#just. dialogue so much more flavourful. so much more layers.

[catboybatman]

Sometimes you open an older comic and you realize just how bad modern comics can be in comparison...

[bentosandbox]

Lappy fancam animatic blogging/production notes

now that wolfgirlyaoi is out on global its rambling time about my powerpoint presentation

Concept

Originally I wanted to do an (Tex & Lapp) animatic with the boss theme (broken wall/Signore dei Lupi .mp3) ever since the event dropped but I thought 1) by the time I finished anything someone else would have probably already done it first (lol, lmao even) 2) I remembered the song exists and how much i looped it then while listening to the group's new album drop and thought the lyrics fit Lapp a little too well and also doesn't end abruptly like the boss theme + was shorter so yea

initial stickman storyboard where i put down the lyrics with event dialogue/happenings that i felt would fit nicely together > hastily scribble the images that form in my head

storyboards were basically what i wanted to see (same rule as my comics) lol especially if they weren't shown in the event CGs, eg. there's a CG of the truck crashing into the courtroom so I didn't do that but they didn't mention her physical acting in that scene + the song I used has a bow/salute at that exact part in their live choreo with the very similar line so I wanted to do a homage even though-

-I was like it's going to be such a pain to figure out an economical hand twirl and bow but I have to do this I need to transplant the image in my brain onto the screen because official media did not do a—

Honestly still don't know if its a common phrase and action combo because I was having so much trouble finding external references that wasn't just scrubbing the live video over and over anyway

part of the storyboards were 'recycled' from comic drafts I did (of the chocolate scene because ofc) when the event was running on CN

Originally I wanted to draw Lapp feeding Texas for The Girlyaoi Funny but I wanted to reference the plaque you get which is a Creation of Adam reference right but I also saw people saying it's referencing the scene from Silence of the Lambs lol so...peel the layers to your liking!!

(The chocolate flavour choice was from asking my Columbian friends what the worst chocolate flavour they ever tried which was white coconut)

my sorry attempt at colour keys > final spreadsheet to keep track of progress and paste all the dialogue i put in

Art Direction

A bunch of shots/colour schemes are references to Måneskin's stuff or other media tehepero I'll just put a few here

At first I was going to limit red/blue to tex/lapp respectively but since Omertosa is blue I just did away with that rule and lapp gets to have both (and more!) these two colours have pretty obvious emotional readings I think but also

red = self blue = society Siracusa or: red = yaoi & blue = yuri

for the others:

Purple = Alberto/Saluzzo, its not orange like the fruit he keeps holding because see below; I needed the colour for something else LOL Also the Saluzzos are iirc nobility or whatever and they have purple hints in their clothes so I think it was a good fit anyway

Yellow/Orange = Its supposed to be representing the last word in the story which apparently, yostar went with 'Savagery' which is Correct I guess but (laments again about how nuance is lost in localisation because imo savagery has a more derogatory kind of connotation while I think 蛮荒 in context of the story also has a 'nature/untouched by civilisation' side to it) which is why Texas setting the house on fire was not (entirely) red but orange (and it complements the blues both visually and thematically) and it's yellow at the end when they're frolicking(?) in the wilderness lol

(these colour rules don't apply to the penglog shot and technically a few frames like the shot with shocked penance, the one right after and 'im just lappy' because...i forgor my own rules lol)

The greens/teals were just a reference to the shades in the 3DPV I think

The silhouette/general style was inspired from the 3D teaser thing they had at the beginning of the 3.5 anniversary stream and the card suits that I..forgot to move to the other layers which is why only the green one had them (supposed to be 1 per set 💀)

The clash bit is basically the same as the event CG but with a flipped camera/POV sorry for world's worst screenshot lmao. Couldn't imagine the poses in my head so I ended up posing 3d models in CSP pretty good posing practice

These shots got rendered extra because..they were the first frames I started on and I was still figuring out how much to simplify lol

I also posed the chairs shot for some inexplicable reason…my file was lagging so bad

Headcanon part (kind of)

The childhood flashback scene is probably the part I took the most liberties (headcanon) on since it's not explicitly canon like the rest...the sequence/how I connected the scenes itself to fabricate a timeline of her childhood was kind of inspired by some weibo post musing about how (iirc) texas's sweet tooth maybe came from when she was being fostered at casa Saluzzo and Lapp treating her like a pet essentially and giving her a lot of treats since...you know what happened to her actual pet hehe except maybe texas offered her a stick first and then Lappy just reciprocated endlessly because its one of the few 'acts' she knew that wasn't violence haha yeah this section was basically a stealth doujin sorry

It's mentioned that she was brought up as the ideal Siracusan or whatever and she does the cute doodle in the 3DPV so I thought she probably had the Forced Music Lessons as a kid (The music sheets are Bella Ciao and of course)

The bow choreo was the one thing i really wanted to animate but the music sheet segment (based on that one split second shot above) ended up being my favourite part even though compositing the motion was a mini hell on it's own (ended up compiling a long png to scroll by with the red doodles layered over)

Other things

I will never live down my (self-imposed) shame of misspelling the title (I fixed the title on youtube but its why the ending shot in the upload says ZittE e Buoni instead of ZittI e Buoni) don't rush your fancam in 10 days 😔

I didn't look through the entirety of the EN loc but Idk why they had Lappy say 'Then go.' to Texas when it's supposed to be more like 'Let's go.' as in, 'let's go together' as opposed to 'alright off you go to the greyhall alone' lmfao also her saying goodbye forever padre when addio is right there

I don't think I'm insane enough to do another ppt soon but man this pair really makes the 'imagines a whole music video while listening to music' part of my brain go wheee like first it was Starset's Manifest then Signore de Lupi then this and while working on this one i was thinking how Måneskin's Torna A Casa would be another good track

ok ty for reading #GIRLYAOIREAL

[aching-tummies]

Sounds like you had a rough time would be a shame if someone made it worse. Coming up behind you and placing their hands of your tummy. You thinking their gonna help with how bloated you feel but they only plan on making it worse. Your tummy is tight and hard from how bloated it is but they don't care they squeeze it anyway. Jiggling your tummy just to everything angrily slosh together as you moan in discomfort. Seeing how tight they can squeeze you before you lose everything. They would definitely tease you about how bloated you are by poking your bloated belly hard

Honestly, everything about this one (except for the partner and what they did to me) is basically a real experience. I made that discount chicken-noodle soup for myself when I was sick maybe five days in a week and it honestly felt like none of it digested by the third day. I think I skipped meals completely and fasted on the fourth day because my belly felt too damned bloated to have any appetite at all. Doing dishes was honestly terrifying and I was legitimately fighting back wet belches out of fear of suffocation all day between the third and fourth days.

As I write this, I realize I need more inspiration for dialogue in situations like this. Words definitely failed me.

I choke back another wet hiccup as I try to focus on rinsing the dishes without leaning on or bending around the counter as much as I normally do. If this kitchen counter were an inch higher, all of these plates and utensils would be getting re-filled very quickly rather than getting clean.

Apparently, sickness has decided that my stomach is going to refuse to digest for a while. I feel like a detergent pod--my belly bloated and swollen with a viscous liquid that'll burn my esophagus when exposed to the soft tissue.

My stomach rolls, rumbling without sound as the liquid contents churn inside my torso. My normally-trim stomach is visibly bloated out just a tad--plainly visible due to the form-fitting camisole I'm wearing. Thanks to fever and other symptoms not giving me a break, wearing the camisole is more efficient than anything else at the moment. I have plenty of spares, they're easy to wash and dry in a hurry, and when I feel overheated I can stand around in just the camisole, or rush to toss some layers on when I get too chilled. Unfortunately, the versatile clothing does very little for my ill-feeling stomach other than make it blatantly obvious that something's going on in the area. I've seen you leering at me in this get-up--eyes glued like a magnet to this liquid-y bloat that's refused to go down for the last three days.

I've been dodging you all week due to the sickness. Thankfully, you've been at work, but while you're home I usually have retired to the guest bedroom and thrown the lock for good measure. As much as we both love stomach-stuff, I honestly spent all those hours too sick to indulge in anything--including sleep. The last few nights have not been kind with the fever keeping me up by alternating between chills and sweats every ten or twenty minutes. The headache has been intense, and my stomach has refused to settle for the better part of a week.

I haven't eaten much of anything this week. I've made myself discount chicken noodle soup with chicken-flavoured boullion powder, onions, garlic, and macaroni and survived off of maybe a litre or a litre and a half of that stuff each day for the last three days. So...water and about three litres of soup is all that's entered my gut in the last three days. Honestly, it feels like it's all still in there, sloshing away as I carefully rinse off another plate. My stomach has been feeling increasingly more and more bloated with each day. It definitely doesn't feel like gas, especially not when I wake up to sour liquid lapping at the back of my throat. It seems my poor, little tummy has taken sick and refused to work over the last three days. Honestly, I have half a mind to just throw up and hope it makes me feel better, but the stuffy nose and congestion throughout my throat and chest threatens to asphyxiate me every time I try, so I end up swallowing back the hot and sour liquid that keeps coming up like some incessant groundhog.

I lean forward slightly with a groan as my stomach does another liquid-y flip.

"Unnngh...urk!" I yelp as I feel a new sensation--dry hands have slid over my camisole, coming to rest just over the crest of my bloated belly, right along my ribs. "Nnngh...ugh...d-darling...no." I bat at your hands, wincing as the force ripples through my bloated tummy. Your hands are in dangerous territory and it honestly scares me.

"Awww...poor tummy. So, so bloated." You tease, rubbing a languid, light circle over the tightest part of my stomach. Your rubbing causes another soundless rumble to tumble through my turbulent tummy, bringing up a wet belch.

"Nnngh...urrrrp--hic--b-babe...n-no. Please...n-not here...ulp...n-not on the plates."

My belly is surprisingly firm beneath your palms—bloated up with pretty much everything that has passed my lips in the last three days. You give it a light squeeze with your palm—testing the tension. Your hands pat roughly, dislodging a few more pitifully small wet belches that burn my throat and threaten to baptize the sudsy dishes in the sink with something nasty.

“Unnngh...nnnngh...” I mewl and moan, leaning back against you in a futile attempt to get away from the pressure of your hands.

You chuckle, jiggling my bloated belly and delighting in the wet 'glk' noise as well as my sudden reaction to bend over the sink with my eyes wide. I swallow desperately, trying to clear my throat enough to suck in a greedy breath of air. Damned congestion. I know I'd feel much, much better if I just threw up and purged the sick from my tummy—but there's a very real risk of suffocation due to congestion making it so that not only can I not breathe through my nose, but I also can't suck in enough air to even try to hold my breath for any length of time. I always thought 'shortness of breath' was just put there for people with pre-existing breathing conditions, or that it was legalese. Nope—it's real—and it is terrifying.

You continue to pat at my tummy with your left hand, jostling it uncomfortably and causing me to be reduced to moans and swallows as I fight to keep the waves of sick down. Your right hand rubs circles all over my bloated belly, varying the pressure based on what you think will cause me to moan. Eventually, you take to poking—jabbing your finger repeatedly into the tightest parts of my belly and delighting in the sharp cries and harsh belches that it causes. You nail my navel with one particularly forceful jab and I feel my mouth flood with something thick and sour.

[gleppy]

What are your stats on MD ships?

What are your otps, ships that you like, those that you are neutral towards, your guilty pleasures, crack ships and NOTPs?

well, it should go without saying that nuzi and vizzy are my ships to end all ships, never budging on them. and i don't think i've been able to adequately express how insane i am about supernova, but boy oh BOY am i insane about supernova. doomed old woman yuri ftw. i also think jessa is adorable, but my opinion on whether or not they should actually be a thing changes based on context. like, if we're talking about canon? angsty one-sided (or mutual) pining that never actually goes anywhere is the way to go. human au or drone!tessa au? they need to make out sloppy style ASAP. istg supernova and jessa are THE most painful and tragic md ships (3nvy who) but i'm a bit of a masochist when it comes to yuri. who else am i gonna think about while crying and listening to chappell roan?

i guess this is my official coming out post: i'm a vuzi enjoyer on the dl. if it's not obvious from my fic, i'm also partial to j/doll and thad/emily. i originally wasn't going to ship j, doll, or thad with anyone because i didn't want to go down the "pair the spares" route or ship just for the sake of shipping (something i HATE) but the more i thought about it the more the ships made sense, plus i feel like they actually do contribute to the story in a meaningful way. idk, i can elaborate on this if anyone wants me to.

i worry sometimes that my stance on supernova makes me come across as not liking khori but i do like them! i just feel like i can't really do much with a ship that's A) already canon and B) was established before the show even started so we didn't actually get to see them develop. so i guess it's less that i "ship" khori and more that i appreciate their relationship for what it is.

as for the ships i don't have super strong opinions on one way or the other: i guess doll/lizzy would be one of them? their dynamic is just a bit boring to me, but if i'm reading a fic and they show up i'm not gonna be mad about it. i used to go cuckoo loco for oilrose before i decided to start taking a walk on the vizzy side of life but now that i've written them as blood siblings for tiny angels i literally cannot see their dynamic any other way. not saying they canonically have a sister dynamic, it's just how i personally see them. more power to those who do like the ship though, even i can admit that the fight scene in episode 8 was extremely lesbian-flavoured. lately thadzi has been falling into this category as well despite me having previously despised them. i don't think i could ever personally see them as anything other than buddies, but i'm beginning to somewhat understand the appeal of them romantically. i'm never going to ship them but they don't make me wanna break things anymore. not an oilrose or thadzi shipper but i believe in their beliefs

crackships: don't have any. and before you come at me, joll is NOT a crackship, they're a rarepair. people in fandom these days do not understand the difference between a crackship and a rarepair and it makes me mad.

as for my notps: i REALLY don't like it when people ship main characters with random side characters that have one or two lines of dialogue. maybe i'm the pot calling the kettle black because i wrote thad/emily into my fic, but shit like... i dunno, n x rebecca or v x braiden pisses me off. i had my initial reservations about including joll and thadmily in my fic for this exact reason but i ended up conceding because i felt like i was able to write them in in a way that made sense AND actually added a layer of depth to the story, the characters, and the characters' dynamics with one another. most of the time when i read a fic and a random rarepair like this shows up, it's so out of nowhere and was obviously just hastily thrown in there because the author felt like everyone HAD to be shipped with someone and it's just... bad. let people be single ffs.

and sorry to all my vh4d and 3nvy followers/mutuals, but those DO make me want to break things. not sorry to my c0deg0ld followers though, fuck y'all.

[miloscat]

[Review] Panzer Dragoon Saga (Sat)

Maybe they should have stuck to rail shooters...

My perfectly sensible journey through the Panzer Dragoon series: Mini, then Orta and the OG, then Gamera 2000, Remake, Zwei, and now finally this, the one that's not actually a rail shooter. Apparently development on Zwei and Saga both started at the same time but being an RPG spread over four Saturn discs, Saga took a few more years to cook. It's also one of the more pricey games in existence due to its release right when the Saturn was imploding and overall poor sales; its reputation as a rare and expensive title comes with a vaunted hidden gem status, but the reality... well...

Saga (or as it's known in Japan, Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG) certainly is experimental. Like the monsters that populate the world's wastelands and forests, it's a mutant creation, a strange hybrid of Panzer Dragoon mechanics in an RPG framework. Or if not mechanics then surface trappings: four-quadrant perspectives in battle, aiming a lock-on cursor, three-dimensional dragon flight... but the gameplay experience is nothing at all like the arcadey rail-shooters that constitute the rest of the series. Saga is very much a departure, and I don't think that works in its favour.

The world of Panzer Dragoon was always so evocative, the unknowable but hostile technology of a lost era (with its cool techno-organic designs) littering a devastated landscape, folk struggling to eke out an existence while empires battle overhead. Digging into the setting seems like something the series was crying out for... yet somehow, by nailing things down in Saga you do end up losing some of the mystique. Sure I understood the lore more clearly from in-game texts and characters pontificating, but is that what the series really needed? Maybe they explain too much, and since this is a Japanese RPG you of course end up travelling through space and time to kill God. Ho hum.

Panzer Dragoon has always had cinematic moments, but again Saga goes to excess by having all dialogue be fully voiced, with mocapped cutscenes and long conversations. (The VA is all in Japanese as well, even in the international releases, with the series' trademark made-up language only used for the intro and outro cutscenes; another choice that removes a layer of mystery from this world.) It really slows the pace down, which is a theme for the on-foot sections, battle animations, and the speed of the overall plot.

After the inciting incident where Edge the bland protag-kun meets the dragon who befriends him for no reason, almost nothing happens to advance the plot for two whole discs. Although Edge is a defined character with a voice and backstory, he was designed to take a backseat to the eponymous Azel in story terms. Congratulations Team Andromeda, you created another boring RPG protagonist. Azel herself has potential to be interesting and has her moments but ends up underdeveloped, as often a plot device as a character, and literally not present for maybe half the game.

Although four discs sounds big, each one has just a handful of areas, and there's only two and a half towns in the game world. As an RPG and a story the scale is relatively small which works just fine for Panzer Dragoon, and the inhabited areas you do explore are dense and lively, with a day/night cycle and lots of interaction with the blocky Saturn people who live there. Controlling Edge in these areas is kind of clunky and slow, with the lock-on cursor being an odd way to interact and observe the world, but it results in lots of flavour text for background details even if a lot of it feels like filler.

When on the dragon, the world is understandably scaled back. An overworld map takes you between discrete zones, which are usually big open spaces broken up by tight corridors, or dungeons absolutely riddled with repetitive hallways and lifts. The dragon movement mechanics seem impressive but feel ultimately shallow and limiting, the technology and dev realities clearly not fulfilling the ambitions of open-roaming dragon-flying exploration. There's only a couple of occasions like the assault on a flying warship or the stealthy infiltration of an Imperial facility where these sections actually approach compelling gameplay; most of the time it's just busywork flying around and locking onto things to interact with them.

Finally, the battles. There are random and set encounters in the flying zones which take you to the battle screen, your dragon occupying one of four cardinal positions around the enemy. You or they can choose to move, which affects the ATB gauges that determine your actions but more importantly your relative positions put you in safe or danger zones from enemy attacks, and likewise enemy weak points are only revealed in certain spots. This positioning mechanic gives battles a unique feel, and turns most encounters into puzzle battles as you figure out how to respond to certain enemies. Your actions include the traditional PD single-target gun shot, a multi-target homing laser, and Zwei's Berserk technique is now the magic spell system. It's an amusing way to convert PD conventions into RPG ideas but it works well enough in theory. The problem is it felt to me that battles eventually became just slow and punishing until you learn the trick to them, at which point they're easy and time-wasting.

Saga is full of little secrets and such, the sort that compelled me to follow a guide so I didn't miss any obscure sidequest or missable treasures. One interaction requires you to talk to an NPC twenty-six times for crying out loud! Many of these rewards are relatively inconsequential but if you want your dragon to reach its final form there's a few hoops to jump through. By the end I found my inventory full of unused items and unspent money, so maybe I was too thorough. I also followed the guide's advice to seek out rare enemies to grind levels on, which may have reduced the difficulty but I'd rather that than the tedium of getting destroyed in late-game battles and having to replay sections. Saga is old-school in that way but it is from 1998 after all.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is such an unconventional RPG that I can't help but admire it, but at the same time it's clearly held back by the technology of the time and development pressures that result in it feeling messy and clumsy. There's no denying it has atmosphere and ideas and ambition, but it just didn't translate to the transcendent masterpiece that it's been built up as for me. Moreover, as a Panzer Dragoon game, it has almost nothing of what I really want out of a series that is otherwise stylish and inventive rail shooters. If telling a deeper story is what you want, then Orta was much more successful at it just by having a little more cutscene between levels! Even the rich world and visual design of the series is compromised rather than enhanced here as a result of the combination of gameplay styles/scales. I'm glad I played it but it's firmly the black sheep of the series as far as I'm concerned.

[camillathe6th]

Writing & art prompts: a fallen hero edition

@marshalortega​ and I thought it might be fun to have a prompt list with FHR flavouring all over, so here we go. The idea is that you can pick and choose, or mix and match, one, two, three ideas, or more! 

If you’re in need of inspiration regarding characters, here’s a Fallen Hero characters picker wheel: CLICK HERE.

If you’re all for extreme randomising, here’s a random number generator to help you choose your prompts: CLICK HERE.

And here are the prompts and challenges. You’re welcome to use them or add to them if you want! Hope you have as much fun as we did MWAH ♡

DIALOGUE PROMPTS 

1. "You shouldn't be here." 2. "Who have you been all this time?" / "This isn't you!" 3. "Take off your mask." 4. "Either you join me, or you stand against me." 5. "I can't move." 6. "I'm too far gone." / "It's too late now." 7. "I don't know what's happening to me." 8. "You're just like me." 9. "This is the day you die." 10. "I'm not like the other villains." (haha unless?) 11. "Do you want to come inside?" 12. "It takes one to know one." 13. "That's not how it happened." 14. "Take this, you look like shit." 15. "Hey, be careful." 16. "You look better on your back." (a classic)

CONCEPT PROMPTS

A. Scar / tattoo(s) B. Chase C. Layers D. Mirror E. Memory F. Armor / Skinsuit / Mods G. Dream / Nightmare H. Mindscape / telepathic conversations I. Puppet(s) J. Grave / Graveyard K. Gender L. Nightcall M. Sparring / training N. Wounded O. Party  P. Lies

WRITING CHALLENGES

I. Write in audio recording format II. Use only dialogue III. Use no dialogue IV. Make it an interview scene V. Write from a point of view you've never used VI. Set your snippet at the Farm VII. Make it a confidential file excerpt VIII. Keep it under 500 words / set a timer for 30 minutes IX. End with a cliffhangher X. Put your character in a situation they can't get out of easily XI. Role reversal: the villains are the heroes and the heroes the villains in this one. XII. There should at least be one kiss in there.

[idanit]

possibly underappreciated Good Omens fics I enjoyed once upon a time

Indirectly inspired by a video series about fanfiction I watched, I decided to pull together a list of Good Omens fics I have bookmarked as stories I enjoyed, but which have less than 250-300 kudos at the time I’m writing this. No particular order. They’re accompanied by short excerpts from my private fic reading notes (not originally intended to be read by anyone but me, mind), sometimes slightly edited for clarity—and, sometimes, the comments I left on the fics.

This list sat in my drafts for a long time and the recent S2 announcement reminded me of it. I’d love it if it inspired you to do something similar! Spread the love.

And mind the tags, please.

△ = general and teen ▲ = mature and explicit 

thermodynamic equilibrium ▲ 7K the author has such an ear for dialogue and is unapologetic about what they want to write the characters like. They think of the characters as a mix of TV and book canon, but they feel like a homemade blend to me. (...) It’s very funny.

such dear follies ▲ 6K I can really picture this Aziraphale—Crowley as well, but her especially. She’s rather distinct. (...) Nice writing.

The Words Were With - △ 1.2K post-Blitz vignette, Aziraphale realizes what he feels and wonders if they're human enough for this. I liked it, and I liked the tag "transhumanism, but in reverse?", too—what an interesting idea. I'd say it's a vignette in a dire need of a follow-up, but, well, there's the show. The show is the follow-up. It fits very nicely within the canon and I totally believe it could have happened, like a deleted scene.

Gossip and Good Counsel △ 19K/? I love their companionship and how they're set up to be opposites by the management even though they get on pretty well. It feels very in keeping with the canon, but I feel like the fact that it's an F/F set in this particular time period adds a meaningful layer to the situation. It's women supporting each other in the world of men, working with the personas that are created for them, but, privately, being normal, well-rounded people. (...) and of course your writing is always a pleasure to read. (...) SDHDGDHDHDG Maisie is truly an Aziraphale.

Crowley Went Down to Georgia (he was looking for a soul to steal) △ 6K This was nice. Based on a song I didn’t know. Crowley goes to a funeral in the USA, one of a fiddler he knew and lost a bet to once. (...) The fic has not one but two songs composed for it and embedded inside it and that makes it even better. I really enjoyed the experience.

The Thing With Feathers △ 18K WARLOCK you'rE HORRIBLE AND I LOVE IT I would read an entire novel-length fic just of Crowley fighting his battles with Warlock. Written like this? It would be a blast. (...) The OCs are believably characterized and well-loved by the story. (...) Everyone seems to need a friend in this house. (...) This was so fun, and at the same time, their mission has weight here (...) We wonder about what the future holds even though we know it.

Here Quiet Find △ 11K This fic aimed for my head and the aim was sure precise. It was a story of Crowley sensing Aziraphale's distress and finding him in a self-quarantined English village in the seventeenth century, tired and anxious. It's hurt/comfort, so there was washing and bedsharing and I had to love it, so I did.

outside of time △ 2K Post-Almostgeddon, (...) nicely-written, short, but strung with a soft kind of tension and unspoken words. There's no drama, just "can we really", and "do you really" of sudden freedom. They fall into being inseparable. Book canon, which I like for this story (sitting on a tarmac). I liked the footnotes. There's a mention of Eliot. All in all, very much yes.

She'asani Yisrael △ 2K It’s Crowley going through a two-hour service and drinking blessed wine. He also keeps an eye on a boy he was asked to. It’s 1946. It was pretty good, so far the best Jewish GO fic, I think, from the ones I’ve read.

To Guard The Eastern Gate △ 11K  I loved it. You really made Sodom feel lived-in; the description of Keret, Hurriya and Yassib's house and relationship were great. I got attached to both them and the city (...) Aziraphale and Crawley’s interactions were generally very entertaining. I laughed (...) Your rendering of their voices just lands so well (...) But then oh, the entire ending (...) hurt, hurt a lot, and your descriptions are so vivid.

If you’ve been waiting (for falling in love) △ 14K AAAAA a good ending line. The whole paragraph, in fact. I love a good smattering of philosophy in my fics, and this was really nice. I can get behind Thomas Aequinus's and Crowley's view on eternity. It's (...) a pretty simple fic (...) - the courage to express yourself and take a risk is awarded with winning what was at stake by the virtue of reciprocity - but the way it was intertwined with a study of how they would experience a forever was done well. 

Holy unnecessary ▲ 2.2K It's well-written. (...) this is my type of sexual humour if I have any. So subtle. Blink and you'll miss it. Lovely.

The Parting Glass △ 17K Through the ages, they're dancing around their relationship until after the Armageddoff. (...) Wow, this was really, really nice. Very simple in its concept and nothing I haven't read before, but very well-executed. (...) AAAAH I LOVED the first chapter. I always like abbeys as settings, that's a given, but the banter, the good writing, the moral ambiguity!

Name The Sky △ 33K This Crowley is different, but very intriguing. Without his sarcastic talk, and much more animalistic. (...) I love how expressive Crowley is. (...) This fic has a very nice balance of drama and levity. I don't love Crowley-before-the-Fall stories very much, but with this execution I can read about it. (...) Okay I've read Crowley offering fruits, and even Aziraphale biting fruits, but the two of them sharing the apple? Outstanding. Ingenious. What a take.

A Flame in Your Heart △ 5K post-Blitz (why are so many dance fics post-Blitz?), they go to the bookshop and have an actually believable conversation. Then they dance the gavotte. It was really nice! Believable writing, emotions, the dancing! (...) Of course it's too early for them, (...) but the author's note? yeah.

Put down the apple, Adam, and come away with me ▲ 32K At this point it's just reading original stories with characters with names and some personality traits that I recognize. (...) I really enjoy this, the careful dance, the opposition between their views. (...) This is well-written, wow. (...) it's not an easy read (...) this story feels very believably 50s, but also reaches out to the present time. 

Liebestraum ▲ 10K/? It really is like music. I'm enjoying the writing a lot. (...) oh my actual god. This, this? Wow, uh. This came for my throat. (...) THE MUSICAL COMPOSITION, THE MOTIF RETURNING, THE AUTHOR KNOWS WHERE IT'S AT (...) Excellent. This hits the right beats so precisely, (...) and with feeling, too.

Down Comforter △ 2.4K and they lay down in angeldown, a soft rug ‘neath their heads– alright. Well, Crowley lies under Aziraphale's wing on a Persian rug after the Apocalypse, and they talk (...). It was sweet.

The Corsair of Carcosa △ 5K Crowley wakes up from a nap, visits Aziraphale for some drinking, and they read The King in Yellow that he happens to own. Good writing, so I'm bought. Aziraphale mentions Beardsley, so I'm bought twice over. My god, a discussion of etheral/occult madness? Caused by some wrong/true reading? Yes.

Very Good, Omens! △ 6K It's rather well-written, well-pastiched. People don't do that too often, nowadays - try to write in the style of a particular writer. (...) I love wordplay like this.

Reviving Robin Hood: The Complicated Process of Crème Brûlée △ 30K it's well-written (...), has a rhythm to it, and quiet humour. (...) Finally some nice, good, light writing. The attention to detail! (...) I'm still reading most of it aloud, the rhythm of it compels me to. (...) okay this does sound like Pratchett&Gaiman, the Good Omens itself (...) The fic is meandering, hilarious, sensitive in all the right places, and overall lovely.

my dear acquaintance △ 1K Oh. Oh. Yes, yes! Aziraphale in Russia, Russia I've never been in, but I can feel the snow and the evening of. Very real, and the bar, too. Attention to detail - vodka flavoured with dill, what on earth? Yes. He would totally have a distinct taste in operas and he would totally complain about a subpar one. I'm glad Tchaikovsky's there.

there is a crack in everything △ 1.8K This was good! Ah. Inspired by a comment (...), I went looking for Mr. Harrison and Mr. Cortese fics—really, what a big brain moment someone had and why have I never thought to look for them? This is Crowley getting suddenly anxious and Aziraphale going out of his way, through all his layers of not-thinking and denial, to console him. I also really liked how the Arrangement is a carefully unacknowledged partnership-marriage.

Scales And Gold And Wings And Scars △ 6K  No conflict, no plot, one tiny arc like a ripple on the surface of water on a calm sunny day - of Aziraphale discovering Crowley’s scars. It's the South Downs and it's early summer. They bask and swim in a spring. Non-sexual nudity, love in the air like a scent. Nice.

Nineteen Footnotes In Search Of A Story △ 0.4K This is a Good Omens story told only through footnotes. Your mind can fill in the gaps. Fascinating (...). Also, it’s an experiment so apt for this particular fandom.

Hell on Earth △ 6.5K Oh, I loved it! How could I not love it: it's Beelzebub-centric, it's historical, it has classical painting, and even a hilarious scene with a cuneiform phrase, as if I didn't enjoy this story enough already. There are so few Beelzebub fics out there and I find searching for them very difficult (I accept recs if anyone has any), and it's such a shame, so this was really like a gift to the fandom. I absolutely adore the way you portrayed them, small, frightening, powerful, and confident. Also, it was super fun to see how different Crowley seems when we're not in his POV or in a story about him and Aziraphale. (...)

Go Up to Ramoth-Gilead and Triumph △ 24K Daegaer is... pure class. (...) hdhdhdh what pfttt why you so funny (...) I love this Crowley. (...) This got unexpectedly intense. (...) I love the little nods to the fact that Israelites, especially the poorer ones, still believe in other gods. I also really like that they sleep on roofs. It's just the kind of detail that grounds the story and shows that the author is, in fact, a historian. 

[shades4dogs]

i had a SUPER tiring day i mite talk abut later but RIGHT NOW i wanna talk about the make it sweet! album for Um Jammer Lammy because i listtened to than a couple days ago, and just today i showed it 2 my little brother, and i wanted to write down what i thought about the tracks!!

i wrote down my personal thoughts on each track and gave it a rating out of 5 Dashies (-= It’s because i’m autistic plain and simple

if you read all of this you’re officially a legend

[1/2) Let’s Jam Together!/KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!!] - waow!!!

I LOVE THIS SONG <3 i really liked this song when i heard it in the credits and was wondering what its name was, it was nice to hear it in the album as the very first track!!

i love the additional dialogue at the start, the “Hey, do you play the guitar? Let’s jam together!” really represents the ragtaginess of the band just kind of throwing themselves together to make music so naturally... like little jigsaw pieces... it makes me want to know exactly how they interacted before the formation of MilkCan, how long they’d known each other/how they had known each other, or if they met right as they made the band.

the playful and funny lyrics of this song are really great, and i like the way it trails off in the middle. like the song was just Katy Kat truly venting off her frustrations and heartbreak about someone she used to like.

i wonder who exactly Katy Kat is talking about here in this song... well anyways she’s got lammy now so all’s well (-=

the second portion’s lyrics sound a little dopey and off-key, but i think it reflects katy’s mood regarding the lyrics of how easy her life used to be, and it all comes together beautifully for the chorus reprise with some pretty strings (i love strings in rock music!)

i bet this kind of music really resonated with some young girls listening. Can’t relate however as I hate men.

overall this is a 5/5 dashies! “Amazing!”

[3) FRIGHT FLIGHT!!] - LOOK UP IN THE SKY.

THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SONGS IN THE GAME! when it started obviously i was expecting fussenpepper, and it was shocking to hear katy kat singing it

i think this is one of the covers that katy kat’s voice matches the most! her voice really fits shouting like that, it’s really hyped up

my favourite line from her cover is the “Now it’s time to move on, it only gets much harder, so carry on!”

and obviously i love hearing her say “Now do you like munchies? I wonder where lunch is!”

i do think that captain fussenpepper’s voice suits the song better than her, because it was made with him, but her voice definitely shines on this track!

overall this is a 4/5 dashies! “Really Good!”

[4) BABY BABY!!] - Imagine kids singing this on a car trip with their parents looking dead inside in the front seats.

I USED TO NOT LIKE THIS SONG. but playing it myself really warmed me up on it, and this version on the album made me like it even more!! i love katy kat’s additional lines between the baby’s, she suits giving those secondary vocals and they add a whole additional layer to the song.

i also like that the baby’s lyrics kind of echo over lammy’s guitar parroting, like you can hear the “... ma ma ma ma” coming in at the end of her first part, it sounds really nice!

this is the song i can really imagine kids shouting the lyrics to at a birthday party or something and i think they knew that when they added it O_O

overall this is a 4.5/5 dashies! “Almost Perfect!” i think it would’ve been cooler if the lammy and katy kat parts were more integrated with eachother. don’t ask me how exactly, because i don’t know, and maybe they didn’t either... it still came out REALLY nice!

[5) FIRE FIRE!!] - Aweome where is chief puddle? )-=

i think that this is my favourite song in the entire game, altho that will change depending on what day you ask me it, and a big part of it is fire chief puddle’s vocals and the brass and sound effects of the song

it kind of sucks that a lot of that seems lacking in katy’s version, although i like that it kind of seems like theres more emphasis on the percussions of it!

i don’t like the distant whispery vocals on the “Put it on the fire, feel good, Put it out cold and feel good”, it sounds really weird. because those lyrics are one of my favourites in the original song with chief puddle. i’d definitely rather listen to his version

overall this is a 3/5 dashies! “It’s Good!” i like katy’s vocals, but they definitely come out better on other tracks, and i miss chief puddle.

[6) PJ Berri Jam] - Much Love To The Funny Bear That Make’s Me Smile.

title made me a lot more excited for this song than i ended up feeling about it... OBVIOUSLY NO INSULT TO PJ’S JAM BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN COOL TO HAVE A BEAT WITH ORIGINAL LYRICS instead of just lines from the one cutscene...

it’d have been cooler if it was longer too, but i understand why it wasn’t, because the instrumentals work best in this little snippet instead of long-term where they’d definitely require more lyrics

i like that it sounds like the Fire Fire! parappa version considering that’s his first stage! i don’t know if there’s any verification to this, but it makes me think that the beats for all of parappa’s songs in Um Jammer Lammy are made by PJ, which is just really nice to think about... he’s so skilled ;_; PJ and parappa’s iconic collabs...

i don’t know how to rate this at all, but for the headcanon it gave me, i’m giving it a 4/5 dashies! “Really Good!”

[7) BIRTH SONG] - i wouldn’t play for someone else

EXTREMELY FUNNY NAME

i think i like the choir vocals of the song in the cutscenes, but i definitely love katy’s voice in this one, it sounds really sweet

i can’t remove it from the weirdness of the scenario (the first time i saw that shit i was so goddamn baffled) but this does actually Make It Sweet!

i love how her voice sounds in the chorus, and the last line (“Our newest little baby!”) sounds really nice in her voice!! 

IDK EXACTLY HOW TO DESCRIBE IT... her vocals just seem... sweetly genuine? like not that she’s really invested in what she’s saying, but just that she’s really enjoying singing it in a small and cute way? IDK... EITHER WAY i like it!

i like the additional lyrics as well! extensions to parappa/ujl songs should always be welcomed i think.

overall i rate this a 3.5/5 dashies! “Pretty Good!” weird song made fun and sweet by katy kat, thank you so much!

[8) THEME OF RAMMY] - music that makes you cause problems

yesssss YESSSSSSS YESSSSSSSSSS

WHEN I GOT TO THIS TRACK IT BECAME ONE OF MY NEW FAVOURITES OF THE WHOLE GAME!

i love the ditzy yet cool lull of the electric guitar, it sounds playful and silly, but with the aesthetic of the instruments used in the song it sounds awesome at the same time.

the strings throughout the song following the rhythm of that guitar add a slight classical feel to it as well that i really like, a level of elegance in contrast to the next part i describe

the muffled and staticy electric guitar parts sound so discordant, yet perfectly in control at the same time, and very In-Your-Face as they just come and go at random over the base sillysong. i really really like that, and it shows off Rammy’s fiery attitude!

i really love how the violent clash of the instruments seems to come together so well in this. it is a really well-made song that made me like Rammy more than i did previously. i think people who know me well will understand that i really like strings in otherwise intense songs, like violins and stuff, so i was really happy to hear some!

FULLY HONESTLY, MY ONLY WISH? is that it was longer. LOL

as an aside, the lull i described reminds me way too much of the theme for sam and max’s office in the TTG series. which obviously is a very personal reason to like the song more, but it is a reason for me NoneTheLess.

overall this gets a 5/5 dashies! “Amazing!”

[9) CASINO IN MY HAIR] - texan ear worm signs.

PAUL CHUCK COME GET YOUR SONG

ALSO THIS SONG BELONGS TO SANDY CHEEKS.

katy kat’s voice fits this song EXTREMELY SURPRISINGLY WELL! i like that she puts on the accent and everything, the rhythm of the lyrics and her enthusiasm go together so NICE!

i like the expansion of the lyrics and the repetition of it is one of its strengths, like any song of that kind (hopefully)

it’s a really big earworm for me, and every so often ill just sing out “Where’s that place that comes in pairs whenever I’m aware? Casino here, casino there, casino in my hair!” VERY SIMPLE YET VERY CATCHY

Yee Haw!

overall i rate this a 4.5/5 dashies! “Super Cool!” it couldn’t be better, but i wouldn’t say it’s one of the best, just for the sheer quality of the other songs i’ve given 5/5 to so far

SIDENOTE - [10) Radio Signal Jam] - F*ck you

OK. i like the presentation of this as if it’s playing live on a radio. it’s a nice little additional flavour to the whole thing that i enjoy immensely. HOWEVER.

nothing can match my disappointment at the next song not being Master Onion’s song. My heart will forever be broken by this traitorous deception. I was promised Tamanegi Sensei. Where is he! WHERE IS HE!!! WAS HE TO BUSY GAMBLING?? COME BACK I LOVE YOU

O-K let’s move on

[11) TASTE OF TERIYAKI] - songs that have mood swings

this song baffles me. i definitely get what they were trying to do with the intro portions with the dramatic quiet, the focus on the vocals and guitar with the creeping and echoing drums and reverberating electronic sounds

it could’ve been really cool, but for the most part it frankly sounds sh*t.

if they could’ve gotten some line re-dos from Teriyaki’s singer to match the lower tempo, it definitely would have sounded most excellent. But the use of the lyrics from the high-tempo song here is just jarring. when i showed this to my brother he genuinely just started laughing from how bad it sounded.

BUT HERE’S WHERE I CAN’T JUST RULE IT AS A BAD SONG.

THE SUDDEN SHIFT INTO THE HIGH TEMPO. IT IS BEAUTIFUL. IT ADDS SO MUCH EXTRA POWER TO THE CHORUS OF THE SONG. i like the song more with the brass and the backup singers, but this genuinely sounds so goddamn cool.

i LOVE the additional lines from teriyaki, it makes them sound even more like an idol! they sound amazing!

And then it stops. Back to the slow nonsense. I am left to dream of what could’ve been. i will say this one sounds better than the other one. Possibly because it’s shorter.

AND THEN THE AWESOME SONG COMES BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND I’M LIKE YEAH WOO!!!!! i love the additional discordant sounds in this version, and i like that they did sometimes include the cool SHHH-PSHHH slap-ish sound in the chorus for this portion. the da da da DA DA! being with guitars instead of brass used to disappoint me, but the more i hear it here, the more i like it.

and then my favourite part of the song: the backup vocals combined with a fast rattling-off of teriyaki’s vocal lines from parappa’s version. this sounds godlike. This is the best. I roll around in circles listening to and thinking about this part. the fact that it fades out right as it gets to that breaks my heart into little pieces.

and then it’s over...

i think it’s very fitting that the song that takes over the album out of nowhere and is literally from hell is the most baffling and loved/hated by me. i don’t think i’ve ever been able to truly say that i both love and hate a song.

if someone was good enough at editing to combine this with the actual version of the song, as well as the vocal lines from parappa’s version, into an essentially extended cut of the album version without the weird slow parts, i would be forever indebted to them.

overall i rate this a ???/5 dashies. ”Help!” it flipflops way too much for me to give a number. Thank you Teriyaki Yoko.

[12) POWER OFF! POWER ON!] - HYYYYYYPE

i need to say it. this song has the coolest sounds in the entire game. this is one of the songs that i might abruptly decide is my favourite for a day or so and then go back to Fire Fire! or Taste of Teriyaki (game version). the guitar is most exquisite in this song.

my little brother adores this song, and a big part of that is credited to the silly vocals of Paul Chuck. he’s like Goofy but extra lethal. i love him

ANYWAYS. after Fire Fire! i was concerned that this song’s vocals would be replaced entirely by Katy, but it seems like they understood Paul Chuck’s integral nature to the charm of the song, and so we get a back-and-forth of them both singing lines, with lammy playing in between. it sounds REALLY good!

i like the additional lines by Chuck at the beginning during the intro. they’re a nice little bonus for the three Paul Chuck fans that exist (two being me and my brother)

as always, gotta love katy kat’s vocals!! they definitely benefit from being combined with the vocals of the original song. the chorus parts where they both sing in unison sound AWESOME!!! i wonder if the Fire Fire! cover would have benefited from this alternation....

the filter over the “NEVER USE JOE CHIN’S CHAIN’S FOR THEM!” really adds to it as well! i like that addition.

by the way my favourite line from this song is the “All I wanna hear is you’ve come over here, there’s no fooling around with gears!” it just has such a good flow. not really explicitly related to this version specifically, maybe less so since i prefer it with Chuck’s voice over Katy’s, but yeah.

this song is really hard for me in-game. like, more than any other song i think, apart from Taste of Teriyaki. which i would like to thank this song for allowing me to escape from (-=

this gets a 5/5 Dashies and a “DA-HYUCK!” from me!

[13) WE ARE MILKCAN!!] - Woaah My Head Is Spinning!

another original that only plays during the cutscenes, understandably without the vocals. i liked it then, and i like it even more now!

katy’s lyrics add SO SO MUCH to the high-tempo intensity of the introduction to this song, and the chaos of the entire thing makes it really fun to listen to

i do still enjoy the slower parts of this song! i can imagine katy singing this as the events she describe happen in real time. i really like listening to her try to encourage lammy and ma-san to get it together and play with her. 

the bouncing between the full music of her lines contrasting with the quiet and dinky replies of ma-san and lammy makes this track really fun to listen to!

after that part, it goes back to sounding like the intro portion again, but increases in tempo drastically overtime, before suddenly slowing down again and then launching into high speed at random. it’s a really fun and theatrical and dramatic piece to listen to!!!

personally though, it’s not so much my thing based on the sound alone. it’s definitely a great song but i like things a little more relaxed and orderly than this. the quality of it comes from the lyrics and the emotions they manage to carry through with the instrumentals. its a really good glimpse into the nature and personality of MilkCan!

i give this song a 4/5! “Really Good!” there’s nothing i’d suggest to improve this song. it’s just a little to hectic for me, and feels more like music for a theatrical play than any other track. i generally don’t like that kind of stuff (altho there’s definitely exceptions)

SIDENOTE - [14) Jam Chin] - F*ck you eggplant head saunaman.

You disrespected Parappa. You disrespected Sunny Funny and her sweet smile. You have disrespected MilkCan.

Thank you Ma-San for killing this man. I love U.

[15) GOT TO MOVE! (Millennium Girl)

the final song... i knew it would be Got To Move... it makes COSMIC sense

i like the additional little part before the song begins giving some time to breathe in before my head starts screaming in excitement at this song.

this is an AMAZING song and another one of my little brother’s favourites! he likes to sing it! it’s not one of my favourites but it’s definitely revered with me. it’s a sheer quality song and the one that best captures the soul of MilkCan!!

and i have to say. this album version made me like it EVEN MORE. at first i was enjoying the regular song, but then in the second part PARAPPA comes in with the alternate lines from his version in-between Katy Kat’s lines. it is SO SO SO cool. i often think about how songs in the game would sound with parappa’s versions incorporated in some fashion like this and it comes out so EPIC!!

it seriously made me pog SO hard when i heard him coming in. SOOOO exciting!

some thought notes about this song:

i really like the guitar during the portion leading up to the chorus, it sounds really cool.

katy’s singing in the chorus itself is the best of ALL her singing! her voice blends perfectly with the tone, the pitch shifts, the vibes... angellic truly

parappa‘s lyrics in-between add such an awesome additional energy, especially the lyrics that go on a little longer, like “But let me give you a word of advice, it seems like a waste of time, but it’s nice!” those lines shine the most to me.

my other favourite part is the rapid backforth in the later part of the chorus, especially the “GO! ON! MOVE! ON!” between katy’s lines. it goes together IMPECCABLY

it should be obvious, but this song gets a 5/5 Dashies from me! “Amazing!” it truly blew me away, just like the 5/5 Dashie portions of Taste of Teriyaki did. i love the fact that Parappa’s lines are slightly more muted and behind a bit of a filter to make sure the focus is on Katy’s iconic lines, but are clear enough to be enjoyed.

Truly Thank U so much if you read this far... i love u so mach.... thank you for listening to me ramble about my current hyperfix <3 (-=

[queensparklekitten]

11-year-old me’s takes on Willcraft Animations Monster School

My pre-teen self had massive amounts of fanon and headcanons with the Monster School videos that actually made the videos more complex and worldbuilt than they ever were in canon. Part of this came from me imagining up dialogue into every single video, part of it was just me observing and coming up with theories. 

Anyways: 

The reason Creep has to steal others’ work is that he can’t see the whiteboard behind Ghist. (seriously, watch the Crafting video, he sits right behind a ghast!) 

Speaking of the crafting video, you know how Creep made a pickaxe, Ghist made a lantern (out of Zombee’s head) and Skellington made an ender eye? They were all planning to go mining and exploring strongholds after school. 

In the cooking video, Zombee puts gold in the cauldron. Why? Because he thought it was an actual cooking ingredient- namely, butter! After all, there IS a popular YouTuber who refers to gold as butter in Minecraft... and Zombee watches him. 

What a lot of the characters (except Zombee, who does NOT commit autocannibalism) made in the cooking video is something they like to eat. Endie loves melon, Mucus likes cake, Spider likes that stew he made with the potatoes and the villager and the XP point, Zombieswine likes mushroom stew, Skellington likes anything he can make to look cool (like that chicken-and-melon thing that looks like a flower), Ghist eats porkchops and apples when she can access them, and meanwhile, Creep put TNT in the furnace because TNT is the main diet of creepers. Also, the dyes are all flavoured. 

There’s a password to get by the iron golem in Stealing. The password is different for every species. Creep got past, but Zombee tried “lemonade” and failed because that’s the creeper password.  (i picked Lemonade from a lyric in the Creeper Rap video) 

Zombieswine and Ghist formed that alliance because many Nether mobs have an unspoken fraternity that comes of living in the land of fire and death. 

 You know Endie’s terrifying berserker mode? All endermen have that, and it awakens for the first time in pre-teen or early teen years. Before then, making eye contact with a player has no effect, but then again, it’s not like younger endermen ever leave the End, so they probably won’t have player encounters. Some endermen simply have heightened kill instincts and highly heightened desire to kill, and have their strength and physical stats upped. Other endermen enter a completely different state of mind where they practically become someone else, and are entranced in their desire to KILL in an over-the-top way that often involves toying with or dismembering your prey before killing it, as well as eating it afterwards. Endie is firmly all the way at the “different state of mind, decisions made entirely by subconscious because the conscious mind has one thought and that’s KILL” end of that spectrum, making him one of the more deadly endermen when in berserker mode. Also, when this superpowered killer state is about to awaken for the first time, there’s signs all over the place. In the Hiding video, remember how Endie was noticeably meaner than usual, throwing a bookshelf at Zombieswine and going out of his way to give himself a better hiding spot then the others? That’s no accident. Endermen suddenly losing their morals is a sign that their berserker mode has awakened and that next time they make eye contact with a player, that player will be DESTROYED. 

Word of Endie’s superpowered killer side spread REALLY fast, and everyone knew about it very fast. By combat class, everyone was raring to see it. That’s why, when Endie covered his eyes due to being slightly scared of his sadistic killer alter ego, Spider climbed on him and moved his hands. When Endie fought in that class, everyone cheered him on and freaked out. 

Also in the combat video, when Skellington is forced to use a bow, he remembers that he had arrows in his backpack, and he fetches his backpack. He intentionally hid the poisoned pumpkin pie in there, and it was his plan all along to use that instead. 

Zombieswine plays Super Mario. That’s why he always gets mushrooms involved in what he does. 

In the Halloween video, the reason Zupay griefed the second house too even though it gave him candy was because he hates that flavour. 

Endie does eventually get over his fear of his berserker mode, seeing as he willingly enters it in Scaring class. He still won’t use it against other hostile mobs without a reason to, though. It can still be activated against them, though, which Herobrine exploited when he used illusion stuff to make Endie see Witton as a player just long enough to activate his superpowered killer mode in the second combat video. 

In the field trip episode, Zupay went dragonriding because, on the bus, Endie told him and others about it when he was chatting about the End on the way there. Endermen do ride the ender dragon sometimes, but it’s a rule in the End that you can’t do it unless it’s on the dragon’s terms, a rule which Zupay straight-up broke. Later on, Endie is chatting with the enderdragon because he knows her, and he’s both apologizing for Zupay and talking shit about him. 

The bus trip episode takes place after the second combat one. And when Hildegarde confiscates the flint and steel, Zupay NEVER gets it back. Serves him right! 

You see that rec room at the beginning of the second combat video? And the other room Zupay was in? Yeah, the second room is meant for killing practice, on chickens and animals, but it’s not used nearly as often as the rec room with a snack bar and a block crafts section. 

The longer Endie spends in berserker mode, the more violent he gets, and the more likely he is to go out of his way to inflict as much pain and suffering as he can before the kill. He also loses the ability to distinguish friends from enemies when in berserker mode, as can be demonstrated when he not only mercilessly tears apart Multus in the second combat video, but also seems to take sadistic pleasure in doing so while leaving his enemy alive as long as possible. Only other endermen are immune to being seen as kill targets when Endie is in that state. The same is true for all endermen. 

Mucus freaking LOVES redstone. 

Before I saw the Christmas episode, I’d formed headcanons about where the characters all lived. I liked them better than the caves, so I decided that during holidays and events, it’s considered good luck among hostile mobs to spend the night in the nearest cave, especially if you decorate it a little. (yeah, for Nether mobs, this includes under-lava caves.) The energies from caves (the darkness, the noises that scare players, the treasures, the protection from sunlight) is believed to bring power and fortune. As for where they live when it’s not event season, Skellington’s place is a mob spawner room, Cavell’s is an abandoned mineshaft, Silvester’s is a stronghold, Endie lives in the End (and he teleports to the Overworld so he can hang out with his friends in caves during events), Ghist lives on an overhang in the Nether that’s partly walled off by lava, Spider and Creep live in a forest, Zombieswine’s place is just the fiery Nether terrain, same with Maggie but she’s closer to the lava sea, Blaise and Witton are Nether fortress roommates and don’t believe the cave superstition, and Zombee and Mucus actually do live in caves (the latter is near the bedrock layer). 

You know the ripoffs? The monster school videos made by people other than Willcraft, videos that copied the format but lack what makes Monster School awesome? Yeah, those are actually different schools, but they exist in the same universe. Every now and then there’s competitions between the schools. Come on, that one building can’t fit every preteen/teenage hostile mob around! There’s gotta be several. 

[grigori77]

Hidden Gem #7

SPARTAN

Dir./Wri. DAVID MAMET; Music. MARK ISHAM; Starring. VAL KILMER, DEREK LUKE, TIA TEXADA, KRISTEN BELL, JOHNNY MESSNER, ED O’NEILL, WILLIAM H. MACY, SAÏD TAGHMAOUI, CLARK GREGG; R.T. 106 mins; 2004, USA/Germany

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Gunnery Sergeant Robert Scott (Kilmer) is a former Force Recon marine who spends his days evaluating candidates for Delta Force until Laura Newton (Bell), the daughter of the President of the United States, is kidnapped.  Scott is brought into the investigation team so they can utilise his unique, highly-tuned skill-set to find her and bring her home alive, but as the trail grows more twisted Scott realises something much darker and more insidious may be going on.

WHY IT’S AWESOME: Back in the early-to-mid 2000’s, Val Kilmer’s acting career went through a small renaissance – he’d been a real one-to-watch in the 80s, with impressive early showings like Top Secret! and Real Genius leading to true career-making roles in blockbusters like Top Gun and Willow, as well as the critically acclaimed and deservedly beloved Thunderheart, but the 90s (Heat notwithstanding) saw his star power wane through lacklustre crap like Batman Forever, The Saint and overly-troubled-shoot-resulting-in-serious-misfire The Island of Dr Moreau.  Then he made an impressive comeback in quirky indie thriller The Salton Sea and Shane Black’s truly awesome directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but this was the true clincher, an airtight conspiracy suspense thriller that really reminded us just what we saw in Val in those golden early days.  Scott is an ice-cold professional with the kind of steely calm and ruthless patience that makes him a perfect operative in any given situation, and Kilmer keeps his showier impulses tightly reined in for a performance of mesmerising focus and subtlety, effortlessly driving the film from low-key opening to ambiguous ending.  He’s deftly supported by an impressive cast – Derek Luke is likeably earnest as Scott’s decidedly green rookie partner and a pre-Veronica Mars Kristen Bell shines in a decidedly difficult role, while veterans like William H. Macy and Ed O’Neill add heavyweight gravitas to proceedings – but this is VERY MUCH Kilmer’s film, and I don’t think he’s ever been better.  He was certainly SPOILED by the material on offer – David Mamet is one of the truly GREAT creative voices in Hollywood, and this film certainly stands tall and proud amidst the top-drawer likes of The Untouchables, House of Games, Heist and his ultimate masterpiece, Glengarry Glen Ross.  Mamet injects the film with his distinctive brand of intensity and relentless drive, the breathless pace and consistently surprising multi-layered plot keeping us engaged while the visceral, robust set-pieces easily get our adrenaline pumping.  It’s also ferociously intelligent, Mamet’s edgy style adding strong flavour to precision-engineered, fully-realised characters and gloriously rich quick-fire dialogue.  A solid gold thriller from a master filmmaker then, and the perfect vehicle for the career-best performance of one of Hollywood’s most underappreciated acting talents …

[100days1000hills-blog]

It was nibyiza

The project. As previously-mentioned, our internship is based off of the Fiti Probiotic Yoghurt Project and establishing a campus kitchen or research centre at the University of Rwanda is among our goals. Another one of our goals has been to physically make the yoghurt with Rwandan supplies to determine whether the yoghurt’s production is possible in this country.

The trial production had been delayed due to a number of factors but finally, we acquired the necessary means and began the process. One of our neighbours, Grace, was interested in helping us make the probiotic yoghurt so I invited her over on the day we had set out to do it. She came at around 6pm but Michael and Diah were out. I knew that the two of them would probably like to witness and participate in the process but I also knew that we had to get the ball rolling on something in the meantime.

So, Grace and I decided to make some jams that we would ideally use to fold into the yoghurt to make it flavourful. It was a very interesting process and we made some delicious mango jam and banana jam.

I realized that Michael and Diah wouldn’t miss too much because the initial steps are just to boil the milk and that I better get a move on this 24h process. Grace and I began to culture the milk. Diah and Mike came home as the milk pasteurization was almost finished. Turns out you don’t need 5 people or 10 hands to boil milk but it was a bonding experience nonetheless.

We followed with the subsequent instructions and played the waiting game. 24 hours later, I whipped open the fridge, grabbed the giant pot, then let disappointment set in. Milk. It was still milk. I was so confused because I followed the steps with intense precision, or so I thought.

I sought out help. I messaged some of our sister interns in Tanzania who worked at an already-established probiotic yoghurt kitchen in search of counsel. Anisah, one of the interns, let me know what the consistency of the yoghurt should be and sent along some photos from the lab a few hours later. It looked nothing like the milk that we had in our fridge. What a waste.

We left it. We knew we had to try again but the first time was so exhausting that we just decided to wait a week before trying our hand at it once more. We left it until about 2 days ago when we ran out of room in our fridge. Our housekeeper, Mariam, took the pot out and left it on the counter. As we busied ourselves with the day-to-day routine of our internship obligations and other work, we didn’t even acknowledge the pot’s presence on the counter. When I realized, I opened the pot in disgust. The milk looked separated and there was a liquid layer atop chunks of discoloured milk. I don’t know what possessed me to smell what my brain already deemed as rancid but I did and became even more confused. It smelled what I can describe as both “yuck” and “hmm.” How could something smell good and bad at the same time? I left it.

When I saw Mariam next, she spoke and gestured to the big pot on the counter with an excited look on her face. Mind you, Mariam speaks Kinyarwanda and French, two language of which I am largely unfamiliar. With what I’m sure was a dumbfounded expression, I asked her in Kinyarwanda if it was bad. She said no. I looked at her. I looked at the pot. I remembered the smell... I asked again if it wasn’t bad and she told me no. She grabbed a spoon and began to mix it. From what I gathered in our usual Key-Mariam dialogue (small words and big gestures) she told me that our neighbour, Giselle, makes yogurt every day and that this is what it looks like in the process. She urged me to ask Giselle for a whisk and assured me that this was not bad, it was nibyiza.

[oosteven-universe]

Batman The Impostor #2

Batman The Impostor #2 DC Black Label 2021 Written by Mattson Tomlin Illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino Coloured by Jordie Bellaire    Detective Blair Wong set her sights on Bruce Wayne as a source of information about the Batman-but neither of them was ready for the sparks that flew when they met. Unfortunately for their relationship, the impostor Batman has killed again, and the pressure is mounting to close the case…immediately!    Wow what a difference this is to how Bruce grew up in the “regular” universe.  With a few tweaks suddenly he’s a completely different kind of man than what we’re used to and I have to say I’m not entirely sure which version I’m more partial to.  Bruce’s acting out as an eleven year old boy is completely normal and natural after being there and witnessing his parents murder.  Not so much however was what we learned of the other folks who supported Bruce during those years.  What I really appreciate about this issue is the fact that Mattson really takes the reader off page in how they are engaged in this story.  You go between what you’ve known and what is presented and begin to see the larger picture of who Bruce Wayne is and what he could’ve become, even going so far and seeing him as the Owlman of Earth 3.      I am loving the way that this is being told.  The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well.  The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does wonders showcasing their personalities.  The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we’re kind of stunned into silence.    I am loving the way that we see this being structured and the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen.  I also like the way that we see the layers open up new avenues to be explored and how these add such great depth, dimension and complexity to the story.  The telling the tale after the fact or while still fresh in the memory really does allow for some interesting back and forth between them.  How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably achieved.    The interiors are stunning.  Andrea is such a talented artist and illustrator and the linework we see is exquisite so that with the varying weights and techniques being utilised to bring out this level & quality in the attention to detail is stupendous.  His art style  is unique and instantly recognisable.  Between the backgrounds and the composition of the panels we see such delightful depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story really helps enhance and expand the story.  The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling.   The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show an amazing eye for how colour works.   ​    Last issue intrigued me, enough that I surely came back to see what was going to happen and this issue, well this issue just read you like a book and took away your library card.  This takes us to church and serves it up but good.  The revelations along with the twists & turns of what we learn, no ma’am we never stood a chance.  The writing here is exceptional, the characterisation is flawless and the interiors are bloody brilliant.  Whatever this bat flavoured kool-aid y’all are serving up i’m guzzling by the gallon because this is phenomenal.  

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 2 July 2018

Quick Bits:

Ant-Man & The Wasp #3 is another fun issue in this mini as Scott and his tiny alien friends try to come up with a way to rescue Nadia. I’m still highly impressed by Javier Garrón’s art on this series, as it continues to push inventive designs, combined with Israel Silva’s bright, bouncy colours.

| Published by Marvel

Astonishing X-Men #13 begins Matthew Rosenberg and Greg Land’s run on the title and it’s very well done. It kicks off what looks to be Havok’s redemption arc, but the road is very rocky and unlike say, Magneto or Sabretooth, he’s not being given too much slack from his former compatriots. This first issue has a good deal of Rosenberg’s trademark humour and some pretty decent art from Land, Jay Leisten, and Frank D’Armata.

| Published by Marvel

Avengers #4 made it dawn on me what this run reminds me of, Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s run on JLA. It’s intelligently crafted, widescreen action with Jason Aaron, Paco Medina, Ed McGuinness, Juan Velasco, Mark Morales, and David Curiel pulling it off very, very well.

| Published by Marvel

Captain America #1 is great. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ debut on the series finally addresses the fallout of Secret Empire on a personal and emotional level and it leads to an incredibly compelling story of war and pieces, as a new threat begins to surface and we’re left in a world where people don’t know who to trust. The story is enriched immensely by Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, and Sunny Gho’s artwork which is just incredible. Yu is a consummate storyteller and this book is just flawless with its visuals. I’m very interested to see where this creative team is going to take this story.

| Published by Marvel

Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 continues the fun that was to be had during Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, and Antonio Fabela’s excellent run on Thanos, with Cates’ Interceptor/Reactor collaborator, Dylan Burnett taking on the art chores. You don’t need to have read the earlier Thanos series to come in here, but I still highly recommend reading that run. “Thanos Wins” was a damn good story and so is this. The irreverent humour is here in spades, the art is glorious, and Frank Castle’s new mission should be interesting.

| Published by Marvel

Dark Ark #8 takes a very interesting turn as Shrae confronts the monster of the deep plaguing Noah’s ark. Juan Doe’s designs for even more of the monsters, and the deep one, are amazing.

| Published by AfterShock

Deadpool #2 has more glorious art from Nic Klein. This is among the best art in a Deadpool series and the character has seem some pretty incredible artists work on him. I can again easily recommend the title on the art alone, but I do have to say that the story is growing on me. I like the somewhat serious yet patently ridiculous interplay between Klein’s art and Skottie Young’s dialogue, with some very nice humorous moments here.

| Published by Marvel

Death of the Inhumans #1 is going to break your heart. Even if you hate the Inhumans, this is pretty harrowing. Donny Cates, Ariel Olivetti, and Jordie Bellaire are crafting a tale of loss here and this issue really makes that loss feel real, the threat possibly inescapable, as the Kree threaten genocide. This is pretty epic and I’m anxious to see what happens next.

| Published by Marvel

Death or Glory #3 is a harrowing issue, cutting deep twice, once as we go on a trip through Glory’s past and once again in the present, with a few other punches for good measure. Rick Remender and Bengal are delivering an incredibly nuanced, well-thought out, well-illustrated crime tale here and I recommend it highly for everyone. Loving this series.

| Published by Image / Giant Generator

Delta 13 #3 reaches the point in the horror story where there are weird shenanigans going on, but the creature(s) haven’t yet revealed themselves to the crew. Steve Niles and Nat Jones are really milking the atmosphere they’ve established, it should be very interesting when the story explodes.

| Published by IDW

Doctor Strange #3 is labelled as an Infinity Wars tie-in and given that it advances the plot and whereabouts of the Time Stone, it is absolutely essential to the overall story (even if “Infinity Countdown tie-in” might be a better label at this current point). Mark Waid and Jesús Saiz deliver a mostly standalone story here, fleshing out some of the character development between Strange and Kanna, but this issue should have interesting ramifications on the wider Infinity Stones arc.

| Published by Marvel

Giant Days #40 sees the welcome return of Max Sarin to the art chores, coinciding with Ed moving back in from the hospital. I’m impressed with what John Allison does with the confrontation between Ed and Esther. It’s not at all what I would have expected, but it feels right.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

The Gravediggers Union #8 is the quiet before the storm, with Cole having a talk with his daughter before the end, trying to convince her to walk away from destroying the world. I still love how Wes Craig, Toby Cypress, and Niko Guardia have turned this huge, weird epic into a deeply personal story of a girl who feels betrayed by her parents. Very much looking forward to seeing how this concludes next issue.

| Published by Image

The Highest House #5 is another brilliant issue in this series that everyone should be reading. Everyone. The layers of characters, the intricacies of the plot, the absolutely amazing artwork, Mike Carey, Peter Gross, and Fabien Alquier are crafting a masterpiece here.

| Published by IDW

Hunt for Wolverine: Weapon Lost #3 takes a turn as the detective group searching for Wolverine find a Wolverine. As with the other Hunt for Wolverine minis, most of this looks to be shaping up to be a wild goose chase, but for the most part these are still interesting stories in their own right. Charles Soule gives us another cliffhanger at the end here, I wonder if it will end up like last issue’s?

| Published by Marvel

Immortal Hulk #2 I’d probably argue is even better than the first issue. While that feel of the lonesome wanderer that’s reminiscent of the television series and the Marvel Knights run from Bruce Jones is still present here, of a Bruce Banner terrified of the Hulk, the story here twinges a different flavour, Len Wein and Bernie Wrighton’s Swamp Thing. This issue taps into that feel of the reticent monster, hunting down things that are even worse. This is a great standalone tale from Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, and Paul Mounts.

| Published by Marvel

Incognegro: Renaissance #5 concludes this wonderful series, working out the final details leading up to Xavier’s murder. Like the original Incognegro graphic novel, Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece have crafted a wonderful mystery that weaves into it some very important, very interesting history and sociological themes. I’m hoping that there will be more.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Infinity Countdown: Champions #2 makes some big changes, huge developments really, that make this issue absolutely necessary if you’re a regular Champions reader. Jim Zub, Emilio Laiso, and Andy Troy conclude this tale on a bittersweet note, including an epic confrontation between the team and Warbringer.

| Published by Marvel

Joe Hill’s The Cape: Fallen #1 reunites the team who adapted Joe Hill’s short story the first time around, Jason Ciaramella, Zach Howard, and Nelson Daniel, for a new mini set between the panels of the original story. While reading the original certainly informs this, I feel like you can still enjoy this new mini so far on its own merits.

| Published by IDW

The Last Siege #2 brings us round to gathering the pieces for the conflict between this last bastion against an upstart king, as well as the ramifications of capture and exile of Sir Feist. Like the first issue, the art from Justin Greenwood and Eric Jones is perfect.

| Published by Image

Medieval Spawn & Witchblade #3 incrementally advances us forward, giving us a fight between Spawn and one of the Queen’s minions and delivering a bit of exposition on the Witchblade’s legacy. I’m not sure if it’s in Brian Haberlin’s originals, since it kind of looks like he’s using digital models, or ultimately completely Geirrod van Dyke’s work, but the rendering on Spawn and Scourge’s armours looks incredible.

| Published by Image

Paradiso #5 returns with some incredible world-building as we learn more about the religion of the world as it is now and of some of the history and landmarks throughout the city. Everything about this series is amazing, with Ram V, Devmalya Pramanik, Alba Cardona Gil, and Aditya Bidikar, creating something very unique here.

| Published by Image

The Quantum Age #1 begins a new ongoing series in the Black Hammer empire, with Jeff Lemire riffing on the Legion of Super-Heroes, and Wilfredo Torres and Dave Stewart providing some beautiful artwork. I’ve loved what Lemire and his artistic collaborators in Dean Ormston, David Rubín, Max Fiumara, and Stewart have done previously, deftly working through the various different eras of comicdom (mainly with analogues to DC stuff), while still telling engaging surface level stories. This looks to be no different, although featuring a future gone wrong rather than the optimism of the usual LoSH stories.

| Published by Dark Horse

Submerged #1 is an enthralling first issue, with Vita Ayala, Lisa Sterle, and Stelladia capturing an almost perfect balance of magical realism, juggling between the fantasy and horror of the descent into the underworld and the mundane of Elysia’s family life.

| Published by Vault

Thief of Thieves #38 comes a little more than a year and a half after the last issue, with a transition from Andy Diggle to Brett Lewis on writing duties for this final arc. There’s a decided stylistic shift, from all out action to Lewis’ epistolary narration, but with Shawn Martinbrough’s art it still feels like a continuation of the overall story. It does a decent job recapping what happened previously in story through a flashback of Conrad’s last moments, but even as someone who’s read the rest of the series, I feel like I need to go back and re-read them again for full impact.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Transformers: Lost Light #19 adds a step away from zombie robots to the mix as the series races towards the end. There are a lot of moving parts coming together in James Roberts’ script, plot threads and characters converging from years of storytelling, and the payoff is pretty epic. It’s also really nice to see a return of IDW’s original Transformers artist, EJ Su. It seems fitting as everything starts coming to an end to return to the beginning.

| Published by IDW

Unnatural #1 begins republishing in English Mirka Andolfo’s Contro Natura, which was originally published by Panini in Italian. It’s definitely different for North American markets, but I welcome more translations and more funny animal books. Especially ones as good as Andolfo delivers here. The art is phenomenal and the story, putting forth a society that is oppressive in its reproductive rights, making taboo any number of unions that don’t follow conception, is a much needed one.

| Published by Image

Weapon X #20 continues this transition into a new incarnation of the team. It’s not as hard a break into the new as the solicitations and some of the ads would have you believe, continuing on the story of Omega Red and the Russian mutant death camps, but it’s working towards setting up a new status quo under Sabretooth’s lead. The humour and action from Greg Pak and Fred van Lente is still present, but they’re joined here by Ricardo López Ortiz, just recently having finished an arc on Hit-Girl, who brings a decidedly different verve to the story.

| Published by Marvel

Other Highlights: Ask for Mercy #2, Assassinistas #6, Cloak & Dagger #2, Dungeons & Dragons: Evil at Baldur’s Gate #2, Elephantmen: The Death of Shorty #2, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #1, Ghostbusters: Crossing Over #4, Go Go Power Rangers #11, Hillbilly #11, Jazz Maynard #12, Jeepers Creepers #3, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #1, Jimmy’s Bastards #9, Judge Dredd: Under Siege #2, Lowlifes #1, The October Faction: Supernatural Dreams #5, Paper Girls #22, Prism Stalker #5, Pumpkinhead #5, Red Sonja/Tarzan #3, Ruin of Thieves #3, Spawn #287, Spider-Man vs. Deadpool #35, Spidey: School’s Out #3, Star Trek: Discovery - Succession #3, Star Wars #50, Star Wars: The Last Jedi #4, Throwaways #14, Transformers: Bumblebee #1, Vagrant Queen #2, Xerxes #4

Recommended Collections: Animosity - Volume 3: The Swarm, Betty & Veronica: Vixens - Volume 1, Doctor Strange: Damnation, Fear Agent - Volume 2, James Bond - Volume 2: Eidolon, Quantum & Woody! - Volume 1: Kiss Kiss Klang Klang, Rogue & Gambit: Ring of Fire, Scales & Scoundrels - Volume 2: Treasurehearts, Skin & Earth, Sleepless - Volume 1, Spider-Man - Volume 4, Transformers: Wreckers Saga, Witchblade - Volume 1

d. emerson eddy often feels like a stranger in a strange land

[lizzybeth1986]

“I’ve never met a problem a proper cupcake couldn’t fix” - Bittersweet, by Sarah Okler.

Hana’s connection with food has been a constant since Book 1. She is the first to comment on how delicious the cronuts are (and the only one to describe how they taste in detail). She proves herself an excellent baker at Applewood. She drowns her sorrows in comfort food and champagne when she recieves the news that she is to leave Cordonia immediately. Her (supposed) last tryst with the MC takes places while they have armfuls of dessert. Her first act of solidarity for the MC in Book 2 is to prepare hot chocolate for her, and her activity for Madeleine’s bachelorette is a chocolate fondue party.

As you can see, Hana is constant associated with desserts and sweet treats. Not only because she is, as the MC claims, “too sweet to be anything else”, but because the best desserts are those that have layers of flavour that go beyond merely sweet: sour, spiced, lightly salted. Ever heard of salted caramel? Chili chocolate truffles? Orange zest in a fruit pie? The contrasting flavours offset the sweetness to create an explosive dessert. So though Hana is sweet, there is so much to her left to be explored. We must remember that, above everything, Hana’s main character arc involves discovering who she is and what she wants. And that’s exactly what the MC aims to do. Using dessert.

On A Mission

As I have mentioned in previous essays, there are a number of sequences (Cordonian Waltz, Moonflower) that involve a heavy dose of both helping the MC out in achieving a goal and background information on Hana. Here, the MC and Hana, on learning that the former queen Regina was disappointed at the lack of religieuse at the tea party, figure that having one in hand could give the MC an edge in her mission. Hana, who has been to Paris often enough to understand where they can get the best pastry, is the perfect person to help the MC out.

Lavander Macarons

Besides being perfect for their mission, the pattiserie that Hana chooses is important for its nostalgic value as well. She shares memories of happier times with her mother, shopping in Paris, relaxing, learning to make baked goods so fluffy and delicious they would - as her mother out it - “win a man’s heart”. This shows us a glimpse of Hana’s childhood, and gives us an alternative glimpse of what her family is like when they aren’t pressuring her into being the perfect wife and hostess.

This part of the sequence is also important because it touches on the root of Hana’s confusions. We know that Hana is at a crossroads in her life, that she isn’t sure about what she wants. But up until this point we weren’t always sure about what she had expected her life to look like before the MC came along and changed everything.

Hana tells us that she had always imagined being happy in a life of cosy domesticity. It seemed simpler: her world would revolve around this one person, and her energies would be focused on making them happy than on delving into more complicated, frightening questions about herself.

The MC, however, having being brought up in a completely different environment, finds this disturbing.

Part of this is because this is the only life Hana has seen happen around her, and if it has made people around her happy, how would she be any different? That is why her coming to Cordonia involves such a change. Not because of the country itself - it is, after all, a society that operates on similar principles - but because of her involvement with the MC.

The Suitors

Because Rashad and Neville have already set their sights on wooing Hana, the MC doesn’t get to see them the way Hana does. The MC is, after all, outside of the social juggling game that the other nobles and ladies-in-waiting have to play, and therefore has no obligation towards getting a suitor the way Penelope, Kiara and Hana are. On the outset we don’t get very clear ideas of Rashad and Neville as people, but Hana - as someone who is compelled to choose someone if she has to solidify her already-tenuous position in Madeleine’s court - has to deal with them on a more regular basis.

Hana tells us that Rashad shows more involvement in his work with Sloan Enterprises than in either the court or in her (is it just me, or is Rashad repeating the mistakes that drove away his first fiancee, as he described in RoE Book 2?), and that Neville is self-absorbed and doesn’t seem to have any concern for the woman he should be spending his life with.

These are things that may not have bothered Hana earlier. But having experienced love, and (if she is the MC’s LI) having learned what it is like to have some who truly cares about you by your side, Hana has now grown to expect more out of her relationships. The major question that remains for her, however, is who she is, and what she wants from her life.

“I Want You”

What amazes me about this sequence is that Hana’s admission of her need for the MC is part of her default dialogue. Whether or not the MC chooses Hana as her LI, the truth stands that she is the sole reason Hana is here, and that Hana’s desire for her is a very tangible, very real thing - something that doesn’t disappear if the MC doesn’t return those feelings.

It is further complicated by her need to still do right by her parents, who do not understand her but cannot imagine their lives without her either. Whatever steps she can take at this point are baby steps, because she still cannot truly imagine a future that doesn’t involve them, nor can her parents truly imagine a future where the rules they have learned to live by do not apply.

Personality Test

The highlight of this sequence is the MC’s “personality test”, where she presents Hana three pastries and asks her to describe them, based on which the MC will highlight what aspect of Hana’s personality her response shows.

Hana’s experience in baking allows her to pick up on subtleties in what she tastes, and she clearly shows her knowledge in the way she describes each dessert given to her (“fluffy and indulgent” for the religieuse, “light and delicate” for the macarons and “classic, rich comfort food” for the chocolate cake). This also makes the MC’s job easier, because it allows her to develop a clearer idea of personality traits that the dessert could possibly reflect. The fact that Hana likes aspects of all the desserts tells us something very important about her journey at present: that her life could go in a million different directions, each more exciting than the last, and there will come a day when the myriad complexities in Hana’s personality will no longer confuse, but excite her instead. She is right about finding something good in all the desserts, because we find aspects of all these personality traits scattered throughout the books:

Religieuse

The MC classifies this dessert as a “girly girl’s dessert”, prim and proper and well-fitted for high society. Hana has been taught to be the perfect hostess and the perfect courtier, and this has been her life long enough for her to find comfort in it. At the Derby in Book 1, Hana speaks of enjoying tea parties alone with imaginary friends. Her dance moves (especially during the Finale dance-off) epitomizes grace, in clear contrast to Maxwell’s fierce energy. She still struggles with more rugged work (as shown at the barn raising) even though she does enjoy it, because she is not used to doing such things. She has learned to be artfully clumsy, because it makes men protective of her (as her mother had stated once. The choking incident at the tea party is one such occurance, where Neville and Rashad immediately come to her aid). While they are things that have been taught and instilled in her, delicacy and feminine grace have grown to be a part of who she is now.

Macarons

While described as “light and delicate”, Hana also makes an interesting observation about the variety of flavours in the macarons, thereby highlighting her interest in new things. We see this manifested in different ways in the books. At the American bar, she seems reluctant to try freestyle dancing at first, but shimmies like nobody’s business moments later. She researches dance styles for the dance-off with Maxwell, and watches The Bachelorette in preparation for her part in Madeleine’s bachelorette celebrations. At the barn raising, she is a quick study in learning how to use a hammer, and in the camping trip this chapter, she declines taking Liam’s help in favour of figuring out how to build the tent herself. Hana, whose life has been structured and planned for a long time, now embraces these little things as adventures she can learn from.

Chocolate Cake

The cake is simple and homey, but Hana points out that it also has hidden depths that many do not always notice at first taste. Much of Hana’s background, her motivations, her confusions, lie in what she tells us in many of her background diamond scenes. Without these, she seems little more than a shy young woman who is still learning her place in the world. It’s only when our MC gets closer to her that we see her conflicts and desires beyond her parents’ expectations. This ties in perfectly with her description of the cake as “rich” and “layered”. At the same time, it also allows us to reflect on Hana’s role as a nurturer to those she cares for: passing on wisdom and simple home truths to people who need it (on multiple occasions to the MC, and occasionally in Book 2 to Penelope). Hana is at heart also a person who loves to look after those she cares for, and to pamper them as best she can.

Hana’s future has clear potential, and there are a million directions her life can go. But the fact remains that she is also someone who doubts herself and her abilities, and doesn’t know if she is capable of making an identity independent of her parents.

In the end, she leaves us with a very poignant, very penetrating question:

[cmbynreviews]

«Why didn’t you give me a sign?» – "Call Me by Your Name"'s heady language of touch

A hand dares to reach out. The camera moves in as skin touches skin. We experience the tremor that touch elicits many times in Call Me by Your Name (2017), but all the more intensely when director Luca Guadagnino frames this gesture up close – notable in a film that truly vibrates in its wide shots. In the first of these sequences we see Oliver’s (Armie Hammer) hand land on Elio’s (Timothée Chalamet) bare shoulder. Oliver has paused a game of volleyball to snatch a water bottle from Elio that’s intended for someone else. But the camera is mostly interested in what Oliver is doing with his other hand – isolating it from the rest of Oliver’s body as he attempts to give Elio a massage. It’s an action that surprises, confuses, and arouses Elio. Apart from shaking hands when they are introduced, it’s the first real physical contact between the two men’s bodies, and the first step towards shrinking the physical space between them. Oliver, as he later explains, is touching Elio to show that he likes him. But Elio, despite feeling many things and wanting to know what’s in the American graduate student’s head, misreads this sign.

Much later, when they are on the threshold of becoming lovers, a close-up on Elio’s and Oliver’s hands sparks an even more powerful frisson. When Elio joins Oliver at midnight he finds him on the balcony outside their bedrooms and stands beside him, at a slight distance. The camera frames their hands side-by-side; then Oliver’s hand reaches out to close the space between them again. When he rests his hand gently on top of Elio’s, neither Elio nor the audience misreads the earth-shaking significance of this gesture. Elio now understands how Oliver uses touch to express himself. “I’m glad you came,” Oliver confirms; but his touch says more. Oliver’s hand on Elio’s speaks of desire and absolute acceptance. It says that Oliver wants Elio as much as Elio wants him, and that he wants him to stay right where he is.

Each film creates its own language. Call Me by Your Name’s language foregrounds tactility via images of bare skin, cooling water, and curvaceous, fecund fruits. In this intoxicating, immersive world of sun-kissed, sweating bodies, touch is explicitly sensual and pleasurable. Guadagnino’s history of linking food and sex in both I Am Love (2009) and A Bigger Splash (2015) finds full expression here too, but more importantly, touch is Elio’s and Oliver’s primary mode for communicating how they feel about each other. Words repeatedly fail them so they let their bodies do the talking. Call Me by Your Name is a film in which dialogue is used minimally for maximum effect. Its most powerful moments contain little or no speaking at all. This creates an erotic framework in which Elio and Oliver use touch to express their desire, but also curiosity, compassion, adoration, fear, and self-knowledge. Every touch between these young men’s bodies – a hand on a shoulder, a finger tracing lips, a playful, awkward hug, the tangling of toes – delivers a deeply erotic and emotional sensation that extends our understanding of who they are and what they want.

Importantly, Guadagnino isn’t only interested in the moments when Elio and Oliver dotouch, but in also making us feel the space between them when they don’t, and how urgent their desire to touch and be touched is. Call Me by Your Name’s erotic tension is inflamed by the long stretches of time in which Elio and Oliver want to touch but are not touching each other at all. Wide shots, low camerawork, and measured pacing stretch out time and space. We see how Elio and Oliver relate to each other’s bodies and how they communicate without words. For much of the film they hold each other at a distance, unsure if or when to move closer. Touch is a physical language for developing sexual intimacy that Elio, in particular, learns to speak and comprehend slowly and awkwardly, then most eloquently, when it’s almost too late.

Both Elio and Oliver have a personal dialogue with touch that they eventually share. From the start of Call Me by Your Name it seems almost unnatural to us that they are not communicating with each other in the same way, sewing another layer of urgency into their unspoken desire. One of Oliver’s earliest physical gestures underlines his tactility. On his first morning at the villa, he descends the stairs and his hand touches a textured wall hanging. Later, at breakfast, this sensual engagement with his surroundings continues. Oliver smashes into a soft-boiled egg and delights at the golden yolk that spurts forth. More than just indicating his ineptitude, this gesture tells us something more, reinforced when Oliver greedily gulps apricot juice and the camera records it, as if it’s Elio’s watchful eye, with both curiosity and reverence. Oliver’s repeated statement, first in relation to the eggs, then in relation to Elio, that, “I know myself,” confirms a voluptuous hunger. Oliver’s ease with touch is reinforced later in the film when his finger traces the lips of the bronze statue brought up at Lake Garda – a gesture that achieves its sensual promise when Oliver repeats it on Elio’s eager mouth prior to their first kiss, and then again when they are in bed together.

Elio is a ‘toucher’ too. The Perlmans regularly show affection through touch: Elio’s parents hug him; he often kisses them. He lives in a nurturing, physically expressive environment. Elio drapes himself over his female friends, Marzia (Esther Garrel) and Chiara (Victoire Du Bois), as a sign of their mostly platonic intimacy. But Oliver’s presence also introduces a more erotic flavour into Elio’s physical expression, which Chalamet conveys via instinctive choices. Elio is nervous and aware of the risks involved in “find[ing] the courage to reach out and touch,” as he jokes in relation to Marzia, the morning after their night swim. Of course the same is true of his timidity around Oliver. But as with all languages, Elio needs to learn its codes and conventions before he can use it. Not yet able to reach out and touch Oliver, Elio starts by touching his things – a book he’s reading, the words he’s written; then daring to enter Oliver’s bedroom, he places that morning’s discarded red swimming shorts over his face and breathes him in.

To amplify the film’s eroticism, Guadagnino arranges Elio’s and Oliver’s moves toward intimacy like he’s playing a concertina – bringing them closer, separating them, and reuniting them again. In addition to heightening the sexual tension, this dynamic is preparing us for their inevitable goodbye. It’s a slow dance towards touching each other’s bodies; a process of figuring out how to do it. Getting together won’t be easy. But the fact that their romance has effectively ended before it has begun – reinforced by the aural cue of the opening of Sufjan Stevens’ “Visions of Gideon” as they walk from the balcony into the bedroom on the night they first have sex – lends a potent urgency to their intimacy when it finally comes. Guadagnino is offering clues from the start about the finite nature of Elio’s and Oliver’s time together. He uses the physical space of the frame to magnify their distance – whether it’s the bathroom that divides their bedrooms or their positions at opposite ends of the garden and pool – and to underline all the spaces that will only wear the trace of Oliver’s body once summer ends.

Despite Elio’s misreading of Oliver’s signal during the volleyball game, Call Me by Your Name’s early sequences see them both almost going out of their way to avoid touching. On Oliver’s first night at the villa, Elio tries to wake him for dinner – instead of reaching out to tap him on the shoulder he opts for dropping a book beside the bed. During meals, in the study, or in the garden, Elio and Oliver are rarely positioned in the same frame. We are aware of their proximity, but also their distance. Guadagnino often holds on Elio’s reaction as Oliver exits a scene. We see that Elio’s trying to make sense of Oliver, but the effect also suggests Oliver is out of reach, and getting further away. In addition, we see them going about their days separately – Oliver taking off for town on his bike, Elio watching from the balcony or a window, as he did on the day of Oliver’s arrival. Just like Elio �� to whose point of view we are primarily anchored – we yearn to see the space between them dissolve.

In this way, Call Me by Your Name’s early sequences function like an extended tease. Obviously, touching is only possible if Elio and Oliver dare to bridge the space between them, and they dare each other to act on their desire in a myriad of ways. After Oliver disrupts Elio masturbating and suggests they take a swim together alone, we see them in the small garden pool. Elio reads, turned towards the camera, as Oliver swims back and forth towards Elio’s body. It’s clear he’s mostly interested in what Elio is doing; just as Elio, not really reading, is hyperaware of Oliver’s presence close by. When Oliver asks Elio, “What are you thinking about?” Elio responds with, “It’s private.” A quietly triumphant smile is visible on his face. Although we see Oliver looking at Elio, now trying to figure him out, Elio’s body isn’t giving anything away yet either. As he will later do during their piano flirtation, Elio draws Oliver closer to him and takes pleasure in doing so – here, literally testing the waters between them.

Elio and Oliver are taking small steps towards a common language and developing the script as they go. Elio, due to his age and inexperience, has more to learn than Oliver; but he’s also more fearless. His growing nerve is evident when he dares to dance into Oliver’s space one night at an outdoor disco. After watching Oliver’s body moving slowly with Chiara, and then with less restraint on his own once “Love My Way” comes on, Elio makes his first attempt to get closer to Oliver in a way that he’s comfortable with. They dance side-by-side – not quite together, but physically closer than they have been before. The sequence that unfolds around the Battle of Piave monument in Crema, allows Elio to be even bolder. While Elio’s verbal confession of desire is opaque and indirect, his body tells Oliver what he wants more clearly. Moving around the monument from opposite sides, they eventually stand and face each other. There is nowhere left to hide. “You know I’m not going anywhere,” Elio says. Oliver might tell Elio it’s best he pretend he never said anything, but when he falters and pauses as Elio rides away, it’s clear that the younger man’s courage has left him nervous and exposed.

The unveiling of each man’s feelings towards the other at the Piave monument creates the conditions that make touch possible in the sequences that follow at the river and on the grass. Despite mutual uncertainty, they each reach out. When we meet Elio he is only beginning to explore his sexuality. Touching Oliver helps him to resolve the argument he’s having with his own body – does he like boys, girls, or both. Oliver is wary, but also more physically confident. We assume he’s done this before. But Elio still has a lot to learn; evident in the way he dives in, mouth wide open, when Oliver kisses him, as they lie side-by-side in the grass. He might not be sure what he’s doing, but Elio is hungry to taste and clearly delighting in the pleasure that touching and being touched by Oliver brings.

What matters here is how kissing Oliver changes Elio, allowing him to relax and explore the physical language that is so natural to him in a new way. He becomes more daring. He refuses to “be good” and stop kissing; he climbs on top of Oliver, and then places a hand on his crotch. Later that day, when Oliver massages Elio’s foot after a nosebleed, Elio lets his fingers wander to Oliver’s chest, his face, and neck. The sequence, which traps Elio and Oliver tight in the corner of the frame, is arguably the film’s most intimate. Elio and Oliver are learning the language of touch from each other. It is mutual, comprised of give and take, listening and responding. Oliver’s compassionate and erotic gesture, coupled with the warmth of his facial expression, tells Elio he desires him too, even if he can’t find the words to say so. The physical language that Elio and Oliver have been developing in increments is now blossoming, and Elio’s fingers, caressing Oliver’s skin, speak back.

Touching and being touched by Oliver makes Elio more open and at ease with his body, but it’s at this point that Guadagnino temporarily removes the possibility of more touching between them. It’s an absence sorely felt – by Elio, and by the audience. Guadagnino reminds us once again that what Elio and Oliver have can’t last. After the intimacy of their kissing and Oliver’s worshipful foot massage, Guadagnino keeps Elio and Oliver almost completely apart on screen until the day they first sleep together. He then drags out that day until midnight comes, by having Oliver disappear entirely from the world of the film after lunch. The tension is excruciating. As a result of this absence, when they finally touch again – Oliver’s hand on top of Elio’s hand out on the balcony – it registers with an enormous emotional and sexual buzz.

Once Elio and Oliver enter ‘their’ bedroom, the physical language they have been developing together finds full voice. Touch closes the space that had previously existed between them, symbolised by the slamming door that secures their privacy. They are now free to explore and try new ways of communicating. A playful bite on the shoulder reminds us of Elio’s nervousness as he tries to figure out how to touch a man. But as he climbs all over and wraps himself around Oliver’s body we also see how euphoric the experience is for him, and just how close he wants to get. As they sit on the bed together, Elio’s toes find Oliver’s toes. “Does this make you happy?” Oliver asks. Elio says yes, as the camera isolates their feet and Oliver puts his other foot on top of Elio’s. Expressing his desire with small, sensual gestures, Elio is speaking Oliver’s language now.

Touch takes Elio and Oliver to a place where the boundary between their bodies ceases to exist. Oliver’s request that Elio, “Call me by your name and I’ll call you by mine,” is a deep, intimate exchange of body and mind. More than “I love you,” this trading of names says, “I am you, and you are me.” It is a statement that renders all the words that remain unsaid between them in the short time they have together utterly pointless. Their physical language fills in the gaps. Elio’s and Oliver’s body mould sinuously together – throughout the night their legs are so intricately intertwined it’s impossible to know whose limbs belong to whom. Each has surrendered to the other; each has told the other, my body is your body. There is no turning back. Nothing is off limits.

And yet these moments of blissful intimacy gain power and pathos because of the moments without touch that Guadagnino invariably juxtaposes them against. This dynamic is in play again the morning after they sleep together when Elio pulls away from Oliver in confusion and self-doubt. He comes down to breakfast with a kiss for his parents as Oliver sits quietly, contemplating the state of affairs. It is unlikely that Elio would kiss Oliver in front of his parents. But after the closeness of the night before, we feel the absence of a kiss between the new lovers – accentuated by Elio’s slow movement toward his chair – at the moment when we are expecting it most. Later, after spending another night together, Elio wakes up and reaches out for Oliver, but touches only the emptiness of his bed. Guadagnino is reminding us once again that soon there will be no touching; that soon Oliver will exit Elio’s world, perhaps, forever.

The final days that Elio and Oliver spend together in Bergamo are endowed with an extraordinary intimacy that Guadagnino repeatedly unravels by stressing their impermanence. Signalled via a point of view shot that takes in Elio’s and Oliver’s shared perspective of the road ahead as “Mystery of Love” begins, they are now so close they are one body. And yet we can’t see them, only hear them; their voices flowing into a new scene, their bodies now visible as they hike towards a waterfall. Elio leads the way, but then turns back to Oliver. Looking at his lover with a sense of wonder, he reaches out to caress his face, as if to check that he’s real.

On their last night together, drunk and ecstatically wandering the streets, Elio’s desire to never stop touching Oliver is palpable. We can see how he worships Oliver, but we also see that he’s already losing him. Elio wraps himself around Oliver’s body, but Oliver is drawn out of his arms when he hears “Love My Way” in the distance. He runs towards the music. While Elio follows him, Chalamet’s face crumples from adoration into alarm – Elio feels Oliver disappearing from his grasp. This response becomes graver when Oliver pulls away again to dance with an Italian woman. Elio left alone and at a distance, vomits, his body in revolt at its impending separation from Oliver’s. Despite wanting to completely possess Oliver – as his intense experience with a peach back at the villa made clear – Elio is realising too late that he can’t hold onto him forever.

Making their way back to the hotel, Elio’s and Oliver’s final kiss (we are not privy to what transpires back in their hotel room) visualises the complete ductility of their bodies that the exchange of names has promised. As they hold each other with increasing ferocity, the shot slides in and out of focus. The space between them dissolves, the outline of each man’s body melting into the other. Back in their room, with Oliver positioned at the window waiting for the sun to rise and his train to come, we enter Elio’s drunken fever dream – the film’s negative inverted so that the short sequence burns orange with the fire of passion. But this could also be Oliver thinking, contemplating the elation of his time with Elio; or a happy fantasy, simultaneously imagined by both men, that Guadagnino allows them to share. What is clear is that at this moment, Elio and Oliver are so close they also inhabit the same mind.

Ultimately, Guadagnino’s gentle attempts to prepare us for Oliver’s absence don’t matter at all. We are no more ready for his disappearance from the world of the film than Elio is prepared for his disappearance from his life. Touch means so much in Call Me by Your Name because of what it represents when it’s gone. To touch another person is to risk everything. Touching has made Elio and Oliver more vulnerable. They understand from the start that every step closer to each other is also a step closer to the end of their relationship, but they boldly reach out anyway. The intimacy of their time in Bergamo makes the pain of their separation greater, and this memory – for Elio and us – haunts the film’s winter coda, when Oliver is just a voice on the other end of the phone. But in Bergamo, at the train station, neither man is quite ready to let go of the other’s body. Losing the other means losing a part of themselves. “We wasted so many days,” Elio reflected, back at the villa. And in their final, silent embrace, as they cleave to each other with increasingly hopeless desperation, we can feel the weight of all those lost days, wasted without touching.

INALONELYPLACE | IN A LONELY PLACE | 8 Jan 2018

[beckyschaicrib]

Immaikka Nodigal

Imaikkaa Nodigal. Or plainly translated as Blinkless Seconds. In a season rampant with movie titles that are derived from protagonist's names, famous dialogues or song lyrics, and reusing or rehashing old titles, director Ajay Gnanamuthu chose a title that later was beautifully justified via an intense visual and monologue that forms the base of this thriller flick. Though the core of the story can be explained in a one-liner where a psychotic serial killer in on the loose, and challenges the CBI to their game (headed by Anjali Vikramadithyan, a role essayed by Nayanthara). However, the engaging and thrilling part comes as they are several layers and characters to it, with twists in the plot.

Vijay Sethupathi, as Vikramadithyan, though only appears for 15 minutes, leaves a sorrowful impact to the movie. Adharva, another protagonist, played the role of Nayanthara's brother. He is an actor who has always been street-smart in choosing his scripts compared to some of his counterparts - showcasing quality, rather than quantity. A special mention to Manasvi Kottachi, the child prodigy, who was exuberant in her role as Shalini Vikramadithyan.

And there's my favourite of all - the antagonist. Rudra, played by the director that so often breaks the norms and formulae of Bollywood cinema, Anurag Kashyap. There's always something special when directors act. The intensity in those dreamy eyes and cheeky smile, just adds so much more flavour, layers and depth to Rudra. He is swift, smart and ruthless. Killer performance. We have had in Indian cinema supervillan characters that stole the limelight from the heroes themselves. Taking a walk down memory lane, we have Mukkaya Thevar of Devar Magan, Mark Anthony of Baasha and Siddarth Abimanyu of Thanni Oruvan. In that series of list, here we have Rudra of Immaikka Nodigal. I would go back to theatre to watch Imaikkaa Nodigal just to awe at Anurag Kashyap's stellar performance as Rudra.

Though I would have loved to have Anurag dubbed himself, understanding that there was delay in the film due to unforeseen circumstances, we had director Magizh Thirumeni to do the honest. If I were to say well justified, it would be very well an understatement. The commanding modulation and sarcasm in the voice extraordinarily fitted Anurag's devilish smiles and expressions.

In the process of leading our daily lives, we are prone to get hurt as a consequence of other's actions, that comes directly or indirectly affecting us or what we hold most precious. It is only human or natural to react in defense. But before we sway into destruction mode in self-pity, always take time to stop to find out why they did what they did. And you probably will choose to understand than hate. Rather than indulging in false assumptions, it's better to investigate first because sometimes eyes can lie too.

The movie carries an important underlying social message on drunk driving and how that irresponsible act can lead to loss of lives and have dreams shattered.