#that's not interesting enough for me in a franchise ruled by evil creatures

[judesstfrancis]

I was never the biggest fan of quiet place from a narrative standpoint like I like the way it was filmed but story wise it fell flat for me however lupita n'yongo back on my screen for a horror film ?? I will be seated

[twistedtummies2]

Can I just ask how you make your ocs interesting? I’m trying to make my own Twst oc and he’s going to be a big eater himself, so what qualities could I give him to make him seem interesting?

Ooooh...okay, this is a HARD one to answer. So...buckle in, this will proooobably be long. 'XD First and foremost...I never SET OUT to make my characters "interesting." If...that makes sense? Here's the thing about writing advice from me: I'm bad at it. LOL It's not like writing is easy for me (it REALLY isn't) and it's not like there aren't certain things I try to keep in mind and ideas and concepts and even rules I follow...it's just that, in the moment of creating a character, I'm usually just...creating a character. And how that happens can work in a variety of different ways. Also, what makes a character "interesting" can be so many different things. It's not like there's some magic wand of interesting-making-power that I have. So...I guess what I can tell you is that there are a few things I keep in mind when I'm making my own TW OCs. The main ones, that is - including my preds and Chief Jehan (since he's the only recurring non-pred OC I have in my gallery CURRENTLY; I have another I'm actually planning to write about after I finish Nakoda's next big work, WHICH WILL BE DONE, I PROMISE YOU). First of all, I don't know if your OC is a TRUE OC or based on a Disney character. There are, of course, original characters in TW: Jack doesn't seem to come from anywhere specific, and it's hard to tell with several other characters. For example, most of the Heartslabyul students are clearly based on the Card Guards from Alice in Wonderland, but those characters in the film (and book) are really one solid unit, so they really do come across as original characters with a Card Guard motif beyond anything else. If your character is purely original, all you have to do is make sure they fit the style of this universe. If your OC is - as all of mine so far, and most in general, tend to be - a reimagining of a popular Disney Villain or other Disney Character, then you first have to look at what makes this villain who they are. All of the Night Raven students who are based on such characters - and that is the vast majority of them - have the sort of creative DNA of those characters in their personalities, motivations, and even appearance. Even with someone like Idia, there's a little something of Hades there; Leona takes a LOT from Scar; Azul goes in a somewhat different direction from Ursula (he's more like Mephistopheles or an old-time-gangster), but the basic idea of his modus operandi and elements of his look are found with her, as well. See what elements you think are most important to keep or throw out. And you WILL have to throw stuff out: the Disney Villains are usually pure evil. That's part of their appeal. Very few of them have much empathy or sympathy, what makes them interesting is usually just how much they ENJOY what they do, and how creatively they're handled, and how delectably they're voiced. No one watches Scar kill his own brother and try to murder a small child and thinks he's in the right; that's about the point where we stop finding him funny and instead think he's a right old git. But OH, how we love watching "Be Prepared," how we love seeing him toy with and tease people, and how we relish how much FUN Jeremy Irons is clearly having with every SYLLABLE of his dialogue. With Twisted Wonderland, the whole point of the "villains" of Night Raven is they really aren't villains at all. They're not always good people, but they aren't always bad, either. They all have sad and sympathetic origin stories, they all have understandable reasons for why they do the terrible things they do, and we like to see how they learn from their mistakes and even become friends and helpers to us. They are rounded, flawed people, not demons or lost causes. Your OC should be the same: someone the audience can understand on a fundamental level and find a way to latch onto. These characters can be dangerous, at times downright evil, but they should also be characters we care about: that's a BIG part of their identity, pretty much universally. Going back to Scar: with Leona, the first big change for his character is that he

legitimately cares for his family. Yes, he's annoyed by his nephew, and yes, he resents his big brother, but he makes it clear (perhaps without trying to, because Chernabog forbid he ADMITS having empathy) he does still love them. That, ultimately, above all else, is what separates him from his inspiration: Scar will kill and backstab anyone and enjoy it. Leona still has the capacity to care about other living creatures. Find what makes your inspiration tick, and then "twist" it up: if they're greedy, WHY are they greedy? If they're gluttons, is there anything you can add to that? If you can't find a way to justify your character, then you should probably consider trying a different one. Also, do try to stick with Disney characters. I guess there's nothing to say you can't do other franchises and such, but it feels like cheating to me to include non-Disney properties in a place like this. Then again, Disney freaking owns HALF THE BLOODY PLANET at this point, so that won't be too hard, I guess. :P Anyway...one last word of note: one very hard part is finding a way to make your character unique. I've come to find people have actually made a few different Kaa OCs, but none are the same as Nakoda. If you're familiar with people doing a lot of different versions of the same character, then make sure you're doing something that is truly your own: don't just riff off of someone else's work. Nako may be based on the same character as some of those others, but he's aaallllll mine. If you're not aware of it...then don't worry about it! Don't look it up, don't be discouraged, don't fret! Trust me, the more you freak out about if other people have had the same idea, the less inclined you'll be to try, and/or the more influenced you'll be. Just do what YOU like best. On top of that, be careful your character isn't too similar to other characters within the TW universe: one of the reasons I haven't and likely may not ever make a Shere Khan OC is because, as of now, I don't really know what I'd do with Shere Khan that other characters don't already have, on several levels. I love Shere Khan - he's one of my favorite Furry Preds - but I don't know what I'd do to make him all my own and make him different from both the canon cast and the OCs I've already planned or created. Again, you want your character to stand out and be all your own, as well as fitting for this universe. After all that...it's all aesthetics. Their powers, their designs, their names...maybe you have those ideas first, maybe you don't know yet. It doesn't really matter where you start - Billy and Nako both started with plot concepts, Eli and Reno both started with a desire to make OCs based on certain characters - but the basic idea is, what makes a TW OC interesting is this blend of elements: they need to be unique, and they need to be understandable, and they need to fit the rules and ideas of this world. I could say SO much more, but this post is lengthy enough, and I'm under medication, so I've probably been rambling for too long as it is. 'XD If you have any other questions I can answer more easily, you're always welcome to send them along.

[padawanlost]

What was your take on Dave Filoni's speech on the Duel of Fates & Qui-Got Jinn?

I’m surprised people were shocked by that. I mean, he didn’t say anything new. 

His take is the same take that has been explored since TPM came out. I don’t know if people shocked by it are new fans who weren’t around when the movies came out or didn’t have access to the interviews/EU or of if they are in deep denial about the characters portrayed on screen.

“What’s at stake is really how Anakin’s going to turn out, because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi.”

FACT since 1999. We know Qui-Gon was a ‘rebel’ since TPM came out. He’s even known as a ‘maverick jedi’ for that very reason, with multiple novels and comics exploring that side of him. Hell, he was Dooku’s apprentice, a guy known for being one of the Council’s biggest critics even when he was still a Jedi Master.

“Obi-wan:  Do not defy the council, Master, not again. Qui-Gon: I shall do what I must, Obi-Wan. Obi-wan:  If you would just follow the code, you would be on the council.” The Phantom Menace, 1999.

You get that in the movie, and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows that he’s the father that Anakin needs, because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that Jedi are supposed to care and love and that that’s not a bad thing. 

FACT since 1999. 

He was angry that the Jedi Master would dismiss him so abruptly in favor of the boy, but he realized, too, the depth of Qui-Gon’s passion when he believed in something. Training this boy to be a Jedi was a cause Qui-Gon championed as he had championed no other in Obi-Wan’s memory. He did not do so to slight his protégé. He did so because he believed in the boy’s destiny. Obi-Wan understood. Who could say? Perhaps this time Qui-Gon was right. Perhaps Anakin Skywalker’s training was a cause worth fighting for. [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace – published in 2000]

That Filoni himself reinforces in 2013 during an interview about TCW’s season 5: “I’ve always felt that one of Anakin’s downfalls, like it’s never that Anakin was innately going to be evil, but the people around him, the Jedi, in their lack of compassion, in being so selfless that they almost forgot to care.” Dave Filoni

The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they’ve become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. But, Qui-Gon is ahead of them all and that’s why he’s not part of the council, so he’s fighting for Anakin. 

FACT since 1999. 

“With Episode I, I didn’t want to tell a limited story. I had to go into the politics and the bigger issues of the Republic and that sort of thing. I had to go into bigger issues.” George Lucas

In The Phantom Menace one of the Jedi Council already knows the balance of The Force is starting to slip, and will slip further. It is obvious to this person that The Sith are going to destroy this balance. On the other hand a prediction which is referred to states someone will replace the balance in the future. At the right time a balance may again be created, but presently it is being eroded by dark forces. All of this shall be explained in Episode 2, so I can’t say any more!- CUT interview 09/07/99?

“The first film starts with the last age of the Republic; which is it’s getting tired, old, it’s getting corrupt. There’s the rise of the Sith, who are now becoming a force, and in the backdrop of this you have Anakin Skywalker: a young boy who’s destined to be a very significant player in bringing balance back to the Force and the Republic. George Lucas - from the American ANH VHS tape in the making of Episode II in the 2000 release.

[The Jedi] sort of persuade people into doing the right thing but their job really isn’t to go around fighting people yet there are now used as generals and they are fighting a war and they are doing something they really weren’t meant to do.They are being corrupted by this war, by being forced to be generals instead of peacemakers. – George Lucas for E! Behind the Scenes - Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith

That’s one of the few times in history when the bad guys were very clearly delineated for us. There really was a fight for survival going on between pretty clearly good guys and bad guys. The story being told in Star Wars is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you’re in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they’re actually not. . – George Lucas

That’s why it’s the duel of the fates, it’s the fate of this child and depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. 

If good and evil are mixed things become blurred - there is nothing between good and evil, everything is grey. In each of us we have balanced these emotions, and in the Star Wars saga the most important point is balance, balance between everything. It is dangerous to lose this. – George Lucas

"So, Qui-Gon loses, of course, so the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he made to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him.

FACT since 1999. We literally see this in the movie.

He stopped his pacing and stared momentarily at nothing, thinking of Qui-Gon Jinn, his Master, his teacher, his friend. He had failed Qui-Gon in life. But he would carry on his work now, honoring him in death by fulfilling his promise to train the boy, no matter what. [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace]

When they find Anakin on Tatooine, he says, “I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform.” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar. And he’s saying, “This is a waste of time. Why are we doing this? Why do you see importance in these creature like Jar Jar Binks and this 10 year old boy? This is useless.”

FACT since 1999.

So he’s a brother to Anakin, eventually, but he’s not a father figure.  

“He is like my brother. I cannot do it.” Obi-wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith.

This, then, is Obi-Wan and Anakin: They are closer than friends. Closer than brothers. Though Obi-Wan is sixteen standard years Anakin’s elder, they have become men together. Neither can imagine life without the other. The war has forged their two lives into one.  [Matthew Stover. Revenge of the Sith]

[With Ahsoka] I wanted to develop a character who would help Anakin settle down. He's a wild child after [Attack of the Clones]. He and Obi Wan don't get along. So we wanted to look at how Anakin and Ahsoka become friends, partners, a team. When you become a parent or you become a teacher you have to become more respnsible. I wanted to force Anakin into that role of responsibility, into that juxtaposition. I have a couple of daughters so I have experience with that situation. I said instead of a guy let's make her a girl. Teenage girls are just as hard to deal with as teenage boys are. - George Lucas

That’s a failing for Anakin, he doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made to his mother that 'I will come back and save you.' So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family.

FACT since 2002.

“Love people. That’s basically all Star Wars is.” — George Lucas

So, that moment in that movie, which a lot of people diminish as a cool lightsaber fight, but it’s everything that the entire three films in the prequels hangs on, is that one particular fight and Maul serves his purpose and at that point died before George brought him back.But he died, showing you how the Emperor is completely self-serving. He doesn’t care, he’s using people and now he’s gonna use this child.

FACT since 1999.

Each Sith has an apprentice, but the problem was, each Sith Lord got to be powerful. And the Sith Lords would try to kill each other because they all wanted to be the most powerful. So in the end they killed each other off, and there wasn’t anything left. So the idea is that when you have a Sith Lord, and he has an apprentice, the apprentice is always trying to recruit somebody to join him — because he’s not strong enough, usually — so that he can kill his master. That’s why I call it a Rule of Two — there’s only two Sith Lords. There can’t be any more because they kill each other. They’re not smart enough to realize that if they do that, they’re going to wipe themselves out. Which is exactly what they did.” George Lucas

Everything that Filoni said has been part of the lore and movies for 20 years now, so I really don’t get why people are so shocked by it. Also, context people! People have been using Disney canon to ‘prove’ Filoni wrong but these movies and the clone wars were written with long before Disney came into play. Filoni, like so many of us, grew up with Star Wars belonging to George and that colors how he look at the franchise and the characters. And don’t get me started on the ‘the EU doesn’t matter’ argument because it absolutely does. 

“And then George Lucas tells me one day, ‘We’re gonna put the Mandalorians in the Clone Wars.'  And I go 'Oh boy. That’s interesting. Cuz, lemme show you this.'  And I move this big pile of material over and I said 'This is everything. This is everything that the Mandalorians are right now.’ And so George and I do what we always do when we come across something that I know exists well in the EU, we go over it all.“ Now, all the history of Mandalore you prior to The Clone Wars it does exists. It absolutely exists.” — Dave Filoni

There’s actual behind the scenes footage of Filoni and George Lucas working on The Clone Wars and checking the EU to keep everything as cohesive as possible. The guy literately had thousands of conversations with George Lucas – the guy who actually created Star Wars – about these characters but somehow people are now trashing him because he said they should’ve know already?

Look, anyone who knows me know I’m not a Filoni stan but I believe in respecting people’s work and giving credit where credit is due even when I don’t agree with them 100%. If they don’t like his take, fine, that’s their right but please tone down the outrage fest because it’s entirely unjustified (and, to be completely honest, a little desperate for validation). He’s an actual person, not a fictional character there for you to hate or stan.

There’s a lot I don’t agree with it in this life but I don’t go around attacking real people and their jobs. But maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised, considering the people going after Filoni are the same people who have not problem whatsoever with star wars authors receiving death and rape threats.

[positivelyamazonian]

I saw someone claim Tomb Raider is colonialist, imperialist and white supremacist right down to the name. Because Lara is a rich white woman, taking ancient artefacts from non-white cultures. It pissed me off.

Lara has no interest in colonizing or rule over any non-white culture so she can hardly be colonialist and imperialist this way. As she’s British born, of course she’s white - even if her beta version, Laura Cruz, was supposed to be Brazilian -. And despite she’s highborn she was disowned by her wealthy parents so everything she owns at the point the franchise starts has been earned by herself, writing and selling books of her journeys. So she’s rich because she’s worked her way on - except the manor, who was inherited from her aunt - not because it’s been gifted to her.

Now, speaking of the franchise itself;

Tomb Raider 1: She recovers the Scion from the Atlantean culture. The Scion doesn’t exist, neither the Atlantean culture. Even if they existed you could hardly define them as “non-white”. Ironically she doesn’t recover the Scion for herself. She does it at the beginning for Jacqueline Natla, who, ironically, IS a rich white woman. But when Lara discovers the intentions Natla has concerning the Scion, she invests her efforts in stopping this power hungry sociopath. In the end, all that Lara takes home are the pieces of the broken artifact.

So rich white woman 0, Lara 1, Scion destroyed for the sake of mankind’s safety. Hardly can see here any colonialist imperialist supremacist stuff. If anything, Lara stops this context from happening.

Tomb Raider 2: Lara is after the Dagger of Xian, a mystical artifact. Again, not because she has interests in owning its powers, but because of the thrill of the adventure. Then again bumps into a white rich man, Marco Bartoli, who wants, together with his cult, the Fiamma Nera, to own the Dagger for his power hungry purposes. Lara fights until the last consequences so she can avoid this happening. She not only doesn’t steal from a non-white culture, but helps them: it’s Lara who returns the Seraph, an artifact STOLEN by white rich men like the Fiamma Nera cult - particularly Marco’s father, Giovanni Bartoli - to its original owners, the Tibetan monks of Barkhang monastery. After that she fights to recover the Dagger so it can’t be used by a megalomaniac who turns himself into a dragon, then keeps the Dagger safe for mankind’s security, since the Dagger is too dangerous to be kept at its original place - from where it had been stolen anyway, and not by her - or even in a museum, that can be robbed easily.

So rich male man 0, Lara 1, Dagger kept safe for mankind’s safety. Hardly any colonialist supremacist imperialist stuff here. Actually, Lara stops this from happening.

Tomb Raider 3: Lara is exploring an area around India to recover a mystical piece called the Infada Stone. The Infada Stone is abandoned in an abandoned place, the original track lost. Again not for her own purposes but for the thrill of the adventure. Then she bumps into a white man, Dr. Mark Willard, who is also a power hungry sociopath and in addenda, a killer and a exploiter dismissing the safety of his own workers. Though she accepts at first to recover the meteorite artifacts for him, as soon as Lara realized this psychopath pretends to use the meteorite fragments for experiments with human living beings, she fights him until the last consequences, to avoid this insane, rich white man to fulfill his purposes.

So rich male man 0, Lara 1, the meteorite artifacts destroyed in the process, and that’s for the good of mankind. Hardly any colonialist supremacist imperial… you know the drill already, right?

Tomb Raider 4: Lara actually tries to stop her sociopathic mentor, Werner Von Croy, a rich white male, to steal the Iris from Angkor Wat because she has respect for the Cambodian culture that placed a warning over this artifact. While Werner gets crippled for his bad action, she manages to escape unharmed. As if this cautionary tale is not enough, years after an adult Lara tries to recover the Amulet of Horus from Seth’s tomb and commits a terrible mistake when unknowingly unleashing the evil god from his slumber. When she realizes her mistake Lara makes every effort, and almost gives her life, to repair her single mistake. She cooperates with Sergeant Aziza, an Egyptian military commander, to keep peace and safety in the old quarters of Cairo, and later in Gizeh she makes every effort to help his men fighting the evil creatures released by Seth’s wrath. In the end she suffers a terrible accident and almost dies because she could have walked away with the Amulet of Horus like a rich white female with imperalist colonialist ideas, BUT SHE CHOSES NOT TO DO THAT.

So rich male man/Evil god 0, Lara 1, the Amulet of Horus remains in the pyramid, sealing Seth’s new place of interment, forever. You know the drill.

Tomb Raider 5: Another long, exquisite examples of Lara fighting white power hungry sociopaths using artifacts to hurt mankind. 

Rome: The Philosopher Stone, versus Larson and Pierre, two henchmen who would have sold these artifacts into the black market. She takes the Stone home for a change, to keep it safe.

Russia: The Spear of Destiny, versus Sergei Mikhailov and a power hungry mafia gang. Cooperates with Admiral Igor Yarofev, tries in vain to save his life. The Spear remains sunk in the sea abyss because it’s too dangerous to be taken.

Ireland: Young Lara has no particular interest in any artifact, she joins Father Dunstan in exploring the Black Isle, again, just for the thrill of the adventure. She cares and fights for the safety of the priest, literally saving his life when an evil spirit tries to brutalize and kill him. She uses the Bestiary for this goal. The final place of internment of this artifact remains unknown.

New York: Lara fights alongside with a black poor man, Zip, to recover the Iris from Werner’s hands. Zip seeks personal retaliation for having been fired from Werner’s research institute (VCI), Lara only seeks to protect the Iris, a STOLEN Cambodian artifact, for the morally wrong purposes Werner might have in it. 

In the end, Lara and Zip’s cooperation ends in the Iris being recovered and finally kept safe in Croft’s manor because it’s too dangerous to be in any other place.

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness: Lara doesn’t even care about artifacts this time. Still angry and damaged because of her Egyptian accident, she reluctantly accepts to visit Werner to hear his excuses and cry of help concerning something called the Obscura Paintings and some serial killer maniac known as the Monstrum. The encounter results in Werner being murdered and all Lara is seeking this time is TRUTH and JUSTICE. She recovers the Obscura Paintings just to reveal the mystery behind her mentor’s murder. She fights against a genocidal psychopath, Eckhardt, a white rich male, and Joachim Karel, a supernatural power hungry white male, to avoid them fulfilling their evil plans to control and slaughter mankind. She cooperates with Kurtis Trent, who actually is half white half Navajo, born from a POC woman, to disrupt their evil plans. Another cooperation with a Bedouin black woman, the shaman Putai, was removed because the game was cut and left unfinished. Putai was the one that healed Lara and helped her recover her strength, for which Lara is grateful and shows confidence in her.

And in the end Lara gets nothing out of this experience: nor the Obscura Paintings, destroyed to conform the Sanglyph, not the Sangylph, destroyed when being sunk into the Sleeper’s flesh, not even the Periapt Shards, who are left stabbed into Eckhardt’s corpse. The only thing she takes with her is Kurtis’ Chirugai, and she does it to find her lost partner. It can be said that at the end of TRAOD, the only thing that Lara cares about is to know if Kurtis’ still alive or dead, and goes to find him.

So after this long, boring summary nobody needed because all of you know these games better than me, I leave you to draw your own conclusions and see if effectively Tomb Raider is about a rich white female that is colonialist, supremacist and imperialist; and if she does everything she does because she likes to rob non-white cultures for her own personal pleasure. I have no doubts about the answer behind that.

[mst3kproject]

Atomic Rulers

 So 2020 fucking blows.  We’ve got Death and Pestilence all over the place, War is waiting in the wings licking her chops, and I’m sure Famine is only a matter of time.  You know what we need?  A hero. Operator, put me through to the Emerald Planet!  After fifty-five years, the Earth must once again call upon Star Man.

(I apologize for the poor quality screencaps in this review.  The WiFi at sea is not great, so I’m watching movies on YouTube in decidedly low definition. I’ll replace them with better ones if I ever get out of here.)

Atomic Rulers, also sometimes known as Atomic Rulers of the World, is actually the first Star Man movie.  Does that mean we get an origin story for our brave hero?  Of course not.  Instead, we learn that the evil nation of… uh… a sign in the movie says Merapolia but the dubbing sounds like Magolia... whatever. Their nuclear testing is starting to contaminate Outer Space and the Emerald Men don’t like that – they send Star Man to Earth to do something about it.

This movie gives us two things none of the other Star Man movies do.  First of all, there’s an actual purpose to that ‘globemeter’ watch thingy he wears. The opening of every movie explains that the globemeter allows Star Man to do three things: travel through outer space, speak and understand any language, and detect sources of radioactivity. The first two functions have proven to be very useful, but neither the Salamander Men nor Ballazar’s Brain were radioactive, so the third just sat there like the stocks app on an iPhone.  Now, with the threat of concealed Magolian nuclear weapons, he finally uses it!

The second is, holy shit, a plot.  The Magolians want to rule the world, and aliens from a dozen different Godzilla movies have assured them that when conquering the Earth, you have to start with Japan.  To that end, their agents are sneaking atomic weapons into the country. Star-Man tries to confiscate these, and in the midst of the lame-ass fight scene that follows, the Magolian Bag-O-Nukes is carried off by a bunch of annoying little kids!  The Magolians kidnap one of the kids and try to force him to tell them where their bomb is.  Star-Man rescues the boy, but it’s too late – they’ve already retrieved the bomb.  There’s just a few hours left before Japan must surrender, or be blown to bits as an example to the rest of the world!

There’s actually even more to the plot than that. It’s full of wild twists and turns, with Star Man and the Magolians taking turns looking like they’re about to win the day.  Yet at the same time, unlike the other Star Man films, the story is not obviously bifurcated!  You can tell where Movie One ends and Movie Two begins (with the rescue of the kidnapped kid), but the same characters are involved throughout rather than changing from reel to reel.  Even the gaggle of nameless kids in short-shorts kind of play a role in the plot, helping Star Man and giving information to the police whenever they can. The plot unspools in a single main storyline from beginning to end, and events usually make enough sense that you can figure out where they fit.

Even more shockingly, Star Man himself actually has some personality in this film, even a bit of a character arc.  In the other movies he just ran around punching aliens and smiling at children, but here we see him as a bit of an arrogant dick, confident in his ability to beat the mere humans who represent the threat to the universe.  When he is nearly beaten instead, he is forced to learn a little humility, and nearly sacrifices his life to save a hostage.

By leaps and bounds, then, this is the best Star Man movie I’ve seen.  There’s a couple more out there, but they’d have to work hard to be better than Atomic Rulers.  At the same time, as praise goes ‘the best Star Man movie’ is almost as faint as ‘the best Coleman Francis movie’.  It still sucks big-time, and Mike and the bots would have had riff material to spare.

I mean, this is a movie where the bad guys have a giant cartoon demon face on the wall of their lair for some reason, and when they’re not disguised in blazers and ties they wear coronavirus suits with the same face on the chest.  There’s a bit where Star Man swordfights with a bunch of them, using fencing foils that were just lying around in the room for some reason.  Other fight scenes are mostly things like Magolians frantically shooting at Star Man while he just stands there looking smug. The ‘atomic core’ MacGuffin is just a plastic tube full of glitter.  The back-projected ‘flying’ effects are dire.  There’s a bomb that has a literal clock on the side ticking down the minutes like in an old cartoon.  There’s a pretty girl strapped into a death trap that I can only describe as the world’s slowest guillotine.

There’s a fairly extended sequence in which we see the Magolians’ car driving down a road, then cut to Star-Man flying, then back to the car, then back to Star Man, then back to the car, and on and on until I could almost hear Crow shouting “he’s following them!  We get it!”

The Magolians themselves confuse me a bit. People refer to their embassy and their ambassadors, and there’s a flag on their car and so forth, so I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to be from a country on Earth… and yet they behave exactly like the villains of a Japanese alien invasion movie.  They have dumb costumes, they call the guy in charge ‘supreme leader’, and most distracting of all, they refer to conquering ‘the Earth’.  Maybe this is just an artifact of the translation, but I would expect humans to talk about ruling ‘the world’ rather than ‘the Earth’.  It left me expecting a big reveal at the end, and when there wasn’t one, I had to go back to the beginning to see if they’d been established as aliens and I’d missed it.

Speaking of possible artifacts of translation, there’s another thing here I’m not sure about.  A lot of Japanese ‘no nukes’ movies have American antagonists, or at least, white guys who are clearly a stand-in for Americans.  My favourite example is the belligerent country of Rolisica in Mothra, which is an absolutely hilarious summary of what 60’s Japan thought the West was like.  Magolia, on the other hand, appears to be a stand-in for the USSR.  The actors playing the Magolians are mostly white, and we only ever hear two of their names: the supreme leader has a nonsense name, but the ambassador is called Boris Zedenko.  I wonder if this is original to the script, or whether it was changed when the movie was dubbed for American release.

The thing I find most interesting about Atomic Rulers is that while Star Man does save the Earth, that’s not really his goal.  The Emerald Men sent him here to prevent a war because Earth’s radioactivity was leaking into outer space, threatening other planets.  Star Man isn’t here to save humanity, he’s here to save the rest of the universe from us; saving us from ourselves is merely a side-effect.

This makes Star-Man a little different from his imitators, Space Chief and Prince of Space.  Despite their space-themed code-names, they are humans from Earth, with a specific interest in protecting this planet.  Star-Man seems to have the broader responsibility of protecting the civilized galaxy in general, and this is reflected in the premises of his movies. In Evil Brain from Outer Space, Ballazar’s Brain is using Earth as a place to launch a general takeover of the universe. Invasion from Space was a little less clear about it, but I’m pretty sure there was something about the Earth being ‘the richest planet in the galaxy’ and the Salamander Men would presumably use that loot for nefarious purposes.

A side implication here is that Star-Man probably has other adventures, too – we’re only seeing the ones that happen to bring him to our particular planet.  Considering how strange Star-Man movies can be anyway, and how trippy the brief shot of the Emerald Planet, with its crystal-headed creatures and robots and even a couple of what appear to be the Pairans from Warning from Space, one has to wonder about these potential non-Earth storylines.  How fucking weird would those be?  I’m imagining something like an entire movie about Krankor’s pet giant.

Another thing that distinguishes Star Man from the other space dinks is that he has actual superpowers.  Space Chief and Prince of Space are basically just normal guys in stupid outfits.  Prince of Space claims that Krankor’s ray guns have no effect on him, but really we see he’s using his wand-thing to deflect them.  Star Man, who is from another planet, can fly and has super-strength. This kind of makes me wonder if he was intended as a Superman imitator… but that would make Space Chief and Prince of Space the equivalent of Batman, and I just can’t insult Batman like that.

I am developing an honest affection for Star Man movies.  Their desperate cheapness is more than made up for by their over-the-top absurdity, and the result is not at all ‘good’ by any reasonable measure and yet is always entertaining.  Camp like that is all too rare to find, and even rarer to find a franchise like Gamera or Star Man that can do it dependably.  I don’t know why the Japanese are apparently so good at this, but I’m glad somebody is.

[joyfulprincessdragonlover54]

How to Train Your Dragon to Me (Edited) 

I would like to start off by saying thank you to @hello-em75 for creating this awesome project for the fandom on Tumblr.  I think it’s truly wonderful how it’s being encouraged for all of the fans to share why this franchise is so special to them as individuals.  I also appreciate how it was encouraged for everybody to do it in whatever way they feel the most comfortable. Mine will simply be by the “Text” page of Tumblr.   I’m afraid I’ve never had the unique talent in fan art or tribute video making.  Yet even before I found out about this fantastic HTTYD themed project.  I always hoped to create a post in which I could share my love for this franchise with other devoted fans.  And why it means so much to me. So once more, thank you @hello-em75 for conceiving this brilliant idea. It’s not about competing against other fans. Instead it is about everyone diving into their personal stories with the franchise and keep supporting all the fans who are shy about their love for it to speak out. We all want to hear what everybody has to say.  No pressure to be concerned it won’t be good enough in comparison to anybody else’s level.   Only share how you feel. I just love it! 

My story in being introduced to How to Train Your Dragon was back in February 2010.  I was 21 at the time.  Always been an animated film lover.  I won’t deny that my fiber stemmed from mainstream studios. Even still, I was always up for traveling off the beaten path.  Found some spectacular hidden gems. DreamWorks has quite a few of those.  Be that as it may, I never would have predicted the film I was about to see would create such an impact on my life.  I saw the trailer and thought to myself “ What an interesting film. I wonder if it will share the same DNA with another DreamWorks film? Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmeron.”  

Needless to say it became far more then an “interesting film”.  My soul was re-awakened! I say that without of any kind of irony or exaggeration.  I’ll first address that this was the film that introduced me to the value of 3-D format. Nope it was not another famous  record breaking box office hit.  How to Train Your Dragon was the one who changed my perspective of how this can benefit a story on screen.  Rather then manufacture it as the sole reason to see a film.  I was engaged from beginning to end. 

One of the main reasons the story appealed to me was how it synonymously displayed it’s lead character as someone who was identifiable and admirable. There were uncanny traits Hiccup and I have in common.  Sometimes it felt borderline identical.  It was as if the filmmakers had been clandestine in studying many of my struggles and displayed them on screen for the world to see. A medium that has done a swell job at bringing to light self identity issues people from all walks of life grapple with.  Yet his resilience and resourcefulness despite being an outcast in his society is commend worthy.  And that was well before we even reach the middle of the first film.  This was already becoming a consolation piece of fiction for me. 

Then they bring in Toothless.  A character that in it’s roots is exceedingly difficult at earning sympathy from the audience.  Animal driven films in animation have a notorious history of dividing movie goers.  If they talk it seems cliche.  The redundant corny trademark people roll their eyes at.  If they don’t talk, the audience sees them as mere props for the human characters in their story.  They can’t resonate with the audience as they don’t know how exactly to relate to their plights if it is not verbally stated.  It becomes even more staggeringly challenging as he is a dragon.  For fiction has a long history for interpreting these fantasy creatures in the villain bracket.  Even author G.K Chesterton made a significant point on what their role was in literature.  “Fairy Tales don’t tell us dragons exists. We already know they exist.  But that they can be beaten and killed.”  The filmmakers of this franchise took a bold risk at turning this classic notion on it’s head.  Hoping the audience would be willing to surrender to their story.  That by using a different but equally classic adage of “The eyes are the window to the soul” the audience would understand and sympathize with Toothless as much as any human character.  Now Toothless to this day still has his detractors from professional critics and amateur movie buffs alike.  Regardless of that, he has touched my heart beyond compare! He is a fully realized character who is multifaceted and has his own dilemmas. 

Book series author Cressida Cowell, directors/screenwriters Dean DeBlois and Chris Saunders are so brave for taking this chance in creating a dragon themed narrative that is not about conquering a monster as a ritual in transitioning into adulthood.  But about the obstacles of earning trust from a creature that is long ingrained in everyone’s mind is apart of evil forces who live to bring humans emotional torment.  Sure this franchise is not the first to explore this theme.  And nobody on the creative team tried to take credit for it.  They all openly acknowledged their inspirations and thanked them for it allowed them to take a closer inspection of why it is rarely explored in text or on screen.  What they did though was unconventional (in terms of mainstream studio features)  in it’s own right.  

At it’s core is a love story.  Not the typical owner and pet fictional iteration.  A genuine brotherhood team love story. One that requires slower pacing.  Another risk the creative team was willing to gamble on.  Earning trust is not immediate.  Mainly being Hiccup’s goal to prove he is not a social leper. He initially intends to kill Toothless. His own unique empathy for Toothless leaving him conflicted.  He does not grasp why he is ashamed of what his tribe does despite all of the rules and regulations drilled into his conditioning.   But his conscious tells him otherwise. It is wrong to murder this frightened creature. He deserves to be released unharmed.  A travesty to the Viking culture he grew up in. Hiccup freeing Toothless then Toothless sparing Hiccup’s life is a shocker! Neither quite comprehends why they just gave their sworn enemy a second chance at life. But this question is an internal odyssey Hiccup is willing to take. 

Hiccup did not dive in head first expecting  Toothless to cuddle up to him and offer him a ride on his back.  This had to be a gradual process.  Trial and error. Repetition and reinforcement.  Compassion and respect.  All of these features were crucial of guiding their story about strangers who met under negative circumstances and would later become brothers in arms.  The filmmakers shamelessly display every bit of this.  Hiccup and Toothless unexpectedly become dependent on each other.  Hiccup needs to brainstorm and invent contraptions as to feel worthwhile as his upbringing as has gone awry.  Brute strength and fast reflexes are not in his being.   Toothless needs to fly to survive. Navigating from island to island in the archipelago.   They each believe their purpose is to make it by in a society that wishes to subjugate them.  They just want as little confrontation as possible.  The chance encounter of Hiccup trapping Toothless with his own version of a catapult and him later venturing into the forest of Berk to find him was the beginning of their “Forbidden Friendship”.  Hiccup and Toothless alike always knew they were misfits. But neither ever dreamed of having the agency of seeking someone or something out who could potentially be like them.  They both believed they were all alone in the world. That is why I find their journey so rewarding to watch! 

They never expected to find one another.  Let alone feel so joyfully fulfilled.   This in turn was why I was so emotionally caught up watching the films.  In particular the first one.  Pretty much everything they do contradict’s their society’s dictation.  Their lives are literally in danger by merely engaging with the other presence.  Their secret of knowing and allying with one another is a secret that casts as much liberation as it does a burden.  They can be themselves when alone together. Exploring new ideas and places. Yet Hiccup’s tribe is acutely aware something is off.  Initially believing that he is inadvertently discovering dragon weaknesses that could lead to concocting a plan to eradicate all dragons.  Hiccup’s time with Toothless runs dangerously low.  My heart was in my throat with dread they would be separated from each other.  Hiccup and Toothless together gives them a purpose to live! I wanted them to live happily together and in harmony in their society. 

Such a love story is often over hyped and I could care less as is has their characters saying a bunch of frivolous dialogue with empty gestures.   Love is proven through consistent actions.  The hardships Hiccup and Toothless would have to painfully face head on to reach a happy end was not glided over.  The creative team was not shy about offering it’s share of agonizing lows.  Hiccup’s self-esteem dropping to practically zero.  Same goes for Toothless.  I still can not get over how blatantly the filmmakers do that to these precious characters. It’s so harrowing it hits me every single time.  Yet these emotions happen in reality.  These fantasy animated films are a mirror to it.   No happy ending is worth getting if  the characters don’t hit rock bottom.  

This is precisely what this entire franchise stands for and why it has become my all time favorite piece of fiction. It is as emotionally draining as it is fulfilling.  And I want to keep returning to them.  Both films have this in spades!  For me personally this is is so rare to watch a film that has all three of these qualities.  But the HTTYD franchise still had unexplained factors I can’t wrap my mind around  that it stands above anything else I have ever come across.  All I know for certain is that it is special.   And I am forever grateful to have discovered it.  

Also a huge shout out to Animation screencaps for these! They alone can define this beautiful under-rated love story.   :)  

[puclpodcast]

The du-Rant with Viger Issue #7 “Story Time, or Lack There of”

Welcome to the newest issue of the du-Rant with me, Viger. Haven’t done one of these for a while, but you know what happens when I don’t have enough news to talk about. I get a little testy, and I need to vent that with the only thing that makes sense to me. That’s where the du-Rant comes in.

  Now we know what I do with this series: I pick some aspect of the Pokemon franchise, no matter how small and insignificant it is, and inject some hardcore logic and reasoning into it. This time, I’m going big, and I taking a look at a core part of each and every game that the Pokemon Company has made.

We all know that the main series of Pokemon games are very well tuned and crafted as turn-based strategy games. Each players finely raises the perfect creature to put on a team of six perfectly trained Pokemon with all the perfect IVs, moves, and stats. (Shiny for good measure.) Then they do battle with another trainer who has done the same thing. Mind games, strategy, and a dash of good luck, and a winner emerges. That is Pokemon in a nutshell. But how does a trainer get to this point of grinding out the best Pokemon? What steps go into finding the best creatures to put on your team? Well, there is a first step, and probably the most asinine one for the whole process….

  You have to complete the campaign of that current generation.

  Completely forgettable and the most boring part of any Pokemon game in the eyes of a seasoned trainer, almost every Pokemon campaign is ignored and left on the side of the road as trainers Flare Blitz there way to the post-game grind in order to bring all their previous Pokemon over to the current generation and to begin working on the next ideal VGC team. All the characters, plot, and climax of the story itself are forgotten and discarded, only briefly brought up in the TCG whenever a Trainer Card for that specific part of the story comes up, but then ironically, quickly “discarded”.

  This is a shame if you ask me. As a gamer, I thrive for a good story. I need reason for why I am doing the things that I do, and I need to relate to the character through those actions. Halo, Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, all those games’ stories had me connected. Pokemon’s story has never connected me at all to the character, as my trainer simply stands there smiling as the evil team leader explains their diabolical plot to rule the world. This isn’t engaging when I’ve seen it done at least four times.

But every so often, one game has “Mold Breaker” and does something completely different that its predecessors. For Pokemon, this was the Fifth Generation. For the first time, a Pokemon game had me interested in the story. It introduced Team Plasma, a team not bent on crime and/or ruling the world, but taking a philosophical stance and asking the big question of whether capturing Pokemon is a good thing or not. An actual dilemma was at play. An actual reason existed as to why the evil team was doing the things that it was doing. They weren’t doing it because its “evil”, like a bunch of Saturday morning cartoon villains, they were doing it because they thought it was truly the right thing to do, despite everything that proved it wasn’t right at all. If you ask me, that’s true evil, and that’s why I will always claim Team Plasma to be the most evil team in all of Pokemon.

  However, once Generation Six started, all that depth and complexity to the story of a Pokemon game fell back into the trough of ignorance as Team Flare, fresh out of Commander Cobra’s Academy of Gifted Criminals, took to the stage and became easily forgettable, with a story fit for an early Saturday morning.

  To its credit, Sun and Moon tried something to add depth to the story, mainly with the character development between Lusamine and Lillie. However, with it being too late in the game, along with Hau being…..Hau, I couldn’t stay invested in the story as long as I did with Black and White.

  It is truly sad when you think about it. Each time, a new Pokemon game comes out with a brand new region, characters, and story to show to the player, something that had taken quite some time to make, and that someone put a lot of time, effort, attention, and care into creating, only for it to be tossed aside by a majority of the players as they make their way for the post game grind. This is where I take my stand.

  WE NEED ANOTHER GREAT STORY IN OUR POKEMON GAMES!!!! WE NEED A PLOT TO GET US INVESTED AND A REASON AS TO WHY WE FIGHT THE EVIL TEAM!!! NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE “EVIL”, BUT BECAUSE THEY ARE OPPOSED TO WHAT WE BELIEVE IS RIGHT!!!!

  Let’s not leave the stories to just the Manga and Anime, let’s get the Pokemon games to have a great story too. Just saying.

  And that will do it for me on this end. What do you guys think? Should their be another great story in Pokemon games? Let me know in the comments below. And with that, I see you guys in the next issue!

from The du-Rant with Viger Issue #7 “Story Time, or Lack There of”

[therealkn]

David’s Resolution - Day 4

Day 4 (January 4, 2019)

Pitch Black (2000)

“All you people are so scared of me. Most days, I take that as a compliment. But it ain’t me you got to worry about now.”

This one is admittedly a bit of a cheat, as I have actually seen this movie before. But it was a while since I last saw it, and I hadn’t seen all the Riddick movies in their entirety, so might as well put it here. And besides, it’s always interesting to see the humble beginnings of something that became much larger than people initially saw. In fact, in 2004, when the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick came out, this movie was re-released on home video as The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black to remind audiences that this wasn’t the debut of one Richard B. Riddick.

The film itself is a fairly straightforward sci-fi/horror movie with a tried-and-true premise: a spaceship lands on an alien planet, where a dangerous predatory lifeform is out to kill everyone until only a handful of survivors make it out alive. It’s something we’ve seen quite a few times, especially in one of my favorite horror movies, Alien, and even Alien wasn’t unique in that approach: this setup stretches as far back as the 1950s with It! The Terror from Beyond Space (a movie that quite a few feel Alien was a remake of) and Forbidden Planet. So what makes Pitch Black unique, aside from Riddick?

The story isn’t one, although that’s not a bad thing. It’s a stock premise, like I said. A spaceship lands (crash-lands, actually) on a planet, this one barren and with three suns that keep it in constant daylight. It gives us some interesting visuals to look at and that help give the movie a distinct look. A lot of the first part of the movie uses either yellow or blue lighting, which helps create an unfamiliar atmosphere for the viewer. (Funny enough, this isn’t the only film USA Films released in 2000 that featured distinctive color grading; the other one I will get to later.) But it isn’t long before the survivors realize that the planet they’re on is about to have a long eclipse, and after that the film spends the rest of the time in chiaroscuro, which adds to the creepy atmosphere by making us feel like the aliens are out there, stalking them at every step, waiting for the moment to turn one of them into a meal.

And then there’s the characters. We’ll get to Riddick soon, promise, but there’s other people, you know. The survivors of the crash are a motley crew, including Radha Mitchell as Carolyn Fry, the only surviving crew member of the ship, who has some guilt over the casualties from the landing; a Muslim known as Imam, played by Keith David (known hero of this earth, protector of this realm, long may he reign); a settler played by Claudia Black (who sadly does not get a whole lot to do in this film; that’s okay, we still have Farscape and Stargate and Dragon Age), a kid named Jack, who looks up to Riddick and even shaves their head like his and wears goggles like him; an antiques dealer who also has a lot of booze; and Johns, the man who wants to bring Riddick in and who has an unsavory thing or two about him. (Also, for Power Rangers fans, one of Imam’s kids - the first one to die, in a fairly gruesome fashion - would later play the Red Ranger in Power Rangers Mystic Force. I don’t have anything to add to that, I just like pointing this stuff out.)

The character interactions aren’t bad and they do a decent job of setting them up so we feel some sympathy when they die in gruesome fashion. This is a horror movie with alien monsters, so people are gonna die. It isn’t a spoiler to say that only three people survive - Riddick, Imam, and Jack, whose gender is a twist in this movie but not anymore in the sequel - because those are established in The Chronicles of Riddick. My personal rule is that if a sequel follows on what was a twist in its predecessor, it’s not a twist anymore and can’t be treated like a twist anymore. So yeah, Jack’s a girl and everyone but those three die. That and the direct-to-video animated movie Dark Fury follows up directly after this movie. So if anyone starts getting angry that this has been spoiled, yeah.

On the note of characters, let’s talk about the “unrated director’s cut” home video release. I will say that the term is a bit misleading. Calling it an “unrated cut” suggests that this version of the film contains stuff that was cut to satisfy the MPAA and get the film whatever rating it got for its theatrical release (R-rated, in this case), and that said content will contain some combination of violence, gore, sex, and bad language that had to be removed so the MPAA would be happy. It is also called a “director’s cut”, a version of a film that better represents the director’s intended vision of the film. But “unrated”? ...Why? Why does it have to be unrated? The “unrated director’s cut” is about six and a half minutes longer than the theatrical cut, and all of the additional stuff is just character interactions that were cut not for MPAA rating reasons, but for pacing reasons since they slow the pace a little. The most interesting addition involves the character Johns, as it expands a bit on his character and makes him slightly more sympathetic. I say “slightly” cause he’s still an asshole.

And there’s the creatures as well. The creatures are pretty cool-looking. It’s like a mad scientist created a new being by splicing together elements of a hammerhead shark and a bat and a velociraptor, and then decided it needed claws like Baraka from Mortal Kombat. The creatures only go into dark areas as the light literally burns them, so an eclipse happening means that it’s madness out there unless one has light to keep themselves alive, something that gets harder and harder for our survivors as the film progresses. They’re blind so they use echolocation to see, which gives another unique visual by portraying their sight as a weird black-and-white mesh. It’s kinda weird in that “early 2000s special effects” sense, and yet it works.

And then, we have Richard B. Riddick. After all, this movie spawned a franchise centered around the beautiful bald SOB, so let’s talk about him. For myself and I think for many, this is the role that defines Vin Diesel’s career. He’d already had some success with a supporting role in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (fun fact: Spielberg wrote that role specifically for Diesel after seeing Diesel’s performance in his first feature film, Strays, which he also wrote and directed), and then the year before he voiced the titular Iron Giant in Brad Bird’s 1999 animated film, which of course has gone on to become a modern animated classic. (And I will watch that film for the resolution since I’ve only seen part of it.) And a year after this, Vin would star in The Fast and the Furious, which was a big box-office success and spawned a successful franchise that’s still going strong to this day.

Okay, now let’s talk about Riddick. Riddick is honestly the most fleshed-out and interesting character in the film, and it makes sense why Vin, writer/director David Twohy, and the higher-ups at Universal saw potential in telling more stories about the character. He’s described as evil on several occasions, not only by characters like Johns in this film or Aereon in The Chronicles of Riddick, but even the poster for the film has the tagline “Fight evil with evil”. Yet throughout the whole franchise, it’s hard to say that Riddick’s actually evil. He’s more Chaotic Neutral, really. He's more like an animal who does whatever he can to survive, but that doesn’t mean he’s a backstabbing shitheel who’ll betray you in a heartbeat. (True Neutrals, on the other hand...) He seems more amoral if anything; near the end of the movie, he seems intrigued by Fry’s willingness to die for the sake of saving everyone while he was willing to let them die so he could escape, which may begin something like a redemption in that he seems to better understand the value of protecting lives, or at least can understand the motivation of selflessness.

But throughout the franchise, he basically only kills in self-defense, never for pleasure or for the hell of it. Hell, most who say he’s evil are actually worse than him, like Johns, so who knows; he may just be someone with a bad rep. My view of him could be summarized in a modified quote from Deadpool: he’s a bad guy who just happens to fuck up worse guys. But even then, he’s not really that bad. Yes, he’s an escaped convict who’s managed to escape even the most secure triple-max security prisons, and he’s an admitted murderer, but bad? The worst thing he does in the franchise is near the end of this film, where, like I said, he basically abandons everyone so he can save himself. But even then, you could argue that it’s not so much being an asshole as it is that it’s unlikely they’ll all survive. But hey, he does come back to save them, so yaaaaaay.

Also, he has the ability to see in the dark because he got a guy in prison to do an operation on his eyes that give him enhanced night vision, but at the cost of being more sensitive to bright lights, which is why he wears welding goggles all the time. The sensitivity thing gets toned down a bit as the franchise goes on, and they later retcon his acquisition as a supernatural ability.

I do recommend this movie. As it is, it’s a solid sci-fi/horror movie that, even with its kinda wonky early-2000s CGI, has good atmosphere and a very compelling character in Riddick. Plus, hey, Vin Diesel is always a win.

...Actually, anyone else think CinemaWins should do the Riddick movies?

Next time: The closest we’ll probably ever get to a Warhammer 40,000 movie.

[morningmoon]

Saw DSoD

I love how the movie is built, it feels like there's a lot to discuss, in fact we had a pretty long debate about Kaiba’s fate on NAC’s discord. Kuwabara did an amazing job because a Lot of times the visual design of the movie conveyed messages alongside the script, helping make these high-concepts easier to understand. Him and Takahashi worked really great together, and all the animators on board made a great job with how sharp and beautiful the movie became. 

It's great, it was a very good, full story and I cannot wait to buy the bluray when it releases (to see the subs and catch whatever the dub couldn't convey) and see this again to enjoy it some more and catch more of the visuals. (Also Gaia looked very yuma-esque with his colors, nice.)

Under the cut some long ramblings

Dub-script: Felt pretty alright! There were some dialogue stuff (the eight millenium item!) that immediately pulled me out, but there were like two or three and very, very spread far in-between. Lots of added goofs but mostly just side-jabs, which honestly made the characters feel a bit fuller (my favorite has to be Tristan's "you're not crazy, you're just dumb" in the softest voice ever). There's a ton of high-concepts and it did an adequate enough job at presenting them, specially since most are told to us visually, but i'll touch on that later. Felt very true to the movie while keeping a tone similar to the original dub, kinda like Ocarina of Time 3D, it's not exactly the old thing bc the old thing has huge flaws, but it's how you'd remember it with its improvements. Yugi and Kaiba came out particularly well. I fucking loved Mokuba, I forgot that since thsi is the manga canon that means Mokuba is actually a good character. The story: Aigami ironically sorta has the problem Arc V has in which he is more of a walking theme than a villain, but his actions are so very important to everything, his motivations are crystal clear and relatable. Heck, you could make an argument that he shares the protagonist role along with Yugi, on the other side of the coin you can say that Kaiba is the protagonist. It's pretty interesting how Yugi is the only heroic dude here, but he gets the less amount of time because his character story is already told, so instead it's two extremely morally gray dudes with conflicting goals trying to do something for the wrong reasons. The expanded role Shadi gets was fairly surprising. I love that it turned out he was a ghost all along lol. Surprised that the evil/good item split wasn't used to explain away his questionable actions, he was just a friendly ghost who killed for good reasons. Guess it fits with the justice of the time. So the gift of prana was made possible thanks to him "defeating" death, pretty cool. I love, love that Prana Leaving is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and Aigami just gave reason for Atem to return and take it away. Super love the story, memories are such a big part of DM, so seeing it expanded as metaphysics and alternate worlds is a good-ass view. It's a good story, mostly playing with high-concepts and established characters. The prana stuff is overplayed since it's such a concept and a half for a 2 hour movie, but I love how firmly the rules are established and how they mesh with the journey our characters have had, particularly Jou being able to overcome the prana stuff thanks to his memory of Atem bringing his story full-circle, because despite being higher than humanity it still falls below the gods, below those who have truly ascended, thus even the memory of Atem is too powerful. The Visuals: really just gonna continue talking about the story next paragraph, but until then: the movie looks beautiful. The visual designs on everything look amazing, the expressions are lively, the movements are great, the colors were fantastic. The only thing I don't dig much is Anzu's designs, bit too waifu, but alas. Where the visuals truly shine is in telling the story. The opening shot just, god, just so good. I'm guessing the opening of it represents how memories can fade away to the light, to being forgotten, but the ones that persist make way for other memories to follow along and each is a world of its own. I want to link that to stories in general, the power of fiction is that to survive as memories, so while many get destroyed and become forgotten, those who survive make way to others, much like how the original yugioh manga survived being forgotten and allowed for an adaptation world to happen, and a world of Yugioh R, and the world/story of Gx, and its manga, and so on as the Yugioh franchise grows, but it's not even the start of that DNA sequence (also worlds that can survive being forgotten is the DNA of fiction itself, but that's just obvious given the way the worlds are presented) there were stuff before even the original yugioh story, such as what Takahashi used for inspiration. If Dragon Ball was in that DNA sequence, Journey to the West would be there as well above it, helping it survive and shaping it with what's forgotten and remembered of it. And after that metaphor we get the space bridge in the shape of the kaiba corp logo. lmao. There are so many visual things i'll probably just list them at random now: -There's one consistent element i just want to call "ascension", when golden particles happen to represent the powers of Prana, be it to teleport the kids or to send goons to other dimensions. And immediately after its first use we see the sands of egypt and yup, that's it, that's the whole thing, it's much like the sands of egypt, it gives shape to the land but it's not consistent, it changes and shifts and rapidly changes the landscape while it remains seemingly the same, it ascends like a pharaoh would. -Aigami vs Kaiba has one main element: Aigami's cards make the "ascension" happen to the crystal dragons, and it is so great even those seemingly timeless beings fall to it, because they are attached to this world's rules, then BEWD also falls to it, that is why Kaiba's deepest memory of holding power beyond mortals makes for a being greater than sand: stone. A stone so powerful it is above prana, and thusly the stone soldier of obelisk can defeat Diva's whole shenanigans even when they use this ascension to empower themselves or when they defy our laws by using cubes to make all sorts of curved shapes. -Aigami vs Yugi has the coolest representation of Aigami losing himself, with his final monster being much more man-made than anything else, it's just a creature with gears and a machine gun, no longer a being above humans. And Yugi so easily expects his anger it lets him play a triple combo that locks him into venting his rage to his own defeat. -Aigami vs Yugi and Kaiba has the latter two use a plague and technology to try and harm Aigami's creature, but it is too strong. It's also a good inverse, Kaiba is mostly tech-based but at that point he uses biological stuff to do harm and Yugi was more living-creatures-based but switches to technology, or rather progress. While Kaiba devolves in his desperate struggle, Yugi continues moving forward, which is important for what Kaiba does at the end. -Jou in his own memory world owns, the light destroying his memory ultimately falling to the power of his memory of dueling Atem at the end of Battle City is amazing. Having closure with Atem is such a good detail to show off. -Loved, loved LOVED that the space station/bridge was made just like the alcatraz island his dad had, just he uses it to go above war and such things and into a higher place. -ATEM LOOKED SO GOOD. He looked like his early manga self and that was amazing to see. Also just adding here, Takahashi's sequence looked awesome if overly detailed. -Loved how Atem's return makes things go normal by having all that "ascension" stuff go back to the ground, the sands of egypt return to how they should be instead of defying nature. Makes me think that the rain scene has a deeper meaning with how it's water that falls, but alas it eludes me. -Really dug the contrast with the darker "sand" stuff, showing seemingly straight-up death only by ring- oops, there's Kaiba. Going off to his techno-tomb, being sent from a place high-above to the ground, as he slowly dies but gets enough time to finally face Atem one last time, to get the memory he craves the most. He fucking dies, man. -Yugi says goodbye to another loved one who goes off to a place above. It's because she's leaving like Atem with going up to the heavens being another representation of the afterlife you guys. The score: was alright, pretty neat here and there.

[deepestenthusiastmilkshake]

My Review of Transformers Prime

I am going to admit this right now: I am a MASSIVE Transformers fan. I grew up watching Transformers Animated, and I love the franchise to this day. Sure it may just seem like every series is just rehashing the same format: The heroic Autobots are fighting the evil Decepticons, but I still find myself enjoying the different interpretations of the same characters throughout different series. Today we’re going to look at my personal favorite of those series, Transformers Prime: One of the most recent series, and one of the most beloved. For those that don’t know, Prime was part of the Aligned Continuity: a continuity that started from the video game Transformers: War for Cybertron, and continuing now through the cartoon Transformers Robots in Disguise. Prime was a TV show running from 2010 to 2013, and has been called the best Transformers cartoon since Beast Wars. Why is it called that, you say? Well let’s find out

Warning: Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t watched the show, please do so before reading this review. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Right from the first five minutes, you can tell that this show is going to be much darker than most recent shows have been, as it begins with the death of Cliffjumper. He is killed by Starscream, voiced by Steven Blum, who shoves his claws into his chest, instantly killing him. That moment alone set the tone for the whole series. That’s one thing that people love about this show: the tone. It’s much more serious and dark than recent shows, such as Animated, and it is not afraid to kill off any character.

That sounds good, but it also leads to the series biggest problem: it kills of characters that the fandom has grown fond of. Take, for example, the character Breakdown. He was brought in to be the arch nemesis of Bulkhead, one of the main characters. Many people liked Breakdown and liked his rivalry with Bulkhead. Then season two happens, and he dies. Many fans didn’t like this, including myself, since we felt like Breakdown could’ve been used more, and could have had an interesting storyline about him deciding to be loyal to either Starscream or Megatron. Yes, he is technically still used in the show later on, but the character is dead. This isn’t always the case however. There are some cases where the idea of killing a character is done well. Case in point, the character Dreadwing. Dreading was killed in season two, but I felt it was handled well. He had a story arc: avenging the death of his twin brother Skyquake, and the arc was finished. He found out that Starcream was responsible for his death and disgraced him by raising him from the dead as a zombie. When he found this out, he turned on Megatron and tried to kill Starscream, leaving Megatron with the only option of killing him. Dreading couldn’t hold a story anymore, because he didn’t have any other goals beyond serving Megatron and avenging Skyquake. Since the latter involves betraying Megatron, he couldn’t continue to serve him. He could have had a story arc on his own like Starscream did in season two, but he didn’t have any motivation, desires, or power to do so. He made it perfectly clear he couldn’t join the Autobots, and he doesn’t want to rule the Decepticons. Best thing to do was to kill him off. That’s the right way to kill a character: have them complete a story arc, and make sure they don’t have anything left to do. That way, the audience can feel sadness at their loss, but also feel a sense of closure when they do die. Wow! I went way off track didn’t I? Well no worries, I can make up for that. We talked about the tone, but now let’s talk about the characters.Now, I will readily admit that the characters in Prime aren’t as distinct or have the sense of individuality as the characters in Animated. In Prime, the characters fell into three different sections: the badass, the loyal, and the loyal badass. There wasn’t exactly a ton of individuality amongst them, but there still was some. I’m going to talk about my two favorites from both factions, and explain why they are awesome, even without the individuality. Let’s start with Optimus Prime. I will also readily admit that this is my favorite Optimus Prime to date. He is old, wise, mature, and all around awesome. He falls into the category of loyal badass, but he is still awesome. We don’t always see him struggle to keep his emotions in check, but when we do, boy do we. Case in point, when Starscream stole the Omega Keys in season two, Optimus felt all the frustration of being tricked by him, and let it all out in one massive scream. It was so emotionally powerful that dialogue was not necessary afterwords. But even at his highs and lows, Optimus Prime will always be the most level headed, wise, and powerful warriors in any Transformers continuity. Now that we looked at my favorite Autobot, let’s look at my favorite Decepticon, Starscream. The Decepticons also fell into three categories: the loyal, the schemer, or the conqueror. Knowing Starscream, you can guess which one he falls into. The schemer. Not only is this my favorite Starcream, this is arguably the best Starscream iteration to date. He is everything past Starscreams want to be. He is cowardly, but he knows when to strike. He’s like a cobra, biding his time for just the right moment to enact his plans. He is also the most tactically competent Starscream to date. Most of his plans go wrong, but he is still a great strategist, as his plans fail through either his own ego, or an unforseen force. Either way, if these didn’t get in the way, some of his plans might have worked. A plus Starscream right here. Now that we talked about the great characters, let’s finish this review off with the stories. Prime had a lot of different story arcs that often coincide with one another, and have a satisfying payoff by seasons end or next season’s beginning. The first one was the return and fall of Megatron. Megatron discovered something called Dark Energon, which could reanimate the dead transformers as zombies, referred to as terrorcons in the show. His plan was to use the dark energon to revive all of the dead Cybertronians on Cybertron, and sea them to take over/destroy Earth. The Autobots stop him and all is right again. Then the next major one was the rise of Unicron. Unicorn, the transformers equivalent of Satan, is awakening in the center of the Earth due to a magnetic pull caused by a rare planetary alignment. Thus it is up to the Autobots and Megatron to team up and stop him with the Matrix of Leadership. But afterwards, Optimus loses his memories, and become Orion Pax. Megatron uses Orion to unlock something called the Iacon Database: a database stolen when the Cons raided the Iacon Hall of Records during the War. The database contains a bunch of encrypted coordinates where an Iacon relic has been stored for future use. Eventually the Autobots help get Orions memory back and get Optimus to return, as well as access the database. Thus starts a MASSIVE scavenger hunt for the relics buried on Earth. Eventually, they find the Omega Keys: devices that can activate something called the Omega Lock, which they can use to restore Cybertron. Through a series of unfortunate events, the Cons get secure the Lock and use it to cuneiform Earth, which would destroy all life in the process. Optimus eventually destroys the Lock to protect Earth, but not before Megatron, makes a new fortress next to the Autobots base, and destroy the base, with Optimus still inside. During this time the Autobots are scattered across Earth, which lead to Megatron needing a new way to hunt them down. And he does in the form of the Predacons. The Predacons are basically like Earth’s dinosaurs on Cybertron, even through they look like dragons and other mythical creatures. Eventually, Optimus does get better and gets a new form, and destroys Megatron’s fortress. Thus starts another scavenger hunt, in the form of both sides looking for Predacon bones, scattered across Earth. When Megatron finally gets enough bones to clone a Predacon army, it becomes apparent that the Preds are, in fact, sentient beings that can also transform. When Megatron realises this, he plans to have the Autobots destroy all of the Predacons being cloned, and having only one remain. This leads to the discovery of another plot element which leads to a successful recreation of the Omega Lock. The Autobots attack the Cons warship and take it, in order to use the Lock to restore their home, which they do. And they all lived happily ever after, that is until the sequel, but we’ll get to that later. The story arcs may seem repetitive, but they still are very interesting and fun to watch. They always offer something new, and have plenty of twists in order to keep the audience’s attention. That, in a very large nutshell, is why Transformers Prime is my favorite Transformers continuity. Transformers Prime: 9 out of 10. Join me next time when I talk about the sequel, Transformers Robots in Disguise.

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Detention

by Ronan Wills

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Taiwan's history of martial law makes for an excellent portable horror game

Oooh! This is in the Axis of Awesome!~

Horror video games are in an odd spot right now. With my beloved Silent Hill buried beneath the ashes of Konami and the genre dormant in the big-budget space (although Capcom might be giving it a sharp poke back into wakefulness, if Resident Evil 7 and the upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake are anything to go by), gamers looking for a scary good time have increasingly turned to the indie scene to get their fix.

But even that’s starting to stagnate, with a plethora of shabby titles ripping off whatever the latest big trend is. The

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

clones weren’t too bad, but things got really dire once

Five Night’s At Freddy’s

came along.

There is, however, another trend that’s flown under the radar. In recent years, indie horror games from south-east Asia have started to crop up here and there. Developed with an international audience in mind but touting their local culture and mythology as a selling point, these games stand out both due to their point of origin and because they tend to take inspiration from older, more well-regarded horror classics, instead of chasing the latest flash in the pan. The trend seems to have begun with

DreadOut

, a Kickstarted game from Indonesia heavily inspired by the Fatal Frame/Project Zero franchise, and over the last few years more and more have popped up on Steam and other digital platforms.

Jonesing for something spooky to play and realizing that I hadn’t dipped my toe into this particular corner of the market yet, I browsed the Nintendo Switch online store and spotted

Detention

, a Taiwanese game from developer Red Candle. I remembered hearing good things about it when it was released on the PC early last year, but I didn’t know much about it past the basic plot setup and that it’s a 2D side-scrolling game.

Now I’m just kicking myself for not playing it sooner. Everyone who loves classic horror games and who harbours hope for the future of the genre needs to play this game immediately.

Detention

takes place in the 1960s, during the period of Taiwanese history known as the White Terror. The country is under the rule of the nationalist Kuomintang, who use anti-Communist paranoia and tension with neighbouring China to brutally stamp out any hint of dissent among the populace. Our protagonist is Fang Ray Shin, a seventeen year old high school student on the cusp of graduation and adulthood.

Trapped in her school during an unseasonable typhoon, Ray finds herself in a nightmarish version of her familiar world, where ghostly creatures roam the halls and supernatural manifestations force her to confront the events of her recent past--events that she either doesn’t remember, or is trying desperately to forget.

If that setup sounds just a wee bit familiar, then you’ll understand why I sat up and gasped in delight more or less the moment I started playing

Detention

. It’s very clearly and obviously riffing on the older

Silent Hill

games, and unlike many horror games that have tried to do this over the years, it both successfully distills the essence of what made

Silent Hill

so memorable and also manages to retain its own identity.

Despite the 2D presentation,

Detention’s

gameplay is as familiar and comfortable as a favourite pair of slippers. You explore spooky, elaborate environments, searching for clues and items to help you solve puzzles that usually operate on some amount of dream logic. You’ll use items on environmental objects, you’ll hunt down keys, you’ll find statues that look as though they’re meant to be holding something but are currently not holding anything...it’s very familiar survival horror fare. The puzzles are uniformly clever and intriguing; as the game goes on they ramp up in difficulty nicely, eventually requiring the sort of lateral thinking that leads to satisfying “ah ha!” moments. Smart environmental design means that you’ll never fail to progress simply because you didn’t press A on the right piece of background; things you’re meant to interact with are clearly signposted as such.

Where Detention diverges from its inspiration is in enemy encounters. Realizing that combat was always the worst part of classic horror games, Red Candle decided to do away with it entirely in favour of light stealth mechanics. You’ll be looking to avoid

Detention’s

eerie monsters rather than kill them, although I don’t want to spoil the main mechanic by which you do that because it’s pretty original. Enemies aren’t very common--they show up just enough that you’re always worried about running into one, but the game doesn’t throw them at you just for the sake of creating artificial difficulty. Puzzles and plot are the main focus here, particularly in the game's second half.

Said plot is easily

Detention’s

greatest asset. From the very first scene, where a teacher is called away by the school’s political officer for unknown reasons, the game establishes a heavy atmosphere of dread. Its handling of Taiwan’s history really demonstrates the difference between people telling the stories of their own culture and an outsider doing it. A western developer would likely have gone much heavier on the White Terror angle, rather than taking the much more nuanced approach that Red Candle did.

The White Terror is both ever-present and distant. Like all people who live through history, Ray isn’t aware that her experiences will one day seem extraordinary to future generations, or that the society she lives in will come to be viewed as a transient period of darkness between relative stretches of light. This is just her life; she and her classmates and family and teachers have the same daily concerns as anyone else living at any other time, they just happen to exist in an environment where mundane actions and worries can get people killed. Feeling stifled by her surroundings and her home life and yearning to escape, but not knowing what that would look like in practice, Ray takes the kinds of reckless actions that young people the world over are prone to. The fact that her life is engulfed in tragedy as a result isn’t treated as remarkable or even unfair; it’s just the reality of the time and place she happens to live in.

If you’re familiar with

Silent Hill

-inspired games, you’ll know that they like to have Big Plot Twists of a certain nature. Very early on, I figured out what I thought was going to be

Detention’s

Big Plot Twist, but it turns out that the developers were one step ahead of me. Obviously anticipating this reaction from savvy horror fans, they de-twist the twist by basically giving the game away well before the climax. The suggestive symbolism littered throughout the personalized hell that Ray finds herself in lays out the basic fundamentals of what happened to her and the other characters and why she’s in the situation she’s in very clearly, and then a combination of cut-scenes and documents makes it explicit if you’re paying any attention at all. This turns out to be a smart move on Red Candle’s part, as trying to conceal the truth for a Big Plot Twist would likely have failed, and the exact specifics of why everything happened is more interesting than the mere fact that it did happen.

Ray herself is one of the best-written videogame characters I’ve seen in years. Initially encountered through someone else’s perspective, she comes off at first glance as the sort of timid, helpless heroine that horror likes to go in for. But as you peel back the layers of the plot, she turns out to be something very different altogether, both stronger and weaker than she appeared at first, and heart-breakingly relatable even as she’s caught up in circumstances that most of the people playing as her will (hopefully) never experience.

More than just well-written, Detention is subtle and intelligent. Visuals, music, plot and dialogue weave together in eye-opening and unexpected ways, forcing you to constantly re-examine things you saw earlier in new light. It really does reach the heights of meaningful, subtle symbolism that Silent Hill achieved at its best. At times, it might exceed it.

I’m enough of a

Silent Hill

mega fan that that’s high praise indeed. In case it didn’t come through clear enough, I loved every single second of

Detention

, from its mysterious, foreboding opening to it's heart-breaking conclusion. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the successor to the throne of the top tier of videogame horror that Konami relinquished when they started farming Silent Hill out to inexperienced studios, and my anticipation for Red Candles’ next game is physically painful.

All that aside, the game has a few irritating flaws. The English version is plagued with a number of typos and grammatical errors, including the occasional straight up missing word; judging by Red Candles’ English website, it seems like they don’t have any entirely fluent speakers on staff, and it shows. The problems aren’t enough to be a deal breaker by any means, but the mistakes are jarring given how well written the dialogue is, and it’s disappointing to see these errors uncorrected in a version of the game released well over a year after the initial PC release.

At one point, the game brings up a student/teacher relationship which (reading between the lines) appears to have become sexual. Taken at face value, the way the story leaves off this plot point could be read as alarmingly positive. Thinking about it a bit more deeply in context, the rose-tinted way the relationship is portrayed is being filtered entirely through the perspective of the student--who has understandable reasons for feeling that way and wildly mis-interprets other adult dynamics--rather than any detached authorial voice. The only third-party opinion we get on the situation comes from another adult who's generally portrayed as an empathetic type with her head screwed on straight; the fact that she basically calls the teacher involved a predator is, I feel, a pretty clear indicator of where the developers' own feelings lie (there are also some horror elements of the game that don't exactly paint the adult party in a positive light).

Still, I wanted to bring it up in case readers may be uncomfortable with the idea of playing a game that tackled this subject matter at all. Other than this plot point, the game stays entirely away from sexual violence and abuse, which I thought was an admirable bit of restraint given how dark some of the other topics handled are (this is, again, somewhere that I feel a western developer might have tripped up).

Also, the Switch version of the game chugs and drops the framerate during visually busy environments. I’m assuming this issue isn’t present in other versions of the game, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re considering where to play it.

Regardless of how you play it, I recommend you do play it.

Detention

is the best horror game I've played in years and easily one of the most nuanced, mature stories in the medium as a whole. I have no hesitation in making it my inaugural

Axis of Awesome

entry on Ferretbrain.

Themes:

Computer Games

,

Horror

[starringemiliaclarke]

Press: Game of Thrones: How They Make the World’s Most Popular Show

  TIME – The battle for Westeros may be won or lost on the back of a lime green mechanical bull.

  That’s what it looks like on a January Monday in Belfast, as Game of Thrones films its seventh season here. Certainly no one believes the dragons that have thrilled viewers of HBO’s hit series exist in any real sense. And yet it’s still somewhat surprising to see the British actor Emilia Clarke, who plays exiled queen Daenerys, straddling the “buck” on a soundstage at Titanic Studios, a film complex named after this city’s other famously massive export.

  The machine under Clarke looks like a big pommel horse and moves in sync with a computer animation of what will become a dragon. Clarke doesn’t talk much between takes. Over and over, a wind gun blasts her with just enough force to make me worry about the integrity of her ash blond wig. (Its particular color is the result of 2½ months’ worth of testing and seven prototypes, according to the show’s hair designer.) Over and over, Clarke stares down at a masking-tape mark on the floor the instant episode director Alan Taylor shouts, “Now!” Nearby, several visual-effects supervisors watch on monitors.

  Clarke and I talk in her trailer before she heads to the soundstage, at the beginning of what is to be a long week inhabiting a now iconic character. Behind the scenes it’s more toil than triumph, though. The show’s first season ended with Daenerys’ hatching three baby dragons, each the size of a Pomeranian. They’ve since grown to the size of a 747. “I’m 5-ft.-nothing, I’m a little girl,” she says. “They’re like, ‘Emilia, climb those stairs, get on that huge thing, we’ll harness you in, and then you’ll go crazy.’ And you’re like, ‘Hey, everybody! Now who’s shorty?!’”

  She has reason to feel powerful. On July 16, Clarke and the rest of the cast will begin bringing Thrones in for a landing with the first of its final 13 episodes (seven to air this summer, six to come later). Thrones, a scrappy upstart launched by two TV novices in 2011, will finish its run as the biggest and most popular show in the world. An average of more than 23 million Americans watched each episode last season when platforms like streaming and video on demand are accounted for. And since it’s the most pirated show ever, millions more watch it in ways unaccounted for. Thrones, which holds the record for most Emmys ever won by a prime-time series, airs in more than 170 countries. It’s the farthest-reaching show out there—not to mention the most obsessed-about.

  People talk about living in a golden age of TV ushered in by hit dramas like The Sopranos, Mad Men and Breaking Bad. All had precisely honed insights about the nature of humanity and of evil that remade expectations of what TV could do. But that period ended around the time Breaking Bad went off the air in 2013. We’re in what came next: an unprecedented glut of programming, with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu jumping into an ever-more-crowded fray. Now, there’s a prestige show for every conceivable viewer, which means smaller audiences and fewer truly original stories.

  Except for Thrones, which merges the psychological complexity of the best TV with old-school Hollywood grandeur. You liked shows with one anti­hero? Well, Thrones has five Tony Sopranos building their empires on blood, five Walter Whites discovering just how far they’ll go to win, five Don Drapers unapologetic in their narcissism. Oh, and they’re all living out their drama against the most breathtaking vistas not of this world.

  The phenomenon is fueled by a massive worldwide apparatus that, in a typical 10-episode season, generates the equivalent of five big-budget, feature-length movies. Even as the series has grown in every conceivable way over the years—it shoots around the globe; each episode now boasts a budget of at least $10 million—it remains animated by one simple question: Who will win the game in the end? And if Thrones has taught us anything, it’s that every reign has to end sometime.

  1. the fiction

  It all started with a book. In 1996, George R.R. Martin published A Game of Thrones, the first novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. (Back then, he conceived of it as a trilogy. Today, five of the planned seven volumes have been published.) As a writer for shows like CBS’s The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast in the late ’80s, Martin had been frustrated by the limits of TV. He decided that turning to prose meant writing something “as big as my imagination.” Martin recalls telling himself, “I’m going to have all the characters I want, and gigantic castles, and dragons, and dire wolves, and hundreds of years of history, and a really complex plot. And it’s fine because it’s a book. It’s essentially unfilmable.”

  The books became a hit, especially after 1999’s A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords a year later. Martin, who writes from his home in Santa Fe, N.M., was compared to The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien. Like Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Martin’s Westeros is a land with a distinctive set of rules. First, magic is real. Second, winter is coming. Seasons can last for years at a time, and as the series begins, a long summer is ending. Third, no one is safe. New religions are in conflict with the old, rival houses have designs on the capital’s Iron Throne, and an undead army is pushing against the boundary of civilization, known as the Wall.

  Thrones’ vast number of clans includes the wealthy and louche Lannisters, including incestuous twins Cersei and Jaime. She is the queen by marriage; he helped ensure her ascendancy through violence. Their brother Tyrion, an “imp” of short stature, is perhaps the most astute student of power. Then there are the Starks, led by duty-bound Ned. His children Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon and “bastard” Jon Snow will be scattered throughout the realm’s Seven Kingdoms. Daenerys is a Targaryen, an overthrown family that also—surprise—has a claim to the throne. Soon enough, Thrones devolves into an all-out melee that makes the Wars of the Roses look like Family Feud.

  The phenomenon is fueled by a massive worldwide apparatus that, in a typical 10-episode season, generates the equivalent of five big-budget, feature-length movies. Even as the series has grown in every conceivable way over the years—it shoots around the globe; each episode now boasts a budget of at least $10 million—it remains animated by one simple question: Who will win the game in the end? And if Thrones has taught us anything, it’s that every reign has to end sometime.

    In the wake of director Peter Jackson’s early-2000s film trilogy of Tolkien’s masterpiece, Martin was courted by producers to turn his books into “the next Lord of the Rings franchise.” But the Thrones story was too big, and would-be collaborators suggested cutting it to focus solely on Daenerys or Snow, for instance. Martin turned them all down. His story’s expansiveness was the point.

  Two middleweight novelists, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, had come to a similar conclusion and obtained Martin’s blessing at what the author calls “that famous lunch that turned into a dinner, because we were there for four or five hours” in 2006. The two writers thought Thrones could only be made as a premium-cable drama, and they walked into HBO’s office with an ambitious pitch to do so that year. “They were talking about this series of books I’d never heard of,” says Carolyn Strauss, head of HBO’s entertainment division at the time. “[I was] somebody who looked around the theater in Lord of the Rings, at all of those rapt faces, and I am just not on this particular ferry … I thought, This sounds interesting. Who knows? It could be a big show.”

  HBO bought the idea and handed the reins to Benioff and Weiss, making them showrunners who’d never run a show before. Benioff was best known for having adapted his novel The 25th Hour into a screenplay directed by Spike Lee. Weiss had a novel to his credit too. The two had met in a literature program in Dublin in 1995 and later reconnected in the States. “I decided I wanted to write a screenplay,” Benioff told Vanity Fair in 2014. “I’d never written a script before, and I didn’t know how to do it, so I asked [Weiss] if he would write one with me, because he had written a bunch already.” It never got made.

  The Thrones pilot, shot in 2009, got off to a rocky start. Benioff and Weiss misjudged how much planning it would take to bring Martin’s fantasy to life. To portray a White Walker—mystic creatures from the North—they simply stuck an actor in a green-screen getup and hoped to figure it out later. “You can maybe do that if you’re making Avatar,” says Weiss. “But we need to know what the creatures look like before we turn on the camera.” They also had trouble portraying Martin’s nuanced characters. “Our friends—really smart, savvy writers—didn’t [realize] Jaime and Cersei were brother and sister,” says Benioff of the ill-fated first cut. Ultimately, they reshot the pilot.

  When Benioff and Weiss look back at that first season, they see plenty to nitpick. Their fealty to Martin’s text, for example, made Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion “Eminem blond,” per Benioff. (His hair was later darkened.) Still, the elements that have made the show a monster success were there—and audiences (3 million for Thrones’ first season finale) picked up on them. Arguably the most ground­breaking element was a willingness to ruthlessly murder its stars. Ned Stark, the moral center of Season 1, portrayed by the show’s then most famous cast member (Sean Bean, who starred in The Lord of the Rings), is shockingly beheaded in the second-to-last episode. By the third season’s “Red Wedding,” a far more gruesome culling, the show had accrued enough fans to send the Internet into full on freak-out mode.

  Thrones had by then become the pacesetter for all of TV in its willingness to forgo a simple happy ending in favor of delivering pleasure through brutality. Even if you don’t watch, Thrones’ characters and catchphrases have permeated the culture (the apparent death of Snow was an international trending topic all summer in 2015). Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons and The Tonight Show have lampooned the show. And the recent South Korean presidential election was called on a national news network with depictions of the candidates duking it out for control of the Iron Throne.

  2. the production

  Wandering around the Belfast set, the scope and the orderliness of the enterprise is staggering. The wights, zombie-like creatures with spookily pale faces and dressed in ragged furs, form a tidy line as they wait to grab breakfast burritos. Outside the stage door, a few smoke cigarettes, careful not to ash on their worn-in tunics. “At first we had a season with one big event, then we had a season with two big events, now we have a season where every episode is a big event,” says Joe Bauer, the show’s VFX supervisor. Bauer and VFX producer Steve Kullback oversee a group of 14 FX shops from New Zealand to Germany that work on the show almost continuously.

  One of those big events this season is a battle whose sheer scope, even before being cut together with the show’s typical brio, dazzled me. In order to get on set, I agreed not to divulge the players or what’s at stake. (Thrones has been promising this clash all along, and when the time comes, the Internet will melt.) It will be all the more impressive knowing that the cast and crew were shot through with a frigid North Atlantic wind that whipped everyone during filming and sent them all flying to the coffee cart during resets. (The cold, a prosthetic artist tells me, is at least good for keeping the makeup on.)

  The setting is as grand as the action. The battle was filmed in what was once a Belfast quarry, drained, flattened out with 11,000 square meters of concrete and painted over with a camouflage effect—all of which took six months and required special ecological surveys. This kind of mountain moving, or leveling, is par for the course for Thrones.

  Each season starts with producers Christopher Newman and Bernadette Caulfield circulating a plot outline on a color-coded spreadsheet, dictating what will be shot by the show’s two simultaneous camera units, which can splinter into as many as four. It’s perpetually subject to change, given the complications of a television show this ambitious—over seven seasons they’ve shot in Croatia, Spain, Iceland, Malta, Morocco and Canada as well as locations around Northern Ireland. While I’m in Belfast, my plan to watch Jon Snow in action is canceled because of inclement weather (that same wind) that makes filming from a drone hazardous. At this point, Caulfield will grab onto any small comfort. “Now the dragon doesn’t get any bigger,” she says, “so we know that much.”

  Another breakdown goes out to department heads, and a massive global triage begins. Costumer Michele Clapton, for example, begins figuring out if she’ll have to dress any new characters or armies and then sets out on the most complex work. “I know that Daenerys’ dresses will take the longest,” she says. Each look, no matter the character, may take as many as four craftspeople to bead, stitch and—if there’s meant to be wear and tear—break down. Deborah Riley, the production designer, begins looking for references to new locations in the outline. Tommy Dunne, the weapons master, starts forging gear for the season’s big battles. “My big thing is the numbers,” he says. “I hope they won’t frighten me.” He made 200 shields and 250 spears for last season’s epic Battle of the Bastards.

  Benioff’s and Weiss’s jobs amount to maintaining constant conversation with numerous producers. The pair are usually in Belfast for about six months a year. Wherever in the world they happen to be, they get daily video from the shoots and field an endless stream of emails from staff on location. During my visit, wolves described in the script as “skinny and mangy” showed up to the shoot looking fluffy and lustrous. Around the world, new message notifications lit up smartphone screens.

  When Benioff and Weiss aren’t shooting, they’re writing. And when they aren’t shooting or writing—which happens rarely—they’re promoting. The two make a complementary pair. Benioff, who wears his hair in a Morrissey quiff, is the more sardonic one. Weiss, with silver rings in his ears, is nerdier and given to hyperbole. They say they’re still having fun making Thrones, despite the stakes, and still regularly find themselves surprised by its scale. Weiss recalls seeing the buck Clarke rides to simulate Daenerys’ dragons for the first time: “We knew it would be a mechanical bull. We didn’t know it would be 40 ft. in the air and six degrees of motion with cameras that swirl.” Says Benioff: “It’s like the thing NASA built to train the astronauts.”

  Despite nonstop production, Weiss says, “There’s still a kid-in-a-candy-shop feel. You’re going to look at the armor, crazy-amazing dresses—gowns Michele is making—then you’re going to look at the swords, then watch pre-vis cartoons of the scenes that will be shot and you’re weighing in on shot selection. Every one of these things is something we’ve been fascinated with in our own way since we were kids.”

  “Especially dresses,” cracks Benioff. Weiss adds, “Especially the gowns.”

  3. the players

  The first few seasons’ worth of swordplay and gowns turned the show’s cast into recognizable stars. But it’s the complexity of their characters, revealed over time, that made them into icons. “My friends always say to me, ‘It’s like you’re two different people. I see articles about you in BuzzFeed’—but then they see my Facebook posts,” says Maisie Williams, who plays the tomboy turned angel of vengeance Arya Stark. Williams was two days past her 14th birthday when the show debuted. There’s TV-star famous, after all, and then there’s some-percentage-of-23-million-people-has-been-actively-rooting-for-you-to-kill-off-your-co-stars-for-six-years famous.

  Thrones’ story doesn’t ask its actors to break bad or good, and viewers stay tuned in large part because of the characters’ moral mutability. Consider Cersei, played by Lena Headey, who is either a monster or a victim. The character has become more popular with fans even as she’s wrought greater carnage, including blowing up a building full of people last season. “At the beginning, people were like, ‘Oh my God, you’re such a bitch!’” she says. “What’s moving is that people love her now and want to be on her team.” That Headey, a Brit, uses an exaggerated American accent as she delivers the harsher interpretation of her work is revealing of nothing, or a lot.

  She’s thought through every element of her character, though, including the incestuous relationship with Jaime that provided the show its first narrative jolt. “I love to talk about all of it,” she says, citing her frequent emails to Benioff and Weiss. “Cersei’s always wanted to be him. Therefore, for her, that relationship is completion. There’s been an envy, because he was born with privilege just for being a man. I think their love was built on respect.”

  Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the Danish actor who plays Jaime, is a bit less excited to discuss the subject. “I’ve never really gone too deep into the whole sister-brother thing because I can’t use that information. I have to look at her as the woman he loves and desires. Lena’s a very good actress, and that’s kind of what carries the whole thing.” He adds, “I have two older sisters. I do not want to go there. It’s just too weird.”

  Even a character like Jon Snow, as close to a pure hero as possible as Season 7 begins, has outgrown the box he originally came in. Snow, an illegitimate child never embraced by his father’s wife, is a James Dean daydream of Sir Walter Scott. “I made mistakes and felt that he wasn’t interesting enough,” says Kit Harington of the way he’s played Snow. We’re in a Belfast hotel bar, and Harington is squeezing in a coffee before he makes an evening showing of Manchester by the Sea. “That sounds weird, but I’ve never been quite content with him. Maybe that’s what makes him him. That angst.” His character has been slowly absorbing lessons about duty and power—and “this year there is this huge seismic shift where all of what he’s learned over the years, suddenly …” Harington trails off. “He’s still the same Jon, but he grows up.”

  Dinklage, too, found in Tyrion a character who surpassed his expectations. The actor says he’d never read fantasy beyond The Lord of the Rings. “That’s the part of the bookstore I don’t really gravitate toward,” he says. “This was the first time in this genre that somebody my size was an actually multidimensional being, flesh and blood without the really long beard, without the pointy shoes, without the asexuality.”

  Thrones catapulted Dinklage, the only American in the main cast, from a well-regarded film and theater actor to among the most-recognized actors on earth in part because the asexuality is quite absent. Tyrion thirsts for wine, sex and, crucially, love and respect. As the offspring of a wealthy and powerful family, the first two are easy to come by. The latter not so much. “He covers it up with alcohol, he covers it up with humor, he does his best to maintain a modicum of sanity and he perseveres,” says Dinklage. “He’s still alive. Anyone who’s still alive on our show is pretty smart.”

  Indeed, with just 13 episodes left, everything is possible—alliance, demise or coronation. “Every season I go to the last page of the last episode and go backward,” says Dinklage. “I don’t do that with books, but I can’t crack open page one of Episode 1 not knowing if I’m dead or not.”

  4. the drama

  The size of Thrones’ controversies have, at times, been as large as its following. Its reliance on female nudity, especially Daenerys’, was an early flash point. “I don’t have any qualms saying to anyone it was not the most enjoyable experience. How could it be?” says Clarke. “I don’t know how many actresses enjoy doing that part of it.” That aspect of the role has faded as Daenerys found paths to power beyond her sexuality. This evolution from a passive naïf into a holy terror who rules by the fealty of her subjects is what has earned Daenerys, according to Clarke, the audience’s loyalty. “People wouldn’t give two sh-ts about Daenerys if you didn’t see her suffer,” she says.

  More controversial still has been the prevalence of sexual violence. Many of the major female characters have been assaulted onscreen. In a 2015 sequence, Sansa, the Stark daughter played by Sophie Turner, was raped by her husband. According to the logic of the show, the plot gave her character a reason to seek revenge and power of her own. It nonetheless generated substantial blowback online and clearly turned some fans away from the series for good. “This was the trending topic on Twitter, and it makes you wonder, when it happens in real life, why isn’t it a trending topic every time?” says Turner, who is 21. “This was a fictional character, and I got to walk away from it unscathed … Let’s take that discussion and that dialogue and use it to help people who are going through that in their everyday lives. Stop making it such a taboo, and make it a discussion.”

  Benioff and Weiss claim to have seen no other possible outcome for a character stranded in a marriage to a psychopath, in a skewed version of feudal society. “It might not be our world,” says Benioff, “but it’s still the same basic power dynamic between men and women in this medieval world. This is what we believed was going to happen.” Adds Weiss: “We talked about, is there any other way she could possibly avoid this fate that doesn’t seem fake, where she uses her pluck to save herself at the last? There was no version of that that didn’t seem completely horrible.”

  Even if Benioff and Weiss don’t always admit it, the show has changed. Scenes in which exposition is delivered in one brothel or another, for example, have been pared back. It’s at moments like these that the success of Thrones seems a precariously struck balance, thriving on a willingness to shock but always risking going too far.

  5. the end of the end

  Benioff and Weiss claim to have sworn off reading commentary about the show, good or bad. When I visit them in Los Angeles in March, they’re writing the next and final season. I peek into a fridge in a lounge area in their offices, a room dominated by a Thrones-branded pinball machine Weiss proudly points out, to find three cases of beer with Westeros-themed labels, low-calorie ranch dressing and yellow mustard. At this point, they have full outlines of the final six episodes. In fact, they’ve been working on the very last episode, possibly the most anticipated finale since Hawkeye left Korea. “We know what happens in each scene,” says Weiss.

  The fact that they know is remarkable considering the show will reach its conclusion long before the books. The last new Thrones novel came out in 2011, the year the show began. The author describes his next installment, the sixth of seven, as “massively late.” “The journey is an adventure,” says Martin, who, at 68, has fought criticism that he won’t finish the books. “There’s always that process of discovery for me.” But with young, and rapidly maturing, actors under contract and a community of artisans awaiting marching orders in Belfast, the show can’t wait.

  Benioff and Weiss always knew this would happen. So they met with the novelist in 2013, between Seasons 2 and 3, to sketch out what Martin calls “the ultimate developments” after the books and show diverge. The upshot, they say, is that the two can co­exist. “Certain things that we learned from George way back then are going to happen on the show, but certain things won’t,” says Benioff. “And there’s certain things where George didn’t know what was going to happen, so we’re going to find them out for the first time too.”

  In preparation for Season 7, Benioff and Weiss have gotten more possessive. That has further fueled fans’ curiosity even as it has created security challenges. In the run-up to Season 6, paparazzi shots of Harington—and his distinctive in-character hairdo—in Belfast tipped the Internet off that Jon Snow wasn’t, in fact, as dead as he’d seemed the season before. “Look at how difficult it is to protect information in this age,” says Benioff. “The CIA can’t do it. The NSA can’t do it. What chance do we have?”

  It’s also changed the on-set dynamic. Coster-Waldau says Benioff and Weiss have “become much more protective over the story and script. I think they feel this is truly theirs now, and it’s not to be tampered with. I’ve just sensed this last season that this is their baby: ‘Just say the words as they’re written, and shut up.’”

  Then there’s the end of the end, the finale likely to air next year or the year after. Benioff and Weiss are not writing the Thrones spin-off projects HBO revealed this year that could explore other parts of Westerosi history—some, all or none of which may end up on air. In the meantime, they claim not to be worrying about the public’s reaction to their ending. (Benioff says that when it comes to endgame stress, “medication helps.”) Weiss says, “I’m not saying we don’t think about it.” He pauses. “The best way to go about it is to focus on what’s on the desk in front of you, or what sword is being put in front of you, or the fight that is being choreographed in front of you.”

  What’s currently before them seems like plenty. When I first met Clarke in Belfast, she was shooting on the back of a dragon. When I leave a week later, she’s still at it. “Thirty seconds of screen time and she’s been here for 16 days,” the episode’s director, Taylor, remarks at one point. Later on, I’d remember this moment of exhaustion when Weiss described seeing the buck for the first time. He went on to add, “It probably feels a bit less amazing to Emilia, who sits on it for eight hours a day, six weeks in a row, getting blasted with water and fake snow and whatever else they decide to chuck at her through the fans.” The table with the espresso machine—just beyond Clarke’s line of sight—is well trafficked.

  Clarke doesn’t seem bothered, though, smiling and chatting with the crew from atop the buck. As the state-of-the-art hydraulics move her into position, her posture shifts from millennial slump to ramrod straight. In an instant, she converts herself into the ruler of the fictional space around her. On cue, she looks over her shoulder with a face of marble. She casts into an imagined world some emotion known only to her. She’s gazing into a future that, in the flickering moments that the story remains a secret, only she can see.

    Press: Game of Thrones: How They Make the World’s Most Popular Show was originally published on Enchanting Emilia Clarke