#anyway this was a great scene made even better with kate's notes in the podcast

[just-fandomthings]

The TVA, Time, and Sleep

So Director Kate Herron said in a podcast interview that “they [TVA employees] don’t really get breaks. As people will spot on the posters, they get 17-minute lunch breaks [at the TVA], and there’s not really a day or night, so they don’t really ever stop working.” 

They don’t really ever stop working. 

There are a lot of alarming things about that- along with the fact that the employees only get a 17 minute break for what is otherwise a 23 hr and 43 min work day??! That’s outlandish and cruel and an awful working environment for these employees. And there’s honestly a lot I could say here about the time (or lack thereof maybe - “time passes differently in the TVA”) - and what that means for the TVA employees, but frankly that would be a conversation for another post as most of it would be speculation on the ‘creation of the TVA and all its employees’ and what that + the passing of time within the TVA means.

So let’s move on to Loki, who fell asleep slumped over his paperwork. 

Think about the timeline for this Loki: At the end of Thor (2011), he let go of the staff and was lost to space, set adrift for some period of time. From there, he was captured by The Other, who very likely tortured him. Context clues in Avengers (2012) certainly seems to support this (Loki trembling after his conversations with The Other, the dark bruises and shadows under his eyes and on his face, just to name a few). If we’re working off the assumption he was tortured, which really is all but confirmed at this point as far as I know, then I think it’s fair to assume Loki didn’t really sleep throughout his capture. 

And can you blame him? Considering he had been captured and tortured, it’s safe to say Loki’s guard was up tenfold- he was very likely trying to stay awake for as long as possible so as to remain aware of his surroundings at a prayer’s chance to protect himself. Which means he probably didn’t really sleep, so much as collapse from exhaustion/during one of his torture sessions. 

And from there, we see Loki get controlled, go to Earth, and go from one fight to another, ending with the Hulk beating him up BADLY. He definitely experiences some critical injuries, likely loses consciousness for a bit as well. He then loses the war, goes into custody, and then escapes with the Tesseract- only to then fall out of the sky during said escape. He gets what, a minute and a half to recover from that fall before he’s captured by the TVA minutemen?

And considering that the TVA only affords 17 minute breaks and experiences no day or night, their employees don’t sleep; there’s probably not even a sleeping chamber set up anywhere. So there we have Loki, who’s coming off capture, torture, fighting an all out battle against the Avengers... He very likely hasn’t slept or truly rested in months. 

Yet Loki sleeps. He puts his head down, cushioned on his arms, and he sleeps. Loki, who’s tired in every way possible, puts his head down and falls asleep right in front of Mobius, trusting Mobius in that moment not only to have his back, but to not hurt him as well. While Mobius, who knows every moment of Loki’s life, recognizes that Loki is exhausted and needs to sleep. So Loki sleeps, and Mobius lets him. 

[podcake]

Podcast Teatime: The Case of the Questioning Cheesecake

Hello and a happy August day to everyone. Welcome to a new Q&A to cap off the summer, starring the masterminds behind the adventures we’ve grown to love in The Penumbra Podcast.

As a loyal patron of the arts, I took it upon myself to do some of my own detective work for a change and see what’s going on in the heads of creators Kevin Vibert and Sophie Kaner .

(The following is a direct copy-and-paste from the email)

Question One: Let’s get the most pressing question out of the way first, at least for me: Is there any reason why you chose a hotel as a framing device for your stories? Was it always something you had planned?

Kevin: To start, Sophie and I were thinking that the Penumbra would be an anthology show, along the lines of The Twilight Zone or old radio drama anthologies like Suspense. The idea that the narrator would be a spooky, semi-omnipotent character voiced by the lead writer (hi) was Sophie’s, and is a very, very direct reference to Rod Serling’s narrator on The Twilight Zone. (“Shaken,” which is the one episode that remains mostly intact from this first view of the show, is full of Twilight Zone references — Louise’s surname “Serling” is not a nod to Rod Serling so much as a head-shake-so-hard-you-can-hear-our-necks-crack.)

As for the hotel itself: I have a real love of weird horror and descriptions of impossible places. House of Leaves, which is about ten billion things but one of them is a house that’s slightly bigger on the inside than the outside, was definitely bouncing around in my head as we were pitching ideas for the frame. So was The Shining, which is one of my favorite horror novels of all time, as well as Invisible Cities, which is a really bizarre collection of stories in which Marco Polo describes a bunch of cities that couldn’t possibly exist to Kublai Khan, saying they all lie somewhere in his empire. The description of the infinite hotel is definitely connected to that the most.

For season two we changed the game a bit, but I think even that has connections to this weird thing about places that are horrifying and impossible and kind of mundane — hotels and trolleys and things you see every day. I don’t know why I like making normal places scary. It is either a little bit of cruelty or a complete terror of everything around me, or both. Yeah, both.

Question Two: You have quite the talented cast to work with for your show. Did you have to look far and wide or was it a simple casting call? Or are these just close friends who happen to know how to act?

Sophie: Aren’t they great? It’s important to remember that the Penumbra Podcast was never intended to be a podcast in the first place; it was just going to be one radio play written for fun, except that one turned into two and then three and then we really let the whole thing get out of control. In any case, the first few people we brought on board (notably, the three actors at the core of the Juniverse: Joshua, Noah, and Kate) are old friends of mine from college, though I know them from a theater group, so it’s most accurate to say that I know them because they know how to act. We are always adding new actors, though! 

I perform a lot myself, so I ask a lot of the talented people I’ve worked with in the past to join the show, and I’ve also solicited auditions from friends of friends. (I don’t hold open auditions: we are still too small a production for me to feel safe doing that.) One exception: last year I went to see a play with a friend, and the lead actor was so incredible that I said “THAT. That’s who I need on my show.” So I found him on Facebook and asked him if he would be interested in joining the production, and luckily he had not only heard of the show but was totally on board! (If you’re wondering, the actor was Matthew Zahnzinger, who now plays Ramses O'Flaherty in the Juniverse and Sir Damien in Second Citadel.)

Question Three: What is it that inspired Juno Steel’s adventures? Do you ever see yourself paying homage to Sherlock Holmes and the like or are you more interested in other media to act as a muse?

Kevin: This answer will be relevant in, like, two seconds. I promise.

Sophie has a theory regarding directing actors towards new voices that I really love: she likes to get people to do impressions of people they sound nothing like and then shape the voice from there. Leslie Drescher, who plays Sir Caroline, Valles Vicky, Cassandra, and Cecil, has thus far gotten the brunt of this: for Vicky Sophie sent her videos of Robert DeNiro and Jabba the Hutt, and they shaped a character from there. Cassandra was Joan Jett, Cecil was a French aristocrat and Scott Disick, and so on.

Anyway: the reason this works for voice acting is that you’re relying on the natural chemistry of getting someone to do something they can’t actually do perfectly. When Leslie imitates Robert DeNiro, she does not sound like Robert DeNiro. But she can use that approximation as a starting place to figure out how to sound like a tough, brusque crime lord, and that’s what we needed Vicky to be. And better yet: the voice she does it not one Robert DeNiro could do, and it’s probably not one any of us would have thought she should do until we asked her to do something way outside what she was used to.

We treat inspiration and genre in our stories similarly. In the Juno stories, noir and scifi are always what we go back to… but usually we start by looking at another genre or story that doesn’t quite fit, but that we really love. Juno Steel and the Train From Nowhere happened because we really wanted to write a Bond movie, and then we decided it would be interesting and new if Juno was the “Bond girl” instead. The framing device in Angel of Brahma exists entirely the way it does because I’m obsessed with the first section of the novel Dracula, in which Jonathan Harker is simultaneously a guest and a hostage in Dracula’s house.

It’s worth noting that neither of these episodes are very much like the source material, and that’s where the shaky line between “homage” and “inspiration” comes in. Very often we start with a story convention we love because we love it, and then over the course of outlining and drafting and editing naturally branch off in a new direction.

When I was younger I would get really self-conscious about having “original ideas,” and of course I still do — but it’s really important to remember that “original” is not the same as “immaculate conception.” Just because you can trace where an idea came from doesn’t mean you stole it. If I rewrote It or The Shining and changed the title to Juno Steel and the Day That Wouldn’t Die and tweaked a few names, that’d be plagiarism. 

But if we read It and go, “Damn, I really wish I wrote this,” and then we examine what it is we like about the story, what we wish we wrote about it, what parts we don’t like and we’d take out, and what other influences we want to incorporate… suddenly we’ve made something brand new, even if the first thought was, “I really wish I wrote this story that already exists.”

Question Four: The Penumbra spans genres from mystery to fantasy and science fiction. Does it ever become a struggle to juggle so many different themes?

Kevin: For genre and theme, not really. The more difficult thing is bouncing between all these different characters.

Sophie and I talk incessantly about stories, and our interests dovetail really nicely for writing genre stories. I really like pulling apart plot structure and she’s obsessed with tropes; I like figuring out how a joke works and she likes figuring out how to make people cry. 

So entering a new genre is never terribly difficult for us because chances are we’ve already had forty conversations about that genre anyway: that’s why when we wrote The Coyote of the Painted Plains, but we knew we didn’t actually like Westerns very much, we gave it all the structure and tropes of a swashbuckler instead, like Ivanhoe or The Three Musketeersand so on. 

By the same token when I need to explain the Second Citadel stories to people, my shorthand is usually, “So there’s this fantasy world with knights and stuff, only the knights are kind of like superhero beat cops and the Queen is their chief, so it’s kind of a police procedural with a monster-of-the-week spin, and…”

So genre doesn’t tend to be an issue for us. But making new characters? That’s really, really hard.

Part of the reason we honed down to two main series in season two was because making new characters and getting an audience invested in them in half an hour was a good challenge, but completely exhausting.

 I can’t tell you how many half-finished outlines we have for season one one-shots, just because we realized we’d never be able to get people invested in these characters quickly enough and also have time to complete an actual plot. We also just really fell in love with the process of diving deep into a few characters over a long period of time, honing in on the ones with conflicts unresolved and seeing where they go next.

Question Five: Would The Penumbra still be The Penumbra if it wasn’t audio? If it could be recreated in any other format, which would you pick and would it still feel the same? (By the way, I would totally read a novelization of Juno Steel mysteries.)

Sophie: Oh god, if we could make the Penumbra in another format, it would be a TV show–well, two TV shows, probably, one for Juno Steel and one for Second Citadel. And if we had the resources, we’d create an animated series with Penumbra artist Mikaela Buckley! But that being said, the Penumbra would definitely lose something in the transition from audio to visual. Many of the plot points were written explicitly with an audio format in mind (the abilities Juno gains from the Martian Pill, the Ruby 7 car chase, the action scenes in the Head of the Janus Beast), and other setpiece moments were designed in post-production without even being a part of the original script (Annie Wire’s death, the music at Ingrid Lake’s party, Sir Damien’s storytelling). Which is all to say that the Penumbra would be an extremely different show if it hadn’t been created as a podcast.

Question Six: How long does it usually take to make an episode? Including voice acting, sound editing, and of course writing, is it especially time consuming or is it something that can be knocked out in a day?

Sophie: This is a tough question to answer because the first part of the process–the dreaming up of the stories–is the part that can vary the most. Sometimes Kevin and I agonize over characters and plot points for months, but on some very special occasions, when we’ve been in a really great groove, we’ve been able to outline an entire episode in one day. 

Once we have an outline, Kevin writes a draft, which can take anywhere from three days to three months (though both ends of the spectrum are very unusual). After that, we spend two to three weeks editing on our own and then with a few other people, and once the script is complete we can move onto rehearsal and recording.

This part is a ton of fun! Scheduling (handled by Noah Simes, our production manager) is a bit of a nightmare because the actors are all extremely busy, but we always do our best to have at least one rehearsal for everybody, and then 1-3 recording sessions. Those are usually long days, but we all love each other a lot, so it’s worth it. The final piece of the process is the sound design, which I usually spend about two full weeks on. I almost never think I’m going to get the whole thing done in time for episode release day, but so far I’ve always managed it!

BONUS: What are some future plans you have in mind? Without going into spoilers, can we can anticipate some new characters, exciting cases, and big reveals to come up?

Kevin: It is very much the Penumbra Brand to make sure all new information only raises forty new questions and makes everyone terribly upset, and so in that time-honored tradition I bring you this fun exclusive:

The structure of this Juno season — number of cases, number of episodes, plot structure, etc. — is so different from season one that we can’t even post a release calendar or tell you how many more you have left to expect, because it would spoil some major reveals coming up in… a few weeks? A few months? I don’t know. You’ll have to wait and see.

Thank you to Sophie and Kevin to taking time to answer my questions. If you haven’t already, check out The Penumbra Podcast yourself to get the scoop on Juno Steel and The Second Citadel as well as enjoying all the beautiful art provided by the talented @disasterscenario.

Another tea pot emptied and another case solved.

[sharethisgemwithme]

“Dewey Wins” instant reaction

It's about damn time.

Steven's back and, well, who's to say where we go from here?

PREVIOUSLY ON STEVEN UNIVERSE: A bunch of humans were abducted by Aquamarine and Topaz, the last of them Connie. As they attempted to find Greg ("mydad"), Steven instead gave himself up as diamond-killer Rose Quartz, and was taken to Homeworld. Lars accidentally tagged along. The two escaped and were found by an assortment of off-color Homeworld gems, but an attack resulted in Lars's brief death. Steven brought him back to life as a Lion-like pink being with wormhole hair, which he was able to use to get home. And now...

Tonight: "Dewey Wins". Right. I have nothing against townie episodes, and I understand the need to go back-and-forth with the heavy stuff, but this is a bit awkward of a followup. Potentially. Somewhere in this batch of six episodes, we're definitely making more progress on the gems telling us stuff, but this episode seems to be packed enough, that I don't know if it will fit here.

My predictions: First of all, disclaimer. I've seen the commercials, and the NYCC preview (which is as far as I know, the first two minutes), so I know Connie's sullen and Steven is unjustifiably smug (seriously, having just watched Wanted again, he is in tears for large portions, but I guess he found time in the last five months to once again convince himself he's just too tough to cry). I also sorta saw the episode titles, but I didn't really pay attention to them, or note their order (and I did my best to avoid the synopses of future episodes). So my predictions are colored by all that, but... If this is not a "Dewey Defeats Truman" joke, I am seriously baffled by the choice of episode title. So, that means that Nanefua is gonna become the new mayor by the end of the episode. Insert joke about an old person with a history of harassment winning an election in a stunning upset. As to the Connie plot, I think there will be a further conversation either about or with Connie, but I do think that Connie being upset with Steven for his actions will continue for a little longer. What he did was reckless, and for him to not even reflect on how he hurt those around him is cold and, frankly, a bit out-of-character.

All this intro is long, and for the benefit of those on mobile who can’t blacklist, the rest is below a cut.

All that out of the way, time to watch the episode! I'm watching via on-demand, and will start the clock with "We!" As always, first time I'm watching straight through with no pauses or rewinds.

[pre-start] I do notice the new episodes are marked as TV-G rather than TV-PG. Don't know if that means anything (or is a mistake). Also, LOL at the pre-show ad being for Match.com.

0:00 - And it's not in HD. Boo, Optimum. 0:20 - Lamar and Jeff for this one. 0:31 - They all look so glum. And they're right too. 0:40 - But Connie is the most pissed of all of them. 0:53 - None of this is stuff that should be said so happily. 1:09 - "But..." 1:18 - Massive missing of the point there, Steven. 1:30 - Regardless of Stevonnie, everyone was willing to work together. 1:44 - "Except for Lars", little bit flippant there, buddy. 2:00 - Didn't seem like a tough decision. 2:10 - Lion disapproves of your shenanigans. 2:22 - Sadie's not happy. Shockingly enough. 2:33 - "Also, he's kinda dead." 2:48 - THAT'S KINDA IMPORTANT TO DO. 3:04 - Here comes a new candidate. 3:28 - What the hell, Steven. This is not more important. 3:45 - This is a weak chant. 3:57 - THIS IS NOT MORE IMPORTANT. 4:05 - WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU GOING TO TALK TO DANTE AND MARTHA? Come on, dude! 4:24 - No! That would not have made things better! 4:40 - Why are you supporting him anyway? 5:06 - Have... you... have you told the parents yet? They're right there. 5:28 - "Everyone is safe." NO. Thanks, Sadie. 5:45 - Way to go, Sadie! 6:02 - OH YOU FUCKING IDIOT. 6:25 - Well deserved tomato to the face. 6:44 - Seriously, why are you supporting him?! What's wrong with Nanefua? 6:58 - Let's remember how well that book worked for Steven. Oh wait, it didn't. 7:20 - Jesus christ, this dude. 7:44 - "Speech-a-palooza". I chuckled. 8:22 - Do you have somewhere you're going with this? 8:40 - OK. And now Nanefua with the killshot? 8:58 - Oh boy, she's gonna blame Steven. 9:13 - "I will point them at Steven" 9:29 - Oh. That was surprisingly... nice. 9:55 - But what will we call Mayor Dewey if he's not Mayor anymore? 10:24 - This is not the thing to invest your energy in, Steven. 10:37 - Oh! You're making progress, without meaning it. Much like "Political Power" 10:54 - Thanks, Dewey. 11:05 - This leaves something to build on.

IMMEDIATE THOUGHTS: So this ending reminds me of "Political Power", obviously. In "Power", Steven makes the connection between Dewey lying to the town to make them feel better, and the Gems lying to Steven to make him feel better. Here, it's the analogy of Steven letting Connie down and... ok I'm not gonna lie, it's been three minutes since I watched the episode, and I can't quite place what the analogue in the Dewey situation was. There's a reason Dewey was able to say "Yeah I don't know what you're talking about", I guess. The other episode this ending reminds me of, right around the same time, is "Full Disclosure". Here, instead of Connie repeatedly calling and being ignored by Steven (the most callous he'd ever been until now), it's Steven trying to call Connie to ask forgiveness, and getting the cold shoulder. And given that he blew off her concerns, and then was flippant as all hell about "Oh hey, the mayoral election I didn't know was happening until just now is more important, can't hang out today", I don't blame her!

Second watch notes:

In the most recent episode of the official podcast, Matt or Ben mentioned how Connie and Lion have had an unspoken connection between them from the beginning, as they specifically brought up them working together to save Steven at the end of "Ocean Gem". That comes back here, as they ride off together without Steven. Does Lion just hang out at her place now?

Steven's most important power has always been reading the emotional temperature of the room. Him being so bad at it in the opening scene is painful.

There have been complaints of late about weak animation, and I think there's merit to those arguments (like the crowd at Nanefua's speech remaining frozen in place for a bit), but I do like the "camera" "focusing" on Steven and then "refocusing" on Connie during the last lines of their conversation.

Kate Micucci putting in a solid performance in this episode. Just want to throw that out there.

I might not have immediately noticed this if GC-13 of The Lunar Sea Spire podcast hadn't mentioned it, but the avatar of Ian JQ being present to cheer on Nanefua (modeled after his grandmother) is amusing.

Given the apparent outrage at Dewey for not doing anything, how is Steven not instantly a pariah when he says "Oh yeah, totally my fault." Does everyone just already dislike Dewey?

By the way, what a rift this must be causing within the Cool Kids. Is Sour Cream being forced to choose sides? Or is even Buck all "yeah I hope he loses"?

The economy of Beach "City" has always been baffling. The notion that the mayor thinks he can hire a new employee at a chain donut shop is an impressive amount of silly.

Ronaldo at the debate on his phone. Clearly typing up another KBCW post.

Nanefua will make a great mayor. She's already got the "emotional-sounding, and absolutely content-free speech" thing down pat.

OK, reaching the end I have now refreshed my memory on the Dewey-Steven analogy. Steven was taking the role of Connie, thinking that he was in a partnership that could do great things together, but the other member just gave up. The reason I forgot the analogy the first time around was because it doesn't make any fuckin' sense for Steven to have this level of devotion to Dewey (compared to Connie's belief in Steven), but that's where we were going with this, I guess.

Credits: No one credited for the generic townspeople, including the red-haired Southern-sounding woman at Dewey's first speech.