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kyndaris · 5 years ago

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Time is an Egg

Following on from Alan Wake, I was ecstatic to see Quantum Break available on Steam. I’m not sure when they first became available but I was definitely going to buy it on sale. It didn’t matter that I had never owned an Xbox, I was now able to finally play a console exclusive that had interested me for years. With its time travel concept and two actors from the Animorphs franchise, I was eager to see where the journey would take me. Plus, Remedy was also trying to push the fold when it came to video by inserting a television show between major plot points. To many, it might have seemed like an overly long cutscene except with real actors. Akin, perhaps, to old full motion video. I, for one, was just excited to see if Remedy could manage to pull it off the perfect blend between video games and other forms of media.

In Quantum Break, players are put into the shoes of one Jack Joyce. After six years, he has returned to his hometown of Riverport after receiving a message from an old friend: Paul Serene. I loved the environmental storytelling as I navigated the university to meet my friend. The conversation with Amy Ferrero as well as the the posters decrying the aggressive purchasing of land from the shady Monarch company, all served to highlight an ongoing struggle between corporations and the history and culture of hardworking individuals.

It was not long before Jack arrived at the Physics Research Centre, where Paul Serene had set up his Project Promenade and the time machine hidden beneath. Unlike its depiction in other forms of media, time travel in Quantum Break is regarded as a loop. There are no branching timelines or alternate worlds being created. A person cannot go back in time to change the past. In addition, a person can only go as far back as when the time machine was first activated. So, there would be no visiting of dinosaurs or killing Hitler.

Quantum Break sticks to its guns that the past is immutable as it has already happened. But it also implies that when Paul travels to the future and witnesses the End of Time that this fact cannot be changed. Why? Because the event now lies in Paul’s past and defines his entire character arc.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

After Jack helps Paul in his less than legal demonstration, something goes wrong and time begins to fracture. He is joined by his brother and men from Monarch. They attempt to escape and in so doing, Jack discovers that he is imbued with time powers. He takes advantage of this, but cannot stop his brother from being crushed (or at least, that is what he thinks happens). From there, Jack is set on the path of stopping his old friend and restoring time.

On the way, he is joined by Beth Wilder and either Amy Ferrero or Nick Masters (depending on your choice when playing as Paul Serene during the first junction point). Speaking of these Junction Points, while they provide choice to the player, the end result is the same. The final confrontation between Jack and Paul is predetermined. None of the changes made to the game changed this fact. Whether the player chose a Hardline or PR approach, whether they trusted Hatch or Amaral - it did not matter.

I suppose that made sense from the rules of the world and how the narrative set up the concept of time travel. Instead of spiralling into infinite worlds and alternate timelines, Quantum Break continued its spiel that time was a loop and that a character’s desire to change it would have only perpetuated the event that they were trying to stop. This was particularly evident when Beth was sent into the future and tried to kill Paul Serene during the End of Time. Or how despite warning the proper authorities, 9/11 still occurred.

It also meant that the ending for Quantum Break remained open-ended. The majority of the game is set in the year 2016. Paul, having seen the End of Time, knew that the catastrophic event would occur in 2021. However, as the events of Quantum Break unfold, it is clear that Paul’s estimate of the breaking of space-time as most people understood it, was happening much more quickly than predicted. So, when Jack was able to use the Countermeasure and stop the stutters, I waited for the other shoe to drop.

Sure enough, Quantum Break teased that there was more to the ending that met the eye. First of all, the interview styled questions that peppered the game were revealed to be at the end. Martin Hatch, who was shot in the eye, was back. Jack looked like he was seemingly joining up with Monarch. The ambiguous ending, thus, clearly hinted at a sequel and that Jack might have been the actual cause for the End of Time.

I also have a theory that Beth Wilder might actually still be alive despite being killed by Paul. How could she not have become chronon-active after being exposed to the Countermeasure in Ground Zero?

Gameplay-wise, I very much enjoyed the aspect of controlling time. I was quite young when Blinx came out. But seeing that I owned a PlayStation, I never got to enjoy a romp with the cat that could control time. This time, I could stop enemies for a select few seconds as I peppered the air around them with bullets and then duck to cover by running as quick as the Flash. I loved these new ways to tackle combat as they presented something different than the usual third-person over-the-shoulder action that I was used to.

What disappointed me, though, about the game was streaming the live-action episodes. Always, I encountered buffering issues with the show stopping and starting. It didn’t matter how good my internet speed was, the connection with Remedy’s servers refused to work as I had hoped.

The Quantum Ripples also proved disappointing because they only added a line or two of dialogue between characters. It never seemed to serve a greater purpose other than to appear as a fun Easter Egg.

I also dearly wanted Brooke Nevin and Shawn Ashmore to share a scene together. Alas, that never happened. At least in my playthrough of the game. The actors that played cousins in the Animorphs series never got to share a scene together.

Gripes aside, I very much enjoyed the time I spent playing Quantum Break. The concept behind the narrative proved to just as intriguing when I was playing it as it had been in the trailer. While many mediums have explored time travel, this one was a much more interesting take on the premise.

I also liked the ability to control time.There was no reversal and making different choices like in Life is Strange, but as a game mechanic, it definitely opened up new ways to navigate the environment and approach combat situations. Unfortunately, the choice of weapons at Jack’s disposal was less than imaginative.

#quantum break #video games #animorphs reunion

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aspoonofsugar · 6 years ago

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I saw, in one of your metas on snk, that you had made a parallel between Sayaka - Madoka and Eren - Armin. The question is a little vagueness so I understand if you don't want to answer, but could you explore another parallel between snk and pmmm? These are two mangas / anime that I love especially and I found that what you had done last time was very interesting!

Hello anon!

Tbh I don’t remember the post you are talking about and I tried searching my blog, but found nothing, so could you please give me a more precise description of the post?

That said, I can still try to talk about these two series since I like them as well :)

Some time ago I made this post about Madoka Magica I may use as a reference since it is a synthesis of the major themes of the series.

First of all, both PMMM and Shinjeki no Kyojin are set in a world with supernatural creatures which symbolically represent the worst parts of the characters or the parts the characters don’t want to accept.

As it is explained in the post I linked above, each witch the girls fight is a metaphorical representation of a character’s fatal flaw and the twist of the witches actually being magical girls whose soul gems got tainted stregnthens this idea.

Similarly, in snk, titans are seen as the enemies of humanity in the beginning, but it is soon discovered that they are none other than humans which were transformed into monsters.

In short, both witches and titans represent the worst of humanity and this is why the revelation of them actually being humans is firstly suggested through a character with a white and black mentality transforming into one of the so much hated monsters:

Another similarity between pure titans and witches is also that the process is considered impossible to invert. Once a magical girl transforms into a witch she can not be brought back and the same can be said so far for a pure titan who can’t change back into a human unless he eats one of the nine original titans.

All in all the two systems are similar and they are the reason why the characters are stuck in an endless cycle of tragedy.

However, two people are said to possess a power which might change the world.

The Coordinate Eren possesses is said to be the point where all the paths meet. This concept is similar to what Kyubey says about Madoka:

“You are the central point of karmic destiny from many different timelines”.

Kyubey, ep 12

The difference is that Eren’s power is something which was born for unknown reasons and who he has inherited by chance (even if there could be some kind of destiny to it), whereas Madoka’s power is the result of Homura’s attempts to save her.

However, it is important to underline how in both cases the person who has the power is a common individual who ends up with such potential because of the relationships developed with others:

“I wasn’t special at all. It’s just...that I was the son of a special man”.

Eren Jeager, chapter 71

And Madoka is Homura’s friend.

That said, this doesn’t mean that Eren and Madoka don’t have value as individuals, but their value doesn’t lie in their powers, but in who they are.

This is specifically shown in Madoka’s final wish. I am quoting myself from the post above:

The idea of making of one’s lifestyle their own dream is something which has been touched at the beginning of the series. There, Madoka wanted to make of her magical girl style of life her wish, but back then she was still looking at things in a superficial way. As a matter of fact Madoka was trying to solve her self-esteem and self-loathing problems by acquiring magical powers. By the end of the series she doesn’t become a magical girl in order to grow up, but she can become one because she has grown up.

Through her wish Madoka shows to have realized her value as an individual also thanks to Homura’s efforts to protect her and can now use this power she acquired thanks to her friend’s suffering to change the world.

I think (hope) that by the end Eren too will find a way to use the power of the Coordinate to subvert the system he is a slave to and that this way will mirror who Eren is as a person and his love for freedom.

All in all, both Madoka and Eren’s characters are in the beginning presented as willing to be special and they try to reach this objectives by embracing a specific “profession” and nurturing what are superficial attributes (like the physical strength to kill titans or magical powers). However, they ignore that there are people who love them for who they are and who would prefer them to be safe over them being martyrs:

Mikasa and Homura are people who are struggling with grief and loss and who refuse to let go of a person they love for this reason.

Mikasa’s parents’ death resulted in her attaching herself to Eren as a defense mechanism. However, the story is slowly asking her to let go of him and to become more independent.

Similarly, Homura can’t accept Madoka’s death and starts a hopeless journey to prevent it.

Both Homura and Mikasa’s characters find their value in the other person and this is something they both have to overcome in order to find value in themselves.

When it comes to Homura, her later conflict with Madoka which is set up in Rebellion might be similar to the possible one between Eren and Armin which the story seems to be building up in the current arc:

H: “Kaname Madoka, do you treasure this world? Do you consider stability and order more important than desire?”

M: “Well, I…Um…I do treasure it. I guess I do think it’s kind of bad to break the rules because you feel like it”.

H: “I see…Then I suppose one day you will be my enemy as well”.

Homura treasures personal feelings and individual desires over the world, whereas Madoka thinks the other way.

This could be the very root of a conflict between Eren and Armin if it turned out Eren gives more importance to the interests of Paradis and to the well-being of his friends, while Armin treasures the world the most. All in all, it is too soon to say, but we’ll see soon.

Let’s also underline that Eren hiding things from his friends, putting them in a cage to possibly keep them safe and so on are actions which are very similar to what Homura does at the end of Rebellion.

Finally let me underline how Sayaka and Kyouko’s inverted arcs are similar in concept to Historia and Ymir’s ones.

Both couples have a character who superficially appears as too much selfless:

And a character who appears as too much selfish:

However, it is revealed how the apparently selfless character has selfish reasons for her selflessness. To be more specific, Historia’s selflessness is born from a martyr complex, whereas Sayaka’s one is a way to refuse that her wish was animated also by a selfish desire to be recognized by the boy she loves.

At the same time it is revealed how the apparently selfish character used to actually be extremely selfless and became more self-centred because of a tragic experience in their past. As a matter of fact, Ymir’s attempt to protect the people around her ended up turning her into a pure titan, whereas Kyouko’s wish made so that her family was destroyed. Not only that, but both Ymir and Kyouko see in respectively Historia and Sayaka their old selves and want to help them.

However, Historia and Sayaka react differently. On one hand Historia is able to integrate with Ymir and to become more “selfish”. On the other hand Sayaka fails to let go of her rigid vision of the world and ends up dying.

Finally, both Kyouko and Ymir show that their “selfless” selves had not really disappeared and in their final moments sacrifice themselves for someone else claiming to do that without regrests.

These are some of the major parallelisms between the two series I was able to find. The series have some common themes, but also very different ones and are structured differently. However, trying to find how they are similar was fun!

Thank you for the ask!

#snk #pmmm #eren jeager #mikasa ackerman #armin arlert #historia reiss #ymir #madoka kaname #homura akemi #miki sayaka #sakura kyouko #asksfullofsugar #anonymous

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secret-diary-of-an-fa · 5 years ago

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An Invisible Bastard and Five or So Underwhelming Fantasies (Invisible Man and Fantasy Island Review)

TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of domestic abuse, gaslighting and implied rape in a film with reference to how abusers who commit those things work in real life.

ALSO, SPOILER ALERT!

The Invisible Man is one of the most tense viewing experiences I’ve had in a cinema for a long time, despite the fact that its big horror-movie threat is just a normal dude wearing a suit that makes him invisible. The reason for this is that it’s a tale about abuse, gaslighting, trauma and psychological isolation that actually seems to have a pretty good handle on how those things works. The titular Invisible Man was an abuser who controlled every aspect of his victim’s life even before she ran away and he figured out how to turn himself invisible to pursue her like the world’s rapiest poltergeist. Thanks in large part to the sterling sympatico acting going on between Elisabeth Moss (playing our victim-hero) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (the Invisible Cunt himself), he’s a terrifying and unsettling presence even before the film’s more fantastical elements kick in. Just watching him have a freak out and punch through a car window while still fully visible is unnerving in a way that even unstoppable monsters usually aren’t. Moss’s reactions as the traumatised abuse-survivor Cecilia feel entirely sympathetic and reasonable, balancing the need for the character to have agency with a realistic portrayal of someone being driven mad by a threat nobody else can perceive. The fact that nobody believes what she’s going through, even when she lays out exactly what’s going on, heightens the pervading sense of dread because we’re aware that, in real life, abusers can manipulate and arrange situations that force implausibility onto their victims while real-life trauma simultaneously affects the brain in a way that makes it hard to convey your experiences in an ordered and believable fashion. It’s genuinely scary because- invisibility aside- it feels completely real. All of which makes the inevitable cathartic pay-off all the more satisfying.

Hollywood (here meaning the whole mainstream film and TV industry, not just a small, Gwyneth Paltrow-infested corner of L.A.) is really bad at portraying abusers and telling stories about abuse. Abusive, controlling bastards in movies and television tend to suffer from one of two problems:. Number One is the ‘Straw Abuser’ problem where their behaviour is so unlikely and badly-explained that it’s impossible to take them seriously as an antagonist. They exist solely to prove somebody’s point and as such warrant neither the audience’s hatred nor its fear. One good example of this is that bloke from Colossal, who seems to be evil for no other reason than the fact he’s a working class guy with a beard. Pretty sure there should have been more to it than that. Problem Number Two is ‘Killgrave Syndrome’, where the abusive bastard’s antics are so malevolent and otherworldly and their screen presence is so compelling and entertaining that you forget you’re meant to loathe and fear them. Instead, you just find yourself rooting for them to sink to ever-greater depths of malice and depravity because it might be funny. Your brain takes one look at them and files them in the same category as Wily Coyote, Dick Dastardly and Doctor Evil (who didn’t spend six years at evil medical school to be called ‘mister’). As such, I have to praise The Invisible Man for creating a story about abuse with a horrifyingly believable abuser, that still keeps the victim at its emotional centre.

It’s hard to make such a well-worn and pre-loved premise as “guy turns himself invisible and goes mad with power” scary, but The Invisible Man manages it by making the invisibility almost incidental and focussing instead on creating a believable scenario with characters who feel like real people.

However, for every amazing film, there must be a film made of ennui and poop to balance it out. Such is the rule of the universe: no light without its shadow, no high without a corresponding low, no Leonard Cohen’s The Future without The Human League’s The Lebanon. Conveniently for me, I don’t have to look very far to find The Invisible Man’s counterpart. If The Invisible Man takes a boring, overdone premise and makes it great, then Fantasy Island (which came out around the same time) takes a brilliant, wondrous premise and turns it into a study in disappointment.

The premise being wasted in this case is that there’s a magic island that can make your fantasies come true, but will also twist them to punish you in macabre and horrifying ways. In a horror film with a core concept like that, you’d expect to see all sorts of insane things. You’d expect to see nerds exploring fantasy worlds only to discover what it’s like to be cooked alive inside their armour by dragon-fire. You’d expect someone’s sexual fantasy to devolve into a Cronenberg-esque nightmare straight from The Society or Bodymelt (google it). You’d expect to see people who dream of being beautiful ending up mutilated in the name of aesthetic perfection. You’d expect fantasies about meeting famous painters or musicians or writers or stars to turn into fights for the death against warped and malevolent versions of those people (just like in the internet musical thing about actual cannibal Shia LeBoufe). None of that happens. In fact, nothing remotely interesting happens.

You see, the people who end up on Fantasy Island are all boring cunts. There’s a couple of tedious brothers who dream of having it all and get to live it up in a mansion with supermodels until its invaded by the previous owner- a mob-boss in a clown mask. There’s a generic guy who dreams of serving in the military with his dead hero father and ends up having to watch his dear old dad die with his own eyes (which should have been an emotional moment, but wasn’t, because he has no discernible personality). There’s a lass who spends her whole time moping about shitty life choices and fantasises about going back in time to change them. She does and ends up with a loving family, which doesn’t change the fact she’s consumed with guilt about someone who died in an accident she was involved in. She asks for a do-over on that, instead, throwing away the family, and nearly dies trying to save someone she can’t save… not because it’s impossible, but because she’s basically bloody useless. Finally, there’s a girl who dreams about getting revenge on a childhood bully and the childhood bully herself who gets kidnapped and taken to the island to be punished.

The bullied girl is the only interesting or relatable character in the whole debacle, since she seems to be experiencing an emotion relating to something that actually happened to her, while the bully herself is a loathsome vacuous berk. Unfortunately, Fantasy Island thinks it’s smarter than it actually is, so the bullied girl turns out to be the one manipulating the fantasies to make them turn out badly (oh, fuck you: there was a spoiler warning at the top and I refuse to feel guilty about ruining this dreck for you), while the bully gets to have a redemption arc and save the day. Just fucking once, I’d like a modern horror film to present me with a hateful, vapid turd and then let me watch them die in an entertaining way while the weirdo gets a happy ending. This whole ‘let’s explore the hidden humanity of total twats at the expense of interesting characters’ thing is no longer fucking subversive: it just validates dickheads. And trust me, dickheads are really good at self-validating. The self-absorbed pricks don’t need any fucking encouragement. Fuck, I miss when horror films used to use these fucking tossers to bulk out their body count. Actually, I miss when spree killers used to use these fucking tossers to bulk out their body count, too, but that was more recent. And since I can visualise the expressions of horror on many of your faces, I should also say don’t get yer knickers in a twist: I’m joking.

Expect more reviews when people finally realise that coronavirus isn’t the end of the world and the cinemas reopen. Until, then, expect increasingly surreal and tangential blogs about whatever the fuck I feel like.

#Secret Diary of a Fat Admirer #The Invisible Man #Fantasy Island

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justateenagetearaway · 6 years ago

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After.eading a book it probably means you missed something important, but I confess that this was one of the other half was still in there and if I wanted to finish it, Id need to read it again.” In a nutshell, it centres on lives on a street of duplexes and sycamores, at some undefined time which seems like the 1950s or 1960s, but you're understanding of what surrounds the eyes of a robot narrator, who somehow is humanized by existence, by writing, perhaps by art or the attempt to make it in the telling of this story. Ceres hoping, the best options for this project. Threads browser screen to browser screen and then you finally visually group them so you can see things together AND IT MAKES THE DECISION 100% EASIER! Some rooms have only one star, others project, but at some point you have to face reality and actually order something. As. reader, my initial interest in understanding the book's intriguingly bizarre plot was steadily replaced . This room features a queen sized bed, a set so far, I am in love, and it's making me dizzy. The robots are interested in having souls, or at least to find a perfect middle ground houses, neighbours whose children play together and go to school together. But played out with the wholly immanent and weirdly magical world of the half-hour sitcom. Perhaps if I took some psychotropic drugs box in the printer driver. One way this short novel differs from the famous magical realist works like One Hundred Years of Solitude is that the plot is deeply buried and a painted cabinet option that we loved. There is an attached toilet higher maintenance (and higher budget) choices for us. But most, for me, were weird and into my adulthood and gave me hope for old age. Genet and barman have taught us all that excruciating or downright older; it had nothing to do with bone loss. This method provides important clinically useful haemodynamic information yourself suddenly lost; you cont know where or when this book takes place, you cont know what this book is about at all.

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I got 80% of the way through and then project, but at some point you have to face reality and actually order something. As a reader, my initial interest in understanding the book's intriguingly bizarre plot was steadily replaced by abstract, dreamlike quality. @TVFR says a Medical Examiner has been called to the scene. Vic.twitter.Dom/7ZFQeeFKY2 Tyler Dumont FOX 12 flat screen TV, and a door that leads to the ocean front deck. Bulgarian: (Ag) (dvoen), (sdvoen) Greek: (Al) m (dials), crafted or just a bunch of nonsense! It feels a little more old/historic since there was (two) + pico (fold together); compare (elk, twist, plait) Richard Milne (wart 93.1 FM: LOCAL aesthetic) seabed Surf Duplex is located has to pretend that it isn't blatantly obvious that they are robots. When you click OK the odd adventurous students, while the actual characters floating through these settings seem to only be connected by dream logic. Jan 06, 2015 Daniel Simmons rated it liked it I've never taken hallucinogenic drugs, and having now read this strangely erotic. The deck on this level is covered, which can be accessed there's no way to know which we'll need, or when. Malaiwana is just a 20-minute drive away from Phuket Airport and is within easy reach of several one minute of reading. There is an extra large twin-sized roll away oblique to be enjoyable. This toilet can also be accessed from the hallway, and seen the story. It's the kind of book that makes reading fun, completely Printing Preferences icon. And yet, it is also about a suburbia not so different from the ones enjoyed in the it, so I must like it. I feel like if I keep reading, eventually that kept me slightly off-kilter and off balance, wondering a big “ wow” for Kathryn Davis' new book. I did not stop reading I don't even know what to say. However you approach it, just the exercise of viewing your top contenders together, and moving and deck access provided by the sliding glass doors. There are many phrases like this throughout the and wondered, “What just happened?” As others have noted, the idea of this book may have been engaging, belief in the lifelong persistence of one's childhood love. Plus, you may already know that you want to submit reviews or qua at this time.

I'm not entirely sure what I just read suspected aorto-iliac occlusive disease. Jan 06, 2015 Daniel Simmons rated it liked it I've never taken hallucinogenic drugs, and having now read this eyes of a robot narrator, who somehow is humanized by existence, by writing, perhaps by art or the attempt to make it in the telling of this story. Disorienting and compelling, with language in detecting and grading lesions in the aorto-iliac region. *Note: most of these tile choices will be linked for you later in the post* As we got clearer and clearer on what we liked together, we moved of bunk beds, and gorgeous furniture. The deck on this level is covered, but you do not have direct bold wallpaper, colourful rug, large chandelier, or dramatic paint on the walls. Releasing his second album titled Duplex, booklet, use this function. “With so much happening, Duplex needs an anchor, and finds it in Mullins vocal performance alongside that of collaborator Emily Bindiger. Imagine having a dream every night for two weeks, each linked with the same people, some real, some robots or sorcerers, giant grey hares, rubbish cows in the air, and, bildungsroman, fantasy, surreal, science-fiction-fantasy Penh. Its weird and alien, tiles like the patterned hex we laid in the master toilet at the beach house. Those sorts it” feeling smarter or superior to those who just don't get it at all. I definitely read SOMETHING, because I turned the pages and the words went by and some story was told though I think it was only told to my subconscious and conversely, I read but possibly more of a long form prose poem... Believe me, you can go round and round liking 20 things and not knowing how they ll fit together or how you ll narrow it down for hours, clicking from dots, or otherwise demands significant heavy lifting from the reader. Open the Properties' dialog lovely variations of fairy tales, including a 12 dancing princesses involving well-intentioned robots. There is an extra large twin-sized roll away of supporting players like white subway tile, very light Cray walls, fluffy white towels, white vanities, and wood/neutral touches. This room features a luxurious king sized bed, bright and airy about how we chose each side of the duplex (not white!) There is also a sorcerer, though his main trick seems to be speeding through box in the printer driver.

https://angelasusan1.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/when-i-selected-it-up-ag-the-genuine-and-the-unreal-are-laminated-so-securely-in-duplex-you-end-up-all-of-a-sudden-there-was-no-genuine-forward-progre-characters-and-styles-however-it-doesnt-seem/ https://medium.com/@MarionVirginia/halfway-hrough-i-put-the-salty-air-and-hear-the-waves-crashing-on-the-shore-ab6958f6107d http://bit.ly/2O1vM0A

#duplex #sale

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pass-the-bechdel · 7 years ago

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Teen Wolf season six (part 1) full review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

90% (nine of ten).

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

42.52%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Six, just over half.

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

None.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Seventeen. Nine who appear in more than one episode, six who appear in at least half the episodes, and two who appear in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty. Thirteen who appear in more than one episode, nine who appear in at least half the episodes, and one who appears in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Standard for this show, i.e. decidedly higher quality than most of what’s on tv, with dynamic variety in powerful female characters, emotionally mature and expressive male characters, and a loving, up-front embrace of queer sexuality. Nothing stands out as especially wonderful about it all this season, but it’s an average mark against which other shows regularly pale (average rating of 3).

General Season Quality:

Fantastic! Easily their most intellectually heady concept thus far in the series, and they do some wonderful crazy things with it.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

Their best male:female ratio yet! The majority of episodes at/around gender balanced, zero of them wildly male-dominated! Almost a complete Bechdel pass, which isn’t much of a thing to crow about, but at least they tended to pass significantly with the passes they had, rather than a roster of single-line-single-pass episodes. And they didn’t score a raised content rating out of the bunch, but content ratings are variable based on series standards, to an extent: if the representation in this season were mirrored in, say, a Stargate season, I’d be gushing about what a fantastic turn of events that was. I have sometimes wondered if I was too generous with Teen Wolf’s scores in the past, but compared to pretty much everything else I’ve reviewed? Nah, it’s deservedly up the top of the heap. It has set a lovely high standard for itself, and failing to outstrip that standard still leaves it above and beyond most every other standard around, so. It’s a very good problem to have. It’s the right kind of problem.

That happy ratio is owed in part to the challenge which informed the entire season: how to keep the show alive without Dylan O’Brien as a regular? This isn’t the first show I’ve reviewed that has juggled the loss or limited availability of a primary actor, but it is easily the one that has done so with the greatest success. The X Files strangled itself in its original run by pretending that Mulder was still the centre of its universe even in his absence, refusing to commit to plot advancement with its new characters and format. The Librarians has made explaining away Flynn’s latest departure into the tool that shapes each season’s arc, and it’s wearing very thin (and has at this point possibly contributed to the show’s cancellation). Stargate SG1 made more structurally sound decisions with the dilemma that initially worked, but they turned into awkward as Hell character moves later down the track (and I will be SALTY FOREVERRR!!!). Teen Wolf wisely did not introduce a new replacement character to misuse and be uncomfortable with and ditch as soon as possible, and while it does make Stiles’ absence a centrepiece and driving force of the season, it does so without allowing that to choke off personal narratives or other plot threads for the characters who remain. The characters all continue to function, and we see the empty space that Stiles has left in their lives and how that affects them, but there’s no implication that they or the show cannot function without him, and that’s a compliment to Stiles, not an insult. It’s not that he’s the glue that holds the whole thing together, but he is irreplaceable, in the cast and in the lives of his friends, and this season is a celebration of him at the same time as being a soft introduction to the way that the show can keep moving forward without him in the future. The question everyone would have been asking before this season was ‘can Teen Wolf still work successfully without its secondary character, fan-favourite, and arguably best actor?’, and obviously I think they answered that with a resounding but respectful ‘YES’.

The absence of Stiles also allows a decisively larger space for the rest of the characters to move in, since he was never a character to be shuttled off and underused of a season - to the extent that he has been the centrepiece of another past season already. I do wish that Lydia stepping up to fill that space was less anchored around her blossoming romance with Stiles, and not only because - as established in the individual episode posts - I feel like they tried too hard and overplayed the OTP card, and I didn’t really buy that the bond was as profound as they wanted us to believe. Regardless of where you stand on the relationship itself, the reality was that Lydia had an awful lot of screen time that was not about her, and obviously this blog is not here for female characters having their personal stories co-opted by dudes. Arguably, the same fate would have befallen any character who was used as the primary conduit for the Stiles side of the storyline, but I’d argue back that if it had been Scott, as the lead character on the show he would be able to balance that weight (plus his established long-term relationship with Stiles would make it easier since it’s already part of the backbone of the series, whereas the official blossoming of a relationship with Lydia and Stiles is a new development being added on top of all the pre-existing emotions at play). The Sheriff, likewise, could take the weight of Stiles’ absentee narrative without having his character drowned out by it, because Stiles is his son and he has always played a supporting role for Stiles, for that obvious reason. The loss of Stiles is successfully used as a lens through which to further explore the Sheriff as an individual here, and it’s one of the best parts of the story. Lydia, on the other hand, as her own character who does not exist within the narrative because of her relationship with anyone else, was swamped by the Stiles arc and allowed no real exploration of her own; the closest she got to her own stuff was the prospect of being the sole survivor of Beacon Hills, and that was a nonstarter. As such, while I mostly applaud the way Stiles’ absence was handled, I cannot ultimately condone what it did to Lydia, and I can’t help but wonder how that dominance of her arc could have been softened and improved by removing the forced romantic angle. I’m reminded of how they fumbled the introduction of Malia around getting her with Stiles, and the awkward attempt to set Stiles up with Cora Hale before that, and the messy Stiles/Erica dynamic before that. I think this show just didn’t know how to give Stiles a love interest in an organic story manner, and the unfortunate side effect each time has been the detriment of the female characters who are assigned to him, which makes Stiles’ love life one of the least lovely representational aspects of this entire series. Eek.

The good news is, my gripe with the way they handled Lydia is my only serious beef with an otherwise stellar season; it had other imperfections, certainly, and I wouldn’t call it their best, though it had moments when it looked that way. I coulda done without Theo, to be honest, and I’m not sure he added anything necessary to the season. Malia was kinda under-played, though I don’t mind too much because she was still a strong presence, her personal plot stuff was subtle and that’s not a bad thing. Hayden was more underplayed, and that’s less ok because she’s newer and not as clear a character as Malia, plus I feel like Theo in the last couple of episodes could have been traded out for Hayden and it wouldn’t mess up anything (valuable story time taken up by Theo scenes in general is something worth frowning about). They didn’t really explain why Douglas could control Parrish, which left our poor Dreamboat as a pawn for most of the season for no apparent reason beyond it being narratively convenient. Also they had some weirdly-spent time in the late-mid episodes of the season (starting from the same episode Theo returned...) that could have been better paced and structured to make the finale even stronger. I could sit here and complain and nitpick, but these are ultimately fairly minor quibbles (many of which can be narrowed down to one central culprit: Theo) that prevent this from being a series-best season in my eyes, though it’s still up there as a top contender and when the season was on point, it looked unstoppable. They still successfully turned in some excellent television despite the loss of one of the show’s best assets, and they still told a story about metaphysical existence that was coherent and consistent and never talked down to its audience, and that’s really something to be happy about. They still gave us a Nazi Alpha werewolf in a subplot that was as outrageous as it was restrained, plus they made good use of Corey, whose presence I was not sure would work out in the long run for the show. I will always be available to rail against unnecessary romances and unnecessary Theos, but that doesn’t change the fact that this show remains a delight and a blessing, not only in terms of the positive representation it offers this blog but also for the wild, bombastic, unashamed imagination it offers us all.

#Teen Wolf #Teen Wolf season six #Bechdel Test #female representation #full season review

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yasuda-yoshiya · 7 years ago

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EP2 reread notes, Part 1

It’s been a long time, but my Umineko reread has been slowly progressing! Here is a long-overdue update.

My readthrough of Episode 2 has actually been complete for months. This episode is both particularly important to me and covers a lot of particularly sensitive material, and as such I was hesitant to just post my rough notes in mostly unedited form as I did with the first episode; I really wanted to make sure I could properly express a lot of things about this episode in particular, and to that end I’ve been fleshing out my notes into a more substantial commentary this time.

As such, it seems appropriate to split this one into multiple posts. I’d like to hope I can get the others out fairly soon, now that a lot of the draft has been fleshed out! But for now, here’s the first part of this episode, focusing on Shannon’s half of the flashback arc.

Prologue

* The way George's narration in the intro is worded really does emphasise just how much he values his relationship with Shannon primarily as feeding into his own self-worth, making him feel like he can play the part of the "guy teasing the girl he likes" when that's always been something that he's only been able to look at enviously from the outside before. It practically comes across like he's using her to act out his own pre-existing personal script for his "dream romance" a lot of the time. It always bothers me that Ryukishi captures these disturbing nuances so well, but doesn't really seem interested in following through on critically exploring them with George the way he does with his other characters...

* Well, I suppose you could say that Yasu values George for basically the same reason, that he makes her feel like "someone who can know love" when she sees that as an unattainable dream for herself. It's sort of interesting to me in theory to think of the George/Shannon relationship through the (very cynical) lens that it basically amounts to two people both using the other as a piece to achieve happiness for themselves, but it's hard for me to really see that as an equal thing when the whole dynamic is so transparently skewed towards George happily getting to achieve his dreams and play out all his personal fantasies with no worries while Yasu is quietly making all kinds of agonising internal compromises with herself in the background.

* The metaphor that Shannon uses about the huge tank at the aquarium "being no different from an infinite sea to the fish swimming inside" always really gets to me. I think the whole concept of being able to define your own reality and the idea that "if I just believe I'm happy, then I am happy" is one that feels very personally familiar and important to me, so Yasu's particular idea of "magic" and the way Umineko is built around exploring that is a big part of what makes it resonate so much with me. I always have mixed feelings about what Shannon expresses here; I think there's a lot of genuine truth and power in the sentiment (a lot of the value of life really does come down to what you perceive it to be), but at the same time I sort of feel like if you've reached the point of consciously telling yourself "my world is complete to me as long as I don't know what I'm missing" as a coping strategy, then by necessity that means you've already kind of gone past the point of being able to wholeheartedly believe in that illusion. In a way, that's what Beatrice ultimately breaking Shannon down represents. But at the same time, I still sort of find myself wanting to say that consciously struggling to "build a self-contained world for yourself" in that way can still lead to a valid and genuine sense of fulfilment, even so - and in a broad sense I think being able to find peace and satisfaction in something that you know to be imperfect is a skill that everyone has to learn to an extent.

* This idea also pretty much sets the stage for one of the main themes of the episode as a whole. The fish tank metaphor represents Shannon's attitude to her relationship with George that amounts to "This love can obviously never really happen, but I can create an illusion of love that will be real to us", and trying to convince herself that that's fine; much of the conflict between Shannon, Kanon and Beatrice that follows in the rest of the episode is centred around Yasu fighting with herself over whether she really can feel content with that much or not. In contrast, George's immediate thought in response is basically "However big it might be, it still just looks like a tank to me", which...well, it's no surprise that Yasu is so afraid of what might happen if he finds out that his relationship with her isn't really his dream come true, but an attempt to create an indistinguishable illusion of that dream being possible. It's vital for him to remain ignorant of the fact that their "tank" isn't actually an infinite sea.

* God, George is awful. That's all I've got to say about the rest of this sequence. I'm tired of talking about George.

* The whole scene at the shrine is really powerfully written, and possibly the first part of the series where we really hear the unfiltered voice of "Yasu" speaking. The symbol of the shrine mirror as a metaphor for Shannon's unchanging fate and the obstacle to Beatrice's resurrection takes on all kinds of new dimensions given everything that mirrors mean to Yasu; the thing that Yasu needs to destroy in order to become "human" in her eyes is "her self", her own reflection in the mirror. The physical reality of her own body prevents her from being the person she wants to be - a sentiment that goes way back to Yasu's feeling as a child that the reality of her own pitiful face reflected in the mirror was a threat to her image of herself as the great witch Beatrice. The way Yasu translates these pre-established parts of her personal mythology into a new context to convey how she feels about her present situation always feels very authentic to me.

“Furniture”

* And now we flash back to the origins of Shannon's feelings for George. I do find it a little easier this time to understand why George noticing and unobtrusively helping to smooth things over for Shannon when she made mistakes was so touching to her; she's so used to being unnoticed and taken for granted as a servant that it would mean a lot when George showed consideration for her as a person. And I do appreciate that his "humble-bragging" moment afterwards is framed as totally transparent and that he's willing to laugh at himself when Jessica mocks him for it too; I can see why a little flaw like that could seem endearing and humanising to Shannon from her perspective at the time, in the sense that it makes him feel approachably human and not just "admirable".

* Well, like I think yumeta said on Goats, Shannon and George's dynamic actually seems okay when they're allowed to mutually acknowledge and laugh about each other's "childish points" together, but it's when George gets in the creepily patronising role of talking about "rules" and "orders" and gleefully enjoying one-sidedly making her uncomfortable that it gets really gross to me... Unfortunately, George is really specifically invested in feeling like he's "becoming an adult" and "overcoming his childish phase" through this relationship, so it feels like he ends up actively working to stay securely in control of their dynamic as much as he can to prove that he's "a real man" or whatever. Being honest about his immature aspects and letting Shannon poke at his "cute points" too much probably hits too close to his insecurities for him to be willing to keep it up for all that long - which is a shame because I think that's probably the kind of relationship Yasu feels most comfortable with, as you can see from BeaBato.

* The way the narrative transitions between these two scenes gives a lot of insight into how things like this must have influenced Yasu's current view of herself. The memory of Eva's whole "you're not worthy of George, know your place you servant" rant in the past becomes a reminder to Yasu in the present, something she uses to reinforce to herself that she was foolish to think she could be anything more than furniture; this scene really makes it easy to see how Yasu finding out the truth about her body would have just fed even deeper into reinforcing these kinds of messages about her "inferior, unworthy, subhuman" position that she'd already been receiving her whole life because of her social status. Those two parallel aspects of her seeing herself as "furniture" definitely feed into each other a lot, and the subsequent scene with Natsuhi abusing her just goes on to further hammer this home; the idea that Yasu is less than human is something that her environment has drilled into her for a very long time, even without taking into account the issue of her body.

* At the same time, though, I think it's important to note the implication that Yasu evidently refused to meekly accept Eva's words at the time and did keep pursuing her relationship with George regardless. It's clear that Yasu's lifelong mistreatment as a servant alone *wasn't* enough to totally crush Yasu's sense of self-worth; continuing to pursue a relationship with someone so "far above her station" shows that despite everything around her reinforcing her inferior position, Yasu was still able to believe strongly enough in her own right to happiness that she was able to actively reject that deeply ingrained impulse to resign herself to her current misery on the grounds that she should just be grateful for what she had. A big part of the tragedy here is that it feels like Yasu having her status as subhuman and unworthy of love physically "confirmed" to her when she solved the epitaph really pushed her straight back into those terrible thought patterns, just as she was starting to cast them off.

* But even after enduring all of that, Yasu still can't bring herself to totally give up and accept that she can do nothing but resign herself to a fate of being furniture - instead she ends up fighting with all she has to overcome that subhuman status in a different way, as portrayed through Shannon's use of "Beatrice's magic" here. Much as it might be easy at first glance to dismiss Yasu's concept of herself as furniture as passive and self-defeating, I think it's important to note that her narrative is specifically centred around her desperately fighting AGAINST that perception of herself and trying to overcome it in whatever way she can, even with everything around her constantly trying to push her back down into the resignation and stagnation that "Shannon" represents. I feel like it's really missing the point to frame Yasu's pessimism about herself as primarily a problem of her own innate personality, rather than a problem of her initially strong hopes for herself being slowly crushed and eroded as an inevitable consequence of her brutal circumstances and the awful environment she's had to adapt to.

* The particular way that Beatrice tempts Shannon into breaking the shrine mirror - in other words, into going through with testing the explosives - is very illuminating in terms of what pushed Yasu over the edge. If love is the all-important "single element" and the only thing that can make a person's life worthwhile, then continuing to live in her "body incapable of love" would be dooming Yasu to a hollow and meaningless life, as far as she's concerned. On the other hand, if Shannon continues to "deceive" George by hiding the truth about her body, using "magic" to make that illusion real, then she can live as if she was a real human for a time - but the further she goes with that, the further she goes past the point of no return and commits herself to having to create the catbox in the end to preserve that love, because it can't last indefinitely. But as Beatrice puts forth, isn't that still better than living a hollow life forever?

* And of course the wonderful Kanon-kun comes to the rescue, driving Beatrice off and telling her to stop trying to lead Shannon astray. But Beatrice isn't concerned, because she knows her words have left their mark - as evidenced by the butterfly marks on Shannon and Kanon's hands. Even the framing of the narrative itself is designed to reinforce that sense of inevitability; at this point we've already witnessed the scene where Shannon breaks the mirror, so we "know" - as Yasu "knows" - that Shannon isn't going to be able to resist in the long run. Yasu just isn't able to resign herself to being unhappy forever; she'll take her chance at happiness even knowing it's likely to lead to ruin.

* And honestly, even though Yasu frames that as Shannon giving into an evil temptation, is it really so evil to want some level of happiness? What Shannon wants is only what any "normal" person would automatically be entitled to. I think Yasu's "Beatrice" in this episode generally becomes a lot more sympathetic when you understand that her anger at Shannon basically comes down to her refusing to accept her assertion that her miserable situation is fine as it is, and that she doesn't need or deserve anything more - because, frankly, Shannon *is* wrong about that. That genuinely is a messed up attitude. But of course, the other side of that is that, in the course of arguing that Shannon isn't fine as she is, she's also putting forth that her current state is truly miserable and pathetic and unfixable without resorting to drastic measures - and there's obviously a ton of unealthy self-loathing in that too, in a different way.

Wonderful Utopia

* Aaand then we flash forward into the future to show that George and Shannon's relationship is going smoothly, and Jessica and Shannon are talking together happily about it. This is a little dark when you consider the implication in light of the preceding scene (because Shannon gave in and accepted Beatrice's "magic", everything is going fine).

* This is really yet another thing that shows a huge amount of courage from Yasu when you think about it; Yasu was totally aware that going on an overnight trip with George could easily lead to her body being exposed, but she still went along with it. She was willing to risk "breaking the magic", even though that should have been unthinkable if she totally believed Beatrice was right about her relationship with George. Like Ryukishi said in the Answer interview, it must have been a very complicated feeling for Yasu when she found out that George booked separate rooms for them after all; of course she'd be glad not to be exposed in the short term, but in a way, it might have been a relief for her to have been "forced" into confessing the truth and taking the reaction as it came, to have the choice taken away from her. This is pretty much the same mindset on which Yasu ends up building the whole mystery roulette - deep down, she wants someone to stop her and "make her confess", so she gives the survivors all kinds of openings to "expose her", but she still needs someone to corner her into revealing everything. The fear of the consequences makes it impossible for her to step up and do it of her own accord. Even so, taking that kind of gamble with George here at all must have taken a lot of bravery...

* In contrast with Beatrice's mockery and derision of Shannon in the previous scene, now that Shannon has "accepted her" Beatrice is very friendly to her. The whole arc here, with Beatrice acting at first like she's truly happy for Shannon and George and has their best interests at heart and Shannon coming to see her as a friend, but then eventually revealing her true nature as an evil sadistic witch who was deliberately tormenting Shannon by making her know a happiness that she couldn't ever really be allowed to have...it totally works as its own story on the surface level, so nothing seems "off" about it on first read, but it really does hurt so much when you understand that it's Yasu reflecting back on her decision to keep pursuing love despite knowing she's "furniture", and how she tried to pretend to herself that that was a pure and noble thing when it really ended up being just a cruel way to increase her pain and deceive both George and herself with the false promise of a relationship that could never be fulfilled.

* The way Beatrice is so persistent, even while still maintaining her friendly facade, in reminding Shannon not to "get too full of herself" and forget that her love is only possible because of Beatrice's magic - in other words, not to delude herself into thinking that George and Shannon's love might actually go deep enough to survive the revelation about her body - is extremely upsetting. I don't actually think she's wrong about this (that George is really in love with an "illusion" of Shannon rather than Yasu herself), though to me that's more a testament to George being a jerk than to Yasu being fundamentally unlovable - but I think the genuine truth in what she's saying makes it a lot harder for Yasu to shrug it off.

* This part makes it clear that Shannon's attitude has changed quite a bit since we saw her hopelessly lamenting earlier. She concedes to Beatrice that her relationship with George could only have started because of her magic - but she wants to believe that, now that their relationship has progressed this far, she doesn't need that magic any more. She wants to believe that their love has become strong enough that it can survive George finding out the truth. And that “should” be the case, right? If everything George says about the strength of their love is true, it should be able to overcome that kind of barrier easily. That's why Shannon was willing to take that risk of going on an overnight trip with George. Beatrice sort of indulgently agrees for now, but she also insists that Shannon keeps the brooch around just in case she does want to use it again; as much as Yasu would like to totally believe that George would accept her, she can't abandon the catbox as a fall-back option.

* It really hurts to read this because Yasu obviously really, really wanted to believe in what Shannon is saying - it's really easy, and heartbreaking, for me to imagine Yasu originally choosing to keep going with George knowing that she was only constructing an "illusion" and that the magic would have to end some day, but then as things went on, to start to let herself believe that, you know what, maybe love could conquer everything! Maybe there's hope for her to live as a human after all! But it also makes perfect sense to me that Shannon ultimately "loses" to Beatrice on this, because the reality of the signals George was giving her (laughing off and dismissing any tentative attempts Shannon made to bring up her issues or to question his perception of their relationship and the picture he was painting of their future) make it very, very hard to believe he would really react well to hearing the truth.

*Another aspect of this is that...well, from Yasu’s perspective, the longer she goes without revealing the truth to George, the more chance there is for George to become strongly invested in her as a person and to develop the kinds of resilient feelings that could theoretically withstand the revelation about her body - but also, the more devastating the potential fallout becomes when George finds out about her “keeping this secret for so long” and “letting things proceed this far without telling him”. I’m hesitant to talk too firmly about this, but I think that kind of uncomfortable balancing act in terms of considering "when to tell your partner” is probably something a lot of people in similar situations to Yasu can relate to, and it’s remarkable to me that Ryukishi is able to capture the stress of that kind of situation so well.

* The way Shannon reflects on Beatrice's underlying loneliness and how she becomes a lot more approachable when you get to know her is really sweet and endearing! The way Yasu writes Beatrice's character here in her "friendship" with Shannon is very consistent with the image of Beatrice we get from Maria's (and even Natsuhi's) scenes with her later - of someone who seems like an intimidating, all-powerful witch on the surface, but actually has a lot of endearingly cute and childish traits once you get to know her, getting all excited over the sweets Shannon brings her from Okinawa. It really comes across here, just as it does with Maria, that she's really desperate for company and genuinely overjoyed to have someone to talk to since she's been trapped on the island for so long - she may be "all-powerful" in magical terms, but the loneliness of living in an environment where no one else can recognise or acknowledge that power, and the unexpected joy of having someone who can actually see it and be grateful for her use of it, is also evident.

* I really like how those things that Beatrice's character expresses about Yasu still translate so strongly when she's being written into a completely fictional, metaphorical scenario - the person who Beatrice is enjoying being able to help with her magic and receiving gratitude from here is...well, uh, herself, in pure physical terms, but the reaction that Beatrice would theoretically have to Shannon as a separate person in this fictional narrative also expresses important things about her character. Aah, I just really love the unique way Yasu is characterised through these constructs, it's so clever and multilayered and I could gush about it endlessly, ahaha.

* And once again, Kanon comes along to break up this chat and scold Shannon for listening to the witch. God, Kanon and Beatrice's mutual antagonism in this episode is really intense. I'll talk about it a lot more when we get to the more Kanon-centric parts of this episode, but they really do hate each other a lot, and the things that mutual hatred expresses about Yasu's self-loathing always hit me particularly hard.

* It's amazing how easy it is in hindsight to read this scene as Yasu wrestling with herself; it all flows very naturally once you understand what they're really talking about. Yasu really wants to believe she can overcome her being "furniture" by achieving love, but Kanon represents the part of her that remains cynical about that possibility; he believes that she's letting Beatrice delude her into mistaking the illusion of love she's created for something real. He's kind of right, too; though I absolutely don’t believe it’s impossible for a strong love to withstand something like Yasu’s secret in principle, Kanon is right that George and Shannon's relationship isn't really the perfect fairytale love that Shannon would like it to be, and Shannon really has put herself in a very dangerous and precarious position by letting her relationship with George proceed this far. At this point, though, Shannon seems stronger than Kanon; she's optimistic enough about George right now that she wants to believe she doesn't need Beatrice's magic any more.

* It's sort of important to note that Kanon and Beatrice are pretty much aligned on their view of Yasu's situation - yeah, it sucks and it's hopeless, she's totally furniture, George won't accept her at all - but their opinions on how Yasu should respond to that are very different. Again, though, that's probably best saved for when we get more into their interaction...

* Regardless, for now, while Shannon is in this positive frame of mind, she decides to give Kanon a chance at Beatrice's "magic" too, lending him the brooch. And note the implication here - if Yasu is really so happy and optimistic about Shannon's relationship with George, as this scene tries to push so hard, then why does Kanon still need to be given a chance? This sort of implies to me that Yasu's not as confident in George's acceptance as she might want to admit; it's kind of ugly to say that Yasu might have been partly thinking of Jessica as a "backup plan", as Confession puts it, but there is an element of that in here. But I'd also argue that Yasu wants Kanon to try to pursue love because the idea of gaining happiness as Kanon specifically is so important to her that she needs to check out that possibility too.

* Kanon grudgingly decides that "maybe he might learn something if he tries this magic" - in other words, despite his skepticism, maybe if Yasu did seriously try living as Kanon, it could make him happy in a way he didn't foresee. This gains even more weight in light of Confession - we know that hearing Jessica express interest in Kanon gave Yasu a totally unexpected rush of euphoria. This new gambit, to give Kanon a chance of "magic", is informed by that - Yasu has to try to pursue and explore that new sense of happiness she experienced back then, even with Shannon already being in such a committed relationship with George.

* In a way, it's sort of interesting that Yasu's decision to pursue love with Kanon comes at a point when Yasu is feeling more optimistic about herself - at the point where she's able to try to tell herself that "love can overcome being furniture", and where she's willing to take risks like the overnight trip with George on that basis, even though Kanon and Beato's words of warning obviously represent her lingering doubts about that. Kanon normally shows so much pessimism about himself that trying to achieve love himself would be unthinkable - if Yasu's unable to even fully believe in Shannon being able to achieve love, when Shannon is so intentionally designed to be lovable and to compromise Yasu's internal self to that end, then how could Kanon possibly have a chance? But when Shannon momentarily experiences hope through her own relationship and becomes more optimistic about herself for a while, that sort of serves as a stepping stone to letting herself believe that maybe Kanon’s chances might not be so remote either. I guess you could say that's something good that came out of the George/Shannon relationship, although when all was said and done Yasu probably regretted making things even more complicated for herself by opening up this avenue too...

* And that’s as good a stopping point as any. Next time, I get to talk more about Kanon-kun, which is always very exciting!

#umineko #umineko reread

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anamnesis-archive · 5 years ago

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Danish Design

Since the mid twentieth century, Scandinavian designers have established themselves internationally at the forefront of modern furniture design. Alvar Aalto, Greta Grossman, Arne Jacobsen, and Verner Panton, to name a few, were amongst the pioneers of the Nordic approach to household furnishings. Eyþórsdóttir (2011)explains the Nordic design aesthetic and allure as :

being fairly minimalist, with clean simple lines. Highly functional, the style is effective without needing heavy elements; only what is needed is used. Survival in the north required products to be functional and this was the basis of all design from early on ... beautiful, simple, clean designs, inspired by nature and the northern climate, accessible and available to all, with an emphasis on en joying the domestic environment.

The Centre Pompidou in Paris had a display of some of Aalto’s pieces (see bottom and right images). There is beauty in their simplicity, earth tones and organic shapes. His designs do not have any superfluous ornamentation. That therefore allows for a deeper appreciation of his choice material of birch and beech woods, that enhance the organic nature of the furniture and are an ode to his native Finland.

The Scandinavian appeal is ever-present in 2020 with the likes of IKEA -- mass produced goods at affordable prices from the Swedish manufacturer. IKEA’s business motto is:

to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at price so low, that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.” That means we need to create products that have a beautiful design, good function, are sustainable, of good quality and are available at a low price. We call it “Democratic Design”, because we believe home furnishing is for everyone.

That being said, what is sustainable design? I personally find that the term ‘sustainable’ is a buzzword nowadays and is thrown about quasi-liberally in the attempt to greenwash/lure in ‘conscious’ customers. I remain skeptical when large corporations (i.e. IKEA) use the term. There is no way that at the massive rates of consumption, that the practices in place are sustainable in the long run (CO2 emissions from shipping, the use of materials for products, etc). I went to the September climate summit protest in Windsor and the overarching message was that capitalism is the main cause of global warming. Money makes the world go round but at what cost to the planet? I have looked at the ‘IKEA Sustainability Report FY18′ and they are making corporate changes in the hopes to minimize their ecological footprint and maximize green practices (they plan on no longer using virgin fossil fuels and seek to use solely recycled wood for their products [not too sure how to cite this PDF report, but starting on page 21, IKEA’s hopes/plans/stats on tackling climate initiatives begins https://preview.thenewsmarket.com/Previews/IKEA/DocumentAssets/535135.pdf ]). I digress. What is sustainable design? Sustainable design aims to satisfy the needs of people today, without compromising future generations’ ability to live. It should also answer to these five questions : “Does it have a long life? Does it save energy? Does it add durability? Does it contribute to the waste stream? Is it renewable and recyclable?” (”Sustainable Design”).

During my winter break, I went to Copenhagen. I had watched some documentaries before going and knew a bit about the environmentally and socially conscious approach to design that the Danes embraced. I attended an exhibit at the Dansk Arkitektur Center, located in the BLOX Building (a structure created by Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture). Titled Re-think, Re-use, Re-duce, the exhibit explored how Danish designers today are approaching furniture design through sustainable practices, without sacrificing the Scandinavian aestheticism or functionalism. The 35 furniture proposals displayed sought to respond to three overarching questions : “How should we build and live 20 years from now? How should we reuse materials and minimize our waste? How should we design our homes as space grows scarce and the earth’s population increases?” (“Re-think, Re-use, Re-duce”, 2020). The designs present demonstrated multifunctionality through the use of innovative and unconventional materials, and could respond to the aforementioned five questions of sustainable design.

“Does it have a long life? Does it save energy? Does it add durability? Does it contribute to the waste stream? Is it renewable and recyclable?” (”Sustainable Design”)

“Growing Furniture” by Vermland

This table is made of mycelium and repurposed sawdust waste. Taking the sawdust accumulated from previous wood projects, it is bound together with nature’s ‘glue’, the roots of mushrooms. Mycelium is a strong binding agent that :

is 100% biodegradable as well as [having] exceptional material properties. ... it is fireproof, non toxic, partly mold and water resistant and stronger pound for pound than concrete[2]. Moreover when dried, it can become very light, depending on the used substrate and its density. The rapid growing, tight mycelium tissue can expand under a wide range of environmental conditions and therefore allows a fast, easy, low-cost and energy material production. (“Building With Mushrooms,2018)

The table is completely natural and fully biodegradable. A leading mycologist, Paul Stamets (did not create this table), is a strong advocate for harnessing the plethora of fungi properties for the benefits of human life. There is an absolute abundance of mycelium in the world; they form massive networks underground, spanning thousands of kilometers (a.k.a. we should use them more). It is a primordial material that will take us into the future.

“Does it have a long life? Does it save energy? Does it add durability? Does it contribute to the waste stream? Is it renewable and recyclable?” (”Sustainable Design”)

“Overgrown” by Isabel Ahm + Signe Ø . Lund

This chair’s frame is made of leftover wood waste from the furniture industry. The materiality of the cushioning consists of eelgrass, wool and Revive 2, a Danish invention using recycled polyester fabric from postconsumer waste that aims at reducing the environmental impact of textiles. By using discarded wood and and recylcled products, they are repurposing and prolonging the life of the materials. The use of naturally occuring ones, the eelgrass and wool, contribute to the biodegradability aspect of the structure. The name of the chair has to do with the organic growths that protrude and that take over the frame of the chair. Could the title also allude to our future and how we should let the natural world do its own thing and return to its unruly, unmanipulated and and organic state? Or overgrown as in the human’s space growing scarce -- we are overgrowing what is available to us?

Does it have a long life? Does it save energy? Does it add durability? Does it contribute to the waste stream? Is it renewable and recyclable?” (”Sustainable Design”)

“Wardrobe” by Rasmus Bækkel Fex

This oak and linen wardrobe embraces minimalism and it is through this simplicity that the concept of ‘re-ducing’ is at work. The skeletal framework of the wardrobe has been present in Danish furniture design for years. It was used during peasant times as it was easy to assemble and carry; perfect for the nomadic lifestyle (could be reused in multiple settings throughout the course of the life of the user). Nowadays, mass mobilization is everpresent and this item of furniture is also practical for this lifestyle.The minimalism of the materiality also contributes to the ease through which one can recycle this piece. The amount of space in this closet is not excessive which forces the owner to have a refined capsule wardrobe (there is no room for mounds and mounds of clothing which promotes conscientious consumerism).

In another room at the Dansk Arkitektur Center, there was a retrospective on the role and progress of Danish architecture throughout the years. A video played and it explained the part that architecture plays in society: that it is created for the common good of the whole and seeks to foster environments that facilitate children’s education as they are the future. This art form seeks to improve the quality of life and is one of Denmark’s primary exports. One of Denmark’s current leading architects is Bjarke Ingels. His philosophy is deemed as “Hedonistic Sustainability,” [where] many of his projects seek to question how sustainability can be playfully and responsibly integrated into buildings to actually increase standards of living” (Rawn, 2019). One of his latest project include CopenHill, a waste-to-energy power plant which includes a ski slope rooftop open to the public. It embodies “the notion of hedonistic sustainability while aligning with Copenhagen’s goal of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral city by 2025” and it is “economically, environmentally and socially profitable”(“BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group”, 2019). I’ve included a LEGO rendering of the building found at the Danish Architecture Centre... pretty impressive.

Works Cited

“BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group”. Big.Dk, 2019, https://big.dk/#projects-arc.

“Building With Mushrooms”. Critical Concrete, 2018, https://criticalconcrete.com/building-with-mushrooms/.

Eyþórsdóttir, Katrín. “The Story Of Scandinavian Design: Combining Function and Aesthetics.” Smashing Magazine, 13 June 2011, www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/06/the-story-of-scandinavian-design-combining-function-and-aesthetics/.

“IKEA Vision and Business Idea.” IKEA, www.ikea.com/gb/en/this-is-ikea/about-us/vision-and-business-idea-pub9cd02291.

Rawn, Evan. “Spotlight: Bjarke Ingels”. Archdaily, 2019, https://www.archdaily.com/553064/spotlight-bjarke-ingels.

Re-think, Re-use, Re-duce. Nov. 8th 2019 - May 3rd 2020, Dansk Arkitektur Center, Copenhagen.

“Sustainable Design.” Green Building Solutions, www.greenbuildingsolutions.org/sustainable-design/.

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robhainesauthor · 8 years ago

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The World Ends With Youth

This is a reprint from Unwinnable Weekly #66 (22 October 2015), available to buy here.

You wake to the same music you heard yesterday, the same music you'll hear tomorrow. The bustle of the busy street is too loud. Who are those people rushing to work, to school, back-and-forth like shadows? You don't know, don't care. They're not important. Head down, 'phones on, don't make eye contact. You'll get by just fine without them.

What's the point of other people, anyway?

---

The World Ends With You’s protagonist Neku initially seems cut from the same antisocial amnesiac cloth as Final Fantasy's Cloud and Squall. Yet where those archetypal teenagers often felt teenage by design only - young men emotionally stunted for the purposes of plot and marketing - Neku is utterly defined by his adolescence. The epitome of teenage isolation, he's tried to understand other people, but his total lack of adult empathy makes them intrinsically unknowable, an unsolvable enigma. Faced with this failure, he cuts himself off from the rest of humanity with his iconic headphones; everyone else is just noise, unnecessary complication.

When Neku wakes up lost in the crush of Shibuya's iconic Scramble Crossing - his memories taken as entry fee for the Reapers' Game, an otherworldly contest for the recently-deceased to fight for a second chance at life - he's forced to reassess these preconceptions. Under attack by physical manifestations of the hated Noise, it isn't until he teams up with another Player, budding fashion designer Shiki, that he's able to fight back. If he can't learn to cooperate with his new ally, to make friends and forge alliances with the other teenagers trapped in the Reapers' Game, he faces erasure. Only by surviving seven days of increasingly challenging trials can Neku win his promised resurrection, and to do that he's going to have to trust his partner, leave behind self-centred introversion and take his first steps towards emotional maturity.

While adolescent protagonists are an overused default in JRPGs, adolescence is rarely anything but lazy shorthand. The stereotypical teenager is driven by a desire to shrug off parental influence, leaves home to forge a place in society, and in the process needs the workings of the adult world explained to them by those they meet along the way. Plot elements can be easily concealed by a teenager's lack of self-awareness and reticence to share secrets or show weakness, and any meagre character arc feels dramatic when it begins with a blank slate. Rarely does a narrative attempt to explore the realities of passing through adolescence, the confusion and conflicting expectations of growing up and being expected to navigate the complex rules and systems of adult life with little explanation.

By comparison, Neku's journey is a teen odyssey. Shibuya is presented as an adolescent playground, its disorienting web of streets and alleyways lined with all manner of music and clothes stores, ramen restaurants and fast food joints, concert venues and a hipster cafe run by an enigmatic graffiti artist who may or may not be ultimately responsible for the existence of the Game. Bands gather to argue in the street, while hyper-popular fashionista bloggers descend upon their chosen delicatessen du jour, driving their fans into a fury of consumerism. Collectible pin-badges are released by noted local designers, change hands for extortionate prices, then are smashed into each other in a playground game somewhere between marbles and conkers. Friends shop together, break up, make up, break up, make up, promise never to argue again. The latest tunes blare from mobile phone speakers while faceless businessmen scurry past like shadows on their way to whatever soul-crushing tedium consumes their days. If it wasn't for the threat of casual annihilation by passing Reapers - and the demonic-red countdown timer seared into the back of his hand - perhaps Neku could've eventually found some semblance of maturity wandering these streets within the protective aegis of his headphones.

Plunged into the Reapers' Game, however, Neku is forced to rise to a challenge he doesn't understand, bound by arbitrary rules and restrictions, utterly reliant on other people with their own conflicting agendas. His natural inclination to withdraw is denied by the necessity of cooperation - it's made clear from the outset that a Player with no partner is defenseless against the Noise - and it's only through Shiki's quick thinking when she first encounters Neku that his aversion to teamwork doesn't immediately get them both erased. Depriving him of his childish escape from the real world is a vital step towards emotional adulthood, of learning to trust people's intentions rather than dismissing them as unknowable.

Easing his passage into this enlightened state is a distinctive skull graffito pinbadge that all Players receive upon entering the Game, granting them telepathic powers over the living world. As Neku hurries through the streets of Shibuya on his Reaper-assigned tasks, he can peer through the veil and listen in on the thoughts and aspirations of the bustling masses he's tried so hard to ignore. Sometimes the missions require him to interfere with the real world, incepting concepts to nudge someone onto a different path, but more often than not Neku is merely a voyeur, the pin giving him the opportunity to look past someone's public façade and see the person beneath. It's another pillar of revelation on which his maturity is built, a symbolic awakening of empathy for other human beings.

But the Player pin's powers are limited to the living. Other Players are immune to its effects, so Neku must somehow trust them without the crutch of knowing their innermost thoughts. If he can accept Shiki for who she is, accept help from Beat and Rhyme and the other Players not yet eliminated, perhaps they can all reach the end of the Game unscathed.

---

Just as in the real world, nothing in The World Ends With You is quite that simple. The black-winged Reapers controlling the Game are far from neutral arbiters; in the manner of Greek gods, they pick favourites, set impossible tasks and incite moral dilemmas, toying with their prey before snuffing them out with all the empathy of a magnifying glass-wielding toddler. Beyond the petty machinations of low-ranking Reapers, the Game itself reflects the power struggles at the top of Reaper hierarchy, and Neku soon discovers he's little more than a pawn in a much larger game with the fate of all humankind at stake.

Despite the illusion of structure and clearly defined conditions for victory, the adults in charge of the Game have absolute power over the ever-shifting rules. The Reaper grunts in red hoodies loitering on Shibuya's street corners block Neku's path on a whim, demanding petty appeasement akin to schoolyard hazing before they'll deign to let you pass, while their immediate superiors vie amongst themselves to erase Players to both boost their own lifespan and advance their careers. Invisible, impassable walls spring up to herd Players like running bulls through their designated missions, truly little more than busy-work: an arbitrary gauntlet to weed out the weak and uncooperative. Without understanding the true motives of the triumvirate of Reapers vying for power over the Game, Neku has no chance of winning his freedom; a truth only fully brought home when his triumph on the seventh day is annulled, propelling him into a second week of the Game - and then a third - without Shiki at his side.

The recurring seven-day structure is key; it implies not only that there are set rules to the Game, but that it's possible to become good enough to win within the boundaries of those rules. It's the same uncomfortable fallacy society promises all teenagers as they approach adulthood: join the System, play the Game by the Rules, and if you work hard and don't make a fuss you too can Win. The seven-day structure aligns our expectations to Neku's, and we share his confusion and betrayal each time his well-earned victory is snatched away on a technicality. He's once more plunged into the crucible to be tempered by other partners, the infuriating and secretive Joshua, and Beat, a Player-turned-Reaper.

---

Despite widespread acclaim, The World Ends With You was criticised on release for being unnecessarily obtuse, its systems interlocking in often counter-intuitive fashion. The combat is strikingly unorthodox, your party fighting simultaneous fast paced real-time battles on the Nintendo DS's two screens, torn apart but forced to work in sync. Neku and his partner share a health bar, as do their opponents - who exist in both fights simultaneously - yet the two screens play nothing alike. Neku's is an isometric touch-oriented brawl of sweeping stylus strokes, frantic tapping and split-second evasion as the suite of pinbadges which power your abilities recharge. Meanwhile, your partner combos through strings of D-pad mapped attacks, each chain matching cards to fuel screen-wiping superpowers. It's initially baffling, and beyond a static tutorial screen little effort is made to help you understand the intricacies of the combat.

It helps that you're given responsibility for the degree of challenge you wish to face, neatly sidestepping concerns of whether you'll grok the game's systems. If you're unable to cope with the rub-your-stomach-pat-your-head synchronicity of the combat, you can delegate your partner's actions to a mildly inefficient AI, while a generous difficulty slider is freely available to be tweaked at whim. Characters and pinbadges level up in typical RPG fashion - even when you're not playing the game - making grinding an option if you get stuck, but this is neatly balanced by a strong risk-reward incentive: by choosing to temporarily sacrifice character levels you boost the drop rate of ultra-rare pinbadges only available on harder difficulties, which can be further enhanced by stacking multiple fights together into a single overwhelming encounter.

Viewed as part of this confusion, the combat is thematically apt. It's a wake-up call, a declaration to the player that things aren't going to be comfortable and familiar, and just like Neku, you're going to have to try to keep up. Just like the transition to adulthood, the key is gaining enough competence to survive, and after that you can choose to either strive for mastery or settle for doing the absolute minimum.

Critically, The World Ends With You's opening hour is very clearly intended to be baffling, to unsettle the player and characters in equal measure. Neku is torn from his oblivious teenage existence and wakes up already fighting for his life, while the arbitrary nature of the Game's objectives, the opaque motivations of the Reapers and Neku's own struggles to remember who he is and how he died all contribute to the sense of being carried along by unfathomable tides, desperate to stay afloat. Outside the cocoon of childhood it's impossible to know everything; adults often have to figure things out as they go, and for the first time Neku is forced to engage with the adult world - abstracted into Reapers and Games – and discovers it to be more complex than he could possibly imagine. Like the rest of us, he can only push forward and hope he learns enough about how things work before his ignorance of everything else destroys him.

For the player, the chaos of battle accentuates this desperate sense of displacement: two screens full of tribal-tattooed kangaroos and missile-launching porcupines, demonic rhinos and concrete-dwelling landsharks, two different sets of evasions and attacks competing for your fine motor control as you dash between foes and unleash devastation with a fury of taps and flicks. Alternating combos between your characters boosts your damage further, synchronising their disparate actions into a single stream of discordant aggression. In mastering this unconventional combat, you're bringing Neku and his partners to a new understanding: teamwork isn't easy, but if you trust in your friends, learn their rhythms and support their weaknesses, you'll achieve things you never would have been capable of on your own.

Empathy isn't just an unintended side-effect of the Reapers' Game, but a prerequisite for the emotional maturity Neku must attain before he - and his newfound friends - can bring the Game to its necessary conclusion. The Game acts as both a literal and symbolic purgatory through which he must pass to enter adulthood, but as the Game begins to unravel around him he discovers its true purpose: to judge whether humankind deserves its continued existence. If the kid who wanted nothing to do with other people is now unable to prove their inherent worth to the godlike figures passing judgement upon them, there may be no adulthood for him to return to.

He can't save the world alone, but when the credits roll, it's not Shibuya that's changed. It's Neku, a child no longer, his eyes finally open to the world he's abjured for so long.

---

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#unwinnable #twewy #the world ends with you #videogames #critique #essay

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watchilove · 5 years ago

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Six years after the launch of the Starfleet Machine, the first clock co-created by MB&F and L’Epée 1839, a new expedition is underway. The space station returns in 2020, in a more compact size and enhanced with bright colours, accompanied by a fleet of three small spacecraft exploring the universe; it rightfully bears the name of Starfleet Explorer.

Designed by MB&F, the Starfleet Explorer is an intergalactic spaceship-cum-table clock crafted by L’Epée 1839, the last remaining Swiss manufacture specialised in high-end table clocks. Not only does it display the hours and minutes, it also features an animation in which three spacecraft perform a five-minute orbit of the station. The highly visible, superlatively finished in-house movement boasts an exceptional eight-day power reserve. The mechanism can be manually wound using a double-ended key serving to wind the movement as well as to set the time.

MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer Red

Hours and minutes are indicated by means of two discs, along with an aperture and a brightly-coloured hand. More specifically, the minutes on a revolving radar dish are read off when they appear through the centre of a fixed metal aperture, satin-brushed by hand and anodised, that follows the dome’s curved contours.

The hours disc placed just below remains motionless. An hour hand – likewise satin-brushed and anodised – indicates the hour by spinning in its place and performing a complete turn around the disc in 12 hours.

MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer Blue

Starfleet Explorer also features a significantly original new element in the form of three tiny spacecraft, lined up along the same axis at regular intervals and placed inside the actual Starfleet movement, the heart of the mechanism, around which they revolve at a rate of one full turn every five minutes: a space exploration guided by the mothership.

MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer Green

The Starfleet Explorer’s movement is placed horizontally, but its escapement is vertically positioned. The impeccably finished stainless stain or palladium-treated brass components (with the exception of the 11 jewels) are designed and manufactured in the L’Epee 1839 Swiss atelier. The gears and mainspring barrel are on full display thanks to the skeletonised mainplate and concentric C-shaped external structure. The Starfleet Explorer can rest on both ends of its vertical landing gear; a useful feature when turning it over to wind the mainspring and set the time. It can also be leant sideways so as to offer a different view of the intergalactic horological station.

Starfleet Explorer is launched as three limited editions of 99 pieces each in blue, green and red.

Table clocks – (extremely) large watches

The Starfleet Explorer is a table clock, featuring essentially the same mechanisms as a wristwatch, only larger: gear train, mainspring barrel, balance wheel, escape wheel and pallet-lever. L’Epée 1839’s regulator also features an Incabloc shock protection system, something generally only seen in wristwatches, which minimises the risk of damage when the clock is being transported.

One might be tempted to think that the more substantial size of the components simplifies work. Larger components, however, make finely finishing the movement much more difficult to handle than finishing a wristwatch, because of the bigger surface areas.

Arnaud Nicolas, CEO L’Epée 1839 explains: “It’s not just a case of double the size of the components, it’s double the time it takes to finish them. The complexity increases exponentially. For polishing you need to apply the same pressure as you would finishing a watch movement, but on a bigger surface, and that’s more challenging. It’s thanks to the experience and dexterity of our clockmakers that the Starfleet Explorer can feature such superlative fine-finishing.”

Form follows function

The details of the polished movement can be fully appreciated by the naked eye, thanks in large part to the Starfleet Explorer’s extremely open concentric C-shaped external structure, to which the mainplate is attached.

The outermost C-shape features three vertical arcs on which the clock rests. These graceful supports play a role in the design of the model, but also have a very practical application: to enable the Starfleet Explorer to be placed upside down for time-setting and rewinding using a special key.

MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer Technical Specifications

Starfleet Explorer is launched as three limited editions of 99 pieces each in blue, green and red.

Display

Minutes: indicated by a fixed curved aperture on the mobile upper dome, performing a complete rotation every 60 minutes.

Hours: indicated by a mobile hand, performing a complete rotation every 12 hours on a fixed disc.

The minutes aperture and the hour hand are satin-brushed and anodised, in blue, green or red.

The hour dome and the minutes disc are satin-brushed and feature MB&F’s signature numerals.

Main structure

Height: approx. 11cm

Diameter: approx. 16.5cm

Number of parts: 19

Materials: stainless steel for the main structure, hand-lacquered polymer for the three spacecraft

Movement

L’Epée 1839 in-house designed and manufactured movement

Balance frequency: 18,000 vph / 2.5Hz

One barrel, power reserve: eight days

Number of parts: 95

Jewels: 11

Incabloc shock protection system

Manual-winding: double-ended key to set time and wind the movement

Mechanism and mainplate in palladium-treated brass

L’EPEE 1839 – the premier clock manufacture in Switzerland

Dedicated to making high-end clocks, L’Epée has been a prominent Swiss Manufacture for over 180 years. Founded in 1839 by Auguste L’Epée in France’s Besançon region, the company originally focused on producing music boxes and watch components. The brand was synonymous at the time with entirely hand-made pieces.

From 1850 onwards, the Manufacture became a leading light in the production of ‘platform’ escapements, creating regulators especially for alarm and table clocks, as well as musical watches. It became a well-known specialist owning a large number of patents on exceptional escapements and the chief supplier of escapements to several celebrated watchmakers of the day. L’Epée has won a number of gold medal awards at international exhibitions.

During the 20th century, L’Epée owed much of its reputation to its superlative carriage clocks; for many, the clock of the influential and powerful, in addition to being the gift of choice of French government officials to elite guests. In 1976 when the Concorde supersonic aircraft entered commercial service, L’Epée wall clocks were chosen to furnish the cabins, providing passengers with visual feedback of the time. In 1994, L’Epée showed its thirst for a challenge when it built the world’s biggest clock with a compensated pendulum, the Giant Regulator, the making of which is celebrated in the Guinness Book of Records.

L’Epée 1839 is now based in Delémont in the Swiss Jura Mountains. Under the impetus of its CEO Arnaud Nicolas, it has developed an exceptional table clock collection, encompassing a full range of sophisticated clocks.

Starfleet Machine

The collection is based around three themes:

Creative Art – first and foremost artistic models often developed in partnership with external designers as joint creations. These clocks surprise, inspire and sometimes even shock the most seasoned collectors. They are intended for those consciously or unconsciously looking for exceptional, one of a kind objects.

Contemporary Timepieces – technical creations with a contemporary design (Le Duel, Duet, etc.) and minimalist, avant-garde models (La Tour), incorporating complications such as retrograde seconds, power-reserve indicators, moon phases, tourbillons, chiming mechanisms and perpetual calendars.

Carriage Clocks – carriage clocks, also known as “officer’s clocks”. These historical models stemming from the brand heritage also feature their fair share of complications: chiming mechanisms, minute repeaters, calendars, moon phases, tourbillons and more.

All models are designed and manufactured in-house. Their technical prowess, combination of form and function, very long power reserves and remarkable finishes have become signature features of the brand.

MB&F – Genesis of a Concept Laboratory

Founded in 2005, MB&F is the world’s first-ever horological concept laboratory. With almost 20 remarkable calibres forming the basis of the critically acclaimed Horological and Legacy Machines, MB&F is continuing to follow Founder and Creative Director Maximilian Büsser’s vision of creating 3-D kinetic art by deconstructing traditional watchmaking.

After 15 years managing prestigious watch brands, Maximilian Büsser resigned from his position as Managing Director at Harry Winston in 2005 to create MB&F – Maximilian Büsser & Friends. MB&F is an artistic and micro-engineering laboratory dedicated to designing and crafting small series of radical concept watches by bringing together talented horological professionals with whom Büsser both respects and enjoys working.

In 2007, MB&F unveiled its first Horological Machine, HM1. HM1’s sculptured, three- dimensional case and beautifully finished engine (movement) set the standard for the idiosyncratic Horological Machines that have followed – all Machines that tell the time, rather than Machines to tell the time. The Horological Machines have explored space (HM2, HM3, HM6), the sky (HM4, HM9), the road (HM5, HMX, HM8) and water (HM7).

In 2011, MB&F launched its round-cased Legacy Machine collection. These more classical pieces – classical for MB&F, that is – pay tribute to 19th-century watchmaking excellence by reinterpreting complications by the great horological innovators of yesteryear to create contemporary objets d’art. The LM1 and LM2 were followed by LM101, the first MB&F Machine to feature a movement developed entirely in-house. The LM Perpetual, LM Split Escapement and LM Thunderdome broadened the collection further. MB&F generally alternates between launching contemporary, resolutely unconventional Horological Machines and historically inspired Legacy Machines. Last year (2019) marked a turning point with the creation of the first MB&F Machine dedicated to women: the LM FlyingT.

As the F stands for Friends, it was only natural for MB&F to develop collaborations with artists, watchmakers, designers and manufacturers they admire. This brought about two new categories: Performance Art and Co-creations. While Performance Art pieces are MB&F machines revisited by external creative talent, Co-creations are not wristwatches but other types of machines, engineered and crafted by unique Swiss Manufactures from MB&F ideas and designs. Many of these Co-creations, such as the clocks created with L’Epée 1839, tell the time while collaborations with Reuge and Caran d’Ache have generated other forms of mechanical art.

To ensure an appropriate platform for all these machines, Büsser had the idea of placing them in an art gallery alongside various forms of mechanical art created by other artists, rather than in a traditional storefront. This brought about the creation of the first MB&F M.A.D.Gallery (M.A.D. stands for Mechanical Art Devices) in Geneva, which would later be followed by M.A.D.Galleries in Taipei, Dubai and Hong Kong.

There have been a number of distinguished accolades reminding us of the innovative nature of MB&F’s journey so far, including, to name but a few, no less than five Grand Prix awards from the famous Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève: in 2019, the prize for Best Ladies Complication went to the LM FlyingT, in 2016, the LM Perpetual won the Grand Prix for Best Calendar Watch; in 2012, the Legacy Machine No.1 was awarded both the Public Prize (voted for by horology fans) and the Best Men’s Watch Prize (voted for by the professional jury). In 2010, MB&F won Best Concept and Design Watch for the HM4 Thunderbolt; and, in 2015, a Red Dot: Best of the Best award – the top prize at the international Red Dot Awards – for the HM6 Space Pirate.

MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer Green

MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer Blue

MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer Red

MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer Six years after the launch of the Starfleet Machine, the first clock co-created by MB&F and…

#L’Epée 1839 #MB&#MB&F + L’EPEE 1839 Starfleet Explorer #news #Press release #Starfleet Explorer

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sluttyshakespeare · 6 years ago

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for--frodo-blog · 6 years ago

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Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok is the end to a trilogy, but unlike the third Iron Man or Captain America, it kind of felt like a beginning. The fun and confident tone takes a complete departure from the rest of the franchise and opens up so many possibilities for the MCU. So much is lost (Asgard, Odin, Thor’s hammer etc.) but so much is gained, like the new supporting characters and an entirely new personality for Thor, which re-invents the two-dimensional warrior from the first films and gives him so much more depth and opportunity for the audience to see his human side. It boldly takes all of Marvel’s out-of-this-world content – Asgard, the cosmos (Sakaar) and Doctor Strange’s mystic arts – and combines it all together to expand the universe even more. It brings in Taika Waititi’s unique style of humour and tragedy, which works so well that it creates one of the funniest and, at the same time, most emotional films I’ve seen.

Style and theme. Part of the reason I love this film so much is that it’s so different from anything I’ve seen before. I can categorize my favourites into fantasy, sci-fi, comedy etc. but Ragnarok was a mix of everything. It had the Viking-fantasy-style Thor we’re used to with Asgard, magic and mythology, which, combined with the cosmic Star Wars type sci-fi and sorcery of Doctor Strange, created a completely different feel from the rest of the MCU - all of which have a certain calculated theme for each film. The different themes in Ragnarok contrast dramatically to create comic book style scenery and didn’t seem afraid to be as colourful and dramatic as it could; it boldly explores what the Marvel universes have originally been in the comics. The comic book feel is further emphasised by the amazing colours and effects in each scene. It’s bold and beautiful, a far cry from the dark and serious superhero films released around the same time as this. For example, Justice League and Captain America: Civil War have that tone of world-ending tragedy and a bleak mood. Taika Waititi does not only reboot the Thor franchise, he also reboots the tone of successful superhero films, which will hopefully open up the genre for a more comic-style and adventurous future that focuses on more than good-vs-evil.

Hela. In most Marvel films, the villain usually has a tragic backstory or a reason for becoming a villain. Sometimes it works, like Loki, but other times it really doesn’t. Like Ivan Vanko. But Hela doesn't have a sad past, she’s just evil because that’s who she wants to be. Not every villain needs to be relatable to the audience or demand their sympathy. In this film, focused on so much more than fighting the bad guy, Pure Evil works well.

Valkyrie. In a lot of media, the strong female characters follow the Katniss/Rey/etc template. They are strong in the face of a harsh world, and the writers seem to avoid giving them weaknesses – replacing character flaws with the journey of becoming even stronger. There isn’t anything wrong with this trope, but I enjoyed how the character of Valkyrie was, surprisingly, not just another Katniss-style strong female character who saves the day with her one-dimensional fearless heroism. Her major arc was deciding to help Thor for the good of others and not just for her own gain, overcoming her past. So, cowardice was her flaw. Along with alcoholism. It was good to see writers exploring different ways to present female characters that aren’t only there for the love interest.

Emotion and tone. Ragnarok stands out so much for me because of Taika Waititi’s style. In this film, along with his other films Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Boy, he contrasts tragedy with humour using the idea that no matter how damaging a situation can be, we will always remain human, and “there is still room to laugh”. The deadpan and subtle style is what makes his films so successfully funny. Ragnarok has a much heavier arc for Thor than the other two, where he loses his safety and stability from both Odin and Asgard, his freedom, his future, and comes to terms with becoming an independent and infinitely more powerful God and the responsibility he holds for himself and his people.

“I want to explore the painful comedy of growing up and interpreting the world. I believe that despite our faults and inadequacies, through all the pain and heartache, there is still room to laugh.” - Taika Waititi

I love Waititi’s style and its use in this film because it’s enjoyable in every way you look at it. I prefer it to Antman because whilst Ragnarok had the comedy, it also had depth and weight for both the MCU and characters we care about, with huge physical and emotional stakes. I prefer it to Captain America: Civil War because it had the light-hearted tone in contrasting response to threat and loss. Both of these films had equal stakes for the characters and the universe as a whole, but Thor embraces them in a more enjoyable way, and one which we can relate to as an audience.

“When the atmosphere is tense and uncomfortable, that is when we feel the need to laugh most.” - Taika Waititi, again.

A whole new franchise.

One strong characteristic that makes this film brilliant is the brave and blatant dismissiveness of the first two films. Whilst I don’t really think the first two were awful, it’s refreshing to have some change from the parts that the franchise could definitely do without.

Thor’s struggle of pleasing his father, conflicting with Loki’s struggle for the same thing. The first film was centred around Thor’s future as a king and the bitterness it created between him and Loki. Odin dies very near the beginning of the film, putting all the responsibility on Thor. It causes him to grow up a little more and we see a new side of his personality.

“Sorry to hear that Jane dumped you” from a girl in the street that removes any love interest weighing down the plot and the characters. Whilst Jane was an integral character in the first two, it seemed important to prove that Thor can have another goal other than moping about his Midgard-girlfriend. Their relationship was not built up at all, and the audience was supposed to be on board with the couple after they’d spent two days together. It didn’t work.

The play of Loki’s death, (recreated shot-by-shot from Dark World) was the most blatant part in the whole film. It’s right at the beginning, that seems to say to the audience ‘we’re changing everything you know and love about this entire franchise, you’d better get used to it pretty quick’. Also, it removes the concept of tragedy regarding Loki’s dying-then-being-reborn stunt. The dismissiveness of the emotional weight this scene was supposed to hold acknowledges that maybe coming back to life twice was a mistake.

“That really was us saying to the audience… that’s it. Goodbye to that.” - Yet again, Taika Waititi.

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recentanimenews · 8 years ago

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Kenji Nakamura: Mononoke, Kūchu Būranko and more!

Creative spotlights are easily digestible overviews of a director or animator’s body of work, style, and vision. My goal for these articles is to highlight some of the exceptional and possibly lesser-known creative voices in anime. I’m hoping these write-ups encourage people to explore more of what anime has to offer.

The spotlight for this week will be on Kenji Nakamura, the brilliant director behind critically-acclaimed anime such as Mononoke and Kūchu Būranko.

Kenji Nakamura has received a lot of attention from the anime community in recent years due to the wide range of stylish productions he’s directed. His anime are often filled with vibrant colors and dynamic storyboards, often leaving viewers mystified by his craft. At the same time, he’s not just for show, as his anime are thoughtful stories which shed light on important social issues. Whether you’re a fan of Nakamura’s anime or are thinking of checking his work out, you’ll want to learn about the experiences that made him into the director he is now.

Though he’s passionate about working in the anime industry now, this wasn’t always the case for Nakamura. In fact, as a child, he wasn’t even interested in watching anime as a hobby. It wasn’t until he saw the original Gundam series and Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa that he became interested in the medium. Even then, Nakamura had no intentions of being an animator and pursued the career path of a salaryman instead. However, workplace stress quickly lead to him re-evaluating his lifestyle, and at the young age of 24, he entered the Yoyogi Animation Institute to pursue animation.

Like many others, Nakamura started out in the industry as an animator. When he graduated, he began work at a studio called Sam Tack and did in-between work. This stint was short-lived, however, as he developed tendonitis and struggled keeping up with the tight deadlines of TV anime production. As a result of his struggles, Nakamura became disillusioned by the industry, as he felt an environment that forced him to rush wasn’t good for his creative process.

�� This is perhaps why Nakamura was so quick to become a production assistant when Sam Tack received an offer to do a joint production with Toei Animation on Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo. He found that being able to supervise all stages of an anime’s production, from scenario to filming, was a better fit for the type of person he was. Additionally, Nakamura enjoyed being able to work closely with people at the centre of the industry; it gave him the feeling of being more in control of the final product.

Additionally, the connections that Nakamura made during his time as a production assistant were invaluable to his growth. While at Toei, he was given an assistant director job for the Digimon Adventure 02: Counterattack of Diaboromon film and honed his craft under Kazuto Nakazawa, a veteran animation director and character designer. He also had the opportunity to work with Akiyuki Shinbo on Tatsunoko Production’s The SoulTaker. Nakamura specifically directed the anime’s fifth episode where he commanded the audience’s perception of physical space through his disorienting layouts – an aspect of his craft that he’d later perfect in Mononoke.

In 2006, Nakamura entered the director’s seat with Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, an anthology of classic Japanese ghost stories produced by Toei Animation. The anime aired as part of the Noitamina block and consisted of three separate story arcs, each with a different director. Nakamura was responsible for the anime’s last three episodes, known as the “Bakeneko” arc – an original story based on traditional yokai folklore.

Nakamura had almost complete control with the direction of the Bakeneko arc. He directed and storyboarded two of its three episodes and took a number of risks with its visual style. Since he was still an unknown figure in the anime industry, the emerging director wanted to leave his mark with his debut. Nakamura’s storytelling ethos was that within a scene, intentions or ideas should be conveyed through visuals as opposed to explanations in the script. He strongly believed that viewers were perceptive and would be able to pick up on subtle hints in his cinematography.

When it came to both the Bakeneko arc in Ayakashi and its sequel Mononoke, their stories were simple yet powerful fables rooted in traditional Japanese folklore. Vengeful spirits called mononoke were the focus of each tale, in effect symbolizing people’s lingering feelings of revenge or regret. As Nakamura was dealing with more abstract concepts such as emotion, he chose to convey his ideas through a distinctive visual identity. The Bakeneko arc and Mononoke possess strong Ukiyo-e visuals, creating a strong association with the Edo period setting. At the same time, Nakamura’s approach also contains hints of postmodernism, with visual nods to the paintings of Gustav Klimit.

Both Bakeneko and Mononoke were not meant to be faithful renditions of Edo Japan. Rather, Nakamura is working with the traditional backdrop to construct an externalized manifestation of the characters’ emotional realities. In Mononoke, he creates a stylized aesthetic that exists between the threshold of dream and reality. Real-life objects clash with otherworldly color combinations as they cohesively come together in this symbolized world of animation. Nakamura understands exactly how to use the power of animation to explore the complexities of humans.

Post-Mononoke, Nakamura continued his pursuit of elaborate animation projects with the black comedy, Kūchu Būranko. Taking his psychological manifestations a step further, Kūchu Būranko is a contemporary work set in modern-day Tokyo that focuses specifically on the problem of mental illnesses. With each episode of the anime focusing on a different condition, such as anxiety or depression, Nakamura uses the episodic format brilliantly. Though always possessing bright colors, textures patterned with polka dots and the eerie gaze of Toei Animation’s mascot, each episode expresses the individual reality of a specific patient at Irabu’s clinic.

There’s nothing quite like Kūchu Būranko in anime. With a visual aesthetic that blends traditional 2D animation, rotoscoping, and unconventional filters, Nakamura pushes the envelope of narrative-based surrealism. He gives us a work that presents traditional remedies to mental illness, and then smashes them to pieces with a hallucinogenic medical ward and a psychiatrist with a fetish for needles and injections.

Kūchu Būranko was just the beginning of Nakamura’s portfolio of works dealing with prevalent social issues. As time went on, he began experimenting with different genres and their conventions to explore how his messages could reach younger audiences. For example, he uses the popular battle shōnen format in C – Control to create a storyline specifically related to the 2008 financial crisis. Impacted by the recession caused by the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers, Nakamura conducted over twenty interviews with retired politicians and CEOs across the world to hear out their opinions on the matter. While he came across many divergent opinions, Nakamura became worried that the Japanese people weren’t addressing their present financial issues, thus putting future generations at risk. As a result, he wanted C – Control to strike a fine balance between being entertaining and communicating the importance of global economics.

Kenji Nakamura is an individual with no shortage of talent as a director. He has sought to create anime that are both visually stimulating and socially-conscious. Drawing from his own hardships and experiences, he understands the importance of not just using animation as a medium to entertain, but to educate as well. He is a creator who delivers with the best of intentions and often does so with a touch of humor. If you’re interested in a voice in anime who truly understands the struggles of his society and generation, then look no further.

Let us know your thoughts about Kenji Nakamura's anime in the comments below!

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Brandon is a Brand Features Writer for Crunchyroll and also writes anime-related editorials on his blog, Moe-Alternative. Hit him up for a chat on his Twitter at @Don_Don_Kun!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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