#scoring tools

[ariyan24]

Native Instruments – Action Strikes Download

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[sticks-and-souls]

Anakin & Letting Go

I always found it to be a little skeptical that Anakin could become a force ghost after it took Yoda, Qui Gon, and Obi-Wan learning and training how to do it, and I always thought “really? Anakin? Finding that level of peace and letting go?” But after this episode, seeing the care and lesson that he imparts upon Ahsoka that he learned so painfully, I understand it from him so much better. Vader was so stuck in his complete self-hatred that he allowed nobody who had known him before as Anakin to reach him (most notably Obi-Wan and Ahsoka) because of the overwhelming extent of his shame. It took his son, who had never known him and yet who still stood before him and believed in him, loved him, sacrificed himself for him, to call Anakin back from the depths of Vader. And this Anakin, let everything go to save his son and to allow his son to save him.

And it felt so impactful to get to see this mature post-Vader Anakin reaching out to Ahsoka to teach her this very hard-earned lesson that he took the very hard road to get. Because she has Vader in her. She is everything Anakin taught her, and we saw the behaviors that led Anakin to becoming Vader—the fear of losing his most cherished relationships—reaching out of Anakin very early in the clone wars (and before) and the two of them are both very aware that he imparted those lessons on her. And then we've seen across this season—and overtly in her clone wars flashbacks—that she believes she is inextricable from these traits.

I’ve always loved Anakin as a fictional character, getting to see his earnestness, his flawedness, and his intensity (to borrow Huyang’s very accurate adjective), but this episode brought a level of humanity to him that has moved me so deeply. Life is HARD, loss gets forced on all of us no matter what, and the lessons that we learn through mistakes that we made can be extremely painful because acknowledging and taking responsibility for hurting people is actually really painful for humans (not owning up to our actions is the emotionally easier choice and George Lucas has stated time and again that the Dark Side is about taking the short-term easier choices). But it ultimately means that learning from your mistakes is an actual choice you have to MAKE. And this is the core of Anakin’s lesson. He is teaching Ahsoka that she has to choose which lessons he has taught her that she will live by, but more than that, that she is empowered to be able to choose. Yes, she has everything that he taught her—the good and the bad—but she is not condemned to live out all of the lessons. 

And the beauty of it isn't just the lesson, but that Anakin gets to be the one to teach it to her. The betrayal that she experienced in discovering his fall, the taintedness that she has been portraying that she feels about herself, gets specifically addressed because if he figured it out, then she definitely can too. If he is more than just Vader, then she is too. And THAT is what the "Is that what this is about?" line is actually about. It's so so important that we get to see pre-Vader, Vader, and post-Vader across her vision because the point is that yes, Vader is a part of him, and that brilliant shot of the two of them glaring Sith eyes across the blade at each other did it's job in conveying that Ahsoka is capable of that darkness too, but you are not only the darkness. You get to choose. ("You're more than [death and destruction] because I'm more than that"). And more to the point, you have to choose. Because if you don't specifically choose to fight the dark, then you're ultimately choosing to fall into it. "Fight or die."

So for Anakin to be able to reach out to her one more time, to be able to love her the way he, as Vader, had refused to the last time when they met on Malachor, and to open with “you’re never too old to learn”, because god if he didn’t learn that the hard way too. And to be able to pass on to Ahsoka how to actually let go because he himself had only just finally been able to learn it as well, feels so powerful and poignant.

And that look of pride and wistful sadness that he gives her at the end? That both she and Luke were able to learn so quickly what took him so long? And that maybe, he may have helped save her from the worst traits that he imbued upon her? That’s him having let go of his own shame. He feels grief, he feels guilt—we can see it on his face—but what has happened has happened and he has accepted that, and finally learned that letting go doesn't mean it didn't happen, it means it doesn't have to define your actions going forward.

And finally, it’s also him letting go of ahsoka. By teaching her that she will choose her destiny, he has to accept that he cannot control it either. And he has. “There’s hope for you yet.” 

So yeah, Anakin learned to let go, and getting to see him here, in this headspace of acceptance and peace, practicing and understanding what it means to be a Jedi, was so unexpectedly cathartic and revelatory for me as viewer. 

[unordinary-diary]

Remi and Swimming

Why can’t Remi swim?

That’s a genuine question. Why does Remi, at seventeen years old, not know how to swim?

After some quick research, I found that being unable to swim is actually way more common than I thought. Still, I want to speculate on Remi’s reason.

The Red Cross lists fear as the top reason people cited for not learning to swim. Other reasons I can think of for not learning to swim are: couldn’t afford lessons, didn’t live near a pool or body of water, disability, or simply never made time to learn.

However, in Remi’s case, I think it’s much more likely because of her ability than anything else.

It could be because her parents wanted to wait until she had better control of her ability before putting her in water with other kids. This of course, raises the question of why she didn’t learn before her ability developed. It could also be that someone in her family had an incident in the water, and the family was very cautious after that.

I personally like to believe that Rei had an ability-related incident when Remi was quite young, and her parents wanted to keep Rei out of the water until he could control his ability better. Because it would be mean to take Remi swimming and make Rei stay behind or on land, Remi’s lessons got put off indefinitely until they were forgotten about.

Of course, this scenario also means that Rei never finished learning to swim either.

I also like the idea that their mom was the one who had a swimming accident, and was somewhat traumatized by it and therefore extremely paranoid about putting her kids in the water. This explanation would also mean that Rei probably couldn’t swim.

I will now kindly place here for my own enjoyment, a reminder that Blyke was the one who taught Remi to swim and it was cute as fuck:

♡

[hypnowave]

i haven't even finished this book

[nyuudoupee]

arghhhh ultraman rising posting again but this is about the score. yes the miku stylophone is in the soundtrack but holy FUCK tim henson drops some utterly soul rending guitar shreds in this thing. it's not all over the entire ost but when it hits it HITS like DAMN. its like his exact guitar tone too and it bring so much style and badassery to the scenes in which they play like ARGHHHHH

i just love the fucking LICKS he drops on this soundtrack its insane... especially the way he plays the ultraman motif in the second track linked and the riff right after it GOD. it even adds onto like the thematic stuff happening in each scene i don't know how to explain it but it just DOES.... i hope tim drops a video or an interview explaining anything about how this went down (i know scot stafford did explain some in an interview that he did that's really good read it)

it kind of makes me wish the rest of the dudes from polyphia hopped onto another mild scoring gig even if its just like an insert track or something on anything. these riffs in particular kind of remind me of pre NLND/the worst polyphia LOL just a little bit. god i love guitars and god i love music

[chiropteracupola]

now that I have finished watching All The Sharpe That There Is, we have made a Tier List of our Very Strong Opinions. behold.

further (condensed) commentary from yours truly and usual partner-in-crime @sailorpants under the readmore:

S: Eagle, Company, Battle

Eagle: 'the plot of this one makes sense,' 'it really does show (well!) that this was the first book,' 'one of the ones we rewatch,' 'a good episode of television!'

Company: 'Pete Postlethwaite is a great actor -- Hakeswill made me want to throw up,' 'the lads and also the horrors,' 'genuine emotions were elicited,' 'well-established team dynamic at this point'

Battle: 'bad men! good men! beautifulest ladies!,' 'if Perkins must die then at least he gets a really cool death and to be bridal-carried by Harper and mourned by everybody,' 'the fucked-up love square,' 'plot hangs together well,' 'this episode has the most women of any Sharpe episode: four,' 'I have watched this episode three times', 'these rewatches were with lust (for the beautifulest ladies)'

A: Enemy

Enemy: 'decently written,' 'all the lads are there,' 'type of enemy Hakeswill becomes isn't as compelling and the inconsistency brings down both his episodes,' 'egregious women-tossing,' 'it is cool that there are other women; however Sharpe would not do That,' 'French people allowed to be interesting as a treat,' 'Sharpe and Teresa SOULMATES quote [screams]'

B: Rifles, Honour, Sword, Siege, Waterloo

Rifles: 'bit of a rough start,' 'the first half is good and then it gets Weird... phobias of sorts are In There', 'TERESA!'

Honour: 'extremely cool fights in this one,' 'Ramona!!,' 'some of the best Chosen Men banter in the whole series,' 'fake-Sharpe's-death plotline is quite well done,' 'unfortunate nonsense'

Sword: 'epic Harris moments cannot earn this episode a better ranking,' 'good casting and the background characters are cool,' 'the Lass deserved much better than this episode gave her'

Siege: 'oh, the chemical warfare episode,' 'they've learned to workshop their plans since Honour,' 'made me believe that Sharpe and Jane's relationship could have worked out, 'plot hangs together well (rare in a Sharpe episode)'

Waterloo: 'the scale of it doesn't quite sit right,' 'pretty good episode,' 'Paul Bettany is uncanny and I don't like whatever it is is going on with him,' 'getting the gang back together for one last Lads Adventure!'

C: Regiment, Mission, Revenge, Justice, Challenge

Regiment: 'more time with the Chosen Men could have saved this,' 'Company was a better 'the army sucks' episode,' 'the wet soupy episode'

Mission: 'it takes me two minutes to remember what happens in this one whenever I think about it,' 'again epic Harris moments cannot save this episode,' 'quite a high SCUM score,' '[impact font] MARK STRONG'

Revenge: 'ehhhhhh,' 'Lucille's nail-gun is the only thing that is cool and fun,' 'weird vibes about it,' 'Ducos' Bond-villain stuff is needless escalation,' 'Frederickson's ending is fun'

Justice: 'he's a cop in this one,' 'don't like Hagman's mustache,' 'Jane plotline no good, '[from sailorpants] when I actually watch this one I'm gonna have THOUGHTS'

Challenge: 'would rank this higher but I do have receipts on the fact that I was having a Bad Time throughout,' 'Toby Stephens makes this worth watching,' 'almost everything else about it is bad,' 'high points in every SCUM category,' 'four whole named plot-relevant speaking-role-having women! haven't had that many since Battle!,' 'TOBY STEPHENS CUNTSERVACIOUS LITTLE OUTFITS'

D: Gold, Peril

Gold: 'we don't need to discuss why we are ranking it like this'

Peril: 'the secret good Peril that lives in my head is so cool but unfortunately it is not real,' 'they are trying to have Themes and it is not working,' 'casting director is now finding conventionally attractive men instead of weirdguys with interesting faces,' 'Daniel Deever should have his own entire show but unfortunately this is a show about Richard Sharpe (I would write about him so much if I felt that I could do him justice but therein lies the Research Pit)' 'most important point is that he has a locket with Antonia's picture but the rest I could take or leave and I will probably leave it'

[olibavee]

i only found a major depression treatment that works for me At All like 4-5 months ago after being depressed my whole life and i'm still depressed BUT god things are so much better in my brain now. my score on the phq-9 was consistently around 23-25 for years. and now it's like. 7-9. that is really neat and i'm happy abt it.

[beaft]

what tools do you use for sculpting if you don't mind me asking?

just me hands

[your-fave-is-bi]

Hooray the minthara knockout recruitment method worked!!

[nascentwaves]

After finding Fribbels SR Optimizer, I don't think I can go back to the other relic scorers...this thing just has it all.

[tovaicas]

some of the threads probably could've been handled better but as a whole I love alphinaud's HW character arc so much

[dweemeister]

Ok ok, call me a musical dinosaur all you want (my opinions on film scores have been very clear over the years on this blog)... Why was the score so damn loud during scenes of the most emotionally dramatic dialogue in Challengers? Musical malpractice from all involved.

[selectivechaos]

i tend to disregard and invalidate own experiences with mental and physical pain.

especially because:

worse and more significant pains

abuse and other traumas taught me to.

am saying: validate your pains. even if you were told to ignore, push past, others had it worse, sensitive, annoying, or just plain wrong about your own experiences. 🌹🌹

but really, headache ain’t going to go away if you ignore it. the fact that your ears doing something weird ain’t gonna disappear just because you can’t explain to doctor, and they dismiss or don’t have word. the fact that legs ache ain’t gonna go away just because it’s ‘your fault’ because over-exertion, or because of a ‘normal thing’ like work rather than illness in itself.

also also. it easy to treat it as ‘unexplained aches and pains’ even when i know full well that the root cause is years of intolerably high anxiety, and cortisol levels in body like.

but i’ll keep calling it unexplained and saying am just tired because it’s easier to say i ‘just am’ than to think about how trauma stays in the body. how i feel scared when cold, and cold when scared. and weak after a flashback.

really if i recognise sensations in body and link them to emotions (or vice versa when that’s easier) then can understand better. i don’t necessarily need an objective understanding of The Body for this particular purpose; i just owe it to self to listen to subjective experience of own body.

owe it to self to stop with the ‘funny so weird’ at body when it in real real pains. 🌹🌹

[dykelawlight]

2. job headcanon

for mikami or light?? so interested in ur law experience here!

Oh love this!! I think Mikami is exceptionally good at his job and probably a good guy to have as a coworker. Passionate about the work, keeps his head down, in it because he genuinely wants change (which is about as good as you can ask for from a prosecutor, even though the "change" isn't reform lmfao 🙄) etc. etc. He's on the young end for an attorney, having passed the bar right out of college (though I believe it's more common in Japan to go directly to law school from college rather than returning as an adult, since many people don't go at all and rather take the preliminary qualifying exam for the bar, which does not require a law degree ⁠— Mikami may or may not [depending on whether you go by the manga or anime timeline] have attended law school as a graduate program anyway bc the law school system was not instituted in Japan until 2004), which means he might have to work a little harder to be respected by his colleagues as a whippersnapper fresh out of the year-long prosecutor training program. However, I think his colleagues probably admire his work ethic, even if he's unlikely to join the rest of the office for drinks ⁠— so, respected and liked well enough by the people he works with, but still kind of socially unpopular just because of his own standoffish tendencies. He maybe has freaked somebody out individually by saying some surprisingly aggressive shit about the nature of good and evil and how evil deeds should be punished but frankly dudes like that are a dime a dozen in prosecutorial and police offices so it's probably whatever.

He's a total fucking pit bull in court and imo probably really good at telling a compelling story to the judge since his passion for obtaining what he views as justice for victims is so real and close to his heart. I imagine him as a real firebrand who almost transforms from this solemn, mild-mannered guy to this vibrant, angry advocate who's very capable of swaying a jury and really demonstrates the emotional basis for his Kira fanaticism. But he's not purely an emotional performer ⁠— his arguments are airtight from a legal perspective, even though his written voice is probably kind of dry and lacking in any particular linguistic flair. People who have only met him in a courtroom context are often surprised at what he's like in his day-to-day life, but they wouldn't be if they'd ever read his legal briefs, lmao.

I like to imagine Light in a non- or post-Kira AU going on to join a Japanese intelligence agency like the Public Security Bureau of either the NPA or the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, specifically in a line of work like the TMPD PSB's Fourth Foreign Affairs Division handling global counterterrorism efforts. I imagine this because I think it would be funny. I also think he would be well-qualified for a role of that type (The Global Terrorism Is Coming From Inside The House) and would have the nepotism bonus from his dad lmfao, and would additionally probably really enjoy it when it was exciting and politely tolerate the boring parts. I think he'd be well-liked and admired by his peers, as usual ⁠— we can see the way the task force treats him for evidence of this. He's a hard, competent worker and a friendly guy, so I imagine he moves up the ranks relatively quickly. (Also, the PSB building is right by the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office, so if Mikami ever moves out of Kyoto and gets a job over there, I know they're making out in the courtyard and shit.)

[whiskeyswifty]

started totk and she is.... that girl.

[pussymasterdooku]

💃🔪👨🏻

👨🏻🔨👩🏻‍🔧

🏃‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏢