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clarenecessities · 4 years ago

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As my followers may have picked up from my long, spiraling rants, I’ve undertaken a new research project, courtesy of the death grip She-Ra has on my brain. And guess what? It’s finally at Disseminate Information Stage! So I’m going to lay out all of the gods, demigods, and godbeasts of the Masters of the Universe. With sources!

This table is more of a cheat sheet. We’re gonna tackle this god by god, with a section on Actual Lore & a meta section to help you decide how valid you think they are, because frankly some canons are more canon than others.

Asklepia, Benevolent Snake Goddess

Lore: Asklepia is one of two snake goddesses, the benevolent twin sister of Serpentia. We know very little about her abilities, but the Snake Clan (a clan of human warriors) were said to worship her, and they were famed for their architecture and healing. She had the ability to curse and deform people--to what extent is uncertain, but she’s known to have condemned a fallen priest named Ka, whose disfigured likeness now adorns Snake Mountain.

Behind the Scenes: First appearing in the 1987 comic “Il Nero Cristallo Del Potere“, Asklepia remained nameless for over 30 years, until Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC) released a few choice bios. For the unfamiliar, MOTUC seeks to reconcile the often contradictory canons into one overarching narrative, which is great in theory, but in practice is kind of like putting ice cream on a hot dog. And calling it a Chilly Dog ® as if that makes it taste better. But I digress. In 2019 they released a bio for the Staff of Ka which finally put a name to the less-evil Snake Goddess, in an obvious nod to Asclepius and the asklepian (that staff+snake icon people put on medical stuff).

Sharella, the Green Goddess and/or “Avatar” of Asklepia

Lore: Contradictory

Long Version: Okay I’ve put avatar in quotes because it is... contentious. Basically, and you’ll see here why I felt the need to make this post instead of relying blindly on the wikis, Sharella was introduced (in the ‘87 licensing guide) as a tribal leader who had joint custody of Gray, the original name of He-Ro’s alter ego, while he was growing up. This was further developed by Emiliano Santalucia’s concept work, wherein she was the leader of the Green Tiger Tribe (GTT) specifically. While the comic concept was not run through licensing & is thus not “canon”, the idea of her leading the GTT persisted. This teeny tiny image of her from Tytus and Megator’s 1987 Italian box art was all we had until 2008, when one of He-Man’s accessories described her as the “warrior woman ally” of Queen Veena, “who had been changed into the immortal green-skinned avatar of the Goddess Asklepia”. In 2009, MOTUC released a figure for The Goddess, apparently forgetting they’d done that shit the year before because the packaging did say “K’yrulla” was her real name. They had to cover it up with a sticker.

So who’s The Goddess? Way back in the days before Mattel solidified any of the lore around MOTU, there were mini-comics released with the toys. Initially, the Goddess served a similar function to the Sorceress in the cartoon, and was in fact sometimes called the Sorceress. She facilitated He-Man’s transformations, gave him missions, was generally magical and mysterious, etc. If you know who the Sorceress is, and you can picture Teela, but green? That’s about it.

Back to Sharella, though. The Third Ultimate Battleground rolled around in 2015, and for the first time since some packaging in the 80s, we saw Sharella in action! She was shot through the heart with a poison arrow. Yeah. But don’t worry, she received a blood transfusion from Moss Man (who we’ll get to later), and was transformed into the Green Goddess! She’s immortal now. How Asklepia figures in here is sort of unclear, which is weird since this is still part of the MOTUC line, but whatever. Whatever! Queen Grayskull (the aforementioned Veena) received a bio in 2015 as well, which described Sharella as her apprentice who became “The Goddess”.

Horokoth, Aspect of the Mother Goddess

Lore: DC went a little batshit (pun intended) with the lore for the Eternity War. Here the Goddess is three combined aspects, “Serpos” (Serpentia) for the Snake Men, Zoar for the human “Eternians”, and a third, invented deity called Horokoth, who represents the Horde. Horokoth is “the coming destroyer. The darkness at the end of days.” and is represented by a bat.

Behind the Scenes: That last link has a clearer picture of her, it just didn’t crop well. Also, I confess I couldn’t bring myself to read Eternity War. As thrilling as the prospect of a cohesive narrative is, if I wanted to see Adora slit her brother’s throat there’s the edgier side of deviantArt to peruse. Therefore I know little of Horokoth outside of a few still images of Hordak. The bat was almost certainly selected for the Horde’s vespertilian emblem.

Hordeous, God-Beast of Horokoth

Lore: A “primordial”, bat-like godbeast of Horokoth, created in response to the god Saz’s feline races. Their face was “forever infused“ on the surface of Horde World by Horde Lord (Hordak and Horde Prime’s father in the MOTUC canon) to grant their family power and immortality.

Behind the Scenes: Yes they’ve used some words wrong, but they’ve got the spirit, right? Hordeous was (allegedly, this is secondhand) an invention of the MOTUC crew in answer to Horokoth. Now, the Horde Supreme bio predates Horokoth’s introduction by about 3 years, but obviously the comics were in production already. There’s an undated sketch of Horokoth Hordak from an undated interview (thanks for nothing you useless website) but in that same gallery there’s an orko sketch labeled 2012 so. We’re good right? That makes sense, timeline-wise. Anyway the comics slam dunked Horde Prime out of existence and combined him with Horde Lord so it’s contradictory anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Serpentia, Malevolent Snake Goddess

Lore: The evil counterpart of Asklepia, Serpentia is the goddess of the Snake Men. The priest Ka of the Snake Clan forsook Asklepia in her favor, destroying Asklepia’s sacred orb and stealing the Serpent Ring (an artefact capable of transforming humans into Snake Men) from the Ophidian Spire with King Hsss. In DC’s triune interpretation of the Goddess, Serpentia (here ‘Serpos’) is blood, passion, and desire. A primal and primordial force appearing to the Snake Men in their own image.

Behind the Scenes: Okay yes I’ve reused the Asklepia pic but in my defense they are twins and this is the easiest one to crop. So here’s the thing about Serpentia: we only got a name for her in 2019. We knew there was a snake goddess, and she was pretty evil, or at least hostile towards mammalian life (see: the source of the pic I chose for her). Where Asklepia references the asklepian, ‘Serpentia’ is a much more heavy-handed snake reference, even though Anguis was right there. Those Masters Mondays came through for us, though, with the shield and staff of Ka, Ssssylph, and of course MOTUC’s Dark Despot Skeletor, which is. something. Though only recently named, Serpentia has been a shadow over Eternia since the Snake Men’s introduction in 1985 (or, depending on how much of the presented backstory you accept, even sooner in the form of Skeletor’s lair, Snake Mountain).

Serpos/Sarcedon, God-Beast of Snake Mountain

Lore: Contradictory, but the gist of it is he’s a very large snake with elemental magic and a grudge, that was turned to stone and became Snake Mountain.

Long Version: Snake Mountain was conceived of towards the end of 1982, but wasn’t revealed to the public until September of 1983, with the debut of the Filmation cartoon. For another year, the snake coiled around its summit was simply a carving, its mouth hollowed out for Skeletor to stand in and loom. But in 1984 the Snake Mountain toy was released, completely discarding the Filmation design in favor of the hewn face of the figure we now call Ka. Instead of a snake carving winding its way up the peak, the Mattel toy featured a ‘striking serpent’, alive and attached to the mountain itself. From there, it was an easy leap to make to ‘this carving comes alive’. So easy, in fact, that they did it twice!

First attempted in 1985 in the newspaper storyline “Vengeance of the Viper King”, the snake was here called Sarcedon, the World Destroyer. At the dawn of time, he was said to crush Eternia within his deadly coils. He burrowed deep into the ground, causing fearsome storms that nearly destroyed the planet. Only a fearless hero (implied to be He-Ro) could defeat and imprison Sarcedon. Using a macguffin called a Mirror of History, He-Man forced Sarcedon to behold his own reflection in a reference to the Medusa myth that kind of missed the point of it being reflective. Sarcedon was sent back in time, Snake Mountain was restored, the good guys win, blah blah blah.

That was the last of it until the MYP cartoon in 2004. Serpos as a name was actually first invoked by Mer-Man in a 1982 minicomic, but like it probably wasn’t about the snake. Anyway in the MYP cartoon the Snake Men get this thing called the Medallion of Serpos that lets them un-petrify the snake around Snake Mountain, grow two more heads, and unleash his godly wrath. He breathes fire, trashes Eternos, beats up He-Man, then turns his attention on Castle Grayskull to consume the Orb of Power (containing the strength and wisdom of the Elders, who had first trapped him in stone). He-Man cuts off Serpos’s extra heads with a sword upgrade, the Elders are somehow magically restored to life, and they re-petrify him. Snake Mountain is restored, the good guys win, blah blah blah.

Zoar, the Fighting Falcon

Lore: Contradictory, but it sure is a bird!

Long Version: While Sharella’s backstory is fraught because of the comics couldn’t decide what they wanted her to be, Zoar was similarly tangled up by the toyline. Initially male, he went through several color schemes, some prettier than others. Though there was a vague association with the Sorceress before the cartoon (recall that pre-Filmation, the Sorceress was just the Goddess), Filmation made them literally inseperable by designating Zoar as the Sorceress’s falcon form, to which she was confined when leaving Castle Grayskull.

Some of the comics and Golden books showed Zoar as being flipping enormous & ridden into battle as a steed by Teela and Man-at-Arms. Pre-Filmation, Zoar was always referred to as male, but post-Filmation, always female, as an incarnation of the Sorceress.

The Eternity Wars comics describe Zoar as the third aspect of the Goddess, the ‘Great Preserver’ whose light would shine through the universe for eternity. They pull off a sort of tripartite priestess thing where it’s Serpos/Zoar/Horokoth represented by Teela-Na (the Sorceress)/Teela/Evil-Lyn.

MOTUC, of course, had to reconcile all of these contradictory canons. How’d they do it? “In the folklore of Eternia, the golden falcon symbolized the godhead Zoar, a powerful deity of Preternia. As a god, Zoar could appear in both male and female guises and while the blue-tipped female falcon was associated with the Sorceress of Grayskull, the golden falcon represented Zoar's masculine nature.” So Zoar is genderfluid now, and the Sorceress is merely borrowing their form when transforming into a falcon. This bio also established that Zoar had anointed the first Sorceress, Veena (Queen Grayskull), which explains why she has wings for no apparent reason.

Also it’s not offically MOTUC but the scultors of the line, Four Horsemen, made a single anthro Zoar for Power-Con 2013. In case you need that for some reason.

Glorybird, Emissary of Zoar

Lore: Many millennia ago, there were three siblings, who were very poor and mistreated by their stepmother, but had hearts filled with kindness and love. Zoar, recognizing their resilience and desire to help people, sent an emissary named Glorybird. Glorybird bestowed upon each sibling a divine gift, but as they used their new powers to fight for good, their stepmother revealed herself to be a Celestial Witch & attempted to sacrifice them to Zoar’s “greatest enemy”, Horokoth.

Backstory: Okay, so the Star Sisters (and Glorybird) were in exactly one episode of She-Ra, primarily to set them up as new toy designs. While prototypes were made for these, the figures weren’t actually produced until MOTUC released figures for them in 2012. Though they were referenced in Princess Prom, and we saw a brief cameo in a background, Glorybird was absent until the introduction of the Star Siblings in Season Five.

That’s right! This bird is a god, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Saz, God of All Felines

Lore: One of the “Gods of the Multiverse” (he is the only member named explicitly), Saz was a blue-furred, feline deity responsible for the creation of all cats, humanoid or otherwise. He transformed himself into an enormous cat-beast to defeat Serpos and Hordeous, whose progenitors created them in envy of his children. Though Serpos was defeated, Hordeous escaped into the cosmos, and Saz himself vanished mysteriously.

Behind the Scenes: “By the whiskers of Saz!” is a fun pseudo-swear made by various cat races throughout MOTU, first in He-Man’s “The Cat and the Spider” and later in She-Ra’s “Magicats”. That was the only real mention of him until... okay, so MOTUC bios aren’t always attached to the product. Starting in 2018, they did this thing called Masters Mondays where they put unposted bios on the org forums. So while we’ve had the sword since 2010, we didn’t get the background on it until March of 2020. And then a couple weeks later, the Cat Mask of Catra bio referred to him as a “mystical being” instead of a god, but the mask was from 2011 so. He may not have been a god yet. It really depends on when the bios were actually written.

Saz wielded a blade probably best described as a falchion, whose quillon & langet formed a vaguely triangular shape around a deep red gem. I want to be clear that while it looks totally rad, this sword would be very impractical and have poor structural integrity were it not made by a literal god. Do not make swords like this. Also it’s almost certainly riffing on the Sword of Omens from Thundercats (affectionate).

Sabe-Or, Son of Saz

Lore: A green-furred, orange-striped paladin, Sabe-Or is one of the only named Ancients. He inherited his father’s blade upon Saz’s mysterious disappearance, and lived for centuries more. Upon his death, he transferred his “heroic essence” into a group of Eternian tigers, forever transforming them into the Green Tiger Tribe, whence both Granger (steed of King Grayskull), and Cringer, steed of Prince Adam.

Behind the Scenes: So “Battle Cat Man” is a concept that’s existed since they decided to make their hero ride a wicked tiger into battle. If you show a kid a superhero, and a supertiger, apparently the natural inclination of most children in the 80s was to combine the two. There are so many custom action figures. So, so many. Sabe-Or is visually a clear reference to this concept, and canonically seems to be the closest we’re going to get outside of the Thundercats crossover, unless you count Cowarros from 4H’s Mythic Legions line (I do, because it means Purrrplor is also canon and I fucking love calling him that).

Moss Man, Ancient Eternian Nature God

Lore: An ally of King Grayskull, Moss Man was something of an Eternian cryptid in the centuries leading up to He-Man Times. He has control over all plant life, the ability to meld with plants, and apparently can imbue sentience to said plants.

Behind the Scenes: Moss Man wasn’t featured in many episodes, because he’s a little... incredibly over-powered. He’s literally Bigfoot from 5000 years ago with magic powers. And like, since I don’t think the writers appreciate how long 5000 years is, you know what happened 5000 years ago? Stonehenge. This bitch is Stonehenge-old. But sure, you can trace a direct line of descent from his contemporary. smh. Anyway according to MOTUC his real name is Kreann’Ot N’Norosh so make of that what you will. Also his toys were pine-scented. I just love that.

Evil Seed, Rebellious Creation of Moss Man

Lore: Created by Moss Man to help fight in the Great Wars, Evil Seed betrayed his master and turned to evil (who could have foreseen this...), finding joy in corrupting all forms of plant life for his own amusement. Moss Man imprisoned him in enchanted chains, keeping him restrained for many millennia.

Behind the Scenes: According to MOTUC, his real name is Sero Malustro, clumsy New Latin for “(to) plant evil-burnt“. Why his name is New Latin and Moss Man’s is... whatever that is, I have no idea. As you can see from the image I included, he originally had an artichoke head, which was upgraded for the Mike Young Productions (MYP) cartoon. Personally I think the artichoke rules.

Volcana, the Fire Goddess

Lore: Canonically, she’s a fire goddess, and the mother of the Volcano Magus. Together, they are a rising force that seeks to conquer Etheria in the wake of Hordak’s defeat.

Backstory: Volcana has taken a long a twisted journey, but was first revealed to fans at Power-Con 2016 in a panel revealing previously unseen concepts and characters. After the first wave of She-Ra toys, a second wave was planned with a snow focus, to bring more attention the Filmation-neglected Frosta. This began with the introduction of a fire villain, an “evil lady that glows with heat” who would attempt to melt Castle Chill. That concept actually refers to a character named Amber (not Ember, as one might assume) who was reworked into a benevolent counterpart, Volcana’s twin sister.

Volcana was later fleshed out to be a Fire Goddess with flame-red hair, x-ray vision, and arms sculpted with flames. Her cape flew up with flame detail that rose up to control the volcano (of Volcanica, a proposed toyset that seems to have been reworked into the Crystal Falls). She was emphasized by Mattel to not start fires, which, honestly, is probably why they scrapped the character. He-Man couldn’t use his sword as a sword; a woman made of fire was basically doomed.

Now, though, we’re several decades in and lines made for collecters that are largely in their 30s and 40s can say whatever they want! So she’s canon, even if Amber isn’t. Yes there’s only one mention of her. Amber technically was mentioned in an unproduced episode titled “Amber Waves of Flame”, but as it was unproduced, it’s noncanonical.

Volcano Magus, Sinister Son of Volcana

Lore: Living within a dormant volcano, the Volcano Magus of the German audio plays was the source of most of Catra’s power and all of her evil intent. He supplied her with magic for spells and schemes with which to assail the Crystal Castle, but neither she nor Clawdeen were aware of the dark influence he held over them.

In the MOTUC canon, he’s specified as the son of Volcana, a demigod from the “Region of Volcanoes” who craved the nature magic of the Whispering Woods. When he learned the Twiggets were inextricably linked to that magic, he used his powers to petrify the former Rebels (this was after the Horde's defeat) and kidnap three Twiggets to drain the magic from their souls. Twiggets, for the uninitiated, are like purple tree-elf things. According to MOTUC, Razz is a Twigget, though the ‘real’ name they assigned her doesn’t fit their naming convention. She is purple, I guess.

Kowl, who avoided petrification, read Razz's spellbooks to find a way to save his friends, and learned of an Entrapment Gem that she hid in a shoe, for some reason. He confronted the Volcano Magus, spoke in the ancient tongue of the First Ones, and sucked him into the Gem.

Backstory: Admittedly this stuff is second hand, as I don’t speak German & they only have transcriptions/translations for the He-Man tapes anyway, but if anybody can find me an audio file I will do my best to verify. The MOTUC stuff at least I can confirm 100% because it’s from 2019 & I do speak English, for better or worse.

Oak, the Jackal God

Lore: Oak was the terrible Jackal God worshiped by the denizens of Zhar, an ancient civilization that once existed in a remote, forested region of Eternia. Long ago, Oak was imprisoned within a statue which could be found within the Temple of the Jackal. When Skeletor removed the statue from the temple, Oak broke free of the enchantment which imprisoned him and wreaked havoc on Eternia. Although the Jackal God was immensely powerful, he could be weakened by the elements of nature and was ultimately foiled by a rainstorm conjured by the combined powers of He-Man's sword and the magic of the temple's guardian priest.

Backstory: I have lifted this from a He-Man guide word for word as I cannot for the life of me find a copy of the Brazilian Editora Abril comic he came from, O Templo Do Chacal (1986). The description is like, suspiciously similar to the plot of the He-Man episode The Cat and the Spider, except the Grimalkin was never described as a god. The rest of it--statue, Skeletor, storm defeat--plays out almost the same. True pity I can’t find the original source, but I do trust this guidebook. You may be interested in Ceres from the UK comics--another dog-slash-statue who frankly might as well be a god himself, but as he’s not called one in canon he’s not going on the list.

The Bitter Rose Goddess

Lore: As Man-at-Arms told the legend, “Every day, a woman climbed Rose Mountain to look for her husband to return from the war. Alas, he never came back. Her tears poured from her cheek and entered the ground. One day she disappeared, but where she stood was a single, solitary rose. It’s the only thing that grows on Rose Mountain.”

The Insect People, who lived at the base of Rose Mountain, believed that the Bitter Rose is all that held the mountain together (and when it was picked, they were proved right). After the flower was restored, it transformed into the Bitter Rose Goddess herself, who explained that she had been a prisoner of her love's sorrow, so bitter that she refused to allow anything else to grow on Rose Mountain. She blessed the surrounding area, blanketing the jagged peaks with roses, and disappeared.

Backstory: She’s kind of... barely a god. She showed up in one episode and no other media & has objectively less power than like, every single demon they ever brought in. I almost didn’t put her on this list.

Mask-Ra, Goddess of Masks

Lore: A goddess who created the magical Masks of Power.

Backstory: Mask-Ra was first mentioned in 2019 and like, look, I’m gonna be real. I don’t respect her. She’s an invention of MOTUC (unless they were drawing on this concept art of Maska-Ra, which I doubt bc he was a Man-E-Faces precursor) and they retconned her into having created Catra’s mask, which is kind of redundant given the entire episode Magicats. This mask did not need two bios. There are no other mentions of her in any canon.

Potential other Masks of Power: The Deemos and Tyrella masks from the He-Man episode “Masks of Power”, lizard and canine masks from the mini-comic “Masks of Power”, Lord Masque’s Demon Mask from the He-Man episode “House of Shokoti, Part 1″, and whatever the hell Red Shadow has going on.

Procrustus, Giant Guardian of Magic

Lore: During the creation of the various dimensions (5 in MOTUC canon but demonstratably higher everywhere else), the gods installed the four-armed, immortal giant Procrustus to guard their secrets at the heart of Eternia. There lay the Starseed, from which the entire dimension was created. It still held immeasurable power, and could be used to conquer entire universes. Hordak, in an attempt to access the Starseed, cracked Eternia in two with the Spell of Separation. Though he was (mostly) thwarted, from then on Procrustus was forced to hold the two halves of Eternia together from within, lest the planet break apart and the Starseed be exposed.

Backstory: First appearing in the mini-comic “The Magic Stealer!”, Procrustus is a lot more tangible than most gods. We know where he is, at all times, and he seems confined to one size. His powers appear to be largely physical, as he had to burrow out of the ground to investigate in the mini-comic instead of teleporting or like, magicking the dirt away. This was his only appearance until MOTUC released a figure for him in 2012. He also showed up in the Subternia map the next year, holding Eternia together.

Standor, Cosmic Creator of Power

Lore: “Before time began, the great Gods of the multiverse convened in the Hall of Power to create all that was and all that will ever be. Head architect of this great task was Standor. A cosmic being of unlimited imagination, Standor helped lead his fellow deities by fueling their energies with raw creative force.”

Backstory: Released for Comikaze 2013 to celebrate the partnership of Mattel and Pow! Entertainment, Standor is literally just Stan Lee But a God. The prototype was called Standar--idk why they changed it, but I think it’s because it’s too easy to confuse with “Standard”. They made a bio for his sunglasses. I don’t want to talk about it.

Bash-Or, Slain Mystic God-Beast

Lore: Very little is known of Bash-Or, the Ram. His last remnant was sealed within the Ram Stone by the ancient sorceror kings of Zalesia, imbuing it with his divine power to overcome any barrier, magical or otherwise.

Backstory: Bash-Or was revealed in the bio for the Ram Stone, September of 2020, but his spirit (previously referred to as ‘the Spirit of the Ram Stone’) was twice utilized by Skeletor in the MYP cartoon, to great effect, before the stone was destroyed.

#she-ra #spop #motu #he-man #clare shares notes #edited to actually include the gd graph

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generic-hufflepuff1 · 4 years ago

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The Fun Part (Tma Analysis)

Heyo! Here's the part two to This, using the data from Here.

Now in part one I give some of my rationalisation as to why certain Entities show up in statements less often than others.

In this one I’ll just be pointing out some interesting things in what the numbers say and/or some rationalization for weird numbers or sometimes just making up a in universe reason for some of Jonny’s writing quirks (Like how if you look at the numbers Jonny just finds ideas for Hunt episodes harder to think of)

Im gonna be breaking this down into seasons

Season 1

In Season 1 the most frequent entities are The Corruption and The Stranger (8 episodes each).

Both of these make sense. The main antagonist of Season 1 is Jane Prentis and having looked at all the Stranger episodes* it is quite clear that it is Jonny setting up for future arcs and plotlines. But that's the boring reason. The fun reason is that The Corruption is ready to perform its ritual and The Stranger is busy setting up for their own ritual and as a result there are plenty of statements within easy reach of Jonathan Sims for these two entities in particular, with two to four times the number of statements of the other entities.

Other notable entities are The Spiral and The Flesh.

Mostly just because they each get a couple more entities than is the usual as ten of the fifteen entities have between two to four episodes. The Spiral gets a bit of a boost from Micheal popping up every now and then and that works for me. The Flesh is a bit weirder I can't really think of a writing reason for it all I can say is that they tend to be quite striking and it's quite clear Jonny had a lot of fun with them and honestly that's fair. But again, boring. One reason could be that as mentioned in the other post there is a bit of a requirement for a statement giver notably they need to be desperate enough and you know still alive to go to the Archives, and these statements** are quite obvious as The Flesh has no patience for subtlety, but still enjoys the act of delaying the suffering.

And the final segment “What's the Eye Doing?”

The reason i'm including this is because Ive noticed that the Eye is strange in that it is the most popular entity over all of the show but is not the most frequent in most of the seasons. So Im just gonna keep an eye on it.

The Eye shows up in three episodes: 12 First Aid, 23 Schwartzwald and 40 Human Remains, and of these only really the Mag 23 is the only real statement about it I just find this interesting no real notes about it though.

*1 Angler Fish, 2 Do Not Open, 3 Across The Street, 24 Strange Music, 28 Skin Tight, 34 Anatomy Class, 39 Infestation, 40 Human Remains

** 5 Thrown away, 14 Piecemeal, 17 The Boneturner's Tale, 18 The Man Upstairs, 20 Desecrated host, 30 Killing Floor

Season 2

Now sure this season has three entities (The Stranger, The Buried and The Spiral) that have more episodes than the others and I will talk about them but what stands out more than anything else is just how spread out it is. I mean with the exception of those three and the Extinction the rest have between two to four with half of them having four and Hell even The Extincion gets one. This is by far the most fair the spread ever gets. Here’s the spread:

6: Stranger, Buried, Spiral

4: Desolation, Dark, End, Web, Eye

3: Vast, Flesh, Corruption

2: Hunt, Slaughter, Lonely

1: Extinction

So Why the Stranger, Buried and Spiral

Again the Stranger is being set up for season three and are working on their ritual, not to mention the presence of NotSasha gives a sizable boost. The Spiral is a bit stranger but at this point Micheal is still running around and this gives it the needed boost. The Buried is the only one that is not immediately obvious, after looking through the episodes* it still baffles me, as far as I can tell it's due to the focus on the Tunnels. It could be that Jonathan in an attempt to understand the Tunnels tried to find similar statements and as a result the trend developed.

The Extinction?

So season 2 has the first mention of number 15, well maybe it does. See the thing with most of the Extinction’s manifestations is that it could maybe be something else entirely. The Extinction episode of the season is 65 Binary and might be the Spiral instead but the focus on a new type of life and technology means that it is very difficult to say really.

What's the Eye Doing?

The Eye falls right into the average place in the hierarchy for the season with four episodes. Those being: 53 Crusader, 60 Observer Effect, 62 First Edition and 79 Hide and Seek. These seem to work to expand what exactly the Eye is. As I said, season 1 kind of lacks this and here Mag 53, 62 and 79 bring up the weirdness of the archivist, whereas Mag 60 explores how the Eye can manifest. But the Eye isn't special every single entity gets fleshed out in season 2.

*41 Too Deep, 50 Foundations, 51 High Definition, 61 Hard Shoulder, 66 Held in Customs, 71 Underground

Season 3

This is the run away season. This one is similar to the previous one but it does skew quite wildly at its end to favour the Stranger, for entirely understandable reasons. But ultimately is still quite fair with only The Eye and The Extinction fall outside the three to five range.

So the Stranger

The Stranger has ten episodes this season and why is quite obvious as the climax of the season revolves around the Stranger. Not much to say here.

Again the Extinction

Now my notes had 114 Cracked Foundation as one of the Extinction episodes but for some reason I can no longer find any mention of it on the Wiki so I have no Idea what happened here. My guess is that in the wake of Mag 196 and 197 this particular entry got a lot of attention and the link with the Extinction removed.

What's the Eye doing?

This is the first season in which the Eye starts to take up the main spotlight with seven episodes. However looking through the statements* and it does not really appear in the statements but rather in the pre and post statement drama, as Jonathan and Elias use their abilities. So as a result the Eye ends up feeling very different compared to the other entities and we don't see the ‘Horror’ of it for a lot of the podcast.

* 82 The Eyewitnesses, 92 Nothing Beside Remains, 105 Total War, 106 A Matter Of Perspective, 117 Testament, 118 The Masquerade, 119 Stranger and Stranger

Season 4

So season four is very, very weird in that the Extinction is the most frequent entity (tied with the Eye). It does make sense as Jonny needs to catch the audience up on what exactly it is as it does not have the breath of work that the other entities have, so as a result Lucas spends his Time telling Martin about it.

Other notable Entities

The Lonely is also quite popular this season with five episodes but that also makes sense due to not only the presence of Lucas but also Martin’s fall into the Lonely. Other than that The Hunt only has one statement* that has to do with it’s ritual. The combination of this and the Extinction’s frequency in this season and the hunts underperformance in other seasons (4 in season 1, 2 from season 2, 3 from season 3 and 1 in this season) means that it has just slightly one more episode than the Extinction. I do cover my rationalisation for this in the other post (Here)

What’s the Eye Doing?

Leading the pack that's what. This season also has what other seasons lack statements that the Eye features in. Now this is probably Jonny finally having the chance to explore the concept properly as it is a bit harder to really understand, but in world it could be due to a combination of Elias trying to keep Jonathan blind and Jonathan trying to explore his new identity as a ful blown avatar and going about it like a baby gay, consuming all media surrounding the topic.

*133 Dead Horse

Season 5

I debated not including this section but hell I'll just add on any updates if it's necessary.

So in this one to (to no one's surprise) the Eye is the golden child in this season after a brief jaunt into a domain for each fear the focus becomes almost entirely Eye focused, and if you want to be technical you can just add the Eye to every single episode but I did not.

The runner up

The Web is definitely making up good numbers especially with how the finally is turning out.

Other notables

The Lonely, Buried and Spiral all get a little above average. Why? Well Martin has to deal with some baggage from Season 4 and Gaslight Girlboss is still running around but the Buried is a bit weird. Again I think jonny just finds it easy to write claustrophobic horror, but again thats boring. So lets have a look* and when I did I noticed that all three of these (and the Eye and Web) all are in 167 Curiosity so that adds a bit to the count. But other than that its clear that it’s easy to add the Buried on top of another entity so its clear that the Eye simply likes how the Buried spices up the other flavours of fear. And then finally the Extinction and Slaughter only get one each (163 In The Trenches and 175 Epoch) and they are the compulsory exploration episodes and unless the finale really is a complete curveball this probably won't change.

What’s the Eye Doing?

Having the time of its god damn life.

*166 The Worms, 167 Curiosity, 184 Like Ants, 185 Locked In, 195 Adrift

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khhcfi · 4 years ago

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KH: Melody of Memory [In-Depth Review]

Here’s the Tumblr version of my website post at Weebly, where I give an in-n-depth review of my thoughts and ideas for Melody of Memory.

You can also view this at my website:

https://dreamywrites.weebly.com/

Warning; very long post

News Update Review The past couple of days have been busy with updates on the new installments in the Kingdom Hearts series. We first have Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road confirmed to be released on June 22, 2020 as a mobile game. We will finally know what happened in the past to have Xehanort become a Keyblade Master of Darkness, not light. With five new characters confirmed to be present in the game in addition to Eqarues and Xehanort, we're super excited for the story.

The second news has everyone on the edge with Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, especially as it's confirmed to be a rhythm game. Before the confirmation on June 16, a lot of people and myself included were curious yet dreading if it was going to a rhythm game using the same or similar mechanics like in Atlantica (KH2) and/or the Melody Catcher Reality Shift in Symphony of Sorcery (KH: DDD). I looked on the brighter side of things and thought of how the game would work involving interacting with music. The use of Unreal Engines for the graphics, Yoko Shimomura compositions as either classics or varied renditions of the classics, including the Kingdom Hearts: Orchestra Concert music, and the story revolving (mostly) around Kairi on her journey to find Sora. The 2020 Trailer showcased what Melody of Memory will look like and how it will function, better - maybe beyond better- than I and other fans initially theorized.

[Source: Google Images]

When I first read the word "melody" in the title, I thought it had relations to music; thus a rhythm game. It reminds me the Fantasia (1940) world called "Symphony of Sorcery" in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. The concept of "Sound Idea" to "dispel the darkness" (Mickey, KH:DDD) from the tainted musical score inspired another idea that I will explain later in the post. [Idea 4]

The mechanics are vastly different than the previous games, which makes it more exciting! The story of the game remained unknown until the trailer released today. Fans theorized Kairi would finally get her own game where she traverses inside her Heart to find any clue on how and where to find Sora. That seems to be the case as she has more screen time in the trailer.

Flashbacks This brings up the next and most important news. After confirming Melody of Memory as a rhythm game, it transitions into a static disruption that leads to cinematic cutscenes of what to expect and flashbacks. Fans already guessed the flashbacks belong to Kairi because her memories of Radiant Garden in Birth by Sleep were hazy.

[Screenshot Source: YouTube SQUARE ENIX]

The following 4 screenshots are most talked about because it visualizes what both the Kingdom Hearts Light Novel and Ansem Report 11 talked about.

In the Light Novel, there's a few pages where Apprentice Xehanort (really Terranort) asked where "the girl" was. Aeleus, one of the Apprentices of Ansem the Wise and a Palace Guard, told him she's sleeping in the "pod".

Personal Note: I thought the "pod" was referred to the Memory Pods in The Old Mansion in Twilight Town. The same pods that Sora. Donald, and Goofy slept for a year for Namine to completely restore the damage she caused in their memories in Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. Sora's pod was bigger, resembling a white flower that when open, it's a blossomed flower. Since Terranort was examining her, I thought they used a pod like Sora's. Donald and Goofy pods are simpler and smaller. That would make sense for them to use since she was a child at the time of these experiments.

[Source: Google Images]

In the Report: “I have chosen one special girl. I do not know if she possesses a power like that of the Princesses. But, there is a chance, and this is an experiment. She may lead me to the place where the one holding the key is… I shall send her off to the ocean of other worlds.” [source: Kingdom Hearts Wiki - Ansem Reports] Kairi was a child, 4 years old in Birth by Sleep. One year later after Terranort was given refuge in Radiant Garden under the Answem the Wise's apprenticeship, Darkness took over the world. Kairi, 5 years old, was sent to Destiny Islands. There was a meteor shower happening and Kairi fell from the sky onto the shores, where she was discovered by Sora [depicted in Kingdom Hearts Manga]. When she awoke, she had amnesia. With only her name remember, she didn't know where she came from, how she arrived on the Islands, what happened to her home and family. Five years worth of memory were "gone". In the KH universe, the memories are hidden than forgotten. Kairi claims to not know about her past in the original Kingdom Hearts game, but later states those memories are hazy for her when Aqua brought up their meeting in the Radiant Garden. My personal thought is that Kairi did have amnesia for awhile with the exception of her name. It's likely that over time she has flashbacks or visions or dreams so muddled and hazy that she can't find the truth. Another personal thought revolves around the ability of her Nobody, Namine, aka "The Witch". She's a unique Nobody born from both Sora and Kairi's Hearts after the events of the original Kingdom Hearts game. She has the ability to alter, destroy, and restore memories of Sora and those around him. Considering her abilities, I suspect she could uncover hidden memories buried deep within one's Heart. In Re:Mind, Riku states she's currently with the Twilight Gang - Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Hayner, Pence, and Olette - looking for clues in Roxas's and Xion's memories. If given a chance, perhaps she can work with Kairi to fully unlock her hidden memories even though the latter is experiencing some flashbacks.

The Ark Speaking of flashbacks, the picture below is also the talk in the fandom

[Sceenshot taken from YouTube SQUARE ENIX] It's machine that has made its appearance before.

[Image found on Google Images] This is the machine Sora and gang finds in a room in Hollow Bastion. At the time, we couldn't interact with it. We just entered this room and see this machine, fight enemies that appeared, and get a chest.

[Image found on Google Images] Later in Kingdom Hearts Union X (KHUx), we see Malificent in a room where the machine is. The name of machine is called The Ark. Next, we see Lauriam, who is the original person of Marluxio (Nobody), enter and tells her to leave. When she refused, he summons his keyblade and proceeds to attack her. In a different cutscene, Lauriam wakes up in a now damaged room, including the machine. Injured, he proceeds to exit the room with a limp. Given The Ark was damaged and later made its appearance in Kingdom Hearts and in the Trailer, I wonder if they're exactly the same machine? If so, that means that Radiant Garden is a section of the once Daybreak Town. Scala ad Caelum was built on top of Daybreak Town, as seen when Sora and the gang fought Armored Xehanort underwater. Or were two machines made - 1 in Daybreak Town (KHUx) and 1 in Radiant Garden (KH, Trailer)? Could it have been the Master of Masters who built them? Who knows?

Stars and Ideas

[Screenshots taken from YouTube SQUARE ENIX]

The following photos bring up other ideas I have.

Here we see Kairi and Riku in The Final World.

Idea 1: What if this portion is at the start of Melody of Memory like in KH3 as the opening cinematic cutscenes?

Tetsuya Nomura told the public the Final World and Dive to the Heart takes place at the end of the game's plot. So what if these screenshot are actually scenes that happen at the end or towards the end of the game, but are brought to the start of the game as an opening?

Idea 2: What if Kairi and Riku go to The Final World in the middle of the game because it's the hardest place to reach? Chirithy explained in KH3 that in order for someone to reach this place, they would have to either enter a very deep sleep that's near Death or actually die. Since Kairi has been sleeping for a year an Riku has been having strange dreams, they both enter the world by going under a very deep slumber that it takes there. Sora has done it countless times before, but he didn't realize it until Chirithy explained it to him.

Idea 3: After the duo arrives, they're encountered by a group of Stars

I have two options for this idea:

Option 1: The Stars gathered because they were drawn towards Kairi, a Princess of Heart.

Option 2: The Stars were waiting for them because Sora told about them. In the Secret Ending, Sora defeated Yozora (Good Ending) and was brought back to The Final World with him looking up at the sky then walking away. A year has passed, which leads to the events in Re:Mind, so Sora has been there all that time. I'm sure the Stars were there to unintentionally give him company and a sense of comfort inspite of the situation. He'd tell them about himself, friends, and journey to pass the time as well as training. Maybe some of the Stars made a promise to keep an eye for his friends should they arrive. Sora went off somewhere in the World.

Idea 4: This supports my “Personal Note” from earlier. Remembering this is a confirmed rhythm game and I mentioned the concept of "Sound Idea" being used, what if the Stars are gathered as a guide to help the duo through Kairi's Heart Memories that resided in Sora's Heart during the events of the original Kingdom Hearts game?

Remembering the gameplay screenshots and action in the Trailer, we play as Sora. If this is a Kairi game, or a Kairi-focused game, why are we playing as Sora with his original appearance from KH? I suspect it's because when Kairi's Heart resided in Sora's during the first game, her Heart contains Memories that Sora endured in his original clothing.

If that's the case, then it makes why we're playing as Sora accompanied with other characters to assist him. I'm sure we'll play as Kairi and the other characters soon after, but it's an interesting observation.

Similar to how Riku basically contolled Data Sora to fight against Data Organization XIII in Re:Mind, I theorized it's similar for Kairi. The rhythm "game" could serve as a memory guidance for Kairi and the others. Bringing in the KHDDD Sound Idea from Symphony of Sorcery, what if they need to collect multiple Sound Ideas like from each world the rhythm has to offer to find Sora? If that's the case, then I wonder what song will be played if they harmonized all of the Sound Ideas together?

What if the clues she looking for is somewhere in the worlds Sora visited while she was inside his heart? I know Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are searching every world Sora's visited in reality but what if the clues are only something that can be seen or uncovered through the Heart...like through Princess of Heart?

@phoenixmiko: "The sound idea combined could form the Dearly Beloved for KHMoM or KH3's version."

A very good plausible! I can imagine Yoko Shimomura and her team playing a new rendition of the song!

Mentioned in:

https://khhcfi.tumblr.com/post/621112208886284288

https://khhcfi.tumblr.com/post/621112566752690176

Kairi's Heart Fragments

Mentioned in my earlier tumblr posts:

https://khhcfi.tumblr.com/post/621128405097775104/kairis-heart-fragments-in-kh3-remind-sora-had

[Screenshot Source: YouTube SQUARE ENIX]

One thing I’d like to add is that you can see Sora’s smile as he’s holding one of Kairi’s Pink Lights. I suppose he’s nostalgic of his brief quest to find all 7 Fragments and/or he’s comforted by the familiar presence.

Other Observations

Something struck me when I looked back at The Secret Reports in Kingdom Hearts 3.

KH3 secret report 3:

Experiments of the Heart Notes on Subject X, Excerpt 1--

Subject was found in the central square shortly after dawn. Female, approximately fifteen years old. After seven days' observation, she spoke her first words, but could not provide a name. Subject exhibits signs of profound amnesia, and displays concern about which world this is. Her words suggest that she departed her home world with others, though she cannot recall the names of her erstwhile companions. All efforts to explore those memories have met with a rejection response.

After his initial experiments on me, Ansem the Wise ceased his research into the heart, his hand stayed by some fear I cannot fathom. Yet this new subject is like me: devoid of memories. She is the perfect sample upon which to continue my master's work. She, too, could benefit from it: by traversing the heart, we have a direct path into memory. I myself have begun to reclaim my lost past thanks to these very experiments.

Who is she? Whence has she come? These are questions no scientist could ignore. And the words she muttered, "May your heart be your guiding key"...

—Xehanort

[Source: Kingdom Hearts Wiki - The Secret Reports (KH3)]

Yes, I'm very aware that Xehanort is referring to Subject X - Skuld.

However, the bold section of the report really struck me odd in an interesting way.

"devoid of memories" = Subject X had amnesia upon arriving this world. The same thing that happened to Terra- Xehanort hybrid (Terranort) after Aqua saved him from falling into the Realm of Darkness. The same thing happened to Kairi upon arriving to Destiny Islands.

I don't know what Xehanort meant by "my master's work" specifically, though it may have to do with studying the Hearts, Light and Darkness, and unlocking The Door (Radiant Garden's Door)

"traversing the heart, we have a direct path into memory" = this is the most interesting aspect because we've seen this before. Recall the events of Re:CoM, Namine's first display of memory alteration to Sora and Riku by interfering with the chains in their Hearts. In KH2, Namine is restoring Sora's memories by correcting the chain links that greatly affect the others connected to him.

Xehanort reclaimed his "lost past thanks to these very experiments". As to which lost past he's referring to is most likely Master Xehanort's. Terra's memories may be (relatively) from his body-roommate after they merged.

Kairi is asleep for a year with Ansem the Wise and his Apprentices overseeing the process while using their knowledge about the Heart.

She believes her Heart holds clues to finding Sora. In doing so, it appears the memories hidden from her are resurfacing as flashbacks, bit-by-bit.

She's traversing her Heart to not only have a direct path to Sora, but also a path to her hidden memories.

She's traversing the memories stored in her Heart during her time spent in Sora's Heart.

Perhaps a reason why Terranort didn't recall much after waking up except for Xehanort's name is because the amount of memories the old master had was overwhelming Terra's mind. Paired with the strong powerful Darkness that amplified his own, it overpowered him to have amnesia for a while.

#melody of memory #kingdom hearts melody of memory #kairi #kairi's heart #kairi's past #radiant garden #xehanort #rhythm game #kh theories #kh speculation #kh

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crystallinewalker · 3 years ago

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Hey! Just a friendly aroace here trying his hardest to help! My post is really long, so everything is below the cut to save dash-space.

This quote of yours:

"I don’t hate the idea of sex (I don’t feel uncomfortable watching sex scenes and I do read books with sexual content), but I absolutely hate the idea of doing it myself."

aligns pretty closely with the LGBTA wiki's definition of Aegosexual:

"Aegosexual ... describes those who have a disconnection between themself and the subject of arousal. Aegosexuals may have sexual fantasies, view porn and other sexual content, or masturbate, but they generally feel little to no sexual attraction and typically do not desire to have sex with another individual."

Aegosexual can be used together with Ace (Aegosexual Asexual) or on its own, because being Aegosexual implies that one is also Ace as well.

I also noticed that you said this:

"I absolutely hate the idea of doing it myself."

which sort of reminds me of being Sex-Repulsed, especially where the wiki says:

"Sex-repulsed is a term that is used most commonly by asexual and other ace-spec individuals to indicate that they find sexual activity undesirable (perhaps repulsive/disgusting/revolting), uninteresting, or otherwise uncomfortable or unwanted. Sex-repulsion can take many different forms. Some are repulsed by the idea of engaging in sex themselves, but are fine with sexual activity that does not involve them."

This specific form of sex repulsion can also be defined as being Sex-Averse. In regards to sex aversion, the wiki says:

"they find the idea of personally engaging in sexual activity undesirable, uninteresting, uncomfortable, or otherwise unwanted. These feelings towards personally engaging in sex can range from dislike or discomfort to intense fear or disgust, but sex-averse individuals aren't repulsed by the idea of sex in general."

These terms are used to describe one's attitude towards sex and say nothing about the attraction one may or may not experience. For example, a person could experience some amount of attraction, but still be Sex-Repulsed and not wish to act on it.

This brings me to the next section of your post, which appears to be more about romantic, and not sexual attraction. You describe more non-sexual actions, such as just generic touching, holding hands, cuddling, and "dating."

When you say:

"I also am very uncomfortable being touched, but I frequently fantasize about being all cute and cuddly in a relationship."

it is very similar to your description of how you feel about engaging in sexual behavior, which leads me to believe that you might be Aegoromantic as well.

In regards to being Aegoromantic, the wiki says:

"Aegoromantic ... is a microlabel on the aromantic spectrum that describes those who enjoy the concept of romance but have a disconnection between themself and the subject of romantic fantasies. Aegoromantic individuals may have romantic fantasies, enjoy romantic media, or engage in shipping in fandoms, but they tend to feel little to no romantic attraction in real life and typically do not desire a romantic relationship."

As with Aegosexual, Aegoromantic can be used on its own or paired with Aromantic (Aegoromantic Aro). Additionally, if an individual identifies as both Aegosexual and Aegoromantic, they can refer to themself as Aego AroAce.

Then, you go on to say:

"I’ve never had a want to have sex with someone, but I do really love the idea of just holding hands. I do find people of all genders attractive, I guess I just don’t have the urge to have sex, if that makes sense."

Aromanticism is a spectrum, which means that some of us experience more attraction than others. The only requirement is that one experiences less attraction than an Alloromantic person or experiences attraction in a "non-standard" way.

Because of this, Aro-Spec identities can be paired with other romantic orientations, in order to describe the attraction that one does experience. In your case, I would suggest Panromantic, because you describe being attracted to all genders.

Aaaand... this brings me to my final point. You describe the attraction that you experience in this way:

"It’s been kind of hard to talk to other people romantically bc it takes me so long to get comfortable. Like, it almost feels like I want to be friends with someone first and then transition slowly into dating."

This reminds me very much of Demiromantic, which is described on the wiki as:

"Demiromantic is a romantic orientation on the aromantic spectrum defined as someone who does not experience romantic attraction until they have formed a deep emotional connection with someone. This connection may be sexual, platonic, or another form/combination of forms, depending on the demiromantic individual. ... The already existing relationship is the only way a demiromantic individual would be able to experience romantic attraction."

Demiromanticism is a form of Aromanticism, so you could refer to yourself as Demiromantic, Aromantic, or pair them together if you wanted.

Because you have identities on both the Aro and Ace-Specs, it would also be acceptable to refer to yourself as AroAce or as "being on the AroAce Spectrum."

All in all, your descriptions of your experiences, would lead me to say that you are an Aegosexual AegoDemiPanromantic who is Sex-Averse. Or, if you are looking for a more simple way of describing things: just AroAce would work as well.

However, at the end of the day, you are the expert on your labels NOT ME. Please do not take this as the definitive answer to all of your problems, and feel encouraged to go off and do your own research and digging.

Hope this helps and hope you're having a nice day!

- Jasper, he/him

I don’t have anybody close to me that I can talk to about this so I’m just going to post it here and hope that someone can help me. I’m trying to define my sexuality and I think I might be on the asexual spectrum, but I don’t know where I fit. I don’t hate the idea of sex (I don’t feel uncomfortable watching sex scenes and I do read books with sexual content), but I absolutely hate the idea of doing it myself. I also am very uncomfortable being touched, but I frequently fantasize about being all cute and cuddly in a relationship. I’ve never had a want to have sex with someone, but I do really love the idea of just holding hands. I do find people of all genders attractive, I guess I just don’t have the urge to have sex, if that makes sense. It’s been kind of hard to talk to other people romantically bc it takes me so long to get comfortable. Like, it almost feels like I want to be friends with someone first and then transition slowly into dating.

#asexual #aromantic #ace #aro #aroace #aromantic asexual #arospec #aro ace #aro pride #aro spec #aromantic spectrum #aro positivity #aspec

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thedramafilesblog-blog · 8 years ago

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Appearing before the Dramacourt: Hwarang: Poet Warrior Youth Ep 18

***If this is your first time browsing The Drama Files, please read The Rules section first for our reviewing and rating system***

Issues:

Whether the Won Hwa story line should be better explained

Whether Han Sung’s death was necessary

Whether they realized that they only had 2 episodes left and was scrambling to tie up loose ends by introducing so many developments in this episode

Whether Han Sung, as a character, was poorly written

The Rule(s):

Yes. It is super confusing and there has been no explanation as to what their specific role is.

Yes. In a way.

Yes. *scrambles*

Yes!

Application:

RedRosette J: So, having watched this episode, I am immediately regretting switching to the regular episode post format. This episode was just terrible and I had to struggle to think of problems in it (that were not going to be as repetitive as 17). At this point, I’m totally convinced that this drama has just become a shitty makjang drama. The biggest difference in this episode was the Taehyung was on screen probably the most since he’s been on the whole drama because they had to kill him off. *eyeroll* The cutest part of this drama was Ban Ryu and Soo Yeon getting back together (again, it looks like Ban Ryu’s internal drama was resolved off screen in the last episode, which is such a pity because Do Ji Han such a good actor and could have really brought some substance to this shit show at this point). I honestly have no real thoughts about this episode because at this point I have completely given up. This show should have been 16 episodes. I’m so glad next week is the finale week. I don’t know if I can take more of this. -.-

Jubiemon J: I think there were actually too many big picture problems that all fell under issue three which we’ve listed. I can’t believe that this drama was pre-produced. The writing should have been better in that case and . . . I’m surprised to learn that this is from the same network that pre-produced Descendants. Anyway, this episode clearly focused on Hansung and as we all probably know, he dies in this episode. (I’m starting to suspect that they had to kill him off b/c of his idol commitments. I’m trying to rationalize the reason for his character’s death because that whole conflict with his grandpa being faced with issues from Banryu’s evil uncle or whatever came out of nowhere.) We’re close to the end, yet we also haven’t seen Yeowool’s story. The actor playing Yeowool does a great job with what he has, but it’s a shame that we can’t learn more about Yeowool. It also seems like JiDwi gave up on Aro out of nowhere? I wished that they had some emotional talk where she rejected him firmly and properly.

Issue 1: Whether the Won Hwa story line should be better explained?

RedRosette J: Okay. This show is not sophisticated enough to have no exposition for the viewers. It’s not some superbly written masterpiece which doesn’t infantlize the viewers and expects them to keep up. No. This is a very badly written script and in a badly written script, when there is no exposition, the viewers get left behind and have no idea what the hell is going on! So please, if you’re going to introduce a new concept, begin by explaining what on earth it is! [My bad if they did explain and somehow it got mistranslated and I missed it. If so, disregard this issue] Even if they’ve been mentioned the Won Hwa for a few episodes, it hasn’t really been a huge part of the plot until now so it might have been useful to have a nice refresher of what it actually means. The Queen keep saying that she is going to turn the women into Won Hwa or whatever and that they will be the ones to lead Hwarang and that they get tossed aside (read: killed) when the Royal Family is done with them. That’s all fine. That just makes it sound like a job posting with a badly written job description but without the actual job title being listed. I keep thinking that they are Super Concubines or something because logically, it stands to reason that if they are to lead Hwarang, they need to be like trained in combat and what not, and then given the flashback to Sun Woo’s mom (*gasp* spoiler) being pregnant with the Prince’s baby aka Sun Woo (*gasp* double spoiler), it seems like she might have also been a concubine. I don’t know. I’m just guessing because they won’t tell us what it is! You need to tell the viewers what their exact role is!

Jubiemon J: I got SO confused with Won Hwa that I had to do a bit of Googling. The drama like RedRosette hadn’t explained Won Hwa properly. Plus that term came out of nowhere. I don’t recall Won Hwa being an issue or a thing during the previous episodes. I really think bringing back the Won Hwa wouldn’t do much at all? The Queen really is on her crazy mode where she wants a female and a male harem.

RedRosette J Aside: Okay fine Jubiemon googled it and the wiki page says that they are actually warriors led by two women, and then one of them murdered someone and the Won Hwa was disbanded and gave way to the Hwarang. Still. The Won Hwa plot line could have been introduced better!

Neither do we!!!!

Is this the job?

Okay but how?

Is this job related too??

Issue 2: Whether Han Sung’s death was necessary

RedRosette J: Okay who else knew that this was coming? (There were spoilers/rumours when the show first started that Taehyung’s character might die) The issue is that it was written so poorly, that the whole thing just felt so comical and fell drastically short of the emotional impact that it should have had. To be honest, even though I knew that Han Sung was going to die, I totally didn’t expect them to introduce the death plot line the way they did. It just felt forced and there was absolutely no build up to it at all. It was so sudden and just really wasn’t cohesive in the grand scheme of the plot.

The only saving grace was that the boys’ actual bromance (which exists off screen) kicked in as they mourned his death which wasn’t awful to watch. Taehyung, to his credit, did an adequate job as Han Sung. I might add though, that the death scene was so cringey and super ridiculous that I was actually laughing. Out loud. Which I doubt was the intended viewer reaction. Taehyung’s acting was not close to being anything great, but even as a total noob, he was leagues better than Baekhyun in Scarlet Heart Ryeo. But, sweetie, so back to acting class. Really. I love his goofy, weirdo personality with the other Bangtan guys and I think that’s what saved his acting and his character for me, because I kept seeing Taehyung as himself in it. Essentially, Han Sung had to die to bring the guys together and stand on their own and stop being led by their dads and moms and grandpas. Hopefully this lets them become a force of their own, but realistically, Han Sung’s death could have been written and acted much, much better.

Jubiemon J: I also think this death was written very poorly. We never saw Han Sung fanboying over Sunwoo this hard until this episode. (I really think Han Sung was in love with Sunwoo for this episode.) I didn’t get emotional over his death because I just thought how idiotic it was for him to die. We never had news of Hansung’s grandfather facing problems and then bam . . .this episode he was like a slave to Banryu’s evil uncle/father. Sure his sacrifice was supposed to make Sunwoo/Ji Dwi be more determined to be King and set things straight, but I just don’t think Hansung’s death made such an impact. I think it should have been Aro who was sacrificed instead to affect the two of them. Hansung barely had any screen time to show that he was really, really close with the boys. Heck, he didn’t even dorm with the guys till far, far later. Sure, Aro did an arrow to her heart, but she’ll live . . . so . . . meh. Finally, did Sunwoo really have to carry Hansung’s dead body . . . to a class full of students? He should have called for help immediately. That scene was just so . . . ugh.

Ugh

Oh come on! Really?!?!

Poor Han Sungie!!

Ok but why would you bring him to your classroom?!?

Damn straight!

RedRosette J Aside: Although I will miss these two:

Issue 3: Whether they realized that they only had 2 episodes left and was scrambling to tie up loose ends by introducing so many developments in this episode

RedRosette J: They definitely did. All of a sudden, all the leftover issues were just crammed into one episode and the viewers were expected to just deal with it. We got a paternity reveal, birth mom reveal, secret history reveal, death reveal, and a King reveal. That’s a lot of reveals to take in in 60 minutes. It just felt way too sloppy and the production was bad too. *sigh* I can only hope that next week, when it crashes and burns in the finale, it does so with only a small bang.

Jubiemon J: For sure, they decided to put everything together. How easy is it for Sunwoo to find his father all of a sudden? Plus wasn’t his father supposed to be banished or at least in hiding, yet he can just come in and out of the palace so easily? And that whole dialogue totally reminded me of Star Wars: “Luke, I am your father.” I think Luke had it worse though. Then we had that Wonhwa thing going on just so that Aro can be in danger again. Trust me that girl is always placed in the most bizarre scenes where she has to be rescued somehow. She never does the rescuing and just has to suffer from the Damsel in Distress syndrome. In all honesty, what evil character aka the Queen would just tell one of the good guys all of her plans? I’m talking about that scene where the Queen warned Aro that she’d kill Aro once her use as a Wonhwa was over. I seriously laughed at that dialogue. It’s just ridiculous. If you wanted the Queen to be super evil, you might as well started her plotting far, far earlier and made her much smarter. Then the writer took the easy way out and decided to kill of Hansung to explain why Sunwo/Ji Dwi would step up to their game. *Rolls eyes*

Reveal 1

Reveal 2

Reveal 3

Issue 4: Whether Hansung, as a character, was poorly written

Jubiemon J: Hansung, as a character, was poorly written and probably used only as a marketing ploy. When I watched the interviews with the cast, they all suggested that Hansung was a very important character. I assumed that he’d have more scenes and more character development. Surprisingly, Banryu and Sooho had more air time. I did like those two characters and enjoyed their character development and bond. However, I expected Hansung and Yeowool to have had a similar level of development. The writer tried to portray Hansung as an innocent, sweet kid, and we did see that coming from Taehyung.

The writer also failed to show Hansung as someone who struggled with his role and his relationship with his brother. There were a few choppy scenes that hinted that perhaps Hansung had an inferior complex towards his brother and felt out of place or burdened with his responsibilities. However, those weren’t explored well at all.

Unfortunately, the writer made Taehyung’s job as a first-time actor harder with a poor character. Having a poor character probably means that the bulk of the work must lie on the actor alongside the director to try to give more depth to the character. Taehyung is not as experienced as an actor as Do Jihan or Jo Yoonwo to be able to show hints of frustration or burden. Taehyung does a wonderful job playing the happy-go-lucky, cute character because that is how he is like as a BTS member. However, I’ve found that he does struggle with more emotionally charged, deeper scenes which is likely due to his inexperience.

Jo Yoonwo as Yeowool has minimal scenes, but throughout the drama I was convinced of his bond with Hansung. Thus I only felt sad when I saw Yeowool’s reaction to Hansung’s death. Do Jihan, on the other hand, doesn’t have that many scenes either, but I was convinced with his character’s conflict between doing what he thinks is right and maintaining his family’s reputation. Do Jihan is great at expressing through his eyes or other little actions like making his face all tense when his character has to force himself to stay calm.

I also didn’t like how Hansung, as a character, seemed to be written as stupid. Being innocent does not mean that one is stupid. Hansung’s death was totally preventable. I found it hard to believe that Hansung had seen the “must kill” message addressed to his brother and didn’t even think it was sketchy. He didn’t even question his brother when he passed that gift to him. During the few scenes that Hansung is in, he often asks a lot of questions or at least has some inquisitive nature (ie ep 17 at the cafeteria where Sunwoo joins Hansung and Yeowool for lunch). Then it was only after he saw his brother fighting with Sunwoo did it all click to him? Seriously? No. That just made him seem so stupid and took away the sadness of his character’s death.

Conclusion: Appeal Dismissed.

Rating: 2 = Yell At Everyone -.-

File No: Hwan: POET-WARRIOR-Youth-Ep-18 Appearing before the Dramacourt: Hwarang: Poet Warrior Youth Ep 18 ***If this is your first time browsing The Drama Files, please read The Rules section first for our reviewing and rating system***

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britneyreviewed-blog · 7 years ago

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“Toxic”

Nipplegate and the Poisonous Purity-Policing of Pop Stars

Released: 1/24/2004 Directed by Joseph Kahn Rating: 5/5

I wasn’t sure if I should approach this blog in any kind of specific order in terms of the videos I review. I still haven’t quite decided, but I thought it’d be best to start with the video that inspired me to begin writing this blog in the first place (so I can keep my interest level up high enough to write at least one entry).

So I really did my research for this one. Read the Wiki article, watched the MTV “Making the Video” episode on it, read an NPR article. Toxic was directed by Joseph Kahn, who also directed Stronger. I immediately recognized the similarities, but I’ll get to that in a future review. The video premiered January 24, 2004 on MTV, and the song is from her 2003 album In The Zone. January 2004 is also when Britney got married in Vegas and then had the marriage annulled fifty five hours later. Apparently she was supposed to help Kahn with editing the video but then when the media scandal broke she went AWOL.

I didn’t realize how much Britney was involved in the making of her music videos—or at least this one anyway. From Wikipedia:

[She] first approached Kahn with a story sketch of a secret agent out for revenge against an ex-lover. … Her concept was almost fully formed and detailed, exemplifying the scene in which she drops water on the passenger's lap. Spears said she wanted to join the mile high club and be a stewardess that kissed a man in the bathroom. … Spears also told him about a scene in which she would be naked and covered in diamonds.

So it seems like she got pretty much everything she wanted! I don’t really know anything about the making of music videos, so I have no idea if this is standard or not, but I think it’s pretty awesome. Pop stars get a lot of shit for just being corporate puppets but Britney clearly had a lot of creativity and the pull and ambition to get it done.

Another pop culture event happening at this time was the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy when Justin Timberlake inadvertently exposed Janet Jackson’s breast. As I read up on old articles about it to write this post, I remembered how pissed everyone was at Janet Jackson. I was about 10 years old at the time, and I didn’t give a fuck about football (I still don’t) so I never even saw the offending clip. Watching it now and reading about it, I’m like what the hell? It was totally Justin Timberlake’s fault! I remember my mother being really scandalized by it. And Janet Jackson got really shamed and humiliated. But if anyone should be it’s Justin Timberlake because wow! Also, who even gives a fuck because it’s just a boob. Damn.

The point of me bringing up so-called Nipplegate is that the scandal distressed the American public so much that this video and others like it were moved to nighttime programming in order to protect viewers. From MTV at the time: “Given the particular sensitivity in the culture right now, we're erring on the side of caution for the immediate future.” Is that not fucking wild?!?!?! Like the sensitivity in the culture TO BREASTS. Y’all I’m not saying I’m shocked or anything, but like you can’t even make this shit up, stranger than fiction, et cetera.

Anyway, onto the review.

In the “Making the Video” episode, Britney summarizes it as follows:

“This villain girl, she’ll do anything to get she wants. She goes through characters, she’s has all these different personalities, and she goes through all these different obstacles. … There’s three different characters: there’s the sly stewardess, then there’s the red-hair hot mama, and then there’s the bitchy black-haired girl. They’re all saucy in their own way. They all have crazy outfits. And there’s three guys I kind of manipulate and I kind of go through them to get what I need. And we kiss!”

Fucking excellent. This is actually a pretty comprehensive summary, but I’ll give you the blow-by-blow anyway.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I’m able to point out all the allusions to other films that Joseph Kahn put in. I know I said I’m a film studies minor, but I’m probably the worst film studies minor ever. I haven’t seen pretty much any movie I’m “supposed to” have seen. Like I’ve seen Hitchcock and Citizen Kane and shit but only because I was taking classes where I had to watch them.

So according to Wiki, the opening of the video is a visual reference to John Woo films. I’ve seen one Woo film in my life, in a film class. It was okay. Toxic’s opening shot is some doves flying by as the camera moves towards a plane. Woo often uses dove imagery in his own films, so that’s the reference. It’s actually a pretty cool shot, flying through the cockpit and out the peephole—one that was difficult to set up according to Kahn in “Making The Video.”

We’re introduced to Britney’s first persona, the Sly Stewardess. I guess now that I’ve done my research I know “disguise” is a better word, because she’s actually like a super villain who has all these different costumes according to Britney. The first time I watched the video, I definitely did not realize that not only are all of these women were supposed to be the same person, but that there’s actually a plot. You’ll see.

Anyway, she does a bunch of dance moves that are riffing on what stewardesses do, which is a super cute concept and this is honestly my favorite section of the video. She sings into the phone that’s used to make announcements, dances with the drink cart, and my favorite part is when she and the other stewardesses turn the gestures they always do on planes when they’re talking about how to pull down oxygen masks or show you were the exits are into dance moves, while all the Businessmen on the plane nod their heads robotically to the beat.

There’s a hilarious moment where she puts a blanket on a child and pats their head. Even the look on her face afterwards is like “Why the fuck am I doing this?”

I guess I should also mention that we also see snippets of Diamond Britney.

She ends up in the bathroom making out with one of the nerdy looking Businessmen, who I learned was played by the casting director’s assistant (thanks Wiki). She pulls off his mask to reveal a Handsome Man beneath—I love that they committed to ripping off his face even though the special effects available in 2004 were nowhere near good enough.

I was surprised at the sexual shots they stuck in there, like when they zoom in on Sly Stewardness grinding on Handsome Man’s crotch, or when she spills the drink on the crotch of one of the Businessmen and uses a napkin to wipe it.

Abruptly, we’re transported to a dark city street (somehow Paris, given the Eiffel Tower in the background) and the Red-Hair Hot Mama appears riding on the back of a motorcycle with some rando. Kahn described the video as “retro-futuristic” and that’s most obvious in this sequence. The actor on the motorcycle is named Tyson and he was a huge Britney fan—he said he had her picture on his refrigerator. Cute. It was his birthday the day before the shoot and she got him a cake!

Wiki told me this sequence was a reference to Blade Runner (1987) and that Marilyn Monroe scene from The Seven Year Itch (1955) when she gets her dress blown up. While this is a great section of the video, I found myself missing the Sly Stewardess. The motorcycle sequence ends with a fantastically cringe-y green screen shot of Britney flipping around backwards off the bike.

The plot wavers a bit here. Red-Hair Mama FKA Sly Stewardess breaks into some kind of laboratory, but without any establishing shots, it’s hard to really get what’s happening. She pulls out a hairpin and throws it at the entrance of the building and it… explodes?

Then she gets inside the lab itself using the pass she stole from Handsome Man while she’d distracted him with all that scintillating grinding. Cutesy shot where the video syncs with the lyrics—the laboratory is called Toxic Industries and there’s a shot of the doors to the lab with a sign that reads TOXIC as Britney sings “you’re toxic.”

After grabbing the poison, she has to dance through a bunch of lasers to get out of the lab. Man, lasers were such a staple of 90s and early 2000s spy movies. I guess security systems have gotten more advanced. Diamond Britney continues to roll around in the bright white void.

It doesn’t serve any purpose other than to create a memorable image for the video—that’s how Kahn seemed to describe it. I’m into it.

Then, suddenly! There’s a shot of a shower head blasting water and you’re all like wha? And then you realize Britney’s Cheating Boyfriend is showering with another woman! He’s been having an affair! Or at least, that’s what Britney intended for you to realize, but the shot of her boyfriend and the Other Woman in the shower is so brief and again without any establishing shots, and it’s the first time you’re seeing either of these characters, so that went way over my head.

Never mind that, Britney’s final costume change is here: the Bitchy Black-Haired Girl! She uses suction cups (another spy movie staple) to climb up the side of his high-rise apartment building and front flips in through the… window? It’s hard to say. I am loving the ultra fast camera movements though.

There’s a weird moment where she appears to lift up her Cheating Boyfriend by his belt and throw him onto the floor, and then suddenly she’s teleported onto the couch… I can’t really follow what is going on anymore.

As I went through the stills I took for this review, I noticed the Other Woman appears to still be in the shower. Wowee zowee!

She gets on top of him and pours the Toxic poison in his mouth and he’s dead. Cool!

Her running and jumping off the building only to land in the plane back in her Sly Stewardess disguise is a great shot and clever match-on-action despite how nonsensical the whole thing is. Love the wink accompanied with that ding you always hear on airplanes, and the “Thank you for flying with Toxic Air” announcement.

It’s funny that this was considered too much for sensitive audiences. I know it was almost fifteen years ago, blah blah blah, but you know. I read a review from 2004 of this video, it was by Nanda Lo for Popdirt.com. Here’s an excerpt:

I believe this video will receive a lot of criticism for it’s overrated sexual scenes, including scenes where Britney puts her hands near the crotch of two of the characters in the video. Britney said a while ago that she posing almost nude in magazines was something that went too far and that she was not going to do something in the likeness of that again. Once again, contradiction, but contradiction creates buzz.

Like I said before, I was 10 at the time this video came out, so I sort of missed out on the whole public discourse around Britney Spears and other pop stars going on. It’s all been said already I suppose, but obviously it’s fucked up that there was such intense pressure for her to maintain an “innocent” persona. The whole Janet Jackson thing shows just how much was at stake, even if it was an accident! The crotch grinding scene in the bathroom, while pretty campy by 2018 standards, actually seems kind of badass when you look at it in context. I’m interested in watching her other videos and looking for that pure/impure dichotomy imposed upon pop stars that I think Britney’s early career really exemplifies.

This video is fantastic. I don’t really have any legitimate rating system but I think it’s fair to say this one sets the bar so I’m giving it 5/5. The plot was totally lost on me but it was fun to watch. It was also an interesting twist to have Britney play the villain, in contrast with the lyrics of the song which set up her lover as the antagonist.

Thanks for reading!

Resources “Toxic” official music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TU ″Toxic” Wikpedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_(song) “Making The Video: Toxic”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxRntcnckqQ Nanda Lo’s 2004 review: http://popdirt.com/britney-spears-toxic-video-review/75830/ 2009 NPR article that talks about Nipplegate in connection to “Toxic”: https://www.npr.org/2009/11/13/120385043/the-decade-in-music-britney-spears-toxic-2004

#toxic #toxic music video #britney spears #music video review

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evnoweb · 7 years ago

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This Week in Ontario Edublogs

This edition of the post is just a bit special. It comes from my hotel room in Niagara Falls on Day 2 of the conference. Day 1 was unique for This Week in Ontario Edublogs. Stephen Hurley and I had invited five of our regular blogsters to a live discussion of their blogs at the Minds on Media event. Technologically, it didn’t go perfectly. From a human point of view, it was far beyond my expectations. I felt that the people we invited were very confident, proud of their blog and very true to the message that they delivered.

Why a Tech Conference Might Just Be The Best Place To Fail!

So, right off the top, here’s a description of what happened from Stephen Hurley. During our show, he discovered that we weren’t broadcasting live but hoped that there might be a recording anyway when he got home.

Sadly, there wasn’t. Here’s a description as to what he thinks went wrong.

Best quote in the comments came from Aaron Puley

I actually just retweeted a tweet of a school sign that said something along the lines of “if you’re not failing, you’re not trying” (or something along that lines).

The best thing as I blogged yesterday was that all of the planning gave us a big picture look at things and we hope that we get the opportunity to try the concept out again soon.

My #VisibleLearning Around Pedagogical Documentation

First up on the show was Aviva Dunsiger. She was also running a station of her own at Minds on Media devoted to blogging and messaging with social media. What she does has become second nature for her and the families of her students.

You never know when a blog post might come from Aviva, but one thing that you can count on is a flurry of activity from her at night as she documents the learning that happened that day in her classroom. Many examples are included in her post. Like this one…

I like how she’s challenging herself to consider the time spent on the class blog versus the time she wants to blog professionally. Is there a working compromise?

Success and the Field Trip

We were delighted that Eva Thompson could attend the conference and agreed to be on the show. It was very late when she got the confirmation that she could go but that’s OK. The important thing was that she was there.

In her post, she talks about a 20 hour field trip from Sarnia to Chatham to Ripley’s Aquarium to the CN Tower and Canada’s Wonderland and back. Phew! I get tired just thinking about it. If you’ve ever taken a group of students on a bus, you’ve got to have a great deal of empathy.

Eva asks how to judge success.

She offers a great selection of criteria that she considers in deciding if it’s going to be a success along with some personal reflections. I’ll admit; there were a few ideas there that I hadn’t considered.

The writing that makes her blog so unique comes through loudly and clearly.

Stephen and I met one of our goals – we got Eva Thompson on the radio.

#Hyperdocs …. or, like, just a OneNote

A while back, on a Sunday post, I had asked Whatever happened to … webquests? At the time, the internet was young, access was spotty, computers were limited, and people really were truly just learning how to search.

The idea behind the Webquest was to use information and not necessarily find it. It was one of those uniquely pedagogical ideas courtesy of Bernie Dodge. Then, Webquests kind of faded from our teaching and learning conscience.

Recently, though, the premise has resurfaced in something known as a Hyperdoc and Google using people are going nuts about it. Cal Armstrong read one of the fansites about it and realize that there wasn’t anything Google-y about it. True! Heck, we used wikis and websites for our original Webquests.

Cal writes about an alternative in this post and it comes as no surprise that he offers a OneNote alternative. After all, the document is just a launching point to resources.

But, and this is a big but, there are two real advantages of using OneNote.

You can still do it without internet access

Since students can’t see each other’s private sections, they don’t know if you’ve modified the reading level for some students – can customize for various students

These are two huge reasons to engage with this platform. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing and one size fits all. If your school is using Microsoft products instead of Google, you should be all over this. If not, you might want to give it a shot anyway.

In the post, Cal shares a link to a document that he created in OneNote.

Get Outside and Play!

I love this post from Ramona Meharg. Not only because she’s a country girl and proud of it but because she reaches to a very important concept.

It’s particularly relevant when you consider that she’ll be doing a presentation on the Internet of Things at the conference. Technology is not the answer to everything.

The Thames Valley District School Board is foresighted enough to have outdoor learning centres and Ramona describes an outing to Jaffa. She sees it as very important for city kids to realize that there’s another world and these visits lead to great exploration opportunities.

There are awesome pictures and a story to go along with them. By itself, that makes the read worthwhile.

You have to check out the picture of the beetle!

I’m glad that I had the chance to talk with Ramona. Until now, I had just taken a guess as to how to pronounce her last name! My only regret was not asking about why she uniquely formats her posts the way she does. Maybe today or tomorrow.

Show me the math!

And, finally, Jim Cash takes us on a coding trip. It comes as no surprise, I hope, that I would want to invite a coding blogger to the event.

Jim describes an activity that he uses with students to draw geometric figures on the screen. I congratulated him on not doing the square example that you see so often. Students need to know that there are angles other than 90 degrees.

If we stopped there, there really isn’t anything that distinguishes this post from so many of the others that you might have seen with drawing using Scratch.

But, Jim takes it over the top from there.

He describes about how he talks to the student about the program and, in particular, the mathematics involved. In Jim’s class, just drawing something doesn’t mean being done. The student needs to be able to describe what she’s done.

It doesn’t stop there.

Students are then moved to their blog where they write a post about their activity.

“I’m going to write my blog post now,” Marie said. She knew that was always part of the process and a reflective blog post was a requirement not only for consolidation but also for later reflection during a future time when this experience could be used, transferred, incorporated, remixed, and so forth.

If you’re using Scratch in the classroom, read this post and see how you can raise the bar with your own teaching. You’ll be glad you did.

If you weren’t in the audience at Minds on Media or, even if you were, please click through and drop off a comment to these wonderful bloggers. They accepted the challenge and all did a marvelous job.

If you’re a blogger yourself, put yourself in their shoes. They’re sitting in the “hot seat” – on one screen is an image of our questions; on the other screen there’s their actual blog post and we’re asking/talking about their thinking in front of a group of their peers.

My thanks to them for taking the risk and being part of this. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I hope that they did too.

This Week in Ontario Edublogs published first on http://ift.tt/2gZRS4X

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