#remember being blown away rewatching in middle school

[soosoosoup]

I wanted to mention the fact that I enjoyed (mostly. lots of triggers in the movie) rewatching The Hunchback Of Notre Dame recently and thought it’d be interesting to figure out an AU for Trolls even if it never develops into a written story. Wanted to see if you’d also enjoy thinking on it!

I love Hunchback of Notre Dame, it’s arguably one of my favorite Disney movies! It’s been quite a while since my last rewatch (years maybe?). The soundtrack though I totally listen to more often.

An au you say? Sounds like a very interesting concept! Thanks for the brain storm food!

[ace-reviews]

Anime Review: Trigun Stampede

Originally, when this series won the poll to see which of this season's anime I would review, I was planning to rewatch the 1998 anime in order to better discuss the differences between the two series, since I've never watched the movie or read the manga or seen any of the other adaptations that may or may not exist. I ultimately didn't because I have super important video games to play, but it's probably fine. I'm sure there are plenty of comparisons between the two just a Google search away if that's what you're interested in.

I watched several disconnected episodes of Trigun in high school and watched the whole series a few years ago, in the background while I played some video game or another. Basically, while I definitely enjoy and have fond memories of it, I've never had the deep and abiding love of the series that a lot of other millennial weebs have.

I didn't retain much about the plot or the history of the characters, but I remembered that Vash is a plant (though not the kind I originally thought of) who likes love, peace, and donuts; Meryl and Milly were trying to keeping him from causing more property damage; Wolfwood dies; and Knives is yandere. That's about it. Even so, I was put off by some of the seemingly arbitrary changes made for Stampede--mostly the decision to replace Milly with a middle aged alcoholic named after an actor and the introduction of Vash and Knives' backstory in the first episode.

I left the first episode feeling largely ambivalent toward the whole thing, and when the second episode was out I was busy watching other premiers so I didn't bother with it. Then I got caught up with the third episode and was blown the fuck away.

Knives has always ever been "Vash's yandere brother" to me. I remember little about him from the '98 series except that he exists and was the bad guy. When he was introduced in the first episode of Stampede playing piano while draped in that weird blobby shroud thing, I found it a bit silly. Like, "ooooh look at him he's so scawy lmao". Then he showed up in episode three and was fucking terrifying.

The highest point of the series is the episode detailing Wolfwood's backstory, which is presented in a charming picture book style that looks very nice and contrasts nicely with the really dark shit being covered. If I wanted to, I could also write a separate essay just talking about how Knives is the best character and how he was totally right all along (some of the shit he gets up to in the last couple episodes crosses over into 'what the fuck dude' territory, but he is supposed to be the bad guy so it's fine).

The environmental messaging is a bit hamfisted, but considering the current state of the climate I think we're far past the need for subtlety--if anything, we should probably start looking into beating people 'round the head with actual hammers instead of merely metaphorical ones lest this series become based on a future true story.

Ultimately, though, Trigun Stampede is fucking phenomenal. I'm not going to say 'you owe it to yourself!!' to give it a second chance if you bounced off the first episode because the only things you owe yourself are food, water, sunshine, and love, but I doubt you'd regret giving it another go.

[thenightmaregrrl]

Why TFA Optimus Prime Is My Role Model

I think my strong moral code came from my role model.

Optimus Prime.

I know it’s weird, me, a 19 year old girl has a giant robot from outer space that turns into a semi truck is my role model. More importantly, the incarnation of Optimus in the TV show ‘Transformers Animated’.

Normally, Optimus is depicted as the bastion of good and justice, this all around good guy, this wise sage who gives great advice when needed, his nickname is “Robot Jesus” for a reason.

TFA Optimus is not like that, he’s young, inexperienced, emotional. His back story is that he was once a cadet at Cybertron’s version of West Point who was expelled because he and two friends went to an off-limits planet full of alien spiders that led to the ‘death’ of his friend Elita-1 and he took the blame for it despite being the one telling them to go back and that it was a bad idea.

In the show, Optimus tries to be a hero. But his version of a ‘hero’ was what we depict in Hollywood action movies. Not a person who goes above and beyond to do the right thing because it is the right thing, not for fame, glory, money, praise.

In Animated, I noticed that Optimus showed emotions, in the original 1984 cartoon he’s an amazing leader who is caring and determined who is willing to crack a joke or two. In the Michael Bay movies he’s this battle hardened warrior who saw his world crumble around him and had to stay strong for his people and often lashed out at his opponents, shooting first and asking questions almost never. In Prime, he’s stoic, serious, calm, almost unreadable.

In Animated’s season 1 finale, Optimus finds out Prowl and Bulkhead lied to him about what happened to the Dinobots, he exploded, yelling at them and calling them malfunctions, you see he is stressed out because Decepticons are closing in, the Allspark is unguarded, they have no way to call Cybertron for help. This was the first time I saw him angry, visibly angry.

In the second episode of season 2, “Return of the Headmaster”, Optimus has to help his “friend” Sentinel Prime get his body back from the villain known as the Headmaster. It’s one of my favorites for one specific reason.

Optimus Prime laughs.

Now when I first watched Transformers Animated at 12 years old, I never heard him laugh before, maybe a chuckle here and there, or a smile, but never a full blown laugh. The reason he laughed was because he found Sentinel, missing his body, only his head.

Sentinel is a boisterous, egotistical, haughty, and stubborn Autobot. He never admits his faults or when he is wrong, he thinks he’s in the right all the time and isn’t afraid to use shady tactics to climb up the social ladder. In the series finale, we learned that Sentinel threw Optimus under the bus and placed the blame solely on him during the trial.

Optimus in Transformers Animated and I have similar personality traits.

We’re both humble, well intentioned, good hearted, we’re always there for our friends, when I get angry I become snappy and loud. When I get sad I try to keep it in and not be a burden to others, similar to him. He and I can get pretty witty and sarcastic.

Another reason I think TFA Optimus is my role model is because of my life situation at the time.

In 2014, I was in 6th grade, I was beginning to develop depression due to severe bullying from my classmates and having little to no friends at the time. My lifelong pet Nicholas passed away. And people who I thought were my friends at the time turned out to be liars and only hung out with me was because I was a subject of pity for them. Because of my bullies, I developed thoughts of hurting myself and had tried but never followed through while also developing severe anxiety.

I soon remembered a memory I had when I was 5. I remembered accidentally coming across the episode "Along Came A Spider", I thought it would be a good idea to rewatch it to see if it would make me feel better. I was desperate for something to make me smile or laugh since at that point in my life it was hard for me to get out of bed in the morning.

As I watched it, I immediately latched onto Optimus, finding him my favorite character. And as I got older, I began to connect parts of my life to his story in Animated.

Optimus being expelled=Me entering my new school as soon as I left my elementary school.

Sentinel= My ex "friends" in elementary school who only hung out with me out of pity while also abandoning me for my harshest bully and an ex friend I had to cut contact with because he touched (non sexually) my little brother without his permission and gave excuses while playing victim instead of apologizing.

Earth= My middle/high school.

The repair crew= The true friends who actually cared about me and were there for me as I was there for them.

Even now, I still try to live up to his example every day. I've had my ups and downs, like my high school graduation, getting accepted into college, my hospitalization due to an unalive attempt, me dropping out of college due to my mental health crashing to the point of almost relapsing. Like he did in his story.

This might not be me at my best at writing, but it's from the heart.

Thank you for reading,

Nightmare

[aerielz]

Here's a lb of the When We All Vote special because I just needed to talk about it I guess?

I mean, it really is just me geeking out about the filmmaking and quoting my favorite lines but be my guest

-----------------------------------------------------

It's always amazing to me how Brad's voice haven't changed at all but he looks like a qtip, it's great.

OH WAIT THIS IS A READ THROUGH. THEY'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO READ THE SCRIPT THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE. and smart too.

And it's great because Aaron's earlier scripts read exactly like a play, like, it's really is three lines of stage direction and then just... dialogue all the way down.

Oh God the staging and the direction is so solid damn you Tommy Schlamme. As far as a staging goes this is solid. I mean, the blocking is SO nice??!! And very theater-y! Going minimal was one hell of a good idea, specially considering the time frame. Ugh damn this is a smart production.

"I was thinking how much things change in sixty seconds"

Tell me about it.

The titles! Crying? No I'm not crying you're crying. THIS IS SO PRETTY! I love how they decided to put in moments of the making of, this is a THREAT

I’m gonna screencap the shit out of this episode and cycle the shots as desktop background, it’s decided.

The lines between the act breaks are actually pretty funny and I love the fact that both Eli and Aaron wrote these inserts, because Sorkin is hilarious but then Eli comes with the I Know What I’m Doing with the politics and the speeches are solid.

THE CUTS ARE SMOOTH IN WAYS THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE HOW THE FUCK MAN

OKAY I AM SORRY BUT I'M GONNA GO FULL GEEK OVER THE FILMMAKING HERE OKAY just skip to the next bolded line after this one if you don't wanna read about it.

LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW THIS SHOW WORKS (as far as craft is concerned):

You have a classic Hollywood filmmaking style for most of the time: smooth and invisible tracking shots in dollys (little carts that push and pull the camera over a track for smooth movement), beautiful close ups and focus racks (when you pull focus on something on the foreground then change it to the background, or vice versa, without cutting) to make use of your entire depth of field. That by itself ties nicely to Aaron's 40's-ish scripts: heavy plot and lots of fast talking require you to keep moving so things don't get boring, but it can’t be overwhelming because the writing is already like ok wow too much; the jokes need that precision in timing, too, it all needs to be like clockwork. And the atmosphere all of that creates is just right too: the precision and the damn fine acting you need to pull this kinda shit off are a testament to the very themes and setting of the show so *chefs kiss*

AND THEN ON TOP OF THIS YOU HAVE THE SMOOTH STEADY-CAM AND THOMAS SCHLAMME PROVES HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING. because it's so good. The camera floats through the west wing as if it was a character itself, you’re dropped right in the middle of the action. the way the camera circles the characters puts you in their mindset: things are HAPPENING decisions needs to me made. it’s what’s next in visual form. and it pulls the show right into the 21st century, because it’s such a modern thing, such a technical achievement, to be able to stage and 

THE THING IS, THIS IS A STAGE. THIS IS NOT A FULL SET, like they had back in the day. so the staging needs to make sense and the movements have to be thought out to match the next cut. they blocked the staged to allow for continuous long shots of the more complex sequences but some cuts here are still kinda tricky. this is by no means impressive by Hollywood standards but it’s still not really trivial? might be after you’ve spent 8 years filming like this, but all in all it’s not nothing. 

I talked once about how it’s kinda funny that almost half of the shot/reverse shots (dialogues are usually shot like that: you have once person talking, then the other, and you usually shoot the entire convo one side then the other, and then cut them in together so it makes sense. it’s p much the first thing you learn if you go to film school) are out of focus, and about how it’s prob because the schedule must’ve been insane. but I say this out of sheer respect. you naturally spend more time and effort on set pieces and difficult shots but half of this fucking show is a set piece.

I mean IT’S SO SIMPLE. BUT IT’S SO GOOD. There’s nothing extraordinary going on but it’s so beautiful and so well done and I'm constantly blown away by how much this show does with what ends up being just basic filmmaking.

it really all just comes down to great scripts, great acting, and a handful of techniques to bring it all together. and in this day and age when everything became a desperate and artificial attempt to make the audience respond, that is impressive.

ok I’M SO SO SORRY. end of me geeking out about filmmaking

"DONNA!"

My first reaction to this one single line was omg- I missed this so much. and I’m actually rewatching the whole thing it’s been 0 days since I've heard josh screaming at donna. I can only imagine what it was like for them.

I just don't have words anymore to talk about how much I love this show.

God fucking damnit THE ACTING.

JANEL'S ACTING. THE TINY REACTIONS.

On stage you don't have the realism, you don't have anything to help you believe it so it's SO MUCH CLEARER how GOOD these guys are.

Okay I understand if everyone ends up pissed because this is not at all new material, etc etc, but I GOTTA SAY I AM THROUGHLY ENJOYNG THIS THING. Sorkin writing is made for stage and having the chance to see these guys actually doing it on stage is a blessing if you ask me.

You just know this exchange is gonna become gifs that people will subtitle with whatever else line of dialogue they want and I can't wait for it.

I really want to to back to the episode later and compare the acting (which is kind of a dick move but I'm inconsequential to them they'll never know), because Janel is fucking NAILING young Donna after all this time and this is just insane.

"Give it up, tiny"

that's a bold line when it comes to Allison Janney

"I moved my pawn..."

"Well, it's as popular today as it was back then."

Please please please please tell me the bit about the stuffed animal is true. Please. it’s probably not but I don’t care it’s in my head and it’s not gonna go away

"I think if my dog could pull that off his vote should count."

Oh my God.

"Did Aaron write this?"

Oh my God.

I'm-

"You're a sap?"

"It's called poetry, me bucko."

Can you tell that at some point I stopped thinking and just got really into the show?

"He's not gonna-- that's the other guys! He's not gonna gonna privatize social security. he'll privatize New Hampshire before he privatizes social security."

I remember that this line made me actually stop the episode to laugh back when I first watched it and guess what yep I did it again

UGH.

I really love how this episode ends. I really love the feeling of how Bartlett is pretty much teaching Sam how play the game on a higher level, I love the feeling of ‘oh okay this guys is GOOD we get’. I think a month ago in one of those interviews they were doing to promo the thing Sorkin said people respond to the sigh and sound of competence and he’s absolutely right.

oh, and that ending right there was an definitely an "I have no idea what to do about that" solution, but it wasn't a bad one? it clashes, but it’s not bad at all.

I LIKED IT. I really really really liked it. This was really fun and the only bad part is that we're gonna gonna get to see them just doing everything else too. Like, it ended and i was half expecting to see he next episode but it wasn't there and that was the one disappointment tbh

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 1-The Strange Stranger from China/Enter Ranma

Alright, time to really start this thing off with the first episode, “The Strange Stranger from China”. I...don’t remember that being the name of the episode, but it has been about a decade since I last saw the series.

I feel like I remember what happens in this episode pretty well, it should just be an introduction to (some) of the main cast and kick of the dynamic between the two leads, but I could be wrong. Let’s see after the break, once I have rewatched the episode!

Okay first things first, the Opening. Musically, this song has always sat in a weird spot for me. It’s really freaking catchy and memorable, but it’s also kind of annoying? Like, there is a fine line between a great ear worm and a song you actually want out of your head, and “Don’t Make Me Wild Like You” by Etsuki Nishio is like right on that line. There are parts of it I think are adorably entertaining, like the whistle, and other parts where I kind of cringe. It’s not my favorite opening song of the series, but it’s not bad either.

Visually, it is Okay with a capital O. There is a reason Mother’s Basement has never done a feature on it. It is mostly just the cast running in place over pastel backgrounds, and some of them have the coloring that’s very different from what would end up being used later on once they appeared. That said, I have to give infinite props to Akane’s little snapping dance, because it is freaking adorable and I love ever frame of it.

Also, the title. What I said it was earlier, “The Strange Stranger from China”, was what Hulu has it listed as, and from what I can tell that was what it was listed as on DVD. From what I can tell from my expert translator, Mr. Google Translate, it’s kind of similar to the Japanese title, which says it is “He's from China!! A little weird!!”. But in the episode, the dub says the episode is “Here’s Ranma” which is what I remember it being. So...yeah. Apparently at some point they wanted to retcon the english title of the episode, but never changed the dub track to match.

So, what’s the episode about? Hell, what is this show even about? Well, the episode starts with a feminine person with red hair fighting a panda in the street, arguing about being betrothed to someone against their will, while onlookers watch in confusion. Then the panda knocks them out, and carries them away. Cut to the Tendo family estate, where Soun Tendo has received news that Ranma Saotome and his father Genma will soon be coming, and gathers his three daughters to explain the situation.

You see, in addition to being fairly well off in general, Soun is the owner of a dojo for the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, and his best friend and fellow practitioner of the same art, Genma, made an agreement years ago to bind their families in marriage. Thus, Ranma will marry one of Soun’s three daughters. From oldest to youngest, they’re Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane, who is the only one of the three to practice martial arts herself. When Soun reveals he has never met Ranma and has no idea what he’s like, his daughters are kind of pissed that their dad promised one of them would have to marry him, which is pretty fair.

Instead of the middle-aged man and teenage boy they expected, the red-head from before is dragged in by the panda, and they explain they are Ranma Saotome, to everyone’s confusion. Based on their body, everyone assumes Ranma is a girl, and Ranma and Akane actually become fast friends, sparring in the dojo. But after Akane has a surprise bathroom encounter with a very masculine Ranma that involves him seeing her naked, and vice versa, they learn the truth.

See, Ranma and his dad were in China training when they visited Jusenkyo, a seeming hot spring tourist trap, only to each fall in a different spring while practicing fighting there. Turns out all the water there is cursed because things kept drowning in the springs a long time ago. Now they’re both cursed. They each transform when cold water is poured on their heads, into a feminine body for Ranma and a panda’s body for Genma, and turned back with hot water.

Once that’s all out in the open, everyone except Ranma and Akane thinks that, since Akane doesn’t like guys, she would be the perfect fiance for Ranma since he is ‘half girl’. Akane is still upset with Ranma, both because she has a lot of issues with men and feels betrayed that Ranma never said he was really a guy, and also because he saw her naked. Ranma claims it isn’t a problem because he can look at himself anytime and he’s more stacked, and the dynamic of Akane hitting Ranma for the asshole-ish things he says is born.

So, lots of stuff to talk about for an analysis. I think I’ll go with a compliment sandwich, bundling up what was rough for me around what I liked or thought was particularly interesting. To start with, aside from a few places where there was clear corner-cutting of reusing animation and kind of needless flashbacks, I liked the animation. The original mangka, Rumiko Takahashi, has really great character designs, and I love seeing her personal art style brought to life by the animation of Studio DEEN, a group I am not super used to complimenting.

In terms of plot, I think it’s a pretty strong opener. It introduces a lot of the main cast, even if some of them are depicted fairly broadly and not shown as the characters they’d one day become. This might sound odd, but I also really appreciate how female nudity is handled. Maybe it’s just because, if anything, the way most anime handle ‘fanservice’ has just gotten more and more over-the-top as the years go by, but the way Ranma 1/2 handled it feels like a breath of breath air.

See, in most modern anime, full blown nudity of either sex is never shown. Instead, feminine characters’ bodies are incredibly sexualized, with lots of emphasis put on the breasts and other body parts, without ever giving the full game away. By contrast, this episode contained several example of the feminine form shown completely nude, but it wasn’t treated like some mind-blowingly sexy thing, it was just kinda shown without much fanfare. I’ve currently watching the original Mobile Suit Gundam, which came out around the same time, and it actually does the same thing a few times. It feels more similar to how nudity is treated in, say, paintings or sculpture, more tasteful, and I just kind of think it’s neat.

What is definitely less neat...is the music. If I had to throw out right away my biggest gripe with the show, it is the OST. Not all of it, there are a few bits near the end of the episode that are actually really good, they’re the kind of music I remember being in the show. But the more silly, goofy tracks more common in the first half of the episode really don’t work for me. They remind me of the generic ‘Silly Person’ theme songs from the Ace Attorney games, and maybe it’s just me, but those kind of background music always take me out of the experience and grate on my nerves. That’s actually my only big issue so far, but it did make both times watching this episode genuinely hard to get through at points, it annoys me that much.

Now, I will say right now that I will be referring to Ranma using male pronouns regardless of whether he’s in his cursed form or not, and I won’t call him a ‘girl’ or a ‘woman’. If you didn’t know, sex and gender are not actually the same thing, so even if his physical sex is changed to fit someone who would be Assigned Female at Birth, his internal gender doesn’t change. No matter how Ranma looks, he thinks of himself as a man.

Corollary to that, it was this time going through this episode that I realized something that I’d never thought of before: Ranma’s experience in this episode, and in some ways throughout the series, is actually a lot like that of a transgender man’s. Ranma shows up at the Tendo’s estate and they all see him as a girl because of how he looks, only for him to reveal his actual gender. When he’s hanging out with Akane, and she thinks he is actually a girl, and they’re getting along, there’s a part where she tells Ranma that she’s so happy he turned out not to be a boy, and you can see Ranma’s facial expression, he doesn’t want to hear that. Clearly, yes, you can read that as Ranma wincing at the fact that she’s in for a rude awakening later on, but it also gives off the same kind of vibes closeted trans people experience when they’re misgendered by people they know.

In fact, when you think about how his curse really affects Ranma, when he’s in his cursed form, he effectively is a trans man. He still identifies as a guy, but his body has been changed so that it no longer represents who he sees himself as inside. It just felt like an interesting real life parallel in this episode, and I’m interested to see if I feel it shows up more later on. But for now, let’s move on to character spotlight.

For the first spotlight, I thought I should center on the titular Ranma Saotome. Obviously this won’t be the only time I focus on him, he’ll get more spotlight pieces as the series develops, so right now I’ll try to focus on the Ranma we see in just this one episode.

To start with, who plays him? Well, that’s a funny story, actually. Not only does Ranma, due to his curse, have different voice actors in each language for his cursed and non-cursed forms, but in the English Dub they recast his masculine body’s voice actor after three seasons. I’ll talk about that voice actor, Richard Ian Cox, once we get to when he actually becomes Ranma’s voice actor, so let’s start with the masculine form’s VA’s.

Now, the Ranma I first met when I was a teenager was Sarah Strange, a Canadian Voice Actress who is not known for much else. Her Ranma has mostly been the one I think of in my head when I think of the character. A little nasaly, her take on the character is very average joe, very ordinary high schooler. There’s some brashness to it, sure, but it’s actually kind of a subdued version of Ranma. Looking at it now, I actually feel like both of Ranma’s masculine form’s voice actors don’t quite fit the character, but for opposite reasons. Sarah Strange’s voice is so normal sounding that it dampens the more extreme parts of his character, Ranma at his most arrogant and egotistical. Like I said, I’ll cover Richard Ian Cox when he takes over the role, but I’ll say in brief here that his version of Ranma is the polar opposite, too over-the-top and aggressive.

In contrast, his original Japanese voice actor, Kappei Yamaguchi, feels a lot better to me, at least so far. Again, this is basically my first time seeing the series subbed, so I’ve only heard him for one episode as opposed to the 3 seasons I had with Sarah Strange. Still, Kappei’s take on Ranma is just as normal sounding as Sarah’s, but I felt like I could already hear a little more of the more emotional side of the character I felt Sarah never quite managed to capture properly.

As for Ranma’s cursed form, I was kind of confused, because the voice I was hearing in the episode wasn’t the one I remembered. For a while, I thought she must have just grown into the role over time, but it turns out that is not the case. For the first six episodes of the show, he was played by Brigitta Dau, who was then replaced with Venus Terzo. Now, I did not know this until literally right now, as I am typing this, so I feel like I don’t actually have much to say about Brigitta. Her performance felt a little off to me, but not bad. Venus, though, really owns the role once she takes over. Her performance as red-headed Ranma has always felt perfect for me, selling the idea that this is a teenage guy in a feminine body, and she’s really good at selling Ranma at his most dickish.

In Japanese, this form of Ranma is played by Megumi Hayashibara. Now, I would never ever say she did a bad job, but from what I saw of her in this episode, I don’t know how much I actually like her as Ranma. Maybe it’s just the pitch of her voice, but she doesn’t sound quite to me like a guy in a feminine body, but just like a very emotional teenage girl. Of course, I do not speak Japanese and it’s a lot harder to really judge acting in a language you don’t understand, so I could be spouting utter nonsense, but that’s my thoughts on her as of this episode.

In terms of Ranma’s character, they don’t really give much away with this first episode. We know he’s a good fighter, has a difficult relationship with his father, doesn’t like his curse and wants to get rid of it, and has enough stubbornness to butt heads with Akane and stand his ground. I also felt like they did a good job telegraphing Ranma’s general fighting style during his sparring match with Akane. He spent the entire time dodging her attacks with incredible ease, which emphasizes his speed. Generally speaking, I’d describe Ranma as a very agile, thinking-on-his feet kind of fighter, but that’s something we’ll see more of in later episodes. I was going to do a big thing about his personality, but I feel like anything more than what I’ve said hasn’t really borne out in what we have, so I’ll wait for another time to do that.

Like I said in my Introduction post, I will be ranking each episode as they appear, and as this is the only one I’ve seen in the rewatch, it is both the best one and the worst one so far. The real question is how it will stand up next time, when I’ll be able to compare it to the second episode, “School is No Place for Horsing Around”. See you then!

[thoughtslikeaminefield]

Ok so I was raised on the OG Star Wars trilogy. Obsessed. Then the prequels came out when I was middle school(ish) age and I just... wasn’t about them? I can’t even remember why, I just didn’t like them. So, I gave up on anything other than the OGs. Now I’m looking at what you’re posting and wondering... is the new stuff worth it? Do I jump back in? Do I have to watch the prequels for the newer stuff to make sense? Are the prequels worth me rewatching as an adult?

To give some context, I went to the theater to see Star Wars (the first one that was later renamed “A New Hope”). The prequels were a disappointment as a person who had been a fan for 20yrs. The execution of the character Jar Jar Binks was insulting to say the least. The entire first episode remains difficult to watch without rolling my eyes so hard they fall out of my skull. The animation and the writing were awful.

But so was that of the original trilogy. 

All this being said, upon rewatch, I have gleaned many a nugget for the prequels.

I love Padme. She is Fire. Her levelness, her passion, her strength (and her wardrobe lol), continued to build on what we came to embrace and frankly expect from female characters in the Star Wars universe. (I still say that growing up with Leia as my fictional role model made a world of difference in the media I was attracted to as well as my own writing!)

Ewan. McGregor. AMAZING and perfectly cast. And I cannot fucking wait for Kenobi on Disney+ (which I will address in more detail later.)

Anakin is not as whiny as I thought he was when I had such high hopes for someone… Vader-worthy? — he’s angry and being pulled in a dozen different directions and, really, all he wants is fly cool jets and make out with his pretty girlfriend. He’s a full-dimensional teenager. Plus, I adore Hayden Christiensen.

Now to address the final trilogy and Disney+ (AKA “the new stuff”.)

Dude. I can’t tell you how blown away I was by The Mandalorian S2. And they’re planning a Boba Fett series (I’m a Boba Fett whore since I could be a whore for anything), Kenobi, Lando, and many, many more.

The baby is just priceless joy. With a backstory and a future that will rip your heart out in the best way. And Din Djarin is…. hoooooo.

The final trilogy is a mixed bag (as is Solo.)

I love all the characters. I love their chemistry. There’s a lot of fanservice, but it works. The ships are cool as fuck. There’s one scene in particular where I gasped ‘OH FUCK’ out loud in the theater.

Also, Adam Driver

But I digress...

I recommend watching Rogue One before you watch anything else. Anything. Not the final trilogy and not The Mandalorian. 

Rogue One is one of the best films I’ve ever seen — in a class of its own within Star Wars — and the first time I was ever truly terrified of Darth Vader. Re-read that sentence. I’m not kidding. He’s scary as fuck. It’s also my favorite film of 2016. It was released ten days before Carrie died, and… well, we can talk after you watch it.

Please message me once you’ve watched Rogue One and we can chat more but, damn, I will bet you won’t be sorry for diving back in.

[ericmooreporchkid]

watching THAT 70′S SHOW @ 25.

The first time I went to Point Place was summer 2003.

I was on a family camping trip of sorts with my friend Nick. Our families were pals and we thought it would be a stellar idea to spend humid Iowa July in some “cabins” (which were more Super 8 than log) and do some paddle boating, fishing, smore’s’in’, etc.

The trouble was we were suburb kids. Heat and bugs limited our activity to the sofa and stove Smore’s. Our moms took to the Cabernet and didn’t mind at all. After some frustration with the bloated and dusty TV ‘neath the spiral staircase, our media viewing ended up being some That 70′s Show DVD’s Nick had brought along. 

I didn’t get it at first. Why Nick liked it. We didn’t grow up in the era the show was concerned with. How could he even relate? We had velcro shoes and gushers. But, I wanted to impress him by also finding value in the funky colors and shaggy hair, so I dove in. I did feel a weird false nostalgia almost immediately, mostly because the weird orange-y chairs in the set kitchens and at The Hub closely resembled our cabin furniture and the seating offered by the shoddy grocery shop at the edge of the campground. This, interspersed with my mom’s occasional wine-hued comments about when an outfit was similar to something she’d once worn or when the coffee cups were what her grandma owned, made me urgently want to feel a kinship to this weird replicated era.

And so a few hours in I was pretty in love with all the characters. My embarrassing moments resembled Eric’s, my moron friends resembled Kelso, and all my crushes resembled Jackie and Donna. 

A few years later in middle school, as I began to crank into pubescent Hornville and become informed about sexuality and romance from movies/tv (yikes), I would spend late nights watching re-runs of the show with my younger brother. We had that early teens late night energy and hunger, and it felt weirdly invigorating to watch what high school might be like over microwave nachos. Having a consistent friend group who constantly face dumb sophomoric challenges like drinking ages and curfews and virginities in a pursuit of fighting boredom was exhilarating. 

I went through high school and had a lot of those first experiences (kisses, drinks, slight vandalism), with less cheese and folksiness but pretty similar small-town ennui. Occasionally the show would come up in mid-aughts conversations normally dominated by DEXTER, or Weeds (girls I would date were usually stronger-willed and muscled than me, so I settled into an Eric-ish self-deprecation mode that never felt good but at least felt defined), but I never watched it the way I did in that early teen fuzz, where the concept of sneaking out or drinking seemed so outlandish and attractively alien.

My summer after my first year of college (and the only summer I ever went back home for) was bleak. I had switched from journalism to creative writing, which my parents were not stoked on. I had experienced two relationships that were impactful but not meaningful. I had my first big surges of anxiety, panic attacks, calling friends and having nothing to say. I had a small part in a play and worked a part-time job doorknocking for a friends’ dad’s senate campaign. Having old people shout at me for supporting “the gays” in heat was far from reassuring life fodder. I rewatched all 200 episodes of the show that summer. It was true comfort at that point. True and natural nostalgia. It wasn’t “the 70′s”. It was just high school. It was friends. It was community. And the jokes felt cheesier than I’d remembered, but I excused them, the way you do when your mom ejects a jest you’ve heard a thousand times. The show didn’t ask me what I was going to do next, it just followed the quests of Donna to be taken seriously, of Eric to be respected by his dad, of Fez to be acknowledged as a person and also to “do it.”

Six years later and I find myself peppering in a few episodes amidst the onslaught of streaming content available. It’s odd now. It feels like summer break is done. I’ve grown so much in comedy and comedy has changed so much, on a pure structural level. Some quips that used to spark just flare out immediately, like the end of a sparkler placed in a Diet Dew can. A lot of themes and dialogue are pretty dated and gross, because it’s something made with a late 90′s concept of social structure trying to handle the 70′s style of equality, gender norms, etc. Hyde is not cool and anything remotely sexual from his mouth is dusting considering Danny Masterson’s real life monster behavior (go fuck yourself, Danny). It’s sad knowing Laurie (Lisa Robin Kelly) died from a drug overdose and the lifestyle she has on the show is so slut-shame-based, treats vices like weaknesses. The blacklight of time is on.

On a pure production level, it’s weird knowing more about sets and shooting and Hollywood gunk, which honestly does take a lot of the magic I used to see away.

But the frame and the shots and the haircuts and the love are still there. Things still work. I want to be in the circle. The world and the characters exist with such life. So many scenes are real laughter, the laughter of actors in their early 20′s having fun and being blown away that they’re getting an opportunity to create together. I don’t ever really drip into the later seasons (fuck Randy) except for that last episode when Topher returns. 

I watch that one a lot, actually. It makes me happy that past the prime of the narrative and show, they wanted to end it back on the steps with kids doing nothing and trying to understand the world right before the buttoned-up eighties. The world got uglier and prettier as the show left us, but the basic soul of the material is pure and honest and explorative. The way adolescence is. The way we can sometimes remember being. 

Below are my top five episodes. Hi, Wisconsin.

5. “Hunting” S 2, ep. 13

Eric and the guys go hunting with Red and Bob. This is some of the most stellar Red vs. Eric activity, but it comes to a real emotional truth that surpasses the show’s normal depth when Eric reveals he knows how to shoot animals and he just doesn’t want to. The way he uses an ability Red so aggrandizes to prove its arbitrary importance is such a satisfying kick in the khakis and a nice representation of one generation slightly jolting the other awake. Also, everyone accidentally eats crow. 

4. “Halloween” S 2, ep. 5

The gang breaks into their old elementary school and reads their permanent records. The relatable curiosity every kid has over what the fuck a permanent record means also turns into a beautiful bottle episode of “how did we all meet?” I always end up tracking the spider webs of my own friendships post-view.

3. “The Career Day” S1 ep. 18 

Seeing the spectrum of Point Place’s job market is pure fun. It’s such a good characterization episode (Kelso telling his brainy dad he’s just gonna write down that “he’s a farmer” always kills me) and it rocks that moment many of us go through where we look at what our parents do and think what the fuck am I gonna do? Certainly not that. 

2. “Parents Find Out” S2 ep. 19

The self-explanatory title was not only satisfying because of the parental reactions, but because there are a few episodes between when Eric and Donna lose the V and when it actually matters. You know when you do something you think your parents are gonna kill you for and then you realize they can’t really do anything? Every time I watch this I still feel like Red is going to shoot Eric. I am happy Pavlovian here. 

1. “Dine and Dash” S3 ep. 15

An amazing modernized “And Then They Were None” wherein we see each character slowly avoid the bill. Of course its dumb teenage rebellion, but there’s also a very human quality to each of the characters turning on each other. It’s carnival stress.

(below: My friend Adam and I at a gas station before prom in 2009, complete with 70′s locks).