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tsuki-sennin · 3 years ago

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Mina-san, bonne lecture~! (Tsuki recaps his feelings about Kamen Rider Saber, a personal essay.)

So, Saber... what a wild ride it's been, huh? Just a quick heads up, this is very long and rambling, and also contains spoilers for everything in Saber. It's fine if you don't wanna read all this, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there.

TL:DR, Kamen Rider Saber's an undercooked hot mess I absolutely adore, warts and all.

Speaking as objectively as possible, it's a 6/10. Probably closer to a 5 than a 7... it's not great: All the different plot elements are cluttered and weirdly paced; character focus is disjointed and clearly biased toward certain characters, leaving great ones like Kento and Ogami, interesting ones like Kamijo and Hayato, and underdeveloped ones like Sophia and especially the Shindais in the dust; not to mention its balance of comedy and drama is off, and while both are very effective, there's a lot of mood whiplash that can take you out of the story. I also feel like a lot of the easily avoidable character conflict could've been easily resolved, even in universe, by simple conversations. Be careful Fukuda, I think Inoue might sue you if he finds out you've been biting his style and doing it worse.

Rider shows have a very frustrating tendency to drop cool form ideas and not do anything with them, and I don't think it's ever been more the case than with Saber. There's a similar argument to be made with the majority of Heisei Phase 2 after Gaim, but wow. The suits are expensive to make without just straight up recycling everything, I get that, but man, I really wanted to see more Wonder Rider forms. How come Touma got all the fun, eh? Of note are the Blades King of Arthur forms (which look amazing by the way), Espada's Jaaku Dragon forms (one of which I even drew last night), even the non-elemental random Wonder Ride Books all have awesome design elements that go tragically unused. Even if the other Swordsmen just kinda have the ones they do get to use slapped onto them, that's at least something. Touma also just straight up only uses Diago Speedy twice and never again. You have cool props guys, don't waste them like that!

Speaking of waste, Espada, goddamn. Since most of the Wonder Ride Books are Story Type and he needs one very specific Story Book to transform, he doesn't get much of... anything, really! No Wonder Rider forms like Blades, Lamp Do Cerberus being exclusive to Ganbarizing, only getting to use the Ride Gatriker like once, he even spends the second and third arcs as a completely different Rider, then once he comes back he doesn't get a King of Arthur-granted upgrade or even a Necrom Espada form. ...at least, not yet anyway. I'm holding out hope for Espada x Necrom and the eventual Saber V-Cinemas. Extra Rider stans, we will be well respected someday.

The Unreal Engine CGI used for fights in early Chapters was pretty good but wow it feels disconnected and they really drop it quick. I feel like if the animators had more freedom to use as many forms as they want, we'd have gotten a lot more mileage out of the books beyond... decoration basically. I actually really liked the CGI sequences, they felt creative and were fun to follow along with.

The soundtrack is pretty great on its own and conveys what it needs to, but they seriously overplay the orchestral themes. It honestly feels kind of... stock at times. I think my favorite parts of the score are when it winds down, since it feels a lot more natural and lets the cinematographers and actors speak for themselves.

As awesome as I think Falchion's design and the Mumeiken Kyomu are, The Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin comes up short as its own standalone thing. You'd think 30 or so minutes of non-stop action would be awesome, and it almost is? It's as good as a typical episode of the series with a higher action budget, but it kinda drags on a bit too long; and although I think Emotional Dragon looks cool, it feels a bit tacked on. Coming off of the incredible Zero-One REAL×TIME, it doesn't give you much room to breathe, which Rider films are typically great at handling. I also thought the resolution for the kid's subplot was kinda forced. He does an okay job at acting considering his age and doesn't overstay his welcome, but I really don't see how 20 minutes of violence and action is enough to convince him to be brave enough to go play with the other kids. 5/10, it's closer to a 4 than a 6 and I think that maybe Zero-One should've stood on its own if they really had to push back Kiramager Bee-Bop Dream because of the pandemic.

Alright, with all that said... As imperfect and undercooked Saber was, like Ghost I can consider it a personal favorite, 10/10. Call it a guilty pleasure if you want, but holy hell it's just the show I needed. Takuro Fukuda has a talent for creating fun, wonderful characters and utterly fascinating worldbuilding and concepts. It's a shame he doesn't utilize them fully, but hey!

The action and fight choreography are pretty top notch as usual. Lots of beautiful shot composition and set pieces, and plenty of great angles to help keep up with the extra busy action. I love watching the suit actors perform and they deserve all the respect in the world for their hard work in those hot, sweaty, and heavy costumes. Their visual design is also top notch, with lots of unique and fascinating forms and cool weapons I desperately want to play with despite being broke, all with spectacular finishers and hype jingles with the voice of Akio motherfucking Ohtsuka calling them out. A real feast for the eyes. Not a single bad suit among them, yeah I said it, fight me.

The crossover specials are soooo good too.

-I went over my feelings on the Zenkaiger crossover episodes in a separate post (good luck finding that btw), but to sum it up, they were great character moments for Zox and the Shindai siblings with lots of great screwball comedy and some good old fashioned meta humor.

-The Ghost crossovers are great little side stories all about how Daitenku Temple somehow had the Ghost Ijunroku Wonder Ride Book? I genuinely have no idea why it was there, or how Makoto had the Specter Gekikou Senki, and as far as I remember neither of their origins are explained. Did Luna or Tassel hand them off to them and told them to wait for a sword guy? And why do these generic French Revolution Gamma villains working for Danton get their asses handed to them so easily by Kanon, who literally just became a Rider? I thought that Makoto deciding to adopt all the Kanon clones into his family was both hilarious and adorable though; considering all the crap they went through, I think it was a good ending to this plot. Gimme Espada x Necrom already Toei/Bandai/Fukuda/whoever I need to yell at, give Kento things to do, I beg you.

-I haven't actually seen Super Hero Senki since it's not available for subbing yet, but apparently there's a Journey to the West plot starring the Taros and Ohma Zi-O and I want to see that so badly.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra? Yoohei Kawakami? A match made in heaven, that's what they are. All of their themes are absolute bangers. All of them. Almighty, Kamen Rider Saber, Sparks, Taju Rokou, all excellent and empowering pieces. Rewrite the Story, Will Save Us, and The Story Never Ends are all amazing inserts done by the cast, and it makes me wish we had even more of them to help break up the monotony of the score.

The characters are what easily make this show such a great watch though. For the most part, they have great personalities and chemistry, consistently fun and interesting scenes, well acted and... sometimes well-written development, and deeply investing personal stakes.

Narrating it all is the delightfully eccentric Tassel/Viktor, portrayed by Romanesque Ishitobi "TOBI" of the Paris-based Les Romanesques. I was utterly confused by his presence at first, wondering why there needed to be a narrator when the story would've been perfectly fine without it. He even got a special spot in the opening despite having no stake in the plot despite seeming to live in Wonderworld, who the hell is this guy? But then I thought "OH MY GOD, HE'S THE MAIN VILLAIN USING TOUMA AS THE HERO IN HIS OWN TWISTED STORY, THE BASTARD". I thought it'd be some subversion of expectations, true form, "That Was His Mistake!" shit. Trust me, it made a lot more sense in my head. I'm very happy that they didn't do that, as I grew to love having male Yuuka Kazami as my narrator, and when he was shown to be actually important by being friends with Yuri my mind was blown. And doubly so when I realized just how deeply necessary to the plot he really is.

Rintaro/Blades is up there as one of my all time favorite secondary Riders, since his curiosity is always consistently funny and adorable, his forms are all gorgeous and impressively designed, his relationships with Mei and Touma are absolutely sweet and compelling to see unfold, and his arcs about becoming willing to call out those he views as family and coming to terms with his feelings of inadequacy and both moving past and using them to strengthen himself are always great lessons to pass on to kids. ...even if they took like 10 goddamn episodes to be conveyed in what could've been 5, but hey, Takaya Yamaguchi does a stand-up job all throughout. Rider veteran Eitoku's refined, almost logical movements with the Suiseiken Nagare absolutely beautiful to see in action, and his final form having the same white and blue color scheme as Zooous's base form is an amazing touch I don't see appreciated enough.

Mei Sudo's also absolutely wonderful, serving as the perfect emotional core of the story, responsible for most of the funniest lines, sweetest character moments, and some of the most deceptively compelling drama. Asuka Kawazu brings the perfect energy for such a dynamic and well rounded character, and absolutely nails her scenes of quiet turmoil. As much as I would've loved her to become a Rider, I don't think she really needed to. She's already done so much to help, and as cool as it would've been to see her pick up a sword and fight alongside them as Espada, Calibur, or Falchion she's already endeared herself to me as one of my favorite supporting characters in the whole franchise.

I can't get enough of my homeboy Kento Fukamiya/Espada. Like Rintaro and everyone else for that matter, he also suffers from Saber's pacing issues; and like his predecessor Valkyrie from Zero-One, he doesn't get a proper upgrade aside from his Wonder Combo, instead becoming an anti-villain using a completely different powerset and shifting the Raimeiken Ikazuchi out of focus for the Ankokuken Kurayami, and I feel there's a serious missed opportunity to see him use Jaaku Dragon with Alangina. However, Ryo Aoki's performance is probably among the most easily praiseworthy in the whole cast, managing to convey both Kento's kind and knightly stoicism as Espada and his emotionally unstable despair as Calibur perfectly, in conjunction with Yuji Nakata's experienced and expressive stuntwork.

Ren Akamichi/Kenzan's a dark horse favorite for sure. I remember back when Saber was first picking up, people hated this breezy mad lad for being such a simple character at first. Overly concerned with strength? Black and white world view? Annoyingly energetic? Agh, real-feeling character flaws, I hate them, get him away from me! But then y'all came crawling back. Eiji Togashi's apparently a bit of a rookie actor, and it really shows with some stilted delivery and the way he sometimes bobs his head when giving his lines, but man he improves dramatically as the series goes on. His inexperience ironically ends up really selling his character development, and his unexpectedly beautiful relationship with Desast is special evidence of that. The Fuusouken Hayate's three modes and Satoshi Fujita putting them to excellent use through his stellar acrobatic movements are also really cool.

Why did Luna have to be a child for so long? Does Wonderworld not age whoever inherits its power? Well since Luna randomly becomes an adult in Super Hero Senki and some of the final episodes, I guess so? Miku Okamoto does a fine job for a kid actor, but she's basically done all the heavy lifting for the whole series and doesn't give Mayuu Yokota enough time to get a feel for her character as an adult. How did she choose Touma to inherit the power anyway? Does she just subconsciously decide to trust him with it upon seeing how kind and passionate about storytelling he is? Well if that's the case, why didn't Kento get at least some of that power too? He's just as important to the merchan- I mean Luna-chan, isn't he? Why did Tassel pick her over someone who isn't a literal child who'd be understandably terrified about basically becoming an embodiment of storytelling?

Sophia also kinda suffers from the same problems. Rina Chinen's voice is very pleasant to listen to, but she doesn't really do much beyond serving as a source of exposition and support. I think her dynamic with Mei's adorable, and given her kindness I can certainly understand the respect Northern Base has for her, but she doesn't really contribute a whole lot. If she could use the Kurayami and become Calibur all this time, then why didn't she take it from Kento and Yuri and do so earlier when Kento decided to go back to being Espada? I know she's not much of a fighter and as the closet thing the Sword of Logos has to a leader after Isaac's death I'd understand not wanting to put her at risk, but considering Storious is destroying the world, and she's very evidently kicking a lot of ass in the first part of the final battle even in the basic Jaaku Dragon form, I think it would've helped a lot, just sayin'. Tassel at least has the excuse of being unable to interact with the real world, but Sophia obviously didn't just be put in charge of Northern Base just because she's a pawn in Isaac's plans right?

Ryou Ogami/Buster is also a victim of the disjointed character focus. I have no problem believing he's an excellent father and fighter thanks to Yuki Ikushima and Jiro Okamoto, respectively, but he feels a bit flat and simple in comparison. His rivalry with Desast is randomly dropped, his wife doesn't even show up until the final episodes, he's kinda sidelined in terms of action a whole lot. I imagine that must've sucked for the Rider Dads out there. He does get to star in his own manga, and that was pretty good, so I guess I can't be too mad.

Tetsuo Daishinji/Slash fares better though. Hiroaki Oka, being a Kamen Rider fanboy himself, manages to make him among the most relatable characters in the series. Not only are his hyperfixation on swordsmithing and anxiety played surprisingly believably, Hirotsugu Mori letting him cut loose is extremely cathartic and hilarious, and you really feel for him when the Onjuuken Suzune becomes the first victim of Calibur!Kento's sword sealing.

Yuri/Saikou's another dark horse favorite, for me at least. "Oh great, Avalon guy's got even more merchandise to sell, I wonder what his Sword of Light is- it's himself. Well... that's different." I admit, I didn't like him at first. He felt like he was there to fill out character dynamics in the absence of both Rintaro and Kento, I thought his gimmick was too silly even if his design and jingles were bangers, I didn't particularly care for his power set. But then XSwordman came around I totally got it. He's an endearing, hard-working man trying his best to catch up on all the cool shit he missed, unafraid of experimentation, ready to throw down at a moment's notice, serving as a wonderful bit of consistent support for our heroes, a truly knightly individual, an absolute Chad. and goddamn does he make me worry. Tomohiro Ichikawa, I salute you good sir.

Even if they fall short compared to the rest of the cast, the Shindai siblings are at least cool enough to not wanna write out entirely. They kinda devolve into comic relief after they become allies, something that villainous Riders from Chase onwards are very prone to doing, and it's especially awkward in their case because I think that they kinda get off scot-free for obeying the obviously sinister and crazy Isaac for so long, as well as driving a wedge between a lot of people and threatening children in Reika's case. I think their sibling dynamic is nice though, even if Fukuda recycled it from Makoto and Kanon and has some... questionable possessive undertones as a result. It's cool how they're basically foils to Touma and Rintaro though. The dispassionate and methodical Reika/Sabela is beautifully played by Angela Mei and her moments of emotional depth are fascinating to watch. Her Rider form is a thing of beauty, and its use of literal the Eneiken Noroshi's smokescreens and Yuki Miyazawa's precise and deadly stinging strikes are a joy to watch. And while Ken Shonozaki's not given the best direction as the undercooked plate of 7-Eleven fried fish that is Ryoga/Durendal, he manages to sell him as an experienced and hardened warrior with an awkward side that's especially evident in the Zenkaiger specials. His goddamn RWBY weapon that is the Jikokuken Kaiji is absolutely sick, I'm a sucker for transforming weapons and its combination of time and water powers is really cool, especially with Yasuhiko Amai's deliberate and forceful acting in the suit.

Daichi Kamijo/the Second Calibur, for as brief as his story was, was a pretty cool starter villain. Hiroyuki Hirayama brings this poor bastard to life in a genuinely touching way. I love how as Calibur he goes full force on his creative use of Wonder Ride Books for attacks, and his debut as Jaou Dragon got my blood pumping. His end is also deeply tragic, and I really felt for him when he realized just how badly he fucked up. Hayato Fukamiya also does wonders for the backstory, and while he also doesn't get much to work with, Mitsuru Karahashi makes his regrets and love for Kento feel genuine.

Legeiel and Zooous are both very intimidating and entertaining villains. On top of being just the right balance of goofy and threatening, Kairu Takano and Koji Saikawa's stage presences are both very strong, and their mixture of camaraderie and in-fighting is extremely believable. Zooous's rivalry with Rintaro feels incredible to see through to the end, and although Legeiel doesn't get quite the same treatment, Elemental Dragon had such a cool debut that it more than makes up for it. Their final fights are also absolute spectacles. I don't think their sympathetic angle works even close to as well as it does with MetsubouJinrai or even the Gamma, but I get it, power corrupts, and you probably feel a lot of sadness and regret for things you've done when you die unless you're a right bastard.

Isaac/Master Logos/Solomon is kinda generic. As wonderful as Keisuke Soma is, he doesn't get much dimension to work with. The result of that is while he nails being as smug and punchable as possible, he feels almost... comically generic. Genta Umemori from Shinkenger was full of personality! He was also basically some guy, but he was fun, he felt connected to the rest of the cast! Meanwhile the only real time we get to see Isaac's depth is when we see him crying over his failures. I almost appreciate him being unapologetically evil though, since I've seen way too many shows where redeemed villains get off scot free for way worse things, and some where they outright demand you to sympathize with them despite them doing nothing to warrant it.

Bahato/Falchion surprises me by not just being a movie villain whose actions affect the main plot, but also being a movie villain who actually gets to appear in series as a recurring threat! ...and it's not a particularly great showing on his part, sadly. Masashi Taniguchi does a wonderful job with what he's given, but his character feels like a retread of Eternal without any of what made Katsumi Daido a compelling and frightening villain. I'd like to believe Yuri when he says that he used to be a good person and a hero to the people, but I can only hear so many anime villain monologues about the pointlessness of life and the beauty of destruction before I can never take them seriously again. ...I think that's his biggest problem, actually. I thought he was an overall uninteresting and generic villain in the movie, and the cartoon nihilist he's shown to be in series is only a small step up. He still feels like filler. If only there were a far better written and much cooler villain who takes on the Mumeiken Kyomu after his de--

Desast is probably one of the finest anti-villains I've ever seen in recent years. On top of an absolutely badass character design and the excellent combination of Kazuya Okada/Danki Sakae's suit work and Koki Uchiyama's stellar voice acting, his story being so thoroughly intertwined with Ren's makes their shared journey and bromance a borderline Shakespearean tragedy. His struggle for identity despite Storious treating him as nothing more than a failed experiment and the Sword of Logos treating him as a mere monster really gripped me, and the way he uses what little time he has left to encourage Ren into blossoming on his own is absolutely beautiful. I think his enmity with Ogami is criminally underexplored in series, considering he killed several of the previous Riders and how Ogami's in desperate need of screentime.

Then there's our main villain, Kamen Rider Storious. Robin Furuya brings an incredible amount of charisma to this character, expertly portrayed as both a sinister, manipulative bastard , and as a lonely, tragic figure that arguably makes him feel even more villainous. Speaking as a struggling writer myself, it's easy to feel stuck in the idea of "fuck it, who cares, maybe everything is predestined", but I can't imagine what it's like to know that as the truth and carry it with you for all that time. All of your grand ideas have roots from your experiences, and you're not the only one who even could have those experiences. It's easy to just fall into despair and give up trying, but would that make you happy? Sure, Storious is sadistic, he may be fulfilling his goals, he may be ungodly powerful... but it's not enough for him, is it? All of his friends are gone, one of them even at his own hand, he probably doesn't have any idea what to do after he destroys all the world's stories, Touma even reached his full power before he did, and his downfall is so predictable that even a blind person could see it. He even seems to welcome it, what's up with that? But then I realized... OH MY GOD, HE'S THE MAIN VILLAIN USING TOUMA AS THE HERO IN HIS OWN TWISTED STORY, THE BASTARD. He's so far gone, he's so desperate to stick it to the Almighty Book, he's willing to twist the archetype of the Hero's Journey so hard, it snaps in two. What I think is interesting is that he's ironically trying to chase the trend of "edgy superhero story" that became super popular in the 21st century. The Boys, Brightburn, Kamen Rider Amazons, The Sentry, No More Heroes, Magical Girl Site, even mainstream comics from DC and Marvel... Surely Storious must've seen the cruelty and tragedy these stories are filled with, but he chooses to go through with trying to force the world into this direction anyway. Did they, along with seeing the ever-popular tragedies of legendary playwrights and bleak satire of the twentieth century fuel his despair?

And yet... there's one who stands in determination against his ideals.

Our hero, Touma Kamiyama, the titular Kamen Rider portrayed by Syuichiro Naito and Kousuke Asai, he speaks to me on a personal level. There're plenty of jokes to be made about his procrastination in early chapters, his godless fashion sense, and him doing the funny run up the slope, that's all fine and dandy, but I rarely feel so connected to a character the way I did Touma. The struggle to create, find companionship, live your life, reach out to others... these're things a lot of people struggle with, and of course you see them depicted a lot in media about creators, but Saber gets to the root of what the greatest thing about storytelling really is. Giving people hope, while using the pain of the past as fuel for the future. Sure, Storious may be right about how every story has been done as far back as human civilization gets, he may even be right about how any spin or creativity humanity has is outright predestined. It should be pointless to even try, right? That's where Touma Kamiyama disagrees. He didn't spend all that time fighting and creating just to give up at the idea of predestination. His novel writing-fueled creativity in his early training, his devotion to his friends that let him surpass Kamijo as Dragonic Knight, his compassion for the Primitive Dragon that let him combine their powers to destroy Legeiel as Elemental Dragon, his resolve that let Xross Saber dethrone Solomon, and his passion for the craft of storytelling that let our heroes channel their wishes into Wonder Almighty... all stemming from the belief imparted onto him by his predecessor that "Hope lies beyond your resolution." And that you decide how your story ends. He may not be the greatest Rider to some, he may be as lame as others think he is, he may not even be my favorite, but I have no issue calling Touma Kamiyama... Kamen Rider Saber, one of the all time greatest carriers of the Kamen Rider name.

The final chapter's definitely not as great as some other Rider finales, but goddamn. Primitive Dragon consciously choosing to save Touma is so sweet and such a great emotional payoff, I loved jamming out to the opening theme while our boys lay the smackdown on Storious. Wonder Almighty's a fitting final bit to close the main series out with, if not exactly a great one. I think the cover is great, and the book's body is a lovely shade of candy apple red, but I really don't like how its pages are just the covers of the other books copy-pasted onto onto the pages, that feels lazy. Maybe if it were a panorama of all the books' characters, I'd like it a lot more as a symbol of how unified the Swordsmen are, but eh, what can you do? On a related note, does this mean all the "last episode extra final forms" of the Reiwa Era are gonna be named after their series's opening? That's a neat idea.

I felt a lot of feelings seeing all those video messages of Rider fans all across Japan talking about their favorite stories, and how their passion and fond memories help reshape the world. Mei's monologue at the ceremony about is also really touching and- IS THAT A HUMAGEAR!? :O

Y-yeah dude, it is! Wow, where have you guys been for the past 48 episodes?! Are you guys doing okay? How come you're like... the only one here? Is the technology of Hiden Intelligence only really that prevalent in that very specific metropolitan part of Japan and they're just not coming around much over here? Is it like Dragon Ball where anthropomorphic animals are just vibin' with humans while the heroes are off kicking ass? Apparently he's played by Hasegawa Keiichi, who wrote this episode and had the award ceremony named after him. ...is Hasegawa Keiichi a HumaGear in this universe then? Did he set up this award ceremony in Touma's honor? If so, why is it named after him? Did reading one of Touma's books lead to his Singularity? I know this is just a cameo, but... god, I have so many questions that probably will never be satisfactorily answered.

Overall, if I had to compare Saber to anything, it'd probably be Sam Reimi's Spider-Man trilogy. It's awkward, stupid, overwrought, undercooked, illogically written, scattershot, cheesy as fuck, and has a tendency to squander its otherwise fine execution; but the sheer passion for storytelling, sense of spectacle, deeply fascinating characters, and belief in the ideals set forth by the cast, crew, and fans are absolutely admirable. Improvements would certainly make it an overall better experience, to be sure, but there's something deeply captivating about how wonky this series is. Seeing everybody get their happy ending after all they've been through felt extremely gratifying though, and I may have to wait another for the epilogue to and then wait for Revice, but... man. I'm hella proud of our awkwardly-emoting, fashion disaster novelist and all of his heavily flawed friends for carrying the Kamen Rider name on to the future. Here's hoping Revice will keep it going.

Alright, that's everything I wanted to talk about. Sorry this was so long and ramble-y, I had a lot to say. I'll probably be liveblogging Revice as episodes of that come out, so... look forward to that, I guess. See ya.

#kamen rider saber #long post #tsuki talks #personal #kamen rider #whew #ok bye have a nice day

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dweemeister · 4 years ago

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Movie Odyssey Retrospective

Cinderella (1950)

In the first few decades of Walt Disney Productions’ (now Walt Disney Animation Studios) existence, the studio veered perilously between periods of feast and famine. The success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Dumbo (1941), and the modestly-budgeted films of the package era kept the studio afloat despite Walt Disney’s occasionally disastrous business instincts and rotten luck due to World War II cutting off European audiences. With WWII concluded, Disney’s propaganda commitments to the federal government and tightened budgets were no more. With the exception of the aftermath from the release of The Black Cauldron (1985), the studio’s survival has not been seriously endangered since. That is in large part because of the gamble that is Cinderella, directed by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wilfred Jackson.

Any rebirth for Disney animated features depended on Cinderella’s success. Not since Dumbo had so much been riding on one of the studio’s movies – especially now as Walt was dividing his attention between animation, live-action features, television, a preliminary plan to build a small play park, and collaborating with the FBI to root out suspected communists at his own studio. More later on Cinderella’s legacy (I think you, the reader, have an idea about what happened to the Disney studios after this), but the film was the fifth highest-grossing movie in North American theaters that year, ahead of Born Yesterday and behind Cheaper by the Dozen and Annie Get Your Gun. In various ways, Cinderella is among the most important movies in the Disney animated canon, even if it does little to nothing to elevate animation in cinema and contains issues that have metastasized in subsequent Disney animated features.

Decades before the Disney name became synonymous with fairy tales and princesses, the writing team assigned to Cinderella used Snow White as their template on this film. The opening minutes of Cinderella share much of Snow White’s alchemy: the opening of an ornate storybook, an orphaned young woman whose lot in life is to be a rag-wearing scullery maid, that same woman singing about dreams to an audience of animals that instinctively know of her kindness. What starts off too similarly like the second coming of Snow White then descends into an overstretched sequence of the animals’ tomfoolery (half the film is dedicated to the animals’ hijinks!).

Cinderella’s animals, unlike those in Snow White, are fully anthropomorphic – they wear clothes, converse with Cinderella in their high-pitched squeak-talking, tiptoe around the obviously villainous cat named Lucifer, and make fools of themselves to entertain the youngest set. In the opening minutes, Cinderella squanders its serviceable musical opening for vapid hilarity as it unlearns the lessons that began with Snow White and reached its apotheosis with Bambi (1942). In works where animals live alongside humans, animal side characters serving as comic relief are most effective and timeless when they behave like animals, not humans. Disney’s animated canon has been hampered by this development – one codified by Cinderella and, in its foulest iterations in recent decades (e.g. 2005′s Chicken Little), originates from commercial, not artistic, decision-making. The excessive screentime for the animals in the film’s opening third and especially the heavily gender-coded dialogue and behavior by the mice – “Leave the sewing to the women!” – is enough to eject Cinderella from the upper echelons of the Disney animated canon.

In my review to Snow White, I wrote that the writing of female characters in Disney’s animated canon films reflects the writers’ understanding of gendered roles in their respective times. Cinderella expressly looked to Snow White for inspiration after two decades where the Great Depression and World War II upended traditional gender norms. In the 1930s and ‘40s, thousands of American women found themselves in traditionally male occupations, altering – if only for a time – popular beliefs about what might be considered masculine or feminine behavior. Over in Burbank at the Disney studios, its departments were segregated by gender (its ink and paint department was solely staffed by women, and there were no significant clusters of women elsewhere in the studio) – insulating it from this phenomenon.

As if foreshadowing the gender-conforming atmosphere of the 1950s, it should not be a surprise that Cinderella cannot envision women beyond a vessel for marriage or a homemaker. With an eye towards a prince to sweep her away from her stepmother and stepsisters, an interesting protagonist Cinderella does not make. And with Cinderella not showcasing as much of her personality as Snow White did, she feels far more inert as a character than her predecessor. However, comparable to Snow White, Cinderella’s life has been one of deprivation and a lack of healthy human interaction – one without quarter, love from others. Knowing little else about life beyond her scullery duties, it is easy to see why she holds such retrograde beliefs for her own salvation.

Cinderella’s rough beginning is nevertheless the prelude to its visual wonderment. The visuals in animated feature films are the collaborative work of hundreds – credited or otherwise – of animators, background artists, character designers, painters, inbetweeners, cinematographers, and more. Sometimes, one particular artist wields an influence that extends across an entire feature. In the correct set of circumstances, they set an aesthetic that alters the artistic direction of animated films for an entire national film industry or a single studio. For Cinderella, its visual beauty is set by its backgrounds. Tyrus Wong’s background art defined Bambi a decade earlier; here, it is Mary Blair’s work that defines Cinderella.

Blair, a modernist whose style fit the films at United Productions of America (UPA; a breakaway studio which was founded by striking Disney animators) better than Disney, had been working at the studio since 1940. She worked through the package films era and on two live-action/animation hybrids in Song of the South (1946) and So Dear to My Heart (1948). But it is Cinderella where Blair’s style – flat, graphic, abstract – is the dominant force of the film. Blair’s buildings and their arches shoot upwards, supported by architecturally impossible reed-thin columns, making rooms cavernous and façades larger than life. The sprawl of these interiors suggests not only the fantastical atmosphere that this fairy tale inhabits, but the grandiosity of Cinderella’s story. The vertical frames of Blair’s buildings are elegant and abstract, never intimidating, as if hailing from a children’s storybook. With the exception of when Cinderella is dancing with (and fleeing) Prince Charming, blues, whites, and sometimes muted greens dominate the scenes of her regal desires – as if shimmering in moonlight.

In character design, three men – all part of the “Nine Old Men” fraternity – served as supervising animators for Cinderella. I find Cinderella’s character design plainly uninteresting, but it is how she moves that will leave awestruck this film’s most vocal detractors. Marc Davis (the three principal animated characters in Song of the South, Alice in 1951’s Alice in Wonderland); Eric Larson (Peter Pan in 1953’s Peter Pan, Mowgli and Bagheera in 1967’s The Jungle Book); and Les Clark (1928’s Steamboat Willie, 1961’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians) made heavy use of rotoscoping in their attempts to animate Cinderella. Rotoscoping, developed by Max Fleischer (and made exclusive to Fleischer Studios by patent from 1915-1934), involves an animator tracing the movements over projected live-action footage as opposed to animating something from scratch or some other form of reference. As an animator traces over the footage, they may add a personal flourish – a delay or embellishment of movement – in the process. For animating humans, adhering completely to human movement via Rotoscope results in footage that looks stilted, as if hailing from a different universe than one created for an animated film. For Davis, Larson, and Clark, there hardly is a scene where Cinderella is not benefitting from rotoscoping. The rotoscoped animation allows Cinderella to move more fluidly than any human character drawn by the Disney animators at this point in the studio’s history. Whether she is scrubbing the floors, waltzing with her animal friends or Prince Charming, or making herself scarce before the stroke of midnight, there is a majestic grace to her movement – and yes, that includes the moment where she loses her glass slipper.

The less cartoonish a character acts in Cinderella, the more they are rotoscoped. So alongside Cinderella, Prince Charming and especially stepmother Lady Tremaine – the latter’s supervising character animator was Frank Thomas (an animator for the Seven Dwarfs on Snow White, supervising animator for Tod and Copper on 1981’s The Fox and the Hound) – are the two other characters heavily rotoscoped in the film. Lady Tremaine’s imposing posture and manner of dress gifts her a wordless authority over everyone residing in the Tremaine château. In contrast to Cinderella’s stepsisters – characters who act and look in ways that one might expect in a bawdy animated short film – her stern demeanor, realistically angled long face, and deliberate movements effuse opportunism, menace, spite. Lady Tremaine’s appearance, in respect to how much it contributes to the film, is a pronounced upgrade from the Queen in Snow White. She relates a spectacular amount of characterization in just a glance, a scowl. Yet, Lady Tremaine’s darkly charismatic character design would only be the appetizer to even more iconic villainous designs to appear later that decade.

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The incidental score by Oliver Wallace and Paul J. Smith is dominated by quotations from the songs, and is not nearly as independent from the soundtrack as previous Disney animated canon scores. For the first time in a Disney animated feature, the studio looked outside its Burbank campus for its songwriters. Looking towards Tin Pan Alley, Disney hired Mack David (the title songs to 1959’s The Hanging Tree, 1963’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World); Al Hoffman (“Papa Loves Mambo”, “A Whale of a Tale” from 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea); and Jerry Livingston (the title songs to The Hanging Tree, 1965’s Cat Ballou). Cinderella possesses a wonderful musical score, headlined by “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, and “So This is Love” – ignoring “The Work Song” (squeak-sung by the mice in something that set a precedent for Alvin and the Chipmunks), of course.

One of these, obviously, is unlike the others. “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, sung by the Fairy Godmother (voiced by Verna Felton, who voiced the Elephant Matriarch and Mrs. Jumbo in Dumbo and, over the 1950s, became a Disney voice cast regular), is an exuberant frolic, and easily one of the best songs with nonsense lyrics in film history. Nonsense and novelty songs in Hollywood typically wear out their welcome, running a minute or more longer than they should. Clocking in at roughly one minute, the Fairy Godmother performs her magic, and promptly whisks Cinderella away to Prince Charming’s ball by song – a musical exemplar in narrative brevity.

Thirteen years following Snow White, Cinderella benefits from advances in recording technology and a richer – if not necessarily fuller – orchestral sound. Ilene Woods was primarily a radio singer, and her voice’s timbre is suited to play Cinderella. “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” parallels Snow White’s “I’m Wishing” in its exceptionally early placement and nowadays-formulaic function. But it is a serviceable introduction to Cinderella as a character, even with no specific dream mentioned in the lyrics. Sung with Mike Douglas (as Prince Charming), “So This is Love” is a dreamy duet, a waltz that musically defies a typical waltz. Waltzes, in ¾ time, usually have a pulse that even those not versed in music can “feel”. That pulse is usually on the downbeat, the “1”. Yet “So This is Love” generally begins its phrases and pulses on the “and” of the second beat (as one would count a measure as: “1 and 2 and 3 and”). The song’s frequent use of slurred notes, even fermatas, gives it its romantic flow and dramatic ebbs. This is an unconventional waltz, one that resists categorization and a song that would have been quite difficult to compose – despite its outwards simplicity.

Walt Disney appreciated the financial cushion that Cinderella provided (funding for the project met fierce resistance from his brother and the company’s CEO, Roy), and never truly worried about funding issues after the film’s release. The funds from Cinderella were injected across the company: for feature animation, live-action narrative features, the True-Life Adventures nature documentary series, Disney’s eventual television presence, and into purchasing a tract of orange groves in Anaheim. As for Cinderella itself, Walt could see the artistic shortcuts (rotoscoping included) in most every frame. It was no Snow White, he thought to himself. And though this 1950 adaptation was technologically superior in every way from the 1922 silent Laugh-O-Gram* short based on the same story, there seemed to be no artistic fulfillment for Walt in this Cinderella’s success.

Cinderella heralds the start of the Disney studios’ “Silver Age” – the second half of Walt Disney’s tenure as the creative ringleader at his namesake studio. Various film writers will provide conflicting definitions for these periods in Disney animation history. According to this blog, the Silver Age (1950-1967) is named as such due to the cessation of the package films and the return of more traditional animated features, Walt retreating from his once-omnipresent role in the artistic decision-making for those animated features, and the limited animation of the 1960s. However, the Silver Age is also the beginning of the studio consciously crafting large portions of these movies (if not the entire movie) explicitly for children. This is not to say films specifically for children are not worthwhile – Dumbo being a prime example. But to introduce characters, plot devices, and humor geared for children at the expense of the film’s storytelling or thematic resonance to viewers of all ages is the Disney studios at its most cynical and business-minded. These trends – that are not solely the fault of any single film – have persisted into modern animation, and are artistically incompatible with Disney’s Golden Age animated features. Those cynical trends are absent in the next Disney animated feature – an adaptation of a Lewis Carroll work that embraces a tsunami of colors and its own looniness.

To audiences in North America who had not seen a non-package animated feature in almost a decade and to war-weary audiences abroad reintroducing themselves to Disney films, Cinderella must have been an astonishing work after episodically-structured movies without a natural through line. In this Silver Age, Walt Disney and his animators would define the studio’s hallmarks – princesses, fairy tales, comic relief intended for children inserted for non-artistic reasons, and the distinctive visual style of artists like Mary Blair. Cinderella is the genesis for these developments. The Silver Age’s most innovative, accomplished work would still be several years away.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

* Founded in 1921 by Walt Disney, The Laugh-O-Gram studio was located in Kansas City, Missouri, and was the short-lived predecessor of the modern-day Walt Disney Animation Studios. Alongside future animation industry stalwarts Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Friz Freleng, the Laugh-O-Gram studios made short animated silent films. Many of these films were based on fairy tales – including Cinderella (1922).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

This is the twentieth Movie Odyssey Retrospective. Movie Odyssey Retrospectives are reviews on films I had seen in their entirety before this blog’s creation or films I failed to give a full-length write-up to following the blog’s creation. Previous Retrospectives include 12 Angry Men (1957), Oliver! (1968), and Jingle All the Way (1996).

#Cinderella #Walt Disney #Clyde Geronimi #Hamilton Luske #Wilfred Jackson #Mary Blair #Marc Davis #Eric Larson #Les Clark #Frank Thomas #Ilene Woods #Eleanor Audley #Verna Felton #Oliver Wallace #Paul J. Smith #Mack David #Al Hoffman #Jerry Livingston #My Movie Odyssey

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scrawnydutchman · 6 years ago

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Why ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s Animation is So Amazing

So those followers of my blog may know that I posted a full film review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse rather recently. You’re welcome to go check it out if you haven’t yet, but the short version of it is that it’s my favorite movie of 2018 and is, in my opinion, the best comic book film ever made. But I wanted to address something about the film that I keep seeing coming up. I’ve been watching a handful of reviews for the film online and in a great deal of them I hear people bring up how they were skeptical of the animation style when they first saw the trailers because it “looked choppy”. One film critic in particular by the name of Roger Moore actually still held that critique against the film even after seeing it when he posted his review of it. Most people have come around to enjoying the films animation and have put the idea of it being choppy at the backs of their heads. But what did they mean initially? The problem with a lot of film critics when it comes to judging an animated feature is that sadly they can come from a misinformed place about the medium and create this negative stigma around a film that isn’t justified. Animation is already fighting a number of prejudices (people saying it’s only for kids, saying it’s a genre and not a medium and any other amount of reasons why they may think they are above it) so this added one does not help what is easily the most spectacular animated film of 2018. But I myself am an animator, so I feel I can come from a place of explaining the visuals in a way that may make the still skeptical viewers more appreciative of what the film is trying to accomplish. With that in mind, here’s why the films animation works so well.

Animating on 2s, not on 1s

When it comes to animation, whether it be 2D or 3D, audiences are typically used to a consistent and fluid motion where there is virtually no break in the motion of a character or object. Simply put; it’s as fluid as fluid animation can be. In these cases, this is because the animation was done on “1s”. But what does that mean?

With a few exceptions, it’s a universal rule that animation runs at 24 frames per second. That means every second of footage you see of an animated film can have as many as 24 unique drawings or adjusted poses in them. That’s a lot of work, but animation legends like Richard Williams (director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) are famous for having classical animation of this stature. However, just because you CAN fill each second with that many drawings doesn’t mean everybody does. Alternatively you could have 12 drawings in each frame and just double the amount of time you see them go by. When you do this, it’s called animating on “2s”. It’s half the work for a result that may not be quite as fluid as animating on 1s but still looks convincing enough to deceive the human eye. You could even go as far as animating on 3s and animating on 4s, but the higher you go the more you increase the risk of your animation looking “choppy”. Spider-Verse in particular has most of their frames on 2s, with a few exceptions being when the characters have to keep up with complex camera work and so they go back to 1s. So that would explain why a lot of people initially thought the animation was “choppy” . . . .but are there any advantages to doing animation this way aside from having less frames to fill? Indeed there is. When you increase the exposure of any frame, the layout and composition of said frame as well as any small details has a greater chance of sticking out in the viewers mind. Spider-Verse takes exceptional advantage of this fact because every little action in this film is like a beautiful work of pop art. There can be other ways you can inject great appeal in your animation besides making it “fluid” like making every drawing crisp and full of detail and if you’re a skilled enough animator you can make your animation deceive the eye through a number of other tricks which we will go into in a bit. I can’t think of a finer example of this point than Legendary indie animator Bill Plympton.

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Bill Plympton is famous for having his drawing exposures in the 3s and 4s, having every drawing have vivid detail with complex shading and sketchy lines, but he still manages to create believably moving and behaving characters and set pieces in spite of this limitation.

So how is it done? How does an animator make convincing and appealing movement with a decisively limited amount of drawings? Let’s start with good posing.

Posing

I’m of the opinion that Spider-Man lends himself to good animation more than any other superhero. Because of all superheroes, nobody has as many interesting poses, weight shifting and as much natural progression between actions as the web slinger. His main mode of transportation is swinging around, using his weight distribution and kicks and lunges to propel himself in any direction he wants and as he tries to make a turn he has to push himself into another direction, fighting the force that pushed him the other way to begin with. Contrast this with Superman who can just fly right over to where he needs to be without much movement of his arms and legs and without much struggle with incoming obstacles (fun fact, the whole reason Superman can even fly in the first place is because it’s easier to animate than have him leap everywhere). But anyway, back to Spidey. In most animation you develop key poses. Key poses are the main storytelling positions a character may have just to communicate the idea that they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing. So for example if you were to animate a jump, you would start by drawing the position of your character bending their legs to launch themselves up, then you would have them in mid air, then you would have them land again.

Once you create poses that tell the story well enough, you would fill in the rest between. But the key poses are VERY important to get right. To make sure there couldn’t possibly be any confusion as to what the characters are doing or even who they are, animators often ask themselves “would I know what’s happening here even if I put it in silhouette”? To add to the fluidity of the animation in a way that doesn’t compromise the chosen amount of frame exposure, poses also tend to follow a “line of action”. Basically the whole body follows the direction of a drawn line and maintains it’s course in order to really sell the action. It helps for exaggeration and for developing after aspects like arcs.

Now as I said before, Spider-Man is a particularly advantageous character when it comes to this stuff. Because he’s acrobatic. He’s shifts his weight a lot. His most iconic poses as a character lend themselves greatly to silhouette. Also, he happens to be very easy to draw. Even if all you did was draw a red stickman with spider eyes we could instantly tell who it is.

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The animators for Spider-Verse knew exactly what kind of beast they were dealing with and MAN OH MAN did they have fun with it. Not only did they perfectly capture the way the classic Spidey moves, but they also gave every different Spider-Person their own take on it. Spider-Gwen moves with the grace and elegance of a ballet dancer, Noir Spidey has a less ambitious and more straight forward way of moving around (kind of “old school) if you will. Then of course you have Peni Parker recreating the anime aesthetic and Spider-Ham with all the elasticity of a cartoon.

*here’s a little Spidey animation I did a while ago.

Squash and Stretch, Anticipation, Overlapping Action, Follow Through

If anybody takes an animation class or tries to learn animation on their own, chances are Squash and Stretch will be the first animation principle listed. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Animators will often contort the model of their character to give whatever is happening more elasticity and to fill the gaps of an arc if drawings are a considerable distance away from each other. It helps the human eye track where an object is going and it can also help with principles like anticipation and follow through. Anticipation is the build up to an action. Think bending your knees before you lunge yourself upward for a jump. Because that momentum has to come from somewhere. Then there’s overlapping action, which is when dragging items on a character’s design such as clothes, capes, long ears, tails or what have you, are trailing along and need to catch up to the rest of the body. Spider-Verse does great with both these principles, especially with Spider-Ham and Noir Spidey. Spider-Ham is obviously influenced by Looney Tunes and other cartoony inspirations so he’ll be prone to doing a lot of squishing and stretching, where as Noir Spidey has the long trenchcoat and hat and you can bet that they’ll always be the last part of him to reach his destination (as well as be the most susceptible to wind). And of course, every character in Spider-Verse has great anticipation . . . as well as what I think of as anticipation’s opposite, follow through. When an action stops, the body needs a moment to adjust itself into the resting position. Think catching yourself with your legs after a jump, crouching down and then standing back up again. Just like how momentum has to come from somewhere, it has to go somewhere when the action is over.

Appeal

So everything I covered thus far is stuff that’s universal across all forms of animation. But What does Spider-Verse do that makes it special? What separates it from other animated films in the theater? The answer is appeal. Appeal is just having a style and aesthetic that’s pleasing to look at . . . and man does Spider-Verse ever cover that. The film goes so far out of it’s way to look like a comic book that every texture has ben-day-dots so it literally looks like a comic print. Every Spider-Person has their own way of moving, their own way of behaving, their own sets of priorities when it comes to the 12 principles of animation. But the film also has a lot of really clever cheats. One of my favorite examples of this is how the film cheats forced perspective. There are many shots in the film where Miles is falling through the city as the buildings rush past him. The animators actually skewed the models of the buildings for these shots to imitate depth, as when they tried it without the skewing it didn’t looks like they were falling fast enough. They also implemented more classical cheats like smears, basically an animators method of imitating motion blur.

I could go on and on with the animation lecture, but honestly, I covered what I wanted to cover. I just wanted to showcase to anybody who may not be aware that animation is more than just “fluidity” and a seamless framerate and that there’s more ways to create appealing visuals than just that. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see Spider-Verse. It is a masterpiece.

#spiderman #spiderverse #spidergwen #miles morales #peter parker #spider ham #animation #cartoons #film

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trrriple-rrr · 6 years ago

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Of dreams coming true...or ...Pinter 5 and Anthony and Cleopatra.

Sometimes it really feels as if something in the universe is lining up to make your dreams come true all at once. That’s definitely how I felt when I read the news about Ralph being on stage from September to January in Anthony and Cleopatra and Rupert being on stage from December to January in Pinter 5. After seeing Richard “alive and breathing and acting his heart out” in The Crucible I just knew that whenever I��d get the chance to see Rupert and Ralph on stage I’d grab it with both hands. And after waiting over four years it happened! It definitely was one of these “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?”- moments for me....

And then I knew it actually was real life as yes, Rupert and Ralph would be on stage around the same time and I’d get a chance to see them both without having to get time off work twice and without having to book two trips to London, but they were set to star in plays written by the two authors who really gave me some traumatic experiences in English class during my highschool days. If I had to name two of my least favourite authors you can bet that Shakespeare and Pinter would be on that list.

But I didn’t want to let this chance slip by and hey, even if the plays sucked, I’d still get to see Rupert Graves and Ralph Fiennes in person, doing “their thing” and that was good enough for me!

So I booked the flight to London and got the theatre tickets.

What follows now is my recap of the plays and seeing my beloved RRs. There probably will be some spoilers about them so if you don’t want to read them, maybe stop here.

Pinter at the Pinter - Pinter 5

On Thursday I went to see the matinee of Rupert’s play. I almost walked past the theatre as it seems a bit hidden. But it is quite lovely from the inside and there were many people there to see the play. It was nearly sold out and I was sitting in the very last row on the balcony. It was a nice view from up there and there were some free seats up there so I changed my seat before the play began.

I felt as if my heart was about to jump out of my throat as it was about to begin and it felt as if there wasn’t any time to get ready. You just get pushed right into the first of three Pinter plays shown.

Up first was “The Room”. Like the name suggests it’s set in a one room apartment, revolving around a married couple. Rupert plays the husband who does not say a single word in the first half of the play. (Which immediately brought me back to English class and Pinter’s “A Slight Ache” in which he uses the same rhethorical device. I can still hear my teacher’s words: “If you want to really get to know someone just be quiet with them. People can’t stand the silence and will just talk and talk and give away more about their life and character then they ever wanted.” Exeperiences certainly have proofed him right.) Rupert being all silent on stage was fantastic and disappointing at the same time for me. It was great because you could see just how much he’s able to portray with a simple glance or gesture and it just gave me time to study his face (I love the stubble so much) and his movements. When he gets up and walks I had a mayor “Oh wow. It’s really him!” moment. But I was also diappointed as everything in me just longed to hear his voice. When he did speak I just wanted to close my eyes and listen but I also didn’t want to miss anything in the play. A very fantastic moment of the first half of the play was also when Rupert’s character lies down on the bed, his back to the audience and he’s wearing trousers that really nicely show off his bottom. So if you plan on going to see it, I can highly recommend sitting on the left side of the theatre. When Rupert did speak his voice sounded a bit hoarse and lower than I thought it would. But it only gave him an even rougher and sexier quality which I loved. You could tell that he’s been on stage for a few weeks already.

Despite my reservations against Pinter, I got sucked into the story which left me with more questions than answers though - but that’s just Pinter’s thing, I think. The ending is really surprising. There was a little boy sitting in my row, about 8 years old maybe, and he was so shocked and scared that he started crying and his mother left with him, which distracted me but what I saw of Rupert was just... crazy good acting that left a lot of people speechless.

Then came the intermission and the chance to stretch my legs as there really wasn’t any leg room on the balcony.

The second play and third play they showed were much more to my liking. Rupert has got a part in all three plays but all actors involved are amazing. Jane Horrocks especially.

The second play was “Victoria Station”. There was only Rupert as a cab driver (again sitting on the left side of the stage) and Colin McFarlane as a dispatcher on screen. There isn’t a lot of movement and the story is mostly portrayed through the actor’s faces and voices. The story was short but it had everything in it. So many feelings you could connect to. Love, fear, anger, loneliness, longing and an underlying sense of suspence and the threat of something sinister going on. It was also hilarious. It made me think of Criminal Minds (which I love) and I kept thinking that the play would be a fantastic set up for an episode. The kind of CM episode that never really leaves you, that you dream about and still think about years later for some reason and it stirred your darker side or your fears and it’s just there just waiting to pop up every now and again. I just feel that this play will do this to me in years to come.

The third play was “Family Voices”. Rupert has got a smaller part in this with Jane Horrocks and Luke Thallon being the two main characters. Again it’s a play that leaves you with more questions than answers and leaves a lot to the imagination of the viewer. It was acted brilliantly and made fantastic use of the minimalistic stage setting. This one really left me with a feeling of heart break and loneliness and the urge to just call my mother and hear her voice. It just totally won me over to the “Hey, I think I misjudged Pinter”- side and it’s all thanks to the actors’ portrayal of the plays. The applause was so very well deserved and I think everyone who saw the plays will think about them for a long time.

After the plays I braved Stage Door. There was a small barrier put up which made me wonder what has happened as I asked @gravesdiggers about it before and she said there wouldn’t be one. On the other hand I was kind of glad there was one as it just felt....safer?! I don’t know. There were about ten to twelve people waiting. I was eighth in line or so and where I was standing there wasn’t any barrier. So I queued up and waited patiently (nervously and excitedly mostly though). Jane Horrocks is just a very nice woman and took her time to chat with people and sign their posters and stuff, she’s also quite beautiful. Rupert came out last, wearing comfy clothes, his wooly hat, trainers. A bonbon in his mouth (probably against the sore throat). He was really nice and took his time to take pictures. Hearing his voice up close was just even more amazing. I wasn’t nervous at all anymore when he was standing in front of me suddenly. Maybe because someone in line before me made him smile and laugh (which made me realise he didn’t do that during the plays so I even more happy to see it now) and to just hear his surprised, loud “Ha!” laugh I heard him do often before in interviews or on tv just really made my heart beat faster and gave me the “Oh my God. It’s Rupert Graves!” feeling that made my knees feel a bit weak.

I just asked him to sign my ticket which he did glady after calling my pen weird and then taking it back when he saw it had “Peter Rabbit” on it (Come on, Rupert, Peter Rabbit is cute!). I didn’t ask for a photo as I suck at taking selfies and there were some people left in line after me. It was just nice to see him up close and to breathe him in (he smelled of a sharp and spicy bodyspray (after-shave?!) and I just felt like floating when I left to just explore the city. Stopping every once in a while to squeal inwardly and still thinking about the plays a lot.

Anthony and Cleopatra

Friday came around and with it the excitement of seeing Ralph in Anthony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre in the evening. I distracted myself with some sight-seeing throughout the day but the later it got the more nervous I was getting.

There were even more people at the NT and I was sitting very close to the stage. Not in first row which was sold out when I got the ticket but still close enough to hear Ralph’s knee creak when he knelt down on stage and to hear the crack of the blood capsule at the end. And after seeing a lot of spit flying around and seeing how low the first row was I am glad I didn’t sit there, to be honest. XD

And then it was time to deal with Shakespeare. My other English class nemesis. I don’t know what it’s about Shakespearian English that makes it turn to white noise in my head whenever I hear it. Reading is okay but just hearing it is really difficult. I didn’t have time to read the play beforehand so I was fearing the worst really.

But I had read @herbaminor‘s review of the play before and they wrote that even though it is a really long play (3 h 10 min) they didn’t look at their watch once so I was feeling hopeful I wouldn’t either.

And I didn’t! Not once! I was sucked into the story immediately which starts by showing the ending of the play and then rewinding time to show how it all played out to reach that point. I guess it’s not a spoiler to say that Cleopatra and Anthony commit suicide/die at the ending, right?!

The stage design is very minimalistic again which was just perfect for the actors to fill the stage with their characters and personalities. Every single one of them was amazing and all pulled their weight to make it a spectacular play. Knowing that Ralph and Sophie won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for their performances really gave me hope it would be a great play and more.

I didn’t understand every word they said (especially Agrippa - who is genderswapped in this production. I didn’t get what her part/plan was at all) but I understood enough to follow the story and to really enjoy the play. It was quite funny for a tragedy and I just got the feeling I’m getting the full Ralph Fiennes’ package. He’s the lover, the politician, the action-hero, the singer and dancer, tragedy personified. He’s really giving it his all in this play.

He first came on stage tumbling around with an open shirt, a tattoo on his chest (which they moved from his stomach (as seen on the promp pic) to rest above his heart), bare feet and painted toenails (black!). I instantly felt all hort and bothered especially since he was standing right in front of me A LOT and I just stared at his chest hair and belly button and fought the urge to sit on my hands to keep myself from reaching out. It’s just.... a lot of food for the imagination when you see him like this in front of you, or caressing Cleopatra’s thighs.

Sophie Okenodo is just stunning. From her costumes, to her hair to her acting. She’s all in and you just have to look at her. Even when she’s snotty from crying. She’s amazing and I totally fell in love with her. Put her together with Ralph and they are just mind-blowing.

I wasn’t bored for one second during the play. After it had gone for maybe 15 minutes or so a phone went off near me, getting a text alert, Ralph heard it on stage as there was some glaring in my general direction and I can only hope my attempt at sending a thelepathic “Wasn’t me! Not me!” - message worked!

I just loved the music and the lighting and it all worked together to make it a fantastic play that kind of made me forget that it’s Shakespeare I’m listening to right now. They combined modern costumes with a modern setting (showing their enemies as a presentation on screens/from an usb stick). But it didn’t seem to clash at all for some reason.

Ralph sings in this play and he does so amazingly well. You could tell when he was talking that he has been on stage for a while too. His voice was hoarse too and sounded differently than it usually does. Only when he spoke in his low tones you could hear the velvety quality in it which really sends shivers down your spine. He dances too and you really get immediate “A Bigger Splash” flashbacks and it’s just fun to watch and he just seems to be in it and not embarrassed at all to just go for it.

I think my favourite “I’m about to melt into a puddle” moment was, when Anthony gets dresses himself to get ready for a political meeting and he’s putting on his uniform (there is another scene in which he gets dressed in uniform to go to war which also is.... sjdhgjsla) and he is standing there with this determined experession on his face and then he put on these brown leather glove all the while standing right in front of me that really made me forget to breathe for about five minutes, I think.

And then there is the scene right before the intermission. Cleopatra is standing on the moving part of the stage and Anthony is standing on the non-moving part, closer to the audience and she moves past him, reaching out for him with her hand and he does the same and then just grabs her and pulls her to him and kisses her...that was the moment I knew I had to get a cold drink during intermission!

I loved how much care they took on the details like Anthony wearing a wedding ring after getting married to Ceasar’s sister Octavia which he sneakily takes off and puts onto the nightstand before he travels back to Egypt. And the story they tell with the character’s shoes. Anthony going from bare-foot (and painted toe nails!) to wearing loafers without socks, loafers with socks and combat boots to Cleopatra’s Women wearing fashionable open-toed high heels to flats to bare feet. It just seemed to support the story and all the action going on.

And I just cared for so many characters. My heart ached for Anthony and Cleopatra but it really broke at Eros’ ending and the shocked/sad gasp of the audience told me I’m not the only one feeling that way.

It was also amazing when Cleopatra pulls a real live snake out of the fig basket to commit suice with an asps bite. I loved it but the woman sitting next to me nearly had a melt-down at the sight of the snake. Even though it was a small-ish not poisonous kingsnake.

After the play I hurried to get out of the theatre to go to the stage door but I really shouldn’t have bothered. It took a long time till Ralph came out. Again there were about ten people waiting for him and there was no queue, no barrier nothing. I was really super nervous and a bit intimidated in that moment. Ralph took his time coming out, even after you could already see him. It made me laugh as I’d probably do the same if I were him. But he did came out and he wasn’t intimidating to talk to at all. He was very nice and signed people’s books and tickets and leaflets (even if you could tell they hadn’t been to see the play).

After my Rupert situation the day before I gave him the second pen I had in my jacket to sign my ticket. Sadly it didn’t write very well which Ralph mentioned as well and tried to make his signature as legible as possible. I just told him I’m sorry about the pen and thanked him for the autograph before I went back to the hotel feeling happy and on Cloud 9.

It was an amazing two days in London and seeing Rupert and Ralph on stage really was a dream come true. They are such great actors and meeting them in person afterwards was just the most delicious cherry on top.

And with that I will end this long post before I remember to add all the things I forgot to write about. :)

#personal #rupert #ralph #my blog and me

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zhuzhengtingting · 7 years ago

Text

From Onscreen to Off

Member: Cai Xukun

Genre: angst, fluff

Word Count: 5282 (this somehow got super long rip)

Summary: there came a time where the chemistry between you and Xukun didn’t end when the director called “Cut!”

(my gif)

Sweaty blond bangs plastered to his forehead, rain threatening to fall, and no jacket in sight, Cai Xukun sees you sitting alone, trembling, on the wooden park bench.

You, with your canvas school bag and your hands wrung at your knees. You, with your eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly and your eyes cast on your shoes, you, you, you you you.

You.

He takes a step forward on the cobble, your name tumbling from his lips.

“Xiaodan?”

Your gaze seems to lift in steps, terraces, and when he sees your red-rimmed eyes, his heart...seizes.

“Xiaodan?” he repeats, fainter, unable to do anything else. He watches you softly, wishing to do something, anything, to help you.

A fat raindrop falls on his cheek the same moment the tears finally roll down yours, and he can’t help but kneel at your feet, nevermind the wet street, nevermind the fact that he barely knows you. “Hey,” he says, hesitantly reaching up to touch your cheek.

His thumb brushes away the tears almost tenderly as you stammer, "W-weiyuan?”

“Cut!

"That was fantastic," the director calls, and you and Xukun simultaneously sigh in relief.

As the crew begins clearing up the set, Xukun offers his hand, and you take it gratefully, letting him help hoist you up. "Great work today," he smiles, and you nod in return.

"You too." And because you're unsure of what to say next, you say nothing at all. Instead, you walk with him over to the director and the crew, and nod again when he asks if there's anything you two can do to help clean up.

You're tasked with talking to each other—seriously—as you pick up random sodden trash around the area, but you don't perform very. It's silent, a bit uncomfortably so, for about five minutes of bending over and plucking random whatevers off the street and into a little plastic bag until Xukun almost falls because of the wet stone.

Somehow, a split second later, you're falling backwards too, Xukun's wrist in your tight grip, and there's a strange see-saw effect as you both teeter, trying to offset the other from jamming their tailbone straight onto the cobble. It’s ultimately ineffective, when the balance ends in a splash! and two silly, soaked costars.

Xukun giggles, and you marvel at the strange juxtaposition between the sound and the image he constantly tries to project on set.

It stops abruptly. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks.

You tilt your head. “Like what?”

He’s strangely expressionless when he answers, “like you’re constipated mixed with me having something on my face.”

It isn’t until you, too, burst out laughing that he realizes what he just said, and he quickly tries to cover it up with an “oh my god I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to say that I can’t believe I just said that to you.”

Now snorting, you shush him with a few flaps from your hand. “No, it was just weird hearing you giggle like that. You always make yourself seem rather serious and manly .”

“Always? Wait. Did you know who I was before we were cast?”

You squint at him, careful not to be too disrespectful as you’re still a bit younger than him, when you reply, “of course. Did you think I was living under a rock?”

He gasps, pausing all movement. “But you’re so well renowned.”

“I guess?” you say with a sheepish smile. “I’ve just been in the business for a long time, it’s not like I’m spectacular or anything.”

He frowns, but lets it go. “Are you okay, though?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. You?”

“Me too.”

♡

The first week of filming wraps up with a cast party at a bar.

Xukun, surprisingly, sits alone with a soda and a black satin bomber jacket slung over his shoulders, and you approach him, taking silent note of how his back straightens immediately. You stop next to him.

"Hey, we almost match."

And you do. You're both wearing jeans, a fitted t-shirt, and a satin bomber jacket, woth the only differences being that your jacket and his shirt are white, while his jacket and your shirt are black.

“You don’t have to be so formal,” you tell him when he doesn't respond, pushing over the plate of mini jianbang. “You’re still older than me.”

He stares at it before fixing you with the same intensity as he says, “yes. I do.”

You roll your eyes, wondering why you aren’t used to this already. “Please, don’t. Besides you, I’m the youngest on this set by at least ten years, so it’s both uncomfortable and lonely.” Sticking out your hand, you tack on, “plus, it was fun earlier.”

He takes it cautiously, before inviting you to sit next to him. "You're not drinking alcohol either?"

You shake your head. "I have to shoot a commercial tomorrow. You have a program, right? With your group."

"Yes—yeah," he corrects himself. "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess? I'm a bit smarter than most people tend to think," you laugh.

"You're smart," he says.

"Thanks, but I don't need the validation. What I do need, however, is your phone number if I'm ever going to be able to communicate with you. What's your Wechat username?"

♡

The text you get from him the next morning keeps you noticeably warmer and more alert during the shoot.

He, however, has already left to wait backstage when your reply comes through.

[Cai Xukun → you] good luck today

[You → Cai Xukun] thanks ^.^ you too

♡

Shooting continues to be awkward.

Despite greeting each other much more frequently now, both over text and in person, Xukun keeps his distance. It, thankfully, doesn’t translate over film, but you can’t help but feel a bit hurt and outcast.

You’re used to it, unfortunately. People either find you intimidating or annoying, and, despite your friendliness, you only have about two friends. Maybe three.

Honestly, who cares about awards and fame when you don’t have anyone to celebrate with. You’ve been living on your own for years already, having bought your parents a nice house in an unpopulated and beautiful part of the mid-coast, where they, though peaceful, have rather limited access to wifi.

This time, however, instead of confiding in your few friends about this, you take strength from a fan who’s been with you since you were a toddler. She was a toddler then, too, and you have a binder solely designated for her fan letters and drawings from then until now.

(Sometimes you wish she would leave her SNS information, because she always does bring you great comfort.)

Good luck in filming! I saw you wore the necklace I sent in my last letter to an interview and I really couldn’t help squealing!!! I’m so glad you like it. But... I couldn’t help but notice that you seemed kind of sad, especially when he asked about your social life and your Weibo. It’s kind of desolate, if I may be so honest, but it’s always like that. I just hope you’re making friends. If you’re not—go do that! You can do it! I believe in you! ♥♥

Her encouragement in mind, you eat lunch with Xukun every chance you can, trying to get him to open up with conversation. His replies, though, are always polite, but short, and almost afraid of getting closer.

You always brace yourself for another try.

♡

It takes you pulling Xukun's cheek in an improvised bout of inspiration during a scene for him to finally stop treating you like you're fifty.

“That was uncalled for,” he whines once you’re both done filming for the day.

“Was it, though? I dunno. They looked so plump and inviting, and I think it’s unfair for you to be the only one to be able to poke and touch them.” You then proceed to make him flustered further when you reach up to ruffle his hair.

“Hey!” A second later, his tongue sticks out at you, and you positively cackle.

“What???”

“You’re acting like we’re equals.”

He sighs, but you grin. “Finally.”

“I mean—”

“No. Shut up. Unless you’re going to treat me like a friend, and not a senior, you don’t have permission to speak.”

He groans in frustration. “You’re a tough one.”

“Perfect,” you tell him. “I’m trying to be.”

He looks up at you through his lashes, almost guilty.

“You seem tired,” you say, and that guilty look immediately deepens. “Is it alright for me to ask about it?”

He looks at you full on for a few seconds, before shaking his head and smiling. Just as you’re about to scramble and apologize for intruding, he tells you, “yeah. I’ve had a bunch of legal proceedings to deal with.”

You grimace sympathetically. “With your old company? Don’t look so shocked—I barely don’t live under a rock.”

His next words are directed at his thumbs rather than at you, tumbling out of him like he’s in character. “It’s a bit tiring, to be honest. And I feel as though I can’t really talk about it with the others.”

You sit down next to him, elbow on your knee. “This life tends to be like that. Honestly, I’ve lived most of it alone, so when I saw you, I thought I should try and reach out a bit.”

“Thank you.”

“No need. You’d be helping me more, I think.”

♡

“Hah! Take that, Cai Xukun!”

He falls to his knees dramatically, hands flying to his ears. “I can’t believe I just lost at air hockey. I never lose in air hockey.”

Your replying grin is a bit more mischievous than Xukun has ever seen—albeit a bit ruined by your panting from just going at it—, and when he tells you so, it grows to liken the Cheshire Cat. Corners of the mouth to the ears, wide eyes shifting side to side, and all strangely coincidentally completed with a purple (horizontally) striped shirt.

This is the third time you two have hung out alone. Each time, you both picked a relatively uncrowded area so your masks and disguises wouldn’t invariably end up drawing more attention. An arcade during school and class hours, as you’ve picked this time, fulfills the need of privacy and light hearted fun.

“You destroyed me in basketball an hour ago, though,” you offer as you stretch out a hand to help him up.

“True,” he agrees, and as he takes your hand, he says, “this is a familiar scene.”

Chortling, you dig your heels into the diamond rugged floor and bring him up. It requires much less effort than you would have expected. “At least we’re inside and dry this time.”

“We can change that,” Xukun begins, something sly spreading across his face. He shoves his hands into the pockets of his gray joggers, lifting his t-shirt clad shoulders. “What about going swimming next time?”

You snort in a way much unlike your public image. “Are you going to turn it into a contest, or is this an excuse to see me in a swimsuit?”

“No, no, no, I just like swimming,” he tries to explain quickly, but—

“The glint in your eyes and your red ears say otherwise,” you sing-song, and he laughs awkwardly.

“Okay, maybe it crossed my mind,” he admits, scratching the back of his neck, still somehow looking down to meet you in the eyes. “But that wasn’t the sole—I mean main—reason. I promise.”

♡

Xukun is unhappily surprised when you show up in a swim shirt.

“Sucks to be you,” you tell him, leaning over the edge of the pool to bop him on his (admittedly, much too cute) nose. You’re about to ruffle his wet hair too, when he beats you to it.

“Nope. I’m winning this time.”

“Hm. Maybe,” you say, leaning over further, using his shoulder as support. “Are you wearing colored contacts right now? What, trying to impress all the girls who are not in the pool?”

“Yes,” he deadpans. “All of them—oh my god.”

You.... Well you’ve lost your balance, hand sliding up and past his whole being, nose heading straight for Xukun’s jaw, and are abruptly, and almost violently, stabilized by the heel of his palm under your collarbone. You nearly collapse, choking enough on your own spit to be uncomfortable, but not enough for it to be serious.

Some random guy only a few years older than you walks out the door, but not before whistling.

Xukun stumbles back as you push him in mortification, sliding from the wall of the pool to the actual pool, curling into yourself, before being pulled back up to the surface. Facing you is a concerned Xukun, who quickly turns to a disgruntles Xukun when you dissolve in laughter.

“Oh my god,” you say. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

He shakes his head disapprovingly at you. “Now we have to race. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“What? No. Ew. Exercise.”

He puffs his chest up. “I am older than you.”

“Wow, I cannot believe you,” you begin, but he’s already started. Cheater, you think, sorely tempted to pull on his exposed, but quickly disappearing heel.

You gear up, pushing your feet off the wall and torpedoing to the center of the pool, finally making use of that swim training you received about two years ago for a movie. Unfortunately, due to a lack of... keeping up, you gasp every time you come up for air.

As someone constantly on both big and small screens, and even more frequently being photographed, you stay in shape. You have to.

But “for the love of god, competitive swimming is really something else,” you tell Xukun after he (inevitably) wins.

“Yeah,” he answers. “But, since I won, I should get a prize.”

You raise your eyebrows to the ceiling. “Hm? After cheating, you mean?”

“No, after winning,” he emphasizes. “After all, you did say competitive swimming is something else, which means I’m something else, which means I deserve a prize.”

The look in his eyes is too much and you relent, visibly hunching over. “Okay, fine.”

♡

“You know, when you told me that we were going to watch your favorite movie, I did not expect it to me one of mine,” you tell Xukun, settling on the couch in his dorm.

“I kind of... forgot? I’ve been comfortable around you lately and it somehow slipped my mind,” he explains.

“Comfortable, huh?”

He quickly backtracks. “In a good way.”

“I wasn’t saying it wasn’t,” you laugh. “Good to know.”

He sits next to you, careful not to sit too far, but also not to sit too close as to make it seem like he’s trying to pull anything. “Good.”

“So where are the others?” you ask, looking around. “It’s quiet.”

He shrugs. “I kicked them out.”

You gasp dramatically. “Just for me? What’s a person to do when Cai Xukun—mmmmffffff.” You claw at the pillow he shoves in front of your face.

“Just... shush. Let’s watch the movie.”

He points the remote at the TV, slinging his right elbow on your left shoulder, in a weird, vaguely uncomfortable, vaguely fraternistic gesture.

“You know,” he murmurs about half an hour in, “when I was trying to study for this role, I kept going back to your work. Whenever you act—it’s so believable. Your gestures, your expressions, your tone... Zhang PD would commend you on your balance.”

You stiffen. “Well that was unexpected,” you say, unsure of what else to say.

“I mean,” he stumbles. “Sorry. I know what it’s like to be in the spotlight all the time but, I just wanted to say it’s well deserved. It’s also why I was so... scared to talk to you. Because you’re someone I admire, but it’s different because you aren’t older.”

You inhale, faintly aware of his cinnamon-y scent, more so aware of the cool air going through your body as you watch yourself pick strawberries with bloody hands. “Thank you,” you whisper. “You’re someone to be admired, too.”

He shifts to face towards you. “Is it okay if I hug you?”

The abruptness of it makes you splutter. “I mean, sure.”

His hug is warm, and soft, and your odd focus on the calming sound of his slightly unsteady breathing drowns out the movie in front of you. You pat him on the back, but he moves your hands to rest squarely on his broad back.

It’s nice. Much like the hugs your father gave you as a child, but also much like what you’ve always imagined the perfect hug would be like. Your heart swells, and you can’t help sighing.

Unbeknownst to you, he smiles over your head.

You end up falling asleep like that. Rocked by rhythmic the rise and fall of his chest, snuggled by the warmth of his knit sweater, comforted by his mere presence. He strokes the back of your neck with his thumb, ready to fall asleep himself.

The door creaks open, letting in a storm of noisy boys, an hour after the movie ends, and you’re still face down in Xukun’s arms.

The stare he pins them with is enough to shut them up, and Zhengting sends them scurrying to their rooms with a glance at you and a nod at Xukun.

They don’t shut up quickly enough, though, and you stir, blinking heavily up at Xukun.

You’re bleary eyed, with crazy hair, and suddenly Xukun is hit by how fond he is of you. “Heya, sleepy head,” he hums, and you blink vaguely.

“Hi,” you say, tempted to snuggle your face back into his sweater. “What time is it?”

“Late?” His voice is soft, washing over you. “Probably late.” He sighs. “You should get home.”

“Mmm.” You smack your lips. “I live in this apartment building. Walk me?”

He chuckles. “Okay.”

♡

You wake up to three texts from Xukun.

[Cai Xukun → you] can we hang out again?

[Cai Xukun → you] that was fun

[Cai Xukun → you] btw, you’re cute when you sleep

You groan into your pillow.

[You → Cai Xukun] oh my god

[You → Cai Xukun] I didn’t drool, right

[You → Cai Xukun] wait there’s no way I did you would’ve teased me relentlessly for it

[You → Cai Xukun] I can’t today :/ I have to shoot some solo scenes

[Cai Xukun → you] omg I totally forgot

[Cai Xukun → you] we can hang another time?

[You → Cai Xukun] how about Saturday? I’m free all day and you don’t have any shows

[Cai Xukun → you] wow you keep really up to date

[Cai Xukun → you] Saturday’s good! Good luck! Text me when you get to set.

You smile to yourself.

♡

Xukun comes into your apartment, arms full of vegetables, fish cakes, dumplings, and everything else you told him to get for the hotpot.

“When you suggested getting dinner, this isn’t what I was expecting,” he informs you, slipping off his sneakers and slipping on the blue monkey king slippers you’ve left out for him in the foyer. “But it’ll probably be better.”

“I literally thrive off of hotpot. It’s how I survive every winter.”

He nods sympathetically, pushing up the sleeves of his jean jacket—to which you are almost tempted to ask why, before he ends up taking the thing off to reveal a white sweater. “Beijing can get really cold.”

You shiver. “Yeah.”

When the broth boils and you have both heaped in bunches vegetables and fishcakes, swirling the thin slices of meat just like how you’re supposed to.

Xukun demands that you let him take a picture of you and the food. “I have you,” he says. “Maybe make it my home screen.”

Flustered, you try to move out of frame, but he’s too quick, making sure to send the picture to his email before brandishing it at you.

You’re pink and barefaced, but cozy looking, and you have to admit that Xukun’s photography skills paired with the lighting makes the photo look amazing.

Three seconds later, you’re his home screen, and you can’t tell what that tumbling is in your gut.

“Let me see your home screen,” he says, reaching his hand out expectantly.

You scoff. “No?”

“I am older than you, little bear.”

With a heave of great suffering and mild embarrassment, you give him your phone. Locked.

“Try that....” You trail off. “How do you know my passcode?”

He’s in a stunned sort of silence, before saying, “why’s there a picture of Fan Chengcheng in a face mask and a onesie as your background?”

You blink. “That.”

“It looks like you took it, too,” he continues, baffled, and oddly hurt. “Are you guys together? Why... would you both keep this from me?”

The absurdity shocks you into laughing. “Me? Date Fan Chengcheng?”

Xukun continues to watch you with that mixed expression, much like a kicked puppy.

“No. No, wow, no. Never. I’ve known him since forever, but he’s more like a brother than a potential romantic interest.”

“Then...”

“Why haven’t I mentioned it?”

Xukun nods.

You turn down the heat of the hotpot. “I thought it was unnecessary. I didn’t want to force you into being my friend because we had a mutual friend.”

He’s silent.

“I worked with Bingbing in my first role. Granted, I was about seven, and she was a grown woman, but she was beautiful and kind and ethereal and I adored her. She invited me over to her house to have dinner, and Chengcheng attacked me because he was jealous of how much attention I was receiving.” You sit back. “Somehow, we became friends. Maybe even best friends—but certainly close. That’s why I know your schedule too,” you tack on. “Chengcheng’s almost obsessive in keeping me up to date.”

“I’ve literally never heard him mention you,” Xukun replies slowly.

You shrug. “We’re both capable of having friendships with other people without feeling the need to bring others into it. Xukun, I promise, it wasn’t like we were trying to exclude you.”

“Yeah. You wouldn’t do that to me.”

He puts on a smile. “This beef’s burnt.”

♡

“So? How’d it go? Did you confess?” Chengcheng nearly tackles Xukun as soon as he gets through the door, but composes himself.

Xukun eyes Chengcheng. “Why did you tell me you two knew each other?” he asks.

Chengcheng shrugs, but looks much more concerned than you did. “It didn’t seem—”

“Important,” Xukun finishes. He sighs. “Okay. Also, I don’t have a crush, so there’s nothing to confess.”

“What are you talking about?” Chengcheng shouts at Xukun’s receding figure. “We talked about it this morning!”

“I’m going to bed, Chengcheng. Good night.”

♡

There is no good morning text when you wake up the next day.

Or the next.

You try to catch Xukun after filming, but he runs off as soon as he can, before you even have so much a chance to thank him for working hard, and you’re left wounded and wondering what went wrong.

♡

“Xukun—” you start at the cast gathering that weekend, but he gets up and leaves after murmuring your name in acknowledgement.

“Don’t drink too much,” he adds quietly, clapping his hand on your shoulder.

♡

You show up at his apartment the next morning, visibly agitated.

[You → Cai Xukun] open up

No response.

You’re tempted to bang on the door, but it swings open, and you’re faced with a puffy face Chengcheng. “Come inside,” he says. “Xukun’s in our room.”

You nod at him. “Thanks, little bro.”

You shuffle to their room—you didn’t even bother putting on proper shoes when you left your apartment, just your own pink monkey king slippers.

“Cai Xukun,” you state to the mass on the bed. “Stop avoiding me. You’re acting like you’re twelve.”

The mass curls up even smaller.

“Xukun... you’re hurting me like this. Look, I know that your court case just seems to be getting longer and longer, but I don’t think I deserve to be lashed out at. I at least deserve to be told what I did wrong, if I did something wrong.”

There’s no response, but you continue.

“You are, honestly, one of my first close friends ever, and—. It hurts because I don’t know what I did wrong, and I just feel so lost?” Your voice cracks, and you fight back a tear. A real one, unlike the ones you have to shed for your roles.

“It’s like I’ve been abandoned, and it just hurts.... I can’t breathe properly because of you, because you’re suddenly so cold, and I thought better of you than this—”

There’s a warm hand on your cheek, and you look up to chocolate eyes swimming in something unreadable. “I’m sorry,” Xukun says. “And I really don’t mean to, but I don’t know if I can help it anymore, but... is that really all you think of me as? A friend?”

When you realize what he means by that, you stand, almost in scorn. “No. Fuck you. You don’t get to do that to me. You can’t just play with my emotions like that, and then drop a bomb.” You rip your hand from his, turn on your heel, and stalk out of the room, thoroughly pissed off.

Chengcheng furrows his eyebrows when he sees you even more distressed than before. “What the hell happened?”

“Your center is an immature asshole,” you spit, vindictive, and leave Chengcheng alone in the kitchen, confused.

♡

The next day, you are not happy when you find Cai Xukun sitting across the table from you.

“I thought you said hot chocolate,” you tell Chengcheng.

He lifts up the jar of mix. “And I brought.”

“Alone,” is your pointed reply.

Chengcheng nods. “You two will be.”

“With you, you conniving imp.”

“I never specified,” Chengcheng answers. “I’ll be back in an hour. Try not to bite each others’ heads off.”

You glare at the back of his head like you can shoot lasers into him if you try hard enough as he lets himself out of your apartment.

“I—” Xukun says, but you give a terse shake of your head, not even looking at him.

Instead, you stare at the ice cream, and then the calligraphy on your wall, listening to the ticking and tocking of your grandfather clock.

You are wealthy.

Years and years devoted to your craft, going to school ten five-day-straight weeks a year max, your every heart, body, and soul thrown into each role you are given. Countless romantic stars, a zombie, the mentally ill, physically handicapped, each with a backstory that, if wasn’t already provided, is made vibrant by your own mind and acting.

You have been forty kilos for a role. You have been seventy.

You have gone literal days without any sleep at all.

But none of it compares to your friends—or rather, lack thereof.

“Just meet people online,” they say. It’s not so easy when you’ve become a household celebrity before you even hit puberty.

“Date someone!” That’s risky and unwise, when you don’t even have friends to grow emotionally with, to lean on for support.

The clock chimes on the hour, and Xukun’s eyes are still boring holes into your skull.

Your turn your head to face him.

“Why did you come here?”

“To apologize,” he says, and he’s so small in that moment you’re sure he could fit in a cabinet. “The way I treated you... Well, your words were like a slap in the face, and I swear, I’m usually not like this, but I guess I’m a lot more susceptible to stress than I thought.”

You nod cautiously, making it somewhat clear that he can go on.

“And my— my changing feelings for you didn’t help. Especially seeing that picture of Chengcheng, I just. I don’t know. Something snapped, even though it was dumb and perfectly reasonable. It kind of felt like you didn’t trust me enough with knowing of your and his friendship, or as if you were both hiding something, and I know that wasn’t what you meant to do, but it still felt that way. Especially because... I like you.

“But I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have shut you out like that. That was completely my fault.”

You say nothing, simply getting up from the table to get two mugs, pour milk into your steamer, and wait for it to heat up. Once it is, you add in the hot chocolate mix and a sprinkle of

Cinnamon.

“I shouldn’t have cursed at you,” you say, and he nods, eyes lighting up because you’re talking to him at all.

You put the mug in front of him. When he takes it from your hands, his fingers touch yours.

The pain in those eyes is easily visible when you can’t help yourself from recoiling.

“Sorry,” you croak.

“It’s okay.” But it clearly isn’t.

You gaze at him, softening just a bit. “Look, Kun. You hurt me. Not only because you’re my friend. But because—” You laugh at your own foolishness. “Because I think I liked you too. Like. I don’t know. But—we need to work this out first.”

“Okay.”

♡

News breaks out a year and a half later that Cai Xukun and China’s most recognizable young celebrity are dating.

You’re caught by paparazzi strolling together on your one-year anniversary trip to Japan, where you and Xukun decided to visit the famed sakura trees and try literally every food you can.

Weibo is a mess, emails are a mess, your companies are messes, and everything is being denied, denied, denied, until a photo comes out of you two holding hands—hands with clear couple rings on them.

Things are fine now between you two, and you worked on your friendship for months, making sure to build foundations of trust and communication before even thinking about taking it further. He can rely on you, and you on him.

But your fans are divided. Most are, while quiet, supportive of your relationship. Many had already liked you two as a hypothetical couple when your movie came out, and were excited to see the real thing.

Some, while few, are loud and disapproving, or rude, or even hateful.

These your company decides to take legal action against if the harassment continues after being blocked.

But you and Xukun are still in Japan. He has no promotional duties, and you’re on a long-awaited break, so there is no reason to hurry back.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” he asks you as you climb down the stairs from the temple.

“Nothing, just... you?” You laugh. “Everything still feels new, and I can’t believe that for a whole two weeks I have been doing, and I get to wake up to your handsome face in your warms arms every morning.”

He grins, squeezing your hand. “I think that deserves a kiss.”

“No,” you squeal, running down the stairs before he catches you.

You’re breathless as he plants a big one on your forehead, and then a gentler one on your nose, before finally reaching your lips.

“I can’t believe you’re all mine— What is that?”

“What? Oh, that’s Chengcheng’s ringtone.”

“Do not pick up, please, oh my god—”

“Hey, Chengcheng. Yeah, he’s right here.”

Xukun takes the phone, pouting. “Fan Chengcheng, if you don’t have a good reason for interrupting, I’m hanging up. Not good enough. You have three seconds to come up with something better. Three. Two. One. Bye.”

“Wow, so rude to my little bro,” you say.

“He was interrupting,” Xukun answers simply, before picking you up. “Let’s go get something to eat.”

“Okay,” you agree, hanging around his neck tightly, squeezing your knees into his elbow. “Let’s.”

♡

FIN

#yuu #cai xukun #idol producer #cai xukun scenarios #idol producer scenarios #cai xukun fics #i hope this is good gfffjkdcd #enjoy!!#rip end of ip ;;;#idk who's in the top nine bc i'm finishing this before the live but!! this is my guess

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waynelizzie · 3 years ago

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acsversace-news · 7 years ago

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Playing larger-than-life fashion icon Gianni Versace isn’t a role Édgar Ramírez will soon to forget: the 20 pounds he put on for the part in Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story are a constant reminder.

“I had to gain weight, so I somehow kept the character with me all the time. I had to live with that weight for seven months. Every time I touched my belly or had heartburn, it reminded me of the show. Every time I couldn’t fit into my pants or was on a photo shoot and couldn’t fit into sample sizes, I was reminded that I was playing Gianni,” he confides ruefully.

It’s the night before the second season premiere of FX’s true-crime anthology, a highly anticipated follow-up to 2016’s much-feted, award-winning The People v. O.J. Simpson. The 40-year-old actor is in New York to promote the nine-episode series, an exploration of Versace’s murder that is based on Maureen Orth’s best-seller Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History. Despite having a nasty cold—which hit him “like a truck” during Golden Globes week—and still toting around some of that extra, custom-designed Versace baggage, his passion for the project is palpable.

“What Versace did—the impact that he had on the history of fashion and culture—is undeniable. He basically changed fashion by marrying sexuality and glamour on an unparalleled scale. Right now, we live—for better or worse—in a time that was shaped by Gianni Versace. The culture of bling, the exacerbation of fame, the picture between cinema and fashion, and fame and celebrity is something Gianni helped to create,” he enthuses.

Sadly, the Italian-born designer’s death became as infamous as his life had been. He was shot and killed in cold blood on July 15, 1997, on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion after returning from a walk on Ocean Drive. He was the fifth victim of serial killer who committed suicide just eight days later.

Ramírez—like most of the world—was fascinated by the glittering Gianni Versace, but it was the chance to work with American Crime Story’s equally mesmerizing producer and creator that drew him to the role. “I want to be part of stories that are not only dramatically gripping—that grab you and don’t let go—but that also touch upon important subjects. This is the case for most of Ryan Murphy’s work—his stories are interesting, but also socially and culturally relevant,” he notes, before admitting, “The first thing that drew me to the project was Ryan. I’ve been a huge admirer of Ryan Murphy for a long, long time.”

That said, he still didn’t accept the role right away. In Hollywood, Ryan Murphy need only snap his fingers and say “Jump!” before any number of A-list stars would squeak “How high?” But not Ramírez. He wanted to be sure of the project before he signed on the dotted line, and bold as brass, told Murphy to “come back to [him] with another script.”

When we applaud his chutzpah, the actor is quick to set the record straight and maintain that he is not a diva. “I loved the script immediately, but just based on one episode, it was very difficult for me to understand how the character was going to be a force, and not just a presence,” he explains. “That was very important. I needed to read other episodes to be able to understand where the character was going. It’s not about the size of a character, it’s about how much of a force a character is within a story. I knew that the writers were going to be spectacular, but I wanted to understand the direction of the whole story. Ryan gave me my process and my space, so I said yes.”

He has another reason for being hesitant: He’s been burned before—and it only happened once—but he’s loath to let it happen again. “People can have the best intentions—and I can say I’ve always worked with well-intentioned people—but so many things can happen in a production. Things change, and then all you’re left with is promises when you’ve already taken on a project. For me, it’s very important to take responsibility of my choices,” he notes, before describing his most disappointing cinematic experience, in what was one of his first major roles.

“I was lucky that it happened early in my career, which made it actually painless in a way, because I learned that I have to do projects for the right reasons,” Ramírez says. “I wasn’t sure about the script and was more fascinated by the people I was going to work with, the scope of the project and the charisma of the director—who turned out to be a much better producer than a director and a writer. I was enchanted by his promises and how he pitched the movie to me. But it didn’t end up that way on the page, and I was already committed; [the character wound up being ] difficult for me to play.”

His starring turn in The Assassination of Gianni Versace is a role that he takes full ownership of. “What I said to Ryan is, ‘I have to be responsible for my choice, so that if I sign on regardless of what happens, I’m not going to blame anyone—you or the producers,’” he recalls, noting, “It’s not about having things my way, because that’s boring. I love to be surprised by material, but walking into the unknown I need to be sure that I’m being responsible for that leap. I need certain conditions to be met for me to open up to the adventure.”

Clearly, Murphy, along with the cast and crew, more than satisfied his requirements, giving Ramírez one of the top overall experiences of his career. “This is one of the best roles I’ve ever had the chance to play. I couldn’t be happier, and I have only great things to say about this experience,” he says, adding that he’s not only formed a life-long friendship with Murphy, but with co-stars Penélope Cruz, who plays Gianni’s sister, Donatella; Ricky Martin, as his longtime lover, Antonio D’Amico; and Darren Criss, as the killer Cunanan.

He formed a familial bond with Cruz in particular, whom he first met while filming the series in December and refers to as “a very good friend,” though the cast as a whole truly seemed to form a life-long bond. “It doesn’t happen very often, but we all became very close. It was one of those experiences where you know that everyone will be in each other’s life after this project,” Ramírez vows.

Their closeness was especially opportune given the sensitive subject matter. “It was a lucky strike that really helped the process, because this was a very intense shoot, and we had very [dramatic] scenes,” he maintains. “The family relationships within the Versace clan were volatile, and we had to have a lot of trust in each other. We had to really abandon ourselves to each other to really get to the core of the scene.”

The fiery Versace family hasn’t been particularly impressed with Murphy’s project, which, again, ais based on a nonfiction work. They released a statement in January asserting that they “neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever” in the series, and that it “should only be considered as a work of fiction.” A follow-up declaration was equally dismissive, announcing that the “Orth book itself is full of gossip and speculation” and was an “effort to create a sensational story” with “secondhand hearsay that is full of contradictions.”

Needless to say, Ramírez did not get in touch with any members of the Versace family—not his brother, Santo, niece, Allegra, nephew, Daniel, nor Donatella (who reportedly sent friend Penélope Cruz a bouquet of flowers wishing her luck)—while researching the role. Instead, he did his research by reading old interviews, and also managed to find friends of the late designer who were willing to talk and provided much-needed, personal insight into his life. “For particular reasons, we weren’t allowed to [approach the family], but I also knew it would be fruitless, and I didn’t want to do that. They weren’t open. The Versaces went through one of the most horrible tragedies in contemporary history, and it happened in the public eye. I knew this was going to be hard for them, so I didn’t want to reach out to them,” he admits.

That said, he is interested in hearing their thoughts after they’ve actually seen the series, which debuted on January 17: “I’m very curious to see what their reaction will be when the cat is finally out of the bag, and they see what we did, and that we did it with the utmost respect and compassion. It is not sensational. Our show is based on a nonfiction book by a highly respected female writer, and we stand by her reporting.”

After playing Gianni Versace, however, Ramírez very keenly feels the family’s grief. “In order to understand the massive loss that this man’s disappearance was, we really had to understand his creative process and how much love he had for art, for life, his family,” he notes. “In the most Italian of ways, he had such a hunger for life. He had such curiosity. He was such a disruptor, such a nonconformist. He tried to change the world in the best way he could. After having portrayed his life, it hurts more to know that he’s no longer with us.”

However, Ramírez did not have to shake off his sadness at the end of every day. Instead, he embraced the true essence of Gianni Versace. “I didn’t really need to get rid of the character every time I walked off set, because he was fun,” he admits. “It was nice to be him. It was nice to be that force.”

CARPE DIEM

Ramírez has always stood up for what he believes in, and does this even more so now that he has the world as his stage. “I have the opportunity to help others by the virtue of what I do,” he notes. “I have a great platform to give a voice to people who are underrepresented or don’t have a voice. I think that’s a part of my responsibility.”

He does this most frequently through HeForShe, a solidarity campaign for the advancement of women initiated by UN Women. The movement’s goal is to achieve equality by encouraging men and boys to become agents of change and to act against the inequalities that women face worldwide.

“[As a result of the campaign], I think that women have felt supported and more men have their backs. Men have felt encouraged to also join forces in trying to reach a more gender-equal world, which is the goal of the movement. Gender equality is a liberation movement for each and every person that has felt the burden of a gender stereotype, or like they’ve had to fit into an uncomfortable mold or felt the pain of discrimination,” he declares.

And no, he’s never been personally discriminated against, never had resistance or doubt in accepting a job, and that’s the point. Things shouldn’t always be easy, and if they are, you fight for others, in his opinion.

“[Discrimination] has never personally happened to me, but it’s been very close to me—my mom, my sister, my niece, my female friends. Not even when I decided to become an actor did I feel it. To have had the privilege to decide my life and what I am, that obliges you to help other people to have the same privileges,” he says.

Growing up in San Cristóbal, T��chira, Venezuela as the son of Soday Arellano, an attorney, and Filiberto Ramírez, a military officer, Ramírez was allowed to do as he pleased. His sister, Nataly, was not as fortunate. “I never felt that I needed to do something else, because my father’s expectations were different. I felt very supported at home. But my sister was not. For example, she wanted to become a pilot. She really knows how to drive a car. She wanted to become a race [car driver] and pursue that passion, but my father wouldn’t let her. I had the privilege to choose and decide my life, clearly,” he says. “My sister, cousins and friends didn’t have that choice. I had more opportunities to decide my life based on my gender. I was never criticized by my dad when I decided to become an actor. He said, ‘Okay, I guess you know what you’re doing,’ but I don’t know if it would have been the same thing if my sister had wanted to be that.” Incidentally, there are no hard feelings today in his household. “We are, as a family, trying to build opportunities for the next generation so they don’t feel the burden of a gender stereotype,” he says.

Ramírez, who is also a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and supports Amnesty International, has always stood up for what he believes in. “I’ve always been an outspoken person since I was a kid,” he reveals. “I didn’t always know what I wanted to do, but if I wanted something, I was determined to get it.”

He had the freedom to try his hand at a variety of careers until he found one that fit. After graduating from Venezuela’s Universidad Católica Andrés Bello with a degree in mass communication and a minor in audiovisual communication with the intention of pursuing international relations, he tried a stint as a political journalist before working as executive director of Dale al Voto, a Venezuelan foundation similar to Rock the Vote. He also worked in promotions at one point before deciding to become an actor.

His first role of note was in the Venevisión soap opera Cosita Rica. His first major motion picture was Tony Scott’s 2005 film, Domino, and first blockbuster the 2007 action flick The Bourne Ultimatum. He has appeared in a plethora of films with big-name directors since his early days as an actor, including Steven Soderbergh’s Che; Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty; andDavid O. Russell’s Joy. Other projects include Vantage Point; the 2015 Point Break reboot; Hands of Stone; The Girl on the Train; and, more recently, Gold and Bright.

He just wrapped Pablo Trapero’s thriller The Quietude with The Artist’s Bérénice Bejo in Argentina and will reunite with Robert De Niro for the third time in a top-secret project. Although he can’t talk about the film, he has plenty to say about De Niro, his co-star in Joy and Hands of Stone. “I’ve only done two films with Bob, but it feels like six because of the intensity of the films, but also because of the intensity of our relationship,” he shares. “I’ve been lucky to become very close to Bob, and he’s an important part of my life, not only professionally but also personally. We try to hang out as much as we can. He’s a great listener and a huge source of inspiration. He’s one of the most polite people I’ve ever met. He treats everyone equally, honestly. That’s very inspiring, especially in this day and age.”

At the end of the day, Ramírez is just looking for things that make him happy. “I’m in New York City right now, and I’m playing one of the most important parts that I’ve ever done and working with some of the greatest talents I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with,” he notes. “I just spent an amazing New Year’s Eve with my family. My father almost died this past year, but he made it [to the holidays] with us. I’m at a great moment in my life. It’s as good as it gets. Is it perfect? No, nothing’s perfect, but that’s part of the challenge. You’re always trying to make things a little bit better. Sometimes you nail it, sometimes you don’t, but you wait for the next day to make it better. I take things one day at a time.”

He references the destruction of his homeland, and the constitutional-crisis protests that swept Venezuela in 2017. “I come from a country that was destroyed by bigotry,” Ramírez says. “My country has been basically morally erased. Almost more than three million people have left the country. However, every time I walk through Buenos Aires [in Argentina], I see young people from my country that have fled there just happy that they’re alive, that they have a new slate in front of them. And that is beautiful. It gives me hope.”

We ask if he thinks his innate optimism—his hopefulness—has helped him navigate through life—the belief that if you want things to be wonderful, they will be. He mulls this over, and he agrees. “I think so. I always try to see the glass as half full and not half empty. I mean, there are days when I just see emptiness, sure—it’s not a constant thing—but most of the time, I have to believe that things can improve. Bad things, evil things just tend to be a little bit louder.”

But it’s in his personality to focus on the good, to live in the moment. He asserts that he’s happy with his path: “I’m very lucky. I also work very hard. I have great people around me, and I try to surround myself with people who have the same attitude. I’m at a very interesting moment [in my life]. But you know, if you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have said the same thing. I’m very open to what the day awaits.”

#acs versace #edgar ramirez #haute living #interview #article #february 2018

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Cyberpunk 2077 Review

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A preface: Cyberpunk 2077 has had one hell of a rocky release, and it’s almost impossible to play the game while also ignoring the controversy surrounding its disastrous console launch, among other points of contention. That being said, in my time with the game—which I reviewed on PC—I remained focused on assessing the game that was in front of me, period.

Cyberpunk 2077 is without a doubt a mixed bag, though its strengths ultimately outweigh its weaknesses. The game blew my hair back with its immersiveness, art and sound design, staggering scope, and production value (at least on PC). But its shortcomings are just as notable, although never catastrophic or deal-breaking. Gameplay has blemishes all over, the writing is tonally inconsistent, and bugs do mar the experience to a certain extent. This is far from a perfect game in its current state. But in spite of all this, part of me fell in love with the game for its ambition, boldness, and eye-popping presentation.

The story is set in the year 2077 in Night City, a Central California metropolis run by megacorporations, populated by millions of cybernetically-enhanced denizens, and poisoned to the core by deep-seeded corruption and crime. You play as V, a small-time crook who by seedy happenstance befriends another gun-waving lughead named Jackie. Together they take on a big-time heist that goes tragically wrong and results, impossibly, with the personality construct of a decades-deceased rockstar/terrorist named Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves) implanted in V’s brain, chopping his remaining life expectancy down to a sliver. V and Johnny must work together to split their respective consciousnesses and take down the Arasaka corporation, whose borderline-demonic tech brought forth their doomed coexistence.

From this point on, you’re free to explore the city and get into all kinds of trouble. There are a multitude of slimy sleazeballs to meet, complete jobs for, and get into shootouts with, as well as all of the other side tasks you’d expect from an urban open world. You can buy/steal cars and motorbikes and use them to compete in street races, stumble upon police shootouts and join in on the action, or steal copious amounts of money and paraphernalia from warring street gangs. There’s A LOT to see and do in this game—the question is, is any of it fun?

The answer is complicated. In short, my answer is “mostly.” I find Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay to be problematic at worst and, at best, reasonably fun. If the game didn’t look and sound so good, I don’t think I would have enjoyed the gameplay almost at all. I have yet to tire of playing Cyberpunk 2077, but I think that’s a testament to how much I love the audio-visual presentation and the characters, not the gameplay itself.

Before diving into the gnarled, twisted matter of gameplay, let’s get this out of the way: this game world is one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. Several studios have delivered amazing looking game worlds this year, but Night City is a serious design achievement that the folks at CDPR should be very, very proud of.

Looking up at the looming, almost monumental buildings that shape Night City’s skyline is breathtaking, but it’s what you see when your eyes come back down to street level that impressed me most. Trash bags piled up two stories high, plugging up alleyways with graffiti of cybernetic freaks scrawled across deteriorating walls. The environments are insanely detailed, but they tell a story, too: look up and you see big money, squeaky clean windows, and technological ambition; look down and you see a sea of sufferers, psychologically and physically wounded citizens bled dry in the name of corporate conquest. From a purely cosmetic perspective, the game looks phenomenal, but it’s the artistic intention behind the designs that really makes the visuals sing.

As far as technical prowess is concerned, the game is spectacular provided you have the right machine to run it. Texture quality is insanely high, the environments are absurdly detailed, and the game’s lighting, especially with ray tracing enabled, is incredibly realistic. The atmosphere in this game is as thick as I’ve ever seen, and combined with the game’s pulsating, evocative, synth-based score, it creates a mood that few other titles can rival. Simply taking a walk around Night City and soaking in the sights was my favorite thing to do.

The character models are another high point–from the detail of the models themselves, to the way they move, to the top-notch facial animation, every weirdo you meet in Night City is unique and expressive. An interesting thing I noticed was that during some cutscenes that I found to be banal from a narrative point of view were still captivating to a certain extent simply because the character animation and voice acting were so well done. Some of the writing is a little odd, particularly when characters who are meant to be thugs and grifters speak in an unusually formal tone, but overall, the voice actors and animators do enough to make the dialogue-driven moments engaging.

What I fear won’t be discussed enough about this game is its sound design, which is just as excellent as the graphics. Cyberpunk 2077 embeds you in its world better than any game I’ve played this year, and that sense of immersion can be largely attributed to the finely-tuned symphony of sounds that is constantly being streamed into your ears. From the squeaking of leather couches when you sit in them, to the muffled thuds you hear when you drive over speed bumps, to the way crowds sound in enclosed spaces versus outdoor spaces, the level of detail and care that went into immersing the player is incredible. The three-dimensional sound design actually makes the visuals appear more vivid and tactile than they actually are.

As for the gameplay, I found Cyberpunk 2077’s combat in particular to be clunky and a tad slow. It isn’t broken or imbalanced, but it isn’t snappy enough and there isn’t that x-factor that you find in most great shooters that keeps you obsessively coming back for more. To put it another way, The Witcher 3’s combat was so compelling and entertaining that I happily played that game for over 400 hours largely because of the combat. Cyberpunk 2077’s combat is absolutely not what pulled me through the game for the 60+ hours I played it, and there are many reasons why.

Release Date: Dec. 10, 2020 Platforms: PC (reviewed), PS5, XSX/S, PS4, XBO, Stadia Developer CD Projekt Red Publisher: CD Projekt Genre: Action RPG

Combat is of the typical first-person shooter variety, with both shooting and melee combat supported. There are a slew of weapons to acquire and upgrade via the game’s crafting system, and the weapons all look and sound pretty sweet but are somewhat forgettable, which is a shame for a game boasting such a breadth of artillery. The “iconic” weapons, which you earn at different points throughout the campaign, stand out the most and come with useful perks. But none feel exciting to wield are pack the punch of Doom’s BFG or Half Life’s gravity gun. I did however enjoy the smart targeting feature you can access through a combination of smart weapons and a handy body mod, which allows your bullets to find their target no matter what direction you aim and can save your ass if you’re cornered and hurting behind cover.

Then there are the other two pillars of combat: hacking and stealth. Hacking allows you to wreak havoc on enemy tech to sabotage or distract them long enough to give you an opening to pounce guns-a-blazing. You can frazzle a baddie’s optics while you sneak up behind them, take control of all security cameras on a given network, or turn on a flood light to manipulate enemy movements. The possibilities are innumerable, and it all sounds great on paper.

But in practice the hacking system just isn’t all that fun to use. I was amused for a time, as I got increasingly more creative with how I used my scanner to tag enemies and objects and sabotage them from afar. But after a while this system became tedious because it slows down the action to an absolute crawl, and the tactical aspects of combat just aren’t polished or engaging enough to make up for the pause. In the later hours of my playthrough, I found myself almost always resorting to in-your-face combat because, well, it solved problems more quickly.

Stealth feels even shoddier than hacking, unfortunately. In most missions, there’s a big emphasis on taking your targets out quietly, but for me sneaking around almost always led to bouts of frustrated groans and eye-rolls. For one, enemies’ lines of sight are really difficult to gauge—some will spot you from seemingly a football field away, while others won’t notice you cross a walkway mere feet in front of them. On top of this, the window of opportunity you have to grapple enemies from behind is finicky—I’d be standing right behind a guy ready to grab him when suddenly the “grab” prompt would disappear inexplicably, when neither of us had moved an inch. I’d move in closer to try again and he’d turn around and…you know the rest.

I believe that if the stealth and hacking were more polished and refined, or even de-emphasized to a certain degree, it would free up the shooting to feel a lot more kinetic and exciting. As is, the combat grows old over time, which is a real shame when you think of The Witcher 3’s combat system, which is incredible and only gets sweeter as you play.

Games

Cyberpunk 2077: Every Romance Option in the Game

By Matthew Byrd

Games

Cyberpunk 2077: The Best Cyberware Upgrades

By Matthew Byrd

There is a whole litany of gripes I have with Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay. The driving—be it on four wheels or two—feels slippery and unwieldy. The menus are an eyesore. Melee combat is atrocious. The “braindances”–investigative crime-reconstruction mini-games–are headache-inducing…I could go on. But there were other aspects of gameplay that I did enjoy, like the streamlined stash mechanic, the flexible crafting system, the number and variety of missions available at any given time, and most of all, the well thought out RPG elements.

The character progression system didn’t immediately strike me as anything special, but the more I played the game and explored the five skill trees (Reflexes, Technical Ability, Body, Cool, Intelligence), I found that the omission of a traditional class system actually makes character progression more fluid and encourages experimentation as opposed to nudging (or shoving) you down a particular path of mastery. Although I didn’t always enjoy enemy encounters, I did feel like the different perks I acquired helped me succeed in combat in ways that were easily measurable. For example, the “Vanishing Point” perk, which increases your evasion stat for seven seconds after you dodge if you’re dual wielding a pistol and revolver, totally changed the way I approached enemies. I quit stealthing for quite a while because darting around with my pistols blaring turned out to be super effective for me.

Generally, I did enjoy Cyberpunk 2077’s story and the fact that it’s more character-based than plot-based. The relationships between the characters take precedence over the machinations of the narrative, and I appreciate that. As in most RPGs, you meet characters and complete various tasks and quests for them, but with Cyberpunk 2077, I felt that the characterizations were so strong that I was actually more compelled to find out how the relationships between V and his supporting characters progressed than I was to collect precious loot at the end of missions.

I found all of the game’s characters to be memorable, which comes as no surprise considering the character work CDPR has done in the past. Rogue nomad Panam can be both compassionate and vicious; the dutiful Goro Takemura is almost comically stoic and serious; Jackie’s tight relationship with his family and friends permeates the game in a poetic way. And Reeves does a fine job as Johnny Silverhand, though his style of voice acting took a bit of getting used to for me, particularly when compared to the rest of the cast.

The nice thing about V’s relationships is that the more you explore the city and the more characters you meet, the more possibilities open up to you in the campaign’s final act. There are a multitude of endings that you can reach, but these outcomes are largely dictated by the people you’ve met and how close you are to them.

What irks me about the game’s last act is how it plays out leading up to the ending. After playing for hours and hours in the beautiful game world that is Night City, I was expecting to be treated to even more imaginative environments and enemy encounters at the game’s conclusion. Without spoiling anything, the final enemy encounters and environments are almost laughably unimaginative and generic, and that was a big letdown.

I indeed experienced bugs during my time with Cyberpunk 2077, but far less than I’ve seen for other platforms online. A couple of crashes and a slew of visual glitches definitely cropped up for me, but they didn’t color my experience nearly as much as the game’s positive traits did, particularly in the visual department. The bugs that bothered me most were the ones that affected the narrative, like when dialogue options would be missing or when characters’ voices would drop out inexplicably. But overall I had a relatively smooth experience that was no more buggy than your typical open world game.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

My relationship to Cyberpunk 2077 is a fraught one. I have so many issues with this game that I couldn’t possibly fit them all into this review. And I have just as many positive things to say. The grandeur of the project is both what I love and hate about it. I do wish CDPR had tightened its focus and worked out some of the game’s more glaring issues before rushing Cyberpunk 2077 out for a holiday release. But at the same time, I deeply respect the scope of the studio’s vision. This is a game with a strong sense of identity, and that’s something that you can’t say about a lot of AAA open-world games these days.

Cyberpunk 2077 is problematic, but ultimately I’m a fan of it in spite of its flaws. And I think in time its flaws will be ironed out and my fandom will only grow.

The post Cyberpunk 2077 Review appeared first on Den of Geek.

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xadoheandterra · 7 years ago

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Title: Don’t Write Me A Postscript Chapter: IX (I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VII / VIII / X / XI / XII / XIII) Characters: Dr. Leonard Church | Director, Church | Alpha, David Church | Agent Washington | Recovery One, Micheal Caboose | Agent California | Micheal-210, F.I.L.S.S | Xi Summary: He was all sorts fucked up and didn’t want to admit it. Being alone for fourteen months didn’t help matters--except, well, Church was tired of being alone. Tired of people leaving and dying--and he thought, no more. I’m done. I’m out.

Won’t Say You’re Sorry (I / II / III)

Do You Even Feel Compassion? (I / II)

Name: Michael Caboose Age: 21 Service ID: Michael-210 Project Freelancer ID: California Record Notes:

Member of Class II of the SPARTAN-II Program on loan to Project Freelancer. Assigned to Omega Squad under Florida. Reported MIA to SPARTAN-II Program following failed implantation of ALPHA. Dr. Halsey provided additional information. Noted family within the Project; designations Four-Seven-Niner and Maine. See attached files.

Leonard pursed his lips. The failure of the ALPHA implantation still rubbed him rather raw; in part because of the damage it did to California and Alpha both, and in part because he needed Halsey’s help in essentially removing California from the SPARTAN-II Program. The discovery of California’s relation to Maine and Four-Seven-Niner was an unprecedented surprise, and one that Leonard worked hard to hide. There was no telling how they’d react to California being their brother, given the SPARTAN Program’s tendency to kidnap children and replace them with flash clones.

Name: Kaikaina Grif Age: 24 Service ID: 00215-85769-KG Project Freelancer ID: Kansas Record Notes:

Fast-tracked into Freelancer due to impeccable service record. Paired to Agent Florida for complimentary skills. Highly trained Infiltration Specialist with additional undercover training. Disruptive behavior noted. Noted family within the Project; Private Dexter Grif acquired from UNSC Military after medical discharge. See attached files.

Kansas was an interesting member of Project Freelancer. Leonard frowned lightly; Florida picked her up almost instantly and practically begged Leonard to let her be a part of his little sub team of infiltration specialists. Given how Kansas could seemingly shift the type of personality she put out Leonard wasn’t too hard pressed to give in to Florida’s request. Her brother, on the other hand, had an impeccable service record. If only the resulting trauma from his time in the military hadn’t ruined him he would’ve made a great agent himself.

Name: Franklin Delano Donut Age: 28 Service ID: 08295-64381-FD Project Freelancer ID: Hawaii Record Notes:

Arms Specialist reassigned to Freelancer per request. Specific training as Grenadier. Assigned to Beta Squad as rear support. Reassigned to Omega Squad per Florida’s request. Questionable comments from Agent noted. Counselor refuses to handle Agent.

Leonard snorted. He could remember Hawaii. He could remember the way Price left the room after Hawaii with such a constipated look on his face. Leonard found Hawaii amusing and a bit of a breath of fresh air. He’d watched the man turn heads with innuendo and how perfectly placed it was. He flipped the file and then frowned when he reached Montana.

Name: Jacob Jenkins. Age: 27 Service ID: 97165-32850-JJ Project Freelancer ID: Montana Record Notes:

Infiltration Specialist assigned to Omega Squad under Florida. Talented at information gathering. Acquired from outside UNSC Military and Navy per request. Prior history of criminal activity noted. See attached.

Montana, one of the KIA’s on the list supposedly noted to Agent Maine. Leonard closed his eyes and flipped the page. The last name on the list was Oregon.

Name: Cornelius Thromwell Andersmith Age: 29 Service ID: 55314-06289-CA Project Freelancer ID: Oregon Record Notes:

Acclaimed sniper; long range communications specialist. Acquired from Insurrectionist movement on abandoned colony planet Chorus. Concerning theories surrounding the loss of the Chorus colony. Assigned to Omega Squad under Florida.

Andersmith—Oregon—wasn’t even noted on the list of potentially missing or killed agents. It left Leonard curious as to why. With a sigh Leonard leaned back and folded his hands in front of his lips. The list was extensive, and almost all members at one point or another worked under Florida. Leonard had no doubt that Florida chose the “reinforcements” and “replacements” with care and purpose. Combine this ecclesiastic group of recruits with the ecclesiastic group of Sim Troopers and it made for a nice pretty picture.

It certainly fit the mimicry of the Desert Gulch troopers well, Leonard mused, but that wasn’t the important part. The important part was realizing that he’d missed this Agents and no one brought it to his attention. Leonard frowned and pulled the folders up side-by-side. He swiped away Montana’s—the agent was dead, there was nothing to be done there—and then swiped away California’s—that man was already far too attached to Alpha as it was.

Hawaii, Leonard noted, was actually on loan to the UNSC Ambassadorial team that Lavernius Tucker was assigned. Leonard tossed that file aside as well. That left Kansas—and Leonard grimaced at the thought. Kansas was a trip and a half, and what’s worse is that she’d have an attachment because her brother was on the Blood Gulch Red Team, despite her assignation to Blue Team Command. Plus Leonard couldn’t quite count on how she’d react to him pulling her back into the Freelancer mess with Alpha, Maine, and Washington.

Considering Agent Maine’s track record and that Kansas’ brother might be placed into the line of fire with her participation, Leonard paused the thought to contact her. That left, out of everyone, Oregon. Leonard pressed his lips together. Oregon was interesting, out of the group, although everyone Florida hand picked were, at their core, interesting. Out of everything there wasn’t much known about Oregon. His status as a former Insurrectionist was kept from everyone—although Florida unearthed it as Florida always did—but that wasn’t even the kicker, really. The fact that Oregon supposedly came from the Chorus colony, a colony that the UNSC had long listed as abandoned and lost due to unknown factors, but he’d had interesting tales to tell about the Chorus colony.

Leonard hummed and tapped on Oregon’s file.

“Xi, dear?”

Xi popped up. “Yes grandfather?”

“Contact Agent Oregon,” Leonard said. “I have a job for him.”

Xi flickered, and then said brightly, “Of course, grandfather!”

Leonard browsed the list again, and then mused, “And leave the surviving members as MIA. It would not due to alert any…specific parties to their true status. Or information. Use a backup of Gamma to assist you.”

“I don’t like Gamma,” Xi pouted.

“He’s a devious liar who will make the changes to their service records more believable,” Leonard pointed out logically. “If it makes you feel any better he cannot leave the containment unit.”

“Very well,” Xi relented and disappeared.

Leonard sighed. While frustrating that V.I.C. called all of Omega Squad following the reported death of Florida—by aspirin of all things—it was ultimately understandable. Leonard doubted that the death of Florida was a mere accident. The man was more than aware of his own weaknesses and paranoid to boot; it made him the perfect partner for V.I.C. in Blood Gulch. Still, the entirety of Omega Squad…Leonard frowned.

“Should have terminated that damn program,” Leonard grumbled. “Overreacting as always.” There was no real heat in the words though, merely exasperation, and honestly in the end that overreaction was perhaps the one reason why Alpha survived as long as he had. Leonard couldn’t’ fault V.I.C. his insane paranoia, given everything. Leonard found himself fairly paranoid now, even.

“Xi, end secure,” Leonard called out. He’d secluded himself away for long enough. Fairly quickly the data that Leonard viewed vanished, replaced with mundane information. F.I.L.S.S. popped back up on the screen, a waveform in the shape of an eye.

“Done, Director,” F.I.L.S.S. intoned.

“Thank you, F.I.L.S.S.,” Leonard sighed. “Thank you.”

They landed on Rhodam with little fanfare and were supplied a jeep much to Agent Washington’s consternation. Church caught something about fucking cars but decided not to press considering his own rather short fuse. He’d been strung like a wire ever since the call from the Director and prone to lash out at those around him. It reached the point that even Caboose started to avoid him if only because Church was so prickly right now.

When they finally did get into the jeep and drive away everything made sense.

“Where did you learn to drive?!” Church shrieked.

“I didn’t! Taught myself!” Wash shot back, pulled the jeep around a curve way too fast and Church gripped his seat tightly. In the back Caboose hollered like he was on some sort of rollercoaster ride. Church wanted to grab him, shake him, let him know their very lives were on the line here—when the jeep rolled over and came to a rather spectacular crash with them still inside.

“SONNOVABITCH!” Church screamed. He could hear a dangerous sort of rattle, then the sound of something cracking, and then there was smoke as the jeep rolled over the edge of a cliff. “YOU FUCKIIIIING DIIIIIIICK!” They rolled over and over—and Church swore Caboose started to moan in the way that meant he was going to be sick—before they came to a sickening crunch upside down.

For a moment they hung there, upside down, and then Church flailed as the reality sunk in. “Caboose? Caboose?!” he shouted.

“Ow,” Caboose said. “I think I do not like this ride, Church.”

“You and me both,” Church grumbled. He heard the faint sound of something like power armor scrambling for a buckle and with a start Church snapped, “Caboose don’t—” and then there came a definite click and Church grimaced at the followed thunk and then Caboose’s faint, “Ow.”

“We’re upside down, dumbass,” Church grumbled. “You better not have hurt your damn head any more than it already is.”

“I feel a bit sick,” Caboose said plainly.

“Don’t throw up!” Church shrieked, flailed, and scrambled for his own seatbelt.

“I think I smell fire, too,” Caboose said just as Church got his own seatbelt unbuckled and crashed down onto the roof of the jeep. “Yes, I smell fire. Church. Is the engine supposed to be on fire?”

“What?” Church pushed himself up, and then paled at the sight of flames on the front of the jeep. “How the fuck did he—”

“Uhm, Church,” Caboose continued, “I think we should leave. Soon. Fire is bad, right?”

“Right!” Church jolted into action. “Fire is very bad!” Church scrambled to get Washington unbuckled, grimaced at the sight of the man completely unmoving, and grunted when he eventually fell down onto Church.

Caboose scrambled out of the jeep, and then over to the side where he pried the door open and hauled both Church and Washington away from the wreckage with one under each arm. He ran fast, because Caboose was fast, in some random direction and only stopped when he heard the loud boom of the jeep completely, illogically, exploding. Only then did Caboose set Church down, and carefully set down Agent Washington.

“That should not have been possible,” Church grumbled and yanked off his helmet. He was never more thankful that Agent Washington insisted they wear full power armor in the jeeps even if he found the idea illogical at first. “Caboose, helmet off,” Church snapped out as he knelt down next to Agent Washington.

“Yes, Church,” Caboose replied and carefully pried his helmet off. Church worked on removing Washington’s helmet as well, and then bit back a curse when he saw the bleeding cut on the Freelancer’s head.

“Head wounds bleed a lot,” Church murmured consoling to himself. “They bleed a lot, he’s okay.” Carefully Church shifted Agent Washington to check at the neural implant interface in the back of his neck, and sighed in relief to see it fairly intact. “Probably concussion, but okay.”

Caboose dropped down beside Agent Washington, and Church moved to him next. He checked the back of Caboose’s neck and relaxed when he didn’t see anything damaged from the drop. Then Church moved in front of Caboose and began to check his reflexes. “Follow my finger,” Church said and then dragged his finger across Caboose’s vision. His eyes were off, Church noted. Sluggish, slow, and pupils oddly dilated. One looked larger than the other, and Church grimaced. “Definite concussion.”

“Bad?” Caboose asked.

“Yeah, Caboose, bad,” Church agreed tiredly. “Stay right here, watch him, and don’t fall asleep. I’m going to go and grab enough twigs to start a fire.” Church glanced up at the sky. “It’ll be getting dark soon.” Church was just thankful that Agent Washington crashed them right into a forest.

Wash groaned and rolled his head over something rather soft. He could smell dirt and trees and his head felt like someone jammed it with a hammer or ten. He could hear Church say something, and the smell of vomit, and then Caboose really loud. Wash flinched and squeezed open his eyes. Something bright nearly blinded him and he felt his stomach rebel angrily.

“What th’ fuck?” Wash rolled to his side and tried to push himself up.

“Slow down!”

Suddenly there were arms around him; they helped him up and carefully leaned him back against a tree and Wash winced. Who was—the face was blurred. He blinked and squinted and tried to parse what his brain saw.

“Dad?” Wash mumbled tiredly.

“Guess again, fuckface,” dad said and Wash listed slightly to the side. “Oh my fucking god, stay still. Drink some water. Here. Slowly.”

“Yer ‘n ass,” Wash mumbled while dad shoved a glass into his hands and helped him tip it back to drink. “Fuckin’ basterd.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure your old man is a complete asshole,” dad grumbled. “Follow my finger.” He dragged a finger in front of Wash’s face and Wash tried to follow but he couldn’t quite. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.”

“Is Washingchurch okay?” Caboose asked and Wash felt a smile to his face. He kind of liked Caboose. The larger man reminded him a little bit of Maine in being a large, gentle giant. Well before Sigma, at least.

“No, Caboose, he really isn’t.” Dad scrubbed a hand down his face. “Fuck. I’m not a goddamn medic I can’t…fuck.”

“Why d’ ya cer?” Wash slurred. He listed to the side again, but dad grabbed him and straightened him up.

“I get it, daddy never cared for you, but fuck Washington I’m not your dad.”

Wash blinked, squinted, and tried to parse just what dad said.

“Bu’ ma…s’d…”

“God fuckin’ dammit, Washington, you picked me up from High Ground. I’m barely twenty-two!” dad shrieked.

Wash winced and squinted and then rasped, “Private…Church?”

“Finally,” Church threw his hands up into the air. “What do you remember?”

Wash grimaced and listed to the side. Church caught him with a soft curse. “Dun’…car?”

Church hissed between his teeth. “Yeah, there was a car. You were driving. We crashed. What the fuck.”

Wash listed to the other side and Church quickly grabbed him again. He prompted Wash to drink and Wash did so, except he felt really tired. All of this was just too much. Dad and Church and his head hurt and he couldn’t see straight and he wanted his ma something fierce. “M’sorry.”

“Goddammit Wash don’t you fall asleep—Wash—David! David you stay the fuck awake!”

Wash listed to the side, his eyes slipped shut, and he fell back into unconsciousness.

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broadwaybydesign · 8 years ago

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Natasha is Young: Costuming Denée Benton in “The Great Comet”

I had a special request in the Ask box for another entry in my The Great Comet series, and I am happy to oblige. This time, I’m turning my attention to something I’m typically more comfortable reviewing, namely women’s costuming. Having covered the male lead last time, I want to take a look at the costumes of Denée Benton this time, because they really show off Paloma Young’s skills as a costumer. I’ve picked a couple of Natasha’s (Ms Benton) outfits from The Great Comet to focus on, but I really do think you should check out all the costumes from this production; it’s definitely one of the most sumptuous musicals currently running on Broadway.

I’ve talked a lot about theming in costuming, and this is a good place to reiterate those points. Costume designers use color to make a statement, and this production is no exception. Costuming the character of Natasha in white for virtually the whole of the musical imbues the character with a kind of purity that none of the other characters possess to the same degree (with the possible exception of Sonya...but then again, “Sonya is good”). I think that’s important in the context of the musical, but there’s another reason that I think the white coloring of Natasha’s costumes is so important, and it goes to the heart of what makes The Great Comet such a unique theatrical experience: the staging and lighting.

Anyone who has seen the staging for The Great Comet knows that it is an interactive performance, one where the audience is very much brought into the heart of the action. As a result, the lighting design is more complicated than in your average production. That means your costumes need to be able to catch the light, and it makes the detail work you put into a costume all the more important. After all, members of the audience will be seeing the actress and character from every angle, as opposed to just a handful. Let’s take a look first at The Coat that is featured prominently in many of the promotional images and in the musical itself:

I want to start off by saying how in love I am with this coat. It’s regal and rich, and it hangs beautifully on Ms Benton (I haven’t had the chance to view anything from the understudies, so I’m focusing on the actress who originated the role). This is a posed shot, but it gives us a view of just how gorgeous this piece is. As I mentioned in my 9 to 5 review, outerwear is not something that is commonly featured on Broadway, and so costumers tend to take their cues more from history or current trends rather than other productions. But Paloma Young has come up with something beautiful and original here.

It’s floor-length, which has the effect of adding to Ms Benton’s height (something costumes can do, as I have noted in other reviews) and giving her more of a stage presence. The white is almost creamy in color in every photo I have seen, which is a good choice, I believe; pure, stark white can look artificial to the eye when it is overused, and a formal coat like this in the era (remember we are dealing with the 1810s) would almost certainly not have been in pure white. But this comes close, and onstage, it has the effect of being almost blindingly brilliant--which has to be intentional. Take a look at this shot where Ms Benton is lit from behind; the coat almost seems to glow as it catches the light, but you can still see the creaminess of the color where there is shadow:

Just take a moment to drink that in. Part of it is the effect of the spotlight, but it is not easy to get this kind of effect in a stage production, and Ms Young deserves a huge amount of credit for her fabric choice and the cuts of the cloth here. There’s an angelic feel here that gives me all the good feelings, and it really forces you to pay attention.

Onto the details of the coat itself! As can be seen in the first still, the coat is relatively simple in design, but that adds to its elegance in my book. Floor-length, it closes through the addition of four silver buttons on the bust and chest, which manage to stand out without being distracting. Ms Young has added a false belt around the high waist, using gold embroidery to add a splash of color to the cream of the coat itself. The embroidery takes the form of gold roping, which I think ties it nicely to Pierre’s waistcoat, which was the subject of my first Great Comet review. It flows nicely while still being a tiny bit abstract, and I think helps to make the coat more impressive.

The collar and cuffs of the coat match (which is important, I think, when one wants a classical look) through the addition of white fur. That’s a nice hat-tip to Russian styling of the Romanov era (1613-1918), which often emphasizes fur elements both for functionality and for design. Earlier on, functionality would have been more important--a Russian winter is brutally cold and fur is naturally warming--before eventually giving way to being a design element; given the setting of The Great Comet, I think it’s fair to say we’re more into the design era.

What I like about the addition of the fur is that it adds another texture to the coat itself; while not apparent in the stills here, under magnification the coat is a rough, almost leathery fabric that would help to keep the wearer warm while still looking elegant and graceful to an outside observer, as it does to the audience in this production, whether in the orchestra or onstage in the special seating. Texture is important, I think, even when it isn’t directly observed, because the eye is capable of picking up tiny, minute details even without us being conscious of it. It’s apparent that this isn’t a completely smooth fabric, but the addition of the fur adds a softness to the coat that it might otherwise lack.

The other amazing costume that is worn by Ms Denton in her role as Natasha is the White Dress. I think when most people hear that there is a ball scene in this musical, they conjure up images of voluminous dresses with yards of silks and chiffons, but I think that’s because most of us have been spoiled by Victorian or 18th century costume dramas rather than those set in the era of The Great Comet. Regency-era attire, both in the West and in Russia, was a little bit more simple. Crinolines (the wooden or wire skeleton of a ball gown) had yet to come into fashion in Russia as they had (to some extent) in France, and instead, a lot of emphasis was given to relatively straight cuts of fabric. The idea was that a woman’s figure could be hinted at, but not excessively revealed, leaving a slight air of mystery that would change over time.

Taking a look at the White Dress, the 1810s fashion leaps right out:

The dress is a patterned white fabric, where the pattern is a series of circular elements that are a part of the dress rather than being adornments added later on. There is a very high waist, which is a classic hallmark of this era of fashion in both the West and in Russia, and the bust and chest are richly adorned with detail work I’ll take a look at in a moment.

But look at the overall effect of the dress first. The fabric flows down to floor-length, is capable of floating when Ms Benton is in motion (as this shot shows), and has a regal look without being too imposing or intimidating. Compare that to, say, some of the dresses that Helene wears in the production, and the effect is even more important. Natasha is evolving slowly throughout this musical, and the dress is a point of transition. She’s allowing herself to be absolutely gorgeous in the context of a grand ball, and the dress is made to show off her ability to revel in the moment.

The overall effect is only enhanced by taking a closer look at some of the detail from the top portion of the dress. Here, we see Natasha being aided in getting ready by the aforementioned Helene (who may very well be the subject of her own review in this series), offering us not only a view of the detail but a chance for a little bit of compare-and-contrast:

First off, wow. I know I have a tendency to gush over design elements that I find attractive, but I can absolutely see why the Anon who asked about reviewing this dress cited it as their favorite-ever piece of costuming. The white, patterned fabric gives way to a saltire (an x-shaped) of fringed beadwork that sticks out from the dress and really gives it an effect that pops. It would have been easy to go over the top here, but in my opinion, Ms Young struck the perfect balance of small, delicate beadwork attached to the dress, and the pattern she chose for it adds a bit of a whimsical look to the dress that I don’t think we would see with a more flat or one-dimensional strand of beads.

But the beadwork, while impressive, is not my favorite feature of this dress--it’s the lacework! Take a look more closely at Ms Denton’s chest and shoulders. There is some really beautiful, delicate, elaborate lacework that has been added to take the dress from amazing to spectacular. Lace is very difficult to work with, and even more difficult to incorporate into a costume because it is by nature delicate. One wrong move, and it will just absolutely shred. Using it in this dress was a little risky, given the intense movement that goes on throughout this production, but in my considered opinion, it’s a risk that absolutely paid off. The addition of the lace really takes this dress to another level, and even without the other costumes in this production, Ms Young’s nomination for a Tony was well-deserved (and, again, there is a very good case for a win there).

I’ve had a chance now to look at a few of Paloma Young’s designs, and I am absolutely in love with them. Being able to look in depth at a few of her designs both in The Great Comet and Bandstand, I am a real admirer of how she uses fabrics and cuts to tell a story. The story I see here, in both the coat and the White Dress, is one of evolution. This young, innocent character is finally starting to come into her own as a result of the events in the musical, and her costuming reflects that. There is an innocence and purity to the dress, yes, but there are also design elements that hint to the audience that change is coming for Natasha. The country girl has gone city, and with that she’s starting to become someone else--someone, perhaps, she was always meant to be. That’s not an easy effect to have through costuming, and it’s one that I think deserves to be appreciated and admired.

Once again, thank you to Paloma Young for these visually stunning and meaningful costumes!

That wraps up today’s review of Natasha’s costumes in The Great Comet. Given the reception the last piece got, I’ll mix a couple more reviews of Paloma Young’s designs into my rota for the blog, with Helene and Anatole both high on my list as deserving some analysis.

As always, dear readers, if you have thoughts, comments, or feedback, please do not hesitate to drop me an Ask or send me a message on here or my main blog. Stay tuned for more from the beautiful world of Broadway costumes!

#the great comet #npatgco1812 #paloma young #denee benton #broadway #theatre #musicals #costumery

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magicnote99 · 7 years ago

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My thoughts on My Little Pony: The Movie

As a long time fan of the show, I was very excited when I first heard that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was going to be getting a theatrical film. But I was also a little skeptical. Despite some very impressive trailers and teasers, I was worried about how this concept would hold up in theatres. So, I went to go see it today and... it was really good. But to get my thoughts across, let me break it down into what I liked and didn't like.

What I liked:

For starters, the animation is beautiful. The show is normally animated with Flash, but this movie uses Toon Boom Harmony, and it looks amazing. The character designs are great and very expressive. I loved how they incorporated both a 2D aesthetic and a 3D background. Some may say it looks clunky, but I think it was great.

I loved the addition of the new characters, from Princess Skystar and her mother Queen Novo (a rare example of a non evil queen in MLP) to Captain Celaeno and the parrot pirates. I loved Tempest Shadow to bits. She OWNS every scene she's in with her intimidating voice and demeanor, and serves as a great contrast to the more comedic Storm King. I really liked him too, but I just wish he was in the movie more.

The songs were also spectacular. But my favourite song would have to be "Time To Be Awesome". I already knew Zoe Saldana could sing, but her powerful voice absolutely blew me away. I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for days now. My second favourite would definitely be Tempest's song "Open Up Your Eyes". It does a great job of showing Tempest's tragic backstory and showing her views on friendship and how it failed to work for her. That voice of hers actually sent chills up my spine. Well done, Emily Blunt.

What I didn't like:

There was actually very few things I didn't like. But one of them would probably be Grubber. Don't get me wrong, he was kinda funny. But he was honestly not as entertaining as the trailers made him out to be.

The only other thing that irked me was the slow movement of some of the characters in certain scenes. Particularly the part where Tempest and her forces first show up in Canterlot. All the ponies turn their heads to look, and they move SO SLOWLY. That did not seem natural. But I'm not an animator, so I'm not going to judge it too much.

The verdict?

I really enjoyed it. It definitely met my expectations and I'm really glad I went to see it. However, I'd only really recommend it to people who are fans of the show or have at least seen a few episodes. It's not something I'd recommend to those not familiar with the franchise. But if you're not a fan and are still curious about seeing this movie, I'd definitely give it a chance. It's not spectacular by any means, but it's still a very good movie and I'd love to watch it again soon.

Thanks for reading!

-Magic Note

#my little pony #mlp:fim #mlp the movie #my thoughts #review #ponies

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ramajmedia · 5 years ago

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10 Things In DCEU Movies You Didn’t Know Were CGI | ScreenRant

The DCEU is well known for its heavy use of CGI. It's caused controversy in the past with its use of visual effects to cover Henry Cavill's mustache in Justice League and has also been used to great effect in the underwater scenes of Aquaman. Without the huge CGI budgets some of the films would not look nearly as spectacular and some may actually see a vast improvement from this.

RELATED: 10 Ways The DCEU Would Be Different If It Started With The Dark Knight Trilogy

When done right CGI is completely invisible to the eye. Good visual effects should be mistaken for practical effects and melt into the scene. They should never stick out and you should be shocked when you learn that there was nothing real about the shot. The DCEU has managed to do this in the past so here's 10 things in DCEU movies you didn't know were CGI!

10 Themyscira Battle

Wonder Woman featured some amazing battles, with the trench sequence usually in everyone's minds when they think about the movie. But, there's another battle sequence which has a lot more CGI than you would think.

Usually for a big battle, a lot of the effects would be practical, with a few digital enhancements. The fantastical world of Themyscira was mostly digital though, with the ground really the only physical part. Even the horse was CGI so that it didn't injure anyone in the fight and many of the soldiers were simply digitally duplicated.

9 Underwater Hair

Hair is a difficult thing to shoot underwater. It's unpredictable and can get in the way of an actors face. When digitally adding water there's a similar issue, with the shot becoming more complicated if the hair has to be made to look as if it is floating.

Therefore, the best thing to do is to get all the actors in Aquaman to pin back their hair, so they can add some digitally and maneuver it however they want. It's a far simpler process and you would never know that that isn't actually their real hair!

8 Zod's Armor

Man of Steel was the first installment into the DC Extended Universe and set the groundwork for what was to come. It relied a lot on practical costumes, including most of the Kryptonians although one was surprisingly entirely CGI.

RELATED: 5 Reasons We Need Ezra Miller's Flash (& 5 Why We Don't)

Despite other armor from Krypton being a real suit, for most of the film and the stunts involved, Zod's armor was actually all CGI, with the actor wearing a slim fitting suit with tracking marks on them. It isn't quite as impressive in person as on screen but the end effect looks very real.

7 Mall Customers

In Shazam there's a big fight scene through the mall, where Billy is punched straight through the building. During the scene there are a number of onlookers who are just watching the action unfold without running away; there's been a lot of speculation from fans about these people.

The truth is that they are just members of the crew who have accidentally walked into shot. To disguise this the digital team has added bags, mops and a trolley to make them look like cleaning crew and shoppers. You would never know that anything CGI has happened to the background of the shot.

6 Bat Suit

Batman Vs. Superman didn't actually contain much of the fight that was promised. The epic showdown was cut short although we did see a comics accurate adaptation of the Bat armor used to fight the Man of Steel. It's an impressive costume, but much like Zod's before it, not at all real.

Usually the Bat suits are actually designed to be worn by the actor to get the right physicality and proportions. But because this would have been so large and heavy and requires a lot of movement, for most the fight scenes it's easier to just CGI the suit onto the actor. Most of the time it wasn't even Ben Affleck behind the digital artistry!

5 Russian City

During the big finale of Justice League the team race to Russia to help the people in a city that's getting destroyed by the presence of a Mother Box. It's a huge battle and is pretty spectacular, although often looks like a lot of CGI smoke is covering some of the action.

RELATED: 5 Reasons We Need Man Of Steel 2 (& 5 Why We Don't)

It's not just the smoke that's CGI though. Nearly none of that city is real or shot on location. It's all done on green screen which could explain why it's sometimes difficult to track where our heroes are geographically. This was to make production cheaper and for it to be easier to carry out the stunts that were needed for each scene.

4 Enchantress Costume

Another enchanting costume now and you'd be surprised at how much of it is actually CGI. The Enchantress outfit is actually pretty comic accurate and it's obvious it's been digitally enhanced to make it seem much more magical.

But in reality Cara Delevingne was actually wearing only a very thin base outfit where most of the costume was layered on top. Nearly all the green parts of the costume were CGI, as was the helmet. It has since been made into a practical costume and was practical in some scenes but the majority of the finale had an entirely CGI suit.

3 Wonder Woman's Stomach

Gal Gadot is an impressive casting choice for the Amazonian warrior and she has proved her might and spirit throughout the past few films she has been featured in.

The filming of her own movie provided a bit of a problem however. For some of the shoot she was actually pregnant and showed signs of this. Therefore, CGI was actually used on her stomach to hide that fact that she was with child. It's still noticeable from wide shots which Gadot herself finds hilarious.

2 Atlantis

Atlantis is an impressive structure and it would be no surprise to say that the exterior is designed out of digital components to make it seem more fantastical. But the CGI doesn't stop there!

Most of the interior shots were also through CGI, with a green screen being used to fill in the gaps. This is to make it a lot easier to add the underwater effects when it came time to submerge Atlantis into the depths of the ocean.

1 Superman's Cape

Cape's are often a practical part of the costume in order to help the actor get into character. It's also easier than tracking it into a scene but it can sometimes get in the way. The tech wizards in the DCEU thought it was easier to CGI Superman's cape in Justice League.

So every shot with Superman in has been filmed without a cape. The rest of the suit is real but there is no flowing red piece of cloth hanging from the back of him. This makes it a lot easier to do stunts though and made the filming day a lot smoother. Then it was digitally placed back in with reference to previous films.

NEXT: 4 Movies Warner Bros. Should Remove From DCEU Canon (& 4 They Should Keep)

source https://screenrant.com/dceu-movies-cgi-use-surprise/

#screenrant

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sunshine-ita · 8 years ago

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71 hours later – A Mass Effect: Andromeda critique

Et voilà! Since March 21, 2017, I’ve passed 71 hours in the Andromeda galaxy. Hated the first hour, because the Character Creator (CC) couldn’t or wouldn’t give me what I wanted. But as soon as I started the game with the default Sara Ryder, I could truly appreciate (and frown at) Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Here is a critique of the game. Let’s see what you scored, Andromeda!

I tried to make this review as spoiler free as possible. Hopefully, you won’t be spoiled. Fingers crossed!

The Game Engine

1. The Design - 9/10

All things considered, ME: A is a beautiful video game. The hardcore Sci-Fi fan in me is in bliss. All the planets are stunning; the ones you can land on and the ones you can scan only. The galaxy map and the travelling between stars and systems is pure delight. The attention was put in the details. The ships, the technology, the clothes, the outposts… Everything screamed Mass Effect to me. The Tempest is very sweet to travel in. And yes, the Nomad too. It resisted better to my bad driving than the Mako!

The design of the characters and most NPCs is on point. The turians and salarians look even more alien than in the previous games of the franchise. The asari bother me a bit, though. They all look alike, except for facial marking and skin color… And for PeeBee and T’Perro, both in the Tempest crew. I expected more diversity among the asari. For the rest, no major concern.

The visual of ME: A is a feast for the eyes, and even more since the release of the patch 1.05 (the character’s eyes are much better and the general coloring of the game too). My computer is old, I played in medium quality (in low quality, my eyes were crying because of the lack of details), and I can’t imagine how amazing it is in high and ultra high settings.

2. The Animation - 8/10

There were a LOT of complaints when the game came out. The animation was, to certain people, a complete disgrace. Honestly… I don’t get it. Fine, the animation is not perfect. But that bad? Come on! Some eyes or mouth movements were a bit weird, same for a couple of body movements and overall animation mechanics; LIKE IN EVERY FREAKING VIDEO GAME I EVER PLAYED. I don’t get the « animation rant ». Sure, Bioware will have to patch a couple of things, but in general, it’s quite playable as it is.

3. The Dialogs - 7/10

I liked the four dialogs options for Ryder. It gave enough versatility to the conversations and I think it’s a nice way to customize your character.

My game had some bad times with dialog synchronization, though. Sometimes, the background conversations would suddenly shut up for no reason; or two dialogs would embark on one another, making a real cacophony in my headphones. And fuck, SAM, stop telling me every 2 minutes, that I have new email… WHEN I DON’T HAVE SOME. So annoying.

4. The Sound Effects, Ambient Sounds and Soundtrack - 10/10

I think it’s one of the elements I prefer in Andromeda. Ship sounds, guns firing, the galaxy map, the scanners… Simply amazing and exactly what I expected. The new soundtrack feels even more cinematic than the Trilogy ones. We hear the resemblance, but it’s just enough to make us smile and want to travel more in Andromeda.

Bioware, you did extremely well on that one.

5. Combat Mechanics - 8/10

Three words: fun, versatile… complicated.

You can basically build your own combat specialist in ME: A, and it’s great. The thing is: I had to lower the difficulty for my first playthrough, because I was overwhelmed by the new fighting system. Combos, 50+ buttons to press on the controller, and all the other combat gear and perks hidden somewhere in the menus. It’s fun, lots of fun, spectacular, but a bit difficult to get around at first. In fact, after 71 hours in Andromeda, I feel like I don’t get the fighting system at all. Need to play again to comprehend it more.

A New Beginning

1. The Story - 7/10

Andromeda is clearly the first game of a new trilogy. Or, at least, there will be a sequel. The end of the game screams at you «THERE WILL BE A FOLLOW UP, GUYS». I’m still deaf from an ear.

The story is good (would not say extraordinary, though), and it leaves you with so many questions. I won’t make a list of the questions I have, because I don’t want to spoil anyone.

The Andromeda storyline was obviously built to pick the curiosity of the players and create a hype for a sequel or other promotional material (novels, comics, DLC). I must admit I had a moment of «That’s it? » at the end. Still, a part of me likes the wide opening.

I’ll be watching out for DLCs, books (already reading Nexus: Uprising), comics and other side stuff; which is a bit frustrating, because it cost a lot of money. But hey… That’s how Bioware/EA works. Not going to change. Must roll with it.

2. The Characters - 8/10

I could write a thesis on this topic, so I’ll be brief, and I’ll stick to the Tempest crew.

I love the characters. The Ryders have enough uncertainty and mystery around them to be interesting and I like the fact that your character, Sis or BroRyder, is inexperienced. It makes a distinct separation with Shepard.

The Tempest crew is nice. It doesn’t feel like it’s the same crew as on the Normandy. Vetra and Drack are the best squad mates; my favorites by far. Cora doesn’t annoy me. I get her; her sense of duty, her insecurities, her asari training who helps her focus. Jaal is sweet and emotional. PeeBee is a Liara on speed and I like how awkward she can be. T’Perro… I just want to marry her. Gosh, I love that doctor. Suvi is so sweet, curious and intelligent. I just want to hang out with her and eat her weird experiments. Kallo is skilled, yet so stuck up. He’s adorkable. Gill and Liam… They’re cool, but I must say they’re the two characters in the crew that don’t bring any reaction from me. I’m… indifferent. What I’m certain of: I want to get to know them better, so I can appreciate these two guys as much as the rest of the crew. I changed my mind about Kaidan Alenko, thanks to the fandom. I certainly can change my mind for Liam and Gill.

3. The Romances - 5/10

Ok. Bioware. *sigh* We need to talk.

I’m SO disappointed. And being disappointed romantically SUCKS.

I expected SO MUCH from the romances. Honestly, I wasn’t tempted by ANY of the romance options and Sara ended up with Reyes… Because her one true love, Lexi T’Perro, is not a romantic option (I’m still crying; Sara too). The sex is a subtext. Come on! And the Kerri date… FUCK. Can’t say more, don’t want to spoil. But... SO DISAPOINTING.

I’ll go on YouTube and watch all the romances, see if one is to my liking. Still, you’re not getting a high note on that one, Bioware.

4. Main Quests & Side Quests - 8/10

Lots of quests, but none that really annoyed me. They’re nicely integrated into the storyline. At the end, though, I was a bit tired of side quests popping every 5 seconds. What I liked is that the quest system makes Ryder be a pathfinder. For real. Stuff to do for your crew, the arks, the Nexus, the outposts. It represented well the extend of Ryder’s job.

My game has a lot of bugs in the quest system, though. I currently have around 10 quests (mostly additional assignments) that I can’t finish. Maybe a patch to help?

5. Hints to the Trilogy - 10/10

One word. P.E.R.F.E.C.T.

Really.

Not too much, not completely absent. Well placed, nicely explained or integrated into the storyline. Surprises, smiles, feels, joy… Only perfection.

Thank you. The fan in me is satisfied to the core on this point.

So, what did you score, Mass Effect: Andromeda?

80%.

Well, this isn’t bad! Because no, 80% doesn’t mean Andromeda is complete shit. It means 80% of the game is great, 20% not so much.

And you know what? It’s normal. It’s normal for a video game, or anything in life, to be imperfect. If it was 100%, there would be no place for headcanons or fanfictions or fanart. Where is the fun in that?

I’m also confident that the next patch, the DLCs and the side stuff will help Andromeda get better and better. Plus, if I recall my own Mass Effect experience, the Trilogy is not perfect either. It’s the whole games, side stuff and fandom that makes it amazing.

Now that my first playthrough of Andromeda is done, I want more; need more. I need more Mass Effect in my veins. That’s why all I want to do now is get along with my post-ME3 fanfic; and start a second playthrough of ME: A.

Next Ryder, here I come! Oh, and… I should try the multiplayer. Right?

#mass effect andromeda #critique #mass effect #bioware #sara ryder #first playthrough

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theskelejournals · 8 years ago

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Entry 50

Heh. Y’know, I hadn’t really thought about it cause I’ve been pleasantly occupied for a little while now, but it’s almost been two years since… well. The accident. It’s still hard to think about it, how it changed us, changed everything, but I guess that’s life. It goes on. Two years of confusion, fighting, working to regain myself, working through it all and just… moving past it. You don’t just get over something like that easily. And it hasn’t been easy. But I’ve had help. I have a lot of things, people, circumstances to thank for that. Yeah it’s still rough with that flower lurking around, but I don’t try and let him get me down too much. I just keep on being the laid back sentry I am and watching out for the strangeness.

Of course with Paps, Grillby and Q, and the lady behind the door, I’ve been able to keep myself afloat. There’s still moments where I hit a wall, when I sink, but then a hand reaches out to help. Whether I can physically grab that hand or not, there’s always someone there to make sure I don’t fall too far.

I couldn’t make it without you guys.

But beyond that deep stuff, let’s get to some of the more entertaining bits.

It’s almost All Hallow’s Eve, and while Paps and I didn’t do anything spectacular for it last year, this year the Snowdin Inn is hosting a party. Papyrus told me he wanted to attend and dress up, and when asked about it, he told me he wanted a guard costume. No surprise there. Mulling over ideas, I laid something out for him.

“tell you what, bro,” I said while we were out shopping one day, “you wanna be a guard for all hallow’s eve?”

“Of course I do! I mean, I want to be one for real, but to be one for this is just as good! For now!”

“heh, right, so.” Looking up with a grin, I tilted my head a little. “howzabout you design me a guard costume, and i’ll make it for you?”

Papyrus stopped mid stride in the isle, brows raising and jaw dropping.

“Really? You’ll make me a costume?”

“yeah sure, figure it’ll be fun.” Snickering, I added, “builds character, y’know. helps craft my engineering skills.”

For once, Paps was too excited about the prospect to fully hear the puns.

“Wowie! Yes brother, please! Oh, that’d be the coolest!”

So when we got home, Papyrus immediately rushed off to grab some paper and pens. It took him a few tries, but eventually he drew up a rough sketch of what he wanted.

“Behold, Sans! The Battle Body of the Great Papyrus!”

It was a pretty simple design in concept, and after looking it over, I took some of the paper he had left and sketched out my own in the style of blueprints. Papyrus watched intently as I went, planning out how to make it.

“Oh, oh! Could you make it as if I were actually going to use it? As a real guard? I want it to be authentic!”

“heh, sure thing.” With a chuckle, I made notes of what type of material to use, and once I had everything laid out, I turned the paper to show him.

“I… can’t understand most of that,” he mumbled with a furrowed brow. Grinning, I pat his shoulder and shook my head.

“that’s fine bro, i can draw all the conclusions i need on my own.” He made a grumbled noise in response, to which I snickered. I took his measurements and wrote those down too to make sure I had everything I needed besides the materials actually needed to make the gettup. After that, the next day was used to gather the supplies for the build. I got hard but flexible material, stuff I knew would protect him if he ever got in a brawl of any type. Kinda had a double meaning: authentic for him and extra protection to ease my mind. Despite that, I’ll be completely honest, I was actually excited to make the costume for him. I hadn’t built anything since my post out in the forest -- if you exclude puzzles -- and I was looking forward to working on something. Besides, I knew it would make Papyrus happy.

After getting everything I needed, I set up shop down in my lab to begin. Galahad kept watch as he always did down there, his own gaze ever curious as I worked. Papyrus would come down a lot to try and see how far I’d gotten, excited for it to be done and giving his own input. I think a part of him was a little worried about me being alone in my lab again after so long too, but I can’t blame him for that. I didn’t spend nearly as long down there as I did during the machine stuff, but I could understand his worry. When he was down there though, I’d use that opportunity to retake his measurements and fit the pieces around him to make sure everything lined up.

Progress took about a week, and when it was finally done, I gathered all the pieces with blue magic and carted them into the house. As a kicker, I put my old lab coat and a pair of reading glasses that were my brother’s on before heading inside. Paps was downstairs when I was tugging the pieces through the door, and his excited gasp made me look up with a grin.

“up to your room, bro,” I told him. “time to try it out.”

His excited laughter rang through the house as he jogged upstairs, making me grin that much wider. After bringing it all up, I set the pieces down and had Paps open his closet so we could use the full body mirror behind it.

Despite his excitement, Papyrus made sure to attach everything just right and carefully. I lended a hand whenever needed which wasn’t often, just a clasp or two, before he turned around and beheld himself in the mirror.

Watching him stare at his reflection in wonder was probably one of the most fulfilling things. The fact that I could make my brother happy like that made so many things worth it. Those books from long ago came in handy after all.

“Sans! This is exactly what I wanted!” Laughing in triumph, Papyrus danced happily in his spot, grinning away in glee. He spun around several times to get a look at every angle, utterly pleased with the results. “Oh brother, thank you! It is truly an outfit worthy of the Great Papyrus!”

“heh, only the best for the best, am i right?”

“Absolutely!”

As I watched him, a thought struck me and I tilted my head. The outfit looked good on him, but… something else could be added.

“y’know… i think i have something that’ll make you look even cooler.” Papyrus looked at me with curious excitement.

“I am already pretty great looking, but the Great Papyrus will always take suggestions!”

Smirking, I nodded and started heading toward the door.

“heh. one sec.”

Teleporting midstep, I reappeared in my room and looked around. Spotting what I wanted, I headed for my desk and ran a hand slowly over the folded red scarf by the journal. It was something I’d had for as long as I could remember. The sentimental value of it was deep, and I knew that it had been something important. Gaster said that it was one of the very first things I’d ever touched.

Smiling gently, I took a breath and picked it up to hold it close. Leaving my room, I went back down the hall to Paps’ room and found him still looking at the armor in the mirror. With a chuckle, I came to his side and held the bundled cloth up.

“here bro, use this.”

Blinking, Papyrus turned to look and he paused. His brows rose, looking between me and the scarf, reaching a tentative hand to run over it like I had done nearly a minute before.

“Your scarf! Sans… Are you sure?”

“yeah. just be sure to take good care of it,” grinning, I added, “knot that i didn’t think you would.” Pap groaned, slumping.

“Enouuuugh.” Straightening back up, he took the scarf gently and carefully held it in his mitts, raising a brow and tilting his head. There was a spark of recognition in his eye, one he didn’t look like he could place. But I knew what it was. That scarf had belonged to Gaster, and his father, and then dad gave it to me. Now, in this unspoken movement, I was passing it on to Pap. Continuing the tradition, I guess you could say. I’d worn it many times, but I guess it never really caught Paps’ attention enough for him to ask or notice. Until now, anyways.

Smiling gently, he looked up and gained an appreciative grin.

“I’ll wear this with pride, worry you not, brother!”

Kneeling down, he handed it back over and tilted his chin up. Understanding hit me and I nodded with a chuckle, shifting to wind it carefully around his neck and tucking it.

“there you go, bro. as sharp and fierce as ever.”

“Nyeh-heh! Wonderful!” Standing up tall, he looked in the mirror and his eyes lit up with his grin. “Wowie! Looks Sans! It really brings it together!” Tucking my hands in my pockets, I nodded with a grin.

“sure does, bro. you look like a true royal guard now.”

Gasping softly, Papyrus looked over with an excited grin.

“Really? You think so?” Clearing his throat, he turned back to the mirror and pulled a dramatic pose. “I mean! Of course I do! I am the Great Papyrus, the best, most Royalist of Guards!”

Snickering, I shook my head in amusement at his antics. He really was something else. In that moment, Pap reached and laid a hand on my shoulder. When I looked up, he was grinning happily still, a light in his eyes that made me pause.

“Sans… thank you. For all of this. It means a lot to me.”

Grinning softly back, I shrugged.

“it’s my job, bro. to make sure you’re happy and taken care of.” Grinning a little wider, I said, “out of the other two jobs i got, this is the best one.”

“I mean it, I don’t think I tell you enough how much I appreciate having you as my brother,” Papyrus said, kneeling back down so we were equal height. “I tease at you all the time about being lazy but…”

“aw paps,” I chuckled, “i know you don’t really mean it.”

“Ok but see you are lazy sometimes,” Pap countered, making a face, but it quickly smoothed back out. “But really. For all you do, thank you.”

“it’s nothin’.” Shrugging, I reached forward and gave his head a pat, much like Grillby tended to do. “but i gotta say, thank you for keeping me in line. you’re the greatest brother around.”

“Nyeh! It’s my job!” Winking at the repeated words, he pulled me into a tight hug. Huffing, I laughed and hugged him back as he continued, “I may be the greatest, but you’re the best! Never forget it!”

“heh, i won’t paps.”

“Good because if you do, I’ll be right here to remind your lazy self.” Patting my back, he let go and looked in the mirror one more time excitedly. I let him have the moment, and in that same moment I smiled to myself. Thanking whatever presence was out there that I had a brother as cool and understanding as Papyrus. Heh. Thanks to you too, Dadster.

“so…” Clearing my throat, I raised a brow with a slightly teasing grin up at him. “you gonna wear that the rest of the day now? cause uh, the party ain’t until this weekend.”

Blinking, Papyrus turned to look at me and then back in the mirror with crossed arms.

“Indeed I am! I can’t let a costume this exquisite just sit and wait to be worn once! I have to break it in. It must get the appreciation it deserves.”

Snickering softly, I leaned against the computer desk and rest a cheek in my hand.

“whatever you say, bro.”

“It is what I say! Now, let’s find you something to wear too.”

Shaking my head, I let out a laugh.

“nah, i already know what i’m gonna wear. wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to guess.”

His face falling into an unimpressed expression, Paps puts his hands on his hips as he stared me down.

“Are you really just going to put your lab coat on and call that a costume?”

“pretty much yeah.”

“You are ridiculous, brother,” he sighed, running a hand over his forehead.

“hey, it’s a costume,” I chuckled, “i don’t work there anymore, so it, y’know, works.”

“You could at least be a little creative with it!”

“well i am wearing glasses. it’s a spectac-ular addition.”

Turning the look to me again slowly, he leaned forward a little bit and squinted.

“So glasses and a lab coat.”

“yep.”

“And nothing else.”

“yep.”

Groaning, Papyrus threw his hands up and turned to face the mirror again.

“How do I put up with you?”

“pretty easily i’m sure, i don’t weigh that much.”

“OKAY I’M LEAVING,” he exclaimed, hands in the air again, marching toward the door. I started cracking up, burying my face in my arms. Going from a meaningful moment to banter in zero seconds flat.

“leaving your own room?”

“Yes! Leaving! Gone! Bye brother!”

Paps was out the door in seconds and I was laughing too hard to stop him. He wasn’t actually mad, but oh man that was too priceless. I eventually followed him out, shedding my coat and the glasses shortly after. Paps started talking to me again not long after that too, then we sank into laughter as we picked fun at one another. Right back to normal. Heh, as if the banter wasn’t. It was TV the rest of the night, Pap dancing around in his costume randomly to show it off even though I’d made it, and then a story to put him to sleep.

I’ll be the first to admit that my life is a little crazy, but then there’s times like these that I’m also reminded that it can be pretty cool. For once, I’m really starting to look forward to things again. It’s been building a little over time, and while hope can be dangerous in my situation, I can’t help but let it try to come back. Sure I’ve got a human-based promise to keep for my friend, a lunatic flower to watch out for, and a shadow that’s my dad that I can one-sidedly talk to from time to time but… y’know.

Life’s funny like that.

I’ve also got two jobs, a brother to watch out for, friends and family close by when I need them, and with that a support system. It can be sketchy -- thanks Flowey -- but again, that’s also life. Despite it all, the past few months, things have been looking pretty good. I can’t help feeling like… something's gonna happen soon, but what… I can’t even begin to think of. I’m just gonna hold out that it’s something good. All you can do, am I right?

I just know that, right now… yeah. Things are okay. I’m okay.

And that’s all I can ask for. - Sans

#undertale #sans #papyrus #undertale fanfic #journalVerse #sansjournal2 #and there it isss #the battle body #good lord this has been a journey

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