#they left it all on the stage

[namor-shuri]

3rd Annual “Critics Choice Super Awards” [2023] Nominees: Letitia Wright & Tenoch Huerta Mejía for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever [Dir. Ryan Coogler]

Categories: Best actress in a superhero movie, Best villian in a superhero movie, Best actor in a superhero movie

Full list here

[dancefloors]

Right now Israel's bombing Rafah, the last refuge for a million Palestinians, where they were previously ORDERED to evacuate to and are now trapped in while the US news cycle is dominated by Big Football Game And Celebrities In Attendance (at which Israel also aired a million dollar propaganda video). I wish I could say this is unbelievable.

[hajihiko]

[guerrillatech]

[gravidwithlore]

Changing things up around here and posting a very tasteful collection of some very demure men in their pure white wedding dresses that are as perfectly fitted and pristine as they were in their first fitting and none of them are about to have babies out of wedlock unless they hurry up and waddle down that aisle to say "I do."

[nattikay]

babysitter Bob! (don't worry his teeth are folded in, Kiri is not getting poked lol)

[ambeauty]

You can show me 5011 different ways of Carmy caressing Claire’s face, blowing kisses, telling her she’s beautiful, kissing her nose, and nothing will ever be as romantic as Carmy literally driving himself to his wits end over the course of a season to get Sydney a star, that only she wanted in the first place, in order to prove that he is the person she needs him to be.

[llamahearted]

like it's no big deal at all

songs on repeat

[effiemal]

Did anyone notice that the ending animation of R7 is different?? In the other videos the one who loses always have their pictures turn off before the zoom-out, in contrast to R7 where Till's picture only flickers out after Luka's picture moves

It's also weird to consider that in R5, Mizi who's obviously still alive had her picture black out (before the zoom). This indicates that just because the picture is blacked out doesn't mean they're dead, just that they lost or is out of the race.

I'm not saying this means what you think it might mean, but there's definitely a deliberate difference between R7 and the other videos. I don't really see any reason for it to change unless there's some sort of significance to it.

[novirp13]

No, seriously. Mesphiles boss fight was so dang fun for me??? Legit the first stage I want to S-rank asap.

I never liked the Doom Morph skill. While Dash and Flying are easy to do because you just have to hold the Y button for the both of them, you have to press the B button for Homing Attack BUT hold the B button for swinging around with the Doom Morph skill. My brain cannot compute with the different button input! I often lost a lot of times and rings because I forgot to hold the button to swing, causing me to fell to my death.

CASE IN POINT:

Yeaaa...platformer games are not my strong suit...

However, in Mephiles boss fight, you won't fall to your death because the area is wide and circular. The cumbersome Doom Morph gimmick was enjoyable to play there and I was grinning from ear to ear from start to finish.

Ugh, I love this boss fight so much. If Mephiles had to come back and ruin the world just so I could fight such a fun boss battle once again, I would welcome him lickety split XD

[rainedroptalks]

What is it with fantasy high and girls dying before their lives ever began. How we can never really know who they are, or who they could’ve been. Brennan Lee Mulligan I will find you

[sheerakk]

Garth, thank you for existing

@assigned-k9 thank you for creating her!!

[untimelyambition]

curt and kim being dance partners in all the scenes at the castle is something that is so special to me

[harpieisthecarpie]

Okay not to be analysis georg over Alien Stage but I adore the ROUND 7 (Till vs Luka) art that dropped recently so much. And thus I will be analysis georg

(cw: I lightly and nonexplicitly reference the abuse Till suffered under captivity, including the heavily implied sa.

This is mostly contemplating Till's psyche, how Ivan's impact on Till contrasts the aliens, and art as rebellion against dehumanization. With that comes the possible triggers of Till's story.)

Till's closeup is what compelled me to post at all, because it's a very deliberate choice that speaks to his emotional state going in, and contrasts him strongly against Luka

This is long btw

The closeup focuses on the lower half of Till's face. It draws attention to his mouth and headset mic by mimicking a camera's depth of field to emphasize the yawning space between them, while using the metallic mic as a lure. The lighting sharpens the mic while softening Till.

The emphasis on Till's mouth (and mic) is indicative of a stark emotional shift from Round 6, where crushing hopelessness left him passive and barely singing.

Metatextually, the story being told by completely diagetic music videos ties strongly to the contrast between the aliens who've made the voices of the enslaved humans a commodity and the humans who are only given a voice through song.

There's a reason why music has been used for both propaganda and rebellion throughout our societal conflicts. You can only scream so loud before bystanders tune you out; music compels them to listen.

And I think that dichotomy between authority and autonomy, between the artist as product and as person, within the universe of Alien Stage is going to be delved a lot deeper into with 7.

Till having a hands-free mic and green strap over his shoulder leads me to believe he's going to be playing guitar again. Which we've seen him use for acts of rebellion before.

I saw someone saying the headset was a sign of his isolation, but I see it as him reviving the angry hope he'd extinguished using Ivan's memory. From what I've seen, Till never seemed happy when he had a standing or handheld mic. He's a creative, hands-on guy whose art and rebellions come from when he is able to use those hands.

Drawing, guitar, fighting... there's a reason he was singularly stripped of autonomy in ways we haven't seen happen much elsewhere (that physicality reminds me of Hyuna, I wonder if Luka will notice that). The caging, bodily restrictions, and physical degradation and assault from the aliens singularly target his personhood.

Even in the closeup art there's that possessive ownership, that clear replacement of Person with Commodity. His tears (or sweat) have been pointed out and remarked upon by the aliens. Yet the shot leaves out his eyes, which are often tied to personhood in literature because of how humanizing they are. Dilation, movement, eyelid position, blinking. It's hard to look into a creature's eyes and not understand there's a mind behind them.

The aliens commodify the emotion through his tears but deny the humanity behind them. They dissociate music as art with an artist behind it, even while intuitively knowing how an artist's lived experiences can create compelling music. The aliens want their product, they don't care that art isn't just entertainment to consume. They don't recognize the power music can have. They don't value it enough to truly understand it.

I wonder if this could be analagous to anything in the real world. Hm. Nahhhhhh. ANYWAYS

Till is creating what the aliens want, but the closeup has the same color palette as when he and Ivan were running away during the meteor shower. That shine on the mouthpiece even looks like a falling star.

The meteor shower was a moment of tension. A held breath before a breaking point: you can escape or you can stay trapped, but whatever decision you make you can't ever take it back.

It doesn't matter whether Till believes his last decision to stay was a mistake, he was a different person when Ivan took his hand. And he was changed again when Ivan kissed him before making that stage his death bed. Their death bed, perhaps, since something in Till had to die in order to be revived.

And Till is the only one in that arena who has the memory of running with Ivan under a cascade of falling stars. He is the only one those colors mean anything to. The aliens may be commodifying his tears, but they have no grasp on the emotions behind them. There is something within Till they cannot take, breathed into him by Ivan.

Ivan may have believed his love for Till was shallow, but he gave it freely. One of the reasons I even ship them is because Till has spent all his life in captivity getting pieces of himself carved out by aliens trying to consume his soul, and while Ivan can certainly be fucked up... he has always lain his insides out on a silver platter for Till. Given even the ugly bits over, despite knowing they'd be disregarded.

Till was strangled more visibly for how his humanity spilled out, but Ivan had been slowly suffocating because he refused to let them free. He accepted the role as pet (entertainment product dress-up doll) to keep his humanity safe. He played into the aliens' desires because he refused to give them any parts of himself that mattered.

But he still wanted to be seen, still needed to be known, so he gave them to Till.

And now Till is on that stage again (that had eaten Sua and Mizi and Ivan), carrying fragments of his loved ones that they had slipped into his palms. Quiet moments of joy and despair and fear and love. Bits of themselves they never allowed the aliens to have, that made a home in Till.

And what is love, surrounded by an entire society that refuses to acknowledge your humanity, other than an act of rebellion?

Which I think will be very interesting to see juxtaposed against how Luka seems to be portrayed. With an earpiece seemingly feeding him information, in the cool tones evoking a memory of Hyuna, whose closeup doesn't even deign to glance at his face.

(Though- not to overanalysis georg- it's interesting we get a glimpse at his seemingly gloved fingers. And that their color palettes are both interrupted by a small bit of green. Till's by what I think is a guitar strap, and Luka's by the center of his earpiece- and its sound.)

[guerrillatech]

The state department will not cut military aid to Israel, even as Israel fails to send the agreed upon amount of aid into Gaza.

[vagueconfusion]

a story told in three parts

for added context:

vessel was poking iv in the face/mask [X]