. “Whatever you write,” he whispers, warm breath fanning across my face, “will be absolutely amazing and beautiful and I’ll be honored to read it,”

“Oh, you give me too much credit,” I scoff, watching Matthew roll his eyes.

“And you don’t give yourself enough,” he responds, and then hastily checks his watch. “Okay, I’ve gotta go, but this conversation is not over. I’ll see you later. Love you,”

“Love you too. Go be funny,” I wave goodbye at him as he goes bouncing out of the trailer, closing the door behind him, leaving me to my empty Google Doc.

///

An hour later, my head is starting to hurt from staring down at a bright screen so I decide to take a break and get something to eat from catering. I haven’t heard anything from Matthew and I’m not sure what he’s up to, so I grab my phone and throw on one of his hoodies that’s a bit too big on me and head out of his trailer.

As soon as I do, though, I run right into Matthew with a pile of shoes in his hands, making them tumble to the asphalt. He curses and keeps a straight face as he tries to pick them up again. Then he sees an opportunity in me and starts to shove shoes into my hands to help him, but they’re still tumbling out. I resist the urge to laugh because I know this would ruin his bit, and I just let him silently shove Daniel’s shoes into my arms.

But then he runs off, leaving me with shoes in my arms. Without any direction or guidance from my boyfriend, I turn to Andy, who’s holding the camera, and shrug my shoulders, dropping Daniel’s shoes to the floor before walking off to my original destination- catering. Those two boys can clean up the mess they devised. I’m hungry.

Matthew finds me just twenty minutes later, taking me by surprise when he wraps his arms around my shoulders from behind, pressing kisses to my cheek. “Thanks for helping me,”

He pulls out the chair beside me and scoots as close as he can to me, our thighs touching. “I mean, I wasn’t really expecting it but it was funny. I was internally laughing,” I let my head fall onto his shoulder, feeling his arm snake around my waist. I peer up at him, feeling my pupils dilating into hearts at the sight of my stunning boyfriend. I’ll never stop being floored by his eyes and his jawline and his dimples and his lips and his smile and how fucking beautiful he is. “I liked that idea from the beginning.”

“I know you did,” he quips, not-so-sneakily swiping a chip from my plate and popping it into his mouth. “Maybe you’ll appear in another episode. Who knows?”

I don’t see Matthew until the end of the day because he’s busy doing his job, as he should be. I spend my day writing in his trailer and filling up my previously empty Google Doc. When the cast has a long break, Matthew comes in to film a scene that I recognize as the ending to the second episode. He’s sitting at his open trailer door, supposedly watching videos of Daniel modeling. He’d only waved at me when he came in, not wanting to bother my work. I wish he would distract me more. Maybe I’d take action on my fantasy of melting into this armchair with him.

His exaggerated and focused facial expression is enough to make me suppress a giggle, but then I spot a baby girl hat from Shemar on the counter and a light bulb starts floating over my head.

“Psst,” I hiss, and Matthew looks up at me, his eyebrows raised. I hold up the hat to him, and his eyes light up with a childlike excitement. He holds up his hands and I toss the hat to him, and as soon as he puts it on, I let out the laugh I’ve been holding in. “Perfect, you look perfect, baby,” Matthew winks at me and then gives a thumbs up to Andy, putting on his exaggerated face yet again and staring down at his phone. I tuck my face in my laptop so I don’t laugh again, typing diligently.

The next day is when I’m, yet again, roped into Matthew’s documentary. I don’t mind though. His ideas are hilarious and they never fail to make me laugh.

I sit in Matthew’s trailer for an hour without him, staring at a blinking cursor. I don’t write a single word and I know that sitting in the same spot won’t make inspiration suddenly strike. I decide to change my scene up and bring my laptop to catering. I grab a snack and take a seat at an empty table, crossing my legs under me, beginning to mull over combinations of words and debate definitions of words. It’d been relatively quiet in catering for a while, but it all comes to an end when Matthew comes marching up to me.

“Hi, babe,” he says sweetly, a bit too sweetly, pulling out the chair next to me and taking a seat. Like yesterday, I give him a confused look, and when he gives me the same adorable smile that he always does, my heart practically melts. The ways this man makes me fall so easily. I’ll never understand.

“Hi, there,” I respond, and then glance up at Andy holding the camera. “Can I help you?”

“Could you possibly google something for me?” Matthew says and directs his attention to my laptop. The way he’s not giving me any type of attention or physical affection let’s me know that he really is filming his documentary again, so I play into it again. What do I have to lose? I’m not writing anyway.

“Yeah, sure,” I switch to Chrome and pull up Google. “What is it?”

“Could you search Daniel Henry?” Matthew keeps a straight face and it’s moments like this that remind me how great of an actor he is. Who can keep a straight face while regurgitating an incorrect name?

I turn my head to him, biting my lip to hold back my laugh. “Henry?”

Matthew nods. “Yeah, I know, it sounds like a girl's name. I thought it was a girls name at first. Daniel,” He repeats it as if that clarifies anything at all. I just narrow my eyes at him again, and when I don’t search the obviously incorrect name that he’s giving me, he sits back in his chair, finally looking at me again with his eyes narrowed. “Do you-“ he lets out a breath, crossing his arms over his chest, “do you think there’s any chance he could be taller than me?”

“Okay, we can stop there,” Andy cuts us off, dropping the camera from focus.

“I think you missed your calling in life, love,” Matthew chuckles, pulling me into his arms, attacking my face with kisses. “I’m sorry to spring that on you, but-“

“No, it’s fine. I wasn’t really getting anywhere anyway. If you need help with anything else, you know I’m around for the rest of the week.”

Surely, he cashed in on that offer. It was accidental. It was my fault, really. I was just trying to get back to Matthew’s trailer the next day after having lunch with Kirsten and Daniel, to which Matthew jokingly called me a traitor. I heard Matthew’s loud voice from all the way down the hallway and I should have turned and left, but I didn’t.

So, iced coffee in hand, I stroll down the hallway and when I make it to the clearing, I stop in my tracks. Now, you’d think that after being with this man for five years and living with him, nothing would surprise me anymore. But he still has his moments, and this is definitely one of them. He has these wooden boxes and he’s got a roll of packing tape, and he’s taping the boxes to his feet. Maybe this shouldn’t surprise me, because he’s told me about this idea of his, but seeing him actually doing it with my own eyes is a whole different thing.

It only takes him a moment to notice my presence, and when he does, he waves me over. “Babe, babe, hey babe, babe, babe,” he says quickly, waving his hand quickly, holding the wooden box against his foot. “Come help me,”

Keeping up the same attitude I’ve had in the past, I let out a dramatic sigh and drag myself over to him, sitting down on the floor and putting my coffee on the floor. But the moment I do, Matthew snatches it up and starts drinking it as I grab the dangling packing tape. Gosh, if he actually acted like this, I’d have broken up with him forever ago.

I wrap the tape around his foot and the box and then around his ankle, making sure to not make it too tight so that I hurt him. He’s still sipping my coffee and staring into the camera like some cocky asshole when I move onto the other foot, and then I eventually run out of tape.

I sit back on my heels and look up at him. “I’m out,” Wow, this position we’re in right now? If Matthew didn’t have wooden boxes strapped to his feet and we weren’t in the middle of the Criminal Minds offices, I’d probably be reaching for his belt. But I can’t let my mind go there or else we’ll be hooking up in a bathroom or his trailer, and that never ends well for anyone.

“Okay,” he mumbles, and I watch in amusement for way too long as he struggles to get up to his feet. I don’t even help him, I just sit back and giggle. “Here, you can have this back,” he holds my coffee out to me, and just as soon as I reach for it, he pulls it back. “Wait,” he takes a long sip, “okay here.” I finally grab my coffee again and then move to lean against the wall, watching him struggle to take the first few steps with boxes taped to his feet.

He hobbles down the hallway, all the way to BJ and proceeds to ask her to paint the boxes like shoes. And once he gets the shot he wants of this scene, Andy wanders off and he comes wobbling back to me with a cute, dumb smile on his face. “Will you help me get these off?”

I nod, sitting down on the floor again to pull off the tape around his feet. “Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t trip and fall on your face,”

“Me too,” he laughs, sighing with relief when I take the first box off and set it aside. “But hey, this is my last break and then I’m gonna be working late today. I don’t know if it’s worth it to stick around set. I’m not gonna be able to come see you or anything,”

“Maybe I’ll go back to your house. I can make some dinner instead of ordering out,” I pull off the last bit of tape and then swiftly reach up to press it against Matthew’s cheek, watching it hang there limply.

He gives me a deadpan look as I devolve into giggles, falling over his lap and holding onto his misplaced elbow pads to hold me up. “Ha ha, very funny. I’m laughing so much. That was so funny,” His voice is void of any humor as he holds my shaking body from hitting the carpeted floor.

“I know, I’m just so funny,” I quip, pulling myself together enough to crane my neck and kiss his cheek. “But I am probably gonna go back to your house. Sounds like a good idea,”

“Okay, just let me know when you get there,” Matthew pats my thigh and signals me to get up, and once we’re on our feet again, he moves the wooden boxes aside. “I might not respond but-“

“Text you so you know I’m safe. I’ve got it,” I finish for him, fixing the lapel of his jacket. I push my pointer finger against the tip of his nose, making him scrunch it up in the insanely adorable way he does. The sight brings a smile to my face and it makes my heart beat faster. “I’ll see you later, okay? Go be brilliant.”

///

The sound of the front door opening lifts my head, taking my attention away from the glass of wine in my hand and the laptop in front of me, yet again. I glance at the timer on the oven and then jump to my feet, padding towards the foyer.

Matthew is dropping his backpack by the door when I get to him, and pauses halfway through reaching for his jacket. “Hi, love bug,” he murmurs, giving me a weak smile.

I grab Matthew’s jacket for him and slide it off his shoulders. “Hi, bunny,” When I turn to hang the teddy bear jacket on the coat rack, I feel his hands on my waist, drawing me closer to him. He successfully pulls me against his chest, lips leaving a trail against my shoulder. “Long day, huh?”

“Yeah,” he whispers, voice wavering as he tucks his face into my neck, “long, and repetitive, and tiring, and I’m very hungry and I smell food,”

I turn myself around in Matthew’s arms and face him, placing my hands on his cheeks. “I got pizza dough on my way home and I made homemade pizza. It’s in the oven and it’ll be done in about ten minutes. And I poured you a glass of wine too,”

Matthew’s eyes flutter closed and he presses his forehead against mine. “You’re an angel. You’re a goddamn angel, sent from heaven to bless me with your presence,”

“Oh, stop,” I laugh, patting his cheek gently. “Let’s just get wine drunk and eat pizza and watch movies all night. You don’t have work tomorrow and I’m tired of looking at my damn laptop,”

“You make us sound like two teenage girls,” Matthew unwinds from my embrace and wanders into the kitchen, swiping the full glass of wine from the counter. He takes a sip and then pecks my lips again, and I revel in the sweetness of his lips.

Matthew sits at the counter, right in front of my laptop, taking another long gulp of his wine. I check on the pizza, just to make sure it’s not burnt, but when Matthew is silent for too long, I look back to make sure he’s okay. Sometimes when he has a hard or long day at work, he tends to shut down and not open up to me, and I don’t want that to happen. But when I turn to check up on him, I find him leaning into my laptop, his eyes darting across the screen.

I gasp, stepping forward and slamming my laptop shut, ripping it away. “Hey! You know I don’t like it when you read my work before it’s edited and finished,”

Matthew pouts, hiding his face behind his wine. “Sorry, I just- well, you’ve been talking about it so much and it was right here and I wanted to see how it was going,” I go into the other room and put my laptop into my bag, out of sight and out of mind. When I return to the kitchen, Matthew is pulling the pizza out of the oven just as the timer goes off. “If it means anything, of what I did read, it was really good. I only got through the first two paragraphs, but I really loved it.”

“Well, thanks,” I mumble, going onto my toes to kiss his cheek before grabbing the pizza cutter. “I’m not mad, I just-“

“I get it. You don’t let me read your writing until it’s done and I don’t let you see anything I’ve filmed until it’s done,”

“Oh, so, I can’t see any of the documentary until it’s done?”

“Maybe I’ll make an exception for that,” he quips, grabbing the pizza cutter from me and digging it into the hot pizza crust. “I don’t trust you with this thing anymore. Not after you ended up in the hospital last year with Sandy,” he turns to me with a pointed look.

“It was an accident and you know it!”

“Oh, really?” He guffaws, tossing the pizza cutter aside and reaching for my waist. But I dodge him, taking a step back. He accepts this as his challenge, reaching for me again, and when I dodge him one more time with a confident smirk, a playful fire ignites behind his eyes. “Fuck the pizza. I’m coming for you.”

#matthew gray gubler #matthew gray gubler x oc #matthew gubler #spencer reid #dr spencer reid #matthew gray gubler fanfiction #matthew gray gubler fic #nikos writing #matthew gray gubler one shot

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flowerbloom-arts · 4 years ago

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A 2434 word long fic about Fuddler talking to a maybe not actually real version of his father after trying to escape from a recent event in his life and failing. Now I would've written a 50s sitcom episode of Fuddler's family that would've lead up to this point if I had the motivation, but I didn't, so here you go. I hope you enjoy this!

---

The set of the show had become undone and the fourth wall was nothing but a non-existent window into the stage, the Muddler, tear stained and tired of his child's shenanigans, went up from the table he was crying at and walked to the empty director's chair with 'The Fuddler' embroidered on the back and sat on it. The Muddler grabbed the megaphone that sat on one of the armrests and spoke into it in a very clearly annoyed tone of voice: 'Cut. Take 2. Excuse me! That wasn't a bad first take but all of you really fell apart at scene 15.'

But the rest of the cast had been frozen in place, basically mannequins, all except Fuddler, who was in fact the mastermind behind this mess. The small and fuddly creature looked around in a slight bit of confusion and decided to walk up to his father on his director's chair, it did have his name on it afterall. 'Excuse me, aren't I supposed to be sitting there?' he asked rather sheepishly, there was a thought in the back of his head that knows exactly why but he's too afraid to make that thought even slightly tangible.

'Well, yes,' answered the Muddler matter-of-factly 'but due to poor management someone else had to take over.' he added, he spun the megaphone around and inspecting it in a rather disinterested manner. If it's anyone, it really didn't seem to be the father that Fuddler knew, even if he was stained with dark brown tears on his face and wore ragged feminine attire indicative of a mental breakdown, which was a sight that would only be familiar as the Muddler.

'Maybe. Though we should probably take a break, that breakdown didn't look all that... The breakdown seemed very exhausting to act out,' Said the Fuddler, trying to avoid going over this episode another time.

'Sure,' Muddler said, he didn't even care to glance at his child, he put down the megaphone on the floor and rested his face on his paw resting on the armrest, looking off to the black void beyond the set or nearby part of the studio.

Fuddler sighed with relief and a tinge of discomfort, he decided it was best to sit down next to his father and look back at the scene that was frozen in time. It was not even the slightest bit amusing to say the least, it's just everyone looking concerned over Muddler having a breakdown but Muddler isn't even there, you could see the Fuzzy, Fuddler's mother, placing a hand on what was Muddler's back, great uncle Hodgkins and Sniff are looking on confused and concerned, and Moomintroll had just walked in with not even the slightest idea of what's going on. The Fuddler stared at it for a few moments before saying what was on his mind while the scene was happening 'That... That breakdown... It wasn't in the script.'

'What script?' Muddler asked as if Fuddler was too dumb to even remember he didn't even make one. Of course there wasn't any script to speak of.

'I- I dunno!' Fuddler blurted out with the realization 'You guys were basically reading my mind anyway! I thought that was something like reading a script-!'

'Were we reading your mind or were you controlling us?' Muddler asked, almost cutting him off.

Fuddler was a bit surprised at the sudden interruption, it's really unlike his father to act anything close to this, is this even his father? Fuddler started to actually question everything about this, as if it wasn't a very obvious thing he should've questioned at the start. He looked down and curled up into a more fetus-like sitting position, kind of avoiding answering the question.

'Now tell me, child, why this?' Muddler gestures vaguely toward the set.

'What do you mean?' Fuddler looked up at Muddler and asked innocently.

'Why the television show?' he clarified, he lowered his resting paw and finally looked at Fuddler for once, though he did look very... unpleasant.

Fuddler felt very uncomfortable at the question and simply answered with an 'I dunno...' like a small child, he certainly looked and acted like one either way despite being an adult.

Muddler sighed disappointedly and went back to staring at the set 'Is this really how you're gonna deal with what happened? What even did happen, anyway?' he asked, even he was unsure of the origins of this.

'I... I actually don't remember... Excuse me, sorry, oh dear... What was I thinking?' Fuddler asked, he was mostly asking himself that.

'That's right, what were you thinking?' Muddler repeated Fuddler with annoyance 'Did you really think you could reduce your own family into cheap tropes and live like that?'

'I wasn't trying to do that!' Fuddler cried 'I just thought...! I thought if I could live just one happy day after 10 years of nonstop misery-!'

'And you did that by retreating into some ideal version of reality the city gave you through a light box?'

'Yes!' Fuddler blurted out, he realised what he said outloud and slowly went back into a balled up position on the floor 'Just... Atleast those people on TV seemed happier... Happier than we ever could've been when we moved to the city,' Fuddler argued with a quieter but ultimately defeated tone, this wasn't how things were supposed to go in his mind.

'Is that why you wanted to move away so badly?' Muddler asked in a more sincere and worried tone of voice, much more like his regular self and what Fuddler would be used to.

'Maybe,' Fuddler answered simply 'Or I guess there were other things too...' he added.

'Oh I could definitely list them off for you,' Muddler suddenly went back to a menacing tone.

Fuddler suddenly felt a great shock to his system and did not want anything Muddler could be implying 'Please don't-'

'Well first of all,' Muddler didn't let his child finish and he didn't seem to care in the slightest 'you didn't like other creatures shoehorning you into their ideas of what you should be, you didn't like the boring concrete buildings, you hated the constant noisiness of that wretched city, you couldn't bare the constant mockery from your own peers, they kept thinking you were a twelve year old - which you never grew out of being one after all these years by the way - and kept thinking you were lying when you said you weren't, you didn't like the lack of frogs or swamps or free things to collect off the street, you were being discriminated against for being a clumsy little mut, and most of all-'

'Please stop!' Fuddler cried.

'MOST OF ALL,' Muddler repeated louder to talk over Fuddler 'You hated me. Your own father. Simply because he couldn't land a simple job and was too feminine for anyone's liking!'

'NO!' Fuddler jumped up and tried to hold onto his dad's arm, but Muddler quickly got it away from him.

'YES! You kept having the same negative comments and jokes repeated to you over and over and you thought they were making fun of you by association! You don't want anything to do with the way I am and yet you keep chugging along the same way I did!' Muddler cried 'You were happy enough to tell my dear old friend mr. Moomin that people said you took after me and leave it at that! What if he asked you even further? Would you have talked about me in a good way!?'

'STOP! PLEASE!' Fuddler was almost in tears at this.

'Oh I see how it is! Just admit it! You hate me! Why else would you shove me in as the comic relief? Why else would I break out of character if you didn't know it'd be completely out of line for who I actually am!? I am anything BUT happy and you know this! No matter how hard you try I will cry eventually because I'm that dumb and sensitive about everything! The only things that you got right about me is that I'm clumsy and that I love you!' Muddler started tearing up through all the yelling 'You know deep down I love you... It's not your fault... right?'

Fuddler wanted to cover his face in his saucepan but unfortunately he was in his sitcom costume which lacked it completely, all he could really do was bury his face in his paws and try not to cry, muddler tears are much like that of a dog's, mixed in with blood waste and it stains your face, you'd need some cloth and water to clean it. Very inconvenient for a man, they aren't supposed to cry, and the stains make it very obvious you did.

'Fuddler... Did you really think this was going to solve anything?' Muddler got up from the director's chair to kneel down and lowered Fuddler's paws away from his face, Muddler's face was... trying to be comforting but that got ruined by the tear stains, which was being added onto by him crying at this very moment, he looked down at Fuddler's paws, looked back up at his face and added '... At all?'

Fuddler didn't make an attempt to make eye contact with his father, those strange 'u' shaped pupils were familiar but the idea of them not being normal at all still brought him some form of discomfort '... I just... Excuse me. I just thought that maybe... If I could feel better, somehow, maybe the problem would be less of a problem...'

'Fuddler, you don't even remember what the problem was,' Muddler said, he held his child's chin up to make him look at him directly 'You know this.'

'I know...' Fuddler admitted 'I think the cause is starting to come back to me... I think... It's still a little foggy...'

Muddler sighed 'How many times have you done something like this?'

'I...' Fuddler started thinking 'I don't know... I never bothered counting.'

'So this clearly isn't the first time.'

'It definitely doesn't feel like the first time... say for the addition of a few cast members,' Fuddler added the last part as a sly attempt at humor, he was referring to Moomintroll, Jumble and Sniff.

'Of course,' Muddler said with a touch of melancholy and sat on the floor beside Fuddler, Fuddler followed suit 'Do you think this is normal?'

'Dad, I moved to Moominvalley to get away from 'normal'!'

'You moved to Moominvalley to feel normal, there's a difference. And that's an important difference to realise,' said the Muddler, the black and white studio faded into a sepia tone as it seemed to transition into a lake sort of scene, almost unnoticeably to the Fuddler.

'Why's that?' Fuddler asked.

Muddler picked up a flower that happened to be next him, well- not actually, a sort of ethereal copy of the flower formed which left the real one untouched, Muddler looked thoughtfully at the flower in his hands 'If you know the difference, then maybe you can appreciate the specific thing that makes this place feel like you feel normal.'

Fuddler stared at the flower and glanced up at his father '... You're not really my dad, are you?'

'You think that now?' Muddler questioned with an amused undertone.

Fuddler felt almost silly about it, of course this Muddler isn't real, why would he think otherwise? 'I dunno... I guess I got cought up in the all the acting that... I forgot I'm just talking to myself...'

'Does it really matter, though?' Muddler raised an eyebrow with a slight smile on his face 'Atleast you got it out of your system, you twelve year old.'

'Don't call me a twelve year old!' Fuddler cried in defense.

'Then why do you act like one?'

'How can I not act like one if I look like one?' he said, slightly furious at the subject being brought up.

'People can turn invisible if they're abused enough, maybe this is something similar?' Muddler suggested.

'Tsch, magic, sure.' Fuddler waved off dismissively.

'You stayed as the same Fuddler that you were when we lost Sniff, excuse me but you really don't think there's something connected here?' Muddler asked rather rhetorically 'You graduated college with a degree in biology and live by yourself in the coffee tin you inherited from me and yet you still chase after a woman like you have a preteen crush on her with absolutely no clue as to how to talk to a girl.'

Fuddler cringed at the memory of his attempted courtship of the Mymble and recoiled back into a ball position.

'But atleast it seems like you learned from it, just... Don't let things paint your views so easily, sir,' Muddler placed the flower on Fuddler's head.

'Don't use 'sir' on me...' Fuddler muttered quietly.

'Well, what do you want me to refer to you as? Ma'am?'

'That's even worse!' Fuddler shut down the idea almost immediately, he grabbed the flower from his head and looked at it 'Neither of them feel all that right...'

'Right,' Muddler said 'It's fine if you don't want to be referred to as either of those.'

'It's not just that... I don't really feel like a... A man. Atleast not how the world seems to think of one.'

'You're a button collector, Fuddler. Maybe you should start calling yourself that instead.'

'You can do that?' Fuddler seems to be almost bewildered but not totally against the idea.

'Fuddler, I'm a half woman who calls itself a man, anyone can be anything, especially in places like this valley. You don't have to define yourself by those standards anymore.' Muddler explained.

Fuddler stared at his father with a thoughtful expression on his face 'Like I don't have to define my family by any of those standards...' he looks back down at the flower in his paw.

'That's the spirit!' Muddler punches his child lightly on the shoulder 'And whatever the problem was... I hope you can fix it, it's not easy but... It'll be better for the long run.'

'Right...' Fuddler flicked the flower into the lake, it simply dissolves in mid-air rather than land into the water or anything 'I'm sorry about... Everything. I'm still very, very dumb.'

The Muddler laughed ever so slightly 'You'll get it in time, I promise.'

'... Maybe.' Fuddler said rather hopefully. The Muddler seemed to dissolve away like the flower did and the world faded into full color. It looks like that episode was a wrap, one might say. Now it's time to figure out why it had to be made.

#moomins #moominvalley #art #muddler #moomin muddler #the muddler #fuddler #moomin fuddler #the fuddler #fanfic #short ficlet #angst fic #I kinda realised halfway through writing this that thisbwas basically the plot of Wandavision lmao #but I don't wanna say it's plagiarising. characters escaping reality through a sitcom has been a thing for a while now #also heehoo more Hdogkins family lore; Fuddler (And Muddler by proxy) addition! yippee!#writing these is actually kinda fun tho

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clevelandstate · 4 years ago

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Film Students and Safe Sets

Written by Lauren Koleszar // The Vindicator

*This story has been edited slightly for length*

Film & Media Arts is one of the most hands-on majors at Cleveland State. It relies on massive collaboration and in-person filming that normally requires between ten and thirty cast and crew members for upperclassmen producing junior- and senior-level professional content. New COVID-19 guidelines require a “Safe Sets” certification, and students have been limited to crews of ten people or less on a set at one time. Camera departments that normally run on four to five students are being managed by two if they’re lucky. Students are choosing to produce scripts that need only a few actors and can be filmed at safe, easily accessible locations. Students are desperately working on pre-production and editing from home; and when on set, they’re filling multiple crew positions to make up for the absence of the much larger number of students who are normally able to work on one set together.

In spite of these challenges, film students at CSU are producing impressive creative content and becoming multi-faceted filmmakers as they take on many new responsibilities that are ultimately shaping them into better equipped professionals who will have a wide range of skills and experience.

We talked to film major Davis Chu, whose freshman year at CSU coincided with the opening of the university’s new film school in the fall of 2018. The initial lockdown hit during Davis’s second sophomore semester, and he took us through his personal experience and observation of the evolution of student filmmaking at CSU over the course of the last year.

LAUREN KOLESZAR: Elevator pitch. Who are you, what do you do and what interests you? DAVIS CHU: Hello there, my name is Davis. I’m a third-year film major, concentration in post-production, with a minor in graphic design. I am also in the Honors college. My passions include: writing, comedy, animation, editing, music, screenwriting, acting, and television. To clarify, when I say “television,” I mean watching it. Although I’m also working on an original pilot for school.

LK: Why are you studying film, and what are some of your favorite films, creatives or influences? DC: I think if life is a circus, then studying film is a trampoline. It may not have the safety net of other more stable fields, but it’s a great launching pad for someone who wants to pursue the arts.

I’m a film major, but I don’t consume as much film as I do comedy and TV. My comedy influences include the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Mel Brooks, Larry David, Dave Chappele, Ricky Gervais, Dana Carvey, Marc Maron, Conan O’Brien, John Mulaney, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert...

For TV shows: VEEP, Barry, Fleabag, Atlanta, Master of None, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Succession, Girls, Seinfeld, Game of Thrones, Rick and Morty...

LK: Film is so hands-on, and most classes changed dramatically with the switch to Zoom. Describe the impact of the March 2020 lockdown on your film classes and projects. What kinds of things unique to film students had to change? DC: The period of January to March was a very slow, then exponential realization that the world was falling apart. I was supposed to edit a student short. My assistant editor was my dear friend Alex Maytin. They were yet to shoot, but the production was underway, and Alex and I were preparing to tackle the footage. It was an ambitious project and it honestly seemed monumental. Little did we know that the lockdown would dwarf our problems completely.

When school announced it was going virtual, Alex and I started brainstorming a potential remote workflow. He was gonna merge and organize the footage, mail it on a USB and I would edit. Like, we really thought the production was still happening. Needless to say, it didn’t.

Everyone in the school had to take on their own projects and oversee it from start to finish. People chose to make documentaries, short narrative films, I decided to make a small series of sketches titled Under Quarantine.

LK: What has filmmaking been like in the era of COVID-19? DC: I think the lasting impact on the film industry will be distribution. We were already moving in the direction of streaming services. But I think the presence of COVID-19 has accelerated the process. My prediction is that studios and creatives will probably lean away from film and into miniseries. I don’t really mind that. Storytelling is storytelling, whether it’s a 120-minute movie or a three-episode hour-long miniseries.

LK: How has your personal approach to creating and studying changed over the past year? DC: I’m definitely not alone in saying I’ve grown a lot in the past year. What changed the most is my approach to learning and creating. I’ve come to the conclusion that almost every skill is learnable. If you want to get good at something, all you have to do is take the time to do it. Last semester, I had a lot more time I could dedicate to my schoolwork (just by removing the time it takes to walk to and from class). I made some stuff I was really proud of. I found a love for animation. I think I have more patience for overcoming learning curves now.

LK: What has changed for the better? For the worse? DC: There are a couple super small silver linings if you look close enough. One of them is the accessibility and flexibility of education. For most of the classes I was taking, the transition was rather smooth. If I’m taking an animation class, and we’re all using our computers anyway, why don’t we take advantage of this great technology and just meet virtually?

LK: How has the transition been for professors and faculty? In what ways have they helped make accommodations for students? DC: The professors have been incredibly accommodating. Earlier this semester, I tested positive for COVID and [it] wiped me out. I emailed all of my teachers and within a day, every one of them responded with empathy and get-well wishes. Through extensions and exemptions, I was able to catch up and now I’m back! It’s also cool that the faculty are conscious enough that not everyone has access to the same level of technology.

LK: Has there been anything you've learned or had the opportunity to experience because of the impact of COVID-19? Personal or film-related? DC: I don’t know how much of this is related to COVID-19 but I have been pretty introspective lately. I’ve been slowly coming to terms with the Asian-American experience and how race has affected me. With this topic in mind, I started writing a TV pilot for my class. I guess that is one of the benefits of being an arts major. Be it COVID-19 or racism or any problem, we have the luxury of being forced to process our emotions.

LK: Finally, what inspires you and how do you work to overcome the weight of the pandemic on your college and creative experience? DC: I take everything one step at a time. And I try to remember that so long as I’m doing my part to keep other people safe, that’s all that really matters. Control what you can, set a good example for others, and let go of the rest. And creatively, so long as I have access to tools I can use to make stuff, I’m satisfied.

*To read this article in it’s original, full-length format or to check out other great Vindicator content, visit thevindi.com/post/film-students-and-safe-sets.

#TheVindi #the vindicator #film and media #Engaged Learning #Cleveland State University #cleveland state

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sexywookieesquadron · 4 years ago

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Origins: Mey-Gon

Hey all, we’re finally ready to start sharing our OCs! This is the first chapter of OC Mey-Gon Niek’s backstory, created and written by Megan. We hope you enjoy and follow along as we introduce the rest squad and their wild adventures!

Word count: 1487

Chapter 1/9

Summary: How does a famous, wealthy party girl end up joining forces with a controversial paramilitary group like the Resistance?

Next Chapter

xxx

26 ABY, Hosnian Prime

Despite the minimalist styling, it was still one of the most luxurious rooms Mey-Gon had ever been in; and it was only the waiting room. Even as her eyes roamed, she had to squeeze the fingers of one hand tightly in the palm on the other to keep herself from fidgeting further. She didn’t want the secretary behind the desk in the corner to think that a professional like herself was nervous about being here.

Excited or nervous, she couldn’t really tell the difference anymore. All she knew was that she loved these kind of dizzying moments, the icy tingle of adrenaline in her veins. It was this addiction that drove her back again and again to nerve-racking auditions from the time she was ten years old until she’d started to land acting roles steadily enough to call it a career. Then, when her tolerance for the fear and pressure of the industry grew too strong, she had discovered a whole new threshold of exhilaration in the high-speed sport of swoop racing. She bought her first bike at sixteen and was racing competitively by eighteen. In the four years since she’d joined the sport, she had worked her way up to a mid-level league and started gaining a whole new kind of fanbase. It was ironic that her notoriety as a racer had probably helped land her the role that had brought her to this office but also resulted in her having to take the entire coming season off to shoot the holodrama. She had read the script, though, and the swoop chase scene she would be shooting more than made up for a missed season.

Her daydream about weaving a bike between giant trees was interrupted by the secretary looking up from her monitor and announcing, “Senator Organa is ready for you now.”

“Thank you,” Mey-Gon stood up and smoothed her dress.

The door next to the secretary’s desk slid open, and Mey-Gon paused to take a deep breath before walking through into the office beyond. As she entered, she saw the senator stand up from behind her own beautiful desk and walk around it to greet her with an outstretched hand.

“Lovely to meet you, Miss Niek,” the older woman said as they shook hands.

“It’s an absolute honor, Senator Organa,” Mey-Gon tried not to sound too giddy.

“Leia, please,” she said kindly, then swept her scrutinizing gaze up and down the actress’s tall frame, green eyes, and copper hair, “You look nothing like me.”

“That’s the magic of the business,” Mey-Gon assured her with a smile, “As long as I capture enough of your spirit, the visual wizards will do the rest.”

Leia gestured to a couch and admitted as they both settled in, “I must say, Mey-Gon, I have not seen any of your previous work. Politicking doesn’t allow for much leisure time to watch holovids.”

Unfazed, she maintained her energetic smile, “Oh, that’s all right. I doubt many of them have made it as far as the Core anyway. I’m only well-known in my home system of Haidoral and maybe a few other Mid Rim worlds. Maybe someday, though, yeah? This part is definitely a step towards galactic fame.”

Leia let out a genuine chuckle, “You have my ambition, at least. How old are you?”

“Twenty-two.”

She smiled and nodded, “About the same age as my son, then. So you won’t remember anything of the Galactic Civil War, yourself.”

“No, ma’am. The battle on Haidoral Prime happened a year before I was born. I’ve only ever known the New Republic. But I’ve studied so much about you and those last years of the war. This holodrama is going to start with the Battle of Endor and cover the first few years of establishing the government. I know the whole plot: your victory, your marriage, your training with your brother, the signing of the Galactic Concordance, and the birth of your son. The beats are clear, I just need to know how each of these events made you feel . What was going through your mind?”

A veil of nostalgia fell over the senator’s pleasant expression, “Well, well, that is a lot to cover. Let’s start at Endor…”

The next hour and a half barely got them through the subject of Jedi training, but it took them on a roller coaster of emotions all the way. Leia seemed guarded with some details, but generous with her feelings. Mey-Gon studied her carefully, memorizing her mannerisms, cadence of speaking, and all the other subconscious details she would need in order to portray a convincing version of this amazing woman. At the same time, she engaged in the conversation by asking more probing questions or drawing parallels to her own limited life experience, hoping to find real emotional memories to draw on in her performance.

Gradually, a bond began to form between the two and both were shocked when Leia’s secretary peeked in to let her boss know that it was past time to shut down the office and remind her of her dinner reservations. How had the time gone so fast? To Mey-Gon’s surprise, Leia barely hesitated before inviting her to join the dinner and continue their conversation. She accepted immediately and felt that delicious prickling of excitement return. Dinner at a fancy restaurant on Hosnian Prime with Leia Organa? Dreams really could come true.

When they arrived, Mey-Gon was more relieved than ever that she had decided to wear one of her nicest dresses for this meeting and had sculpted her hair into a fashionable style to match. If only her accessories had been just a little more expensive, she would have fit in perfectly with the clientele of the restaurant. The only person dressed more casually than her was their dinner companion, who still managed to take her breath away when he stood up to greet her as they arrived.

“Mey-Gon,” Leia introduced, “Meet my husband, Han.”

“Pleased to meet you,” she whispered in awe as she held out her hand.

Nearly as legendary as the senator, herself, Han Solo was also still an incredibly charming, handsome man. Clearly he caught the dazzle in Mey-Gon’s eyes, so in lieu of a handshake, he brought her fingers up to his mouth for a polite kiss.

“Happy you could join us,” he said.

Leia shook her head with a scolding smile and slapped her husband’s arm gently, “Still such a scoundrel. Sit down, Han, and order us some drinks.”

Mey-Gon couldn’t stop smiling as she settled around the table with the couple, “I do hope I’m not imposing on an occasion or anything…”

“You’re fine, kid,” Han waved a dismissive hand, “We’ve just been eating out a lot because it’s easier than cooking at home. Leia has a habit of working late, as you probably know. I’m guessing you’re one of the new aides or, Force forbid, a lobbyist?”

“Worse,” she grinned, “Actress.”

“Mey-Gon will be playing me in an upcoming holodrama,” Leia explained.

“Oh, yeah?” he gave her another once-over, “You don’t look like nearly enough of a pain in the ass.”

Mey-Gon hid her laugh behind her hand as Leia combined her knowing smile with a glare. Looking pretty pleased with himself, Han paused for the arrival of their wine, then swirled his around and smoothly continued, “So who do they got playing me?”

“I look forward to finding out,” she admitted, “We won’t really meet until training. Production has us scheduled for some kind of bootcamp for the action scenes. I have to admit, I’m pretty excited to learn how to shoot a blaster.”

Leia sipped her wine thoughtfully, then looked at Han with a wistful smile, “Can you believe a generation has grown up without ever needing to handle a weapon?”

They shared something meaningful through their eyes, then Han reached over to hold his wife’s hand as he turned back to Mey-Gon proudly, “I’ve seen this woman take out a stormtrooper from a hundred yards and pilot a swoop bike through a thick forest, so that better be some kind of bootcamp.”

“I’m sure she’ll do fine,” Leia said, “Mey-Gon is already a swoop racing champion on Haidoral Prime.”

Han looked impressed, so the young woman humbly clarified, “Only a two-time winner of the Haidoral Besh-class Circuit Tour. I’m still hoping to get invited to the pro league.”

“Not bad, not bad,” he nodded, “So I’m guessing you gals already talked about Endor, then?”

“We covered it thoroughly,” Leia assured him, “But you are joining us just in time to discuss the signing of the Galactic Concordance and Ben’s birth.”

“Now, that was quite a day,” Han raised his eyebrows and took a long drink, “Maybe one of the best days of our lives.”

Mey-Gon leaned back with her wine glass poised in front of her lips and eyes glittering with interest, “Tell me all about it…”

#star wars #star wars oc #mey-gon niek #rebel alliance #new republic #resistance #fan fic

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nickblaine · 5 years ago

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season 3 script summaries (nick)

first of all - special thanks to reddit user cablab123 and @dystopiandramaqueen for making phonecalls to the writer’s guild that resulted in them getting the season 3 scripts from the studios this soon 💖 we have these because of you!

just to clarify, these notes are about nick scenes only. am i biased? yes. will i go back and read the rest? i don’t know. i didn’t like this season, so i don’t have much energy for it. but i did read the other cut scenes which i will summarize in another post later. this one is about nick.

reminder that anything i put in quotes is direct phrasing from the scripts. however there are copyright laws in place, which is why i can't provide copies or photos. edited to add: because i’ve seen some doubts about my authenticity, click here for proof.

i do accept questions, but i will only respond if i have an answer. i may come back and respond eventually if i find the answer on a future library trip.

possible spoiler warning: there are 2 cut scenes in here which may or may not be considered spoilery if they use them in season 4. the cut scene from 3x12 in particular could be a big indicator of what’s to come next season.

finally - please do not share this post without my permission, and thank you in advance for respecting my wishes.

3x01

nick has fred trapped in the room. after serena says, “we should give her more time to get away,” and leaves, fred turns to nick and accuses him of having so little respect for their family that he would involve them in his crimes. nick straight up tells fred, “I did it for her. For June.” it says fred knew this but hearing it shakes him up. this is the catalyst for their open disdain for each other from now on.

there was more to nick & june’s argument that we didn’t see, which showed june regretting staying in gilead. after she says “don’t you think i know that?” she breaks down and admits: “I fucked up. I fucked it all up. I should’ve gone. I’m a fucking idiot. But I couldn’t leave her here, I couldn’t leave her behind.” nick feels deep sympathy for her after this confession, and they let go of their anger and share an embrace. i’m real mad this got cut, it showed a lot of june’s vulnerable side.

after the house fire, nick is leaving and: “June searches for something to say. Goodbye? I’m sorry?” but she can’t because they’re in public. originally he said “Take care” and she settled on “Bless you.” (personally, i think i like the onscreen version better.)

3x03

there was lots of nick “finding this exchange excruciating” during the commander meeting at the lawrence house. he just wanted to help june the whole time joseph is tormenting her. they are “desperate to communicate” throughout this scene. also, joseph was carefully observing nick, june and fred the whole time. they never explain why, but june seems to think he’s just amused by it all.

when nick came back to visit that night, he and beth share a sweet moment at the back door. nick asks her if she’s okay. beth tells him she’s scared shitless. he comforts her with a hug, during which she jokes, “You look ridiculous in that get-up,” and nick says, “I know.” (i love beth and nick’s friendship... i wish they didn’t throw away the opportunity to show it this season.)

when nick goes upstairs, his and june’s conversation was written to be a lot less cold than it is in the final cut. june immediately goes to nick for comfort when he comes to her room. “She needs him desperately. She needs his help.” but the news of his deployment shakes her. they are both described as infuriated by their situation, and “drowning in their own futility.” when june opens the door and invites nick back in, they share a kiss and “wrap themselves around each other. For the last time.” 😭 then june closes* and locks the door (to juxtapose her old bedroom with the door that never locked.) *still disappointed by that closed door? see here!

3x05

in luke’s tape, june is scripted to say, “You met him. He helped me to survive. I was in love with him." the description of luke’s emotions here say he feels stunned as well as “relief that Nichole isn’t the product of rape... and yet, June found love. She moved on.”

3x06

when nick and june reunite in DC... nick was spicy during that prayer scene 🔥 june could feel him trying not to look at her. and this line killed me: “His fingers trail, just barely, over June’s hip. Across her bare fingers. On June, feeling his hand.”

nick and june’s kiss in the snow did not have much description. just lots of natural chemistry on max and lizzie’s part. also, they were supposed to share one more kiss after nick agreed to meet with the swiss. speaking of...

NICK. MET. WITH. THE. SWISS. people can stop claiming he ditched his daughter now. the script makes it clear. nick walks into the room with mattias and meets lena and sofia before the scene cuts. we don’t get to see what they talk about, but he tried to do the right thing for holly per june’s wishes, against his better judgement.

no further explanation for why the swiss don’t want to work with nick. when lena tells june she can’t work with nick, all it says is that june’s “association with Nick has left her somehow tainted.”

june feels “betrayed” by learning that nick was a soldier in the crusade, and continues to throughout the season. though the script never explains why she feels so betrayed by something that she has done herself (killing innocent people under orders) or why she is so quick to believe serena joy when she is familiar with her manipulation. her thoughts in that scene are described as she is “absorbing the fact that Nick was a terrorist.” take that as you will. however, the following scenes clarify exactly what he did...

THE TRAIN SCENE: there’s a very important line describing how nick really feels about being a commander: “The troops salute him. Nick returns the salute, hating all the choices that led him here.”

immediately following that line is a cut NICK FLASHBACK! here’s the summary: nick was in DC during the coup. he was on guard duty. yep, big bad terrorist war criminal nick blaine was a glorified security guard. in this scene, nick and a young soldier named trevor are guarding an empty basement stairwell in the capitol building during the coup. trevor is complaining that they are “mall cops” while “everyone gets to actually do something,” meanwhile nick is described as “looking sick.” then there is an explosion in the stairwell, followed by a brief shootout where trevor is killed. nick shoots back “out of instinct” and it’s revealed he’s killed a capitol security guard and a bureaucrat.

immediately after the flashback is the cut shot of nick (above) looking sadly out the window, remembering those choices that led him here.

it’s worth noting that the flashback scene contrasts starkly with serena’s words just prior, which were scripted as: “He served Gilead. He believed in something greater than himself. He was a soldier in the crusade. We wouldn’t be here without him.” so it seems pretty clear they are setting this up to be misjudgment on june’s part.

the shot of nick looking sadly out the window was supposed to be followed by a parallel shot of june looking sadly out the window of the winslow house, reflecting on her meeting with nick the night before. 😢

3x10

just wanted to note here that despite june feeling “betrayed” by nick since 3x06, when fred suggests transferring her to DC she actually considers it could be a good idea because she would be “closer to Nichole. And maybe even Nick.” so he is not absent from her thoughts.

3x12

warning: the following scene may be spoilery for season 4??

thank god, we were right about a cut scene in this episode. there was exactly one (1) nick in chicago scene, and it took place immediately after luke punches fred. and just like max said, it confirms nick has been one step ahead all along.

in this scene, nick is observing the war in chicago and talking with his “lead commander” (pictured in the promo still above.) the lead commander tells him that they are being transferred to lake huron to put pressure on toronto in lieu of waterford’s capture and winslow going missing.

nick - hiding his shock at this news - carefully presses for more info. the lead commander doesn’t have anymore to say about waterford, but he laments the fact that this means he’s not going to get his weekend leave and that his daughter will be disappointed. his daughter’s name? agnes. that’s right, the big reveal of this scene is that nick is now working directly under commander mackenzie, and it is no coincidence. the scene ends on nick, “watching [mackenzie] walk away, wheels already turning.”

guys... this means NICK IS GOING AFTER HANNAH!

this must be what max was referring to when he said that everyone is in an interesting position for season 4 in this interview. so much for him being irrelevant to june’s story just because he’s a dude, i guess. 🤷‍♀️

there was also a whole bombing action sequence in this scene including fighter jets, it sounded very extra and VFX-intensive. nick and commander mackenzie are watching it all go down from a distance while they talk.

i can’t say for sure why these scenes were cut, but the producers served up 3 different sets of excuses, some of which don’t line up with what was written (e.g. “strictly june’s perspective” ...sure 🙄) so it’s safe to say that whatever led to them cutting these scenes out, we will probably never know for sure. but i do know they were filmed and the decision was made post-production, we have evidence of that.

additional observations:

there is still no real explanation for why or how nick got promoted to commander, and i don’t think they ever will. it appears to me that it was just another contrived plot point so they have a reason to send a low-status driver into war.

while i am glad they softened the extent of nick’s involvement in the coup, it also makes it harder to understand why he said he was “due” a promotion to commander when his contributions to gilead are so relatively insignificant. again, we may never know.

there were several cut voiceovers of june praying to god throughout the season, and despite calling holly mainly by “nichole” in dialogue, she only referred to her as holly in her prayers. so her real name is still holly. i will die on this hill.

commander mackenzie mentions to nick that the move has been hard on hannah but the script does not clarify where they have moved to. hannah and mrs. mackenzie are presumably far from the great lakes region because nick’s response is, “May God bring you home to her soon.”

can we talk about how nick has an active plan for hannah? and how he never gave up on his promise from 2x03? and that while june has lost all hope of seeing her daughter again, she has no idea how close nick is? and that this is sounding a lot like one of my fics? hire me already bruce. these are things i think about A Lot

lake huron means nick is going back home to MICHIGAN so rebel commander blaine is back on the menu boys

nick in the script is - as always - a bit more rough and forward than what we see onscreen. max has a talent for softening nick’s interactions with june and showing respect with his body language, while maintaining the intensity between them. i also cannot praise enough how much he makes out of little to no script direction and minimal dialogue.

that sweet, sweet vindication of confirming yet again that nick is worth a lot more than viewers (and june) give him credit for. i only hope his value in this story isn’t realized too late.

(gif credit: @splitscreen, @outlassed & me)

#the handmaid's tale #nick x june #osblaine #june x nick #nick blaine #june osborne #tht scripts #tht meta

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ziracona · 4 years ago

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Same writing anon as before! Tysm for the long post, it was really clarifying and good to read. It's started having some stuff make sense and revealed some stuff I need to rework. Do you have any advice on writing bare-bones like, general plot lines?

Hey! I’m so glad to hear that. 💙

I’m not 100% sure what you mean—advice on making your plot lines engaging, on figuring them out period, on how and when to structure them, on how to make them original, how to make them further the scenes you want to write instead of just be there as a support column for them, etc, so sorry if I misinterpret this question. I think I’m probably overthinking this, and you just mean “advice on how to come up with them/lay them out in the first place,” so that’s what I’ll answer. Sorry if that isn’t what you meant. TuT

So, writers all have different processes, but for most of us, it is very much not plotline first. Often you’ll get a great vague idea, or a scene you don’t know the total context for, or a character you like, or a finale, or a specific crisis, etc, and start there. Similarly when writing fanfic, a lot of the time you start with a very basic concept like “I want to see these people interact” or “I want this character to get to kill the person who destroyed their life” or “I want C character to get a happy ending,” and you build from there.

Honestly, there isn’t just one way to do structuring that works. Some people like a bare bones outline before they start, some like hugely detailed outlines, and some get a vague concept for how it will end, and then just start writing. And they can all work! I will say though, if you’re writing something heavily solution-based (like your characters spend the whole story trying to escape a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean, or are trying to fix a time paradox to keep themselves from being erased), it’s highly, highly recommended you know what that solution is before you begin. I don’t know that you /can’t/ figure out on the fly, but it will be so much easier for you as a writer to work towards a solution you already have, than to fly blind. Especially because most solution-heavy plots pick up elements to their solution along the way. This isn’t always necessary—like if the problem is it’s a horror script and there is a serial killer chasing them. “How do you kill a human” has infinite answers, so you don’t really need to pick out specifically how your protag finally takes them out ahead of time if you don’t want. If it’s like, Nightmare on Elm Street though, and your monster almost can’t be killed, you really gonna want to know how to put it in the dirt before you start, though.

That said, I’d recommend doing at least a bare-bones outline, personally for anything very long! It’s totally good and recommended even to edit that outline as you go, to add or subtract or alter upcoming content, but I find it helps a lot to have a vague idea of how much is left, and what the next step will be. It’s kind of reassuring. Again though, not everyone does this. Some skip outlines altogether.

As far as plotting itself goes, I would say start, again, with what you want to write—this might seem counter-intuitive, but trust me. Do you want to write a friendship, or a romance, or a personal journey for a character that leaves them feeling whole? Okay, well, even though most of those don’t seem very plot-creating, consider two factors: what would make this thing you want to have happen happen? And why do you want to write this thing?

For example, I wrote a horror comedy feature script, and my initial idea for it was just a gimmick—the main character can hear the OST, and uses that to help her stay alive. Okay, well, what’s the plot to that? There isn’t one—yet. But why do I like horror comedy in general—why pick that genre? Because horror comedy tends to be a deconstruction/reflective of horror as a whole, and a lot of those commentaries are very meaningful to me. Okay, well, what about horror am /I/ interested in reflecting on? And there’s a lot I’m interested in reflecting on, tbh, but at the time, the big answer for me was casual dehumanization. So, I know my topic/theme, and I know I am picking a wild world for that (as in, I want to write about not dehumanizing people, but I’m setting it in a world where the MC can literally hear the soundtrack to her story), but that can help, honestly, because if you can carry your point with a disadvantage, that’s even better. So I know my gimmick, I know my core issue, and I know my main character. Now, if I want to talk about dehumanization, that means it’s got to be what my killer is doing, and to an even more extreme extent than murder in general, so they must know the victims personally. From there, I worked out who would be best to cast as antagonist and a motive for them (considering other people not as significant as them/ethics are just created by humans mentality, justifying murdering even friends in order to gain serial killer immortality fame), and went from there to okay, so how would they (the killer) do this? And there’s a lot of ways to approach that scene detail plotting. Usually, I just kind of daydream. I make a cast first, then try to figure out what scenes would work well, and once I have a couple in line with my whole plot, string together an outline that supports all of them, and from there carve out a solid start to finish storyline—like, uh, like whittling down a carving, or chipping away to make a statue, kind of. Think of the starting process as a little like solving a mystery by taking clues and working through them to the next logical deduction, I guess, haha.

You can start from a bunch of different places though, not just concept/theme. For ILM, my original thought was just, “I want the survivors to get to escape, but HOW could they do it?” And I tried to solve that problem. Once I had a solution, which was genuinely one of the first things I found, I was like, okay, but it shouldn’t just be about that, because that’s got no real meat—it’s just an ending. What else do I want to see in a story about them? And Wraith was my favorite killer by far, so I thought, “I want to see Philip get to redeem himself and befriend the survivors and be kind and happy,” and that was it. From there, I worked out first where I wanted Philip at as a person/his motivation for how he ended up where he was, which plus some research created the resets for him, and then I worked out how it would start for him, if he was going to befriend survivors. I picked out relationships I wanted to see furthered, and decided if I wanted them to get a happy ending in hell and give Wraith redemption and peace, that meant I was writing a hope punk plotline for sure, and then with a basic idea of how I got from A-Z, started writing. A lot of individual plot lines—Laurie, Quentin, Jeff and Legion, Tapp, Anna, etc, I had not worked out before I began—maybe I had a kind of vague idea what I wanted for them (Laurie to regain her will to live and be able to save her brother too/get him to save herself, Quentin to get closure, Anna to find humanity, etc), but mostly I kind of brainstormed each the character arcs when I hit their first POV chapter, and crafted their personal story arcs there, then adjusted some as ideas grew.

Which was a super different process form my feature. While my feature more or less hit “what’s the theme/core concept” right off the bat in planning, ILM was “What’s the goal” and didn’t hit theme really until partway through writing, so the process won’t even always be the same for you as a writer. But I definitely recommend, no matter what you’re starting with, to go about it by looking at what makes you want to write what you are writing. For New Dawn Fades, my initial starting point was literally just wanting to write a scene between Quentin and Joey—that was it. I had no framework, or theme, or story goal—just a scene. But I was like, okay, well, if you need a story to back this once scene and further it, not just give it an excuse to happen, what is the story? Well, the reason I wanted to write the scene was because I liked how Joey and Quentin interacted. Quentin’s a bit of a martyr and constantly overwhelmed with guilt and trauma and had to grow up way too fast, and Joey’s a decent person at heart that has let himself slip way too much into bad territory out of fear, and together, they kind of bring out the best in or for each other; Joey is like, the single most likely character in DbD to be able to remind Quentin he’s legit just a teenager actually and should cut lose and just be okay for at least like fifteen damn minutes a day, and might actually be able to get him to do it, and Quentin’s the right mix of uncompromisingly ethical and genuinely forgiving to get Joey to look at and reevaluate his choices without spiraling into hopelessness and self-hate instead of self-improvement. So the answer was I wanted them to get to help each other. From that starting place, I just kind of went step by step with “Okay, how could they logically meet in such a way they are forced to spend time together and it gives them a chance to reach some of this,” and the rest came pretty easy. A lot comes step by step too, I find, and sometimes I have a whole super solid outline before writing and sometimes I don’t know beyond the next chapter except in the most general of terms. So what I would basically always recommend with making a general plotline is consider why you want to write what you want to write, and move from there to, “Okay well how do I get it.” And that process will be wildly different from story to story, but as a basic start, it helps me a lot. I wanted to see Claudette reach out to Wraith? Okay, why would she do that, and how? How would he react—what are the consequences, both from other people, each other, and the Entity? I guess I kind of go at plotlines like a puzzle. If this happens, what are the characters’ next choices? Which would they pick? And if I know where I want them to end, how do I steer their situation towards that point? For doing this, I highly recommend listening to music and daydreaming/just watching and trying scenes out some in your head. Also, if you get stuck, watch or read similar stories and let that inspire you! I don’t mean you gotta or should like, trace over someone else’s scene or something, but all fiction is intertextual, and that’s a good thing. We write based on our existing knowledge and love or ambivalence or distaste for other stories, and in communication with them, and it can add a lot. Stuff with Laurie & Michael in ILM didn’t end up like a single Halloween film in any of the six+ damn timelines, but I /did/ draw inspiration from the H20 line, and H2, which were the closest those two ever got. Watched the end of H20 and went, okay, if they’d had a better chance sooner, what could have happened, and played with that. Watching a lot of well-made fight scenes is also great inspiration for writing action—highly recommend.

I’m not entirely sure how helpful all of this will be, because plotting techniques tend to be pretty varied from writer to writer, but I hope it helps. If it hasn’t, here’s a quick compilation of more technical-side based tips that hopefully wil:

One technique I see recommended a lot and that can help/has before, is to start with your core concept. Now, I would disagree that you must always start here, but it can be a very good place. The idea is to be able to sum up in one line what the meaning of the story is. Like, for the film Holes, it would be something like, “Evil in this world is caused by treating people inhumanly, and the only way to break that curse is to treat your fellow man with decency and value and love.” Basically every plotline in the film backs this idea—Kissing Kate, who is a kind and happy woman until the man she loves, Sam, is murdered by her town for being a black man in a relationship with her, a white woman. That inhuman act drives her to become an outlaw. You have the Yelnats, who get cursed to be followed by misfortune forever when Stanley doesn’t honor his promise to Madame Zaroni, none of which would have happened if he had listened to her in the first place & not gone after a girl based solely on her looks, or if she had cared who either suitor was as a person, and could have been avoided had Madame Zaroni been more to Stanley than a means to an end. You have a whole cast of delinquent boys being mistreated and not at all healed by a juvie system that treats them all like they’re no longer humans worth anything. You have Zero, not even treated as human by juvie standards because he doesn’t talk, isolating himself—all of which stems from growing up on the streets impoverished with a mom struggling to do her best and failing. Stanley is falsely convicted for a crime he didn’t commit and mistreated over it, and has his life ruined. Even Grace, the main antagonist, is who she is because her family has been obsessed and abusive for generations, and she grew up a tool to her father. Then in the end, almost every one of these wrongs, even the ancient wrong of Sam’s murder, is corrected by people choosing to be better and break—in two cases quite literally—the curses on them and others by just being kind and choosing to love and treat others with respect and care. Stanley chooses to befriend Zero to be nice, and Zero reciprocates. Then when Zero runs off, Stanley runs off to help him because he’s afraid he will die, and simply because he loves him as a person, fulfills his family’s ancient promise unknowingly by carrying Zero up a mountain in search of water to save his life. This gives his family and him luck again, and ends up saving everyone. Zero tells Stanley the truth about himself and stops self isolating and being just sad and alone because he had a friend who treats him with value, all the boys end up okay and semi adopted by Stanley’s family in the end and out of abuse and juvie and treated well and live up to that faith put in them, and justice being finally brought breaks Kate’s curse and lets it rain again for the first time since Sam’s death and gives Kate’s spirit peace. —and that’s the idea. To have all your arcs and themes back your one core concept. Now, sometimes people find this super helpful, sometimes they find it overwhelming, but it can be worth a lot.

Another is to just kind of try the dartboard model, which is getting an idea you like to start with (like uhhh, Dogfighting dog is injured so it is going to be put down, but it escapes it’s master and runs off into the woods. Out there, it wanders until happening on an injured human child). Okay, so the plot is about a dog that has been abused choosing to connect to a human in spite of that, and probably about how the kid survives getting out of the woods with the dog’s help. But what actually happens? Dartboard method is just come up with a bunch of potential scenarios for the two characters and play them out in your head, keep your favorites, and then see if you can find a way to string those scenes together. You like a scene where the dog fights off a mountain lion, a scene where the kid and dog huddle together for warmth in a cave during a storm and the kid gets to be the one doing the looking out because the dog is terrified of thunder, and you like a scene where the kid is walking with a branch to help them keep going, sees a road up ahead which means help finally, but passes out from exhaustion, so the panicked dog has to deal with intentionally attracting the attention of adult humans after the abuse it has suffered, in the hope it can lead them to the kid and get help? Great. Okay, what basic order do these scenes go in, what can fill the gaps between X and Z? A lot of thing, you’ll have fun scenes you end up having to reject, because they don’t fit, but it’s a pretty laid back if chaotic method.

Then of course there’s just the classic. Outline. As in, take whatever idea you have, and force yourself to pitch a complete A-Z set of steps like you’re in a writing class. IE:

Dog is introduced. — Dog is inured and going to be put down. —Owner is distracted by a fight breaking out, and dog manages to jerk leash free and escape. — dog flees to woods. — Dog is alone and skittish. There is a storm and it freaks out and holes up. — Next morning, after the storm, Dog hears human crying & is afraid, but curious. Goes to peek. Sees kid who has must have been out here in the storm because a branch snapped and has pinned them by the leg — Dog wants to help because dog instincts, but is afraid of even small human. Eventually peeks head out. — Kid is terrified too, because scary huge scarred dog and they can’t run. Dog scared because human. — Eventually, kid gets over fear and tries to call to dog, and it comes out. Kid pets it and it’s afraid to be touched, but then accepts the affection. — Dog tries to help kid out by digging their leg free. Kid, who hand not thought of that, helps, and gets free.

(Usually you do this more branching and pretty, IE: Scene 1: Dog is in a dogfighting match.

—1A: Dog loses fight and suffers a bad infury to its eye, making it no longer fight for fights.

—1B: Dog’s master angrily comes to collect them. Dog tries to get affection, but he’s mad at it for failing & mutters about putting it down.

Scene 2: Owner takes dog out back to put down.

But that would take up a ton of space on this already massively long post.). There’s also a more simplified version of this, where you just kind of go like Chapter 1: Dog is introduced, loses fight, then escapes being put down and flees. Chapter 2: Dog is terrified of a thunderstorm and from having been almost killed & forced to fight for so long. Runs out of town to the woods as the storm breaks. Hides out under bush. Chapter 3: Dog wakes up to hear human crying. Goes to investigate hesitantly. Finds human kid trapped unde fallen branch. Kid is afraid of dog, dog afraid of kid, but eventually kid coaxes dog to come over and befriends it. Dog tries to help kid and dig them out, and together they get the kid free from tree.

As you can see, that basically gets the same information across, it’s just much shorter, but also has less solidly set as far as details of how stuff happens. Again though, if you go for an outline method, please don’t feel like you have to be married to it. It’s just a resource to try to help you, not actually the story itself, and stoeiws pretty much always evolve as you go, so it’s normal and also kinda fun and good to have to adjust outlines.

Anyway, this was already a mouthful, but I hope it helps, or at least some of it does! For me personally, the best techniques have always been to daydream scenes and events, and to approach writing things I get stuck on either like a deductive puzzle of “Well if She does This, then her friend can do either X, Y, or Z, and Z makes the most sense. Now, I need to figure out a way for them to escape the building. What are th options? Window, door, roof? Technically they could bust down a wall. They’ll never make the roof in time, so that’s out. They have about two minutes before dying, and one of them is injured, so they can’t go fast. The arsonist is going to be watching the front door and the windows carefully though, just in case, so they need a diversion or—Wait—the cat door in the garage. Perfect.” —or by trying to get very into the headspace of whoever is running the scene, and just literally think through why they want and are feeling and going to do. (Though again, I personally approach writing from a very acting-heavy standpoint). Anyway! Hope this helps some, and you find what works best for you. If you want clarity on any of this ramble, or I misinterpreted the questions feel free to let me know! TuT 💙

#ask #anonymous #writing #writing advice #long post #sorry this is such a lengthy hulking thing—theres jsut SO many ways to do plotting it takes a long time to list and describe even a handful #TuT #hope it helps though

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nimbus-cloud · 5 years ago

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Taka-Talk 2019 Review

I was lucky enough to get tickets for two out of his three sessions in Tokyo (sessions 1 and 3), and died of cute. Full synopsis under the Read More for those who are interested!

Session 1 Even though we had tickets for the first session in Tokyo, I already felt like I was behind? Takato did his Taka-Talk in five cities total this year, placing them conveniently as Engeki Haikyuu hopped between cities. And since I couldn’t go to Osaka or Nagoya or Sendai or Hakata, I walked in going, what did I even misssssss??? There was a postcard with a crossword where you could fill in the keywords by attending EVERY session where the keywords were given, and then you could mail it in later for special bromide prizes. I had no shot at winning that obviously lol.

Anyway, session one started with him walking down the aisle toward the stage, walking past us as we did. We had aisle seats for the first session, and he did pause for a little while to mess with my friend’s pull-out desk (the venue was a lecture hall so each chair had a pull-out desk) before going to the stage. One girl walked in a little bit late, rushing to her seat as he got up onto the stage. When he asked if anyone had attended other sessions in other cities, people raised their hand. When he asked who lived the closest to this venue, several people raised their hands. The first girl said it took her 20min by train, another said 15, and then the girl that was late said that she lived one station away. And Takato, being the little shit that he is, just CALLED HER OUT, and was like,

“So you live the closest and got here the latest?”

But she explained that she got here, then realized she’d forgotten her ticket, and rushed back home to get it and came back. That exchange probably feels a bit innocuous, but it’s kind of rare for actors at fan events to be THAT casual? Takato often forgets to use polite forms in his Japanese, defaulting to casual forms not just with his guests but even with us, and sometimes he’ll correct himself, sometimes he doesn’t.

He also asked who came from furthest away, and I did raise my hand but there wasn’t time to call on everyone, but there was a girl in the back who answered that she’d come from Taiwan! And oddly, Takato heard it correctly, that she said Taiwan, but a group of fans in the front tried to correct him, because they heard her say “Hawaii.” So he was like, “Eh? Eh?? Wait, no, say it again.” And she answered louder, ‘Taiwan’ and he just draaaagged that section lololol. He was like, “See!! I was right! You were trying to correct me, but I was right, aren’t YOU embarrassed?!!”

Then he called out the first guest of the day, who was Ishigami Ryuuya, who is the new actor for Fukunaga from The Tokyo Battle. My god he was so cute and shy. He was sort of obviously very nervous, especially at first, but the more Takato talked to him and the more they got into telling stories about the tour, the more he loosened up.

Apparently, Ryuuya calls Takato ‘oyabun’ which roughly translates to like... boss... but in like a criminal setting. So more like ‘don.’ When Takato asked Ryuuya, “Why do you call me that again?” And he just stammered, “W-well, y-you told me to.”

Takato did NOT remember this lololol, but it was apparently as they were starting Engeki rehearsals. Ryuuya, being new and inexperienced, was trying to figure out what to call him. Nagata-san? Takato-san? And Takato was like nahhh just call me Takato-kun. But Ryuuya felt really uncomfortable with that, but then he realized how even Takato-san might be too formal now. So Takato joked that he should just call him ‘boss’ and Ryuuya latched onto it and that’s what stuck.

The Takato film that he prepared for our session was a personal challenge to himself. He would wait in Shibuya in Hachiko square, hoping that someone walking by would recognize him as an actor and start talking to him. But twenty minutes apparently went by with nobody approaching him so then he decided to start approaching random groups of people to ask if they might know him. Since his recent TV Drama is the one with the most reach, he’d start out by asking people if there were any dramas they’d been watching recently, had they watched HajiKoi maybe... then he clarified which character he played. Unfortunately 3 out of 5 groups did not know him at all so he failed his personal challenge and had to eat bugs again. There was one group where they did, in fact, watch the drama, but they didn’t remember who he was even so. And another group where they said they watched the drama, and when he pointed out who he played, they were like, “Oh no way, really?!?”

As is traditional of Taka-Talk films, there’s always a credits page where it’s just like:

Starring: Nagata Takato Director: Nagata Takato Producer: Nagata Takato Script: Nagata Takato Editing: Nagata Takato Cinematography: Nagata Takato

More stories from Ryuuya and Takato, although a good chunk was about how much Yugioh they played in their downtime and how much time the two of them spent together. In trying to remember all the times they played, Ryuuya said that Takato won maybe 80 times and lost 10. He’s very good at YGO apparently. Before Ryuuya left the stage, he did an acrobatic sequence for us and we cheered so loud, Takato got jealous and went, “That’s the loudest you guys have been!!”

Then there’s the Takastagram portion where he walks through the crowd and we’re allowed to take photos of him (hence the photos above).

Then he sang three songs for us (which is the reason for the penlights). He sang a guitar ballad cover of a song he’s been liking recently, he sang “Try” again from last year’s Taka-Talk, the one that he and Kazuma wrote together, and then a more upbeat pop song that SURPRISE had 4 back-up dancers! They were all 4 other guys from his agency, Cube, including Kanda Masakazu (who played Kunimi in The Strongest Team).

At one point he asked them to list one thing they liked about him, and they all picked fairly shallow reasons like hair color, the color of his clothes today... Kanda was a little less shallow since he said he liked Takato’s accent/dialect. The last of them said that he liked Takato’s black shoelaces lololol.

To close it out, we got to give him high fives as we left, with staff pushing us along so that we didn’t linger lol. I just told him, ‘thank you’ in English and he opened his eyes wide and said, “Thank you!” back. It’s a bit fun for me that he’s shorter than I am.

Session 3 So the evening session was like, almost 2 hours long, essentially double the length of the first session, but it is the last Taka-Talk of his five-city tour, so I guess the goal was to make it extra special. This session was supposed to have a ‘secret guest’ and truthfully he had about three, although he did announce Yuushin beforehand.

The fun part was that the secret guest was originally supposed to be someone else, but his managed messed something up and they became unavailable or couldn’t make it, so the secret guest ended up a secret to even Takato! He was like, “We had to get someone else, and even I don’t know who it is, so... I’m gonna hide over here, and you guys let me know when I can look!” His first secret guest was a co-star from the drama HajiKoi, which I haven’t seen, so I did not shriek with the rest of the crowd when he walked in the door lololol. It was Wakabayashi Takuya, who plays Kisa in the drama.

Takato was just crouching on the left corner of the stage, hiding his face behind the curtains, and once Takuya ended up more or less center stage, we called out to Takato that it was fine, he could look, and he was super surprised to see him there. Of course, because his own guest was a surprise, his emcee cards were also covered in sticky notes so that he couldn’t see what his own agenda for the session was going to be, and he kept peeling those off as the session went on to figure out what he was supposed to do lololol. He kept whining at the staff the entire time, but he was also just having the time of his life, and he was just like, “I love surprises! This is so fun!”

The guest event involved playing back scenes from HajiKoi, and then beeping out certain lines and then Takato and Takuya had to guess (with their little boards and markers) what the bleeped line was. To make it extra difficult, literally none of the bleeped lines were anything that either of their characters said. It was always someone else’s line, so they kept getting stuck and would just start writing down nonsense answers instead. So honestly, nobody won, but Takato was just like, “I won, right? It was me?” And Takuya, being a gracious guest, just conceded lol. Takuya also kept apologizing that he wasn’t Ryusei, who’s the actor who plays the pink-haired lead in HajiKoi, since he was sure more of the girls would’ve preferred to see him, but honestly the crowd seemed pretty happy either way. They also decided to give away the little boards they wrote their answers on, so they’d call out random seat numbers or go for whoever rose their hand first. Just like last year, a girl sitting right behind me won one of the prizes, and she was pretty thrilled.

And then the second secret guest was another actor from Cube, Isaka Ikumi, nicknamed Ikumin. I actually know Ikumin from another show (Yuugeki) so I could follow the conversation a little bit better this time. Takato was hiding again, but Ikumin decided he would go up on the stage and then just go straight to Takato and hug him from behind, so we didn’t have to give any cues before Takato looked to see who it was lol.

Ikumin confessed that he’d always always always wanted to be a guest at Taka-Talk, so when the staff approached him about it, he was super excited and said yes immediately, but then they told him that he’d be the second secret guest of the last session and then he got super nervous about it. But Ikumin was basically the type of guest Takato loves to have, aka, the type that extols his immense love for Takato and sings his praises to his face.

The game that they played was truths and lies. So they picked cards that gave them themes, and then between them, one of them would would tell us something true, and the other one would lie. We had to decide who the liar was, and they got us good because we got it wrong both times and nobody had to play the penalty game of eating bugs lol.

One of Ikumin’s lies though, he said that he went to go see the press preview of Engeki Haikyuu, and sat in the 8th row and got super excited when Takato looked at him at the end of the play during the last dance sequence. That was a lie; the truth was that he sat in the 3rd row, and wanted Takato to looks his way the entire time but Takato never did. lololololol We thought Takato was lying when he said that he’d never once lost to Shouri in playing Yugioh, but it turns out that was the truth! And Takato is very very proud of this fact.

Ikumin was like, “Really?” And Takato was like, “Well Shouri’s so good at everything, ya know? Like his athletics, his height, but you know, he could never beat me at Yugioh. We’d start playing, and he’d put a card face down, and then I’d play a card face down, and then he’d put down a monster--” and he started rambling, and Ikumin just interrupted, “Just send that story to Takahashi Kazuki!” Takahashi Kazuki is the YGO manga-ka.

Then there was another video to show us the secret word for that session and it showed Takato visiting Tokyo Tower, because that’s where there is a special One Piece space, which has the One Piece Live Attraction show. Takato made his acting debut with that show playing Luffy, so it was framed as a sort of, going-back-to-his-roots, walk-down-memory-lane type of video. He was getting teary-eyed at certain points in the video, so it was really sweet, and the end of it had him thanking all of us for supporting him and being his fans.

Then he came out to wrap up with the music session, and he tried to lighten the mood again by saying things like, “The staff told me to look super nostalgic while going through the One Piece areas, but I don’t actually remember half of what I touched.”

He sang a different ballad from the first session with Yuushin, this one being an original they wrote together. It was a song about love, but they both had the intention of writing it from a woman’s point-of-view, so that was interesting. They’re always a wonderful duet to listen to~ After that, Takato asked Yuushin if he had any upcoming events/shows he wanted to promote or announcements to make, and Yuushin had this long pause before he was like, “Well it’ll be announced tomorrow.”

And I was just thinking in my head, YES HELLO NEW ENNOSHITA. I’VE SEEN THE LEAKS. I KNOW IT’S YOU.

A final round of high-fives, and then I went back to the goods table for ONE MORE set of bromides to try my luck, and it turned out that Takato was handing out those purchases, so he handed me my final set of purchased bromides and ughhhhhhh he really does have the most adorable smile~!!!

Couldn’t quite get every bromide (and it was impossible because he had city-specific bromides too); they were random. But I also have that penlight and his little tote bag.

He did also announce that he’s doing his first birthday event this year, on Aug. 25th, and he hinted that we could bring these penlights again for that, and then there’s the C.I.A. Mission in Summer event (with nearly all the actors from Cube), and since he’s going to be in that event too, he hinted that we should bring his penlights to that too. I’m honestly not strictly sure that it would be allowed for the CIA event, given that it’s going to have several different people, but who knows lololol. I can only imagine how annoyed the other actors might get at him seeing Takato’s bright red penlights in the crowd. XDDDDD

So another wonderful Taka-Talk, and four total times high-fiving Takato adding in my experiences from last year~ ^_^

#nagata takato #taka-talk #fan event

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bumble-booty · 4 years ago

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Commissions Are Open! (New and Updated Version!)

Commissions are currently Open!

My writing background and preferences!

My Nickname is Bumble Booty or Baby Blue, feel free to use either! My specialty is dark/gore, body horror, psychological horror, and NSFW! However, I will absolutely do non-dark as well, so if light and fluffy is more your preference- I’m still interested in writing it!

I have a Bachelors Degree with a Double Major and a minor- Psychology (specialized in abnormal), Philosophy (integrative study with Psychology), and Criminology (minor and main focus being crime and homicide). As for other useful background, I actually work for a movie store (and one other place, but that one doesn’t give me plot bunnies)!

What that means for you is- don’t be shy with any prompt. I’ve probably been in contact with it before through my studies, personal research, or work-related exposure!

My specialty is Transformers, but I have recently fallen for the Hazbin Hotel fandom. However, I have not written for the latter as of yet. I will most likely get into Hazbin Hotel very soon though! If you want something outside of these fandoms, please expect a slight delay as I research the fandom. Please ask though, as I may still take it on with sufficient info!

Disclaimer: On most occasions, I typically stick to more canon-style fics. It is simply easier for me to work with plausible situations that can expand out from there- however, I might still do more crack-style if I feel confident enough. I will also do original works if I have enough information!

What I will Likely/Certainly Reject: These are subtypes I do not feel confident in/have had bad experiences with/ will not touch with a 10 foot pole.

Pedophilia.

While age-differences are perfectly okay, molesting a child isn’t. All characters in my work WILL be 18+ for NSFW fics, or you can politely take your business elsewhere.

Because sometimes this apparently needs to be said, Age Regression is not Pedophilia. If your preferred characters are of consensual age and this is a psychological fic where the boundaries are CLEARLY set, please feel free to message me. If your character is a child being abused as an adult, do not. I can tell the difference.

Farting/ Flatulence fics.

This is a strange one, but I have had strange experiences with this subtype and those that request it. I have no opinion on your kinks or likes, but I will no longer be accepting fics with this as a PRIMARY FOCUS.

If it happens to be something that might come up- for instance, an IBS coping fic, a period fic, an autopsy/drowning fic, etc- I will happily discuss this being an option as far as accurately describing the symptoms/struggles of those that suffer with these conditions/fates. Do not hesitate to discuss it with me, the worst you will be told is no.

Unusually Predatory/ Targeted Hate Fics.

I am well aware of the trend of shaming someone/ channeling a targeted threat through popular media, and I will not help damage someone’s psyche. If I have reason to believe you are using this fic to try to shame a previous significant other/ trying to use your fic and its exposure to target/mislead someone into what could be a psychologically damaging situation, I will not be working with you. Deciding this is my discretion, and if it is truly not your intent I apologize but stand by my decision. As mentioned prior, If it is not your intent go ahead and email me with your prompt anyway- the worst you will be told is no!

Any Other Fic for Personal Reasons.

I am a person with my own history, and I reserve the right to deny a fic if it strikes too close to home.

My Pricing, Payments, Refunds, and Alterations!

Pricing: I charge in USD on a rising scale for minimum word counts. 50 cents per 100 words, up to $4.50 for 999. After that, it's a flat $5 for 1,000-word increments. So: $5 for 1,000 words, $10 for 2,000 words, $15 for 3,000, etc. Final Pricing will be established before I start working, but I am very flexible! Should you want something changed/altered while I’m working on the draft, please contact me!

Payments: Payments are accepted through Venmo upon completion AND APPROVAL of your work.

Refunds: Refunds will not be served, as I usually don’t accept payment until after the work is completed and approved.

Alterations: If we decide on an alternative prompt after or during the first draft, I will consider this the new commission and write with a new/altered price agreed on by both of us through DM/Email. I will mostly stick with my standard pricing, but any oddities will be discussed privately should something happen on my end to cause a delay.

Side note: I do not have a maximum word count, and if I go over it's ON ME. My Prices are for a minimum, not a maximum.

Request form!

When contacting me about a commission, please send me this general format for ease of keeping everything straight! If you do not, I will reply with this copied in so I know exactly what you want and can ask for more information wherever needed!

Characters: (This is who you want to see! If you want couples, please mark them in the x/x format, with non-couples listed singularly and separated by a comma.)

EX: Prowl/Jazz, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Unnamed Mecha.

Basic Plot: (SFW/NSFW, what you want to happen. This is the main idea I’m working with!)

EX: NSFW, Jazz returns from a mission in a dangerous head space. He is fairly violent to everyone, and is searching for Prowl due to his ability to calm his coding. Optimus and Bumblebee are helping Prowl contain the rouge Ops mech before he offlines half the base.

Sub-Plot: (Kinks/Small Details/ Triggers you want to see. If going into more detail on a particular thing, put a hyphen after the general descriptor and continue. End this with another hyphen, then continue listing if you have more!)

EX: Pinning, Biting, Clawing, Mild Body Horror- Maybe Optimus gets some tubing cut loose? Or a random, unnamed Mech meeting a foul end after startling Jazz? I just want it to be obvious how dangerous Jazz is in this state!- Feral Behavior, Aftercare, and Post-Recovery Apology.

Other: Things you DO NOT WANT TO SEE AT ALL. Please clarify in the same way you clarified in Sub-plot. This is especially important if you are requesting Gore/Trauma fics.

******Please be clear on this!!!! This can be as broad as "no gore" to as specific as the word "moist". Please understand that it is not necessary for you to explain why, nor do you have to give me any reasoning should I ask for you to expand/elaborate. I do, however, reserve the right to ask if similar words/situations would also be off-limits. As mentioned in the personal background, I have studied Psychology and I do not want to be the reason you expand a phobia or traumatic event. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A SERVICE YOU ARE PAYING FOR, AND IT IS MY DUTY TO FILL THIS SERVICE IN A WAY THAT YOU ENJOY! Not put you in a bad head space or trigger you!******

EX: Gutting, Descriptive Bone/strut snapping, Overly Possessive Language- especially the word ‘pet’ or other dehumanizing possessive language along those lines- Unsanitary, and the word “Moist”- similar words such as ‘damp’ or ‘sweltering’ are acceptable (I just don’t like that word).

How To Reach Me!

Email: My work email is “[email protected]”- please put ‘commission’ somewhere in the subject line so I know to look ASAP. I usually respond pretty quick, but I do hold two jobs. Expect an answer within 24 hours. I will reply to the email you contact me with if I have further questions and clarification, or if I’m accepting/rejecting the commission right away!

If you do not receive an answer in 24 hours, feel free to email me again and explain you did not get an answer- it might be a filtering problem that I need to fix!

DM: Direct Messages are also acceptable here, but I will warn that I often forget to check! Email is more reliable for a faster reply, but I will do my best do accommodate those that don’t want to/ can’t email!

Please keep to the same format as you would for an email, but feel free to break it up into sizable portions since messages read a bit weird. I don’t mind the spam messages, I'm that kind of texter myself!

Priority/Timeframe, Rejecting, and Posting/Delivery!

Priority/Timeframe: Commissions will take top priority over other writing work, and if I happen to get two at once it will be by order of receiving. I strive to have 2,000 words and below done per a one week period, anything more than that I will discuss with you over email/pms due to job balancing.

Rejecting: I would like to mention that I still reserve my rights to reject commissions if I feel I am unable to complete them in a manner worthy of accepting payment, or if I feel I cannot give enough personal effort due to work/personal qualms.

Posting/Delivery: Upon completion of the first draft, I will send you the draft script in a downloaded document (usually .docx format) if you like the draft/bones, please respond with any alterations you would like to see! This is additions, subtractions, substitutes, or changes! You can do anything as small as a word, to as large as the entire fic as long as it is agreed upon.

After this is cleared, I will go back through the fic and add flourish and final details. After that is the proofreading phase, then I will send you the completed fic. If you are not happy with the final fic, please respond with what you would like changed and I will GLADLY fix the issues!

DISCLAIMER: I will not post your finished product without your permission if it is a payment-finalized product! This means that if you have paid for it, it is yours to keep. If I really liked the fic, I might ask your permission to post it to my AO3 Account with it either listed as a gift fic to your AO3 account, or with a notice placed in the notes at the top of the page that this was a commissioned piece, followed by your username/"anonymous" if you would not like it known that it was yours.

HOWEVER: I ask that you do not post these works as if they were your own! I work very hard on my commissions and put substantial research into each piece, and I am more than willing to signal boost you on the work as well for sponsoring it! If you have a private archive or something similar that you intend on posting it to, please mention it to me during the initial emails/dms and we can discuss it. (I highly doubt I will mind though, I can understand some organization quirks!)

Samples!

If you would like to read some samples of my works, Check me out on AO3!

http://archiveofourown.org/users/BumbleBooty

Here are some samples of my personal favorite works within my most popular word count brackets!

Less than 1K- http://archiveofourown.org/works/13413417

Thuck! E's Thuck! - Bumblebee/Grimlock, NSFW, Vore

1K- http://archiveofourown.org/works/13445199

Those Who Need Us The Most- Bumblebee/Grimlock, SFW, Comfort

2K- http://archiveofourown.org/works/13356138

The Sweetest Melody- Tarn/Pharma, NSFW, Body Horror

3K- http://archiveofourown.org/works/12662973

Detecting the Undetectable- Jazz/Prowl, NSFW, Heat Cycles

4K- http://archiveofourown.org/works/12275850

SCP 3262- Bumblebee, Original work, SCP Crossover

Just under 5K- http://archiveofourown.org/works/12199893

All For You- Jazz/Prowl, NSF, Candy Armour Vore Style

6K+- http://archiveofourown.org/works/13407669

Pretty Kitty-Prowl/Jazz/Smokescreen, NSFW, Neko/Werewolf Heatfic

#commission #commission me #commissions open #writing commissions #maccadam #hazbin hotel

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j4gm · 6 years ago

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Ted Anderson’s Adventure Time Season 11 AMA.

So Ted Anderson, writer of Adventure Time Season 11, unexpectedly hopped onto the Adventure Time Discord yesterday for an impromptu AMA. He talked a lot about what his plans were for the rest of Season 11 and beyond, and also talked about his other work including Beginning of the End, My Little Pony, Moth & Whisper, and Orphan Age. Here's most of his answers. I’ve rearranged them to be in a more coherent order.

You can read the full AMA on the r/adventuretime Discord.

Mordo: Before the cancellation, was the stuff with Finn and the humans going to be longer than 2 issues?

Ted: That particular story was always planned to be 2 issues.

The way S11 was going to work is, it would be broken into 3 chunks of 4 issues apiece. The first story was the Empress Marceline 4-issue story. The second chunk would be the 2-issue Humantown story, followed by two single-issue stories. Then there would be one big 4-issue finale story.

Also I should clarify the breakdown of the first arc: Sonny Liew wrote the story, but that was just a summary of events. I wrote the actual script and laid out the events and so forth. I think technically he's credited for Plot and I'm credited for Script?

The first single-issue story was already sort of revealed—that's the one about Jake and Jermaine. The second one would have been about Finn deciding he wants to make something, and going on a big adventure to make a new, handmade sword. And the 4-issue finale would have followed off of the Humantown story and wrapped up more of that.

I was actually already starting issue 8 before I heard it was canceled. Issue 7 is done, but unfortunately it can't see the light of day. It's the property of BOOM and Cartoon Network, not me.

[Issue #7] was a very standalone kind of issue: Jermaine is a successful painter and gets invited to a big fancy party, and Jake invites himself along. Jake ostensibly came to invite Jermaine to the family reunion [in the finale arc], but he knows that Jermaine doesn't like to travel. So he actually came to do a big mystery adventure. One of Jermaine's paintings gets stolen, so the two of them investigate to find out the truth. In the end it's revealed that the whole thing is a big setup by Jake, who wanted to give his brother a fun bonding experience, Mostly I wanted to write some done-in-one stories and get some Jermaine in there, because I like him.

Issue 8 would have been about Finn, who's feeling restless after making the cabin, and deciding he wants to make more stuff, so he decides to make his own sword. He meets various characters traveling around Ooo, checking in with them and talking about what he's doing now. I wanted to focus on Finn feeling adrift now that the biggest adventure of them all has happened, and he's kind of without a purpose.

Boulder/Stert: What would the comic's finale have looked like? What would the end of S11 have looked like had you made it there?

Ted: So thematically, I wanted to get to the idea that Finn was feeling useless as an adventurer. The world was getting more saved, things were getting rebuilt, people don't need a "kid with a sword" any more. But Finn would've realized that it's not about him as a lone adventurer—he's part of a community, a whole bunch of people who are working to make the world a better place.

The finale story would have revealed that Dr. Gross had been offered amnesty and was secretly working in Humantown, plotting a takeover of all of Ooo. Dr. Gross would've created a plague to affect the candy people and something called "GO Juice" [Genetic Optimizer Juice], which was just Finn's DNA injected into the humans to make them into adventurers too. But, crucially, it wouldn't have made them teammates—they would've just been a bunch of lone wolves. So when Jake and Lady and PB and Marceline and all the rest work together, they defeat the humans easily. Rather than fight Dr. Gross, [Finn] escapes and helps his friends, who are fighting everyone else.

There's a little bit of that story still in issue 5: Finn gets a scratch fighting the robot and Minerva patches it up, and that's how they would've gotten his DNA.

I was going to bring back Samantha the dog as a side villain. She would've taken over the Candy Kingdom with a dog army, in order to plunder their technology and lead a dog revolution in the Crystal Dimension, but really she was just being used by Dr. Gross.

Also Jake would've had a family reunion, because I really wanted to write all his kids. Originally it was going to be him and Lady finally getting married. [Cartoon Network] specifically said that Jake and Lady couldn't get married, because they were, and I quote, a "modern couple". I still have no idea exactly what that means, haha.

I had some thoughts about how I wanted to handle the humans. I didn't want them to immediately integrate into Ooo, but I didn't want them to be completely standoffish and weird, either. Issue 12 would've ended with them more or less being led by Minerva, and slowly putting themselves out there.

Something else I should make clear: I had absolutely no contact with the AT people, so I don't know if any of my ideas fit with what they wanted to do. All of this stuff is just out of my head.

Stert: Yeah I feel like you would've been good as long as you didn't straight up contradict the show.

Ted: Oh, speaking of contradicting the show, I got a funny note about the Empress Marceline story. Originally, in Sonny Liew's notes and my script, it actually took place 10,000 years in the future, not 1,000. But for some reason CN changed it to 1000. And I have no idea why, because all that does is mess with the timeline more. Like, if it's 1000 years in the future, it should have Shermy and Beth and look like that setting. But by the time CN changed it, it was too late for me to add in any of that stuff. So if you think it's weird that Shermy and Beth didn't show up, and Marceline wasn't trying to rescue Bubblegum from an ice prison: that's why!

SpaceGiraffe/Owlz: Were there any plans for Simon to meet with the humans and/or Minerva? I wanted to know if you had any plans for Ice King or if that was just Olivia's job?

Ted: Once I heard that Olivia was doing the Simon & Marcy series, I deliberately kept my hands off of Simon, just in case. I didn't quite know what I would want to do with him, either. He could play an interesting role in post-finale Ooo, but ... idk, he's been defined so much by tragedy and loss, it would've taken a while to build him back up again.

Stert: Do you know if Gross and Minerva would have interacted in these new comics?

Ted: I hadn't planned for Gross and Minerva to interact too much? Minerva would've come along with Finn when he infiltrated Humantown to find out what happened. Actually, my idea was that Minerva uses her "Mini-form," which is literally a six-inch-tall action figure of her that would ride on Finn's shoulder as he snuck through the vents, haha.

Stert: The final issue ends on a pretty negative note for Finn and humanity. He's very angry at Malloy lying to him and storms off not wanting to have anything to do with Humantown. Looking back do you think it's a good idea to end Finn's arc in these comics with the humans on a pretty downer note?

Ted: I don't think it's the best way to end S11, no. It makes sense because it's a natural story break, but it also leaves Finn angry and resentful, and deliberately separating himself from other communities. I do love those last two pages, because Mar Julia did some amazing art on them, but emotionally it leaves Finn kind of out in the cold. I did tweak issue 6 a little by adding the HW scene. Originally Finn went to see Aunt Lolly to see if she made the robot monsters. Frankly, the HW scene is better in every way, haha.

Owlz: Did you have ideas for Finn's closure with Huntress?

I like [Finntress]! I like a lot of Finn relationships. But I also like how it's very casual and not labeled. I should be clear: I really didn't change anything based on people's feedback from here. But the [Discord] server and poking around Tumblr reminded me that I needed to include some HW. I feel like their relationship has always been ambiguous, so I liked them not getting a super specific ending.

Boulder: Did you have anything in S11 for Mars?

Ted: I didn't have anything for Mars, actually! I should've! I like Mars a lot, mostly because we see so little of it and it's so dang weird.

Boulder/StephanFS: What plans did you have after S11, with or without a cancellation? If BOOM announced S12 with you as the main writer, what would you write?

Ted: I didn't have anything specific for after S11, since I already knew that it was probably going to be the last time I was going to write AT. I had some vague ideas of trying to bring back Fern, but like ... that's a very fanservice type of thing to do, haha. I probably would've brought him back just to let him die again, but this time with a little more closure. Also I might have done more stuff with magic? I love the weird elements of magic they've got set up in the show. Maybe doing something with four new elements of magic, one of which would have been grass. But that was just very vague thoughts.

Stert: Who did you like writing for most/have the most trouble with? Between Beginning of the End and the S11 issues you mostly handled Finn with a touch of Jake and the rest in smaller amounts, interested in if you were happy with that or wanted to play with other folks.

Ted: Jake was definitely the most fun to write, just because of his way of speaking. Whenever I did a line of his dialogue, I ran it through John DiMaggio's voice first to see if it sounded right. As for favorite in general, that's a tough one. I was told to try and keep the focus on Finn and Jake rather than the side characters, just because they're the main characters. But that suited me just fine. And yeah, for BotE I was also told to keep the focus on Finn and Jake. But that's what I was planning to do anyway. (And yes, I still plan to finish the annotations for BotE! One of these days! Promise!)

Stert: How well did you know the show before you started work on the comics?

Ted: So, total honesty: I loved AT and stuck with it until about season 5. Which, not coincidentally, is when Steven Universe started. I didn't ever stop loving AT, I just fell off the wagon for a while.

Stert: Tale as old as time 🤣

Ted: So once I got the news about BotE, I binged everything from the start. I didn't actually get to see the finale until after I'd started writing S11. CN was being very careful about leaks, so they wouldn't actually let their comics people watch upcoming episodes. But Whitney, my editor, had seen it, so she described it to me over the phone. Very weird experience.

Mordo: What is your view on Come Along With Me?

Ted: I feel like it was as good as it could be, under the circumstances. After hearing about their plans and how they thought they'd have another season, it made more sense. Like, if they'd had a bunch more episodes, they could've set up Gumbald and used the Candy Kingdom Haters some more (remember them???) The finale had a tough job to do: they wanted to give a satisfactory ending to as many of the threads in the series as they could, and yeah, some people didn't get as much as others. Again, I really wish they'd had another season.

Owlz: What do you think of characters like Martin or Ice King?

Ted: I would've LOVED to bring Martin in somehow. He never really got his comeuppance. I don't think I could've put him in S11, but if there had been a S12 or a miniseries or something, that would've been ideal. He's such a ****ty dad, haha. I hate him as a person but love him as a character. I probably would've brought him back by saying, like, "Oh yeah, I hung out with that transcendent being from beyond space, but she got sick of me after a week and dropped me off on an asteroid."

Stert: Were there any characters you were very intimidated to write for, like you thought you would screw them up?

Ted: Oh that's a great question. Honestly, I was a little worried about writing Marceline, because I feel like she's very specifically tied to the experience of being a teenage girl. Which I've never been. Like, the best stuff with Marceline is by Olivia Olson, or Meredith Gran, or Kate Leth, who have written about (and actually been) a teenage girl dealing with Feelings. So getting her right was a challenge.

Owlz: Who’s your favorite AT character?

Ted: Oh man, favorite? That's an impossible question, haha. I have a lot of fondness for Susan Strong. I like her as a kind-of counterpart to Finn, as well as a more driven and adventurous type. She also got to have a really neat arc that ended well, but also left open the door for future adventures. Her design is also great, and her backstory is really cool.

Stert: The stuff you did with her, Billy, and Fern to show off different avenues of heroism and stuff with Finn was very cool.

Ted: Yeah, that was super fun. I think I mentioned this in the annotations: originally it was just going to be Finn meeting a bunch of his alternate versions, like Farmworld Finn. But then I realized, wait, there are characters who are way more interesting than that. (Not to hate on Farmworld Finn! But he's no Susan Strong)

Owlz: What are your thoughts on Betty Grof? The show didn’t reveal much about her.

Ted: Oof. She deserved better. I wanted her to be developed more, frankly. But I sympathize with the creators. I don't think they had the time they needed to flesh her out. I wanted, like, an entire spin-off series about her learning the secrets of magic.

Stert: So to ask another possible impossible question, what's your favorite episode (or multiples)?

Ted: I really do like "Mama Said". It's maybe my favorite one-off episode, just for how surreal it is. Plot-relevant episodes ... I liked the one about Finn building a tower to tear off his dad's arm, haha. I have a real fondness for the wacky one-off episodes, like anything about Jake's kids. The Card Wars tournament episode, or the one about Bronwyn.

Owlz: What if AT got rebooted and you got to be a writer?

Ted: On the one hand, I would've liked creating a more coherent mythology, like exactly how this or that happened. On the other hand, the weird inconsistencies are what make this show so fun.

[While talking about some of the Easter eggs included in Ted’s comics, somebody posted this panel from BotE]

Ted: Part of that panel is actually a quote from Guillermo del Toro. The line about "animated by incredible humanism" is from the introduction he wrote to the Art of Ooo book. I love dropping in weird easter eggs. So when I started writing BotE, I caught up on the entire show, but I also tried to catch up on all the supplementary materials, too. That's why I slipped in that thing about Hunson's nickname of "Johnny Corndog," for example.

Owlz: You should also check out the AT official cookbook. It’s adorable.

Ted: I have! In fact, there's an easter egg from that in there! In issue 6, Minerva mentions something about making Finn her special macaroni and cheese, I think? That's her recipe in the book.

CharlesOberonn: I have a question regarding pacing in comic books. Specifically, how stretched out and slow pacing is in comic books today compared to comic books in the past. A story that would take 1 issue in the 1960s-80s could take 3 or 4 or even 5-8 issues today. What do you say about that?

Ted: Ah, pacing in comics. An old nemesis, haha. I like both the issue format and the book format for comics. You can do very different things with them, just like the difference between movies and TV. If you are writing something with issues, then I feel like every issue needs to give you a complete story, or at least a complete slice of a story. I definitely feel like attitudes have changed regarding how much story you fit into an issue of comics, but that can be both good and bad. A little while ago I reread the original Iron Man story where he confronts his alcoholism, and he goes through withdrawal in literally one page.

Stert: I know this kinda stuff is usually not answered straight up, but how much do you make writing for comics?

Ted: I'm not yet at the point where it's my main job. Right now I'm getting my teaching license so I can be a school librarian. And with licensed comics, I don't get any royalties, just a flat fee for writing the script. But it's a good gig regardless. I get to sit around and tell other people how to draw cartoons. I would absolutely love to write full time, and I'm in the process of getting together more projects to make that happen? But not quite yet. Which reminds me: I am currently trying to put together a pitch with Mar Julia, artist for both BotE and S11! But very different from AT.

Owlz: How long have you worked on comics?

Ted: I've been working on comics for ... something like 6 years? I think? My first professional comic was MLP, actually, which is not at all normal, haha. I was a big fan of the show, and I knew I wanted to write comics. I'm also friends with Zander Cannon, who's been a professional creator for decades and is a super cool guy. He knew someone who worked at IDW, who put me in touch with the MLP editor. I sent them some samples, I sent them some pitches, and bada bing bada boom, they let me write a story about Pinkie Pie. It's all about networking, baby.

Mordo: What’s your favorite TV series of all time?

Ted: Oh jeeze, that's a question. There are TV series that I love in different ways and for different reasons. AT is definitely one of my favorites, but I also love The X-Files, but for completely different reasons. Star Trek the Next Generation is also pretty high up there. Futurama is another one that I'm a big fan of. I should've included a reference to John DiMaggio from that, come to think of it. Showed Jake with a cigar and a beer, or something. Now there's a crossover I'd love to see. Oh, Gravity Falls is definitely up there too. Regular Show is another fun one. I pitched a couple RS ideas around the same time as BotE, but they were already transitioning to the Twenty-Five Years Later series.

Mordo: Not sure if this was answered earlier, but why was AT season 11 the one that had to kick the bucket when it was doing better than the other comics?

Ted: I really have no idea. It was a money thing, to the best of my knowledge—they expected the comics to sell X copies, and they didn't quite make it, so that was that. In the email they sent me, they emphasized that it was not a question of the quality of my writing, or how they were being received. I don't really know any more than that, unfortunately. Yeah, I have no idea how they calculate anticipated sales or anything. But I guess S11 just didn't hit the expected targets.

Mordo/StephanFS: What else do you write Ted? If you were to work on something original, what would it be?

Ted: I still do write for MLP, actually. I've got a three-issue miniseries starting next month. Plus I've got a couple creator-owned series: Moth & Whisper and Orphan Age. The trade collection of M&W comes out next week, and the first issue of Orphan Age came out this week. I have a lot more original stuff in the works, too. Not a lot of it is like AT, to be honest. I don't tend to write stories that are so .... weird? Nothing against weird! Obviously! But it's just not the kind of stories I tend to come up with. M&W is a cyberpunk heist thriller thing, and Orphan Age is a post-apocalyptic western.

That’s all for now. If you like Ted Anderson’s work, be sure to check out Moth & Whisper and Orphan Age. Catch them on ComiXology or wherever you get your comics.

Farewell for now!

#adventure time #adventure time season 11 #at

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multimetaverse · 6 years ago

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Road to the Finale

Josh’s confirmation that S3 will only have 21 eps clarifies a lot of things. I guess we should divide S3 into 3a, 3b, and 3c now for starters. Although his confirmation that what they filmed this past week was 3x19 confuses things as Trent had said that the Wedding episode was 3x19.

The wedding in what is either 3x18 or 3x19 is the real wedding and Bex and Bowie get married there. It’s possible Trent misspoke because the wedding is an hour long but it seems very odd to have an hour long wedding a couple eps before the finale and then have a half hour long season and series finale. Their filming schedule got super messy in October and November: they filmed 3x15, then two weird weeks of which one should be 3x16, 3x17 we know when they filmed because of the Rachel and bowling extras casting call, and then the wedding in either 3x18 or 3x19 before thanksgiving. There was a leak that the title for 3x17 was ‘’I Do-Over’’ which I think is likely true. This suggests that Bex tries for a courthouse wedding in 3b and it fails and then she later decides to accept Celia’s wedding plans.

Muffy is canon by 3x18 or 3x19 depending on when the wedding is. The reason that the show went so hard with Muffy in eps 16-18/19 is because they had no other choice. If Buffy’s mom returns in 3c it’s likely between eps 16-18.

Terri’s original plan was to canon Tyrus before the wedding and when that got scrapped Josh started downplaying expectations. Cyrus is either alone at the wedding or Amber is his plus one. Cyrus’ dance class seemingly disappears after ep 9, perhaps because it was supposed to pay off at the wedding as part of the original Tyrus plan.

Tyrus has to canon in either ep 19 or 21, there’s no other time for it to happen in 3c. In ep 19 it looks like Jandi and Tyrus are at a game together. This may possibly be the 3rd times the charm group date that finally goes well. If Tyrus is allowed to have an actual textual confession than this would be the place for it to happen. If the Wedding is also in an hour long 3x19 though then they won’t canon in that ep. If Disney is going to make Cyrus go alone to the wedding then I’d hope they’d at least not have TJ be in part of the ep before the wedding.

A plus one wedding invite is off the table which limits the shows options. One possibility is that with Amber being in 4 eps in a row including ep 19 she let’s slip for whatever reason that when somebody looks back at you it means they like you and that spurs Cyrus to talk to TJ, if there’s a double Tyrus lookback in eps 13/14 then this becomes much more likely. More unlikely but possible is that Jonah mentions what a look back signifies as he’s the only character other than Amber who knows what they mean. Josh answered an ask about what Cyrus meant when he called TJ oblivious at the swings scene 2.0 and given that he would have read the final scripts by now this could mean that it does in fact pay off and Tyrus has another flirty quarrel that ends in a confession.

Part of the finale will likely focus on Buffy’s last game. The reason why the basketball team in general and Kira as a character have such large gaps in appearances is because the show had to choose between Muffy or basketball. It’s likely that Kira won’t be all that developed and that the Kira and Cyrus and TJ friendship they set up in 3b doesn’t really get off the ground.

Amber being in seemingly in every ep between 16-19 is likely to wrap up her redemption arc and because she’s taking up some of the screen time, especially at the wedding, that would have gone to TJ in Terri’s original plan.

The other major plot line in ep 21 will probably be Jandi getting together. If Disney allows a textual canon for Tyrus then it would flow very well to have canon Muffy in 3x18 or 3x19, canon Tyrus in 3x19, and canon Jandi in 3x21. If Tyrus doesn’t canon in ep 19 then they’ll be reduced to a Korrasami style subtextual get together in the shadow of Jandi’s reunion. I’m sure all the other ships will have their moments in the finale as well as will the GHC.

Jandi is going to have quite the wild ride in the last 14 eps: Jibby sinking, Jonah’s home life being explored, Andi learning about his panic attacks, growing closer, and finally getting back together.

The show spending a 3rd of S3 having Andi and Buffy’s friendship collapse will rank among their biggest mistakes when all is said and done. We can also rule out TJ’s mental health story line being anything major, there just isn’t enough time for anything big. Cyrus’ parents likely won’t be in the series finale so if Cyrus isn’t allowed some sort of coded ‘’we’ll always love you Cyrus no matter what’’ moment with his parents then he’s never coming out to them. We now know why the show never bothered to keep Wandi alive or introduce a new love interest for Andi or keep Jibby afloat past ep 9, there just wasn’t time. Giving 5 eps to Walker certainly seems like a waste of screen time now. And why they didn’t end the series with the wedding I have no idea.

The total budget for 26 produced eps in S2 was $18.8 million while the total budget for 21 eps in S3 was $19.4 million. That works out to an average ep budget of almost $924 000 compared to an average of $723 000 an ep for S2. Some of that goes to Trent’s increased salary as a series regular and the rest has gone to the great on location filming they’ve been doing.

Disney did a similar thing with GMW, they raised the ep order for S2 then went back to a regular order for the final season. And with the low ratings they likely can’t afford to spend this much on a potential S4 anyways.

#Andi Mack #Tyrus #Muffy #Jandi #Bexie #Cyrus Goodman #TJ Kippen #Buffy Driscoll #Marty from the party #Jonah Beck #bex mack #Celia Mack #Bowie Quinn #Andi Mack Meta #Andi Mack Season 3 #Andi Mack Production

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x0401x · 6 years ago

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Blindfold Day: Jin’s Play-and-Talk Livestream (Summary)

This was... so good, omg. Also, I have the feeling Jin talked a lot more in it than the last broadcast. The summary of this one turned out much lengthier, so I left part of it under the cut.

As usual, the stream began with greetings. Jin read the comments of the people watching while he was at it, and one of them said, “arrived, arrived, arrived”. He was pretty confused until he realized it referred to him. He then tested out whether the spectators could hear him properly, and people continued screaming, “he’s heeere”. Once he made sure he was being heard without issues, the livestream officially started.

Jin thanked everyone for gathering to listen to him, even though he had only warned us about the broadcast in the last minute. Some people asked him to raise the volume, which was done twice. He thanked everyone again and added, “I’m alive~! I’m doing my best at living”. He also clarified that, as always, he had “no livestream skills”, so the usual “kindhearted Onii-sans” were helping him out by dealing with the equipment and making adjustments, and told everyone to leave a comment if they had any requests to improve the broadcast’s quality.

After tuning his accoustic guitar while laughing like the actual uncle he is, he announced that the livestream would be a play-and-talk one just like last time. Since there might be difference in volume from when he played to when he stopped to talk, Jin guaranteed that the “cool Onii-sans” would take care of fixing it. He remarked that the guitar’s handler was making a rattling sound and that he felt things would progress with a really good feeling. With that, he finally started playing.

And stopped after, like, ten seconds, lol.

Jin went on to explain that he had actually brought a script with him containing the lyrics of the songs he would play, but couldn’t see it properly. He adjusted the lyrics card and resumed playing Shissou Word.

Once he was done with it, Jin thanked everyone for listening, which he does at the end of every single song, and took a break to drink some water. He admitted he was nervous in a throwback at making a mistake when speaking (“I’m waiting on with the feeling of – no, ‘waiting’ isn’t right – I’m living on with the feeling of ‘I would be happy if everyone listened to this~’.”) and also confessed that he had made a mistake with the lyrics (he sang “it seems I’ll be able to find the reason in the future” when was actually “it seems I’ll be able to find the word in the future”). He apologized and said he wanted to continue the livestream in an enjoyable fashion.

The teaser trailer of Additional Memory rolled as, according to Jin, there might still have been people who hadn’t yet seen it. Jin then announced again the release of the third album and everyone at the back clapped. There were obviously a lot of people clapping, and Jin joked, “This is how many people are present. To tell the truth, we’re all crammed in the room, everyone just silently observing me. It’s a pretty damn leisurely one hour for their throats”.

Jin made clear that Shissou Word will be part of the new album and discussed his impressions regarding the video, “WAAH! A COUNTER?! WHAT’S THAT COUNTER FOR?? IT’S SUCH A COOL COUNTER” (meaning that the counter was 100% Sidu’s idea and probably doesn’t mean anything too important, lmao). He said it was cool as always but cool in a way that wasn’t normal, and that it had given him chills. He also talked about how the new song, Additional Memory, was a cool song itself, and that he wanted to deliver it to everyone soon, so he’d do his best.

Jin started tuning the guitar again and laughed that just talking wasn’t all that fun (dude what the hell do you even mean you’re so fucking funny) and said that this particular broadcast was being amazing, in a way. He assured that the next song to be uploaded will be Additional Memory, and as a “linking of memories”, he wanted to play a certain song. You guessed it: Lost Time Memory.

After that, Jin basically declared he hadn’t really wanted to play Lost Time Memory because it was difficult and used up a lot of energy, since the rhythm varied between quick and slow, but as Additional Memory features “Shintarou-kun” and “Ayano-chan”, he figured he couldn’t escape from playing songs that centered on them.

Someone pointed out to him that the sound had faltered a bit just then, and Jin burst into laughter, “Everyone is telling me, ‘well, be careful~’ with a ‘you can use a voice like that, huh’ kind of face. Sorry! I’ll be careful. Excuse me”. This was followed by the ugliest cough before Jin said that, since he had played Lost Time Memory, he had to play another certain song. You guessed it again: Ayano no Koufuku Riron. The comments section exploded with things like, “is that so”, and Jin chuckled, “It’s almost like you don’t want it!”

Jin tested out the guitar a bit in order to play it in B, and after playing it, he mentioned again that he’d wanted to play something “Shintarou-kun and Ayano-chan”-related because they appear in the trailer. He then said he hadn’t been able to play Ayano no Koufuku Riron in the last livestream (no particular reason for it, though), so he was happy for being able to play it in this one, and that he thought he had to sing it no matter what because he really likes it and it had already been sung by Okui Aki (and MARiA). He expressed happiness for the chance and asked how well he had performed it, to which the spectators responded positively.

Jin once again said he was very happy after reading the comments and that the “ikemen Onii-chans” had been making grandma-like faces at him after the song finished, so they were looking like “ikemen Ojii-sans”. He revealed that he wanted to play the song in another opportunity as well and that there were many feelings comprised into the livestream. He gave the fact that he was counting with us for the release of the third album as an example of that.

Jin listed as part of the album the songs Shissou Word, a story that peeks into one’s eyes, and Additional Memory, a story that eyes don’t reach. He seemed just about to explain why he gives those subtitles to the songs, but stopped himself with a, “I wanna say it but I can’t say it�� and then asked everyone to look forward to the album because there would be lots of good songs in it.

This little bastard.

Jin took this cue to add that *cough*SamOurTimeRecord*cough* Summertime Record would be included in Mekakucity Reload too. He explained that he hadn’t worked in KagePro songs after Summertime Record had been uploaded because of the other mediums of the story (manga, anime, novels) and their developments, but informed to those who didn’t know about it that Shissou Word was directly related to the novel and Additional Memory to the manga.

Bringing up volume 7 and Tsubomi, Jin stated that, after the second release of the Project, many things had been going on inside him, such as, “ooh, will I finally be able to write this character’s song?”. That means Mekakushi Chord is, in fact, a song about the whole Dan from Tsubomi’s point of view rather than about Tsubomi herself, and that Shissou Word was the first song made exclusively for her. Then, bringing up volume 6, Jin reminisced to what he spoke on Twitter about Haruka, as well as to the fact there were no songs centered on him (which is true, since Summertime Record is also about everyone, just in Haruka’s viewpoint). This basically confirms that we’ll be getting Lost Days at some point. Not that we didn’t already expect it, though.

Jin commented that he would do his best with the new songs and that the staff was fired-up about making “hot material”. He asked people to stay tuned and said he was going to introduce a new song in the livestream. He admitted that doing so might be odd, but reminded everyone that Yuukei Yesterday had a similar release, as it was presented to the public for the first time in a live show before the video was uploaded. He then tuned the guitar and said he was looking forward to what people would think of the new song, which would also be in Mekakucity Reload.

Finally, he announced the story that permeates eyes, Remind Blue.

After finishing it, Jin affirmed once more that he would do his best to make more KagePro songs and rambled about how summer was to him a season that birthed all sorts of feelings. He said it might be a bit emo of him, but he’d had this thinking ever since childhood and looked up to it. He had lot of emotions gathered up and believed that Remind Blue had probably turned out as this kind of song. He also said that the song’s actual sound was band-produced and cool, with a baseball-like feeling to it (I know exactly what he means by that nonsense for some reason, omg).

About the guy from the past livestream, Gushimiyagi (who Jin referred to as “Gushimiyagi Hideyuki-sensei”, “Gushimiyagi Hideyuki-onii-san” and “Gusshi” all at once), Jin told everyone to not worry or think he was dead because he was in the room. It just so happened that Jin was doing the broadcast alone this time, and Gusshi was part of Remind Blue’s original composition as well. Jin then asked him, “It turned out as a really cool song, right?” and Gusshi chirped from the back of the room, “It did~”.

Jin had also prepared other corners for the livestream, which included announcements of the Mekakucity Talkers adaptation and new, apparently not main-story-related song(s) starring Momo. Since there is a chapter of Mekakucity Talkers in which Momo drops a CD, it was decided somehow or other that Jin would make song(s) out of it. Jin also praised Asahimachi’s artstyle while he was at it, and said he was looking forward to the adaptation, even though the announcement of it had been abrupt. He guaranteed that no one unknown is writing it, though, and that he’s still supervising it. He adds that it would be published by Kadokawa and laughs, “Kadokawa-san, is anyone from there listening? I owe you guys a lot~. This is Jin~. Kadokawa-san~. Kadokawa-san~? I owe you guys a lot for allowing this to happen.”

The biggest surprise of that corner was that, according to Jin, Pixiv will hold a contest for Mekakucity Talkers. In celebration of the adaptation’s publishing, the readers are being encouraged to write a chatstory scenario for Mekakucity Talkers and the winners will receive rewards. The avatars of the characters will be made available and users are supposed to write a daily-affair-themed chatstory about the Dan with them. Jin talked about how it might be easy even for people who have never written novels before, since the writing style of chatstories only require the characters’ lines.

Having asked everyone to take all of the above into consideration and check it out, Jin commented that he’d like to do play-and-talk accoustic guitar live shows in many places, but he couldn’t disclose details as there were no set dates. He stated he’d like to do these lives in libraries all over Japan, and honestly? Genius idea. He conceded that he’d have to do them by himself, since moving around so much as a band would be difficult, but added that he’d like to do a proper live with the band as well. He explained that he was considering going around the entire country and that this was practically decided already, so if anyone wanted him to come to their town, they could give him the heads-up.

Jin apologized for not being able to present any more than that since things had been done last-minute and expressed resentment towards not being able to progress swift and smoothly with KagePro, but was nevertheless doing his best to make it as sensitive a story as possible. He then stated that the 24th chapter of Mekakucity Talkers had been uploaded on 8/15 instead of Friday like usual and that it mentioned the Dan 20 years in the future. He went on to say that he was still indeed going to write more KagePro novels, and that the future and the things he hadn’t yet written about were probably going to be part of them, in a way. He wasn’t sure, so he couldn’t talk about it, but he also thought there would be new characters making appearances in it (LET IT BE THE OTHER SNAKES, PLEASE). He said he’d give out info about it occasionally and asked everyone to get hyped, revealing that there was a chance of another really big collaboration happening this winter, and that it might be a more serious setting but would still be interesting. As everyone would expect, he also confirmed that the new anime is in the works.

He finished the talk with an apology, as the latter half of the broadcast had turned into talk only, and used people’s song requests to end the stream. Some asked for Shounen Brave, which Jin refused because it was too hard to play, lol. Others asked for Summertime Record, Ayano no Koufuku Riron again, Remind Blue again, and Yobanashi Deceive. Jin asked Gusshi about Yobanashi Deceive, which he replied with, “that’s fine~”, so Jin played it by half. Then he decided it was worth playing one more song, chose Summertime Record and played it by half too (he totally didn’t want an excuse to play something Haruka-related. Totally not). And, as the song ended, he stated that he’d take care of his health and do his best at work, saying he’d be in everyone’s care.

Thought we’d get Kagerou Days on KagePro day? You fool. We’re all fools.

#kagerou project #kagepro #mekakucity actors #kagerou daze #jin #shizen no teki p #kagerou days #mekakucity talkers #blindfold day #livestream

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suechoiart · 6 years ago

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Captain Marvel (2019) and Demolition Man (1993)

I am marinating the portions of Dada’s Boys that I’ve read over the weekend. In the meantime, I wanted to practice some writing and ramble about two movies I’ve watched over the weekend.

Captain Marvel (2019), and

Demolition Man (1993)

((If anyone has a high-res copy of the poster...I’d be eternally grateful))

Incoherent rambling ahead

Summary: Captain Marvel wasn’t a good great movie (it was a fine movie); Carol Danvers is pretty cool but very similar to Cpt America’s character; looking forward to the second half of Infinity War; Demolition Man does a *lot* of things a *lot* better than Captain Marvel. Was Captain Marvel feminist? Lessons from good action movies.

I don’t explicitly mention plot points but /educated readers/ could probably deduce some spoilers both movies. (I’m being sarcastic. I definitely mention movie details without any regard to spoilers.)

I have a soft spot for both Marvel Studio movies and fun, cheesy, action flicks. I love the behemoth that MCU has become, something they could not have known when Iron Man was created 10 years ago... and I love the purity of action films - of good guys ‘beating up’ bad guys - and the heart actors and directors bring to it shown in movies like Die Hard. Some of the Marvel movies are right in that spot - and their strength shines more in the ‘character interaction’ department; whereas pure-action-comedy movies like Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong productions and The Matrix have great characters but the action sequences, where the actors themselves have to train at significant amounts, shine the most.

The more I think about Captain Marvel, honestly the more disappointed I am. Frankly for the big breaking International Women’s Day release it was not rich enough. I thought Black Panther had done marvelously (I still tear up thinking about the themes of disaphora in BP), nor was a pure comedic genius like Thor: Ragnorak .... It was a very, very, very average Marvel film. The first Ant Man is better than CM; the second Ant Man is not as good as CM.

Which is to say that CM is not a bad film, but unfortunately disappointing for what it was ‘supposed to be.’ I don’t feel bad thinking this way, because BP was a great success in my heart; it spoke to a universal theme while championing a targeted audience (of race and origin). As I am an immigrant, although I cannot associate with Black History Month, I can still relate to it deeply in terms of diasphora and displacement. (Wakanda forever!)

I’m urged to clarify again that CM was not a bad movie, but I think it failed because it placated a lot of the villains and conflict in favor of ~Carol Danvers~.

So, good parts of CM: Carol Danvers is pretty darn awesome. I really think that she brings hope to the Avengers, -- she symbolizes what the humans have better than any of the outer-Earth lives that are out their in the MCU: she gets back up. No matter what she’s told, whom she’s told by... She always gets back up. I did tear up here. I really did like that notion that she, and her humanity, is how the Avengers will win.

So.... That falls pale in her co-cast:

Nick Fury, who spends 75% of screentime cooing over a cat, and apparently too young to be the badass Fury that we know and love;

Kree mentor who tells her “u ahve 2 much emoshuns 2 be a gr8 kree”

Best friend whose character is only to tell Carol how great she is

Cat, saves the day probably more than she does

Somewhere between those lackluster sidekicks and Carol Danvers’ overpowered ‘superpower’ ... You basically get women are cool and funny and get over it as the central theme of the movie.

I think the “Carol Danvers gets back up” is problematic, because I read it in a very gender-neutral language (see above: I’m framing that as the HUMANITY’S reason to win, not WOMEN’s) -- potentially because this movie is situated in a world where the Avengers lost half of total lives in the universe... But also because the wOmyN aRe StRonG idea was so, SO obtuse, especially as response to CD’s Kree mentor (played by Jude Law) -- who, again, emphasizes how much weak Carol is because she lets emotions control her. Except it’s not about emotions. Emotions are not why Carol Danvers gains strength! (It’s her humanity!)

I think the emotion thing *could have* worked, had Carol not been very, I’d say extremely level-headed in spite of a lot of the weird stuff that happened through the movie. She never broke down, never threw a tantrum.... She was just a very secure person with a sense of humor that Fury even enjoyed.

So then, what was Jude Law even talking about? I find the “emotional is bad, logical is good” construct very gendered and extremely problematic, especially in our political/internet-driven social climate. In words of misogynists and keyboard warriors(who tend to be young males), being logical and rational is obviously superior; and emotional bad; and as a consequence many women (or emotional men) suffer through invalidation of their experiences. When Carol Danvers, as seen in the film, does *not* have issues controlling her emotions.... why does he even say that? Why is that even written in the script?

In short, .... Considering that this is supposedly Marvel’s stake on feminism (yikes, it didn’t even register to me as feminst) ... I have to borrow the words of this great Mashable article by Jess Joho:

The only thing that feels truly retro about Captain Marvel's '90s setting is its shallow take on feminism that we should be moving away from, not using as a crutch. It's not just that so many of the movie's heavy-handed Feminist Moments come across as disingenuous. Those moments also tap into an old conceit of equality as a sort of revenge fantasy, mixed with the undertone of a battle of the sexes. [...] The feminist-ish sentiment of "girls are just as good as boys" defines and measures women's empowerment as it compares to men. Consequently, it devalues and trivializes feminine power in its own right.

... so considering that this is, the first and only solo female movie in MCU...... They really, really could have done better. I hate to say this but (because MCU > DCEU), ...... Wonder Women did it a LOT better.

Onto Demolition Man. It’s past my bedtime so I’m going to just rush through random thoughts via bullet points:

Wesley. Snipes. (Probably doesn’t help that Blade is also one of my favorite movies.)

Sylvester Stalone was great in this movie. He had great form in all of the shots he was in. Commandeered every scene.

ALL OF THE CHARACTERS! They were so lively. Everyone had motivations that drove them, instead of being basically houseplants that can drive spaceships (ahem...CM...)

I definitely have another soft spot for movies with ridiculous plots. “LAPD gets cryofrozen as a criminal for failing to save citizens, but in tern DEMOLITION MAN-ing an entire complex throughout his career. When big bad evil Wesley Snipes gets parole, only one man can stop him --- the very Sylvester Stalone, The Demolition Man, who put him in jail!” “oh and this is a weird 2023 where you have to pay fines for cussing.”

Oddly enough this movie has a great example of ‘secure heterosexual male protagonist’ and ‘female love interest with her own motivations’.. They actually agree to (CONSENT TO!) make love, and she starts and finishes in her own terms.

Sylvester Stalone’s character is actually very caring and understands his role in the world he wakes up to; he is not at all gross (”back in my day” is never said) and he understands his position as a guest to all of this, while asserting his own views of morality onto the world.

Also I’m very upset that this movie achieved themes of displacement, utopia, and “who is the real bad guy?!” a lot, LOT, better than CM.

Denis Leary plays the rebel in the movie and also made this music video, which actually aligns a lot with my thesis interests (masculinity, prescribed notions of American life, suburbs....)

youtube

I just have to reiterate again that (1) Sylvester Stalone did not have to prove his masculinity to anyone, but his humanity is acknowledged by even the heroine in this character - (2) why must women still be *acknowledged* by man of our competence in 2019!?

OH, this movie makes SO MUCH BETTER 90s REFERENCES THAN CAPTAIN MARVEL!!! This is important. Captain Marvel makes 90s references as much as it nods to feminism. There’s a Blockbuster. And a Radioshack. Do they even realize those stuck around into the 2000s?

To conclude... I understand the constraints put onto Captain Marvel, sandwiched between freaking Infinity War 1 and Infinity War 2. But had Marvel Studios not learned their lesson from the tragedy of Age of Ultron? Even Joss Whedon, who arguably is a very well accomplished director, could not make AoU work. It was not a good movie. And he freaking set up the entire Avengers franchise!

I can’t know what lead to the underwhelming result that is Captain Marvel, but it is not a great product to stand on its own.

DEMOLITION MAN IS STILL RELEVANT! Captain Marvel will still only be relevant in the future if we don’t, as a society, move on from “girls can do anything boys can do” mentality.

#rant #movie review #blade #demolition man #captain marvel #feminism #90s

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