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trans-elrond · 2 years ago

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Exit Lines by Rhonda Krafchin Frell U STARLOG April 2003, pages 36-37

After four years of Farscape, Lani Tupu bids farewell to playing Pilot and Peacekeeper.

It’s not a stretch of the imagination to say that the final season of Farscape was a mercurial one for actor Lani Tupu. Not only was his wily, villlain-turned-hero Bialar Crais killed off in spectacular fashion, but now Tupu has lost a second job in the Outer Territories—as the voice of the towering, multi-armed Pilot—courtesy of a demon far worse than anything an SF writer could conjure up: cancellation.

“It has been kind of a shock for everyone,” says Tutu, who learned of the grim news from a fan during a Las Vegas SF convention. “However, that’s the nature of the business we’re in. Sometimes it just works out that way. Being in television, you have to fight for the next season. We’ve had to lobby for every season all along. It wasn’t a given. Even though some of us had contracts that were going on for some years, it was still an option. It would have been great to have gone on, though, because everyone was really thinking seriously that Season Five was going to happen.”

In its four seasons, Farscape attained a high level of critical acclaim and popularity among genre fans. It won three Saturn awards (given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films) and earned an Emmy nomination for costuming. The series spawned ongoing conventions, books, websites and that badge of SF immortality: action figures. Praise for its innovative approach to storytelling, Farscape often pushed the boundaries of SF television, and gained notoriety for its offbeat and unpredictable style.

“What set it apart was its freshness,” notes Tupu. “It was moody, dark. It wasn’t as clean as Star Trek. It had a really dramatic through-line all the way. I remember [executive producer] David Kemper saying in an article or a talk once, “We’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re just putting a completely different spin on some storylines that have come through before, following in the tradition of the genre.” And shooting in Autralia—without the kind of pressure of fans in America—freed us to keep on doing what we were doing. Which turned out to be pretty good. I think Farscape had a really Australian quality to it. We were pretty irreverent. Also, as an actor, I thought, “Well, I don’t really have a great SF history of characters that I can call on, so therefore, it leaves it open for me to just play and do what I want.”

Sudden Departures As Peacekeeper Crais, Tupu was a typically ruthless and ambitious villain, but the actor was determined to make his alter-ego something more than just your ordinary bad guy )as he discussed in STARLOG #291). Over the seasons, Tupu points out, he was successful in developing Crais’ vulnerability, as well as creating a strong bond with Talyn—the young and extremely temperamental biomechanoid/gunship whom Crais designed. “The vulnerability came through from being around Aeryn Sun [Claudia Black],” says Tupu of Crais’ former foot soldier, who herself found a way to connect with her emotions. “From that relationship, Crais was able to work with Talyn. Aeryn was the catalyst, because up until that point, Crais was just so bloody-minded about how to manage Talyn. Then, the more Aeryn gave in [and allowed Crais to interact with Talyn], the more he and Talyn bonded. I liked what happened there. Crais was actually able to pass on something to Talyn. Up until that time, Crais was negating vulnerability, he was negating emotions—which is kind of a real male thing.”

In the end, Crais died a heroic death. In order to contain knowledge that might someday destroy the universe, he set off an explosion that kills both himself and his proudest achievement, Talyn. But for Tupu, Crais’ death came too soon. On a practical level, it meant that he would have to look for other work, but on another level, Tupu would have appreciated some closure for the fallen commander.

“I would have liked to have seen him go back to Peacekeeper Command and become a really great Peacekeeper,” says Tupu. “Just do the job he was really meant to do, instead of being a renegade. Taking in the responsibility that could have been dished out to him. Be that as it may, there is a kind of closure. In the scenes that I had with Claudia and Ben [Browder]—where Crais explains what he’s about to do [blow up Talyn]—Crichton realizes what Crais really means by that. When Crais says, “I won’t be coming back,” it’s full circle in a way. But what I would have also liked to have seen was Talyn progress on his own. I was interested to see where that might have gone, because crabs designed Talyn right from the word go.”

His involvement with the series has had a major impact on his career, says Tupu. It has raised his profile in England, Europe and the US. “I already have a profile in New Zealand,” he adds of his native country. “Which is a great plus. The one thing about working in this crazy business is that you need to have a profile to accelerate your work. You spend your early life as an actor trying to get a profile, then you get a show that breaks really big and half the work is done for you because the channels are paying [to expose you]. “Many American actors hire their own publicists at a huge cost to themselves, but if you’re in a show like Friends or Sex and the City, it’s all done for you. SO again, it elevates you in the public eye and also with producers and directors. However, with television, you have to be very careful that you don’t get yourself into a situation

where you’re typecast—and that’s the difficulty. Making the transition [to film] is a really big thing for an actor. So, luckily, Farscape has kind of elevated me to a position where some people know my work in America. The next step is to utilize that to get my next project. That’s where I am now.”

Ironically, the one place Tutu’s recognition factor hasn’t gone up is his hometown. Despite being an Australian production, Farscape was barely promoted there, which means that the local film and television production companies are less likely to have heard of the cast’s successful work. “It’s really hard,” Tupu admits. “Most of the casting people know that I’ve been working on the show, but it’s the directors and producers who have no idea. So what do you do? You go from the five percent of working actors to the 95% poor. It’s demoralizing, because you want your local directors and producers to know who the hell you are, but if they haven’t seen you on television, they have no idea.”

What bothers Tupu most of all about the lack of support from Australia’s Channel Nine was Farscape’s inability to get past the genre label and be recognized as a home-grown, quality product. The final straw came during the 2000 Olympics, when host country Australia was engulfed in a wave of nationalism. Farscape had been on hiatus, and when Channel Nine decided to resurrect the series, they scheduled it opposite the Games’ opening ceremonies.

Says Tupu bitterly, “You had a world-class dramatic series that was being made in Australia—the most expensive of any television show—and while the country was promoting its own athletes on TV, Farscape was being squashed and not supported. It’s unfortunate that it was like that.”

Early Exits Tupu seems resigned to moving on, but fans’ efforts to bring back Farscape haven’t gone unnoticed. “I think it’s just outstanding,” says Tupu. “This has been an eye-opener in a really unique experience. I’ve never seen such international mobilization for a show. The fans have put money into so-called guest funds, to help bring us over to Atlanta [for convention appearances]. It’s really, really extraordinary. I’m just amazed.

“When I was in Orlando, a couple of ladies came into a comic book store that I was doing a signing at, and they had photos of troops in Afghanistan holding up little placards, ‘Save Farscape.’ Then there as the weekend where it was International Save Farscape Day. There has been mobilization in New York in Central Park and on the beach in Australia. I’m just stunned that fans around the world have supported us and followed it through all the way. There have been other drama shows that have closed in Australia and who cares? They’re gone. [In the future], I think Farscape will be seen as a landmark series, one that influenced shows to come for the next 10 or 20 years.”

His time on Farscape has left Tupu with many fond memories: watching actors with enormous alien heads trying to eat their lunches, being part of a crew that seemed to grow larger and larger over the years and shooting his final moment as Crais, in which the Peacekeeper gives the command “Starburst” and ignites one of Farscape’s most powerful exits.

The actor recalls with a laugh the lensing of one particular scene, which had Crais and Joel (Tammy MacIntosh) assembling a creature called a Boolite, who has been blown to pieces and brought to them in a heaping mess. “Tammy and I just looked at each other during the take,” says Tupu of the bit where an eyeball becomes airborne and lands in Crais’ lap. “She caught a twinkle in my eye and I caught a twinkle in hers and we just did a double take on the whole thing and screamed. I went to [director] Tony Tilse after that scene—he was cracking up—and told him, “Tony, I was just fooling around.” But the damn bugger left it in!”

Tupu learned that the take would be in the final print when he returned to the studio to re-record his dialogue. This was a common practice for the Farscape cast. “All the work that you see on screen—we had to go in again and do the same performance,” Tupu sighs. “Because we were working on creaking sets, in conditions where rain was falling on a tin roof, we couldn’t hear each other. About 30 percent [of our dialogue] might have been usable, but 70 percent had to be redone.”

Hearty Farewells Farscape’s four seasons gave Tupu the opportunity to invest a great deal into his character—so much, that in later years, he could play tiny nuances and the audience would get them. That made his work all the more satisfying. “The nicest thing about being an actor [on Farscape] was being able to play scenes in a really quiet way, not pushing it at all,” he says. “I could be really subtle in the scenes because [the audience]—over the years—grew up with these characters. So the less Crais spoke, the more he inferred. It allowed me to just try and do my stuff really quietly. If you’re able to do that as an actor, it’s a great pleasure. You dont have to push anything. I could just sit there quietly and let the audience make up their minds about it.”

To illustrate his point, Tupu turns to what he considers “a wonderful piece of music,” George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” “Now, the heart of that piece is a wonderful melody right in the middle of it,” he remarks. “And to get to that heart, you’ve got to go right from the beginning and go right against that. The audience [doesnt have any] idea when it’s coming. Then, suddenly, you can just hear the first strains of it, and when it comes in…” Tupu lets out a gasp, then smiles with delight. “It’s magic. And you can only do that because you’ve done a great flurry of activity beforehand. Likewise, with acting, with a character on a long-running show, to get to that heart, you have to push it as far as you can emotionally. And then you can just sink into it…the calmness. Therein lies the heart of the character.”

But film and television often shoot out of sequence, which can make finding that heart rather challenging. “That’s the art and craft of acting,” he says. “You’re sometimes called to do the last scene first, and your job as an actor is to make sure that you graph the character emotionally. You also have a physical graph in the story that might go over 10 years or 24 hours. Then, you have to go back and look at all the scenes and make sure that you detail what intention is in every one; you have to know the emotional intensity and what level it’s at. After that, you just hope to hell that when it’s all cut together that it’s going to work, and that’s where the director steps in. Because the director has already created his own kind of graph—where you need to be.”

In between jobs, Tupu hits the convention curcuit, where he and fans can celebrate their Farscape memories and fondness for the show. “I remember the first day that I went on set at Fox Studios,” he recalls. “The studios were huge. Andrew Prowse was the first director I worked with. On day one, I knew it was going to be a thrill. They had set up this camera rig to go down from the ceiling all the way down. There was a cameraman on this huge crane, which [was going to] swoop down, and that’s when I would say ‘Fire!’ I thought, ‘Wow. This is cool. This is going to be amazing.’ And it was.”

Back in Sydney, most of the Farscape sets and puppets have been stored away—perhaps for another day. “I feel happy with what I’ve left behind,” says Lani Tupu. “If it stops right here, then I’m really happy with that. I’ll just go to the next job, the next part, and make sure that I produce something completely different. I always like to be different in my roles.”

Caption over Crais picture: Killed off in heroic fashion, Bialar Crais (Lani Tupu) exited Farscape before SCI FI canceled the popular program.

Caption over Lani Tupu picture: Happy with his Farscape memories, Tupu celebrates ???? with fans at SF conventions.

Caption over Pilot picture: Now that Farscape is ending, the voice of Pilot (also Tupu) may never be heard again.

Caption over an image of Pilot: Losing two roles is tough, but Tupu is hopeful that Farscape has elevated his actor status in the eyes off employers. He’s not just an Alien Lobster Boy!

Caption over an image of Crais: Ruthless and ambitious, Crais’ vulnerability separated him from other stereotypical SF villains. His eventual emergence as a hero was an unexpected twist.

Caption over an image of Crais and Aeryn: Although he designed Talyn, it took some time for Crais to form a bond with the sentient ship.

Throwback Thursday

#farscape #bialar crais #lani tupu

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castiellesbian · 4 years ago

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i feel like i need a glossary of terms or a contact list for all these people involved with the show. i have shit memory and dont pay attention to the credits who is sera (sara??) and why does everyone hate her!! why is he Bobo!!!!!! please... has anyone posted about this im desperate

lol well including everyone involved with the show would be difficult, but I’ll give you some highlights

Eric Kripke: creator of Supernatural, showrunner for seasons 1-5. People have differing opinions about him but general people enjoyed his run and he’s considered the best showrunner in the series overall. Not much to say because there’s a lot to say lmao (notable episodes: “Pilot,” “Lazarus Rising,” and “Swan Song”)

Sera Gamble: writer who was involved from the beginning of the show, became showrunner after Kripke left. Her seasons, 6 and 7, are typically regarded as the weakest seasons. She was a huge brothers-only supporter, and was responsible for Misha being written out of the show (as well as Jim Beaver, Bobby) in order to get the show to just be about the brothers again. There’s a lot of drama regarding her treatment of Misha/Cas, but more recently she’s known for the Magicians debacle, a horrendous example of the Bury Your Gays trope. She’s also involved with (the showrunner of?) You on Netflix. She was a pretty good writer, but overall fans dislike her because of her showrunning tenure (notable episodes: “Faith” with Raelle Tucker, “Death’s Door,” “The Born-Again Identity”)

Jeremy Carver: writer from season 3 that was promoted to showrunner from seasons 8 through.... some time in 12, the timeline has been a little murky to me. He was the one who brought Cas back into the main plot, as well as allowing the deancas storyline to become genuine subtext (we can argue whether it was queerbaiting or what he was intending to do if he had been running the series finale, but yeah). Unfortunately, he was also the showrunner when Charlie was killed off brutally, which dampens his legacy. People are conflicted about his seasons, but generally he’s looked upon favorably (not related, but the picture that comes up when you search him on google is NOT him, he’s really like a typical white nerdy looking dude lol) (notable episodes: “The Rapture,” “Sacrifice,” “Do You Believe in Miracles?”)

Andrew Dabb: writer from season 4, promoted to showrunner during season 12 and is the last showrunner of Supernatural (he wrote the finale). He was well-liked by deancas fans for awhile because of how much screentime they were allowed to give, and because of the focus on extended/found family. Sam and Dean only fans didn’t like him for the same reasons. Unfortunately, HIS legacy has been marred by the awful series finale, though it’s debated whether that was his fault or because of network meddling. (notable episodes: “Dark Side of the Moon” with Daniel Loflin, “The Prisoner,” “Moriah”)

Robert Singer: executive producer since the beginning of the show (he’s also co-showrunner throughout Supernatural, but I don’t think he typically was involved with the plotlines too often). He’s directed quite a few episodes, including the infamous wire fight episode (s13 finale) as well as the series finale. Married to Eugenie Ross-Leming, writer of the show

Eugenie Ross-Leming/Brad Buckner: writing partners TECHNICALLY from season 1, but they only wrote one episode until they were brought back in season 7. They are regarded as the worst writers in all of Supernatural, responsible for tactless death scenes of fan-favorites (and typically minorities) like Kevin, Charlie, and Eileen. They also feature a gross amount of dubcon/noncon, racism, weird unnecessary sex stuff, and are SUPER into Lucifer for some unknown reason (they have a crush on Mark Pellegrino I guess). They’re also just kind of bad writers in general, their pacing is weird and their plots convoluted. To be fair, though, they have written some good moments, like Dean trying to reach Cas in Hell’s Angel and Dean’s confessional scene in Paint It Black. But overall, they suck. Why are they still on the show even though BOTH sides of the fandom (who never agree on ANYTHING) dislike them? Well, because Eugenie is married to Singer. Nepotism. (notable episodes, the ones I can stand to watch lmao: “Holy Terror,” “Hell’s Angel,” “Our Father Who Aren’t in Heaven”)

Ben Edlund: writer from season 2 who left after season 8, but people STILL talk about him simply because he is arguably the strongest writer of the series. Cas fans particularly like him because he did most of the heavy-lifting regarding Cas’ characterization. He also wrote the famous bi!Dean scene with Aaron in season 8, where Dean is flustered after being flirted with. (notable episodes: “On the Head of a Pin,” “The French Mistake,” and my all-time favorite “The Man Who Would Be King”)

Robert “Bobo” Berens: writer from season 9, his first episode was “Heaven Can’t Wait,” which is all you really need to know about his influence on the deancas storyline. He’s also gay, so people particularly enjoy seeing how he approaches destiel in his episodes since it’s not just another straight guy potentially just catering to fans. He was also the one who was meant to go off and run Wayward Sisters, and is responsible for a lot of their development in recent seasons. I believe he also created Rowena? He wrote the episode this season where Cas confesses his love to Dean (along with other heavy deancas episodes like “The Trap”). Sam fans typically don’t like him because he doesn’t give him much focus. (notable episodes: “Heaven Can’t Wait,” “Who We Are,” “Wayward Sisters” with Andrew Dabb)

Steve Yockey: writer from season 12 through the beginning of season 15. Also gay, and also responsible for deancas moments in recent years. Generally loved for his deancas subtext but ALSO because he is an amazing writer who came out with iconic episodes. (notable episodes: “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox,” “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets,” “Peace of Mind” with Meghan Fitzmartin)

Robbie Thompson: writer from seasons 7 through 11, and wrote some fan favorite episodes in the meantime. He is also the creator of fan favorite characters like Charlie and Eileen. He was also one of the few writers who was vocally supportive of destiel during his tenure rather than just later. I’m not implying anything about his intentions, but it was validating for him to encourage fans during a time where most of the cast/crew ignored or actively dismissed it. Plus his episodes are just fun! (notable episodes: “LARP and the Real Girl,” “Fan Fiction,” “Baby”)

Meredith Glynn: writer since season 12, has worked closely with Bobo during their seasons together. She and Bobo cowrote “The Future,” which is the mixtape episode, so she has been taken in by deancas fans haha. She also wrote the episode where Cas makes the deal with the Empty, so it’s pretty safe to say she and Bobo had worked on the deancas plotline together :) She’s also liked some deancas-related tweets on twitter, so she’s being subtly supportive (notable episodes: “Regarding Dean,” “The Future” with Robert Berens, “Byzantium”)

Davy Perez: writer since season 12 (a lot of the ones I’ve mentioned are, since this is when Dabb became showrunner and made changes in the writers room). His episodes tend to either be horror or bizarre. I mention him because he’s responsible for episodes like “Stuck in the Middle (With You)” (Cas’ first “I love you”) and “Tombstone” (aka Brokebacknatural lmao). I don’t know much about him otherwise, but that’s why he’s brought up usually (notable episodes: “Stuck in the Middle (With You),” “Tombstone,” “Atomic Monsters”)

hopefully this helps, and hopefully I didn’t forget about anyone major. There have been a LOT of people behind the scenes so it’s hard to say who to include. Like, I didn’t mention Jerry Wanek, Jim Michaels, Kim Manners, Thomas J. Wright, or others who might be mentioned from time to time.

#Anonymous #long post

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babygirlgalitzine · 3 years ago

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Ohhhh what are your top 10 duff duffs?

be prepared to come inside my chaotic brain because some of these are ones that people won't remember, some that are iconic and some are special enough to have julia's themes

also this changes a fair bit

this is long I'm sorry I have many thoughts

"how come you don't know?" "know what?" "that den watts is still alive!" - dennis and sharon

no duff duff will ever beat this. you had the suspense for weeks that dennis knew something that the audience didn't. the way it was delivered mid argument is incredible. the anger on dennis' face and the shock and horror on sharon's. it is eastenders at its best and i will love this forever

2. christmas 2005 - snowball fight

this whole christmas period is iconic. kat and alfie getting back together in the snow !!!! sharon and dennis finding out they’re having a little baby which is all that dennis ever wanted and sharon thought she could never give to him !!!! its so nostalgic for me, this episode is my comfort christmas episode and the fact it ended with all the characters having this massive snowball fight was just perfect

3. "you can't tell me what to do you ain't my mother!" "yes i am!!!" - kat and Zoe

this sl is starting on classic ee and i'm so ready for the reveal. the fact that this story wasn't even meant to happen, the producer just really wanted jessie to be on the show so they created this character story...iconic. the fact that the storyline started at the start of them coming into the show and built over time and hints were dropped constantly until the reveal and even then people didn't understand the gravity of it...its perfect

4. bobby killed lucy

when i tell you we spoke about this sl EVERY DAY in school. everyone i knew had a different guess. i said bobby for about a month before the reveal and even i was shocked. the fact it made national press speaks for itself really, it truly is such an iconic duff duff

5. tiffany's death

this was harrowing, i can still hear bianca's scream. the fact that frank was the one who killed her was genius by the writers; the way it was filmed is so raw, i love it. that last shot of the light in her eyes...beautiful. also sidenote when bianca came back and she'd named tiff after her i remember crying lmao

6. sharongate

literally one of the best reveals of all time. one of the most iconic soap storylines, EVER. the fact that its a drunk confession that gets recorded, and the fact that grant has zero idea, the way that he smiles when sharon talks about him and then she starts talking about phil and his smile fades...impeccable

7. grant and courtney in the airport

full disclosure, i was obsessed with this as a child. "he said if you didn't want it i could spend it on shoes" gets quoted on the regular by myself because i love this duff duff so much. the fact it was a julia's theme as well and we didn't see grant for another 10 years after that so its v special to me

8. christian and syed julia's theme exit

the first gay julia's theme I believe? it was so special to me that they got that, and i loved that it was happy and they literally went off into the sunset together. it's one storyline that will always have a piece of my heart

9. nigel telling clare that her mum's dead

this is one i watched for the first time a couple of years ago and although i wasn't attached to any of the characters, i had a soft spot for nigel and this scene absolutely shattered me. the fact that its silent is perfect. you didn't need to hear what he said because clare's reaction spoke for itself

10. stuart and rainie's exit

yes it just happened tonight but if you'd told me that when stuart came into the show, i would be sobbing my heart out at him leaving, I would've laughed in your face. they are perfect for each other in their chaotic way and i love them for it

#kermitmitchell #ask

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blind-rats · 4 years ago

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The Rise & Fall of Joss Whedon; the Myth of the Hollywood Feminist Hero

By Kelly Faircloth

“I hate ‘feminist.’ Is this a good time to bring that up?” Joss Whedon asked. He paused knowingly, waiting for the laughs he knew would come at the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer making such a statement.

It was 2013, and Whedon was onstage at a fundraiser for Equality Now, a human rights organization dedicated to legal equality for women. Though Buffy had been off the air for more than a decade, its legacy still loomed large; Whedon was widely respected as a man with a predilection for making science fiction with strong women for protagonists. Whedon went on to outline why, precisely, he hated the term: “You can’t be born an ‘ist,’” he argued, therefore, “‘feminist’ includes the idea that believing men and women to be equal, believing all people to be people, is not a natural state, that we don’t emerge assuming that everybody in the human race is a human, that the idea of equality is just an idea that’s imposed on us.”

The speech was widely praised and helped cement his pop-cultural reputation as a feminist, in an era that was very keen on celebrity feminists. But it was also, in retrospect, perhaps the high water mark for Whedon’s ability to claim the title, and now, almost a decade later, that reputation is finally in tatters, prompting a reevaluation of not just Whedon’s work, but the narrative he sold about himself.

In July 2020, actor Ray Fisher accused Whedon of being “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” on the Justice League set when Whedon took over for Zach Synder as director to finish the project. Charisma Carpenter then described her own experiences with Whedon in a long post to Twitter, hashtagged #IStandWithRayFisher.

On Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Carpenter played Cordelia, a popular character who morphed from snob to hero—one of those strong female characters that made Whedon’s feminist reputation—before being unceremoniously written off the show in a plot that saw her thrust into a coma after getting pregnant with a demon. For years, fans have suspected that her disappearance was related to her real-life pregnancy. In her statement, Carpenter appeared to confirm the rumors. “Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous occasions while working on the sets of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Angel,’” she wrote, describing Fisher’s firing as the last straw that inspired her to go public.

Buffy was a landmark of late 1990s popular culture, beloved by many a burgeoning feminist, grad student, gender studies professor, and television critic for the heroine at the heart of the show, the beautiful blonde girl who balanced monster-killing with high school homework alongside ancillary characters like the shy, geeky Willow. Buffy was very nearly one of a kind, an icon of her era who spawned a generation of leather-pants-wearing urban fantasy badasses and women action heroes.

Buffy was so beloved, in fact, that she earned Whedon a similarly privileged place in fans’ hearts and a broader reputation as a man who championed empowered women characters. In the desert of late ’90s and early 2000s popular culture, Whedon was heralded as that rarest of birds—the feminist Hollywood man. For many, he was an example of what more equitable storytelling might look like, a model for how to create compelling women protagonists who were also very, very fun to watch. But Carpenter’s accusations appear to have finally imploded that particular bit of branding, revealing a different reality behind the scenes and prompting a reevaluation of the entire arc of Whedon’s career: who he was and what he was selling all along.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered March 1997, midseason, on The WB, a two-year-old network targeting teens with shows like 7th Heaven. Its beginnings were not necessarily auspicious; it was a reboot of a not-particularly-blockbuster 1992 movie written by third-generation screenwriter Joss Whedon. (His grandfather wrote for The Donna Reed Show; his father wrote for Golden Girls.) The show followed the trials of a stereotypical teenage California girl who moved to a new town and a new school after her parents’ divorce—only, in a deliberate inversion of horror tropes, the entire town sat on top of the entrance to Hell and hence was overrun with demons. Buffy was a slayer, a young woman with the power and immense responsibility to fight them. After the movie turned out very differently than Whedon had originally envisioned, the show was a chance for a do-over, more of a Valley girl comedy than serious horror.

It was layered, it was campy, it was ironic and self-aware. It looked like it belonged on the WB rather than one of the bigger broadcast networks, unlike the slickly produced prestige TV that would follow a few years later. Buffy didn’t fixate on the gory glory of killing vampires—really, the monsters were metaphors for the entire experience of adolescence, in all its complicated misery. Almost immediately, a broad cross-section of viewers responded enthusiastically. Critics loved it, and it would be hugely influential on Whedon’s colleagues in television; many argue that it broke ground in terms of what you could do with a television show in terms of serialized storytelling, setting the stage for the modern TV era. Academics took it up, with the show attracting a tremendous amount of attention and discussion.

In 2002, the New York Times covered the first academic conference dedicated to the show. The organizer called Buffy “a tremendously rich text,” hence the flood of papers with titles like “Pain as Bright as Steel: The Monomyth and Light in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’” which only gathered speed as the years passed. And while it was never the highest-rated show on television, it attracted an ardent core of fans.

But what stood out the most was the show’s protagonist: a young woman who stereotypically would have been a monster movie victim, with the script flipped: instead of screaming and swooning, she staked the vampires. This was deliberate, the core conceit of the concept, as Whedon said in many, many interviews. The helpless horror movie girl killed in the dark alley instead walks out victorious. He told Time in 1997 that the concept was born from the thought, “I would love to see a movie in which a blond wanders into a dark alley, takes care of herself and deploys her powers.” In Whedon’s framing, it was particularly important that it was a woman who walked out of that alley. He told another publication in 2002 that “the very first mission statement of the show” was “the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it.”

In 2021, when seemingly every new streaming property with a woman as its central character makes some half-baked claim to feminism, it’s easy to forget just how much Buffy stood out among its against its contemporaries. Action movies—with exceptions like Alien’s Ripley and Terminator 2's Sarah Conner—were ruled by hulking tough guys with macho swagger. When women appeared on screen opposite vampires, their primary job was to expose long, lovely, vulnerable necks. Stories and characters that bucked these larger currents inspired intense devotion, from Angela Chase of My So-Called Life to Dana Scully of The X-Files.

The broader landscape, too, was dismal. It was the conflicted era of girl power, a concept that sprang up in the wake of the successes of the second-wave feminist movement and the backlash that followed. Young women were constantly exposed to you-can-do-it messaging that juxtaposed uneasily with the reality of the world around them. This was the era of shitty, sexist jokes about every woman who came into Bill Clinton’s orbit and the leering response to the arrival of Britney Spears; Rush Limbaugh was a fairly mainstream figure.

At one point, Buffy competed against Ally McBeal, a show that dedicated an entire episode to a dancing computer-generated baby following around its lawyer main character, her biological clock made zanily literal. Consider this line from a New York Times review of the Buffy’s 1997 premiere: “Given to hot pants and boots that should guarantee the close attention of Humbert Humberts all over America, Buffy is just your average teen-ager, poutily obsessed with clothes and boys.”

Against that background, Buffy was a landmark. Besides the simple fact of its woman protagonist, there were unique plots, like the coming-out story for her friend Willow. An ambivalent 1999 piece in Bitch magazine, even as it explored the show’s tank-top heavy marketing, ultimately concluded, “In the end, it’s precisely this contextual conflict that sets Buffy apart from the rest and makes her an appealing icon. Frustrating as her contradictions may be, annoying as her babe quotient may be, Buffy still offers up a prime-time heroine like no other.”

A 2016 Atlantic piece, adapted from a book excerpt, makes the case that Buffy is perhaps best understood as an icon of third-wave feminism: “In its examination of individual and collective empowerment, its ambiguous politics of racial representation and its willing embrace of contradiction, Buffy is a quintessentially third-wave cultural production.” The show was vested with all the era’s longing for something better than what was available, something different, a champion for a conflicted “post-feminist” era—even if she was an imperfect or somewhat incongruous vessel. It wasn’t just Sunnydale that needed a chosen Slayer, it was an entire generation of women. That fact became intricately intertwined with Whedon himself.

Seemingly every interview involved a discussion of his fondness for stories about strong women. “I’ve always found strong women interesting, because they are not overly represented in the cinema,” he told New York for a 1997 piece that notes he studied both film and “gender and feminist issues” at Wesleyan; “I seem to be the guy for strong action women,’’ he told the New York Times in 1997 with an aw-shucks sort of shrug. ‘’A lot of writers are just terrible when it comes to writing female characters. They forget that they are people.’’ He often cited the influence of his strong, “hardcore feminist” mother, and even suggested that his protagonists served feminist ends in and of themselves: “If I can make teenage boys comfortable with a girl who takes charge of a situation without their knowing that’s what’s happening, it’s better than sitting down and selling them on feminism,” he told Time in 1997.

When he was honored by the organization Equality Now in 2006 for his “outstanding contribution to equality in film and television,” Whedon made his speech an extended riff on the fact that people just kept asking him about it, concluding with the ultimate answer: “Because you’re still asking me that question.” He presented strong women as a simple no-brainer, and he was seemingly always happy to say so, at a time when the entertainment business still seemed ruled by unapologetic misogynists. The internet of the mid-2010s only intensified Whedon’s anointment as a prototypical Hollywood ally, with reporters asking him things like how men could best support the feminist movement.

Whedon’s response: “A guy who goes around saying ‘I’m a feminist’ usually has an agenda that is not feminist. A guy who behaves like one, who actually becomes involved in the movement, generally speaking, you can trust that. And it doesn’t just apply to the action that is activist. It applies to the way they treat the women they work with and they live with and they see on the street.” This remark takes on a great deal of irony in light of Carpenter’s statement.

In recent years, Whedon’s reputation as an ally began to wane. Partly, it was because of the work itself, which revealed more and more cracks as Buffy receded in the rearview mirror. Maybe it all started to sour with Dollhouse, a TV show that imagined Eliza Dushku as a young woman rented out to the rich and powerful, her mind wiped after every assignment, a concept that sat poorly with fans. (Though Whedon, while he was publicly unhappy with how the show had turned out after much push-and-pull with the corporate bosses at Fox, still argued the conceit was “the most pure feminist and empowering statement I’d ever made—somebody building themselves from nothing,” in a 2012 interview with Wired.)

After years of loud disappointment with the TV bosses at Fox on Firefly and Dollhouse, Whedon moved into big-budget Hollywood blockbusters. He helped birth the Marvel-dominated era of movies with his work as director of The Avengers. But his second Avengers movie, Age of Ultron, was heavily criticized for a moment in which Black Widow laid out her personal reproductive history for the Hulk, suggesting her sterilization somehow made her a “monster.” In June 2017, his un-filmed script for a Wonder Woman adaptation leaked, to widespread mockery. The script’s introduction of Diana was almost leering: “To say she is beautiful is almost to miss the point. She is elemental, as natural and wild as the luminous flora surrounding. Her dark hair waterfalls to her shoulders in soft arcs and curls. Her body is curvaceous, but taut as a drawn bow.”

But Whedon’s real fall from grace began in 2017, right before MeToo spurred a cultural reckoning. His ex-wife, Kai Cole, published a piece in The Wrap accusing him of cheating off and on throughout their relationship and calling him a hypocrite:

“Despite understanding, on some level, that what he was doing was wrong, he never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth. He deceived me for 15 years, so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist.”

But his reputation was just too strong; the accusation that he didn’t practice what he preached didn’t quite stick. A spokesperson for Whedon told the Wrap: “While this account includes inaccuracies and misrepresentations which can be harmful to their family, Joss is not commenting, out of concern for his children and out of respect for his ex-wife. Many minimized the essay on the basis that adultery doesn’t necessarily make you a bad feminist or erase a legacy. Whedon similarly seemed to shrug off Ray Fisher’s accusations of creating a toxic workplace; instead, Warner Media fired Fisher.

But Carpenter’s statement—which struck right at the heart of his Buffy-based legacy for progressivism—may finally change things. Even at the time, the plotline in which Charisma Carpenter was written off Angel—carrying a demon child that turned her into “Evil Cordelia,” ending the season in a coma, and quite simply never reappearing—was unpopular. Asked about what had happened in a 2009 panel at DragonCon, she said that “my relationship with Joss became strained,” continuing: “We all go through our stuff in general [behind the scenes], and I was going through my stuff, and then I became pregnant. And I guess in his mind, he had a different way of seeing the season go… in the fourth season.”

“I think Joss was, honestly, mad. I think he was mad at me and I say that in a loving way, which is—it’s a very complicated dynamic working for somebody for so many years, and expectations, and also being on a show for eight years, you gotta live your life. And sometimes living your life gets in the way of maybe the creator’s vision for the future. And that becomes conflict, and that was my experience.”

In her statement on Twitter, Carpenter alleged that after Whedon was informed of her pregnancy, he called her into a closed-door meeting and “asked me if I was ‘going to keep it,’ and manipulatively weaponized my womanhood and faith against me.” She added that “he proceeded to attack my character, mock my religious beliefs, accuse me of sabotaging the show, and then unceremoniously fired me following the season once I gave birth.” Carpenter said that he called her fat while she was four months pregnant and scheduled her to work at 1 a.m. while six months pregnant after her doctor had recommended shortening her hours, a move she describes as retaliatory. What Carpenter describes, in other words, is an absolutely textbook case of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, the type of bullshit the feminist movement exists to fight—at the hands of the man who was for years lauded as a Hollywood feminist for his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Many of Carpenter’s colleagues from Buffy and Angel spoke out in support, including Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar. “While I am proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon,” she said in a statement. Just shy of a decade after that 2013 speech, many of the cast members on the show that put him on that stage are cutting ties.

Whedon garnered a reputation as pop culture’s ultimate feminist man because Buffy did stand out so much, an oasis in a wasteland. But in 2021, the idea of a lone man being responsible for creating women’s stories—one who told the New York Times, “I seem to be the guy for strong action women”—seems like a relic. It’s depressing to consider how many years Hollywood’s first instinct for “strong action women” wasn’t a woman, and to think about what other people could have done with those resources. When Wonder Woman finally reached the screen, to great acclaim, it was with a woman as director.

Besides, Whedon didn’t make Buffy all by himself—many, many women contributed, from the actresses to the writers to the stunt workers, and his reputation grew so large it eclipsed their part in the show’s creation. Even as he preached feminism, Whedon benefitted from one of the oldest, most sexist stereotypes: the man who’s a benevolent, creative genius. And Buffy, too, overshadowed all the other contributors who redefined who could be a hero on television and in speculative fiction, from individual actors like Gillian Anderson to the determined, creative women who wrote science fiction and fantasy over the last several decades to—perhaps most of all—the fans who craved different, better stories. Buffy helped change what you could put on TV, but it didn’t create the desire to see a character like her. It was that desire, as much as Whedon himself, that gave Buffy the Vampire Slayer her power.

#Joss Whedon #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #Ray Fisher #Charisma Carpenter #Feminist

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entertainment · 5 years ago

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Entertainment Spotlight: Neil Jackson, Stargirl

You may recognize actor, writer, and producer Neil Jackson from Absentia, and The CW’s new DC superhero series Stargirl. On the film side, Neil starred alongside Steve Carrell in Welcome To Marwan, as well as in Quantum of Solace, Nocturnal Animals, and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. An ex-amateur boxing champion, Neil worked as a personal trainer before becoming an actor. He is also an accomplished guitar player and song writer. His first album, The Little Things, was released in 2013. Neil took a few minutes to chat with us about Stargirl, his dog Rosco, and his upcoming projects. Check it out:

Is there a scene or moment from Stargirl that you’re most excited for fans to see?

There are so many fun scenes in this show that I think people will love, but there's a standout moment in the first episode where all of the Justice Society of America (Starman, Flash, Green Lantern, HourMan, Wildcat etc.) face off in an epic battle against a team of their greatest enemies...including Solomon Grundy. He's a fully CG Hulk-type villain and is AMAZING!

What’s your favorite character arc or storyline on Absentia?

At the end of last season (spoiler alert), Jack professed his love for Alice, only to have her reject him. She then was killed after we discover that she was working with the enemy. As we start season three, Jack is not only mourning the loss of that love, and her death, but also mourning the person he thought he knew, and he's having to do all of this alone, as no-one knows about his affair. It's heartbreaking to see him struggle.

Can you tell us about the character that you play in The King’s Man?

I'm afraid I can't say too much for fear of Matthew Vaughn putting out a hit on me, but I play a very pivotal character in the story. I just saw some of the edit and it looks amazing. The film has all the fun and heart of the first films, but with the dramatic weight of WWI and the horror of trench warfare.

Do you have any fun facts about the making of Stargirl that fans would be surprised to find out?

During lunch we would sometimes have karaoke. It was a fun bonding experience to eat your food while members of the crew sang their favorite tunes. Nelson Lee, who plays Dragon King, did a particularly memorable rendition of "Wind Beneath My Wings."

What did you do with your free time on set?

I hate being in my trailer, so I usually hang around on set and watch the other scenes. After almost 20-years in the business, I'm still fascinated by the process, so I love watching the machine at work.

Do you have any secret skills or talents?

I love cooking. Every Sunday I make a roast chicken with all the trimmings. It's a British tradition.

How did you prepare for your role in The King’s Man?

My role in the film is very physical and I was hired to be my own stunt-double so there was a lot of stunt training. There's an amazing hand-to-hand fight sequence that (for reasons I can't spoil) required us to stay in a crouched position throughout. That was so brutal on the knees. I would come home from work every morning (we shot at night) and have to put bags of frozen veggies on my knees to take the swelling down.

Can you tell us about a time you bombed (e.g. in an audition)?

I was auditioning for a lead role in the first Transformers movie. It was just me and the casting director in the room. The scene was during a battle and my character was a soldier who was evading attacks whilst calling for air support. The casting director was particularly dead-pan and, when she dryly called action I just went for it. I was rolling on the floor evading laser strikes from imaginary robots whilst screaming into an imaginary radio for an air strike. She would read the other lines in the blandest monotone, which just made the experience all the more absurd. After a couple of minutes of this I just started laughing. She, however, didn't find it amusing.

What’s the funniest photo that you have on your phone?

I mostly have photos of my dog, Rosco, on my phone right now. He's a beautiful Formosan Mountain Dog from Taiwan and just last week he graduated puppy class. He wore his mortar-board in celebration :)

What are you most excited about right now?

Directing my first feature film. I have two scripts of mine in active development, so whichever one gets traction first will be the one I will direct first. I am incredibly passionate about both stories and cannot wait to bring them to life.

Thanks, Neil! Catch Stargirl on Tuesdays at 8pm on The CW.

#entertainment spotlight #neil jackson #stargirl

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magic-and-moonlit-wings · 4 years ago

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Trollhunters: “the book” versus “the books”

The Book

Trollhunters, a standalone horror-suspense novel by Daniel Krauss and Guillermo del Toro. It inspired the animated series produced by Dreamworks.

This is the story people are usually referring to in Trollhunters fanfiction when they say they got an idea from the novel, or, the original novel.

A general and spoiler-tastic summary:

In San Bernardino, California, Jim Sturges Junior and his best friend Tobias ‘Tub’ Dershowitz discover trolls are real, and that Jim’s dad had legit reason for his paranoia because James Senior’s older brother Jack really had gotten stolen by monsters when they were kids. Jack works with the trolls, fighting Gunmar alongside Johanna M. ARRRGH!!! and Blinky, and has not aged since disappearing.

Now they’re recruiting Jim because being a Trollhunter is a matter of genetic predisposition - the amulet is solely a translation device - and it looks like Gunmar’s going to escape from where Jack imprisoned him and they’re going to have to actually kill Gunmar this time, so they need all hands on deck.

Jim’s crush, Claire Fontaine, is one of several kids who go missing in the next few weeks. Those kids are luckily rescued before they can be eaten, and it turns out Claire has the same genetic predisposition for Trollhunting.

Gunmar spawns many unnamed babies on the football field during his attack on the surface. Jim’s dad acts as a cavalry in that scene, mowing them down with a landscaping vehicle. Steve Jorgensen-Warner, the school bully, is exposed as a Changeling when forced to touch a football helmet for the rival team, who use a horseshoe logo. We never do learn exactly what was up with Professor Lempke, but he was involved in the rebuilding of Killaheed Bridge (respelled as Killahead in the show) and implied to also be a Changeling.

The Books

Dreamworks Trollhunters Tales of Arcadia, a series of six novels by Richard Ashley Hamilton written as supplementary material to the animated series.

These are the stories people are usually referring to in Trollhunters fanfiction when they say they got an idea from the novels, plural.

A general and spoiler-tastic summary:

The Adventure Begins: overlaps the first couple of episodes, Jim discovering the Amulet and becoming the Trollhunter. Also has some bonus scenes, like Kanjigar pleading with the Amulet not to pick Draal as Kanjigar falls to his death, and Jim’s knife-spinning trick being to dry the blade after cleaning it, and Barbara meeting Claire and Claire revealing Jim got the part of Romeo but learning Barbara didn’t know he was auditioning and Barbara promising to act surprised when Jim tells her.

Welcome to the Darklands: in the start of the gap between Seasons 1 and 2, showing what the kids told Barbara had happened to her house, how they got the Glamour Mask, what Jim’s first few days in the Darklands were like and some interesting characters he met there, and why Nomura ended up in Gunmar’s dungeon.

The Book of Ga-Huel: some time in mid-Season 2, a Changeling polymorph tries to assassinate the main characters and Blinky has to thwart a prophecy that implies he will die. Uhl is allergic to iron and thus mistaken for said Changeling.

Age of the Amulet: early Season 3, a broken Kairosect results in Jim, Blinky, AAARRRGGHH, Toby, and Claire getting sent back in time and fighting a Trollhunter who cracked under the pressure of the job and joined Gunmar. In the present, Vendel’s grandfather has been brought forward in time and wants to eat humans, and Eli attacks Gunmar while under the influence of a grit-shaka. (Previously misremembered in this post as Gravesand - thank you @goodfish-bowl for the correction.)

The Way of the Wizard: Merlin, despite supposedly having almost no power, tampers with the Shadow Staff so they can’t portal from his tomb back to Arcadia, and the cast meets Draal’s mom while walking home, but Draal’s body gets exploded (possibly to justify why he can’t be revived with the Creeper’s Sun antidote they used on AAARRRGGHH) and his soul ends up in the Void. Somehow this is supposed to show Merlin being nice? Porgon the Trickster, who appears in 3Below, is also in this novel.

Angor Reborn: Jim turning into a troll was a gradual process after the bathtub teleported him to a lake in the forest. During this, he meets troll versions of Romeo and Juliet, befriends a wolf cub, considers running away to live in the wilderness because he can’t fit in among humans anymore, and fights Angor Rot. Meanwhile, Barbara yanks Merlin around by the beard searching for Jim.

The Other Books

Yes, there’s more. There were a few “bonus content” books released. These are less likely to be referred to by writers, but handy for artists.

Jim Lake Jr.’s Survival Guide: A journal written by Jim about the events of Season 1, added to here and there by other characters. (Unlike most of the Tales of Arcadia spin-off books, this one is credited to Cala Spinner instead of Richard Ashley Hamilton.)

A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore: Volume 48: A glossy book with screenshots and descriptions of key moments and artifacts in Trollhunters Season 1. Has a framing device implying it was somehow put together in the, what, twelve hours?, between Strickler leaving Arcadia and Jim going into the Darklands. There are a few pull-out pages.

The Art of Trollhunters: A coffee table book with production notes and concept art from the show’s development. This one goes all the way through Season 3.

The Comics

You know, while we’re here. The comics disconnect from what was established in the show in jarring ways sometimes (like Draal joining Kanjigar on Trollhunting missions in the comics, when the show says their relationship suffered because Kanjigar started avoiding Draal after being called as Trollhunter), but they’ve got some fun ideas in them.

The comics were written before Wizards aired and do not share a continuity. In the comics, there were Trollhunters before Deya, Deya herself was Trollhunter for at least a hundred years before the Battle of Killahead took place, and Kanjigar was Deya’s immediate successor.

These, obviously, are the stories people are usually referring to in Trollhunters fanfiction when they say they got an idea from the comics.

The Secret History of Trollkind: Blinky tells Jim, Toby, and Claire about the Battle of Killahead Bridge, the trolls’ decision to leave Europe for the Americas, Deya the Deliverer’s death, Kanjigar’s first few centuries as a Trollhunter, with sidenotes about Blinky and AAARRRGGHH’s slow journey from enemies to acquaintances to friends.

The Felled: After the events of ‘Hero With A Thousand Faces’, Jim returns the Aspectus Stone to Vendel, who tells Jim and Toby some stories about various past Trollhunters: Spar the Spiteful (who met an Akiridion, which I was expecting to come up in 3Below but did not), Maddrux the Many, Araknak the Agile (mentioned here as being one of Blinky’s ancestors), Unkar the Unfortunate, Deya the Deliverer (on a quest to punch Merlin in the face), and Kanjigar the Courageous. Jim then goes to fight goblins with Claire.

#TOA novels and comics #Trollhunters #Tales of Arcadia #books #summary #spoilers

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gianarosegoestothemovies · 4 years ago

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New Queer Cinema

Starting from the late 1980s through early 1990s, a “new wave” of queer films became critically acclaimed in the film industry, allowing the freedom of sexuality to be featured in films without the burden of approval from the audience. This raw and honest film genre displays the truth, secrets, and vulnerability of the LGBTQ+ community and the representation that is deserved. The New Queer Cinema movement was started by scholar Ruby Rich who wrote “This movement in film and video was intensely political and aesthetically innovative, made possible by the debut of the camcorder, and driven initially by outrage over the unchecked spread of AIDS. The genre has grown to include an entire generation of queer artists, filmmakers, and activists.” (Rich) This movement started from Rich’s writing piece, not the filmmakers themselves. An article by Sam Moore discusses Rich’s start of the movement. He states, “Rich acknowledges that the films and filmmakers she considers under the umbrella of New Queer Cinema (including Todd Haynes, Cheryl Dunye, Isaac Julien, Gus Van Sant and Gregg Araki), don’t share a single aesthetic vocabulary or strategy or concern.” Instead, they’re unified by the ways that they queer existing narratives, subvert expectations and foreground queerness in material where it had been only implicit” (Moore). The journey through the New Queer Movement started with Ruby Rich defining the movement through her writing and inspiring filmmakers to continue producing movies with the correct representation.

Actress from Gone with the Wind Susan Hayward claimed that Queer cinema existed “decades” before an official title was given to the genre. French filmmaker Jean Cocteau created Le sang d'un poète in 1934 which is documented as one of the earliest Queer films. This avant-garde style of film is associated with Queer cinema filmmakers such as and is displayed in many upcoming films such as Ulrike Ottinger, Chantal Akerman and Pratibha Parmar. The influence of Queer theory that emerged from the late 1980s helped guide the movement with the creators. The theory states "Challenge and push further debates on gender and sexuality.” Another closely related statement by feminist theory states,"Confuse binary essentialisms around gender and sexual identity, expose their limitations.” Queer cinema filmmakers were sometimes known to depict their films in a “mainstream” way that is agreeable to the audience. There was no exposure to the truths and horrors that the LGBTQ+ community experience and had a lack of representation of historical elements or themes. The concept of “straightwashing” was described to filmmaker Derek Jarman’s 1991 historical film Edward II. This film received backlash from the LGBTQ+ community due to the film’s queer representation catering to heterosexuality and heteronormativity.

The truth of the movement was for Queer films to stop romanticizing or bringing positive images of gay men and lesbian woman. The push for authenticity and liberation for the community needed to be represented in films. New Queer films were more radical and sought to challenge social norms of “identity, gender, class, family and society.” (Wikiwand.com).

To quote the amazing drag queen of all time RuPaul “Everyone is born naked, and the rest is drag” the idea of gender identity and representation in the community is unlimited, why do you need to follow the norms of society when anything is possible? The late 90s documentary Paris is Burning introduced the audience to drag culture in New York City and the people of color who were involved in the community. The term “aesthetic” was repetitive in the research of New Queer Cinema which suggests the significance involved with the style of the films. The documentary includes the aesthetic of the drag world involving the makeup, fashion, and politics. AIDS activism was involved heavily in New Queer films and ridiculed the failure of Ronald Reagans acknowledgment of epidemic and the social stigma experienced by the gay community. Conservative politics occurred during this movement resulting in lack of media coverage and government assistance for the LGTBQ+ community. This political struggle did not discourage the community and the fight is still continuing today.

Beginning in the 2010s LGBT filmmakers Rose Troche and Travis Mathews created a “newer trend” in queer filmmaking that evolved toward more universal audience appeal. In an article from Wikiwand.com states,

“Rich, the originator of the phrase New Queer Cinema, has identified the emergence in the late 2000s of LGBT-themed mainstream films such as Brokeback Mountain, Milk, and The Kids Are All Right as a key moment in the evolution of the genre.[20] Both Troche and Mathews singled out Stacie Passon’s 2013 Concussion, a film about marital infidelity in which the central characters' lesbianism is a relatively minor aspect of a story and the primary theme is how a long-term relationship can become troubled and unfulfilling regardless of its gender configuration, as a prominent example of the trend” (Wikiwand).

The film Watermelon Woman was one of the first queer films I watched for a film class, and this film allowed me to dive deeper into the subject I care a lot about which is the representation of queer narratives about woman of color. Queer woman and men deal with the most discrimination. It is unfair and cruel to see the difference of racial treatment in the LGBTQ+ community because the backbone motto is full exclusion and equal rights. The film Watermelon Woman shined light on LGBTQ+ black woman and interrogated the “Mammy” stereotype that most films depict about black actresses. Minority narratives were pushed into the circuit of the movement with developed into the later academy-award winning film Moonlight that displays those representations makes film history!

Films to recognize in the height of the New Queer film movement are

Mala Noche (1986), Gus Van Sant, was an exploration of desire through the eyes of a young white store clerk named Walt and his obsession with a young undocumented immigrant named Johnny. The film is shot in black and white on 16mm film, contains many of the early Van Sant fixations that viewers would later see get refined in My Own Private Idaho, including male hustlers, illegality, and class.

Chinese Characters (1986), Richard Fung, this early film asks still-pressing questions about the nature of gay desire when it’s mediated via pornographic images of white men. The video defies genre, mixing documentary with performance art and archival footage to explore the tensions of being a gay Asian man looking at porn.

Looking for Langston (1989), Isaac Julien, this short film, a tribute to the life and work of Langston Hughes, is a beautiful and vibrant elegy. Julien creates a lineage of queer black ancestors for himself. The film moves like the poetry it recites, playing with the gaze and how various eyes look upon the black male body.

Tongues Untied (1989), Marlon Riggs, guided by the writer Joseph Beam’s statement, “Black men loving black men is the revolutionary act,” Riggs goes through his own complicated journey of homophobia from other black people, and then racism in the gay community, to find a community of queer black people.

Poison (1991), Todd Haynes, the three parts of the film tell a story about ostracism, violence, and marginality: the bullied child who allegedly flies away after shooting his father in order to save his mother (“Hero”), a brilliant scientist who accidentally ingests his own serum to become the “leper sex killer” (“Horror”), and a sexual relationship between two men in a prison (“Homo”). Exploits radical work that Haynes later uses in his other films.

The Living End (1992), Gregg Araki, the film follows Luke, a sexy homicidal drifter who has a distaste for T-shirts, and Jon, an uptight film critic in Los Angeles. Both are HIV-positive, and as their relationship unfolds, they fight about being respectful or lustrous.

Swoon (1992), Tom Kalin, a black and white film that romanticizes wealthy Chicago lovers kill a 14-year-old boy named Bobby Franks because they want to see if they are smart enough to do it. The murder is more a play of power between them, with Loeb weaponizing sex as a way to control Leopold.

Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (1992), Mark Rappaport, Rock Hudson’s Home Movies is a documentary made up of glances and innuendos from Rock Hudson’s persona, displaying how this dashing, leading man of the Hollywood Golden Age was a closeted gay man.

MURDER and Murder (1996), Yvonne Rainer, is known for her experimental filmmaking and choreography, this film represents a late-in-life lesbian named Doris who suffers from neuroses and breast cancer. Her partner, Mildred, a queer academic, tells the story of their romance as older women. Rainer also makes appearances throughout the film in a tux, going on rants about smug homophobic parents while showing her bare chest with a mastectomy scar.

1992 was the year of the highest amount of New Queer films being produced and exceeding box office expectations. Upcoming 2000s films such as “Booksmart”, “Call me by your Name”, “The Prom”, and “Rocketman” all represent the truths and authenticity of the LGBTQ+ community and creates pathways for more films to include these cinematic themes. The movement continues to grow and succeed in the film industry with new creators and actors being more honest about the LGBTQ+ community.

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red-sector-rivendell · 4 years ago

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media reccs? 👀 since apparently you are a man of good taste?

Wow thank you 😏 I have a masterlist of movies that have changed me I often recommend to people, I'll just copy and paste here with quick synopses lol, it's kinda long. I'm not super great at writing synopses tho so bear with me

Dead Poets Society (1989)

One of my favorite movies of all time and a total classic. It's about a group of boys at a strict boarding school who are inspired by their new English teacher (played by Robin Williams) to think for themselves and chase their dreams. This movie literally changed my life lol

Quadrophenia (1979)

This movie is based off of the story behind the concept album by The Who of the same name. It follow the life of a young man named Jimmy who is in a gang called the Mods. Theres this huge gang war between them and the Rockers (I think that's their name, it's been a while since i watched it) and Jimmy questions his beliefs about coming-of-age and his values in life throughout the film

Cabaret (1972)

Based off of the Broadway musical of the same name, this movie is about a British man who moves to Germany during the beginning of the rise of Nazis. He meets a woman who basically turns his world upside down, and it follows their love affair and sexuality and anti-semitism, and it's hilarious and heart wrenching and a beautiful movie

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

This is a super trippy romance film. Basically in the universe of this movie, theres a technology that is developed that can delete memories of an entire person from your mind while you are in a dream-like state, and the main character of this movie (played by Jim Carrey) decides to undergo the procedure after a bad breakup. Its soooo good I highly recommend this movie

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

This is an animated film about a man named Bill who is going through brain cancer. Its told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator essentially communicating everything Bill sees, hears, and experiences. This is the movie that got me into film and it is still a complete masterpiece and one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen

The Dirties (2013)

Loved this one a lot back in high school, it's been a while since I watched it. This is a film made in Canada about a high schooler named Matt Johnson and his friend Owen who decide to make a short film for their class about them killing the gang at their school that bullies them, and things take a dark turn. It's a hilarious movie and hits pretty close to home for me in a lot of ways haha

Logan's Run (1976)

Great movie, pretty cheesy though so be warned. This is based off a book with the same name, and it takes place in the future where most of humanity is wiped out except for a small society that lives under a domed structure. No one is allowed to leave the dome, and to control overpopulation, no one is allowed to live past the age of 30. It's really bizarre but I love this movie

Donnie Darko (2001)

Pretty sure this was Jake Gyllenhaal's first big hit when he was super young (I think he was like 19 in this movie but I'm not sure) basically about this kid, Donnie Darko, who is somewhat schizophrenic and has a habit of sleepwalking. After one particular incident he has a near-death experience and starts seeing a man in a bunny costume everywhere who makes him do weird stuff. Another pretty trippy movie with a crazy ending

American Psycho (2000)

Honestly I'm sure a few on this list you've probably seen (most likely this one included) but I didnt wanna leave any out because they're all so good. If you haven't seen this, it's about a Wall Street executive named Patrick Bateman who is a materialistic phony by day and a serial killer by night. I tried to read the book but the inner dialogue was really hard to get through lmao. Awesome movie though huge recommend.

Clockwork Orange (1971)

Yet another trippy one. And fuck it's been a long time since I've seen it so I might get some stuff wrong here. But it's basically about this serial rapist guy who hangs out with this group of goons and they all like to go beat up homeless people and shit, but the main character gets captured and has to go through reformation therapy to make him a better person. It's an extremely bizarre movie but soooo good and kind of hilarious lol

Creep (2014)

Of course this is on my list haha. If you haven't seen it yet, it's a horror movie about this freelance film guy who answers an ad on craigslist to help a man with cancer film a movie for his unborn son. And shit gets weird real fast. One of my favorite horror movies ever, I wouldnt say it's super scary but it's fun as fuck

Hereditary (2018)

If I'm being honest, I don't like a lot of big movies made in super recent years and especially not horror movies (mostly because they're all cheap cash grabs with no substance) but this one is an exception for me. Hereditary is fucking masterful in my opinion, legitimately creepy as hell and well-produced and well written. To put the plot as vaguely as possible without spoiling anything, it's about a family (mostly the mother) who go through some crazy fucked up shit. That's literally all I can say without giving anything away. Super good flick, big recommend

Gattaca (1997)

This list isn't in any particular order, and I love all these movies to death, but if I had to rank them this would probably be on the lower end. It's not a bad movie, it's still great but it's just not as life-changing as the other ones lmao. This takes place in the future where genetic modifications have progressed to a point where you can modify your unborn child's DNA to have the perfect baby. This has led to, essentially racial bias against those who never had that procedure when they were born. The main character was not one of these "special" children, but he wants an extremely prestigious job which requires that of the employee. Through the film, he is trying to fake his identity and fool the company into thinking he is one of these perfect people. Still a great film

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Johnny Depp, man, he is something else. I LOVE this movie. Based off a true story and a book written by the man who lived it, Hunter S. Thompson, this follows the adventure of the writer and his attorney as they go on a drugged-out, psychedelic romp through Las Vegas with the original intention being to cover a story on a motorcycle race, but things go off the rails as they both terrorize the entire city in a way. Just a fun ride the whole way, a great movie

The Truman Show (1998)

God I'm realizing this list is long as fuck. Don't watch all of these movies, it might take you a lifetime lmao. Anyway, this is a classic Jim Carrey movie and another one you've probably seen. But again, if you haven't, this movie is about a man whose entire life has been fabricated and shot for television without him knowing. Super great, super moving, fantastic film 10 outta 10 I gotta wrap this shit up

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

A lesser known Keanu Reeves movie, but fuck I wish more people have seen this. This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it's based off a book which is just as amazing. This movie takes place in the near future, where facial recognition technology has progressed wayyy too far, and drugs have gotten to the point of no return. The plot follows a detective who is undercover in a junkie house trying to figure out who is the top of the drug dealing totem pole, but ends up wrapped in the junkie lifestyle a little too deeply. Seriously, I recommend this movie to everyone who asks, it's so damn good

Fight Club (1999)

Another popular one. If you havent seen it, it's based off a book by Chuck Palahniuk following the story of a man (the main character actually doesnt have a name lol) who meets a guy named Tyler Durden who changes his entire perspective on how the world works. They start an underground boxing club together to help themselves and other men blow off steam and get away from the capitalist consumer-centric lifestyle they are forced into. Big twist at the end, great movie five stars on yelp

Harold and Maude (1971)

This is a weird one. Gotta say. It's about a guy in his 20s who meets an old woman at a funeral and falls in love with her. Sounds pretty ok at face value but theres a lot of really strange subplots and a huuuuge twist at the end (one of the subplots being the guy compulsively fakes his suicide to get his mother's attention) big recommend

Polyester (1981)

This one I cant even explain u just have to watch it its fucking bizarre

Fargo (1996)

Ok lightning round on the synopses, this movie is about a man who wants to commit fraud by hiring guys to kidnap his wife so her father can pay them ransom and instead the husband gets the money but everything goes wrong it's really good

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Another modern movie I actually like, last time I watched this I was on shrooms and it was crazy but it's about this hotel right on the border of california and (Nevada I think?) And all these weird people are staying at it and there are twists at every turn and chris hemsworth is a cult leader in it its great

Memento (2000)

GREAT MOVIE GOD PLEASE WATCH THIS ONE it's about a man who develops short term memory loss after witnessing the rape and murder of his wife AND WHEN I SAY THERE ARE TWISTS LIKE EVERY TEN MINUTES I MEAN IT. The film is chronologically backwards, in that the first scene takes place at the end of the story and works back from there in increments of like 5 minutes. Basically each scene is a segment of time that this guy remembers before his memory loss kicks in and he forgets and FUCK it's so good please god watch it

Almost Famous (2000)

This is another one that would probably be low on my ranking but still a great and fun movie, it's about this kid that wants to write articles about rock stars for the rolling stone (based off a true story btw) and he ends up running away to go ride on a tour bus with some band and gets into all types of shenanigans and its great and sad

Parasite (2019)

Another modern movie I love, fuck this is getting too long lmao. Poor family wants to make money and they hatch a scheme to pretend to be bougie and work for this rich family but shit gets weird and everything goes wrong and it's so good (also literally the only film ever that made me speechless afterwards)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pretty much lives up to the hype, I totally forgot the plot but it's pretty damn good I remember that lmao

The Warriors (1979)

Fun movie, theres a bunch of teen gangs in New York and the leader of all of em is like "hey we should rally all the gangs together and fuck up the cops so we can rule this city" but then he gets shot by someone in the crowd and the gang The Warriors gets blamed so the whole movie is them running from all the other gangs so they can get back to home base and it's just an all around fun time movie

12 Monkeys (1995)

THIS MOVJE IS CRAZY it takes place in the future where a virus has almost completely wiped humans off the face of the earth so these scientists send this guy back in time to figure out where it came from so they can stop it from ever happening but obviously everything goes wrong and yadda yadda yadda it's amazing

Waking Life (2001)

Gonna preface this by saying this film is definitely not for entertainment, it's kind of an arthouse-type flick. It's the type of movie you have to think really really hard about to watch. The basic plot is the main character is stuck inside his own lucid dream, and is walking around listening to all these characters in his dream talk to him about, idk like the meaning of life and consciousness and shit. It's really good if you're in the mood for that type of thing.

Okay I'm finally done, you probably didnt expect this but I've been meaning to put my movie recommendations on this blog anyway haha. I deleted some just cause it was getting wayyyy too long. If u want a shorter list I can just give u like a top 5 in DMs but there u go have at it, every movie on that list is a banger I swear

#long post #movies #film #cinema #cinephile #ask #movie recommendations #you have no obligation to read all that #really shows how bored i am that i wrote out this whole fuckin thing on my phone lmao #youre welcome?

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labyrinthof-fan-fiction · 4 years ago

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Breathe {1}

Part 1

Masterlist

A/N: This started out at Stucky, hardcore stucky, then I watched episode 6 and now I cannot get out of the SamBucky hole I dug…. This is probably not going to be very canon compliant, because, I am garbage with being canon compliant. To writers who can be canon compliant and give such good stories, can you teach me your ways?

Summary: Bucky struggled with the modern world, with becoming himself again, he always thought that Steve would be with him forever. Then Steve went back to the past and Bucky was left behind. Steve died of old age and is the Major Character Death. Unrequited Stucky, eventual SamBucky.

Warnings: Major Character Death, Self Harm, Swears, Angst, Grief,

Word Count: 1,883

Bucky drove his car down the winding road, his mind was spinning. Steve was gone, he went back to the past. Till the end of the line. He heard on repeat in his head as he continued on his way to his apartment. He cursed that damn sentence, Bucky thought it had meant something, but now, it felt empty. He kept thinking about Steve’s face, not his Steve, old Steve. He had lived his life, a life he chose, away from the fight. Bucky always thought he would be with him and they would grow old in this new time. But Steve had chosen a different path, he had chosen Peggy. Bucky’s heart tightened as he continued driving away from the lake, from Steve.

Bucky opened the window and took a deep breath as the air hit his face. It felt like the air barely touched his lungs, like he forgot how to breathe. The radio started playing some kind of sad song, at least in terms of modern music. He felt the tears falling down his face. How was he supposed to continue, who was he supposed to be? How was he supposed to survive? The only thing he knew in this new time was Steve and he was gone. A rush of air passed through his mouth as he remembered all those years ago, almost a damn century, when they lived in that shitty apartment in Brooklyn.

“Steve, c’mon, you gotta eat.” Bucky urged the other man who was curled on the bed.

“Don’t wanna.” The blonde muttered.

“Dammit punk, eat something.” Bucky snapped, tossing the plate of toast onto the small stand next to Steve’s bed. Bucky was worried, he was used to Steve getting sick, every temperature change as a result of the factory started producing just a bit more smoke. The minute his breathing changed, Bucky knew.

Steve pouted and reached for the toast, he started nibbling on a corner. “Happy?” He asked Bucky.

“Ecstatic.” Bucky retorted, his shoulders relaxing as he watched Steve finish the two pieces of toast.

“You’re gonna be late for work.” Steve mumbled.

Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose and stood, he glanced down at his outfit, it would work for the day. “There’s lunch in the fridge. Get some water.” He shuffled himself to the door, giving one final glance to the man lying in bed. Bucky’s heart felt heavy as he walked to work, he just wanted to stop seeing Steve sick. When Steve was sick, he was a shell of himself. He wasn’t the punk picking fights with guys bigger than himself, standing up for the little guys. He was just there.

Bucky tried to shake the memories away, but they wouldn’t stop. He pulled over to the side of the road, tears streaming down his face as he the memories kept coming.

“Stevie, you got bigger.” Bucky said in a haze, looking at the six foot, broad shouldered man in front of him. If he hadn’t known his voice so well, he would have thought he was hallucinating, hell he probably was. He let Steve bear his weight as he pulled him from the chair with the needles.

“Couldn’t let you have all the fun.” Steve jibed back, arm securely around Bucky’s waist. Bucky’s head rolled to the side and he got a good look at Steve, Steve’s eyes flicked over to his for a second and Bucky knew, he wasn’t hallucinating. Steve was here, and Steve had changed.

Then they were thrown into battle, the Howling Commandos and Captain America. It was surreal, seeing that scrawny punk leading men, leading him, into battle as the broad shouldered, golden symbol of America. But it felt right, Steve was meant to do good in the world, he was meant to change it. And Bucky would be at his side, until the end of the line, he just hadn’t realized how close the end of the line was going to be.

“This payback for me making you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island?” Bucky asked, eyes tracking the train.

“Now what would give you that idea?” Steve asked with a wink as he jumped on the line to the train.

Then the plan went wrong and all Bucky saw was Steve’s face as he fell from the train. I’m sorry punk. He thought just before his body hit the snow.

When he woke up it wasn’t the 40s anymore, he wasn’t Bucky anymore, he was the Winter Soldier. His time at HYDRA ate away at his mind, freezing, thawing, fighting, freezing. It was all he could remember, then he was sent to kill

The day Steve fought him for the first time, Bucky couldn’t get the man on the bridge out of his mind. The blonde, he knew him, or had known him. He was trying to place him, he wasn’t a hit, or a former Hydra agent. He wasn’t a scientist. He was different, his presence didn’t make him feel like they did, he made him feel comfortable, safe. Had he even known those feelings?

“That man, on the bridge, I knew him.” Bucky whispered as the Hydra scientists shoved the mouthguard into his mouth. “I knew him.” Who was he, God, he knew him, he did. His name was on the tip of his tongue.

“Wipe him.” The scientist growled.

Bucky’s muscles tensed as the machine began. “Steve!” Electricity cracked through his body, tearing through his mind, a flash of golden hair raced through his mind then it was gone. The machine kicked off and Bucky relaxed. “Ready to comply.”

Again the Soldier was sent on a mission, kill Steve Rogers. He started in on the other man, punching at the flashes of red, white, and blue. The helicarrier around them was burning, SHIELD was burning. The Soldier fought in a fury, aggressively attacking the other man. Giving blow after blow until the other man’s helmet was knocked off and his face bloddy, but his blue eyes pierced into the Soldier’s mind.

“I won’t fight you.” The man said and threw his shield aside.

Bucky tilted his head. Destroy. The Soldier snarled, Bucky began punching the man. Destroy. His fist stopped next to his ear. Steve? Bucky’s voice asked in his head, it was a quiet voice, but he hadn’t heard it in so long. Destroy. The Soldier snarled, louder, Bucky’s eyes widened in horror as the man fell into the water. Steve.

Bucky pulled Steve from the water, God, please let him be breathing. He thought to himself as he tossed him onto the bank. He put his ear next to Steve’s and heard the other man start breathing, his heart fluttered. But that didn’t matter Steve was still breathing, and he remembered who he was. James Buchanan Barnes.

He kept on the run, it would be safe that way. Steve would be safe, because it didn’t matter what happened to him, but Steve would be safe. It was a constant battle, remembering to be himself. The Soldier had become quieter, but he wasn’t gone. He still took up headspace.

“I don’t know if I’m worth all this to you.” Bucky murmured from his spot in the quinjet.

“You didn’t have a choice.” Steve argued.

“I know, but I did it.” Bucky answered, thinking about all the pain he had caused, for so many people. Did it really matter if he had a choice?

Then he was in Wakanda, sitting outside the cryotubes. Steve was calm and distant, he had tried to put up a fight with Bucky on his plan to go under, at least until Shuri could override the Winter Soldier programming.

“Freeze me again.” Bucky murmured, he saw the pain in Steve’s eyes. “I can’t trust my mind.” I’m a danger to you.

Steve shifted uncomfortably. “We can help….”

“Steve, this is what I want.” Bucky stated.

Steve sighed and nodded. The last face Bucky saw was Steve, their eyes met for a second but Steve broke the eye contact and Bucky closed his eyes as he went under, he felt a small tug at his heart before he went under.

Bucky’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel, broken sobs fell from his lips as the tears continued to flow. Steve had told him of his plan to pass on the shield to Sam, but Bucky always assumed that meant that they would retire, together. He hadn’t told him the whole plan, maybe that was on purpose.He turned as he a car pull up next to him, he pulled his eyes from the floor and looked up to see Sam Wilson at his passenger door his car. He rolled down the window, wiping at his eyes.

“You look like shit,” Sam murmured.

Bucky chuckled, “Thanks.”

Sam shook his head, a small smile on his lips, he pulled the passenger door open and slid into the seat next to Bucky. Sam was silent for a moment. “Did you know?”

Bucky sighed, “I knew that he was going to give you the shield. That’s the only thing I knew.”

Sam nodded, glancing over at the man sitting in the drivers seat. He wasn’t sure how to proceed, he had so many assumptions about why Bucky was crying in his car, but which one was the real reason? He bit his lip before he spoke. “I know what it’s like to lose someone. Sometimes I still feel like breathing is impossible without him. But I know that they wouldn’t want me to stop living just because they aren’t around anymore.” Sam watched the other man, who was refusing to look at him.

Bucky stared at his hands, still clenched around the steering wheel, he probably left finger dents with his vibranium arm. His breathing had evened out. “I don’t know what to be, who, without him.”

Sam tapped his fingers on his thighs, “You know, when I met Steve, he couldn’t stop telling me about this guy he knew named James Buchanan Barnes. His best friend, bit of a smart ass.” Sam chuckled, causing Bucky to glance over at him. “He honestly wouldn’t shut up about him, he seemed like a good guy. Him, I’d like to get to know.”

Bucky wasn’t sure how to respond and remained silent. Sam gave him a small smile. “Don’t be a stranger.” Sam clapped his hand on Bucky’s shoulder then exited the car, Bucky watched him drive away and felt the tightness returning to his chest. He drove back to his apartment in Brooklyn in silence. His mind wandered from Steve to Sam.

Bucky didn’t know him very long, he was a decent fighter, not that he would tell him that to his face. Steve respected him, enough to pass on the shield to him, that had weight to it. Don’t be a stranger. Sam’s voice echoed in his mind as he entered the apartment, he glanced around the place. It was nice, but it didn’t feel like home. He sighed and made his way to the bedroom, he stripped and changed into sweatpants. He laid on his back, he stared at the ceiling for a moment before closing his eyes, then he heard Sam’s voice in his mind. Him, I’d like to meet.

#stucky fic #sambucky #sambuckyfic #winterfalcon #tfatws #winterfalcon fic #sam wilson #bucky barnes #sam wilson x bucky barnes #bucky barnes x sam wilson #bucky x sam #breathe

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darkspellmaster · 5 years ago

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I've never played the games but I'm curious to know if there really is a significant difference between game Alucard and show Alucard. The reason I ask this is because some of the criticisms I've seen in regards to S3 is how some people didn't like how they've butchered Alucard's character and that they fear that the writers are going to turn him evil at some point due to the trauma. I don't think he will because that would royally tick off the fans of the games but who knows at this point.

I’m so late on replying to these because of my job!

So this is an interesting topic to me because of how the character of Alucard evolved and what he’s become in regard to Castlevania and it’s history, and the history of known dampirers in general. And how Warren Ellis tends to tell stories, since he’s the one writing this story.

I suppose I should start all the way back with who Alucard was and where he came from.

The character of Alucard, at least within the Castlevania lore, really started way back in Castlevania III and was no where near the character we know and love now. This was back in 1989 and Castlevania was still going on the theme of Universal Horror monsters of the 1940s and 1950s. So way back when in 1943 Universal put out a movie called Son of Dracula, where the main character was the son of Dracula named, you guessed it, Alucard. (However in this case he’s not really Dracula’s kid, rather he’s Dracula himself.) It’s pretty clear that Konami wanted to use the idea of dracula having a kid for this game, but I digress.

So the first version of Alucard was from the game and was designed by T. Fujimoto and I. Urata.

Alucard in this case was designed to be a mirror image of his father and a vampire. The idea here was to create a character that while a monster was someone that could be seen as an ally as well. During this time his personality was still sort of not fully created as his main goal was the opposition of his father and the other members of those that served him by infiltrating the underground. In Castlevania III Alucard’s personality is shown to be far more amiable and warm.

His tone here is very different. He’s more invested in dealing with with father, befriending Trevor with a handshake, and later versions of Alucard are more quiet and calm, this one is ready to go and get his father. So early forms of Alucard show him to be a more open and warrior character, but also at the end of the game on Alucard’s route, it’s clear that he feels guilty about killing his father, which brings up one of the aspects of him that moved into the later versions of the character.

The next version of Alucard that comes up, and leads into the Change of Character is the 1997 Symphony of the Night. The design of his character took a drastic change in the hands of Ayami Kojima, who restyled Alucard into the blonde gothic character we have now (of note, this was her first big gig, and Captain N gave him the blonde hair in 1993, though that is non cannon), which mirrored the change in Alucard’s personality.

Gone was the more stylized monster movie look of the smirking character that you see above, instead Director/Producer Koji Igarashi changed up his personality. While Castlevania 3 Alucard was more or less a “Let’s go get him” possibly upbeat person, Igarashi turned him more into a brooding, bitter pessimistic person who believed his blood was cursed and that he was doomed to forever fight and deal with the actions of his father. While his aloofness and coolness come off as curt, it’s holding back a more traumatic personal history that he doesn’t want to burden on others. He’s quick to throw away allies to keep them safe, and at the same time, takes on challenges to protect those he loves. He tends to be very antisocial at points for fear of being hurt again, yet, he’s willing to save humans and befriend them as his mother’s words stuck with him.

Alucard in a lot of ways is the dark brooding trauma guy with the heart of gold. This is how most people see him, since Symphony of the Night became a huge deal for most people and how they percive Alucard. As a character he’s someone who loves and cares for others, and wants to protect humans, and sees those who act like his father as dangerous and in the wrong.

The major differences in Alucard in the Show and Alucard of the game fall down to a few things.

1. Alucard in the games is less innocent than Alucard in the show. He’s far more cunning a person. He’s a Batman type, having a plan for everything and being alive a lot longer than what he is in the show. Where as Alucard in the show is far more of an innocent person who is only a late teenager, maybe 20 years at most coming up, and has not experienced much in the world yet. The indication, unlike game Alucard, is that Lisa helped raise him until recently.

2. Unlike game Alucard, Show Alucard seems to be more against the idea of Humans hunting monsters. The problem is that as a character, he tends to find the monsters of the world vile, and rather see them dead than alive at all. While the show does keep true to his guilt issue, it seems more like Alucard in the game is far more invested in the death of his Father and understands that it needs to be done because Dracula in the games is a far more sinister figure than what we have now in show, who seems more based on his later Lament of Innocent’s game depiction (a man that is pushed to chose to do something horrible in order to punish what he believes is the one that wronged him in taking his wife away). So there is a key difference there.

3. The biggest one. Alucard in game would not pike someone. Again as a more cunning person, and more pessimistic, he would be suspect of the two new hunters. He’d never allow them to get that close until he knew what they were up to, and even then he would not sleep the way he does in the show. Even if they attack him, he’d more likely use magic to send them flying out of the castle. Not to mention the fact that the castle is a living thing in the games, and changes based on who is in control of it. So naturally it would not allow for anyone to harm the son of it’s owner (Dracula) so it would have kicked them out, and Alucard would know that. Alucard is a person who sees the good in humanity, preaching it to others who see them as monsters. He feels they have a hard lot in life and that because of their shorter life span they should be pitied and felt more sympathetic towards. Above all, Alucard would not use his father’s tactics. Rather he would probably bury them in the ground over displaying their corpses for all to see.

This is where Ellis’s writing comes into play. To make it make sense for why Alucard would go to sleep for 300 years, he needed to give him a reason. What better reason then being traumatically assaulted and harmed by those you think care for you. My guess is that Warren probably will play up the “tempted by darkness” trope and then in the end comes back to the light, only to seal himself to make sure that he never is hurt again.

The reason why so many are worried about Alucard is because of how this last season is making him look. Not only foolish for being so trustworthy, even though in the last two seasons he wasn’t, and then allowing himself to follow his father’s belief. This is in conflict to the mirror image that Dracula and Alucard are supposed to hold up to one another. Alucard should not become a monster, he’s a hero, and needs to be seen that way.

#alucard castlevania #castlevania #castlevania season 3 #castlevania curse of dracula #castlevania iii #castlevania iii: dracula's curse #netflix castlevania #adrian tepes

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cenomias · 4 years ago

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scary movie 6 cast

cast of scary movie 6

Scary Movie 6 is an absolute masterpiece and I have loved it since I saw the trailer weeks ago. The thing I like about Scary Movie 6 is the insane amount of insane crazy content that comes out of the writer's mind. He does not shy away from insane plot twists, insane characters, & insane situations. If you are tired of watching the same old scary movies on the internet or in the theater, then I recommend Scary Movie 6 to give it a try. As I said before, Scary Movie 6 belongs in the horror genre, but that is not what this film is based on. Instead, it is based on mental illness as well as the psychological symptoms of a man that becomes obsessed with the notion of being a monster. In all actuality, the man in this film goes into a hypnotic sleep at a hotel and ends up having many visions, along with the audience, watching him kill his sleeping companions, cut his way to freedom, and stalk the streets. Well, I guess that is actually a bit over the top, but the man in this film goes nuts. The entire film is like a nightmare, and if you have ever been there, you know what I am talking about. Since the release of Scary Movie 6, Universal Pictures and the director David F. Bell have have teamed up again to produce a series of horror films for the big screen. These films are designed to scare the be-Jesus out of you will never look at jump scares the same way again. There have been several other successful franchises based on this type of scary movie, and it is safe to say that the time when the horror movie franchise was considered over is long gone. Scary films have proven to be a huge hit among people of all ages and this is only going to continue. Scary Movie 6 will be releasing in June of 2021. Although the official release date has not yet been set, it should be released around May, so we could get some sort of a preview of what the new movie will contain. What we do know is that the main character in this movie will be a man named Jason Voorheis who has somehow gotten himself captured in the future, because he killed his friend and mother in the future. Once he is taken into the future, he must fight his way through the "forts" of the creatures that are terrorizing the human population now. This movie is sure to be one of the biggest surprises in the horror genre since its release, and Universal Pictures and David F. Bellweiser are doing a great job at creating a story that will make you jump out and scare the pants off. A lot of people are saying that they would like to see a spin-off or a sequel of the original Scary Movie series, but many people are wondering if the success of the series can warrant another film. I don't know if it is because the first film took the world by storm and made Universal Studios think that there was enough demand for a sequel, or if it is because the first movie was such a hit that it earned the rights to spin-off movies and preexisting stories. Either way, it doesn't seem like they are planning any more movies about the maniacal lycanthrope monster. Based on how well the original did, I would say that it would be best to give the series the benefit of a second chance. If you want to see some of the best horror films ever made, then look no further than the original "Scary Movie" series. The newer versions are even better than the originals, so it should come as no surprise that people are raving about them. I have seen all the newer versions and they are all scarier than the rest. The newest movie in the series is even scarier than the original, and it is definitely worth a watch. The "Scary Movie" series is ranked number one among horror films ever made, so you owe it to yourself to check it out.

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ratnco · 4 years ago

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How to Kill a Great Film in 2021

Good Films die every day in Hollywood. Contracts are written and thrown away, writers can be hired and fired as fast as old drafts can be thrown away and rewrites can be made days before production. And when that doesn’t stop a project from being a success, Producers can cut funding at the second to final lap around the track, locations can change, or in more recent cases, the entire world can change.

But let’s pretend this pandemic isn’t currently still in effect and fast forward to 2023, when cinemas are open again (sadly not for the Cinerama Dome) and a new movie is released once a week and regardless of how much we enjoy it, we get to talk about it. In this fantasy land, let’s talk about the 5 ways you can kill a good movie before, while, or after Production…

Relationship between Director and Producer

Whenever the release of a certain cut of a film that isn’t what the Director intended on releasing makes its way to Theatres, the thing that comes to most people’s minds is ‘Studio Interference’. If you’re an aspiring filmmaker, writer or just a fan of Cinema in general, you’ve heard all of your favourite Filmmakers talk about how much they hate their Producers, you hear horror stories about the un creative old rich man trying to be creative, forcing their bad ideas onto a project and thinking they have creative control because they’re funding it. And a lot of those stories are true, but is that really all? Are Studios really that mean? Even so, there was still a moment where the Producer sat down with the Director and said ‘I like your project, let’s make it.’ So they can’t be that terrible.

The truth to this problem lies at that meeting. Whatever the problem is that the studio, Director or Crew will find themselves knee deep in down the road, its source will be born on the desk where that meeting takes place. The Producer may have bad, unoriginal ideas and is just out to make bank on your project, and you may be an unknown indie-filmmaker just trying to find an outlet for your talented voice, but as different as these two forces are, they need each other to survive. A Producer needs a film to be successful in every theatre in the country in order to keep their business alive, and the Filmmaker needs to successfully capture their vision onto screen so they can share it with audiences around the globe, and that won’t happen without Studio Funding, and the Film won’t be made without a Filmmaker.

So what happens if you don’t get along, if the Producer changes their mind on the casting for the main character, or the third act of the script? Do you just say ‘Yes’ or ‘Fuck off!’? It’s up to the Filmmaker, but either answer won’t produce a good Film.

Another thing you’ll probably find in common with any Director whose movies have suffered a great deal of box office failure to what they claim is Studio interference, is that they hate producers, they say mean things about them during interviews and they establish bad relationships with Hollywood, and more often than not, their line up of upcoming projects grows thinner and thinner as the years go by.

A Filmmaker shouldn’t be surprised when they have a hard time getting their films made when this is how they treat the people funding them. As attached as you are to the movie you’re making, getting your film properly released involves your key role in a game that must be played, and played extremely well. If you have a disagreement with somebody, is the most wise next step to scream in their face? No. If you’d like somebody to see your point of view, it’s done only by a genuine back and forth dialogue, allowing both parties to level with one another, acknowledging each other’s perspectives and reaching a common goal they can both agree on.

A Filmmaker can still receive these requests and still say no and still have a great relationship with their Producers, it all comes down to the trust you establish with your collaborators, and yes, they are collaborators.

Not Getting Final Cut

Reason number two is exclusively caused by reason number 1; Getting the Final Cut for your film means that you alone have creative control over what the version of the movie you’ll one day be showing to audiences will look like. If you’re passionate about how you're going to eventually show your story to an audience, this is pretty important, as failure to do so will result in a version of your film reaching audiences that you did not play much of a role in.

Nobody wants somebody to take something they’ve made and turn it into something else entirely. If you’d like to see a prime example of this, watch Natural Born Killers. One of the most talked about Tarantino films isn’t even really a Tarantino film. ‘You don’t fuck with my material’, Quentin Tarantino told Oliver Stone when handing over his original script, to which Oliver and his team responded by taking his characters and plot and flipping it on its head, creating a new film that doesn’t even come close to resembling what Tarantino originally wrote, to which Tarantino responded by requesting his name be taken off of the writer’s credits.

How the Director Controls a Set.

When a Film is made, hundreds of people are involved other than the Filmmakers, Producers and their cast, there’s also a massive crew who must be considered. If you’re a Director, all of these people are working for you, which means you’re also responsible for feeding them, managing how fast or how slow they work, and their overall mindsets while making a movie and if you at any point assume that these decisions play a key role in the result of the final product, just walk into any retail store and see what happens when a Staff is treated poorly by its managers.

I’m glad I brought up Quentin Tarantino, because the Writer/Director has a very interesting rule on all of his sets: No Cellphones. At the door of a Tarantino set, a ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ will retrieve your device and give it back to you at the end of the day or in case of emergency. On Top of that, there are speakers planted on set, blasting music, chosen by Tarantino for the cast and crew to listen to while working. What results is a very chatty cast and crew, forced to engage each other in between takes or set ups, rehearsing lines and enjoying and embracing the atmosphere rather than trying to escape it. QT also has another very interesting rule: No Sleeping. But breaking this rule won’t result in death, only something worse… Floating around the internet is a photo of Brad Pitt and other Cast members of past Tarantino Films with a giant purple Dildo held against their sleeping faces on set. Morale is key.

Marketing

When shooting's wrapped, editing is almost complete, and everyone involved is very excited and thrilled that the release of their movie has met and maybe even exceeded expectations, now it’s time to release it. But to make sure that goes smoothly, you’ll need to advertise it so that people will know about it.

Which means it’s time to make your trailer. Making a trailer involves just as much writing as the birth of the Final Draft of your Screenplay.. The Filmmaker has a chance here to control how the future audience of their movie will perceive their story, how they absorb it and how they will use that information to make a decision on whether or not they’ll leave their house to go see it.

Here’s another place where studio interference may come into play. Say you’ve got a 3 hour long Western Drama that you’re trying to advertise, but the studio says that since this is a slightly more niche genre of cinema, and given the runtime it would be more wise to make the trailer feel rather fast paced and action packed, containing loud and fast music and sounds of gunshots and screaming! That way when people at home view it, they’ll feel excited, their hearts are racing because you've tapped into a very common human emotion that everybody on the planet could respond to: excitement.

Sure, this approach may sell a lot of seats on opening night, but what will the rest of opening weekend look like? Chances are, pretty blique. Because your Western Drama may indeed be a beautifully executed masterpiece filled with tension and tear jerkers, but the problem you’ll now face is that all of the people who went to see your movie left their houses because they’re big fans of high octane action films and that’s exactly what they were expecting when they came to see your movie. But that’s not what they got, so now they’re upset.

One thing that a lot of Producers today won’t admit is that a Film may not be for everybody, and that’s okay. Because rather than marketing to a broad selection of people who may or may not like your movie, your Audience will do a better job at championing your Film if you chose to only Market to the people who will want to go see it. Even if these numbers are fewer, if those people really enjoy your movie, they’ll do the rest of the marketing for you, which will get you an even bigger fanbase, which can maybe even turn into a cult following. The long term success of what you release will have a major effect on your ability to control future releases. The battles you fight now will win you the war of your career as a filmmaker.

As frustrating, controlling and sometimes crazy Hollywood can be to its Talent, at the end of the day, it's only an outlet for voices looking to speak out, it’s a malleable mechanism used by all of us, and without us it wouldn’t survive and vise versa, so we coexist. Any Film can be a great Film, but aspiring talent may not like to hear that talent will only put words on a page or a subject in frame, the true impact of what you create comes down to something as simple as knowing how to talk to people who aren’t like you, a method also referred to as ‘empathy.’

By Ezra Crittenden

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archivingspn · 4 years ago

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Variety “‘Supernatural’ at 200: The Road So Far, An Oral History”

(...) Eric Kripke (Creator): For me, the core notion behind “Supernatural” was to make a series about urban legends. I think they’re this incredibly rich mythology about the United States, and no one had really tapped into that, so when I started as a writer, one of the first ideas I ever pitched was an urban legend show.

A couple years later I tried to pitch, basically, a “Scooby Doo” rip off of a bunch of kids travelling in a van dealing with these urban legends. It was an idea that I never let go of and kept throwing there every couple years. Finally I had a deal with Warner Bros. and that incarnation was a reporter. Frankly, it was a rip off of “Nightstalker,” but I really fleshed it out and it had mythology.

I took it to Susan Rovner and Len Goldstein at the studio and they said, “We love the idea of doing a horror show,” which no one was really doing on TV at that time, “but we’re not into the reporter, that feels really tired. So no thanks and let’s get another angle.”

So in this moment, when they were basically passing on my idea, as you often do in these kinds of rooms, you start tap dancing. And I said, “forget the reporter, we should do this show as ‘Route 66,’ two cool guys in a classic car cruising the country, chasing down these urban legends,” and literally right on the spot I said “and they’re brothers,” because it popped in my head. “And they’re dealing with their family stuff and they’re fighting evil.” You just start making it up as you go. They were like, “Brothers, wow, that’s a relationship we haven’t seen on TV before.” And from there, “Supernatural” was born… out of a piece of improvisation.

Peter Roth (President, Warner Bros. Television): Eric [had] been with us since about 2002. Sometime in 2004, he came to us with this idea… this extraordinary road show about these two brothers, in which they would be living all of the great urban and rural myths that [we’re all] exposed to as kids. It was a very commercial idea, emotionally driven, which was what I was most concerned about: who are the characters? Why do I relate to them? Why are they worth my while to watch? And once we cast Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, along with Eric’s great idea, along with the script, along with David Nutter, our director on the pilot, the combination of those factors is what made me so excited and I frankly knew, from the moment I saw this pilot, that it was a winner. There wasn’t a person who I work with who didn’t feel the same way. It was a real strong story of young adult siblings that resonated perfectly with The WB audience.

Kripke: When we were casting, you see a lot of people. We hadn’t found our Sam and Dean. David Nutter suggested Jensen because we knew him from “Smallville.” We met with him to play Sam, and we fell in love with [him]. And then Jared came in, and he was a really great Sam too. Looking back, we were such idiots to not see it… We had two great Sams and no Dean and you think it would be obvious to put one into the other role, but it was not obvious. So we [went] to Peter Roth and we said, “We’re not sure what to do,” and Peter was like, “why don’t you make Jensen Dean?” We all looked at each other like, “we’re idiots, of course.” It’s so difficult to find one actor who is charismatic enough to be a breakout character and to support a show. So to find two of them, where there’s only two leads… I didn’t realize what a miracle it was at the time. It’s a miracle. (...) Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester): It was just immediate chemistry. There was an ease to it. There was a familiarity to it. Once we got into it with each other, it just fell in place and it came… not easy, but definitely a little easier than my experiences in the past. I think the importance of that bond and that relationship was verbalized by Kripke when he sat us down and said, “this begins and ends with you,” and not only how we relate to each other on screen, but also off screen. There was an importance stamped into [that bond] very early on. (...) Padalecki: (...) It was definitely a huge learning process, not only for myself, learning the character of Sam Winchester, but I think we didn’t have a grasp on what we were doing. The original tag line was monster of the week, like “X-files” meets “The Twilight Zone.” And we had these very famous urban legends about Bloody Mary or the Hookman, but ultimately you’re going to run out of those.

Singer: Eric talked about the five-season plan… I don’t know if he secretly had that in mind and was just not sharing it, but initially Eric wanted campfire stories. And the mythology really started to evolve in the first year. We didn’t exactly know where we wanted to go, and I don’t even think Eric knew exactly where he wanted to go

Kripke: If I’ve said in the past that I had this five year plan from the beginning, I was lying. I always knew what that particular season was going to be; “by midseason I want to be here, by the end of the season I want to be there.” And then I always had a rough sketch what the season after that would be. I will say I knew that the show was going to come down to evil Sam versus good Dean and the fate of the world was going to hang in the balance — that was baked into the pilot. I wanted to build it to something that felt conclusive because I didn’t want these mysteries and mythologies to stretch on forever.

Sera Gamble (writer, executive producer): We were realizing the thing that we most enjoyed when we were watching cuts of the show was the chemistry between the brothers, and that the mythology we were constructing for the season was really a family story about two young men and their father, and this family legacy that they’re trying to deal with. That was the heart of the show, and if we paid attention to how each monster story resonated with the relationship between the brothers, then the show was always really interesting.

Padalecki: It was right around the episode “Faith” where the writers realized this show isn’t just about what kind of monsters we can kill but what the brothers can go through together. And I think luckily we stuck with that theme on through the end [of season one], where we reintroduced our father into the storyline. And we get some sense of what the father is willing to do for the sons and what the sons are willing to do for each other. And so it became this story about sacrifice and loyalty and family and friendship [within] this medium of the supernatural and ghosts and ghouls.

Gamble: It’s not like we sat down to write “Faith” and we said, “we’re going to write the game changer.” We just wanted to find a really human, emotional way into a story about faith healing. We had these different elements of the reapers that we wanted to bring into the show and the phenomena of faith healers in the history of America, and it ended up being a story that was really personal and kind of philosophical… From that point forward, everyone was hungry to do more stories that had an aspect of the personal and the metaphysical. (...) Singer: Eric’s phrase was “smoke them if you got them,” where we would just try to tell the best stories we could and be as provocative as we could. We felt that this had a long-term mythology, so ending with kind of a very dramatic cliffhanger just seemed the right thing for us and that all seemed to work out for us. (...) Padalecki: Season two is the season where we realize dying doesn’t mean you’re dead, beginning with Dean who died — so to speak — in the first episode, and culminating with Sam who died in the last episode. Unlike season one where we were figuring out what this show was about, who these characters were, season two we hit the ground running.

Ackles: The interesting thing that Kripke did with the first several seasons is he flipped character motivations from season to season. With the first season you had Dean as the motivating factor: he was really pushed by his father, dragging Sam along against his will. Then as Dad dies, the whole thing is flipped upside down. Now Dean is like, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” Dad was his motivating factor in life and [after] he lost him, it was a devastating blow and Dean just wanted to hang it up. And Sam was the one who was like, “no, we’re going to go find answers to this. I have to figure out how I play into this,” and Dean went along with him because he couldn’t let his little brother go it alone. (...) Gamble: It was really fun to kill Sam. You don’t very often get to kill the lead character. One of the really fun things about “Supernatural” is that you get to kill whoever you want, and it’s part of the evil genius of Eric Kripke. From pretty early on, he understood the power of doing the unexpected thing to the character the audience thinks is safe. He fought hard, and he was always someone who, in the room, would push us to not get precious with a character, to not try to save someone because we think they’re amazing. If we love them, we’ll bring them back in some other form. Because we had a plan to bring Sam back, we got to write the super-emotional scene with his brother that we knew that Jensen would knock out of the park, and both of them knocked it out of the park. (...) Singer: I think Bela didn’t quite turn out as good of a story driver as we might have wanted, although we loved Lauren — we thought she was terrific in the part. But we started pinning ourselves a little bit in the corner [with her as] Dean’s nemesis, like, “how often can she best Dean without assassinating our lead character?” If she would’ve been on three times a year, I think that character could’ve really served a purpose going forward. Ruby served a better purpose and that pushed the mythology into a different area. But we were a little flummoxed because you say, “what do we do? We can’t have two women just sitting in the back of the car with these guys.”

Gamble: I think Ruby in the long term was a more successful character than Bela, but we all really enjoyed creating Bela in the room, especially Ben Edlund, who wrote some really cool stuff for her. Not every peg will fit in every hole in the show. You don’t get Castiel one hundred percent of the time. If you follow any show for long enough, you’ll notice some places where they corrected the course, and we learned a lot from writing those two characters. I really like a lot of the stuff that we did with Ruby. It’s really cool to have a character that’s played by more than one actor, and it’s such an interesting characterization of a demon. (...) Kripke: I think the truncated season actually ended up helping the mythology. We were a little aimless as we had just lost the Yellow-Eyed Demon, the great big bad, and we hadn’t introduced a new big bad yet. Because we had less episodes, we had to focus quickly on what was really important: Dean’s deal with the demons and the fact that he had a ticking clock and that he was going to get dragged down to hell. (...) Kripke: If you had asked me in season one, were there going to be angels in Supernatural, I would have said “absolutely not, you’re fired.” Up to that point I always felt like I didn’t want any supernatural good guys in the show. If there was any force of good, it was going to be Sam and Dean, and they were going to be overwhelmed and outgunned. And as we were kicking towards the end of season three and we were doing lots of demon stories, I was worried that we were overplaying the demon stuff. But the idea that angels could be dicks and that they didn’t have to be this warm fuzzy helpful force, they could actually be a really interesting antagonist, once I kind of realized that, I said, “I’ve never seen that depiction of angels on television before.” It wasn’t just these two boys versus all these demons; it became Sam and Dean trapped in the middle of this massive war where you had two sides battling, and humanity, represented by the boys, were caught in the middle, so how do they play both sides against the other? It balanced the mythology in a way that I think made it much more satisfying. (...) Kripke: I’m the first to acknowledge that the idea really came from graphic novels. It came from “Preacher”; it came from “Hellblazer,” which has now become “Constantine,” which is why Castiel wears a trench coat. There’s a reason why Castiel looks exactly like Constantine — it’s because I ripped off Constantine. But I had no idea it was going to be a show at the time! It was funny, as I went into the writers’ room at the start of season four, having thought about it I said, “okay guys, this season we’re doing angels.” And they were like, “What? You asshole!” Because there were so many angel stories that were pitched earlier and I would literally shame them out of the room whenever anyone pitched an angel story, and now I’m presenting it as an entire mythology. But it worked out.

Padalecki: I think season four was really the turning point for the show, and really set the new parameters for what the show is still about to this day, most notably with the introduction of Castiel.

Ackles: This was when “Lost” was on the air, “Heroes” was on the air, these giant mega hits. I remember Eric taking issue with “Lost” because they kept asking questions and never really giving answers. He was against that method of storytelling and said, “no, I’m going to ask the question and I’m going to answer it. And maybe the audience doesn’t like the answer, but I’m most certainly not going to string them along just until I come up with some sort of a solution.” That’s one of the reasons why, from season to season, the bar just kept getting raised and the supernatural world kept getting bigger, almost to the point where it was incomprehensible to the Winchesters. I think we really saw that when the introduction of angels came into play, and then it became something far greater than things that go bump in the night… It was a leap of faith. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do something like that, but I think it panned out. And now we have one of the most loved characters of the series still with us today.

Collins: I was supposed to be on for three episodes, and they said, “Oh, you might do five episodes,” so they added a couple more, and then they added three more after that… Then they signed me up as a series regular and they kept me on for two years, and then they said they were going to kill me and that we would never see me again in season 7. And then they changed their minds again… I was joining the show the beginning of Season 4. I kind of assumed that that was the tail end of the show. I think everybody really thought that the show was going to be over at the end of Season 5 at that point, which was Kripke’s original vision, so it’s very strange to still be here. We are obviously counting ourselves lucky that the show has run so long. (...) Kripke: The movie “Stranger than Fiction” had just come out. And so it started with a really innocent single episode pitch: what happens if Sam and Dean realize that they’re characters in a book; that they find a book that is detailing their entire lives? And then it would give us an opportunity to really poke fun at what we’re doing in “Supernatural,” and that was really fun for me. [Then] somebody said, “well what if he’s a prophet of the lord?” We jumped all over that idea and it really tied into this mythology. It was our first serious meta episode.

And once we introduced him, I thought it was so funny and smart, and you just want to start doing more of it. That’s how I think a lot of the insanity in “Supernatural” emerged. Because we couldn’t repeat ourselves with Chuck: if you’re going to see him again, it better be at a fan convention. Every single time, Bob would say to me, “this is the one where we’ve gone too far.” And then after one of them I responded, “don’t you see? We can never go too far, there is no too far.” (...) Kripke: The thing I remember most about that season was how exhausted I was going through it… I knew I wanted some sort of apocalyptic ending where evil Sam had to fight a good Dean. One of the things that was really hard about that season is, it’s one thing in season four when you’re promising the apocalypse: Is it going to happen, can the boys stop it? It’s a whole different matter when you’re saying in season five, “okay, the apocalypse is happening,” because you still are on a budget. There’s an incredible amount of off-camera, “oh no, there’s been an earthquake!” stuff on the news. It’s really difficult to mount something of that scope. (...) Ackles: To look at the five seasons, to step back and look at that all as one story… it was a massively grand finale and it was like Game Seven of the World Series, and I just don’t know how you can go on from that. I think Eric thought the same thing. He was like, “I’m throwing out my last pitch and I’m taking off into the sunset,” and that’s what he did, but it had become such a hit that the studio and the network were like, “no, guys, you have to keep going.” (...) Gamble: We thought season five would be the last season. But pretty early into [it], Eric came to me and said “signs are pointing toward a season six,” and he was ready to move on and asked me to step in. And he came to me really early because there was a tremendous amount of learning and training and coming behind the curtain to see what he and Bob were doing that had to happen.

There was part of me that was just, lovingly, super pissed at Eric. I was like, “do we have to do this after the apocalypse? We literally burned the story all the way to the apocalypse. We have to start over and find a whole new classification of villains, so what the hell are we going to do?” But we had several months to ponder that. We had a great writers’ room, and everybody put their heads together, and Eric, to his great credit, stayed with the show, and was very active in constructing season six, and was incredibly helpful to me, personally. He was instrumental in figuring out what we were going to do next. It was like a reboot.

Kripke: I read every script. And then once Sera was comfortable in the gig and the studio and network were comfortable, I backed off. And from then I would define my role as a parent who sends their kid off to college. I’m extremely proud. I’m there if they need me… And it was never me running the show alone. It was always me and Bob Singer, and Bob has always been there. So there’s been true continuity. People say “Supernatural” has had different showrunners and it hasn’t. It’s actually always had the same showrunner, he has just had different partners over the last decade. (...) Gamble: The good thing about “Supernatural” is some things always remain the same. It’s always a story of two brothers, always a story about that family. It is always a story about the people who fight the things that go bump in the night, and there is always a structure that has an overarching mythology that gets solved piece by piece over the course of a season. That engine is pretty solid. I think one of the first conversations was just, “so we did heaven and we did hell, and oh, there’s a purgatory.” It started from that simple examination: “What is the mythology that we’ve been mining, and what else is in there that we haven’t talked about yet?”

You’re on a show for years and years, and you watch the actors grow up. Sam did not look like little Sammy was just out of college anymore. He was a grown-ass man; Jensen was a grown-ass man. They were adults, and they were men who had been through a lot, so the stories have to evolve, become more mature. They have to be about the problems that people would have in their adult lives, and that’s really how we were approaching these things. We were looking for problems that were not repeats of the problems they were having when they were 17 or 22. (...) Kripke: Once we were able to pull off “The French Mistake,” and Sam and Dean were actually able to go and become Jared and Jensen making an episode of “Supernatural,” I think Bob saw that there’s no such thing as too far. If you can pull that off and not destroy your show, you can truly do anything.

The season also saw Castiel drifting further away from the Winchesters, as he was unwittingly manipulated by Crowley in his quest to try and prevent a war among the leaderless angels. By the end of the year, after absorbing thousands of monster souls from purgatory, Castiel became corrupted by his newfound power.

Collins: I loved it. If for no other reason than Cas became God at the end of season six, which has always been a fantasy of mine, personally. There’s a very elite cadre of actors that ever get to [do that]. I think it was a great way to make the character a big bad. I was sorry to see myself killed off shortly thereafter in the beginning of season seven, but glad to see myself resurrected a couple episodes later. (...) Singer: We came up with this Leviathan idea: How do a group of monsters who want to take over society go about doing that? And the logical answer for us was, they insert themselves into the fabric of society in powerful ways — that’s what happens with the pharmaceutical companies, it’s what happens with government. It just seemed like an easy place to go and really be able to say something on a week-to-week basis. [We were] changing up what we were to try to make it interesting, and we feel if it’s interesting to us, we hope that it’s interesting for other people… Doing a season that was kind of political with these different monsters that we hadn’t seen before, I thought was pretty bold, and by and large a good season.

Gamble: The price of success is that you have to really be hard on yourself to keep the stakes high in a show like that. How do you keep the stakes high after you’ve faced the demon that kills your mother, angels, the apocalypse? The way that we found our way into that is by keeping it really personal. If it’s about Bobby, it will mean something to the audience, because Bobby means so much to the boys. (...) Ackles:(...) That was a huge blow to both the Winchesters because this was a surrogate father figure who had become their anchor, had become their home, and now they once again lost that pivotal character in their story. And so, once again the rug gets whipped out from underneath them and all they’re left with is each other and they’ve got to keep on going. I think that was a really important season because of not just losing Bobby, but look what it did to the story and the direction that it then sent the boys off in.

Padalecki: I thought season 7 was going to be the last season of “Supernatural,” while we were filming it. We’d gone so big with the Leviathans and it was yet another departure from our normal canon. There were times I thought we strayed a little bit; our big bad of the season was Dick Roman [James Patrick Stewart] and there were times I thought there were one too many dick jokes, every now and then I felt like we were straying off-course, but the fans stuck with us and I think that season we introduced Kevin Tran [Osric Chau] who stayed with us for a while, so we said goodbye to a few characters, we met a few new characters. (...) Jeremy Carver (writer, executive producer): When I came in, it was a pretty open canvas. A lot of things had wrapped up. The biggest issue was that Dean had been popped down to Purgatory, and what do you do with that? But because there wasn’t an ongoing mythology we had to worry about, we could really let our minds roam and I came up with that main idea of [Dean] becoming best friends with a vampire and then saying, “What if Sam, for once in his life did something that ran contrary to what the world at large — and when I say the world at large, I mean the fans at large as well — thought he should do?” For me, that was a really thrilling tack to take, just because it felt like fresh snow. From a story standpoint, it felt like Sera left lots of opportunity.

And then [there] was this idea of, these guys have been together for so long, at a certain point… they need to – I hate to say “mature” because that sounds like they weren’t mature in the past, but… mature in the sense of really exploring what it is to be their own person. And that’s what was really behind Sam not looking for Dean at the beginning of season eight. It wasn’t so much me taking over as it was like, “let’s put these characters in situations that make sense but feel risky for them as characters.” One thing I really wanted to do was to put a different kind of spotlight on these guys. (...) Ackles: One of my most favorite storylines was Dean in Purgatory. If there was one storyline that I wish would’ve dragged out much longer, it would’ve been that one. I would’ve liked to have seen more of what Dean was up against in Purgatory and how he lived and how he existed in that realm and among those things down there and how he was able to survive. And he befriended Benny [Ty Olsson], who I thought was a great character… I was sad to see [him] go when he did.

We’ve lost so many good characters on the show, but that’s one of the reasons why the show is compelling to people, because we do take risks…if there’s a fan favorite character that now could easily be an integral part of the story, we bring them in and then we kill them and it’s shocking. If we can continue not just to entertain people, but to shock them and to make them feel the spectrum of emotion, from joy to loss, then I think we’re doing our job as storytellers. And I think season eight was a good representation of that.

Padalecki: Ultimately, “Supernatural” is really a show about two brothers and their relationship and their struggles and their loyalties and their sacrifices, and so I knew in my heart of hearts that even though season eight started out with Sam having gone off to try and live another normal life with the character of Amelia (Liane Balaban), I figured it was a way to remind both the audience and the cast and crew what the show was about. I thought season seven might’ve gone a little off the reservation, but in a strange way, by steering even further off the reservation and having the brothers not even be involved with each other [at the start of season eight], it really reaffirmed for everybody what the bread and butter of the show is, which, in my opinion is the relationship between the two brothers, so it was a nice rekindling and repartnership of Sam and Dean. (...) Padalecki: My favorite part of season eight was the introduction of the Men of Letters. I was so excited to play this smart character, and I really got a chance to delve into that in season eight. I remember with the introduction of the Men of Letters – like I said, in season seven I thought we were maybe coming to an end, and then I read the episode with the Men of Letters and Henry Winchester played by the wonderful Gil McKinney, and I thought, “holy crap, we can go for another eight years.” And it was nice to have a home again. We had burned Bobby Singer’s home down a season prior, and that was our only standing set on “Supernatural,” and so to have the Men of Letters bunker to refuel and research and gather our bearings as characters and actors was a really welcome addition to the show, and I feel like the Men of Letters storyline has really worked wonders for and breathed new life into the show these past couple seasons. (...) Carver: The notion of Sam being possessed by an angel was originally Bob Singer’s idea. He threw it out there between seasons and said, “what if to save Sam’s life you had to put an angel in him?” It came from the same cloth of, “what if Dean had to rely on a vampire to escape from Purgatory and they became bonded over that?” You have to make do with the friends that are in front of you. Then we started to just flush out the character of Gadreel, who was originally Ezekiel, and that was one of my favorite characters we’ve done over the last couple of years, just because he felt very fleshed out and very empathetic. And Tahmoh was just wonderful because he has this bearing that is manly and unfamiliar all at once. He really dug into that role. If I remember correctly, Jared actually performed as Tahmoh before Tahmoh had even said a word of dialogue. So there was a leap of faith there on the part of Jared, who did a really spectacular job of portraying two characters, and he really embraced it. I was very happy with the way the whole Ezekiel/Gadreel story worked out, and how it all reflected back on the boys and their relationships. (...) Castiel finally became human in season nine — a trajectory that seemed to be a long time coming, after the angel’s powers began to dwindle in season eight.

Collins: That was something that I, as an actor, was looking forward to from the beginning — I kept on hoping that they were going to let Castiel become human for a while, and they finally did, and it was great. I think he had three or four episodes as a human; I wish we’d had a little longer in that realm, because I feel like there was a lot of good material to mine there, but the experience that he had being human made him much more empathetic towards humans, and I think that experience definitely left a lasting impression on him. He, I think, understands some of the subtleties of human interaction a little bit better. He is a little bit more savvy and definitely a lot more empathetic. But being more empathetic also makes him question himself more, have more doubts. He definitely is less cocksure as he moves through life, and he sees the gray areas and both sides of the story a little bit more than he used to.

Dean, meanwhile, became the unwitting recipient of the Mark of Cain, a brand that enables the wearer to wield the First Blade, a powerful weapon – but also saps away their humanity. Dean struggled to control his darker impulses as a result of the Mark, and after dying at the end of the season, found himself resurrected by the power of the Mark and reanimated as a demon, neatly paralleling Sam’s own descent into darkness in earlier seasons.

Carver: In this case, it was [writer and co-executive producer] Robbie Thompson coming up with the idea of Cain [Timothy Omundson]. And I remember him pitching this idea of the Mark of Cain. At the time he pitched it, I remember thinking, “I don’t know exactly where this is going to fit into the overall mythology, but it’s a wonderful thing to plant,” which we do all the time. One of the dirty little secrets of the show is that after we come up with something and it works out really well, we say, “hey, it’s almost like we planned it that way.” Sometimes things are just happy accidents. You try and draw out that roadmap, and then the writers are coming up with all these incredible, creative things. Cain just felt like such a no brainer, to the point where you’re wondering, “why haven’t we had this character in our world before?” We had referenced him before but hadn’t seen him.

But when [Robbie] talked about the Mark of Cain and putting it on Dean, it was something to plant like, “we’re definitely doing this and we’re going to figure out how to make this work as the season goes on,” which is exactly what happened. I’d like to say from the very beginning that we knew [Dean] was going to be a demon, but we didn’t. We had all these ideas of where Dean would go, but sometimes it’s peanut butter and chocolate and it takes a few episodes actually to realize the tools you have right in front of you.

Ackles: If you look back at the majority of series, it really hinges on Sam’s character. That’s the way it was originally intended, that’s the way it serves the story best, but every now and again the spotlight got flipped and turned on Dean, and I think we’re seeing this again with Mark of Cain. That was part of the setup for just very dark and troubled Dean.

Season nine was one of the more difficult seasons that I personally had to deal with, and it was because of not just the weight of the storyline, but because it was so Dean-centric. I was on set pretty much the whole time while everybody else was enjoying their vacation. It was just a lot of weight and a lot of darkness in my world last year, but we got through it and I think it made for some good story and I think it made for a good setup of where we’re going this year… I really enjoyed the twist at the end of last season when we think we lost Dean yet again and lo and behold, an unlikely character comes in and brings him back to life. So I have to give it to Carver on that one, when I read it I was shaking my head with very happy approval, because I knew that was now another massive situation that Sam and Dean are going to have to deal with. And how they [were] going to get out of it, I was anxious to see.

After Dean returned from death as a demon at the end of season nine, Crowley took his newly minted BFF to “howl at the moon,” but their bromance was shortlived – Sam saved his brother and restored Dean’s humanity in the third episode of season ten. So where do the brothers go from here?

Padalecki: Sam, with the help of Castiel, has saved Dean from being a demon and has made good on his promise at the end of season nine where he said he wasn’t gonna let him go, he wasn’t gonna let him die. But Dean is still cursed or possibly forever changed by this Mark of Cain. Sam and Dean don’t really know the repercussions of that just yet; they can’t find Cain; Castiel can’t find any answers; and Crowley’s not helping. We know that the Mark is changing him somehow, Dean doesn’t want it and Sam doesn’t want him to have it, so now they have to go as far as only the Winchesters will go to figure out how to get this Mark of Cain off of Dean before he turns into something that could cause more damage than Sam or Dean have ever seen.

Carver: Dean’s not a demon, but he still has this problem; he’s still got the Mark of Cain. And in the broadest strokes possible, it’s a very, very personal year where our overarching mythology for the season is building in a very methodical, very personal manner. I think a lot of relationships…I’ll even go as far to say a lot of bromances that have sprung up on the show, are going to be tested in ways that I think are going to be very uncomfortable. Each of our characters is going to have to stare into the abyss at some point and say, “who am I?” It’s going to be pretty personal, pretty intense, and pretty surprising as we move down the road.

Thankfully, the 200th episode (airing Nov. 11), is a light-hearted departure: it’s a musical, featuring a score composed by Christopher Lennertz and Jay Gruska, with lyrics by Robbie Thompson, who wrote the episode.

Carver: It’s our love letter to the fans. Many aspects of the fandom are going to see themselves represented in many different ways and in the most loving way possible. It’s an episode that takes a long, loving look at the show, warts and all. And we’re the first to admit our mistakes or our inconsistencies, and I think long-time fans will have a lot of fun seeing where we acknowledge this one big, happy, messy family that we’re all part of.

[source]

#2014-Nov #2014:November11Variety #*SMT #*destiel #*romance #*codependency #c/m saved the show #*CCTOF #Jeremy Carver #Eric Kripke #Sera Gamble #Robert Singer #Peter Roth #Jensen Ackles #Jared Padalecki #Misha Collins #author: Laura Prudom #Variety

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