#and this is an audio medium

[whoopseydaisy]

"it is the realm beyond, and between, and through, and past the world"

since the release of the character playlists, and the rain road in the arc 1 finale my brain has been absolutely spinning about musicality in the wizard, the witch, and the wild one. and the relationship between music and the spirit realm, and then how that intersects with umora.

because since the beginning there has been this emphasis between the world of spirits and music. eursulon's theme, when we first meet him, before he crosses over, is this beautiful choral music—the first time we hear singing in the show. and then there is your honey is quiet, honey with a note of song. the first diegetic song we hear performed, is sung to honour the spirits.

(edit: eursulon’s breath!!! the thing that brings him back to himself, after it had been lost!!!!)

so i have the rain road on repeat and i'm re-listening to fireside chats and in the one for the first episode brennan describes the world of spirit by saying "it is the world beyond, and between, and through, and past the world" and it reminded me of the scoring. we hear the stories of umora, but beyond, between, through, and past the world; surrounding it, but separate from it is the score. (making me feel like us, the audience, is sitting and existing in the spirit realm. and if it is supernal, if it is what is beyond and between and through and past the world— aren't we?)

but that called to mind eursulon's character playlist, and how it, especially in it's representations of eursulon's early journey, was so instrumental. and that led me to ponder the intersection of music and language. how young eursulon's theme was choral but not lyrical.

the structure of language is the domain of umora.

and how that intersects interestingly with what we have seen of the lingua arcana. suvi's rhythmic somatic components. reflexive indicative and null clef alluding to the structure of grammar and music theory.

and then how the rain road is choral and lyrical, together. the first breaking of that line between the score and the world. connecting, like ame does.

and that is why in the wizard the witch and the wild one ame is a meta narrative representation of musical theatre. in this essay i will—

[umbrellajam]

Detective Comics (Vol. 1) #734 - Mark of Cain, pt 2

Oh, I love this, how the three bottom panels are descending and the silhouette of Gotham's skyline is rotating in the background to show they're falling, falling, falling, but the nameless girl and her father - the father she's desperately determined to stop, the father who does love her despite how complicated and terrible that love is - are timelessly still, as if the rest of the world has paused in this strange moment of re-connection. Shards of glass flying about them like a melancholy snowfall. Iconic.

[lights-at-night]

i might be shot but tbh i think fiction podcasts have an issue with racial representation

[belovedbow]

some new boys and some boys i haven't posted before

[slushiepizza]

I don't think anybody in the Redactedverse embodies Radiohead's Creep more than Marcus with Asset. Not in the way where he's a creep and a weirdo, although that's true lmao. But the part where he feels almost not good enough for them and seeing them as an ethereal being, wanting to be seen and remembered when not around. The self flagellation, the disgust at himself that's proportional to his love of them, a computer that's like an angel. Also the run, run, run! Part at the end and how James uses literal running metaphor to represent Asset's corruption from Marcus' code. Fuck!! He's so human and they're so machine but he instills his humanity in them through his social engineering and code, as a result they're more human than ever (having flaws when before they're a Perfect Being).

[jazzically]

OOOOOGHHH MY GOD these animatics are really making tma hurt all over again

to everyone who makes tma animations/pmvs with songs just remember you are basically creating an entire movie by yourself. sometimes you dont even use the podcast audio (which would still be amazingly impressive of course) ur just whipping out these whole entire incredible videos for us to enjoy based on the great story some people are telling. it's fantastic and i just?? how?? blows my mind

[8cfc00]

obsessed w all the Mike Walters (species) who have place names like its SO interesting that in a world with instant travel geographic places are still important to certain characters' personal/ascribed identity, even when the Mike's stay in their respective location was temporary

[piffany666]

Ok controversial opinion

Friends with benefits to lovers is better than Friends to lovers

[jerreeeeeee]

something about “you hear a voice and it is a very, very familiar voice and when you hear it your heart swells up” and “that was the last conversation you ever had with your sister” and “you hear your sister’s voice say”

[aq2003]

omfg . radio play version of much ado with david as benedick from 2001

[hephaestuscrew]

When Minkowski hugs Eiffel in Ep31 Sécurité, she just grabs hold of him without making a sound, and the listener only knows about the hug because of the "oof" noise Eiffel makes in reacting to having "the wind knocked straight out of him", and the script directions say that Minkowski has "tears silently streaming down her face", and Eiffel is the one who directly acknowledges the hug verbally ("Don't apologise for hugging"). If all we had was Minkowski's side of the interaction, we probably wouldn't know that they hugged. 

When Eiffel hugs Minkowski in Ep54 The Watchtower, he first tells her "C'mere, give us a hug!", and he makes a happy sound of effort as he squeezes her, and Minkowski - under the influence of Pryce's restraining bolt - doesn't seem to have any reaction at all, which Eiffel doesn't appear to notice. Once again, if all we had was Minkowski's side of the interaction, we wouldn't know that they hugged. 

The question of 'in what ways is the hug made audible?' feels much more significant in audio than it would in any another medium, and I do think it reflects something about these characters and their willingness to be open with their affection. Minkowski "grabs him and hugs him" hard enough to knock the wind out of him, but she does so silently. In a somewhat similar but also very different moment of reunion, Eiffel "embraces her" and he's not quiet as he does it. There's something about how Communications Officer Eiffel is always the one who verbalises their physical affection, whether or not he's the one who initiated the hug. The closest Minkowski gets to verbally acknowledging a hug is through an apology; Eiffel is the one who makes the hugs real for the listener.

[vaguely-concerned]

I listened to the first episode of vows and vengeance and... god. god forget waiting for veilguard, how the fuck am I going to survive the wait between each episode of this???? tl;dr: I loved it, I love dragon age, I love audio dramas, I love voice acting and music, I love thedas, I am IMMEDIATELY painfully invested. if nadia doesn't get her sweet fancy lad back whole and unharmed by the end of this I am killing everyone in tevinter and then myself.

more thoughts under the cut! not a lot of deep analysis just flailing and feelings today haha

I hadn't realized that elio would be a magister! idk if it was in any marketing beforehand, but if so I didn't pay enough attention to remember it lol. he sounds like he might be prime lucerni-material politically, so I'm a little sad we didn't get even a subtle dorian or maevaris easter egg in there, as far as I could tell, but hey, you can't have everything. (honestly unless BIG changes are upon us (which tbf they probably are) it might be just as well that this went down as it did, b/c I'm not sure how long elio would survive in the magisterium that we've heard tell of, he's quite -- either soft and shortsighted, or politically reckless, I think nadia was right there.)

I found nadia, elio and their dynamic very effectively introduced -- the fact that they haven't quite figured out how to be good to each other yet but so clearly both desperately want to be and are willing to work for that is a smart place to start the story. it makes it feel all the sadder if they never get the chance to work it all out, because I think they could have every chance to, given the time.

The voice actors for the central characters are all wonderful (orin's was. fine! doing a good enough job with a slightly more thankless role, let's call it that.) also so nice to hear people humming the tavern songs we heard in inquisition. god I love thedas I'm so glad we're getting to go right back in there soon

The episode was longer than I thought they would get, and it was all the better for it! I'm so happy it seems they'll get the space they need to tell this story, especially since nadia appears to be setting out on quite a continent-spanning odyssey here (I'm so sorry about your life nadia)

SOLAS solas solas! solas. solas!!!! he is such a BITCH and I love him so much. he is being aggressively himself and I didn't realize just how much I'd missed him. no one gets me frustrated quite like you baby you know better than this I KNOW you could know better than this why do you never learn a single thing I know you have the capacity somewhere in there. patron saint of endlessly fucking up. WHERE do you get off being condescending to nadia when all your ~*brilliant*~ plans backfire catastrophically on you every single time solas. yeah of course you're sorry, and you fucking better be, if she stabbed you I'd be sad but also like 'yeah I mean you had that one coming sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯' about it!!! what the fuck. come home please

such a weird feeling to have him be an ominous stranger on the road to elio and nadia while I was standing there with my arms crossed and my foot tapping irritably like 'oh so now he shows his face, there he is. my husband. my ex-husb -- my nemesis and poor little meo -- it's complicated alright. he's in the dog house, but the dog house he's in is still mine'. I do adore how unstoppably solas clearly wants to be a teacher, he works so hard to be mysterious and aloof but the lonely insufferable chatterbox knowitall jumps out at every turn.

neve trying and almost succeeding in freezing the whole bay I'm

like. okay then! much to think about

the only thing I'm not a big fan of is the characters calling out in-game spells in sort of a self-indulgent way, but hell if I know how else you'd communicate exactly what's going down magically in an audio format like this so y'know. very easily forgiven from my side honestly

[fearowkenya]

@unexploredcast something something say ok to the clock

[escapedaudios]

Maybe it's because I don't do NSFW audios, but I think the idea of being super secretive about being an audio roleplay VA is so goof. I showed my dad epiosde one of Against the World like the day after I made it literally just because I was proud lmfaoaoasodasd it's so liberating. People act like it's cringe and something to be ashamed of but it's not.

[lesbiancarat]

want to give my two cents on the AI usage in the maestro trailer--

i think seventeen doing a whole concept that is anti-AI is very cool, especially as creatives themselves i think it's good that they're speaking up against it and i hope it gets more ppl talking about the issue. i also understand on a surface level the artistic choice (whether it was made by the members, the mv director, or whoever else), to directly use AI in contrast to real, human-made visuals and music in order to criticize it. i also appreciate that they clearly stated the intention of the use of AI at the beginning of the video

however, although i understand it to an extent, i do not agree with the choice to use AI to critique AI. one of the main ethical concerns with generative AI is that it is trained on other artists' work without their knowledge, consent, or compensation. and even when AI generated images are being used to critique AI, it still does not negate this particular ethical concern

the use of AI to critique also does not negate the fact that this is work that could have been done by an actual artist. i have seen some people argue that it's okay in this context because it's a critique specifically about AI, and it is content that never would have been done by a real artist anyway because it doesn't make sense for the story they're trying to tell. but i disagree. i think you can still tell the exact same story without using AI

and in fact, i would argue that it would make the anti-AI message stronger if they HAD paid an artist to draw/animate the scenes that are supposed to represent AI generated images. wouldn't it just be proof that humans can create images that are just as bad and nonsensical and soulless as AI, but that AI can't replicate the creativity and beauty and basic fucking anatomy that's in human-made art?

it feels very obvious this was not just a way to cut corners and costs like a lot of scummy people are using AI for. ultimately it was a very intentional creative decision, i just personally think it was a very poor one. and even if some ethical considerations were taken into account before this decision, i certainly don't think all of them were. at the very least i feel like the decision undermines the message they want to convey

i would also like to recognize that i myself am not an artist, and i have seen some artists that are totally on board with the use of AI in this specific context, so clearly this is not a topic that is cut and dry. but generative AI is still new, and i think it's important to keep having these conversations

[wiseabsol]

Hey. Hey Urbina. With the most respect possible, because I love your work: what the FUCK?! How do you expect me to sleep after that episode 1 ending?

This man never misses, I swear. Genuinely, folks, if you enjoy Dracula, world-weary ladies, and vampires who are actually terrifying, you've gotta listen to Dracula: The Danse Macabre. I have never been more in love with Mina and more unsettled by the Count. Also the tweaks to the vampire lore? UNHINGED. I am haunted by it!