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guster-animations · 15 days ago

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Kamen Rider Gotchard Producers Symposium PART 1 Translation

i got! another producer roundtable translation!! this one is only the first part of 3 of the gotchard roundtable. i will have the next parts translated soon. thank you TTFC for formatting it this way

again, this is a project for the henshindex wiki! contribute today!!!

Kamen Rider Gotchard: TV Series Conclusion Commemoration Toei Producer Team Special Roundtable (First Edition)

“Kamen Rider Gotchard” will soon be at its climax! With that, we are delivering a Toei producer symposium like usual, split into three parts. Furthermore, the first and second volumes will be released one week before the final episode airs. The three-part talk totaled up to over 30,000 words. The participants are, of course, Producer Yosuke Minato and Assistant Producers Daigo Matsuura and Kaho Miyashima. In this first volume, we returned to the start of the show’s planning…!

Act 1: The Starting Point Was Part 2 of Kamen Rider What?!

Today is the TTFC tradition for all of you Toei producers and assistant producers gather and think back on the course of this year and then some, so I hoped that the three of you will start, Minato, Matsuura, and Harashima. But… speaking of the number “3”, there were talks of that becoming a main point of “Kamen Rider Gotchard”.

Minato: The original idea was alchemy (1).

The number “3” is written to be essential in alchemy-related texts. In Hotaro and others’ henshin poses, their movements form a triangle for that reason. The “Philosopher’s Stone” is said to need “sulfur”, “mercury”, and one more—“salt”, which has the power to combine that sulfur and mercury, so “3” was a big motif. So I thought that, if we do Kamen Riders who use alchemy, it would be interesting to put the number “3” in a lot of places.

TTFC: So was the decision to have three main Kamen Riders (Gotchard, Majade, and Valvarad) also…?

Matsuura: Actually, that was completely unrelated (Laughs).

Minato: Yes, completely separate. We just wanted to make it like “Kamen Rider Agito” (2001) (Laughs). We wanted that before we decided on the motif of “Alchemy”. Since we were planning it to be “(Kamen Rider) Agito 2”, we decided to have three Kamen Riders, and those three would each transform with their own different belts (Drivers) and cards.

TTFC: Hm? “Agito 2”?

Matsuura: For about how long were we calling it “Agito 2”? Was it about a week?

Minato: No, “Agito 2” was about a month (Laughs). From that, we had a main Kamen Rider, an animal Rider, a mecha Rider… it was that mental image. “Alchemy” was decided after that. So, results-wise there were also parts that changed form when the plans were changed.

Matsuura: With that logic, is Majade (Kamen Rider) Gills?

Minato: Yes, that’s true, their positions are similar. It doesn’t even stop with their base forms. Majade gets her power passed down from her father too (Laughs). Harashima, you joined when we were planning, but you really wanted to see something like “Agito”.

Harashima: I watched “Agito”. But, when I formally joined, filming was already about to start, so I wasn’t there during the “Agito 2” era and only learned about it just now (Laughs).

Matsuura: What, you didn’t know (Laughs). However, you fit with “Agito”. I remember hearing, “That’s interesting!”.

Harashima: That’s right.

Minato: When you asked “Are there any good works to watch since I’m in charge of the new Kamen Rider season?”, I feel like I just recommended my favorite works (Laughs).

Matsuura: What were the other ones you watched?

Harashima: “(Kamen Rider) Fourze” (2011) and “(Kamen Rider) Decade” (2009). I was also watching Geats originally. I think “Fourze” was because “Gotchard” was already decided to be a school season. “Decade” was related to Kamen Rider Legend. But I dropped “Decade” midway through (Laughs).

Minato: If a Rider newbie watches “Decade”, they’ll have a hard time understanding it (Laughs).

TTFC: Regarding “Agito 2”, that wasn’t simply just the idea of “Let’s do a sequel”.

Minato: That’s right. This is an example from another company, but it’s like with “Ultraman Tiga” (1996) in contrast with “Ultraman Trigger” (2021). There’s always been a question of how to make an IP (intellectual property) like Kamen Rider spread across the world more than ever, and for that approach, the method of a “reboot” like with “Kamen Rider Black Sun” (2022) from “Kamen Rider Black” (1987) is being utilized well. It’s not a sequel but rather a new work that inherits the original’s place. Even when planning the TV series, that’s a pattern we try to have from the start. It felt like we only thought about “Agito 2” as a direction for a brief amount of time. I certainly liked “Agito”, and two of “Agito”’s former producers (Shinichiro) Shirakura and (Hideaki) Tsukada were in charge of the planning conference, so there wasn’t a reason to drop it if they said they liked it (Laughs).

Matsuura: But, that period was only about a month. It’s not unreasonable that Harashima didn’t know about it (Laughs).

Minato: Personally, I watched “Kamen Rider Kuuga” (2000) too, but what I watched faithfully was its successor “Agito”, so that personal experience was strong. So, at the beginning planning stage, “Playing background tracks” and “Defeating enemies with Rider Kicks” and the like had already been decided. As the plan was progressing, it became what we know to be “Kamen Rider Gotchard”. I received lots of advice and warnings from many different seniors before broadcasting, but I stuck to the two points I mentioned until the end.

TTFC: Because this was the first work you’ve been the main producer for, Minato.

Minato: After all, the Kamen Rider series is an important content for Toei, it has a long history, and it’s accumulated various success stories, failures and the like. So for about half a year, the screenwriter (Hiroki) Uchida and I would consider each point while talking with seniors. Nobody said “Stop that!”. In my personal experience, they say “Please consider what you will do.”

Matsuura: That was because you had a lot of ideas for Gotchard Daybreak, and you had to make a choice soon (Laughs).

Minato: True, true (Laughs). However, it’s not easy to choose that sort of stuff. I would use one for a little bit, and if I thought, “It’s wrong after all…”, I would throw away that component. There was a time when I kept working on that.

Act 2: A Kamen Rider Who Fails to What Every Time?!

TTFC: Uchida’s name has appeared now, but he was helping with plans from a fairly early time.

Minato: I’m new to being a producer, so I wanted somebody to help me. Even if it was sandbagging, I wanted someone that could take the punches with me (Laughs). So with Uchida, we really discussed a lot of things. What came from that was also connected to “Agito”’s Shoichi Tsugami— a pure amnesiac protagonist who is influenced by the people around him. I think we made good use of that for Hotaro Ichinose afterwards. Actually, there was a part about losing memories too (Laughs). Going back to what we were talking about, I was picky about the number “3”, but there were many unexpected and natural things that became the number “3”. Having three Toei producers (including assistant producers) is normal, and along with (Keiichi) Hasegawa and (Akiko) Inoue there were three scriptwriters, and honestly that was coincidence (Laughs). It wasn’t an intentional thing.

TTFC: Did Uchida join before Matsuura did?

Minato: Speaking chronologically, until I was told to do the series that would come after “Geats”, I was doing “Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger”. I left before the filming started, so I wasn’t listed in the credits (Laughs). Uchida and I got in touch on the day I approached him. It was officially decided that Matsuura would join as an assistant producer during filming for the V-Cinext “Avataro Sentai Donbrothers vs. Zenkaiger” (2023).

Matsuura: That’s right. At that point, the era of “Agito 2” was already ending (Laughs), and the idea of an alchemy Kamen Rider was being decided.

Minato: Then, the alchemy books that I’d stopped reading had to be studied.

Matsuura: At that time, what I heard was “a Rider who fails to transform every time” (Laughs). “Because alchemy has a history of failure.” I laughed at that.

Minato: I was indeed saying that. In any case, speaking of “relationships”, I wanted something to be a hook, and had many ideas for that. At that point, the creation of “wild mode” had already appeared. I guess that was “If you henshin you’ll turn into a grasshopper!”. We have “henshins” that are “when you open your eyes, you’ve turned into a giant poisonous bug” in Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, but when connecting it to the motif of “alchemy” well, you mix it with the usage of various cards and such, and the idea of “failing to henshin” didn’t look interesting. There were times when I was worried about it. I eventually gave up on that direction, so I guess it in itself was a failure (Laughs).

TTFC: That was already in 2023, right?

Minato: It took until the end of March to finalize the plan. I’d already intended to ask Uchida to be the main writer, and he’d actually been looking over the story in its entirety for more than a year at this point. But at the time of writing the scripts for the so-called “pilot” episodes 1-2, we contacted Keiichi Hasegawa on May 1st. His first preparatory meeting was May 8th, and he was finishing the draft script at the beginning of June. Filming started in late June. The specific day we started that was actually my birthday (Laughs).

Matsuura: I never heard about it at the time. Why didn’t you say so?

Minato: No, it was hard to say “It’s actually my birthday…” while everyone was focusing on the shoot (Laughs). After all, that day was decided at the last minute. I thought, “Oh, it’s on my birthday…”, but I still didn’t have a chance to say that. In the end, Junsei (Motojima) received flowers from his manager on the very same day a year later.

TTFC: Uchida and Hasegawa were listed as writing episodes 1 and 2 together.

Minato: Before Hasegawa joined, there was a script that Uchida was writing. I feel like Hasegawa looked at that and dyed it in “Hasegawa colors”. At that rate, episodes 3 through 6 were also being written by Hasegawa.

TTFC: At what point did Harashima join?

Minato: She was already helping when we started shooting, right?

Matsuura: What about the last audition?

Harashima: At that point it still wasn’t decided (that I would join). In the spring of that year (2023), all of the new employees observed the last audition of “Gotchard” for training, and I was only one of them… I think it was three days before the start of filming when I officially joined.

Minato: It was that kind of last-minute timing (Laughs). I remember that the head of the department Tsukada said “It’s because she’s an excellent and capable person” at the time.

Harashima: I don’t know what made him say that at all (Laughs).

TTFC: You joined the company last year (2023).

Harashima: I’m not a new graduate, but I’m a recent graduate. How it went was that my training period was from April to the end of May last year, I was assigned to the drama department on June 1st, and I became an assistant producer for “Gotchard” in the last third of June. So that’s why there are a lot of things I’ve never heard about before now (Laughs).

Act 3: A Mysterious Phone Number

TTFC: So Hasegawa joined hastily.

Minato: To be more accurate, I was asking Hasegawa to join as a backup writer from the start. I have a feeling I called him about that a little too fast. Episodes 7 and 8 were the first two-part set of episodes, so I had decided to ask Uchida to do them. But there was also the winter movie, so it seemed like his schedule was getting pretty tight. So I realized a third scriptwriter would be necessary…

TTFC: And that was how Akiko Inoue arrived (3).

Matsuura: For Akiko, we called her at an early time too. Though it hadn’t been decided which area she would be writing from. At the start, our legend of the “impolite phone number” had already begun… (Laughs).

Minato: That’s right. We didn’t know whose phone number it was that Toshiki Inoue gave (Laughs).

Matsuura: I went to drink with the great teacher (Toshiki Inoue) when I asked, “I have an offer for your daughter, so could you tell me her phone number?”. Then he readily agreed, but the phone number that he thought was it was registered with only the three letters (in Japanese, hiragana rather than the kanji Akiko’s name is usually written with) “Akiko”, and the great teacher himself smiled and said, “Sorry if this is the wrong guy”, so I told Minato that part.

Minato: So frankly, while I was thinking about what to do with this snack “Akiko’s” number, I nervously called the phone. The way I started talking was, “Ummm… do you know Toshiki Inoue?”.

Matsuura: It seems like Akiko thought it was a scam call at the start (Laughs).

Minato: It was difficult, but it was the real person’s number, so it turned out good. Then, I thought about her joining various times, but her results were adjusting the whole of the series’ structure, and I asked her to start with a one-shot episode: episode 19, which has Majade’s television debut. Speaking even more minutely, I was first thinking about having her write two Gotchard Daybreak episodes, 16 and 17, but it didn’t seem like she would fit with two episodes (a two-episode arc?) at all. So, it became that episodes 16-18 would be written by Uchida, so she instead started with only one episode.

Act 4: The Legendary “Chemy-kko Gurashi” ?!

TTFC: What structure made it so that Majade debuted ahead of time in the winter movie and then again in the TV series at the beginning of the year?

Minato: It’s a balance between story progression and the schedule for the sale of related items. As the production side, we want to set Majade’s role as this work’s “secondary Rider” in stone. We were particular about that. On the other hand, the timing for Spanner becoming Kamen Rider Valvarad was also arranged for merchandising development, and we moved it back considerably. Again, what we could do within the year in the structure of the series was limited. That is to say, there wasn’t a gap where we could take our time making the story where Rinne becomes Majade. In the midst of that, the preparatory meetings for the winter movie began, so I proposed, “Let’s do Kamen Rider Majade’s debut ahead of time here!”. That passed, so it went as you all have seen.

TTFC: After Majade’s early debut became a surprise factor for the winter movie, the TV series at the start of the year also became chaotic with Gotchard Daybreak, Fire Gotchard, Majade, and (Kamen Rider) Valvarad.

Minato: The winter movie, in true winter movie fashion, had many ups and downs too. Opinions from each of us three were partially adopted.

Matsuura: Even during it, Harashima didn’t know why we were doing a Kamen Rider movie in the winter at the start.

Harashima: (Laughs).

Matsuura: For Shirakura, that seemed like a fairly critical opinion, and said, “Opinions from someone like you (assistant producer Harashima) are the most important!”.

Minato: Then, at the time of hon-uchi (preparatory meetings for scriptwriting), when we gathered ideas, she came and wrote an extremely long sentence.

Harashima: To be more accurate, we weren’t meeting the deadline… It was finished fairly hurriedly, so at the place of the meeting, I said, “Is it okay if I send this to everyone right now?”. So I mailed it, and said it verbally afterwards, that’s how I explained it. In the meantime, everyone was making a scene (Laughs). That time was incredibly nervous.

Minato: “Majade’s early debut” remained as my opinion, and now for Matsuura’s “Sumikko Gurashi”— I mean, “Chemy-kko Gurashi”?

Matsuura: The third movie was screening right as we were planning (Laughs). That movie was really good, so I paid respect to Pak… er, its vision (Laughs). You don’t expect it from things like “Sumikko Gurashi” and “Chiikawa”, but that was a story that made me cry. So from the advance advertisement step, with the Geats Chemy and Hopper1 standing at the front, I said I thought it was leaning more kids-oriented than usual, and couldn’t we do a movie that’s actually deeply profound? I mainly proposed parts that would fit the movie itself.

Harashima: As for me, in the story that I proposed, the “Geats” characters other than Ace Ukiyo are transformed into Chemies and become entangled with “Gotchard’s” characters— I was thinking of things like that.

Minato: The parts that the three of us thought of took on an amazingly fitting form.

TTFC: Minato and Matsuura, you worked as a duo from “Donbrothers”, but does it feel like that relationship has developed even further?

Minato: No, for “Donbrothers”, there wasn’t really a hon-uchi phase where everyone would discuss it. We received scripts from the great teacher Inoue, and we would do our things after that, like casting guest actors. There were times we wanted to surprise the great teacher Inoue, I guess. Compared to that, in “Gotchard”, we talked about a lot of things. Us two are alike in being nerds (Laughs), but our viewpoints are still different, so Matsuura notices the things I don’t, and if that’s enough, we know that’s an important component… We help each other in that sense. Regarding Harashima, I think she was especially difficult at the start. From a place where she didn’t know Kamen Rider very well to begin, she was suddenly put in charge, and if she came to meetings nevertheless, more names she doesn’t know like “The Big O” and Space Runway Ideon” are flying around (Laughs). I worried that she didn’t think this work was fun, but her opinions were useful in planning for the winter movie, so she actively tried to make more comments going forward. That was very difficult. For things like episode 19, too, we pretty much left it to Inoue and Harashima to depict Rinne’s feelings. That course of events was similar for the Zukyunpire episodes (22-23) soon afterward too.

TTFC: Minato’s “Majade early debut” idea and Matsuura’s technique of “getting ideas from the promo images” somehow remind me of the “Shirakura method”…

Minato: That’s because we were “Shirakura followers” prior to joining Toei, so I don’t know if there were things we took from him without realizing it. In various works, I have a history of being shocked by strong “tricks” and ending up going to the theater (Laughs). So, we made the new visuals at the start of the year, but before deciding concrete contents, we ourselves had also decided ahead of time that we would “launch” it as “get even more excited from the start of the year!”. It took about one month to decide the real structure of episodes 16-18, and that was difficult, but we left it to the three writers, Uchida, Hasegawa, and Akiko, to make the contents interesting, and I was always paying attention to the “tricks” with more energy. Of course, the fact that we made new visuals for a series while doing it that way— that was done just before by “Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger”, so that show was very much referenced. But the Kamen Rider series is something that has to start a new season in September every year, and the end and beginning of the year couldn’t help becoming an important timing point.

Matsuura: It’s hard. There were many things at the year’s end and beginning that were carelessly left out of what made it to broadcasting, but then, when you have new elements, it’s harder for viewers to follow what’s going on next time they watch. So there’s also a good aspect to having things that don’t change…

Minato: The way you enjoy a work changes with how you remember it. For “Gotchard”, as the ground rule of collecting the Chemies doesn’t change, we wanted to go higher than that one step. What came from that was really strong, the idea to have another Gotchard appear. There were those things, and then the first main reason for the Gotchaigniter toy package to exist isn’t Gotchard Daybreak like it should be. Because he was a person who didn’t originally exist for merchandising.

TTFC: Hotaro transmuted his own Gotchaigniter, and Kyoka further examined that and attached the same unit parts to the Valvaradriver.

Minato: So, with that really time-dependent point, the timing of Kamen Rider Valvarad’s debut changed. Thinking back on it, that area was really hurried (Laughs). The timing for the Gotchaigniter sale that allowed for Kamen Rider Valvarad’s steel to be packaged, in total, was Kamen Rider Valvarad’s visual release. Still, I think that device, even not being in the initial plan, was good in terms of results.

TTFC: Riders like Gotchard Daybreak which are color-change versions of the lead Rider have been seen before, but in the story, when it’s held a great meaning up to now, the presence becomes different.

Minato: We’ve had black versions of Sentai robos and such, as methods; it’s not really a new thing. Of course, the “way it looks” is pretty different. Because in the beginning, the establishment of Daybreak as “future Hotaro” wasn’t decided. In any case, because it started from the idea of “bringing forth a strong Gotchard”, there was a possibility that Daybreak’s identity could have been Mr. Minato [the character, not the producer] or Fuga Kudo.

Matsuura: Well, there are parts of “a strong guy coming from the future at a turning point of the story” that are inspired by a certain super-famous work (Laughs). [TN: this is probably referring to dragon ball or something but i will choose to believe matsuura is a homestuck]

Minato: Well, it’s natural, but we didn’t want to take that path exactly. So we decided that the person who came from the future was a future version of the protagonist himself.

TTFC: It’s a rather bold development, and more than having done it that way, you can’t just abandon the plot point halfway through. And that’s why I’m able to say it was admirably recovered in the summer movie.

Minato: I said it before, but being a first-time producer, many seniors gave me various advice. I feel that each view has its own individual philosophy, and I think none are wrong. But if you apply it all to Gotchard, they don’t all fit together. So then I decided on one big pillar, left to me by TV Asahi’s (Chihiro) Inoue, the fundamental policy that “This work’s protagonist (Hotaro) will be one who grows alongside the child viewers”. Because of that, we decided not to make him strong because of something that happened in his past. But still, while the conversation progressed, the opinions of “Isn’t it good for Hotaro to have a reason to be strong?” and “That’s not it, don’t the kids long for Hotaro?” came from all over. In the midst of that, while I thought about how Hotaro would become stronger, I finally arrived at the point of “meeting his future self!”.

TTFC: There being nothing in the past, you wanted a “reason for power” in the future.

Minato: That’s right. That meaning, I think there is a point that guided us there as we came to fight against the said “adults’ opinions”. Well, we’re adults too (Laughs), but it’s a denial towards the idea “stop changing things and look for stability”, even with age-related things. Hotaro acts as a protagonist who embodies that. While looking at past successes in various ways, we held the clear intent to not be the same thing as those, and that’s the motivation that helped us arrive at where we are now.

#i’m gonna be honest this part is pretty uninteresting #barring the toshiki inoue (and by extension akiko inoue) lore #and i know at least 2 people who would like the fact that producer matsuura is a chiikawa fan #kamen rider gotchard #avataro sentai donbrothers #kamen rider #op #guster translates rider

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bakerstreetbabble · 4 years ago

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Granada TV Series Review: "The Copper Beeches" (S02, E01)

Season 2 of Granada's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starts with a gripping, dramatic episode, complete with a creepy "bad guy" (played to great effect by British actor Joss Ackland), a winsome heroine (the late Natasha Richardson playing Violet Hunter), and a bloodthirsty hound (not that hound, mind you). Honestly, re-reading "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" just now, I felt like the Granada series took a fairly average story and made it into something much more exciting. Overall, they were very faithful to the source material, but they managed to rearrange a few plot points and use a fine cast to elevate the adaptation beyond its original form.

For one thing, Joss Ackland is extremely creepy as Mr. Rucastle. Sure, he's jovial enough most of the time, but Ackland is a talented enough actor to make every line seem sinister. From the very first time we meet him, we feel as if things just aren't quite right with this "generous" employer. Meanwhile, Natasha Richardson as Violet Hunter gave the role the right balance between a young lady who's getting more and more frightened and the kind of ingenuity that obviously wins the great detective's respect.

Jeremy Brett and David Burke are excellent, as usual, and there's a particularly delightful sequence at the opening of the episode where we are treated to one of Holmes's rants about how Watson has injected too much romance into the stories that Holmes thinks should be cold, logical case studies. We also are treated to a classic Holmes line, as the detective and his sidekick take the train to meet up with Miss Hunter: “Data! data! data! I can’t make bricks without clay.” (This line, which happens back at the flat at 221B Baker Street in the story, is moved a bit later in the TV episode, which I think works quite well.)

I should also mention the little detail of the slight change of setting of Mr. Rucastle's daughter's prison: in the original story, it is merely a mysterious, shuttered wing of the Copper Beeches estate. In the adaptation, however, it has been transformed into a mysterious "turret," which I think works a bit better. That's what I enjoyed about this episode: the writers, while staying quite faithful to the original story, made minor tweaks to the plot, which ended up giving the story a lot more drama and forward momentum.

This was really a top-notch episode to begin the second season of the successful series. Before I wrap up the review, I should probably mention the entertaining final scene, in which Watson is clearly reading his most recent write-up of the events at the Copper Beeches, with no little delight at the effect his "romantic" storytelling has on his friend. By this point in the series, one can easily tell how comfortable David Burke and Jeremy Brett were becoming in their own roles, as well as in the camaraderie shared by the two friends. It really was a very fine episode to begin the second season!

youtube

#jeremy brett #granada holmes #The Copper Beeches #Youtube

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princesscolumbia · 5 months ago

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https://www.furinkan.com/features/articles/pregnant.html

About a week-ish ago, the above link was posted to the r/Ranma subreddit. I took a look at the article and the tl;dr seems to be as follows:

Once upon a time there was a person who put forth the question to Rumiko Takahashi on whether Ranma's transformation from boy-to-girl was complete enough that Ranma could experience all the consequences of such a transformation, the logical conclusion being, "Can Ranma get pregnant?" The rather infamous 'quote' of "I don't think about that, and neither should you," is purported to come from this question, which told the audience one thing: Don't fucking ask about Ranma's sex life or by Kami-sama, Takahashi-sensei will gut you! This stood as an uncontested truth until the pandemic when someone decided to try and track down the exact source of the quote, at which point they realized this was NOT said at a convention (as had initially been circulated via rumor at the time), but in an editorial that stood in lieu of a an interview that took place over a sit-down dinner between Takahashi and an editor who would wind up garnering a reputation for ginning up drama for its own sake. It's likely a heavily 'interpreted' quote that probably didn't have the intent to come across as cutting or biting and likely had a LOT of questions left on the table that could have been asked as a follow-up. So now that we've answered the question of whether Takahashi-san was actually a rude bitch or not (likely not), if you want to know whether Ranma can get pregnant you are a smelly sex pervert who most likely has cooties and should just drop dead and save us all the trouble of shunning you.

Am I taking liberty with my summary? FU~HUH~HUH~UCK YES! If you want to see what they actually say, follow the link and read. It's not tremendously long and, save for the author's unconscious purity cult bias, is a pretty solid piece of reportage into the infamous "quote," even if the question isn't actually answered. What follows is what I posted to Reddit in the comments section for that link:

I take issue with the foundational premise that the question of whether or not Ranma could get pregnant is inherently puerile or vulgar, which is not only the foundation of the original misquote but also the basis of the article's author's premise. Guess what, people f*ck, including at least two people you (yes, YOU) know. This should not be controversial. Now, I'll grant that, maybe...maybe in the 1990s when the question came up it might have been one of those giggle-behind-a-hand-in-shock kind of things, but we're entering a phase in world culture where uterus transplants for transwomen are being put through clinical trials to allow them to get pregnant. The rights of trans and gender-non-conforming folk are being trampled on the world over. Some transmen are choosing to become pregnant and have children. The hypocrisy of "cis het people get to talk about pregnancy without everyone assuming the question is about f*cking, but you'd better not talk about someone who's even a little bit trans or you're clearly doing it to be filthy, nasty perverts" is being exposed for the comp-het that it is. Asking "does this character who, canonically, transitions back and forth between one biological set of sex organs and secondary sex characteristics multiple times per day have to deal with all the concerns, consequences, and benefits of both forms?" is no longer the automatic, "You can't say that on TV!" that is used to be (and, honestly, never should have been). Soun, canonically, has f*cked. Nodoka, canonically, has f*cked. Genma, canonically (goddess help us all), has fucked. The operational premise of the primary conflict of the series is whether or not Ranma and Akane are going to, eventually, f*ck. The question of "What happens if Ranma gets pregnant?" should only ever be problematic if Takahashi at some point declares that Ranma is an ace transwoman and never wants to birth children, at which point it would be a thing that shouldn't be considered for hard/soft canon purposes because it would violate Ranma's choices in the matter. IMHO, in the reboot I think an episode where Ranma has to deal with attending both the boy's and the girl's sex ed classes would be tremendously funny. It would also have the knock-on effect getting people to think about things like "consent" and "consequences," something our current culture rather lacks.

This was auto-banned on Reddit because, apparently, saying the word "fuck," even with the self-censoring and used in the appropriate context, is a bridge too far for a subreddit attended by people old enough to know what sex is.

This isn't the first time I've encountered problematic behavior on the r/Ranma subreddit. When I pointed out that Ranma's basically saying that s/he just plain forgot about their gender and they only wanted the cure for Akane's sake, this is basically Ranma declaring that they don't care about their 'curse' and is genderfluid/NB, just lacking in the language that we have for those gender presentations (or non-presentation, as the case may be) that we have today, I got the clapback of, "NUH-UH! You're wrong! Ranma's a cis guy!".

(Yes, a cis guy. A cis guy who has 'his' own bras and likely has to carry around period products "just in case" and grows at least a cup-size canonically over the course of the show's run as commented on by Nabiki...and don't tell me Nabiki's not at least bi!)

This was on a conversation about whether Ranma was trans, which is a challenging question given the best word at the time for what Ranma is was 'newhalf,' a term that has come to be associated with sex workers and holds the same cultural niche as "sh*male" in American culture; it's a bit derogatory and is considered to be a slur that is used specifically in a sexual connotation. Couple this with the anime and manga being, at best, parallel continuities (there's SO many places where the two are different timelines I could probably do an entire series of posts just breaking down the differences) AND the fans stitching the two together to create fused variant timelines for their derivative works means that we just don't, at this point, have a solid answer.

Thanks to THAT episode of the anime:

Am I... Pretty? Ranma's Declaration of Womanhood (Peacock link)

...pretty much no transwoman on the planet is going to question that anime Ranma is a transgirl. The parallels to our own experiences that (femme)Ranma talks about during her dissociative state hit entirely too close to home and if a member of the writing team for that episode wasn't part of the queer community I will eat my bra with spaghetti sauce.

It's important to note, as well, that because of the anime, Takahashi is NO LONGER THE FINAL AUTHORITY ON ALL THINGS RANMA. If 'death of the author' is a thing, Takahashi committed honorable sepuku and gave creative control over to a writing and directorial team that is not her.

For the original manga, because Takahashi was unwilling to tackle those questions that give Purity Cultists hives (though why she'd shy away from the pregnancy angle when she was perfectly happy showing Ranma and her mirror clone working as prostitutes is a question I will probably never get answered), it's "open to interpretation" as to Ranma's Genderfluid/NB status, though IMHO the text is as clear as you can get it for the language of the time.

(In retrospect, it's obvious; she should be in the club)

In the anime, though, Shampoo and Ukyo are bi (and fuckin'), Ranma is a transwoman, and Akane is either lesbian or bi and strangled by comp-het to an obvious degree. Ryoga may well be trans as well, though his pig-related curse makes the matter questionable given his lamentations could be either about not having a girl body like Ranma does OR having a pig body, which would suck and result in severe dysmorphia either way.

This is because the anime team chose to tackle those questions, at least tangentially. Rumiko Takahashi, for all she is to be thanked for giving the world Ranma 1/2 (...and a few other things), handed off the baton to other creators. If we want the answers to the questions like, "Can Ranma get pregnant?", Takahashi is NOT the source for that.

That said, if she and I had the chance to sit down over a meal in San Diego during a convention, I'd apologize on behalf of the community for the monstrous tool who misquoted her and ask the questions like another content creator, not some asshat who just wants to stir up trouble for decades to come.

#ranma #saotome ranma #ranma ½ #ranma saotome #ranma 1/2 #akane tendo #ukyo kuonji #ryoga hibiki #rankane #shampoo #akane #tendo #tendo akane #THAT question #reddit #source: reddit

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thatsmutaccount · 2 months ago

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Oh boy, this is a difficult one.

Just so we are all clear I'm putting this first thing first: this chapter focus heavily on the theme of incest and has an explicit sexual scene between brothers (both over 18, btw), so if this is something you don't like or find in some way disturbing or triggering, please don't read. The central part also delves heavily into the description of bullying incidents and depiction of a toxic home environment. There is no actual scene, this episodes are only mentioned, still if you find this triggering be warned. These bullying incidents are in no way sexual, btw, just to be clear, just old Rex being an asshole as usual.

Yeah, about this chapter and this theme in particular, let's talk about it. I confess that in canon media it's not something I like. If I read a book or watch a movie or a TV series where there are two characters that are related to each other I do not like to read fan fiction where they are depicted having an incestuous relationship. I explain it in the note at the beginning of the chapter, but basically for me familial love is something completely different for romantic/sexual love, and the two can't be compared or confused with each other. Of course (I think is obvious but better be safe than sorry) I do not support incest in real life and I do not want to romanticize it in any way, the only reason I'm writing about is because is a fictional scenario and because my stories are so out of this world and "cartoony" that honestly something like that could probably never happen.

So, that being said, why am I an hypocrite and write incest stories between fictional made up adults while saying I don't like it? Because I created them to be this way. Rex is messed up, he is in no way a "normal" character: he never had a sane relationship with his family, so he never formed that bond of familial love with them, and vice versa the other never saw him as someone actually related to them. Because his situation is so different and his feeling are so complicated I was able to write this chapter, and others still on this line (you want a real incest-fest? Go read ch 28 of this story, "Family beach fun", that is really messed up XP). Rex is supposed to have this feeling that are not of familial love but of sexual attraction towards the members of his family, and because of this I have no problem writing him this way.

Anyway, rant aside, let's talk story, yay! I like how I wrote it. For once I tried to be more touchy feely with a major hurt/comfort vibe. Still there is a lot of sex and I like how I handled it.

Anyway I'm currently having Rex/Mike brainrot (and just Rex/Mike brainrot) and, for some reason, I want to write more stuff about these two, and by that I mean a lot of chapters with just Mike and Rex being dumbasses in love, and of course I can't because "Rex new life" has its own schedule and has to be balanced with the characters in it. Soooooo... I will probably publish a short long/one shot collection with some prompts that will be just Rex/Mike.

What do you think of this idea? Yay or nay? I would probably take some prompts from around Tumblr and such and just publish them.

Wish me luck not to be banned here in doing so, and enjoy this chapter, see ya dudes!!!!!

*****

CHAPTER SUMMARY: The time has finally come for Rex to confront his brother. Will things between the two finally be explained? Will they get their closure? Or is the gap between them so deep that it can never be bridged?

*****

WARNING: Incest (Borther/Borther); Jerking Off; Blowjob; Anal Sex; Bukkake; Degradation Kink; Slut Shaming; Implied Cheating; Nipple Play; Cumming Untouched; Fingering

ADDITIONAL WARNING: Bullying; Toxic Familial Relationship; Verbal Abuse; Physical Abuse; Unhealthy way of coping; past hospitalization; past charachter death; grieving

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best-underrated-anime · 1 year ago

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Best Underrated Anime Group J Round 1: #J8 vs #J1

#J8: Teenage girls find a random guy in a river, adventure ensues.

A few young girls with strange powers and a tree that has grown through a railcar cling onto life in a desolate land, searching for its last reservoirs of water. Their routine struggle to survive is interrupted by the arrival of Wakaba, a boy with no memory beyond his own name.

The girls and their new companion commit to a perilous journey across seas of burning red fog—all in order to find what they need to sustain themselves on the more distant, dangerous islands swarming with robotic bugs. Their ultimate fate will be decided by their own strength, along with Wakaba's curious ability to understand the Kemurikusa: mysterious glowing leaves with wondrous powers. Besides the girls, Wakaba, and the hordes of ravenous bugs, the Kemurikusa are the last sparks of life surviving in this land. How did things end up this way? Why are there so many empty buildings with no one to live in them? Wakaba and the girls lack the answers to these questions, which means the truth can only be found within the Kemurikusa.

#J1: Magical girls kill monsters, find themselves, and yuri it up

Cocona is an average middle schooler living with her grandmother. And she, who has yet to decide a goal to strive for, soon met a strange girl named Papika who invites her to an organization called Flip Flap.

Dragged along by the energetic stranger, Cocona finds herself in the world of Pure Illusion—a bizarre alternate dimension—helping Papika look for crystal shards. Upon completing their mission, Papika and Cocona are sent to yet another world in Pure Illusion. As a dangerous creature besets them, the girls use their crystals to transform into magical girls: Cocona into Pure Blade, and Papika into Pure Barrier. But as they try to defeat the creature before them, three others with powers from a rival organization enter the fray and slay the creature, taking with them a fragment left behind from its body. Afterward, the girls realize that to stand a chance against their rivals and the creatures in Pure Illusion, they must learn to work together and synchronize their feelings in order to transform more effectively.

Titles, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#J8: Kemurikusa (TV)

youtube

Propaganda:

Here’s ONE bit of propaganda for you: Kemurikusa is made by Tatsuki, the extremely talented director behind the original Kemono Friends anime by Yaoyorozu. This time, Tatsuki’s really stepped up his game: not only is this an improvement from his original short by the same name, this is also both an animation improvement and a writing improvement from the Yaoyorozu made Kemono Friends.

With Tatsuki’s skill as a writer to tell tight, medium-paced stories centering girls and the apocalypse, Kemurikusa focuses on both the emotions of Rin, Rina, and Ritsu, as well as fleshing out Wakaba to be more than just a simple sidekick, but the heart of the series, providing a very typically feminine role of comfort, care, and nurturing. The subversion of typical masculine and feminine roles in the story, especially from a male director, as well as the well-written, well-developed female characters (of which there are about 7, including a spoiler character), is a bonus for people who don’t like stereotypical “cool tough male character/generic nice boring female character who doesn’t do anything” stories.

The concept of a world sapped of resources by technology is also fascinating. [Admin: this part of the propaganda has been cut out due to possible spoilers.] Sadly, I can’t find a trailer, as this anime is SUPER obscure, but I linked the opening video to show another strength as well: the music. Just listen to it: this song is a total banger.

Trigger Warnings: Flashing lights, Child death (in reference to the characters’ motivation to find water)

#J1: Flip Flappers

youtube

Propaganda:

Flip Flappers is a magical girl show that brings its own unique twist to the genre, while still being reminiscent of older classics. It has incredibly creative visuals, good characters, and an absolute banger soundtrack! The deeper messages of the show are about finding the courage to start making your own decisions and living your life the way you want it, growing up, and the struggle against controlling authority figures that entails. While it is a fun show, the emotional moments it has hit hard! It also has a yuri narrative (seriously, they even get taken to an all-girls Catholic school yuri setting one time), which I’m sure the himejoshis on this webbed site would appreciate if they saw the show!

Trigger Warnings: Depictions of child and emotional abuse, both at a side character and a main character. Control over children is a common theme in the show.

If you’re reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

#anime #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #animated show #group stage #group stage round 1 #tournament polls #group j #kemurikusa #flip flappers

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eliotqueliot · 9 months ago

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Happy Valentine's Day, Queliot!

Chapter 3 of you want it darker? || dark king eliot is now live! As a Queliot gift for Valentine's Day!

This chapter does still focus on Eliot's grief, and Quentin's still technically dead (but not really/permanently?). But, as dark and angsty as this story can be, there's a strong emphasis on the Queliot love story. It feels essential to me. Hopefully you’ll agree! Big 🍑❤️ to all of you today (Happy Valentine’s Day, no matter when you read this!) (Yes, today this fic finally earns its E-rating!)

A big thank you to my collaborator @juliawickers❤️who in addition to all the support and inspiration, and creating the original concept, graphic, and fanmix❤️has made an edit for Ch. 2 and now a queliot au: you want it darker? || dark king eliot pin board with Ch. 3❤️

Summary for Chapter 3 specifically:

Eliot sees glimpses of Quentin everywhere. Hears his voice. Feels his phantom touch.

He knows it's really Q. And that no one will believe him. Telling Margo or Julia will only make them worry more.

Meanwhile, attempts to bring Quentin back continue to fail. Will a visit with an old friend help turn things around?

================

Thank you @queliotbingo! ❤️ This WIP as a whole will be marking my Resurrection/Reincarnation, Time Travel, Underworld squares

Thank you @ficwip for Hey, Sweetheart 2024! In addition to meeting the "sweetheart" challenge (several times!), Chapter 3 fits today's themes of 🗺️ Forest and 💕 mutual pining.

you want it darker? || dark king eliot (34561 words) by victoriaandalbert, EliotQueliot Chapters: 3/12 Fandom: The Magicians (TV), The Magicians - Lev Grossman Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh, Margo Hanson & Eliot Waugh, Margo Hanson/Julia Wicker, Eliot Waugh & Julia Wicker, Quentin Coldwater & Julia Wicker, Quentin Coldwater & Margo Hanson, Quentin Coldwater & Theodore "Ted" Rupert Coldwater-Waugh & Eliot Waugh, Quentin Coldwater & Theodore "Ted" Coldwater Characters: Eliot Waugh, Margo Hanson, Julia Wicker, Quentin Coldwater, Alice Quinn (The Magicians), Josh Hoberman, Fen (The Magicians), Rupert Chatwin | Dark King Sebastian, Jane Chatwin, 23rd Timeline William "Penny" Adiyodi, 40th Timeline William "Penny"Adiyodi, William "Penny" Adiyodi, Henry Fogg, 24th Timeline Alice Quinn (The Magicians), Kady Orloff-Diaz, Todd (The Magicians), Ted Coldwater, Hades (The Magicians), Theodore "Ted" Rupert Coldwater-Waugh, The Great Cock of the Darkling Wood, The Great Cock (The Magicians) Additional Tags: Grief/Mourning, Canonical Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Violence, Blood and Violence, Soulmates, queliot, endgame queliot, Underworld, Resurrection, Dark Fantasy, Margo Hanson is a Good Friend, Julia Wicker is a Good Friend, Quentin Coldwater Lives, Depression, References to Depression, References to Shadeless Julia Wicker, Shadeless Eliot Waugh, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Hand Jobs, Castle Whitespire, Mountain of Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fillory (The Magicians), Goddess Julia Wicker, Crying, Fix-It, Alternate Universe, Suicidal Thoughts, Afterlife, Ghosts, Souls, True Love, royal husbands, Magic, Fairies, High King Eliot Waugh, High king Margo Hanson, King Quentin Coldwater, Queen Julia Wicker, Suicide Attempt, Lucid Dreaming Series: Part 2 of You Want It Darker? Series Summary:

Eliot finds among Jane Chatwin’s things perhaps a way to bring back Quentin—but it comes at an enormous personal cost: during the ritual, Eliot is stripped of his Shade completely. Violently ripping the reigning Dark King from the throne, Eliot assumes the mantle of Dark High King—a truly malevolent force who will do anything to get Quentin back. Even if it means he becomes somebody the man he loves won’t recognize when Eliot rescues Quentin from the Underworld. By any means necessary.

—summary from you want it darker? || dark king eliot [graphic + fanmix] by victoriaandalbert

#queliot fanfic #hey sweetheart #queliot bingo #eliot waugh #quentin coldwater #my fic #otp: proof of concept

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mx-julien · 8 months ago

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the Not Lego Animated, Unrealistically Perfect Ninjago TV Series in my mind has a whole plot point where Zane becomes a human. background: his "heart" is actually a trapped soul. Zane's android body is so intricate that it allows his soul to adjust and basically treat it like a human body. Dr Julien does not notice Zane's sentience as the years go on, as he's convinced it's a part of the AI black box issue

we get clues and eventually figure out that the trapped soul inside of his heart used to belong to an enemy of the first master of ice. it is why the forest where Dr Julien lived was under a permanent winter. however, that soul spent so long outside a body that it "forgot" all its memories

at some point much later there is a major fight during which one of Zane's arms is ripped off above his elbow. they are battling someone who has found another way to harness the ability to turn back time (like in series 1 with the combined golden weapons). Like He Always Does, at one point Zane jumps in front of someone to shield them from the blast so they don't pop out of existence and turn into ash

you can only turn back time as early as The Beginning, and Zane's soul was one of the very first since it was around at the same time as the First Elemental Master of Ice. instead of turning him into spare parts, logically it has hit a soul inhabiting a body- where was that soul at The Beginning? a human body. it makes him human with the parts that it has, so the body is basically the human version of his robot traits. this includes the lack of an arm with an elbow and forearm

this immediately takes him out of the fighting game and he doesn't exactly know what's happened (he's still wearing a gi, he's still alive, but he feels weird and uncoordinated and weaker) until the fight's completely over and people go to check on him

the absolute pure joy Zane feels as he partially unwraps his gi and realizes he's human is one I can't convey in words. it's up to you to imagine

other details below the cut

what about the end of Rebooted? while Zane's original body dies at the hand of the overlord, his soul (like the overlord's) is in his new titanium body. he programs his og robot body to sacrifice itself

does he need to adjust to the human body? his titanium body was almost an exact copy of a human body just in wires and metal (he doesn't need to eat or breathe ofc, but the layout is the same bc he likes the idea of it), so there is very little adjustment period. also the human body instinctively knows how to breathe, so right after he transforms it's like breathing after getting the wind knocked out of you

he doesn't have most of one of his arms?! yeah! personally I think it's his left arm.

why? because (1) he frequently loses parts of his robot body during major fights, so it adds some realism, (2) the ability to use adaptive tech on his arm stub connecting him back to his time as an android. I'm not talking winter soldier style "an able bodied person's arm just metal" I mean like a stump but a screwdriver on the end. something practical that does not resemble his other arm. the further it is from ""arm"" the more connected he feels with his roots. personally I'm sick of amputee characters who are "magically able-bodied again bc technology" fuck that shit I want Zane to have a swiss army knife on that stump. a slingshot for water balloon fights. just his bare stump when he's not doing anything in particular. the presence of a tool or prosthetic on would differentiate for him a relaxed vs guarded state

you have this whole thing figured out, huh? nope! just some vivid details. if you have any questions about this idea or want me to write more on it, just drop me an ask

#congenital amputee character #bc it's torn off before he's 'reborn' and also he has no trauma associated w it #he's dealt with No Arm(s) and/or No Leg(s) before as a robot this isn't new or scary to him #dr julien #ninjago headcanons #ninjago #lego ninjago #zane julien

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 4 months ago

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INSIDE OUT 2 slowly treks to possibly unseating Photoreal LION KING, now playing in Japan where the original made around $30-35m USD, while DESPICABLE ME 4 slowly climbs towards the big billion. If it does so, that makes it the first film in the franchise to do that since the third movie way back in 2017. MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU was close but no cigar two summers back.

Both movies continue to fill up the auditoriums at the cinema I work at...

However, a new movie on the block with a curious helping of *2D* animation in it... Is not... The Sony release HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, directed by Blue Sky alum Carlos Saldanha (ICE AGE 2, RIO 1 & 2, FERDINAND) in his live-action debut. I know some are having a lark at the weird Zachary Levi FX vehicle arriving a year after completion with no marketing, bombing hard, but I can't help but think... That just sucks.

And a big case of "what could've been?" Hollywood's been trying to adapt the Crockett Johnson-written book, first published in 1955, since the 1990s. Animated shorts and a TV series were made, but the movie just stalled and stalled, shuffling through different directors and iterations... And mediums. Sony Animation at one point, in conjunction with Amblin, was supposed to do a feature based on this... So now we got this movie, finished some time in early 2023 with an MPA rating and everything... Months before its initial release date (late July 2023), with no trailer in sight, it quietly packed its bags and left for this summer. I guess they were concerned that being wedged between BARBIE and MUTANT MAYHEM wasn't exactly the best idea...

So, it tried to arrive - unnoticed - nearly a month after DESPICABLE ME 4. Both DM4 and INSIDE OUT 2 charted higher at the weekend box office than CRAYON, which only took in $6m stateside. It's another "animation director goes live-action" endeavor that ended rather poorly. Andrew Stanton and JOHN CARTER OF MARS, Brenda Chapman and COME AWAY, even Brad Bird with TOMORROWLAND. Saldanha now has a picture called 100 DAYS lined up, an effort the Brazilian director is pursuing in his home country, so that's good for him.

It's also another largely live-action family/kids movie - not made by Disney - that didn't add up. They just become rarer and rarer by the year, it seems. I remember when those kinds of movies were everywhere. All your STUART LITTLEs and BABEs and LAST MIMZYs, off the top of my head. I think around the late aughts/early tens, they started to slowly go away, many of them just came up short most of the time. If they do exist, and aren't part of a movie franchise (like, say, WONKA and the SONIC movies), I feel they go to Netflix or whatever. There was IF this year, but that didn't make back its budget despite strong audience response/great WOM. So they still kinda exist?

Anyways, the summer belongs to emotions and gibbering tictacs on the family end of things... Though I saw quite a few parents taking their 4-7yos into DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, and hey, some of today's kids probably see and hear worse elsewhere lol. I recall being allowed, weirdly, to watch SOUTH PARK circa 1999 when I was in 2nd grade but certain levels of violence were off-limits. I don't think my folks would've taken me to see an R-rated Deadpool/X-Men movie in 1999, haha.

So that probably ends the summer seasons, animation box office-wise. I know the autumnal equinox technically begins two days after TRANSFORMERS ONE opens, but I peg the beginning of it there. Bring on the robots!

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talenlee · 7 months ago

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The Brilliant Fool

Normally when I write here about a Transformers character, it’s a character who has some significance to me as – well, honestly, as an example of a kind of person I could be, growing up. Blades gave me a lesson about quelling the want for violence inside me and also how defensive violent bf /softboy medic bf was a top tier pairing, and Dinobot gave me lessons about dying well in the face of oblivion, a lesson that I thought I needed really soon when I got it. There are Transformers I love because of jokes, Transformers I love because of association with toys and there are some Transformers that I love because they are, through no fault of their own, completely useless doofuses.

Let’s talk about Wheeljack

Wheeljack is an OG Transformer. Not only was he present in the original TV series, he was the first ever Transformer to be animated, the first one to appear on a cell and the first one to say or do anything. Wheeljack was also in this privileged position because he was from an earlier time, an earlier toyline, one of the diaclone toys that needed minimal changes to come on over. And not only was this the 1980s but this was a Japanese toy from the 1970s, so his toy was a really nice model that was also, coincidentally, made largely out of die-cast metal and had all sorts of lovely detailing and stickers that you could use to show how good you were at putting on stickers unless you were a fumble handed gallumphus like myself.

Don’t worry, I never had a Wheeljack, but I knew someone who did, and that toy was nice.

Anyway, Wheeljack as a character was one of the huge cast of Transformers who got a personality written up in what feels in hindsight like filling out a spreadsheet, where the writer got a picture of a character and had to devise a name and personality for them and keep moving, while also doing everything they could to keep them from overlapping with one another, which, of course, they did. Did you know that Grimlock (A t-rex) and Fortress Maximus (a city) and Brawl (a little guy about the size of a VW bug) are all listed as the strongest Autobot? Making sense of these original bios was like digging through Biblical harmonisation, but at least Transformers admit they’re making stuff up.

Anyway, Wheeljack got given the personality up front of being a crackpot mad scientist working for the good guys, which meant you took an archetype normally full of potential malice and potential goofiness and then just stripped out all the malice. Wheeljack in G1 was a guy who would invent things, and those things would have to be useful to pretty much only anyone in exactly one episode. This meant Wheeljack was either solving the problem of the episode by techno-babbling up a device that would fix it, or causing the problem of the episode by techno-babbling up a device that unfixed something, and sometimes both.

Wheeljack served a good, steadfast, mechanical role in the story of the show and to that end he hung around a lot. He also had a really easy face to animate – rather than flap a mouth or move a visor, his face lit up when he was talking, which meant you just changed its colour. Real convenient, real nice when you wanted to have him talk at length.

But this is just ‘why Wheeljack showed up a lot,’ it’s not by any means an explanation as to why I liked Wheeljack. What I like about Wheeljack is instead something created in the negative space of the character by what the people making it didn’t intend to do.

Here’s how it cooks out. First of all, Wheeljack is an inventor who is memorably depicted screwing up and eating dirt, regularly. He’s an inventor but it’s easy to feel like his hit rate is half and half, and a bunch of the things he makes have the weirdest solutions to them and ways they work. It’s not true in the comics, mind you, those are written a bit less for, y’know, four year olds in the 1980s, but the ‘crackpot inventor’ element sticks around.

The other thing is that Wheeljack’s disguise sucks.

It’s not that he doesn’t look like a car, he sure does look like a car! But Wheeljack doesn’t turn into ‘a car.’ Wheeljack turns into a sports car.

Well, so what you may say, it’s not like sports cars are that rare.

And then I go, he turns into a Lancia Stratos

And you’d interrupt me, comically, — Well, okay, no you wouldn’t, you’d say what and I’m embellishing for the bit — and say, hey, no no, see, you’ve got a specific name for it, a model, that means it got made in some degree of mass production,

And I respond with yeah, we know how many of his type of Lancia Stratos got made. He’s the Group 5 Lancia Stratos. He has specific racing regalia on him for sponsor material. Because he didn’t copy ‘a car’, he copied a race ready Lancia Stratos Group 5. There were only 500 Lancia Stratos made, and only a small number of them – like, less than ten – were ever put into racing colours, and then they were deomissioned. Imagine if while trying to blend into a location you picked the disguise of ‘recognisable celebrity,’ or maybe tried to blend in at the zoo as an endangered animal of which they knew they only had two. This means Wheeljack was in a position to scan the Lancia Stratos Group 5 (which wasn’t run in many races after it failed!) and then drove around after it left!

It plays into the way that his inventions seemed to fail a lot, or seemed to work in weird ways. It depicts a person who has somehow a skillset that’s suited to making big, impressive, technically challenging accomplishments and not a goddamn lick of sense about what he can do with it. This is a guy who can invent a teleportation machine and his idea of how to use it to solve the war is to let humans move more quickly to and from the base to update them on what the Decepticons are doing. This is a guy who makes a blender with a frappe setting that retasks a satellite. This is a guy whose first appearance on screen is using a machine he built that then immediately backfires and sets the tone for him for the rest of his life.

Wheeljack is one of my favourite Transformers, but only in the way that I love to watch the way fans talk about him, because of the beautiful alignment of super genius and fantastic idiot.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Transformers #Media

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maximumwobblerbanditdonut · 9 months ago

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“Monsieur Spade” series (Prime Video)

Monsieur Spade is a TV series directed by Scott Frank in 2024 and based on the characters from the book The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, first published in 1929. The TV series features Clive Owen, Rebecca Root, Oscar Lesage, Cara Bossom, Inès Melab, Luke Tinson, and others.

The series revolves around the detective Sam Spade, created by writer Dashiell Hammett, who has been leading a peaceful retirement in the small town of Bozuls in the South of France. The year is 1963, the Algerian War has recently concluded, and soon Spade’s tranquillity will also come to an end.

The famous detective Sam Spade ( Clive Owen ) is now 60 years old and lives as an expatriate in the south of France in 1963. Monsieur Spade was an original story starring the character, bringing the iconic literary detective out of retirement in the south of France as Spade pursues a tortuous web of criminal conspiracy revolving around a mysterious young man.

Is Monsieur Spade Based On A Book? Monsieur Spade has interesting connections to a literary work from the 1930s as well as an iconic Hollywood film. Starring Clive Owen as the titular character, Monsieur Spade is a new mystery series from AMC. The show follows the exploits of Sam Spade, a once-successful private detective.

Choosing 1963 France as its main setting, the first season of Monsieur Spade tells a six-episode story that finds its main protagonist diving head first into a murder case. In the story's period, Clive Owen's Sam Spade is years past his prime. Having left the life of a private detective behind years ago, Sam is enjoying the lack of excitement in his everyday activities when he is suddenly forced back into action. As for where this all leads, that remains to be seen. However, this is not to say that Monsieur Spade is a completely original story. It is rooted in the existing material.

Sam Spade is the protagonist of the 1930 novel “The Maltese Falcon”

Sam Spade made his first appearance in The Maltese Falcon, a 1930 novel by Dashiell Hammett, before spearheading a series of short stories by the writer. The book was published as a serial in 1929 and published as a novel the following year. A private detective gets involved in a case to find an expensive but mysterious statuette and indulges with three criminals and a liar.

The novel proved popular enough to be adapted three times in the decade following its publication. While the first two adaptations were not well received, the third adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade is considered not just a great adaptation but one of the great films of the twentieth century.

During this era, stories about “tough detectives” became incredibly popular, with writers such as Hammett, Mickey Spillane, and Raymond Chandler penning some of the best-known entries in the mystery subgenre. Many of them, including The Maltese Falcon, ended up getting the Hollywood treatment.

In 1941, John Huston wrote and directed a film adaptation of The Maltese Falcon and cast Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart in the lead role of Sam Spade. The story, like the book it is based on, saw Spade engage in a multi-part quest to find a seemingly priceless bird statue called the Maltese Falcon. Bogart's performance in the film and Dashiell Hammett's handling of the story helped transform Sam Spade into one of the famous actor's best-known roles.

The events of Monsieur Spade take place well after the events of the book

Although the story told in Monsieur Spade is not based on a book, its protagonist comes from a classic novel. In Monsieur Spade's canon, the events of The Maltese Falcon are in the past. It acts as a sequel to the original 1930 novel. Everything that occurs in the book happened in the series, but it's been decades.

This makes sense considering Monsieur Spade's 1963 setting. Hammett's Sam Spade stories have never ventured this far into Sam Spade's life, meaning that while the show may explore the history of the Maltese Falcon through flashbacks, its overarching narrative must be an entirely new story, making it impossible to predict what happens just by looking at Hammett's work alone.

youtube

The series arrived on 14th January 2024

#MonsieurSpade #SamSpade #CliveOwen #AMC+ #TheMalteseFalcon #HumphreyBogart #JohnHuston #DashiellHammett #Hollywood #novel #series #drama

#Youtube

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rescue-ram · 9 months ago

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6, 11, 18 for the writer asks

6. First fic/pairing you wrote for? (If no pairing, describe the plot)

Kdjfjd. Don't remember the first real proper fic that I wrote, but I think the very first fic I ever posted to the Internet was like. "What if Pippin had a Yokomon." And it immediately got deleted by the mods on FF.net for being ""spam"" kfkdk.

11. Weirdest thing you’ve ever written/thought about writing/etc.?

I got pretty wild with Kinktober this year- I think the wildest thing I published was the Hawnk voodoo doll fic kfkdkd, though Trapper Jesus is probably a v close runner up in terms of deranged premises. I- and I am genuinely mortified about this kvkkfd- almost wrote a vore fantasy fic (aka character fantasizing about vore/cannibalism, not enacted.) I half-started it and then realized no- no matter how convinced I am this character could plausibly do that- I absolutely can't publish that kdkdjkf.

ACTUALLY 18. How old were you when you started writing fanfiction

Like 10 or 11 kfkck

EDIT I'M AN IDIOT AND COPIED THE WRONG QUESTION FROM THE ASK MEME BUT I SPENT TOO LONG ON THIS LVKDKXJCM

18. Favorite Fic By Another Author

I COULDN'T PICK JUST ONE Links and squeeing below the cut.

Your Cowboy Days Are Over by Sam Donne is one of those fics I read a little too young but is so good- it's exploration of memory and trauma and parental love and the trolley problem is woven in with this great sci-fi setting and a resistance story. Absolutely phenomenal. Another fic by Sam Donne- Nebraska, an Iron Man fic- is a fic I read once a year every year for over a decade and made me weep uncontrollably at multiple points every time. It's one of the most intensely psychological fics I've ever read and dealt phenomenally with depression and autism and the nature of consciousness, and it fundamentally shaped my language of grief. It also currently only exists as a print out in a fire proof bag next to my social security card. The thought of losing that fic forever genuinely makes me gnaw on things!

One other SGA shout out: A Farm in Iowa by sheafrotherdon. My best friend and I were completely obsessed with this series in high school. Sweet wholesome AU fluff, absolutely bucolic.

In adjacent Stargate fandom, cleanwhiteroom recently posted a revised version of Force Over Distance to AO3 and is working revising on my personal fave of her stories Mathematique! Incredibly compelling slow-burn of a plot with deliciously ambiguous relationships and consciousness blending that questions the nature of self and other. Extremely concept rich story.

The Heart's Obligations by schemingreader I THOUGHT was lost media but it is found!!!! Augh. The ULTIMATE transformative fic to me- so wildly AU from its source material, Harry Potter, it's practically an original novel and yet the knowledge that this ISN'T original and IS informed by outside context changes the way you read it. Really well written and well researched historical novel with lines that have stuck with me for well over a decade.

For Man from UNCLE, couldn't decide between Wonderland and Partners, both by Pat Foley. Really interesting and realistic take on the canon material and makes great use of the Cold War setting.

Force of Nature by Jenna Hilary Sinclair for Brokeback Mountain is an ABSOLUTELY TRANSCENDENT "What if Jack didn't die" fic that is so so realistic and well written and touching. Not a happily ever after fic, but also not needlessly cruel, but a very compelling story of Jack and Ennis making a real relationship work while staying closeted in rural New Mexico. Incredible characterization, good OCs, plotty and long enough to lose yourself in, incredibly influential on my writing in ways I can't even express, you WOULD NOT BELIEVE MY SQUEE when I saw she was writing a sequel after a ten year hiatus!!!!

Graduation by bat400 takes some of the dark storylines from Star Trek Enterprise and plays them out without giving them a neat resolution an episodic TV show demands. Fully explores the depths of tragedy but still pulls it back up to that Star Trek optimism at the end without undermining what came before at all. There are some annoying formatting issues in the AO3 copy from when it was imported, but the story itself still shines. A really well written story about grief, moral injury, and recovery.

Okay we've officially exhausted my "off the top of my head" all time favorites and I'm now mentally gibbering to myself about what else I should mention because clearly I have many favorites that rotate in the back of my mind the way normal people think about scenes and quotes from real books or poems jfkdn.

We will close with Sins and Virtues by Quordle, because I VIVIDLY REMEMBER the experience of reading this I think in high school. I remember pawing thorough livejournal for TrapHawk fic recs, absolutely QwQ at the dearth, and there was like. A single line in a review for another fic, "inspired by the excellent Hawkeye/Mulcahy fic Sins and Virtues by Jane Carnall" and I was SO COMPLETELY GOBSMACKED by the concept of shipping Mulcahy with anyone but especially Hawkeye, I just had to track down this fic. I eventually found her personal archive and started reading the series like "Okay... Okay... Augh. AAAAAAAUGHHHHHHH." I was seriously getting up to pace multiple times during Such as We. Something that really made the series stand out to me was how DIFFERENT it felt. It didn't follow the usual rhythm of tension and release in shippy fics, used none of the usual tropes or short hands- it felt very original, and I loved how historically grounded it was. Like I'm sure you've already read it but if anyone else reading this hasn't, highly highly recommend!!!

#thank you for the ask #and an excuse to gibber wildly about my favorite fics QwQ

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denimbex1986 · 9 months ago

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Two of Europe's hottest stars sit in a green leather armchair each between a movie poster adorned with a bouquet of flowers. They look like two carefree unshaven Irish lads who could be on holiday in the sun. Paul Mescal wears a white t-shirt, while Andrew Scott sports a turquoise "No problem" t-shirt emblazoned with pop culture alien ALF, the 80s sitcom character whose name stands for "Alien Life Form" .

Perhaps a subtle reference to their new film, "All of us strangers"? It is certainly not about aliens, but is in any case a cosmic love story about two extraterrestrial aliens who find each other in a lonely world. At the same time, it is a kind of supernatural "ghost story" about a queer son who gets a second chance to talk to his dead parents.

- Although the role scared the crap out of me, Andrew Haigh's script was the most original I've read in ages. Everything in this film is rooted in tenderness and love – and who doesn't dream of going back and redefining the relationship with their parents, Andrew Scott wonders rhetorically, making a gesture where he is given the opportunity to discreetly flex one of his biceps at a zoom screen from London.

For a Swedish audience, he is perhaps best known for the role of the arch-villain Professor Moriarty in "Sherlock Holmes" and "the hot priest" that Phoebe Waller Bridge becomes obsessed with in the second season of "Fleabag".

Andrew Scott believes that "All of us strangers" is the most personal thing he has done.

- I love the mix of naturalism and surrealism in this film, it's completely different from anything I've played before. I've always wished I was in Derek Cianfrance's tragic love story "Blue Valentine" and suddenly I get a chance at a film similar to "All of us strangers". I've never before brought myself into the role in the same way and for once I didn't have to work on my accent, smiles the Dublin-born actor who has long lived in London.

In "All of us strangers" he plays Adam, a gay writer with writing cramp who slowly falls for his mysterious neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal) who lives in the same soulless and deserted apartment complex in London's East End. Parallel to the budding romance, he commutes to his childhood suburb to meet his dead parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) exactly as old as they were when they died in a car accident when he was 11 years old.

Andrew Haigh got the idea from Taichi Yamada's novel "Strangers" from 1987. After much effort and trouble, he managed to transform the rather traditional Japanese ghost story into something more poetic, psychological and personal.

- I ignited this whole idea of meeting his dead parents again and being able to reconcile with his own past in order to help with the future. It was of course crazy risky, but it wasn't about making a traditional ghost story, but about creating something vulnerable, true and honest that would be an emotional experience, says Andrew Haigh.

In the past, he has directed wayward films such as "45 Years", "Weekend" and "Lean on Pete", as well as TV series such as macho "The North Water" and "Looking", which revolves around three gay friends in San Francisco. "All of us strangers" is his most personal film to date. To get closer, he made the main character a gay writer.

- I am gay and this is a story I have wanted to tell for a long time, a film about the experiences of "queerness", non-heteronormativity, and how it can make people feel like strangers in their own family. The concept of going back in time and dealing with the complicated issues of growing up queer within a family has its own challenges. It's also about the difficulty of parenting and saying the right things at the right time, says Andrew Haigh.

- For me, the film is also about the writing process itself. To investigate one's own past through a fictional world. Not that I look back on my upbringing with a desperate sadness, more curiosity, melancholy and a strange nostalgia. But just like the character Adam, I look back on my own life, says Haigh.

For the director, it was also a highly private experience. Among other things, he filmed several scenes in his real childhood home in Croydon, south London, which he left 40 years ago.

- It was a ghostly experience. Like walking into a haunted house, but it was my memories that were the ghosts. We designed it the same way as when I was a kid. When we finished, I closed the door behind me and experienced a catharsis, as if I was free and could move on, says Haigh.

Nevertheless, it is still not straightforward. In the same vein as he was to film a key scene where the grown-up Adam talks to his father, Andrew Haigh visited his father in the dementia home.

- Although I had the same partner for 18 years, he asked me: "Do you have a wife?". My first thought was, "Oh my God, am I going to have to come out again?", but then I pretended it was raining. Oddly enough, I felt a bit terrified about having to tell him I was gay again - even though he was fine with me coming out in my 20s, says Andrew Haigh.

- So that scene with Adam was extremely difficult to write. I wanted to make it a moment that was as simple as it was meaningful. I was incredibly moved, he says.

In many ways, "All of us strangers" is reminiscent of "45 years", which is also a kind of ghost story. A fate-filled drama about a struggling British couple (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay) who are suddenly haunted by an old love story just in time for the couple's 45th wedding anniversary.

- Yes, I think there was definitely a similarity between the films. But I've always been interested in the past versus the present because that's how we learn throughout our lives. Our first fifteen years have such a dramatic and profound impact on who we become as an adult, he says.

In "All of us strangers" he fills it with pop music from his upbringing in the 1980s; Pet Shop Boys, The Housemartins and, not least, Frankie goes to Hollywood's "The power of love", which becomes a signature song for the entire film and not least its emblematic final scene.

- There was something in that song that spoke to me already as an 11-year-old without me really knowing about it. A bombastic pop song that is loaded with longing. Actually, it was quite subversive to be mainstream, there's a melancholy and darkness lurking beneath the surface, says Andrew Haigh.

Although Holly Johnson's "The power of love" wasn't exactly Paul Mescal's cup of tea, it helped him get in the right emotional mood during the recording.

- Andrew has interpreted the power of love in the most extraordinary way. This is his way of saying that Adam and Harry's relationship is also a grand love story that has its place up there in heaven with all the other heterosexual love stories. I think it's very beautiful, says Paul Mescal who was Oscar-nominated last year for his performance in Charlotte Wells' Aftersun, where he played a tormented father on his first joint charter trip with his eleven-year-old daughter.

He does not think that the self-confident but traumatized Harry is an essential character from father Callum in "Aftersun".

- Harry belongs to a certain kind of family of characters that I have played, but is also completely different. Subconsciously, I'm obviously drawn to this kind of material that deals with tormented masculinity and humanity, smiles Paul Mescal.

Like Andrew Scott, he is a great admirer of Andrew Haigh's films. In addition to the script, Scott was also a decisive factor in his acceptance. Before "All of us strangers", they had admired each other from afar. The recording turned into a bromance in full bloom that ended with intimate scenes where Paul Mescal "went down" on Andrew Scott co-star and licked a kind of cake mix from the co-star's body. In interviews, Mescal has explained that it was such a powerful moment that it almost scared him.

- Yes, there was a special charge between us. We were both very aware of how intense it was and how we were somehow aware of how committed we were to each other. It is very beautiful that the story often lies in the character who is listening, which is quite unusual. The challenge was to tell a story via sexual intimacy. We treated the sex scenes as if they were dialogue scenes, the only thing different was that we were half-naked, smiles Paul Mescal.

Andrew Scott believes that sex scenes between two male actors often tend to be about raw sexuality, but that "All of us strangers" felt radical because it was more interested in highlighting the tenderness between the characters.

- The first scenes when Adam and Harry meet in the elevator and at the front door trigger the film's sexual charge. When they are separated after the slightly awkward meeting, it creates an urge in the audience for them to reunite. When they finally sit next to each other on the couch and they stare at each other, it gets very, uh, sexy. I like the scene where Adam forgets to breathe because he hasn't been with anyone in a long time, says Andrew Scott.

Like the director, Andrew Scott talks about working on "All of us strangers" as a kind of cleansing bath. Before the recording, they both talked about their experiences in the loneliness of growing up queer in the gap between the 80s and 90s.

- Going back in time can be both anxious and nostalgic. For me, the challenge was trying to bring together Haigh's story with my own story, both the pain and the joy, says Andrew Scott the day after the film's Irish gala premiere in Dublin.

Although he was not entirely comfortable with the idea of being in the same room as his parents when they watch the sex scenes in "All of us strangers", he seems to have managed it without a pillow of shame.

- It was a magical evening in my hometown. My family was there and all the other people I love so much. Suddenly it was as if I saw this whole journey that I've been on, realized that this is a deeply personal film that hit me right in the heart. I really love this movie.'

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everythingmaxriemelt · 2 years ago

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Max talks to General-Anzeiger about “Bonn - alte Freunde, neue Feinde” TV series.

Q: In "Bonn - Old Friends, New Enemies" you play a secret agent. Was secret agent on your unfulfilled roles wish-list?

Max: No, there is no wish-list of unfulfilled roles. I found the character and the series itself very exciting - especially the background. A story that hasn't been told that much until now - neither in school lessons, in society, nor in films or TV.

Q: How did you prepare for the role of Wolfgang Berns? Any tips from real agents?

Max: In the series, you only watch Wolfgang Berns doing certain tasks. I don't think I needed agent training for that. But what had to be practiced from time to time was motorcycling. Because it's a historical story, there were old motorcycles and cars that weren't easy to drive.

Q: Do you ride a motorbike or did you have to learn it for the role?

Max: I can ride a motorbike, but with the older machines it's just something completely different. But it was good and fun. Overall, this agent role was a lot of fun. (laughs) I would say that's actually the origin of actors: you transform and you disguise yourself. Emotions were also particular importance in the role, which was a challenge. Berns is a guy who is rather opaque - he poses a great mystery to the viewer.

Q:The series is based on true events in the young Federal Republic. Did you know the names of Otto John and Reinhard Gehlen before shooting?

Max: I've heard the names before. But what dimensions the Gehlen organization had at the time was frightening for me - especially how many old Nazis worked for the Federal Intelligence Service or were involved in its founding. I knew even less about Otto John than about Gehlen, I had to read everything about him first.

Q: When you work with such historical material, do you stick to the events very precisely?

Max: Luckily my character wasn’t an actual person, so I didn't have to worry about that. That was the task of the director, how she created and told the character. But I had complete confidence because she knows the subject very well.

Q: When you were shooting on the Konrad Adenauer ferry in Bad Godesberg in July 2021, it was raining incessantly (NB: actually there was a flooding crisis in the area around that time). What memories do you have of the shoot?

Max: The day actually started quite nicely. (laughs) Then it started raining, and when we were on the ferry, it really poured. But you have to see that as a sport. Later on in the film it looks good, so nobody asks how about it anymore. You just have to concentrate and persevere. But I had a very nice time in the area. I really like the Drachenfels (hill), (the location of ) the legend of Siegfried, I also like hiking through the woods – nature is really great there.

Q: Speaking of Drachenfels: Babylon Berlin was partly filmed on the Drachenburg. There are many other historical crime series, with “Bonn – Old Friends, New Enemies” adding to it. Why is this historical material so popular with the public?

Max: I believe that such material is always in demand. The audience has a fascination for the past, and also for their own identity. It all has something to do with where you come from. 100 years ago was an extremely exciting time that is shown in Babylon. The time after the war is like a dark episode in German history that has not yet been properly dealt with. That's why it's exciting to get information that reflects the complexity and concerns of the post-war period. There were mixed feelings at the time: people survived the war, but some people still had the perpetrator mentality. Others wanted to make sure this never happened again. All this can be told in an exciting way, with people who have experienced extreme fates collide.

Q: Also exciting because this period has been kept silent in many families...

Max: Many also got into a moral conflict. Especially when it comes to guilt and the motives you had during the war. There are different opinions and attitudes about it.

Q: Does it help you as an actor if you shoot on original locations? You shot a large part on a set in the Czech Republic far from Bonn...

Max: Costumes, backgrounds and every little detail helps - that way you can put yourself in the shoes of that time and you are not disrupted by modern things that later have to be concealed. The shooting in Prague was very nice. We pretty much had the city to ourselves due to the Covid lockdown, the film sets were empty. Everything was beautifully restored, and if you walked inside it, you could quickly forget the time.

Q: You played in the Hollywood film "Matrix" - that's something completely different than your current role of Wolfgang Berns. How do you switch from fiction to history?

Max: I wouldn’t say it’s a switch. It's just a different kind of work. Matrix was a big production that had a lot of money and was made with a lot of people. The content is also different: the conversation in Matrix is more of a philosophical nature, and in Bonn, it’s more fictional, but also biopic-like. Which means a completely different form of authenticity.

*interview from General-Anzeiger and gifs are mine

#max riemelt #max german interview #bonn #bonn alte freunde neue feinde #wolfgang berns #matrix ressurections #general anzeiger

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bhavnish · 4 days ago

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The Impact of Streaming Services on Traditional Media

In the last decade, streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video have completely transformed the entertainment landscape. These platforms have become go-to sources for everything from TV shows and movies to documentaries and live sports, shaking the foundations of traditional media like cable TV, broadcast networks, and physical media sales. The shift from traditional media to streaming is not just a passing trend—it represents a fundamental change in how we consume content, how it's produced, and the entire business model that powers the media industry.

1. The Shift in Consumer Behavior: On-Demand Content Over Scheduled Programming

One of the most significant changes streaming has brought about is the shift in consumer behavior. In the past, television viewing was dictated by scheduled programming—viewers had to tune in at specific times to watch their favorite shows, often with little flexibility. Cable TV offered hundreds of channels, but you still had to navigate through commercials and follow the program’s timeline.

A. Binge-Watching Culture Streaming services introduced on-demand content, allowing users to watch entire seasons or even entire series at their own pace. This shift gave rise to the "binge-watching" culture, where viewers can watch multiple episodes in one sitting without the interruption of commercials or waiting for next week's episode. Netflix, in particular, is credited with popularizing this trend by releasing entire seasons at once, allowing for seamless and immediate viewing.

B. Convenience and Flexibility Unlike traditional TV, which often requires a cable subscription or satellite dish, streaming services are accessible anywhere with an internet connection, and on various devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and smart TVs. Consumers now have the flexibility to watch content when and where they want, without the restrictions of geographic location or rigid broadcast schedules.

2. Changing Business Models: Subscription vs. Advertising

Traditional media has long relied on advertising revenue to sustain its business model, particularly for TV channels. Ad-supported content is ubiquitous on cable networks, where advertisers pay large sums to reach a captive audience. However, the rise of streaming services has introduced new ways of monetizing content, primarily through subscription models.

A. Subscription-Based Services Platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video operate primarily on a subscription-based model, where users pay a monthly fee to access their content. This model allows streaming services to offer ad-free viewing experiences, giving subscribers more control over what they watch and when they watch it. While this model generates substantial revenue for streaming giants, it has also put pressure on traditional media companies to rethink their business strategies.

B. The Advent of Ad-Supported Streaming In response to growing competition and the need to diversify revenue streams, some streaming services are now introducing ad-supported tiers. Platforms like Netflix and Disney+ have launched lower-cost subscription options that include ads, trying to combine the best of both worlds: affordable content for viewers and ad revenue for the companies. This hybrid approach is challenging the traditional notion that subscription services must be ad-free.

3. Impact on Content Creation: A New Era of Original Programming

Streaming services have also dramatically shifted the way content is produced. In the past, traditional media relied on a few major networks and studios to create and distribute content. These networks were often risk-averse, sticking to proven formats and genres that could attract large, broad audiences. Streaming platforms, however, have redefined what content can be and how it’s made.

A. A Surge in Original Content One of the key ways streaming services have disrupted traditional media is by investing heavily in original content. Netflix, for example, has developed a huge library of original series, films, and documentaries, including hits like Stranger Things, The Crown, and The Witcher. This not only attracted new subscribers but also created a shift in how we think about TV and film production. Streaming services are now driving the production of diverse and innovative content, often breaking away from traditional industry norms.

B. Global Reach and Niche Content Unlike traditional media, which is often limited to specific regional markets or broadcast standards, streaming platforms provide global reach. A show produced in one country can be instantly available to viewers around the world. Platforms like Netflix have embraced international content with shows like Money Heist (Spain) and Dark (Germany), which have garnered massive global followings. Furthermore, streaming services are creating room for niche content that might not have had a space on mainstream TV, catering to specialized tastes and interests.

4. Challenges for Traditional Media: Declining Viewership and Ad Revenues

The rise of streaming has caused significant disruptions for traditional media companies. Cable TV subscriptions have been on a steady decline, a phenomenon known as "cord-cutting," as more consumers opt for cheaper and more flexible streaming options.

A. Declining Cable Subscriptions The most noticeable impact of streaming on traditional media is the decline in cable TV subscriptions. As more people cut the cord and switch to streaming services, cable companies have been forced to adjust. Some have launched their own streaming platforms or partnered with existing ones, but the overall trend of declining viewership and lost advertising revenue is undeniable.

B. The End of Traditional TV Networks? For decades, broadcast and cable TV networks were the dominant sources of entertainment. However, streaming services have forced traditional networks to adapt or risk becoming irrelevant. Companies like NBCUniversal, Fox, and CBS have launched their own streaming services—Peacock, Hulu (now partly owned by Disney), and Paramount+—in an effort to keep up with the demand for on-demand, ad-free content. Even legacy networks that once relied heavily on advertising revenue are now facing increased pressure to pivot.

5. The Future of Media: Hybrid Models and Convergence

The future of the media landscape is still evolving, and the battle between streaming services and traditional media is far from over. While streaming services are dominating the content space, traditional media has deep roots and a broad reach that streaming platforms still need to contend with.

A. The Rise of Hybrid Models We are likely to see more hybrid models emerge, where traditional media companies combine their broadcast channels with streaming services to offer more flexible viewing options. This could involve live sports broadcasts, news, and exclusive events being streamed alongside more traditional TV fare. Additionally, the proliferation of streaming services might lead to content bundles, where users subscribe to multiple services at once for a discounted price.

B. Integration of Traditional and Streaming Content There is also a growing trend of traditional media companies and streaming platforms working together. For example, Disney owns both traditional TV networks like ABC and cable channels like ESPN, along with the streaming platform Disney+. Similarly, Amazon has begun broadcasting live sports through Prime Video, a direct challenge to traditional sports broadcasters.

Conclusion

Streaming services have fundamentally reshaped the media landscape, altering how we consume content and how it’s created. Traditional media, from cable TV to physical DVDs, has had to adapt to the rise of on-demand, subscription-based entertainment. As more consumers turn to streaming for its convenience, personalization, and cost-effectiveness, traditional media faces both challenges and opportunities to evolve. Whether through hybrid models or direct partnerships, the future of media will likely see the convergence of traditional broadcast powerhouses and digital streaming giants, creating a diverse and dynamic ecosystem that continues to reshape our entertainment experience.

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