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mynamesaplant · 7 months ago

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It Changes, like Water (CH. 4)

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Summary: Akari has just met Gaeric for the first time and is still a little rattled by the experience. Ingo tries to reassure her by telling her a story.

Content Warning: Blood, bodily injury, and wild animal attack

Notes: I've made this in honor of Monsoon-of-Art and their PLA mer au (and just a touch from a different au where Gaeric acts as Irida's guardian). Many of the scenes in this fic are directly inspired by their work, there mer stuff more specifically. I've been a big fan of them since I started playing PLA and I've only grown to love all their characterizations of some of my favorite characters in all of Pokemon.

Getting into the meat! This is the portion of the story that has a depiction of violence, which includes: blood, broken bones, and other sorts of violence. I would consider it minor at best, but just in case that stuff upsets you, you've been warned!

This is by far where I took the most liberties with the Nobles and the Celestica flutes. The thought it would be interesting that each flute had a slight personalization to it. It would still look like a Celestica flute from afar, but a bit more unique to the Noble and the Noble's warden up close. The pyrite and ice being an homage to the Pokemon, Avalugg.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! Don't like to read on Tumblr? Read it here on AO3.

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Gaeric used to love going to the various shrines for Pearl Clan’s nobles. The closest being Lord Avalugg’s residing on a speck of land in the middle of their territory. This is where many generations of the lord’s children called their nursery and Gaeric loved to see all the gentle giant’s offspring, but now those memories were associated with once happy memories gone rotten.

He got the feeling that Irida felt the same as they genuflected before the lord’s shrine. She fidgeted beside him, the tip of her tail flicking in a barely contained agitation – she felt uncomfortable. This place held memories for her, too. Memories embittered by horrible events. Gaeric understood. He knew better than anyone.

“Alright, small fry. Let’s get going. Those fish aren’t going to catch themselves.”

Soon they were back in the water and headed toward distant shorelines, entering the mouth of a winding river. Irida was quick and was usually pretty good at diverting fish into strategically placed nets, so he told her to watch the current and try to spot any natural fish traps like eddies and look for optimal hideouts that she would need to flush the char out from. She nodded keenly just as he got started setting up his nets, thrusting stakes into the silty river bottom with his raw strength because they were already behind schedule.

Stupid Palina and her guilt tripping. What did it matter if Irida wasn’t interested in being clan leader? Or what if she did, but had more of his tendencies? Just a little bit more animosity toward the likes of Diamond Clan. Just a little bit weary of people and accepting their help. Wouldn’t that make a more self-sufficient and cautious leader? He thought so.

The stakes were set and Gaeric was taking a short break before the real work began. Irida was already hard at work scaring fish into the net set up and quickly tying them off, the settlement would be quite appreciative of the haul. Unlike Irida, who was trying to mooch from him the moment she noticed he had something to eat, he had had the foresight to bring food with him from the settlement.

“Getcher own!”

He grumbled through a piece of defrosted seal meat, one arm extended and keeping Irida at bay. Whining, she tried to flit around his hand to sink her teeth into the piece of meat for just a little morsel, but Gaeric, far too used to this routine, jerked his head away at the last second.

“Just a little piece- don’t be such a jerk!”

With very little consideration, Gaeric shoved the remaining meat into his mouth.

“Gaeric!”

The teen chewed, swallowed, and smacked his lips to emphasis just how tasty it had been. He could feel one of his back teeth stinging in protest, he heard a decidedly loud crack when he shoved the whole piece in his mouth. Irida glared at him the whole time.

“You knew this was going to be a big trip. You should have thought about bringing something to eat.”

“Would it have killed you to share?”

Irida griped, arms folded over her chest and a grimace curving her mouth. No, it wouldn’t have, but it was all a part of Gaeric’s tough love campaign. He was trying to teach Irida about responsibility. She had to learn to be responsible for herself and own up to her mistakes when she made them, how else would she be a good leader?

“No, probably not, but what would that teach you?”

Irida glowered at him, stuck out her tongue, and swam off in a huff up the river. Gaeric could see her rummaging around through the boulders to spook any stray prey like a char or a lamprey. He did bring some extra rations because he knew she forgot, but he was waiting for her to realize her mistake and come back before he was going to part with it.

Life wasn’t always kind and Irida needed to learn how to roll with the punches, so to speak. When he made a mistake, his mother always made him own up to it, and always made him take responsibility for it. He expected the same thing – possibly more – from Irida. So, Gaeric waited. He waited and waited until he felt his eye starting to twitch with the effort of scanning the murky water in the distance for her smaller figure. Where in Sinnoh’s name was she?

He was stowing his possessions into the cleft of two adjacent rocks and started making his way upriver to search for her. What a brat, he thought to himself with his brow furrowed, couldn’t swallow her pride enough for an apology. He was coming to a section of river that he found strangely quiet, nothing alive moving in the water, just debris already caught in the current. The water grew shallower to his right, and he saw something that sent a cold shiver through his whole body. The furry legs and faces of brown bears in the water, peering at him as he surged forward, now listening for a sound he was dreading more than anything in the world. When he heard it, Gaeric’s heart almost stopped.

A scream.

The sound came from up the river aways, the water growing shallower and the banks narrowing into a tributary that was turning white and frothy with how fast Gaeric was clawing his way towards the sound. The bottom of this tributary was much rockier than the river it washed into, his underbelly scraping along the bottom and tinting the water the same soft pink one might see at dusk. Small, jagged pebbles were tears and digging into his flesh, but he didn’t care. His only thought was of Irida. His head broke the water, whipping around wildly and eyes widening at the spots of blood splattering the shoreline. Just beyond his reach was Irida and a young brown bear.

Irida was screeching at the top of her lungs and rolling around in the grass to evade the bear, her claws covered in blood and a wicked looking gash across the bear’s snout was enough clues that Irida was fighting for her life. In his heartbeat of observation, he saw Irida had her own gashes and a bite mark by her tail. The bear must have dragged her out of the water by her tail and that’s all Gaeric needed to know. He practically launched himself out of the water, but gravity was not kind on his large body. He was trying to reach out for her, trying to bring her back to the safety of the water, but he just didn’t have the reach. Just a hair’s breadth from his fingertips.

“No!”

He roared, trying to shimmy himself on the grass to get closer and the water falling from his body in sheaves was helping, making the ground slick enough to move his bulk but it wasn’t enough. His sudden appearance startled the bear, but also Irida, and the bear was quicker to recover. There was another blood curdling scream as the bear’s jaws clamped on her arm and shattering one of her pearlescent bracelets, dragging her away into the tree line, all while Gaeric howled and cursed.

What was he thinking! He should have warned her about the bears, how many other depictions other than those of the benevolent Lord Ursaluna had she ever seen? She had no frame of reference for the animal and no experience in rivers to know to stay away from this common predator. She knew about predators of the sea, but those of land? Those were a brand-new animal in more ways than one. He knew how curious she was. He should have known her curiosity would outweigh her instincts in this case. She wouldn’t have had a reason to think a bear was any more dangerous than a sea turtle.

“Irida!”

With no legs, he was relying solely on his arms to move closer, and the grass was ripping from the soil in protest at his massive bulk. Irida was being dragged away. She was crying and clawing at the bear’s face and eyes. Bears, however, could be just as sturdy as any mer, so it ignored her efforts to fight back. The fright in her eyes, pupils contracted so much as to only resemble thin lines, it was only serving to make Gaeric’s movements more frantic, more desperate.

Not her. Not Irida. Sinnoh above, please, not Irida. Show him just a little mercy. Gaeric couldn’t lose someone else. Sinnoh, grant him the strength to move – grant him a miracle! And Sinnoh must have been listening and had taken pity on the poor orphans as, beyond the trees, there was a bellow of rage that made the very earth beneath him tremble and shake. The bear froze, ear pricked and nose twitching. Irida fell to the ground in a heap and the bear was trying to take off in the opposite direction to no avail. A massive brown blur barreled into them at a frightening speed. Lord Ursaluna had arrived in the nick of time.

The other bear was launched as if weightless across the bank, its body leaving skid marks through the grass. It lay motionless for a moment, which momentarily made Gaeric wonder if Ursaluna had hit it hard enough to kill it, but a second later it leapt to its feet and had taken off. He turned his head back toward Ursaluna, the lord huffing indignantly at the departure before swinging his massive head in the direction of Irida…

Oh, lords and ladies! Gaeric scrambled across the grass, digging his claws into the earth to be by her side. She was catatonic, staring vacantly in the direction her attacker had run. He said her name and she did not acknowledge him.

“I should have warned you. Stupid!”

He cursed himself, looking at her wounds and seeing that many, although bloody, were superficial. The worst was the bite mark by her tail where the bear had initially grabbed her, the bear had contended with the thick layer of that had been developing with more consistent meals.

The bite to her arm was not looking good at all, the broken bones beneath made her arm rubbery like fresh seaweed, but it didn’t appear the bear had a good grip after it had shattered her bracelet. He hoped that bear had pieces of that bracelet lodged its mouth forever. If Lord Ursaluna had not come when he did – the Noble’s hot breath warmed Gaeric’s shoulder and the teen jumped.

Ursaluna was massive. A hump of rough fur covered dense muscle between his shoulder blades, there was peculiar splotch on his head reminding him of the cloudy night of a full moon and mournful looking eyes that did not complement the deadly sets of claws on each paw. The bear scented the air, glancing around him to look at Irida and those mournful eyes seemed to understand the situation, the lord stepped toward her.

To look at Ursaluna, it would be hard to expect him to be as gentle as he was with Irida just then. He nosed her face, breathing in deeply before taking in the rest of her. Upon noticing the jewels that her father had once worn before her, the lord seemed to recognize and inclined his head in his recognition. A low growl emitted from the noble’s throat before he lumbered into the woods, Gaeric did not know what was meant, but he could guess. They were to wait there until he returned.

“Irida, I’m so sorry.”

Her eyes drifted toward him as he reached for her and then hesitated. He was terrified to touch her, like she was like dried brittle star that would crumble to the touch under his rough hands. Gaeric could feel something welling deep within him, something he had been pushing down for so long, and was continuing to push down because he couldn’t afford to look weak.

He was going to be the biggest, like his father. He was going to be the strongest, like his mother. How could he be either, if he couldn’t stop being selfish for one second to realize that he was not fit to take care of Irida? There was a hole in his life that he would never admit that Irida filled when he lost his mother. The girl meant so much to him, but he couldn’t even be a good role model to her.

He kept her around at first because he had to, he only did it out of spite. Too wrapped up in his own pain to realize just how much Irida was hurting. Instead of using that mutual experience to help each other heal, Gaeric was only interested in getting back at the people who served to make his life more miserable.

He hadn’t done right by Irida, and it was about time he admitted it… After all, that’s what his mother had taught him.

“I…”

Gaeric took a deep breath, looking into her blue eyes that began to fill with tears at the tone of his voice.

“I failed you, Irida. I was selfish and that nearly got you killed.”

There was so much more he wanted to say, but his throat felt too tight, and he lowered his head, hurriedly brushing the tears from his eyes. He took another deep breath.

“I should have, and promise to do better for you… But I don’t think I can do that right now… I have to – No, I need to work out some things on my own. I’ll always be here for you Irida, but to be the best mentor I can be to you, I must work on myself first.”

She stared at him for a long time, a long lingering hurt shining in her eyes. She asked him something that made his whole chest ache with a despair he hadn’t felt so deeply as he did when he receive the news of his mother.

“So, you’re abandoning me too?”

“I’m not-”

Gaeric swiftly stopped. Think before you speak, he told himself. They were both in very vulnerable positions right now and he didn’t want to make the situation worse. He didn’t want to. He truly didn’t, but he had to, for his and her own good.

“Never.”

Gaeric assured her, but she looked as though she didn’t believe it. He had to be better – for her and the clan. Even if he felt wronged by the elders, he knew that to keep his mother and father legacy and to raise Irida to the height of leadership she deserved to hold, he needed to be the best version of himself… Whoever that was.

“I will always be here for you, but I need to be better than what I am at this moment.”

He wasn’t sure she would entirely understand his reasoning, and it might take her a long time to forgive him, but he knew that admitting this was a task that was too big for him to handle would be more noble than to continue on in the manner he was mentoring her. Gaeric was spared going into a further philosophical dive into his own doubts and image of legacy by the return of Ursaluna and a mouthful of some very smelly green stalks.

Without any sort of real warning, the lord hunched over Irida and crunched down on the white ends of stalks. The smaller mer yowled in pain as her skin almost seemed to steam as the viscous juices pelted her skin, she would have jerked away had the noble not growled in warning. Gaeric reached out to her, holding her hand as he watched something miraculous happen.

The steam began to dissipate, and it was like her bone was never broken; without being set or anything, the bones just seemed to mend on their own. The oozing bite wound on her tail also healed and scarred almost instantly. Both of them were equally astonished, Irida raising her arm to stare at it up close when Lord Ursaluna spat out the green stalks, mouth dripping with saliva as he hacked up any remaining vegetable matter.

Gaeric didn’t know enough about the land herbs and medicines as he ought to, but he faintly recalled Calaba or a different elder mentioning something called a medicinal leek. It had powerful medicinal properties that the two of them just witnessed in action. Now the lord was looming closer toward Irida, his massive head almost as big as her entire body and nuzzled her cheek with his snout. The small pearls on all of her jewelry began to twinkle softly as the noble grumbled something to her, a deep and affectionate sound that made Gaeric feel strangely better upon hearing it.

Ursaluna stepped back. By the look on Irida’s face, something he was not privy to just occurred and the noble started to nudge both mers back towards the water.

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Ursaluna watched over them as Gaeric rounded up his nets and other supplies in silence, escorting them back to the seaside. He growls something to Irida and she murmurs something about being asked to wait, Gaeric was just happy she was speaking. The noble planted his feet and emitted a low bellow that seemed to echo across the water. Gaeric and Irida exchange brief looks as Ursaluna’s stance relaxed a little. A few moments later, a call was returned and something big was cutting through the water towards them.

To be graced in the presence of two nobles in the same day was practically unheard of as the glistening form of Lord Avalugg slowed to a stop in the water and dragged himself onto the beack, ice-encrusted flippers carving out the sand. What in Sinnoh’s name was happening? The two lords acknowledged each other with small grunts before, what seemed to sound to the two mers anyway, a serious and drawn-out discussion where a lot of glances were thrown their way was had.

Gaeric and Irida were too nervous to move or speak as this unintelligible conversation ensued, the shallow water lapping at their tails as they awaited whatever judgement the lords seemed to be in the process of discussing.

Avalugg’s aged yellow eyes flicked over to them, but he did not seem remotely interested in Irida. The gaze seemed focused on him and Gaeric swallowed sharply, assuming, incorrectly, that the lords were upset with him and his flagrant disregard for his young clan leader. Avalugg hauled themselves over to the two, but his eyes never wavered from Gaeric. A lifetime of experiences lay in those eyes as the noble blinked up at him slowly – he couldn’t look away.

There was a bitter note of jealousy in the teen’s heart, brief and almost instantly replaced with regret, why begrudge a lord for their wisdom? A wisdom he wished he possessed to know what to do with his situation. Lord Avalugg raised his head, gurgling mournfully as if he had seen right into Gaeric’s very soul in that instant.

“Ah – I-I apologize, my lord!”

Gaeric stammered, a terror seizing the heart lodged in his throat. How ignorant. How blasphemous. He shut his eyes, waiting for a judgement for such treacherous thoughts. Gaeric felt Irida tugging on the sleeve of his tunic.

“Gaeric… I don’t think Lord Avalugg is upset with you. Look!”

He pried open an eye cautiously at her exclamation and the noble inclined his head toward Irida, as if telling him to listen to his young leader. Irida cocked her head, marveling at Avalugg as he flapped icy flippers, kicking up the sand into a miniature whirlwind. The noble bellowed a low note, to both of their astonishment, there was something forming in the dust cloud, and they only saw it clearly once it had dissipated.

A flute. A white flute both of them were all too familiar with. A Celestica flute.

It spun slowly in midair, glistening with ice and small flecks of pyrite in the light of dusk. Gaeric, without even a second of hesitation, reached out for it with both hands. It was light in his hands, cool and smooth against his skin, and both nobles nodded solemnly.

Lord Avalugg, after many years, had selected a new warden.

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#pokemon #legends of arceus #pla #fanfic #fan fic #fanfiction #fan fiction #pkmn #p:la #pl:a #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon: legends arceus #pokemon legends: arceus

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sepublic · 3 years ago

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Here’s my take on Barraki Mantax, prior to his mutations (and technically up-to-date with his current circumstances in canon)!

For reference, Mantax’s mutated appearance;

I know I wrote earlier about how Mantax could easily be a member of Sidorak’s species, but at the time I was also working on some concepts for Mantax’s own unique species that I ultimately fell in love with! The idea is that they’re some kind of mix between feline and gecko, with the ratio varying between individuals- In Mantax’s case, I wanted to make him have more of the vibes of a jackal. I guess this makes Mantax a catboy.

I hope my inspirations from the original set are fairly obvious, as is the visual connection- The big manta fins become shoulder armor, the crotch and thighs, some detailing on the forehead, etc. I wanted Mantax to come across as a lithe and stealthy assassin, while still befitting the look of a regal conqueror who made Toa look comparatively lowly- And in turn, his mutation more jarringly fleshy, alien, and hideous.

Ultimately, I recognized I was free to take plenty of artistic liberties here as well- A lot of characters really change between their regular and mutated versions, having used the Toa Hordika and Karzahni as a frame of reference, although between the Toa Hagah and the Rahaga, the sky really is the limit to how different a mutation can look.

Likewise, I didn’t want Mantax’s face to look too similar to his mutated one, otherwise I feel the weight of his mutations and how the Barraki feel about their own lessens- Especially when you remember how it was easy for the Matoran to mistake them for Rahi, and the Barraki’s insistence that without transforming back, they could never reach that originally glory and charisma befitting the emperors they once were.

On another note, I had fun with the idea that Mantax’s tail was always a thing and reinterpreted it as feline, like a sleek jet-black panther that stealthily stalks his prey. Mantax is characterized as an ambusher, so I wanted that ninja-esque look to him, and the eyebrow ridges were a happy surprise that I rolled with alongside his sunken eyes, to evoke that perpetual grimness of Mantax’s. His legs I made digitigrade like a reptile or feline, with the claw sticking out the back taking inspiration from the set’s foot pieces, while the paws form a curved and bulky shape- Also like the set!

Overall I’m pretty happy with this drawing, it was a cathartic return to drawing, and I hope I was able to convey that sleek and armored look, while layering it over a lithe yet buff physique, with mechanical bits in the gaps and joints to compliment the more organic shapes of Mantax- It’s fun balancing organic with mechanical to evoke the concept of ‘biomechanical’ to those without context, and I took some inspiration from the style of the movies as well! This was a really fun creative exercise, especially since Mantax was my first and one of only two Barraki, so it was very nostalgic at the same time!

For now, I guess this is my personal headcanon for what pre-mutated Mantax looks like, and it’s ‘canon’ within YaBr. Fun fact, I’ve also interpreted Lariska to be the same species as Mantax, albeit with just a bit more gecko in her feline/gecko ratio. Ultimately I also wanted each Barraki’s species to be able to be stand out in their own way, and inspire its own list of characters- Seeing as how they’re all members of Mata Nui’s six ‘prime species’, despite us never really seeing nor hearing about anyone else aside from Ehlek’s people.

#bionicle #barraki #Mantax #fanart #my art #drawing #sketch #YaBr

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cyclesprefectpress · 3 years ago

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[image description: a proof of a font of handset type for letterpress printing, displaying every letter, symbol, and special character in the font. it's called "Sixteenth Century Roman," 24 pt., and is a rough-edged serif font with a deliberately worn look. end description.]

hello hello i am return from a deep dive into several reference materials that assumed a little bit more knowledge about how Medieval Latin works than i actually have, but, it was all exTREMEly inch resting to me. i am absolutely not a historian but here we are, a speedrun of my pinballing around trying to ensure that I know what the fuck im storing in my type corridor:

so 16th Cent. Roman, i already knew, was a font Paul Duensing designed based on this incomplete set of old Italian punches he acquired (punches, the first step of old school typecasting, where you carve the relief letter shape into the end of a stick of steel, and you uuuh punch that into the copper matrix, which is then the negative mould-shape you use to cast multiple copies of the lead sorts with hot metal; surviving punches are precious artifacts not the least because they are. they’re hand-carved!! often by the type designer themselves. historical and also wildly cool craftsmanship). these punches were all beat up and probably water damaged, fucky and rough-edged, so he re-did and filled in the gaps in the alphabet with similarly styled letters of his own. very cool. an extremely nerdy lil passion project of a typecaster in the 1960s, very typical of type people. we all find a Thing to obsess over, and sometimes it's reviving an incomplete set of punches from the 1500s that you found in, idk, it's usually a bucket in somebody's basement.

anyway it's got a bunch of ligatures and the long s, sure sure sure, but WHAT are all these gibberish characters with tildas and lines thru the stems of ps and qs and such—

Duensing's full font is in Mac McGrew's specimen book, great, i have that, except McGrew's book has complete proofs and a little bit of history for each font but doesn't always cover what each symbol in a unique alphabet is for, and i knew just enough about Latin to guess that they were abbreviations but not what each of them stood for. a little bit of searching got me this far, which is to say, "Abbreviation in Medieval Latin Paleography," a translation of an Italian essay on the subject from 1929. It is prefaced by the translators with gems like: "Take a foreign language, write it in an unfamiliar script, abbreviating every third word, and you have the compound puzzle that is the medieval Latin manuscript." Scribes writing in medieval Latin just tossed out letters they didn't care to deal with, constantly, and had stand-in special characters and abbreviations for syllables/words/particles and there were intuitive rules but way too many variations in time and place and person to make a reasonably-sized, static lexicon. amazing. hope all u paleographers are having fun over there.

the essay has a great big glossary of truncations and abbreviations and so on which clearly cover most of the figures in Duensing's font:

[image description: screenshots of the essay, with various symbols and the Latin syllables they abbreviated. an m with a bar over it, ex., stood in for men or mun. end description.]

ok! BUT this q with a little swoop off the end kept bugging me!! for all these dead-use symbols this essay is using handwritten samples, obviously, and there's clearly variation in execution and also typographers take liberties, and i just thought, sure my piece of type looks a lot like the quod here but it does link the staff to the swoop where the handwritten sample doesn't, and it could just as well be a fanciful ligature for qn which apparently can stand in for quando, and i have no idea which is a more common-use syllable likely to be cast in the font if you're only going to pick your top 14, and i just like to be sure about things.

SO. i went to double-check with Johnson’s Typographia. Johnson made like a thousand pages of printing manuals set in tiny tiny type in the 1820s which are rad as hell and tell you all sorts of things about how to run a shop and build your own press and cast type and going rates for work and employment and also, the alphabets/type case layout for whatever language or symbol set you might have to set type in, when handsetting type was mostly the only way to get stuff printed—English, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, musical notation, astronomical signs, aaaand it’s got a section for "Marks & characters used in the Domesday Book & other ancient records.”

[image description: a photo of a page of the manual, with similar but not always identical symbols for abbreviated use. many of these abbreviations are described as "a Domesday contraction." end description.]

and WHAT is a Domesday contraction, WELL, it's a contraction specifically from/prevalent in the Domesday book, a deeply boring and historically important tome about property distribution in England. It’s literally a survey. who owned what, in 1086. presumably mind-numbing. enormous, handwritten in Medieval Latin, EXTREMELY cool, go look at some images of it at least, very important to historians, economists, linguists, and a complete pain in the ass to set in type when that technology became available, having to cast any significant proportion of these variant characters in an alphabet. Johnson says, (in 1824) “It is an improvement of latter years only*, to have type cast to resemble the abbreviations used in the more ancient manuscripts; they being formerly rudely imitated, either from a common fount, or else were cut in wood for the purposes of any particular work.” wow that sucks. but in 1773 the government really wanted to be able to reproduce the Domesday Book in type, so a couple people tried to cut a set of punches for Domesday abbreviations and Joseph Jackson got it done and it only took 10 years to print an edited version of the manuscript. and then apparently all the type was destroyed in a fire in 1808. WOW that sucks.

but the point is, Johnson has a great big glossary of characters as they were translated into type in the making of the printed Domesday Book, and the Domesday punches were used or refrenced in the printing of other medieval latin works, which consequences a degree of standardization in the abbreviations used in those versions of the text that handwritten manuscripts never had or needed.

notably the Domesday quod looks even more different from my piece of type here which was pretty annoying, so what are the chances this thing is a quando, and anyway that's when my sister texted me back with better computer skills and a different search engine and found me a perfect match on the first try. it’s a quod. this National Diet Library digital exhibition has several different sample fonts, both black letter and roman, with quite consistent letter forms, if not choices about which abbreviations to bother casting.

*I don’t……exactly know what he means by this, since Gutenberg and contemporaries absolutely did cast many Medieval Latin abbreviations for their fonts nearly 400 years before this. His dismissal of “from a common fount” might be fair, since i think what he means by it is that you’d have a generic set of abbreviation characters which you would have to use in conjunction with whatever font was the main body of your text, and it’s messy to mix things that weren’t designed specifically to match. he may just mean that it’s new for his contemporary foundries to be casting all these expanded alphabets of abbreviations; Gutenberg didn’t have foundries to buy from and made his own type. he could include as many characters as he had the patience for. maybe Johnson is just a guy from the 1800s that didn’t have the internet and i shouldn’t jump down his throat for not knowing something. idk!! i have homework.

anyway that was my Friday!! feel free to correct me and/or suggest further reading if early typecasting is your Thing or. again. you just have better googling than me.

#letterpress #letterpress printing #handset type #lead type #typography #long post #:(( sorry #omitted: Johnson's scathing opinions on Almanacks and the people who read them #and ask you to typeset them #'''''the credulity of the vulgar''''''' alRIGHT bud #i guess if he was willing to set that whole paragraph in 8 pt.#or pay for it #it was at least an opinion he believed in very strongly.

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gra-sonas · 4 years ago

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It’s been just a little over a year since “Liberty Biberty” became a part of our cultural vernacular, but that’s when Tanner Novlan garnered national attention as the tongue-tied, clueless, narcissistic actor in Liberty Mutual’s line of popular commercials. “I had seen the series they were doing of Liberty Mutual commercials in front of the Statue of Liberty,” Novlan relays. “And yes, people do come up to me all the time and say, ‘Liberty Biberty.’ It’s so fun that everyone can relate to that obnoxious actor. He was so much fun to play. When you get BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL, you’re like, ‘Wow, this is a career-changer,’ but for a funny little commercial like that, you never think [like that].”

Novlan auditioned for B&B in March and landed the part but couldn’t start, or even talk about it, until the soap began production over four months later due to the coronavirus pandemic. “I don’t know their old way of filming, so this is my new normal,” the actor relays. “Being the first production in North America to be back, it was amazing. It’s like, ‘This really is the new normal.’ It’s been such a unique process but it’s been amazing how all the producers have come together to figure this out and put forth these groundbreaking guidelines, making things safe and efficient and being able to work around all of this and keep everything alive. They’ve come up with some really creative ways of making shots work, but also feeling natural. Yes, we have to socially distance. We always are wearing our masks so we’re very cautious in that manner, but when you get into the scene and you’re reading opposite Jacqui [MacInnes Wood, Steffy], even if she is off camera, the connection is there, and I think it comes through.”

Novlan is thankful that he had some inside knowledge of how things worked at B&B, since he’s the real-life husband of B&B alum Kayla Ewell (ex-Caitlin). “It’s so perfect to have someone who has already been a part of the family to walk me through this,” he says. “She’s great for advice, and not just on work stuff. She gives me advice all the time on life. Listen to your wife. It’s always a good idea [laughs]. But with this team, I feel like I can ask any questions, and everyone was welcoming and straightforward.” Novlan and Ewell’s real-life love story sounds like it could be part of a soap, too. “It was technically kind of a setup because we both starred in this music video for an Australian band [circa 2009],” he relays. “The band is called Sick Puppies. It was one of their first hit North American releases. The name of the song was called ‘Maybe’ [which can currently be viewed on YouTube]. So, that’s how we met, on this music video at 3:30 in the morn- ing in the high desert [of California], which is where I met the woman of my dreams. We were very professional on set, but there was definitely something special about her — and I held her sunglasses for ransom. We were shooting outdoors and locations were changing and the makeup lady accidentally took our sunglasses home with her. The next day she called and said, ‘I have your sunglasses.’ I went and picked them up. I saw hers sitting there and thought, ‘I’ll give these to Kayla,’ so I snagged them and I said to her, ‘Lunch and your sunglasses?’ Luckily she took the lunch, probably just to get her sunglasses back.”

The rest was history, and the duo has worked to navigate the demands of their chosen profession. “The job sometimes involves distance and being away from one another, and there is also the time away that certain projects can require,” he points out. “It can be difficult sometimes but the trick is, we try very hard to make sure our schedules coordinate so we can be with each other. We have a two- to three-week rule where if one of us is away working for that long, you have to fly out and see the other. It’s almost like a must. And with our new baby, Poppy, we’ll definitely make sure that’s the case. But that’s the beauty of a having a great job like B&B. Luckily, I’m here. I’m local in L.A.” Novlan’s mom, a B&B super-fan, couldn’t be more thrilled about her son’s new gig. “My hometown has 500 people in it,” he explains. “I come from a very small farming community so even just coming home was a shock to her, but she’s cool. Kayla is so down-to-earth that none of that mattered. But believe me, my mother is chomping at the bit to come and visit the set of B&B as soon as COVID [passes]. That may be the real challenge, like, ‘Mom, you can’t wander onto the set. You’ve got to stay over here.’ That’s going to be a great day when it happens.”

Novlan credits his mother’s influence for getting him from Saskatchewan to Hollywood. “My mother was originally from Sacramento so I always thought it would be great to come and work in the U.S.,” he explains. “I started doing some print work in Canada so that’s how I originally came down, but I fell in love with acting as my immigration papers were being processed. I went to acting class here but I never could I have imagined having a career in film. But when I came down here and got a taste of it I was, like, ‘Wow. I’m hooked. This is it.’ ” But he admits he had no idea what he was in for. “My first job was a commercial for T.J. Maxx, back to school,” he recalls. “It was the first audition that I had ever been on and I got it and I thought, ‘Well, this is easy!’ I quickly learned there’s a lot of training that goes into it. So, I came here quite green but over the years, I’ve been able to call it a career.”

Over the next decade-plus, Novlan landed high-profile roles in MODERN FAMILY, ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO, the TV rom-com MY BEST FRIEND’S CHRISTMAS and the upcoming PUCKHEADS.

He’s up for a ROSWELL comeback, schedule permitting. “There could be a chance that we might see Gregory again,” he notes of playing the caring brother of series regular Tyler Blackburn (Alex; ex-Ian, DAYS et al). “I know ROSWELL has been picked up for a season 3, and the character has been pretty well-received from the fans, as well, which is always amazing and such an honor. You never know. It was a great experience, but right now, everything is about B&B. Even with COVID, we’re finding a really nice groove with maintaining safety while keeping that classic B&B look. It’s been pretty smooth, I’ve got to say. How lucky am I?”

“Sinn” City

B&B fans have dubbed Steffy and Finn “Sinn”, which is just fine by Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy). “I told him this character is his own,” she says. “He’s not a recast, so I told him, ‘Make it your own and have fun with it. Even though we are eight feet away from each other in scenes, feel free to play with me. Let’s connect as much as we can in these scenes.’ He’s been great. He’s been absolutely wonderful on set and taking direction very well — and he’s a fellow Canadian so, of course, we hit it off immediately. He’s a really sweet guy and he can keep up with our pace. I think the fans will really like him.”

Just The Facts

Birthday: April 9 Hails

From: Paradise Hill, Saskatchewan, Canada

My Girls: Married to Kayla Ewell (ex-Caitlin, B&B) since September 12, 2015. They welcomed daughter Poppy Marie on July 16, 2019.

What The Puck? “I grew up playing hockey, and I like to play hockey once a week with a group of actors. We have these really intense games.”

All The Right Steff: “It’s time that Steffy meets a man with a new set of values, and a new version of what passion and love can bring. She just had her daughter and I think she’s ready. Finn seems to have her best interests in mind, and I think that’s a good thing for Steffy.”

Finn In A Nutshell: “Helping people is in his nature but he can get a little too involved, and that can also get him into trouble.”

Grandma’s Boy: “My grandmother is in Canada in a nursing home and the last FaceTime I got was from my mom asking me to help set up grandma’s DVR. They’re very excited about this, and it’s nice to know that my grandma gets to see me every day — and, she’s super-proud that I’m a doctor!”

#tanner novlan #gregory manes #fingers crossed he'll be back #roswell new mexico s3 #bold and the beautiful #rnm cast interviews #i hope his mom gets to visit the set #and how sweet is that his grandma gets to watch him on tv every day #my heaaaart

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mx08z7kz6gqrs · 4 years ago

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此生 - Translation Notes

For my translation of this song, see this post. Listen to the original version of the song here. Below are some translation notes on the song.

Beware this is a long one. The song isn’t complicated, I just got a bit wordy and detailed with individual phrases.

This song is the ending theme to the Chinese drama 鬓边不是海棠红 (Winter Begonia), which is a lovely drama that I highly recommend. I might be a little biased because I’m particularly fond of the 民国 (Republican Era) setting, and the Beijing Opera imagery throughout the series.

This ending theme is actually relatively simple. As usual, I’ll do a line by line breakdown, with the original Chinese lyrics and the most literal possible translation next to them. In addition, I’ll note possible interpretations of the lines in relation to the drama since this song was written by Yu Zheng, the producer, specifically for the series. I believe this song is largely written from Cheng Fengtai’s point on view, and how he sees Shang Xirui.

There is also a variation on these lyrics that are used for an insert song, <此生此时>. I’ll cover the differences in a separate section after.

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Line by Line Translation Notes

假如这一生就任性一回 // If, in this life, [I] could be willful one time 我愿意背负你所有的罪 // I would be willing to bear all of your sins 让你肆无忌惮笑得欢 // Let you laugh with joy, completely unbridled 偷偷藏起这点余味 // Secretly hiding this bit of aftertaste

Both the first two verses start with “假如”, literally “if” but specifically more in the context of a hypothetical situation, one that isn’t actually happening (kind of like “if we were to say”). The first line talks about the speaker being able to be “任性” which I’ve translated as “willful” for poetic reasons but would probably be more accurately understood as “stubborn/bull-headed.” It’s considered a childish trait with a fairly negative connotation.

In the second line, the verb “背负” I’ve translated as “carry”/”bear” but for those curious about the subtlety in the word, “��” has the meaning of “to carry on your back/shouldered” or “burdened” while “负” has a similar meaning but also has the implication of “duty” (the character is also used in the word “负责”, to be responsible for). The word “罪” is usually translated as “sin” and I’ve also translated it this way for poetic effect. But it’s definitely more commonly used to mean “crime” (example, “犯罪” means to commit a crime).

In this context, we could understand this as the speaker taking on the consequences of any crimes committed by the “you” in the song. I think this echoes pretty well with Cheng Fengtai’s character, and how he has always expressed the inability to oppose the expectation set on him by society and family. “任性” is how you would describe Shang Xirui’s character- a childish stubbornness that refuses to capitulate to the demands other make.

假如这一生就流一次泪 // If, in this life, [I] could shed tears one time 我猛一回头来不及防备 // I suddenly turn back, it was too late to put my guard up 假装浑浑噩噩无所谓 // Pretending to be muddle-headed, it doesn’t matter 尘埃里开出了花蕾 // A flower bud bloomed from the dust

This second half of the verse is more metaphorical than the first. The first line follow structurally with the first half of the verse. The implication is that this is the one time the singer is allowed to shed tears.

In the second line, the word “防备” literally means “to guard against/prepare for danger.” For example, you’d use this word to warn someone to be prepared for an attack, or for some other potentially negative consequence (ie, the road is slippery, please be careful in case you fall).

The third line leaves some room for interpretation. “浑浑噩噩” is an expression meaning “muddle-headed”, or a general state of confusion about the world. It can be used to describe a drunken person, for example. Broken down, it’s “浑” for “muddy/turbulent” and “噩”, in this context for “simple-minded.”

The end of the third line is “无所谓 ”, meaning “whatever” or “it doesn’t matter.” Here, you could interpret it as pretending “nothing matters” by connecting it to the first words “假装” (to pretend to be). However, I chose to interpret it as a connecting phrase between the third and fourth lines. Literally, a bit like “even if [I] pretended [to be confused/muddle-headed, it didn’t matter [because]...”

I think the melody of this same line in <此生此时>, the other version of the song, probably supports this interpretation since there is a pause placed right between the first part of the line and “无所谓”. See more on the differences between these two songs below.

There’s not too much more detail I can go into for the last line because it’s already pretty literal, but it’s worth mentioning that “尘埃” (literally “dust” or “dirt”) is often used metaphorically to describe something that is “dirty.”

In general, I interpret this part of the verse as Cheng Fengtai’s inability to guard himself against the true affection he feels for Shang Xirui, and their friendship is something that grew almost unexpectedly, without his consent, like a flower bud that springs up from an otherwise “dirty” world.

我不后悔 // I don’t regret 风雪中和你走这一回 // In the wind and snow, having walked with you this one time 干了这杯 // Drinking (emptying) this cup

I originally had this half of the chorus split into two, but after listening to the same lyrics in <此生此时>, I decided to combine it. More detail on that below.

The first line here translates pretty well literally, and connects directly into the second line. This line likely refers to a scene early in the drama where Cheng Fengtai and Shang Xirui walk together through the cold, clearing up a some misunderstandings between them and establishing the beginning of their friendship.

In the third line, the phrase used is a variation of “干杯”, which is used in Chinese when giving a toast of alcohol, to the same effect of “Cheers” in English. Literally, it translates to “drying the cup”, referring to the fact that you are supposed to drink the entire cup after. In this line, they’ve specified “having dried this cup.”

Since there is no subject for this action, this line could be interpreted to link up to the first one (one of the things they did together that the speaker doesn’t regret doing), or it could be interpreted as something the speaker is doing alone after.

I actually favored the former interpretation before I listened to the variation in <此生此时>. But afterwards, I’ve interpreted this line as a transition instead. After drinking, perhaps alone (like in the second interpretation), the speaker is taken into the dream sequence in the next few lines.

我们在戏里灵魂相对 // In the play, our souls face one another 有些惭愧 // With some [feeling of] shame 我不说但你心领神会 // I don’t speak but you already know intuitively 就此一醉 // Like this, getting drunk

In this next line, the word “戏” can refer to any sort of theatrical performance- a play, an opera, etc. In context, I’ve decided to simply translate it as “on stage”, but this line is a direct reference to Cheng Fengtai’s statements that he finds Shang Xirui’s soul singularly unique on that stage, as if it were touching his own.

The following line notes that there is some “惭愧”, or a feeling of shame. It’s left unclear whether this refers to a mutual feeling of shame or if this is only from the speaker’s part. I personally favor the former, but the line after which specifically references the singer being unable to speak directly about it could imply the latter.

The last line in this part reinforces the drunken haze narrative, first mentioned in the line about draining the cup. The way it’s phrased, “就此一醉”, implies “just like this, [I] became [intoxicated].” Overall, this entire section echoes one of the earlier scenes in the drama where Cheng Fengtai wanders home through the snow, alone, after being deeply moved by Shang Xirui’s opera.

梦里你对我说人间好美 // In [this] dream, you said to me, “the [human] world is so beautiful” 此生有一段只能意会 // In this life, there is a time period you can only feel intuitively 无须安慰 // No need for comfort 彼此都懂得遗忘心碎 // Each of us understand forgetting broken hearts

The first line in this section is where I took a lot of liberties in my finished translation. The word being described as beautiful is “人间”, a word used to mean “world.” However, when breaking down the meaning of the individual characters, it means “the place where people reside.” In this sense, it’s meaning is closer to “world of humans” or “mankind” rather than the more generic English use for “world.” I’ve thus translated it as a statement of people being beautiful, something that Shang Xirui, in his idealism, would likely tell Cheng Fengtai.

The second line has the name drop for the song, “此生”, “this life.” It refers to a period of time that can only be “意会”, meaning “felt intuitively”. Broken down, these are the characters for “thought/idea” and “to meet/gather.” This line expresses the idea that there are things in this life that you won’t be able to put into words or confirm, things that you’ll only know with intuition and empathy. In my translation, I chose to interpret this as specifically the feelings between people, in keeping thematically with the first line.

In the third line, the word “安慰” means “to comfort” specifically in the sense of “to console” or “to reassure” (not necessarily in the sense of “feeling [physical] comfort”) Originally, I actually interpreted this line as a continuation of the previous line- the singer has no need of reassurance because they have an intuitive understanding already.

After listening to the <此生此时> variation though, I think this actually ties into the next line. Together with that line, this becomes “there’s no need for comfort, [because] we both already understand how to [forget] the heartbreaks.” You could read into it either way.

和你依偎 // Cuddling (leaning against) with you 分分秒秒都不够体会 // Every minute, every second, isn’t enough to experience/understand

In this part, the verb “依偎” can mean “to lean against”, “snuggle”, “cuddle”, etc. It can describe actions like two people embracing, one person sleeping against another’s shoulder/chest, birds nestled against each other, etc. The characters when divided are “依”, “to rely on” or “to go along with” and “偎” for “to cling/embrace.” I chose to go with “nestle” in my translation to give a sense of the characters being very close together, yet small compared to the rest of the world.

In the second line, “体会” means “to experience”, “to understand”, or “to realize [through experience]”, especially in the sense of walking in someone else’s shoes. In this case, no matter how close they are, the time together is too short, and they are unable to fully grasp the other’s experiences.

青山妩媚 // Green mountains are charming 回望戏台上锦��堆灰 // Looking back, on the stage, the exquisitely beautiful [items] in piles of dust/ashes

The first line here about the “green mountains” actually comes from a Southern Song dynasty poem by Xin Qiji called <贺新郎>. You can find a translation of it on his Wikipedia page here. While I’ve translated the color “青” as “green”, the word can actually refer to a variety of colors on the spectrum between blue and green. It’s often used to describe both the color of the sky and the color of grass. After much debate, I also used a translation of “妩媚” (lovely, charming) closer to the one provided on the Wikipedia page (originally translated by Lian Xinda) since it was a reference.

The poem is from the point of view of an elderly man whose friends have all passed away over the years, and who feels perhaps that he has accomplished nothing in his life. As he looks out at the mountains, he notes that they appear quite charming and lovely to him. He muses that perhaps they, too, see the same when they look back at him, despite his current state of melancholy. In context, you could interpret this as Cheng Fengtai, a man who believes he has accomplished nothing, looking upon the more beautiful world described to him by Shang Xirui.

The second line also echoes some ideas from the poem. “锦绣” here means “exquisite/beautiful.” The characters individually actually translate more literally to “fine embroidery”, but as an expression it can be used to describe objects of exquisite beauty/craftsmanship. In this context, we can actually take it a bit more literally, as the most beautiful items on the stage would be Shang Xirui’s finely embroidered costumes. They now “堆灰”, literally “pile ash/dust” (the character “灰” can mean both). Overall, the imagery evokes an empty stage, where the things once remembered by the speaker in their dreams are no longer there, likely due to both destruction and the simple passage of time.

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Comparison to <此生此时>

There is actually another song on this drama’s soundtrack called <此生此时>, which you can listen to here. Those attentive can pick up on the fact that the lyrics are almost exactly the same despite the completely different melody.

The title of this insert song literally translates to “This Life, This Time.” In context, “this time” refers to “this era/this time period” rather than as an instance of an action. So you could understand it as “this life as it is in this era.” This compares to the ending theme, which is simply titled “This Life.”

You could interpret this alone in a variety of ways, but I think one of the easiest is that the melody of “This Life, This Time” fits in better with the popular musical styles of the time compared to the ending theme, “This Life”, which has a more timeless feel to it.

Moving beyond the title, there are actually a few very minor lyric changes. I’ve seen some translators online that have tried to pick up on possible changes to meaning from the differences. While I can see that interpretation, I personally think the changes are largely “cosmetic”, shifting the syllables to better fit in with the new melody. Usually when the writer is attempting a change in perspective on the song, there will be a more significant change in tense or in the pronouns to indicate different speakers.

Pronoun removals changes are listed below. These removals do not actively change the meaning of the line, though you can argue that they introduce a level of ambiguity.

<此生>:（我）猛一回头来不及防备 <此生此时>: 猛一回头来不及防备 // Removal of subject pronoun “I”

<此生>:（我们在）戏里灵魂相对 <此生此时>: 戏里灵魂相对 // Removal of subject pronoun “we”

<此生>: 梦里（你对我说）人间好美 <此生此时>: 梦里（你说）人间好美 // Removal of the object pronoun “me”

<此生>:（彼此都）懂得遗忘心碎 <此生此时>: 懂得遗忘心碎 // Removal of subject pronoun “each of us/both of us”

There is one line, the title drop line, where <此生此时> does actually add extra information to the line that was not present in <此生>.

<此生>: 此生有一段只能意会 // In this life, there is a time period you can only feel intuitively <此生此时>:（弥足珍贵）此生有一段只能意会 // [It is] extremely precious, in this life, there is a time period you can only feel intuitively

They add the phrase “弥足珍贵”, an expression for “extremely precious” in this line. This can be interpreted as a modifier on “this life” or on the specific “time period” since there’s a pause between the phrase and the rest of the line in the song.

What I find more interesting than the relatively minor changes in lyrics, though, is the difference in how the lines are split due to how the song is sung. The soothing melody for <此生此时> means that lines are often sung in longer phrases with different pauses compared to <此生>, which also means that we can better understand Yu Zheng’s intent when he wrote certain lines.

I’ve cited several instances of this above in my line-by-line notes. One really good example is this section of the chorus. In <此生>, the melodic structure means the section gets divided into a lot of small phrases with a lot of ambiguity in how they should be understood together.

我不后悔风雪中和你走这一回干了这杯（我们在）戏里灵魂相对有些惭愧我不说但你心领神会就此一醉梦里（你对我说）人间好美

In contrast, in <此生此时>, this condenses nicely down, effectively tying together multiple phrases and better clarifying the relationship between them.

我不后悔风雪中和你走一回干了这杯戏里灵魂相对有些惭愧我不说但你心领神会就此一醉梦里（你说）人间好美

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And that concludes my notes on this song! This was probably much longer than it needed to be, but I wanted to clarify as many nuances as I could. I really love this drama, and again, highly recommend it. The music is beautiful.

When I get the time, I’m hoping to work translating and explaining the opening theme as well.

#此生 #此生此时 #信 #shin #鬓边不是海棠红 #winter begonia #ending theme #chinese music #notes #took a week to write all of this up

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teababe27 · 4 years ago

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Notes From the 2020 Myanimelist.net Challenges - Part 1: Anime

You don’t need me to remind you how much 2020 sucked. It was definitely a hard year for me as well, especially since health problems (fuck cancer) pretty much kept me on the couch, in the hospital, and out of work for 6.5 months out of the year. Add to that the current events, almost daily anxiety attacks regarding the current events, and my main escapes being cancelled, 2020 was definitely a rough one.

That being said, when I was more cognizant and not suffering from executive dysfunction, I did watch some pretty good anime this year.

I will now continue with my yearly post about some of the anime I watched and manga I read for this challenge, starting with the anime side. While I didn’t finish the challenge by the site’s deadline, I finished before the end of the year, which was better than last year’s attempt!!!

Like the previous 2 years, I will talk about some honorable mentions/anime I had thoughts on, followed by my favorites from the challenge.

Let’s do this.

Honorable Mentions/Other Notables:

Inferno Cop - completed for the task “Watch an ONA”

Inferno Cop is, well, a cop, whose family was murdered by the organization Southern Cross. Now, he is tasked with fighting that organization and keeping the peace in the city of Jack Knife Edge Town.

My reaction to watching this anime was pretty much this:

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This anime was honestly kinda funny. I’m usually not into the stuff that’s bad/over the top on purpose (I guess they would call it Stylistic Suck), but this anime made me laugh really hard at points. I feel like it also helped that each episode was about 4 minutes each.

My favorite part was honestly this:

youtube

Believe it or not, it makes just as much sense in context.

There are definitely worse ways to kill an hour.

Strawberry Marshmallow (aka Ichigo Mashimaro) - completed for the task “Watch any anime recommended to your Favorite Anime”

The slice-of-life adventures of 6th-grader Chika, her friend and classmate Miu, 5th grader Matsuri, British transfer student Anna (who transfers to Matsuri’s class), and Chika’s college-age sister Nobue. Hijinks ensue, usually initiated by Miu.

This was recommended to me because one of my favorite anime listed on my Myanimelist profile is Azumanga Daioh. I feel like this one is a little more hyper (if that makes any sense, it’s honestly the only word I can think of for this), but still fun and not a far-off comparison.

Pretty much your basic Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime with some zany hijinks thrown in. It was cute and funny, though I feel like this is one you have to be in the mood for, similar to when I watched The Irresponsible Captain Tylor for last year’s challenge. I still had fun with it and it made me smile. The last episode was actually pretty heartwarming, and the fact that I watched it on Christmas Day was a cool coincidence.

Canaan - completed for the task “ Watch an anime that began airing the same year you joined MAL” (2009, in this case)

Maria Osawa, a photographer, is on an assignment in Shanghai with her colleague, Mino. They end up in the middle of a conspiracy involving a mysterious virus, a deadly terrorist attack, rival assassins, and a white-haired lady named Canaan, who Maria apparently knows.

This anime actually came up for multiple tasks in the challenge, so I pretty much had to watch this one, lol.

This anime was a bit dark at certain points. There was a bit of an interesting mystery, as well as pretty good action scenes, especially the fights between Caanan and Alphard, the main rival assassin. I honestly ship Maria and Canaan; I wish the anime just came out and had them get together, because some of their dialogue can get a little gay-baity at times, but it was still precious. Some lapses in logic and artistic liberties, but still pretty good.

Ginban Kaleidoscope (aka Skating Rink Kaleidoscope) - completed for the task “Watch an anime generated randomly using spin.moe”

Tazusa Sakurano is a figure skater who dreams of going to the Olympics. After a fall on the ice where she hits her head, she wakes up to find herself sharing her body with the ghost of Pete Pumps (yes, really), a Canadian stunt pilot who died during an air show. Tazusa has to get used to sharing her body with a ghost while trying to realize her dreams, and Pete helps her out, too.

I honestly thought this anime was kinda cute and heartwarming. Funny at times, too, especially when Tazusa is first getting used to sharing her body with Pete. I thought it was nice that Pete helps Tazusa with her skating later in the anime

Your Name (aka Kimi no na Wa) - completed for the task “Watch an award-winning anime”

Mitsuha is a high school girl who lives out in the countryside and dreams of moving to the big city. Taki is a high school boy who lives in the city and has a part-time job, living a pretty busy life. One day, they find that they’ve switched bodies! They then try to find out about each other and find an answer to why they temporarily switch bodies every now and then.

Yes, I gave in to the hype, and yes, I loved this movie. And yes, I cried.

This movie was honestly beautiful. The art looked great, the story was interesting, the plot twist was unexpected, etc. Not the best anime movie ever like everyone says, but I still loved this one.

Favorites From the Challenge:

Ping Pong the Animation - completed for the task “Watch an anime with a score of 8.00 or above and an episode duration of 16 minutes or more”

Makoto Tsukimoto, aka Smile, and Yutaka Hoshino, aka Peco, are childhood friends who are part of the ping pong club at their high school. Peco wants to be the best in the world, while Smile mostly finds ping pong as a way to pass the time. The anime shows them playing in and trying to win the championship, as well as them getting better and their various feelings throughout.

Might as well continue the tradition of watching a Masaki Yuasa work for the challenge. He most certainly did not disappoint here.

This made me think of how I felt when I watched One Outs for last year’s challenge. A different take on sports anime than usual, focusing on more of the psychology of the players and their histories. The two friends weren’t together all the time, though their bond was still there. I honestly binged this one in a couple days, that’s how much I was invested.

The art style is very interesting and unique, which was a major positive. I found this anime to be great overall.

Mononoke - completed for the task “Watch an anime that finished airing with 11 or more episodes and has a synopsis by MAL Rewrite”

A mysterious Medicine Seller wanders Japan to slay malevolent spirits called Mononoke. In order to do so, he has to figure out their Form, Truth, and Reason, along with psychological analysis and talking to the people caught up in the Mononokes’ schemes. Only then can he use his special sword to exorcise the spirits.

Unique art styles definitely seem to be a trend here, a complete coincidence on my part.

This reminded me a lot of the anime Mushishi, except on acid or some other drug like that. I like that this is an anthology of sorts, with the 11 episodes divided up into groups of 2 or 3 episodes per plot arc. The art style was unique and very pretty at times, and I found the psychological aspect very interesting too.

This anime isn’t for everyone, and it can get a little confusing at times, but I liked it a lot.

Silver Spoon (aka Gin no Saji) - completed for the task “Watch a listed Gourmet or Isekai themed anime” (Gourmet, in this case)

To get away from the pressures of home life and high expectations, Hachiken, on the advice of one of his teachers, decides to go to an agricultural high school, thinking it would be laid back. When he gets there, he has a bit of a culture shock and learns about farm and country life, including taking care of livestock and making fresh food.

I liked a lot of the characters in this one. I like the friendships Hachiken gets into with his classmates, especially a girl he meets on the first day and his assigned partners in rotations on the farm. This anime was also kinda relaxing too, and another one I was able to watch several episodes of without realizing.

Aggressive Retsuko (aka Aggretsuko) Season 3 - completed for the task “Watch an anime with a main character that is a professional in their field”

To pay off some debt that Retsuko incurs, she gets roped into helping out an underground idol group who is trying to make it big.

Honestly, this season hit me with all the feels multiple times. I loved seeing Retsuko take charge in several of the episodes. A lot of what I loved about the previous 2 seasons of Aggretsuko were here. Definitely made me laugh several times.

Princess Jellyfish (aka Kuragehime) - completed for the task “Watch a Noitamina anime”

Tsukimi is a shy, awkward outcast who loves jellyfish and lives in an apartment building, Amamizukan, with a few other awkward outcasts. One day, while out at a pet store, she meets a confident woman while trying to save a jellyfish from improper care. This confident woman, who is revealed to be a guy, Kuranosuke, who likes dressing like a woman, plants themselves in Tsukimi’s life and helps her break out of her shell.

This wins Best Anime for this year’s challenge. I found myself relating to Tsukimi a lot, being a socially awkward nerdy outcast. To be honest, I found myself headcanoning most of the characters (especially Tsukimi) as being autistic. I loved the relationships between the characters and I found a lot of this anime really relatable. The two main ladies (I say that loosely because Kuranosuke isn’t technically a lady) were my favorite characters.

This anime was so cute and so heartwarming. I’m planning on reading the manga now to see where the story goes. I’m glad I finally got around to watching this one.

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writing-prompts-for-friends · 5 years ago

Text

Notes from Stephen King’s “On Writing” 05: Description, Dialogue, Creating Characters

Description

"Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's."

We all know that too much description robs the reader of their imagination and bores them, yet too little description leaves them confused and scratching their heads. So how can we strike a middle ground with confidence?

"Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It's not just a question of how to, you see; it's also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing."

King says that he personally doesn't like to provide detailed descriptions of how his characters look. He would rather have the reader supply their faces, builds, and clothing. To exemplify, he says:

"If I tell you that Carrie White is a high school outcast with a bad complexion and a fashion-victim wardrobe, I think you can do the rest, can't you? I don't need to give you a pimple-by-pimple, skirt-by-skirt rundown. We all remember one or more high school losers, after all; if I describe mine, it freezes out yours, and I lose a little bit of the bond of understand I want to forge between us. Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's."

Maybe it's because now more than ever we are obsessed with visual media, be it TV or film or social media, but I personally feel a need to give detailed physical descriptions of my characters. Does anyone else feel the same? But what King said really made a lot of sense to me--by keeping the descriptions of the characters non-distinct, we allow the readers to fill in the gaps and make a character that is even more relatable to them. I think that's genius.

On the other hand, King feels that locale and texture are more important to the reader's sense of actually being in the story. Describe the region the story takes place in (but don't go full Tolkein on your readers, please). Paint a picture of the house and town in broad, distinct strokes.

"For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else. In most cases, these details will be the first ones that come to mind. Certainly they will do for a start. If you decide later on that you'd like to change, add, or delete, you can do so--it's what rewrite was invented for. But I think you will find that, in most cases, your first visualized details will be the truest and best. It's as easy to overdescribe as it is to underdescribe. Probably easier."

So let's say that you want to use a certain real-life restaurant as the setting of a scene in your story. This is a restaurant that you have actually frequented. Now close your eyes and picture that place. What are the first 4-5 things that come to your mind? Could be how to looks or smells, what sort of clientele is usually there, anything. Take those 4-5 details and only use those to describe the place in your writing. Let the reader do the rest of the work.

"In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling."

Oh man, I really agree with this. I quit reading LotR because I just couldn't force myself through another description of goddamn rivers and valleys.

On the Use of Similes

"When it's on target, a simile delights us in much the same way meeting an old friend in a crowd of strangers does."

When we compare two seemingly unrelated objects, we are sometimes able to see an old thing in a new and vivid way. But you have to make sure that the simile makes sense and isn't cliched. Don't use "he ran like a madman" or something. Come up with your own.

"The key to good description begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary."

There are a lot of authors that do a great job describing things like king says, but there is one specific line from Neil Gaiman's Coraline that stands out to me. Coraline has just discovered the hallway that leads to the Other House, and the sentence describes the hall.

"It smelled like something very old and slow."

Simple vocabulary, yet very fresh. I love this sentence and its eeriness.

Dialogue

"It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters--only what people do tells us more about what they're like, and talk is sneaky: what people say often conveys their character to others in ways of which they--the speakers--are completely unaware."

You can explain through narration or backstory that a character didn't do well in school or didn't finish it, but you could also demonstrate that through dialogue. Conversely, you can show just how smart they are, or how honest/dishonest, lighthearted/serious they are through dialogue alone.

Have you ever read dialogue that makes you think, "Man, nobody talks like this!" because it feels so stilted or forced? I'm certain you have. So how can we prevent ourselves from crafting dialogue that feels inauthentic?

"Dialogue is a skill best learned by people who enjoy talking and listening to others--particularly listening."

Picking up the accents, rhythms, dialect, and slang of various groups helps give your writing a certain veracity that readers pick up on instinctually.

A Word on Political Correctness in Dialogue/Characters

"As with all other aspects of fiction, the key to writing good dialogue is honesty."

King says that not a week goes by that he doesn't get an angry letter accusing him of being foul-mouthed, bigoted, homophobic, murderous, frivolous, or downright psychopathic, and usually the people writing these letters are upset about certain lines of dialogue within his stories.

Sometimes you are going to have a character that holds unpleasant opinions and uses unpleasant words to get them across. That doesn't necessarily mean that what the character believes/says is what you believe. And, in my own opinion, I think it is important to have these non-pc characters in our stories. How can we combat ignorance if we do not draw attention to it? Sweeping it under the rug does nothing but prolong the problem.

So if a character is prone to swearing, don't substitute their expletives for words like "shoot" or "dang." Have them say "shit" or "damn." If a character is a homophobe, have them vocalize their sentiments if the scene deems it appropriate. Don't censor your characters.

Building Characters

"The job of building characters in fiction boils down to two things: paying attention to how the real people around you behave and then telling the truth about what you see."

Take note of the people around you. Many fictional characters are drawn piece by piece from people in real life. For King, what happens to his characters as the story progresses depends solely on what he discovers about them as he goes along. Sometimes their character grows only a little. But other times, their characters grow a so much that they influence the course of the story instead of the other way around.

"I think the best stories always end up being about people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven. Once you get beyond the short story, though (two to four thousand words, let's say), I'm not much of a believer in the so-called character study; I think in the end, the story should always be the boss."

Most readers want to see not only a progression in plot, but also in character development, so trying to have both of those is important.

"It's also important to remember that no one is 'the bad guy' or 'the best friend' or 'the whore with a heart of gold' in real life; in real life we each of us regard ourselves as the main character, the protagonist. If you can bring this attitude into your fiction, you may not find it easier to create brilliant characters, but it will be harder for you to create the sort of one-dimensional dopes that populate so much of pop fiction."

King goes on to explain how when he wrote Misery, a novel about a crazy nurse who holds her favorite author Paul Sheldon hostage in her remote house, he went to great lengths to give the reader a view of the nurse Annie Wilkes' perspective. To us, she seems psychopathic. But to her, she seems perfectly sane and reasonable.

"If I can make you understand her madness--then perhaps I can make her someone you sympathize with or even identify with. The result? She's more frightening than ever, because she's close to real. If, on the other hand, I turn her into a cackling old crone, she's just another pop-up bogeylady. In that case, I lose bigtime, and so does the reader. Who would want to visit with such a stale shrew? That version of Annie was old when The Wizard of Oz was in its first run."

What is really boils down to is making sure that each of your characters are three-dimensional within your own mind. As long as they feel like real people in your head, capable of making rational decisions and feeling rational emotion (as fits their unique nature), that should be able to be seen by the reader as the story unfolds.

On Creative Liberties

“Try any goddamn thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t toss it. Toss it even if you love it. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch once said, ‘Murder your darlings,’ and he was right.”

Write however you want. Use whatever techniques you want. Have fun with it. It’s yours before it is anybody else’s. And you can’t please all the readers all the time, but if you can come out happy with the end product, surely you can please some of the readers some of the time, and that is enough.

Source: King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Hodder, 2012.

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whatelsecanwedonow · 4 years ago

Link

I’m picking out parts of this conversation I found especially interesting. Italics are mine:

You know, I’ve been trying to think of some precise, encapsulating question to ask you about what we’ve been witnessing over the last few weeks, and everything I was coming up with felt forced or phony. Maybe it’s better, because you’ve been eloquent during times of crisis in the past, just to ask what you’ve been thinking about and seeing in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing? I’d like to say I’m surprised by what happened to him, but I’m not. This is a cycle, and I feel that in some ways, the issue is that we’re addressing the wrong problem. We continue to make this about the police — the how of it. How can they police? Is it about sensitivity and de-escalation training and community policing? All that can make for a less-egregious relationship between the police and people of color. But the how isn’t as important as the why, which we never address. The police are a reflection of a society. They’re not a rogue alien organization that came down to torment the black community. They’re enforcing segregation. Segregation is legally over, but it never ended. The police are, in some respects, a border patrol, and they patrol the border between the two Americas. We have that so that the rest of us don’t have to deal with it. Then that situation erupts, and we express our shock and indignation. But if we don’t address the anguish of a people, the pain of being a people who built this country through forced labor — people say, ‘‘I’m tired of everything being about race.’’ Well, imagine how [expletive] exhausting it is to live that.

Does the scale and intensity of the protests suggest some positive strides toward accountability? Maybe. Look, every advancement toward equality has come with the spilling of blood. Then, when that’s over, a defensiveness from the group that had been doing the oppressing. There’s always this begrudging sense that black people are being granted something, when it’s white people’s lack of being able to live up to the defining words of the birth of the country that is the problem. There’s a lack of recognition of the difference in our system. Chris Rock used to do a great bit: ‘‘No white person wants to change places with a black person. They don’t even want to exchange places with me, and I’m rich.’’ It’s true. There’s not a white person out there who would want to be treated like even a successful black person in this country. And if we don’t address the why of that treatment, the how is just window dressing. You know, we’re in a bizarre time of quarantine. White people lasted six weeks and then stormed a state building with rifles, shouting: ‘‘Give me liberty! This is causing economic distress! I’m not going to wear a mask, because that’s tyranny!’’ That’s six weeks versus 400 years of quarantining a race of people. The policing is an issue, but it’s the least of it. We use the police as surrogates to quarantine these racial and economic inequalities so that we don’t have to deal with them.

...we’ve got a [expletive]-up permanent campaign system with too much money in it. Don’t people know that already? The politicians don’t even know how [expletive] up their system is. Nancy Pelosi was on ‘‘The Daily Show,’’ and we were talking about how money has a corrupting influence in politics. I said, ‘‘You raised $30 million. How does that money corrupt you?’’ She said it doesn’t. So money corrupts, but not you? That’s someone within the system. And when I went down to Washington for the 9/11 victim-compensation bill, I learned something that shocked me. We had a program that was working. Bureaucratically, it wasn’t broken. What is broken about Washington isn’t the bureaucracy. It’s legislators’ ability to address the issues inherent in any society — and the reason they can’t address them is that when you have a duopoly, there is no incentive to work together to create something better. Plus, you have one party whose premise is that government is bad and whose goal is to prove that, which makes them, in essence, a double agent. All these things coalesce to make problem-solving the antithesis of what we’ve created. We’re incentivized for more extreme candidates, for more extreme partisanship, for more conflict and permanent campaigning, for corporate interests to have more influence on the process, not less. The tax code isn’t complicated because poor people have demanded that it be that way.

What do you think of the news media’s handle on this political moment more generally? I don’t think it has ever had a good handle on a political moment. It’s not designed for that. It’s designed for engagement. It’s like YouTube and Facebook: an information-laundering perpetual-radicalization machine. It’s like porn. I don’t mean that to be flip. When you were pubescent, the mere hint of a bra strap could send you into ecstasy. I’m 57 now. If it’s not two nuns and a mule, I can’t even watch it. Do you understand my point? The algorithm is not designed for thoughtful engagement and clarity. It’s designed to make you look at it longer.

Have there been any positive changes, though? Let me give you an example of what might be one: When you were doing ‘‘The Daily Show,’’ part of what made you unique was your last-sane-man-in-Crazytown quality. You would actually say that someone in power was telling a lie when the nightly newscasters wouldn’t. Now they will say that. Is that a step in the right direction? The media’s job is to deconstruct the manipulation, not to just call it a lie. It’s about informing on how something works so that you understand the lie’s purpose. What are the structural issues underneath the lie? The media shouldn’t take the political system personally, or allow its own narcissism to rise to the narcissism of the politicians, or become offended that the politicians are lying — their job is to manipulate.

How much might his administration’s response to Covid-19 hurt him in November? That’s the question the media asks. What they should be focused on is, here’s what happens when you hollow out the pandemic-response team. You have to go after the case of competence and anticorruption. The media wants to prosecute the case of offensiveness. That doesn’t matter. But there were decisions about P.P.E. and the states that were made without any federal response, and that does matter. It’s really about, what is government? Are we the Articles of Confederation? Are we the Constitution? Are we the United States? What are we? If we’re just 50 states, and if New York can push Delaware out of the way and get masks, and now Delaware has got to pay 10 times what it was going to pay — are we being led or not? It’s the wildest thing. I’ve never seen anybody who can say in the same breath, as the president does, ‘‘I am in charge, only I can fix this, and I take no responsibility.’’ You cannot process that. So what you have to process is the actual process: How do masks help? Do they help? You have to really explain it to people, but we allow the mask-wearing to be reduced to its symbolic meaning. Things like masks can’t just become another avatar of political representation. That’s where we go wrong.

This might be a little Civics 101, but I hope you’ll indulge me: A lot of your work has fundamentally been about interrogating certain truths or ideas about America and the American experiment. Things like: What does this country mean? What are its ideals and values? What’s its character? Over the last few years those questions have only become harder to contemplate in any coherent way, let alone answer. Do those questions still hold for you? Every society lies to itself to some extent. Every person does. And sometimes you have to face the truth. The truth of the American experiment is that government is messy. It’s hard to manage. We are melding cultures and religions in a way that most countries don’t. But we have an exceptionalism that we have taken for granted, and we get lost in the symbolism of who we are rather than the reality. The reality of who we are is still remarkable. You can’t take the anecdotal and pretend it’s universal. You can’t take a picture of the Lake of the Ozarks and people on top of each other drinking and say, ‘‘That’s how America responded to the pandemic.’’ Because it’s not. The boots-on-the-ground response has been phenomenally resilient and responsible and courageous. The sense that this could all turn into ‘‘Mad Max’’ tomorrow always hangs over everything — but it hasn’t. There are issues, but again, we point a spotlight on the anecdotal and pretend that it’s universal. What that does is feed the narrative for people who want to use it for their own purposes. That’s what drives me bananas. We’re basically having giant public fights about symbolism, while the reality of our situation goes unexamined.

Are you hopeful about what lies ahead? Always. Because the view we get of the country is not accurate. We get the artifice of it, the conflict of it. I’m not naïve. I don’t think that true divisions and animosities and bigotry and prejudices don’t exist. We see that every day. But fundamentally, we are a resilient and strong and resourceful nation that has oftentimes overcome our worst tendencies — ‘‘overcome’’ is probably too strong a word. But our biggest problem as humans is ignorance, not malevolence. Ignorance is an entirely curable disease.

How? Information and work. You need to talk to people. Ignorance is often cured by experience, by spending time with what you don’t understand. But I honestly don’t know. Well, you know what? I do know: In the same way that Trump’s recklessness is born out of experience, so is my optimism, because good people outweigh [expletive] people. By a long shot.

#the good people have to be in control tho to speak to the last two sentences #the weight of the good must be felt #but 'you can't take the anecdotal and pretend it's universal' is!!!#'we're basically having giant public fights about symbolism'#yes #b/c it's listless insanity there's no one at any wheel #being able to succinctly discuss topics like this is a hell of a thing #i don't rly care to tag this and have randos interact #'an information-laundering perpetual-radicalization machine' is also twitter dot com #and like... all of social media #anyway #long post

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mittensmorgul · 5 years ago

Note

This talk of the early seasons gives me another question: do you think the demons were trying to break John in hell? Like, were they trying to break the first seal with John a couple years before Dean? Or do you think breaking Dean was the original plan all along? (I'm aware the writers wouldn't have known about the seals while writing John being in hell seasons 1/2. I'm concerned about the Watsonian perspective here.) Thanks for your wisdom btw, I love your perspective on this stuff 😬

Hi there! First off, thanks! I do my best, and I’m glad you’re enjoying it :D

Second, wheee! Watsonian perspective is what I care most about, so I’ll stick to that. Well, mostly… the one thing I feel I do need to bring up is the timeline of s2, which I would suggest falls roughly over the span of time during which it airs– that’s to say that 2.01 (where John dies) and 2.22 (where John pops out of Hell and gives the assist in killing Azazel) are approximately eight to eleven months apart, depending on which theory of the timeline you subscribe to.

We know that 2.22 takes place immediately after the events of 2.21, which we have a concrete date for– Dean sells his soul on May 2, 2007. According to the Superwiki, John was killed by Azazel on July 19, 2006, but that’s a guess based on the date listed on the heart monitor of the girl who dies in the hospital in 2.01. And we all know how… timey-wimey those sorts of props can be, and I’m uncomfortable making definitive timeline estimates based on just those things. But for the purposes of this post, we’ll assume the range of potential timeline for 2.01 runs between late July and late September 2006 (since 2.01 aired on September 28, 2006, and often without other concrete dates, we assume canon runs approximately parallel to our real time).

So, John was in Hell for somewhere between 8 and 10 months, approximately, of canon standard time. But what do we really know about that time he spent in Hell?

We know DEAN’S experience in Hell, where he was being specifically worked over to the point of breaking. We know that his four months (actually more like four and a half– from May 2, 2008 through his resurrection date of September 18, 2008), but that it actually felt more like 40 years to him.

I need to stress this specifically, because the fandom assumption has always been “well, this is just what time is like uniformly throughout Hell, and not a targeted, concentrated experience catered specifically to accelerating Dean’s progression to surrender and pick up the blade himself, in fulfillment of the prophecy.”

I… always assumed that Dean’s experience was unique in Hell, and that– based on every other glimpse we’ve seen of Hell– Time runs… pretty much like normal Earth time there. Think of Crowley’s meeting with Cas in 6.20, in Hell’s waiting line. Or 11.09-11.10 (where we see more of Hell than ever before– both Crowley’s “dining room” there, several passageways, and the “stage cage” in Limbo), where time in Hell parallels exactly the characters who are still on Earth. While waiting for Dean and then Cas to arrive, for example, Sam only spends about half an hour with Lucifer in the cage alone, and Crowley and Rowena only spend the same amount of in-show time there as it takes for Dean and Cas to arrive, respectively. Finally, we have 8.19, wherein we know Sam had exactly 24 hours to break into Hell, retrieve Bobby, and escape to be picked up by the reaper who never arrived because Crowley was killed. Sam’s time “in Hell” exactly paralleled Dean’s time on Earth, as well as “purgatory time,” which we know runs approximately parallel to Earth Time after Dean spent “about a year” there.

So the logical conclusion is that “Hell Time” is malleable, but that Dean’s experience there was… unique. According to the prophecy they were ALL trying to bring about, Dean was put on the Break-The-Righteous-Man-Speed-Run plan. And I do believe this was a highly specific circumstance, and that Dean’s “Hell Time Dilation” was specific to his time in Hell, and not a universal blanket statement on how time works in Hell in general.

So… I postulate that John only spent those 8-10 months in “normal time” in Hell. And despite Alastair’s taunts in 4.16:

Alastair: John Winchester. Made a good name for himself. A hundred years. After each session, I’d make him the same offer I made you. I’d put down my blade if he picked one up.Dean: Just give me the demon’s name, Alastair.Alastair: But he said nein each and every time. Oh, damned if I couldn’t break him. Pulled out all the stops, but John, he was, well, made of something unique. The stuff of heroes. And then came Dean. Dean Winchester. I thought I was up against it again. But daddy’s little girl, he broke. He broke in thirty. Oh, just not the man your daddy wanted you to be, huh, Dean?

Because JOHN WAS NEVER THE ONE THAT NEEDED TO BREAK. But Alastair was intimately familiar with Dean’s experience, intimately familiar with how to HURT DEAN SPECIFICALLY, and this was an excellent try. But John… was NEVER the righteous man who needed to break, according to the prophecy. It ALWAYS had to be Dean. So… why would John have been tortured that way?

Not to mention, if John HAD been literally strapped to Alastair’s table, tortured constantly for his entire time in Hell, then how the heck did he manage to sneak out the Hellgate in 2.22? Like… think about it for a second.

The demons who escaped were essentially “in the right place at the right time,” because the one demon Azazel was trying to let out– which we won’t learn until 4.22– was Lilith.

We assume that the other demons who managed to sneak through before the gates were slammed shut happened to be Lilith-adjacent– such as Ruby (who knew Lilith’s whole plan from the start), and other demons who were already loyal to Lilith (such as Casey from 3.04, and Tammi from 3.09, and eventually all the demons Lilith surrounded herself with in 3.12 and 3.16).

And yet… out strolled John Winchester. Because Hell literally didn’t need him anymore. Dean had already made his deal. The clock was ticking on the guy they ACTUALLY needed. And heck if that doesn’t parallel exactly what Zachariah said to Adam in 5.18:

ZACHARIAH: Hey, don’t get me wrong. You’ve been a hell of a sport, really. Good stuff. But the thing is, you’re not so much the “chosen one” as you are…a clammy scrap of bait.ADAM: No…but what about the stuff that you said? I’m supposed to fight the devil.ZACHARIAH: Mmm, not so much. Hey, if it’s any consolation, you happen to be the illegitimate half-brother of the guy we do care about. That’s not bad, is it?ADAM: So you lied…about everything.ZACHARIAH: We didn’t lie. We just avoided certain truths to manipulate you.

Because that’s the thing with this show– Heaven and Hell are pretty much the same. Sam goals, same methods, same objectives, just with a different set of aesthetics, a different interior decorator if you will.

If John had actually been tortured the way Alastair claimed in 4.16, would he have just been at liberty to conveniently stroll through the gate in 2.22? Would he have even been able to leave at all? Would he have looked so fresh as a daisy? I mean

Looks pretty good for a dude just strolled outta hell, you know? Not even the least bit demon-y, right? And we know it takes a heck of a lot less time than a century for a human soul to be demonized in Hell… So everything else– aside from Alastair’s statement to Dean in 4.16, which was a deliberately targeted barb specifically said to make Dean doubt himself while he was actively torturing the demon who’d tortured HIM for four decades and therefore HIGHLY suspect in context of the rest of canon– would suggest that John had been basically stashed in Hell’s Cold Storage for about 8 months while the demons were meticulously arranging circumstances on Earth to set up the events of 2.21-2.22, luring Dean into selling his soul for Sam, and Azazel getting the Devil’s Gate opened to let Lilith escape.

Because strangely enough, I believe the Crossroads Demon in 2.08 more than I trust Alastair in 4.16:

DEAN: Can you bring him back? My dad?DEMON: Of course I can. Just as he was. Your dad would live a long and natural life, like he was meant to. That’s a promise.DEAN: What about me?DEMON: I could give you ten years. Ten long good years with him. That’s a lifetime. The family can be together again. John, Dean, Sammy. The Winchester boys all reunited. (she advances towards him) Look. Your dad’s supposed to be alive. You’re supposed to be dead. So we’ll just set things straight, put things back in their natural order. And you get ten extra years on top. That’s a bonus.

John was never the one they actually wanted. John was never going to work as the Righteous Man, or as Michael’s True Vessel for the purposes of the specific prophecies of the Apocalypse. As Gabriel once said in 5.08:

GABRIEL: You sorry sons of bitches. Why do you think you two are the vessels? Think about it. Michael, the big brother, loyal to an absent father, and Lucifer, the little brother, rebellious of Daddy’s plan. You were born to this, boys. It’s your destiny! It was always you! As it is in heaven, so it must be on earth. One brother has to kill the other.DEAN: What the hell are you saying?GABRIEL: Why do you think I’ve always taken such an interest in you? Because from the moment Dad flipped on the lights around here, we knew it was all gonna end with you. Always.

So… no, I think John’s tenure in Hell was probably a boring (compared to Dean’s) few months spent adjacent to Lilith so she could keep an eye on him in case Dean did take some sort of demon deal to trade his life back for John’s before they were scheduled to.

And finally, a bit of a Doylist justification for all of that: I don’t think any of this was planned back when s2 was being written. I don’t think they’d considered the later retcon of s4 and Dean’s “forty years” in Hell while writing s2. I don’t think they’d thought any of this was part of some larger prophecy of the Apocalypse yet. None of that came about until 4.01, because there had NEVER been any intent to introduce Angels or Heaven into the cosmology of that universe until that point anyway. So… they made the most out of what they had already stated canonically, and left it to us to make the most sense out of it. And this ^^ is my best, least plot-holey, most canon-compliant theory based on the entirety of canon. :)

#spn 2.01 #spn 2.22 #spn 4.16 #spn 5.08 #spn 5.18 #spn 4.22 #spn 3.04 #spn 3.09 #spn 3.12 #spn 3.16 #spn 2.08 #spn cosmology #the ghost of john winchester #heaven hell purgatory and the empty #spn 6.20 #spn 11.10 #spn 8.19 #Anonymous #spn timeline

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letterboxd · 5 years ago

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Sommar Loving: The Ari Aster Q&A.

“The best filmmaking is mischief-making.” —Midsommar director Ari Aster confesses to being a nervous wreck while answering Letterboxd members’ questions about pagan rituals, grotesque imagery and psychedelic drugs.

It’s crazy to think that only two years ago, Ari Aster was just another New York filmmaker with a few shorts under his belt. But by this time last year, his debut feature, the Toni Collette-starring Hereditary, had taken out the title of most popular film on Letterboxd for the month of June, and ended the year as our Highest Rated Horror for 2018.

Not that he had a moment to enjoy it. Last August, while Hereditary was still in cinemas, Aster was already in Hungary (standing in for Sweden) filming his new horror, Midsommar, with Florence Pugh in the lead role. It was an assignment from a Swedish production company that he almost refused, until he saw it as an opportunity to process the break-up he was going through at the time.

In an insanely tight turnaround, Midsommar is out less than a year since it was shot, and feedback for the film on Letterboxd is largely positive. Midsommar “manages to be the perfect rom-com and the most mesmerizing horror film of the year,” according to Owen, and the film proves to SilentDawn that “Aster is a capable craftsman and an auteur with many dastardly thoughts on his mind”. Laura declares: “Nobody makes me feel as icky, awful, and downright dreadful as Ari Aster, and for that, I’m very, very grateful.”

It’s safe to say that Aster is a Letterboxd MVP, so we thought it only fair to invite you to submit your questions for our interview with him. Ever the optimists, you pitched us well over a hundred, so Jack Moulton got the tough job: whittling, coalescing and combining your thoughts, tucking them in among a few of our own, and putting them to a guy who has “more fun talking about other movies than talking about my own”.

One thing we didn’t ask? The most popular question of all: “Ari, are you okay?” The better question, after watching his films, is: are we okay?

Isabelle Grill (center) and some Swedish friends. / Photo: Csaba Aknay

You wrote both Hereditary and Midsommar while you were in a personal crisis, and you consider that writing was your remedy. Do you think you can make great art—to explore the depths of existential questions—when you’re more comfortable and content? Or is suffering the root of your success? Ari Aster: I’m sure I can. I’ve written a lot of films when I’ve been more comfortable and content. The two short films that I made first were written in that place. I’m a filmmaker who likes conflict, which is not unique to me of course, but I do have a dark side and I go there in my writing.

I’m also someone who believes the best filmmaking is mischief-making and I’m always trying to come from a place of mischief as a writer. But, whether I’m going through a crisis or writing in a more or less relaxed state, I’m also a very neurotic guy. Even when there’s relative peace in my life, I’m kind of a nervous wreck.

That’s relatable. Grief is a catalyst for both films, and both Toni Collette and Florence Pugh’s big scenes of anguish are really the most horrifying parts of the films, because they’re so raw. AlecDouglas asks: what is your approach to directing actors’ performances? More specifically, can you talk about how you prepared each actress for these gut-wrenching moments. A lot of that was laid out in the script as clearly as I could. Beyond the script, it was just a matter of talking through the material with them and explaining what I felt was needed. Luckily both actresses are extraordinary artists who knew exactly what was necessary and were fully committed. They gave themselves to the material in a very generous way and were prepared to dive in headlong.

Florence Pugh (center) has a good cry in another memorable scene from ‘Midsommar’.

Chris Flores, Timur Dzhambinov and Kahlen all asked about your obsession with mutilated heads and/or skull trauma. I grew up loving horror films and subjected myself to a lot of grotesque imagery. I’ve always had a feeling for the macabre. There are a lot of images that traumatized me and I’m sure that they lingered in my mind in a way that conditioned me to pursue images like that and come up with them myself. In all of my stories, the imagery comes after the ideas and characters, so it tends to fall in line with the story. In some cases it does come first, but it’s very hard to trace any of that to any origin.

Several people, including Mark and MrJoshua, would like to know how many of the pagan rituals and artwork in Midsommar are legitimate, and how many were invented by you. Most of the rituals are references in one way or another to actual traditions and laid out in pre-existing folklore, but I did take a lot of liberties from there. So there are certain things in the film that are pure invention and there’s certain things that are absolutely pulled from reality. The pubic hair in the food and the menstrual blood in the drink, for instance, is tied to my actual research.

Gunnel Fred. / Photo: Gabor Kotschy

Scott Stamper, Sam Sellers-King and Ash were interested in your obsession with cults, or, as Deryn asks: “Ari Aster what the fuc— okay, what is it with you and pagan cult-themed horror movies?” I don’t know if I have an obsession. It just so happens that the first two movies that I got made featured cults. They’re also both films that are very much about family and are asking questions about the families you’re born into, surrogate families, and the families you find. So for both films it made sense. A cult is a very useful metaphor when you’re digging into material.

Another common question: how much “research”—personal or professional—did you do into psychedelic drugs? When it comes to the psychedelic stuff, I didn’t really do research. I had taken psychedelics about ten years ago and I had some very bad trips when I was in college.

That counts as research. Inadvertently, yeah.

Laura Valentina asks: which films inspired the look and feel of Midsommar? Can we ask you to also talk about cinematography influences? For the tripping scenes, we weren’t looking at any influences. We didn’t want to do the 1960s and 1970s psychedelia that you might see in Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, or the films by Kenneth Anger. I love all those films and really enjoy them, but they’re dated due to that. If anything we just knew what we wanted to avoid.

For the cinematography in general, we were pursuing a three-strip Technicolor look. We were talking a lot about the color films of Powell and Pressburger and looking at older movies when we were color-correcting the film. When I was finishing Hereditary, I was working on a shot-list [for Midsommar], but it was a more accelerated process because of our extremely punishing and tight prep schedule. On Hereditary we did a lot of screenings for the crew of given movies that I thought would get people in the right mood, but we weren’t able to do that on this film.

You’ve mentioned this was a gruelling shoot on a tight timeframe, but Mariela and NineTailedFox would like to know what the most satisfying part of the production of Midsommar was for you? It’s always satisfying when you have a good scene in the can and when you’re able to achieve certain things. Everyday there’s satisfying moments but it’s also loaded with little disappointments. You’re just always praying for something that will help move the shoot along and keep people’s spirits high. There were a lot of scenes that we were happy with so that’s always something to be grateful about.

Jack Reynor, Ari Aster and Florence Pugh. / Photo: Merie Weismiller Wallace

Many in the Letterboxd community are raving about Midsommar’s stellar cast. Half the character work is achieved in those selections. Can you talk about where you first saw your actors and how you knew they were right for the roles? For a lot of the parts we had people tape and send in auditions, so it’s really a matter of instinct and feeling these people fit. In the case of Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor and Will Poulter, they were people who were at the top of our lists early on who we persisted on that they were right. It was a real joy to work with all of them. William Jackson Harper, too.

Florence Pugh can really do anything. She’s an incredible actress who’s wonderfully endowed with amazing talent. Will Poulter is a total professional and a brilliant actor. Vilhelm Blomgren was somebody we pulled on pretty late in the process and it was very exciting to find him and know we had our Pelle.

Bran asks: how different did Hereditary and Midsommar end up being from your initial ideas for them? They changed in the sense that what we ended up shooting were a lot longer than we could keep them, so the movies were cut down a lot. I feel both films are pretty close to what I was imagining. Midsommar was more ambitious and so there were more compromises, which is just what happens. You’re chasing this thing and you get as close as you can to your vision.

So then, given that Midsommar was significantly cut down, we’ll jump to Joshua Booker’s question: what was the hardest stuff to cut? There’s more rituals and we get to meet more people in the community to get a more nuanced view of them. There are more scenes between Dani and Christian so that their journey to that ending is a little bit more circuitous. There’s more of the thesis competition between Christian and Josh too, that originally had more body to it.

Right out of the gate your vision as a filmmaker feels fully formed. You’ve said that you intend to explore different genres. Do you want to continue working with cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski, and do you plan on exploring different styles? I’m always interested in developing different styles but the style needs to fit the film. I’ve been working with Pawel for a long time—he’s one of my best friends and we understand how the other person works. We have a very satisfying shorthand and our own processes, which is great. I definitely plan on keeping on going with him.

Ari Aster with cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski. / Photo: Gabor Kotschy

Everybody wants to know whether you’ve ever written a script, or a scene, or a short, and then thought “I’ve gone too far”? I admit have a problem with brevity. That’s maybe where I wonder if I’ve been a bit too indulgent, but not if I’ve gone too far with the taboos.

MaxT26 asks: do you think it’s important for modern horror films to push the boundaries in terms of being disturbing and creative? Related: Tobias Soar wonders what recent horror movies you’ve admired. There’s a tradition in horror of confronting taboos and twisting the knife, so to speak. The Wailing is a film I absolutely loved and already has a place among my favorite horror movies. I would describe that as a masterpiece.

I’m excited by South Korean filmmakers in general, by the way they approach storytelling and juggling of tones. Their films defy categorization while also tempting it. Later this year, we’re all going to get The Lighthouse. I wouldn’t necessarily categorize that as a horror film but I’m excited for people to see it. I’m a big fan of Robert Eggers. I saw an early cut of it and it’s great.

The final question/answer contain spoilers for both films. Read on at your peril.

You’ve mentioned building the script for Hereditary around the image of both Charlie and Annie’s deaths and the way they mirror each other. What image was your starting point for Midsommar? Some of the final images were certainly the things that came to me first. In particular, it was the image of the wide-shot with Dani and the house burning behind her. The prologue of the film came to me pretty early on too.

‘Midsommar’ is in US and UK theaters now, and coming to other festivals and markets soon. All photographs courtesy of A24. Our thanks to Ari for his time and to everyone who asked a question. Still not sated? Enjoy this Letterboxd list of Ari Aster’s favorite contemporary directors.

#ari aster #hereditary #midsommar #horror #filmmaker #toni collette #florence pugh #pagancommunity #sweden #pagan rituals #a24 #a24 films #letterboxd #q&a

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tomeandflickcorner · 5 years ago

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Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: Citizen Ghost

And now, we get a flashback story. Yeah, this episode is mostly one big flashback. And it’s probably fitting that it we get this episode right after the one that shows the original movie being made in the animated reality. According to this episode, that first mission at the Sedgewick Hotel and the battle with Gozer weren’t just Hollywood executives taking artistic liberties. Those events played out pretty much the same way in the TV show as well.

The episode opens with Cynthia Crawford, that reporter we saw briefly in When Halloween Was Forever (hey, props for recurring characters!), coming to the Firehouse. It turns out that she’s planning on having an exclusive news story on the Ghostbusters and has therefore scheduled an interview with Peter, in order to learn more about who they are beyond the general public appearance. Upon entering the Firehouse, she’s immediately greeted by Janine, who informs Cynthia that the Peter is upstairs. But when Cynthia starts to head up, Janine warns her that she can’t go up there, and proceeds to count down from 30. For some reason, Cynthia seems incapable of putting two and two together and thinks Janine is playing some sort of game. Of course, when Janine is finished with her countdown, a loud explosion is heard upstairs. And Janine announces that it’s now safe for Cynthia to go upstairs.

Apparently, the Ghostbusters are working on building this machine up in Egon’s lab. I’ll be really honest, I have no idea what this machine is supposed to do. But apparently, Winston doesn’t either. However, if memory serves, we previously saw Egon and Ray trying to build this thing before, back in When Halloween Was Forever. I wonder if they’re building up to something in a later episode. (I THINK they are, but my overall memory of most of the remaining episodes is hazy at best.) Either way, the tests they’re running on this Mystery Machine seem to be resulting in loud sonic booms. Which prompts Peter to joke that they probably just took out Bayonne, NJ and they should aim for the Bronx this time. To which Ray protests, stating he was born in the Bronx. (I thought it was previously established that Ray was from Morrisville. Was Mama Stantz just visiting the Bronx for whatever reason when her water broke, prompting her to simply go to the nearest hospital instead of the one back home? Or is this a continuity error?) At this point, Cynthia interrupts the proceedings, and she and Peter head off to conduct the interview.

Of course, Peter being Peter, he decides to basically tell Cynthia his entire life story. Until Cynthia reminds him that this interview was supposed to be about the inner workings of the Ghostbusters, not just him. It’s at this moment that Slimer shows up on the scene. Upon seeing him, Cynthia remarks how peculiar it is for a group of ghost catchers actually live with a ghost. Peter agrees that it is strange, which prompts him to go into the whole backstory of how Slimer ended up living in the Firehouse.

It all goes back to the aftermath of the Ghostbusters’ battle with Gozer, with them returning to the destroyed Firehouse. (Remember the Firehouse sustained heavy damages when the Containment Unit got shut down and exploded.) And I have to complement the attention to detail, as the Ghostbusters are all covered in marshmallow goo. Once they arrive back at the Firehouse, they begin to access the extent of the damage and begin plans to rebuild, with Egon announcing his intention to construct a new Containment Unit, only one bigger than before in order to combat the previous issue of possible overflow. However, Egon states that their first order of business is to destroy their jumpsuits. The reason being that the battle with Gozer resulted in the jumpsuits absorbing a high level of psychokinetic energy. And, as luck would happen, Janine announces that their new uniforms had just arrived. Well, that sure was convenient, that they ordered new uniforms that arrive right when they need them. Though this does explain the in-show reason why the Ghostbusters have different uniforms from the ones they wore in the movie. (The actual reason was because the show’s creators wanted to give each of the Ghostbusters’ uniforms a unique colorization so they could easily be identified from a distance.)

And so, the restoration of the Firehouse begins. Eventually, things have progressed to the point that the new Containment Unit is finished, with Egon conducting finalized checks on it to make sure everything is in working order. He ends up recruiting Peter to assist him in double checking everything, but Peter is clearly not taking things seriously. Which leads to the following exchange:

Egon: Transtator?

Peter: Check.

Egon: Field generator?

Peter: Check.

Egon: Ionization decay meter?

Peter: Check.

Egon: Plasmatic refractor? Anti-Ectoplasm destruct mechanism? Bipolar adjustor?

Peter: Check, check, and *yawn* check.

Egon: Transwarp drive?

Peter: Check.

Egon: AH-HA! Caught you! We don't have a transwarp drive!

Peter: If we don't have one, then it can't malfunction. If it's not malfunctioning, then nothing's wrong. And if nothing's wrong, then it checks, right?

Egon: *Pause* I'm not going to talk to you again for at least a week. It's not good for me. (Walks off)

Peter: Hey, don't make fun. This is how I got through college.

Have I mentioned I adore the dynamic between these two? Because I do. Anyway, Egon also reminds Peter that he’d promised to destroy their original jumpsuits, and states that it has to be done immediately. Peter says that he’ll do so, but then proceeds to simply kick the box aside, deciding that he’ll get to that later. So of course, he ends up forgetting all about the jumpsuits, resulting in them lying next to the Containment Unit for weeks as the Firehouse continues to be rebuilt.

Eventually, the Firehouse is completely restored. So the Ghostbusters and Janine decide to have a full-on turkey dinner in order to celebrate. However, it turns out that someone has been secretly watching the Ghostbusters for some time now. When he escaped the first Containment Unit with the other ghosts, the currently unnamed Slimer ended up sticking around, and has been pretty much spying on the Ghostbusters since then. But when he sees the turkey dinner laid out, Slimer’s characteristic ravenous appetite leads to him revealing his presence, with Slimer grabbing the turkey and trying to make a break for it. Immediately, the Ghostbusters give chase, with Peter announcing he recognizes Slimer from the Sedgewick Hotel case (and he clearly still holds a grudge against Slimer for sliming him.) Slimer’s multiple attempts at getting away are initially thwarted by the fact that the turkey he stole can’t pass through walls with him (which is a bit odd, as last episode clearly showed that Slimer could extract the honey peanuts from their bags without damaging the bag itself. Maybe Slimer’s hand has to be completely closed around the food?). Eventually though, Slimer decides to abandon the turkey in order to escape his pursuers. Once Slimer gets away, the Ghostbusters begin to speculate why Slimer chose to remain close to the Firehouse when all the other escaped ghosts made a break for it. Janine speculates that perhaps the reason is that Slimer was lonely, and the Ghostbusters were probably the first people who paid any attention to him. Although, the guys are all quick to dismiss this theory.

Nevertheless, as time goes on, Slimer continues to show up around the Firehouse. And each of the Ghostbusters respond to his ongoing presence in different ways. Egon saw his chance to closely study a ghost and Ray viewed Slimer’s presence as an opportunity to turn him into a pet. Even Winston seemed to be accepting of Slimer. The only one who wasn’t on board was Peter, who still felt as if Slimer had it out for him and was just waiting for another chance to slime him again. For that reason, Ray was the one who chose to name the little ghost ‘Slimer,’ knowing that name would annoy Peter the most.

However, there’s of course more to the plot of this backstory than that. It turns there was indeed a tiny crack in the Containment Unit that the overlooked (most likely because Peter hadn’t been taking Egon’s security checks seriously.) What’s more, Peter left the contaminated jumpsuits right next to that crack. Because of that, the contaminated jumpsuits have been slowly absorbing even more ghostly energy. Until one night, when the buildup of psychokinetic energy resulted in the old jumpsuits literally getting up and walking away, even taking on the ghostly appearance of their former wearers. Complete with spectral versions of the Proton Packs. The Spectral Ghostbusters make their way upstairs and proceed to try and attack the sleeping Ghostbusters, but they fortunately wake up in time and manage to drive them off. Although, this just results in the Spectral Ghostbuters to become loose in the city. And Egon, Ray and Winston quickly figure out who is to blame for this whole mess. Because, yes, this whole thing is Peter’s fault, since he didn’t destroy the original jumpsuits like he was supposed to. (Even though it’s shown in present day that Peter is still trying to deny his fault, as he tells Cynthia that they’d decided it was nobody’s fault this happened.)

Regardless, days go by without any sign of the Spectral Ghostbusters. So it’s pretty much business as usual as the Ghostbusters continue their ghost catching jobs. But then, the Spectral Ghostbusters reappear. This time, it becomes clear that the Spectral Ghostbusters have decided to completely replace the Ghostbusters, as there’s only room for one team of Ghostbusters in the city. And they therefore are out to eliminate the Ghostbusters. In order to brainstorm a way to combat the threat the Spectral Ghostbusters, the Real Ghostbusters gather at the Firehouse. As they brainstorm, they theorize that the Spectral Ghostbusters’ Proton Packs shoot off a kind of ectoplasmic energy. Egon comes up with two different solutions to solve things. Either they could figure out how to disarm the Spectral Ghostbusters or force them to fire off the Spectral Proton Packs until they run out of energy. Because the Spectral Ghostbusters are entities of ectoplasmic energy as well.

Of course, the Spectral Ghostbusters are essentially the identical evil twins of the Real Ghostbusters. So they therefore have a similar idea. And this is proven when they sneak into the Firehouse while the Real Ghostbusters are talking and hijack the Ecto-1, where the Proton Packs had been stored. Because of that, the Spectral Ghostbusters have ensured the Real Ghostbusters are completely unarmed. Fortunately, Ray notices that they still have a spare Proton Pack, so they’re not completely defenseless. But of course, there’s a catch. The spare Proton Pack was only half-charged, so it wouldn’t last long against the Spectral Ghostbusters.

Therefore, there was only one solution. Upon noticing that the Spectral Ghostbusters indeed grow weaker the longer they fire off the Spectral Proton Packs, the Real Ghostbusters realize their best bet is if one of them draws their fire and forces them to keep firing until they run out of energy. Of course, this would most likely be a suicide mission, as a direct hit from one of the Spectral Proton Packs might kill a person. When he hears Ray volunteering himself for the task, Slimer refuses to allow this, as he doesn’t want to see Ray get hurt. Instead, Slimer himself flies toward the Spectral Ghostbusters, forcing them to continue firing while Slimer effortlessly dodges their attacks. Until he gets distracted by Peter cheering him on. The moment Slimer is distracted, he gets hit. Of course, Slimer isn’t harmed too badly, seeing as he’s a ghost and therefore already dead. But the important thing is that he did what he was supposed to do, and the Spectral Ghostbusters’ energy has depleted to the point where the Real Ghostbusters can take them out, capturing the residual ghostly energy in a Ghost Trap. Once the day is saved, Peter ultimately relents and agrees to allow Slimer to stay in the Firehouse, in light of how the little ghost helped save their lives.

With that, Peter finishes his story, and Cynthia thanks him for his time. She announces that she thinks she’s gained enough information to complete her news story. And as night falls, the Ghostbusters gather around the TV to watch Cynthia’s report. However, to their surprise, Cynthia has ultimately decided to not make her news segment about the Ghostbusters, but of Slimer. At first, Peter displays his agitation at Slimer for stealing the limelight. But he’s clearly not really angry, as he then just kinda shrugs and allows Slimer to continue eating his popcorn.

All-in-all, this was a good backstory, as it helped bridge the gap between the events of the movie and the TV show. If I had to pick something to complain about, it was the show’s attempt to make this whole ‘all things considered, I’d rather be someone else’ joke into an ongoing thing. Because Janine, Peter and Slimer all attempt to make that joke within the first five minutes of the episode. Thankfully, that’s nipped in the bud rather quickly. Which is good, as I don’t think it was that funny the first time. Though it’s interesting to note that Janine mentions she’d rather be Meryl Streep. Why her of all people? I realize she’s a big movie star and all. But of all the famous women in the world, why would Janine choose Meryl Streep? Were the 80s particularly good for her? Considering I personally didn’t become acquainted with her name until The Devil Wears Prada, I’m not really sure.

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

#the real ghostbusters #rgb episode review #ghostbusters franchise

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 6 years ago

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Michael in the Mainstream: Split

There’s really no dancing around this: Split is a stealth sequel to Unbreakable. It is something that makes so much sense and puts so much of the film’s more absurd moments into context that you might think back and berate yourself for not catching on sooner. But it is a testament to how good this film is that this is actually the only twist, and it is a fairly minor one that enriches the viewing experience and encourages rewatching to pick up on all the tiny details that fall into line with the rules laid out in Unbreakable – a feat Shyamalan hasn’t really achieved since his first two movies.

After having a minor return with The Visit after becoming the butt of jokes in Hollywood for years, Shymalan proved he still had a knack for great filmmaking with this stunning comeback, an intense slowburn thriller with a heavy focus on character development, again calling to mind Unbreakable (it really makes you wonder if that twist was even meant to be one, or if it was just there to drive home the obvious). In a weird way, though, this movie is a lot more fun than Unbreakable was, though not necessarily in its subject matter; the film deals with abuse (physical and sexual), trauma, Disassociative Identity Disorder, kidnapping, hostage situations, and a monstrous entity known only as “The Beast.” Not exactly a lighthearted romp, but it manages to be more entertaining, if not exactly better, than its predecessor on the merit of its lead actor’s multiple performances.

James McAvoy is the MVP here. Portraying Kevin Crumb, a man with 23 split personalities who kidnaps three teenage girls to feed to his secret 24th personality known as “The Beast,” McAvoy faced the task of being able to make each personality portrayed believably distinct. To say he succeeded is a bit of an understatement; each and every one of the split personalities is enjoyably unique, from the prim and proper Patricia to the obsessive-compulsive neat freak Dennis to the creepy and awkward child Hedwig. We don’t get to see all of the personalities of course, with a few being relegated to brief cameos, but the ones we stick with through most of the film are well done and all feel different from each other.

Of course, some would argue the film is tastelessly treading into offensive territory with its depiction of mental illness, with the old and tired cliché of mentally ill people being portrayed as disturbed and violent. I would argue this is not the case; for one, the DID is portrayed relatively realistically, and out of all the personalities, only three or four of them are actually malevolent in any way, with the others just being normal people who happen to inhabit the same body as people like Dennis and Patricia. The fact the film takes place in a superhero universe also helps, as the more fantastic elements are much easier to swallow and any inaccuracies are merely artistic liberties taken. It should also be noted that Kevin’s therapist also repeatedly stresses that she doesn’t view them as awful or monstrous, and genuinely cares about their well-being and wants to help them. What I’m saying is this isn’t a poorly-executed B-movie portrayal of mental illness, and it should not be treated as such, especially as it does not claim to speak for people with DID at large (and if it does it doesn’t demonize them, as Kevin is ultimately a tragic and sympathetic figure to the end).

Anya Taylor-Joy is the other strong element this film offers, as she plays Casey, the only girl out of the three kidnapped who doesn’t lose her cool and is able to assess the situation and figure out how to adapt to what Kevin’s personalities toss her way with ease. The reason for her ability to adapt on the fly is outlined through flashbacks to her childhood interspersed throughout the story, which lead up to some heartwrenching and dark revelations that explain why she is so excellent at surviving situations like this. Frankly I find her performance to be a bit underrated, but it’s also not hard to see why when McAvoy is giving such a powerhouse performance that it tends to overshadow the other players; still, without Taylor-Joy to bounce off of, McAvoy’s performance might have missed that little extra something needed to make it truly great. Either way, both actors do a fantastic job in their roles.

The film’s plot is actually relatively straightforward, which is perhaps the biggest twist Shyamalan could possibly throw at an audience. Of course, that honestly helps the movie, because this film is much more about the characters and the way their experiences have molded them into who they are than it is about building up into some great mystery. And even without the trademark Shyamalan twist, it does have that trademark Shyamalan cinematography, with a lot of great shots and scenes.

There is so much I love about this movie, but one of my absolute favorite things isn’t in the film itself, but an interpretation of the film that was sadly deleted off of the Fridge Brilliance page on TVTropes. The troper’s theory was this:

Some of the events of the film curiously line up quite well with the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles. The lines "Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way," "There were voices down the corridor," "She got a lot of pretty pretty boys that she calls friends," "And still those voices are calling from far away," "We're all just prisoners here of our own device," "And in the Master's chambers they gathered for the feast," and "Last thing I remember, I was running for the door" all stick out. However, the line that takes the cake has to be "They stab it with their steely knives, but they JUST CAN'T KILL THE BEAST."

Frankly I’m not sure this was intentional, but it does add a layer to the movie that makes me enjoy it even more, even if it’s not intended on the part of the Shyamalan. Frankly this is a step up from the unintentional joy The Happening gives me, so I think we can conclude Shyamalan is truly back on track.

Split is an absolutely fantastic film, and easily one of Shyamalan’s best. If you enjoyed Unbreakable, this one is definitely a must-see, and if you just like movies that are very character-driven to begin with, this film will be right up your alley. One can only hope that Glass can live up to this film and the first; it’s obviously doubtful it can surpass, but here’s hoping it can at least settle for being a satisfying conclusion.

#Michael in the Mainstream #review #movie review #M. Night Shyamalan #Split #superhero movie #James McAvoy #Unbreakable

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b1uecandlehomestuck · 6 years ago

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Hi! I think your reviews of the friendsims really put into words a lot of the reasons for my own dissatisfaction with some of them, and I was wondering if someone were to hypothetically try to write a fic based off the events of the friendsim, what kind of major pitfalls present in the friendsims should that person try to avoid? Thanks!

Well, first of all, I’m flattered to be the source of choice for advice.

I guess the easiest way for me to do this is just a string of advice in no particular order:

Keep a particular character’s bloodtype in mind, but don’t let it be an all-encompassing part of their personality.A very common and limiting trope I’ve found especially annoying in Hiveswap is that the writers feel an obligation that all characters of a certain bloodtype must share some given trait. The biggest example of this is that every teal has a significant role in law or business; this comes off as a critical misunderstanding by the writers to me, frankly. For Terezi, her obsession with law was a unique interest that gave her character; spreading this over every single tealblood takes that away from them.

Of course, if you’re writing about pre-existing characters, you shouldn’t retcon the traits given in Friendsim. However, you could add more reasoning for their given traits; worst case scenario, What Pumpkin actually gives reasoning of their own, but given their track record, this is unlikely. So, take artistic liberty, but don’t deviate too far.

At the same time as making all characters of a bloodtype too similar may be a mistake, there are still traits given by a bloodtype’s true sign which should be kept in mind. For example, making every oliveblood a master of romance a la Nepeta should be avoided, but relationships should still hold some significance to them. Tealbloods should have some vague sense of justice they wish to upkeep, yellowbloods should generally be busybodies, and so on. This probably goes without saying, but the extended zodiac is a good resource, both for general traits shared among bloodtypes, as well as each individual’s quirks given by their lunar sway and aspect. Like with bloodtypes, their lunar sway and aspects should not be all-encompasing, but signs of them should effect their personality and choices.

While death and violence is far from uncommon on Alternia, they still threaten and unsettle trolls.Hiveswap paints an extremely unflattering angle on Alternia; while the society is certainly chaotic, and while trolls are far more desensitized to bloodshed and death, they are still factors to them. Despite characters like Konyyl, Chahut, Amisia, and so forth, treating death like it’s nothing, it’s greatly distressing to “normal” trolls. Even Polypa, who portrays herself as a cold, emotionless assassin, still nearly snaps when her contact is killed. Azdaja, despite routinely participating in deadly combat, could barely stomach it when he first met Konyyl.

Perhaps this is personal taste coming into play, but if a death happens, it shouldn’t be something just out of the blue and random; this might go without saying, but it’s a very unsatisfying way for a character to go out. Even if the death serves some sort of purpose, the cause should be known, or, eventually explained/discovered. Even something like a character accidentally plummeting to their death is more “satisfying” than an unknown assassin with no motive killing a character.

Trolls are generally very emotionally sensitive; trolls who seem emotionless are likely hiding or repressing their true colors.Trolls need moirails. Without someone to confide in, they will either go into a tantrum, or seek alternative methods of social interaction. Trolls are far, far more sensitive to the adverse effects of loneliness than humans are, and will likely become dangerous without some vent for these emotions. However, trolls are also far more emotionally receptive to physical touch, especially on the cheek; however, doing this is seen as a very intimate thing.

Trolls also tend to go into tantrums; this is most obvious in purplebloods, where their tantrums activate a sort of berserker-mode, where they lose themselves almost entirely, and instincts take over. On top of this, “tantrums” aren’t always caused strictly by anger; it seems to be caused by any sort of overload of emotions, shown in Chahut’s route. (Alternatively, that could be something specific to Chahut, but the emotional-overload thing is just my theory).

Avoid making sharp jumps in tone (without an equal reaction).This is just a general writing tip, really, and probably doesn’t need to be said, but I digress. Whether you’re aiming to make a grim story, a nice story, or just a slice of life, you should generally avoid shifting tone too suddenly. A sudden dark twist is cruel and feels unfair, while a sudden joyful twist can feel forced and undeserved. That being said, these aren’t things that cannot be done whatsoever, but whichever way you do it, large jumps in tone should be given breathing room, or else you’ll risk rushing your reader along. Taking time to explain what characters are feeling also gives the reader some time to process what’s happened, as well. Of course, you don’t want to meander, but you’re just going to have to use your best judgement to determine what the proper breathing room a given event should get.

Avoid stories which can be summarized by “characters meet, characters go somewhere, they talk, the end.”A flaw inherent to Friendsim’s format is that there is exactly one goal, which is a very simple one: make friends. This generally just means “follow the troll in question around until you become friend”. These types of stories are, without a doubt, my least favorite, within Friendsim. You should generally give your characters something to do, or a reason for meeting. If your goal is simply to get two characters together to socialize, that’s fine, but have them be a bit more mobile, or just move the scenery now and again; for example, maybe they’re off on a hike, or they’re window shopping, or they’re looking for something, whatever. You probably already have the specifics for what you want to write about, but ultimately, you either wanna move the goalposts around, or you make the path from point A to point B very jagged and scenic.

Avoid overly-tread topics.Things like “the obligatory hemospectrum rant”, or “the tealblood explaining their role in the troll legal system”, and so on. If you do go over something already overly-tread, look at it from a new angle.

There’s probably more stuff I could write about, but this is getting pretty long-winded as is. If you (or anyone else, for that matter) have any more questions, feel free to ask, I’ll always try to answer any questions I get!

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traincat · 6 years ago

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Hello! I recently stumbled across your tumblr and immediately fell in love with Johnny Storm thanks to you. I want to start reading the comics but I have no idea on what to start with since they go so far back. Do you have any suggestions?

Hey! I love Johnny SO much and also comics so much, so this is the best kind of thing to hear. :D I definitely have some suggestions. I’m going to try to give you a fairly broad range of options, because, like you said, they go pretty far back, and there isn’t one right way to start reading comics.

If you want to start reading Fantastic Four, I have a couple recommendations:

1) Fantastic Four volume 3, by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo (Fantastic Four v3 #60-70, renumbering after #70 to #500-524)

If I had to pick one issue and only issue as an introduction to the Fantastic Four, it would probably be Waid and Wieringo’s Fantastic Four v3 #60, which is told primarily from the point of view of an outsider who has been sent to reevaluate the Fantastic Four in order to help his company boost their in-universe popularity. It takes an insightful look at the Fantastic Four’s unique place on the Marvel landscape as not just a superhero team but as some of the biggest celebrities in their world, and it’s self-contained with a great ending. Waid&Wieringo’s run is great in that it offers a look at every dynamic on the team – a lot of times you get them split into duos, like Reed&Sue and Johnny&Ben, or Reed&Ben and Johnny&Sue, but Waid’s run really looks at every facet of the team’s relationships with each other, and the late, great Mike Wieringo’s art is engaging and charming. Also, the Fantastic Four invade Latveria!

Waid&Wieringo’s run concludes with one of my top five favorite Johnny storylines, Rising Storm (Fantastic Four #517-524), where Johnny’s powers are switched with Sue’s in a last minute bid to save her life from hostile aliens - a gamble that ends up with Johnny captured by Galactus and forced, as his herald, to find a planet for Galactus to consume.

By swapping Johnny’s powers and stranding him, while he waits for rescue, in a situation where he has work alone to try and find a work around to dooming an entire planet’s population, it really uniquely highlights both the character’s resourcefulness and his compassion.

2) Fantastic Four #1, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. My other suggestion is to literally start at the beginning. Take this one with a grain of salt – Silver Age comics can be hard for some people to get into, regardless of their level of comic book reading expertise. (I’ve personally never had a hard time with them, but I was raised on 60s television like Bewitched and Gilligan’s Island, so I came into them familiar with the kind of character tropes that 60s comics like to employ.) That being said, this is the run that started it all, the foundation of Marvel comics as we know it, and Jack Kirby’s art is absolutely stunning.

Lee and Kirby’s run spans from Fantastic Four #1-102, although Stan Lee would stay on the book with other Marvel greats like John Romita Sr and John Buscema for a while longer. Whether or not you start here, I do think Fantastic Four’s beginning is worth reading at some point.

3) Claremont’s Fantastic Four run, Fantastic Four v3 #1-32. Lobdell actually wrote the first 3 issues of this, and I’d say you might notice the dropped storyline, but uhh it wouldn’t be the only one. This is not usually a run I recommend starting with, but since you mentioned Johnny in specific I wanted to include it, because Claremont writes an absolutely stunning Johnny. Nobody does Johnny’s relationship with his powers - both the good and the bad - like he does.

Claremont’s run also likes to get its freak on with Johnny in particular. There’s pros and cons about this run – it takes place after Marvel’s Heroes Reborn, which saw both the Fantastic Four and Avengers banished to a pocket dimension for a year, and effectively acts as a big reset button for some messy canon stuff from the late 90s. In essence, it’s a fresh start. On the other hand, it’s a prime example of a comic from the early 2000s – it wants to throw a lot of superhero junk at the wall and see what sticks. I like it a lot, but if you’re not a very experienced superhero reader, it may not be a good starting point. Claremont also tends to be very verbose, so your mileage may vary.

4) Alternatively, if you feel like jumping right in with what’s going on right now, the current Marvel Two-In-One by Chip Zdarsky is AMAZING and does a great job of getting you caught up while moving the action along. With Reed, Sue, and their children still missing after the events of Secret Wars (2015), and Johnny mysteriously losing his powers, he and Ben embark on a multiversal road trip to find their family – but they’re not alone, and Ben has a secret.

Totally stunning book, and easily my favorite thing Marvel is putting out at the moment. As of writing this post, issues #1-6 are available!

There are also two Johnny solo series I recommend. (This makes it sound like there are others I don’t recommend, but no, these are the only two Johnny solos.) Like with Fantastic Four, I’m going to give you a modern series first, and then a classic one.

1) Human Torch (2003) #1-12 by Karl Kesel and Scottie Young. This comic is from a period where Marvel was trying to entice manga fans with what they perceived to be manga-ish art styles, so the art does make it a bit of a hard sell, but trust me, it’s so worth. While, in my opinion, the whole book is more than worth a read, the first storyline, Burn! (#1-6) is all around terrific and a top favorite Johnny story for me. When a former high school classmate of Johnny’s turned firefighter turns up on Johnny’s door with a mystery involving a case of seemingly spontaneous human combustion, Johnny has to work alongside him to catch a pyrokinetic serial killer while facing down an incident from his past.

It’s another great look at Johnny and his relationship with his powers. Issue #12 also sees Johnny back at Metro U, the first college he dropped out of, and reflects on his insecurities regarding that. (Sidenote: if you read Waid’s run and like Johnny’s assistant Jian, Human Torch (2003) is basically her only other appearance.) If you want something that focuses solely on Johnny, Human Torch (2003) is your best bet.

2) Strange Tales #101-134, by Stan Lee. Oh my God, if you like classic comics, this stretch of Strange Tales is SO fun. It was published when the Fantastic Four were just taking off and Johnny was a shining star on the superhero landscape. Set before he and Sue moved into the Baxter Building with Reed and Ben, it takes place out on suburban Long Island, and initially sees Johnny attempting to keep his identity as the Human Torch a secret from his hometown.

Strange Tales!Johnny is the cutest, most clean cut boy in the world and I love him. Basically every issue sees him get tied to something by a supervillain. A rocket? Check. Tied up by vines in a gardener’s revenge? Check. Handcuffed by fake Captain America? Check, check, check. And if you like Spideytorch, be sure to check out Strange Tales Annual #2, which established a lot of the staples of their relationship we still see today, like the sky-written messages and their meeting spot at the Statue of Liberty.

I just dumped like a thousand comics on you, sorry! Last but not least, I’ve been hyping the 18+ Marvel 616′s book club, but there’s a ton of channels and we welcome readers of all expertise, so if you want to come chat about getting into Fantastic Four or any other Marvel property or character, hop on over: https://discord.gg/TA32PbH. We want to help you get into comics!

I really hope you find some Johnny comics to love because he is the best and I love him and I want everyone to love him too.

#johnny storm #marvel comics #long post/#*replies

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