#but this is what's known as Epic Cinematic

[felassan]

Paste Magazine: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s Creative Director Talks Restoring the Lore'

Rest of post under cut due to length and possible spoilers.

"“I was the one cinematic person who always snuck their way into all the writing meetings because I love storytelling,” [John] Epler tells Paste. “I love narrative, and they wanted me to be Narrative Director on the franchise.” When the Creative Director position opened up later on, Epler was primed for the role thanks to his experience across multiple aspects of game design.  ‘They wanted someone who had a good relationship with the people on the team, who could work across disciplines, and who knew the story,” Epler explains. “You know, knew the franchise and its storytelling. Because I think for Dragon Age in particular, narrative is such a core part of the franchise’s identity. They wanted someone who could operate in that space, but also knew how to work with gameplay, work with design, work with art, and that was something that, with both QA and cinematics, I had learned to do. I think just a history of being always willing to do whatever was necessary and also having good relationships with most people on the team helped me out.” As creative director on Veilguard, Epler worked with a team that fluctuated in size from a dozen to several dozen depending on which phase of development it was in. And given Epler’s history with cinematic design, that team worked closely with narrative to craft the kind of epic story Dragon Age and Bioware are known for. “Storytelling is huge, probably the biggest part of Dragon Age: The Veilguard,” Epler reminds us."

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"Paste: When you’re bringing back a series after a decade, how do you decide what threads to pick back up on, which characters to use, which lore to focus on, etc.? John Epler: It is going to sound very cliche, but it is true: It honestly comes as we build it. We knew a couple of core parts of the story. From the end of Trespasser, for good or for ill, we pretty much determined where we were going and what we were going to be doing. It was about the chase, the search for Solas. Solas had been very clear in his ambitions to end the world at the end of Trespasser. And, you know, at the end of the very final scene of Trespasser, we stabbed a knife, a dagger, into the map on Tevinter. So we kind of knew we wanted to go to Tevinter. We knew we wanted to chase Solas. Now that said, as the story started being constructed, and we discovered, okay, where else do we want to go, what characters make the most sense in this story, that kind of determines what lore threads we want to start pulling on. So without getting too much into spoilers, obviously, Scout Harding has a story that’s very focused on the dwarves and their history; Shery Chee started writing Harden’s ark, and realized, okay, this is actually something we’re going to want to dive into more deeply. Belarra’s story is very focused on the ancient elves, not just the gods, but who they were. So that became a lore thread we wanted to pull on.  As far as returning characters for us, it really does come down to who has the most to say about what’s going on in the world. Who is the most likely to be involved in this particular story. And I think, most importantly, this is something that we always talk about, is who has more to say in their story, whose story isn’t over. Because one of the things that I don’t necessarily want to do, I don’t want to bring back a character just so they show up and then disappear. That doesn’t necessarily do that character justice, but it also contributes to what you do see in some franchises, which is a sense of small world syndrome, where there’s literally 30 or 40 important people in this whole world, and they all somehow know each other.  But again, you know, you see Morrigan in the in the previews, and as we’re writing the stories like, well, of course, Morrigan, who is the daughter of Flemeth, who was at least an aspect of the goddess Mythal, one of the ancient elven gods, she probably has something to say or something to do in a story about the last two elven gods escaping. So, yeah, it comes down to who has something interesting to say, who has something more to say in their story, and who do we feel makes the most sense for where we’re going and what we’re doing."

"Paste: Sticking to the long gap between the last two games, what are the challenges in trying to make a satisfying continuation of that story without making it impenetrable for new players who maybe weren’t old enough to have really played Dragon Age in the past? John Epler: Well, I think it was funny because, on the one hand, yeah, the challenge is, you’re trying to tell another chapter of a story that’s been dormant for at this point nearly a decade. But it’s funny because I do think that actually ends up working to our benefit. For the second question, we cannot assume anything about what players remember. Because even people who were playing Origins, were playing Inquisition, all the DLC, they may not have done so for quite some time. And obviously some players are going to like—I mean, I see it all on social media, people doing their final Inquisition playthrough before Veilguard, which is great, but you have to assume that people don’t remember everything that happened. You have to re-onboard them back to the world, back to the lore, and you’re also bringing in new players. I think honestly, for Veilguard, one of the things that’s worked the most to our benefit is that this is a continuation of that story, but the context changes so dramatically within the first hour. You know you’re going after Solas, you know the first mission. We’ve always said we wanted it to feel like the last mission of a different game. But then you get to him, the ritual crumbles, the gods come out. And now, even if you’ve been following this story up to this point, for everyone, it’s just a sharp left turn. Solas is no longer the central antagonist of this at this moment, it’s now these two new figures, which means Rook, you know, you as a player character, but also the player themselves… You need to bring them back into this story, because nobody, including the people who’ve been playing forever, know what’s going on at this point. So it’s actually a really great way to do the first couple of hours, because you can’t assume everyone is coming into it with the same level of grounding in the story itself. Some people are gonna have more lore. And one of the things we do try to do is, anytime we introduce a proper lore term, I use Venatori as an example, we always try to pair it with a more commonly understood phrase. So “Venatori” and “cultists” always go together in the first few hours of the game. “Evanuris” and “elven gods” always go together in the first few hours of the game, but done in a way that doesn’t feel like the game is like, “Hey, don’t worry, we’re going to tell you everything.” It feels natural the way the people in the world talk about it. So you encounter Strike and Irelin, two of the Veil Jumpers, early on, and they use the terms interchangeably in a way that allows players who don’t know as much about the world to get what all these things mean. Like I said, it’s just the context of the stories. The story shifts so dramatically in those first couple hours that everyone is catching up, even the characters, even, you know, Harding is still trying to figure out what the heck is going on."

"Paste: Speaking of what’s going on, in Veilguard we have a new character as the protagonist, Rook. What’s happening with the Inquisitor and the protagonists from the first two games? What are they doing in this world now, assuming they survived their games? John Epler: One of our storytelling philosophies is, for us, especially when it comes to importing, is unless we explicitly say so, assume that those characters are still around. So what we do, because this is the story of Solas and the Inquisitor has a very direct tie to Solas, the Inquisitor does show up in Veilguard. I’m not going to tune into spoilers, or what the role is, but it would have been very strange for us to tell the story of Solas without having the Inquisitor involved, because, again, they were part of that story. As to the previous two protagonists, they’re still around; that said, their personal arcs, their stories that they were part of in their games, aren’t as directly tied into this story, either narratively or geographically. We’re now in the north of Thedas. So the Hero of Ferelden, who you know, if your hero survived, one of the things we talked about is they were looking for a cure to the Calling. They’re not going to necessarily be involved in this because they weren’t tied to the elven gods, and the blight is still present elsewhere. And Hawke, depending on what you did in Inquisition, may be deep in the Fade, or they may have gone to work with the Wardens and also engage with the Hero of Ferelden at some point. So we’re not going to say much about them because they’re not directly related to the story, but we want players to understand the fact that we’re not saying anything about them because they’re still alive. They’re still doing something."

"Paste: A lot has changed in the world of games and game design in the last decade. How has the creative process of creating a Dragon Age like Veilguard changed over that time? How was making Veilguard different than Inquisition? John Epler: I’d say the biggest change for me has been leaning much more heavily into pre-production on everything. So one of the things that we’d done on Inquisition, I was a cinematic designer on it, we didn’t really have the sense of storyboarding, of previsualization the way we do now. But with Veilguard, one of the things we did very early on is we built the entire story in Twine so we could play through and see the interaction points, see the word branch, and get the sense of how it was flowing, how it was coming together. Beyond that, very heavy use of previsualization, whether storyboards or actual white box, in-engine—or, I say “in-engine,” but, you know, in Maya—models, moving together, figuring out how these shots work. But I mean, ultimately, a lot of the same processes are in use now that we did then. Writing does peer reviews, they still do the same peer reviews. Take your work, you put it in front of the group, and you basically say tear it apart. Let me know what works, what doesn’t work. But I do think the other thing that’s been a great change since Inquisition is there’s a lot more sense of… if you’re building a level, you’re not just bringing in the level designers and level artists, you’re bringing in the gameplay people, you’re bringing in writing, you’re bringing in, you know, all these different groups to kind of build the feel, build the shape. Not to say Inquisition wasn’t collaborative, but I will say, as someone who worked on it, I felt much more like each pod was kind of an entity onto itself, you know, doing this thing, but not really touching the other parts of the game. In Veilguard, we very much wanted people to understand how their work fit into the whole that we were building. So there was a lot more sense of collaboration. And then, you know, more practically, COVID happened while we were making this game and brought work-from-home, remote work in general. I’m doing this interview from my basement right now, but in general, people are working more distributedly, so there becomes a much higher premium on communication. And like, we use Slack pretty extensively, and the sense of like, talking to people as much as you need to, as much as you can communicate broadly, and information sharing, I think, has become a much bigger part of it."

"Paste: So having the different departments less siloed, like it used to be, how has that impacted the day-to-day experience for a Bioware employee. Are they working more or less hours now that things are more collaborative? John Epler: I think it depends on who you are. And, I mean, I’d say generally less but again, it depends. I will say for myself, I have difficulty because of work-from-home. And this is a personal thing. I don’t always have the best separation between work and life because sometimes it’ll be like, nine o’clock at night and you’ll be like, oh, you know what? I just had this really great idea, I’m going to hop on and do something about it. That used to mean driving back to the office. So I will say now I’m not in the office, which is great. For me, one of the greatest things about this has been, I have a personal rule of I don’t ever do work between the time my kids come home and when they go to bed, which means I get to be fully involved as a parent. But then, like I said, 9:30 comes along [and the kids are in bed], and, you know, I think because I’m creative director, it’s a little bit different. I gotta jump in and be like, oh, I want to do this. So I think, you know, it depends on the person. But I think what it’s done is, in general, allowed a lot more freedom in defining your hours. And we do have some people who are not morning people, so maybe they don’t get up and jump on as early, but then I’ll see them later at night, and they’re doing the work that they would have done. And I think that freedom for me has been, and I think I can speak for a lot of people, has been probably the best part of how things have changed."

"Paste: So something else that’s changed in games over the last decade, I guess it really became standard right before Inquisition came out, and it’s something that’s been a constant problem for many people who are creatives in many different mediums. But some of the fans and fan accounts online and how they react to games and designers and games media, starting with what they call GamerGate. What are your thoughts on that type of fan interaction and how has it impacted the Veilguard team? John Epler: Anytime you get fan feedback, the question I always ask is, what is it that they’re actually saying? And, you know, sometimes it is literally what’s coming out, what they’re typing. But a lot of times, from whatever group it’s from, there’s a sense that they’re speaking to something deeper, something that’s, you know… I think ultimately, for me, it comes down to understanding and being confident in your vision which means you take the fan feedback, you can look at it, you can decide what you do or don’t do with it. But one of the most—I don’t want to say challenging, but one of, I think, the easiest traps to fall into is a feeling that you need to be, “oh God, they don’t like this, and they don’t like this, change this, change this.” And I think there’s a sense of, if you have a vision that you’re comfortable with, are confident in, you continue to stick with that vision, you can make make adjustments, make tweaks based on what people get excited or don’t get excited about. But I think the other side of it is, when you’re releasing news, you’re doing press events, you’re talking about the game, you’re only giving people a small slice and a decision that may, for them, like, “I cannot believe that, why would they do this,” makes a lot more sense when you know the context of the decision as a whole. And I’ll say it for myself, one of the bigger examples of this was when the Yakuza series went from action to JRPG, turn based RPG, and I’m like, “Oh, this is so weird. I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about this. You know, this feels like a very strange shift.” When I played the game, like, “oh yeah, holy smokes, this makes so much sense.” They made it make sense narratively. They made it make sense from the gameplay perspective. So I always try to remind myself, like we know the game as a whole. We know all the pieces and how they fit together. When you get that feedback again, you can look at it. Some feedback is obviously better than others. Some feedback is more, you know, is more interesting, and more does more for us than others. But again, it comes down to know the game you’re building, be confident in the game you’re building, and don’t try to design by committee, because ultimately, everyone has a different thing that they want out of the game, and a lot of people, even themselves, will have two very contradictory things that they want out of a game. So you have to be careful not to overreact and water down what you’re building into something that I would describe as, you know, mushy. You don’t ever want to be in the mushy middle. You want to make a strong statement with your game and how your vision evolves, and stick with that."

"Paste: Where do you hope to see Dragon Age go from here? John Epler: Honestly, I love telling stories in this world, and I think one of the fun things about the ending of this game and some of the seeds that it sows for the future is the sense that everything you thought you knew, maybe you weren’t as right as you thought you were. And that stuff like using the unreliable narrator. It’s fun to be able to take that and apply it to things that you as a player experienced, and then see that there’s an additional layer. Context that you didn’t have at the time that now throws into questions some of what’s going on. So again, I’m trying to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers. But I do like the idea of—because one of the things, the other side of it is Thedas is one continent in this world. There’s still a whole other world out there. And I think, you know, for myself, I kind of want to know what’s out there. I kind of want to know what’s going on in a world where, over the last 15 years, Thedas has almost ended the world three times by themselves. If you’re from a different continent, how are you feeling about that? I’m gonna guess, probably not great. So I think there’s a lot of fun stories to tell there. We haven’t said much about the rest of this world. So there’s just this giant blank canvas for us to start playing in, which I think is, for me, the most exciting thing about moving forward with this franchise."

[source]

[therealvinelle]

I want to get into old movies (say 1930s to maybe 1980s) because I watched Casablanca and it was really good, so I followed it up with Sunset Boulevard (1950) which was also really good. Then a friend recommended Night of the Comet (1984) which was very different but really good too. I think the old movies which survived this long were better written then most of the stuff that comes out now.

Sooo... do you have any favorite old movies? Or just general recommendations (would also be interested in Muffin's recs if she's got any)

This is my third time typing this out for you... browser keeps reloading.

I do love older movies, you have come to the right place, @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin loves older movies too (I'm saying "older", not "old", since 1980's movies aren't old and I refuse to believe they are).

I'll give you my recs by genre, not decade.

And this list is really a list of the movies that came to mind as I sat down to type this, so please, please come back with a more specific request as 1930's-1980's really covers... most of the movies that have been made.

Action

Jaws Very famous movie, this is Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People but with sharks.

Terminator What do you do if you lose the war, but you have a time machine? Travel back in time to kill your enemy's mother before she can birth him. Meanwhile in the 1980's Sarah Connor is having a very bad day.

Epics, romance, biographical and historical (yes, I'm lumping these together)

Amadeus About a man who is not Mozart, and upset about the fact.

Bridge on the River Kwai One of my all-time favorite movies: man is torn between loyalty to his country, and building a great bridge (this is a misleading summary: he's not torn at all, bridge wins hands down). The ending is parodied in Tropic Thunder, if you've seen that movie.

Dangerous Liaisons (1988) Sexy French aristocrats conspire to ruin each other's lives with sex.

Doctor Zhivago By my favorite director, this is a love story that really feels like Lawrence of Arabia if Lawrence was a woman and they were in Russia.

Godfather I and II Not overrated.

Lawrence of Arabia Man keeps trying to quit his job because sometimes all desert and no break from desert makes Lawrence a homicidal boy. Allenby says "Nonsenese, chap, you're doing wonderfully!" Cinematic history is made.

Horror and thrillers

The Exorcist I sometimes wonder if this movie should not have been made, because lesser movies have tried to recreate what Exorcist managed so well for decades, and all they've done is make bad movies that make me wish I was watching the Exorcist.

Nosferatu The year was 1922, no real precedent for copyright infringement had been had, and the producers of this movie which is definitely not Dracula by Bram Stocker were shocked and appalled they were... sued?? For theft of intellectual property? No!!! Coincidentally the most faithful adaptation of Dracula by Bram Stoker in existence. And free literally everywhere since it's 102 years old, you can watch this movie on its wikipedia page.

Sunset Boulevard While it's a well-known fact that a lot of silent movie actors and actresses were unable to adjust to the change when "talkies" were introduced, and they subsequently lost their careers, the window for casting one such washed up actress has long since closed. Sunset Boulevard, released in 1950, was able to do this however which makes it all the more meta and delightful.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? The only two people who hate each other more than the sisters this movie is about, were the actresses who played them. To the point of Joan Crawford sabotaging the movie's chances with the Oscars, because she hated Betty Davies that much (Betty Davies called her a stupid idiot for doing this).

Musicals

Fiddler on the Roof Just watch it.

My Fair Lady "The rain in Spain falls mainly on Henry Higgins because he's stupid."

Westerns

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidd Fun romp about two charming criminals, and how good things don't always last.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly I frankly forget what the plot was for this one, I just remember having a great time watching it.

Foreign section

Det syvende innseglet (The Seventh Seal) A knight plays a game of chess with Death.

Jean de Florette + Manon des Sources French accountant moves to the countryside to farm rabbits, this does not go well for him. In the sequel, his daughter has gotten interesting.

La vita è bella (Life is Beautiful) When we watched this in Italian class I had to leave during the first half to go the school nurse, came back during the second half. Greatest whiplash of my life.

Ladri di bicicletta (Bicycle Thieves) Some poor fool looked at Italy after WWII and thought "I bet people want a depressing movie about poverty". The movie bombed, but it's very good and I recommend it.

Ran King Lear, but in Japan.

Veiviseren (Pathfinder) First ever Saami movie, based on an old legend. Strongly recommend.

Bonus: TV shows

Columbo (first two seasons only) Sometimes you're the cleverest little criminal in the world :) but there's a stupid man in a stupid coat who won't stop asking you stupid questions about things he shouldn't be so obsessed about because it's making you look guilty (which you are but he's being rude!)

I, Claudius Fantastic about the imperial Roman family in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. And available for free on youtube!

The Prisoner Unnamed man tries unsuccessfully to leave a beautiful village. You can watch the episodes in any order you like, doesn't matter, he's not getting out of that village.

Bonus: 90's movies

Goodfellas Hilarious, horrible, and so entertaining. A mafia movie about horrible people who like money.

Se7en One of the only noir movies I've liked, this is something of a comfort movie for me. This and Silence of the Lambs are mandatory yearly watches for me. Watch this and you'll finally get all those "WHAT'S IN THE BOX??" jokes.

Silence of the Lambs Possibly my favorite feminist movie, to the point where I sincerely believed this was appropriately described as a chick flic. It's the film where Clarice Starling discovers the only person who'll treat her like an equal is the serial killer cannibal.

The Usual Suspects Your parents have seen this movie, and it was huge for them.

Total Recall Just a great adaptation of one of my favorite short stories.

Unforgiven THE Western movie, what you should do is watch a bunch of Clint Eastwood Westerns and then wrap it up with this one because it's a sequel to all of them.

Bonus: directors to look for

Ingmar Bergman (watch his movies and discover a lot of the films you like are just remakes of his things)

Clint Eastwood (a lot of his movies are newer, but he's so good. You should watch his things, I promise you will find one you like.)

Blake Edwards (fantastic comedic director, same sense of humor as Muffin and myself if that tells you anything)

Alfred Hitchock (he's not in fact overrated)

David Lean (god of directors)

Pier Paolo Pasolini (huge name in Italian cinema)

Steven Spielberg (also not overrated)

Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, among others. Hilarious director)

Please. Give me a more specific genre.

[watchnrant]

Daisy Johnson: Marvel’s Hidden Powerhouse Deserves the Spotlight

Daisy Johnson, better known to some as Quake, is one of those Marvel characters who, despite being packed with potential, often flies under the radar. With her complex backstory and incredible abilities, Daisy stands out as a character who could easily take center stage in the Marvel Universe. Yet, despite her many contributions to various teams and storylines, she remains one of Marvel’s most underappreciated heroes.

The Origin of a Seismic Hero

Daisy Johnson’s story begins with her debut in Secret War #2 (2004). Born to the supervillain Mr. Hyde and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Daisy inherited more than just a complicated legacy — she developed seismic powers that allow her to generate powerful earthquakes. These abilities immediately set her apart, making her one of the most formidable characters in Marvel’s roster. But Daisy isn’t just another hero with an impressive skill set; she’s a trained S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, a force to be reckoned with in her own right.

Throughout the years, Daisy has proven herself time and time again. As part of the Secret Warriors, she worked directly under Nick Fury, handling threats that required the utmost discretion and skill. For instance, her leadership during the “Secret Warriors” storyline showcased her strategic mind and ability to navigate complex missions, yet these moments often didn’t get the spotlight they deserved. Similarly, her role in the “Avengers: Standoff!” storyline, where she played a crucial part in resolving the conflict, further cemented her status as a key player. However, despite these significant contributions, Daisy’s moments of glory have often been overshadowed in the broader Marvel narrative.

The Missed Opportunity in Marvel Comics

What’s frustrating about Daisy’s journey in the comics is how often she’s been pushed to the sidelines. Despite her vast potential, Daisy is often cast as a supporting character — a powerful ally who steps in during crises but rarely takes the spotlight. This is particularly disappointing when considering the rich narrative possibilities that come with a character like Daisy.

Her seismic abilities alone could easily be the focus of epic battles or catastrophic events. Imagine a storyline where Daisy’s powers are central to averting a global disaster — her seismic waves could be both the cause and solution, adding layers of moral complexity to her actions. Coupled with her experience as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Daisy has everything needed to take on leadership roles in high-stakes missions that blur the lines between espionage and superheroics. Unfortunately, these opportunities are rarely explored, leaving Daisy in the shadow of more mainstream characters.

Learning from Marvel’s Success Stories

To understand how Daisy Johnson could transition from a supporting role to a leading one, it’s useful to look at other Marvel characters who have successfully made this leap. Take Carol Danvers, for instance. Originally introduced as Ms. Marvel, Carol underwent a significant evolution to become Captain Marvel, eventually rising to prominence as a symbol of strength and empowerment within the Marvel Universe. Her journey from a secondary character to a leading figure in both comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a testament to what can happen when a character’s potential is fully realized.

Similarly, Natasha Romanoff, who started as a supporting character in Iron Man 2, grew into one of the Avengers’ central figures, both in the comics and films. Her story arc, filled with complexity and depth, transformed her into a beloved and central figure in the MCU. These examples illustrate that with the right narrative push, characters like Daisy Johnson can ascend from the background to become vital parts of the Marvel Universe.

A Star in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

The contrast between Daisy’s treatment in the comics and her portrayal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) couldn’t be more stark. In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daisy, portrayed by Chloe Bennet, is not just a side character — she’s central to the show’s narrative. Viewers watch her evolution from a rebellious hacker named Skye into a powerful Inhuman leader, embracing her identity as Quake and becoming one of the MCU’s most formidable heroes.

The show succeeded where the comics have struggled: it recognized Daisy’s potential and gave her a fully developed character arc. She wasn’t just a member of the team — she often was the heart of it, driving the narrative forward with her growth and deepening connection to her powers. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. highlighted what makes Daisy special: her ability to balance her humanity with her extraordinary abilities, and her relentless determination to do what’s right, even when the odds are against her.

Exploring the Future: Where Could Daisy Go Next?

Looking forward, there are numerous ways Marvel could reintegrate Daisy into major storylines, giving her the spotlight she deserves. One possible direction could be to have Daisy lead a new iteration of the Secret Warriors, perhaps in response to a global crisis that requires her unique combination of intelligence, training, and seismic power. This would not only showcase her leadership abilities but also reconnect her with her roots as a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative.

Another intriguing possibility could be exploring the tension between her powers and her sense of responsibility. A storyline where Daisy is faced with a moral dilemma — using her powers at the risk of causing widespread destruction — could add layers of complexity to her character. Such a narrative could challenge her in new ways, forcing her to confront the limits of her abilities and the weight of her decisions.

Why Daisy Deserves More

Daisy Johnson has all the qualities that make for a great Marvel character: a compelling backstory, unique powers, and the potential for significant character development. Her journey from a troubled young woman with a mysterious past to a confident leader and hero is one that resonates with fans. She embodies the struggle between destiny and choice, power and responsibility, in a way that few other characters do.

It’s time for Marvel Comics to bring Daisy Johnson out of the shadows and into the spotlight she deserves. She should be leading major storylines, tackling threats that require her unique blend of intelligence, training, and raw power. There’s no reason why Daisy couldn’t be a central figure in the Marvel Universe, especially given her deep connections to S.H.I.E.L.D., the Inhumans, and the Avengers.

In a universe that’s constantly evolving, with new heroes rising to prominence, Daisy Johnson deserves to be at the forefront. Marvel has a hidden powerhouse in Quake, and it’s time they let her truly shake things up. By giving Daisy the attention she deserves, Marvel could unlock a treasure trove of untold stories, bringing new depth and excitement to their universe. The potential is there — Marvel just needs to unleash it.

FAQs

Who is Daisy Johnson, and what are her powers?

Daisy Johnson, also known as Quake, is a Marvel Comics character with the ability to generate seismic vibrations, effectively causing earthquakes. She is the daughter of the supervillain Mr. Hyde and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and she is a highly trained S.H.I.E.L.D. operative.

Why is Daisy Johnson considered underappreciated in the Marvel Universe?

Despite her significant powers and contributions to various teams, Daisy Johnson often plays a supporting role in the comics. She has not been given the same level of prominence or storytelling focus as other Marvel characters, leading her to be somewhat overlooked.

How is Daisy Johnson portrayed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)?

In the MCU, Daisy Johnson is portrayed by Chloe Bennet in the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Her character evolves from a hacker named Skye into a powerful Inhuman leader known as Quake, playing a central role throughout the series.

What potential storylines could elevate Daisy Johnson’s status in Marvel Comics?

Daisy could take the lead in a new Secret Warriors team, or she could be involved in storylines that explore the moral and physical implications of her seismic powers. These narratives would provide her with more opportunities to be a central figure.

How does Daisy Johnson compare to other Marvel characters like Carol Danvers?

Like Carol Danvers, who evolved from a secondary character into a leading superhero, Daisy Johnson has the potential to rise to prominence. Both have compelling backstories and unique powers, making them strong candidates for more significant roles in the Marvel Universe.

Why should Marvel Comics focus more on Daisy Johnson?

Daisy Johnson has a rich history, unique abilities, and the potential for deep character development. By giving her more attention, Marvel could explore new storylines and add depth to their universe, appealing to fans who enjoy complex and powerful heroes.

[demifiendrsa]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Official Gameplay Reveal

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, formerly Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store in Fall 2024.

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Overview

About

From the storytellers at BioWare comes Dragon Age: The Veilguard, an all new single-player fantasy RPG experience. This bold, heroic adventure is built to deliver on what the series is best known for: rich storytelling, fantasy worldbuilding, companions & fellowship, and a world where you matter. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you’ll embark on a quest to face powerful Elven gods and stop the destruction they’re unleashing on the world. You are known as Rook, battling on the front lines alongside a compelling cast of companions with individual storylines and motivations. In true Dragon Age fashion, companions are central to the experience and as Rook, you must rise up, rally your crew and forge relationships to become the unexpected leader others believe in.

Story

Solas, the Dread Wolf and Elven Trickster god of legend, wants to tear down the Veil that separates Thedas from the world of demons, restoring his people’s immortality and glory—even at the cost of countless lives. But his ritual goes awry, and his worst fears are realized, as two of his most ancient and powerful adversaries are released. They seek only to finish what they started millennia ago – the complete and utter domination of our world. Rook’s journey to stop these two powerful deities will span across all of Thedas to bustling cities, lush tropics, boreal forests, fettered swamps and the deepest depths, but be wary of the evil forces along the way like the Dark Spawn, Venatori Cultists and Demons of the Fade.

Key Features

Fellowship – Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s brand new companions come alive with some of the most compelling individual storylines in Dragon Age history. Expansive and dynamic stories navigate love, loss and complex choices that will affect your relationships and the fate of each member of the Veilguard. New companions like the Veil Jumper Bellara, the necromancer Emmrich, and the private detective Neve, come from iconic factions in Dragon Age lore, possessing individual skill trees and specialized gear for advanced team progression. You’ll see familiar faces, too, such as the archer Lace Harding who returns to the series as a full time companion.

Choice and Consequences – Dragon Age: The Veilguard builds on the series’ deep role-playing roots, providing extraordinary storytelling and worldbuilding, deep personalities for each companion, meaningful choices and impactful cinematic moments. The bonds you create and the relationships you forge will be affected by your choices made throughout your journey.

A Crafted Experience – As a character-driven RPG, Dragon Age: The Veilguard delivers a crafted experience that pays homage to BioWare’s history of storytelling. The Lighthouse provides a central place where you can rest, learn more about the world through conversations, while the Crossroads allows you to traverse to separate explorable regions of the world with your companions. You’ll experience more of Thedas than ever before as your story unfolds across meticulously crafted biomes and beautiful regions including Rivain, Weisshaupt, Arlathan, Minrathous, the Deep Roads and more, each inviting you to delve deeper into the narrative and uncover the mysteries of the land.

Fluid, Customizable Combat – Immersive combat blends fluid moment-to-moment controls with tactical decision-making. Players can fully customize their experience to fit their playstyle with diverse skill trees among three different classes—Warrior, Mage, and Rogue—each with unique abilities and specializations. Choose two companions to join you on your quests and unleash powerful team combos that can change the tide of any battle. Make strategic choices and direct your allies to fight, heal or stay out of the fray with the newly-added ability wheel.

Be the Leader You Want to Be – Dragon Age: The Veilguard features a robust character creation system that allows you to be the leader you want to be with a vast range of customization. BioWare has created the most comprehensive character creator in Dragon Age yet to make this story truly your own

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Dan Stevens in an exclusive interview (Google translated)

Hollywood star Dan Stevens can currently be seen in the blockbuster “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” in cinemas. The film is currently topping the box office charts and is number one worldwide. We met the charismatic actor in Los Angeles and talked to him about his current film, his next two projects and his choice of roles.

April 5, 2024 by Grace Maier

Can you share with us your first reaction when you were offered a role in Godzilla x Kong: The new empire? It's always a pleasure to work with the same people several times, but this time it was extra special as Adam Wingard, the director, is an old friend. I was also invited to play with an even older friend, Rebecca Hall, as well as Brian Tyree Henry, who I have known and admired for years. It felt like I was being asked to play with friends.

What was it like entering the universe of these iconic monsters? Did you have any ideas or expectations? It's a fun task to be asked to stretch one's imagination to the size of such cinematic titans! I've worked with CGI on an epic scale before, so it wasn't too foreign, and I was surprised at how many practical locations we had.

How did you prepare for your role in this blockbuster? Were there any unique challenges or exciting moments during filming? It was really exciting to shoot in the Australian outback, in the Daintree rainforest - this incredible ancient jungle. That sense of adventure on the way to work every day, passing crocodiles along the river banks, waiting for pythons to be removed from the set, really fueled the mood for the Hollow Earth walk in the film.

“Godzilla x Kong: The new empire” promises to be an epic clash. Without giving too much away, can you give us a hint as to how your character fits into the plot? Trapper is initially brought in to help Kong with his toothache - he is a vet for all Titan creatures - and is then approached by Rebecca Hall's character, Dr. Andrews, invited to the mission. He's a kind of happy, carefree Han Solo type, good to have around, tirelessly optimistic and impressed by little.

The film contains a lot of CGI and visual effects. What was your experience like acting in such an environment and how did it differ from previous roles? I've worked with this type of thing before so it wasn't too scary. I actually really enjoy working with a VFX team and helping to create something using our entire collective imagination. It's truly incredible to see what they achieve long after you've left the process.

Were you a fan of the Godzilla or Kong films before joining this project? How does it feel to be part of their legacy? I feel like I've known these characters my whole life: they are such an integral part of cinema history. I've loved seeing them in all their different iterations over the years and of course being asked to perform alongside them - and even fix their teeth - is a huge honor!

The film will have some intense action scenes. Can you describe one of your most memorable moments while filming these scenes? While it's not the most intense scene, the way my character is introduced - rappelling from a floating vehicle into Kong's mouth to perform large-scale dental work - was one of the more exciting stunts I had to do!

How do you think fans of the franchise will react to Godzilla x Kong: The new empire? What can they look forward to most? I want them to enjoy the ride! You'll see things you've never seen before and meet some fantastic new creatures and characters, but also maybe some familiar fan favorites...

You also have the film "ABIGAIL" coming out in April. Can you tell us a little about filming and what audiences can expect? This is a completely different kind of thrill! Essentially, it's a vampire ballerina heist movie - you know the kind - directed by the Radio Silence guys, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, who specialize in a particularly wacky brand of horror-comedy that I love .

“CUCKOO” will also be released in the summer. What particularly interested you about this film? Tilman Singer, the director, is a truly exciting new voice in cinema - he has a very distinctive style that is so captivating and artfully disturbing. I was also very curious to work with Hunter Schafer, the lead actress of Cuckoo, who is such a bright and brilliant artistic soul.

Your career is so dynamic. How do you go about choosing a role? I crave variety, challenge and surprise, so I'm often guided by the search for those things, but it can also be a certain quality in the writing, a desire to work with certain directors or actors. It's different every time!

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Julien Baker: Accomplish the Most with the Least

by Zachary Gresham | Photos by Nolan Knight

Julien Baker is more visible than ever. After her low-budget debut, Sprained Ankle, made nearly every best-of 2015 list, the 21-year-old Baker signed with Matador Records and went home to Memphis to record her next record at the legendary Ardent Studios. Turn Out the Lights was released in October of 2017 to massive acclaim from critics, and was met with extreme devotion from audiences. It is the rare record that one can wholeheartedly describe as both monastically spare and cinematically epic, putting her in the heady company of Tori Amos, Nina Simone, and Jeff Buckley. We caught up with Julien shortly after her return to Tennessee from a quick tour of Japan to talk about guitars, Ardent, Craig Silvey, reverb, and doing more with less.

Turn Out the Lights is really beautiful.

Oh, thank you!

I find it difficult to disconnect from it emotionally for a while after I've turned it off, which is the sign of a quality record.

That means a lot to hear. Thank you.

You made it at Ardent in Memphis, but you did your previous album, Sprained Ankle, at a studio in Virginia, right?

Yeah. Spacebomb Studios. Most of the songs on Sprained Ankle were recorded at Spacebomb, but there are two on there (two with percussion, "Vessels" and "Brittle Boned") that were recorded at Cody Landers' house. He's an incredible engineer.

Were you recording yourself before that?

When I was in high school, the band I was in [The Star Killers, later known as Forrister] put out a full-length [American Blues] album that we recorded entirely in Cody Landers' attic. We were all kids, and he took on this project because we were his friends. It was a labor of love, as well as a learning experience. We had no idea what to ask for and what sounded good. It's funny, looking back now on what we were trying to emulate.

What were you trying to emulate?

Well, Matthew [Gilliam] – the drummer and one of my closest friends – our biggest influences are probably Manchester Orchestra and Circa Survive. We wanted to sound big, bombastic, and theatrical, but with sinewy, reverb-y guitars. The other guitarist listened to Wilco, Guster, and folk-adult-rock. It ended up sounding half like Whiskeytown and half like Sunny Day Real Estate. Those are mixed very, very differently. Also, and this is true with youth, is that everything is more exaggerated. You want things as more drastic, colorful caricatures of themselves. I always wanted a 30-second reverb tail on my vocals. The guitars had to be super loud. Matthew had the biggest snare that was sold at the local music store, because everything had to be so powerful. A better way to put it is that it lacks taste or restraint. I learned so much every day, after school sitting in front of Cubase and crafting a record. Before I ever went to MTSU [Middle Tennessee State University], that's how I learned how automation works, why you track drums first, or why you don't want to put a whole bunch of reverb on the drum kit, even though it sounds cool as an idea.

You went to MTSU to study recording?

I did. I went to MTSU because they had a really notable and reputable recording industry program, but my thing was always live sound. There's an audio engineering major, and within that you can specialize in recording arts or live sound. I don't have the meticulous drive to pick apart a waveform in a DAW. I make my own demos, but they're simply for mapping out songs. I can't sit there and master forever. When I was a kid I learned how to use a PA, and then they would let me run the console at shows. I thought, "Well, I could do that. I know how to do simple circuits, so maybe I could work at a repair shop repairing guitars." I went to school to learn that, systems optimization, and building stages at festivals. But because we were all in the same program – all of my friends who were wearing their headphones around their neck and mixing at the campus Starbucks – those were the people who would say, "Hey, I have some extra studio time. Do you want to come in and record?" I think that it is important to keep yourself open to opportunities to gain experience.

You've got to get in there.

Hands-on experience taught me so much. I took so many classes on systems optimization, signal flow, and live sound mixing. But what taught me how to find my way in a live sound setting was doing sound for bands at venues. What taught me how to act, how to vocalize what I wanted, or the protocol inside a recording studio, was being able to spend that time. I think that's a good thing that MTSU gives you. There are resources on hand to take the theoretical knowledge from the classroom and apply it in a real setting. Otherwise, I couldn't have gotten to meet [engineer Michael] Hegner and do the first demos of what would eventually become Sprained Ankle. He was sitting in the library and asked, "Does anybody have a song they want to do? I've got a session in 30 minutes and no one to fill it." I was like, "Yeah."

Of course, you had to put the time into having a song.

I didn't think about that. Writing is always a compulsory thing, so I always have literally hundreds of voice memos.

Is that how you make your demos, just voice memos on the phone?

That's how I make the very first part; the writing process. If there's an idea while I'm playing guitar that I think is worthy of being explored, then I'll make a short little 1-minute voice demo and save it as "cool riff 85," or whatever. Then later it will be fleshed out as a song with placeholder lyrics. I finally took the plunge and got a real DAW. I use Logic now and I do those little MIDI things for keyboards. I can plug straight into a little one-input interface and have my actual guitar sounds from my pedalboard. Before that, I was using a straight-up 2005 Audacity program that I found. It was free. It looked awful. No hate on Audacity. But my version was so old.

It's a great program for cutting up samples.

Yeah. It's really limited. I guess that's how you learn. I was also using a Toshiba computer from 2006, because I held off for so long, saying, "I'm not going to buy a computer. This one works fine." It's so hard for me to give in and upgrade my gear, because I get used to working within the parameters I've become familiar with.

From that perspective, let's talk about going to Ardent Studios. Listening to the record for the first time, I kept waiting for the gigantic production to kick in. Almost all the songs have a moment where I thought, "Here it comes." But it never does.

It's really interesting to me that you say that. I felt self-conscious in the opposite way. I thought, "There're eight vocal tracks and strings, and my buddy's playing clarinet. This is so much." By comparison, it's much more expansive than Sprained Ankle. I was worried. I had this oxymoronic fear that it would be too similar to my past material and also too different, but not in the right ways. I wanted to have it be very dramatic – and have the parts that seem like soaring ballad climaxes – because I'm a sucker for that kind of dynamic. I think it's very emotive. But I also wanted to be careful that I didn't take so much of a maximalist approach that I weighed the song down, or it got to this critical mass where there's too much going on.

That's an incredibly mature perspective. I don't mean this because you're a younger person, but just in general. There are people who never get there.

Thank you. I'm going to acknowledge your compliment; I didn't take it as a thing about my age. But I agree. I think that restraint is such an important skill in music. For a long time when I was playing guitar in a band – and I think this had a lot to do with my insecurities about being a female in a male-dominated scene – but every time we played a show, I had to rip a crazy solo so that everybody knew I was "good." Still, one of my primary lurking fears about performing the material that I have today is that if I have a song that's three chords of quarter notes, everybody's going to be bored and put to sleep. But that's the challenge. Restraint is such an important thing. Just because you have every single color in your palette doesn't mean that every single color serves the painting. I think there are artists where the maximalist approach serves them well. When you think about a Bruce Springsteen record, like Born to Run. Or have you listened to Kimbra?

Yeah. A lot going on there.

Or St. Vincent. There are so many sounds; it's insane. But I think the challenge with my music is figuring out how to make it interesting while still leaving it pretty sparse. It's an interesting interplay. How many points of dynamic can you introduce into the song, as subtly as possible?

Do you go into recording feeling like you're going to do what you do live, but with a little extra?

There was this reciprocal relationship between the live and the recorded for this record. Another thing I wanted was not to say, "I don't know how I'm going to pull this off live, so I'm not going to explore this possibility." Now I do the weird play-guitar-and-piano-at-the-same-time. I decided if I wanted to have clarinet in there, then it'd be worth it to add clarinet. I think I was a lot more particular about the instrumentation on this record because I knew that it would be received in a different way. With Sprained Ankle, I was recording the songs as they had formed in my free time, using my looping pedal or whatever. With these songs, I sat down with a spiral [notebook] and mapped them out. I thought, "This song is tedious. What small embellishment can I add that will change the song enough to re-focus the listener's interest, without detracting or obscuring the totality of the song?" One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten was from Josh Scogin [of bands The Chariot and '68]. We were at a show, and we were talking about how The Chariot's records are so interesting. They'll have this incredibly heavy breakdown, but it'll be free with no time signature at all. Or the song will completely stop and then something from Atlanta AM radio will play, and then the song will pick back up. "How do you know to do that? Is it just a novelty, or what?" Josh said, "I think you have to think of what will make people back up the track because they missed a thing." You don't want to make a song that goes on in a predictable fashion without introducing new elements.

You got an incredible guitar sound on the record. You tour with a [Fender] Twin and Deluxe, right?

Yes. We recorded a lot of Turn Out the Lights on my little 1x12 Deluxe, but I also have a 2x12 Blues Deluxe that I took the speakers out of and replaced with Warehouse guitar speakers called Veteran 30s. I got the higher-wattage option because there's way more gain room before it breaks up. My one gripe about Fender amps is that they break up too soon.

By design. A lot of people want blues.

Exactly. I get it. With the Twin, it's fine. It's a really sparkly break up. The Deluxe amps, I like the warmness of them. But when you start to break up such a warm, midrange-y amp, it gets fuzzy really quickly. I really like those speakers in that amp. I use so many of my instruments partly because they sound the way I want them to, but also partly because it took so much work for me to get them to sound the way they do that maybe my goal and my ability met in the middle. Especially with the wiring. I have a [Fender] Telecaster that I modded, and it took so long for me to figure that out when I was 18, trying to read a circuit diagram on how to get your pickups to go in series or parallel, and add that little option with the 4-switcher. Once I finally did it, I was like, "This is what I want, for sure." Whether or not it was what I was going for, I was so committed to doing it.

Do you go back and forth between series and parallel?

No. I have the blue guitar, it's a Mexican-made Tele, and then I have an American Tele, which is the butterscotch one. I leave it on series all the time. You have to put aftermarket pickups in Fender guitars. The Telecaster has the plucky clarity that I like; but I think everybody plays them so hot and bright, because that's the Nashville sound. I thought of Telecasters as country music guitars until I saw Now, Now and Circa Survive on tour. Both the guitarists were playing Telecasters. I was like, "What is happening? How are you guys getting this sound out of a Telecaster?" Then I used my next paycheck to buy a Mexican Tele. I love it.

Were you using Fender amps already?

Yeah. The first amp that I used was this Vox digital combo that was bad news. Well, it wasn't bad news, because I think those amps that have the effects built-in are good for learning. I wasn't playing big shows, so why would I need a $700 amp? The first real amp I bought was the Fender I replaced the speakers in. I had it for a really long time. Then I bought the 1x12 on tour when the tubes of my other amp broke, and now I play through stereo amps. It's interesting that the idea to do that never occurred to me, even though I had two amps on hand. Even on Sprained Ankle, I played through one amp.

You use so much reverb and delay, it's perfect for what you're doing.

Sometimes we'll be at a festival and I'll play through one amp. The way that my looping system is totally jury-rigged, I can use it into the first and second channels on a Fender amp.

It's a wonderful, underused feature, having the two channels on those amps.

It is. So much of my musical knowledge is very de facto and functional, and it doesn't result in a logical understanding of the mechanisms I'm using. On my Deluxe, there're two input jacks. I'd say, "Oh, I always plug into input 2 because it sounds different, and I like that sound." I didn't know until October of 2017 that one of them is high gain and one of them is lower gain. I had no idea. It sounded different. Now I have two A-B-C-Y splitters on my board; I send out from those two channels a dry channel and a reverb channel on one amp, and then yet a third reverb channel into a different amp.

Is the reverb channel 100 percent saturated?

It's all the way on, all the time. The dry channel is there in case the two stereo outs of my looper go off, because I'm paranoid about my loop breaking and there being no safety net for me to play through. I was not always that wise. I have been brought low by humiliation, the great teacher. Now I have one fail-safe channel. The rest of my loops come out on different outputs.

Do you use the amp reverb?

I used to have it pulled up to quarter to two almost all the time, but now I like the flat character of the amp enough, and I have three or four different reverbs. The Strymon blueSky is always on. I forget that I have it on my board, because it stays on. It's the staple of my tone.

I read that you used a [Neumann] U 67 for recording your voice. Is that right?

Yeah.

Did you do a shootout, or did you know going in you wanted a 67?

We tried out that mic because Calvin Lauber, engineer for Turn Out the Lights] suggested it. On Sprained Ankle, I recorded part of it on a [Shure] SM7B. We used a couple of different microphones on that one. I don't remember what the other one was. With the Neumann, I'm very reluctant to use mics with so much crispness, because I think my voice has a tendency to get really nitty and bland.

I respectfully disagree, but go on.

Well, okay. Maybe I'm hyper-critical of my voice. But that vocal mic sounded really nice, especially in the room. Once we started tracking with that, I was like, "Yeah, I'm really, really happy with this vocal sound." It's an incredible microphone. It sounds like it's capturing what's happening to your ears with intense clarity. Whenever I make my little Logic demos, I go in there and notch out 2.5 to 3 kHz, because it sounds really annoying. When I started singing in a band, I wanted the vocals to be pushed all the way to the back and ‘verbed out. I was self-conscious about my voice. I never really wanted to be a singer. I wanted to play guitar. Then our first show came up, and we didn't have a lead singer, so I said, "I'll sing until we find a singer." Then I became the singer. Every single time we performed live, someone would say, "That was really good. You should sing louder!"

Did you try to change the way you sing?

By the time The Star Killers had been a band for a while, I would do the shouty scream thing. But then that became a gimmick of my voice. It was atonal. It was less about the pitch and more about the intensity and having the gang vocals part where everybody sings along. It took touring for a while as a solo musician for me to become completely comfortable with my voice as an instrument. That was also probably because I still smoked at the time we recorded Sprained Ankle. Singing was really taxing on my voice. When I had not smoked for a little over a week, the way that my vocal control and the timbre of my voice changed was amazing. I thought, "This cannot be real." That made me much more confident, and it made me take singing seriously. My voice was no longer just a vehicle for poetry that I was using to "Leonard Cohen" out my lyrics. I think that's also what made recording this record a lot different. I was more ambitious with what I could do.

How long did you have at Ardent Studios?

I booked out six days, intentionally. We ended up staying there 12 hours a day. Time flies when you're in the studio, because it's fun, and exciting, and interesting. I think I limited it that way because of that fear of overproducing the record. If I gave myself too much time, I would fall into a paralysis of option anxiety. In hindsight it might have been good to have a deadline, but also take a rest. Record for a week, take a month off, let the tracks sit, and then come back with fresh ears. Maybe I was over-restrained, like I was overcompensating for my fear of overproducing.

It sounds like discipline is a huge part of your whole process.

Oh, definitely. I talk about this with so many of my friends in music. This land of words like discipline, motivation, and obsession are all fluidly bound. For any of the players on the record, like Cam [Boucher] from Sorority Noise, or Camille [Faulkner], who tours with me, the way that those people interact with music is almost obsessive, but in a way that drives them to be the most optimal players they can be. Not in a competitive way. I really don't think that trying to be the best you can be means that you have to be obsessed with being the best musician out there, or being superior.

It's its own reward.

Exactly. I think the fact you say that discipline is a huge part of the record is because maybe it wasn't that I had to apply an effort to sit down and map out the songs in a spiral notebook, or think about them and listen to them over, and over again. It's what preoccupies my mind all the time, so the only way to abate the anxiety of creating is to be engaged with it. But, at the same time, that's why I only wanted to book out six days. It's really important to get a great raw sound. We did a lot of setting levels for what would basically be how the record sounded.

It's a huge advantage not to "fix it in post."

Exactly! Get it right the first time. This thing that Calvin and I would say to each other all the time is, "It's worth it." When I would record a vocal track and it was almost what I wanted, and I felt I could live with it, we could nudge a note, or we could comp it. But I had the time. I'm not flying out to L.A. to do a two-hour recording session and we have to comp it. We had the time to get it right, and it's worth it. We ended up tracking a whole bunch of weird piano, guitar, and keyboard tracks that didn't make it on the record. But what if it had been awesome? It's worth it. When you start with good ingredients and you do less work on the back-end to try to wrangle it into sounding good, it's so much easier. And it sounds very pure and more organic, because I think you can tell when a song has had to be manipulated.

You can. It's almost never going to be as good as it would have been.

Exactly. There are so many great records that are tracked live. That's how recording used to be. Now I'm going to sound like one of those people who thinks that antiquated methods of recording are the only way and swears by tape only. No, there are amazing things we can use Pro Tools for. But I think the ethos of old-school recording is getting a great live sound. I watched a documentary about Tom Dowd [Tom Dowd & The Language of Music]. He plays the faders like a keyboard. It's so cool. Whenever I watch those documentaries, I'm amazed at that process, because it's happening to those people in real time; it's just their job. They have this very colloquial relationship with the music. Chilling out with Aretha Franklin and not knowing that it would change history. What I think you glean from those is not that it was better in the past, and we should only record to tape, and only use old vintage equipment. I think the process is that you should be able to accomplish the most with the least. You should know how to utilize a room, or you should know when it's enough. I think sometimes the necessity of having only four tracks, or having only eight channels, or what have you, makes you be more discerning. The options aren't endless. The time is not endless. You make a leaner, refined version.

Craig Silvey mixed Turn Out the Lights?

Yeah. We had a mixing day with Calvin; then he and I shot some mixes back and forth. I had very specific things I wanted out of the mix. It was really observable what Craig changed, but he didn't necessarily remove or add anything. I was amazed at how much he was able to add to the tracks. I think the people we involved on the record were all ones we wanted to use, either because of their prior work, or our prior history with them, indicated that they know how to be tasteful. Especially with Craig Silvey. I knew a few of the notable records that he had done, like Arcade Fire, but when I started to look at the breadth of the work he had been a part of, it was amazing.

Did you choose Craig, or did Matador say they wanted him?

Matador brought the idea. I was reluctant because I wanted the least tampering. They said, "We have this guy we think you'd really like. Give it a chance." I'll give anything a chance; but if I didn't like it, I was ready to say, "No." We sent a test mix, and when I got it back, I was like, "We should have the record mixed by this guy." It was ultimately a collaborative effort between Calvin being so personal and central to my life as a person and a friend, and knowing what I wanted, as well as Craig's expertise and impeccable ear. It made for a really special thing.

(link)

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Tom Hiddleston Says Revisiting Loki Was ‘An Honor,’ Thanks Co-Stars for ‘Chemistry and Inspiration’

Ahead of accepting Variety’s Virtuoso Award at the Miami Film Festival, Hiddleston reflects on previous roles and impactful creative collaboration.

By Jenelle Riley

Tom Hiddleston knows “Miami.” That is, all the words to the Will Smith song titled after the famous city — a video of him reciting the lyrics once broke the Internet (not an unusual occurrence for the actor.) That was in 2012 when he was doing press for “The Avengers,” the movie that would change his life and career. It was also the same tour that last brought him to the city — but that was a whirlwind two days of press. “I do recall promoting ‘Avengers’ in Spanish and the city had a great, unique energy,” he says. “I’m really excited to be back as an explorer.”

The British actor will be returning on April 9 to the Miami Film Festival to accept Variety’s Virtuoso Award for his career achievements and will participate in a Q&A at the Adrienne Arsht Center – Knight Concert Hall. Tickets are available here.

And while Miami is known for its food and culture, the actor has one thing on his mind. “What will the weather be like?” he queries of the town’s famously balmy temperatures. “Because I’m coming from the wettest February on record in London’s history.”

Hiddleston admits it’s somewhat ironic to be receiving the Virtuoso Award there, because “when somebody says ‘virtuoso,’ I think of a dazzling soloist in an orchestra, and I feel about as far from that image as it’s possible to imagine.”

He continues: “I am the opposite of a soloist, actually. I always feel like I’m at my strongest in a team. What we do is a collective creative act and the joy of it is in the shared imagination.”

This might explain why his resume is filled with standout ensemble pieces in every genre. Hiddleston’s worked on stage — he earned a Tony nomination for his 2019 Broadway debut in “Betrayal” — the SAG Award-nominated ensemble of “Midnight in Paris,” up through his most current turn as the God of Mischief in Season 2 of the Disney+ series “Loki.”

The second season’s finale, “Glorious Purpose,” remains the highest-rated episode ever in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and brought a conclusion to an epic character arc that has spanned 14 years of Hiddleston’s life. The actor, who also served as producer on both seasons, says it would have been impossible without his “deep bench” of castmates, which includes Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino and Season 2 addition Ke Huy Quan, Oscar-winner for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

“I don’t know who said it, but there’s the phrase: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,’” he notes. “And it’s never been truer than for this show.”

Community and collaboration are perhaps his favorite aspects of the work. “I truly find the most interesting work I have discovered happens between people. You show up and ready and prepared, but you take that preparation onto the dance floor and see what there is between you. If I’ve done anything of value, it’s because of that chemistry and inspiration I receive from another actor.”

Hiddleston says that team spirit extends to his next project, “The Life of Chuck,” a big-screen adaptation of the Stephen King novella that also stars Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill and Chewitel Ejiofor. “I’m a lifelong tennis fan and I feel like being on set is like playing tennis,” Hiddleston notes. “It’s all about who you’re playing opposite and the energy back and forth between you. And I have some great partners on ‘The Life of Chuck.'”

As for continuing Loki’s story in a third season, it’s a question Hiddleston is asked pretty much every day — several times. “I truthfully don’t know,” he says. “I am so proud of where we landed in Season 2. To go from this lost, broken soul in Asgaard, and be given a second chance and learn so much about life that he actually gives himself to protect other people, has been such an honor.” For tickets to the conversation and Variety Virtuoso Award Presentation to Tom Hiddleston, visit here.

[angelosearch]

I'm kind of annoyed that FF8 was supposed to be the first game in the franchise to be all about romance, yet Squinoa only share 1 hug, never say I love you directly (they do sort of indirectly say it at separate times in Disc 3 — he says "I've fallen for you" in his head, and she admits that him saying "Just stay close to me" had started everything for her... but again, those aren't direct love confessions), and their 1 kiss panned away from them so quickly, it ended up being a discretion shot.

But... on the other hand, we are talking about a JRPG game from 1999. Eastern countries like Japan were and still are very iffy about PDA, hence why, if any kisses occur between couples in the FF universe, such kisses literally only happen once, and only between a canon couple. Of course, that doesn't really explain why, just 2 years later, in FF10, Tiduna (which I love, btw!) got a real, fully-displayed kiss... not sure what happened in the 2 years between those games to change gears like that 🤷‍♀️

Sorry, I just had that thought pop into my head and wanted to share it with you 😅😜 What are your thoughts?

Hello anon! Thank you for sharing. Haha, I am always down to talk FF8!

In terms of why the PDA was at a minimum, I think you're right that it has to do with the culture around the game. Why was FF10 so PDA heavy in comparison? This is all conjecture, but I wonder if it was an overall increase in Western influence on the company. (or just an increase in wanting to appeal to a Western audience)

Right before the release of FF10 was the release of Spirits Within. That movie required a new level of localization because of the voice acting. Then, FF10 was the first game in the franchise to require voice acting. Working with Western voice actors and translators throughout the production of the game may have had some bearing on how the story was told. Of course, FF10 was also being produced alongside Kingdom Hearts, which was a MAJOR Western Influence. I mean, it doesn't get more America than Disney, in my opinion. Whatever American executives that were working on the Kingdom Hearts storyline may have inspired changes to FF10.

Not sure if this had any bearing, but when SquareSoft was working on FF10, they were attempting to appeal to Enix for a merger. Some of their decisions around major cinematic moments may have been made to make them more competitive. I mean, when I think of 10, I definitely think of the kiss scene, so I really do think it appeals to a Western audience.

Now, in terms of if FF8 was successful in illustrating a romance... From my perspective, the way FF8 shies away from the more typical signs of love (saying the words, physical contact, etc.) makes it all the MORE romantic to me. It's like... their love transcends what is normal and expected. Maybe they don't hug and kiss much, but they do so much more. Squall carries her half way across the world on his back. Rinoa travels across time to bring Squall back to life. Squall throws himself into space. Rinoa gives Squall a metric fuck-ton of patience. Everything is so grandiose and epic, a kiss on the cheek or occasional hug, I think, would have ruined the rhythm of it all.

(Although, I am Ace, so to me, physicality and romance can exist in two completely separate spheres.)

In terms of saying "I love you" - I don't think it will be easy for Squall to come to identify with those words. He knows he feels something, but he's probably never said that to anyone but Ellone. And for Rinoa, she probably knows saying something like that to Squall could chase him off, especially because by the end of the game they've known each other for about... two weeks.

(Rinoa does say something like "We love you. There, I said it!" in the middle-of-the-road interaction at FH on disk 2 though, which I've always imagined as her saying it in a covert, "I've got a crush on you" sort of way.)

That is to say, I do think FF8 is all about romance, and I love how they portray it. Would I like a high-definition close-up kiss shot for AMV purposes? Damn right, I do. But I don't think the lack of PDA or specific wording takes any love away from the story. Anyway, that's my take! Thanks again for the ask!

[satoshi-mochida]

Kingdom Hearts series coming to Steam on June 13

From Gematsu

Square Enix will release the PC versions of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind for via Steam on June 13, the company announced. Each will be available to purchase individually, or together as the all-in-one Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece collection.

Each title is currently available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Epic Games Store, as well as for Switch as cloud versions.

Here is an overview of each game, via Square Enix:

Overview

Multiple Kingdom Hearts experiences are coming to the platform, specifically:

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind

Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece (bundle that includes all the above compilations)

Across these titles, you’ll experience the “Dark Seeker Saga” and play through Sora’s humble beginnings on the idyllic Destiny Islands, his fateful meeting with Donald Duck and Goofy, and ultimately to the trio’s climactic battle against the forces of darkness. Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX features textural updates to its graphics, while purchasing Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind or the Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece bundle will give you a new platform-exclusive Keyblade: “Dead of Night.” Of course, with a new platform comes a new audience, so perhaps you’re fresh to the Kingdom Hearts series, and wondering: what’s it all about? Read on and we’ll go into everything coming to Steam:

What is Kingdom Hearts?

Surely everyone’s heard of Kingdom Hearts—it’s been around since 2002. Well, just in case… Imagine if you took some of the most popular Disney and Pixar characters of all time, and some of the most popular Final Fantasy characters of all time and smashed them together, like a kid playing with action figures. Then add in amazing original characters, a sprawling story and a generous sprinkle of Tetsuya Nomura magic, and what you get is an incredible action-RPG series that’s quite unlike any other series out there. That’s Kingdom Hearts.

Which games are coming to PC via Steam?

Multiple Kingdom Hearts adventures are coming to Steam—you can see the full list below. You may be thinking: “Wow, Square Enix – that sure sounds like a lot of Kingdom Hearts!” Well, you’re right—it’s what’s known as “the Dark Seeker Saga”—the epic adventure of Sora and friends that spans from the first game in the series to its shocking climax in Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind. Here’s a detailed rundown of what’s available:

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX

This compilation contains four full games, with two additional story experiences for good measure.

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix – The game that started it all, remastered with high-definition visuals, improved controls, a reworked soundtrack, and more. This is the game that introduced us to Sora—a brave lad with big feet and a bigger heart.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories – Set directly after the events of the first game, Sora, Donald and Goofy enter the mysterious Castle Oblivion, and stumble into an adventure that’s forgettable in the best possible way!… That’ll make more sense when you’ve played it.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (HD Remastered Cinematics) – This story focuses on Roxas, a new character with a special connection to Sora. The compilation features cinematics from the original game, enhanced with additional text and remastered in high-definition.

Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix – The second numbered game reunites Sora, Donald and Goofy in an epic adventure across some of the most memorable and unexpected Disney worlds in the series. Like Tron—Tron‘s in here!

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix – Prequel time! This game turns back the clock to before Sora ever wielded a keyblade and shifts the focus onto three new characters: Terra, Ventus and Aqua. It’s an emotional adventure with a wildly entertaining battle system—there’s a reason it’s a real fan favorite.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (HD Remastered Cinematics) – This hi-tech tale takes Data Sora into the digital world to seek an answer about a cryptic message. The compilation features enhanced cinematics only.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

This collection of games is a real dream for fans. It contains games that focus on some of the most popular characters in the series, Sora, Riku and Aqua, and set up the climax to the saga.

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD – Sora and Riku take their Mark of Mastery exams to become true keyblade wielders. Things do not go as planned – if you thought your exams were stressful, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- – Made specifically for this collection, this episode gives you control of Aqua, following the dramatic ending of Birth by Sleep. It’s a short and sweet adventure that leads directly into Kingdom Hearts III.

Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover (movie) – A high-definition movie that goes back in the timeline even further than Birth by Sleep. It tells the story of the Foretellers – but who are they and what will they mean for the Kingdom Hearts series?

Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind (Downloadable Content)

The Dark Seeker Saga reaches its climax in Kingdom Hearts III. The Guardians of Light gather for the final battle against the forces of Darkness Before that though, Sora must travel through a whole new set of Disney and Pixar worlds. He’ll team up with Buzz and Woody to explore a toy store, untangle a mother’s sinister plot with Rapunzel, soar across the skies of San Fransokyo with Baymax, and much more. The PC version also includes the “Re Mind” downloadable content as standard. It features additional story content, some of the toughest and most exciting boss battles in the whole series, and loads of additional features, including gameplay modifiers and photo galleries.

A trailer featuring a newly recorded version of the series’ theme song “Simple and Clean” by Hikaru Utada will premiere on May 21 at 8:01 a.m. PT / 11:01 a.m. ET. You will be able to watch it below.

Steam Announce Trailer

English

Japanese

[dweemeister]

2024 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song warm-up playlist

TAGGING (participants and a few observers): @addaellis, @birdsongvelvet, @cinemaocd, @demenshah, @doglvr, @dog-of-ulthar, @halfwaythruthedark, @idontknowmuchaboutmovies, @machpowervisions, @maximiliani, @metamatar, @monkeysmadeofcheese, @rawberry101, @shootingstarvenator, @umgeschrieben, and @yellanimal

And TAGGING the following folks who still have an open invitation from me: @derricklogan2, @elfoscuro, @mehetibel, @memetoilet, @myluckyerror, @napalm-waistcoat, @phendranaedge, @plus-low-overthrow, @qteeclown, @rushmorecadet01, @shadesofhappy, @theybecomestories

Good day everybody,

If you were tagged here, that is because you confirmed with me your interest in participating in 2024's edition of the Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS; the acronym is pronounced MOH-uh-boss) or are just interested in receiving the warm-up playlist. MOABOS, as many of you know, is part of my tumblr's end-of-year tradition to give Oscar-like awards to movies that I saw for the first time in its entirety this calendar year. No rewatches count. I choose all the winners and nominees, but only in Best Original Song do I ask for assistance from family, friends, and tumblr followers. The primary reason for that tumblr's existence is for a series of write-ups I've done on movies tagged "My Movie Odyssey". This year will mark the twelfth edition of MOABOS (MOABOS XII), and the eleventh with outside involvement.

Even now, I'm still surprised this end-of-year tradition has made it to a dozen editions. And I am grateful that so many of you have been adventurous and curious enough to participate in this for as long as you have. Please consider this a cinematic/musical thank-you for your friendship and support over the last calendar year.

MOABOS proper does not begin until Black Friday (Friday, November 29). I will give more details to first-timers when we get there! Until then, here is a warm-up of sorts for all of you, purely for your listening enjoyment. Some of you sent in rankings for some reason last year for the warm-up playlist, and you are free to do that again to get the MOABOS muscles ready (to reiterate: this is not the official competition).

Introduction

This year, the warm-up playlist once again celebrates two major American movie studios with long musical legacies. And like last year's joint Disney-Warner Bros. playlist, both these studios celebrated a centennial this year. Unlike last year, one of these studios has a far larger musical legacy than the other, and it shows.

Columbia was founded on January 10, 1924 in Los Angeles by Harry Cohn, Jack Cohn, and Joe Brandt. Even in those early days in Hollywood, there was a separation among the major studios: a "Little Three" and a "Big Five". Columbia was part of the former, along with Universal and United Artists (UA). To some, Columbia was considered by some a "Poverty Row" studio (incl. Grand National, Monogram, Republic; I do not deem Columbia as ever having been part of Poverty Row), not a major studio. What kept Columbia in the conversation as a major studio were the Three Stooges, Frank Capra's early films (1934's It Happened One Night, 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), Jean Arthur, and Cary Grant.

It was the studio best known for screwball comedies, but without the money to compete with Fox, MGM, and Warner Bros.' epics and musicals. The studio's fortunes improved in the 1950s as others waned, with three Best Picture wins that decade: From Here to Eternity (1953), On the Waterfront (1954), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Those wins cemented its status – one that has been kept, sometimes without a clear artistic identity, ever since. Columbia may not be the biggest major, but it's easily been the most historically stable of them all. Out of respect for the studio's origins, I personally refuse to refer to Columbia films as works by Sony Pictures, as many do in the present.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was once the most powerful Hollywood studio of them all. Founded on April 17, 1924 from the merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures, MGM (or "Metro") boasted that they contracted "more stars than there are in heaven" – too many to list here. It was the last major studio to convert to sound, in part because MGM silent films in the mid-'20s were the definition of Hollywood glamor and spectacle (1924's Greed, 1925's The Big Parade, 1928's The Crowd). Through the 1930s-50s, MGM peaked under tyrannical studio head Louis B. Mayer, specializing in sweeping epics and especially its musicals, while also boasting an animation unit spearheaded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (Tom and Jerry), as well as Warner Bros. defectors Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Tex Avery (Droopy).

Disastrous release strategies following the success of Ben-Hur (1959) began decades of financial turmoil, encapsulated by Kirk Kerkorian's schemes to turn MGM into a real estate and casino business (using much of the studio's profits to finance those plans), as well as his 1969 decision to destroy almost all of MGM's esteemed music library by burying it under what is now a golf course. Multiple sales and a 2010 bankruptcy have knocked MGM far from the perch of major studios today, and it is unclear what new owner Amazon's plans are for the studio. Out of respect for the studio's origins, I personally refuse to refer to recent MGM films as works by "Amazon MGM", as some entertainment journalists do in the present. Will the lion roar again, as proudly as it once did?

What's in (and what's not) in this warm-up playlist

To take a musical tour through each studio's history cannot give a complete picture of that studio's history. I also can only share with all of you so much in one warm-up playlist. Columbia's history is incomplete without the films of Frank Capra, the screwball comedies of Jean Arthur and Cary Grant, its stable of mid-budget American Westerns with Glenn Ford and Randolph Scott, and more. Because MGM was, for decades, considered a far bigger studio than Columbia, even more is missing. MGM Cartoons (Tom and Jerry, Droopy); tons of epics (1939's Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur); and important MGM-contracted stars including Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Buster Keaton, Spencer Tracy, and Katharine Hepburn are not present.

Only films and songs from the original studio itself appear on this playlist. No films from subsidiaries or acquired via acquisition are included on this playlist. For Columbia, no TriStar, Affirm Films, or Embassy Pictures films count. For MGM, no films from Orion Pictures, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, or United Artists (UA; but if the film is an MGM/UA co-production before 1980, it can count) are present.

With the exception of the very first entry, each of these songs are from films I've seen before 2024, and as such are ineligible for future editions of MOABOS. Four of these selections have competed at MOABOS in what is now the distant past.

You can also access this via this YouTube playlist. All songs are presented uncut, unedited, and with their original lyrics to the extent that I could provide.

And now, without further ado...

MOABOS Warm-up playlist

Fourteen songs from Columbia but especially MGM movies follow, for your listening pleasure. Chronological order. Non-original songs are asterisked (*). Each one comes with contextual blurbs, as is typical for MOABOS. Please enjoy!

Please excuse the lack of indentations on your tumblr dashboards (tumblr deactivated bulleted list indentations long ago and never restored them)

"Song Title", composer(s) and lyricist(s), Film Title (release year) Columbia or MGM:

“Singin' in the Rain”, music by Nacio Herb Brown, lyrics by Arthur Freed The Hollywood Revue of 1929, (1929) MGM

Performed by Cliff Edwards and chorus

The first Hollywood musicals at the dawn of the synchronized sound era (beginning with 1927's The Jazz Singer) followed the common conventions for stage musicals at the time (many were revue musicals) and the legacy of vaudeville (still popular in 1929, but in terminal decline with the transition from silent film to sound). Very few 1920s movie musicals had a cohesive narrative, and The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is no exception. This is one scene of many in this film without any connective tissue. As you see here, films in the late 1920s often used a camera that stayed fixed in one spot, with little to no camera movement.

"Singin' in the Rain" would become one of a handful of unofficial MGM anthems that would appear in several MGM movies (musicals and otherwise) before its most famous rendition by Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain (1952).

Does Cliff Edwards' voice sound familiar? You may know him best as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (1940)!

“Happiness is a Thing Called Joe”, music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Yip Harburg, Cabin in the Sky (1943) MGM

Performed by Ethel Waters

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song; Honorable mention, MOABOS III (2015)

Cabin in the Sky is one of the very few major Hollywood studio films made during the Studio System that featured an all-black cast. And it's also a damn good musical. An angel (Kenneth Spencer) revives Little Joe Jackson (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) after Little Joe was shot by his debtor. The angel gives Joe six months to reform his ways – lest he be sent to hell. Little Joe returns to the wife he has neglected, Petunia (Waters), who is over the moon for his return as she sings this song.

It is often said that early Hollywood was built on the backs of immigrants and Jews (and Jewish immigrants). Arlen and Harburg, like many composers and lyricists on this warmup playlist, check those boxes. The influences – cultural and religious – that these men* had on various areas in filmmaking set much of the vocabulary of American moviemaking still used today.

* And yes, they were unfortunately almost all men. As the silent film era drew to a close, studio consolidation in the late '20s pushed many women directors, producers, and writers out. In many ways, modern Hollywood is still chasing the silent era.

“Long Ago (and Far Away)”, music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, Cover Girl (1944) COL

Performed by Rita Hayworth (singing dubbed by Martha Meers) and Gene Kelly

Columbia was not universally considered a major studio in the 1930s and '40s, as it lacked the acting and directing roster of other, bigger-pocketed studios in town. But, with Cover Girl, they were about to cement their true superstar that would secure the studio's financial future. That superstar was Rita Hayworth, of partial Spanish Romani and Irish descent. Here, Hayworth plays a chorus girl at a nightclub owned by her boyfriend (Kelly), and the two are coming off a very low moment professionally.

At the beginning of his career, MGM-contracted Kelly was briefly loaned out to Columbia to see if he could convincingly play a lead role (this was under a system that gave studio-contracted cast and crewmembers little freedom to decline roles offered by producers and executives). And that he did, leading MGM to use him far more in the years ahead in lead roles.

“New York, New York”, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, On the Town (1949)* MGM

Performed by Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin

Begins in earnest at 1:16 in this video. Three sailors (Kelly, Sinatra, and Munshin) have exactly twenty-four hours of leave to spend in New York City and they want to make the most of it. I'm pretty sure that the itinerary seen in this musical number – even allowing for the possibility that the montage seen here is not 100% linear – is very unlikely.

From the 1944 stage musical of the same name by Bernstein, Comden, and Green. This song is not to be confused with "Theme from New York, New York" from Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977), as first sung by Liza Minnelli and best-known for Sinatra's version.

"We've never been here before"… says the man with the thick NJ/NY accent.

“Get Happy”, music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Ted Koehler, Summer Stock (1950)* MGM

Performed by Judy Garland and company

7th place, MOABOS II (2014)

There's a subgenre of musicals out there that I like to call the "Hey kids, let's go put on a show!" musical (simply put: a bunch of young kids put their heads together and, for the love of music and theater, put on musical theater – shenanigans aplenty). Summer Stock is one of them, and director Charles Walters was often involved in them. Summer stock, no italics, is largely an American phenomenon. As Judy Garland and Gene Kelly's characters finally put together their summer musical for the community and prospective Broadway producers, this is the penultimate number of that musical.

A contractee to MGM since she was a child actress, Garland was months away from the end of her MGM career when Summer Stock was made. MGM executives had put Garland on a regimen of drugs since she was a child to help her maintain her unenviable schedule and to manage her eventual alcoholism and depression. Her ailments delayed Summer Stock's production, and the film's budget ballooned. But defending her from the wrath of MGM's executives were Gene Kelly (who accepted the lead actor's role to help his friend Garland, despite believing he was too old for the role) and Charles Walters (whose patience with Garland deflected executive ire towards himself instead).

Yes, I know this clip is from the Warner Archive. It's complicated. See "You Know My Name" blurb below.

“Our Love is Here to Stay”, music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, An American in Paris (1951)* MGM

Performed by Gene Kelly; danced by Kelly and Leslie Caron

After some low-key flirting over the last few days, World War II veteran-turned-painter Jerry Mulligan (Kelly) and parfumerie clerk Lise Bouvier (Caron) have just had dinner and have walked together to the Seine, with Notre-Dame de Paris looming in the background.

A ballerina by training, this was Leslie Caron's film debut to replace a pregnant Cyd Charisse ("Broadway Rhythm" in Singin' in the Rain). For the next seven years at MGM, Caron would take a number of dance-heavy roles and anything that called for French female characters there – culminating in the title role of Gigi (1958).

This was the final composition completed by George Gershwin before his death – a fixture in the Great American Songbook, covered by many. The song was originally composed by the Gershwin brothers for The Goldwyn Follies (1938). An American in Paris is loosely inspired by George Gershwin's tone poem of the same name (the film ends with a 17-minute ballet scored to the tone poem).

“Dancing in the Dark”, music by Arthur Schwartz, The Band Wagon (1953)* MGM

Danced by Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse

From the 1931 revue musical of the same name, "Dancing in the Dark" (yes, there are lyrics by Howard Dietz, but they aren't used here) sees Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse's characters withdraw from the madness of the pre-production for the Broadway musical they are starring in, just for an evening. I honestly think the dancing says everything you need to know.

After a long time contracted to RKO and starring alongside Ginger Rogers there in the 1930s, Astaire went freelance for a few years before ending up at MGM– adding to their already-formidable musical roster. Charisse (shuh-REESE) was a trained ballerina who came to MGM to work within producer Arthur Freed's Unit. She became one of the studio's best dancers, but rarely found starring roles (unlike here in The Band Wagon).

After eleven editions of MOABOS, three summer editions of MOABOS (only tumblr followers were allowed to participate from 2013-2015), and now the third MOABOS warm-up playlist, this is the first entry without sung lyrics– because this is a playlist made by yours truly and I can bend the rules for the warm-up playlist

“Bless Your Beautiful Hide”, music by Gene de Paul, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) MGM

Performed by Howard Keel

7th place, MOABOS VI (2018)... easily one of the most divisive MOABOS entries ever

The film's opener. The melody is used as the main orchestral theme throughout (most memorably in the barn dance scene, one of the most spectacular dance numbers in a Hollywood musical, in addition to being an all-time film score cue). Oregonian backwoodsman Adam Pontipee (Keel) has little experience with society (let alone with women). In town one day, he is looking for a bride to take care of him and his six brothers in this satirical musical of gendered misbehavior – which the film never endorses, but makes fun of. Boy, did many MOABOS VI participants not get my message that the characters' backwoods sexism is the joke.

“Jailhouse Rock”, music and lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Jailhouse Rock (1957) MGM

Performed by Elvis Presley and company

Jailhouse Rock was Elvis' third of 31 narrative feature films (and first of 14 with MGM), and the cinematic newcomer sealed his Hollywood status with this movie. Here, Elvis plays a construction worker convicted of manslaughter after accidentally killing a drunken assailant during a fight. He learns guitar from his cellmate in time for a national telecast of an inmate-produced television show (yes, I know this is unrealistic, but in the logic of Elvis' thirty other movies, Jailhouse Rock is among the more grounded ones). "Jailhouse Rock" is part of the television special following up the one earlier in the movie.

Upon release, Jailhouse Rock was yet another late '50s financial success that challenged the Hays Code (the self-censorship code that the major American studios abided by from 1934-1968, later replaced by the current MPA ratings system). Many were outraged that the film framed a convict as a hero, among other things.

“Glory of Love”, music and lyrics by Billy Hill, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967)* COL

Performed by chorus

The opening credits song to this movie, and often quoted in the score.

1967 was simply the year of Sidney Poitier. Poitier, who came into stardom just as the old Hollywood Studio System came to its eventual end, was the first black actor in Hollywood who was a genuine leading man, the sort of actor a studio builds a movie around. Earlier that year, the Bahamian-born Poitier had starred in To Sir, with Love and In the Heat of the Night (which would soon win the Academy Award for Best Picture) – each one putting race relations front and center.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was no different. Also starring Spencer Tracy (in his final role), Katharine Hepburn, and Katharine Houghton, the film's plot revolves around an interracial couple (Poitier and Houghton) looking for approval from her parents (Tracy and Hepburn). If the Supreme Court had not struck down anti-miscegenation laws several months earlier in Loving v. Virginia, this movie almost certainly would have been banned in the American South (the film's production began before the decision was made). To many modern liberal viewers (or non-viewers), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? is seen as naïve. Many of those opinions, to me, reflect an inability to understand the culture and time in which this film came to be.

“Who Will Buy?”, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, Oliver! (1968)* COL

Performed by Kathe Green (dubbing Mark Lester) and chorus

The first live-action musical movie I ever saw. Adapting Lionel Bart's stage musical of the same name (itself based on Dickens' Oliver Twist), Oliver! was one of the final gasps of the '60s musicals. This song immediately follows the intermission, after Mr. Brownlow (Joseph O'Connor) informally adopts Oliver (Lester), who had previously passed through an orphan workhouse and a gang of child pickpockets.

The likes of West Side Story (1961), The Music Man (1962), Mary Poppins (1964), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and Oliver! all kept the Hollywood movie musical chugging along despite cultural and financial headwinds for the genre. Each of these musical movies might have been made in the '60s, but the filmmaking contained conventions more reflective of the 1950s (or, perhaps, an expansion of those '50s conventions) than the present decade. Amid a string of musical box office failures in the late '60s, Oliver! was one of the last musical movies from that decade to be a runaway critical and popular success. It is also the most recent G-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Arguably, the live-action Hollywood musical has been an endangered species ever since.

Choreographer Onna White won an honorary Academy Award for her dance direction in this movie. This is the most recent instance, competitive (1933-1935) or honorary, for an Oscar win in choreography for a single film.

“Theme from Shaft”, music and lyrics by Isaac Hayes, Shaft (1971) MGM

NSFW lyrics (in-film version over opening credits) / (Hayes' performance at the 44th Academy Awards)

Performed by Isaac Hayes

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Song; 3rd place, MOABOS III (2015)

The opening to one of the most important movies in American film history (however you feel about its quality), though I don't think it's often given its due. The late Richard Roundtree plays New York City-based private detective John Shaft, who is hired by a gangster to retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

Shaft is the textbook example of blaxploitation, an American film movement (and a form of exploitation film) that lasted for the remainder of the 1970s – "exploitation film" has negative connotations; I consider "blaxploitation" a neutral term. In the wake of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power movement (a militant reaction to those in the Civil Rights Movement who espoused nonviolent resistance), blaxploitation featured movies featuring entirely/almost entirely black casts and liberal use of violence, sex, drugs, and other sensational narrative elements. Black audiences appreciated these movies for the on-screen representation, and these movies gave black actors more opportunities in Hollywood. Nevertheless, the white producers who shepherded these movies reinforced plenty of negative racial stereotypes through these works.

There's going to be a massive time jump to the penultimate song here. In the 1970s, the elusive Kirk Kerkorian downsized MGM's movie operations, converting the company into a real estate and casino business and using much of the money earned by the movie studio to do so.

“You Know My Name”, music and lyrics by Chris Cornell and David Arnold, Casino Royale (2006) MGM

(NSFW for violence prologue, followed by opening credits)

Performed by Chris Cornell

After acquiring United Artists (UA) in 1981, MGM became the distributor for all James Bond movies, and UA was retained as a subsidiary. Over the last three decades of administrative and financial turmoil at MGM. That turmoil includes the selling of the entire pre-May 1986 MGM library to Ted Turner – Turner's library, the basis of the cable channel Turner Classic Movies, also included the entirety of the RKO library, and was bought in 1996 by Warner Bros. In addition, MGM filed for 2010 Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010. In light of that, the James Bond series has done a lot of work in recent decades to keep what was once a major studio afloat.

This was Daniel Craig's first of five films as Bond after Pierce Brosnan stepped away after Die Another Day (2002); the prologue sets the tone for Craig's take on 007 (2006-2021) – darker, nastily sarcastic with a tinge of arrogance, and more violent (very much how author Ian Fleming wrote the character).

“Over the Rainbow”, music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Yip Harburg, The Wizard of Oz (1939) MGM

Performed by Judy Garland

One of a handful of songs considered an unofficial anthem for MGM. Judy Garland's signature song. Seven minutes into The Wizard of Oz, after an encounter with an unreasonable neighbor and a disappointing reaction from her parents, Dorothy Gale (Garland; sixteen years old when the movie was filmed) sings this song. She hopes for a place beyond her uneventful and unhappy life beyond this Kansas farmstead. Quoted occasionally in the film's score. A reprise (the audio of which you can find online) later in the film after Dorothy is captured by the Wicked Witch of the West was deleted from the final cut because it was considered too emotionally intense (it moved the crew to tears).

This song was nearly cut from the film after opposition from MGM chief executive Louis B. Mayer (a paragon of kindness to some; a cutthroat, dictatorial presence to others including Garland) and producer Mervyn LeRoy. Lobbying from producer Arthur Freed and Garland's arranger and vocal coach, Roger Edens, helped save the number.

Please enjoy! And I'll see you folks soon for the 12th edition of the Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song.

[piglet26]

Reylo Scenes: TROS Part 1

If there's one name I don't wanna hear about my Reylo it's Colin Trevorrow.

I will be referencing the novelization, BTS interviews, comics and visual dictionary cause how do I say this? All of that makes the movie more coherent. That's the main issue with the movie. A lot of information was left on the cutting room floor.

Side note: There is one line in the novelization "a kiss of gratitude" the way anti-Reylos clung to that shit, like, it was even in Screenrant articles. It's one line while the rest of the novel heavily supports Reylo. This is in the BTS video for the making of the film from the team.....

"What if your sort of soulmate in the force was your enemy? Circumstance pits them against each other, but the force bonds them together. They understand each other almost from a point of view of fate and yet fate has made them enemies" That's a great story! Genuinely that's a wonderful literary, cinematic and epic story.

Daisy Ridley, "The stuff with Adam always has been so emotional. Trying to find that balance of feeling the light side but also feeling the draw to the dark side."

Adam Driver "He learns that over the course of the movie that they're two halves of the same thing. I think it just, if anything, reaffirms what he knows intuitively and has known for a while but hasn't been able to articulate until he can."

Seriously Antis?!... Accept the shit, enjoy the ride and move on.

In the visual dictionary the information provided from Ren's perspective during the interrogation is "Kylo Ren feels an innate connection to the scavenger, unaware that they form a prophesied dyad." In the time period between TLJ and TROS, Rey and Ben actually have had a run-in with one another though they haven't had a forcetime since the TLJ.

General Hux quote from the novel 'Ren had no soft spots for anyone - except maybe the scavenger' No, maybe about that. Stormtroopers stay in awe.

The movie starts with (The most chopped up opening) bad ass supreme leader Kylo Ren for literally 5 minutes before he's co-pilot to dummy Palpy. In the novelization it's revealed what exactly he saw during the hut vision with Rey. "He’d glimpsed her parents in a vision, a poor, frightened couple eking out a meagre existence, surviving on the edge of desperation. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told her they were nothing, nobodies. But Force visions were filled with tricky truths and potential realities. Maybe he had missed something." No, her story hadn't been retconned yet.

Grandpappy Palpy offers Ren the Sith fleet if Kylo kills Rey (except he doesn't want her killed...Ren's the backup?) Kylo pursues Rey under the pretense that he agreed to kill her. Ren ain't even about that life. He's like oh sure! Get the fuck out of here.

Meanwhile Rey is training with Leia/R2D2 with the assistance of Poe and Finn. There's a moment when Kylo Ren is praying over his grandpappy Darth Vader mask and bridges his mind with Rey's (They should've done more with this in this movie).

We don't know if she's confided in anyone about her connection to Ren. It would have served the story better if she had.

The damn mask is back. *Eye Roll*

On Pasaana we have their first forceskype. In the movie, it's like two ex's running into each other and don't know what to say.  God bless Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley, but mainly Adam Driver for all the work he put into spinning mostly exposition writing into something swallowable. Yes, the dialogue is stiff, but Ren's motivation at this point is semi-layered. He warns her that Palpatine wants her dead not only because he wants her at his side, but also to protect her from Palpatine. Ruling alongside Rey has become Ren's greatest ambition. Ren and Rey mean King and Queen after all. In the novel, 'He wanted to kill the past, yes. Rule supreme over the galaxy, certainly. And the massive fleet on Exegol would help him do that. But the ambition that cut into his being was the thought of reigning side by side with her. They were connected. They had defeated Snoke. Together they would be invincible.'

Both Rey and Ren are so desperate for that connection. Both also understand how powerful they were and could be together. Their battle together in Snoke’s throne room features some of the best visual storytelling in the entire series. This is where you see them together at their best, showing the promise of the potential they possess as a unit. Not to mention the emotional depth they bring to the others lives. Both are looking for confirmation of the others feeling.

"I offered you my hand once, you wanted to take it, why didn't it?"

"You could have killed me. Why didn't you?"

 

Next scene is in the desert of Pasaana. The second Ren is on the planet she senses him through the force and he sense her. The infamous running in the desert to run you down trailer scene. Prior to the movie release people correctly presumed this was Kylo Ren, but thought it was a training exercise hahaha because it made no sense. The movie was released and it still made no sense unless you've read the novel.

Kylo Ren sensed her before he saw her. As he flew his TIE whisper along the flat desert, she was a bright presence in his mind, practically glowing with determination and ferocity. He finally understood. Han Solo was his past. But Rey was his light.

The dark side clouded his judgement and urged him to cut all the ties to light. In the end, the murderous impulses contradicted his deepest desire to have Rey for himself.

I'm actually more interest in the scenes in the last 3/4 so moving onto those.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Crit

Finally completed my first run through Baldur’s Gate 3 and I understand, wholeheartedly, why this game has so much praise. It’s f*cking brilliant. Seriously, I’m already about six hours into my second run, and I’m still having a blast. Seriously, this game has exceed all of my expectations. Baldur’s Gate 3, for me, is as good as Mass Effect in almost every way. If you’ve been around these parts for a while, then you know that is high praise. ME is one of my favorite game franchises of all-time. They won me over with solid world building, great narrative and plotting, plus some of the best character work I’ve experienced in any form of media. I’ve been through Tali’s story so many times, and I still love every second of it! It’s been years, man, and every time I come back to that world, I have a blisteringly difficult time not courting my darling Quarian. I get that same vibe with Karlach. Goddamn, is my muscle mommy Tiefling barbarian, straight sugary adorableness!

Now, I know when I say it was the narrative that hooked me, that’s kind of a cheap reason. Dungeons and Dragons has been around for about as long as I’ve been alive. A little longer actually. I watched the old cartoon when I was super young and have been DnD adjacent my entire life. My best friend in elementary was a huge DnD guy so I am aware of how vast that world truly is. That said, the narrative chosen for this game is just plain good. The scope is vast enough for a grand adventure, but the detail in every interaction is what does it for me. These cats really put lobe and effort into the script, plotting some great experiences and legitimate, emotional, situations. Look me in the face and tell me Astarion’s story doesn’t get that single man tear to drop. And the voice cast?! My goodness, did they perform their asses off! It was a weird experience, mostly because these characters are all brand new, yet, their actors were cast perfectly to bring them to life. Like, there is no way Shadowheart doesn’t sound EXACTLY like Jennifer English. None.

Obviously, my favorite part about this game was the actually flaming, delicious cinnamon roll, known as Karlach Cliffgate. Everything about that chick is fantastic. Design, backstory, growth; I adore me some Karlach. She’s the reason I even bought this game. She was the first companion I romanced. Loved every second of that side story. Until the end. Her ending sucks balls, which is the biggest beef I have with this game overall; The ending is kind of lame. Listen I loved every second in the Forgotten Realms. The journey was epic and entertaining but the ending? Man, that felt flaccid as sh*t. The weakest part of this game, for me, was that final battle. After facing off against Ketheric and Orin, among others, the Netherbrain was kind of meh. The entire conclusion was just less. That’s the one thing Mass Effect has over this game. The ending to every ME title was epic, cinematic, and satisfying. The ending to BG3 left me wanting. It’s not bad, per se, just pedestrian. We had such highs and legitimate pathos throughout our adventure just to get to the end for what? And ending? It feels like the game just kind of stops. You obviously have your character moments, which are dope (except for Karlach's because f*ck that sh*t, bro), but not much outside of that really gets you pumped. I wasn’t disappointed of anything, just indifferent.

At the end of the day, this game was fantastic. This gaming experience was transformative. I’ve already started my second play through, opting (after much internal debate) to romance Shadowheart. I hear she’s the most popular option and, so far, I understand why. Still team Karlach till I die, but Shadowheart is a different kind of adorable. Rolling hard with Astarion in my party, Le’zel was in his place last time, and I’ve already seen some interestingly catty banter about. Good times, that. I plan to actually cure this Shadows out this time and see where that goes, just like I opted to go Underdark instead of over the mountains or whatever. I’m already set on a Dark Urge run after this one, or whenever Patch Seven drops because there are hints of a possible romance with Alfira. Also, Dragonborns are cool to look at. There’s SO much to do in this game, so much to explore and develop. You can get lost in this narrative, which is the entire point of DnD. It’s wild seeing how far this franchise has come. Once upon a time, it was the reason for a Satanic Panic. Then it was a denizen for the Nerdy. Now, it’s got a solid film under its belt and, arguably, one of the greatest video games of all time. In conclusion, Karlach is best girl. Fight me!

[pjstafford]

There are a million ways to tell a life story. Review of Reverse the Curse.

"There are a million ways to tell a life story. As a tragedy or a comedy or as a fairy tale with baseball teams that can keep you alive..."

Reverse the Curse is a movie written and directed by and starring David Duchovny based on his novel Bucky F*cking Dent. Duchovny plays Marty, a man dying of lung cancer. Logan Marshall-Green plays his estranged son Ted, an aspiring writer who works as a peanut vendor at Yankee Stadium. Stephanie Beatriz plays Mariana, a grief specialist nurse. Early in the movie, before we ever see Marty, Mariana speaks this line which foreshadows that, while this is a familiar story with universal themes, it is going to be told in a way that will take you by surprise. As the writer adapts his novel to the screen, it retains the signature style of Duchovny's written works for screen, novel, and song lyrics which is more reflective of life than any specific genre of storytelling. In Reverse the Curse Duchovny creates a story of tragedy, comedy, a touch of a fairy tale, an epic sports season, and a dash of romantic comedy. It's a movie that will take you on a heart-filled journey of loss, healing, and new beginnings while you laugh and cry.

With Duchovny's unexpected style (a critic refers to this movie as genre-bending), he is sometimes criticized for tonal dissonance. This film moves quickly, finds creative ways to express backstory without long exposition, and does a better job than his first movie (House of D which I would recommend) of signaling when the fairy tale aspects are about to begin (literally by asking the question do you believe in fairy tales). The story beats of comedy and drama blend into each other in a way that feels connected.

The story of the 78 Red Sox and New York Yankees works well as the backdrop of the story of the father-son. Sports provides a bridge for the two men to learn how to talk to each other again after years of estrangement. Marty makes the point that baseball is the one sport where theoretically a game might never end. However, the genius of this backdrop is that it anchors the story in our world which happens to be a world where people believe in curses and where sometimes there occurs an improbable outcome such as a shortstop with a poor batting average hitting a legendary home run. The fact that this story is a historical fact lends credibility to the more fairy tale parts of the movie.

What really pours forth from this movie is heart. Duchovny delivers comedic lines with genius and there is a confession scene which many are referring to as the best dramatic scene of his career. He has great chemistry with Marshall-Green whose hesitation with some comedic material works well in the character of Ted who is unsure of himself. Beatriz is a standout in her portrayal of a woman whose career path has been determined by personal tragedy. The most "out there" characters in the movie are the three barbershop boys, Marty's older male friends who spend their days in the barbershop. These characters are exactly that...Characters! Played by Jason Beghe, Evan Handler, and Santo Fazio, what makes the scenes with these characters work is the sense that they have known each other and developed their banter over decades. A storyline that could have been seen as silly becomes a story about true friendship over time.

This movie has the feel of a seventies movie. It is not simply that it is set in 1978. In fact, there are some historical inaccuracies such as the showing of Jimmy Carter's malaise speech which takes place in 1979 not 1978. It is the fact that the movie feels like it was based on the type of movies we might have seen in the theater in the seventies. Some of that is cinematic. The cinematographer, Jeff Powers, said in an interview that he drew inspiration from a lot of the American New Waves films from that time including Five Easy Pieces. It reminded me of movies like Harold and Maude, Midnight Cowboy, and Love Story. It's a character-driven story where the ending is a foregone conclusion that takes its beats getting to the ending because the ending is not the point as much as the journey to the ending. Each step of laughter and each step of tears and even sitting through a scene with an over-reliance on fart humor is a beat of hearts within the film.

For me, my journey of watching the film, my heartbeats, were these. Seeing Marty in a hospital bed with oxygen in the first scene in which we see him instantly transported me to the first time I saw my father after his lungs collapsed. However, the seventies feel of the movie transported me to a time when my father and I used to go to the theater to watch movies together - in the seventies- and how much he liked movies like this one. It was a surprise to me to feel that my father's presence was laughing with me as we had laughed together at so many films while he was alive. It was a gift of heart.

All the stars from me!

Please note I had a difficult time not constantly referring to changes between the book and the movie in this review. I was slightly afraid to see the movie for fear it would hurt the novel for me. I am now fascinated by the decisions that were made that make each so unique while telling the same story. In a few weeks, when spoilers are more acceptable, I will do a written comparison of the two.

[grigori77]

Celebrating International Women's Day this year, once again I'm giving a shout-out to some of the amazing ladies, both real and fictional, that I really admire, both new on the scene and since my formative years. They all live rent free in my head and I think they're awesome!

COURTNEY LaPLANTE, the incredible frontwoman from up-and-coming new metalcore band Spiritbox, who are ALL pretty amazing, but she is in a whole different league. The way she can switch from beautifully husky, gently angelic clean vocals to bloody terrifying feral demon dirty vocals AND BACK at the drop of a hat is truly astounding ...

VIOLA DAVIS, one of my favourite actresses working in Hollywood today, an undeniable queen and now a bonafide BADASS too thanks to her recent starring role as Naniska, the General of the Agojie, the legendary Dahomie Amazons, in The Woman King. These days she's PROBABLY best known as THE BADDEST BITCH in all of the DCEU, ARGUS director Amanda Waller, but these are just two of a whole CAREER of incredible performances for which she's rightly become a true A-lister ...

ELLEN RIPLEY, as played by the equally awesome Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies. Quite simply THE GREATEST cinematic female lead protagonist OF ALL TIME, Ripley is about as definitive as strong female lead protgnonists get, the scourge of terrifying hostile aliens throughout the galaxy ...

POWER, from the acclaimed new anime series Chainsaw Man. I know, I know, she could SO EASILY have just been another classic teenage boy's wet dream anime girl, but half-demon fiend Power, like many of the show's female characters, is definitely a significant step away from the cliched norms, a total, undeniable force of (super)nature, unapologetic deluded self-promoter and thoroughly adorable chaos gremlin, who's quickly becoming one of my very favourite anime characters.

RINKO KIKUCHI, probably my VERY FAVOURITE Japanese actress EVER, thanks in no small part to her DEFINITIVE turn as Jaeger pilot Mako Mori in Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, although I first discovered her as gloriously idiosyncratic demolitions expert Bang Bang in Rian Johnson's criminally overlooked The Brothers Bloom. Also rightly known for her acclaimed turn in Babel, we most recently saw her in typically fine form in Michael Mann's agreeably edgy new true crime series Tokyo Vice ...

KRISTEN STEWART. Yeah, I know, some folk are STILL likely to be rolling their eyes at this choice, but ever since Panic Room I've ALWAYS thought she was something special, EVEN when she was doing Twilight. Okay, so it's taken her A LONG TIME to shake the godawful spectre of Bella Swan, but she's DEFINITELY pulled it off by now, playing some truly AMAZING characters in a bunch of really great movies, most notably Underwater (see above), the criminally maligned and unjustly ignored Charlie's Angels reboot and her incredible recent turn as the late Diana, Princes of Wales, in Spencer.

DELENN, as played by Mira Furlan (Lost), the ambassador of the alien race, the Minbari, in one of my very favourite TV shows of all time, Babylon 5. From humble (albeit also EXTREMELY mysterious) beginnings, Delenn went on to (rightly) become THE main female lead in the show, carrying the weight of one hell of a sprawling, epic sci-fi saga plot on her more-than-able shoulders.

KATY O'BRIAN. Basicallythe core inspiration (at least in a roundabout way) for the lead character in my ongoing online fantasy novel series Never Split the Party, Kesla Shoon, Katy is 100% what I love in a genuine physically powerful woman - tough as nails, sexy as hell and, paradoxically, an absolute sweetheart. I first stumbled across her as George, the very best character in Syfy's guilty pleasure TV series Z Nation, but she's finally REALLY getting the attention she's long deserved, already earning fast fan-favourite status as Jentorra in Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania.

ZOE SALDANA. Ever since she started to come up in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, she's been steadily growing herself one hell of a reputation playing a succession of strong, frequently badass women in cinema, most notably in The Losers, James Cameron's Avatar movies and OF COURSE as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy.

SOFIA BOUTELLA. Ever since I first saw her busting some truly incredible moves in those glorious "Keep Up" Nike ads from the mid 00s, I have always been SUCH a big fan of this incredible dancer-turned-actress. She first REALLY captured our attention in the first Kingsman movie, but she's shone ever brighter since in the likes of Star Trek Beyond, Atomic Blonde, Climax and Hotel Artemis. Personally I CANNOT WAIT to see what she does with THE LEAD ROLE in Zack Snyder's incoming new sci-fi epic Rebel Moon ...

ALISON MOYET. One of my favourite female vocalists when I was growing up, I recently rediscovered her music when I started one of my music fan deep-dives through her entire back catalogue, and I'm absolutely LOVING IT. Starting out in the frustratingly short-lived early 80s electro pop group Yazoo with Erasure's Vince Clarke, she truly came to fame with her dynamite solo debut album Alf, as well as a killer cover of That Ole Devil Called love, but she's been going strong ever since thanks to one of the greatest voices around.

ANNIE LENNOX, formerly of The Tourists and The Eurythmics. Another one of the 80s all-time great frontwomen, Annie is a statuesque Scottish goddess who is rightly best known for her SECOND tour of duty with multi-talented musician Dave Stewart, but went on to have an equally astounding career as a solo singer-songwriter with a string of masterful records from the 90s right up to the present. Add to that her undeniable ICON status in the LGBTQIA+ community and you've got a bonafide androgynous goddess on your hands ...

GRACE JONES. Ever since she played Zula in Conan the Destroyer, Mayday in A View to a Kill and one seriously STRANGE vampire in Vamp, I've been a fan of this Jamaican model/actress/singer and undeniable fashion ICON. She continues to be a wonderfully weird and truly unique individual with her own unapologetically challenging style to this very day, and I love her for it.

DEBORAH CHOW. A fantastic up-and-coming Canadian filmmaker, who made a modest splash with her feature film The High Cost of Living before cutting her teeth on a series of impressive TV directing gigs on the likes of Copper, Reign and Mr Robot before truly coming into her own on The Mandalorian, which directly led to her helming THE ENTIRETY of 2022's rightly acclaimed Obi Wan Kenobi series. I'm really looking forward to whatever she does next.

CHARLIZE THERON. If there's one actress I've become a fan of mainly through her playing GENUINELY UNSTOPPABLE kickass women, it's Ms. Theron. The South African-born actress looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING when she's stalking down a catwalk in her Dior ads, but as far as I'm concerned she looks HER VERY BEST when she's taking roomfuls of men apart with her bare hands in Atomic Blonde or a big fucking axe in The Old Guard, which will soon get a sequel I for one CANNOT WAIT FOR ...

MARISHA RAY, ASHLEY JOHNSON & LAURA BAILEY, the Ladies of Critical Role. Sure, there have been other women who've come and gone in a variety of excellent guest slot roles through the years the live-play TTRPG webcast series has been going (from Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Ashly Burch, Sumalee Montano, Mica Burton and Aimee Carrero to, of course, the legendary Aabria Iyengar), but these three have always been the core, the heart and the undeniable BACKBONE of this amazing ongoing D&D adventure, and long may they all continue to reign ...

[demifiendrsa]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Release Date Trailer

Dragon Age: The Veilguard will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on October 31, 2024.

Overview

About

From the storytellers at BioWare comes Dragon Age: The Veilguard, an all new single-player fantasy RPG experience. This bold, heroic adventure is built to deliver on what the series is best known for: rich storytelling, fantasy worldbuilding, companions & fellowship, and a world where you matter. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you’ll embark on a quest to face powerful Elven gods and stop the destruction they’re unleashing on the world. You are known as Rook, battling on the front lines alongside a compelling cast of companions with individual storylines and motivations. In true Dragon Age fashion, companions are central to the experience and as Rook, you must rise up, rally your crew and forge relationships to become the unexpected leader others believe in.

Story

Solas, the Dread Wolf and Elven Trickster god of legend, wants to tear down the Veil that separates Thedas from the world of demons, restoring his people’s immortality and glory—even at the cost of countless lives. But his ritual goes awry, and his worst fears are realized, as two of his most ancient and powerful adversaries are released. They seek only to finish what they started millennia ago – the complete and utter domination of our world. Rook’s journey to stop these two powerful deities will span across all of Thedas to bustling cities, lush tropics, boreal forests, fettered swamps and the deepest depths, but be wary of the evil forces along the way like the Dark Spawn, Venatori Cultists and Demons of the Fade.

Key Features

Fellowship – Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s brand new companions come alive with some of the most compelling individual storylines in Dragon Age history. Expansive and dynamic stories navigate love, loss and complex choices that will affect your relationships and the fate of each member of the Veilguard. New companions like the Veil Jumper Bellara, the necromancer Emmrich, and the private detective Neve, come from iconic factions in Dragon Age lore, possessing individual skill trees and specialized gear for advanced team progression. You’ll see familiar faces, too, such as the archer Lace Harding who returns to the series as a full time companion.

Choice and Consequences – Dragon Age: The Veilguard builds on the series’ deep role-playing roots, providing extraordinary storytelling and worldbuilding, deep personalities for each companion, meaningful choices and impactful cinematic moments. The bonds you create and the relationships you forge will be affected by your choices made throughout your journey.

A Crafted Experience – As a character-driven RPG, Dragon Age: The Veilguard delivers a crafted experience that pays homage to BioWare’s history of storytelling. The Lighthouse provides a central place where you can rest, learn more about the world through conversations, while the Crossroads allows you to traverse to separate explorable regions of the world with your companions. You’ll experience more of Thedas than ever before as your story unfolds across meticulously crafted biomes and beautiful regions including Rivain, Weisshaupt, Arlathan, Minrathous, the Deep Roads and more, each inviting you to delve deeper into the narrative and uncover the mysteries of the land.

Fluid, Customizable Combat – Immersive combat blends fluid moment-to-moment controls with tactical decision-making. Players can fully customize their experience to fit their playstyle with diverse skill trees among three different classes—Warrior, Mage, and Rogue—each with unique abilities and specializations. Choose two companions to join you on your quests and unleash powerful team combos that can change the tide of any battle. Make strategic choices and direct your allies to fight, heal or stay out of the fray with the newly-added ability wheel.

Be the Leader You Want to Be – Dragon Age: The Veilguard features a robust character creation system that allows you to be the leader you want to be with a vast range of customization. BioWare has created the most comprehensive character creator in Dragon Age yet to make this story truly your own