#as always this dialogue was in pieces and has been spliced together in a way that may not be completely accurate to Biowares intentions

[lyricsaboutcats]

"That’s what happens when you don’t bring protection. Idiots."

"What do you mean, ‘protection?’"

During development of Mass Effect 1, Noveria’s Aleutsk Valley had several encounters and enemies that were eventually left on the cutting room floor. Here’s another one where I’ve spliced the leftover audio files together.

After defeating a group of hostile krogan in the valley, Shepard comments on how lethargic they seemed. Wrex explains that krogan feel the cold more intensely than other races, and has a final request to get out of the weather (which is an ambient comment not directly tied to the conversation).

Every squadmate has recorded lines for this encounter. It was probably intended to be a short cut-scene with dialogue options. 

----

(Sources: ice25_trig05_chilly_krogan,snd_ice25_exterior, ice25_trig04_open_boathouse.upk, Mass Effect PS3 Edition. Spliced with Audacity, Image by Bioware for Xbox 360 promotional material)

[morsking]

Got around to starting and finishing Old World Blues in the past couple of days. I think it’s the strongest of the game’s DLC I’ve played so far.

At first, it feels like you’re in for some wacky science fiction b-movie shenanigans once you’re introduced to the Think Tank. They’re all whimsical idiots who forget what words are, repeat themselves to elongate their sentences to look smart, and even one of them is bizarrely horny and has a fetish for... innocuous human behavior? Stretching? Yawning? They are neurotic brains in machines who take stuff apart and break it without really creating anything with it, just replicating the same results over and over and none of them seem to notice how stupid they are and it’s amazing. They took your brain, spine, and heart out of your body in an attempt to turn you into a walking vegetable, only for them to become so fascinated with the damage you took from Benny’s bullet that they fuck up the surgery and end up finding a way to keep your intelligence about you with a remote device that connects your brain to the tesla coils in your skull. Their biggest scientific discovery since... who knows how fucking long, was an absolute accident. It could only come about by chance, because you, as an existence alien to the static Big MT, shook things up tremendously. 

But as funny and baffling as all these things could be, the more you explore Big MT, the more apparent it is that for all their quirks the Think Tank are also responsible for some of the most heinous crimes against humanity you can witness in Fallout: New Vegas. They experimented with carnivorous, parasitic plants on human beings, spliced humans, dogs, and robots together, developed nightstalkers and cazadores you see in the base game, used the Sierra Madre casino and its inhabitants as a petri dish for holograms, the claustrophobic hazmat suits, and the poisonous Cloud that killed everyone and turned them into zombies. Their experiments killed all their staff, and not one of them batted an eye to what they did. And their most shocking crime is the repetition of Japanese internment with Chinese hostages, who you can find ghoulified from radiation and are forced to kill them. These prisoners can’t be reasoned with or saved because the Think Tank stripped them from their humanity long ago along with any humanity or rationality that was left in the Big Empty. The only thing they can do as being robbed of their humanity is lash out at anything that still looks human. All throughout the DLC, you are subjected to displays of the Think Tank’s obsessions and cruelties and aimless ambitions, and you wonder why. How did things get this twisted and distortioned? And then you meet Dr. Mobius, and you find out why.

In his introductory segment when you start the DLC, he seems like the parody of the crazed mad scientist terrorizing the slightly less crazy eccentric scientists and the bastard who kidnapped your brain. But when you meet him, he’s like a sweet, confused, senile old man. He’s got an endearing if a little weird addiction to radioactive snacks despite him being a brain in a machine who has no mouth to eat them. He forgets he keeps a giant killer robot scorpion with a OHKO death laser of infinite... death powered on and sucking up energy all the time and that’s why his shit never works. He uses the wrong words on his sentences because they sound like the actual words he means to use. He didn’t just steal your brain, he kept it safe for you. And also, he’s the one who lobotomized the Think Tank into the witless abominations they are now. 

Dr. Mobius witnessed his co-workers, his friends, pushing the boundaries of science further and further into dark places. Terrified for what they might do, he robbed them of their sanity and created an army not to terrorize them, but to keep them busy and from getting out. Dr. Mobius feared for the world, that it might be subjected to one new horror after another. There is great compassion in his actions but also great cruelty. He was so afraid of his friends the new world he trapped them in the old one. That’s where obsession and abhorrence belong, in the big emptiness of the past. It’s so appropriate, that Big MT is misread as “the Big Empty”. Because obsession and madness are an abyss, and also because everything that happened there was meaningless and hollow. There was no purpose to the Think Tank repeating its process of lobotomizing and observing the lobotomites. The great irony is that. That they don’t realize that what they do to human beings is what’s been done to them. Like the nature of all their names, their actions and their philosophies are cyclical and self-consuming. (Ouro)Borous. Zero. (Man)Dala (circle in Sanskrit), 8, Klein and Mobius. They are concepts that loop into themselves, symbolic of the futility of holding on to the grudges and ambitions of the Old World, a world that new only conflict and supremacy and paranoia and hostility. The fact that Mobius had to resort to brainwashing his own colleagues itself is evident even he didn’t know how to let go of the brutal utilitarian methods of the Old World in an effort to save the New One.

And what’s even worse is that didn’t matter anyway, because the mutated abominations that Borous created still found their way into the Mojave anyway. Are we supposed to accept that as a mercy that night stalkers, spores, and cazadores are the only things that slipped through the crater into the desert and be thankful for it? The only thing you can do about it now is say “Enough.” Enough of the Old World and its curses. It has no right to turn this world into a graveyard with it. It has no write to take from it and toy with it. Many times that attachment is played for laughs in Old World Blues, particularly Borous’s anti-communist fixation and enactments of his high school trauma being the basis for a training operation. But when you truly look at it it really feels like gallows humor. How many people do you reckon died in those tests at Lab X-8 because he used the test subjects as a means of catharsis? What was the human cost of that myopic insecurity and resentment? You only have to look around you. The facility is littered with guts. And it’s not the only one that looks like that. Not by a longshot.

So it came my time to also say enough to the Think Tank. I chose to kill them (more like stumbled my way into killing them because you have to thematically cycle through speech and skill checks for Mobius to give you the option of sparing everyone). It was both a roleplay gesture of revenge as much as it was a choice from me as a player to put the Big Empty out of its misery. It was already a graveyard in concept, it had to be made a graveyard in reality.

So that’s it for my review of the story. As for the more physical aspects of the DLC, I’ll say the Big Empty is probably the most interestingly designed setting I’ve ever seen. From the moment I woke up at the top of the Sink’s balcony I fell in love with what I was seeing. The layout includes some interesting platforming and traversal of the terrain from labs to cliffs to caves. Every laboratory houses something useful for you or relevant to the story and it’s easy to circle around the entire map and unlock everything as you go. The exploration comes naturally and you’re always encouraged to go back and look to see if you missed something (which you probably did, because it sure happened to me). One of the best things I found was the stealth suit. I’ve written about it already, but it is simply adorable, quirky, and also very helpful. Getting all its upgrades is worth it and not all that difficult even if it looks like a case of trial and error. There are some neat unlockables in terms of weapons as well like the stuff Elijah and Christine left behind, and lore that elaborates on their time there and Christine’s chase of Elijah to make him pay for his crimes. There is also the excellent set-up of your encounter with Ulysses in Lonesome Road, since he’s left his mark everywhere for you to see, as if luring you and taunting you. The dialogue is some of the wittiest and funniest Fallout’s ever been. The personalities in the Sink’s assistant appliances are so varied and interesting. You have the weirdly horny and seductive seed processor, the germaphobic water sink, the pessimistic and exhausted Muggy mini securitron, the jealous bickering light switches, the radio man juke box, the brave little toaster that could (murder everything), the ultra-patriotic and self-unaware book chute, the compassionate level-headed Auto-Doc, and finally the neutral, loyal, and polite Central Intelligence Monitor. Old World Blues had such an interesting and loveable cast. There is not a single human character in the entirety of the DLC, yet all of those feel vivid and alive. 

Those are my two cents on Old World Blues. A beautifully written, poignant, and entertaining piece of gaming. Now, we move on to Lonesome Road. 

[mastrechef]

I got this weird idea in my head and it kept pestering me until I did something about it, so I picked away at it while on vacation. It started out as something else until I adapted it for FFXV, but anyway, here’s some random snippets of stuff where all the dialogue is composed of spliced together song lyrics. I tried to keep the lyrics intact and recognizable, but I did occasionally omit words to make things fit better. Features an Ardynson!Nyx but not related to my other Ardynson stuff.

His breath rasped in his throat like a death rattle. It wasn’t long now. He was old and withered, his bones grown brittle, and his mind slow. Death would claim him soon. Sitting alone in the dark, he could do nothing but wait.

Something moved in the corner of his eye, but in his weak state he was slow to respond. He finally managed to crane his neck to look. Nothing. Just shadows. With a wheezy sigh, he settled his head back to stare at the ceiling once more.

Burning gold eyes met his own.

His breath stuttered to a halt as he realized just who was looming over him.

Ardyn Lucis Caelum said, “Fondest greetings to you, dear brother, it’s been a while. Where should we begin? You and I, we were once inseparable. Oh, how quickly life can turn around.”

Somnus could only mutter silent denials to himself. Hallucination or ghost or whatever it may be, this was not his brother. He’s been dead and buried for decades.

“Why so silent? Did you think that I had left you for good?” The thing wearing his brother’s face leaned closer, those eyes fever-bright even as something dark lurked behind them.

“You’re just a memory,” Somnus said with a feeble shake of his head.

“Here I stand, left for dead,” the Ardyn look-alike sighed dramatically. His--it’s-- expression, which was exaggeratedly jovial until now, turned somber. “You turned this lie to truth. Will you own up or deny it?”

“The dead can’t speak,” insisted Somnus. “And there’s nothing left to say anyway.”

It continued on as if he hadn’t spoken. “You could never know what it’s like. My soul’s been withered and wisped away. It messes with your sanity by twisting all your thoughts away.”

The words ignited something in him, and Somnus forgot to dismiss the ghost. Filled with a long-forgotten strength, he spat, “You used to have a soul, but it died. You forgot all the things that are human.”

Ardyn shook a finger at him in a chiding gesture. “Shame on you. You don’t care what you’ve done, just keep on thinking it’s my fault.” A hand flashed out to grip his chin like a vice. “I am what you made me. I remain condemned and I will ever linger on the edge.”

Somnus hissed. “All that you are is the end of a nightmare. You challenged the gods and lost. Past the point of no return, lost in the darkness--”

The hand on his chin squeezed until his jaw creaked in protest. “Are you done? I think I’ve had enough of you rambling on and on.”

Demonic eyes bored into Somnus with increased intensity. “I want to know,” said Ardyn. “You got your glory. Was it worth the cost of breaking a family in two? Do your demons ever let you go?”

Somnus glared back with as much ferocity as he could muster. “You were only in my way.”

The look of false pity he received infuriated him. How dare this soulless creature mock him so? He had been burdened with a great purpose and had only done what needed to be done. The scourge-infected had needed to be wiped out, so he had done it. All to protect his future kingdom.

As though he could hear these thoughts, Ardyn shook his head and said, “Through your need to feel you're right, you're the savior of nothing.”

“I am a righteous man--”

“You’ve taken away everything,” interrupted Ardyn, strangely calm, like the eye of a storm. “I give you sweet revenge. I return this nightmare: a life for a life.”

“What can you do?” Somnus scoffed.

“Your number is up. Sorry, not sorry,” Ardyn said in feigned apology. His lips pulled back abruptly in a snarl. “Take all your deeds and rot in hell.”

The last thing Somnus saw was his brother’s starscourge gold eyes bleeding black.

more under the cut

Nyx understood at an early age that his dad was broken, so he did his best to keep things lighthearted and cheerful whenever his dad was able to visit. If he could keep his dad’s thoughts in the here and now, that meant less time spent dwelling on awful curses and past betrayals. He would let his dad take the first step if he wanted to talk.

The tale came in bits and pieces over the years, but always lacking a great bit of detail. It was a rare day when Ardyn actually spoke of the true impact of the betrayal, of the 2000 years spent wandering, undying.

So it came as a surprise when Ardyn brought it up suddenly one morning as they were watching the sunrise over Galahd.

“There is not much left of me,” he said, apropos of nothing.

Nyx turned to him questioningly, his concern all but radiating out of him.

 “Nothing is real but pain now. Emptiness is filling me to the point of agony.” In spite of his dark words, Ardyn turned to smile at his son. “Whenever I am with you, you deliver me from the pain in my life. I can gain control because you’re mine.”

There was nothing that made Nyx happier than the knowledge that he was able to help his dad just by being around and being himself. Still, he felt compelled to ask, “Will this curse ever be broken?”

“I wonder… All my life I dream of the day it’s taken away.” Ardyn’s face twisted into that look of melancholy despair that Nyx hated. “Death would be an ample compensation, but heaven doesn’t want me.”

As much as he didn’t want to even consider the thought of his dad dying, he knew there was no one who deserved the chance to rest more than Ardyn. Privately, Nyx made a promise to himself. “I will fight this war for you,” he swore. Because he would do anything for his father. Anything at all to stop him from looking so worn down and hopeless.

Galahd fell and Nyx found himself joining the Kingsglaive in Insomnia. He also made a name for himself with his reckless heroics and his need to save as many as he could. However, it wasn’t until he was stuck on Citadel duty, close enough to feel the magic of the Crystal humming in his bones, that he considered it. It being a monumentally stupid idea, but one that was worth the potential payoff.

So one late night, when there weren’t many others around to take much notice of him, Nyx stood before the Crystal with the intent to have a chat with the Draconian. Nyx took a deep breath and steeled his nerves.

Before Nyx had the chance to speak a single word, a sword slammed into the floor between him and the Crystal, and in short order Bahamut materialized beside it. The Astrals voice echoes eerily as he spoke. “You have come here in pursuit of your deepest urge, in pursuit of that wish which till now has been silent.”

Well, that simplified things for Nyx. If Bahamut knew that much, then surely he was aware of just who his father was. Although, if he had known from the beginning, it was a little strange that he hadn’t done anything about it like Nyx and Ardyn had considered.

Nyx shoved the thought to the side as it wasn’t important right now. “Undo these chains,” he said simply. Bahamut would get his meaning.

The Draconian’s gaze on him felt like a physical weight. It was honestly a bit terrifying to be at the center of Bahamut’s attention, not that Nyx would admit to it. He had come here for one purpose and one alone; he wasn’t about to back down because of nerves.

“Give your soul to me for eternity,” Bahamut finally said.

“Is this the way it’s gotta be?” Nyx scoffed. Even if he was scared out of his wits, he wasn’t about to put up with Bahamut’s bullshit. He was willing to do anything, give up anything, for his father, but Ardyn would kill him if all Nyx did was land himself in the same boat.

“Not a hero unless you die.”

Nyx didn’t agree with that statement at all. Still, the Astral hadn’t smited him yet, so he��d push his luck to see if he could wrangle an actual deal out of this mess. “I am just a man, but my voice will be heard today. I fight to make a stand. If you wanna play it like a game, come on let's play.”

“Ignorant fool, lost within a world beyond your control,” Bahamut’s voice boomed. The Astral hefted his sword and pointed it straight at Nyx.

Agony coursed through him, as though his blood had turned to liquid fire, pulsing in time with his thundering heartbeat. Nyx crashed to his knees as the pain consumed him. Disjointed images flashed through his mind.

Nyx could barely focus as the Astral spoke once more. “You are forever changed. Fate will guide you to the end and there will be no hope. All will fade before your eyes.”

“I won’t let you win,” said Nyx, eyes gleaming in determination despite the pain. “I will not bow, I will not break. As the light begins to fade, when all hope begins to shatter, know that I won’t be afraid.”

Ardyn was definitely going to kill him for this, but it was worth it. Nyx knew what he had to do now. He could save them both.

...

So the first snippet is obviously Ardyn visiting Somnus on his deathbed. While not the full 2000 years until the main story timeline, Ardyn has still been cursed and undying long enough to be a little unhinged. Plus, the anger and betrayal is still pretty fresh, so that all influenced my portrayal of him. I didn’t initially plan this, but at the end Ardyn curses Somnus and I got this feeling that having the kings of Lucis bound to the Ring of the Lucii/the Crystal after their death was Ardyn’s fault.

Not really satisfied with the conversation with Bahamut, but by that point I was just done and sick of trying to find suitable lyrics. What I was trying to go for was Bahamut gives Nyx some impossible task and a curse of his own, and if he’s able to break it he can then break Ardyn’s.

...

Other snippets I wanted to write / song lyrics I wanted to use but then got too lazy:

Ardyn’s reaction and subsequent confrontation with Bahamut-  Everyday that passes by I develop a new way to hate you. You may think you’re god, but I know you’re a pretender. I see through you and all your lies. You are everything that I despise.

Nyx trying to talk his dad out of doing something ridiculous and Ardyn’s just like-  a little mayhem never hurt anyone

...

Songs used if anyone’s interested (listed in order of appearance, although some show up in multiple places in the snippets):

Masquerade/Why So Silent? - Phantom of the Opera, Who - Disturbed, My Sacrifice - Creed, Memory Motel - The Rolling Stones, Dance With the Devil - Breaking Benjamin, Harvester of Sorrow - Metallica, Tyrant - Disturbed, Chalk Outline - Three Days Grace, I’m Still Standing - Elton John, Withered - Atomship, Love Bites (So Do I) - Halestorm, Sorry Not Sorry - Gemini Syndrome, Shame on the Night - Dio, Sweating Bullets - Megadeth, The Pride - Five Finger Death Punch, Off With Her Head - Icon For Hire, Confrontation - Jekyll & Hyde, Planet Hell - Nightwish, Point of No Return - Phantom of the Opera, On Point - Gemini Syndrome, Strangers Like Me - Tarzan, Everybody Wants You - Billy Squier, Rainbow in the Dark - Dio, Just Like You - Three Days Grace, Savior of Nothing - Disturbed, Hellfire - Hunchback of Notre Dame, It’s Not Over - Daughtry, Here Comes Revenge - Metallica, New Sensation - INXS, Your Number is Up - Now and On Earth

One - Metallica, Fade to Black - Metallica, You’re Mine - Disturbed, Majesty - Now and On Earth, Mourning Star - Gemini Syndrome, All My Life - Foo Fighters, Torn in Two - Breaking Benjamin

The Devil in I - Slipknot, Close Your Eyes - Breaking Benjamin, The Kinslayer - Nightwish, Hero - Skillet, Crushcrushcrush - Paramore, The Mirror (Angel of Music) - Phantom of the Opera, Brave and the Bold - Disturbed, I.M. Sin - Five Finger Death Punch, I Will Not Bow - Breaking Benjamin, Writing’s On the Wall - Sam Smith

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD S10 Trailer: Analysis

Okay let's dive into this trailer. Lots of great symbols. I’m basically going to list everything we see (because many scenes flash by so fast that people miss them without realizing it) and make some observations along the way.

The first thing you see is the ocean and water. Obviously, Beth = water, so this would make me excited one way or the other. But it also shows that some of the symbolism we saw clear back in S4 is being fulfilled now. I talked about this recently (X) but there's the picture above Hershel which shows a ship on the ocean. We been predicting things that are ocean related (shipwrecks, etc.) for a long time. That’s why we were so excited when Oceanside became a thing in S7. Nothing much has come of it yet, but it may this season. Spoilers tell us that there's going to be a ship wreck this season and a lot of stuff happening with Oceanside. The very fact that it’s the FIRST thing in the trailer is significant.

Perhaps more importantly, we see a walker impaled on some wood. I can’t tell if this walker is bobbing in the water or if he's actually walking through the surf. It could be that the camera is low and he's actually walking. Doesn’t really matter, but he's impaled on the wood piece of wood that looks like a cross (or an X). So, this is pretty much a Christ symbol walking up out of the water. That's kinda huge in terms of symbolism.

Then there’s a group of people riding horses. Nothing huge there. We could mention the Horse Theory but these aren’t black and white horses or anything.

Then we hear Alpha talking. I mentioned this in an Ask on Sunday but she says, “There's only one rule. We are always watching.” 

One reason that's important is because many of us have noticed a theme of TF being watched from afar over the seasons. I don't think it was always the Whisperers doing the watching. It might've been the helicopter people. But if you've been keeping up with my posts, you know this theme is coming together in a big way. So, if they’re reiterating the idea of someone watching TF, that's important. We also see Michelle with binoculars to reinforce the theme.

Negan talks about the skin-colored bogeyman arriving, by which he means the Whisperers.

We then see Eugene running toward a radio. I think that's important given voice we heard in 9x16 and the radio stuff we've seen in Fear this season. We see Rosita with what I'm assuming is her baby and Luke looking scared. Judith holding a walker face, obviously from the Whisperers.

Then Michonne speaks. She says, "Fear is dangerous. It can drive us apart again." While Michonne speaks, we see Siddiq looking ill and then his face is plunged into water, almost as though someone is holding him under. I don't know what that means but it could signify Siddiq’s death.

Then we get something interesting: a hooded person painting, "silence the whispers," in different places around Alexandria. No idea why they would be hooded, but it's interesting.

Then we see Lydia practicing with a quarter staff (Morgan would be so proud) and obviously she and Daryl will have a lot of scenes together. 

Then Daryl challenges Negan, saying to them have never gone toe to toe before. Maybe that will happen in the season. It would be interesting.  

Michonne and Father Gabriel peer at each other from opposite sides of the fence. Later in the trailer, we also see FG in what looks like a jail of some kind. Not sure what that portends, but the interesting thing is that he’s sort of imprisoned a lot in this trailer and, because of his one eye, he’s a walking Sirius symbol, which makes him a Beth proxy. She had a lot of imprisonment symbolism around her because of Grady. So, as with so many things here, I don’t know what it means, but I’m side-eyeing it.

Negan says, "If you don't protect what belongs to you, soon it will belong to someone else." While he says it, there are a lot of family-and-friends shots: Aaron with Gracie, Siddiq holding his and Rosita's baby, Daryl and Connie and Dog, and then horses riding into Oceanside.

Next, Father Gabriel tries to get Negan to fight. Negan says he doesn't want to do anything but pick tomatoes. That's a nod to Carl and Carl's vision of the future where Negan literally picked tomatoes. Father Gabriel insists that Aaron needs fighters and Negan can fight. Then he says my favorite line in the entire trailer, "Peanut butter, meet jelly." 

(Quick refresher: this is a Beth and Daryl symbol. X At the funeral home in Alone, Beth at peanut butter and Daryl ate jelly.) FG points to Aaron when he says peanut butter and Negan when he says jelly. How many times have we said Aaron is a proxy for Beth? Even had a lot of her dialogue in 5B. So, Aaron represents Beth, and both of them are peanut butter. Negan represents Daryl, and both of them are jelly. Very nice!

Next are lots of scenes of people killing walkers in different ways and locales. Rosita punches a punching bag. Then Carol says, "Do you ever wonder if this is all there is?” Daryl answers, 

"Sometimes I think we’re just surviving one fight to the next." During this part, we see people fighting on the beach, Daryl and Carol hugging, a lot of stuff with boats, such as Ezekiel and Jerry trying to keep walkers inside a boat.

Then Daryl says, "No more fighting. Just get on the bike and go." And it shows him and Carol on his motorcycle. Then Carol says, "Head out west." And Daryl says, "See what's left." And then more beach stuff.

Okay, let’s talk about this for a minute. First, it’s worth noting that conversations in the trailer are often spliced together in a deceiving way. These lines may be (and probably are) parts of several different conversations rather than one as we har it in the trailer.

That said, I know this worries many people and a certain ship is going nuts. But there’s no reason to worry. I actually find this very intriguing. First of all, they went out of their way to define Carol and Daryl’s relationship in this trailer, and it’s still one hundred percent platonic and mother/son.

In terms of what they’re saying, Daryl implies that sometimes he wants to leave, get on his bike and ride. But it's interesting that they say “head out west.” Because, where are Morgan and his group? They’re in Texas, which is far southwest of Virginia. And then of course there's Carol. We think she's going to get on a boat at some point and take Michonne’s comic book arc. So, if anything, I think this is a foreshadow. Nobody freak out. I don't think Daryl and Carol will run away together and abandon the rest of the group. I just think at some point, this may come into the story. But I can see Daryl heading west in some way to find Beth over even Rick.

And remember that last year, both Melissa and Norman were seen in places that suggested they were filming scenes for FTWD in Texas. Obviously, we haven't seen either of them on that show and, much like Beth’s missing scenes from S5, I think they filmed this far in advance to try and minimize spoilers. But at some point, one or both of them may end up in Texas. So again, I think this is a foreshadow, but not one that any of us should be worried about. If anything, I kinda like it.

Next, Rosita and Father Gabriel, lots of people fighting, babies. Eugene seems to be measuring what I assume is Rosita's baby. Kind of funny. No idea what's going on there. Yes Eugene, babies do grow.

Daryl hugs Lydia and Magna and Kelly have a romantic moment.

Michonne says, "Somehow, it's harder the second time around. You get used to having someone there. A partner in crime." During this voiceover, we see Judith and Luke together; Daryl and Connie at the head of a group walking through the woods, Carol, and a shot of the H coin from last season. Right after Michonne’s line, we see her kiss Ezekiel.

I talked about this on Sunday as well, but I feel like this is mostly misdirection. Think about what Michonne says here. It’s harder the second time around without the loved ones she misses. Without a partner in crime. She's either talking about Rick or possibly Carl. About how much she misses them. And then it shows her kissing Zeke as though it’s about him? It’s clearly not. So that alone tells me they’re being deceptive.

And yes, I suppose it might be some sort of rebound relationship with Ezekiel, but it’s a little too convenient in my mind. So again, I think this was just put in to get a rise out of the fans. Even if she and Ezekiel are in a relationship, I don't see it being anything long-term or very important.

Then we get into some more Whisperer stuff. Magna says, "If we get caught on their side of the border, that's it. That's war." Right then, Daryl crosses the border. 

So obviously the Whisper War is about to begin in earnest. Alpha says, "What did I tell you about crossing my border? You’ll have to be punished." Then Carol says, "Bitch has to die."

Then more shots of people running, fighting, raising weapons in quick succession. We get a quick shot of Earl fighting. He’s Tammy's husband from last season. I was happy to see him.

We also see a lot of flames. We actually see a lot of fire throughout the trailer. Much of it seems to be at Oceanside. So again, if Oceanside burns in some way, it will mean what happened with the Oceansiders at the end of S8 was a foreshadow. At the time, it seemed really random, and I think I even suggested then that because it was so random, it was probably a foreshadow something. Now we’ll probably see it’s fulfillment.

Next, Alpha has a line I can’t quite make out. Maybe someone can tell me if they can hear better than I can. She says, “This is my ??? now. You'd better run." I’ve listened to it thirty it times and can’t understand what she says right there. And yes, I obviously checked out the subtitles, but they’re translating it as “This is my that, now.” which obviously isn’t correct.

Michonne says, "It's going to get worse before it gets better, but we aren't going to get through it at all if we do not act as one."

Alpha then says, "You should fear me."

Finally, it cuts to the humorous scene with Daryl and Carol when he says that he didn't want his best friend spend the rest of her life on a boat. Carol razzes him, saying, "What are you, ten?" Then she says she could make them matching friendship bracelets. She keeps going, teasing Daryl about the comment until he says, "I got an idea. Let's just eat and not talk."

Naturally, certain shippers are pouncing all over this like it's a marriage ceremony or something. But if you think about what they're saying here, there is no more clear way to define their relationship as a friendship. Not only because she offers to make friendship bracelets for them, but because when she asks if he's ten, it's very much a throwback to Carol thinking of Daryl as little as a little boy. As her son. So this clearly defines the relationship this as a mother son relationship as well as a platonic friendship rather than romance. I thought it was a fun and humorous scene.

It also illustrates one of the major differences between Carol and Beth. Carol is utterly unsentimental. Don’t get me wrong: she can be sentimental sometimes, and she was with Ezekiel and Henry, but she's never been that way with Daryl. 

Actually, this reminds me of the scene on top of the bus in 3x01, where she said, "You want to make out?" And then they both laughed. It had that same ambience. And remember that right after that in 3×01, Daryl stared at Beth while she was singing. By contrast, Beth would've been much sweeter and more sentimental about what Daryl said. It’s not a bad thing on Carol’s part. It simply shows the difference in Daryl's relationship to Carol versus his relationship to Beth.

Finally, there’s a mini coda where Michonne holds Negan’s bat. Honestly, I’m not sure what to make of that. They've been foreshadowing something that has to do with Michonne and Negan for a while now. Last season, remember she went out and found his bat and saw a guy hanging, which was a lot like Librarian the Saviors hung over the bridge at the end of S6. I don't know if this portends something literal that Michonne and Negan will be involved in, or if they're trying to say that Michonne is becoming Negan in some way? That doesn’t seem particularly plausible to me, but as I said, just not sure what to make of this yet.

And this coda was super short and vague, which is different than past trailers. Maybe that’s because AK is showrunner now. It will be interesting to see how this coda plays out in the season.

Okay, some closing, overall thoughts. We see a few shots of Daryl and Connie together, but nothing about them suggests a romance to me. He hugs both Carol (mother) and Lydia (daughter) more than he does Connie, who he doesn't hug at all. We do see the two of them hanging out in various ways. So, I think he's developing a friendship with Connie, much like he has with Aaron or Tara or any other member team family. Honestly, that doesn't bode well for Connie.

If you're worried about Donny being a thing, consider this. At SDCC this past weekend, they announced that Lauren Ridloff (who plays Connie) is going to start filming a Marvel movie. And congrats to her. But in my mind, there's no clearer evidence that she won’t be playing a huge role in the show moving forward.

I don't know they’ll kill her off, or just take her away for a while, like they did with Maggie. But from what we know about TWD actor contracts, they’re ironclad. The actors have to be 100% loyal to the show and often have to get special permission to do other projects. So, if Lauren Ridloff is doing something as big as a Marvel film, it must be with AMC's blessing. That tells me that either her character will die, or she's just not going to play a very big role in the show moving forward, which frees her up to do other work. If someone's going to be Daryl's love interest, that's going to be a huge role in the show. So it's already looking like those of us who assured everyone Daryl and Connie would not be a thing were correct.

The only other observation I have from the trailer is that we didn't see Lauren Cohan at all. No Maggie yet. Not a particularly big deal. The commercial tends to only cover the first handful of episodes anyway, so maybe Maggie won't be back until late in 10a or even 10B.

Overall, I'm seeing a lot of Beth symbolism. No smoking guns about her appearance, but I wouldn't expect there to be. For the most part I really loved the commercial and I'm excited for S10.

[uncovereliminate]

Splicers

Since I needed to do some research for a project I will be starting soon,  I decided to put everything I found interesting about Splicers in one compact post for me to always find it back.

General Splicers

Thuggish Splicer

Leadhead Splicer

Spider Splicer

Nitro Splicer

Houdini Splicer 

Because of the way this game works,  a lot of the ‘standard’ splicers listed above use either the Splicer-models I am getting into further into this post or the standard model showing on their wiki.

Baby Jane

Came to Rapture to make it big in show business, but ended up having to resort to other means to get by.  Can be heard constantly questioning the reality of the situation happening around her and regretting her loss of beauty.

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK  DIALOGUE

"Get away from my face!" [Screams] "Not on my face!"

"Look at yourself! And you would do it too!"

"Why did you cut me?! Why?!"

"It's my part! Mine!"

"Stop ogling me!"

"You're making me lose my place! STOP IT!"

"Get your FAT. HANDS. AWAY FROM ME!"

"Just say something, goddammit!"

"Honey? Is that you…?"

"I'm sorry… We can do it together!"

"DARLING! I'M HOME EARLY!"

"I don't- I don't wanna- I don't wanna hear this… I- [Whimpering] I don't want to hear this…"

"Pretend you're not interested. They like that."

"He's gone! They always leave…"

"He left, he left, he left, left, left! He left! He left!"

"Came here to be a star! Came here to be a star- Not too late, not too late!"

"Mr. Ryan's gonna notice me, and I'm gonna be a star! It's not too late, not too late!"

"I used to be beautiful. What happened to me?!"

[Laughs] "And even that was a bad performance."

[Crying] "They'll be okay, right?! I mean, it was just- it was just an accident!"

"Tell me you love me! Go on, say it!"

"Someone shou- should do this for me, someone should be doing this for me!"

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK II DIALOGUE

"Ow—! And I— used to love bees!"

"I had real talent!"

"I had innocence- I was innocent!"

"I had innocence! You took my innocence!"

"Parasite! Paparazzi!"

"Stop — STARING!"

"You're a plain little girl! Plain- too plain."

"This wasn't part of the deal!"

"Only geniuses get saved, lunkhead!"

"Your memories? Yeah, we don't need 'em."

"Why would you bring a kid?!"

"Send your daughter home, freak!"

"Just me and the roaches."

"Rejection." [Cries]

"I don't understand." [Cries]

"To have seen what I have seen… see what I see…"

"I worked hard to look this good, and they still appreciate it… some of them…"

"Hello my baby, hello my honey, la da di da da da [Hums] nothing like a good old picture show…"

"Siren Alley [Sigh] well, the rent is cheap and there's work."

"Can we try that scene over? I forgot my line."

The Breadwinner

A wanna-be big-shot who thinks money and fame are everything.  He's convinced himself that Rapture’s downfall was just a small problem in his ultimate goal.

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK  DIALOGUE

"Finally. [coughs] Happy."

"I was right, I tell ya. I was right, god damn it."

"Come on! Just- just let me explain, will ya?"

[Disgusted noise] "I'm too busy for this shit."

"She should not have come here."

"Ah, a man can start a business down here, yeah. Now now, it's- it's not too late. I'll get to it."

"Yeah. Yeah, Ryan's gonna stake me, huh? Yeah! No, he- he'll stake us all. Just give it some time. Yeah, just a little time."

"It's just a bad quarter. Naw, that's all. Yeah, market'll come back, huh? Yeah! Everything'll be fine. Yeah, it'll all be fine… Augh."

"You think that I'm dumb? Sure, sure, why not? You keep on thinkin' that."

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK II DIALOGUE 

"You can’t take this from me!"

"Think you can take what’s mine?!"

"I ain’t gettin’ reborn with you, no way."

He also has very gross misogynistic lines that are uh...  interesting for his character,  but I don’t want to be near them with a ten-foot pole,  so you can check out the wiki-page for those.

"I ain’t lost my touch, just look at me! I’m a king down here, a king! Yeah!"

"You think I’m that dumb?! Sure, sure, why not. You keep thinking that!"

"The business world’s ruthless, kid. Get used to it."

Dr. Grossman

A roaming medical professional who’s use of ADAM twisted his germophobia into something horrific.  He can be seen trying to destroy/murder anything he deems unclean/unhealthy.

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK  DIALOGUE

"You're infecting this whole place!"

"You keep away from my patients!"

"You're crawling with disease!"

"Well, he won't get any better that way."

"I'm- I'm covered in his filth! DISGUSTING!"

"I've got patients to see, no time for distractions!"

"The subject… appears to have been ripped apart from the inside… probably a failed teleport."

"I- I try to help, but- sometimes I- I make mistakes… I try to help! But sometimes I- I make mistakes."

"I hate the babies, the most. They come out covered in death."

"I like the prestige, but I don't like the germs. The germs, they-they get under your nails, they crawl around at night."

"It's unsanitary in here, filthy! Come, let me take care of you."

"Haven't slept in weeks."

"Typical behavior for someone with your condition!"

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK II DIALOGUE

"My services, for free? [laughs] Get out!"

"I no longer require your services… nurse."

"Don't dare get your disease on me!"

"I killed [coughs] lost you! Once already."

"I guess it was just the wind… or was it a dream?"

"I gave up on helping people long ago, but I still ease their suffering.

"Might as well call me an undertaker these days… But, it suits me just fine."

"I come away from that damn clinic smelling like death. Everywhere! It smells like death!"

"Wait, my scrubs! All a-tatter?! Wha-what's happened here?"

"The thing about genes, they're just germs, and we're all crawling with them, all of us."

"Eternity will be so clean. So clean! So very, very clean!"

"The days are getting shorter! No no, that's not right!"

Ducky

A bitter lonely old man with a lot of prejudice who works security around Rapture.  Becomes a  devout part of ‘The Family’ during Bioshock II.

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK  DIALOGUE

"He-hey? Hello? I'm here." [Crying]

"Poor sucker… my soul… my soul."

"They'll never find out about this. It's all gone away."

"Stop this… this isn't what ya think it is."

"Those stupid kids… they don't even know."

"Somebody gotta keep order around this place. If not, it'll go to the parasites."

"All these parasites want a piece of this place. And we gotta guard the borders, we gotta keep 'em out."

"They want what we got. And we gotta defend what's ours!"

"The parasites, the papists, the race mixers- I got my eye on all of them!"

"I'm just lonely! I— I'm lonely!"

"Down on the ground! DOWN ON THE GROUND!"

"You can run, but we'll find you! We run this place from tips to toes!"

"Oh… gimme my hat, Emma. Sweet mother of mercy!"

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK II DIALOGUE 

"Fuck it! God dammit! I hate bees!"

"Not the blood of the Son... my blood!"

"You wear the mark of the beast!"

"¡Qué estúpido!"

"¡Por favor! Help me!"

"¡Aye, Madonna mia! I'm bleeding!"

The rest is all religious rambling,  and tbh  ??  I have no time for it.   Ducky really annoys me.

Lady Smith

One of the upper-class matrons of Rapture and pretty much a WASP stereotype.  (I really don’t like her.)

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK  DIALOGUE

"Darling, is that you?"

"Hello? Oh, get the door, Sydney!"

"Nothing there, but we should bring in the hounds from the stables, just the same."

"Audrey, Michelle, Peter, Thomas, William, Joseph… no wait, n-not Peter."

"My dear elite, no, distinguished friends. I've finally found the answer we've all been looking for!"

"Too introverted for anyone to notice."

"Charles! I think the negro cook's been stealing. It's always like that with the coloreds. Take, take, take."

"They always arrive with out-stretched hands. They're a tuneful people, I'll grant you, but so lazy."

"It's not like those people in Apollo Square. Animals, every one of them!"

"They talk talk talk, but in the end they've got nothing to offer society. Just more mouths to feed."

"Look at him, just lying there! Another parasite!"

"Run away! You people will never amount to anything!"

"You know what they do to vagrants in Rapture? They hang them!"

"You think you can just take what you want? This isn't the jungle!"

"There's proper folk, here. You don't fit in."

"It's always the same with you parasites, looking for a hand out."

"Yes, Dr. Steinman. Uh, no Dr. Steinman… sorry, Dr. Steinman."

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK II DIALOGUE

"Audrey, Michelle, Peter, Thomas, William, Joseph… Oh, no! No no no! Wait, not Peter!"

"I'm writing down your name, you filth!"

"The times may be unkind, but did you have to take our home? I raised my children there! Bastards!"

"I'm surrounded by them, and yet they can tell… I'm their better! They know it… I know it!"

"Three children. Yes, three little angels, all gone now. I wonder if they miss their mommy?"

"I'll not associate with your kind."

"This is an outrage! AN OUTRAGE!"

"Lester, where is my doll…?"

Toasty

I hope you guys will forgive me and also understand that I will honor the memory of Henry R. Lumley as he actually was and not as the horrible person the Bioshock devs painted him as.

I am still really disgusted by the fact that they would use his face as the model for Toasty  (a literal murderer/rapist!)  and never even asked his surviving family members if they could do such.  

So I will skip this one,  hope you don’t mind.

Pigskin

A young American football player pressured to Splice to become a better athlete.  Unlike most Splicers,  they seem to have partial awareness of what is happening to them.

(Honestly  ??  they’re my personal favorites.)

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK  DIALOGUE

"Uh, baby…? I'm- I'm… I'm all calmed down, now… Okay? So-… Just open?! Would ja- shit!"

"Hey, come on- come on… Joey's gone, alright? You- you could come out, now."

"Not today, Dad, alright? I mean god damn!"

"Eh, Mom…? Mom…? I- it's er-"

"It's alright, Dad. It's alright, Dad."

"It's cold… Stay- stay focused, stay whatever, stay in the game. Stay."

[Chuckle] "Oh, shit. Hey, Dad, check this out!"

"I… I know you… No, I- I know you. I- I- I know I know you. You're- you're- you're that guy with the writing."

"It- it's different, this time, ya know? Really, it is. It- it certainly is."

"I'm good enough…! Why don't you believe it?"

"I'm tryin', Mr. Ryan. Please don't judge me! Please!"

"Look at me, Mr. Ryan. I- I've got nothin' left to give."

"Mom…? Dad…? Can you come get me?"

"It hurts… It- it- it hurts just to breathe."

"He's an intruder… and- and they make us kill intruders."

"I just wanna go to sleep… Just wanna go to sleep, I just wanna go to sleep."

"They make me hate everything I see! They make me hate everything I see! They make me hate everything I see! They make me hate everything I see!"

"I do what I'm told! I just do what I'm told! I always just do what I'm told!"

"Where are you?! They'll kill me if I don't find you!"

"Better come out! It- it'll go easier for both of us!"

"Please, come on out! It'll be so much worse if you hide!"

"Do you have any idea what they'll do if I don't find you?!"

"Yeah, am I entertaining you? Great! Is this fun to watch?!"

"Mom. Mom? Look what I've done. Mom?"

"I did it, okay? He's dead! Now just leave me alone!"

"Why did you make me do it? Why?"

"There! He's dead! Now just shut up!"

"It's over, okay? It's over! Now just get out of my head!"

"It hurts! It hurts! Jesus, it hurts!"

Plastered Splicer

Splicers that fell victim to being turned into Cohen’s art-work.  There are no specifics on how this exactly happened or how they function and are even still alive,  but they are and they’re scary as feck.

Rosebud

A female worker frantically looking for her lost child  (who has most likely been turned into a Little Sister).  She is known as ‘ruthless and deceptive’,  being one of the few Splicer-types that can actually set traps.

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK  DIALOGUE

"Behind every door, an opportunity is so dangerous. "

"A floor, one two three four six seven… twelve thirteen thirty-four twenty-seven."

"She's still breathing… Oh, of course she is, she's just a child…"

"Shh… Oh, no… Of course you're not dying, my little one. You're just a baby… Babies don't die."

"No… they won't take you… you're just a- a little child."

"But she's my little girl… She has my eyes, can't you see?"

"Ah, don't hurt her! No, please! Take me, instead!"

"Oh, please… please… you don't want my girl. She's no use to you… can't you take… the neighbor's girl, instead?"

"Take me! Take my body! Take anything! Just don't hurt- take my little one!"

"Wake up, sleepy. [Chuckle] They're gone… Please? Please…? Please?!"

"I have time monster. I have all the time in the ocean."

"Kislány! Are you there, little child?"

"Sweetness? Mama's here to hold you."

"Sweetheart…? Where are you…? Come out, please… Mama just wants to hold you."

"Why would you take my little one?!"

Waders

The model for the secretly religious zealot from Bioshock  (pretty much the same function as Ducky from Bioshock II)  he believes he is avenging angel serving an angry God by punishing the sinful denizens of Rapture.

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK  DIALOGUE

"You'll open up if you know what's good for you!"

"Open up! ¡Ay! Qué mierda."

"I traded You, oh Lord, for Mammon, and what did it get me, huh?!"

"I'm sorry, Father! I'll do what You say, I-I'll do what You say!"

"Even miles under water, He still sees everything, sees everything, sees everything, sees everything, sees everything!"

[Singing] "Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong; they are weak, but He is strong!"

And other religious stuff.

Brute

A result of Splicing with a concoction of  Sports Boost and Armored Shell Gene Tonics.  Brutes are very aggressively masculine and homophobic,  which is revealed to be internalized homophobia once you Hypnotize him and he flirts with Delta.  (I could not make this shit up.)

FAVORITE BIOSHOCK II DIALOGUE

"A million little pricks- fuck, fuck! Leave me be!"

"Fucking sodomites everywhere."

"I know what you're thinkin'."

"Not my bloody type, luv."

"Oh, you're pissin' yourself now, eh?"

"You're mine now, lil' girl."

"I'm top man down here!"

"We're just mates, you titface!"

"Clip your wings, ya fairy!"

[Chuckles] "Oh, he wants a tussle."

"She's gonna watch me do ya, son!"

"Who's the daddy NOW, son!?"

"Suit don't make you a man."

"I feel… nothin'…"

"Peace, quiet, solitude. Proper solitude."

"These fuck's gotta bring more in, or I'll hafta…" [Chuckles] "I'll hafta start teaching 'em. Ooh…"

"We can start over down here, once we drown out all the buggers and the queens. It'll be real men only."

"Some thoughts are just wrong. Nasty thoughts. Gotta stomp them thoughts right out!"

"Doctor Lamb says to embrace the man in the mirror. How bloody queer is that?"

"Sander Cohen. There was a man! Sharp suit, good mustache, took no guff!"

"Lass wanted me to try wrestlin' before the city started pissin' itself, but I don't go in for all that touchin' and sweatin'. I'm a boxin' man."

(Just to point out,  this is him after being hypnotized)

"I love you, ya lil' shite. I do."

"Jus' tell me who to kill, guv."

"Feel so—what you call it—comfortable witcha."

"Nice to have a proper mate at last."

"Partners, yeah? I like the sound of that."

"I like a man what keeps his mystery."

"Mates, right? Mates. Yeah."

"Do anything for ya. I mean that."

"Right, guv, let's get into some nasty."

"I'd look a poof in that suit, but you carry it."

"Shite! Gah! You fucked me 'ead!"

"Lyin' lil' mince! I trusted ya!"

The Mother

A very overprotective mom who sees herself as very nurturing and self-sacrificing,  but is fairly possessive and restrictive in actuality. 

FAVORITE BURIAL AT SEA DIALOGUE

"Nothing could happened to my boy, I made him wear his best scarf today… he's bundled up tight!"

"I would never leave him with the sitter, they're all perverts."

"Wake up son. You worry me when you sleep so deeply."

"Gonorrhea, that's what you'll get. And there's no cure but the madhouse."

"Franklin, get Mother's cream out of the armoire. I need you to do your magic."

"Franklin, why don't you come over and rub mother's feet? They're barking."

"Friends? Of course he's got friends, but I always come first."

"There's no relationship like mother and son, it's deeply intimate."

"Don't walk away when I'm talking to you!"

"I'd like to see you run away, you wouldn't last the night!"

"No one'll ever love you as much as me!"

"I only worry so much because I love you!"

"I raised you better than this!"

"What's mothering but a thankless job?"

The Performer

A singer who hasn’t had work in a while,  but never let it dampen his spirit.

FAVORITE BURIAL AT SEA DIALOGUE 

"Yeah, folks always stare when I make the scene… You get used to it!"

"I told Sander Cohen, I'm always ready to cut a record or put on a show! Said he'd call."

"Yeah… Those old numbers sure got some high notes. But I got something new in the works!"

"I been on sabbatical for… goin' on 15 years now… I got some work, but I want to get back to real acting!"

"I warned you to stop following me!"

"Hello? You from the "Stars and Screen" magazine?"

"Don't leave me! Not again!"

The Social Darwinist

A doctor of psychiatry who advocates for the survival of the fittest and evolutionary superiority no matter the cost.  (Hate this sob.)

FAVORITE BURIAL AT SEA DIALOGUE

"That's right… Cry like a baby. Your mother didn't love you… Why should she? What did you ever do to earn it? Nothing."

"You were the worst kind of parasite! Only taking, giving nothing in return! That you were a child means nothing!"

"Do you know what they call men who shy from adversity in war-time? Deserters… They shoot them… And rightly so!"

"Very painful, I assure you… But you will be hardier for it! More highly evolved! Superhuman!"

"No it's not the strongest that survive, but the fittest! Those most capable of change! A good start is thinking for yourself…"

"Did you come to Rapture because it seemed fashionable?! Or did you intend to make something of yourself? If you don't keep ahead of the rest you'll be resigned to follow."

"If you're going to disappear before my diagnosis, why did you come in the first place?!"

The Small Business Owner

Okay,  I take back everything I was about to say about  The Salesman,  this is Sinclair 2.0!  The description literally says  ‘This businessman is willing to do whatever it takes to thrive, even if it's technically illegal.’  JFC,  they could have at least tried.

FAVORITE BURIAL AT SEA DIALOGUE

"So I greased a few palms here an' there, time-to-time… What of it? I've been told this town is friendly to free enterprise!"

"'Fat Cat'? If that's what they call a fella who's prosperous?! Determined?! Uncompromising?! Then, FINE! The shoe fits! You got me."

"Criminal Dealings?! [short laugh] Fallacy! Misdirection! From those afraid to let the market take its natural course."

"You ain't no big shot round here!"

"Push me? I push right back!"

"You'll never amount to nothing!"

[short laugh] "I'm gonna bring you to heel!"

The Beauty Queen / King

A woman who recites her prepared speech for the Rapture Pageant.

FAVORITE BURIAL AT SEA DIALOGUE

"I'm just honored to be in the competition and… gee, I hope you like me… Because I'd like nothing more than to be Miss Rapture 1958…"

"Mother always says it's important to be yourself, so here I am, 100% the genuine article."

"Well, he's gotta be handsome AND smart and self-assured like A​ndrew Ryan… [short laugh] And good with his hands like Dr. Steinman!"

"No need to hide. I'm 'a regular person.' Just like you!"

"Butterflies in your stomach? C'mere. I have just the thing!"

(male variant)

"We're all adults… Nothing we can't work around with a little elbow grease."

"Women don't care for character anymore. It's all money and looks."

"Hello? You from "Star and Screen" magazine?"

Ryan Security Agent

Men and women handpicked by Sullivan to maintain order and keep the city safe from potential threats.  There’s not much else known about this specific character model.

FAVORITE BURIAL AT SEA DIALOGUE

"Atlas' followers have been living on borrowed time if you ask me. Who knows, maybe Ryan got tired of footing the bill for this place."

"Told Ryan he should've given each of these clowns a bullet, not a prison."

"Guy made a city at the bottom of the ocean, and they thought it was a wise idea crossing him."

"We get in, disappear the girl and Atlas' crew, back before happy hour."

"I'm smart enough to know Ryan's smarter than all of us."

"You judge a man by his enemies? Then Ryan doesn't amount to much."

"Fontaine's followers put up a good fight at the fisheries. I'd expected more from this lot."

"What did you think was gonna happen? You cross Ryan and get off scot-free?"

Misc.

Didn’t really feel like getting into the Crawlers,  Buttons,  Heady,  The Hypochondriac,  The Ex-Boyfriend,  The Schoolteacher,  Frosty Splicers,  Houdini,  Survivors and Jockey Splicers because they either feel uninteresting to me or are super area restricted.

[dweemeister]

Toy Story 4 (2019)

2019 marks the completion of the John Lasseter era at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios with Toy Story 4 (credited as story writer; uncredited as producer) and Frozen 2 (as producer). Lasseter’s disgraceful end as the creative head at both studios was marked by scandal, in which the Walt Disney Company cut ties as quietly as possible. At one point untouchable because of Pixar’s creative output – not a single dud from Toy Story (1995) to Toy Story 3 (2010) – Lasseter’s recent years had reeked of complacency, dependence on sequels, and having played a part in erasing the final vestiges of hand-drawn animation at the famed Walt Disney Animation Studios. Pixar’s impeccable record is no more; the groundbreaking studio is fallible after all. With Lasseter now at Skydance Animation (to the dismay of many), his final involvement with a Pixar film continues the legacy of arguably the most consistent animated film series ever.

Directed by Josh Cooley and with a screenplay by Stephany Folsom (her cinematic debut) and Andrew Stanton (1998′s A Bug’s Life, 2008′s WALL-E), Toy Story 4 had languished in development hell for years. An army of writers have doctored the story since 2014, so it is difficult to understand who contributed what. For those who were children when Toy Story and Toy Story 2 (1999) were released to theaters, Toy Story 3 appeared to be the fitting farewell to Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and their friends. Pixar, which has claimed that it does not pursue sequels unless there is artistic and narrative sense to that sequel – they have some explaining to do about the Cars sequels – has charged forward with this newest entry in the Toy Story mythos.

Now with Bonnie, the cast of toys must contend with the fact she is about to attend Kindergarten. Worried that Bonnie will have a difficult day of Kindergarten orientation and the fact that – though he would never openly admit it – Bonnie has not given him much attention recently, Woody hops into Bonnie’s backpack and has a hand in the creation of Forky. Forky, believing himself to be trash, makes numerous attempts to toss himself into the wastebasket, much to Woody’s dismay. As Bonnie’s family embarks on a vacation, Woody and the gang must prevent Forky (whose scenes are frequent and comedically overcooked) from disposing himself. While at a mountainous town, numerous situations will introduce the likes of other toys including Gabby Gabby (a ‘60s-era doll who longs to be loved by a child); the miniscule Giggle McDimples; prize toys Ducky and Bunny; motorcycling daredevil Duke Caboom; and Woody’s old flame, Bo Peep.

Without detailing the film’s conclusion and, as someone who rewatched my VHS of Toy Story and DVD of Toy Story 2 ad nauseam as a child, Toy Story 4 does not feel as strong a conclusion as its immediate predecessor. Yet Toy Story 4 deepens the series’ existential themes and characterization of Woody – its moral center after extinguishing his homicidal feelings towards Buzz in the original – at the unfortunate expense of almost the entirety of the cast of toys. Nevertheless, Woody’s character growth has been tremendous to behold. His steadfast loyalty – so often a source of adoration from moviegoers – is called into question here. His unwritten sheriff’s code to be of service, embodied by Jimmy Stewarts or Gary Coopers in decades’ past, clashes with the “lost toys” without children to call their own. The misadventures and toy-sized heists characteristic of Toy Story are derailed by unfortunate timing and increasing stakes. No wonder the frustration towards Woody – among the characters and the audience – is so palpable.

The fragmentation of the plot and physical separation of its characters creates a handful of storylines that, with the film’s sharp editing, are comprehensible. Toy Story 4, when analyzed through its editing (and even when excluding flashbacks and fantasies) and writing structure, is the least linear of the Toy Story films. Characters are not so much reacting to a singular event as they are personifying or espousing the film’s themes. One’s ability to tolerate this structure will be tested, but screenwriters Folsom and Stanton are content to not devolve into lengthy expositions or soliloquies that too explicitly outline their intended subtext. Gabby Gabby’s apparent and ultimate fates will elicit instant, strong reactions that might just be universal. Woody’s final decisions in the film’s closing minutes will be viewed through the prism of life experience. Many of the questions Toy Story 4 presents once Forky has been introduced have been central to the series, with variations with each passing installment. What does it mean to realize one’s obsolescence? How does one come to terms – if at all – with that realization? When does a lifelong dream transform into obsession? Folsom and Stanton are not interested in whether there is a “correct” way for a toy to exist – note that every toy in this film defines their existence in bringing joy to a child, even those toys have been lucky enough to do so.

After years of late Lasseter-era twist villains and films with so little nuance in trumpeting their vaguely liberal inclusive messages, this is a refreshing change of pace. Whatever answers viewers find will not arrive easily and will change with time. The most worthwhile art tends to be as such.

Toy Story 4′s characters are stand-ins for human relationships with a coat of comedic paint to make the most difficult moments bearable for everyone. To ask so bluntly the nature of meaningful existence might be dismissed in a live-action film as maudlin, manipulative (film is always manipulative; the effectiveness and appropriateness of such manipulation is not beyond criticism). Inside Out (2015) and Coco (2017) are the best recent examples of this from Pixar’s filmography of how animation lowers these barriers to posing such ideas. The studio’s success is not because they created imaginative worlds filled with talking toys, rodents that can cook, or a post-apocalyptic humanity too dependent on technology. Nor is it the storytelling the studio justly prides itself upon. It is because of the raw ideas found within their films, when the excesses of plots are discarded.

The production design by Bob Pauley (1993′s The Nightmare Before Christmas, all three previous Toy Story films) – in addition to the ever-increasing photorealism of Pixar’s backgrounds and character animation – is superb. Pauley juxtaposes the dusty, earthy antiques store that the film spends much of its runtime with the neon-lit carnival beaming its lights into the night sky. More than the previous Toy Story films, this edition allows the use of colors to help guide the dominant moods in respective scenes. The darker, subdued antiques store scenes lend a feeling that something or some secret lurks around the next cobwebbed corner – evoking claustrophobic spaces, ideological and personal entrapment (the placement of “Midnight, the Stars and You”, which is most famous for its use in 1980′s The Shining, plays a key contribution). The carnival/fair has occasionally been a source of macabre elements or thematic irony in Western cinema; it is a tradition that at least goes as far back to 1920′s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (more recently, and though not a film, the third season of Stranger Things contributes to that tradition). The summer carnival of Toy Story 4 is more liberating than most, leaning into whatever escapist nostalgia the audience holds – of which Toy Story could be a part of. The fourth installment of this series is the most atmospheric; one wishes that the filmmakers could have slowed down a tad to allow a fuller appreciation of the various settings.

Pickier than most film score composers, Randy Newman (1984′s The Natural, 2009′s The Princess and the Frog) nevertheless has become a staple with Pixar and has created, single-handedly, Toy Story’s musical identity. Recorded, in typical Randy Newman, with an enormous orchestra of Los Angeles-area musicians at the 20th Century Fox studio named to honor his uncles (Emil, Lionel, and especially Alfred were gifted composers contracted to Fox), Newman’s ability to integrate musical ideas he has not revisited for twenty or more years with newer motifs is most apparent in the film’s busiest scene. The cue that plays there is “Operation Pull Toy”, which utilizes character- and plot-driven motifs drawn and rearranged beautifully for this newest film. But standing above the rest is “Parting Gifts & New Horizons”, which plays during a fateful moment and a series of fond farewells. The Americana that Randy Newman incorporated through the series and was especially acclaimed for before working on the original Toy Story appears, without restraints, brass instruments backing, and high strings leading. Though not as distinguished as previous Toy Story scores, Newman knows when to pull the emotional strings with his sweeping melodies.

To digress slightly: in isolated parts of Newman’s score (the brief theme beginning at 4:04 of “Parting Gifts & New Horizons” included), I yearn for Newman scoring for an American Western film.

In the recording studio, Tom Hanks (as Woody) and Tim Allen (as Buzz Lightyear) admitted that neither could record their lines without being overwhelmed by emotion. Hanks claimed that he could not even face the crew as he neared his final moments of dialogue. Another member of the cast, Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head), passed away in April 2017 – well before any voice actors began work on the film. Rickles’ family urged Pixar to see if a performance could be pieced together through archival recordings. Poring over almost a quarter-century of voice work from outtakes and recordings for promotional materials, Disney parks, and video games, a brief, but serviceable performance was spliced together by Pixar. Rickles is credited as Mr. Potato Head in the film and he, along with animator Adam Burke, is one of the film’s two dedicatees.

As a disappointing decade in mainstream American animation closes with sequels and the ignominious departure of a figure central to the industry, Pixar’s artistic future is uncertain. Pixar’s new chief creative officer is Pete Docter (2001′s Monsters, Inc. and Inside Out). Docter, who has been with Pixar since 1990, is not likely to fundamentally transform the studio’s mission – as outlined by Lasseter – or artistic direction. He is noted, however, for imbuing his films with his deep sense of morality. Combined with the fact that Pixar intends to move away from sequels in the immediate future, will the studio regain its form after an inconsistent decade? Toy Story 4 is, by way of its structure and overuse of Forky, the weakest in Pixar’s most venerable series. That standard, however, is comparing greatness with excellence.

My rating: 8/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

[analogscum]

SCUM IN THE AISLES #3 (Ninja Terminator)

Sometimes, in order to seek out the weirdest discarded slices of celluloid trash that cinema has to offer, one must leave the confines of their crappy apartment, and go to an actual movie theater. This is a column recounting my excursions into the b-movie wilds. This is Scum in the Aisles!

Look, here’s the thing, Scumbags: I would really like to discuss Godfrey Ho’s Ninja Terminator, which I caught on the big screen at the Drafthouse this past Monday evening. I really would. It was tremendous fun, the audience received the film rapturously, and it lit a fire in me to the point where I now want to watch every Godfrey Ho film that I can find. Oh sure, I can wax rhapsodical about the experience. However, I’m not convinced that the English language has evolved to the point where I can properly explain a Godfrey Ho movie. The closest I can come is, imagine you’re watching a six-year-old playing with a bunch of action figures, and you suddenly start to have a stroke. And even then, knowing that description, I guarantee you that you will not be ready for what Ninja Terminator will do to your mind. You really just have to buy the ticket, and take the ride. I did, and I will never be the same, thank gawd.

Before this month’s Video Vortex, I had only seen one other Godfrey Ho film, 1993’s Undefeatable, starring Cynthia Rothrock. While that film has its quirks, most notably the batshit insane death of its lead villain, it is mostly a fairly by the numbers kung-fu revenge movie, featuring some very impressive stunt work. Little did I know the history and filmmaking style of Godfrey Ho, which I will recount here very quickly, because it is important to understand why Ninja Terminator is such a lysergic cinematic experience.

Godfrey Ho got his start as a first assistant director for Hong Kong’s legendary Shaw Brothers productions. Eventually, he realized that there was a thirst for Hong Kong cinema in the international film market, so he decided to take advantage of that in a very, shall we say, idiosyncratic way. After forming IFD Films & Arts with producer Joseph Lai and a mysterious figure named Tomas Tang (who allegedly died in a fire in the mid-90s, but some believe was secretly Godfrey Ho himself), Ho set about flooding the international film market with no-budget action films, most of which included the word “ninja” in the title. In a ten year period, Ho made roughly 115 films, making him perhaps the most prolific director in all of weirdo cinema. How did he do this? Well, he kinda cheated.

Here’s how a typical Godfrey Ho ninja film came together: Ho would shoot a few minutes of footage featuring caucasian actors in ninja outfits, because caucasian actors meant bigger box office. He would then take an entirely different movie that had been bought by IFD Films & Arts, usually of Korean or Filipino origin, and edit in footage from that film to go alongside his caucasian ninjas, overdub all of the dialogue in English, and try to construct a coherent narrative out of all of these disparate parts. The same footage would get reused over and over again in different iterations for different films, an actor could work with Godfrey Ho once, and end up appearing in twenty of his films. Ho also loved to use unlicensed music; in Ninja Terminator, you can hear snippets of tunes from Pink Floyd and the Star Wars soundtrack, amongst others. The effect of this audacious Frankenstein cinema on your brain is like looking at one of those optical illusion paintings from the nineties: you know that there’s an image in there somewhere, but your brain has to adjust to it.

Apparently Ninja Terminator is one of Ho’s more successful efforts in splicing together what could be called a linear story, which, holy shit, if THIS is an example of a SUCCESSFUL attempt, I can’t wait to see what an abject failure looks like.

So at this point you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been stalling a bit. That’s because, once again, this movie is almost impossible to describe. But I’ll try: there are these three ninjas, two are honkeys, one is “Japanese.” Their master is like, yo, check it out, I’ve got the golden ninja warrior statue, which makes me impervious to harm. The ninjas decide that the statue turns people corrupt and evil, for some reason, so they each escape from the dojo with a piece: each honkey gets an arm, and the “Japanese” guy gets the body, I believe. Some other ninjas try to fight them, but they manage to beat them. Suddenly there’s a two year time jump. The evil ninjas find the “Japanese” ninja and kill him. This leads our head honkey, played by Ho mainstay Richard Harrison, to bring in his right hand man, Jaguar Wong, to protect the dead ninja’s sister, and make sure that the golden ninja warrior doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Of course, Richard Harrison and Jaguar Wong never meet in person, because Jaguar Wong’s scenes were taken from a Korean drama called The Uninvited Guest.

Now is a good time to discuss some of the film’s…peculiarities. Apparently Ho heard that Garfield (yes, the cat) was very popular in America, so he decided to have Richard Harrison’s character, a middle aged man, discuss business on a Garfield telephone. Needless to say, the entire audience cheered in delighted disbelief the first time this phone appeared. Also, for some reason, whenever Richard Harrison and the other honkey are in their ninja outfits, they also have on a bunch of eyeliner, as if it’s 2004 and they’re going to a My Chemical Romance concert. Then there is the main villain of the film, Tiger Shen. There’s really no easy way to put this, so I’ll just say it. For most of the movie, for no discernible reason, this dude wears a woman’s blonde wig. Like a Gidget, beach blanket bingo wig. It’s hypnotically bizarre. And don’t even get me started on the toy robots that deliver ransom notes and hostage video tapes, because then we’d be here all day.

Basically, the entire film from hereon in is fight scenes. There is a new fight scene roughly every minute or so, which is so over the top and ill-advised, but somehow kinda works. Like, a horror movie with a fresh kill every minute would become tedious, but for some reason, Ho’s unapologetically maximalist take on the kung-fu movie is fascinating to me. Jaguar Wong cannot go anywhere in this movie without a bunch of dudes challenging him to a fight for no reason. And surprise surprise, he always wipes the floor with them. The fight scenes also feature a ton of weird stylistic flourishes, including instant repeats and freeze frames. Oh, and if you zoned out during a fight the first time around, don’t worry, odds are it will get repeated later on in the movie.

Along the way, Richard Harrison chops up a watermelon with a katana, we learn that ninjas can teleport…somehow, some crabs attack Richard Harrison’s wife, who works as a fashion designer of some sort and wants to combine swimwear and exercise clothing, there are two surprisingly graphic sex scenes involving a gangster moll who used to be Jaguar Wong’s sweetheart, a Korean pawn shop owner speaks with a Texas accent, and there are more double crosses than the goddamn VOID logo.

Eventually, Jaguar Wong and Tiger Shen have an amazing battle that totally ignores the physics of how sand works, and Richard Harrison gets back all the pieces of the golden ninja warrior. The bad ninja master from the beginning commits seppuku by blowing himself up. Freeze frame. End of movie. End of life as you knew it before you watched Ninja Terminator.

I can’t recommend this film highly enough. You almost HAVE to watch it in order to fully understand it, I did my best, but words fail when confronted with the likes of Ninja Terminator. Mad props to Annie Choi of Bleeding Skull for gifting us with this experience, and it was especially neat to finally meet her and chat for a bit after the show. All I can say is, next month’s Video Vortex looks and sounds amazing. For now, though, I must continue my journey into the wild, weird world of Godfrey Ho. There’s Ninja Thunderbolt, Ninja Destroyer, Ninja Dragon, Full Metal Ninja, Ultimate Ninja, Ninja in the Killing Fields…

[creative-type]

Character-Driven Backstory

 Flashbacks can be tricky. Done poorly, a flashback can kill a story’s momentum, and without proper narrative weight it can leave the reader wondering what was the point of including it in the first place.

I’ve always thought that Robin’s place within the story of One Piece is unique in that her role within the Straw Hat Pirates is paradoxically vital and completely irrelevant at the same time. Pirates don’t need archaeologists in their crews like they need cooks, doctors, and navigators, but to tell the overarching story of One Piece a character like Robin is vital to conveying information to the audience (and more importantly, giving them a reason to care). 

Because of Robin’s unique place within the narrative, her backstory is almost automatically the most important to the plot as a whole. To this day there are theories about the nature of the One Piece Universe that are firmly rooted in the tantalizing hints provided between chapters 391 and 398. It’s macro-level storytelling done well, the bread crumbs that have readers spend who knows how many hours theorizing and arguing about a planetarium.

But what I want to talk about today is the importance of the Oharan flashback to Robin herself, how Oda sets up parallels between past and present to emphasize the difference between the two, resulting in one of the most powerful scenes in the entire series. 

But first, a picture of babu Robin, because focusing the adorable is the only way I’m gonna get through this without crying

Before we can care about a character’s past we have to care about them in the present. I’ve already written about how important Skypiea is to Robin’s character arc, but to summarize Robin goes from the point of losing her only reason for living/being suicidal to finding people who treat her with respect and one of their own. She doesn’t fully integrate herself into the Straw Hat Pirates, but remains on the outside looking in, her past trauma preventing her from accepting what they have to offer. Still, there’s no doubting that Robin enjoys the Straw Hats and is willing to risk their lives for them. 

Then everything when Aokiji attacked

 Aokiji’s appearance literally knocks Robin on her ass. The introduction of the admirals really expands the world of One Piece, and is a nice reminder after the successes against Enel and Foxy that there are plenty of threats that are out of the Straw Hat’s weight class. 

Luffy isn’t too chuffed about his loss to Aokiji, but Robin and - less important for the purposes of this essay - Usopp are. I’m not going to cover the construction of Water 7′s plot much, although it is fantastic. The thing that I think is often overlooked and what is important for Robin’s development is the fact that she actually betrayed the Straw Hat Pirates. 

“But she was trying to save them!” some might argue, but let’s not forget that the Straw Hats didn’t know that. At least not at first. Zoro says so, and if Zoro says it it must be true

So consider from Robin’s perspective: She, believing herself to be the outsider amongst the Straw Hat Pirates, nevertheless grows attached to them. Aokiji’s attack spooks her into seriously reconsidering her life choices, so much so that when CP9 shows up she immediately agrees to shoot someone she’s never met before in exchange for her new-found friend’s lives. She doesn’t tell them why, doesn’t explain herself, only telling Sanji and Chopper that she’s “a woman of darkness”.

Remember when I said that physical distance is often an indication of emotional separation? Yeah, that’s still the case.  

In response, the Straw Hats give Robin the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think this is something she could possibly expect. I mean, the last time she double-crossed someone she ended up with a hook to the chest. During the above scene Sanji and Chopper both tell Robin that they don’t believe the rumors that she targeted Iceburg. This display of the Straw Hat’s true character should have been enough for Robin to trust them, but no. Not only does she confirm that she was one of the assassins, she freaking does it again! 

If CP9 had succeeded in the second attempt on Iceburg’s life the Straw Hats would have unjustly been identified as the culprit. Robin believes that they’re strong enough to survive the backlash (and it’s preferable to a Buster Call) but the fact remains Robin betrayed the Straw Hats not once, but twice.

I really like this sequence of panels. I had to cherry pick them over the course of a couple of chapters, but when spliced together they tell us Robin’s mindset at this stage of the game without any dialogue. Robin’s reflection segues neatly into her reflection of the past (I see what you did there, Oda) and also shows some of the duality that defines Robin at this point of the story. 

She’s resigned herself to a terrible death, but thinks that she’s saved the only people who have shown her any kindness in twenty years. Robin is smiling, but the fact that she’s also covering her eyes can be read that she is blinding herself to the truth of the situation. Because, honestly, did a world-wise criminal who’s spent two decades seeing the ugliness of life really expect the World Government to let Luffy and co. escape knowing the identity of CP9?

Yeah, she did. And that’s part of the tragedy. 

A lot of pain and suffering would never have happened if Robin had just trusted the Straw Hat Pirates from the start. She gets called out about this time and time again, from Iceburg, Franky, and Usopp (side note, I love how Oda connects Franky’s backstory with Robin’s. That’s how you intertwine themes). 

In addition to giving us Major Plot Developments, Robin’s backstory tells us why she’s so - for lack of a better term - stuck as a character. If you don’t know Robin’s story it can get really frustrating seeing her reject help again and again and again. I know, because I went to archived chapter discussions on One Piece forums for when these chapters first came out, and some of the attitudes towards Robin were...unflattering, to say the least.

To put it another way, Robin’s backstory gives us context for all her actions, both past and going forward. It does so in a couple of different ways, but the one in particular sticks out.

Parallelism-Linking Past and Present

The cyclical nature of history is something that pops up in One Piece quite often, but Oda usually puts in one or two key differences that keeping things from repeating exactly the same way twice. 

In her life Robin experiences two Buster Calls. One ends with the loss of her homeland, her teachers, and her mother. The other ends with the marines suffering complete and utter defeat. The names change, but the circumstances remain the same. Here are some examples.

Spandam

Spandam is the face of the World Government for the Enies Lobby arc. He’s the personification the its self-serving nature, all of the worst qualities of the government seen so far mixed together into a despicable human shitbag. His father is his obvious counterpart for the flashback, a connection that Spandam himself points out

It’s uncomfortable to read the abuse Spandam doles out to Robin over the course of the arc when she’s unable to fight back, but when you get right down to it, is that any different than what Spandine did when he had an 79 million berri bounty put on an eight year old girl?

The difference here is that Spandam is more fanatical and, based on our limited knowledge of Spandine, the bigger narcissist. Seriously, had Spandam spent less time picking at Robin’s wounds until they bled he would have had more than enough time get her through the Gates of Justice. Spandam is clumsy, both in body and how he manages his resources, but I wouldn’t tell him that unless I wanted to spend the rest of my life in Impel Down.

Saul

Saul is the Luffy of Robin’s flashback. Both share the D initial (and have no idea what it means). Both are less concerned with justice than saving their friend. Both teach Robin how to laugh, and in fact have very similar laughs (’shishishi’ vs dreshishishi’).

 Saul is Robin’s first, and for twenty years only, friend. But when faced with the overwhelming strength of the World Government Saul loses. As much as he wants to, he’s not able to protect Robin when she needs it most. If not for Sakazuki’s rash decision to destroy the evacuation ship Kuzan probably would have killed Robin, and there was nothing Saul could have done to stop him. 

As another side note, I want to call attention to this panel

Aokiji is speaking to Saul here while surveying the damage Saul has wrought trying to save Robin. By my count there are seven ships here, and the implication of what Aokiji is saying seems to be that he believes Saul would have participated in the Buster Call were he a marine.

The interesting bit happens on the next page when Sakazuki destroys the evacuation ship, bringing the total of destroyed ships to eight. Now what did that fodder marine say during the Alabasta arc?

The saying is true. Oda never forgets.

Professor Clover and the Archaeologists

Moving back to the topic at hand, the Oharan archaeologists are the only ones besides Saul who accept Robin unconditionally during her childhood years. They parallel the Straw Hat Pirates as a whole

The archaeologists protect Robin and give her sanctuary, but they do so imperfectly. Robin’s treatment from the citizens at large mirror on a much smaller scale the hardship she endures as an adult. Other children bully Robin, sometimes to the point of violence while their parents think that she is a monster. Her own aunt and uncle - the people entrusted to protect and raise her - give her the Cinderella treatment, forcing her to do a great many unpleasant and difficult chores, hit her for trying on her cousin’s clothes, and other disgusting things like berate her for eating too much food because she’s a freeloader.  

We’re not told how old Robin is when she goes to the Tree of Knowledge for the first time, but she’s pretty damn little and is clearly terrified that Professor Clover might be angry at her for looking at a book in a library

But while the archaeologists allow her to study history, they forbid Robin from following her dream of finding out the truth of the Void Century. Their reasoning is justified, but it’s the exact opposite of Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates. 

Olvia

If the archaeologists can be compared to the Straw Hats, then it stands to reason that Oliva is a stand in for Robin herself. They look virtually identical, both share the same dream, and are literally related. They share everything from birthdays to voice actresses, with one key difference: Robin is willing to abandon her dream for the sake of those she loves.

I’ll let the manga do the comparison for me. Here’s Olvia’s choice

versus Robin’s

Would Olvia lived had she tried to flee with Robin? There’s no way of knowing. Would Robin have had an easier time of surviving for twenty years with another adult with her best interests at heart watching over her? Yeah, probably. 

Now his isn’t the only time Oda has his characters make a “dream or crew” decision. Zoro’s sacrifice on Thriller Bark and Sanji’s decision to get married are more memorable, but they were hardly the first. 

Olvia’s decision to save instead of her daughter still baffles me, and is one of the few things about Robin’s flashback that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t think Oda was wrong for writing Olvia this way, but she’s certainly not going to win Mom of the Year anytime soon. She does, however, give Robin one very important command, and that is to live.

Does this panel look familiar? It should.

It’s only when we’re given proper context that Oda removes any ambiguity and has Robin say for herself why she wants to die. It’s not what has happened that frightens her, but the potential of what might happen. This isn’t Robin’s first song and dance, she has seen this all happen before, and can’t stand the pain of losing everyone she loves for a second time. Moreover, because of being forced to spend twenty years with less than stellar characters, she’s utterly convinced that even if the Straw Hats survive the wrath of the World Government they will come to hate her, because that’s what everyone else has done for the past twenty years. We see the exact moment when Robin stops believing in Saul’s laugh, and while we don’t know how old she is, I’d hazard it can’t be much more than ten.

The Result

The famous “I want to live” scene the first time we see Robin cry, flashback notwithstanding, since the end of the Alabasta arc, and the circumstances couldn’t be more different. Her character has arched. Robin finally allows herself to be emotionally vulnerable, risking enormous mental anguish if she happens to be wrong and the Straw Hats come to see her as a burden. 

Because while there are many parallels to the past, Oda uses them to highlight the differences of the present. The scene starts with a literal chasm between the Robin and the Straw Hats

and it ends with the gap between them bridged, and that bridge is Luffy (also literally with a little help from Rocket Man, lol). By unflinchingly declaring war on the World Government and winning Luffy does something no one else could have done.

By constructing Robin’s backstory the way he did, Oda not only justifies Robin’s previous inability to trust the Straw Hats and exposes the true root of her hopelessness. He weaves the core message from Franky’s backstory, that simply existing cannot be a crime, into Robin’s themes of acceptance, trust, and friendship. In doing so he bolsters the greater message of One Piece as a whole. 

These are hardly unique tropes within shonen manga, or any other medium for that matter, but when done well the end result can be incredibly powerful. I’ve been reading One Piece for more than ten years now, and Robin’s backstory and the immediate aftermath still affect me in a way that’s difficult to put into words.  

Damn it, I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about it. Here’s more of Robin being cute to counter all the angst. 

(thanks all for reading. I think I’ve said about all I want to say about Robin’s character arc. I might do a post on Chopper next, but I’m also open to suggestions)

[dmflyingaway]

On Writing Every Day

So often in the informal advice circles of writers online the advice to “write every day” gets bandied about as some sort of magical cure to your writing woes. “Try this one tip for instant success!” they say, all the while beating you over the head with shame if you can’t do it. It becomes a proscription, as in write every day or else. The or else, of course, meaning or else you will fail as a writer. Or else you will never get published. Or else you will remain mediocre.

Which is utterly stupid.

There are plenty of writers who write every day and remain bad, and there are plenty who write only rarely who are fabulous at it. Write every day is, by itself, terrible advice. If you’ve ever felt panicked sitting frozen in front of your computer badgering yourself to write, write, write because if you don’t write right now, today and every day, then you fail! ...then you probably know what I’m talking about. I know, because I’ve felt that way, too.

Well, I hereby absolve you of that guilt. It’s not your fault! You received bad advice.

The advice should really be: if you want to improve your writing, practice.

There are a couple of key words here. Namely if you want. This isn’t a proscription. If you’re happy with your writing style then don’t worry about it! And even if you want to improve you don’t have to write every day. You could write once a week, or once a month, and it’s still more writing than you’d be doing if you wrote never because you’re paralyzed with anxiety over not writing daily.

But the other key word, the most important word, is practice. Practice is a funny word. It doesn’t mean what you think it does. It doesn’t mean just sitting down and doing the same thing over and over again (because, after all, practicing something badly just means you get really good at being bad). What it means is making conscious effort to improve bit by bit. This means challenging yourself when you feel you are stagnating. It means accepting the critiques of others and learning to critique yourself. And, yeah, it means actually sitting down and doing it.

Decide if you want to improve your writing.

Most of the writers I know read their work and think, “This is absolute garbage.” I know I often think that about my own work. Know that if you feel the same way it’s probably not as bad as you think, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to improve. So take some time and look back over your work and try to decide: is this what I want to do with my time? Is writing about getting better, or is it just for fun? Whatever you decide you can change your mind later, but it’s good to have a conversation with yourself.

Learn to critique.

Critiquing writing seriously can be very difficult. We often can’t explain why we like or don’t like something, we just know. By learning to critique the work of others you can get closer to being able to critique your own work.

Start asking questions of what you read. If you find a book you like ask: what about this book is interesting to me? Is it about style, structure, or content? If it’s about style, are there particular passages that I can pick out as striking? If it’s about structure, what would it look like to draw out the plot? If it’s about content, is it a story I would have liked regardless of the author telling it? Would I have still liked the story if it was told poorly?

If you have a book you don’t like ask: at what point did I stop (or wish I had stopped) reading? What about this book was dull, or boring, or frustrating? Am I the intended audience? Were there parts I still liked even if overall I found the writing wasn’t great? How could I rewrite it to make it better?

Critiquing is as much about figuring out what does work as what doesn’t. In the end, the only person guaranteed to read your finished piece is you, so you only have to learn how to please yourself.

Identify major problem areas.

This is where having a writing buddy can be helpful, but even without one you can still use the skills of critique to identify areas to be improved in your own writing.

Start by rereading as though you are distant from the work. As if someone else wrote it. Make notes as you go. Watch for things like grammar, pacing, tone, and confusing structure. Ask yourself the same questions you asked above. Do I like this? And why?

Make a plan to fix the problems.

Most plans go like this: 1) Identify the problem, 2) research a solution, 3) plan how and when to practice the solution, 4) practice the solution, and 5) integrate the solution in a way that’s comfortable.

Let’s say your writing friend has pointed out that you use a lot of comma splices. So many, in fact, that it is hard to know what you’re trying to say. You graciously accept the critique and buy them a coffee as a thank you for all the editing work they’ve done. Next, you start researching a solution to the problem. You learn this is actually a common issue and you start picking up tips on when to use a period and when to add a conjunction. But you can’t just suddenly stop using them because, honestly, who can? So instead you make a checklist of things you can do to stop using comma splices. You start with going back to some of your old work and editing it yourself. You keep an eye out for comma splices and--lo and behold!--they’re everywhere! You edit them diligently, thereby practicing how to write non-comma-splice sentences. Then, you decide how to integrate this new knowledge into your writing. This will probably take time, and you are sure to slip back into your old ways occasionally, but for now you will keep an eye out for splices.

Sometimes--and especially for rules of grammar--integrating the solution may mean breaking the rules. It may mean occasionally putting in a comma splice just for dramatic effect. We learn rules so we can break them consciously, not so that they restrict our creativity.

Identify the things you like.

Remember: critiquing is about figuring out what does work as well. Try not to be down on yourself constantly. As you read through your work making notes be on the lookout for things you really like. You can watch for the same things as above.

After figuring out what you like about your writing this can be a good time to start slowly pushing yourself. Practicing is about challenging yourself as an artist.

Let’s say you have been told you write dialogue well. You graciously accept the compliment and spend the next week squeeing in delight. And then you set to work figuring out why you write dialogue well. Now that you’re looking for it you can see that you did have a good balance of full sentences and sentence fragments. It sounds believable, like something people would really say, but it’s also readable. Next you start challenging yourself still further. Maybe you write a scene with twelve characters all talking about what to get for dinner. You get to make decisions about who gets the focus and who doesn’t, about when to summarize and when to write it all out. By challenging yourself to have more characters speaking than is totally comfortable you will grow as a writer.

And on that note:

Challenge, challenge, challenge!

When you’re practicing writing (as opposed to simply writing) it should feel slightly uncomfortable. You are learning and growing and changing. It may even be exhausting sometimes (or perhaps invigorating!). But at no point should it feel painful. The challenges you do should never hurt. If they do, move back a bit and reassess where you are at.

Here are some good challenges you can do:

Try writing every day. I know! I know. I just said up above that it’s bad advice. It’s bad advice when it’s a proscription, but as a challenge it can be fun and interesting, and can teach you a lot about who you are as a writer. You can try for a week or a month and assess. Maybe writing every day actually exhausts you. Maybe you do better in large chunks once a week. But you won’t know unless you try. Also: when I say “every day” I mean only schedule about 15 minutes. Once they’re done, they’re done unless the mood strikes you, even if you’ve only written one word and deleted a comma. Unless writing is your job it’s unreasonable to assume you can make more time than that.

Try writing in the style of another author. I’ve heard this advice before and I always used to think: but I don’t know what their style is? This is normal. We aren’t usually taught what makes a “style.” To write like someone else don’t just sit down and try to make it work. Instead, take the book in question and flip through it. Study it the way a visual artist studies a great painting. Look at random passages and sentences. See how the plot hangs together. Watch for the balance of narrative to dialogue. Write something short first. You can even copy full sentences if you like, just to feel how it is to write them with your own hands.

Try rewriting something of yours. The older the better! Take something you’ve written and either open a new window or get a fresh sheet of paper and get ready to literally retype every word. What’s likely to happen is along the way you will note what you should have said, or where you would have liked the story to go, or how you wish it would have ended. Make the changes!

Try a restrictive writing style. Do something like write a haiku, or a series of 100-word drabbles, or a short story in the brutally stark style of a detective novel. Stick with it and see how it feels to write like this. Do you like it? Does it feel natural or unnatural? Does it force you to be creative in new ways? Are there things from this style that you will take with you?

Try free-flowing writing. Open your computer and close your eyes and write without looking. Or purposefully turn off spell-check (and make sure to turn off your internal editor as well). Try writing in the fast, fun style of a satire, or with the lurid prose of a romance novel. Writing about tax evasion the way one writes about long, burning looks while lounging before a fire on a bearskin rug will teach you a lot about style.

As you practice your writing I hope you can enjoy challenging yourself. Remember that there is no one perfect tip that will make your writing spectacular. Everything happens in increments. Two steps that way and three steps the other way (and neither way is really “backwards” or “forwards”). Learn to identify what you like and don’t like about your own writing, and develop ways to push yourself, and with practice improvements will come.

Happy writing!

[This blog is made possible by my lovely patrons on Patreon. Consider becoming a patron to support more advice like this.]

[mistye-dawne]

actually you know what? 1-54 lmao. (or just whatever ones you want to answer.)

This took way too long cause my niece has been a wiggleworm all morning and I’m up and down chasing her ever 5 mins lol.

1. Favorite place to write.There is a park about an hour away from me that I go to, if able, when I’ve got writer’s block. I’ll walk about a mile into the forest and sit by a creek that runs into the river. It’s a trip but is worth the effort when I just really need an isolated place to think.

2. Favorite part of writing.Character creation. Even in fanfiction, I always change up the background/personalities a little to add my own touch and present them in a new light. I also love learning and researching so I’ll just look up random things and see if I can’t design something or someone around an idea or belief.

3. Least favorite part of writing.Editing… moving on. I guess I should say editing my own work. Sometimes because I wasn’t the happiest with how a chapter turned out and sometimes because I really don’t feel like re-reading what I just wrote 3 times over only to read it again later and still find typos and parts that just don’t flow quite right.

4. Do you have writing habits or rituals?I have to be listening to something. Music, tv, the ambiance of a coffeeshop, etc. Unless I’m at my favorite place I can’t write in silence, but even there it isn’t quiet.

5. Books or authors that influenced your style the most.Toni Morrison morrison is the first name that pops into my head just because I re-read at least one of her books each month.

6. Favorite character you ever created.Childlike Evergreen for an idea that I’ve been playing with. She’s so cute and nothing like her character as an adult lol

7. Favorite author.Kristen Cashore, author of the Graceling series.

8. Favorite trope to write.

9. Least favorite trope to write.

10. Pick a writer to co-write a book with and tell us what you’d write about. 11. Describe your writing process from scratch to finish.1. Take pen and paper. Write everything that come to mind then end up trashing more than half of it.2. Write nothing but dialogue to go with everything written in step one.3. Combine both into a word document.4. Edit and make look pretty for others to enjoy.

That’s actually how I do it. I will plot out and idea with rough imcomplete details. If something need dialogue to get it moving a have a seperate journal that I write nothing but raw dialogue in. I color code everything so that it’s easy to reference back to and see what goes with what. Then I literally just splice the two parts together including every possible word before editing and cutting most of it out.

12. How do you deal with self-doubts? I’ll go through some of my older pieces that I’ve never published/shared and compare it to my current work. Idk, seeing how far i’ve improved always give me a boost in confidence.

13. How do you deal with writers block?First, I walk away from a project because trying to force something out can ruin a piece and just spend a little time each day writing something, anything, just so that I’m always keeping up with my practice. I’ll also read a bit more and get out of the house more often cause my writer’s block stems from cabin fever most of the time.

14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book?With my current piece that I’m writing. I took the idea of herbal medicine and looked up different plants what were used as medicines/ healing aids. Example: Belladonna, deadly nightshade, tincture was used to help aleviate thing like motionsickness, nausea, and even menstrual cramps. I thought it was interesting and since I was writng about dragon slayers and their perpetual uneasiness with transportaion, added into the story. In general though I always do a fair amount of research because I’ve not experienced all there is in the world and want to be able to make a connection with readers by presenting believable and accurate ideas.

15. Where does your inspiration come from?I’ve always felt more comfortable expressing myself through the written word and grew to love books and storytelling when I was little.

16. Where do you take your motivation from?Same as question 15?

17. On avarage, how much writing do you get done in a day?If I’m doing computer work, anywhere from 1500 to 2000 words. I could easily do more if I let myself, and I sometimes do, but I always walk away from it at some point during the day so as to not overexhert my hands since they already hurt my after a while of handwriting or typing.

18. What’s your revision or rewriting process like?For revisions, I can just cut and add in the document. If i doing a rewrite I will create a new document and write it side by side. I feel like i make more changes that way which is the point of rewrites.

19. First line of a WIP you’re working on.He wiped the sweat from his brow as he came upon her silhouetted form on the forest floor.

20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.“What is you plan to accomplish with this stupid ritual?”

“Oh, I don’ even know it’ll work. I just read about it thought maybe I’d give it a go if the opportunity presented itself. Your cerlestial mage appearing was just that.”

21. Post the last sentence you wrote in one of your WIP’s.Lucy had been so caught up in herself that she failed to asking how Bickslow was holding up. 22. How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied and a project is ultimately done for you?Nothing is ultimately ever done for me. that’s propably why I’m still sitting on a collection of shortstories that I’d like to get published but haven’t yet.

23. Single or multi POV, and why?No preference. Both come fairly easy to me but I think that if done well, single POV provides the most entertainment.

24. Poetry or prose, and why?Prose. I’ve taken poetry classes and had to read said poetry in front of 100+ people in college. I still cringe when I tell that story…

25. Linear or non-linear, and why?

26. Standalone or series, and why?Standalone. I just can’t imagine writing multiple multichapter things centered around the same idea. Idk

27. Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? 28. And who do you share them with?Rough drafts are for my eyes only. Occasionally a beta when I find the need but that’s rare.

29. Who do you write for?For the sole purpose of manipulating the emotions of readers. Basically, I like to write trash that’ll make people cry when it suits me. Nah, I write because my head is full of all sorts of ideas and I just have to get them on paper so to speak. Sharing my creative writing is something new for me but so far, I’m not regretting that choice.

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.You showed me the world, then left.

31. Hardest character to write.Gray… never was a favorite of mine so I just can’t connect with him.

32. Easiest character to write.Lucy

33. Do you listen to music when you’re writing?Most of the time.

34. Handwritten notes or typed notes?Handwritten. I waste a lot of paper and wish that I didn’t but it’s just most comfortable for me to handwrite the roughest form then expand the ideas on the computer.

35. Tell some backstory details about one of your characters in your story ________.

36. A spoiler for story _________.

37. Most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you.You aren’t the man who will make or break me. I have learned those men do not exist… I do not need you in my life. But I really, really want you in it

38. Have you shared your outline of your story ________ with someone? If so, what did they think of it?Meh, I’ll talk to my brother about ideas sometimes. He’s not a writer but he’s a good listener and is one of the few people that actually seem to enjoy it when I talk about writing with him.

39. Do you base your characters of real people or not? If so, tell us about one.I do and my favorite one is based off of my best friend from college. This girl and I met a week before classes began and she really like how my name was spelled. We hit it off from there. I’ve actually written a story based off of that first interaction between us. She’s a family woman and has such a passion for teaching english. She’s got an attitude and does what she wants, but she was the mom friend that i needed because I usually play mom for my other friends lol

40. Original Fiction or Fanfiction, and why?Both. All of my original works are based off of real stories from real people that I know. My fanfiction is where my creativity shines though especially when working with a universe like Fairy Tail.

41. How many stories do you work on at one time?However many that suits me. My exception to this rule is only 1 multichapter fic at a time due to how much time and research I invest into the piece. I’m also far more critical about editing chapter versus oneshots.

42. How do you figure out your characters looks, personality, etc.

43. Are you an avid reader?Yes. Reading is what makes the writer.

44. Best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.One semester I took a research class and had to design and conduct my methods and gather data. There was one part where we had to develop how we were to gather the data we sought and my instructor told me that it was hard for him to critique my methods because I had already done so in the proposal. I figure leaving a guy who writes for a living unable to write anything is a good thing lol

45. Worst piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.Taking a creative writng class with people who don’t love writing as much as I do. To elaborate, we would be required to write something of our own creation and you could tell who loved writing based on the feedback they gave. I can’t begin to say how many people took to giving me grammar advice because they couldn’t think of anything to say about the content…

46. What would your story _______ look like as a tv show or movie?

47. Do you start with characters or plot when working on a new story?Characters.

48. Favorite genre to write in.Adventure/drama

49. What do you find the hardest to write in a story, the beginning, the middle or the end?Always the beginning.

50. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had.Oh god. Please no. Umm when I was like 15 I started writng this story about elemental angels and they had to save the world or something like that. Idk, when I look back on it I think that it’s weird

51. Describe the aesthetic of your story _______ in 5 sentences or words.

52. How did writing change you?Writing has helped me to become more confident in myself and also helped me to cope and move forward from the abuse I lived through when I was little.

53. What does writing mean to you?Writing is literally what saved my life so it’s everything.

54. Any writing advice you want to share?Write. If it’s something you want to do then do it. You only get better the more you pratice it. If you don’t know what to write, try a word promt challenge and write about whatever comes to mind. Just let your ideas flow.

[jessicakmatt]

Audio Editing: 10 Helpful Tips for Better Results

Audio Editing: 10 Helpful Tips for Better Results: via LANDR Blog

Audio editing is one of the most basic processes in music production.

It’s the key DAW operations you perform on your audio files before they’re ready for mixing.

But editing audio can be tedious if you’re just getting used to it. Most DAWs take a little while to learn the tips and tricks it takes to be an editing whiz.

Even so, it doesn’t have to be an uphill battle.

In this article I’ll explain everything you need to know about audio editing and 10 tips to make your editing process faster and better.

What is audio editing?

Audio editing is the manipulation of recorded audio files in a musical arrangement, film soundtrack or broadcast.

The practice started with engineers manually cutting and splicing analog tape, but the majority of modern audio editing takes place inside DAW software.

The main tasks in audio editing are:

Changing the position of clips on the timeline

Cleaning up noise and imperfections

Refining a musical performance by selecting different takes

Manipulating audio by slicing individual clips

Why is audio editing important?

Modern production techniques are so advanced that every song you hear seems like a unified single event.

But in reality, every single track in a pro production has been meticulously edited to work just right.

Audio editing is a massive part of the magic of a great sounding song.

Audio editing is a massive part of the magic of a great sounding song.

Mixing and mastering are essential too, but you’ll never get a polished sound if you skip the editing phase.

10 audio editing tips for polished tracks

It takes some practice to edit tracks quickly. But there are some helpful techniques that can save time in your workflow.

I’ll go through my top 10 tips for smoother, faster audio editing and better results in your tracks.

1. Batch fades

Applying fades is one of the most important tasks in audio editing.

You need to trim every region on your timeline so that only the active audio you’re using in your mix is included in the clip.

Even if it looks like the end of a region is only empty space, listening closely can reveal these segments contain additional noise.

The solution is to trim them out and apply short (5-10 ms) fades so the transition from silence is free of clicks and pops.

But adding fades to every clip in a busy session is time consuming. That’s where batch fades come in.

Select every clip on your timeline and open your DAW’s fade dialogue to add fade ins, outs and crossfades to every clip at the same time.

2. Split at playhead

Splitting regions in precise locations is important for clean edits. Sometimes listening by ear is the easy way to choose where to cut.

You need to trim every region on your timeline so that only the active audio you’re using in your mix is included in the clip.

Most DAWs have the ability to make an edit right at the playhead location.

Using this function you can simply listen along to the track, park the playhead at the edit point and hit the key command to split regions.

3. Consolidate regions

Sometimes it’s more effective to extend a region than split it.

This happens most often when you need to keep pieces of audio in time and you’re using the grid divisions on the timeline to stay synced.

But what if your clip doesn’t start directly on a bar or beat? Moving the clip from its original position can risk throwing the part out of time.

Consolidating regions of silence into audio clips is one solution. Park the playhead at the beginning of the clip and select the previous bar with snap to grid engaged.

Sometimes it’s more effective to extend a region than split it.

Consolidate the silence in the gap between the bar and clip. Now when you merge the two regions your track will begin right on the bar.



4. Tab to transient

Slicing percussive material is another major job in audio editing. Most producers take the time to manually align some percussion hits to the grid to tighten up the performance.

But slicing at each drum hit would be far too tedious, even when you only need to work on a few phrases.

Most DAWs have a tab to transient option that automatically detects transients and advances the playhead to the next one on the timeline using a key command.



From there you can slice at the playhead using the key command from tip 2, or perform any other editing operation you need.

5. Takes folder/playlists

Editing multiple takes together and choosing the best moments from each is a key process in audio editing.

It’s called “comping.” The name comes from the idea of creating a composite track from the individual takes.



Most DAWs have a specific workflow for recording multiple takes and editing between them. Most often it works by recording each successive take into a new lane in a “folder” track and promoting selections to the main take.

But the takes folder (or playlists folder as its sometimes called) can do a whole lot more.

Before you make any destructive changes to your audio, make a copy in your takes folder to return to if something goes wrong.

Before you make any destructive changes to your audio, make a copy in your takes folder to return to if something goes wrong.

6. Strip silence

As I mentioned above, getting rid of unused sections in your regions is important for good editing.

One tool to help you is called strip silence. This function detects periods of silence in a clip and automatically deletes them for you.

You can choose the threshold for what to strip and set padding values for the start and end to automate a lot of editing work.

7. Change nudge values

Moving audio around on the timeline to enhance a musical moment is common in audio editing.

The feel of a musical gesture can change a lot with different timing.

The feel of a musical gesture can change a lot with different timing.

That’s why you sometimes need to move regions in extremely small increments. The nudge control lets you bump audio forwards or back by the same amount each time.



It’s typically set to a small number of samples or milliseconds.

But you can change the nudge length to anything value you want to help shift regions more accurately on your timeline.

A very small nudge value set in samples will let you get ultra-surgical with your edits.

Larger values can let you make surprisingly high-level position changes just using the nudge function.

8. Loop regions

Most producers are familiar with the loop function of their DAW.

Looping a region on the timeline allows you to extend its duration infinitely by dragging out the right corner.

But looping a segment can be a good editing decision if correcting the performance using other methods isn’t working.

Consider looping repeated lines or parts that don’t feel consistent enough or locked to the groove or tempo.

9. Snap to zero crossing

If you’ve ever heard a distracting click or pop over an edit point you might know about my next editing tip.

Some DAWs have the option to snap edits to the nearest zero crossing. Here’s what that means.

An audio wave is just a series of peaks and valleys in the voltage of a signal. That voltage varies from positive values (peaks) to negative values (valleys).

This is how the speakers in your headphones or studio monitors know which direction to move to reproduce the sound in the signal.

If you make a cut in a spot with a strong peak or deep valley, you might hear an artifact from the sound abruptly cutting off.

If you make a cut in a spot with a strong peak or deep valley, you might hear an artifact from the sound abruptly cutting off.

Luckily, there are tiny spots where the audio file has no sound energy in either direction. These are located directly on the zero crossing—the vertical centre of the waveform where the sound crosses from negative to positive.

Placing your edits directly over these points will help reduce clicks, pops and other artifacts from editing.



Hot tip: The snap function will find zero crossings for you automatically, but you can always zoom in to maximum settings and find them by hand.

10. Region mutes

You probably already know you can mute MIDI and audio tracks, did you know you can also mute clips on the timeline?

Region mute can be an effective way to temporarily remove audio information for tracks when other methods won’t work as well.

This sometimes happens in situations where the visual reference of the muted material is helpful to orient yourself in the session.

Letter to the audio editor

Every producer should develop their audio editing skills.

After all, you want to spend more time making music and less time cleaning your tracks up.

Now that you have an idea of the basics and some helpful tips to speed up your workflow, get back to your session and keep building your perfect track.

The post Audio Editing: 10 Helpful Tips for Better Results appeared first on LANDR Blog.

from LANDR Blog https://blog.landr.com/audio-editing-tips/ via https://www.youtube.com/user/corporatethief/playlists from Steve Hart https://stevehartcom.tumblr.com/post/615587238612484096

[lyricsaboutcats]

"Ambush, huh? I need to get my cowardly bastard scanner fixed."

"Temper, temper, Shepard."

During development of Mass Effect 1, Noveria’s Aleutsk Valley had several encounters and enemies that were eventually left on the cutting room floor. 

This particular set of leftover dialogue, where Shepard is ambushed in Aleutsk’s tunnels after either a tunnel door or the Mako itself is sabotaged, was probably intended to be a cutscene with a few dialogue choices for the player. The assassins were sent by Saren and Shepard’s renegade responses to them are a highlight.

----

(Sources: ice25_trig09_assassin_enc,snd_ice25_tunnels.upk, Mass Effect PS3 Edition. Spliced with Audacity)

[joneswilliam72]

The 405 meets The National Lights: on the process of returning to songs a decade old & finding new, brighter life within them (Part One)

It's not every day you interview one of your favorite bands from your late teens. Add to that the fact that The National Lights called it quits more than a decade ago, and the notion seems nearly fantastical. Yet, get back together they did, to offer the gorgeous new EP that is Whom the Sea Will Keep. Culled from old sketches of songs to form something new, the brief record is a special moment that nearly never happened. I could go on as to their history, and the origins of these new songs, but the band does so far better in their own words.

For such an exciting chat, things began in a low key manner, with Sonya Cotton, responsible for the band's memorable harmonies, dialing in first. We chatted about having linked up via email years ago after a CDBaby purchase while we waited for Jacob Berns, the band's lyricist, and Chris Kiehne, their primary musician, to join in. Once we were all on the line, we dived right in. Read on below.

Editor's Note: Due to the particularly lengthy nature of this extended dialogue, this piece has been divided into two parts. Tune back in soon for Part Two!

*****

So. For fans that have followed since your original album, this project returning will feel quite special. How did it feel for you all, resuming something once thought long ended?

Jacob: I don't think I saw it as over. It'd been put on hold, I'll let Chris, you know, give his take, but I think within the last year or so, we put our differences aside, and it had just been lingering, and it felt like ti needed to just get wrapped up. We were both ready to kind of move on, you know?

Chris: I think you can go back even further than that. It's not on the EP, but I remember the first song that Jacob wrote for what would become this project was written [pauses] you know, 10 years ago. Before Dead Will Walk, Dear had even come out. I remember you [Jacob] walking around the apartment playing it. So it's definitely, there was sort of like 5 years where, you know, Jacob was working...I guess it was part of the time where Jacob was working alone, before it became a collective project again.

Ok, so, jumping around, but you guys kind of led into this for me. I remember way back when, I would actually be checking The National Lights website for updates on this project. The album, or EP, name is the same, if memory serves.

Jacob: Yep, yeah, same title.

I was alway checking, hoping, 'Oh man, are they gonna do album #2. So, considering that you've held on the project for so long, has any of the material written when it was first conceived survived, or are they songs we're hearing things that spring from the ashes?

Jacob: No, actually, all 5 of the tracks that made this EP were originally part of that. They were all part of it. Originally it was going to be a full-length, I think, in my mind anyway. I'd written probably 10 to 12 songs for it. I don't even know if Chris has heard all of those, I had demos.

Chris: Yeah, I remember some of them. That's pretty fucked up, man, I haven't even heard all of the songs! [Laughs] We might have to get on that post-interview. There are just some character motivation issues, gaps that could have been filled in for me.

Jacob: Well, I think you leave that, submerged under the water. [Both laugh] So, yeah, those 5, I think that originally, at least I'd thought, even as it started getting pared back a little bit, and some of the songs fell off, and realized that it was actually gonna be shorter than a full length album, I really want to share some of the other songs, that were earmarked to be on this, but as it came down to the end, with Chris wrapping up the recording, it really seemed like these 5 came into focus. The others just didn't seem like...they didn't quite fit anymore. We need an opportunity to get those at there at some point, if there's interest in that. But I think the result is...I'm happy with these 5 songs.

So you've somewhat already answered this, but how exactly did you decide to pare it down from an LP to an EP? Was it purely the stronger songs?

Jacob: Yeah...and please, guys, jump in here. But partly I think it was the songs that were stronger, the ones that kind of fit well with one another. Then there was also just the basic logistics issue as well, where we were on opposite coasts now, and Sonya is in Utah, and we're all kind of dispersed. Getting together to record would have been very difficult, re-recording tracks, and doing this all by email, would have been a bit of a challenge. So there was that to consider. I think, if you give it enough distance, you can start looking at it a little bit more objectively. And some of the songs that I thought were really strong, or were really amused with some sort of cleverness, then I could see that maybe they weren't truly so strong or so clever, or exactly what I was really going for. Yeah. Time really provides that perspective, and 10 years certainly allows you a lot of that.

So were you guys at all in the studio together, or was this entirely a Postal Service type affair?

Chris: No studio time, no shared time. I mean Jacob and I haven't seen each other in person...[trails off], what would that be? 2008? Maybe over 10 years actually.

Jacob: 12 years?

Chris: Crazy. *Jesus.* So, yeah, no shared studio time. All correspondence.

Is it kind of a bizarre feeling? To come back together as a group without, well, coming back together?

Chris: Well, I think it's great. Hi, Sonya, how are you doing?

Sonya: Hi guys! How are you doing? I'm...I'm a little bit sick. So I might be quiet, my voice is lower than normal.

Same here, team sick.

Sonya: Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah! No fun.

So have you seen either of them more recently than they've seen each other?

Sonya: Yeah, I think I saw...the last two times I hung out with Chris, I was six month pregnant, both times. [Laughs] This past year, and two years before that. I have not seen Jacob for, I guess, gosh, a really long time. I long secretly for a reunion release show, but I haven't put that out there yet. I have no idea if there's any chance that will possibly happen, but I think that'd be super fun!

You guys gotta tour.

Chris: We should do it in Greenland or something.

Jacob: Switzerland?

Sonya: I think either of those locations.

Chris: I was thinking about this when I was working on Sonya's last record. We were making music together from like 18 to 22. And although Jacob and I have definitely been in bands apart before that, so much of, for me at least, so much of everything that I learned about being in band, about writing songs, those were really formative years, where the language was developed. To get back into that language with the two people that I functionally developed into record making vocabulary, vernacular, whatever, ti was pretty easy for me.

Sonya: Yeah, I relate to that. It's interesting to think 'why was that?' Why was that quite so easy? And yeah it probably has to do with what a formative time it was for all of us, yeah.

Chris: It was also, I will say, you know, Jacob, not to air your dirty laundry or whatever, but when we made Dead Will Walk, Dear, Jacob and I in particular at the time were real...perfectionists. We wanted to get everything perfect, and we didn't have the technology at the time to splice stuff together, so it's one thing to do this remotely. But when we were recording Dead Will Walk, and someone would be recording in the other room, like Jacob would be recording a guitar part, and you'd suddenly hear an agonizing scream, because you'd make it 2 minutes and 22 seconds into a 2 minute and 30 second take...and, you know, at 21, that was a real emotional struggle for us together. This time we could suffer in solitude.

So you led into this for me, not to go too far into it, but how did things originally kind of come apart?

Chris: So who wants to take this one? [Sonya laughs]

Jacob: I'll start, I guess. In college, it seemed, I don't know, it felt like there was a lot of pressure that we placed upon ourselves to get things just right. I think part of that was releasing a "first album". I think we'd all recorded songs before, and released songs before, but for me anyway, I was in a band in high school, and Chris was, too, we'd burn CDs and give them out to people, but this felt like the first one. We had put a lot of pressure to get it right. And Chris is being very generous. I think I am probably the most anal, and I certainly was then, about getting things just so. I really did believe in what we were doing together, and the collaboration, and all that, and I wanted to put the best foot forward. All that said, we were in college, and it still felt very...coming together felt really effortless in a lot of ways. It made a lot of sense. In my mind, college confused that in a lot of ways. Post-college you start figuring things out, so I think that, this is only one piece of it, but we all had different plans, right? I had always intended on going to grad school, and did that, I never intended to move all the way to the West Coast, that was a total surprise. Certainly did not intend to stay here for almost 10 years, but, but that was part of it. I'll say one more thing, I don't wanna monopolize the time here, but we did spend al oto f time together, and I think spending a lot time together, there's a lot of good that comes with that, and a lot of kind of, well, bad that can come from that. Frustrations become amplified, we were spending a *lot* of time together through that recording process, and then lived together, briefly, in Philadelphia as we were preparing for this tour that we were going on. Sonya, Chris, feel free to jump in, but I...think that spending all that time together it took a bit of a toll. I certainly wasn't the easiest person to work with through that, those things add up. I think it was, we were in St. Petersburg, and we played a show, and it just didn't click. It didn't go well. I think that was kind of the point at which the past fractured...I can't imagine that we would have...there's something nice in thinking about if we'd stay together all these intervening years, but we were able to move in our directions. I certainly think living together in that little apartment wasn't going to be a tenable situation anyway.

Chris: Yeah, we were in college. We were very significant parts of each other's lives already. Sonia and I had a relationship, friends with Jacob, we were all playing instruments together, we were all already very intensively involved in each other's lives. That was in college, and fast forward, and we're 22, and none of us really had any idea what we wanted to do with our lives, and there were 3 months we were pretty much the only 3 people each other saw. Like Jacob said, it could have gone a different way...but it didn't. It was just an intense window of time. I personally felt like I had no idea what I was going to be doing, I don't know if Sonya or Jacob had any more clarity at the moment. Whatever it had been, it was a tumultuous, tempestuous time.

Sonya: Yeah, I'd always say...I really agree with the point that, in a time from college to post-college, it's difficult in a lot of ways. I remember feeling really disoriented, and that time of life was really challenging. Like my entire life from the time that I have memories you're put in school, and then suddenly you're not, you're in the world. I think we were all navigating that moment together, in this sort of pressure cooker situation, all living together, trying to go on a tour. So, yeah, the cards were kind of stacked. Then, another thing I've reflected on over the years, interpersonal communication, interpersonal conflict, is not something that we're taught. Or, at least, in my culture growing up. It's something you have to learn trial by fire, and I think we're surely all better dealers with conflict and communicators now in our 30s than we were in our early 20s. If all of those things were to play out exactly the same way now, being who we are now, with the life experiences we've had, it would go differently, but that's maturity level we had at the time, that's how it all went.

Chris: I think maybe the root of...I know this is a not helpful way to explain why a band broke up, but I think we were incompatible problem solvers. We couldn't handle conflict at the time.

[I relate a story of the album bridging cultures while traveling on Jeju Island, Korea]

Sonya: Awwww.

Chris: That is the most wholesome story regarding that record I possibly imagine. I can't... That record was conceived with cheap, cheap, cheap gin and cheap orange juice and watching unnamable 80's slasher movies. So if something like that came out of that record I feel...great.

Jacob: Thank you for sharing that. That's a pretty incredible story.

Chris: Look we're all like 36, 34, 35, none of us are...rolling in musically financed...funds. The three of us have just reached the point where we feel a lot of gratitude that someone could have a relationship with a record we were involved with [Sonya: *Yeah.*] like the relationships we had with records in the time we were fell in love with each other, with music, that serious personal relationship with a record. So that's an incredible thing. I forget which track is this, but I saw in some bar I think, and there was a movie on the television, called Angus, and the third scene, I remember this so vividly, the love song they played, that's one of my earliest memories of Jacob.

Sonya: *What?*

Chris: It's just this scene with powerful emotional connections to the song, and it's one of the first things I remember about from my friendship with Jacob is talking about those things.

Dead Will Walk is certainly one of those records for me.

Chris: What's your favorite song?

That's a brutal question.

Jacob: Putting you on the spot, man.

Chris: [jokingly] 'Name one song.' [Laughs]

It might be a standard answer, but 'Swimming in the Swamp', and the way it leads into 'Killing Swallows', they're just the perfect one, two punch as a closing salvo.

Chris: 'Swimming in the Swamp' came together really...if I remember correctly it was the last one to come together.

Jacob: It was, that and 'Killing Swallows', that's really telling. I think it wasn't too long after that where we started getting focused on ocean narratives, and these people living in a boat, alone, going around the world. These romantic type notions about the ocean. It wasn't too long after that I was fixated on that, so those songs, are much more closely related to the songs on the EP than maybe even the others songs from Dead Will Walk, Dear.

I can see that, but I always felt the line on the last track, 'You'll hate me when this is over,' I believe, played into the rest of the LP. So, on that, I feel like your songs tend to tap into this almost fantastical...perhaps not so much fantastical, but certainly deeply romantic notion. Take the EP, as you said, the ocean, and this whole 'I'm in a whaleship' concept and Dead Will Walk dealing with young love and murder, these grand romantic ideas, but you use them to tap into something deeply personal and "real". I suppose there's not really a question in there. [Laughs]

Chris: Well, I appreciate it.

Jacob: I tend to get fixated on these things, and learning about them, even when I'll have a drink of choice, that will be *my* drink for an extended period of time. I'll focus on something and kind of see it through. It's really hard to...even as you're so focused on that thing, it's hard to divorce from the rest of what's going on from it. It's kind of weird to think about the songwriting process in this kind of retrospective way, but starting from these points of fixation and working into things that you know more about, using that as the entry point into exploring something a little bit more familiar. I can see that, for sure.

So when did you guys first start recording again?

Chris: Jacob recorded the basic tracks in Virginia, right?

Jacob: Yep, yep, that was a while ago. 2008 or 09.

Chris: And that would have been just the vocals, guitar, and banjo, and I guess you had done some stuff on ukulele, as well. If I remember it loosely, Jacob recorded these basic tracks, and he and I had less conversations about what he was doing. At the time The National Lights was just going to become the name that Jacob recorded under, and there was no idea that Sonya and I would be involved. And I'm not sure quite what happened, Sonya might have been moving schools, but it became more clear that there was no immediate plan for the future, and I was moving back to Baltimore, so I was like, 'whatev, ya know, I'll take a swing.' And then Sonya, I guess, owed us both favors or something. [laughs]

Sonya: Wait, what?

Chris: I don't know. (laughs) But at first it was just Jacob.

I didn't realize that these songs themselves were from so long ago - I had assumed you were simply revisiting the concept. So, how did it feel to kind of reclaim these ideas from a time gone by?

Jacob: Well, I think...these are the same songs in the sense that the lyrics haven't changed, the chord progressions haven't changed, but I went back and I listened to some of the iterations of this EP from the last five years, and I'm not sure when the last time that you Chris, or you Sonya, have heard these, but they feel completely different in many ways, totally different songs. (Sonya: yeah.) I'm really grateful that there was this amount of time. It's too bad that it took this long for us all to get on the phone together and be talking about this, because this too feels very effortless, but I think that 10 years was totally essential to getting the songs to this point, so, while they were written and much of it was, some of it anyway, was recorded a decade ago, almost, they still feel really kind of new, and very present for me. It doesn't feel like what we ended up with is wrapping up these loose ends from so long ago. A lot of it feels very current, a lot of the ideas that Chris and I were exchanging via email, those are new ideas, that happened, in some cases, just in the final month or so before we finally put a bow on this EP. I'm curious how Chris and Sonya feel about it, coming in after hearing some of these tracks so long ago, but that's kinda my take on it.

Sonya: Can I go next? Because I actually will have to go, sadly. I have a little baby. I remember that...I'd seen Chris conssitently over the years, I remmeber being in your apartment and you playing some of Jacob's songs for me, and even that was maybe 7 years ago, and I remember thinking, "Wow, I'm really glad Jake is making music and that you guys are colloaborating", but I wasn't overly blown over the way I was when you played these current mixes. I don't know the specific process of how the songs changed from then until when I jumped in late in the game, but they had just evolved into feeling like, um, so transporting and gorgeous, and I just couldn't wait to be a part of it, I was so excited. I am really, really happy with how it's turned out. So, yeah. I hear what Jacob's saying, it seems like this time was needed to get the album to the place where it is.

Chris: Yeah, I mean, we didn't have Sonya's harmonies on it, and what's a National Lights or Chris Kiehne record without those? We didn't have those until this past summer, I think. But, yeah, those add so much to it, and Jacob and I hadn't thought about that ina while, but we had these versions, where it was an almost finished EP, as early as 4 or 5 years ago, and almost all those parts were scrapped and redone or rearranged.

Sonya: Oh. It's been a pleasure talking to you guys, sorry to bow out early! Bye Jacob, bye Chris, bye Chase!

Chris: See ya, buddy.

And then there were two. So, where did the inspiration for these songs come from. Are any of you into sailing at all?

Jacob: Well, obviously some of these characters were real people. Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail alone around the world. And he wrote this really beautiful log of his journey and published it as Sailing Alone Around the World, and it's defintiely worth picking up. That was one of the main things that I was reading at the time. Listening to shanties, reading a lot of good, and some really bad, poetry about the ocean. And really just kind of reading whatever I could get my hands down. I've pared down my nautiful library at this point, but it had ballooned at the time to being ridiculous, so a lot of my writing was inspired by what I was reading at the time. The Whaleship Essex - I really like that song, it's probably my favorite on the EP, and it almost got cut.

Chris: I think, again, that's one of those that came together at the last minute. I'm eager to admit now it's one of my favorites as well, but it was one of those just wasn't making sense for, well, years. Then, all of sudden, it just locked in, over a weekend.

Jacob: Yeah, that came together real quickly, for sure. Or, not quickly. [both laugh] But I remember the last few emails we exchanged about that song, it just lasted an afternoon, and a few hours later you'd sent over the first 30 seconds of the song with a whole new piano track over it, and it just...as soon as I heard that swell at the beginning, and ebfore it came in, I realized that that had been better than what I'd been waiting to hear and trying to describe. I don't know, it was exactly hoping for without knowing what I was wanting.

Chris: That was a song that started out very different. I remember some of the langauge in the emails I was using, I was literally saying, "I will give it *one* last try and then we gotta drop it." And then with the piano thinking, 'Ok, this was the try that needed to happen.'

So how much, if anything, is autobiographical?

Jacob: Well, I think that it's impossible to divorce yourself entirely from the writing, and I think it'd be unwise to do that. You need to bring actual experiences and emotions to what you're working on. And I haven't written - or, I haven't *finished* a song, in a long time, but I'm constantly writing. So I think that while I love boats, and I've been on boats a couple of times, but I'm terrified of the ocean. The expanse of it is terrifying, right? And the solitude, I was trying to write about this a little bit, as I was writing about a couple of these songs for their premeries, buti t doesn't matter how many epopel you're with when you're on a boat looking out over the ocean. You could be surroudned by all your family and friends, a ton of people behind you, but you're still looking out over the railing towards the ocean and the horizon, and there's a soltitude you feel, that I feel, anyway, the vastness of it makes you feel so small, and so alone in those moments. Those are the moments that are ripe for introspection, gaining perspective, looking at yourself or at experiences in different ways, so I'm kind of talking around a little bit, but I think there are common themes that emerge that weren't written into it with them in mind, but albums and stories are all stronger for having themes naturally as opposed to writing them onto the song or story, like wedging them in there, those themes, regret, uncertainty, these things that are connected to that perspective that the ocean kind of affords. Certainly I have my fair share of regrets, we've talked about a few of them today, you really can't divorce yourself from it. In a sense there's autobiography in each of these songs, even if I'm writing looking at Joshua Slocum's life, the writer is still in the writing. There's still truth I guess with a capital T, or however you wanna put it, that's there, but yeah, I'm not killing whales. I'm a vegetarian. [chuckles]

Do you see the EP as kind of an open-ended narrative, or do you think the characters reach a conclusion?

Jacob: What do you think, Chris?

Chris: That's interesting. I actually don't really see this EP as being a single narrator, in the sense that I do still hear Dead Will Walk, Dear when I hear it. I do still the impression of a narrator, but I get different narratives. Still, exactly as Jacob was talking about, they have this sort of shared emotional landscape that surges through them. That's not surprising as Jacob has been working primarily in fiction for the past decade. But, yes, interconnected landscapes, but not so much a shared narrative. There's this sense of resolution in so far as you're looking at an emotional narrative, but not so much, for me, thinking of a narrator going on a particular close-circuited venture, ya know?

Jacob: Yeah, I agree. These songs feel much more distinct from one another than Dead Will Walk, Dear. There's much more thematic...it's almost just thematic, vs. Dead which is interconnected and feels like specific characters and narrative. Each of these songs have their own worlds and stories. They're certainly not all resolved.

As a listener I'm surprised to hear you say, Chris, that you find this record to be connected to Dead Will Walk, they feel so distinct, with that record having a particular emotional journey.

Chris: Purely out of genuine curiosity, what do you get from Dead Will Walk?

Loss. There's plenty going on, but an overall sense of young love leading to aching loss.

Chris: I don't want to speak for Jacob, but at the time we were so lost in our songwriting, our methods were so locked in and in sync at that time, Jacob was writing Dead Will Walk, I was working on my own zombie record, even Sonya was working on a slightly less conceptual thing, um, certainly, as Jacob was saying earlier, the end goal at the time was to use inherited or stolen horror movie archetpyal narratives to try and find some core emotional threads that run through them. So, yeah, that certainly would mean that the record was successful if it what's taken away from it is the ideological or emotional response...some of the reviews at the time that kind of missed what we'd hoped for were really, really exclusively locked in on the serial murder narrative, which isn't even prominently there, it's only hinted at. We were talking earlier about being 21 and 22, and how things could have gone differently, and just starting out as kids, the reviews could really destabilize you.

I remember - I wasn't a writer at the time, just a reader - but I remember some reviews feeling like they didn't bother peering beneath the very surface, and it really bothered me. Again, for what it's worth, those of us who found the album and spent time with it truly found something.

Jacob: And that's worth a lot. Again, at the time, we were living together, and you could just walk across the hall and knock on someone's door and start working through lyrics and ideas, that was the big idea, thinking about people listening and somehow finding something, whether it was grace or hope or some sort of connection.

I remember, Chris, Pray for Daylight, is that your record you were referring to?

Chris: Yep, that's the one I pretty much wrote concurrently with Dead Will Walk, and we were recording a Sonya record, and my record, and Jacob's record, pretty much all together, and when we did that your, we were kind of touring - it was a different era, with the band name - but we were touring pretty much as a variety show, insofar as we were playing all our songs. A National Lights set, a Chris Kiehne set, and then kind of it all mixed together as a big jumble. Backtracking a bit, but actually, with Dead Will Walk we dodged a bullet - almost right after we'd finished putting it together, everything from my project and that project were stored on my external, and 3 or 4 months after we finished Dead Will Walk, it just kind of tanked. If it had happened prior to us putting it out, we would have just lost it, as I did with about 1/2 of Pray for Daylight. Dead Will Walk, Dear narrowly missed a catastrophic expulsion from the universe.

Well, I'm sure we're all glad that didn't happen! Back to the current EP: with 'Whaleship Essex', there's the line, I believe, that he's going out for "ocean lore" and glory and the like. He's leaving love behind, which is arguably the crux of the song, so do you find what he's doing to be worthwhile, or just his ego?

Jacob: This could be a really long one. [Dry laugh] 'Whaleship Essex' is, too, a true story, this incident of this whale capsizing the boat as in the song, that actually did happen, and that was prior to Herman Melville writing Moby Dick, and there's been evidence that he's read some of the survivor's accounts of the event. Then there's the novel, and the Ron Howard film that tells the story. I've lost the title, but it's by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Chris: That's gonna bother me, I'm gonna look it up real quick. In the Heart of the Sea!

Jacob: That's it! Well, this song has a lot less of the CGI, ya know. So, for that, I think, the line you're talking about, the lore, in my mind anyway, has two totally different meanings depending on which chorus you're listening to. That initial chorus is much more hopeful, it is an adventure, going out there, with young men, some on their 1st voyage, part of this economy and community that existed, I believe, in the Nantucket area, and there's this adventure and lore they're pursuing, then, of course, between that first chorus and the second, they are attacked by the whale, they're 200, 250, or maybe even more out from any sight of land, and they're left stranded there, and forced to do these things, where you think, 'What would you do to survive?' And you find the answer to that question, and this is a rather extreme circumstance, and this lore is completely different from the romantic pursuit of glory and comraderie, and all of those things that come with going out on this whaling voyage. So, those two meanings, I think, totally change.

*****

Check back soon for the rest of the conversation!

from The 405 https://ift.tt/2J2iL5C

[tetcny]

  BORIS KARLOFF COLLECTION (VCI,2 discs, DVD) Released September 2018. Color.  $14.99

https://www.vcientertainment.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1104

Many years ago, when the late great Boris Karloff passed away in February 2,1969, Jim Warren’s and Forrest J Ackerman’s FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND provided two fitting tributes.

One, was issue #56 of FMOF with a beautiful  Basil Gogos cover of Karloff as his most famous role.

The other was a paperback by FJA called THE FRANKENSCIENCE MONSTER (Ace,1969, a cover not by Gogos but paperback cover artist Verne Tossey.). At the time,before the ability to google, this was the source for any monster news. Many of us though that Karloff’s final film was a classic of modern cinema, Peter Bogdanovich’s   TARGETS  (August 1968,Paramount).

However, thanks to Uncle Forry , we found out that 80 plus year old Karloff had signed with producer Luis Enrique Vergara and Azteca Films of Mexico (who in turn had a distribution agreement with Columbia Pictures) for a four-picture deal at a salary of $400,000. The actor could have said no to the projects and easily retired, having a comfortable sum saved up over the years. No one could have blamed him, either, as his lungs were barely functional (due to years of smoking as well as damage from pneumonia he contracted in Italy filming BLACK SABBATH,1963,AIP , leaving him dependent on oxygen tanks to aid his breathing) as well as crippling arthritis that made walking difficult.

Still, as he often said, he wanted to die with his boots on, doing the job he loved if audiences wanted to see him. An example was when he filmed an episode of THE RED SKELTON SHOW (“He Who Steals My Robot Steals Trash” aired September 24,1968, CBS), rather than do the show before the live audience in a wheel chair as rehearsed, he willed himself to walk with the aid of a cane rather than have the people see him so confined.

Thus, the quartet of Mexican horror films were jobs that he readily accepted, feeling fortunate that audiences still wished to see him.

Difficulties for the productions arose when it was discovered that Karloff’s health would not permit him to film in Mexico, and his sequences were shot in a small studio in Santa Monica, California in April/May 1968, while the rest of the films were completed in Mexico, often with a double for the star.

The four films were to be made over a 5-week period, so this extra expense of two crews, duplicating sets, and flying up some of the Mexican cast to work with Karloff must have frayed the already low budgets.  Juan Ibáñez directed the Mexican main unit, while cult director Jack Hill (SPIDER BABY,1967, American General) handled the American Karloff unit, as well as contributing to the screenplays.

Hill it seems was hampered because the producer wanted to use an early form of video playback by tying a primitive video camera to the top of the 35mm Mitchells used to film the movie. Jerry Lewis had pioneered the idea and it is now the common practice, but Hill felt that it slowed down his process.

  With all these problems somehow the four films were filmed and completed. Karloff did not live to see the release of these films, which seemed to have been held back until 1971 for their limited distributions (Cannon also got around to distribute Karloff’s 1967 Spanish lensed CAULDRON OF BLOOD the same year, which got a wider release in the U.S. than the four Mexican thrillers).

  Over the years, the films have been released on various video labels, including MPI and United American budget label, as well as several of the titles getting a DVD release by Fred Olen Ray’s Retromedia label.

  VCI has now for the first time put all four films together in an affordable (less than the cost of some single DVD releases) two-disc collection.

The four titles in the collection are

(Disc One)

DANCE OF DEATH (aka HOUSE OF EVIL, SERENADA MACABRA)

TORTURE ZONE (edited version of FEAR CHAMBER)

(Disc Two)

ALIEN TERROR (filmed as THE INCREDIBLE INVASION, Invasión siniestra)

CULT OF THE DEAD (edited version of ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE, La muerte vivente)

  The discs seem to be sourced from the old MPI videos, with the same video generated titles (©1987 by the Parasol Group). The prints of the four movies are a bit dark and sometimes the color is a bit off.  The copy  of TORTURE ZONE seemed in the worst condition, with several visible splices.

  It is a shame that they did not seek out the Retromedia or Elite release of FEAR CHAMBER, as both of those are in the original aspect ratio with sharp picture and color quality, as well as extras such as an audio commentary by Jack Hill and a deleted scene.MPI’s TORTURE ZONE is an edited version of this film ,so all of the nudity Is eliminated .

Only TORTURE ZONE was set in present day, with the rest set at around the turn of the 20th Century. ALIEN TERROR was supposedly the last one filmed, and the only one NOT starring Julissa, giving actress German actress Christa Linder a chance.

The 2.0 Dolby Digital sound for the films is clear with no noticeable loss in quality of dialogue or the sound effects.

There are no extras to the discs, but again, to get these four films together at such a low price, one should not expect any special edition treatment.

While we would all like to get the best possible and most complete versions, certain films have limited audiences and the profitability is to say the least, narrow.

One wonders, for example, if VCI had gone out of their way to get new prints, cleaned up and loaded with extras, would fans shell out $29.95 for each of these films?

DANCE OF DEATH -this film is perhaps the most traditional horror film, with obvious influences of the Roger Corman Poe films. The film even claims to be based upon a Poe story, though none that I am familiar with.                                                  original Spanish language credit

  Wealthy toymaker Matthais Morteval (Karloff) summons his family to his mansion to discuss how his estate will be divided. Recent murders in the nearby hills has a macabre touch, wherein the victims have had their eyes removed makes Matthais suspect that a member of his family is the killer.

Karloff has an ancestral portrait that looks exactly like him (these old families have strong genes), and Karloff gets to play huge pipe organ. Matthais supposedly suffers a fatal heart attack half way into the film, and shortly thereafter, one by one his greedy relations die. Keeping with the Corman Poe- like feel, the film ends with a huge fire, as Matthais, obviously not dead, plays his final concerto as the walls burn around him. It is quite amazing that the octogenarian actor is working so close to such huge plumes of flames, controlled or not  .

  Karloff perhaps passed away before being able to loop dialogue, or the final lines were an afterthought , but they are not his voice.

People who dismiss the Karloff Mexican quartet of films have obviously not seen them, as DANCE OF DEATH was quite entertaining.

TORTURE ZONE – (which in the original titles also claimed to be Poe inspired, though I would say more Lovecraft, like Karloff’s own DIE, MONSTER DIE! 1965 ,A.I.P. ). This one is a bit of a mess, no two ways about it. Psychedelic zooms & colors, and jump cut edits do not make this film any more interesting, and indeed, show how little sense the plot has.  A living rock is discovered within the depths of the earth. Scientist Karl Mantell (Karloff), who spends much of this film either sitting behind his office desk or behind a lab computer table, discovers that the creature feeds on the blood of young women, particularly those who are frightened. Naturally, our loveable scientist and his staff create a fear chamber to terrorize young women who come seeking employment. The rock (no, no that one) starts to grow tentacles, and only then does Mantell seek to stop it.

Mantell is supposed to be a kindly scientist, but his actions here are in opposition to that appearance. Still, at least, Karloff gets to survive to the end credits. The topless scenes that are edited out of this print were probably shot later, added to try and keep audience attention. Probably one of Karloff’s worst movies, though, as always, he is worth watching.                                                                              .

Karloff tries to blow up all prints of FEAR CHAMBER .

ALIEN TERROR– Another period piece, this one is another science fiction/horror hybrid. In an 1890s European country, Professor John Mayer (Karloff) is working on a new power source, when a lab accident sends a pulse off into space, attracting the attention of an alien spaceship passing by. The alien comes across a Jack the Ripper style killer and takes over his body. More killings continue as the alien tries to get to the professor’s invention and destroy it. Mayer uses his invention to defeat the killer, and later, when the alien hops into his niece, he uses the machine again to drive it from her. Mayer lets the machine destroy itself and, in the process, burns down his home.

  The final shot of the surviving cast members watching the house burn has an obvious Karloff stand in facing away from the camera with hair that looks like it was streaked with shoe polish.

A confusing picture, as if two different scripts were dropped into a blender, yet it held one’s interest and it tried to be original. As mentioned, this was Karloff’s last work in a motion picture.

An alien Spaceship, lit and designed to look like a Dario Argento sequence !

CULT OF THE DEAD – On the island of Korbai, Carl Van Molder (Karloff) is a major plantation owner. A police captain comes to Korbai to try and bring order when it is discovered that voodoo is rampant. This is a much more entertaining film than Karloff’s earlier film VOODOO ISLAND (1957, U.A.), which was one of the only roles I felt the great actor seemed to walk through.

In this film, Karloff seems fully invested in the part and brings his great screen presence to each scene.  The voodoo scenes are well staged, though once again at the end of the film, a voice not Karloff’s is used for the line: “I’m dying! “followed by some sputtering coughs. The picture ends with a big explosion as the hero and heroine escape with their lives. This too was an entertaining piece of cinema fluff and does not deserve all the scorn heaped upon it.

  To sum up, two of the films (DANCE OF DEATH and CULT OF THE DEAD) I would say are quite entertaining, a third (ALIEN TERROR) is just odd enough to hold your interest with a feeling of “WTF?” throughout and only one (TORTURE ZONE) is close to a complete disaster. Karloff is always giving his all in each work, and for that alone these are well worth seeing.

  Are the prints the best? No.  However, unless some deep pocket cinema collector seeks out original negatives, gives them a 2 K scan and restores them, and licenses the Elite and Retromedia commentaries, this VCI set will be the best way of getting affordable copies of these final films by the Master of Horror, Boris Karloff.

  Recommended for – Karloff completists. Fans of Mexican Horror. Cult films lovers.

  -Kevin G Shinnick

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    BORIS KARLOFF COLLECTION (VCI) BORIS KARLOFF COLLECTION (VCI,2 discs, DVD) Released September 2018. Color.  $14.99 Many years ago, when the late great…