#McGuffin

[zerohirrotries]

LMK s5 Mild Spoilers

Through the season, Mk has used the word McGuffin a few times. It is just there through few episodes and it seems to be a joke.

Pigsy then makes a comment about Mk's new word.

He took Mk to a how to write seminar?! When did this happen and how?! I want to know how this happened and why Pigsy brought Mk to a seminar! Did Mk need help with writing, did he want to learn better writing skills, did Pigsy want him to attend it for some other reason, or was it an online seminar that Mk wanted to be a part of?!

[thealiviajane]

I feel like drawing another Paradoxium thingy except it's shaped more like a bent club than a shard

[silveragelovechild]

I wanted to get out of the house on Tuesday. It was discount day at the theater I frequent (Cinemark/Century chain). Even tho it has 25 screens, there was nothing new I wanted to see. (5 screens are usually devoted to films from India).

So for $6 I decided to see the new Captain America movie. Truthfully, it wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t good. It was just “eh?” I like Anthony Mackie and he is very earnest in the role. But he is a secondary character to Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross.

William Hurt originated the role Thaddeus Ross in Incredible Hulk (2008). Hurt had been diagnosed with cancer in 2018. His last appearance in the MCU was Black Widow (2021). He died in 2022.

According to Wikipedia the script for Captain America started in 2022. Was Hurt always intended to star and become the Red Hulk? I suspect that when Hurt died and Marvel was able to get Harrison Ford to sign on, and the role of Thunderbolt Ross expanded. So much so that the Cap4 focuses primarily him, even giving him a redemptive arc.

Ross is now president, trying to settled a treaty regarding Celestial Island in the Indian Ocean. It’s a dangling plot thread from Eternals (2021). If the script for Cap4 started development the same year, perhaps Kevin Feige thought Celestial Island would be a relevant plot point. But Eternals was the second worst reviewed (47% RT score) MCU movie and didn’t even break even. As far as I’m aware, Celestial Island hadn’t been mentioned in any of the other Marvel movies or TV show.

I’ve seen the comment online that Marvel Studios shouldn’t have revealed the Red Hulk as the main villain in all the marketing. I agree. The Red Hulk only appears in the final portion of the movie, tho Ross’ tempter is hinted at earlier. Actually, the movie feels over when the Celestial Island conflict ends (Captain America prevents a war with Japan).

So of course there’s another battle, this time in Washington DC where the President destroys the White House. (Well, the movie was prescient about that!). Speaking of the White House, did anyone think that Xosha Roquemore who played President Ross’ aide looks exactly like Omarosa Manigault, former contestant of Trump’s The Apprentice?!?

Earlier the main villain was revealed to be Samuel Sterns, a secondary character from Incredible Hulk (who had been trying to create a cure for Bruce Banner - Edward Norton). He had some of Banner’s blood splashed in his face. And I think it hinted some kind of transformation had begun. (In the comics Sterns is a Hulk villain called the Leader.)

Sterns had been kept prisoner by Thaddeus Ross since 2008 and forced to develop a cure for Ross’s heart condition. The cure turned out to be pills laced with gamma radiation. The entire plot was Stern’s an elaborate plan to discredit Ross.

There was also a third villain played by Giancarlo Esposito. Online articles suggest he was added in reshoots. He was insignificant and mostly there to deliver exposition. When he was caught he threats Mackie, “Better watch out, if I ever escape prison…”. Maybe we’ll see that in the MCU 17 years.

There was one plot point I thought was strange. In the first act Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson insisted that Isaiah Bradley (played by Carl Lumbly) attend a presidential event hosted by Ross. Yet we are told that Ross was responsible for illegally imprisoning and experimenting on Bradley for 30 years. Really? In this case Sam Wilson was utterly clueless. (If you didn’t do your MCU homework, Bradley was introduced in Disneyplus’ Falcon and the Winter Soldier.)

The McGuffin of the movie is Adamantium which we all know is the indestructible metal that was fused to Wolverine’s bones. (Hopefully we wont have to wait another 17 years for the next X-Men movie!)

Apparently Celestial Island is made out of Adamantium, which is why the world governments are fighting over the island. Speaking of the island. It was shown during an aerial battle with Cap. It didn’t remotely look like a real object - just a painted backdrop. Other special CGI involved numerous fights Why do henchmen attack the hero one at a time? Why do they use shock sticks when other more deadly weapons would be more effective?

Other online comments said the CGI was bad. I think the worst was Red Hulk’s fight with cap taking place where cherry blossoms bloom. They broke up concrete also looked like a painting, not real objects.

Incidentally 5 people get screen writing credit.

[maxfosterstudio]

"In front of you stands the McGuffin. Grab it."

Did you know that I have a maze that you can play in your browser for free on itch.io? Made in bitsy, it's a fun little experience!

Play for free!

Game music:  Masquerade by Jack Hylton and his Orchestra

MAXFOSTERSTUDIO on Itch.io

[mikhaelidea]

Tsukihana Kagura and Mcguffin ate my brain everything hurts it's been 4 years but it's still a lot to take in

Now let's combine that with Jiaoqiu's backstory (i'm so sorry mori)

Alternative version:

[imthefailedartist]

Forced, Spy Movie.

Argylle would benefit from a $150 million budget chop. Same cast, I thought they were great (Except the handsome train dude and the henchman carl(os?). I could not tell them apart.)

They're going to make like four or five more of these. Dear God, help us. This felt like forced fun. It feels like having to laugh at someone's constant unfunny jokes. I fell asleep through so much of it, but I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything or that I had missed out on something.

I should've known something was up when the trailers were all vastly different. I didn't even know about the actual tie-in book attempt until I went to the bookstore a week ago and saw it.

The whole rollout for this movie has been weird. Why does this need to be tied to books that aren't real? Why was the cat so important? I'm going to assume I slept through the reveal that the McGuffin was attached to its collar.

Why does a small, small-town bookshop have endless mint condition leather chairs? I could hardly focus on the scene because where are they getting the money for every reading event attendee to have their own leather chair?

Dua Lipa's wig! They didn't just wanna brush it?

I was hoping the cat was going to be the actual spy.

Explain the whirlybird thing and why it's supposed to be funny.

This movie and Rebel Moon have the same energy. You're telling me everything to come and not putting any energy into the thing you're actively making. These are very obvious cash grabs.

[sluttyquarantinetheory]

I think more mcguffins in narratives should be extremely mundane. Less world ending magical glow cubes more looking for a guitar strings while stranded in a far off galaxy. More trying to find the last copy of shrek in the post apocalypse. Give me a road trip movie about someone leaving their hometown to visit the bass proshop mega store pyramid.

[wee-toe]

Sausage Egg McGuffin x

[cephalosporine]

Me trying to write a story:

1) Finding compelling short-term motives and snippet scenes for the characters I want to inhabit my world. Knowing their core values and how they would interact with the world

2) Asking myself how I can get them to certain moments and what their overarching goal in the story would be given their upbringing

3) Realising why McGuffins are so important and (ironically) desperately trying to find one for my story

[hockeywebcomics]

Burritos + tacos + big plans

Trace your destiny

Ferda Boys is a webcomic series about hockey. It follows the lives of junior hockey players in countryside Ontario.

Ferda Boys also has its very own soundtrack, a music composed by @gunwallace, to whom I’m forever grateful. You can check it in my Soundcloud account.

[kathylbrownwrites]

40 Nickels: A Book Review Renew

Book Review Renew at the Storytelling Blog--40 Nickels: A Carnegie Finch Mystery Fiasco. Fun romp through 1950s Toronto as Finch fulfills his PI dream investigating a weird cult.

40 Nickels: A Carnegie Finch Mystery Fiasco from Shotgun Honey, an imprint of Down-and-Out Books. I’ve reviewed many books for this blog, some from the early days, when I had fewer readers. This year (2024), we’ll be rerunning reviews you may have missed. This review was first published on July 9, 2020. Recently, I had the opportunity to review 40 Nickels: A Carnegie Finch Mystery Fiasco for…

[thealiviajane]

This is essentially what this strange fictional gemstone may have looked in the universe I'm making up for a particular story I want to work on in the future.

It is called a Paradoxium.

Basically a vibrant stone with a face

General Story/Backstory

Paradoxium is a substance that can drastically effect things in so many ways that most simply can't count.

Once discovered by now-transmutated interns in the Cybernian Allegiance, it is rumoured to be linked to the sudden rise in poltergeists and unnatural monsters given its appearance looks similar to certain poltergeists.

While the effects are unpredictable and scary, parts of it can flake off, which can risk spreading chaos.

One case is Clyde Rockirogue who unfortunately realised it was infused with an arcade machine in Eastern Cybernia, off by a beach from where his old job was. This had resulted in him mutating into what looked to be a mascot for the Ridley Rascal cabinet.

These events have also led to several places shutting down, Papa Linguine's especially as it was overridden by mold monsters and the recently formed Mozzerellis disease.

As years go by with several reports of hauntings and hilariously wacky viruses, the Cybernian Allegiance has finally gotten a use for paradoxium, which happened to be portals... Albeit with those entering said portals experiencing a scrambled mind-swap between different personalities. They've perfected this by finding a way to protect themselves using magic as part of their collaboration with the Arcanian Council.

However, those mutated with paradoxium flakes will still experience these mind swaps.

[literarywizard]

Sometimes, You Gotta Take A Little Risk

Today's flash fiction was inspired by an idle thought that popped in my self-talk while I was trying to decide if I should write this when I did or give up on it for the day. I apologize for absolutely nothing.

Galbret stepped up to the off-color wall panel and pressed a hand to it. “Do you really think no one knows about this passage?” “Yes.” Galbret tried to focus his hearing on the door, but Xendin’s pacing, heeled boots clicking on the stone floor, made it impossible to hear anything. “Just hush for a minute.” Xendin stopped pacing and rolled their eyes at Alesi, but her back was turned as she…

[lukedrawzstuff]

Hi I'm the friend surprise

Evil giggle

for my murder drone fans (there ain’t many but I know there are some)

Me and my friend had made a Tessa au where she survived and such. Yes this is a way of coping, I will never recover after knowing my pure baby Australian girl was dead all along..

oh, and lemme know if you guys wanna hear the lore about it and stuff!! :))

[cologona]

Justice League Dark-esque story where Jason is the inexplicable non-magic Bat character seemingly inserted into the story for no good reason. Then 2/3rds of the way through the plot Constantine pulls Jason’s very swordy soul out of his chest Utena-style.

[genericpuff]

Something I realized with Lore Olympus is why the Fates were not used more. After the Queen Persephone reveal, at least from my memory, they are never mentioned again. Even with their actual mythology being very significant to the lives of the God's, especially Zesus. Like, a lot of problems would have not happened or could be done better if the fates came into play.

the trial arc would have definitely gone down a lot differently if Rachel bothered to use the Fates LMAO i mean they literally have everything recorded on tapes, they would be a prosecutor's dream come true 😭