#assuming it’s ripley that’s the only name i know from alien

[ronanceautistic]

Shoutout to the Stranger Things hair and makeup department who would love the fact that every time I see Sigourney Weaver fanart I automatically think it’s Nancy. Full circle.

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Rewatch: "The Vanishing of Will Byers" (Part 1 of 2)

Disclaimer: This is NOT a traditional review/analysis, but a collection of observations, brief commentary, favorite moments, and so on that I'm noting as I go through these episodes. All of these are just my opinions and/or theories, and can be subjected to change as the rewatch continues.

Observations:

Happy Stranger Things Day! :) As of today, this took place 40 years ago.

Love how reminiscent this opening scene is to the climax of Ridley Scott's Alien when Ellen Ripley is escaping the USCSS Nostromo as the alarms go off. I wouldn't be surprised if this homage turned out to be intentional on the Duffer Brother's part:

When we're introduced to Mike's campaign, The Party is in the middle of being attacked by an army of Troglodytes. This is the image I found when I looked them up:

It's probably just a fun D&D moment, but since the Duffer Brothers have named a lot of their monsters (Demogorgon, Mind Flayer, Vecna) after D&D creatures, it makes me wonder if there's some kind of animal like a troglodyte in the Upside Down. It's unlikely we've seen all the monsters from that dimension, and they might introduce new ones in S5 that the Party hasn't encountered yet and will inevitably fight.

They do a good job with the establishing character moments for both Dustin and Lucas in Mike's D&D campaign: Dustin telling Will to use caution and cast a protective spell while Lucas insists Will fireballs the Demogorgon while he has the chance. Lucas's strategy is to go on the offense while Dustin's is to go on the defense. Specifically with Lucas, he uses that strategy in other situations he's in: Like when Lucas kicks Billy in the groin in S2 after being pinned to the wall by him, or gets an axe to chop at the Meat Flayer's tendril to save El in S3, or even how Lucas is the one who later convinces everyone to take the fireworks from the store to use as ammunition (which helps turn the tide at the Battle of Starcourt). By contrast, Dustin prioritizes the safety of the Party, from pointing out to Mike and Lucas that they might be walking into the same danger Will encountered when they later look for him in the woods, to telling Mike NOT to jump off a cliff when Troy threatens Dustin, to enlisting Steve's help in S2 because he knows Steve will be able to protect them due to his size and skill with the bat, to rescuing Steve and Robin from the Russians in S3.

This isn't to say that Lucas is wrong and Dustin is right, or even that Dustin is wrong and Lucas is right. It's merely noting they have opposite approaches. Each situation they encounter is different, and sometimes (just like with Will's dice role) it's really up to chance.

Also (as noted later in the episode by Mike), Will took Lucas's advice and used fireball as a means of protecting the Party instead of trying to save himself. He puts other people's safety before his own. The comic book "The Other Side" (which focuses on Will's perspective during the events of S1 while trapped in the UD) expands on this aspect of his personality by including several moments of him coming to the aid of others (including Nancy) while in the UD, despite knowing it would put him in danger.

Also, regardless of Lucas insisting the role doesn't count because Mike didn't see it, Will still chooses to be honest with Mike. He knows there are situations you can't cheat your way out of, or pretend didn't happen (as he's about to find out with the real Demogorgon).

The lights flash at Mike's house just as Will leaves. I'm assuming Vecna and the Demogorgon he was controlling were already beginning to track Will's movements here.

I've talked about this before in my review of "The Other Side" (and I know for a fact I'm not the only fan who's speculated on this), but I don't buy that Will's kidnapping by the Demogorgon was random. Given the revelations in S4, I'm inclined to believe Vecna deliberately targeted Will and used the Demogrogon under his control to bring Will alive to the Upside Down. I also would argue it was Vecna who used telekinesis to unlock the door to Will's house:

I know several episodes from now, Jonathan talks to Nancy about how his dad took him hunting when he was 10 and forced him to kill a rabbit, so I'm assuming Lonnie also taught Will about loading and shooting a gun. It's possible Jonathan could have, but considering how traumatized he was over what his dad made him do, IDK if I see Jonathan teaching Will how to use a gun.

I've said this before, but I don't buy Vecna wanted Will to just impregnate him with the larva's that would grow into future Demodogs/Demogorgons. He could have easily used the Demogorgon to kidnap other residents of Hawkins for that purpose if he wanted to. He didn't need Will specifically for that.

Still one of my favorite openings for any TV show I've seen:

I missed the drawing Sara did of her family the first time I saw this. Nice foreshadowing about Hopper's past life!

To this day, I still don't understand why Troy and James got their own graphic novel. Out of all the side characters they could have focused on, why did they choose these two? Was there some kind of demand from the fandom to bring them back that I'm unaware of?

I know Caleb McLaughlin gave an interview after season 4 aired where he expressed frustration over how certain fans have been dismissive of any racial trauma Lucas has gone through, and this goes all the way back to season 1. Both Troy and James's bullying of Lucas was racially motivated, and the graphic novel Zombie Boys also highlights this:

On a related note, Troy and James making fun of Dustin for having cleidocranial dysplasia is disgusting.

I've seen this discussion before in the fandom about Barb's attitude towards Nancy dating Steve, and this idea that Barb was jealous of the idea of Nancy possibly becoming popular, which.................is not an interpretation I've ever understood. I never once took Barb to be some kind of social climber. When she's talking with Nancy in her first scene, she sounds genuinely excited for Nancy about Steve calling her, as well as cheekily acknowledging that both Nancy and Steve are into each other.

On top of that, Barb knows Nancy well enough that she wouldn't discard her as a friend, even if she became popular. The way she talks with Nancy in this scene, she doesn't seem worried or upset with her. If anything, Barb is amused during this conversation (including when she sees the note Steve left for Nancy in her locker). There's also the way they both talk about Tommy and Carol, indicating they both have low opinions of them, and that Barb is aware that Nancy doesn't like them and isn't going to abandon her for them.

@will80sbyers pointed this out in a recent post, and I thought I'd note it here since it's a good observation: The first scene we see of Steve and Nancy's relationship is in a restroom..........and their breakup in S2 happens in a restroom as well. That's how things come full-circle for these two:

It's notable that the two times Steve and Nancy meet in this episode, it's in an area that's supposed to be private (the school restroom, Nancy's bedroom) but there's always the risk of someone (a high school student/teacher, Nancy's parents) walking in on them while they're making out (not that Steve seems to care). Both times involve Nancy interrupting to tell Steve she needs to study for a test, and while Steve initially tries to make it all fun-and-games between them, he eventually concedes when he realizes she's serious about her schoolwork and agrees to help her.

This still remains one of my favorite quotes from the show (and is literally what weekday mornings are like for me before I have to clock in for work):

This has been pointed out by others, but there's an interesting parallel between Joyce calling Will "sensitive" vs. Victor Creel calling his son Henry "sensitive."

Notably, when Joyce talks about Will being sensitive, it has more to do with him being aware of other people's feelings, as well as the way other people look at him and judge him. Meanwhile, I'm skeptical of that being the case with Henry. Maybe Victor thought Henry was sensitive because of his inability to "fit in" with the other kids (as well as being labeled "broken" by teachers and doctors), but considering how insulted Henry is at the idea that he was broken, as well as how he didn't care about torturing and killing animals before murdering his mom and sister in cold-blood (and letting his dad take the blame for it), I doubt Henry gave a damn about what others thought of him. His behavior indicates he doesn't feel empathy for anyone the same way Will does. Henry's "sensitivity" likely had more to do with the abilities he had locked inside of him, or even possibly being able to feel the presence of the Upside Down before he was banished there by El 20 years later. Maybe they'll expand on this in "The First Shadow" when it comes out.

They foreshadowed pretty early on that Will was secretly gay. I remember this was discussed by fans way back when season 1 first came out.

Yes Hopper, he is.

There's a dark irony in how Hopper's been working as Chief of Hawkins for 4 years, and claims that nothing awful has happened during his tenure. 4 years ago would have been in 1979, the same year Henry/One/Vecna slaughtered the special kids (and most of the staff) at the lab before El banished him to the Upside Down. I know Hopper wasn't aware of any of this when it happened, and none of that was his fault or responsibility, but still.........

Something I always found frustrating with the show (and even supplementary materials) is they never really explain how the chain-of-command works when it comes to government officials on this show. They establish Dr. Brenner as the head of Hawkins Lab (and later that role gets transferred to Dr. Owens in S2), but they never truly say which higher-ups Brenner answers to. Then there's the introduction of Colonel Sullivan in S4 (despite him never being hinted at or mentioned in the previous 3 seasons): Judging by the conversations he has with Dr. Owens, as well as how Dr. Owens got fired for the Russian infiltration of Hawkins in S3, I assumed Sullivan was Owen's superior. Does that mean that Brenner also answered to Sullivan during this time? Or was Sullivan just part of a different faction of the government (i.e. the same faction Ellen Stinson warns Mike about in S4) who was opposed to what Brenner was doing from the beginning, and only recently got involved?

In any case, I'm assuming the men pictured above who are meeting with Brenner are either government agents sent to investigate the opening of the gate, or Brenner's superiors who want to know what happened the previous night.

I wonder if there will be a twist in S5 that Upside Down itself is one whole Lovecraftian-like monster, and stuff like the Demogorgons and other creatures are just extensions of it. Just the way that gate breathes, and how it looks like you're traveling through someone's insides.............

I missed Scott Clarke in S4, and I hope he comes back for S5 to give more scientific advice to the main characters (assuming he didn't leave Hawkins). Who knows? It may prove helpful against the upcoming fight against Vecna.

Since Stranger Things loves referencing Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit), with the show even drawing parallels to the books (like the Upside Down being similar to Mordor, or even Hopper's fake death in S3 and return in S4 having similarities to Gandalf's apparent death in Moria and his later return), I am looking at the books as one possible blueprint to predict how Season 5 will go. That's just me though.

Also, Will disappearing near Mirkwood, which in The Hobbit is where Bilbo encounters the spiders that try to eat him and his companions, and Vecna has a creepy obsession with spiders and shaped the Mind Flayer into a spider, and the Mind Flayer later attacks Will..................

I'm sure there's somewhere I'm trying to go with this, but I can't articulate it in a way that makes sense.

SIDE NOTE: This particular scene with Dustin and Lucas fighting while Mike sits in the middle looking irritated is hilarious. 😂

Come to think of it, this scene is a perfect representation of the dynamic the kids have this episode: Dustin and Lucas argue (whether it's over D&D strategies, how to find Will, etc) and Mike is caught in the middle. This changes later once El is introduced where it's Mike and Lucas fighting, and Dustin is trying to act as the peacemaker.

To be continued in Part 2..........

[saintheartwing]

Invader Zim: The Pigshit Troll,  Part Two

"Well, son, I can tell something's truly bothering you." Professor Membrane remarked as he sat down next to Dib in his room, black-gloved hands folded in his lap, his eyes gazing down through his big, large white goggles…not that you could see them, that glass was thick! "I'd like us to be closer. Please, talk."

"Wow, that's new." Dib thought. His dad outright approaching him pretty much out of nowhere just to talk? "Uh…Dad, when you were young, did people call you names? Bully you? Like…a lot? I'm getting accused of being this horrible online bully that's just TRASHING people's stories on the school website."

"You? Oh, Dib, that sounds so silly! You're slightly whiny, my boy, not a troll."

"…thanks, I guess?" Dib muttered as his Dad ruffled his hair.

"Complaining isn't always a bad thing, Dib. When people were getting sick from the food they bought at their local groceries, it took going to Congress and complaining to the government that the food wasn't right to change things. If we don't point out when something doesn't work, then it won't ever get made better. And sometimes it works! Look at that delightful Sonic movie. I remember when I was young, seeing that trailer drop. My heart sank. My hopes were crushed. But then…then they listened to the outcry, made Sonic look far better, and it was as if I was a child again playing Genesis, hidden away in my closet!" He proclaimed. "Sometimes people listen, sometimes they make changes, and it makes things better. THAT'S the eternal hope of people who complain. That if they say just the right words to the right person at the right time…they'll convince them to be better than they are."

"I'd LIKE to think that." Dib sighed. "But sometimes…I think people just wanna get stuff off their chest."

"Well, that's a human response." His dad told him. "That's normal."

"And sometimes I think people just wanna scream at someone and be heard!"

"That's normal too." Professor Membrane added. "At any rate, I'm not going to tell you to simply get a thicker skin and "buck up". The studies show that doesn't work at all!" He remarked, shaking his head back and forth. "And I'm certainly not going to tell you to retreat into yourself either, or just never go online. No, you need to talk to people about it. Talking always helps, that's what the data shows." He told Dib with a firm, wise, nod. "You can always come to me about this sort of thing, son. I promise you."

"That does make me feel a little better." Dib admitted, his father ruffling his hair before he left the room, a soft warmth spreading through Dib's frame. That HAD been nice, being able to just chat with his Dad. Still…he needed a long term solution. Talking to his father about this sort of thing was pretty much just a band aid.

He needed a more permanent fix. Luckily he knew just who to turn to.

"I need your help."

Gaz couldn't believe what she was hearing. She stared at Dib, mouth agape, eyes wide.

"…YOU…need MY help." She remarked as she stopped playing the latest edition of "Super Smash Bros X Street Fighter", putting the controller down. "…I should call Ripley's Believe it or Not. Rarer than Bigfoot! Rarer than the Loch Ness Monster! Rarer than an actual alien! DIB MEMBRANE ASKING FOR MY HELP." She gave a big, fat, grin. "By the way, that reminds me, guess who was using the belt sander?"

"Wait, Bigfoot's back?!" Dib asked, gaping in surprise. "Is he still there?!" He wanted to know as Gaz led him to the garage door.

"It was never Bigfoot, Dib." She told him.

"Then who was it?"

"CHEWBACCA!" She proclaimed with a grin as, sure enough, a tall, crossbow-blaster-wearing furry alien stood there, black nose a bit ruffled as he finished putting the last touches on his new knife using the belt sander, and cheerily grinned at Gaz, waving at her.

"CHEWIE?!" Dib asked.

"What a Wookie." Gaz sighed. "He's been smuggling me parts for my room security ever since I found him. I can't believe you ever spooked him enough to chase him off, though. What on Earth did you use?"

"Well, evidently wookies are positively terrified of air horns." Dib confessed. "Sorry about that. Must have super sensitive ears, huh?"

"HUUUUHRRRRRUUNNHHH!" Chewie agreed, exiting the garage as Dib sighed and turned to Gaz.

"So can you help me track down that troll?" He wanted to know.

"I dunno…" Gaz rubbed her chin. "I mean, I don't like getting bad reviews left on my stories either, but it is KINDA funny to see you squirming and under so much scrutiny." She confessed. "And you can't just move away or anything. Even if you did, if more reviews popped up trashing people's work, they would just all assume it's still you. Other countries got internet, after all. Unless you were literally tied to a pole and couldn't TYPE, people would just assume you're still at it."

"You're all heart!" Dib grumbled.

"Hey, you wanted help, I'm giving you the truth. That's just how people feel, you can be a really condescending asshole." Gaz said. "You ain't no perfect little angel."

"As opposed to being a REGULAR asshole like you or Zim?" Dib said, his temper flaring up, Gaz looking astounded that Dib was actually talking back to her. "And I've never CLAIMED to be an angel, Gaz, I…I KNOW I can be kind of…pushy. Obsessive compulsive. And I know I can be…insensitive to what other people think and…okay yeah! Yeah, I can be a jerk!" He threw his hands in the air and sighed. "But I'm doing something literally no other kid has to do!" He paced around, shaking his head back and forth. "No OTHER kid has to put up with trying to stop an alien lunatic that's not just a megalomaniac and psychotic alien but somebody outright sadistic and evil and petty and manipulative and a total jerk! On a pretty much daily basis! And half the time he almost succeeds at what he does, and if I don't stop him, people DIE! That's…that is WAY too much to put on someone not old enough to shave!" Dib told Gaz.

"…yeah, I'll give you that one." Gaz sighed.

"But I'm the only one who gets shit on. Nobody at school criticizes you because you'll beat the crap out of them. You got those freaky powers and everything! Even the teachers are scared of you! Zim? Zim gets off because people see me trying to expose him and they think I'm bullying him unfairly! Even though every day he's always up to something horrible! Literally! Every day! I shouldn't have to deal with him, OR the stuff I get from you and my classmates and now all of this with people thinking I'm not just nutty for liking stuff they think is strange, but that I'm some rotten troll!"

"Maybe Zim is the troll." Gaz suggested.

Dib stopped in mid-spiel, and he gaped at her. "…that's…not baaaaad!" He murmured. "That IS the kinda thing he'd do! Framing me for something HE'S done! And when he wants to, he can be really fiendishly clever…" He paced back and forth. "But we need to check. Is there any way to check?" He murmured. "Could we trace his IP address?"

"We could if we hack into the school's computer system, and from there, we can access where the reviews got posted. But while you do that, I'm going to go call a…friend." She remarked, nonchalantly making her way off to her room as Dib raced for his, to begin his hard work. Gaz slid on into her chair in her room, typing into a little keyboard built into the armrest, and PING! A vid screen manifested before her, and a short, tubby Irken was on the other end.

Skoodge, Zim's…friend. Though given how he treated him, you'd think Skoodge was more of a servant. When they went to go get snacks and drinks, it was Skoodge who had to carry everything. When Zim wanted something moved, he got Skoodge to do it and never thanked him. And when it came to the food…

"You see, I can't stand eating anything day-old. So its only fair I make up for it in other ways!" Zim was insisting even now to Skoodge from the other end of the basement, leaving Skoodge with the day old donuts while Zim stuffed his face. Skoodge quietly sighed, shaking his head, and then turned to the screen on his computer station, seeing he had an incoming message, and turning it on.

"Ah, Gaz. How're you?" He asked. Gaz smiled back at him. Skoodge was very eager to please, easy to manipulate but, still…compared to most Irkens, he was a civil, nice sort. Conquering planets or the like was just a job to him, it wasn't personal, and he didn't seem to take any real delight in being a jerk the way Zim did, or Tak did. Besides, he also happened to find Gaz attractive. It was the purple hair. For some reason, Irkens looooved the color purple.

"Hey, Skoodge, I need a favor. Has Zim been bragging about being the troll at school leaving all those awful, sick reviews?" Gaz wanted to know.

"Oh, no. But he's loving seeing Dib go to pieces." Skoodge remarked. "It's really mean. He can't stop laughing uncontrollably whenever the topic gets brought up. He said he wishes he'd thought of it, it's so simple and evil a plan that it should have been his plan."

Gaz had to admit that she'd been pleasantly surprised to find Skoodge so agreeable. She'd gone gaming with him, playing online, and she'd grown to learn a lot about him, and also, in return, about Irkens, and it astounded her how much they really had in common with humans. After all, her leaders were also lazy, egotistic, smug jerks who liked hurting people for not being good enough, who forced you into bad jobs that paid barely anything, and thought they were a lot smarter and better than they really were!

And they also placed an emphasis on being tall too. Nobody really respected a short President Man!

Truly, two species joined at the hip without knowing it.

"Thanks, Skoodge. I appreciate it. You're really sure it isn't him, huh? Maybe…it's a long shot but…is GIR doing it? I mean, sometimes GIR gets up to weird things with Minimoose and the Computer."

"GIR has pretended to be a girl online, but he'd never be sadistic enough to leave those kind of messages." Skoodge remarked with a shake of his head.

This was true. The new MMO that came out, "Portal Defenders", a massive crossover game indeed, had come out about five months back and Skoodge had gotten super into it, and he'd been, along with Gaz, very surprised to find a very willing girl character who played as the one and only XJ9 from "My Life As A Teenage Robot" eager to help them. They'd gone on many a raid together and much to their delight, she'd proven invaluable…and also proven to be GIR.

Still, hey. It was a valid life choice. Fine by him.

"Hmm. So much for that. It's not you, is it?"

"No way!" Skoodge insisted. "I get my stories crapped on because I exclusively write fetish material. I'm VERY into macrophilia."

"Yeah, I always wanted to ask, how come you're so into big, huge stories with the rampages or the giants or the big aliens stomping around or eating people? It's kinda odd." Gaz admitted. "I mean, I'm into super metal stuff, I like weird things too, but I always wanted to ask…"

This was true. Skoodge also attended the school in disguise, the same grade as Gaz, and he actually had a lot of talent too. But he reaaaaally enjoyed writing stories with big monsters and aliens. Time after time, they'd be leveling cities or whole towns or some rando would end up becoming a big beast that gobbled up his coworkers or the like. Occasionally he even dived deeper and entire planets would be broken apart or devoured! It was well written, without a doubt, engaging, but it could get…kinda scary.

"Well…I'm short and fat and not the least bit threatening." Skoodge sighed. "Look at me. I'm a tubby loser." He murmured as he picked up his fat gut and shook it about. "But in these stories, I can be anything. I can be big, and powerful, wonderful and terrible all at once. Everyone loves me and fears me all at once. I kinda felt like that right after I conquered Blorch, and the Slaughtering Rat People…until the Tallest shot me outta the closet and another Invader took the credit for my work."

"Wish fulfillment, huh?" Gaz sighed. "Hey, y'know, I get it. I mean, it's why I keep watching "The Craft" or "Carrie" all the time, I'd love to do the kinda things those girls do in those films. Just let loose, y'know?"

"Yeah, sometimes you just gotta feed that wolf that's howling outside your door. Besides, the guidance counselor said it's a good way for me to deal with my more unpleasant urges by expressing them in a creative way." Skoodge added with a smile. "And it's worked! Putting all this on paper made me work through my thoughts and feelings and I began to realize how rotten my species are. We're just the literal worst. Did you know we executed the last artist we had on Irk because he refused to stop drawing propaganda?"

"That sounds dickish."

"It WAS! He said art should be about more than convincing people to blow stuff up. Then they blew him up. A bunch of pieces of him evidently got on Tallest Miyuki when she was in her Invader training, and that's why she decided to tone down the imperialistic tendencies of the Empire…for all the good it did us once Red and Purple came around." Skoodge sighed. "It's too bad, I missed working alongside the Vortians in the labs, those were good years." He confessed.

"Thanks for the help, Skoodge. Keep an eye on Zim for me, wouldja? Good to chat with you again. See you around!" Gaz told him, giving Skoodge a deliberate wink, then shutting the screen off as he sighed softly.

"Anything for you…" He murmured.

Dib meanwhile, had broken into the school system and was looking at various reviews left under people's stories. Hmm, this one was from Gaz-oh. OH! He hadn't seen this before. She was taking umbrage at how the character…an obvious stand-in for her, was portrayed. After all, she had a rough upbringing too, with Professor Membrane never around and yes, when Dib had been younger, he'd done a couple experiments on her. It had actually been what turned her hair purple, and he deeply regretted it, though she'd said she actually ended up LIKING her hair turning that way.

Dib cringed as he read the review. He got that she wanted to see herself as the hero, but…c'mon, Gaz. "I'M the one literally putting my life on the line just about every day, you're playing Game Slave and stuffing your face with pizza, I think I deserve a bit more understanding than you do." He muttered. She came off as so…entitled here!

Oh, and now a new review. "You should be nicer to Zim. He's got mental health issues."

"So do I, but I don't go around trying to destroy planets and enslave people." Dib muttered. "Zim isn't just insane. He's evil. Jesus. Why are there so many Stans for Zim? They all keep thinking he's being picked on when I'm the one who almost always gets it the worst…"

He cringed, stopping himself. "Stop it, Dib. No more pity parties. No more self-flagellating. You gotta focus." He murmured, examining the reviews, scrolling, scrolling. A lot of the troll reviews had been taken down by the teachers because they'd gotten sick of it too, but-wait. A new one. "ReVIEW MY STORiES! YOUR SToRiES ARE PIGSHIT!"

Ah ha. He had the IP address. His fingers swiftly moved across the keyboard, typing rapidly, his eyes widening as he saw where it came from.

It couldn't be. But…

The address was Membrane Labs.

His father's workplace.

What…the…fuuuuuuuck?

[yourfanvivitran]

It should come as no surprise that John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon were students in the same film class, that they created Dark Star together, and that they both had a great affinity for 1951’s The Thing From Another World. If you put Ridley Scott’s Alien, which O’Bannon wrote, next to Carpenter’s The Thing, the parallels cannot be contended. A group of people, bound together almost exclusively by their careers, are isolated and trapped in their own environment with a murderous monster. One by one, they are picked off by this alien beast and are forced to pull out all the stops just to survive. The tension in both movies is suffocating. The suspense stays well after the credits roll.

So, why did Alien excel and why did The Thing fail?

Alien was heralded as a science fiction-horror masterpiece, raking in over $200 million at the box office. The Thing, although now recognized as one of Carpenter’s best films to rival even the likes of Halloween, barely exceeded its $15 million budget by $4 million. What’s more is that critics panned The Thing almost unanimously after its 1982 release. And to what point?

When you compare the 2 movies, it objectively doesn’t make much sense. When you sit down and watch The Thing, without even thinking of its much more popular predecessor, it still doesn’t quite add up. There is not much I can say about The Thing that hasn’t already been said before. It’s well-known, now - the writing, the acting, the practical effects, the cinematography? Masterfully done. No arguments. So what went wrong?

The most popularly accepted explanation was that it just wasn’t the right year for it. In 1982, The Thing had to contend with the Summer of Spielberg, being critiqued alongside horror giant Poltergeist and science fiction treasure E.T. How could a stark and grim story of distrust and gore stand alongside such beloved classics?

But in tandem with these films and also calling back to the success of Alien, Carpenter cites reception from various focus groups: they hated the ending.

It should be assumed at this point that if you have not yet seen The Thing, you are sorely missing out. All the same, however, be wary of spoilers.

The end of The Thing is bitter, to put it lightly. Childs (Keith David) trudges through Antarctic snow, lit by the burning wreckage of Outpost 31, towards R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russel) who sits alone, already half buried. They observe their inevitable deaths, and drink to the supposed demise of their shapeshifting predator.

A lot is left out to die in the snow.

According to Carpenter, this ending was seen by test audiences as too dismal. And rightfully so, when you take into consideration the other popular releases of 1982. Carol Anne is ultimately saved, along with the rest of her family, at the end of Poltergeist. Elliot embraces E.T. before he finally returns home. And going further back, even Ripley is able to escape the xenomorph by the skin of her teeth and secure herself the title as one of the greatest “Final Girls” ever put to the silver screen.

And what of MacReady and Childs?

Well, that’s up to your imagination, Carpenter told a test audience member who asked who the final host was at the end of the movie.

“Oh, god. I hate that,” they responded.

As a writer, this loose ends style of concluding a story is almost expected from a lot of modern works. It’s written this way in order to haunt the reader, to linger and adhere itself to the real world in the most sardonic of ways. Think Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” or Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” This almost anticlimactic close of the curtain arrived in the literary world long before it found its place in film, but it’s a big point of contention in mainstream criticism.

Dark or incomplete conclusions have been met with the most scathing of responses. Beware the black cutaway of Sopranos fame. Or the near-universal outcry against the third Mass Effect game that grew so much, the developers created a morsel of DLC content that maybe kind of confirmed a more optimistic fate for our dear Shepard.

But even for the horror genre, The Thing seemed unprecedented. The only fate darker to fall upon a mainstream protagonist was Ben’s untimely death in Night of the Living Dead. The tragedy of both movies is palpable - all this trouble to survive against inhuman killers, all this trouble to outlive something gruesome and maybe even make the world a better place, and what was left to show for it?

In short, Carpenter’s science fiction terror was too much of a bummer.

I personally did not take much of a liking to horror until much later in life. My parents didn’t filter the media I consumed as much as they probably should have, and I was scarred early on by movies as cheesy and entertaining as The Lost Boys and Blade. It wasn’t until late adolescence and into college that I set out to catch up.

My roommate at the time of this resolution had been a fan of horror her whole life, her favorites being Halloween, Candyman, and The Thing. Having already known a good deal about the former two, I decided to strap in for The Thing for the first time ever.

These days, I always have several soap boxes on retainer, just waiting for the next unwitting recipient of my usually-beer-induced rants. Brian Jones was killed, Jaws single handedly endangered sharks, banning books is a stupid practice, representation in media is important, etc. Predictably, one of these soap boxes is the general lack of appreciation of The Thing, both at the time of its release and today (it does not even make the top 100 on Rotten Tomatoes’s highest rated horror movies).

And yet, at the same time, if The Thing had achieved the credit it deserved upon release, I may not like it as much as I do today.

I make a point to not read too much about movies I am feverishly anticipating, and revel in the feeling of going into a well-known movie knowing as little as possible. Most of the time, it makes for the best viewing experience, but I’m sure I don’t even have to point this out.

This was my experience seeing The Thing for the first time. I was on winter break, staying at my parents’ house for the holidays. Everyone else had gone to bed, and I stayed up late in the living room, curled up under layers of blankets, content in perfect darkness save for the television.

I had no idea what to expect, as I had not been spoiled by any TV show making any blatant references and had not done any prior reading into the film itself. And I was absolutely delighted from beginning to end.

What stays with me the most is the special effects. It’s true what they say - that practical effects hold up better than CGI alone. And the production team didn’t cut any corners in this department. Stan Winston and his team, who were later responsible for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, helped construct one of the best animatronics in the movie. Rob Bottin, who brought this constantly-morphing creature to life from conception to every last slimy detail, went on to be hailed as a genius in his special effects career. And there is definitely something to be said for the work of cinematographer Dean Cundey whose masterful control of lighting and framing is best seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The extent of my knowledge of the titular creature was that it was an alien. That it was an alien who could consume multiple life forms and take on their shapes was both exciting and terrifying. There’s creative genius in this premise that thrills the science fiction lover in me, and also fascinates the bookworm in me. I had been a fan of Agatha Christie novels as a teenager, and to see a new and outrageous take on the And Then There Were None structure was incredibly novel to me.

The appeal wasn’t just that there was something out there, lying in wait to torturously pick off it’s victims one-by-one. It was that it could have been anyone.

At its core, horror as we know it has deep roots in whodunnit style murder mystery. With the rise of the giallo and the sensation of the slasher, horror movies of this nature are far from uncommon and can be seen as late as 1996 with the Scream franchise. Carpenter himself spurned a new kind of fear with his breakout success with Halloween by refusing to give a bodily face to its main antagonist. Here, with The Thing, he takes the eponymous killer character to the next level by giving it the genetically inherent function of deceiving its prey. Not knowing the true face of your murderer has proven to be inherently bone-chilling.

Even now, hundreds of horror movies under my belt later and still constantly learning, I keep coming back to The Thing. I really cannot think of another movie in my wide array of favorites that I love more than The Thing, and I truly believe it has everything to do with me not knowing anything about it upon my first viewing. Every other movie I can name on my (similar to the subject) constantly changing top 10 list of most beloved horror flicks was, at some point, spoiled for me in some capacity.

Think of how often the twins in The Shining are referenced in cartoons, of all the head spinning jokes made in reference to The Exorcist. Anthony Hopkins’s portrayal of Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs has become so infamous, that I knew his dialogue (and Buffalo Bill’s) long before I ever saw the movie in full.

I don’t blame these references for ruining these movies. As a super fan, I understand that compulsion to pay tribute. It’s no one’s fault and to their credit that these films take lives of their own. But the repercussions don’t age well in terms of initial viewing experiences.

All that being said, I truly cherish how much I was not exposed to this movie. The unpredictability of the creature and the quiet, looming despair that comes with it create a horror unlike any other.

Although it was a box office flop, The Thing is now a welcome and praised name in both science fiction and horror. Even Quentin Tarantino made it known that The Hateful Eight was primarily inspired on several fronts by Carpenter’s underrated work. However, it has not pervaded pop culture like so many other horror classics have left their indelible mark on film vernacular. And to that end, I hope it remains in that slight shadow of anonymity for all future enthusiasts.

[nomadicism]

Be careful about having high expectations for Gen Lock. The series is created by Rooster Teeth Productions, who tend be to hit and miss. They created great series like Camp Camp, but they also created RWBY, which has a rep for having terrible writing in the later seasons. Characters are unlikable or Mary Sues; the plot is poorly structured and it made a lot of questionable choices. At this point, it could be either or. Only time will tell if it's the next Camp Camp or RWBY.

and

“I would be careful about having high expectations for Gen Lock if I were you. Gen Lock is created by Roaster Teeth Productions, who are also the creators of RWBY. That series went down hill after the 3rd season. Granted some of it had to do with the creator dying, but the writing dipped in quality. After watching the first and second ep, it reminds me a lot of VLD, including the humour. Reviewers said it didn’t dive into character motivation or any of the world building by the 5 ep point.”

Hi Anon, thank you for the Asks!

Given the wording of both of these, I assume they are both from you.

I’m going to try to reign in my salt here, but you happened to hit more than a few buttons with your Ask. Gonna keep this as brief as I can to focus on the core of my answer. I promise I’m not grumpy.

The opening sentence in both of these Asks does not come across well. I can give the benefit of the doubt b/c this is the Internet, but uh…yeah.

RWBY continues to enjoy great popularity and comes up frequently on my dash. I’ve never seen it, it’s definitely not my thing, but it’s still selling to someone, and my VLD mutuals that love it are still talking it up so I’m glad that they have another show to entertain them. I see merch everywhere, it’s got a Japanese dub and a manga adaptation and that’s pretty damn good for a web cartoon that came out of the U.S. Must not be that terrible as whole to merit all of that.

“Mary Sue” is a phrase that means absolutely nothing because everyone overuses it to mean any number of things about competent and powerful female characters, and most of them are incredibly subjective, and rarely ever applied to male characters who meet the same kinds of subjective goal-post shifting criteria.

Perhaps gen:LOCK will simply be the “first gen:LOCK” and not the “next anything.”

I didn’t find the humor in gen:LOCK to be like VLD at all.

Reviewers can eat my asshole.

And on that note:

Not every story benefits from a deep dive, or even a superficial exploration of character motivation or world-building.

Such things are very genre and plot dependent, and the perception of such is subjective.

Some of the greatest short stories, or even long-form novels don’t even bother with much of either if they are not necessary to advance the plot. Not everything needs to be Lord of the Rings or Ulysses.

Who had better “character motivation”, Frodo Baggins from the LotR trilogy or Ripely from Alien? What would “better” even mean for either of those genres? LotR and Alien are worlds apart, and yet, at the end of the day, the protagonists are fighting for survival against an unspeakable horror. The “journey” of their survival differs greatly, and those journeys are the point, the character motivations are really minimal and don’t require a lot of exploration.

Frodo’s character motivation can be summed up as: “save the fucking Shire by destroying a cursed evil ring” and a little bit of “Uncle Bilbo ruined me for the simple Hobbit life with his crazy stories.” While Ripley’s motivation is: “kill the xenomorphs before they kill me and my cat.” That’s it. Don’t even need in-character exposition or a flashback to describe Ripley’s. The genre hands it to you on a blood-soaked silver platter.

I don’t know what those reviewers were watching but the “character motivation” of the main characters that I saw in the pilot episode alone was pretty fucking obvious: HOLD THE LINE in a dystopian world were “freedom” hangs by a thread. They are trying to survive. That’s all it needs to be.

I don’t care why they joined the Vanguard. I have plenty of friends and family within various armed forces and their motivations range from complex to simple, but most of them are a variation on “I want to serve my country and my people.” That’s it, and that’s okay.

Additionally, Julian Chase’s backstory and motivation was made clear in the first 10 minutes through the positioning of him before the wall with his dead father’s memorial flag, and the conversation between the three most important people in his life: mother, sister, and fellow comrade-soldier/girlfriend (Miranda, great symbolism by the way in that name).

That pilot episode is Julian’s “super hero/science fiction origin story”. His Big Damn Hero moment is fueled by his “character motivation” to protect his loved ones, and inspired by the verses from his dead hero father’s favorite song: “Let the Good Times Roll.”

Any hyper-critical reviewer that missed that is full of shit.

And those verses?

“You only live once / But when you’re dead you’re gone / So let the good times roll”

That was clever and poignant foreshadowing, b/c GENRE. It also wasn’t super deep…and it didn’t have to be. It only needed to connect the threads of Julian’s introduction, who he is, something special that he shares with his mother, father, and girlfriend, and what his role will be in the show, and the nature of his being from here on out.

At the bare minimum, someone in the writers’ room is aware (even if only in passing) of the some of the most enduring questions that science-fiction (especially cyberpunk) has asked and navel-gazed over regarding the role of technology in extending human life, and what exactly defines “life” when one has left the meat-space. I’m not expecting gen:LOCK to be an exploration into the ethics and details of transhumanism/post-humanism/singularity philosophies and futurist dreams for humanity. It doesn’t have to be. They’ve already touched on the concepts and anyone who loves that sort of thing will notice.

My expectations for gen:LOCK are that—at worst—it will be as entertaining and to-the-point as the GI Joe cartoon in the 80s. I enjoyed GI Joe (pro-military propaganda aside), it was a regular thing for me to make the effort to watch. I didn’t love it like I did The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, or Robotech, or Voltron DotU, or Silverhawks, or Jem and the Holograms, but it was still fun and entertaining and it still is.

GI Joe didn’t waste time with a full exploration of Cobra Commander’s backstory or his motivations, nor did it do so with most of the Joes. The basics were all that was needed. GI Joe wasn’t about complexity and it didn’t need to be in order to tell an entertaining story while selling toys. Yes, sometimes you’d get some really interesting episodes that added dimension in between the more obvious filler. Shit, it took like 50+ episodes to get to a Destro-focused episode. I certainly wasn’t watching GI Joe for character motivations and world-building. I was watching because nearly every character had an interesting design and they all did unique things, and Cobra Commander was hilarious. I watched to see what they would come up with next.

Did I really need a compelling story behind Zartan, Zandar, and Zarana? Nope. They were fun villains that gave the heroes hell and spoke with shitty Australian accents. In the 80s, the Aussie accent was all the rage for edgy characters (oh Stingray…).

Do people remember anything about Scarlett other than she was the hot redhead?

I loved Scarlett, she was my She-Ra, and one of the main reasons why I watched GI Joe. But only the most hardcore GI Joe fans remember her stats and abilities. She was actually one of the most highly qualified and skilled Joes. From Scarlett’s Wikipedia article:

“Her primary specialty for the team is counter intelligence. Scarlett is additionally skilled in martial arts and acrobatics. She started training at age 9 with her father and three brothers, who were all instructors, and she earned her first black belt at age 15. Scarlett also graduated summa cum laude, and passed her Bar Exams to practice law, before moving into the military. She graduated from Advanced Infantry Training and Ranger School, and received special education in Covert Ops School, Marine Sniper School, Special Air Service School, and Marine Tae Kwon Do Symposium. Although she is as adept with standard weapons as any of her comrades, her weapon of choice is the XK-1 power crossbow, which fires various bolts with specialized functions. Scarlett is also a qualified expert with the M-14, M-16, M1911A1 Auto Pistol, M79 grenade launcher, M-3A1, M-700 Remington sniper rifle, MAC-10, throwing stars, garotte and KA-BAR (Combat Knife)”

Wow. Beautiful and striking appearance. High intelligence. Great martial prowess. Top shelf military training.What a goddamned Mary Sue.

So, if you’re still with me Anon, my point is that if gen:LOCK can be a “good enough” futuristic-cyberpunk-ish version of GI Joe that gives me fun and interesting-but-not-complex characters in command of infantry mechs, configurable jets, and a color coordinated team of save-the-day-big-damn-hero-style mecha who fight against a sinister force that has weaponized nanotech and colossal mechas that look like War of the Worlds meets Eldritch Horrors then I’ll be pretty fucking happy with it. The bar ain’t exactly high here.

[bbaba-yagaa]

Sweet Pea (Part 1)

A/N: This is part 1 of a fanfic based on the heartbreaking headcanon by @esteladannishreyakamilah and for ES Appreciation Week Day 2 hosted graciously by @brightpinkpeppercorn and @mysteli. And for @choices-december-challenge day 8: family hosted by @kinda-iconic Characters: Estela Montoya, Nicolas Montoya, baby Olivia Montoya, Jake McKenzie Summary: This is a take on Estela's story post Vaanu ending. She handfasted M!MC and they were able to conceive a child (unknown to Taylor before his sacrifice). Rating: PG-PG13 Word Count: 3,400 Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they belong to Pixelberry. There are two however original characters that I can claim. 

*************

Estela wakes in the middle of the night to the sound of her daughter crying down the hall. In an instant she's out of bed and heading for the door. She scoops up and throws on a pale blue robe along the way; hastily tying it around her waist before exiting into the corridor. Upon reaching Olivia's room, she takes great care to enter slowly and quietly. Curled up tightly beneath her quilted comforter, the distressed four year old thrashes, still in the midst of what Estela assumes is a nightmare. The young mother brushes the disheveled brown hair out of her face, kneels down and plants a gentle kiss on Olivia's head.

“Olivia, baby, it's ok. Mommy's here.” She runs a hand through her daughter's hair and slowly but surely, the little girl turns over to face her mother. Tears come in a steady stream as she whimpers and gently wraps her arms around Estela. “M-momma?” Her small body trembles as she struggles to speak. “Yes, I'm here baby. What is it? What's scaring you?” “The- the man.” “What man?” Estela's gaze snaps to the dark corners of her daughter's room instinctively but nothing seems out of place or otherwise disturbed. “The man with no face.” Her small body is overcome with tremors upon uttering these words. The blood running through Estela’s veins turns to ice when Olivia describes her tormentor. It couldn't possibly be? No. Not a chance. Just a bad dream. She quickly shakes off the nightmarish thought and focuses on comforting her little one. “It sounds like your tio abuelo has been letting you watch scary movies again. I'm going to have a talk with him first thing in the morning.” “Don't be mad at him mommy. He only let me watch the Terminanator movie with the liquid man.” Ah, now her nightmare makes perfect sense. Nicolas would definitely have some explaining to do. Estela's heart rate slows and the fear in her mind dissipates. “Would you like to sleep with me tonight?” “P-pwease?” The toddler begins to dry her face as a smile finally begins to form upon it. “Come on then; let's go. You have to be well rested for our visitor tomorrow.” The little girl's eyes grow wide with excitement when she remembers who is coming to visit. “Uncle Jake!” “Yes, that's right.” Estela playfully ruffles her daughters hair before leading the way back to the master bedroom. As Olivia once again falls fast asleep, her mother lays awake wrestling with painful memories. 

She recalls that it's been almost five years since her husband gave his life to restore the world. Her father, Rourke, who was brought to justice and later executed for the murder of her mother in addition to his crimes against humanity. The justice served to her father brought great peace of mind as she subconsciously blamed him for Taylor’s fate. She remembers finally returning home to San Trobida, her Tio Nicolas and the persistent morning sickness that followed soon after. Then came nerve racking trip to the doctor that revealed the biggest surprise of her life: she was pregnant. Taylor had left this world with no way of knowing he was a father to be and this thought left Estela broken for many months. But with the support of her new extended family and of course, tio Nicolas, she met the challenge of motherhood head on. When the day of birth finally came, the decision of what to name her took but a split second in the young woman’s mind. She would be named for her grandmother: Olivia. Estela wakes the next morning with Olivia clinging tightly to her side. She glances at the at the clock on the nightstand and mentally kicks herself for oversleeping. “Olivia; wake up baby. We have to eat and get dressed. Jake will be here any minute.” In the blink of an eye, the blankets are tossed over the young mother's head and a tiny body erupts from beneath. “Yaaay! Uncle Jake is coming! What are you waiting for mommy? Let's go alwedey!” The little girl leaps out of bed and runs off down the hallway before Estela can remove the blankets from her face. The ecstatic toddler runs all the way to the kitchen where Nicolas is making breakfast for the three of them. “Hey chiquita, where's the fire? Breakfast is not even finished yet.” “I came to warn you tio abuelo; mommy’s mad at you.” She pulls out a chair from the kitchen table before climbing up and sitting down. “Mad at me? What did I do-” Estela quietly walks up behind him and grabs his ear, twisting it just hard enough to get his attention. “You let Olivia watch Judgement Day?” “Ow, Estelita! There's nothing wrong with T2. Hell, by the time you were her age, we'd already watched Aliens like three times. Ellen Ripley was your idol. What's the problem?” “First off, language. Second: she had a nightmare last night! She woke up saying that a faceless man was scaring her.” Estela releases his ear and Nicolas tenderly rubs it before responding. “Aw chiquita Livita, is this true?” The old man thoughtfully strokes his greying mustache as he looks to his great niece sorrowfully. Olivia nods while taking a bite of the toast in her hand. “Yes tio… the man was scawey. But he didn't say anything. He just stared at me until momma woke me up.” “Well I guess we have to be more careful with what we watch from now on huh?” Nicolas turns his attention back to the the frying pan on the stove; carefully avoiding his niece's cold gaze. The distant drone of a plane's engine catches everyone's attention and prevents Estela from further interrogating her tio. “Uncle Jakey is here!” Olivia flies off her chair and makes a mad dash for the front door. “Olivia, wait! You're not even dressed.” Her words fall upon deaf ears as Olivia is already outside and running across the front lawn while looking skyward, anxiously searching for her highly anticipated visitor. “Damn, I'm not even dressed.” Estela turns and briskly makes her way back down the hall. She tosses off her robe after closing the bedroom door behind her and grabs a pair of jeans and a black tank top from an open dresser drawer. The pants are all but jumped into and the shirt is slipped on just as quickly while she ties her hair back into a messy ponytail. Last but not least, her signature blue hoodie is snatched up as she makes her way back to the kitchen. While walking past the breakfast table, she scoops up a bagel and clamps it between her teeth before finally wrestling on the jacket. Nicolas sees her choice of nourishment and holds up his hands in bewilderment. “Really Estelita, a bagel?” He gestures to the magnificent breakfast that took all morning to prepare. Estela simply shrugs while chomping into the baked good. “We overslept because of your bad movie night decision so I'd say we are even. We’ll see you in a bit. Bye tio.” With those words she kicks open the front door and runs off to find her wayward daughter. Nicolas, being the stubborn man that he is, follows and yells after her. “Hey, why don't you invite your hot shot, pilot friend to breakfast? He's got the best stories and is always welcome. Also, can you remind me again why you two aren't a… you know, thing?” The young brunette whirls around to face her uncle. “Tio, my love life is none of your business. We've been over this before. Besides, that's just… weird.” “How is it weird when you've already built him his own private airstrip on our land?” “We've gone over this before as well! I got tired of driving to the airport and he loves being able to drop in anytime to see Olivia. It's a win win situation until you make it weird. Anyways, bye tio!” Estela waves him off and heads toward the sound of a small child bursting with joy. Olivia is jumping up and down in a hedonistic manner just outside the front yard barrier screaming at the top of her lungs. “Yaaay, Uncle Jake! Do the thing. Do the thing!” An small, older model passenger aircraft,  barrels toward the Montoya property. As it closes in, the plane shifts completely onto its side, into an aerial jackknife before it blazes past the young mother and her child. “Momma, he did it! He did it!” Olivia jumps up and down while feverishly waving her arms. “Yeah baby I saw. But that's the wrong type of plane for doing that kind of stuff. If you knew his track record with things that fly, you'd be a little bit more nervous when he does that. Now, get inside and put some actual clothes on while I fetch the truck. You're not dressed for visitors.” Olivia looks down at the long, white sleeping shirt that hangs past her knees. “Aww mom, do I have to?!” She twists her face into the most pitiful expression that it can muster in an attempt to sway her mother. “Yes. Now go on. Let's not keep him waiting.” “Maaaan.” The toddler hangs her head as she half jogs back to the house. Once the door closes behind her daughter, Estela makes her way around the back side of the house and to the detached garage. With a quick tug of the handle, she lifts the door open and hoists it overhead before grabbing a set of keys and jumping into the old utility vehicle. The aged, yet trusty truck roars to life and Estela slowly guides it toward the front of the house. As she rounds the north east corner of the building, a door flies open and little Olivia emerges, fully dressed with a slice of toast in hand. The young mother barely has time to come to a complete stop before her exhilarated daughter climbs aboard. “Hurry mom! We're gonna miss ‘im landing!” “Seatbelt, Olivia.” “Mom!” The toddler bounces in her seat furiously; seconds away from erupting into a tantrum. “Olivia. You have seen him land more times than you can probably count. You'll live. Now put on your seatbelt or we're not going anywhere.” Estela folds her arms sternly as she waits for the stubborn little girl to comply. After an extremely brief stare down, Olivia relents and quickly snaps her seatbelt into place. “Can we go now, puh-lease?” “Yes. Thank you for listening faster this time.” With these words, Estela puts the vehicle in gear and speeds off toward the airstrip to meet their guest. The old utility vehicle pulls onto the runway just as their visitor climbs out of his plane. Olivia leaps out of the truck and takes off running; her messy ponytail bounces wildly behind as she runs into the arms of Jake. He bursts into joyous laughter as she knocks him to the ground unintentionally. “Sweet Pea! Did ya miss me?” The pilot swats at the child's ponytail playfully. “Of course I did uncle Jake! Momma made us late ‘cause she wouldn't let me come down here in my jammies .” “Yep, that sounds just like your mom. You wanna help me up so I can get your gifts?” He offers his up his hand as the little girl's eyes grow wide. “You brought me pwesents?!” She grabs his hand with both of hers and tries desperately to pull him into a standing position. “You bet I did. I missed your birthday and I'm still really upset about it. So, I made sure to get you something fun and something extremely special.” Jake rises to a standing position, allowing Olivia to believe she had lifted him herself. “Wait right there and close your eyes. No peeking!” “Okay uncle Jake.” She carefully opens one eye slightly, trying not to be obvious as the pilot disappears into back into his plane. When he reemerges with hands behind his back, the first thing he does is call her out. “Hey, I said no peeking sweet pea. Now close ‘em.” He quietly walks up to her, kneels down, and presents his gift. “I want you to meet someone. This is Felix.” Olivia opens her eyes to find Jake holding a plushie alligator that's anthropomorphic in nature; complete with suspenders, a plaid shirt and a big hat. Her eyes grow wide with excitement as she reaches out for the toy. “F-felix?” “Yeah! Say hello Felix.” Jake clears his throat and lays his accent on as thick as possible. “Whooyeee! Howdy there lil sweet pea! It sure is nice to meet ya!” The little girl giggles excitedly and takes the plushie from Jake. “This is silly. Alli-magators don't wear clothes or hats!” “You are absolutely correct. We actually eat gator where I'm from.” Olivia gasps and hides Felix behind her back. “You're not eating Felix!” “Of course not. He's your friend now and can already tell you're like two peas in a pod. Now. There's one more gift and this is more like a long term commitment/ project for you and I. Let me grab it.” Jake once again ducks back into his plane as Estela finally makes her way over to see what all the fuss is about. She smiles warmly at Olivia who is affectionately cuddling her new toy. Her attention snaps back to the door of the plane when the pilot reappears carrying a shovel and a sapling that has its roots wrapped in gunny sack. Mother and daughter share a confused look as Jake holds his hand up in a ‘ta-da’ fashion. “You brought me a twee?” “Not just any tree sweet pea. This is a Laurel oak; native to the region I call home. She's gonna get real big. I was thinking we plant her here and I make you a promise. In a few years, when she's tall and strong enough, I'll build you a treehouse. As she grows up higher we'll make the ladder going up to your fort longer and longer. We can make the treehouse bigger and better along the way too. Finally, one day when I'm ready to retire, I'll convince your mom to let me move down here and live out of a hammock we can hang from one of the branches. Sounds pretty good to me. What do you think sweet pea?” Olivia is speechless; her mouth is ajar as she tries to process Jake's proposition. When she's finally able to break free of disbelief, the little girl once again throws her arms around him in a grateful hug. “Th-thank you uncle Jake. So, it's a pwomise then?” “Yes. Yes it is sweet pea. Now lemme catch up with your mom a bit alright? Then we'll go find a good place to plant her.” The little brunette collects felix and jumps aboard the plane; presumably planning to jump from seat to seat as she usually does. “That's a big commitment for you, Jake McKenzie. Are you sure you're up for it?” Estela crosses her arms but the expression on her face is surprisingly soft. “Aw hell. You know I am. When I first laid eyes on her after she was born, I knew then and there that I was done for. Wrapped me around her little finger before her first poop.” The young mother slaps Jake across the arm and laughs. “Don't let my tio hear you talking like that. Just a few minutes ago he asked why we aren't a thing. He'll start badgering you to make a move and buy a ring.” Jake rubs his arm while chuckling and wincing in pain simultaneously. “He should know by now that it was never like that and never will be. Boy-, I mean Taylor would want someone watching over you guys and it might as well be me. I owe him everything.” He trails off as sadness gathers in his cerulean eyes. “While we are on the subject: Have you told her more about him yet?” Estela shakes her head while thoughtfully chewing her lower lip. “I haven't told Olivia much but only because I have no idea what she'll understand and what she won't.” “Well the five year mark is coming up real fast. I'll be picking everyone up and we're gonna head back for a few days. Might be good for sweet pea. Y'know, to hear all the stories about him.” “About daddy?” Olivia reappears at the doorway of the plane and jumps out. “Momma told me he that he saved the world. But that meant he had to leave forever.” “Yeah, sweet pea, that's right. It was really brave of him.” Jake stoops down, picks up the little girl and props her up on his hip. “But if you and mommy come to our little reunion you'll hear so much more about him. All the good times and fun stuff.” “I'd like that a lot uncle Jake.” “I know you would baby. Whaddya say, Katniss? Can we count you guys in?” Estela looks to Olivia who gives her mother a pleading look. “Alright, count us in. It will be good for both of us.” The toddler is overcome with joy. She leaps from Jake's arms and rushes to her mother. “Yay! Thank you momma!” The young mother returns Olivia's hug and swoops her up. “You're welcome. Now are we going to plant this tree or what?” “Yes! Can we put it close to the house so I can watch it grow?” “Sure we can. Just not too close. We don't want it to smother the house once it gets big” The trio collect themselves, as well as the gifts, pile into Estela's truck and head back toward the house in search of the perfect place for the oak tree. ****** On the the last night of the La Huerta group's reunion, the young men and women gather at the Celestial’s pool. Everyone is enjoying good food and company while they exchange stories of the one member who can't attend the festivities. Olivia is sitting on her uncle Aleister's lap as he tries to explain the fine details of his story. “But, I thought my daddy fixed the world.” “He did sweetheart. By leaving with Vaanu. When they left together Vaanu took all the time anomalies with him and the world reverted back to its normal state. Does that make sense?” “I guess so. But uncle Al, what was Vaanu, a space alien?” “Hmm, in a sense, yes. But he appeared to us as an intangible being. Almost like he exists in another dimension that doesn't obey the same laws of physics as our own.” “Now I have no idea what you're saying uncle Al.” Olivia giggles as she squirms away from him. “Well you're not alone sweetheart. There are many men smarter than you and I that don't understand that complex concept either.” Aleister ruffles her hair before she skips off to see what Craig and Zahra are up to. Jake and Estela are lounging next to the pool opposite of Aleister; both of them casually sipping a beer each. They watch as Olivia skips away from her uncle and launches herself onto Craig's back. As he begins to spin her in circles, Estela lets out a sigh of relief. “This has been really good for her. I'm glad we came.” “Oh, is she still having nightmares?” Jake cocks a questioning eyebrow the brunette while taking another drink from the bottle in his hand. “No. Well they continued for awhile but they stopped when I encouraged her to play outside more. She's be fine ever since it seems like.” Estela shakes her head and chuckles slightly. “She's getting too big to sleep with me anyway.” Raj rises to his feet, calls for everyone's attention and proposes a toast. The group of friends gathers around the host and each one says a few words for Taylor. When everyone has said their piece, all eyes fall on Estela, who hesitates momentarily before clearing her throat. “I'll keep this short and sweet. The time that Taylor and I spent together was short, but it was best time of my life. I'll always be grateful for him.” Estela raises her beer, and everyone follows suit. They salute their missing friend and clink their drinks together. After saying their goodbyes, the group once again goes their separate ways. Jake flies everyone to their respective destinations, leaving Estela and her daughter for last. The young brunette mother falls asleep as they near their destination; leaving Olivia wide awake with her thoughts. When they finally touch down on the private runway, Jake offers to help them unload their stuff at the house.

Tagging: @mysteli @brightpinkpeppercorn @roonarific and @mind-reader1

[aion-rsa]

Metroid: How Did NES Gamers React to Learning Samus Aran is a Woman?

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The “true’ ending of 1986’s Metroid is regularly referred to as one of the best video game endings of all time, one of the best video game twists of all time, and one of the most important moments in the evolution of video game storytelling. It is, after all, the ending that revealed that badass Metroid bounty hunter Samus Aran is actually a woman. 

Many Metroid retrospectives, and even some members of the Metroid development team, have since claimed that ending shocked the world by introducing one of the most capable and prominent female gaming heroes at a time when such female protagonists were certainly less common in action games. Whatever we say from this point on, there’s no denying that this ending was unusual for its time and is rightfully seen as not just one of the great early video game endings but a touchstone moment for video game storytelling and character design. 

However, it may be time to reexamine the idea that this moment was always talked about in the same way that we typically talk about it today. Indeed, some of the actual reactions to this revelation are far more complicated, more surprising, and, in some cases, more interesting than the simplified version of this story that has become popular over the years. 

Why Did Metroid’s Developers Decide to Make Samus Aran a Woman? 

Before we go any further, let’s start from the start and take a brief look at why Metroid’s developers decided to make Samus Aran a woman in the first place.

According to this 2016 interview with long-time Metroid team members Yoshio Sakamoto and Hiroji Kiyotake, the decision really wasn’t that complicated.

“Once we entered the final stage of development, we started talking about having different endings depending on how long it took players to clear the game. We wanted to prepare a reward for people who cleared it more quickly,” Sakamoto says. “Then someone said, ‘It would be a shocker if Samus turned out to be a woman!’ And everyone thought that would be interesting and wanted to do it, so we decided it right away.”

It feels fair to say that the Metroid team was probably right to assume that most players at that time probably wouldn’t have suspected that Samus Aran was actually a woman. They’re not necessarily saying that the idea was so absurd that nobody would see it coming but rather that cultural trends of the time probably would have made it more likely that the average person’s first instinct would have been to look at Samus Aran in their armor and assume they were a man. 

Of course, it’s hard to have that conversation without talking about Ripley. Metroid was obviously influenced by Alien and Aliens, which means that people at that time perhaps should have been (and, in some cases, certainly may have been) more aware of the possibility that the badass survivor at the center of this sci-fi adventure was actually a woman. In this quote from a translated interview first featured in the Super Metroid strategy guide, Sakamoto makes it clear that Ripley was one of the major inspirations for Samus Aran’s design:

“Of course she’s a bit like Ripley from Aliens (Sigourney Weaver), but a little more extravagant.”

So the shortest answer to the question I posed above is that Samus Aran is a woman because Metroid’s developers were inspired by popular characters/actresses at the time and because they felt like the reveal would catch many people by surprise. Sakamoto confirms the latter part in this quote from that same 2016 interview:

“People who played it back then were shocked. And even now people talk about it like a kind of legend. (laughs)”

Naturally, the answer to that question brings us to a much bigger question, “How did people at the time actually react to learning Samus Aran was a woman?” Well, it’s funny you should ask…

Some Gamers Still Assumed that Samus Was Actually a Man

Before we dive further into this part of the story, you should know that I set out to find as many reactions as I could to Metroid’s secret ending from around the time they first happened. Because we’re talking about 1986, though, that means the only reliable source for at-the-time reactions are archived issues of video game magazines and similar publications. 

Well, the fact of the matter is that there aren’t a lot of copies of video game-related publications from that era that have survived throughout the years. It was also kind of a weird time for that industry. We were just coming out of the great video game crash of 1983, and there weren’t really a lot of major video game publications that were widely distributed at that time, much less ones that were significant enough to have been digitally preserved 35 years later. Even if there were, a lot of publications at that time didn’t devote much space to fan letters, opinion pieces, and similar formats that may have offered more intimate insight into people’s unfiltered reactions to that reveal.

That being said, the most fascinating takeaway from the documented “reactions” to Metroid’s ending that have survived over the years is that many people apparently remained convinced that Samus was a man.

To get the ball rolling with the most official source possible, take a look at this page from the Metroid instruction book which clearly refers to Samus as “he:”

Now, because that passage also mentions that Samus’ “true form is shrouded in mystery,” it seems pretty obvious that the writer was just trying to preserve the game’s twist. That makes a lot of sense. 

What’s more confusing is this early section of the Wanpakku Metroid Manga Strategy Guide which clearly refers to Samus as a man:

Ok, that’s odd, but we also have to remember that this is an English translation of the original guide and that it’s possible the translation is simply inaccurate. After all, it’s not like the artists were also trying to portray Samus in over-the-top scenarios designed to send a clear message to most people that they were a man…

Right, let’s take another couple of steps back. First off, it’s not really clear who wrote this guide as its author’s name, Minazuki Yuu, is seemingly a pseudonym. Furthermore, there were many Nintendo-based mangas published at this time that are about as far from canonical as you can get. There’s even a Legend of Zelda manga that suggests Link and Zelda were brother and sister. 

However, it’s interesting to note that this particular manga guide seems to have been created with Nintendo’s assistance. Not only does it follow the plot of the game fairly closely (which suggests that the team had some kind of early access to key parts of the game) but it even references some ideas that would be formally introduced in later Metroid games (such as Samus’ logbook and gunship). 

More importantly, one of the manga’s last panels clearly suggests that Samus has a “true” identity that only “brave” players can uncover:

Let’s just assume, then, that the guide’s team was in on the gag and went to some crazy lengths to hide the game’s ending. It’s also possible Samus just really likes hanging out with bikini-clad admirers, though you’re going to reach out to Nintendo for more insight on that part of the canon. 

Even if we can push those examples aside, though, we’re still left with this artist’s rendition of Samus that was once used to pitch an animated Metroid series that never actually went into production:

While Samus is clearly portrayed as a man in that drawing, I should emphasize that this was a pitch for a series (or segment) that was never actually produced. It’s likely that the artist simply thought Samus was a man and not that he was somehow instructed by Nintendo to portray the character that way. 

However, that touches upon the much more important idea that there were was a lot of misinformation out there at the time (whether intentional or not) that still led some to assume that Samus was a man. There’s no better evidence of that misinformation than a closer look at the initial reactions to Metroid‘s most famous password.

Some Gamers Thought the Justin Bailey Cheat Code Turned Samus Into a Woman

Metroid’s legendary “Justin Bailey” cheat code not only granted players immediate access to an array of items but let you start the game in the bodysuit Samus wears during one of the secret endings. While the origins of this code remain something of a mystery, most people first heard about it in one of the various gaming magazines that printed the password around the time of the game’s release.

So far as I can tell, the March 1989 issue of Boy’s Life magazine was the first major publication to share the Justin Bailey code. However, a closer look at the wording of their description of the code reveals something…interesting.

Yes, that advert’s writer seems to be under the impression that the Justin Bailey code changes Samus from a “robot cyborg into a woman.” The August 1989 issue of EGM Top Score uses slightly different wording to describe the code’s effect, but again, the writer seems to think that the code turns Samus into a woman rather than just confirms she was a woman all along:

Interestingly, it seems that error wasn’t limited to EGM and their adverts. In a 1989 issue of Video Games and Computer Entertainment, a writer shares the Justin Bailey cheat code and seems to be under the same mistaken impression that the code somehow turns Samus into a woman:

What about Nintendo Power, though? While they’re sometimes wrongly credited (so far as I can tell) for being the first publication to share the Justin Bailey code, the magazine’s staff arguably made the code famous when they decided to print it in their October 1991 issue. Interestingly, though, they don’t even reference the outfit swap when describing the code’s effects:

However, earlier in that same issue, the Nintendo Power team does briefly talks about Metroid‘s secret endings and even describe them as a look at Samus Aran’s “true self:”

To be fair, it’s possible that the same author wrote those inaccurate descriptions of the Justin Bailey code for Boy’s Life and EGM and was just working with inaccurate information at that time. For that matter, it’s possible that they just did a poor job of describing the code’s effects.

When you put it all together, though, it’s hard to ignore the realization that there was just a lot of misinformation floating around at that time regarding whether or not Samus was a woman. It would actually take a few years for correct information regarding that topic to be widely circulated, and even then, there was still a debate regarding the specifics of that revelation and its implications.

Read more

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By Aaron Potter

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Metroid Dread: When in Samus’ Timeline Does the Game Take Place?

By John Saavedra

Some Metroid Players Didn’t Find Out Samus Was a Woman Until Years Later or Just Didn’t Have Much of a Reaction to It

So when did major publications start describing Samus as a woman? Well, that seems to vary from source to source, but Nintendo Power at least started clearly relaying that information before the release of Super Metroid, as evidenced by this editor’s note that appeared in a 1994 issue of the magazine:

That’s not the first time that a publication directly referred to Samus as a woman, but it does seem that idea started to become slightly more common around the time of Super Metroid‘s release in 1994. That actually makes quite a bit of sense as Super Metroid wasn’t just one of the SNES’ biggest games but, visually speaking, was significantly more advanced than its predecessors. The editor’s note above even mentions that it was difficult for the magazine’s artists to accurately visualize Samus’ facial features based solely on her NES and Game Boy renders. The power of the SNES just made it easier for fans everywhere to see what Metroid’s artists were trying to convey through the character’s design. In fact, one thing you’ll regularly hear from older gamers is that they never even knew Samus was a woman until at least a console generation or two after Metroid’s release. 

“Access” is the other important factor to consider here. To see Samus with her helmet off in the original Metroid, you had to beat the game in 3-5 hours. To see her in a bodysuit, you had to beat the game in under three hours. To see her in a bikini-like outfit, you had to beat the game in under an hour. All of those goals were big asks at the time, even if you were using a guide to help you. That being the case, a lot of players never saw Samus’ “true form” for themselves at the time or otherwise only heard rumors about it or the misinformation surrounding it. 

What’s even more interesting is the idea that even some of those who knew Samus was a woman just didn’t think it was a big deal. While some members of that group may have just chosen to ignore it due to some kind of bias or preference, it’s important to remember that discussions about video game characters were much different at that time. Many publications at the time actually just referred to Samus as “the player” or even just “you” in guides rather than as any particular gender.

Rather than try to dive into the psychology of every individual who didn’t have much of a reaction to this reveal at the time, though, let’s just say that the unique circumstances of this reveal also meant that it wasn’t this “Empire Strikes Back moment” where a shocking twist quickly entered the pop culture lexicon. Some didn’t know about it, some discovered it years later, and some simply greeted it with relative indifference or momentary surprise. 

It should also be noted that Metroid background artist and graphic designer Hirofumi Matsuoka once suggested that Samus is actually a transexual character. However, there’s no evidence that Matsuoka actually worked on Samus’ design or had any official knowledge regarding that information. Furthermore, Matsuoka’s use of a certain slang term in that interview would tend to suggest that he was actually trying to make a bad joke. 

Still, the debate over Samus’ design has only gotten more heated in the years since her reveal. See, there are some who feel that Nintendo has tried to make Samus more “feminine” over the years in terms of her physical attributes. While there’s a much more complicated discussion to be had regarding that topic, a quick look at this drawing of Samus that was first published in a Super Metroid guide and this render of “Zero Suit” Samus as she appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate does suggest that Samus’ design has at least been altered over the years:

The real reason I bring this up, though, is to highlight how important it is to remember that Metroid‘s ending wasn’t the end of the conversation about the reveal that Samus Aran is a woman.

The Legacy of Metroid’s Ending Has Been Slowly Written by Various Fans Over Many Years

I can’t say what your individual reaction was to learning Samus was a woman or even when you learned about it. If you take nothing else away from this article, let it be that people actually learned that information at different times and had vastly different reactions to it.

There’s one group I haven’t talked about a lot yet, though, and that’s the group who saw that Samus was a woman and felt either a sense of pride or simply enjoyed that there was a different kind of Nintendo character/video game action star out there. 

Well, while I honestly couldn’t find a lot of incredibly enthusiastic reactions to this reveal that were published at the time (though I’d love it if anyone who may have access to those reactions could share them with me), that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. Not only are there many gamers who will tell you they had that exact reaction, but the fact that the Metroid ending has become this culturally significant part of gaming history over the years is due in no small part to the idea that most people eventually embraced it as such.

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Maybe the initial reaction to learning Samus is a woman was more complicated than it’s sometimes believed to be, but initial reactions are just that: reactions. They’re quickly rendered responses that we often talk about because we want to relive the joy, terror, and shock we felt at those moments long after our own reactions have passed. In this case, though, fans initially expressed reactions of confusion, surprise, anger, joy, indifference, and more. It’s easy to retroactively apply a narrative regarding how such pop culture moments were perceived, but as is usually the case, the truth isn’t quite so simple.

Yet, it’s maybe even more interesting to see that we’ve since reached a nearly universal consensus regarding this ending’s significance. It’s just that the popularity of that idea makes it easier to forget that Metroid‘s ending wasn’t properly processed by many gamers until many years after the game’s release.

The post Metroid: How Did NES Gamers React to Learning Samus Aran is a Woman? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[robedisimo]

Alien: Covenant - Five things worth discussing [SPOILERS]

[Warning: spoilers for Alien:Covenant and appalling geekery follow. Go here for a spoiler-free review.]

The old Walter/David switcheroo

One of the points I made in my review pertained how Alien: Covenant tends  to anticipate – or at least acknowledge – its viewers��� questions and doubts as they watch the plot’s horrific events unfold. This is usually expressed through dialogue, but there’s one crucial instance in which facts speak louder than words, and I think it’s worth talking about in greater detail.

As soon as the camera cuts away an instant before David’s (presumed) demise at the hands of his technological “brother” Walter, trope-savvy audience members know what’s afoot: the lack of a confirmed death scene opens the way for a late-game reveal, which indeed is what we ultimately get as David turns out to have somehow survived his deadly encounter with his better-but-lesser doppelgänger and taken his place as the Covenant’s resident android.

The point is that Covenant could have ended – rather anti-climactically – with the first Xenomorph being killed by the crew with the cargo crane, the survivors returning to the ship, and David being unmasked as the credits started rolling, all in the span of five minutes. Instead, the film’s climax is lengthier and more articulated, with a second Xenomorph emerging within the ship and chasing the surviving crewmembers inside its bowels, David watching the scene through cameras while still under the pretense of being Walter.

Here you see how Covenant’s script is aware of the people watching the film. Another movie could’ve been content with only fooling the more naïve portion of its audience, while accepting the fact that more experienced moviegoers have already seen the plot twist coming. What this movie does, instead, is keep both sides guessing. Fassbender’s performance as the film’s final act unfolds is guarded and remarkably neutral: his expressions while watching the Xenomorph make its way through the ship could be either of apprehension or fascination, and his final reaction as things resolve could be either of disappointment or relief. Are watching David, somewhat sad to see his creature defeated? Or are we watching Walter, dealing with unexpected feelings as Waterston is shown to have survived the hordeal, David’s words about love seeding doubt in his synthetic mind?

It’s a really enjoyable feat of filmmaking, and it’s only accomplished by a combined effort of scripting, direction and acting. The fact that Covenant isn’t satisfied with having half its audience know the final twist beforehand, but rather takes active measures to keep perceptive viewers second-guessing their own intuitions, shows a kind of narrative sensibility that certainly was nowhere to be found in Prometheus.

It all comes, of course, on the heels of a potential plot hole: why did Walter spare David, and what was his ultimate fate? Was he somehow “converted” by David’s impassioned case for synthetic superiority, or did his final hesitation give David the chance to somehow gain the upper hand (pun semi-intended)? Did he actually die, or was he left to take David’s place on the Engineers’ decimated world? Those are all questions – and hopefully answers – for another instalment in the franchise.

David as an overarching villain

When Prometheus was first announced, it was reasonable to assume that Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw would go on to be the new franchise’s leading character, carrying the new narrative on her shoulders the way Ellen Ripley did for the original Alien saga. Given the way that film ended, that impression grew even stronger; Covenant instead throws a curve ball at us, giving us a movie in which her character not only doesn’t drive the plot, but is actually revealed to have met a gruesome end between chapters.

The most immediate consequence of this choice is one I’m fully in favour of: the new Prometheus/Alien franchise has no Ripley of its own. And really, when you start thinking about it, why would you want one? Sigourney Weaver’s are some (literally) big shoes to fill, and any new heroine would have to live with that shadow constantly looming over her.

The same issue was faced by the 2013 Evil Dead remake-slash-reboot, which made the very smart decision of gender-switching its lead character and give her an altered backstory: that obviously obliterated the need to recast Ash Williams, a veritable minefield which would have left any young actor hypothetically chosen to fill the role facing an onslaught of unflattering comparisons to Bruce Campbell, likely dooming what eventually turned out to be an actually pretty decent update of the cult franchise.

So instead of casting a new saga-spanning heroine, the revamped Alien series has chosen to give us a new female protagonist each film while basing its narrative around an overarching male villain instead. David is at this point clearly intended to be this new story’s central antagonist, and Michael Fassbender to be its main big-name star. It may disappoint those rooting for the rise of a new culturally-iconic action diva, but let’s leave that to a younger franchise – one less likely to incite unwanted backlash by not living up to former glories.

Creator, creature, creator

Covenant’s midway section is arguably its least solid, but also its most intriguing by far: its revelation that David is the actual creator of the franchise’s titular alien shakes the whole saga from the foundations up, and is delivered in such chilling fashion that while watching in the theatre I couldn’t contain my admired disbelief at the film for taking such a bold narrative turn.

What compounds the scene – scenes, rather, as the whole extent of the reveal is explore over the course of two separate sequences – is the choice to portray David as not just the creature’s engineer, but also, more specifically, as its designer. His laboratory overflows with drawings echoing the iconic style of legendary concept artist H.R. Giger, ultimately fusing fact and fiction together to canonically acknowledge the Xenomorph as a product of deliberate aesthetic planning.

It’s a poetic tribute to the franchise’s visionary visual architect, and it carries with it a number of fascinating consequences. David, now free of his human creators and having in the interim become the destroyer of their makers in turn, elevates himself to the role of builder of new, carefully constructed life and thus potentially seals his fate as the future victim of his perfect nightmare child.

Like its predecessor, Covenant is rife with biblical – and biblical-adiacent – references, as David is evidently portrayed as a Lucifer analogue. Made in the image of his creator but perceiving himself as superior though bound to servitude, his rebellion – after which he is replaced by a second generation of lesser, more obedient creatures – ends in his creation of an army of demons to unleash upon humanity.

Here the mythology gets more complex, as it draws from different cultures and narratives – as explicitly evidenced by the Wagnerian reference to Norse folklore –: David’s human creators are not self-made gods, but are instead themselves the children of higher, older entities. The “Engineers”, like the Titans of Greek myth, hate and loathe the new generation of creators they begat and yet are ultimately destroyed not by them, but by their creation’s creation.

Ironically, David, who hates humanity, becomes the instrument of the death of the Old Gods – who hate humans as well – but at the same time carries on their work, inheriting their taste for perverse biological experimentation and ultimately continuing their “mission” in ways mankind never did, as it had chosen that alternate path which resulted in the creation of David himself.

So there’s also poetry in the fact that the half-animal, half-machine conundrum that is the Xenomorph turns out to be the brain-child of a synthetic lifeform. All in all, I feel as though with this film the franchise’s title gained a second, more obscure meaning: by getting to peer into David’s imagination through his Giger-esque design, we got to see how truly alien his mind is.

It turns out, at long last, that this most iconic of sci-fi monsters wasn’t a natural-occurring beast, but rather the nightmarish science project of an immortal Hannibal Lecter type. David’s treatment of Shaw’s corpse suggests that she wasn’t killed by a chest-bursting parasite, but rather subjected to autopsy or vivisection... and the fact that it’s hard to tell which of those options is the more likely in the face of David’s professed love for her says more about his character, I feel, than just about anything else. This is all the product of retcon, of course; but I don’t think this film series ever had a more compelling character to play with.

Amusingly, his “authorship” of the Xenomorph creature lends a new meaning to Weyland-Yutani’s efforts to gain possession of the alien species in the original saga. After all, as products of their product, they must certainly feel they have a right to call dibs.

What does this mean for the franchise?

That’s the question at this point, isn’t it? I can certainly see how we may still need a couple movies in order to loop back into the scenario we stumbled upon at the beginning of the original Alien. Ridley Scott tells us we’ll actually need four, which sounds a tad too much but could be interesting, provided there’s already a concept in place for a coherent story arc.

Of course the big problem is that Prometheus introduced a plot hole into the franchise, and Covenant has now blown it wide open. The “face chamber” in Prometheus featured an engraved image resembling the classic Xenomorph, contrasting with the “Deacon” seen emerging from an Engineer at the end of the film: that seemed to suggest that we were witnessing wasn’t the birth of a proto-Alien, but rather just a variation of it.

It was all pretty confusing – what wasn’t in that movie? –, but Covenant makes matters arguably worse with its implications concerning David and the Xenomorphs’ origins. As things are, there are probably only two or three possible scenarios: either David created the “classic model” Xenomorph – although it’s worth pointing out that the version seen in Covenant doesn’t yet display the overtly biomechanical features so prominent in the classic design – or he’s replicating something the Engineers had already achieved in ancient times.

The third option, less likely but perhaps more intriguing on a broader mythological scale, is that David is consciously modelling his creations after what he saw on the mural, and that that same image was the Engineers’ own mythical representation of their idea of a devil analogue. David may be actively working to turn the gods’ worst fears into reality; but that’s just me speculating.

Of course, if the answer turns out to be the most straightforward one – David being the actual creator of the Xenomorph as we know it – that spells absolute doom for the Alien vs. Predator shared universe, which far from being confined to the two mediocre films of the same name is actually alive and sprawling in comics and novels, one of them of very recent publication and dealing with the aftermath of the Prometheus scenario.

Plainly if the Xenomorphs are such a recent creation, the Predator race can’t possibly have regarded them as the ultimate prey for millennia. Ironically, while Covenant is on its own one of the best movies in the entire franchise, it may also very well end up becoming the most hated by a certain devoted subset of fans.

I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that

So this last one is admittedly just for Italian readers, but I trust the rest of you can get a kick out of it as well. For the entirety of Prometheus, the Italian dub cast addressed the David character with a correct standard-English pronunciation of his name. Day-vid; well, more or less. Nobody batted an eyelid, and everything rolled along just fine.

Then we get the first scene of Covenant, in which David “names” himself while looking at Michelangelo’s homonymous statue. The parallel is fairly obvious: over the course of the film we learn that David single-handedly laid waste to the Engineer homeworld, a classic “David vs. Goliath” scenario.

Now, that’s an entirely different matter for Italian speakers: the biblical character David isn’t Day-vid, it’s Duh-vid. So for the entirety of this second movie we got the Italian voice cast calling him that, instead. A small continuity hiccup, but no big deal.

This is where it gets funny, though. I remember wondering, back when Prometheus came out in theatres, whether the choice of “David” as the character’s name was supposed to be half-homage, half-parody: the human protagonist of 2001: A Space Odyssey is named David Bowman, and Michael Fassbender’s character here certainly shows some heavy parallels to his A.I. counterpart, HAL 9000.

The funny part? The Italian voice actor portraying HAL in the local dub of 2001 consistently addressed Bowman as Duh-vid. Let it be known that everything ultimately comes full circle through sheer power of nerdiness.

[cripplinganxietyflix]

I saw Alien: Covenant.

I’m starting to notice a trend in a few of my reviews where I tend to clarify something about myself or my expectations in relation to the film I’m talking about. I guess I do this in an effort to illuminate certain things about why I like something or why I hate it in a way that maybe otherwise wouldn’t be evident from my words. 

So let me start off by saying I’m a pretty devoted fan of the Alien franchise. I have Xenomorphs all over my office, I’ve owned several HR Giger yearly calendars and artbooks. My husband and I will likely name our firstborn in honor of Ellen Ripley. 

And as of quite recently, I’ve never seen an Alien film I didn’t, at the very least, enjoy watching. I would prioritize the original Alien as the best film (as I assume most do). Aliens and Prometheus come in second place- in that I enjoy Aliens and think it’s a fine film, and that I greatly enjoy Prometheus as something I accept I have to turn off all critical thinking facilities in order to fully appreciate. I rank Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection on the same level; as films that I didn’t hate and can actually watch to gain some minor degree of pleasure, but also acknowledge their glaring flaws. I’ll even go so far as to say that I liked what David Fincher was trying to do with Alien 3. It had the guts to try something totally new like Aliens did, and had the balls to give the audience a giant, veiny middle finger right in the first few minutes. Admittedly, I haven’t seen Alien vs Predator or Alien vs Predator: Requiem since seeing Alien and Predator maul, disfigure and murder each other would feel like watching a full length film of dogs being kicked- and yes, I realize this is an issue that is likely unique to me. I truly haven’t seen an Alien feature that I didn’t like. 

Until now. 

What the fuck, Alien: Covenant? What the fuck, Ridley Scott? What the fuck was going on here? 

I’m gonna start talking about the plot, so prepare your anus for spoilers. If you’re doubting the fortitude of your sphincter, skip past the next image. The basic premise of this film is that there’s a ship with couple dozen people as crew schlepping 2000 colonists out into deep space to start terra-forming a new planet. The crew consists of a lot of sexual partners and I assume that they are planning to help populate, but I can’t recall if that was addressed at all. Maybe in the future, spaceship crews are allowed to bring out the wife. Whatever. Anyway, an android named Not-David Michael Fassbender accidentally fucks the ship up and wipes out a little chunk of the crew. This fuck-up results in Captain James Franco getting incinerated in front of his wife inside a stasis capsule, before he ever has a chance to deliver a line. 

In fact, had I not watched the promotional material beforehand (which features a scene that I assume precedes the one I’m talking about and also clarifies it better than the movie gave a shit to attempt), I don’t think I would have even known the schmuck getting torched by explosive oxygen in the capsule was James Franco. Nice.

This leaves the ship with a new captain, Passive Billy Crudup, who they mention a few times is a Christian, just like Dr. Shaw in Prometheus. The inclusion of his religion is even more stupid and pointless in this new iteration. He is also fairly incapable, which makes me wonder who put this booger-eater as second in line. This whole fuck up by Not-David Michael Fassbender is just a plot vehicle to get Danny fucking McBride outside the ship on a repair mission, where he receives a mysterious distorted transmission of a woman singing a John Denver song. The source of the transmission is traced back to a planet which happens not to be the planet that the crew is headed to to terraform.

Obviously, the crew decides to divert to the planet from which the signal came from instead of the planet that they are supposed to travel to, because why the hell not? 

Like the idiots in Prometheus, the idiots in Alien: Covenant decide not to wear oxygen-fed helmets or PPE because who ever heard of aspirating deadly microbes and bacteria? However, this time, that’s addressed, and predictably two of the crew members manage to get infected by the flora on this planet within 5-10 minutes of setting foot on land. They become sickened and spew white baby Xenomorphs (not chestbusters, for whatever reason). Then the crew is dispatched unceremoniously as a pack of CGI Xenomorphs whip the shit outta them in ways that will be too fast to actually see. But aren’t you happy with 0.9 seconds of digital blood? 

The remaining survivors are rescued just in time by a cloaked Actual David, who leads them back to his lair. Let me just say that Actual David confirms to one of the crew members that this lair is safe a few short minutes before a deformed Xenomorph casually enters and decapitates someone. Actual David pretends to be a bro, then makes it very clear he is NOT in fact a bro, and he carries on fucking up everyone’s shit until the end of the film, in a final twist that most viewers will see coming about 20 minutes in advance. 

This installment of the series is a colossal pile of shit, and it really pains me as an Alien fan to lay it out like this. 

The first issue I became painfully aware of is that there is no main character. Is the plucky captain’s widow the protagonist? Is it Danny McBride? Is it Actual David? Not only is there no attempt to establish a protagonist, there is little effort in place to ensure that you know the names of any of these people. How the fuck am I supposed to be horrified, disgusted and invested when these people are dismembered if I don’t even have a name to pair them with? I actually had to check the IMDb page to recall that Plucky Captain’s Widow’s name is Daniels. Nobody matters and I didn’t give a shit about anyone. I barely gave one for Danny McBride, who seems like a likable crew member but makes some really piss-poor risk/benefit analyses. 

Because of the way Actual David’s underlying prerogatives were portrayed, I wish they hadn’t included him or anything from Prometheus. It’s become readily apparent that the only reason why this film ties into Prometheus or includes Actual David is because they couldn’t think up a fucking decent plot device to get these new people killed by an alien threat. Actual David’s story made me feel like I was watching an excruciatingly dull Star Trek: TNG three-parter where Data has some banal interaction with Noonien Soong because half the cast was on vacation that week. It felt cheap and like the screenwriters really had to push themselves over a massive hump to even write this trash. Instead of being a flawed and curious creation of sociopathic humans, Actual David becomes just another bad guy. There’s a really dumb scene where he’s trying to become friends with a Not Xenomorph that is given almost no explanation into. Did he kill all the engineers on the planet because he was mad at them for making the humans, and now he wants to be an engineer by creating inbred Xenomorphs? If they explained this, I wasn’t paying attention because I was bored to tears every time Actual David was explaining things to other characters.

After producing something like Prometheus, which I would argue has some of the best modern visual effects for its time, I can’t imagine how anyone thought Alien: Covenant was an acceptable final product. The Xenomorphs/creatures looked incredibly fake and were shown far too often. The digital blood and gore effects were wholly unsatisfying: not particularly graphic and shown only very briefly- maybe because they realized too late that CGI gore is completely unimpactful? People were screaming in disgust during the cesarean scene in Prometheus. I don’t think I heard a solitary gasp at any of the featured gore effects. I’ve read other reviews claiming “the gorehound will be sated” but I can’t imagine that unless the gorehound’s a 12-year-old with limited experience. The suits are ugly, the ship is unremarkable, and the CGI looked cheap and slapped together into the film by people who seemed to be generally unfamiliar with the franchise. I mean for fuck’s sake, if you’re going to give me a CG Xenomorph it better knock my pants off with a firm stream of shit. 

I came out of this one feeling like I’d seen some cheaply-made bullshit teen-demo weekend matinee flick from the mid-2000s, like a Final Destination or an Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid. You know what I mean, the type of movie you go see and completely forget about after a week. This film wasn’t scary, it never gave me cause to feel invested. It was utterly inconsequential, whereas Prometheus felt like it was trying to build something new, fresh and mythical. In fact, my anxiety spiked as I was leaving the theater because I remembered that Ridley Scott took a fairly active role in the production of Blade Runner 2049. That fucking movie is going to have sexy, smoldering Ryan Gosling starring and extremely competent and capable Denis Villeneuve directing and this fucking orphanage fire of a movie has me WORRIED about it. If that doesn’t discourage you from watching Alien: Covenant, I don’t know what will. I can’t even recommend it as So Bad it’s Good because it is so monumentally boring. I could write a book of all the things I would have done entirely differently. Don’t pay any more than Wednesday matinee prices for this foul, backstabbing tripe. If you told me I’d be scoring this movie an entire half a star lower than the Ghost in the Shell movie I would have shat right in your mouth. You know what? This is what we get for electing Donald Trump. 

★ ½

[kitsunesbooks]

My Thoughts on Alien Covenant

So I am not exactly a stranger to the Alien film series. While I haven’t sat down and watched the films all the way through, the internet had pretty much spoiled most of them for me anyway. So with a decent enough knowledge of the film series, I went into Alien Covenant looking forward to a great sci-fi horror flick done by Ridley Scott himself. I wasn’t disappointed. The film was thoroughly enjoyable and I had a great time watching it. The film is by no means perfect, but it did what it set out to do, which was tie up the loose ends of Prometheus while setting up the origins of the Xenomorphs. If you are still planning on seeing the film, but are a little conflicted about it, I advise you to go for it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

So, the film. For one, I think it does horror well. To me horror is about two things, anticipation and spectacle. Alien has both of these traits, though if you are like me and saw most of the trailers and such then the anticipation fell off at some points throughout the film. Nevertheless the spectacle is there in glorious gory sequences throughout the film. Me being the edgy author I am, I love a good bit of gore on screen, however too much of it can make me feel sick or can just look obnoxious and dumb. Alien’s gore is what makes it so terrifying. The sounds, visuals, and overall effects. Everything weaves together perfectly to paint a grisly painting in motion. Props to the effects department because nearly every gruesome moment had me in complete shock. But I am not here to talk about effects, I am here to talk about the writing.

Alien Covenant has a decent story to tie together its intense survivalist thriller atmosphere. It’s story opens with a conversation between Peter Weyland and David, the android from Prometheus. Right from the gate, the film does nothing to hide its relation to Prometheus. Alien Covenant was planned to be the film that answered many of Prometheus’ questions, even though some of them aren’t even worth answering. (Check out the Prometheus video over at Cinema Wins, I think it does a very good job of explaining things.) The thing is, and this is true for Prometheus from what I have seen from it, both films are very straight forward. Everything you need to know is on screen and when you take that into account, there aren’t many plot holes and are more or less some questions that are purposely left unanswered. This is mainly in relation to a certain character’s motivations. That being said, the film has a simple plotline compared to Prometheus’ commentary on the “who made us” debacle. We get a few small little anecdotes of philosophy, but in all honesty I’m okay with it. There really isn’t much need for Covenant to go into those topics because Prometheus said all that needed to be said. Instead we simply get to see our cast of would be heroes survive on an alien planet that just so happens to be trying to kill them. The plot serves nothing more than to carry our heroes through the gore slick locales of the film. Now this is where I am going to get into the spoilers for the film as I can’t exactly analyze the writing without going into its plot. If you haven’t seen the film then I advise you to stop reading here.

With spoiler alerts out of the way, I wanna begin by giving a brief mention to our main character. Daniels is far more badass than Prometheus’ Elizabeth Shaw, and can easily stand among the likes of Ripley (and her daughter if you wanna count Alien: Isolation.) Daniels is an amazing lead and Katherine Waterston did a fantastic job, but she isn’t the only great character here. The entire cast is thoroughly enjoyable, even if some of them don’t last very long. Hell, James Franco is in the movie for a whole five minutes, in which he is burned alive while in hyper sleep. The characterization is also very well done as that first five minutes of roasted James Franco gives us a bit of a glimpse into the minds of Covenant’s crew. This is where I should probably mention that Covenant, the namesake of the film, is also the name of the colony ship our characters are crewing. The film opens with the ship getting hit by a radiation storm in space that causes a malfunction forcing the crew awake early. Sadly, not all of the crew make it and Daniel’s husband, James Franco, is killed by his sleeping pod exploding. This whole moment shows us just how much of a risk these people have taken by joining a crew like this. Their responsibility is to two thousand colonists and their safe passage to a suitable home. This of course is where we come to one of the bigger problems of the film that people are going to latch on to. What is happening on Earth that would force humanity to start sending out colony ships? My guess is simply this, just refer back to Prometheus’ answers to quite literally everything. Covenant exists simply because humanity could do it. Humanity sent a colony ship out into deep space because they could. It is as simple as that. Ridley Scott has said he would like to do a film where the Xenomorph ends up on Earth somehow, but until that happens we can assume things back on our homeworld are prosperous, more or less.

Events pass and we eventually get our McGuffin of the film in the form of a transmission from Elizabeth Shaw. The transmission is barely understandable, yet Tennessee (yes that is his name) is able to figure out she is singing “Country Roads” for some reason. From this transmission, the Covenant crew discovers a planet far closer to their current position that has all the suitable parameters for a colony. Now, I can totally see why people would get kind of pissy about this because of how tropey it is, but it at least makes sense. Both Daniels and Christopher, the captain, have valid reasoning for exploring or ignoring the newfound planet. Daniels is against the plan simply because they have no way of knowing what is down on that planet. Christopher agrees but wants to find out what is down there, especially since it has all the needs a colony would require. Basically it’s a “nothing ventured, nothing gained” sort of plot thread. I personally think it works fine, it is a simple plot thread that gets us to where our characters need to be for shit to go down. Plus it does kind of play around with the audience expectations a bit. I originally thought their original destination was going to be where the horror was waiting but, nope. The funny thing is, either option is tropey as hell. It honestly feels like the film has to use tropes because of it’s plot structure, and there really isn’t anything wrong with it because it doesn’t dwell too much on those tropes in the first place given how linear the plot is.

So, needless to say, the crew heads down to the surface of this uncharted planet and shit goes down, of course. The progression of events is pretty standard for a horror film. There really isn’t anything groundbreaking here, though I do like that we didn’t see any Facehuggers aboard the derelict  Engineer’s ship. Which, when thinking about it, I find kind of amusing because the second half of the film follows classic Alien’s plot structure way too closely. The first half of the film is by far the superior half. While it does have a very standard progression in its plot, the escalation and spectacle keep it terrifying. I was struck silent once things started ramping up, and while I honestly think it was dumb as hell that one of the crew mates had his face literally RIGHT UP IN FRONT OF THE VIRUS’ SPORES, at least the crew isn’t all scientists like in Prometheus. Speaking of Prometheus, the first half of the film does a lot to expand upon Prometheus and bridge the gap between that film and Alien. We see the return of the virus from Prometheus but it would seem that this version is far more rampant. Prometheus gave us a sort of glimpse of what the virus did with humans, but after awhile and many, more than likely, modifications from David, the virus is much more potent. When two of the crew mates are infected we see the extent of what David’s virus has done. We get to see the emergence of a new alien monster, that I honestly enjoy a lot more than the Xenomorph. The aptly named, Neomorph, is an amazingly fresh creature to add to the expanding film universe of Alien and a much more memorable creature at that. The Neomorph was far more visually impressive than the creatures of Prometheus, minus the Engineer. That and it also isn’t just a variant Xenomorph, it has a different life cycle and it has a completely different behavior. The Neomorph is definitely what made the first half of the film so enjoyable, but we more than likely will never see it again, which is a little sad.

As the film goes on we eventually meet up with David who rescues our heroes from one of their own who turned into a Neomorph. I kind of like this angle they went with for David. They made David out to be this sort of survivor type of character. They even gave him longer hair and such to make him about as grizzled as an android can look. I expected him to have been studying the natural evolution of the virus and that he discovered the Xenomorphs, turns out he created them instead. Oh and he also has a preserved and dissected body of Elizabeth Shaw lying around. Fun times. But yes, that is our origin story. David basically nuked a planet that may or may not have been the Engineer’s homeworld with their own virus in one of the most disturbing scenes I have seen in a long time, and he proceeded to play at being god. Before I get more into David though, I want to talk about his counterpart, Walter. Walter is a later generation model that was designed to be more efficient than his predecessors. This means that he is forbidden to create and therefore one could see him as barely human. This is especially true from Christopher’s perspective as he treats Walter like shit. Walter’s “humanity” is also a great parallel to David’s, as David is almost too human to a fault as he essentially is repeating the same mistakes that his creator made. This of course brings us to the creation of the Xenomorph which, honestly, I think was done a bit poorly. Having David trick Chris into looking into one of the Xenomorph eggs was honestly kind of annoying. They could have done so much with this side of the plot and instead they stuck close to their guns and kept it roughly the same as the original Alien film. Guy looks into the egg, Facehugger latches onto him, Chestburster rips through guy, and Bob’s your uncle. My point is, we’ve seen this before, it’s nothing new. All it does is play into nostalgia, which far too many films and tv shows do nowadays, and that is something that doesn’t work with horror. You have to try damn hard to make something persistently scary, but after years of Alien stories, both in films and in the expanded universe, executing a scene like this is kind of a let down. Granted, the Chestburster scene that followed was pretty damn brutal and it completely outdid the original, but it still was nothing new, and that was the ultimate disappointment here. Even then, it was hype to see the Xenomorph make his appearance, and it did not disappoint. Granted the horror was kind of gone since Daniels was taking no shits and the film did the same thing it always does to kill a Xenomorph. Oh, hey, let’s chuck him out into space. Can we PLEASE get something new!? Is that too much to ask.

While I am not particularly a fan of this origin story, I don’t hate it. It fits the character and makes enough sense to be believable. David is a maniacal and manipulative son of a bitch, so this kind of thing is pretty much right in the ball park for him. However, I am disappointed that we couldn’t get a more Lovecraftian origin story that harkened back to the original Alien. The first film is hailed as a Lovecraftian horror film, especially because of H.R. Geiger’s art work that influenced the Xenomorph’s design. Instead we got a simple answer, and that’s fine, but they could have done a lot more and that is what makes me feel disappointed. I would have loved to see more Lovecraftian writing within this film series, but it seems after the success of Aliens way back in 1986, I don’t think we will ever truly return to the Lovecraftian roots of the Alien series.

I’m not going to say the film was bad, because it wasn’t. I enjoyed it thoroughly and it had a lot going for it, but unfortunately the second half did nothing to stray from the conventions of its predecessors. Hopefully when we see Alien return to the big screen we will get a much more intriguing story surrounding the Xenomorphs. All in all the film is entertaining and that’s good. The writing is to the point and straightforward and doesn’t do anything too philosophical. Granted the ending is sequel bait, and that is a bit of an issue, but if you are like me and just want to enjoy yourself watching this film then you should feel right at home. I can still say I enjoyed it despite it’s shortcomings and I think that is a good sign. Give Alien Covenant a shot if you are in the mood for some good sci fi horror. Hope you enjoyed the article.

Stay Frosty, Adam Schmidt

[sebeth]

Aliens: Nightmare Asylum

Aliens: Nightmare Asylum by Mark Verheiden and by Den Beauvais.

Warning, Spoilers Ahead...

For your information, per Wikipedia: “The first three stories formed a continuation of the two Alien films that had been released by the time they were published. However, 1992 saw the release of Alien 3, which contradicted the events of the comics by beginning with the deaths of Newt and Corporal Hicks. In order to keep the stories relevant and canonical to the Alien film series, Dark Horse changed the names of the characters for future printings of the stories. Newt became Billie while Hicks was now known as Wilks.”

Nightmare Asylum takes place immediately after Outbreak.  Billie, Wilks, and Bueller are aboard the cargo ship fleeing the alien-infested earth.  The trio aren’t having any luck diverting the ship from arriving at its pre-determined location.

Part-way through the journey, Billie senses that xenomorphs are aboard the ship.  Wilks doesn’t believe it but humors Billie as they search the ship.  Surprise! We have aliens.  Billie, summoning her inner Ripley, takes care of business and evicts the aliens from the ship.  The duo continue searching the ship and discover humans in damaged hibernation pods.  The aliens clearly burst out of the humans and the pods.  Wilks is confused as hibernation hasn’t been needed for space travel in a long time.

The ship lands at a military facility.  Enter General Spears and Major Powell.  General Spears is pissed about his “destroyed specimens”.  General Spears has been “training” the xenomorphs to follow commands. Spears kidnapped the population of a neighboring terraforming colony to assist in the training.  Said assistance consists of being bait and food.  Spears believes that the xenomorphs are the future of military weapons.

Spears is a true believer but his underlings thinks he’s insane.  Mutiny and abandonment abound.  Spears pursues several soldiers who went A.W.O.L. and took refuge in the nearby terraforming colony.  Bad news for the A.W.O.L. men – the colony is infested with xenomorphs.  Spears monologues about his own awesomeness and caresses alien eggs.  I was hoping for a face hugger attack but nope, Spears still lives.

Back at the base, Major Powell approaches Wilks:  Please kill Spears and assume command of the facility.  Wilks is completely down with this plan of action.  The xenomorphs decide now is the perfect time to join in on the mutiny.  Spears arrives back at the base and insanely thinks he’s still in control of the aliens. Yep, soldier turns on fellow soldier, the xenomorphs are massacring everybody – but he is in control!  

Spears, in a ship full of xenomorphs, heads to earth.  Wilks and Billie sneak aboard with Bueller’s aid. Bueller is left behind on the planet. Wilks and Billie flee in an escape pod before Spears lands on earth.  

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…Spears arrives on earth and commands “his” xenomorphs to attack the earth-bound ones.  Pride goes before a fall and Spears has a bloody and violent ending. Turns out that xenomorphs are not trainable.  Shocking, I know!

Billie and Wilks land at Gateway Station.  The station is still receiving sporadic transmissions from earth.  A notable one: “The City’s gone.  Most of those left alive have been subjugated to the aliens’ will. You can feel it – some sort of subliminal impulse that draws you to them – a feeling of warmth, belonging – The creatures are building some kind of nest – spreading across the city, into the streets and the underground – a repository for their young – or something more?”

I find the above quote terrifying.  The aliens only have two purposes for humans: food and incubation – and they are capable of luring humans by creating a sense of warmth and belonging? Scary!

We end the story with the long-anticipated appearance of Ripley: “I’m tired of watching.  It’s time to finish it.”

 What I Liked:

Billie – She continues her journey of self-development.  It’s amazing the recovery she’s made since she left the drugs and doctors behind her.

The end of Spears. Repulsive man – he deserved his brutal ending.

What I Didn’t Like:

No real complaints. We once again receive glimpses of the situation on earth.  I would love more details.

[raceandspeculation]

How Ellen Ripley “Misbehaved” Her Way Into History

Maimuna Gassama

Professor Smalls

ENG 3600

22 February 2017

How Ellen Ripley Misbehaved her way into History

Most of the historical records many people have of women are often of wives, mothers, and daughters as they were remembered in funeral eulogies. The funeral eulogies were some of the sole records of women who lived and labored in silent obscurity. The women that lived and labored in silent obscurity were “well behaved”. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s book: “Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History” has etched the slogan “Well behaved women seldom make history” into the hearts of all young women in the world who wish to find their place in history. The slogan resonates with many, if not all historically relevant women. As early as archaic times Amazons who were regarded as “women warriors” made history because they asserted their presence in a world that instructed women to remain silent and submissive. Harriet Tubman broke the rules of her time, and single handedly leading thousands of slaves to their freedom. Rosa Parks refused to give her seat up on the bus for a white man. Margaret Thatcher becoming the world’s first female prime minster, and coming to be known to the world as the “iron lady”. Hillary Clinton fighting her way to making history as the first women the presidential nomination for a major political party. All three of the above women can be considered rebels of their time, and can attest to having to rebel against the societal rules of their time to make history. They had to redefine the boundaries of womanhood.   The same thing can be said about the heroine of the Alien movie franchise, Ellen Ripley. Ripley‘s character breaks the rules on and off the screen, and she too can attest to having to “misbehave” to find her place in history.

Ripley was first introduced in the Alien debut in 1979. This was the very same year Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister. In the original Alien script Ripley was supposed to be cast as a male, but the last minute change of gender may have been the single most important decision for the Alien movie franchise. Regarded by many as the first and best action heroine, Ripley like many historically relevant women, misbehaved. Initially Ripley is the only voice of reason in Alien when she suggests that Dallas not be let back onto the ship because it violates protocol, but the men on the ship overpower her and her suggestion is disregarded. Her lack of a maternal or nurturing instinct when she suggested that they not let Kane back on board could have saved the entire ship. In making this decision she followed the rules of The Company, but rebelled against the rules and expectations attached to women at that time. Had her opinion been taken into consideration she would have been the heroine much earlier in the movie. However, Ripley “misbehaving” in that specific scene was the first of many. Her suspicions of The Company and Ash from the very beginning are examples of “misbehaving” in their own sense. While all the other crewmembers trusted their employer and the motives of the employer, Ripley remained cautious. Throughout the movie we see that she does not just take things for what they are, instead she tackles tasks with steel determination, and takes matters into her own hands. Amy Taubin’s explanation about the Alien movie franchise being related to feminism and aids and how alien was basically a male anxiety fantasy is accurate. It is accurate on the surface level described by Taubin as being because of the outrage connected to male impregnation, but on a deeper level it also speaks to fears of societal gender role extinction. Ripley was not submissive, she did not show her maternal side until the end of the movie, and most importantly she did not wait around to be saved. At the time of the release of Alien, the feminist movement was growing at an extreme rate, the first female head of state in Britain a world super power had just been elected into office, and Ellen Ripley took to the screen for the first time. Women on and off screen were “misbehaving” and establishing the confines their gender put them in.

In Aliens Ripley follows suit of her character in Alien when she decides to go back and help the families, despite suffering from PTSD and knowing what The Company that originally sent her out there are capable of. In Aliens Ripley takes on a more maternal role, but she is still the same rebel she was from Alien. Ripley learns that her daughter has died while she was gone. Leaving nothing behind, but her cat, Ripley embarks on another journey only to be welcomed with a little girl named Newt, and a crew of marines who have no regard for her opinion. Like Alien, Ripley is underestimated in her opinion and ability. It can be assumed that the writers of Aliens included Newt to make Ripley seem almost more human. Similarly, the same thing can be explained for another “misbehaving” woman, Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is often criticized for being to “robotic”. In an effort to make her what news outlets have called more “human” she has been forced to make comments about her granddaughter in many of her opening remarks on the 2016 Presidential campaign trail. Caroline Joan Picart describes Ripley as being ruthless, a survivor, a destroyer, and a being incapable of emotion in her writing on Ripley as an interstitial character. She also mentions that Ripley is not detached from her “powers” as a woman. Picart describes Ripley as such in relation to Alien Resurrection, but the same characteristics can be applied to Ripley in Aliens. In Aliens Ripley was ruthless when she went into the Alien’s nest and came in contact with the queen Alien. She was a survivor and destroyer when she had to fight and destroy to avoid being impregnated from an egg planted by the lawyer she trusted. However, in Aliens Ripley became more and more capable of showing emotion, especially when Newt came into play. This translates into her not being detached from her “powers” as a woman. She used her “powers” to make Newt feel comfortable throughout the movie. This not only benefited Newt and her well-being, but also helped Ripley and the rest of the team, because Newts knowledge of the environment helped them immensely. So in Aliens we see Ripley slightly start “behaving” by taking on a motherly role, but see that she is still more than capable of “misbehaving” when we think about how she used the motherly role to her own advantage, and how she returned back to the ship against her better judgment to save that “asset” (Newt) and destroy another “mother’s” reproductive hub. Mothers for the most part do not take on a motherly role for a return; they do it in selfless interest.

          The book Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History studies the women’s suffrage movement in the chapter titled “Slaves in the Attic,” by concentrating on the suppression of race and gender. At the end of the movie Aliens, as mentioned by Taubin, the part when Ripley yells “get away from her bitch” to the alien who is about to hurt Newt is extremely misogynistic and racist. The racial relevance in this scene also points to the favorite scapegoat of the Reagan/Bush era- the black welfare mother. Taubin’s analysis of both race and gender in relation to the book shows the importance women having long perceived their status as analogous to that of blacks and other racial minorities. In understanding both perspectives we understand the importance of both good behavior being equally as necessary as “bad” behavior. This is relevant for Harriet Tubman, Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton, and Ripley.

In “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”, Ulrich examines an essential moment in women’s lives, describing the ways in which they broke conventional behavior in order to make a place in history. The phrase points to the reasons that women’s lives have limited representation in historical narrative, and goes on to look at the type of people and events that do become public record. There are so many remarkable women throughout the world some are mothers, some are lawyers, and some are both, but history has shown that to find their place in history they must rebel against the rules and confines they are bound in. Ripley did just that. Ripley is a normal woman. She does not possess any type of super human strength. Instead she is brave, witty, and confident. Throughout the Alien movie franchise we see Ripley find her place in history on the big screen and off the big screen. Her character in the movies defied what was expected of women in action movies, and her character off screen was a beacon of hope in the midst of the evolving world around her. Ripley was a heroine for the Nostromo, for Newt, and for the neoliberal era. Ellen Ripley was not “well behaved” and because of that she found her place in history.

Works Cited

Cameron, James, director. Aliens. 20th Century Fox, 1986.

Cook, Pam, and Philip Dodd. “Feminism and Aids.” Women and Film: a Sight and Sound Reader, Scarlet Press, London, 1997.

Harrison, Kathryn. “We’Re No Angels.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Sept. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/books/review/harrison.html. Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.

Scott, Ridley, director. Alien. 20th Century Fox, 1979.

Tinkcom, Matthew, and Amy Villarejo. “‘You’Ve Been in My Life so Long I Can’t Remember Anything Else.’” Keyframes: Popular Cinema and Cultural Studies, Routledge, London, 2001.

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Word Count :1623

[blackbeauty422-blog]

How Ellen Ripley “Misbehaved” Her Way Into History

Maimuna Gassama

 Professor Smalls

ENG 3600

22 February 2017

How Ellen Ripley Misbehaved her way into History

Most of the historical records many people have of women are often of wives, mothers, and daughters as they were remembered in funeral eulogies. The funeral eulogies were some of the sole records of women who lived and labored in silent obscurity. The women that lived and labored in silent obscurity were “well behaved”. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s book: “Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History” has etched the slogan “Well behaved women seldom make history” into the hearts of all young women in the world who wish to find their place in history. The slogan resonates with many, if not all historically relevant women. As early as archaic times Amazons who were regarded as “women warriors” made history because they asserted their presence in a world that instructed women to remain silent and submissive. Harriet Tubman broke the rules of her time, and single handedly leading thousands of slaves to their freedom. Rosa Parks refused to give her seat up on the bus for a white man. Margaret Thatcher becoming the world’s first female prime minster, and coming to be known to the world as the “iron lady”. Hillary Clinton fighting her way to making history as the first women the presidential nomination for a major political party. All three of the above women can be considered rebels of their time, and can attest to having to rebel against the societal rules of their time to make history. They had to redefine the boundaries of womanhood.   The same thing can be said about the heroine of the Alien movie franchise, Ellen Ripley. Ripley‘s character breaks the rules on and off the screen, and she too can attest to having to “misbehave” to find her place in history.

Ripley was first introduced in the Alien debut in 1979. This was the very same year Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister. In the original Alien script Ripley was supposed to be cast as a male, but the last minute change of gender may have been the single most important decision for the Alien movie franchise. Regarded by many as the first and best action heroine, Ripley like many historically relevant women, misbehaved. Initially Ripley is the only voice of reason in Alien when she suggests that Dallas not be let back onto the ship because it violates protocol, but the men on the ship overpower her and her suggestion is disregarded. Her lack of a maternal or nurturing instinct when she suggested that they not let Kane back on board could have saved the entire ship. In making this decision she followed the rules of The Company, but rebelled against the rules and expectations attached to women at that time. Had her opinion been taken into consideration she would have been the heroine much earlier in the movie. However, Ripley “misbehaving” in that specific scene was the first of many. Her suspicions of The Company and Ash from the very beginning are examples of “misbehaving” in their own sense. While all the other crewmembers trusted their employer and the motives of the employer, Ripley remained cautious. Throughout the movie we see that she does not just take things for what they are, instead she tackles tasks with steel determination, and takes matters into her own hands. Amy Taubin’s explanation about the Alien movie franchise being related to feminism and aids and how alien was basically a male anxiety fantasy is accurate. It is accurate on the surface level described by Taubin as being because of the outrage connected to male impregnation, but on a deeper level it also speaks to fears of societal gender role extinction. Ripley was not submissive, she did not show her maternal side until the end of the movie, and most importantly she did not wait around to be saved. At the time of the release of Alien, the feminist movement was growing at an extreme rate, the first female head of state in Britain a world super power had just been elected into office, and Ellen Ripley took to the screen for the first time. Women on and off screen were “misbehaving” and establishing the confines their gender put them in.

In Aliens Ripley follows suit of her character in Alien when she decides to go back and help the families, despite suffering from PTSD and knowing what The Company that originally sent her out there are capable of. In Aliens Ripley takes on a more maternal role, but she is still the same rebel she was from Alien. Ripley learns that her daughter has died while she was gone. Leaving nothing behind, but her cat, Ripley embarks on another journey only to be welcomed with a little girl named Newt, and a crew of marines who have no regard for her opinion. Like Alien, Ripley is underestimated in her opinion and ability. It can be assumed that the writers of Aliens included Newt to make Ripley seem almost more human. Similarly, the same thing can be explained for another “misbehaving” woman, Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is often criticized for being to “robotic”. In an effort to make her what news outlets have called more “human” she has been forced to make comments about her granddaughter in many of her opening remarks on the 2016 Presidential campaign trail. Caroline Joan Picart describes Ripley as being ruthless, a survivor, a destroyer, and a being incapable of emotion in her writing on Ripley as an interstitial character. She also mentions that Ripley is not detached from her “powers” as a woman. Picart describes Ripley as such in relation to Alien Resurrection, but the same characteristics can be applied to Ripley in Aliens. In Aliens Ripley was ruthless when she went into the Alien’s nest and came in contact with the queen Alien. She was a survivor and destroyer when she had to fight and destroy to avoid being impregnated from an egg planted by the lawyer she trusted. However, in Aliens Ripley became more and more capable of showing emotion, especially when Newt came into play. This translates into her not being detached from her “powers” as a woman. She used her “powers” to make Newt feel comfortable throughout the movie. This not only benefited Newt and her well-being, but also helped Ripley and the rest of the team, because Newts knowledge of the environment helped them immensely. So in Aliens we see Ripley slightly start “behaving” by taking on a motherly role, but see that she is still more than capable of “misbehaving” when we think about how she used the motherly role to her own advantage, and how she returned back to the ship against her better judgment to save that “asset” (Newt) and destroy another “mother’s” reproductive hub. Mothers for the most part do not take on a motherly role for a return; they do it in selfless interest.

           The book Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History studies the women’s suffrage movement in the chapter titled “Slaves in the Attic,” by concentrating on the suppression of race and gender. At the end of the movie Aliens, as mentioned by Taubin, the part when Ripley yells “get away from her bitch” to the alien who is about to hurt Newt is extremely misogynistic and racist. The racial relevance in this scene also points to the favorite scapegoat of the Reagan/Bush era- the black welfare mother. Taubin’s analysis of both race and gender in relation to the book shows the importance women having long perceived their status as analogous to that of blacks and other racial minorities. In understanding both perspectives we understand the importance of both good behavior being equally as necessary as “bad” behavior. This is relevant for Harriet Tubman, Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton, and Ripley.

In “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”, Ulrich examines an essential moment in women’s lives, describing the ways in which they broke conventional behavior in order to make a place in history. The phrase points to the reasons that women’s lives have limited representation in historical narrative, and goes on to look at the type of people and events that do become public record. There are so many remarkable women throughout the world some are mothers, some are lawyers, and some are both, but history has shown that to find their place in history they must rebel against the rules and confines they are bound in. Ripley did just that. Ripley is a normal woman. She does not possess any type of super human strength. Instead she is brave, witty, and confident. Throughout the Alien movie franchise we see Ripley find her place in history on the big screen and off the big screen. Her character in the movies defied what was expected of women in action movies, and her character off screen was a beacon of hope in the midst of the evolving world around her. Ripley was a heroine for the Nostromo, for Newt, and for the neoliberal era. Ellen Ripley was not “well behaved” and because of that she found her place in history.

 Works Cited

 Cameron, James, director. Aliens. 20th Century Fox, 1986.

 Cook, Pam, and Philip Dodd. “Feminism and Aids.” Women and Film: a Sight and Sound Reader, Scarlet Press, London, 1997.

 Harrison, Kathryn. “We’Re No Angels.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Sept. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/books/review/harrison.html. Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.

Scott, Ridley, director. Alien. 20th Century Fox, 1979.

Tinkcom, Matthew, and Amy Villarejo. “‘You'Ve Been in My Life so Long I Can't Remember Anything Else.’” Keyframes: Popular Cinema and Cultural Studies, Routledge, London, 2001.

 Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

 Word Count :1623 

[robedisimo]

Re-view review: Prometheus [FULL SPOILERS]

[Disclaimer: this review is based on the Italian dub of the film. As such, all opinions on the quality of dialogues and acting are subjective and partial.

This is a film I did originally watch in a theatre, but at a time when this blog wasn’t yet up and running. This review is based both upon that first experience and a second viewing on home video.

The main reason I’m doing this is to avoid spending half of my upcoming review of Alien: Covenant talking about this dud. Needless to say, spoilers ahoy. Let’s friggin’ go.]

“I guess it’s a good thing you can’t be disappointed”, says a wholly unlikeable and un-scientific scientist to a sociopathic robot roughly midway through Prometheus’s runtime. We are, unfortunately, human, and so we can’t claim that privilege.

When the first trailer for Prometheus came online, a good portion of the nerdsphere erupted in joy. It looked good, man. One lengthy and successful viral marketing campaign later, the actual film reached theatre screens and... it still looked awesome, but it felt pretty bad. “Disappointment” was the right word for it, considering that it came fifteen years after the last proper instalment in the Alien franchise – and twenty-six years after the last good one, for those of us counting.

Much of the point, of course, was that this film wasn’t really an Alien instalment at all. Despite beginning its life in the early 2000s as a story concept going by the title of Alien: Engineers, the final product was less of a direct prequel and more of a thematic and aesthetic cousin of the original franchise. That in and of itself would be a slight letdown for fans, but definitely not enough to file the movie away as a failure. But boy, did it get worse from there.

Simply put, Prometheus is a dumb film. It just is. And, as many times before – if you take anything away from my reviews let it be this – it’s mostly a matter of scripting. In this specific instance my woes have a first and last name: Damon Lindelof. The guy is perhaps most notorious as the co-creator and showrunner of Lost, for never writing an actually decent film in his entire career (the closest he ever got being Star Trek: Into Darkness, not exactly a ringing endorsement) and for being capable of making Brad Bird direct a bad movie (2015′s Tomorrowland).

Some noble soul on the Internet described Prometheus as “Alien vs. the idiots”. An apt descriptor, if not for the fact that there’s no Alien in sight; the other part, though, is entirely accurate: not one single decision made by the script, or indeed by the characters in it, is understandable, believable, or relatable. The participants in an unprecedented scientific mission involving two years of cryosleep are briefed about the mission’s objective after getting to their destination. A scientist removes his helmet simply because the atmosphere on an unknown planetoid suddenly registers as containing enough oxygen, without scanning for pathogens... and everyone else in his scientific crew shrugs and follows suit. The guy who brought drones actively 3D-mapping the structure he’s in gets lost. A biologist decides to touch an unknown, blatantly hostile alien creature rising from Ominous Goo™. People earnestly seem to believe that running alongside the trajectory of a vertical object toppling in your direction is a better idea than stepping aside and watch it roll over. And more.

It’s all just a grievous betrayal of what the franchise used to stand for. The Ripley in the original Alien was a sensible, rule-adhering person who constantly pointed out the risky decisions made by her teammates; James Cameron’s Aliens actively subverted clichés by painting its space marines as competent and battle-efficient, which only heightened the terror of seeing them ruthlessly dispatched by the Xenomorph infestation. Of course a horror movie needs its characters to make a couple bad decisions in order to facilitate the plot: in a sane world everyone would just take a look around, say “nope”, and hop on the first rocket home. But Prometheus is one continuous, uninterrupted moment of idiocy on the part of its entire cast. It’s one thing to ask your audience for suspension of disbelief; it’s another to place a sign reading “you must be this dumb to ride” outside the theatre.

What’s worse, every single cringe-inducing moment in the script could’ve been handled in a way that made sense without altering one single story beat, and that’s even discounting all the elements of the script which simply don’t make any sense whatsoever. What was the point of the “watching dreams through a cruddy Photoshop filter” sequence? Why was the fact that Weyland is alive and on board the ship treated like a big plot twist, when it could’ve just as easily been transparent from the get-go? What does the useless character of Vickers gain from being “revealed” as Weyland’s daughter? And why oh why is Weyland played by Guy Pearce in make-up that would make Keir Dullea blush, instead of, I don’t know, an actually elderly actor?

Most of these questions have the same answer, of course: script tampering. As stated before, Prometheus was once Alien: Engineers, and that original script was the work of one Jon Spaihts, who you might know as the writer of Passengers (coincidences are weird) and co-writer of Marvel’s Doctor Strange. His original script was definitely less of an assault on common sense; for one thing, Weyland was overtly in charge of the expedition from the very beginning, without the need to keep his presence pointlessly secret from the crew. As for his casting, I can only assume that at some point the character was supposed to show up as his younger self, either through flashbacks – as indeed he did in a promotional pre-release video – or some more contrived plot tomfoolery. Either way, it’s awkward.

Then Lindelof came on board and, well, did his thing, which left me to wonder whether his portrayal of scientists was informed by some hidden grudge on his part: was he bullied by science majors for attending film school? Is he a secret Scientologist with an agenda to make the bad eggheads look stupid? We may never know. Luckily for us, unlike some other guy I could mention – and if you find it strange that most of my script-related grievances keep being aimed at Fox productions... sue me, I guess – he seems to have a trend of blowing it once and not being offered the job back: Alien: Covenant is in the more capable hands of John Logan, which gives me a smidgen more hope for it.

I don’t want this review to be all complaints, so let’s briefly go over what’s good about the movie. For one thing, the cast is pretty neat: Michael Fassbender obviously steals the show as the passive-aggressive android David, and Noomi Rapace gives a suitably distressed performance throughout, doing her best with the dialogue she was given. As to Charlize Theron and Idris Elba, I can only say that the amount of talent involved in this film definitely exceeds what it was worth.

In addition, the plot isn’t all bad. Prometheus does manage to deliver a couple good horror moments; it’s all rather seen-before, but the harrowing C-section sequence briefly brings the franchise back to its shocking “sexual horror” roots, easily positioning itself as the most memorable scene in the whole affair.

And lastly, Ridley Scott’s direction can hardly be described by an adjective other than “pristine”. While I don’t always appreciate his movies, I’m constantly amazed by how Scott’s directorial style keeps updating itself: far from being an obsolescent has-been, he keeps cranking out features that could easily pass for something made by a young, emergent filmmaker. So I’ll say this: just as those first trailers suggested, Prometheus is an often gorgeous movie, absolutely dripping with visual atmosphere.

Is that enough to redeem it? Hell, no. This was a mediocre movie, and we deserved better given what we were promised. Let’s hope Covenant can deliver something more substantial, and maybe – by answering some of the many questions Prometheus left open – make its predecessor slightly better in hindsight. The last good Alien film was now thirty-one years ago.

[Verdict: MIXED TO NEGATIVE]