#literally writing that opening scene going down the cliffs with Merry i was like. this is terrible design

[northern-passage]

oh hey that ask kind of tangentially reminded me! if you’ve given it any thought, i was wondering what prosthetics and other mobility aids look like in the world of the game! are there any magically powered ones, and things like that? thanks, hope you’re having a good day!

hi :-)

i've thought about it a bit; funnily enough the lift in blackwater wasn't actually something i had originally planned for the city, until i started writing the first route in ch1 with Merry, going down to the docks, and realized that... it was all completely inaccessible. and now that's like a staple feature of the city, and i can't imagine the setting without that lift.

i do have a character that we'll meet in ch4 that has a prosthetic arm, and i'm still figuring out how i want it to work. i've talked a bit about how a lot of the medicine in tnp is a mix of magic, alchemy, and science, and i imagine mobility aids would be the same.

enchantments haven't been brought up in the game yet but we'll see our first one in the next update (and it's something i need to edit into the prologue....lol) but because of the flexibility with magic and alchemy, i think prosthetics would be super customizable and vary a lot depending on the person. i could see wood, bone, and metal all being used, with more practical or more aesthetic options available. the man we'll meet in ch4 is a fighter, so his actually works a lot like the bracer an alchemist hunter would have, and is made of leather and metal. he has functioning joints that are both mechanical and magical. with prosthetics (or any aid really that relies on magic) there would be some kind of enchanted "core" somewhere so that the user wouldn't have to drain their own magic to power it, and they would just have to go in to get it reinforced every now and then. typically enchantments are tied to runes or precious stones (like the stone Noel has in xir staff, Lea's tattooed runes or the hunter's runes on their bracers)

runes are the "weaker" option, though, and usually mean the enchantment is also tied to the person that set it (we'll see this in the next update) so for prosthetics it would definitely require a core, where the magic can be "stored", to avoid hurting the enchanter or the user. also the type of magic used in the core can affect the aid - air magic for wheelchairs that will allow them to hover and move around, earth magic in a cane to give it a "plant-like" look and also the ability to grow and adjust to the user, water and fire magic for cooling or heating braces to help with pain, etc.

i'm very against the idea of "magic'ing" disabilities away as i mentioned before, but the magic in tnp is definitely used to make life easier for those with disabilities, and provides more options and more accessibility than we have in real life.

like with HRT being available in the alchemist shop, i think enchanted cores would be something sold pretty much in every city all over the world; i think the trouble would come in the first hurdle of purchasing a core, and then the upkeep of the core. trained magic users could do it themselves, but most people are not trained or comfortable performing enchantments, and others don't have the money to pay for someone else to do it. in which case there are more mechanical options available, that rely more on alchemy to create the mechanism than magic. these would be less "aesthetically" pleasing aids and they would probably be slightly weaker, and it would limit what materials could be used, but would still give the user a lot of function without having to worry about a core.

otherwise, i think a lot of it would look like how it is in real life. there are glasses, and they would use little ear trumpets for hearing aids (and sign language is widely taught), there would be manual wheelchairs as well as non-magic canes/walkers/crutches etc.

i think overall people would get very creative with this kind of thing if they had access to magic and alchemy, and i think we would see very inventive and interesting looking aids and prosthetics all around the world.

[ducktracy]

64. bosko’s picture show (1933)

release date: august 26th, 1933

series: looney tunes

director: hugh harman and friz freleng

starring: johnny murray (bosko), rochelle hudson (honey)

well, here we are! bosko’s last film at warner bros. harman and ising would produce one more merrie melody (we’re in the money) and pack up their bags to go to mgm. they carried over bosko with them, using his “inkblot” design for a little while and later actually designing him to look like a real boy (heads up for stereotyping, of course) where he was voiced by billie thomas, also known as buckwheat from our gang/little rascals. here, as the title suggests, bosko puts on a picture show filled with spot gags, kidnappings, and even a sing along.

the title card fades away, erasing the credits and transposing “bosko’s picture show” and the little flashing bar between credits onto a theater. very clever transition! we go inside the theater, where a projection reads “presenting BOSKO at the console of the mighty FURTILIZER organ”. sure enough, bosko and his organ rise up from a trap door and he greets the audience.

to start things off, our happy little entertainer encourages a sing along of “we’re in the money”, an audience singing along with him as he encourages them. a very happy and fitting tune about kicking the depression out the door—it certainly alleviates the mental depression! a very happy, cheery, fun scene that was much needed. once finished, bosko pulls a few knobs on the organ in a percussion solo, including a toilet flusher. pre-code films!

curtains peel apart to reveal a news reel: “OUT-OF-TONE NEWS, SEES ALL, HEARS ALL, SMELLS ALL”. this cartoon reminds me a lot of the film fan, which focused on spot gags in a movie theater (including a news reel) and nutty news, another spot gag news reel cartoon.

the first order of business takes place in geneva, switzerland: “world figures gather at peace conference”. cut away to a bunch of guys beating the tar out of each other around a table. very funny! predictable, yes, but the timing sells it. the next piece of news is in malibu, california: “sunkist bathing beauties enjoy california sunshine”. transition to the california sunshine, where a lady is running away from incoming waves while snow pours down around her. i love these incongruous gags, they never get old.

now to reno, nevada: “jack dumpsey trains for ring come-back”. a frail jack dempsey caricature boxes away at a punching back, holding onto a cane for aid. the joke is that jack dempsey was a professional boxer whose career spanned from 1914 to 1927, reigning as the heavyweight champ from 1919 to 1926.

we find ourselves in epsom salts, england (good pun on epsom, england): “BLUE BLOOD CANINES IN RACE CLASSIC—‘tree sniffer ii’ noses out ‘free wheeling’ for first place”. recycled footage from bosko’s dog race gives us a flurry of dogs dashing by. the narrator announces “and here comes the champion!”, which is a bruno facsimile meandering about and sniffing the ground, taking his time. great staging and timing! suddenly, bruno runs off as an invisible force motivates him to do so. we then see the marx brothers chasing after the dogs with nets.

okay, normally i wouldn’t plaster a picture of hitler on my blog if i can help it (i mean not counting cartoons where he’s a predominant plot point), but i think this is weirdly fascinating. we’re now in pretzel, germany, where we find a “FAMOUS SCREEN LOVER ON EUROPEAN VACATION”. cut to a caricature of hitler chasing a terrified jimmy durante, declaring “am i mortified!”. the implication of this joke didn’t age well at ALL, implying that jimmy durante must be jewish because of his big nose. i found this interesting (aside from cringing) because hitler had been elected chancellor of germany in january of 1933. what’s so interesting is that this is the first cartoon out of any studio to feature a caricature of hitler. the joke ages extremely poorly, but the historical significance is fascinating.

thus ends the newsreel, the tagline “IT SQUEAKS FOR ITSELF” blazing on the screen. bosko tells us that this is only the beginning and introduces the next film.

i love this. our next film is laurel and hardy—“HAUREL and LARDY in ‘SPITE OF EVERYTHING’”. pan to laurel and hardy skipping around outside, the dinky music greatly contributing to the absurdity. laurel points to a pie sitting on an open window sill and takes it. the two suddenly fight over who gets custody of the pastry, and laurel dumps the pie over hardy’s head. hardy whacks laurel on the head with a tea cup, and laurel snivels and whines to the audience. the “THE END” and the triumphant, fanfaring music after we had just seen laurel crying makes for a great joke.

the mgm (tnt) lion makes an appearance, roaring and getting cut off by a burp. it always fascinated me when there’s burping in these pre-code cartoons, for awhile there couldn’t be sounds that implicated burping, which is why you have mel blanc literally saying “burp” in baby bottleneck when the babies are getting burped.

our next film is “HE DONE HER DIRT (and how!)”. honey makes an appearance, daintily cycling on a bike while the marx brothers, making yet another appearance, sing “a bicycle built for two”. cut to bosko playing the organ, quipping “ain’t she sweet?”

enter the villain: “dirty dalton (the cur!)”. he sneaks along with his bike (which lacks any wheels), and we go back to bosko observing the film. the infamous moment! bosko points at the screen and declares “that dirty mug!”, but it doesn’t at all sound like mug—it sounds like fuck. that’s what i thought when i first heard it. listen for yourself! i think it IS supposed to be mug, his lip movements certainly suggest it and if you think it you hear it. but i can still dream that he says “that dirty fuck!”. i can still dream.

as standard for a harman-ising cartoon, dirty dalton snags honey off her bicycle and kidnaps her. i love the animation of his strange, wheel-less bicycle galloping! he darts over to a cliff, overlooking a nearby train. he jumps onto a boxcar that becomes loose from the train (from bosko and bruno) and there’s some nice reused animation of the train hurtling down the tracks.

honey cries “IS THERE A BOY SCOUT IN THE AUDIENCE?” (which i actually interpreted as “is there a bosko in the audience?”—yes, there sure is!) and bosko cries “i’ll save you!”. very creative and a neat little fourth wall break. bosko dives straight into the screen at dirty dalton, and unlike plankton, he doesn’t get smashed into a concrete wall. he pops his head out of the hole and honey admires his bravery. one last bosko iris out!

where to begin? i guess with the actual short. it was really good and highly entertaining! bosko certainly went out with a bang. it’s now one of my favorites for sure, probably one of the best bosko cartoons out there. the timing was impeccable, music happy and light, animation crisp and enjoyable. as always, bosko’s surroundings had more personality than he did, but he was still likable. the hitler joke is my only major complaint—didn’t age well whatsoever, but interesting scene historically speaking. i would definitely recommend it!

and now, onto bosko. i’ve come to really like him. his origins as a blackface caricature still bother me and make it hard to truly appreciate the cartoons, but i’m grateful that harman and ising strayed away from negative stereotypes with him for the most part. the bosko cartoons have come a looooong way! you don’t realize it when you view all of these cartoons one after the other, but looking back at sinkin’ in the bathtub and to now, there’s been major growth: in jokes, in writing, in timing, in gags, in VOICE ACTING (thank GOD. i swear that telephone conversation between him and honey in bosko’s holiday is one of the worst things i’ve ever heard), in backgrounds, in animation... it’s fascinating. and we have such a ways to go! it’ll be very exciting to see the growth of more cartoons. next is the last harman and ising cartoon we’re in the money, and after that, a little buddy of ours is going to make an introduction.

link!