#meanwhile his main emotional arc of the movie concludes with him getting back with his sad backstory ex

[reitheist]

hot take everyone saying deadpool and wolverine is the gayest thing ever needs to watch more gay porn

[kendrixtermina]

The "waifu bait" criticism of Edelgard is so dumb given that most of the cast is technically waifu/husbando bait in one way or another, they're all meant to appeal to players as romance options, and she's the only one getting flack for it. (Well, not the only one, there were some people giving Dimitri shit too for being "wish fullfillment for stupid teenage girls who think they can fix a man," but I see the complaint most often with Edelgard.)

Yeah. I mean, you can boink Rhea and Jeritza!

It’s not like satelite love interests aren’t a plague onto anime and fiction in general, but I only ever hear this “you only like them because they’re waifu/bishie” thing directed at characters who very much DO have personality, unique compelling features and plot relevance. 

I’ve also seen this thrown at, say, Evangelion’s Miss Ayanami, as if all the fascinating sci-fi concept stuff and compelling narrative about finding your own worth and making a connection in a cruel lonely world wasn’t there - and at least we do see her through a “main character’s love interest” sorta lens. (I was thinking about how Byleth is actually quite similar, except more proactive with more of a dorky side, and less philosophical/reflective, but because Byleth is the MC we come off with a fairly different impression. )

Meanwhile with Edelgard they really didn’t pull any punches, the whole story is set in motion and dominated by her active choices, most the unique designs/outfits she gets are geared to look elegant/powerful.  (Apart from the usual ‘individually wrapped boob armor would break your sternum’ thing but you’d really have to know physics for that/ could be fixed easily by making the fit more sweater-like), she has a specific discernable philosophy and makes impactful choices, that can genuinely be agreed or disagreed with.

You can’t swag her into your way of thinking - you can only ally with her under the presupposition that you already actively agree. (See all the people complaining that you cant “criticise her more”, expecting her to be like Dimitri basically even though they are exact opposites. You can only get on her route by making two deliberate choices. I mean they wrote this with your first playthrough in mind, in-universe you’re not there because you wanna complete all aroutes but because you actively chose to join her after she spent a year unsubtly trying to recruit you to her cause)

You don’t talk Claude out of his tactics either. (and forcing it all into this comparision often leads ppl to overlook that he has ambiguities or character development at all, maybe he isn’t vilified but he gets simplified and therefore wronged just as much in the end. They’re not all Dimitri. The whole point of having three or four different potential deuteragonists to choose from is that they’re different)… heck, even if you look at Dimitri, you only get him back to what he really wanted to do back in part I before his black-and-white thinking and exaggerated sense of duty got the better of him. 

With all three, joining them eventually just enables them to get closer to their actual vision. Back when you meet her in Remire, Edelgard outright tells you that “with your power on my side, we could courttail the slitherer’s atrocities much more efficiently”. You don’t change her mind at all; You enable her to use “Plan A”. Same with Claude, who otherwise plains much more defensively both because he has less support and because he’s more jaded. And Dimitri essentially pulls a Sayaka, ie being unable to live up to his own unrealistic standards drive him to lose all hope and become the very opposite of the hero he wanted to be, but you do help him get back to that, or to a more balanced mature understanding of that. 

The best proof of that is that the popularity poll numbers actually went down after the release, ie a lot of ppl who liked her just bc they liked her design were turned off that there’s a specific personality there that isn’t necessarily their type/ a MO they don’t necessarily agree with. Or all those peeps complaining that the S-support was too understated for them. Claude got that too - They’re just not the most open/expressive people in the world, one would think that after playing through their routes you would know and understand that. Whereas Dimitri has been super emotional from day one (which is both his greatest strength and greatest weakness), so it figures that he’d be more conventionally romantic. 

- Hardly things that would happen if she were written to be “blandly pleasant”.  I mean generally speaking she’s not the best as showing her feelings and when she does she’s often pretty blunt at it even with her closest friends (El: ”Hubert! I order you to tell me what it is you’re not telling me!” Hubert: [elegantly weasels out of answering] El: [after he’s left the room] I’m worried about him tho. )

Seems senseless to claim that she’s blandly pleasant when she’s absolutely gotten a love-it-or-hate-it-marmite-reaction all across the board. It also seems to go along with the implicit idea that everyone who likes her is heterosexual boys. I’m neither, and it’s not like heterosexual boys aren’t ever interested in “plot” or “writing” I mean geez. Though I would resist the temptation to fully ascribe it to things like that. 

To an extent it’s simply confusion. “How can they like this thing that obviously sucks? Must be an ulterior motive”, whereas in reality ppl who like her have probably parsed what happened here differently to begin with (It depends greatly on how powerful you concluded Rhea was, ie, wether what Edelgard is doing is a conquest or a revolt. She certainly sees it as a revolt. Even today in the modern day most of us see revolts as legitimate, or at least, if they get overly destructive, as a fault of the bad government. Heck, there are many on this very site who would label all revolts legit by default (”eat the rich”, the more ‘original sin-like’ variants of privilege theory) which is further than I would go )

There certainly are a bunch of ‘cute’ scenes post holy-tomb scene and under the assumption that Edelgard is this my-way-or-the-highway type of person that many have her pegged as I can see how they might think that it “makes no sense” but that’s really down to wanting her not tp step outside of that idea they have of her. I mean even supervillains have silly everyday situations. Bin Laden loved Disney Movies, Hitler loved his dogs. By itself that has nothing to do with morality or likeability. It’s just being human. Supervillains blush, not because they’re not villains, but because they have blood vessels in their faces. It’s only logical that once you get close to someone and get them to trust you, you get to see more of their silly or vulnerable sides. It’s the same with Rhea. (except that the same people argue that having personable vulnerable sides at all makes Rhea good s of course it causes some cognitive dissonance when Edelgard also has them. I’ve yet to see ppl calling “waifuism” on Rhea (whom I would consider a full-fledged villain), and they shouldn’t - it’s characterization.) Same with ppl calling Edelgard a “manchild” for liking stuffed animals and sweets. She’s actually very mature and adult for her age, having some interests that aren’t super high-minded is just realistic and if you looked at her as a full 3D person who can have more than one trait you’d see that. 

This also goes with that tendency of holding up AM as the gold standard complaining about the lack of AM-like plot that they completely miss the different but equally compelling character arcs in VW and CF. That’s not a lack of arc, that IS the arc, it’s just a different arc: We get to see this tough, in-control high-minded character who’d completely given up on the normal life she wanted so much and resigned herself to never being understood finding out that she is very much still capable of normalcy and humanity and finding friendship and love and I think that’s beautiful. It’s my jam. 

And it’s meaningful precisely because it’s a change from only seeing the tough leader guise otherwise. Complaining about that is like complaining about getting to see Claude’s more wistful, dreamy, benevolent, not-entirely self-interest side in VW or claiming that the writing would be better if he were just a straight-up selfish trickster. Actually, if you removed their heroic traits you’d end up with a lot more generic characters. You’d simply get every wild card trickster ever, and every “Nietzschean” villain ever.  It’s the fact that they’re unconventional heroes that makes Claude and Edelgard so unique, compelling and interesting. If you like conventional heroes, Dimitri is right here. Your basic heroic fantasy ‘rightful king returns/ soft peace loving hero’, plus your basic jrpg guilt-ridden angsty protagonist. I mean there’s good reason that these character archetypes are popular. Plus he’s especially well-executed and recontextualized by the contrast to the others, but there he is, enjoy him! We’re not stopping you. 

It’s really Seteth who came up short arc wise. You could have given him an arc, the potential was there, he essentially transistions from protecting himself and his family to taking on his family’s heroic quest and rising up to that, but he doesn’t get like, a scene reflecting on that. Or you could’ve sent them on some mission to actually curb some corrupt cardinals etc, shown them actually reforming the church and realizing that it wasn’t all perfect, after all he very much knows that Rhea herself wasn’t all perfect. 

For all that much of media is obsessed with making characters “hot”, the truth is that if people like them for any reason, they will find them hot anyways, regardless of whether that was the intention. (unless the people in question are aroace, or the character is a literal, realistic prepubescent child)

You don’t have to “make”  a character hot for ppl to find them so.

[dgcatanisiri]

Looking over the Sequel Trilogy as a whole... I figure that the way that polarization has worked in just about everything these days, people will dig in their heels either way, but... The Last Jedi really only works in isolation.

Which is a problem for what was movie two of a trilogy and movie eight of a saga.

More long-winded ramblings behind the cut.

Characters repeat beats, learn lessons that they already knew in TFA. It doesn’t properly set up things for the finale - the ONE thing it sets up is Kylo Ren as the leader of the First Order, but then that plot point really just gets Palpa-jacked. Otherwise... I’ve brought it up repeatedly in my critical posts of the movie, there’s not really a sense of hope at the end of the movie, not for the characters we’ve supposedly been emotionally connecting to throughout it. 

TLJ only broadly follows up on TFA, despite picking up almost right afterwards. Luke Skywalker went missing but left a map... to a place where he was waiting to die, alone and forgotten. Finn was critically wounded and left in a coma... then wakes up right away, right as rain. Meanwhile, the guy who got a scar in that same fight gets the emotional weight. Poe sent BB-8 into the desert with the vital intel, knowing that he’d be taken captive by the First Order, tortured and killed, because the mission was more important... then needs to learn the importance of sacrifice from Holdo. Rey becomes determined to reach out to and redeem Kylo Ren... the guy who she watched kill Han Solo, his father, her mentor, and critically wound the first person who came back for her, which was her driving motivation throughout TFA, to return to Jakku because she was waiting for her parents to come back for her.

Also this?

This is not the body language of a woman who has met her great true love and wants to save him from himself. This is a predator stalking her prey as she moves in for the kill. That is not intent to fuck, it is intent to kill. And that? That was the last meeting she had with Kylo Ren - a meeting she had every reason to believe would be their last, considering that Starkiller exploded a short time later.

Which is the OTHER big problem within TLJ’s narrative - the First Order is effectively the Empire in it, having infinite resources to throw at things. BUT the First Order was a fringe group in TFA. They were the scattered remains of the Empire who, in secret, managed to develop a planet-buster. This was their big move. But TLJ frames them as already controlling the galaxy. 

Trying not to get sidetracked, but that’s why the whole Poe-Holdo thing pisses me off. Based on the First Order of TFA, Poe made a sound tactical call in destroying the dreadnaught, depleting the First Order’s limited resources - that ship had to have thousands of FO soldiers and officers, a powerful siege weapon in its own right, and that’s the kind of mission you use bombers FOR, if they couldn’t handle that, they couldn’t handle any other kind of mission and should have been scrapped for parts. It’s just that TLJ treats the First Order as the Empire at its prime, with the infinite resources of a galaxy-spanning organization built on the bones of a thousand generation Republic, not the scavenged corpse of the Empire.

Starkiller’s reveal in TFA was like saying that some fringe political group got a nuke. TLJ says that, within the space of HOURS, that fringe political group took over the galaxy.

That’s another reason I dislike how this trilogy at large (not just TLJ, though that was where it grabbed my attention) portrays hyperspace travel as virtuously instantaneous, it makes the galaxy WAY too small.

In the end, this is also a story about heroic failure. Like, this is the most downbeat movie of the whole franchise in my book - even Revenge of the Sith feels more hopeful than this, because that last scene, of Owen, Beru, and Luke, looking out to the binary sunset... We have the context for those characters. We know that this is the start of hope, for the characters we care for. The end of TLJ? It ends on some kid we have no connection to staring up at the stars, with our heroes, the last hope against the encroaching Empire First Order all packed in to a beat up weed van. This movie presents the bleakest situation, because that’s all the hope we have, and it’s bitter at best.

All of this, ALL OF IT... The Last Jedi fails to connect to the movie that preceded it. Not only that, though... It also kept its main characters separated. None of the characters we’re supposed to care about are interacting with one another, they’re all in very isolated plots. This makes it hard to connect to their emotional arcs, because they’re not connecting or impacting one another. They spend TLJ isolated throughout the story, off doing separate things. Considering that much of TFA was Rey-Finn, and then TRoS features so much time with the trio, that REALLY stands out, and does so poorly. The core relationship of the previous movie is missing, and the successive movie takes it as a given. That’s a problem, a problem caused by TLJ.

The way I see it, Rise of Skywalker did the only thing it could with the pieces given to it by TLJ, it acknowledged them, but also moved on from them quickly. Because TLJ is not connected to the things that came before it, it hangs in isolation, and to try and make it fit detracts from the work you’re doing in the successive story, which now has to act to basically be a fast-paced part 2 AND a concluding part 3, all at once, because you wrote a standalone and called it a sequel.

Had TLJ existed as its own separate thing, this prospective trilogy that is supposedly in the works, a Star Wars Story movie, a mini-series, something like that, it’d have been better for everyone involved, I think. Unfortunately, that’s not what it was. And that makes it a painful and awkward addition to the saga. I’m not saying that Star Wars can’t be unconventional, that it can’t deconstruct itself, that it can’t reexamine things. But it needs to be done in the proper place.

Part two of an ongoing narrative is not that place. This part two discards and ignores character arcs established in the prior film, and really makes no effort to set up a successive film - again, TRoS is basically doing the work of telling part two and part three in the same film, because hey, stormtrooper rebellion, Jannah revealing that other stormtroopers have broken ranks, breaking the reins that hold them... This SHOULD have been established in the previous movie.

Like, if you cut Canto Bight, you really lose nothing of value to begin with, and if you replace it with an infiltration sequence featuring Finn and Rose, you gain a wealth of character development. But TLJ effectively shoved Finn aside - shoved TFA’s male lead, shoved the black man out of the position - for Kylo Ren, for a white guy. 

I imagine that JJ Abrams wanted to do more with Finn (considering he championed for Finn and John Boyega specifically), but he just couldn’t fit it all into the movie as it is - I’m already hearing rumbling that his initial cut of the movie was like three hours, almost an additional hour of film. Which sucks but... I mean, considering the cut down probably happened on orders from the Disney overlords, I figure he couldn’t do or say anything about it.

This trilogy has been very much a disaster on a writing level - trilogies should not be written entirely on the fly, with each film done by different writers. It should have been a singular writer, even if the directors shifted. As it is, I think that TRoS did the best it could with a lot of higher-up handstringing. 

[knb225tszyingwong]

Video Essay | Voiceover Script

Advanced Animation Performance Video Essay - Voiceover Script

Introduction - Synopsis of Tangled

Tangled is a 2010 computer-animated, musical fantasy movie presented by Walt Disney Animation Studios, based on the story Rapunzel. 

The story all started from a magical golden flower, believed to have magical powers to cure any disease. Rapunzel had bequeathed the magical power of the flower in her golden hair. Unfortunately, she was kidnapped by a witch named Gothel and has been raised in a hidden tower for up to 18 years. Until one day, a young thief called Flynn Rider, fleeing from the pursuit of a royal army accidentally found the hideout of Gothel and Rapunzel, and the dream-chasing adventure of the lost princess starts.

In this video, we are going to discuss and analyse the emotions and motivations of the characters, and how the animation principles are applied to convey them.

Characters Profile

Rapunzel has lived her whole life in Gothel’s hidden tower. The girl with the 70 feet of golden hair is an inquisitive and energetic teenager. Rapunzel is full of curiosity about the outside world, and she can't help but feel that her true destiny lies outside of the lonely tower.

Eugene Fitzherbert, better known as Flynn Rider, who is a thief looking for a chance that will allow him to live the life he always dreamt of. He has long for relied on his charm, wit, and the good looking face to get out of any sticky situation. When first introduced, Flynn showed as arrogant, backstabbing, and trouble-making. However, he is actually a loving, loyal, and protective companion.

Overview of the scene

In this scene, Flynn accidentally found Rapunzel’s tower and was tied up by Rapunzel’s hair. Rapunzel thought that he wanted her hair at first. However, after their communication, Rapunzel decided to take a risk, asking Flynn to be her guide to see the lanterns.

Analysing the scene with Animation Principles 

Rapunzel hid in the dark then come up to the light, starting a conversation with Flynn under a large spotlight, which tells a big contrast of the mood and Rapunzel’s emotion, from timid to curious. Splitting the screen into half, Rapunzel occupied the left while Flynn takes the right. This shows that they are having a conversation, emphasising the doubt of Rapunzel and Flynn does not know anything.

The action of Rapunzel raising her frying pan and waving to Flynn does not move at equal speed from the start to the finish. The starting and the ending of the action take more frames than the main action, making Rapunzel holding back from Flynn. It shows that there are many uncertain things in her mind, therefore, she hesitates to attack him. The waving action also waves in an arc. These can avoid characters having robotic or unrealistic actions.

Straight ahead action works well for lip sync and the movement of hair. In this shot, pose to pose applied to their body movement such as Flynn is finding his satchel and Rapunzel interrogating Flynn. The animators can plan for their main movements then fill with in-between poses afterwards, creating strong poses that convey their personalities. For instance, Rapunzel is curious but wary about Flynn and his intention, which is why she walks around him carefully while she is interrogating him. When she walks, her dress waves because her walking main actions bring some waving secondary actions to her dress, highlighting her exaggerating movements toward Flynn. When she stops, the dress does not stop waving all at once. The movement of her dress demonstrating the usage of secondary action and follow through and overlapping action. (ref: illusion of life video)

“Squash and Stretch create the most noticeable change in exaggeration” (Ibrahim & Hamed, 2018). In this shot, both Flynn and Pascal are scared and their actions are overstated, helping evoke a point but still can remain the believability of the scene (Oh My Disney, 2016). Flynn’s body squashed then stretched while Pascal bounced with the tongue out and stretched body, showing they startle each other accidentally.

The following few frames are the great examples of combining different principles to make a believable, vivid and remarkable animation. Flynn finally agrees with Rapunzel’s request, therefore she is so excited and surprised, making Flynn and the chair fall. When Rapunzel released the chair, Flynn and the chair stayed for a few seconds before falling, anticipated he is going to fall. Therefore his face looks so worried and shocked, allowing the audience to predict what is going to happen. 

Meanwhile, Rapunzel’s face stretches, then a big squash and stretches again, conveying that she is surprised and happy. Conversely, Flynn’s face squashes and stretches to tell that he is scared and annoyed. They are able to convey different emotions clearly. Her head also showing an arc when her body moves away from Flynn, making the movement smooth and natural. When Flynn falls on the ground, the screen moves up and down, imitating the extreme shocking of the ground. After that, Rapunzel’s hair waves immediately, presenting a secondary action which is caused by the fall of Flynn. However, Rapunzel still indulging in the joy that she can finally leave the tower. Therefore she does not feel anything but happy even though her hair waved and the ground shocked.

Solid drawing is important for making a believable animation. For example, Rapunzel’s hair is presented extremely long, silky and smooth, allowing the audience to see its weight and volume.

Appeal means anything that a person likes to see, such as quality of charm, pleasing design, simplicity, communication, and magnetism (Johnston & Thomas,1981, p. 68). The beautiful golden hair of Rapunzel and the charming face of Flynn are appealing to the audience.

Conclusion 

To conclude, the 12 animation principles are important to convey stories and emotions, which are useful for doing believable and engaging animation.

_______________________________________________________________________

Bibliography

Johnson, O., & Thomson, F. (1981). Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. United States: Abbeville Press

Hamed, Z., & Ibrahim. (2018). The Stretch-Engine: A Method for Creating Exaggeration in Animation Through Squash and Stretch. Retrieved from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/174023

Walt Disney Animation Studio. (2019). Visual Development. Retrieved from https://www.disneyanimation.com/careers/opportunities/developing-appealing-characters

Cento Lodigiani. (2014, December 06). "The Illusion Of Life" by Cento Lodigiani | Disney Favorite [Streaming video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn5OB12u8Pw

Oh My Disney. (2016). THE 12 PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION AS ILLUSTRATED THROUGH DISNEY AND DISNEY PIXAR FILMS. Retrieved from https://ohmy.disney.com/movies/2016/07/20/twelve-principles-animation-disney/

The New York Times. (2010, December 01). Movies: Developing 'Tangled' | The New York Times [Streaming video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ALg5fsA3g

[samshafaghi]

Hollywood Studio Exec Gives Notes on a Dog’s Script

Dear Moose,

Thank you for delivering the first draft of LOST AND FOUND. The studio is excited to develop this project! We could totally see your vision on the page, and it matched the same one that you pitched us in the room. My colleagues still talk about your rambunctious energy that day. (Steve was clearly the target of your excitement, but he enjoyed the affection you gave him. And don’t worry - that drool stain you left on his blazer came right out!)

Everyone here immediately grasped what you were going for - a gritty character-driven drama, led by an unlikely protagonist, COOPER, who is on the hunt for his lost  keepsake, and will stop at nothing to find it. It’s a concept that is sure to take moviegoers on a transcendent journey. We want to keep the spirit of this amazing story alive. And to do that, we have just a few headline notes to go through, and then a few minor page notes to conclude.

THE KEEPSAKE AS A MOTIVATION

Moose, we think this item needs to function as a narrative device for this story. It’s our “Rosebud”. We’re craving more depth and context that can connect to his motivation. Did Cooper get this item when he was a puppy? Does it remind him of his lost youth? As well, it feels like Cooper loses focus throughout the script – he’s determined to find the item in the first act, but then the second act becomes all about getting Fluffy's attention. This romantic arc ultimately fizzles when Cooper mates with Fluffy twice in one day, but more importantly, Cooper completely forgets about the item until it pops back into his head in the third act. While knowing it will improve in the next draft, right now we find it hard to track Cooper’s emotions throughout. We suggest using much more of the script's real estate on the main narrative with Cooper and the item.

THE OBJECT OF DESIRE

Speaking of which – we wanted to suggest a more distinctive item. We’re not entirely taken with Cooper’s object of desire being a grey sock. Could we pivot to something a bit more vibrant and recognizable? We know at one point you were really excited about a tennis ball that squeaks, and we wouldn't mind using that instead! However, we also think it's an opportunity to bring a background character to the forefront - the one who Cooper calls HUMAN MAN WHO GIVES ME FOOD. Maybe that character gave Cooper a giant bone when he was just a baby, and now that bone is missing? We'll leave the specifics to you!

COOPER’S BIGGEST OBSTACLE

We’d love to find a clearer and more primary enemy for Cooper to go up against. You have a number of supporting characters that stand in the way of his journey to find the grey sock, but we think that building one of them into a more formidable antagonist can increase the pace and urgency of your story. I think the CAT character is the easiest to do this with. She scratches the furniture, leaves her own hair everywhere, urinates and defecates in the house -- we know she will strike a chord with our audience. Cat already comes across as one of the most cold, calculating, and ferocious villains in movie history! We think you should definitely play into their conflict. Meanwhile, we’re not entirely on board yet with Cooper’s distrust and hatred towards THE MAILMAN. Unless we add a specific conflict between Cooper and THE MAILMAN, we can’t buy the premise that he’s evil just yet.

PAGE NOTES

(4-10) DIALOGUE: We don’t think the subtext of Cooper peeing on the grass is coming through. Can we add an intense and dark line here along the lines of “I’m marking my territory”?

(28) CUT: Since we discussed and agreed upon a PG-13 rating, we cannot show Cooper taking Fluffy from behind "with the intense rhythm of a jackhammer". However, we can compromise and leave in the sequence where Cooper aggressively sniffs Fluffy’s butt.

(45) SUGGESTION: We would love to add something else to this dream sequence. Is there another element that ties into Cooper’s psyche a bit more, aside from the beef jerky treats that engulf the screen?

(56, 58, 62, 64, 70, 72, 74, 82, 85, 89, 92, 95, 98, 101, 102) CUT: Let’s limit Cooper’s incessant barking whenever someone enters the house or hears an unexplained noise.

(120-125) CUT: This long squirrel chase scene in the backyard feels way too out of sync with the rest of the script. We're not really sure what the objective is here. In fact, you should do another pass that just specifically addresses Cooper's poor attention span.  

Thanks so much for all your hard work, Moose. We hope these notes help as you begin revising, and we’re here if you have any questions or concerns. Per the DWGA contract minimum, the studio will now provide you with two belly rubs, five minutes of behind-the-ear scratches, and your fee of $58,138 dollars.