#so adapting it to a modern audience is an interesting challenge

[whoiskt]

"And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Genesis 22:7

"The Story of Isaac" by Leonard Cohen | "The Little Prince" directed by Mark Osborne | "Poor Isaac" by The Airborne Toxic Event | "Castlevania: Nocturne" by Clive Bradley | "We are Gods! We are Wolves!" by LE LOUP | "The Last of Us" by Naughty Dog

[mywitchyblog]

How Shiftok Destroyed Reality Shifting/ the Reality Shifting Community

Introduction :

Reality shifting, a practice based on the belief that individuals can consciously transfer their awareness to alternate realities or dimensions, has long been a niche concept within spiritual and metaphysical circles. However, with the rise of TikTok and the emergence of "Shiftok"—a blend of "shifting" and "TikTok"—this once-obscure practice has surged into mainstream awareness, particularly among younger audiences.

This essay delves into the profound impact of Shiftok on the reality-shifting community, tracing how an intimate, esoteric practice has evolved into a viral social media phenomenon. We will explore the origins of Shiftok, its rapid ascent in popularity, and the wide-ranging effects this digital revolution has had on both the perception and practice of reality shifting.

As we navigate the various facets of this cultural shift, we'll uncover the intricate relationship between social media dynamics, youth culture, and esoteric practices. From the initial surge of excitement and growth to the emergence of concerning trends and fragmentation within the community, the Shiftok phenomenon serves as a compelling case study in how digital platforms can reshape and redefine fringe beliefs and practices.

By examining the rise of Shiftok, its impact on the shifting community, and the responses it has elicited, this essay aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the unique intersection between ancient mystical concepts and modern social media culture. Through this exploration, we will gain insights into the broader implications of viral trends on spiritual practices and the challenges faced by communities as they adapt to sudden mainstream exposure.

Disclaimers : Read the Entire thing as usual. If you did not understand something feel free to tell me i shall gladly explain it to you.

I originally intented to make a simple rant-like post called "my hatred of shiftok" where i explain a story that happened to me that caused me to despise this platform and everything it stood for.

But then i realised that making an objective, educational, informative essay about how toxic, culty and overall nasty the platform became for the reputation of the practice and the community was much more appropriate than a poorly written post .

If any of you are interested in my storytime that made me so resentful of that platform, this post needs to get 200 notes and some comments asking me for it.

So enjoy this essay that i took much pleasure in writing :

Masterlist

II-The Rise of Shiftok

Shiftok, a portmanteau of "shifting" and "TikTok," emerged as a significant phenomenon within the broader landscape of social media, specifically on the TikTok platform. Its origins can be traced back to the early 2020s when reality-shifting content began gaining traction among young users on the app. What began as a niche interest rapidly snowballed into a viral trend, captivating the imaginations of millions of users worldwide.

The growth of Shiftok was meteoric, driven by several key factors that perfectly aligned with the TikTok ecosystem. Central to its success was the platform's short-form video format, which allowed creators to distill complex reality-shifting concepts into bite-sized, easily digestible content. This format proved ideal for sharing quick tips, visualization techniques, and purported success stories, making the practice appear more accessible to newcomers.

TikTok's powerful algorithm played a crucial role in propelling Shiftok to prominence. The app's content distribution system, designed to keep users engaged by serving them content tailored to their interests, quickly identified and promoted shifting-related videos to receptive audiences. This created a feedback loop where increased engagement led to greater visibility, drawing in curious newcomers and further fueling the trend's growth.

The demographic makeup of TikTok's user base also significantly contributed to Shiftok's rise. With a large proportion of young users, particularly teenagers and young adults, the platform provided fertile ground for reality-shifting content to flourish. This age group, often characterized by a desire for escapism, self-discovery, and novel experiences, found the concept of reality shifting particularly appealing.

As Shiftok gained momentum, it initially had a positive impact on the broader reality-shifting community. The increased visibility brought about by viral TikTok videos led to a surge of interest in the practice, drawing in thousands of new enthusiasts. This influx of newcomers energized the community, sparking discussions, fostering creativity, and expanding the collective knowledge base.

The platform also facilitated unprecedented levels of community engagement. Shifters from around the world could easily connect, share experiences, and offer support to one another through comments, duets, and collaborative videos. For those who felt isolated or misunderstood in their offline lives, this sense of community was particularly valuable, providing a space where they could freely discuss their shifting experiences and beliefs.

Moreover, Shiftok became a hub for sharing diverse experiences and methods related to reality shifting. Creators competed to produce the most engaging content, leading to an explosion of creativity in how shifting techniques were presented and explained. From guided meditations set to trending sounds to elaborate "POV" (point of view) scenarios depicting life in desired realities, the content on Shiftok was varied and dynamic.

However, the rapid growth and popularization of reality shifting through Shiftok soon revealed its double-edged nature. While it brought unprecedented attention and growth to the practice, it also set the stage for significant challenges that would reshape the reality-shifting community in profound and sometimes problematic ways. The very factors that contributed to Shiftok's meteoric rise—its accessibility, algorithmic amplification, and appeal to young users—would also play a role in the issues that emerged as the trend continued to evolve.

III-Negative Effects on the Reality Shifting Community

The meteoric rise of Shiftok, which initially invigorated the reality-shifting community, soon gave way to a host of negative consequences that profoundly impacted the practice and its practitioners. As the trend gained momentum, the integrity of the shifting community began to erode under the pressures of misinformation, oversimplification, and rampant commercialization.

One of the most significant issues was the rapid spread of misinformation. The viral nature of TikTok, coupled with the absence of robust fact-checking mechanisms, created an environment where unverified claims and exaggerated experiences could proliferate unchecked. Users, eager for views and followers, often shared sensationalized accounts of their shifting experiences, blurring the line between genuine practices and fantasy. Pseudoscientific explanations for shifting, often based on misinterpretations of quantum physics or neuroscience, gained traction, lending a false air of legitimacy to questionable concepts.

This problem was further exacerbated by the emergence of viral trends within the Shiftok community. "Shifting challenges" and purported "fool-proof methods" spread rapidly, often prioritizing entertainment value over accuracy or safety. While these trends were engaging for viewers, they frequently misrepresented the nature of reality shifting, leading to confusion and unrealistic expectations among newcomers to the practice.

Another detrimental effect of Shiftok's influence was the oversimplification of shifting techniques. The platform's short-form video format necessitated the distillation of complex practices into brief, easily digestible content. This led to a proliferation of "quick and easy" methods that promised results with minimal effort or understanding. While these simplified techniques made shifting seem more accessible, they neglected the nuances and deeper aspects of the practice.

This oversimplification had far-reaching consequences. Many newcomers, drawn by the promise of instant results, became frustrated when their experiences did not match the effortless successes portrayed in viral videos. The more traditional, in-depth practices that required patience, dedication, and self-reflection were often overlooked in favor of these quick-fix solutions. This shift in focus threatened to undermine the spiritual and personal growth aspects that many long-time practitioners viewed as integral to the shifting experience.

Perhaps the most troubling development was the increasing commercialization and exploitation of the reality-shifting community. As Shiftok content gained popularity, a new breed of "shifting influencers" emerged, eager to capitalize on the trend. This led to the monetization of shifting content through sponsorships, merchandise, and paid services. While some creators genuinely aimed to help and educate, others saw an opportunity for profit, selling dubious products like "shifting crystals" or "dimensional jump sprays" with little regard for their efficacy or the potential impact on vulnerable users.

The rise of influencer culture within the shifting community also fostered an environment where popularity and engagement metrics often took precedence over the quality or accuracy of information shared. This created a perverse incentive structure where creators were rewarded for producing sensational or controversial content rather than focusing on responsible, well-researched information.

These negative effects collectively undermined the foundations of the reality-shifting community. What had once been a practice rooted in personal exploration and spiritual growth was at risk of being reduced to a commercialized trend, divorced from its original intent and values. The influx of misinformation, coupled with the oversimplification of techniques and the exploitation of practitioners, threatened to dilute the authenticity of the practice and alienate serious practitioners.

As these issues came to the forefront, they set the stage for broader impacts on both the external perception of reality shifting and the internal dynamics of the community itself. The once-unified community began to fragment, grappling with questions of authenticity, methodology, and the very nature of reality shifting in the age of viral social media trends.

IV. The Dark Side of Shiftok: Toxicity, Pressure, and Dogma in the Reality Shifting Community

The meteoric rise of reality shifting on TikTok, while bringing unprecedented attention to the practice, also uncovered a darker, more insidious aspect within the community. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as "Shiftok," became a breeding ground for toxicity, misinformation, and oppressive dogma, threatening the very essence of what many considered a deeply personal and transformative practice.

One of the most troubling developments within Shiftok was the emergence of arbitrary and often harmful age-related pressures. A particularly pernicious belief circulated that individuals who hadn't successfully shifted by a certain age, typically 18, were somehow suspect or, in extreme cases, labeled as "pedophiles" for aging themselves down for realities they made when they were minors and have romantic/sexual relationships there. This baseless and damaging accusation stemmed from the misguided notion that older shifters were attempting to reach realities where they were younger, automatically assuming predatory intentions or attraction to minors.

(This misguided notion has been debunked in this post).

This ageist dogma not only created unnecessary anxiety among practitioners but also demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the diverse motivations for reality shifting. Many adult shifters, drawn to the practice for spiritual growth, self-exploration, healing, or simply out of curiosity, found themselves unfairly stigmatized and excluded from community spaces. The irony of this situation was not lost on more discerning observers, who noted that the very teenagers propagating these ideas often shifted to realities where they themselves were adults or teens, without the same scrutiny applied to older shifters—highlighting a hypocritical double standard.

The Shiftok environment grew increasingly hostile to divergent opinions or experiences that didn't align with the prevailing narrative. Users who questioned popular methods, expressed skepticism about certain claims, or shared experiences differing from the norm often faced severe backlash. This cultish adherence to a singular vision of reality shifting stifled healthy debate and critical thinking, essential components for the growth and legitimacy of any practice.

Contradictory information flourished in this echo chamber, with different factions of Shiftokers promoting conflicting "rules" about shifting. Some insisted that physical symptoms like headaches or nausea were necessary signs of an impending shift, while others claimed the process should be entirely painless. This cacophony of conflicting advice left many newcomers confused and frustrated, often leading to disillusionment with the practice altogether.

Particularly concerning was the lack of spiritual hygiene and safety measures in many Shiftok-promoted methods. In the rush to create viral content, many creators neglected to address the potential psychological and emotional risks associated with reality shifting, especially for vulnerable individuals. Basic practices like grounding, protection visualization, or setting clear intentions—staples in many traditional spiritual practices—were often overlooked in favor of quick, sensationalized techniques promising instant results.

The "TikTokification" of reality shifting led to a troubling simplification and commercialization of the practice. Complex philosophical and spiritual concepts were reduced to snappy soundbites and trendy hashtags. The depth and nuance of reality shifting, with its potential for profound personal growth and self-discovery, were often lost in a sea of shallow, entertainment-focused content.

This commercialization reached disturbing heights as some Shiftok influencers began selling "shifting aids"—everything from specially designed pillowcases to "quantum-aligned" water bottles. These products, often backed by pseudoscientific claims and endorsements from popular creators, preyed on the desperation of those struggling to achieve their first shift.

The pressure to shift successfully and quickly became overwhelming for many in the community. Stories of users spending hours each day attempting to shift, neglecting school, work, or real-world relationships, began to surface. This intensity was fueled by a culture of comparison fostered by Shiftok, where users constantly measured their experiences against the often exaggerated or fabricated successes of others.

The pervasive toxic positivity in many Shiftok spaces further compounded these issues. Users who expressed doubts, struggles, or negative experiences were often dismissed or told they simply weren't "believing" hard enough. This invalidation of genuine concerns and difficulties created an environment where many felt unable to seek help or share their true experiences.

Perhaps most troublingly, the Shiftok phenomenon began to blur the lines between reality and fantasy for some users, particularly younger ones. The constant immersion in shifting content, combined with the pressure to experience increasingly fantastical scenarios, raised concerns among mental health professionals about dissociation and reality distortion.

The lack of age-appropriate content moderation on TikTok exacerbated many of these issues. Young users were often exposed to mature or potentially traumatizing shifting scenarios without adequate context or support. The platform's algorithm, designed to maximize engagement, frequently pushed users deeper into shifting-related content rabbit holes, creating echo chambers that reinforced problematic beliefs and practices.

As the Shiftok phenomenon continued to evolve, it became evident that the toxicity, misinformation, and dogmatic thinking it fostered were antithetical to the core principles of personal growth and exploration that many associated with reality shifting. The challenge for the broader shifting community became not only to counter these negative aspects but also to reclaim and redefine the practice in a more balanced, responsible, and authentically transformative way.

V-Impact on Perception of Reality Shifting

The rise of Shiftok and its subsequent influence on the reality shifting community had far-reaching consequences that extended beyond the boundaries of TikTok and into broader public perception. As reality shifting catapulted from a niche practice to a viral trend, it faced increased scrutiny and skepticism from outsiders, fundamentally altering how the concept was perceived and discussed in mainstream discourse.

One of the most significant impacts was the surge in skepticism from those outside the shifting community. As Shiftok videos proliferated across social media platforms, reality shifting became increasingly associated with internet fads and youth subcultures. This association, while bringing attention to the practice, also invited dismissal and ridicule from skeptics who viewed it as yet another fleeting online trend rather than a serious spiritual or metaphysical practice.

The viral nature of Shiftok content, often emphasizing fantastical elements and pop culture references, contributed to widespread misconceptions about the nature and purpose of reality shifting. Many outsiders began to view shifting solely through the lens of these viral videos, equating it with lucid dreaming, role playing, or pure fantasy. This oversimplification obscured the deeper philosophical and experiential aspects of shifting that many practitioners held dear.

Media attention, drawn by the explosive growth of the trend, often approached reality shifting with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. News articles and reports, while bringing mainstream visibility to the practice, frequently focused on the more sensational aspects of Shiftok content. This selective coverage further skewed public perception, often painting reality shifting as a potentially harmful delusion rather than a nuanced spiritual or psychological practice.

The influx of young practitioners drawn in by Shiftok also influenced how reality shifting was perceived. The predominance of teenagers and young adults (often female) in the community led many to dismiss the practice as a form of escapism or a coping mechanism for youth struggling with the challenges of adolescence and early adulthood. While there was some truth to the appeal of shifting as a form of escape, this generalization overlooked the diverse motivations and experiences of practitioners across different age groups.

Perhaps one of the most damaging impacts on perception was the trivialization of reality shifting. What had once been considered a profound, rich, complex and transformative practice by many long-time shifters was increasingly reduced to entertainment or a casual hobby for psychotic and mentally ill schoolgirls in the public eye. The depth of experience and personal growth that many attributed to their shifting journeys was often lost in the sea of light-hearted Shiftok content.

This trivialization had a particularly strong effect on how the spiritual and personal development aspects of shifting were perceived. The focus on quick results and fantastical destinations in viral content overshadowed the more introspective and growth-oriented approaches to shifting. As a result, the potential for reality shifting as a tool for self-discovery, healing, and expanding consciousness was often overlooked or dismissed by those forming opinions based solely on its social media representation.

The surge in popularity also attracted the attention of mental health professionals and researchers, some of whom expressed concerns about the potential psychological impacts of reality shifting, especially on younger practitioners. While some approached the topic with genuine curiosity and open-mindedness, others were quick to pathologize the practice, further contributing to negative perceptions.

For serious practitioners and researchers in the field, this shift in public perception presented significant challenges. Many found themselves fighting an uphill battle to legitimize their experiences and studies in the face of widespread skepticism and misconceptions fueled by Shiftok's portrayal of reality shifting.

The cumulative effect of these changes in perception created a complex and often contradictory public image of reality shifting. On one hand, it had never been more visible or widely discussed. On the other hand, this visibility came at the cost of depth and nuance, with the practice often misunderstood, trivialized, or dismissed outright by those outside the community.

This transformation in how reality shifting was perceived set the stage for further fragmentation within the community itself, as practitioners grappled with questions of authenticity, methodology, and the future direction of their practice in a post-Shiftok landscape.(By post-Shiftok i mean the period after aug-2020 to aug 2021 since it was during that year that people talked about shiftok and subsequently shifting the most in the media)

VI-Fragmentation of the community

Fragmentation of the Community

The rise of Shiftok and its profound impact on the reality shifting landscape inevitably led to significant fragmentation within the community itself. What was once a relatively cohesive group of practitioners united by shared beliefs and experiences began to splinter into various factions, each with its own perspectives on the nature and practice of reality shifting.

At the heart of this fragmentation lay heated disputes over authenticity. As the community expanded rapidly due to the influx of new practitioners drawn in by viral Shiftok content, tensions arose between long-time shifters and newcomers. Experienced practitioners often viewed the Shiftok-inspired methods and claims with skepticism, questioning the authenticity of experiences shared in short, highly edited videos. They argued that true shifting required dedication, practice, and a deep understanding of the underlying principles - elements they felt were often lacking in the quick and easy methods popularized on the platform.

This divide gave rise to intense debates about what constituted "real" shifting versus what some dismissively termed as "fake" shifting. Veterans of the practice often criticized Shiftok shifters for conflating lucid dreaming, visualization, or simple daydreaming with genuine reality shifting experiences. These disputes frequently turned acrimonious, with accusations of gatekeeping from one side and of diluting the practice from the other.

The community also witnessed the emergence of a generational gap. Older practitioners, who had been exploring reality shifting long before it became a social media trend, often found themselves at odds with the younger generation of shifters who had discovered the practice through Shiftok. This age divide was not merely about experience but also about fundamental approaches to shifting. While older shifters tended to emphasize the spiritual and personal growth aspects of the practice, many younger practitioners were drawn to shifting for its entertainment value or as a means of escaping real-world problems.

Another significant factor contributing to the fragmentation was the varying goals and motivations for shifting among practitioners. The Shiftok trend had popularized the idea of shifting to fictional universes or idealized realities, often based on popular media franchises. This contrasted sharply with more traditional approaches that focused on spiritual exploration, self-discovery, or connecting with alternate versions of oneself. The community found itself divided between those who viewed shifting as a fun, imaginative exercise (usually those people either don't believe in permashifting/respawning or say it is bad/ dangerous /problematic) and those who treated it as a serious metaphysical practice.

This divergence in goals led to the formation of distinct sub-communities within the broader shifting world. Communities flourished on other social media platforms, characterized by their focus on pop culture destinations, quick methods, and shared scripting techniques. In contrast, more traditional shifting communities sought refuge in forums, Discord servers, and other platforms that allowed for more in-depth discussions and longer-form content.

The fragmentation was further exacerbated by disagreements over methodology. Shiftok's algorithm-driven content distribution meant that certain methods and techniques gained viral popularity, often at the expense of more established practices. This led to heated debates about the efficacy and safety of various shifting methods, with some practitioners warning against the potential dangers of techniques that promised quick results without proper grounding or protection.

As the community continued to fracture, it became increasingly difficult for newcomers to navigate the conflicting information and polarized viewpoints. Many found themselves caught between the allure of the easy, accessible methods promoted on Shiftok and the more rigorous, traditional approaches advocated by experienced shifters. This confusion often led to frustration and disillusionment, with some abandoning the practice altogether.

The fragmentation also had implications for the collective knowledge and support systems within the shifting community. As practitioners increasingly segregated themselves into like-minded groups, the free exchange of ideas and experiences that had once characterized the community began to break down. This siloing effect threatened to stunt the growth and evolution of reality shifting as a practice, with valuable insights and techniques potentially being lost in the noise of inter-community conflicts.

As the reality-shifting community continued to grapple with these internal divisions, it became clear that the impact of Shiftok had irrevocably altered the landscape of the practice. A practice that was characterized by its beauty, complexity and richness whose practitioners could talk about philosophy culture and spirituality four hours, has been watered down, dumbed down into a bunch of mentally ill schoolgirls shifting to get railed by wizard nazis and hysterical teenagers who would cuss someone's entire bloodline for doubting or questioning the practise. Which is something totally valid and proves that those individuals do not know anything about the practice at all.

Honestly i cannot blame when antishifters claim that reality shifting is a cult since it is all they see and are being shown. People dismissing their pain under a toxic positive statement of “you haven't tried harder”or “just believe more” coupled with contradictory and hypocritical statements, makes it impossible to break free from those stereotypes.

VII-Psychological and Ethical Concerns

The meteoric rise of Shiftok and its profound impact on the reality shifting community gave rise to a host of psychological and ethical concerns that extended far beyond the realm of social media trends. As the practice gained widespread popularity, particularly among younger audiences, mental health professionals, ethicists, and even some within the shifting community itself began to voice apprehensions about the potential risks and implications of this phenomenon.

One of the primary psychological concerns centered around the addictive nature of both shifting experiences and Shiftok content itself. Many practitioners, especially younger ones, reported spending hours consuming shifting-related videos, often at the expense of real-world responsibilities and relationships. This obsessive engagement with Shiftok content, coupled with the allure of escaping to idealized realities, raised fears about the development of maladaptive coping mechanisms and potential neglect of personal growth in the physical world.

The immersive nature of reality shifting experiences also sparked debates about the risk of dissociation and reality distortion. Some mental health experts expressed concern that frequent shifting, especially for extended periods, might blur the lines between perceived realities, potentially leading to difficulties in distinguishing between shifted experiences and waking life. This was particularly worrisome for individuals with pre-existing mental health conditions or a predisposition to dissociative disorders.

The use of reality shifting as a form of escapism became another point of contention. While many practitioners viewed shifting as a harmless and even beneficial way to explore alternate realities or cope with stress, critics argued that it could become a means of avoiding real-life issues rather than addressing them. The concern was that vulnerable individuals, particularly adolescents facing challenging life circumstances, might retreat into desired realities rather than developing crucial life skills and resilience.

Ethical considerations also came to the forefront, particularly regarding the age-appropriateness of shifting content and the safeguarding of young users. The prevalence of young teenagers in the Shiftok community raised questions about the potential impact of reality shifting on developing minds. Some worry that exposure to intense or mature themes in desired realities could be psychologically damaging for younger practitioners who might not have the emotional maturity to process such experiences.

The responsibility of content creators became a significant ethical issue. As Shiftok influencers gained massive followings, often consisting largely of impressionable youth, questions arose about their duty of care. Many creators, in their pursuit of views and engagement, shared unverified methods or exaggerated claims about shifting successes. This raised concerns about the potential for manipulation or the inadvertent promotion of harmful practices, especially given the lack of scientific consensus on the nature and effects of reality shifting.

Another ethical dilemma emerged around the potential for reality shifting communities to develop cult-like characteristics. The intense belief systems surrounding shifting, combined with the charismatic influence of popular Shiftok creators, created an environment where some practitioners became deeply emotionally invested in the practice. This led to fears about the vulnerability of members to exploitation or the development of unhealthy group dynamics.

The commercialization of reality shifting through Shiftok also raised ethical red flags. As creators began selling products, services, or exclusive content related to shifting, questions arose about the morality of profiting from a practice that many viewed as a deeply personal or spiritual endeavor. There were concerns about the exploitation of believers, particularly when unproven products or techniques were marketed as enhancing shifting abilities.

Within the shifting community itself, practitioners grappled with the ethics of their practice. Debates arose about the morality of shifting to realities where one might engage in behaviors considered unethical in the physical world. This led to philosophical discussions about the nature of reality, free will, and personal responsibility across multiple perceived realities.

The long-term psychological effects of reality shifting remained a topic of intense speculation and concern. With little scientific research on the subject, many wondered about the potential impacts on personality development, identity formation, and overall mental well-being, especially for those who began shifting at a young age.(around puberty so 13-15 where people can be very malleable )

As these psychological and ethical concerns came to light, calls for more research and responsible practices within the shifting community grew louder. Some advocates pushed for the development of ethical guidelines for Shiftok creators, while others emphasized the need for mental health resources tailored to the unique challenges faced by reality shifters.

The reality shifting community found itself at a crossroads, forced to confront these complex psychological and ethical issues. As the practice continued to evolve in the wake of the Shiftok phenomenon, addressing these concerns became crucial not only for the well-being of individual practitioners but also for the long-term sustainability and credibility of reality shifting as a whole.

One of the most important ways to counter, prevent, or mitigate the dangers of reality shifting is through the practice of Spiritual Hygiene. Unfortunately, this concept seems to be something that many Shiftokers fail to grasp, highlighting their lack of concrete knowledge about the practice. It's particularly frustrating that these individuals are often the most visible within the community, while true experts with deeper understanding are overshadowed.

Reality shifting, whether people accept it or not, is inherently a spiritual practice. By its very nature, shifting cannot be scientifically proven—yet, it also cannot be disproven. This makes it a unique and highly subjective experience, with each shifter’s journey being distinct. If shifting were to be scientifically validated, it would become an objective practice, leading to uniform experiences across the board.

Given its spiritual nature, maintaining spiritual hygiene is essential. One cannot embark on this journey and neglect such a fundamental concept. The saying, "healthy body, healthy mind; healthy mind, healthy body," perfectly encapsulates why spiritual hygiene is a necessity in shifting. When people neglect it, they often experience mental and physical harm, which they mistakenly attribute to the practice of shifting itself.

(I suggest that you read my post on the subject)

VIII-The Response from the Traditional Shifting Community

As the Shiftok phenomenon continued to reshape the landscape of reality shifting, the traditional shifting community found itself compelled to respond to the myriad challenges and changes brought about by this new wave of practitioners and content. This response was multifaceted, reflecting the complex emotions and perspectives within the established shifting community.

Initially, many long-time shifters reacted with a mixture of excitement and apprehension to the sudden surge in interest in their practice. While they welcomed the increased visibility and potential for growth, they quickly became concerned about the quality and accuracy of information being disseminated through Shiftok. This concern catalyzed a concentrated effort to combat misinformation within the community.

Veteran shifters took to various platforms to share their knowledge and experiences, often directly addressing and debunking popular misconceptions propagated on Shiftok. They created detailed guides, wrote blog posts, and produced long-form video content aimed at providing a more nuanced and accurate representation of reality shifting. These efforts were not merely reactive; they represented a proactive attempt to preserve the integrity of the practice in the face of its rapid popularization.

In response to the oversimplification of shifting techniques on Shiftok, many traditional practitioners began emphasizing the importance of in-depth, holistic approaches to shifting. They developed and shared more rigorous practices and guidelines, often drawing on years of personal experience and collective wisdom (spiritual hygiene). These methods typically focused on mental preparation, spiritual alignment, and ethical considerations – aspects often overlooked in viral Shiftok content.

The traditional community also recognized the need for safer, more controlled spaces for discussion and practice. This led to the creation and expansion of alternative platforms and communities dedicated to serious shifting discourse. Forums, Discord servers, and specialized websites emerged as havens for in-depth conversations, troubleshooting, and mutual support among experienced shifters and sincere newcomers alike. These spaces often implemented stricter moderation policies to maintain the quality of discussions and protect vulnerable members from potentially harmful information.

Many established shifters took on mentorship roles, offering guidance to newcomers who sought a deeper understanding beyond what Shiftok could provide. These mentors focused on teaching not just the techniques of shifting, but also its philosophical underpinnings and potential for personal growth. They emphasized patience, persistence, and self-reflection as key components of a successful shifting practice – a stark contrast to the "quick and easy" methods often touted on social media.

The traditional community also began to engage more actively in research and documentation efforts. Recognizing the lack of scientific study on reality shifting, some practitioners started collaborating with open-minded researchers or conducting their own systematic studies of shifting experiences. While these efforts were often informal, they represented an attempt to bring more rigor and credibility to the field.

In response to the commercialization of shifting on Shiftok, many traditional practitioners reaffirmed their commitment to keeping shifting accessible and non-commercialized. They freely shared resources, techniques, and support, often explicitly critiquing the trend of monetizing shifting knowledge or selling shifting-related products.

However, the response from the traditional community was not uniformly positive or constructive. Some long-time shifters reacted with frustration or elitism, dismissing Shiftok shifters entirely and retreating further into closed communities. This gatekeeping behavior, while intended to preserve the integrity of the practice, sometimes had the unintended effect of alienating genuine seekers and furthering the divide within the broader shifting community.

As the initial shock of the Shiftok phenomenon began to wane, many in the traditional community started to see it as an opportunity for growth and evolution. They recognized that while Shiftok had brought challenges, it had also introduced shifting to a vast new audience, some of whom would inevitably seek deeper understanding. This realization led to efforts to bridge the gap between traditional practices and the new wave of shifters, seeking common ground and shared experiences.

The response of the traditional shifting community to the Shiftok phenomenon was ultimately one of adaptation and resilience. While striving to maintain the core principles and depth of their practice, many long-time shifters also recognized the need to evolve and engage with a changing landscape. Their efforts to educate, guide, and create safe spaces for authentic shifting practices played a crucial role in shaping the future direction of the reality shifting community as a whole.

IX. Conclusion: The Aftermath of Shiftok's Impact on Reality Shifting

The rise of Shiftok, while initially bringing unprecedented attention and growth to the reality shifting community, ultimately led to its fragmentation and, in many ways, undermined the core principles and practices of reality shifting.

Shiftok's impact on the reality shifting community can be considered destructive in several key aspects:

Misinformation: The rapid spread of unverified claims and oversimplified techniques diluted the authenticity of the practice.

Trivialization: The depth and spiritual aspects of shifting were often reduced to entertainment, diminishing its perceived value.

Community Division: The influx of new practitioners led to conflicts between traditional shifters and Shiftok-inspired newcomers, fracturing the once-cohesive community.

Ethical Concerns: The lack of safeguards and the potential exploitation of vulnerable users raised serious ethical questions.

Loss of Authenticity: The commercialization and "TikTokification" of shifting distorted its original intent and practices.

While it would be an overstatement to say that Shiftok entirely destroyed reality shifting, it undeniably transformed the landscape of the practice, often in detrimental ways. The community now faces the challenge of reclaiming and redefining reality shifting in a post-Shiftok era, balancing accessibility with depth, and navigating the complex intersection of ancient practices and modern digital culture.

The Shiftok phenomenon serves as a cautionary tale about the double-edged nature of viral trends and their impact on esoteric practices, highlighting the need for mindful integration of traditional wisdom with contemporary platforms.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Weinersmith and Boulet’s “Bea Wolf”

On July 14, I'm giving the closing keynote for the fifteenth HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH, in QUEENS, NY. Happy Bastille Day! On July 20, I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

Bea Wolf is Zach Weinersmith and Boulet's ferociously amazingly great illustrated kids' graphic novel adaptation of the Old English epic poem, which inspired Tolkien, who helped bring it to popularity after it had languished in obscurity for centuries:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250776297/beawolf

Boy is this a wildly improbable artifact. Weinersmith and Boulet set themselves the task of bringing Germanic heroic saga from more than a thousand years ago to modern children, while preserving the meter and the linguistic and literary tropes of the original. And they did it!

There are some changes, of course. Grendel – the boss monster that both Beowulf and Bea Wulf must defeat – is no longer obsessed with decapitating his foes and stealing their heads. In Bea Wulf, Grendel is a monstrously grown up and boring adult who watches cable news and flosses twice per day, and when he defeats the kids whose destruction he is bent upon, he does so by turning them into boring adults, too.

And Bea Wulf – and the kings that do battle with Grendel – are not interested in the gold and jewels that the kings of Beowulf hoard. In Bea Wulf, the treasure is toys, chocolate, soda, candy, food without fiber, television shows without redeeming educational content, water balloons, nerf swords and spears, and other stuff beloved of kids and hated by parents.

That substitution is key to transposing the thousand-year-old adult epic Beowulf for enjoyment by small children in the 21st century. After all, what makes Beowulf so epic is the sense that it is set in a time in which a primal valor still reigned, but it is narrated for an audience that has been tamed and domesticated. Beowulf makes you long for a never-was time of fierce and unwavering bravery. Bea Wulf beautifully conjures the years of early childhood when you and the kids in your group had your own little sealed-off world, which grownups could barely perceive and never understand.

Growing up, after all, is a process of repeating things that are brave the first time you do them, over and over again, until they become banal. That's what "coming of age" really boils down to: the slow and relentless transformation of the mythic, the epic, and the unknowable and unknown into the tame, the explained, the mastered. When you're just mastering balance and coordination, the playground climber is a challenge out of legend. A couple years later, it's just something you climb.

The correspondences between the leeching away of magic lamented in Beowulf and experienced by all of us as we grow out of childhood are obvious in hindsight and surprising and beautiful and bittersweet when you encounter them in Bea Wolf.

This effect owes a large debt to Boulet's stupendous artwork. Boulet brings a vibe rarely seen in American kids' illustration, owing quite a lot to France's bande dessinée tradition. Of course, this is a Firstsecond book, and they established themselves as an exciting and fresh kids' publisher in the USA nearly 20 years ago by bringing some of Europe's finest comics to an American audience for the first time. You can get a sense of Boulet's darker-than-average, unabashedly anarchic illustrations here:

https://www.comixtrip.fr/bibliotheque/bea-wolf-weinersmith-boulet-albin-michel/

The utter brilliance of Bea Wulf is as much due to the things it preserves from the original epic as it is to the updates and changes. Weinersmith has kept the Old English tradition of alliteration, right from the earliest passages, with celebrations of heroes like "Tanya, treat-taker, terror of Halloween, her costume-cache vast, sieging kin and neighbor, draining full candy-bins, fearing not the fate of her teeth. Ten thousand treats she took. That was a fine Tuesday."

Weinersmith also preserves the kennings – the elaborate figurative compound phrases that replace nouns – that turn ordinary names and places into epithets at you have to riddle out, like calling a river "the sliding sea."

These literary devices, rarely seen today, are extremely powerful, and they conjure up the force and mystique that has kept Beowulf in our current literary discourse for more than a millennium. They also make this a super fun book to read aloud.

When Jim Henson was first conceiving of Sesame Street, he made a point of designing it to have jokes and riffs that would appeal to adults, even if some of the nuance would be lost on kids. He did this because he wanted to make art that adults and kids could enjoy together, both because that would give adults a chance to help kids actively explore the ideas on-screen, but also because it would bring some magic into those adults' lives.

This is a very winning combination (not for nothing, it's also the original design brief for Disneyland). Weinersmith and Boulet have produced a first-rate work of adult and kid literature, both a perfect entree to Beowulf for anyone contemplating a dive into old English epic poetry, and a kids' book full of booger jokes and transgressive scenes of perfect mischief.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/24/awesome-alliteration/#hellion-hallelujah

[whencyclopedia]

Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World

"Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World" is recommended to people interested in intellectual and cultural history. Challenging misconceptions about the role of paper in the Islamic world, this book, refusing Orientalist speculations around Islamic written heritage, discusses it from a revisionist vista. Its intended audience is readers who are knowledgeable about the debates in Islamic intellectual history.

Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World, penned by the retired art historian Jonathan Max Bloom from Boston College, offers a comprehensive exploration of the prominence of paper in Islamic history and its influence on global intellectual history. The increasing diffusion of paper in the Medieval Islamic world reduced the cost of writing materials, unleashing paper production in Islamic realms and much later in Western Europe. This phenomenon played a leading role in laying the foundations of the civilization we inhabit, allowing knowledge to flourish for everyone.

I concur with the main argument in the book that effectively challenges the undervaluation of cultural products in non-Western worlds in mainstream historical narratives. This revisionist study actively engages the reader, prompting them to reassess their interpretation of Islamic intellectual history.

One of the strongest characteristics of this revisionist work is Bloom’s support of his claims with primary sources and, especially, visuals, strengthening the credibility of its contentions through the book’s seven chapters. The author clarifies that the historiographical debate around the entrance of the printing press to the Islamic world did not stem from a “technological backwardness” but a “cultural choice.” The main difference

lied not in technology but in their attitudes towards books and learning from books, and ultimately in the different roles they assigned to writing and the written word (p. 91).

The basis of Islamic education is a culture of oral transmission. The vocal and verbal content of the Qur'an (which also means reading aloud) and hadith (which consists of a verbal conveyance based on isnad) education reveals this. Written culture also determined the attitude towards the printing press because book production in the Islamic world did not have a limited structure, unlike the scriptoriums in Medieval Europe—moreover, the cheapness and accessibility of paper and paper-based materials relocated as the transmitter of written knowledge. Besides, the author states that the typographical inadequacy of the printing house made its adaptation to the Islamic world difficult. Despite Gutenberg’s invention, the printing of Arabic texts, in particular, was largely inaccurate until the second printing revolution in the 18th century.

The book offers a critique of the modernist historical narrative, which underestimates the agency of medieval Muslim authors in paper and bookmaking. Bloom disputes the notion that these authors compiled works essentially

because their patrons or rulers advised them to do so… authors rarely recorded their personal opinions… (p. 113).

However, this bone of contention is a reflection of the modernist historical narrative, contending that these experts ultimately began to express their feelings and ideas only after modernization. However, Medieval Muslims penned many autobiographical works recording their feelings and experiences, from Ibn Battuta to Ghazali, displaying how they embedded their inner world.

All in all, this work is a pioneering contribution to the place of paper in shaping medieval and global history. It requires its readers to be familiar with various historical developments, such as the Battle of Talas, which is believed to be a milestone in introducing papermaking to the Islamic world. Despite several flaws, it is a groundbreaking study that refutes Orientalist assumptions on the history of paper, offering an alternative narrative from an overlooked region and era.

Continue reading...

[iamvercnika]

₊‧⁺˖ ⠀⠀⠀ PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HURT YOU. IT'S A FACT OF LIFE.

CHOI YOONA  was  born  in  seoul,  south  korea,  on  april  30,  1997.  her  early  life  was  marked  by  an  oppressive  and  overprotective  upbringing —  YOONA's  mother  was  fiercely  protective,  driven  by  a  deep-seated  fear  of  the  outside  world.  this  fear  translated  into  strict  and  isolating  rules  for  her  daughter.  as  a  child,  YOONA  could  not  step  outside  their  house  except  briefly  on  their  porch.  this  sheltered  existence  buried  her  social  development  and  exposed  her  to  a  world  limited  by  the  confines  of  her  home.

despite  the  restrictive  environment,  YOONA  found  comfort in  her  mother's  collection  of  vinyl  records.  the  haunting  melodies  and  powerful  vocals  of  the  artists  she  listened  to  sparked  an  early  interest  in  music.  however,  her  mother’s  strict  rules  overshadowed  these  moments  of  peace,  making  YOONA’s  childhood  a  blend  of  fleeting  joy  and  constant  surveillance.

as  she  grew  older,  YOONA's  curiosity  about  the  world  beyond  her  front  door  intensified.  by  the  age  of  twelve,  her  desire  for  freedom  became  too  strong  to  ignore.  one  fateful  night,  she  mustered  the  courage  to  sneak  out  of  the  house  for  the  first  time.  the  sense  of  independence  she  felt  was  short-lived,  as  a  police  officer  soon  found  her  and  escorted  her  back  home.  the  officer's  visit  only  helped  deepen  her  mother's  fears  and  strictness.  that  night  marked  a  turning  point  in  YOONA's  life.  her  mother,  in  a  fit  of  rage,  beat  her  and  confined  her  even  more  rigorously  than  before,  blaming  her  for  disobeying the  rules.

despite  the  harsh  punishment,  YOONA's  rebellious  spirit  remained  unbroken.  she  continued  to  push  the  boundaries  set  by  her  mother,  seeking  brief  moments  of  freedom  whenever  possible.  these  acts  of  disobedience,  however,  came  at  a  significant  personal  cost,  as  her  mother's  punishments  grew  increasingly  severe.

the  turning  point  in  YOONA's  life  came  when  her  mother  fell  gravely  ill  and  was  hospitalised.  with  her  mother  incapacitated  and  facing  the  possibility  of  death,  YOONA  experienced  a  newfound  sense  of  freedom.  this  period  of  her  life  was  both  freeing  and  confusing  as  she  navigated  the  world  outside  her  home  for  the  first  time.  nearing  her  twenties,  YOONA  was  determined  to  carve  out  a  life  for  herself  beyond  the  shadow  of  her  mother’s  influence.

during  one  of  her  explorations  of  the  city,  YOONA  was  approached  by  a  talent  scout  from  GLASSHOUSE,  a  renowned  music  company.  impressed  by  her  beauty and confidence ( that she somehow exhibited ),  they  offered  her  an  opportunity  to  audition.  drawing  from  the  countless  hours  she  spent  singing  along  to  her  mother's  vinyl  records,  YOONA’s  audition  was  a  success.  she  was  soon  signed to  the  label,  marking  the  beginning  of  her  journey  as  VERONIKA.

transitioning  from  her  sheltered  upbringing  to  the  fast-paced  world  of  the  entertainment  industry  was  a  challenging  process.  YOONA,  now  VERONIKA,  had  to  quickly  adapt  to  the  demands  of  her  new  career  while  also  learning  about  the  world  she  had  been  kept  from  for  so  long.  despite  these  challenges,  her  unique  background  and  powerful  voice  quickly  captivated  audiences.  her  debut  mini-album,  VERONIKA,  introduced  her  as  a  modern-day  witch,  a  persona  that  resonated  with  her  rough past  and  her  newfound  freedom.

as  she  continued  to  release  music,  VERONIKA's  themes  of  darkness,  resilience,  and  empowerment  drew  from  her  personal  experiences.  each  release,  from  VERONIKA  to  SPIDERWEB,  told  a  story  of  struggle,  defiance,  and  ultimate  triumph.  her  music  not  only  showcased  her  vocal  talent  but  also  served  as  a  cleansing outlet  for  the  pain  and  isolation  she  endured  during  her  childhood.

[hunxi-after-hours]

hey, anon from the anti-authoritarian wuxia ask a while back, took a looksee through Stephen Teo's The Wuxia Tradition and the essays about danmei you mentioned in your response, which was really great and insightful! i think what's so interesting to me about the modern wuxia tradition as we understand it now is that its purpose from the very beginning was to be nationalistic propaganda, which obviously carries into contemporary wuxia adaptations and new works today. (1/7)

(long ask, long response! conversation begun here; everything else under the cut)

but what makes the genre compelling to me is that wuxia offers so many glimpses into these potentially transformative visions of a radical future- wuxia presents a vision of a society in which communities have the autonomy to express themselves, support each other, and create their world through creative and collective activity. and all of this is facilitated by the the nebulous jianghu setting, which is this alternative space more or less free from the grip of the imperial state, (2/7)

which it unintentionally ends up being just by virtue of existing far from the imperial core. and obviously class hierarchies imposed by wealth and power still exist within the jianghu, but like, that autonomous nature of the jianghu is something I'd be curious to see be developed and pushed further. what would it look like within a wuxia narrative to explore the idea of an intentionally and explicitly anti-imperial, stateless, classless jianghu, and what would it take to get there? (3/7)

that vision of an alternate autonomous society is built upon these very rigid worldviews that don't challenge the audience (i.e. nationalism, pale-skinned conventional beauty standards, xenophobia, the idea of disability as something to be overcome, etc) that were baked into the inception of the genre, and which undermine said radical potential. and i guess that's my gripe with danmei too. (4/7)

i feel similarly about people who treat the consumption of danmei as an inherently progressive political act as I do to the way I feel about neoliberalism: it presents a facade of progressivism without actually meaningfully existing in opposition to oppressive structures. and, like you mentioned, both danmei and wuxia have yet to hit that moment of reckoning. i'm aware the direction these things go are massively shaped by geo-sociopolitical forces outside of the creators' control, etc. (5/7)

but so many people benefit from access to the imperial core in ways they aren't or don't care to be aware of. and to me, that is what makes art so important - it has the potential to not only expose the monstrous ways in which a society derives its power, it also has the hopeful ability to imagine transformative, non-oppressive futures. (6/7)

you're right that the cultural shift that would spark a post-colonial reckoning in Chinese literature and art needs to be spearheaded by Chinese creatives themselves. as an invested bystander, I'm curious to see where this goes. sorry this was so long, but thank you for your time! (7/7)

hello again anon!! glad you enjoyed looking through Teo and found his writing insightful! I think in many ways the conversations we’re trying to have about danmei, wuxia, internet literature, and some nebulous postcolonial reckoning are somewhat ahead of the curve, which is why we’re here being like “I want to read something like this!” only to find that said work hasn’t necessarily been created yet (again, if anyone’s got any leads, I’m all ears)

I do also think it’s worthwhile to note that a significant factor in why danmei and/or internet literature may not be as daring and subversive as we wish it were is the simple, starkly pragmatic fact that these works need to sell. they need to be attractive and fun, gripping and engrossing, to even make it in the cutthroat environment of the various literature cities. the competition is vicious and the readership unforgiving; last year saw at least one WeChat article about the intense pressure of being a webnovelist, and how the soul-crushing pressure of trying to break into the rankings has pushed authors towards suicide. with the popularization of the genre comes increased competition, and with increased competition comes a streamlining of new works towards established precedents of success (the proliferation of wuxia/xianxia/xuanhuan, particular distinctive CP dynamics, etc). 内卷 is here in the danmei genre as well, which makes it difficult to innovate or experiment, particularly if you’re not already an established author

it’s the Hollywood argument for keeping people of color out of leading roles; writing a text that tackles certain social issues (particularly ones that challenge current mores of Chinese society) is a risk, and quite frankly, most authors don’t have the time or the luxury to gamble. this is not to say that current authors aren’t leveraging their established readership and fanbase to write away from popular taste (priest’s 《桥头楼上》 comes to mind, which is a formal departure from her previous works and a trenchant examination of certain social issues), but that the current environment in which creative works are produced aren’t quite favorable to that kind of exploration and subversion — yet

another thing to keep in mind is the role that danmei (and other web literature) plays in the lives of its readers; yes, art has such powerful potential to call upon society to reflect on the injustices and cruelties built into it, but also art — and danmei in particular — is a powerful purveyor of escapism. many Chinese readers and consumers of danmei and related products/adaptations find a haven in these texts, and people seeking comfort are not necessarily prepared for critically examining social injustices in their escapism. again, I’m not trying to say that there is no place for subversion and exploration in danmei literature, but rather highlight the way reader preferences and demands might discourage writers from going too far afield

meanwhile, if I may be presumptuous enough to throw more reading in the air, here are some texts that this conversation is bringing to mind:

The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang (forthcoming): a genderspun reception of Shi Nai’an’s 《水浒传》, often considered to be the forerunner of the wuxia genre. Guaranteed to get in the weeds and messy about gender, power, imperial centers of power, marginalized marshlands of subversiveness just by the literal concept of its writing

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan: the closest work I know of to a fiercely diasporic genderqueered cdrama, in which Han centrism is examined and found wanting

《无污染，无公害》 by priest: priest is not necessarily the author I would suggest when it comes to, ah, postcolonial thought, but I just finished reading 《无污染，无公害》 last month and was struck by its profoundly cynical deconstruction of the wuxia genre. priest brings wuxia into the modern day and examines the many ways in which the 快意恩仇 fantasy of jianghu morality and subversiveness clashes with contemporary ethics and laws. beyond that, I think reading an author’s non-danmei works is profoundly enlightening critical and theoretical exercise that definitely re-contextualizes assumptions made about the danmei genre and its writers

“Zhang Yimou’s Hero: Reclaiming the Martial Arts Film for ‘All Under Heaven’” by Feng Lan: this was the first paper I ran into that really got into the weeds of the controversial “天下” at the end of the film, and also introduced me to the recent history and discussions of “tianxiaism,” which is particularly interesting when it comes to discussions about nationalism, imperialism, and postcolonialism in contemporary China in general and the wuxia genre in particular

“Homosexualizing Boys Love in China: Reflexivity, Genre Transformation, and Cultural Interaction” by Xi Tian: I know I’ve gushed about this paper elsewhere, but this is only paper I’ve found so far that examines how the danmei genre has shifted and changed over the past few decades in response to reader feedback, shifting societal opinions, and self-reflection, and it’s fascinating

whew, okay, this is long enough! one last thing, from one invested bystander to another: don’t let anything stop you from creating the content you wish to see in the world <3

[ae-neon]

Actually not done ranting

Hot/D writers let RayRay look bad challenge

And I'm not even saying that as a diss. The whole point of Dani's story is that she's nothing like her ancestors.

Rhae is allowed to be not just flawed, not just downright racist in a certain case, but also actively harming others in order to get what she wants. but nooo, she can't kill her gay husband, she's a modern ally, speak Valentina.

Let her do things, let her take action not for the greater good or for prophecy or for feminism™ but because she feels entitled to it, because she wants to be queen

It's not feminist writing to rob all the female characters of their personality, active agency and make them solely reactive to men, whom the show keeps hinting at as almost genetically predisposed to war??? What is this, A Court of Fire and Blood?

And let the green goblins be nice to each other? How are you reconciling the ironclad faith Edmond and Begone had in each other last episode to the clear tension and animosity in this one?? Where is the third boy (which one, you might ask since on screen both generations are missing a whole fucking person)

Removing Helen's influence over her husband and cutting out that they only began sleeping in different beds post son beheading undermines their relationship and the reason a fuck up who never wanted to be king was scared into taking his sister's throne

Let the contenders for the throne be at the centre of the story? And stop acting like the audience is supposed to have read the books? Children are appearing and disappearing and I'm supposed to know or care about who the fuck they are 😭

I literally have never liked Demon but why make him killing his wife, saying the heir for a day and a son for a son unambiguous but then never showing him grieving with his daughters and acting like I'm supposed to see him as morally grey bad boi™ just cause he's played by your favourite actor

I told my brother the casting was intentionally manipulative with such a beloved actor but I never gave af, I'm so sorry

No hate to the actor, clearly it works as compelling or tempting or unconscious bias for some ppl

And apparently removing the canon black character ?? But it's okay because of you casted a whole other bunch of blood supremacists as black with no real regard to how their character writing plays into racial stereotypes: great stuff 👍 thank you so much for the representation as *checks notes*

a temp love interest whose romance and life gets reduced then glossed over and whose funeral brings together the real incest it couple,

dead beat DL father who fakes his death to run away from his family

Two supposedly main characters who get little to no lines and character development

Terrible wigs

And a cheating husband

(that being said, eve best and steve toussaint 🙏💚 love y'all) we were also robbed of black hair with the rogue white streak for Rains Barathea Tangent 💔

And because we kept time jumping in S1 with only a focus on like 7 ppl, the world felt so empty. Some of those time jumps could have been used to hint at the current wider world.

You have the source material, don't just fanfic at us, adapt it

How the fuck are you being out done by David and Duncan, Rian???

you know which 57 other ppl are gonna become relevant later on, why not give us more glimpses at the brocken and blackweed rivalry than that one scene where riverlanders went to stormy end for no reason??

Why not show us the Stork dude with his brother so later we click that him giving Jason the bad news about Lucas is double hard because he also lost a brother??

Why not show us Cory's kids working on his ships?? Where was Leanne's relationship with RayRay??? We didn't need to see the adult cast of Rhae and Alice's kids until the second season.

We needed more politics, more worldbuilding, a sense of consequence and reality. Chris can just kill a knight and a lord? Demon can just kill a lady and a lord? IN THE THRONE ROOM? IN FRONT OF OTHER non royal NOBLES? And no one is worried about that, there's no fallout of mistrust, no fear of vulnerability?

Ray can just have three brown haired kids and only Alice will be shown to be bothered?? Are we forgetting Jeffery having Lancaster blond hair literally triggered several succession wars and launched S1 of Game of Chairs??

Where is the politics, why wasn't she shown taking note of the rumours and in turn maturing to realise she must appease and befriend or at least gain the favour of those around her?

Give us more depth on how valyrian culture clashes with westerosi culture with a focus on gender and incest and how it's already made them extremely unpopular with the Faith so tiktok fans can understand putting a woman with bastard heirs on the throne is actually a kinda big deal for a lot of people who don't have white hair and uncle-brother-husbands

Like I'm not asking for a lot but you have access to one of the biggest IPs out, you have Grim who would rather work on anything but his next book in the main series, you have HBeeO bent over, come ooooon

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Do you think there's a connection between the 80s and 90s comics mostly only mentioning him offhand without actual appearances and modern comics like Twojar or One Bad Day making him more violent and increasingly taking away his gimmick ? Because I feel like it's two different approaches to the same idea of wanting to have a villain whose thing is being 'smart' on hold in case they want a story where Batman shows off his mental capabilities but not wanting to deal with everything else that comes with the character like the goofyness or having to come up with riddles that don't suck

oh man okay this is such an interesting question and I'm so excited to be able to revisit it when my reread gets into the 2000s and have more perspective to offer

for the time being I do think that it's fair to say that making the Riddler a central antagonist in a story is challenging because he has, like, a relatively narrow gimmick compared to a lot of other rogues and having to actually come up with riddles is a tall order that a lot of writers simply don't want to fuck with.

personally I think the best way to embrace this is to just acknowledge that the riddles are going to be balls to the wall stupid and let the audience understand that Batman is equally unhinged for being able to solve them at all. Batman '66 is frankly great at this, best exemplified in this scene from the movie that no other Batman adaptation has topped yet:

what are any of you talking about! you sound crazy! they are right though, and that's what living in Gotham does to a motherfucker.

for the record I think Batman Forever also actually does this really well without being quite as unhinged. the riddles are actually pretty solid and straightforward; Bruce solves them easily but the real challenge is in putting them together at the end to figure out who's actually behind everything. (it's Jim Carrey, serving cunt.) it's maybe the only part of the movie that actually shows any restraint at all, and I respect that.

the thing is that this approach kind of falls apart if you want to do a more grounded take on Batman that presents the Riddler as the legitimate threat despite being a man who on purpose calls himself the Riddler. I dog on Batman 2022 a lot but at least there you can (charitably) read Paul Dano's shitty little puzzles as being intentionally messy owing to the fact that his Riddler is, you know, a sopping wet miserable catholic redditor who's really just trying to kiss Batman. I do genuinely like that his master plan is incoherent enough that Bruce doesn't crack all of it and misses vital pieces, it's a nice spin on an inexperienced Batman + the complexity addiction that Riddler schemes are so known for.

and like, to be clear, I do still think that Riddler sucks, but other attempts to make him a serious antagonist are so much worse. you mentioned War of Jokes and Riddles and One Bad Day, the latter of which I do think is just. appallingly misguided on literally every imaginable front and betrays an embarrassing lack of understanding of what people actually like and find entertaining about the character in favor of scrubbing him down to a bog standard Hannibal Lecter-flavored evil genius serial killer manipulator.

which is a fine stock character, where would comic books be without easily recognizable bad guy archetypes, etc, but god, not the Riddler. where the fuck is the fun in that? he's just a silly little guy in a leotard. please, stop trying to make this guy scary.

for god's sake. he's just a baby.

anyway I get why it happens though and it's Marketing, and I think specifically the very online and instantaneous nature of fandom in the 21st century. detective comics comics needs people reading their comics and, maybe even more importantly, talking about their comics, and that means leaning really heavily on well-established characters the people give a shit about. most readers are going to be more interested, even passively, in the Riddler than Random Smart Guy Murderer #623, because he's been around for a long time and he's a very ingrained part of the lore.

but everything has to be a fucking event with high stakes now, again because attention is currency, so it can never just be, like, "oh no, the Riddler has Batman trapped in a giant hamster maze," it's the Riddler and the Joker beefing and also the Riddler murdering Kite-Man's son for ??? reasons ??? idk man look how fucked up he is! this guy's serious! he has a question mark scar on his chest! please take him seriously!

and also, back to the first point, it's frankly just easier to write a generic egomaniac smart guy than it is to come up with riddles that are even a little bit good or interesting enough to carry an entire plot. I bet Tom King really thought he was doing something when he settled down to write One Bad Day and decided that the riddles were actually just a fucking power inhibitor the Riddler was putting in place to stop his massive brainmeat from killing everybody he came in contact with, but I think it's actually the sign of Tom King being a lil punk bitch, actually. just admit you don't have the sauce to come up with a riddle and pass the gig onto someone else!

anyway this is why most of my favorite Riddler appearances have him in a supporting role rather than serving as a primary antagonist (think Batman: Unburied, King Tut's Tomb, the Long Halloween/Dark Victory/When In Rome triptych), and his best antagonist appearances have him working with WAY lower stakes that's mostly just trying to get Bruce to pay attention to him (Vol. 2 of the Batman Adventures and Strange Love Adventures 2022).

tl;dr stop trying to make me take this man seriously

[seouldramaspot]

The Atypical Family – A Touching Tale of Superpowers and Human Struggles

"The Atypical Family" (Korean: 히어로는 아닙니다만) is a 2024 South Korean television series that blends the fantastical allure of superpowers with the poignant realities of everyday life. Starring Jang Ki-yong, Chun Woo-hee, Go Doo-shim, and Claudia Kim, this JTBC drama aired from May 4 to June 9, 2024, capturing the hearts of viewers every Saturday and Sunday evening. Additionally, it is available for streaming on Netflix in selected regions, making it accessible to a global audience.

The series revolves around Bok Gwi-ju and his family, who once possessed unique superpowers. However, due to chronic diseases and the pressures of modern life, they find themselves losing these abilities. The narrative takes a turn when their lives intersect with Do Da-hae, a mysterious woman with a keen interest in their family.

Main Characters

Bok Gwi-ju (Jang Ki-yong): Gwi-ju can travel back in time to revisit happy memories. Unfortunately, after his wife's death, he loses this ability as he grapples with depression and can no longer find joy in his past.

Do Da-hae (Chun Woo-hee): A mysterious figure whose fascination with Gwi-ju and his family brings new dynamics into their lives.

Bok Man-heum (Go Doo-shim): Gwi-ju's mother, whose insomnia prevents her from using her "precognitive dreaming" superpower.

Bok Dong-hee (Claudia Kim): Gwi-ju's older sister, who once had the ability to fly but lost it due to struggles with obesity.

Supporting Characters

Bok In-a (Park So-yi): Gwi-ju's daughter, a thirteen-year-old girl isolated from her family and classmates.

Eom Soon-gu (Oh Man-seok): Gwi-ju's father and the only family member without any superpowers.

Baek Il-hong (Kim Geum-sun): Da-hae's mother.

Grace (Ryu Abel): Da-hae's younger sister.

Noh Hyung-tae (Choi Gwang-rok): Da-hae's uncle

At its core, "The Atypical Family" is a poignant exploration of loss, identity, and resilience. The superpowers in the series symbolize personal strengths and coping mechanisms that the characters gradually lose due to life’s adversities. Gwi-ju’s battle with depression and his quest to rediscover happiness is a narrative that resonates deeply with many viewers, reflecting real-world struggles with mental health.

The series also tackles issues such as body image, family dynamics, and the sense of isolation felt by those who are different. Each character’s journey is a testament to the human spirit’s capacity to adapt and find new sources of strength and joy.

"The Atypical Family" enjoyed impressive viewership ratings, averaging 3.778% nationwide and 4.418% in Seoul. It consistently topped viewership charts, underscoring its popularity and the emotional connection it forged with its audience. These ratings reflect the show’s ability to attract and retain a dedicated following despite being broadcast on a cable channel, which typically garners smaller audiences compared to public broadcasters.

The original soundtrack of "The Atypical Family" significantly enhances its emotional impact. With beautifully composed pieces by artists such as So Soo-bin, Lee So-ra, and Yi Sung-yol, the music resonates deeply with the series' themes. The OST includes:

Part 1: "Walking with You" by So Soo-bin

Part 2: "I See You" by Lee So-ra

Part 3: "Laputa" by Yi Sung-yol

Each track captures the essence of the characters' journeys and the show's emotional beats, making the viewing experience even more immersive.

"The Atypical Family" is a standout series that deftly blends the fantastical with the deeply personal. It offers a unique perspective on the superhero genre, focusing not on epic battles but on the intimate struggles of a family facing extraordinary challenges. The series' compelling performances, intricate character development, and heartfelt storytelling make it a must-watch.

For fans of Korean dramas and those new to the genre, "The Atypical Family" is an unforgettable journey into the complexities of human emotion and resilience. Be sure to catch it on JTBC or stream it on Netflix to experience this remarkable tale.

Honest Comment: At first I didn't know the other actors I only knew the male lead, at first I was confuse of the story like how it happens I will not spoil but it is Fantasy about super power but it is different. Its only 12 episode but it is worth the watch I like the plot the tense and how the story goes. I recommend this series It is worth it.

[cashthecomposer]

could i hear about your musical :O im really interested in the story it's based on

Yes!!! I saw your post expressing love for historical shows, so I'll explain a little about the historical accuracy:

The story is focused on the summer of 1816, at the Villa Diodati, when Lord Byron challenged several of his contemporaries to compose their own ghost stories, culminating in Mary Shelley creating Frankenstein.

In terms of historical accuracy, it's not 100% exactly what happened that summer. For starters, I condensed the events of three months into three days, performed over two hours. I also take a fair number of liberties for dramatic purpose- as an example, instead of Polidori merely suggesting his jealousy and Byron sticking up for Percy, an actual duel occurs. Because who doesn't want a swordfight?

That being said, there's a number of aspects of the show that I've had to fight for that are accurate. One big one is Mary's identity as a mother- at the start of the show, she has a six month old son, and he is a huge part of her Identity, and an even bigger source of internal and external conflict for her, not least because the boy was named after her estranged father! And while I don't outright state it, there are multiple references to her past miscarriages and deceased daughter (the reason I don't outright state it is because someone close to me would be very triggered by that, and this is already a show that covers enough heavy topics!). Far too many adaptations treat her as this modern gothic feminist icon, and feel they must erase her motherhood rather than embracing it, something she and her own mother would have hated to see. Also, I want breastfeeding to happen onstage, as that was incredibly important to both of the Shelleys, and I'm all about #freethenipple.

The show also is very blatant about Byron's predatory actions, not just towards Claire Clairmont, but Percy and Polidori as well. A lot of people- and adaptations of this story, by extension- sugar coat the fact that he was a fucking creep. I don't, I lean into it. The guy I cast in the role is affable, genuine, and really makes you feel conflicted about Byron being such an ass.

Perhaps the most important thing to me is the title, and its source: Fantasmagoriana, a collection of ghost stories which inspired Byron's challenge. Many adaptations don't give this collection the weight it deserves, so I devote almost an entire scene to two stories Mary Shelley identified as major sources of inspiration for Frankenstein. This was an uphill battle, and took an embarrassing number of tries to get right.

The thing that Tumblr audiences will care about the most is probably the exploration of sexuality and relationships. I never use modern terminology to quantify any of the relationships, save for Percy and Mary who refer to one another as fiancee. The mutual attraction between Percy and Byron is shown explicitly with at minimum a blowjob on a boat in the middle of act 2. And, given the spirit of free love, when Percy tries to tell Mary about his indiscretion, she brushes it aside- while it does hurt, and that's something her sister would later admonish both men for, her love for Percy and her thankfulness that he survived nearly drowning greatly outweighs any upset she may have had. I also heavily lean into the unrequited adoration of Polidori to Byron, and include the moment when the illusion is shattered for John. As an aside, I have him kill himself right then and there (he drinks the poison and leaves the stage), rather than waiting until he gets home, for the ~drama~.

In short (too late), it's not perfectly accurate, it can't be. But it does cover many parts of the story others have chosen to neglect or even erase, definitely showing my biases.

One last note- the instrumentation for the accompaniment has two iterations, one for solo piano, one for string orchestra. I am adamant about keeping the music mostly historically accurate. It's not perfect because I love Shostakovich and Sondheim too much not to use them for some inspiration. I take most of my cues from Liszt for the piano, and Beethoven for the orchestra, early romantic style with big, heavy orchestration, lots of fun key changes, repetition that explores the limits of the instruments.

One thing that really bothers me about historical musicals is when the characters say or sing things that are straight up anachronistic, so that never happens in my show (even the innuendo are thoroughly researched, to be historically accurate!), until the very end, when it's appropriate- when Mary invents the genre of science fiction, which is all about anachronisms! :D

The research phase of this show took me eight years. I read everything Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont, John Polidori, and Lord Byron ever penned, including their correspondences. Please trust me when I say that the liberties I take are in pursuit of loyalty to their spirit... literally.

If you want to learn more about my show, please feel free to ask any questions, and check out my Patreon- you can do the free trial option to get access to all previously posted materials, and the lowest level patronage that'll give you regular updates on the show is just $1 a month! It goes to support me as I bring this show to the stage, in my journey of being transparent about the production process. :)

[thedeepseahotel]

Interview with director Tian Xiaopeng on Deep Sea

Copied and pasted from this page⬆️

“Below you will find a summary of the live interviews conducted by "Deep Sea" director Tian Xiaopeng from January 26th to 30th in China. The translation is partly from Deepl and ChatGPT and has been summarized and adapted by me (an ordinary Chinese woman who lives and works in Berlin and loves this film). If you have any further questions about this film, please feel free to contact me (fantastictori113c@org). Thank you for taking the time to understand and love this film.”

(MAJOR SPOILERS)

About movie creation

How did you come up with the idea of the deep-sea theme?

1 like ocean-themed works. When I direct, I have many methodologies. For example, I will invert what I like to find the expression that resonates with me the most. At the beginning, I didn't want to make a mythology-themed work. I wanted to make something that is closest to modern people's hearts.

On the speed of the work

To be honest, we spent seven years making this film, and we took a lot of detours. For example, we initially thought creating original content would be straightforward. We believed that creating something original would only take about three or four years since we had experience from "Monkey King." However, we discovered that making even small breakthroughs takes a lot of time and effort.

What the audience sees may not have any fundamentally new changes, but the whole process was very long for us. I think this accumulation will be useful for our next work, and it may be much better.

On the screenwriting team

It may be because we were overly focused on solving problems during the scriptwriting process, such as the logic between dreams and reality. We spent a lot of time on this, and it was really exhausting. That's why we didn't have the energy to polish these paragraphs and make them look better and more interesting. It's a regret.

I think your approach is right. We have a good screenwriting team, and we are continuously growing. It may be easier for us in the future to solve many problems in this area.

On recouping costs and the next work

I am really ashamed and sorry for everyone because we didn't make something that I'm particularly satisfied with and that everyone felt was worth it. Looking back, I realize that this has awakened me. If it happened a little earlier, I might have made some compromises for this film.

The cost is quite high, and I cannot reveal the exact number. It's still far from the goal, to be honest. But for my next work, I may not be as stubborn as before. This film has given me some answers or validations that I wanted. It also gave me a new experience. If possible, I will create something that satisfies the investors, family, colleagues, friends, and the audience, and that earns money. Films are products that need to be shown in cinemas, so we must respect the audience. Sometimes we may be overly self-centered, thinking that what we create is groundbreaking or experimental, but the audience may not accept it. In reality, we cannot be too self-centered, and we need to consider what the audience can accept. We played too much with this one, but we gained some important experience.

Why did this movie cost so much money?

One of the reasons is that I may have been too obsessed with details during the scriptwriting and production process. For example, there were revolutionary modifications during the scriptwriting process, and I would get stuck in the details during the production process and feel like something wasn't good enough.

There were too many problems like this, and the whole process took seven years. There were a lot of things to develop, and since the foundation was relatively weak, the original story of "Journey to the West" was not entirely applicable. I had ambitious goals to challenge the existing foundation of Chinese animation by creating a story with good visuals that could be viewed in its entirety.

However, this ambition may have been too great, and during the process of challenging myself, I found that many things needed to be done from scratch. For example, it took over two years to make the opening credits, and the experimentation process had already exhausted all of the initial investment. When the final result came out, I was shocked to realize how much money we would have to spend to achieve the desired outcome and when we would be able to complete it. The final product had to make many compromises, but I was too obsessed with my own mistakes and persevered, making the situation uncontrollable and wasting the youth of many talented people who followed me

• Summary of experience regarding production duration

Why did it take us seven years this time? One reason is that the available resources from my previous experience in the deep sea were too few, and exploring the deep sea was another direction that I wanted to explore. Another reason is that when our team was established in October, we didn't plan to become a production company. If we had planned to make a perfect industrial system and process after completing

"Journey to the West," it might have been faster, but at the time, we were thinking that many good teams and companies in China were doing the same thing, and we would just give up.

So, in fact, we took many detours in terms of construction, not the construction itself but the strategic direction of our construction. When you want to do something, you realize that the strategic direction of your company is problematic, and so it may take longer.

For example, if you are an architectural firm and you didn't plan to become an architectural firm at first, you just wanted to be a design firm. When you want to build a tall building, you realize that you need to be an architectural firm, and it's not the same thing. Therefore, the foundation of the building takes a very long time to construct. When your strategic direction is clear, and you know what you need to do, all of your construction serves that purpose, and things can go faster once you have a clear vision.

About the commercial viability of works

My view is that even if you compromise for commercial purposes, you may not get commercial success. So, I still need to pass my own inner test when making a work.

I have to like the way it expresses, and the emotional type must move me to make it.

The so-called commercial compromise is not about these things; it is more about listening to some opinions that should be more open and controlling experimental things that are too unique to oneself. In addition, because I come from an animation background, I have some convictions about animation itself, and all animators have convictions about whether a movement or image is good-looking and whether the details are in place. From a movie perspective, this may not matter.

Regarding borrowing from Japanese anime

As a die-hard fan of Hayao Miyazaki, I really appreciate the world-building in his works. For example, the inspiration for the Deep Sea Dragon Palace in "Pony on the Cliff by the Sea" actually came from a science fiction film I was working on seven years ago. I wanted to create a futuristic and sci-fi-inspired ship, but as the story evolved, it became a more modern tale. During the process of changing the plot, the design of the ship underwent many iterations.

The final version was inspired by a desire to find something modern and biologically-inspired, like a whale covered in coral and vegetation, with a small island- like structure on top. These were all modern elements I wanted to incorporate, rather than making it feel like something from a different time period. There were also versions that were influenced by steampunk and the Republic of China.

Miyazaki is a master of his craft, and his influence is pervasive. No matter how I tried to design the Deep Sea Dragon Palace, I couldn't escape his shadow. It ended up looking somewhat like the moving castle in "Howl's Moving Castle." This wasn't intentional, but rather a result of his influence. When I tried to create a simple island, it felt stiff and lifeless. I wanted it to have a sense of movement, like it was alive and affected by ocean currents. Unconsciously, I ended up with something that looked like a castle. That's just the kind of impact Miyazaki has had on our generation, and it's hard to escape his influence when designing something new.

Only a true genius can break free from the shadow of those who came before them.

Differences between Chinese and Japanese Animation

We both really enjoy watching Japanese animation. But to be honest, there is still a cultural difference between Us. Our advantage is our own cultural strengths. When we tell our own stories, it will resonate more with our audience. It's also a matter of viewing habits. For example, in the animation powerhouse, even older people have the habit of watching animation. However, we are still in the process of cultivating this. In addition to cultural advantages, I think our advantage lies in our strong sense of creativity and diligence. This is just my own perspective, but having visited some Japanese animation companies, I think their heyday is over and many companies are quite conservative. On the other hand, I feel that China is thriving, and everyone is trying to figure out how to revitalize ourselves and do more. I think this momentum is good, although there may be some issues in the middle, and it may take time to cultivate the market. But from my personal perspective, you can rest assured that we still have a high level of creativity, positivity, and effort. We have not yet fallen into a conservative environment where we can just sit back and relax. We are still very active and creative.

About Van Gogh and Stephen Chow

The issue of Van Gogh and Stephen Chow is similar to that of Miyazaki. Over the years, we have all been influenced by many masters in the creative process, so it's difficult to avoid having their shadows on us. When you're looking for a context, these things don't just come out of thin air. When you're creating something very different from humans, even if you haven't directly referenced it, you definitely have a basic, long-lasting impression in your mind, and then you naturally use it to transform.

About particle ink technology

I'm not a specific special effects or production person, of course, I'm very welcome to have the opportunity to come to our office to introduce our special effects artists. Then we can do some specific technical exchanges. I only understand this thing from a very shallow level. Because particle ink is not a particularly magical or profound technology in the entire production process. It is more about how to use this method to get closer to the effect we want within the limited resource conditions in the application field. Therefore, the more difficult part of the research and development was the experimental process, what kind of density and particle shape of the particle can outline the entire two-dimensional freehand edge we hope for. We did a lot of experiments in this area.

Have you noticed our posters? The poster is very explanatory. The ones we posted all have a particle sense. At first, the traditional method was to use a two-dimensional painting or a three-dimensional rendering.

However, in order to pursue the particle ink stvle of the deep sea, we added some particles to each poster.

These particles are a lot of small sand grains, and it is not just about covering the entire poster. It actually needs to present a thickness, like an oil painting. When you light it up, you will find that a painting has a thickness, and it accumulates at the edge, which can produce a different change in light and shadow. I think this is also very interesting. We have done a lot of work on this in terms of synthesis, rendering, and processing during overlaying, and I think these experiences are more valuable.

There is no other way, and we have not yet found a better method. Therefore, I believe that for the team's value, the value of an animated film is not just limited to telling a good story. There are indeed some technical developments, and these technologies will definitely be used in other films. Of course, it must be suitable. Even if it is a mythological theme, because our understanding of mythology comes from that kind of freehand, such as

"Journey to the West." and many freehand landscape paintings. I think it can be used. If we simplify the process and lower the cost, many films can use this stylized form.

On the topic of deep-sea innovation

I think one of the bigger ones, which cannot be called from scratch, is the problem of the barrier between 2D and 3D, which I am quite proud of. Another point is sound design, because sound design and the previously mentioned Dolby Pure Black, I particularly want to break the barrier that people experience when watching movies, because why do we watch in the cinema?

Because we see this thing, it is a truly comprehensive experience. It's not that I see a mobile phone screen now, and a good story or plot will attract me. It is actually influenced by such an environmental experience. So when designing it, I think it is more focused on this aspect.

On the topic of breakthroughs in the future of

Chinese animation

Attempts to break through with particle ink or future experiences, I think this kind of feeling of watching movies is my personal interest or point of concern. The future should still be focused on more extensive themes and stories and more expressions. I think that is when real breakthroughs will occur. As you know, animation giants like the United States and Japan have a habit of watching animations, and there are actually more extensive themes, experimental things, and a lot of commercial things. I think the animations that can be seen in China today are still very limited. If we really want to break through in the future, it still depends on more extensive themes and more tolerance.

How to develop original animation

Chinese animation has had its glorious moments as well as low points, and we, this generation, need to prepare and accumulate a lot for this matter. I believe that we should not cater to what the market welcomes now. We must do something that cannot be predicted, which is not conducive to the basic construction of the industry. I think we should boldly explore and try different boundaries, perhaps it will take a long time, maybe it will take a generation's time, but this barrier will eventually be broken. Because we cannot let the audience decide what they want to see, and we make what they want to see. I think this needs our guidance or slowly breaking it ourselves. Because Japan also spent many years before becoming an animation giant. It's not just a few works that cater to the audience and make a certain theme. I think to break this barrier…

Sharing Industry Techniques

We are definitely open to sharing our techniques with other companies and teams in the industry. Our team has a spirit of sharing and collaboration, and any techniques or tools we develop are available for others to use. I believe that the development of Chinese animation should not be hindered by technical barriers, and we should focus on telling good stories and exploring interesting themes. We have also benefited from sharing techniques and tools developed by other teams in the industry, so I think it's important to maintain a sense of unity and collaboration within the Chinese animation community.

Sharing Techniques with Universities

I am happy to share our experience and techniques with universities and students, especially during times when I am not too busy with film projects. Our team of talented animators and technicians can visit universities and share their knowledge and experience with students. I believe that our practical experience in the industry can complement the theoretical and experimental work being done in universities, and help students to develop a better understanding of the industry.

Message to Animation Students

Stay committed to your choice of studying animation, as it has a bright future. Focus on your studies and do your best in your coursework. Leave the experimental and exploratory work to professionals in the industry, who can use that work to build a stronger foundation for the industry as a whole. I have many friends who are talented and capable teachers in animation schools, but they cannot be expected to teach and conduct experiments, while also considering the market and commercial aspects of the industry. It's important to recognize that everyone has their own roles to play, and professionals in the industry are responsible for exploring and developing new techniques and tools

On 3D Animation

The use of 3D animation is a personal choice, and I am generally tolerant of different styles and techniques.

However, I do worry that some audiences may view 3D animation as a gimmick or a way to increase ticket sales.

In our film, we use 3D animation to create a sense of depth and immersion, and to convey the dreamlike quality of the story. This was a deliberate choice based on both my personal preferences and the needs of the story.

On Music and Sound Design

Sound design and music are both crucial elements of a film, and I take them very seriously. I have worked closely with our sound and music team to ensure that the film has a strong audio component that complements the visuals. In my opinion, sound can account for 30%-50% of a film's impact on audiences.

Some of my favorite films are those with strong music and sound design, and I think it's important to give these elements the attention they deserve.

On the song "Goodbye Deep Sea" and the intentions behind the creation of the movie

Goodbye Deep Sea is a farewell song from the perspective of Nan He. When we were creating this scene, we knew that Nan He is not good with words in real life and he is more likely to influence others through his actions rather than through preaching. At first, we intended to make this scene about Nan He's self-redemption in relation to Shen Xiu, but we found that if he talked too much, it would sound like empty words and would not fit his character. So we thought, why not use a song to express his feelings? Songs can naturally convey one's emotions. That's why we chose this particular piece of music. It is a farewell not only to the entire movie but also to Nan He himself and his self-redemption in relation to the deep sea in his heart.

In other words, those things are all in the past now. Nan He is telling Shen Xiu that there is light waiting for her on the road ahead. Do you remember the part that goes "rain brings colorful currents, otters are waiting for your candy at the corner, passing clouds and millions of lights"? It's like saying, open your eyes and see the world. The main message is "forget me".

Perhaps as Chinese people, we tend to overinterpret this phrase, but what we really mean is that when our loved ones leave us, they would want us to live well and not to be overly concerned about them. They want us to forget about them and to live our own lives. In a sense, we're saying forget about me and let go of those things. Don't worry about me, I'll be with you somewhere, but that's enough. You don't need to worry about me too much.

And "goodbye means we won't see each other again" because that's the reality. Just like when Nan He shook his head and said to her, "even if we say goodbye, we won't really be saying goodbye. You have to go on and live your own life.”

Screenwriting ideas

My script's logic is a bit too much to explain in its entirety. A few days ago, during a live stream, I mentioned the first time that Shen Xiu confronted her self-redemption consciousness and self-indulgence consciousness. When she first arrived on this ship, she went to chase the hijinx, but Nan He put the hijinx in a sputum bowl, actually wanting to throw it away like trash. The first time Shen Xiu confronted Nan He, during their first confrontation, he said "Dream demon," which is called "hijinx" in the show. We call it "dream demon" out of habit. This hijinx is the one who led me to find my mother. It didn't tell the truth. It didn't actually come to find my mother.

Then Nan He just kicked her out, so this behavior is actually the first logic of the script. She is using the hijinx as a reason to support herself, but actually, she came to the Deep Sea Hotel to stay here, to see Nan He, and to see the good person who saved her and made her feel very guilty. She just wants to stay in this beautiful and safe world that belongs to her with Nan He.

So when Nan He kicked her out for the second time, what does Nan He represent? First of all, I often say that he represents Shen Xiu' self-redemption consciousness, and secondly, from the perspective of a psychiatrist, he is a bit like an inept psychiatrist, using this method to treat Shen Xiu. Because if everyone imagines what her current state is, she is now in a dream, maybe she has been in a coma for three months in the hospital, what is her state? Either she is immersed in the deep sea world and will never wake up, in fact, she has already died, just like Nan He, who will always stay in this ghost world.

Another possibility is that if she doesn't die, she may be wrapped up in the red qi of the Red Phantom, and what will be the result of being wrapped up?

It is as if she has become a vegetable, she won't die, but she has trapped herself in a state of being neither alive nor dead. Another possibility is that she confronts her own problems and walks out of the Eye of the Deep. She goes into the ultimate answer, to face her own problems, and that's when she comes out. So the first time that Nan He, the incompetent psychiatrist, performs poorly is when he throws out Shen Xiu, using such a crude method as if to say, "Don't face this problem, this is a disease, I'll throw you out." So he threw her out for the first time using such a crude method, which can be seen as a small prelude.

Shen Xiu wants to stay here, she doesn't want to leave.

There is a scene where Nan He is in a colorful coral grove, pondering what to do. If I can't use this strong medicine to get her out, and once she's out, if I use this method, she'll trap herself and become a vegetable, what should I do? So Nan He, the psychiatrist, grows up, and the logic of his play is that he uses a method called procrastination or compromise, or a delaying tactic.

Alright, I'II make a deal with you. Since you can't be thrown out, then stay, but let's slowly see how things develop. But there is still a hidden crisis here, which is the 5-day deadline. In the plot, Shen Xiu is not aware of this, it's Nan He who says it, but we know it's Shen Xiu's dream. How could she not know? In other words, the 5-day countdown, she is very clear that they are both using this delaying tactic, not just Nan He's, but Shen Xiu's as well. I am living in a dream.

Do you have this experience in life, that if I dream of a special dream, such as something delicious to eat, or that I've become rich and have money in my hands, I am particularly afraid of waking up from the dream, but I set an alarm clock, I have to get up at 6:00 in the morning, and the alarm clock could go off at any time. I am particularly afraid of the ticking of the countdown, it will reach this moment, and I will grab the money. So the 5-day countdown is a bit like an alarm clock, my subconscious knows the time I have to grab the money is limited, and I will wake up sooner or later, but no matter what, I'II let myself indulge in this moment. I want to be with Nan He at this moment. It's like the song "Gala Beidaihe" and their game of passing notes. It seems like the calmest moment, as if nothing is happening. But that's precisely when the crisis is lurking, a countdown.

When the alarm clock doesn't ring, Shen Xiu is enjoying this moment. Why did she believe so easily in the deal Nan He told her? Because when we were writing the play, we were thinking, "Shen Xiu is so easily fooled.

Shouldn't she sneak into Nan He's room to look for a sea elf? Why didn't she? Because her heart was completely immersed in the moment."

Why did I say this was a happy moment? Because the alarm clock hadn't gone off yet, but it was indeed a happy moment. At this point, Shen Xiu had almost forgotten about the sea spirit (hijinx) and had hidden it in the room in Nan He. Shen Xiu could do anything at this moment, just don't touch this truth, even Shen Xiu didn't want to fly out of the sea spirit. Because that excuse, after all, it was an excuse, not something that Shen Xiu wanted to pursue, so she was hiding this excuse. It wasn't Nan He who was hiding it, it was Shen Xiu herself hiding it.

Then something happened later, more dangerous than a crisis, but as I said before, when watching this movie, its expression is reversed, although it is a crisis, but in the form of expression, it is the happiest moment, which is Shen Xiu's first sincere laugh in the whole movie when Nan He tells a cold joke to her. There is a piece of background music that you may have heard before. After Nan He talks about the Samoyed, which is actually a cold joke, Shen Xiu laughs because of Nan He's state, not because of the joke itself, so Shen Xiu laughs sincerely for the first time. But that moment is actually the biggest source of crisis, why? As | mentioned earlier, every time Shen Xiu realizes that this is a beautiful dream, realizes that Nan He is a good person, not a fierce face, he is a good person, he is coaxing her to be happy, it makes Shen Xiu think of the cruel reality, that this good person who tells her jokes to make her happy, to live on, is dead.

So that moment is both a sincere laugh and a genuine outbreak.

So what happens next is that in the play, the nightmare sea sprite appears, which Shen Xiu finds and lets go. So there is a question here, is the sea sprite released by Shen Xiu, is it found unconsciously, no, it is found consciously by Shen Xiu, because when Shen Xiu realizes that this dream is a beautiful dream, Shen Xiu has to activate that buff mechanism, Shen Xiu tells herself, be careful not to think this is a beautiful dream, you have to be aware that the sea sprite is your excuse, so at this point, she releases the sea sprite to tell herself, reminding herself that I am here for the sea sprite, not for Nan He, this good person. Did you notice that the sea sprite not only was released but also grew larger, which means that Shen Xiu is using this larger excuse, and this knot in her heart is also growing.

Shen Xiu tells herself, I don't want this kind of happiness, I don't want this kind of fear, so every action of Shen Xiu, no one understands her behavior, why she wants to release the sea sprite, then you have to consider the logic of the dream, which is Shen Xiu activating a buff.

So when the whole sea spirit makes the ship so chaotic, it is actually a safe moment in Shen Xiu's heart. It's a big excuse for me when it's so big. This is a process of conflict, this dream is very painful for Shen Xiu, on the one hand, she has to weave this lie of a beautiful dream, and at the same time, she cannot trigger the wake-up mechanism of the dream, and she has to deal with the hijinx, so this is a very difficult dream for Shen Xiu to do. On the one hand, she has to weave this lie of a beautiful dream, and at the same time, she cannot trigger the wake-up mechanism of the dream, and she has to deal with the sea spirit, so this is a very difficult dream for Shen Xiu to do.

We all hope that she will wake up, but at the same time, we also feel that waking up is cruel to her. So we also hope that she can indulge in her dream. This is a debatable issue.

After she activated the nightmare mechanism, it was actually the indulgent consciousness of Shen Xiu that was at play. At this point, everyone knows that the song

"Beidaihe" by Gala is actually a balance between self-rescue consciousness and indulgent consciousness.

Everyone is anxious. It is because the incompetent psychiatrist does not know how to save Shen Xiu, and they are in a stalemate. At this time, Shen Xiu's indulgent consciousness prevailed and activated the sea spirit. So the things that happened later were that the incompetent psychiatrist's delaying tactic did not solve the problem. Therefore, Nan He and Shen Xiu had a conversation in the rain, which was actually the psychiatrist saying, "I won't play with you anymore, I won't use delaying tactics with you, I won't slowly reveal the truth to you." So when Nan He talked to Shen Xiu in the rain, did you all remember that he said, "Wake up, it's just a dream, it's just a nightmare"? When it was still called a nightmare, he would say more directly that

"Don't be silly, wake up, it's just a nightmare, everything you see is an illusion, it's fake." Actually, this sentence was not spoken by Nan He as a real person, but it was Shen Xiu's self-redemption consciousness telling herself, "Don't be silly, wake up, it's just a nightmare.

Everything is an illusion and fake. If your mother really wanted to find you, how could you not know? She must not want vou anymore and won't use this method." So when Nan He said this very touching sentence, on the surface, it seemed that Nan He, this hysterical person, was saying it unpleasantly, but in fact, it was Shen Xiu's self-redemption consciousness telling herself to wake up and not indulge anymore.

However, her own indulgent consciousness still held sway, insisting that "I know, I know, my mother loves me, and she's come to find me." Then the psychiatrist told her, "Okay, I can't go on like this with you. You can leave," and then completely abandoned Shen Xiu. "You can leave now, don't stay here." Because the psychiatrist gave up on the treatment, he said he didn't want to entangle with her anymore, and she could leave. Shen Xiu's state of coming to the island is to decide to leave this world and not indulge anymore. It was not that Nan He drove her away, but that she wanted to come out.

When she walked step by step towards the small island, I have also interpreted before why those women on the small island turned into the human mother and daughter at the end. It was because Shen Xiu was about to reach the boundary between reality and dreams. She was about to reach the exit, but at this time, Shen Xiu became scared. She thought, "What can I do when I go out? Do I have to face that gray reality? I can't face it." My mother is just an excuse. How can I face that illusion?

So after Shen Xiu squatted down, she activated the Red Funeral Ghost mechanism. In other words, when she initiated this mechanism, it was actually a dilemma. I couldn't go back to the world of indulgent dreams, nor could I return to reality, which was a gray reality corresponding to the health status of Shen Xiu. She couldn't die, nor could she come back to life and became a vegetable.

So the result of the gloomy ghost in the red hoodie wrapping her up is a dying intermediate state. Actually, this whole story is very similar to the intersection and entanglement of two parallel lines, one is indulgence and the other is self-help. Every time they intersect is what we see now, which is the intersection separating and reuniting, like a person's inner struggle and contradiction. Later, we will see that it is no longer an intersection and will be twisted together tightly. This is the way the drama was done. From afar, Nan He saw that the sky was cloudy, which represents Shen Xiu's self-redemption consciousness. When he saw that Shen Xiu was about to become a vegetable, the psychologist who had previously said harsh words to her and refused to treat her jumped out and said that intervention was necessary. This is from the interpretive level. From the story level, Nan He is a good person who always acts impulsively and cannot live a good life. Whenever he gets impulsive, he wants to be a hero. Shen Xiu knows that the good guy Nan He is coming back to the real world, even though he is a growing psychologist who is easy to get carried away.

When Nan He saved her by splitting the sea, he made a decision. After all, the child cannot be treated in such a rough way, because it is impossible to cure her, and she will become a vegetable if she does. Therefore, when Nan He saved her, Shen Xiu went to the rooftop to find him, and Nan He looked at the distant sky and became confused. From the story's perspective, this was Nan He's confusion, that is, how can I get rid of this burden? I am a person who is easily carried away. I cannot throw this child into a dangerous place, but I cannot take her to get rich or adventure either.

This is Nan He's confusion, but what about the psychologist's confusion from an interpretive standpoint? At that time, he was thinking about how to save this child and what psychological methods to use to rescue Shen Xiu from the delusion of this dream.

Therefore, the key to Nan He's confusion at that moment was the confusion of his self-redemption consciousness.

But he immediately thought of a solution. Okay, since I can't throw you away and can't leave you behind, then let's go to the Eye of the Deep Sea because that is where your problem lies. We will face our own problems and find the answers ourselves, and face our own nightmares. So, some people may not understand why he decided to go to the limit of the deep sea. On the surface, Nan He was using Shen Xiu to get rich, but in fact, his self-redemption consciousness was telling him that the only way out was to face Shen Xiu. Only in this way can it be resolved. At that moment, Shen Xiu did not believe in this, and you can notice the look of Shen Xiu.

Shen Xiu doesn't believe in this matter because she had already prepared for it when she came to the island during the rain. It's just that I didn't use nightmares as an excuse. But at this time, Nan He, that is, her self-redemption consciousness suddenly told her that when you need to face your own problems, she became afraid and said, "I don't want to go because I know what that means." So Shen Xiu started to avoid it.

I won't talk about the interpretation later. I believe that my logical method may be understood by everyone, and you can discuss it with this kind of thinking.

On the theme of creation I actually just want to tell such a story. Because I have faced many negative and dark things in real life, I want to tell it. I have truly felt despair before and wondered whether I should continue to make animation or create. Every time I give myself strength, I think about why I do animation? Why do I want to tell a story? There is always an answer, that is, I believe that I am doing this because maybe it seems meaningless, but I don't want to miss those little bright things in the world. Perhaps there is no great truth or significance to be expressed, but this is enough to support me. I am willing to look for these small points, so this may be a very important expression in my movie.

Regarding the lack of solutions in the film

The movie cannot solve it, far from it. It can only provide a way for everyone to understand or perhaps be slightly touched to face this problem. I think this problem is ubiquitous, not only for children from dysfunctional families like Shen Xiu but also for us adults. Because recently I have been troubled like Shen Xiu, and some people will come to encourage me, especially like Shen Xiu's father. Because everyone sees that I am in a bad state, are you worried about box office or the film's reputation? Everyone will encourage me to say that it's okay, as long as you smile, everything will be fine, but actually, at that moment, I felt very much like Shen Xiu's father. I don't want these things. I don't want such pale encouragement. So I feel that at that moment, inside and outside the play are really the same, that our world is full of such things, such misunderstandings, actually we need to face these practical problems. The real help for these children may be to awaken this kind of consciousness or method, and even more people are willing to pay attention to this issue. I think it can truly open up because we Chinese or Easterners are too introverted and sometimes unwilling to express ourselves. We always bury our psychological problems deep in our hearts to digest and solve them, unwilling to communicate, and others have no idea. But in fact, it will be magnified into a kind of harm. I think if it can awaken everyone's understanding of this issue a little bit, then I think it is valuable. Growing up is actually something that movies cannot do. How life will grow and how it will face is something we will encounter in the future.

On the expression of niche themes resonating with a minority of people

Initially, I didn't think of this issue as a problem of depression for a small group of people, but rather as a problem of depressive psychology or emotions. Perhaps 1 feel that this is widely present, but maybe people are unwilling to touch or come into contact with it. It's okay, even if it's empathy or a minority of people, I think it is still meaningful, and actually, I was greatly encouraged by this. I think there are still many people in the world who need this understanding and warmth. It's okay, even if it's like what many people say, it's a niche, it is still meaningful.

Picture book story

The final scene is from the perspective of the picture book, because we didn't want to reveal specific information to the audience at the beginning, it just flashed by. But in reality, the time when Shen Xiu really looked at a few pages of this picture book may have happened. There is also a small detail here. Why did Nan He say that the book was unlucky? Actually, Nan He is not a bad person. There is a small detail that the picture book was actually torn, and it wasn't torn by Shen Xiu. When Shen Xiu passed by the book stall, a few children ran by and she accidentally bumped into the book, causing a page to fold while opening the book. Nan He loves his work very much, so he was very angry when he saw that his book was torn. He instinctively cursed at Shen Xiu, but he is a good person. He didn't want to harm her for no reason, which means that this moment between them was actually a misunderstanding. Shen Xiu was also wronged, and Nan He was not really a bad person misunderstood by her.

What I want to say is that this theme is actually about being good at understanding. Sometimes the hurt you see on the surface may have some warmth behind it that has not been discovered. Shen Xiu’s personality is also like this. When she is hurt in the world, she often does not explain because of the things she carries. So sometimes, if you speak out and explain, the grievances will be discovered.

The picture book at the end skipped a few pages, and the pages that she focused on were the ones that were seen at the beginning, such as the smiling Samoyed angel and Nan He's hometown. These things were seen in her mind during the rapid page turning, and these things will be rewoven in the dream world of the main story.

On the expression of depression

The earliest instance was actually when the girl went back to her childhood memories. I remember her father telling her, "You don't have depression." Initially, we didn't even have this line in the film, because we didn't want to overly emphasize this issue. It may represent a common depression or loneliness that people feel, and I think it is more valuable to talk about this rather than just the issue itself. Later, we added it back because many people accused us of exploiting depression for commercial gain. We were worried because we were already vague about many things, and we didn't want to give people the impression that we were exploiting this issue. We just want to tell a story.

About consumers with depression?

Consumption itself is a product, and to a greater or lesser extent, it contains an element of consumption.

Unless you are making something very personal and don't consider commercial aspects. I can understand why people say this, because it is indeed a two-way street if you are afraid of touching this group of people. I myself and many people around me have this problem to a greater or lesser extent. I am willing to talk about this issue, not only because I want more people to understand this issue, but also because I feel that it is a process of reconciliation with myself. Because these things need to be expressed and need to find an outlet.

Of course, if I really offend many people with this problem, I can only say that I am very, very sorry. And my understanding of depression is also very shallow. There are many things in my film that I cannot achieve, which makes people feel uncomfortable and I feel very sorry.

From the original intention, I really didn't want to use it to make my movie watchable or commercial.

Is sensitivity a gift or a shackle?

Both, definitely both. Because if you are not so sensitive, many times you will not be so entangled or struggle with yourself. But it is also a gift. I am very grateful for this gift, which allows me to have a perception of the world and feel that the world is still very beautiful. I am also very lucky that I am not a numb person.

About "The Crossing"

The process of shaping Nan He by "The Crossing" and why a lot of ink was used to shape Nan He instead of the emotional relationship between the star-crossed lovers and the crew

Shen Xiu is a very clever child. She has a chance encounter with the Joker's alter ego, and their interaction during the drift, changed her impression of him. In the real world, Shen Xiu has a very bad impression of the Joker's alter ego. Do you ever have this feeling, that you see a person, see the props around him, because he is a bookseller, I see him drawing that book, although I flipped through a few pages, I know this person has a lot of vitality, he likes drawing, likes painting, he is a person with his own story. But at the same time, his bad attitude towards me makes me feel that this person has a very bad impression. But it is such a person who says that she is unlucky and that she hates this person, and such things happen every day in the real world.

Shen Xiu is too used to seeing these people, no matter whether you have your own story behind you, I am not interested in what is behind you, because the world is full of the same people. But such a person saved her in the end, in order to let Shen Xiu survive. On the sea, he danced and told so many stories, told so many interesting things, and he was afraid that she would fall asleep. He kept telling her some bad jokes. It is such a person who makes her have a completely different view of him. Isn't he also experiencing his own difficulties behind him, and has his own story? Maybe he is a good person. Is it that my perspective on the problem is wrong? Because Shen Xiu is just a child, she put all her doubts and those wrong understandings about life into this dream. There are two purposes, one is her complaint against Nan He, who is a profit-seeking boss, but seems to have his own life and be a good person. However, there is a problem with the logic of this play. She is weaving this dream while not daring to make Nan He too good, because the better he is, the more likely he will die. Therefore, this is a truly cruel and complicated weaving process.

On the one hand, she wants to show Nan He's clownish appearance, his flattery. But at the same time, she knows that Nan He is a good person and can show it at any time. He may have many shining qualities, and this is what is being talked about using a lot of content. Who Nan He is, what kind of person he is. Of course, this is based on the consciousness of the weaver, which shapes him subconsciously.

But on the other hand, from the perspective of the story, 1 also have a bit of selfishness, which is to tell the story of kind strangers. They may have their own stories. This is my own selfishness, putting him in a position where he looks profit-seeking on the surface, but actually has shining qualities in his life. This is a very real and realistic person.

Nan He Ugly

The fact that Nan He is not good-looking comes from his character design. As I mentioned before, I wanted to tell a story about someone who is not good-looking and has suffered a lot of setbacks in the world. Like Quasimodo, he has a heart of gold. But for this character design to work, we need to make everyone believe that he is not good-looking. As you know, in animation, it's easy to make things look good unintentionally, so we intentionally looked for the opposite direction to make everyone believe that this character design is valid.

Otherwise, how can I tell a story about someone who is not good-looking but has a heart of gold? People would say, "But the protagonist looks good, why do you have to make him look pathetic and say that his life is not going well?" So it's really for the sake of this character design.

As for why his mouth is so big, it's because he is a clown in real life. Since Shenzhou has never seen his real face in real life, he imagines him with a mouth that is very big and fierce. When he saved Shenzhou, his face was wet with water, and his smile was not a neat one, but a blood-curdling one, which looked terrifying. So Shenxiu imagines everything he sees in real life as dreamlike.

The other thing I want to talk about is the "Uncanny Valley" problem in animation. Everyone knows about this problem, which is that in order to avoid it, we deliberately change the proportion of the character's features, whether it's in 2D or 3D animation. We make their facial features slightly different, such as making their nose a little longer, their face a little longer, or their mouth a little bigger, so that when people look at them, they won't be scared by any strange appearances.

In fact, this includes the previous point about finding the boundary between 2D and 3D animation. In 2D animation, people are often drawn in an exaggerated way, like in Japanese anime with big eyes and handsome features, or like those created by Satoshi Kon, who exaggerates the two-dimensional aspects of people.

Both of these are reasons why I wanted to make Nan He's character in this direction. But this topic is very long. If you are interested, especially animation students, we can discuss it privately because it is a topic worth exploring. It has nothing to do with any other issues, whether I have any hostility towards others or have any other reasons. It is really just a pure technical issue.

The name of Nan He

In fact, there is another detail in our film that everyone may notice - there is a lot of money. At that time, there was no TikTok live streaming, so handling money was still a very common thing. Nowadays, young people seem to use money frequently, but at that time, we were still wondering how to make Nan He rich. He would count money and hold money in his hands. However, after a few years, we realized that this aspect could not be portrayed, as people were not interested in it. We also couldn't show him using a phone to receive red envelopes. The name of Nan He may not be his real name; it depends on everyone's understanding. In his picture book, his name is written as "Nan He," so he may be using a pen name, or he may just be a person who likes stars. However, everything that Shen Xiu saw was from her daily life, so she weaved what she saw into her dream. We don't know what Nan He's real name is.

Nan He's height

Nan He's actual height should be around 1.9 meters, but how could he be so tall? We all know that there is a problem with the proportions of animated characters.

For example, Sun Wukong in Journey to the West had a relatively large head and a short body, but in the end, he became a person who was almost 1.9 meters tall with a very long body. This is a problem in animation creation.

For the other characters, such as the walrus Lao Jin, he is actually over two meters tall. If Nan He's height were that of an ordinary person, he would not be able to stand next to Lao Jin. Therefore, exaggeration was used. In order to contrast with Shen Xiu, who is probably only 10 or 11 years old, and who is already very tall, if Nan He were only 1.7 meters tall, he would not look like an adult in contrast to Shen Xiu. Therefore, we intentionally made the contrast more significant in the animation, making Shen Xiu look more like a child and Nan He's overall proportions taller.

Differences in Performance between Nan He and Shen Xiu

The first reason is that as we all know, Shen Xiu is a character that we can feel in the real world, just like a child next to us. Therefore, her performance is very realistic and even introverted according to her character, as long as it is authentic.

Nan He, on the other hand, is a person shaped in Shen Xiu's mind and is not real. The original intention of his design was to let the audience know that this person seems a bit strange and not real. Moreover, all his actions are based on Shen Xiu's subiective consciousness. That is, this person is reverse-molded, not molded first and then created. All performances are based on this principle.

Therefore, in constructing Nan He, our animation directors and teachers, after getting this keyword, because animators all have ambitions, they want to do this underlying logic extremely well. Therefore, they added a lot of their own designs based on their desire to break through the barrier between one and three dimensions.

Everyone hopes to make this character not only subjective, but also very concrete and vivid. Of course, to be honest, this is an exploration. When exploring, we cannot determine its boundaries in the early stage, so many things are done very extreme and exaggerated.

But I cannot be sure if such things are really effective on the big screen, so I can only make them a little bit over the top. When I really gain experience, I am like the audience, watching and getting feedback repeatedly on the big screen, and then I know that this thing may be a bit too much. Personally, I still have no regrets. I think this breakthrough did sacrifice the audience's experience and made the audience disgusted. However, for the development of our animation, it has brought us a lot of achievements in terms of experience and how to turn this thing into a two-dimensional format.

Nan He eats a shoe

To echo the action of drifting in the sea in reality, Nan He throws a shoe from behind when stuffing something in his mouth, which is a magic action to make the little girl happy. Therefore, I hope there is a completely echoing action in the dream.

Nan He's voice is loud

1 also want to ask everyone a question, do you think Nan He's voice is loud or not when you watch it in the cinema? Firstly, from two aspects, we indeed want to make Nan He a particularly exaggerated and very noisy person, which comes from the evil impression that Shen Xiu had of this person at the beginning. Shen Xiu thinks this clown is very annoying, so in the dream, Nan He is packaged as an extremely exaggerated and bad guy.

Secondly, in order to adapt to the bad environment of the cinema, we intentionally raised the volume of the whole sound. Actually, until now, I have never watched it in the cinema, so I don't know if everyone thinks the voice is too loud or it's just because the character is too exaggerated. All of these are intentional designs, including the character's madness, craziness, and even the language used, which is not very appropriate for the current context. Normally, we wouldn't do these awkward things. But we really want to create a dreamlike experience, so we made these relatively unusual and uncomfortable experiences.

Design of Nan He's Running Animation

We referenced a lot of performance styles from manga.

Adding a 3D blur effect is actually easy once you calculate it, but we intentionally added some hand-drawn elements to the motion, especially chaotic lines similar to those seen in 2D animation. This makes the character's edges feel more lively and expressive. When Nan He is running forward, you can notice that his eyes and facial skin are being pulled in the direction of the wind, which is something that real people or 3D animations don't have. These changes are very subtle, but in order to simulate 2D animation, we exaggerated them to the extreme. This intensifies the emotions and makes it seem like he's constantly in extreme anger or urgency while running.

Is Nan He like Shen Xiu?

In real life, Nan He is also a person similar to Shen Xiu, or in other words, an adult version of Shen Xiu with some of the same problems. Who can say that adults, no matter how optimistic or how much they try to put on a smile, don't have their own problems behind their backs? Nan He definitely has psychological issues too. It's not necessarily that he wants to become the kind of person that Shen Xiu is, but rather that he strives to become one. As people grow older, they must face the realities of life and, like Nan He, must appear optimistic no matter what, even if negative things are hidden behind them. If Shen Xiu can continue to grow and mature, he may become someone like Nan He.

On Nan He's Thin Personal Background

The end credits book is a behind-the-scenes story, revealing Nan He's background and who he really is as a person. This information was intentionally left out of the main story. In the scene where Nan He and Shen Xiu watch the snowfall on the projector, there was originally a part where Shen Xiu asks about the location, and Nan He explains that it's his hometown where he had some childhood experiences. However, this scene was ultimately cut as it didn't fit the overall story.

The first principle we followed was to ensure that Shen Xiu' dream sequence did not reveal too much of Nan He's personality. Shen Xiu' understanding of Nan He is limited to surface-level information. However, this does create a problem, as viewers naturally want to know the backstory of characters in a relationship. Therefore, Nan He's story becomes one of being unable to express himself fully, leaving viewers with a sense of wanting more, and realizing that there is a story there, but it remains untold.

So, in our end credits book, we explore Nan He's background. As a child, he was an ambitious young man from a small town with big dreams of becoming a chef.

He gathered a group of friends and went on a daring adventure to the depths of the ocean in search of the best ingredients.

Joker: "Dad, hug your daughter tighter'

As Joker often takes photos with people, he knows what a happy family looks like. He is also a very sensitive person and knows how to fake a smile and pretend to be happy. However, we can see that Shen Xiu subconsciously stands far away from her father when taking photos. Every time she takes a photo, she marginalizes herself and stands in a position away from the spotlight. She is worried that if she gets too close, people will dislike her. Over time, this has become a natural way of standing for her.

At this moment, Joker noticed and asked if he could hug his daughter tighter. Initially, he had ignored this issue, and perhaps some of you have noticed this gesture where he completely ignored it. When Joker reminded him, he realized what was happening and quickly hugged her. Shen Xiu was standing on the platform with a seal and a human-shaped board with a hole in it for people to stick their faces out. She put on a forced, fake smile, showing that she knew how to pose when taking photos so that people would not dislike her. This is a small detail of trying to please others.

Only Shen Xiu Buried in the Belly of the Fish From one perspective, all the imagery of Shen Xiu is derived from her daily interactions with Nan He. During the days she spent with him, he told her stories, and the picture book on Joker's stall, she mixed all these things together and turned them into her dream story.

Therefore, his image comes from the transformation of reality.

On the other hand, Nan He was actually buried in the belly of a fish in reality. Shen Xiu transformed him into a fish-man who had to use all his abilities to please the humans who ate him in her dream world. So those greedy diners are the fish that caused Nan He's death.

At the same time, Shen Xiu is actually very afraid of seeing the truth because in her reality, Nan He died for her. She is worried that in her dream world, Nan He will also die. Because we all have this experience: if it is a beautiful dream, you want to indulge in it, and you will try your best to create a sense of reality for the dream.

Whenever there is an element of a dream that is close to reality, the closer it is to the edge of waking up. So in this world, she also has to package Nan He as the owner of the Deep Sea Restaurant, with an endless supply of delicious food for those fish. This will allow Nan He to live forever and not be aware of the connection between him and the real world.

Nan He's Gesture of Splitting the Sea This is a classic gesture from Star Trek, known by science fiction fans. When we were designing his gesture of splitting the sea, we couldn't use this, but this one seemed cooler. Also, because he was holding Shen Xiu with one hand, he had to use only one hand to make this gesture.

Creative dishes and movies in Nan He Then there was another thing just now. Did anyone feel that the creative dishes in Nan He might be similar to the creative dish we made for everyone? We thought that besides taste, everyone might care more about the creative aspects. But a lesson we learned later was that we didn't even get the taste right, so these other things were not important. Jokingly, it's a bit like Nan He's creative dishes. Just can't figure it out. Where did we make the mistake? Was it a mistake in creativity or was it too avant-garde and not thought through? Nan He is such a person, who is very diligent in trying to do things well, but he never understands. His life is a mess, which may be related to his inability to understand. He is actually a very passionate person who wants to live well and tries his best to do so, but art skills are a contradiction. We actually want to portray him as someone with poor art skills, so he opened a restaurant or did something else because he couldn't paint well. He originally wanted to be a painter, but because when he painted, our art directors were quite skilled, and they were not willing to paint poorly. They painted very well, so you can't really say that you can't paint well. It's strange to tell the audience that this is Nan He's character.

Why did Nan He tell Shen Xiu the "self-help" stuff (In Chinese it's called "Chicken Soup for the Soul".

This phrase is often used to describe a genre of literature that consists of uplifting stories and motivational anecdotes meant to inspire and encourage readers.)?

The farewell in the snowstorm was not actually said by Nan He. Nan He's character is not the type to say such things. He is a carefree person who doesn't appear to give others reasonable advice, but instead shows through his actions that he loves life. So that passage is more like self-redemption consciousness processed by Shen Xiu herself.

Because Shen Xiu may have thought countless times in this dream about catching Nan He, saving Nan He, and changing the dreams she made out of guilt. In her subconscious, she knows that this is irreparable, so when she can't catch Nan He, she always wakes up. So standing in the snow, the self-redemption consciousness turns into Nan He telling her that the dream should end.

The best way to thank this person is to wake up.

Although this thing cannot cure you, waking up is the best thank you for this person. Finally waking up is not being cured, but the beginning of healing, accepting the beginning of a new world.

About the plot

Dream logic> plot logic

People are used to expecting a story to have ups and downs or the gradual establishment of a relationship between two people. I know this is a common mentality for audiences. I also know that such things are not good for the audience, but why can't it be done this way? As I have mentioned in other occasions, because in that case, I will feel that a screenwriter is always telling me how this thing should develop. And the interpretation I bring today is to tell you that I know this viewing experience is not good, but this is really a reverse molding process. Shen Xiu's basis for everything, why she went to the Deep Sea Eye, why she ran away, why she wanted to establish the Five Stars. It all came from her dream itself. When she was dreaming, she had the psychological basis for her dream, not the plot logic, not the brushing logic, but her psychological logic. In these two choices, I would rather choose her current psychological logic, so I sacrificed the good-looking logic of the plot that everyone thought. I'm not arguing with everyone about this, it's probably because of my inability to make everyone see a very comfortable situation, like you said, she and Nan He established growth and warmth very comfortably. I can't balance it, because once this happens, I will think that Shen Xiu is about to wake up. Once she wants to shape Nan He into a good person early on, she will think about what her purpose is here, and her dream will collapse immediately. This may really be my ability problem, and I can't balance this. Today I especially want to tell everyone about this and welcome everyone to tell me about it. How can we do better, although it may not be helpful to the movie, I really want to know the answer.

On the Edge of Dreams (Attention to viewers who watch repeatedly)

Every time Shen Xiu is thrown out of the boat by Nan He or thrown onto the shore, it feels like the activation mechanism of a dream's self-redemption consciousness. That is, she knows that this dream, this world is false. So every time she is thrown out, there is a feeling of being on the edge of waking up from a dream.

So when you see her slowly walking towards the deep end of the alley from the small island, it can be understood as she is constantly walking towards the edge of awakening, that is, the farther she goes, the closer she gets to reality. So I made an imagery processing here, that is, from that moment on, she saw the slide, the swivel chair, the building including the mother and daughter, all infinitely close to reality. That is to say, if Shen Xiu continues to move forward, this dream may wake up. But she is afraid of facing reality and unwilling to wake up. So at this point, she crouched down, covered her head, summoned the red ghosts to bind her, and then closed herself off. This is actually a confrontation between her own self-redemption mechanism and self-indulgence mechanism. When she was on the island, her self-indulgence consciousness defeated her self-redemption consciousness.

On the Processing Method of Dreams

This time, because we did not intend to make a suspense movie, the usual processing method of a suspense movie is to give you a lot of foreshadowing, tell you very obvious foreshadowing, and tell you that you should pay attention to them if you have the experience of watching movies. But I've said before that our movie, actually what I hope for it is not a suspenseful movie, but rather an emotional experience, or you could say it's very emotional. So we intentionally weakened these foreshadowings, which is why some people would say after watching it that these foreshadowings seem to be missing or that they didn't see them clearly, but those with viewing experience would say, it seems like I already knew.

So during the dream state, based on what I said earlier, I wanted to weaken this foreshadowing. When everyone sees the opening, it's still the same dreamlike opening, where this world is constructed in the mind of the protagonist. She starts thinking about going to a safe and colorful place. Then this world slowly forms in her mind. Particles appear and form colorful streams, single-celled organisms appear, and finally, there's a jellyfish.

The entire process of entering the dream is the colorful part in the opening. When the protagonist floats towards the red sun, it means that her dream world has already been constructed, but this construction process is a very symbolic one.

There is no clear explanation, like in the movie inception, where they explain very clearly how dreams are constructed by a dream designer. In Deep Sea, we may use a different way of thinking, using an Eastern-style and very imaginative way to construct the dream.

However, I am not sure if this method is friendly to the audience. The audience may feel that it is too arbitrary and nonsensical. But this is what I want to create in the movie, a sense of imagery or poetic feeling.

The dream exit refers to the swirling starry sky on the clown's costume in Nan He's dream. It is the exit of the dream and the origin of the real version of the Deep Sea Eye. When they decided to go to the Deep Sea Eye in Act 2, Nan He was already afraid because it was the place she feared the most. If you pay attention, you can see the details of what she is afraid of, and although she is very worried, she does not dare to think about it. But when they arrive at the most beautiful place in the Deep Sea Eye, they think they have reached the ultimate goal of the movie, but it is actually the truth that Nan He fears the most. It indicates that she will remember the clown, and she will remember that the whole world is a dream.

The world will end in the most beautiful impression, which is the exit of the dream.

As for the first half of the movie, it is like a dream created by Nan He, who is more like the screenwriter of the dream. It is not to shift blame, but it is true that the dream was created by Nan He, and sometimes it is reproduced according to her subjective consciousness.

It is like a reverse process, where the whole story and plot works on her. It is more like Nan He shaping the world according to her own mood, such as fear, escape, warmth, and choosing this way to follow the innermost thoughts of the characters. From her innermost thoughts, it is more appropriate to shape the story, so there is no specific principle of following the rules of a screenwriter's work. Therefore, it may not be as logical as the meeting between Nan He and the clown.

As for the logic of the dream, it is a somewhat capricious decision. It is indeed a risk of offending the audience.

Actually, it is a personal attempt that I want to make.

When I watch movies, I often ask myself what kind of movie I like. Sometimes, a very well-organized and rigorous plot is what I like to watch, but sometimes, it feels like a kind of routine because of my own limitations.

Therefore, in Deep Sea, I was a bit too arbitrary, challenging the limits of the audience's psychological tolerance, not only in the plot but also in the art. Many people also commented that the visuals were too flashy and tiring to watch, which makes the overall viewing experience not very good.

About Setting Evolution

There are many different setting evolutions. We have had different eras, such as science fiction, Republican China, steampunk, and cyberpunk. However, when we talk about these things, because we now have a theme and an expression, we always feel a bit uncomfortable about the past. Although we all like these imaginative settings, which are full of elements of mix-and-match, they make us wonder why we have to use such fancy settings to tell the story. It's hard to believe because you may focus too much on those settings themselves.

When watching a movie, you may wonder what the meaning of the setting is, what era it represents, and why it was designed in that way. This will cause a deviation from the main plot. I think now the main plot, including the visual elements, is already abundant. This will lead to many ambiguities. Therefore, anything that deviates from reality, cannot find psychological basis, and does not have logical connection with reality should be removed. When designing, our standard is to strive for psychological logic and real basis, and not to design just for the sake of design.

The cockpit has a reference observatory. We actually had an observatory in our original setting, which is the kind for stargazing. Because the cabin windows are like what Nan He described, he can see the stars even in the deep sea. In the cabin, it looks like a galaxy, with colorful ocean currents and rolling particles, just like being in a galaxy.

About Dream World Taking Up a Large Proportion

My interpretation today is that it's not that the time in the dream world takes up a lot of space, but it's just to let Shen Xiu have a dream. In fact, as I just said, it's a self-redemption consciousness, or a story about a psychologist telling how to save Shen Xiu through the entire dream world.

Because we had a very, very early version where Shen Xiu was lying in the hospital for a few days, and a psychologist used a science fiction mechanism to enter Shen Xiu's brain, and then he transformed himself into some kind of image to rescue Shen Xiu from a coma.

That was a science fiction version before. However, today's version is more in line with Shen Xiu's psychology, not wanting to take a god's-eye view, not wanting to talk about science fiction texture. But it hasn't left this core, which is about how a person struggles with themselves through their own struggle or redemption or psychological counseling, and how they gradually find a very safe or best or most balanced solution to get out.

It's both a dream and a psychological counseling process.

Does repeated black screen represent the beginning of the dream in the constellation dream?

There is such a design. When we were working on a version of Dolly cinema, we actually wanted this kind of feeling. When Shen Xiu reaches out to grab Nan He but can't, the whole world collapses. Sometimes, in a cinema with good immersion, you will see real darkness where you can't see your hand in front of your face. That kind of darkness will give you a feeling that you are immersed in a void, completely dark world, just like Shen Xiu. This is the collapse of a dream, the feeling of void between waking up and the dream. Even if it is pure black, even if there is no image, I hope to use this to give the audience a psychological experience. We just tried the effect in Dolby.

Conscious comedy plot

Another type is conscious comedy plot. Actually, I am not good at doing comedy in the deep sea. Everyone might have seen it and thought it was very awkward, and 1 agree. Comedy requires talent, it's a kind of talent.

Another thing is that you have to believe in it. I don't really believe in comedy myself. So when I created this comedy plot, sometimes I was compromising with the commercial aspect, thinking that there should be comedy in this part. But after making it, because you don't believe in it, it will be a bit low and awkward in terms of rhvthm and burden. This is actually a lesson for me. In the future, if you don't believe in something, don't forcefully add it.

About Some Unintentionally Nauseating and Morbid Scenes

Your question is really good, and I would like to talk about this. In the beginning, when I was creating the Deep Sea part, I was trying my best to avoid these morbid things, not that I think they should be part of the theme, but why did they still appear later? There are two kinds of morbidity: conscious and unconscious. I might not think that unconscious things are morbid, but others might think so. For example, we had a scene where Nan He ate shoes. In the original script, there was a more morbid point than what is presented now. Nan He ate the shoes all the way through with a certain expression and shot. But this was actually cut out at the end, which was a pity because our animators spent a long time on this shoe-eating action, and I really liked that animation. This might still happen because of the animator's persistence. When we think an animation is funny, it may deviate from the audience's aesthetics. We only start from the performance and the fun of the action in the animation, and think it is still interesting, but ignore the audience's feelings. So this kind belongs to the unconscious type.

Behind-the-scenes Design of Shen Xiu's Smiling and Crying

This performance was also very difficult. As you know, smiling and crying itself is not easy in real performances, so we spent a lot of effort in the animation to explore the levels of Shen Xiu's smiling and crying. When she said

"thank you" while holding back tears, she forced herself to hold back and to be happy. She tried to raise the corners of her mouth mechanically, making her mouth look very mechanical at first, and then slowly adjusted until she really thanked and smiled from her heart. This shot is a smile of thanks and comfort.

When we were working on it, we had to infect ourselves and understand Shen Xiu's mentality at the time. So in the preliminary rehearsal, both the animators and the voice actors paid attention to Shen Xiu's four "sorrys" and five "thank yous" when she hugged Nan He. We hoped that each "thank you" had a level of meaning and each "sorry" was also different. Because she is not someone who simply says "thank you, thank you." Every

"thank you" of hers is because she is a person, and secondly because she is really grateful. She forced herself to be better, so we hoped to convey this level of meaning.

Design of Shen Xiu's Farewell in the Snowy Field Shen Xiu's sense of self-redemption is also manifested in different ways. When she turned around, the Shen Xiu facing us is her true self, and the one behind her is her sense of redemption. She uses different forms. Shen Xiu is the type that holds back tears, and is afraid that Nan He will see her shaking back and crying, so she doesn't move, and takes a deep breath to encourage herself to walk out of this world. The Nan He behind her is the type that dances, but they both tell each other in this way that there is nothing to be afraid of, This world will become better. I don't need you to worry about me, I will keep going. Nan He was using body language to tell you not to worry about her and that she is happy, while Shen Xiu was using her tears to tell vou. Did anvone notice that her performance was like this? In fact, Shen Xiu was already in tears. But she was smiling and crying, using the corners of her mouth to tell herself not to cry, that she will get better.

Nan He's farewell in the snow design

There should be three images, but here we will simplify and talk about two. The first image is Nan He's true appearance in the real world, which is the impression he gave Shen Xiu when he influenced her in the real world, when they were drifting on the sea. He is someone who always puts happiness on his face and hides his inner pain deep inside. The other image is his self-redemption consciousness at the moment when they said goodbye in the snow. So, these two images together make up Nan He at that moment. Nan He turned and jumped in a very happy way, like a fast-paced march. He was actually telling Shen Xiu that he was very worried that she would turn around and see him, so he had to use an exaggerated way, like going back to the real world before, because he wanted to tell her with happiness that even if you only see my back, I am actually very happy and have no worries or regrets. He was actually afraid that Shen Xiu would not be able to hold back and look back at his back, not knowing if she would feel sad or happy, so he used this extreme jumping to comfort her.

The other image is the clown in the real world who may have died or disappeared. But is it possible that at that moment he felt he had done something great? So when he turned and walked away, his heart was actually also filled with joy. If we think about the clown in the real world, he didn't die, he just did something good, and he was really proud of himself. He was telling himself in this way that he is really a hero, a good person.

The setting of the mourning ghost

The mourning ghost does not harm Shen Xiu, it is just her protection. Shen Xiu is used to protecting herself in this way. In the real world, when she has no psychological support and feels that everything outside is not safe, she will wrap herself tightly in her red jacket.

So, the movement of the red jacket is a kind of wrapping.

It is a protective movement, but there are negative emotions involved in this kind of protection. That is to say, this kind of protection will always isolate you from the world. It is actually a negative protection. So in the film, everyone can see that the action of the red ghost is to embrace her, wrap her, and has never hurt her, and its hands are never aggressive, but always chasing after her. But Shen Xiu knows that this thing is negative, so she also has the urge to escape. When she finally stops escaping and lets this thing develop, she will be tightly wrapped by the red thread, and that moment is when she accepts this negative reality.

Setting for the Sea Elf's buff in Shen Xiu

The interesting thing about this movie is that it's actually the opposite. Reality and dreams are reversed. In a dream, everything you pursue, like how I said Nan He is a poor psychiatrist, all of his actions or the things he sees, when you take away this layer and go to the layer above, it's actually the opposite. So what she pursues is good for Shen Xiu, but in reality her obsession should be buried deep and kept in her heart.

Then I saw someone's comment yesterday and I thought it was pretty good. They said it was very appropriate, so I wanted to create a sense of conflict between the Sea Elf and the Reaper, like a game. So there would be some tension and fun in the first half of the plot. But I want to explain why it won't work, because the Sea Elf and the Reaper are Shen Xiu's two props. I don't know if I can explain this with a game, but let's say the game is called... I don't play games, but isn't there a term called

"buff"? The first time Shen Xiu met Nan He, she used the Sea Elf as an excuse, but in fact she activated the first buff, the first tool, and she wasn't really it. Then when this buff was ineffective and discarded by Nan He, do you remember that after he threw it away, he was caught by Nan He and thrown out.

Then Shen Xiu activated the second buff, it was the

"gloomy ghost" that appeared. Actually, the gloomy ghost has the same effect as the first mermaid. If the mermaid is a psychological support for Shen Xiu's inner self, something she can hold onto when she is lonely and helpless, then the mermaid serves this purpose. When this psychological support collapses or is absent, she will activate the second buff, which is the gloomy ghost in a red jacket. It wraps itself up and immerses in the darkness, so it's not a confrontational relationship, but rather a layered addition, both of which are Shen Xiu's tools for indulging in reverse. In fact, the whole story is about how a clumsy psychologist helps her peel off the first layer of psychological support and the external wrapping shackles. If you use a strong medicine to treat her, she will either become a vegetable or die, so this clumsy doctor will use continuous and gradual methods, because he himself is also growing and learning, and Nan He develops his character from being a clumsy doctor who uses methods at the beginning to becoming a great psychologist who uses a great method in the end.

About why to use the curtain

The front of the curtain is a dream world, a place of indulgence that we want to go to, and behind it is the real world, where the audience is sitting in the cinema.

So why use the form of a curtain? It's because it superficially separates these two worlds, and the hidden implication comes from the clown in the real world who puts a projector on the table. That projector is the source of many images in Shen Xiu's dreams. It is an origin. Then, by using this experience of wanting to be in a movie, and also from the projector that comes from the clown in the story, it still plays a role in the scene of the electrocardiogram, because the light of the projector is like the surgical light on the operating table, and I also want to use this experience as an image.

The sound of the curtain breathing machine

There are two sounds, one is the sound of dripping, which everyone can hear. It changes depending on Shen Xiu's state, such as when her heart beats rapidly, and finally when she is dying, the sound becomes flat. The other is the image of light. The projector behind her is the light in the dream world, while in the real world, it simulates the strong light on the surgical table. So when she lies on the curtain and her mother calls her from behind, she looks back at the strong light shining on her face. On one hand, it represents her hearing her mother's call while being rescued, and she has decided to wake up. So she turns her face towards the strong light, which is also a process of her waking up. If she keeps floating, she may drift to the edge of the dream.

The Meaning of the Red Hoodie Sinking to the Bottom of the Sea

That's just a past tense, telling the audience that the story they are about to see happened in the past. And now, seeing the red hoodie sinking to the bottom of the sea, it may be that many years have passed and the protection provided by the hoodie is no longer needed. It needs to be buried deep in the sea. However, this is just a technique, who knows if the red hoodie will be generated again or not. This is just indicating that the story that follows happens in the tuture.

Mom in the Taxi

Shen Xiu in a bus ride, Participating saw a person in a taxi outside who looked like her mom, but she wasn't sure because she hasn't seen her mom in many years.

The person then closed the car window, and she knew that it wasn't her mom.

Chat Records between Shen Xiu and Her Mom Before getting on the ship, she would send messages to her mom on the wharf. There is a fun detail when she was typing, her suggestion said "I'm finally seeing the ocean, I'm so happy," but there were three contradictory words next to it. That's actually her true feeling. While she was looking down at her phone, she was actually right beside the sea. She was saying,

"Mom, I finally saw the ocean today, I'm so happy," but we don't see any shots of her looking at the sea, and she doesn't seem happy at all. All her thoughts are focused on her phone. We even debated about how Shen Xiu should speak to her mom, and we decided to use a genuinely happy tone. In this way, Shen Xiu uses this silent way to show how she doesn't want to cause any trouble for others and how she wants to show that she's doing well. She's showing how she is such a sensible child.

Did anyone notice the very long chat record at the back?

Shen Xiu sent many emoticons to her mother and she would choose a key moment to use them when speaking. For example, on holidays such as her mother's birthday, Labor Day, or National Day, she used these important explanations to talk to her mother, as she was afraid of disturbing her mother without reason. However, her mother's response was always perfunctory, possibly replying with an emoticon or just a few words. Shen Xiu, on the other hand, was not only responding with emoticons but was also very sensitive. The last time she sent a message to her mother was six months ago, and after her mother responded with a somewhat unwilling message, Shen Xiu immediately replied. However, we had her retract the message during processing, so it is unknown what emotional message she sent. After retracting it, she added a smiling face, meaning she was using a smiling face to cover up the retracted message.

This time, as she typed, she deleted her words as she typed, showing that she had not spoken to her mother for half a year and was even more careful and cautious in choosing her words. She was very sensitive and eager to please.

Dreamlike Music As you all know, the first shot in the film is of a red sweatshirt in the water, and the background music is a dreamlike music - a world-famous song by Schumann. From a certain perspective, this piece of music indicates that the story is actually a dream, and I want to use it as a hint. This dreamlike music actually appears in several key moments in the film, and serves as a hint, telling everyone that this is a dream. When Shen Xiu wakes up, at the Deep Sea Eye, she hears this dreamlike music again. It is also a piece of music that is often used as a lullaby, so we used it in the film as a song that Shen Xiu's mother sang to her when she was young.

Red Sweatshirt As for the first shot of the entire film, you can see a red sweatshirt sinking in the water. It is a sweatshirt with a sense of the times, and it also implies that the story happened at some point in the past. At this point, perhaps the gloomy ghost that enveloped Shen Xiu in her red package is already a thing of the past, and now she has let it go and returned it to the depths of the sea. There is a metaphor here.

Little White Boat The little white boat actually first appeared not when the little sea otter sang, but when Shen Xiu arrived at the clown's bookstore in the real world. She dropped a book, Deep Sea Restaurant Legend, and the background music in the real world played the sound of the little white boat's music box, which was the first time it appeared in the real world.

However, what I want to say here is that we have many things to compare, and actually it is only the first layer.

That is to say, you may have found these interesting Easter eggs, but where they appear in the real world and the dream world is just the first laver I want evervone to know. But behind this layer of comparison, there is an interpretation or metaphorical implication. As you know,

"Little White Boat" is a song that is a bit like a spiritual song or dirge. It actually suggests that they go west, implying the final ending.

In our film, there are many foreshadowing and implications like this, and there shouldn't be a correct answer for them. I think it should be each audience's own interpretation. But I'II give my own interpretation.

When designing, there is a bit of a concept because evervone knows that spiders spin webs, which is similar to the concept of a knot in one's heart. When Shen Xiu encounters this spider, it's like the suffocating fish I mentioned yesterday that represents herself. The spider, to some extent, represents a knot in Shen Xiu's heart.

And spiders are like this, they only spin webs on sunny days. On rainy days, they are a bit idle, just like Shen Xiu's mood at this time. Maybe they are looking forward to a clear day and then return to normal life.

"Dough Drop Soup" is the soup made by the hijinx. At first, everyone knew about the "Nightmare Soup", but it was later changed because the word "nightmare" was not very usable. So we wanted to call it "Drunk Dream Soup", which implies that everyone in it is like drunkenly dreaming, and it has a meaning of avoiding reality and doing daydreams. Also, for some reasons, it couldn't be used, so it was changed to "Dream Come True Soup," but its strength was lost. Finally, it became "Dough Drop Soup," which also symbolizes a knot in one's heart.

There is a saying in Nan He, "If this knot in your heart can't be untied, it will always haunt you like a nightmare."

Although it is about knots in one's heart, in order to fit the language context of Nan He's character, he will say that if this knot can't be untied, it will always haunt you like a nightmare. This symbolizes a knot in one's heart.

Animals turning into prototypes Based on what I just said, there are actually two layers of meaning to this.

In other words, there is a comparison relationship. When Lao Jin was on the bus, the father of Shen Xiu, he said to Hua Hua aunt that it was raining endlessly that day. Then Shen Xiu's father said it's okay, it'll dry up soon. So this sentence was brought into the dream world by Shen Xiu.

In the dream world, Lao Jin said the same thing. Because when he turned into a walrus, he and Nan He said it like this. This is just the first layer of comparison.

There is also a second layer. Because I see the audience asking why they turn into animals, what is the metaphor, what is the implication? This is the second layer I want to talk about. It's actually a sense of powerlessness. This kind of powerlessness. In other words, when Shen Xiu thinks of turning into an animal, she thinks of this sense of powerlessness in the water. It's a bit like the feeling of being reverted to our instinctual and powerless selves as normal people. The animal state is our instinctual and powerless self, but the next day we go out like social animals in the guise of humans. At that moment, it's like Lao Jin or other seals and sea otters walking out in the guise of humans. But once they are reverted to their original form, they return to their original selves.

What kind of fish are the diners in the film?

Freshwater fish, they come from the land, on a luxurious six-day and seven-night tour to play in the sea, they are not sea fish. Because Shen Xiu doesn't know the difference between sea fish and river fish, when she designs these things in her brain, she turns the fish she has seen on land into sea fish. The clothes are made of fish scales.

The Design Story of Samoyed

To be honest, we really wanted to tell a joke to the audience, but because I said yesterday that I'm not very good at comedy, when I tell it to others, they all feel it's cold. Our Samoyed joke has several versions that we can share, for example, there was a version that started with a little seal, and it loved sticking to the wall. Nan He said to Shen Xiu, "Just like you, why do you love sticking to the wall so much, you little seal." And it kept sticking to the wall every day until it turned into a poster, which makes people feel cold after hearing it. A poster, as we know, is a picture that's pasted on the wall. Then there was a little pufferfish, it swam and swam until it became a dolphin.

All these jokes are so cold, and the point is to show that Nan He has a low sense of humor. Because he's using these already bad jokes to make people laugh, and he may be an optimistic person himself, so he infects Shen Xiu with his way of using these jokes, so Shen Xiu' reaction after hearing the joke is like us, feeling not funny at all, and it's awkward. This is the dramatic effect we wanted to achieve.

But in the end, when he was telling the joke to Shen Xiu while holding onto him in the sea, its effect might be revealed. It's a way of trying to make people laugh in real life, but there's a sense of powerlessness to it, and he was telling these powerless jokes while saving others in the sea. On the one hand, he's encouraging Shen Xiu, and on the other hand, he's keeping himself going.

Samoyed, as we know, in "A Chinese Odyssey," Stephen Chow had a pun on a character who looks like a dog, but it's actually a self-deprecation of a person's failed life.

In terms of design, I think there's a bit of meaning to Samoyed. It's a smiling angel, and it's a dog. As dog owners know, its mouth is always a smile, so the story is about Nan He thinking that this little seal is just a seal, but it's different from other seals because it loves to smile. Originally, he didn't love to smile, but he just looked like this. Then Nan He could also say to Shen Xiu,

"You see, it says I'm a Samoyed and I look like this, I'm just a dog." We had a version of the subtitle that was sent abroad, and because we couldn't translate it as Samoyed in the subtitle, it just said, "I'm a dog," when Nan He was still holding onto Shen Xiu and swimming.

The Story of the Little Yellow Duck

As we all know, in the real world, a small plastic swimming ring is just a toy for children to play with and is not suitable for use on the open sea. However, on that day, when Nan He saw Shen Xiu fall into the sea, he couldn't find a proper rescue tool. So, he quickly grabbed a little yellow duck swimming ring. But did you notice that when the little yellow duck was floating on the open sea, it was slowly deflating? That night when Nan He swam towards Shen Xiu, the swimming ring was still inflated, but when she was floating alone, the little yellow duck was already deflated and almost out of air. This is the feeling of powerlessness or crisis in real life.

But in the dream, Shen Xiu turned the little yellow duck into a very large, lifeboat-like duck. This image comes from her hope for a safer world. She wished that when Nan He was with her, there would be a large yellow duck that could carry both of them, rather than this deflated duck that could only accommodate one person.

Therefore, in Shen Xiu’s mind, there is an infinite amplification of guilt and inadequacy in the reality. And when she woke up, Nan He was still holding the little yellow duck and saying "wake up, wake up." This is what Nan He said to her when he was drifting at sea, but in Shen Xiu’s mind, it became this image.

At the beginning of the film, when the subtitles appear, there is a shot of the little yellow duck breaking through the waves and forming a little yellow duck on top of the waves. In fact, you can notice that there was no little yellow duck in the entire opening sequence before that moment. It was only created at that time and formed gradually. This shows that it was a process of creation in Shenxiu’s mind, from nothing to something, and as it was created, it became larger and larger, eventually becoming the image of security in her dream world.

There are many such images, for example, when Nan He said "if only I could split the sea," it became an image in Shen Xiu’s dream world that Nan He really had magic and could split the sea. These are all expectations of the real world. If Nan He really had magic and could split the sea, we would be saved, and we wouldn't have to worry if the little yellow duck was big enough.

You Have Arrived, Fortune Awaits The words

"You Have Arrived" and "Fortune Awaits" on the heads of Black and White Impermanence represent Nan He's desire for wealth, as he is a very greedy person. In the dream world, he is portrayed as a greedy person, so

"Fortune Awaits" is very consistent with his character. At the same time, it also implies that it is the underworld.

Altair came to a world of death.

Colorful Light Design Behind Nan He Book Stall

There are many colorful lights behind the Nan He book stall, I don't know if you have noticed. When we were filming in the normal scenes and telling Samoyed jokes in his room, the environment with the book stall enlarged by Xingxiu is presented first. I gave a special dreamlike treatment to the simple colored lights in the real world, adding many light spots and changes in depth of field in the room at Nan He. It may seem fancy, but I just want to say that Xingxiu brought all these things into her dream, and she made them extremely beautiful in her dream.

* Wake Up, the Show is Over

Actually, it was a kind of dark humor. When I was editing the film, I was bored and felt that the whole film was a bit boring after watching it too many times, so I added the sentence "Wake up, the show is over". In the end, when my colleagues watched the film, if they found it boring, they might feel comforted when they saw this sentence.

But I didn't expect it to become something like an element outside of the film. After watching the film, many people may feel like they have just had a dream and can wake up and return to reality. This is possibly the result I was hoping for.

The visuals are too overwhelming

This is a very good question, and I would like to explain a few reasons on different levels. First of all, I wanted to give the audience an experiential movie, rather than a clear-cut narrative movie. To be honest, I did not plan to let the audience understand the logic the first time. I just wanted you to have a feeling, but maybe I was too self-centered. Our own art and visual effects directors have debated about it before. This thing is definitely uncomfortable. But I hope that the audience will feel like they have just had a dream, a very chaotic and strange dream, like Shen Xiu, when they leave the cinema. If you have this experience, I think my intention has been achieved, but the sacrifice may be that everyone feels like they did not understand it. That is not important to me. There are already so many good narrative movies with clear-cut logic. Those are a different kind of experience.

Of course, if you are satisfied with the first experience, you can sit down and quietly try to understand the logic of the narrative, and if you feel very uncomfortable after the first time and do not want to watch it again, I think it is okay because I really just wanted to give everyone such an experience. Another reason is out of helplessness, and more is due to technical requirements.

I wanted to create a dreamlike feeling and make the visuals very comfortable, but this actually requires very high technical requirements, which our current technology may not be able to meet. So we had to use many difficult and uncomfortable ways to create this dreamlike experience. If there is a chance in the future, I hope that everyone can see both the clear-cut narrative and dreamlike experience at the same time. I think that would be a very good result, but I cannot achieve that this year.

About film reviews

Domestic screening environment

Currently, the screening environment in China is also a painful thing for us. We have gone to so many theaters, but we have not found a place with brightness and sound volume that truly represents the standard. So, because of our lack of experience, we are always worried that the audience will not be able to see clearly or that the sound is too low, so sometimes we over-exaggerate these things to hope that the audience can see them clearly. But this has also brought me many negative things, such as overly colorful and crowded visuals, which can give people a very uncomfortable feeling. I hope that we can find a balance in the future so that the audience can have a better viewing experience. Your personal feelings represent only yourself, and you cannot impose my level of tolerance on the audience.

About Acceptance from the Public This is a tolerance issue, meaning whether or not they are willing to understand your message. The movie itself touches on this theme because Xingxing, the protagonist, faces a similar problem of not being understood by others, such as being misunderstood during times of trouble. This may reflect the reality outside of the movie to some extent. I hope that more people can understand the expression of the movie, rather than rejecting it outright.

About Malicious Slander

I don't think we should be too harsh on the audience. As 1 mentioned yesterday, during the holiday period, whether or not it's a holiday, people come to watch your movie out of good intentions, and if they don't like it, it's simply because it doesn't meet their expectations. It's normal to vent our frustrations, and we should be able to accept it. However, I have also noticed a very small number of people who criticize for the sake of criticism, and I don't rule out the possibility of such people existing.

But what I want to say is that this is precisely the situation we face in the deep sea. Have you ever felt that sometimes our story, both on and off screen, is similar to Xingxing, who is not understood? Sometimes, it's like the cold and greedy fish, who keep consuming your sincere and hard-won things, such as your emotional baggage, and they greedily devour it, using it for their own entertainment. But I believe that this is something we can accept, and it was actually one of the initial intentions behind telling the story of the deep sea.

When I was working on "The Monkey King" a few years ago, there were a few years when I was deeply affected by negative criticism, and it was not good for my mental health. I was genuinely working hard to do something, and people could criticize me for not doing a good job, but they shouldn't question my motives or assume that I had bad intentions. I couldn't understand it at the time, so that's why I was inspired to create a work like "The Deep Sea." Maybe there were problems then and now, but we need to work hard to find some sunshine in our hearts. We need to know why we are living and why we are doing what we are doing. Our efforts will one day be valuable, even if many people don't understand it today.

So this story is also about understanding this idea, but still accepting the way the world is.

On Understanding and Criticism I want to say something and make an appeal, because I have many friends who, after watching "Deep Sea", objectively pointed out the criticisms and negative feedback to me. I am willing to hear such negative feedback because it is real feedback, and they are trying to help me solve problems. Why couldn't they do the same when they first saw my creation? In the process of discussing with them, I also explained my thoughts and why I designed it this way. I didn't blindly create something without considering these issues or violating the rules of film and television or screenwriting. I did it for my own reasons. If you are willing to understand me and know what I'm thinking, and then help me solve the problems, I am very grateful, because I also want to know the truth and the answers.

When I talk to these screenwriter friends or film critics, at first they may not understand my ideas and may propose various opinions. But after we talk and they understand my thoughts, they will say, "Since you have chosen this direction, it is understandable that these problems have arisen. We may not be able to help you more. If we try, it may be like this or another way, and who knows if it is a good choice." So, I am really willing to accept negative feedback, but I prefer to hear valuable information that can really help me. As for the other comments, I just appreciate and accept them.

On Negative Comments

I think everyone watched it seriously, and of course, there may be a small number of people who did not watch it carefully and made negative comments.

However, I think most people, after watching the film, felt that it did not meet their expectations, and this is something we must face. As I said before, because of my own wilfulness, I did not consider the audience's feelings and wanted to experiment.

I think this may be because the entire animation has not reached a certain height for Chinese audiences to be willing to understand. Many times, their comments may think that we made some mistakes and thoughtless decisions, and I don't blame them because they bought tickets to watch the movie, and they are our patrons, so they have the right to criticize. We must accept any negative feedback. I can only say that I would rather listen to someone who watched the film but is still dissatisfied and can clearly point out the problems, because I really need this. I am already too late to make changes in "Deep Sea". But in the future, when I walk on this road, I hope to know where the truth lies, and I know why people are dissatisfied with "Deep Sea". Even better, people can provide good suggestions, like if we change something, it might work better. I actually prefer such sincere opinions.

[this-witch-writes]

Shadow & Bone (the show) is an interesting case study in modern book to screen adaptations and the influence of assumed fan reactions.

I was pretty forgiving of the decision to splice together the first five grishverse books in the show since the showrunners weren't willing to gamble on making audiences wait potentially 2 seasons to see fan favourite characters the Crows. It was a marketing more than a narrative decision but we all know how easily series can get cancelled after 1 season on streaming services even if they end on a cliff-hanger (most recently shows like Willow on Disney plus or The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself on Netflix)

So if we allow that decision is what is needed to have the show happens, it could be done in a way that worked with the themes of the books. A huge reoccurring theme in grishverse is that things and people are more interconnected than they realize. Often the reader knows things about characters that are never spoken aloud that shows they have connections or commonalities they don't even realize. But the show goes about this with a hamfisted lack of grace. All the characters announce their secrets constantly, their connections are all overt, clumsy and acknowledged aloud.

Still you could probably shrug that off as just the challenge of adaptation is not for the strange ending of season 2, where the two main characters of the original trilogy had their character arcs and themes completely inverted. It's hard to imagine why that would have happened except because the fandom had never been as invested in them as other characters.

But given that a season 3 seems guaranteed, I have no idea how they write their way out of this strange corner? It reminds me a lot of the final two seasons of Game of Thrones.

[bookswithsav]

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters

Book Information 

Title : Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters 

Author : Rick Riordan 

Series : Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Book 2) 

Rating 

Was the story engaging? 

The Sea of Monsters was engaging. What’s so neat about The Sea of Monsters is that the majority of the story takes place on/around/in the ocean. (I’m not counting this as a spoiler because the title is The Sea of Monsters). This is truthfully one of the first times that we get to see how Percy Jackson functions within his father’s domain, and it’s really neat. The struggles that are faced throughout the story are incredibly engaging and unique between themselves, causing the audience to have to be prepared for a quick switch in not only scenery, but also approach. 

Rating: 5/5 

Were the characters enjoyable/developed well? 

In my opinion, the characters within The Sea of Monsters are a little… off compared to their other depictions throughout the rest of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian Series. Something that I praised within The Lightning Thief was how great the different interactions between characters were, and while that’s still evident in The Sea of Monsters, there are multiple times throughout the story that I felt as though parts of the previous characterizations were ignored. That being said, each character is unique, which creates such an incredibly interesting world for the reader to enjoy. Characters who were supposed to be endearing managed to reach that mark incredibly well. On the flip side, characters who were supposed to be disliked also hit that mark well. 

Rating: 3/5 

Was the plot developed well? 

I believe that the plot was developed well. During The Sea of Monsters, the audience gets to know a Percy Jackson who has come to terms with his parentage and new way of life. Compared to The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters seems to move along at a slower pace, but that’s most likely due to the fact that Percy now knows what is happening and what to anticipate. The different challenges that are faced throughout the story flow wonderfully from one to the other, creating a well-developed plot that keeps the audience engaged while also creating a flow of different emotions. The Sea of Monsters also worked well with the overarching plot that was set up within The Lightning Thief, functioning as its own individual tale while continuing to warn (and encourage) the reader of what is next to come. 

Rating: 5/5 

Was the audience kept in mind? 

The audience was kept in mind throughout The Sea of Monsters. Something that has the potential to cause a huge challenge within The Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series is the intertwining of the modern day world and the world of Greek mythology. Rick Riordan continues to do a wonderful job with this incorporation, creating a flawless new world for the audience to enjoy. Additionally, as the second book in the series there’s some recap towards the beginning of the story, which is detailed enough to provide information while also being brief enough to not be troublesome for returning readers. Characters that are introduced within The Sea of Monsters that have direct connections to Greek mythology consistently and cleverly have their stories explained to both Percy Jackson and the audience, giving information in an entertaining - and sometimes shocking - way.

Rating: 5/5 

Would I recommend the book? 

Yes, I would absolutely recommend The Sea of Monsters. Even though it isn’t my favorite book within the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, The Sea of Monsters does a great job at showing how Percy Jackson has adapted to this new way of living. It also is a great book overall, and is (of course) a middle-school classic.  

Rating: 5/5 

Overall Rating: 4.6/5

Review 

Warning: Spoilers! 

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series has been one of my favorite series since elementary school, and I’m going to keep disclosing that due to the bias I have. However, I do have to say that The Sea of Monsters is probably my least favorite book in the series. Something that I really love about this series is how well the characters are written - how they each have individual desires, struggles, strengths, and weaknesses. I also really love how well the interactions are written between characters, with children interacting like children. That being said, every time I read The Sea of Monsters, I find myself slightly off-put by some of the character interactions that take place. 

First is Annabeth. Annabeth was a huge character within the first book, meaning that we got to see a lot of her character throughout The Lightning Thief. Her characterization, along with Percy’s and Grover’s, was set up pretty solidly within the first book. The interactions that Annabeth has with Tyson - and Percy regarding Tyson - seemed a little off to me. While I understand that she is bitter towards the cyclops that ended up causing the situation with Thalia, the continuation of anger and (dare I say it) disgust toward Tyson seemed out of character. As Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson work to find the Golden Fleece and save Grover, Annabeth doesn’t really become more accepting of Tyson’s presence, but simply becomes less outwardly against it. It’s not until Tyson is assumed dead that Annabeth seems to warm towards him, almost as though he’s proven his loyalty through death. The reason why this whole situation is strange to me is because of who Annabeth is as a character. As an audience, we’ve seen her use her observation skills to make a judgment on whether or not someone can be trusted, and there are a decent amount of times where she does allow Percy’s judgment to sway her own decision. I feel as though Annabeth’s initial reaction to Tyson was justified considering her past - even some of the interactions towards the beginning of Tyson’s time at camp and their quest was justified, as it has to be remembered that Annabeth is only about thirteen here. However, considering how Annabeth’s character was set up in The Lightning Thief, as well as the rest of The Sea of Monsters, the continuation of these types of interactions between Tyson and Annabeth feel unnatural and forced. 

Next is Clarisse - more specifically how she wouldn’t shut up when she really should have. Clarrise has stayed at camp her whole life at this point, living at camp as a year-rounder. She has a reputation of being brash, rude, and upfront. However, it seems completely out of character for her to continue to put everyone in danger while facing Polyphemus. When Annabeth and Percy first arrive at camp, Clarisse is leading the border control and consequently the fight against the mechanical bulls. During this fight, Clarisse controls her troops well, working to try and win the fight as efficiently as she can. She even managed to control her anger at Percy in order to help those who are injured. This trend of being aware continues, with Percy noting that Clarisse is seemingly reluctant to speak after Tantalus snaps at the campers. Clarisse might be incredibly brash, but she is also a trained demigod and the daughter of Ares, the god of war. It just doesn’t make much sense, considering her past and the prior events within The Sea of Monsters, that Clarisse wouldn’t be aware of the danger she was putting everyone in with her words when facing Polyphemus. The only way that I’m able to justify this is that maybe her actions were a way to complicate the plot, but even then, I feel as though there were better ways than ignoring elements of her previous characterization in favor of other elements. 

The rest of the character interactions throughout The Sea of Monsters are wonderful, working to create a web of connections between characters and continue to develop characters that we’ve already begun to love - and maybe some that we haven’t yet. Clarisse was most likely not a popular favorite just from her brief introduction in The Lightning Thief but the interactions that she had throughout The Sea of Monsters made her much more relatable, with some interactions even lending a background peek into why she acts the way she does - specifically, Clarisse’s interaction with her father, Ares. Interactions with Tantalus were also incredibly well done, though they were not aimed to make him more human. Tantalus is a monster, and each interaction that can be seen with Tantalus words to enforce this idea. This brings me to the next point!

The way in which Rick Riordan introduces the readers to the Greek mythology in The Sea of Monsters is incredibly flawless. It’s really wonderful - truthfully/ The way in which Tantalus’s story was told, as a threat towards campers that defied him, was much more sinister than Percy being reminded by a friend or mentor, and also contributed so much to how his character was built and portrayed. The way in which Circe’s story was revealed was also wonderful, as the audience was experiencing the helplessness that Percy was feeling as all parties realized what was happening and what power she held.  

As mentioned previously, a majority of the events that happen within The Sea of Monsters happen on/around/in the sea, and we as an audience finally start to realize why Percy is considered such a threat as a child of The Big Three. Compared to the other demigods that we’ve seen, Percy has incredible powers that overreach limits that even surprise him. Until this point in Percy’s story, we as an audience understood that he was powerful and had a lot of potential, but it was not revealed just how powerful he could be. Knowing that Percy still has a long way to go due to his age, it can be easily assumed that he’s going to end up quite a menace to some and quite a hero to others. Additionally, many of the adventures and quests that the heroes of Greek mythology went on included some form of travel over water, which I feel is not as common a method of travel today. Having the events within this story happen on the sea is such a cool call-back to that. 

Overall, I really enjoy The Sea of Monsters. It’s a wonderful story that continues Percy’s story, creating a vibrant world with vibrant characters. Though there are some inconsistencies with some of the characters throughout, the story is told incredibly well and leads the audience on yet another fun adventure. 

[finnlongman]

i remember seeing you say something about writing adaptations of medieval texts really changes your perspective on them. i've started writing/plotting a story based on one medieval text i've always really liked and it's been SO interested for me to look at it like, "well, if the characters in the original want X, what would be the closest equivalent i could give them? technically they could still want X but that would have totally different connotations to a modern reader. what does it mean to w

Tumblr cut this ask off, so if there was more, please do resend it, but yeah, it's a fascinating exercise!

The retellings I've been working on recently have been very direct retellings – I'm not transplanting them to a modern setting or trying to disguise the story in any way, and I'm keeping events more or less as they are in the original, but digging down into the motivations and emotions and maybe changing the emphasis. Even that requires me to think about how a character's intentions will be read by a modern audience: I don't want them to feel modern, but I want them to be comprehensible to a modern reader.

Another thing I find interesting about adapting medieval texts in this way is that there are fundamental difference between medieval texts and modern novels, and to create the latter, you often have to let go of aspects of the former. Expectations for plot, character arcs, and pacing are just so different, and finding the balance of that with my academic fidelity to the text is challenging (but rewarding!).

But I've also worked on retellings that transplant characters to a modern setting, and as you say, figuring out what a modern "equivalent" of their goals or aims might be is always super fascinating.

I'm actually going to blog properly about this soon because I want to talk about how I use creative work to enhance and complement my academic readings of texts, and how I find the writing process helpful to informing new readings, so... stay tuned for that at some point.

[tokensbossh]

Everything You Need to Know About She-Venom: Marvel’s Lethal Femme Fatale

She-Venom has quickly become one of Marvel’s most intriguing anti-heroes. Known by fans as Anne Weying, the character’s complex relationship with the Venom symbiote has elevated her beyond a mere sidekick. Here, we’ll dig into the origins of She-Venom, her role in Marvel’s storyline, and why her character strikes a chord with so many fans.

Everything You Need to Know About She-Venom Marvel’s Lethal Femme Fatale (1) In this article, we’re diving headfirst into Anne Weying’s transformation into She-Venom, her first appearance in the comics, and her portrayal in recent media. From her Marvel comic debut to her big-screen presence, She-Venom continues to redefine what it means to be a female anti-hero. If you’re a Marvel fan, or simply intrigued by the concept of a female Venom, this piece will answer your questions and more.

Who is She-Venom?

Everything You Need to Know About She-Venom Marvel’s Lethal Femme Fatale (2) The character of Anne Weying, originally a supporting role in the Spider-Man comics, made her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #375 in 1993. Anne, a lawyer and Eddie Brock’s ex-wife, didn’t become She-Venom until Venom: Sinner Takes All #3 (1995), where she bonded with the Venom symbiote. Her transformation is both dramatic and tragic, adding layers to her character that make her more than just “Venom in female form” (Heroes Wiki, Fandom). Anne’s transformation to She-Venom is symbolic, metaphorically showcasing her shift from a civilian character to a force of reckoning. In her symbiote form, she’s able to act outside the constraints of her human life and achieve her own form of justice—a theme resonant with many fans.

Everything You Need to Know About She-Venom Marvel’s Lethal Femme Fatale (2) The Role of Anne Weying in Marvel’s Universe Anne’s transition to She-Venom isn’t just a physical change. She embodies the fierce, no-holds-barred approach that Venom is famous for, blending strength and rage with moral complexity. In the comics, she battles through the challenges posed by her transformation, including the psychological toll that comes from merging with a symbiote. Her tragic story mirrors the dark nature of Marvel’s anti-heroes, giving readers a more nuanced character (Marvel Database - Fandom). Moreover, She-Venom’s character development provides a fresh perspective in the world of Marvel anti-heroes. By stepping into a symbiote role, Anne Weying transcends her human limitations and becomes an embodiment of rage and justice—a juxtaposition that is both empowering and ominous.

Everything You Need to Know About She-Venom Marvel’s Lethal Femme Fatale (3)

Everything You Need to Know About She-Venom Marvel’s Lethal Femme Fatale (1) Evolution in Media: Bringing She-Venom to Life The character of Anne Weying was brought to the screen by Michelle Williams in the Venom films. Williams’ portrayal captures Anne’s intelligence, wit, and complexity, bridging her comic origins with a modern interpretation. The film adaptation introduced her to new audiences, igniting further interest in her role as She-Venom. Marvel’s decision to introduce a female symbiote wasn’t just a nod to comic fans—it signaled a willingness to expand its universe by diversifying iconic roles. With fans clamoring for more female-led anti-hero stories, She-Venom’s appearance may open the door for similar characters, further exploring the symbiotic relationships between strength, vulnerability, and justice.

Everything You Need to Know About She-Venom Marvel’s Lethal Femme Fatale (2) Venom and She-Venom: The Duality of Gender While Venom is typically presented as gender-fluid, She-Venom’s transformation adds a new layer to the gender dynamics of Marvel’s symbiote characters. The symbiote’s adaptability to any host allows it to transcend traditional gender definitions, making it a symbol of power and identity that goes beyond the binary (Gramuglia, Medium). This fluidity challenges traditional superhero norms and highlights the versatility and unpredictability of symbiotes. By merging with Anne, Venom evolves as both a character and a concept, showing the powerful potential of hybrid identities. Marvel’s choice to spotlight this theme is not only innovative but also reflects a broader shift toward inclusivity in modern storytelling. She-Venom in Pop Culture: Fan Reception and Merchandise As interest in She-Venom grows, so does the fan art, cosplay, and collectibles celebrating her character. From Halloween costumes to action figures, She-Venom’s popularity has been widely embraced. Pinterest boards and Reddit threads are filled with fan interpretations of She-Venom, emphasizing the character’s dark allure and connection to the broader Venom mythology (Pinterest, 2024).

Everything You Need to Know About She-Venom Marvel’s Lethal Femme Fatale (4) Why She-Venom Matters: A Symbol of Empowerment The rise of She-Venom resonates with a cultural shift toward embracing strong, complex female characters who don’t fit into traditional hero molds. Anne Weying’s journey is one of personal empowerment, even if it’s tinged with tragedy. Her transformation serves as a metaphor for embracing inner strength, and, in a way, owning the chaos within. She doesn’t need to fit into the traditional role of a “superheroine” because her power—and her anger—are part of what make her compelling. What’s Next for She-Venom? With the rising popularity of anti-heroes and morally ambiguous characters in the Marvel Universe, it wouldn’t be surprising if She-Venom reappears, either in upcoming Marvel series or film adaptations. As fans continue to voice their support for more diverse and complex female leads, characters like She-Venom are likely to take center stage in future storylines. If you’re interested in learning more about She-Venom, explore her appearances in the Venom comics or check out her portrayal in the 2018 Venom film, where she was brought to life by Michelle Williams. To understand her character fully, dive into her comic book origins and her evolution in Marvel media. These sources offer insights into her journey, both as an individual and as part of the Venom legacy. For further reading, check out Marvel’s official character database and her profile on the Marvel Database - Fandom. Read the full article

[ellamargohazel]

Unlocking Sustainable Business Growth: Strategies for Modern Entrepreneurs

Growth isn’t just about getting bigger; it’s about creating a sustainable path for your business to thrive in any environment. Many entrepreneurs face the common struggle of not just scaling, but doing so in a way that doesn’t compromise quality, culture, or consistency. In this article, we’ll explore key strategies that will help your business grow sustainably, from embracing digital marketing to focusing on adaptability and customer-first approaches.

1. Embrace Digital Marketing as a Core Strategy

The modern marketplace is digital, so digital marketing is essential for growth. Many business owners delay investing in an online presence, but in reality, a strong digital marketing strategy is often the fastest and most cost-effective way to reach your target audience and scale your customer base. Here’s a quick breakdown of where you should focus your digital efforts:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Start with SEO, the foundation for getting organic traffic from search engines. By optimizing your site for relevant keywords and making sure your website content is engaging and valuable, you can naturally attract customers who are actively looking for your product or service. Building backlinks from reputable sites, refining on-page SEO, and using local SEO tactics (especially if you’re a location-based business) are proven methods to boost visibility.

Content Marketing: Content marketing is another avenue where SEO and customer engagement meet. Create blog posts, guides, videos, and other valuable content that speaks to your audience’s interests and challenges. This helps position your brand as a go-to source of information, and over time, builds trust.

Social Media Marketing: Social media allows businesses to connect directly with customers and share insights, tips, and news. When done right, social media humanizes your brand and keeps you connected with your audience, which can make a real difference in customer loyalty. Platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and even TikTok (depending on your industry) are effective channels to increase reach and engagement.

2. Leverage Customer Data to Make Smart Decisions

As your business grows, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of who your customers are, what they value, and how they interact with your brand. By leveraging customer data, you can identify patterns, pain points, and opportunities that may not be obvious at first glance. Here’s how to make the most out of your data:

Use Analytics Tools: Start with tools like Google Analytics, which can reveal a lot about user behavior, demographics, and the success of different marketing campaigns. You’ll see which pages get the most traffic, where people drop off, and what content converts best.

Conduct Regular Customer Surveys: A more personal approach to gathering data is by asking your customers directly. Surveys, interviews, and feedback forms can give you insights that data analytics can’t. Knowing why people choose your business (or why they don’t) can guide everything from product improvements to new service offerings.

Adapt and Iterate: Growth requires flexibility. Analyze data and feedback, then be prepared to pivot based on what you learn. If one service is getting rave reviews while another is lagging, you might focus your resources on scaling the popular service or improving the other.

3. Prioritize Customer Retention as Much as Acquisition

Many businesses focus heavily on customer acquisition while neglecting customer retention. However, statistics show that it costs significantly more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. Repeat customers are likely to spend more, and they’re also more inclined to refer others. Here are a few strategies to boost customer retention:

Exceptional Customer Service: Make sure your customer service team is well-trained, empowered, and ready to go the extra mile. Friendly, helpful service leaves a lasting impression and can turn one-time buyers into lifelong customers.

Loyalty Programs and Incentives: Reward customers for their loyalty with exclusive offers, discounts, or a point-based rewards system. This makes them feel valued and gives them a reason to return.

Personalized Communication: Today’s consumers expect more personalized experiences. Whether through email marketing, tailored offers, or targeted ads, reach out in ways that speak to their interests. Simple gestures like remembering a customer’s name or preferences can go a long way in building loyalty.

4. Build a Strong Company Culture

As your business grows, maintaining a strong company culture becomes essential. Culture influences everything from employee satisfaction and productivity to customer experience. A positive culture that aligns with your brand’s values can become a driving force behind sustainable growth.

Define Your Core Values: Make sure everyone on your team understands and embodies the core values of your business. This clarity of purpose will guide decisions at all levels and ensure that everyone is working toward the same vision.

Encourage Innovation: Empower your team to bring new ideas to the table. A culture that encourages innovation and creativity can lead to exciting developments, from improved services to new product lines.

Recognize and Reward Hard Work: Employees who feel appreciated are more likely to stay motivated. Regular recognition for hard work and meaningful contributions fosters loyalty and drives employees to continue delivering their best.

5. Invest in Scalability Early On

If you have a growth mindset, think long-term from the very beginning. Systems that work when you’re small might not hold up once you scale. Planning ahead for scalability can help prevent growing pains and position you for long-term success.

Automate Where Possible: Repetitive tasks like data entry, invoicing, and scheduling can be automated to save time and reduce the risk of human error. Automation also frees up your team to focus on more strategic work that directly contributes to growth.

Implement Strong Project Management Tools: Investing in project management software helps keep everyone on the same page, which becomes increasingly important as teams grow. Tools like Asana, Trello, or Monday.com make it easier to manage workflows, assign tasks, and monitor progress.

Monitor Financial Health: Sustainable growth requires financial stability. Make sure you’re investing wisely, managing cash flow, and planning for future expenses. Consider consulting a financial advisor to create a robust financial plan for scaling your business.

Closing Thoughts: Growing with a Partner You Trust

While there’s no magic formula for growth, these strategies can guide you toward a successful, scalable business that’s built to last. Growth can be both exciting and challenging, and many businesses find value in partnering with a dedicated team that specializes in digital growth strategies.

If you’re looking to take your digital presence to the next level, consider working with a growth-focused SEO agency like Pearl Lemon. With a team that understands the importance of both strategy and creativity, Pearl Lemon is here to help businesses thrive in a competitive landscape by enhancing their online visibility and reaching their ideal customers.

This draft combines strategic tips with an emphasis on digital marketing and a human touch, building naturally to the Pearl Lemon mention at the end. Let me know if you’d like more adjustments or focus in any particular area