#retropsective

[rotzaprachim]

reading retrospective 2023: extremely thick and unexpectedly gripping general histories 

[dynamite-derek]

Final Fantasy IX: Throwback

A thorough glance of the ninth mainline entry of the Final Fantasy franchise. Come read way too many words and thoughts about the memorable adventure through Gaia!

[mothmancreatoroftheleftoverse]

when the next cs analysis episode please I need it

I'm afraid I've made the decision to cancel the series. It has been brought to my attention that I was wrong about tibtopia. The current owner of tibtopia and I have talked things out and have reached a conclusion, so out of respect, I will be deleting all of the retropsective episodes. I discourage anyone from reblogging and/or archiving them.

[childgolden]

Warpath Retropsective - The Boisterous Autobot Tank

[filmista]

Retrospective: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

🤖“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” 🚀

A lot of us either are a Star Wars fan, or we know someone that’s a huge fan. Either way, there’s no real way to avoid coming across it; it’s so ingrained in the collective conscience of the entire cinema frequenting world, that we all are familiar with the basics of its universe. 

I’ve managed to avoid it until now during my 20 years on this planet, but I have a friend whose brother was an enormous fan of the franchise and owned multiple Star Wars sweatshirts that his sister would “borrow” but watch it she never could, because she found the whole world so far out there, that she thought it was hilarious. 

But alas, one day her brother convinced her and she decided to just give it a watch and actually ended up liking it. Ever since she’s been trying to get me to watch it, without much success in her endeavor. 

Until I recently got me curious about it myself, I thought if so many people love it there has to be a reason for it. And my experience was a huge success, I loved it on the second watch that is. 

The very first time, I actually ruined my experience. By really not paying too much attention to it and even talk during…

My problem was the attitude with which I approached it, I was expecting to not connect to it beforehand, I had a preconceived of what Star Wars was, which is a silly blockbuster that later became a money-making machine. 

Alas, I was wrong, and I deprived myself of a fantastically fun experience, because of my own preexisting conceptions. 

I admit to most of the time being inclined towards and maybe respecting, so-called deeper and intellectual films more, films that I can really sink my teeth into. 

I wouldn’t say I had a contempt for blockbusters and big studio films, I just generally don’t like them as much, I tend to find them over the top, too dramatic and sometimes a bit lacking in the emotional department. 

But the longer I’ve been watching films, and my recent experience with Star Wars, really has taught me something, there’s nothing with a film being innocent fun and just an adventure throughout. 

Afterward, I realized how ridiculous it is that I do value Jurrasic Park, which is also a huge blockbuster, but looked down on Star Wars, just because it all overall seems more plausible and is set in a world that’s still recognizable. 

There’s merit in building an engaging fantasy world, and in creating characters that are instantly likable and that the audience can care about. 

Star Wars (the whole franchise) has now become a piece of pop culture, and especially that first film, allows us to travel back in time, to the 70’s a particular period in cinema history, to the time of the first so-called blockbuster. 

My main beef with “blockbusters” is that I’m not talking about each and every single one, there are ones that I enjoy. 

But they’re often so formulaic and so played into what people will automatically like and be attracted to, and sometimes that results in something that I find lackluster, not spontaneous enough and without a fun, beating heart though.

And while Star Wars is the so-called first blockbuster, one of the films that changed film history. My dislike of it was completely unjustified. And the joke was on me because I missed out all those years. 

Whilst it is a big film and expanded into something even bigger over the years: a franchise. No one really knew whether there would be sequels, but George Lucas did set up the possibility for them. 

It really made marketing for these big films into a huge thing, the company in charge of making the action figures for Star Wars (Kenner) initially was unable to keep up with the demand, every kid that saw this at the time wanted one. 

Now that’s something normal, but Star Wars was really the first film to start that. and it’s mostly relatively unknown cast at the time, apart from Harrison Ford (who had previously starred in the George Lucas directed, American Graffiti) were propelled into superstardom and into 70’s icons. 

Everyone knows names like Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, even if they’ve never seen a single Star Wars film. And everyone knows terms from the film, everyone knows what a lightsaber is and has a vague idea of what a Jedi is. 

So aside from all of its technical merits, and there’s quite a few, it’s above all else a historical document almost as well as a darn good piece of entertainment, and that’s more than enough in a film sometimes. 

And unlike some later blockbusters, Star Wars really is a charming and fun film, with a beating heart. You can see and feel the love that went into them, and the fun people involved were having. 

Its dialogue is super cheesy even corny, but it works because of the way the actors deliver them and their enjoyable chemistry with one another, also the cheesy dialogue is quite charming in its own right. 

The film is obviously more about what’s happening visually on screen, than any dialogue. And I think that was my problem initially, I always took it way too seriously… the terms didn’t make sense to me and annoyed me, and the world with all its creatures felt perplexing. 

This time I decided to just sit back, watch and not think too much and allow myself to be absorbed by it, really allow myself to be swept into the world. And it was a radically different experience. 

There are still terms of which I thought wait what is that, or what is that thing supposed to be? The truth is that doesn’t matter for one’s enjoyment of the film at all, once you stop trying to make too much sense of it, and look at it too rationally it becomes incredibly rewarding. It’s not about being realistic. the whole thing takes place in a fantasy world, Star Wars is like a surreal dream come to life. And it’s really a matter of suspending any disbelief and logical questioning and just accept that stuff is called the way it is, looks the way it is, and that it’s a world with giant slugs and rats that look tiny kangaroos. 

I was never before able to just let that element of it slide, and once you do start analyzing it, it can almost become funny. This time I set to myself: you’re gonna watch this, you’re not gonna question anything or laugh at anything. And I’m certainly glad me, myself and I had a stern talk. 

I generally don’t dig stuff set in space all that much or with intricate fantasy worlds. But Star Wars felt different, yes it’s in space. But it doesn’t feel confined to one space, nor does too outrageous… 

There’s something so familiar about that world, something we all instinctively know of how it works and that’s almost comforting and cozy to disappear in. 

It reminded me of when I would dive into comic books when I was younger, and just disappear into them an entire afternoon, Star Wars really brings back some of that childlike wonder and awe, and in that sense, it really is a purely magical film. 

I watched A New Hope, whilst feeling a little under the weather, and the afternoon passed incredibly quickly, which is what good films do: they make you unaware of time and space. It’s over two hours run time, actually felt quite short this time. And I can’t wait to check out the other ones as well. 

But to return to my previous point, part of why it’s so fun to disappear in and probably part of its enduring appeal and popularity is its coziness, the really lived in vibe of it all. The title also helps in this, by adding Episode to its title, it feels like being into introduced to a world that has always been there and that we’re just stumbling into it. 

It also doesn’t present us with any storylines, or conventions that are hard to grasp. You get an instinctive feel of the world and its rules and conventions. When it comes down to it, it really is a simple story of good vs evil, with the classical plot point of saving a princess thrown into the mix. 

The fun thing is that it does subvert some of these classical conventions, in any other story princess Leia would have waited passively for her rescue, whilst here she actually consciously chose to fight and resists until the end. At least in the first one, you don’t exactly find out why the empire is precisely so evil and why they want to rebel against it, but I figured it was just some sort of space equivalent to a fascist regime that wants to rule each and every one of the territories around it. Imperialism in space, heavy… 

The first time watching this, I questioned all of that too much, but this time I was like, okay the empire is run by some evil bastards in space, there are rebels fighting against them and they’ve got plans laid to destroy their massive weapon of mega-destruction. Which is what the empire wants to recover from the rebels, but of course, we all know Leia hid them in R2D2. 

Speaking of the robots, aside from their designs being super cute, as well as all the bleeps and blips. I loved how positively they were portrayed, no the robots are gonna take over and destroy all of us! 

That kind of film can be good, but it would be way too negative for Star Wars. Here they’re really seen as equals by the characters, and even worthy of being friends with. As well as having a personality as defined as the humans, the whole dynamic between R2D2 and 3CPO is both hilarious and heartwarming. 

And that’s again why it works so well, the lightness even the humor and all. There are moments of light bullshit almost that defy logic, like R2D2 and 3CPO talking the stormtrooper into letting them go, with the excuse of R2D2 having to go to maintenance, it’s like an almost ridiculously simple solution to the situation at hand. Lucas knows it’s nonsense, but just doesn’t care. After all, it’s part of the genre. 

If you really want to dig deep (well actually not that deep) but if you insist on an intellectual side to cinema, you’ll have realized that the force is actually one big metaphor for religion, a higher power. And that some believe in it and others don’t. Han Solo literally talks about the force in terms of: “I don’t believe in any of that hokey religious stuff”. 

But essentially it’s a metaphor for believing, for believing in something bigger than ourselves, that helps us overcome obstacles along our way. 

The whole given of The Force is actually incredibly well handled. At first sight, it seems like mumbo-jumbo - "The Force is an energy field that flows everywhere, you have to become passive and let yourself be led by it." In other words: relax and just watch what happens. 

That’s not exactly a very profound philosophy, given that it was apparently used for hundreds of years as a basis for peace and quiet in the Milky Way.

Yet it’s not bad that Lucas keeps it simple (and purposefully vague, you can see whatever you want in it) The Force is just The Force and no further bullshit. Everyone has an instinctive sense of what it is, but there are no long, pretentious monologues needed to make it work and have people grasp the concept. 

Seventies icons Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher have the nominal main roles, and don’t do a bad job at all, their friendship comes across as believable and is very enjoyable to watch.

The chemistry between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, also reveals hints of what’s to pass between the two later on in the story. The whole cast overall has fantastic chemistry with each other, you can’t really imagine that any of them got along badly in real life, they seem to be having too much genuine fun. But it is Harrison Ford who steals the show as Han Solo. It is only with his entry into the film, 45 minutes after the beginning, that everything really comes to life. All other characters are quite serious and have serious motivations. 

Princess Leia tries to save her people (although Leia is a really enjoyable character because of her boldness and sassiness), only to see her entire planet explode before her eyes. Heavy. Luke Skywalker, in turn, grew up without parents, with his uncle and aunt, who are also murdered at the beginning of the film. 

And Obi-Wan is of course little more than a wisdom-spouting old man who must stay serene at all times while scratching his beard. Han Solo, on the other hand, has absolutely no melancholy background. 

He is a mercenary, who is only out for money, and that gives him the freedom to spit out one-liners as much as he wants, to put his crooked grin on display and insult the other characters whenever he feels like it. 'Star Wars' is a series that keeps going in the direction of the bombastic.

Perhaps that is inevitable considering the genre film. The function of Han Solo's character is that he pierces through that bombast. Whenever it threatens to go all over the top, you just have to give him a scene, and immediately the atmosphere becomes lighter, more pleasant and enjoyable.

Another thing that can’t be avoided when talking about Star Wars, is just how beautifully worked out and brought onto the screen the whole universe is. While it’s all undeniably a product of its time and feels decidedly 70’s, it still holds up incredibly well and feels really realistic for its time. 

The different locations are all incredibly gorgeous to look at, and the special effects absolutely splendid. The colors and lights of some scenes is an absolute joy.  Whilst John William’s beautiful score, adds grandiosity and epicness as well as emotionally complementing certain scenes. 

Star Wars is undeniably a piece of film history that can’t really be avoided.  I wouldn’t have called it a masterpiece before, rather a very well made piece of entertainment. But now I’d have to change my view: a film can be a masterpiece, precisely for being an incredible piece of entertainment. 

"Someone Has To Save Our Skins. Into The Garbage Chute, Fly Boy."

[minjin]

im sick of taking hard classes like honest to god wtf is electrostatics

[thecostumevaultblog]

Read our new article dedicated to the designs for Florence Foster Jenkins, the third of our 2017 Oscar Retrospective:

http://costumevault.blogspot.com/2017/04/oscars-retrospective-2017-florence.html

[fidelishaereticus]

i read some poems mischance i think this is how it’s done

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

Sixteen things I noted about the one-shot “The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade” :

Back when I was thinking of starting Campaign 1, I think this one-shot was just being broadcast, so I definitely remember seeing gifs and all. Wild to be thinking in retropsect about my own voyage into Critical Role...

Laura's dress is SO BEAUTIFUL, Marisha with her hair done like that is CUTE AS A BUTTON, and Ashley IN A SUIT ?!!! I'm DEAD !! Oh and the guys are nice too I guess (lol, no, in reality I especially love Taliesin's vibe)

THEY DID A KARAOKE VERSION OF THE OPENING !! HAAAAA !!! THIS IS SO FUN

Amazing characters all around, I can't pick a favorite, they're all so good. I loved the crowd's reaction to Marisha's description of her character, and the crowd's reaction to Travis' character goofy accent And I do wonder if Laura based Farriwen on a 1st idea for Imogen - or maybe it's just me ; but there's similarities : the hair (well, Imogen's purple), the decorated arms (well, Imogen are scars).

I'm so happy to see Lionel again ! (even if this is Matt jaegering). Love this funky bardbarian who was definitely a duck before Scanlan True Polymorphed him.

the initiation ? Same as that time Tary was iniated into Vox Machina... which is to say, a fight !! I love the cast's realisation that their past mistake is absolutely coming back to bite them in the ass.

How many instruments does Marisha have back there ? I'm amazed and in awe !!!

Sam as Tary, knowing full-well he's inflicting psychic damage on Laura : "I'm gonna hop on my flying broom and watch the action a little bit closer."

Macaroni Samsonite, about Damian : "You know what, Tary, I think we should take advantage of your rules and maybe we should call this a... BANISHMENT !" Damian fails her saving throw, and Ashley just leaves the table. Liam : "Oh man, we just got her back !!"

Sam is right, everything The OwlBear said is a one-liner, in the voice of Batman. Taliesin is so fucking funny.

I love Dotty's clear distates of Hazel... even though this robot knows only word, it is clear.

It's A GIANT DUCK MINI WITH TENTACLES ?? WHAT IS THIS ONE-SHOT

ITS NAME IS QUACKTHULHU ??? Matt this is too much laughing, my back hurts

Liam, about the mic that Ashley hit : "You just hit that like Marisha Ray striking an Irishman !" Marisha, pissed : "I hit you ONE TIME when you were leaning over my space, motherfucker !" (I love them so much)

I love Hazel's old-timey accent that slips sometimes in the strangest of syllabes, like "confusyion", "meditatyion", "inspiratyion", and I love that it gets ~worse~ and ~worse~(but hilarious !) during the episode.

So many puns this episode : about ducks, bears, owls, and stones passing

That was so much fun, holy shit. My serotonin levels are high, my skin is clear, my crops are thriving, etc etc. It makes its grand entrance in the top 10 of the CR one-shots, for me ! I hope Matt was not joking, and that someday they're going to do a follow-up.

[tiredspacedragon]

BIONICLE Retropsective

2001: Quest for the Masks

Part 6.3: 8535 Lewa

LEE-wah. LAY-wah? lay-WAH! LOO-wah...... Toa of gREEEEN. Wait, no, sorry, wrong franchise. Toa of.....Jungle? No, that's the other Lewa. Hang on, let me get my notes.

Jokes aside, Lewa is the Toa of Air, and, unfortunately, does the worst job of all the Toa of conveying his element through his appearance. Now, when the characters' colour schemes are taken as representative of their native environments rather than/in addition to their elements, which is quite likely, then Lewa's colours are fine. His vibrant green and lime call to mind lush, tropical foliage, perfect for a jungle dweller. Personally, I just find it odd that the air tribe lives in the jungle anyway. I suppose, on a tropical island, somebody has to live in the jungle, and I guess Lego had no better ideas for where to put Air. It's hardly a bad thing, though. Air is associated with green in a few cultures, so the association isn't unprecedented, and green does suit the Air characters very well. The green makes Lewa, for example, look springy and vivacious, full of energy and ready to move. Honestly, at this point, whenever I'm consuming another piece of media with elemental themes and they don't associate Air with green, it throws me off a little.

Lewa's build is similar to Tahu's though not quite identical. Lewa's most unique trait is that he is the most flexible and limber of all the original Toa. Only one of his arms is controlled via a gear function, but his other arm is still capable of rotating, unlike all the other single-geared Toa. Lewa's left arm is connected via a gray pin-axle, allowing it to spin freely so that he can be held by that arm and swung about to simulate him swinging from vines. Swooshability is always a plus. However, the arm is a little too floppy, lacking friction entirely and being unable to hold a pose. I would recommend swapping out the gray pin-axle for a black one if you have any available, so the arm can still be moved while also being able to remain in place when posed. Blue would also work, but black is better for Lewa's colour scheme.

Of further note on Lewa's left arm, the Toa of Air has longer fingers than the other Toa who make use of the Slizer/Throwbot hands. And yes, they are fingers, not automatic firearms. I think at least a few of us may have made that mistake as youths :P Lewa is described as being rather simian in his appearance, so his extra-long digits and slightly lengthened arms fit right in. Odd that the Toa of Air is portrayed as simian rather than going the more obvious avian route. Like his colours, the choice seems to suggest more that Lewa is a Toa of Plantlife. Again, it still works given the jungle environment of Le-Wahi, but the conflation of Air and Jungle continues to pervade.

Lewa's Axe is, again, a perfect tool for a jungle-dwelling character, but seems an odd choice for a Toa of Air. I would expect a lighter weapon for someone as agile and aerially-oriented as Lewa. Ah well, I guess that's what happens when your initial concept for a character is literally named "Ax" and you slap Air powers onto them later. That being said, the Axe's design is great. It might be a bit overly detailed, for example I have no clue what the pistons in the axehead are for, but the look works. The weapon looks powerful, and it's weight, combined with how low Lewa holds it (which is an incredibly impractical way to wield an axe of this size, but we'll let it slide), makes his attack function one of the most powerful among the Toa. Which is ironic, given that Lewa is designed to look less physically strong than most of the others.

Lewa's shoulders are attached in the narrow orientation, making him look slimmer than most of his companions. This connection also makes his arms appear longer, contributing to his monkey-like appearance. The narrow build works well for the Toa of Air, showing his preference for agility and evasiveness over brute strength. Though, as an acrobat, Lewa is certainly still quite strong, just in a different way than the bulkier Toa like Onua or Pohatu.

Lewa wears the Kanohi Miru, the Great Mask of Levitation, which allows him to float upwards, slow his falls, and glide on the wind. And I'm gonna say it, I don't think the Miru is a dumb mask. Is it a bit redundant once the Kanohi Kadin comes into being? Yes, a little, but it's still a different power set. Levitation is a gentler power than flight, and more versatile, letting its users hover in place or enhance their agility with well-timed bursts of upward momentum. I think all of that suits Lewa. Despite his daredevil nature, he is known to be very caring towards the creatures and world around him, and I like the idea of Lewa being a gentle soul underneath all the bravado. Of course, I think the same of Tahu, Kopaka, and pretty much everyone else, so perhaps my judgement on total softies acting like tough badasses should not be trusted.

The Miru's shape is the most aerial part of Lewa's design. It's sleek, smooth and aerodynamic, and the pronounced "nose" resembles a beak. I've heard people say that the Miru looks like it has a grin, but I can't see it. Well, that's not true. I can see it, I just hate it. If those holes on the sides are meant to form a mouth, it's WAY too big, and coupled with the sharply angled eyeholes, it's fuckin' creepy. So I prefer to interpret the bar in the middle as the mouthpiece, and the holes as decorative gaps, like the Hau's three cheek-slashes. The resulting expression is a little too serious for Lewa, I find, but better that than a Joker smile.

To be perfectly honest, I don't care for this Lewa design too much. I mean it's fine, it's a good set, but it doesn't feel very Lewa to me. Part of that is because my first real exposure to the Toa Mata was the Mask of Light movie, already in their Nuva forms, but even ignoring that, this design feels more appropriate for a Toa of the Green than a Toa of Air. Oh well, he gets better.

Fun fact: Lewa is the only one of the Toa Mata for whom I have one of the coloured collectable Kanohi, in this case, a green Kakama. I also have his red Krana Za from 2002. Can't have Lewa without trauma :P

Next up: 8532 Onua

[animebw]

I'm curious what show you've binged(or in general) have you swung your opinion on the most while you were watching both for good for ill. Also really enjoy your work it's a ton of fun

Thanks! I’ve had a lot of anime where my opinion has shifted drastically over the course of a watch. Let’s see which ones comes to mind...

-Akame ga Kill, which constantly wobbled between “this is so dumb” and “this is so dumb and I am here for it”

-Black Bullet, which I started out liking quite a bit... until the plot went off the rails.

-Carole and Tuesday had a great first half, but then the second half tried to go explicitly political and fell flat on its neoliberal face.

-Elfen Lied was a show where I really liked the first couple episodes, but it quickly descended into shit and never recovered.

-Great Pretender, another fantastic show let down by an awful second half.

-Last Exile started out with so much promise, but it slowly dribbled out into mediocrity. Very disappointing.

-Pet Girl of Sakurasou, in contrast, was a show where I really disliked the first half but the second half was excellent.

-School Live was a show that I thought was just okay for the most part, until an absolutely god-tier ending made the whole thing better in retropsect.

-Soul Eater’s first few episodes were a bad first impression, but it eventually blossomed into one of my favorite shonen action things.

-Zero no Tsukaima. Just... Zero no Tsukaima.

(If you want to check out my thoughts on those shows in more depth, here’s the link to do so!)

[malodoucet]

Let me introduce you to my latest project that I started to share on instagram :

The Name of the Rose.

It's an unfinished project of retropsective on one of my favorite movie.

Here's a bunch of chara design and visual dev research I did for this project of short trailer.

[lostconsultants]

The Structure for Retrospective Meetings in Agile Teams

The Structure for Retrospective Meetings in Agile Teams

Throughout my agile journey I’ve experienced and facilitated many retrospective meetings for agile teams but also for long running projects. Often I’ve experienced that teams and sometimes even facilitators are not familiar with common basic structure of activities that an agile retrospective meeting should follow in order to make the meeting go smoothly and to generate qualitative action items…

[margieargie]

yes i was a healer when i played wow i don't know why i thought that was a good idea in retropsect

[lordendsavior]

I remember the amount of press and even tv comments that GQ article generated being absolutely insane (maybe cos i was deep in fandom but idts?). It felt like for 2 days the whole world was speculating on if he had really had sex with 2 people or if he was blowing the question off and what was the real number. I read a lot of what were, in retropsect, weird articles at that time 🥴 fucking weirdo behavior though to have the whole world concerned with who you've slept with. Whyyyy?!

it really feels like a completely different time the way things were handled

[arlenschumer]

FREE Bruce Springsteen LIVE Retropsective webinar THIS Wednesday night, March 10 @ 6:00pm EST: "Though Bruce Springsteen has long been acknowledged as one of (if not the) greatest live performers in rock & roll history, film and videos of his greatest live performances are not as well known or widely seen, especially his earliest ones, because he came to prominence in the pre-video 1970s. "But now Springsteen historian Arlen Schumer (art director of the first Springsteen fan publication, Thunder Road, and longtime contributor to the current one, Backstreets; see his Bruce-works at: arlenschumer.com/springsteen/) has curated a collection of what he considers Bruce’s best performance films and videos from throughout his long and storied career. "Interspersed with still images that give historical background to each performance, along with his usual insightful pop culture commentary, Schumer's webinar will make you see and hear Bruce Springsteen's music and career as if for the first time!" Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83969881748?pwd=b2JXRUN3Sk1wd0M4bmxCWVB0NXBkUT09 Meeting ID: 839 6988 1748 Passcode: 422938 P.S. If you can't make it LIVE, you'll be able to watch a recording of it later on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwkw6QB6OFKcfxK17macOlQ/videos https://www.instagram.com/p/CMKy2FBBNKq/?igshid=4mmu1pelthd9