#i scored a 5 on the ap lit exam exactly so i could come for all the idiots who lack media comprehension

[nathaniacolver]

(BEWARE: LONG ASS POST AHEAD. LITERALLY 3500 WORDS. IT TOOK ME TEN WHOLE MINUTES TO READ OVER AGAIN, AND I WROTE THE DANG THING. AND BEWARE THE GIFS IF YOU'RE ON MOBILE. SORRY)

ok here's the cornplating essay of all my thoughts:

1

CHARACTER & DIALOGUE ANALYSES (aka, vi v. silco):

we know that this is vi's childhood home. how betrayed vi must've felt to see that huck literally led silco, vi's NUMBER ONE OPP, to the only place she felt comfortable being, were she to have died from sevika's stab. it's no wonder she calls him a "filthy traitor" when she sees him in s2 -- yes, he helped cait get the potion to heal vi, but he also did so just to sell them right into silco's hands.

silco dangling the shimmer above the homeless, and laughing at their desperation -- THIS is what silco wanted to make of zaun!! at this point, he wants zaun's independence so that people like caitlyn will stay out of his business as he exploits pretty much anyone he can get his hands on, and he does so by targeting the vulnerables -- homeless here, kids in his shimmer factory. idk how to tell y'all this, but silco represents all of the billionaires that we hate in IRL society -- yes, he may love jinx, and may be an appropriate father figure to her. doesn't mean he's not #1 opp for the entirety of zaun.

"vander's prodigy" -- his FIRST WORDS. do you notice how silco is taking out his years-long grudge with vander against a GIRL? one who just got out of prison for 7 years, having been wrongfully thrown in? he's grown to hate vander, he hates vi because of her association to him and bc she protected him in the cannery, and NOW he hates vi bc she is the only person capable of unlocking powder from out of jinx. that's why he freaks out so badly when he hears she's back ("from the dead?!?!!" (s1e4)). he knows that jinx could lose her loyalty to him, if she realizes that her sister never intended to leave her in the first place.

(i'll never not believe that silco was a narcissistic parent to jinx -- he loved her, but in a very fucked-up way. he purposefully tried to separate jinx from vi. JINX FROM VI, BASICALLY HER MOTHER FIGURE FOR HER CHILDHOOD. all bc he holds a grudge against vander. he cherishes jinx's loyalty to his "cause" (exploiting the undercity for his and his friends' personal gain) more so than he does being her father.)

"what have you done with my sister?" "i freed her...she's more than i ever imagined" -- like i said, silco's a big, fat narcissist. parents "imagining" lives or jobs or roles for their children is a pretty narcissistic thing to do. truly loving parents would support their children in whatever they choose. only narcissists try to pigeonhole their own children this hard into roles they never wanted (jinx specifically rejects the "zaun's hero" role in s2). IN CONTRAST -- vi never imagined anything for jinx's life except that she'd have a better one ("i want powder to have more than that and i'm willing to fight for it" (s1e2))

(PARALLEL SCENE TO ABOVE -- jinx approaches silco after having stolen the gemstone, and hugs him -- silco's gaze shifts from jinx to the gemstone, and then back to jinx. he's also trying to figure out which he cares for more. this is where the "is there anything so undoing as a daughter?' line comes from -- he's trying to figure out what to do. and pls correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think we ever get a definitive answer on this? he negotiates a free zaun with jayce, and then jinx kidnaps him, etc. ...)

"i'm gonna find her, and erase whatever fucked up delusions you put in her head, but first? i'm gonna bring your bullshit empire down all around you." -- BUCKLE UP. this is the line from these scene: 1) vi specifically states that her first priority is to destroy silco's empire. she's known that he is evil and exploitative and cares little for the people of zaun, except as possible puppets or workers. in fact, she's known this for seven years, and apparently so does the rest of zaun. ("he worked for silco?" "uh, they all do, how does anyone not know this?" from caitvi stillwater scene). she's been worrying after her sister for seven years, and even still, she understands that silco IS the kingpin, the hingepoint, the KEY to all the shit that happens in zaun. if vi had it her way, she would've killed silco first before reuniting with her sister (this might've messed up jinx more, but vi hasn't seen jinx & silco's relationship yet, so she dk), but the flare switches her plan, and she MAKES GOOD ON THE PROMISE SHE MADE YEARS AGO. 2) vi knows silco's character, and that's why despite not having seen the man for seven years, she knows that he's groomed jinx into sharing his own opinions and forcing her into his cause. the cannery ensures that vi knows silco likely better than most of the undercity does, and that's exactly why she loathes, abhors, hates him so much. 3) i will never understand the people (including vi defenders) that say "vi never cared about zaun". HELLO?????? she DOES. tell me ab these quotes from vi -- "why? they've [piltover's] got plenty while we're down here scraping together coins. when did you get so comfortable living in someone else's shadow?" (s1e1) // "why answer to them? these are our streets, someone should remind them of that!(s1e1) // "they won't stop! we need to fight back. and if you won't, i will" ... "what i don't understand is how you [vander] can work with them!! [enforcers]" (s1e2) // "what? you wanna negotiate with him? this is insane, did you learn NOTHING? you can't talk to him. he hates you, everything you stand for. he will never back down." (s1e8) // "you [jayce] wanna make silco pay for what he's done?" ... "silco controls the undercity with shimmer. shut down his supply, and it's only a matter of time before his own people turn on him." (s1e8) // "you've always been a part of this. you just never had to look it in the eye. one dead kid? there's hundreds more where he came from, thanks to silco and thanks to people like you, who stuck their heads in the dirt." (jayce: "this is over.") vi: "not for me." (s1e9). tell me -- why does she beat up the jaw guy in prison? bc he works for silco, her #1 opp and part of the reason zaun is suffering so badly. tell me -- why does she accompany caitlyn to the council hearing? bc she's hoping that they will listen to a zaunite's perspective and will actually do something about it. tell me -- why does she find jayce to go destroy the shimmer factory? bc she understands that that's the way to take silco's empire down. 4) this is why no one should be surprised that vi joins cait's strike team in s2 - vi would love nothing more than to destroy anything & everything related to silco's empire. what was cait's plan? jinx, shimmer, agents loyal to silco. the jinx part hurts, yes, and her wearing the enforcer badge is a little iffy, but if it helps her to eliminate shimmer and silco's goons? the things that she witnessed ruining the undercity when she was 15? sign vi right up. if that's what the badge stands for now, she'll wear it (i guess?). (also, reminder that vi's champion title in league is literally "vi: the piltover enforcer"). 5) in summary, vi is just as much a firelight as ekko is bc she has ALWAYS fought to protect people from shimmer and silco. (who do you think ekko learned his sense of justice from ????!?!?!?!?!!?)

"you don't know your limits, girl. it's what got vander killed, it's what drove your sister away, and it's why i'm here right now." -- silco acknowledges vi's power. that's why she's his #1 opp - because she's one of the only people that can truly stop him (by stopping jinx from helping him, but also by beating his goons and then HIM up). silco, ever the lying manipulator, tries to pin all the blame, all of vi's guilt and shame on her power, in an effort to suppress it. he knows if she can't separate her power from her guilt, that she won't want to engage with it at all. luckily, vi doesn't give him any credence, bc like i said earlier, she knows silco's character. "yeah well -- you talk to much." QUEEN SHIT

2

FILMOGRAPHY ANALYSES:

zaun's "savior" - this could be a reach, but seeing as this show has a LARGE number of other christian allegories (jinx's baptism; viktor in season 2), i think vi's first view of silco after years being posed like THIS is a reference. silco hands shimmer to the vulnerables as if he is providing them salvation. his dialogue confirms this - "i freed her", right as he releases the shimmer into their hands - he would think himself jinx's savior (again, narcissism).

vi and silco are intentionally framed as being at odds. a couple examples:

they're obviously framed as enemies here, but it's one versus 5, or 6, or more. vi is strong on her own (cait is behind her, but not in frame); silco is only strong in how many people he can manipulate to serve him (sevika & jinx both acknowledge this in s2e2 - sevika: "i can't believe you're [silco] dead, and i'm still mopping up your messes". // jinx: "big baby couldn't do it himself." sevika: "couldn't do much himself. about now he'd have me all over the lanes, running his collections" jinx: "building his weapons" "making his deals" "exploding his enemies")

vi approaches him (again, knowing her power) and later, silco lets the shimmered, new goons approach her (his inherent weakness). the camera is angled to let us see how puny silco is when compared to vi's fist, and she clenches "him" in her grip

wide shot, with vi and silco at either end, silco left, vi right. vi's in the light - good, illumination. silco & his goons are in the dark - evil, concealment. the border btwn light & dark falls perfectly down the middle. dare i say - vi and silco are also foils? and guess what that shot transitions directly to? jinx, the subject of the dialogue, the subject of both of their affections, the girl who is literally on the fence/border/edge of choosing between these two. notice how symmetric jinx's shot is? she's not sure which half of her being is correct, true, honest.

jinx walks up to the edge, takes a look left at the gemstone (silco's side, his plan/cause), and right at the flare (vi's side, as her protector, with zaun behind it) that she was given YEARS ago. clearly, she always held on to some smidgen of hope that vi was still out there. AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT SHE CHOOSES -- that's why this scene is so powerful, because we see the two people jinx loves most in the world being at odds in every possible way, and whom does she choose? her sister. to roaring, swelling, beautiful music and filmography

jinx is also right at the edge, at a physical precipice, representing the metaphorical precipice. she seems to live dangerously like this (her airship base having no protections whatsoever). we see both jayce and viktor in similar positions, after they think their lives are over, and that they've lost all agency. the twist is -- this is one of jinx's ultimate acts of agency. silco, or vi? and she chooses vi. her power in this choice is shown by her physical height, in this world (which plays into the extreme zoom out later) -- she is at the utmost power/has utmost agency in this moment, to show who she loves more, and who she seeks.

match cuts from caitlyn looking up -> jinx looking down -> caitlyn looking back up -- match cuts between these two are WAY more common throughout the show than you might think. showing them both as foils -- caitlyn tries to target the systematic/institutionalized issues by hitting at their core/root (why she's willing to go down into the depths of the undercity in the first place), and jinx tries to escape them by ascending above, by distancing herself (vi wouldn't have either of them any other way, btw)

shimmer barefoot shot -- STAY WITH ME -- some would say that this emphasizes the "brutish"-ness of these new shimmer-transformed mutants (? idk right word), but i'm simply reminded of hitchcock's Psycho (1960), and how we only know that slashes actually landed because of the way we see the blood fall around the woman's feet. bare feet are a sign of vulnerability, again reinforcing the fact that silco targets the most vulnerable in his community to do his bidding

vi turns around (which gets a double shot, one of them an extreme close-up, if you look closely), turns away from silco's lying words and does what she knows best: punches, at the base of the rebar -- it pings upwards, and topples the whole building. this is exactly her power - she finds the hingepoint (silco), and strikes at it directly, literally "bring[ing] [silco's] bullshit empire down all around [him]". SHE MAKES GOOD ON HER PROMISES.

for the first time, silco is forced to look upwards, at the metaphorical empire he's built, and how easily it can be toppled by one singular girl.

the blank, black screen - they knew they had an emmy-winning scene. the blankness (except for music chords) is like a visual palate cleanser - it primes us to pay full attention to whatever happens next. the silence does the same - our ears are also tuned in, perked up, etc., just to see what audio cues they drop on us.

the framing of jinx's three shots right before the climax -- they look like they were animated, and then deliberately flipped upside down, which i love. jinx is about to have her entire paradigm of life, her entire worldview shifted, based on how this effort goes. she's choosing vi, and that's about to flip her entire world upside-down, bc for the last seven years, all she's been told about is how her sister left her. the gemstone is now no longer visible, despite having been in her hand just moments earlier. extreme close-up as jinx replays vi's words, showing that she's making her decision.

immediate flip to right-side-up medium shot --> BEAUTIFUL, expertly done zoom out to ULTRA WIDE establishing shot, to all of zaun, with jinx at the center. this is no longer a family matter - what happens in the next act will affect all of zaun. she is the key, she's the true hingepoint of zaun (which we see play out in s2). jinx's blue hair, and then flare, are the only real bits of color, aka of life.

match cut of vi & silco in same position, facing opposite directions (silco left, vi right, again) -- still opps. also, vi has people she can actually rely on (cait helping her up), while silco is virtually alone, without his status as zaun's druglord dictator.

orbital shot around jinx (2 clips stitched together) - another film way of saying that everything in the rest of her life (AND the rest of the plot!!!) LITERALLY revolves around her. this is a life-changing decision. ghosts of mylo and claggor remind her of the life she once knew (as do the film scratches/bits of her psychosis), which she is actively calling back by lighting the flare.

shaky cam going in & out of focus, showing the wildness of silco's blind rage (3 clips together) -- again, this is his true character. he slaps his henchman (like all villains don't hesitate to do), kicks a homeless guy to death. he's mad bc vi has outsmarted him, escaping his attempts to remove her permanently

the purple sign flickering (silco's empire is crumbling around him) cuts to the spotlights that the enforcers have set up on the bridge -- all is about to be illuminated to piltover (silco's villainy, marcus'/enforcer corruption)

cait & vi like bullets, then shooting out of whatever tunnel thing they were in - they are the sniper's shots that could take out silco & his empire. however, they don't know that marcus is waiting exactly to take them out.

overhead, wide-angle shot of silco standing in the midst of the "eye" of the sign -- again, all is about to come into sight, to be illuminated (one of the brightest shots of this whole sequence, may i add? my laptop is BLARING at me alskdfjsalkfja)

the walls of silco's empire may have crumbled, but marcus is erecting new ones, right at the border into piltover. silco's empire has spread far enough that one loss does not ensure defeat (but, cait & vi don't know that yet)

3

MUSIC/LYRICS:

i clipped the original video based off of when "guns for hire", the song, started and stopped playing. this scene is literally cut to the music.

chris cornell has a pretty good youtube vid where he breaks down the chords of this song, as well as a few others.

i'll give my rudimentary musician's analysis:

despite us basically hearing the instrumental to the chorus from the very beginning of this scene (without the full drama of the strings), we never resolve to the major key until the climax, when jinx pulls the flare. our brains are smart - intuitively, we all know (we've heard in numerous other songs) that a minor key has an equal relative major, yet, up until the climax, the backing music tricks us into thinking we'll just stay in the minor key the entire time. the reason the song is so eargasm-y & chill-inducing is bc we finally go there - we resolve this minor verse and pre-chorus into a decidedly major chorus climax. they visually and sonically give us so much space (and of course, a classic violin, high-strung high note to add tension) right before hitting the climax -- again, prepping us for some massive release, which they FLAWLESSLY deliver on, with such a visually and aurally FULL climax.

(in the actual song, there's a bass pedal tone and then the violin to deliver the tension, the expectation of release)

additionally, right as vi punches the tower, we hear the music sort of bend downwards a half-step - something that also tricks our brains into expecting the resolution back up the half-step, to the key we started in. it gives off an eerie feel.

right at the climax, the violins are in an ascending line, one that peaks at "world's", in the lyrics. the bass is simultaneously dropping, and staying low. the simultaneity of those two creates the "swelling" adjective so often used to describe music. the beginning of the climax is still slow enough (fastest moving notes are the eighth notes in the cello, which provide us with a sense of motion)

second run-around of the chorus is in has another set of violins going in double-time (arpeggiated sixteenth notes). it matches the beginning of silco's tantrum, builds tension as we begin to wonder if vi will even see the slare.

then it drops as the chorus ends, and we're back to the "bare bones tracks" of the piano instrumental, and a high violin tone, and twangy bass (? idk). repeating measures in music often signal either a build-up or a resolution, and seeing as we've already hit the clear climax, this must be the resolution! and it is :)

i swear not enough people care enough to look up the lyrics to this climactic, cathartic, release of a song. literal eargasm EVERY time, regardless.

"kiss your perfect day goodbye" - jinx flare scene - jinx is decidedly choosing to disrupt the status quo, which, honestly, had been working out for her pretty well. silco rage scene - he's lost his chance at eliminating vi, his #1 opp.

"because the world's on fire" - vi and silco at odds, still. enforcers at bridge scene - everything's fucked up - enforcers are working under a corrupt sheriff, silco's empire threatened, and vi & caitlyn now have to warn piltover as quickly as possible.

"tuck your innocence goodnight" - jinx orbital w/ mylo & clag ghosts - she lost her innocence the night she accidnetally blew up the cannery, but she's willing to revisit it now, in hopes of vi showing up.

"you sold your friends like guns for hire" - obviously this can bc about huck selling caitvi out for shimmer, but it's also about silco! he doesn't really have any friends - he only has mercenaries, "guns for hire". he lost his friends the moment he chose to let his rage and grudge fester instead of figuring out how to forgive vander. also! "right as your marionettes cut their strings and run away" is a lyric later in this song that goes right along with the idea that this line pertains to silco.

"go play with your blocks" - referring to childlike innocence (vi & jinx lost long ago), or false illusions of grandeur (silco's dreams of his zaunite empire).

"and now you'll pay when these walls come tumbling down" - again, everything will be illuminated, and that'll hurt literally everyone involved. the corruption was sealed long ago.

keep in mind! this is all a culmination of editors, storyboard artists, animators, musicians, and writers, who clearly must've communicated over and over again on exactly how they wanted this scene to go down, on what tone they wanted it to have. and it delivered, in every possible way. beautiful in every single regard.

~~~

i should just make a youtube video using this as the script, shouldn't i. 😪😪😪

full guns for hire scene

bc i feel like people only ever talk about the climax! the climax is GOOD because of all of the musical, tonal, and character buildup*

[nobookingway]

part two of acing ap. check out apush here. ap lit up next!

ahh ap bio, the class i dreaded the most. i (and many of my classmates) cried so much over this class. but in hindsight, this class has helped me so much in terms of critical thinking (and that’s because of my teacher who didn’t want to handhold us).

about the class: ap bio is all about the molecular level. so it’s less about bones and muscles. and more about cells and plants and cycles (so many cycles).

general tips: - take good notes!! i had tons of pictures in mine that helped explain the different processes we had to learn and i’m positive that if i didn’t, i would have been so lost. - read your textbook/use khan academy and bozeman to review for test! often they will reword something that will suddenly make everything click. - invest in an ap prep book. it doesn’t necessarily have to be brand new (i personally used a 2013 edition) as the material is the same. i didn’t use mine for exam prep, rather just regular test review because my teacher often took notes from it. - find notecards from your textbook! this is kind of confusing, but sometimes your textbook comes with a test with like 60+ questions (campbell’s biology does for sure, which you can find here). before every test, i would go through the chapters’ questions and quiz myself. even though most of the content wasn’t on my test, it gave me a better grasp on the content.

exam help: - make sure you do not bring a graphing calculator!! you must have one of those tiny calculators that just has plus, minus, add, subtract, and square root. anything else, and you won’t be able to use it! - know about the labs! bozeman has an overview of all the labs here. on the exam, there are often references to these labs.

the exam:

Section I Multiple Choice — 69 Questions | 1 Hour, 30 Minutes | 50% of Exam Score

Multiple-Choice: 63 Questions Discrete Questions Questions in sets Grid-In: 6 Questions The grid-in questions focus on the integration of science and mathematical skills. For these responses, students need to calculate the correct answer for each question and enter it in a grid on that section of the answer sheet.

this half contains a whole bunch of passages (often labs) followed by a set of questions. this section really (in my opinion) tests your reading comprehension and vocab knowledge. but as my teacher told us, as long as you get half right, you’re well on your way to getting a 5. the last 6 questions are grid in questions (here’s where the calculator comes in!). these questions range from counting how many branches this family tree has to calculate the percentage of offspring that has this recessive trait. i personally think getting half somewhat right is a good idea, but success is subjective.

Section II Free Response — 8 Questions | 1 Hour, 30 Minutes (includes 10-minute reading period) | 50% of Exam Score

Long Free Response (2 questions, one of which is lab or data-based) Short Free Response (6 questions, each requiring a paragraph-length argument/response)

this section is the fun/hard part - the writing portion - where you are given an experiment and have to answer some questions about it. my teacher actually gave some good advice on this part! so the questions range from 10 points to 3 points and it always goes in order from 10 to 3; the order being as follows

10 points

10 points

4 points

4 points

4 points

3 points

3 points

3 points

now the way to know what exactly you’re getting the points for is fairly simple. you will be looking for words like “describe, construct, explain, propose, identify, provide reasoning, etc.” iirc, these words will be bolded. anyway, these words indicate that whatever follows, if you complete it, you will get a point for that question (assuming that you get the right answer/provide sound reasoning). reasonably, if you get at least half the points on each question, you can get a fairly good score. here are some of the past ap bio questions that could be helpful when studying! (you have to scroll down to see them)

and that’s it for ap bio! as i said in my apush post, whatever you make on this test does not define you or your talents/abilities! 

~C.T.