#it adapts her story into a child-friendly medium in what i think is the best way it could've

[necrotic-nephilim]

do you ship helena bertinelli with anyone? if yes, then which characters and why? what's your favorite helena ship? do you have any helena rarepairs? (i know you've talked about helena/steph and you're so right about it, it's a very interesting ship)

!!!! i have so many ships for my best girl ever yes oh my god thank you for asking.

my top pairing is probably Vic Sage/the Question. Vic is the basic answer, but man. i love them so much. no couple has matched each other's freak like that have. Justice League Unlimited is a great adaptation of Helena in general, but it also did a great adaptation of Helena and Vic's relationship. how he just dedicates himself to helping her with no expected return, but also wants to make sure she doesn't go too far in a hunt for vengeance that never ends for her. i think a lot of characters often want to change Helena or expect things out of her for their own needs, like the Batfam and the BoP. but Vic is one of the few people who just wants her to be better for her own good. when he tries to stop her from killing it's not because of his morals, it's because he doesn't want this crusade to consume her. and i just. man i think about them a lot. Helena rlly likes weird little men who give themselves wholly to her.

Zinda Blake/Lady Blackhawk is also a top ship for me. tbh i just like Zinda. but i do love how Helena and Zinda interact, being the more rough and tumble members of the BoP. they're both outsiders, in different ways. Helena is an outsider of the Batfam and Zinda is literally from a different time and an outsider to the current world. their friendship is so genuine and i think if Babs and Dinah can have. whatever homoerotic nonsense going on during BoP, then Zinda and Helena deserve some homoerotic nonsense too. as a treat.

if we're willing to count New-52 Helena, then i enjoy Helena/Dick/Tiger. i think Helena and Dick being a past relationship is really important in pre-Flashpoint for Helena's development, though i don't ship them as a serious couple beyond a fling. but in the New-52, i think this throuple be fun. Helena and Tiger respect each other as two very driven, no-nonsense agents and then well. they both clearly have some kind of thing for Dick. so it's fun finding the balance of how they could all work together romantically.

and ofc. it's a crime to mention Helena ships and not mention Renee Montoya/the Question. every time they interact it's really fucking gay. it's so gay that Kate Kane, Renee's own ex, assumed Helena and Renee were gay. i cannot be convinced against this ship. i genuinely think this ship should be canon. i mean. DC did tease us with this moment from an alternate universe and it's lived rent for me since. fucking criminal for us to only get one panel of what we could have if DC let Helena be a fruit in the main universe. being in love with Helena Bertinelli should be a right of passage for the Question mantle, i personally believe. if you asked me like. genuinely who i want to see Helena date in the current comics, Renee is my top pick. (i would say Vic but he's fucking dead and the New-52 butchered him so rip my mans-)

lois lane (2019) #10

besides those ships, just about every ship for Helena probably falls into the category of rarepair. like you said i've talked about my love for Helena/Steph before bc god. i think it should be a thing more people ship. once i finish the fic i'm writing about them i will convince others to like it.

i also think Helena/Cass could be fun. in a *lot* of ways Helena and Cass are narrative parallels to each other. Helena was a victim of her family being murdered at about the same age Cass was forced to be a murderer. Helena grows up to believe in lethal justice because of this, and Cass grows up to be staunchly against it. Cass' Batgirl suit was made *by* Helena. they both want to be protectors of the most vulnerable people. they balance each other out in a lot of ways and i think they should kiss about it.

also probably a rarepair, i think Helena/Lady Shiva is fun. their fight during Birds of Prey (2010) had... questionable moments for Helena's characterization, but i do love so much that Helena knocks Shiva off her feet and gains a deep respect from Shiva. like. Shiva gives her a nickname and shows her admiration. i would like to see fanfic where Shiva continues to be weirdly admirable of Helena and bothering her non-stop. they could be a fun fucked up toxic yuri moment. this is just. so gay to me.

birds of prey (2010) #6

my most rare Helena pair would probably be Helena Wayne, actually. but specifically Helena Wayne of JSA (2022). ever since, for some reason, it was made canon that the current Helena Wayne was named after Helena Bertinelli and took the name Huntress to honor her i *cannot* stop thinking about them meeting. because in-universe it makes *no* fucking sense for Bruce to name his kid after *Helena Bertinelli*, someone he's regularly at odds with and doesn't like. it's clearly an awkward explanation to try to make the whole two Huntress situation make sense. (it's almost as bad as Helena Wayne in the New-52 using Helena Bertinelli as an alias.) but because it's such an odd choice, i do think it could be fun for Helena Wayne, when she's back in time to see Bruce, to find Helena Bertinelli to get to know the woman she was named after and Helena Bertinelli just being. baffled by the idea of *Batman* naming his kid after her. it could be a fun fucked up moment.

my other super rarepair is Kara Zor-L/Power Girl. they had like. one meaningful interaction of JSA Classified and it's been PLAGUING me. something about when Power Girl doesn't remember her past and she's seeking a friend, she instinctively goes to find Huntress? but it's wrong bc this isn't *her* Huntress and neither of them understand why Power Girl would seek Helena out? god it's so good. i'm always a big fan of ships where one person in the ship is *so* obviously using the other person as a replacement for someone they lost and they both know it. it's such a doomed angsty thing where you could play with Helena actually really liking Kara, but knowing that she's just a replacement for Kara's Helena Wayne. good fucked up shit man.

and lastly: i really ship her with Dawn Granger/Dove. there's no canon basis for this, they didn't have a ton of interactions even when they were both on the BoP. but there's a very kind innocence to Dawn that contrasts Helena's violence really well. and i do love a ship with a corruption kink vibe to it. let Helena corrupt Dawn. i could write such fucked up porn about these two.

[angedemystere]

What do you think about shoujo cosette? As adaptation and animation and voice acting...

I think I got sent this ask before and, true to form, endlessly procrastinated on an answer. So thank you for sending it again! I shall redeem myself ....

I honestly think Shoujo Cosette is one of the best Les Miz adaptations out there, even next to the musical. Of course it’s very different from the musical due to its medium and audience. And, if I’m honest, I get a kick from poking fun at some of the heightened drama, especially since anime often exaggerate characters’ actions and reactions. Not to mention all the super cute child characters and their big-ass eyes emoting the hell out of every moment.

But, as for its good qualities, it’s got the advantage of being 52 episodes long (22 freakin’ hours!). It’s able to squeeze in little canon details most adaptations drop for time, and it develops ideas that aren’t necessarily book canon but make sense to explore, such as Cosette’s relationships with Gavroche and Eponine while living with the Thenardiers. On that note, you get a LOT more Cosette in general, as the show’s title would suggest. You lose some of the grit of the book for the sake of appealing to a younger, kid-populated audience, but it shows enough of the real problems Cosette would’ve faced at the Thenardiers’ mercy to get the point across.

Oh, and there’s a dog called Chou Chou. A little fluffy puppy who grows into a MASSIVE fluffy beast and is pals with Cosette and Gavroche. Just so you know.

The animation is .... hit or miss. Some moments, usually important plot or character scenes, are well done in style, lighting and mood. And then sometimes you can see where the animation budget ran low. The quality usually dips in more filler-ish episodes. It’s definitely not on level with anime currently coming out, but it’s not terrible. The backgrounds are GORGEOUS, which can hurt the animation by comparison, but hey, pretty backgrounds are pretty!

I can’t attest to the quality of the voice-acting since it’s in Japanese and the dramatic annunciations seem reasonable in context (although I have joked about Javert’s outbursts, but that’s more a general character choice than a voice-acting one). I did have a classmate back in college who knew some Japanese watch a clip and burst out laughing at how silly it sounded to her. Again, maybe because it’s meant for kids and it’s made to sound extra dramatic. Honestly, if you don’t know Japanese and just watch with subs, the voice acting probably won’t bother you. 

HOWEVER, I will make a few quick notes:

Enjolras’s voice is really deep, yet he looks EXACTLY like book!Enjolras - feminine, blond, angelic, etc.

Valjean’s got a lovely deep voice. It just happens to come out of a mouth that’s almost always hidden by a wiggling mustache.

Cosette’s child voice and adult voice sound almost the same (might even be the same actress), which made me do a double-take the first time I heard it.

The person who voices Marius also voices an OC in the M-sur-M section of the story whom Valjean/Madeleine helps and eventually hires as his assistant. Not sure what’s up with that.

I’ve just finished watching the BBC miniseries and have seen the musical, the 1958 film, 1978 TV movie and 1998 film versions. I’ve by no means exhausted the list, but I think it’s fair to say that Shoujo Cosette holds up easily next to most of these other versions. It covers the spectrum between sweetness and bleakness and doesn’t suffer much tonal whiplash. Maybe it does on occasion, but I don’t mind making fun of it because it’s otherwise a heartfelt, loyal adaptation. It doesn’t just adapt the story but values and conveys the themes of the novel, if through a more kid-friendly filter. And minus most of the political and historical commentary. Hey, you take what you can get.

[eremji]

Thoughts on Infinity War, and Thanos' Motivation

Disclaimer: I'm not a Marvel expert. Some of my information on comic plots was collected from wikis and secondary articles, due to a lack of access to a primary source or the simple inaccuracy of my own memory. I also mostly enjoyed Infinity War, and any criticism herein should not be taken as decrying the whole.

Spoilers behind the cut. Please close your eyes and scroll super fast, block tags, duck and cover, etc. if you’re on mobile, because, seriously, spoilers.

An extremely simplified version of movie production:

From a production standpoint, Iron Man was a huge risk for the studios fronting the money for it. After critical and box office flops from 90s Batman films and other various superhero action flicks, studios typically found comic book movies to underperform in comparison to budgetary requirements for good visuals, making them unattractive. Marvel has taken a large step away from making comic book movies, to making comic book adaptations, because what works on the page doesn’t work in a moving picture.

Marvel Studios’ cinematic success has almost nothing to do with how compelling the source material is – because some of Marvel’s library is pretty much slush pile garbage. This was before your average artist or consumer realized you can get pretty literary while still having cool pictures on a page. They’re valuable because they propelled the comic industry to widespread success, but the source is best examined with a critical eye towards tone deaf and anachronistic viewpoints on race, sexuality, gender, and pretty much everything else. Marvel Studios has done a fairly consistent job of divorcing the cinematic canon from the original medium’s baggage, to which I attribute a large portion of the films’ success in comparison to very lukewarm iterations of DC or X-Men.

As media consumers, we’re accustomed to having a finished product to hold and analyze. When considering story, in terms of plotting and pacing, I personally believe it’s most helpful to compare the scope of the MCU production to be similar to that of a television show, rather than a traditional movie or movie series. It may be startling to know that even very successful television shows, like Breaking Bad or Stranger Things, often don’t even have all the episodes completely written out prior to beginning filming of a season.

Marvel Studios’ movies have been in production for ten years, with many, many different hands in the pot, and earlier scripts don’t always set up the best planting and payoff of character or plot elements later in the continuity. (For visual learners, Lindsay Ellis has a very layman-friendly example using clips from Mad Max: Fury Road.)

You can see where this might start to cause some consistency issues.

Crossover event comics and the necessary sacrifice of emotional development:

For anyone walking in to expecting Avengers: Infinity War to have a lot of character development, I’m very sorry for your loss.

There was never going to be a grand emotional reunion for Steve and Bucky, and there was never going to be whole hours dedicated to bonding and witty bickering and new friendships that weren’t absolutely vital to the plot. That we got things like the Steve-and-Bucky hug, the jealous Star-Lord vs. Thor moments, and Steve introducing himself politely to Groot were for the benefit of the audience more than advancing the plot, which is a huge victory in terms of crushing as much as possible into a theatrical cut.

A film production has a finite amount of screen time to allocate before a movie becomes bloated. When people joke about Infinity War being the most ambitious crossover event, I don’t think some of them realize how on the mark that is from a production standpoint. Hard decisions have to be made between what isn’t vital to advancing plot in a compelling way and what was retained to meet audience expectations. Infinity War often felt like it tried to recapture that Joss Whedon-ish sassy-but-kinda-flat comedy from the first Avengers, and that meant punchlines for jokes sometimes land at emotionally inappropriate times because characters just don’t have cinematic space for witty banter between shooting aliens and losing everyone they ever cared about.

There’s a difference in author-audience expectations of what’s important in these team-up movies, and also gaps between fans actively participating in fandom because they love the characters and casual moviegoers looking for a blockbuster. It all comes down to how much each party in the creative transaction is willing to settle for. Traditionally, Marvel has set up the character-driven plots and subplots in individual comics with occasional crossover cameos for a few issues when another character or baddie is relevant to the plot. The large crossover events, like Civil War, Contest of Champions, or Infinity are almost always plot-heavy and character-light.

This is so much easier in comic book format, where multiple series can be coordinated in regular, paced releases, and different comic issues may happen parallel or directly before/after the event crossovers. Movies take a significantly larger amount of time to produce, through pre-production, filming, post-production, marketing, and distribution.

A brief (I’m serious, they’ve been making comics since the 1939) explication of source material:

One of the largest disconnects for me, as a fan of both the comics and the movies, was the change in Thanos’ motivation, but not his mission. For those who aren't aware of the origins of his character, he essentially wants to murder people to impress a girl – Mistress Death, to be specific. He wants to kill half of all life in the universe so that he can be her equal and win her affection. 

Dorkly did a pretty solid breakdown of some of Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet story and the innate misogynistic slant of his character, including comic panels from the original source material, that paints comic!Thanos an internet Nice Guy™. (Feel free to skim the article; it's a bit slow to get to the point.) Perusing the comic panels, you can see Thanos is hella into negging and is spiteful when Mistress Death shows interest in another dude (spoilers: it’s Deadpool). He clearly believes love is possession, and if he can’t have what he wants, then, good golly, no one can.

He’s also really off the rails – dubbed the Mad Titan even before his objectification mega crush on a badass corpse with a wicked bod – and is personally responsible for destroying Titan. He’s not a villain that believes he’s the hero, and this shift away from his motivation being dangerous-and-horrible to dangerous-and-misguided casts the first shadow on the premise.

My (very personal) opinion on the execution:

MCU essentially played keep away with some of the more supernatural elements of the source material, at least until introducing Dr. Strange. In doing so they had to construct Thanos’ motivation for a comic-book-inspired task out of whole cloth. There is no Mistress Death. Secondary characters that were discrete entities are often pulling double duty*.

(*Or triple. See also: Bucky Barnes, who is wearing the backstory of Captain America's gay best friend Arnie Roth and now White Wolf. If you were previously unaware of this factoid, please enjoy the irony that Marvel’s biggest pro-American propaganda piece had an openly gay best friend circa early 80s but Civil War ham-fistedly had to work in that awkward-as-fuck smooch between Steve and Peggy Carter’s hot young romantic surrogate niece.)

So, okay, they have to reinvent Thanos, who we've only seen in a handful of post-credit scenes and vicariously learned, through Loki in the first Avengers movie and then Gamora in Guardians, is a conqueror and also really Bad News™.

I buy everything so far. And why not? Black Panther made me love Killmonger and his rage, and the parallels to contemporary issues made him fairly empathetic without highlighting that his perspective was necessarily the ‘correct’ one. Similarly, Spider-Man: Homecoming’s villain, Vulture, was believable in the sort of suffering everyman-turned-desperate way, highlighting the fallout of the Space Invaders vs. Avengers destruction without suggesting the audience should root for Vulture.

In general, I am on board for these movies going straight for the throat on the big baddies of the comic universe because movie production is lengthy, expensive, and time-consuming. Dear Marvel Studios, Give me Avengers vs. Dr. Doom. Love, Me.

A villain can be built up over the course of a single movie (or two). Armed with this optimism, and heartened by recent Marvel Studios successes in characterization, I walked into Infinity War expecting as much gratuitous violence, universe-cleansing genocide, and genuine fear of Thanos as I could possibly expect from something Disney-adjacent.

I knew people were going to die. Let me say – there was no way to spoil this for me. The Infinity Gauntlet comic series starts with half the universe dying. I expected there to be ‘casualties’ and even though the Russo bros said that this wasn’t two parts of the same movie, it’s certainly serial. At minimum, I was expecting Thanos bent on conquering the cosmos, worshiping at the altar of death in the abstract, if not groveling for an inevitable-cosmic-force-turned unattainable woman.

And yet. And yet.

We got the purple version of the Kool-Aid man with some seriously unaddressed parent-child issues (mirrored in Tony Stark’s loss of Peter Parker) and a wholly unimaginative motivation. I won’t go too far much into the movie’s alarming efforts at framing Thanos as a sympathetic character despite his genocidal and horribly abusive tendencies, because I am A) not an expert at identifying film technique and B) the push for Thanos to be an empathetic villain has been analyzed elsewhere.

Phenomenal, limitless cosmic power and all you want to do is break shit? For all the immaturity of it, Thanos’ comic book motivation was more believable.

To those arguing that the his motivations in the movie are predicated off of him being the Mad Titan and therefore not rooted in logic: The film did not explicitly plant the idea – except in the way that we know genocide is bad due to an innate sense of morality – that he was unhinged and power-mad, nor did they really give the audience any payoff.

Instead, we get, ‘I don’t really want to do this, but I must.’

There was a point where I started wondering why the hell he wasn’t just being steadily roasted by the Avengers for not receiving some sort of basic education in the evils of wealth disparity and resource distribution.

As an audience member, was I meant to believe this incredibly powerful entity at the center of a massive fleet, accompanied by a group of talented and sycophantic followers, couldn’t think of a better way to bring ‘balance’ to the universe?

Perhaps Thanos’ justification is simply the conceit of the way the universe operates, required to propel a plot forward. However, this is also poorly explained. There are many unanswered questions: Why is it a given that killing half the universe will create balance? What does balance look like? Is this state permanent or is it a routine, necessary evil in order to stop entropy? Is balance a socioeconomic state, or does it have some greater cosmological significance? We know that Titan fell after rejecting Thanos’ extreme solution, but would the population have actually endured and flourished if his plan had been carried out?

For a movie that did so well at handling a cast so phenomenally large as the one involved in its production, Infinity War really didn’t go in very hard on selling Thanos. I would have been perfectly happy if Marvel Studios had taken the risk to lean in hard on making the movie Thanos-centric, given Thanos even more screen time to develop his character, motives, and the rules of the universe – and then make Avengers 4 about, you know, the actual avenging.

Parting notes:

What are we left with?

Infinity War gifted us with some badass action clips, a fairly jarring death performance by Tom Holland, Cheerful Goatherd Bucky Barnes, and emotionally traumatizing bubbles. It never really sells the conundrum it sets up via Thanos. You'll never hear me insist a peice of art or entertainment is required to carry some sort of social commentary or moral message, but I feel like this could have been, tonally, a vastly different film had it considered the core of Thanos' motivations the same way it considered Vulture's or Killmonger's.

Also, where the hell is Adam Warlock (set up at the end of GotG: Vol. 2; revisit planting and payoff) to shit talk Thanos’ lack of villainous veracity when we need him?

[the-desolated-quill]

The Quill Seal Of Approval Awards - The Best Of 2017

It’s an established scientific fact that the real world is horrible. Full of nasty, hideous and deeply unpleasant things like racism, corruption, global warming, terrorism and prawn flavoured crisps. No wonder more and more of us are turning to the world of fiction to escape from our unhappy lives.

Yes a number of good stories have come out this year, and as it’s the last day of 2017, it’s time once again for the Quill Seal of Approval Awards. Where I pick my personal favourite stories of the year and hopefully persuade you to give them a try if you haven’t already.

Before we start, two things. One, this is my list. If you disagree with my choices, that’s absolutely fine. Go make your own list. And two, full disclosure, I haven’t been able to see everything 2017 has to offer for one reason or another. So please don’t be angry at me because movies like Get Out aren’t on this list. I’m sure Get Out is as brilliant as everyone says it is and I’m sure it would win a Quill Seal of Approval Award. I just never got around to watching it this year (also fuck you Golden Globes. Satirical horror is not the same thing as comedy horror. From what I’ve heard, Get Out is not remotely like, say, Shaun Of The Dead or Zombieland. Satire is not synonymous with comedy, you know? It doesn’t need to make you laugh. That’s not a requirement of satire. I mean look at Black Mirror. That’s satirical. What about George Orwell’s Animal Farm? That’s satirical. Would anyone ever consider either of those to be comedies? No! Of course not! Do you know why? Because they’re fucking depressing, that’s why! If you thought either of those were funny, you require serious psychiatric attention, you sicko!)

...

I’m sorry, I went off on a total tangent then. What were we talking about?

A Series Of Unfortunate Events (TV Series)

There had been rumours for ages that we were going to see another attempt to adapt Daniel Handler’s post-modern series of gothic children’s books after the painfully lacklustre movie starring Jim Carrey, and on Friday the 13th January (on my birthday! EEEEEEE!!!), we saw Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events arrive on Netflix. Speaking as a massive fan of the books, I absolutely adored this adaptation. TV is just such a better medium for the Baudelaires than the movie was.

Adapting the first four books of the series, Season 1 follows Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, having recently lost their parents in a terrible fire, trying to keep their fortune out of the clutches of Count Olaf; a vile villain and even worse actor. The series is being adapted by Barry Sonnenfield and Daniel Handler himself, and not only remains close to the original source material, but also expands on it thanks to the TV medium. It also boasts a great cast. Neil Patrick Harris is incredible as the villain Count Olaf, able to walk the line between comic and sinister effortlessly. Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes are both great as Violet and Klaus, and share excellent chemistry on-screen, selling the sibling affection better than the movie did. There’s also Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket, who offers deadpan comic narration, as well as K. Todd Freeman as the incompetent Mr. Poe, Aasi Mandvi as the eccentric Uncle Monty, Alfre Woodard as the petrified Aunt Josephine and Catherine O’Hara as the perfectly innocent, I swear, optometrist Doctor Orwell.

Admittedly this may not be to everyone’s taste, but if you’re into family friendly viewing that intelligently mixes both the surreal and the macabre, then I’d say definitely check out A Series Of Unfortunate Events. It’s perfectly wretched :)

Wonder Woman

Warner Bros and DC may have completely fucked up their shared universe thanks to the total cock-up of Justice League, but one good thing did come out of the DC Extended Universe this year. Wonder Woman.

Finally making her cinematic debut, Wonder Woman is definitely one of the strongest superhero movies to be released in recent memory. Patty Jenkins does an amazing job bringing this feminist icon to life and Gal Gadot gives quite possibly one of the best performances in any superhero movie to date. This naive, but passionate warrior who takes it upon herself to try and save the world from the evil influence of the Greek God Ares. But what I especially appreciated was how the movie went beyond the simple hero vs villain story and really created something both powerful and socially relevant with its themes of love and sacrifice. The main takeaway from the film is that evil isn’t an external force or outside threat. It’s something that exists in all of us. We all have the capacity for violence and treachery, but if we could all just learn to love and support each other, and work together, we could help change things for the better. It sounds incredibly hokey when you say it out loud, but the movie conveys it extremely well.

If you haven’t already, definitely check out Wonder Woman. It boasts a strong female protagonist and an intelligently written and emotional story with a noticeable lack of the sexist tropes and cliches you’d normally find in these kinds of movies. Hopefully Wonder Woman will be the start of a whole new wave of female talent both in front of and behind the camera (and when I say women, I don’t just mean white women... please! Feminism only works if all women benefit from it after all. Let’s see some more women of colour in the director’s chair and on the red carpet).

War For The Planet Of The Apes

The long awaited conclusion to Caesar’s story, War For The Planet Of The Apes is simultaneously both the darkest and the funniest of the rebooted Planet Of The Apes movies. As the human race lash out against the apes in their desperate bid to survive, we see Caesar face his ultimate test. Will he lead his tribe to salvation or be consumed by inner darkness just as Koba did in the previous movie?

While not the strongest movie in the Caesar trilogy, it’s still exceptionally good. Andy Serkis gives the best performance so far as Caesar, and you really feel for him as he undergoes his inner conflict. He’s by far one of the strongest protagonists to come out of a Hollywood blockbuster, and War serves as a fitting end to his story. Director Matt Reeves continues to make us care deeply for the apes’ survival, with characters like Maurice, Rocket and newcomer Bad Ape providing many touching and comedic moments to alleviate the tension and darkness. We also see some strong human characters, such as the mute Nova, played by Amiah Miller, and the antagonistic Colonel, played by Woody Harrelson, who definitely stand head and shoulders above the other human characters in the previous films.

A lot of filmmakers could learn a thing or two from these films. 20th Century Fox should be immensely proud of this trilogy, and I hope the franchise will remain this intelligent and impactful in the future.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

No! Stop it! I can see you sniggering! ‘Oh! Quill honestly thinks this puerile kids movie full of toilet gags is worthy of some kind of award, does he?’ Well, actually yes. Yes I do. And before you judge me, have you actually watched the movie? No. I didn’t think so. So why don’t you get off your high horse and go into this with an open mind because I’ll think you’ll find Captain Underpants is one of the best kids movies ever, so there!

Based on the popular (and surprisingly controversial) series of children’s books written by Dav Pilkey about two troublemaking schoolchildren, George and Harold, who hypnotise their mean principal into thinking he’s a superhero and go off on a series of whacky adventures, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is an excellent adaptation that captures the books’ humour and message perfectly. Yes it’s filled with toilet gags and fart jokes (and I can see you rolling your eyes dismissively already, you snob), but it all serves a purpose, and the message behind Captain Underpants is incredibly unique for a kids film. That sometimes a little rule breaking is okay provided it doesn’t go too far. Children are often forced to conform to societal norms, and discouraged from certain things because they’re ‘inappropriate’. Captain Underpants serves as the perfect antidote to that, encouraging children to actually have fun and let their imaginations run wild. The toilet gags and adolescent humour in this film are very funny. It’s not very high brow or sophisticated, but it doesn’t really need to be neither. That’s the point. Captain Underpants is basically a celebration of the childish and the silly, implying these things have value in and of themselves rather than just dismissing them as being ‘immature’.

If you have kids, this would be a perfect movie to show them, and you just might reconnect with your inner child in the process. And if you need further convincing that Captain Underpants is worth watching, consider this. Did you know Harold is gay? Yeah! In the final book of the series, Harold meets his future self and discovers he’s married to a man and has two children. So it’s a cleverly made family movie that encourages children to be creative and to not feel constrained, and offers positive representation for the black and LGBT communities. Suddenly this movie doesn’t feel so puerile anymore, does it?

Logan

I never thought I’d see the day I’d actually be praising a Wolverine movie. 

After two failed attempts, 20th Century Fox finally offers a Wolverine movie that doesn’t make me want to fall asleep, tear my hair out in frustration or gouge by eyes out with ice cream scoops. Logan is not only the best Wolverine movie, but quite possibly the best movie in the entire X-Men franchise. Hugh Jackman gives a brilliant performance in his last ever portrayal of the character and Patrick Stewart is equally as good as an elderly Professor X.

Logan is as tragic as it is thought provoking, deconstructing the idea of a superhero and spelling out in no uncertain terms how Wolverine utterly fails to meet that criteria. It’s dark, hard-hitting and surprisingly poignant as we see Wolverine desperately try to redeem himself, escorting a group of young mutant children across the border whilst metaphorically passing the baton to them. He may have failed to be a superhero, but he could well have saved a new generation of mutants that will succeed where he failed.

If you haven’t already, you need to watch this movie. Even if, like me, you don’t like Wolverine very much, you should still watch it. Logan more than makes up for past mistakes, I assure you.

The Tick

Are you getting sick to death of the over-saturation of superhero movies and TV shows these days? Then The Tick is the perfect antidote for you!

Based on the comics created by Ben Edlund, The Tick essentially drops a Saturday morning cartoon character into a Christopher Nolan-esque environment. Serving as an affectionate parody of the superhero genre, The Tick is both incredibly funny and surprisingly clever. Peter Serafinowicz does a stellar job in the title role, giving a performance almost reminiscent of the late Adam West, and is both charming and hysterical. But the true star has to be Griffin Newman as the Tick’s sidekick Arthur. While his surroundings are incredibly wacky and surreal, Arthur himself is treated with the utmost care and sincerity. He is to all intents and purposes the main character, as we see him try to overcome his own anxieties and insecurities in order to expose a plot from supervillain the Terror. He is the emotional centre that the show revolves around and is what elevates The Tick from being just a simple parody to a legitimately good superhero show in its own right.

The first half of Season 1 is available to watch on Amazon Prime, with the second half due to be streamed in February 2018. if you haven’t already, check this show out.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Finally we end with a video game, and it’s a very special video game (well it would be. It’s on a best of 2017 list). Horizon Zero Dawn. Created by the same people who did the Killzone games, Horizon is an open-world adventure game set in a post post-apocalypitic world where machines dominate the landscape and humanity have gone back to basics, living in isolated tribes and shunning the technology of the ‘Old Ones’.

Two things make Horizon Zero Dawn stand out. The first is the world itself. Guerrilla Games have created a very rich and nuanced setting, and as you explore the environment and collect datapoints, you begin to piece together how exactly human society as we know it initially fell hundreds of years ago. The machines are well designed and each have a very specific purpose, and the tribes are incredibly well thought out with believable hierarchies, belief systems and societal structures. It’s simply fun to explore this world and interact with its inhabitants.

The second is the protagonist the entire game revolves around. Aloy. A young outcast woman who goes in search of her parents and ends up discovering herself. She’s a classic archetypal hero and one of the best female protagonists to come out of the video game industry for quite some time. She’s a fully realised, three dimensional character with her own goals and motives, and is at no point ever sexualised or objectified. Even when she’s captured by the baddies, the game never resorts to sexist tropes or cliches. Just as Wonder Woman represents a significant milestone for women in film, Aloy represents a significant milestone for women in video games. She’s intelligent, resourceful and immensely likeable and I was completely emotionally invested in both her as a character and her journey. It’s not only fun to explore the world of Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s fun to explore the world of Horizon Zero Dawn with her. If you have a PS4, definitely get this game. It’s a must-own and you won’t regret it.

And that’s it for this year. All that’s left for me to say is Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and I hope that your 2018 is less shit than your 2017 most likely was.

[istartedbelievinginitmyself]

Why Harry is not a bad father in cursed child

So on the Harry Potter amino i had a quite “nasty” discussion (when you can actually call it that as for a discussion both persons actually have to use arguments, not just one person) with a very thin skinned person (when you spread around cc hate, be prepared that some cc fans may actually argue against you, especially when you don’t use any real arguments whatsover) about Harry in cursed child and cursed child in general. He/she made a blog about his/her arguments after i “rudely forced him” to actually give me some things to back up his /her opinion, but well it is actually amazing how you can make a full blog without giving any actual arguments and just keep repeating “Harry just wouldn’t do that” (you may remember my blog about his/her dealthy hallows argument) all the time without using any quotes or explanations.So i made a blog in respond. Well he/she told me that he/she doesn’t care about my opinion, but i wrote and published this anyway!(When i made effort to write it, why not post it on Tumblr as well?)So here we go! As i structured this based on his/her blog, this is the structure i came up with:

1)      Why cursed child is canon

2)      Why Harry isn’t out of character in cursed child

3)      Why Harry is not a bad father

This will be quite long, so be prepared xD

  1)      Why cursed child is canon

 I heard a lot of people saying that cc isn’t canon, because Rowling didn’t completely write it. It is true that she got help by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne and that she didn’t completely write it on her own. The reasons are clear: She is not a playwriter, she hasn’t done this before and she didn’t think she could pull off a play script on her own.And i agree, writing novels and movie scripts is very different from writing a play script as this medium works different in some ways.

But this doesn’t mean cc isn’t canon. The inventing process was a close cooperation between these three and Rowling had the last say about her characters.

 QUOTE: „The collaborators she approved were Thorne and Tiffany. They emphasized that Rowling made sure they stayed true to HER VISION of the characters“

„It took about six months to really map the whole thing out. (…) Jo would say `This feels right, this doesn’t´   - Jack Thorne

 „And we didn’t start writing the play as such-or Jack didn’t-until we agreed on what that story was. Jack produced an AMAZING script“    -  J.K. Rowling

 Do you really think she would agree on a play to be published, if she would disagree with the things that are in it?

Our queen herself stated that cc is 100% canon and when someone can define canon, then it’s her. She wouldn’t have published cc, if she wouldn’t see the story to continue like this and i trust her to know best how HER characters, she invented, would behave.

 So yes cursed child is canon, if you like it or not. Of course you are free to dislike the new developement as much as you want, but just because it destroyed your personal headcanons, it’s not less canon. Creators don’t owe us anything, especially not our headcanons, and this is how she sees HER characters. We as a fandom can’t claim to know her characters better than she does and we shouldn’t, which leads me to my next point.

  2)      Why Harry wasn’t out of character in cc

 First of all (a point i actually agree on) cursed child is not a novel. It’s not written in Harry’s perspective and we have an objective look at Harry’s character. And no it’s not Albus‘ perspective, a play unlike a novel isn’t written out of anyone’s perpective.We are no longer influenced by Harry’s subjective opinion, but see everything a little bit more objective, especially Harry’s character. I think due to the perspective used in the novels it’s harder for some people to see Harry’s flaws in the original series.

In cc Harry of course grew up and got older, but he still has a lot of his original character traits.

I think a big problem for a big part of the fandom is that they forgot book Harry, because they watched the movies too often. The movies showed a very different and more bland, perfect and boring version of him.

Here are some things movie Harry didn’t do or did different:

 -books Harry had quite a temper and anger issues at times. In book 5 he totally destroyed Dumbledore’s office in a big anger burst and he loses control over himself, when he is under emotional stress (sounds familiar, right?)

 -book Harry sucessfully uses crucio (yes an unforgivable torture curse) on a death eater and doesn’t even regret it

 -book Harry didn’t hide Snape’s book in halfblood prince, because he thought it was dangerous or wrong to use it, he hid it so Snape wouldn’t find it and he could continue using it

 -book Harry said pretty mean stuff to Lupin in Dealthy Hallows. When he is under a lot of emotional pressure, he tends to say things to loved ones, he regrets afterwards (sounds VERY familiar, does it?)

 There is more, but i stop now. (and no this has nothing to do with the epilouge from dealthy hallows as this scene is in the books, the movies and cursed child). I love complex and flawed book Harry and they did a very poor job adapting his personality to the screen.

Harry is not a „perfect“ human in cc and he never was in the original series. No well written and realistic and relatable character is „perfect“. The headcanons some people create for Harry are simply unrealistic and don’t fit his flawed personality at all. I am happy Rowling decided to stay with her vision of the characters and didn’t give in to the unrealistic, glorified Harry headcanons.

 This doesn’t mean Harry lost his amazing and great characteristics in cc!

He is still the adventurous and brave and caring Harry we know from the books. Although he is indeed an office/ministry worker now, he actually isn’t in his office a lot. Harry still hates paper work and he still loves to explore the danger personally instead of reading about it.

 „HERMIONE: (…) – thought i’d check whether you’d kept your promise and were on top of your paperwork.

 HARRY: Ah. Turns out i’m not.

(…)

 HARRY: Great, let’s get out there. I’ll get the team together.

 HERMIONE: Harry, i get it. Paperwork’s boring…“

 He is still the brave, charming and adventurous Harry we know so well and love from the books and he wants to be right in the action. He is also still very caring about his loved ones, but i will get to that at my next point.

  3)      Why Harry isn’t a bad father

 As i said Harry is not a perfect human being and he is not a perfect father, which doesn’t mean that he is a bad one!

In the play it gets clear that Harry is still very traumatised by the war, the dead people, his parent’s death and his abusive childhood. It is very hard for him to connect to people and to open up to another person.

You always have to look at both parts of a relationship to understand the motives why characters are acting like they do.

  a)      Blanket scene

 In this scene we have the infamous „I wish you weren’t my son “ line, which so many people take out of context and totally ignore the circumstances of.

 The blanket scene is VERY important as it shows the basic misunderstanding between Harry and Albus, which leads to their difficult relationship.

In this scene we have proof of how much Harry cares for Albus. He knows that they distant themselve from each other and Harry wants to change that, because he loves Albus. So he decides to give Albus his most precious possession, the only thing he has left from his mother. It is clear how much this blanket means to Harry and that he wants to give it to Albus shows how caring Harry in cc is.

But when Albus rejects the blanket and distants himself more from him, of course Harry feels horribly hurt. This blanket means everything to him and that Albus rejects his kind gesture, really breaks his heart.

Parents are humans too and they are not immune to feelings and pain of rejection, especially not Harry who always had a bad temper. As in the original series Harry is portrayed very human and realistic in cc.

People who just look at this line out of context, mostly forget Albus‘ line immediately before Harry’s:

 ALBUS: No! I just wish you weren’t my dad.

 Here is where the essence of the play lies, the reason their relationship is so difficult.

Here lies the big misunderstanding between Harry and Albus. Everyone expects Harry to be perfect. Everyone just sees him as the „hero“ without any flaws, noone sees the human Harry, the frightened and flawed and realistic human being and person.

So Albus suffers under the unrealistically high expectations people set for him and he gets bullied at school. So of course he understandably projects his anger and pain on to Harry. He blames Harry for his suffering, but he actually doesn’t mean Harry as a person, but Harry’s fame and the high expectations that come with it. So with „i wish you weren’t my dad“ deep down he didn’t mean that Harry personally shouldn’t be his father, but that the famous Harry Potter shouldn’t be his father.

Harry of course is heartbroken, because he feels rejected by Albus and the line escapes his mouth. It is VERY clear, that he immediately regrets it and he tries the whole play to make up for it.

And  their relationship wasn’t always like that. At the beginning of the play their relationship is portrayed as very close and friendly. Albus is open about his fears and Harry is as open to him. Their relationship just went in the wrong direction after Albus gets bullied at school. Harry didn’t do anything wrong or different, it was Albus who (understandably) changed because of his father’s fame. We don’t see any problems between Harry and his other children, it’s just between Albus and him. The problem of their relationship isn’t based on what Harry did wrong as a parent, it’s based on what happened in his past and how his fame affects the way people treat Albus. They are both complex and interesting characters, who i can both understand very well. I can see why both of them feel how they feel and i feel bad for both of them. That’s why their relationship is so interesting and amazingly written, because you can understand both parts of this difficult relationship and you are rooting for them to overcome their problems.

   b)      Seperating Albus and Scorpius

 You can say what you want, but you can’t say that Harry doesn’t love his son and that he doesn’t care for him. Every mistake he makes is based on his desperate need to protect Albus.

When Harry hears about the „black cloud“, he feels such a big need to protect his son that he loses his sense of reality. He never met Scorpius and he doesn’t know him. He just connects the black cloud to Scorpius (isn’t the first time his mistery solving attempts went wrong…Snape and Quirell *cough).

Is it illogical and wrong to do this? Of course! But it is also understandable in Harry’s situation as he is put under a lot of emotional pressure and all he wants is to see his son safe. I’m pretty sure he never really believed in what he was saying. He was so easily convinced by Ginny and Draco and he very easily regrets it and apologizes to Albus for it.

  Harry is not a perfect dad in cursed child and like any real parent he makes mistakes, but he is by no means a bad father.

„Love blinds“ is a theme of the play and yes, his love for Albus does blind him. But you can’t argue that he doesn’t love or care for Albus. He would do everything to keep his son safe – he throws himself in front of a killing curse for Albus – and his love and his caring make him a pretty good dad actually. Their relationship started of with difficulties because of Harry’s fame, but he never gave up on Albus and it is beautiful to see them finally finding each other at the end of the play. They finally show their love for one another and Albus can finally see Harry as a human, not as a famous hero. This is why the pidgeon line is so important. Harry admits his flaws and his fears to Albus and shows him that he is human. I love how Harry puts his arm around Albus in the last scene on stage. It’s such a beautiful and hopeful ending to the play.

Thanks @bounding-heart (i always take inspiration for my blogs from your page :))and @mrsellacott (the blogs you posted lately about Harry as a father really helped me writing this!)

[mastersblog2019]

logs from 13/6/2019 to 05/08/2019

the link for the “blog logs” exspired so im going to post the text under the read more of this post

13/06/2019 –  

Worked on reviewing my summer work form after feedback and sent that for review. I will be concentrating on developing my practice-based research report. Right now I am trying to figure out how to structure and write the report. I don’t know if I should try and make a flowing narrative of research or work areas to give overviews to topics I have been looking into. It’s hard as I have looked into a range of different things  to do with narrative.

Topics I have been researching include:

Theory on narrative structure.  

Narratives that share similar tropes to my story ideas and stories that inspired themes

Comic theory and how comics can affect the medium and the narrative.    

However the report paper asks for a narrative on what leads to where and how I got here.

So I think the best way to structure this is to try and start from the summer project and build from there.  

I could structure the report like  this:

Research - this includes talks, books on narrative and comics.  

Idea development - this includes ideas, books with tropes that inspired me, and how my story has developed with themes.

Making – this would include story structure, discussing some videos I watched and how ideas have been presented and the reason why. I can also talk about the process of developing character, and the shorter story of the Grand Guardian.  

With all these parts I must show reflection and thought on the work I have been doing, and consider if I started from the beginning again what would I change? This is kind of hard but hopefully I will be able  to produce something soon.  

17.06.2019

I am working on trying to structure the written report more. I am finding writing  the main points / parts of my project really helps with planning it. I am finding it difficult to put my thoughts into words . Also earlier I have sketched a few lose drawings of the lost child for the narrative, I really like the concept of her face being hidden is the dark, as it helps make her character look scary and intimidating. I think trying to imagine her voice and describe it is hard due to the fact she acts as both a villain in the story but also she’s meant to be sympathetic.    

19/06/2019

Today I went to lectures and there were a few different points on how to write the reports although  most of the questions where targeted towards the full timers and second years the information that was brought up was useful, like what the relevance is and how to reference and other points that I have written down.  

After this talk I thought I should have a look at my older references so I could write about them refreshed with new ideas.  One of the videos  I watched and had included is “Outsiders: How To Adapt H.P. Lovecraft In the 21st Century” which can be found on YouTube by “hbomerguy” where within the video he talks about his thoughts and feelings on a range of different media that has connections to hp Lovecraft. Looking back I can see the influences this video has had on my work, for my antagonist of the story feels this isolation due to a small part of their personhood that has be criticized or maybe how she feels about herself. I was also very interested  in the idea of gods and things larger than our self.  I guess in the case of my concepts of gods they do care and are very human.  

At this stage I was very interested  in drawing monsters. I was trying to do a ink October with a prompt sheet to mix together different creatures for each day. Which I think helped influence my ideas of gods and monsters.

Other videos I viewed to get a wider range of ideas on HP Lovecraft:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArymZyXFzb4 - The Call of Cthulhu | P. 1 | Audiobook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmdzptbykzI - Halloween Special: H. P. Lovecraft

24/06/2019

I know I should be looking back at some my older references so that I have a copy of my thoughts for my blog and essay but I have been thinking about my own personal interest in animation and the movies that I grew up with. These include videos  Pixar videos below-  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y34eshkxE5o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTPKGVrFtQU

I think having grown up with such a solid selection of animated movies really increased my love for the animated art form and motivated me to get into illustration and create my own stories.  

25/06/19

Ok so today I’m going to try and gather all my research points and write them down in order so they make sense and have some structure.

Most of my research came from books, YouTube videos, objects I own and narratives that interest me.

At one stage I was very interested in viewing videos from a you tuber called, “Fredrik Knudsen”, who has created a series of videos called, “Down the rabbit hole”. He discusses different obscure and strange topics that have appeared online and in other places.  

Some of the videos that interested me when I started this project where:

Vaporwave — Down the Rabbit Hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_T1nkER3vA

Anime and Otaku [Part 1/2] | Down the Rabbit Hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZsFQPdU2dw

Anime and Otaku [Part 2/2] | Down the Rabbit Hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brF1zVXG5_0

He also reads the beginning of a Lovecraft story in one his videos which links into other parts of my research.  

One of the themes  was Vaporwave. Vaporwave is a music genre that has been made in the last decade. I found the visuals and the sounds of this sub-genre interesting. I think the first  time I  discovered  this music and visuals was online with a game called, “Oxenfree” where you play as a girl with a radio who is trying to find out the mystery of the island and save her friends. The music in this game  struck me as interesting, with the long radio like noises that slots into the slow drawn out melodies. The music in the game was not the soft nostalgic sounds that the subgenre is known for. The sound track of Oxenfree is more unsettling supporting the game’s themes and story of looping and ghosts.  

I also have a set of tarot cards that the images are inspired by  Vaporwave which I will talk about more  later on.  

Anyway I was interested in the genre and I wanted to know more about it so I viewed this video mentioned before “Vaporwave — Down the Rabbit Hole”.

This video gives a solid background on this online genre, talking about themes and artists involved.  

The video describes vaporwave as a music genre that is both digital, real and fantasy. Vaporwave music gives  the feeling of going out shopping and having a good time with mates in a perfect dream world, which may not be truly real. This gives the sense of content and yet unease as if you have a choice between accepting this warped reality or questioning it.  

 A quote from the video discussing one of the formative albums of Vaporwave is,  “If you do all these things you will understand what far side is about because people kind of live in it all ready” (https://youtu.be/w_T1nkER3vA?t=353 )

One of my favourite albums is ,“Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe” and the song that struck me the most is “ リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピz”I love the sense of falling this particular song gives me. Link to it can be found here:

https://youtu.be/cCq0P509UL4?t=204

This is also the song that is talked about within the video.

26/06/2019

Still thinking about ,“Down the rabbit hole”, videos today. However instead of Vaporwave  I’m writing about animation.  This research included older animation, like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other characters. It started with looking at some  books in the library and  the images within. I found the simple but flowing line art of the images interesting. It is odd seeing these well know characters  in animation as usually they are now used an icon to make a large company seem friendly. It is really interesting how these characters have changed over the years.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5yLBt2EfLc - Evolution of MICKEY MOUSE Over 90 Years (1928-2018) Explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8XHLakfV5U - The Early Animated Films

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPW70q4w5pw - The Mad Doctor - Mickey Mouse (1933)

As well as this I was interested in  older animation and comics form Japan like Astro boy and other stories. Although I was more interested in the visuals at the time.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6tkNCMhUhY - History Of - Astro Boy

I found this  video essay called ,���Anime and Otaku [Part 1/2] | Down the Rabbit Hole”,which discusses  the connection between  American  and Japanese animation. I thought this was really interesting.

Anime and Otaku [Part 1/2] | Down the Rabbit Hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZsFQPdU2dw

Anime and Otaku [Part 2/2] | Down the Rabbit Hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brF1zVXG5_0

American animation initially inspired and helped  Japanese animation  grow. I also think it is very interesting how Japanese animation is now influencing American animation and fans. Ghibli studios being a well know company for making animated films across western culture.

27/06/2019

I would like to consider the tarot cards I mentioned earlier and their influence on my work. The set I have are images inspired by Vaporwave which helped prompt my researching into that music sub-genre , but that’s not what I’m writing about at the moment.  

The reason why I decided  to research  tarot cards is because the idea of being able to predict the future using cards interested me. Tarot cards have been used in narratives as a symbol for coming events to the point of cliché, but I still personally think they are an interesting tool for narrative.  

Most cards have multiple meaning that can be seen as a good or bad thing depending on if the card is upright on upside down. I think this is a really unique idea which can be used within an narrative setting.  

I say this because when you have too much of something or too little it can be a bad balance, which can have negative effects. Most of the time you need to have a good balance of the two to be able to move forward in a positive manner.  

For example the devil card has  two meanings upright it means:

Excess, materialism and playfulness

And reversed:

Freedom, release, restoring control

The main theme of the devil is addiction and control, and trying to find a balance between the two. For example you can enjoy doing something and that’s a good thing but taking something too far or taking too much can be harmful.  

If someone who was doing a reading got this card they might offer advice on how to deal with feeling trapped or help find a way to regain control of their life.  

For a while I was thinking about this because there is a balanced meaning of these cards for example what if I used the meaning of the cards to build narratives and characters.

So using the cards as prompts for narratives.  

29/06/2019

Today I am going to try and start writing the written report. I have not looked at all of my research  yet  but next week we have talks on the written report. Writing and research  takes me time and effort.  

Books that inspired me:

Into the woods by John Yorke

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

The girl from the other side by Siuil, a run.

Understanding comics by Scott Mccloud

Comet in Moominland by Tove Gansson

TV show:

Hilda  

Other topics:

Talk – book binding  

Talk – narrative structure

Talk – typography

Talk – screen printing process

Ideas –  before the narrative /  notes in my notebooks on ideas.  

Idea – how the story came together.  

Image links –  some illustrations that I like  

Topic – fairy tales / old gods

Visits from illustrators / companies who talk about developing portfolios?

More topics might be worth considering but will now concentrate on writing this report.  

30/06/2019

I re-watched “Hilda” today, which is an animated cartoon  on Netflix. When I was making and designing my narrative I really liked the idea of the, “Strange new world” within the narrative being a town, instead of being some deep dungeon or forest. In fact the main character starts off in a forest with odd things going on with  tiny elves and  wandering giants but then they move into a town to go to school. It is a really interesting twist on the tropes. I also really love the colours and the light silly humour throughout the story. It is just a very charming and light hearted show, with clever episodes and echoing themes .

03/07/2019

When in today and had a lecture about writing the report. Notes can be found in my note book.

09/07/2019

I have been trying to  write and research for the report but I thought I might include this video for reference.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Radg-Kn0jLs - Stranger Things, IT and the Upside Down of Nostalgia

Also a video on family dynamics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VulkN5OLEM - The Complex Feels of Guardians of the Galaxy v.2

12/07/2019

Been writing the report mostly but I have also been watching some videos on narrative theory. Mostly from the same video essay creator on the 09/07/2019 log.  

The videos I have viewed are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLLGN7zv-3k - Planting and Payoff - Featuring Mad Max: Fury Road

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srul5Xd2kT4 - Designing the Other: Aliens on Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doQB5d3Gggw - Are Disney Villains Going Extinct?

I think hearing well balanced and thought out essays is helping to shape my own understanding of writing and how the film industry works.  

For example how writers need to adapt the past so it suits the tastes of today. Or how films have certain movie structures and themes throughout  time periods. Also the idea of planting and pay off in media and how symbolism  can strengthen a movie.  

05/08/2019

I’ve got most of the written essay done now, I just need to do the smaller edits like putting the images in  for printing. I also need to work on the other parts like the portfolio and the actual project. I thought I would  list some ideas / things that were left out of the written report so I have a record of it.

Points that I left out / or not included in the written essay

An idea to make a screen printed book that was bound at university.

Write up  the Rumpelstiltskin  project / experimenting with writing  

Write up of summer project

My research into Disney / Disney visuals (like “The Mad Doctor - Mickey Mouse (1933)”

My thoughts on comic vs written book with illustrations.  

[popularchips-blog]

5 Ways to use Social Media for your Brand

New Post has been published on https://popularchips.com/dailies/5-ways-to-use-social-media-for-your-brand/

5 Ways to use Social Media for your Brand

Popular Chips

Social media is big, so is social media marketing. As brands begin to realize the immense potential of social media, marketing departments are increasing their spending on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Weibo and Twitter. Social media is one of the most effective marketing channels for companies of any sizes but the key challenge that many brands face is figuring out how to convert investment in social media into effective marketing that makes sense.

Brands are already using social media for advertising and marketing purposes but many brands are still struggling to grasp the full potential and usage of these platforms. There are so much more that social media is offering beyond running ads and promoting products/services.

Today we are going back to the basics – no fancy ideas on how to create the most viral or creative campaign but rather, how can you make use of the immense reach of social media for your daily marketing efforts?

Brand awareness and brand building

BrightEdge

One of the top reason for brands to employ social media – the ease of getting on social media, its immense reach and viral nature offers brands one of the fastest way to increase brand awareness and exposure in a short period of time. As users are exposed to increasing amount of ads, it seems like they have a natural instinct to skip through them on the various social media platforms. When usual ads like Facebook Ads or even Instagram Carousel Ads no longer work as well as before, influencer marketing is the next best bet.

I seriously wonder if tiny things could mean so much to tiny people. A small and thoughtful gift could mean so much and then as the years pass by, offer a tangible reminder of thoughtfulness and connection. This gift signifies our first year of homeschooling together and means so much to us. I love a lot of the offerings from the @Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Collection. They have the sweetest small brass ornament hooks, Keepsake miniature trees for a child's playroom or bedroom, and darling, magical ornaments under two inches tall. SO sweet and makes a beautiful gift idea for a niece or nephew or child. Simple and thoughtful. When wrapped up in crinkle paper and a silk ribbon, they make for the smallest act of generosity plus the younger babe is generally just happy to have the crinkle paper. Win-win. Get yours via the link in my bio #KeepsakeIt Together #ad

A post shared by Johnna (@foxmeetsbear) on Dec 1, 2016 at 6:16am PST

pretending to be a palm tree 🌴 thank you @tartecosmetics & @ultabeauty for this amazing trip w my mama @mahoganyskyy (who took the photo) and this epic highlight 😍 (it's stunner my faaaaav) #trippinwithtarte #beautybonding & s/o to @goguyclothing for the top n bikini 🤗 obsessed w y'all.

A post shared by Mahogany *LOX* 🔒🔑 (@mahoganylox) on Aug 4, 2017 at 9:37pm PDT

Some of the best examples are Hallmark #KeepSakeIt campaign featuring family friendly influencers for their 2016 collection and Tarte Cosmetics’ #TrippinWithTarte which features several top fitness and make up influencers on a trip to Hayman Island. Influencer marketing can create some of the best success stories but choosing the right influencer can be a challenge to most. Influencer search engine and analytics platform Popular Chips offers one of the most comprehensive approach to understanding and selecting the most tailored influencer for your brand.

Introducing (new) products and services

Users, especially Millennials (who are also the largest group of consumers), are looking for more genuine form of advertising – something on a more personal level and influencers provide just that. When it comes to introducing existing or new products/services, these influencers are the best ambassadors to spread a brand’s message to their network through a more intiate experience, much like a friend’s recommendations based on personal experience.

There you go, 2 very simple, yet different hairstyles done with the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer! I especially love how light and small it is. You guys know how much effort it takes for us to style our hair if we can't withstand the weight of the hairdryer for long. With the Dyson diffuser, I'm able to achieve tousled waves effortlessly, and with the Dyson Styling concentrator, I can not only go for sleek hair , but even the voluminous straight hair look! #DysonSG @dysonhair #sp

A post shared by Mongchin Yeoh (@mongabong) on Jul 26, 2017 at 3:37am PDT

One example is how Dyson Singapore has been actively engaging in influencer marketing and beauty/lifestyle influencers are sharing how they are incorporating the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer in their daily routine.

Brand promotions

Many brands are moving away from traditional medium to host various promotions and contests through social media platforms. As opposed to traditional medium such as printed lucky draws, hosting contests online (Instagram, Facebook) is comparatively cheaper and fuss free. Also, the reach of the contest can extend to a wider reach online.

Customer Think: Example of Instagram contest/giveaway

Some brands are hosting contests/giveaways that involves contribution from users in the form of sharing a post, following the brand’s IG account, liking a Facebook page or leaving a comment. All these helps to not only increase brand awareness but also increase users’ participation and engagement with the brand. As brands encourage users to tag their friends in comments or share a post, these users in turn provides a form of publicity for the brand to their own social network.

Later: Example of personalized codes for influencers

Another frequently employed promotional method is by using customized discount codes for each influencers. With influencers, the brand is able to reach a wider group of audience by leveraging on the influencers’ appeal and engagement to his/her audience. By customizing codes for each influencers, it provides a more personalized experience and allows brands to track the conversion rate of the each influencer that is engaged.

Acquiring and retaining new customers

All of the above strategies are key to acquiring and retaining customers by introducing them to the brand/products while enticing with engaging contests or promotions. In addition to these, brands should also always strive to drive traffic back to their own brand (IG account) for every marketing efforts and channel. This can be done by having influencers to also tag the brand account and redirect interested followers to the feed.

Example of brand’s Instagram feed

What happens after all the steps have been taken to attract customers to your brand account? Retaining them to your feed is a challenge that most brands feel. First and foremost, brands have to create engaging and interesting content on their own feed frequent enough to remain relevant to followers. Finding the perfect style of content could take a few trial and error as every brand’s mix of audience are different. However, with a little analytics and content analysis, brands can figure out which are the style of content/posting that engages their followers.

Also, links are a strong asset for a brand’s IG account. As Instagram still does not incorporate link in images/caption, the link the bio is a brand’s only avenue to redirect followers to any other platform – websites, campaign, webstore etc. Brands can make use of services such as Lnk.Bio (multiple links on bio) because why settle for one when you can have more?

Market research

This is perhaps one of the most overlooked aspect of social media marketing – market research to identify industry trends and key opinion leaders (influencers). Social media and its users are ever changing; there is always something new happening on this space, be it a new viral music video challenge, movement or even just a trending hashtag. This is a space where many new market trend started and what other better places could brands be to identify the next big trend in their industry?

Business2Community

Brands can identify new trends, competitors or disruptions in their industry and be quick to adapt and remain relevant to the changing needs of consumers. One key tool to achieving this ability is the social listening tool which basically allows brands to monitor every conversations about their brand/competitors on social media platforms. It provides real time access to latest talk and trends that consumers are participating in the digital space. There are various social listening tool available that monitors different medias like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

In this aspect, Popular Chips’s social listening feature is able to track all content on Instagram through the use of hashtags. Simply input the relevant hashtags that you would like to track and the platform will display every post featuring the relevant tag.

Popular Chips

In this case, we did a social listening using the hashtags #SingaporeChangiAirport and #ChangiAirport and here are some of the top posts with the tag in the past 3 months, according to number of likes (this can be selected to your preference). Users can not only view all the posts with the tag but also the influencers who have participated in the conversation and how many times/amount of engagement they receive for that (below).

Popular Chips

Not only can brands look at the type of content that are being posted, they can also identify the influencers who are already talking about the brand/topic organically. These influencers are one of the best to engage as they are already genuinely interested in the relevant topic/fan of the brand.

There is so much more that social media is presenting us to explore for digital marketing; to ensure that every spending on social media translate into substantial performance gains, brands should explore a more comprehensive approach towards integrating social media across various marketing activities. Social media marketing is here to stay so get on it now!

[alexandrasadmissionportfolio]

IOANA-ALEXANDRA OROIAN

TÂRGU-MUREȘ // ROMANIA

T: (+40) 754 980 166

E: oroian.ioana.alexandra@gmail.com

P: http://alexandrasadmissionportfolio.tumblr.com

 Dear Members of the Admission Committee,

My name is Ioana-Alexandra Oroian, I’m a 20 year old girl from Romania, and I wish to apply to your Bachelor Degree’s Program in Graphic Storytelling. But most importantly, I truly wish to become a comic book artist.

My journey with art began when I was a young child and I could hold up a pencil in my hands. Most of my family describe their earliest memories of me always being with my nose in a coloring book, lost in a world of my own. At the age of 5, my curious nature led me to an old dusty cardboard box my parents had kept from their teenage years. There I would have found my first comic book which was Rune Andréasson’s ‘Bamse’. That discovery ended kindling a long lasting passion for the genre. Although I couldn’t properly read yet, I was so fascinated and amazed how I could still easily understand what was happening through the pictures.

After starting up school, like most children, I loved drawing and would engage in it in my free time as well, but unlike most of my classmates, my drive never faded and I didn’t put the pencil down. During middle school, I stumbled upon the Japanese anime and manga, especially through Masashi Kishimoto’s ‘Naruto’ and Rumiko Takahashi’s ‘InuYasha’. My style has been heavily influenced by their work. During this time I started nesting a love for literature as well, which would let me start writing short stories. My biggest influences come from the fantasy genre, with the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’ trilogy or G.R.R. Martin’s ‘A Song Of Ice And Fire’ saga.

Unfortunately I grew up and still live in a small town, where the ‘starving artist’ mentality still prevails heavily. Because of this, I have always been pressured into picking a safer route in life and was persuaded into thinking that my passion for art remain at a mere past time. Due to lack of encouragement and being afraid to admit what I truly wanted, I chose not to attend a high school specialized in arts. However, even in a normal high school, my identity as the ‘art kid’ never left me; moreover, it found ways to return to me. As Jeff Goldblum’s famous quote from Jurassic Park goes ‘life finds a way’, in my case art found a way to slip back within the cracks.

My high school years ended up shaping me and introducing me to the world of graphic storytelling. In the 9th grade, I was honored to participate in a workshop held by one of Romania’s pioneer in the comic book industry, Puiu Manu. It began with a very basic introduction to figure drawing and story-boarding, and ended up with a regional contest called ‘Festivalul Benzilor Desenate’ where I managed to place first. As a result Mr. Manu advised me to pursue my passions, something I ended up wishing I would’ve followed more thoroughly. After that experience I started digging into the Romanian comic book scene, where I ultimately found ‘HAC!’ a monthly magazine that uses the beloved story of ‘Harap Alb’ as its starting point. The story deeply routed in our national folklore and the beautiful artwork of Andrei Moldovan and Daniel Rosa Durán still inspire and motivate me greatly.

Among other works that I hold dear, I would definitely include the following; the movie ‘Pan’s Labirynth’ directed by Guillermo del Toro for its breath-taking scenic atmosphere, beautiful music score and the tragically bitter-sweet story of Ofelia; the video game ‘Life Is Strange’ developed by Dontnod Entertainment for the way it made me conscious of the consequence of my actions in a way I think no other media can make you aware of. I especially related with Kate’s story line since I personally have personally been struggling with mental health issues as well. Finally I would mention Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel ‘V for Vendetta’, as I loved the whole orwellian feeling the universe gave me and to this day I’m very fond of the complexity of its characters and the way the story line unravels around collective consciousness.

On the other hand, there are also a few works that I haven’t particularly resonated well with. I believe hate is a rather powerful word to describe it but I was never pleased with the creative risk and liberty the developers of the 4th installment of Heroes of Might and Magic took, namely the changes in game play, story line and graphics. In my opinion, the developers deviated too much from the original universe. Here I may also add the movie adaptation of the Max Payne game series, directed by John Moore. I believe the movie subtracted important story line plots in favor of more action scenes that were poorly executed to begin with and ultimately didn’t do the original video game any justice.

In the summer between the 10th and 11th grade I participated in a student exchange program at the University College London, for a period of two weeks. It was by far one of the best traveling experiences I have ever had and it hugely fueled my desire to study abroad. It helped improve my English speaking skills and I learned how to take care of myself on my own, considering it was the first time going abroad without my family or friends.

However, the biggest turning point for me, when deep down inside, I knew that being a comic book artist was my path in life, was when one of my good friends from high school got sick. Seeing her so miserable prompted me to do something, and I did what I do best. I drew her a short silly comic strip with our favorite characters from a video game we were playing at the time. I tried making the comic humorous and eventually ending on a sweet note. I handed her the drawing, and I watched her reactions closely. Her eyes started to glimmer; she laughed for the first time that day, and ended up thanking me with a big smile on her face. Until that point I’ve never felt a greater satisfaction. Knowing that something you crafted ended up brightening  someone’s day. The fact that even for just a little bit I managed to make someone go through a cycle of emotions is a feeling I can’t describe in words but I know it’s the closest it can ever get to real magic.

However, by the end of the 12th grade I sadly got diagnosed with clinical depression and social anxiety. I am writing this as I believe it was a great factor that influenced and dictated my course of action the following years after I graduated from high school in 2015. No matter how much everything was prompting me to pursue a career in the art industry, I was not ready to take a leap of faith. In my then mental state I decided to take some time off before my big step, in order to put my life together. At first I was frustrated and confused, and to a certain degree lonely, as most of my friends moved out of the country or to other cities to study.  I ended up retreating to a world of my own, in the silence and comfort of my drawings. No matter how sparsely I did it, for me, drawing always added an irreplaceable healing factor. But as time went by I realized that I either take the risk of trying to be happy or remain sorrowful for not allowing myself to even try.

I began by getting a job as a bartender to learn to be more responsible and earn something for myself. Then I wanted to prove that art was still worth it for me. I created a social media account, on Instagram, without telling any of my friends or family (to avoid any subjectivity), too see the genuine reaction complete strangers have.  Overwhelmed by the positive feedback I got, I became fueled by a strong motivation to pursue my dreams and finally take the next step forward.

I began searching for universities and colleges around Europe, since in Romania there is no such specific degree that can cater to my needs in a professional matter. I then came across The Animation Workshop, which I immediately felt like it’s the place where I could learn how to master the craft of graphic storytelling and discover new people and a friendly ambiance I can prosper in.

My biggest wish and aspiration is to become a comic book artist that can make a difference in people’s lives. Either by freelancing or working for a company, I want to remind people with my through my art or characters, that life is worth living and hope for the better is something invaluable. I am very interested in investing in the therapeutic side that art can provide, and I believe the genre is one of the  best media to achieve something in that regard.

The way I see it, as time goes by, the comic book industry will become one of the biggest pinnacles for freedom of expression, being able to tackle any kind of subject, be it purely fictional or even real, raising awareness of everyday social and political matters. For me this is very important as I believe in the beauty of diversity and the importance of art in our everyday lives.

Regarding my skills, I am currently very comfortable with working in traditional media, especially with materials such as COPIC markers, watercolors and colored pencils. I invested in a small Wacom Bamboo tablet in order to begin taking small steps in the digital area as well. It feels very overwhelming but by using online tutorials, I reached a beginner to medium level in Photoshop CS6. Being a self-taught artist has it’s limitations, as I’ve come do find out. I’m aware of the fact that I lack a solid foundation, and my style does not leave my comfort zone, but I am willing to learn and adapt, and most importantly, for everything that I’m missing I can guarantee that I will do my best through perseverance and hard work.

To finance my studies, I’ve saved up some money from my high school graduation, and most of my salary from my current job goes to my university fund in order to be able to pay for my expenses if I were to move to Viborg. If I’ll still be struggling with money I have my family’s financial support as well.

In the end, I believe the above letter will help you discover what kind of individual I am, and why I believe The Animation Workshop is where I can begin my career and follow my dreams.

As such, I sincerely hope, from the bottom of my heart that I can be part of your Graphic Storytelling Class of 2017.

Yours truly,

Alexandra