#it's a bit difficult because it's such an iconic and well known arc that people can sometimes be blasé about it all

[navree]

there's a lot of reasons why that titans show wanting to do batfam specific arcs, especially death in the family/under the red hood, flopped so hard each time, but one of the biggest is that they basically brought jason back after, like, a fucking month and it basically negates the entire thing

[rei-ismyname]

The Phoenix/Phoenix Force sucks

If you're not familiar with Marvel/X-Men's The Phoenix catching you up on the full context is not really possible. I'll summarise the salient bits, but I definitely recommend checking out The Phoenix and Dark Phoenix sagas in Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men. The big dumb Firebird has appeared earlier in the timeline for better or worse, but that's the definitive phoenix story (and very entertaining.)

An abridged Publication History of the Phoenix

- The Phoenix is introduced as a cosmic abstraction, a vital entity that is part of the universe. Jean Grey is sacrificing herself to save the rest of the X-Men and this happens.

And this.

It's wild shit, totally iconic and mostly internally coherent, though it doesn't end well. Jean as the Phoenix eats a star and destroys a planet of broccoli people. A very effective use of girl power. A lot happens and she ends up sacrificing herself again. It was established that Jean is The Phoenix, now and forever.

- Rachel Grey, Jean and Scott's daughter from an alternate timeline shows up and is a phoenix host for years without any genocides or whatnot. There's angst, but it's just a part of her. Rachel was a bit of a Jean expy at times but it still made sense and was exciting. She's Jean's daughter so it doesn't take too much handwaving to accept her as a 'host.' (She still is btw, no idea how this works but I like her.)

- Over the next few decades the Phoenix showed up an awful lot. Avengers Vs X-Men is probably the most well known instance. The bird is a lot less picky about hosts now. Hope Summers is the intended host (another Jean expy at times,) but due to Tony Stark's arrogance the phoenix ends up in five other people - Namor, Emma Frost, Scott Summers, Magik and Colossus. It makes very little sense tbh, but after much needless conflict it ends up in Hope and she uses it for some cosmic magnificence.

- Over the next few decades it's all over the place. The Stepford Cuckoos, Quentin Quire, tean Jean, this Shi'Ar dude with a big sword, a prehistoric woman called Firehair, this utter dipshit called Faithful John, and others. It's become a problem of the week, deus ex machina, and worst of all - the stories are not very good. The lore of the phoenix is nonsensical at this point but Marvel was not showing any restraint. Personally, I'd groan whenever it appeared because it meant repetitive plot points and further muddying of how the thing works.

- The Avengers got hold of it and the less said about it the better. It's the mid 2010s and this supposedly unknowable universal abstraction, a god of sorts, has become frankly silly (derogatory.) The wonder has been strangled through overuse and conflicting lore. I'm actually understating it a bit - if you don't believe me check out the wiki for The Phoenix. This cosmic abstraction, one of the most iconic X-Men concepts/moments/arcs had become cringe and boring through overuse and lack of imagination.

- In 2019 Jonathan Hickman's House of X dropped and it was a great time to be an X-Men fan - the Krakoan age. A decade plus of deeply average stories and nostalgia bait were in the past and the status quo had changed in wonderful ways. The Phoenix received a mention on a data page, but it was in a list of powerful entities to give context to a new and interesting concept. At the time it wasn't necessarily foreshadowing.

- In 2023 Marvel was (unwisely IMO) speed running an end to Krakoa and the aforementioned concept emerged as the endgame threat. The Phoenix found its way into the story in an organic fashion and the X-Men put all their hopes in The Phoenix to defeat the threat. Kieron Gillen, under difficult circumstances and with less time than promised, actually did it! He used the Phoenix in a quality story with appropriate gravitas and wonder - and he cleaned up the lore so it made sense again. That run (and era) ended in a better place than most of us imagined it could. It didn't surprise me because Gillen is the best writer in comics today IMO, but we got lucky. He left it on a high note but Kieron Gillen is not at Marvel anymore and Tom Brevoort is in charge of X Books. I'll come back to this polycule erasing bozo.

Phoenix (2024) picks up where he left Jean and The Phoenix (and some infinity comics but let's ignore those for now) - both lore and characterisation-wise. It's explicitly solicited as a cosmic run and the first issue has delivered on that. It's not hard to imagine an ending with The Phoenix seeing itself out of the story in an entertaining way with clean lore and sense of wonder intact. Hopefully without killing Jean again 😅.

Ideally, Marvel will have the good sense to leave it alone for a few years at least. The books are already milking nostalgia and historically X-Men keep returning to the Phoenix, Apocalypse, and some new hate group/the US government deciding genocide is on the menu again. Apocalypse has had character growth (and if they ever undo that I'm doing violence) and moved on & we've just had an attempted genocide plus past victims resurrected - so I'll be generous and say they're off the table. The X line has all new writers and seems to be looking to synergise with '97 and the MCU while claiming they're going for fresh and exciting.

We might get lucky again. X-Men 97 is way past the OG Phoenix stuff and so far has avoided using bottom of the barrel storylines from that time. The 2000s contains danger, but most instances don't fit the 'greatest hits' style they've used so far. An exception to that could be Avengers vs X-Men, but I think they'd save that for a summer blockbuster if anything. I suspect a lot of people would get hype about a movie called AVX, especially if they never read the comic. The MCU hasn't been shy about reconceptualizing events for movies, like Civil War, for instance. The essence of the premise was there but the film made a lot more sense. There's plenty of other reasons (better ones even, ones that don't feel OOC and forced) for the X-Men and avengers to fight, and they'd have to set it up with Disassembled (kinda already happened, not Wanda's fault,) House of M (please no) and then all the Hope Summers/Messiah events. The Fox Movies already did the Phoenix, too, bad as it was. I don't think they'll go that way.

Secret Wars has a phoenix egg in the comics, but it's not important and it's barely an X-Men story. I don't see The Phoenix menacing our screens anytime soon, thankfully. What I fear most is editorial playing it safe and/or nostalgic (which is why Tom Brevoort concerns me - check out his Spider-Man manifesto and you'll see what I mean) and a writer returning to the well when pitching story ideas. Everyone is confident at the start of a new era bc it takes a while to internalise that Marvel repackages and reskins the same 25 tropes while deliberately presenting the 'Illusion of change.' Once the initial ideas dry up and it's crunch time it's natural to look to the past for ideas and characters to reuse. Maybe sales dip a little, or the comics are in a holding pattern waiting for the MCU to do something. Whatever the cause, it will get pitched again and Brevoort will likely say yes. I don't want to be unfair to the guy, but he's been failing upwards for years.

After all, it's happened so many times already. Metatextually, The Phoenix is a symbol of rebirth. That would be a good thing. It can be easy to mistake repetition for rebirth, but it's the avatar of life and creativity. In universe one of its roles is to destroy stagnant ideas or species. Anything that's static and has stopped evolving. Ironically it's been used in some of the worst instances of creative stagnation in Marvel comics. The Phoenix, recent goodness aside, sucks.

I genuinely hope I'm an old 'man' shaking my fist at a cloud while telling Tom Brevoort to get off my lawn. I love being wrong. Nothing would make me happier than Spider-Man or Magneto hosting the Phoenix being an Impossibility. I know I'm not the target demographic but I don't just hope these things for myself. We all deserve good stories, new ideas, the joy of being vulnerable enough to get invested in escapist media. The Mouse, like all capitalists, does not give a fuck about those things though unfortunately. They care about profit. Eh, there's always Fan Fiction. If it does happen I'll commit to a million words. 💜

Don't even think about it.

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

Star Trek: The Story

Every television show is built upon one simple thing: it’s foundational setup.  At its core, a setup is the baseline for each new episode.  It’s what the audience returns to on a weekly basis.  The core elements of the show enable each episode to build a new story upon it, and, in most cases, , a show is often only as good as its setup, so you’d better hope the setup is a good one.

When it comes down to it, whether or not the audience likes a premise is what can make or break a show.

Thankfully, Star Trek had a good one.

A five-year mission to explore the galaxy meant you could get a fair number of adventures out of it.  Exploration and missions meant a new planet every week, new characters and a different adventure to embark upon (although odds are, the new episode would still feature Kirk’s Rock).  Even better, the main cast of characters (7, with 3 forming the core main characters) is consistent, familiar, and solid.  The audience grows to know them, and knows how to expect them to act.

This premise is kind of perfect.

The stability of a main crew gives the audience well-known and well-liked characters to return to for every episode, allowing for a familiar ‘home base’ at the start of every episode.  The format of the five-year mission, clearly stated in the opening, also gives the audience a sense of familiarity with the overall plot: the reason that the Enterprise and her crew are out here in the first place.  Kirk and his crew aren’t just wandering around space for kicks, they have a purpose: exploration for Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets.

This base works very well too in also establishing the characters’ abilities.  Being well-trained in Starfleet, the crew of the Enterprise is competent, intelligent, and pragmatic enough to find their way out of some difficult situations.  This allowed the writers to find ways to let Kirk and his crew think their way out of any situation, without stretching the suspension of belief for the audience.  With the variety of difficult situations that the Enterprise crew came across, it was vital that the audience believed that they could handle it.

So yeah, Star Trek had a great premise.  How were the stories themselves?

That’s where things get a little tricky.

As it turns out, there is a massive difference between writing a plot for a movie, and writing multiple smaller plots for a television show.  In film, there is one major conflict, one major story arc that, once it is finished, doesn’t go anywhere (unless very well-done sequels are made).  In television however, it’s a whole different ball game.

There is no ‘one and done’ storyline.  You have to write multiple, smaller stories, over and over again, trying to keep it varied and interesting while remaining true to the show’s format and setup.  In the case of Star Trek, this meant that sometimes, the differences between some episodes are rather superficial, with many episodes and stories sharing common elements.  In your typical episode of Star Trek, you could expect at least one of three things:

Clever interpersonal character drama, pointed social and political commentary, or extreme camp.  In many cases, you would get some combination of the three.  Even here, there was often some variety.

Most episodes of Star Trek followed one or two basic formulas.  

In many episodes, some external force threatens the ship and crew, whether directly, mentally, or by up-ending the laws of physics by warping reality.  In many others, Kirk leads a landing party to the surface of a planet, where they are trapped and stripped of communicators.  A Redshirt or two dies, Kirk and the remaining party evade their captors and probably engage in a fight, and in the end, they escape.  In other cases, it turns out that the inhabitants of the planet are all worshipping something as a deity that is, quite simply, Not.  The Enterprise crew often ends up enlightening the people on the planet, setting them free.

In a lot of cases, the episode ends with a motivational Kirk speech.

There were often subgenres of these episodes.  Episodes like A Piece of the Action, The Omega Glory, Bread and Circuses and Patterns of Force dealt with societies crafted after pieces of Earth history, where commentary could be most easily or most pointedly made.  Transporter incidents could often kick off a plot, whether by splitting a person into two personalities (The Enemy Within) or transporting them to another universe (Mirror, Mirror). Other episode types would often pop up, such as time travel, (Tomorrow is Yesterday, Assignment: Earth), the court-room/clear my name episodes (Court Martial, The Menagerie, Wolf in the Fold), aliens with god-like powers are jerking the crew around (The Squire of Gothos, Catspaw, Plato’s Stepchildren, Who Mourns for Adonis? Spectre of the Gun, Day of the Dove, The Empath, The Savage Curtain).

Even more standard stories included crew members (typically Kirk, but occasionally others) falling in love and having to break it off by the end of the episode (Most tragically in The City on the Edge of Forever, but also occurring in Requiem for Methuselah, Wink of an Eye, The Enterprise Incident, The Gamesters of Triskelion, By Any Other Name, The Paradise Syndrome, and For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky)  It happened a lot.

Other common plotlines often included madness plagues, regular sickness plagues, Klingons (Or occasionally Romulans), or the Technology Gone Mad episodes.

So yeah, there were patterns.  Lots of them, in fact.  However.

For all the episodes that were a ‘different version’ of an already produced story, there were also many episodes that were different in their own right.  Episodes like Amok Time, Devil in the Dark, Shore Leave, Space Seed, Balance of Terror, The Corbomite Maneuver, The Galileo Seven, Metamorphosis, The Trouble with Tribbles, Obsession, or Journey to Babel.  These episodes, while sometimes containing elements of other plotlines, were distinct, ‘fascinating’ episodes that challenged the traditional ‘Star Trek’ structure.

While it’s always good to have new types of episodes (for the most part), it’s important to remember that even the formulaic episodes were fairly varied, with plenty of new forms of commentary or camp to offer.  Episodes like A Private Little War provided discussion on the Vietnam conflict, and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield is a pointed, on-the-nose, well-deserved criticism of racism.  These stories, while sometimes containing plenty of elements of previously used episodes, were typically still good.  The characters were usually still interesting and memorable, the bad guys equally so, and most of the time, the stories were interesting enough that audiences didn’t mind if they’d already seen an alien culture worshipping a computer or not.

Were there clunkers?  Certainly.  Episodes like Turnabout Intruder, The Way To Eden, Spock’s Brain, and And the Children Shall Lead certainly exist, and while some fans have soft spots for some of them, these stories are widely regarded as the worst of the worst.  But no show is immune to bad episodes, and Star Trek’s reputation, overall, has far more good than bad.  Like I’ve mentioned before, having a formula (or multiple formulas!) is not necessarily a bad thing.  Star Trek’s multiple formulas and occasional ‘new’ story made for interesting and dynamic television stories that stuck with audiences.

While only lasting three seasons, Star Trek managed to generate multiple fascinating examples of television storytelling that have resonated with audiences decades after their initial broadcast.  Even after the show went off the air in 1969, the show’s following only grew, with more fans after it had finished than while it was actually airing.  After three seasons, with the last on shaky legs, plenty of fans still come back to these stories, continuing to find value in them.

Why?

As it turns out, it’s because they’re just…good.

The episodes of Star Trek all relied on new concepts and adventures, driven chiefly by characters that the audience knows and likes.  These episodes rode on a sense of drama, a genuine concern for these people, this crew, the core setup.  On top of that, the drama, while sometimes a bit campy to modern eyes, was often interesting and gripping, and no matter how similar the concept of each episode, the execution and interpersonal conflict was always different, allowing the audience to experience familiar ideas in unfamiliar ways.  The stories weren’t happening to these people, they were about them, and as a result, only the episodes where the characters aren’t in character tend to be the ones that are looked at unfavorably.

As I’ve mentioned before, the real secret to television is consistency mixed with creativity.  And Star Trek had that nailed.  

For all of its formulaic styles, Star Trek was new and interesting, bringing creative stories and characters to previously-used templates to make genuinely engaging and innovative entertainment, while being somewhat familiar.  The points are not softened by the fact that we’ve seen ‘parallel Earth cultures’ before, the characterization is not nullified because we’ve already seen Kirk fall in love with a doomed woman.  Each episode brought something new to the table (admittedly, not always a good something new) and as a result, despite similar themes and concepts, each episode is its own memorable entity, containing equally memorable and iconic characters in heartfelt, earnest stories that does its best to make its audience think.

In the end, that’s a huge contributing factor to why Star Trek still has the following it does.  No matter how much time passes, these stories, written over fifty years ago, still pack a good amount of the emotional and philosophical punch that they did when they were first penned.  

Are the episodes a little campy at times?  

Sure.  Absolutely.

But that doesn’t make them any less effective, or beloved, over fifty years later.  Even now, these stories pack a punch, to which a very loyal fanbase is still a testament.  These stories still have something to say over half a century later, interesting, compelling stories to tell with characters who are just as gripping as they were in 1966.  

Not bad for an old science fiction show from the ‘60s.

Thank you guys so much for reading!  Stay tuned for the next article, where we’ll be discussing the genre and themes of Star Trek.  Don’t forget that the ask box is always open, whether for discussion, questions, suggestions, or conversations.  I hope to see you in the next article.

[amandajoyce118]

Runaways Season 2 Easter Eggs And Comic Book References

No Friday Five this week. Instead, have this!

It took me a bit longer than I would have liked to get through season two of Runaways, but I’ve finally got an Easter egg list for you. This time of year was very busy at both my day job and in the writing world, so to have Aquaman, Runaways, and Bumblebee (do you guys want an Easter egg list for this? I haven’t started typing that up.) release at the same time made things a little difficult for me to get them up in a timely fashion.

As usual, if you haven’t yet watched Runaways, there are spoilers below, but I tried to go episode by episode without spoiling things for future episodes. There are times where I watched a few hours at a time before writing up the details, so I’m sorry if you’re reading as you go along and there are minor spoilers. Enjoy!

If I missed something, tell me what you found!

S2E01 “Gimme Shelter”

The Episode Title

Not only was the title of this episode a movie starring Vanessa Hudgens a few years ago, but it was also the title of a Rolling Stones song. The stories for both feature Runaways, so I think the title was more than just an on-the-nose reference to them needing a house. The movie features a pregnant teen who runs away from home and makes a family for herself at the shelter where she stays. The music video for the song featured two teen boys running away from an abusive home as well, though the song is from an album known for tackling issues related to the Vietnam War.

Detective Flores

If you didn’t obsessively research characters you weren’t familiar with in season one, you might not know that Flores is from the comics. He’s actually the detective in PRIDE’s pocket there as well. In fact, he’s probably the closest to their comic book character.

Their Clothes

This season begins with the kids in the same clothes they ended the first season in. Not only does this tell us it’s taking place pretty soon after, but also how hard up they are since they haven’t been able to find/buy/steal anything else. (Also, yes, these outfits are recreations of some of their iconic comic book looks.)

“You think I’m a mole?”

Ah, Alex. Of course we think you’re a mole. But because we think that, you won’t be. In the comics, Alex was the mole. He spied on his friends and reported back to his parents so that PRIDE was always right behind their kids.

WHiH

This is the biggest news network in the MCU. It’s appeared in just about every MCU property lately. This time around, it’s even more significant, because the reporter for WHiH that appears in this episode also appeared as a news reporter for another network on Agents of SHIELD. Looks like she got a new gig.

Kirk Skadden

This name appears in an obituary next to Graciela’s. (I would have checked all the names, but that’s the only one I can make out on my TV, and I can’t even make out the actually obit.) Agents of SHIELD fans might (or might not, it’s pretty obscure) remember this name from the pilot episode. He’s the agent Maria Hill hands off Ward’s piece of alien tech too. Now, further research tells me this isn’t a comic book character, but instead, the name of a graphic designer who works for Studio Graphics, who does VFX work for Agents of SHIELD. It’s likely a nod to the actual guy doing work behind the scenes, and not meant to be a crossover, but it’s still fun to think about.

Odyssey Diner

At first I thought this was a comic book location, but it’s not. Instead, I like to think that it’s a nod to the Greek epic. You know, the story of Odysseus as he tries to get home after the fall of Troy, but he finds so many obstacles in his way that his journey takes forever? Victor Stein just wants to get home and back to life, and things don’t go as planned.

The House

In the comics, the kids do eventually find themselves an abandoned house to squat in. While it doesn’t look the same on the outside here, it’s definitely pretty much exactly the same on the inside. The props/set dressers did an excellent job.

S2E02 “Radio On”

The Last Supper

The image of the five kids sitting at the table and eating reminds me of the painting The Last Supper. It’s not an exact recreation of it, but I can’t help but feel the imagery is intentional. Someone tell me who corresponds to whom as my religious imagery recollection is a litter rusty.

Molly And Her “Mask”

I love that Molly folds her hat down to create a makeshift superhero mask. She’s also (if I remember right) the only character who actually grew up in a future timeline to become an Avenger, so it feels like a nice nod.

S2E03 “Double Zeros”

The Episode Title

Not only is “doublezero” a particular strain of marijuana, but it’s also a math term. I’m sure the math term is what’s actually being referenced here considering we get a lot of calculations from Janet uncoding the Abstract.

The Abstract

In the comics, the Abstract is actually a copy of the book the Gibborim (who are not the subject of the church, but instead, the giant race that gives PRIDE their power) gives to all of the couples. Each of the couples who go on to have a Runaway has a copy of the book. It contains magic spells rather than the secrets of an alien races technology. The show adapts the idea pretty well for their version of the story.

The Staff Doesn’t Work

Noting that the staff didn’t work after the same “spell” was tried more than once has become a thing. Eventually, the gang will have to figure out that it’s called the Staff of One in the comics for a reason. It can only use each “spell” once while the same person owns it. Eventually, Nico will run out of synonyms for the same actions.

Chun Li

Okay, yeah, Nico playing this character in a video game is a nod to her getting to be a superhero and being an Asian woman, sure. But, I can’t help but think that it’s also a shoutout to another Asian-American in the MCU. Ming-Na Wen, who plays May on Agents of SHIELD, played Chun Li in a Street Fighter movie back in the day. (And yes, she was great.)

Topher

Topher is a comic book character, or at least inspired by one. He joins up with the Runaways in the comics, though it turns out he’s not everything he says he is. I’ll hold that story until we know more about him.

S2E04 “Old School”

Cone of Silence

You know where the idea of Cone of Silence came from? These days, it’s just an everyday phrase, but once upon a time, it was a pretty cool trick on the tv series Get Smart.

Topher’s Rock Dust

So it’s clear that Topher doesn’t come by his powers naturally (as in, they aren’t just embedded in him), like Molly. Instead, it’s coming to him, along with a high, from special rock dust. This kind of reminds me of how Wakanda gets all of its energy/derives its tech/creates its medicine from their place on top of a Vibranium mine, which came from outer space. Apparently, rocks from outerspace contain a whole lot of supernatural power.

This also reminds me of a comic book storyline that saw people harvesting mutants for the “mutant growth hormone” their bodies produced. It was like a chemical produced as a result of them being a mutant. Scientists created drugs from it that junkies had a field day with. It was an arc in the Jessica Jones stories, and I think the Spider-Woman stories, if I remember right.

“Our Uninvited Guest”

Okay, so this little dig at Topher means I can tell you that, in the comics, he was a vampire. The MCU hasn’t gone as far as revealing that vampires exist just yet, so I’m pretty sure that’s not part of his story here. But I like the nod to the idea that vampires have to be invited in.

Atlas Academy

In case you forgot about the school the kids originally attended, it pops back up again. Atlas Academy gets its name from Atlas Comics, the precursor to Marvel Comics. The early days of Marvel also saw writers naming fictional companies Atlas “Insert Business Here” as a nod to the change in publisher name.

S2E05 “Rock Bottom”

Topher Doesn’t Age

So, he didn’t get Molly’s super strength full time, but he did get the ability to siphon energy from the rock dust and not age? Sounds like a new age vampire to me.

S2E06 “Bury Another”

The Episode Title

This might be a coincidence, but I think this is referencing the Rilo Kiley song “Bury, Bury, Bury Another.” It’s about looking back on the way things used to be.

Gravitational Wave Space Drive

On the one hand, this series of words just sounds like scientific nonsense put together to sound like something that might power a ship. On the other hand… it sounds an awful lot like the same idea for converting the quinjet into a spaceship on Agents of SHIELD. Making it run with the help of gravitonium can’t be too far off.

S2E07 “Last Rites”

The Magic Memorabilia

Okay, so it might seem like the rooms at the house are just themed for some cool old Hollywood fun, but I think it’s more purposeful. The room where Alex holds his dad captive has a lot of magic show memorabilia in the background. There are signs and pieces from old school magic tricks lying around. This seems like a nod to Alex’s role in the comics.

When he’s initially introduced, he’s just a really smart human. Alex betrays his friends to PRIDE, ends up dead, and sits in Hell, trying to find a way out. He eventually makes a deal to not only “guide” Nico on a magical journey, but also to become the host of a demon. It’s then that he learns how to use all kinds of magic - more than just pulling rabbits out of hats.

Xavin

This name belongs to a comic book character, and it’s interesting that this person appears to be trapped on Jonah’s spaceship with the rest of Karolina’s family. Why? Because this person wasn’t the same race as Karolina’s family in the comics. Instead, Xavin was a Skrull prince. Raised to become a “Super Skrull,” a marriage was brokered between Xavin and Karolina by their parents as a way to put an end to the war between their species. Though Karolina’s alien species appears to be the Gibborim in the show and not the Majesdanians, the story idea might play out similarly? We’ll see.

Marine Vivarium

This particular comic book location didn’t appear in the show, but its likeness did. You now when the spaceship starts to rise from the ground and there are slight cracks in the surface, its got a dome, all that? That imagery looks a lot like the Marine Vivarium sitting on the bottom of a sea bed in the comics that provides a meeting place for PRIDE.

S2E08 “Past Life”

1957

Not a whole lot in this episode in the way of Easter eggs. I mean, Julian McMahon gets to use his real accent and you find out the body he inhabits was from Australia. Curious that “Jonah” decided not to keep the accent. I can tell you that in 1957 Atlas Comics (later Marvel) cancelled a ton of their Western comics. Westerns were on the way out. A lot of their anthology comics that year featured, instead, aliens and flying saucers. Seems appropriate for a reference in this show.

S2E09 “Big Shot”

Roxxon

A banner on the outside of the big hotel advertises Roxxon. You’ll remember this energy company from just about every other MCU property that takes place on Earth: Iron Man, Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, Cloak and Dagger, etc. It plays its biggest role in Cloak And Dagger these days.

Wakanda

Do I have to explain Wakanada? Probably not. Unless you completely tuned out from pop culture last year, you know that’s where Black Panther, and the big Infinity War battle, takes place. It does provide us with a bit of a timeline though. We know this likely takes place after the events of Black Panther in the MCU. Maybe even after Shuri already started work on the outreach center in California? It’s likely still set before the events of Infinity War though.

S2E10 “Hostile Takeover”

Nico’s Eyes

When Nico pops back up from her exhaustion and uses the staff, screaming “get out” at the corrupt cops in the house, her eyes do something a little crazy. The get this black, pebbled, gradient around them. Now, if you’ve seen Doctor Strange, you’ve seen that before from Kaecilius and his followers. In the movie, Tina Minoru, though she’s never named and is played by a different actress, appears wielding the staff. (I’m not going to lie, it makes me wonder if Tina got sucked into the power at one point and left her family for a few days to answer the magical call or something.) Presumably, the markings indicate giving over to the pull of the “dark magic” in the staff.

Nico’s Power

Considering Nico manages to make so many people disappear, I feel like it’s important to make a note about just where Nico’s power is coming from. In the comics, she accidentally banishes people (and Old Lace) to another dimension because the staff can access then. Specifically, it has ties to the Dark Dimension. If that sounds familiar, you’ve likely read up on your Agents of SHIELD or Cloak and Dagger Easter eggs, because it’s been referenced there. Ghost Rider has access to the Dark Dimension. Darkforce, an ability we’ve seen manipulated and used on Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter, originates in the Dark Dimension. When Cloak of Cloak and Dagger teleports, he actually moves through the Dark Dimension to do it in the comics. The show hasn’t clarified if it’s the same there. Suffice to say the Dark Dimension provides a lot of power in many different forms.

S2E11 “The Last Waltz”

The Episode Title

Yes, this title is literal since Chase waltzes with Molly, but the term is best known now as a farewell concert by The Band in San Francisco in 1978.

The President

When the Yorkes interrogate Chase, they ask him if he knows who the President is. Though Chase says he does, he never says who it is. I think that’s purposeful to keep the timeline ambiguous. Is it Ellis? Has someone else got the job? We don’t know.

Staff Of One

Nico’s Wiccan ceremony here might be the first time the Staff of One is acknowledged by its comic book name. It’s what she writers on the slip of paper she burns. You can imagine that her trying to cut ties with the staff isn’t going to work out well. At least her “tie” to it isn’t the same as in the comics. On the page, she had to release her own blood every time she wanted to use the staff as it sealed itself away inside her body until she needed it every time. (This is likely the reason we get the “it’s clawing at my skin” line in an earlier episode.)

Molly Hayes Hernandez

We get to hear Molly’s full name, or at least what Gert knows her full name to be. It’s significant because Molly in the comics is Molly Hayes. In an effort to bring even more diversity into the group, the producers decided to cast Molly as any ethnicity, and ended up making her Latina. Molly Hayes Hernandez is a nod to the original comic book character.

S2E12 “Earth Angel”

The Episode Title

Aside from Karolina being literally called an angel at one point, this title is a reference to the (very old) classic song. Originally recorded by the Penguins in the 50s, it’s been covered by a ton of doo-wop, pop, and R&B groups over the years. It was a surprise hit, much like Karolina taking back the church for her grandmother. The song was the B side of their first record, and what was released was the demo version instead of a more polished sound. People loved it, even without any kind of “classier” instrumentation.

“We’re not Cylons from Alex’s Doctor Who show.”

A for effort, Molly. I don’t usually call out random pop culture references, but I like that Alex is both a Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who fan, and that Molly at least attempted to speak his language.

The Hostel

Is this the first time the house is called this? Or did I miss it earlier in the season? Either way, the Hostel is what the group calls their house in the comics as well, so it’s a nice nod.

“...your darkness is you…”

Maybe I should have waited to explain Nico’s power coming from the Dark Dimension? Again, this is another nod to where her power might come from.

Chase Becoming Part of PRIDE

This isn’t something Chase does in the comics. Instead, it’s Alex (though these days, Alex is a full on villain). In the comics, it’s Alex who actually knows about PRIDE’s activities a full year before his “friends.” He purposely leads them to discover what’s going on when he realizes that the Deans and the Hayes plan on killing the human members of the group so that their families can become the full six members of the inner circle. Alex’s whole thing in the comics is about protecting his parents (and Nico). There, his parents are crime bosses, and he eventually becomes one as well after he gets out of Hell. The point is, he turns his back on his friends to become part of PRIDE, but it goes badly for him. Here, it’s Chase who has that role. Because the show did it with Gert calling for help and Karolina hanging out with Jonah as well. They want to show that Alex isn’t the only one who can betray the group for selfish reasons.

S2E13 “Split Up”

Xartan

While Xavin is a Skrull in the comics, that looks like it’s not the case here. It’s possible the show wasn’t allowed to introduce a Skrull with Captain Marvel looming on the horizon, so they went with Xartans. Named for their home planet, the Xartans actually existed in two groups: the base and the deviations. The deviations were those who had been experimented on and granted abilities (oh, hey, sounds like Inhumans on Earth, no?), and they essentially eliminated the “base” Xartans. They also once attempted to invade Earth in ancient times. They didn’t succeed because Thor, of all people, stopped them. The ones that stayed on Earth actually shapeshifted into trees, becoming one with the environment. Somehow, I don’t think that’s where Xavin’s arc is headed.

The Exiled Royals

The story Xavin projects into Karolina’s head about the exiled royal family (first of all, reminds me of the way the Deathly Hallows were presented in the Harry Potter films, so nice visual, and) is pretty much the story of the Majesdanians in the comics. The two that become the Deans (both actors in the comics) make a home on Earth after being exiled. Maybe the writers thought Gibborum was an easier word for fans to learn? Also, can we point out that Majesdanians sounds very much like majestic, or magistrate, so there is still another nod in how the alien race is presented in the show?

Leapfrog

When Chase and Janet talk outside the house, Chase is busy sketching out a design. That design is for the Leapfrog. In the comics, Victor and his wife actually create the vehicle. It’s submersible, so they use it to travel to and from the underwater base where PRIDE meets. I imagine the VFX needed for something like that is why PRIDE performs their sacrifices in the Wilder’s basement in the first season. When Chase and company discover what their parents are up to, they steal the Leapfrog and use it to escape. They also use it to fight crime, live in, and travel through time. Considering Victor has the video from the future already, something tells me Chase might just invent a time machine if the show gets more seasons.

The Minoru Fight

I have to point out that I’m fairly certain all of the Minoru family does their own stunts in that big family confrontation. Also, if you think it’s a stereotype for this Asian family to know martial arts, in this case, not so much. Instead, it’s playing to the strength of the actors. All three of them are experienced martial artists. They all have black belts, according to Lyrica Okano, though I’m not sure specifically which fighting form their belts are in since several award belts as you master different skills. Lyrica is also a trained gymnast. So, yeah, that fight scene probably could have gone on for a whole episode if they writers wanted it to.

“I’ve seen this before.”

When Nico’s eyes change during the fight and Robert gets a little concerned, Tina says this line. So, I’d wager (again) that we can say that was this Tina during the events of Doctor Strange and not just someone who had the same weapon, and though she doesn’t understand all of the advantages and limitations of the staff just yet, she does know those markings mean dark magic.

Some General Talk

Things that pop up across multiple episodes I thought I’d just throw down here. That way I’m not repeating myself in every episode.

Rainbows

Karolina is a lesbian basically made of rainbows, but this season, the costume department decide to reflect that as well. Nearly every piece of clothing she wears has some sort of rainbow imagery or color pattern going on. Her wardrobe is also very in tune with the 60s and 70s when the sexual revolution was in full swing, which seems pretty apt for a recently out Karolina. The only time she’s not in colorful clothing is when the Church of Gibborum storyline comes back into play for her at the end of the season. Even before she changes into the muted clothes to rescue her mom she’s in pastels.

The Church

The Church of Gibborum is not a thing in the comics, but it does have a real world counterpart. Much of what’s done with the church this season - the focus on an actor playing the part of a church leader, the reconditioning, the cutting people off from their families and their names at secret facilities, the strict rules and cult-like behavior - seems to be inspired by a “church” that’s prevalent in Hollywood. You can read Leah Remini’s book or watch her show for more details.

Gert’s Health

There’s a huge focus, at least on Gert’s part, on Gert’s mental health. It’s not until she’s physically ill that anyone else starts paying attention to her. While I get the feeling this is a bit of social commentary, it’s also a nice nod to the comics. Gert actually died so that her friends could live. We almost get to that point, but the show saves her, and that’s something of a relief because killing Gert off was a huge mistake. The newer series brought her back to life with good reason.

Leaving And Returning

I found the repeated references to people leaving the group interesting. The comic group definitely starts with the members we see on the show, but over the years, a lot of people join up or leave. It’s actually surprising that two seasons in the group is mainly in tact. Topher and Livvie didn’t stick it out, and yeah, they’re separated at the end of the season, but the core group is alive and working toward a common goal. I’m curious to see if other iconic characters get added if the show continues for a while. For example, Cloak and Dagger joined up for a while, the group brought Kara Plast back to the present with them from the past, a cyborg joined them, and Xavin lives with them until they have to leave the planet. I’d like to see someone new introduced and shake up the dynamic a bit.

The Feminism

It’s refreshing that this team of superpowered people is mostly teenage girls. I know, for the most part, this is the original line up from the comics, but there have been a few more additions to the group over the years to up the male quotient. I love that Chase going home means that Alex is outnumbered by Karolina, Nico, Molly, Gert, and later, Leslie Dean. There’s also Xavin, but I’m not sure how we’re supposed to view Xavin. A lot of comics fans classify the character as nonbinary because they originally present as a male Skrull before deciding to become a woman because Karolina is a lesbian. They seem to default to female forms more often than not, but also become large males in a fight to be more intimidating, so there’s that. Regardless, I like the focus on the women getting things done. Neither Chase nor Alex are members of the group with superpowers, though they are super smart. The members of the group with raw power are Nico (magic), Karolina (alien-light), Gert (dinosaur telepathy), and Molly (super strength), and I just love that lineup.

That’s it! That’s all I’ve got this time around. I couldn’t catch every street sign, newspaper article, or building plaque, so it’s entirely possible that there are other fun Easter eggs in the show that I missed this season.

[recentanimenews]

The Top 10 Anime Villains Who Just Won't Die!

Editor's Note: This is a republication of a feature by Nicole Mejias that originally appeared on Crunchyroll News on 5/21/18.

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    It’s often said that a good hero needs an equally good villain, and certainly there are many infamous villains to choose from. Rivalries are made, evil plans are thwarted, and the heroes celebrate their hard earned victories with the vanquishing of their foes. However, not every villain is so easy to get rid of, and some linger on long after they’re dead to cause even more problems!

  In this list, let's take a look at the top 10 villains who just refused to stay dead, gone, and buried! And as a warning, this article contains a LOT of spoilers, so read with caution!

  10. Neferpitou (Hunter x Hunter)

Anime fans can at least celebrate that the vanquishing of Neferpitou didn’t take the quite literal decade that it did in the manga, but the Chimera Ant villain certainly haunted Gon for a long time! Neferpitou had easily killed Gon’s mentor and hero Kite, and reanimated his corpse to use a training toy. Gon, unaware that he was dead, refused to give up on the chance to save his mentor and defeat this extremely powerful enemy. Unfortunately for Gon, Neferpitou vastly outclassed him, as to be expected of one of the Chimera Ant King’s Royal Guards! Neferpitou’s loyalty to the king leads to their undoing, but not before a protracted battle of wits with Gon over the life of Komugi.

    Once Neferpitou reveals to Gon that Kite is long dead and unable to be restored, Gon flies into a rage, leading to the iconic scenes where Gon’s Nen ages him, growing his power (and his hair!) to legendary proportions. Outclassed, Neferpitou dies happy, knowing that Gon is unable to get to the king, but even in death Neferpitou haunts Gon further, as their Nen ability Terpsichora activates, seemingly reviving the fallen foe! Distracted and enraged, Gon mercilessly beats his enemy’s corpse until Killua stops him… and falls into a coma, his body nearly destroyed and his life almost snuffed out from the battle! It takes a literal miracle to revive Gon much later, and it’s safe to safe Neferpitou won’t be forgotten by Gon or us any time soon!

  9. Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti (Re:ZERO)

Petelgeuse is surely a memorable villain from an aesthetic point of view with his distinct looks and voice, but the way in which he easily defeats Subaru, causing the protagonist to despair that there may be no good outcome against this foe, is one of the defining storylines of Re:ZERO. Petelgeuse seems to have Subaru figured out, and no matter how many times Subaru resets the timeline, he always seems to come up short against the foe, watching his friends suffer and die in various awful ways each time he tries to find a new route to victory.

Not only that, but Petelgeuse almost seems able to guess Subaru’s special ‘reset’ ability, and nearly succeeds in possessing him and ending the story for good! It isn’t until numerous deaths and resets that Subaru develops a working plan, and even then Petelgeuse nearly destroys Subaru. As Subaru writes “The End” in Petelgeuse’s gospel in his own blood, the deranged priest is finally killed after his body is crushed and torn to pieces! We’ll have to wait and see what type of impact Petelgeuse really left on Subaru, but to be sure he was the most difficult foe so far, and on that certainly left Subaru a changed man!

  8. Junko Enoshima (Dangan Ronpa)

We warned you about spoilers above, so if you’re still reading and are interested in checking out Dangan Ronpa unspoiled, we suggest you turn back now! In the Dangan Ronpa series (both anime and games) there’s no one quite as twisted and evil as Junko Enoshima, the mastermind behind the initial murder game, as well as the leader of a cult dedicated to bringing her twisted sense of despair to the world! Junko seemingly dies right away in Dangan Ronpa, only for it to be later revealed that it was her own sister who she happily murdered! Junko reveals herself as the mastermind behind Monokuma, having lead the students to murdering each other and laughing all the way!

Despite being killed at the end of the first Dangan Ronpa, the second game (which didn’t have an anime, sadly!) reveals that Junko lives on as Junko Alter, a computer virus seeking to continue her twisted legacy! In the second anime series, Danganon Ronpa 3, Junko appears in both the Despair and Hope routes, showing us how she gained her position of power and set up the initial game. And in the Hope route, Junko’s ghost seems bewildered to watch the antics of the cast’s struggle, before fading away, hopefully forever. Junko may not be the most ‘hands on’ villain, but she’s certainly a troublesome one who caused a literal world of despair, and whose legacy seems poised to last long after she’s dead.

  7. Tao Pai Pai  (Dragon Ball / Dragon Ball Z)

Usually, a returning villain is a major hindrance to the protagonist, presenting them with constant roadblocks to success. That’s not quite the case for Tao Pai Pai, who goes from being one of the deadliest foes Goku ever met to a comically inept weakling. First appearing during Goku’s attempts to gather the Dragon Balls at the employ of Commander Red, Tao Pai Pai is one of Goku’s first truly dangerous opponents. Tao is shown to be cunning, cold, and murderous, killing numerous people simply because he wants to, and almost kills Goku! Goku eventually defeats Tao, and if not for the assassin’s cowardly attempts to get the last laugh, might have lived unscathed; instead, Goku deflects his grenade back to him, leaving Tao for dead.

Later, however, it turns out Tao Pai Pai is far from dead, re-appearing with cybernetic upgrades and bent on killing Tien and Goku! Vastly outclassed by the powerful Tien, he doesn’t show up again until the Cell Games in Dragon Ball Z as little more than comic relief, but still as evil and conniving as usual!

6. Toguro Brothers  (Yu Yu Hakusho)

There probably isn’t a more iconic villain in Yu Yu Hakusho than Younger Toguro and his demonically powered muscled form, but even without that recognition, these two Toguros are a thorn in Yusuke and company’s side for the entire series, with Elder Toguro being the longest recurring villain in the show! First showing up during the Spirit Detective arc of the show, the Toguros are a formidable pair of bodyguards to the despicable Tarukane. In a fierce battle against Yusuke and Kuwabara, the pair of heroes are barely victorious against the powerful brothers, and it seems as if Kuwabara has killed Younger Toguro with a sword to the chest.

Shortly after, however, we learn that really wasn’t the case, and sure enough the Toguros re-emerge, forcing Yusuke and the others to fight in the Dark Tournament! Toguro constantly pushes Yusuke to become more powerful, and seems to get his wish, eventually dying to Yusuke’s powered up form. However, the Elder Toguro survives after being presumed dead, reappearing from inside the body of Gourmet during the Chapter Black saga! While his brother only seemed impossible to defeat, Elder Toguro truly seems to be immortal, and it takes a cunning attack by Kurama to sentence the Elder Toguro to a life of never ending punishment, where he can’t hurt anyone again!

5. Orochimaru (Naruto / Naruto Shippuden / Boruto)

When we think of returning villains, Orochimaru is certainly pretty high on that list, perhaps redeemed by the fact that he seems to make amends for his villainy by the end of the series, appearing in Boruto as a neutral character (so far). Still, many anime fans probably can’t forget the first time Orochimaru slithered into the story, and his constant meddling and capture of Sasuke lead to one of the most iconic moments in the entire series: Naruto vs. Sasuke. Orochimaru certainly made himself known throughout the series, utilizing his ability to body hop and revive himself numerous times before being seemingly sealed away and defeated by Itachi.

That sense of victory was short lived, however, as Sasuke himself releases Orochimaru to get answers. This proves to be a turning point for the snake ninja, as he realizes Sasuke is now far too powerful to possess, and instead the once head villain of the series begins his path to something resembling redemption. That said, who knows where Boruto will go, so Orochimaru might end up going back to his old tricks once again...

4. Shou Tucker (Fullmetal Alchemist [2003])

Now if this list were the Top 10 Worst Human Beings Ever, Shou Tucker would certainly be #1 with a bullet (or an alchemically powered hand through the face). However, Shou’s return in the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime was a total (and unwanted) surprise, as the series deviated from the manga quite a bit. While Scar had the pleasure of killing Shou in the manga, in the anime Shou vanishes into ‘military custody’... until he suddenly re-emerges as a chimera!

Shou’s mind is more gone than it was the first time, obsessed with trying to revive his daughter… the same one he turned into a chimera. Shou doesn’t meet his maker this time either, being left in the anime an obsessed failure trying to regain what he lost. We won’t really spend time trying to rationalize this despicable man’s actions, but suffice to say fans at the time were thoroughly shocked to see this terrible man-thing appear again!

  3. Char Aznable  (Mobile Suit Gundam)

It wouldn’t be far to claim that without Char, Mobile Suit Gundam may not have been as successful as it was. Amuro was an amazing, if flawed, protagonist, and he desperately needed an equally flawed and interesting rival. Char Aznable was easily able to take that position, and the Zeon pilot wreaked havoc on Amuro, pushing the Newtype to defeat him. Char is last seen giving Kycilla Zabi a unique one bazooka salute, before himself disappearing in the impending explosion. However, during the events of Zeta Gundam, a mysterious and charismatic man by the name of Quattro Bajeena shows up. Char’s alias is almost too heroic, coming across as one of the most helpful and good characters in the series, but as with most things dealing with Char, his motives are never that easy to discern.

Char re-emerges as himself during the events of Char’s Counterattack, and he and Amuro resume their rivalry, this time seemingly finishing each other off as their Psycoframe equipped suits overload, leaving both men MIA and presumed dead at the end. However, as of Gundam Unicorn, it seems part of Char is still around, emerging as Full Frontal. The conclusion of Unicorn sees the original Gundam Newtypes are reunited in spirit form, and Char, Lalah, and Amuro seemingly reconcile, ready to finally fade away.

2. Frieza (Dragon Ball Z / Dragon Ball Super)

While Goku had faced numerous powerful foes in both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Frieza may be the most iconic and infamous foe, cementing the series as a fan favorite and introducing fans to Super Saiyan Goku, having pushed the fighter to his limits. Frieza is one of the deadliest foes Goku ever meets, and a truly despicable and selfish person, concerned only with achieving immortality and taking over the universe, or killing everyone in it! Goku eventually defeats Frieza, leaving him to potentially survive, until the selfish alien seemingly kills himself with his own desperate final attack. However, when things seem to have calmed down on Earth, Frieza (now cybernetically enhanced!) returns… only to be quickly cut down by Trunks!

Frieza appears a few times during the Majin Buu saga, but mostly as a commentator on the fight against Buu, and has been seemingly finally vanquished… until the movie Resurrection of F! Having escaped Hell, Frieza re-appears on Earth, and his new Golden Frieza form once again makes him an imposing foe. However, his usual failings cost him again, and is this time defeated by Vegeta and Goku. However, this would still not be the end for him, as the Universe Survival Saga sees Frieza return… as a good guy?! That’s right, sort of! Frieza agrees to help Goku in the Universe Survival Tournament on the condition that he get revived. In true Frieza fashion, it becomes hard to figure out what his intentions really are, but in the end he and Goku make an odd couple pairing that, with the help of Android 17, save the day (Frieza even sacrifices himself!). But, as of the closing scenes of Dragon Ball Super, Frieza probably hasn’t learned much, so it’s likely we’ll see him clashing with our heroes once again!

1. Dio  (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)

  If you already guessed the #1 spot on this list, congratulations! If you not, well, we won’t make that joke, but you probably know the one we mean! Sometimes a villain truly makes a series, and Dio is definitely that villain. While the heroes of JoJo’s various arcs are all great, they wouldn’t be half as compelling without the truly awful Dio to stand against. And even when Dio isn’t the central villain, his influence is lingering in the background. From his initial rise to immortality against Jonathan Joestar to eventually stealing the body of his hated rival to the revival of the Pillar Men brought on by people’s fascination with the Stone Masks to the return of Dio in Stardust Crusaders, Dio and the Joestars are forever linked in combat.

But even when the spotlight drifts from Dio in Diamond is Unbreakable, his machinations with the nature of Stands leads to the Arrow finding its way to Morioh-Cho and wreaking havoc as new stand users emerge! And, while they haven’t been animated yet, we’ll just simply say that Dio’s influence in the future JoJo storylines is not to be underestimated… When you least expect it, Dio might just strike again!

  Do you have any favorite seemingly immortal villains that heroes just can’t seem to get rid of? Let us know in the comments!

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Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known to profess her love of otome games over at her blog, Figuratively Speaking. When she has the time, she also streams some games. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries 

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[justgotham]

This year’s New York Comic Con panel for Gotham was more emotional than most. With one shortened season left, you can tell the actors feel like they’re leaving something special behind. Camren Bicondova especially spoke of how the cast has become like her family. She and David Mazouz have grown up on this show, and the adult actors have been a part of their lives. Even to the point where Chris Chalk helped Bicondova set up her health insurance. (Though Chalk protested that Bicondova made him sound like the oldest man in that sentence.) Gotham has come to mean a lot to this cast over the last five years, and they’re going to miss it just as much as we are.

But we’re here to get a glimpse of what the final season will look like. The answer: Very different from anything Gotham’s shown us before. The fifth season, premiering sometime in early 2019, contains multiple time jumps. As an adaptation of both the “No Man’s Land” and “Year Zero” arcs from the Batman comics, the finale will pick up more than a year after the events of Season Four. After establishing what Gotham becomes, it’ll jump back to a few months later to show how we got there. They’re really packing a lot into this 10-episode season of TV.

When we come into Season Five, the government has disavowed Gotham and left it to its own devices. Jim Gordon is maintaining a safe zone around the GCPD, and the major villains at play have divided the rest of the city into their own territories. Penguin is in full war profiteer form, controlling the munition supply in Gotham, selling to all sides. Barbara has used the Sirens to create a completely man-free zone in Gotham. Showrunner John Stephens said we’ll see her go through one more transformation before the series is over, and promised it would be fitting for the character. “Erin (Richards) is going to crush it. It’s uplifting and bloody,” he said.

The Riddler was one of the victims/culprits in a mutual stabbing between himself and Lee when we last left them. At the beginning of the season, Cory Michael Smith said, Ed Nygma is unsure of everything around him. That’s not an acceptable position to be in for him, so we’ll find him desperately searching for some kind of patter to explain how his world got the way it is. He eventually takes over his own territory, which Smith describes as “chillin’ in the library.” Stephens assured the audience it’s much more exciting than that.

The biggest question on everyone’s minds though is what happened to Selina. She met a tragic Killing Joke-inspired fate last season, and had to be rushed to a hospital outside of town while Bruce stayed behind. Bicondova says that sends her to a dark and suicidal place. “We find her in a place we’ve never seen her before. The Selina we’ve all known for the last four seasons goes completely out the window,” she said. “No longer is she this really tough strong person, but she’s this lonely, depressed young woman. Throughout the season, we see her struggle with that.” Bruce’s actions, it sounds like, won’t help much either. Mazouz said Bruce will have to decide what he’s willing to give up to get the old Selina back. And not everyone will like what he chooses.

Even with all that going on, the show will still find time to introduce new villains. That includes what Stephens referred to as their worst-kept secret: There is an episode titled “I Am Bane.” Warner Bros. is finally letting Gotham use one of Batman’s most iconic villains. By name, even. “We find if you ask and plead and beg enough, and they find out your show isn’t going on anymore, they let you do it,” Stephens said. Bane will have a different origin story on Gotham than fans have read in the comics, but it still leads to the same place. The cast also teased a confrontation with Alfred. Bane is going to break Alfred’s damn back.

He’s not even the only villain. Though Stephens repeatedly debunked the rumor that this season would introduce King Snake (that apparently was never in the plans), he teased another villain joining the fray. Jeremiah is getting a girlfriend. Assuming you know which Villain Jeremiah is, the identity of his girlfriend should be obvious, though they never came out and said the name. “He has a somewhat deranged girlfriend who dresses in a multicolored fashion. They don’t have a healthy relationship, but there’s a meeting of the minds. She hits people and she likes rollerskates,” Stephens said. It doesn’t get more obvious than that, puddin’.

With all these villains running around, it might sound like there’s no way Gotham City can be saved. That’s kind of the point. It can’t be, and it’s not going to be in these 10 episodes. That’s always been the nature of this show. Gotham tracks the downward spiral of the city, Mazouz said. It’s always been about how the city gets to a point where someone like Batman is needed. To that end, this season will also see Bruce meet his first bat and Stephens promised that it will end with another time jump. “The series finale takes place 10 years in the future, so we can have one character arrive,” Stephens said. “Someone with pointy ears… who’s not a villain.”

We spoke with the cast and crew after the panel, and Stephens told us exactly what it was like to wrap up this big violent story in only 10 episodes. “A lot of these [villains], when you only have 10 episodes, there are a lot of characters we wanted to bring in. We really wanted to do a Ventriloquist episode, but it just got squeezed out. We didn’t have time to get everything in.” he said. That’s a shame because I bet Gotham would have done a truly horrific take on the Ventriloquist. “We just got rid of a lot of stuff. Rather than trying to cram in everything we wanted. I kinda thought we’d get 16 (episodes). So I just kind of jetisonned a bunch of episodes… and really focused on what the core story was we were going to tell. So I don’t think it feels rushed right now.”

Stephens said they always knew the show would end with Bruce Wayne putting on the cowl. But the idea to adapt No Man’s Land for the final season came about in Season Three, though at that time they didn’t know which season would be the last. “When it looked like we might be on the bubble at the end of Season Four, I said, ‘well, let’s go ahead and blow the bridges at the end of Season Four to make it more of a cliffhanger so Fox might want to pick us up for another season,'” he said. Well, it worked.

One thing the cast spoke of a lot was how much they enjoyed shooting in New York City. While it’s true they live in Los Angeles, shooting Gotham in New York just felt right. Gotham, after all, is New York City. Donal Logue doesn’t even know what they would have done if they had shot in LA. “We shot in so many incredible locations, good and bad,” Logue said. “What’s amazing about New York is it’s not always thumbs up incredible, sometimes it’s tough and that’s Gotham. We shot in some very difficult places. We shot at a hospital in Staten Island for Arkham, and it’s still an active psychiatric hospital. I remember one night at about three in the morning, it was freezing. We were shooting outside and I looked up to the fifth story, and I saw a window and I saw this silhouette of a person watching us. It was just so stunning and heartbreaking. We shot in some heavy duty places. If I tell you the stories, they’re pretty dark.” It makes sense, since Gotham is a dark show on its own. It sounds like a lot of that had to do with the locations the scenes were shot in, and what was going on around the actors at the time.

One character who goes very dark this season is the Penguin. Earlier, it was teased that this season we’ll see the Penguin start to look more like the character we know from the comics, top hat, monocle and everything. Robin Lord Taylor told us a bit about the transformation. “It’s not like I haven’t been playing the legitimate Penguin, but there’s something about seeing him the way he’s been drawn in the comics… is so validating. It’s a stamp of approval and it’s an amazing responsibility we’re so excited to have,” he said.

Taylor teased that the costume isn’t the only way the Penguin of the show starts acting like the Penguin of the comics. “The story we’re telling is about how Gotham City corrupts these people and it destroys love. It literally destroys love. So when we go 10 years into the future, I want people to see the monster. I want them to see the supervillain. I want all the sympathy that people had to be erased, and I want him to be the supervillain we all know from the comic books. If you’ve read any of the more recent stories, he does some of the most vicious, awful things. You almost could not imagine this Penguin that I’m playing in Gotham to ever even conceive of some of the things he does in the comic books. But by the time we end, he will be that monster,” Taylor promised. His Penguin has done some pretty terrible things, but up to this point, he’s somehow remained scrappy and endearing. It’s going to be hard to watch that go away.

The final season of Gotham is going to be bittersweet for the cast and fans alike. We get to see everything we’ve been waiting for since Season One, but it’s hard to say goodbye to characters we’ve come to love and love to hate so much. At least it sounds like they’re going out with one hell of a party. The cast teased no end of surprising alliances as the citizens of Gotham try to survive after the government disavows the city. People who hate each other with a deadly passion will be forced to work together, and really that has always made for some of the show’s best moments. And yes, Cory Michael Smith confirmed that Penguin and the Riddler’s paths will cross again. Their relationship was by far my favorite part of the last season, so you know I’ll be glued to the couch.

[knowthatiloveyou]

Catherine Russell Interview for Diva Magazine June Edition

”WHEN IT COMES TO WHAT OUR BODIES LOOK LIKE, WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OURSELVES?”

When Catherine Russell announced her temporary departure from BBC medical soap Holby City, queer fans were in uproar. Together with Jemma Redgrave, she was half of the monumentally popular ship Berena – otherwise known as Major Bernie Wolfe (Redgrave) and Russell’s toughas- nails but impeccably stylish Serena Campbell. But while Serena was on a sabbatical, grieving the death of her daughter and making her beloved Shiraz in a French vineyard, Russell was delighting audiences in Joe Orton’s black comedy What The Butler Saw and taking a road trip around Europe. Now, Serena Campbell is back on the wards and about to be reunited with Bernie, but for how long? Catherine sat down with DIVA to talk feminism on the Holby wards, Serena’s coming out arc, and whether Bernie’s brief return to Holby means an end to Berena – or a whole new beginning.

“I’m very, very lucky in that Serena isn’t a one-trick pony… She’s not just the one canvas. So I get to do a bit of comedy sometimes. Sometimes I get to do a bit of angst with storylines like my mother having vascular dementia, and then the tragic storyline of Serena’s daughter dying. I get to do that. Then of course I get to do romance too.”

It’s the romance that totally hooked viewers to the already-popular soap. Serena and her leopard print scrubs were already established as a fan favourite, and then Jemma Redgrave brought her following from Doctor Who. The combination of two professional women in their 50s teaming up and supporting each other would have won audiences over even without the romance.

In fact, Holby now seems like a hotbed of feminism, which delights Russell. “When I first joined, there was basically me and Jac Naylor, and that was it really. Everybody else was either a nurse or an F1 (foundation doctor).

Now we’ve got a really fabulous strong team of women of a certain age, holding down positions of power and authority, and doing it really well. And also doing it without necessarily all bitching at each other. I’ve always said we mustn’t fall into the stereotype that because there are women in positions of power, they have to be competitive with each other. It’s just been done to death. I don’t believe it, I don’t buy it. That’s not what I see in my day-to-day life.”

Although she is back for good on the show – “That is if Holby want to keep me of course. Every year we have a new contract. It’s not a done deal, but if they do, I think I’d like to be there for a good few years to come yet” – Redgrave isn’t slated to return beyond the few episodes they have in the can. Which sounds a bit ominous for our favourite queer lady surgeons, right? “Basically Bernie comes back as a surprise, wanting to persuade Serena that it’s time for her to go back out and help set up the new trauma unit. Which needs two heads because it’s so huge. That’s essentially where we’re at, and Serena wasn’t expecting her at that point.”

Although the relationship has had to take place offscreen since Serena’s return, the show’s writers have made a conscious effort to keep it alive. But how sustainable is that? “I think up to that point it’s been tricky. I think they’ve tried very hard to do this long-distance, and I’ve think they’ve probably succeeded better than most people do at it, because of the age they are really… But it’s not easy, and I think some of the communication where Bernie’s been has been difficult as well. It hasn’t been straightforward; there hasn’t been great phone signal and stuff like that.

“There’s absolute delight from Serena that suddenly she’s there, but she turns up on a day that’s extremely busy with a very difficult operation that has to be done. So it’s tricky. I think people will really like it because it’s two episodes, and it’s a real rollercoaster. It’s an emotional rollercoaster but I’m pretty sure that people will be very happy with its outcome.”

Hear that, Berena fans? We can all release that breath we’ve been holding. Probably. Either way, Russell was delighted to be working with Redgrave again. “You never can tell with another actor, even if it works, whether there’s that sort of extra spark that’s undefinable.

It’s difficult. It’s a bit like mercury, you think you’ve got it one minute and you can explain it, the next minute it’s gone. There’s a certain amount of extremely friendly rivalry insomuch as the old adage, that if you want to learn how to play better tennis, well, play with somebody who’s a bit better than you. I think that quite often that’s part of the reason we work well together – because she’ll do a bit in a scene and I’ll think, ‘Bloody hell, that’s good. Ok, better up my game’. Then she’ll look at me and go, ‘Oh, I see. That’s good, I’d better up my game then…’ But there is also the air between the two of us that is difficult to explain. There is definitely something chemistry-wise that works.”

”WE’RE CONSTANTLY TOLD BUYING THINGS WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY. IT WON’T. IT’S BULLSHIT”

Although this isn’t Russell’s first time locking lips with a woman onscreen – she played Rachel in lush wartime period drama The Cazalets in the 1990s – the plot line quickly transformed her into a lesbian icon and she’s since appeared with Redgrave on the convention circuit to the delight of fans. Was she surprised by the way fans embraced the relationship?

“It would be disingenuous of me to say that I wasn’t. I was surprised at the strength of feeling, and I was surprised by the numbers. That’s just my ignorance more than anything else. I hadn’t really clocked how bad gay representation is, particularly for women. I have to put my hands up to that. So I hadn’t really understood quite how impassioned and important it was going to be. But as soon as I did, I was delighted.”

She’s determined to use her platform, both on social media and on Holby itself to talk about issues that affect women, particularly older women. “I’m slightly banging my drum at the moment, saying we should do a storyline about menopause, because that’s another thing. You turn the television on, you listen to radio drama, anything. It’s not there. 50% of the population are going to go through this and there are no stories about it. It’s very bizarre. So I do think that issues that aren’t seen and aren’t written about, and there’s a great chunk of the population that are going through certain issues, are vitally important.”

In a profession where women are constantly told they need to look young in order to work, Russell surprised viewers when she returned from her hiatus with grey hair. “I knew I had the nine months off. I knew I would need a wig for What The Butler Saw. I knew nobody would give a monkey’s what I looked like in a van. So I cut it all off, really short, just before I went into the play and I just let it grow out. I’ve been dyeing my hair since I was 28. I had no idea what was under there. I quite like it. When I came back to Holby I think that the producers were a bit…ok, really? Grey? But when I showed it to them, they liked it. At the moment, that’s where it’s staying.

“I really just don’t get the obsession with trying to look younger than you are. I get being thin, I get being fit, I get not wanting to have spots. I get all that, but the obsession with wanting to look younger, I find curious and I don’t really get it. I don’t want to have any more children, why do I want to look like I’m fertile still? It would be weird.”

She’s also passionate about a subject near to the hearts of many LGBT women – vaginas. A Twitter defence of the “full 1970’s bush” a few years ago is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her one-woman crusade to normalise women’s pubic hair. “I think it’s there for a reason, you know? It’s healthy, it’s good for you, it should be there. The porn industry has a lot to answer for when it comes to what our bodies look like, in terms of hair and the whole designer vagina area of things. Again, really? What are we doing to ourselves? Come on, people. It’s very strange.”

Her current reading is The Wonder Down Under: A User’s Guide To The Vagina, and when she says she’s thinking about buying copies to leave on public transport, you don’t get the sense that she’s joking. “My daughter read it and she thought it was quite academic. I said, ‘Well, good’.

‘Medical’ was the word she used [and] that’s exactly what people need. For young women and young men, there are so many myths and notions of what’s normal and not normal out there. Actually, what we need are a few facts.”

Although Russell confesses she enjoys the fame that Holby brings – “If you’re going to be an actor, you can’t be cross if somebody wants to come up and say, ‘We really like watching you, please could you sign this photograph?’ It’s part and parcel, and it’s fun” – she’s refreshingly unstarry. Three months spent travelling around Europe with her husband in a van saw her embracing a minimalist lifestyle she’s reluctant to let go of.

“That was absolutely one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever done. It really, really was, and if anybody has the opportunity, take it. Those moments in your life don’t come along very often, and it was absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and has stayed with me a huge amount.

Not least of which because I realised that we don’t need a hell of a lot of stuff. We think we do, and we think it’s important. We’re constantly being told to buy things, and it’ll make you happy if you own this dress or that pair of shoes. It won’t. It’s bullshit, and actually I could have done it for longer. Coming back to a house with all the stuff in it was difficult because I’d just spent three months never wearing make-up, never putting a brush through my hair really. Just having three sets of clothes to change into. It was just great. I loved it.”

So are we going to lose Russell to the road – or, after her hilarious turn in What The Butler Saw, the stage? Not likely, she says. “I had forgotten how arse-wettingly terrifying live theatre is, as I hadn’t been on stage for about five years. It’s a bit like having a baby. You hear people have a baby and they go, ‘I’m never doing that again’. Two years later they’re going, ‘Oh I’m going to have another’.

Have they forgotten? I think theatre’s a bit like that. You forget that it’s frightening and it’s hard work and all of those things. I do love to make people laugh, and so to hear an audience laughing at something you’ve said or done, or a turn of the head, was gratifying to say the least. But I didn’t get to the end of it and think, ‘Right that’s it. I must be on the stage forever, I’ve made a clanging error in agreeing to go back to Holby’. At all. In fact, I thought ‘Well that’s that itch scratched for a while. Jolly good, get me back to the hospital please.’”

So there you have it – Holby City won’t be saying goodbye to Serena Campbell any time soon. Russell is tight-lipped about how that will ultimately affect Berena, but it’s hard not to be glad that the formidable surgeon will be stalking the wards for a long time to come.

Still, if she ever decides to take her feminist politics to a bigger platform, she’s got our vote.

[casualarsonist]

Shorties - Spider-Man (PS4)

Take one part Arkham City, one part Watch Dogs 2, one part Grand Theft Auto IV. Blend well. Bake for roughly two years, and you’ve got Spiderman for PS4. Is it a good game? Yes. Is it a great game? Possibly. Does it do a single thing that hasn’t been done before? Not a damn one. But if you consider Marvel’s habit of releasing reasonably consistent, enjoyable films that lack a single original bone in their body, you can quite clearly see the cloth from which Spider-Man has been cut. For what it’s worth I enjoyed this game far more than I enjoy any of their movies, but that doesn’t change the fact that the game itself is hugely derivative. There’s not going to be a lot to this experience that you won’t have indulged elsewhere, and perhaps enjoyed more, but I don’t think that should overshadow all the things Spider-Man gets right.

The Webbed One is one of the biggest comic book characters that I’ve never had a particular interest in, and despite being one of Marvel’s most well-known superheroes, he seems to be one of the only main-line Marvel icons that hasn’t been treated particularly well by media outside the comics. His movies are largely tat, the TV shows largely forgettable, and his games range from fairly good to outright poor. I’m not sure what it is - the difficult balance of tone, or his rather inconsistent and sometimes goofy skills, but the man in the bright red leotard has always come off more a figure of ridicule than a lot of his contemporaries. What Spider-Man the 2018 game shows us is that, when given a decent writer, and the technology to properly bring to life his abilities, Peter Parker becomes quite a thrilling character to watch. Yeah, he’s a goofball whose jokes are a little too in-your-face, and yeah most of his emotional turmoil is wrought upon himself by his own juvenile emotionality, but he’s so...different...from so many of the others. He’s the antithesis of Batman with his youth and his eternal light-heartedness. He’s brilliant like Tony Stark, but completely lacks the means to finance his pursuits, and regularly suffers from the fact that saving the city is pro-bono work. He LOVES his hometown, and unlike many superheroes who protect primarily out of a sense of duty, he does it out of a genuine adoration for the city he lives in, and the people in it. And this is all translated so well by the game - through the writing, through the acting, and through the mechanics. Swooping around New York City is an absolute joy - I think I only fast traveled a handful of times, and only because you get an achievement for doing so. NYC is large, but not so large that webslinging becomes cumbersome, and the act itself is so fun, especially as you get a hang of his skills, that the act of *traveling* becomes one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. That’s unheard of in an open world game.

On top of that, Peter and his family and colleagues are, for the largest part, a well-rounded and likable group of people. Even the villains - well-known or otherwise - are entertaining to witness, despite only having a handful of scenes cumulatively. Taking place eight years after taking on the Spider-Mantle (ayyyy), Peter works in a lab with his mentor Otto Octavius. In this incarnation, Otto is a brilliant scientist, but stricken by a degenerative motor neuron disorder. This inspires his tireless and dedicated efforts to develop dextrous artificial limbs that can be controlled by thought - not ‘as good’ as real limbs, but better. When Otto’s former friend and now-rival Norman Osborn confiscates some of Otto’s work and sets him back at square one, Otto is struck by a frustrated vengeance that precipitates his downfall. It’s a compelling story, and a superbly acted and animated one to boot. The characters look photorealistic a times, and together with some excellent performances from skilled voice actors, including that of prolific Spider-Man voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, the stories of the characters are brought to life in as true a fashion as any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. You might not notice as you fly around the world, but many of the lines delivered by Lowenthal have been recorded twice - once for when you’re standing around while he delivers them, and once for when Spider-Man is exerting himself. Yeah, they recorded the dialogue twice, so that it would sound different if Spider-Man is in transit. It’s something they didn’t need to do, but once you notice it, you realise that you couldn’t live without it. Details like this indicate a serious dedication on the part of the creative team to make a game that is greater than the sum of its parts, which is really one of the main reasons Spider-Man lives to be a success story rather than a disappointing footnote. 

It cannot be understated how derivative it is - Horizon: Zero Dawn caught flack for failing to reinvent the wheel, and yet Spider-Man has garnered nothing but praise despite being a far-greater offender when it comes to regurgitating cliche mechanics. Offsetting this, however, is the fact that it makes an effort to scatter its content - releasing it upon the player piecemeal, rather than vomiting markers all over the map from the get-go like the Assassin’s Creed series. It takes a break every couple of story missions in order to let the player indulge the side content, and when all that side content is done, it won’t give you more until you complete the next few missions. This simple factor makes the environment of Spider-Man feel as if it’s responding to the story, rather than the story simply occurring within the environment, and this ties the entire experience - gameplay and mechanics - together as one long reciprocal arc as opposed to leaving it feeling like the static sandbox that it could otherwise have easily turned into. But the same ol’ fatigue did set in once or twice during my 20-odd hours of play. The game is riddled with tired open-world sandbox tropes that might have killed it, had they not just been ever-so-slightly tweaked in the way that they have been. 

And I suppose that this goes to show just how little effort it can take to separate a tired release from a lauded one. Spider-Man does have a lot more going for it than this one thing - the writing, visuals, and mechanics, as mentioned, are all top-notch for the most part - but had the rest of the game more closely mirrored some of the more lackluster open-world games, then it would almost certainly have taken the entire product down a few notches on everyone’s list. In short, Spider-Man for PS4 is no game-changer, and if you’re even the slightest bit over the typical open-world formula, then you’ll feel the familiar pangs of weariness at certain times, but these feelings appear only as a shadow of what they might otherwise have been. The game’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, and while the best of the Arkham series still trumps this game in terms of overall quality and relevance in pushing forwards the superhero genre, you’ll certainly get your money’s worth here. 

8/10

[acsversace-news]

It’s one of those events that happened if you’re old enough to know where you were when Gianni Versace was murdered on the steps of his South Beach villa in Miami. Ryan Murphy takes us back to 1990’s Miami and explores what drove Andrew Cunanan to murder one of fashion’s most iconic designers in his latest series, American Crime Story: Versace. We explored his childhood, but the road that led to the murder. Along the way, we meet David Madison, a young architect, his whole life ahead of him, but then fate leads him to Cunanan who eventually murders the young man.

Actor Cody Fern talks about getting the phone call for the role, how Madison was perceived at the time and working on a Ryan Murphy production in a role that’s shining a much-warranted spotlight on the Australian actor. If you haven’t seen the series, the show aired on FX and can be streamed for all to see. Fern shines brightly in the series, pay attention because you might not know the name now, but you will very soon.

What was it like walking on to the Versace set for the first time?

It’s a little bit mindblowing, even still. I idolized Ryan and his work for such a long time, especially how he conducts himself as a human being and giving back to community stories that need to be told.

I got the phone call that I was going to be on the show and started screaming because it’s beyond your wildest comprehension. It’s this dream you hope of as an actor, but to get the phone call and to hear you’re going to work with Ryan is overwhelming. Arriving on set, the entire production was so precise and was so well researched by Maureen and then Tom and the team around it. Ryan picks the very best people to work with and they’re so meticulous and so knowledgeable.

I got to play David, he’s such an interesting human being, not just because of his tragic death, but the life he had been living before. I think that’s what the series deals with. He’s a very successful architect and this intelligent guy who is so compassionate. The police actually found presents in his house that were for Christmas. He had bought these gifts months in advance for his nephews, that’s the kind of guy he was. So, I felt a real sense of responsibility to that. I think with this series in particular because it threw people for a six because it’s not just about the Versace family, but the real purpose was to jump into this world that we didn’t know about these four men who were not as famous as Gianni Versace but were equally as important, who had value and their lives were cut short by this man, Andrew Cunanan.

It started with excitement and then it moved into the heavyweight. Arriving on set and knowing that everyone was at the top of their game and knowing that everyone was going to trust me to do what I was going to be doing which was so dark and so complex and complicated. It was a real work out as an actor. To also have Darren Criss who is so dynamic and such a surprising actor. I’d seen him in Glee but what he did in Versace was so layered and complex.

Your character was an interesting character, but also complex. How do you craft David when there’s not so much on him?

The first thing that is important to know, Tom Rob Smith is such a phenomenal writer. If I ever felt lost, I’d go back into the script and you don’t have far to fall if you’re being propped up by Tom. Obviously, there’s Maureen’s book, but really the jumping off point for David was, “Why didn’t he run? Why didn’t he stop the murder of Jeff?”  It was really more about the former and that’s where I started to construct everything from.

At the time and with the homophobia of the time and how the police were investigating it, they saw David as a perpetrator. It’s very interesting about what happens when your best friend is murdered right in front of you and stabbed 27 times with a hammer in your apartment by your ex-lover and someone who has been a friend for many years. At this point in time, their friendship had been worn down. Friends and family say he was very compassionate and had a religious background, so these things began to fill in for me as a character who comes from compassion first and foremost. What we were exploring in the series is the shame that gay men carry around and how that shame manifests itself, particularly in this period fo time. That’s a dangerous cocktail because what I learned in playing David was that his compassion knew no bound and he really believed that Andrew was redeemable, even after that horrific act. He believed if they got to the authorities then everything would be alright. Of course, your personality goes out the window when something like that happens. The horror of the media was that they were painting him as someone who was involved in the crime and when you see something like that, your body shuts down. There’s this gay shame he’s carrying around and he doesn’t fit into society and society views him very differently. He must somehow be involved and there’s something sick about him.

One of the police officers in the media stated it was far more likely and it makes far more sense that Andrew and David conspired to commit the crime because gay men have had to hide in the closet for so long. They’re all inclined to dark and psychopathic actions and how that must have affected him growing up.

He was a fascinating character to watch and his arc. Was he fascinating to explore?

Endlessly fascinating. It’s hard to say I had a great time playing him because what happened was so dark. It was a very difficult time but it was very rich. We knew that this show was going to skew towards the victims and that was really important to see and that we were going to see their lives and who they were. To see how Andrew and David fell in love, to see how he had hopes and dreams. In episode four, the death for David, what was most interesting in playing that was how you build a character as an actor and what happens when everything changes in one moment. Jeff is murdered and everything that David has ever known is different. Whoever he thinks he is goes out the window and it becomes about survival. He’s been dogged by gay shame and he’s been hiding his whole life. He has one act and one final act of courage, he grabs the steering wheel and he’s going to stand up. There’s only one way that can go. What it must have been like to mediate Andrew at every step of the way and to know that at any moment he could be killed or anyone else could be killed. To be in public and you’re hiding. In the diner, they’re in there’s this fear. What’s interesting is that it’s not far off from what he would have been feeling as a gay man in that period of time.

I want to see you back on another Ryan show.

So would I

What did you learn from being on a Ryan Murphy set?

First and foremost, so much is said about Ryan as a genius and the word genius is really thrown around these days for anyone who has a hit of any kind. It should be reserved for Ryan. It incorporates something other than stereotypical interpretations. Not enough is said about how kind, how generous and how loyal he is. What I learned the most was not about acting, but it’s about family. The people he has picked and the relationships that he has cultivated. It inspires everybody to dig deeper and to push harder and to be better. There’s this real sense of trust from hair and makeup to the gaffers. Everyone is really together and you’re all ware you’ve been chosen by Ryan to be a part of his family. That means you all band together and you give everything and every moment your all. I think that show.

It’s the director, the crew and everyone is there to do the very best they can for this story. That was really inspiring to come away from. Ryan oversees it all and that’s really touching.

As a viewer, it was dark and sticks with you. Was it easy to shed David?

This was not easy to shed, there was a lot of residue. It depends on how you work as an actor. I try to make a clear distinction as to what my work and my home are. For me, my work is my life. IT’s where I’m most engaged in. With David, the mind knows one thing. The mind knows I’m playing this, this is what’s happening. The body doesn’t., there was a lot of fear, guilt, shame and anxiety. For the most part, there were terrible feelings and it took me a good couple of months to shed that. Also leaving that family behind. I just caught up with everyone at the Pose premiere in New York, to see everyone and to see us all band together was such a special feeling. I will say it shouldn’t be easy to shed the residue of what I went through. Getting`to know David was one of the greatest gifts of my life. To bring him back to life and to say he was here and had value and he mattered, that felt great.

Next we’ll see you in House of Cards. Going from Ryan Murphy into Claire Underwood’s dark world. How is that experience?

It’s been playing longer than I’ve been an actor. I started watching it and knew I had to be on that show. That and Ryan Murphy. I feel like I’m in a weird science fiction world, but again, it was incredibly different. The pace and rhythm have been different. The energy was always uplifting. Everyone is so excited to get behind Robin. It was great. The writers on that show are some of the best on TV. Stepping into the world of Claire Underwood was a real treat.

[anagamitofotografia]

News and important updates on POS System Equipment & POS.

Scenes from The Searchers (1956), starring John Wayne and set during the Texas-Indian Wars. The film is considered one of the most influential Westerns ever made.  

“It just so happens we be Texicans,” says Mrs. Jorgensen, an older woman wearing her blond hair in a tight bun, to rough-and-tumble cowboy Ethan Edwards in the 1956 film The Searchers. Mrs. Jorgensen, played by Olive Carey, and Edwards, played by John Wayne, sit on a porch facing the settling dusk sky, alone in a landscape that is empty as far as the eye can see: a sweeping desert vista painted with bright orange Technicolor. Set in 1868, the film lays out a particular telling of Texas history, one in which the land isn’t a fine or good place yet. But, with the help of white settlers willing to sacrifice everything, it’s a place where civilization will take root. Nearly 90 years after the events depicted in the film, audiences would come to theaters and celebrate those sacrifices. 

“A Texican is nothing but a human man way out on a limb, this year and next. Maybe for 100 more. But I don’t think it’ll be forever,” Mrs. Jorgensen goes on. “Someday this country’s going to be a fine, good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.” 

There’s a subtext in these lines that destabilizes the Western’s moral center, a politeness deployed by Jorgensen that keeps her from naming what the main characters in the film see as their real enemies: Indians. 

In the film, the Comanche chief, Scar, has killed the Jorgensens’ son and Edwards’ family, and abducted his niece. Edwards and the rest of Company A of the Texas Rangers must find her. Their quest takes them across the most treacherous stretches of desert, a visually rich landscape that’s both glorious in its beauty and perilous given the presence of Comanche and other Indigenous people. In the world of the Western, brutality is banal, the dramatic landscape a backdrop for danger where innocent pioneers forge a civilization in the heart of darkness.

The themes of the Western are embodied by figures like Edwards: As a Texas Ranger, he represents the heroism of no-holds-barred policing that justifies conquest and colonization. While the real Texas Rangers’ history of extreme violence against communities of color is well-documented, in the film version, these frontier figures, like the Texas Rangers in The Searchers or in the long-running television show The Lone Ranger, have always been portrayed as sympathetic characters. Edwards is a cowboy with both a libertarian, “frontier justice” vigilante ethic and a badge that puts the law on his side, and stories in the Western are understood to be about the arc of justice: where the handsome, idealized male protagonist sets things right in a lawless, uncivilized land. 

The Western has long been built on myths that both obscure and promote a history of racism, imperialism, toxic masculinity, and violent colonialism. For Westerns set in Texas, histories of slavery and dispossession are even more deeply buried. Yet the genre endures. Through period dramas and contemporary neo-Westerns, Hollywood continues to churn out films about the West. Even with contemporary pressures, the Western refuses to transform from a medium tied to profoundly conservative, nation-building narratives to one that’s truly capable of centering those long victimized and villainized: Indigenous, Latinx, Black, and women characters. Rooted in a country of contested visions, and a deep-seated tradition of denial, no film genre remains as quintessentially American, and Texan, as the Western, and none is quite so difficult to change.

*

With origins in the dime and pulp novels of the late 19th century, the Western first took to the big screen in the silent film era. The Great Train Robbery, a 1903 short, was perhaps the genre’s first celluloid hit, but 1939’s Stagecoach, starring Wayne, ushered in a new era of critical attention, as well as huge commercial success. Chronicling the perilous journey of a group of strangers riding together through dangerous Apache territory in a horse-drawn carriage, Stagecoach is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential Westerns of all time. It propelled Wayne to stardom.

During the genre’s golden age of the 1950s, more Westerns were produced than films of any other genre. Later in the 1960s, the heroic cowboy character—like Edwards in The Searchers—grew more complex and morally ambiguous. Known as “revisionist Westerns,” the films of this era looked back at cinematic and character traditions with a more critical eye. For example, director Sam Peckinpah, known for The Wild Bunch (1969), interrogated corruption and violence in society, while subgenres like spaghetti Westerns, named because most were directed by Italians, eschewed classic conventions by playing up the dramatics through extra gunfighting and new musical styles and creating narratives outside of the historical context. Think Clint Eastwood’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966).

The Great Train Robbery (1903), a short silent film, was perhaps the first iconic Western.

In the wake of the anti-war movement and the return of the last U.S. combat forces from Vietnam in 1973, Westerns began to decline, replaced by sci-fi action films like Star Wars (1977). But in the 1990s, they saw a bit of rebirth, with Kevin Costner’s revisionist Western epic Dances With Wolves (1990) and Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992) winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards. And today, directors like the Coen brothers (No Country for Old Men, True Grit) and Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Wind River, Sicario) are keeping the genre alive with neo-Westerns set in modern times.

Still, the Old West looms large, says cultural critic and historian Richard Slotkin. Today’s Western filmmakers know they are part of a tradition and take the task seriously, even the irreverent ones like Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino called Django Unchained (2012) a spaghetti Western and, at the same time, “a Southern.” Tarantino knows that the genre, like much of American film, is about violence, and specifically racialized violence: The film, set in Texas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, flips the script by putting the gun in the hand of a freed slave. 

Slotkin has written a series of books that examine the myth of the frontier and says that stories set there are drawn from history, which gives them the authority of being history. “A myth is an imaginative way of playing with a problem and trying to figure out where you draw lines, and when it’s right to draw lines,” he says. But the way history is made into mythology is all about who’s telling the story. 

Slotkin’s work purports that the logic of westward expansion is, when boiled down to its basic components, “regeneration through violence.” Put simply: Kill or die. The very premise of the settling of the West is genocide. Settler colonialism functions this way; the elimination of Native people is its foundation. It’s impossible to talk about the history of the American West and of Texas without talking about violent displacement and expropriation. 

“The Western dug its own hole,” says Adam Piron, a film programmer at the Sundance Indigenous Institute and a member of the Kiowa and Mohawk tribes. In his view, the perspectives of Indigenous people will always be difficult to express through a form tied to the myth of the frontier. Indigenous filmmakers working in Hollywood who seek to dismantle these representations, Piron says, often end up “cleaning somebody else’s mess … And you spend a lot of time explaining yourself, justifying why you’re telling this story.”

While the Western presents a highly manufactured, racist, and imperialist version of U.S. history, in Texas, the myth of exceptionalism is particularly glorified, perpetuating the belief that Texas cowboys, settlers, and lawmen are more independent, macho, and free than anywhere else. Texas was an especially large slave state, yet African Americans almost never appear in Texas-based Westerns, a further denial of histories. In The Searchers, Edwards’ commitment to the white supremacist values of the South is even stronger than it is to the state of Texas, but we aren’t meant to linger on it. When asked to make an oath to the Texas Rangers, he replies: “I figure a man’s only good for one oath at a time. I took mine to the Confederate States of America.” The Civil War scarcely comes up again.

The Texas Ranger is a key figure in the universe of the Western, even if Ranger characters have fraught relationships to their jobs, and the Ranger’s proliferation as an icon serves the dominant Texas myth. More than 300 movies and television series have featured a Texas Ranger. Before Chuck Norris’ role in the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger (1993-2001), the most famous on-screen Ranger was the titular character of The Lone Ranger (1949-1957). Tonto, his Potawatomi sidekick, helps the Lone Ranger fight crime in early settled Texas. 

Meanwhile, the Ranger’s job throughout Texas history has included acting as a slave catcher and executioner of Native Americans. The group’s reign of terror lasted well into the 20th century in Mexican American communities, with Rangers committing a number of lynchings and helping to dispossess Mexican landowners. Yet period dramas like The Highwaymen (2019), about the Texas Rangers who stopped Bonnie and Clyde, and this year’s ill-advised reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger on the CW continue to valorize the renowned law enforcement agency. There is no neo-Western that casts the Texas Ranger in a role that more closely resembles the organization’s true history: as a villain.

The Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men (2007) ushered in the era of neo-Westerns set in modern times.

Ushered in by No Country for Old Men (2007), also set in Texas, the era of neo-Westerns has delivered films that take place in a modern, overdeveloped, contested West. Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan’s projects attempt to address racialized issues around land and violence, but they sometimes fall into the same traps as older, revisionist Westerns—the non-white characters he seeks to uplift remain on the films’ peripheries. In Wind River (2017), the case of a young Indigenous woman who is raped and murdered is solved valiantly by action star Jeremy Renner and a young, white FBI agent played by Elizabeth Olsen. Sheridan’s attempt to call attention to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women still renders Indigenous women almost entirely invisible behind the images of white saviors.

There are directors who are challenging the white male gaze of the West, such as Chloé Zhao, whose recent film Nomadland dominated the 2021 Academy Award nominations. In 2017, Zhao’s film The Rider centered on a Lakota cowboy, a work nested in a larger cultural movement in the late 2010s that highlighted the untold histories of Native cowboys, Black cowboys, and vaqueros, historically Mexican cowboys whose ranching practices are the foundation of the U.S. cowboy tradition. And Concrete Cowboy, directed by Ricky Staub and released on Netflix in April, depicts a Black urban horse riding club in Philadelphia. In taking back the mythology of the cowboy, a Texas centerpiece and symbol, perhaps a new subgenre of the Western is forming.

Despite new iterations, the Western has not been transformed. Still a profoundly patriotic genre, the Western is most often remembered for its classics, which helped fortify the historical narrative that regeneration through violence was necessary for the forging of a nation. In Texas, the claim made by Mrs. Jorgensen in The Searchers remains a deeply internalized one: The history of Texas is that of a land infused with danger, a land that required brave defenders, and a land whose future demanded death to prosper. 

In Westerns set in the present day, it feels as if the Wild West has been settled but not tamed. Americans still haven’t learned how to live peacefully on the land, respect Indigenous people, or altogether break out of destructive patterns of domination. The genre isn’t where most people look for depictions of liberation and inclusion in Texas. Still, like Texas, the Western is a contested terrain with an unclear future. John Wayne’s old-fashioned values are just one way to be; the Western is just one way of telling our story.   

This article was first provided on this site.

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[commercialvehiclelights]

3 Different Types of Headlights for Your Commercial Vehicle

Summary:                                                          

Headlights are the beam of vehicles that helps to make sure you don’t crash into a tree on a dark night. And they are particularly complex but it is well worth knowing your way around them should ever need to change a blown bulb. In this article, we will discuss some different types of headlight bulbs.

Body:

Headlights has come a long way, And because, automobiles have advanced, so has vehicle lighting. Today, vehicles obviously travel at much faster than earlier and the people’s downward visibility needed to be improved. And nowadays there are so many types of options are available when it comes to headlamps.

So much so that automotive owner picks headlights based on their added aesthetic to their vehicles. It is ideal to find one of the best viable vehicle lighting suppliers for buying the best quality of truck headlight bulbs in UK, or wherever you live. Apart from good look, there is not clear responding as to why you should one type over the others. Below, take a look at how different styles of headlights work and some of their distinct advantages.

1. Halogen

Halogen headlights are an improvement of incandescent lights that are still used for classic vehicles. So, halogen has truly taken over as the standard in the most of the vehicles. Halogens are basically monovalent elements that are readily formed negative icons. It uses a combination of iodide and bromine gases, which prevent the tungsten filament from breaking. And it also helps to prevent suit formation inside the bulb.

These types of lights produce a lot of heat as electricity flows through the filament and lights up the bulb. The heat production makes handling halogen bulbs quite difficult.

Advantage of Halogen Bulbs:

*  Cost of manufacturing these lights are relatively low that means they are cheaper compared to others.

*  Colour temperature of these bulbs around 3,000K that result in a yellow hue.

2.  Xenon, HID, Arc

Xenon or high intensity discharge light doesn’t use a metal filament for creating light. It creates a high voltage arc between two electrodes. The HID lights are filled with xenon gas and because the xenon gas ignites it produces a bright white light. While, for the lights to come to full brightness, it needs time for warming up. After warming up they are quite bright.

*  It produces brighter light around 3,000 lumens.

* It has a lifetime around 2,000 hours.

* It can take a bit to warm up.        

* And these lights can be expensive.

 3.  LED

LED or light emitting diode is one of the most popular in newer vehicles. These retrofitting LED headlights are also very easy and their upgrade only takes 30 minutes. These types of lights work by converting electricity into light through diode inside the headlight that is known as electroluminescence. It is also more energy efficient compared to halogen as little to no heat is created. It means the lights are able to last a lot longer.

It also lasts longer and the intensity of its light is stronger that means the download visibility is increased and you are safer on the road.

Conclusion:

As it stands, the above are some of the most popular lights on the market. You can find a reliable commercial vehicle lights supplier to buy the best quality of truck headlight bulbs in UK, or elsewhere.

About The Author:

The author is associated with a commercial vehicle light provider that has high-quality side marker light for trucks, cars, and many other vehicles. The company is also known as one of the best suppliers of truck headlight bulbs in UK that provides a wide range of bulbs and light at reasonable prices keeping the type of vehicles in mind.

For more info visit at: https://commercialvehiclelights.com/

[utopianparadoxist]

Part #1: Flight of the Movie & Anime References

This section is pretty much setup for the next three essays. There’s a couple sections here that I have a fair bit to say about, but probably just as many where I’ll close out with some minor observations, or reference to someone else’s Good Post(tm).

What I think is important is noting the consistency and similarity with which Homestuck engages in meaningful reference. I just want you to have this list in mind as I flesh out the three truly impactful references I want to talk about in this series. 

So here’s a short list of cases where Homestuck outright leans on other stories to structure itself, with accompanying references:

1) The Game Over Arc - Plot Structure & Dragon Ball Z

We’re starting with Dragon Ball Z because the references here are relatively simple and straightforward, and they largely set up either pretty clear structural parallels, rather than thematic ones. 

The clearest of these examples is the section of the story that begins with the joke Arquius makes above. In case you don’t know, the “over 9000″ meme has its roots in this iconic, hilarious sequence from DBZ:

What’s notable is what follows. From the moment this joke happens, the very structure of Homestuck changes to following the loose structure of some of the most memorable DBZ arcs.

I’m no buff on the series, but the memories it calls up for me most strongly resemble the Namek/Freeza or Buu arcs, and expert DBZ consultant @alotofmomos (who hates me for writing this) confirms these are the arcs that most perform the particular structure Homestuck will now be mimicking. 

And what does that structure consist of? A particular mix of “pacing” choices, cinematography, and sheer scale of spectacle that I find hard to source to anything but DBZ. I can’t even think of other Shonen series that mix all these elements in quite the same way, though again, I’m no expert.

Some of these elements are:

A) Drawn out, massive power-up sequences:

B) Conflicts that carry out on planetary scales, and indeed often destroy the planets hosting them. 

This pretty much speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Do I really have to say some stuff to make it look like I’m doing anything other than pointing out some obvious goddamn parallels that blew my mind because they took me years to notice?

Alright, fine. I’ll say this much: I think it’s quite fitting that Homestuck would borrow from the DBZ playbook for the section of the story that illustrates the sheer mind-boggling scale of power our protagonists have reached. 

There’s very few stories out there that demonstrate this sense of mortals achieving such bonkers dominion over reality through sheer force of will, and the homage certainly hammers home the idea that these kids are Gods with levels of power we’ve barely scratched the surface of. 

But I don’t think there’s a big Narrative Payoff to this particular reference. Instead, I think what Homestuck takes from this is functional in terms of narrative. Because the most interesting things this narrative model adopts are structural.

C) Convenient plot-structure.

Namely, what we end up with is a bunch of characters grouped into disparate conflicts across the same larger “playing field”, separated by considerable amounts of distance--and thus, isolating them into distinct narratives.

As a natural consequence of this, the pacing slows down to an excruciatingly slowness, as we cut from conflict to conflict, each one progressing in small snippets of minutes or even seconds at a time. All of this is par for the course for Dragon Ball Z, particularly in the Namek saga. 

So what this provides us with isn’t a profound, revelatory moment of thematic meaning--but instead, an effective backdrop on which to flesh out that meaning elsewhere. In fact, this very arc does that like twice with two other stories!

So let's move on from this and take a look at a couple of character arcs whose resolutions are telegraphed by way of reference.

2) Terezi as Dorothy 

I don’t have too much to add to this, but it’s useful because in the eyes of much of the fandom, it’s already accepted. Check out madchen’s excellent post on the subject here.

The bottom line is: Terezi janks Jade’s shoes, and adopts the role of Dorothy in Homestuck’s symbol logic. This leads her home--to Vriska and their memories of growing up together, and ultimately to embracing her red feelings for her. 

Terezi’s resolution is one of two relationships resolved in the wake of [S] Game Over. Let’s take a look at the other. 

3) Jake as Buttercup

Don’t have much to say about this one either, cause I already wrote most of it. I will say I don’t think it’s an accident that the arcs to coincide here are Dirkjake’s and Vrisrezi’s, since the two relationships are in many ways direct parallels. But that’s another essay for another time. 

I have received some rightful criticism on my writing on Jake in particular, and this is a good place to clarify my position, however. I do not think it’s particularly “Good” or “Healthy” for Jake to indulge his own desires at the expense of Dirk’s (or Jane’s) feelings. 

My point has never been that Jake’s selfish behavior is inherently good--merely that Jake’s reasons for being in love with Dirk are his own, and not imposed to him from Dirk himself, or anyone around him. 

As with all things in Homestuck, the key is for Jake to grapple with the negatives in himself and come to balance with the tension between his own wants and his relationships with others. This is true of literally everyone in Homestuck.

And there’s an easier way of saying what I am getting at. Because Homestuck literally gives us a guidebook to understanding Jake and Dirk’s relationships to each other, as parsed in Jake’s head--a guidebook that provides context to their entire relationship. 

Just as you can read Terezi as Dorothy, so too can you read Jake as Buttercup. This is the crucial distinction I seek to make. In common readings of Dirk and Jake’s relationship, Jake acquiesces to Dirk’s pushy forcing of the relationship despite Dirk’s control issues. 

In this one, Dirk is a flawed but committed provider and protector, and Jake picks up on and begins internalize a belief that Dirk will always be there for him, prompting him to fall for him. This reflects the fundamental core of their attraction to each other. It does not present a solution to their communication issues. They both have to work through that and be more aware of each other’s needs. 

Now, The Princess Bride is a comedy action-adventure movie, but it’s also a philosophical fairy tale. Buttercup and Westley aren’t just in love, they’re in True Love, and the driving force of the movie is how Westley’s love empowers him to do anything it takes for his beloved. 

What’s more interesting is Buttercup’s relationship to that same love, and how it reflects on Jake. Buttercup has to struggle to learn how to believe in True Love, even when it seems difficult or even impossible. Along the way, Buttercup is even forced into an arranged marriage, and seemingly forsakes her feelings for Westley to avoid the consequences of being honest, a choice she then tortures herself over. 

A big part of her journey is learning to truly commit to not just Westley’s love for her, but her belief in that love as something both true and powerful. Something that can transcend all odds and obstacles. 

Which is. You know. Exactly what Jake does when he’s fully immersed in the power of his own faith. 

Now let’s move on, and note two more movie references that the comic makes outside of the context of this DBZ-mini arc.

4) Tavros as Peter Pan 

There’s not a terrible amount of depth to be drawn here, either. I think most people accept that Tavros is deliberately invoking Peter Pan in his narrative victory here, with the ghosts as his Lost Boys.  I will add, however, that if Peter Pan is the role Tavros is emulating in reaching his full potential, well...

Peter Pan isn’t exactly known for being Selfless, is he? He’s a hero, for sure, but self-centeredness is pretty much his calling card as a hero. To the point that Wikipedia claims that  

“In the play and book, Peter symbolizes the selfishness of childhood, and is portrayed as being forgetful and self-centered.” 

More fuel for the fire as far as my writing on Tavros as inherently self-centered in his building of the Ghost Army goes. Anyway, the fundamental reference is secured, right? I’m not really looking to make a Classpect argument here, I’m just compiling interesting notes. Let’s move on. 

5) Caliborn as Jigsaw

This one isn’t exactly subtle, either. I’ve already written quite a bit about how Lord English defines and dominates everything in the story of Homestuck, as have others.

Understanding Caliborn as a Yaldabaoth is one way to contextualize his power over the reality all the characters preside over, and we’ll definitely touch on that further in the next three sections I’ll be covering.

But one easy way to contextualize Lord English’s power is as...well...Jigsaw.

Like Jigsaw, Lord English builds a massive, highly controlled gauntlet that he exploits and terrorizes his victims through. The only difference is that Lord English’s dungeon is bigger than some creepy gray cellar. 

It is in fact, Literally Everything that occurs within the context of the Alpha Timeline. Every homeworld that every character originates from--except for, arguably, Beforus, which is still under his sway enough to be doomed, but also presented as borderline Eden-like by comparison to Alternia. 

While Yaldabaoth’s control seems very distant and abstract, Jigsaw’s is crystal clear and vicious. Everything the characters of SAW suffer is, ultimately, in the hands of the orchestrator of their misery. Their puppetmaster, so to speak. 

In the same sense, pretty much every single way the characters in Homestuck suffer has Lord English at the root of it--even the thing they do to themselves and each other as a result of cultural memes. 

Troll Violence, heteronormativity, quadrant normativity, and hypermasculinity--all are memetic structures that exist because Lord English himself disseminated them, in the context of Homestuck. They’re thought-traps rather than literal physical torture devices, but they’re torture tools all the same. 

And you can even see Jigsaw as a symbol for Lord English’s influence, since it is, after all, one of the primary differences setting apart Bro and Dirk. Dirk has no interest in the SAW franchise at all, whereas Bro makes a point of mocking Dave with it.  (thanks to @jadedresearcher for pointing this out, by the way!)

So yeah. Not only does SAW tell us a lot about the nature of Caliborn’s effect on our characters through the Alpha Timeline, it also acts as a mark for his influence. That’s...pretty much all there is to say on the matter.

For now.

That wraps up this little introductory round-up. Now I can get to talking about three of the biggest influences on Homestuck as a story: The Neverending Story (the book), Earthbound & Mother 3, and Gnostic Myth. Hope you’ll follow along with us over the next couple of weeks to find out more.

[Master Post]

[Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

Catch you on the flip side.

Keep rising. 

[comixconnection]

The Return of Elseworlds...?

If you’re familiar with DC Comics you’ll surely know that some of their greatest stories took place outside the continuity of their regular comics -- books like Kingdom Come or Gotham by Gaslight or Superman: Red Son spring to mind immediately! Well, today it’s time to talk about three new titles that may not technically bear the official “Elseworlds” designation, but which definitely fall within the scope of that idea...

First up we have Bombshells United:

This title spins-out of the original DC Bombshells series but with a new conceit: this time the fight is on -- and for -- the homefront as Wonder Woman joins plucky young heroines Donna, Cassie, and the mysterious Dawnstar in Arizona in 1943, just in time to put her foot down and stand against the forced internment of American citizens of Japanese descent. (And that’s not a metaphor! She really does put her foot down -- against tanks, no less!)

Trust me when I say that this is a clean jumping-on point; you don’t need to have read a single page of the previous DC Bombshells story to be able to open this new issue number one fresh and ready to fight! The premise is simple: it’s World War Two and the superheroes of the DC Universe are rising for the first time...and in this story, the heroines have taken center stage! There will be a lot of familiar faces over the course of the series I’m sure, but we start with the main event: Diana of Themyscira!

What better icon of freedom to remind America what it’s really fighting for? Of course, even for Wonder Woman a task like that won’t be easy; not only does she now have to fight for freedom against the very soldiers she was once allied with in the European front...but the soil itself hides a menace to their hopes!

That’s right, it’s time for the Bombshells to get down-and-dirty fighting Clayface and the whole ugly idea behind the camps, as they try to protect the people that the American government has given up on. Mind you, I don’t think Clayface has ever looked better; the artwork in this first arc has all been to die for: just the right combination of delicate linework and raw power, and well-grounded in the time period of the piece. The arrangement of panels and action is beautiful, making every individual page both a work of art as well as a part of the story.

Personally I enjoyed the original Bombshells series for the concept, but I thought it got a bit disjointed after a while and my interest waned; this time around everything feels more cohesive and planned-out, so for once I’m actually glad of a restart! Whether you’ve read the series before or are coming to the Bombshells Universe for the first time, this is genuinely a good story of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds; an excellent homage to the classic Golden Age Era with modern storytelling sensibilities and production quality. I hope it continues in this vein for a long time to come -- so get on board now, while you’ve only got three (beautiful) issues to catch-up on!

Next up, let’s look at Nightwing - The New Order:

This is a story that starts in our familiar continuity (or in something very similar to it, anyway) but takes a sharp and unpleasant left-hand turn when Dick Grayson, better known as Nightwing, the world’s first Robin, becomes convinced that superheroes are themselves a threat -- and, as befits a prodigy of Batman, he takes matters into his own hands to end that threat.

The story picks up twelve years after the pivotal divergence, with Dick now leading the Crusaders, a government task-force whose mission it is to locate, hunt down, and stop any remaining supers -- former heroes and villains alike! Powers that can be suppressed are managed with medicine, with doses carefully overseen by the agents of the Crusaders, and it seems the world really is a safer place at first glance...

But first glances never last in stories like these.

Just like Dick Grayson’s seemingly-idyllic home life (stressed by work, by being a single father, by trying to explain his past to a continually curious son, yes -- but he has a family, and that in and of itself might well merit the description of “idyllic” given all that’s come before for this one-time Robin in both this world and our own regular DC Universe) there are problems beneath the surface of Dick’s new, orderly world...some of them very close to home indeed.

The story and art do an excellent job of juggling the over-the-top realities of a superhero landscape with the grounded minutia of a more gritty, down-to-earth post-superhero reality. There are just enough heavy shadows to give the world a suitably oppressive air without miring the whole piece in darkness -- both literally in the artwork, and metaphorically in the story itself. The may be a miserable police state, but it’s not a world without hope...

...as Dick will soon prove to be very grateful for no doubt, as his life takes a turn that leaves him very much on unsteady-yet-familiar ground. Is it time to dust-off the tights and dig the mask out of the attic? Certainly it’s time to try and reconcile with old allies, and that’s sure to be difficult given that Dick betrayed all of them when he turned against the superpowered -- but will they be willing to overlook that for the sake of his son? And how far will Dick go to protect young Jake Grayson?

Only time will tell...but not too much time, because this world will be wrapped-up in one neat six-issue miniseries, so grab your copies of the first two issues now before they’re gone for good (just like all those superpowers...right?).

Last but not least, we have Gotham City Garage:

The newest of these three series, there’s only one issue to judge the story by so far, but what an issue it was! Maybe my expectations just weren’t high enough when I heard that DC was making a whole series off of their line of superheroes-on-motorcycles statues...but I think I would have been pleasantly surprised by this brilliant twist-on-the-myth storyline regardless.

We open with Kara Gordon (that’s right...I said Kara Gordon!) leaving her miserable job doing brain-coding for Governor Luthor and, of course, finding trouble waiting for her.

Kara’s attempt to both save the day and stay inside the lines of the status quo does not go as hoped, and the next thing she knows she’s coming home to find her dad, James Gordon, incoherently telling her to run away and find the sun -- incoherent, because everyone in this so-called “paradise” is programmed to be happy, whether they like it or not, and Jim stepped outside the bounds of his programming when he adopted Kara and his her past (and her potential) from everyone else...including Batman! Fortunately Kara listens to her dad and gets out from under the red son dome of the city for the first time of her life....

...and when she’s about to lose her life at the hands of the bat-police that patrol the last city on earth, some very familiar -looking ladies step into save the day:

This mad-cap dystopian future adventure does an excellent job of world-building, and I love the way it introduces familiar characters in very unfamiliar and surprising ways. I am highly looking forward to discovering where this twisted version of the DC Universe is going -- and all the heroes and villains we’ll get to meet along the way -- and how the idea of superpowers is going to be incorporated into this world of rough tech and mind control programming; surely there will be superpowers, given the set-up we’ve seen with Kara...but who will have them, and what will that mean for Lex’s “paradise”? And how exactly does Batman fit-in, and why is he working for Luthor?

Come back for issue #2 and find out with me!

Oh yeah, and if you needed more incentive...this it the honest-to-goodness cover to issue five:

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Bats look so caught off-guard...and for good reason, right? It’s not everyday Batgirl tries to beat you up with a motorcycle as a blunt instrument! Go on, tell me you’re not at least a little bit intrigued...

[theartofdreaming1]

Semester’s Reading List

I decided to do another semester’s reading list (if you are interested in my previous one, you can check it out here). Unfortunately, I didn’t get to read as much as last semester, but I guess I just tend to read more during the fall/winter months :)

These are the books I’ve read from April to mid-October 2017, including their summaries and my thoughts on them:

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen:

Summary: “Catherine Morland is a young girl with a very active imagination. Her naivety and love of sensational novels lead her to approach the fashionable social scene in Bath and her stay at nearby Northanger Abbey with preconceptions that have embarrassing and entertaining consequences.”

Thoughts: I think you can tell that it’s an early work by Jane Austen; it reads a little less polished than her later works in some ways. Some passages were a little drier than usual to read but I enjoyed it a lot! (It probably helped that I had seen the BBC’s adaptation with Felicity Jones beforehand which really made me love the story, I guess). I could definitely relate a lot to Catherine - I also get way too absorbed in the fiction I read (and watch), make up great scenarios how things could go in real life and then get disappointed when reality falls flat ^^  The characters are really great (I love Elinor and Henry Tilney!) and it really says a lot about Jane Austen’s observation skills and about how little people have changed over the centuries that when Mr. Thorpe is blabbering on about how great his carriage and horses are, you can’t help but think of all these dudes rambling on about their cars nowadays ^^ I believe ‘Northanger Abbey’ is currently my second favorite Austen.

Double Down (Lois Lane) by Gwenda Bond:

I already did this book last time - I just wanted to reread it before tackling the third book of the series. You can read about my thoughts on the first two Lois Lane books here.

Triple Threat (Lois Lane) by Gwenda Bond:

Summary: “For the first time, Lois Lane has almost everything she wants. Non-temporary home? Check. Dream job? Double check. Incredible BFFs? The absolute best. And now, her online crush, SmallvilleGuy, is coming to Metropolis. If all goes well, they’ll turn their long-distance friendship into a some-kind-of-fairy-tale romance. But when does all ever go well? Before she can check “boyfriend” off her list, Lois must take down a mad scientist plus a trio of mutant teens, protect the elusive flying man from the fed (including her dad), and navigate her very first date with SmallvilleGuy.”

Thoughts: This book’s mystery wasn’t as intricate as in in the previous ones and TheInventor wasn’t as awesome as I hoped (on the other hand, there had been quite the buildup from the prequels; it would have been very hard to meet my expectations, I suppose ;) Strong as always were the ties between friends and family that were portrayed and the best part was definitely Clark, his interactions with Lois, her family and friends. The teaming up of Lois and Clark - always awesome, fun and badass :)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling:

Thoughts: The thickest book of the series gives us holidays at Grimmauld Place 12, loveable and badass Tonks, our first introduction to the amazing Luna Lovegood - and who can imagine the HP world without her and the Crumple-Horned Snorkack? We get to read about Hermione, Harry and Ron creating the DA, learn to truly loathe Dolores Umbridge and root for Harry and the gang when they are fighting at the Ministry (the real, big fight with spooky, tentacled brains, huge planets and a creepy, baby-headed Death Eater, among other things)! Really thrilling!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling:

Thoughts: Well, it’s the volume with the infamous “Yes.” -”Yes, sir.” “There’s no need to call me ‘sir’, Professor.” exchange between Harry and Snape, so what else do I need to say? ;) But in addition to that iconic moment, we also get to know a lot more about Voldemort’s backstory (and his mother’s), which is really interesting, great and funny interactions when Phlegm -I mean Fleur- and Ginny are involved (Ginny fake-retching into her cereal bowl, for example) and Harry’s inner conflict about liking his best friend’s sister ^^ But of course there are also a lot of serious moments and events taking place, which ultimately lead up to the final book in the series.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling:

Thoughts: This book is probably the darkest in the series, which is understandable considering everything that has happened before it. Because of that darkness, the last book is -naturally- a little less “fun” to read (when you think back to the first books,which, again, makes total sense), but it is a really great ending to an amazing book series. Reading the last pages of Harry Potter always makes me want to start from the beginning again, to relive all these adventures of our beloved Golden Trio :)

The Little Shop of Happy Ever After by Jenny Colgan:

Summary: “Nina is a bookworm who dreams of running her own little bookshop. But real life is a bit trickier than the stories Nina loves, as she discovers when she moves to the beautiful wild highlands of Scotland to turn her dreams into reality...”

Thoughts: I definitely related to the shy, introverted Nina who struggles to make her dream come true, putting it off despite really wanting to do it because she doesn’t want to risk her comfortable safety. But when the challenge arises, Nina faces it and handles it quite determinedly. While I really enjoyed Nina’s story arc concerning her little mobile book shop, I was a little disappointed by the love story... I just wasn’t really on board with the two options that were presented (the endgame just didn’t really convince me as a really suitable match, just my two cents). I’m also not really a fan of that trope that the shy introvert needs to get involved with town life to be truly happy (it just kinda made me sad when Nina realized that she had been reading less because of how busy she’d been). The writing style itself was very engaging though (I read the whole thing through in, like, 3 days, so there’s that, too ;) just wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, I guess.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald:

Summary: “Everybody who is anybody is seen at the glittering parties held in millionaire Jay Gatsby's mansion in West Egg, east of New York. The riotous throng congregates in his sumptuous garden, coolly debating Gatsby's origins and mysterious past. None of the frivolous socialites understands him and among various rumours is the conviction that 'he killed a man'. A detached onlooker, Gatsby is oblivious to the speculation he creates, but always seems to be watching and waiting, though no one knows what for.As writer Nick Carraway is drawn into this decadent orbit, Gatsby's destructive dreams and passions are revealed, leading to disturbing and tragic consequences.“

Thoughts: I had read The Great Gatsby before, but not in English yet and I had always liked it’s iconic cover, so I just had to get this one, of course ;) It’s an interesting read that never fails to get my blood boiling when I realize how superficial and selfish most of the people in this book are... It’s not one of these books that I want to read all the time, but every once in a while I get the desire to pick it up again ^^

Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist:

Summary: “On his first day at a new school, blind sixteen-year-old Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on the stairs, sat on another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a classmate to tears. High school can only go up from here, right? As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a charming, quiet girl named Cecily. Then an unprecedented opportunity arises: an experimental surgery that could give Will eyesight for the first time in his life. But learning to see is more difficult than Will ever imagined, and he soon discovers that the sighted world has been keeping secrets. It turns out Cecily doesn't meet traditional definitions of beauty--in fact, everything he'd heard about her appearance was a lie engineered by their so-called friends to get the two of them together. Does it matter what Cecily looks like? No, not really. But then why does Will feel so betrayed?”

Thoughts: I think I made it through the entire book in, like, 24 hours. It’s so well-written, with interesting characters and an intriguing story. It’s super funny and entertaining, while also getting you thinking about how reliant you are on your sight when it’s all you’ve ever known. I also liked that it was addressed how something basic as seeing actually requires a lot of learning (for example while Will can see colors soon after his operation, it takes him a long time to really recognize three-dimensional objects, since there are no receptors for certain shapes in our retina, after all - that was also I nice reminder of my biopsychology and cognitive psychology classes, when we learned about perception and the processing of sensory information ;) All in all, this book was just positvely awesome to read!

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen:

Summary: “When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited, while he struggles to remain indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever.”

Thoughts: I have lost count how many times I have read this book... I really like the characters and their relationships - the Bennets, Bingleys, Lucases and Darcys all have very different and interesting dynamics that I very much enjoy reading and I just adore Lizzie as the quick-witted protagonist... Pride and Prejudice simply is my favorite Austen book and definitely one of my favorite books, period!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury:

Summary: “Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family”. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.”

Thoughts: Fahrenheit 451 is another of my absolute favorite books, ever. The importance of thinking for yourself, of looking at things from a different perspective and forming your own opinions instead of just consuming mindless entertainment and following a certain path in life because “that’s how it’s done” is the core of this story. Books provide an easy access to different worlds and different perspectives and therefore stand in the way of having people become mindless drones. Seeing Montag slowly becoming aware that the life he’s leading is not the life he wants to lead makes for an interesting and exciting read. Which is exactly why I keep coming back to this book to read it over and over again ;)

If you’d like to know more about these books (and/or my thoughts about them) feel free to message me at any time! :)

The summaries are from the back of the books or amazon pages.

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Fail of the Lich King

by Wardog

Tuesday, 14 July 2009Wardog critical hits Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, the World of Warcraft tie in novel, for 4000 points of damage.Uh-oh! This is in the Axis of Awful...~

Here’s a confession, Ferretbrain readers: I’ve never read a tie-in novel. Truthfully, I have enough trouble getting invested in the world in original fiction, so there’s a pretty low likelihood of me wanting to read about a universe specifically designed to have movies or games or a tv show happening in it.

I do, however, play World of Warcraft.

And I am, secretly, a bit of a Warcraft loregeek – having played Orcs Versus Humans, and Warcraft II and Warcraft IIIback in the day, despite being abysmal at RTS games. Azeroth is basically Generic Fantasy Setting#3 but having been splashing about it in since the age of eleven, what can I say, I have a fondness. For anyone who doesn’t give a toss (i.e. the rest of you) lore has kicked off in a big way recently in WoW, with the release of the expansion Wrath of the Lich King. This is a big deal.

Arthas, Rise of the Lich King, a WoW tie-in novel by Christie Golden, is the history of that big deal.

The short version: There’s this Lich King, right? He’s wrathful. He needs to taken out by a bunch of PCs.

The longer version: I’m not going to go into the history of Azeroth, which has a long and detailed history. Arthas, later to become part of the entity known of the Lich King (like, whoops), was the son of King Terenas Menethil, ruler of Lordaeron, and a paladin of the Order of the Silver Hand. An impetuous but basically okay youth, hope of his people yadda yadda yadda, he boned the only girl in the entire Warcraft universe, Jaina Proudmoore, for a bit and then went off to do, err, war things.

It’s all a bit complicated and involves a plague of undeath caused by infected grain, evil wizards, demons and Arthas going off the deep end, culling infected villages and burning the boats of his own army so they have no choice but to fight for him. While making questionable military decisions (this is WCIII, by the way) Arthas also gets obsessed with the

deathly hallows

runeblade Frostmourne, a sword rumoured to give its wielder limitless power. This is, as anyone could guess, a plot. In this case, orchestrated by the Lich King Ner’Zhul.

Arthas nabs Frostmourne from its prison of ice, despite the “DON’T TOUCH THE SWORD IT COMES WITH TERRIBLE PRICE YOU STUPID PILLOCK” signage and heads off to save his people. Except, this apparently involves murdering his own father, because, of course, the sword has completely corrupted him, and the Lich King is whispering to him, and controlling him, through it. Way to go, Arthas.

So, now some gothylooking sub-human Death Knight, Arthas charges around the land, generally wrecking it and raising people from the dead for kicks. But it turns out the Lich King isn’t as powerful as he thought he was and things start to go wrong. Arthas is recalled to Northrend, which is currently attack anyway by some other dudes from the lore (The Burning Legion, don’t ask). Again, it’s insanely complicated but Arthas fights his way to the Frozen Throne, releasing the Lich King and consuming him or something or other in order to become the true Lich King. Mwhaahaha.

And, then, in true Lord Voldemort fashion he’s just … been … like … sitting on there on the Frozen Throne. Raising an army, or whatever. Although everybody knows that “raising an army” is fantasy-speak for “doing fuck all.”

This is the story told in Arthas: Rise of the Lich King.

What neither my summary, nor the book itself, quite encompasses is the fact that there is quite a bit of WoWlore that’s quite cool and interesting. The original Lich King, for example, is actually an ancient Orcish shaman, tricked by demons into betraying his people. His transformation into the Lich King was actually a punishment for defying his demonic masters. Arthas, of course, is Generic Fantasy Concept #5: uppity princeling is stupid and turns evil. But there is something iconic about him, it must be admitted. He’s one of the most popular and enduring figures of the Warcraft universe.

I think part of his resonance comes from the fact you actually got to be him in Warcraft III. That game blew my tiny mind when it first came out. Not only was it sweeping, epic, and sub-Tolkeinesque in the way that Blizzard does supremely well (here’s the scene of him murdering his father –

check it out

!) but the narrative arc is, well, a bit of a mindfuck. You start out playing Arthas in his whiny Prince incarnation and, even though the game is utterly linear, it’s hard not to feel some responsibility for all the messed up stuff he does. Or rather, you do on Arthas’s behalf, because it is a RTS.

Anyway, that’s the background and a little bit of justification as to why I’m reading a tie-in novel, an experience I don’t think I’ll be repeating any time soon. This is not, you understand, a dig against tie-in novels, I’ve had absolutely nothing against them at all and I suspect I found the right sort of universe and the right sort of writers I’d enjoy them. But Arthas: Rise of the Lich King is absolutely terrible.

Dear me, dear me, it really is.

The problem is, I’m not sure what extent its just plain bad and to what extent signs I am interpreting as manifestations of badness are merely the tropes and tools of the tie-in novel form. Obviously tie-in novels are operating on a different set of rules to those governing original fiction. I’m not entirely sure what they are, truthfully, but I suppose it’s about evoking characters and places that are already familiar to the reader. And since the writer is working within an already quite restrictive canon, I suppose I should have expected an element of sketchiness but … but … it still feels incredibly tepid to me. It’s simultaneously bland and over-written, if that makes any sense at all. There’s no depth or conviction to the narrative – I suppose, I’d say it’s supremely utilitarian.

Northrend was the name of the land. Daggercap Bay the site where the Lordaeron fleet made harbor. The water, deep and choppy, with an unforgiving wind, was a cold-blue gray. Sheer-cliffs were dotted with tenacious pine trees soaring upwards, providing a natural defense of the small, flat area where Arthas and his men would make camp. A waterfall tumbled down, crashing in a billow of spray from a great height.

Do you see what I mean? It’s like looking at flat image. The information is presented list-like – there’s very little connection between the introduction of the sea, the cliffs, the camp, the waterfall. No senses other than the visual are engaged, and no effort has been made to do anything with the scene setting other than present it as it is. The waterfall tumbles down from a great height? Oh come on. It’s a waterfall, obviously it moves from a higher place to a lower place. Dan has pointed out that we’ve all been to Daggercap Bay so the description doesn’t have to do more than sketch in enough of the details to remind us and, bam, we have a ready-made vivid picture of it. Now maybe I’m just failing to engage with the differences between tie-in fiction and original-setting fiction but is it wrong of me to want just a little bit more effort than this?

One of the lines that Dan and I never tired of mocking in Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith is “from my point of view the Jedi are evil.” This is profoundly mockable from every conceivable angle but my favourite joke is that Lucas simply forgot to finish the line. He was sitting at his writing desk, thinking something like this: “what I want to do here is capture something of the moral ambiguity of this scene, the way morality is so often a matter of perspective. I suppose what Anakin is trying to say, from his point of the view the Jedi are evil.”

Writes down: “From my point of the view the Jedi are evil!”

And the entirety of Arthas: Rise of the Lich King reads like this to me.

For example, there’s scene in which Kael’thas, Prince of the Blood Elves, confronts Jaina Proudmoore over Arthas’s destruction of his entire race. This is naturally complicated by the fact Jaina, tastelessly, chose whiny Arthas over fabulous Kael. Now, I think the thought process behind the scene went something like this: “what I’d like to show in this scene is Kael’thas verbally attacking the woman he loves and cannot have because he cannot attack his real enemy, Arthas, and therefore feels helpless and impotent. In order to capture this quite subtle interplay of emotions and ruined relationships, Goldie writes:

Jaina felt quick tears come to her eyes as she suddenly understood. He was attacking her because he could not attack his real enemy. He felt helpless, impotent and was striking out at the nearest target – her, Jaina Proudmoore, whose love he had wanted and failed to win.

Everything about the way the book is written is as laboured as the scene above. There’s no hope of anything, or anyone, accruing any emotional depth because, Rowling-like, everything the characters say, think and do are mercilessly explained to us. Take this little discussion between 9 year old Arthas and Prince Varian, whose father has just been assassinated.

“He was assassinated,” Varian’s voice was blunt and emotionless. … Arthas stared. Death in glorious battle was difficult enough to handle but this- Impulsively he placed a hand on the other Prince’s arm. “I saw a foal being born yesterday,” he said. It sounded inane, but it was the first thing that sprang to his mind and he spoke earnestly. “When the weather lets up, I’ll take you to see him. He’s the most amazing thing.” Varian turned towards him and gazed at him for a long moment. Emotions flitted across his face – offense, disbelief, gratitude, yearning, understanding. Suddenly the brown eyes filled with tears and Varian looked away. He folded his arms and hunched in on himself, his shoulders shaking with sobs he did his best to muffle… … “I hate winter,” Varian sobbed, and the depth of his hurt conveyed by those three simple words, a seeming non-sequiteur, humbled Arthas.

Putting aside for a moment, young Varian’s impressive ability to communicate a range of complex emotions in a short space of time using only his face, for God’s sake, you stupid woman, there’s no need for you spell it all out for me. I get it. You don’t have to join the emotional dots with a crayon. A seeming non-sequiteur my seeming arse.

It doesn’t help that it lacks any sort of consistent narrative voice, swinging from an attempt at Tolkeinesque portentousness which inevitably just sounds lame (“long had he lived” or “tall he was”) to an incongruous modernity. Arthas, in particular, sounds like he’s voiced by Keannu Reeves:

“I destroyed your homeland … fouled your precious sunwell. And I killed your father. Frostmourne sucked the soul right out of him, Kael. It’s gone forever.”

Like, totally, duuuude.

As you can see, the dialogue is generally pretty shite (sorry, I’ve lost my objectivity now). Kael’thas, my favourite character in the entirety of WoW canon, is its most tragic victim. A beautiful elven prince, thousands of years old, bizarrely into Jaina Proudmoore (I think because, as we have established, she is the only woman in the entirety of Azeroth), cultured, sophisticated, tremendously intelligent, and, ultimately, terrible tragic as Arthas’s destruction of his people reduces him to utter madness. He spends much of the book pouting and sulking after Jaina, flouncing out of rooms in “a swirl of violet of gold” (way not to look gay, Kael), throwing hissy fits and bickering with Arthas. His dialogue encompasses such immortal gems as

“In Quel’Thalas, there are trees that tower over these in a glory of white bark and golden leaves, that all but sing in the evening breezes. I think you would enjoy seeing them someday” (take me now!) and, rather less impressively, while verbally and literally fighting with Arthas: “You’re good at killing noble elderly men.” All together now: whooooo.

Oh sigh.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, it’s just somehow plain misjudged a lot of the time. From Arthas’s weirdly homoerotic consumption of the Lich King Ner’Zhul (just, no thanks) to lines like “long had he lived, the length and yellowness of his tusks and the wrinkles on his brown skin testament to the fact.” Yellowness?! What the hell?

Below is a picture of Illidan Stormrage, part demon, part night elf, blind and wholly mad, another of WoW’s iconic figures. Isn’t he kind of fabulous? Wouldn’t you just love to get together with a group of friends and kill him?

Would you at any point, if writing about him, use the phrase: “Sweat gleamed on his massive, lavender-hued torso?” Lavender-hued? LAVENDER-HUED? Lavender is for grandmas and bath oils. Not insane demonic night elves. Come on, Christie Golden, don’t you give a damn what you’re doing?

I could criticise the writing style endlessly but the problems with Arthas: Rise of the Lich King are even more substantial. Again, I understand that writing the story of a life of a character who was probably made up as they went along is probably quite a challenge but I don’t think it alters the fact that the one event constantly cited as the most traumatic and character-defining of Arthas’s entire life is… Actually let’s do a quiz. Is it:

a) That time he murdered his father?

b) That time he killed an entire town of innocent people because they’d been infected with the undead plague?

c) That time he burned the boats of his own army to force them to keep fighting for him?

d) That time the guy he was staying with offered him a serving girl to rape?

e) That time he was picking up Frostmourne and it directly caused the death his mentor and oldest friend?

f) That time he killed Sylvanas Windrunner, turned her into a banshee and rape/tortured her for kicks?

g)The death of his horse.

What the hell? He even has recurring nightmares about it.

(by the way, it’s option g)

Okay, this has degenerated into ranting now. By whatever standards you’re judging it, Arthas: the Rise of Lich King is a bad, bad book. Just because something is a tie-in novel doesn’t mean readers aren’t entitled to flair, conviction, a small scintilla of actual talent. Is there anything good at all I can say about it? Well, the commas are all in the right places.

Themes:

Books

,

Sci-fi / Fantasy

~

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~Comments (

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Arthur B

at 22:37 on 2009-07-14

Dan has pointed out that we’ve all been to Daggercap Bay so the description doesn’t have to do more than sketch in enough of the details to remind us and, bam, we have a ready-made vivid picture of it. Now maybe I’m just failing to engage with the differences between tie-in fiction and original-setting fiction but is it wrong of me to want just a little bit more effort than this?

That laziness isn't a trope of tie-in fiction, it's a disease of tie-in fiction.

Games Workshop/Black Library, who seem to have a better batting average than most with this sort of thing, seem to work on the assumption that any tie-in novel is potentially someone's first contact with the franchise in question - that's is why they put the classic "laughter of thirsting gods" blurb at the start of all the

Warhammer 40,000

books, after all. This does mean that the authors have to explain who the Space Marines are every time they're introduced in a novel, but it also forces the authors to have some degree of discipline and not Christie Golden the place up.

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Rami

at 22:38 on 2009-07-14The fact that the other prince's name is the same as that of the author of one of my first-year textbooks just highlights the ridiculousness of it all to me; I couldn't take anything seriously past that point.

That having been said, I've read some pretty good tie-in fiction and there's lots of mediocre-but-not-actively-crap tie-in in campaign settings like the Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, so in my experience at least tie-in fiction's rules aren't that compromised by the rules of whatever they're retelling!

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http://serenoli.livejournal.com/

at 10:46 on 2009-07-15Studying Microeconomics, Rami?

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Shim

at 12:11 on 2009-07-15

Dan has pointed out that we’ve all been to Daggercap Bay so the description doesn’t have to do more than sketch in enough of the details to remind us and, bam, we have a ready-made vivid picture of it.

Actually, I

haven't

been to Daggercap Bay, in fact I know nothing at all about the Warcraft universe except what I've picked up via gaming conversations/blogs/comics. Maybe I should read this thing as a control sample?

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Andy G

at 14:03 on 2009-07-15

The fact that the other prince's name is the same as that of the author of one of my first-year textbooks just highlights the ridiculousness of it all to me; I couldn't take anything seriously past that point.

I misread that, I thought there really was an economics professor called Arthas.

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Rami

at 17:07 on 2009-07-15@serenoli: I'm pleasantly surprised anyone got the reference, although I don't suppose I should be as it's a pretty typical text, isn't it? Certainly everyone I met at my uni on an economics course used it.

I misread that, I thought there really was an economics professor called Arthas.

Well since I used to play Warcraft III I would have loved a textbook I could call the Book of Arthas ;-)

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Wardog

at 14:26 on 2009-07-16@Arthur & Shimmin

Since WoW produces far fewer tie-in novels than the Black Library (those things are taking over Borders, there are shelves of them!), I don't think there's any particularly need to make them "introductory." I suspect the thinking behind it is there's genuinely *utterly no reason* to read a Warcraft novel unless you're already hugely into Warcraft.

I can has macro-enconomics joke?

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Arthur B

at 16:27 on 2009-07-16

Since WoW produces far fewer tie-in novels than the Black Library (those things are taking over Borders, there are shelves of them!), I don't think there's any particularly need to make them "introductory." I suspect the thinking behind it is there's genuinely *utterly no reason* to read a Warcraft novel unless you're already hugely into Warcraft.

That's precisely the sort of thinking that tie-in franchises get stuck in, of course: they don't write for newcomers because they don't expect any newcomers to buy the books, and as a result no newcomers buy the books, which discourages the publishers from producing more and discourages the writers from writing for newcomers, and you end up with a vicious circle which results in the novel line ghettoising itself. (It gets particularly bad when the authors and/or publishers also believe that the audience for the franchise is too stupid or too loyal to care about quality, and so can't be bothered to write well.)

I think Black Library managed to become huge in a way that the previous Games Workshop book line never was at least partially because they were able to rid themselves of that thinking, and made a conscious decision to a) try their damnedest to be accessible to newcomers without patronising hardcore fans, and b) not regard the fans as morons who will buy anything with the Warhammer logo on the cover. I strongly suspect that the later volumes of

Konrad

didn't match the potential of the first one at least partially because neither author nor publisher really gave a crap about what they were producing.

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http://fightsandtights.blogspot.com/

at 07:05 on 2009-09-30

That's precisely the sort of thinking that tie-in franchises get stuck in, of course: they don't write for newcomers because they don't expect any newcomers to buy the books, and as a result no newcomers buy the books, which discourages the publishers from producing more and discourages the writers from writing for newcomers, and you end up with a vicious circle which results in the novel line ghettoising itself. (It gets particularly bad when the authors and/or publishers also believe that the audience for the franchise is too stupid or too loyal to care about quality, and so can't be bothered to write well.) I think Black Library managed to become huge in a way that the previous Games Workshop book line never was at least partially because they were able to rid themselves of that thinking, and made a conscious decision to a) try their damnedest to be accessible to newcomers without patronising hardcore fans, and b) not regard the fans as morons who will buy anything with the Warhammer logo on the cover. I strongly suspect that the later volumes of Konrad didn't match the potential of the first one at least partially because neither author nor publisher really gave a crap about what they were producing.

You raise an excellent point here, and it's one worth considering. Despite WoW's massive fanbase (as well as the fanbases of their other universes), Blizzard just really focuses on writing novels for the existing fans, not in bringing in new ones. A good deal of their tie-in fiction are simply novelizations of the games in some capacity or prequels to upcoming stuff, and unlike Games Workshop, they rarely give the writers a chance to produce original stuff within the confines of these worlds they have created, though they are getting a bit better at it. As well, one of the things that Games Workshop really excels at with their tie-in fiction is that they take more risks and allow the writers to investigate and play with their creative properties much more frequently.

This also leads to a greater depth of genre material, for example, you can find Warhammer stories that involve big quests and swash-buckling adventures (Gotrex and Felix), detective stories (Zavant Konniger), horror (Vampire Genevive), etc. Now Blizzard is expanding a bit, particularly with their manga works, but they are still a long way off from getting anything close to the Black Library's level of quality, range and depth.

One of the major problems I had with this story was the lack of epic scope that I would expect for a novelization of much of Warcraft III, and it's a problem that Blizzard's novels seem to be running into frequently these days. Part of that is simply the transition from an interactive visual-based medium to a non-interactive text-based one (unless you count throwing the book against the wall a point of interaction), but honestly, Golden could not seem to capture the intensity and the epic nature of the many of the events she was writing about. Take the Siege of Hearthglen, for example. In the game, it's a mighty 30-min last stand against an overwhelming horde of flesh-eating nasties, and about a third of the way through, you're faced with the choice to save a series of nearby villages, possibly gaining an expansion town and preventing the undead from massing even more troops with the risk of possibly losing your main base because your forces are stretched too thin. In the novel, Golden doesn't bother to show it, beyond transcribing the start and end cutscenes to novel format. It's like the writers Blizzard has hired to write these books say to themselves, "I have to write battle scenes, intense drama, and make the reader feel like this stuff matters? Fuck it. Let's talk about Arthas' horse." I'm half-expecting when the inevitable novel chronicling the Exodus to Kalimdor and the events of the second half of WCIII comes out, the Battle of Mount Hyjal will be reduced to a schoolyard slapfight between Archimonde and Stormrage. Perhaps not the biggest problem with the book overall, but one of many, and as a major Warcraft fan, one that really stuck in my craw.

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Wardog

at 12:19 on 2009-10-05Hello there - welcome to Fb.

I don't much to say really except: yes, I agree with you entirely :)

The novel really does feel, and read, like a cutscene - I think because she makes no attempt to engage with the interactive elements of the game. So what you end up is a book that's basically a string of cutscenes. Wheeee.

It's a shame becaus the Arthas story does have a lot of potential, as you say, for drama and intensity.

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http://fightsandtights.blogspot.com/

at 13:39 on 2009-10-23

Hello there - welcome to Fb. I don't much to say really except: yes, I agree with you entirely :) The novel really does feel, and read, like a cutscene - I think because she makes no attempt to engage with the interactive elements of the game. So what you end up is a book that's basically a string of cutscenes. Wheeee. It's a shame becaus the Arthas story does have a lot of potential, as you say, for drama and intensity.

Many thanks for the warm welcome, and glad to hear I had something useful to contribute.

One of the things that really struck me when I was reading this novel was that Golden's writing skills seem to have dramatically declined since she wrote Lord of the Clans. That was a pretty good tie-in novel that worked both as a Warcraft story and a general high-fantasy one, and I'm considering doing a review of it for this site. Reading Rise of the Lich King, I had a uncannily similar feeling when I read the sixth Harry Potter book, namely, "Who is this woman and where has she stashed away the writer I had come to love?" Or just like, in this case...

[lextenou]

The Gayest Bunch of Songs I Ever Did Hear

AKA The Songs That Helped Lead to My Sexual Awakening.

I love music. I love having something playing in the background. I apparently know a lot of songs, if my record at pub quiz is any indication. In this spirit, I’ve curated this list of songs that mean something to me as part of my journey from child to adult.

Many a year ago, as but a spritely lad, I saw a movie. ‘Twas a rather pedestrian movie, all told, but well casted and well framed teen movie. What really threw it over the top was the blatantly “fuck you, I am in charge of me” feminist slant that the movie took. A baby Yeardley Smith was in it - notable as this was released three years before she would take on her lifetime role of Lisa Simpson. 

She was not what caught my eye and my burgeoning interest. No, that honor was reserved for the lead and namesake of the movie, Helen Slater. In her role as the confused and desperate teenager Billie Jean, Slater managed to create in me a respect for the autonomy of self, and a lifelong deep seated weakness for blondes with short hair. 

All told, The Legend of Billie Jean occupies a special place. Ostensibly inoffensive, it has as its crux the story of a girl who deals with unceasing, unrelenting soul crushing beatdowns of spirit. But then! In taking up protection for her brother, she finds in herself the will to stand up, fight, and demand what’s fair. Indeed, the mantra of “Fair is fair” rings throughout the movie, and the slimy douchebaggery of a crotch grabbing ass spelunking ephebophile attempting to convince her to accept payment in the form of his dick throws her past the breaking point. 

At which point there’s kidnapping and running from the law. 

The main song, and indeed, the theme of the movie is Pat Benatar’s “Invincible”. The video includes the standard clips from the movie, including scenes of Slater both before and after she cuts off her hair. Also, no, she and Christian are not actually brother and sister despite playing siblings in the movie.

I went through a lot of changes in 1999. Not the least of which was mourning the passing of the Prince song “1999″, I also had a magnificent few months in San Francisco, where I first listened to The Butches. Comprised of Kaia Wilson, Alison Martlew and Melissa York, they were iconic and pioneering. Every bit as much as Wilson’s first major band, Team Dresch, The Butchies managed to find an accessible and aggressive sound rooted firmly in dyke loving. 

Seeing them at San Francisco Pride remains a highlight of my life. 

While “Send Me You” is their most perfect song, “Sex (I’m a Lesbian)” was the first track from them that I ever ran across while silently tapping at my keyboard after everyone else had gone to bed. It’s frenetic energy rises and ebbs, bringing the listener to an abrupt crescendo that leaves you gasping. 

Much like an orgasm. 

Listening to The Butchies reminds me of a very simple adage: fuck ‘em. I owe no one an explanation for who I am. 

If you ever look them up, they are also quite attractive. I highly recommend it. 

The late 90′s had rather a zeitgeist of queer culture coming to the public. Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures burst on the scene, leaving everyone stunned that such a horrific murder could be made into such a beautiful movie. Lillith Faire was touring - and releasing compilation albums. 

I had the chance to snag one of those compilation samplers. Lillith Fair 1998 New Music Sampler had as track three “Everything for Free” from K’s Choice. 

From the moment I first heard Sarah Betten’s voice, I was captivated. Fronting the band along with her brother Gert, The band took a break a year after Sarah came out in 2002. They have formed and re-formed in the years since, and her solo work was able to be heard in numerous places, including on queer shows. K’s Choice did also perform “Virgin State of Mind” on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It is difficult to say which era of the band, or which of her solo songs is my favorite. At different times, each one has spoken to me in different ways. “Stay” is a beautifully sweet and romantic mid tempo ballad. “Come Over Here” with its driving bass and drum simplicity gets stuck in the head incessantly. “Killing Dragons” has some of the best harmonies I’ve ever heard. “Hide” gets me through some incredibly dark times. 

watch me, I’m coming closer

I am the mood you’re in tonight...

The first song I heard, however, remains near the top of the list. It’s story is not initially complex until it becomes clear that the narrator may or may not require institutionalization. It may just be a gay kid, locked up because their parents don’t want to deal with learning who their child is. It may be someone who’s had a break from reality. Realizing that the narrator is unreliable throws the entire song off kilter and completely transforms it from a straightforward tale to layered and mysterious. 

To bring it full circle, K’s Choice did do a song based on Heavenly Creatures. It’s called “Winners”. 

we will be winners, our heads glued together

and all is indefinite in you

In 1992, Nakayoshi magazine printed the first act of Bishoujo Senshi SailorMoon, finishing in 1996. In August of 1993, Bishoujo Senshi SailorMoon Musical Gaidan Dark Kingdom Fukkatsu Hen was staged. For the next thirteen years, the musicals, or Myu as they are colloquially known, were staged. 

The Myu is notable for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that the original cast can be seen on an inside jacket of one of the issues of the original manga. They are canonical every bit as much as the anime is - though the Myu actually took Naoko Takeuchi’s direction. In the third story arc, the Infinity/Mugen/S arc, there are a couple new characters introduced. 

SailorUranus and SailorNeptune. 

They are always presented as a loving lesbian couple, so much so that directors have told the actresses to “Act like you’re married. You are a married couple.” In the Myu, this is seen much more than in other versions. The longest running actresses to play Uranus and Neptune were Nao Takagi and Asami Yuuhka. The two were fan favorites as well, leading to their roles being prominent in multiple musicals. The characters were also given multiple duets or group songs, all of which embraced fully their rampant lesbianism. Of these, the song that blew up the Myu fandom was “Destined Couple”.

A duet between Uranus and Neptune, it takes place as the closing of a fight between the senshi. They are admonishing SailorMoon that sacrifices must be made. The song is a powerful ballad that illustrates the love the two share, and their devotion to their mission of protection. 

Seeing these two for the first time, learning about the musicals and how downright blatant their representation is to this day...

It made me realize that I wasn’t alone. There were people who did feel the way I did, who did think similarly to how I did. It was possible to not be living according to the restrictive gendered norms that I grew up with. I could live as myself, be comfortable with myself, without apology.

Through SailorMoon and Myu fandom, I’ve met and made friends with more people than I ever would have imagined. The first time my wife came over to netflix and chill, the first thing she noticed was a Myu poster. I almost messed it up by correcting her that they’re not “scouts”. Everything went better than expected. 

I still have my Myu dvds. It’s almost time for a rewatch. I’m going to have a couple friends over and introduce them to Hikari Ono, the Lesbian Vampire Ninja Pirate. 

But first, the lesbian soldier love song. This version is a fanvid with Nao and Yuhka singing, but the video is of the current reboot, with Shuu and Sayaka. I chose this one because its subtitled. At the end, it switches to include Nao and Yuhka. 

I came out when I was a teenager. It was a difficult decision. I didn’t honestly know how my mother would take it. I knew she’d had close gay friends before, but I’m her kid. Would she kick me out? Would she stop loving me? Would she be able to accept me for who I am? I went to a record store and bought Melissa Etheridge’s “Yes I Am”. I put it on to play and sat my mother down. I told her. She was quiet for a while, then told me that she loved me and while it might take her a little bit to adjust, it was okay. Everything was okay. She hugged me as I cried in relief. I told her that I’d been worried. It was a catharsis I didn’t realize I needed. I’m significantly older now, and have been able to be there for my mother over the years. I am proud to call myself her kid, and she is proud to have me as her oldest. She loves and accepts me as I am. She told me more about her gay best friend in high school, who died of AIDS in the 80′s. I had always wondered why she’d gone to California when I was little, and why Dad was so upset about it.  When my sisters told Dad that I was out and proud and married to a woman, he put down his dinner fork and stared for a while. When I met up with him a few years later, he’d adjusted and was able to tell me he was happy for me and still loved me. 

I’ve never been shy about who I am. I’ve yelled at more than one person telling me I’m using the wrong bathroom. I surround myself now with good people, who love and respect me. I’m apparently able to make friends easily when we’re in bars and clubs, to my wife’s amusement. I don’t go to gay spaces much anymore. I spent my last birthday in our local Irish pub and made friends with a beer rep who is from the town that makes my all time favorite beer. I have no idea how many beers she bought me. It was magical. 

When I came out to my mother, I would have never imagined that my life now could possibly be the way it is. It is due to her strength and character that I am who I am and that I can stand up and be proud of who I am. 

In that spirit, I am including here “Mama, I’m Strange”. From Melissa Etheridge’s “Breakdown” album, this song resonates strongly with me. I find the message a powerful one, and the upbeat nature of the song lets me sink into the song without further thought. The first time I heard it, I sat stunned and remembered coming out to my mother.