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roominthecastle · 6 years ago

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duality in the Red/Liz dynamic filtered through James’ own words

∎ “If I’m choosing a project on content, it’s through a prism of sexuality, in the oddest corners of someone’s life. I’m not someone so much interested in exploring a slice of life unless that is down the corridor, around the corner, up the alley and down the rabbit hole. That I like.” [x]

∎ “I really think it’s safe to say that you don’t really know what the nature of the relationships are going to be, and also what the future holds for each and every one of the individual cast members. […] For me the [Blacklist] is what I had hoped for when I first read the pilot. It has a broad landscape in every aspect - in terms of tone, storyline, the development of characters, and the development of the relationship between different characters.”

⇢ excerpts from the pilot script (establishing sexual attraction from Red’s side, i.e. “a prism of sexuality”):

On top of instant physical attraction that is clearly indicated in the script, romantic attraction also seems to be in play but this develops slower, is guarded, and lives on a predominantly subtextual level.

∎ “To figure out a character, I try to look for something that’s not in the screenplay - a little secret they carry around with them. Sometimes it’s allowed to show itself, sometimes it isn’t, yet it’s always there.”

∎ “[ Red ] clearly has strong feelings for [ Liz ].” [x]

∎ “The challenge in playing [Red] is really the diligence in trying to strike a balance between what to tell and what not to tell - or to tell something in a way that you are not aware that it’s being told. To let the viewer in on something in a way that you are not telling them something. You’re letting them feel it and see it. Something that is new. Or something that is surprising. Or something that adds just another layer of complexity.”

But sometimes the secret “is allowed to show itself”.

for example, compare James’ personal experience of romantic love

∎ “When you’re in love, you can’t control it. It’s when you can’t take charge of what you feel, when you are completely powerless in the face of the emotion. When it happens, it happens in spite of you.” [x]

with

⇢ Red to Liz in 208, The Decembrist: “When you love someone, you have no control. That's what love is. Being powerless.”

⇢ J. Eisendrath in Behind the Blacklist S2: “Red is an incredibly powerful person but the only person who renders him powerless is Liz.”

⇢ Red about Liz in 319, Cape May: “There was a woman I loved. She was my life. My heart.”

There are moments where Red’s attraction - both physical and romantic - clearly surfaces in the text - in dialogue and behavior. This attraction was 100% absent in the past and it sparked in spite of the role Red assigned himself earlier (a protector, nothing more), which is why it must feel like “a kick in the head” when he meets her after decades as an adult.

It is something new, surprising, and complicates things for both of them - especially for Red because it conflicts with the original concept (of the past) he held of her in his mind: the helpless child he saved and felt obligated to protect from afar vs the new concept (the now) which is of the attractive adult woman who is perfectly capable of taking care of herself and demands to be treated as such. He has been struggling with this conflict, trying to come to terms with it, with his feelings, and the colliding concepts that pit his “duty” as a platonic protector with the present attraction he feels as a man (a conflict he projects on Tom’s behavior, as well).

⇢ Red to Kate in 421, Mr. Kaplan: “She's not Masha anymore. With little to none of my presence or influence through the years, she has grown up to be Special Agent Elizabeth Keen.”

⇢ Red to Liz in 611, Bastien Moreau: “All those years spent worrying about you, fancying myself your guardian angel. [My mother] would've taken one look at you and known you'd be fine.”

He is both distancing himself from her past image here and emphasizing the lack of actual contact during her childhood, which makes sense if he is indeed experiencing new, different feelings for her now. He re-affirms that his contribution was in the form of money, which also parallels Liz’s guilt-fueled way of trying to anonymously “compensate” the daughter of a man who got murdered as a result of a situation she was partially responsible for creating. Neither Red’s not Liz’s contribution can be characterized as actual parenting, but they were both trying to be “pseudo providers” in place of parents who - due to crossing paths with them - were no longer around to do so.

In Cape May, Red’s past and present traumas wash together in an opium-induced mind trip. Liz first gets referred to as “a child” he wanted to provide for to balance some cosmic scale but later she becomes “a woman” he loved.

There has been only one 4th wall breakage in the entire show but it is unmistakable and speaks clearly to this “conflict of concepts”:

⇢ Mr. Solomon in 305, Arioch Cain: “What is the deal with you two anyways? It's what everybody wants to know. Some say it's a daddy/daughter thing. Others swear it's May-September. I prefer to believe... it's a little of both.”

This dual approach is also echoed in Eisendrath’s off-screen “twisted paternal” label or his more recent remark about Red’s “Liz fetish”, and Bokenkamp’s interesting take on how there's conflict in Red’s reaction to Liz’s faked death: the parent figure part should forgive, the romantic partner side struggles [x].

James appears to be in agreement:

∎ “It’s a very, very complicated relationship between the two of them. As much as she doesn’t know the true nature of their relationship, I think it’s quite equitable for Reddington, as well, because I think he is trying to grasp a hold of what the true nature of their relationship is now. Forget the past, regardless of what that the past represents. What is the nature of their relationship now and what are even the possibilities of a relationship with her.” [x]

∎ “The most compelling relationship is, in fact, what it’s turning into. What the nature of that relationship is now and what it will be building over the next few years. We’ve already seen them very fractured at times and yet there’s some sort of compulsion that they have for one another. And not just Reddington’s feelings for her but also her feelings for him. And to me that’s one of the most fascinating things besides the fun to be had on the show. In terms of the emotional center of the show.” SDCC ‘14

Based on these bits and pieces (coupled with on-screen interaction), I think it’s safe to conclude that Red and Liz’s present dynamic is in flux and carries conflicting elements. Both James off-screen and Red on-screen emphasize the ultimate importance of their present over their past, though: “Forget what the past represents.” & “She is not Masha anymore.” While this instantly rules out any biological connection, their past still exerts its influence (manifesting in guilt and fueling uncertainty) and it will continue to do so until it is sorted. So it is not surprising (imo) that Liz wants to keep Red both near but also at an arm’s length, repeatedly needing a buffer zone whenever things flare up btw them, be it physical distance (e.g. putting him in jail) or another man (getting involved w/ someone else). He is a question mark still, confused himself, and she faces that wall of puzzling, magnetic intensity that has the very real capacity to consume her (she has been warned of this before by other women, too).

They love each other, that much has been firmly established, but the precise nature of that intense (compulsive) feeling is still under negotiation, so to speak. They may never have an overt romantic-sexual relationship but the seeds are there, they have been since the pilot, and they still have at least one and a half seasons to map the possibilities and figure out the best way to be together.

#the blacklist #lizzington #long post #tbl spec #musings #james spader #i hope this manages to answer a couple of messages i got on this issue #this is one glorious hot mess ppl #but it makes sense #i think...#red has his dude parts in conflict and liz is like ??!?!y/n/y/n/idk #that's the gist of it

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eponymous-rose · 6 years ago

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E27 (July 24, 2018)

This is a special SDCC edition featuring the cast... some of the cast! Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Sam Riegel, Liam O’Brien, and Matt Mercer!

This episode was pre-recorded on Saturday, and hence there is a tragic lack of After Dark content. Please turn off all your lights after the episode airs to simulate the After Dark experience. Thank you.

Vox Machina: Origins will be back in 2019! The next arc (the first arc to really kick in for the home game) will be about meeting Pike and Percy.

Matt is going to have Taliesin design him a Mollymauk tattoo. Sam: “Does Taliesin get to pick the body part?” Marisha: “No, I do.” Taliesin: “We’re in committee.”

Realizing how much the dynamic was going to change has thrown everyone a bit off-balance. Liam’s glad Keg stepped up when she did after Molly went down. Caleb’s mental process was “How many can we save?” and knowing he’d have to just cut and run if he couldn’t bring anyone with him. He was very aware of the Scroll of Invisibility in the pocket.

An older game of Matt’s where Taliesin played had only two out of five characters survive after a disastrous fight. That session was Marisha’s first time watching the game after she and Matt started dating.

Leaving the coat was mostly a respect thing since it was such an intrinsic part of Molly’s character. It is pointed out that they might come across a bandit mugging people in that coat. Anyone who stole that coat would just be liquified. Liam points out that if Lucien/Nonagon/whoever returns as an NPC Big Bad of the series, leaving the coat might keep them on their good side.

Beau has a family history with tarot cards, which is why she always had a thing about them. The last meaningful conversation she had with Molly was over those cards. Taliesin: “I was watching, going, ‘Yeah.’” Marisha: “It means something, and Beau has some regrets about how that conversation went.”

Nott didn’t want anything? “Of course I wanted things. I wanted everything.” But it didn’t seem respectful. Taliesin: “I was backstage screaming, ‘LOOT THE BODY, just loot the body, what’s wrong with you!’”

Taliesin had several moments last episode where he had to drop everything and get ready to go when his new character almost made an appearance... but never quite did.

Taliesin’s opinion of the funeral? “I feel like more money could’ve been spent. I mean, you ended up in a brothel. You could’ve done something.” Seriously, though, he cried. To Marisha: “You were a lot.”

Sam’s getting to the point where Nott’s point of view is like second nature. “It helps that I have had a lot of drinks in the past, and I know just from sense memory what that’s like.” Liam: “Nott shares your unbridled sense of id, Sam.”

According to Matt, the hardest part about preparing for the new campaign was creating something that simultaneously felt new and set itself apart from the first campaign without deviating too dramatically. He also felt like if the first episode was a dud coming off of the very dramatic ending of campaign 1, that would be on him. He was very aware that a lot of people would be jumping into the show for the first time since it would be a more accessible entry point.

There will be one shots and all sorts of new content associated with the new studio. Honey Heist 2: Electric Bear-galoo will be the first one! Marisha wants to start and focus with bite-sized content, shows that will lower some of the barriers of entry to D&D. A lot of people have discovered D&D from CR and want to get into it, but the PHB looks like homework, so they’re trying to make elements of it more easily understandable to a wider audience.

Matt likes to bring in guest stars, but doesn’t want to do it too often so that the story still focuses on the Mighty Nein. He’s excited to have this opportunity to bring in more of the folks they’ve wanted to have for ages, though. There’s always the possibility of guests having to cancel last-minute, which makes the whole process nerve-wracking. The focus is always on bringing in the people who only really want to be there for that part of the story.

Matt on dealing with directed anger from the internet: “Whenever somebody lashes out, it’s coming from a place of insecurity inside them. Most people. Some people are just dicks. But some people are just angry at the world and lash out at whatever’s in front of them.”

Matt on non-binary NPCs: “There’s plenty more out there.”

Mechanics they miss from last campaign: Marisha went from being “a versatile Swiss-Army-Knife toolbox to a... toolbox.” She misses the versatility of the spells. “Now I try to figure out other creative ways to do things.” Taliesin: “I miss having an enormous amount of distance from combat.” Sam: “The ability to speak. With confidence. That’s it.” Liam: “I miss the sheer satisfaction, and dare I say smugness, of stealth rolls.”

Taliesin on Molly as queer rep: “I love watching what’s been happening with the community in the last 15 years.” He had to ask his “young friends” to figure out the vocabulary, but he’s been focused on exploring new things and he’s delighted at how much it’s resonated with people.

Taliesin on Molly: “He’s still doing great in my head.” Matt points out that Molly’s already having major effects on the campaign and the motivations of the PCs right now (Taliesin’s so pleased).

Marisha: “After the first few times that I put the moves on [Yasha], we were at break, and I could sense that Ashley was wanting to ask me something, and she got up the courage, and she was like, ‘Hey, um, I’m just curious. Is Beau--’ and at that exact moment someone called Ashley to the stage, and I was like, ‘Bye!’“ They haven’t had a chance to talk about it since then. Beau’s looking at it a bit like deciding whether or not to get into a work relationship right now.

An unexpected theme of campaign 2 has been identity and trust. Matt on one of his favorite unexpected storytelling developments: “Having a group of self-entitled terrible people that had this one amazing individual come into their life and be taken away, and now realize they all want to become better people because of that.”

Sam mentions that the first year in the home game, the characters were a bit like cartoon characters, until they got comfortable enough to start letting them have real emotions. Now there’s been a lot more pressure to create a character that’s internally consistent and different from their first characters without being too different and outside their ranges.

Liam gets a question from a kid with the cutest voice and everyone loses it from the adorableness. What’s his favorite monster? “Well, my number one favorite monster is Matthew Mercer.” He’s a big fan of the beholder. “I really like that guy.”

Sam on being asked how he creates flawed characters: “I’m fascinated by flaws and how people overcome them and work around them and stuff, because in real life, I don’t have any.” For Nott, he picked a couple of weird character quirks and worked backwards from there. “The ‘why’ is the fun stuff.”

Matt talks about how we’re already facing a huge difficulty with prejudice in the world now, and he doesn’t feel like he should be forcing that awfulness into entertainment. He’s still finding the balance to give the players a chance to confront and defeat those ideas without it feeling hackneyed or unnecessarily painful to viewers dealing with those issues outside the game.

On resurrecting Molly, Taliesin: “Due to things I can’t necessarily go into, I don’t know if that would have even worked.”

Liam talks about how he never plays Renegade characters in video games and how it’s been a challenge playing Caleb. Liam: “The Mighty Nein isn’t really the family that Vox Machina was, at least not yet, but we are. We love each other and we love playing with each other.”

Marisha points out that when Molly talked about a silk flower, he said, “Here’s one that won’t die.”

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

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fadedtoblue · 7 years ago

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Recap of the Defenders panel at SDCC, pt. 2 (aka just a beat by beat recap of episode 1...)

If you missed, it you can catch part 1 here. I’m sure you can find videos of the panel out now, but if you wanted my additional commentary, there you go, haha :).

I’ve been writing bits and pieces of this since Friday night, so needless to say, I’m starting to get a little fuzzy on the order of the scenes and specifics b/c I was in such a state of shock while watching (and I don’t get the benefit of rewatching it right away 10 times in a row, lol), but I’ll try to recollect as much as possible, as best I can. I’ll also share some of my opinions and theories at the very end.

Some brief, non-spoilery thoughts: This was definitely a set up episode for everything that is to come, so as much as I know everyone wants answers to certain questions, you’re just not going to get to them right away. The show doesn’t hesitate to pick up the threads left from each individual series though, so don’t expect it to be slow at all. They also did a lovely job making each Defenders’ scenes look and feel like their own shows, while still bringing them all together into a new kind of feel and style for The Defenders. I was impressed by that. Anyway, if you have any more general questions, feel free to send me an ask or note.

And now...I shouldn’t have to say this, but just in case...HUGE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE DEFENDERS UNDER THE CUT! (Apologies for any mistakes, I wrote too much and just want to get it posted rather than spending even more time editing!)

Opening scene:

Very first scene opens in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. An unnamed man is being chased by a woman in black wielding double katanas and shrouded in darkness down some sort of sewer-like corridor, exchanging blows, and the man is clearly getting overwhelmed in the fight. Before she can land the killing stroke, Danny appears out of the darkness and jumps into the fight to draw the woman away. Danny is holding his own, but the woman is clearly a superior fighter, and lands a nice slice across Danny’s tattoo; in his shock, the woman gets the opening she needs and stabs the mystery man to death. Danny tries to chase down the woman, who is running away, and manages to land one Iron fist-packed punch on her, which sends her flying, but she disappears as quickly as she appeared. When Danny returns to the man, Colleen is with him, and we see that he’s clearly dying. After a bit of back and forth, the man tells them that their fight is not there, it’s in New York. Very mysterious, and Danny is extremely frustrated. This has apparently been one of their biggest leads in their search for the Hand, and just like that, he’s gone. Also, it’s pretty obvious this woman is Elektra, and the most impressive thing was how much her fighting skills had supernaturally improved. A small hint at the power of the Black Sky! (Note: there’s really no hint as to who this guy could be, and I originally assumed maybe he was affiliated with the Hand, like Bakuto’s faction or something? But the end credits mention Shaft, who was announced as a character on the show, and plays a big role in the Chaste, so that’s an interesting tie in!)

Opening credit sequence:

New song and graphic styles, I really can’t recall now, but think the instrumental had a kind of synth-y vibe. The backgrounds are basically outlined, lit up, 3-D maps of New York, but they form each of the different characters in their main color palette. It’s super cool. The names on the credits also utilize an effect on certain letters to make it look like a subway line design (i.e. Charlie Cox’s name has a C in a circle). It’s a cute touch and really drives the whole “New York is the fifth Defender!” thing home.

Okay, this is where the order of these scenes gets a little iffy in my head, not to mention we do switch between the characters pretty often this episode...I think I’m fairly clear on the details themselves though! I’ll basically try to summarize everyone’s scenes in one go and then summarize the closing act on its own!

Jessica Jones:

Jessica is (surprise, surprise!) passed out drunk in an empty bar and gets rudely awakened by the bartender, who helpfully informs her that it’s morning and she should probably get out of his bar. Next, we see Trish is running across the street to keep her car from getting towed, but the cop is an ass and refuses to unhook it. Suddenly, we see the car get pulled off by an inexplainable force! Turns out it’s Jessica, who snarkily asks the cop if he has a problem, and Trish has trouble holding back a smile. Now we see Trish and Jessica walking down the street with coffee cups and fighting over Jessica’s life state post-Kilgrave, one that involves a lot of drinking and zero working, which greatly concerns Trish. Trish lets Jessica know that she’s been getting a lot of interest in her story and wants Jessica to take some interviews, if only to make some extra money while she’s not working. Trish says something to the affect of, only you (Jessica) could take a personal triumph and turn it into despair, or something like that. Jessica tries to tell her not to worry. Trish takes a sip of her coffee and nearly spits it out -- turns out Jesica had handed her coffee to Trish and Trish finds out the coffee has whiskey. This got a pretty good laugh during the screening :). Jessica is then shown walking down the hallway to her apartment -- the window is boarded up and clearly hasn’t been fixed since JJ S1. There are two people standing outside the door as she approaches, a woman who seems well-dressed and pulled together, and her teenage daughter, who is snarky and disdainful toward Jessica. The mom heard about what Jessica did and wants her to take a case -- her husband has been missing for a week -- and Jessica flat out says no. As the woman presses her case, Jessica goes into mocking mode, and suggests that everyone thinks THEIR partner would never do anything like this, but usually they’re always cheating. The daughter lobs a few snarky comments at Jessica and the mom, and finally the two of them leave. Jessica seems to have a moment of remorse as she’s opening the door, turns around, and calls out to them. The woman turns around hopefully but Jessica only says that she hopes they can find him soon. The inside of Jessica’s apartment is still absolutely trashed from all of the Luke / Kilgrave stuff from S1 -- part of the scenes are shot through the hole in the wall, which is hilarious. She gets a phone call, and someone using a voice scrambler warns her not to take the case. Dun dun dun! We know what that means!!

Later on, you see Jessica sitting at her desk with her laptop open, using her expert Googling skills to learn more about missing mystery man. At this point, Malcolm strolls in, which pisses Jessica off -- she’s already told him to stop coming into her apartment, he says she gave him a key, she counters that he made himself his own copy of the key, he helpfully clarifies because he was helping her get her locks changed, banter banter banter. I want to know that Malcolm has beefed up a lot for this show. It was noticeable lol. He immediately notices she’s on her computer and absolutely lights up, asking whether she’s taken on a case? She insists she hasn’t taken it...yet, and he’s basically celebrating that she’s totally taken the case and runs over to hover over her shoulder while she’s researching, which pisses her off. They talk briefly about the guy who’s missing, and Jessica mentions that the only reason why she’s even doing this is because she got a call from someone using a voice scrambler who doesn’t want her to look into it, but surely they covered their tracks and won’t want to be found. At which point Malcolm posits the possibility that the guy is actually an amateur, and what if she could track the call back? So Jessica pulls a Jessica and calls the operator, pretending that she received a call from her grandfather who is missing from dementia and gets the number. They find the address the number is connected to, which Malcolm immediately recognizes as a super shady neighborhood that people generally used to get off the grid to use drugs, etc.

Jessica shows up at the building Malcolm helped her identify. Inside, it looks and sounds sketchy as hell -- flickering lights, sounds of people fighting and/or having sex, a real ball. She heads up the stairs to the specific apartment she seems to have identified as the exact location of the call. She bangs on the door, telling him (I assume she thinks it’s James -- the husband -- hiding out in there) that the landlord / someone already told her he’s inside. After getting no response, she does her patented doorknob breaking move (the scene we saw in the first trailer) and goes in. There’s a TV on, but the place is otherwise dim and abandoned. She slowly walks through, peeking into the bedroom and rounding back out to the living area. She spots some boxes, opens one up and inside is either weapons or explosives (I’m leaning toward the latter) -- the camera paused on it for a quick few seconds and I didn’t absorb the writing as thoroughly as I’d like, but it’s obviously something really bad.

Luke Cage:

We start out with the scene of him walking down the jail corridor, while the inmates cheer him on. It’s not super clear in the beginning, but we soon discover that Luke had his charges cleared, thanks to the excellent lawyering provided by one MR. FOGGY NELSON, who is clean shaven and sporting a very short haircut (gotta look the part at those big firms I guess!). Luke asks for Claire, but Foggy tells him only lawyers are allowed. Luke decides it’s time to hop on a bus and get back to New York ASAP. Before he leaves, Foggy gives him his business card and lets him know he can always reach out if he ever needs help starting over. Luke assures him he doesn’t need to start over, just need to move forward. Foggy helpfully lets him know that most people call him Foggy, to which Luke quips: “And you let them?” which earns a great laugh from the room :).

Now you see Luke on his bus ride back to NYC, and this scene is basically just the same scene in the first trailer with him looking out the window and seeing things like Pop’s barbershop as he drives by. He gets off the bus (which is plastered with a New Harlem Renaissance ad, so you can assume Mariah is still going at it) somewhere in Harlem and as the camera pans out, you see Ms. Claire Temple looking like her damn fine self, leaning against the wall, waiting for his return. They end up back at her apartment and immediately rock that cup of coffee, like wow, it was...physical hahaha. Think overturning furniture, going at it all over the place, I’ll admit to being slightly concerned for Claire b/c damn Luke is a strong guy, but she seemed like she was having a good time lol. In the trailer I thought they were leaning against a headboard - nope, it’s a table turned over on its side on the floor, haha. They have a nice chat afterwards, mostly focusing on what Luke might do now that he’s back in New York. He calls Claire out a little bit, saying that he knows she kept some things from him in the letters they exchanged while he was away. She confesses a lot of things happened and are still going on in the city, and she’s concerned about Luke trying to be a hero (cue the dialogue from trailer #1). At this point, there’s a knock on the door, and it’s...Misty! She’s bemused to see Luke at Claire’s place so quickly after being let out, and asks if he can take a walk down the street with her.

They exchange some small talk, apparently Misty has been made head of some sort of city-wide initiative, which is probably how they’ll take her out of Harlem and into some of the other neighborhoods in the Netflix Marvel world. They end up at a burnt out car that’s decorated with flowers, and Misty explains: there’s been a rash of somewhat unexplained deaths that bear striking similarities -- all young men from Harlem, who were recently employed at some sort of mystery job, moved their moms out of Harlem and into nice houses in what I presume is a more gentrified neighborhood of New York, but end up dead under mysterious circumstances. It could be drug running or it could be something more nefarious -- Misty doesn’t know. Luke wants to help, which Misty reacts to with skepticism (she makes a “Really? I’m going to send the guy who just got out of lockup?” kind of joke) but she mentions that this particular memorial is actually for the brother of Candace Miller, who died in LC S1. Apparently she had two brothers, so Misty tasks Luke to track down the last brother, who she last heard wasn’t exactly on the right side of the law, and talk some sense into him before the mother of that family loses her last child.

Luke heads over to the apartment building of the third brother, another interior with flashing lights, except this time with loud music. Luke encounters a group of guys in front of an apartment and asks them where he can find “insert brother’s name here b/c I honestly can’t remember it out” -- they’re about to snap at him for interrupting them and realize it’s Luke Cage, at which points their jaws snap shut and they direct him one floor up. Luke lets himself into the apartment, sees the brother, and walks up to an expensive looking speaker set up to turn down / off the music. The brother angrily exclaims, thinking that his friends are messing with his equipment and is surprised to see it’s Luke. Luke says he’s here to pay his respects, and the two have a conversation in which the brother pretty much stubbornly refuses to listen or provide any information on his brother who just died. Luke notices that for a kid between jobs, he seems to have some pretty nice things (the music / speaker system, spacious apartment, really nice shoe collection) and asks if he might have taken on the same job his brother had before he died. The boy is silent, Luke says something wise, and then leaves.

Matt Murdock:

His scene opens in his apartment, focused on some sort of Braille printer? Matt is practicing an argument for an upcoming case as the pages print off. Suddenly, he catches on the sound of someone getting mugged and you see him going into Daredevil mode and hearing the situation unfold -- Matt is visibly tensing and literally willing his body not to rush off. As he’s listening, he also hears the police approaching and containing the situation. He untenses his body and resumes practicing his speech. At this point, we switch immediately to the courtroom, where Matt is grilling a man on the stand. I couldn’t exactly follow what the incident was and what product the man’s company made, but whatever it was, it was responsible for injuring a young boy, putting him in a wheelchair. Matt is really in his element and manages to pin the executive on the stand into a corner and goes in for the kill. Then we are suddenly outside the courtroom, actually in the same courthouse we were in for the Castle trial, and the news media is there -- Matt won the case and the family of the boy who was injured were awarded $11 mil. The parents of the boy walk ahead to talk to the reporters, while the boy, sitting in the wheelchair, hangs back. Matt has a really lovely scene here when he steps back to talk to the boy, who is clearly having a hard time adjusting to his new circumstances, and gives him a Matt Murdock pep talk about handling adversity and very specifically, coming to terms with a life changing injury (wish I could share more of what he says, but I just can’t remember it and don’t want to butcher it!! It was good though). It does seem to get through to the kid, who then goes back to join his family during their little hallway press conference.

Matt turns around, and we see Karen, who was in the courtroom covering the case for the Bulletin. Karen congratulates Matt on winning the case and is complimentary toward him and what he did in the room. I think Matt also mentions Karen’s work as a journalist and she does her aw shucks Karen thing. She mentions that she needs a quote from him for the story she’s writing, and suggests that maybe they do it over a drink or a bite to eat, which Matt seems surprised at, but agrees to. (This suggests to me that they really haven’t spoken much, since the end of S2 reveal, though they’ve likely crossed paths politely since then.)

Matt and Karen are sitting in a diner, and while the atmosphere is a little awkward, it’s still friendly. They exchange some small talk about their jobs -- Karen asks Matt about his lawyering and I think this is where Matt reveals he’s doing pro bono work, although it’s possible he mentions it at the courthouse, and Karen talks about how she really feels like this is what she’s meant to do. She lowers her voice a bit and asks Matt whether he’s missed being Daredevil. He basically lies and says no. That he doesn’t regret it, but he doesn’t miss it either. Karen seems to be satisfied with that response. She has a whole line about how she really feels like they needed some time to figure themselves out and it sounds like she believes that both her and Matt are in better places now than they were before. She mentions she’s been covering the police beat and she really thinks the police are doing a good job handling the crime, at which Matt cracks a bit of a cynical smile, so maybe he actually did it...he was the hero this city needed and now they don’t need him anymore. But she thinks that right now the city needs more of Matt Murdock, and btw, she still needs that quote, and that’s just about how the scene ends. Very friendly.

EDIT!!! Didn’t realize a huge chunk of Matt’s section was missing from this recap. Damn it Tumblr, you’ve eaten parts of this post like 5 times already. This re-recap will be a bit of a rush job, sorry! Anyway, after the meeting with Karen, Matt goes to find Father Lanthom for confession. He says it’s been three days since his last confession, which suggests to me that he’s been going consistently, and often. He initially brings up the meeting with Karen, and talks about feeling bad about lying to her about not missing being Daredevil. In order to remain transparent, I will say he did use language to refer to Karen as someone he loves, but the impression didn’t come off as romantic, but more out of friendship / deeply caring for her. I really do believe he is sincere in wanting to become friends again. And nothing about the diner meeting or the conversation here feels like it’s moving toward anything more than trust building, which Matt already kind of fails at since he lies to her face there. Anyway, this part of the conversation didn’t last for very long since Lanthom takes the temperature on the situation and immediately gets to the heart of what’s bothering Matt, which I won’t bother recapping b/c you can see it in the scene below:

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Danny Rand:

Since Danny was such a big part of the opening scene, he doesn’t get a traditional intro scene like the rest of the defenders in the first act of the episode, so after we’ve touched base with all of the Defenders, we bounce back into his story and find him flying back to New York on his jet with Colleen. It starts with him, alone in the bathroom, and this is where we get that dramatic scene of him wiping the mirror from the trailer. There’s little bit of editing trickery here, as he notices some weird blood splatters on the wall behind him, and he goes from the mirror to tearing off a piece of the wall? Or pushing aside some sort of curtain? And we segue seamlessly into Danny walking into some sort of eerie, abandoned hallway, all torn and tattered. We quickly notice the hallway floor is covered in bloody bodies, bodies of the dead K’un Lun monks. He passes through another doorway and there’s a whole group of them, standing in formation, covered in blood and staring down at him accusingly. He is clearly overwhelmed and confused, and turns around, only to see himself, dressed in robes and looking serious. He says something to real Danny (again, sorry about being spotty on the actually lines), which prompts real Danny to basically breakdown screaming. At this point we hear Colleen in the background, shaking him awake from what’s obviously a nightmare. She tries to get him to talk about the screaming, which he tries to shrug off as turbulence terrors, but she’s not buying it. They talk about the man they hunted down in Cambodia and it’s clear that he’s feeling guilty about his death, and is still feeling guilty about the not being at K’un Lun to protect his city. Colleen insists that it’s not his fault, but Danny remains unconvinced. Danny and Colleen return to the city and are taking a helicopter ride over the city. They’re holding hands. She’s marveling at the view and they’re discussing home -- New York is basically Colleen’s home but for Danny, even though he grew up here, he still doesn’t know if this is his home.

Alexandra:

Our introduction to Sigourney’s antagonist Alexandra lacks any bombast or fanfare, but you definitely feel...unsettled in a lot of her scenes. We first see her in some sort of nondescript building, and she’s waiting for an appointment, looking classy af. A person comes up and leads her to a really bare, empty room, and asks Alexandra to change into a patient’s gown. The nurse brings her out of the room and to a larger room with a CAT scan machine. The doctor greets her warmly but has bad news for her, which she seems to be expecting -- her red? white? blood cell count is precipitously low and her body’s organs are starting to shut down. She asks what the doctor is going to do about it, and he says there isn’t anything they can really do, which is an answer that clearly doesn’t satisfy her (“That’s not what I asked.”). When she asks how long she has, he guesstimates around a few months.

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Edit: Embedded the released preview clip that corresponds with the below scene :)

We see Alexandra again in what I assume is Central Park (sorry guys, I don’t know NY!), sitting on a bench and feeding the pigeons. Again, she looks amazing. Madame Gao (woohoo!) comes into frame and says she thought she’d find her here, it’s always been her favorite spot. Alexandra muses about how surprised she is this place hasn’t already been razed to the ground and replaced with high rise buildings, she remembers when it used to be forest. She starts into a mini history lesson about New York City and how the Dutch bought it for 24 dollars -- then she drops a burn -- it was 24 dollars too much. She delivers it with such classy disdain, I love it. There’s also a hint of “Hey I was here when this happened” which tracks nicely with the hints Gao has given about her longevity / immortality...clearly Alexandra has quite a history herself. Anyway, they move onto discussion of more important things, like nefarious evil plans? Madame Gao updates Alexandra about some part of this plan and says in a few months they should be ready to make their move. Alexandra quickly shuts this down, which seems to take Madame Gao by surprise. Instead, Alexandra wants to make her move now, which Gao tries to talk her out of -- she doesn’t think it’s a good idea, they still need more time, etc etc -- but knowing what we know about Alexandra’s updated life expectancy, she obviously can’t afford to wait to make her move. At the very end of this scene, Alexandra quite flippantly tosses her bag of bird seed at Gao and orders her to finish feeding the birds. So there’s a really obvious and interesting power dynamic here...whoever Alexandra is, she’s quite used to calling the shots!

The last scene we have with Alexandra takes place after all of the scenes from the other characters, and on some sort of fancy rooftop -- it’s the one from the trailer, and I think it might be the same one Gao met with Fisk in S1? I’m not 100%. Gao lets her know that things have begun, which seems to please Alexandra greatly. And at this point, we start to see what exactly that plan is.

Closing scene:

It starts out with a rumble, almost like mild earthquake tremors. Matt is back at home after his confession with Lanthom, and his apartment is bathed in red. When the shaking starts, he freezes almost seems like he’s not sure what to do. The shaking intensifies, dust and debris flying off, and he seems actually scared at this point, kind of crouching over and covering his head. Jessica, in the mystery apartment she’s tracked down, is also looking around in a mixture of confusion, fear, and WTF as everything shakes around her. In the streets, you see huge tremors and rows of cars being propelled upwards with some sort of strange force before slamming back into the ground. At the memorial for Candace’s mother, you see her standing outside of the car and looking around in shock as the city shakes around her. A streetlamp breaks and starts to fall, but Luke appears and immediately bears the weight of the falling lamp and pushes it back up and away from her. Danny and Colleen have just gotten off the helicopter, unaware of what’s going on on the ground, but in just a few moments as they walk off the landing pad, the ground cracks beneath them and between them.

As everything crumbles outside, Alexandra calmly turns from the edge of the rooftop and walks over to Elektra in the black cloak, and says that iconic line, “It’s just a city. You’ll get used to watching them fall.”

And basically while the city is falling apart and all of our heroes are like WTF, the episode ends. I know, we were really disappointed lol.

Interesting things of note:

There’s a little scene transition device they employed, at least for the first episode, as you go into a scene for a specific character -- it was sort of a quick-cut style with visual snippets and ambient sounds and slightly colorized for each Defender. I haven’t watched Jessica Jones since it first aired, but it reminded me of that show. Not too surprising because the director for the first 2 episodes of Defenders is the same director who did JJ!

I wrote the heading for this section 2 days ago so while I may have had interesting thoughts then, I certainly don’t now, sorry lol!

#the defenders #marvel's the defenders #the defenders panel #sdcc 2017 #the defenders spoilers #the defenders 1x01 #matt murdock #elektra natchios #jessica jones #luke cage #danny rand #colleen wing #madame gao #my thoughts #text #p talks about stuff #mine

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drunklander · 7 years ago

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“It’s a big transitional year for this show,” Outlander executive producer Ronald D. Moore says of the upcoming third season of the Starz drama based on Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling books.

Set to debut September 10 on the premium cabler, this 13-episode run of the Caitriona Balfe- and Sam Heughan-led time-travel series has newborns, old lives, heartache and a reunion across the seas and ages — aka, classic Outlander. Already with one Comic-Con panel under his belt this year with the Battlestar Galactica reunion yesterday, today sees Moore back in Ballroom 20 with Balfe, Heughan, co-stars Tobias Menzies, Sophie Skelton and Richard Rankin, and fellow EP Maril Davis.

Before today’s panel, Moore chatted with me about where this far-flung season based on Voyager — Gabaldon’s third book in her eight-book (so far) series — is coming from, where it’s going and where it could all end up. He also discusses whether he would ever be part of another Galatica revival, and how much SDCC has changed since be first started attending the confab.

DEADLINE: With Season 3 set to launch in just under couple of months, what is the theme for you for this run of Outlander?

MOORE: It’s a transitional season. You know, the franchise kind of pivots from this point because, it’s not really a huge spoiler, but essentially, the show will relocate to the American colonies after this season. So they’ll always have a foot in Scotland, because there’s always a piece of the story that will continue to play out in Scotland, but Claire and Jamie and their family really do kind of relocate to North America after this season and establish a place called Fraser’s Ridge, which is up in the mountains of North Carolina — and that’s where the rest of the season in the books takes place.

So this is a really important year because it’s leaving sort of one setting, traveling literally across the Atlantic Ocean. You know, we went down and shot on the Black Sails ships and sets in South Africa to do that section of the story, and then end up in the Caribbean, and then eventually into the American colonies. It’s a big transitional year for this show.

DEADLINE: Another transition of sorts for you guys is that Outlander Season 3 is premiering in mid-September, a shift from Season 1 opening in August 2014 and Season 2 debuting in April 2016. How will moving into a more traditional premiere spot affect the show, especially for production purposes?

MOORE: It doesn’t really change the dynamic of a show. I’m sure Starz could speak more directly to scheduling and how it affects various marketing aspects and that kind of thing, but creatively, it didn’t really affect the show at all. We are trying to put the show on more of a yearly basis, so hopefully we can stick with a fall premiere date going forward. So we’re sort of overlapping production, but that’s because I think the fan base would really like to have an annual date instead of a moving date.

DEADLINE: So the fall premiere is going to become the norm for Outlander?

MOORE: You know, there’s no guarantee, but hopefully we kind of stick with a fall premiere from this point. It’s been difficult for us because it takes us a long time to shoot the show. It’s very complex logistically. It’s a big period piece that travels and goes to different countries and continents and doesn’t really have standing sets, and it takes us a long time to produce it. So we don’t want to skimp on the production value of the show, but we also want the audience to have the benefit of yearly premieres.

DEADLINE: Speaking of behind the camera, will Diana Gabaldon be penning an episode or two of Season 3 like she did for Season 2?

MOORE: She did not do one for us this season. She’s writing another book, and she was a little too caught up in that. Behind the cameras, a lot of the same team came back. We had some changes in the writing staff. We actually expanded the writing staff quite a bit, in large part because we are sort of on an accelerated prep schedule now, and we had to be able to have enough writers to start writing onto Season 4 while we were producing Season 3.

DEADLINE: Mapping out this upcoming season and Season 4, how much further do you see Outlander going?

MOORE: Well, Diana’s still writing the books, so I would assume that we could go as long as she keeps writing a compelling story. The books are still wildly successful. The storyline still engages people, and I could see this going on for a very long time.

DEADLINE: Is that always how you saw it? When you initially put the show together, did you see this as a five-season show, a six-season show…

MOORE: When I approached it, I knew that it was an ongoing book series and an open-ended saga, so I sort of had that in the back of my mind. Really until Diana’s decided what the end of the story is, I can just see the show continuing to move forward. Also, as long as the audience is willing to go along for the ride with us, because it feels like there’s a long, compelling tale that people could lose themselves in for many years.

DEADLINE: On that, last year Outlander skipped Comic-Con, but you were here personally. What was that like?

MOORE: It was odd because I’d done them so many years in a row with Galactica. Then I took a break, and then you get used to just being there, you know, with Outlander, and it’s odd to skip one. I did a couple of smaller panels, but nothing officially for the show. You know, you kind of miss the big rooms, and you miss seeing all the fans, and the cast, and all that, because it has become an event on everyone’s annual calendar.

DEADLINE: On Galactica, you had a reunion panel this year at Comic-Con, similar to the one at ATX earlier this year. Of course, you are busy with Outlander but the fan reaction makes it pretty clear the appetite is there for more Galactica. Would you do more? Say, a limited series?

MOORE: (laughs) I feel like our show has pretty much said what it needed to say, and we’re done. I didn’t really leave the door open for a reunion show. If you did that, if you picked up the story from where we left off after the finale, A, there’s no Battlestar Galactica left, and B, everyone’s on Earth, and there are no spaceships anymore. It would be such a completely different idea, that it really wouldn’t be Battlestar Galactica anymore.

Now, given the environment that we’re in, sure, they’re going to reboot it at some point. Somebody’s going to and they’ll take another whack at it, just like we rebooted the original. So, you know, I can’t be precious about the idea that no one could ever touch this show, because it was a remake in and of itself.

DEADLINE: You guys packed Ballroom 20 this week, all these years after Galactica ended. What is that like for you?

MOORE: It’s great and it’s really validating I think to us all. Because when we were making the show, we were always on the bubble of cancellation. So, as a result, those of us on the show had this sort of bunker mentality that, you know, we’ll prove them right. Some day they’ll love us. It doesn’t matter who’s watching us today, we’re going to last. There’ll be a legacy to this show. You wait and see. So it is great to kind of see all that true, and it’s like, Oh, yeah, we did make a legacy. Look, people do love us now, and it really was a special program.

DEADLINE: You’re a Comic-Con vet so I have to ask: Looking at what it is now in 2017, how has it changed since you first started coming here?

MOORE: It’s like the whole city has just become Comic-Con now. I think the first time I went, my recollection is that the convention had not yet spilled really beyond the confines of the convention center. Maybe it had, but I wasn’t aware of it. Each year now, I feel like this can’t get any bigger and they just can’t get any more people down here, and then the next year, I’m always astonished by the scale of it.

I remember pretty clearly there was a year when I was down there doing Galactica. Like, the first couple of years, it was very sci-fi-oriented, very genre-oriented, very much, like just a big, large-scale science fiction convention. And then there was one year I looked up on the convention floor, and there was a kiosk for The Office. And I went, OK, something has now changed, because once you’re down here promoting The Office, you’ve really broken past the genre of it all, and it’s going to become a whole different thing. And it has.

#*#outlander starz #season press #outlander press #sdcc #ronald d moore

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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Eisner Awards 2019 Predictions

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Once again we try and predict this year's Eisner Awards winners. Once again, we're probably entirely wrong.

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Happy Comic-Con Eve, all! I had a whole "'Twas the night before Comic Con" bit lined up, but APPARENTLY it's considered a faux pas to reveal the location of the annual SDCC post-Eisners key party on the internet, so you'll have to just hang out here for a while as we pick over the list of nominees for comics' most prestigious awards and tell you why the books we liked most will win! And then come back after the ceremony to tell us why we were completely wrong.

Best Short Story

- “Get Naked in Barcelona,” by Steven T. Seagle and Emei Olivia Burrell, in Get Naked (Image)

- “The Ghastlygun Tinies,” by Matt Cohen and Marc Palm, in MAD Magazine #4 (DC)

- "Here I Am," by Shaun Tan, in I Feel Machine (SelfMadeHero)

“Life During Interesting Times,” by Mike Dawson (The Nib), Supply Chains,” by Peter and Maria Hoey, in Coin-Op #7 (Coin-Op Books)

- “The Talk of the Saints,” by Tom King and Jason Fabok, in Swamp Thing Winter Special (DC)

Institutional bias against webcomics will probably be enough to keep Dawson’s comic from winning, but I would probably give it to “Life During Interesting Times.” It’s a thoughtful look at the world we live in that tries to place it into historical context, simultaneously playing up the urgency of the terrible world we live in and expressing hope for the future. It’s also full of really great storytelling tricks - overlapping panels dissolving into each other telling the same story in multiple times. Dawson’s a talented storyteller who should get some recognition for his work.

Best Single Issue/One-Shot

- Beneath the Dead Oak Tree, by Emily Carroll (ShortBox)

- Black Hammer: Cthu-Louise, by Jeff Lemire and Emi Lenox (Dark Horse)

- No Better Words, by Carolyn Nowak (Silver Sprocket)

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #310, by Chip Zdarsky (Marvel)

- The Terrible Elisabeth Dumn Against the Devils In Suits, by Arabson, translated by James Robinson (IHQ Studio/ Image)

I screwed up. I read a ton of comics through my subscription services that are a couple of months behind, and because of that I didn’t read the last issue of Zdarsky’s Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man until months after it came out. It is the best Spider-Man comic I’ve ever read. It cuts to the core of why this character has endured for so long. It’s an absolutely beautiful book about how the world views Parker that made me cry at least twice, and one of those times was when I was remembering what happened in it.

Best Continuing Series

- Batman, by Tom King et al. (DC)

Black Hammer: Age of Doom, by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, and Rich Tommaso (Dark Horse)

- Gasolina, by Sean Mackiewicz and Niko Walter (Skybound/Image)

- Giant Days, by John Allison, Max Sarin, and Julaa Madrigal (BOOM! Box)

- The Immortal Hulk, by Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, and Ruy José (Marvel)

- Runaways, by Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka (Marvel)

There isn’t really a wrong choice in this category: King’s Batman is one of the best sustained runs on the character I’ve ever read; Ewing and Bennett’s Immortal Hulk is my favorite Hulk run of all time; Giant Days is a terrific slice of life YA-adjacent comic; and Rowell should be on a ton of best new comics writer shortlists (despite her being a great everything else writer).

But Lemire’s Black Hammer hits that perfect sweet spot in his work where it captures the surreal eeriness of his indie stuff with his wonderful ability to build staggering, fascinating superhero universes, and Ormston and Tommaso help make that world so rich and beautiful that it’s hard to pass Black Hammer up.

Best Limited Series

- Batman: White Knight, by Sean Murphy (DC)

- Eternity Girl, by Magdalene Visaggio and Sonny Liew (Vertigo/DC)

- Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, by Mark Russell, Mike Feehan, and Mark Morales (DC)

Mister Miracle, by Tom King and Mitch Gerads (DC)

- X-Men: Grand Design: Second Genesis, by Ed Piskor (Marvel)

If I was placing bets on this category, I’d put a lot of money on Mister Miracle and a small but significant amount on The Snagglepuss Chronicles. I don’t understand how we lucked into a great history of the gay rights movement that’s also got a bunch of colorful Hanna Barbera animals as leads. That’s one of the most amazing accomplishments I’ve ever seen in comics.

However, Mister Miracle is the best comic I’ve bought monthly ever. It’s beautiful, ambiguous, thoughtful, methodical. It’s a masterpiece of form and function that tells a story that takes these bizarre Jack Kirby characters and uses them to tell a real story about mental health, parenthood, work, relationships and love. And it doubles as a love letter to comics history.

Best New Series

Bitter Root, by David Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene (Image)

- Crowded, by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, and Ted Brandt (Image)

- Gideon Falls, by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino (Image)

- Isola, by Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl (Image)

- Man-Eaters, by Chelsea Cain, Lia Miternique and Kate Niemczyk (Image)

- Skyward, by Joe Henderson and Lee Garbett (Image)

I think Walker, Brown and Greene’s Bitter Root will probably eek by. It’s so much fun - a family of monster hunters living through the Harlem Renaissance dealing with family drama and supernatural stuff. Greene is one of the best artists working in comics today, and their Power Man and Iron Fist is one of my favorite superhero books of the era because of the energy he brought to the art.

Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12)

- Aquicorn Cove, by Katie O'Neill (Oni)

- Be Prepared, by Vera Brosgol (First Second)

- The Cardboard Kingdom, by Chad Sell (Knopf/Random House Children’s Books)

- Crush, by Svetlana Chmakova (JY/Yen Press)

The Divided Earth, by Faith Erin Hicks (First Second)

Hicks’ The Divided Earth was one of my favorite books from last year. It’s a perfect all-ages comic: just scary enough, just heavy enough, but bright and vibrant and earnest. When we talked about this as one of our best comics of 2018, I mentioned that I can’t wait to hand this off to young family members, and I’m serious: this series is sitting on my shelf waiting for them to hit the right age.

Best Graphic Album—New

- Bad Girls, by Alex de Campi and Victor Santos (Gallery 13)

- Come Again, by Nate Powell (Top Shelf/IDW)

- Green Lantern: Earth One Vol. 1, by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman (DC)

- Homunculus, by Joe Sparrow (ShortBox)

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image) Sabrina, by Nick

- Drnaso (Drawn & Quarterly)

Green Lantern: Earth One is an outstanding Green Lantern comic, one of my favorite sci-fi books of the last decade. But Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal comics are Eisner bait the same way that a movie about Hollywood’s golden age is Oscar bait. My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is the same ridiculously high quality comic we’ve come to expect out of the pair, and it will almost certainly win.

Best Writer

- Alex de Campi, Bad Girls (Gallery 13); Twisted Romance (Image)

- Tom King, Batman, Mister Miracle, Heroes in Crisis, Swamp Thing Winter Special (DC)

- Jeff Lemire, Black Hammer: Age of Doom, Doctor Star & the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows, Quantum Age(Dark Horse); Descender, Gideon Falls, Royal City (Image)

- Mark Russell, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, Green Lantern/Huckleberry Hound, Lex Luthor/Porky Pig (DC); Lone Ranger (Dynamite)

- Kelly Thompson, Nancy Drew (Dynamite); Hawkeye, Jessica Jones, Mr. & Mrs. X, Rogue & Gambit, Uncanny X-Men, West Coast Avengers (Marvel)

- Chip Zdarsky, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, Marvel Two-in-One (Marvel)

Every single writer on this list deserves to win. Zdarsky’s shift from gross-out absurdism to one of the best superhero writers in the industry should be recognized. Thompson’s Rogue & Gambit/Mr. & Mrs. X is one of the best X-Men runs in recent memory. De Campi has long been one of the best writers in the business. And King and Lemire are perennial favorites.

But if Mister Miracle starts cleaning up, I can see Russell take this category. Every comic he writes has a certain amount of shock value to it - not that the content is itself shocking, but that it even got made at all. Lex Luthor/Porky Pig is razor sharp satire of modern industry and social media, and Lone Ranger is better than it has any right to be. Russell wins this narrowly.

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

- Matías Bergara, Coda (BOOM!)

Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (DC) Karl Kerschl, Isola (Image)

- Sonny Liew, Eternity Girl (Vertigo/DC)

- Sean Phillips, Kill or Be Killed, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies (Image)

- Yanick Paquette, Wonder Woman Earth One, vol. 2 (DC)

Another killer category, but I don’t see how Gerads doesn’t win. His design work, glitching panels to further the story, is so integral but so outside the norm of what you expect from superhero books, that it almost certainly will be recognized for how innovative it is.

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

- Lee Bermejo, Batman: Damned (DC)

- Carita Lupatelli, Izuna Book 2 (Humanoids)

Dustin Nguyen, Descender (Image) Gregory Panaccione, A Sea of Love (Magnetic/Lion Forge)

- Tony Sandoval, Watersnakes (Magnetic/Lion Forge)

Bermejo is one of the greats, but he’s probably penalized for showing too much of Batman's batarang. Nguyen is also unbelievably gifted, and try and imagine Descender with a different artist: it moves three thousand copies and nobody notices it in a sea of sci-fi/fantasy robot comics. Descender was instead regularly the most beautiful books on the stands with textured watercolors building a gorgeous universe that was at the top of my to read pile every month.

Best Coloring

- Jordie Bellaire, Batgirl, Batman (DC); The Divided Earth (First Second); Days of Hate, Dead Hand, Head Lopper, Redlands (Image); Shuri, Doctor Strange (Marvel)

Tamra Bonvillain, Alien 3 (Dark Horse); Batman, Doom Patrol (DC); Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Multiple Man (Marvel)

- Nathan Fairbairn, Batman, Batgirl, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman Earth One, vol. 2 (DC); Die!Die!Die! (Image)

- Matt Hollingsworth, Batman: White Knight (DC): Seven to Eternity, Wytches (Image)

- Matt Wilson, Black Cloud, Paper Girls, The Wicked + The Divine (Image); The Mighty Thor, Runaways (Marvel)

This is an impossible category to handicap, but I think Bonvillain’s range wins out. Doom Patrol is so vastly different from Alien 3 or Batman, but each book’s story was greatly enhanced by her ability to match pallette to art style. Everyone here should win, but Bonvillain is doing the best work of her career and should be recognized for it.

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

- Back Issue, edited by Michael Eury (TwoMorrows)

- The Columbus Scribbler, edited by Brian Canini, Jack Wallace, Steve Steiner, and Derek Baxter

- Comicosity, edited by Aaron Long and Matt Santori, www.comicosity.com

- LAAB Magazine #0: Dark Matter, edited by Ronald Wimberley and Josh O’Neill (Beehive Books)

- PanelxPanel magazine, edited by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

We're big fans of the work done by Michael Eury on Back Issue, and TwoMorrows continues to be a delightful resource for fans of any era of comics.

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Feature Jim Dandy

Jul 14, 2019

SDCC 2019

eisner awards

DC Entertainment

Image Comics

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from Books https://ift.tt/2jUbR6M

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aghostnotaguardian-archive · 7 years ago

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ALLOW ME TO LIST MY FEELS (AGAIN) 2/2:

If anyone’s been getting a laugh outta watching me trying to beat my feelings for fictional characters into submission and failing, you might want to take a peak at this. Maybe NOW I can get some sleep. >B{

Still spoiler-heavy!

Alrighty, now that the general stuff is been taken care of, time to move on to my two favorite categories!

Lotor’s Generals (Yes they feckin’ EARNED the right to have their own category)

-In general (hmm I’ve been using that word a lot...): they’re Lotor’s four top generals (obviously) and they’re basically all the fighting power he needs to reconquer the planets recently freed by the Voltron Lions. No. No you did not read that wrong. Just the four of them are enough to crush any sizable rebellion that stands against them. They’re also ALL women, and they’re ALL at most half-Galra, they’re ALL trusted by Lotor enough to be know about his plans, and they’re all spectacular to watch on the screen (so spectacular that I’m compelled to do at least one sketch of each of them @A@). Now, onto the specifics:

-ACXA (Auxia? Axia?): She’s Lotor’s right-hand general, leader of the four, and also seems to be their science officer (wow, talk about a triple-threat). Be it in space or on the ground, with her gun or without, she’ll be tough to beat (just ask Keith and Lance), and is capable of combative acrobatics that would put Cirque du Soliel to shame. She’s very serious and no-nonsense, but there’s still hope for a bit of the Comically Serious trope (but just a bit). Possibly half-Altean due to having pointy ears and the colored pupils that Allura and Coran have.

-EZOR: Can a female villain character be cheerful AND a sheer badass? OK, Ty Lee blew that question out of the water in Avatar, but Ezor is quick to follow. She’s the group’s Spy Extraordinaire and has my favorite character design following Narti. She also shares the role of the comic foil with Zethrid, and taking on the good guys in battle always puts a smile on her face~ I love all of the generals, but if anything were to happen to Ezor in particular, I would feel the need to wreak unholy vengeance. Just a thought. @w@

-ZETHRID: The Muscle of the group. She’s always in the mood for warmongering and carnage, very occasionally to the point of comedy (”BRING THE PAIN!!”) Not that I’m complaining. I know how you feel, Zethrid. I do. Just look at 2016. She doesn’t let her blood thirst get in the way of the team, so A+ for self-control. When the group’s not on a mission, Zethrid does what many of us would do if we were there and plays with Narti’s cat. Definitely the most fun to watch~

-NARTI: She, by far, has THE Coolest character design of the crew - Lotor included (sorry, babe). She looks like a cross between Assassin’s Creed and Star Wars, that should give you a pretty good idea. She’s blind, but she has a seeing-eye gremlin-cat who also helps her out in battle (and does not like being tempted with treats, ZETHRID). She’s got a tail that if it hits you at the right angle, you will not be walking for MONTHS, and is capable of possessing people with just a touch - which, honestly, if I had that sort of power, I would need to make a quick trip to D.C. ...

And those are the badass generals...

Now, for the category I’ve been the most excited for AND dreading...

L O T O R

OK, lemme just work on the super-basic facts so I can get my defenses up:

-He’s the prince and Emperor Pro Tem of the Galra Empire, the son of Zarkon, he has his own space cruiser that he uses to travel the universe, and -

Oh God that’s all the basic information I have without going nuts NO WAIT I’M NOT READY -

OK YOU KNOW WHAT?! I NEED TO GET IN TOUCH WITH DREAMWORKS OR NETFLIX BECAUSE I GOT A BONE TO PICK WITH WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS -

This-th-this this DEVIOUS, THIS CONNIVING -

T-this so strong THIS BRUTAL. T-THIS CHARMING SNAKE-IN-THE-GRASS -

-Whispers- Beautiful~+*# -SMACK- THIS EVIL GENIUS, THIS LYING -

This...this...

If You can hear me, O Merciful Lord on High, I need H E L P.

HOW IS THAT EYE COLOR POSSIBLE IT’S BLUE AND PURPLE?!!!!!!

I -

I give up. I give up, OK? Pretty Fictional Villain Prince with Gray Morality: 1, Bru-Mun: 0. Zilch. Nada. Farewell, I say to my treacherous heart. That’s All She Wrote. Now STOP IT.

-FRUSTRATED SCREAMING-

OK, now onto the...more serious stuff.

Yes, Lotor is the temporary Emperor while Zarkon is taking a big snooze from the last season’s finale, he’s (sorta?) confirmed to be half-Galra like his generals as well as half-Altean, and...honestly, they’re making it damn hard to hate this guy, aside from the reasons I’m sure most of you have already deducted from this post.

For starters, his introduction to the series is the best I’ve seen YET. How does he come into the picture, you ask? First of all, he’s fighting a Galra gladiator THREE TIMES HIS SIZE in the area (while wearing a mask), while in the meantime two Galra commanders in the audience are talking about fighting Lotor for the throne (as well as badmouthing both him AND his generals for being half-Galra), unaware of the asskicking the mastermind, Throk, is about to receive. Lotor defeats the gladiator, then removes his helmet revealing who he is. Lotor then proceeds to point his sword right at where Throk is in the audience, and what are his very first words of the series???

“You wish to challenge me? Then come down and claim your crown!”

Yep, this badass fucker (no pun intended) just gave the guy who was trying to pull the wool over his eyes an open invitation IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE GALRA EMPIRE to try and take the throne from him through combat. Throk accepts (with a little incentive from Lotor’s generals - who were hiding in the audience right next to the guy while he was talking about stealing the throne), and Lotor beats him, AND ON TOP OF THAT, he openly points out the weaknesses in Throk fighting style throughout the fight.

After winning the match, Lotor turns his attention on the audience, which leads to his big speech they showed at SDCC about how the Empire needs to change how they rule the planets they’ve conquered, and how trying to keep the planets fighting for their freedom under their boot is a waste of energy. But how do they keep their planets from leaving, then?

Smooth af. Wait...THAT’S NOT A PUN.

It’s hard to imagine a planetary system would become loyal to the Galra after everything they’ve been through, but keep in mind one of the reasons the commanders were bad-mouthing him was because, and I quote, “He allows the planets he conquers to continue to rule themselves! Can you imagine?”

Actually, yeah, yeah I can, but you keep doing that thing imperial-based closed-minded thing you guys do. B/

So, the scene ends with the audience chanting his name (naturally). Yeah, you can say that he only said that speech to manipulate the Empire (hell, he even says that the masses are easily manipulated to his generals once they’re away from the crowd [smooth-talker], but since this is the Galra Empire we’re talking about, we’re not going to feel that badly for them), but he actually meant AT LEAST SOME of the speech he said?? We see him basically doing that same thing the commanders were bad-mouthing him for in the next episode, with the offer that the leader will never need to rely on Voltron for protection again, as shown here:

Throwmeoveryourshoulderalready.

Here’s hoping we get to see more of that gray morality in the next season. Moving on.

Lotor is a master at combat, and it’s hard to say which he’s better at fighting in space or on the ground because he’s that effing good.

He can wipe the floor with his opponents with a sword -

Oof.

And with his own fighter, which, by the way, is the coolest that I’ve seen aside from the Lions themselves.

The wINGS ROTATE. IN SPACE. HE CAN DO THOSE ART-NOVEAU SPINNING TOP FANCY LOOP-D-LOOPS IN SPACE HOW COOL IS THAT?

I wonder how it works -

Oh. Oh, that’s how. Haha, Iregreteverything.

Okay THAT LOOK ALONE SHOULD BE ILLEGAL. I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH HANDS TO FAN MYSELF OVER THIS F*CKER.

And part of what makes him a skilled combatant as well as a skilled leader is his intelligence and skills of observation. Can he see what strengths and weaknesses your particular way of fighting has and know when and where to strike based on that knowledge? YES. Was he able to see the Voltron Lions were disorganized due to having new Paladins AND a new leader and was able to lead them into a trap by luring them to a planet with extremely dense gases and would have captured them all one-by-one starting with the weakest (Allura at the time) had said space princess NOT connected with her lion? YES. Did he play them (by “them” I mean KEITH) like a fiddle in the meantime? YEAH. Was he able to lure them into ANOTHER trap during ANOTHER episode where he was able to make off with the piece of comet that Voltron had acquired? Does space have stars???

Yet, I should point out, that for all his strengths and skills, he does know how to accept when things don’t go his way - mostly probably because he knows how to turn any outcome to his advantage whether he loses a fight or chooses to retreat before it has the chance to get any worse. It’s still something I love seeing as opposed to more typical villains. One example is when Allura beats him on the gas planet by freezing one of his fighter’s wings; all Lotor gives Allura for that is a resigned, “Well-played Paladin,” before he’s forced to retreat, nary a lion in his net. Another example is after the team is FINALLY able to form Voltron in the same episode; Lotor’s ship is retreating, and his answer to Zethrid saying they should fight Voltron right then and there was that they will fight Voltron on a day they’re best prepared for (or when Voltron is LEAST prepared, or not at all). Acxa asks if the Paladins being able to form Voltron will be a problem, and Lotor’s response?

“No. An opportunity.”

Villain, thou art a Schemer AND a Devil.

khfkrhrjhfsjfhdkp STOP THAT.

Yes, Lotor is a talented combatant and leader, and he’s sharper than a brand-new set of butcher knives, with all the wickedness that comparison entails. In addition to all that, he’s as calm and collected as calm and collected villains come. Like I said before, whether his plans don’t go as well as expected or he’s in the heat of battle, it’s hard to get him riled up at all...

Except for this scene:

(Crap, hold I forgot the subtitles): “I am the leader!”

What are your secrets?

Allow me to explain.

Haggar tried to have a spy monitor Lotor’s activity, but he quickly caught on, had the spy captured, and personally threw the spy’s severed mechanical arm at Haggar’s feet. He warns Haggar to back off, to which Haggar responds that the Empire needs Lotor’s leadership, even though many ideas are floating through his head “just like [his] father.” That leads to the above scenes with Lotor making it VERY clear to Haggar that he hasn’t forgotten his role, is about to leave, and then makes it a point to actually STOP and tell Haggar of the last line. That’s when he does leave with such a look on his face that had me thinking he was trying to forget Haggar had compared him to Zarkon.

This was the ONLY scene throughout the entire season that we see such a strong emotional reaction from Lotor. Haggar had more or less jabbed her finger into a raw nerve, and now it’s got me asking questions about Lotor’s history with his family that I’m not entirely sure if I want the answer to and then I’m horrifically reminded that these are the same people who came up with ZUKO FOR CRYING OUT LOUD and DAMMIT NETFLIX THIS NEEDS TO BE ANSWERED IN SEASON 4 - FOR SCIENTIFIC REASONS.

OK, so those were my...observations on Prince Lotor. Let’s see, any final thoughts from me about him?

-He has an impossible dual eye color.

-His voice is smoother than a silk-and-satin sheet.

-I didn’t fall for him, the jerk tripped me.

I hate you. Marryme.

#voltron spoilers #Feels #More and more feels #And #meta

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