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praphit · 2 years ago

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Guardians Vol 3: A fatty, salty gift.

(No Spoilers)

May I be honest be with you? I’ve been thinking about letting my PMB card (Proud Marvel Bitch) expire. I know. I KNOW. Perish the thought, right??

I've been defending Marvel throughout all of the recent tough times.

While errbody out there was talkin smack, I defended you, Marvel!

When people said "Thor 4" was too goofy & had tone problems,

I said "LOOK, this dude just got his body back, his lady back, and his hammer back. Let him have some fun! Quit being a grump!"

When people said that "The Multiverse of Madness" suffered from too much CGI.

I said "LOOK, it's called THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS! It's about a fight between a Magical Doctor of Strangeness and a Super Witch! Give me ALL of the effects & colors! There can't be enough CGI! How were y'all expecting anything other than an overload of all of that?! You just want them to duke it out in one room, throwing Skittles and glitter at each other??!"

When people said that She-Hulk didn't have no business twerkin with Megan Thee Stallion.

I supported that badly CG'd booty! "If ya got it, shake it!" is what I said.

And then, "Ant-Man 3 happened....

THEN, J.Majors had his... alleged... issue...

THEN, I saw that "The Marvels" trailer... a movie that no one is asking for...

I wouldn't say that my faith in Marvel is broken, but doubt has certainly crept in.

Can these Guardians of Vol 3 restore my faith? - maybe, but it ain't gonna be easy.

They're kind of a mess right now. Rocket is playing what I call "The Secret Sadness Game".

Have you ever played that game? - I bet you have. It's when something is wrong with you; you're very sad, but you're not letting anyone know about it. It's a horrible game. Nobody wins in that game, but it's apparently popular these days, with social media making us all pretend to be happy, dignified, and pretty all of the time. So, popular that Mantis is playing that game a lil bit as well.

Drax is too simple-minded to play that game

(side note: Dave Bautista [Drax] said that Marvel dropped the ball concerning Drax's story. And I couldn't agree more. There's a lot to explore with his back story, but... I'm hoping that they'll either reboot the Guardians cartoon series or give Drax a "What If... " story. That show really likes depressing people; here's a golden opportunity.)

Groot is...

well, Groot.

And Nebula (whom I LOVE!)

is grumpier than a lot of us Marvel fans have become. To be fair she has to keep all of these bozos together while Peter aka Starlord is getting drunk and dropping F-Bombs.

He still hasn't gotten over Gamora.

I was going to be a jerk and say that he should have gotten over her by now, BUT I forgot that she’s kinda dead, but kinda not... (#ComicbookUniverseProblems)

It's hard to move on when your lover IS dead, but... still around, kinda, you know?? (If you actually don’t know, then... wow, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do)

I know (in the Christmas Special) they brought Peter the gift of Kevin Bacon to cheer him up, but maybe they should have brought him a woman. A good 80's star like he likes... maybe Heather Locklear

or Kathy Ireland. Remember her?

Not the best message though, I guess - "If you're depressed, then simply drown yourself in booze and pretty women (whom only exist to make you happy :)." But, he's kinda there anyway.

Like I said, they're a mess.

But, if one thing can bring family together it's tragedy.

Something bad happens to one of The Guardians, they sober-up the Starlord, wash his mouth out with soap, and they're off on an adventure!

Mostly a typical Guardians jam. I know some have complained about too many laughs while serious things are going on, but they kinda started all of that in the MCU. And to be fair, if you have survived as much as they have, perhaps you'd be laughing more in the face of danger as well. I loved the comedy duo of Mantis & Drax. And the... unromantic comedy duo/toxic partnership of Peter & Gamora.

And with Nebula (WHOM I LOVE!) in the middle of it all... PERFECTION.

The colorful new worlds and creatures we meet are cool. And the CGI is excellent. I don't know where those artists were when She-Hulk and MODOK were being created,

but whatever:) The action is excellent! A lot of murdering going on here for a PG-13 rating, when you stop and think about it, but I loved every non-drop of mostly non-existent blood.

The stuff that's different is the darker tones in here. There's some serious drama happening in this film. Of course we have more of Peter’s brokenhearted ass, but there are a lot of family dynamic stuff here as well. There's plenty of funny bickering between them, but it's also covering up some pain that the movie gets into.

Plus, we learn about Rocket's origin. That's when things get really dark and cruel. His past sucked. You WILL get emotional. Especially when in his story we meet our villain

THE HIGH EVOLUTIONARY.

He brings new meaning to the word "Narcissist", and you will hate him. There's a lot to hate. He's pretty much getting his Dr. Frankenstein on, using parts from animals, humanoid creatures, and robotics. His victims suffer much and he don't give a SHIT!

Bradley Cooper (Rocket) is good! I always forget that he's part of the Marvel Universe. I was kinda hoping that Rocket's origin included being Bradley Cooper, but had his brain removed and put in a raccoon. And maybe something similar with Groot

Some dark stuff, but also a lot of LOL moments. I think they maneuvered the tones well.

I do wish that we got more of my main woman Debicki!

And like many, I had hoped for more Adam Warlock, but I know time was tight in that regard.

That's prob my main complaint about the film - TIME. It's 2hrs and 30 mins ----- TOO LONG, and yet the endings for these characters seemed rushed. Like... where they end up, individually, makes sense, but it feels like we skipped some emotional steps.

This is Rocket's story, and it's full of laughs, feels, and bad ass action! I really enjoyed this movie! PMB card renewed!

Grade: B+

What made this movie extra enjoyable for me was the news that someone dies in this movie (NOT a spoiler. I already told you about all of the murder. Murder always begats more murder, kids.

Any explosion near The Guardians --- NOOOO! One of them gets shot --- NOOOOO! Any time one of them was alone --- NOOOO! Eating a delicious, fatty, salt encrusted meal---- Heart Disease, NOOOOOO! On the toilet ---- isn't that how Elvis died? or is that a myth? People die that way though.

. What an interesting way for a Marvel character to die. “We'll all remember when Mantis crapped herself to death.” :)

NOOOOOOO!

Although, anxiety-inducing, it was certainly a more exciting way to watch. It was a kind of a gift. A gift which I now leave with you.

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dragoncityinteriordesign · 2 years ago

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Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei’s Apartments are the same set

I know I sound like I’m hollering in front of a board with red string and pushpins all over it, but this has settled something that bugged me from the start.

It makes no sense that their apartments are the same layout. They’re on opposite sides of the hallway; they should be mirrored. My first instinct was that they were the same set, but I couldn’t imagine that the set designers would want to strike and re-assemble Zhao Yunlan’s nightmare of an apartment every time they needed it. So I figured there was just a Standard Apartment Set and the production had nabbed two of them.

But now I am convinced that it is a single set, and that they filmed all the scenes in Shen Wei’s apartment first, cleared it out, and built Zhao Yunlan’s apartment to keep for the rest of production.

A lot of this hinges on two pieces of information:

The first scene Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong filmed together was the post-mugging scene, where they sit in Shen Wei’s apartment and he rubs Zhao Yunlan’s bruised arm.

C-dramas often get filmed very out of order, but Guardian’s got a key piece of visual continuity: Zhao Yunlan’s bangs, which change between episodes 14 and 15.

With all that in mind, here’s the apartment hallway:

Note that there’s a poster on Zhao Yunlan’s side of the hall with a (made-up) character on it. That’ll be important.

We actually see that Shen Wei’s apartment is connected to this actual hallway - in fact, the show calls attention to it, because the punchline of the househunting scene is that it’s Zhao Yunlan’s doorway across the hall.

There are also a couple other shots where you can see other details through Shen Wei’s front door that match the exterior shots of Zhao Yunlan’s apartment. Even though the camera never travels through the door itself, you can see that this apartment and the hall are connected.

However, there’s only one shot where you see the connection between Zhao Yunlan’s apartment and the outside. As he’s storming out, you can tell by the poster on the wall that he’s storming out from Shen Wei’s side of the hall.

As amazing and memorable as Shen Wei’s apartment is (and there will be posts forthcoming on that), and as hard as he obviously schemed to get it, there are only four scenes when it’s all done up normally: the break-in (ep.6), the post-mugging conversation (ep.7), planning for the field trip (ep.9), and the “who told you I can’t erase your memories?” conversation (ep.14). All of them are before Zhao Yunlan changes his hair.

Beyond that, there are only two other scenes set there, and in both of them the apartment is manifestly different. The first is apartment-hunting (ep.5), when there are white cloths draped over the major furniture pieces. The second is arguably not even actually there -- it’s after it’s been burned out (ep.25), and the boys just stand in the doorway and scan a CG’d-up version of the place.

By contrast, there are tons of scenes set in Zhao Yunlan’s apartment, down to nearly the end of the last episode. It’s a much more important space, and it makes sense they’d need it longer.

I feel they do a great job of obfuscating the fact that they’re the same set. The little dividing walls they put up in Shen Wei’s apartment break up the space, and there’s the big difference of how Zhao Yunlan has a whole kitchen where Shen Wei just has low shelves and tall, curtained windows. The wallpaper color change gives it a whole different vibe, too.

So there you have it. Thank you for coming along with me on this wild ride; I feel better.

#guardian #zhen hun #zhao yunlan's apartment #shen wei's apartment

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kimbureh · 2 years ago

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The Uncanny Valley of Cinematic Landscapes

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a movie that goes above and beyond to have its animated characters interact with the real physical objects in all the shots; this lends the animated characters more realism despite their inherent "un-realism". [1]

The opposite is true for Marvel movies, or any movies, that have pure CGI shots and lack a sense of realism; it is weird, like an uncanny valley of cinematic landscapes (is that a thing? well, it is now). Or when in Jurassic World two fully CG dinosaurs wrestle each other in front of an entirely CG’d background, the element of "realism" goes missing.

But even if the shot is 100% shot on location with physical props, somehow many movies today have a look of "un-realism" to them; like 2021's Jungle Cruise from Disney. Real location, real objects, but.... it doesn’t look like a real boat or a real jungle, for that matter. It looks like Disney Land. Unreal. Like you can anticipate the disappointment of the lack of sensation when you touched it. Simply fake.

Those are my notes on the recent Like Stories of Old essay which you should watch on Youtube if you’re interested in that kind of stuff.

[1] With un-realism I mean anything that does require a certain degree of suspense of disbelief from the audience; with realism I mean anything that doesn’t. Please be aware that the term “realism” is usually used different from that when discussing movies or art in general.

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wukodork · 3 years ago

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Good news! The bulk of the last episode is a fight scene, so it’s immune to the worst of the bad parts of the show.

Bad news, not all of it is.

Now there actually are quite a few good moments, but they’re fleeting moments. Hopefully you enjoy them enough that you still enjoy the episode overall. Unfortunately, I’m at a point where I don’t want to see Grogu again. I’ll probably see the next show whatever it is, but I Do Not Care what happens to Grogu anymore. Din has a support system now, they can help him grieve if something bad happens. I might have still liked most of it if the beginning of the episode wasn’t filled with almost everything I didn’t like in the show. There were so many things that were exactly my kind of bullshit.

Fennec does not work as the exposition dump character. I don’t know if it’s the direction, or if Ming-Na decided to give a subpar performance for some reason (if she did I hope it was out of spite). Honestly her exposition scene at the beginning and last episode made me wonder if she’s actually the only one being filmed at the time and they cg’d her in esp since Disney is notorious for cging the laziest things. She’s good in the entire rest of the episode and even has probably the best part in the ep, but the beginning of the ep is just “meh.”

And then Boba. Mr. Fett I love you, but maybe don’t take battle advice from the extremely young biker gang that might be literal children? (I don’t remember how old they are, nor do I care) You don’t.....you don’t protect a city but luring an army to the city. I honestly can’t think of a good doylist reason to have the battle be in the city rather than at the palace where they can control the flow of battle better, especially since by making their stand in the city they’re putting all the civilians at risk. People died because they chose to hide out in the city. Half the city was destroyed by Boba’s rancor because they chose to hide in the city.

Boba does ride the rancor and it is indeed awesome. Other really cool things are Boba and Din vs the Pyke Syndacite’s army, a weird but delightful side character ship (that I honestly hope is broken off before either of them show up again), Fennec showing off why she’s the best assassin, Cad Bane literally just hanging around to bully Boba and Boba busting out his gaffi skills again. There also some moments with Grogu that are genuinely good, but I’m also quite bitter about him and Din hijacking the show for two episodes.

There’s also this line that’s supposed to be super dramatic with Cad Bane going “I KNEW you were a killer!” to Boba and it just...... Look. The first thing we ever knew about Boba Fett was that he kills people. He’s been a killer, this is not some revelation. The show keeps going on about how Boba needs to get his hands dirty and it’s weird but workable with Fennec, because she’s friends with Boba and is aware that he’s trying to change. But from Cad Bane it’s hilarious hearing him call the guy Vader was all “NO DISINTIGRATIONS” at a killer like it was some big condemnation. I guess they never crossed paths in the 30ish years between when they saw each other in Clone Wars and now.

Oh I forgot, even though the writing is rather cringe, there’s something beautiful about Boba telling Cad that he can’t bully him anymore bc he’s not a little boy anymore.

Ming-Na and Temura deserved so much better. They’re both so good and they really do give much better performances than the crap they were given deserves.

I had thought of maybe doing a rewrite, but I don’t think I could write the changes I’d want well enough to be happy with it and I don’t want to rewatch the show. Maybe I’ll just throw up an outline. Maybe two, one with the same major beats as the show and one with them altered slightly more.

Ugh what was even the point of having the rancor rampage? All it did was undermine Boba and prop up Grogu.

#tbobf spoilers

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duskkodesh · 3 years ago

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Reasons I’m Not Getting My Hopes Up About The Morbius Movie

1. The music. So far we have a public domain classical piece, fine. Fair enough and... People Are Strange. Why? Why couldn’t we make a movie about Morb without harkening back to other vampire movies? Why does The Lost Boys have to exist in Morb’s canon freaking universe?

2. The color palette. The trailers have been all 90% black and blue, and so goddamn dark. This is a comic movie, give me some color variance. Give me some art direction.

3: The bat scene. That. Never. Happened. In. Any. Comic. Ever. And while I recognize creative license that... is just a stupid scene in so many ways. Look, Morb would just import the damn bats, and actual vampire bats too, not the things that Sony CG’d there (Guys, vampire bats aren’t that big. They are like palm sized. Like 7 inches fullll wingspan. Smol bois.) Even if he did go to catch bats humans really aren’t as attractive as a dish of pig blood would be. The whole thing is unneeded and just reeks of cringe.

4. the dialog I’ve seen so far. “Some kind of bat radar.” IS THIS MAN A DOCTOR? BECAUSE YOU COULD HAVE FOOLED ME. The idiot didn’t even say ‘bat sonar’.

5. We all know how I feel about the lead actor.

6. The villain. While Matt Smith is freaking fantastic and will be great as any villain they very much messed with canon in order to do the same vs. same villain/hero scenario and... guys we just did that with Let There Be Carnage.

7. The company. Unless Morb teams up with Stroud there’s no good buddy dynamic in here. No other good characters. No Werewolf by Night, Legion of Monsters, Midnight Sons, no Blade, and I will wager my life no Spider-man.

8. PG13...

9. And the biiiig one: The crew. The writers do not have a good track record. Gods of Egypt?! Dracula Untold? The New Power Rangers? God, if those are your selling points than what have you done that you’re ashamed of? And the director. Go through his imdb and find one thing good to watch. Nope? That’s what I thought. There’s no Tom Hardy here, no Ryan Reynolds no real advocate for the heart of the character. I think at some point production called Roy Thomas and MAYBE they got some insight... but I’m not holding my breath. These are not comic people making this, these aren’t even good movie people. I hate the mouse but at least they read the comics they are using.

#I have my reasons #and there they are #Morbius The Living Vampire #Morbius #Morbius movie #Michael Morbius #I hate to say it but Disney would have done better #Disney is evil but has a bare level of competence #I go to sleep some nights wondering if my brain fabricated this entire movie and I will wake from this nightmare any day now #Sony Pictures

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woodchuckvirus · 3 years ago

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Screenshots of Fave OBQ Comic Panels (circa ~2004 - 2005)

So like ten years ago or so, I drew a webcomic for about like two years until life just kinda soaked up all my time and I lost my motivation to keep the comic going. And I also made the mistake of trying to “wing it” without having anything actually really plotted out, which meant that the comic’s plot went nowhere fast and just dragged... But even all these years later, I still really like how some of the panels came out, and although I have always thoroughly subscribed to my self-proposed philosophy of “never look at your archives,” I’m just gonna go look at my archives and screenshot and post my favorite panels here just because.

Back then, I had NO idea at all about how to draw backgrounds, so like 80% of the time, the backgrounds were severely photoshopped images of cities that I pulled off the internet. Knowing what I know now about copyright and stuff, pfffff lol, wow my webcomic was a copyright nightmare. But one thing that I was inexplicably good at was drawing hands, sort of, for some reason. So like, in this second upper right panel, I always liked how Ruethin’s hands turned out. In this left panel, I just like how this drawing of Ruethin came out in general.

[[This post got longgg so to save dashboard space, this post continues under the cut!]]

This is a small panel but for some reason, Tumblr’s blowing it up a bit to fit the full width of the post, so the quality looks way worse than it actually is on the page, but I liked this panel, although for a silly reason. I really made this one table look distinct because of the small crowd of people standing around it. I just really liked how I was able to show that there was some noticeable BS going on with this one particular table apart from all the other ones.

NEVER LOOK AT YOUR ARCHIVES lolololol oh my god look at that horrible face. But when I drew and CG’d this at the time, I was like “AW MAN, THIS LOOKS SO PROFESSIONAL. But let’s just forget about that face. because the REAL reason why I love this panel is because of the CREATURE’S face. That expression is glorious.

This panel was also a banger. In addition to Good Hands for Some Reason, I also fuckin’ loved making things glow and adding lighting effects. Even though my light sources were always completely inconsistent, but look at those fucking live wires and the hint of the hollow structure of the android, this is dramatic af. And, once again, that expression is doing the work.

Apart from Good Hands Sometimes, lighting effects, and very good animal expressions, blood was also a specialty because of course it was. My fave part about this panel is the implication that the pieces of wall are literally bouncing off of this guy’s bloody face, it’s just *chef’s kiss*

Look at this dramatic, edgy-ass reveal lol

Another tiny panel being blown up, but I liked this one because of the “camera” angle and the moody color scheme, and in general it just looks “mysterious”. Plus, I think I actually drew and CG’d the rooftop that they’re standing/sitting on, so 50% props to me on this one. We’re not going to comment too hard on the dialogue, tho, lol

I fuckin’ loved lighting effects, man. And coloring transparent cloth. This plot thread was one of the many unfortunate ones that never got to really take off before my “hiatus.” But this girl was possessed by a demon and had murdered her own brother while the demon was in control, so that’s her dealy here. But the way the light falls on that plush cat, it almost looks like a screenshot from an anime to me.

Honestly, props to the humor, expressions, and the mirror reflection in the background for this one. I don’t know what was going on with the design of the lamp but yeah it’s like The Future or something.

This honestly just epitomizes Nomed’s character so much. And also, that terrible looking ramen looks very tasty.

This top panel, honestly, was not too shabby for an Anime Face. And the shot of her in a stretcher is at a different kind of angle. This was another plot thread that never got a chance to get off the ground. She was going to be resurrected, like a zombie or something, and then we’d get into the existential horror of being undead but not the sexy-cool vampire kind of undead.

Ruethin smushing his face into a table. Once again, I think the real reason why I like this panel is because of the “camera angle.” These kinds of shots were more of a challenge for my drawing skills, so they’d either turn out horrible or turn out looking pretty awesome actually. And I think this one definitely leaned toward “pretty awesome.” I mean ffs look at those bowls.

Nomed’s face looked absolutely hideous in earlier pages, which is why his face is only starting to show up now, where it’s starting to actually look a little better and not, like, mutated.

That glowing blob is cigarette ash, but when you KNOW it’s cigarette ash, then it looks pretty fookin’ good. Behind it is a depiction of Dracula as described in the Bram Stoker novel. Also displaying my forever miffed opinion that vampires should be able to walk around in daylight, because Dracula definitely was up and moving around during daylight in the original novel. In fact, the only thing that happens to vampires in daylight is that their abilities and powers diminish. The whole “vampires can’t be out in sunlight” came across in the early Dracula movies. It was just made up for the big screen so vampires would be even spookier, maybe? But yeah, as far as I can tell, the daylight thing was never really part of the original Dracula story, so it always annoys me when vampires can’t hang around in daylight. Anyway, that was the rant that I was expressing through this panel. It did introduce this neat commentary on how people can be told something through propaganda for so long that it becomes difficult to discard the beliefs that were cultivated through that propaganda. I liked the whole “vampires afraid of sunlight” concept as being linked to that idea.

So I admit this is literally the whole damn page save for just the two first panels, but there are a couple of reasons why I like this page. It first shows some of the vampiric ability to turn into mist, also red glowy eyes hell yeah, and also pretty boy does cool edgy move and then immediately gets punched in the face.

Pretty boy immediately recups from this setback by setting the whole place on fire using his cigarette.

Very sp00ky dog face. Teeth was just another thing that I really liked to draw.

When I actually drew the backgrounds and applied that moody atmospheric lighting, it hella paid off.

A panel that adequately epitomizes Nomed and Ruethin’s relationship. Also dang I love metro stations for some reason.

A few things about this panel. Once again, I just really liked the “camera angle” on Ruethin in this left panel. The phrase printed on the yellow shirt in the background is something that my mom came up with. We were talking about people who try to say mean things to other people, and my mom was like “you should just say to them ‘you is a ugly person!’“ and I just thought fuckin’ lol that should be on a t-shirt. Adding to that is this kind of cluster of people having random conversations, and then Ruethin accidentally coming across as a creeper.

I couldn’t always draw people, but I could draw some sp00ky demon creatures. This one is a combination of a rat and a flea. But with wings.

Not entirely perfect, but I did like how this dude with a sandwich turned out here. And sometimes I just really liked these far shots, too.

Suddenly took a hard turn toward Edgar Allen Poe.

This guard with an air-pressurized crossbow attached to his arm guard. In practice it seems like a pretty cool design. He pulls an arrow from his satchel, clicks it straight into the crossbow, then after quick pressure build up, he turns his fist down which pulls a cord that releases the arrow and FFFWIP!

This is probably one of my top fave panels. People were really impressed with it, but lord all the time I spent on it trying to get the saw device to look round. The reality is that all of this CG work that I did was done entirely with a mouse. I didn’t have a tablet until years later, and I barely used it even then. Sure wish I’d bothered to learn, though, because I think it would have saved me a LOT of time and effort!!!

Showing the severe pressure from the arrows and not a bad sketch of Ruethin in this one.

Reaching peak CG work here in this panel tbh

I just really dug the special effects lighting on these panels and also that BOOM is so good.

Shit gettin’ super real and more KABOOMS!

Electricity is another super fun thing to CG.

wewwwwwwwwwwww! Once again, loved to produce crazy lighting effects.

Almost forgot this panel, but this is another Moment that kind of encapsulates Nomed and Ruethin’s relationship. It was just the thing that when they were kids, usually Nomed would be going off somewhere while Ruethin would be tailing after him. It’s just an endearing moment to me that shows how those old childhood habits survive into adulthood for the two of them.

Nomed gettin’ kicked in the face with a shoe. When this page posted, I was critiqued on the erroneous physics being portrayed here and well they were right but I still tried to defend it by claiming the skinny kid would fall faster than the larger surface-area’d demon with big ol’ wings. I think she was still right and this kid should have never been able to catch up with Nomed on the way down but eeeeeh it still looked cool and I love Nomed’s face right before he gets bonked in the chin with a foot.

Part of my World Building for this comic involved inventing a new handheld game device and a game to go with it. So I came up with the NecRo90 by Watchrabbit. The game involved a cast of critters that battled large monsters like winged dinosaurs apparently. Anyway it was cute and I’d play this game.

Proooobably my most favorite panel of Nomed, where he is lookin’ pretty dang intimidating.

The lighting, AAAAAH THE LIGHTING!

bL0OD oooooooooOOOoooooooOOOOOOoooo

So this was sadly where my stint as a webcomic artist ended. I took a “hiatus” after doing this page and then just never got back to it. What’s disappointing is that I had like five or six more pages already drawn, but I could just never regain my drive to ink, scan, CG, and edit the pages. I won’t lie, tho, I do miss doing webcomicing like this. It was always a fun time creating panels with amazing and fun lighting. Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier now that I have a screen display tablet but idk, I think it would still take me so much time... I think a large part of why I was able to get so many pages out was because I’d started this comic during my senior year of high school. Often I spent my lunch hour drawing and inking pages, then I’d have so much time to get them scanned and CG’d after school. In college, I had arguably even more time since classes didn’t take up the entire day.

But the story just wasn’t mapped out well enough and it crawled to the point that I just became impatient and frustrated. But it was still fun, and one fellow webcomic artist who also posted to the same site I did (DrunkDuck.com) had mentioned that a webcomic was like “artist steroids,” in that you end up drawing so much that your style improves much more quickly, and I do believe webcomicing did that for me.

Who knows, tho, maybe some time later I’ll do a post that’s all the horrific panels as a contrast because oh my lord are there some fugly ones that I could riff on after all these years. Anyhoo, this was a nice stroll down memory lane for me! Now to guzzle down some coffee and get back to some dang writing.

#signed fyrsiel

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shriekbackmusic · 4 years ago

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Collaborations #1 (’Shriekback are Seeing Other People’)

Well, collaboration is everything really innit? No man is an island, not even the ones who pretend they are. That’s what I reckon. Merging somebodys’ talents and energies with yours. What a thing. The very stuff of life.

Still, it can be a fractious business: politics will come into it. LIke: who’s in charge here? Who gets to say whether your bit is better than my bit? And how do we work that shit out? A microcosm of the world or what?

Undeterred, we seem to do it (collaborate) quite a lot. And these are some pretty successful tunes, I would say. Good for us. Bold and resolute Shriekback!

So there’s Hope, right?

(BA)

MART’S TRACKS:

DROP BY DROP Barker/Burridge

Taken from my Album" Water and Stone." Exploring my rolling Gtr and groove in 7 with the wonderfully talented musician cellist Emily Burridge.

Inspired by the miracle of water, its rhythm, its music, its journey, its myths, its poetry and beauty

FLYING SAUCER Barker/ Roedelius/Noah1

Lovely to have met and worked with the master of Ambience, Hans Joachim Roedelius for the Album Fibre.

Recorded up in the hills of Shropshire with George Taylor (Noah1) and Jez coed

This piece was inspired by my riff Im playing on the Hang Drum, hence the title "Flying Saucer"

GOLDEN MOON Barker/Young

Taken from my mini Album” Blue” Talitha Rise.

This was my first big endeavour into the musical spiritual world and collaboration with Jo beth young.

We are joined on the Riti by Juldeh Camara.

PILGRIM`S WAY Barker/Adams

My new project/collaboration still ongoing with the mighty talent of Justin Adams .

This first piece inspired by ancient walks.

This new whole album partly inspired by the writing of Robert Macfarlane "the old ways"

SANDLINES. Barker/ Adams

Second piece inspired the Ancient paths of the desert.

THE LAKE Barker/Young taken from the album" Abandoned Orchid House” Talitha Rise

Another collaboration with Jo beth Young and another piece in 7!

Intense, energetic and rich with riddles.

THE SELKIE. Barker / Pynn

Second Piece taken from my Album "Water and Stone”

Inspired by the Myths and stories of the Selkie. With the magical multi instrumentalist Nick Pynn on Violin.

CARL’S TRACKS:

Words Fail Me

with AMANDA KRAVIT

(Barratt/Marsh)

David Barratt and I were introduced to Amanda by John Mrvos, one of the A&R team at EastWest Atlantic in New York (Happyhead’s label) - she was his girlfriend and he wanted to get her recorded, basically, so we came up with this. Dave had done some kind of publishing deal that allowed him to sample the company catalogue, hence Ravi Shankar playing sitar all over it. Backing vocals by Bill Clift; some of the drums sound like Jim Kimberley, sampled from HH sessions (1992ish.)

The Longest Goodbye

with BILL CLIFT

(Clift/Marsh)

I’ve written loads with Bill under various banners, of course. This is a mid-90s demo recorded in Bill’s flat in Greenwich. BVs by Stella Clifford and Marilyn Gentle, bass (I think) by Gary Brady… not sure who did the wibbly organ. This song was later recorded by Bill’s band Fuzzbuddy, re-titled Killing Me Now - it’s just been re-released as part of their Complete Studio Recordings compilation.

THE PALACE DOGS

with GEOFF WOOLEY

I’ve collaborated with Geoff Woolley since Out On Blue Six, and in school bands even before that. These two tracks, from around 1995, are both built from sampled TV shows (and therefore subject to all sorts of potential copyright issues…).

Queen of Peoples’ Hearts

(Marsh/Woolley)

The self-styled QOPH’s Panorama special, cut up and pumped up with added Dario Argento and a spot of Jeremy Paxman. The Original is all-electronic; the Guitar Version has not only mine and Geoff’s rhythm bits but some wildfire lead from Steve Bolton (Atomic Rooster, Paul Young, The Who etc. and currently fronting the mighty Dead Man’s Corner). Take yer pick.

Crazy Dames

(Marsh/Woolley)

The main voice and piano on here are from a 1961 Twilight Zone episode called The Midnight Sun, in which the Earth is knocked out of orbit and is spiralling towards the Sun… it gets hot. Other vocals by Stella Clifford and Marilyn Gentle.

GASWERKS

The Ying Tong Song

(Milligan)

Basically the same format as The Palace Dogs with the addition of Bill Clift, whose idea it was to knock out a dance version of The Goons’, er, classic. Dig that crazy rhythm, indeed. We were told the novelty song market was a hard one to crack… by the singer of Black Lace, who should know, I suppose…

WOOLLEY/MARSH

The Girlfriends Of Dorian Gray

(Barratt/Marsh/Woolley)

David Barratt came up with the conceit of a modern Dorian Gray who preserves his youth (or immaturity) not by having a grotesquely ageing portrait in the attic but by having an ever-changing string of girlfriends who absorb the consequences of his many flaws and are discarded one after another. Dave sketched out the chorus and then proposed that he, I and Deni Bonet (NY-based violinist and writer that we’ve worked with on various projects) should write our own versions of the story, possibly with the idea of creating some kind of meta-version combining them all. That never happened, but I like the track Geoff and I came up with and the lyric is nice and tricksy - shades of Costello, maybe, if I say so myself.

You’re The Only One

(Marsh/Woolley)

A re-write of a Happyhead demo, switching New York electronica for some 90s Britpop vibes, it sounds like. Bit of a kinky ménage à trois scenario with reasonably loud guitars. Nice.

BARRY’S TRACKS

The Frances & Martine poems, with Hilda Sheehan (2014)

part 1: GLOW, GOOSE, CORN-REMOVER

part 2: COAT, ARM, KNOB OF BUTTER

I met Hilda Sheehan - through the (surprisingly vibey) Swindon poetry scene when I was stationed back there for 10 years in '04. She was often the star turn at their spoken word events and, I thought, had the mark of a real artist in that she came with her own self-contained world (’magical realist Northern UK kitchen sink’, if I had to describe it).

I thought it would be fun to 'set' (as they say) some of her poems to music and so I did. From Hilda's considerable oeuvre, I picked the Frances and Martine series - I liked F&M's mutually abrasive dependence - the key ingredient in any sitcom - and the succinct and sometimes brutal nature of each of their adventures.

Dame Hilda Sheehan

The Anaxaton6 EP with Mike Tournier (2013)

I first worked with Mike Tournier (Big Mike as opposed to Little Mike - these were Flukes' Contrasting Mikes at the time) as producer on their OTO album c.94. Techno outfit Fluke apparently liked them some Olde Shriekback (they had worked previously with Wendy and Sarah) and thought I might add something to the project.

It turned out that producing a techno band is every bit as awkward as you might imagine (there’s only one computer screen for a start) and we abandoned the collaboration after I'd failed to insert myself into Fluke's process in any useful way (sandwich run doesn't count).

Anyway, we stayed in touch and collaborated rather more successfully on a Fluke/Shriekback tune and performance for MTV.

It was the redoubtable Julian Nugent, Fluke's manager, who got in touch - in 2013 to suggest that Mike and I might like to try knocking up a tune together.

I liked the idea of this straightaway. Mike can produce huge, hi-torque productions and I had an idea of a songwriting approach which I though might complement this. The vocalist would be recognisably the bloke out of Shriekback but CG’d with florid new appendages. I fancied some mad-as-a-rat lyrics (Welcome to their secret sign: Boola Stack! Haunted Lego of the Mind! Boola Stack!) but the music would be slick and vivid and solidly crafted because that's always how Mike rolls. Thus you get something quite absurd being taken very seriously which is, to my mind, the best thing you can possibly have.

extract from the sleeve notes:

BONE MARAUDER tells of a pure love, painful engorgement and hog sorcery.

JUJUGRID (GO LIVE!) wrangles with hedonic guilt, ecclesiastical turpitude and leaves everything else the fuck alone.

BOOLA STACK! - There are so many things to say of Boola Stack that to ennumerate them insults us both.

NO FOOL BOLETUS... let's just be clear about this: you got nothing to hide, there's no need to worry. Be lucky.

Michaele don Turino and Bleary Android are the naked mortals chained to the husky obelisk of ANAXATON6

Anaxaton6 has some videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=anaxaton6

Mike Tournier

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mashitandsmashit · 4 years ago

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America’s Got Talent: Season 15 - Quarter-Finals 1

Well, it's official! AGT has reached a “new normal”!

Almost half the acts were filmed, and some of them appeared to be pre-recorded...Kinda undermines the live stage aspect of this show...

What's more, we have Kelly Clarkson filling in for the man who made her famous (I figured it was only a matter of time before we saw her as a guest judge). I guess she was okay, but not really one worth judging anyone other than singers...I'm sure she's right at home on “The Voice”, but here...Well, we'll see if she might develop more of a presence, assuming Simon still needs more time to recover...(No need to hurry, Simon...But get well!)

Speaking of people who couldn't make it, the Divas and Drummers were unable to make it for some reason, and have dropped out of the competition...Brett Loudermilk has filled their spot for tonight, which still leaves a vacant spot to bring somebody back in one of the next three weeks...Let's just say, I've already made my wildcard predictions, even though they weren't actually intending on any for this round...Also, this change of plans must have happened a while ago, since someone on the Wiki kept listing Brett for this week, even with the editors removing it...This was WELL before they announced that Divas and Drummers dropped out...

Despite the weird nature of the show, I guess I'll give them props for not USING props, and creating some pretty neat three-dimensional backdrops...Roberta really did look like she was trapped on an island with no means of escape...Well, in an overly-CG'd movie sort of way...

I also liked how the acts that WEREN'T there were able to get some pretty neat sets...It's almost like they're in a movie studio amusement park or something...

Anyway, let's gauge their qualities best we can...

11: Michael Yo. This is probably the first time in a while that a comedian on this show (not counting the ones that were quickly rejected...though on second thought, it might) failed to make me crack a smile even once! The jokes were the same old uninspired gender stereotype jokes I've heard from every hack comedian, and there's just something REALLY obnoxious about his whole “CAN I GET A WHAT-WHAT!?” delivery. I didn't like him last time either, but there were a FEW chuckle-worthy jokes in his audition...And yes, I feel bad saying these things, especially after hearing what he went through. I sympathize, and am glad that he recovered...But if he goes through tomorrow (and let's face it, he likely will), it's not for whatever laughs he brought (as few as those might have been) but the tears. And some of those tears are his own...(Not that he doesn't have REASON to be emotional, but he is VERY emotional, even by this show's standards...)

10: Shaquira McGrath. Without the upbeat fun of her audition, or the moving arrangement of her JC performance, this felt about as bland as any singer I've heard in the past...She also drowned herself out with the backing track and just didn't seem to have the confidence she showed before...She even had a boring set to compliment the boring performance (which is sad, since she was the first to perform on that stage, and the ones to come were much better...)

9: Roberta Battaglia. I guess she's in a similar position as Shaquira, as what made her stand out before was the Lady Gaga vocals...This song wasn't nearly as interesting, but I guess at the very least her singing was more consistent than Shaquira's...Are they really gonna push her to win this season? Because so far, I'm not quite sold on her...

8: Pork Chop Revue. “Lethargic dog act” sounds about right...I know they're hyping it up because “It's pigs instead of dogs! OMG!” But like I said before, pigs aren't really that hard to train...And none of the tricks were anything surprising...(At least their audition had that baby pig in the carriage...) Still cute, but I'd still say this act is the runt of tonight's litter, ready for the proverbial slaughter...It's gonna take more than a talented spider to save THEM...That'll do, pigs...That'll do...

7: Frenchie Babyy. There's a likability to Frenchie that makes me REALLY want to like his act...But in the end, I think he's suffering pretty much the same problem as Turf did: There's not much to the act aside from a guy doing weird things with his arms...He just looked lost in that elaborate 3D set, and there's only so much stage you can fill with just your arms...It's not like contortionists filling a stage is impossible; Strauss Serpent pulled it off (at least once), and that guy can pull off contortions that Frenchie could never even DREAM of! We'll just see if Howie's faith that he'll go through tomorrow is well-placed...

6: Simon and Maria. It's amazing what a fun set can do for an otherwise humdrum act...Not much to this performance that I haven't seen before from them, but throw in the diner set and the retro clothes, and something just clicks...I didn't love it, but I still had fun watching them, and I could tell they had fun performing...

5: Double Dragon. Similar case for these ladies, but even moreso! Their name may be a ripoff of an old-school arcade game, but they sure know how to put on a show! In a battle against that OTHER singing twin act with a name straight out of 80s martial arts works, sorry, but the Ninjas are no match for the Dragons!

4: Archie Williams. I'm starting to get Archie's charm. He may not be the best singer, but he is compelling to listen to...Do I support him potentially winning this whole thing? Not really...But I will wish him the best nonetheless!

3: Annaliese Nock. Sorry, Bello, but I can't count you for this performance...Nonetheless, like Simon Cowell, I wish you a good recovery! (Speedy too, but like I said, Simon doesn't need to rush it...) Anyway, it's funny how they talk about their previous appearances on this show, and yet never brought up that Bello performed this very same act in this very same round three years ago...I will admit...It was better when he did it...He was a LOT more nimble and probably had years of experience doing it, as opposed to Anna tripping at points and looking like it was much harder for her...But that still didn't stop it from being compelling to watch...Even when she tripped (or ESPECIALLY when she tripped), you just can't help but root for her to keep going! For that, it might have ended up better than it would have if both of them performed this stunt together...Either way, we'll see if they get the votes they deserve this time, but there's still some stiff competition (by which I mean there were quite a few acts that appeal to emotions more than raw talent...Though maybe they'll get sympathy votes for the accident...)

2: Brett Loudermilk. A mixture of sword swallowing, archery, magic and comedy! It's like he threw four separate acts into a blender, and this was the result! It looks like Sofia's gonna be a permanent fixture as his assistant, at least as long as he's competing in this game...I guess they work off of each other too well! And once again, funnier than the actual comedian tonight (without any offense to Michael, since I know he went through a lot lately). Him and his Pepto-Bismol hair have my vote!

1: Feng E. The sad thing is, Feng's probably not gonna get the votes he deserves, because he didn't receive the hype he deserves. I mean, second act of the night!? Really!? This was too awesome to be placed so early! No doubt there's a bias for which acts tend to get hyped over others, and innovative instrumentalists are never particularly high in the pecking order unless they have a sob story to milk for all it's worth...Though I will say that his Lego story is a story I would vote for! We'll just see how things turn out tomorrow, but with so many acts that the judges seem to like over him, and even in the child category he gets out-cuted by Roberta and Maria, it's not looking particularly hopeful for him...

Pretty mixed bag of a night...Cowellization seemed to be in full effect even without the man himself there...Also, the filmed performances are gonna take some getting used to, but I do like how the acts work with them...

My Votes: I gave every vote I could to my Top 3 in this list...

Result Predictions: I'm not really in the mood to be optimistic here...I still hold that Archie and Roberta will get the Top 2 spots, Michael will probably get the other one, and maybe one or two of my three favorites will make their way into the save votes alongside maybe Simon and Maria and/or Double Dragon...

See you tomorrow for Kodi Lee and Mat Franco!

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rins-rambles · 6 years ago

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TDP Actor AU

I miss writing these, so of course I do one for my next favorite hyperfixated show

General

Callum and Ezran’s actors are actually brothers. Since they worked incredibly well together in their auditions they were both chosen to play the roles of the princes’.

This is Ezran’s actors first major acting role

Funnily enough, Claudia and Soren’s actors aren’t related, but many have mistaken them to be actual siblings. Claudia’s actress has called Soren’s actor her “brother from another mother” on her social media plenty of times.

They actually worked together on other shows/movies where they played siblings, so of course it comes naturally to them

Ezran actually acts with a Bait plushie that he now doesn’t go anywhere on set without.

Claudia actually dyed that section of her hair purple, and let Ezran’s actor paint her nails. Although she wears a wig, Rayla’s actress really wants to dye her hair white, and Claudia gives her tips.

A lot of the humor coming from Soren is usually ad-libbed by his actor. Since he sometimes comes up with something funnier than what the writers intended, they sometimes just write “Soren does/says something” and let his actor go wild

Rayla’s actress was a gymnast, which is how she moves so agilely and begged the crew to let her do her own stunts. She was allowed this freedom, but in certain fight scenes they have a stunt double doing the work.

Callum’s actor thought Rayla was just really good at mimicking accents, but she really does have a Scottish accent.

Rayla, Callum, Ezran, Soren, and Claudia’s actors when not on set like to joke around, especially “casting” magic. But instead of saying the spell, they often say, “You’re watching the Disney Channel!”

Claudia and Viren find that the dark spells are just sentences played backwards is both really cool but also creepy

One problem some of the elven actors face is when their horns would fall off during scenes, sometimes for no reason. There are lots of blooper takes so far when this happens, to the point where the actors yell “point!” every time it happens, since they made a bet to the staff that if they would get at least a total of five horn drops in a season, then they would have to treat the actors to a restaurant.

All the elf actors have to wear what they call a “finger glove” over their pinky, so their finger can be CG’d out to show that they only have four fingers. In far away scenes, they don’t worry about it so much, but on close ups, they have to wear the finger glove.

Season 1

Echoes of Thunder

Callum’s actor integrated his photographic memory and love for art into his character, and the writers went with it

The baker that Ezran steals jelly tarts from is actually one of the directors for the show

Claudia’s actress says that when playing Claudia, she’s literally just being herself.

She says that one time in the past, she did end up running into a tree when reading a book. Her father videotaped it and forever has proof.

Runaan’s hair has gotten caught and tangled with his surroundings on more than one occasion. His horns also sometimes gets tangled in his hair

Harrow and Viren’s actors are old friends, and were surprised to see each other on set when shooting their first scene together. That scene happened to be when Viren goes to offer to switch his soul with Harrow’s

Harrow’s actor begged to be able to throw in the “winter is coming” line, since he’s a huge GoT fan.

However after he’s killed off, he asks the writers if they intentionally made him the Ned Stark of this show because of it.

Pip is actually all CGI, since Harrow’s actor is allergic to birds. But he does have a cat that he calls Pip.

Callum’s actor had a hard time not tearing up when he had to say goodbye to Harrow.

Rayla’s actor tends drops her weapons more often than the other actors do

What Is Done

The two guards who are talking with each other about breakfast are actually some of the writers.

Ezran just made up the combination for the “stone rock”

Claudia was just told to act like she hated the jelly, and while it tasted a bit like oranges, she called it persimmons, because she doesn’t like those fruits

Claudia has a bit of a hard time moving in her dress down the stairs and nearly tripped a few times. So she was glad that later on her outfit gets changed

But she always liked filming the part where she treats her hand like a flashlight.

Moonrise

The egg is actually lighter than it looks, made out of thin 3D printed plastic and carefully painted

Viren and Harrow’s actors could barely keep a straight face when Harrow orders Viren “on his knees”, which is why the cameras use more close ups of their faces, since one of the other was trying hard not to crack up

In order to get the “dark” moonshadow elf look, Runaan and Rayla’s actors actually have to get more makeup applied on them, and then get layered on with CGI. They’re both less than pleased about having to spend more time in the makeup chair, but they put up with it.

Callum actually has a hard time saying the spells, because he would sometime stumble on the words. A majority of the blooper reels are of him messing up.

Everyone off set made jokes about Callum being Ariel while Viren was Ursula after Viren takes his voice

Bloodthirsty

Amaya’s actress is actually deaf, and was the first choice to play her character which she happily accepted. She has a brother in the army, and bases some of Amaya’s characteristics off of him.

She’s grown close to Ezran and Callum’s actors, teaching them ASL and starting to treat them like they’re her actual nephews

Gren’s actor is a close friend with Amaya’s actress, and is usually the one who translates for her outside and during work

The loaf of bread Amaya describes as “weapons grade” is actually a loaf of bread one of the staff members baked, but left it out for too long, so it hardened. They decided to throw that into the script.

The snail armor line was actually an argument Ezran and Callum had when they were younger

Rayla’s actress was sad when the writers forced her character to cut her braid, since she would spend some time off set to braid it herself

Rayla almost teared up when her character calls Callum out on saying she’s a monster

The cube is made out of thin metal, and there are lights inside that glow when someone off set hits a switch

An Empty Throne

Rayla’s actress does get a bit motion sick, but not to the extent that her character does

The boat ride the three ride on is shot on something like Roaring Rapids

However, the drop from the small waterfall and the close ups on the actors faces were done on green screens

Amaya’s actress enjoys how much her character calls out Viren on his bullshit.

Sarai’s actress and Amaya are actually related to each other, and Amaya’s signing to her statue are how she feels about her sister. It’s also thanks to her sister that she even got into the acting industry.

Through the Ice

Ezran’s actor has an idea of what the talk about “sandwiches” indicates, although when he asks his brother to clarify, he changes the subject

Callum’s actor had to sit down a few times because he lost his breath when performing the Aspiro spell

Rayla’s actress doesn’t like looking at her hand, because she doesn’t like the bruising color it leaves behind.

Running up the stairs and stretching is how Soren’s actor usually prepares to play Soren

His history is like a see-saw line is ad-libbed which threw of Viren’s actor and he had to adjust to that line

Offset, Claudia occasionally does call Soren “Sor-bear”

The Dagger and the Wolf

Ezran’s actor loves animals, and hopes to either be a veterinarian or an animal caretaker if he ever stops acting

The huge swordsman used to be a wrestler, and agreed to play this part as a favor to one of the writer’s who’s their acquaintance.

Rayla’s actress had a blast playing “human Rayla”, and the lines that made it in were improvised.

When getting an idea for Ava and Ellis, the girl who gave the writers some pointers ended up getting the role of Ellis, while her companion wolf got Ava

Cursed Caldera

Callum’s actor claims he had the best pun about the Cursed Caldera and everyone else was just jealous at how good it was

Rayla’s actress hates slugs and was not fond of seeing the CGI monster she’d have to fight off

Runaan’s actor admits that he didn’t like filming his scenes when he’s imprisoned, mainly because he was always cold without a top on. He thinks that the writers purposefully had him without a shirt for many different reasons

It takes roughly three hours in the makeup chair for Viren to get his “corrupted” form done

Wonderstorm

Claudia genuinely thought the “Ka-tallest mountain” line was hilarious which made it easier for her to really laugh on set

Rayla’s actress literally booked it off the set when the mummified person hisses at her

For the effect of the spider-roar, Ezran had to stand in front of a large leaf blower and he actually enjoyed that part, thinking it was funny

While the actors thought that the spiders looked cool, they admitted that they would never want to see them ever get that big

Callum’s “jerkface dance” is actually something one of the writers did for their siblings whenever they had to apologize. Callum is particularly proud of how he got down the movements in three tries.

The actors all cooed when they got to see what Zym looked like and all demanded that stuffed versions of him would be made available and they’d get theirs first

Lujanne’s actress claims she likes wearing the elven horns more than the ears

She likes to think Phoe-Phoe is based off of her own pet bird that she allowed the team to use as a reference

#tdp actor au #the dragon prince #tdp #tdp shitpost #callum #rayla #ezran #soren #claudia #viren #harrow #amaya

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haledamage · 5 years ago

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New favorite NPC: the guy on Makeb who fanboyed about meeting Havoc Squad and says he has a collection of all our holovids

it raises so many questions! Are these like the Captain America propaganda films about the Howling Commandos? Are they edited to romanticize the war? How much real footage is in them and how much is staged and CG’d in? Do they hire actors to play film-Havoc? (do they play up the romance angle with Ves and Jorgan, like they did with Steven and Peggy in Captain America’s propaganda?)

do you think there are action figures of Havoc Squad and other famous figures too? does the Ves action figure have an assault cannon that fires nerf darts? is there a Revan doll? if so, I hope it’s one of those mystery “collect them all!” type dolls, where there’s like a dozen different ones and you don’t know who you got until you take the mask off

Ves’s niece Scout totally owns a complete set of Havoc figures. Her favorite is Elara, but she’ll say her favorite is either Aunt Ves or Uncle Aric depending on who’s in the room with her.

#vesiya hallis #swtor shenanigans #I have a collection of screenshots from every time someone fanboys about meeting Havoc #or comments on how great we are #my favorites are the ones who are like 'you're overrated I'm gonna kill you now'#because 100% of the time they're like. not even a strong mob #they're just some guy who doesn't like my pretty armor or doesn't notice my GIANT GUN #also I've decided just now that Ves's other niece Zan has a plush Fourex doll that she takes everywhere #I don't need more things to write but now I guess this is going on the list too because I love it

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khalindora · 6 years ago

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End Game Q&A from Russo Brothers in China

I just knew it! And this is also a relief for me since I ship both Steggy and Stucky. If they can milk fandoms for money and views they would do it! Steve wasn’t selfish... they explain and not explain a lot of stuff.

Probably depends on the whole fact if Chris Evans would ever like to put on his suit again!

Q: Why Iron Man has to be the one to do the final snap, couldn't the people like Thor, Star-Lord or Captain Marvel whom all previously have handled the power of Infinity Stones done it instead?

A: Thor in this movie couldn't do it, only Hulk was strong enough to do the snap without dying. We are still not sure whether Captain Marvel can also withstand all the power of Infinity Stones at once. The reason we choose to let Iron Man do it in the end was because he was the closest one to Thanos at the time. In all the futures Doctor Strange foresee, Iron Man was the only one who could get close to Thanos and do the snap. People usually think the death of a hero is a horrible tragedy. But we think this is different. When his death was able to bring back hope, to save half of the universe, then his death was powerful and meaningful. We shouldn't feel too sad or angry about it.

Q: Peggy Carter was probably already married and in her mid 40s in 1970, in that case what year was it that Captain America went back to dance with her?

A: We can't answer it for now, this is a story that happened in an alternate reality. Maybe it will be revealed in the future.

Q: Did Captain America's action at the end affect the timeline? Does that mean there was a time where two CA existed in a same universe?

A: To me, CA's action in the end wasn't the fact he wanted to change anything, it's more like me has made a choice. He chose to go back to past and lived with the one he loved for the rest of his life. The time travel in this movie created an alternate reality. He lived a completely different life in that world. We don't know how exactly his life turned out, but I'd like to believe he still helped many others when they were needed in that world. Yes, there were two CA in that reality, it's just like what Hulk said, what happened in the past has already happened. If you go back to past, you simply created a new reality. The characters in this movie created new timeline when they went back to the past, but it had no effect to the prime universe. What happened in the past 22 movies was still canon.

Q: In both IW and EG, the heroes tried their back to take the glove away from Thanos, so why didn't Doctor Strange just cut off Thanos' hand with his ability?

A: Thanos' skin is almost impenetrable, we don't know whether Doctor Strange had the capability to do it. If he failed to cut it on time, Thanos would still able to do the snap. Doctor Strange realized this issue during his millions of test runs.

Q: Why did you make Thor fat? Did Chris also become fat for the role or it was done through CG?

A: It was mostly CG'd. Thor suffered more loss than anyone else, he has been living in constant pain and regret.

Q: Was old Cap played Evans using make up? Or it was also post production CG?

A: 95% CG, 5% make up. But the voice was 100% Evans, no modification for that.

Q: Can you get the soul your sacrificed for the Soul Stone back when you return it?

A: No, the process is irreversible. Even if you have returned it to its original location, you wouldn't be able to get the person back. In fact, it's not really returning the stone, more like put it back properly. The tribute soul for the soul stone will forever be sealed in that place, therefore Black Widow is gone forever.

Q: How would Cap react when he encounter Red Skull when he returned the stone?

A: Red Skull would probably put the soul stone back to its location, and wait for the next unfortunate stone seeker to make sacrifice. Cap and Red Skull probably won't fight. It's because it's his mission to return the stone to its original place. The Red Skull is also no longer the same Red Skull from FA. He is more like a ghost, you could almost say he's a completely different entity now. He only exists to guard the stone, his past conscious may or may not exist anymore.

Q: In IW, Thanos used the time stone to reverse the time so he could the already dead Vision, and it didn't cause any time parallax. Why did no one use time stone to save Iron Man's life in EG?

A: It's because even if you save Iron Man, it will still not change the fact that Thanos will eventually win the war. Among the 14 million possibilities that Doctor Strange has seen, Iron Man's sacrifice is a must for that one win scenario.

Q: How did Thanos bring his army to the future?

A: There is a guy called Maw in his army, he was a great wizard. Thanos himself was a brilliant genius as well. Those two easily reverse engineered and mass produced Pym Particles.

Q: What about those people who got dusted? What did those five years mean to them? Why didn't they grow older when undusted?

A: Yes, those people whom was lucky to survive the snap are 5 years older than the people who just got back. The reason Spider Man saw his friend again in high school at the end was simply because his friends was unfortunately also dusted like Spider Man was. Of course, there are people in his grade whom didn't die and they are probably already in colleges by now. To those dusted people, they had no conscious in these past 5 years. They didn't know what happened. It's as if they had just woke up from a long sleep. The only one who was aware about how many years has passed was Doctor Strange, because he has already seen that when he was time mediating on Titan. Parker's reunion with Ned was a touching moment. There are also people whom indeed moved on but suddenly was reunited with their lost ones. Yeah it's kind a complicated world now.

Q: What if the mouse didn't press the button to turn on the quantum machine, wouldn't that stop EG from happening? Isn't this a bit too much of a coincidence?

A: Yes, the MOUSE SAVED THE UNIVERSE. Among the many realities in those 14 millions possible futures Doctor Strange foresee, the mouse failed to press button and thus the heroes failed in those futures.

Q: EG's plot, is it a parallel universe or a closed time loop?

A: Nope, not a time loop. Both Ancient One and Hulk were right. You can't change the future by simply going back to past. But it's possible to create a different alternate future. It's not butterfly effect. Every decision you made in the past could potentially create a new timeline. For example, the old Cap at the end movie, he lived his married life in a different universe from the main one. He had to make another jump back to the main universe at the end to give the shield to Sam.

Q: There were some metal smashing sound when the movie ended. Was that an easter egg? or just a tribute to Iron Man, or maybe an implication that Iron Man will return?

A: It was our way to say goodbye to him.

Q: Why there was no Iron Man's body in his funeral, only his arc reactor? And is there any secret messages for bring back that kid from Iron Man 3?

A: We just feel that he should participate in Iron Man's funeral. As for whether he will appear again in future, who knows.

Q: Why didn't Black Widow get a funeral as well?

A: Did you forget when the heroes where mourning for her after when they returned from past? Maybe her funeral happened off screen. Maybe it will be shown in future installment, because there are still tons of stories in MCU that are waiting to be tell.

#avengers endgame #avengers endgame spoiler #avengers endgame spoilers #endgame spoilers #endgame spoiler #spoilers #spoiler #captain america #james buchanan barnes #peggy carter #steggy #stucky #I LOVE YOU #spread the word please

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years ago

Text

Zi-O 41: *SCREAMING*

:THE BLOGGER IS NOT OKAY WITH THIS:

We open with the final scene from episode 40; Sougo charging Oma Zi-O, after getting a pair of Blade transformation screens (specifically, Blade and Garren’s) thrown at him, and a green-and-purple whirlwhind sent in his direction. Interestingly, when the whirlwind connects, the W emblem rises up along with the explosion. After attempting to trade punches – with zero effect on Sougo’s part – the kid summons Build with his Grand Zi-O panel, and. Oma Zi-O summons Kuuga.

Sougo uses the same technique as in 40 – he touches the figurine, the Build emblem appears while the name is announced, and a window reading 2017 moves backward, with Build appearing through it. Oma Zi-O, however, just holds out a hand, with the Kuuga emblem showing up with the same announcement. Notably, the emblem here is torso-sized, as opposed to figurine-sized. Kuuga appears in a bit of a blur, but there is a distinct lack of any other adornment.

Oma Zi-O’s jump over the two now-fighting riders has a bit of a flashstep effect to it, which is. Worrying. Also it breaks my heart a little to see Build and Kuuga fighting, which is not helped in the slightest by my having recently finished Decade and watching Showa V Heisei for the first time. But as Sougo attempts to hit Oma Zi-O, still with zero effect, Build and Kuuga launch their respective Rider Kicks at each other – no announcements from the Build Driver, which is probably for the best. Build disappears in an explosion, shortly followed by Kuuga winking out of existence.

Hm….

OH NO. SOUGO NO! YOU STILL HAVEN’T PROPERLY GOTTEN THE DRIVE WATCH! DON’T USE DRIVE!

See what you’ve done? Now Oma Zi-O’s taken control of him, with a scary red spark effect, and definite sounds of struggle that are very much Shinnosuke’s voice. His helmet’s eyes momentarily light up red, and the standard Tridoron horn sound plays – and then plays again, slowed way the heck down.

And it’s really nice to see the Type Speed finisher again, and to hear Krim announcing the Tridoron, but! Those are still Shinnosuke’s grunts of effort! And said finisher is being launched to great effect at Sougo! To the point of knocking him out of Grand, and back to being just plain old Sougo.

Woz warps in – with a very Time Jacker-y blur to his first few steps – and rushes to Sougo’s side, helping him up. And Sougo is angry when he asks why he can’t even touch his future self.

“You haven’t obtained the powers of all the Riders.”

And at least SOMEONE based in 2019 remembers that we still haven’t had a Drive arc! Namely, Woz, reminding Sougo, the kids at home, and the production staff, that the Drive watch we currently have was stolen from 2068 by Geiz.

…I wonder why they went with Ghost and Drive. I know that at least part of the reason is that the staff wasn’t sure if they’d be able to get the actors back, but that didn’t exactly stop them in other arcs.

SOUGO NO! You can’t go trying to fight him still! You’re not transformed! You can barely walk!

I don’t think we have ever seen Sougo actually angry before. Not like this – all furious and glaring, desperate to take. Him. Down. Not that it helps him at all, not with the massive explosions that Oma Zi-O is setting off around him.

Woz’s scarf is so handy. He sends it out to wrap around Sougo, warping him away.

“For personal reasons, I have decided to side with Past You.”

Oma Zi-O looks surprised, but then. Woz starts walking up to him. (Drive is still here, by the way!)

Oma Zi-O: “Well done, Woz. You’ve made a wise choice.”

Me: wait what.

Woz: “It is my pleasure.”

Me: Wait WHAT?

A multicolored rippling effect washes over the area, incidentally fading Drive out of existence.

Woz: wait what.

Oma Zi-O: Oh, looks like someone’s changed the flow of time...

The entire scene fades out – in a manner very reminiscent of what you see when film footage dissolves.

Sougo wakes up on the ground, in a location that we haven’t seen before. A mansion is at the top of the staircase. In front of said mansion…

Me: WAIT WHAT?!

In front of said mansion is a statue. The statue… is of Kakogawa Hiyru, Another Zi-O, in his not-so-civilian form that we saw in the preview. He’s holding his Another Watch at his waist, in the manner he previously used to transform, and is surrounded by Another Riders in action poses. It’s all grey and aged, with a plague at the base that I can’t read, because RiderTime didn’t sub it. But I’m willing to bet that it says “In commemoration of the first transformation of Kakogawa Hiryuu.”

I AM THREE MINUTES IN. THIS HAS TAKEN A HALF HOUR, WITH THE REWINDING TO CATCH DETAILS AND THE TYPING. SEND HELP.

Okay I made the grave mistake of jumping into Discord for a minute, and have promptly left Discord, but not before being cued in to look carefully at the Another Rider statues.

So, the first shot of them… From left to right, we see Kiva, OOO, Fourze, Ghost, Build, Ex-Aid, Gaim, and Wizard. Interestingly, all of them except for Build are doing their Rider’s signature poses, albeit with the standard corruption. Because Early Installment Weirdness is such a thing for Another Build that he was basically feral, and that has clearly carried over.

I can’t get over how the statues are just. Clearly still shots of the actual characters with a really bad filter over them, and terribly CG’d in. The budget for this episode must be going tot he fight scenes. … HUH. From the back, it looks like Another Build is trying to do Sento’s pose, albeit with considerably less success than everyone else. I guess the terrible filter made it really hard to see from the front, with him overlapping all of the other sections.

Okay, as the camera pans down to the plague, I see Another Agito on the right, and I can’t for the life of me make out who that is second from the left, but. The second from the right sure looks like it has Decade’s shoulders. And the head on the left sure looks like a warped version of Drive’s helmet.

Guess we’re getting Another Drive and Decade after all!

Woz’s Recap this week is him on an inexplicable bench swing in the middle of a wooded area, with Sougo none the wiser to his presence as he stumbles around the trees.

And apprently, by ‘the flow of time has changed’, we mean Woz warped Sougo to yet another alternate timeline, except this time it’s 2019, and he’s implying that the future where Sougo becomes Oma Zi-O has been completely derailed.

And that mansion is in a wooded area, alright. A large one, several city blocks worth. And we can tell.

Because we get a zoom-out, and see that it’s in the middle of a city.

With a whole lot of sirens in the background.

And a whole lot of buildings on fire.

!!!

New opening narration for the OP!

RiderTime translates it as… “The Heisei Kamen Riders have run through the era. Their powers now collected, the curtain of the final battle has risen! Clear the way! For the future of the True King!”

For reference, the previous narration, as subbed by RT, is “The Heisei Kamen Riders have run through the Heisei era. A new legend is starting that inherits all their powers. Rejoice! For the birth of the new King!”

And as translated by Overtime, it’s “The legacy of the Heisei Kamen Riders has carried on throughout the era. Once their power has been passed on, a new legend begins… Rejoice! For the birth of the ultimate king!”

The shot of () in the OP has been replaced by all the Heisei Riders striking their poses, and then coalescing into a ball of light, which breaks and shows Grand. First with just the helmet – then zooming out to a fullbody shot, with the 20 emblems fanning out behind him in a circle… and those odd circles of light dropping down around him, that I failed to mention from the first Grand transformation last time.

Sougo emerges from the forest into a city apparently at war. Rubble is strewn everywhere, and several people in fatigues with guns run by down the street, the sound of gunfire in the distance. Sougo, time-traveler that he is, goes to pick up a tattered poster, confirming that it is, in fact, 2019.

Our camera zooms out, freezeframing with the sound of a camera shutter and framing the scene.

Hey there, Tsukasa! Nice to see you again, you wonderful troll, you! He’s in fatigues – clearly what he was assigned when he arrived here – and. TWO cameras. Tsukasa, ffs. He’s still got his Magenta one, but also a brown one – that is some variant on a polaroid instant camera, since it ejects a photo right after he takes it. It’s about time he learned to carry something like that.

And his photos are still supernaturally bad – with all their eerie foreshadowing abilities intact. Case in point…

Tsukasa: “So, this is the end of this world.”

He pulls the printed photo from the camera.

Tsukasa: “Then what will you do now, Tokiwa Sougo?”

We see the photo. There’s none of the recurring double-imaging here that used to be seen in so many of Tsukasa’s pictures. Instead… Sougo is half faded from existence, the wall and abandoned shop stall showing through him in places.

(Also, Tsukasa looks exhausted. Get some sleep, sir.)

There’s barricades and fencing outside of 9-to-5. It’s not a clock repair shop anymore.

It’s a resistance shelter.

And one of the people, a woman tending someone’s wounds, asks who Sougo is.

And his uncle doesn’t recognize him – tries to attack him with a daikon radish, even.

Tsukuyomi’s voice comes in over the radio, saying that Another Riders are attacking a shelter, asking someone to send help.

Sougo asks where it is, and says he’ll be right back, running off.

Junichiro: (scandalized) “Young people these days act overfamiliar… even though we just met!”

Ow, my heart.

Another Kiva and OOO are attacking some refugees. Please note, literal machine guns have no effect on them! That’s! That’s just great!

(I’m still not okay with the eyes on Another Kiva’s shoulders, BTW.)

Geiz – in armor – and Tsukuyomi work to fight off the Another Riders and get the former civilians out of there, respectively. Geiz draws Another OOO away, and Tsukuyomi gets Kiva off of a group. At least the Faiz Phone X can make them flinch, if only a little. Enough to actually serve as a nuisance, before Another Kiva lifts her by the neck as Sougo runs in.

He knocks Kiva off of her, by vaulting over the staircase railing and nailing them with a kick, and asks if she’s okay. Tsukuyomi also does not recognize him!

Hey, Sougo, maybe at least try using your name when you’re trying to totally-not-re-introduce yourself to people who don’t know who you are? It might help, I dunno, jog some memories locked by the time distortion.

You know, I’ve commented before on how Sougo could take hits really well at the beginning of the season. But now he’s full body tackling Another Riders, knocking them back. Actually, no, scratch that. After Tsukuyomi paused time for everyone in the room sans herself – good for her – and grabs the Faiz Phone X to shoot Another Kiva, when time starts back up? Said Another Rider goes after her, and Sougo just blocks them. Just takes the hit, arms raised defensively, and Another Kiva is the only one to be knocked back. Sougo doesn’t even budge. This young man is made of iron.

And also very confused as to why Geiz would think that he would run, proceeding to pull out the Zi-O II watch, transforming.

Geiz knows who Zi-O is.

I somehow doubt he knows the same Zi-O as we do, though.

Also, for this Geiz, at least, the Time Burst kick can be channeled through just. Straight up holding Another OOO against the wall with his foot, and charging the attack down through his leg, exploding Another OOO with a notable coin effect amid the flames.

And although we can’t exactly seen Geiz’s face, because helmet, he’s probably sharing Tsukuyomi’s scared expression right now.

What, no stained glass effects when Sougo’s finisher takes out Another Kiva? I’m disappointed.

Tsukuyomi and Geiz come on the underground scene… and Tsukuyomi immediately shoots Sougo several times with her blaster. Geiz is ready to do a violence, and proceeds to start attacking.

Geiz: “So you’ve made your presense known, Zi-O – today you meet your end!”

Sougo: “Why?”

Geiz: “I’ll defeat the Great Overlord and save this world!”

Geiz: “That is our, the Resistance’s, mission in life!”

I noticed that he used the term ‘daimyō’ there – not whichever term it is he usually uses to refer to Oma Zi-O in the regular timeline. Interesting. Though, to be fair… the preview shots of Hiryuu looked like he was using a very different version of absolutely terrible taste than the regular Oma Zi-O.

A single direct blow from Revive Fury is all it took to knock Sougo out of his transformation.

He’s so confused, and scared, because nobody recognizes him, and he doesn’t know what’s going on. He can’t get any answers, and he’s so sad that his only family and friends, the only ones he’s had around him in years, have no idea who he is. Are all so willing to attack him.

To the point of when Sougo is practically begging to be told what’s happened. Geiz attacks him.

Still transformed.

Still using Revive Fury.

Still using the buzzsaw.

Sougo’s not transformed.

Me: :BARELY CONTAINED SHRIEKING:

There’s a painful looking slice on Sougo’s arm and cheek – there are scorch marks where his shirt was cut open.

Geiz refuses to listen to anything Sougo has to say… and readies another attack.

Aimed right at the prone Sougo’s neck.

Me: THIS IS NOT FINE.

I mean, yes, time paused, leaving Sougo free to move – BUT VERY CLEARLY HAVING BEEN AT MOST A SECOND FROM LITERAL DECAPITATION.

AHHHHHHH!

But… who paused time? UHR. Telling Sougo to run, unless he wants to die there. Sougo rolls to his feet, and stumbles away down the tunnel. When Uhr unpauses time, we see that Geiz and Tsukuyomi definitely still know about the Time Jackers, although not Uhr specifically, with her aiming the phone-blaster at him, and him just skipping off and presumably disappearing once he gets out of their line of sight.

He can’t let them kill Zi-O now.

Here on a roof – a decidedly shabbier roof than usual – we find out that the three Time Jackers are still around… and that they, at least, know who Sougo is. Know that he has an incredible power, and that going after him with brute force won’t work. So, Swartz is going to leave the new overlord to Hora, for now.

And here’s something interesting. I’ve always thought that Swartz was clearly their superior. But.

Hora thought their positions were equal. Swartz smirks as she storms off, followed shortly by Uhr leaving in the other direction.

And yet again, we have evidence for Swartz having a different plan than everyone else.

Hat!Woz called him ‘Sir Swartz’, and was acting largely according to a plan they shared.

The previews for Over Quartzer imply that Scarf!Woz’s outfit is a uniform for the group trying to stop Sougo from ever having the chance to obtain the Drive watch.

And they all have those grommets scattered all over their wardrobes.

Different sides of the same group? Different departments, where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing?

Interesting.

Back to the former shop…

The more things change, huh?

Junichiro is still a nice guy, offering to make something for Geiz and Tsukuyomi to eat.

Tsukuyomi has her doubts about Sougo being the overlord, since he did help defeat the Another Riders.

But Geiz has a point, too. An overlord probably wouldn’t hesitate to take out his minions to fool people. (You know. Like might be going on with Woz.) The Time Jackers are still the enemy, in some way, and Uhr helped him. And, most damning of all, he transformed into Zi-O.

Geiz vows… he’s going to take him down.

Sougo, in pain, is by a riverside. It’s… it’s really depressing to see the abandoned bicycles just laying there. And Woz, at least, still seems ot remember him.

…or, maybe not. He’s acting incredibly restrained, not even really looking at Sougo, and hasn’t… actually… indicated directly that he knows who Sougo is. But he has seen the statue, and knows it’s of Hiryuu.

He saw it because Hora took him there.

…Wait. Sougo. SOUGO DO YOU NOT KNOW HORA’S NAME?!

Okay, just gonna put the realization that our main trio might not even know the time jackers names aside for now, because we’ve got bigger issues.

Namely, that Sougo’s future as Oma Zi-O has disappeared from the book. (Dark Toei, give us the forbidden book backstory.)

Namely, that Woz has decided to serve a new Overlord.

Namely, said overlord is Kakogawa Hiryuu.

That he wants to pay back the humiliation of being told to live in the present, instead of the past, of ‘not being chosen’.

And, since we’re having a dark mirror of what Sougo could have been, if he’d grown up bitter…

Let’s have a dark reprise of one of Sougo’s old catchphrases.

Hiryuu: “So, I’m going to give this a try.”

Hiryuu: I’ll take everything away from you, and then you can try ‘living in the present’.

And now…

He’s not Another Zi-O.

He’s Another Zi-O II.

…Is it just me, or does he have an actual Driver? Because when he holds his watch at his waist, that black copy of the Ziku Driver appears first, and then the rest of his form as an Another Rider.

And that Driver looks an awful lot like a black copy of Oma Zi-O’s, but with a watch attached on the right-hand side.

Sougo is still heavily beaten up, and it looks like he’s struggling a bit to raise his arms enough to insert the watches, even though he’s not using his usual flair. He’s putting them in before he puts his driver on.

Grand Zi-O starts to charge at Another Zi-O II.

Geiz and Tsukuyomi are trying to find Zi-O, but not having any luck.

That is, not until Uhr shows up, saying that Zi-O is running amok, and offering to tell them where he is.

With an incredibly smug look on his face.

The right hand doesn’t know what the left one is doing, either.

Back at the Zi-O Vs Zi-O fight, Hiryuu just straight up summons copies of Another Agito, Den-O, and Gaim out of thin air.

Agito appears with green smoke and a single light, coming from right about belt-level.

Gaim still has the orange smoke and juice-droplet effect from last time we saw Another Zi-O.

Den-O has lines of light around him that look distinctly like the lines in Actual Den-O’s attacks.

(Where was this attention to detail in the first arc?! They got much better at it pretty quickly, actually, distracting forced-amnesia subplot be damned, but still!)

Sougo summons Den-O and Gaim to take on their respective Another Riders – both of whom have those windows, still – and takes on Another!Another Agito himself. All three Another Riders go down simultaneously.

But. You know. Hiryuu is Zi-O II now.

And Zi-O II can do more than predict the future.

He just reverses the attack, rewinding time for the three Another Riders, and incidentally turning daytime into night. The same rainbow ripple effect from earlier shows up as he does it.

The Another Riders de-spawn Sougo’s summons, and he tries to defeat them with his “Giri Giri Slash” finisher… only for Hiryuu to undo that, and turn it back into daytime.

Sougo is just getting his ass KICKED today!

…and then machine gun fire blocks Hiryuu and his mooks from going further after him.

Shots fired by one Kadoya Tsukasa, still in miliary fatigues, with a magenta button-up underneath and matching bandanna tied around his arm.

TSUKASA, you’re STILL wearing two cameras! At least. At least let the pseudo-polaroid not be brown. Maybe a nice violet color, you know, for Natsumi, or a bright Cyan for Daiki. Even a yellow or some such for Yusuke.

(Yes, I ship them as an OT4. Come at me. I’ll carry my Photo Studio Polycule forever.)

So, this speech Tsukasa’s giving… it’s a pep talk. Yes, in his standard, trolling manner, but a pep talk nonetheless. “So, you’re just giving up here? Because it got hard? Because they left you? You were all high-and-mighty, going on about being a King, but here you are, an Overlord. Did you want this because they came to you? Or did they come to you because you wanted this?”

“This world is coming to it’s destruction. The only way you can stop it is to defeat Kakogawa Hiryuu.”

And at one point, Tsukasa lifts the BSOD’ing Sougo up by the collar, and he’s almost entirely limp. Just, being jerked around, almost slumping back down to the ground when he’s pushed against the wall.

Sougo stumbles off at Tsukasa’s challenge. He! Is in no way able to fight at this point! He’s just gotten beaten up three times in less than a day, all of which were very brutal! This boy! Is not okay!

The three Another Riders show up.

Tsukasa: “Defeat them, and then we’ll talk.”

So, Sougo enters Grand Zi-O. Almost reluctantly, it takes him a moment to even pull out his belt, but he still goes into battle.

(I do appreciate that they don’t show the full Grand transformation every time. Unlike certain other anniversary riders. Tsukasa. Fricking. Six episodes having to watch the full transformation into Complete. UGH. That was painful. If it were a better form, or a better sequence, I wouldn’t have been as made. But Complete is ugly, and the transformation cutscene for it is just. Bad.)

Sougo summons Den-O and Gaim’s weapons to take out the respective copies, and that leaves Agito. Who, you know. Doesn’t always have a weapon – his and Kuuga’s are form-based, unlike the more recent riders.

SO INSTEAD!

Sougo pulls out a translucent COPY of Agito, and sort of. Just. Merges with it to do Agito’s Rider Kick.

THAT’S REALLY CLEVER!

Tsukasa seems at least a little impressed. But here comes Geiz, going straight into Revive Typhoon, saying that he’s going to take Zi-O down to save the world.

And while Geiz is attacking at normal speed, so Sougo could have dodged…

But he doesn’t.

He just takes the hit.

We close out to the end screen, with the Another Den-O and Another Agito watches in the back… and once again, the Zi-O watch, glitching and being replaced by the Another Zi-O watch.

In the preview…

Zi-O II, Geize Revive Fury, and DECADE fighting Another Zi-O II.

Sougo: “There’s no point in fighting Geiz.”

A bunch of fight scenes, with Swartz saying that someone will help him, and Hiryuu sitting on a throne.

Daiki’s coming back! And still going on about treasure, because of course he is. (Still mad at Tsukasa about the first Super Hero Taisen movie, I’m guessing)

Tsukasa – still in the army jacket, but seeming to have ditched the helmet – spin kicking Another Build away from Tsukuyomi, and holding an honest to Gaim PISTOL.

AND SON OF A-

SOUNDS LIKE TSUKUYOMI IS, IN FACT, SWARTZ’S SISTER.

Or, at least, that’s what she’s being told, and Uhr – who looks to have just been holding a Faiz Phone X to Tsukuyomi’s head, being just as surprised as her.

THIS IS FIN-

YOU KNOW WHAT NO NONE OF THIS IS FINE.

THIS EPISODE IS SCARY.

So, Tsukasa’s ‘pep talk’. That’s the voice of experience that he’s using. That’s a man who has done the whole ‘evil ruler’ thing, and would really rather not see his latest successor go down that route. He’s just. Kind of terrible at saying it.

And of course he’s trying to point out to Sougo that he needs to rely on his allies, if in a roundabout way.

It was only because of Natsumi, Yusuke, and Daiki remembering him that he came back to life, after all.

Memories are a powerful thing in Kamen Rider. We just came off of the Den-O arc, which is largely powered by memories, and to go right into people not remembering that Sougo exists… well. There can’t be a coincidence that it’s also a Tsukasa arc now.

Also, as a note, we had some of the first decent shots of Oma Zi-O’s belt in this episode. Previously, we only got to see one side of it, the one not obstructed by his sash. This time… well.

The places that used to be for Ridewatches? Those look an awful lot like the extensions on the Grand watch.

#kamen rider zi o #sailorcressy says

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