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hustledimension · 5 months ago

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The Production of The Road to El Dorado

From here. Warning, fairly long

PAVING THE ROAD TO EL DORADO

No one can say for certain whether El Dorado is pure invention or a myth borne of the truth, but the legend of this lost city of gold has endured for over 500 years. Now DreamWorks Pictures takes audiences on a musical adventure to this fabled land, with the unlikeliest of guides—a pair of hapless miscreants named Tulio and Miguel.

Executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg reveals that the central characters of Tulio and Miguel have their roots in the scene-stealing sidekicks found in virtually every animated favorite. "Having made these movies for a number of years now, I’ve always thought it would be a great idea to take what would ordinarily be the secondary characters—the dysfunctional losers, the comic relief—and send them off on some big adventure of their own."

"The flawed, but funny supporting characters are often the most interesting," director Don Paul concurs. "A main objective of this film was to break the mold of the typical heroic leading men with two scoundrels, who are anything but typical heroes."

The filmmakers add that the inspiration for Tulio and Miguel could also be found in the classic Hope & Crosby road movies and other popular buddy films over the years.

"The buddy relationship is the very heart of the story," says producer Bonne Radford. "They need each other because they’re both pretty inept. They’re opposites—Tulio is the schemer and Miguel is the dreamer. Their camaraderie adds to the adventure; you almost don’t need to know where they’re going or what they’re after, because the fun is in the journey."

The fun was also in recording the journey, owing mostly to Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh, the award-winning actors who gave voice to Tulio and Miguel respectively.

Producer Brooke Breton notes, "We brought them together to record, which is unusual in animation, and it was a delight. They had such a great time, and their energy and creativity elevated each other’s performances."

"Kevin and Kenneth are such great talents and each have an incredible sense of humor: Ken is very dry and witty; and Kevin is a natural comedian. They had such terrific chemistry, and it was marvelous to put them together and see what happened. We were able to incorporate a lot of their personalities in their characters, because, like Tulio and Miguel, they are something of an odd couple," Katzenberg says.

Kenneth Branagh remarks, "Tulio and Miguel are a great combination and it was fun to play that relationship opposite Kevin. Miguel is a romantic, who adores adventure and excitement. He’s a good foil for Tulio, who, by contrast, is much more of a cynic."

"Miguel is the idealist, and Tulio is the more earth-bound realist, so together they form one entire half-wit," Kevin Kline quips. "Tulio is always finding himself in these terrible life and death predicaments—often because of Miguel—but I think he really loves wheedling his way out of them. He’s an actor in a way; life for him is a giant improvisation."

That improvisational quality was perfect for each actor’s approach to his role. "Kenneth could go to the mike and immediately give me 15 separate interpretations of a single line. He’s amazing," director Eric "Bibo" Bergeron notes. "Any nuance we could possibly have needed was in the performance he delivered. For his part, Kevin would constantly try variations on his lines and came up with some wonderful gems. In some cases, we ended up using his ad libs, which are some of the funniest lines in the film."

"Everyone agreed our dialogue should have a more spontaneous feel, so Kevin and I had a lot of fun bantering and throwing lines back and forth," Branagh recalls. "In theory, that off-the-cuff quality might be harder to achieve in an animated movie where the process is so technical, but one of the most impressive things about this production was that the technical aspects didn’t eliminate imagination and invention from the process."

"Physically, it is more confining, but your imagination can really go wild," Kline agrees. "You can close your eyes and envision this magnificent city of gold, unlike live action, where there is some semblance of a set around you. In that way, animation is more freeing; you can take larger creative leaps."

Physical limitations were not an issue for the animation artists responsible for the visual manifestation of Tulio and Miguel on the screen. One of today’s leading animators, James Baxter, the senior supervising animator for Tulio, and supervising animator William Salazar led a team of 17 animators in bringing Tulio visually to life. Baxter observes, "We wanted a degree of caricature, so we took a broader, more comedic approach. Having someone as versatile as Kevin Kline to work with was a joy. His performance is so full of life, and it’s great when you have that kind of foundation on which to build your animation. We were able to be a lot more expressive and flamboyant."

"It’s actually easy to capture the outlines of the character when you have a voice talent like Kenneth Branagh," says Dave Brewster, the senior supervising animator for Miguel, who collaborated with supervising animators Serguei Kouchnerov and Bob Scott, and a team of 13 in animating Miguel’s every move. "His performance really influenced where we went with the character—facial expressions, attitudes…it’s all in the voice."

Kline offers, "I can see where the animators dovetailed certain expressions or gestures into the character, but I never feel like I’m watching myself when I’m watching Tulio. It’s great because he has a life of his own…he’s just sort of borrowed my voice."

"It amazes me how animators are able to form this marriage between what they have imagined and what they get when they hear and see you," Branagh states. "The miracle of making all that come together in an original creation is quite something."

Arriving in El Dorado, Tulio and Miguel add a new facet to their partnership in the form of a beautiful native named Chel. If Tulio and Miguel are not your typical heroes, then it follows that Chel is a departure from the usual animated heroine. "She’s remarkable, because in many ways, she’s a contemporary woman," Radford states. "She has tremendous strength, and is every bit as clever and devious as the men. She plays their game at least as well as they do…if not better."

"The combination of Chel with Tulio and Miguel makes for a very interesting trio," says Breton. "She adds an edge and an energy that counterbalances them, and eventually becomes a wedge between them."

Rosie Perez brings her distinctive vocalization to the role of the woman who is more than a match for the two con men. "Chel has Miguel and Tulio’s number the first time she lays eyes on them," Perez laughs. "I love her; she’s smart and sexy, does all the planning—and looks great doing it. She loves life, but she’s frustrated with her own life; she thinks El Dorado is her trap, representing all her limitations, but that’s not so. When she finds what she wants, the world just opens up to her."

Bergeron says, "Rosie has a such a spark. She was always in a great mood, laughing and having fun. She’s so full of life and has an attitude that added so much to Chel. We took Rodolphe Guenoden, the supervising animator for Chel, to New York for a recording session, and he noticed the way she moves. She’s always sort of dancing—there’s a little ‘groove’ to her even when she’s just talking—and he was able to incorporate that into his animation."

"What Rodolphe did with her facial expressions and her movements was right on the money," Perez declares. "He really brought out her charm. But," she smiles, "she’s much more toned than I am. I would never be confident enough to run around in a little outfit like that."

The actress also appreciated the depiction of Chel as a woman indigenous to the Latin culture. "I think the filmmakers have done a wonderful job in being sensitive to the portrayal of Chel and other characters as Latinos," Perez attests. "What they did was deal with her human side first before dealing with her outward appearance, and that’s so important. They approached the culture with a lot of respect. I think the Latin community is going to be very happy with this one, and it’s about time."

Another very respected member of the Hispanic acting community plays a lead role in "The Road to El Dorado." Edward James Olmos provides the voice of the Chief, and notes, "I love that the film and the cast have so much cultural diversity. It’s quite a combination, from Hispanic Americans to Europeans."

While he bears no physical resemblance to the imposingly large figure of the character, Olmos’ voice conveys the strength, wisdom and benevolence of a great leader. "The Chief is the voice of the people," Radford says. "He’s wise and loving and rules in a very gentle way. He’s not passive—he wields great power—but his wisdom shines through."

"He’s also a very smart man. You realize he’s been on to Tulio and Miguel from the beginning," Bergeron offers. "That blend of goodness and wisdom was something Edward could communicate with just his voice. He was the first person we thought of because we knew he could capture the warmth, the love and the authority of the Chief brilliantly…and he did."

"This is my first animated film," Olmos says, "and the fun I had was phenomenal. It was exciting to build a character completely with just your voice. It’s liberating, rather than confining, because you have to really feel what the character is doing. Then the animators come in and have to develop the expressions from just your voice. It’s exciting to watch it come together."

Frans Vischer, the supervising animator on the Chief, states, "Edward James Olmos gave this wonderful touch to his performance where he could say one thing, but you’d know he meant something completely different. His voice is low and calming and has an all-knowing quality, which is exactly what we wanted in the Chief."

In keeping with these attributes, Vischer and his team of animators also gave the Chief a physical grace disproportionate with his massive size. "When you see him standing there, you expect him to be a big klutz, but instead he moves with great dignity and elegance. We played with the contradictions of the character: when you first see him, you might have a preconceived notion that he’s big and dumb, but you soon discover that he is very perceptive, not to mention very graceful."

In stark contrast to the Chief is his nemesis, the High Priest Tzekel-Kan. Armand Assante, the voice of Tzekel-Kan, relates, "He’s vying for the Chief’s power, and believes when Tulio and Miguel show up on the scene that they’re his key to taking over the kingdom. His mistake."

"One of the best things about Armand’s performance is that he made Tzekel-Kan a multi-faceted character, as opposed to a one-dimensional villain," Don Paul says. "He gave him great strength and intensity, but was also able to bring a wry sort of comedic sensibility to the role."

"Tzekel-Kan is evil, but he enjoys what he is doing so much, that it makes him a lot more interesting and fun to watch," Radford agrees.

"I love doing villains, because they’re always the most fun," says Kathy Zielinski, supervising animator for Tzekel-Kan. "Armand gave us the kind of villain you love to hate. He was so great to watch record because he is so active and dynamic, even in front of a microphone. He gave us a lot of inspiration, and we put many of his actions into the character animation."

Assante recalls, "The sessions were fascinating for me because we were able to experiment and give a great deal of attention to the script. It’s a painstakingly slow process, but well worth it. One almost wishes that the amount of detail given to animation could be found in the live-action world."

In recording the dialogue for all the characters in "The Road to El Dorado," a lot of attention was paid to creating the kind of fast-paced, overlapping dialogue that is typically more common to live action films. Paul expounds, "We kept overlapping dialogue from one character to another, which is not traditional in animation, but we really wanted to give the banter between the characters a tighter rhythm. It boosted the energy and gave a unique style to the film."

One major member of the ensemble, however, never speaks: Altivo, the loyal war horse who joins Miguel and Tulio on their journey to El Dorado. Kristof Serrand, the supervising animator for Altivo, notes, "It’s all pantomime, which comes across in animation fairly well. I tried not to make him too cartoony; most of the time he moves like a real horse. But there are also shots of him doing things like climbing stairs, and there’s no way a horse can do that."

THE MUSICAL ROAD

Legendary recording artist Elton John serves as the musical narrative voice of "The Road to El Dorado," propelling the story via six original songs heard in the film, written by John and Tim Rice.

Katzenberg offers, "We wanted the songs sung by Elton to be the heart and soul of the movie—not only helping to tell the story, but revealing what’s happening beneath the surface."

Hans Zimmer composed the score, marking his first collaboration with John and Rice since their Oscar-winning triumph "The Lion King." Joining the team for this film is composer John Powell, who worked with Zimmer on the score.

"Having Elton, Tim and Hans together again on a movie is a dream for me," states Katzenberg, another "Lion King" alumnus. "To get to work with these guys is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I feel extremely lucky that it’s happened to me twice."

"The reason I loved doing ‘The Lion King’ and wanted to be a part of this film is the rapport I have with Jeffrey Katzenberg," Elton John says. "He’s inspirational; he makes me feel a part of the team, not just in terms of the music, but the film as a whole. He’s always willing to listen to what I think about the movie. Of course, then I have to let him say what he thinks about the music," John laughs.

"I wanted to do another animated film," he continues. "Of course, I’m lucky. I write the melodies, so compared to Tim, I have the easy job. Animation is a long process—the story evolves, the jokes change, the songs switch scenes…and through all that, Tim is rewriting lyrics. But it was just delightful to work with Jeffrey, Tim and Hans again. We have tremendous respect for one another, so it was truly a team effort."

The first song heard in the movie is the opening theme "El Dorado," which accompanies the vividly colorful creation of the mythical city. "It needed to be a majestical, up-tempo song to really catch your attention at the start of the film," says John. "Lyrically, it tells the story of how El Dorado was formed as a glorious gift from the gods, which visually matches the incredible opening of the movie done by the animators."

Before we can explore El Dorado, however, we first meet up with Tulio and Miguel in 16th-century Spain, where they are caught cheating in a dice game, putting the story in motion. The settings of the story in Spain and El Dorado had a strong influence on the songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, as well as the musical score compositions created by Hans Zimmer and John Powell.

"The music has to have an essence of the culture," John says. "All the songs in the movie are melodically linked because of their Latin roots."

"An interesting element of the music is that we have Spanish, Latin American and South American music intersecting in a harmonious way," Zimmer adds. "I love those musical styles, so it was great to do a little ‘knitting’ between them. At the same time, it’s not an anthropological study; it’s a fun movie, so we used several instruments that didn’t even exist in those days. It’s a bit of a cheat, but that’s the idea: to find the culture and then try to cross its borders for a broad audience."

Zimmer also broke tradition by not using a full orchestra for much of the scoring. The characters’ individual themes are performed by small ensembles to achieve an intimate sound, as heard in Chel’s theme, aptly titled "Cheldorado." Gifted guitarist Heitor Pereira from Brazil, a former member of the rock group Simply Red, plays all the acoustic and Spanish guitar compositions in the film.

In addition, Zimmer relates, "I saw this unbelievable group called Triology perform in Cologne. They have a sound like nobody else, and I knew they’d be perfect for this film. The hard part was telling Jeffrey that, instead of an orchestra, I wanted to use this avante garde string trio I had found in Germany. My thinking was, ‘yes, we’re the team from ‘The Lion King,’ but now let’s see who we can bring into this team and really make it different.’ I think it worked out really well."

Getting Tulio and Miguel from Spain to El Dorado leads to the song "The Trail We Blaze." Lyricist Tim Rice offers, "‘The Trail We Blaze’ is the film’s road song. It’s two guys going to conquer the world, full of ambition and dreams. They haven’t yet been disillusioned by anything."

The two friends come to what appears to be a dead end, when they meet Chel, a beautiful native girl who is as determined to get away from El Dorado as they are to get in. Though hardly a willing guide, Chel is the reason Tulio and Miguel finally arrive in the magnificent city of gold. When the High Priest, Tzekel-Kan, declares them to be gods, Tulio and Miguel realize that being the fulfillment of prophecy could be very profitable. Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh perform "It’s Tough to Be a God," the only song in the film not sung by Elton John.

Branagh remarks, "We both like to sing, and it was an incredible treat as an actor to be able to sing music by Elton John and the extremely witty lyrics of Tim Rice, and then to work with the brilliant Hans Zimmer in the studio. That sort of opportunity rarely comes along, so it was great fun to come into the recording studio and have a chance to play."

"We had great times with Kevin and Kenneth jamming in the studio," Zimmer recalls. "I had to ignore the directors and producers looking over my shoulder and let zaniness prevail. That was the atmosphere I was trying to create, and it worked perfectly with the type of song it is."

"It’s first and foremost a comic number," Rice says. "It’s meant to be funny, but at the same time, it’s illustrating the strange position that our two heroes have gotten themselves into."

During their time in El Dorado, Tulio and Miguel find themselves enticed by the charms of the city—but not the same charms. Tulio is falling in love with the seductive Chel, while Miguel is beguiled by El Dorado and its people. The song "Without Question" accompanies a montage sequence in which Miguel explores the city, becoming more and more captivated by its treasures, having nothing to do with gold.

"It was originally written as a love song between Tulio and Chel," John reveals, "but it also came to represent Miguel falling in love with the place."

Paul says, "Because of that song, you really feel and understand that moment when Miguel is not seeing the city through a con man’s eyes anymore."

Being drawn in different directions eventually pulls Tulio and Miguel apart, putting a break in their friendship they may not be able to bridge. The song "Friends Never Say Goodbye" is about these two best friends facing separate futures for the first time. "They have had an almighty row, and now are going their separate ways," Rice notes. "But we’re hoping they will patch things up, so the title is somewhat optimistic."

"They have both found what they were looking for in life," says Bergeron. "But they discover the one thing they have to sacrifice in order to realize their respective dreams is their friendship, which ultimately means the most to them. So in the end, the story is about how lucky we are to have that true friend we can depend on, not just when things are great, but when the chips are down."

The final song heard in "The Road to El Dorado" is "Someday Out of the Blue (Theme From El Dorado)," which plays over the film’s end credits. The song, with music by Elton John and Patrick Leonard and lyrics by Tim Rice, will be the first single from the album Elton John’s The Road to El Dorado. The album’s release is scheduled for March 14, and the single will be available in stores on April 4.

DIGITIZING EL DORADO

The animators took the blending of traditional and computer animation to a new level in "The Road to El Dorado." To help achieve that symbiosis, traditional and computer animators worked side-by-side, rather than being split into separate departments, which, as Don Paul says, "generates mutual respect and an energy that brings everyone’s best work forward."

In the past, background paintings would be completed before being scanned into the computer. For "The Road to El Dorado," some traditional artists used state-of-the-art 2-D digital painting software for a process digital supervisor Dan Philips called "tradigital." He explains, "They took preliminary rough base paintings, scanned them in and did the rest of the painting digitally. This allowed them not only to make revisions faster, but they could also take different pieces of the background and reassemble them for an entirely new background."

Using the exposure tool, developed by DreamWorks and Silicon Graphics Inc. and first utilized on "The Prince of Egypt," the layout department, led by Lorenzo E. Martinez and Damon O’Beirne, was able to achieve 3-D camera moves on 3-D sets that were combined with 2-D paintings.

There was also a leap forward in 3-D animation crowd scenes in "The Road to El Dorado." Paul explains, "Normally, your main and middle-ground characters are traditionally animated, and only the background characters are computer generated. In this film, we have brought CG characters center stage, which is something I’m really proud of. We were very meticulous in modeling them so they would appear identical to the traditionally animated characters, and not look like they exist in different formats. The facial expressions and the performances of the CG characters are so much better than was done in the past. These are all stepping stones to bringing 3-D character animation to the forefront."

Another tool that was employed for the film was Elastic Reality® Warp (ER® Warp), which has been used primarily in live action for morphing sequences. In animation, it permits the artists to warp images to give the illusion of subtle movement without re-animating frame by frame. There are myriad examples of ER® Warp throughout "The Road to El Dorado": leaves bounce as Miguel hacks his way through the jungle; the sail of Cortes’ ship bends in the wind; Tulio’s back flinches as a leech is pulled from it; and many more.

In the animated world, water is one element that has consistently posed challenges because, by its very nature, water involves a tremendous amount of movement at different speeds and in different directions simultaneously. One of the most daunting sequences in "The Road to El Dorado" involved Tulio, Miguel and Altivo going overboard into the ocean directly in the path of Cortes’ galleon. By applying gradient light and shadow to 2-D water, sequence lead Jeff Howard was able to create depth and scale in the ocean as it swelled and ebbed.

Big bodies of water, however, are not necessarily the most difficult to animate. In fact, the tiniest splashes have often been the most testing. For this film, Doug Ikeler, the sequence lead in a scene called Crashing the Gate, developed a new system called Spryticle, which enabled him to obtain the most detailed splashes of water possible.

The Spryticle process begins with a 3-D particle system, which is like little dots in virtual space. Spryticle then turns each dot into a 2-D card, called a sprite, on which are images, in this case a series of hand-drawn splashes. Using the computer, the animator can apply forces such as gravity or wind to move them around.

"The beauty of Spryticle is that it gives us a way of multiplying hand-drawn animation a thousand-fold," Ikeler asserts. "Even though the computer is replicating them, each one is still hand-drawn animation with its own unique attributes."

FINDING EL DORADO

For the filmmakers, the journey to El Dorado began with two research trips to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The trips were led by the film’s historical advisor Dr. John Pohl, an archaeologist with the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA, and a recognized authority on American Indian civilizations. With a joint doctorate in archaeology and film production, Dr. Pohl was eminently qualified to guide the filmmakers in their quest to be faithful to the Indian civilizations of what is today Mexico and Central America—the most prevalent of which were the Mayans.

Radford recalls, "Going to the Yucatan was extremely significant to the foundation of the story and the script. It was very informative to soak up the culture, to see how those civilizations existed and experience what it was like to physically be in those places. From an art direction standpoint, the colors in the foliage and even the animals are almost magical. It was a challenge to get it all on the screen because there’s so much beauty in even the smallest details. It was important to us to be faithful to all the research that was done, and I think it’s paid off."

Christian Schellewald, the film’s production designer, remembers, "Standing on top of a pyramid in the middle of a rainforest, you see this eternal jungle, this enormous green ocean. It was breathtaking. That’s something you can’t see in pictures, and can’t understand unless you’ve seen it for yourself. That’s why we went."

"A great deal of research went into this film, but we had to keep in mind that it’s set in a mythological place. A lot of the design was inspired by the Mayan civilization and other cultures, but it’s not meant to be an exact reflection of any one culture," Paul comments.

"This is a fantasy," producer Brooke Breton agrees. "We applied what we learned of the civilization and the surroundings and took it to a surreal realm, weaving in the fantasy elements to achieve a look that is really original."

The design of the film did not only apply to the backdrop. Schellewald and art directors Raymond Zibach, Paul Lasaine and Wendell Luebbe subtly utilized color to gauge the emotional life of the main characters. Red and black were used to accentuate danger and fear, as in the jaguar sequence when Tulio and Miguel are running for their lives from Tzekel-Kan’s incarnation of evil. Lighter, brighter colors were incorporated for happier sequences. The challenge came in blending conflicting emotional cues for the two main characters, especially during scenes when they had very different moods.

To accentuate the brilliant colors of El Dorado, the design team established a striking contrast between it and Spain. In Spain, the colors are much more muted, with almost no foliage to shade buildings that are sun-bleached and rough-hewn. Arriving in El Dorado, the palette explodes with vivid colors and bold graphic shapes.

Bergeron expounds, "We wanted Spain to be almost monochromatic. Then, as Tulio and Miguel find their way through the jungle, we integrated more color as the characters discover a new world. Finally, when they come to El Dorado, we see every color of the rainbow."

Katzenberg concludes, "One of the most important things for me in making an animated movie is to take the audience someplace they’ve never been before. The inspiration for this story is a magnificent culture of which only the tip of the iceberg still exists. It’s a world that once was…but maybe if we could find that waterfall and make our way through it, we’d find that El Dorado is still there and waiting for us."

#the road to el dorado #dreamworks #animation production #trivia #animation

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therealslimshakespeare · 5 months ago

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I’m sort of new here but I was drawn towards your blog by seeing a reblog of the Sanchez fic and then I met Lu Smith and was absolutely smitten. But anyways I just wanted to say that I find it SO interesting that you’re ok with people not liking one of ur OCs. Actually, not only are u like ok with it, but you agree with readers criticisms of her. I find it so incredible that you can create a character that’s so flawed and sympathize with so many different opinions of her

Thank you my darling, what a beautiful sentiment and it’s really massively appreciated by me that you’d take the time to write and send something so uplifting and kind. Truly, what a sweet soul you have.

I wrote a very flawed, more than a little not in the right character. I can’t agree with her always so I’m happy to agree with those who point out many valid things regarding her behaviors . Personally I know many like her in real life, plenty I’ve seen grow and many I retain hope for. Which influences a lot of what I’d find interesting to write at all. I don’t expect or demand folks to love her all the way through that, wouldn’t make sense. Although I’m also delighted there’s folks that for their own reasons stand up for her previous good actions and her potential.

End of the day it’s just a little fictional story, i know. But we love stories because they’re mirrors, I think.

So, I love a good discussion. 🤗

#love notes #those who can #Maureen Kendeigh

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spoilertv · 5 months ago

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#SpoilerTV

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adamwatchesmovies · 7 months ago

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Warlock III: The End of Innocence (1999)

One thing you can credit the Warlock series for is consistency. While the plots are not connected, the special effects are uneven, the performances vary and the titular Warlock isn’t played by the same actor in all three movies… if you like one, you’ll like all three. Under scrutiny, you can't quite call Warlock III: The End of Innocence "good" but it’s so close and watching it is fun so that doesn't matter.

Right before her college finals, Kris Miller (Ashley Laurence) learns her family home is about to be demolished. If she wants to recover anything from the building owned by the family she never knew she had, she’s got to get it done by Monday morning. With the help of her boyfriend Michael (Paul Francis), her childhood best friend Jerry (Jan Schweiterman), the bondage-loving Lisa and Scott (Angel Boris and Rick Hearst) and free-spirit Robin (Boti Ann Bliss), Kris travels to the isolated home in the middle of a storm. There, she's greeted by the helpful Phillip Covington (Bruce Payne). None of the friends realize he’s actually a century-old warlock who wants to sacrifice Kris to create a race of half-demon spawn.

While Julian Sands' absence is disappointing, Bruce Payne is a fair substitute. His interpretation of the Warlock might not have that delightful twisted sense of humor but he’s sufficiently menacing and committed to his part. This movie has flaws but he isn’t one of them and honestly, you probably won’t even miss Sands once you see Payne.

We’ll get to the movie’s flaws in a bit but first, I want to tell you why - despite all the stumbles - you could convincingly argue for this movie. See, the Warlock wants Kris but to get her, he’s got to get the people closest to her to forsake her - I guess that’s where the “end of innocence” comes in. Once they do, he can sacrifice her in the catacombs below the house on a stone altar surrounded by ever-burning candles. Kris has no family so the only people who love her are her friends. To get them to turn on her, he preys on their weaknesses. Jerry is a musician so he takes away his hearing. Lisa and Scott love whips and chains so he puts them in a Hellraiser-like torture room they can only escape if they betray Kris. A similar fate awaits Michael. The way the Warlock worms his way into the circle of friends and figures out what torture is best suited for them contains the kind of demonic irony that makes you feel bad for the victims and look forward to what's next. While the movie could’ve pushed these ideas further - particularly with Robin, who gets taken out of the picture far too early - there are some great moments with Jerry, who is “secretly” in love with Kris. You could probably extrapolate the relationship between him, Kris and Michael into a whole movie.

That said, Warlock III is no masterpiece. Early in the film, the Warlock kills a random handyman - or maybe it’s the house that’s got a mind of its own - and it has no bearings on the plot. It’s only included to reassure those watching, so they know they are indeed stepping into a horror movie with supernatural shenanigans. I also have to criticize the ending, which is conclusive but still leaves many questions unanswered. In many ways, it feels like the movie is more concerned with building towards the characters’ deaths than allowing us to get to know them. Lisa and Scott, for example. It seems like no matter when or where they are, they’re going to find some way to get into their leather outfits and start using whips and restraints on each other. It’s pretty clear that Angel Boris didn’t have a “no nudity” clause in her contract so director Eric Freiser found as many excuses to get her topless as possible. I won’t actually count that as a flaw - not in this type of movie.

Warlock III: The End of Innocence is the kind of movie I’d love to see remade or ripped off. The idea of an evil sorcerer finding ways to turn a group of friends against your protagonist via supernatural torture and manipulation is ripe with possibility. This movie knows it, which is why it throws concepts like the “nice guy best friend” into the mix. I don’t know if anyone could ever call this trilogy of films their favorite, but they're unexpectedly fun and I'm glad to have seen them. (September 12, 2022)

#Warlock III: The End of Innocence #Warlock #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #eric freiser #Bruce David Eisen #Bruce Payne #Ashley Laurence #Boti Bliss #Angel Boris #Paul Francis #Rick Hearst #Jan Schweiterman #1999 movies #1999 films

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sitp-recs · 2 years ago

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A Case of You by @epitomereally

Harry/Draco (2022, Explicit, 97k)

Draco was doing just fine working as an Unspeakable in Paris, hanging out with his living and ghostly pals, inventing new spells, and definitely not thinking about Potter. Then, Lucius just had to break out of prison and turn his world upside down. Now, Draco has to return to England, where he is forced to confront how family ties bind us—and one infuriatingly fit Harry Potter.

Potter grinned up at him, a flash of quicksilver. This wasn’t at all like Draco ever thought this would be like: Potter thinking he was good, Potter smiling at him, Potter laying his hand gently on him, Potter wanting him. It made him feel frantic and out of control. He didn’t know how to act at all; with Smith, it had been awful and desperate and mean. He suddenly felt, after Potter’s breakdown, that he couldn’t be awful or mean, not right now.

All hail the long fic king!!!! This 100k fic caught me completely off guard by how invested I felt in something this long (sadly not my usual these days) as Wireless got closed to wrapping up. It deserves a spotlight in my single recs for that feat alone but I also really really wanted to celebrate epitome’s first fic back in the fandom after 15 years (starting with a bang!!!) especially because I’ve seen her reccing many wonderful fics lately and it’s a thrill to have someone this talented around again! Before getting into it I also wanna link the amazing rec @romaine2424 did for this fic earlier this week, check it here!

Now, how could I resist this fic looking at those tags - case fic, break up/make up, Unspeakable Draco? Non-linear narrative? Blood magic? Joni Mitchell? Sign me up, please! I’m so so happy that I jumped right in because oh my goodness, what a delightful and thrilling ride this was! The way the author combines excellent plot with the slow unravel of Draco and Harry’s relationship is addictive and will keep you hooked from start to end, which is why I gotta say 97k felt shorter as I was devouring this. The tension building in both main plot and UST (hello casual sparring, this is every Drarry reader’s wet dream 🔥) is superb and a masterclass in anticipation while filling out the blanks about their complicated past with a dual narrative strategy.

I couldn’t decide which timeline I was more invested in, I just wanted to learn everything about this competent, bossy and mysterious Harry, so edgy 🤤 and this lovely redeemed Draco, fierce, stubborn, earnest, a great friend who’s learned how to own his life and decisions. Their voices are excellent, the chemistry is off the charts and absolutely scorching, I love how they work together on the case while dancing around their feelings, trying not to let it affect the investigation and team dynamics. Beyond the side relationships - in my opinion one of the major highlights in this fic, kudos to all those charming, nuanced and flawed characters - the Paris landscape and general descriptions make the fic so much more immersive! Draco’s life abroad jumps to life in the tiniest aesthetic details and I immediately fell in love with the OCs, not to mention Lucius’ plot line and house elves supremacy as a bonus! They’re so creative and charming, I had a lot of fun with these side stories.

On a separate note, I really really loved this take on break up/make up Drarry. Not only we got to see their Auror training and how their tentative friendship started fresh out of school, I think the author gave their relationship a very much appreciated depth and nuance throughout the years, showing why being pulled apart helped them grow more confident and allowed them to establish healthier relationships, and to learn how to trust each other in order to be properly together. No one’s at fault here, it just wasn’t the right time as both characters had to mature and become the men they are right now. It was an engaging and really refreshing approach to the whole enemies to lovers dynamic while keeping the tension very much alive and firing sparks, and I loved every minute of it!

Exciting plot, ultimate UST, masterful character building, delicious smut, and a heartwarming and earned happy ending. This is everything Drarry fans are looking for and some, a really well-crafted long fic that deserves all the love and appreciation for all it has accomplished. What are you waiting for? Happy readings!

Read on AO3

#drarry fic rec

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mjflovebot · 2 years ago

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I see way too many negative things about Shrek The Third, and that's fine! No one has to love the movie, and I understand that to some it is very weak and I won't ignore the flaws it does have. But! I wanna see more positive things talked about because I feel like the really good stuff is just blatantly ignored, so I have made a list of my favorite things from the movie. (Feel free to add anything if you think I've missed something!)

• First, the music!! 9 Crimes by Damien Rice and Royal Pain by Eels are such amazing songs on their own, and not only do they fit the scenes they play during, they also fit very well as "Shrek songs". They are criminally underrated for no reason. The score is also amazing as always :]

• Every scene between Shrek and Fiona in this movie are so sweet and tender. I cannot express how adorable they are in this movie but sometimes I will watch this movie just for those scenes because they're so sweet. Maybe a bold take but maybe some of the cutest scenes in the entire franchise. I love them to death.

• I do not care what anyone saids but this movie is really fucking funny and all the jokes are very overlooked for no good reason. Shrek saying "Well somebody better be dying" and it cuts to King Harold dying, not to mention the guilty look on Shrek's face, very nice comedic timing and I love the little touch. Puss's "you are royally fucked" joke makes me giggle every single time without fail. Shrek trying to relate to Artie by using slang 'teenager lingo' and then Artie running away has no reason for being that funny but it really is. Shrek's line "Hahaha, you made a funny." brings such a stupid grin to my face because it sounds like something I would say!!! When they're all cornered by knights, and Puss attempts to do the cute face in Donkey's body but they all think he's ugly, and right after that they all start acting like Shrek is some big celebrity and Artie asking if they got the list of the dressing room and Donkey listing off this big order and Shrek going "I just lost it!" is probably my favorite scene in this whole movie. It's so good I could watch it over and over again. (I resonate with Artie so much here, I will defend Shrek's honor with my life).

• I adore Artie a lot, his character is really funny and one an audience can resonate with since he's just one of the more normal humans! I feel like his character brings something new to the franchise because he's shy and awkward, (yes, I do see some of myself in him but that isn't important.) while other characters tend to be very outgoing!! Just brings something new to the table, and it's always nice to see more of Fiona's family!!! Little world building is good world building!!

• PRINCE. CHARMING. I adore this guy to death, I love the scene out in the alleyway at the beginning of the movie, where he's crying to the picture of his mother, and the scene that ties in with it later in the movie where he's in his dressing room talking to a figure of her saying that *their* happily ever after is almost complete. He really misses his mom and in my eyes its portrayed that he's doing a lot of this for her. I wish they tapped into this a little but more but REGARDLESS. I loved him in the second one, and seeing him here more is a delight. Seeing him convince the evil fairy take creatures that Far Far Away is their's is a fun scene, and I also love the scene where he's practicing for the big play and he has pink leg warmers!!! Very cute in my opinion. I love how he's just the embodiment of a theater kid (Me too) Shrek 2/The Third musical when?

• The entire baby shower scene is just *chef's kiss*. 10/10 I love everything about it. I love seeing all the princess there ESPECIALLY DORIS! (I will get to her in a second btw.) It makes me happy they're all still friends with Fiona because in the second movie in her diary it said she hung out with them when she was younger, so it's nice to see they're still around, and the continuity feels very nice makes me happy. Dragon being there also makes me so happy. And do not get me started on the fact that the three little pigs, Wolfie, Pinocchio, and Gingy all pitched in to get that baby carrier for Fiona that whole scene is so adorable and Gingy in the carrier!!! All around a very sweet scene I could rewatch it over and over.

• Speaking of the other Princesses, I am OBSESSED with how they're portrayed here. I feel like after the Shrek first movie they went a little lighter on making fun of Disney and overall Fairytale troupes, don't get me wrong they were still there, but Shrek at that point became it's own thing so it's understandable that they slowly drifted away from it. But the princesses ohhh man, everything about how they're portrayed feels so Shrek and DreamWorks all the way around. Firstly their designs, they look very different from how Disney draws them, love that, Sleeping Beauty's medium length brown hair reminds me how i looked when I was younger, and Rapunzel's hair being braided and tied up is very pretty, I like how they're all kinda.. i guess snobby is the best way to put it? Which feels in characters since they are spoiled princesses. When they're in the prison and all get into 'position' and just say "we're waiting to be rescued." is just, so so good, maybe I'm looking in too deep but it feels like DreamWorks is almost sayinf "These princesses are useless and are a bad influence on young girls" which makes the payoff of the scene were they kick it up a notch and save far far away feel all the morr rewarding. Also Rapunzel getting with Prince Charming like, you go girl!

• TIME TO TALK ABOUT DORIS! I'll try to keep this short as to not sound like a broken record because she is talked about a lot, BUT I LOVER HER SO MUCH!! She got the screen time she deserves in this movie and she's friends with Fiona too AND IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!! And when she saids "A baby will only strengthen the love Shrek and Fiona have." IT'S LIKE, YOU GET ME DORIS YOU'RE SO RIGHT!!! Me and Doris being Shrek and Fiona fans very real and true!!!

• This is a small thing but I can't help but love it. We get a better look at the Dronkeys in this movie!!! We only got to see them at the after credits scene in Shrek 2 so I'm beyond happy they got their time to shine! They're all very adorable and we even learn the name's of three of them, which of course are, Coco, Peanut, and Bananas!! Very cute and energetic buddies, love them to death. Also the scenes between Donkey and Dragon are very sweet, love how DreamWorks was able to portray an absurd relationship so sweetly.

• Don't worry I did not forget the scene with Shrek and Artie by the campfire. Very warm and calming scene, love to see Shrek take on the fatherly role and reassure Artie. The line "It may be hard to believe, what, with my obvious charm and good looks, but people used to think I was a monster. And for a long time, I believed them. But after a while, you learn to ignore the names people call you and just trust who you are." gets me every single time. I love how Shrek finds a way to lighten the mood while staying serious, helps get a good giggle out before the emotions really kick in. I feel like the line gives a good little insight to Shrek's life before the movies, like he never saw himself as a monster in a say, just took on the title because it was forced onto him, which makes me more emotional because it again shows just how much Fiona changed his life.

• The line "It's not my life I'm worried about ruining, it's the kids." is just another fantastic line, I wish they explored that more within the movie, the idea that Shrek does want kids (I feel as though it's never properly expressed, besides this one line of course) he just doesn't know if he'd be an amazing father. But regardless still a line I adore and it's hard in the emotions department.

• And lastly, a lot say it isn't needed, and maybe it isn't, but all in all Donkey and Puss changing bodies is very funny to me at least, it is a kids movie so you gotta expect those kids things, it's a nice little background conflict. Seeing Donkey learn how to walk/run is very amusing, and neither of the voices fit the looks, all around so good, and I love how the whole thing makes them more friends and we get the littke duo of them! I just love it, it's cute!

#oz.txt #shrek #shrek the third #IM SORRY THIS IS SO LONG #Just had so so many thoughts i HAD to share #very passionate about these movies can ya tell #ngl i didnt think this list would be that long #and it made me realize i like this movie more then i thought like i knew i liked the movie but yknow #anyways #i hope u all can brainrot with me!#also see this movie is likeable YOU ALL ARE JUST HATERS #ALSO ALSO sorry this is everywhere but hopefully it makes sense

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inverts · 2 years ago

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Sam watched Tiger & Bunny 2 and HAS GOT SOME THOUGHTS

so! the latter half of Tiger & Bunny 2 released yesterday, so of course I spent every free moment i could watching it instantly. i’m going to put my thoughts behind a cut, but i am at least going to preface it with: i had a really fun time with this season! if you’re worried about watching it b/c you think it might not be good b/c many times, let’s be real, sequels suck, i want to say that it was enjoyable and i think really maintains the spirit of the first show.

there are, of course, more specific positives and negatives of this season, but that’s SPOILERS CITY so you gotta click the read more for that shit.

these are all my initial takes--i may come back feeling differently after rewatches, or discussion with other ppl who’ve watched! i would LOVE some discussion but just please use cuts to spare ppl from seeing spoilers, this shit came out like less than 48 hours ago and not everyone is as feral as i am for it.

SO i think this season, far more than season 1, was an ensemble piece. this is neither bad NOR without precedence--the movie The Rising, for example, is basically Tiger & Bunny & Fire Emblem, almost even more than it’s Tiger & Bunny & Ryan, lmfao. and the first half of season 1 had a lot of focus episodes to give many of the heroes a chance to shine on their own--even a couple eps of the second half of s1 did this as well. so it’s certainly fitting for the second season to also give the secondary characters a lot of chances to shine.

the negative of this, i think, is simply that our titular characters have less _time_ to shine. that’s ok--in some ways they don’t need it. they’ve got a balanced relationship, they understand each other. they still are flawed individuals and they still trip each other up, but their bond is truly unshakeable and there are several times where this gets a nice spotlight.

however, i’m not going to lie--i think the biggest downside of kotetsu and barnaby being benched so much is that the ending feels flat. i almost wanted to give it another episode to really dig into kotetsu and barnaby’s feelings. they’re really the two whose arcs somehow _don’t_ feel resolved at the end. is this because sunrise is angling for a THIRD season? it would honestly make more sense with the lack of emotional closure we get with kotetsu and barnaby in the final episode. as an act 2 out of 3, it feels sensible. as a finale, it feels... anticlimactic.

the positive, however, is that a lot of other characters give us SO much good development. i took particular joy in everything with blue rose and ryan. Karina’s character development made me scream, squeal, and cheer. Her growth and maturity is phenomenal. She’s still the young woman in love with Kotetsu, but she’s aware of herself, she understands her emotions and desires, and it’s EXACTLY the development of a natural crush on an older, unattainable figure that many young people go through. She really comes into her own and i LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! also, Ryan’s steady descent into falling completely head over heels for her is so fucking good. the balance between these two! the dynamic! THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD, SUNRISE!

likewise, origami and rock bison, sky high and fire emblem... seeing their relationships grow, struggle, and become stronger was a delight every time. Dragon Kid and Magical Cat were also personal favourites of mine. I could write about every beat of their story I loved, but I’d just be summarizing every beat of their story. They’re really good!

Sadly I didn’t really care much for He Is Thomas or Mr. Black... I don’t even remember their civilian names. I can see why Sunrise decided to add them, but truthfully, I wish that some parts of the story had been pared down and they’d been cut in order to give Kotetsu and Barnaby more time. But I can also see how that would have had quite a ripple effect on other parts of the story... still, I think they were sadly the weakest part of season 2.

And another character who really got a big spotlight that many fans of season 1 were surely hoping to see....... LUNATIC MY GUY

I’m gonna talk about my negative impressions of Lunatic’s arc and then work my way into my positive impressions. The biggest negative is that the moment he hallucinated that resolution with his father, I knew the story was going to kill him off. Rather than put in the effort of him attempting to atone for his various murders, or deal with guilt or shame at the fact that perhaps he DIDN’T handle things in the best way, I knew the show was going to simply ... not get into that any further. I was sad to be proven right. It’s true that the Next who possesses him says that his body is fuckin done for right when she abandons ship, so it’s possible that he might have died even if he hadn’t tossed himself off a million foot high overpass. But the story still wrote him choosing suicide rather than face his actions. Is it consistent with his character? In many ways, yes. It can’t be understated how he’s still grieving for his mother--more on that in a bit. Also, he now sees himself as an unjust murderer, and must deal with himself accordingly. But it also feels contradictory to the ways in which he’s learning and changing--the fact that he sees his actions as unjust, but is now going to continue those actions against himself.... Of course, emotions often contradict logic, so I guess this is fair as well. In the end, this is simply a trope I hate--the “villain” experiences regret, or determines that they were wrong after all, and then dies.

another place where i feel that the character actions and story direction are giving mixed messages is when Yuri confronts kotetsu with the knowledge that kotetsu’s hero Mr Legend beat his wife and child behind closed doors. kotetsu at least has the wherewithal to realize that what he’s said to yuri at the end there was fucked up and uncalled for. however kotetsu says ‘because it would piss him off,’ essentially. but kotetsu he’s pissed off b/c u literally said “rip to ur dad but i’m different” LIKE WHAT THE FUCK MAN. “i’m sure ur dad wouldn’t have beat ur wife if he’d just had a friend like i do” KOTETSU STOP. PLEASE STOP.

--but on the other hand, like, it’s true that having any kind of support network could have helped legend. kotetsu’s depression when he started to lose his powers in season 1 is largely helped b/c he has people around him who care and who know it sometimes happens to ppl, that kotetsu isn’t the first person it’s happened to, and also kotetsu isn’t the single great hero that everyone is looking up to. there are others to share the burden. additionally, ur wife should not be ur therapist--i’m sure yuri’s mom tried to support legend when things were going down, but it was 1) not her job to shoulder ALL his baggage and 2) she’s not like a trained therapist? frankly all the portrayals of yuri’s family when yuri is a child feel like toxic nuclear 1950s family dynamics, wholesome on screen, vile behind closed doors. if this is a purposeful critique--and it may well be--then it’s frankly muddied by kotetsu’s hero worship. i also think that considering the ham fisted nature of some of the other storytelling in this show, it would be okay to hammer messages like this a little harder, too. it’s ok to say legend was a victim of circumstance but it’s not ok to say it in a way that absolves him of responsibility for abusing his family, if that makes sense.

i don’t think yuri hallucinating a resolution from his dad muddies the message or story in any way--tho unfortunately it’s set up as prompted by Kotetsu’s shitty words. but of COURSE yuri wants approval from his dad. i’m not going to get too deep into this but it’s entirely consistent and makes a lot of sense to me that he’d crave that kind of validation, acknowledgement, and forgiveness--ESPECIALLY because he can’t get it from his mother.

Speaking of! the portrayal of his and his mother’s relationship really hit me. It’s clear across both seasons that he wants to protect his mom--he’s always wanted to protect her--but he also winds up hurting her when he does this. He is angered by her delusions and her selective memory of their mutual abuser. Hiring a caretaker for her--specifically one that the show demonstrates is an actual kind, gentle person who is good at their job--is a good solution. It gives Yuri the distance so he can allow her to have her delusions (which IIRC is really the best way to deal with someone who has dementia anyway, rather than arguing with their perceptions) as well as knowing she’s as safe and cared for as she can be.... at least until she’s not.

I find this family dynamic to be portrayed really well, at least in my experience. There are sometimes families who hurt each other despite their best intentions, and constantly return to each other for more of the same. It’s rather understated, but Yuri’s decision to hire a caretaker and allow his mother her delusions breaks that cycle and allows a fragile peace. It’s clear he’s still not wholly content with it--perhaps what he really wants is for his mother to hate his father as he does--to validate and justify how Yuri accidentally killed Legend. It’s clear it still hurts him, but he’s choosing to take that hurt to allow his mom peace in her final years. And how he grieves in the kitchen that he hasn’t yet been able to clean up after her murder--fuck, man, everything about this just personally hit me really hard. I still don’t like how it all ended but I’m really, really glad that Lunatic got this spotlight, and personally I found it to be really well handled. YMMV i guess but that’s my initial take.

hey that was a lot about lunatic. let’s talk about some other characters, lol

KAEDE! i loved kaede and kotetsu’s relationship, especially in the first half of the series. they’re getting closer although she is still not letting him off the hook for a lot of the shit he did when she was younger--and honestly GOOD FOR HER, he deserves to be held accountable more! The final episodes tho felt like a little bit of a let down with Kaede--almost like they were setting her up to take SOME action, but then ran out of time? Add “Kaede gets to do things” to the list of stuff I wish had happened instead of Mr Black and Thomas, lmao.

also let’s talk about Agnes. I was holding off commenting on this in the first half of the season, but I love that they had Agnes gain weight. I feel like her body type is one i see RARELY in anime--she’s got proportions I see regularly, every day, and I think that she’s drawn very well (barring some shots where the animators didn’t quite keep her on model, but that happens to everyone in the cast at various points). The reason I didn’t want to say anything in the first half of the season is that the narration has multiple characters comment on her weight gain, and I was afraid that the series wanted to point it out so that later there would be a reveal that she was an impostor or something, and surprise, skinny agnes would show back up. But no! This is Agnes all the time, she’s EXACTLY the same person, she’s beautiful and desirable and she gets shit done, she has feelings for Kotetsu, meanwhile Antonio has a crush on her, it’s GREAT. she just happens to have more body fat now and it changes _nothing_. (also, iirc the people who comment on her weight are Ryan, who would have been out of town and wouldn’t have noticed a gradual change, and Saito, who likewise doesn’t often interact with Agnes as he’s often in the R&D department while Agnes is in the Hero TV van, so it’s actually pretty logical for both of those characters to be like, “huh?” Having them comment on her weight may have simply been sunrise’s way of telling the viewers, no, youre not misremembering what she looked like before, but we changed it and it was on purpose, now get on with the show.)

i was also very glad that Mattia and Little Aurora 1) weren’t evil and 2) didn’t die, lol. in the case of Mattia, it’s so rare that Barnaby gets to have ppl he cares about who DON’T die or turn evil, so i was very glad mattia got to live, lmfao. with Aurora i actually at one point hypothesized that she was the head of ouroboros, but i was wrong! that was neat.

overall i feel like s2 does a good job carrying on the spirit and feelings of s1. both halves of s2 are even structured very similarly to both halves of s1, with the first half being mainly focus episodes for 8 or so eps, and then 4 or so eps of a bigger storyline that concludes foreshadowing put down in the first 8. and then the second half becomes one very big storyarc. around ep 17 or 19 i was like “this is really good, i’m having a lot of fun, but i don’t know if anything can really compete with the emotional intensity of everyone forgetting about kotetsu and he goes on the run from them, etc.” and then i ate those words! i think the final arc was really exciting! now, emotionally, i think i do still prefer the final arc of s1, because let’s face it, i love when kotetsu suffers a little bit. i love him. but i think in terms of raising the stakes and interest and rising action, s2 is an entirely fair entry to the series, i loved watching it, and i think i will love rewatching it with friends.

but the ending.....

the ending really feels like they want a season 3. and personally, i kind of wanted to just end things at season 2, because i don’t want to wait another eleven years for a third season. unless we get season 3 next year.... 2023 will, after all, be the year of the rabbit once more.

but that scene when all the heroes are standing together, agreeing to have dinner togehter, and then they just... part ways? and then barnaby’s like “so my leg didn’t fall off so i’m going to keep being a hero” like SIR you still don’t know what’s WRONG WITH IT!!!! that fistbump between kotetsu and barnaby just feels so, so lackluster after everything! so lukewarm!

“sam did you just want them to kiss”

I don’t think that’s it? i mean not gonna lie, i would have LOVED it--the show has multiple canon queer characters, like of course there’s Fire Emblem who basically got a whole movie to flaunt being the best okama ever, but there was also the one lesbian NEXT who was sad that her hot butch girlfriend had dumped her, and then Ruby has two dads if I parsed that correctly, and then there’s Pao-Lin and Lara--

but no i don’t think that’s it. it’s just. these two are so important to each other, whether it’s romantic or not. and their partnership is ending. and that’s just. that’s that? that’s it? no scene of bunny out there heroing on his own while kotetsu and kaede fondly watch? they even set the stage for bunny to take over the wild tiger mantle and then did NOTHING with it. (though props to one friend for being like “hell yeah barnaby was inside tiger” fuck yes)

(ALSO FUCK YES KOTETSU GOT TO PRINCESS CARRY BUNNY FOR LIKE 5 SECONDS??? and their relationship is so solid that neither of them even comment on it???? I LOVE THEM)

so while there’s that last little clip with the image of tiger and barnaby in the hero museum, emotionally it just feels like the real ending was chopped off. like the studio is holding something back. and certainly there’s more of ouroboros we could explore. but where do we even go from here? kotetsu has NO MORE POWERS (which, btw, ballsy move on sunrise’s part, i’m genuinely impressed, but i’m also scared of what they’ll do in s3 because a lot of anime haaate actually committing to taking powers away from their characters and will then bend over backwards to return their powers or equivalent to them. please do NOT let mattia develop a drug that gives kotetsu his power back, do NOT, i don’t want that. make kotetsu deal with his body taking its course dammit!)

so like, idk. i really enjoyed this second season a lot, and while i don’t think they fucked up the ending, i don’t think i can confidently say they stuck it, either. :(

but that’s only if this is meant to be the conclusion to the series. if they _are_ gunning for a third season....

well i hope they fuckin get it then and i hope they do a damn good job and i hope kotetsu and barnaby fuckin KISS! FUCK!

#tiger & bunny #you have long eyelashes #season 2

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merakiui · 4 years ago

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hii could we get an angsty scenario/hcs of xiao and scaramouche/any characters you prefer! who are basically head over heels for someone but that person keeps getting with the wrong people and constantly getting their heart broken? Preferably with a good/fluffy ending but it’s up to you!

cw: angst + heartbreak note - decided to go for scenarios! (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

[Xiao]

One Call Away—

The sudden shout of his name had brought him out into the open, where he finds you sitting in a field of wildflowers, your head hung and quiet sobs racking your hunched form.

“You called?” The gruffness in his voice startles you and your head snaps up. He notices your pained expression and the tears that refuse to cease, and it gives birth to a strange feeling within his chest. “What happened? Surely I am not too late.” And then he shakes his head. “No, I’m never late.”

“Ah... I’m sorry.” You sniffle, pitifully rubbing at your eyes. “I guess your name slipped out. I didn’t mean to bother you. I just didn’t mean to call for you either.”

Xiao raises a brow and then surveys the surrounding area. “Well, it doesn’t look like you’re in any mortal peril. In that case, I’ll leave you to—”

“No!”

Your sudden shout startles the both of you, with you drawing back and Xiao’s eyes widening ever so slightly. He wonders why you’re crying when beautiful scenery surrounds you. Are you truly that pathetic? Are mortals usually this weak-hearted? Xiao can’t wrap his head around the idea of grief; he’s an immortal who has seen plenty of hazardous scenarios worth grieving over. Yet with the passage of time he has learned to let such emotions drift away on a wind current. Emotions are useless to an adeptus.

But now he’s stuck with them.

“No?”

“D-Don’t go...” Your voice wobbles and you wipe at your reddened eyes. “I don’t want to bother you, but could you stay here with me? For a little while, at least. It’s all I’ll ask...”

He feels like he should decline your desperate plea before it spreads its perplexing roots throughout his system. The words are practically on the tip of his tongue and he struggles to verbalize them. If he could, he’d shake his head and vanish from your sight. There’s something about your expression that forces him to stay, and he truly detests the way his emotions run wild at the prospect of something he can’t quite comprehend.

“Fine.”

And so Xiao listens to you. It’s something he does best; his eyes and ears are open as he gives you his full, undivided attention. Half of him observes your reactions as you explain what happened and the other half zeros in on the way your subtle hand motions. While he might not be anywhere near a cupid—and he would never be caught giving out relationship advice to mortals, which is something he couldn’t do even if he tried—he is still a being of immense power. From what he’s able to understand from your explanation, your loved one decided to part from you because they believed it just wasn’t working. And you, having been struck with an immense sadness, failed to call out to them to clear up any misunderstandings.

Eventually, after internally wrestling with his own thoughts and feelings, he asks, “Do you want me to teach them a lesson? Should you need them to feel the same amount of despair you’re feeling—”

“Oh, no! No. No. They don’t deserve to be punished for that. I understand now that our feelings weren’t the same. We really weren’t working and that’s okay. It just...hurts.”

Xiao tilts his head, an innocently childish show of confusion. “Where?”

“It’s not a physical pain, Xiao. I mean, it could be. But...this is more emotional.” Your hand reaches out, fingers wrapping around his wrist. He stares down at your hand and he almost pulls away. Before he can even consider what’s happening, you’re guiding his hand to where your heart is. “In here. It hurts now, but I’ll overcome it eventually. I’m used to it anyways...”

The straight-faced adeptus remains still as he feels the fast-paced beat of your heart. Mortals have always been weak in his eyes: feeble beings who break at the slightest inconvenience. Although you don’t seem close to shattering and that confuses him more than he’d like to admit. Perhaps you are one of the more resilient humans he’s come across in recent years. It’s strange when he feels your heartbeat, so very certain and alive with the sour feelings a heartbreak brings. He’s never understood that either. Heartbreaks and relationships. The differences between friendship and romance. Both can be seen through to the very end, if fostered healthily.

So then why are you so sad?

Truthfully, you’ve always seemed sad to Xiao. As an adeptus, he’s never been able to fully grasp the meaning behind human emotions. They’re insignificant in his eyes, mere flashes of feeling that can hurt and blind. They’re troublesome and useless—certainly not something he would ever want to experience. But those emotions can heal and bring cheer. They’re not all entirely bad, nor are they as evil as he seems to think they are.

Xiao realizes his hand has been on your chest for a while now and he’s been staring at you so much that you’ve begun to shrink away, partially embarrassed to have him analyze you with so much scrutiny.

“Is...something wrong?”

He shakes his head slowly at first before retracting his arm. And then he notices you’ve stopped crying. He’s not sure when this happened, but he’s oddly relieved to see your neutral expression. Somehow your crying face is painful and it wounds him in a way he never would have imagined.

“Thank you for listening to my rant. I know this is probably meaningless to you, since you’re an adeptus and all, but it really means a lot. So I’m glad I was able to get these things off my chest. I feel a lot lighter now.”

“You’re not sad?”

“Ah. Well...” Your gaze flickers, eyes darting to and fro while you struggle to look at him. “I’m still sad, but I’ll get over it! Don’t worry! I’m resilient!”

Xiao’s brow furrows in confusion. As he has thought plenty of times before, mortals are far too complex. Eventually he sighs and says, “It’s okay to cry. Don’t keep that inside, okay? You’ll just hurt yourself even more.” Now he’s avoiding your gaze and there’s a barely noticeable tinge of pink dusting his pale cheeks. He’s really not good at consoling humans.

“Oh, Xiao.” You pull him in for a hug and he stiffens, trying to squeeze out of your arms like a cat near water. But then he feels your fingers digging into his arm and he realizes that you might actually need this hug. Despite the fact that he’s not used to freely giving out hugs—or even cheering up mortals, for that matter—he is definitely out of his element. “Really, thank you. I promise to make you an Almond Tofu as thanks.”

“There’s no need for that.” Hesitantly, as if he’s worried he’ll break you, he wraps his arms around your form. “I’m just helping you because you called my name. That’s all.”

But that’s not the full truth. Hidden in those words is the real reason why he even bothered to stay despite the false alarm. And it worries Xiao when he thinks about the implications. He really does like you and this admiration has surpassed platonic love. As long as you’re okay, though, he’ll swallow his feelings in favor of making sure you’re always happy. It’s one of his duties as your friend.

Friend. A word Xiao never thought he’d ever use, but it feels nice. He likes it.

Yet The Distance Remains Harrowing.

[Scaramouche]

To Mend a Broken Heart—

You’re spilling your emotional guts in front of the Sixth of the Fatui Harbingers, tears freely running down your cheeks like two faulty water faucets. It’s a pathetic sight, really. Scaramouche witnessed this exact show just a few weeks ago when you were so certain that that fisher was the one. Now, after meeting and getting together with someone else for a short time, you’ve come out of yet another relationship, unhappy and unsatisfied.

He’s jealous. There’s no denying the envy he feels when you talk so highly of these people and then wail about them a few days later. It’s a vicious cycle of mending a fragile heart and then breaking it into pieces all over again. With no end in sight, you fall victim to your own demise in the pursuit of love. He wonders if you’ll ever learn to choose your next partner carefully rather than settling for anything with a pulse.

“This is exactly what I said would happen, was it not?” he says with a sigh. “Oh, woe is you. If you were smarter, this last relationship might have lasted longer.”

“That’s rich coming from you. I’ve never seen you in a relationship before,” you mutter, wiping angrily at your eyes. His eyelid twitches at the not-so-subtle jab. “Ugh!I hate being so unlucky! This is the worst.”

“Rather than your foul luck, I think the problem lies within you and your taste in partners.”

Sniffling, you lower your head onto the table, hoping to just melt into the crafted wood before you end up making even more of a fool out of yourself. It’s rare to be in the company of Scaramouche, considering how often he’s assigned missions that require swift travel and a covert profile. But whenever you do find yourself sitting across from him, indulging in light snacks and tea, it’s always because you’ve lost your latest lover; and your own sadness requires the nullifying effects of Scaramouche’s cynicism.

“They’re good people! I just don’t know why it never works out. We’re happy and we both like each other—it doesn’t make any sense. Am I missing something? Is it my fault? They probably got tired of me because I’m not a good person.“

“Perhaps.” He takes a moment to sip his tea and you muster a weak glare. Only Scaramouche can delight in his beverage while you’re holding back another onslaught of tears. “Your crocodile tears are hardly flattering and your apparent need for consistent affection might come off as clingy. And you have a tendency to find flaws within yourself whenever something doesn’t go your way. Adding onto that, you doubt yourself a lot and you’re always quick to take the blame for things that are out of your control. In a way you are partially—”

“I get it. I’m not a good person.”

“I never said anything of that sort. Now you’re just asking for pity.”

Oh, how close you are to punching that smirk off of his face.

“Then since you seem to know everything, my oh so helpful friend, why don’t you tell me what I’m missing?”

“With pleasure.” His cup finds the surface of the table as he ponders your demand for a moment. “You’re missing someone who meshes well with your personality.”

“That’s not true. Everyone I’ve been with so far—“ His skeptical look makes you stop short. “Okay. Maybe we forced it because we thought it was love. But that’s besides the point! There was still an attraction! I think...” You huff and bury your face in your arms, nearly almost sprawling on the table. You’re too depressed to even consider how impolite your actions look, and Scaramouche scoffs at your poor display of manners. “Where am I even going to find someone who ‘meshes well with my personality,’ hm?”

“I’m sure you’ve already found them.” He clears his throat, tracing a finger along a sanded knot in the wooden table. “You’re sitting across from him.”

Whether he intended for you to hear that whispered part, you can’t say for sure. But your head perks up and you fix him with a lopsided grin. “You’re kidding.”

“Hm?”

“Me and you, a couple?” A small giggle escapes your lips and you swipe the remaining tears out of your eyes. “Don’t joke about that. I’m trying to be sad here!”

It wasn’t a joke, he almost says and he catches himself, suddenly self-conscious.

“I don’t think we’d work out,” you continue, motioning between you and him. “We’d hardly see each other and you don’t seem like the type for romance. Besides, I’m not attracted to you in that way. You feel the same, right?”

Scaramouche stares into his cup before he meets your gaze, a tight smile gracing his expression. “Of course. Your inability to settle isn’t all that attractive.”

Your eyes roll and you finally pick up your own cup to take a large gulp of lukewarm tea. The bitter Harbinger observes your actions with narrowed eyes. There’s a distinct pain that taps at his hardened soul, splitting it apart as your words echo within his spinning head. I don’t think we’d work out. I’m not attracted to you in that way. Why is he suddenly feeling...upset? He’s not one for pitiful emotions; he’s a Harbinger, not a lovesick fool! He ought to glare at you and storm off, demanding the two of you never speak again. But he won’t say that because he doesn’t want to hurt you. Because he cares for you. Because he loves you.

You feel the same, right?

No, that’s not right. This is the love he’s been wallowing in since he first got acquainted with you. It’s strange when he remembers every event that has led up to the blossoming feelings that reside deep in the epicenter of his heart, but it’s even more strange that he can’t find the courage to voice his own opinion.

“We wouldn’t mix,” he reaffirms your statement with a cold tone. There is no warmth in his eyes. “After all, your taste in tea is as bad as your taste in partners.”

And even though he wishes you could see through his walls—just this once he’ll allow you to tear them down for the sake of a half-baked confession—you just sit there and grin, no longer teary-eyed and forlorn. How odd. His heart feels far heavier than it’s ever been before. And you’re already scanning your surroundings, hungry for a love that will never keep you sated. Perhaps you weren’t even sad in the first place.

Upon realizing this, Scaramouche wants nothing more than to disappear into the wood like a feeble worm and never come back out.

You Must Break Another.

#genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact scenario #genshin impact xiao #xiao x reader #xiao scenario #xiao #genshin impact scaramouche #scaramouche x reader #scaramouche scenario #scaramouche

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undertale-data · 3 years ago

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Closing Remarks

Feelings about the Survey

Ficus Licker: Thank you guys for taking our survey. When we started this project, it was just for fun, and I thought maybe a couple hundred or so people would take it. Receiving over 2500 responses was amazing and allowed us to view more accurate trends across the fandom. Everyone has been super nice and supportive throughout this project, including my fellow contributors. They’re great at reminding me to get sleep and not go too crazy stupid trying to do everything at once. There’s a limit to the amount of things you can do today, after all.

Vessel #1: I never expected this to get so big either. I’m just very glad for all the support we got throughout the event, both from the team, and every single one of you! It’s true that no research can be done without flaws, but this was a really good experience overall and I hope you guys liked being a part of it as much as we did.I felt like working with the team was amazing. Hell, I’m starting the Ficus Licker and Vessels [and redacted] fan club, because they’re brilliant people and it’s surprising they can still stand me. It’s like working on a group project where everyone does their part and it flows almost perfectly jsjsjs.

I’m excited to see how people react to our work, or if they motivate others to do their own events. Whatever it is, I’m rooting for all of you!

Vessel #2: Being a part of this survey has been a delight. I was technically the one who came up with the idea, but I wasn’t expecting my teammates to step up so hard and put it together so gorgeously. I think we all learned a lot about data analysis, different social media platforms, and graphic design, but for me, the biggest takeaway has been the overwhelming positivity of the fandom’s reactions. At first I was half joking about wanting to study the fandom because I thought statistics were cool, expecting this to be a niche project that a few friends responded to. Instead I was blown away by fans who were just as hyped about the data as I was. It was also the best feeling in the world to read through pages and pages of responses from all over the internet, and realize that so many different people have so much in common with me in their connections to this game. Thank you to everyone who participated, especially to my fantastic fellow Vessel and Ficus Licker, [and redacted if they would like to be credited] for turning my silly math ramblings into such a work of art. <3

Feelings about UNDERTALE

Ficus Licker: I never expected to get this deep into Undertale. I did not know anything about the game before playing it, except that there was a square robot named Mettaton, and that Sans was a meme. I only got it because it was on sale and I thought it would be a simple way to pass some time. And, well, here we are. I’m always a sucker for found family, as well as for video game mechanics influencing plot and/or lore, so it was no surprise that I ended up loving the game so much. I want a found family like the one in Undertale, even if I know that's not realistic haha.

Vessel #1: I honestly do not know what decisions led me here. Maybe it’s that when I played Undertale I was hooked. And I guess I also have a love for surveys, data and just… trying to understand people’s motivations. V2 said something about studying the fandom and I just exploded with the need to do it. Still, in general, Undertale and Deltarune meant a lot to me, they pushed me to be more creative, I found a huge community and met a lot of cool people (like FL, V2, and [redacted] even if they’re really far away). Oh! And as someone who’s terrible at video games, the game mechanics and story always made me stay determined. And that is not even mentioning the music, which is probably what motivated me to try out the games in the first place. Anyways… to cut it short, I love both the game, its story, and music and the people I’ve met because of it, thanks so much!

Vessel 2: I started playing Undertale because my friend was obsessed with it, and I’m so glad I did. The characters are all so fun and complex, and I think about them constantly. And the morals questions brought up by the game are so cool, I keep coming back to them. Still, it also manages to be a neat little game filled with friendly characters and a fabulous soundtrack. I love the depth and heartwrenching scenes, but more than that, I love that they are just… some guys. They are my some guys. Mettaton if you're out there you're doing fantastic.

If you would like to view all of the posts on this blog in google doc format, you are welcome to do so in this google drive folder. Also, our askbox will remain open if fans have questions on collecting fandom data. We will likely not answer all questions, but if you scream into the Void, the Void may scream back.

#closing remarks #undertale fandom census #ficus licker #vessel 1 #vessel 2

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vickyvicarious · 3 years ago

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Leverage Redemption Pros/Cons List

Okay! Now that I've finally finished watching the first half of Leverage: Redemption, I thought I'd kind of sum up my overall impression. Sort of a pro/con list, except a little more just loosely structured rambles on each bullet point rather than a simple list.

This got way out of hand from what I expected so I'm going to put it all under a cut. If you want the actual bulletpoint list, here it is:

PROS

References

Continuity

Nate

Representation

Themes

New Characters

General Vibe

CONS

'Maker and Fixer'

Episode Twins

Sophie's Stagefright

Thiefsome

You might notice the pros list is longer, and that's because I do love the show! I really like most of what it does, and my gripes are fewer in number and mostly smaller in size. But they do exist and I felt like talking about them as well as the stuff I loved.

PROS

References

There is clearly so much love and respect for the original show here. Quite aside from the general situation, there's a lot of references to individual episodes or character traits from the first show. For example, Parker's comments on disliking clowns, liking puppets, disliking horses, stabbing vs. tasing people. The tasing was an ongoing thing in the original, the stabbing happened once (S1) but was referenced later in the original show, the clown thing only had a few mentions scattered across the entire original show. The puppet thing was mentioned once in S5, and the horses thing in particular was only brought up in S1 once. But they didn't miss the chance to put the nod to it in there; in fact with those alone we see a good mix of common/ongoing jokes and smaller details.

We got "dammit Hardison" and "it's a very distinctive..." but also Eliot and Parker arguing about him catering a mob wedding, and Eliot being delighted by lemon as a secret ingredient in a dish in that same episode (another reference to the mob episode). Hardison and Eliot banter about "plan M", an ongoing joke starting from the very first episode of the original show. We see Sophie bring up Hardison's accent in the Ice Job, Parker also makes reference to an early episode when describing "backlash effect" to Breanna, in an episode that also references her brother slightly if you look for it.

Heck, the last episode of these first eight makes a big deal out of nearly reproducing the iconic opening lines of the original show with Fake Nate's "we provide... an advantage." And I mean, all the "let's go steal a ___" with Harry being confused about how to use them.

Some of the lines are more obviously references to the original show, but they strike a decent balance with smaller or unspoken stuff as well, and also mix in some references between the team to events we the audience have never seen. If someone was coming into this show for the first time, they wouldn't get all the easter egg joy but most of the references would stand on their own as dialogue anyway. In general, I think they struck a good balance of restating needed context for new viewers while still having enough standalone good lines and more-fun-if-you-get-it callbacks.

Continuity

Similar to the last point, but slightly different. The characters' development from the original to now is shown so well. I'm not going to go on about this too long, but the writers clearly didn't want to let the original characters stagnate during the offscreen years. There was a lot of real thought put into how they would change or not.

It's really written well. We can see just how cohesive a team Parker, Hardison, and Eliot became. We get a sense of how they've spent their time, and there's plenty of evidence that they remained incredibly close with Sophie and Nate until this past year. The way everyone defers to Parker is different from the original show and clearly demonstrates how she's been well established as the leader for years now - they show this well even as Parker is stepping back to let Sophie take point in these episodes. Eventually that is actually called out by Sophie in the eighth episode, so we might see more mastermind Parker in the back half of the show, maybe. But even with her leading, it's clear how collaborative the team has become, with everyone bouncing ideas off one another and adding their input freely. Sometimes they even get so caught up they leave the newbies completely in the dust. But for the most part we get a good sense of how the Parker/Hardison/Eliot team worked with her having final say on plans but the others discussing everything together. A little bit more collaborative than it was with Nate at the helm.

Meanwhile Sophie has built a home and is deeply attached to it. She and Nate really did retire, at least for the most part, and she was living her happy ending until he died. She's out of practice but still as skilled as ever, and we're shown how much her grief has changed her and how concerned the others are for her.

There's a lot of emphasis on how they all look after one another and the found family is clearer than ever. Sophie even calls Hardison "his father's son" - clearly referring to Nate.

Nate

Speaking of Nate! They handled his loss so, so well. His story was the most complete at the end of the last show, and just from a narrative point, losing him makes the most sense of all the characters. But the way he dies and his impact on the show and the characters continues. It's very respectful to who he was - who he truly was.

Nate was someone they all loved, but he was a deeply flawed individual. Sophie talks about how he burned too hot, but at least he burned - possibly implying to me that his drinking was related to his death. In any case, there's no mystery to it. We don't know how he died but that's not what's most important about his death. This isn't a quest for revenge or anything... it's just a study of grief and trying to heal.

Back to who he really was real quick - the show doesn't eulogize him as better than he was. They're honest about him. From the first episode's toast they raise in his memory, to the final episode where Sophie and Eliot are deeply confused by Fake Nate singing his praises, the team knows who he was. They don't erase his flaws... but at the same time he was so clearly theirs. He was family, he was the man they trusted and loved and followed into incredibly dangerous situations, and whose loss they all still feel deeply.

That said, the show doesn't harp on this point. They reference him, but they don't overwhelm new viewers with a constant barrage of Nate talk. It always serves a purpose, primarily for Sophie's storyline of moving through her grief. Anyway, @robinasnyder said all of this way better than me here, so go read that as well.

Representation

Or should I say, Jewish Hardison, Autistic Parker, Queer Breanna!

Granted, Hardison's religion isn't quite explicitly stated to be Jewish so much as he mentions that his "Nana runs a multi-denominational household", but nonetheless. He gets the shows big thesis statement moment, he gets a beautiful speech about redemption that is the emotional cornerstone of that episode and probably Harry's entire arc throughout the show. And while I'm not Jewish myself, most of what I've seen from Jewish fans is saying that Hardison's words here were excellent representation of their beliefs. (@featherquillpen does a great job in that meta of contextualizing this with his depiction in the original show as well.)

Autistic Parker, however, is shown pretty dang blatantly. She already was very much coded as autistic in the original show, but the reboot has if anything gone further. She sees a child psychologist because she likes using puppets to represent emotions, she stims, she uses cue cards and pre-written scripts for social interactions, there's mention of possible texture sensitivity and her clothes are generally more loose and comfortable. She's gotten better at performing empathy and understanding how people typically work, but it's specifically described as something she learned how to do and she views her brain as being different from ones that work that way (same link). Again, not autistic myself but from what I've seen autistic fans find a lot to relate to in her portrayal. And best of all, this well-rounded and respectful depiction does not show any of these qualities as a lack on her part. There's no more of those kinda ableist comments or "what's wrong with you" jokes that were in the original show. Parker is the way she is, and that allows her to do things differently. She's loved for who she is, and any effort made to fit in is more just to know how so that she can use it to her advantage when she wants to on the job - for her convenience, not others' comfort.

Speaking of loved for who you are.... okay, again, queer Breanna isn't confirmed onscreen yet, and I don't count Word of God as true canon. But I can definitely believe we're building there. Breanna dresses in a very GNC way, and just her dialogue and, I dunno, vibes seem very queer to me. She has a beautiful speech in the Card Game Job about not belonging or being accepted and specifically mentions "the way they love" as one of those things that made her feel like she didn't belong. And that scene is given so much weight and respect. (Not to mention other hints throughout the episode about how much finding her own space meant to her.) Also, the whole theme of feeling rejected and the key for her to begin really flourishing is acceptance for who she is, not any desire for her to be anyone else, is made into another big moment. Yeah, textually that moment is about her feeling like she has to fill Hardison's shoes and worrying about her past, but the themes are there, man.

Themes

I talked a bit about this yesterday, so I'm mostly just going to link to that post, but... this series so far is doing a really good job in my opinion of giving people arcs and having some good themes. Namely the redemption one, from Hardison's speech (which I'm gonna talk a little more about in the next point), and this overall theme of growing up and looking to the future (from above the linked post).

New Characters

Harry and Breanna are fantastic characters. I was kind of worried about Harry being a replacement Nate, but... he really isn't. Sure, he's the older white guy who has an angsty past but it's in a very different way and his personality and relationships with the rest of the crew are correspondingly different. I think the dynamic of a very friendly, cheerful, kind, but still bad guy (as @soundsfaebutokay points out) is a great one to show, and he's got a really cool arc I think of learning to be a better person, and truly understanding Hardison's point about redemption being a process not a goal. His role on the team also has some interesting applications and drawbacks, as @allegorymetaphor talked about. I've kind of grown to think that the show is gradually building up to an eventual Sophie/Harry romance a ways down the line, and I'm actually here for it. Regardless, his relationships with everyone are really interesting.

As for Breanna, first of all and most importantly I love her. Secondly, I think she's got a really interesting story. She's a link to Hardison's past, and provides a really interesting perspective for us as someone younger who has grown up a) looking up to Leverage and b) in a bleaker and more hopeless world. Breanna's not an optimist, and she's not someone who was self-sufficient and unconcerned with the rest of the world at the start, like everyone else. She believes that the world sucks and she wants it to be better, but she doesn't know how to make that happen. She outright says she's desperate and that's why she's working with Leverage. At the same time, Breanna is pretty down on herself and wants to prove herself but gets easily shaken by mistakes or being scolded, which is a stark contrast to Hardison's general self-confidence. There are several times when she starts to have an idea then hesitates to share it, or expects her emotions to be dismissed, or gets really disheartened when she's corrected or rejected, or dwells on her mistakes, or when she is accepted or praised she usually takes a surprised beat and is shy about it (she almost always looks down and away from the person, and her smile is often small or startled). Breanna looks up to the team so much (Parker especially, then probably Eliot) and she wants to prove herself. It's going to be so good to see her grow.

General Vibe

A brief note, but it seems a fitting one to end on. The show keeps it's overall tone and feeling from the original show. The fun, the competency porn, the bad guys and clever plans and happy endings. It's got differences for sure, but the characters are recognizably themselves and the show as a whole is recognizably still Leverage. For the most part they just got the feeling right, and it's really nice.

CONS (no, not that kind)

'Maker and Fixer'

So when I started writing this meta earlier today, I was actually a lot more annoyed by the lack of unique 'maker' skills being shown by Breanna. Basically the only time she tries to use a drone, the very thing she introduced herself as being good at, it breaks instantly. I was concerned about her being relegated into just doing what Hardison did, instead of bringing her own stuff to the table. But the seventh episode eased some of those fears, and the meta I just wrote for someone else asking about Breanna's 'maker' skills as shown this season made me realize there's more nuance than that. I'd still like to have seen more of that from her, but for now the fact that we don't see a lot of 'maker' from her so far seems more like a character decision based in Breanna's insecurities.

Harry definitely gets more 'inside man' usage. His knowledge as a 'fixer' comes in handy several times. Nonetheless, I'm really curious if there are any bigger ways to use it, aside from him just adding in some exposition/insight from time to time. I'm not even entirely sure how much more they can pull from this premise in terms of relevant skills, but I hope there's more and I'd like to see it. Maybe a con built more around him playing a longer role playing his old self, like they tried in the Tower Job? Maybe it's more a matter of him needed distance from that part of his past, being unable to face it without lashing out - in that case it could be a good character growth moment possibly for him to succeed in being Scummy Lawyer again down the line? I dunno.

Episode Twins

This was something small that kind of bothered me a little earlier in the season. It's kind of the negative side to the references, I guess? And I'm not even sure how much it annoys me really, but I just kinda noticed and felt sort of weird about it.

Rollin' on the River has a lot of references/callbacks to the The Wedding Job.

The Tower Job has a lot of references/callbacks to The White Rabbit Job.

The Paranormal Hacktivity Job has a lot of references/callbacks to the Future Job.

I guess I was getting a little concerned that there would be a 'match this episode' situation where almost every new Redemption episode is very reminiscent of an old one. I love the callbacks, but I don't want to see a lack of creativity in this new show, and this worried me for a minute. Especially when it was combined with all three of those episodes dealing with housing issues of some kind. Now, that's a huge concern for a lot of people, and each episode has its own take on a different problem within that huge umbrella, but it still got me worried about a lack of variety in topics/cases.

The rest of the episodes failing to line up so neatly in my head with older episodes helped a lot to ease this one, though. Still, this is my complaining section so I figured I'd express my concerns as they were at the time. Even if I no longer really worry about it much.

Sophie's Stagefright

Yeah, I know this is just a small moment in a single episode, but it annoyed me! Eliot made a bit of a face at Sophie going onstage, but I thought it was just him being annoyed at the general situation. However, they started out with her being awful up there until she realized the poem was relevant to the con - at which point her reading got so much better.

This felt like a complete betrayal of Sophie's beautiful moment at the end of the original show where she got over her trouble with regular acting and played Lady Macbeth beautifully in front of a full theater of audience members. This was part of the con, but only in the sense that it gave her an alibi/place to hide, and I always interpreted it as her genuinely getting over her stagefright problems. It felt like such a beautiful place to end her arc for that show, especially after all her time spent directing.

Now, her difficulty onstage in the Card Game Job was brief and at the very beginning of being up on stage. @rinahale suggested to me that maybe it was a deliberate tactic to draw the guy's attention, and the later skill was simply her shifting focus to make the sonnet easier for Breanna to listen to and interpret, but he seemed more enraptured when she was doing well than otherwise in my opinion and it just doesn't quite sit well with me. My other theory was that maybe she just hasn't been up on stage in a long time, and much like she complaining about being rusty at grifting before the team pushed her into trying, she got nervous for a moment at the very beginning. The problem there is that I think she'd definitely still get involved in theater even when she and Nate were retired. I guess she could've quit after he died, and a year might be long enough to make her doubt herself again, but... still.

I just resent that they even left it ambiguous at all. Sophie's skills should be solid on stage at this point in my opinion.

Thiefsome

...And now we come to my main complaint. This is, by far, the biggest issue I have with the show.

I feel like I should put a disclaimer here that I had my doubts from the beginning about the thiefsome becoming canon onscreen. I thought the famous "the OT3 is safe" tweet could easily just mean that they are all still alive and well, or all still working together, without giving us confirmation of a romantic relationship. Despite this, the general fandom expectations/hopes really got to me, especially with the whole "lock/pick/key" thing. I tried to temper my expectations again when the character descriptions came out and only mentioned Hardison loving Parker, not Eliot, but I still got my hopes up.

The thing is, I was disappointed pretty quickly.

The very first episode told me that in all likelihood we would never see Hardison and Parker and Eliot together in a romantic sense. Oh, there was so much coding. So much hinting. So much in the way of conversations that were about Parker/Hardison's relationship but then Eliot kept getting brought into them. They were portrayed as a unit of three.

But then there was this.

I love all of those scenes of Parker and Hardison being intimate and loving and comfortable with one another and their relationship. I really do. But it didn't escape my notice that there's nothing of the sort with Eliot. If they wanted a canon onscreen thiefsome, it would by far make the most sense to just have it established from the start. But there aren't any scenes where Eliot shares the same kind of physical closeness with either of them like they do each other. Parker and Hardison kiss; he doesn't kiss anyone. They have several clearly romantic conversations when alone; he gets important conversations with both but the sense of it being romantic isn't there.

Establishing Eliot as part of the relationship after Hardison is gone just... doesn't make any sense. It would be more likely to confuse new viewers, to make them wonder if Parker is cheating on Hardison with Eliot, or if they have a Y shaped relationship rather that a triangle. It would be so much clumsier.

Still, up until the Double-Edged-Sword Job I believed the writers might keep it at this level of 'plausible hinting but not quite saying'. There's a lot of great stuff with all of them, and I never expecting making out or whatever anyway; a cheek-kiss was about the height of my hopes to be honest. I mostly just hoped for outright confirmation and, failing that, I was happy enough to have the many hints and implications.

But then Marshal Maria Shipp came along. And I don't really have anything against her as a character - in fact, I think she has interesting story potential and will definitely come back. But the episode framed her fight with Eliot as a sexyfight TM, much like his fight with Mikel back in the day. And then his flirting with her rode the line a little of "he's playing her for the con" and "he's genuinely flirting." The scene where he tells her his real name is particularly iffy, but actually was the one that convinced me he was playing her. Because he seems to be watching her really closely, and to be very concerned about her figuring out who he really is. I am very aware though that I'm doing a lot of work to interpret it the way I want. On surface appearance, Eliot's just flirting with an attractive woman, like he did on the last show. And that's probably the intention, too.

But the real nail in the coffin for me was when Sophie compared herself and Nate to Eliot and Maria. That was a genuine scene, not the continuation of the teasing from before. And Sophie is the one whose insight into people is always, always trustworthy. She is family to the thiefsome. For this to make any sense, either Eliot/Parker/Hardison isn't a thing, or they are and Sophie doesn't know - and I can't imagine why in the hell she wouldn't know.

Any argument to make them still canon leaves me unsatisfied. If she knows and they haven't admitted it to her - why wouldn't they, after all this time? Why would she not have picked up on it even without an outright announcement? Some people suggested they wouldn't admit it because they thought Nate would be weird about it, but that doesn't seem any more in character to me than the other possibilities. In fact, the only option that doesn't go against my understanding of these people and their observational abilities/the close relationship they share.... is that the thiefsome is not a thing.

And furthermore, the implication of this conversation - especially the way it ended, with Eliot stomping off looking embarrassed while Sophie smiled knowingly - is that Eliot will get into another relationship onscreen. Maybe not a full-blown romantic relationship. But the Maria Shipp tension is going to be resolved somehow, and at this point I'm half-expecting a hook-up simply because of Sophie's reaction and how much I trust her judgement of such things. Even if she's letting her grief cloud her usual perceptiveness... it feels iffy.

It just kinda feels like I wasn't even allowed to keep my "interpret these hints/maybe they are" thiefsome that I expected after the first couple episodes convinced me we wouldn't get outright confirmation. (I mean, I will anyway, and I love the hints and allusions regardless.) And while I'm definitely not the kind of fan who is dependent on canon for my ships, and still enjoy all their interactions/will keep right on headcanoning them all in a relationship, it's just.... a bummer.

Feels like a real cop-out. Like the hints of Breanna being queer are enough to meet their quota and they won't try anything 'risky' like a poly relationship. I dunno. It's annoying.

That's the end of the list! Again, overall I love the new show a lot and have few complaints.

#leverage #leverage redemption #leverage spoilers #leverage meta #my meta #this turned into a BIG ol ramble #i planned to write like a couple of sentences for each point but noooo

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alderaani · 3 years ago

Text

more than gold

summary: A lost Jedi Temple, a riddle, some literature, and feelings that Cody isn't ready to speak out loud. | AO3

note: written for @codywanweek and the alt day 5 prompt Sith/Jedi Artefact Shenanigans! sliding in on the last day with one more thing written than expected, so i’m happy with that! i’m pretty ill today so i hope it actually makes some coherent sense 😂 also if the riddle was super obvious, soz, never written one before and turns out it’s really hard.

“You know, I could have sworn I told you not to touch that,” Cody says conversationally, from where he’s splayed out on his back.

“Really? I’m sure I didn’t hear you,” Obi-Wan says, cheerful despite being crumpled in a heap. His elbow is in Cody’s gut. Cody glares at him.

The room they’re lying in is circular, stone, carved out of some Forced-damned mountain and according to Obi-wan, practically thrumming with power. The ceiling is high and vaulted, letting in slivers of light where intricate mirror systems catch the sunlight of double suns and project it deep underground. It takes on a slightly blue cast, reflecting off the huge pool of water they were lucky to not fall into. Four walkways at each cardinal point lead to a central platform, and interspersed between them are four waterfalls.

It should be serene. Except now the waterfalls are travelling backwards, and all the doors, including the one they came in by, are blocked. Cody scrambles up onto his elbows, dislodging Obi-Wan with a grunt.

“What did you do?”

Obi-Wan follows his gaze and gasps, delighted. “Now, will you look at that?”

Cody is looking. Frankly, he doesn’t trust this place enough to not keep his eye on it at all times. Obi-Wan keeps saying that this temple was built long ago, by ancient, peaceful Jedi as a place of learning, and that it won’t hurt them. After they got cut off from the rest of their men at the entrance, however, Cody thinks he could be forgiven for having his doubts.

As Obi-Wan himself proves, peace-keeping hardly rules out danger.

“Amazing,” Obi-Wan breathes, hoisting himself to his feet without a second glance, to walk back up to the plinth and stalk round it, examining the incomprehensible runes engraved there.

Cody is left to peel himself off the floor, and instead goes to prod at the barriers now sealing the exits with the end of his blaster. He tries not to look too much at Obi-Wan, at the soft sweep of his hair and the span of his shoulders. Being on their own like this is something he’s avoided, of late - not because he doesn’t enjoy it, but because he’s starting to enjoy it all too much.

He doesn’t trust the way his heart leaps when Obi-Wan smiles, when he asks him to call him ‘Obi-Wan’, when the cycle draws on and they’re up late again, companionably finishing reports and debating strategy. Or, as they had been doing until Cody got cold feet and started finding excuses, debating novels, which Obi-Wan checked out of the Temple archives and read aloud, one chapter at a time, before they turned in for the night.

He doesn’t trust himself not to ruin this by overstepping. There’s something about his general that makes him lose all control of his tongue, and puts him in danger of voicing thoughts that really he should not be having at all.

It’s agony. It’s bliss. It’s stretching him to breaking point, and this is possibly the worst situation they could have ended up in, really.

“These are made out of water,” he says over his shoulder, grunting as he tries to push his blaster through. He is, of course, unsuccessful.

“Ingenious,” Obi-Wan says. “How did they manage that, I wonder?”

Cody cuts a glance back at him, and grins, despite his exasperation.

“You’re not more worried about how we’re going to get out?”

Obi-Wan waves a hand. “I’m sure the path will reveal itself, in time. Oh, look - Cody, I think this is a puzzle!”

Cody bites back a groan. They do not have time for this. They never really had time for it, but Obi-Wan promised it would be a brief detour on their way to the capital for hyperspace lane access negotiations. He’d looked so excited by recon reports of a lost temple that Cody just hadn’t been able to say no. He’s never able to say no to Obi-Wan, even when he isn’t following orders. It’s probably his fatal flaw.

“I don’t suppose there’s an off switch? A back button?” He asks hopelessly. The Force, at least the Jedi sort, very rarely seems to work that way. Obi-Wan is always talking about moving through problems, about seeking balance and adapting to what’s around you, rather than manipulating it. It’s not Cody’s favoured approach; he was trained to leverage his environment to its maximum advantage, and finds he has little patience for anything else.

Obi-Wan snorts. “This is a defensive mechanism, I’m afraid. Judging by the architecture this was built at the height of the Sith Wars. This artefact is designed to trap us here until we understand the mechanism and progress, or until, back when the temple was occupied, someone would come and deal with the intruder.”

“That doesn’t sound very peaceful,” Cody says.

Obi-Wan shoots him an amused look, the warm, soft kind that makes heat rise from the pit of Cody’s belly right up to his ears.

“Even a pacifist may defend himself,” he says, then leans over the pedestal. “Now, how about you stop grousing and come help me with this?”

Cody rolls his eyes, but goes, slinging his blaster across his back and crossing his arms.

“And stop looming,” Obi-Wan laughs, catching one of Cody’s gloved hands and pulling it down to rest at his side. The simple touch makes Cody’s cheeks burn.

“Don’t see what help I can give you, Sir,” he says, frowning down at the characters surrounding the bright blue artefact. “I was never any good at Ithorian.”

Obi-Wan pauses, then tilts his head up. “Ah. Is that what it is?”

“I - I think so?” Cody was never any good at his language flashtraining; he never had the proper patience for it, but he can usually figure out the basics.

“No, no,” Obi-Wan muses, stroking at his beard with his free hand. “You’re quite right. Goodness me, it's been a long time since I last saw this dialect. Let’s see now…”

Cody steps back and waits, keeping his attention firmly split between their blocked exit points while Obi-Wan ponders. The slow upward movement of the waterfalls is eerie - it still makes noise, but none of it is right. Instead of the gentle patter he expects of water joining a larger pool, there’s a faint gurgling as they move further into each grate, travelling somewhere he cannot see.

Obi-Wan finishes his fifth circle round the platform, and the hand at his chin goes still. Cody stands at attention, expectant.

“It’s a riddle,” Obi-Wan says, and if possible, his delight grows. “Yes - the language is coming back to me now. Do you know, I haven’t looked at Ithorian in maybe 12 years?”

“Sir?” Cody says, tilting his head to look at the characters more closely. He doesn’t have even a passing proficiency at modern Ithorian, and presumably it’s changed a bit over the millennia. His training was focused on the basics, and only the useful bits, at that. He thinks he can make out the words for ‘ water ’, and ‘ enemy’ , both of which are either unhelpfully descriptive or frankly discouraging, but that’s about the extent of it.

“My old master - he loved prophecies. When I was a teenager I could never see the point of it, but it meant I spent a lot of time learning the old Ithorian dialects. They’re known as the most peaceful species, did you know?” Obi-Wan shakes his head. “They’ll exile anyone violent, it’s quite remarkable, really. I suppose in some sort of idealistic emulation, a lot of the early Jedi texts are written in their dialect.”

His blue eyes are keen, his laser sharp focus firmly on the podium. It gives Cody a moment to observe his clever fingers, the long line of his neck, the open delight with which he tackles this new problem. It’s a rare thing, to see him so relaxed, and Cody can’t help the fond smile that creeps up on him despite the circumstances. This almost makes it worth it, and on reflection, he’d rather an ancient temple than the last thing that had made Obi-Wan so happy; a wretched, bioluminescent fungus, which had infected half the battalion and given them hives. Their general had studied it for weeks.

Obi-Wan’s lips quirk up. Cody barely trusts himself to speak.

“I didn’t know, Sir,” Cody croaks, then pauses, fishing for something normal to say. “Didn’t we have to defend the governor’s daughter from an Ithorian bounty hunter on Ganaris-IV?”

“Well,” Obi-Wan grins. “Those exiles have to go somewhere, don’t they?”

Cody huffs a laugh and reaches up to scratch his neck at the seam of his bucket.

“Let’s just hope they didn’t all come here. What’s this riddle, then?”

Obi-Wan shifts to the side, then points at a spot on the podium. “As I said, it’s been a long time, but I think it starts here, and goes something like:

A thing to be forged, where water is thicker,

Worth more than gold, unless it’s pyrite that glitters.

An enemy of my enemy, or in hard times, in need,

Sometimes fair-weather, or in high places indeed.

What are you, traveller? ”

All of Cody’s hopes that it would be something nice and obvious, like “lightsaber” or, given what’s going on around them, “gravity”, escape from him like smoke. Jedi and their metaphors. It’s not just a quirk of Obi-Wan’s, clearly.

“Does that mean anything to you, Sir?” he asks, turning the words over in his head once, twice, then frowning when nothing comes immediately.

Obi-Wan’s brow is also furrowed, but in a leisurely, meditative manner.

“...I have some ideas, I think,” he says. “How about you, my friend?”

What does he think? He thinks that there are other sorts of puzzles he is much better suited to. Word play and idioms...what does a clone have to offer that?

Still, Obi-Wan is watching him, expectant and gentle, and he sifts back through the lines, a little more seriously this time.

“Ice, maybe?”

Obi-Wan nods, slowly. “Perhaps. Walk me through it.”

Cody swallows. “Ice is something that can be made, right? It’s not exactly forged, but…”

He trails off in uncertainty.

“Go on,” Obi-Wan says with another one of those soft, devastating smiles. It fractures all the thoughts in Cody’s head, and he has to stop, clear his throat and gather up all the pieces.

“I suppose...it’s just thicker water, isn’t it? On warm planets it’s a valuable commodity, it’s found in high places, and I suppose if you wanted snow, a freeze would be fair weather.”

Obi-Wan is rubbing his beard again, and he’s still smiling. “Fascinating. I would never have thought of that...only, I don’t think it’s quite there. That mention of pyrite is troublesome, and the ‘enemy of my enemy’, where does that fit in?”

Cody shrugs his shoulders, frustrated, and feels a hot flush creep up his neck. “Don’t know why you’re asking me, to be honest, Sir. Kamino hardly covered poetry.”

There’s a slight pause, then Obi-Wan’s hand is on his again, tugging it slowly down from where he’s crossed his arms.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” he says, soft.

“Do what?” Cody’s voice is gruff.

“Dismiss yourself. You do it sometimes when we’re reading together. There is often no right and wrong answer to these things, no secret. There is only perspective, and you see things I never would, if only you would trust yourself.”

Cody looks down and away, back towards the waterfalls and their slow, glacial climb. He isn’t sure that’s true. He enjoys what Obi-Wan shares with him, what other lives he gets to touch in their books, but more than anything they convince him that, beyond war, he knows very little of anything at all. He would like to, someday.

His eyes land on Obi-Wan’s lips briefly, before he tears them away. Particular experiences he would like to know more than others.

There was one book that Obi-Wan had read early on, back when this infatuation was just setting its first tendrils into him, about a forbidden romance at the heart of the old Mandalorian court. Two heirs of rival clans battling to be together against the good approval of their noble relatives. It had been torrid, ridiculous and entirely unexpected when Obi-Wan had suggested they break up their reports with some literature.

But what it had done was give him the words to express the crawling heat in his stomach, the urge he has to reach out, to touch, to soothe, to care for. He’d known what he wanted before that, of course, in a more rudimentary manner, but it had gifted him the language of yearning.

Suddenly, a particular passage springs into his mind and he straightens.

“You don’t think it could mean ally, do you? In Beneath the Armour, Mata threatens Clan Riza by saying he has ‘allies in high places’.”

Obi-Wan pauses, and then a brilliant smile spreads over his face. “Yes, that’s it! Pyrite - Fool’s Gold; a false friend! Brilliant Cody, whatever made you think of that?”

Cody grins, even though Obi-Wan can’t see it, and doesn’t answer.

“Is that really it?”

“I think you’re very close,” Obi-Wan says. “The characters engraved into the platform...yes! Stand close to me, Commander.”

Cody does, watching curiously as Obi-Wan lifts his hands, shuts his eyes, frowns, and pushes . Six blocks that make up the platform lift, the characters on each glowing bright, lurid blue. Under their feet, something scrapes, shifts and clunks, before the platform lurches upwards, spinning gently.

There’s a thunderous gurgling sound, before all of the pool beneath drains away.

“The answer,” Obi-Wan says, slightly breathless, his hair a little out of place. “Was friend.”

“The doorways are still blocked,” Cody notes drily. The plinth with the blue orb that started this whole mess has also risen, and underneath it are a set of very wet, slimy looking steps. “I don’t suppose it’s as simple as just walking down these and getting in?”

“Likely not,” Obi-Wan agrees, then inexplicably shifts a little closer, so that they are sharing space. Cody’s heart skips a beat. “But it’s like I told you, Cody. You are far greater than what you have been given.”

Cody coughs and looks at his feet, at their boots almost toe to toe, pleasure at the praise singing low through his body.

“Now,” Obi-Wan says, too close and not close enough. “How do you feel about another puzzle?”

Cody groans, laughing, and after a moment, follows his General into the dark.

#codywanweek2021 #codywan #obi wan kenobi #commander cody #alderwrites #i would tag this jedi culture but i literally pulled this out of my ass #there is absolutely no basis in canon here #only vibes #the clone wars #star wars #codywan week 2021

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