#so glad we got a campaign trailer <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[welldonekhushi]

Okay guys, I'm back and.. I needed a short break after what happened in the MWIII campaign. Words can't express how shocked I was when I reached the end of the campaign and.. it left me in confusion, denial, depression and anger.

I'm putting a "read more" below because, if there are people who still haven't played MWIII, I'll keep ya guys safe.

Our theories before were constantly revolving that who's gonna die and what worse is going to happen.. it first pointed towards the fate of Price or Gaz. But, turns out we were jinxed. JINXED.

The campaign was.. okay but at the same time I felt it was small. Quite rushed. I did have a light of concern over their release date when MWII was currently trending. I was reading others reviews of how they felt about the game and yes, I agree with the same. But I wanna talk about Soap's fate this time..

Soap, who JUST started his journey, like, the one who only appeared in MWII and hoped we would see him more develop in the further games to be just.. killed off? When were they moments away from achieving victory?

So only because it's called MW3 ✌🏻 and you wanted to give us all a nostalgic experience you'll.. give them the original plot treatment? Both Soaps in the Modern Warfare universes.. died under the hands of Vladimir Makarov but in different circumstances.

This is where I got a bit angry at Price because, why didn't you kill Makarov instead of taking him in custody in Verdansk?! That guy is a walking grim reaper, and if Price took that action before, not just Soap but MANY more lives would have been saved. Soap was a man who was ready to take immediate action but always got backed off because of being bound to orders.

The end scene when they took out his ashes.. it broke me. Like, how unexpected this can be? Well, though I know Makarov already gave a warning that he was going to kill him off in the heli scene, but.. it's just not it? Like, honestly, I was hopeful Soap would survive.. it's disappointing for me, as someone who loves him so much, like anything.

So ScarSoap's now an angsty ship? Because let it be for both universes — OG and Reboot, Scarlet's going to be left behind? Welp, I'm more sad now, lol.

Otherwise, the expectations I had for the campaign were somehow, not met to the fullest but let's talk about the good things.

Price killing off Shepherd. YES, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. I freaking knew that he was going to die and my prediction called itself right. But, now that Price killed a 4-star General, he's gonna go rogue. You mean, batshit, crazy and unhinged Price on the move?!

Julian Kostov. The man. Bro, like, when he was featured in the reveal trailer, I was just hoping that he'd play the role of Makarov well and guess what? He did! I absolutely loved how he portrayed the man and he looked intimidating and twisted like a true psychopath. Truly, he could compete with the OG!Makarov and it's proven! Hats off to the actor, really <3

Price DOESN'T die. Neither in my beliefs, Farah and Alex. A relief. A pure relief, for real. The trailers showed him passing out but glad he's good in one piece. But, did that happen for the cost of killing Soap? :')

Graves and Shepherd betray each other in the conference, LMFAO! Who knew they were going to turn their backs on each other. Graves really had nothing to do with this, he was just a man following orders.. the problem lies with Shepherd, and always has.

Now, these guys said we're gonna release the "full campaign" on November 10. You mean.. the early access didn't show much of the story? So there's hope? OR NOT? Sigh, I don't want to think about it.. I just don't. I've been delulu, haha

Anyways, these are my thoughts for Modern Warfare III! What do you feel about it, let me know in the comments!

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

Hey!!

I am so glad you liked gotg 3 i just came back from the movies the moment the movie ended i got hit by nostalgia tbh it's been such a long time since I've liked a marvel movie that the charcaters were actually more or less IN CHARACTER (side eyes Waldron's shitty takes)

However i sort of felt like well ... This is it. i don't think any of the new writers even the "expensive once" marvel claims to now work with really produce anything remotely close in terms of characterization

Idk it was just kinda depressing that instead if enjoying the movie i launched myself into a state of mourning for all my beloved characters that got assassinated by shitty writing 😂

Hey there! OMG I know exactly what you mean.

Don't get me wrong, Wakanda Forever was absolutely amazing but GoTG3 was the ending to a team we had known for 9 years and given recent movies and series from Marvel it's such a breath of fresh air to see something where the characters are consistent, the story is completely focused on them and the rest of the MCU universe doesn't get in the way. It feels like a complete outsider in the Marvel roaster: it's 100% a Gunn movie and not Feige's.

And then you look at future movies/series and... there's nothing like it on the horizon. I don't mean to say nothing good will come in the future because some of the movies and series look nice but everything that comes now has the Marvel brand plastered all over, it's not a personal story like the Guardians was for Gunn. And Phase 5 started with Quantumania... do I need say more 🤦‍♀️

So I completely understand what you mean. Look at me, 3 favourite characters and all 3 ruined mercilessly by Marvel (well, 2 and a half. Stephen is still standing thanks to Ben, poor thing). There's still a chance we might see something good, so I'll stick to the trailers and hope that when Iger said they were going to delay some stuff and take a look at what they're doing that was more than a marketing campaign 🙏

[donkuri]

extremely rambly post dawntrail thoughts. mega spoilers. I sound like such a hater, but i promise i'm not <3

90-95(ish)

For the most part I enjoyed the beginning half of the expansion, in all honesty there were (many) times that it all felt a bit naive and twee, someone referred to it as feeling a bit like an afterschool special and I couldn't agree more. For an expansion coming of the back of Endwalker and how it engaged with difficult subject matter in (in my opinion) a very thoughtful and meaningful way, Dawntrail felt a bit shallow in comparison. Which would not be a problem, I am in no way saying every expac has to have the same depth and Endwalker (far from it, that would be exhausting), but Dawntrail constantly feels like it's trying so very hard to be deep. A message is all well and good, but please don't expect me to be impressed with "don't hurt others ^_^ ever. ^_^" I realize also that the vibe was very likely exentuated to be 'subverted' (not really) in the second half of the story, but that didn't stop it from feeling patronizing and trite for the first chunk. I realize this sounds soo hatery and I really did enjoy the story, going into it i expected a lighter 'fun-adventure' vibe which we definitely got, However (😖) i thinkk the writing team is coming up against the one piece problem, mainly, there are too many characters and they don't know what to do with them. Frankly, it feels extremely weird to have the scions parsled out piece by piece into the msq, I realize in order to tell more stories other characters need to be introduced, which in turn can make the characters we know redundant. But, having estinien show up for literally what feels like about 5 total minutes of the expansion is baffling. Personally, I think the solution to this is more character moments, we got a couple with wuk lamat and company, but to me some of the best moments in endwalker were when we just get to hang out with our buddies, something like that could have gone a looong way for me to feel like they were actually part of the story. honestly, even having G'raha just be on continent would have been something, just have him bum around the city i don't know.. let me get skewers with estinien, let me go tidepooling with urianger, little character moments go a long way for making a story feel lived in, and i think dawntrail was slightly lacking in that regard. In the final cutscene erenville says the whole city partied for 3 days and 3 nights, let me go! let me get wine-drunk with y'shtola and have a taco eating contest with Alisaie. there was even a perfect break built in before the dawnservant ceremony, let me hang out with my pixelated friendsss orz...

95-100

In terms of the second half of the expansion, I enjoyed it as well, the general consensus seems to be that the second half is the stronger one, and I don't think I disagree. The theming is cool (r.i.p. to the people that hated the recent pvp gear...) and I'm glad soken has started to embrace his gift for making incredible techno music. But on the topic of music... what the hell is that theme man. I love ffxiv music, truly truly I do but, I cannot come up with anything but 'bad' to describe that fucking song. I've heard it described as disney, and like a song from a political ralley, i'll dare to combine the two and say it sounds like disney produced the campaign song for kamala harris 2028. When it first crops up during the coronation ceremony i was like "wow thats not good at all.." but during the train montage it literally made me laugh out loud, and during the ending credits i was just kinda bummed. The expansion theme itself (from the trailer) is fucking awesome though, no notes 👌

gulool ja- I truly truly adore him, i don't care if he's a marketable moeblob, that's my baby nephew, I do however have some thoughts.. First of all, I was honestly hoping for a failed/discarded clone reveal, personally that makes more sense to me considering Alexandria's technology instead of some random Mamool Ja woman also being stuck there deciding to bone down on zoraal ja, unless he can do asexual reproduction, in which case, slay. But I think a clone angle could have been an interesting entry point on a discussion of nature vs nurture, would zoraal ja raised away from the burden of expectation of the miracle son grow into the despot that he did? I do think it was insane that he just, stayed the boy king, literally a terrible idea considering it's heavily implied the burden of his father's legacy is what caused zoraal ja to break bad but okay... AND he shoulda moved to tural and gotten to play with the other mamool ja kids dammit 😣

the issue of Zoraal Ja- For all the knowledge we have he was ostensibly raised with a loving family, gulool ja ja seemed to be a good father on most if not all accounts, so why did Zoraal ja turn out like he did? was it an instance of that slimy advisor dude raising him like namikka did for wuk lamat? I think in general Zoraal ja wasn't afforded a lot of grace as a character, and generally treated as pretty wholly evil until his death-floor speech. I, personally don't find that very compelling, or even that it makes much sense. You never get an insight really as to *Why* he's doing what he's doing, 'he wants to surpass his father' ok, but why is world domination the only way he can think to do so? I had thought for a bit near the beginning of the expac that he'd have a similar character to Koana, on that while he may be outwardly cold towards his siblings, he'd still love and care for them, but those thoughts went out the window after the cook-off. I think he was underdeveloped and could have used a little more consideration when creating his motivation and personality. Or at least more of a backstory, a lot of Koana's personal beliefs were formed by his studying in sharlayan, did zoraal ja have a similar experience that shaped his worldview? give me something... anything...

I have heard a lot of criticism surrounding the villain of the expac (store brand metion) a lot of which I think is fair, but whats kind of funny to me is seemingly she didn't really do anything too heinous in my opinion... Sure, she participated in the initial invasion of tural, but that was absolutely gonna happen anyway, and her grand fusion plan didn't work (as near as I can tell) in the end anyway. I saw someone pissed that she got 'redeemed' but honestly, I don't think she had anything she needed to been redeemed for. In terms of her motivation, I personally found her interesting, But, I also realize that I find her interesting because of how I characterize my wol, instead of how she's actually written, so I don't think that can be used in her favor (sorry sphene, I don't think it should be a requirement to have 30k+ words of oc lore to enjoy a villain) But she really did feel like a knock-off metion, which really only was to her detriment. I think the expac hot of the heels of Endwalker (my favorite expac) should be doing all it can to avoid direct comparison between the two, and Sphene as a whole invites that.

but it was goood, right now I'd rank it at a solid #3

#1 Endwalker

#2 Shadowbringers

#3 Dawntrail

#4 Stormblood

#5 Heavensward

#6 ARR

I think I'm gonna new game plus and replay the other expacs this summer (yippie unemployment ♥️) so my opinion might change in hindsight, currently its pretty damn close with Stormblood imo

I hope everyone had just as much fun with Dawntrail as I did, and I'm excited to see where we go from here!

[fadebolt]

Oooookaaayyy, I've checked out the stream and the news, and to say that I'm pumped would be putting things quite lightly.

Of course, it was fun to see the devs talk about stuff, some lovely folks I know from the Container popping up in the museum, and the Sanshee restock (that I'm contemplating about ordering from, even though my preordered Slugpup plushies haven't even been sent out yet).

But most importantly, we have the thing that everyone's been raving about....

A new DLC centered around Nightcat!

I very much adore this for many reasons.

The wording, as well as the screenshots in the Steam post imply that we're gonna be in a completely new area, away from the long abandoned facility grounds of LttM and FP. The new regions/areas were the absolute best part of Downpour, and having a DLC that is seemingly centered around them on an even bigger level just sounds incredible (Jadzio might also have some fun polling them, too :D).

The animation of the trailer is also pretty neat. It's short, sure, but there's just something about seeing Rain World in this new style that makes me smile. Style alternating is what makes me love League's animated media so much, and I'm very happy that RW is starting to dip its toes into that too.

The naming of the new Slugcat, as well as its stationary stealth ability... dude is a Slugcat Night Elf, fair and square. This could be a coincidence, sure, but I would absolutely not be surprised if there're some Warcraft fans amongst the devs, because that's a very obvious connection that I've made pretty much immediately. And I'm not saying that as a way of criticism - because I freaking love Night Elves, not just from a story and thematic perspective, but also their gameplay in Warcraft 3 (Terror of the Tides being an incredible campaign, and Eternity's End having a bunch of awesome moments helps a ton, too).

As for how me and the rest of the fandom will handle the Watcher in headcanons and potential content going forward, well...

It's gonna be a bit tricky, for sure. I imagine the DLC will not come out for quite a while, but it'll most likely shatter all my headcanons and lore ideas to pieces, and any plans of me writing stories about Nightcat just got even more complicated now. But I don't mind this too much, as I'm confident I'll be more than capable of figuring out how to integrate the official content into my stuff, and the same applies to the rest of the fandom, too (and if all else fails, I can always pull the "Nightcat and Watcher are two entirely different characters" card, but that sounds uncreative and boring, and I wanna avoid that, even if Enot was pretty much globally accepted as a different character, despite their color, and them mentioning 'being removed from Arena').

One other positive to mention is that Nightcat X Spearmaster might actually blow up a decent bit now. And if that happens, I'll get to claim the royal title of being someone from the original Inkblot gang, which will be amazing. Plus, more content about my favorite pair, who wouldn't be happy about that?

I just hope that the fandom isn't going to get into crazy arguments/dramas over the Watcher/Nightcat stuff. Everyone is going to change their content around the new revelations differently, and that's ok. I'm probably worrying about nothing here, but I have seen folks pick bones with creators over minor harmless stuff before, so my concerns are probably valid. Let's just let everyone have fun with whatever approach they wish to take, m'kay?

That's all my thoughts regarding the new revelations for now. If this post came off as a bit mixed, then I want to clarify that I'm still absolutely excited about the new content, and I'm very glad that this forgotten scug is getting its well deserved resurgence.

Everything is gonna be great and fun, and I am very much hyped about it! (I'm already in love with all the fan content, btw. The speed at which everyone is showing appreciation is simply staggering. You guys are impressive as all hell!)

[owlixx]

CoD Purchase Notes:

I believe it has been since the last notes that I purchased Call of Duties 3, 4: MW, MW2 (OG), Black Ops 1, Ghosts, and Advanced Warfare. This completes my collection at the modest sum of 85 bucks. That’s half because Ghosts and AW only sell the “gold” version bundle with 1 DLC for 20 bucks each. Still, I’m glad to have access to exo zombies at all since it isn’t in the bad game of AW.

Since then, I refunded my copy of CoD 4 because I didn’t realize that my secondhand physical copy of Infinite Warfare included Modern Warfare Remastered! It said “download required” on the box, so I assumed it came with a download code that would surely be redeemed already, but no, it comes with a little 100 megabyte download starter on the disc itself which is amazing. I’m really glad I’ll get to experience that campaign in its best form and get to try the multiplayer with a few more active players.

I still have all my stats and unlocks from back in the day for BO1 and MW2! It’s crazy that I only have 30ish hours in the multiplayer of MW2 and didn’t hit max level when it seemed so big to me at the time. Same with BO1, with only 20 odd hours in the multiplayer (and a .67 KD, yikes) BUT I have 30 odd hours in just the combat training mode and god knows how long I spent in zombies.

Speaking of - I did do one round of Kino and got to round 17 solo after pack a punching the ray gun and m16 and getting all four perks, which I was very proud of accomplishing on my very first try here in the second-to-oldest zombies mode. I remember years ago reflecting on how much easier the classic maps were in BO3 compared to their original versions and now BO3 itself seems like ancient history compared to the modern CoDs and their open-world zombies too.

Also it’s crazy to me that Black Ops 1 has no incentive to use one gun over another! I mean, sure, there’s challenges for each gun to complete but they just award basic xp/points. The camos and attachments are just unlocked by purchase. I appreciate offering the player agency but I don’t have a strong desire to grind this game out that way. also kind of wild to see “equipment” as something you just respawn with instead of being timer based like field upgrades. Face camo is funny. Crazy to see this game have more reticle customization than any other CoD still. The red splash badges for double kills and such are also hilariously dated now but they seemed so cool and modern at the time. I was so excited for Black Ops 1 that I still call the Stakeout pump shotgun “Ithaca” from its trailer name by total accident. I also kind of miss how these older maps sometimes had more of an identity or gimmick than the dull modern maps. I did do 1 match of BO1 as a sneak preview and it was honestly a ton of fun and not nearly as clunky as I was expecting, though definitely a bit sluggish compared to what we expect now.

MW2 came first and I much prefer the idea of revisiting it and getting every gun or at least one gun fully equipped with attachments and camos. I do kind of miss the idea that the attachments are one-and-done “game changers” and that each attachment on a gun counts as basically an entire different weapon since it changes it so much. Pro Perks seem unbalanced though and as always, the effects are simply insane how some perks are devastating (stopping power) and some are nearly pointless. Very funny to see tactical insertion as a grenade, only 3 tactical, and the bizarre “blast mask” as a grenade. Also I had forgotten that shotguns were a secondary in MW2! I’ve already had a lot of fun in the menus alone and I haven’t even started an actual match in it yet. not to mention spec ops!

[rhyske]

I am the youngest of 5 siblings. I have 3 older half-sisters that I'm not really close with because we have different moms and didn't grow up together. there are only 3 years between me and my brother and yeah we're quite close. we have always played games together oh and we play with my mom as well, she is a gamer too but she mostly plays Elder scrolls online these days lol.

I don't think I'll be saving up for a PC anytime soon, I have a lot of financial problems so it's not really a priority TT_TT. Luckily Xbox has some cross-platform stuff which is nice and I have game pass through a friend so I'm pretty satisfied at the moment. you take what you can get I guess ^^

as a writer, I see issues with both XIII and XV but they have so much potential so I kind of love that about them and the characters are great in both! Though I thought the concept for Stella in XIII-versus was better than what we got with Luna. Luna is fine but it could have been better. I'm not a hater though. I do like VII and X as well but I have never played them.

honestly, I don't remember when I started watching CR but it was ages ago, like pretty early in campaign 2 if I remember correctly. I have started campaign 1 and 3 but I'm not as attached to those characters but I still like it. it's just more work somehow? I don't know how to explain it. I didn't think they were gonna do animated Might Nein before TLoVM had ended either, I CANT TELL YOU HOW HAPPY I WAS TO HEAR THAT. It kind of makes sense since TLoVM was a massive hit for amazon prime though.

I have a list of games I am working through because I haven't really played a lot of single-player games, to be honest. I used to play more fps games like Halo, Destiny 1 or Apex. I played through dragon age 2 earlier this year. I played it before when it first came out and quite liked it but I struggled with it because there was a language barrier (English is not my native language). At the time I was around 13 I think so yeah. I finished it now and I am obsessed. though I am currently working on DA inquisition and might go back and give Origins a try if I'm feeling like it. Then I plan on tackling mass effect!~💜

Oh dang, that's a lot of siblings! And that's really cool your mom plays games too! Mine never could figure them out 😆 Not for my lack of trying.

Oh well that's good! I'm glad you're happy with it (: I wish you luck and good karma for your money situation. Figuring out financials is always so stressful.

See, I think Luna was terrible and useless as a character 😆 I definitely think Versus had good potential too, and I'm sad we'll never know what the plan was for it. No story is perfect, but some are definitely better than others. Mm, I recommend VII Remake. It has some pacing issues, but I actually really enjoyed the game even with that. I played the original VII all the way up to the final dungeon and just never got around to finishing it 😆 I don't know why.

I feel that. I've watched both seasons of Vox Machina and while I like that group, they haven't taken a place close to Mighty Nein in my heart. I don't know much about Campaign 3 except for Sam's "she named all her creations after all her favorite smells" clip 😂

Oh yeah, they decided to continue with a season 3 even though it was just planned for 2 seasons, right? I'm happy Vox Machina is so popular and they're making more! Man, the Mighty Nein trailer picked out such good and memorable lines from all the characters! It makes me so excited!

Oh man, Dragon Age 2 is my favorite (: I hate Inquisition, so I hope you at least like it and don't have my experience! ^^' I enjoy Origins too, but man does it have some coding issues that can really bog down the game. On PC, Origins has a memory leak so you literally have to restart the game every couple hours or your loading screens will get soooo long.

English is your second language? That's amazing! Learning another language is so damn hard, I'm so proud of you! I've been trying to learn another language on and off for years cause it gets so overwhelming. Was it self taught, taught in school, or a bit of both?

[eddies-freak]

eddie takes care of sick!fem!reader

Summary: You’ve caught the flu, Eddie takes care of you. <3

Warnings: Food, Sickness (flu), Throwing up; Pure fluff!

Word Count: 1.1k 

You’ve just gotten off a long day at work, running around delivering coffee and lunch and papers all about the offices of the Hawkins Post. You had a horrible headache that was pounding and grinding and making it impossible to think, so you’d told Tom you were having “lady issues” and needed to go home. Parking your car in the gravel in front of Eddie’s trailer, you get out and jiggle your key in the door until finally it gives way and opens. Inside you find Eddie at the stove in a black Dio shirt and some plaid pajama pants, looking over his shoulder at you when he hears you come in. 

“Hey, sweetheart,” he says, stirring the pot. “I was just heating up some soup, you want some?” 

“Sure, thanks Eds. I’ve got a horrible headache so I’m gonna take some Tylenol. How was your day off?” 

“Pretty good, actually! Planned out the D&D campaign for the next couple weeks, the boys are gonna love it.” Even though it was the summer, the Hellfire club had still been meeting every Thursday. Eddie would get off work at the shop early to meet everyone at Mike’s house and play part of a campaign. 

Eddie made his way over to you, tenderly snaking his hands around your waist. “But it would’ve been better with you here, y’know,” he added softly, before pressing his lips to yours in a gentle kiss. 

“Is that your way of saying you missed me?” you ask, pulling your lips apart. He thought for a minute, furrowing his brow. 

“Well, yeah, I guess it is,” he finally said, with a wide smile on his face. 

“Aw, I’m glad. Going-” You started feeling lightheaded all of a sudden, queasy and sweaty all over. 

“Hm?” Eddie said, concerned look on his face. 

“I feel so hot.” Your own voice sounded far away, spots clouded your vision. Eddie pressed the back of his hand to your forehead. 

“Jesus, y/n, you’re burning up.” But you were already slipping away, as your entire world faded to black. 

---

When you woke up, you were in Eddie’s bed, on your back. You looked down to find nothing but your bra on, plus some of Eddie’s boxers. Your head was pounding, and you let out a small groan of pain. There was a towel on your forehead and you flipped it over, sighing with relief as the coldness consumed you. 

You were still hot and sweaty, going in and out, hot and cold. Your limbs felt like lead and your throat was so parched you couldn’t speak. What had happened last night? you wondered. Then you remembered: not a full memory, just flashes. You had fainted. Eddie had carried you in here and helped you change your clothes. Everything was hazy, you couldn’t remember the details. Suddenly, Eddie burst through the door, stopping when he saw you awake. 

“Hey,” you managed to rasp out, sitting up. 

“No no no, sweetheart, lay back down. That’s it. And don’t talk either, we don’t want to hurt your throat more. Take this,” he said, handing you a glass of water and some medication. “Drink the whole glass, there you go. Quite a time we had, yeah? You need to drink as much water as you can, you’re going to be super dehydrated after all of that.” 

You pointed to your throat, indicating to him that he had told you not to talk. 

“Oh, shit! Sorry.” He got up and took something off his dresser, which you discovered was a pad of paper and a sharpie. 

I don’t remember what happened, you wrote. Eddie chuckled. 

What could it be? you wondered. Eddie laughed harder. 

Tell me!!, you wrote furiously, adding an extra exclamation point. It can’t be that funny, you thought. 

“Well,” Eddie started, after he had recovered from his temporary distraction. “First of all, you fainted…” You raised your eyebrows. “...and then you threw up all over me and the kitchen. By the time we got to the bathroom you had already puked it all out,” he finished, giggling again. 

“Oh my go-” you started, but Eddie’s hand clasped over your mouth, his other hand pointing at the pad of paper. 

I’m so so so so sorry, Eds., you wrote, flipping the pad around to show him. He responded by placing a tender kiss to your forehead. “It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s already been taken care of. My Dio shirt, on the other hand…” he sighed. “Never gonna smell the same.” You hit him on the shoulder, making him laugh. 

He stood up and took the sharpie and paper from your hand, putting it on the bedside table. “Okay, try to get some rest y/n. You need it,” he said, leaning over kissing you on the forehead again. 

He meant to leave the room, but you caught his arm before he got too far from your side. Shaking your head, you pointed down with the other hand. “You… want me to stay?” he asked. Ding ding ding, you would’ve said, if it weren’t for your throat, but mainly if it weren’t for the look in his eyes. He looked… soft. Vulnerable. As if he didn’t believe your “words.” As if he didn’t fully believe you were right there in front of him, someone who loved him and wanted his company. 

You nodded.

“I-uh-” he struggled for words. “Okay, sweetheart, sure,” he finally managed to choke out. 

You pointed to your eye, then made a heart with your hands, then pointed at him. I love you. He made his way toward you, kissing you firmly on the lips. When you tried to pull away, not wanting to get him sick, he said “I don’t care,” and continued with the kiss. It felt like it had been years since he had kissed you, and it almost made you think he had cured you of your illness by doing just that. Pulling away finally, stroking your cheek with his thumb, he said, “I love you too, y/n.” 

He grabbed a book off of his nightstand, crawled over to the other side of the bed, and you curled into him. Holding the book with one hand and stroking your arm with the other, he began to read. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit…”

i hope you guys enjoyed reading this!! i had fun writing it, and i might make a part two! let me know if you guys would be interested in that

<3

as always, asks are open! currently writing for eddie but if you have another specific request i might consider, so shoot your shot. :)

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

I was writing a whole thing about how I wished instead of getting a dlc about Jack we saw more of his impact on the world after the events of 2 bc it feels like 2 happened and then... It's a vaccum and everything in 3 would've probably happened regardless. If that makes any sense. We saw more abt his impact on the world in the trailers where he was sculpted on the mountainside. The side quest was more about angel than Jack, and I'm glad, but then we got that dlc that just had Jack slapped on it even tho it wasn't *really* necessary

BUT the reason I havent posted that and instead am posting this is because I'm mad.

I'm real. Mad.

Okay.

In bl2 we hear about the quakes happening on Pandora because Jack is mining for Eridium and its literally tearing the planet apart.

Imagine. Fucking imagine.

If instead of Maya having to die for Troy to get her powers to bring Elpis to Pandora and leaving the stupid fucking idea that the Eridians LEFT THE KEY NEXT TO THE VAULT THEY DIDN'T WANT OPENED

WHAT IF

Instead!!!

Jack's mining operations broke/pierced the eridium crust of Pandora and that was how the Destroyer was slipping out, imo it'd be great near the eridium blight as that's where the big gash is from Bl1

What IF

INSTEAD OF THE TWINS BEING TYPHONS KIDS BC it had NO SIGNIFICANCE other than him being a total ASSHOLE about it and them knowing about the OTHER VAULTS we scrap the whole other planets thing bc it made the game feel incredibly shallow and weird so let's stick to Pandora this time??? Maybe we can go to Nekrotefeyo at the end to seal the gaps in the eridium crust because THE WATCHER LEADS US THERE and maybe instead of gremlin DeLeon it's another Siren waiting for us who dies after we help her close the Vault with Maya and Tannis or whatever idk idc anymore siren lore was basically thrown out the window in 3 anyway and Ava gets her powers. Maybe there can be the whole thing where Tyreen teleports in to steal those good good powers since there are 3 sirens in a room together (bc apparently Amara doesn't count in game??) but kills new siren before she can take them and the powers go to Ava. Boom. Now Ava is a Siren and also Maya is alive to train her.

instead of being typhons kids were gonna wipe him from existence and instead the twins as weird siren siblings were called to Pandora as sirens ARE NTOED TO BE and noticed the 'influence' of the Destroyer thru the cracks of the eridium crust. They can keep the whole 'we killed our mom by acvident' backstory so they still have those good good family issues without the gross DeLeon addition. So they're drawn to Pandora

Bc instead of the Eridians making a Vault in BL1 that calls people to it to get eaten, instead the Destroyer influenced people to try and open that Vault through a gap in the weird Vault dimension shit so it could feed since it is endlessly hungry whoa who would've guessed. So the Eridians are less evil and stupid in this version imagine that >:/

The twins Noted how the eridium and the destroyers influence was making ppl crazy on Pandora (literally call it Mayhem to tie into the marketing campaign) and figured they could use this to their advantage

And did what they did and started their internet influencer cult in order to help them discover what sort of power was lying under the surface of Pandora bc obviously it called them there because they were meant for it

So all that Eridium art and stuff is actually them continuing the mining operations from 2, using old DAHL and Hyperion workspaces and their cult as the workers and as a plus the eridium gives them buffs to become more powerful and probably leads to the cut 'good ending' where Tyreen looks fucked up on eridium and Troy got his weird wings and stuff and we also get the Pandora reactor cut stuff with Tannis AND we get an explanation for the Vault of the architects

All the other planet stuff could've been put in dlcs. Genuinely. It had no real bearing on the main story imho. We open Vaults on other planets for what? For the machine? Arbitrarily?? Fuk it it's all dlc now. Keep the game on Pandora and focus on the story. If we do end up on Nekrotefeyo maybe fucking explain why Maliwan is there???? Bc it makes no goddamn sense? Too many characters and plots are added or juggled thru the main story and too many changes in scenery and pace to make it feel like a cohesive story with actual stakes and shit. Everything takes place on Pandora and all the other planets are just DLCs. We get to break up a fight between Maliwan and Atlas over a Vault to help Rhys and Maya and Krieg are there like they were supposed to be. Maya and Ava need help on Athenas with a takeover and we get bonus Athenas content bc it's soooo short and we get more siren lore and hhhh. Eden-6, we get a call from Hammerlock's fiance asking for help to free hammylocks from prison and there's a Vault involved with the escaped prisoners and the Jakobs family with Clay and Aurelia is there but she isn't a villain. All of these lead to their original Vaults or w/e idc I just want a better main story not chopped into pieces how am I supposed to care about the characters if every 2 hours I'm thrown into another completely different handful of characters without the old ones making a reappearance like wtf

Anyway.

IMAGINE A GAME WHERE MAYA DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE LIKE THAT AND WE GET CONTINUITY FROM BL2 AND WE SEE HOW JACK IS STILL FUCKING US OVER EVEN TODAY

[nickmillerscaulk]

OKOK MUSIC GODDESS, are the songs in trailers hitting or nah? (also im v excited for more bangers in s4)

OH YEAH OK HI that is the highest fandom honor i’ve been given since being dubbed the campaign manager of the hoodie heathens hahahaha

ANYWAY I’M SO GLAD YOU ASKED ME THIS BECAUSE I’VE BEEN ITCHING TO TALK ABOUT IT. YOU BETTER BELIEVE I WAS SHAZAAMING THAT SHIT AS SOON AS THE INITIAL THRILL OF THE TRAILER ITSELF WORE OFF (took a good... 12 replays but then i got down to good girls soundtrack-related business.)

ok so! a mini review/reaction for you:

song #1 (0:00-0:16): kinda boppy (which you kNOW i love), but it felt... off to have that played over the flashback of lucy getting shot?? weird vibe. otherwise i liked it with the initial set up and the beth-fading-into-panic moment! (note: couldn’t find this song)

song #2 (0:17-0:55): gettin boppier with a little more banger?? INTO IT. classic good girls vibes for me. i think it’s just a generic like... royalty free manufactured-for-tv/trailers song though? (it’s called ‘op en af (up and down)’ and it’s credited to the record label extreme music, which is known for making tv/film/advertising music!) 

song #3 (0:56-1:45): less boppy, more banger!!! ALSO INTO IT. especially love the bit playing over annie saying ‘i don’t even know who we owe at this point... the hitman, homeboy’ that gets reduced just clapping over a bass beat (sounds v good with headphones, fyi). and the slow-mo shots of rio’s hands?? hhhh anyway, i was a lil bummed to find it’s another song made by extreme music (this one’s called ‘wolves teeth’), only because i’d 100000% be into it as a standalone song. the charm is kind of lost on it being filler music, i guess?

so, the short answer is ... YES the trailer songs are hittin’ for me! it makes me feel good about the overall vibe we have going into s4. i wish they weren’t made-for-tv songs, but i can get past that. and honestly, it makes perfect sense to use royalty free music for this. overall, i don’t want to set my expectations too high after s3′s soundtrack falling flat for me though! (i just really miss those crime-focused bangers, y’know? that said, i still have faith in jonathan leahy to get us back to that level.) 

BRING ON THE S4 BANGERS. I KNOW THEY’RE OUT THERE.

[mysterious-prophetess]

Review: Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarves

It’s finally out in my region so I was finally able to get my hands on it to watch without risking my computer.

Not that I would resort to such....less-than-legal means... <.<

Anyway, I’m glad I did buy it officially. It was every bit as cute as I thought it would be after I saw the new round of trailers and comments by others on tumblr. 

I’ll give my spoiler free thoughts now and go into more details under a read more.

So first, I have to compliment the animation. It is so beautiful. The characters all looked great and none of them looked uncanny at all. My favorite character design of the humans was Snow sans shoes, but Merlin in his normal form is a close second. It’s their eyes. 

My favorite non-human character design was the magic mirror. 

The magic effects were also nicely done.

The plot’s pacing was decent. There were times where it almost felt like they had built in commercial breaks for an eventual network airing from how some parts would cut to black and start a new scene. It wasn’t often and it didn’t really detract from the film. 

The characters were all consistent and Snow White/Red Shoes was down right relatable for me. Merlin and the other six Princes were fun and played off one another, though the trio of Pino Noki Kio almost felt like they didn’t need to be three characters since they never acted independent of one another. Whereas Jack, Hans, Arthur, and Merlin all had their own distinct personalities.

Even the Evil Queen had some good moments. 

Prince Average felt like an after thought.

The moral of the story, while done before and nearly to death, was given a fresh spin in this film. 

Over all this film is charming and the marketing team that screwed them over with the fat-shaming like ad campaign should never be hired by these guys ever again. There is no fat shaming in this film directed at Snow White/Red Shoes. 

The lesson is instead a good one. 

I heartily recommend people watch this movie. There are some semi-Shrek like elements on occasion (like out of place pop culture references) but overall the film has its own identity. 

Another nitpick aside from the weird commercial breaks that kept seeming to happen and that’s the over use of the movie’s main pop song. I liked it the first time but after a few other reuses it started to get a little stale. 

Otherwise I loved the music of the film. 

Snow White’s journey was one that I loved. She had one mission and one mission only: find her father. In fact her desire to be herself contradicted the shoes magic. She was perfectly happy as her normal self and not the magic enhanced version the shoes transformed her into. That’s a powerful message to send to girls who aren’t skinny or traditionally pretty. Though, Snow White is down right adorable as her true self.

I also liked that the perfectly pretty form wasn’t something Snow White necessarily liked but was willing to use to her advantage to help find her father. I also liked that it had drawbacks as Snow White in her normal state was actually a physically strong woman but as a dainty pretty girl all that strength she had and liked having was gone. Furthermore, the movie showed that Snow White was decently athletic as her real self, which was a refreshing take for a heavier character. Large doesn’t equal flabby, weak, or out-of-shape. 

Snow White’s struggles with taking off the magical shoes were reflective of the times where she got insecure about herself. Despite loving who she was, she did sometimes accept the pretty dainty form because of how much nicer people were. 

The Magic Mirror was surprised she could even take them off because it meant there was something she wanted more than being pretty. The first time, at Risky Rock in the Fearsome Seven’s house, it was her desire to be herself. In the alleyway, it was a desire to escape the goons. In the river it was her desire to save Merlin. Yet, whenever she wanted to take them off other times, things had happened to make her hesitate on giving up the conventionally pretty form that had made it so others would help her.

As someone who is not conventionally pretty and definitely not skinny, I really empathized with Snow White about this. 

On no occasion was Snow’s true self ever treated like a joke. There was the scene after she’d taken the shoes off where guards were harassing her where it almost looked like Merlin and Arthur would ignore her peril because she wasn’t her Red Shoes form, but Merlin came back and helped her.  He was even kind of nice to her. 

Never even when Merlin finds out about the shoes versus her real form does he call her ugly or make comments about her weight despite being still kind of fighting his own ego while learning the lesson at this point. 

Speaking of Merlin (and the others of the F7). 

Merlin being the main male protagonist does get the most screen time. Arthur get the second most. Then Hans and Jack, and then the Pinocchio Trio. 

At first their dynamics were all clashing and Arthur seemed like a bully and Merlin seemed like a very shallow impulsive jerk. Let’s be clear, all the guys are shallow. Even the trio who are more obsessed with their inventions half the movie. It’s what got them cursed by the fairy princess in the first place. Considering it was a fairy they pissed off, being turned into green dwarves when anyone (who isn’t a magical creature) looks at them was actually getting off mild. 

I was surprised that each Prince actually has to break their curses one at-a-time. It’s not a “break the curse for one and you save all” which was a new take on a collectively applied curse. Which was why they were every-dwarf-for-them-selves when it came to trying to woo “Red Shoes” and get a kiss from her. 

Merlin’s character journey was one that is usually reserved for the curse breaker in fairy tale movies where a curse indeed is in play. In that he was the one who had to learn to look past appearances. I love that Snow White calls him out on that at one point in the movie too. 

Merlin learning to let go of his obsession with looks (his own included) was what allowed him to see Snow White as the most beautiful woman in the world (in his eyes) which was what let her second kiss at the end break his curse. Because he saw her inner beauty which mattered more than any physical appearance she had.

The characters grew and them ending up together at the end felt natural and not forced because the time they spent together always felt like they had chemistry which is hard to pull off.

Moving on to other things: Regina, Magic Mirror, and Average. 

Honestly? Average felt like a real waste of time. It was through his lines we got the most Shrek-like throw-away references, it was he who had the least impact on the plot, and he who could have been written out of the flick almost all together. Yeah, Merlin recognizing his tree-i-fied form did hint at what Regina had done to others (and it was after he and his two not-the-Stabbington-brothers-goons became evil ents that I figured out King White was that wood bunny because it was large and cute and that was the White Family’s designs overall). 

Average was a throw away character. In many ways he wasn’t even mediocre let alone average. 

The worst thing about him is he can be easily written out of the movie. 

As the stepmother of Snow White, Regina is queen of the kingdom and all the scenes where soldiers go after Snow White and the F7 could have been her sending people to do her dirty work to spare her magic usage. 

Average’s two goombas? Hired thugs who’d never seen Snow White before. Take him out, shuffle a few things around, make a captain character be his replacement in the attack on Risky Rock scene, and nothing of value would be lost in his removal. Average is the film’s only major mistake. He was a dead end that could have been easily written around and the screen time would have been better spent on Snow White and the F7 or maybe fleshing out Regina a little more.

Magic Mirror and Regina both played well off one another. Patrick Warburton as any character will always be an excellent casting choice. 

Regina’s schemes made sense from a shallow perspective. 

I saw someone compare her to Mother Goethel from Tangeled  in a youtube comment on one of the trailers and kinda? 

They had the same sort of vanity-wanting to keep their youth and maintain their beauty-and their penchant for cloaks was the same but, Regina to me....was more like Mother Goethel and Triss Marigold from Witcher 3′s fusion. Her younger form reminded me WAY more of Triss than Goethel as did her gown. Plus, it’s canonic in the Witcher-verse that sorceresses use magic to keep young. Also, she’s not the first evil queen of a Snow White retelling to even be obsessed with youth to the point she goes to extreme lengths to maintain it. See Snow White and the Huntsman’s queen. 

Regina stands out as her own character despite sharing a name and role with Regina of Once Upon a Time. She’s ruthless, and able to manipulate others with either her words or illusionary magic (though it costs her like the witches from Stardust). She’s also absolutely cold. She just kind of falls flat compared to the Magic Mirror.

No offense to the voice actress or the writers, but up against Patrick Warburton’s Magic Mirror/tree character, Regina is a little less memorable to me. He has more sass and more pure threat to him than Regina does. Sure, she has magic that can turn people into strange tree monsters, but it’s the mirror that gives the F7 the most trouble throughout the movie, and they fought off something that looked to be a whole platoon of guards/soldiers armed with heavy artillery (canons). Granted, it was a close call that relied on their wits and other skills, but they still had less trouble with that fight than they did against Magic Mirror. 

Some More Things:

The humor was nearly overplayed but they managed to tow the line between going too far and just right.  Mostly this was seen with the F7 and their attempts to get Snow White to kiss them and break their spells, especially Arthur. 

They did give him more of a character beyond loud bully, which was that he had a sensitive side and a lot of pride (which was easily bruised). In fact, only he and Merlin felt like they had characterizations compared to the other five. Hans was obsessed with cooking and Jack with jewels and the trio with tech but that’s all they got beyond having their friends’ backs whenever it really mattered and being awesome badasses. Since these other five were mostly side characters, this is more of a nitpick than an actual problem since the film was setting up Arthur vs Merlin for Snow White’s affections. 

The fact that Snow White brushes all the attempts of flirting off so easily was very amusing to me and a nice way of showing how she was focused on finding her missing father throughout the whole film (despite the fact that she had already found him). Hilariously, in hindsight, she really had seen him in the woods. If she’d been herself, who knows if he’d have even attacked her.

Finally, I’ll end on what had seemed like an inconsistency but now I realize is a loophole because the fae have those in everything. The guys have to be alone or have the person they’re with close their eyes to be their true selves, except Merlin is still his true form even though he’s not alone with the Magic Mirror or the wood rabbit/King, or the three wood bears/children. 

Turns out, once I thought about it, the fairy’s curse was if “people looked at them” which meant, the ones doing the looking had to be people and the wood creatures-despite formerly being people-were considered to be people no longer. The Mirror was probably never a person, which mean he’d never counted as a part of “people” so he could look all he wanted (which was his thing as a mirror). It’s an interesting loophole. 

Long story short, I really enjoyed this film. It was very cute and it was done so dirty by its marketing three years ago. 

Good film. Good messages. Go watch it! It’s not like we’ve anything ELSE to do at the moment (and it’s not like there are any other worthwhile films coming out right now). Support this film, and this studio.

[inforapound]

Since Vikings s6 is soon upon us (just 3 more days!!) what are your hopes for each character this upcoming season?

I want a battle of epic proportions lasting a number of episodes.

I think Bjorn should rule Kattegat and yet I never warmed to his character and his superficial storyline with a zillion wives. I do hope that we see Rollo materialize and save Bjorn. I would dig the cheesemo of that father/son moment.

I hate what happened to Lagertha’s character and yet I don’t want to see her kick back and mentor her grandchildren. I want her to fight to her death and ultimately be killed by Ivar. I want his promise of killing her fulfilled. If it doesn’t happen, I will feel like I did at the end of GOT.

Harald - well, what can I say. I’m in love with him and yet season 5 diluted his ruthlessness. I don’t know if he stands a chance against Ivar with Oleg’s backing but I’d hate for him to get lost in the chaos. Please give this beautiful man some glory. And a baby....

Hvitserk - He’s been treated as a side character this entire series and I hope we see some meaningful scenes between Hvitserk and Ivar, even if it’s one killing the other. I had a dream Marco was the lead in the GOT prequel and I woke up delighted.

Ubbe and Torvi- go away with your miscellaneous children and farm. The writing for Ubbe’s character fizzled out for me long ago.

Floki - Im glad he’s back. I didn’t dig his story line last season. He’s an iconic character which I didn’t truly warm to until I started writing him. Now I want to climb Gustaf‘a leg like a monkey. If Floki actually dies, I hope it’s in defence of Ivar.

Ivar - I want to see him run an incredible campaign. I’d love for Floki to drag him out of there but, it just wouldnt be Vikings. I need some Floki and Ivar scenes. I think the Seer’s prophecies of Ivars eyes deceiving him will relate to the Freydis look alike but his death won’t. I wonder how the snake in his skull prophesy will play out. I would like to see some moments of redemption. He’s that anti hero that I hate to love but I do. Blindly. I just can’t see him sitting on a throne again.

I have never loved the Vikings series. I do like it though. The holes in the writing are a distraction but I will watch every episode. The trailer for season 6 looks amazing. What I do love is the fandom and I hope it continues long after the series.

Thanks so much for the ask @edythofhastings . I was actually thinking of you this week.

[legendarymasterwolf]

E3 2019: My Thoughts on What We Saw

Alright, E3 is over this year, which means it's time to go over what we saw and my thoughts on it.

This is late, so some stuff here will be out already.

I'll be going by publisher alphabetically, so first up, we have...

Borderlands 3

I'm so freaking hyped to get lost in this hilarious world again. I've played Mordecai in Borderlands 1, Zero in 2, and Claptrap in Presequel. Still trying to decide who to play as in 3, but right now, it's looking like I'll pick FL4K, since he specializes in long range and has a few cute beasties by his side. Also, we're getting not one, but THREE action skills with each character. Not only that, but you can sacrifice your grenade skill for two equipped skills.

The Children of the Vault look like some worthy successors to Handsome Jack for title of "Best Borderlands Villains", though we'll see how they pan out on release date.

The gameplay that we saw of Moze looks smooth. Heck, everything about this game looks sleek and refined without doing away with the art style. Also, guns with legs.

Anyway, we not only got the gameplay reveal, but also Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary, a new DLC for Borderlands 2 that sets up 3, so I'm scrambling to finish the Handsome Collection on my PS4, which just got a lot more difficult now that I've bought RDR2 finally, along with several other games.

Control

I loved Alan Wake, and this is from the same people, so I’m hyped. The game looks great, has a suspenseful atmosphere, and it seems to play well. I’m looking forward to release date.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reboot

I haven't bought a COD game since "Black Ops 2", though I have played the newer ones with a friend of mine. It looks good visually from the reveal trailer I saw, I'll say that much. No gameplay yet, but I know it'll be gritty, focusing on some of the more shocking moments of the original trilogy, like "No Russian" from MW2 or the nuclear explosion from MW1, so it seems we're bringing in more edge to the series. Still, I'm glad the campaign is back, and I'm interested to see how it will look.

12 Minutes

A twelve minute time loop where you're forced to relive the death of your wife and the only way to break it is to find out why she was killed? Sign me up.

Code Vein

I remember this one from last E3. Still the same opinion, too. Anime style souls game that I might buy for the story, which looks interesting.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

So this looks REALLY good. It's like a deep RPG, deeper than Xenoverse was, with mechanics besides fighting like fishing, and as for the fights themselves, they seem to be more strategical than before, with a healthy dose of classic DBZ fisticuffs in there for good measure.

Elden Ring

A Souls game written by George RR Martin? Don't know too much about it besides that, but it looks cool based on the trailer.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan

Basically, another Until Dawn, but on the open sea during a storm. And I'm totally okay with that.

Deathloop

Another game from Arkane? The guys who made Dishonored? I'll take it. Besides, another time loop premise sounds interesting.

Doom: Eternal

If Fallout 76 was any indication, Bethesda desperately needs a win now to restore faith in their studio. Besides a few of the other games announced at E3 2019 that could do so, there was one that stood out in particular: Doom Eternal. I’ve already played all the Wolfenstein games, with the exception of one upcoming entry on this list, and based on what I’ve seen of Eternal, I’m going to like it due to the similarity in gameplay.

GhostWire: Tokyo

The presentation on the new game from the makers of Evil Within, another series to try now that I have a PS4, was memorable for a few reasons. First off, Ikumi Nakamura, the game’s creative director, was the main presenter and she was adorable. Seriously, it’s probably one of the best E3 presentations I’ve seen this year. I can’t remember the last time I saw one so genuine like hers, plus it helps that the Internet has fallen in love. As for the game itself, it looks great, with people disappearing in Tokyo and it being up to some guy with a bow and supernatural powers to find out why. The reveal trailer was all we got, but still, I can’t wait to play it.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

The first game I’ve ever preordered, and this comes from a guy who never preorders on principle. It’s a Wolfenstein spinoff with BJ’s twin daughters, so yeah, I’ll buy it. Plus, it’s co-op, so I’m playing this with my best friend. Still trying to decide which twin to play, though. Probably Jessie, since my friend is gonna want to play Soph.

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory

Looks interesting, plus the gameplay reminds me of Shadowrun Returns.

The Sinking City

This one’s already out, but it looks good. Hopefully, it’ll be received better than Call of Cthulu before it. Plus, I’m all for a game where the protagonist is losing his mind, like Dead Space.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood

Set in the World of Darkness universe, like Bloodlines, except you're a werewolf instead of a vampire and it's from a different studio. Gameplay was revealed behind closed doors, but it looks good from what I've heard. We don't have too many werewolf games around.

Cyberpunk 2077

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!

Yeah, this might be the first game I preorder for myself, since now we finally have a release date: April 16th, 2020. The new trailer we got gave us a glimpse of a default male V as well as what may be Jackie’s death (please don’t kill off Jackie, CD Project RED, I like him too much already). After V’s employer tries to double cross him, V tries to kick ass with his twin arm blades, which look really unique, before said employer shoots him in the head. The trailer ended with a major surprise: as V comes to in a junkyard, a figure in jeans, a tank-top, and a silver left arm approaches, and kneels to reveal a face and voice that sounds suspiciously like Keanu Reeves.

Yes, that’s right, for those who haven’t heard by the time this is posted, Keanu Reeves is in Cyberpunk 2077 and he’s playing Johnny Silverhand, a legendary rocker in the world of 2077 who may not be what he seems.

After the trailer premiered onstage, Reeves came out onstage to promote the game. He could barely get through the start of his speech, people were that excited to see him in the flesh. There was even a great moment where he described the game as “breathtaking”, to which a fan shouted out, “You’re breathtaking!”, to which Keanu responded in kind. We don’t deserve this man.

Anyway, at the end of his speech, Reeves gave a new look at gameplay as well as the game’s release date. The glimpse was only about 20 seconds long, but still, the new look at the combat, hacking, and what is presumably a digital afterlife or something like that was enough to get me even more hyped for this game.

Seriously, I couldn’t be more hyped. This game is gonna be massive and I just might preorder it.

My Friend Pedro

Switch game, but still looks cool. It’s already out now.

Sea of Solitude

I need to play more games that make me feel like this. The art style looks gorgeous and the theme is depression, so yeah, I may buy this one if I like what I’m hearing.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Honestly, EA's part of the the expo was kind of depressing, especially when it got to Anthem. However, we did get more of Jedi: Fallen Order, and for that, I'm grateful, because this game looks great. Both the combat and lightsaber look slick as does the gameplay in general, and the voice acting is on point, from Cameron Monaghan to Forest Whitaker. We need a good Star Wars game for current gen consoles, and while The Old Republic is still my favorite, that's for PC. Also, while it has been announced that there are no microtransactions in the game, I'm sure EA will find some way to screw it up, but for now, it looks awesome.

Greedfall

I’m interested. Story and premise have me, a mix of 17th century colonialism with horror and the supernatural. Gameplay looks like my kind of jam, and we may be getting romance options too, based on some trailer observations.

John Wick Hex

Gameplay seems unique, plus it’s John Wick. I will always take more of Keanu Reeves.

Grandia HD Collection

I like JRPGs like this one, though it’s for Switch, so I can’t play it.

Way to the Woods

Looks like a cute adventure puzzle game. I might get it for PC.

Wasteland 3

This series looks like tactical Fallout, so yeah, I’m likely to give this one a shot since it looks good.

Blair Witch

A Blair Witch video game? That’s psychological horror?! With an adorable dog companion named Bullet?!?! Yes, please.

We didn’t get much besides a trailer and some gameplay, but I’m eager to see more.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel

Ugh, why is it that last year I was complaining about not having a PS4, now this year I’m complaining about not having a Switch?!

Anyway, this looks great and I want to see more. Especially since I’ve heard it’s going to be scarier than Majora’s Mask.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Looks good on the graphics front, plus the gameplay additions looks promising.

And once again, I can’t play it.

Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Out of all the games on this list, this is the one I want to play most that I can’t play because, you guessed it, I don’t have a Switch.

I loved the original Ultimate Alliance games, so I’m sure the new one is gonna be a hit, what with the new combos, character designs, and references to the MCU, plus it’ll tie us over until Marvel’s Avengers.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

The Pokemon look cute, it is set in the world’s version of the UK, gameplay looks improved, and once again, I can’t play it.

Empire of Sin

It looks cool, plus I need more Mob style games to play. It’s also made by the people who are responsible for the next game on this list...

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

It’s only in pre-alpha, but still, this one looks good. The original is on the Steam store, and there are fan made patches that improved upon what was originally a disaster. The sequel looks like a smoother version of its predecessor, with a few new abilities and mechanics put in. Again, it's in pre-alpha, so the final product will look much cleaner, but for now, I'm excited for its release date.

Shenmue III

First off, I’m royally pissed that Epic stole this one. That being said, the game looks great and I’m looking forward to continuing Ryo’s story on PS4. The gameplay looks great, the atmosphere is enthralling, and the English dub sounds good this time around. Still pissed about Epic, but at least I can play it on PS4.

The Outer Worlds

This still looks great. Since Fallout 76 took a nosedive and kept on going, we need a game like this to get that bitter taste out of our mouths. This still looks like a cross between Fallout and Borderlands, the true New Vegas spiritual successor that we need right now. The companions actually look helpful, have personalities of their own, and the Flaws System sounds really interesting, giving your hero a perk in enchange for a debuff for the whole game. Also the humor is great, too.

Marvel’s Avengers

Yes, the character designs don’t look so hot. However, those can be changed on the road to launch. That aside, I liked what I saw. The gameplay looks great, the voice cast has some top tier talent for the industry, and the promise of more heroes to be added after launch without the attached microtransactions has my attention.

Dying Light 2

I only played the demo for the first one, a game I still need to play, but I liked it enough to want a sequel. The usual free running mechanics look smooth, plus the addition of player choice shakes up the game, making your playthrough unique, so yeah, more of the good old stuff with a few new things sprinkled in.

Final Fantasy VII Remake and Remasters

The remake of FF7 looks AMAZING. The hybrid combat system looks like a dream, plus the character designs look top notch. In addition, the voice cast sounds on point for their respective characters. The hype around this thing was evident from the incessant cheering, we want it that much. We even have a release date: March 3rd, 2020. It’s been a long time coming, but it seems the wait to experience this classic for the second time on a different system will have finally been worth it.

Also, there was content announced for FF14 as well as two remasters: Crystal Chronicles and FF8.

Bet your ass I’m buying the remaster for FF8.

Biomutant

This has been described as Fluffy Devil May Cry. It’s accurate. I didn’t know you’d be able to customize your character, to! Combat looks fun, and it appears there is humor present if the narrator is anything to go by, so I’m interested.

Destroy All Humans! Remake

I never played the original, but I did read about it and hear about it from a friend. From what I’ve seen, the remake looks fun! Good parody of the 1950s and the updated graphics look great. Plus, Krypto seems like a fun, grumpy protagonist.

Gods and Monsters

This looks like a cross between Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Legend of Zelda. Considering it’s being made by the same creators of the former, I can’t wait to see more of this in the future.

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

I’ll be honest, I still haven’t played any Ghost Recon games, so maybe here would be a good place to start. Gotta say, I like the way Jon Bernthal presented. He just seemed at ease onstage. Plus, Bernthal’s dog looks adorable. Bam Bam is the real hero of the Ubisoft press conference.

Anyway, it seems Bernthal is playing Cole D. Walker, one of the antagonists of the game. Didn’t see any gameplay, but still, the game looks good. I need to play more tactical shooters in general.

Watch Dogs: Legion

I played the first Watch Dogs game. Thought it was cool, but overall it was a bit disappointing. I still need to play the second one, but I heard it was a major improvement, even if it wasn’t a financial hit. Still, this one put a smile on my face. The ability to recruit and play as anyone? A sarcastic AI as your companion? A grandma assassin? I will take all of it, thank you.

Also, grandma assassin.

Did I mention there was a grandma assassin?

Can’t wait for March 6th.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

The LEGO Star Wars games were some of the first games I ever owned back when I played on the PS2, so I’m hyped for a collection of all 9 films in one game. We don’t know much beyond the announcement trailer, but hey, I’ll gladly take this one when it comes out next year.

Baldur’s Gate III

A video game that plays like a DND game? I can’t wait. Haven’t played the other games, but I’m sure I’ll be fine once I play that tabletop prequel they mentioned.

Battletoads

It’s an Xbox and PC exclusive, but still, glad this is getting a remake.

Bleeding Edge

This looks like an Overwatch reskin. The combat itself looks unique, though, so we’ll see how it goes.

Gears 5

We got a little more on Gears 5 this time around. We’ve got a look at Kait and how the Locust influence is threatening to tear her apart (that’s what I’m assuming, I’ve never played the Gears games). We also got a new mode, Escape. I might get it, since it’ll be available for PC.

Halo Infinite

If this is what Xbox��Scarlett looks like, then Sony might have actual competition for once. This is the best the Halo series has looked in years, and considering how let down some felt after Halo 5, it’s about time. We’re getting the same badass Master Chief back, this time with no AI companion, as Cortana has suffered corruption due to being around for longer than normal and has gone psycho as a result. Regardless, the graphics look amazing and I can’t wait to see how it looks when it releases Holiday 2020.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I never played the original, but I might have to now, because this looks cute. The art style looks great and I’ll always be interested in games where you fight things ten times your own size. Plus, it seems to run smooth, and just by the sound of the story, it already has my heart.

Psychonauts 2

To cap things off, let’s end with a game I’ve been excited for since I finished the original months ago. The game seems to be coming along great, if the first level is anything to go by. Returning voice cast, new enemies and powers, new environments to explore, Jack Black voicing a Brain in a Jar, need I say more?

Also, this game looks to explore the water curse put on Rasputin’s family, so it will be a more personal and chilling story as well.

________________

So, there you have it. That’s my thoughts on E3 2019, half a month late.

What are you guys excited for? Leave a comment letting me know, especially if there was something I left out!

Until then!

[renmorris]

a little twin peaks experience retrospective

I don't wanna be like 'y'all really missed out if you didn't watch the OG series before the TPTR announcement' but man it was such a central part of my Fandom Experience and also Becoming An Adult because I was 16 or so when I watched for the first time. 

The absolute devastation of the S2 finale? KNOWING that the show was old and would almost definitely never get a continuation because the idea of a 25 yr later season 3 was so unthinkable before the age of reboots. Realizing while watching the final scene that it WAS the final scene? Agonizing.

I vividly remember just despondently walking from room to room in a haze after the finale. Not angry just...devastated.

And then FWWM! The knowing For Sure that this was the last time I'd see these characters. Raging when I heard about how more movies had been planned but were of course cancelled! I bought a copy of Video Watchdog older than I was to read about FWWM's deleted scenes.

Reading all the twin peaks books before MLMT started getting really pricey! Combing through for hints of how the show would have continued! Discovering ancient fanfic and old message boards.

I remember my pal Hannah and I would fantasize about S3, and starting every sentence with 'it'll never happen BUT IF IT DID...'

There wasn’t really any fandom presence on tumblr for it either. So I'd go through the tag and just start talking to people about it. Idk how many followers I have that are still active from The Old Days? But if we met that way wow you've been here awhile.

Formulating my own ideas about the mechanics of the mythos and talking about it with y'all was so much fun. (And it was even crazier when TSHOTP reaffirmed a lot of our hcs.)

And finally the FWWM missing pieces!

AND THEN...THE ANNOUNCEMENT.

The pandemonium. The exaltation. Everything changed. If you want to see the hype go to my something peaksy this way comes/chrono to experience it, I posted in it until the S3 premiere.

The announcement that Lynch might be leaving? Horrifying. The cast/fandom campaign to get Showtime to cooperate with his demands? Wonderful.

The announcement for and subsequent release of TSHOTP where we had about a year or so of just losing our goddamn mind about the implications in the damn thing? It was the wild west. It was also the moment we all realized that Gordon Cole was not a Fun Dad. The days of Dark Gordon theories.

The occasional set leaks from sneaky photographers? Hearing those glimpses of the plot and quietly theorizing on Skype what was going on? Wild. We all thought Vegas would be Doppelcooper's plot.

(this was one of the early leaked photos...I’m so thankful for that red beam hiding the Hair so we could all be repulsed and horrified by it together during the premiere)

It took showtime FOREVER to come out with trailers and the advertising for the show in general was meager.

One of the first things they dropped before any new footage was just Angelo in the woods it was great. (Showtime has since removed it because they hate fun I guess) 

The next one was just David Lynch eating a donut.

We were all kind of bummed out when we heard the show was going to be released one-a-week but Mark Frost ensured us it was for our health. Which seemed like a joke. 

If you weren’t here when it premiered, it was crazy. Showtime dropped two episodes and then the next two were available if you had a subscription. Which I did, at the time so I watched four episodes back to back and it made me very ill and I couldn’t sleep for a solid 48 hours afterwards. Other folks got sick too. Mfrost was not joking.

At some point during that year I contracted RMSF which didn’t flare up until the next year so I’m very glad I got to experience watching the show with yall as it aired. 

And I’m curious about what Twin Peaks has been like as an experience for you newer watchers.What was it like? What sticks out in your mind?  

[moonanagames]

Good and bad news, CHECK THIS OUT PLZ

(are... are you ready)

Haro my fellow earthlings and interplanetarian folks!

Today I bring good and bad news altogether, so please bear with me for a bit! Firstly, I wanted to talk about how development has been going since the very beginning, so let us go to our nice time capsule :D

This is a timeline of the development up until now, I tried to be the most accurate as I could, but it can be a bit difficult when I don’t remember many things anymore lol

The game is in development since January 2017. The timeline goes like this:

2017

From January to May, 20, I developed on my own my first public demo of Virgo Vs The Zodiac. It took longer as I was all by myself.

Then my Grandma said she wouldn’t be able to support me anymore if I was going to quit college to develop games. From May to August, I prepared the Crowdfunding Campaign to help me fund the project and my EXISTENCE. The Campaign was launched in September 2017, I think.

After the campaign ended, I could finally get Anglerman onboard! Ay! He does animations for enemies and some party members animations too and is also the greatest deity of our lives. A legend. He helped me a lot with the Game Design Document I was working on because new people would join and I needed to make the things in my head to be a bit more concrete.

From the end of the Campaign until October we were working with a another programmer, but that didn’t work too well since they had another big project they were working on at the time. We had to change the programmer. It was when I found Ben here on Tumblr, current lead programmer. Our lord and savior.

After that I was browsing tumblr randomly and I found Veyerals among asks sent to this tumblr and thought his work with menus was pretty cool (and I liked his game as well, played a lot of that back then). Veyerals joined the project too as the UI programmer and would also be working with the SHMUP mini games, which he had experience with. Bless the UI G.O.D.

From that point on we had to basically rebuild the game from scratch from the moment we got the new programmers. Not only develop the game from scratch, but doing everything RPG Maker already had built in for us into the new engine because that was the only thing I knew in terms of “programming”. That and adding everything new I thought for the project. It was a huge amount of work, and we only had a battle system working fine in December, where we started developing a new build.

(concept art of lady nurse)

2018

In this year things got a bit complicated!

At first, when the battle system was mainly “complete”, as we thought back then, we delivered a 15 mins build for ID@XBOX to be shown at the Game Developers Conference, on January 2018.

We had billions of problems from january to august with the development and also unrelated to the development, like dealing with US taxes. A lot of things weren't working as we wanted them to be, this time was mostly spent on making the timed hits to feel nice, rebuilding the base systems and trying to make the game to have the same feeling as the RPG Maker build had of it being challenging. Also, overall asset production. That was demanding as heck. In RPG Maker the enemies didn't move, while in Game Maker they were animated. I had never worked with Game Maker before, so me and Anglerman (the animator and fellow game designer) had to learn the engine from scratch while developing the game, that resulted in a lot of set backs, but lead us to where we are now. We're confident with the overall game's scaling, difficulty, battles and systems. In Game Maker the maps are also bigger and have way more polishing, so that took a lot of time to get used to on the new engine.

(a really weird, but solved, bug)

From that point on we built Capricorn, and started working on Taurus and other realms at the same time. After some time we determined that doing several realms at the same time, even though we knew which level the player would be wouldn't work well, and we decided to finish the realms before heading to other realm.

Billion lines of code later, in october we started development of the first 2 hours and a half of Taurus. All of it took one month and a half. It was a significant improvement from the previous 5 months to develop the same amount of gameplay! We determined that we can finish the game on the first half on 2019 upon seeing the progress of the development in Taurus. Now we have a stable work flow, as our lead programmer only has to work on random tiny things, for example, "I would like for Virgo to throw Alpacas for an event, can you add that?". Those are small details that Ben can do easily. Everything that was promised on the campaign, like SHMUP minigames and the crafting system is also all working nicely and well.

That brings us to the bad news: The release will be delayed, for all the reasons exposed before. At first we thought of keeping with the date announced in the Crowdfunding Campaign of December 4th and release the game in Early Access. However it all seemed unfair to the Beta Backers who donated first to get access to early builds of the game. Other than that, a save system of something like a RPG such as Virgo Vs The Zodiac wouldn’t work well with the early access system of Steam. Just imagine your save messing up every time the game is updated. That would be just bad. xD Unfortunately I didn’t know that back then when I announced the date, and I didn’t know the amount of hassle I would go through to learn the engine while developing the game. I can only blame my naiveness, honestly. Other than that, December isn’t a good time to release games because of the Steam Sale that makes it harder for new games to be noticed with so many games on sale.

With that being clarified, I can say now that the game would most likely be released in the first half of 2019, around Q2. I apologize deeply and am extremely sad, I was even avoiding saying this here and avoiding social medias in general due to anxiety attacks <_< I’m sorry for that as well! For anyone who said their birthday was in the same day as the game’s release, I apologize immensely, and please send me a message and I’ll send you a card of Sagittarius wishing you a happy birthday. It’s the only thing I can do now, to be honest. S O R R Y =(

O U T R A G E O U S

New possible release date: Q2 2019.

As for the good news now:

Taurus Realm Build For Backers

The Taurus build I was talking about will be sent to backers this week! :D You can expect a bossfight with a Zodiac, millions of new characters, around 1800 new lines of dialogues, new equipment to check, new fellows to beat or spare, quests and the SHMUP minigame, now implemented on the game! Also, as seen on the trailer, you can throw enemies off screen now :3

Kinda Funny Games Showcase

We’ll also be participating on Kinda Funny’s Games Showcase that’ll be happening in December 8th! You’ll be able to see a new trailer of Virgo Vs The Zodiac on the stream that’ll be happening on Kinda Funny’s Twitch. That’s a really cool opportunity for us, so eternal thanks to Greg Miller for chosing VvtZ. That got me by surprise! xD

Date: Saturday, December 8th

Time: 10am PT

I think that’s it! Basically we had a lot of setbacks, but we’re in the right path again now and I can say doing anything is faster as is! The game’s quality improved and the development became more demanding of our skills, but it’s also a nice challenge for everyone. I’m glad to have started this project, my life was pretty dull back then, I had lost many important things before and VvtZ brought sparkle back to my life. That’s important, as even in the most difficult times I can remember I’m creating something I have so much fun with. I’m blessed to have all the people who support me on Virgo Vs The Zodiac discord, who supported me in the campaign and everyone around social medias. It’s what makes my days happier, tbh.

Ever since I began development I lost contact with many of my friends from the other city I lived in, but I also made many other precious friends who helped me along the way! All the good and bad memories on my life shaped this place I created for myself in the world. I like this place, it’s comfy :3 Again, I’m sorry for ruining your expectations to have the game up on Steam this year, it’s a first delaying the development like this. As a Taurus I can say it pains the most to not have things done when I need them to be despite the hard work going behind this game. Damned Bugs. I want the bugs to die. Gotta work even harder from now on to extinguish bugs the maximum we can!

[thecheapsteaks]

VIDEO GAMES... 2018

2018 was a thing.  It felt like it lasted 2 or 3 years.  It is honestly a bit difficult to track which media I consumed during the year. I'll start pondering a game that I feel like I played last year only for it to dawn on me that, oh, it happened this year.  It makes keeping track of this stuff a bit tricky, honestly.  Anyway, I am still going to try to do that, to get my thoughts in order and let everyone see what I had in mind. I will go over all of the important things needed to survive:  video games, music, anime, and other things.

VIDEO GAMES

Again, it's a bit tricky to remember what even came the hell out this year game wise. I am not going to rank things, because I suck at ranking things and also comparing a lot of the things I played this year is like comparing apples and termites.  I'm just going to make a good effort to go over some nice highlights of the year.

Bayonetta 1 and 2

Bayonetta is a game series I have been interesting in playing forever, but just haven't gotten around to due to circumstances despite it being released on multiple systems I owned.  I passed it on the PS3, couldn't afford to buy it when it was out on the WiiU, so when it came out on the Switch I had to give it a shot, and it was worth it. Admittedly, I sort of sucked at it (I take a ton of damage playing games, which isn't the best for getting high ranks) but I still enjoyed it and am glad that I played both of them (except for that one part in the first game in the angel territory where you fight those thunder and fire claw dudes who are immune to witch time, they can eat my ass).  The characters are fun, the over the top action and enemies are neat, and Bayonetta is just too damn cool.  I'm definitely interested in the third one and looking forward to seeing where the sequel goes. 

(I had forgotten this game had came out this year, it was in February, goddamn how long was this year)

Kirby Star Allies

I will admit, I am heavily biased towards Kirby to a fault.  If a Kirby game makes a reference to a past Kirby game I will gleefully clap as I notice it like a trained seal, and Kirby Star Allies, serving as a Kirby anniversary title, plays into that nostalgia hard.  Compared to the other modern 3D Kirby games (Return to Dreamland and past) I feel that the single player experience is on the weaker end, admittedly. The main campaign, while satisfying, blazes by quick, and the game does re-use boss styles a lot, which is a shame since the past few Kirby games had some very satisfying bosses.  Fortunately the extra content, including the post game modes and extra DLC support, was a marvelous way to keep the game running way after its release.  The nods and references to past games worked wonderfully for me, and it was admittedly great to see long dormant characters such as the animal buddies, Gooey, and Adeline/Ribbon return as playable characters.  The game's single player campaigns, both the initial story mode and the DLC conclusion “Heroes in Another Dimension” have very satisfying conclusions, and the challenge offered by the obligatory Arena mode is wild.  Really, I just love Kirby, and this game is a nice love letter to Kirby.  I have no idea where the game will even go after the plot line from this, but I am ready for the ride.

Octo-Expansion

Being able to play as an Octoling was definitely a long anticipated update for this game, and the way they were integrated into the game was amazing.  The initial Octo-Expansion trailer oozed almost rude amounts of style, and getting a whole new bonus single player campaign made purchasing an expansion worth it.  The additional stages were absolutely geared for challenge, and I don't think I will go back to finish the ones I didn't finish any time soon, but they had so many cool new implementations and spins on the Splatoon formula.  Splatoon on its own would make a decent game if it were just the single player campaign or multiplayer, so having both just makes for a nice, complete experience.  The whole climactic sequence, from finally completing the challenge of the subway to escaping to freedom, has that absurd escalation I just love in video games too. Also I love my stylish Octoling.

Kemono Friends Picross

Somehow I made it so long without ever playing Picross, but this finally brought me into it.  I have no idea how this combination came to be, but it finally got me into a fun puzzle system and I enjoy it. Somehow I have put in nearly as many hours on this game as I have Star Allies.  A lot of it does come from having the game paused as I idly go through puzzles while working on other projects, but having a game that does not demand a ton is pretty nice and fits with my gaming and lifestyle.  I'm looking for friends.

WarioWare Gold

WarioWare is one of my favorite video game franchises and a bit of an underdog, I feel.  The original Mega Microgames was my favorite experience on the GBA, with its unique game play mixed with a silly style.  The games that followed in the series for the DS and Wii were fun, but Made in Wario on the WiiU changed from the Microgame based high score hunting style to a collection of modes and games based on the WiiU game pad.  There were some bright ideas in there that might have done better as their own eShop titles, and the shift towards multiplayer games didn't quite fit as well with my style of gaming.  After that there was silence from the Wario Ware camp until the announcement and release of WarioWare Gold, which like Star Allies is a celebration of the series's past.  It was fun to have another Microgame experience that blended all of the weirdness and frantic gameplay that made me love the series, with a solid selection of classics built in.  It even has fully voiced cutscenes (an expansion on Smooth Moves's narration for each different style) that are oddly charming in a Saturday morning way.  It was good to have this series back, and I hope to see more unique takes on Microgames in the future.

Katamari Damacy Reroll

The original Katamari was a quirky game I bought on a whim back in the PS2 days that was sold to me on its weird look, style, and nice price point.  I enjoyed the first so much, and We <3 Katamari is one of my favorite games of all time.  Having a nicely touched up port on the Switch was welcome.  Somehow, despite having not played the original or its sequel in decades, I took to it like I had just played it yesterday, rolling up incredible Katamaris like a pro.  The original does have some warts in its gameplay that the sequels ironed out marvelously, and the dual stick controls do bother my thumbs at times, but it's still so satisfying to play and it's great that this game has a new chance.  Please go by this one, it's so enjoyable, but also because I want them to port We <3 Katamari so badly so you can all play that and see Katamari perfection.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate

Smash Bros games seem to live on hype.  I will admit I never expected to see a Smash Bros game so early in the Switch.  It doesn't even feel that long since Smash 4 came out!  So having a trailer in the beginning of the year and a release in the same year was a bit astounding.  There was lots of drama and intrigue with leaks, character additions, and whatnot, and even if I am sad for some that didn't make it (pour one out for Ashley and Shadow, please) having every character available, along with some fun new additions, is definitely nice.  The spirits mode is a nice twist on the event mode, and the rebuffs to classic are nice.  Really, the best part is just being able to play Smash again with my pals, try out all of the characters, and just enjoy it with everyone.  I look forward to the DLC, and that we get Banjo and Crash to create some sort of bizarre realization of every ones mid-2000s dream game.  It was a fun ride leading up to it, and I look forward to playing it more with pals in the new year.

STUFF I STILL NEED TO FINISH

There are some games I got really recently that I still need to finish as gifts from the Steam Sale and whatnot.  I have right near the end of December received Celeste, Donut Country, and I finally got Cuphead thanks to the kindness of friends.  These will be some nice games to get me started on the new year even if one of them is from last year. At some point I may go back to Hollow Knight and Dark Souls, although admittedly the requirements for the true ending of the former are a bit of a turn off and I am having a bit of difficulty getting into the game play, controls, and progression style of the latter, but who knows!  I am also intrigued and interested in Yokai Watch 3, Yoshi's Crafted World, in the near future, and hope to see some nice news on Animal Crossing. Lastly, may Platinum Games heed my calls and give the world a Wario World sequel where Wario wrestles God or something in the pursuit of money.  Amen.

Also I still need to finish Persona 5.  Really at this point I’m just doing it for Futaba. She’s the best.

Next up, I will write about my favorite music from the year, as well as cartoons and film, which admittedly I have not gotten as much into this year!

[thecostumeplot]

Episode 21: Walk the Line & The Impossible

Both  

Welcome to The Costume Plot.

Jojo

I'm Jojo Siu.

Sarah  

And I’m Sarah Timm. We're professional designers with a passion for costume design and the performing arts. Our podcast does contain spoilers. Accompanying slideshows for each movie are linked in the episode description.

Jojo

We hope you'll join us every other week as we delve into the wonderful world of costume design in The Costume Plot. [music]

Sarah  

Hello!

Jojo  

Hello, welcome back.

Sarah  

How's it going?

Jojo  

Yay. We actually recorded more often this month, and I still feel like it's been forever. [both laugh]

Sarah  

I know! We're curring it fine again, too, where we're not that long from release. But that's okay. We have time. It's great. Here we are. We made it.

Jojo  

Sorry. It's been a busy month.

Sarah  

Jojo's had a lot going on. But we're glad. I'm glad you've made it. Here you are.

Jojo  

Thanks. Still surviving somehow. [laughs]

Sarah  

Yeah. So I have a thing that I want to talk about at the top of the show today. It's a little bit of self promotion. So I hope our listeners are okay with that. I am competing in the Her Universe Fashion Show, as you guys might know. And it's virtual this year, and there is an audience vote. [editor's note: Votes are now closed! I didn't win!] So I'm campaigning for votes right now! I need your vote. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yay!

Sarah  

If I win, if I win, I get the chance to design a line with Her Universe that gets sold in Hot Topic. So it's a really big deal. My look is "Hamilton"-inspired. And if you listen to the show, you know I am a big fan of "Hamilton".

Jojo  

Yes.

Sarah  

I'm really proud of it. And I got to shoot in a theater, like an abandoned theater, from the 20s. So like, I'm just so excited. So all the links that I have so far will be in the description of this episode. We haven't given been giving a lot information. It's on... I'll back up. It's on July 23. [laughs] At 5pm pacific time.

Jojo  

Very important.

Sarah  

Yeah, that's the important information. And it's part of Comic-Con@Home, San Diego Comic Con. And so we don't have any specific links for where to watch it yet. But I do have a link that will hopefully be updated as the info gets released. And then that will hopefully also have voting stuff. But yes, please watch. And then please vote for me, if you like my look.

Jojo  

Yay! Definitely vote for Sarah.

Sarah  

Thank you so much.

Jojo  

I'm so excited to see it in person.

Sarah  

I'm so excited too.

Jojo  

I've only been seeing snippets of it.

Sarah  

I know. If you follow me on social media, I've been trying my best to kind of like build some suspense. I made a little trailer in iMovie. I'm doing the thing.

Jojo  

I saw that. I love it.

Sarah  

I'm working hard on trying to get people interested, because I mean... more power to them, but I'm competing against some people who have multiple thousands of followers. Like, 25-100k. So I gotta find a way to stand out, you know, when I don't have that big of a fan base.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Right.

Sarah  

Which, like, I'm excited for them that they have that. I just don't.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Sarah  

So.

Jojo  

We'll get there eventually.

Sarah  

I mean, maybe I'll win and then I'll be... my followers will just "whoosh!"... through the roof.

Jojo  

That would be great.

Sarah  

So then I'm Instagram famous. [both laugh] Okay. Yeah.

Jojo  

Perfect. Onto our theme!

Sarah  

Our theme this week! I'm going first this week, our theme is... are we calling this "based on real life events"? Is that what we're...?

Jojo  

I think so. I think that's what we ended up deciding, like, based on true events.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And however loosely that is, that is true.

Sarah  

Yeah. So real people or real historical events. So I chose "Walk the Line". Because I'm not usually a biopic person. I often find them to be a little bit... I don't wanna say "heavy handed," but it's sort of like they're always sort of Oscar-bait movies. And they're really melodramatic sometimes, but I really like "Walk the Line". And I'm not even a giant Johnny Cash fan. I just love this movie.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

I think I also just really love Reese Witherspoon. So that helps a lot. She's...

Jojo  

She's pretty great.

Sarah  

...one of my faves. Okay, so I'll just dive in. It was released in 2005. So I was like, you know... it still feels like a very current movie to me, but it's very much not. Because that was...

Jojo  

I know, I forget how far away 2005 was. Like, that really wasn't that long ago, but...

Sarah  

Once again, just facing our own mortality on this show. Going, "What? ...Okay."

Jojo  

How have we passed this many years already?

Sarah  

[laughs] Exactly. It was directed by James Mangold, who is a very prolific director. He's done "Logan," "Ford v. Ferrari," "3:10 to Yuma," "Girl, Interrupted," and he's also a producer. So he produced "Greatest Showman," lots of blockbuster movies. And the costumes were designed by Arianne Phillips, who works a lot with James Mangold. So she designed a lot of those movies that I just mentioned, in addition to "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," "Kingsman: The Golden Circle," "Nocturnal Animals," which I heard is not a very good movie, but the costumes are great. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And then she also has a really long-standing working relationship with Madonna. So she has styled basically everything Madonna has done, like in the last...

Jojo  

That's amazing.

Sarah  

...decade, at least. So, good for her. That's great.

Jojo  

Yeah, exactly.

Sarah  

Oh, and she also did a couple of really iconic movies that I haven't even seen. But if I can... I can imagine the looks from them. So those are "Tank Girl" and "The Crow". And I'm like...

Jojo  

[gasps] Ooooh.

Sarah  

...I know both of those visually, even though I haven't seen them.

Jojo  

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sarah  

So she's done a lot of great work.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

She has been nominated for three Oscars, one for "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," one for "W.E.,", which makes sense, because didn't Madonna direct that?

Jojo  

I think so.

Sarah  

And then this movie. And she has not won an Oscar yet, but she probably will eventually.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And she has been nominated for a lot of Costume Designers' Guild Awards, and she won one for "W.E.". And then she also has a Tony for "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" on Broadway, because I think she did the movie as well.

Jojo  

Oh yeah, I forgot she did that one. Yeah.

Sarah  

Yeah. So it's cool... I like when-- it happened with my movie last week, too, where the designers also got to design the stage adaptation of the movie that they designed. I think that's cool. Okay, so the movie itself was in part based on two autobiographies, "Man in Black" from 1975, and "Cash: the Autobiography" from 1997. Although they say that the film goes deeper into some painful sort of subjects that Johnny Cash himself didn't really dive into in those books.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I don't really have any other like background on the movie itself. I think they were trying to get it made for a really long time. And it just like, finally happened in 2005. So let me share my screen. I have a lot of pictures this week. So I think that, you know, I'll obviously put all of them on Pinterest, but I might have to weed out a few for Instagram, or I might have to do two posts, we'll kind of see how I feel.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Partly because I have some real life pictures, as you can see, to compare to the movie.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And then also because we go through, like, three decades. We go from the 40s through to the late 60s. So there's a lot of periods being represented.

Jojo  

A lot of period wear.

Sarah  

I don't know why put this one first. That doesn't go first. That's not it. [both laugh] That one's first. Okay, so we open in 1944. I mean, basically, the story of this movie is Johnny Cash's life, which is... he starts growing up in rural Arkansas. And he loses his older brother very young, in a tablesaw accident, which is really sad. And it seems like it informs a lot of his life, and his trauma, throughout the movie.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And then he joins the military and gets married. And then he kind of hits it big in music. And then it's basically just about his musical career, and also his struggle with drugs and alcohol. And then also his eventual relationship with June Carter, who he falls in love with when he's already married to his first wife. And he doesn't exactly stay faithful to her. But then he and June...

Jojo  

[laughs] As we well know.

Sarah  

[laughs] Yeah. He and June eventually do get married. And, you know, after the events of this movie, they were married for like 35 years. Until they both passed away. So that's the story. It's Johnny Cash's life. Okay. So here we are in 1940s Arkansas, and I like these sort of first scenes, they're very warm in color, I feel like. Everything looks kind of dusty, but also really hot, you know, and it kind of sets the mood of this. They're very poor. So this is him and his brother, he... Johnny is on the left. And when he's young, he goes by the name JR. And he has a lot of guilt because his brother, he says, is the good son. Basically, his brother wants to be a preacher and is really good at minding his parents and is really helpful, and JR just feels lesser-than, like he's not as good as his brother. So.... Oh, also his dad is abusive. And his dad even says, after his brother dies, he says,  "God took the wrong son," basically.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Yeah.

Sarah  

So that's gonna really impart some trauma on your child, to say something like that.

Jojo  

Just a little bit.

Sarah  

Just a little bit. Yeah, so this is them going fishing. And their little relationship is so cute, they're clearly very close. And so it's even more heartbreaking that one of them dies. And then this is his mom, who is the one who teaches him to sing and stuff. And this is... oh, I have this, and I was thinking about cutting it, but I have a picture of her later in the movie. So I wanted to compare, you know, her. Because she's not in a lot in the movie. But we see her go through a big change, you know, after Johnny is successful and is probably like, paying for her to have a happy life. A happy, comfortable life later in life.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So, yeah... oh... yeah, I put these in a dumb order. Okay, this one. [both laugh] Sometimes I label them wrong.

Jojo  

I do the same thing.

Sarah  

So this is Johnny thing after he goes and serves in Germany. And that's kind of like... not really focused on in the movie. But... this is... he has a job, basically, as a door to door salesman, and he's not doing a very good job at it. So this outfit really says to me a real lack of personality, because he hasn't really found who he is yet. He hasn't found his own identity. He hasn't found even-- he knows that he likes to sing. But he hasn't really let himself think that maybe he could be a successful music artist.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And also, when he first tries, when he first starts a band, they do exclusively gospel music. And the radio guy who they meet with is like, "Gospel music doesn't sell anymore. What do you have?" And so he like, on a whim, plays him... the famous song about shooting man in Reno. Can't remember what it's called. [editor's note: "Folsom Prison Blues"]

Jojo  

You're asking the wrong person, I'm so bad with names. [laughs]

Sarah  

I don't know.

Jojo  

I know what you're talking about, though.

Sarah  

I honestly... "I hear a train a-comin'." I don't know. Anyway, I really liked this soundtrack in high school when it came out.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

I just don't remember the names of the songs. So this is them playing for that radio guy.

Jojo  

Mmm.

Sarah  

And it's not really communicated why he chose black. But black becomes, obviously, his signature color. Maybe it's just like, they all had black in their wardrobe. So they were like, "let's all just wear black."

Jojo  

Right. Pretty standard color.

Sarah  

Yeah. And his wife says, "It looks like you're going to a funeral." And throughout the movie, people tell him that. And he's like, "maybe I am."

Jojo  

[laughs] "Maybe that's exactly what I'm doing."

Sarah  

Let's see. So there's an LA Times article that's an interview with Arianne Phillips, and she says, "You can read a lot into it. Black is a very humble color, and Cash was a working man's man. He was also an outsider who didn't belong to the rock world, or the country world. And there was something shocking at the time about wearing all black. It's what you wore to funerals. So it worked for him on many levels." So he just becomes... he becomes the man in black, you know.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

This is his wife, Vivian. And I have a lot to say about her.

Jojo  

[laughs]

Sarah  

Because... so she's played by Ginnifer Goodwin, who we can see here, I like this. I really like this pattern of this gingham with the stripe, with the cardigan on top.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I pulled it because it's like my favorite look of hers. But I want to talk about stuff that isn't even costume related when it comes to her character. So his wife, Vivian, let's get into it. She was...

Jojo  

[laughs] Let's dive deep.

Sarah  

I'm ready. She was a mixed race woman. And I found this out because a Twitter thread came across my page recently where it was like, "can't believe they cast Ginnifer Goodwin to play a black woman," basically. And I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are we talking about here?" So I did some research. Her grandparents were from Italy. And then Vivian, according to her at the time, her grandmother--I mean, her mother's family--was like, German and Irish.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So in real life, Vivian was photographed at a court hearing with Johnny when he was arrested for drug possession. And in the photo, she looks darker skinned than him. And so at the time, I found an article... oh, in the Washington Post, and it said, "at the time in the eyes of most Americans, you were either black or you weren't." And interracial marriage would not become legal until 1967. So leaders of the racist National State's Rights Party in Alabama ran an article in their newspaper "exposing" Johnny for having a "Negro" wife, basically being like, "they're trying to hide the fact that she's black."

Jojo  

Ahh. Right.

Sarah  

And they were connected to the KKK, this organization was, and they boycotted him for like a year. So he had to basically file a counter attack and sue them for this, because Vivian at the time thought that she was white. She had gone to all white schools, and on her birth certificate, marriage certificate, it says Caucasian, because...

Jojo  

Ah, right.

Sarah  

That's what their whole family thought they were. So in THIS year, February of 2021, Roseanne Cash--Johnny's daughter, who is also a country star in her own right--went on the show "Finding Your Roots". Which is about genealogy and DNA tracing.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

And they found that Vivian Cash's--so Vivian, the wife's--maternal great great grandmother was an enslaved black woman named Sarah Shields, whose white Father, in 1848, had "granted her and her eight siblings their freedom and their passage into whiteness." So she married a white man. And by the time Jim Crow arrived in the 1930s, all of her children and their descendants were listed as white. So...

Jojo  

Wow.

Sarah  

...she had basically erased her own blackness, Sarah Shields did, from her descendants.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So Vivian Cash did not even know that she had a black ancestor.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So, I was ready to come on the podcast and be like, "Can you believe they whitewashed this character?" But in 2005...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

...we were still taking Vivian's word for it--and her whole family's word for it--that she didn't have any black relatives.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah  

So isn't that interesting? [laughs]

Jojo  

That's so crazy. Like to, I mean, to not know that, too. I feel like...

Sarah  

I know.

Jojo  

...that's such a huge part of your identity, to not know for your entire-- I mean, for your adult life too, not even... like, it's one thing if you didn't know as a kid, because you just didn't know any better. But to have have that all throughout your adulthood, like, that's crazy.

Sarah  

Yeah, it probably made the real Vivian's life easier that she had been passing, you know?

Jojo  

Oh, yeah. Right.

Sarah  

But it is kind of heartbreaking to know that, like, this enslaved woman's story wasn't known until now.

Jojo  

Yeah. Until many, many, many years later.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

That's crazy!

Sarah  

I know! So I just thought it was really interesting. The other thing I'll say about this character is that... this is the thing I don't like about biopics. It's that there's often, in the stories of great men--like, genius men--there's often a first wife or a first girlfriend who is just seen as a long-suffering wife, who has his children. But basically, the audience is kind of meant to see her as a complainer who's holding him back from achieving his destiny.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

And I definitely think that she serves that role in this movie. And it kind of is a disservice to her, because they were married for like 12 years.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And probably a lot of those years were really difficult for her. So I think it sucks for her to just be portrayed as like, she's holding him back from being the real Johnny Cash, and also holding him back from his relationship with June, which is also problematic.

Jojo  

Right, right. I think that's a lot of biopics, too, it's like, you know.... Oh, you're right. She definitely... she definitely looks like she has some sort of Black in her history.

Sarah  

Yeah, she looks darker skinned. And like, you know, at the time, she was probably just like, "Oh, I have olive tone. I have Italian, you know, Mediterranean DNA."

Jojo  

Right, right. Right.

Sarah  

Yeah. So that's the real life Vivian and Johnny. Okay.

Jojo  

So interesting.

Sarah  

I know, right? So I... that just kind of gave me the lesson of, like: don't get mad about things you see on Twitter without actually reading what they're about. [laughs]

Jojo  

Do the research first.

Sarah  

Yeah. All right. Moving on. Moving on. So this is Jerry Lee Lewis, and I love him. He's sort of... he has a more flamboyant style, obviously. My brother was watching this movie with me and said he looked really 70s, and I could agree with that.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Even though this is the 50s at this point. He has sort of, like, unbuttoned... very rakish hair. And then this is him in real life. So I feel like it's a pretty good job casting.

Jojo  

Ohh. Yeah.

Sarah  

Okay, let's talk about June because let's get to the main event, honestly.

Jojo  

Yeah!

Sarah  

This is a picture of Reese on set. So her hair is not... like, I think her hair is in rollers.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And she's just walking to or from. But this is the best picture I could find of this whole dress. There's not a lot of really good high quality pictures out there.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

And Arianne talks about this costume. So she says for June Carter Cash, she referenced 1950s Howdy Doody culture and Minnie Pearl, who... I don't know really who that is. Didn't Google it. "She found her talisman for the character at the Santa Monica Vintage Expo, a ruffled red organza dress with a sweetheart neckline and Swiss dot overlay," that she wears in basically her first scene. And they had to rework it, and redo it, because it was rotting, apparently.

Jojo  

Ohh.

Sarah  

So I wonder if that means that they replaced the whole lining, or did they take a pattern off it and basically make a replica? Unclear. Yeah. And she says, "the dress summed up for me the place that June Carter comes from as a child performer, as this comedic character at the Grand Ole Opry. I knew we would see her transform into a woman but the starting point was this cartoonish country girl." So June says in the movie that her sisters are the pretty ones and the talented ones, and that she had to learn to be funny.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And so we can see, sort of, it's a little immature and young-looking, and definitely sort of cartoony.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Very comedic.

Sarah  

Yes, exactly. Here is that dress onstage. And they said... I watched an interview with her on YouTube as well. She said that they did a screen test in this video.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And the... not the network. The... the studio! That's the word I'm looking for. [both laugh] The studio got worried because the sleeves were really poofy. And it was just this sort of... it was more cartoony than they were originally... thinking.

Jojo  

...Expecting. Yeah.

Sarah  

Yeah. And when you book a name as big as Reese Witherspoon, the studio definitely wants Reese Witherspoon's fans to come to the movie and see Reese Witherspoon.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

Like, people are expecting to recognize her. So they don't want the costume to swallow her and be all that people can focus on. So...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

...studio notes are often like, "Oh, make the lead sexier," or "tone this down."

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And I think that they took some extra ruffles off the sleeves from what it originally looked like. But it looks pretty-- they showed some footage of the screen test and it looks pretty much the same.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. I mean, they still kept that poof sleeve too. I feel like there's still that. It doesn't take away enough from her, that you're not like, "oh, who is that?" Or like, "I'm so distracted."

Sarah  

Yeah. Exactly. Agreed. So this is Johnny onstage. And he goes... we see a few of his sort of onstage outfits before he starts only wearing black. It seems like he started wearing exclusively black on stage in the 60s. So this is him in the 50s, it's this lovely red- burgundy.

Jojo  

Yeah. Oooh.

Sarah  

I like that.

Jojo  

Does he have a design on his lapel too?

Sarah  

Oh, it... does it say JC?

Jojo  

Or J... oh yeah, that's pretty cool.

Sarah  

It's hard to find pictures of this movie, which is surprising.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Like, I always expect, if it was nominated for costumes, that I'll be able to find really good pictures of the costumes.

Jojo  

That's what you would think!

Sarah  

Not so much.

Jojo  

Nope.

Sarah  

So this is June later on when they're on tour. And they're kind of just walking through town, having some time off. And so we see this in contrast to her stage persona, her real life wardrobe is a lot more subdued. It's still very sweet and feminine, but it's definitely more grown up, and as she goes through the movie, it definitely gets more and more grown up as she evolves and comes into her own. Oh... do have a picture? I don't think I do. So in the interview Arianne said she found an orange and green flowered dress, a vintage one, because apparently the budget was pretty small for this.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

So she used a lot of actual vintage, borrowed... you know, found for cheap. And one of them she found, she found an actual picture of June Carter Cash in that exact same dress! Like, she found the actual dress.

Jojo  

Oooh. Yeah.

Sarah  

But I couldn't figure out which dress it was, because she wears two that are orange and green floral. [laughs]

Jojo  

"Which one?!"

Sarah  

And it's not this one, but they're later in the movie. So I think I got rid of the pictures because I was like, "I don't know which one it is." So I can't really hold this up and be like, "See?"

Jojo  

[laughs] Right. Right.

Sarah  

So that was frustrating.

Jojo  

I do love the floral motif that she has on a lot of her stuff.

Sarah  

Yeah, I like the colors that she wears too. She doesn't stick to certain colors.

Jojo  

Right. Right.

Sarah  

I would say generally it's pretty warm. She does wear a little bit of blue. But yeah, it's just like a nice... you know, wardrobe.

Jojo  

Fun. I would wear this skirt.

Sarah  

Yeah, it's cute.

Jojo  

If I wore skirts more often. [laughs]

Sarah  

I wear too many skirts. Like, when I go to thrift stores I go to the skirts first and I ended up with... I have so many of them, and I keep buying them because I love them. Anyway.

Jojo  

[laughs] They're great.

Sarah  

So this is her onstage singing later in the movie. I think we might be moving into late 50s at this point. And then I have a full body shot of this. So once again with a floral motif.

Jojo  

So cute!

Sarah  

I know, right? She's got a little bit of a bouffant happening.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And this is definitely more streamlined in silhouette than that frilly one was at the beginning. So she's moving away from her cartoony image and into more of a serious singer.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

This is her onstage again. Once again, could not find great picture. I found some on a mannequin.

Jojo  

So sad!

Sarah  

I think it was auctioned, so here's this.

Jojo  

So cute.

Sarah  

And I thought, looking at this picture of her onstage, that it was beaded.

Jojo  

Yeah, I was gonna say that's what I thought too.

Sarah  

Yeah, cuz it's sparkly. But I found this, and you can see that it's like a metallic embroidery?

Jojo  

Oh, yeah. It's almost like a trim.

Sarah  

Yeah, it's very sparkly, but it's not actually beads. It's the fabric.

Jojo  

I wonder if it's real metal, because you know how they used to have that on some of the trims?

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

That's probably what's creating that extra sparkle

Sarah  

Could totally be. Okay, so what's next? We're moving into.... Okay, I have this picture, it's called "John is a mess."

Jojo  

[laughs]

Sarah  

Because he's a mess. This is when he basically has lost everything, he had a breakdown on stage. He's drinking too much. He's doing drugs. Vivian has left him at this point. So he's living in this nasty apartment.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And he's wearing this, it looks like a tux shirt, because of the pleats.

Jojo  

Oh, yeah.

Sarah  

But it's clearly very... he hasn't showered, it's very yellowed. Looking pretty gross. And then... oh, I liked this. Because we got to see some period children's wear. This is an upsetting scene, as you can see, the children are crying. [laughs] But...

Jojo  

It's so funny to me, because it's always those little scenes of children that we're always like, "Okay, we HAVE to get these images." Because you just don't see them very often.

Sarah  

I love period children's wear!

Jojo  

I know. It's great.

Sarah  

Children look so cute in vintage clothes.

Jojo  

So cute. I can't wait.

Sarah  

I was at a party the other day and one of the kids running around was wearing... it looked like a little Oktoberfest dirndl, but it was vintage.

Jojo  

Yes!

Sarah  

It was like a three year old girl wearing a vintage dress.

Jojo  

Love that.

Sarah  

And I was like, "that girl looks so good."

Jojo  

On point, mom! On point.

Sarah  

I know. I was like, "you're doing it correctly." I love that. Yeah, I mean... I haven't anything to say about them. They're just cute. And I like seeing period kid's clothes.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yep. Agreed.

Sarah  

Okay, how am I doing on time? I'm doing great on time! Yay.

Jojo  

Woohoo!

Sarah  

This is Thanksgiving, later when Johnny is starting to get his act together, but hasn't quite. But he invites basically his parents and then June and her parents, and it ends up getting very awkward because his dad is very... his dad sucks, basically, his dad is really mean. But this is in the 60s, as you can see from the hair, and such. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yep.

Sarah  

And on the left here, this is Johnny's mom. So she's gone through a big transformation since we saw her in the 40s, of course. She has money. She's hopefully happier, even though her husband sucks.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And then June in the middle is... oh, I have this dress. Here it is.

Jojo  

So beautiful.

Sarah  

It's pretty.

Jojo  

It's that lantern sleeve that I love again!

Sarah  

I know, we love a lantern sleeve.

Jojo  

So funny. I keep seeing that everywhere. I'm like, "just looks good every time I see it."

Sarah  

It does. And also, in my opinion, it's timeless.

Jojo  

Yeah, I agree. It's a really elegant look.

Sarah  

Yes.

Jojo  

Especially, I mean, most of the ones I've seen happen to be transparent or some kind of see-through material. So maybe I'm just a little more biased, but I just think it looks really nice. And it's just, I don't know, it's kind of secretive and seductive while also being classy.

Sarah  

Yeah, you're covered up, but you're not.

Jojo  

Right, exactly.

Sarah  

Totally. So this dress is, I think it's probably chiffon. It's this gorgeous burgundy. It looks so good with her brown hair.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And it's totally free of surface decoration, you know? So it's like her final sort of evolution into a more mature adult woman. And then, I would say, we talk a lot about how in period movies you can kind of tell what era they're made in, because they don't quite go all the way to the period.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And I think that we can see that in Reese's hair for a lot of the movie, and probably a little bit in the makeup too, because her makeup looks pretty modern for the time in a lot of the shots, like this one right here. I mean, she has a maybe a little liquid eyeliner on. And the lipstick is definitely pink. You know, that's definitely a 50s/60s color. But...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

I think the way she's styled, they clearly wanted to make sure ...like I said, the studio wanted to make sure that people saw her.

Jojo  

...It was a good enough balance that it still felt like it could relate to contemporary audience.

Sarah  

Exactly. They don't want to make... they don't want to alienate her from her audience by making her look too removed from the Reese that we know and love. So I think that that's a pretty good balance, actually, that they struck, because this hairstyle is pretty period looking. But it's also... it also looks kind of 2005, so there's that.

Jojo  

Yeah, seriously.

Sarah  

All right. Oh, I was close to cutting this picture. But I was like, "couldn't possibly do it." This coat.

Jojo  

I love it. Love it so much.

Sarah  

So good.

Jojo  

I do love a good pea coat. in general.

Sarah  

It's... I love all coats. I love codes from all periods. I think everybody looks good in coats. I like summer a lot, but I will say some of my best outfits involve a jacket, because I love jackets and coats.

Jojo  

Yeah. That's why I miss fall so much. All the pea coats you can wear.

Sarah  

This is when she she takes him to... she's basically helping him get his his life together. And she takes him to church. So here they are going to church. And he's kind of like, I don't know... I like a lot of his offstage wear and I would have pulled some of it but this movie stays really tight on like, heads and shoulders. So there weren't any good screencaps I could find of most of the stuff he wears offstage. So, you'll just have to trust me that a lot of it's really cute. [laughs]

Jojo  

I trust you, Sarah.

Sarah  

All right. And here is his freakin'... like, he's back. He's at the record label being like, "guess what? I'm gonna play a show at Folsom Prison." And they're like, "Say what?" And actually, I enjoyed this because there was a scene of him getting dressed. So... ta-da. Close up on that fabric. I love it.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.  Ooh, yeah.

Sarah  

Arianne said that while they had a small budget, the money they did spend was getting a lot of his stuff custom made. So...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

...you can kind of tell, you know, it looks great, especially this outfit.

Jojo  

That's usually how we prioritize, you know. The lead character usually is who gets kind of the more custom made items, or at least the ones that are... a little more focus are put on them.

Sarah  

Exactly. And I think she probably saved a lot of money on shoes, because like I said, hardly any shots of anybody's full body in this movie. [laughs]

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Okay, and then here's him performing at Folsom. And I like this because of the the stark visual contrast between all of the inmates in blue, and then him in black in the middle. I just think it's a really effective picture.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Yeah.

Sarah  

And then I have one last one. This is when they're performing on stage. And he proposes her onstage, which is a very sweet scene. But she also had said no to him so many times. Like, obviously, he knew that she was in love with him. And he could feel that and probably could feel that she wanted to marry him. But he also... it's also just a little bit like he pressures her into it. Just a tiny... it's still very sweet, though.

Jojo  

Juuust a little bit.

Sarah  

It's... Yeah.

Jojo  

I mean, anytime you do something that public.

Sarah  

Right, you're like...

Jojo  

They don't really have another option.

Sarah  

Exactly. You're like, "Oh, so you won't say yes on the tour bus. So you'll say yes onstage in front of hundreds of people." [both laugh] I like this outfit on June. I think it looks a little bit 2000s-y. But I wonder if it is vintage. And it just kind of happens to look contemporary?

Jojo  

Yeah, like maybe a repeated silhouette or something.

Sarah  

Yeah, exactly. But it's very nice. Oh, and then this is when we come to this picture, because this is them onstage in the 60s.

Jojo  

Oh, cute.

Sarah  

I know. As we can see, the hair; very different. They did not go for a full 60s bouffant on her.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

For reasons as we have discussed. But I love this little dress. Look at this kicky little skirt. So cute!

Jojo  

Very cute.

Sarah  

Okay, so the thing I just wanted to finish up saying, is I watched... like I said, I watched an interview with her. It was at a film festival of some kind, and it was her and James Mangold.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

The director. And she just brought up a couple points. And I was like, "let's chat about that a little bit." She talked a lot about how the wardrobe department is an actor's, basically, first foray into their character.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

It's often the first thing they do on the movie, having a costume fitting and meeting with the costume designer.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

So lots of times, the movie actor is coming from another project, they're really busy. You know, this is the first chance they've had to kind of stand there and be like, "oh, who is this character? What did they look like? How do they stand?"

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So I just thought that was really interesting, that costumes are often their first chance to see themselves as the character.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And they also they find a lot of their physicality in costume fittings, how are they going to stand? How are they going to walk?

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

So I just thought that was a really good point. And probably something that average people don't necessarily know, is that like, the first thing is not a rehearsal, sometimes. Sometimes the first thing is costumes.

Jojo  

Yeah. And that happens often very late in the game, especially for theatre. So it's like, sometimes... I mean, they have been doing their own research into the character, but once they actually see themselves. And I had that conversation with a few actors too, where they're like, "I was getting into my character, and I was understanding them a little bit. But it wasn't until I got into the costume that I fully embodied, like, who this character was." So that's always a kind of rewarding moment, I feel like, for designers. Because it really does mean you've thought about it... I mean, you both have thought about it. And you've clearly made those choices very intentionally. But to see the actor really get into the character that you've created for them too is a really nice part of the collaboration, I think.

Sarah  

Totally. And things can change, obviously, that's what fittings are for.

Jojo  

Yeah, absolutely.

Sarah  

And so something that you as a designer might think was perfect for the character, the actor might be like, "Well, I'm not sure, you know, if this is right, because of these reasons," and then you find, and you explore it together. And that's how it should be. It should be a dialogue and a relationship between you--the designer--the actor, and the director. It should be a collaboration and that's what I love about it.

Jojo  

Right. And that's what makes it so collaborative, is that you are having an open dialogue about it, and that it's not just "you just do whatever I want." Although that sometimes may be the case, if you've had a really extensive conversation with a director. But yeah, I think that's very important. So that's cool.

Sarah  

Yeah. And then the other thing she talks about is like, she said that she specializes in distracting actors during fittings. And I was like, "that's interesting." Because actors can often feel really objectified.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And I think it can be dehumanizing, especially, to be in a costume fitting when people are staring at your body, talking about your body, like you aren't in the room.

Jojo  

Right?

Sarah  

So it can be really hard when you make your living off of partially how you look.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So she said she likes to just chat with them and get them out of their head and get them out of focusing on the flaws they see in the mirror and just really work on her relationship with them in the fitting. And I was like, "yeah, that's a good thing to do." Because you don't want them to feel like they're just a mannequin being dressed.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah, I feel like sometimes those are the most.... Well, I guess I'm a little more biased, because most of the costume designers that I know, that I think are really successful, are the ones that do build that rapport with their actors, and sometimes become friends with their actors, because they've built up that relationship. And they've built that trust. And that's also-- I mean, you never know, an actor sometimes can be the one getting you the next job, too.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Even though people don't necessarily think about it that way. But you know, it's such a small industry, you really don't ever know who's going to get you your next job.

Sarah  

Totally.

Jojo  

So I think building that relationship with whoever you're working with, and in this case with actors, it's the most intimate relationship that you can have. It really does go a long way, when you're able to build that trust. I mean, you know, Arianne is the perfect example with Madonna, building up that trust and being that person that becomes her go-to. That's how she got a lot of her other work.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So it's kind of a cool... like, you get to see sort of how the relationship changes and shifts and builds and still kind of benefits both parties, because of that trust. So that's always important.

Sarah  

Totally. Yeah. Yeah.

Jojo  

So excitiing.

Sarah  

So that's "Walk the Line". And those are my little side tangents that I was like, "let's chat about this, this will be fun."

Jojo  

Good sidewalk conversations. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Yeah. We like sort of diving into stuff that, you know, average, people who don't necessarily work in the industry might not think about or know. And it's all about shedding light and opening people up to what they might not know about.

Jojo  

Yeah. And hopefully that's, you know, that's what makes our podcast interesting, too, is...

Sarah  

I hope so too. [laughs]

Jojo  

... hearing more of that stuff. And even though it is costume related, but yeah.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Opening it up to other things, because we don't just live in a vacuum of costume.

Sarah  

Totally, it's not just about the pretty dresses, even though it we like those too.

Jojo  

Yeah, very true.

Sarah  

All right.

Jojo  

Okay, let me...

Sarah  

Are you ready? What's your movie?

Jojo  

I'm doing "The Impossible," which... I'm just trying to get my stuff loaded up. So I can see my notes, as well as my pictures.

Sarah  

Yeah, no problem.

Jojo  

And I don't have a ton of pictures for this. Because again, very similar to Sarah, even though this movie actually got quite a few nominations, and Oscar wins, there were just really not a ton of pictures of this. And I mean, some of it is kind of understandable. Because it is a movie that is about a natural disaster. And so, you know, a lot of the costumes are naturally very, very distressed.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And it's not like it's some beautiful thing that you see on a mannequin that you can put on afterwards. It's really more about kind of seeing the realistic, I guess, and natural way that costumes can break down over time. So I kind of wanted to choose it for that reason, because as many of you know, I am really into distressing costumes. And I've talked about this in the past. So this, unfortunately... there were not a lot of pictures of all kind of the step by steps, which I wish that I could have gotten. But I'm going to try and at least get some kind of important beats throughout the movie, where we can actually see how the costume kind of changed, at least. And sort of how the the costume designer-- it was actually multiple--how they were sort of coming up with, you know, where these outfits came from and that kind of thing.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, so really quick, just talking about some of the background for "The Impossible". The director is J.A. Bay... Bayona? I think that's how you say his name. I believe he's actually a Spanish--like, from Spain--director. I don't know exactly what his ethnicity is, but he did projects like "The Orphanage," which was his directorial debut. He also did "A Monster Calls," which I've never...

Sarah  

Oh yeah.

Jojo  

...I've never actually seen the movie but I have a whole book on all of the the creative visual effects that they did for that movie, which is phenomenal.

Sarah  

I've read the book that that's based on, but I have not seen the movie.

Jojo  

Okay. Yeah. And then he also did "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom". So one of the newer ones.

Sarah  

Okay! Wow.

Jojo  

So his choices of what he directs is very, very eclectic and very versatile. So that was kind of interesting. But his directorial resume actually is not super long. But the fact is, even though he hasn't done a ton of projects, they've all been pretty big and well recognized at least. And then in terms of the costume designer, it was actually three people. And again, they're all... none of them are very big designers. Anne Bingeman, I think is how you say her name. She did "Deception". And she also did the the comedy "Bachelorette".

Sarah  

Oh yeah, I've seen that.

Jojo  

Yeah. Which I was like, "Oh, that's interesting." Very different movies.

Sarah  

Did we watch that together?

Jojo  

We might have! I feel like we did.

Sarah  

With Jessica?

Jojo  

Oh yeah, I think we did.

Sarah  

[both laugh] I think we did!

Jojo  

That's so funny, because I was like, "I know I watched it with somebody."

Sarah  

That's really funny.

Jojo  

And then Sparka Lee, which I thought was a very interesting name, literally spelled "spark" with an A at the end. She's mostly a costume supervisor and assistant. And I think that was kind of her role in this as well.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

But she did "The Constant Gardener". She was an assistant, I believe, for "Resident Evil," "Speed Racer," "The Reader," and then she was a supervisor for a lot of "The Queen's Gambit".

Sarah  

Oh, nice.

Jojo  

So she's probably had a little bit more of a recognizable career than the other two. And then the third costume designer was Maria Reyes. And she does a lot more foreign TV shows. So I don't think... there was a lot of stuff that I didn't recognize, I wrote them down. But they're not things-- they're not titles that I recognize. They're "Merli," "Oh Happy Day," which is also a TV show. And then "La torre de Suso," which I think is also a movie. But again, all titles that I was like, "I've never heard of any of these things." But maybe it's just because it's in a different country. And I've just haven't seen them.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So yeah, so that's just a little bit of background. Just to tell you a little bit more about the actual event that this was based on... it follows a tourist family who ends up heading to Thailand, and this was back in like 2004. So there was a huge tsunami, which is actually... it said that it was one of the largest tsunamis in record, even to today. And that occurred in the Indian Ocean. So basically it pretty much wiped out the entire coast of Thailand in 2004. So there were, let's see, what were the statistics that I wrote down? It was considered the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. It was a 200 foot wave. It wiped away entire towns and the lives of over 200,000 people across 14 countries.

Sarah  

Oh my god.

Jojo  

So this thing was huge. And it was traveling from Indonesia. But this this particular movie focuses mostly on Thailand. And then the death toll in Thailand was nearly 5400, including 2000 foreign tourists.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

So this focuses on one specific tourist family who, miraculously, all five of the family members ended up surviving. But there were obviously a lot of other tourist deaths that were also happening at this time.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So just to give you a little bit more background, because again, I don't have a ton of pictures. But I was curious how well they translated, I guess, what happened in real life versus what happened to this family, because it is a very isolated event. And actually, it only took place over about two days.

Sarah  

Oh, wow.

Jojo  

But of course, the entire time during the movie, you're just like... I was like crying and tense and all these other emotions, just because I was like, "I don't know what's going to happen to these people, even though I kind of do."

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And also you're just watching them almost drown multiple times. And I think he spends a lot of time focusing on them underwater, getting hit and all this debris and everything. So of course, all those moments, you're kind of just sitting in tension, waiting, and hoping that they're going to resurface and and be able to breathe and survive. But the original family... and this is what I wanted to kind of touch base on, because I was a little confused. And there is a lot of critiquing about how they portrayed this movie, because the original family that survived was actually Spanish.

Sarah  

Oh.

Jojo  

And of course, all the actors that they cast for this were all well known white actors. And I think there was a back and forth of like, well, they chose these white actors. And there's a lot of white savior complex in there, even though there is you know, obviously they were in Thailand, and so they took a lot of the locals to portray, you know, the hospitals and the nurses and all the people that ended up helping. But the big critique was that it was essentially at the very end of it, the white family that survived while they didn't really focus on how much it actually affected the Thai people in the aftermath.

Sarah  

Do you know if if the family, the original family, was Spanish from Spain? Or were they Hispanic?

Jojo  

I believe they were from Spain. So yeah, not Hispanic, sorry.

Sarah  

There are white people in Spain but like...

Jojo  

Correct.

Sarah  

...it still would have been better to cast actual Spanish people.

Jojo  

Yeah. And I mean, it's very clear, the original lady was named Maria Belón. She was a physician. And then her husband's name is Enrique Álvarez. So you know, it's interesting the choices that they made. And you know, in justification, they actually did have the original Maria Belón come back, and literally be an advisor on--and guider on--the entire film.

Sarah  

That's good.

Jojo  

So she had a lot of, like... she was telling a lot of her own experience. And they said that their first interview with her... because I think she was also trying to figure out if these filmmakers were the right people to tell her story. Her first interview with them was actually five hours long, just her telling what happened.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

And I was like, "five hours?" Like, I can't even imagine. So a lot of, actually, what happened to Naomi Watts in the movie did in fact happen to Maria, in very much the same way. Even the way that the tsunami originally, or initially, approached them or attacked them. Like, they said that they actually had the family members standing in the same exact spot at that resort, where their family was. And I was like, "yikes." Like, I don't-- as an actor...

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

...I don't know that I would.... Like, that would have been so mentally like... I'm not ready for this.

Sarah  

That's a... that's heavy. That's like...

Jojo  

It is.

Sarah  

...that's a lot.

Jojo  

Definitely. And they actually, so they were from Japan originally. Sorry-- they lived in Japan for Álvarez's job. And then they ended up going to Thailand for Christmas. So they were actually there for holiday.

Sarah  

It was Christmas time?

Jojo  

Yeah. So crazy.

Sarah  

That is heartbreaking.

Jojo  

And then they said that in terms of the actual injuries that she suffered--because I was also curious about how much of that they translated--Belón apparently suffered severe thigh and chest injuries, which is also what they did in the movie for Naomi Watts. So like, very, very much exactly like what she experienced was what they kind of recreated.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Both parents ended up being separated from their children. So they had three sons, Lucas, Simón, and Tomás were the original names. They changed them to very white names of Lucas, Simon and Thomas.

Sarah  

Ooh.

Jojo  

And then even Enrique, they changed to Henry. Maria, they kept as Maria. But their last name was actually Bennett instead of, you know, Maria Belón and Álvarez.

Sarah  

That's...

Jojo  

So like that part of it, I was a little bit like, "uhhhh..."

Sarah  

How do you excuse that? Like, how do you... we wanted to get the movie made, and we didn't think that they would fund a movie with no white people in it?

Both  

[editor's note: our apologies, we do know that Spain is primarily Caucasian. Our use of "white people" in these exchanges is incorrect. We meant that instead of casting people who looked like the familiy--dark hair and olive skin--they cast very fair people and Anglicized their names, essentially changing the fact that the family is Spanish.]

Jojo  

Right. And I think that was the one person that critiqued it. They were like, "why did they choose not to use a, you know, a more well known celebrity that was from Spain?"

Sarah  

There are a lot, yeah.

Jojo  

Like, I think they had mentioned Penélope Cruz as an option, you know, things like that. And it was interesting because Maria, the original lady, actually said that when she talked to Naomi Watts, she felt the most... like she could relate to her the most when they were talking about the role.

Sarah  

Okay.

Jojo  

So I was like, "Oh, that's interesting that she connected the most with a white lady to represent her." Like...

Sarah  

Yeah, I'm glad that basically she gave her blessing on it.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

Like, I'm glad she's not upset by the decision. Yeah, but it is kind of bad optics, you know?

Jojo  

Very much so, especially now. I mean, this was created a couple years ago, but like...

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

...you know, it's just weird to think about it now, when everything is so much more sensitive about that.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Okay. So let's see. One thing that I did want to mention, Naomi Watts quoted Belón when they spoke, she said, "Belón felt completely sure of her instinct." And this was like, during the time of the tsunami, everything that happened. She said, "Nothing got in the way of her instinct, and she'd never had that feeling before." So I think that was something that really helped Naomi kind of get into her character as well. Which you definitely do see that, like they make Naomi a little bit more fearful, I think, in the movie. Like she... when they start off on the plane flying to Thailand. She's already nervous about all the bumpiness on the plane.

Sarah  

Hmm.

Jojo  

And then when she goes into the actual... when she actually has to save her son, or try to reach her son, there's a little bit more of a jump of her anxiety, becoming a mother and trying to save her children. So moving on to costumes.

Sarah  

Costumes!

Jojo  

Sorry, I spent way too long talking about that, but I figured I would at least show some background. [laughs]

Sarah  

Yeah, it's good to have that information.

Jojo  

Before we talked about it.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So I wanted to show you the original family. And you can tell they're... they look very Spanish, like from Spain. Like, all their features are very "from Spain." And then you have the white family that represents them. So... so yeah, it's quite a big difference. Ewan McGregor plays Henry.

Sarah  

[laughs] I'm sorry.

Jojo  

Naomi Watts plays Maria, obviously... I know.

Sarah  

We couldn't even put them in dark hair? Like, we couldn't even dye their hair? Okay. All right.

Jojo  

Yeah, yeah.

Sarah  

They had to be blonde.

Jojo  

And then we had, interestingly enough, this is actually Tom Holland.

Sarah  

Oh my god!

Jojo  

So funny, because I was like, "Oh, yeah, I forgot he was in this movie!"

Sarah  

Little baby.

Jojo  

He's so, so young in this movie. And he plays our oldest child, Lucas. And then we have our middle child, our little blond, blue eyed kid, who I believe is Simon. And then our youngest is Thomas. So I kind of wanted to pull this picture out, just because throughout the movie, the designers actually kept a really, really tight palette for them. So it was a lot of really nice earth tones. They're mostly in... like, if it's white, it's a kind of cream. I mean, this is probably the lightest white, and it's only the mom.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

The rest of the time, most of the guys are either in blues or greens, you'll see a lot of kind of deep grays, or kind of cooler tone grays. So I think they really did a good job of kind of sticking to that.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And then... and this is all, of course, before everything happens.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

This is a little out of order. But this was the original outfit that Maria is in. And this is pretty much the outfit she's in the entire time she's suffering through this tsunami. So she starts off, obviously, in this white tank top and the blue shorts. And of course, throughout the movie, there's so much that's happened. She's like, drowning in muddy water. So this totally looks like a completely different outfit by the end of this.

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

But this is sort of where she starts.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, and then... so this was actually supposed to be before the other one. But this was basically one of the nights before the tsunami hits. They actually have a little lantern, which is very famous in Thailand, they do the lantern release.

Sarah  

Oh yeah. Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Where they're seeing the lanterns fly into the sky. And this is kind of their last calm and nice moment as a family. So I love that, again, it's still earth tones, but these beautiful greens that the costume designers decided to use here really kind of ties them into the the natural setting of Thailand as well.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

She actually ends up putting these kind of tropical flowers in her hair. So it's this very tropical feeling, you know, they are on vacation.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So I did love that they kind of tied everyone together very tightly, in terms of color. Alright, so...

Sarah  

Oh boy. Here we go.

Jojo  

...after the tsunami hits, you can already see her white tank top has turned yellow.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

She's already covered in mud. And even her blue shorts have kind of turned sort of a gray. It looks like they've kind of given her some... almost like salt stains.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Because this is after the water has kind of died down. But she's sort of still... kind of trying to find her way to help. They end up picking up this kid, which apparently this also happened in real life. They actually found a stray kid that they helped for a little while named Daniel.

Sarah  

Oh my gosh.

Jojo  

And in the movie they totally just make it a happy ending where he finds his dad, and they see him reunite with his dad. In the real situation, apparently Daniel was never found again. Like, somehow he got separated from them a second time and they never found out what happened to him.

Sarah  

Oh, no.

Jojo  

So it's like... it's just this really heartbreaking moment.

Sarah  

That's too dark, too dark for the movie, I guess.

Jojo  

It really is, it really is.

Sarah  

Oh, that's so sad.

Jojo  

And you can kind of see even with Lucas, he, you know, he's still got that kind of blue swimming shorts. I mean, like I said, there's not a ton of costume, interesting things here because they're in swimwear.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

They're at the pool when the tsunami hits. So it's like, very kind of bare minimum clothing.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

But you do start seeing how much this kind of changes, even just seeing all of the different details of what water does to our clothes, after being in a muddy tsunami. And the other thing, too, that's interesting is she was wearing a swimming suit under this when everything happened, and somehow the swimsuit has just sort of disappeared.

Sarah  

Oh!

Jojo  

Because during this time, she actually... underwater, gets stabbed in this, in the rib cage. And also a whole chunk of her back thigh is just missing. So there's a scene where-- I didn't want to show it because it was just very, very graphic.

Sarah  

That's fine. [laughs]

Jojo  

But you see the kid walking behind her, and he just sees a chunk of her leg just flapping down and he's like, "I can't."

Sarah  

Ugh!

Jojo  

He's like, "I can look at you right now," and so she makes him walk in front of her, so he doesn't have to look at it. And that's why she has this little thing tied around her leg, to like, keep the skin up. And I'm like, "oh my god."

Sarah  

Oh god. [laughs]

Jojo  

But yes, it's a lot of... and again, this is where it kind of gets down to the nitty gritty of like, this costume crafts person had to understand what each of these steps were. Like, everything that hits her has to somehow show up on her clothes.

Sarah  

Yes.

Jojo  

So you know, you start seeing the blood kind of dripping and staining from the side-- the side injury, but then you also see the blood kind of getting on some of her pants.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

It's just like, I don't know, it's so much to think about. Especially in a natural disaster, this where literally everything is making you dirty. [laughs]

Sarah  

Yes, that's the daunting part of distressing, I think. Like, you must have to completely storyboard it.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And then that's how you figure out how many duplicates you need. And you must have to like, just lay it all out.

Jojo  

Yeah. And I... you know, even in this, it's like, they must have had to have, you know, 15 or 16 copies of this shirt alone.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Like, even just for a 20 minute segment, just because she goes through so much trauma, and she's still wading through water even after it kind of subsides. So like, there's still things that are happening, because she's still trudging through terrain, so...

Sarah  

Well, and then you're like, "Okay, so how many times does she have to do to the take," you know.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

"Do we need a fresh one at the beginning of every take, so that she can get wet?"

Jojo  

Right, exactly.

Sarah  

So yeah, it's so much to think about.

Jojo  

And that also makes me wonder why we have, you know... it's probably why they had three costume people.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And also why they had a supervisor in addition to, you know, maybe a more seasoned designer, because someone who's a supervisor understands more of that craft stuff. And usually, they'll either at least have someone on hand that they know who can do that, or they're often the ones doing some of the craft stuff.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So it's, you know, it's sort of interesting how they pulled together their team. Like, it makes a lot more sense when you're looking at the amount of craziness that has to happen to these costumes in terms of breaking them down.

Sarah  

Yeah. And you need people on set who know exactly what is supposed to be happening when.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So I think that is... that's kind of probably what a supervisor would do too, right? Is be, like...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

...in charge of knowing which one is for which scene.

Jojo  

Right, right, and making sure everything is organized in such a way that they don't get those mixed up.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

But yeah. Okay.

Sarah  

Wow, oh no.

Jojo  

So this is the next stage. She gets basically dragged through... I mean, there's quite a few things that happen in between this, of course, but a big part of this--the original story, too--was that a Thai man actually ended up dragging her through the mud. And like, this is so hard to watch, because she's just screaming in pain the entire time. And they just-- they're just dragging her through grass, and like...

Sarah  

Ohh.

Jojo  

...mud and all these other things. And she... you know, it's the back of her leg. So it's just getting ripped up even more. But that's his only way of trying to get her to a hospital and get her to somewhere safe.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And you see her son in the front. Like, it's interesting, because clearly the people making this movie did not want to hurt children or make them look hurt. So like, the two youngest kids, don't look distressed or dirty or anything at all.

Sarah  

[laughs] Not bloody.

Jojo  

You see maybe one or two scenes where Tom Holland gets kind of beat up under the water, but you know, in terms of the amount of pain and injury that he sustained, it's much, much less than...

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

...what Naomi Watts goes through.

Sarah  

People don't want to see kids getting hurt.

Jojo  

It's so true. So yeah, they definitely kept them pretty clean in general. But she, again, she gets stabbed right in the side. And then it's really gross. Like, they actually show her boob all sliced up underneath. And so, you know, her son's obviously freaking out because she's like, falling apart in front of him.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And so she ends up having to tie one of her tank top straps to the other side, just to, like, cover herself.

Sarah  

Uh huh.

Jojo  

So yeah, it's just, you know, this looks so horrible here. But again, it just shows you this is sort of the next few steps that our craftsperson had to pay attention to.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

She's getting dragged through the mud. She's also got all the blood on top, she's probably bleeding more because she's being dragged through other stuff. So it's just all those things that you have to pay attention to. Because as humans, that's what would happen in real life.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So yes, so she ends up wearing pretty much this outfit for the rest of the time until she's she's able to get to the hospital.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

Okay, so Tom Holland. Obviously when he gets to the hospital, somehow he finds a shirt. Or like, they end up... so when they get to the actual Thai village, where it's a little safer, they actually have a-- it's basically like all the local people end up coming and, you know, putting... they end up giving her a shirt. They end up, you know, giving Lucas another shirt. But one of the reasons I wanted to pull this image is not just because it's like, "Okay, great, now we have a costume change." But it kind of also goes to show the kind of clothes that are overseas. Because a lot of times, overseas countries do end up just getting, essentially, the waste that America gets rid of.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So it's interesting that we're looking at graphics that look a little bit more American, but it's almost like it's faded out, or it's not quite there anymore.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Like these are old clothes that have been discarded from elsewhere.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So I kinda want to just pull that in. Because I mean, it just says... even with how kind of dingy it looks, it tells you a lot about what's actually in the rest of the world, and how other people manufacture clothing, or even get clothing from other places. Or wealthier places.

Sarah  

Yeah, I think, you know, Americans at large don't necessarily think about what happens to our clothes when...

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

...you know, they can't even be sold in Goodwill or whatever.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

That's what happens, is that we ship them to other countries and just... make it their problem instead of ours.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah. And like, he gets this as a new shirt, but you can see how torn up the collar is, and how the sleeves are all torn up.

Sarah  

Yeah. And the graphic is faded.

Jojo  

So yes, I just thought that was a really interesting way to kind of introduce that.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, so then the second half of the movie, they kind of go... I mean, because the first half of the movie you're really focusing on how Naomi is able to find her son, and they stay together, and how they're able to get to the hospital.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And hers is probably the much more traumatic experience, because I think she obviously went through a lot more injuries. Somehow, Ewan McGregor stays fairly intact and untouched through all of this. Which is weird. But he's also in the pool with his kids when he starts.

Sarah  

Oh.

Jojo  

And I wanted to pull this image, even though it's the dirty version of this, because he has these pretty standard Hawaiian blue swimming trunks. But in the beginning, his kids are just making fun of how ugly they are. [laughs] And so it's just funny that, you know, it... obviously, it's not a huge thing, but then they just get so dirty and ripped up by the time he gets through the tsunami. And yet, somehow, the only injuries he sustains are maybe a few scars here and there on his face.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

And when they find him, or when he starts his kind of portion of the story, he's still back at the resort. So somehow, he's survived enough after the water has kind of subsided, to still remain at the resort. And he's somehow found his two kids. So like, apparently, they were also clinging to a tree. And that's how he found both of them. Like, they were both, you know, just holding on.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And so at this point, the water has subsided. The rest of the movie, his goal is to just basically find his wife and his kids, because he feels like they're alive, even though no one else seems to think so. So I just wanted to pull that image really quick, because that's mostly what he's in until he's able to find a shirt.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Later on, this is still him looking for his wife, he's kind of talking to his kids and trying to convince his middle child that he has to take care of Thomas, because you know, they're going to go somewhere safe to the top of the mountain so that it's far away from the water. And then he's going to keep looking for his wife. So basically, this is sort of like a "grow up, you gotta man up and take care of your younger brother."

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Because he's also the kid that's afraid of everything at the beginning of the movie.

Sarah  

Aww. I relate to that.

Jojo  

Okay, so moving on. This is actually... I believe this is one of my last ones. I wanted to pull this because she's one of the few characters that kind of gets a little bit more screen time, other than the guy that drags Naomi Watts through the mud. And she actually does speak pretty fluent English, because she's one of the ones that finally kind of is able to converse with Lucas when he's trying to find... at a certain point in the hospital, he loses his mom temporarily. So she finally is able to converse with him and calm him down and try to help him find his mom again. And so she's kind of... it's still a really, really small role. And again, another big critique is that the local people just aren't given much of a character in this movie. But she ends up kind of having this big long conversation with him and she ends up kind of being his trustworthy, like, go-to nurse.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So she has a very small part, but you do see her represented a little bit more. And I kind of just wanted to show, again, their uniform is clearly not pristine, like we are used to seeing in the States.

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

It's clearly like, this is the shirt that she got. And it's probably whatever "Goodwill" version that she got out of wherever she could find. And that's their uniform for the hospital.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So I just thought that was interesting, to sort of represent kind of what the local people were wearing. And I didn't do enough research to find out how accurate this actually was.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Or if this is just something she wore on her own, versus an actual, you know, hospital issued uniform.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And then last one.. they talked about-- like, I just kind of pulled this image because again, they haven't really changed. But this is sort of where they finally find each other. And this is after a very long like hour and a half of the movie. So within that last half hour, Lucas finally finds his two brothers, and then they finally find their dad.

Sarah  

Aww.

Jojo  

So there was this really heartwarming moment. And again, it's sort of like a double edged sword, right? There's so many other people that die during the tsunami that aren't focused on in this movie. And yet, the white family is the one that survives. So I think that was one of the biggest critiques of this movie, of how whitewashed everything was.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

But you know, it's at the end of it, it's still a very heartwarming happy ending, I think. Unfortunately, audiences don't... well, I shouldn't say "unfortunately," but audiences don't really like to see a sad ending for things like this, where it is a natural disaster that's totally out of your control.

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

But it is also one of those things where, you know, it makes you wonder, what about all those other families that didn't make it? So... Yeah, anyways, that was the last thing I had for this movie. Again, a really hard thing to watch.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

But I did like that they at least brought the original survivor into the discussion and didn't just try and like, fake it or make something happen that wasn't really happening.

Sarah  

I feel like if I was making this movie, which... I don't make movies, so whatever. But I would probably try to tell a bunch of family's stories, you know?

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Instead of... you can get the real life testimony from the survivors and try to do justice to their actual story.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

But you could also add in some side characters who are on their own sort of struggle and journey, and maybe not all of them have happy endings, you know?

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Like, you could tell the story in a way that was sensitive to the actual family who survived this. And then... but also sensitive to everybody else who didn't find their family.

Jojo  

Right. Which... I think, you know, they did do a little bit of that.

Sarah  

Yeah?

Jojo  

When Lucas is running through the hospital. Because while his mom is laying kind of in the hospital ready for surgery, he ends up... just because he doesn't know what to do with himself. So he ends up running around the hospital, and all these people end up reaching out to him and being like, you know, "have you seen this person?"

Sarah  

Mmm.

Jojo  

Like, most of them are parents asking for their sons, or their kids.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And so he starts going around, he starts taking their names down, and walking around the hospital and just yelling out names, being like, "anybody recognize this name?" So there is a little bit of that, that I think they tried to throw in there to like, redeem some of it.

Sarah  

[laughs] Yeah.

Jojo  

But yeah, you know, it is one of those things where I think you see maybe two families reunite-- including that kid Daniel, who in real life, we never find out what actually happens to him. But there is another family who... the son and the father get reunited, because Lucas ends up finding him.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And then there's another mom who also goes, like... she has a similar situation and ends up having to go into surgery kind of right next to Maria's character. And you never find out what happens to her. Like, she goes into surgery. And she, I think she writes her name on Maria's arm, so that she won't forget her name, because she was like, "I have a family too. And I just want to say bye to them one last time before... I don't know if I'm going to survive this surgery," kind of thing.

Sarah  

Oh, wow.

Jojo  

And then she goes into surgery, and you never see her come back out. So you know, there's a lot of unfinished stories, which, you know, I think they tried to do that. Which is probably why this movie lasted two hours. Like, I forgot that that was long it was. [laughs] And I was like, "how are they going to make a movie about a tsunami last two hours?" [both laugh] But you know, they did it. So... so yes, it was interesting to see how they were able to kind of translate some of that. And like, show all of it. I think, you know, again, at the end of the day, I'm kind of like, "what was the reasoning behind switching to a white family when it didn't have to be done that way?"

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Like, you know, it's one thing if you're resonating with that particular actress. But like, they could have even kept her husband, you know, Spanish. Or... I don't know, something like that.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

I'm not a filmmaker. So who knows? But...

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

...but yes, it does make me wonder what their choices are, what their motivations behind those choices were.

Sarah  

It's hard to justify that, you know, in a way that really makes a lot of sense. Other than...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

"...we were worried about money. We were worried that people wouldn't pay to see a movie about people who weren't white," which is like... [grimace sound] [laughs]

Jojo  

Right. And then last fun fact I wanted to share was when they did the tsunami, apparently he built a water tank. And that's how they filmed the whole movie. I think it was very similar... I can't remember the other movie you said that they did that for. But there was another one.

Sarah  

"Parasite"?

Jojo  

Yes. Yeah.

Sarah  

Yeah, I just transcribed that one.

Jojo  

They built a water tank. And like, they just... you know, they kind of just did most of their swimming in there.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And then they just added some digital, you know, extra effects or visual effects afterwards for the extra stuff. But I was like, "That's so crazy," because I can't imagine trying to film. He tried to use as much real water as possible, though.

Sarah  

Oh, wow.

Jojo  

He was like, "I wanted it to be as authentic as possible." So a lot of the tidal waves that come in, and things like that, all of that happened for real. And I was like, "yikes," that's... that's so crazy and scary. Like, I can't imagine.

Sarah  

Yes, I feel like that would be very hard. But also I think about actors and I'm like, "a movie where you're wet the whole time?" That just has to suck to shoot.

Jojo  

Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.

Sarah  

Just wet for two months.

Jojo  

And where you have to constantly change costumes, just to make sure you're continuous. Like...

Sarah  

They're like, dumping buckets on you before they start. Ugh.

Jojo  

Yep, yep. So yeah, must have been a very grueling process. For sure.

Sarah  

Yeah. Yeah.

Jojo  

But yeah, that's my coverage of "The Impossible."

Sarah  

Great job.

Jojo  

Thanks, Sarah.

Sarah  

I'm glad you covered that, because I am glad I know about that movie now. But that's the kind of movie that would stress me out deeply to watch. So now I got the experience of watching it without having to actually watch it. [both laugh]

Jojo  

So funny. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. I will definitely say, the scene where she reunites with her son--and she's trying to get back to him because they're so far apart--and they see each other and they're both screaming for each other, but they can't get close enough to each other. And there's a whole scene where they're reaching across a mattress, but they can't touch hands, because it's too far away. And they're still also trying to avoid debris under the water that they can't see. And I'm just like, "this is so stressful!" And I feel like I don't know what I'd do if this was me, and my parents. Or like, me and a child that I cared about. [laughs]

Sarah  

I hope we never have to find out what that's like.

Jojo  

Agreed. Agreed. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Oh, man.

Jojo  

But yes. So yeah, that's our coverage of true event movies.

Sarah  

Very different films we picked, from each other. [laughs]

Jojo  

Absolutely.

Sarah  

That's good. We like to keep it spicy. Keep it fresh.

Jojo  

That's true. It's very true.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Keep your interest peaked.

Sarah  

Exactly. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Oh, man. Well.

Sarah  

Okay.

Jojo  

Thank you so much, Sarah, that was so much fun.

Sarah  

Thank you, JoJo.

Jojo  

Thank you guys for joining us. And again, if you have any comments or questions or just other things you want to add, maybe more information about either of our movies that maybe we didn't cover, please feel free to add or comment on Instagram.

Sarah  

Yes! Totally.

Jojo  

We are behind on YouTube. So I will get back on that this week. Sorry. It's been a crazy month. But thank you for being patient with us.

Sarah  

Yes.

Jojo  

And we look forward to hearing all of your comments and notes and questions and everything else.

Sarah  

Yes, we appreciate your patience as we, you know, try to fit doing this podcast around our regular lives. [laughs]

Jojo  

So true. Well, thanks again and we'll see you on the next one.

Sarah  

See ya. Bye.

Jojo  

Bye!

[OUTRO]

Jojo

Thank you for listening to The Costume Plot! You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thecostumeplot. If you have a question, comment, or movie suggestion you can email us at thecostumeplot@gmail.com.

Sarah

Our theme music is by Jesse Timm, and our artwork is by Jojo Siu. Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts.