#me later: REX IN THE FOREGROUND!!! REX TALKING!!

[iconac]

temuera morrison voicing live-action rex heals me actually

[wanderinginksplot-writes]

Clone Trooper Rambles

Journaling meets imaginary friends meets clone troopers.

Warnings: minor road rage, minor language, some grumpiness, vague mentions of objectification

---

Alpha Comic Book

I swore loudly as a car pulled out in front of me, easily drive ten miles an hour under what I had been going before. I braked, grumbling at how unfair it all was. 

“Are you in that big a hurry?” Echo asked. “I thought you didn’t have much to do tonight.” 

“I don’t,” I agreed, “but I got an email a couple of hours ago. My package was delivered!”

An uncomfortable silence fell at that, leaving Hardcase’s cackle loud and mischievous. “What is it this time? No - wait! Don’t tell me! I want it to be a surprise.” 

“Isn’t it always?” Stone’s dry tone made me grin. 

It seemed that Hardcase was the only one who appreciated my… eclectic sense of things to order online. Sometimes, I got useful things, like clothes. Other times, I bought something that caught my eye, like the set of miniature paintings of objects in space. As long as I could afford it and it made me happy, I reasoned, there was no reason not to indulge in an occasional purchase.

“I wasn’t going to tell you anyway,” I said loftily. “This one definitely needs to be a surprise.” 

Someone groaned, and I couldn’t quite tell who it was. 

We got home and I rushed to my front door, mildly panicked when I didn’t see anything waiting outside. I pulled out my phone to text my roommates and saw that I had a message from Cole: Hey, something was delivered for you right before I left for work. I took it inside. It’s on the counter. 

That relief made me relax as I unlocked the door and walked inside. 

The brown paper envelope on the counter looked like a present waiting to be opened, and I couldn’t wait until after my shower to open it. I was careful as I slipped the scissors between the flap of the envelope and the main body of it, then tipped it to let the object slide out without risking a wrinkle.

Star Wars Republic: On Hostile Ground, the cover proclaimed. The people shown on the front were overshadowed by the hands holding lightsabers in the foreground, and I started to get a little nervous. I had done a ton of research to find comics featuring Alpha-17 and all of them had said this was one, but why were there a bunch of Jedi and mercenaries on the cover?

With shaking fingers, I peeled up the sticky edge of the protective cover for the comic book and let it slide out into my hands. When I opened it to a random page, I was greeted by a picture of Alpha. He wasn’t wearing his armor there, but it was clearly him. I relaxed again. 

“Oh,” Echo said, peering over my shoulder. “Oh, no.”

Rex glanced over and shook his head, a grim look on his face. “Does anyone know when he’s supposed to be here?” 

“A few hours,” Stone reported. “He’s taking the late night to early morning guard shift tonight.” 

I carefully put the comic book back in the original package and went to take a shower. 

Reading it took far less time than I had expected, but I wasn’t used to reading comic books. I would have to read it again later, when I could remember to focus as much on the illustrations as on the dialogue bubbles. 

But as I was finishing my first read-through, a massive figure settled beside me. “Is that me.” 

He hadn’t phrased it as a question, but I nodded at Alpha anyway. “Yeah, it’s you. You’re pretty badass here.” I turned to the last page and pointed to a new panel. “And look at this one! You look so… stoic.” 

“I look like I’m done taking Kenobi’s shit,” Alpha corrected. “At least that’s accurate.”

“Better this picture than some of the earlier ones,” I muttered. 

“And that means?” I didn’t answer and Alpha nudged me with his shoulder. “What are you talking about?” 

“I meant that you spent a lot of time shirtless in this issue.” I flipped back a few pages and held it up. “These are the panels I thought you’d object to.”

Alpha was quiet as he studied the pictures in question. The comic book version of him was wearing a vest and holding two giant blasters, but everything else above the waist was left visible for the viewer.

“I think they left out some of my muscles,” he commented and I could only sputter a laugh as he walked away.

---

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Author's Note - I love that comic book. My poor roommates had to listen to me talk about it and show off all the panels with Alpha... Good times!

Reminder that there is no longer a taglist for any of my works! They'll all be posted here and tagged with the story name. Feel free to blacklist any tags you don't want to see, and thanks for reading!

[multifandom-kpop-scenarios]

hello, hello! i absolutely love your scenarioes, rex! especially the werewolf mingyu one! i couldnt decide wether to send a request or not, but im a carat and monbebe, so could i reqeest a vampire kihyun one (hes a vamp)? if it could be sort of angsty? i really appreciate this! dont worry about how long it takes, im okay with waiting for your beautiful writing. ps could i be moncarat anon? i think ill request from you guys again. sending love ~ 💖💖💖

Hello, moncarat anon!!! I’m really glad that you enjoyed the werewolf Mingyu scenario! I know you said not to worry about it, but I am sorry for the wait. I know this one wasn’t requested for the Halloween special, but I figured that this would be a great way to start it! I used Monsta X’s ‘Someone’s Someone’ for inspiration in writing this!

Without further ado, our Halloween Special begins!!!

Admin Rex

(Word Count: 1260)

You met him in the late evening of a warm Fall day. He was holding a camera up, pointing it towards a mostly empty park. At that point in the day, the sun was almost fully set. You hadn’t really noticed him until you saw what was left of the sunlight reflecting off of his light purple hair. He didn’t seem to notice or mind your presence. You watched him for a bit as he wandered around the park, aiming his camera lense at things you wouldn’t really think to look twice at. He paused for a bit, looking through the photos he’d taken before looking around. His eyes met yours. You chose to smile and wave not waiting for a response before turning away. The sun was setting quite low, and you didn’t really want to stay out once the sun was fully down. 

The second time you meet him is in a convenience store near the park. He has his camera bag hanging off one shoulder and is browsing the selection of drinks. You notice him as you scan the snacks the little store has. You watch him for a few seconds, curiosity piqued for some reason. You turn your attention from him and continue looking for snacks to eat on your way home. You pick a few things out, turning to maybe grab a water bottle. You’re surprised to see that he hasn’t left yet and is now watching you, though it appears he’s trying to be subtle about it. You smile small and dip your head to him in greeting. He returns the gesture, eyes watching you curiously. You return your gaze, rushing to the check-out counter. While the cashier is ringing you up, you turn your eyes to the glass doors, noting how low the sun was getting. You finish pulling the change out, quickly leaving the store. You glance over your shoulder one last time, eyes meeting the man’s once again.

You had become curious about why the photographer captured what he did. The third time you encounter him, you tell yourself, you’ll talk to him. That is, if there is a third time. For a while, it seemed you wouldn’t have a chance to meet him again. The sun had begun to set sooner and sooner, now with summer fully over. You had been heading home slightly earlier than usual, as you couldn’t stay out at night. You would if it were physically possible, but it was not for you. Álfar are closely linked to the sun, and to nature, and, as an Álf, you needed as much sun and warmth as you could get. The flowers that naturally grew in your hair would wilt, as would you.  You were surprised when you walked past a few food vendors that lined the street and saw familiar strands of light purple hair. He was dressed in clothing that almost fully covered his whole body. Only the skin of his face was showing. You examined the person as you walked closer, noticing that it was indeed the person you encountered twice before. You wanted to talk to him, but you didn’t have a reason to. As you slowly walked past him, you heard a soft, “Ah, hey!” and felt a tap on your shoulder. You turn around, surprised at the turn of events.

“I was hoping to see you. You left this at the convenience store.” You looked down at his hand, surprised when you saw the book he was holding out to you. It was one of your favorites, and you were resolved to never finding your copy and having to buy a new one. You gently took the book, “Thank you. I was worried that I’d never find it.” You looked down at the cover, feeling your body beginning to shiver, “I should go.” You waited for his response, surprised when he sounded almost disappointed. You quickly left, not looking back. 

You run into him a few more times. You learned that his name is Kihyun, that he is a photographer who has held exhibits before, that he and you could never be together. To say that you’d grown fond of him would be an understatement. You’ve come to like him very much in the short times you ran into one another in the golden hour just as the sun was setting below the horizon of the city. You understood that you could never stay with him the moment you learned that he is a vampire. Of course, you’d never feel this way over someone’s species. In fact, you never really cared for it. Instead, your body physically would not be able to. Kihyun had once asked about the flowers that seemingly grew alongside you hair. You had to explain to him that it was common for your species. He seemed entranced, gently reaching out and tracing the petal of a striped carnation, I wish I could be with you. 

A few days later, when you meet again during the golden hour, he asks you, “Have you heard of álfröðull?” You peer at his face curiously and shake your head no. He smiles softly, “It means ‘elf disc.’ That’s what the sun was supposedly called by the Álfar long ago.” You could hear the sentimentality in his voice. As a vampire, he must have been around for a long time. You looked up at the sky, to where the sky was painted in warm oranges. You wished the breeze was as warm.

On the next day you meet, it’s especially cool. You bundled up, hoping to be able to meet with Kihyun again, even if for a short time. Kihyun is holding a single flower when you spot him at the park. You recognize it as a daffodil. You liked them. They reminded you of the sun. When you reach him, Kihyun smiles small, shyly handing the single bloom to you. “Someone once told me that these mean something about the sun. It reminded me of you.” Now, daffodils would remind you of Kihyun, The sun is always shining when I’m with you.

You ask Kihyun later if he knows anything of the language of flowers. “I know of some,” he responds. He smiles at you, wide and almost devious. “I’d have to say the tiger lily is my favorite.” You nod in understanding. They fit Kihyun well. He asks you for yours, “The tea rose,” I’ll always remember.

Kihyun shows you his some of his photos one day. They seem bleak, almost sad. Longing. It makes your heart ache. Until he gets to the most recent pictures. They look like colors have bloomed in them. You also note that there are flowers in quite a few of them. Kihyun shows you his favorite picture. The foreground is a cluster of yellow tulips, There is sunshine in your smile. 

Kihyun has to leave, he tells you. The cold of the wind is as biting as the cold that freezes your heart over. You look at him, “You’re leaving?” He nods, explaining that he has a touring photography exhibit in Europe. He submitted more of his recent photos, the ones he is proud of. “I’ll be back, I promise.” On that same day, he presents to you a small cluster of jonquils, I return your affections. 

  A few days later, during the golden hour of Kihyun’s last day with you - “For now,” he reminds you - he pulls you into a hug. Then, Kihyun gives you a single rose in full bloom, I love you.

[talinexa]

I’m REELING! (KH3 Spoilers Big Time)

THEORY: RIKU AND YOZORA ARE THE SAME PERSON! (Yozora is Riku from a few years in the future.)

There is NO WAY you can convince me that Yozora and Riku are not the same person! THEY TOTALLY ARE! THERE ARE TOO MANY SIMILARITIES FOR ME TO DISCOUNT THIS!

So, the obvious eye-catcher is the silver hair in similar cuts and the lighter blue eyes minus the red one than most everyone else in the series. Duh. Whoop-de-do. That’s important, but it’s not the most important. Moving on.

There are quite a lot of memes I’ve seen going around about how Riku looks like Noctis (Night in Latin) from FFXV and I don’t disagree because I wrote a crossover based on those memes, and it’s not like it’s not obvious that Yozora (Night Sky in Japanese) is clearly based on Noctis, especially from his Versus XIII days.

Everybody knows all this stuff by now.

BUT there are way too many design choice similarities between the two characters for their resemblance to be a coincidence.

Allow me to lay forth the evidence for you.

So, here’s Riku:

Just bear this whole look in mind. Which you should do anyway because look at this stud.

So I mentioned to Phoenix (my best friend who I talk about on this blog all the time) that Yozora’s jacket has a stripe on it similar to Riku’s. In placement, not exactly color or style.

And that’s where the idea really started

BUT it launched itself right into the stratosphere when I realized that Yozora and Riku are wearing the exact same gauntlets. (Or, rather, almost the exact same gauntlets.)

I saw this scene:

And look at his gauntlet! Right in the foreground there. Flared wrist, three bands with buttons on the outside, the top band being some sort of different leather---more snakeskin-like.

And now look at Riku’s:

Flared wrist, three bands with buttons on the outside, the top band being different and more snakeskin-like than the leather of the rest. That is WAY too similar to be a simple coincidence (and in this series I don’t believe in coincidences anyway). (His full-body shot at the top also shows the difference in coloring between the top band and the other three bands and clearer shot of the flared wrist.)

Now, are they exactly the same?

No. Yozora’s have holes in the knuckles and some sort of patch on the back of the hand but that doesn’t mean Riku didn’t modify them slightly after spending time wherever he is that looks like Insomnia but we’ll get to that soon.

Also, in the “Yozora is the Master of Masters” theory that I’ve reblogged before, it’s pointed out that Yozora’s jacket sleeve stripe has two crossed Kingdom Keys studded into the bottom of the leathery material:

And I’m adding my own screenshots in case y’all don’t believe me and/or are too lazy to click the link and read the Very Worth The Read theory.

And at first, that was 100% enough evidence to convince me.

Until I looked again and realized that

SORA’S CROWN NECKLACE DESIGN IS ALSO STUDDED INTO THE STRIPE AT THE TOP!

Look at it again, and look at the top instead of the bottom where the Kingdom Key Keyblades are. That is, without a doubt, Sora’s crown design---especially from KH3 with the shorter bottom and more prominent prongs.

Which did even more to convince me that Yozora is Riku.

Especially since that crown appears in the Yozora secret ending again in the bluer-colored world Riku is wandering (as opposed to the redder-colored world Sora appears to be in)

But I’m not done yet! (LOL Infomercial “But wait! There’s more!”)

After I noticed the crown I started watching the Verum Rex trailer much closer. And what did I find?

Yozora’s jacket and trousers have grey-and-white plaid in the same place where Riku has his black-grey-and-white gingham:

Which, IDK, seems important and too similar to dismiss.

Here are better angles:

Note here Yozora’s right boot has a strap just above the ankle similar to where Riku’s boots have a strap as seen in his full-body shot up top and right here below,

IDK it’s worth noting. Leave no stone unturned and all that.

But that’s not all. Look at that wide shot of Yozora on the stairs again. And the one where he’s drifting through pink with White Dress Girl Who Is Totally Not Stella. The full-body shots. Notice the lapels of his jacket. A) They have more plaid, unlike Riku’s, which is interesting. And B) and most importantly There are two buttons on his right lapel (our left) and three on his left (our right).

IDK you can kinda see it better here. The three on his left anyway and the fact that the right lapel flaps directly over the zipper

And that whole design is Just Like Whose?

Riku’s:

Also see his full-body shot up top to see his left side clearer.

Are those enough odd design choice similarities to convince you that none of this is a coincidence or accident?

I sure hope so because this took me ages to put together.

Now, I couldn’t get a good screenshot besides the closeup right above this previous one of Riku and Mickey of Yozora’s shirt, but it IS worth noting that it’s grey/black with a red V-neck collar, similar to how Sora’s shirt is grey with a white V-neck collar. Which I suppose could make the case, coupled with the crown and crossed Kingdom Key studs on the sleeve, that Yozora is actually Sora (I mean, c’mon, name similarity was pointed out in the Toy Story world). Who is dressing like Riku... for reasons. I dunno, to be stronger or something? Sora said in KH2 that he wanted to be like Riku. It could very well be just to fit in wherever it is he’s ended up. Tokyo or Insomnia or Shibuya or wherever I’m not familiar with Japan but I know that building Riku wakes up near looks like the Citadel in Insomnia from FFXV so... for lack of better understanding that’s what I’m rolling with.

BUT, that is kinda flimsy to me and I’m still convinced that Riku is actually Yozora from a year (or a few) into the future who has adapted to being in Totally Not Insomnia.

Also bearing no relevance to this theory, Yozora has pierced ears

while Riku does not, but this actually kinda solidifies for me that it is Riku rather than Sora as piercing his ears to seem edgier or whatever sounds more like something Riku would do especially when in an unfamiliar place.

I also still subscribe to the possible “Riku is the Master of Masters” theory, as well as the “Yozora is the Master of Masters” theory, so having them all be the same person... well, that’s the cherry on top for me. If you believe the MoM is someone else, that’s fine I’m not judging this is just what I think, for now, is making the best case for all three of them being the same person.

So, I know what you’re thinking now: I’ve put together all these similarities between Riku and Yozora’s costume design choices and general aesthetic. Do I have an idea on how Riku grows into Yozora story-wise?

Well, I’m glad you asked!

Yes, I do!

In “Yozora,” the secret ending, we see Riku wandering Totally Not Insomnia with Yozora watching him from the top of Totally Not the Citadel.

Or is he? We can’t see him from Riku’s street-level view since he’s at the top of one of those tall spire/tower things and that’s super high up so I don’t think it’d be easy to see a person up there from the ground anyway.

That being said, it could very well be Riku/Yozora from a year or a few later thinking back on when he first turned up in Not-Insomnia.

BUT, If Yozora IS watching him and IS future!Riku, it could be Yozora making sure Riku ends up going on the right path. (You can see his eyes slightly narrow which could mean he’s either thinking back or watching either way.)

(See? His eyes slightly narrow.)

I think Riku woke up in Not-Insomnia on his search for Sora, who’s still missing, and fell in with Ignis-with-Gladio’s-powers (Aegis?) and Prompto-with-Ardyn’s-Hair-and-Hat (Magia?) Rex calls them that in a demo or something right? and Totally Not Stella who promise to help him find Sora if he helps them with whatever-the-heck their plot is and Riku ends up, more or less, stuck in Not-Insomnia for a good long while. His clothes get a little tattered so he patches them up with different-but-similar materials (to account for the changes) and studs Sora’s Kingdom Key and crown into the sleeve stripes of his jacket to remind him of his goal and what’s up.

So why the one red eye and one blue eye?

Could be a side-effect of Not-Insomnia’s different magic style/the weapons he uses in the Verum Rex trailer are pretty much red in color so they could have an influence on his eye color in order to connect with them. IDK Aegis-not-Ignis’ eyes are green and so are his shield magic things.

OR Riku could also be the MoM and put his other light blue-green eye into the No Name/Gazing Eye Keyblade and replaced it with a red one, who knows yet?

Obviously if Riku is Yozora what happened to his Keyblade? I think Not-Insomnia is in a different universe from the usual KH universe where all the Disney worlds share the same sky and therefore the Keyblade doesn’t work in this other dimension because Not-Insomnia has different rules/magic.

Basic ideas, sure, but for now it’s semi-decent and kinda works and fingers crossed something comes out of it!

[startrekvigilant]

episode one introduces us first to a specific family living on earth. this scene takes place somewhere in north america, and these characters are all to be played by aboriginal actors.

a father daughter duo are camping in the woods. 

the father brings a large game to the traditional campsite where the daughter is playing with futuristic toys. the father calls out her name, she switches off her game and runs out to him. He teaches the daughter something about the hunt or preparing the meat, maybe tells her a silly story of what happened when he was out hunting or something and it's a nice bonding moment. 

the father tells his daughter to go tell her mother they can start getting ready for dinner and she gets on a teleporter to her home.

instantly we shift focus away from the forest to this beautiful high-tech kitchen, in the centre of which is a large table surrounded by the rest of the daughter's family. 

at the head of the table is the mother, where the daughter runs up and tells her mother what her father told her. every body begins talking about tonight's big meal when the daughter's older sister walks into the kitchen in full starfleet regalia. 

the mother sees her first daughter and comments on her new uniform. everyone is impressed with her promotion and she mentions that she has to go to pluto before the unveiling of a new telescope, which means missing the big family gathering. the older daughter is upset but her mother promises to save her favourite dish which cheers her up. 

so now the story follows the older daughter as she leaves her home and teleports to the starfleet academy in san francisco. she'll be walking through large crowds of people, introducing the audience to the diversity of earth in this century. 

from the academy she gets in a shuttle pod to a docking station in orbit, where she'll wander the halls trying to find the starship she needs. she'll follow a big crowd of people in one direction, but get stopped by a ticket master who tells her these ships are warp 5 destinations and they'll pass right by pluto. they have a conversation, then she's directed to the warp 1 terminal.

as she walks there she passes groups of children, all heading in the same direction as her. there are also a lot of tourists in these halls, of many different species. 

she rounds a corner and suddenly there's the vigilant. 

it's meant to be a triumphant moment for the audience, and the cinematography will be an homage to the earlier movies but the characters on screen don't feel the same excitement we do. they clearly recognize this ship as old and junky, but at first the audience doesn't notice that. 

the older daughter will then board the ship where she will be greeted by Rex, the captain. Rex is going to be either hungover or slightly tipsy but this is where the older daughter will theoretically pass the baton to shift focus onto him, and we can introduce the rest of the cast and begin the episode.

so most of the vigilant crew is introduced in the first episode, except for david and theeca, who will each be introduced in the second episode. 

After we pass the focus onto rex, we'll go on a quick tour around the ship to show the audience how it operates and who operates it. 

After rex the biggest characters we meet are the medical bay main crew: cecil, justine, and tony (Chief Medical Officer, Head Nurse and Med Bay Ensign, respectively), who will always be seen dealing with some sort of highjinks in the background (or foreground) of an episode. 

From there we go to the engine room to see the patchwork of tech from different centuries and meet delvox and george (it will be established over the course of this season that delvox is the main reason this ship is still in space now even though it's been in service for 140+ years, and george is his ever-eager assistant). 

After that we walk the halls, where we meet muurk, a security officer, for the first time. The conversation with muurk ends, rex continues to the bridge, and as he ambles through the halls the many side characters will quickly be introduced to be seen later in this season and beyond.  This ship will have around 150 crew members in total (the number might fluctuate time to time) and I think it's vital to have the same actors- the same people - as often as possible to really establish how small of a ship it is. 

By now rex is at the bridge, where he interacts with midge at the communications centre. bayta zee will be at her security station, and hank at the helm with a very frightened unnamed human ensign in a red shirt navigating beside him. This is where we can begin the episode "for real." 

The idea is that the vigilant has been hired by the lunar school board to take large groups of children on a tour of the solar system. one of these kids will eventually reveal themselves to be a telepathic alien. this kid is adopted, and before they got on the vigilant they had a fight with their adoptive parents and now are determined to run away to their "real home planet." 

so they take over rex's mind (which was easy for the child to do since rex had been steadily drinking all day) and divert the tour lightyears off course. the home the child is searching for has long since been destroyed by internal conflicts, and eventually they will relinquish their mental hold over the captain.

At the end of the episode we're back orbiting around earth, the children and teachers have all left and rex has snuck away from the bridge to go to the surface. He does this frequently; run off to a transporter or shuttlepod once back in earth's orbit to disappear into his favourite bar - Homeworld - and drink real alcohol while still on active duty. 

Homeworld Bar is a nice place, a small yurt in the literal middle of nowhere, earth. It lies at the centre point of four dirt roads where the borders of china, kazakhstan, mongolia, and russia used to be. Filled with various knick-knacks, it has dim lighting but a warm atmosphere. there are always under a dozen people inside, including staff. 

The first time we see it is the ending of the first episode, where Rex has slunk off to after having his mind controlled for the entire day by a six year old throwing a temper tantrum. Usually, no one notices that he's gone since the missions are so very menial. However this time it's different, this time Rex actually needs to be doing his job. His navigator is dead, his ship went thousands of light years off course and all he was supposed to do was go out as far as the cometary nuclei and back. 

Basically, he's in for some deep shit. 

Admiral Holiday makes his first ever appearance, hailing the Vigilant only for the crew to discover he's left the ship completely and no one bothered to stop him, again. They bring up the admiral on screen where he yells furiously at the crew, and then notices the captain is no where to be seen. He cuts the feed abruptly and the remaining main bridge crew (Hank, Bayta, and Midge) just look at each other desperately. 

We cut then to the homeworld bar. The sun is streaming thru in dusty beams, the air is a little smoky and there are maybe two other people quietly talking and drinking in the corner. 

Rex is slumped over the bar, three drinks already finished around him and a fresh one in his fist. The bartender is standing over him disapprovingly, but Rex has been coming here for so long  he's learned to just give the man a drink when he asks for it. 

The admiral beams onto the planet's surface outside the bar and walks in. He takes a moment to adjust to the lighting and strides up beside the pitiful figure hunched over his drink. 

The admiral sits down and Rex looks up, drunk. It takes a second, but he finally recognizes the admiral and realizes he's been caught. The admiral berates him for a while but then softens, telling him he's read the file on his starfleet career. 

This makes Rex stiffen. 

Holiday doesn't notice or doesn't care, and mentions how Rex used to be someone; how a few years ago he was in charge of one of the most successful five-year runs of the 24th century, what happened? This only results in  angering Rex, who clumsily lashes out. That just makes the admiral more pissed off at his behaviour than he already was. 

So the episode ends with our valiant captain being ordered to daily medical and psychological examinations to ensure this type of thing never happens again. 

"Why don't you just fire me?" 

"Good luck finding a replacement, no one else wants this job."

[notesonfilm1]

From the very beginning of La Diosa arrodillada, the viewer is plunged into a heightened world of dreams and desires, a world of feeling which the characters express through diaries, letters. They speak to each other in a heightened tone, with poetic language  and presented to the viewer through symbolic use of imagery. The films is, to borrow J. Hoberman’s words, ‘part film noir, part grand opera’.

La Diosa Arrodillada opens with Raquel (María Félix) eagerly awaiting her lover Antonio (Arturo de Córdova) at the airport. She smiles with pleasure at his arrival, and before he sees her, thus conveying to us that her feelings for him are real. In the first few lines of dialogue, we know they’ve done this before, that their time together is fleeting and precious, snatched from other commitments and obligations. There’s then a dissolve. We first see a carafe of wine, smoke curling up the frame. We hear her voice, ‘to think I never ask you anything. I’ve never wanted to ask you anything’. The camera pulls back. ‘That’s the proof of our love’, he responds, ‘We must never interrogate the past if we value our love’.

‘But it’s so difficult to be strong when alone’, she says, ‘and we see so little of each other. Let’s never abandon each other. It would be like death.’

‘If so, let’s close our eyes and live that dream’.

Cut to an extraordinary close-up of Félix, as if in orgasm, saying: ‘I’ll keep my eyes closed to prevent my soul from escaping this dream. That is my promise Antonio’.

From the beginning we’re plunged into a world of feeling, dreams, a place where life is to be lived in the intense now without regard to the past and bracketed away from the future and from the society that intrudes on this world of feeling and may shatter it . But these wishes won’t come true; the promises won’t be kept. The world will intrude. They try to do what they think is right but are propelled by a force of desire they can’t control; he especially as despite the film’s title, this is not the story of a kneeling Goddess but of a fallen man.

  Desire

What drives the narrative engine of The Kneeling Goddess, the motor of all noir, is desire. In this case, Antonio’s for Raquel. The film tells us this most directly. When he returns home to his office and his wife, Antonio looks outside, to a sign urging lovers to ‘Use Desire, the Perfume of Lovers’. The film doesn’t want us to miss this so the score urgently and loudly underlines its significance.

‘What do you understand by desire,’ Antonio asks his butler? ‘what one longs for, what one wants..’. ‘Exactly. But it’s more than that. It’s a force that obliges you. That propels you to obtain what you want, and to keep it if you’ve already obtained it. Isn’t that right?’

‘Yes’

‘But that force can grow, take shape, take on a life of its own, become stronger than you, and could end up destroying you. And what’s worse destroy all those closest to you.’

Antonio looks of a picture of his wife, who’s been in ill in a sanatorium in Cincinnati, probably the reason he hooked up with Racquel in the first place. It’s at that moment that Antonio decides to stop seeing Raquel. Raquel, however,  has beat him to it, leaving a letter for him, saying she’s got a past, one she doesn’t want to divulge to him, and in spite of her promises, can’t continue seeing him. He never gets that letter because, reminded of how much he loves his wife and how much his wife needs him,  he ends up not going to Guadalajara to see her and thus does not receive her brush-off.

But fate won’t let them be. When he returns home, his wife has been completing work on the garden. They’ve put a fountain. And she decides that the only thing missing, is a statue, something like the Venus de Milo. He goes to a gallery and finds the statue he’s looking for, a statue clearly modelled on Raquel, who he finds there, half-dressed after having posed for the sculptorp. It’s called ‘The Kneeling Goddess’, she informs him, ‘but it’s really just a woman on her knees, the way men like to see them be.’

In the clip below, you can see, how Gavaldón shows us the effect of that statue, of Raquel, on Antonio and his marriage. He becomes transfixed. His wife watches the statue take hold of him. There’s thunder, lightning, rain. Like Sirk, Gavaldón is not afraid to externalise feeling. But unlike Sirk, Gavaldón does not ironise, distance, or make strange. The obsession depicted comes from the heart and is meant to be understood as such. When he returns to his study, we hear him tell himself in voice-over:’ there’s nothing worse than fooling yourself. All my struggle has been for nought. I understand it’s stronger than I’. Reason and will recede, and he succumbs to desire and the unconscious.

  Thus begins Antonio’s decline. Once he was a happily married man, a rich industrialist with his own chemical company. Soon he’ll be chasing through the tropics following a cabaret singer selling more than songs in cheap dives. His wife is surrounded by friends, chandeliers, formal paintings of herself, she plays classical music. Raquel in contrast is shown naked in marble, showing off her body in Panama’s Paradise singing popular song and embracing unknown sailors. The film is not afraid of over-emphasis and the contrasting ways in which each woman in Antonio’s life is symbolised is consistently and continually underlined.

Time is a persistent theme in the film. At the beginning, Raquel wants to deny the past and the future and live in a continual present. They have little time. Later on, Antonio’s wife dies. In an extraordinary scene, Gavaldón shows us the married couple, the wedding cake celebrating their anniversary in the foreground, the statue that threatens the marriage behind them in the background. In seconds, Antonio will put poison in a drink. His wife will see him put that poison in one of two drinks. Is the poison for her or for himself? We don’t know but in the  next shot an obit shows us the wife’s already a goner.

Raquel believes he may have done it out of love for her. This rather thrills her. It might be what made him go to Panama, to get drunk watching her sing of the treachery and uselessness of love and marriage and allowing herself, like Gilda, to be felt up by the men in the audience. When she asks him why he’s followed her to Panama, he, drunk on the floor with alcohol, and drunk in the head with desire for her, cups her breasts and then moves his hand up her throat and tries to strangle her. Time as feeling in the film stands still; time as narrative gallops along at an insatiable pace.

The question of time is uttered constantly in stylised language and shown to us through a symbol that encapsulates so many of the film’s themes. A lighter (see below), that is also a watch, and that has a secret compartment which can carry poison. Thus, a desire that sparks, that will burn, with an intensity that can only ever be delimited before it is extinguished, and that carries a poison through which one can kill oneself and possibly others. All encased in time. It’s brilliant.

  Like in a musical, the songs in the Panama Paradise sequence are used to comment on the story. The first part of the number, starts with Raquel partner’s singing to us: ‘I just screwed up, I got married, and fell into the woman’s trap’. She in turn begins her song by saying how women have to act submissive and be smart to catch a man. ‘I confess I don’t know what love is’ ‘You have a heart of crystal,’ sings her partner.

Then the tone changes and Raquel goes onto perform her solo which begins in the talk-singing style later made famous by Rex Harrison and which begins the clip above. ‘I’ve known love. It’s very beautiful. Burt for me it was fleeting and traitorous. It made dishonest what was once glorious. My law is pleasure…for money,’ and then she begins the song proper. Love was her cross and her religion but love’s revenge was marriage, after which their love became only pretend, a farce they’re now condemned to keep on repeating.

The last bit of the number, a duet once more, sings of the glories of not getting married and that to be happy one must never listen to one’s heart and forget about love. Something that Antonio, in the audience, and having drunk his way to unconsciousness due to his feelings for her, is beginning to learn. But as the song ends, a coochie dancer appears, shakes her bum, and lets the audience in the scene and the audience watching the film know love’s got little to do with anything:  that it’s all about the sex.

  David Melville notes the comparison to Von Sternberg in this sequence: ‘This whole nightclub episode builds to a fetishist frenzy that’s worthy of Josef von Sternberg. María’s sleazy manager and co-star (Fortunio Bonanova) scrawls a message in lipstick on her dressing room mirror (Morocco). It’s New Year’s Eve, and the air shimmers with balloons and paper streamers (Dishonored). He wears a white tuxedo (Blonde Venus) and she sports a white silk gown decorated with fringe (The Devil Is a Woman). María Félix, to be fair, is far more Maria Montez than Marlene Dietrich – but she throws herself into the melodramatic absurdities with a gusto that many a more gifted actress might envy’.

Raquel only begins to be sure of his love once she suspects he may have killed for her. This paves the way for  getting  married and the return to Mexico,. As you can see in the fantastic sequence above, the film turns quasi-Gothic, like a combination of Rebecca and Suspicion. She wears black, wonders around the house at night, finds his bedroom locked to her. She sees that the portrait of Antonio’s dead wife dominates the living room, that her reminder is everywhere in the house. He in turn spies her  contemplating his dead wife’s painting, which he then becomes obsessed with. This is dark, murky, territory, where the darker feelings that edge and constantly pull on desire — guilt, disgust, fear, jealousy — are symbolically visualised.

The picture of Raquel that drives Antonio so wild with desire, The Kneeling Goddess, is meant to be of Diana, the Goddess of the Hunt. And María Félix is often adorned with feathers, beautiful, but a bird of prey (see examples above).

  Raquel is also often associated with animals. The Giraffe print in the Schiaparelli-esque dress on the left, the mermaid or siren look in the picture on the second from the left, the spider web dress in the second from the right, and of course in fur on the right.

As Moviediva argues, ‘La diosa tackles one of Gavaldon’s recurring themes, death, in this case the death of a man’s spirit, as he is corrupted by his love for a femme fatale.  He loves the use of mirrors, used to demonstrate duality, and here, also the decay of the hero’s morality.  Because there was no Production Code in Mexico, this film is surprisingly sexy for a 1940s film’. Indeed as you can see in the images above, whereas the wife was always associated with high culture, refinement and respectability, Raquel is constantly associated with sex, a Circe who will drive men to ridicule and ruin. As J. Hoberman writes,  The Kneeling Goddess  ‘is the most outré of melodramas, it’s a movie of flagrant symbols, blatant coincidences and astounding scenes …(and María Félix is) a femme fatale to rival any from 1940s Hollywood, Félix embodies a moral ambiguity beyond good and evil.’

Paco Ignacio Taibo has written that when the film came out in Mexico it was denounced as an ‘insult to the morality of the country’, an attack on Christian morality, There were demonstrations. Taibo is particularly harsh on the film’s wardrobe, which as you can see from my comments above, I heartily disagree with; and also with the film’s dialogue: ‘I’ve had to fight very hard to win your heart’; ‘I’ve tried to fight a fire with a sea of dynamite’; ‘You either give yourself to me or destroy me’.

I see the dialogue as one of the film’s strengths. It is like opera, it is meant to ‘sing’ a realm of feeling. External realism has very little place in film’s of this type. Like in many film noirs, melodramatic passion is what’s on visual display; how desire can drive a man to his doom, desire for whom, and how. As we can see in the final sequence, where Raquel runs to the jail to inform her husband that he’s been declared innocent, that the night is gone forever, all whilst images show her and then him and then them, imprisoned by their past, their desires, their actions: the dream they wanted to hold onto by closing their eyes turned into a nightmare, his fears regarding his desires, being proved all too true. And then the film, rather than ending on him ends on her, in the mansion that is now hers, looking at the statue that she posed for, and pondering that power of that which it represents. What is the significance of her look as the camera follows her gaze and tracks into a closer look at the stature? It’s a great sequence in a truly great movie (see below)

José Arroyo

  La Diosa arrodillada/ The Kneeling Goddess (Roberto Gavaldón, Mexico, 1947) From the very beginning of La Diosa arrodillada, the viewer is plunged into a heightened world of dreams and desires, a world of feeling which the characters express through diaries, letters.

[theclarkystuff-blog]

E3 opinions ( Nintendo)

Not the last show of E3 but possibly the last big one of the event, Nintendo strut into E3 with their usual pre recorded segment although I have seen people either dead excited for what a future Switch line up or seem to have no faith in Nintendo at all with only a half hour slot, so let’s review and see how it fares.

Opening the show is what appears to new a new advertising campaign maybe for the Switch but indie sensation Rocket League appears to take the opening slot and even showing off Fifa, neither games necessarily interest me but it seems to show a change in Nintendo, where they would usually promote one of their own works first usually it is nice to see them throw a bone to third parties. While Nintendo may not be able to boast having the kinds of support Sony and Microsoft receive at least Nintendo looks like they are trying to garner support now. 

Xenoblade 2 gets a re-introduction with a new trailer in English which showcased some story elements including game-play which shows that it will play similar to the last two entries in the series and also include some incredible looking worlds to explore once again, although it looks like someone turned up the anime inspiration to the max, mind you. The biggest surprise for me being that Nintendo are still aiming to release this Fall, despite earlier rumors stating that it had slipped into early 2018 so that is cool. 

Kirby comes crashing back with his Switch debut looking like follow up on his 2D adventures in the style of the ever classic Kirby’s Dreamland. While I don’t expect this to be a blockbuster seller, Kirby plat-formers are usually a solid experience and with Switch’s multiplayer possibilities which could allow you to play co-op on a single Switch or maybe even over multiple Switch’s via wireless

Yoshi also makes a Switch debut in a new game which appears to be continuing with the Wooly World theme with worlds that appear to be made of cardboard and moving away from the 2D plat-former mold by allowing Yoshi to move in the back and foreground. One of the biggest surprises about this game is that it will be built on the Unreal engine as confirmed by Epic Games spokesperson, Dana Cowley.

Fire Emblem Warriors while looking nice i felt a little disappointed in as the trailer appeared to mostly show cut-scenes over game-play as I would have liked to have seen how the game preformed in action , with the Switch specs in mind and being able to handle hundreds of enemies and big maps and also wondering how the N3DS port will handle, I expect similar results as seen in Hyrule Warriors on Wii U and N3DS respectively but with the game aiming to release this year I get the feeling we may see a dedicated Direct for this later in the year. 

Breath Of The Wild’s DLC was revealed showing some visual for the previously talked about and upcoming content, the first of which is dubbed The Master Trials will add a hard mode and new quest which will enable players to power up the Master Sword to deal out double damage, this DLC will also include some new costumes based on previous entries into the The Legend Of Zelda series such as Tingle’s costume and the infamous Majora’s Mask. This first expansion reminds me a little bit of Dark Souls in some respects but I guess we will get to find out in a matter of weeks The second DLC being dubbed The Champions’ Ballad focuses on the Champions in BOTW which makes me wonder if they have unfinished business after the game concluded or if this is set 1000 years before Calamity Ganon’s appearance or something? 

The big close out of the show was given to Super Mario Odyssey, opening with perhaps the oddest trailer involving a dinosaur but in this short trailer we get to see many of the game-play elements which displayed massive worlds to explore, going into walls playing as an 8 bit Mario in a similar style to The Legend of Zelda : A Link Between Worlds and what appears to be Mario’s gimmick in this game, being able to take control of enemies and NPC like citizens found in New Donk City or a tyrannosaurus-rex by throwing Mario’s hat at them. This game sent me over the top and into hype mode, this game looks fantastic, looks to be amazing fun, looks like it runs at a solid 60fps and oozes a confidence that it isn’t afraid to embrace with its big band styled title song delivered with some beautiful vocals. Super Mario Odyssey looks like it will be the successor that Super Mario Galaxy 2 deserved, having everything you could hope for packed into a Mario game alongside a October release, coming sooner than I expected, this may well be my game of E3.

The other big talking points and announcements I feel I have to address for most part seem to come about after the presentation into the Tree-house broadcasts so let’s address them, Nintendo listened to the uproar over Metroid in recent years and not only talked about giving us one new Metroid game, but 2 of them. Nintendo confirmed that Metroid Prime 4 is in development but having nothing to show for it, not even any concept art or a teaser trailer. While this is a little disappointing I am sure the announcement of the game will bring many tears of joy to fans of Retro Studios trilogy it appears that Retro Studios themselves will not be returning to the series, that ponders the question of who is making it? and what the hell has Retro been working on then for the past 3 years? The other reveal being Metroid : Samus Returns for 3DS, a modern remake of the Game Boy sequel to Metroid being made by Mercury Studios, famous for Castlevania : Lord of Shadow. This reveal looked cool in concept although I felt like it was missing polish despite its launching within months, hopefully the next time we see this game it will be looking better.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle which had its official unveiling at Ubisoft’s event on Monday already looks like one of the strangest concepts with these 2 big franchises coming together for a game which plays like X-Com. The game looks like it could be some massive fun although I may hold out until I see some reviews to help decide if and when i will buy into this.

Mario and Luigi - Super Star Saga DX was another remade gem for the 3DS which looks to be running on the modern M&L engine as seen in Dream Team and Paper Jam, this remake will include a new mode based around a trio of Bowsers Minions which I guess will add a humorous alternative view of the story that many maybe familiar with. Being a big fan of the original Game Boy Advance version I look forward to trying this remake out soon.

I guess I should address Skyrim coming to Switch as well despite it only having a small segment in the presentation but it is cool to see Nintendo willing to allow Bethesda to include BOTW costumes, shields and armors. Despite Skyrim feeling like it is getting ported to anything and everything, including a VR version, the idea of being able to play a grand expansive adventure like Skyrim in a portable form without hopefully getting an entry as bad in performance as the infamous PS3 port, the motion controls looks like they could add some fun interesting ways to play this game but I imagine many will probably default to the regular controls.

I was overall impressed with Nintendo’s presentation despite the short presentation, although they did not waste much time promoting games releasing within the next few months like Arms or Splatoon 2 but they are being given special competition events at E3 to act as promotion there, it is nice to see we wasn’t bogged down with more info about it at the presentation. While I am confident Yoshi and Kirby will be good games they hardly seemed like big announcements I was expecting for the Switch at its first E3 but with Metroid Pime 4 and a new RPG Pokemon being confirmed in development I would only wish Nintendo had more to show really, many have been hoping for ports of Mario Maker, Super Smash Bros 4 or Bayonetta 2 to Switch or even talk of the Virtual Console service coming to Switch but it feels like we are getting small servings for this year. While Nintendo has it’s Directs to spread awareness of upcoming titles which they can use any time of the year I can see why Nintendo maybe holding back some announcements for a later date, similar to how I feel Sony may have been holding back on announcing new stuff for its PSX expo later this year but overall I was happy with what I saw Nintendo seem to employ an unusual method of unveiling games as a few were presented through the Tree-house segments instead of the presentation which strikes me as weird as some of these would have been more than welcome during this brief conference.

This years E3 I felt was only mediocre for most part this year, while we got some interesting updates to games announced in previous years I felt like there was a lack of anything really new or fresh at least for most part throughout the whole show. I feel Microsoft while having an impressive new console had a serious lack of impressive software to make it stand out like BOTW did for Switch or Uncharted 4 did for the PS4, Forza 7 could well be that game for all I know, but I get the feeling it won’t be. Sony and Nintendo had good presentations but neither really felt like they ignited a fuse, while not every E3 can be an amazing one, this one certainly wasn’t a bad one, until next year I guess, have fun.

[theguineapig3]

SLAYERS: DRAGONS AND DINOSAURS (part 1 of 3)

Forever and a day ago, I began using my knowledge as the resident fandom paleontologist to tackle a popular(?) fan-theory. So if you’re feeling interested, click that READ MORE to jump into the world of dinosaurs! Subsequent posts coming soon.

NOTE: NEW SCIENTIFIC STUDIES HAVE POSED POTENTIAL CHANGES TO THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS POST. HOWEVER, BECAUSE THESE CHANGES HAVE ONLY JUST BEEN PROPOSED AND WILL REQUIRE FURTHER ACADEMIC SCRUTINY, I WILL PRESENT THE INFORMATION AS I LEARNED IT. 

Okay, friends, buckle up because we're going on a dinosaur ride. We’re all pretty familiar with the concept of dinosaurs, but popular culture sometimes distorts the facts. If we’re gonna talk about a fictional race of feathered dragons evolving from feathered dinosaurs, we should start by taking a seat and figuring out how all the pieces fit together. To do that, we’re gonna start with some important dinosaur basics. These are the basics I learned back in my freshman year of college in Historic Geology- “baby paleontology” as my advisor calls it. 

But first things first, let’s talk about what dinosaurs aren’t. Observe:

NOT A DINOSAUR

NOT A DINOSAUR

NOT A DINOSAUR (though you might wanna remember this guy; he’s kind of important)

DINOSAUR? Uh, depends on who you ask, but the general consensus seems to be “yes.”

See, a lot of what we generally think of when we say “dinosaur” isn’t totally accurate to the classification. Things like plesiosaurs and pterosaurs were different kinds of reptiles, and our fin-backed friend up there is something else entirely that we’ll mention later. True dinosaurs are split into two categories, with the birds we know and love being part of only one.

The two categories are known as Saurischia (aka “lizard-hipped”) and Ornithischia (aka “bird-hipped”). 

Before we go in-depth about these guys here, let’s get one of the most frustrating paleo misnomers straight: birds belong to the saurischians. Birds are categorized in the “lizard-hipped” group, NOT the “bird-hipped” group. Gonna leave that there for now because that’s a topic for another post, but just remember it.

Ornithischians include familiar favorites such as triceratops, anklyosaurus, stegosaurus, iguanadon, and the duck-billed parasaurolophus. The ornithischians originated in the early Jurassic, but are now all extinct (I say this because the saurischians are not- birds, remember?) These guys are not the ones from which our Ancient Dragons would’ve developed, so I’ll move on. If you want to learn more about ornithischians, check out this link.

Saurischians, besides being distinguished by their hip structure, also have several key characteristics that we see in Ancient Dragons: a long, flexible neck and hands equipped to grip objects. These dinosaurs were the earliest to develop- in the middle Triassic- and are divided further into two groups: sauropods and theropods. Sauropods were your friendly long-necked herbivores (think Littlefoot and Arlo), and were the earlier of the two to develop. However, modern day birds share ancestry with the theropods, so those will be our focus for the rest of the post. You can read more about sauropods here.

So. Theropods. Have we gotten to the dragons yet? Yes.

The name “theropod” means “beast-footed,” a fitting name for the group that contains such famous characters as T. rex and Velociraptor. It was actually the discovery of a theopod displaying characteristics of an active, agile hunter that fueled the argument for the concept of warm-blooded dinosaurs. Besides their physical abilities, they also had some notable adaptations that would make them the perfect predecessors for something like the Ancient Dragons. Theropods had- and modern birds still have- hollow bones. This characteristic would be absolutely essential for allowing something as big as an Ancient Dragon to be capable of powered flight. Theropods had sharp teeth and claws, as well as feet adapted to rely on three weight-bearing toes (with other toes reduced, as can be seen on the Ancient Dragon in the foreground of the first picture.) 

But the theropods are still a very broad and diverse group. To be a bit more specific, let’s focus in on the clade Coelurosauria. From what we see of Ancient Dragons in Slayers TRY, they appear to possess elongated arms and ankles that are hinge-like (that is, with reduced rotational ability), both of which are characteristic of coelurosaurs. The coelurosaurs themselves are a fairly diverse group, including both Tyrannosaurus and modern-day birds. But with a fictional species like this, there’s only so specific we can get with the taxonomy before we find that there’s just not real-world box to put them in. Their wings, for example, being separate limbs, would have to have been some sort of significant genetic mutation that was magnified over millions of years of natural and/or sexual selection. That by itself can set them apart from any real-world coelurosaurs, living or dead. However, because of the number of shared characteristics, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that they shared ancestry or descended from feathered coelurosaurs. 

Check out this coelurosaur right here. Not too far removed from our Ancient dragons, is she? Give her a few million years of evolution in the right direction and anything could happen. She might even be Val’s great-great-great-great-great- er, you get the idea.

But what about Golden Dragons? What about them? This may be an odd thing to say, but hear me out: I don’t think the Golden Dragons were descended from dinosaurs at all. Why? For that information, let’s continue on to post 2!