#especially when put in contrast with how sweet most of the non-villain characters are in the other games

[giantchasm]

Replayed Gates to Infinity recently. I really enjoy the fact that half of the characters in it are like malevolent nihilists.

[davidmann95]

Some Kingdom Hearts future thoughts

Have to get ‘em out! Went into some thoughts with my psuedo-review of III, but I’ve got others and stuff worth expanding on. I’ll put them under the cut since it clearly goes into spoilers, except for my boldest, most controversial guess: along with being announced either this year or next (since Kingdom Hearts has never reached the end of a calendar year after a release with nothing on the horizon) I think Kingdom Hearts IV is going to be a 2022 release. I recognize that sounds like an intensely generous timeframe, but I have several reasons:

1. Above all else by far: once again, Square Enix and Disney are going to be on Nomura’s ass, nose to the grindstone, to get him to start delivering these on a consistent basis again. Do you think they’re looking at Kingdom Hearts III topping sales charts and thinking “well, it sure was worth the wait”, or do you think they’re going “gosh, these are some nice sales, sure would be nice if it came out years ago and we had a bunch more similarly-selling titles by now, let’s try and aim for something closer to that in the future”. Especially-especially since Nomura and the actors aren’t getting any younger and the series is at a point where the core fanbase for the franchise as-is is going to be the primary target rather than new audiences, which means it has to wrap up in a timeframe where that’s still a viable market. So rapid, priority development and few if any more spinoffs. I mean, not as if there’s really a handheld platform for them to be on anymore.

2. My understanding (and this is going somewhat into the technical side of things, so I’m going thirdhand here based on what I’ve heard from others) is that the lifecycle of the current console generation isn’t going to run out for quite a bit yet, so they can reuse a lot of the assets and whatnot from III.

3. A big deal was made about Dream Drop Distance coming out on the 10th anniversary of the franchise, and given 20 is a much wilder number for this series than most equivalents when it’s about a single cast of characters going through a single story, I can’t imagine they won’t want to push that as at least a similarly big deal.

4. Finally, when things don’t go as catastrophically off the rails as III did, these games seem to have a fairly consistent 3-4 year development span (even III, once they announced the beginning of development in 2013, would have come out 2017-early 2018 if not for switching from Luminous to Unreal Engine), and for the reasons I listed above I think this is going to be on the speedier end of that.

* Firstly: the main discussion I’m seeing at this point regarding IV is “it’s gonna be a Kingdom Hearts/The World Ends With You/pseudo-Final Fantasy Versus XIII crossover!”, and I really expect and hope that isn’t the case. Not that I’ll be pissed if it is, I’m sure it would still be rad, but it strikes me as both unlikely and the lesser outcome. I don’t know that I see the powers that be diverting resources in one of their biggest cash cows towards a sequel to one of their minor games - one that’s already been in Kingdom Hearts, meaning its inclusion here wouldn’t reasonably be a huge enough deal to base a lot of the full story on - and a way to reimagine another project. And for that matter it strikes me as conceptually small-scale given the setup. Nomura went with a name in Yozora that doesn’t just have the bent meaning of Sora’s name but actually literally sounds like him, went with a setting that aside from the one cameo sign mainly screams to viewers “Sora’s suddenly in the real world, holy cow”, and unless I entirely misread it Verum Rex was presented as a total self-roast in Toy Box. It doesn’t strike me as spot-the-reference (even though that’s 100% in there) nearly so much as establishing a tonal contrast to Kingdom Hearts.

I joked initially about this being a Flash of Two Worlds! (linking to a description for non-comics readers who are here because I tagged Kingdom Hearts)/’Kingdom Hearts goes to war with its own gritty fanfic’ setup, but...I actually suspect that’s pretty close to what’s going on here? This seems like a send up of Final Fantasy’s relative self-seriousness and over the top Super Cool characters, as a contrast to Sora’s goofy open-hearted sincerity and optimism. It’s the Secret Movie aesthetic that some want not just more prominent but as the actual main tone of the series morphed into an entire universe all its own, and Sora, out of place, has to find his way through and back home even as the real threat mounts, and probably has to save this world and get through to its heroes who aren’t likely prone to grinning through off-the-cuff monologues about the heart. That is not only entirely my kind of ridiculous meta jam, it feels like a logical next step for the series: if the first trilogy was in part about growing up, the next (and I suspect last, as the Master of Masters and his Foretellers have been set up as the primordial antagonists of the entire mythology and this is where they’re coming to the fore; my old theory of Eraqus being the big bad of an intermediary trilogy looks solidly shot to hell) could very well be about reaching adulthood, in which case it makes sense Sora would have to pass through a near literal fire of Adolescent/Adult Cynicism.

* Speaking of where Sora ends up: I kinda doubt he’s literally dead, or that if he is it’ll last past the opening of the game. They’ve already made a big theatrical production of Sora dying twice now, the second time in the most literal way possible and just a few hours prior to this, so while third time’s the charm I think there’ll be more to it than that. The again common thing I’ve been seeing is that he’ll have to play the Reaper game to win his life back (not something I’m much familiar with but I think I’ve got the basics), but again, while it’ll certainly be part of the game I don’t think TWEWY is going to be the big thing here (like they’d really make that a bigger deal than the Final Fantasy elements have been), and he just dealt with the afterlife and had to essentially play a game to win his soul back, and this wouldn’t even be a game he’s unfamiliar with. My impression is he’s incorporated back and whole - if likely powered down from the ordeal to justify him being back at level one - and the mystery is less whether or not he’s truly alive so much as how he ended up here and how to get back.

* On the other end of things - and I realize it’s a risky prospect to suggest after her getting a shockingly small role compared to everyone else in III was the damning weak aspect of its otherwise basically perfect finale - I think this is where Kairi is actually going to start to come to the forefront. She and Riku would be at the head of a search that everyone would be a part of (they were there when it happened, they know death is negotiable in their world, and they’re good people who all owe him), her especially since he’s her boyfriend - they may not declare it outright but there’s clearly no ambiguity between the two of them as to their situation anymore - and the one he sacrificed himself for, and she’s out there fighting now even if she’s inexperienced. And Riku seems like he’s going to end up lost himself on the search, leaving her behind as the sole Destiny Trio representative. So even if she isn’t a playable co-lead I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one going on a more traditional Kingdom Hearts adventure searching with the rest while Sora and later Riku deal with the genre mindfuck. On the bright side if nothing else, she’s died twice now too and they’ve both been presented as dead in a “maybe this time for real” way for a finale, so while again third time’s the charm, I figure she and Sora are relatively bulletproof from here on out.

* Speaking of Riku, while this seems more like an old-school proof of concept trailer from I and II rather than the more recent actual scenes, meaning his appearance might well change just as Kairi was different in I’s Secret Movie than she really was in II, it’s very notable that he hasn’t aged at all. So likely instead of another tragic I to II scale timeskip of Sora being lost from his friends, it looks like IV will be picking up immediately and the search for him won’t take long to succeed. Also speaking of Riku, I seem to see people thinking he’s with Namine now? Not that that seems impossible, but while the scene as a whole is romanticized in that it’s basically a princess being carried away by chariot to her happily-ever-after, it reads to me less as an actual romance than Riku fulfilling his ‘brother’s promise. Though if Square/Nomura does want to really get into romance with the next trilogy, since Sora/Kairi is locked down maybe they’ll just say fuck it and do a whole Riku/Namine/Xion/Roxas Love Square situation.

* Actual prediction rather than analysis of evidence: I suspect this is the last major time the Destiny Trio is going to be split up, at least in the searching-for-each-other, not-knowing-if-everyone’s-alive sense. I was the search for Kairi, II for Riku, and now IV for Sora - that cycle looks to be completing. Wouldn’t be surprised if V and/or the finale was finally the three of them as the adventuring party as fans have wanted for so long, with III as the grand finale to Sora/Donald/Goofy.

* It seems early to predict the main villain, but at the same time everyone was accurate in assuming a Keyblade-wielding Xehanort would be the final boss of the trilogy circa 2006, so I’m gonna go ahead and say Xigbar/Luxu is gonna be the end-all with IV. The Master of Masters is still the end of the road, and perfect for it because he’s a real-world normal savvy guy who can manipulate this world of straightforward classical adventurers with ease, while Sora at the opposite end of the scale is silly and sweet even by that world’s standard. But Luxu addresses the same ideas in a way that’d be perfect for this game in particular as it seems to be set up, he’d be the villainous connective tissue as this game moves from one trilogy to another, and he has the dangling personal thread of the ‘reward’ he suggested was coming for Sora. Or hell, since now it looks like she’s at least somewhat privy to what’s going on, maybe Maleficent will finally step back up.

EDIT: Ooh, just remembered, speaking of what Xigbar says to Sora, his Olympus conversation also predicts Sora’s fate? The whole “if you leap in to save somebody, you might just end up in the clutch needing to be saved yourself” lecture, i.e. the premise for IV. Maybe his teach isn’t the only one privy to future events?

* Not both, they’ll wanna space it out, but I’m like 70% sure this is where Marvel or Star Wars are gonna happen.

* Finally, while I’ve heard speculation that the Mystery Star is one of the Foretellers or the person who died in that Union X game, I don’t think she’s one of them given it’s a new voice actor and she cites a name Sora knows. More likely she’s ‘Subject X’ (I went ahead and looked up the Secret Reports, haven’t gone back and done all the bonus challenges myself yet and won’t I imagine for some time), who does seem to be from that time but is I think someone new.

[riancraigjohnson-blog]

would you be willing to share some of the issues that you had with tlj as a woman of color? I was telling some friends about issues people were having with the film's treatment of PoC and I figured it would be better to share an actual PoC's perspective.

thank you so much for asking!!!! now, full disclosure i’m a super white-passing latina. or hispanic. ( i’ve referred to myself as both, so ) i’m puerto rican on my mom’s side. so i haven’t personally experienced the racism that my mom has, or my grandfather ( popi ) has, or my aunts or my mom’s cousins or, well, that entire side of my family.

as such, i can’t speak from a woman of color’s perspective because i’m white-passing, just because that hasn’t happened to me. i can be outraged about it, certainly, because i see my family in someone like oscar, or benecio who is actually puerto rican, and yeah, their treatment pisses me off.

now, that being said, let’s continue: ( note: i’m going to focus more on poe in regards to personal experience, as he’s the one i most closely relate to in terms of racial-themed questions )

what is the narrative that is being fed to us today, politically? one of harsh anti-immigration, one of an us vs them mentality-- you don’t have to be a poc to realize that, but it’s the reality that’s facing us. ( we’re particularly seeing a strong anti-latinx/hispanic, anti-black, and anti-muslim sentiment, but that’ll come in later. )

in tfa, we have our main trio-- a white girl, a young black man, and a latino man-- our heroes. in contrast, we have our villain trio-- a white woman and two white men. to me, that sets the tone-- we’re offered a movie that allows two main non-white characters the chance to shine and break free from racial stereotypes, and they do so spectacularly. i look at poe, and that’s my family, that’s a positive representation for other latinxs/hispanics, something we sorely do not get enough of in big-budget films. ( usually we’re portrayed as either hot-tempered, hyper-sexualized exotics, or stupid comic relief. ) imagine how awesome it was to see poe be none of these things?

he’s sharp-witted, funny, intelligent, quick on his feet, resourceful, and above all, kind. he’s sweet and clearly loves both what he does and the people he works with, and even without the background the books and other media provide, poe is obviously shown as someone who both respects leia and she respects in turn, someone who is well-deserving of his high-rank in the resistance, especially when you consider just how quickly this man came back after being both physically and mentally tortured by the first order/kyle. poe is, at the core of it, a gentle soul compared to the many brash and/or stupid ‘latinx/hispanic’ representations we’ve been fed in the past, so this was such a nice change of pace. he doesn’t yell or get violent, even at his most frustrated-- he’s level-headed and demonstrates all the needed qualities for a leader.

now.

the poe we get in tlj is painted as if he’s none of those things-- in the beginning, he’s shown as being in it just for the glory, the thrill of taking down a dreadnought instead of the guilt that might have plagued him over the excessive deaths in that scene-- that seems more in line with his character in tfa. he’s disobedient, petulant, impulsive-- and then he gets slapped by leia. ( here’s a hint, rian: white people slapping poc is never cool, even if you think it’s ‘empowering’ just because it’s a woman slapping. )  he then gets demoted from commander to captain, placed under the charge of holdo with the rest of the crew, and then denied even the slightest of answers when he, quite reasonably, asked for what the hell the plan was. however, the whole movie stands to paint poe’s mutiny as childish. his mission that he sent rose and finn on as a failure. that he’s going to learn the lesson of ‘sacrificing oneself for the greater good’ from a white woman, when poe has CLEARLY demonstrated in the past that he’s more likely to put himself in danger than let others do it for him.

we supposedly get this great character arc showing poe grow as a character from an impatient, hot-headed man-child who throws a literal tantrum ( hmmmmmmmmmmm sound like a certain white 30-year old we know? ) into this seasoned, war-tested officer who now knows the value of hope because he should have just blindly trusted this woman who gave him no reason to.

that’s regression, and that’s harmful, and that’s why we’re getting people talking about not liking poe, or downright hating him, or in buzzfeed’s instance, calling him worse than jar jar binks.

when i came out of tfa, when other people i know came out of tfa, poe was a role model for non-whites and whites alike. he was likeable across the board, and now, there’s not even that.

the same goes for finn, but like i said before, i can’t speak as personally about the regression in finn’s character other than we were given this selfless, brave character with so much heart and emotion in the first film, someone who saw the evil of the first order and before he could even fire a shot at a helpless villager, he said no. in tfa, there’s this whole theme of him ‘running away’-- running away from the order, from jakku, from takodana-- but we see his progression through the movie, and by the end, no one would dare call finn a coward. he risked his life for rey, helped the resistance destroy starkiller; he’s a hero, which is what ties into rose’s hero-worship of him at the very beginning.

however, in tlj, we see the exact same story-- finn is branded as selfish and cowardly by rose, who never even bothered to listen to his story-- we’re given the notion that he was leaving the ship to go get as far away from the order as possible so that when she does return from ahch-to, she’s not walking into a first order trap. before finn can even explain to rose why he’s doing this, she tasers him without a second thought, and that’s the groundwork for their relationship. ( note: rey also hit finn when they first met, doing so because bb-8 said finn stole poe’s jacket-- this doesn’t make it okay, but the fact that rey trusts finn after that, never calling him a coward or traitor or selfish, even after he told her the truth of his past and still tried to leave takodana-- she never once called him any of those things. ) the rest of the movie has its tone set from that first interaction-- finn is played as the butt of all the jokes in their scenes, continuously called selfish or cowardly by rose, or treated as if he’s somehow stupid-- we, again like with poe, see no actual character development within him. we already saw all this in the first movie, only guess what? it worked that time because one: it was the first time seeing this character and two: rey never belittled finn or tore him down.

finally, let’s touch on rose. ( and by extension, paige. ) listen...... we got fucking robbed. before i read spoilers for the movie, ( and i did so because i didn’t trust rian johnson further than i could punt him, and i still don’t, ) i was so excited to see ntv as paige, i was so excited to see the tico sisters onscreen together and interact and like? we had great interaction with hong kong donnie yen and chinese jiang wen-- and that was men. to have two vietnamese women on screen? in a star wars film? color me fucking stoked! but.... we didn’t. paige doesn’t even get to say her own sister’s name, she gets one line saying the guy who was supposed to drop the payload’s name, and she dies. instead of manpain, we get to see the aftermath of ‘sisterpain’-- as if paige’s death is supposed to positively affect rose, who we can see is OBVIOUSLY affected by the loss of her from when we first see rose on screen? that first moment seeing rose, devastated by the loss of her sister, i was honestly willing to forgive the killing of paige-- here we had another chance to break boundaries, by showing a soft, warm, loving person in rose from the get-go....... and instead they have her tase finn and treat him like shit the whole movie. have her talk down to him as if he’s an idiot and all he’s ever done is run away his whole life, when that is clearly not what finn is about at all. as a result, i feel like her own story for personal growth is grossly surrounding insulting finn, up until the very end in one of those ‘twists’ johnson seems to be fond of-- overall, what should be a positive experience by having a lead non-white female added to the mix feels more like it was written by a white feminist where it’s the idea of ‘female > any male’ as opposed to, y’know, intersectional feminism, where things like race are taken into consideration.

overall, the treatment of the three leading non-white characters is overall poor, cruel, generally racist ( particularly in terms of the ‘white women putting the latino hothead man in his place’ ) narrative that johnson seems so desperate for us to chug down, and also misleading-- it seemed pointless to include paige in the movie when her whole purpose was to die. ( because killing off poc, particularly woc, is considered ‘good writing’ in johnson’s book. )

[aion-rsa]

The Suicide Squad: Inside James Gunn’s DCEU Supervillain War Movie

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In November 2019, I found myself in the middle of a war zone. Well, the closest approximation of a war zone I’ve ever found myself in during my time visiting the sets of blockbuster movies. If I had been brought to this particular set in Atlanta on a sunny autumn afternoon without knowing what movie it was that I was supposed to be getting a peek at, the scene presented to a group of journalists probably would have convinced me that this was some new war movie or straight up action blockbuster, and not one that features a collection of DC villains and antiheroes at its core.

The set in question is called “Jotunheim” and it’s apparently an objective Task Force X needs to conquer in The Suicide Squad. But for all intents and purposes, this could be the kind of Nazi fortress that the gritty characters of movies like The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare need to conquer, whether or not they get out alive. That’s no accident, according to director James Gunn.

“A lot of the film is within the genre of war caper films,” Gunn tells reporters later that day, specifically referencing The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes, and others. “It’s not really something that’s existed for a long time, but in the late 60s that was one of the most vibrant genres of the world. [We wanted to] kind of … add on to it with The Suicide Squad.” 

There’s no sign of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport, or any of the other oddball DC characters at the center of Gunn’s newest movie as we stroll the Jotunheim set. Whatever wild action took place here seems to have been resolved long before our arrival. But the evidence is everywhere and it must have been one hell of a fight.

From the decrepit guard tower and busted fence at the perimeter to the entrance of Jotunheim (which has a massive hole blasted in it) is probably a distance of 100 meters or so. And virtually every inch of that shows the scope of whatever took place here: burnt out bunkers, overturned and semi-destroyed jeeps, sandbagged guard stations, and so much debris, a mixture of real rocks and carved foamcore and plywood “masonry.” 

“It’s a giant construction project” producer Peter Safran jokes about the number and scale of practical sets that have been built for The Suicide Squad. “The idea is to do as much practically as we possibly could.”

That reliance on practical sets and effects wherever possible is a theme that keeps coming up throughout the day as we tour sets and look at production artwork, scale models, weapons, and more.

“We built literally three football fields of a set and that’s so unusual in this day and age,” production designer Beth Mickle says of Jotunheim. “You just never do that. We wanted to have real rubble behind them in the battle sequences, and we wanted to see the building that they’re attacking. For that scene to exist in a film today is just highly unusual. And we’ve done that set and then a dozen others of that scale, so it’s incredible.”

Both the war movie vibe and the love of practical effects are very much in evidence on another set, a convincing indoor recreation of a jungle with a guerilla camp nestled in the middle of it. There’s dirty laundry hanging, filthy pots strewn around, a crumpled pack of cigarettes, and a half empty bottle of watery beer…and what appear to be bloody chunks of skull and assorted viscera littering the grass. Like Jotunheim, something went down here, and whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty.

The Characters of The Suicide Squad: Meet Task Force X

It all stands in almost stark contrast to the wacky assortment of brightly-colored characters that make up the actual team. The concept art and costume tests for these characters were suitably colorful and wildly offbeat, and it’s almost hard to make this line up with the gritty, war movie vibes of the Jotunheim and jungle sets. But storyboards reveal a nighttime action sequence on a beach, with the Squad invading the fictional nation of Corto Maltese, and were it not for the colors and unique designs of the characters wreaking havoc, this too would be evocative of just about anything other than a superhero movie.

A production office is papered with life sized posters of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (performed by Steve Agee and voiced by Sylvester Stallone…although we don’t know that at the time), Blackguard (Pete Davison), Savant (Michael Rooker), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Weasel (Sean Gunn), The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Javelin (Flula Borg), Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), TDK (Nathan Fillion), and Bloodsport (Idris Elba).

Looming large is also Idris Elba’s ominous, armored character who we now all know as Bloodsport, but who the studio remained cagey about identifying during this set visit for some reason, leaving reporters to speculate on the identity of the badass in blue, black, and gold. Between the color scheme, the armor, and an impressively intimidating assortment of weapons left out on a table for reporters to ogle as it’s explained that each weapon transforms into or folds out of each other, speculation about Bloodsport ends up occupying a fair amount of the downtime between interviews.

So what exactly could possibly hold such a motley crew together?

“You have to remember that all either have been wrongfully accused or done horrible, morally wrong things,” John Cena says. ”You can see the good in people, you can also see the evil in people… All of these people have real bad personality problems. So I think when you get that type of group together, that’s what makes it fun. Everybody is kind of different. But I think criminals see criminals, they just size everybody up. I think every one of them is like, ‘how is this person going to stab me in the back?’ That’s the world they come from.”

Cena is playing the authoritarian Peacemaker, a character who sees himself very differently than many other members of the Squad do. But the actors behind two of the stranger characters in the film, offer some additional perspective on the team dynamic.

“There’s people in this story that really want friendships, and people that don’t want anybody near them, just like all of us,” says David Dastmalchian, who plays Polka-Dot Man. “I think all of us have felt at times like we are totally disposable to either our employers or society or you name it. So that’s been interesting, in the relationship [between the characters] with the dynamic that starts to build or break down.”

“These are all characters that for the most part, probably don’t even know the existence of the other ones,” Steve Agee says. “Some of them do, and it’s the story of The Suicide Squad. They are forced to be together, and do this task, this mission. So, part of the story is just watching these people adapt to being around each other.”

Flula Borg (who gave journalists a rambling, uproariously funny interview about his character which you’ll see more of on DoG soon enough) spoke about how his character relates to Viola Davis’ team leader, Amanda Waller.

“Judging from all the relationships that Javelin has I would say poor, non-existent, unhealthy, crosses lines, should consider not interacting with other humans,” Borg says. “Javelin doesn’t worry about how people treat him. He treats them … What’s the golden rule? He has the Javelin rule, which is like ‘suck it, I’m cool.’ I think that’s his rule.” 

Even here with the characters, the commitment to practical effects is strong, especially in areas where you’d fully expect them to rely on CGI. For example, Daniela Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2, has a little helper rat named Sebastian. While the hordes of rats the character is capable of commanding will necessitate CGI, at least some of the rats are real.

“We have three female rats [that play Sebastian],” Daniela Melchior says about the um…practical rats that the movie is using. “It’s a little bit distracting sometimes because I have to act lazy and tired like I don’t give a shit about whatever is happening… and I’m just like, ‘come here.’ But she doesn’t want to come, she wants to find new places and go, so we’re like, ‘okay, we’ll try one time with the rats, we’ll see what happens.’”

And when one of the rats playing Sebastian doesn’t want to do as they’re told, only then does the movie revert to CGI to get the desired “performance” from the furry co-star.

“I don’t know if I can say this,” Melchior says conspiratorially. “But actually, [some of the cast] are a little bit afraid of rats…I’m always trying to say ‘look, she’s so sweet, she wouldn’t hurt you.’”

From Suicide Squad 2 to The Suicide Squad

Like the characters themselves, The Suicide Squad has something of a rough past. The first movie failed to become the surefire franchise-starter the studio hoped for in 2016, and while a Suicide Squad 2 was put into development almost immediately, it wasn’t until Gunn became available that the project finally solidified.

“There was no plan before James,” Safran says. “There were other writers that had worked on various Suicide Squad scripts over the years, but… this was starting from ground zero, starting from scratch. All the characters that he selected were just characters that he was a fan of and wanted to play with. I think, in typical fashion for James, he picks more obscure characters…he liked the idea of being able to take these characters and imbue them with whatever characters he really wanted, or characteristics that he really wanted to play with.”

One of the “characteristics” Gunn wanted was to truly tap into the spirit of DC’s long-running and beloved Suicide Squad comics of the 1980s, which were co-created and stewarded by Jon Ostrander. 

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“I don’t think of it so much as an interpretation of what Ostrander wrote but I do think of it as a continuation of what he did,” Gunn says. “It’s very much in line with that. When he was first putting this team together, he was only able to get certain characters. For him, it was the fun of taking these characters that weren’t as well-known and developing them in a real way. And it’s one of the greatest superhero runs of any comic book series.”

(Gunn also notes that Ostrander has a cameo in the film.)

As for whether or not The Suicide Squad is a sequel to or a reboot of the previous film, all involved are both diplomatic and evasive. The official line is that any characters that were together in the previous film do already know each other, but as for the actual events of the 2016 movie, that’s where things get murky. 

“We just don’t address it any tangible form,” Safran says. “Yes, they’re the characters and actors that played them in the first movie, but we really wanted to make sure that this stands on its own two feet. It’s not a sequel, but there are some characters that were in the first movie, so it’s not really a full reboot either. So we just call it James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.”

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Inside Jotunheim

Later in the day, journalists are taken inside Jotunheim via soundstage, an indoor construction that appears almost as sprawling as the outdoor set. As we saw outside, the remnants of what was likely a furious battle are all around. A stuntman in full Peacemaker gear is hanging around as we see Robbie’s Harley, Dastmalchian’s Polka-Dot Man, and Agee as King Shark (“the studio is trying to play down the whole Polka-Dot Man/King Shark universe they’re building,” Dastmalchian jokes) make their way through the rubble. Elba’s Bloodsport isn’t visible, but we’re assured he’s part of the scene.

While it’s Sylvester Stallone voicing King Shark in the film, it’s Agee on set here, wearing a grey mo-cap suit with the kind of padding you see on MLB umpires and somewhat shark-shaped wire headgear. He also appears to be holding a skull.    

Harley, however, is wearing the ornate red dress glimpsed in the trailer (although it’s somewhat the worse for wear at the moment). As she navigates the carnage in Jotunheim, Gunn calls out for Robbie to “hum a little tune.” She does just that, conjuring exactly the kind of aimless musical free-association you’d expect from a mind like Harley Quinn in the midst of battle.

“Harley’s been through some things as you can see by this point in the film,” Robbie says to reporters between takes. When it’s noted that Harley’s baseball bat, a fixture in the previous film, is nowhere to be found in this scene, she jokes “My baseball bat is back home in LA, next to my bed, in case anyone breaks in…I’ve got other weapons in this one.”

We don’t get to see these Squad members engaged in any combat during the shooting of this scene, and it’s not clear if this is the interior from the same “entrance” that had seemingly been blasted into the outdoor structure, or somewhere else inside the fortress. But the clues all point to one thing: like everything else in this movie, where The Suicide Squad goes, destruction and chaos follow.

The Suicide Squad opens in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6. We’ll have more from our set visit in the coming days.

The post The Suicide Squad: Inside James Gunn’s DCEU Supervillain War Movie appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[ciceroisthefamilycat]

My post on the first two BL books (here’s the one from Spirit Bound and Last Sacrifice)

Quick thing: I said they should rename the VA series Guardian Rose for the show- I would still be ok with that, but I put forth: Blood Rose (with Golden Lily for if Bloodlines gets a spinoff show).

Ok, so... ugh.. my love for Sydney and more focus on her, versus how quickly I get tired of some of the contrivances in BL.

Bloodlines:

I was reading along and I was like “huh, I really like Lee... what happened to him? was he caught up in the tattoo ring, I thought that was Keith?” so I was impatient and looked it up like a jerk... but yeah that is a captivating, horrible character; the part near the end where Syd notices the “chilling indifference” where this seemingly sweet guy doesn’t give a shit about his soul, or more importantly killing others relentlessly... that is some of the strongest writing in either of the two series. But it is frustrating because we’re left with so many questions with Lee- who turned him? I don’t think we got that answer ever, but was it Robert? No, right, since he only mentioned having turned one woman before? Why did someone restore Lee and then leave him, and is Lee so fucked up when he’s restored because he didn’t get the coddling after “rebirth” that Dimitri got from Lissa and Sonya got from Dimitri, or is it the (perhaps stronger message) that some people just enjoy power and cruelty? Also, Lee lost his Moroi magic whereas Sonya kept hers (that’s more a suspicion on Sydney’s part but I do think it’s right)- it could be a spirit thing that allowed Sonya hers back, but I wonder if it wasn’t because he killed multiple women to try to become Strigoi again (like maybe he did get his magic back, but then he killed Tamara). Also... he decided to try Alchemist blood in his desperation, but didn’t even try spirit user blood from Adrian? My dude, that’s either misogyny, or lack of imagination, or contrivances on Richelle’s part to keep Adrian safe.

Also... ew at Lee going out with Jill, but that should be a given. Someone protect that girl. Like actually. I do think it’s such a great contrast that Syd is like “I’m taking this job to protect my little sister Zoe, who Jill reminds me of, from known predator Keith, who tries to come off as charming and nonthreatening” (and Syd is so disgusted that Julia and Kristin think Keith’s hot) meanwhile Sydney is... aggressively pushing Jill toward Lee. It’s some fantastic (upsetting) irony.

I love the Amberwood supporting cast of teens. Micah is great (and better than Mason imo- sorry). Julia and Kristin are great. Trey is fantastic. I do hate how flat Slade and Laurel are though (typing out those names in a non-Arrow context is weird). I was surprised on rereading how little Ms. Terwillinger is in the first book- I thought she and magic played a much larger role. Also, while I love Syd getting to be a witch and all the characterization (including her discomfort with magic) that entails, I do wish she’d just gotten to enjoy studying Ancient Greek architecture like she wanted during her independent study. Let my little nerd flourish (while also being a volleyball badass).

I disliked Adrian more than I remembered in this book. Like boy, you have a 14/15 y.o. in your head. Stop with the alcohol and stop with the threesomes (did that happen? Sydney goes back and forth and seems undetermined based on the state of dress of his companions) where the minor is going to be stuck with those consequences. And stop pouting about being in the house with Clarence. Like, yes, he’s a kooky old man, but he’s also sweet. And the purposeful sabotage of his job interviews after taking Syd’s time for it... ugh. And the bitterness yet lingering obsession at Rose... I do love his art classes, and I appreciate at the golf course when he’s the only one to see how disturbed Sydney is by magic. I also have to admit to enjoying his decision to paint the apartment “goldenrod”- that ending scene with just the two of them is very sweet.

Eddie still never gets enough to do. I really do wonder what might have come for him if Mead had followed her original plan to do all 4 (Syd, Adr, Jill, and Ed) perspectives. But his takedown of the Strigoi at the end (with the assist from Jill and Sydney) is fantastic. Now if only we didn’t have the unnecessary Eddie/Jill crush drama.

On the Keith front... the eye for an eye is one of the most dramatic things. And I really think it’s interesting how much of these series comes back to sexualized violence against women (starting with Lissa raging on the jerk who assaulted a Feeder in VA flashbacks). Sydney lost her faith in the Alchemists for the first time when one of their own assaulted her big sister, and getting justice for that is what drives her more and more toward the Moroi and “outside corrupting influences.” Which... Abe is a villain in this one. I know fandom loves him, and I do enjoy him, but the man is revealed to be a drug supplier/trafficker... it was one thing when I thought he was involved in finding Feeders and the like, but we see just how much havoc the tattoos wreak at Amberwood, and knowing he’s doing stuff like it elsewhere is terrible.

on to Golden Lily:

chapter 5, pg 83: “But then, [Brayden] opened the door and I realized he was waiting for me to get in. I did, trying to remember the last time a guy had opened a car door for me. My conclusion: never.” I really thought I was about to make a point about Dimitri opening a car door for Sydney at the start of Chapter 2- apparently not and he only got her suitcase, my bad.

Ugh this one... I might have to give up this reread because it’s not even the most Sydrian-centric things get and I’m already exhausted. Look, Adrian is the (21 y.o.) guy who was essentially stalking high-schooler Rose in her dreams- she was surprised to see in Lissa’s mind that when she asked him not to smoke near her he apparently didn’t. Meanwhile, Adrian is ready to throwdown with Sonya, and especially Dimitri, when they request blood from Sydney and won’t take the graceful “no’s” she tries to give them. And I can appreciate growth, and the part where he’s protecting Sydney. But... given his other actions I’m not sure it does come across as growth so much as Adrian picks and chooses when to respect other people’s boundaries, and especially enjoys picking a fight with Dimitri (and then there are the elements where Rose was a biracial Turkish and dhamphir girl who people sexualized over and over, whereas Sydney is the white Alchemist who had never even been kissed before this book). When he gets drunk and interrupts Sydney’s Halloween Dance with Brayden, or purposefully delays her make-up date with Brayden, and messes up Brayden’s name constantly, and pretends not to know how to drive stick-shift, it’s inappropriate. That doesn’t change that he stands up for her with his dad (though he also leaves her alone at the table with him), or that he remembers what she says about hetaerae, or avoids touching her since it means something different to him than her, or that he tries to tell her about the tracker and then follows the Guardians and helps get her out. But like, ffs, could he not have just offered that she could drive the car whenever she wanted as long as he could supervise- it’s still manipulative, but at least it’s not lying and wasting her time?

Meanwhile, Mead writes Sydney as getting annoyed with Brayden for lesser nuisances, and “can’t he be more understand about my ‘family emergencies’” and Sydney just barely starts to call out Adrian interrupting a date yet again... then lampshades it with “oh, it’s an actual emergency for Sonya at least.” Like, in LS Rose had a very heavy-handed realization that Adrian was using her for strength rather than being stronger because he was with her, and Mead manages to be more heavy-handed, just in Adrian’s favor, in this book (series). Also, I swear to fuck, I hate how caricaturized Sydney and Brayden’s nerdiness becomes in this book. Setting aside that I never knew any 18 y.o. this nerdy and I was head nerd at my school, if these two dumbasses want to go to a textile museum or windfarm stop judging them and the fact that you wrote Sydney as liking these things. Also, Sydney really does not give a fuck about her job apparently. Like, I get it, but at the same time, it’s annoying how at first she cared about Jill genuinely as this younger girl she would look out for, and as part of her job, and yet it gets to a point where she’s like “oh no, something seems wrong with Jill- does that mean something’s wrong with ADRIAN?!”... like, babe, you’re compromised. How do you not see that? I don’t need her to be like Rose with Lissa (that was unhealthy for both of them and led to resentment, and Jill and Sydney don’t have that same base to start from regardless), but it is frustrating that it seems like Sydney starts to care less about everyone else than Adrian.

I will say the scenes with Sydney in her red Hetaera costume would be visually stunning, and the actual substance once she and Adrian get to his apartment is pretty fantastic. Heck, even Adrian’s “are you saying my sister looks like a prostitute?” is one of the funniest scenes in either series. But I hate that they’re all pretending to be siblings (or third cousins in Angeline’s case) and meanwhile all crushing on each other, and apparently Sydney and Eddie lose all good sense and forget that’s taboo? Um, WTF? Say what you will about VA, it always kept in mind that Romitri’s age gap was a taboo. Speaking of, I do not forgive Richelle for putting this in print: “Sonya gave [Dimitri] a sly smile. ‘And here I thought you had a soft spot for reckless young girls.’ ” EWW. Sonya was a teacher (even if we fuzz around on whether Dimitri was one). This isn’t funny. I will make an exception for the ship I love because sometimes I am a hypocrite, but don’t ask me to laugh about the idea of a 25 y.o. having a “soft spot for reckless young girls.”

Angeline honestly gets so mistreated in this one. Like to be clear, Eddie or Sydney should have felt free to say something sooner about how she was making him uncomfortable with her advances. But there’s a 15 y.o. who’s out in the world for the first time “there were more people at the school than had been in her mountain community” and Sydney acknowledges this and why she would be overwhelmed, then lays into her with more vehemence than she ever displays at Adrian, a 21 y.o., acting up, because the 15 y.o. was actually overwhelmed when a dumbass performance troupe invaded her space. Also, she and Dimitri are all “she’s here on a mission”... the Keepers don’t keep with your Moroi royalty or rigid Alchemist structure. You grabbed a second 15 y.o. to protect another from political terrorists because you couldn’t trust others from either of your societies to do that job. Heaven Forbid that a girl from the Keepers didn’t immediately adjust to the indoctrination that most Dhamphir girls her age have gone through.

Btw, if Richelle weren’t so focused from the outset on Sydrian, Trey/Sydney have so much potential given the way they’re foils of each other. I love Trey, even granted that he made mistakes. Also the Warriors of Light as the Alchemists’ brutish, less erudite cousins is annoying. Like, from a thematic place it makes sense and does help build toward Sydney’s defection from the Alchemists that she sees other humans are not always the good guys and her own organization has hidden secrets, but given how much VA was like “ew those classist royal Moroi” the absolute disdain Sydney has for the Keepers and Warriors for having older clothing or lesser means reads in this book as very classist. It doesn’t help that she’s simping over Adrian and Brayden’s expensive cars every chance.

On the Warriors Front, I have a major issue with how Sydney’s dynamic (and Jill’s) with Sonya are written in this book. Sonya is Jill’s mother’s cousin, who was one of the only ones to know Jill’s true paternity. Sonya admittedly went Strigoi for ~three years, but I don’t buy that Sonya wasn’t a constant for Jill at St. Vladimir’s during her elementary school years. And then Sonya was there for Jill after Romitri took care of the Dashkov/Doru brothers. Yet, Sonya and Jill never exchange any interactions on screen, and Jill doesn’t even get to be especially alarmed over her relative being abducted by the Warriors. Meanwhile, Sydney who saw Sonya’s restoration and literally described it as a miracle to Rose at the time, whose religiosity is a huge part of her character, and of her order, doesn’t mention it while trying to persuade the Warriors? Like, her dynamic with that type of magic could be fascinating, yet it’s totally glossed over rather than playing a part of Sydney’s increasing questioning around magic. Sydney knows with more certainty than anyone (save maybe Dimitri) that Sonya isn’t putting on an act- she saw Sonya go from feral Strigoi to repentant Moroi in front of her eyes. Her calling it a miracle would have even given the Warriors a better reason to try and discount her as magicked, so I don’t get why it wasn’t brought up. Setting aside that, two more minor grievances: 1) why did Sonya go over to Adrian’s (and no one made sure she got home safe) after the Warriors of Light made it clear they were watching his residence? 2) Sydney mentions 4 recorded restorations- that’s Dimitri, Sonya, Lee, and I guess the unnamed woman that Robert Doru first restored, but why are they including her when they actually know next to nothing about that one. ETA July 1: I had forgotten that it was Sonya who said the “in a fight they’re lethal” quote about Romitri- so that was a fun realization at least

Stray thoughts on the book: the Micah/Jill break-up was stupid and sad and pointless (and I like Angeline/Eddie better than Jeddie, though I’m not sure that was the case the first time I read the series). Shame on Lia DeStefano for manipulating Jill into the print ad. I really thought this book was going to end with Zoe showing up- I guess I forgot a full book of events. I know Keith’s dad is probably not a great guy given his son and exactly what Tom’s primary concerns were when we saw him on page, but I do tentatively like him? Everyone’s kind of an asshole to Clarence, especially given how they’re using his house and his presence for their convenience. I do like that Sydney has a rough time with the location spell and it takes hours of just sitting waiting before she can get it to work. I ended up hating Sydney’s storyline about weight my first time reading through Indigo Spell- it felt like Richelle threw it in and it didn’t actually seem any healthier to me, I think, that Adrian and Sydney were like... tit for tat pushing each other to stop their vices; that being said, I was surprised how much I kind of liked Adrian calling out Sydney’s obsession with weight at the end of GL. Like, I still don’t love a guy talking down to a woman about her weight (especially the phrasing of telling her to gain weight to be more beautiful) but the actual content was enough to overcome that while reading that scene, so I’m wondering if maybe my opinion on the plotline in IS will have changed.

The adaptation front:

so, like with VA and FB, I would combine the first two books into one season

I fancast a Latino guy as Eddie (with a book-typical blonde for Sydney), and a black biracial actress as Adrian... so um, as I mentioned, I really dislike how they try to “familiarize” Sydney, Eddie, Jill, Angeline, Adrian, and Keith... I’m not sure how to overcome those plot difficulties but anyway yeah

on the genderbent Adrian: so Adrian as a girl presents far fewer issues to adaptation than it did with the VA books; it maybe helps with the protectiveness from Clarence (he saw Tamara in Jill and Sydney, surely he would with Adrian too); since I mentioned how I don’t get why Lee never considered drinking from Adrian the spirit user, I do think that would be much more likely in a show with Adrian as a woman... so imagine Lee planned on draining Adrian that weekend in LA, but they lost track of each other, and after that he liked Adrian too much and cared about Jill, so it was a last resort like with Sydney vs. Keith; I realize this also means in Malachi Wolfe’s self-defense class, there are no guy students, but it could be the mom with three kids including a newborn is a dad instead, or other new various characters

lesbian Sydney: look, Frostbite was plenty evidence that sometimes even when you like someone there just isn’t heat to a relationship (Rose/Mason), and that was the point in Sydney/Brayden, but imagine Sydney going through the motions throughout GL and she’s really trying to date this cute guy, but she has no heat to it, and then Adrian (a fellow lady) kisses her and it’s a revelation... and she could simply be like, oh, so boys were the problem, and try to move on with a girl in IS (because even though she never considered it before, at least the Alchemists aren’t strictly speaking homophobic) but then realize... “yeah I had a crush on Rose too, and I’m into girls, but it’s specifically Adrian that I’m feeling this heat of real affection with”

like, this is something that majorly pissed me off while reading BL series the first time: you’ve got Jill girlcrushing on Sydney as a gag because of the psychic-link to Adrian, you’ve got Adrian having a threesome with two random Moroi girls, you have Adrian’s token lesbian art-class friend, and then Sydney gets caught in a relationship with Adrian and sent to conversion therapy (literally)... just give me lesbian Sydney otherwise fuck that noise

I mentioned the Hetaera costume already... I don’t care... I am ready for that visual, and her in the parking lot in it right before a storm... also Jill’s fashion runway and fairy dresses should be fun too

so if they get this far, would BL be it’s own series while VA is actually still running? I wonder how they would handle the time Sonya and Dimitri would be in Palm Springs? Could we get a fun crossover event with Mikhail coming to town with a quickness when Sonya gets abducted? He found out she was missing at 12 hrs. before the rescue mission- I don’t buy that he didn’t come to town to join them...

[marvelandponder]

I’M SCREAMING

We’re 3 months away from this glitter-bomb and they gave us some stuff to scream about. I think I’ll do just that. I took my sweet time putting this together, I know, but there’s a fair bit to unpack and a lot to be excited about so, let’s go through it all!

Animation

Okay, so first things first: people are calling this a 2D movie and that’s not really that accurate.

It certainly has some 2D elements, like the backgrounds, but the style of animation only makes the characters look 2D, when in fact they’re 3D models.

You can tell in how they move. If I were to give you a still screen shot, you might guess that it was from a 2D animation, but in motion, you can tell what it actually is: cel-shading.

I had a hunch that’s what it was so I asked a storyboarder who worked on the MLP movie (and the show) if I was right and she said: 

The program they’re using is ToonBoom, which does rigs with 2D toon shaders, among other things!

You know, I don’t often call things, but I fucking called it. Let me have this. Just to give you a quick definition from Wikipedia:

“Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades.”

3-dimensional figure with cel shading, has the effect of making it  look 2D. Typically seen with thick outlines on the outside and little to no outlines on the inside:

(Team Fortress 2 itself isn’t normally cel shaded, but that’s a great example a fan made of what cel shading usually looked like when I was growing up)

Cel shading without outlines, as seen in Wind Waker. 

Like I said, just seeing this still image, it looks 2D, but watching it move, you can tell there’s a 3rd dimension to the character with the features and lineart mapped out onto the models to make it look 2D

Which by the way, is really unique for a major release! I don’t know about anyone else, but I was excited that MLP: The Movie seemed to be 2-D since there hasn’t been a domestic 2-D animated movie since Winnie the Pooh in 2011. 6 damn years! While I maybe would’ve ideally liked a completely 2-D animated movie, the backgrounds and the cel shading works in really neat ways, and it will definitely make the movie stand out 

The purely 3-D objects seem unfinished at the moment (but that’s not out of the ordinary, CGI seems to be one of the last processes). It needs texture or shading or something, and I can tell because most of the ship looks too soft (too much like a model) to be metal. I really think this will be fixed for the final product, but that’s probably the most jarring part of the style at the moment

Not all of the 3-D looks unfinished, but the best looking parts are still the painterly, 2-D stuff (look at those towers; they’re really stylized, but you can tell they’re 3D in a more 2D environment)

THAT DIGITALLY PAINTED VERSION OF CANTERLOT THOUGH:

The light effects are definitely 3-D in the fireworks and rainboom

Oh, and speaking lighting, so much of it looks so pretty! There are one or two times when the colours are slightly off, but the majority of the time it looks freaking gorgeous

You can kinda see by looking at Rarity that the shading is juuust slightly off here (kinda like they were for the teaser trailer), but then you look in the background and see this BEAUTIFUL background and Twilight all upset and worried about this invasion, and it feels like such a nitpick to worry about what will probably still be cleaned up before it hits theaters

We also get some really great expressions, so they’re not really limited by the 3D models underneath (if I’m right about that)

Also, just as one last little note here, the style is detailed enough to see little things about the characters we didn’t know up until now, like the fact that the spines on the side of Spike’s head are translucent, or that the colours of RD’s mane aren’t 100% perfectly separated

Overall with the animation, I’m so impressed not only by how gorgeous it is,but by how willing they were to take a risk and incorporate a 3D element in the form of  (I think) cel-shading. This only really matches the creative spirit of the MLP team, though. Whether or not you agree on how well they always execute everything, they always try to step up their game with every new season and push themselves to be and do better.

And while I will say that if some of the more 3D parts (yeah, I’m talking about the zeppelin/airships mostly) aren’t fixed for the final release, I would have a bone to pick with them, but I have faith that we’ll be seeing a much smoother integration of that 3D on the big screen.

Story and Character Details

I really appreciate that they didn’t outright spoil anything too big. It’s definitely a well-cut trailer! We basically only know about the same information we did before, with just a hint or two as to things like who the true villain is.

Just based on the focus given to these characters in the trailer (and what I know of the Storm King’s characterization in the first Movie Prequel comic that was just released), seems like he’s not as big of a threat as the commander of his fleet, Tempest. 

It’s a kind of villain we haven’t seen on the show or even in EQG, and not only that, but 

She’s got a fantastic voice actress behind her, so she can pull off the deliciously evil vibe well without, say, reminding us too much of Chrysalis or other powerful animated villains from Disney classics

Plus her design with the broken horn and her magic sparking up out of it is instantly intriguing to me: for such a powerful presence, it’s awesome to see her weakness (and most likely shady past) is always on display---especially for a commander character, that’s just really cool

Grubber seems to be pretty standard so far, nothing he’s done has really impressed me quite yet, but I’m hoping his best stuff is saved for the movie itself

The sky pirates (or skyrates) look like a lot of fun, and in context I can see how well the bipedal birb pirate blends with the universe (the bipedal designs were the ones I had the most trouble with)

On top of that, we have sea ponies at last! And they’re far more adorable than I ever could’ve hoped

The original sea pony designs from G1 looked a lot more like sea horses, with curling tails and fins on either side, but I think the meraid-ish look is both more marketable for Hasbro and more appealing to look at (the original sea ponies always seemed like a joke in the fandom to me, I admittedly never understood why people would actually want it in G4)

And a-ha! Good queens do exist! Poor Celestia and Luna. Always a princess, never a queen.

Oh, and Seaquestria? It’s freakin’ beautiful. I LOVE the rich blues and purples here. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the 360 image of the underwater palace complete with an excellent piece of background music, treat yourself.

The Mane 6′s sea pony designs are pretty dang adorable. I don’t have anything interesting to say, I just like the cute water horses, okay?

Minor Details and Incidentals

I’ll start out by saying Twilight’s narration in the trailer is pretty standard, but still heartwarming (mostly because I already know and love these characters though). It sort of reminds me of the bits of narration from the How to Train Your Dragon movies, although those had a bit more character to them. 

The what could possible go wrong? line, though. It just makes me laugh thinking of all the flashbacks we could have to the series. 

I guess she’s talking about that festival specifically that she’s organizing, and in that way it’s a show of character development (in a similar way to the character development on display in A Flurry of Emotions, where Twilight is told she’s late and doesn't have a panic attack or worry about what could go wrong... too much), but it’s still hilarious to contrast the idea that nothing could go wrong in Equestria to... literally all of the show. 

AJ and RD protecting their friends even before the others have gotten over the shock of whatever they’re seeing tho

Starlight and Trixie get a bit of screen-time together and it’s adorable. Starlight might be stuck in Canterlot for the duration of the adventure, but I’m glad to see her included. Characters like Discord who might be too hard to explain to new audiences are understandable losses, but even if Starlight’s cameo is brief, it’s good to see her role acknowledged

In terms of music, Sia’s looking adorable so far, and Lukas Graham’s as of yet unreleased Off to See the World sounds pretty catchy (it’s the song at the end of the trailer), so they’ve got talent behind the vocals!

Jumping back to little details, it’s neat how sea pony magic has a very distinct look from unicorn/alicorn magic. Also, the bubbles are really cute

And, okay, I just wanted to take a minute to appreciate how serious this ponk is. Can we all just stop and take a look, because in this scene Twilight’s saying how she’s the one Tempest is after, and she should probably face this alone, which seems to be our Princess of Friendship’s big dilemma in this movie, and Pinkie’s clearly trying to tell her she’s crazy

Gotta love that they didn’t just go for hyperactive comic relief Pinkie Pie; they don’t seem to be boiling down these characters to just one trait (which is partially why I loved the moment where RD and AJ defend the girls; RD’s ego will no doubt be on display throughout the movie, but you’ll also see she’s ready to lay down her life for her friends)

And hey, lookie here! Canterlot got a make-over... and a contractor. There’s more pink than there typically is and it doesn’t necessarily match what we’ve seen of it in the show. Especially places like the throne room:

And you know, I’m a little torn on this detail? It’s beautiful, and I’m digging the starry night mosiac they’ve got going on back there, but it would’ve been nice to see the throne room we know and love rendered in this new style, you know? I’m gonna miss the deep magentas and the stain glass windows of the Mane 6′s accomplishments. I know that’s mostly the fangirl in me, but I like seeing continuity nods back to the show (like hey look: Cadence gets a cameo!)

Unless Canterlot gets destroyed and subsequently rebuilt in the season 7 finale, in which case I’ll shut my mouth

Speaking of which, I still have to wonder exactly when this will take place in the series, or if it exists slightly to the left of canon like the Equestria Girls movies (which, I mean, I consider canon, but still). I know there’s ties into the comics, but I wonder if/when the show will acknowledge the events of the movie... I guess only time will tell

And for now, I think that about wraps it up! All in all, I’m beyond excited to see this thing, as anyone could’ve guessed. 

It should also be noted that a lot of kids movie trailers focus on the fun, comedic portions of the movie, so while I do think it’s mostly going to feel like this, I’m also looking forward to the more character-driven feelsy parts. As we well know, you can never get the full scope of a movie from just the trailer, but it’s usually especially true for kids movies.

Even just from what we have seen, it looks like we’re in for a ride. Can’t wait to get on.

Hey, if you’d like more MLP stuff, you can click right here to see my editorials or here for episode reviews. And if those links don’t look pretty enough, have the last three things I’ve done right here:

Parental Glideance Review, Celestia/Daybreaker Editorial, and LGBT+ Editorial

Year of the Pony

[aditi-kumar-prod500-journal]

PROD 500 Assignment: Vision Writing (Autobiography and Influences)

Autobiography and Influences

School:

It was a era predominantly marked by confusion, incredible envy and tremendous achievement at the same time. Despite excelling in my studies, training as much as time allowed at sports and pushing myself to do the very best for various institutions, I remember feeling happy during only a handful of moments. Teachers straddled the line between being completely supportive and rather regressive, while my schoolmates seemed to forever gossip or conspire to make the next non-conformist feel terribly about themselves.

However, if it weren’t for these conflicting forces, I would not have learned the value of hard work. Not everything came easy to me at first. But by dint of sheer bullheaded-ness (in fact, all I lacked were actual horns; I could be quite undiplomatic when I wanted to succeed badly), and the unflinching support of my parents (who in fact, believed in me more than I did myself - they often became angry if I seemed to give up at anything), I was able to attain a sense of dignity. That prevented me from kowtowing to the more ‘popular’ crowd. More importantly, the desperation to be liked, to prove myself was instead channelled into drive, not addiction. And with the help of an incredible friend who saw me through it all, I passed this phase without too much difficulty into the next.

Adolescence:

Can there be a period in your life where you remember feeling more angry than anything else? I had a chip on my shoulder about everything - from people who I was sure disliked me right off the bat, to people who really did despise me, to the way I was handling my insecurities. Instead of carefully working through them a step at a time, I’d bundle them all into one fragile basket of eggs, before dumping this on the next person who irked me. Needless to say, I was not especially kind to the people I loved, despite only wanting to be liked by everyone.

That was the key need: wanting to be liked, adored, respected. The last was begrudgingly earned because of various leadership positions I occupied over the years in school - I always did justice to my roles - but the first two were more successful in alienating others. I could be a very nice person, till I decided I had something to prove.

People I’ve loved:

He was unlike anyone I had ever met. Aloof, selfish in his need to protect himself But he was also extraordinarily kind and easy to talk to, which I’d experienced with very few before. Curiously, I readily befriended without constantly questioning his actual motives - which meant that I had absolutely no unnecessary standard to live up to.

It seemed like we could talk forever and still not cover everything we wanted each other to know. Learning about the niches in popular culture - he was very knowledgeable when it came to music and films - was now pleasurable, not an exercise in internally comparing ourselves to the other. Of course, the deep affection I had for him grew into my first love - and the moment I decided I was happy - happy that I’d found someone without any expectation of him reciprocating - a major portion of my insecurities fell away like old snakeskin. 

It ended as most first loves do - on a semi-sweet parting note. His agenda was to cut off from everyone he’d met during college (for this was when I met him), and he’s ended up sticking to it. As for me, I will always remember him with immense gratitude. He gave me the confidence to be myself. 

People I’ve hated:

We started out as best friends, and because we grew up together, we did everything in twos. I revered her - she was older by nearly a year, and acted it too, but somewhere along the way, the terrible curse of middle school hit. Suddenly, popularity was her number one goal (as was mine, but to a lesser and less successful degree). She quickly realized that I was prone to being mocked for deserved and undeserved reasons, and left me in the dust. I become bitter, jealous and spent most of my high school years in real unhappiness, for she also seemed to have the knack of taking away people I was close to by turning them into her lackeys.

In retrospect, this could have partly been a reaction to the secret rivalry we had, one that made us intensely competitive for a very long time. The arenas ranged from academics, to individual achievements, to winning the affection of various people in the building complex where we lived. I suspect we never were truly content with our lives - although this worked as great motivation - and that we were both frankly relieved when school ended. It meant the end of a tiring relationship forced upon us - we did not talk about our mutual resentment, and her folks did not make it easier by pretending all was hunky-dory and friendly between us.

Today, it’s a little easier to speak to her. I will probably never understand her fully, and vice-versa. But the distance has helped put the past in a new perspective. We learned hard lessons because of each other and are perhaps better for it.

Art:

The first stories I heard were about the gods and goddesses in Hindu mythology. My mum and dad regaled me in their own ways (my father’s tales had a slightly more religious bent) about the cowherd prince Krishna who stole butter; who would eventually grow up to oversee the events leading up to the legendary Kurukshetra war. There was the honorable Ram, the mischievous but big-hearted monkey-god Hanuman, Arjuna the brave warrior…and then, from the West, about Achilles, Helen, Hector and Athena.

Heroes versus villains. The struggle between good and evil - various forms of each force, of course - have been a regular feature in my imagination. Anything that involved a epic, life-changing moment to fight back influenced me, from Mulan and Aladdin and most importantly, the Harry Potter series. Even today, if I have to be brave about something, my mantra is to chant, ‘If Harry can, I can.’ The themes of friendship and sacrifice from JK Rowling added nuance to my black-and-white view of the world.

But it’s not all popular culture. My mother is an artist. From the bright, sunlit colors of Vermeer’s portraits and Van Gogh’s achingly vivid work, to Rembrandt’s elusive impressionism, her descriptions and my own research have helped me, to an extent, pursue the fine arts on my own time. I’m not the best at it, but the practice has helped better my visual storytelling abilities. My mother’s averse to anime art, though, and that was a wonderful discovery I made all by myself - in fact, it was learning the media’s strange parameters for its characters that made me practice sketching seriously.

Having grown up in Oman, big bare landscapes are the kindling to what I consider free-flowing inspiration. Its stark, rugged mountains, the unflinching heat, the unspoiled, undulating sand dunes and in sharp contrast, the utter blueness of Oman’s waters are home for me, where I can breathe and dream freely. 

Role models:

Harry Potter, the orphan who found a purpose thrust upon him, and rose to the occasion. Fa Mulan, who took a potentially fatal risk and ended up saving China. Aladdin, the diamond in the rough. And Benjamin Franklin ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce of M*A*S*H, a devil-may-care surgeon who got so worked up over an injustice that he rode a jeep in bloodied scrubs through a war zone to an international conference, and protested.

Fiction is as influenced by reality as real life is by the art we make, and these four characters are heroes of mine - or should I say, very close to becoming anti-heroes till they grasped the first opportunity they were given to fulfill tremendous potential. That such initial pieces-of-work, who really believed they were creation’s mistakes, could defeat the very notion on their own, is something I try to emulate everyday. It’s a great way to overcome my severe imposter syndrome.

It’s harder to find people like that in real life, however, because of that irritating truth: they can change, and for the worse. Having said that however, JK Rowling (for her belief in failing to succeed, and the immersive world she’s created), Andy Samberg (for crazy perseverance, comedic talent and the immense clarity of mind he portrays in public), Alan Alda (for the absolute love of the work and play balance) and Charlotte Bronte (for her early feminism, and for doggedly pursuing her literary ambitions) are my role models.

And now, in my life, there are three who have made a mark on who I am today. My mum is the earliest and most enduring. We are oil and water in terms of personality, but her strategic patience and boundless love are two qualities I have to strive to imbibe. In that, she is second to none.

My dad rose from a deprived background, where some family members were decidedly less moral than others. Despite that, he refused to work without studying and today, is the only one to make it out of this narrow-minded society. His determination to prove himself, and admittedly silly humor are why I believe life is always worth improving by trying just a little harder.

The last is tricky, for I have changed in spite of him. A friend I consider a mentor in some ways, and a former crush, he is hugely talented but curiously cynical for it. I tried to become him, failed and learned the difficult way. I have come to see his virtues and faults, and have decided to forgive myself because he doesn’t; have aimed at trying to be more optimistic because he doesn’t; have moved on from believing that a single word of disapproval from him will ruin everything I’ve achieved regardless. He is a wonderful teacher, and he doesn’t even know how much I’ve studied from him!

[crookedtalks]

Bookish Thoughts: Absolute Power: Tales of Queer Villainy

Book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33789743-absolute-power

Goodreads synopsis:  DANGEROUS WOMEN: TALES OF QUEER VILLAINY—edited and with an introduction by lesbian comics tastemaker Erica Friedman—brings you thirteen short stories of power, destruction and chaos by women who love other women almost as much as they love taking over the world! These 238 pages of deliciously dastardly stories of super-powered villainy are contained in a wraparound cover by artist Agnes Czaja (Anything That Loves) and contain contributions from a group of visionary writers.

Well, this book took me a lot longer than I thought to finish reading. ^^; This is the second anthology I’m reviewing on this blog, and I must say I enjoyed this anthology more than the previous one. I would give this anthology a 3.75 stars out of 4, but it’s not quite a 4 star read - so only a 3 star on goodreads (why no half-star system goodreads??).

I got this ebook from the kickstarter campaign and I was very excited to read it, and to support it, not only because it features queer characters (as main characters) and queer romance, but it is also written by queer authors, which is even rarer, and I feel that it is important (personally) that these books get read and reviewed too. I feel like book reviewers whether on social media platforms like youtube, or book bloggers can do a bigger part to lend their voice to these more neglected books, and I want to do that more on this blog, starting with this book.

I really loved that the queerness of the characters wasn’t the whole/sole plot point for the stories (as if that’s the only reason why queer characters are protagonists) and that the queer characters in this anthology are all spread across a spectrum of moralities (the villains and the heroes). The stories were also very different from each other, with each of the stories having their own colourful worlds and and uniquely powerful voices. Overall, it was a fun ride, much like a rollercoaster at a theme park. I’ll definitely me checking out more releases by North West Press in the future. In bold are the stories that I particularly liked (keep in mind that I have a preference for more serious stories), with a small comment on each of the stories in the collection. 

1. Final Grades by Erica Friedman

This story had a really interesting setting of a supervillain school, which I thought gave the reader a very interesting “frame” going into the story. There’s a plot twist at the end which was not completely unpredictable though, since it was already revealed at the start of the story that only a single person has ever graduated from the supervillain school. 

2. Date Night by Tristan J. Tarwater

Another classic supervillain story, where the supervillain goes on a date which gets interrupted by her sidekick. Her date though turns out to be someone unexpected. A fun, fast paced short read with some somewhat predictable twists (which kept the story moving and interesting) and flashy action near the end.

3. Eden’s Revenge by Missouri Vaun

Unlike the previous two stories, this is not a supervillain story but more of a vengeance story where our protagonist/villain is seeking revenge against the man who caused her sister’s suicide. It was all right, I didn’t really gel with this story as well though for some reason. Part of it could be because I didn’t really care for the protagonist - again, most likely a personal preference thing. Not sure about how I feel about the protagonist’s revenge plan being explained as “insanity” at the end of the story though...

4. Gentleman Jack by Barbara Ann Wright

Our protagonist/villain, a smug cross-dressing robber with charm abilities, meets her match in a stubborn, slightly uptight law women armed with science. This has potential to be a satisfying rom-com plot. I kind of wished that the story was a teeny bit longer just to see their cat-and-mouse relationship develop, but at the same time it ended at a place where it felt right. Great character chemistry.

5. Fallen by Audrey Chase

A much more serious story than the previous ones (which were all pretty light-hearted), which also has the gore factor turned up significantly higher. The grittiness and violence in this story was a refreshing change, and showed how terrifying and devastating a villain’s actions can be. This story, I feel, has one of the more interesting “grey” villains, with less clear-cut motives and “evilness”, which I really liked, but may not be for everyone. I would say this is the first story in the collection that I would peg as a tragedy.

6. The Devil Inside by JD Glass

A reporter visits hell to interview the devil herself, then gets interrupted by a mutiny. It was a fun read at first, with the little quips and jokes (eg. hell monsters needing moisturizers for their dry non-human skin), but it soon got on my nerves when the jokes started to get a bit too repetitive/play too much into stereotypes/too random and irrelevant to the plot, only present to provide some cheap humour, and it felt like the writer is a bit too confident of how funny they are and is smugly rubbing it in your face; however, humour is a very subjective thing and it might just be that it didn’t hit the right buttons in me. I felt like the “twist” at the end was confusing and didn’t make any sense/fit into the plot too. 

7. Glitter Bomb by Emily Kay Singer

A fun, nonsensical read that relishes in just how absurd its own plot is. Obviously, this is not a story you read for a “deep” plot, or even a plot that makes sense, which is fine because the author is obviously aware of that, and plays around with the common “superhero story” tropes, which makes it even more entertaining. It ends with a tidy, sweet and romantic ending (for people who like happy endings).  

8. For Want of a Heart by A. Merc Rustad

Oh man, this story made me cry a few tears. Maybe because for a moment I really clicked with the protagonist and identified with what she was going through in the story. Not a happy ending (no spoilers though!), but I really loved the use of language, in this story for some reason. I feel like this is a bud that could have been expanded into a much longer, more elaborate complex story, with more fleshed out characters and more complex motivations, which in some ways is a shame. Personally, probably up there as one of my favourites in this anthology, although I felt that the ending was a bit rushed which made the reveal at the end less impactful.

9. Absolution by Claire Monserrat Jackson

You can tell that the author has really put some thought in terms of world building - the history that was briefly mentioned, the magic system etc. This story takes place in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world where the Fae (fairy-land) has sort of burst through into the human world and caused all sorts of problems, and our protagonist in this story is a spunky (presumably powerful) for-hire problem-solver with magic powers, who has a undead “Afterlife” chain-smoking sidekick. I really liked the characters and the world-building, and there seems to be an entire novella the author has written based on this world, which I will definitely be checking out.

10. So Many Things Seem Filled With the Intent by Jude McLaughlin

Our main protagonist visits the lab of an evil mad scientist with her girlfriend, which is great because all the previous stories have yet to feature an evil mad scientist. This story felt like an small exploration of the “mad scientist” trope, featuring both a “good” mad scientist (our protagonist’s girlfriend) and an “evil” one, but at the same time, the scientist characters felt distinct from each other and developed enough. I liked the sense of rivalry between the scientist characters, and personally I liked the main protagonist quite a bit. 

11. The Prado By Chance by Leia Weathington

Our main protagonist is an underpaid, underappreciated, and unabashedly corrupt FBI agent who one day gets a little surprise on one of her under-the-table “missions”. I like how our protagonist needs to rely mainly on her cunning to manipulate and carry out her plans and not any kind of super power or ability like the other stories; it makes the protagonist feel immediately a few degrees more human and closer to home, especially since greed and corruption are very human in nature. 

12. Jaguar Light by Susan Smith

Our protagonist, a petty criminal who lives in accordance with her desires and fancies, teams up with her nemesis when another villain gains power that gets out of control. I really liked the incorporation of Aztec mythology as the source of power for our protagonist in the story; I also thought that the main villain was pretty lame (and I’m not just referring to her name), because there I didn’t feel any real punch behind her desire for power. She’s pretty flat as a character, and with such weak motivations that I didn’t feel that threatened at any point in the story at all. Her connection to the protagonist was also kind of explained in a one-liner which feels a little too casual. However, I liked the dynamics and contrasts between the protagonist and her nemesis.

13. Chrome Crash by Mari Kurisato

This story is a little messy and hard to describe but I’ll try my best: the story splits into two at the beginning, following the history of two girls with powers who seem to be unrelated at first, but we discover their connection to each other as the story progresses. It sounds vague I know, but I had the feeling of looking into murky water when I was reading this story. One thing that confused me the most was that at the beginning of the story we got a whole chunk of a part of one of the girls’ pasts, which I thought was her origin story at first in relation to the rest of the story, but upon nearing the end I realized that it had no bearing on the original plot of the story at all - it was not an origin story, nor explained any of the character’s personality, traits, trauma, etc, etc, and that whole chunk could have been taken out with no change to the original story. Also, regarding the connection between the two girls as mentioned earlier: the whole time when I was reading the story, I was asking why? What is the purpose of their connection? What I feel, is that this story is some sort of chopped up lite version of another story where important bits that make the story coherent are missing, which is such as shame because I really like the villain characters, small traces of the what is good and what is evil debate, the exploration of the involvement of politics and the military in superpowers etc. It had such great potential.

This review is a lot longer than my usual review and took much much longer than I thought it would to write. I may be slightly harsh in my comments on certain stories, and I’m certainly biased towards some stories than others, so I’ll say again here that I enjoyed this anthology and would encourage anybody who would like to read short stories about lesbian villains to pick this up. 

[thehallofgame]

Review: Star Wars Lethal Alliance

My Rating: 7/10

Release: 2006

AN: Sorry for the late review! It’s a busy time of year for me all around so the release schedule might get just a bit rocky. As I’ve gotten really burned out on the franchise my Resident Evil series, in particular, has suffered delays. Sorry about that and I’ll try and get to Resident Evil Revelations 2 soon!

              Lethal Aliance was a game that snuck quietly in at the end of the 90’s Star Wars reboot. It had so little lasting effect that I’d begun to believe I’d imagined it. However, it did exist and featured a female, twi’lek, non-force-sensitive heroine which is not something to be found often in a Star Wars game. Unfortunately the game had shot itself in the foot twice from the get go. Once, when someone along the production chain decided that the game should launch on both the Nintendo DS and the PSP, which meant the game could take advantage of neither system’s best features. The second time was when the devs decided to center the plot on retrieving the Death Star plans, a plot that by this time had already been done and redone and was ultimately rendered completely null by the Rogue One movie’s release in 2016.

              Unfortunately this game broke what I consider to be the core rule of licensed games: Trying to insert a new character into major events, or even upstage said events, that occurred in core cannon makes it infinitely harder to tell a lasting and impactful story. Lethal Aliance billed itself as a game centering on the danger-filled hunt for the plans but actually wasn’t until the closing levels. Which is unfortunate because the bones of the story, if expanded on, could have been quite good. The game’s twi’lek heroine, Rianna Sarris was enslaved by the empire and was, quote: “not only scarred by them, but made an outcast from my people”. Whilst the main villain of the plot does happen to be the imperial slave-master and a personal enemy of Rianna the game declines to do more than scratch the surface of that relationship.

              Likewise the game restricts itself primarily to worlds and situations the player is already familiar with and lacks any world-building. The player never learns about Rianna or her droid-companion’s past, never explores the fact that Rianna goes rogue from the Rebel Aliance early in the game and the game is littered with inexplicable scene cuts and resultant plot holes that feel like they needed just a few more lines of set-up.

              Rianna is joined along this sham of a narrative by a droid called Zeo who is the second half of the Lethal Aliance. Unfortunately he isn’t ever developed as a character. The most exposition the player gets is that he is a security droid that’s very good at hacking through security and that he was imprisoned by a crime syndicate at the beginning of the game. Ultimately the story’s execution is a huge disappointment because they just didn’t bother to write one and yet stumbled on a concept that had such potential. The hacking focus of the game also presented a prime opportunity for the devs to incorporate audio logs or in-game documents to expand the world but alas, they did not.

              The gameplay, in contrast, gets about one and a half thumbs up considering the development constraints. Exploration transitions fairly seamlessly to platforming and combat. There are a few hiccups, especially in the late-game, but overall the play experience is solidly enjoyable.

              For the majority of the time the player controls Rianna. She accumulates an array of blasters which are easily cycled using the directional buttons and fired with a face button. As the game auto-aims for the most part they’re easy to use and the game feels a lot like a bullet-swarm shooter. Unfortunately there’s no way to close the sniper scope screen and move while still using that weapon… and the grenade launcher has a concerning habit of blowing Rianna up as well as the target so late-game guns can be a little fiddly. Meanwhile, Rianna can cartwheel and dodge roll out of danger in any direction the player pushes the analogue with another face button, though it is terribly easy to dodge roll directly off a ledge and to Rianna’s death.

Soon after partnering with Zeo Rianna can also use him to form a shield that reflects blaster fire or deploy him to tackle enemies and stun them. Zeo can also be sent to hack security locks which open paths to progression or block off enemy reinforcements. This is where the auto aiming gets tetchy. The game boasts a standard lock on and cycle system that will often skip over the door-locks. This often results and the heroes being shot to shreds while trying to target a hacking port which is the only way to close off the flow of enemies.

When Rianna closes to hand-to-hand with an enemy the target reticule on them will change and she will draw the Thorn of Ryloth (Ryloth being the home planet of the Twi’lek species) which is a small, purple glowing dagger that looks a lot like a lightsaber blade. While the game missed another massive opportunity for exposition when it came to Rianna’s dagger the attacks she deals with it are satisfyingly deadly, especially when delivered from stealth.

              The game manages to naturally integrate a stealth element where as long as alarms aren’t blaring Rianna can sneak up on, or drop onto from above, unsuspecting enemies and dispatch them silently. Ironically this element works best where the game doesn’t set the level up for it to be used. It’s easy for a quick-on-the-draw player to slip in behind a storm trooper patrol and take them all out. It’s harder when Zeo holographically disguises Rianna in order to walk through a crowded place. The player must continually hunt down power packs to keep Zeo powered up enough to maintain the disguise whilst also staying far away from any imperials who, if they get too close, will see through the disguise. Rianna can, and in later levels must, also use stealth kills in this mode which will temporarily drop her disguise and leaves her open to detection. It gets a little too fussy for a portable game in the later levels and ultimately falls apart, but it was a solid effort while it lasted.

              Finally, the last big element and the selling point of the game, is the platforming. Zeo acts as a handhold and glider for Rianna to flip acrobatically up walls and skate over security checkpoints. All these paths are linear, unfortunately, as is most of the game, so while they are fun to watch (particularly Rianna’s acrobatics) they are, essentially, set pieces. There are also several more challenging chase sequences in the game where Rianna dangles from the droid as he flies her to safety. These segments are fun and increase gradually in difficulty as the player learns how to twist and turn Rianna and Zeo through narrow passages. These segments are often just a touch too long, however. They comprise entire segments of the game with loading screens immediately before and after, with the option to save immediately upon completion. It feels, unfortunately, like they added minutes to the segment to pad out the game.

              There is also a prevalent mini-game where the player will pilot Zeo through ducts, dodging traps, to reach hacking portals hidden inside. Zeo’s controls are odd and map the moving and camera control to the same buttons, resulting in Zeo barging out into danger when the player meant to look around a corner. Luckily the little droid has a lot of HP so none of the segments have much potential to actually become a hassle.

              Likewise there are several turret segments (which are identical to the space-combat sequences) where Rianna must use a turret to dispatch waves of enemies. That’s easy enough. The real challenge is managing Zeo who is in charge of both repairs and keeping the gun on cool-down so Rianna can keep shooting. He can’t do both at once so the biggest challenge is switching the droid rapidly and effectively. This isn’t hard on the ground based turret sequences which often tapper off to finding the spawn point and shooting as enemies appear. The ship to ship combat sequences are much harder and require precise timing and better aim than needed for the rest of the game. The player is going to get blown up a lot. Which is at once probably accurate and frustrating. The difficulty curve of the game is fairly slow and little slows the player down other than these sequences which makes them feel more like deliberate roadblocks than challenges.

              The other hamstring are the rare boss fights. The game is set up to accommodate waves of enemies well but can’t really handle one large one that does a lot of damage. There are usually tricks to killing the bosses but it’s hard to get to them when the enemy can knock Rianna down and pound her health bar to zero before she can move again which presents a lot of potential annoyances. Additionally, none of the battles are particularly original which steals the cachet of felling Rancors or a mech-riding imperial officer.

              All together this game has a solid base and a mountain of balance issues. The loading screens are constant and take a fairly long time and the start up menu has a needlessly complicated warren of submenus. The graphics on the PSP are cringe-worthy because they also had to be rendered on a DS and though I played the PSP version I imagine the combat was a lot more frustrating without an analogue stick for DS players. The music is taken directly from the movies and earlier games and the game relies too heavily on cameos by Princess Leia and Kyle Katarn (main character of the Jedi Academy series of games) to earn emotional connection from the player. The gameplay was so surprisingly fun and fresh that I find myself wishing the developers had put a real story in and chosen one of the portable systems so the game could have been properly optimized. That said, this was a lot of fun. It was short and sweet and just what I needed to scratch that Star Wars gaming itch. Though too involved to play in short bursts this game could be a lot of fun for long trips or down time at work.

[briangroth27]

Sleepy Hollow Season 4 Review

Full series spoilers…

I loved Sleepy Hollow in Seasons 1 and 2: the chemistry between Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison), Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie), Jenny Mills (Lyndie Greenwood), and Captain Irving (Orlando Jones) was infectious, the twists on American history and Washington Irving’s original story were ingenious, and the supernatural plotlines were often fearlessly bonkers in the best way. They boasted some great villains, like the iconic and terrifying Headless Horseman (Neil Jackson, Jeremy Owens, Richard Centrone, Craig Branham), the architect of the apocalypse, Moloch (DJ Mifflin, Marti Matulis, Grant Spingdale, Austin Filson), Ichabod’s lost son Jeremy/Henry (John Noble), and Crane’s wife Katrina (Katia Winter). I enjoyed most of Season 3, even if the villains were ultimately underwhelming and Abbie’s death was really poorly done; the magic was still there. Season 4 opened with an uphill battle following Abbie’s death and a complete change of scenery as the series left Sleepy Hollow. I didn’t think the show could—or should—go on. Though the series definitely wasn’t the same, Season 4 largely proved me wrong: there was still life here.

Tom Mison still seemed game to play the time-lost Ichabod as he moved to Washington DC and continued trying to acclimate to the 21st century (while maintaining his Revolutionary style, of course). His reactions to the present were as good as always and I’ll miss him now that the show has been cancelled. I thought it was smart to put him in the capital of the nation he helped found and I loved that he finally got his American citizenship in the finale. That felt truly fitting; the perfect way to end his onscreen arc (though the adventure always continues!). Yes, it also ended with his soul bartered away to the Devil, but I loved the confidence Mison exuded in that closing scene: it was just another problem they’d solve, like the kraken. Carrying on in the face of impossible odds has always been a hallmark of the Witnesses (and the best heroes), and Crane exemplified that perfectly. Ichabod as a guardian/pseudo-stepfather to Molly created some fun moments (like his soccer “battle” speech!) and brought a new side to his character, which was a clever contrast to the tragedy of being robbed of the chance to raise Jeremy. It was great to see Mison and Noble play the next evolution of their father/son relationship, even if we only got to see initial baby steps of that this year. I would’ve liked to see that develop in a potential fifth season. Mison definitely lost an incredible scene partner with Berhie leaving, but Ichabod and Jenny had great chemistry too and their friendship carried the show for me this year.

If there had to be a new Witness, I wish Jenny were the chosen one; I remember the new Witness being said to be someone from Abbie’s bloodline anyway (though I missed it if that connection was ever explained this season). Having her sister’s destiny forced onto Jenny would’ve been a strong arc, particularly as this year found her bristling under the responsibility of staying in one place for so long; she’s always been a treasure hunter and clearly wanted to get back into the field. A Witness who didn’t accept the title, even though she was already in the fight, would be an interesting wrinkle (as would Jenny living up to Abbie’s legacy, if she went all-in with the mantle). Still, I liked her investment in making sure her sister’s legacy was carried on and I love that even with Agency 355’s introduction she still held her position as the show’s occult object expert (a weak point in Season 2 for me was that Matt Barr’s Hawley seemed to largely do Jenny’s job for her). While she didn’t have a sweeping arc of her own this year, Jenny worked well as a stabilizing influence for Crane in his new surroundings, Molly in her role as Witness, and for me as a viewer; she was a steady dose of classic Sleepy Hollow as it transitioned into something new. Greenwood was one of my favorite parts of the cast and always a delight onscreen. If FOX were interested, I’d definitely be down for a Jenny Mills: Supernatural Treasure Hunter spinoff starring Greenwood!

Maybe it’s because the show nailed the character chemistry right out of the gate, but I’ve consistently had trouble accepting new cast members on this show, particularly if they’re playing roles the core four characters already held (though there were exceptions, like Zack Appelman’s Joe Corbin). I liked Agency 355’s Jake Mills (Jerry MacKinnon) and Alex Norwood (Rachel Melvin) best of the new additions; Mills as an Ichabod fanboy was fun and Alex’s “OK, the supernatural is real; makes sense” non-reaction to monsters made sense this far into the series (also given their job, even if they hadn’t encountered real proof yet). Plus, Alex’s aptitude for building arcane devices wasn’t a skill we’d seen before on the show, so it really felt like she offered something unique. They had good chemistry and their slow-burn romance was sweet, if a little well-trod. There was a problem were a few times—even if Alex discovered a map or an artifact—Wells would explain how it was used or what it led to. Why not just let her do it? I also couldn’t help feeling like we didn’t need another semi-skeptic/believer pair, especially with Ichabod/Diana (Janina Gavankar) replaying dynamics we’d already seen repeated last year to various extents with Sophie Foster (Jessica Camacho) and Daniel Reynolds (Lance Gross), and of course Abbie in the first season. This far in, did we really need three new set of eyes (four if you count Molly) on the supernatural, especially when Ichabod and Jenny could’ve served as the audience surrogates into the government’s Agency 355 and their way of doing things? Why not put Diana in 355 as well and make her, Wells, and Alex already knowledgeable about what’s really going on, and at least somewhat experienced at fighting it? Flip the setup so Crane and Jenny still bring new skills to the team, but they don’t have to retrain everyone and they’re the newbies to how the Agency deals with monsters. It already seemed like this scenario was set up in Season 3’s cliffhanger and I wonder if something changed in the development process. I also wondered why Crane had never come looking for 355 with Abbie; he clearly knew it existed in his time, so why didn’t he ever bother to see if it still did? I feel like looking for fellow soldiers in Washington’s secret army would’ve been one of the first things he did upon waking up. In any case, Agency 355 made me really wish we’d gotten an X-Files/Sleepy Hollow crossover instead of (or in addition to) the Bones one from last season.

I wasn’t a fan of how Season 3 rewrote Abbie’s Witness role to be something handed down over the centuries instead of it just being her and Crane as originally presented, mostly because it seemed to make Abbie’s look less essential/important than Crane instead of them being equals. Losing Abbie should’ve had much more of an impact beyond Crane having to protect a secret identity from the new characters early on: it should’ve weighed on him and hampered his fight against evil. A friend pointed out they also skipped over Ichabod dealing with killing Katrina (to move past an unpopular storyline?), and it felt like a similar thing happened here. I did, however, love the scene of Crane visiting Abbie’s grave and updating her on the world; I just wish we’d gotten more about what Abbie brought to the role that Molly maybe wasn’t or couldn’t yet. If I were running things, I wouldn’t have introduced a new Witness at all. Make losing a Witness a major win for the forces of evil; something they were never supposed to be able to pull off. Instead of making Abbie the latest in a long line of replaceable Witnesses, make her loss matter. Make a significant hole in the team that can't be filled by slotting in some other character as the (latest) Chosen One; not only do you honor Abbie’s sacrifice by crystalizing what made her special and important (both in terms of Abbie as a person and as a Witness), but you raise the stakes for everyone still standing.

However, this is the story they went with. As it played out, I thought making a kid the new Witness yielded a good, fresh dynamic between Crane and Molly (Oona Yaffe)—Mison and Yaffe had an easy, fun rapport—but her age and Diana’s protectiveness ultimately hampered how much she could contribute to the point where it seemed like we didn’t need a second Witness for most episodes. While Diana’s function on the team as the official law enforcement officer felt very similar to Abbie and Sophie’s (making it feel a little stale, as if they were keeping the character dynamic status quo), I liked the added wrinkle of giving her a kid to worry about, particularly as Molly was drawn further and further into the supernatural. I think Molly could’ve been special for some other reason without having to be a new Witness, but I have to admit scenes like her pulling Crane back to the real world from the Sicarius Spei were powerful. Gavankar and Yaffe felt like a real mother/daughter family unit and it felt like the writers were (successfully) going for a Sarah Connor Chronicles “I’ll fight the monsters so my kid won’t have to” thing, particularly given how the season played out. Introducing “Lara” (Seychelle Gabriel) as adult Molly was a surprising way to invert the Rip Van Winkle premise of the show with a Days of Future Past twist (and a fine full-circle connection to Ichabod’s initial time travel). I liked that Lara was so skilled at magic, but I wish her skills had paid off Ichabod and Jenny training her as a kid more directly, because having Lara eventually take the Witness mantle from Molly made all the attention paid to her feel a little pointless. I definitely wish they’d met.

I liked Benjamin Banneker (Edwin Hodge) recurring in the flashbacks and J Street was a neat idea. Banneker’s concern for everyone’s standing in the new country, not just white people’s, made for a smart reminder that as idealistic as the American values are, we were never perfect. He and Ichabod also had a well-developed friendship and I liked that Banneker’s concerns challenged Crane’s adoration of what the Revolution was building. Banneker’s presence was also a cool use of a Revolutionary figure I’d never heard of; I loved that—supernatural twists notwithstanding—you could learn new things about real history on this show. Uncle Sam (Rick Espaillat), Sacajawea (Dayana Rincon), Davey Crockett (Daniel Parvis), and Paul Jennings (Zae Jordan) were a cool Revolutionary-era Government team. I wasn’t expecting something like that at all, but it fit perfectly in with the tone of Sleepy Hollow: that they were some sort of early American supernatural Fantastic Four was exactly the kind of crazy idea the show excelled at. I would’ve liked to see more of their exploits.

Jeremy Davies’ business mogul Malcolm Dreyfuss was the season’s weakest link. He never came off as threatening or imposing in any way to me; he just seemed eccentric rather than evil. I’ve been increasingly bored with businessmen villains in superhero fare (there are other evils out there!), but more pressingly, the execution of Dreyfuss’ goals seemed so small-scale. He gains immortality, gathers his Horsemen, kidnaps the President…and then waits for the army to attack him, so he can display his power on TV? Why not attack them first? Waiting—seemingly so Team Witness could organize and mount a defense—felt contrived. It would’ve been much more dramatic if Ichabod and Co. were scrambling to catch up. I didn’t see the need to connect Malcolm’s immortality to Ichabod and Death’s first fight by adding the Philosopher’s Stone ritual either. However, it was clever that the Philosopher’s Stone made Headless weaker, allowing Crane to behead him and Headless’ part of the ritual required his return, so that’s cool. I just thought the tie to Ichabod’s death was unnecessary and a little confusing: until I read reviews of that episode, it seemed like another retcon had occurred and the Stone was what made Ichabod immortal for his sleep, not Katrina and her coven.

I initially thought Malcolm’s bodyguard Jobe was a little bland, but I liked the deeper implications that he was involuntarily tethered to this guy who’d cheated the Devil out of their bargain. I would’ve liked to see what Jobe was like when not stuck as an enforcer for Lucifer’s contracts or Malcolm’s errand boy. Is there something he could’ve done to undermine Malcolm and ensure the contract was fulfilled beyond assisting Team Witness? Did he want to? Did he have goals and aspirations of his own (perhaps ambitions to displace the Devil himself?)? I don’t think we saw enough of the Devil (Terrence Mann) to judge whether I liked this portrayal or not, but he didn’t really leave a menacing impact after villains like Moloch. I enjoyed the depiction of the entrance to the gates of Hell, but I was underwhelmed by the business office appearance of Hell itself once Ichabod and Lara got to the Devil. That’s probably intended as a connection to Malcolm, but it just came off as a metaphor that I’ve seen as far back as Angel at least; I would’ve liked a more distinctive feel to the Underworld that matched the show’s historical side. Perhaps depicting Hell as a distorted Continental Congress would’ve been more in line with the show’s roots; maybe Ichabod signing his soul away could be framed as him signing a twisted Declaration of Independence or something.

Whether it was designed to get back to the glory days of the show or not, Dreyfuss’ plan to start the Christian apocalypse Moloch failed to accomplish certainly felt like they were trying to play their greatest hits instead of striking out into new territory. I understand the impulse to go back to what worked, but playing it safe was never what made this show great. Sure, we finally got to meet the Horsemen of Pestilence (Robbie A. Kay) and Famine (Kathleen Hogan), but they didn’t do anything of note beyond their introductory episodes. I liked Season 3’s apparent idea that each season could feature a different culture’s apocalypse as the Witnesses worked through their seven years of trials; as inhibited as the Hidden One was and underutilized and rushed as Pandora was last year, at least they were something new. That shows like Supernatural and Constantine lean so heavily into the Judeo-Christian religions for their adversaries and allies also served to make returning to those standards stand out less. And hey, the US was blatantly founded without a national religion, so continuing to explore what else the world has to offer would’ve tied in nicely with the American roots at the core of the show. Since it felt like we’d been through all this before, it didn’t spark my imagination like the show had done in the past.

The callbacks to the show’s glory days that did work, however, were the returns of Headless, the series’ best, most iconic villain, and Henry Parrish. Henry being something of a better man thanks to being reconstituted from Crane’s memories was a clever way to bring him back from the abyss, both literally and morally. I wish there’d been more time to explore his new status: his resurrection is wholly original and could’ve yielded the ultimate “I’m not what my father wants me to be/thinks I am” arc. I liked that their relationship took on new levels when Ichabod sacrificed himself and briefly became the Horseman of War; I hadn’t seen that coming at all! I do wish it had lasted for more than an episode to fully explore both Crane as War and any new understanding of Henry he gleamed from the experience (that they both ended up as the Horseman of War had a nice poetic flair to it, though). I also would’ve preferred Henry become War again in a ploy to save Ichabod instead of an attempt to get his power back; he seemed to go evil again a bit too easily, and becoming consumed by the evil of War in a bid to save his father would've been tragic. I’m glad Ichabod was able to convince Henry to withdraw from the final fight, so he’s still out there somewhere.

Most of the new monsters of the week worked well. The demon John Wilkes Booth (Alexander Ward, Adrian Bond) possessed himself with and used to kill Lincoln was a nice chance to explore America's secret occult history beyond the Revolution. The Sicarius Spei (Ward), with its dream torment, was possibly the best new monster of the season, combining a creepy monster with a unique problem with personal stakes for Ichabod and resulting in the eventual resurrection of Henry. Malcolm’s former partner Ansel (Bjorn Dupaty) gaining power through the demonic sigils burned into his body was intriguing. He seemed to do more with his power than Malcolm ever did and bending the supernatural torment inflicted on him to gain the power to fight back made for an interesting, desperate anti-hero. The Barghest (Ward again; the monster was from Little Red Riding Hood) was a good demon, even if it was predictable that it had taken the place of Molly’s dad Mitch Talbot (Bill Heck). Still, it allowed for a good, well-executed opportunity to explore Molly’s family life. Similarly, Mr. Stitch (Derek Mears) was a great villain who personally affected Molly. That episode was probably the best use of a kid as the Witness, with Molly having to save Ichabod and deactivate the Vault’s lockdown protocols by herself. I liked the Hunger Demon (Ward) and its connection to the Donner party; another nice look outside the Revolution. 

Less impressive villains included the Sphinx (Marti Matulis), which seemed largely limited to being an arrow-shooting deterrent rather than its own force. I was disappointed they didn’t show the Sphinx’s riddle and just had it solved offscreen; this was a chance to test the heroes' intellects rather than their physical skills in a way few villains on the show could. I'm imagining a monstrous Riddler here, with Team Witness racing to solve its brain teasers before people die (or to access the piece of the Philosopher's Stone before they die, as the case may be). The Dyer sisters (Sara Sanderson, Courtney Lakin, Kelley Missal) and their infernal machine were cool, particularly as Washington allies who’d gone bad, but ultimately I wish they’d gotten to do more. Even if they weren’t going to have the presence of Katrina and her coven, I wish the show had explored the parallel between them and Ichabod as time-lost Washington agents. The Djinn (Fedor Steer) and his Pictagram pestilence was a neat way to update the supernatural via social media stars, but he was ultimately underwhelming when it came time for the final showdown. I did like the explanation for spontaneous combustion and the tie to history, though.

Thanks to the show’s new setting, when they did go back to Sleepy Hollow, it truly felt like an event (as did the focus on the memory of Abbie in that episode). At the same time, the new DC location worked well and felt appropriate given the Revolutionary history of the show. I enjoyed the added historical facts, such as the meaning of “Colombia” in D.C. However, while writing this it occurred to me that there could’ve been a much more effective use of the DC setting: why not set Ichabod against a government perverting what George Washington set in place or at least using methods to fight the supernatural that Crane would find unacceptable? What if a demon-involved government were using the supernatural to further their own goals? Instead of a single businessman aiming for immortality and world domination, what if it was a significant portion of the government? What if after all his fighting in the Revolution and in Sleepy Hollow, Crane found out the government had teamed up with different demons a long time ago? I’m reminded by Wikipedia that Ezra Mills hinted the government division he was connected to became split in its goals and the mystery men who kidnapped Ichabod at the end of Season 3 certainly seemed to be working for the government, so the seeds were already there. A corrupt government plot would’ve paid off Banneker’s fears about how idealistic the new American government really was too. More pressingly, it would’ve truly tested Ichabod’s desire to be an American and what that means nowadays compared to the ideals of his time. Has he outlived the American Dream? They could’ve taken a page from Captain America to ask if Ichabod is still fighting for the country he thought he was, whether “his” America could be improved upon at all, and where he and the country could go from here. This line of questioning would’ve been especially timely and important now, as Ichabod is an immigrant, not an American citizen. The other characters could all be tied in easily too. How would Jenny react to knowing the system that locked her up for speaking the truth about demons was deeply involved with the paranormal all along? What happens to her black market connections if she’s tied to a government agency that wants to control the supernatural? Diana, Wells, and Alex could’ve become the Black Widow/Sharon Carter/Sam Wilson to Ichabod’s Steve Rogers as they realized how corrupt their bosses were and joined him in rebelling against their leaders. Molly could’ve been earmarked by someone in the government to be used in one of their nefarious plots, putting her in much the same danger Malcolm did. What if the show were totally bold and had Ichabod instigate a new revolution to reestablish American values (and demon-free living)? Even without a full-on revolution, Ichabod vs. America would’ve been thematically perfect and the biggest hurtle the show could’ve thrown at him after losing Abbie. Perhaps this was the plan for Season 5, since this year ended with Ichabod working for the government and threads hinting at its corruption were still dangling. Signing up with a compromised government would parallel Ichabod literally selling his soul too. If that’s the case, I wish they hadn’t waited and it’s a shame we won’t get to see it.

Despite some plot choices I didn’t agree with over the years, I still loved Sleepy Hollow and I'm sorry to lose it. It was a fun, inventive show that never feared going totally crazy with supernatural twists on historical events. That's one of the lessons I'll take from it as a writer: absolutely nothing is too outlandish if you ground it in your characters and fully commit to it. The characters, particularly those core four originals, were great and the actors were perfectly cast. Importantly, the show also featured a diverse cast of actors. Like Captain America and the National Treasure movies, Sleepy Hollow’s use of American history—and Ichabod’s reverence for the founding American ideals—made me proud of what this country was founded to be. Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of my all-time favorite stories, and this show was a great (if very lose) adaptation. I would’ve come back for a fifth season and wish we could’ve gotten more.

So long, Sleepy Hollow. It lost a step or two along the way, but when it was good, it was great.